News of the Restless

Why did nobody come up with this sooner?

Dear Sheikh Muhammad al-Habadan

BBC reports that you have recently called on women in Saudi Arabia to "wear a full veil, or niqab, that reveals only one eye." You say that "showing both eyes encourage[s] women to use eye make-up to look seductive."

I believe, sir, that showing only one eye will make matters worse. You see, whenever a woman and a man are together and the woman blinks, the man might think that she is winking. Is the hidden eye open or closed? If it is assumed to be normally open, then a momentary closing of the visible eye could be assumed to be a wink. If it is assumed to be normally closed, then the woman may be considered to be perpetually winking, which is equally problematic.

I have an alternative solution to your problem. I suggest that you introduce veils for men that cover both their eyes. That way it will make no difference if the women are winking, blinking or, heaven forbid, naked.

Good idea, no? You're welcome.

Regards

Amit Varma

A burqa for the blokes? Bring it on, babies.

Posted by Sabina Becker at 9:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

"Poor people, year after year, vote to make the rich richer and that's crazy.
The way America votes, you'd think 2/3 of us are Fortune 500 CEOs.

--Bart of Bartcop.com, really putting the finger on what's wrong with Kansas (and anyplace else where people think voting for a rich wingnut will magically turn you into one.)

Posted by Sabina Becker at 11:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

More tired old "21st century socialism looks just like 20th", courtesy the Financial Times.

More tired old "Chavez is a dictator", courtesy the Richmond Times Dispatch.

And in the grand (tired) old tradition of unsigned editorials, the authors are not named (to protect the guilty, of course.) It would be nice to know, for a change, to whom one must hand back their lying ass. Accountability is such a buzzword these days, so why not there?

Well, at least one truly outstanding Brit twit has the courage to put his name and his tired, defeated old mug at the top of his even more tired, defeated old stupidities at the UK Telegraph. He maunders on about how marriage has "crumbled" since 1979 (really? then why all the married couples, including my parents, who are still together for over 40 years now?) He also rambles about the misleadingness of the Gini coefficient, which is actually rather reliable. He blathers on about how poverty is "elective" and based on "dependency" (name one person outside a monastery who has freely chosen poverty, sir). Oh yeah, and he calls Venezuela "Marxist", as though Simon Bolivar were just some equestrian statue covered with pigeon droppings. Could it possibly get more tired and derivative?

This old dobbin is just ripe for the glue factory; his carcass is hanging by a thread, but it's still a lot more coherent and less crumbly than his brittle arguments about how the rich lift up the rest of us, just by virtue of their "wealth creation". Gee, haven't thirty-odd years of fascist-imposed neoliberalism proved as much?

But hey, let's give him the No Bull Please Prize for this pronouncement:

Continue reading "Who writes these dumbass editorials?" »

Posted by Sabina Becker at 5:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Poor Yon Goicoechea. Such a cute young guy, such high hopes attached...and what are they coming to? A few months ago, the Cato Institute paid him half a million dollars to spread neoliberal/neocon/neofascist crapaganda and astroturf all over Venezuela. Playboy's Venezuelan edition also obligingly gave him huge fanfare (between pictures of silicone-stuffed bunnies, natch.) Do you think they're getting their money's worth? Aporrea doesn't:

Yon Goicoechea, opposition youth leader and student at Andres Bello Catholic University, said on Wednesday during an opposition demonstration that the movement he heads is disposed toward "setting this city on fire" if the State doesn't backtrack on the decision of the Comptroller General to uphold the disqualifications of some 270 would-be political candidates on the grounds of irregularities in the exercise of their duties.

Draped with a Venezuelan flag like a superhero's cape, Goicoechea declared on Globovision that "this Chavismo, which is filling our city with trash, deaths and blood, is impossible to sustain. People need to solve their problems by way of votes. They want to solve their problems the peaceful way. They want to solve their problems by way of justice.

"What are they looking for? That the people set this city on fire?" he continued. "What are they looking for? They're looking for violence! If they don't catch on and let Venezuelans express themselves freely at the polls...if they don't let us demonstrate our enormous non-conformity with the government by way of regular channels, then they must be looking for us to burn up this city. What's the matter with the government? Don't they care that the disqualified candidates are suffering human rights violations?"

Continue reading "Yon-Yon's big yawn-yawn" »

Posted by Sabina Becker at 10:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

You get poopy doody crappy assassination attempts everywhere in Venezuela! I hereby translate:

Parliamentary deputy Luis Tascon denounced that the attempt on the life of ex-defence minister Raul Baduel, which happened last week, was perpetrated by radical sectors of the ultra-right, who are looking for a martyr in this political moment.

"They need a martyr right now, and they have chosen the figure of Baduel," Tascon said.

That's true. The figure of Douglas Rojas certainly isn't enough for them. Especially when it turns out (as it surely will, sometime soon or late) that his own right-wing buddies did him in because they needed at least one death to blame on you-know-who.

