Link round-up for 14 August 2011

Here's what warning signs really mean.

Brits poke fun at looters with Photoshop.

No deer, they run too fast.

Goofy religious rules are goofy.

Archaic unit systems are archaic.

These newspaper headlines are great (found via Mendip), though I suspect the second one is actually true. Check out these church signs too -- and this one that isn't funny.

Bachmann's straw-poll victory prompts derision.

A "dating" site for married people reaches ten million members.

Beachcombing blog looks at the odd phenomenon of mummified cats in old buildings (found via Mendip).

Jack Cluth has some teabagger cartoons.

Canadian blogger Heidi the Hick looks at the US.

The eyes (Bachmann's) have it.

Like much else in Christianity, the concept of Hell came from Zoroastrianism and has evolved over time.

Nutters blame terrorist violence on the targets.

Teach the controversy!

Well, that's predictable -- MRA misogynists hate the SlutWalkers.

MRAs please note: where there is more gender equality, there is more sex (found via What Would Jack Do).

There's a real case to be made for bringing back flogging.

Who's behind those job ads that exclude the unemployed?

Bachmann has a record of hypocrisy and an odd taste in reading material, and thinks the Bible should govern policy.

Those who want a primary challenge to Obama are missing the real point, which is Congress.

S&P downgraded the US because of Republican anti-tax extremism -- and its director says a balanced-budget amendment would just make things worse.

The flight of money from stocks to Treasuries shows that investors fear Republican intentions.

David Frum steps outside the US for some economic perspective.

The radical left needs to mend fences with the mainstream left.

Religion can be a lucrative business.

Republicans are wielding power without accountability. But some House Republicans may be getting less rigid on taxes (well, there's this).

Fareed Zakaria looks at Obama's pragmatism.

Another anti-gay Republican is caught soliciting gay sex.

Washington must now focus on what people really care about (found via Elect Democrats). Oregon's new Senator leads the charge.

Parsley's Pics has a sanitized but interesting insider's history of the KKK.

Texan blogger Ranch Chimp looks at Perry's candidacy. Here are 14 reasons he'd be a bad President (found via RC) and 10 more (found via What Would Jack Do). Perry is much further to the right than Bush II, but he once accepted $80,000 in the farm subsidies he now campaigns against (also via WWJD). His open mixing of religion and politics would appall the the Founders, and maybe Jesus too, but his prayer rally wasn't the biggest gathering in Texas that day.

What has Obama done so far?

A Feather Adrift looks at Rand's Atlas Shrugged (I've read the hideous thing myself, but it was a long time ago).

As I've long held, most Americans are socialists, even if they recoil from the word.

Stephen Andrew gets down to the basics on Social Security.

Republic of Gilead blog has extensive quotes and analysis from the Republican debate. Politico thinks several contenders set traps for themselves. Viewership was unimpressive.

Andrew Sullivan has more on the anti-atheist death threats in the Blair Scott case.

Democrats need to re-assert economic reality.

The Kochs' efforts at astroturfing anti-environmentalism in Florida aren't having much luck.

A closer look at Obama's poll numbers shows that his chances of re-election are good; more here.

Never forget, the recession will pass (found via Elect Democrats).

Film police brutality, get sued (found via Preliator pro Causa).

When you vote, remember the difference between the parties.

The debt-ceiling battle hurt Republicans and helped Democrats with the voters; more at Political Animal, The People's View, and Jobsanger. In fact, the party's ratings are the lowest since tracking of such things began in 1992. Nate Silver thinks it could lose the House; Burr Deming thinks it's doomed. The Tea Party's ratings are even worse.

Scholars tackle the gigantic task of fixing the errors in the Bible.

The British navy appoints its first female warship commander.

A resident of the London borough of Hackney dissects inaccurate reporting on the riots (the police correct another error here).

Here's one Brit who didn't just stand and watch.

Trojan T-shirts get the message across to German extremists.

Kuriositas looks at the unique cities of Yemen.

China's dictatorship acts as if the country were on the verge of rebellion. Maybe it is.

Matthew Yglesias looks at China's first aircraft carrier.

Some countries prosper without democracy, but not many.

"Planet of the Apes" is a true story.

If you use any of the ISPs listed here, they may be re-directing your web searches.

Almost 9,000 heat records were broken in July in the US alone (found via Jobsanger).

Technological innovation could bring a new jobs boom.

A Republican Congressman sees the light on ape research.

MIT finds that Arctic ice is melting much faster than climate models predicted.

Increasingly-realistic simulation raises ethical issues.

Scientists in Britain extend genetic engineering to produce artificial molecules.

The technology of brain-computer interfacing moves ahead (found via Mendip).