Mr. Metaphor Strikes Again

     Virtually every major problem I've encountered on my computer has to do with multi-tasking. Give it one or two things to do and things go smoothly, but crank it up to ten windows open and you're looking for trouble, everything just STOPS and you don't know where it is. Is it the radio? No, the music's still coming through. Could it be the mail coming in? The mail going out? God, not the window I've got open, the one I'm writing in.
   That happens in society too. You never know when that rascally random element is going to throw the best laid plans to shit. I think Mr. Gates deliberately created Windows as a mirror of society. Looks nice in the box. Loads nicely. Everything works fine for a little while and then you have to REBOOT. Everything works fine for a little while longer and then you have to REBOOT again.
    There's a kink in the works and it's you. You're the random element that the computer can't figure out. It's never been asked to do such a particular combination of things before and it's baffled. It's not that you don't get it, it's that it doesn't get you. If you behaved the way the computer wanted you to behave, it would never have to crash. You'd walk hand in hand down the corridors of perfection. Your computer deals with you the way society deals with you. It tells you to stop doing things. First it asks nicely, then it slams on the cuffs. It doesn't seem to understand that you don't work for it, it works for you. It rubs the lotion on its skin or else it gets the hose again.
    It's designed by a mind and you've got one of those. It's trying to psyche you out, to figure what you're going to do and be prepared for it, to lay the path and assume you won't stray, whereas we, we sit there, we absorb it all, we try to fuck with it, hey, what would happen if we did THIS! And THAT! There. Now we've trashed the damn thing. Let's start over.
   When parts of society crash, it's RAM vs. ROM all over again. If you're in society's RAM, you're only in memory. When there's a crash, you're toast. Only society's ROM survive because they've been stored in an external device called money and/or fame. The size of ROM in society entirely depends upon the goodwill of those in ROM and their propensity for creating more storage. Since everyone in RAM wants to get in ROM before the next crash, they bounce around randomly hoping a few will land in a bucket. If you land in the bucket, you're saved to an external device. Or you can buy your way in, or get grandfathered in, which is how most ROM do it.
   Sometimes it's just the screen, a component of society that simply needs to be fiddled with or replaced. It's random. There's nothing you can do about it but complain. The media is the complaint department, unless it's the publicity department, and then society's fucked. Every department store needs a complaint department. You've got to at least DEAL with complaints. They're going to crop up. They're the opposite of plants. Ignoring them makes them grow.
    In society, what good is replacing the hard drive if you've still got the same old CPU? Politics stops with the hard drive. Only the owner controls the CPU.
   In society, popularity equals money. Doesn't matter what you're popular for, selling cars, doing what you're told, getting the job done, creating art, they all equal more money with more popularity.
   Some may say that in Windows, popularity don't mean shit, that no matter how many people keep making the same mistake, they won't fix it. To them I say they are wrong simply because this idea conflicts with my pre-drawn conclusion.
   If Windows doesn't mirror society but simply the mind of Bill Gates, one of the richest men on earth, that's even scarier. 

Mr. Metaphor says 
"I never metaphor I didn't like."

Calling All American Soldiers in Iraq Thinking of Defecting

Wednesday night is Starlight BBQ night
at the Hilton Kuwait Resort.

Cocaine for Children

     "Aside from all it's bad qualities, cocaine is a local anesthetic that doesn't have to be injected. How many dentists have given injections of Procaine (called Novocain, a cocaine precursor.) when rubbing on a little cocaine would have worked just as well? Every single one.
    "So the next time your child is at the dentist and screaming that they don't want to get a shot in their mouth, you can blame the war on drugs for the hysteria.
   "And let's hear no 'I became a crack whore because my mama made my dentist put cocaine on my teeth when I was just a wee one' stories. Nobody becomes a coke addict because of pediatric dental work.
   "It also makes a mighty fine tea."
   "By the way, did you know that Pepsi uses Kerosene as a solvent to remove the cocaine from the coca leaves they use as a flavoring agent in their soft drink?"
- not me -

Religious Cocaine

     "For centuries and still today when my people welcome a visitor into their homes, they choose three of the most beautiful Coca leaves and hold them out, like so. Then, they close their eyes and turn toward a chosen mountain, and blow softly on the leaves, like so. They ask the Gods for safe haven and passage for their guest. Lastly, they hand the leaves to the visitor, who must repeat the traditional offering.
    "Will you represent this group and request protection and safe passage to Machu Picchu from the deities?"
- William: Andrea Hulser's guide to the Andes in Travel Stories - A Reading of the Leaves -

Calling All American Soldiers in Iraq Thinking of Defecting

Every Saturday is Arabian Delight
at the Al Bustan Palace Hotel in Oman.

