Post by Tomspy77 on Dec 1, 2014 6:02:24 GMT -6
* Comprehensive Pentagon studies of America's nuclear missile
infrastructure released in November (following disturbing reports
of readiness failures) included the revelation that nuclear warheads
had to be attached with a particular wrench, even though the Air
Force owned only one with which to service 450 missiles housed at
three bases. Consequently, one official told the New York Times,
"They started FedExing the one tool" back and forth. No one had
checked in years, he said, "to see if new tools were being made"--
typical of maintenance problems that had "been around so long that
no one reported them anymore." [New York Times, 11-13-2014]
* "Santa Muerte" (Our Lady of the Holy Death) might be described
as a cynic's unauthorized by-product of Roman Catholicism
currently festering in drug-cartel-roiled Mexico and Central
America and is, according to Vice Media, "the world's fastest
growing" religion. "Saint Death" first appeared only 12 years ago,
in the Mexico City barrio of Tepito, and is now a first line of
protection for worshipers in danger zones. (Almost 80,000
Mexicans have been killed since 2006, Vice reported.) Said one
observer, "People feel more comfortable asking [Santa Muerte] for
favors they probably shouldn't ask a Catholic saint for."
[Vice.com, 11-13-2014]
* In the U.S.'s fourth reported case, a state issued a driver's license
even though the applicant was photographed wearing a colander
(as a "religious covering," the only "hats" legally permitted in such
photos). Jessica Steinhauser said the Motor Vehicles office in
Hurricane, Utah, simply shrugged at her affiliation with the Church
of the Flying Spaghetti Monster (created in 2005 to offer the
proposition that God's existence is no better "proven" than the
FSM's). [Associated Press via KOVR-TV (Sacramento, Calif.),
11-18-2014]
infrastructure released in November (following disturbing reports
of readiness failures) included the revelation that nuclear warheads
had to be attached with a particular wrench, even though the Air
Force owned only one with which to service 450 missiles housed at
three bases. Consequently, one official told the New York Times,
"They started FedExing the one tool" back and forth. No one had
checked in years, he said, "to see if new tools were being made"--
typical of maintenance problems that had "been around so long that
no one reported them anymore." [New York Times, 11-13-2014]
* "Santa Muerte" (Our Lady of the Holy Death) might be described
as a cynic's unauthorized by-product of Roman Catholicism
currently festering in drug-cartel-roiled Mexico and Central
America and is, according to Vice Media, "the world's fastest
growing" religion. "Saint Death" first appeared only 12 years ago,
in the Mexico City barrio of Tepito, and is now a first line of
protection for worshipers in danger zones. (Almost 80,000
Mexicans have been killed since 2006, Vice reported.) Said one
observer, "People feel more comfortable asking [Santa Muerte] for
favors they probably shouldn't ask a Catholic saint for."
[Vice.com, 11-13-2014]
* In the U.S.'s fourth reported case, a state issued a driver's license
even though the applicant was photographed wearing a colander
(as a "religious covering," the only "hats" legally permitted in such
photos). Jessica Steinhauser said the Motor Vehicles office in
Hurricane, Utah, simply shrugged at her affiliation with the Church
of the Flying Spaghetti Monster (created in 2005 to offer the
proposition that God's existence is no better "proven" than the
FSM's). [Associated Press via KOVR-TV (Sacramento, Calif.),
11-18-2014]