Poor Mojo's Newswire

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In April 2007, Massachusetts declined the yearly allotment of the U.S. government's $700,000 per-state grant for abstinence education in public schools. (Abstinence education discourages the use of any birth control, such as condoms.) This was just after a 20-page Columbia University study exposed that abstinence curriculum statements about condom use are medically inaccurate. The American Civil Liberties Union, tired of the Department of Health and Human Services ignoring repeated warnings about incorrect data, sent the department a letter threatening legal action. The ACLU is trying to get the DHHS to stop disseminating bad information — because doing so violates federal law.

At the same time, Randall Tobias, President Bush's abstinence-promoting, condom-discouraging "AIDS Czar" and deputy secretary of state, resigned after admitting he was a customer of the famed "DC Madam" when the escort service was about to surrender its records. The Washington Post reported that the government spends $176 million a year on abstinence programs. Let us ask ourselves, is that anywhere near what Tobias made as the (former) head of Eli Lilly?

Tobias was an outcall John — who spent the last several years enacting global and domestic policies about abstinence and anti-condom propaganda to people whose lives depend on accurate information. Do you think he used condoms, or did he shop at Bareback and Beyond? I'm thinking he did, especially considering his statements in 2004.

I guess that if you actually talk to strangers in the street about TRON and your mother drank a bit too much while you were in the womb, io9 will be just what you always wanted. It’s not actually bad, and everyone involved knows how to write a sentence. It’s just kind of dumb, and sort of lays there and uses electricity without really justifying its existence, containing within itself any meaning or point, or, really, doing anything. I guess that, when it’s science fiction, you don’t have to try harder.

Subhash Chander, 57, of Oak Forest, Illinois, was ordered held without bond Tuesday on three counts of first-degree murder, one count of intentional homicide of an unborn child and one count of aggravated arson.

Prosecutors allege Chander used gasoline to start the fire late Saturday. The India native told police he disliked his son-in-law because he belonged to a lower caste and had married his daughter without his consent, said Cook County First Assistant State's Attorney Robert Milan.

"His son-in-law was beneath him in his opinion," Milan said.

Three police officers said they had orders to shoot to kill, while opposition supporters said they would risk death to protest what they called a stolen election.

The vote ignited smoldering resentment between Kenya's two largest tribes, with supporters of Raila Odinga, a Luo who officially came in second, clashing with members of Kibaki's Kikuyu. The head of Kenya's Red Cross said many of the dead were killed in ethnic violence across the country.