...And Boy Are My Arms Tired

Try this:
from: New York, NY to: London, England - Google Maps

The Tangled Web

Study Finds Shark Overfishing May Lower Scallop Population - New York Times

For years, conservationists have warned about overfishing of large sharks in the northwestern Atlantic, as the demand for meat and fins, coupled with slow growth and reproduction rates of many species, has caused sharp declines in populations of hammerheads, duskies and other sharks.



Researchers are now reporting repercussions beyond the declining shark populations. Depletion of large sharks, they write today in the journal Science, has led to the destruction of the bay scallop fishery along parts of the Eastern seaboard.

Hee Hee

MAN TAKES A CRAP ON OLD GLORY; HAS LIBERALISM GONE TOO FAR?

It is every Englishman’s dream to fly over London in a hot air balloon with his pasty arse hanging over the side, and take a great big dump on the Houses of Parliament, while singing the Eton Boating Song.

More Bush War On Science

NYT - Report Says Interior Official Overrode Work of Scientists

WASHINGTON, March 28 — A top-ranking official overseeing the Fish and Wildlife Service at the Interior Department rode roughshod over agency scientists, and decisions made on her watch may not survive court challenges, investigators within the Interior Department have found. Their report, sent to Congress this week by the department’s inspector general, does not accuse the official, Julie A. MacDonald, the deputy assistant secretary for fish, wildlife and parks, of any crime. But it does find that she violated federal rules when she sent internal agency documents to industry lobbyists. Ms. MacDonald, an engineer by training, has provoked complaints from some wildlife biologists and lawyers in the agency for aggressive advocacy for industries’ views of the science that underlies agency decisions. The words of more than a dozen high-ranking career employees, from Interior Department headquarters and regional offices in California and Oregon, who are quoted usually by title in the report, describe a manager determined to see that agency findings and the underlying science conform with policy goals.

Technorati: politics science

Dig a Grave and Throw Up Into It

Here's a clip from the Monty Python TV series which starts off with the Lifeboat sketch and ends up with the infamous Undertaker sketch, arguably the most offensive thing ever shown on television (apart from Rush Limbaugh).

An Amazing Sneak Preview...

...of Jonah Goldberg's upcoming expose, "Liberal Fascism: The Totalitarian Temptation from Mussolini to Hillary Clinton":

Dr. Lawrence Britt has examined the fascist regimes of Hitler (Germany), Mussolini (Italy), Franco (Spain), Suharto (Indonesia) and several Latin American regimes. Britt found 14 defining characteristics common to each. These describe the philosophies and attitudes of the American Left to a degree that I find chilling. I'll summarize them here, then expand upon each in its own chapter.

1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism - American Liberals view themselves as a 'separate nation within a nation'. This perversion of nationalism grips them with a feverish intensity, and they cling to symbols such as the 'Darwin fish' and 'Peace sign' to represent their perversions. These symbols are pervasive and serve up a constant diet of Liberal propaganda to brainwash normal Americans.

2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights - Liberals are proudly and actively hostile to basic human rights such as the right to carry firearms, the right to force women to carry pregnancies to term and the right for Christians to establish a Jesus-based government.

3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause - The liberals are continually scapegoating conservatives as the source of all ills in America. I wouldn't be surprised if they favored mass internments of conservatives as part of their dark, eliminationist fantasies. This is the source of the current epidemic of Bush Derangement Syndrome.

4. Supremacy of the Military - Liberals support the supremacy of what, for lack of an existing term, I call the 'Pussy Army.' They want to demilitarize the military and turn it into the enforcement arm of the nanny state. Conservatives will be rounded up by bouquet-wielding brigades of soldiers, of questionable gender identity, wearing the new, lavender-and-puce-themed uniforms designed to strike fear in the hearts of normal, manly Americans.

5. Rampant Sexism - The feminazis will take the lead in the emasculation of America. The rights of men will be trampled underfoot as they make date-rape a crime, force fathers to make their child support payments and slowly reduce the relative earnings of men in the workplace. Any man who dares try to look up their skirts through the glass ceiling will be 'disappeared' by feminist death squads, which will roam the countryside at will.

6. Controlled Mass Media - Hello? The Liberal Media. Q.E.D.

7. Obsession with National Security - Liberals are obsessed with undermining national security. They want to throw open the doors of immigration to allow Mexicans, Muslims and other undesirables into America in hordes for the sole purpose of facilitating The Terrorists and making sure that no American feels safe in their bed at night.

8. Religion and Government are Intertwined - Liberals are infiltrating the government as we speak, attempting to establish a theocracy based on their twin religions, Darwinism and Secular Humanism. All other religions will be relegated to subservient status. Good Christians will be forced to worship in secret. Prayer will be outlawed; taking the Lord's name in vain will be mandatory and incorporated into the Pledge of Allegiance.

