yo yo yo search it!

Saturday, February 27, 2010

some incredibly WONDERFUL news



i am not a snob EXCEPT when it comes to movies (ok ok ok, i DO like animal house and the blues brothers but don't tell anyone). usually if a movie is in english i don't want to see it (except if it has star trek in the title)

in boing boing today i read the following (and i wept):

Alice in Wonderland movie from 1933 with Cary Grant, Gary Cooper, WC Fields, which Alice herself endorsed

By Cory Doctorow

Steve Silberman sez, "Holy Terry Gilliam prototype: The original, trippy 1933 film version of Alice in Wonderland by Norman 'Monkey Business' McLeod, starring Cary Grant, Gary Cooper, and W.C. Fields, now on DVD with a rave from Alice: 'A revolution in cinema history!'" But only one can boast the endorsement of the original Alice: the 1933 Paramount "Alice in Wonderland," being released to DVD by Universal Studios Home Entertainment ($19.98, not rated), the current rights holder. In a Jan. 7, 1934, article in The New York Times, Alice Liddell, quoted under her married name, Mrs. Reginald Hargreaves, expressed admiration for the film that Hollywood had wrought from the story Carroll had invented for her some seven decades before.

"I am delighted with the film and am now convinced that only through the medium of the talking picture art could this delicious fantasy be faithfully interpreted," she declared, her words possibly burnished by a Paramount publicist. " 'Alice' is a picture which represents a revolution in cinema history!".............


it is in my top five movies of ALL time (number one you ask??? well of COURSE it's juliet of the spirits




why? oh easy. i AM

giulietta and i AM betty



oh who is betty you ask? well here she is (NOT in full of course. watch the movie)
betty blue




Another Trippy Rabbit Hole

By DAVE KEHR

THE home video market is awash in versions of “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” this week, all evidently intended to capitalize on the publicity surrounding Tim Burton’s new 3-D interpretation of the classic Lewis Carroll book, set to be released on Friday by Walt Disney Studios.

The reissues range from a 1966 adaptation directed for British television by Jonathan Miller and starring Peter Sellers, Michael Redgrave and John Gielgud (BBC Warner, $14.98, not rated) to a radically reconstituted miniseries, “Alice,” shown last year on the SyFy channel (Lionsgate, $19.98, not rated)...................


who loves edward everett horton more than i? the answer my friends IS NO ONE









via

who DOESN'T like doritos?

(well me for one, but who am i???)



via

one has to wonder.....

what these people feel inside. they MUST have feelings, no? one has to wonder if having reviewed genocides through history (oh and ONE is too many) how they can say shite like this.

one has to wonder if they believe in some type of god (and i'm guessing a lot of them do) why they think their god is ok with this shite



Harvard Professor's Shocking Proposal: Starve the Palestinians in Gaza into Having Fewer Babies


At a recent conference, Prof. Martin Kramer called for population growth in the Muslim world to be restrained and made a series of other outrageous claims.


Martin Kramer revealed his true colors at the Herzliya Conference, wherein he blamed political violence in the Muslim world on population growth, called for that growth to be restrained, and praised the illegal and unconscionable Israeli blockade of civilian Gazans for its effect on reducing the number of Gazans


[Commentator] M. J. Rosenberg argued that Kramer's speech is equivalent to a call for genocide. It certainly is a call for eugenics.


It is shocking that Kramer, who has made a decade-long career of attacking social science understanding of the Middle East and demonizing anyone who departs even slightly from his rightwing Israeli-nationalist political line, should be given a cushy office at Harvard as a 'fellow' while spewing the most vile justifications for war crimes like the collective punishment of Gazan children.......................

knock me over with a feather

this is stunning news (and not stunning in a good way either). wow. it's worse than i even thought

and just because obama is president now doesn't mean we're much better off

US military spied on Planned Parenthood, civilian phone calls
By John Byrne

United States military intelligence spied on Planned Parenthood and other domestic groups as part of US security preparations for the 2002 winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, according to a recently declassified military document obtained by a civil liberties group Thursday.