Crack for Adults

     "There is perhaps a single predictable time of life when taking crack-cocaine is sensible, harmless and both emotionally and intellectually satisfying. Indeed, for such an occasion it may be commended. Certain estimable English doctors were once in the habit of administering to terminally-ill cancer patients an elixir known as the 'Brompton cocktail.' This was a judiciously-blended mixture of cocaine, heroin and alcohol. The results were gratifying not just to the recipient. Relatives of the stricken patient were pleased, too, at the new-found look of spiritual peace and happiness suffusing the features of a loved one as (s)he prepared to meet his or her Maker.
   "Drawing life to a close with a transcendentally orgasmic bang, and not a pathetic and god-forsaken whimper, can turn dying into the culmination of one's existence rather than its present messy and protracted anti-climax.
   "There is another good reason to finish life on a high note. In a predominantly secular society, adopting a hedonistic death-style is much more responsible from an ethical utilitarian perspective. For it promises to spare friends and relations the miseries of vicarious suffering and distress they are liable to undergo at present as they witness one's decline." 
- not me either -

Calling All American Soldiers in Iraq Thinking of Defecting

Wednesday night is pasta night
at La Veranda in Qatar.

I Feel So Much Safer Now

     "Neighbors spying on neighbors? Mothers forced to turn in their sons or daughters? These are images straight out of George Orwell's 1984, or a remote totalitarian state. We don't associate them with the land of the free and the home of the brave, but that doesn't mean they couldn't happen here. A senior congressman, James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.), is working quietly but efficiently to turn the entire United States population into informants - by force.
   "Sensenbrenner, the U.S. House Judiciary Committee Chairman, has introduced legislation that would essentially draft every American into the war on drugs. H.R. 1528, cynically named 'Safe Access to Drug Treatment and Child Protection Act,' would compel people to spy on their family members and neighbors, and even go undercover and wear a wire if needed. If a person resisted, he or she would face mandatory incarceration.
    "Here's how the 'spy' section of the legislation works: If you 'witness' certain drug offenses taking place or 'learn' about them, you must report the offenses to law enforcement within 24 hours and provide 'full assistance in the investigation, apprehension and prosecution' of the people involved. Failure to do so would be a crime punishable by a mandatory minimum two-year prison sentence, and a maximum sentence of 10 years.
   "Here are some examples of offenses you would have to report to police within 24 hours:

• You find out that your brother, who has children, recently bought a small amount of marijuana to share with his wife; 
• You discover that your son gave his college roommate a marijuana joint;
• You learn that your daughter asked her boyfriend to find her some drugs, even though they're both in treatment.

    "In each of these cases you would have to report the relative to the police within 24 hours. Taking time to talk to your relative about treatment instead of calling the police immediately could land you in jail."

- Bill Piper: Spy vs. Spy -

Calling All American Soldiers in Iraq Thinking of Defecting

Every Saturday there's a Moghul Mystery
at the Intercontinental Jeddah in Saudi Arabia.

Fable of the Week

     "Jacob," asked Mr. Gold whose days dangled by a thread, "where do you find the strength to carry on in life?" 
    "Life is often heavy only because we attempt to carry it," said Jacob. "But I do find strength in the ashes." 
    "In the ashes?" asked Mr. Gold. 
    "Yes," said Jacob with a confirmation that seemed to have traveled a great distance. 
    "You see, Mr. Gold, each of us is alone. Each of us is in the great darkness of our ignorance. And each of us is on a journey. 
    "In the process of our journey, we must bend to build a fire for light, and warmth, and food. 
    "But when our fingers tear at the ground, hoping to find the coals of another's fire, what we often find are the ashes. 
    "And in these ashes, which will not give us light or warmth, there may be sadness, but there is also testimony.
    "Because these ashes tell us that somebody else has been in the night, somebody else has bent to build a fire, and somebody else has carried on.
   "And that can be enough sometimes, that can be enough." 

- Noah ben Shea: Jacob the Baker -

Calling All American Soldiers in Iraq Thinking of Defecting

Tuesday is couples night
at the Millennium Airport Hotel in Dubai.

