This is the story of two Marys. Both are in their early 60s, heavyset, with curly reddish hair. But for years they have worked on opposite ends of the same issues. Mary McFate is an advocate of environmental causes and a prominent activist within the gun control movement. For more than a decade, she volunteered for various gun violence prevention organizations, serving on the boards of anti-gun outfits, helping state groups coordinate their activities, lobbying in Washington for gun control legislation, and regularly attending strategy and organizing meetings.

Mary Lou Sapone, by contrast, is a self-described "research consultant," who for decades has covertly infiltrated citizens groups for private security firms hired by corporations that are targeted by activist campaigns. For some time, Sapone also worked for the National Rifle Association.

But these two Marys share a lot in common—a Mother Jones investigation has found that McFate and Sapone are, in fact, the same person.

Scary.

There's Something About Mary: Unmasking a Gun Lobby Mole

So, I'm just going to lay this out very simply, even though in the linked video, Olbermann appears to consider this too distasteful to do more than just touch upon (and indeed, there are bigger fish to fry first).

An "interview" is supposed to be a question and answer session between a reporter and the interviewee, right? So that the reporting is basically saying, "the reporter asked this question, and the person being interviewed gave this particular answer to that question", right?

So, in what lunatic alternate dimension does this become "an interview is a creative reinterpretation of what we think we'd like this person to have said in response to these questions" and make Katie Couric's interview session with John McCain, as aired not a massive breach of journalistic integrity because basically, what they aired showed McCain giving an entirely different answer to the question asked about the troop surge.

In short, what CBS aired was decidedly fiction and "news" is supposed to be non-fiction.

McCain has problems with facts and timelines. Kinda like Reagan in his second term, after Alzheimer's started to effect him.

So, doesn't CBS believe in 'journalistic integrity'?

Security guards collected garbage bags full of sunblock at the entrances to Yankee Stadium over the sweltering weekend, when temps hit 96 degrees and the UV index reached a skin-scorching 9 out of 10 - a move team officials said was to protect the Stadium from terrorism.

Wow... Can we bilk people for more $

SUNBLOCK BAN AT YANKEE STADIUM CAUSES BURNING PROBLEM - New York Post

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