The document (PDF - page 98), drafted by a Pentagon Deputy Inspector General whose name is redacted, was included in more than 800 pages released to the Electronic Frontier Foundation as part of a Freedom of Information Act Request. They include reports from the Pentagon's Intelligence Oversight Board that were submitted to the Defense Secretary from 2001 to 2007.

Referring to an incident where military intelligence personnel distributed information about FBI spying on the 2002 Olympics, the inspector general's office tersely remarked that an "intelligence oversight violation occurred."

"The document... contained US Persons data in referring to an reporting on organizations (Planned Parenthood, the white supremacist group National Alliance) and their involvement in protests and literature distribution," the inspector's office wrote. "Also noted was the report contained a large section labeled "GENERAL CRIMINAL ACTIVITY." Collection and dissemination of US Persons information by military intelligence assets is not allowed unless this information constitutes "Foreign Intelligence.".............


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she left us too soon

just SHUT THE HELL UP (so to speak)

isn't this rather like the pot calling the kettle black? YOU are the ones who hate. YOU are the ones who wish ill will on EACH AND EVERY PERSON who doesn't believe EXACTLY what you believe. you're the ones who HATE your neighbors. YOU are the ones who have a cancer eating at your souls.

so as i said, SHUT THE HELL UP


Right wing slams White House for meeting with atheist ‘hate groups’
By Daniel Tencer

Some conservative commentators are accusing the Obama administration of inviting "hate groups" into the White House by holding a meeting with a coalition of secularist and atheist groups.

Officials from the Justice and Health and Human Services departments met Friday with representatives of the Secular Coalition for America, an umbrella group that includes American Atheists and the Council for Secular Humanism. The coalition called it "the first time in history a presidential administration has met for a policy briefing with the American nontheist community."

President Barack Obama was not scheduled to make an appearance at the meeting, nor were any policy changes to be announced, McClatchy news service reported.

But that didn't stop a number of religious conservative groups from attacking the meeting as a sign the president has an anti-religious agenda......///////////////

Friday, February 26, 2010

i want to live here


via

beautiful but haunting


ON EXHIBIT///DETROIT’S “ICE HOUSE” ART INSTALLATION


The ICE HOUSE, located at 3920 McClellanon the east side of DETROIT, is an art installation by architect Matthew Radune and photographer Gregory Holm designed to bring attention to the dire state of the city’s urban infrastructure while simultaneously breeding optimism for its future. Located in a vast neighborhood once densely populated with working families, the house is now just one of the thousands of abandoned homes that line the city’s streets like tombstones:.............

wtf???????????

i have so much to say but none of it is coherent. i'll just link to and post part of the story


Citibank Shuts Down Gay Entrepreneur’s Bank Account Over Blog’s Content


By Megan Carpentier

Jason Goldberg is the CEO of a company called Fabulis, which is developing a website, iPhone app and social media application targeted at gay men. His company — which is at least his third start-up — is funded by investors including The Washington Post and the venture capitalist Allen Morgan, and they just launched their beta version this month. You would think he would be the kind of customer Citi would want — but Citi decided otherwise after a compliance officer reviewed his site and decided that a social networking application for gay men was “objectionable.”

Without notifying Goldberg or anyone at Fabulis, Citi shut down their bank accounts for objectionable content on Fabulis’ blog, though it refused to specify which content. After hours of phone calls, several articles and a threat to take their banking elsewhere, Citi finally called Goldberg to say that the three Citi employees who had decided Goldberg’s social networking site was objectionable were “wrong to have said what they said.” Note that the bank did not say they were wrong to have suspended his account without notification, or to have flagged his blog as objectionable because it talks about the gay-themed (but not pornographic) company that he is starting, but just that the three employees statements to him were wrong..........

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the fucker is smiling

when he's talking about a terrorist flying a plane into a building on purpose KILLING someone.

iowa, you're good people. DO THE RIGHT THING. when this piece o' steamin' shite comes up for re-election, PULL SOMEONE ELSE'S LEVER


or are you going to advocate terrorism like king is doing? up to you

Rep. King Justifies Suicide Attack On IRS: Sympathizes With Hatred Of IRS, Hopes For Its Destruction

On Thursday, a man flew a plane into a Texas federal building in an apparent domestic terrorist attack. The suicide bomber, identified as Joseph Andrew Stack, was allegedly a right wing extremist who wrote on a website that violence “is the only answer” and expressed anger at the IRS, the federal government, and health care reform. Some on the fringe right have declared Stack a hero.

