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Leading off, we close a story by saying the body of the Brazillian priest who flew with a chair and lots of helium balloons has been found.
International news: Just in time for the games, Iraq can go again. Unfortunately, because of how long it took to get here, only two athletes from Iraq will compete, instead of seven. Much more importantly, the IOC apparently brokered a deal with the Chinese government, allowing the government to block websites in the reporter's tents and media centers, including Amnesty International and websites related to Falun Gong.
Other Iraq-type stuff apparently meriting inches is worries whether the successors to Petraeus and Crocker will be able to have the same kind of good working relationship. If all the gains that are claimed are real, it should be an easier time for both of them, not only to get along, but to keep the good times rolling. Just how secure are people in their assurances that victory is within their grasp or has happened?
Remember PFC Lavenna Johnson? Apparently, the Army still beleives she killed herself, despite significant suspicious evidence to the contrary. If there isn’t an investigation there, when it seems pretty apparent that suicide is not the first conclusion to come to, especially considering there was also a likely rape, how many other women have been buried in the sands and had their families told they committed suicide?
Karadzic, apparently a master of disguise, finally arrested, will stand trial in the Hague for genocide alleged during the Serbian conflict. In other potentially explosive news, a bomb dating to WWII was found in Budapest, potentially armed. Evacuation is complete, defusing is underway.
Al-Qaida member condemns Saudi king for holding interfaith conference, claiming that bringing the religions together to discuss things (although, from other accounts, it sounded more like an evangelizing of Islam than an interfaith discussion) is “equating other religions with Islam”, and we know how picky people get when it looks like a religion other than theirs is getting any sort of positive attention, rather than being burned and slaughtered like the subhumans they are. CNS does its best to add fuel to the “All Muslims are terrorists” fire by publicizing a study that claims significant numbers of the Muslim minority at UK universities hold extreme views, based on their want to adopt sharia into UK law, are pursuing a caliphate, and/or think killing to defend one’s religion is acceptable (with a smaller part saying that killing to promote is acceptable, too). Should we poll the same of the Christian contingent, and make sure to get a good sampling of those in active Christian organizations? I wonder what the percentages will be. Depending on your point of view, too, the problem could be an overabundance of young men in a repressive and not-improving (despite oil revenues) world needing somewhere to go to get their testosterone out, and wars and fighting looks to be a pretty good way of doing it.
All of this may be moot, of course, as more dire warnings that Iran intends to send nuclear missiles at the United States ramp up the fear that it will all be over because the leaders of Iran are suicidal enough to attack, whether by nuke material or EMP from explosion, even knowing the retaliation.
Last out of this particular segment, the RAND corporation has published a study on how terror groups end, and concludes that the use of police forces and intelligence is far more effective, and resulted in the destruction of more terror groups, than any military solution. So... by invading and declaring a war on terror, we’re actually making it harder to accomplish the stated goals of the war on terror? That’s an interesting twist.
Domestically: In an age where video is ubiquitous, if you lie about what someone did to try and make it look like you were justified, don't be surprised if someone produces film to the contrary. The Critical Mass rider looks to have been targeted by the cop, from the body langauge and acceleration of the cop into the rider, rather than the rider running into him, as the officer claims. Furthermore, despite having been struck hard enough that the rider went from lane to curb, according to eyewitnesses, he still managed to “resist arrest” and engage in “disorderly conduct”. After the video’s appearance, the officer has been suspended pending an investigation. They may also want to investigate how much the officer perjured himself in his official account.
A victim of church abuse in the form of an "exorcism" has indicated they will make it a federal case, hopefully making it possible for the Supreme Court to decide on the matter as to whether one really can hide behind religious doctrine as an excuse for abuse, especially of minors. Well, if you can get someone for hazing that results in injury or death, then you should be able to get someone for religious “exorcisms” or other actions that result in injury or death.
The Enivronmental Protection Agency's chief of staff sent an internal e-mail advising EPA pollution invesitgators to direct all inquiries from congressional committees, the GAO, or the EPA's own inspector general to a specifically designated person. Attempt to streamline communication or attempt to shut down communication outside the official line? You decide.
Not everything that the Democrats want to do for the convention is going smoothly. For the current moment, attempts to make the convention green through the purcahse of carbon offsets from wind power have ended up funding a turbine that doesn't always work reliably. Got to get the bugs out of the systems, no doubt. Such things can be expected - and probably ridiculed, because despite the more recent push to adopt better energy technology, a lot of people still believe both NIMBY and that anything going up should be highly-refined and work perfectly, all the time. That, and their obsession with things costing as little as possible, regardless of origin.
