January 31, 2005
Seymour Hersh: "We've Been Taken Over By a Cult"
"Since we installed our puppet government, this man, Allawi, who was a member of the Mukabarat, the secret police of Saddam... and is basically Saddam-lite... since we have installed him on June 28, July, August, September, October, November, every month, one thing happened: the number of sorties, bombing raids by one plane, and the number of tonnage dropped has grown exponentially each month.
We are systematically bombing that country. There are no embedded journalists at Doha, the Air Force base I think we’re operating out of. No embedded journalists at the aircraft carrier, Harry Truman. That's the aircraft carrier that I think is doing many of the operational fights. There’s no air defense, It's simply a turkey shoot. They come and hit what they want. We know nothing. We don't ask. We're not told. We know nothing about the extent of bombing.
So if they're going to carry out an election and if they're going to succeed, bombing is going to be key to it, which means that what happened in Fallujah, essentially Iraq -- some of you remember Vietnam -- Iraq is being turn into a “free-fire zone” right in front of us. Hit everything, kill everything.
I have a friend in the Air Force, a Colonel, who had the awful task of being an urban bombing planner, planning urban bombing, to make urban bombing be as unobtrusive as possible. I think it was three weeks ago today, three weeks ago Sunday after Fallujah I called him at home. I'm one of the people -- I don't call people at work. I call them at home, and he has one of those caller I.D.’s, and he picked up the phone and he said, “Welcome to Stalingrad.” We know what we're doing. This is deliberate. It's being done. They're not telling us. They're not talking about it.
Top 100 Corporate Criminals of the 1990's
"...few Americans realize that when they buy Exxon stock, or when they fill up at an Exxon gas station, they are in fact supporting a criminal recidivist corporation.
And few Americans realize that when the take a ride on a cruise ship owned by Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, they are riding on a ship owned by a criminal recidivist corporation."
~I'm woefully ignorant when it comes to these crimes. I know more about the 1970s serial killer John Wayne Gacy (or Ted Bundy or Son of Sam) than what crimes earned Archer Daniels Midland, for example, a $100 million fine.
Gore Vidal & Bush's Inauguration Speech
"...this is a country based on slavery, is also based upon the dispossession of what we miscall the Indians. They were the native Americans, at least before -- long before our arrival. So, we were not dedicated to any of these principles. We were dedicated to making as much money and stealing as much land as we could and building up a republic, not a democracy. The word democracy was hated by the founding fathers. It does not appear at any point in the constitution, nor does it appear in any pleasant sense in the Federalist Papers. So, we are not a democracy, and here we are exporting it as though it were just something -- well, we just happened to make, a lot of democracy, and cotton and tin and stuff like that. So, let’s --let's do some exports of democracy. We don't have it, and most countries don't have it, and not many countries want it. Democracy was tried only once, and that was in the Fifth Century B.C....
Hail to the Chief we have chosen for the nation,
Hail to the Chief! We salute him, one and all.
Hail to the Chief, as we pledge co-operation
In proud fulfillment of a great, noble call.
Yours is the aim to make this grand country grander,
This you will do, That's our strong, firm belief.
Hail to the one we selected as commander,
Hail to the President! Hail to the Chief!
[Repeat] @
Phun with Photoshop (Non Sequitur)
[View image]
January 30, 2005
Fun in the Great Outdoors
Around here the fields produce buildings like kids' mouths produce teeth.
(Thank you state legislators for you're corporate-friendly tax codes. Thank you construction-industry lobby for your generous interest in our state officials. Thank you all for putting our tax dollars to work.
Workshop Looks at Body Sensor Networks
LONDON — lssues relating to the use of wearable/wireless and implantable sensors are to be covered at an event to be held at Imperial College, London on April 12 and 13.
The International Workshop on Wearable and Implantable Body Sensor Networks will bring together scientists from computing, electronics, bioengineering, medicine and industry in order to discuss the latest technological developments and clinical applications of body-sensor networks.
press release/ about the workshop
Outsourcing Phone Sex from India
Some call center operators have secretly set up phone sex operations in Bangalore and Mumbai, though it's strictly against the law and call forwarding to cell phones is making it even harder for the police to nail the offenders...
Text Messaging, E-mail Hurting Deaf Culture
"Like many groups united by distinct traits, the deaf have long had their own culture, centered around and local deaf clubs, where the hearing-impaired could meet and participate in community events. Now, according to an article in the Orlando Sentinel, deaf culture is in danger of being wiped out by some of the very technologies that have made it easier for the deaf to participate in mainstream life: email and text messaging —"
News of the Weird
Students Arrested for Drawings
view detail
"Police in Ocala, Fla., arrested and cuffed two special-education
kids, ages 9 and 10, for making stick-figure drawings depicting
violent acts against other kids. In the interest of freedom of
expression, (News of the Weird) Pro Edition refers you to this chilling, dangerous artwork (but Yr Editor will absolutely not be responsible if you are incited to mayhem)."--Chuck Shepard (NOTWs "The Weekly Pile")
The boys were arrested Monday on charges of making a written threat to kill or harm another person, a second-degree felony. The special education students used pencil and red crayon to draw primitive stick figure scenes on scrap paper that showed a 10-year-old classmate being stabbed and hung, police said.
"The officer found they were drawing these pictures for the sole purpose of intimidating and scaring the victim," said Ocala Police Sgt. Russ Kern. The boy depicted in the drawings told his teacher, who took the sketches and contacted the school dean, Marty Clifford. Clifford called police, who arrested the boys after consulting with the State Attorney's Office.
Parents of both of the arrested boys said they thought the boys should be punished by the school and families, not the legal system.
Ocala police said they stand behind the decision to arrest the children.
"When an adult or even myself look at the picture looked at it at first I was thinking there is really not much to the picture or I would not be that scared by the picture those children drew," Ocala police spokesman Russ Kearn said. "However, we have to put ourselves in his mind and that's the bottom line here. It is his well-being and the way he perceived that picture to be. It actually put him in extreme fear and he was in fear for his life."
January 29, 2005
INSIDE THE STOMACH OF THE DRAGON: THE VICTORY OF THE ENTERTAINMENT ECONOMY
In practically every area of mass culture (film, publishing, games, casinos, TV, radio, automobiles), the distribution systems are now controlled by a few companies. What has resulted is so top-heavy that literally no new forms can be developed. The story stops here, like a game of musical chairs frozen eternally at STOP. No laboratory format, no avant-garde strategies, no subversion from outside (there is an artificial “outside” within the stomach of the dragon). The entertainment economy is so muscle bound, it is unable to lift itself out of the chair.
The costs keep soaring for objects. The shrinking potential keeps growing. Next year, Publishers Weekly will cease reviewing poetry. Books in general have almost no innate system for reviews. New novels are increasingly inconceivable to publish, as the fiction market leans increasingly on genre and established names. The fine arts and independent cinema struggle to built alternatives, but the age of slick and polish remains overwhelmingly dominant.
article by Norman Klein
~Contrary-wise(?): The Pro-Am Revolution
"The 20th century witnessed the rise of professionals in medicine, science, education, and politics. In one field after another, amateurs and their ramshackle organisations were driven out by people who knew what they were doing and had certificates to prove it.
The Pro-Am Revolution argues this historic shift is reversing. We're witnessing the flowering of Pro-Am, bottom-up self-organisation and the crude, all or nothing, categories of professional or amateur will need to be rethought.
A Pro-Am pursues an activity as an amateur, mainly for the love of it, but sets a professional standard. Pro-Ams are unlikely to earn more than a small portion of their income from their pastime but they pursue it with the dedication and commitment associated with a professional.
links via overmorgen
~Is there a contradiction here? Or does stratified monster distribution systems force talented people to work (or play) 'off the reservation'? (I'm picturing the black markets of the old Soviet Union for some reason.)
Create Your Own Caption
A huge mountain of cow manure is seen smoldering at a feedlot near Milford, Neb., Tuesday, Jan. 18, 2005. The estimated 2,000-ton pile of burning cow manure spontaneously combusted about two months ago and continues to smolder despite attempts to douse it. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik) Yahoo
~If you lived here, you'ld be home by now!
