The Iraq Money Trail - "This war is going to bankrupt the US. ... The only people who are benefiting from Bush's war on terror are members of the Military Industrial Complex. Since 9/11, the pay for the CEOs of the top 34 defense contractors in the US has doubled, according to the August 2006 report, "Executive Excess 2006," by the Institute for Policy Studies, and the United for a Fair Economy. The bill is rising so fast because the level of war profiteering is unprecedented. The Excess Report lists George David, CEO of United Technologies, as the top earner, making more than $200 million since 9/11, despite investigations into the poor quality of the firm's Black Hawk helicopters. Halliburton CEO David Lesar made $26.6 million in 2005, and nearly $50 million since 9/11, an amount that even beats the $24 million that Dick Cheney received in exchange for the guarantee that Halliburton would be the number one military contractor during the Bush administration."
Convention plan includes preparing for 3,000 arrests - "About $550,000 for a possible open-air, fenced detention facility to hold protesters next to the Ramsey County Workhouse; $1.7 million for overtime, and $62,000 for biohazard decontamination equipment. These are among the items included in a $4.4 million budget proposal by Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher, who was told by St. Paul police to plan for 3,000 arrests during the 2008 Republican National Convention in St. Paul."
When Bad People Kill - "The tragic murders of Virginia Tech students, apparently by an insane person, will prompt new attempts to ban private ownership of guns. Once guns are banned, crime will explode. Households and vulnerable members of society will lose the ability to defend, which will invite more intrusions and attacks. Knife crimes will rise as they have in Great Britain. Gun prohibition will create a new industry for criminals--gun running and black market sales. Police will conduct stings by posing as black market gun dealers and entrap innocent citizens driven by fear and threat to secure means of personal protection."
U.S. Gun Laws Draw Heat After Massacre - "The Virginia Tech shootings sparked criticism of U.S. gun control laws around the world Tuesday. Editorials lashed out at the availability of weapons, and the leader of Australia—one of America's closest allies—declared that America's gun culture was costing lives."
Court Backs Ban on Abortion Procedure - "The 5-4 ruling said the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act that Congress passed and President Bush signed into law in 2003 does not violate a woman's constitutional right to an abortion."
Bush: Sudan has last chance to avoid U.S. sanctions - "President George W. Bush warned Sudan's president on Wednesday that he has one last chance to stop violence in Darfur or else the United States will impose sanctions and consider other punitive options."
EU aims to criminalise Holocaust denial - "Laws that make denying or trivialising the Holocaust a criminal offence punishable by jail sentences will be introduced across the European Union, according to a proposal expecting to win backing from ministers Thursday. Offenders will face up to three years in jail under the proposed legislation, which will also apply to inciting violence against ethnic, religious or national groups." -- Three years because you don't believe the "official" version of something and then voice that opinion?
Welcome to the no man's land of the 'North Americanist' - "Some call it 'regionalization', population of which will come to be known as the "North Americanists". Some call it North American Union, NAU for short, or the benign sounding North American Community. Few call the coming end of the sovereignty of three nations globalization, but rarely what it really is, the persistent encroachment of One World Government."
Religious Web Sites Ape MySpace, YouTube - "In the name of MySpace, YouTube and the holy Internet, amen. A number of religious Web sites are aping the names and styles of some of the Web's most popular sites. Chief among them are GodTube.com, a video-sharing site for Christians, and MyChurch.org, a social networking realm."
Muslim cabbies face license loss for refusing fares with alcohol - "The Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport will begin suspending licenses of Muslim taxi drivers who refuse for religious reasons to provide service to passengers transporting alcohol."
Central America bans 'the Antichrist' - "THREE Central American governments have banned a man claiming to be the Antichrist from entering their countries, outraged by his inflammatory preaching against the Catholic Church and organised religion."
Super-rich population surges in 2006: survey - "The number of U.S. households with a net worth of more than $5 million, excluding their primary residence, surged 23 percent to surpass one million for the first time in 2006, according to a survey released on Tuesday."
House hears of mortgage fixes; foreclosures inevitable for many - "Housing finance agencies told legislators yesterday they are trying to arrange safe mortgages for millions of people who could lose their homes because of ballooning loan payments, but legal constraints may prevent them from stopping foreclosure on many homes."
