News -- January 29, 2006

Prepare yourself for the unthinkable: war against Iran may be a necessity - "If Iran gets safely and unmolested to nuclear status, it will be a threshold moment in the history of the world, up there with the Bolshevik Revolution and the coming of Hitler. What the country itself may do with those weapons, given its pledges, its recent history and its strategic objectives with regard to the US, Israel and their allies, is well known. We can reasonably assume that the refusal of the current Iranian leadership to accept the Holocaust as historical fact is simply a recognition of their own plans to redefine the notion as soon as they get a chance (“Now this is what we call a holocaust”). But this threat is only, incredibly, a relatively small part of the problem. If Iran goes nuclear, it will demonstrate conclusively that even the world’s greatest superpower, unrivalled militarily, under a leadership of proven willingness to take bold military steps, could not stop a country as destabilising as Iran from achieving its nuclear ambitions. No country in a region that is so riven by religious and ethnic hatreds will feel safe from the new regional superpower. No country in the region will be confident that the US and its allies will be able or willing to protect them from a nuclear strike by Iran. Nor will any regional power fear that the US and its allies will act to prevent them from emulating Iran. Say hello to a nuclear Syria, Egypt, Saudi Arabia." -- Iran knows they will be obliterated if they use nukes against another country. They're not stupid. It's called deterrence. Again, why should some countries be allowed to have nuclear weapons while others are not? Those that have these weapons have quite the advantage over those that do not have them.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,19269-2011570,00.html

Iran crisis 'could drive oil over $90' - "Oil markets are braced for a nail-biting week, as world leaders demand action against Iran over its nuclear ambitions, and analysts warn that crude prices could reach $90 a barrel if the oil-rich state retaliates by blocking supplies."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/iran/story/0,,1697136,00.html

Ready for $262/barrel oil? - "Two of the world's most successful investors say oil will be in short supply in the coming months."
http://money.cnn.com/2006/01/27/news/international/pluggedin_fortune/index.htm?cnn=yes

Beating Around the Bush By the Bourse - " Only bimbos believed Bush when he said it was WMD's that made him attack, invade, occupy and massacre Iraq. Most of us thought it was to steal Iraq's oil, but we were only partly right. What totally terrorized the tyrannical Texan tycoon was when Saddam played the oil bourse card in November, 2000. When Saddam started selling Iraqi oil in euro's, he jeopardized greenback hegemony as the world's supreme foreign exchange transaction currency. If this brilliant idea catches on, it will trigger the total collapse of the USA economy. The oil grab is a sideshow. The main feature is the oil bourse."
http://www.altpr.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=589&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0

America's Withdrawal Behind a Steel Wall - "Even during the Vietnam War, America never scorned its own values as much as it does today, the same values it wishes to instill in others! Given this situation, it is no wonder that George Walker Bush is erecting towers and barbed wire, rather than bridges and bonds of friendship with the outside world. This project, which is no different at all from the one in Gaza, has already reached an advanced phase of preparation. On December 16th, Congress voted in favor of the wall by a crushing majority. This steel wall, which is meant to thwart illegal immigration and terrorism, is to be over 1,000 kilometers in length, along the United States border. An actual modern version of the Great Wall of China. This 15-foot-high wall will bristle with watchtowers, be lit with powerful searchlights and scanned by sophisticated video cameras."
http://www.watchingamerica.com/tunishebdo000028.shtml

Screw the Photos: Bush, Abramoff Smoking Gun is W Removing Prosecutor Twice - "Twice now, Bush has removed the prosecutor in the Abramoff case. Twice! ... How can Bush remove Abramoff’s prosecutor twice and get away with it?"
http://benfrank.net/blog/2006/01/28/bush_abramoff/

