Video Debunk: Kantor video about "Indiana" is faked
There's a video clip circulated by notorious nutjob Michelle Malkin making the rounds; it's of Democratic advisor Mickey Kantor, who is currently advising on the Clinton campaign. The scene is an edited clip from the 1993 movie "The War Room" about the 1992 Bill Clinton campaign. The movie followed Kantor, Stephanapoulos and Carville as they worked to get Clinton elected....
Current Events
Stuff that happened recently. Obviously. [303 entries.]
Lovely
I guess I should have expected a denial of service attack on my site; that's about the level of ethical behavior in the Republican base in Indianapolis politics. It's been almost exactly a year since I wrote "I Am Not an Activist" and after that scaled back my writing about local political issues in favor of more relevant topics. In...
America's Toe-Tapping Menace
From the opinion page of the New York Times, a piece by Laura M. MacDonald: WHAT is shocking about Senator Larry Craig's bathroom arrest is not what he may have been doing tapping his shoe in that stall, but that Minnesotans are still paying policemen to tap back. For almost 40 years most police departments have been aware of something...
Why do They Hate Us?
From the article "Why do They Hate Us?" by Mohsin Hamid in the Washington Post: When I mentioned the final campaign of the Cold War to my fellow freshmen at Princeton, few seemed to know much about it. Eighteen years later, most people I meet in the United States are astounded to learn that the period ever occurred. But in...
Bart Peterson's Letter to Marion County Property Tax Payers
Making the rounds via email: July 20, 2007 Dear Neighbors: We have taken the first important steps toward long-term property tax reform. The Governor’s order of a Marion County reassessment is welcome news to our friends and neighbors who have been shocked by the unacceptable tax bills issued this month. Thanks to the reassessment, Marion County tax bills will be...
Rich College Republicans want you to fight in Iraq, so they don't have to.
Max Blumenthal takes us on a hilarious and shocking tour of the College Republican National Convention, where the GOP's next generation cheer on the war in Iraq, then make sorry excuses for why they can't serve....
Rich white douchebags count on racism to win in 2008
During a panel discussion of the 2008 presidential election on the July 15 edition of NBC's Meet the Press, syndicated columnist Robert Novak asserted: "Republicans are very pessimistic about 2008. When you talk to them off the record, they don't see how they can win this thing. And then they think for a minute, and only the Democratic Party,...
Feel Good Inc.
Via Shakespeare's Sister, via Andrew Sullivan:...
Al-Qaida has rebuilt, U.S. intel warns
From the Associated Press: WASHINGTON - U.S. intelligence analysts have concluded al-Qaida has rebuilt its operating capability to a level not seen since just before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, The Associated Press has learned. The conclusion suggests that the group that launched the most devastating terror attack on the United States has been able to regroup along the Afghan-Pakistani...
A Must-Read Article: "A Mistake of Historic Proportions
Kathy Kattenburg, one of the bloggers over at Shakesville posted a must-read article on the state of the middle east, Iraq, and the world-wide catastrophic consequences that will occur if we make the of trying to attack Iran. People were writing similar prescient words before the Iraq invasion; if we had listened to them, we might not be in the...
Louisiana Town Banns Saggy Pants
It's a shame they're making this illegal really.... DELCAMBRE, La. (AP) - It soon will be a crime in this Cajun-country town to let the waistband of your pants sag too low in public. Mayor Carol Broussard has said he will sign an ordinance the town council approved this week setting penalties of up to six months in jail and...
4 Deaths from Rare Brain Disease in NE Indiana
A very disturbing Associated Press report about a rare set of deaths in the Fort Wayne area. FORT WAYNE, Ind. -- A rare degenerative brain disorder was suspected in the deaths of four people in northeastern Indiana during the past five months, health officials said. Allen County Health Commissioner Deborah McMahan said the deaths were suspected to have been caused...
"I'm here to shoot a pilot"
Boing Boing is questioning whether this is actually true, but it seems to be making the rounds and has shown up on numerous news sites: Director Mike Figgis spent longer at LAX airport than intended. He'd arrived in Los Angeles, along with half the acting and directing world, for what is known as 'pilot season', when the big studios try...