There's still the lingering mystery of Hector Eduardo Serrano, the man who died in an explosion in front of the Fedecamaras building, too. Notice how all the maggots inside said building didn't hesitate to come out and dine on his corpse? Well, no wonder. As journalist Alberto Nolia has noted on his VTV show "The Devil's Papers", Fedecamaras is an "unburied corpse" itself. Stands to reason that such a cadaver would be crawling with unsavory critters; who else would touch it but the vultures and the flies?

But here's the kicker: No one seems to know who is currently president of that discredited chamber of commerce, and no one seems to give a shit either. Fedecamaras is officially irrelevant. VTV sent out a reporter team, sat them right in front of the Fedecamaras building, and had them ask passersby if they knew who the president of that organization was, and no one knew.

Imagine that; Fedecamaras has gone from being "respected advisors" to every Adeco and Copeyano presidunce of the old Puntofijista days, to coup-mongers against Chavecito in April 2002, to...nothing. The only way they can still survive is the way all right-wingers do these days: by eating the dead.

I hope the former general is watching these events and taking note of the general pattern, but it's hard to say. All that gringo dinero may still be flopping around over his eyes like a pair of smelly green horse blinkers.

Posted by Sabina Becker at 10:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Ho, ditty, hum, ditty...why am I not surprised at this?

A man who opened fire inside a church, killing two people with a shotgun hidden in a guitar case, was frustrated at being unable to find a job and blamed liberals and gays, police said on Monday.

"It appears that what brought him to this horrible event was his lack of being able to obtain a job, his frustration over that, and his stated hatred of the liberal movement," Knoxville Police Chief Sterling Owen told reporters of Sunday's incident at Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church.

Continue reading "No surprises here..." »

Posted by Sabina Becker at 3:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Whoa--is the sky falling, or what? The Economist has finally gotten (partway) off its "rah rah, America" kick and published a (somewhat) honest assessment of what's going on in the States. And a thing of beauty it is, too:

One source of angst is the sorry state of American capitalism (see article). The "Washington consensus" told the world that open markets and deregulation would solve its problems. Yet American house prices are falling faster than during the Depression, petrol is more expensive than in the 1970s, banks are collapsing, the euro is kicking sand in the dollar's face, credit is scarce, recession and inflation both threaten the economy, consumer confidence is an oxymoron and Belgians have just bought Budweiser, "America's beer".

Wow! And that's only the second paragraph. It goes on in that vein pretty much throughout the piece, with occasional excursions into the silly (which I'll get to shortly.)

I think we can safely say this marks an epoch. Just a few short years ago, this self-same Economist was totally behind the Washington consensus. Rather like the woman in the famous picture, cleaning up after the elephant by catching its droppings in a big bag-on-a-stick as they fell, so they wouldn't hit the ground and be seen for the vast load of shit they are.

Unfortunately, this moment of truth shall pass, as does everything else in the transitory world of market capitalism. And in fact, within the same article, we see evidence that the editorial writer doesn't really get what's going on at all:

Continue reading "I could have told them so, but would they listen?" »

Posted by Sabina Becker at 9:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

How do you say "Ouch" in Italian? (I know how you say "son of a bitch"!)

The White House has apologised to Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi for a briefing describing him as a political "amateur" who is "hated by many".

The "insulting" biography was included in a press kit distributed to reporters travelling with President George W Bush to a meeting of world leaders in Japan.

Continue reading "A kick in the Berluscoglioni" »

Posted by Sabina Becker at 1:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If you haven't seen this video yet, you simply must. In the space of five minutes, you get to see how Christopher Hitchens saw the light on waterboarding in an undisclosed location somewhere in North Carolina. Not only does he admit that it IS torture, he also admits that it's not "simulated" drowning, it IS drowning--of a particularly terrorizing kind. And it takes him just a few seconds to "break". He flings away the metal object (poetically called a "dead man's handle") that the torturers have given him to signal--simply by dropping it--that he can't take the torment anymore. It all looks so unceremonious, which makes you wonder how long anyone can withstand such a treatment.

Here's Hitchens in his own words:

Continue reading "17 seconds to moral clarity with Christopher Hitchens" »

Posted by Sabina Becker at 11:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

From Deutsche Welle, the German satellite TV channel, an interesting passage buried well down in the piece:

The Return Directive raises hackles not only because of possible human rights infringements, but because the remittances sent home by illegal workers to their poor countries of origin -- for example Ecuador and Bolivia -- are an important source of income there.

Last year, immigrants in Europe, the US and Japan sent money back to their families in Latin America and the Caribbean amounting to just under 43 billion euros ($66 billion), the EU Observer online newspaper said.

It is more than the region receives from foreign direct investment or development assistance combined.

"...more than the region receives from foreign direct investment or development assistance combined."

Sit back and let that sink in for a bit.

Okay?

Continue reading "Why the EU wants to punish economic migrants" »

Posted by Sabina Becker at 11:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I'm always amazed that the same people who bawl over baby seals in some other part of the world have so little regard left over for abused humanity coming to their own shores. Take (please!) the example of Brigitte Bardot, recently convicted of racist hatemongering:

A leading French anti-racism group known as MRAP filed a lawsuit last year over a letter she sent to then-Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy. The remarks were published in her foundation's quarterly journal.