9. Corporate Power is Protected - The bong industry and Ben & Jerry's will be the dominant economic engines of Liberal America. All supermarkets must carry only organic and green products. The Liberal government will work hand-in-hand with them in a protectionist socialist's dream world. Doctors and Western medicine will be outlawed, to be replaced with gurus, shamans and qui gong practitioners. But they will still force universal health care down our throats.

10. Labor Power is Suppressed - We all know that the unions serve at the pleasure of organized crime. Since organized crime is already run by Liberals (a little-known fact!), few changes will be needed to complete the degradation and subjugation of the American laborer.

11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts - We all know how Liberals disdain intellectuals and good, old-fashioned conservative art. They attempt to subvert the artistic world with their 'impressionism' and 'dadaism' and other nonsensical scrawling instead of good, old-fashioned paintings where people look like people and trees look like trees. And don't get me started on the music. We see new examples every day of Liberals trashing perfectly respectable schools of thought such as Neoconservatism and White Supremacy.

12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment - The Liberals along with their tools, the Democrats, are obsessively pursuing the Bush administration for a few minor infractions of the law. They fail to realize that a good, strong government often requires cutting a few, minor legal corners. Their desire to punish Bush, Rove and other Republicans is ludicrous when you consider that fine, upstanding men such as these are above petty legal bickering.

13. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption - Fascist Liberal regimes almost always are governed by groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions and use governmental power and authority to protect their friends from accountability. They revel in stashing bribes in their freezers and secret documents in their socks. As for corruption, one need only examine Michael Moore's Body Mass Index.

14. Fraudulent Elections - Liberals excel at engineering election fraud schemes. Often, an entire voting bloc is comprised of nothing but names taken from local grave sites. Good, conservative voters are kept from the polls by marching armies of zombie Liberal voters exhumed to commit election fraud.

The most damning point that proves the primacy of Liberal Fascism, though, is that the Nazi party is actually "National Socialist German Workers' Party"! It has Socialist as its middle name! Only a fool wouldn't take Hitler's intent seriously when he put the word 'Socialist' right in the middle of his party name. That nails my argument, pretty much.

hat tip to these guys!

Whitehouse Email Scam May Affect Abramoff Cases

Here's a nice little tidbit from a Sidney Blumenthal article on Salon (warning: daypass, etc):

Follow the e-mails - Salon.com

The Ralston e-mails were not fully appreciated as a clue to the vast cache of hidden e-mails at the time the Justice Department's inspector general conducted a probe into whether Abramoff had been involved in the firing of the U.S. attorney in Guam in 2002. That prosecutor, Frederick Black, who had been appointed by George H.W. Bush and served for 10 years, had opened an investigation into the $324,000 in secret payments Abramoff received from the Guam Superior Court to lobby in Washington against court reform. The day after Black subpoenaed Abramoff's contract, he was fired. In a 2006 report, the I.G. found no criminal wrongdoing -- but he did not have access to the nongovernmental e-mails (i.e., those sent outside the official White House system). Now, the I.G. may have cause to reopen his case.

What We All Want

Gang of Four with one of my favorite songs. I think they're lip-syncing to the album track here.


The Shriekback-Gang of Four connection:
Dave Allen, Gang of Four's bassist, left in 1981 to form Shriekback with Barry Andrews and Carl Marsh.

Shriekback - Nemesis

Some more music videos, classic 80's video style.

Sum Specialz

Too Much Too Young

Karl Rove Rules America

Prediction: Within five years, we'll find Karl Rove shambling around a Greyhound bus station, muttering under his breath, pushing his worldly possessions in a shopping cart.
E-Mail Shows Rove’s Role in Fate of Prosecutors - New York Times

In the months before the United States attorneys in New Mexico and Washington State were ousted, Mr. Rove joined a chorus of complaints from state Republicans that the federal prosecutors had failed to press charges in Democratic voter fraud cases. While planning a June 21, 2006, White House session to discuss the prosecutors, for example, a Rove deputy arranged for top Justice Department officials to meet with an important Bush supporter who was critical of New Mexico’s federal prosecutor about voter fraud.

And in Arkansas, newly released Justice Department e-mail messages show, Mr. Rove’s staff repeatedly prodded the department’s staff to install one of his protégés as a United States attorney by ousting a previous Bush appointee who was in good standing.

Senate Democrats and a few Republicans have called for Mr. Rove to testify publicly about the dismissals.

“There is an issue of intrigue, and for better or worse, that surrounds Karl Rove,” said Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee. “It is in the president’s interest and the country’s interest to have it dispelled or verified, but let’s hear it from him.”

The White House, however, is offering only a private interview without a sworn oath.

Go Ahead, Georgie, Wield That Pen

Bush Vows to Hold Democrats Responsible on Iraq Troop Pullout [ed.: Is that supposed to be a threat?]

