You may have heard about a recent study showing some pretty low levels of religious knowledge among Americans (here's one reporting of it with some links).
It's entertaining and, pardon the pun, a little enlightening to see that "Atheists and agnostics, Jews and Mormons perform better than other groups on the survey even after controlling for differing levels of education."
Hmmm...
Are the religious just being rationally ignorant?
Perhaps people don't really believe their religions as much as believe in them.

Egregious Misconduct at the Department of Justice

USA Today has done some serious work on the under-reported phenomenon of federal prosecutor misconduct.
Radley Balko adds to the picture here.

“And it’s frustrating because he does know a lot. I know I’m right, but he is more articulate.”

Admitting your debating opponent is intelligent and more knowledgeable than yourself but refusing to change your opinions is the kind of small mindedness we should laugh about when it comes to things like sports, right? So we should mock that atitude when it's about "important things" I'd think.
Oh wait. Hmm. Yeah, ok, let’s close our ears and keep rooting for our chosen laundry… red teams – blue teams…
Quick roundup of signs you care more about showing loyalty than truth: #16 for example…

The California Beer & Beverage Distributors is spending money in the state to oppose a marijuana legalization proposition on the ballot in November, according to records filed with the California Secretary of State. The beer sellers are the first competitors of marijuana to officially enter the debate; backers of the initiative are closely watching liquor and wine dealers and the pharmaceutical industry to see if they enter the debate in the remaining weeks...

Public Safety First is largely funded by a different industry whose interests are threatened by the legalization of marijuana: law enforcement. Police forces are entitled to keep property seized as part of drug raids and the revenue stream that comes from waging the drug war has become a significant source of support for local law enforcement. Federal and state funding of the drug war is also a significant supplement to local forces' budgets.

Um yeah, England. Advertising Standards Authority in action.
Babysitting the babysitters.
Aa performance license for a shelf stocker. 
Licenses for pub dominoes...
Seriously?

Backing off, apologizing, still not good enough for fanatics, finds out Draw Mohamed Day creator. Looks like she's going into hiding over proposing a day of expression which thousands participated in.
FBI Agent David Gomez:

“We understand the absolute seriousness of a threat from an Al Qaeda-inspired magazine and are attempting to do everything in our power to assist the individuals on that list to effectively protect themselves and change their behavior to make themselves less of a target,” Gomez said.

Man. Shouldn't they be doing everything they can so she doesn't have to change her behavior to avoid murderous wackos?

Quoth the IOZ:

I love this story. I love every single word of it.

Yep, me too.

There’s the 32 percent of Democrats who blame “the Jews” for the financial crisis. There’s the 25 percent of African-Americans who believe the AIDS virus was created in a government lab. There’s support for state secession, which may have been higher among liberals in the Bush era than among Republicans in the age of Obama. And there’s the theory that the Bush White House knew about 9/11 in advance, which a third of Democrats endorsed as recently as 2007.

So are we a nation of potential James Lees, teetering on the brink of paranoid violence?