In the December 2006 letter to Sarkozy, now the president, Bardot said France is "tired of being led by the nose by this population that is destroying us, destroying our country by imposing its acts."

Bardot, 73, was referring to the Muslim feast of Aid el-Kebir, celebrated by slaughtering sheep.

Continue reading "Brigitte Bardot, phoquez-vous!" »

Posted by Sabina Becker at 5:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Remember all those stories about mysteriously dying honeybee populations? Looks like we've got the cause of Colony Collapse Disorder all figured out, kiddies. Or at least, one very unsurprising chief suspect:

Germany has banned a family of pesticides that are blamed for the deaths of millions of honeybees. The German Federal Office of Consumer Protection and Food Safety (BVL) has suspended the registration for eight pesticide seed treatment products used in rapeseed oil and sweetcorn.

The move follows reports from German beekeepers in the Baden-Württemberg region that two thirds of their bees died earlier this month following the application of a pesticide called clothianidin.

"It's a real bee emergency," said Manfred Hederer, president of the German Professional Beekeepers' Association. "50-60% of the bees have died on average and some beekeepers have lost all their hives."

Tests on dead bees showed that 99% of those examined had a build-up of clothianidin. The chemical, produced by Bayer CropScience, a subsidiary of the German chemical giant Bayer, is sold in Europe under the trade name Poncho. It was applied to the seeds of sweetcorn planted along the Rhine this spring. The seeds are treated in advance of being planted or are sprayed while in the field.

Continue reading "Bzzzzzzzzzzzz--STING!!!" »

Posted by Sabina Becker at 9:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

From Aporrea, a little tidbit but a revealing one:

Against the editorial lines from Colombia and Venezuela that claim there is a "close" relationship between the president of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez Frias, Colombian senator Piedad Cordoba, and the FARC rebels of Colombia, Cordoba confirmed that neither she, nor the Venezuelan leader had known of the death of the historic leader of the FARC, Manuel Marulanda Velez.

"My attention has often been drawn to how they say here that we (Cordoba and Chavez) are the mouthpieces of the FARC, but neither Chavez nor I knew that Marulanda had died...until the last, he did things his own way, he died a natural death," the senator said.

Translation mine.

Did you get that? Neither Cordoba nor Chavez knew that Marulanda had died until after the fact. They had to read about it in the morning papers, same as everybody else. Some "close relations"! I would think that if Chavez had known Marulanda wasn't well, and he really was that close to him, he would have had him flown to Cuba for treatment, no?

This should lay to rest all the media drivel about Chavez financing and arming the FARC, too. Until someone (and not someone pointing to the Magic Laptop, either) can locate the whereabouts of a big chunk of money that disappeared from Venezuela and appeared in Colombia (a large arms cache, ditto), I think it's safe to say that this latest media campaign against the left, like ol' "Sure-Shot" Marulanda himself, has begun to push up the proverbial daisies.

May it rest in peace.

Posted by Sabina Becker at 2:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

And so are you, and so is everybody else I know.

I'm talking about people who actually use the Web to read what they want, read JUST what they want, and not bother to give crapitalism its pound of flesh (or hour of eyeball time).

Web users are getting more ruthless and selfish when they go online, reveals research.

The annual report into web habits by usability guru Jakob Nielsen shows people are becoming much less patient when they go online.

Instead of dawdling on websites many users want simply to reach a site quickly, complete a task and leave.

Most ignore efforts to make them linger and are suspicious of promotions designed to hold their attention.

Continue reading "Yes, I admit it. I'm one of these too." »

Posted by Sabina Becker at 4:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

...in response to a guy named Ed, from Miami, who tootled all the lines we know only too well from the loco anti-Chavez contingent, plus one new one: "Bush is a populist."

WTF???

Well, I couldn't let that stand, so I fired off:

Continue reading "I wrote Mike Malloy another letter..." »

Posted by Sabina Becker at 10:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

But of course, the US has the adults in charge of the government, so none of this would EVER happen. Right? RIGHT???

Posted by Sabina Becker at 9:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

"The only effective way to reduce the threat of terrorism is to work to end the conditions that give rise to it. In the case of Islamist terrorism, this means a comprehensive and enlightened political, economic and diplomatic strategy for dealing with the Arab/Muslim world. Only a tiny minority of the world's 1.2 billion Muslims support radical jihadis, but catastrophic errors like invading Iraq make violent fundamentalism more attractive. Follow the physician's credo: First, do no harm."

--Gary Kamiya, "Iraq: The Ten Commandments", at Salon.com

Posted by Sabina Becker at 9:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Not Venezuela, apparently. They kicked 'em out a while back, and now we're seeing a number of dramatic results. Like, oh, say, this:

Combat helicopters and F-16 fighter jets opened fire at a clandestine airstrip in Venezuela's remote southern plains on Friday as part of a government counter-drug effort.

Smoke rose from the bombed airstrip as helicopters hovered above the savannah.

Army Gen. Jesus Gonzalez told state television that so far this year, the military has demolished 67 airstrips used by drug traffickers to smuggle cocaine from neighboring Colombia to the United States and Europe. Another 90 are to be destroyed next week.

