“An eastern Kentucky pastor wants Tennessee wildlife officials to return five venomous snakes confiscated in Knoxville. Gregory Coots, who is known as Jamie Coots, is pastor of at the Full Gospel Tabernacle in Jesus Name Church in Middlesboro. Coots handles the snakes as part of worship services.” [AP, via jwmcsame]

“Coeur d’Alene Sen. John Goedde, chairman of the Idaho Senate’s Education Committee, introduced legislation Tuesday to require every Idaho high school student to read Ayn Rand’s ‘Atlas Shrugged’ and pass a test on it to graduate from high school.” [Spokesman-Review, via Political Wire]

“The sperm count of French men fell by a third between 1989 and 2005, a study suggests. The semen of more than 26,600 French men was tested in the study, reported in the journal Human Reproduction.” [BBC]

“He singled out New York Times polling blogger Nate Silver — whose predictive model currently [gives] Obama an 80 percent chance of re-election — as a left-leaning journalist who is churning out questionable analysis with partisan motives.” —An unnamed Romney adviser, signaling to supporters where to direct their ire. [BuzzFeed]

Great American Author [unsourced] Philip Roth is provoking some literati tittering [unsourced] today with a provocative New Yorker post:

Yet when, through an official interlocutor, I recently petitioned Wikipedia to delete this misstatement, along with two others, my interlocutor was told by the “English Wikipedia Administrator”—in a letter dated August 25th and addressed to my interlocutor—that I, Roth, was not a credible source: “I understand your point that the author is the greatest authority on their own work,” writes the Wikipedia Administrator—“but we require secondary sources.”

Hahahahah!!! Silly Amateur Encyclopedists! Let’s all gather at the Algonquin and amuse ourselves at their expense!

Read more »

#eastwooding [Twicsy]

You know, the GOP Platform has been kept under official wraps until it was voted on.  But now it is up and available for view, at the link below:

YOU CAN CONTROL WOMEN AND BEND THEM TO YOUR WILL BY USING ONE OLD, WEIRD TRICK

So we will need your help to crowdsource this mother (AND FATHER IN A STABLE FAMILY AS HAS BEEN DONE FOR CENTURIES) while we watch, along with you, the first (or second) day of the GOP clambake, for which an OPEN THREAD is in order (notwithstanding objections from Ron Paul groupies).