Weather of the Week

Snopes says this picture of a sandstorm in Iraq is real. 
A wall of sand approaching at 60 miles an hour. It's one of 14.

Calling All American Soldiers in Iraq Thinking of Defecting

There's a seafood extravaganza
every Thursday at the Gulf Hotel in Bahrain.

Stupid Answers of the Week

 Last week's question...

What the hell is this thing from Google Maps?

The blue powder puff was added to the photograph at the insistence of conservative Christian censors who claim the aerial photo included the image of a 74-year old woman sunbathing topless in her back yard.
- Ron and Lou

Mike mate
   A) It's the explosion at Homer Simpson's place when he opened the beer can that Bart had put in a paint shaker in revenge for an April Fools day joke.
   B) It's Bill Gates mistress house, the location of which has been obscured in every computer in the world.
   C) It's the warp in the time/space continuum that was described in the Hitchhikers guide to the Universe. Shortly after this photo was taken, Douglas Adams and Elvis fell through it and are now living quietly in Anaheim. They said to tell you if you're in the neighborhood (03 6267 5385) to drop by and bring drugs.
- Wal

I'm a photographer and recognize this as an out-of-focus rocket that has been launched. The satellite camera has a fixed focus on the ground so anything a distance away from the ground would be out of focus. The rocket is traveling upwards so the camera is looking down at it. This is a photograph of Florida, so I would suspect the camera took its picture on a day something was launched from Cape Canaveral. Because of the satellite's distance from earth the object would not have to be over that community to obscure part of it as it headed upwards.
- Yvette Grimes

It's either a UFO or a new top secret spy device brought to you by g. dumbya boosh.
- Johnny Iguana

That's on a need to know basis.
- Paul

El Nino?
- Marta Martin

Obviously the detonation phase of a small thermonuclear device.
- Fred Robinson

It's a spy satellite (balloon with video camera attached) over Texas from some poor third world country that will soon be added to the axis of evil.- Ragnall It is the event horizon of the current U.S. housing bubble.
- JC

Jeb's Holy Temple of Diebold where he sacrifices girls of ill repute and people of color.
- Anne K

Well, silly....its obvious..! that "fog" is the UBERFAHRT! I know, because I lived in Texas and I know a "fahrt" on a satellite map picture when I see it!
- Mimi A.

It looks like a hot air balloon which is out of focus because its higher than the houses below. 
- Andrew Dixon Jones

Tragedy ensues when the Pillsbury Doughboy, while visiting the Sunshine State, contracts a horrible yeast infection and becomes the Pillsbury Doughball.
- Ed Lynn

Howdy!
    Yes, it's a satellite pic. And the level of detail is rather creepy. How creepy? I am ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN of two things in this pic:
    1. My home is in it (and as I expected, plainly visible).
    2. It may have been ©2005, but it was actually shot about two years ago. Considering the level of detail in these pics I think the shutter of the satellite camera snapped (that pic of West Palm Beach FL) when a piece of space dust happened to be passing by.
    Simple magnification level distortion. Sorta like "the hair in the movie," But we are talking EXTREME telephoto focal length. If not mistaken, 11-15 MILES, lens to subject. 
    But THIS CAN'T BE BLAMED ON OPTICS. The "blurry area" is about half of EPCOT and ALL OF "Disney's Animal Kingdom."
    And it gets CREEPIER STILL!!! This "blurry area" COVERS AN ENTIRE FL CITY!!! It's ZIP code is 34747. It is Celebration, FL. BTW, same county, about 30 miles due west of me...
- Dan W

You weren't supposed to see that. We have your names. We know where you are. Be seeing you... soon.
- James and Katherine Allard

Stupid Question of the Week

Linda Hamilton in Terminator II
is a boring caption for this picture.

 A better one would be...

Send your answers to stupidquestion@disinfotainmenttoday.com.

I Don't See What the Arab World is So Upset About

Satan Doesn't Want You to Know

Studies show that eating three ounces of walnuts daily for four weeks reduces total cholesterol levels by 12% and LDL cholesterol levels by 18%. Other studies have shown similar results for almonds, cashews, pecans, macadamias and pistachios. 