"We are carrying out this operation to reaffirm the conviction and commitment of our military in the fight against the drug problem," Gonzalez said.

Would it be tasteless to point out that Venezuela has been seizing record amounts of cocaine since it booted out the DEA? And that Colombia, despite being on good terms with the DEA (and receiving mucho dinero), is just not holding up its end of the anti-drug effort?

Well, shoot, that's nothing. Ever wonder what role the DEA plays, not in fighting drug trafficking, but promoting it? They've a ways to go before they catch up with the CIA, which has been at it for as long as it's been...well, the CIA--but trust me, they're in like Flynn in Colombia.

Thank Chavecito, they're out of Venezuela.

Posted by Sabina Becker at 11:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Obvious to you, me, and Noam Chomsky, obviously. But to the hawkish disaster-capitalist types, maybe not so:

"Aggressors have no rights. Responsibilities, maybe, but no rights."

I wonder what PNAC, BushCo, Halliburton, etc. will all do when they find out that they have no right to be in Iraq. Something tells me they will only find it out the hardest possible way.

Posted by Sabina Becker at 2:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Well, at least on Iraqi TV...where the local chapter of the Flat Earth Society is finally free to speak its mind:

...and you are finally free to laugh your ass off at them. Especially when you consider what great strides in astronomy were made in the Muslim world, by people who kept their scriptures in perspective and didn't treat them as scientific gospel.

Ain't freedom grand?

Posted by Sabina Becker at 10:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yes, Foreign Policy is a smelly rag with some pretty horrible biases and outright distortions. (Their blog also sucks because it can't keep the most basic facts straight, such as the identities of non-white supermodels.) But Jack Cloonan's words to them on the subject of torture are well worth hearing:

BTW, he totally shoots down the "24" scenario of the "ticking bomb" that can only be defused by a torture-obtained confession. He also points out that torture victims tend to become martyrs to their supporters, even if they are "the bad guys" to those on the other side. Not to mention that it really, REALLY makes the torturers look like shits.

Posted by Sabina Becker at 8:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sorry--just thought I'd share.

Posted by Sabina Becker at 10:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Talk about your "no shit, Sherlock" moments. How long did it take them to realize that unequal distribution of wealth is a major killer?

Economic growth does not necessarily translate into improvements in child mortality, major new research suggests.

Ten million children still die every year before their fifth birthday, 99% of them in the developing world, according to Save the Children.

A study comparing economic performance with child mortality reveals that some countries have not translated wealth into improvements across society.

Survival is too often just a "lottery", said Save the Children's David Mepham.

He said that even the poorest countries can cut child mortality by following simple policies, but at the moment "a child's chance of making it to its fifth birthday depends on the country or community it is born into".

Continue reading "The rich aren't going to like this" »

Posted by Sabina Becker at 12:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

A. Because Stormfront hates everything and everyone except their fellow neo-Nazi whackjobs, duh.

What's really funny is that they're now holding up two people they would otherwise look upon as sworn enemies as champions of their, uh, "right to free speech".

A Liberal MP is being hailed as a poster boy for free speech on a white supremacist website.

Victoria MP Keith Martin was praised Friday on stormfront.org, a website that proudly displays the logo "White pride world wide" and links to radio addresses by former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke.

Martin earned the dubious distinction after giving notice that he plans to introduce a private member's motion calling on the government to repeal Section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act.

[...]

The extreme right adherents at Stormfront were clearly thrilled to find a member of the Liberal party, which introduced the act and prides itself as the party of the Charter of Rights, joining their crusade.

"The sordid Soviet-style reign of terror by the Canadian Human Rights Commission is now out in the open," declares Paul Fromm in a posting on the website.

"The CHRC reign of thought control looks like a drying pool of vomit on the dirty floor of some dingy dive. Yes, it stinks and good men are beginning to speak up."

Fromm, a controversial anti-immigration and free speech activist who has been linked to neo-Nazi groups in the past, predicts it "may be easier" for Conservative MPs to back the motion because it's being introduced by a Liberal of "white and Indian (India) parentage."

The website urges readers to join a campaign to pressure their MPs to support Martin's motion.

For Martin, receiving praise from a white-supremacist group was both unwelcome and ironic.

"I'm a brown guy," he quipped in an interview.

Wait a second, you say--that's just one of them. Who's the other?

Continue reading "Q. Why does Stormfront hate human rights?" »

Posted by Sabina Becker at 5:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Hmmm...I like the sound of that: Argentine Briefcase Caper. ABC for short. Gotta know your ABCs, so you can spell out what's really going on, as this Argentine journalist did:

"The operation (in which Guido Antonini Wilson carried a briefcase with $800,000 illegally into Argentina) was a CIA operation," says Argentine journalist Luis Bilbao, director of the magazine America XXI.

During an interview on the VTV show En Confianza, Bilbao emphasized that in his investigation of the case, the first hypothesis he pursued about the event was that this operation was planned by the CIA.

"As soon as I began to follow my initial hunch, I knew that the operation was a CIA plan. I don't have the slightest doubt about it."

