Link round-up for 25 January 2015

Here's everything you could ever want to know about dropping a bowling ball into the ocean.

Bruce Gerencser is looking for blasphemous songs.

Most disturbing dress ever (found via Snowstorm 13).

Here's a rare sight -- a flipped-over iceberg.

This guy really hits it off with kids.  And so does this guy.

Some Western popular music shows Middle Eastern influences (right-wing blog, but it's an interesting post) -- I didn't know a Western singer had so blatantly copied Tarkan Tevetoğlu.

It may come to this.

Curious to know what readers think -- will the Jeffrey Epstein scandal be a problem for Hillary's presidential run?

Joni Ernst joins a long tradition of godawful SOTU responses.

What havoc is being wrought by Doritos?

Creationists knowingly, deliberately lie.

No, technology doesn't dehumanize us -- just the opposite.

It's not just Scalise -- several prominent Republicans associate with scary extremists. (found via Republic of Gilead).

The Irish Atheist has had it with self-pitying abusive Christians who put a veneer of "love" on their bigotry.

Bryan Fischer suggests the Charlie Hebdo attack might have been God's will.

Newly-empowered Republicans are trying to get the torture report back under wraps.

Makayla Sault died of cancer, but was really killed by religion.

Catholics and Protestants fought bloody wars for centuries, but now the fight to preserve anti-gay discrimination unites them (found via Republic of Gilead).

Sometimes a whole town can't face the truth.

Republicans have harnessed the awesome power of stupidity.

Don't treat veterans as cardboard heroes.

The Mormon Church is cracking down on dissent (found via Republic of Gilead).

Forced-birth fetishists are in a snit about the collapse of the latest House anti-abortion bill, but ultimately all that's protecting abortion rights now is Obama.

An atheist billboard in California brings out religious insecurity and idiocy.

The right wing "won" the economic debate?  What debate was that exactly?

A British government letter to the country's imams triggers a much-needed debate.

Top Nazis were fascinated with Islam and tried to build an alliance with it, but their racism kept getting in the way (found via GoodShit).

The mayor of Paris threatens to sue Fox News over its "no-go zone" nonsense, and Britain's Prime Minister is similarly unimpressed.  Bobby Jindal, though, goes full Gohmert even though Fox has retracted the claim four times.

These assholes are not helping.

Is Pope Francis simply a blithering idiot?  It would explain a lot.

This is Italy (found via GoodShit).

Today's election in Greece could begin the unraveling of the eurozone.

If you visit Mexico, beware of drug smugglers with magnets.

Is this what a Republican-ruled US would be like?  A woman in El Salvador is imprisoned for 30 years for having a miscarriage.

So far, the anti-ISIS coalition has killed about 6,000 ISIS fighters and about half the top leadership.

Hindus are burning Muslims to death in northern India.

A Christian "prophet" in Zimbabwe endorses Mugabe's murderous hatred of gays (found via Republic of Gilead).

Witch doctors in Tanzania are killing albinos to make magic potions from their body parts.

Here's a video of the magnificent new high-resolution image of the Andromeda galaxy (be sure to fullsrceen it).

Forget flying cars -- the reality is much better.