Data-Mining the Amazon
[book]
"The Amazon referred to is Amazon.com the online warehouse of books, CDs, movies, toys, etc. which has developed some of the most sophisticated filters for their vast database of transactions. Based on these filters, Amazon makes recommendations to their customers. The artist has collected and cross-fertilized a selection of Amazon recommendations and has graphed relationships between books customers bought on Amazon.com in conjunction with their music CD purchases.
(Angie) Waller's approach adds a political slant by profiling relationships between politically liberal and conservative titles, popular books among the US military, and profiles on world leaders such as George W. Bush and Margaret Thatcher. Waller's familiar forms of systematic charting attempt to give a new take on American politics at the same time as they represent a millisecond of uncanny systematized recommendations. Her aim is to repurpose a supposedly helpful customer service into an amusing window of collective reflection on popular culture and values.
'I don't imagine my book has shed any new light on politics and consumer niches, but perhaps it foreshadows future services to be provided by Amazon. I foresee an excellent dating service on their horizon; it could be called "ConsumerCoupling.com". The research for the book spurred my interest in databases and their relevance to aesthetic and anthropological concerns throughout history.'"
link to more blurbage/ sales / preview
via: couch projects
~A how-to guide to data-mining Amazon.
Henry Darger (1892-1972)
"His landlord was cleaning out his room after his death and came across a startling discovery: alone in his room, Darger had created a beautiful and violent fantasy world, primarily embodied in a 15,000 page epic narrative, "The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What is known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinnian War Storm, Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion."
Illustrated by several hundred large watercolors paintings as well as smaller drawings and collages, the Vivian Girls are seven preadolescent sisters, princesses, sometimes depicted as hermaphrodites, who fight against and ultimately prevail over evil deeds prepetrated by sadistic adults. They are aided in their battles by various Christian armies and also by Blengins, dragon-like animals, both fearsome and gentle, that are absolute protectors of children. The illustrations range from calm and pastoral to brutally violent."
January 28, 2005
Another Columnist Caught With Hand in the Bush Till
One day after President Bush ordered his Cabinet secretaries to stop hiring commentators to help promote administration initiatives, and one day after the second high-profile conservative pundit was found to be on the federal payroll, a third embarrassing hire has emerged. Salon has confirmed that Michael McManus, a marriage advocate whose syndicated column, 'Ethics & Religion,' appears in 50 newspapers, was hired as a subcontractor by the Department of Health and Human Services to foster a Bush-approved marriage initiative.
~See also on Spitting Image these links and great thoughts
Translator Tells of Sexual Tactics Used to Break Prisoners
From Elaine Monaghan in Washington
SCANTILY-CLAD female interrogators taunted devout Muslim detainees at Guantanamo Bay by touching themselves and using sexually humiliating methods, according to an account by a former translator at the camp released yesterday by the Associated Press.
The report was based on nine draft pages from a manuscript for a planned book on how the US military used women to get terrorist suspects to talk, AP said.
The Pentagon has classified the manuscript as secret but the news agency said that it had confirmed the authenticity of the pages it obtained with their author, former Sergeant Erik R. Saar.
story thanks, conscientious
~GRRRLL POWER!
Only in America? Are there any other countries in the world using female soldiers in the war against terror (sic) this way? How do the Israelis use their women soldiers? The Mossad?
Too bad the military doesn't acknowledge homosexuality; that could be another interrogation method.
How about paedophile special forces? Use the prisoners' kids or any young Muslim children as leverage.
The US Military has always been the biggest influence on social change in America. It was like a shot of adrenalin for the Civil Rights Movement. I wonder what kind of social movements we should expect from the men and women who are fighting this war?
(Sexual sadism, it's not just for men anymore.)
Atmospherics/Weather Works:
The Sonification of Meteorology
Atmospherics/Weather Works is a performance, installation, and distributed software project for the sonification of storms (cyclones, for example) and other meteorological events generated directly from data produced by a highly detailed and physically accurate simulation of the weather.
Collaborators:
Andrea Polli, Lead Artist; Glenn Van Knowe, Lead Scientist;
Chuck Varga, Special Effects Designer
link / via the Rhizome exhibition '"Location is Everything"
~Instead of listening to weather reports off the radio your computer could be programmed to play music (or sound effects) based on the forecast. Wagner's the Flight of the Valkeries for a hurricane or thunderstorm; the Witch's theme from the movie the Wizard of Oz as a tornado warning; Jimmy Buffet for clear skies/clear sailing (sorry); the blues for a cloudy day? Etc.
How about weather-forecasting ring-tones?
As sensor-networks become prevalent, there will be more artworks like this.
Anthony Goicolea Photographs
pool pushers
~An e-mail friend wonders if "...some of these photos could be construed as illegal in the Land of Possibilities? or is it a Foucaultian nightmare once again (self-disciplining)? I read somewhere he uses family snapshots of himself as an adolescent to render them. 2x magna cum laude i'm impressed."
77th Academy Awards Nomination Announcement Press Kit
~Like a dog sometimes I feel like rolling in it
January 27, 2005
Small Wonders
Nanotechnology will give humans greater control of matter at tiny scales. That is a good thing, says Natasha Loder interviewed here
"If you were to start with a grain of sugar, he (George Smith, the...head of materials science at Oxford University) says, and chopped it up into ever smaller pieces and simply ended up with a tiny grain of sugar, that would be no big deal. But as an object gets smaller, the ratio between its surface area and its volume rises. This matters because the atoms on the surface of a material are generally more reactive than those at its centre."
For America, nanotechnology is the largest federally funded science initiative since the country decided to put a man on the moon. In 2004, the American government spent $1.6 billion on it, well over twice as much as it did on the Human Genome Project at its peak.
story Dec 29th 2004 From The Economist print edition
sources for the Economist's Nanotechnology "Survey".
Overheard at Starbucks
"We've got ours."
"If you don't have what we have,
you're not one of us."
-"Obviously."
Do Patients with Downs Syndrome Recognize Mickey Mouse?
"In 47 patients with Down's syndrome who were too retarded to understand a conventional oddball paradigm, we studied event-related potentials (ERPs) by using task-irrelevant visual stimuli..."
Kakigi R, Neshige R, Matsuda Y, Kuroda Y.
abstract thanks, diederik
Shooting in Tal Afar at the Blacktie and Boots Ball
Accompanied by his wife, Marlene, Dr. Richard Marks of Plano, Texas, adds a fur necktie to his tuxedo. "Where's the food?" Marlene asks. "It's supposed to be catered by Eddie Deen." Deen, the Texas barbeque king from Dallas, has catered many events for President Bush.
Gonzales Approved by Judiciary Committee
Republicans muscled Gonzales' nomination through the panel on a 10-8 party line vote and are expected to use their 55-44 advantage to confirm him there next week at the earliest..
"It's hard to be a straight shooter when you're a blind loyalist," said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.
Meanwhile:
Human Rights First Opposes Alberto Gonzales for Attorney General
"While the storm clouds gather far across the sea,
Let us swear allegiance to a land that's free,
Let us all be grateful for a land so fair,
As we raise our voices in a solemn prayer. "
God Bless America,
Land that I love.
Stand beside her, and guide her
Thru the night with a light from above.
From the mountains, to the prairies,
To the oceans, white with foam
God bless America, My home sweet home.
God Bless America Words and music by Irving Berlin
© Copyright 1938, 1939 by Irving Berlin @
Low Cost Gamma Radiation Detector for Law Enforcement Personnel
Designed as a front-line security device, this new product provides life critical, real-time detection of hidden radiation sources and delivers instantaneous feedback to law enforcement personnel such as municipal police departments, border check-point personnel and cargo port screeners.
"Law enforcement, customs officials and border checkpoint personnel face many unknowns on a daily basis," said Bob Durstenfeld, director of corporate marketing at RAE Systems. "The threat of radiation exposure, whether by weapons, nuclear power materials, or medical waste is always present.
The GammaRAE II is the only waterproof unit available for under $1,000..
~I'm waiting for the personal models in designer colors. Don't leave home without one.
January 26, 2005
Outcry Over Creation of GM Smallpox Virus
Professor Donald Henderson, of the Centre for Biosecurity at the University of Pittsburgh, [...the man who led the successful global vaccination campaign to eradicate smallpox from the wild] said he feared that tinkering with the genetic makeup of the variola virus - which causes smallpox - might accidentally produce a more lethal form of the disease.