ThinkProgress caught up with Rep. Steve King (R-IA) at CPAC to talk about the attack in Texas. Asked if the right-wing anti-tax rhetoric might have motivated the attack, King implicitly agreed, noting that he had been a leading opponent of the IRS for some time. He noted that although the attack was “sad,” “by the same token,” it was justified because once the the right succeeds at abolishing the IRS, “it’s going to be a happy day for America.” He sidestepped the question of the legitimacy of the terrorists’ grievances, but sympathized by saying that “I’ve had a sense of ‘why is the IRS in my kitchen.’ Why do they have their thumb in the middle of my back”:.....



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no more coat hangers

no more secret unclean back rooms. no more whispering. no more infections. no more dying from loss of blood. no more hiding. abortion IS legal. i understand and accept your point of view if you think it's an ugly alternative. fine. i really DO understand. i think it's an ugly alternative. but i am also vehemently PRO CHOICE. it's a woman's body. she has a right to say what happens to it.

why don't we preach more comprehensive sex education rather than abstinence? why don't the people who protest outside of clinics providing women's health services care about anything AFTER the birth? by anything i mean the mother AND the child. (they don't. you know it and i know it).

i am pro choice. i am proud to be pro choice. i am NOT pro abortion nor have i ever been.

Minnesota abortion provider helps meet need in South Dakota

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. -- Carol Ball's day begins in the dark, in another state. By the time she arrives at work, crosses a snowy parking lot and enters the austere one-story Planned Parenthood clinic here, she has flown 200 miles to do something no South Dakota doctor will do.

Ball performs elective abortions. She is one of four doctors who travel anonymously, for security reasons, to the lone clinic in a state that has seen some of the nation's fiercest battles over reproductive rights. The work is framed by worry and frustration -- and the knowledge that the politics remain as unsettled as ever.

This is a difficult time for Ball and her colleagues. Last month, Scott Roeder told the jury in his Kansas murder trial that he stalked George Tiller, the nation's most prominent abortion provider, for years before he walked up to him in a church and shot him once in the head..........


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Thursday, February 25, 2010

kinda cool interactive




go to the 'snake oil' link to see the actual INTERACTIVE diagram

Which supplements really work? An interactive guide to evidence

Snake Oil?

what a dick

TV chef dropped for cat recipe comments

By Jim Clancy, CNN

Rome, Italy (CNN) -- Italy's state-owned television broadcaster has dropped a popular chef for sharing a recipe with viewers to cook cat.

Beppe Bigazzi told CNN that while he would miss collaborating with the RAI-Uno TV network, he would not apologize for his comments because they reflected historical facts, not just his opinion.

He blamed the furor on animal rights activists saying "It's their problem, not mine!"

During a live broadcast February 10, the grandfatherly Italian cooking expert noted that in decades past, Italians in the region of Tuscany did eat cat meat.

Bigazzi, 77, told viewers there was a saying for this time of year that "if you don't have meat, kill the cat."

The popular TV chef then went on to describe how you can tenderize the meat by letting it soak for three days in running spring water.

As Chef Beppe continued, his co-host of 'La Prova del Cuco,' Elisa Isoardi looked aghast.

The young hostess declared "My Othello in a stew? No!" Othello is the name of her pet cat. But Beppe wasn't finished..............



hmmmmmm fake christians?


“We Pretend We Are Christians”

By STEPHEN J. DUBNER

The Freakonomics e-mail inbox constantly produces interesting material. Like this one, from a reader we’ll call G.D.:

I loved your books! I have found my thoughts drifting to some of the subjects over the past few days, especially altruism and apathy. I was curious if any of the experiments took into account the subjects’ religious beliefs. I don’t know how one would logistically test that but it would be interesting to see how those claiming to follow a religious doctrine teaching altruism would do in the tests.

