THE OTHER SHOE DROPS: Turning back the tide of information overload with a digest of the latest developments in news conservatives need to pay attention to:

† R-E-S-P-E-C-T: You get as you give (related article, last item on the page): Instead of trumping up charges of "disrespect" towards President Barack Hussein Obama on the part of conservatives, Dems and libs ought to look to their own, first. Two more examples of how one of Obama's celeb supporters acted disrespectfully towards the president.

During an Obama fundraiser at the Tyler Perry Studios in Atlanta, GA, Cee Lo Green began singing the original version of one of his hits (belting out “f**k you!” instead of the PG-rated “forget you”), though he eventually did switch to the tamer version.

For his part, Virgin Group CEO Richard Branson, a recreational drug user who advocates the legalization of marijuana, told an audience at a drug policy conference that he asked Obama if he “could have a spliff” (a joint that includes both pot and tobacco) when the two met at the White House state dinner in honor of British Prime Minister David Cameron. Branson claimed he was joking, but it is unclear from press reports whether Branson was joking about the incident having occurred or whether he was joking about thinking Obama might have some weed on him and was willing to share it.

† Living in these mad, mad, Madoff Times: As the price of Tide has steadily increased – now as much as $10 to $20 a bottle – thieves have been stealing the laundry detergent right off store shelves from coast to coast and selling it on the street for a 50 percent discount. “Enterprising laundry soap peddlers even resell bottles to stores,” The Daily reports: 

[S]ome cities are setting up special task forces to stop it. And retailers like CVS are taking special security precautions to lock down the liquid.

One Tide taker in West St. Paul, Minn., made off with $25,000 in the product over 15 months before he was busted last year. …

Why Tide and not, say, Wisk or All? Police say it’s simply because the Procter & Gamble detergent is the most popular and, with its Day-Glo orange logo, most recognizable of brands. …

“These are criminals coming into the store to steal thousands of dollars of merchandise,” said Detective Harrison Sprague of the Prince George’s County, Md., Police Department, where Tide is known as “liquid gold” among officers.

Some police officers have even seen drug users trade jugs of the laundry detergent for heroin or meth.

† When science is a form of worship: Contemplating the awe-inspiring vastness of the cosmos, one’s thoughts naturally turn to weighty, existential questions. For David Coppedge, formerly a computer specialist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the theory of intelligent design

offered an intellectually cogent and spiritually satisfying answer to his questions. But like other scientists, his belief in intelligent design cost him his career (related article, third item on the page). Coppedge claims he was first demoted from his position as a "team lead" on the Cassini mission exploring Saturn and its moons and then fired for talking about intelligent design with his co-workers, The Huffington Post reports:

Coppedge's attorney, William Becker, says his client was singled out by his bosses because they perceived his belief in intelligent design to be religious. Coppedge had a reputation around JPL as an evangelical Christian and other interactions with co-workers led some to label him as a Christian conservative, Becker said.

In the lawsuit, Coppedge says he believes other things also led to his demotion, including his support for a state ballot measure that sought to define marriage as limited to heterosexual couples and his request to rename the annual holiday party a "Christmas party." …

In an emailed statement, JPL dismissed Coppedge's claims. In court papers, lawyers for the California Institute of Technology, which manages JPL for NASA, said Coppedge received a written warning because his co-workers complained of harassment. They also said Coppedge lost his "team lead" status because of ongoing conflicts with others.

Caltech lawyers contend Coppedge was one of two Cassini technicians and among 246 JPL employees let go last year due to planned budget cuts.

Coppedge’s suit alleges religious discrimination, retaliation, harassment and wrongful termination. He seeks reimbursement of attorney's fees and costs, damages for wrongful termination and a statement from the judge that his rights were violated.

† Is Obama already a lame duck? (related article, fifth item on the page): Speaking before attendees of the American Apparel and Footwear Association convention, Dem political consultant James Carville called President Barack Hussein Obama “a pretty weak incumbent," The Washington Examiner reports:

Citing Obama's low approval ratings and high unemployment, the advisor noted that the statistics are not on Obama's side. "I've seen worse, but that's on the low side," he said of Obama's ratings among voters, adding, "He's not a shoo-in for reelection."

