News -- February 26, 2006

AP Photo/Rajesh Nirgude

DEATH IN U.S. CUSTODY - " A major human rights advocacy group is charging that of the 98 detainees who have died in U.S. custody in Iraq and Afghanistan since August 2002, 34 are suspected or confirmed homicides, another 11 suggest that death was a result of physical abuse or harsh conditions, but only 12 deaths have resulted in punishment of any kind for any U.S. official. In close to half the deaths surveyed in a new report by Human Rights First, the cause of death remains officially undetermined or unannounced. Overall, eight people in U.S. custody were tortured to death." -- Check out the picture.

"Global War ... For Some Years to Come." - "A U.S. military strike on Iranian nuclear facilities would be used to repackage the occupation of Iraq as part of Washington's "long war" on "radical Islam," give Israel a blank check to crush the Palestinians and justify further U.S. imperial aggression in the Middle East. That's the logic of the growing U.S. efforts to force Iran to abandon its plan to enrich uranium--a process that is allowed under international treaties, but portrayed by the U.S. and its European sidekicks as a pretext for a nuclear weapons program."

Setting sail away from America: The world finds it's too hard to do business with the US - "Lucrative opportunities taken away on a political whim; the danger of being locked up by an over-mighty government agency; the brick wall of protectionism - the business community expects to do battle with all these things in an emerging market. Yet this suddenly seems to be a description of doing business in that most developed of all markets, the United States of America. In the UK, in the cash-rich Gulf states and in fast-growing India, different incidents in the past week have made people ask the same question: is it worth doing business with the US?"

Orders to U.S. factories for manufactured goods fall by largest amount in 5.5 years - "Orders to U.S. factories for big-ticket manufactured goods fell by the largest amount in 5.5 years in January as demand for commercial aircraft suffered the biggest setback in seven years, the government reported today. The Commerce Department said that orders for durable goods, everything from computers to cars, fell by 10.2 percent last month, a much bigger decline than had been expected."

Iran and Russia strike nuclear deal - "Iran has reached a mysterious "basic agreement" with Russia on a joint venture to enrich uranium, according to Iran's nuclear chief, Gholamreza Aghazadeh."

The Perpetual Surveillance Society - "As it is with all such intrusions on our privacy, it won't be easy to put your finger on exactly what's wrong with this technology. It won't really amount to a new form of control, as all the people who accept the implants will already be subject to monitoring or tracking of one kind or another. It will always be voluntary, at least to the extent that anything the state or our employers want us to do is voluntary. But there is something utterly revolting about it. It is another means by which the barriers between ourselves and the state, ourselves and the corporation, ourselves and the machine are broken down. In that tiny capsule we find the paradox of 21st century capitalism: A political system that celebrates choice, autonomy and individualism above all other virtues demands that choice, autonomy and individualism are perpetually suppressed."

TIA Lives On - "It is no secret that some parts of TIA lived on behind the veil of the classified intelligence budget. However, the projects that moved, their new code names, and the agencies that took them over haven't previously been disclosed."

Urgent warning of imminent cataclysm in Northwest United States - "What would you think if you were told that the currently erupting Augustine Volcano in Alaska was experiencing an unusual kind of earthquake every twelve hours to the second? That’s right, a very strange earthquake goes off on Augustine every twelve hours exactly to the second. What would you think if you were told that each of these unusual earthquakes lasted for exactly the same length of time, fifty-seconds for each and every event? What would you think if you were shown a collection of seismic waveforms for these precision earthquakes that were essentially identical? Most people would think those waveforms and the claims that preceded them were a hoax. Unfortunately, what you are about to view is not a hoax. The source for the first set of images is the Alaska Volcano Observatory. These images are of anomalous seismographic events, and they may also be seen individually after you read this at:"

White House asks to call up troops for disaster aid - "The federal government should be able to deploy troops to deal with major disasters such as Hurricane Katrina and, in "extraordinary circumstances," should take over the entire operation from states and localities, the White House said yesterday."

U.S. ceded control of ports - "The furor over a United Arab Emirates company taking over some operations at six U.S. ports underscores the global nature of the shipping industry and the minor role played by American interests."

Bush's 'fine' economy sees millions go hungry - "But the statistic that stood out most was the one that said 36 per cent of people who came seeking food lived in households where at least one person worked. It means increasing numbers of working people in the US don't earn enough for their families to eat properly. In the fine economy of George W. Bush, that is serious food for thought."

Morrissey investigated for criticising Bush - "ROCK star Morrissey has revealed he was quizzed by the FBI and Special Branch over his criticism of the US and Britain. Morrissey, 46, has previously branded George Bush a terrorist and blasted the Iraq war."

Rewriting History - "There is nothing inherently wrong with rewriting history. All of history is the story of who lost, rewritten by who won. The whole thing is arranged to suit the guy at the top with the fancy hat and the massed armies at his beck and holler. Well and good. That's just how it goes. The problem with rewriting history occurs when the apex canine decides to rewrite history as it is occurring, rather than waiting decorously for the mass peristalsis of current events to cease. Stalin was big on rewriting things as they happened, and this habit led to the collapse of the Soviet reality. Another party that favors this approach to history is the man they call president, George W. Bush."