Joss Whedon on the "Honor" Killing of Dua Khalil
Joss Whedon recently wrote a long piece about the "Honor" Killing of Dua Khalil, and asked that it be posted on Whedonesque, an unofficial fan site of his work. I haven't written anything about this event, although I read about it on several blogs, because it's the kind of occurrence that leaves me chilled with anguish and a feeling of...
My Past Falwell Greatest Hits
Jokes about Falwell from the past that people are suddenly linking to now. No guarantees on the quality of the jokes... The Theological Significance of Tinky Winky 6 Reasons Tinky Winky Can't Be Gay The Top 13 Reasons Jerry Falwell Thinks Your Favorite TV Character is Gay The Batty Hymn of the Repugnant Top Ten Jerry Falwell Pet Peeves About...
OMFG - I wound up on Joe.My.God.
This tabloid magazine photo I snapped on a knee-jerk reaction and then blogged about has been making the rounds of the internets; I swore I wasn't going to do a "oooh, look how popular I am! I'm famous!" post, because that's so lame. Plus, I've had other things to worry about. But today it's on Joe.My.God., which is really all...
FDA limits Chinese food additive imports
The FDA release from the FDA site. USA Today explains: The Food and Drug Administration is enforcing a new import alert that greatly expands its curtailment of some food ingredients imported from China, authorizing border inspectors to detain ingredients used in everything from noodles to breakfast bars. The new restriction is likely to cause delays in the delivery of raw...
Melamine has been added to pet food for years
According to the New York Times. My first cat Idgie died of renal failure. Now I'm upset that maybe it didn't have to happen. UPDATE: Scientists are figuring out how the melamine contaminate reacts with other ingredients to kill pets. Dr. Perry Martos and colleagues from the Agriculture and Food Laboratory at Guelph's Laboratory Services announced Friday they have discovered...
Crothersville Hate Crime Murderers May Get Off Easy
Advance Indiana continues to follow up on the story I noted earlier of the brutal hate crime beating murder of Aaron Hall in Crothersville, Indiana. Gary Welsh reports the criminals are being charged lightly given the bias and brutality of the crime, and may even get off with an outrageous manslaughter conviction. Read the details. Gary also notes that no...
How many people will die because of this false headline?
It's one thing when they have bat boys and aliens in the tabloids, but this false headline is going to get people killed. The guy WAS NOT gay - there's just no evidence of it. But now every retarded redneck in the country will read this in line at Wal-Mart (because that's the only thing they can read) buy...
Virginia Tech Student Live Blogged the Tragedy
Bryce's LiveJournal here....
Why do straights hate gays?
By Larry Kramer March 20, 2007 DEAR STRAIGHT PEOPLE, Why do you hate gay people so much? Gays are hated. Prove me wrong. Your top general just called us immoral. Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, is in charge of an estimated 65,000 gay and lesbian troops, some fighting for our country in Iraq. A right-wing political...
Delicious Nut Sale (Spay-Neuter Serv.)
Several years ago, I posted a memo to my site that went around at work, because I thought it was really funny -- It was a fund-raising notice from Spay-Neuter Services of Indiana announcing their "Delicious Annual Nut Sale" to raise money for their programs. Yesterday, one of the folks from the organization found the post on my blog and...
Apparently, I'm Chopped Liver
Hmmmm - I guess my 20,000 visitors a day don't rate a mention on Indiana Equality's thank you letter for the Rally organizing... Many, many other businesses, organizations and bloggers contributed greatly to Monday's success by promoting participation in the rally. A big thanks to Advance Indiana; American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees Council 62; American Values Alliance;...
Angry Mob Attacks 3 Gay Men in Jamaica
According to the Jamaica Observer: THREE men branded as homosexuals were yesterday rescued by the police from an angry mob outside a pharmacy in Tropical Plaza, where they had been holed up for almost an hour. But even after the police managed to take the young men from the Monarch Pharmacy, one of the three was hit with a stone,...
Edwards Blogger Resigns
Although John Edwards decided against firing the two bloggers from his campaign that were under attack by notorious homophobe and anti-semite Bill Donohue, one of them, Amanda Marcotte, has decided to resign anyway. Days after Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards decided against firing two liberal bloggers with a history of inflammatory writing, one resigned last night with a blast at...
The Notorious Al-Gebra Movement
At New York's Kennedy airport today, an individual later discovered to be a public school teacher, was arrested trying to board a flight while in possession of a ruler, a protractor, a set square, a slide rule, and a calculator. At a morning press conference, Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez said he believes the man is a member of the notorious...