"What I worry about is that there is rather too much done in this area and the minute you start fooling around with it in various ways, I think there is a danger," Professor Henderson said. "I'd be happier if we were not doing it and the simple reason is I just don't think it serves a purpose I can support. The less we do with the smallpox virus and the less we do in the way of manipulation at this point I think the better off we are."
~Some people, not Professor Henderson!?, believe AIDS and Ebola 'escaped' from labs. I would also put Swine Flu, Legionairres Disease, Mad Cow and the North American outbreak of West Nile Virus on a list of probable iatrogenic diseases.
DIY Biohacking
Cool Tools Review: Basement Biohacking
Creative Biotechnology: A User's Manual contents
Bioetch Hobbyist Magazine
Modern Biology Catalog
everything above via: overmorgen
"Is this the yogurt starter?"
-By the way, I sent the above links to a scientist who does gene splicing and asked about 'health risks' from biohacking hobbyists. Here's part of the reply: "You need a "starter" in order to get those things going...
Mom and Pops are at greater risk of dying from car accidents, cancer, heart disease, and diabetes than they are from inhaling a biohacker's brew. In fact, they're more likely to expose themselves to a human with typhoid (a walking, talking, coughing petri dish) than meeting doom from something that cannot even jump off that dish.
How many biohackers are there? I think they're all isolated in my building anyway so no one else has to worry, they're working too hard to do anything social."
To which I replied:
Why would I allow anything as trivial as details get in the way of exploiting peoples fears and misconceptions? It's so easy copying and pasting that image under those links and people understand the connection, the anxiety. They get it. They're absolutely wrong, but they understand. Didn't a wise man once say, "just connect"?
Made-to-Measure Skin-and-Bones Using Inkjet printer
Scientists at The University of Manchester have developed the breakthrough technology which will allow tailor-made tissues and bones to be grown, simply by inputting their dimensions into a computer.
Using the printers, they are able create 3-dimensional structures, known as 'tissue scaffolds'. The shape of the scaffold determines the shape of the tissue as it grows. The structures are created by printing very thin layers of a material repeatedly on top of each other until the structure is built.
Cinema*
from the Pirelli 2004 calendar
Copyright © 2003-2004 Pirelli & C Spa, All rights reserved
~(*Pirelli's title) This photo's a reminder that the financial investments, technological achievements, and the efforts of corporations and talented individuals required to make movies serve a simple desire.
Enjoy the Draft.com
link
PNAC Letter To Congress Letter to Congress on Increasing U.S. Ground Forces January 28, 2005
The United States military is too small for the responsibilities we are asking it to assume. Those responsibilities are real and important. They are not going away. The United States will not and should not become less engaged in the world in the years to come. But our national security, global peace and stability, and the defense and promotion of freedom in the post-9/11 world require a larger military force than we have today.
Google Video Search
search recent tv programs online(!)
~Find screen captures and text from closed captions; googling tv dudes!
Can I search by show title?
Yes, you can; just type 'title:' in front of the program name when you do a search. For example, title:nightline or add a keyword title:nightline music.
~Another example: Search results 20/20 abu ghraib
Video is currently not available
"Sabrina Harman, one of seven U.S. military police guards charged in abuse at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq...
at 3 minutes
>> Sabrina's just one of the nicest girls I've ever met in my entire life. >> Reporter: imagine her friend's shock when they saw this picture of Sabrina Harmon in the news. She is one of those charged with the inhuman treatment of detainees at the Abu ghraib prison in Baghdad. >> I knew she couldn't Hurt even a fly..."
January 25, 2005
Collegians Engineering New Biology
The most important intercollegiate competition of 2004 didn't involve football, basketball, hockey, or baseball. It involved bacteria...
Teams participating in last year's Synthetic Biology Competition wrote snippets of DNA code that were then inserted into bacteria or yeast, creating biological machines. The objective of the competition was, simply, to design the coolest machine.
Consensus was that the Texans (University of Texas at Austin)triumphed, with a tiny lawn of E. coli bacteria that had been programmed to act like a piece of Kodak film, holding an image that had been projected onto it. (Their clever message, spelled out in gold amidst an orange field, was a nod to the student's traditional first attempt in a new programming language: "Hello World.") But Caltech's entry wasn't bad, either: yeast that changed color based on whether it was immersed in regular coffee, decaf, or espresso.
ain't that the truth?
The Politics of the Comfort Zone
The hardest thing for garden variety American liberals to grasp is what a truly politicized and hateful place much of America has become---one long mean ditch ruled by feral dogs where the standards of civility no longer apply. The second hardest thing for liberals is to admit that they are comfortably insulated in the middle class and are not going to take any risks in the battle for America's soul not as long as they are still living on a good street, sending their kids to Montessori and getting their slice of the American quiche. Call it the politics of the comfort zone.
article By JOE BAGEANT
~Sounds like the people in my town: "we've got ours."
image via: summary of suburbia
Military Tests Lasers to Ward Off Aircraft
A day after the Department of Transportation urged pilots to report hazardous laser beams aimed at aircraft, the U.S. military said it is testing a system to beam red and green lasers at aircraft in the Washington area as a warning when they enter restricted airspace.
The plan has prompted confusion among some area pilots who said they were unsure whether they would be able to tell the difference between a commercial laser used by someone playing at home and one operated by the North American Aerospace Defense Command. Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta on Wednesday urged pilots to report laser sightings to the Federal Aviation.
story via:January 18-24, 2005 unknown news
Overheard at Starbucks
"When my mother's stressed she makes up rules.
'He does that everyday at 4 p.m. Everyday.'
The more stress she's under the more rules there are.
When my father's stressed, he counts things.
'1-2-3-4. Four pills this time.'
Putting words into sentences seems to work for me."
Child Monitor
"Have you ever experienced the terror of thinking your child is missing or lost? We have all had the gut-wrenching feeling of turning around in a busy street and finding that our child is nowhere in sight. Now this can be prevented with the new and improved Child Guard. The electronic child leash lets you know if your child roams further that you're comfortable with.
The child monitor signal is adjustable - from a distance of 6 to 30 feet, so when the child goes beyond the set distance, the adult's receiver starts to beep..."
~Thanks Diederick who points out "the child leash" description of this device.
Also note that a maximum distance of thirty feet might limit it's usefulness to infants and toddlers.
January 24, 2005
Knight-Ridder Reports: US Losing War in Iraq
BAGHDAD, Iraq - The United States is steadily losing ground to the Iraqi insurgency, according to every key military yardstick.
~Must be that liberal-media bias rearing up? Except when you read this in its standard journalese, it looks bad, it looks real.
Will other Sunni cities be quickly 'fallujah-ized'? Will developments in Iran or Syria force the 'afghanistation' of Iraq and by next year, well before mid-term Congressional elections, we'll be handed by an ever compliant media a new batch of incomprehensible names of villians to worry about and places where American soldiers will die?
Or
Bush Grand Plan: Incite Civil War(??)
The Bush Administration is intentionally steering Iraq towards civil war. The elections are merely the catalyst for igniting, what could be, a massive social upheaval. This explains the bizarre insistence on voting when security is nearly nonexistent and where a mere 7% of the people can even identify the candidates. (This figure gleaned from Allawi’s Baghdad newspaper, Al-Sabah) Rumsfeld is using the elections as a springboard for aggravating tensions between Sunnis and Shiites and for diverting attention away from the troops.
By: Mike Whitney
10 Movies To Watch When You're Expecting
"Here are 10 movies to watch when you're expecting, so you can conduct your own cinematic countdown to delivery."
link By Suelain Moy
~What if Hollywood's conceptions (sorry) of nativity as popularized in these movies are as true as anything it does? What if it's portrayals of romance, crime and war, for example, have as much to do with reality, as these ten movies have with birth and parenthood?
This list reminded me that movies are basically Archie comic-book plots put to film and whatever insight we get from them, we supply it, we bring it.
There's more rorscharch and herd 'phermones' in our experiences with the products of popular culture than we'ld care to admit.
Maybe I'm suffering from mid-winter basic-cable blues.
What the hell does "countdown to delivery" mean? (Is it a subtle hint promoting physician-induced labor?)
