April 25, 2006

News -- April 25, 2006

Why Bush Is Going Nuclear - "Just before Christmas, a few days after President Bill Clinton had been impeached by the House of Representatives, Clinton received intelligence from Iraqi exiles that Saddam Hussein and his entourage would be spending a specific night in an underground bunker beneath one of his palaces. Facing possible removal from office for "high crimes and misdemeanors," Clinton decided to remove Saddam from his office, thereby diverting attention from himself, as well as achieving the regime change in Iraq long sought by both neo-crazies and loony lefties. ... Saddam wasn't killed by our cruise missiles because the non-nuke warheads they carried weren't powerful enough, nor capable of penetrating deep enough, to destroy underground bunkers."

Israel: Iran 'worst threat to Jews since Hitler' - "Shaul Mofaz said: "Of all the threats we face, Iran is the biggest. The world must not wait. It must do everything necessary on a diplomatic level in order to stop its nuclear activity." He added: "Since Hitler we have not faced such a threat.""

No, It's Not Anti-Semitic - "My own reading of the Mearsheimer-Walt paper found it unremarkable, a bit sloppy and one-sided (nothing here about the Arab oil lobby), but nothing that even a casual newspaper reader does not know. Its basic point -- that Israel's American supporters have immense influence over U.S. foreign policy -- is inarguable. After all, President Bush has just recently given Israel NATO-like status without so much as a murmur from Congress. "I made it clear, I'll make it clear again, that we will use military might to protect our ally Israel," Bush said. This was the second or third time he's made this pledge, crossing a line that previous administrations would not -- in effect, promulgating a treaty seemingly on the spot. No other country gets this sort of treatment."

Bush Says He Tried to Avoid War 'To The Max,' Explains How God Shapes His Foreign Policy - "Bush also explained, in unusually stark terms, how his belief in God influences his foreign policy. "I base a lot of my foreign policy decisions on some things that I think are true," he said. "One, I believe there's an Almighty. And, secondly, I believe one of the great gifts of the Almighty is the desire in everybody's soul, regardless of what you look like or where you live, to be free. "I believe liberty is universal. I believe people want to be free. And I know that democracies do not war with each other.""

Bush Orders Probe Into Gas Price Cheating - "President Bush is trying to calm Americans' outrage over soaring gas prices by ordering an investigation into whether the price of gasoline has been illegally manipulated, his spokesman said Monday."

Coming soon: Cars that get 100 miles per gallon - "A car that doesn't need gas, or at least not much, is getting slightly more realistic all the time." -- I think this technology has been supressed for years in order to maximize oil profits.

"I'm Not Ready to Make Nice" -- Listen to the song, read the lyrics, check out the video. They have earned my respect.

DEMOCRATS SPEAK WITH FORKED TONGUES - "To listen to Democrats today, you would think they all opposed George Bush’s illegal 2003 invasion of Iraq. Bush, now at his lowest in public opinion polls, is open game for his Democratic opponents. He is being portrayed as a lying warmonger while the Dems are extolling the virtues of their anti-war philosophy. All this posturing is false. Four years ago, the Democratic Party jumped on board the war bandwagon. Many voted to go to war and gave resounding testimony to the evil of Iraq. However, if you believe the messages being sent by Democrats, you would think that not one supported the war."

Chavez: U.S. Diplomat Welcome in Venezuela - "Venezuela's president said Sunday that he would welcome a visit by a top U.S. State Department official and hopes to build close ties with like-minded Americans despite his vehement opposition to President Bush."

Congress readies broad new digital copyright bill - "For the last few years, a coalition of technology companies, academics and computer programmers has been trying to persuade Congress to scale back the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Now Congress is preparing to do precisely the opposite. A proposed copyright law seen by CNET News.com would expand the DMCA's restrictions on software that can bypass copy protections and grant federal police more wiretapping and enforcement powers."

The secrets of Scientology - "Very few journalists have infiltrated this bizarre "religion", although it has attracted at least eight million followers and is estimated to make £250m a year from its members. ... I ask if Scientology is a drug rehabilitation programme or a religion and he can't give me a straight answer: "It's different things for different people, you know," he says. I don't. "Well, people have all different kinds of problems and Scientology can help anyone through anything. It makes you a better person." Quite what Scientology does for the individual has been a matter of debate since Hubbard set it up in 1954. Tellingly, four years earlier, he had announced at an authors' convention: "Writing for a penny a word is ridiculous. If a man really wants to make a million dollars he should start his own religion." ... Although Ron will not give me an exact figure, he says that recruits pay "thousands" to study Scientology."

The Christian Nation Movement and the Alabama-ban - "A Missouri House Committee recently ignited debate over whether the United States was a "Christian nation" when it approved a resolution that the founding fathers "recognized a Christian God and used the principles afforded to us by Him as the founding principles of our nation." This resolution is not the first of its kind and follows the 2004 Texas Republican Party's platform which declared that the "United States of America is a Christian nation." The Christian nation movement is part of an escalating assault on the separation of church and state by the Republican right, so that the real question today is not whether we are a Christian nation but whether we are still a First Amendment nation."

Atheism is a liberating world view - "Let's first affirm that atheism is not a religion. It is quite simply a fundamental world view that asserts that to date there has been no evidence for the existence (reality) of gods. Logically, it is therefore incumbent on believers to support their claims rather than the reverse. The evidence that we do have argues quite strongly that the Judeo-Christian deity does not exist. For example, God is traditionally described as all-powerful, -knowing, -present and -good and not of time or space. Like square circles and married bachelors, it is an incoherent statement on its face and proven so by a simple reality check. ... Whereas atheists would change their position the minute there was evidence for a god or for the supernatural, religionists are so hard-wired and vacuum-sealed in their beliefs that they freely admit that their position is not even open for discussion. Atheism is the liberating view incorporated in the philosophy of secular humanism. Its central theme is that man alone is solely responsible for his destiny on earth. Morality has been shown to be a product of human development over thousands of years; no deity is necessary to counsel us about right and wrong. Atheists are continually amazed that Americans can reason with such clarity and critical thinking on most aspects of life except when it comes to God and religion. God, faith, religion, and the supernatural are, in the atheist's world view, the causes of the delusional wishful thinking that has at best, wasted man's time and at worst, been responsible for his most awful behaviors."

Will Anti-Religion Books Be the Next Big Thing? - "As pundits and pollsters are endlessly telling us, America is the most religious nation in the Western world. So why are two recent books, both of which challenge the very premise of religion, so hot?"

Just Say None of Your Business - "New government guidelines give even more funding to abstinence-only programs, despite solid evidence that they don't work." -- And that's because humans are supposed to start having sex in their teenage years. Otherwise, they wouldn't have those "urges". Seven year olds don't have those urges.

One Day, That Economy Ticket May Buy You a Place to Stand - "The airlines have come up with a new answer to an old question: How many passengers can be squeezed into economy class? A lot more, it turns out, especially if an idea still in the early stage should catch on: standing-room-only "seats.""

Why men get aggressive with super-masculine rivals - "A question for the men out there: ever find yourself becoming mysteriously aggressive towards rugged, super-masculine men once a month? The reason could lie with your wife or girlfriend - scientists have found that men become jealous of other dominant-looking males when their partners are at their most fertile."

Teacher Accused Of Forcing Kids To Watch Porn - "The New Sunday Times reported that 13-year-old male and female students were forced by a teacher to watch porn because they didn't do their homework."




Quote of the Day
"You've got to kill the terrorists before the killing stops and I am for the President - chase them all over the world, if it takes ten years, blow them all away in the name of the Lord."
~ Jerry Falwell

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