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Saturday, December 10, 2005
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Holiday greetings from Bill to Jon, and vice versa. A clip you have to watch, just to hear Jon say the phrase...Osama's Homobortionpotandcommiejizporium.
(Via YesButNoButYes.)
6:37:39 PM 
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This page shows the top rated mistakes which have pictures - an easy way to check out the most glaring gaffes onscreen. Just click the film titles to go straight to the relevant picture.
(Via Cynical-C Blog.)
6:19:24 PM
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A very very funny man, longtime sufferer from MS passed away this morning. He's been missed for a long time.
6:04:19 PM
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WorldNetDaily is conducting a poll asking their readers how they feel about the White House sending out "holiday" cards instead of Christmas cards. The top three results so far:
What are your thoughts on President Bush's 'holiday' card?
It bothers me that Bush bends over backward to not offend other religions while repeatedly shortchanging Christians - 33.32% (1358)
I agree with Farah - for someone who calls himself a Christian, Bush often doesn't act like one - 22.37% (912)
There's a pattern of Bush not standing up for his own claimed Christian faith - he's done it again -11.95% (487)
Yeah, starting unnecessary wars is one thing. But sending out "holiday" cards? That's just un-Christian!
(Via Sadly, No!.)
2:20:28 PM
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Not Guilty Verdicts in Florida Terror Trial Are Setback for U.S. - New York Times:
In a major defeat for law enforcement officials, a jury in Florida failed to return guilty verdicts Tuesday on any of 51 criminal counts against a former Florida professor and three co-defendants accused of operating a North American front for Palestinian terrorists.
The former professor, Sami al-Arian, a fiery advocate for Palestinian causes who became a lightning rod for criticism nationwide over his vocal anti-Israeli stances, was found not guilty on eight criminal counts related to terrorist support, perjury and immigration violations.
The jury deadlocked on the remaining nine counts against him after deliberating for 13 days, and it did not return any guilty verdicts against the three other defendants in the case. This continues the Bush administration's near perfect record on criminal convictions in terrorism cases (I think they managed to get convictions against one or two people, and a few guilty pleas).
They're the Detroit Tigers of counter-terrorism.
On a related note, there's a deal to extend the Patriot Act, for all the good it's done.
(Via Thoughts from Kansas.)
2:20:22 PM
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From Capitol Hill Blue (usual caveats apply):
Last month, Republican Congressional leaders filed into the Oval Office to meet with President George W. Bush and talk about renewing the controversial USA Patriot Act.
Several provisions of the act, passed in the shell shocked period immediately following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, caused enough anger that liberal groups like the American Civil Liberties Union had joined forces with prominent conservatives like Phyllis Schlafly and Bob Barr to oppose renewal.
GOP leaders told Bush that his hardcore push to renew the more onerous provisions of the act could further alienate conservatives still mad at the President from his botched attempt to nominate White House Counsel Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court.
“I don’t give a goddamn,” Bush retorted. “I’m the President and the Commander-in-Chief. Do it my way.”
“Mr. President,” one aide in the meeting said. “There is a valid case that the provisions in this law undermine the Constitution.”
“Stop throwing the Constitution in my face,” Bush screamed back. “It’s just a goddamned piece of paper!”
(Via Suburban Guerrilla.)
Given the source, it's not easy to believe this. On the other hand, it's not hard to believe it, either.
2:08:37 PM
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Cave paintings reveal Ice Age artists
BRITAIN’S first cave art is more than 12,800 years old, scientific testing has shown. Engravings of a deer and other creatures at Creswell Crags, in Derbyshire, have proved to be genuine Ice Age creations, and not modern fakes, as some had feared.
The engravings were found in 2003 at two caves, Church Hole and Robin Hood’s Cave, which lie close together in the Creswell gorge. Palaeolithic occupation deposits dating to the last Ice Age were excavated there in 1875-76, but the art remained unnoticed. Although the most notable finds were from 15,000-13,000 years ago, even older tools were noted, some dating to the Middle Palaeolithic between 60,000 and 40,000 years ago, others a few millennia later.
(Via ArchaeoBlog.)
1:10:29 PM
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Does this really surprise anyone?
ACLU: Protesters placed in terror files
The names and licenseplate numbers of about 30 people who protested three years ago in Colorado Springs were put into FBI domestic-terrorism files, the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Colorado said Thursday.