Abuse of Trust
(The Other "Prisoner Abuse" Scandal)
This nation has a special responsibility to prevent the torture of Americans held as prisoners of war. Our POWs have been brutally tortured at command direction in war after war, including the Korean, Vietnam, and most recently, the Gulf War; and it's clear that we need to do whatever we can to break this pattern. Yet when 17 of our tortured Gulf War POWs and 37 of their family members said "enough" and joined together to bring a historic civil action to hold their Iraqi torturers liable, they were shocked—having won their case in federal court—to find the Department of Justice seeking to erase their judgment and "absolve" their torturers.
The Supreme Court has an opportunity to set aside this shocking breach of trust—itself apparently a somber footnote to the detainee abuse scandal. A case presenting the issues, Acree v. Republic of Iraq, was presented to the court by the POWs on a writ of certiorari last December, and the government response is due Feb. 18. Whether or not the court agrees to hear this case could well seal the fate of American GIs held as POWs in future wars.
article by John Norton Moore
~Veddy interestink.
January 23, 2005
Homeland Security Operations Morning Briefs
27 September 2004 to 14 January 2005
"The Briefs provide preliminary accounts of dozens of security-related incidents around the country, which in most cases have not been widely reported and which "may or may not be accurate." "
links [crytome]
For example:
6. (FOUO) ILLINOIS: Two Incidents of Suspicious Surveillance of the Chicago METRA Trains. According to Illinois State Police reporting, on 24 September, in Chicago, there were two separate suspicious incidents of photographic surveillance that took place at local METRA Stations. The first surveillance incident involved a named individual and occurred at the LaSalle METRA station. The second incident involved a Mexican citizen and took place at the Kensington METRA station. The Illinois State Police is investigating these incidents. (JRIES, 24 Sep 04; HSOC 3559-04 and 3560-04)
Python Swallows Bush
Monty Python's Terry Jones talks about becoming a political writer, the decline of the British press and how Bush and Blair have erased the line between absurdity and horror.
"When you see George Bush and Tony Blair committing these absurd acts and people going along with it, you have to ask, "Wait a minute, which is the real world?" It's only the fact that it has these horrendous consequences is what makes them appalling instead of funny."
Also: "I'm Losing Patience" by Terry Jones
UK: Muslims Against Advertising
BILLBOARD adverts featuring partial nudity are being defaced by Muslim activists who are offended by displays of flesh.
The advertising watchdog has confirmed that increasing numbers of posters are being torn down or painted over in predominantly Islamic areas.
A website giving advice on how to vandalise billboards and listing potential targets has been set up by a group calling themselves Muslims Against Advertising (MAAD)*
The campaign has gathered momentum since the Advertising Standards Authority banned an underwear advert from being sited near mosques.
“There is no longer any need to cringe as you walk past a sleazy poster, we’ll improve it.”
“A paint roller, a blithe spirit and a balmy night are all you really need."
*MAAD googled cache/ Oct.2002's Metafilter discussion
January 22, 2005
Overheard at Starbucks
"Conception is no more the goal of sex than death is the goal of life."
--"Socio-biologists say the goal of life is reproduction."
-"Are you suggesting that the varieties of human sexual experience, fetishes and perversions included, are what distinguish us from the animals?"
Mommy Rock
e.g. Housewives on Prozac; Frump; Mamapalooza;
"I highly recommend SuperGenderBender, although Pimpin' Bitch has its merits".
--Rachael Yellow (aka Mother Nature as in "don't mess with.")
http://home.earthlink.net/~placenta/songs.htm
US Tsunami-Warning System Upgrade
"The upgrade will include 32 new DART tsunami buoys and 38 new sea level monitoring/tide gauge stations,"
There are currently six DART buoy systems in the program, all stationed in the northwestern quarter of the Pacific Basin. Three of those DART buoys, however, are not functioning and under repair, according to the National Data Buoy Center in Mississippi... The existing six-buoy array was completed in 2001.
The DART buoys are actually a combined system with a seafloor sensor that can detect changes in water pressure from a passing tsunami above it, with a wire-linked surface buoy that receives the electronic data and sends it to a satellite. The satellite sends the data to NOAA's two warning centers. One is in Hawaii, the other one (which serves the Pacific Northwest, Alaska, California and British Columbia) is in Palmer, Alaska.
Earthquake detection systems rely upon a variety of instruments... including a global network of seismic stations operated by the U.S. Geological Survey, National Science Foundation, NOAA, "and a score of academic and international organizations." Information from these sources is used with information from the DART system to predict when a tsunami has been triggered and where it may go.
~Are those DART buoys high-maintenance? Three out of the six are not functioning after three years. The bold type is to emphasize that scores of scientists around the world might've known about the Indian Ocean tsuanami before it hit and did nothing to warn the people in its path. (Good-nite, sweet dreams)
Shooting in Tal Afar
As the children get out of the car one of them screams, her hands covered in blood...
In Pictures link thanks joerg
See also Xymphora here for context.
~Couldn't the soldiers here receive commendations not only for stopping a potential attack but also for rescuing the children whose parents they've killed? If they did everything by-the-book?
Florida Research Ensemble
link / "Doing not studying 'hypermedia'."
~Florida finds fluxus... fun.
Industrious Clock
link / thanks devin.
~Cruel automatism. Why do I have the impression that there's a few (obsessive-compulsive-type) people doing something very much like this right now?
January 21, 2005
The truth in Presidential Radio Address speeches
This post is not mine, in fact I only reproduce what I heard on January 18th in OffTheWall. Well, I downloaded the program to my Zen and heard it today.
They took two key Radio Adresses the Whitehouse broadcasted just before the invasion of Iraq began (I'm sure you remember them when you read their title) and deleted the lies he said in them, making them shorter but, at least, true.
I have just grabbed both editted speeches and upped them so you don't need to download the whole program to hear it. I also posted the full transcripts of both addresses and changed the font to red of all the lies he say.
President's Radio Address concerning Iraq Weapons, March 22, 2003 - Audio stream
Hear the radio address without lies - redirection (Click on 'Download/show the hosted file')
President's Radio Address concerning the Beginning of Operation Iraqi Freedom, March 22, 2003 - Audio stream
Hear the radio address without lies - redirection (Click on 'Download/show the hosted file')
>> I bet the same could be done with a 80% of his Radio Adresses. I don't understand why there's still people out there who hesitate calling him and his crew.
President's Radio Address concerning Iraq Weapons, March 22, 2003 - Audio stream
THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. On Wednesday, Secretary of State Powell briefed the United Nations Security Councilon Iraq's illegal weapons program, its attempts to hide those weapons, and its links to terrorist groups.The Iraqi regime's violations of Security Council Resolutions are evident, they are dangerous to America and the world, and they continue to this hour.
The regime has never accounted for a vast arsenal of deadly, biological and chemical weapons. To the contrary, the regime is pursuing an elaborate campaign to conceal its weapons materials and to hide or intimidate key experts and scientists. This effort of deception is directed from the highest levels of the Iraqi regime, including Saddam Hussein, his son, Iraq's vice president and the very official responsible for cooperating with inspectors.
The Iraqi regime has actively and secretly attempted to obtain equipment needed to produce chemical, biological and nuclear weapons. Firsthand witnesses have informed us that Iraq has at least seven mobile factories for the production of biological agents -- equipment mounted on trucks and rails to evade discovery.
The Iraqi regime has acquired and tested the means to deliver weapons of mass destruction. It has never accounted for thousands of bombs and shells capable of delivering chemical weapons. It is actively pursuing components for prohibited ballistic missiles. And we have sources that tell us that Saddam Hussein recently authorized Iraqi field commanders to use chemical weapons -- the very weapons the dictator tells us he does not have.
One of the greatest dangers we face is that weapons of mass destruction might be passed to terrorists who would not hesitate to use those weapons.Saddam Hussein has longstanding, direct and continuing ties to terrorist networks. Senior members of Iraqi intelligence and al Qaeda have met at least eight times since the early 1990s. Iraq has sent bomb-making and document forgery experts to work with al Qaeda. Iraq has also provided al Qaeda with chemical and biological weapons training. And an al Qaeda operative was sent to Iraq several times in the late 1990s for help in acquiring poisons and gases.We also know that Iraq is harboring a terrorist network headed by a senior al Qaeda terrorist planner. This network runs a poison and explosive training camp in northeast Iraq, and many of its leaders are known to be in Baghdad.