President George W. Bush attacked the Senate's $122 billion Iraq war spending bill that insists on a timetable for troop withdrawal and promised he'll hold Democrats responsible.

``The clock is ticking for our troops in the field,'' Bush will say in a speech this morning, according to excerpts released by the White House. ``If Congress fails to pass a bill to fund our troops on he front lines, the American people will know who to hold responsible.''

Money for U.S. military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan begins running out in mid-April.

The president's rhetoric reflects an escalation in the confrontation between the administration and the Democratic- controlled Congress over lawmakers' attempts to set a deadline for withdrawal of troops. The Senate voted 50-48 yesterday to pull out most of the 141,000 U.S. forces from Iraq by March 31, 2008, and attached it to a $122 billion war-funding measure. The House passed a $124 billion package last week, setting a deadline of September 2008.

``The bottom line is this: the House and Senate bills have too much pork, too many conditions on our commanders, and an artificial timetable for withdrawal,'' Bush will say, according to the excerpts. ``As I have made clear for weeks, if either version comes to my desk, I will veto it.''

Your Worst Fucking Nightmare: A Democrat With A Gun!

Gun arrest gives Webb political opening

WASHINGTON - Sen. Jim Webb turned an awkward episode — the arrest of one of his aides for carrying a gun into one of the Senate office buildings — into a political opportunity Tuesday, giving a spirited defense of his and other Americans’ right to carry firearms to defend themselves.

While Webb, D-Va., did not specifically say he’d support a change in the law in the District of Columbia that bans most residents and visitors from carrying or even possessing guns, he did defend the right of people to use guns in self-defense.

“I’m a strong supporter of the Second Amendment; I have had a permit to carry a weapon in Virginia for a long time; I believe that it’s important; it’s important to me personally and to a lot of people in the situation that I’m in to be able to defend myself and my family,” he said.

h/t to Eddie Murphy

Holy Fucking Shite!

[ed.: sorry to go nuclear on the title, there.]
Josh Marshall brings home the bacon [ed.: Mmmmm... Bacon]:
So whose palm got greased?

Now, a lot of people have wondered for a long time just what that contract was really for. Remember, this was the maiden contract for a company specializing in defense and intelligence services. (The company was approved for federal contracting two months earlier.) And they bag a contract to deliver a bunch of desks and chairs to Vice President Cheney's office? Add to the mix that, as we and others have long reported, Wade has long bragged that he had pull with the Vice President and those in his office and the whole thing starts to sound a bit fishy.

Indeed, just yesterday, Rep. Waxman (D-CA) sent the White House a letter asking for details about this mystery contract.

Well, we've found out what the contract was for.
...
Today I got a glance at a key section of the book and it reveals that what that contract was really for was for screening the president's mail.

That's right, screening the president's mail, presumably for Anthrax and other similar biohazards. Remember, this was in mid-2002, not long after the Anthrax scare that shut down several offices on Capitol Hill. So this is a pretty important contract, a pretty sensitive task on any number of levels.

The Spirit of Spiro T. Agnew lives on!

The Antichrist is in Your Wallet

Is 'mark of the beast' in Real ID Act?

A dire, apocalyptic prophecy in the Bible's Book of Revelation is getting a new audience: state legislators.



Several evangelical Christian groups say the federal Real ID Act, which will standardize state drivers licenses and link them to corresponding national ID numbers by 2009, represents the "mark of the beast," the devilish number 666 that is attached to the godless.



The nearly 2,000-year-old passage is referenced along with the prophetic locusts, plagues, oceans of blood and rivers of fire found in the Bible. Soon after, according to scripture, the antichrist takes control of the world and Jesus Christ returns.



In short, new national ID numbers could spell the beginning of the end, some Christians believe.

Christians: Turning Delusion Into Law For Over 2000 Years

State Rep. Jim Guest, a frequent participant on Baxter's radio show, is sponsoring a bill that would exempt the state from complying with the federal law.



The Missouri House overwhelmingly approved Guest's bill last Thursday, 146-4. It has moved to the Senate for consideration.



Guest, a Republican from King City in northeastern Missouri, said his main reservation with the program was its potential for "Big Brother-like" abuses.

"But," continued Guest, "It doesn't hurt to appease the crazies; they're my biggest constituency."

Oh, Please, Please, Please...

... let the Carol Lam affair destroy Darrell Issa's career.

h/t TPM

Glenn Greenwald Finds Teh Stoopit

Monitoring mainstream media morons' mendacity (or Thank God For YouTube!):

The most revealing three-minute You Tube clip ever

I want to return to the video clip of the jovial and dismissive discussion of the U.S. attorneys scandal on yesterday's Chris Matthews Show (embedded below). In one sense, this clip is completely typical of how our national media thinks and talks about political matters. But there just is something about this particular discussion and the giggling, vapid participants that is extra vivid and instructive on a visceral level.



