News -- July 10, 2006

It's WWIII, and U.S. is out of ideas - "Last week's headlines prove the point: North Korea fires missiles, Iran talks of nukes again, Iraq carnage continues, Israel invades Gaza, England observes one-year anniversary of subway bombing. And, oh, yes, the feds stop a plot to blow up tunnels under the Hudson River. World War III has begun. It's not perfectly clear when it started. Perhaps it was after the Berlin Wall fell and the Cold War ended. Perhaps it was the first bombing of the World Trade Center, in 1993. What is clear is that this war has a long fuse and, while we are not in the full-scale combat phase that marked World Wars I and II, we seem to be heading there. The expanding hostilities mean it's time to give this conflict a name, one that focuses the mind and clarifies the big picture. The war on terror, or the war of terror, has tentacles that reach much of the globe. It is a world war." -- Because humanity can not live without war.

Japan Considers Strike Against N. Korea - "Japan said Monday it was considering whether a pre-emptive strike on the North's missile bases would violate its constitution, signaling a hardening stance ahead of a possible U.N. Security Council vote on Tokyo's proposal for sanctions against the regime."

Far East goes ballistic - "North Korea's long-range missile tests only confirm the existence of an arms race across the region. After the financial crisis of 1997, most South East Asian countries began modernising their armed forces."

We're next - "The message is unmistakable. If they use these lame excuses to justify killing innocent Palestinians, they will some day use these same excuses to justify killing us."

Swiss go where EU fears to tread - "THANK goodness for the Swiss. Alone in Europe other than the Italians, their government has dared to condemn what the Israelis are doing to Gaza. It is collective punishment, it says. It violates the principle of proportionality. Israel has not taken the precautions required by international law to protect civilians."

The plot to defeat our liberty - "For any form of tyranny to succeed, there have to be people who roll up their sleeves and get the job done. Repression doesn't just happen. It has to be organized, arranged, justified and marketed to a willing populace. In other words, it takes a team. ... And aides to petty and great tyrants alike have a central role in this. Their job is to dispense with the rules that protect the vulnerable from the strong, and make the strong stronger."

Mass. Court Backs Gay Marriage on Ballot - "The same court that made Massachusetts the first state to legalize gay marriage ruled Monday that a proposed constitutional amendment to ban future same-sex marriages can be placed on the ballot, if approved by the Legislature."

Lecturer denounces critics of his 9-11 teachings - "A University of Wisconsin-Madison lecturer who has sparked controversy by teaching that the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks were an inside job lashed out Sunday at public officials who have questioned his right to teach."

Gulf war vet shoots four - "David Bradley, 40, used a handgun with a silencer to avoid alerting his next victim. He crept up behind each in turn at their home, blasting them in the back of the head at close range. The ex-soldier then spent the night with the bodies before confessing to cops."

Two Fresno college athletes arrested in rape of 11-year-old girl - "The rape of an 11-year-old girl may have involved as many as 10 men, most of whom are football players at local community colleges, police said Sunday."

Slavery reparations gaining momentum - "Advocates who say black Americans should be compensated for slavery and its Jim Crow aftermath are quietly chalking up victories and gaining momentum."

Colleges go cellular to contact students - "Students can use the phones to get real-time alerts and information from the university, check class assignments, learn about specials at campus restaurants, or track the location of school shuttle buses through Global Positioning System technology. GPS also enables the tracking feature that initially worried some students. Students can activate this "Guardian" service, launched earlier this year, if they ever feel threatened on campus."

Parents turn to tech toys to track teens - "Parents, some of whom feel outmatched by their offspring in this tech-savvy world, are using a growing number of gadgets, software and specially equipped cell phones to track kids' driving, read their instant messages and pinpoint where they're hanging out. Move over, Big Brother. Big Mother is in the house."

Cameras offer TV surveillance in town of 420 - "With nine cameras, or one for every 46 residents, Sanborn is establishing a new threshold in the fight against crime. And in such a small town, some might wonder just how many moments long a secret can last before it's spilled at Tom & Jerry's or passed around at the regular pinochle game at City Hall."

U.K. Schools: Happiness lessons for all - "Schoolchildren will take self-esteem classes to raise standards and cut crime. US guru called in to pioneer radical scheme that could enter the school curriculum."

The deadly sea snail venom that will take away your pain - "It is 1,000 times more potent than morphine but, unlike that drug, is not addictive."

Sandton ice ball fell out of clear sky, says scientist - "Research conducted by a Nasa- affiliated scientist suggests that the frozen object that plummeted from the clear sky last Friday morning was one of the first "megacryometeors" to be recorded in Africa. And Professor Jesus Martinez-Frias, head of the Planetary Geology Laboratory at the Centro de Astrobiología in Madrid, has warned that the microwave oven-sized ice object could be a portent of "serious environmental problems"."




Quote of the Day
"A whole planet of sheep, is what we are now. A planet of slaves. And the damnedest thing is that we don't lift a finger to undo it all."
~ Cindy Carmichael, The Alien Years by Robert Silverberg