Another theory, one that also involves the CIA, is that Antonini Wilson might be a CIA agent, and that in the Argentine government there could be functionaries who also belong to the US agency, commented the journalist.

He added that there are many obscure facts that permit us to see the direct intervention of the CIA in the case, such as the way in which the events occurred, as well as the already noted friendship between Wilson and the former Venezuelan president Carlos Andres Perez, whose name appears among those listed by the CIA as a collaborator.

Regarding this point, Bilbao recalled that "everybody knows" that Carlos Andres Perez was a CIA asset in the 1970s, as confirmed by ex-CIA agent Philip Agee in his book, which listed "all the names of politicians and directors in Latin America who were with the CIA--and among them was that of Carlos Andres Perez."

The Argentine journalist denounced the briefcase operation and its consequences as a CIA conspiracy, one which sought deliberately to destroy the stability of the Venezuelan government and, as a secondary consequence, though no less important, that of the Argentine administration.

Regarding the supposed declarations of Moises Maionica in which he pleaded guilty in the case, Bilbao emphasized that these statments were very confused, since Maionica, after declaring himself innocent, "is now 'admitting his guilt' a month later".

Bilbao argued that surely the CIA was behind Maionica's supposed admission of guilt, and that it was very possible that during this past month, they may have tortured him, at least psychologically, in order to make him take back his initial declarations.

He also said that this is a case that must be studied in depth.

Continue reading "More on the Argentine Briefcase Caper" »

Posted by Sabina Becker at 6:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

"What I dislike most about the trickle-down democracy argument is the dishonor it pays to all the people who fought, and fight still, for genuine democratic change in their countries, whether for the right to vote, or to have access to land, or to form unions. Democracy isn't the work of the market's invisible hand; it is the work of real hands....Real democracy--true decision-making power in the people's hands--is always demanded, never granted."

--Naomi Klein, Fences and Windows: Dispatches from the Front Lines of the Globalization Debate

Posted by Sabina Becker at 9:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

But would they listen to me? Nooooo. They just had to figure out for themselves that certain interrogation methods don't work as well as advertised...

A threat of possible terrorist attacks in Germany, based on a tip from Lebanese authorities after they interrogated an al-Qaida suspect, is less severe than initially thought, authorities said Monday.

The tip came after Lebanese police arrested suspect Mohammed Naddoum last Thursday on allegations that he called the German Embassy in Beirut threatening to strike German security targets.

Officials have given no details of the possible threats, but German news reports said Lebanon told officials that the suspect indicated terrorists inside Germany were prepared to attack targets such as Berlin's Justice Ministry building. The ministry said it had heightened security.

The details of the tip have now been checked out, and have led to no concrete results, said Federal Criminal Police Office spokeswoman Sandra Clemens.

"At this point in the investigation, an attack can be ruled out," she said.

My guess is they got it out of him by what's euphemistically called "coercive interrogation", and what is more correctly called TORTURE. Lebanon is not exactly free from it.

But I could have told them that Germany is not on the terror shit list. Why? It's not involved in the war on Iraq. Spain was; that's why Spain's trains were bombed, and why the Spaniards wised up and got rid of Aznar in their next election. Australia was; that's why a nightclub in Bali catering to Aussie tourists was bombed in '02. Britain still is; that's why ITS subway trains were also bombed. (The Brits, alas, have not gotten wise and thrown out THEIR warmongers.)

Logic should dictate that Spain is now off the terror shit list. And that Australia, too, will soon follow suit. And that Britain should watch its back.

Posted by Sabina Becker at 10:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tell him the truth, of course:

He's afraid of a bunch of Ron Paul supporters? But...but...but...aren't they REPUBLICANS???

Posted by Sabina Becker at 5:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I'm sorry to inflict this on y'all, but...

Continue reading "The face of fucking craziness" »

Posted by Sabina Becker at 8:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

...and neither does he, nor any of his lackeys, have the slightest concept of a little thing known as reading comprehension.

Think Progress has ferreted out the real source of Dubya's antipathy to embryonic stem cell research--a total misinterpretation of an improbable scenario from Aldous Huxley (read aloud to him, of course, by one of his loyal flunkies, since Dubya can't be bothered to bestir himself):

Continue reading "More proof that Dubya doesn't read" »

Posted by Sabina Becker at 10:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

4 minutes from the movie "The Kingdom", taking us from Ibn Saud to 9-11.

And yes, it's all about oil.

Posted by Sabina Becker at 12:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Outcome, inevitable. Sorry to say it, but it's true:

A gunman opened fire in a training center dormitory for young Christian missionaries early Sunday after being told he couldn't spend the night, killing two of the center's staff members and wounding two others. No arrests had been made by afternoon.

The shooting happened at about 12:30 a.m. at the Youth With a Mission center in this Denver suburb, police spokeswoman Susan Medina said.

A man and a woman were killed and two men were wounded, Medina said. All four were staff members, said Paul Filidis, a Colorado Springs-based spokesman with Youth With a Mission.

