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POPSBritain Drops Label "War on Terror" And to think that those of us who suggested that describing this ideological battle as a war only aided fanatics were labeled as unpatriotic traitors. What a deference 6 years makes.
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POPSTucker Carlson: Wiccan lottery winner = government subsidation of Satanism
Here's my nominee for Wanker of the Day. A Wiccan wins big in the lottery, says he attributes the win to Wiccan Magic and that he's going to use his winnings to quit his job and teach Wicca full time. Now, if a winner has attributed his winnings to Jesus and said that he was going to use his winnings to quit his job and teach Christianity, everyone would talk about how wonderful what he's doing is - but I can't imagine any pundit or politician claiming that its an example of the government subsidizing Christianity, eh? And, of course, if I understand how lotteries work, the government isn't subsidizing ANYTHING. The whole point of government run lotteries is for the state to be able to raise money - usually to be used in funding education and such. Its all the other lottery players who are "subsidizing" the winners (if you want to put it that way.) Anyway, just had to share that particular crock of crap. What a f*#^!ng donkey!
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POPS"Ask the Pilot" comment on recent "dry run" warnings from TSA Patrick Smith writes the "Ask the Pilot" column for Salon Magazine . This week, he starts by discussing the recent alert from the Transportation Security Administration concerning would-be saboteurs engaged in terror-attack rehearsals have been caught trying to sneak bomb-making materials past airport security. Over the past several weeks, we are told, screeners have confiscated various improvised components -- including, um, wires sticking from blocks of cheese. He says that he's reluctant to dismiss the concerns out of hand, but that there are other aspects of the story that also finds disturbing.
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POPSPearl Jam and Net Neutrality Sunday night, Pearl Jam played at the last Lollapalooza show of the summer. Eddie Vedder took the opportunity to make a few comments of protest against the war and the president, but somehow, the webcast - which was being run by AT&T - "mistakenly" dropped out, preventing those comments from being heard. The band points out that this is a perfect example of why net neutrality is such an important principle. Under net neutrality, broadband companies are required to give equal access to all websites. If the telcos get the kind of legislation they want, however, they'll be able to give companies that can afford it "priority" access, prevent users from reaching sites the company doesn't approve of, and relegating smaller sites - and smaller (often new) businesses to slow, unreliable service.
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POPSTranslation: Give Bush what he wants or we die! Just how stupid is Trent Lott? Seriously! Apparently, there has been recent intelligence indicating that there *may* be an attack planned on DC between now and September 11th. As the former chief of the Capitol Police notes, however, *we're* the one's with the hang up on dates and anniversaries - terrorists don't focus on those nearly as much. But even going beyond that, Lott is telling people that it would be a good idea stay out of town until September 12th - as if the terrorists are going to keep their plan (if there is one) the same even though they know we're aware of the possibility? What makes him think that the terrorists won't just change their plans and attack on, say, the 13th, after everyone who followed Lott's advice and left will have returned? Yeesh! And of course, everyone caved and Bush got the bill he wanted . I wonder if Trent thinks everyone there will be safe now?
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POPSOk, I'm OFFICIALLY worried SOME (and only some) of what Newt Gingrich is saying actually is making a bit of sense... Don't worry, I still find him to be a rather loathsome fellow, but in addition to calling out the administration on the phony war on terror, he's also promoting the idea of **gasp!** both parties working together to solve some of our problems. If the old boy's not careful, he may find himself kicked out of the GOP for being too reasonable.
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POPSInappropriate, inexcusable and indefensible For the last week or so, Bill O'Reilly has been waging a one-man war against the website DailyKos. One thing he's been doing is going through and pointing out comments left in some threads that express ideas that are, quite frankly, inappropriate, inexcusable and indefensible. O'Reilly's one to talk. Not only do comments at his own site contain comments that are just as inappropriate, inexcusable and indefensible, but Bill O'Reilly himself has been known to make comments that are inappropriate, inexcusable and indefensible himself. Below is a quote from November 2005. I've chosen it because while it's not necessarily a recent quote, it is one that is so heinous that O'Reilly should have lost his job over it. This comment should be spread around as much as possible. Not enough was made of it at the time, but now, since O'Reilly's on his "saying hateful things is bad" campaign, he needs to be taught just what happens when hateful things come out of HIS mouth.
