Bush's Carnival of Blood - "The administration clings to the foolish notion that killing Saddam will somehow justify their unprovoked invasion and slaughter of 650,000 Iraqis. It won't. I expect that many people feel the same sense of disgust and emptiness that I do. The joy of executing Saddam is limited to a small cadre of men who revel in the suffering and subjugation of others. They are human in name only."
Amnesty condemns Saddam trial, death sentences - "Amnesty International has condemned the death sentences handed to Saddam Hussein and two of his senior allies, describing their trial as a "shabby affair, marred by serious flaws"."
Saddam sentence: Justice or travesty? - "How any Christian, or follower of any main religion, can rejoice at a death sentence being passed, defies logic. The decision to murder Saddam Hussein by hanging is the latest in a string of actions which have flouted international law in recent years. So, Saddam Hussein is to be hanged for signing the death warrants of 148 rebels, would-be murderers, in Dujail in 1982. Yet George Bush signed the death warrants of 152 people as Governor of Texas. Is he to be hanged for that? ... If there was no legality for removing Saddam Hussein from power under international law, where is the legality of this so-called court which sentences him to death? And under what jurisdiction does this court operate? Any Christian will know that it is God’s right to give or take life, not Man’s and the fundamental law of Christianity is to protect the gift of life. Therefore how the White House can react with the adjective “good” in reaction to the news, just about sums up the Satanic nature of those who purport to being Bush-supporting Christians in the United States of America today. In short, they are closer to Satan."
Vatican, Catholic officials say "don't hang Saddam" - "Vatican and Roman Catholic officials said on Sunday that former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein should not be put to death even if he has committed crimes against humanity because every life is sacred." -- Dead men tell no tales.
Whose Polls Are Problematic? - "Looking for trouble on Tuesday? Pay attention to Maryland, Missouri and Ohio. Observers say they're the three most likely to end up in trouble after the polls close. All of them have confusing election laws and a history of voting trouble. Combine those problems with close races, and some chaos seems almost inevitable."
America's Slide to Totalitarianism - "If some last-minute polling trends showing a powerful Republican comeback carry through the Nov. 7 elections, the end of America as we have known it for more than two centuries will be at hand."
Republicans Cut Democratic Lead in Campaign's Final Days - "A nationwide Pew Research Center survey finds voting intentions shifting in the direction of Republican congressional candidates in the final days of the 2006 midterm campaign. The new survey finds a growing percentage of likely voters saying they will vote for GOP candidates. However, the Democrats still hold a 48% to 40% lead among registered voters, and a modest lead of 47%-43% among likely voters."
End of the Neo-Cons - "Whether or not the Republicans lose control of one or both houses of the U.S. Congress on Tuesday, the neo-conservative vision that has guided American foreign policy since 2001 has run its course. The neo-cons' grand design lies in ruins, having accomplished nothing other than to shrink America's stature in the world."
Cheating possible on vote machine - "Days before the election, state officials have learned that California's most widely used electronic voting machines feature a button in back that can allow someone to vote multiple times."
The Disjointed States of America - "The assertion that America's red-blue divide is rooted in "moral values" was recently and rightly condemned by Newsweek's Jonathan Alter as an explanation that is "loaded and unfair, and was popularized by lazy-minded journalists." Pundits have latched onto "values" because nothing else seems to explain why so many millions of non-wealthy Americans are so insistent on voting so heavily against their own economic interests. On this election eve of 2006, let's get a jump on the analysts and examine more closely the deep differences among the states in some of their most important characteristics."
The Biggest Douchebags Ever Elected - "You may elect our nation's next great leader on Nov. 7. Or you could elect another major asshole like one of these guys."
Baghdad is Surrounded: “The American Era in the Middle East has ended” - "Here’s a simple test: Name one part of the occupation of Iraq which has succeeded? Security? Reconstruction? De-Ba’athification? Dismantling the Iraqi military? Protecting Saddam’s ammo-dumps? Stopping the looting? Body armor? Coalition government? Abu Ghraib? Falluja? Even oil production has been slashed in half. Every facet of the occupation has been an unmitigated disaster. Nothing has succeeded. Everything has failed. Everything."
More than 1,000 GIs sign anti-war petition - "A simple petition initiated by rank-and-file U.S. service members has caught on and begun to attract a mass sentiment of GI opposition to the continued U.S. occupation of Iraq."
Murdoch says US death toll in Iraq 'minute' - " "Of course no one likes any death toll, but the war now, at the moment, it's certainly trying to prevent a civil war and to prevent Iraqis killing each other."" -- I don't recall Iraqis killing each other before the invasion.
Perle says he should not have backed Iraq war - "Richard N. Perle, the former Pentagon advisor regarded as the intellectual godfather of the Iraq war, now believes he should not have backed the U.S.-led invasion, and he holds President Bush responsible for failing to make timely decisions to stem the rising violence, according to excerpts from a magazine interview."
Bush Says U.S. Pullout Would Let Iraq Radicals Use Oil as a Weapon - "During the run-up to the invasion of Iraq, President Bush and his aides sternly dismissed suggestions that the war was all about oil. "Nonsense," Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld declared. "This is not about that," said White House spokesman Ari Fleischer. Now, more than 3 1/2 years later, someone else is asserting that the war is about oil -- President Bush."
