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		2006 August 28, Monday iPod in toilet = TERRORISM! People who hate dams = TERRORISTS! The incredible shrinking solar system. From The Seven Most Dangerous Ingredients in Conventional Foods, do you know that... * Feeding children hot dogs increases their risk of brain cancer by 300%? * Strawberry yogurt, fruit punch and other red-looking grocery products are often colored with dead, ground-up cochineal beetles? The ingredient is called "carmine," and it's made from insects. It's listed right on the label of many of your favorite foods. * Food companies now "hide" MSG in safe-sounding ingredients like yeast extract or torula yeast? * Many Florida oranges are actually dipped in an artificial orange dye in order to make them more visually appealing? It's the same dye that's been banned for use in foods because of cancer risk. * Girl Scout cookies are still made with hydrogenated oils that contain trans fatty acids? * Many so-called "healthy" or vegetarian foods also contain the very same offending ingredients as conventional groceries? * Eating just one serving of processed meats each day increases your risk of pancreatic cancer by 67%? * One artificial color additive causes behavioral disorders in children? And that 80% of children diagnosed with ADHD can be outright cured of the condition in two weeks by avoiding certain ingredients? * The #1 ingredient in Slim Fast meal replacement shake (powder form) is sugar? * Some guacamole dips don't even contain avocado? Instead, they're made with hydrogenated soybean oil and artificial colors. Mmm. Chow time... 2006 August 25, Friday Eating meat = Dead Planet Miami "Police" shoot peaceful demonstrators in the face with a rubber bullet, then laugh about it - watch the video in the linked page to see both! I've said it before, and I'll say it agin: Fascists. Not just fascists, but cowards. If they're such tough patriots, shouldn't they be fighting real men in the Middle East? Nah, much easier to shoot women's faces in the good 'ol USA. Seig Heil! Droughts threaten world food supply Why Hezbollah is better than the Democrats. Grotesque McDonalds cartoons from the evil empire itself. Glad to see that some astronomers are outraged over the demotion of Pluto: Stern, in charge of the robotic probe on its way to Pluto, said the language of the resolution is flawed. It requires that a planet "has cleared the neighborhood around its orbit." But Earth, Mars, Jupiter and Neptune all have asteroids as neighbors. "It's patently clear that Earth's zone is not cleared," Stern told SPACE.com. "Jupiter has 50,000 trojan asteroids," which orbit in lockstep with the planet. Stern called it "absurd" that only 424 astronomers were allowed to vote, out of some 10,000 professional astronomers around the globe. "It won't stand," he said. "It's a farce." Stern said astronomers are already circulating a petition that would try to overturn the IAU decision. Owen Gingerich...called the new definition "confusing and unfortunate" and said he was "not at all pleased" with the language about clearing the neighborhood. Gingerich also did not like the term "dwarf" planet. "I thought that it made a curious linguistic contradiction...A dwarf planet is not a planet. I thought that was very awkward." More info on the ridiculous Pluto decision, and more here. It sounds like the vote was hi-jacked. According to the new rules, Pluto is not a planet because it hasn't cleared its neighborhood - because it hasn't cleared up Neptune, presumably. Hey - that means that Neptune hasn't cleared up Pluto...which means that Neptune can't be a planet either! Hey, at least things are simpler now that kids have fewer planets to keep track of. Let's hope the IAU moves on the periodic table of elements, and simplifies it too: Earth, Air, Fire and Water. Meanwhile, I'm retiring to my study to continue my attempts to convert Lead into Gold. Don't get me started on the Five Perfect Pythagorean Solids. Ah Dodecahedron, I know you contain the secrets of the universe! President Poopy-head likes to fart. 2006 August 24, Thursday The astronomers in the IAU have demoted Pluto. In doing so, their new definition also demotes Earth and maybe Jupiter, as neither of these objects meets the definition: (1) A planet [1] is a celestial body that (a) is in orbit around the Sun, (b) has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a hydrostatic equilibrium (nearly round) shape, and (c) has cleared the neighbourhood around its orbit. Um, ever heard of NEOs? Near Earth Objects? In 4 billion years, our planet hasn't "cleared the neighbourhood" yet. Neither has Jupiter. It's also messy near Neptune. That gives us - oh - five or six planets. Maybe we could argue over the definition of "clear the neighbourhood" for a few months. By this definition, an object far bigger than earth in the outer solar system would NOT be classed as a planet. This is just sad... Jon Stewart's coverage of Bush's moronic Press Conference. My question, had I been there: "Mr President, how many drinks did you consume before appearing here today?" Glug, glug, glug. Holy hell - check out El Busho's "notes"... At least I can take a piss without having to ask Condi for permission. So much for the great "decider"! Big Ag, Oil and Tobacco Will Kill You For a Profit American corporations always defend their activities by pointing to how