WorldNutDaily's nutty advertizing

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Has location of lost Ark of Covenant been found?
New best-selling prophecy book claims resting place is Mt. Nebo

From what I gather, this is supposed to be a serious news site. Or at least it tries. With political commentary from Pat Boone and Chuck Norris, it usually misses.

With ads for products that are get-rich-quick schemes and snake oil products, it's hard to believe that anyone with an IQ above room temperature takes them seriously.

The last one was hardly an ad -- it was actually an article based on a stupid book that ties in a misinterpretation of the Mayan calendar (supposedly it ends in 2012) and biblical references to note where the ark of the covenant should be. Not surprisingly, the book references the Indiana Jones movie, Raiders of the Lost Ark. I think there's a good chance that the producer, writers, director, and actors all new it was fiction. Neither the wnd writer nor the author of the book figured that out.

These product placements are not the ads off to the side or at the top of the page -- I excluded them since they could be placed there by someone else and not subject to the approval of the wnd folks.
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Criticism of Planned Parenthood Videos

The Worldnutdaily has an article with a misleading headline: "Planned Parenthood promotes casual sex to kids on website." The article is misleading for two reasons: 1) the article says nothing to substantiate the claim made by the headline and 2) their claim is wrong.

The videos on the Planned Parenthood website include (this description is from the wnd article):

A review of the promotional videos created by Planned Parenthood show the following scenarios:

* A girl who appears only from the waist up appears to drop her slacks to the floor, then asks a second girl, a third girl, and a boy, "Do you see anything down there?" The counselor advises her to get a test for STDs.

* Two girls, a guy and the counselor talk about what HPV means. The teens' guess is a reference to a sex organ.

* A white youth appears only from the waist up, then a black youth suddenly stands up in front of him, and the white youth says, "I didn't spew."

* A girl says, "I like me. I like spending time with me. It's not like I can get me pregnant or give me diseases."

* The theme song gives the message, "Whatever you call it, you've got to know how to take care of it."

The videos (click here or above on Planned Parenthood to see them) feature several young people -- girls in pink t-shirts, boys in white t-shirts, and an adult adviser -- talking about sexual health issues, talking about sex, or maybe having sex. In most videos, the kids are either talking about an issue of sexual health or are having sex and then are interrupted by the adviser who provides information.

One video singled out for criticism is this one, "I didn't spew." One boy is performing oral sex on another while the adviser walks by. He sees what's going on and asks the kid received the blow job, "where's your prophylactic?" The kid thinks he doesn't need one because "I didn't spew." The adviser contradicts this mistaken view, pointing out that any sexual contact -- even oral sex, even without an orgasm -- can lead to the transmission of STDs. The video does not promote oral sex; it shows it happening (apparently it's on the rise with teenagers, though it may be the media talking about it more) and points out that it is not safe sex.

This website also criticizes the videos, first noting below its headline

WARNING: This item contains shocking and graphic content funded by your tax dollars.

They complain:

On its new website, TakeCareDownThere.org, the group posts a series of videos so revolting that members of my staff were visibly shaken

and conclude

This site is nothing more than an online playground for the prurient. The screen promises “the ins and outs about the ins and outs,” but the material is highly inappropriate for adults, let alone young children.

There are no graphic images, no nudity, not even the presentation of primary or secondary sexual organs -- just kids in t-shirts and an adult adviser in a shirt, tie, and cardigan sweater talking about sex and sexually-related issues.

To find the videos "so revolting that members of my staff were visibly shaken," I have to ask, is your staff made up of total prudes? I'm appalled that people find it offensive to point out that oral sex is not safe sex or that HPV is an STD (one video features precisely that topic).

I wonder how these people dealt with the news about Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinsky.

Anyway, the wnd article has a couple other off-the-wall complaints that have nothing to do with the videos.

First,

The Texas-based pro-life group Life Dynamics previously conducted an extensive undercover project in which an adult volunteer posing as a 13-year-old called every Planned Parenthood clinic in the U.S., saying she was pregnant by a 22-year-old boyfriend. Almost without exception, the clinics advised her to obtain an abortion without her parents' knowledge and told her how to protect her boyfriend, who would be guilty in any state of statutory rape.

This claim has nothing to do with the videos. It seems a legitimate criticism of the organization, but I tend to agree with their attempts to secure an abortion for this person without parental notification and withholding information about her boyfriend.