Whatever one thinks of how convincing the available evidence is thus far, nobody who has an even basic understanding of how our government functions could dispute that the accusations in this scandal are extremely serious. Presumably, even those incapable of ingesting the danger of having U.S. attorneys fired due to their refusal to launch partisan-motivated prosecutions (or stifle prosecutions for partisan reasons) at least understand that it is highly disturbing and simply intolerable for the Attorney General of the U.S. -- the head of our Justice Department -- to lie repeatedly about what happened, including to Congress, and to have done so with the obvious assent and (at the very least) implicit cooperation of the White House. Even the most vapid media stars should be able to understand that.

Cowardly, Spying Shitheels Snivel in Court

The NYPD and Bloomberg attempt to hide behind the courts, begging them to prevent the release of the reports generated by their spying on citizens before the 2003 Republican National Convention. Gee, imagine that, people are pissed off that they were spied upon by domestic law enforcement. These shits think up new ways to wipe their asses with the Constitution the first thing in the morning when they get out of bed. It's a way of life!

City Asks Court Not to Unseal Police Spy Files - New York Times

Lawyers for the city, responding to a request to unseal records of police surveillance leading up to the 2004 Republican convention in New York, say that the documents should remain secret because the news media will “fixate upon and sensationalize them,” hurting the city’s ability to defend itself in lawsuits over mass arrests.



In papers filed in federal court last week, the city’s lawyers also say that the documents could be “misinterpreted” because they were not intended for the public.



“The documents were not written for consumption by the general public,” wrote Peter Farrell, senior counsel in the city’s Law Department. “The documents contain information filtered and distilled for analysis by intelligence officers accustomed to reading intelligence information.”



Because the materials have not yet been used to decide or argue any issues in the civil lawsuits, Mr. Farrell said, “there is no right of public access.”



The documents show that the Police Department’s Intelligence Division sent undercover detectives around the city, the country and the world to collect information on political activists and others planning to demonstrate at the 2004 convention, according to a sampling of records reviewed by The New York Times that were the subject of an article yesterday. The records included intelligence digests and field reports from detectives, known as DD5s.



Those records showed that some of the surveillance was conducted on groups that planned to disrupt the convention, but the bulk of it was on groups and people who expressed no apparent intention to break the law. In at least some cases, the reports were shared with other law enforcement agencies.



Before monitoring political activity, the police must have some indication of wrongdoing, a federal court judge has said.



Yesterday a spokesman for the Police Department reiterated an earlier statement that the surveillance was conducted lawfully and that the preparations helped keep order when large crowds of demonstrators gathered in the city the week of the convention.



Christopher Dunn, the associate legal director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, said the revelations of widespread surveillance would increase pressure for the records’ release. “People all over the country will want these documents to see if they were spied upon,” he said. “That will make the debate about releasing them all the more important.”



In late January, the city turned over about 600 pages of intelligence digests to the civil liberties union and other lawyers suing the city on behalf of people who say they were wrongly arrested and detained during the convention. The documents are under court seal, but Mr. Dunn and a lawyer for The Times have asked a federal court magistrate to make them public.

More here:

City Police Spied Broadly Before G.O.P. Convention (March 25, 2007)

Rat Poison Kills Pets? Who Knew!?!

Rodent Poison Found in Pet Food - New York Times

Rat poison has been found in pet food blamed for the deaths of several animals around the country, a spokeswoman for the State Department of Agriculture and Markets said Friday.

Spokeswoman Jessica Chittenden would not identify the chemical or its source beyond saying it was a rodent poison.

Iran Determined to Self-Destruct

It's the international version of suicide-by-cop.

Scotsman.com News - UK - Navy personnel captured at gunpoint

FIFTEEN Royal Navy personnel were seized today by Iranian naval warships in Iraqi territorial waters, the Ministry of Defence said.

An MoD spokesman said the incident happened at about 10.30am local time. He said: “The boarding party had completed a successful inspection of a merchant ship when they and their two boats were surrounded and escorted by Iranian vessels into Iranian territorial waters.

“We are urgently pursuing this matter with the Iranian authorities at the highest level and on the instructions of the Foreign Secretary, the Iranian ambassador has been summoned to the Foreign Office.

“The British Government is demanding the immediate and safe return of our people and equipment.”

The personnel seized were from the Type 22 frigate HMS Cornwall.

US Attorney Chiara: Bush Justice Dept. Lied

U.S. Attorney in Michigan Disputes Reason for Removal - New York Times

The federal prosecutor, Margaret M. Chiara, 63, speaking publicly for the first time since leaving office last Friday, said in an interview that a senior Justice Department official had told her that her resignation was necessary to create a slot for “an individual they wanted to advance.” The identity of the likely replacement was not disclosed, she said.

Only after Justice Department officials attributed her firing to poor performance as a manager — even though her 2005 evaluation praised her management skills — did she decide to speak out, Ms. Chiara said.