innovative they are. This is especially galling when the food companies and the ag companies do it, because they have no good innovations to offer and never have. Olestra? Margarine? Dr. Pepper? GM foods? Roundup? Roundup Ready seed? Salty, fatty fast foods that have ruined the health of millions of Americans? High fructose corn syrup? Chickens raised in cruel and inhuman conditions, contaminated with E. coli and other bacteria? Rice carrying carotene supposedly invented to help starving children, except that children below a certain percentage of body fat can't metabolize the carotene? Whoops! A nice bowl of regular old brown rice and some tofu would work better, but no ag company can figure out how to own all of it. Or a piece of pumpernickel bread and some aged cheddar. Since humans know how to feed themselves, the only thing that the ag companies can do is introduce deceptively marketed products and take for themselves money that might have gone to feeding someone. Oh, yeah, and they can irrevocably change the world so that all biodiversity is reduced and destroyed. Once again, you've got to ask, are they inhumanly evil or inhumanly short-sighted? 2006 August 23, Wednesday Sorry for not replying to emails recently - I've been working hard in the garden, and also finishing off a bottle of Cognac. Here's an excellent description of the problems with modern agriculture. Is Sustainable Agriculture an Oxymoron? Hooray for boingboing.net: Haha! Idiots. Who could have imagined that mixing hundreds of chemicals in a bin might have nasty side-effects? Oops... Al Qaeda isn't the enemy - nope. The enemy is LEFT WING BLOGGERS! Scaary. (Parody Link) I actually support the ridiculous airport security measures taken to protect the sheeple. It's the only way that they'll think twice about flying to unnecessary holidays (thereby adding to global warming). With a bit of luck, a few more airlines will be driven to bankruptcy. Yippee! 2006 August 22, Tuesday FEMA currently has 800 concentration camps in the U.S. - enough for ~16 MILLION people. The official story? "They're for illegal immigrants pouring across the border from Mexico" (although the largest concentration camp facility is in Alaska, for some reason - they must be preparing for really fast Mexicans). The camps all have railroad facilities as well as roads leading to and from the detention facilities. Many also have an airport nearby. The majority of the camps can house a population of 20,000 prisoners. I was chatting with a neighbor last night as I was gardening (that's another benefit of gardening, btw). We chatted about El Busho, and he shares my fear and hatred of that vicous lump of shit in human skin. This neighbor campaigned for an anti-war candidate a while back, which gave him a chance to check the zeitgeist - and it be not good. Several people were pretty terrified of the way the U.S. is heading, and were talking about leaving the country. The neighbor offered his place as a safe-house, and vice versa. Good to know you can knock on someone's door and hide out if need be. I don't fancy the idea of freezing in an Alaskan death camp emergency detention facility, even if it is built by Halliburton. At least we'll get free tattoos and showers... Via Ran Prieur, this excellent doomer cartoon! Ever wondered what 150 clucking, terrified chickens sounds like? War Nerd: Gophers by TKO: Lessons from Lebanon You know what "Mainstreaming" is, don't you? That's when they put retards in schools for normal people. And that's what the Mainstream Media is: a bunch of retards who don't know a damn thing about contemporary war, don't even want to know. It's Affirmative Action for fools, not just giving them jobs but shoving them in front of a camera to tell all the suckers back home how the good guys are gonna win, sleep tight, don't worry. The funniest bit is the way desperate suckers are trying to spin total defeat of the IDF into some kind of victory. What's impressed me is that no Israelis are saying that. All the Israeli commentators I've read have faced up to the fact that they got hosed. It's the Americans, totally out of touch with reality and desperate to stay that way, who are finding lame excuses for the IDF, like "Hezbollah didn't really WIN, since they didn't wipe out Israel." Pabulum to the People Abe Lincoln once said, "I’m a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts, and beer."... ...What are the real facts? Today, twenty nations produce 85% of the world’s oil, and production in half of these nations has already peaked, as it did in the United States 35 years ago. Despite new production in places like Angola, Kazakhstan and Brazil, two thirds of the world’s remaining conventional oil is in the tinderbox of the Middle East. Oil is becoming more difficult to find; 2005 was the worst exploration year since World War II. Globally, new discoveries turn up only one barrel for every three barrels we use, which is the reason large oil companies continue doing much of their prospecting on Wall Street. As Chevron notes in its recent ad campaign, "the era of easy oil is over." As they struggle to afford the next fill-up, Americans deserve a frank appraisal of our energy circumstances, not pablum and happy talk. With respect to petroleum, America has been sleepwalking toward disaster for twenty years. The nation desperately needs a wakeup call, not a fairy tale masquerading as a forecast. Net Oil Exports Revisited Meditations on Deciding Never to Fly Again... Tom Friedman should resign. Under principles of international law applied from Nuremberg to Rwanda, propagandists who contribute to war crimes or encourage crimes against humanity can be put in the dock alongside the actual killers. 