The Denver-based ACLU obtained federal documents on a 2002 Colorado Springs protest and a 2003 anti-war rally under the Freedom of Information Act.
ACLU legal director Mark Silverstein said the documents show the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force wastes resources generating files on “nonviolent protest.”
“These documents confirm that the names and license plate numbers of several dozen peaceful protesters who committed no crime are now in a JTTF file marked ‘counterterrorism,’” he said.
Although, since the FBI is currently beefing up the ranks to focus on the really serious problem of adult pornography, we may still be able to speak out without repercussions.
(Via All Spin Zone.)
1:02:55 PM
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Why is the President's younger brother, Neil, touring with the leader of the Moonies?
(Via AlterNet.org.)
12:59:49 PM
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Chilling AP article about Messages To The World: The Statements of Osama Bin Laden by Duke University professor Bruce Lawrence. Lawrence has assembled a decade's worth of bin Laden's statements from writings, interviews and videotaped messages, and hopes his book will shed light on both bin Laden's project and his distortion of Islam to justify terrorist actions.
Lawrence calls bin Laden's prose "stunning and lean" but cautions against its destructive world vision.
"His is a dark message. It only goes one way: endless warfare. Muslims don't come out better, only dead - or they have a much worse life on this Earth," he says.
"We don't want to have a World War III," he says. "This is the 'Mein Kampf' of the 21st century."
Perhaps the other chilling thought from this piece is the self-censorship apparent from academics:
Verso's U.S. publisher, Amy Scholder, agrees that some scholars are afraid to work on such books. "There is this fear of disseminating information and being construed as thus collaborating with this information" she says.
The only way to stop terrorism is to study it and understand its roots. If academia gives up on doing that, who's left?
Ben wrote a cracking article about Jason Burke's Al Qaeda earlier this year.
More on Osama bin Laden:
Spike | Google | Amazon UK | Amazon US | Wikipedia
Open Directory | Technorati: Osama bin Laden
(Via splinters: books, authors, literature, travel, politics.)
12:44:48 PM
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Newsfare raises an interesting question:
But McVeigh’s admitted accomplice, Terry Nichols, is still alive and in prison. How about Nichols? Should he be tortured now in order to obtain more information about that bombing and possible additional actions coming up? Can we be sure that nothing more is being planned, that sleeper cells are not at this very moment waiting patiently for the signal to wake up and kill more innocent Americans?
Trouble is, we badly need some clarification here. Is torture perhaps only approved for use on non-Europeans? Or on non-Judeo-Christians? What about for people whose skin is dark? What about those whose skin is dark but who are Christian or Jewish?
Note to Repuplican supporters of torture: please get this messy and confusing situation straightened out toute suite, so we all understand the rules and can get on with it.
(Via No More Apples.)
12:39:58 PM
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Dick Cheney can't resist linking 9/11 and Iraq, no matter how nonsensical the claim:
Some have suggested that by liberating Iraq from Saddam Hussein, we
simply stirred up a hornet's nest. They overlook a fundamental fact:
We were not in Iraq on September 11th, 2001, and the terrorists hit us
anyway.
Here's Holly Martins at Wonkette trying to understand the reasoning behind this statement:
Wah-huh? So let's get this straight: If you suggest any policy in Iraq other that the administration-approved "Stay the Course" you are handing a nation over to terrorist control. But if terrorist activity, or the threat thereof, seems sufficiently worrisome to contemplate another policy then. . .it doesn't matter, because the terrorists will attack us anyway? Withdrawal from Iraq is appeasing the terrorist enemy--but 9/11 demonstrates the mindset of that enemy is irrelevant. Wouldn't the logic of the latter claim suggest that the terrorists simply might not notice we had withdrawn and/or attack us no matter what? Are they all-powerful evildoers, or Ritalin- deprived ADD cases? Also: There were all sorts of things we weren't doing in 2001. We hadn't yet thrilled to the magic of Gigli, or whatever the name of that sucky Coldplay record is. Does this mean if there's no Gigli sequel, the terrorists win? Please make our head stop hurting like this, Mr. Vice President, Sir!
Richard Cohen puts it even more simply:
Yes, and the crowing of the rooster makes the sun come up. Cause and effect is being mocked here.