“To say it was about politics may not be pleasant, but at least it is truthful,” she said, echoing an e-mail message she sent to a Justice Department official this month. “Poor performance was not a truthful explanation.”

Sounds Like Bullshit

Here's a comprehensive list of bogus audiophile junk that's for sale to music-loving morons with lots of extra cash:Audiophile @ ILikeJam
Audiophiles fall for even more nonsensical bullshit than alternative medicine enthusiasts.

More July 7th Bombing Suspects Arrested

NYT - Britain Arrests 3 Suspects in 2005 Bombings

Two of the men aged 23 and 30 were arrested around 1 p.m. local time today at the Manchester airport in the northwest of England as they were preparing to board a flight to Pakistan. A third man, aged 26, was arrested at a house in Leeds three hours later, the police said. Several of the July 7 bombers had close links to Leeds.

The arrests were presented by the police as evidence and vindication of a painstaking inquiry since July 2005 to establish whether the London bombers, who exploded backpack bombs on three subway cars and a double-decker bus, had accomplices or worked for shadowy mastermind. Indeed, the arrests today renewed speculation that the attacks could not have been committed on July 7 without sophisticated backup.

Brooklyn Local 1

BELGIUM BY BROOKLYN
I just tried Brooklyn Brewery's new Local 1 beer, and I give it high marks! It's their attempt a a Duvel-style Belgian Tripel, and they may have outdone the original. I say 'may have' because it would be unfair to Duvel to compare it to a locally-brewed and very fresh competitor.

Brooklyn Local 1 comes in a beautiful bottle with a cork and wire bail, as it's bottle conditioned. Its color is very similar to Duvel, maybe slightly darker. The taste is a bit drier, but with fruity notes. The astringent quality may be from the slightly higher alcohol content (9% ABV). Like Duvel, it's easy to overindulge; you wind up consuming more alcohol than you realize.

This is a very good beer. Pick up a bottle today if you can find it.

The Real Roots of Morality

Scientist Finds the Beginnings of Morality in Primate Behavior

Dr. de Waal, who is director of the Living Links Center at Emory University, argues that all social animals have had to constrain or alter their behavior in various ways for group living to be worthwhile. These constraints, evident in monkeys and even more so in chimpanzees, are part of human inheritance, too, and in his view form the set of behaviors from which human morality has been shaped.

Many philosophers find it hard to think of animals as moral beings, and indeed Dr. de Waal does not contend that even chimpanzees possess morality. But he argues that human morality would be impossible without certain emotional building blocks that are clearly at work in chimp and monkey societies.

Dr. de Waal’s views are based on years of observing nonhuman primates, starting with work on aggression in the 1960s. He noticed then that after fights between two combatants, other chimpanzees would console the loser. But he was waylaid in battles with psychologists over imputing emotional states to animals, and it took him 20 years to come back to the subject.

Symantec: "Sky Is Blue!"

Why do the criminals always wind up where the money is? It's like they planned it that way or something!

Techtree.com India > News > Security > Most Malicious Activity in the US

Symantec's report also points out that Microsoft's Internet Explorer was the most-targeted Web browser, attracting 77 percent of all browser attacks. And the company expects to see more threats begin to emerge against Microsoft's Windows Vista operating system. It also expects multiplayer online games to be targeted by phishers, who fool users into divulging passwords or other personal information by creating fake Web sites that look like the real thing.

Four More Years!

I promise, we're going to stop fucking up now. No, really!

Don’t ‘Pack Up,’ Bush Says After 4 Years of War - New York Times

Mr. Bush's brief speech came in the midst of an increasingly tense showdown with the Democratic-controlled Congress over the constitutional balance of power during war. The House is scheduled to vote Thursday on a Democratic proposal to attach conditions to the president's $100 billion war financing package that would require American combat troops to be withdrawn from Iraq next year, a timetable Mr. Bush has said would undercut the troops and aid the insurgents.

Plame Blames Lame Games

Plame: I was covert until they outed me

Plame has resigned from the CIA and is now pursuing a civil suit against Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, Scooter Libby and Dick Armitage. "My name and identity were carelessly and recklessly abused by senior officials in the White House and State Department," she said today. "I could no longer perform the work for which I had been highly trained."

Death By Google

Welcome to www.dailyrecord.com - Updates - Cop: Wife googled 'How to commit murder'

At exactly 5:45:34 on April 18, 2004 a computer taken from the office of the attorney of Melanie McGuire, did a search on the words "How To Commit Murder."

That same day searches on Google and MSN search engines, were conducted on such topics as `instant poisons,` `undetectable poisons,' 'fatal digoxin doses,' and gun laws in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

Ten days later, according to allegations by the state of New Jersey, McGuire murdered her husband, William T. McGuire, at their Woodbridge apartment, using a gun obtained in Pennsylvania, one day after obtaining a prescription for a sedative known as the "date rape" drug.

