A picture is worth a thousand lies

Free-range grass-fed Bison?
Not hardly.
CAFO.

Polyface

Sustainable farming.
See The Omnivore's Dilema, a wonderful, subversive, eye-opeing book about farming.

Etymology of tut-tut

tut-tut, British.
Means "not tat tall" and is possibly derived, by elision, from it.
The british pronounce their t's as t's, not d's. Explosively.

What did Terri want?

She wanted a divorce.

The Great Wall

What would it cost to have Mexicans
build us a wall like this?

Were FDR's PWA and WPA insults?

Not to the people they employed.

The Eleven Commandments

John 13:34 (NIV)
A new command I give you: Love one another.
As I have loved you, so you must love one another.

Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society

Charming, Controlling, Violent

Whose wives were leaving them.
Gossip in Buffalo: OJ was into cocaine.

Life vs. The pursuit of happiness

These people worship me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.

There will be no axis of symmetry

Vegetables are off the table.
Sean McCormack, above, chastised Venezuela today for attempting to intimidate Ambassador Brownfield in Caracas. McCormick previously cautioned that our response to provocation is "going to be serious, strong and asymmetric."

"We will not be intimidated by fruits and vegetables" U.S. Embassy spokesman, Brian Penn, said.

The Tupamaros, fingered by Brownfield, denied throwing fruit.

WMD reported uncovered in Iraq

Reports circulate today that WMD have been located in Iraq. The Judge in the Moussaoui trial in the Eastern District of Virginia instructed the jury March 30th that planes can be considered weapons of mass desctruction when used as missles and flown into buildings.

Uncovered were uncontroverted evidence of weaponized planes in Iraq capable of being flown into buildings. It is widely held within the administration that other planes remain undiscoverd.

Suppression of pictures #5

The US Military today "was outraged" today by the posting of a video claiming to show Iraqi insurgents dragging the burning body of a U.S. pilot on the ground after the crash of an Apache helicopter.
They did not protest the shooting down of the helicopter, the setting the pilot on fire, or the dragging of the burning body.

Weapons of Mass Destruction

The Moussaoui jurors were instructed [Reuters] that a plane qualifies as a weapon of mass destruction when used as a missle.

This means that a missle is a weapon of mass destruction,
and that a plane is dual use technology.

The impact of this line of reasoning on the size of the threat from weapons of mass destruction has not yet been outlined. Presumably, any country with box cutters could be considered to have a program to acquire weapons of mass destruction, if, in addition to the box cutters, we have reason to believe that they are bad people.

April 1st, in history (1389-1400)

Canterbury Tales: The Nun's Priest Tale
3190 Syn March [was gon], thritty dayes and two,
Since March had gone, thirty days and two,
3191 Bifel that Chauntecleer in al his pryde,
Befell that Chauntecleer in all his pride,

Why did Ananias and Sapphira do that?

Acts 5
1Now a man named Ananias, together with his wife Sapphira, also sold a piece of property. 2With his wife's full knowledge he kept back part of the money for himself,
----
Clearly, they sold the piece of land with the intention of giving the proceeds to the church. They could have sold a smaller piece if they had intended to give less. I think that when they had the pile of cash in front of them, they looked at each other and said --- this is - too much.

The new world

Speak three languages: tri-lingual
Speak two languages: bi-lingual
Speak one language: handicapped

Exit Strategy

George's strategy is
to not exit.

Moussaoui Death Penalty in Jeopardy

The prosecution needs to prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that FBI higher-ups would believe, and act on,
the testimony of a man sworn to destroy America

while, at the same time, they would not believe, and act on,
the impassioned warnings of faithful freedom-loving career agents who reported suspicions of the terrorist plots.

The "would believe Moussaoui and not agents" part is easy to accept;
the "would act on" part is the hard-sell.

UN establishes Human Rights Commission

USA votes against.

Feingold set to condemn White House

Senator Russ Feingold (D. Wis) has initiated an Eminent Domain process against the White House, characterizing it as a "blighted" area. Congress has administrative control over the District of Columbia. Feingold says that the site will be redeveloped as a medium security prison for the current administration.

New Homeless Shelter in DC

The new Washington National Homeless Shelter, the subject of political wrangling on the city council and tough negotiations with NGO Homes Not Jails, is scheduled for completion in April 2008.

"We felt D.C. deserved to distinguish itself. Another red brick homless shelter was not what we wanted," said project architect Joseph Spear. "We wanted something of this time and of this place" he added, "with a feeling of hopefulness. This design seems to say 'Maybe next year'."

Condos to cross Atlantic

Filipino Baptist Fellowship in Long Beach may be overrun by condos.
The city has invoked Manifest Destiny against the church.
Many lots on the west side of Atlantic have already been cleared.
Are two more condos critical?

click for larger picture
click for church's web site

Indicted for authorizing torture

The former president of Chile was indicted for authorizing torture, points out the witty Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.