The gunman came to the door of the dormitory seeking shelter, asking if he could spend the night, said Peter Warren, director of Youth With a Mission Denver.

When told he couldn't stay, the man walked inside, opened fire, then left on foot, Warren said.

Continue reading "Christian, yes. Charity, no." »

Posted by Sabina Becker at 10:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

A pink posse in a poor part of the country! Why not? Especially when the need for street-fighters for social justice is so pressing...

They wear pink saris and go after corrupt officials and boorish men with sticks and axes.

The several hundred vigilante women of India's northern Uttar Pradesh state's Banda area proudly call themselves the "gulabi gang" (pink gang), striking fear in the hearts of wrongdoers and earning the grudging respect of officials.

The pink women of Banda shun political parties and NGOs because, in the words of their feisty leader, Sampat Pal Devi, "they are always looking for kickbacks when they offer to fund us".

Two years after they gave themselves a name and an attire, the women in pink have thrashed men who have abandoned or beaten their wives and unearthed corruption in the distribution of grain to the poor.

They have also stormed a police station and attacked a policeman after they took in an untouchable man and refused to register a case.

"Nobody comes to our help in these parts. The officials and the police are corrupt and anti-poor. So sometimes we have to take the law in our hands. At other times, we prefer to shame the wrongdoers," says Sampat Pal Devi, between teaching a "gang" member on how to use a lathi (traditional Indian stick) in self defence.

Continue reading "Uppity women in India!" »

Posted by Sabina Becker at 2:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Oh, the Venezuelan opposition...they seriously think no one will catch them in a lie. That their carefully contrived media campaigns against Chavecito will go off without a hitch. But as it happens, the ever alert Mario Silva (who hosts La Hojilla, VTV's media-whore-watch show) has caught them out in at least three big, fat whoppers:

In case you haven't guessed, the three lies are:

Continue reading "Ha ha. Oppos funny!" »

Posted by Sabina Becker at 1:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

...see, he's legally elected!

Pakistan's new Supreme Court has - as expected - dismissed the final legal challenge to the recent re-election of President Pervez Musharraf.

Gen Musharraf's opponents had argued that his election was illegal because he was still head of the army.

The move clears the way for the general to resign as army chief, as promised, and be sworn in as a civilian leader.

Continue reading "No, he's not a dictator..." »

Posted by Sabina Becker at 12:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

And these come straight from Chile. Enjoy!

Sen. Alejandro Navarro on Monday demanded an apology from Chile's Foreign Minister Alejandro Foxley for criticizing the behavior of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez at the XVII Iberian-American summit held last weekend in Santiago.

Continue reading "More truths the king can't shut up..." »

Posted by Sabina Becker at 10:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Or so they say everytime they refuse to give him airtime.

"They", of course, being the lamestream media. Even PBS and NPR (supposedly the long-haired intellectuals of the US broadcasterati) are constantly begging off because, supposedly, Chomsky hasn't got "concision" (translation: soundbite-ability).

There's only one problem with that excuse: It's bullshit.

As you can see (in little more than three minutes!), Chomsky can so give good soundbite. The only problem with his soundbites is that they say things the lamestream media types don't want us to hear. They're not for the faint of heart (or feeble of mind.) If you're hard of thinking, they will force you to think hard.

Go on. Read Chomsky. Hear him talk. Get addicted. What have you got to lose but your phony comfort zone?

Posted by Sabina Becker at 10:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

What? No suitcase nukes? Damn, there goes my fantasy of blowing up the world by sneaking one through customs.

Members of Congress have warned about the dangers of suitcase nuclear weapons. Hollywood has made television shows and movies about them. Even the Federal Emergency Management Agency has alerted Americans to a threat - information the White House includes on its Web site.

But government experts and intelligence officials say such a threat gets vastly more attention than it deserves. These officials said a true suitcase nuke would be highly complex to produce, require significant upkeep and cost a small fortune.

Counterproliferation authorities do not completely rule out the possibility that these portable devices once existed. But they do not think the threat remains.

"The suitcase nuke is an exciting topic that really lends itself to movies," said Vahid Majidi, the assistant director of the FBI's Weapons of Mass Destruction Directorate. "No one has been able to truly identify the existence of these devices."

Continue reading "One less thing to lie awake about" »

Posted by Sabina Becker at 11:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Well, I guess if he calls himself ugly, it must be okay for Reuters to do it too. (The "quotation marks" make it all right, you know.)

Hugo Chavez calls himself ugly and his looks earned him the nickname "Goofy" in the military, but the president's image is changing -- he is now considered one of Venezuela's sexiest men.

A poll said on Thursday the fifth-most desired man is Chavez, whose large nose, protruding lips, forehead mole and gap in his front teeth are easy fodder for caricature artists in a South American nation obsessed with beauty.

Continue reading "Headline Howler: Who you callin' ugly?" »

Posted by Sabina Becker at 10:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Or we may have to get you off the plane.

Singapore Airlines has taken the unusual step of publicly asking passengers on its new Airbus A380 plane not to engage in any sexual activities.

The potential problem has arisen because the first class area of its giant superjumbo contains 12 private suites complete with double beds.