This thought led to another about myself. How would I do in the tests? We are agnostics living deep in the heart of Texas and our family fakes Christianity for social reasons. It’s not so much for the sake of my husband or myself but for our young children. We found by experience that if we were truthful about not being regular church attenders, the play dates suddenly ended. Thus started the faking of the religious funk.................

thursday cool pic


via

i have no comment

Nicaragua prevents treatment of pregnant cancer patient
Rory Carroll, Latin American correspondent

Nicaraguan authorities have withheld life-saving treatment from a pregnant cancer patient because it could harm the foetus and violate a total ban on abortion.

A state-run hospital has monitored the cancer spreading in the body of the 27-year-old named only as Amalia since her admission on February 12 but has not offered chemotherapy, radiotherapy or a therapeutic abortion, citing the law.

The decision has ignited furious protests from relatives and campaigners who say the woman, who has a 10-year-old daughter and is 10 weeks pregnant, will die unless treated. The cancer is suspected to have spread to her brain, lungs and breasts. They have petitioned the courts, government and the pan-regional Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to intervene.............

whoa

via

a spot of GOOD news now

NCAA pulls Focus on the Family ad over complaints about the group’s homophobic positions.

By Amanda Terkel
After trying to reach out to football fans by airing an ad during the Super Bowl, Focus on the Family is now targeting college sports. This week, LGBT blogs reported that NCAA.com was running a Focus on the Family banner advertisement. The site has now pulled the “Celebrate Family. Celebrate Life” ad, citing concerns by NCAA members over Focus on the Family’s homophobic positions:

The NCAA made the decision after some of its members – including faculty and athletic directors – expressed concern that the evangelical group’s stance against gay and lesbian relationships conflicted with the NCAA’s policy of inclusion regardless of sexual orientation, [NCAA spokesman Bob] Williams said. [...]

Williams said the decision to pull the ad was based not on the message but on the messenger.

Advertisers “should be generally supportive of NCAA values and attributes and/or not be in conflict with the NCAA’s mission and fundamental principles,” according to NCAA standards. The NCAA may exclude ads or advertisers “that do not appear to be in the best interests of higher education and student athletes.”.............

another one of those things that sound like

they're from the onion but they're not. they're real

Fox guest blames Obama for rise in domestic violence
By David Edwards and Daniel Tencer

A conservative talk show host says President Barack Obama is "partly" to blame for a rise in domestic violence because of the deteriorating job situation over the past year -- and because the president has criticized Las Vegas.

In discussion on Fox News about Sen. Harry Reid's comment Monday linking unemployment to growing domestic abuse, James Harris told host Gretchen Carlson:

"If this is all about jobs, we have this massive job loss and ... we have domestic violence problems in Nevada, what we need to do is lay this right at the feet of Obama, who in the last year twice slammed Nevada, slammed Las Vegas, so we can say that this is partly Obama's fault for causing so much job loss in Nevada."...............


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you think only china has tainted food?


well, think again. this is not the first time we've read about companies in the us doing nasty stuff with our food and to our food



Bribes Let Tomato Vendor Sell Tainted Food
By WILLIAM NEUMAN

Robert Watson, a top ingredient buyer for Kraft Foods, needed $20,000 to pay his taxes. So he called a broker for a California tomato processor that for years had been paying him bribes to get its products into Kraft’s plants. The check would soon be in the mail, the broker promised. “We’ll have to deduct it out of your commissions as we move forward,” he said, using a euphemism for bribes...............
Illustration by The New York Times

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they don't belong in a tank performing for humans. period

they don't belong on some plate in japan or some cosmetics tube anywhere else in the world. they belong in the ocean.


this whale may have killed three people. why was he performing for people in an enclosed pen? why wasn't he in the wild?

my most heartfelt condolences go out to the family and friends of Dawn Brancheau


there's a bunch of videos with the following story. click on the link for them

Shamu whale kills trainer: eyewitness account of SeaWorld death



ap article in the wapo:

Whale kills trainer as horrified spectators watch

By MIKE SCHNEIDER

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

what he (ewan mcgregor) said is only the TINIEST bit

better than johnny depp's words and whoopie it wasn't RAPE rape fucking goldberg

man, speak out. women (and girls who are 13) are NOT meant to be drugged, have champagne poured down their gullets and then raped (hey whoopie IT FUCKING WAS RAPE RAPE).

i believe whoopie, johnny AND ewan all have daughters (and whoopie is a grandmother as well). how can they DEFEND polanksi?

