In the News

Here is some stuff in the news today...

[Content Note: Extreme weather; video may autoplay at link] "Hurricane Patricia became the strongest storm ever measured on the planet early Friday, with experts warning it could trigger 40-foot waves along Mexico's coast and 'life-threatening' flash flooding. More than 7 million residents were told to prepare for the 'worst-case scenario' as Patricia was expected to race ashore on Mexico's Pacific coast between 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. ET Friday. The tourist magnets of Puerto Vallarta and Manzanillo were directly in the Category 5 storm's projected path. Packing 200 mph winds, the U.S. National Hurricane Center described Patricia as the 'strongest hurricane on record' in the Atlantic and eastern North Pacific Basins." Holy shit.

[CN: Video may autoplay at link] President Obama gave a firm defense of Black Lives Matter yesterday, and specifically pushed back against the "All Lives Matter" crapola: "'I think everybody understands all lives matter,' Obama said during a panel discussion at the White House. 'I think the reason that the organizers use the phrase 'Black Lives Matter' was not because they were suggesting nobody else's lives mattered. Rather, what they were suggesting was there is a specific problem that is happening in the African American community that's not happening in other communities. And that is a legitimate issue that we've got to address.' Urging skeptics to take allegations of unfair policing seriously, the president said: 'The African American community is not just making this up.'" BOOM.

Former Rhode Island Governor and presidential hopeful Lincoln Chafee has dropped out of the Democratic primary. "After much thought, I have decided to end my campaign for the president today." Okay.

Meanwhile, Dr. Ben Carson has taken the lead in Iowa over gold toilet aficionado Donald Trump in the Republican race: "A new Bloomberg Politics/Des Moines Register Iowa Poll shows the retired neurosurgeon is backed by 28 percent of likely Republican caucus participants, up 10 percentage points since late August. Trump is supported by 19 percent, down 4 points." Welp!

[CN: Misogyny; violent rhetoric] Catherine Porter details what the differences for women will (hopefully!) be between incoming Canadian Prime Minster Justin Trudeau and his garbage predecessor Stephen Harper: "The first thing Justin Trudeau plans to do is name his cabinet—half of whom will be women. Can you believe it? I can't either. Trudeau has promised to draft the country's first national action plan on violence against women, call an inquiry into our missing and murdered aboriginal sisters and, within 100 days, get started on a national framework for child care. Child care. Remember that? That was the first thing the Conservative government destroyed when they came to power nine long, cold years ago. It was Harper's first cluster bomb in the War on Women. ...Who knows what other damage will surface, once Trudeau begins to consult with feminists? Most have been shut out of Ottawa for a decade. The Harper government didn't care what they thought about anything."

[CN: Rape culture] Get the Gothardites: "Five women have sued the Institute in Basic Life Principles, once a leader in the Christian homeschooling movement, charging that the organization and its board of directors enabled and covered up sexual abuse and harassment of interns, employees, and other participants in its programs. Each of the plaintiffs—Gretchen Wilkinson, Charis Barker, Rachel Frost, Rachel Lees, and a Jane Doe—seeks $50,000 in damages, alleging that the organization and its board acted negligently, with willful and wanton disregard for them, and engaged in a civil conspiracy to conceal the wrongdoing. The lawsuit is the latest chapter in a long-simmering scandal that has engulfed the ministry once admired by conservative Christian parents for teaching them how to raise obedient, devout and chaste children since the 1960s. The ministry has found dedicated followers in politics, including Rep. Daniel Webster (R-Fla.), who sought to replace Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio) as House Speaker, and in entertainment." *cough*Duggars*cough*

[CN: Transphobia; misgendering] Well, yeah: Opponents of the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance Protections for LGBT people "are clueless about transgender men." They are clueless about transgender women, too, just in a different way. "On Tuesday, ThinkProgress reached out via email to the leaders and outspoken advocates trying to defeat HERO with that simple question: 'Which locker room do you believe transgender men should use?' ...[N]ot a single opponent of Houston's LGBT nondiscrimination protections could provide any answer about the implications of not allowing transgender men to use the men's room." Despite, of course, their incessant yammering about how they don't want men (by which they mean trans women) using women's bathrooms.

[CN: Homophobia] Whoooooooooops your retrofuck beliefs! "During a major summit of the Roman Catholic hierarchy that will end this weekend, a senior conservative bishop took the floor inside the Vatican's assembly hall and promptly charged his liberal peers with doing the devil's work. The three-week gathering, known as a synod, has erupted into a theological slugfest over Pope Francis's vision of a more-inclusive church, and it has displayed the most bitter and public infighting since the heady days of Catholic reform in the 1960s." The thing that makes this particularly hilarious is how "Pope Francis' vision of a more-inclusive church" is really nothing more than not talking about how they hate teh gayz so much.

Whoa: "One woman in Scotland can accurately smell Parkinson's disease on a person's skin, and researchers have begun exploring the implications of her ability. ...Edinburgh University decided to test [Joy Milne]'s talents by providing her with t-shirts from six people with Parkinson's and six people without. Scientists were impressed when she accurately determined 11 out of 12 cases, even though she smelled Parkinson's on one of the t-shirts from a person without the disease. That twelfth person contacted the scientists months later to say he had been diagnosed, making Milne's record 12 for 12." If scientists can pinpoint the reason that Milne, who has an extraordinary olfactory talent, can smell Parkinson's, it might lead them to better understanding the disease, which would be amazing.

[CN: Video autoplays at link] Adele's new single. BRB LISTENING TO THIS ONE MILLION TIMES.

Wowwwww: "Moments from the Golden Eagle Festival in Mongolia." Care of photographer Ch.Batzaya.

And finally! THE BEST video of two orphan rhino calves playing at the Wild Heart Wildlife Foundation in South Africa. TOO CUTE!!!