latest weird news from the Daily Rotten:

Jesse Helms Dead »
Boston Globe | Submitted by: duderonomy"The senator's divisiveness was not restricted to race. According to Mr. Helms, gays who suffered from AIDS did so as the result of "deliberate, disgusting, revolting conduct." In 1994, he declared that Bill Clinton "better watch out if he comes down here [to North Carolina]. He'd better have a bodyguard." [See second link for the Jesse Helms memorial anthem.] Discuss...

Illegal Wiretapping Found Illegal »
New York Times | Submitted by: Flag Hag"A federal judge in California said Wednesday that the wiretapping law established by Congress was the 'exclusive' means for the president to eavesdrop on Americans, and he rejected the government’s claim that the president’s constitutional authority as commander in chief trumped that law." Discuss...

Phallic Handcraft A Dying Art »
Wire Services | Submitted by: nembutard"For more than three decades, the couple have carefully shaped thousands of ceramic male organs, moulding them into upright shapes and painting them in life-like colours for export to Germany, France and North America.... The couple produce ceramic mugs with a penis sticking out of the bottom or the side, penis-shaped bottles and ceramic soccer figures with the male organ popping out from under a flag." Discuss...

Dachshund Noms Diabetic Toe »
The Alton Telegraph | Submitted by: Slakingfool"Floyd's 1-year-old dog, Roscoe, gnawed her right big toe completely off and part of the toe's knuckle, puncturing an artery while she was sleeping Monday afternoon... Floyd, a diabetic who suffers from neuropathy and has no feeling in her toes, is unable to walk because of ongoing leg problems. She is legally blind in her right eye and unable to see well without glasses." Discuss...

Man Found In Basement, Covered In BBQ Sauce »
WWMT-TV 3 | Submitted by: Bort"A couple telephoned police in the middle of the night after finding a man in their basement covered head to toe in barbecue sauce.. He told the officers that it was urban camouflage." Discuss...

German Kevorkian Presses Reform »
ABC News | Submitted by: furpo"Earlier this week, Roger Kusch, a German campaigner for assisted suicide, admitted publicly that he'd helped a 79-year-old woman from the Bavarian city of Wuerzburg after she'd decided to commit suicide... Kusch said he actually left the room after she drank a poisonous brew, which contained the anti-malaria drug chloroquine and a sedative called diazepam." [Story continues that most Germans seeking assisted suicide go to Switzerland, where the practice is legal...

Rocket Zips Past Airliner »
Houston Chronicle | Submitted by: Osama Bin Ladin's (lonely) Potential JailorAIRPLANE: "Can you tell me what this is on my 12 o'clock? It's climbing about 20 miles up. Is that a rocket launch?" TOWER: "I am unaware of any activity in your vicinity." AIRPLANE: "Oh, it's going straight up." Discuss...

It's The Moon, Over »
BBC | Submitted by: stoatlord"Control room staff also dealt with a stream of unsuitable calls on the 999 number during an "extremely busy period", said a spokesman... They were told a "bright stationary object" was spotted above the unnamed caller's home... The mystery was soon solved, as the exchange between control and an officer at the scene, makes clear." Discuss...

I Want To Be Your Dog »
Komo News | Submitted by: jesse helms is dead"The man was walking along Centralia Avenue when he saw another man choking, pulling, and beating a black lab mix with a chain... A verbal dispute ensued and escalated until Esparza-Hernandez began attacking the man... 'The guy takes his dog chain and starts swirling it around in circles and hitting the man with the chain. You could hear it going swshhh-whap! Swshhh-whap! [He was] wrapping him hard with it.'" Discuss...

Record Drug Stash Carpet-Bombed »
London Telegraph | Submitted by: Watta Waast"Two Harriers launched a strike on a huge cache of 260 tons of [hashish], stuffed in sacks of grain and buried in trenches and underground bunkers in Kandahar province in southern Afghanistan. The combat aircraft dropped 1,000lb bombs on the hiding place, which also included 2.5 tons of raw opium... The previous record was set by Colombia's security forces when they uncovered 81 tons of coca." Discuss...

Cops Nabbed In Pot Bust »
Canadian Television | Submitted by: C. Mike Hunt"Two Toronto police officers and three corrections officers are among 20 people charged in a large-scale marijuana drug trafficking operation in the Greater Toronto Area... The jail guards were employed at the Toronto West Detention Centre in Rexdale, and the investigation probed whether drugs were making their way to inmates." Discuss...

Just A Little Off The Top Please »
Adevarul | Submitted by: dw573"The magistrates of Bucharest court law decided today that the doctor Naum Ciomu, joint with Panduri Hospital from the capital, must pay 500.000 euro, moral damages, after what the doctor cut in three pieces the penis of a patient, during a routine operation... Both the injured part and doctor Ciomu were disgruntled at the instance' solution and they appealed." Discuss...

Take Your Daughter To Work »
Chicago Tribune | Submitted by: Licketyslit"One of the girls told an investigator for the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services that her father locks them up because 'he does a very dangerous job'... The father has admitted locking up both his daughters in the cage while he worked collecting trash and scrap metal because he had no one to baby-sit for the children, ages 2 and 5, officials said." Discuss...

The 20 Most Unpatriotic Album Covers of All Time »
SF Weekly | Submitted by: kahnWith the 4th looming ahead, what better time to dig through the Net for some cheerful bastardizations of American iconography? OK, not all of it is particularly cheerful - some of it is downright disturbing. Discuss...

Death by Cheese »
Slate | Submitted by: dw573"if Kobayashi's jaw had crapped out six months ago, few would have noticed. But this is HOT DOG SEASON. When the champ implied that he might not compete in this Wednesday's big contest at Coney Island, the 29-year-old's refusenik mandible was the lead story on the New York Times' Web site." Discuss...