Yes, Abuse Is Your Business



This video (sorry, embedding is disabled) is of Ewan McGregor on Good Morning America. The part of the video that I’m going to talk about (beginning at :38), discussing McGregor’s recent film made with Roman Polanski, is transcribed below:

George Stephanopoulos: [Roman Polanski]’s also of course going through his troubles right now, being held in Switzerland for, uh … because he’s been extradited for that sex charge [from] many, many years ago. Do think he’s getting what he deserved?

Ewan McGregor: I don’t know, I don’t comment on his case, because it has nothing to do with me. I, I, worked with him as actor, with a director for … I’ve known him for less than I year and … uh, so I don’t make any comment on the case, because it’s, it’s none of my business.

It has nothing to do with me. It’s none of my business.

Now, I don’t know Ewan McGregor from anyone else. I’ve only ever seen one or two of his films, and didn’t walk away with much of an impression in either direction. ...........

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happy thursday

here's a little gift from me to you



via

my new favorite song

be careful, it's addictive



via

don't you want to know the story?


via

ok, he's not bad at all

la puerta. it's pretty darn cool



via

mmmmmmmmmmmmmm vodka mmmmmmm





crystal head vodka via who killed bambi

samurai vodka via tywkiwdbi
(unfortunately, i believe this is concept only)

and a BUNCH o' different vodkas and bottles can be found at if it's hip it's here
(1000 acres i think is a prototype too)

my favorite you ask? well for every day drinking (i do NOT drink every day by the way), i am a stoli grrrl. for special i'm still a stoli grrrl with stoli elit

p.s. do not EVER try to give me grey goose. to me it tastes like mold

an enigma...........a puzzle..............a conundrum

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy



Rachel Maddow on "Dogs freak out over Law and Order theme?"



oh yeah baby


Twitter reaches his holiness, now online @DalaiLama

yup, it's a good idea to


push your gun agendas. it's a GRAND idea for everyone to have guns.

yeah, it's smart thinkin' virginia to let people in bars carry CONCEALED weapons. yup it is.

please tell me where when and how you know the black man (our president, barack obama that is) is GOING TO TAKE YOUR GUNS AWAY? i've not heard anything and my ears are open

i don't know when we'll learn. my best guess is NEVER

Fearing Obama Agenda, States Push to Loosen Gun Laws


When President Obama took office, gun rights advocates sounded the alarm, warning that he intended to strip them of their arms and ammunition.

And yet the opposite is happening. Mr. Obama has been largely silent on the issue while states are engaged in a new and largely successful push for expanded gun rights, even passing measures that have been rejected in the past.

In Virginia, the General Assembly approved a bill last week that allows people to carry concealed weapons in bars and restaurants that serve alcohol, and the House of Delegates voted to repeal a 17-year-old ban on buying more than one handgun a month. The actions came less than three years after the shootings at Virginia Tech that claimed 33 lives and prompted a major national push for increased gun control............

2 students shot outside Colorado middle school (oh they were in MIDDLE SCHOOL) (it's ap so no quotes from the story. there wasn't much info anyway.)



but i did find this link and it has LOTS of info including the (alleged) shooters name:

School shooting victim in critical condition; alleged shooter ID'd

KDVR Denver

L
ITTLETON, Colo. - A 32-year-old convicted felon opened fire outside Deer Creek Middle School in Littleton, Colorado Tuesday afternoon, wounding two students before he was tackled by a math teacher as he reloaded, authorities said.

The suspect, identified by Jefferson County authorities as Colorado resident Bruco Strongeagle Eastwood, has a rap sheet that includes arrests for domestic violence, assault, menacing, driving under the influence and motor vehicle theft.

