TheScroogeReport

No “men seeking men” or “women seeking women” option rankles gay community. - Reuters

The research that eHarmony has developed, through years of research, to match couples has been based on traits and personality patterns of successful heterosexual marriages. - eHarmony

Reuters 
May 31, 2007 - TheScroogeReport.com Post

LOS ANGELES - The popular online dating service eHarmony was sued on Thursday for refusing to offer its services to gays, lesbians and bisexuals.

A lawsuit alleging discrimination based on sexual orientation was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on behalf of Linda Carlson, who was denied access to eHarmony because she is gay.

Lawyers bringing the action said they believed it was the first lawsuit of its kind against eHarmony, which has long rankled the gay community with its failure to offer a “men seeking men” or “women seeking women” option.

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I was sitting there reading my e-mail and he came up and stuck his head inside my window and asked me who I was spying on. - Wi-Fi freeloader

FOX News
May 31, 2007 - TheScroogeReport.com Post

A Michigan man has been fined $400 and given 40 hours of community service for accessing an open wireless Internet connection outside a coffee shop.

Under a little known state law against computer hackers, Sam Peterson II, of Cedar Springs, Mich., faced a felony charge after cops found him on March 27 sitting in front of the Re-Union Street Café in Sparta, Mich., surfing the Web from his brand-new laptop.

Last week, Peterson chose to pay the fine instead as part of a jail-diversion program.

“I think a lot of people should be shocked, because quite honestly, I still don’t understand it myself,” Peterson told FOXNews.com “I do not understand how this is illegal.”

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Soloway could face decades in prison, though prosecutors said they have not calculated what guideline sentencing range he might face.

Associated Press
May 31, 2007 - TheScroogeReport.com Post

SEATTLE — A 27-year-old man described as one of the world’s most prolific spammers was arrested Wednesday, and federal authorities said computer users across the Web could notice a decrease in the amount of junk e-mail.

Robert Alan Soloway is accused of using networks of compromised “zombie” computers to send out millions upon millions of spam e-mails.

“He’s one of the top 10 spammers in the world,” said Tim Cranton, a Microsoft Corp. lawyer who is senior director of the company’s Worldwide Internet Safety Programs. “He’s a huge problem for our customers. This is a very good day.”

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A Florida Public School Valedictorian Quotes Scripture, Fuels Debate

By BARBARA PINTO
ABC News
May 31, 2007 - TheScroogeReport.com Post

JACKSONVILLE, Florida - High school valedictorian Shannon Spaulding never expected her graduation speech to create such debate.

But the blond honors student, who graduated at the top of her 383-member class at Wolfson High in Jacksonville, Fla., gave a valedictory speech that some said sounded more like a sermon.

For nearly 20 minutes, Spaulding quoted the Bible and spoke about Jesus Christ, suggesting that those who didn’t believe would go to hell. “I want to tell you that Jesus Christ can give you eternal life in heaven,” Spaulding said. “If we die with that sin on our souls, we will immediately be pulled down to hell to pay the eternal price for our sins ourselves.”

“I guess I don’t totally understand why it’s such a big deal,” she said.

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Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., right, and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa read from a book to pre-schoolers at UCLA’s Kreiger Center in Los Angeles Wednesday, May 30, 2007. Villaraigosa endorsed Clinton. (AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian)
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Bryant goes public on radio and on same day, different shows, first wants trade then pledges his Lakers love.

Associated Press
May 30, 2007 - TheScroogeReport.com Post

LOS ANGELES - Believing he had been insulted and misled, Kobe Bryant asked the Los Angles Lakers for a trade Wednesday and insisted nothing could change his mind. Then something did. He spoke with coach Phil Jackson and backed off his request.

“I don’t want to go anywhere, this is my team,” Bryant told KLAC radio. “I love it here. I called Phil, man, he and I talked, it was an emotional conversation, but he just said, `You know what, Kobe? Let us try to figure this thing out.’

“Phil is a guy I lean on a lot.”

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Bryant fed up with management, seeks trade

Associated Press
May 30, 2007 - TheScroogeReport.com Post

LOS ANGELES - Kobe Bryant asked to be traded from the Lakers on Wednesday, a day after calling the team’s front office “a mess.”