Don't Take My Word For It

"Obi Wan never takes Anakin out for drinks and just levels with him. Sits him down and explains fascist totalitarianism. He doesn't explain why sacrificing the most marginal freedoms to create a false sense of security enables those taking on those additional powers to create a greater evil than that which they fear. Hell, nobody really explains to Anakin why Democracy is better than Absolute Rule. Instead it is all this Search your feelings bullshit. Turn to your ancient religion. This is why ultimately Luke Skywalker kicks ass. Because he doesn't have all this dogmatic bullshit. Because he's got a buddy like Han Solo that'd be willing to bust ass across the galaxy to save his ass. Somebody that has his back. FRIENDS! Because when the Sith hits the fan, it's the love of your friends that'll help you push through and kick ass. Because Luke believes in twin sunsets, the good guys and saving his dad."
- Ain't it Cool News -

    "President Bush's actions and policies have destroyed America's image as a nation that adheres to a set of core values, such as the rule of law, humane treatment of prisoners, presumed innocence, trial by jury and respect for international laws.
   How do I know this? Because the world is telling us so, whenever we care enough to ask.
   "'Positive views of the U.S. in Russia have risen 11 points in the past year. But U.S. favorability ratings in France and Germany are somewhat lower than last year and there has been a larger decline in Great Britain (58 percent now, 70 percent last year). Young people in Great Britain, France, and Germany have more negative views of America than do people in other age groups. An important factor in world opinion about America is the perception that the U.S. acts internationally without taking account of the interests of other nations. Large majorities in every nation surveyed believe that America pays little or no attention to their country's interests in making its foreign policy decisions. This opinion is most prevalent in France (84 percent), Turkey (79 percent) and Jordan (77 percent), but even in Great Britain 61 percent say the U.S. pays little or no attention to British interests.'
   "Nice going George. Even Richard Nixon couldn't tarnish America's image that much."
- Stephen Pizzo: Bush: Worst President Ever? -

    "Take the example of a San Diego-based company, Leap Wireless. The company offers under its Cricket brand affordable month-to-month wireless service to thousands of low-income and credit-challenged customers in Modesto, Merced and Visalia. The company plans to expand in California and introduce its model of no-frills service - 'the Southwest Airlines of cellular' - to San Diego and Fresno.    "Cricket pioneered the talk-all-you-want, flat-rate wireless service model. They offer an innovative solution to credit-challenged customers who would otherwise not qualify for traditional wireless service. Their consumers use three times the minutes of average cell phone customers.
   "Among many wireless companies, Leap/Cricket is clearly doing something right in the marketplace. There is growing demand for their service. As a result of its innovative business model, Cricket has been able to bring the benefits of wireless to people who otherwise might not be served, thereby closing the digital divide.
   "Forty-one percent of Cricket's customers are Hispanic or African-American, and 64 percent report making less than $35,000 in annual household income.
   "What is the sin that Leap/Cricket committed that calls for the Legislature to undercut their ability to compete for customers with prescriptive and costly regulations? This company offers a no-contract, month-to-month service that can be canceled without penalty. Cricket keeps its prices low by keeping its costs low. The Legislature's formula would almost certainly force Cricket to raise its prices. Is that good for consumers?"
- California Senator Jim Battin: Lawmakers want to entangle wireless with red tape -

"New Rule: The people in America who are most in favor of the Iraq war must now go there and fight it. The Army missed its recruiting goal by 42% last month. More people joined the Michael Jackson Fan Club."
- Bill Maher: New Rules -

    "Falsehood #2: Bush's filibustered nominees have all been rated well-qualified by the ABA; blocking such highly rated nominees is unprecedented.
   "To make Democratic filibusters appear unwarranted, many 'nuclear option' supporters have falsely claimed that some - or all - of Bush's judicial nominees have received the American Bar Association's (ABA) highest qualification rating. Others have argued that Texas Supreme Court justice Priscilla Owen is the first judicial nominee to be filibustered who received a unanimous well-qualified (WQ) rating from the ABA.
    "But of the 10 Bush nominees filibustered by Senate Democrats, only three - Owen, Miguel Estrada, and David McKeague - received a unanimous 'Well Qualified' rating from the ABA. Conservatives have frequently touted Janice Rogers Brown as highly qualified (see Rush Limbaugh and Rev. Jerry Falwell), but she twice received an 'Unqualified' rating from the California judicial evaluation committee and currently has the ABA's lowest 'passing' rating of Q^m/NQ^min (meaning a majority consider her 'Qualified' and a minority consider her 'Not Qualified')."
- The Top 10 filibuster falsehoods -