This is the situation as we find it -- 12 years after Saddam Hussein agreed to disarm and more than 90 days after the Security Council passed Resolution 1441 by a unanimous vote. Saddam Hussein was required to make a full declaration of his weapons programs.He has not done so.Saddam Hussein was required to fully cooperate in the disarmament of his regime.He has not done so. Saddam Hussein was given a final chance. He is throwing away that chance.Having made its demands, the Security Council must not back down when those demands are defied and mocked by a dictator
. The United States would welcome and support a new resolution making clear that the Security Council stands behinds its previous demands.Yet, resolutions mean little without resolve. And the United States, along with a growing coalition of nations, will take whatever action is necessary to defend ourselves and disarm the Iraqi regime.
Thank you for listening.
President's Radio Address concerning the Beginning of Operation Iraqi Freedom, March 22, 2003 - Audio stream
THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. American and coalition forces have begun a concerted campaign against the regime of Saddam Hussein.In this war, our coalition is broad, more than 40 countries from across the globe. Our cause is just, the security of the nations we serve and the peace of the world. And our mission is clear, to disarm Iraq of weapons of mass destruction, to end Saddam Hussein's support for terrorism, and to free the Iraqi people.President George W. Bush meets with his war council at Camp David, Saturday morning, March 22, 2003. Present at the table are, from left, Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Peter Pace, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Richard B. Myers, Secretary of State Colin Powell, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Vice President Dick Cheney, Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, Chief of Staff to the Vice President Lewis Libby, Chief of Staff Andy Card, National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, CIA Director George Tenet, and Chief Counsel to the President Alberto Gonzalez. White House photo by Eric Draper The future of peace and the hopes of the Iraqi people now depend on our fighting forces in the Middle East. They are conducting themselves in the highest traditions of the American military. They are doing their job with skill and bravery, and with the finest of allies beside them. At every stage of this conflict the world will see both the power of our military, and the honorable and decent spirit of the men and women who serve.
In this conflict, American and coalition forces face enemies who have no regard for the conventions of war or rules of morality. Iraqi officials have placed troops and equipment in civilian areas, attempting to use innocent men, women and children as shields for the dictator's army. I want Americans and all the world to know that coalition forces will make every effort to spare innocent civilians from harm.
A campaign on harsh terrain in a vast country could be longer and more difficult than some have predicted. And helping Iraqis achieve a united, stable, and free country will require our sustained commitment.Yet, whatever is required of us, we will carry out all the duties we have accepted.
Across America this weekend, the families of our military are praying that our men and women will return safely and soon. Millions of Americans are praying with them for the safety of their loved ones and for the protection of all the innocent.Our entire nation appreciates the sacrifices made by military families,and many citizens who live near military families are showing their support in practical ways, such as by helping with child care, or home repairs.All families with loved ones serving in this war can know this: Our forces will be coming home as soon as their work is done.
Our nation entered this conflictreluctantly, yet with a clear and firm purpose. The people of the United States and our friends and allies will not live at the mercy of an outlaw regime that threatens the peace with weapons of mass murder. Now that conflict has come, the only way to limit its duration is to apply decisive force. This will not be a campaign of half-measures. It is a fight for the security of our nation and the peace of the world,and we will accept no outcome but victory.Thank you for listening.
US Right Attacks Spongebob Video
link at Conscientious
~I've yet to sit through a complete episode of Spongebob, (I can't watch El Presidente on tv either, go figure) but Joerg's observation above, supported by links, holds true for any number of American Conservative cultural obsessions.
It's a template for the 'culture wars'. Simply remove the references to Spongebob and add whatever media bug's crawling up their collective asses.
'A Few Rotten Apples' Revisited
A Nuremberg Lesson
Torture Scandal Began Far Above 'Rotten Apples.'
"This so-called ill treatment and torture in detention centers, stories of which were spread everywhere among the people, and later by the prisoners who were freed … were not, as some assumed, inflicted methodically, but were excesses committed by individual prison guards, their deputies, and men who laid violent hands on the detainees."
Most people who hear this quote today assume it was uttered by a senior officer of the Bush administration. Instead, it comes from one of history's greatest mass murderers, Rudolf Hoess, the SS commandant at Auschwitz. Such a confusion demonstrates the depth of the United States' moral dilemma in its treatment of detainees in the war on terror.
article by Scott Horton; thanks conscientious
Crowds
~Most people get a thrill in the presence of power; the pomp and circumstance, the sense of history, the greatness of leadership.
I enjoy the security precautions; the police-presence, flashing lights, squawking radios, barracades, bullet-proof glass, bomb-sniffing dogs, sharp-shooters on buildings, and the men and women in suits and sunglasses talking to themselves.
I've learned to appreciate, hell-look forward to, our leader's on-going tributes to the memory of lone gunmen and the ghosts of American foreign policy collateral damage.
This systematized deference to the phantasms of their imagination; this bureaucratic homage to the specters of the unknown is an object lesson in the power of fear. A power that can never touch me in the way it occupies all of them.
Today let's celebrate in contrast to those inside that bubble the strength of our anonymity, our omni-anonymous selves, that bugaboo unknown.
Four More Years
Coffins draped with U.S. flags line Malcolm X park in Washington as part of protest to memorialize the more than 1366 American soldiers who have died in the war with Iraq before the United States presidential inauguration January 20, 2005. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton @
~Is it unpatriotic, is it supporting terrorism, to ask how many more will be killed in the next four years?
January 20, 2005
At the Ball...
Kristina (L) and Urve Kiik (R) of Dallas Texas pose for a photograph with 'Bevo' at the Black Tie and Boots Inaugural Ball in Washington, D.C ., January 19, 2005. The event is part of celebrations leading up to the inauguration of President Bush...
Guests pose for a photograph with armadillos at the Black Tie and Boots Inaugural Ball in Washington, D.C., January 19, 2005.
~What's the significance of photographs of people in formal wear with sedated critters and beasts? Look how far we've come?
Cattle is still(?) a big industry in Texas but armadilloes are road-kill.
The women should be grasping the steers horns, the armadilloes tails?
See What You're Missing?
This photo sketch released by the White House on Monday, Jan. 10, 2005 shows a Badgley Mischka pale aquamarine silk chiffon gown with jeweled straps and ruffled seamed skirt to be worn by President Bush's daughter Barbara to the Texas State Society Black Tie and Boots' Inaugural Ball to be held on Jan. 19, 2005 in Washington. (AP Photo/The White House) Yahoo.
Twenty-three acts will perform at the ball and pre-parties over two days. Entertainers include Lyle Lovett, Asleep at the Wheel, Yolanda Adams and Neal McCoy — one of the favorite performers of Karl Rove, Bush's chief political adviser.
• 2,500 pounds of beef
• 20,000 enchiladas
• 1,500 pounds of chicken tenders
• 300 pounds of Velveeta, 12 cases of black-bean dip and 90 cases of red, white and blue tortilla chips for Chili con queso
• 48,000 bottles of beer at the ball — four per guest
"This is a celebration of culture and history." Ames says Bush's win really allowed them to play up Texas. (Nancy Ames and husband Danny Ward have organized the Black Tie & Boots Ball for the past four presidential inaugurations.)
Attendees will get a commemorative cowboy hat and a John Deere cap.
About 12,000 people will attend the ball.
960 yellow roses have the emblem of the Texas State Society emblazoned on one of their petals. They will be given to attendees of the pre-ball sponsor's dinner.
Also:
$40 million: Cost of Bush inaugural ball festivities, not counting security costs.
$2,000: Amount FDR spent on the inaugural in 1945 - about $20,000 in today's dollars.
$20,000: Cost of yellow roses purchased for inaugural festivities by D.C.'s Ritz Carlton.
200: Number of Humvees outfitted with top-of-the-line armor for troops in Iraq that could have been purchased with the amount of money blown on the inauguration.
22 million: Number of children in regions devastated by the tsunami who could have received vaccinations and preventive health care with the amount of money spent on the inauguration.
1,160,000: Number of girls who could be sent to school for a year in Afghanistan with the amount of money lavished on the inauguration.
2,500: Number of U.S. troops used to stand guard as President Bush takes his oath of office
26,000: Number of Kevlar vests for U.S. soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan that could be purchased for $40 million.
