In Libya: Gaddafi’s forces have rejected a cease-fire.
In Japan: Radioactive water is leaking into the ocean from the Fukushima Daiichi plant, say safety officials.
In Ivory Coast: BBC reports that 800 people have been killed this week in conflicts between supporters of Alassane Ouattara, the president recognized by the UN, and the incumbent, Laurent Gbagbo.
In Afghanistan: At least seven people were killed in an attack on a UN compound yesterday in response to a Florida preacher who burned the Koran last month, and insurgents wearing burkas attacked a coalition base today.
Jetpack distribution to follow: Today, Obama says it’s time to stop relying on foreign oil, because clean energy technologies aren’t science fiction anymore.
The ramshackle skies: The Southwest Airlines plane that made an emergency landing in Yuma, Arizona yesterday had a three-foot hole in its fuselage, reports CNN.
Keepin’ it classy: Minnesota state senator comes out against the dangers of integration, claims to have a lot of black friends.
To be fair, they did find MRSA on BART: The most neurotic discerning New Yorkers can now rest assured when riding public transit with the proles thanks to the Metro Mitt, a protective glove for those trying times when you have to stand up and steady yourself by way of a handrail while riding the subway.
Because that’s what college is for, amirite? Rutgers is paying noted oompa loompa Snooki a higher speaking fee than Toni Morrison, who will give this year’s commencement address.
Finally, yesterday was Rachel Maddow’s birthday. Here she is, arguing with Jon Stewart about the nature of political satire. Good morning!
“advice” not “advise”.
@43: If you feign love due only to a vague sense of duty, you are desecrating one of humanity’s few redeeming characteristics: the capacity to love. Mourning a lost bond of love will only reduce you to a husk of yourself, blindly slaving away in the vain hope that your love will return.
@47: “Who better to follow than the divinely inspired Dante?”
You are operating under the assumption that Dan Savage’s advice is objectively immoral. (PROTIP: it’s not.) Simply invoking Dante Alighieri doesn’t lend credence to your ideas. Case in point: this.
The Roman Empire’s conversion to Christianity was a major contributing factor in it’s fall.
Fall of Rome – Reasons for the Fall of Rome Include Decay, Christianity, Vandals
http://ancienthistory.about.com/cs/romef…
Reading through Seattleblues comments make me giggle.
As someone who has read several different versions of the fall of Rome… Believing that Rome fell because of it’s decadence/homosexuality/sexuality is hilarious…
Rome fell because it failed to effectively manage the Western bureaucracy and invest in infrastructure, coupled with social upheaval caused by Christianity weakening the state (yes Christianity helped aid Rome’s collapse), along with the socio-political upheaval of foederati and barbarian rebellion/incursion Rome fell. You do know it was Christians that were responsible for Rome’s fall, Arian Christians, not pagans, not homosexuals, but Christians, right?
If you don’t, then you’re a f**king moron.
Which I already know you are.
@Rob
Also I would say the Roman tendency to squabble over who was an Augustus, who was a Caesar, who was an Imperiator etc… Two of the greatest Generals of Western Rome, Stilicho and Aetius, both died at the hands of jealous “Emperors.”
@Seattleblues
There are three types of people in the world, those that don’t read Dante, the idiots that read Dante and are religious about it, and those that read Dante an analyze the literature of it all.
Clearly you are in the God-Delusional middle column.
You folks are the ones theorizing about the fall of Rome. I just mentioned it in passing, and corrected the historical errors made by Drinking Way too Much Busch.
Though with all the references to Gibbon no-one bothers to mention that the Byzantine Empire held sway over much of the Mediteranean for nearly 10 centuries. Or that anyone within that empire would have considered themselves part of the Roman Empire, not Byzantine. Byzantine is in fact a historians way of differentiating Roman based in Rome from the Roman Empire based in Constantinople. But hey, don’t let facts get in the way in your revisionist ‘I hate Christianity and will lie about it as much as I can’ history! You might have to think for yourselves rather than just swallow everything some liberal moron historian writes, and liberals don’t actually think all that well.
@56
Well, there might actually be a fourth category of people who read Dante. (Or Shakespeare, or Milton or Hugo or Mark Twain.) Some people not read to justify their religious beliefs, or to coldly analyze the meter and scansion of a poet, or the literary technique of a prose piece. Some people (and this may astound you in your depressive paranoic state) actually just read for enjoyment.
@Seattleblues
Where the hell do you think the dark ages came from? The oppressive fist of the catholic church after the fall of Rome.