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POPSUGO's suggestions for upcoming superhero movie casting UGO (UnderGround Online) has a list up suggesting actors to play marvel superheros in movies that, apparently, are in consideration for being adapted to the screen. There's like 5 mentioned in the article, but because of my great fondness for Thor, this one caught my eye. I have to agree, Karl Urban would do a nice job in the role, though I also think his former LotR co-star Viggo Mortensen could do a nice take on it as well - especially if you want to go for a bit of and older, more world-weary hero.
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POPSThe Imperial Presidency Hat tip to wiccantexan at clipmarks When the Constitution was written, our Founding Fathers were very careful to include provisions that would prevent any one branch of the government from getting too much power and control, and thus becoming something more along the lines of a dictatorship. Robert Sheer writes - in an excellent editorial for "The Nation" magazine (reprinted by CBS, where is where I got the link) - that George W. Bush is exactly the kind of imperial president that the Founding Fathers were trying to avoid. There's a lot more, including how Eisenhower's concerns about a "military-industrial complex" are both part of what the Founding Fathers were trying to prevent (though they wouldn't have necessarily thought of it in those same terms) *and* what Bush's Imperial Presidency is trying to ensure develops - and why this is a bad thing. Go read it - it's not l
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POPSPrison? Check! Orange Jumpsuits? Check! Michael Jackson Track? Check! Random thoughts while watching this clip: D'ya think US prisons would be better places if we put all the prisoners in the yard and had them dance in formation to Michael Jackson songs? I'm not so sure I'd want to be the only "girl" in this thing - let's hope no one presumes it's typecasting! Why? Why do this? Why? That's a LOT of orange there.... Beyond that? I'm just gobsmacked.
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POPSNothing But Red Several days ago, I posted some quotes from an essay Joss Whedon had written regarding women and violence , both real and fictional . Whedon wrote the essay after about Dua Khalil Aswad, a Muslim woman who was stoned and who's death had been gleefully recorded by men in the crowd around her on their cell phone cameras and distributed via the web. Today, the Broadsheet at Salon.com featured a post about a group that has begun work on an anthology to be called " Nothing But Red ", with all proceeds going to a human rights organization - most likely Equality Now , a group Joss supports. Please check it out and pass it on if you agree its' a worthwhile project
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POPSOdd definition of weight loss success "management" Please read the clip first and then my notes - it'll make more sense. Thanks. Ok, here's the deal. The way the study was set up, if someone had lost a significant amount of weight at any point in their life and was still at least 10% lighter than they had been at their heaviest, they'd qualify for the survey. For example, a 300 lb woman who had dieted down to 150 at some point would qualify as long as she weighed no more than 270 at the start of the study (10% of 300 is 30, so 270 would be 10% lighter than her highest weight). At the end of the 1 year study, anyone who had gained no more than 5% of their total weight at the start of the study was considered successful. Think about this - 5% of her weight of 270 at the start of the study would be 13.5 lbs. This means that at the end of the study she could weigh as much as 283.5 lbs and STILL be considered as having "successfully maintained her weight loss." There's a lot more at her blog - it's well worth a look
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POPSMore on the Next Food Network Star As I posted yesterday, there was quite the twist at the end of the last regular episode of "The Next Food TV Network Star," when it was announced that one of the two finalists had lied about both his military service and his culinary training. After displaying title cards explaining the situation - and noting that even when the contestant (Jag) had an opportunity to clear things up during a press interview, he hadn't - a video was shown of him "confessing" to the two main judges of the show and offering his resignation. The whole thing had a very staged feel to it, so it's impossible to know if he actually did resign voluntarily or if he was told that he *had* to resign. A copy of his statement is available at my Thunderhaven blog (http://thorswitch.livejournal.com/394796.html) - it was too long to include it here. According to the Military Times, the publication that broke the original story:
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POPSWho cares about the spirit of the law when you can find away around the letter of it? Not surprisingly, the FBI is trying to find away around rules prohibiting it from maintaining records of people's telephone and internet usage (unless its for an ongoing criminal investigation or intelligence operation). Their latest idea? Pay phone companies millions to store their customer's records and allow the FBI immediate access to them "if it asks." How much longer until this administration goes away? ::plaintive sigh::