Attention, New York Skeptics

Physicist Victor Stenger will be signing copies of his new book in Manhattan on March 22nd, 7:30 PM, Barnes Noble at 396 Avenue of the Americas.



God: The Failed Hypothesis

Many authors claim that modern science supports the proposition that God exists, but very few authors have directly challenged this assertion. Physicist Victor J. Stenger points out that if scientific arguments for the existence of God are included in intellectual, not to mention political discourse, then arguments against his existence should also be considered. In God: The Failed Hypothesis, Stenger argues that science has advanced sufficiently to make a definitive statement on the existence — or nonexistence — of the traditional Judeo-Christian-Islamic God. He invites readers to put their minds and the scientific method to work to test this claim. By using five principal conditions for evaluating extraordinary claims, Stenger treats the existence of God like any other scientific hypothesis, stipulating that God should be detectable by scientific means, given that he is supposed to play a central role in the operation of the universe and in the lives of humans.

More signings listed here.

More On American-Israeli Political Debate

A conservative view:



Bloggers vs. the Lobby

On New Year’s Day, Israeli superhawk Benjamin Netanyahu called for an “intense international public relations front” to persuade Americans of the need for military confrontation with Iran. The sight of John Edwards addressing a conference in Israel by satellite feed, along with John McCain, Rudy Giuliani, Newt Gingrich, and Mitt Romney—the latter two actually flew in to speak in person—indicated that the front already exists. All the candidates spoke as if preemptive war in the Middle East was a tried and true success. As a correspondent from Jewish Week summed it up, the U.S. presidential hopefuls were “competing to see who can be most strident in defense of the Jewish state.” The consensus choice for the competition’s winner was Romney, but the putatively liberal Edwards, who described preventing Iran from securing nuclear weapons as “the greatest challenge of our generation,” made a surprisingly strong showing. No leading presidential contender suggested that attacking Iran might be a bad idea.

h/t to Glenn Greenwald

Why Oppose Global Warming Solutions?

I can understand why you would if you were a petro-exec. Oil magnates would flay and deep-fry their own mothers at a Mother's Day Satanic Mass and Picnic to avoid bottom-line shrinkage. But what about everybody else?

Because Dubya says it's bad?

Because you're such a 'free-market' extremist that you can't see furhter than the upcoming quarter? That you think a little money thrown at an externality such as 'a livable environment' is such a horrible waste of productivity?

Or is becuase Rush Limbaugh and his ilk have instilled within you a pathological hatred of the liberal, tree-hugging straw-man climate scientist?

Search your feelings, Luke.

A good response to the latest round of 'An Inconvenient Truth' bashing is here.

Thank God!

Finally.
Congressman Holds No God-Belief

There is only one member of Congress who is on record as not holding a god-belief.

Rep. Pete Stark (D-Calif.), a member of Congress since 1973, acknowledged his nontheism in response to an inquiry by the Secular Coalition for America (www.secular.org ). Rep. Stark is a senior member of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee and is Chair of the Health Subcommittee.

Although the Constitution prohibits religious tests for public office, the Coalition's research reveals that Rep. Stark is the first open nontheist in the history of the Congress. Recent polls show that Americans without a god-belief are, as a group, more distrusted than any other minority in America. Surveys show that the majority of Americans would not vote for an atheist for president even if he or she were the most qualified for the office.

Wikipedia Tightens Up

Wikipedia To Check I.D.s - The Lede - Breaking News - New York Times Blog

In an interview with Reuters TV in Tokyo, Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia, the user-edited online encyclopedia, said last night that contributors who identify themselves as experts
will be asked to furnish some proof of their qualifications.

Things My Son Might Wonder About

Why do we 'dial' a phone?

Why is the shift key called the 'shift' key?

Why does CC: in an email address list stand for 'carbon copy'?

I Have Been Remiss

Here's a Friday Random 10:

Katie Mae	Grateful Dead
Enter The Lists	Mekons
Detroit City	Bobby Bare
One Of The Millions	XTC
Missing You All	Mekons
Legalize It	Mojo Nixon & Skid Roper
Run For The Roses	Jerry Garcia
Middle Of The Road	The Pretenders
Outside The Wall	Pink Floyd
True Love	The Fabulous Thunderbirds

More Bush Admin Reality Supression

Memos Tell Officials How to Discuss Climate - New York Times

Internal memorandums circulated in the Alaskan division of the Federal Fish and Wildlife Service appear to require government biologists or other employees traveling in countries around the Arctic not to discuss climate change, polar bears or sea ice if they are not designated to do so.

...



The sample memorandums, described as to be used in writing travel requests, indicate that the employee seeking permission to travel “understands the administration’s position on climate change, polar bears, and sea ice and will not be speaking on or responding to these issues.”