Singapore, which is the first airline to start flying the A380, said the suites were not sound-proofed.

It said it did not want anyone to offend other travellers or crew.

Singapore added that while the suites were private, they were also not completely sealed.

Continue reading "Stupid Sex Tricks: Please don't get off in flight!" »

Posted by Sabina Becker at 12:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

They dare to defy the Catholic church? And to order pharmacies to fill orders for the Morning-After Pill? What next, a female president?

Oh wait. They have one already. Never mind...

The Chilean government has warned pharmacies refusing to sell the morning-after contraceptive pill that they could face stiff fines or closure.

Major pharmacy chains have not been selling the pill recently, arguing they could not buy stocks locally.

The government responded by importing supplies and said the stores now had no excuse for not selling the pill.

Continue reading "Oh those uppity Chilean women!" »

Posted by Sabina Becker at 12:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Beeb asks a not-so-pertinent, but provocatively phrased question: Why Democracy?

...And then falls flat on its fanny with the usual obtuse conclusions I've already seen ad nauseam from people who call themselves the intelligentsia. They are too windy and too flaccid for me to excerpt here.

Why Democracy, indeed. When Democracy is just a smokescreen for capitalism and profiteering, why ask why? Drink Bud Dry.

And stop complaining about the hangover. After all, you bought a round and boozed it up with all the rest of them.

Continue reading "Does democracy suck?" »

Posted by Sabina Becker at 2:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

You know the crapaganda whores are hurtin' when a lamestream newsman gets so thoroughly shishkabobbed by a fake-news comedian. I don't imagine many people will buy Chris Matthews's book after seeing this...except for shits and giggles.

Posted by Sabina Becker at 6:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Once again, I am in awe of Tom Tomorrow. He sure knows how to hit Alan "Ayn Rand's Little Disciple" Greenspan where it counts.

One question for you, Mr. G: Why did you not say it was all about oil back when something could still be done to stop this train wreck? Oh wait, I guess that would have something to do with the evils of regulating capitalism, which should just be free to run unfettered and roughshod all over fucking everything. I guess that ideology tied your First Amendment's tongue. In other words, a false and illusory freedom trumped a genuine one. Now it makes sense...

Actually, here's another, just for good measure: If you're so libertarian (and libertarians are, according to their own prattle, so individualistic), why did you sell your soul to the L. Ron Hubbard of political philosophy? Seems such a collectivist thing to do.

And, in light of the job you just left, rather dangerous to boot.

Posted by Sabina Becker at 3:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Could you please put me through to Dr. George Lakoff? I have a really bad case of brainwashing I'm trying to overcome.

New research confirms that repetition of "myths" and slogans helps lodge them in the minds of the public and that refuting them often leads only to the public remembering falsehoods better. Instead, they tell us that "education campaigns with an 'affirmative' message," even if it is a negative message, are far more effective in defeating an adversary's frame.

University of Michigan social psychologist Norbert Schwarz has done experiments showing that people remember things they hear repeated often enough, regardless of its source, and even if it's from a single source.

"Hearing the same opinion from several sources is more influential than hearing it only once from one source. This is as it should be," he wrote in an email exchange with HarperIndex.ca. "But, as we showed in a recent paper, hearing it multiple times from the same source is nearly as influential. 'A repetitive voice sounds like a chorus.' So a single person or small group can create the impression of broad consensus through sheer repetition."

Continue reading "Hello, operator? I think I've been framed." »

Posted by Sabina Becker at 6:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Was? Ihr habt das ohne Krieg gemacht? Und zwar nur mit Polizei? Was seid ihr, Angsthasen?

Three men have been arrested in Germany on suspicion of planning a "massive" attack on US facilities in the country, officials have said.

Federal prosecutor Monika Harms said the three had trained at camps in Pakistan and procured some 700kg (1,500lbs) of chemicals for explosives.

She said the accused had sought to target facilities visited by Americans, such as nightclubs, pubs or airports.

Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung said the men had posed "an imminent threat".

Media reports said the men were planning attacks against a US military base in Ramstein and Frankfurt airport.

Continue reading "Schnitzel-eating surrendermenschen?" »

Posted by Sabina Becker at 4:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Chow down!

Organic foods protect children from the toxins in pesticides, while foods grown using modern, intensive agricultural techniques contain fewer nutrients and minerals than they did 60 years ago, according to two new scientific studies.

A US research team from Emory University in Atlanta analysed urine samples from children ages three to 11 who ate only organic foods and found that they contained virtually no metabolites of two common pesticides, malathion and chlorpyrifos.

However, once the children returned to eating conventionally grown foods, concentrations of these pesticide metabolites quickly climbed as high as 263 parts per billion, says the study published February 21.

Continue reading "Eat this and weep" »

Posted by Sabina Becker at 11:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Courtesy of one "Douglas A. McIntyre", a little piece of absolute hogjaw twaddle:

The prevailing wisdom is that oil prices will move down. They have already dropped from over $78 to $72, and most observers think that is only the beginning. Troubled financial markets and the potential of a slowing global economy should being demand down.