"Senator, in everything I said about Iraq I turned out to be right and you turned out to be wrong - and 100,000 have paid with their lives, 1,600 of them American soldiers sent to their deaths on a pack of lies. I was an opponent of Saddam Hussein when the British and American governments and businessmen were selling him guns and gas. I have a better record of opposition to Saddam Hussein than you do."
- Mr. Galloway to Senator Coleman of the Senate sub-committee -

    "I cannot get out of my mind the recent news photos of ordinary Americans sitting on chairs, guns on laps, standing unofficial guard on the Arizona border, to make sure no Mexicans cross over into the United States. There was something horrifying in the realization that, in this twenty-first century of what we call 'civilization,' we have carved up what we claim is one world into 200 artificially created entities we call 'nations' and armed to apprehend or kill anyone who crosses a boundary.
   "Is not nationalism - that devotion to a flag, an anthem, a boundary so fierce it engenders mass murder - one of the great evils of our time, along with racism, along with religious hatred? These ways of thinking - cultivated, nurtured, indoctrinated from childhood on - have been useful to those in power, and deadly for those out of power.
   "National spirit can be benign in a country that is small and lacking both in military power and a hunger for expansion (Switzerland, Norway, Costa Rica, and many more). But in a nation like ours - huge, possessing thousands of weapons of mass destruction - what might have been harmless pride becomes an arrogant nationalism dangerous to others and to ourselves."
- Howard Zinn: The Scourge of Nationalism -

"The junk merchant doesn't sell his product to the consumer, he sells the consumer to the product. He does not improve and simplify his merchandise. He degrades and simplifies the client."
- William S. Burroughs -

"I had a stick of Carefree gum, but it didn't work. I felt pretty good while I was blowing that bubble, but as soon as the gum lost its flavor, I was back to pondering my mortality." 
- Mitch Hedberg -

"It's easy to imagine an infinite number of situations where the government might legitimately give out false information. It's an unfortunate reality that the issuance of incomplete information and even misinformation by government may sometimes be perceived as necessary to protect vital interests."
— U.S. Solicitor-General Theodore "Ted" Olson in Jennifer K. Harbury vs. United States -

"It is not the function of the government to keep the citizen from falling into error; it is the function of the citizen to keep the government from falling into error."
— U.S. Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Parker -

"If you really want to hurt your parents, and you don't have nerve enough to be a homosexual, the least you can do is go into the arts."
- Kurt Vonnegut Jr. -

"The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it."
- George Bernard Shaw -

"Patriotism is the willingness to kill and be killed for trivial reasons."
- Bertrand Russell -

"There is but one road to take if you intend to secure worldly power and success - and it is paved with the flesh and blood of your fellow men."
- Christopher Spranger: The Effort To Fall -

    "Because art is not defined as a business, yet must compete for economic survival in the business marketplace, we think certain legal priorities in the idea of copyright should be turned upside down. Specifically, a revision of the Fair Use statutes should throw the benefit of the doubt to artistic reuse and place the burden of proof on the owner/litigator. When a copyright owner wished to contend an unauthorized reuse of their property, they would have to show essentially that the usage does not result in anything new beyond the original work appropriated. However, if the new work is judged to significantly fragment, transform, rearrange, or recompose the appropriated material, and particularly does not use the entire work appropriated from, then it should be seen as a valid fair use - an original attempt at new art whether or not the result is successful and pleasing to the original artist, the owners of his or her work, or the court...
   "Please consider the ungenerous and uncreative logic we are overlaying our culture with. Artists will always be interested in sampling from existing cultural icons and artifacts precisely because of how they express and symbolize something potently recognizable about the culture from which both they and this new work spring. The owners of such artifacts and icons are seldom happy to see their properties in unauthorized contexts which may be antithetical to the way they are spinning them. Their kneejerk use of copyright restrictions to crush this kind of work now amounts to corporate censorship of unwanted independent work. Unlike the basic thrust of all the rest of U.S. law, copyright law actually assumes that all unauthorized uses are illegal until proven innocent, and any contested 'fair use' always requires a legal defense, which remains beyond the financial grasp of most accused 'infringers'. This financial intimidation results in the vast majority of art appropriators caving in and settling out of court, their work being consigned to oblivion, and the 'owners' having it all their way, including their expenses paid under the guise of 'damages'."
- Changing Copyright -

    "On Tuesday, May 10, 2005, America became a true police state. Your U.S. senators voted - unanimously, with no discussion, and without even reading the bill - to create a national ID card. 