Not that it will ever happen, but at elast one legislator is trying to get others to consider decriminalizing small marijuana use. Perhaps if this were the case, the absolute CF that was Rachel Hoffman's death might not have happened. The DEA’s position on the legalizing is priceless - “Smoked marijuana has not withstood the rigors of science -- it is not medicine and it is not safe...Legalization of marijuana, no matter how it begins, will come at the expense of our children and public safety. It will create dependency and treatment issues, and open the door to use of other drugs, impaired health, delinquent behavior, and drugged drivers.” In other words. “If you do marijuana even once, you’ll become a crack whore who kills kids, tries to get teens hooked, and gets high whenever possible.” Is that position coming before or after the studies that are beginning to show in controlled conditions, marijuana is pretty effective as a medicine, and the other studies that say most people in the county jail are there for small marijuana parties?
Something worth watching - the growth of Wal-Mart over the years, over time. At times, makes me wonder whether you could get good comparison to the springing up of Wal-Mart and the growth patterns of entities like viruses and cancers... - and it might work for other multinational types.
In our candidate matters, more coverage does not necessarily mean more positive coverage, Liberal Seagull notes. Not that it will stop people from complaining about liberal media bias. Paul Weyrich thinks the media is contributing to rhetoric making Senator Obama President before he actually is, with dire warnings that journalism will die and voters will lash out at such presumptions. Additionally, one of the rules of politics appears to be that nothing in one’s past is safe, as indicated by the continued attempts of some organizations to obtain the thesis paper Senator Obama wrote 25 years ago while at university. Seriously. People want to dig dirt up on the Senator so much that they’ll go all the way back to papers he wrte in college? Is there anyone who wants to see the same sort of material from Senator McCain? If it’s that fragging important, both candidates should get equal scrutiny.
However, it appears the Washington Post is keeping the eye on the ball by making mention that the McCain campaign got a nice $1.1 million infusion from oil copmanies once the Senator started supporting offshore drilling. Isn’t that an interesting cause and effect chain?
Landing somewhere in the realms of the opinion, Red Rabbit and the Professor find CNN's special on black poor to be full of sanctimonious bullsh*t, telling the black poor that they have to improve themselves, that other people know what’s best for them, and that getting and staying married is the best way to achieve it. Shall we play “Blame the Victim”?
Michael Shermer takes rhetoric up a notch with the idea that mankind needs to generate a Type 1 civilization before we can become a Type 1 technological society, turning us into the hated and feared One World Government (sort of) before we gain the power to harnes energy equal to that of our planet.
Jonah Goldberg devotes column space to saying why supporting the 1968 Olympic Black Power gesture is spitting on the Olympic ideal of athletics without politics, and useless, anyway, because there was progress happening, even if it was slow.
There is always a plethora of opinions about the candidates, as well. David Limbaugh thinkgs Democrats should be shaking their heads in disbelief at the nomination of Senator Obama, because he’s a cheese-headed surrender monkey stubbornly refusing to admit that he was totally wrong about Iraq and the surge. Obviously, this makes him a foreign-policy weenie, an embarassment to his party, and he lacks any sort of real plan on how to deal with other countries in the Middle East. Cal Thomas believes the Senator has built expectations of him up to Jesus-like levels, with the eventual problem that big expectations will lead to disappointment and cynicism. Richard Cohen continues with an uncertainty theme, asking "What has Obama done?" to prove himself as capable. I do believe some part of the appeal of the Senator to his voting base is just that - no giant record proving that he can be bought and sold, and the potential of managing to avoid that record, if elected. Byron York wants more people to laugh at Senator Obama and find humor in the following he’s created. Apparently, taking him so darn seriously helps contribute to those inflated expectations.
In science and technology, giving alleged yeti hairs the twice-over with DNA tests and high-powered microscopes, possible drugs to halt Alzheimer's, although the ability to replay memories and file them during sleep gets worse as we age. We also have some ways that human activity triggers natural disaster responses. Last out of this section, jetpacks, yo. For a mere $100K. If that’s not enough, try the Rocket Racing League.
Last for tonight, Harry Eng's Impossible Bottles. There are ways of making things much bigger than a bottleneck fit through it. All we’d have to do is think. And thinking was what Harry Eng did really well.