2006 August 21, Monday This article by Dennis Perrin is grim indeed. I can't wait to get the hell out of America (more on that ongoing project soon). I'd never dream of raising kids here, and I pity those who do. This personal madness hit me again last Friday when I took the boy to a local water park out in the boonies. First and foremost, a lot of Michiganers are fat. I mean, almost bizarrely out of shape. You see this all year round, but it really shows in the summer, for obvious reasons. It's one thing to see an adult let him or herself go, but it's incredibly sad and depressing to look at kids, mostly preteens, but teens as well, sporting huge guts, flabby arms, several chins. And the eating doesn't stop, evidenced by the long line at the park's concession stand where hot dogs, chips, soda and ice cream were doled out to the pale, plump mass. I say this not to be mean or denigrating but to set the actual mood. At a time when our "liberation" of Afghanistan has done zilch for the starving and dying there, obese Americans, some of whom were wearing pro-war or pro-military t-shirts, cramming junk food into their mouths was a pretty sickening, if standard, sight. But wait, it gets better: The boy and I were diving through a chlorinated waterfall running down a faux rock face when I surfaced and saw a Nazi tattoo on a big white arm. I couldn't believe it. Open militarism is one thing, part of Americana, a disease you somewhat get used to; but an actual swastika is a deeper statement. The guy wearing it was large and muscular, looking like a bodyguard or bouncer, his head shaved, his goatee closely trimmed. The swastika was surrounded by two tiny American flags with an eagle atop. I simply froze and stared at it. The guy paid me no mind, but his wife glared back at me as she rushed their little blonde boy along to the water slides. Check please! If this hypothesis is correct, we're addicted to wheat. Twouldst explain much, including the procession of morbidly obese humans described previously: ...several researchers in the late 1970s began investigating the occurrence of drug-like substances in some common foodstuffs. Dohan (1966, 1984) and Dohan et al. (1973, 1983) found that symptoms of schizophrenia were relieved somewhat when patients were fed a diet free of cereals and milk. He also found that people with coeliac disease - those who are unable to eat wheat gluten because of higher than normal permeability of the gut - were statistically likely to suffer also from schizophrenia. Research in some Pacific communities showed that schizophrenia became prevalent in these populations only after they became 'partially westernised and consumed wheat, barley beer, and rice' More: But what are the effects of these foods on normal people? Though exorphins cannot have a naturally selected physiological function in humans, this does not mean that they have no effect. Food intolerance research suggests that cereals and milk, in normal dietary quantities, are capable of affecting behaviour in many people. And if severe behavioural effects in schizophrenics and coeliacs can be caused by higher than normal absorption of peptides, then more subtle effects, which may not even be regarded as abnormal, could be produced in people generally. The evidence presented so far suggests the following interpretation. The ingestion of cereals and milk, in normal modern dietary amounts by normal humans, activates reward centres in the brain. Foods that were common in the diet before agriculture (fruits and so on) do not have this pharmacological property. The effects of exorphins are qualitatively the same as those produced by other opioid and / or dopaminergic drugs, that is, reward, motivation, reduction of anxiety, a sense of wellbeing, and perhaps even addiction. Though the effects of a typical meal are quantitatively less than those of doses of those drugs, most modern humans experience them several times a day, every day of their adult lives. I've recently stopped eating bread, having read about the Paleo diet (and other information similar to the piece above). Friends took me to a bar, where we ate a lot of food and had two or four glasses of excellent Belgian beer. The waitress then brought a basket of bread (why she did this after dinner I don't know). Although full of food and beer, it took a great effort to resist the temptation to eat the bread. It felt like an addictive craving - one which I was barely able to resist. Strangely, I've never felt withdrawal symptoms for bananas or carrots. Bon appetit. 2006 August 17, Thursday I know I sometimes sound anti-American...let me make this clear: if you're American, and reading this site, then you're not stupid. I'm only talking about the ones who don't read idleworm. OK. Now watch and enjoy Canadian comic Rick Mercer as he talks to Americans. Watch all five episodes. Oh my... My sister told me a story about a recent event at work (she's employed at a leading toy company in LA). Two of her U.S. co-workers asked her how to pronounce this strange, foreign place-name. Are you ready??? The unusual name was: CHERNOBYL Caragh flipped - I believe her response was "Are you fucking serious? You've never heard of Chernobyl??? A Canadian co-worker overheard and joined in the mockery of the clueless-wonders. Amazing. Thanks Greg for the following links which explain why so many in the U.S. are totally freaking clueless: A documentary called "Century of The Self". It's serious and long, and worth watching. Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4. You'll need a fast connection - each part is about 160 megs. Sigmund Freud has much to answer for. 2006 August 15, Tuesday That's it. I'm moving to North Korea... Plane terror liquid ipod gel cartoon. LAUGH, you dogs, LAUGH. Uri Avnery: What Has Happened to the Israeli Army? ...the general picture is of a senior officers corps that is mediocre, or worse, gray and unoriginal. Almost all the many officers who have appeared on TV are unimpressive, uninspiring professionals, experts on covering their behinds, repeating empty clichés like parrots. The ex-generals, who have been crowding out everybody else in the TV and radio studios, have also mostly surprised us with their mediocrity, limited intelligence, and general ignorance. One gets the impression that they have not read books on military history, and fill the void with empty phrases. More than once it has been said in this column that an army that has been acting for many years as a colonial police force against the Palestinian population - "terrorists," women, and children - and spending its time running after stone-throwing boys, cannot remain an efficient army. The test of results confirms this. Stranger than Fiction - Bush reads Camus! The Stranger, if you haven't read it, is about a man who kills an Arab. But to be a little more precise, he kills an Arab for no reason. Absolutely no reason at all. Indeed that's the whole point of Camus' story. The protaganist--a rather formless individual by the name of Meursault--has become so completely disconnected from any sensation of reality that he is literally drawn as sleepwalking through his days. No wonder the boy-emperor loves it so... How many Americans are brainless sheep? Not all of course, but a pretty substantial percentage appear to be mentally impaired, to put it kindly. These figures would suggest that half of the population has been lobotimised by TV, the "educational" system, and Pop Culture. This is depressing: Gullible Americans... A nation of retards! 2006 August 14, Monday This piece is written by a conservative hit-man who is clearly clueless about the reality of global warming (how anyone can remain a skeptic at this point is truly remarkable), but I wouldn't be surprised if the this specific information is correct: Public records reveal that as Gore lectures Americans on excessive consumption, he and his wife Tipper live in two properties: a 10,000-square-foot, 20-room, eight-bathroom home in Nashville, and a 4,000-square-foot home in Arlington, Va. (He also has a third home in Carthage, Tenn.) For someone rallying the planet to pursue a path of extreme personal sacrifice, Gore requires little from himself... Gore has held these apocalyptic views about the environment for some time. So why, then, didn't Gore dump his family's large stock holdings in Occidental (Oxy) Petroleum? As executor of his family's trust, over the years Gore has controlled hundreds of thousands of dollars in Oxy stock. Oxy has been mired in controversy over oil drilling in ecologically sensitive areas. Living carbon-neutral apparently doesn't mean living oil-stock free. Nor does it necessarily mean giving up a mining royalty either. Humanity might be "sitting on a ticking time bomb," but Gore's home in Carthage is sitting on a zinc mine. Gore receives $20,000 a year in royalties from Pasminco Zinc, which operates a zinc concession on his property. Tennessee has cited the company for adding large quantities of barium, iron and zinc to the nearby Caney Fork River. Can Laura Bush pack lipstick onto Air Force One? One rule for them, one for us applies to Republicans too. 50 ways to save water. Is just-in-time nearly out of time? Another interesting theory about the Prudhoe Bay shutdown and the coincidental (!) terrorist plot. 2006 August 11, Friday Entertaining - George Galloway rips into a SkyTV newsbimbo!Push that red pill down her throat, GG. 2006 August 10, Thursday Um: September 11 -- what year? 30 percent of Americans don't know. That's OK, the important thing is that they all go out to vote in the November mid-term elections, and make an informed choice: a choice between two corrupt, right-wing, pro-war parties. People get the leaders they deserve... Mexico's energy problems hurt U.S. America's energy doomsday clock could be inching closer to midnight with the news that Mexico's primary oilfield may be ready to crater. If these dire predictions turn out to be correct, such a development could deal a body blow to the United States' desperately needed oil supplies. With 2006 demand calling for 22 million daily barrels, domestic U.S. supply is down to less than 8 million barrels a day. Of the average daily imports exceeding 12 million barrels, Mexico has been counted on to deliver 20 percent of that amount. In fact, additional offshore discoveries in the Gulf of Mexico were expected to add to that total. However, due to the excessive depth of these reserves, and the prohibitive cost of extraction, Mexico is not capable of pursuing that option at this time. Compounding this problem, energy experts now believe that the Cantarell Oil complex, which had reached 2.1 million barrels a day two years ago, is now in sharp decline. It could be as low as 520,000 barrels a day by the end of 2008, with further downturns after that. This unexpected shrinking of the world's second-largest oil complex, which has made up the lion's share of Mexico's production of 2.5 million barrels, jeopardizes about 90 percent of Mexico's exports, most of which are headed for the U.S. Only America's northern neighbor, Canada, which is expanding its oil sands capacity, may be left to make up this shortfall. 