(Via Brendan Nyhan.)
11:37:08 AM
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Via Brad DeLong, Reason's Jacob Sullum shares Robert Bork's horrifying definition of censorship as freedom (reminder: this man was almost a member of the Supreme Court):
The December 19 issue of National Review, marking the magazine's 50th anniversary, includes a feature in which 10 people offer suggestions on "How to Increase Liberty in America," to which I contributed a few paragraphs about ending the war on drugs. Sandwiched between Clint Bolick on school choice and Ward Connerly on colorblindness is Robert Bork on censorship. Just to be clear: He is for it.
"Liberty in America can be enhanced by reinstating, legislatively, restraints upon the direction of our culture and morality," writes the former appeals court judge, now a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. "Censorship as an enhancement of liberty may seem paradoxical. Yet it should be obvious, to all but dogmatic First Amendment absolutists, that people forced to live in an increasingly brutalized culture are, in a very real sense, not wholly free." Bork goes on to complain that "relations between the sexes are debased by pornography"; that "large parts of television are unwatchable"; that "motion pictures rely upon sex, gore, and pyrotechnics for the edification of the target audience of 14-year-olds"; and that "popular music hardly deserves the name of music."
Treating speech as a kind of assault and redefining freedom so that it requires its opposite are familiar tricks of the left that National Review usually is quick to mock. How are they any more respectable when deployed by a man who has elevated fuddy-duddyness to a political principle?
(Via Brendan Nyhan.)
Bork's is one of the most amazing paragraphs I've read. It literally states that censorship is freedom. In order to keep our freedom of speech we must destroy it.
11:36:23 AM
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Mark Frauenfelder:
Spike Priggen of the fantastic blog, Bedazzled, has gotten a few complaints from visitors who don't like his occasional political posts. His reply echos my sentiments about people who complain about Boing Boing's political posts.
[Right wing Bedazzled reader:] "I would like, however, to see the music postings somehow seperated (sp) from your other postings. I, like many others, do not hold with the same political views as you and I would like to not have to sift through your vitriole (sp) simply to access the better materials you offer. Perhaps a seperate site or some kind of sorting method can be implemented?"
[Spike:] Are you f*cking crazy? I'm gonna re-design my site so I don't offend the type of people that I think are ruining America? Why are you wasting my time with a question like that? Isn't it enough that that the mainstream media is overwhelmingly slanted to the right? You want my blog too? F*ck You. How's that for "vitriole"? Bottom line is I'm not gonna change anything to make wingnuts feel better about themselves while they're here. Sorry.
Link
(Via Boing Boing.)
Bedazzled is a terrific site, and Priggen's answer is terrific.
10:50:24 AM
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Cory Doctorow:
This map of the Earth shows countries sized relative to their population -- Asia is huge, Australia is tiny, Europe is pretty tinsy too.
189K JPEG Link
(via A Whole Lotta Nothing)
(Via Boing Boing.)
Surprises to me are Brazil (smaller than I thought it would be), and Mexico and the United Kingdom (both bigger).
10:47:20 AM
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Via Atrios, an interview with Mike Wallace:
Q. President George W. Bush has declined to be interviewed by you. What would you ask him if you had the chance?
A. What in the world prepared you to be the commander in chief of the largest superpower in the world? In your background, Mr. President, you apparently were incurious. You didn't want to travel. You knew very little about the military. . . . The governor of Texas doesn't have the kind of power that some governors have. . . . Why do you think they nominated you? . . . Do you think that has anything to do with the fact that the country is so [expletive] up?
REUTERS/Jim Young
(Via Dependable Renegade.)
9:48:28 AM
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As Roger pointed out yesterday, that's what we're going to say every time a ball gets by first base for the next couple of years. The Giant's GM, Brian Sabean made a serious blunder in letting a favorite Giant go, when keeping him would have been productive, fan-approved, and relatively inexpensive. Snow gave the Giants fans a lot to remember, and he'll be missed. It would have been nice to see him retire as a Giant instead of being cast off for two guys who will platoon the position, and not play it with the skill and panache of JT Snow.
9:42:14 AM
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© Copyright 2006 Steve Michel.
Last update: 1/1/2006; 11:08:52 AM.
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