The A.P. doesn't get to make it's own rules around how its content is used, if those rules are stricter than the law allows. So even thought they say they are making these new guidelines in the spirit of cooperation, it's clear that, like the RIAA and MPAA, they are trying to claw their way to a set of property rights that don't exist today and that they are not legally entitled to. And like the RIAA and MPAA, this is done to protect a dying business model - paid content.

So here's our new policy on A.P. stories: they don't exist. We don't see them, we don't quote them, we don't link to them. They're banned until they abandon this new strategy, and I encourage others to do the same until they back down from these ridiculous attempts to stop the spread of information around the Internet.

Good.

Here's Our New Policy On A.P. stories: They're Banned - washingtonpost.com

The nation's teen birth rate has risen for the first time in 14 years, according to a new government report.

The birth rate had been dropping since 1991. The decline had slowed in recent years, but government statisticians said Wednesday it jumped 3 percent from 2005 to 2006.

Wow, that abstinence only sex ed plan looks like it's really working out well.

Report: U.S. teen births rise - Yahoo! News

The 19-year-old Savage man used craigslist to lure Katherine Ann Olson to his home for a fictitious baby-sitting job, then shot her in the back, according to the criminal complaint filed Tuesday.

They're currently not charging premeditation. I expect the grand jury to change that. Presuming he did it, here's to this little bastard having a short, miserable, life sentence to Stillwater State Penitentiary.

TwinCities.com - Craigslist killings: Police say suspect Michael John Anderson left a trail of evidence

A grieving father won a nearly $11 million verdict Wednesday against a fundamentalist Kansas church that pickets military funerals out of a belief that the war in Iraq is a punishment for the nation's tolerance of homosexuality.

Albert Snyder of York, Pa., sued the Westboro Baptist Church for unspecified damages after members demonstrated at the March 2006 funeral of his son, Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder, who was killed in Iraq.

I'm all for free speech, which is why I will exercise my right to say, "I hope the members of the Westboro Baptist Church (read as the Phelps family) get sodomized by farm animals. Right after they pay the $11 million."

Jury awards father $11M in funeral case - Yahoo! News

Wow... just wow. This is a must watch for the "Why do conservatives hate sex so much?" group.

Funny or Die Videos - Talk to Kids PSA - by TheAttack

For about three years, the school has offered nearly full-ride scholarships to the winners and top finishers in the Miss and Miss Teen statewide pageants in Missouri, Kansas and Oklahoma. Lindenwood is looking to add another state or two, said Joseph Parisi, who had the brainstorm for the program.

You know, I just don't know what to say about this one other than, "You mean the school across town is Hottie U?"

STLtoday - News - Education

The Vatican has published secret documents about the trial of the Knights Templar, including a parchment — long ignored because of a vague catalog entry in 1628 — showing that Pope Clement V initially absolved the medieval order of heresy.

Just when you thought something new would be hard to find on these guys...

Vatican to publish Templar trial papers - Yahoo! News

For their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change:

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
Albert Arnold (Al) Gore Jr.

Good.

Al Gore Wins Nobel Peace Prize 2007

"Your America is where Neil Armstrong takes a walk on the moon," Bono said. "Your America gave Europe the Marshall Plan. Your America gave the world the Peace Corps."

"America is not just a country, it's an idea, isn't it? It's a great and powerful idea," he said. "The idea that all men are created equal, that we are endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights. That among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

Bono gets it. America is about more than just the policies and all that, it's about the ideal we need to try to live up to. The ideal is why America can be the greatest country in the world. It's why when we blow it off (like the current administration) we look like assholes to the rest of the world.

Bono Gets Medal for His Work in Africa

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has also postponed deportation of immigrants on active duty until they are discharged.

You can fight and die for us, but when you're done, get the fuck out.

Troops Worry Relatives Could Be Deported - The Huffington Post