2006 August 9, Wednesday Conspiracy theories are multiplying about the shut-down of Prudhoe Bay's oil pipeline. The timing alone is VERY fishy. Cryptogon has an interesting take. Question: if you were a multi-billion dollar energy company, how difficult would it be to check your pipes for corrosion once every TEN or TWENTY YEARS??? "Beyond Petroleum" my arse. Rich Dad, Poor Dad debunked. The writer is a conservative, but he's not an idiot. The 48 Laws of Power. A how-to for sociopaths on the rise. Read it and weep. A painless way to use less A/C... What Ales Us "It may be that that hawks are thinking this way: Destroy Lebanon, and destroy Hizbullah, and you reduce Iran's strategic depth. Destroy the Iranian nuclear program and you leave it helpless and vulnerable to having done to it what the Israelis did to Lebanon. You leave it vulnerable to regime change, and a dragooning of Iran back into the US sphere of influence, denying it to China and assuring its 500 tcf of natural gas to US corporations. You also politically reorient the entire Gulf, with both Saddam and Khamenei gone, toward the United States. Voila, you avoid peak oil problems in the US until a technological fix can be found, and you avoid a situation where China and India have special access to Iran and the Gulf. "The second American Century ensues. The 'New Middle East' means the 'American Middle East.' "And it all starts with the destruction of Lebanon. "More wars to come, in this scenario, since hitting Lebanon was like hitting a politician's bodyguard. You don't kill a bodyguard just to kill the bodyguard. It is phase I of a bigger operation." Get ready. The inconvenient truth about "An Inconvenient Truth" As happens in An Inconvenient Truth, the impassioned and rational rundown on climate change can lead people to buy into the technofix. Many activists say, "That’s fine because people need to learn via baby steps, and change must be incremental." The trouble is that we are out of time, and a false lifeboat with gaping holes is not a solution. Despite the clear need for a debate on the technofix - which technofixers shy away from - people are susceptible to emotion and half-truths when faced with inconvenient facts on the climate situation... ...In An Inconvenient Truth, the ending credits tell the audience what we can do to fight global warming. After several technofix "solutions" that don’t include massively curtailing energy use, there is the suggestion to "walk or ride a bike." But that is the only suggestion among the many and mostly ineffective, counter-productive (e.g., buy a hybrid car) solutions that come close to pulling the plug. If Gore’s solutions were rethought and reprioritized, the theoretical CO2 emission levels could realistically get cut back to perhaps 1940 levels. 2006 August 8, Tuesday Aha! The Idiot Laureate, Tom Friedman of the New York Times, now admits he was wrong about the war in Iraq. Tell it to the mothers of the dead Tom - I'm sure that will cheer them up no end. This piece has some intersting angles on the war criminal invasion of Lebanon: Israel may dominate Washington, but is having a far tougher time with Lebanon. In a little Thermopylae, Hezbollah's 3,000 fighters astoundingly held off Israel's mighty military machine, the world's fourth strongest, for three weeks. Many Israelis are now questioning the invasion's logic and objective. Israel's latest plan: Occupy and depopulate a 20-mile deep chunk of Lebanon to the Litani River until an international force comes in and subdues what's left of Hezbollah. But few nations will send troops without prior agreement with Hezbollah. Israel battled Hezbollah for 18 years, losing nearly 800 men, and ultimately lost the war it began. The deeper Israel advances into Lebanon, the more its troops are exposed to Hezbollah attack. Bombing and shelling won't defeat Hezbollah, which represents a third of Lebanon's people and is its de facto army. Some 87% of Lebanese now back Hezbollah. So far, the war has backfired for Israel. Fear and Loathing at the Jersey Shore Behold the Jesus camps - where little white Americans strive to be even nuttier than their Taliban counterparts... Do you have a family member with Alzheimers? FEED THEM CURRY! You may have heard the bizarre tale of how NASA managed to lose the footage of Neil Armstrong's first steps on the moon. Ah, dear reader, that's only the tip of the iceberg. One of the original Skylab trainers (a full size replica of the station) is rotting, rusting, and vandalised. Couldn't they have donated it to a museum? I don't get it. And why didn't they retrieve the original Armstrong footage back in the 70s, and transfer it to film