An Important StoryYou Didn't See - "Yesterday the WSJ's defense correspondent, Gregg Jaffe, reported that US Army officials have told the White House they are broke. Worse than broke actually. The Army, despite its $168 billion budget, is out of money and being forced to cannibalize operations, here and in the war zone, just to keep the lights on."
Iranian Professor: US and Israel have Been Trying To Divide Iran For Years - "An Iranian political science professor has said today that Iran and the US signed an agreement in 1978 which allowed Tehran to seek nuclear technology in order to meet its future energy demands but no one now talks about the agreement. He has also asserted that Zionists in Israel in co-operation with neoconservatives in the US have intentionally been trying to divide Iran for decades."
Dumb answers of intelligence chief - "He is expected to have an acute understanding of terrorist groups and their threats to American interests. But the incoming chairman of a congressional intelligence committee was yesterday struggling to explain his ignorance of al-Qaeda and Hezbollah."
Gates beats Olmert to the nuclear punch - "If anyone is aghast that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert let slip the worst kept secret in international affairs - that Israel is a nuclear state - perhaps they should turn their sights on another blabbermouth: Bob Gates. During Gates's Senate Armed Services Committee confirmation hearing last Tuesday, the nominee to replace Donald Rumsfeld as SecDef also let the "secret" slip:"
Nuclear hypocrisy at work in Israel - "Three years after the invasion of Iraq, there are weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East. But wait, where are the international inspection teams, the UN resolutions, and list of sanctions? When it concerns Israel, double standards are the norm. As far back as 1968, the CIA realised that Israel had nuclear weapons. It was the great unmentionable in Washington and not just because of embarrassment. The US, by its own legislation, is forbidden from issuing economic assistance to any country with a clandestine nuclear weapons programme. But feigned ignorance is no longer an option."
Military Meets, Exceeds Recruiting Goals - "Though Americans are increasingly pessimistic about the war in Iraq, the Pentagon said Tuesday it is having success enlisting new troops. The Navy and Air Force met their recruiting goals last month while the Army and Marine Corps exceeded theirs, the Defense Department announced."
Army, Marine Corps To Ask for More Troops - "The Army and Marine Corps are planning to ask incoming Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and Congress to approve permanent increases in personnel, as senior officials in both services assert that the nation's global military strategy has outstripped their resources. In addition, the Army will press hard for "full access" to the 346,000-strong Army National Guard and the 196,000-strong Army Reserves by asking Gates to take the politically sensitive step of easing the Pentagon restrictions on the frequency and duration of involuntary call-ups for reservists, according to two senior Army officials."
China Has U.S. By The Purse - "Who has real power over U.S. decision-making? If you think it is the White House, or even the Congress, think again. There has been a power shift underway for years and, believe it our not, our future and fortune rests in the hands of bureaucrats on the other side of the world. Sorry folks, but our red, white and blue economy is afloat because of members of the Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party. Yes, the Red Menace that we spent so many years fearing as a military threat now represents a far more serious economic threat. Mao must be turning in his grave with the news that no less than six U.S. Cabinet members are on their way to the Middle Kingdom on Wednesday to beseech, beg, lobby and try to persuade the new mandarins not to sell off their vast reservoir of dollars." -- This is not good.
The US is finished - kaput - "Our arrogant government has its imperial army stretched over 150 out of 193 countries in the world and, most remarkably, are using the entire world's resources to do it - while in return handing them a bunch of worthless IOUs."
Government Spying Goes Global - "The government is tracking your transactions to help find terror suspects -- a move that makes about as much sense as assigning guilt based on Google keyword searches."
Computers 'could store entire life by 2026' - "A device the size of a sugar cube will be able to record and store high resolution video footage of every second of a human life within two decades, experts said yesterday."