$290: Bonus that could go to each American solider serving in Iraq, if inauguration funds were used for that purpose.
$17 million: Amount of money the White House is forcing the cash-strapped city of Washington, D.C., to pony up for inauguration security.
via the article Inauguration: Lifestyles of the Rich and Heartless
Stargate
STAR GATE was one of a number of "remote viewing programs" conducted under a variety of code names, including SUN STREAK, GRILL FLAME, and CENTER LANE by DIA and INSCOM, and SCANATE by CIA. These efforts were initiated to assess foreign programs in the field; contract for basic research into the the phenomenon; and to evaluate controlled remote viewing as an intelligence tool.
The program consisted of two separate activities. An operational unit employed remote viewers to train and perform remote viewing intelligence-gathering. The research program was maintained separately from the operational unit.
This effort was initiated in response to CIA concerns about reported Soviets investigations of psychic phenomena. Between 1969 and 1971, US intelligence sources concluded that the Soviet Union was engaged in "psychotronic" research. By 1970, it was suggested that the Soviets were spending approximately 60 million rubles per year on it, and over 300 million by 1975. The money and personnel devoted to Soviet psychotronics suggested that they had achieved breakthroughs, even though the matter was considered speculative, controversial and "fringy."
also: Inside Stargate
The pursuit of "remote viewing" or clairvoyance as a tool for
intelligence collection, often regarded as a minor embarrassment in
the modern history of U.S. intelligence, is the subject of a new
memoir by one of the participants in the effort.
The author, Paul H. Smith, is a retired Army intelligence officer
and practitioner of remote viewing. He does not propose a theory,
physical or metaphysical, to explain how the technique might work.
But he insists that it does. Most if not all studies by
non-believers appear to have found little substance to it.
Smith provides a fairly readable account of the development of the
initiative, known as Star Gate and other code names, and its
sponsorship as an unacknowledged "black" program by the Army
Intelligence and Security Command and the Defense Intelligence
Agency through its termination by the Central Intelligence Agency
in 1995.
"Reading the Enemy's Mind: Inside Star Gate: America's Psychic
Espionage Program" by Paul H. Smith, January 2005, is available
here:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0312875150/103-8127004-0879805
Britains Army Chief Condemns Abuse
Perhaps inevitably some people in the media have described this as Britain's Abu Ghraib.
Nine charges against the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers soldiers include forcing prisoners to simulate sex acts at a Basra aid camp in May 2003.
The three soldiers...are accused of abusing looters who were being detained at the camp in southern Iraq after attempting to steal powdered milk and food.
Lieutenant Colonel Nick Clapham, prosecuting, told the hearing the camp's commander Major Dan Taylor had ordered looters should be "worked hard".
This breached the Geneva Convention, Lt Col Clapham said.
"The order to work by Major Taylor was an unlawful one but, even though the order was unlawful, had the defendants done no more they would not face the charges they face today," he added.
~N.B. Again photographs play a major role in making this newsworthy. (Making it possible?) Also no mention above that Major Taylor is facing any charges. Apparently a 'breach" of the Geneva Conventions is not serious enough to warrant an arrest.
Aid camp?
Two nations divided by a common language yet we share the white-man's burden.
January 19, 2005
Lynndie England Says She Loved Graner
January 18, 2005
AMSTERDAM: Iraqi prisoner abuse suspect Private first class Lynndie England said in an interview with a Dutch television program aired today that she had been in love with fellow US soldier Charles Graner when abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison took place.
England, 22, was a prison clerk who was shown smiling and pointing at naked Iraqi prisoners, and holding one at the end of a leash, in photographs that caused international outrage. She is charged with 19 counts of abuse and faces a sentence of up to 38 years if found guilty on all counts.
England gave birth in October to a son fathered by Graner, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Saturday for his role in the scandal.
"He's a really good guy," England said of Graner on the television program Nova. "He's very responsible, he's very trustworthy. I'm not just saying that because of the storm we're in."
She said she still loved him and hoped they would be together again.
The interview was recorded at England's home in Fort Ashby, West Virginia.
England said she had been in a relationship with Graner when the abuse occurred in the autumn of 2003. Asked whether she loved him at the time, she answered, "yes".
In an interview last year with US television station KCNC-TV, England said she was acting on orders from superiors. Lawyers for Graner offered that defence, but a military jury convicted him on Friday of all five charges he faced and sentenced him on Saturday to 10 years.
In the interview with Nova, England said the photos had been intended to humiliate prisoners, part of a "mind game" that was condoned by most guards and was effective. She said military intelligence officers had told them to "keep up the good work".
"It wasn't right, but apparently they thought it wasn't uncommon enough to stop it," she said.
She said she had received numerous death threats since the photos were made public.
"People want to kill me just because of a few pictures," she said.
England is to face trial at the same military court in Fort Hood, Texas, where Graner's court martial was held.
Prior to Graner's conviction, three other members of the Maryland-based 372nd Military Police Company pleaded guilty to abuse charges at Abu Ghraib, as did a low-level soldier in a military intelligence unit.
England and two other US soldiers were awaiting trial.
Supposedly you can link to the Dutch Nova video interview (in English) through here but I can't get it to work.
-thanks diederik for the heads-up
~For some people I'm guessing (Jerry Springer fans among them) Ms. England's proclamation of love will come as no surprise. Two crazy kids, sent far away from home by Uncle Sam, find each other as soul-mates constructing pyramids of naked prisoners in Iraq. Some couples enjoy unusual foreplay.
For the rest of us it's creepy and way too freaky to be told they were getting-off (anyone in a ten-mile radius was getting-off!) on each other while torturing those men. It's a freaking testimony to human denial, resilience or you don't-really-want-to-know, that she has any good memories at all from that hell-hole. (The heart wants what it wants?) Here's a mother with an infant child reflecting without obvious trauma about her military career in which she routinely tortured human beings; and people object to women in the military because they're emotionally more vulnerable?
Maybe the Army sure knows how to pick the right person, man or woman, for the job?
She's raising his newborn kid and facing trial so perhaps the affirmations above have more to do with her need to have something positive in her life now than any 'sweet' memories of the time she spent with Graner in Abu Ghraib? (Hopefully.)
Add a woman in love and history seems more familiar, more mundane, while love gets stranger, more incomprehensible.
You can win when you're losing, stand when you're falling
I can't figure it out.
Nothin' bout love can make an equation nothin' short of amazing
Wish I could explain it
But I don't know how.
The way that we dance, the reason we dream
That big Italian tower, well how does it lean?
Something so strong shouldn't make me this weak
Oh nothin' bout love makes sense.
Overheard at Starbucks
"People can be such assholes,
always busy and full of themselves.
Only with my animals can I be as loving and as caring as I like,
as I need to be.
Only with animals can I always be a human being."
--"Woof?"
The Church approves the use of condom ... at least in Spain
The Spanish conference of bishops made public today, in a press conference right after the meeting with the Health Minister, their opinion about the use of condoms to stop the spreading of AIDS.
This oficial point of view is a slap in the face of the conservative sectors in the Vatican that still claim that condoms are not a good way of stopping AIDS.
Though unusual, it's not the first time catholic priests promote the use of condoms as the best tool to avoid the disease. In fact the Spanish Church has joined a group of institutions that already endorsed the abecedary (ABC -Abstain, Be faithful/reduce partners, use Condoms) on World AIDS Day that was published by 'The Lancet' one month before.
Read full news: in Spanish - translated by Babelfish
American Conservative: A Time for Leaving
"American security and Iraqi stability depend on a prompt handover."
~N.B. Not a Congress-critter, not a Republican-party office holder.
Buttchucks
Janine Gordon
Buttchucks, 1997
Gelatin silver print
20 x 24 inches
Edition of 3 $1,200
via refusalon
WMD/CBS Timeline
"The White House, which... needed the cooperation of the disgusting American media, delayed the WMD story just enough to have it completely covered by the CBS story."
~Didn't something similar happen last week in Old Europe's media with the Prince Harry the Nazi story and the WWII Pope's Foiled Nazi Kidnapping?
I wonder how often the media helps the powers-that-be in this specific way? Does it happen locally too?