as soon as the technology allowed? The mind boggles at these depressing 19th century obituaries. These were dangerous times - so many diseases and violent deaths - like something out of "Deadwood" (Found via Growabrain). Thursday, May 12, 1887 Page 4 A terrible accident occurred in the rolling mill of the Hubbard Iron company, at Hubbard,, Ohio, shortly after 2 o'clock on the morning of the 6th. Engineer Griffith Phillipps, aged 29 years in passing around the ore crusher oiling the bearings, was caught in the wheels and dragged into the crusher. He was mangled out of all semblance of humanity, the flesh adhering to the clogs. He leaves a wife and 3 children. The list of the dead for such a short period is very long - and the method of dying is most varied and creative. The number of babies and children is notable - we take our long, uneventful lifespans for granted, 'twouldst seem. 2006 August 7, Monday The Prudhoe bay oilfield has been closed for repairs, temporarily removing 8% of America's oil production. It'll be interesting to watch the price of oil over the next few days. Note to reader: bookmark this page. We'll be needing these soon enough. More on the astonishing allegation that up until 2003, Bush was unaware of the Sunni/Shia schism in Islam: A year after his “Axis of Evil” speech before the U.S. Congress, President Bush met with three Iraqi Americans, one of whom became postwar Iraq’s first representative to the United States. The three described what they thought would be the political situation after the fall of Saddam Hussein. During their conversation with the President, Galbraith claims, it became apparent to them that Bush was unfamiliar with the distinction between Sunnis and Shiites. Galbraith reports that the three of them spent some time explaining to Bush that there are two different sects in Islam--to which the President allegedly responded, “I thought the Iraqis were Muslims!” 2006 August 4, Friday Hell - Sweden nearly had a nuclear meltdown...keep this in mind when you hear Bush/Blair prattle on about the need for nuclear power; two guys who couldn't organise a piss-up in the proverbial brewery want to have fission reactors in every backyard! One of Bush's favorite Christofascists, Pat Robertson, now believes in Global Warming, all because of this summer's heatwave. I guess some people just have to witness it personally, or they'll deny it to the end: "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." JOHN 20:19-31 Juan Cole speculates on possible moves by Iraq's Ayatollah Sistani, who has demanded a cease-fire in Lebanon: Sistani could call massive anti-US and anti-Israel demonstrations. Given Iraq's profound political instability, this development could be extremely dangerous...big demonstrations could easily boil over into actual attacks on US and British troops. Both depend heavily on fuel that is transported through the Shiite south. Were the Shiites actively to turn on the US for its wholehearted support of continued Israeli air raids, the US military could be cut off from fuel and supplies. The British only have around 8,000 troops in Iraq, and they would be in profound danger if Iraq's Shiites became militantly anti-occupation... The US is already not winning against a Sunni Arab insurgency, backed by around 5 million Iraqis. If 16 million Shiites turned on the US because of its wholehearted support for Israel's actions in Lebanon, the US military mission in Iraq could quickly become completely and urgently untenable. In this case, the British troops in particular would be lucky to escape the country with their lives. Funny: Scott Adams hopes a secret cabal is pulling the strings. He makes a persuasive argument. I love the internet..time for some pepper spray! I've been wanting a gun for a while, but there's so much I don't know - I've got to do a lot of research first. It's nice to have a cheap, simple and non-lethal option for self defense - it's not perfect, but it beats the alternative strategy of cringing on the ground and begging for mercy as a teenager beats my head in with a baseball bat. God Bless Amurca. 2006 August 3, Thursday Plague of Plastic Chokes the Seas Of the 500,000 albatross chicks born here each year, about 200,000 die, mostly from dehydration or starvation. A two-year study funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency showed that chicks that died from those causes had twice as much plastic in their stomachs as those that died for other reasons. The atoll is littered with decomposing remains, grisly wreaths of feathers and bone surrounding colorful piles of bottle caps, plastic dinosaurs, checkers, highlighter pens, perfume bottles, fishing line and small Styrofoam balls. Klavitter has calculated that albatross feed their chicks about 5 tons of plastic a year at Midway. We are all Ancient Mariners now: 'The Sun now rose upon the right: Out of the sea came he, Still hid in mist, and on the left Went down into the sea. And the good south wind still blew behind, But no sweet bird did follow, Nor any day for food or play Came to the mariners' hollo! And I had done an hellish thing, And it would work 'em woe: For all averr'd, I had kill'd the bird That made the breeze to blow. Ah wretch! said they, the bird to slay, That made the breeze to blow! Hate plastic? Get a canvas bag: Reusable bags.com Bloody hell: The Rise of Slime... OMG! Albert Einstein was