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"submitted by reddit to blog." - Okami

David Yerushalmi has come to exercise a striking influence over American public discourse about Islamic law. - Okami

Federal authorities are investigating whether any of the 26 AK-74 assault rifles and a Dragunov rifle stolen from the Fort Irwin Army Post has ended up in Fresno, California, a spokesman said Saturday. - Okami

Yesterday morning, I was writing up the clip of Glenn Beck and his radio co-hosts tearing into John McCain over his Tea Party Hobbit comments and I was kind of amazed by how harsh they were. Sure, after their respective losses, Liberal voters spent a lot of time making fun of how boring John Kerry was and how really boring Al Gore was, but the responses McCain was getting from all sides seemed swifter and more pointed. Then, after reviewing the clip of McCain trying hard to clarify his comments on Hannity, I realized this had less to do the Senator and more to do with the utter fear Conservative politicians and media figures have for the Tea Party right now. And, with all the Lord of the Rings references flying around, I've decided to make a geeky analogy of my own. The Tea Party has become to Conservatives like the character Anthony in the It's a Good Life episode of The Twilight Zone. - Okami

The Five, the debate rages on over whose fault the continuation of the debt crisis really is. The sides have long been drawn and they continue to find little common ground (kind of like the debate in Congress actually). At one point in the show, Bob Beckel was accused of replacing George W. Bush with the Tea Party as his blame recipient of choice and sure enough, bad man Beckel had previously gone so far as calling the party anarchists. He had been asked to retract it but, today, not only did he not back down, he brought a dictionary definition to back it up. - Okami

One of the nice things about having a Bill of Rights is that it specifically lays out freedoms given to the people and the press. The U.S. Constitution declares that freedom of speech and freedom of the press can never be infringed upon. Unfortunately, if you live in a nation where this is not clearly stated, you can legally censor media outlets without fear or repercussion. - Okami

The funny thing about doing a liveshot is that you always run the risk of missing news while you're busy reporting the news. When you end up doing your local news liveshot, and you're telling the anchor and audience about all the reporters who've gathered to--maybe--hear from a newsmaker, well, there's an even bigger chance that the newsmaker might just emerge while you're all tied up. That happened this week to a News 12 Long Island reporter, and wow if the results aren't among the funniest few moments of TV you'll see all week. - Okami

Last week's horrific rampage in Norway by gunman Anders Behring Breivik was a huge story no matter what due to the scope of the tragedy involved, but it became that much bigger as soon as Breivik was labeled as an extreme right-wing Christian fundamentalist. Predictably, some took issue with that characterization, and just as predictably, Bill Maher tonight used the tragedy as a jumping-off point to take issue with something more - religion in general. - Okami

Drone technology is becoming increasingly affordable and accessible, with new potential for everyday use in the United States — and new worries for national security. - Okami

Well, Bill Maher's still not happy with President Barack Obama. In the same week he told Lawrence O'Donnell that he wasn't sure what the president was thinking when it came to tackling the nation's debt problem, he used the beginning of his panel debate on tonight's Real Time to essentially say the same thing. Suffice to say, Maher believes Obama is letting the other party dictate the action...and that next November, it could cost him. - Okami

For months, two Senators have screamed bloody murder that the government holds a secret legal interpretation of the Patriot Act so broad that it amounts to a - Okami

Police are investigating whether an unnamed Secret Intelligence Service officer witnessed the inhumane treatment of detainees by the U.S. military in Guantanamo Bay. - Okami

The former Prime Minister will be held to account on four main failings, including bogus claims that were made about Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction. - Okami

New terms mean company will be paid even when production is disrupted, critics claim - Okami

". . .a real, REAL good day. . ." - Okami

". . .a real, REAL good day. . ." - Okami

"it would help if they had more neural activity than termites." - Okami

"it would help if they had more neural activity than termites." - Okami

"Albert Einstein didn't believe in a personal God, with human traits and foibles, and was a member of no religion. . .does this mean Albert Einstein was a mass murderer? "It was, of course, a lie what you read about my religious convictions, a lie which is being systematically repeated. I do not believe in a personal God and I have never denied this but have expressed it clearly. If something is in me which can be called religious then it is the unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as our science can reveal it." "[...] The word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honourable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish. No interpretation no matter how subtle can (for me) change this. These [...] interpretations are highly manifold according to their nature and have almost nothing to do with the original text. For me the Jewish religion like all other religions is an..." - Okami

