American pastor who helped craft Uganda's "Kill the Gays" legislation to be tried for crimes against humanity.

Courtesy of Death and Taxes:  

The First Circuit Court of Appeals has denied Pastor Scott Lively’s petition to have a crimes against humanity lawsuit against him dropped. 

The anti-gay pastor will stand trial in a federal court in Massachusetts for his part in crafting Uganda’s notorious Anti-Homosexuality Act, popularly known as the “Kill the Gays” bill. The bill was largely the product of a workshop held in Uganda by Lively and two other american anti-gay activists, focused on “how to make gay people straight, how gay men often sodomized teenage boys and how ‘the gay movement is an evil institution’ whose goal is ‘to defeat the marriage-based society and replace it with a culture of sexual promiscuity.”

Look, apparently you can still get justice in America.  Assuming of course that he is eventually convicted.

This bill in Uganda has spread fear throughout the gay community, and among those who have friends and family who are gay. And resulted in a dramatic spike in the number of attacks on homosexuals.

Of course these charges have done little or nothing to change Lively's homophobia:

Lively said that homosexuality is a Satanic attack “on the very essence of who we are” that God has deemed a more offensive abomination than mass killings: “When you look in the Bible, there are sins that you would think of as worse, you know, murder or mass murder, but what does it come down to? Leviticus 18 tells the Hebrews exactly what it is that God identifies as the most rebellious behavior, the behavior that causes the land to actually vomit out its inhabitants and every item on that list, except for child sacrifice, is sexual perversion, and child sacrifice is often a form of sexual perversion. So that’s where we are.” 

“Homosexuality is not just another sin,” he added, “it is the sin that defines rebellion against God, the outer edge of rebellion against God and it is the harbinger of God’s wrath, that’s why the Scripture gives the warning, ‘as in the days of Noah.’” 

Oh yeah this guy needs to spend some real quality time in prison. 

Did you ever take a moment to appreciate the true size of Africa?

Courtesy of io9: 

We've seen this comparison made before, albeit never as lucidly as this. Behold: major countries of the world, overlaid atop an outline of the positively giant African continent. 

If this is your first time seeing this comparison, you might be surprised by Africa's immensity. If that's the case, there's a decent chance you can trace your warped view of geographic scale back to a "compromise projection" – map projections so-named for their tendency to sacrifice things like accurate geographic size and shape in exchange for, say, nice, straight lines.

Oh and it's a continent too, not a country. Just in case you were confused by that like somebody we could mention. 

Just a reminder that often things are simply not as they seem.

For instance that is NOT where Alaska is located.

Nor Hawaii for that matter.

President Obama, the living breathing antidote to the Republican fear mongering over Ebola.

Courtesy of USA Today: 

"The best way to protect Americans from Ebola is to stop the outbreak at its source," Obama said in an East Room ceremony honoring doctors and nurses who have been or are going to West Africa. 

"If we are not dealing with this problem there, it will come here," Obama said. 

The president lauded his guests for their "sense of duty," and of "serving a cause greater than themselves." He called them "shock troops" who should be applauded. 

"And when they come home," Obama said. "they deserve to be treated properly. They deserve to be treated like the heroes that they are." 

Obama and aides have criticized New Jersey, New York and Illinois over quarantine policies for returning workers. 

These doctors and nurses can help explain the challenge of Ebola to Americans, and how to beat it. "We respond with common sense and skill and courage," he said, and not "fear," "hysteria" or "misinformation." 

Obama seemed to nearly choke up as he discussed his frustration with state officials who have called for quarantines of health care workers from Africa. 

"I put those on notice who think that we should hide from these problems," Obama said. "That's not who we are, that's not who I am, that's not who these folks are. This is America, and we do things differently."

I listened to this speech live earlier today during the Alex Wagner show, and I was incredibly proud of my President for standing up to the  Right Wing over this issue.

I especially loved this part:  

"The reason I am so proud of this country is because when there are times when we need to step up and do the right thing, we do the right thing. That's who we are. That's what we do. No other nation is doing as much to help in West Africa as the United States of America. When I hear people talking about American leadership...and then are promoting policies that would avoid leadership...and have us running in the opposite direction...and hiding under the covers, it makes me a little frustrated."

That must be the very definition of an understatement.

His cool, calm, and intellectual response to this issue stands in stark contrast to the fear mongering, the sky is falling, hysterics of those on the Right.