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Right Back Where We Started From

TPMM: Al Qaeda: Partying Like It's 2001

Mr. McConnell’s assessment was grim: “Long-term prospects for eliminating the Taliban threat appear dim, so long as the sanctuary remains in Pakistan, and there are no encouraging signs that Pakistan is eliminating it.

What, That Was Just the Fresh Ingredients for the Gorditas con Rata.

Inspector Is Out After Giving Rat-Infested Restaurant Passing Grade

The city yesterday removed from duty a health inspector who gave a passing grade to a KFC/Taco Bell restaurant in Greenwich Village one day before television cameras captured a swarm of rats scurrying about in the restaurant.



The Department of Health and Mental Hygiene said it would also do a thorough review of all its restaurant inspection policies and would re-inspect all of the roughly 20 restaurants thought to be operated by the owner of the Greenwich Village business.



In addition, the inspection of the KFC/Taco Bell, which has been closed since the rat infestation was discovered, will be reviewed by the city’s Department of Investigation. Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, the health commissioner, said that he did not suspect any illegal activity, but that he had asked for the investigation out of “an abundance of caution.”



Dr. Frieden said he blamed the restaurant owner, not the chain, for the problems. The owner, ADF Fifth Operating Corporation, referred questions yesterday to Yum Brands Inc., the parent company of Taco Bell and KFC. The company said that it would continue to work with the health department to resolve the situation.

The Ancient Sorosian Cult Conspiracy

Their fingerprints are all over this! They acquire The New Republic in order to derail Marty Peretz's Neocon Crusade Against The A-Rabs®. Ha! This evil plot could only be the product of self-hating, non-Jewish Jew George Soros!

Japanese 'Get A Mac' Ad

Complete with Japanese Mac Hipster and Japanese Windoze Nerd.

Keep On Fusin'

Practical Fusion, or Just a Bubble? - New York Times

LOS ANGELES — Brian Kappus, a physics graduate student at U.C.L.A., tipped the clear cylinder to trap some air bubbles in the clear liquid inside. He clamped the cylinder, upright, on a small turntable and set it spinning. With the flip of another switch, powerful up-and-down vibrations, 50 a second, started shaking the cylinder.

A bubble floating in the liquid — phosphoric acid — started to shine, brightening into an intense ball of light like a miniature star.

The shining bubble did not produce any significant energy, but perhaps someday it might, just like a star. A few small companies and maverick university laboratories, including this one at U.C.L.A. run by Seth Putterman, a professor of physics, are pursuing quixotic solutions for future energy, trying to tap the power of the Sun — hot nuclear fusion — in devices that fit on a tabletop.

Imagine our civilization as it would be with an unlimited energy supply. Things would be great until we burnt the Earth to a cinder with all the waste heat. It would make global warming look downright pleasant.

MP3 Is NOT An Open Format

MP3 Patents in Upheaval After Verdict - New York Times

Microsoft was ordered by a federal jury yesterday to pay $1.52 billion in a patent dispute over the MP3 format, the technology at the heart of the digital music boom. If upheld on appeal, it would be the largest patent judgment on record.

The ruling, in Federal District Court in San Diego, was a victory for Alcatel-Lucent, the big networking equipment company. Its forebears include Bell Laboratories, which was involved in the development of MP3 almost two decades ago.

At issue is the way the Windows Media Player software from Microsoft plays audio files using MP3, the most common method of distributing music on the Internet. If the ruling stands, Apple and hundreds of other companies that make products that play MP3 files, including portable players, computers and software, could also face demands to pay royalties to Alcatel.

Microsoft and others have licensed MP3 — not from Alcatel-Lucent, but from a consortium led by the Fraunhofer Institute, a large German research organization that was involved, along with the French electronics company Thomson and Bell Labs, in the format’s development.

The current case turns on two patents that Alcatel claims were developed by Bell Labs before it joined with Fraunhofer to develop MP3.

Trenchtown Rock

It's nice to see another version of one of the best songs ever.