Inmates vs. Animals: U.S. Fails the Test of Civilization - "Unlike prisoners of ancient Rome, convicts at the annual Angola and Oklahoma State rodeos aren't physically forced to compete in the games, or even executed after their performance. Instead, they're paid handsomely -- upwards of $200 for winning "Convict Poker," or $100 for successfully grabbing the chip in "Money the Hard Way." A tour guide clarifies the basic economics: "Since $100 is worth about four months' pay to these hardened criminals, be ready for one hell of a scrap for that c-note." There are of course some ethical concerns. When "someone raises a question about the propriety of the rodeo," a Washington Post article explains, the focus remains on the abuse of bulls and broncos, like the pleas of the animal rights group PETA to cancel the rodeo on animal cruelty grounds. An official from In Defense of Animals writes elsewhere that the event provides inmates with "the right to torment and abuse frightened animals in front of a cheering audience." Moral questions don't arise about the propriety of cheering while bulls pummel convicts. Prison rodeos may be rare, but it shouldn't be surprising that the mainstream toleration they receive stems from the willingness of the United States to incarcerate 2.2 million of its people. While less than one out of every 20 humans lives in the United States, almost one quarter of the world's prisoners sit in American jails. The U.S. criminal justice system has no parallel in the contemporary world. History, however, reveals the origins of the system's scope, in addition to the national obsession of denying criminal offenders the decency and rights normally afforded to other humans."
The Frightening New Normalcy of Hating Your Body - "Thinness and beauty are prerequisites for perfection, which to today's young women appears to be the only road to happiness. Under that logic, women's bodies have become places where that drive for perfection -- however self-destructive -- gets played out."
Why the search is on to find alternative to internet - "With crises like this tarnishing the reputation of the system, even Vinton Cerf, one of the internet's founding fathers, has come out in support of the "clean slate" pioneers. He says a replacement for the internet is now needed because current technology cannot "satisfy all needs". Researchers in the US believe a new network could run parallel with the current internet and perhaps even one day replace it. However, experts from Scottish universities suggested last night a more likely scenario was "an evolution, rather than a revolution" of the internet."
Study finds weak participation on Web 2.0 sites - "Web 2.0, a catchphrase for the latest generation of Web sites where users contribute their own text, pictures and video content, is far less participatory than commonly assumed, a study showed on Tuesday."
The Segregated Blogosphere - "People of color make up 40 percent of bloggers, but only 26 percent of Internet users. ... For bloggers of color who reveal their racial identity and whose blogs tackle race and cultural politics, this has meant contending with hate mail."
Intelligence drugs could be 'common as coffee' - "It sounds like the stuff of science fiction: a new generation of drugs that make people more intelligent. But they are precisely the kind of mind-altering substances that students and businessman could be taking in the future to pass exams and boost work performance. ... They are already being bought illegally over the internet in the US by people who think they will enhance their performance in the classroom and in the office. ... Within two hours of taking the drug, healthy volunteers were better at remembering strings of numbers, were less impulsive and had a better short-term memory."
U.S. OKs 1st bird flu vaccine for humans - "A bird flu vaccine won federal approval for the first time Tuesday as a stopgap measure against a potential pandemic until more effective vaccines can be developed."
Argentine cow clones to produce insulin in milk - "Argentine scientists said on Tuesday they had created four cloned and genetically modified calves capable of producing human insulin in their milk, a step they said could cut the cost of treating diabetes."
Crematoriums order bigger furnaces as waistlines grow - "The spread of obesity is causing a problem for funeral directors and crematorium managers, it has been disclosed. Their clients are now often so large that their coffins will not fit into the furnaces, town hall chiefs said."
Adult circumcision a tough sell, even for a lower HIV risk - "Now that three clinical trials in Africa have shown that circumcision helps protect men against contracting HIV and the World Health Organization has endorsed it, public health doctors elsewhere - including in New York City - are contemplating whether to recommend it. Then comes the difficult part - how to sell the idea. Unfortunately, the data from Africa does not translate well. Those trials were of heterosexual men in countries where the virus is everywhere, education about safe sex is practically nonexistent, and condoms get in the way of the need to father children."
'Penthouse' no longer porn, Shell announces - "Shell Oil Co. has determined "Playboy" and "Penthouse" no longer are pornography, but instead are "adult sophisticates," according to a company statement." -- Good for them. I like the definition change.
Quote of the Day
"Gun-control advocates face something of a dilemma: If guns are the problem, why was it that when guns were really accessible, even inside schools by students, we didn't have the mass school shootings and other problems that plague us now?"
~ John R. Lott
No comments:
Post a Comment