an anti-semite! Who knew? Or maybe he was just a "self-hating Jew", as the Likudniks would say. More on the alleged Mexican Vote Fraud. Did they, or didn't they? I have no idea - though if the last few years have taught us anything, it's that rich right-wing bastards don't give a damn about the law. These days I assume the worst...I find I'm right to do so 99% of the time. Crikey: Indeed, as the World Court and as the United Nations has pointed out, it would not be possible for American citizens to lose many more of their constitutional liberties and protections without the United States losing the capacity under both UN and World Court charter to label itself as a democracy. Of course, one of the consequences of that was that the regime pulled out of the World Court very early on, and it also pulled out of the appropriate UN global constitutional council because of it. They knew that they wouldn’t be able to meet the criteria of still maintaining a globally lawful entity of a democracy in the United States. A nation where kids get arrested and have their DNA taken, just for climbing a tree (!) sure as shit ain't a free country. Haha! More on the heroes in the 101st fighting keyboard brigade! Chickens. Magnifique! French Fries are back. Star Wars geeks may need to watch Chad Vader for some harmless fun. Australia's tower of power seems like a good idea. Beats burning CO2... 2006 August 2, Wednesday James Howard Kunstler (of Clusterfuck Nation fame) seems to have cracked...he's dancing on the corpses of Lebanese children. He's still the best commentator on the horror of suburban sprawl, but reading his latest effort is a bit like discovering that your best friend is in fact, mentally ill. I'm reminded the heart-breaking story of Clara Schumann destroying her husband's final, pathetic "Piano Concerto", written while he languished in an insane asylum. Too bad that JHK didn't have a Clara on hand before he posted his latest offering. Wives like that don't grow on trees. Bye Jim, I really will miss your monday morning screeds. You won't be getting any more traffic from me. And no Jim, I don't hate Jews - I just have a curious aversion to my tax dollars being used to murder arab babies. If that makes me an anti-semite, then so be it. Have fun in your compound. Whew. I just saw a TV show on CSPAN (a stodgy American news channel) about 911 conspiracy theories (which I've come to believe as facts). Anyhow, a phrase was mentioned which had escaped my beady ear: "Left Gatekeepers" - this refers to the sad truth that most media lefties in the U.S. are funded by creepy CIA/NSA/Bush-loving freaks... This explains a LOT. One of the prime gatekeepers is Amy Goodman, a lady regarded by many on the left in the U.S. as a living saint. Hardly. Matt Savinar summed her up nicely a couple of months ago: In my opinion, Goodman's niche within the petroleum-banking matrix is to keep the 1%-5% of the population that considers themselves "dissidents" invested within what Jeffery Brown calls the "iron triangle" formed by the media, housing, and banking industries. Now don't get me wrong, I'd prefer 30 minutes of Amy Goodman over 30 minutes of Rush Limbaugh any day of the week but I'm not a fool. Limbaugh's niche is to keep a certain (perhaps) 25%-to-33% of the population who identify themselves as "conservative" squarely trapped within the iron triangle. The Al Frankens and Randi Rhodes of the world exist to keep the 25-to-33% of the population who identify themselves as "liberal" trapped within the iron triangle. Goodman exists to keep the 2.5-3.3% of the population who identify themselves as "radicals" or "dissidents" within the iron triangle. I've been to the suburban homes of people who listen to Limbaugh, Franken, and Goodman respectively. To be quite frank, somebody from Mars would not be able to distinguish the listener of one show from the listener of another. They all had the following: 1. Moderate to severe weight problem(s) 2. Giant mortgages on overbubbled homes 3. Two or more cars in the garage/driveway 4. Jobs they either hated or were indifferent too 5. Neighbors they did not know 6. Multiple credit cards they were carrying balances on The only differences were superficial. The Goodman listener might have a hybrid with a Che Guevara bumper sticker where the the Limbaugh listener has an SUV with a "W" sticker but, in the end, their respective lifestyles were far more similar than different. They're just located in within different corners and/or opposite sides of the "iron triangle." I've never seen or heard anything on DN [Democracy Now - Goodman's radio show] that would have helped the listener/viewer deal with numbers one-through-six listed above. The best I could tell, these things would vaguely be solved by getting some slightly greened-up Democrats into office. More on the gatekeepers here. Many, many sites that I like and visit regularly - though their "moderation" now begins to look very suspicious. Speaking of gatekeepers, how about Bill Maher? MMM - does that BUSH COCK taste good, Bill? I bet Bill looks good in a blue dress. Hey Bill - how about hopping on a plane, flying to Lebanon, and telling the families of the dead children of Qana that you love Bush? - nah - you won't be doing that, you gutless little fuck. P.S. - I never thought you were remotely funny...though I guess you'll have your own show on MSNBC soon enough. Maybe