One good thing about music, when it hits you (you feel no pain)
Oh, oh, I say, one good thing about music, when it hits you (you feel no pain)
Hit me with music, hit me with music now

This is (Trenchtown rock), don't watch that
(Trenchtown rock), big fish or sprat now
(Trenchtown rock) You reap what you sow
(Trenchtown rock), and only Jah, Jah know
(Trenchtown rock) I'd never turn my back
(Trenchtown rock), I'd give the slum a try
(Trenchtown rock) I'd never let the children cry
(Trenchtown rock), 'cause you got to tell Jah, Jah why

(Groovin') It's Kingston 12
(groovin'), it's Kingston 12
(Groovin') It's Kingston 12 now
(groovin'), it's Kingston 12
No want you come galang so, oh no
(... no want you fe galang so), ska-ba-dip-ska-ba
(You want come cold I up ...) Ska-ba-dibby-dip,
ska-ba-doop, ska-ba-doop (... cold I up)
Oh, oh, I'm groovin', and the world knows by now,
now, now, now, now, now, now, now, y'all

Oh now, I said, you feel no pain now
One good thing about music, when it hits you (you feel no ...) feel no pain
Hit me with music now, oh now, hit me with music now
Hit me with music, harder, brutalize me (... music)

This is (Trenchtown rock), I say, don't watch that
(Trenchtown rock), if you a big fish or sprat
(Trenchtown rock) You reap what you sow
(Trenchtown rock), and everyone know now
(Trenchtown rock) Don't turn your back
(Trenchtown rock), I say, give the slum a try
(Trenchtown rock) Never let the children cry
(Trenchtown rock), or you got to tell Jah, Jah why

(Groovin') It's Kingston 12
(groovin'), it's Kingston 12
(Groovin') I said, it's Kingston 12 now
(groovin'), oh, oh, oh, it's Kingston 12
(No want you fe galang so) Didn't I told you that
(no want you fe galang so) we should leave with love?
(You want come cold I up ...) I'm not gonna do that, man,
nothin' (... come cold I ...), and look deh now
(Groovin') And then it's Kingston
12, uh

(Good God ...) Good God, looky here now, uh
Hit me with music ...

More Dork

The Dorkestra with a song for Medgar Evers, sung (and written) by Robert Meitus

Salad

Salad:
1 bag Mixed Baby Greens or Baby Spinach, 4 oz.
1 pkg. Goat Cheese, 4 oz.
8 Dried Apricots, diced small
2 Blood Oranges, seedless, cubed

Dressing:
3 Tbsp. Red Wine Vinegar
1 Tbsp. Dijon Mustard
1/2 tsp. Dried Thyme
1/2 cup Canola Oil
Salt, Pepper

Substitute any mustard that you have on hand. Fresh thyme might be nice. Use a regular orange if you can't get a blood orange. Dried cranberries instead of the apricots works, too.

Place the greens in a large bowl. Crumble in the goat cheese. Add the fruit and mix well.

Combine all the dressing ingredients except the oil in a bowl and mix. Drizzle in the oil while whisking the mixture.

Add a few tablespoons of the dressing to the salad (to taste, but not too much) and mix well. Serve with the extra dressing on the side.

Live Mekons

Lyric:


Poxy Lips (I was at this show, or the one the day before. Johnny Dowd opened):

Wow! Batshit Insane!

Via Daily Kos, meet the normal, rational folk of

The non-moving Earth & anti-evolution web page of The Fair Education Foundation, Inc.

where they believe that the Sun revolves about a fixed Earth! For real! Copernicus? A Jewish conspiracy, of course. As is all science! Behold!

Levitating Globe [w/ pic]
"An electromagnet and computerized sensor hidden in its display stand cause the Earth to levitate motionlessly in the air."
Could God have engineered something like that for the real Earth?
The Bible and all real evidence confirms that this is precisely what He did, and indeed:
The Earth is not rotating...nor is it going around the sun.
The universe is not one ten trillionth the size we are told.
Today’s cosmology fulfills an anti-Bible religious plan disguised as "science".
The whole scheme from Copernicanism to Big Bangism is a factless lie.
Those lies have planted the Truth-killing virus of evolutionism in every aspect of man’s "knowledge" about the Universe, the
Earth, and Himself.
Take your time.
Check it all out.
Decide for yourself.

Big Bangism, yo!

Wow! Rebuke!

House Passes Resolution Disapproving of Bush's Iraq Strategy

he House of Representatives renounced President George W. Bush's latest strategy to resolve the four-year war in Iraq, passing a nonbinding resolution that disapproves of his decision to send about 21,000 more U.S. troops to the conflict.

The vote may be the strongest rebuke of a president during wartime since Congress in 1970 rescinded the Gulf of Tonkin resolution that authorized military action in Southeast Asia.

More than a dozen members of Bush's Republican Party joined most Democrats in approving the measure by a vote of 246-182. Democrats said the resolution was a preamble to legislation that will directly challenge the administration's ability to add troops to Iraq and eventually seek to force their redeployment or withdrawal.