I Love The Classics

Bambi meets Godzilla (from the pre-VHS/DVD/PC era):

Thanks to Moron Dowd for reminding me of this one:

Daily Howler: Dowd is a cleaned-up version of Coulter. Wikipedia offers some context

DOWD (paragraph 4-6): After David Geffen made critical comments about Hillary, she seized the chance to play Godzilla stomping on Obambi.

I think that's the only thing for which we'll be thanking her anytime soon.

If There Was a True Brotherhood of Man, We Would All Become Fratricides

English, Irish, Scots: They’re All One, Genes Suggest - New York Times

If the people of the British Isles hold most of their genetic heritage in common, with their differences consisting only of a regional flavoring of Celtic in the west and of northern European in the east, might that perception draw them together? Geneticists see little prospect that their findings will reduce cultural and political differences.

The Celtic cultural myth “is very entrenched and has a lot to do with the Scottish, Welsh and Irish identity; their main identifying feature is that they are not English,” said Dr. Sykes, an Englishman who has traced his Y chromosome and surname to an ancestor who lived in the village of Flockton in Yorkshire in 1286.

Dr. Oppenheimer said genes “have no bearing on cultural history.” There is no significant genetic difference between the people of Northern Ireland, yet they have been fighting with each other for 400 years, he said.

As for his thesis that the British and Irish are genetically much alike, “It would be wonderful if it improved relations, but I somehow think it won’t.”

The Wages of Sin

White House Already on the Defensive Takes Another Hit With Guilty Verdict - New York Times

Deep into his second term, Mr. Bush faces an array of political and policy problems that seem to be growing by the day. His once-powerful standing with the public has been leached away by the war in Iraq. His party, dogged by corruption charges, has lost power on Capitol Hill, leaving him exposed to a Democratic opposition that is now armed with subpoena power and the energy that comes from a good shot at recapturing the White House in 2008. His domestic agenda is stalled, and his foreign policy is constrained.

It's all good, baby. Except for the trashing of America's reputation, the squandering of our resources, the waste of our soldiers' lives and health, the intrusion of religion into our government and the trampling of the Constitution. Other than that, though, all good.

Servant, My Ass

What they said about Libby before he was convicted

Lynne Cheney, December 2006: "I think we're seeing an instance of a man who spent a great deal of his life as a dedicated public servant, who's done an awful lot of good in a situation that does not reflect well on our judicial system."

Just because you worked for the government does not entitle you to call yourself (or be referred to by others) as a 'public servant.' Holders of sinecures, beneficiaries of cronyism, collectors of bloated salaries, and those who abuse their position are NOT public servants.

Admittedly, Ann Coulter Is More Masculine Than John Edwards

Glenn Greenwald - Salon

Few people have documented the deeply dysfunctional and outright pureile national press we have as well as Bob Somerby has, and his post today on the lowly and vapid insults which fill Maureen Dowd's column (h/t Cindy Ross) is just superb. Somerby makes a convincing case that Dowd's endless attempts to feminize Democratic male politicians (and masculinize Hillary) is merely a slightly more polished version of the tactics which make Coulter so wildly popular on the right (Coulter's use of the word "faggot" with regard to Edwards was not, of course, an actual attempt to suggest he was gay, but designed only to impugn his masculinity).

It's Gonna Be a Loooooooong Campaign Season

Yet Another Wingnut Sliming Of Hillary Proven To Be Bogus

Time For A Little Introspection

Is Israel Falling Apart?

Do these events really presage the collapse of the Israeli system of governance and democracy? There certainly has never been such a deep crisis of leadership in the country that touts itself as the only democracy in the Middle East. The leader of the ruling parliamentary coalition, Avigdor Yitzhaki, said so publicly a few days ago. And the Minister of Education has suggested that all schools devote special classes to the “government crisis”, so that children can speak out about what might well seem to them like a total collapse of all systems that control their lives. Suddenly the Palestinians and the Hizbullah, and even Iranian nukes, have taken a back seat: Israel does indeed seem in danger of imploding from within, at least as a viable democracy.

via TPM

The Ineffectual Snarling and Snapping of Dinosaurs

Music executives judge Jobs, lament losses | CNET News.com
There was one smart guy attending:

Most of the panel members, save for Greg Scholl, CEO of independent music label The Orchard, believe that some form of DRM is necessary.

Scholl said flatly that DRM doesn't work. "The idea that DRM gives us choice isn't right," he said.

"The economics of the business are over for good and aren't ever going to be the way they were before," Scholl said. This is a position that some in the music industry are starting to warm up to.

Ha Ha!

Some Vitamin Supplements Increase Death Risk Say Researchers

Vitamin supplements taken by millions of people every day for their health could be increasing their risk of death a new Danish-led study suggests.

The study is published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The international research team reviewed the published evidence on beta carotene, vitamin A, vitamin E, Vitamin C and selenium. The team was led by Dr Goran Bjelakovic, from Copenhagen University Hospital, Denmark.

