Building an Embassy Fit for an Empire - "The United States is building a massive embassy complex in the heart of Baghdad that is already becoming a symbol of America's imperial ambitions in the Middle East."
Is FOX News’ Foreign Affairs Analyst A Former Terrorist? - "It was another War-A-Go-Go on Hannity & Colmes last night (9/1/06) with two guests with the same opinion – that every day we delay either military action against Iran or effecting regime change (or maybe both), the US comes closer to being attacked by a nuclear bomb. Just in case that didn’t get the message across, the screen read “Only one option?” and “Time to attack Iran?” throughout the discussion. One of the guests was a new-to-me FOX News foreign affairs analyst named Alireza Jafarzadeh. It turns out Mr. Jafarzadeh is the former spokesperson for what the US State Department deemed a terrorism group allied with Saddam Hussein."
Tony Snow Flip-Flops On Executive Privilege - "How times have changed. As Glenn Greenwald first noted, Snow had a much different view of executive privilege in 1998, when President Clinton was using it to resist having his aides testify in the midst of the Monica Lewinsky saga. On 3/29/98, Snow published an op-ed titled, “Executive Privilege is a Dodge”:"
Mystery creator of anti-Hillary ad unmasked - "The political whodunit of the campaign season was solved Wednesday after a strategist with an Internet consulting firm -- which has ties to Barack Obama -- stepped forward as creator of the controversial "1984"-style Internet ad which depicted Sen. Hillary Clinton as a "Big Brother" figure."
FBI Confirms Contracts with AT&T, Verizon and MCI - "The FBI's general counsel, Valerie Caproni, testified today on Capitol Hill that the FBI entered into contracts with AT&T, Verizon and MCI to harvest phone records on American citizens under a national security letter program that has come under fire from Congress and the Justice Department's Office of Inspector General for circumventing privacy laws."
'This Is Indeed A Miracle' - "Thousands of people are flocking to see portraits of Jesus Christ which are said to have been bleeding for the past two weeks."
Furor over Baptist's gay-baby article - "The president of the leading Southern Baptist seminary has incurred sharp attacks from both the left and right by suggesting that a biological basis for homosexuality may be proven, and that prenatal treatment to reverse gay orientation would be biblically justified."
Use of deadly force likely to be expanded in Texas - "Texas legislators have sent to Gov. Rick Perry's desk a bill that allows people to use deadly force against attackers outside their homes under a much broader range of circumstances than current law allows, including in defense of their cars or businesses."
Bill to Ban Regular Light Bulbs Introduced in House - "A Democratic lawmaker has introduced a bill that would ban the sale of traditional incandescent light bulbs - which are less energy-efficient, prompting claims that they contribute to "global warming" - one day after a colleague told a press conference that legislating a ban would be a "last choice.""
Will Viacom Kill the Video Star? - "What makes this case special, legal experts say, is Viacom's aggressive legal arguments. If the case proceeds to trial and results in a ruling favoring the cable operator, it could substantially raise the risks for companies that publish content of any kind online."
School disciplines students for using the term 'gay' - "The president of the Pacific Justice Institute says officials at a California public school are having their free-speech rights violated in the name of "tolerance" for homosexuals. The school, he says, could soon find itself facing a lawsuit for telling elementary children they cannot use the word "gay" in a derogatory manner."
Houses cheaper than cars in Detroit - "As Detroit reels from job losses in the U.S. auto industry, the depressed city has emerged as a boomtown in one area: foreclosed property."
Why Having More No Longer Makes Us Happy - "Which means, according to new research emerging from many quarters, that our continued devotion to growth above all is, on balance, making our lives worse, both collectively and individually. Growth no longer makes most people wealthier, but instead generates inequality and insecurity. Growth is bumping up against physical limits so profound -- like climate change and peak oil -- that trying to keep expanding the economy may be not just impossible but also dangerous. And perhaps most surprisingly, growth no longer makes us happier. Given our current dogma, that's as bizarre an idea as proposing that gravity pushes apples skyward. But then, even Newtonian physics eventually shifted to acknowledge Einstein's more complicated universe."
It's Been an 'All Out War' on Pot Smokers for 35 Years - "Since 1972, U.S. taxpayers have spent well over $20 billion enforcing criminal marijuana laws and 16.5 million people have been arrested. It's time to put an end to this waste."
Navy Won't List Sonar Use For Whale Case - "The Navy is refusing to detail its sonar use for a federal court in a case involving potential harm to whales, saying the information could jeopardize national security."
GM mosquito 'could fight malaria' - "A genetically modified (GM) strain of malaria-resistant mosquito has been created that is better able to survive than disease-carrying insects."
Human Brain a Poor Judge of Risk - "We humans have a completely different pathway to cope with analyzing risk. It's the neocortex, a more advanced part of the brain that developed very recently, evolutionarily speaking, and only appears in mammals. It's intelligent and analytic. It can reason. It can make more nuanced trade-offs. It's also much slower. So here's the first fundamental problem: We have two systems for reacting to risk -- a primitive intuitive system and a more advanced analytic system -- and they're operating in parallel. It's hard for the neocortex to contradict the amygdala."
Ugly defendants 'more likely to be found guilty than attractive ones' - "It is thought that the principle applies elsewhere in life, with beauty being associated with kindness, intelligence and sporting ability."
Acids in Popular Sodas Erode Tooth Enamel - "Root beer could be the safest soft drink for your teeth, new research suggests, but many other popular diet and sugared sodas are nearly as corrosive to dental enamel as battery acid."
5 Newspaper Companies Report Slides - "Several newspaper companies today reported big hits to their revenues in early 2007."
US CD sales plummet as people turn to digital music downloads - "Purchases of digitized albums online failed to make up the difference -- instead they dropped from 119 million during that time period in 2006 to 99 million during the first three months of this year, SoundScan reported."
Dazzling new images reveal the 'impossible' on the Sun - "Another surprise sighting is that of giant magnetic field loops crashing down onto the Sun's surface as if they were collapsing from exhaustion, a finding that Golub describes as "impossible". Previously, scientists thought they should emerge from the Sun and continue blowing out into space. "Almost every day, we look at the data and we say – what the heck was that?" says Golub, a member of the XRT science team."
Husband rips wife's eyes out after she refuses sex - "Mohamed Hadfi, 31, tore out his 23-year-old wife Samira Bari's eyes following a heated argument in their apartment in the southern French city of Nimes in July 2003 after she refused to have sex with him. Ms Bari, who had demanded a divorce before the attack, was permanently blinded."
Australian court: If you suck, you must fuck - "A court in South Australia has ruled that a man can't rape and have consensual sex with a woman in same sexual encounter."
France opens secret UFO files covering 50 years - "France became the first country to open its files on UFOs Thursday when the national space agency unveiled a website documenting more than 1,600 sightings spanning five decades."
Quote of the Day
"Don't underestimate the gods."
~ Ender Wiggin, Xenocide by Orson Scott Card
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