    "The Real ID Act blackmails state governments into turning their drivers licenses into a draconian tool of the federal homeland security apparatus. If states refuse, their citizens lose such 'privileges' as being allowed to board an airplane, enter a federal building, or apply for social security. President Bush is expected to sign the bill eagerly on Thursday. 

    "In three years - by May 2008 - this Stalin-style internal passport will be an American reality. But your government will have more control over you than Stalin ever dreamed in his most violent, vicious, anti-freedom dreams." 

- Real ID Act Passed - The End Of America - 

 

    "The Senate is not a rubber stamp for the executive branch. Rather, we're the one institution where the minority has a voice and the ability to check the power of the majority. Today, in the face of President Bush's power grab, that's more important than ever... 

    "If Republicans roll back our rights in this chamber, there will be no check on their power. The radical right wing will be free to pursue any agenda they want. And not just on judges. Their power will be unchecked on Supreme Court nominees, the president's nominees in general and legislation like Social Security privatization." 

- Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada -

    "Lie #5: The sun will give you cancer.
   "Truth #5: The sun will prevent cancer due to the creation of vitamin D by the skin. Most Americans (and Canadians and Europeans, for that matter) are deficient in vitamin D. As a result, tumor cell growth in the breast and prostate is unregulated. Sensible exposure to natural sunlight generates cancer-preventing vitamin D... at no charge! Sunburns are actually caused by nutritional deficiencies (lack of antioxidants in the skin), not by sensible exposure to sunlight."
- Ten Lies About Health Your Doctor Taught You -

"People have no idea about the difference in health care in this country. My father got sick when I was poor, my mother got sick when I was rich. My father died, my mother is still alive."
- Chris Rock -

    "Unlike other political figures, the Bushes must be given the benefit of the doubt, even if an innocent explanation stretches credulity. Also, any ambiguity in the reporting, such as sources who are less than pristine or evidence that isn't 100 percent clear, must be interpreted in the Bush's favor.
   "Journalists or other investigators who violate these Bush rules must expect that they are putting their reputations and livelihoods in jeopardy.
   "Defiant journalists can expect the conservative news media and right-wing interest groups to place critical Bush stories under a microscope. Backgrounds of the witnesses and even the journalists will be investigated, with any blemishes that are found quickly becoming the story in both conservative and mainstream news outlets."
- Robert Parry: The Bush Rule of Journalism -

"There are only two kinds of men: those righteous who believe themselves sinners; the other sinners who believe themselves righteous."
- Blaise Pascal -

"Our planet is the mental institution for the universe."
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe -

    "I have worked on issues relating to US and NATO nuclear strategy and war plans for more than 40 years. During that time, I have never seen a piece of paper that outlined a plan for the United States or NATO to initiate the use of nuclear weapons with any benefit for the United States or NATO. I have made this statement in front of audiences, including NATO defense ministers and senior military leaders, many times. No one has ever refuted it. To launch weapons against a nuclear-equipped opponent would be suicidal. To do so against a non-nuclear enemy would be militarily unnecessary, morally repugnant, and politically indefensible...
   "In articles and speeches, I criticized the fundamentally flawed assumption that nuclear weapons could be used in some limited way. There is no way to effectively contain a nuclear strike - to keep it from inflicting enormous destruction on civilian life and property, and there is no guarantee against unlimited escalation once the first nuclear strike occurs. We cannot avoid the serious and unacceptable risk of nuclear war until we recognize these facts and base our military plans and policies upon this recognition. I hold these views even more strongly today than I did when I first spoke out against the nuclear dangers our policies were creating. I know from direct experience that US nuclear policy today creates unacceptable risks to other nations and to our own.
    "We are at a critical moment in human history - perhaps not as dramatic as that of the Cuban Missile Crisis, but a moment no less crucial. Neither the Bush administration, the congress, the American people, nor the people of other nations have debated the merits of alternative, long-range nuclear weapons policies for their countries or the world. They have not examined the military utility of the weapons; the risk of inadvertent or accidental use; the moral and legal considerations relating to the use or threat of use of the weapons; or the impact of current policies on proliferation. Such debates are long overdue. If they are held, I believe they will conclude, as have I and an increasing number of senior military leaders, politicians, and civilian security experts: We must move promptly toward the elimination - or near elimination - of all nuclear weapons. For many, there is a strong temptation to cling to the strategies of the past 40 years. But to do so would be a serious mistake leading to unacceptable risks for all nations." 
- Robert S. McNamara: Apocalypse Soon -