1493 - the 2nd trip

Columbus returns to Haiti and Santo Domingo in 1493 for more.
Haiti and Santo Domingo were popular slave embarkation points.

Population Density

China and India are winning at present.
Note that Rwanda, in central east Africa, is a purple dot.

FLASH: Aruba eyes Lake Maricaibo

We have just learned that Aruba may be interested in annexing the Lake Maricaibo region of Venezuela. "This would be a significant addition to our total Carribean waterfront kilometrage" says Queen Beatrix of Netherlands, the titular head of Aruba, our translator reports.

Donald Rumsfeld, asked to comment on whether this initiative was part of a "behind closed doors" effort to expand democracy in the other Americas, replied that the Netherlands's hegemony in Aruba is part of a repressive colonialist imperialist monarchy, whereas Venezuela has had a remarkable recent history of independent popular democracy, so that this eventuality might be considered as a net loss of democracy by some, although he declined to characterize the development as undesirable or disadvantageous.

General spots terror plot

The Surgeon General reports on a plot that may "dwarf" 9-11.

New Horizons spacecraft to Pluto

Launched Jan/06.
ETA 2015.
[Where] is it now?

David Choe

Anti-social spray painter
[website]

Progress in LA

The Community Garden is to be paved in South Central.

A Class Divided

[Frontline video]
A lesson on discrimination for 3rd graders

Pray for the rich

if you can stomach it

[The rich young ruler]

The rich help the rich. The poor help the poor.

A couple of exceptions possibly, but for the most part.

Homeless in Seattle

Or Los Angeles

North Korea, at night

Dark. Starving. Desperate.

Wikipedia

The moon, as seen from Wikipedia.

Truth, justice, or the American Way

[New Yorker Article] on our willful policy of torture.

On slavery, from the 2nd inaugural

If God wills that the scourge of war continue until all the wealth piled by the bondman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil
shall be sunk,

and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash
shall be paid by another drawn by the sword,

as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said,
"The judgements of the Lord are true and righteous altogether."

Wilson's Good Neighbor Policy

Between 1914 and 1918, the United States intervened in Haiti, in Cuba, in Panama and particularly often in Mexico. The U.S. kept troops in Nicaragua throughout Wilson's administration and forced Nicaragua to pass the Bryan-Chamorro Treaty.[Wiki]

In Cuba, in the Dominican Republic, in Haiti and in Nicaragua, Wilson set the stage for Batista, Trujillo, Duvalier, and Somoza.

In addition to being a colonial imperialist, Wilson was also a white supremicist, reviving interest in the Ku Klux Klan which US Grant had worked so hard against.

Helen Keller, the flaming socialist, called Wilson "the greatest individual disappointment the world has ever known."
[Lies My Teacher Told Me]

Just War

It's just war.

What is wrong with inhuman treatment?

I think the biggest problem is that it is all too human.

Cambodia, 1975

"All children must be taught that evil must be opposed."

Free trade, up to a point

Do some evil

Yahoo provided data that helped China convict a journalist.

Jane Austin

Upon the whole, therefore, she found, what has sometimes been found before, that an event to which she had looked forward with impatient desire did not, in taking place, bring all the satisfaction she had promised herself. It was consequently necessary to name some other period for the commencement of actual felicity - to have some other point on which her wishes and hopes might be fixed, and by again enjoying the pleasure of anticipation, console herself for the present, and prepare for another disappointment.

Hydrogen is not a source of energy

Any more than electricity is.
Both must be made from something else.

To solve the oil crisis

Bush advocates adding alcohol to gasoline. And presumably by letting most cars take CAFE credit for running on 15% blends (E85), since many can run on that, even though E85 is not available.
The typical alcohol blend is 7% alchohol not 15%.

Another way to use alcohol to reduce oil consumption

The BarCar

"Chavez elected fairly" says Rumsfeld

Like Hitler, he adds. Or Salvadore Allende.
Venezuela responds.

Impeach Bush

It is a question of priorities. Obey the law or catch the bad guys?
If the government won't obey the law, they are the bad guys.

Another bright idea from the oil men

Rather than a gasoline tax, which encourages people to use vehicles with better gas milage, the Bush Administration is piloting a plan to tax miles travelled. This would allow them to elimiate the tax on gasoline, and "lower gasoline prices". We need to revist all our taxation policies. It was the issue of taxes that caused the calling of the Estates General, and led to the French Revolution.

The new black: the poor

Craig Collins shot and killed

Elevator

Ettiquette.

Dalai Lama

[more]

Turn off the camera #4

An incident in New Orleans. An officer orders AP Television News producer Rich Matthews to stop recording.[AP] Another officer, on horseback, attempts to block the camera's view of the incident.