June 22, 2006

News -- June 22, 2006

Cheney: Iraq pullout 'worst possible thing we could do' - "Withdrawing American troops from Iraq would embolden terrorists and leave the United States and its allies vulnerable to new attacks, Vice President Dick Cheney said Thursday. Linking Iraq to the war on terror, he said neither an immediate nor phased withdrawal would protect the United States. "If we pull out, they'll follow us," he said of terrorists." -- Thus, if Dick has his way, U.S. troops will forever be in Iraq.

Senate rejects Iraq pullout - "The Republican-controlled Senate today soundly rejected two Democratic plans to redeploy troops from Iraq, turning back Democrats' argument that it is time for a policy change."

US: Danger, danger everywhere - "Will this new war party succeed, as its predecessors did, in winning new public and policymaker support for what this latest CPD describes as "World War IV"? Or will the US reject the politics of fear and hate this time, and move toward a more measured, less militaristic course in international relations - one that ensures national security without burdening the US with new wars and a self-serving military-industrial complex?" -- Signs point to no.

Report: Hundreds of WMDs Found in Iraq - "The weapons are thought to be manufactured before 1991 so they would not be proof of an ongoing WMD program in the 1990s. But they do show that Saddam Hussein was lying when he said all weapons had been destroyed, and it shows that years of on-again, off-again weapons inspections did not uncover these munitions." -- Give me a break. The grasping at straws continues.

Israel can no longer rely on the support of Europe's Jews - "Younger Europeans, not to mention the rest of the world, are more sceptical about Israel's territorial claims. They are less susceptible to moral arguments about redress for past horrors, which have underpinned Israeli actions for almost 60 years. We may hope that it will never become respectable to be anti-semitic. However, Israel is discovering that it can no longer frighten non-Jews out of opposing its policies merely by accusing them of anti-semitism. There is also evidence of growing disenchantment with Israel in the Jewish diaspora."

Army takes older recruits - "The U.S. Army, aiming to make its recruiting goals amid the Iraq war, raised its maximum enlistment age by another two years on Wednesday, while the Army Reserve predicted it will miss its recruiting target for a second straight year."

Study: Earth 'likely' hottest in 2,000 years - "It has been 2,000 years and possibly much longer since Earth has run such a fever." -- Which implies that it has indeed been this hot before.

Study Says Earth's Temp at 400-Year High - "The Earth is the hottest it has been in at least 400 years, probably even longer. The National Academy of Sciences, reaching that conclusion in a broad review of scientific work requested by Congress, reported Thursday that the "recent warmth is unprecedented for at least the last 400 years and potentially the last several millennia."" -- Same comment as above.

Global Warming Affecting Your Life? E-Mail Us - " Witnessing the impact of global warming in your life? ABC News wants to hear from you. We're currently producing a report on the increasing changes in our physical environment, and are looking for interesting examples of people coping with the differences in their daily lives. Has your life been directly affected by global warming?" -- Can you believe this shit? This is an asinine exercise.

AT&T rewrites rules: Your data isn't yours - "AT&T has issued an updated privacy policy that takes effect Friday. The changes are significant because they appear to give the telecom giant more latitude when it comes to sharing customers' personal data with government officials."

World scientists unite to attack creationism - "The world's scientific community united yesterday to launch one of the strongest attacks yet on creationism, warning that the origins of life were being "concealed, denied or confused"."

U.S. losing its middle-class neighborhoods - "Middle-class neighborhoods, long regarded as incubators for the American dream, are losing ground in cities across the country, shrinking at more than twice the rate of the middle class itself. In their place, poor and rich neighborhoods are both on the rise, as cities and suburbs have become increasingly segregated by income, according to a Brookings Institution study released today."

Frozen Brains Awaiting Their Resurrection Day - "In the United States, 150 bodies are frozen in cryonic slumber, 74 of them at the Cryonics Institute in Clinton Township, Michigan, which Ettinger founded in 1976 and still runs. When some of the bodies were frozen 30 years ago, there was speculation that they would be revived at about this time. But there is no sign that anyone is going to be resurrected anytime soon."

'Complicated grief' suggested as separate diagnosis - "It's normal to feel sadness and grief with the passing of a loved one, but an intense and persistent yearning for the person who died, difficulties "moving on" with life after a period of time, and a sense that life and the future are meaningless and purposelessness, are signs of "complicated grief," warns a group of Dutch doctors."

On the Web, Punch and Click - "Armed with a digital video camera, Cater and his friends tape their slugfests and post them on video-sharing Web sites, including Cater's Myspace.com page. The images tell a succinct, brutal story -- punches landing squarely on jaws, fists flattening noses, neck-straining headlocks followed by jackhammer storms of more blows to the face. Cater says no one has been badly injured -- hey, these guys are friends -- although participants can usually count on some bloody lips, plenty of sore knuckles and a few bruised egos. "I'm not in any way a violent person," says Cater, 22, who lives in Burlington, N.C., "but I enjoy getting out there and fighting when I can." There's more where that came from. Lots more. The convergence of cheap cellphone and digital cameras, easy-to-use video-sharing Web sites and good old human anarchy has created a whole subgenre: the amateur fight video, now playing all over the Internet. On such sites as YouTube.com or Google Video, you'll increasingly find a treasure-trove -- or a cesspool -- of people beating on other people, caught on tape by passersby, friends and other photographers. Some of the violence is consensual. Most of it isn't." -- What a wonderful species we humans are.

Boycott brewing after store owner refuses to stock morning-after pill - ""We've made our decision, and it's what we have determined. We're not going to change our position based on what happens. It's not a negotiable issue," he told The Olympian newspaper in Wednesday's editions."

Canada: No sex please until we're 16 - "Seeking to crack down on sexual predators in the era of the Internet, Canada's government brought in legislation Thursday that would raise the legal age of consent for sex to 16 from an unusually young 14."

How hard can it be to cancel an AOL account? - "More than 800,000 people canceled their AOL accounts last quarter. So it must be easy to cancel right? Not always." -- Another reason to stay away from AOL.




Quote of the Day
"It is not anti-Semitic to criticize the policies of the state of Israel."
~ Colin Powell

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