Bill and Amy could take a nice holiday in the Shebaa Farms, or sail down the Litani river (probably the real reason for the current "war" - i.e., land, water, oil, etc.) And yet, there's hope: Global Teens Growing Indifferent to 'Brand America" The great thing about this site is that I receive occasional emails from THE DALEK EMPEROR! Subject: A Message From the Daleks Date: Tue, 01 Aug 2006 Dear Mister Dermot O'Connor, When I visited your web site recently, I could not help but notice a comment that you made concerning religious fanatics who wish for war with Iran in order to fulfill the prophecies concerning the End of Times and the Second Coming supposedly found in your human Bible. I believe your exact words were as follows: "I hope these Christ-loons who are screaming for war in their shrill Dalek-like voices at least have the decency to JOIN THE ARMY. That way they can go to heaven without having to wait for armageddon." I find that comment quite insulting... to the Daleks, that is. You see, whereas we Daleks behave in a manner that you humans would find, for a lack of a better word, "repulsive" (not that we truly care what an inferior race such as yours, which will undoubtedly fall to us in our quest to conquer the universe once we reach your planet, think of a great species such as ours), at least when we say "EXTERMINATE!" we mean every single syllable of it and will back our word with action. The humans who support a war with Iran in order to fulfill what they believe to be prophecies found in the Bible and wish to influence policy-makers to begin such a war, along with those policy-makers, on the other hand, are nothing more than cowards who do not, as you put it, have the decency to join the army and are more than willing to sacrifice others in their stead. The Daleks have nothing but contempt for such lowly creatures and would greatly appreciate if you could avoid making comparisons between us and those cowardly fools in the future. Thank you for your time, The Dalek Emperor Point well taken. I for one, will be more than happy to serve our Dalek Overlords. 2006 August 1, Tuesday It's good to see so many Mexicans doing what Americans should have in 2000 and 2004 - Poll protests block Mexico City Meanwhile, Hugo Chavez is getting armed! Too many lefties are terrified of criticising Israel lest they be described as "anti-Semitic". Thank GOD for Mel Gibson - he's showing us what a real anti-Semite looks like - a Jew-hating Jesus-freak. Only Gary Brecher can write about the Middle East and cheer me up! Hezbollah has great soldiers. That's one reason I can't help liking them. They're some of the most underrated soldiers on earth facing what I consider the most overrated military force on earth, the IDF. The Israelis have been coasting on their reputation for a long time, but way back in Gulf War I it was clear they made their record like a Don King fighter, padding their Win column against a bunch of bums... I'm not alone in that conclusion either. One of the top US commanders in GW I called the IDF "a bunch of arrogant pricks who wouldn't last ten minutes on a European battlefield." Yup - they're pretty good at shooting 13 year old Palestinian girls in the head at point blank range. That's not the best practice when it comes to fighting a real war though: As long as the IDF was beating up on Hamas down in Gaza, it could hide its weakness most of the time. Not all of the time -- pretty sloppy, letting Hamas commandos tunnel right into that base, blast a tank and kidnap poor baby Shalit right while he was thinking up his next capsule review. Still, except for the occasional slip, the IDF was safe in its F-16s and Merkavas, facing Pals with nothing but rifles and old RPGs. It's easy to look tough rolling through refugee camps in the world's most heavily armored tank. But as you may recall, those tanks got a real different reception when they chased Hezbollah's raiding party back into Lebanon after the Hezzies killed three IDF soldiers and kidnapped another two... Guess how far it got. Ten meters. Ten goddamn meters. Then KABOOM! A Hezbollah mine or shaped charge turned it into a very expensive oven, with four crew killed. Another IDF soldier died trying to rescue them. So within a few minutes the IDF had lost eight men. As far as I know, Hezbollah's losses were zero. It was a good plot twist: one minute the IDF is stomping around Gaza blasting amateurs, when something taps it on the shoulder, and there's Hezbollah, looking like Godzilla in a headscarf. Pretty funny moment, something almost Abbot & Costello about it. Israeli writer Uri Avnery: Mobilize to avenge the blood of Qana We urge our Arab and Muslim brothers and sisters not to let murder inspire you to commit murder in revenge, from which only Israel and its allies will gain. Instead, think strategically. Let the blood of the innocents in Lebanon, Palestine and Iraq inspire you to mobilize to isolate Israel and its patrons, politically by seizing the moment and highlighting the reality of Zionism to Western publics, and economically by accelerating the campaign to boycott Israeli goods. It is this, not an eye for an eye, that will ultimately defeat Israel and its imperialist masters, as happened with apartheid South Africa before it. Revenge is a dish best served cold. Don't worry - Preznit Bush will save us. Um ... no, he won't. old posts - about us - contact