Boing Boing has the scoop.

Now they’re after Spongebob Squarepants, whom they view as somehow encouraging tolerance of homosexuals.

Jesus, would you please talk to these people?

Jenna Jameson is working with Wicked Wireless to provide moantones.

Sounds inflammatory, doesn’t it? Well, take a look at this. Short version: documentaries (about, e.g., the civil rights movement) made years ago are being removed from circulation because the filmmakers cannot afford to re-clear the excerpts included therein.

Hey, Frank, dig this:

MEMPHIS, Tennessee (AP) — Defense attorney Leslie Ballin called it the “jury pool from hell.” The group of prospective jurors was summoned to listen to a case of Tennessee trailer park violence. Right after jury selection began last week, one man got up and left, announcing, “I’m on morphine and I’m higher than a kite.” When the prosecutor asked if anyone had been convicted of a crime, a prospective juror said that he had been arrested and taken to a mental hospital after he almost shot his nephew. He said he was provoked because his nephew just would not come out from under the bed. Another would-be juror said he had had alcohol problems and was arrested for soliciting sex from an undercover officer. “I should have known something was up,” he said. “She had all her teeth.” Another prospect volunteered he probably should not be on the jury: “In my neighborhood, everyone knows that if you get Mr. Ballin (as your lawyer), you’re probably guilty.” He was not chosen. The case involved a woman accused of hitting her brother’s girlfriend in the face with a brick. Ballin’s client was found not guilty. CNN

Boing Boing points us to this MP3 of the outgoing voice mail message at the Mississippi State Tax Comission from yesterday.

You’ve reached the Mississippi State Tax Commission. On Monday, January the 17th, the State Tax Commission offices will be closed in observance of Robert E. Lee and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Tax Commission offices will reopen on Tuesday, January the 18th. Office hours are from 8 until 5. Thank you, and have a safe and happy holiday.

We can’t verify that the message itself is real (though the accent is authentic), but we have verified that yes, Robert E. Lee’s birthday is also a state holiday, and is observed concurrent with MLK’s birthday. What better way to honor the progress we’ve made than by honoring a man who fought to preserve slavery on the same day we honor Dr. King?

So. Fucking. Proud.

A Las Vegas weatherman has been fired for describing yesterday as “Martin Luther Coon Jr. Day” during his forecast.

Clickable before and after satellite photos of tsunami locations. Wow. Just wow.

CNN has let Tucker Carlson go. Aw, poor guy.

MSNBC has an interview with Desmond Tutu that’s well worth reading. A few choice excerpts:

I still can’t believe that [Bush’s reelection] really could have happened. Just look at the facts on the table: He’d gone into a war having misled people–whether deliberately or not–about why he went to war. You would think that would have knocked him out [of the race.] It didn’t. Look at the number of American soldiers who have died since he claimed that the war had ended. And yet it seems this doesn’t make most Americans worry too much. I was teaching in Jacksonville, Fla., [during the election campaign] and I was shocked, because I had naively believed all these many years that Americans genuinely believed in freedom of speech. [But I] discovered there that when you made an utterance that was remotely contrary to what the White House was saying, then they attacked you. For a South African the deja vu was frightening. They behaved exactly the same way that used to happen here [during apartheid]–vilifying those who are putting forward a slightly different view. [. . .] It’s unbelievable that a country that many of us have looked to as the bastion of true freedom could now have eroded so many of the liberties we believed were upheld almost religiously.

And on religion:

I keep having to remind people that religion in and of itself is morally neutral. Religion is like a knife. When you use a knife for cutting up bread to prepare sandwiches, a knife is good. If you use the same knife to stick into somebody’s guts, a knife is bad. Religion in and of itself is not good or bad–it is what it makes you do… Frequently, fundamentalists will say this person is the anointed of God if the particular person is supporting their own positions on for instance, homosexuality, or abortion. [I] feel so deeply saddened [about it]. Do you really believe that the Jesus who was depicted in the Scriptures as being on the side of those who were vilified, those who were marginalized, that this Jesus would actually be supporting groups that clobber a group that is already persecuted?

Word.

Or, as Rob puts it, “A last-minute entry into the meanest headline of 2004 contest”: U.S. Should Not Help Tsunami Victims.

The Mexican city of Villahermosa has passed a law making indoor nudity illegal. No, really.

A Florida State prof, irritated at the possibility of a chiropractic school being established there, created the spoof map at right. Apparently, 7 profs have threatened to resign over the possible school, since they (rightly) believe chiropractic to be, well, quackery.

Via BoingBoing; more at this St. Petersburg Times story.