Editors’ Picks for Feb 8
Want to Know the Best Job in Washington?, Evangelicals Are Not the Voting Bloc They Once Were, Where Gay Conversion Therapy Went After the US, and More Picks
PICKS are stories from many sources, selected by our editors or recommended by our readers because they are important, surprising, troubling, enlightening, inspiring, or amusing. They appear on our site and in our daily newsletter. Please send suggested articles, videos, podcasts, etc. to picks@whowhatwhy.org.
Under Court Order, Pentagon Releases Detainee Abuse Photos (Reader CactusPat)
The first 200 pics show just hints of what the detainees suffered, but might be more to come. 1800 still withheld, likely show much worse.
Cruz Weaker Than He Seems, and Evangelicals Not a Bloc After All (Russ)
It’s fascinating to contemplate how caucus states like Iowa are misleading, and how Evangelicals are often more moderate and varied than people realize.
Clinton Herself Required Transcripts of Her Speeches (Reader CactusPat)
Amid growing demands that Hillary Clinton release transcripts of her speeches to Wall Street, it’s interesting to learn that the transcripts exist because she herself requested they be made.
Walmart Came, Knocked Out Small Stores, Shuts Down Leaving….Nothing (Russ)
Exactly in the way its critics feared, WalMart became the savior to rural America, and now, in retrenchment, is shuttering people’s last lifeline.
Best Job in Washington? A Seat on the Senate Ethics Committee (Klaus)
Even though there have been more than 600 allegations of wrongdoing in that timespan, the Senate Ethics panel has not imposed any kind of disciplinary actions on a senator since 2007.
A New Promise Land for Gay Conversion Quacks? (Klaus)
After “therapists” peddling so-called “gay conversion” were booted from the US, they are taking their pseudo science to the Holy Land, which does not have laws against such quackery.
Court Decision Stops FBI from Eviscerating Freedom of Information Act (Trevin)
The decision hampers the agency’s commonly-used tactic of purposely conducting deficient searches for requested material, by requiring release of records about the searches themselves. “The agency also cannot conjure an exemption to conceal any record it may want to keep from the public.”
Phoenix City Council Says No to Satanists, Yes to “Moment of Silence” (Gerry)
Rather than honor a request by a Satanist to open a City Council meeting with an invocation, councilmembers voted 5-4 to scrap their tradition of opening prayers. Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton said the action was mandated by the Constitution’s prohibition against “an establishment of religion.” But the decision to replace prayer with a moment of silence enraged many local citizens. The Satanic Temple describes itself as a group that promotes religious agnosticism, and sees Satan merely as a “metaphor for rebellion.”