Snickers Superbowl Website Pulled?
UPDATE: Looks like they did indeed pull the site, at least as far as I can see. The URL now goes to the main snickers site instead. UPDATE: Americablog goes into the story in more depth, including pointing out that two of the "alternate endings" of the video result in violence - one with one guy hitting another with an...
SJR-7 Update
SJR-7, the bill to amend the Indiana Constitution to prevent equal marriage rights for gay people, was passed out of the Senate Judiciary Committee today, and will soon be presented to the full Senate for voting - probably next week. That's pretty bad news, especially since two amendments to the legislation that were presented were struck down and it will...
My Testimony on SJR-7
The SJR-7 legislation to amend the Indiana constitution is going to be heard in committee tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. The committee will meet in the Senate Chambers - 3rd floor of the Indiana Statehouse (200 W. Washington Street in Indianapolis). Everyone is invited to attend - a good crowd against the legislation will make an impact, so if you...
Tony Dungy to Speak For Anti-Gay Hate Group
This is really disturbing - Colts coach Tony Dungy will be speaking at a dinner for the Indiana Family Institute, which is a right-wing hate group whose primary purpose is to promote hatred towards gay people. Make no mistake about what their goals really are - in the same way the the Irish Republican army has a legal, public face...
"What You People Should Do"
I'm shamelessly cribbing this post by Chris Douglas from bilerico.com, because it's so true and bears repeating in as many places as possible -- so hopefully people like RiShawn Biddle with see it. As long as we're contemplating the advice from the straight community about the strategy employed by various sectors of the gay community, I'll add my own beef....
Rishawn Biddle and Questions on Hate Crimes
Over on the Expresso blog, Rishawn Biddle asks this question regarding the current hate crimes legislation in the house. 3.) Can the supporters of the hate crimes penalities proposed in House Bill 1459 muster up evidence that gays are being murdered or assaulted at any higher rate than the rest of the population? More importantly, doesn't the laws currently on...
Nigeria Outlaws Existence of Gay People
According to the UK Gay News site: A new bill, currently being debated in the Nigerian parliament, is the most comprehensively homophobic legislation ever proposed in any country in the world. Its extremism is rivaled only by the death penalty that exists for homosexuality in several Islamic fundamentalist states. The bill is primarily concerned with banning same-sex marriage, but its...
Anti-Marriage Equality Amendment Introduced to Indiana Legislature
As Bilerico is reporting - the massively flawed legislation to put an anti-marriage equality amendment (banning civil marriage for same-sex partners) on the ballot for voting had been re-introduced to the legislature. Here's the proposed bill: DIGEST OF INTRODUCED BILL Definition of marriage. Provides that marriage in Indiana consists only of the union of one man and one woman. Provides...
Bush Makes with the Crazy Talk
The Washington Post has a recent interview with Bush in which he, um, talks more crazy than his usual batch. Check out these: As he searches for a new strategy for Iraq, Bush has now adopted the formula advanced by his top military adviser to describe the situation. "We're not winning, we're not losing," Bush said in an interview with...
UK Terror Plot - charges dropped on key suspect
Here's one I'll bet you don't hear in the news -- and I'm sure it won't be noted on certain local blogs at all. One of the key suspects in the "War on Liquids on a Plane" boondoggle of August was released due to lack of evidence. A Pakistani judge has ruled there is not enough evidence to try a...
Say what?
From Bush's Radio Address this weekend: Whatever your opinion of the outcome, all Americans can take pride in the example our democracy sets for the world by holding elections even in a time of war. "Even in a time of war"? - Like there was a possibility that we wouldn't?...
Bush publishes info on how to build a Nuke
From the New York Times: Last March, the federal government set up a Web site to make public a vast archive of Iraqi documents captured during the war. The Bush administration did so under pressure from Congressional Republicans who had said they hoped to “leverage the Internet” to find new evidence of the prewar dangers posed by Saddam Hussein. But...
I wish it really were The Onion
The news satire paper The Onion is going to need to step it up a notch if they're going to keep ahead of the ridiculousness of current real news, these days, There are three articles I've read this week online that I at first expected to be articles from that paper; turns out they aren't, which is scary. Or amusing....