There’s also Mom, Dad.... I'm in to steampunk.
International news: Just in time for the games, Iraq can go again. Unfortunately, because of how long it took to get here, only two athletes from Iraq will compete, instead of seven. Much more importantly, the IOC apparently brokered a deal with the Chinese government, allowing the government to block websites in the reporter's tents and media centers, including Amnesty International and websites related to Falun Gong.
Other Iraq-type stuff apparently meriting inches is worries whether the successors to Petraeus and Crocker will be able to have the same kind of good working relationship. If all the gains that are claimed are real, it should be an easier time for both of them, not only to get along, but to keep the good times rolling. Just how secure are people in their assurances that victory is within their grasp or has happened?
Remember PFC Lavenna Johnson? Apparently, the Army still beleives she killed herself, despite significant suspicious evidence to the contrary. If there isn’t an investigation there, when it seems pretty apparent that suicide is not the first conclusion to come to, especially considering there was also a likely rape, how many other women have been buried in the sands and had their families told they committed suicide?
Karadzic, apparently a master of disguise, finally arrested, will stand trial in the Hague for genocide alleged during the Serbian conflict. In other potentially explosive news, a bomb dating to WWII was found in Budapest, potentially armed. Evacuation is complete, defusing is underway.
Al-Qaida member condemns Saudi king for holding interfaith conference, claiming that bringing the religions together to discuss things (although, from other accounts, it sounded more like an evangelizing of Islam than an interfaith discussion) is “equating other religions with Islam”, and we know how picky people get when it looks like a religion other than theirs is getting any sort of positive attention, rather than being burned and slaughtered like the subhumans they are. CNS does its best to add fuel to the “All Muslims are terrorists” fire by publicizing a study that claims significant numbers of the Muslim minority at UK universities hold extreme views, based on their want to adopt sharia into UK law, are pursuing a caliphate, and/or think killing to defend one’s religion is acceptable (with a smaller part saying that killing to promote is acceptable, too). Should we poll the same of the Christian contingent, and make sure to get a good sampling of those in active Christian organizations? I wonder what the percentages will be. Depending on your point of view, too, the problem could be an overabundance of young men in a repressive and not-improving (despite oil revenues) world needing somewhere to go to get their testosterone out, and wars and fighting looks to be a pretty good way of doing it.
All of this may be moot, of course, as more dire warnings that Iran intends to send nuclear missiles at the United States ramp up the fear that it will all be over because the leaders of Iran are suicidal enough to attack, whether by nuke material or EMP from explosion, even knowing the retaliation.
Last out of this particular segment, the RAND corporation has published a study on how terror groups end, and concludes that the use of police forces and intelligence is far more effective, and resulted in the destruction of more terror groups, than any military solution. So... by invading and declaring a war on terror, we’re actually making it harder to accomplish the stated goals of the war on terror? That’s an interesting twist.
Domestically: In an age where video is ubiquitous, if you lie about what someone did to try and make it look like you were justified, don't be surprised if someone produces film to the contrary. The Critical Mass rider looks to have been targeted by the cop, from the body langauge and acceleration of the cop into the rider, rather than the rider running into him, as the officer claims. Furthermore, despite having been struck hard enough that the rider went from lane to curb, according to eyewitnesses, he still managed to “resist arrest” and engage in “disorderly conduct”. After the video’s appearance, the officer has been suspended pending an investigation. They may also want to investigate how much the officer perjured himself in his official account.
A victim of church abuse in the form of an "exorcism" has indicated they will make it a federal case, hopefully making it possible for the Supreme Court to decide on the matter as to whether one really can hide behind religious doctrine as an excuse for abuse, especially of minors. Well, if you can get someone for hazing that results in injury or death, then you should be able to get someone for religious “exorcisms” or other actions that result in injury or death.
The Enivronmental Protection Agency's chief of staff sent an internal e-mail advising EPA pollution invesitgators to direct all inquiries from congressional committees, the GAO, or the EPA's own inspector general to a specifically designated person. Attempt to streamline communication or attempt to shut down communication outside the official line? You decide.
Not everything that the Democrats want to do for the convention is going smoothly. For the current moment, attempts to make the convention green through the purcahse of carbon offsets from wind power have ended up funding a turbine that doesn't always work reliably. Got to get the bugs out of the systems, no doubt. Such things can be expected - and probably ridiculed, because despite the more recent push to adopt better energy technology, a lot of people still believe both NIMBY and that anything going up should be highly-refined and work perfectly, all the time. That, and their obsession with things costing as little as possible, regardless of origin.
