A top South Carolina election official disputes Republican claims that 950 people who voted in recent elections could actually be dead. Of the six names State Election Commission director Marci Andino was allowed to examine, all were eligible to vote. The Columbia Free Times reports, "One allegedly dead voter on the DMV's list cast an absentee ballot before dying; another was the result of a poll worker mistakenly marking the voter as his deceased father; two were clerical errors resulting from stray marks on voter registration lists detected by a scanner; two others resulted from poll managers incorrectly marking the name of the voter in question instead of the voter above or below on the list." read more
Sweden has recognized the Church of Kopimism, a new religion that claims "kopyacting" -- sharing information through copying -- is akin to a religious service. The church, which holds Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V as sacred symbols, does not directly promote illegal file sharing, focusing instead on the open distribution of knowledge to all. "For the Church of Kopimism, information is holy and copying is a sacrament," said founder Isak Gerson, 19. "Information holds a value, in itself and in what it contains and the value multiplies through copying. Therefore copying is central for the organisation and its members."
Many researchers have reached a conclusion that turns conventional wisdom on its head: Americans enjoy less economic mobility than their peers in Canada and much of Western Europe. The trend, long a lament of the left, is now being noted on the right. Rick Santorum warned that movement "up into the middle income is actually greater, the mobility in Europe, than it is in America." National Review wrote that "most Western European and English-speaking nations have higher rates of mobility." Rep. Paul D. Ryan (R-Wisc.) recently wrote that "mobility from the very bottom up" is "where the United States lags behind." read more
Although the Bush tax cuts were extended without offsets to pay for them, House Speaker John Boehner (R) said that a payroll tax cut extension favored by President Barack Obama and Democrats must be paired with equal cuts to avoid raising federal deficits. Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) once said that "you should never have to offset the cost" of tax cuts on Americans." The party appears to be making an exception for extending a cut that reduces the Social Security payroll tax paid by employees by half, to 3.1. percent of wages from 6.2 percent.
Alabama's tough new immigration law has bagged an unexpected foreigner for lack of proper ID -- a German car executive. Mercedes-Benz executive Detlev Hager was stopped by police in Tuscaloosa last week because the rental car he was driving lacked a tag. All he had as identification was a German ID card, so he was arrested. "He was taken into custody," Tuscaloosa Police Chief Steven Anderson said. Hager was released after someone else retrieved his passport and German driver's license. read more
Enjoyable read - along with the comments posted. Raises good points. I like the person commenting on Pope Benedict XVI statement that "denying the truth of evolution is an 'absurdity'" and the Churches statement on AGW.
Perhaps Rick should take Mitt's advice and make it relevant by performing self-excommunication?