Opus Dei: Catholic Fundamentalism
Opus Dei (the Vatican) has found, to its evident relief, a strong, mainly non-clerical (only two per cent of members are priests) voice echoing its own opposition to contraception, sex outside marriage, abortion, condoms and stem-cell research amid a chorus of indifference or downright opposition to such teachings from most Western Catholics. When these à la carte Catholics demand reform of the official line, the Pope has only to point to Opus Dei to show that not everyone rejects the set menu.
And John Paul is not alone in his appreciation. Ruth Kelly, the new Secretary of State for Education, is reportedly an associate of Opus Dei...
~How do these guys stay OUT of American newspapers, etc? Who are the non-newsmakers? Who makes news not-news?
google search results: opus dei+chicago; opus dei+san francisco
...for something a little different: Opus Dei Awareness Network
cilice; copywrite Opus Dei Awareness Network @
"...a spiked chain worn around the upper thigh for two hours each day, except for Church feast days, Sundays, and certain times of the year. This is perhaps the most shocking of the corporal mortifications, and generally Opus Dei members are extremely hesitant to admit that they use them. It is a painful mortification which leaves small prick holes in the flesh, and makes the Opus Dei members tentative about wearing swim suits... "
via "Corporal Mortification in Opus Dei" link
~!
~They look like us. They dress like us. They talk like us. They're not like us.
January 18, 2005
Overheard at Starbucks
"What's an antidote for fascism?"
--"Compassion only compassion."
"But compassion's not a political movement."
--"Now you're getting it."
Diary: How to Improve the World (You Will Only Make Matters Worse)
“When information rubs against information...
the results are startling and effective.
The perrenial quest for involvement,
fill-in, takes many forms.”
The Medium Is the Massage
From
The Aspen
International
Design Conference
1966
John Cage
Diary:
How to Improve
the World (You
Will Only Make
Matters Worse)
~What a terrific imaginary uncle was John Cage. Thank you whoever first introduced me to his writings.
The DNA of Literature
The Paris Review Interview Index
~There's free interviews here of a few major-league authors. Enough to get the gist of the Paris Review's contribution to literature and dare-I-say-it society? Reading the prompted stories story-tellers tell about themselves and their work is a unique pleasure. There's no other art form that can be self-reflective in this way.
These interviews are a good reason to visit a university or big-city library to access the non-circ ($30.-a-piece) back issues of PR.
DNA is the advertisers' new Zen: "The DNA of Motorcycle Maintenance"; "The DNA of the Stockmarket", etc. etc.
Kid O; Modern Design for Children
streamliner car $45. @
~I'd forgotten that even if you could never be cool, hip, with-it, phat, in vogue, au courant, etc. you can surround yourself (and your kids) with cool stuff. You might forever be a dweeb but there are many objects that ache to be purchased that'll offset or dilute your cursed dweebishness. You'll fool people just like you.
The above products can also be imagined as an investment in your kid's future (hip through osmosis) and if you never take them out of the box, in 20 years they're bound to be collector's items. (Anything named "modern" gets obsolete, becomes collectible, very quickly.)
Condemned to become orphan when child
Is it fair to bring a baby to life when you know that her mother won't probably live enough to see her grow up? I'm not talking about diseases or accidents, sometimes life can be cruel and steals the life of our parents earlier than we had wished, but in this case both the the mother and the father life expectancy is just a few years (Romania's life expectancy is 70.5 years).
Full news: CNN
January 17, 2005
Prince Harry the Nazi
Harry's Crew
They're the Glossie posse, the H Club, members of the gilded set from birth...
"For critics, it was difficult to see how Harry could have got it more wrong. Not only was the uniform in singularly bad taste, it had no connection with the party's theme. To top it all, Harry, for reasons best known to himself, also sported a swastika armband, something no Afrika Korps soldier would ever have contemplated. The now infamous snap of the prince in his Nazi attire, taken by a fellow reveller, was sold to the Sun for an estimated £10,000..."
~In-breeding will out.
Frustrated religious/political abduction
It seems Hitler tried to kidnap the Pope Pius XII short before the last Germans retreated from Rome in 1944 but the officer who was ordered to do it didn't obbey.
Could fear be the reason for the alliance of the swastika and cross before and during the WWII?
John Cornwell's novel Hitler's Pope: The Secret History of Pius XII and Guenter Lewy's book The Catholic Church and Nazi Germany are the most famous examples of this supposed relationship between the Vatican and the Nazi Germany.
Via: CNN
News of the Weird
"The defense team for Kenneth Lay (nearing trial for lying to employees and investors about Enron's health) is buying sponsored links on Google, Yahoo, and AOL searches so that people who enter "enron scandal" and "ken lay," etc., will see, up front, links to Lay's own website and silver-tongued defense arguments (which will run him from 5 to 12 cents per hit, figures the Houston Chronicle)."
Greetings from Milwaukee
Selections from the Thomas and Jean Ross Bliffert Postcard Collection link
Graner's Superiors Unlikely to Face Charges
WASHINGTON - The jail term meted out to Army Spc. Charles A. Graner Jr. (the low-level reservist who was sentenced to 10 years in prison) for abuses at Abu Ghraib prison may prove to be the stiffest criminal punishment that emerges from the entire scandal, according to experts on military justice.
~Within the year Graner's sentence will be reduced.
January 16, 2005
UK Science Center to Study Fundamentalists Brains
LONDON (Reuters) - Can there be a predisposition for fundamentalism? Do the faithful cope more easily with pain? Are they faster to recover from illness?
Such are the questions scientists and theologians will attempt to answer at...the Oxford Center for Science of the Mind (OXSCOM)... which starts experiments into human consciousness in the next few months.
~This is your brain "on god". They'll most likely learn that certain doors won't open unless others are first closed. (For you boozers, huffers, pill-poppers, crankers and coke-fiends: that's 'doors' as in 'doors of perception'. By the way, pun intended.)
The Distorted Barbie
kate moss barbie
"The positioning from the very first commercial was that she
was a person. We never mentioned that she was a doll."
-on the marketing of Barbie.
barbie facts; why distort? alternative barbies; symbology; etc. link/ Mark Napier
Dick Cheney's Song of America
The Plan is for the United States to rule the world...
...the Plan is hardly new. It is a warmed-over version of the strategy Cheney and his coauthors rolled out in 1992 as the answer to the end of the Cold War. Then the goal was global dominance, and it met with bad reviews. Now it is the answer to terrorism. The emphasis is on preemption, and the reviews are generally enthusiastic. Through all of this, the dominance motif remains, though largely undetected.
This country once rejected “unwarned” attacks such as Pearl Harbor as barbarous and unworthy of a civilized nation. Today many cheer the prospect of conducting sneak attacks – potentially with nuclear weapons – on piddling powers run by tin-pot despots.
We also once denounced those who tried to rule the world. Our primary objection (at least officially) to the Soviet Union as its quest for global domination. Through the successful employment of the tools of containment, deterrence, collective security, and diplomacy – the very methods we now reject – we rid ourselves and the world of the Evil Empire. Having done so, we now pursue the very thing for which we opposed it. And now that the Soviet Union is gone, there appears to be no one left to stop us.
article by David Armstrong
monument, pleasant prairie wisconsin
A Less Traditional Take on Inaugural Festivities
The Presidential Inaugural Committee is still working to raise the $40 million that all of this will cost — not counting expenses for security, which will be borne by local and federal governments.
And the committee's greatest selling point is proximity to the president. Seats for the parade down Pennsylvania Avenue go for $125, ball tickets for $150 and a chair at the swearing-in on the Capitol's east front runs $250.
The higher the price, the greater the access. High-rollers are coming through with the maximum $250,000 donation, earning themselves a lunch and a dinner with Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.
While the administration has little control over the unbridled partying that goes on, the tone of the official events can be a reflection of a president's style. As others before him inaugurated in times of crisis, Bush walks a fine line between celebrating democracy and indulging in excess.
Inaugural handlers have been forced to justify the expense of merrymaking while the death toll of troops in Iraq and Afghanistan exceeds 1,300. The money, albeit privately raised, stands in contrast to the shortage of armor for troops and their vehicles that the Pentagon has struggled with for a year.
"Precedent suggests that inaugural festivities should be muted — if not canceled — in wartime," Rep. Anthony D. Weiner (D-N.Y.) recently wrote in a letter to his colleagues, noting that $40 million would buy armor for 690 Humvees or provide a $290 bonus for each service member stationed in Iraq.