Blogger Forum with Progressive Candidates
I attended a blogger forum at lunch to day, where three local progressive candidates for office met with local bloggers to answer questions and talk about their political issues and campaigns. The candidates were: Russell Brown ( Democratic candidate, Senate District 31) Dr. David Orentlicher (Democratic Representative, House District 86) John Barnes (Democratic candidate, House District 89) And the other...
Great, Just Great.
Priest comes forward to tell of his inappropriate behavior with Mark Foley when Foley was young. Let me make it really clear: I was not molested as a kid. Most of my gay friends were never molested as kids. I have several friends who were molested. Some of them are straight and some are gay, and there seems to be...
People You Meet While Gardening
I met two interesting people this weekend while planting bulbs in my front yard. One of the is our neighbor, Craig, who owns the house to the north of us, and is moving back in. He's not new to our neighborhood -- his family has owned the house for decades -- but he's just now returning because he's been in...
Mark Foley, and "real" gay relationships
In an opinion piece for the LA Times, Michelangelo Signorile says that the media should have "outed" Mark Foley as gay soon after his hypocritcal votes in favor of anti-gay legislation. I agree with Signorile about "outing" hypocritical public figures, and always have. But there's something else in the article that I wanted to highlight... Foley lived in a glass...
What flavor of crack do you think these guys are smoking?
From an article on BBC News: Air passengers 'could be tagged' Electronically tagging passengers at airports could help the fight against terrorism, scientists have said. The prototype technology is to be tested at an airport in Hungary, and could, if successful, become a reality "in two years". The work is being carried out at a new research centre, based at...
National Coming Out Day
Okay, I've been officially called out by one of my gay friends for being flip about National Stop Lying About Your Sexual Orientation Coming Out Day, so I'll 'straighten' my act out and give the day the attention it deserves. Nineteen years ago on October 11, 1987, I was a student at Ball State University. I had been out of...
Life in Baghdad
Jane Arraf, an NBC News Correspondent describes what life is like in Baghdad, where she's covering the war every day... Some readers and viewers think we journalists are exaggerating about the situation in Iraq. I can almost understand that because who would want to believe that things are this bad? Particularly when so many people here started out with such...
Homophobia and anonymity online
Kim Ficera of Afterellen.com does some research on anonymous posters and homophobia on youtube.com and in online sites like myspace.com, after reading the story of a woman who had a fake myspace page created by her disgruntled students, who falsely claimed she was gay. After delving deep into the world of anonymous webspaces and open displays of anti-gay prejudice, Ficera...
Ben Stein is fucking batshit crazy
Former Nixon speechwriter and Ferris Bueller actor Ben Stein weighs in on the Foley scandal in the American Spectator, illustrating that he's not only homophobic as hell, but off his damned rocker. We have a Republican man in Congress who sent e-mails to teenage boys asking them what they were wearing, and an entire party, the Democrats, whose primary constituency,...
Simply Naughty Emails
The White House referred to Republican Representative Mark Foley's sexual contact with underage congressional pages as "simply naughty emails." SNOW: Yes, look, I hate to tell you, but it’s not always pretty up there on Capitol Hill. And there have been other scandals, as you know, that have been more than simply naughty e-mails. Does this seem like "simply naughty...
The "dangerous" gay community
From today's Indianapolis Star: But lawmakers and judges are a different matter. Legislators have been carrying guns into the Capitol for years, exercising what they say is their Second Amendment right to bear arms. Twenty-five of Indiana's 150 senators and representatives had permits to carry concealed weapons in 2003, according to a study published by The Journal Gazette of Fort...
Spy Agencies Say Iraq War Worsens Terrorism Threat
From the New York Times: WASHINGTON, Sept. 23 — A stark assessment of terrorism trends by American intelligence agencies has found that the American invasion and occupation of Iraq has helped spawn a new generation of Islamic radicalism and that the overall terrorist threat has grown since the Sept. 11 attacks. The classified National Intelligence Estimate attributes a more direct...
The Hugo Chavez Book Club
When Hugo Chavez spoke to the United Nations on Wednesday, calling George W. Bush "the devil," he help up a copy of MIT linguistics professor Noam Chomsky's "Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance" and recommended it to the General Assembly and the American people. "The people of the United States should read this … instead of watching Superman...