St. Ronnie's Secret Philosophy

Did you know that Ronald Reagan said this:

Conservatism is all bullshit. It's the tool the rich and powerful use to secure their wealth and position by leveraging people's atavistic fears and hatreds. All we have to do is string them along with the simple hope that they may join the ranks of the rich and powerful in the future. It's like Christians with Heaven and Hell. Suckers.

Ronald Reagan
Informal remarks to the press
March, 1981

Ars Technica on the Julie Amero Case

Teacher faces jail time for porn pop-ups

Whether or not Amero intentionally clicked on pornographic links, as the prosecution claimed, should be irrelevant. Shouldn't the school be working to block the display of pornographic material altogether, whether or not any adult or student is attempting to intentionally access it? Clearly, by the administration's own admissions, the school was woefully unprepared to face today's blaring reality of Internet insecurity.

The decision sets a somewhat disturbing precedent. Teachers may now feel immense pressure to become overnight computer power-users to avoid being arrested for not staying ahead of their schools' own (lack of) computer security measures. Or to take it a step further, teachers may become more reluctant to use PCs in the classroom. Amero faces sentencing on March 2 and plans to appeal the case.

A Cheap, Ignorant Fuck and His Friends

A School District With Low Taxes and No Schools - New York Times

Just to be clear, Patrick Flynn says he loves public education. He just does not like the idea of paying for it.

Casey Perkins and her daughter Marietta, who live in Troon. Marietta attends school in Scottsdale.

So when it came time last November for the expanding, unincorporated desert community of Troon to choose between joining a nearby school district, and paying higher property taxes to help finance it, or starting its own, Mr. Flynn led the movement that created the Christopher Verde School District.

Not that the Christopher Verde district will have any schools, teachers or, apparently, students.

The children of Troon will continue to attend nearby schools. And thanks to a loophole in Arizona law, the grown-ups of Troon will continue to avoid paying property taxes in those districts, which makes officials in the districts less than mirthful.

Just to be clear, public education is the single most important governmental responsibility, and to support it is the duty of all who would consider themselves patriots. It is THE CHEAPEST, MOST EFFICIENT WAY to expand our economy and reduce poverty and crime. The behavior and attitude of these stupid cunts borders on treason. I sincerely hope that a population of post-teen criminals, turned to a life of crime because of underfunded public school systems, chooses the town of Poltroon as its home and descends upon it like a cloud of locusts.

My First YouTube

This is a song performed by The Dorkestra, a band in which my brother Jon played lead guitar. It's a traditional blues/gospel song, "Jesus Make Up My Dying Bed", recorded by Blind Willie Johnson (aka In My Time Of Dying via Led Zeppelin's eleven minute version from Physical Graffiti). It features Jeff Farias on vocals and Aluminum Upright Czechoslovakian Bass. I videotaped it at The West End Gate in Manhattan (Broadway & 113th) in February, 1994.

Coming Your Way?

A New Condom in Town, This One Named ‘NYC’ - New York Times: "The new condoms do not bear the official seal of the city, an image of a big apple or an outline of the city’s skyline. The black plastic wrapper simply says “NYC condom” on the front, with each letter in a circle, like the letters used by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to denote subway lines. (The authority gave the city permission to use the letters, which are the intellectual property of the subway system.)"

Never Mind

Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah Marshall February 14, 2007 05:03 PM:

"As of late this afternoon, we're being told that the briefers in Baghdad went beyond what they were supposed to say and that the president is now dialing the claims back. In fact, President Bush is intentionally giving Americans the impression that we know something we don't -- that the Qods force is providing weapons for use against U.S. forces. This makes all the difference in the world. So even as Wolf Blitzer says just after 5 PM this afternoon that President Bush is 'backing off' the claims, he's actually still trying to fool Americans into believing something that we not only can't prove but that is more than likely false."

Great Moments in News Headllines

Judge Orders Anna's Body Held
If I told you that you had a nice body, would you hold it against me?

Andrew Dice Clay:
Woman: I just wanted to be held.
Dice: Well, you got the bonus plan, baby!

I Hate "Freedom Tower"

The name, that is. The architecture? We'll see.

But 'Freedom Tower' is redolent with the reek of lame-ass Bush speeches ("They hate us for our freedoms", etc.). It's brain dead; utterly devoid of any creative glimmer. New Yorkers, and other Americans, deserve better.

I move that we honor the original World Trade Center by naming it, "The World Trade Center". Also not creative, but it has the advantage of familiarity.

