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Sunday, December 04, 2005
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Scientology is great. I believe that body thetans make up my body, that Xenu implanted them with engrams millions of years ago by blowing them up in volcanoes and that going up the Bridge and through the OT levels will free me from my BT prison and let me use my full thetan powers over MEST (Matter Energy Space and Time).
I, for one, welcome our new Scientologist overlords.
From Top Ten Signs You Are a Christian :
10. You vigorously deny the existence of thousands of gods by other religions, but feel outraged when someone denies the existence of yours.
9. You feel insulted and "dehumanized" when scientists say that people evolved from other life forms, but you have no problem with the Biblical claim that we were created directly from dirt.
8. You laugh at polytheists, but have no problem believing in a Triune God.
7. Your face turns purple when you hear the "atrocities" attributed to Allah, but you don't even flinch when hearing about how God/Jehovah slaughtered all the babies of Egypt in "Exodus" and ordered the elimination of entire ethnic groups in "Joshua", including women, children and trees!
6. You laugh at Hindu beliefs that deify humans, and Greek claims about gods sleeping with women, but you have no problem believing that the Holy Spirit impregnated Mary, who then gave birth to a man-god who got killed, came back to life and ascended into the sky.
5. You are willing to spend your life looking for loopholes in the scientifically established age of Earth (few billion years), but you find nothing wrong with believing dates recorded by Bronze Age tribesmen sitting in their tents and guessing the Earth is a few generations old.
4. You believe the entire population of this planet with the exception of those that share your beliefs -- though excluding those in rival sects - will spend Eternity in an infinite Hell of suffering. And yet consider your religion the most "tolerant" and "loving".
3. While modern science, history, geology, biology, and physics have failed to convince you otherwise, some idiot rolling around on the floor and speaking in "tongues" may be all the evidence you need to "prove" Christianity.
2. You define 0.1% as a "high success rate" when it comes to answered prayers. You consider that to be evidence prayer works. And you think the remaining 99.9% FAILURE was simply the will of God.
1. You actually know alot less than atheists and agnostics do about the Bible, Christianity, and church history - but still call yourself a Christian.
Check out my article on the memetics of abortion, just below. Thanks !
(Via Goosing the Antithesis.)
6:52:49 PM 
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You Passed 8th Grade Science
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Congratulations, you got 8/8 correct!
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5:50:26 PM
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The Bay Bridge was shut down in both the Eastbound and Westbound directions today over a suspicious package that was thought to be a bomb threat. For the Mercury News story click here.
(Via Thomas Hawk's Digital Connection.)
I feel safe! I'm sure glad I wasn't trying to get to the city today.
5:44:06 PM
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I've had this laying around forever... Too creased to play but it looks cool.
It's on my flickr page too.
(Via Bedazzled!.)
I had this one as a kid, and I'd totally forgotten about it till I saw this picture. Amazing.
5:42:12 PM
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Fairly nice scans of R. Crumb's comic covering the life of "the first great Delta bluesman" Charlie Patton, based on the biography by Stephen Calt and Gayle Dean Wardlow.
Charlie Patton by R.Crumb [Celtic Guitar Music]
Via Z Filter
(Via Screenhead.)
4:56:44 PM
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When some otherwise fine writers try to write about it.
Well, he's no great writer, but my favorite example is from Marlon Brando:
Oh, Lord," he cried out. "I'm a-comin'! "
She could not answer. It is the one drawback of fellatio as conscientious as hers that it eliminates the chance for small talk and poetry alike. But nothing is exactly perfect in this life, and for Annie Doultry the delicate but firm pressure on his rear parts was in perfect harmony with the eruption of his cock. He came and he came - we are dealing with a hero here. At one point his lover backed away to inspect the unaltered gush of it, like a plumber saying to a customer, "Don't blame me. This water supply will stop when the dam's empty."
1:12:41 PM
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Al Qaeda's number three leader, an Egyptian named Abu Hamza Rabia, was killed in an apparent rocket strike in Pakistan on Wednesday. A spokesman for the Pakistani government, which seems to be increasingly nervous about its public role opposing terrorism, said that Rabia blew himself up while working with explosives. Rabia reportedly succeeded Abu Faraj al-Libbi, who was captured earlier this year, as al Qaeda's chief planner of terrorist attacks. His death is certainly good news.
(Via Power Line.)
Note that if this is true -- and it may not be -- this Al Qaeda leader was killed IN PAKISTAN NOT IN IRAQ!
12:51:21 PM
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Yesterday, Lynne Cheney appeared on NPR’s Diane Rehm Show to offer an indefensible defense of her husband’s attempts to link Iraq to 9/11:
I’ve seen Dick specifically say “no” to the question asked “is there a connection between Saddam Hussein and 9/11” because there isn’t a connection between Saddam Hussein and 9/11. So, if your caller is troubled, I guess I would just like to know more specifics.