Thailand
My friend and co-worker Chatree Campiranon is in Thailand right now visiting his parents, and he's documenting in photos some of the current news there. He's an an excellent amateur art photographer and his site is a very nice gallery of his experiments with different photo techniques. Chatree is a Thai native who went to school here in Indiana and...
The purser wants you to stop that
New Yorker article on a gay couple who were ordered to stop kissing on an airplane: Shortly after takeoff, Varnier nodded off, leaning his head on Tsikhiseli. A stewardess came over to their row. “The purser wants you to stop that,” she said. “I opened my eyes and was, like, ‘Stop what?’ ” Varnier recalled the other day. “The touching...
Bad Identity Data Follows You Around
Boing Boing details an example of the kind of personal data mining problems I discussed in my review of No Place to Hide: Behind the Scenes of Our Emerging Surveillance Society. One of their readers explains his problem: What, precisely, did it turn up? Ah, the woman could not tell me that, because she herself did not know. She merely...
Polar bears drown amid Arctic thaw
By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent, Reuters, Via Scotman.com News: OSLO (Reuters) - Polar bears are drowning and receding Arctic glaciers have uncovered previously unknown islands in a drastic 2006 summer thaw widely blamed on global warming. Signs of wrenching changes are apparent around the Arctic region due to unusual warmth -- the summer minimum for ice is usually reached between...
Chertoff: We Can't Protect the Ports. Scientists: We Must Protect the Ports
At the same time that Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff is telling a Senate committee that we can't afford to protect our ports from terrorist attack, and that we shouldn't because Osama's goal is to drive us into bankruptcy (New York Times article).... Scientists are telling us that our biggest terrorist threat is a stolen nuclear weapon coming through the...
Make Sure You're Registered to Vote!
In all the recent hullabaloo surrounding the GOP purging voter rolls in Indiana, it turns out that although I returned my postcard with my corrected new address on it promptly, my voter registration was not updated. I talked to at least one other person who discovered that they are no longer registered to vote either after calling the Marion County...
Ann Richards
Former Texas Governor Ann Richards died. That's too bad, I really loved her. She was an excellent person. "I did not want my tombstone to read, 'She kept a really clean house.' I think I'd like them to remember me by saying, 'She opened government to everyone.'"...
Princeton Researchers Break Voting Machine Security
Princeton University's Center for Information Technology Policy have proven that they can easily, undetectibly hack Diebold voting machines and alter votes and the outcome of elections, and they're publishing a paper on their findings. Abstract This paper presents a fully independent security study of a Diebold AccuVote-TS voting machine, including its hardware and software. We obtained the machine from a...
Air Force chief: Test weapons on testy U.S. mobs
Via my friend Ian at Social Oracle, this CNN article: WASHINGTON (AP) -- Nonlethal weapons such as high-power microwave devices should be used on American citizens in crowd-control situations before being used on the battlefield, the Air Force secretary said Tuesday. The object is basically public relations. Domestic use would make it easier to avoid questions from others about possible...
Journalist under criminal charges for filming Katrina evacuees
A journalist and a TV producer working on a piece about Katrina refugees have been charged with the crime of videotaping a “critical national security structure” in Louisiana... Palast Charged with Journalism in the First Degree: On August 22, for LinkTV and Democracy Now! we videotaped the thousands of Katrina evacuees still held behind a barbed wire in a trailer...
Real people remember
Joe.My.God's account of "That Day." Ian William's memories of 9/11: "no one wept except the willow" 3 Quarks Daily's contributors all write about "Five Years Later." I'm so glad to read personal accounts because that was what struck me about the media coverage from that day -- and for about a week or so after -- the grand hype machine...
War's Critics Abetting Terrorists, Cheney Says
article on the Washington Post: "They can't beat us in a stand-up fight -- they never have -- but they're absolutely convinced they can break our will, [that] the American people don't have the stomach for the fight," Cheney said on NBC's "Meet the Press." The vice president said U.S. allies in Afghanistan and Iraq "have doubts" the United States...
How likely are you to die in a terrorist attack?
Via a friend, this article on Wired News titled "One Million Ways to Die": But despite the never-ending litany of warnings and endless stories of half-baked plots foiled, how likely are you, statistically speaking, to die from a terrorist attack? Comparing official mortality data with the number of Americans who have been killed inside the United States by terrorism since...
