March 27, 2007

Robert Fisk: The crushing fear that stalks America - "Thirty hours later, I flicked on the television in my Valdosta, Georgia, hotel room and there was a bejewelled lady on Fox TV telling American viewers that if "we" left Iraq, the "jihadists" would come after us. "They want a Caliphate that will take over the world," she shrieked about a report that two children had deliberately been placed in an Iraqi car bomb which then exploded. She ranted on about how Muslim "jihadists" had been doing this "since the 1970s in Lebanon". It was tosh, of course. Children were never locked into car bombs in Beirut - and there weren't any "jihadists" around in the Lebanese civil war of the 1970s. But fear had been sown. Now that the House of Representatives is talking about the US withdrawal by August 2008, fear seems to drip off the trees in America."

U.S. Navy Launches Show Of Force Off Coast Of Iran - "The U.S. Navy on Tuesday began its largest demonstration of force in the Persian Gulf since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, led by a pair of aircraft carriers and backed by warplanes flying simulated attack maneuvers off the coast of Iran."

Gulf economies to 'drop the dollar' - "Gulf economies will move away from a dollar currency peg and shift foreign exchange reserves away from dollar to other currencies, including the Chinese yuan, the chief executive of Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) has said."

Is the American Empire on the Brink of Collapse? - "U.S. military expert Chalmers Johnson argues the catastrophe in Iraq and the staggering cost of running a military that stretches across 130 countries on 737 bases may finally cost America its empire."

Americans in the Opinion Polls, Not in the Streets - "If so many people are fed up with the war, why is everyone so silent? Is this the way it usually feels in the heartlands of great empires until the barbarians actually do come knocking at the gates?"

U.S. commander: No civil war in Iraq - "Iraq isn't engulfed in a civil war, and there are signs of hope outside strife-torn Baghdad, the new leader of U.S. Central Command says."

Mueller: FBI can properly use its powers - "FBI Director Robert Mueller labored Tuesday to persuade skeptical senators that the FBI can properly use its terrorism-era authority to gather telephone, e-mail and financial records of Americans and foreigners while pursuing terrorists."

1 Out of 680 Americans a Suspected Terrorist - "TIDE has also created concerns about secrecy, errors and privacy. The list marks the first time foreigners and U.S. citizens are combined in an intelligence database. The bar for inclusion is low, and once someone is on the list, it is virtually impossible to get off it. At any stage, the process can lead to "horror stories" of mixed-up names and unconfirmed information, Travers acknowledged."

Ordinary Customers Flagged as Terrorists - "Private businesses such as rental and mortgage companies and car dealers are checking the names of customers against a list of suspected terrorists and drug traffickers made publicly available by the Treasury Department, sometimes denying services to ordinary people whose names are similar to those on the list."

Terrorists use Web against 'idiot' Americans - "Islamic terrorists are engaged in a "media jihad" in which they encourage jihadists to pose online as Americans to foster anti-war sentiment in the U.S." -- Hey, I'm not a "jihadist".

Mind how you walk. It could be a crime - "My favourite is automatic gait recognition. This identifies people by the way they walk and the Government has asked Ministry of Defence scientists to develop it for widespread use. Cameras are programmed to pick up on a particular gait, thereby making it impossible for a suspect to escape by covering his face. Even Orwell did not come up with "gaitcrime"."

Drones could defend airports - "The Homeland Security Department and the military this summer will test whether drones flying 65,000 feet above the nation's busiest airports could be used to protect planes from being shot down by terrorists with shoulder-fired missiles."

