Vatican not satisfied with Holocaust-denier’s apology

Not so fast, Bishop Richard Williamson! You can’t get away that easily. As a former Nazi youth, The Pope doesn’t take kindly to having people deny the Nazi atrocities. The Vatican demands that Williamson clearly “distance himself” from the controversial comments.

Bishop Richard Williamson, who is now in England, issued a statement Thursday saying he regretted making the remarks. But he did not retract them or say he had changed his mind about the Holocaust.

You must have thought the Catholic Church was stupid, but I’ll have you know that just because the Catholic Church employs individuals to perform actual exorcisms and to investigate to determine if the face of Jesus on a taco is a legitimate miracle, that doesn’t make them–wait, where was I going with that again? I kinda lost my train of thought after the whole exorcism thing.

Now for those who forgot what Williamson had actually said,

In the Swedish interview, which was broadcast in January but apparently recorded earlier, Williamson said, “I believe that the historical evidence is strongly against — is hugely against — 6 million Jews having been deliberately gassed in gas chambers as a deliberate policy of Adolf Hitler. I believe there were no gas chambers.”

Catholic Priest in Rwanda sentenced to 25 years for genocide

The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) just sentenced a Catholic priest, Emmanuel Rukundo, to twenty five years in prison for genocide.

That’s awesome! Shouldn’t all genocidal maniacs be released after only 25 years? If Hitler hadn’t taken the big dirt nap, he might have been walking around on the streets a free man by now under this system. Just think, in 25 years, this douche will be out and able to commit more genocidal activities. Clearly justice has been served.

HIV Evolving To Evade Human Immune Responses

So to those creationists who reject evolution and insist that an understanding of evolution isn’t crucial to the practice of medicine, this one’s for you:

HIV is evolving rapidly to escape the human immune system, an international study led by Oxford University has shown. The findings, published in Nature, demonstrate the challenge involved in developing a vaccine for HIV that keeps pace with the changing nature of the virus.

. . .

‘Even in the short time that HIV has been in the human population, it is doing an effective job of evading our best efforts at natural immune control of the virus. This is high-speed evolution that we’re seeing in the space of just a couple of decades.’

This is just another reason why you should never let a creationist doctor treat you.

Oldest life on Earth put into question

New research suggests that what was previously considered to be the oldest life on Earth cannot be the oldest life on Earth:

The argument over whether an outcrop of rock in South West Greenland contains the earliest known traces of life on Earth has been reignited, in a study published in the Journal of the Geological Society. The research, led by Martin J. Whitehouse at the Swedish Museum of Natural History, argues that the controversial rocks “cannot host evidence of Earth’s oldest life,” reopening the debate over where the oldest traces of life are located.

Scientists had dated the rocks originally at 3.85 billion years old, older than any other life we knew of. But the new research challenges the original dating, finding no evidence that they are any older than c. 3.67 billion years.

Obviously this puts John McCain back in the running as the possible oldest life on Earth.

James Dobson Retires

James Dobson has stepped down as Chairman of Focus on Your Family.

Fossil of 10 million-year-old bird found in Peru

Paleontologists working in Peru have found a fossil from a bird that lived 10 million years ago
. This species of bird first appeared 50 million years ago and was extinct about 2.5 million years ago because of climate change.

So again, the fossil is of a 10 million-year-old bird. Now for those keeping count that’s 9,994,000 years before the existence of the entire universe, according to Young Earth Creationists.

Atheist group in Illinois high school may be facing discrimination

A student, Savannah Lanz, at Johnsburg High School in northwestern McHenry County, IL intends to start an atheist club at her school. And although there doesn’t seem to be anyone stopping her from forming an atheist club, a far subtler form of discrimination seems to be occurring:

Meanwhile, Lanz said she was under the impression that the group — named the Johnsburg Freethinkers Society — had been approved by an assistant principal at the school, and simply wouldn’t be allowed to advertise with fliers in the building.

As long as the club doesn’t print anything inappropriate in their fliers, the school has no legal right to stop prevent her from advertising the club. So if this is indeed the case, then the school has effectively opened themselves up to a lawsuit.

On a sidenote, it’s awesome to see teenage atheists actively organizing.

Bobby Jindal: Amateur Liar

Science versus The Flu

I’m putting my money on Science:

The discovery of the molecule, an antibody known as CR6261, is good news for researchers who hope to design a flu vaccine that would give humans lifelong protection against a majority of influenza viruses. The antibody also has the potential to treat those who are unvaccinated and become infected with the flu.

Of course we can expect the conspiracy nuts to insist this is part of an evil plot by the New World Order to wipe out 90% of all life on earth or some crap like that.

Is there a new super-villain in town?

The Sun reports:

“A CAT-BOY has stunned medics with his ability to SEE in pitch black with eyes that GLOW in the dark.”

Those capitalized words are courtesy of this clearly professional publication.  Well Rebecca Watson is calling it bullshit, which I find very disappointing because I feel like I could use another super-villain since Dr. Dino is in prison and The Legion of Doom (Indigo Mom, Spoon Bender, Dr. Oz, Health Ranger and Banana Man) are in their declining years.

Yeah, when you become an active  skeptic, you get the best super-villains ever!