Russian Politicians Blast Eurovision's Drag Queen Winner

That was quick..

(rollingstone) - Russian officials have denounced Eurovision Song Contest winner Conchita Wurst, a bearded drag queen, with one even asking the culture ministry to ban the singer from touring Russia, Billboard reports.

Wurst, a 25-year-old Austrian whose off-stage name is Thomas Neuwirth, took home Eurovision's top honors on Saturday with her Bond-esque ballad "Rise Like a Phoenix"; but her victory message promoting unity and acceptance had no effect on Russia's Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, who tweeted: "Eurovision showed European integrators their Euro-prospect — a bearded girl."

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Hawaii is not legally a US State, but a US occupied country

- It is easy to find the courage necessary to support a moral position if that position benefits oneself. True moral courage, however, is proven when one chooses to support that which is morally and ethically right even when such a position is to one's one detriment.

The people of the United States find themselves in such a position right now, forced to choose between a moral and ethical position that carries with it the potential for "inconvenience", or supporting the status quo and having to admit to themselves that they are not the champions of justice they imagine themselves to be. By the end of this article, you will know for yourself which one you are.

Most folks have heard that Hawaii is a state, one of the United States of America. Most people, including those who live in Hawaii, accept that statement as a fact.

But the reality is that in a world in which nations are as bound by the rule of laws as are the citizens of nations (if not more so), the truth is quite different.

Dragqueen wins Eurovision Song contest

Headline: Austria wins 2014 Eurovision Song Contest

Thoughts?

One billion people still defecate in public despite health risks-UN

(Reuters) - (Note: Strong language in the second paragraph)

One billion people worldwide still practice "open defecation" and they need to be told that this leads to the spread of fatal diseases, U.N. experts said on Thursday at the launch of a study on drinking water and sanitation.

"'Excreta', 'faeces', 'poo', I could even say 'shit' maybe, this is the root cause of so many diseases," said Bruce Gordon, acting coordinator for sanitation and health at the World Health Organization.

Societies that practice open defecation - putting them at risk from cholera, diarrhea, dysentery, hepatitis A and typhoid - tend to have large income disparities and the world's highest numbers of deaths of children under 5 years old.

Attempts to improve sanitation among the poorest have long focused on building latrines, but the United Nations says that money literally went down the toilet. Attitudes, not infrastructure, need to change, it said.

Mexico legalizes vigilantes fighting drug cartel

- Mexico’s government on Saturday began demobilizing a vigilante movement of assault-rifle-wielding ranchers and farmers that had succeeded in largely expelling the Knights Templar cartel from the western state of Michoacan when authorities couldn’t.

At a ceremony in the town of Tepalcatepec, where the movement began in February 2013, officials handed out new pistols, rifles and uniforms to 120 self-defence group members who were sworn into a new official rural police force.

Man asks news reporter out while during wildfire

... while shirtless (& bra less)

- Courtney Friel reports live from the scene of a massive fire in Rancho Cucamonga near Los Angeles. During her live shot, a shirtless resident asks her out.

10 Failed Conspiracies That Would Have Changed Everything

Like The Failed Attempt To Oust Mao Zedong

-  Also like Stalin—and most dictators in general—Mao was subject to his own assassination attempt. Planned by the son of Mao’s right-hand man and heir apparent, Lin Biao, Project 571 (so-called because the numbers closely resembled “armed uprising” in Chinese characters) involved a plot to kill the Chinese leader during his tour of Southern China.

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