Camille's back!

And still an asshole: Camille's back! | Salon.com

"The Web so favors the roving, intrusive eye that the blogosphere itself is currently threatened by a gorgeous riot of viral videos-on-demand. As a [condescending - ed.] Warholian pop fan, I'm thrilled with this impudent development -- even though as a career college teacher, I'm also concerned about the fate of analytic reasoning and literary expression."

Such a precious impudence!
But she gets this right:

I want American troops out now -- not next year but tomorrow. Support of the troops means not subjecting them to an unsustainable and ultimately unwinnable mission, cooked up by armchair cowboys who see the world in simplistic cartoon terms ("good guys" vs. "bad guys"). The provincial philistines of the Bush administration blundered into the Mideast with little more than superficial knowledge of its tangled history and ancient culture. And they have colossally wasted American blood and treasure on a project that had only a tangential relation to the atrocity of 9/11.

But the bulk of the column seems to be taken up with Hilary-hatin':

As a native of New York state, I was indignant about the travesty of Hillary's don't-ruffle-my-feathers "listening tour" campaign for U.S. senator from that state where she had never lived. Then as now, she floated from place to place in a Secret Service bubble that protected her from contact with anything or anybody real. However, Hillary has now put in her grunt time at the Senate and gained credibility, even if she has few tangible achievements after her first six years in office.

Some deep-seated issues there, perhaps?

Rudy or Judy?

Rudy Giuliani in Drag Smooching Donald Trump (*gag*)

Libby and Cheney Won’t Testify

Libby and Cheney Won’t Testify, Says the Defense - New York Times:

"One likely factor in that calculation is that putting Mr. Libby on the stand would expose him to a cross-examination by Patrick J. Fitzgerald, the chief prosecutor, that could be withering. Mr. Fitzgerald complained that the defense had engaged in a “bait and switch” tactic by keeping Mr. Libby off the stand after repeatedly suggesting that he would testify.

Mr. Cheney’s testimony, which was much anticipated, would have set a precedent as the first appearance of a sitting vice president as a witness at a criminal trial. It was also expected to bolster a major part of Mr. Libby’s defense: that he was so consumed by the crush of high-stakes issues like global terrorism and Iraq that he might not have remembered all the details of his conversations."

Spoilsports. C'mon, whaddaya, chicken?!? Bawk bawk!

Boycott Blue Diamond

Firedoglake - We Are Disposable Workers Under U.S. Labor Laws

A month before he was fired, Camilo and some of his co-workers had gone public with their efforts to join the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU). On April 15, 2005, the workers gave management a letter with the names of members of the organizing committee. According to Camilo:

We told them we knew our rights and expected them to be respected. We’re fed up with watching us fall further and further behind. We had no raise in seven years and we are all at will employees with no protections.

Three days later, Camilo scratched his hand on a machine and Blue Diamond fired him, claiming he had contaminated the almonds with blood.

Get a load of these redneck motherfuckers.

Conservatives Invented Political Correctness

(This should actually be obvious)

Exodus 20:7 Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.

Yet, at the same time, they can be so incorrect:
Exodus 20:5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;

What will we tell our CHILDREN, I ask you!?!?!

An essential skeptical resource: The Skeptics Annotated Bible

One of My Favorites

YouTube - The Marx Brothers - Mirror Scene from Duck Soup

Anti-Immigrant Rhetoric Has Its Intended Effect

Report: Supremacist activity flourishes - Race in America - MSNBC.com
Of course, the article starts off by blaming (mostly legal) immigrants:

Huge street protests made millions of immigrants more visible and powerful last year, but they also seem to have revived a hateful counter force: white supremacists.

Groups linked to the Ku Klux Klan, skinheads and neo-Nazis grew significantly more active, holding more rallies, distributing leaflets and increasing their presence on the Internet — much of it focused on stirring anti-immigrant sentiment, a new report released by the Anti-Defamation League says.

“Extremist groups are good at seizing on whatever the hot button is of the day and twisting the message to get new members,” Deborah M. Lauter, ADL civil rights director, said Monday. “This one seems to be taking hold with more of mainstream America than we’d like to see.”

h/t to Crooks and Liars

Steve Calls For An End To DRM

Apple - Thoughts on Music

More info on The Deal was revealed:

However, a key provision of our agreements with the music companies is that if our DRM system is compromised and their music becomes playable on unauthorized devices, we have only a small number of weeks to fix the problem or they can withdraw their entire music catalog from our iTunes store.

That's "President The Savage Weiner," to you!

