Do We Have To Arrest Bush & Company Ourselves? - "Do we have to make citizens’ arrests of Bush & company? We have smoking gun after smoking gun and the criminals in charge of our nation do nothing. It is quite clear they are all (with few exceptions) in on the crimes."
Americans say president shouldn't suspend rights - "Most Americans believe a president should not be allowed to suspend constitutional guarantees in order to fight terrorism, a poll released on Friday said. The poll, taken for the American Bar Association in the wake of the controversy generated by President Bush's domestic spying program, found the public divided over whether government eavesdropping on personal communications could ever be justified."
A 'long war' designed to perpetuate itself - "The U.S. Defense Department and the White House have decided that the United States is now conducting "the Long War" rather than what previously was known as the War against Terror, then as the Global Struggle against Violent Extremism, and briefly - as one revealing Pentagon study described it - a war against "the Universal Adversary." President George W. Bush said in his State of the Union address last month that the aim of his administration is to defeat radical Islam. This was a preposterous statement. Shortly afterward, radical Islam began burning embassies from Afghanistan and Indonesia to Damascus and Beirut. The United States is not going to defeat that."
US cornered by DEMOCRACY - "Bush is going to have to remove ALL references to 'democracy' from his speeches and his press kits. In just over 6 months, democratic elections have installed leaders that not only lean against the Bush administration's policies, but pose a direct threat to American hegemony. ... Maybe they can replace the term 'democracy' with 'hypocrisy.' That would make much more sense and be totally consistent with the Administration's foreign and domestic policies."
Danish paper cancels plans to republish cartoons about Israel - "The Danish newspaper that created a storm in the Arab world by publishings cartoons of the prophet Mohammed has canceled plans to reprint several cartoons dealing with Israel, a senior editor told Haaretz yesterday. "We wanted to show that we make fun of everyone, not only Muslims," said Pierre Collignon of Jyllands-Posten. "But for fear of being misunderstood, we canceled the plan at the last moment.""
Brazil poised to join the world's nuclear elite - "While the world community scrutinizes Iran's nuclear plans, Latin America's biggest country is weeks away from taking a controversial step and firing up the region's first major uranium enrichment plant. That move will make Brazil the ninth country to produce large amounts of enriched uranium, which can be used to generate nuclear energy and, when highly enriched, to make nuclear weapons."
Turkish rush to embrace anti-US film - "It is rabidly anti-American, and it is the biggest draw in town. ... In one scene, trigger-happy US troops massacre civilians at a wedding party. In another they firebomb a mosque during evening prayer. There are multiple summary executions. And for the first time, the real-life abuses by American soldiers at Abu Ghraib prison are played out on the big screen."
Privacy fears hit Google search - "A leading US digital rights campaign group has warned against using Google software which lets people organise and find information on their computers. ... "Unless you configure Google Desktop very carefully, and few people will, Google will have copies of your tax returns, love letters, business records, financial and medical files, and whatever other text-based documents the desktop software can index. "The government could then demand these personal files with only a subpoena rather than the search warrant it would need to seize the same things from your home or business," he said."
Spyware Barely Touches Firefox - "Internet Explorer users can be as much as 21 times more likely to end up with a spyware-infected PC than people who go online with Mozilla's Firefox browser, academic researchers from Microsoft's backyard said in a recently published paper."
The truth about Bush and abortion - "Every sentence was an outright lie. And last week, two federal appeals courts said as much, declaring the law unconstitutional. The two courts -- one in San Francisco, the other in New York -- were the fifth and sixth federal courts to reach the same conclusion since Bush signed the act into law. In other words, the courts went Oprah on him. They exposed Bush and his anti-abortion cronies as liars and exaggerators, people who manipulated and sensationalized "facts'' to make their legislation impossible to resist. The "compelling evidence'' to which Bush referred -- namely, that this type of abortion is never medically unnecessary -- was false. The anti-abortion "experts'' on whom Congress based its "studied decision'' were doctors who had never performed or witnessed an abortion. One was not even an OB-GYN. ... It's not a news flash that politicians lie. But this is outrageous. I wish there were a fraction of the indignation about Bush's conduct as the media have displayed over a writer lying in his memoir. Perhaps most galling about the whole episode is Bush and Congress knew the law was unconstitutional when they wrote it."
Kentucky Bill would outlaw most abortions - "Thirty-six state representatives are sponsoring a bill that would ban abortion in Kentucky except when a woman's life is in danger — a bill designed to trigger a challenge to the U.S. Supreme Court's decision that made abortion legal."
Church's stand on gays strained by 'marriage' - "The United Church of Christ's endorsement of homosexual "marriage" -- a lone stance among the largest Christian denominations -- has stirred debate and divided dozens of its churches."
Italy judge throws out Jesus case - "An atheist who sued a small-town priest for saying that Jesus Christ existed has had his case thrown out of court."
Parents, teachers have educational divide - "On testing, the poll found teachers are much more likely than parents to say standardized exams get too much emphasis. Yet most parents and teachers agree testing has weakened the ability of educators to give individual attention to students. Dottie Hungerford is one of those parents. "I don't see where the testing is going to come in handy for 90 percent of students down the line," said Hungerford, a truck loader from Syracuse, New York. "For science-minded kids taking English tests, I don't think they care where the period goes when you are up in space." Speaking of English, teachers cite it as the one subject students should study more in school. Parents disagree, but not by much. They put English second, behind math."
Toxoplasma Parasite Mind Control - "Half of the world's human population is infected with Toxoplasma. Parasites in the body - and the brain. Remember that. ... Oxford scientists discovered that the minds of the infected rats have been subtly altered. In a series of experiments, they demonstrated that healthy rats will prudently avoid areas that have been doused with cat urine. In fact, when scientists test anti-anxiety drugs on rats, they use a whiff of cat urine to induce neurochemical panic. However, it turns out that Toxoplasma-ridden rats show no such reaction. In fact, some of the infected rats actually seek out the cat urine-marked areas again and again. The parasite alters the mind (and thus the behavior) of the rat for its own benefit. If the parasite can alter rat behavior, does it have any effect on humans?"
Love is a long-haul addiction - "Singer Robert Palmer's edgy insight aside, scientists are finding that love in fact involves an intricate array of chemicals, hormones and physical and emotional reactions. Both love and lust, they say, come naturally. As Valentine's Day looms a few days away, the lovelorn may ask: If love is so "natural" why do so many people end up singing the blues? The answer boils down to unrealistic expectations."
'Throttling' Angers Netflix Heavy Renters - "The little-known practice, called "throttling" by critics, means Netflix customers who pay the same price for the same service are often treated differently, depending on their rental patterns."
StarChase Tracking Tag And Star Wars Homing Beacon - "StarChase real-time tagging and tracking pursuit management system lets today's police solve a dangerous problem - how to catch criminals who lead them on a high-speed chase. To accomplish this goal, they have created a technology until now seen only in Star Wars [and elsewhere earlier]; namely, the throwable, sticky homing beacon tracking device."
Quote of the Day
"I support the free press, let's just get them out of the room."
~ President George W. Bush
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