US 'suburbs more violent than Iraq' - "MORE fighting goes on in parts of suburban US than Iraq, according to Australian filmmaker George Gittoes who has just finished a documentary set in a Miami "war zone"."
IS GEORGE W. BUSH CLINICALLY INSANE? - "Bush goes well beyond gutter rhetoric and the politics of desperation. He is a delusional madman and a disgrace to our national heritage. When young people hear the president of the United States talking as he does, it's no wonder their perception of politics and public life is so low. The man who ran for the presidency claiming "I'm a uniter, not a divider" is one of the most divisive figures in American history and he will only get worse as his fiasco in Iraq continues to spiral into the abyss and the nation unravels."
Prosecutors reject 87% of FBI's terror cases: report - "The Justice Department increasingly has refused to prosecute FBI cases targeting suspected terrorists over the past five years, according to researchers. The government says the findings are inaccurate and ''intellectually dishonest.'' The report by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University raises questions about the quality of the FBI's investigations."
Secret Existence - "Since so much was happening this weekend politically, it was easy to miss one story by The Washington Post on Saturday, which covered the Justice Department's declaration that one of our detainees at Guantánamo is a human “state secret.” Meaning the very act of being a detainee had given the man “Top Secret” information which he’s not supposed to share—like with a lawyer. What do you know about our torture techniques and where our black sites are? Sorry, you weren’t supposed to know that, therefore no lawyer for you. That’s right folks, Majid Khan, one of the detainees from the CIA “black sites” is not allowed to talk about his detention and (likely) torture because the lawyer he could speak to doesn’t have clearance to know about U.S. detention policies and “interrogation” procedures. That a government lawyer could even offer this kind of Kafkaesque argument means someone truly has drunk the Kool-Aid down at the Justice Department."
A Dissent: The Case Against Faith - "Those with the power to elect presidents and congressmen—and many who themselves get elected—believe that dinosaurs lived two by two upon Noah's Ark, that light from distant galaxies was created en route to the Earth and that the first members of our species were fashioned out of dirt and divine breath, in a garden with a talking snake, by the hand of an invisible God. This is embarrassing. ... It is, of course, taboo to criticize a person's religious beliefs. The problem, however, is that much of what people believe in the name of religion is intrinsically divisive, unreasonable and incompatible with genuine morality. One of the worst things about religion is that it tends to separate questions of right and wrong from the living reality of human and animal suffering. Consequently, religious people will devote immense energy to so-called moral problems—such as gay marriage—where no real suffering is at issue, and they will happily contribute to the surplus of human misery if it serves their religious beliefs."
Credo - "And here finally we arrive at the heart of the matter. Nietzsche’s supreme value was the “will to power”. Look at Dawkin’s list of crimes committed in the name of God and you will see that they are all cases in which religion has been used to dominate, conquer, control or intimidate. They are all expressions of the will to power. This, if anything, is the root of all evil, whether it takes religious or secular forms. That is why the supreme virtue of Judaism and Christianity is humility, the opposite of the will to power. To seek to impose your will on another, against his or her will, is the first step on the road to dehumanisation. It leads people to kill in the name of the God of life, hate in the name of the God of love, and wage war in the name of the God of peace. If Richard Dawkins has done no more than warn us of this danger, then may he forgive me for saying that he is a fine example of why God creates atheists and why sometimes theirs is a prophetic voice."
God vs. science: Can religion stand up to the test? - "Catholicism's Christoph Cardinal Schönborn has dubbed the most fervent of faith-challenging scientists followers of "scientism" or "evolutionism," since they hope science, beyond being a measure, can replace religion as a worldview and a touchstone. It is not an epithet that fits everyone wielding a test tube. But a growing proportion of the profession is experiencing what one major researcher calls "unprecedented outrage" at perceived insults to research and rationality, ranging from the alleged influence of the Christian right on Bush administration science policy, to the fanatic faith of the 9/11 terrorists, to intelligent design's ongoing claims. Some are radicalized enough to publicly pick an ancient scab -- the idea that science and religion, far from being complementary responses to the unknown, are at utter odds."
Perry believes non-Christians doomed - "Gov. Rick Perry, after a God and country sermon attended by dozens of political candidates Sunday, said that he agreed with the minister that non-Christians will be condemned to hell. "In my faith, that's what it says, and I'm a believer of that," the governor said. ... "If you live your life and don't confess your sins to God almighty through the authority of Christ and his blood, I'm going to say this very plainly, you're going straight to hell with a nonstop ticket," Mr. Hagee said during a service interspersed with religious and patriotic videos." -- And why should you care if I go to hell? I don't care that you think you're going to heaven. This is just a fear tactic. Believe what you want but leave everyone else alone.