Abramoff Scandal Threatens GOPBut Media Runs Interference - "That day, as part of MSNBC’s breaking coverage, Hardball’s Chris Matthews said, “I’m not sure it’s partisan. I’m not sure that people are going to see him as part of any Republican culture of corruption. I think [Rep. Randy] Duke Cunningham [R-CA] also was sort of a lone wolf in that department. I think we’re gonna see this case, basically––What’s the right word? ––It’s gonna be kept to itself. It’s not going to be part of a larger story of Washington this year, I think.” But Matthews himself had his own ties to Abramoff—a symptom of how deep the scandal goes, and why it may be difficult for the public to get the full story."
http://www.randomlengthsnews.com/archive/impeachjan19.html

Climate Expert Says NASA Tried to Silence Him - "The top climate scientist at NASA says the Bush administration has tried to stop him from speaking out since he gave a lecture last month calling for prompt reductions in emissions of greenhouse gases linked to global warming."
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/29/science/earth/29climate.html?ei=5065&en=01e494e7b7a009f5&ex=1139115600&partner=MYWAY&pagewanted=print

Brain Scans May Be Used As Lie Detectors - "Picture this: Your boss is threatening to fire you because he thinks you stole company property. He doesn't believe your denials. Your lawyer suggests you deny it one more time — in a brain scanner that will show you're telling the truth. Wacky? Science fiction? It might happen this summer." -- Did you read The Truth Machine by James Halperin?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060129/ap_on_sc/my_lying_brain;_ylt=A9FJqa3k4dxDp3YAQRas0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3MzV0MTdmBHNlYwM3NTM


Google challenges EU plan to regulate the internet - "The company, which last week said it would self-censor its Chinese search engine to appease the country's government, objects to the commission's proposals to extend regulations in the Television Without Frontiers directive (TWFD) to cover video content shown on the internet. James Purnell, the minister for creative industries, has backed Google's stance. He said: "There is no benefit to the consumer that justifies this move. This increased scope could mean significant regulation of the internet and stifle the growth of new media services. That would raise prices for consumers and deprive them of potential new services.""
http://money.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2006/01/29/cngoog29.xml

US Internet companies snub Congressional hearing - "The leading US-based Internet companies are showing little interest in attending a Congressional briefing on worries that the firms are bending to the wishes of China's censors."
http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/01/28/060129024601.vdrt6ptf.html

Lunar New Year: French animal lovers howl at Chinese dog slaughter - ""Millions of dogs (in China) are hanged, beaten with sticks and butchered while they are still alive," it said in a press release. The organisation added that it had tried to get French media to accept an advertisement as part of its campaign against dog butchering, but the picture -- of an animal being cut to pieces in a pool of blood -- was so graphic that it had been rejected by every newspaper."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060127/lf_afp/afplifestylechinalunar_060127182821

Pharmacists sue Walgreen over contraceptives - "Four Illinois pharmacists have sued U.S. drugstore chain Walgreen Co., saying they were wrongly fired for refusing to dispense the “morning-after” emergency contraceptive pill."
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/11076621/

Police Allege Child Porn Ring Sold Girls From Apartment - "Five men were taken into custody in Orange County, Fla., Friday on suspicion they ran a child prostitution ring out of their apartment, offering clients sex with 11 and 12-year-old girls, according to Local 6 News."
http://www.local6.com/news/6516355/detail.html?rss=orlpn&psp=news

Crime Is OK, but Sex Isn't - "The makers of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is sued by the L.A. city attorney. Not for the excessive violence that makes the game notorious, but for the hidden sex "game within a game" that threatens to undermine the morals of America's youth."
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,70103-0.html?tw=wn_index_9

Blobs Inside Earth Might Explain Rapid Mountain Building - "The research, reported today in the journal Science, adds to another recent study that found mountains grow much more quickly than scientists had thought. How it's done needs to be rethought, and one idea involves a giant blob of material inside the Earth."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20060128/sc_space/blobsinsideearthmightexplainrapidmountainbuilding;_ylt=A9FJqa3k4dxDp3YAhhWs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3ODdxdHBhBHNlYwM5NjQ

And the most important trait in a mate is...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060127/od_nm/romance_dc;_ylt=A9FJqZYT49xDNQwBxwWs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3NW1oMDRpBHNlYwM3NTc




Quote of the Day
"It looks like there's going to be a war, dear."
~ Jim Blogg, When the Wind Blows