Like a Swarm of Bees Flying into his Shorts »
Star Tribune | Submitted by: theBethOneA bike bridge built too close to power lines is delivering "low voltage jolts" to bicyclists and has been closed for evaluation: "One local bicyclist [says] that he rode his bike across it last spring and felt a sensation like a swarm of bees flying into his shorts." Two stories, one of which is AP and the other Star Tribune. Discuss...

Group Asks for Divine Intervention to Ease Oil Prices »
Cybercast News Service | Submitted by: DSAs if God cared about the global economics of petroleum distillates: "The Pray at the Pump Movement, founded by Rocky Twyman, has been holding prayer vigils at gas stations across the country. On Monday, Twyman decided to take his movement from Exxon and Shell stations straight to the steps of the Embassy of Saudi Arabia in Washington, D.C., hoping to encourage the oil-rich country to raise the amount of barrels they release each day from 200,000 to 1....

Quiet Please! Malpractice in Progress! »
Columbus Dispatch | Submitted by: DonkeyHotey"A Minneapolis surgeon who mistakenly removed the wrong kidney from a cancer patient in March said he was distracted by beeper calls and other patients when he made the original mistake on the patient's chart, a state investigation has found." Discuss...

Sodomy House »
KMBC-TV 9 Kansas City | Submitted by: gargoyle1"The house getting all the attention is at 99th Terrace and Quivira Road in Lenexa. The word sodomy is spelled out with blue tape on the garage door windows, and it is accompanied by a woman's picture." Discuss...

Marijuana Stretching North Coast Resources »
Terrain | Submitted by: Pompitous of Love"California leads the nation in indoor and outdoor marijuana production. It is the state's largest cash crop, generating nearly $14 billion, more than grapes, vegetables, and hay combined. Moreover, production has increased ten-fold in the last 25 years. Much of that production takes place in marginal and remote areas, where ATVs power up hills to tiny outcrops, generators thunder day and night, and water trucks suck water out of tiny creeks." Discuss...

Magic Mushroom Research Goes Mainstream »
Newsweek | Submitted by: Bort"These are familiar sentiments to Roland Griffiths, the scientist who led a study of 36 volunteers, most of whom detailed similar experiences after taking the hallucinogenic compound. In a report published on July 1st in the Journal of Pharmacology, more than 60 percent of those intrepid volunteers reported substantial increases in life satisfaction a year after the experiment." Discuss...

Fly a Baby, Go Directly to Jail »
KUSA-TV 9 Denver | Submitted by: skyeyez9Yet another teenager hoisted by his own YouTube petard: "A Georgia teen is facing child cruelty charges after an online video showed a young man launching a baby several feet across a room using an inflatable pillow." Discuss...

Officer Pimp and Madam wife busted »
The Indy Channel | Submitted by: gargoyle1"An Indianapolis Metro police officer is accused of helping his wife operate an escort business out of her Greenwood home... The officer, his wife and a former Marion County Sheriff's Department employee were charged Wednesday in the prostitution ring." Discuss...

Woman Destroys Beer Cans with 40LB Breasts »
Daily Mail | Submitted by: anonymousBest use this year of the word agog: "Sharon Osbourne, Piers Morgan and David Hasselhoff were left agog during the latest round of America's Got Talent auditions after a hopeful smashed beer cans with her 40lb breasts... Busty Heart, as she is know, crushed nine beer cans simultaneously with her right breast in a rather peculiar attempt to impress the judges." Discuss...

YouTube Ordered to Narq Out Entire World »
Los Angeles Times | Submitted by: YouBoob"The Electronic Frontier Foundation described the ruling as a setback to privacy rights" that "threatens to expose deeply private information. The group said the ruling would allow Viacom to see what you are watching on YouTube, and it urged Viacom "to back off this overbroad request and Google to take all steps necessary to challenge this order and protect the rights of its users." Discuss...

TV: For Elderlies Now »
Variety | Submitted by: IN MY DAY"According to a study released by Magna Global's Steve Sternberg, the five broadcast nets' average live median age (in other words, not including delayed DVR viewing) was 50 last season. That's the oldest ever since Sternberg started analyzing median age more than a decade ago -- and the first time the nets' median age was outside of the vaunted 18-49 demo." Discuss...

Now in Muslim Crosshairs: Puppies »
Daily Mail | Submitted by: anonymous"A postcard featuring a cute puppy sitting in a policeman's hat advertising a Scottish police force's new telephone number has sparked outrage from Muslims... The advert has upset Muslims because dogs are considered ritually unclean and has sparked such anger that some shopkeepers in Dundee have refused to display the advert." Discuss...

Welcome to 2008: Mandela Finally Not a Terrorist »
Wire Services | Submitted by: Jean"In time for the anti-apartheid leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner's 90th birthday on July 18, President George W. Bush signed a bill Tuesday which effectively ended a system in which Mandela had to get special certification from the US secretary of state that he is not a terrorist in order to visit the United States." Discuss...

You Wear a Wire in This Town and You're Done »
Detroit News | Submitted by: commhealy"Why me? You want to know why they're trying to get me? Because I've got a big name. I've got access and they know that. But I'm not cooperating. I'm not a snitch. You wear a wire in this town, any town, and you're done... The only difference between Detroit and Third World nations in terms of corruption is that there are no goats in the streets in Detroit." Discuss...

Suit Opposes Ohio's Ridiculous Obscenity Law »
XBiz | Submitted by: ferret"The woman, identified only as G.B. in the suit, is afraid, Sirkin said, because under the current law, if she sells something at the store that is decided to be obscene -- even years later -- the law requires her to register as a sex offender for 15 years." Discuss...