The Trouble With Men - "I sometimes think that the defects of men, and the virtues of women, are equally understated. An unreconstructed male will say that men have invented all sorts of things and built this and that, which is true. Feminists measure themselves by the extent to which they manage to resemble men, which is a mistake. Both largely overlook the gravest plague to afflict humanity: the infernal and irremediable aggressiveness of males. ... Men, like street dogs, are both territorial and creatures of the pack. It starts early because it is instinctive. A boy of eleven showing up at a new school will be eyed by the other boys, tested, regarded with initial suspicion – but only by the boys. He earns his place in the pack. The girls are far more likely to say, “Hi, I’m Sally. What’s your name?” The little boys in a neighborhood form gangs, perfectly harmless in suburbs of the middle classes but gangs nevertheless, and guard their territory against intruders. They are playing, as puppies play. They are practicing for more serious times. ... The aggressiveness of males has wreaked unremitting havoc throughout history in the form of war. Women don’t do war, don’t like war, don’t fantasize about war. They put up with it. ... Men are more likely than women to favor capitalism (or “free enterprise” or “unrestricted rapine,” according to your politics) than women because it sanctifies commercial combat. Fifty billion isn’t enough, I must destroy the competition and eradicate Linux…."
Analysts outraged over U.S. adjustments of employment data - "U.S. non-farm payrolls data -- arguably the most closely watched indicator in the world's largest economy -- are revised so often and by so much that they can't be trusted, some strategists argued yesterday."
Australian Senate OKs cloning embryos - "The bill, which was approved 34-32, would relax rules on stem cell research and allow therapeutic cloning of embryos for medical research. The House of Representatives still needs to pass the bill before it becomes law, but lawmakers had expected the Senate to pose the biggest hurdle."
U.S.: Ozone-Zapping Pesticide OK - "Despite European objections, the Bush administration gets treaty partners to approve U.S. use of methyl bromide, a potent ozone-destroying pesticide banned internationally two years ago. And it'll manufacture nearly 6,000 tons of the stuff, even though it has 11,000 tons stockpiled."
Putting on your face could cause ugly health problems - "Scientists say that some of the chemicals found in commonly used health and beauty products can, in sufficient quantity, cause cancer, birth defects or disrupt hormone function. Ingredients called dibutyl phthalates -- a chemical used to soften plastics and found in nail polish and countless other consumer items -- have been linked to development problems in the male genitals of humans and rats."
Global Warming Could Trigger Insect Population Boom - "A rise in the Earth’s temperature could lead to an increase in the number of insects worldwide, with potentially dire consequences for humans, a new study suggests."
Businesses May Move Health Care Overseas - "Businesses and insurance companies are starting to eye the potential savings of outsourcing health care from the world's richest country to the developing world."
Some U.S. companies, insurers consider sending employees abroad for surgery - "Gilmore is among the hundreds of thousands of so-called medical tourists — 500,000 from America alone last year — who are flocking to hospitals in developing nations. They're coming from the U.S. to avoid soaring costs. They're coming from Europe and Canada to avoid long waits choking national health systems. They're coming from the Middle East for better care and service — especially after 9/11 when many Arabs are nervous about whether they'll be welcomed in the United States, where they often went for care. Asian hospitals in Thailand, India and Singapore have long catered to people wanting tummy tucks and face lifts, but many of these facilities are now gaining reputations for big-ticket procedures including heart surgery and back operations."
Man ordered to wear "sex offender" T-shirt - "A Delaware judge on Friday ordered a man who twice exposed himself to a 10-year-old girl at his workplace to wear a T-shirt with the words: "I am a registered sex offender" in bold letters, a prosecutor said."
Delete Your Bad Web Rep - "Any web citizen willing to pay ReputationDefender's modest service fees can ask the company to seek and destroy embarrassing office party photos, blog posts detailing casual drug use or saucy comments on social networking profiles."
Silicone Cleavage Bounces Back - "Women in the United States may soon have open access once again to silicone breast implants, which were taken off the market in 1992 because of safety concerns."
Plan to create human-cow embryos - "The hybrid human-bovine embryos would be used for stem cell research and would not be allowed to develop for more than a few days."
Human-animal mixing going too far, report says - "Some ethicists worry that the experiments might force society to make confounding decisions on whether, say, a human-chimp mix would have human rights. Other concerns are that such a creature could suffer from being outcast as a “monster,” from having a chimp as its biological father or mother, or from unusual health problems."
Birds have brilliant brains, say experts - "The team said that, despite clear physical differences between birds and other animals, there are important similarities in the way their memories work. They therefore concluded that the processes that drive the way we store and retrieve memories appear to be largely the same throughout the animal world."
Trying to get pregnant? Book a procreation vacation - "It's part of a trend in which hotels around the world are luring couples who are trying to have a baby. Resorts are offering on-site sex doctors, romantic advice and exotic food and drink calculated to put lovers in the mood and hasten the pitter-patter of little feet." -- People have been procreating for thousands of years, and now they have found a way to make money from it.
Duct tape no magical cure for warts, study finds - "Duct tape does not work any better than doing nothing to cure warts in schoolchildren, Dutch researchers reported on Monday in a study that contradicts a popular theory about an easy way to get rid of the unattractive lumps." -- No comment.
Quote of the Day
"You're not naive enough to believe we live in a democracy are you?"
~ Gordon Gekko, Wall Street
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