McCain: Illegal images must be reported - "Millions of commercial Web sites and personal blogs would be required to report illegal images or videos posted by their users or pay fines of up to $300,000, if a new proposal in the U.S. Senate came into law. ... In a speech on the Senate floor Wednesday, the Arizona Republican and former presidential candidate warned that "technology has contributed to the greater distribution and availability, and, some believe, desire for child pornography."" -- That's how it almost always begins: for the protection of the children.
7/7 Witness: Bus Was Diverted To Tavistock Sq. By Two Unmarked Cars - "A soon to be published narrative of the number 30 bus bombing on 7/7 in London claims that the Hackney bus was diverted to Tavistock Square by two unmarked cars which then left the scene at high speed after the drivers had conversed with police in the area."
Nativity scenes are out, carols are banned, and don't dare wish anyone merry Christmas: the festive season, US-style - ""Merry Winter!" It's cold. It's dark. What's so damned merry about winter? But that is the banner meeting customers this season in an American Banana Republic. Between craven self-censorship and government fiat, mention of Christmas has become equivalent to public farting in the United States. No hip American urbanite would be caught dead this December shouting anything more doctrinally specific than "Happy Holidays!" Meantime the American Civil Liberties Union has been suing the bejesus - whoops! - suing the pants off local authorities who sanction nativity scenes on public property. School boards across the country have banned carols such as Silent Night in holiday assemblies. Frosty the Snowman is tolerable, but the ACLU has threatened to sue a school in Colorado for permitting Jingle Bells, which makes Jewish students no longer feel welcome. In New York City, public schools, menorahs and Islamic symbols are acceptable, but not nativity scenes. Teachers in Sacramento have been forbidden to use the word Christmas in the classroom, Illinois state government employees forbidden to say "Merry Christmas" on the job."
Government resists altering money for blind people - "The Bush administration on Tuesday asked a federal court to overturn a lower-court ruling requiring the federal government redesign the nation's paper money to help blind people differentiate between denominations of bills."
NYC faces population strain by 2030 - "By the year 2030, New York City could have so many people straining its infrastructure that it won't have enough electricity or housing to meet demand and rush hour traffic will last all day." -- Where's the comet?
Fake snow in Alps, Moscow blooms: green Christmas? - "Experts say the mildness might be just a natural freak but many suspect it may be linked to greenhouse gases caused by human burning of fossil fuels."
Major Solar Eruption - Little Comment in Western Press - "If you are into following events involving sol, our system's central star, you may have heard of a major event in progress right now, but chances are you haven't heard as the Western media is strangely silent about the event."
China's white dolphin called extinct after 20 million years - "The white dolphin known as baiji, shy and nearly blind, dates back some 20 million years. Its disappearance is believed to be the first time in a half-century, since hunting killed off the Caribbean monk seal, that a large aquatic mammal has been driven to extinction. A few baiji may still exist in their native Yangtze habitat in eastern China but not in sufficient numbers to breed and ward off extinction, said August Pfluger, the Swiss co-leader of the joint Chinese-foreign expedition. ... Overfishing and shipping traffic, whose engines interfere with the sonar the baiji uses to navigate and feed, are likely the main reasons for the mammal's decline, Pfluger said."
New pill offers hope to a million hay fever sufferers - "A vaccine pill that protects the body against the allergic effects of grass pollen will be made available to around one million hay fever sufferers in Britain from next month."
Cuddly Dolls Offer Honest Answers About Anatomy - "Amamanta, Spanish for breastfeeding, is a blend of two words that mean love and protection. It is also the name of a doll family whose members may appeal to holiday shoppers looking beyond the latest Barbie or Bratz doll for a present that's non-hazardous to body image and can also educate about how babies are made, born and nurtured. Each 16-inch cloth adult Amamanta doll has genitals and pubic hair, and the mother doll features breasts that can be snapped onto the baby doll's mouth to help reinforce the importance of breastfeeding."
Quote of the Day
"I came to America because of the great, great freedom which I heard existed in this country. I made a mistake in selecting America as a land of freedom, a mistake I cannot repair in the balance of my lifetime."
~Albert Einstein, 1947
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