TV Evangelist John Hagee Wants War With Iran, and He Wants It Now! - "If anyone still thinks that the radical end-times "prophecy" movement is not a threat to peace and stability, think again. ... The most dangerous element of this prophetic paradigm, however, is its doom-and-gloom view of the world. And in most cases, those who have a fascination with the end of the world have a particular fascination with war and militarism as well. More problematic, it assumes that their wars of choice are not just their own foreign policy preferences or personal opinions. Rather they are ordained by God. In 2003, more than a few pastors and influential Christian figures basically said that opposing the Iraq war was opposing God’s end-time plan. According to Evangelical end-times enthusiasts, if you opposed the Iraq war, you didn’t just hate your country and the troops, now you were opposing God and the Bible as well. ... If left up to Hagee, there would be a military strike against Iran today. Since last summer, Hagee has been practically foaming at the mouth for a new war with Iran. Why? Because he thinks it is the rest of the world’s job to fight Israel’s wars and because he thinks such a showdown is a piece of the puzzle in regards to Bible prophecy. To Hagee, there is no middle ground on this issue. God told Abraham he would "bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you" (Gen. 12:3). That means if YOU aren’t on board with wars that might be in Israel’s interest, but not in the United States’, then YOU will be cursed by God. At least according to Hagee."

Catholic Church Confronts Declining Confessions - "The Archdiocese of Washington is taking a great leap of faith they hope will bring Catholics back to confession: it's advertising on the radio."

Sarasota Easter parade canceled - ""I've seen young girls shaking and dancing," Valerie Buchand said. "It hurt me to see that.""

Island Christian leaders: Ban Elton John - ""We feel it can have a negative social impact. There are some who may not be sure of their sexuality and one has to be careful about how this can create impressions on impressionable minds," pastor Terrance Baynes told Reuters Monday." -- Jesus.

S.C. Bans Gay Marriage - "South Carolina officially banned gay marriage Thursday as legislative leaders ratified a constitutional amendment approved by voters in November." -- The land of the free? Hardly.

Teen sex scandal ignored by AG, others for 2 years - "Emerging evidence suggests the scandal was systematic and statewide, perpetrated by a criminal conspiracy of staff employees. Texas authorities are investigating allegations that pedophiles on the TYC staff conspired to recruit and hire other pedophiles to engage in criminal acts of forced sex with the minor inmates. Among the charges in a Texas Ranger report was that administrators would rouse boys from their sleep for the purpose of conducting all-night sex parties."

AOL's Instant Message 'Tracking' Plug-In Concerns Police, Parents - "A new plug-in that allows users of American Online's popular instant messaging service to track and find the location of their buddies with Wi-Fi positioning technology has police and parents concerned, according to a Local 6 report." -- Bad idea.

America, Maxed Out - "The federal government -- and the majority of Americans -- can no longer get by a single day without taking on additional debt. And as more borrowing goes to simply pay off old debt, or to make interest payments, the new debt does little more than increase banking profits. ... Our incomes have risen an average of 1 percent in real terms, while our household debt has increased over 1,000 percent. As a result, we no longer save. We have no choice but to keep spending until our credit is exhausted and we own nothing."

China makes ultimate punishment mobile - "The country that executed more than four times as many convicts as the rest of the world combined last year is slowly phasing out public executions by firing squad in favor of lethal injections. Unlike the United States and Singapore, the only two other countries where death is administered by injection, China metes out capital punishment from specially equipped "death vans" that shuttle from town to town."

Womb for Rent - "How much is nine months of pregnancy, labor, and the birth of a child worth? Less than 10 cents an hour, according to the supposed "Culture of Life" warriors in Texas. The "Adoption Incentive Program" -- otherwise known as the Texas Baby Purchasing Act of 2007 -- would offer women $500 for forgoing abortion, giving birth and then signing away their parental rights. It does not apply to women who choose to keep their children or to women who choose adoption without first visiting an abortion provider, and it's being billed as an anti-abortion measure. Talk about commodifying women's bodies. This law would essentially pay women to rent out their uteruses. As BitchPhD points out, it's not about encouraging childbirth, it's about bribing women out of abortion and into adoption, effectively using them as cheap labor to create a child for someone else. Five hundred dollars isn't anywhere near enough to pay for the costs of pregnancy, like pre-natal care, maternity clothes, extra food, and time taken off of work. The bill even states that abortion providers -- and abortion providers alone -- are required to offer the funding to women seeking terminations. ... Baby-selling, it should be noted, is pretty illegal. But the proposed Texas law deals with that by simply saying that the anti-baby-selling statute "does not apply to the grant or acceptance of money under this section." Well ok then." -- No comment.