These dietary supplements are marketed as antioxidants and people take them in the hope they will improve health and guard against diseases like cancer and heart disease by eliminating the free radicals that cause "oxidative stress" and damage and kill off cells.

Antioxidants are also marketed as anti-aging products because they are thought to slow down the aging process.

Some studies have suggested that antioxidants are beneficial to health, while others, mostly larger clinical trials, have concluded they have no effect on health and say in some cases that taking too many of them can be harmful.

No Dogs Were Wasted In The Making Of This Motion Picture

This is bizarre (and profoundly insulting):
NYT- Japan's Abe Denies Proof of World War II Sex Slaves

Japan's nationalist prime minister denied Thursday that the country's military forced women into sexual slavery during World War II, casting doubt on a past government apology and jeopardizing a fragile detente with his Asian neighbors.

The comments by Shinzo Abe, a member of a group of lawmakers pushing to roll back a 1993 apology to the sex slaves, were his clearest statement as prime minister on military brothels known in Japan as ''comfort stations.''

Historians say some 200,000 women -- mostly from Korea and China -- served in the Japanese military brothels throughout Asia in the 1930s and 1940s. Many victims say they were kidnapped and forced into sexual slavery by Japanese troops.

But Abe, who since taking office in September has promoted patriotism in Japan's schools and a more assertive foreign policy, told reporters there was no proof the women were forced into prostitution.

''The fact is, there is no evidence to prove there was coercion,'' Abe said.

Then there's this:

Dozens of people also rallied outside the Japanese Embassy in Seoul to mark the anniversary, lining up dead dogs' heads on the ground with pieces of paper in their mouths listing names of Koreans who allegedly collaborated with the Japanese during its 1910-45 colonial rule. Protest organizers said the animals were slaughtered at a restaurant; dogs are regularly consumed as food in Korea.

The Third Dork

The Dorkestra featuring Jeff Farias covering a greg Brown song about getting old.

My Pet Scapegoat

NYT - Army Relieves General of Walter Reed Command

The head of Walter Reed Army Medical Center has been relieved of command after reports disclosed poor living conditions and bureaucratic problems endured by soldiers wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Army said today that Maj. Gen. George W. Weightman, the commanding general of the North Atlantic Regional Medical Command and the medical center, was relieved on Wednesday by Army Secretary Francis J. Harvey.

The general was informed that “the senior Army leadership had lost trust and confidence in the commander’s leadership abilities to address needed solutions for soldier outpatient care” at Walter Reed, the Army said.

Not that this schvantz didn't deserve to get fired anyway, but you know the Bush crew just considers this damage control. There's no way they're actually going to fix this problem.

Hawking to Ride The Vomit Comet

NYT - Stephen Hawking Plans Prelude to the Ride of His Life

On April 26, Dr. Hawking, surrounded by a medical entourage, is to take a zero-gravity ride out of Cape Canaveral on a so-called vomit comet, a padded aircraft that flies a roller-coaster trajectory to produce periods of weightlessness. He is getting his lift gratis, from the Zero Gravity Corporation, which has been flying thrill seekers on a special Boeing 727-200 since 2004 at $3,500 a trip.

Grafitti Grafitti

Defacer With Mystery Agenda Is Attacking Street Art - New York Times
Some asshole is defacing street art. The good stuff. Actually, this is a really good way to get killed.

Someone out there has a problem with art. Or at least a certain kind of art and artist.

The evidence is the bright green and purple splashes of paint that began appearing on walls in Brooklyn and Manhattan more than a month ago. The carefully aimed blobs obscured or disfigured dozens of pieces of street art created by people who may not be household names, but who have achieved the esteem of peers and some recognition from the mainstream art world. The targets of the paint attacks have included posters, paper cutouts pasted on walls, and images stenciled on the sides of buildings.

Many of the paint splatters were accompanied by messages printed on plain white sheets of paper and pasted near the splatters. Those communiqués appeared to condemn the commodification of art, but it is difficult to be sure what the messages really mean. One reads, in part, “Destroy the museums, in the streets and everywhere.” The author has kept his or her identity a secret.

The good stuff:

Not So Great Moments in Transit History

Malbone Street Wreck
On November 1st, 1918, at 6:22pm, the peak of rush hour, a packed Brooklyn Rapid Transit train jumped the tracks on a tight curve, killing 93 people. It remains one of the worst train wrecks in US history.
Here's a current map showing the wreck site (red arrow):

Just to the upper right of that intersection is the old site of Ebbets Field, home of the Brooklyn Dodgers. It's now a housing development.

Wikipedia has Everything!

Sadieville, Kentucky

Exposure

I hove been honored with a (temporary) listing on

Pharyngula's Blogroll. I commend Prof. Meyers for his brilliant categorization efforts. Ah, the organizational abilities of the scientific mind!

Fresh Meat for Skeptics

The Second Sight: 55th Skeptics' Circle: The Number Of The Skeptic
Do the math!