Reading Time: 3 minutes In April, the richest person in the world made an outrageous offer to buy a popular and complex social media site. What appeared at first to be a disgruntled billionaire throwing a tantrum because he couldn’t tweet what he wanted has somehow snowballed into Elon Musk actually owning Twitter. The self-described “free speech absolutist” believes […]
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Posted inNews
Scientology’s Freewinds: Cruise ship or floating prison?
Reading Time: 4 minutes Back in 2011, ABC News reported that Australian resident Valeska Paris had been “imprisoned” onboard a cruise ship called the Freewinds for 12 years to which she had been sent, at the age of 18, by Scientology leader “captain” David Miscavige. The move was aimed at preventing her mother from taking her away from what […]
Posted inFilm/TV
Christian show ‘The Chosen’ vandalizes its own billboards to generate buzz
Reading Time: 4 minutes In an attempt to portray themselves as better than other forms of faith-based media, the producers of a new Christian TV show engaged in the most stereotypically evangelical scheme ever: They depicted themselves as victims of persecution when no such thing was actually happening. The show is The Chosen, which generated plenty of (earned) media […]
Posted inCulture
‘Classic terrorism’: How conscious communication can help us avoid dog whistles
Reading Time: 4 minutes The thing about dog whistles is that they are often innocuous looking. There’s nothing wrong-sounding about something like fighting for “family values” or being “tough on crime”. They look, or sound rather, like ordinary and colorless statements.
Posted inNews
Former Fox News Director John Hanick charged with violating Russia sanctions
Reading Time: 2 minutes Former Fox News producer John Hanick has been charged by prosecutors for violating United States sanctions against a Russian oligarch. Violated Russia sanctions and lied about it to the FBI The Southern District of New York issued a press release on March 3rd announcing the unsealing of charges against Mr. Hanick. According to the release, […]
Posted inCritical thinking
Trend cycles, shmend cycles
Reading Time: 3 minutes Sometimes fortune favors the optimistic. It certainly did for me when one of my posts, “3 ways to combat the ´worst timeline´ blues,” brought out a commenter from a different slice of the political spectrum. In that post, I’d talked about the importance of overcoming our media fatigue, our sense of being dragged into inane […]
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‘I Got 99 Problems But A Vax Ain’t One’
Reading Time: 2 minutes This is a true story… “I got 99 problems but a vax ain’t one” weren’t the last words out of anti-vax Hillsong Church member Stephen Harmon. However, he did utter them before coming down with COVID and dying from the virus. The Sun reports: Stephen Harmon lost his battle on July 21 – after posting a […]
Posted inThe Secular
Catholic Churches, Stoned Fish, And A Shaman
Reading Time: 2 minutes Secularism! Comedy! Newsassity! The Disappointed Cat Morning Show starts at 9 am EST and will cover today’s news and crack a few jokes while doing it. We are streaming to YouTube, the Laughing in Disbelief Facebook page, as well as the Atheist Comedy Buritto Facebook group. However, your humble host (that’s me, Dr. Canard, BTW) […]
Posted inNews
The Disappointed Cat Morning Show
Reading Time: < 1 minute Atheism And Progressive Politics! We are covering stories for our community. Here are the stories we’re covering on Weds June 9th at 9 am EST. The pharmacist who ‘intentionally’ destroyed 500 Covid vaccine doses gets three years in prison Burger King takes shot at Chick-Fil-A, will donate money from new chicken sandwich to LGBTQ organization […]
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Florida Dad Throws Baby At Police (Video)
Reading Time: 2 minutes This sad and bizarre story is from the state of Florida. John Henry James III is the father who attempted to thwart arrest by “overhand throwing” his infant at a police officer. CNN reported the incident A Florida dad threw his infant at a deputy after a high-speed chase, sheriff’s office says: (CNN)A Florida man […]