Not the Onion?

Atheists demand chaplains who share their views. Strange as it sounds, groups representing atheists and secular humanists are pushing for the appointment of one of their own to the chaplaincy, hoping to give voice to what they say is a large - and largely underground - population of nonbelievers in the military...Defense Department statistics show that about 9,400 of the nation's 1.4 million active-duty military personnel identify themselves as atheists or agnostics, making them a larger subpopulation than Jews, Muslims, Hindus or Buddhists in the military. But atheist leaders say those numbers are an undercount because, they believe, there are many nonbelievers among the 285,000 service members who claim no religious preference on military surveys. "We deserve our own chaplains, people we can go to and talk about our deeply held non-beliefs and know they will be sympathetic," said one serviceman. (LINK)

Watermelons Explode In Farm Fields In China. BEIJING -- Watermelons have been bursting by the score in eastern China after farmers gave them overdoses of growth chemicals during wet weather, creating what state media called fields of "land mines." About 20 farmers around Danyang city in Jiangsu province were affected, losing up to 115 acres (45 hectares) of melon, China Central Television said in an investigative report. Prices over the past year prompted many farmers to jump into the watermelon market. All of those with exploding melons apparently were first-time users of the growth accelerator forchlorfenuron, though it has been widely available for some time, CCTV said. ..."If it had been used on very young fruit, it wouldn't be a problem," Wang said. "Another reason is that the melons they were planting are actually nicknamed the 'exploding melon' because they tend to split." (LINK)

Tense standoff in Dearborn, MI, at a Wal-Mart. Gunman holds hostages, but hostages all insist that they really never shop at Wal-Mart and so in fact were probably not really there. This is going to make it difficult to obtain any witnesses if the case goes to trial. Apparently one college professor who was taken hostage insisted that in fact he was confused, and thought it was a "Whole Foods," rather than a Wal-Mart. "Someone needs to look into the way these stores are labeled," complained Dr. Andrew Pinns-Waite, associate professor of English at Spring Arbor University. (LIN(K)

(Nod to Kevin Lewis and the Blonde)

MLK day 2.0

Great tweet this morning from novelist Rafael Yglesias:

"The assassination of MLK Jr. was the most devastating of the 60s. We lost a leader who was that rare man of grace: a merciful revolutionary."

I can surely add this too; MLK Jr. was one hell of a preacher!

Thank you sir, may I have another?

People, it just never ends. Now a group in California is suing Mickey D's over their happy meals. It turns out that kids like them and get mad if mom says no. So mom is suing!!

I am not making this up.

Of course mom is not "just" a mom; she's an employee of a state funded vegetable advocacy group.

I am not making that up either.

Remind me again why we need lawyers?

Mel Hinich: In Memoriam

The "In Memoriam" article for Mel Hinich was just published in PUBLIC CHOICE.