"In 1985 a group of bearded men met with Ronald Reagan in the White House. These turbaned men were, Reagan stated, 'the moral equivalent of America's founding fathers.' These were the Afghan mujahedin, for whom Osama bin Laden worked and was undoubtedly funded, directly or indirectly, by the CIA. At the same time Nelson Mandela sat in prison in Robben Island. Mandela, according to the official watch list of the Pentagon, was a terrorist, the head of a terrorist organization attacking the anticommunist apartheid regime."
- William G. Martin: Bin Laden and Mandela: Yesterday's Freedom Fighters, Today's Terrorist? -

    "MUJCA-NET is a group of scholars, religious leaders and activists dedicated to uniting members of the Jewish, Christian and Islamic faiths in pursuit of 9/11 truth. We believe that the process of joining together in search of the truth about 9/11 will bring enormous benefits, regardless of what truths we may discover.
    "While our endorsers and supporters have different views about the probable level of U.S. government complicity in 9/11, all of us agree that a new, honest investigation of the possibility of official complicity is a matter of the most urgent national and global importance."
- Kevin Barrett -

"The largest solar energy legislation ever introduced in the United States is pending in the California Senate and will be voted on in committee this Monday, May 23. The Million Solar Roofs bill (SB1) would help achieve 3,000 megawatts of solar power for California--the equivalent of 25 peaking power plants. This clean energy would prevent the release of 50 million tons of global warming emissions, while creating jobs and saving money for consumers. Please send a letter today to your state senator urging her/him to invest in the clean energy technologies of tomorrow by passing this landmark bill."
- Union of Concerned Scientists Action Committee -

    "Uh, people, I hate to tell you this, but the story about Americans abusing the Koran in order to enrage prisoners has been out there for quite some time. The first mention I found of it is March 17, 2004, when the Independent of London interviewed the first British citizen released from Guantanamo Bay. The prisoner said he had been physically beaten but did not consider that as bad as the psychological torture, which he described extensively. Jamal al-Harith, a computer programmer from Manchester, said 70 percent of the inmates had gone on a hunger strike after a guard kicked a copy of the Koran. The strike was ended by force-feeding.
   "Then came the report, widely covered in American media last December, by the International Red Cross concerning torture at Gitmo. I wrote at the time: 'In the name of Jesus Christ Almighty, why are people representing our government, paid by us, writing filth on the Koran's of helpless prisoners? Is this American? Is this Christian? What are our moral values? Where are the clergymen on this? Speak up, speak out.'
   "The reports kept coming: Dec. 30, 2004, 'Released Moroccan Guantanamo Detainee Tells Islamist Paper of His Ordeal,' reported the Financial Times. 'They watched you each time you went to the toilet; the American soldiers used to tear up copies of Koran and throw them in the toilet. ... ' said the released prisoner...
    "So where does all this leave us? With a story that is not only true, but previously reported numerous times. So let's drop the 'Lynch Newsweek' bull. Seventeen people have died in these riots. They didn't die because of anything Newsweek did - the riots were caused by what our government has done.
   "Get your minds around it. Our country is guilty of torture."
- Molly Ivins: Don't Blame Newsweek -

"8. Make your opponent angry. An angry person is less capable of using judgment or perceiving where his or her advantage lies."
- 38 Ways to Win an Argument from Schopenhauer's "The Art of Controversy" -

"Always acknowledge a fault. This will throw those in authority off their guard and give you an opportunity to commit more."
- Mark Twain -

"I fear for the fate of my country when I reflect that God is Just."
- Thomas Jefferson -

"Leave a nightlight on inside the birdhouse in your soul."
- They Might be Giants -

Everything Else

Now there's an entire website devoted to The Downing Street Memo about fixing the intelligence before the war in Iraq. 

Project Droplift is the opposite of shoplifting. Recording artists sneak their CDs into the racks of retailers.

The next time you find yourself having to defend evolution, be prepared by studying these responses to absurd creationist claims.

Get paranoid! Real time probabilities of earthquakes in California.

I can't believe you don't know that I played a maniac in Francis with Jessica Lange.