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POPSDeja Vu? ABC's " The Blotter " has an interesting article written by Richard Clark, the former White House Director of Counterterrorism, and held that post at the time of the 9/11 attacks. Recently, officials in the Bush Administration have been indicating that they are concerned that there might be plans for another major attack on an American target this summer. As noted in the introduction to the piece, Clark says these latest intelligence reports bear and eerie resemblance to those officials received in the summer 2001, " but also notes that while "the intelligence is of a high quality, but doesn't point to a specific date or target." Then question this is what do we do with this kind of information? I pray that current intelligence operators who think that this "chatter" may be indicative of another attack this summer are wrong - but I also hope that - just in case its not - the Bush admin will wake up, pull their heads out of their as
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POPSChristian extremists inturrupt prayer offered by Hindu chaplain The article at TPMCafe.com about this incident notes that the group Operation Save America , and right wing anti-abortion group - has claimed responsibility for the interuption and issued a press release (which is available at TMPCafe.com) condemning the Senators for not "standing up for God" and claimed that the Senate Chamber has been "violated" by a "false" Hindu God. In the video, however, you can hear most of the chaplain's prayer, and in it, he prays that, "As we meditate on the transcendent glory of the Divine Supreme who is inside the heart of the earth, inside the light of the sky, and inside the soul of heaven, may he stimulate and illuminate our minds, lead us from the unreal to the real, from darkness to light..." (I'm running out of space here, so I'll post the rest of my thoughts on my blog at [url=http://thorswitch.livejournal.com
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POPSMultiple Choice Quiz: Our mission in Iraq is ____ ? Think Progress has a great post today going through each of the various explanations the administration has given regarding what our mission is Iraq is. Below, is a teaser of what the various stages of our "mission" have been, all of which Think Progress backs up with quotes. Even though I've been well aware of the shifting excuses, seeing them laid out like this really helps show just how mendacious this administration can be.
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POPSJoss Whedon on women and violence - real and fictional This was posted at whedonesque.com in May, but I missed it at that time. It's an amazingly hard-hitting and heart-wrenching essay by Joss Whedon (he of "Buffy," "Angel," and "Firefly"/"Serenity" fame) regarding how the world views women, the scourge of misogyny and what we can try to do about it. I would *highly* recommend this essay to anyone.
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POPSA "National Disgrace" The clips below are a very small part - really, just an introduction of the subject and some notes on his conclusions - of an incredible editorial published today in the Denver Post. It was written by John Koppel, a long-time attorney for the US Department of Justice for whom he currently still works. How much longer that will be the case has yet to be seen, but even as Koppel acknowledges that he is putting himself at risk for reprisal, he has decided that he must speak out, and he pulls NO punches. Please take a minute to read this editorial. It has taken a great deal of courage for someone in his position to write this, and it deserves to be read. True, he's not really saying much that hasn't been said before - but this time its coming from someone who has not been fired, who has not resigned, and who cannot simply be dismissed as a "disgruntled former employee." I hope that if this editorial gains a widespread audience, it will make it more difficult for the ad
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POPSASPCA Tips for Summer pet care Since we're really getting into the hottest part of the year, I thought I'd pass along these tips from the ASPCA for making sure your fur kids stay safe and healthy in the heat!
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POPSThe Pervision of Justice - Libby Style As the quotes from the editorial below note, by commuting Libby's sentence instead of pardoning him, Bush has created a perfect scenario for Libby - the possibility of a pardon being the carrot to keep him quiet and leaving the conviction intact so that he can continue his appeals, which means he can avoid testifying anywhere by claiming his 5th amendment rights. Had Bush outright pardoned him, Libby wouldn't face the possibility of his words potentially incriminating himself since he'd already been absolved of any criminal liability, and thus could be compelled to testify in further investigations - such as an investigation into Cheney's involvement in the CIA leak scandal. So, while the President tries to claim that he commuted Libby's sentence as a means of correcting what he thought was an injust sentence, the President has actually managed to thwart attempts to bring others involved in case to justice.
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POPSTalk about obstructing justice The chutzpah of the Bush Admin truly knows no bounds (which I realize isn't much of a revelation, but still can't be pointed out often enough!) Now, in addition to their recent refusal to hand over documents subpoenaed by Congress, the White House is telling former aids not to testify, even though they've been subpoenaed! The notes below refer to Sara Taylor, who is alleged to have potentially valuable information regarding the questionable firings of several US Attorneys, but according to Raw Story , Harriet Miers has also been instructed not to testify. In the letter (referenced in the clip below) from Neil Eggleston, Taylor's attorney, he notes that she is currently caught between the subpoena for her testimony from Congress and orders from the President not to testify. These contrary directions undoubtedly create a monumental clash between the executive and legislative branches of
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