The second claim is ridiculous:

Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger supported eugenics through birth control to cull people she considered unfit from the population. In 1921, she said eugenics is "the most adequate and thorough avenue to the solution of racial, political and social problems."

What the found did and supported has no logical connection with what Planned Parenthood does today. If there is a connection, it needs to be supported by evidence -- evidence that is not provided here (not a surprise).

I noted at the beginning that their claim was wrong: studies indicate that abstinence only programs fail on a number of levels. Open discussion of sex does not promote sex according to studies of comprehensive sexual education programs -- it promotes safe sex.
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tyson chicken, Eid al-Fitr, and idiocy

As part of negotiations over a new union contract, the Tyson chicken plant in Shelbyville, Tennessee, will close for the Muslim holiday Eid al-Fitr and the plant's workers will no longer enjoy Labor Day. The WorldNetDaily (Ed Brayton at Dispatches from the Culture Wars refers to the web site as WorldNutDaily; poke around a bit and you'll agree) posts the news story and includes a number of comments found at the Shelbyville Times newspaper forum page. The comments they selected for posting range from idiotic and 'how is it you don't fall down more often' idiocy, not that I expected anything less out of the WorldNutDaily camp.

One comment they cite: "If this holiday is that important to them, make them take it off instead of Christmas Day and allow ALL workers to be off Labor Day. Most AMERICAN families have some type of function on Labor Day," wrote one anonymous participant." I've often had to work (I teach) on Labor Day -- probably more often than not since entering academia (including my years as a grad student). Where was I teaching? State universities. In the United States. It is interesting to see that this reader suggests a holiday that should be celebrated May 1 (like everyone else in the world) is more important than Christmas.



This passage is especially idiotic. Let's count the logical fallacies:

It says union leadership made this request, makes you wonder who runs the union. I guess they are already working on a plan to replace Memorial Day, that means nothing to the Muslims so why should we have the right to celebrate it. Labor Day commemorates the plight of workers and the struggle of labor unions to improve working conditions for American workers. The Muslims will not stop until all of our rights and laws are changed to accommodate their beliefs. This will be a new America but it will be their America," said another.

Let's see -- slippery slope in the second sentence. Somehow the workers working on a given day means that "why should we have the right to celebrate it." So if some workers somewhere are working a given day then no one celebrates it? In that case, no one celebrates Labor Day because the university where I taught before still has classes that day. Staff is off, but I guess they can't celebrate it because the faculty still has to teach. Another slippery slope -- hard to believe that a minority of perhaps 1% of the entire population of the United States is going to transform the US. Dare to be stupid, I guess.

Not to be outdone by the stupid comments made by anonymous posters at a Tennessee newspaper website, the article reads: "Ironically, the company on its website also promotes a variety of traditional and customary Christian and secular blessings for food – its primary product." There is nothing ironic about this. They didn't change the holiday to "punish" Christians (that might have been the effect of eliminating Christmas as a holiday). They changed the holiday to accommodate the religious beliefs of over half their employees. The article notes that about 700 of the 1200 workers at the plant are from Somalia, who are mainly Muslim.

The article cites another commenter on the forum:

"This is America, founded by the blood of our forefathers and should not be challenged by Somalians, Hispanics, or any other immigrants. If they come to America, they need to learn our language and our ways. They can practice their culture in private if they so please, but not shove it down our throats. Would they let us go there and change there (sic) country? I have banned Tyson's products from my home for years because of the illegals they were hiring. I am sorry for the producers that are supplying them, but Tyson's has once again crossed the line with the American people. Labor Day was here long before Tyson's. What holiday will be next to be taken away and replaced to accommodate an immigrant. This stinks worse than the plant," said another anonymous forum participant.

This one is truly idiotic and downright offensive. How does what one plant does in one city (town?) in one state constitute "shov[ing] it [their culture] down our throats"? This person evidently does not work there and apparently hasn't even eaten their product for years -- and feels compelled to make his or her anti-immigrant bias known. It's hard to see how changing one holiday for another is somehow a "challenge" to our country by "Somalians, Hispanics, or any other immigrants (sic)." If the union negotiated for it, I assume it was something the workers discussed, with the possible trade off noted. The other holiday that would have been logical was the birthday -- if the non-Muslim workers had protested, I'm sure that that day would have been the trade-off.

This shouldn't even be in the news; it's only notable because Americans are petrified of Muslims -- look at how many emails have gone out about Obama being a Muslim (all false, check out snopes.com) -- and immigrants in general. They forget how many generations ago their own ancestors came and the culture that they brought.
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