Welcome to The Breakfast Club! We’re a disorganized group of rebel lefties who hang out and chat if and when we’re not too hungover we’ve been bailed out we’re not too exhausted from last night’s (CENSORED) the caffeine kicks in. Join us every weekday morning at 9am (ET) and weekend morning at 10:30am (ET) to talk about current news and our boring lives and to make fun of LaEscapee! If we are ever running late, it’s PhilJD’s fault.
This Day in History
Breakfast News
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Nigeria child bride ‘poisons older husband’
A 14-year-old girl in the northern Nigerian state of Kano has confessed to killing the man she was forced to marry, police say.
Wasilu Umar admitted killing her husband, who was more than twice her age, by concealing rat poison in his food, the police in Kano said.
Three other people also died and 10 were taken to hospital apparently after eating the same food.
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Pope Francis asks forgiveness for child abuse by clergy
Pope Francis has asked for forgiveness for the “evil” damage to children caused by sexual abusers in the clergy.
In quotes carried by Vatican Radio, he described the abuse as a “moral damage carried out by men of the Church”, and said “sanctions” would be imposed.
It is being described as his strongest statement on the issue so far.
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Philippine, Vietnamese navies to unite against China over beers and volleyball
The Philippine navy will soon return to a South China Sea island it lost to Vietnam 40 years ago to drink beer and play volleyball with Vietnamese sailors, symbolizing how once-suspicious neighbors are cooperating in the face of China’s assertiveness in disputed waters.
Diplomats and experts describe the nascent partnership as part of a web of evolving relationships across Asia that are being driven by fear of China as well as doubts among some, especially in Japan, over the U.S. commitment to the region.
When U.S. President Barack Obama visits Asia this month he will see signs that once-disparate nations are strategizing for the future, even though he will likely seek to shore-up faith in America’s “pivot” back to the region.
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I was in London doing an internship when this happened.
Real IRA Man Charged With Omagh Bomb Refused Bail
An Irish Republican Army veteran has been refused bail at his arraignment on 29 charges of murder for the 1998 car-bombing of the Northern Ireland town of Omagh.
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Lower Sentences for Drug Offenses Could Come Into Effect Soon
Prison terms for most drug offenses in the U.S. should be cut by an average of close to a year, the U.S. Sentencing Commission recommended Thursday.
The commission voted unanimously to cut lower-level drug penalties, and its recommendations will go into effect in November if Congress doesn’t block them.
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Seven chimpanzees use ingenuity to escape their enclosure at the Kansas City Zoo
It wasn’t careless zookeepers that were responsible for the escape of seven chimpanzees from their Kansas City Zoo enclosure on Thursday afternoon.
It was clever chimpanzees.
That was zoo director Randy Wisthoff’s explanation for the unauthorized excursion that prompted a “Code Red” response among zoo employees, an hourlong lockdown of zoo visitors and finally a careful roundup.
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Study: ‘Jesus’ wife’ fragment not a fake
A team of scientists has concluded that a controversial scrap of papyrus that purportedly quotes Jesus referring to “my wife,” is not a fake, according to the Harvard Theological Review.
“A wide range of scientific testing indicates that a papyrus fragment containing the words, ‘Jesus said to them, my wife’ is an ancient document, dating between the sixth to ninth centuries CE,” Harvard Divinity School said in a statement.
Scientists tested the papyrus and the carbon ink, and analyzed the handwriting and grammar, according to Harvard.
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Ancient Spiders had Two Sets of Eyes
A new fossil study has found that ancient spiders were blessed with two sets of eyes. Researchers reached at the conclusion after studying a 305-million-year-old fossil of a harvestman.
They used the X-ray imaging techniques to find features of the unusually well-preserved fossil. The researchers from University of Manchester worked with colleagues at the American Museum of Natural History to conduct the study.
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First Patients Get Laboratory-Grown Vaginas
Four teen girls have received successfully transplanted laboratory-grown vaginal organs, scientists reported Thursday in the journal the Lancet.The girls, who were between the ages of 13 and 18, underwent the vaginal organ implant surgery between 2005 and 2008. All of them had Mayer-Rokitansky-Küster-Hauser (MRKH) syndrome, a rare genetic condition in which the vagina and uterus are either underdeveloped or absent. At follow-up, the organs were functioning normally, and the girls surveyed expressed normal sexual desire.
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Must Read Blog Posts
Wall Street’s Predatory Land Grab
Judge in WikiLeaks FOIA Cites “Events that Have Transpired,” Government Claims FOIA Is “Improper”
11 Democratic senators want a deadline on Keystone XL decision. And they want a yes, of course
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The Daily Wiki
I often see this concept discussed incorrectly and it drives me nuts.
Cognitive dissonance is a concept in social psychology. It is the discomfort felt by a person who holds conflicting ideas, beliefs or values at the same time. In this state, people may feel surprise, dread, guilt, anger, or embarrassment. Reacting to this unpleasant state, people have a motivational drive to reduce dissonance. Leon Festinger’s theory of cognitive dissonance was developed to predict and explain how people reacted to this situation.
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Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac
Remember something, if you will, about voting: Voting is not a horse race, you’re not going there thinking “Gee, I gotta pick the winner so I can brag to my friends ‘Oh, I picked so-and-so and he or she won'”. Voting is voting your heart and voting your conscience and when you’ve done that, don’t ever, EVER let a Democrat or Republican tell you that you’ve wasted your vote because the fact is, if you DON’T vote your heart and conscience then you HAVE wasted your vote.
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Breakfast Tunes
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