U.S. Not Winning War in Iraq, Bush Says for 1st Time - "President Bush acknowledged for the first time yesterday that the United States is not winning the war in Iraq and said he plans to expand the overall size of the "stressed" U.S. armed forces to meet the challenges of a long-term global struggle against terrorists."
Iraq troop buildup idea worries generals - "The military's caution on shipping thousands of additional troops temporarily to Iraq is based on a fear that the move could be ineffective without bold new political and economic steps."
Georgie, There's a Crowd Downstairs - "Now, there's been a lot of talk lately on Capitol Hill about how impeachment should be "off the table." We're told that it's time to look ahead--not back...Can you imagine how far that argument would go for the defense at an arraignment on charges of grand larceny, or large-scale distribution of methamphetamines? How about the arranging of a contract killing on a pregnant mother? "Indictment should be off the table." Or "Let's look forward, not backward." Or "We can't afford another failed defendant.""
White House Now Grows Skittish Over Iranian Demarche of 2003 - "The White House does not want the public to know that in May 2003, the Iranian Foreign Ministry floated the prospect of a wide-ranging dialogue with America on everything from uranium enrichment to anti-Israel terrorism. At least this is what a former Middle East director of the National Security Council, Flynt Leverett, is saying after the CIA's publication review board would not approve an op-ed he wrote, which was slated to run this week in the New York Times."
The Bush Era Draws to a Close - "2006 will be remembered as the year in which our government imprisoned journalists, embraced kidnap and torture as a "no-brainer," and moved toward implementing an infrastructure for total surveillance of American citizens. Hopefully, it also will be remembered as the year we started to bring these practices to a halt."
Road to White House may cost $1 billion - "he chairman of the Federal Election Commission yesterday predicted that 2008 will produce the first $1 billion presidential race and that the $500 million that each party's candidate will need to compete will severely limit the field of contenders. " -- And isn't that the point?
The FBI campaign against John Lennon shows how far the state can go to deal with stars who refuse to toe the line - "The striking fact is that Lennon could have avoided all of this. He didn't have to campaign against Nixon. It didn't sell records or help his career. But Lennon wanted to use his power as a superstar to do something worthwhile. And the great issue of the day was the unjust and disastrous war in Vietnam."
The Highwaymen - "Why you could soon be paying Wall Street investors, Australian bankers, and Spanish builders for the privilege of driving on American roads."
Eating the Planet Like a Bag of Doritos for Jesus - "Furthermore, we are the comet. We are both the threatened, dominate species -- as well as the comet of destruction that will end this Empire of Endless Burgers and Ceaseless Bullshit. Our delusions of the sustainability of ever-expanding market-based economies, wholly dependent upon a never wavering abundance of resources, has rendered us as inflexible as the dinosaurs were before a global wide, sky-occluding dust cloud. We're devouring the life-sustaining resources of the earth as if it were a bag of Doritos. Our empty appetites, engendered by global corporatism and its reliance on fossil fuels, is leveling an effect upon our world tantamount to a slow motion collision with a comet ... To survive, we must curb our appetite for this everyday menu of death-- for these Valueless Meals comprised of the empty calories of comforting lies proffered by the corporate state."
Report Reveals 2.2 Million Borrowers Face Foreclosure on Subprime Home Loans - "A new Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) study reveals that 2.2 million American households will lose their homes and as much as $164 billion due to foreclosures in the subprime mortgage market.
Hawaii trying to educate tourists about smoking ban - "Hawaii, known for its fresh ocean air and pristine beauty, has implemented one of the nation's strictest no-smoking laws. State officials say the new law will protect people from secondhand smoke, but some fear it may deter cigarette-puffing tourists from coming to the islands, especially high-spending visitors from Japan."
UK report says robots will have rights - "The next time you beat your keyboard in frustration, think of a day where it may be able to sue you for assault. Within 50 years we might even find ourselves standing next to the next generation of vacuum cleaners in the voting booth. Far from being extracts from the extreme end of science fiction, the idea that we may one day give sentient machines the kind of rights traditionally reserved for humans is raised in a British government-commissioned report which claims to be an extensive look into the future."
Software will make finding Web photos easier - "Swedish start-up Polar Rose AB aims to make it easy to find photos of familiar faces online, the company said on Tuesday, solving difficult Web search issues while potentially raising new privacy concerns. Polar Rose said it plans to offer free software to make photos searchable on both personal computers and across the Web by analyzing the contents of pictures with pattern recognition technology to locate specific faces within them."
Dweebs, horndogs and geezers - "Now this is mind-boggling. Check out how radically different the top ten search terms of 2006 were for Google, Yahoo and AOL."
Reality check: 95 percent of Americans had premarital sex - "More than nine out of 10 Americans, men and women alike, have had premarital sex, according to a new study. The high rates extend even to women born in the 1940s, challenging perceptions that people were more chaste in the past. "This is reality-check research," said the study's author, Lawrence Finer. "Premarital sex is normal behavior for the vast majority of Americans, and has been for decades."" -- That's because humans are supposed to have sex.
Comet dust yields surprises about universe - "The tiny specks have changed ideas about the birth of our solar system and offered hints about the origin of life on Earth."
Wake Up, Employers: Working Moms Are Giving Up - "The majority of working moms who leave their jobs do so because of inflexible office policy, not Martha Stewart fantasies."
Feeling stressed? Try holding your husband's hand - "A study by a University of Virginia neuroscientist has found that happily married women under stress show signs of immediate relief when they hold their husband's hand, with this clearly seen on their brain scans."
Recipe for Genius Revealed - "If you think the innate talents of your child alone will produce the next Albert Einstein, think again. The real recipe for producing a bright-minded adult, according to a new study, calls for a few ingredients—cognitive abilities, educational opportunities, interest, and plain old hard work."
Short Mental Workouts May Slow Decline of Aging Minds, Study Finds - "Ten sessions of exercises to boost reasoning skills, memory and mental processing speed staved off mental decline in middle-aged and elderly people in the first definitive study to show that honing intellectual skills can bolster the mind in the same way that physical exercise protects and strengthens the body."
Quote of the Day
"Leave it at this: man has come to dominate the planet thanks to two essential traits. One is intelligence. The other has been the absolute willingness to kill anyone and anything that gets in his way."
~ The Head, Cell by Stephen King
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