Secret Cameras in Downtown Indianapolis
With a WISH-TV headline like "Secret Cameras Could Help Keep Indianapolis Safe" -- gee, I don't know what I'm supposed to think about that. I guess, maybe I should feel safer? Whereas the alternate headline "Secret Cameras Could Help Keep Indianapolis Under the Thumb of Big Brother" would be equally accurate, but I guess it wouldn't telegraph the same "soothing...
Local News and Online Reporting
WTHR has this story on their website: Study: Omega 3 can save lives Experts say beefing up intake of Omega 3 fatty acids can save lives more than AED's and implanted defibrillators. Omega 3 is found in foods like fish and nuts, and some experts believe they can lower the risk for heart attack because of their ability to reduce...
ABC's false "Docudrama"
The ABC television network unleashed a promotional blitz in the last week for a new "docudrama" called "The Path to 9/11". ABC has thrown its corporate might behind the two-night production, and bills it as a public service: a TV event, to quote the ABC tagline, "based on the 9/11 Commission Report". That's false. "The Path to 9/11" is actually...
Why Did The Chicken Cross The Road?
Author Unknown ARISTOTLE: It is the nature of chickens to cross the road. BUDDHA: Asking this question denies your own chicken nature. THE BIBLE: And God came down from the heavens and He said unto the chicken, "Thou shalt cross the road." And the chicken crossed the road and there was much rejoicing. PAT BUCHANAN: To steal a job from...
Fighting Terror with Anti-Terror
Bruce Schneier says what I've been saying since day one of the London Terror Plot, only more eloquently. Perhaps he wasn't burdened with someone poking him with a sharp stick constantly. Another thought experiment: Imagine for a moment that the British government arrested the 23 suspects without fanfare. Imagine that the TSA and its European counterparts didn't engage in pointless...
Picking apart Gary Welsh's coverage
Gary Welsh has a blog post about a recent Washington Post article on the London Terror Plot, in which he takes the opportunity to make some swipes at my blog posts about the event. "While many bloggers opposed to President Bush's policies for fighting the war on terror scoffed at initial reports that Islamic terrorists were planning to bring down...
An Inconvenient Truth
We went to see "An Inconvenient Truth" over the weekend. You really want to see this movie. You may not know that you want to, but you do. You may be on the fence about the issue, or afraid that it's boring, or unconcerned. You may think you disagree with the movie. Trust me. You want to see it. You'll...
Democracy in Iraq is a fading idea
(Via Shakespeare' Sister). In a NY Times article on the increased violence in Iraq, and the looming shadow of a civil war there, this revelation shows up at the very end -- Bush officials are preparing to abandon the idea of a democracy for the country. Bush administration officials now admit that Iraqi government’s original plan to rein in the...
Chemist on the implausibility of the chemical bomb
I knew an analysis like this one would come along sooner or later -- a chemist examines the implausibility of taking a chemical bomb on board an airplane and actually having a "successful" event with it. He believes it's pretty implausible -- for a liquid substance especially, because of the instabilities of the liquids. But he does throw out some...
Fear Itself
From Kung Fu Monkey, via Masson's Blog: FDR: Oh, I’m sorry, was wiping out our entire Pacific fleet supposed to intimidate us? We have nothing to fear but fear itself, and right now we’re coming to kick your ass with brand new destroyers riveted by waitresses. How’s that going to feel? CHURCHILL: Yeah, you keep bombing us. We’ll be in...
Daily Show: Terror Threat #1...Indiana!
Here's a show for all you guys who think we're in such terrible danger -- a little examination of all the terrorist targets in the state of Indiana, as reported by our crack team of Department of Homeland Security staffers. Gotta protect those pie-giving angels of Indiana!...
Terrorists Plotting
And this funny is from today's Wondermark comic: See all the panels on his site. Because keeping grandma from Illinois from carrying her water bottle on the plane is really gonna stop some terrorist activity. Also banning executives from carrying laptops and books on the plane, too, which are part of the air restrictions in Europe. How about just keeping...
iPods and Gatorade
From CNN: CNN: "Terrorists planned to use MP3 players and energy drinks to blow up as many as 10 jetliners bound for the United States, authorities said Thursday. A senior congressional source said it's believed the plotters planned to mix a 'British version of Gatorade' with a gel-like substance to make an explosive that they would possibly trigger with an...
Somebody get these M-F liquids off this M-F Plane
From John Castle, via Boing Boing....