[H]e find's [sic] Obama unable to connect with regular Americans. "he's got to figure out a way to get into the heads of most Americans," said Carville. What's more, he's not a fan of the communications strategy that has the president trying to take credit for the economic recovery before most Americans feel any change. …

"You can't start saying I'm taking credit," he added, when most people won't starting sensing a change in the economy for a long time.

† What Freedom Of Religion Means To Muslims: Part II: The Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia, Sheikh Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah has issued a fatwa to faithful Muslims instructing them that it is “necessary to destroy all the churches” in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, Yemen, Bahrain, Qatar and the UAEbased on Mohammad’s dying words that “There are not to be two religions in the [Arabian] Peninsula.”

The Washington Times notes that “If the pope called for the destruction of all the mosques in Europe, the uproar would be cataclysmic. Pundits would lambaste the church, the White House would rush out a statement of deep concern, and rioters in the Middle East would kill each other in their grief”:

The Obama administration ignores these types of provocations at its peril. The White House has placed international outreach to Muslims at the center of its foreign policy in an effort to promote the image of the United States as an Islam-friendly nation. This cannot come at the expense of standing up for the human rights and religious liberties of minority groups in the Middle East. The region is a crucial crossroads. Islamist radicals are leading the rising political tide against the authoritarian, secularist old order. They are testing the waters in their relationship with the outside world, looking for signals of how far they can go in imposing their radical vision of a Shariah-based theocracy.

† AZ becomes the epicenter of civility: Self-described "President Obama fanatic" Adam Eugene Cox, 33, threatened to assassinate Sheriff Joe Arpaio, promising in an online rant that Arpaio “will be filled with a thousand bullet holes before the year is out” and that “[h]e will be buried 10 feet under and his whole family will be murdered along with him,” KNXV-TV (Channel 15, Phoenix) reports. Oddly, the worthies running the University of Arizona's National Institute for Civil Discourse never issued a statement about the disturbing incident, even though this extreme example of political incivility occurred literally in their backyard (related story, second item on the page). Nevertheless, Cox has been sentenced to serve nearly a year in a “bootcamp” style probation program and was ordered to attend anger management counseling.

† Boobs and brains not mutually exclusive (related article, fifth item on the page): In the latest example of "boobism" - the last acceptable form of anti-woman bias - the 2012 European Individual Women Chess Championship, which is being held in Gaziantep, Turkey, is the first tournament to apply the ECU Regulations on Dress Code, which forbid women from unbuttoning their blouses far down enough to show cleavage (“the second from the top button may also be opened in addition to the very top button”), ChessBase News reports. Should a player breach the dress code, tournament Officials will give her or her team captain a verbal warning the first time, a written warning the second time, and if she still doesn’t button up she “can be sent back to dress appropriately” or “denied access to the playing area.” [Hat Tip: Deadspin]

† All the news that’s fart to print: Because of an ongoing dispute between Trenton, NJ, Mayor Tony Mack's administration and the City Council over a one-year, $42,000 contract to supply the city government with paper products, paper towel and toilet paper dispensers in senior citizen centers, recreation facilities, police headquarters, the fire department and even City Hall were nearly depleted, The Associated Press reports. Just as city workers were “down to their last sheets,” municipal facilities were restocked with a six-month supply of paper products donated by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals that were imprinted with the message, “Slaughterhouses are so filthy that more than half of all meat is contaminated with fecal bacteria,” Reuters reports.

† Never Again Or Forgive And Forget? (related article, fourth item on the page): Retired U.S. autoworker John Demjanjuk, who was appealing his conviction in a German court on 28,060 counts of being an accessory to murder while serving as a guard at the Sobibor camp in Nazi-occupied Poland, died of natural causes in a nursing home in the southern Bavarian town of Bad Feilnbach. Demjanjuk had terminal bone marrow disease, chronic kidney disease and other serious ailments. His family, who steadfastly maintained he was an innocent victim of mistaken identity and a victim of the Nazis himself, have not yet indicated whether they will bring his remains back to the U.S. for burial.