(Full transcript of the conversation below.)
In fact, when specifically asked about the link, Vice President Cheney did not play down — but rather played up — the connection. Here are the specifics:
WHEN ASKED SPECIFICALLY ABOUT AN IRAQ - 9/11 LINK, CHENEY SAID IT WAS “PRETTY WELL CONFIRMED”:
RUSSERT: Do you still believe there is no evidence that Iraq was involved in September 11?
CHENEY: “Well, what we now have that’s developed since you and I last talked, Tim, of course, was that report that—it’s been pretty well confirmed that [9/11 hijacker Mohammed Atta] did go to Prague and he did meet with a senior official of the Iraqi intelligence service in Czechoslovakia last April, several months before the attack.” [NBC, Meet The Press, 12/9/01]
EVEN AFTER THE WAR BEGAN, WHEN SPECIFICALLY ASKED, CHENEY SUGGESTED THERE MIGHT BE AN IRAQ - 9/11 CONNECTION:
RUSSERT: The Washington Post asked the American people about Saddam Hussein, and this is what they said: 69 percent said he was involved in the September 11 attacks. Are you surprised by that?
CHENEY: No. I think it’s not surprising that people make that connection.
MR. RUSSERT: But is there a connection?
VICE PRES. CHENEY: We don’t know.
[NBC, Meet the Press, 11/14/03]
CHENEY SAID IRAQ WAS THE “GEOGRAPHIC BASE” FOR 9/11 HIJACKERS:
CHENEY: If we’re successful in Iraq, … we will have struck a major blow right at the heart of the base, if you will, the geographic base of the terrorists who have had us under assault now for many years, but most especially on 9/11.” [NBC, Meet The Press, 9/14/03]
Here’s the relevant transcript for the Diane Rehm Show:
L. CHENEY: I don’t know of any leader – certainly the president or vice president has never said that Saddam Hussein was connected with 9/11.
REHM: But there have been connections made in speeches putting Saddam Hussein and Iraq adjacent to 9/11.
L. CHENEY: Well, I’ve seen Dick specifically say “no” to the question asked “is there a connection between Saddam Hussein and 9/11” because there isn’t a connection between Saddam Hussein and 9/11. So, if your caller is troubled, I guess I would just like to know more specifics.
REHM: More specifics — you mean a quotation?
L. CHENEY: Sure. I mean the president nor the vice president has ever made that assertion because it isn’t true. There’s no connection between Saddam Hussein and 9/11.
REHM: I think that a great many people perhaps have had the impression that that is something the President and vice president have done. Now whether, as you say, there is no explicit paragraph to be cited, I think our listeners are going to supply that.
L. CHENEY: Good. Because it sounds like a straw man. You know you set up something that someone supposedly said so that you can knock it down. But the president and vice president have been very clear – when asked specifically, that there was no connection.
(To listen to the audio, click here. The conversation about Iraq and 9/11 begins at 16:35).
(Via Think Progress.)
12:45:53 PM
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The Pentagon’s extensive covert propaganda operations in Iraq have made a mockery of President Bush’s desire to turn Iraq into “an inspiring example to reformers in the region.” They have also “sparked a backlash among some senior military officers in Iraq and at the Pentagon who argue that attempts to subvert the news media could destroy the U.S. military’s credibility in other nations and with the American public.”
Yet conservative pundits and bloggers could hardly be more pleased. They have offered virtually unqualified praise for the propaganda efforts.
National Review’s Stephen Spruiell:
[The propaganda efforts] wouldn’t undercut the trust of the Iraqi people if papers like the LA Times weren’t blowing their cover. We need more operations like this in Iraq, and more respect for their classified nature.
Andrew Sullivan:
So we’re spinning the Iraqi press by planting propaganda in its pages? BFD [Big f***ing deal]. … We’re adjusting to war in a new media universe. We haven’t adjusted swiftly enough.
Chuck Simmins:
If you toss away the myth that news and reporting is some sacred, undefilable calling, this story becomes a non-starter. When I look at the front page of my local paper, most of the stories were not written by their employees. Newspapers use stories from AP or Reuters all the time. Providing content to newspapers is a well-established business.
VodkaPundit’s Stephen Green:
Smart move, given that the Iraq Campaign is one small part of the Terror War - in which the media is the arm of decision. If you don’t manage information, you lose. … Propaganda is important in any war, but it’s vital in a media war.
(Via Think Progress.)