Will The Savage Weiner run?


Crooks and Liars » Michael Savage for President!

NY Post's Bestiality Cover

Woman Kisses Weasel:

Winner: World's Most Nauseating Campaign Launch!

More here.

Update: When Rudy said the following to a radio caller, little did he realize that he was projecting advice to his wife forward in time:

A three-minute diatribe against the ferret advocate ensued, with Mr. Giuliani saying things like, ‘’You should go consult a psychologist or a psychiatrist with this excessive concern — how you are devoting your life to weasels.'’

Remember, Next Time You're Yukking It Up, You May Be Fucking It Up

Independent Online Edition > Legal:

"On Friday, Mr Walker said he 'had no choice' but to delay his verdict until the recording of the incident was produced by the Government, adding that the failure of the MoD to get authorisation to show the recording was a 'matter of profound regret'.

A MoD spokeswoman refused to comment last night on the contents of the video, adding: 'A copy of the video was used as evidence by the Board of Inquiry's (BOI) investigation into the incident.

'This recording is the property of the United States government and the MoD does not have the right to release it without their permission.

'When the BOI findings were released to the family we did inform them that some classified material had been withheld, but we did not specify its exact nature."

Way to go, MoD & DoD, support the troops by dicking over their bereaved relatives. It's not 'property', schmuck, it's 'evidence'.

Blue Ässhole Cult

This cult needs deprogramming, stat.

Sylvia Browne Threatens Critical Web Site

Sylvia Browne Attempts to Silence This Web Site
Empty legal harassment, the first refuge of scoundrels and snake-oil saleswomen.

Two Adjacent Headlines

New York Times today:

• Bush Releases Budget Aimed to Erase Deficit
• Bush’s 2008 Budget Request Doubles Spending on Replacing Military Equipment

Colin Powell's Other Speech

On the anniversary of Powell's UN Security Council debacle, it's good to remember what he was saying before 9/11:

Cairo Summit, Feb. 24th, 2001:

We had a good discussion, the Foreign Minister and I and the President and I, had a good discussion about the nature of the sanctions -- the fact that the sanctions exist -- not for the purpose of hurting the Iraqi people, but for the purpose of keeping in check Saddam Hussein's ambitions toward developing weapons of mass destruction. We should constantly be reviewing our policies, constantly be looking at those sanctions to make sure that they are directed toward that purpose. That purpose is every bit as important now as it was ten years ago when we began it. And frankly they have worked. He has not developed any significant capability with respect to weapons of mass destruction. He is unable to project conventional power against his neighbors. So in effect, our policies have strengthened the security of the neighbors of Iraq...

Testifimony before the Foreign Operations, Export Financing and Related Programs Subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Committee, May 15, 2001

Secretary Powell: The sanctions, as they are called, have succeeded over the last 10 years, not in deterring him from moving in that direction, but from actually being able to move in that direction. The Iraqi regime militarily remains fairly weak. It doesn't have the capacity it had 10 or 12 years ago. It has been contained. And even though we have no doubt in our mind that the Iraqi regime is pursuing programs to develop weapons of mass destruction -- chemical, biological and nuclear -- I think the best intelligence estimates suggest that they have not been terribly successful. There's no question that they have some stockpiles of some of these sorts of weapons still under their control, but they have not been able to break out, they have not been able to come out with the capacity to deliver these kinds of systems or to actually have these kinds of systems that is much beyond where they were 10 years ago.

Lidle Crash Likely Just Pilot Error

NYT - Information on Pitcher’s Plane Crash Released

Cory F. Lidle, the Yankee pitcher whose plane crashed into an apartment building on the Upper East Side of Manhattan on Oct. 11, had very little flying experience and only 12.5 hours in the type of plane he was flying, a Cirrus, according to information released today by the National Transportation Safety Board.

His flight instructor had far more piloting experience but may have had limited experience in the Cirrus, the information indicated.

Mr. Lidle and the instructor, Tyler Stanger, were both killed in the fiery crash into a 42-story building on East 72nd Street, briefly resurfacing fears of terrorism among some New Yorkers.

The board released hundreds of pages of information about the crash today, but will not reach any conclusions for months to come. Among the reports released were summaries of witness statements, in which several people who saw the plane before impact said that it had appeared to be wobbling in the sky. That is consistent with information previously released, indicating that in attempting to make a U-turn, the plane was near its performance limits. In a steep turn the wings produce less lift and the plane can fall out of the sky.

Hep

Love the cigarette thing at the end!