Women were more respected under Saddam, say women's groups - "According to the survey, women's basic rights under the Hussein regime were guaranteed in the constitution and – more importantly – respected, with women often occupying important government positions. Now, although their rights are still enshrined in the national constitution, activists complain that, in practice, they have lost almost all of their rights."
Army report on al-Qaida accuses Rumsfeld - "Donald Rumsfeld was directly linked to prisoner abuse for the first time yesterday, when it emerged he had been "personally involved" in a Guantánamo Bay interrogation found by military investigators to have been "degrading and abusive"." -- Why is Rumsfeld not in prison? Oh, yeah, that's right...see the next story.
Bush: Rumsfeld 'exactly what is needed' - ""Earlier today I spoke with Don Rumsfeld about ongoing military operations in the Global War on Terror," Bush said in a written statement released by the White House. "I reiterated my strong support for his leadership during this historic and challenging time for our Nation.""
US soldiers cry in frenzy as they come under attack - "Click on picture, then register, takes a second and get ready to be shocked ...Will CNN show this?"
'L.A. Times' Afghan Horror Story Confirmed by NBC - "A story reported by the Los Angeles Times' Paul Watson on Monday was so mind-boggling that it took a few days for other media outlets and Web sites to react. Just about the time that story started circulating widely, NBC News on Thursday night confirmed it, and took it a step further. Watson also produced a followup for his paper on Friday. This is how the NBC investigative team reported it: "Just outside the main gate of the huge U.S. military base in Bagram, Afghanistan, shopkeepers at a bazaar peddle a range of goods, including computer drives with sensitive — even secret information — stolen from the base. "This week, an NBC News producer, using a hidden camera, visited the bazaar and bought a half dozen of the memory drives the size of a thumb known as flash drives. On them, NBC News found highly sensitive military information, some which NBC will not reveal." Earlier, the Los Angeles Times had published what indeed appeared to be sensitive material. “This isn't just a loss of sensitive information,” Lt. Col. Rick Francona (ret.), an NBC News military analyst, said. “This is putting U.S. troops at risk. This is a violation of operational security.”"
For Iraqi Students, Hussein's Arrival Is End of History - "The two-year-old modern history textbook used at Baghdad's Mansour High School for Boys doesn't mention the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq in 2003. There's not a word about Iraq's annexation of -- and subsequent expulsion from -- Kuwait in 1990 and 1991, or its grinding eight-year war with Iran in the 1980s that took the lives of a generation of young men. Perhaps most conspicuously absent from the book, earlier versions of which were packed with florid praise for Hussein, is any reference to the former dictator. For the purposes of instruction at Mansour High, and most schools across Iraq, history ends in 1968, before the bloodless coup that swept the Baath Party to power." -- And so they will be doomed to repeat history because they will know nothing about it.
Libby won't argue Bush ordered leak of agent's name - "An indicted former White House aide does not contend that President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney ordered him to leak the name of a CIA officer whose husband criticized the administration's Iraq policies, the aide's lawyers said. ... "Mr. Libby plans to demonstrate that the indictment is wrong when it suggests that he and other government officials viewed Ms. Wilson's role in sending her husband to Africa as important," said the filing late Wednesday night."
U.S. weighs how best to detect nuke threats - "In coming weeks, the Bush administration will award or initiate contracts worth $3 billion to develop a new generation of rugged and precise radiation monitors and imaging scanners designed to sniff out radioactive material at the nation's borders." -- Some one's getting richer.
America’s Secret Police? - "Intelligence experts warn that a proposal to merge two Pentagon intelligence units could create an ominous new agency."
Poll: Most Americans Say Tax System Unjust - "People think the middle class, the self-employed and small businesses pay too much in taxes, the poll found. And they think those with high incomes and big businesses don't pay enough." -- But of course, all they will do is complain.
More Britons have DNA held by police than rest of world - "Police in Britain hold vastly more DNA samples than any other country in the Western world, and many are from people who have never committed a crime."
Forest Service posts signs warning of illegal immigrants, smugglers - "Coronado National Forest workers have started placing signs warning visitors that smugglers and illegal immigrants may be in the area and to use caution."
Butts Out: N.J.'s Smoking Ban Takes Effect - "New Jersey's ban prohibits cigar, cigarette and pipe smoking in restaurants, bars, private office buildings and other indoor places, with fines of $250 to $1,000 for people who light up and the businesses that let them. Casino industry officials convinced lawmakers a ban would keep gamblers away and cut into profits earned by the casinos and shared by the state."
Bartenders' makeup stays on, court rules - "A casino company's requirement for female bartenders to wear makeup does not amount to sexual discrimination, a federal appeals court ruled Friday. ... "This is not a case where the dress or appearance requirement is intended to be sexually provocative and tending to stereotype women as sex objects," Chief Judge Mary M. Schroeder wrote for the majority." -- Huh? Isn't that the purpose of makeup: to make one "appear" more attractive?
Mumps outbreak now in 8 states - "Federal health officials said Friday they are looking into whether air travel is spreading mumps through the Midwest."
A Sour Note on Modern Times - "Numerous studies link falling worker productivity to the advent of e-mail, mobile phones, BlackBerries and instant messaging. The ability to communicate instantaneously, around the clock (or, if you prefer, 24/7), with colleagues and clients may seem like a good idea at first blush. But healthy humans know when to down tools and head for the hills. The problem is that we're always on the grid now, always reachable and constantly bombarded, blurring the distinction between work and leisure time."
Chinese man 'has world's second face transplant' - "A 30-year-old man, who had been attacked and disfigured by a black bear while hunting, had two thirds of his face replaced in an operation lasting 14 hours."
Bright lights, big quake? - "Does the earth have its own early warning system for earthquakes?"
Face Reader Bridges Autism Gap - "But people afflicted by autism lack this ability to ascertain emotional status -- it's one of the signature characteristics of the disease. Help could be on the way for autistic individuals, though: A novel computer-vision system developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology could do the mind reading for those who can't."
Improve your hearing with a new pair of glasses - "Thanks to a new pair of "hearing glasses," hearing-impaired people might both see and hear better--and have better social lives. ... Varibel says its glasses can detect which direction sounds come from, amplifying words spoken directly to the wearer while dampening background noise."
NASA Won't Release DART Mission Report - "Saying the information is too sensitive, NASA announced Friday that it will not release its report on the failed rendezvous of two spacecraft in what would have been the first such maneuver without human intervention."
Blogger asks, 'Wanna trade a paper clip for a house?' - "Kyle MacDonald is on the verge of successfully completing a project that on its surface sounds nothing less than absurd: Trading--with the help of a blog--a single red paper clip for a house."
Quote of the Day
"There are so many other reasons why you should hate yourself at the moment."
~ Ka D'argo, Farscape
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