12:45:05 PM
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Every day these guys look like soviet goons
The State Department has been using political litmus tests to screen private American citizens before they can be sent overseas to represent the United States, weeding out critics of the Bush administration’s Iraq policy, according to department officials and internal e-mails.
In one recent case, a leading expert on conflict resolution who’s a former senior State Department adviser was scheduled to participate in a U.S. Embassy-sponsored videoconference in Jerusalem last month, but at the last minute he was told that his participation no longer was required.
State Department officials explained the cancellation as a scheduling matter. But internal department e-mails show that officials in Washington pressed to have other scholars replace the expert, David L. Phillips, who wrote a book, “Losing Iraq,” that’s critical of President Bush’s handling of Iraqi reconstruction.
“I was told by a senior U.S. official that the State Department was conducting a screening process on intellectuals, and those who were against the Bush administration’s Iraq policy were not welcomed to participate in U.S. government-sponsored programs,” Phillips said.
“The ability of the United States to promote democracy effectively abroad is curtailed when we curtail free speech at home, which is essential to a free society,” he said.
(Via Oliver Willis - Like Kryptonite To Stupid.)
12:28:30 PM
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Direct from Time Magazine's Blog of the Year, the PowerTools:
It is a little-known fact, I'm afraid, that, in a series of speeches extending over a period of years, President Bush has articulated his policy vision more consistently and more eloquently than any President since Lincoln.
More eloquently than any president since Lincoln? This guy?
(Via apostropher.)
12:24:03 PM
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As is well known, I'm not much of a bellyacher, especially about movies, and have a tendency to enjoy myself at the cinema. Maybe it's because I generally pick movies I figure I'm going to like, or maybe once I've made the investment, I work to like the movie. Who knows. I'll generally find something to like.
I went into Aeon Flux knowing nothing about the MTV animation, only that I'm generally a big fan of Charlize Theron. We figured if nothing else, we'd get to look at her for a couple of hours. She's fun to watch even when she's not trying to be attractive, as in North Country.
But this movie is a turkey; stay away from it. It's mostly undone by the worst action scenes I've seen since 60s TV. They fight scenes are mostly tricks of editing -- the actors and producers didn't seem to be committed enough to the material to work to make it look at all real. They edit together almost static poses, real fast to make it seem as if actually something happened. Actually, nothing happened. I've seen more realistic fight scenes from four year-olds play acting superheroes.
The story wasn't bad, though it was pretty reminiscent of hundreds of science fiction stories from the fifties and sixties. The acting was pretty bad; Theron usually makes you believe anything, but here she seemed to be in it for the payday. Worse, it's rated PG-13, so there's no skin! Maybe they figured that only kids would be interested in the fakey fights, but kids know better.
11:14:32 AM
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An older style of acoustic music -- most deeply associated with Maryland -- is being revamped by younger musicians. Joel Rose of member station WHYY reports.
(Via NPR Programs: Weekend Edition - Saturday.)
11:07:12 AM
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How many FBI agents have been punished for doing their jobs leading up to September 11, 2001?
Officials at the Federal Bureau of Investigation mishandled a Florida terror investigation, falsified documents in the case in an effort to cover repeated missteps and retaliated against an agent who first complained about the problems, Justice Department investigators have concluded. In one instance, someone altered dates on three F.B.I. forms using correction fluid to conceal an apparent violation of federal wiretap law, according to a draft report of an investigation by the Justice Department inspector general's office obtained by The New York Times. But investigators were unable to determine who altered the documents.
The agent who first alerted the F.B.I. to problems in the case, a veteran undercover operative named Mike German, was "retaliated against" by his boss, who was angered by the agent's complaints and stopped using him for prestigious assignments in training new undercover agents, the draft report concluded. Mr. German's case first became public last year, as he emerged as the latest in a string of whistle-blowers at the bureau who said they had been punished and effectively silenced for voicing concerns about the handling of terror investigations and other matters since Sept. 11, 2001.
The inspector general's draft report, dated Nov. 15 and awaiting final review, validated most of Mr. German's central accusations in the case. But the former agent, who left the bureau last year after he said his career had been derailed by the Florida episode, said he felt more disappointment than vindication. "More than anything else, I'm saddened by all this," Mr. German said in an interview. "I still love the F.B.I., and I know that there are good, honest, hard-working agents out there trying to do the right thing, and this hurts all of them." Robert S. Mueller III, director of the F.B.I., has emphasized repeatedly, both publicly and in private messages to his staff, that employees are encouraged to come forward with reports of wrongdoing and that he will not tolerate retaliation against whistle-blowers.
Would be nice to know.
(Via Rising Hegemon.)
10:28:22 AM
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© Copyright 2006 Steve Michel.
Last update: 1/1/2006; 11:08:40 AM.
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