"mass murder on an unimaginable scale"
WTF does that mean? Seriously. I'm reading this article on the latest "terror plot" from the BBC News, and UK Officials are providing absolutely no details whatsoever about what the plot actually was, how close it came to being implemented, what kinds of weapons were involved -- nothing, but hyperbole and jacked up security regulations. Details, people, please. After the...
Newest addition to my regular reading
Fundies Say the Darndest Things A blog that watches Christian message boards, blogs and news groups and culls the most laughable, craziest things that fundamentalists say on the internet. What's really scary is that these folks are ON THE INTERNET, meaning they have access to real information and education. And they still believe this crap. I think back to my...
I am the Troll on the bridge, give me money
Stephanie's cat Lucy is missing out. Recently, she's been camping out at the top of the stairs hissing at the other cats when the try to come up, like the Troll under the bridge that doesn't let people pass. But apparently she didn't realize she should be charging money to let them by.......
Prize for killing gay people
Via Good As You: Just a month before the 2006 WorldPride Parade is scheduled to be held in Jerusalem (Aug. 6-12), protest flyers are reportedly being distributed to residents of the capital city offering a cash reward to "anyone who brings about the death of one of the residents of Sodom and Gomorrah." I haven't always been a fan of...
Gay People in Iraq sentenced to Death
From the Times Online UK: THE death threat was delivered to Karazan’s father early in the morning by a masked man wearing a police uniform. The scribbled note was brief. Karazan had to die because he was gay. In the new Baghdad, his sexuality warranted execution by the religious militias. The father was told that if he did not hand...
The Handmaid's Tale springs to life?
According to the Washington Post: Forever Pregnant Guidelines: Treat Nearly All Women as Pre-Pregnant New federal guidelines ask all females capable of conceiving a baby to treat themselves -- and to be treated by the health care system -- as pre-pregnant, regardless of whether they plan to get pregnant anytime soon. Among other things, this means all women between first...
The NSA has your phone records
I'm sure you've heard the news, but in case you haven't -- as USA Today and hundreds of other media outlets are reporting, several major phone companies, including AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth, turned over all of their customer phone records to the NSA -- affecting tens of millions of Americans. They turned over ALL their records -- not just records...
Study: Lesbians' Brains React Differently
Via Yahoo News: Lesbians' brains react differently to sex hormones than those of heterosexual women, new research indicates. That's in line with an earlier study that had indicated gay men's brain responses were different from straight men — though the difference for men was more pronounced than has now been found in women. Lesbians' brains reacted somewhat, though not completely,...
The Accuracy of the King James Bible
While locating the original source of the cartoon below, I came across a post discussing the accuracy of the King James Version of the Bible, in which the author consults a biblical scholar, Dr. David Bosworth, Assistant Professor of Theology and resident Old Testament scholar at Barry University in Miami, Florida, who gives a lengthy, but excellent, explanation of why...
Up With Grups
This article hits uncomfortably close to home. She said, pondering her upcoming 38th birthday....
Libby Testifies that Bush Authorized Leak
According to numerous news reports, Libby testified that Bush authorized the intelligence leaks that led to the outing of Valerie Plame as a CIA agent....
Conservatives were cry-baby children
That's just too funny for words: Remember the whiny, insecure kid in nursery school, the one who always thought everyone was out to get him, and was always running to the teacher with complaints? Chances are he grew up to be a conservative. At least, he did if he was one of 95 kids from the Berkeley area that social...
Peak Oil
And now for the latest scare to cause you to horde food and panic (no, no, not bird flu. We gays are causing that later) the Peak Oil crisis. Yup. some people are saying that billions of people are going to die because of the scarcity of oil. I wonder if I can move to Grandma's farm and hide out?...
Brokeback Mountain
I've been biting my tongue listening to all the hype surrounding Brokeback Mountain, both before and after the Oscars, and reading what people, both gay and straight, had to say in movie reviews and on various blogs. Now that Annie Proulx has had her say, I feel a little less constrained about unleashing the hounds. So here are some random...
How to Run A Country
Shamelessly stolen from the comments section at Taking Down Words: On his trip to Great Britain, George Bush had a meeting with Queen Elizabeth. He asked her, "How does one manage to run a country so smoothly?" "That`s easy," she replied, "You surround yourself with intelligent ministers and advisors." "But how can I tell whether they are intelligent or not?"...