Don't tell the president of Venezuela, nut job Hugo Chavez any of that. He wants the world to believe that he can control the price of crude, which is only partially true. According to Reuters: "I've always said that oil prices are headed straight to $100 per barrel," Chavez said during a televised speech. His argument is simple. Supplies are dwindling and consumption is still going up.

Continue reading "24/7 Wall St. bullshit" »

Posted by Sabina Becker at 6:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

...because this explains so much about what's wrong with the world they live in.

Rugged American individualism could hinder our ability to understand other peoples' point of view, a new study suggests.

And in contrast, the researchers found that Chinese are more skilled at understanding other people's perspectives, possibly because they live in a more "collectivist" society.

"This cultural difference affects the way we communicate," said study co-author and cognitive psychologist Boaz Keysar of the University of Chicago.

Continue reading "I'm worried about my American friends..." »

Posted by Sabina Becker at 4:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Bim, bam.

Gott sei dank, jetzt ist die Welt um einen Nazi-Mistbock leichter. Nur schade, dass es so lange gedauert hat...

Continue reading "Kurt Waldheim ist kaputt" »

Posted by Sabina Becker at 10:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Contrary to what know-nothings like this right-winger may contend, it's NOT Hugo Chavez of Venezuela.

It's George Bush of the US, and Global Research has the proof that he is literally fixin' to be one, if he isn't already:

The National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive, signed on May 9, 2007 declares that in the event of a "catastrophic event", George W. Bush can become what is best described as "a dictator":

"The President shall lead the activities of the Federal Government for ensuring constitutional government."

This directive, completely unnoticed by the media, and given no scrutiny by Congress, literally gives the White House unprecedented dictatorial power over the government and the country, bypassing the US Congress and obliterating the separation of powers. The directive also placed the Secretary of Homeland Security in charge of domestic "security".

Continue reading "Who's the real dictator?" »

Posted by Sabina Becker at 1:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Funny you should ask.

You can get all kinds of goodies...or you can get one no-good-fer-nuttin', shit-faced, sorry excuse for a preznit.

Incidentally, having flubbed it so completely, Dubya is now in the market for a war czar to hand the blame heavy responsibility off to. Still no takers. (Say, aren't czars some kind of imperial Russian thing? You know, really oppressive-like? So bad that the serfs chose to go with Lenin instead?)

America: these are your tax dollars at work. When will you impeach this tool?

Posted by Sabina Becker at 12:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Oh lordy, here we go again. One Delores Williams, writing for Associated Content, horks up a hairball composed of some of the most poorly reasoned propaganda I've seen yet:

At Midnight, President Hugo Chavez took control of privately run oil fields in order to gain control over the four Orinoco Belt crude projects. These oil fields were held by American companies such as Chevron, Exxon mobile, BP PLc and ConocoPhillips. This means that Chavez's government can decide tomorrow not to send any more oil to America, and there would be little these companies could do.

Well, well. Only one paragraph in, and already the urge to shout BULLSHIT! overcomes me. That's gotta be a new world record.

Continue reading "Hello, what part of sovereignty do you not understand?" »

Posted by Sabina Becker at 8:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Vietnam War vet and former US senator Max Cleland may have lost three limbs in a grenade accident in 'Nam, but isn't it ironic...his able-bodied opponents are the ones who don't have a leg to stand on. Whereas the once and future Sen. Cleland stands tall:

...and delivers the almighty kick from behind to two sets of gonads.

Saxby Chambliss's cowardly tail will remain permanently tucked.

Meanwhile, Chucklenuts will halt in mid-chuckle, his mouth will drop open, and his nuts will pop out. And this time, even his too-tight crotch straps won't give him the illusion of a supersize package.

Posted by Sabina Becker at 11:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

...this time in a particularly down-at-heel part of New Mexico, the poorest state in the Union.

Residents in the US state of New Mexico have approved a new tax to build the nation's first commercial spaceport.

Supporters including New Mexico's governor and billionaire, Richard Branson, had called the tax vote a make-or-break election for the port.

But others say the money should go towards improving local problems and resent having to subsidise the activities of wealthy space tourists.

Taxes will contribute about $50m (£25m) in to the nearly $200m project.

Dona Ana County is a relatively poor and bleak swathe of desert in southern New Mexico with fewer than 200,000 residents.

Continue reading "The poor subsidize the rich, again" »

Posted by Sabina Becker at 10:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Cue the Clash, because if Luis Posada Carriles goes there will be trouble, and if he stays it will be double.

Or is it the other way 'round?

Oh, whatever. Cue the Clash, dammit.

The United States government has appealed against a ruling to release a prominent anti-communist Cuban exile, Luis Posada Carriles.

A judge in Texas ruled that Mr Posada, now a Venezuelan national, should be freed pending an immigration hearing.

Mr Posada, 79, has been detained in the US since May 2005 after illegally entering the country.

A former CIA employee, he is wanted in Venezuela and Cuba over the downing of a Cuban airliner in 1976.

Continue reading "CubanaBomber Death Watch: Should I stay or should I go now?" »

Posted by Sabina Becker at 10:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)