Religious Persecution A-OK, Gay Bashing? Not so Much...

From the front page of msn.com today:

When a few classmates razzed Rebekah Rice about her Mormon upbringing with questions such as, "Do you have 10 moms?" she shot back: "That's so gay."

After Rice got a warning and a notation in her file, her parents sued, claiming officials at Santa Rosa's Maria Carillo High violated their daughter's First Amendment rights when they disciplined her for uttering a phrase "which enjoys widespread currency in youth culture," according to court documents.

But school officials say they took a strict stand against the put down after two boys were paid to beat up a gay student the year before.

"The district has a statutory duty to protect gay students from harassment," the district's lawyers argued in a legal brief. "In furtherance of this goal, prohibition of the phrase 'That's so gay' ... was a reasonable regulation."

Rice's parents, Elden and Katherine Rice, also claim the public high school employed a double-standard because, they say, administrators never sought to shield Rebekah from teasing based on Mormon stereotypes.

Ok, granted... the suing of the school may have been a little much, and the expression "that's so gay" is not the most PC term in the world, but seriously -- giving a child a warning for saying "that's so gay" but turning a blind eye to the kids that were making fun of her religion?

First Honeybees, now Frogs?

I think humans are next...

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,251365,00.html?sPage=fnc.science/naturalscience

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,252215,00.html

Even Drug Smugglers Have Rights in America!

Not sure if any of you have heard about this one. Apparently, a while back, there were two border patrol agents that caught a Mexican citizen trying to smuggle 725 pounds of marijuana into the country. The guy decided to run, so the agents shot at him, hitting him in the butt. Not only are the two border patrol agents in jail serving 11 and 12 year terms, but the drug smuggler has been granted amnesty and is suing the US Government for 5 million dollars.

There's a million articles swirling about on this one, but here's one of them:
http://www.startribune.com/484/story/995662.html

Global Warming

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17042993/?GT1=9033

In the News

I subscribe to Popular Science and in reading some of the recent issues today, I found some cool things going on in our technology world...

• Open Source Textbooks: At www.curriki.org, you can register to start reading free, online textbooks. Although it is in its infancy now, this tool may be just the key to saving our schools hundreds of millions of dollars.
• Growing Bladders from DNA: A scientist was able to build a bio-degradable scaffold of a bladder, spray a patient's bladder cells onto the scaffold and presto! A new bladder.
  
• Cure for Asthma: By sticking a tube down a patient's throat and into their lungs, radio frequency signals blast the walls of the lungs to get rid of asthma attacks.
• Katrina-Stopping Nails: By re-engineering the nail, inventors were able to create a nail so strong that the roofs of houses no longer will sheer off in hurricane winds.
• Periodic Table: One of the editors of PopSci spent four years assembling a collection of elements for a real-life periodic table and photographing them. It's kinda cool to look at -- you can even order a poster of the table for your home or office enjoyment!
  
• Censored Hammer: Although not necessary revolutionary, I also read an article about a new hammer called the "FUBAR" which was designed for demolition work. Now tell me, how in the world did Stanley get away with that? I can picture 5 years olds watching their Dads hard at work and asking if they can have a try at the FUBAR.
  

Trees do Whaaaaaaat?

I must admit that I love (I mean looooooove) Popular Science. It's like the coolest magazine on earth. What better way to be on the "up and up" with all the latest gadgets? At any rate, I was reading this article a while back and thought it was really interesting. I was talking to Mikey about it recently, so I thought I'd put a link to it on my blog so that everyone can learn about smog-causing trees!

Read all about it.