Alex Jones’ YouTube channel has four of his videos removed from YouTube. Casey Newton at The Verge reports:
Two videos contained hate speech against Muslims, and a third contained hate speech against transgender people, sources said. A fourth showed a child who was pushed to the ground by an adult man, under the headline “How to prevent liberalism.” All four of the videos are currently posted on Infowars.
Oh and get this:
A post on Infowars said the videos had been posted “in a news, documentary, scientific or artistic context.”
The Morning Heresy reached out to news, documentaries, science, and art for comment, all of which responded, “HAHAHAHAHAHHAHA<cough cough>HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!”
Blake Ellis, Melanie Hicken, and Jordan Malter at CNN do real yeoman’s work with a big investigation of a massive fake-psychic scam led by Maria Duval:
Seduced by Duval’s promises, US investigators say, people paid around $40 each time they corresponded with her in exchange for her guidance, lucky numbers and talismans. This seemingly simple scheme became one of the longest-running mail frauds in history – infiltrating more than a dozen countries, spanning more than 20 years and raking in more than $200 million in the United States and Canada alone. In America, it ensnared 60 times more victims than Bernie Madoff’s infamous Ponzi scheme.
Joe Nickell reflects on his investigations of the claims of religion over the years, noting the key role played by Paul Kurtz in, as Joe puts it, drawing him out of obscurity:
Over the years, no one championed my work more than Paul. He dubbed me “the modern Sherlock Holmes,” and told The New Yorker (for my profile in the December 23, 2002, issue), “When the history of the twentieth century is written, I think Joe will emerge as the leading critic of the empirical claims of religion.” He was precisely defining my practice, since empirical methods are those that are based on practical experience—including observation and experiment—rather than theory.
Vice President Pence threatens Turkey over their imprisonment of American pastor Andrew Brunson, charged with “Christianization”:
If Turkey does not take immediate action to free this innocent man of faith and send him home to America, the United States will impose significant sanctions on Turkey until Pastor Andrew Brunson is free.
Trump tweets in agreement:
The United States will impose large sanctions on Turkey for their long time detainment of Pastor Andrew Brunson, a great Christian, family man and wonderful human being. He is suffering greatly. This innocent man of faith should be released immediately!
I’m not sure why being a “man of faith” would make Brunson more or less worthy of all this attention, but I’m sure if Erdogan locked up someone for atheism…well…
Indonesia’s Constitutional Court rejects a petition challenging the country’s blasphemy law, but showed some sympathy for the cause. One justice said (via CNN Indonesia and translated through Google):
The Court is of the opinion that [the blasphemy law] does require revision, but it must be done through ordinary legislation that allows for all parties to engage in in-depth discussions, so to correct it is the authority of the legislator … through the legislation process.
Jeffrey Queen of Bowling Green asked the courts to intervene
When the firefighter guys would vent their spleen
Cause they thought of Jeffrey as a philistine.
Judge said, ‘Yes, we’ll try to glean
If the work environment got too mean
For Jeffery Queen of Bowling Green.’
In the middle of a debate in the race for mayor of Key West, candidate Sloan Bashinsky takes a phone call from God. It’s as dumb as it sounds.
Quote of the Day
New Jersey radio station 101.5 FM suspends hosts Dennis Malloy and Judi Franco for calling the state’s Sikh attorney general, Gurbir Grewal, “turban man” over and over again.
Grewal himself tweeted:
.@nj1015: My name, for the record, is Gurbir Grewal. I’m the 61st Attorney General of NJ. I’m a Sikh American. I have 3 daughters. And yesterday, I told them to turn off the radio.
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Linking to a story or webpage does not imply endorsement by Paul or CFI. Not every use of quotation marks is ironic or sarcastic, but it often is.