"Albert Einstein didn't believe in a personal God, with human traits and foibles, and was a member of no religion. . .does this mean Albert Einstein was a mass murderer? "It was, of course, a lie what you read about my religious convictions, a lie which is being systematically repeated. I do not believe in a personal God and I have never denied this but have expressed it clearly. If something is in me which can be called religious then it is the unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as our science can reveal it." "[...] The word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honourable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish. No interpretation no matter how subtle can (for me) change this. These [...] interpretations are highly manifold according to their nature and have almost nothing to do with the original text. For me the Jewish religion like all other religions is an..." - Okami

John McCain's recent disparaging remarks about Tea Party poster women Sharron Angle and Christine O'Donnell had many either breathlessly announcing that he was back or, alternately, opining that the Republican Arizona Senator is Gollum. Either way, it seemed that McCain felt strongly about the Tea Party's influence in Washington and was truly and sincerely speaking his mind, however bluntly and lacking in tact his remarks may have been. And the media ate that up because Politicians Saying What They Mean is to us what candy is to a baby or, more accurately, what sweet corruptible human flesh is to Cthulhu. - Okami

Chris Matthews continued his series of confrontations with Tea Party congressmen as today Republican Steve Scalise stepped up to the plate to play Hardball. Scalise admitted that he will support John Boehner's debt plan because it starts the process and is better than Obama's threats and tax increases. Yet Matthews and Scalise really tussled over exactly where future spending cuts should be made? - Okami

WASHINGTON -- The not-yet-announced presidential campaign of Gov. Rick Perry (R-Texas) already has a small bit of fundraising heft behind it thanks to a Super PAC set up by supporters. The Americans for Rick Perry committee raised $193,000 over the span of eight days in June, according to the group's first disclosure filing with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) on Friday. - Okami

The FBI was telling new bureau recruits as recently as Jan. 2009 that Islam "transforms [a] country's culture into 7th Century Arabian ways" and recommending a book written by one of Norwegian terrorism suspect's favorite authors as well as the Complete Idiot's Guide To Understanding Islam. - Okami

"however, if the definition is only applicable to the group, those outside have no such protection. the Torah creates a new people, separate from all others because God Himself chose them. except under extreme circumstances (violation of the Law), killing could not be justified under the Law. however, God explicitly orders annihilation of the nations Israel displaces on entering the Holy Land, as well as others such as the Amalakites. a similar distinction may be found in Pauline Christian theology. here yet another unique group has been created, though it includes people of many nations, and not just Jews. there are hints to the same exclusiveness when Paul states that matters should be judged within the church, and that members should have nothing to do with outsiders/nonbelievers, including the resolution of disputes in secular courts. he states that Christians have nothing to do with outsiders because they 'shall judge angels'. exemptions for 'special cases' exist in both faiths;..." - Okami

"however, if the definition is only applicable to the group, those outside have no such protection. the Torah creates a new people, separate from all others because God Himself chose them. except under extreme circumstances (violation of the Law), killing could not be justified under the Law. however, God explicitly orders annihilation of the nations Israel displaces on entering the Holy Land, as well as others such as the Amalakites. a similar distinction may be found in Pauline Christian theology. here yet another unique group has been created, though it includes people of many nations, and not just Jews. there are hints to the same exclusiveness when Paul states that matters should be judged within the church, and that members should have nothing to do with outsiders/nonbelievers, including the resolution of disputes in secular courts. he states that Christians have nothing to do with outsiders because they 'shall judge angels'. exemptions for 'special cases' exist in both faiths;..." - Okami

"unfortunately, due to history and experience it's my opinion that religious representatives are the very LAST people to teach or expound on ethics or morality. . ." - Okami

"unfortunately, due to history and experience it's my opinion that religious representatives are the very LAST people to teach or expound on ethics or morality. . ." - Okami

The current debt ceiling debate has found Bill O'Reilly somewhat on the left of where he usually finds himself, warning Republicans and Tea Partiers alike not to interrupt the Democrats as they make their mistakes. Tonight he phoned into the program from Los Angeles, where he warned host Laura Ingraham that, since that this point the President is taking an enormous hit, the only thing that could rehabilitate his image is craziness on the right. - Okami

On Friday morning's Fox & Friends, co-host Steve Doocy slammed Gawker over a blog post that attempted to extrapolate the identity of the CIA agent responsible for tracking and killing Osama bin Laden. Doocy is correct that the site acted recklessly, but along the way, he gets a key fact wrong, makes an unexplainable comparison to the outing of Valerie Plame, and actually shows a photograph of the man in question, in stunning Hi-Def, to millions of Fox News viewers. - Okami