Why feminism 'could be bad for your health' - "A study in Sweden, arguably one of the most egalitarian countries in the world, discovered that men and women who are equal are more likely to suffer illness or disability. Those who earn the same are also more likely to become unwell or suffer a disability. People who have management jobs, male or female, were also found to die younger than those with a less pressured lifestyle."

It's not always rape if a woman is drunk, says judge - "A woman who is very drunk may still be capable of agreeing to sex, they said."

Beating the wife-beaters - "In South Wales and Plymouth, police have been piloting a new way of gathering primary evidence - crucial in such "one word against the other" style cases - which is simple, but brilliant. The head-camera scheme, which has been running since autumn 2006, provides police officers with the tools to gather evidence at the scene of a DV incident. The mini digital video cameras can be worn on a headband or attached to the side of police helmets, and can provide real-time evidence of victims' injuries, damage to property and the demeanour of the accused when first confronted."

Girls' Fertility Chartbook Stirs Debate - "Should teenage girls be taught to recognize the physical signs that indicate when they are most likely to become pregnant? ... Some comprehensive sex education advocates are asking: Is this too much information, too soon? ... Unlike the notoriously failure-prone rhythm method, which does not take a woman's individual cycles and fertility signs into account, fertility charting is highly effective. Research published online last month by the journal Human Reproduction finds that for women who faithfully follow fertility-awareness rules, it is only slightly less effective than the pill."

Big man on campus likely a woman - "Women's share of college enrollment is at an all-time high as education researchers continue to debate what is causing the trend of more women than men going to college, and what the future impact of the trend could be."

Many Americans see little point to Web? - "A little under one-third of U.S. households have no Internet access and do not plan to get it, with most of the holdouts seeing little use for it in their lives, according to a survey released on Friday."

Oprah's 'Secret' Could Be Your Downfall - "Why is The Secret, an Oprah Winfrey-endorsed documentary film and book package with a simplistic message that leads to more consumerism, topping Amazon's bestselling DVD list?"

American Socialism for the Already Rich - "Call it phony universalism, Robin Hood in reverse, or socialism for the rich -- the United States spends almost as much helping the have-plenties as the have-nots."

The War on Drugs Is Really a War on Minorities - "While all the major candidates are vying for the black and Latino vote, they are completely ignoring one of the most pressing issues affecting those constituencies: the failed "war on drugs" -- a war that has morphed into a war on people of color."

Sweeping changes to global climate seen by 2100: study - "Many of the world's climate zones will vanish entirely by 2100, or be replaced by new, previously unseen ones, if global warming continues as expected, a study released Monday said."

Riches await as Earth's icy north melts - "The U.S. Geological Survey estimates the Arctic has as much as 25 percent of the world's undiscovered oil and gas. Russia reportedly sees the potential of minerals in its slice of the Arctic sector approaching $2 trillion. All this has pushed governments and businesses into a scramble for sovereignty over these suddenly priceless seas."

Now scientists create a sheep that's 15% human - "Scientists have created the world's first human-sheep chimera - which has the body of a sheep and half-human organs."

Flavored meth use on the rise - "Reports of candy-flavored methamphetamine are emerging around the nation, stirring concern among police and abuse prevention experts that drug dealers are marketing the drug to younger people."

New IBM Chip Moves Data at Light Speed - "IBM on Monday showed off optical transceivers capable of data transfers at speeds of 160 GB per second. The technology could allow for extremely fast downloads of consumer content like high-definition movies, though the company said it has no consumer-related developments planned. However, IBM left the possibility open for others to move the technology in that direction."




Quote of the Day
"Liberty is lost through complacency and a subservient mindset. When we accept or even welcome automobile checkpoints, random searches, mandatory identification cards, and paramilitary police in our streets, we have lost a vital part of our American heritage. America was born of protest, revolution, and mistrust of government. Subservient societies neither maintain nor deserve freedom for long."
~ Ron Paul