“I would like to be traded, yeah,” Bryant told ESPN radio. “Tough as it is to come to that conclusion there’s no other alternative, you know?”

Bryant, who helped the team win three consecutive NBA championships, has four years remaining on the seven-year, $136.4 million contract he signed July 15, 2004. That was a day after Shaquille O’Neal was traded to the Miami Heat.

Bryant became infuriated Tuesday when a Los Angeles Times columnist quoted what he called a Lakers insider as saying it was Bryant’s insistence on getting away from O’Neal that prompted the trade to Miami.
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The world’s media gathered at the Scopes trial to see the Bible ridiculed in open court. The world’s media is gathered here to see the Bible upheld and Christianity defended. And what a statement it is to the world. - Ken Ham, Answers in Genesis president

Ken Ham, founder of Answers in Genesis, poses with one of his favourite animatronic dinosaurs during a tour of the new Creation Museum in Petersburg, Ky. (AP / Ed Reinke)

By ALLIE MARTIN
OneNewsNow.com

May 30, 2007 - TheScroogeReport.com Post

PETERSBURG, Kentucky - The president of Answers in Genesis says recent media coverage of the opening of the Creation Museum is comparable to the coverage of the Scopes trial. On Saturday and Monday, more than 100 media personnel, representing print, radio, television and the Internet, covered the opening of the new facility.

The 60,000-square-foot Creation Museum opened last weekend in northern Kentucky. Answers in Genesis (AIG) president Ken Ham says the coverage was on par with the 1925 “Scopes trial,” a watershed in the creationism-evolution controversy.

“I see this as almost a reversal of the Scopes trial,” Ham notes. “The world’s media gathered at the Scopes trial to see the Bible ridiculed in open court,” he says. “The world’s media is gathered here to see the Bible upheld and Christianity defended. And what a statement it is to the world.”

Media on hand for the opening weekend included representatives from all major U.S. television networks, along with National Public Radio, the Public Broadcasting Service, and even a crew from the Washington, DC, offices of the Arabic media network Al Jazeera. But the co-founder of AIG says many high-profile Christians have remained silent about the project.

“The main Christian spokespersons in the world are not saying much. The silence is deafening,” Ham observes. “I think they’re trying to play it safe; they want to see what happens,” he says. “There’s a couple of great men who would stand up to say something publicly if they were able to, like Dr. D. James Kennedy — he’s very ill — and Dr. Jerry Falwell, who went to be with the Lord.”

Nevertheless, “a lot of the mainstream Christian groups are very quiet,” Ham notes. “That is sad, but the Christian media are here, the radio stations and television and so on, so the message will get out there,” he says. More than 3,000 people toured the museum when it opened Monday.

All Original Content Copyright 2006-2007 American Family News Network - All Rights Reserved
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Seventy-eight percent of Republicans and 69 percent of Democrats say the Bible is “totally accurate in all of its teachings. - Barna Group survey

By JENNIFER HARPER
The Washington Times
May 30, 2007 - TheScroogeReport.com Post

More than three-quarters of Americans believe the Bible is literally the word of God or inspired by the word of God, according to a trio of Gallup surveys, with 19 percent saying the Good Book is a compendium of myth and legend.

The three surveys found that an average 31 percent of the respondents said that “the Bible is absolutely accurate and should be taken literally word for word,” according to Frank Newport, editor in chief of the Gallup Poll.

Forty-seven percent said the Bible was “the inspired word of God,” and 19 percent said it was a book of ancient fables, history and “moral precepts” recorded by man.

The breakdown of beliefs has not changed much recently: The average number of people who take the Bible literally, in fact, has remained steady since 1991.

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If people want to protest something this is not the place to do it. - Cemetery Official

Associated Press
May 29, 2007 - TheScroogeReport.com Post

ORCAS ISLAND, Wash. — Vandals burned dozens of small American flags that decorated veterans’ graves for Memorial Day and replaced many of them with hand-drawn swastikas, authorities said Monday.

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Related:

Veteran: Washington State Flag Desecration Is No Prank