Infidels of Every Denomination

A Witches' Brew of Bad Arguments

Reading the Slate article "Witches' Brew At Winter Solstice: How Wiccans Do Themselves In" by Mark Oppenheimer, I actually found myself checking the date it was published. Surely this was written in, say, 1987 and re-published to fill in for a missed deadline? But no, there it is, today's date.

The only other conclusion I can draw is that the majority of the research he did in the Wiccan community consisted of visiting AOL chatrooms full of eager newbies and looking for "Never again the Burning Times" t-shirts on CafePress.

Wagering War

For those of you worried about the effects of the Grand Theft Auto games, here's something a little more worth your concern:

Italian web designers taking bets on worldwide terror attacks

No, seriously, these dudes have set up a website where you go and bet on where the next terrorist attack will take place in the world, and how it will be done. They're claiming some sort of high-minded awareness-raising purpose for this little exercise, as though that negates the sheer callousness of raking in money from the cold calculation of the death and destruction of innocents.

I mean, holy crap. This sounds like a plot from South Park, not an actual endeavor. What kind of person could place a wager here, turn out to be right, collect their winnings, and not be consumed with self-loathing?

Seriously-- WTF??

Edit: Apparently the Pentagon already considered this idea back in 2003 and the plan was dropped after the PR backlash bitch-slapped it. Gee, ya think?