Sensitive to the criticism, inaugural strategists will honor the military in three events. Perhaps the most poignant is the first Commander-in-Chief Ball Thursday night, held exclusively for 2,000 invited military personnel who have served in the war on terrorism.
After the swearing-in, Bush will stand as 400 service members from all branches pass in review, becoming his official escort for a parade that will include 5,000 men and women in uniform.
~In response to reporters questions about the $40million+ price tag at this time of war and natural disaster President Bush said: "The inauguration is a great festival of democracy. [Scroll down] People are going to come from all over the country who are celebrating democracy and celebrating my victory, and I'm glad to celebrate with them."
~I wonder how many people are glad that he's glad?
16 Dems Urge Bush to Start Pull Out from Iraq
~Wake me when Republicans chime in.
Prayer Wall
@A Palestinian prays in front of the Israeli separation barrier outside the West Bank city of Ramallah...
More photos of the Israeli separation barrier can be viewed here.
~Israeli separation barrier, Israeli separation barrier, Israeli separation barrier. It almost rolls off the tongue.
Guantanamo: Three Years of Lawlessness
As the Pentagon prepares to build a permanent prison at its Guantanamo naval base, the U.S. government continues to detain people indefinitely without charge or trial or without applying the Geneva Conventions. The Bush administration still rejects any serious inquiry into the mounting evidence that U.S. officials have tortured or mistreated prisoners at Guantanamo.
"The Bush administration is claiming the power to lock people up without due process, possibly for the rest of their lives,” said (Wendy) Patten.(U.S. Advocacy Director at Human Rights Watch).
press release Human Right Watch
Overheard at Starbucks
"When did believing in creationism or 'intelligent design' become a mandatory part of the governments' secret loyalty-tests?"
--"What secret loyalty-tests?"
US Air Force Pondered Building a "Gay Bomb"
The US defence department considered various non-lethal chemicals meant to disrupt enemy discipline and morale.
The US Air Force Wright Laboratory in Dayton, Ohio, sought Pentagon funding for research into what it called "harassing, annoying and 'bad guy'-identifying chemicals".
The plans were obtained under the US Freedom of Information by the Sunshine Project, a group which monitors research into chemical and biological weapons.
The plan for a so-called "love bomb" envisaged an aphrodisiac chemical that would provoke widespread homosexual behaviour among troops, causing what the military called a "distasteful but completely non-lethal" blow to morale.
Captain Dan McSweeney of the Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate at the Pentagon said the defence department receives "literally hundreds" of project ideas, but that "none of the systems described in that [1994] proposal have been developed".
~Via Conscientious who muses:
"I hope somebody some day builds a bomb (and uses it) that
makes people aware of their own utter stupidity. That's all
it'd do. People would suddenly realize how immensely stupid
they are and then kill themselves out of sheer compassion
with their other Earthlings."
January 15, 2005
Cartoon
"It will be very interesting to see what happens when the Iraqi freedom fighters' technological development of roadside bombs - what the Pentagon calls 'improvised explosive devices' and probably the most important development in recent years in the fight against tyranny - is introduced to Israel."
cartoon via harpers /'what happens' via xymphora/ Ford Pinto at wikipedia [See 'safety problems']
Photo Caption Non Sequitur
The United States will expand its tsunami warning system beyond the Pacific Ocean to include the Atlantic Ocean, the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico, the White House said on January 14, 2005. Three weeks after an earthquake and tsunami killed more than 160,000 people in countries bordering the Indian Ocean, U.S. officials unveiled a plan to spend $37.5 million over two years to set up new deep-sea warning systems. In this photo, a Sri Lankan Muslim prays for an identified infant killed in the tsunami on January 14, 2005. Photo by Arko Datta/Reuters link
~I did no editing to the above. No pasting of a photo from one place with a caption from another. Thie caption is exactly what appeared on Yahoo news under this same photo.
By the way, could the identified dead infant be wrapped in that white cloth? What's her name?
US to Upgrade Tsunami Warning System
Conrad C. Lautenbacher Jr., administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, tells reporters at the National Press Club in Washington about the Bush Administration's plan to expand tsunami detection...
The United States will spend 37 million dollars to beef up its tsunami warning system...
The system will cover nearly all US coastlines and...
...will become part of the existing Global Earth Observation System, to cover the entire Pacific and Caribbean basins and provide a warning system for half of the world's oceans.
The Bush administration plans to spend 37.5 million dollars over the next two years.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will deploy 32 buoys, called Deep-ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunami.
The United States Geological Survey will enhance its seismic monitoring and information delivery from the Global Seismic Network, a partnership with the National Science Foundation.
~Looks like the Indian Ocean's part of the other half. Undoubtedly the Global Seismic Network and the NSF require access to areas around the Indian Ocean which the responsible nations have unilaterally refused to grant. (Wait till the next tsunami hits?)
Purple Heart's Gallery
This is War
PFC Randall Clunen, 19, 101st Airborne, stationed in Tal Afar, was pulling guard December 8, 2003 when a suicide bomber broke through security and exploded himself and his vehicle. Chunks of shrapnel ripped into Clunen's face. Photographed at home Salem, Ohio February 14, 2004.
"I have no political feelings. I'm just a soldier out there. You know, we're trying to help them live like us so they can be free and not be scared to do anything. Trying to set them free. That's how we looked at it. Sometimes we hated being over there because they just didn't respect what we were doing. We were trying to help them and they didn't want us there at all...It was a car bomb. A suicide bomber. He came just ripping through the gate and he exploded the car and himself. I got hit. My nose was sitting over here like on the left side of my face and I couldn't breathe so they had to cut a trache in. I was bleeding extremely bad. They kept me in a room by myself because I was just like really bad looking. I had tubes running all through."
~William Pitt asks that we look at these images then "compare and contrast 'Rathergate' vs. Saddam's WMD's" at this site. [The Poor Man]
~It seems every generation has to achieve Yossarian's insight for themselves: "The enemy is anybody who's going to get you killed, no matter which side he's on."
In today's faith-based USA where credulity has made loyalty oaths unnecessary, kids have little chance to learn what's worth fighting before they find out who their real enemies are.
January 14, 2005
White House Lobbied Against Restrictions on Torture
At the urging of the White House, Congressional leaders scrapped a legislative measure last month (Dec. 2004) that would have imposed new restrictions on the use of extreme interrogation measures by American intelligence officers, Congressional officials say.
Condoleezza Rice, the national security adviser, expressed opposition to the measure on the grounds that it "provides legal protections to foreign prisoners to which they are not now entitled under applicable law and policy."
...Senator Susan Collins of Maine, a Republican negotiator, and Representative Jane Harman of California, a Democratic negotiator, said the lawmakers had ultimately decided that the question of whether to extend the restrictions to intelligence officers was too complex to be included in the legislation.
"The conferees agreed that they would drop the language but with the caveat that the intelligence committees would take up the issue this year," Ms. Collins said.
~I pity kidnapped Americans, foreign contractors working for Americans, individuals mistaken for Americans and most of all the kids in the US military who'll bear the brunt of the violence this policy will continue to exacerbate.
How easy it is for those in power to make the world a more dangerous place. They simply drop the language with a caveat that other committees will deal with it later this year.
National Security Presidential Directives
THE USE OF PRESIDENTIAL DIRECTIVES
The Bush Administration has issued dozens of National Security
Presidential Directives (NSPDs) but the content and even the subject
matter of most of these instruments of presidential authority is
unknown.
... this is not a new phenomenon. In 1992, the General
Accounting Office (GAO) attempted to conduct a review of presidential directives in the previous Bush Administration but was denied the access that congressional investigators sought.
"Without access to detailed information about NSDs [national security directives, as they were then known], it is impossible to
satisfactorily determine how many NSDs issued make and implement U.S. policy and what those policies are," the GAO reported to Congress.
...given the current Administration's predilection for the unfettered
exercise of executive power, one can only imagine what national
security policies are being "made and implemented" without notice or oversight.
A compilation of all publicly acknowledged or referenced NSPDs is
here:
http://www.fas.org/irp/offdocs/nspd/index.html
~It's like trying to read a book given only the page with the table of contents.
