For any Catholic who can’t dilly-dally at confession, there’s now a church-approved iPhone and iPad app that allows a person to categorize and organize his/her sins in anticipation of the Rite of Penance.  The app provides a checklist of the Ten Commandments, as well as questions a priest might ask at confession.

Penance isn’t free. The price? Only $1.99.

[Christian Science Monitor: Confession app for iPhone approved by Catholic Church]

“The high-level state Government has no fucking right to drive down my fucking property values, especially with local authorities opposed.”

-Site Commenter Miles SG

There’s an interesting discussion going on in the comments section at Matthew Yglesias’ site. It concern the establishment of a Tea Party organized group called “The Campaign for Liberty” that was founded in opposition to a state law restricting localities ability to place land use restrictions on private property. What the law says, essentially, is that localities must designate areas where medium-density and mixed use contruction is permitted. Basically what we’re talking about here are apartment buildings and light commecial real-estate, such as a 7-11 or a dentist’s office. But this law has some local residents up in arms, worried that letting another man do what he wants with his own property will negatively affect someone else’s property values. Yglesias notes the odd contradictions in play:

This is a country where the free market position is that for-profit colleges should have a right to unrestricted government subsidies. So why shouldn’t “liberty” mean the liberty of rich suburbanites to ban medium-density construction? Here’s a group of people being forced to do something they don’t like and they don’t like being forced to accept urbanization any more than conservatives like being forced to let gay couples get married or the conservatives of yore liked being forced to integrate the Montgomery bus system. Change feels coercive to people.

Read more »

At first glance, Fort Wayne’s former Renaissance Center doesn’t look like a candidate for the next installment of the Stinque Guide to Phallic Civic Landmarks. But then you learn the ex-Ren’s secret weapon:

Despite garnering far more support in an online poll than the thicket of other suggestions, residents shouldn’t expect Fort Wayne’s new government center to be named after the city’s longest tenured mayor.

Deputy Mayor Beth Malloy said naming 200 E. Berry St. the Harry Baals Government Center was “probably not” going to happen.

Yes. Baals. Harry Baals. Pronounced just like God intended, although his kids preferred the less-embarrassing “nutsack”.

Which explains why Harry Baals is enjoying a runaway lead of 2,771-312 in online voting against his closest competitor.

And really, Fort Wayne, there’s no escaping fate. The current runner-up? Johnson Memorial.

Harry Baals building unlikely [Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, via Political Wire]

First Lady Michelle Obama told a group today that the President has not smoked in more than a year. [Politico]

[FLOTUS: President Hasn’t Smoked for “A While”]

We’re going to run this long, because it’s even better that way:

Benjamin Wallace-Wells is a contributing writer for the magazine and a Schwartz fellow at the New America Foundation. His last article for the magazine was about the legal scholar Cass Sunstein.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: February 6, 2011

An article on Jan. 16 about drilling for oil off the coast of Angola erroneously reported a story about cows falling from planes, as an example of risks in any engineering endeavor. No cows, smuggled or otherwise, ever fell from a plane into a Japanese fishing rig. The story is an urban legend, and versions of it have been reported in Scotland, Germany, Russia and other locations.

Anybody who Googles “Cass Sunstein AND falling cows”, we’re here to serve.

The Will to Drill [NYT, via TPM]

Image: Gomberg Kites

Nominated for the 2011 Darwin Awards:

A 35-year-old man who was at an illegal cockfight in the Central Valley of California died on January 30 after being stabbed in the leg by a cockfighting bird that had a knife attached to its own limb.  The Kern County coroner released the autopsy results on Monday, which concluded that Jose Luis Ochoa died of “accidental sharp force injury” to his right calf.

Accidental? I think not. Karma’s a bitch, asshole. Don’t fuck with the patron saint of San Francisco.

[LAT: Man Killed by Armed Bird at Cockfight, H/T DodgerBlue]

“In addition to executive producing and hosting a new nightly primetime news and commentary show, Keith Olbermann will also serve as the company’s Chief News Officer and will have an equity stake in Current Media. The new show will air weeknights in primetime beginning later in 2011.” [Current TV]