The Week in Skepticism

Apparently bunnies have a weed problem in Utah.

This blog has taken a break from the usual cynicism and general distrust but today we're back in full strength.

White House Celebrates National Freedom of Information Day by Making Office of the Administration Exempt from Freedom of Information.  Yes, the most transparent kingdom ever.

• Judicial committee approves FBI plan to expand hacking powers. They voted 11-1 to modify a rule to allow judges more flexibility in how they approve search warrants for electronic data. It's for the children.

How police fight to keep use of Stingrays quiet.  No, not the Corvette - this is the black box that spies on your cell phone by impersonating a cell tower. It would be catastrophic if the citizens knew how their Fourth Amendment rights were abridged.

• Despite Snowden leaks, Americans' use of the net largely unchanged. I should change the name of this blog to We're a Nation of Morons.

Private companies continue to amass millions of license plate photos, hold onto the data forever.

Automatic license plate readers are everywhere. The data is accessible to police and certain members of the public: car dealers, insurance companies, private detectives… basically anyone willing to pay access fees and who can offer a suitable justification for digging through a multi-billion plate database.

 Hertz puts video cameras inside its rental cars, has 'no current plans' to use them. We promise. Trust us. We're from the government and we're here to help you.

• McDonald's workers claim they were told to treat burns with mayo, mustard. It's still better advice than eating the food.

CIA worked with DOJ to re-purpose foreign surveillance airborne cell tower spoofers for domestic use. This wonderful example of intra-departmental cooperation is to spy on you, but it's for your own safety. Never mind that this is the CIA working on domestic issues....

• The Secret Service, fresh from drunk driving and failure to remain awake stints, is looking for eight million dollars to build a fake White House to train their agents. They have, however, rejected a fake Obama, saying that one is more than enough. Although it sounds like a great place to work, that's a lot of taxpayer money for hookers and booze.

Apropos of nothing, here is the story of an accomplished deviant Manhattan lawyer (redundant, I know) who liked to dress up as a TSA officer and choke his girlfriends during rough sex. Like the guy who shot two policeman in Ferguson, he explained that he meant to strangle someone else.

• Thailand warns that women who post 'underboob' photos face five years in jail. It's full frontal nudity or nothing - they have an image to protect.

Trial to begin for North Carolina man who cuffed a child to the porch with a dead chicken around his neck. Prosecutors demand animal cruelty charges.

• And speaking of North Carolina, the people must be incredibly tolerant. A man has been standing in his doorway, naked and smoking for ten years. Neighbors called the police, who said the man was doing nothing wrong. The neighbors claimed he was setting a bad example by smoking.

The big news is not that the Prevaricator-in Chief is keeping us in Afghanistan, it's that Angelina Jolie, famous for her looks, her husband, and voluntarily removing two of her breasts to avoid cancer, has had her ovaries removed, also to prevent cancer.

For commentary, we asked our medical consultant, Dr. Wilma Deth, about this surgery.  Dr. Deth has opined that this has absolutely nothing to do with cancer. Angelina simply hates her life and her husband, not to mention her thirty-some children and all of her money.  It has been theorized that Angelina is simply trying to escape, piece by piece, but Dr. Wilma states otherwise - that this is nothing more than self-mutilation, like cutting, tattoos and multiple piercings (especially on the genitals).  So instead of slicing and dicing her arms, she has an organ or two removed.  Imagine having at least two of your breasts removed.....

--Dr. Deth is a native of Camden, New Jersey, and practices in Florida.  What she practices is still unknown.