Not that it will ever happen, but at elast one legislator is trying to get others to consider decriminalizing small marijuana use. Perhaps if this were the case, the absolute CF that was Rachel Hoffman's death might not have happened. The DEA’s position on the legalizing is priceless - “Smoked marijuana has not withstood the rigors of science -- it is not medicine and it is not safe...Legalization of marijuana, no matter how it begins, will come at the expense of our children and public safety. It will create dependency and treatment issues, and open the door to use of other drugs, impaired health, delinquent behavior, and drugged drivers.” In other words. “If you do marijuana even once, you’ll become a crack whore who kills kids, tries to get teens hooked, and gets high whenever possible.” Is that position coming before or after the studies that are beginning to show in controlled conditions, marijuana is pretty effective as a medicine, and the other studies that say most people in the county jail are there for small marijuana parties?
Something worth watching - the growth of Wal-Mart over the years, over time. At times, makes me wonder whether you could get good comparison to the springing up of Wal-Mart and the growth patterns of entities like viruses and cancers... - and it might work for other multinational types.
In our candidate matters, more coverage does not necessarily mean more positive coverage, Liberal Seagull notes. Not that it will stop people from complaining about liberal media bias. Paul Weyrich thinks the media is contributing to rhetoric making Senator Obama President before he actually is, with dire warnings that journalism will die and voters will lash out at such presumptions. Additionally, one of the rules of politics appears to be that nothing in one’s past is safe, as indicated by the continued attempts of some organizations to obtain the thesis paper Senator Obama wrote 25 years ago while at university. Seriously. People want to dig dirt up on the Senator so much that they’ll go all the way back to papers he wrte in college? Is there anyone who wants to see the same sort of material from Senator McCain? If it’s that fragging important, both candidates should get equal scrutiny.
However, it appears the Washington Post is keeping the eye on the ball by making mention that the McCain campaign got a nice $1.1 million infusion from oil copmanies once the Senator started supporting offshore drilling. Isn’t that an interesting cause and effect chain?
Landing somewhere in the realms of the opinion, Red Rabbit and the Professor find CNN's special on black poor to be full of sanctimonious bullsh*t, telling the black poor that they have to improve themselves, that other people know what’s best for them, and that getting and staying married is the best way to achieve it. Shall we play “Blame the Victim”?
Michael Shermer takes rhetoric up a notch with the idea that mankind needs to generate a Type 1 civilization before we can become a Type 1 technological society, turning us into the hated and feared One World Government (sort of) before we gain the power to harnes energy equal to that of our planet.
Jonah Goldberg devotes column space to saying why supporting the 1968 Olympic Black Power gesture is spitting on the Olympic ideal of athletics without politics, and useless, anyway, because there was progress happening, even if it was slow.
There is always a plethora of opinions about the candidates, as well. David Limbaugh thinkgs Democrats should be shaking their heads in disbelief at the nomination of Senator Obama, because he’s a cheese-headed surrender monkey stubbornly refusing to admit that he was totally wrong about Iraq and the surge. Obviously, this makes him a foreign-policy weenie, an embarassment to his party, and he lacks any sort of real plan on how to deal with other countries in the Middle East. Cal Thomas believes the Senator has built expectations of him up to Jesus-like levels, with the eventual problem that big expectations will lead to disappointment and cynicism. Richard Cohen continues with an uncertainty theme, asking "What has Obama done?" to prove himself as capable. I do believe some part of the appeal of the Senator to his voting base is just that - no giant record proving that he can be bought and sold, and the potential of managing to avoid that record, if elected. Byron York wants more people to laugh at Senator Obama and find humor in the following he’s created. Apparently, taking him so darn seriously helps contribute to those inflated expectations.
In science and technology, giving alleged yeti hairs the twice-over with DNA tests and high-powered microscopes, possible drugs to halt Alzheimer's, although the ability to replay memories and file them during sleep gets worse as we age. We also have some ways that human activity triggers natural disaster responses. Last out of this section, jetpacks, yo. For a mere $100K. If that’s not enough, try the Rocket Racing League.
Last for tonight, Harry Eng's Impossible Bottles. There are ways of making things much bigger than a bottleneck fit through it. All we’d have to do is think. And thinking was what Harry Eng did really well.
There’s also Mom, Dad.... I'm in to steampunk.