'Truth' of Bible can't be believed with history of additions, deletions - "Just how reliable are common versions or translations of the New Testament? Are they the literal word of God or merely a creation of man? In ancient times, prior to moveable type and the printing press, scribes replicated books by hand, one letter at a time. Not surprisingly, numerous transcription mistakes occurred, and for a variety of reasons, some scribes would intentionally add or delete passages. Third-century church father Origen complained about pervasive scribe mistakes and alterations of the Gospels "… they make additions or deletions as they please." As a result, early New Testament manuscripts are riddled with errors and inconsistencies. What's worse, it's impossible to know with certainty what the original manuscripts said because those first-generation examples no longer exist. ... The popular and influential King James Version of the Bible certainly doesn't escape the consequences of bad source material. Ehrman asserts that it was largely based on "one of the worst manuscripts that we now have available to us" and points out the obvious: "The King James was not given by God but was a translation by a group of scholars … who based their rendition on a faulty Greek text." ... Christians, such as the Wells Hall preachers, who are blind to any dissimilarity between reality and their faith, will likely remain unconcerned with problems of Biblical reliability. Rational people, however, will recognize that the Bible is a demonstrably imperfect, purposely altered and error-ridden collection of texts created by humans, not a mythical supreme being."

Their Own Version of a Big Bang - "Evangelist Ken Ham smiled at the 2,300 elementary students packed into pews, their faces rapt. With dinosaur puppets and silly cartoons, he was training them to reject much of geology, paleontology and evolutionary biology as a sinister tangle of lies. "Boys and girls," Ham said. If a teacher so much as mentions evolution, or the Big Bang, or an era when dinosaurs ruled the Earth, "you put your hand up and you say, 'Excuse me, were you there?' Can you remember that?" The children roared their assent. ... A former high-school biology teacher, Ham travels the nation training children as young as 5 to challenge science orthodoxy. He doesn't engage in the political and legal fights that have erupted over the teaching of evolution. His strategy is more subtle: He aims to give people who trust the biblical account of creation the confidence to defend their views — aggressively. ... With pulpit-thumping passion, Ham insists the Bible be taken literally: God created the universe and all its creatures in six 24-hour days, roughly 6,000 years ago. Hundreds of pastors will preach a different message Sunday, in honor of Charles Darwin's 197th birthday. In a national campaign, they will tell congregations that it's possible to be a Christian and accept evolution."

Authorities: Powder in dorm likely not ricin - "Authorities doubt that the whitish-brown powder found in a roll of quarters at the University of Texas at Austin is ricin because no one has shown symptoms of exposure to the powerful poison, an EMS spokesman said late Saturday afternoon."

China's censored media answers back - ""There is now an unstoppable wave of demands for more freedom of expression and resistance to the old propaganda policies," said Jiao Guobiao, who was forced to resign his post as a journalism professor last year after accusing the government of handling the press in a manner worthy of Nazi Germany. The row over the extent of people's right to know shows that the Communist Party's authority is ebbing away, he said. But without censorship, the party could not maintain its rule for a day, he added."

Future of the Internet Highway Debated - "On the Internet, the traffic cops are blind — they don't look at the data they're directing, and they don't give preferential treatment. That's something operators of the Internet highway, the major U.S. phone companies, want to change by effectively adding a toll lane: They want to be able to give priority treatment to those who pay to get through faster."

World population hits 6.5 billion - "At 7:16 p.m. ET on Saturday, the population here on this good Earth hit 6.5 billion people, according to projections. Along with this forecast, an analysis by the International Programs Center at the U.S. Census Bureau points to another factoid, Robert Bernstein of the Bureau's Public Information Center advised LiveScience. Mark this on your calendar: Some six years from now, on Oct. 18, 2012 at 4:36 p.m. ET, the Earth will be home to 7 billion folks."

Canadian scientists want out of Darwin's 'rut' - "A handful of Canadian scientists are speaking out against evolution as an explanation for all of life as we know it, saying the complexity of living things simply cannot be attributed to biological chance."

Utah: Violent Games: Adults would be punished as felons for providing them to kids - "Rep. David Hogue, R-Riverton, implied such games played a serious role in school shootings such as Columbine. ... Romero also didn't like the fact the bill could land a parent in jail for two weeks, if they buy an extremely violent video game for their child. ... Hogue said he vetted the bill appropriately and is confident it could stand up under a court challenge. "And it will set an example that Utah is a family state," he said." -- Mathematically speaking, millions of kids have played, and are playing now, these video games without committing crimes like Columbine (or any crimes at all). Hogue's use of Columbine is just another way to keep people frightened, but the percentage of violent crime committed because kids play a video game is obviously extremely low.

Cavegirls were first blondes to have fun - "THE modern gentleman may prefer blondes. But new research has found that it was cavemen who were the first to be lured by flaxen locks. According to the study, north European women evolved blonde hair and blue eyes at the end of the Ice Age to make them stand out from their rivals at a time of fierce competition for scarce males."

Quote of the Day
"The world outside looks so unkind."

~ Dobie Gray