He was scheduled to make his initial court appearance at 10 a.m. Wednesday morning to face multiple charges, including 2 counts of attempted first degree murder..........

pic:
Karen Bleier/Agency France-Presse — Getty Images

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Tuesday, February 23, 2010

ok, we ALL know i'm vegan

but i'd have to have something wrong with me for not posting SOMETHING from this kick ass site
food sex video

please CHECK IT OUT (the blog, the WHOLE blog)

Meat Closet from the Cook in Heels on Vimeo.



via

zompocalypse via disney characters no less



Zombie Disney character costume parade

how these people are actually ELECTED

much less know how to tie their shoes is EFFING BEYOND COMPREHENSION. why would anyone vote for a man who obviously HATES women?

be sure to be seated before reading this

Va. Legislator: Disabled Children Nature’s Revenge on Women Who Had Abortions
Posted by Adele Stan

Here on Capitol Hill, it’s easy to forget sometimes that you’re only a stone’s throw from the Bible belt. Then some woman-hater with a cross on his chest crawls out into the light, and says something like this:

“The number of children who are born subsequent to a first abortion with handicaps has increased dramatically. Why? Because when you abort the first born of any, nature takes its vengeance on the subsequent children,” said [State Delegate Bob] Marshall, a Republican.

According a Capital News Service piece in the Staunton, Va., paper, The News Leader, Marshall, who hails from Manassass, went on:

“In the Old Testament, the first born of every being, animal and man, was dedicated to the Lord. There’s a special punishment Christians would suggest.”........


audio of Bob Marshall’s comments.


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how sad is this?

texas will AND DOES charge a 13 year old with prostitution.

sure, they COULD have gotten her into some sort of program to help her. NOPE NOPE NOPE. they threw her in stir (when they found out she was 13, they took her from big grrrl jail to little grrrl jail, juvee)

fuck you (once again) texas

(please note, i have actually BEEN to texas. i actually LOVED texas and it's peeps. but something MUST change here)

Texas Needs to Follow NY’s Example & Not Charge Child Prostitutes
Posted by Ellen Friedrichs

Here’s a situation: You are a 13-year-old girl forced into prostitution by an adult pimp. Despite the fact thirteen is under the age of consent, and you can’t even legally have sex with a peer, let alone with an adult, you are still charged with the crime of selling sex. Oh, and the 32-year-old man who got you started? Well, he walks free.

If that sounds outrageous, it should. But that exact situation is currently going on in Texas. As a blogger for the San Antonio Current explains,

“The case involves a girl identified as B.W., taken from her mother at age 11 and placed with Child Protective Services. After running away from CPS, she was picked up by Houston Police Department officers two years later after they observed her trying to sell herself on the street. She was booked on charges of prostitution. Later, after her age of 13 became known, she was placed in the juvenile system and charged with delinquency for committing prostitution instead of returning her to CPS.”........


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the nutmeg grater: da liebs, this is WONDERFUL news

the nutmeg grater: da liebs, this is WONDERFUL news

wha???????????

sarevil, sarevil, sarevil,
a big ol' folksy WTF!

Court documents reveal Palin’s grandson uses socialized medicine
By Stephen C. Webster
For someone who once generated a national hysteria by claiming socialized medicine would bring about government-run "death panels" that would kill the elderly and children with mental defects, Sarah Palin seems remarkably calm, what with her grandson now facing the very same allegedly tyrannical construct, that is.

Yes, that's right: Sarah Palin, Alaska's former governor and a millionaire thanks to sales of her book, has a grandson whose health care is paid for by the federal government, according to newly released court documents.

The revelation was made in court documents filed Feb. 16, relating to the child support battle between Bristol Palin and Levi Jonson, available here [PDF link] courtesy of E! Online...............


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money to burn

for the record, i would liken the 'reporters' taking on this 'assignment' to me working in a slaughterhouse

Scientology Church hires reporters to investigate newspaper

Washington Post Staff Writer

After decades of digging into the Church of Scientology, reporters and editors at the St. Petersburg Times are accustomed to being denounced by its leaders.

But they find it unsettling that three veteran journalists -- a Pulitzer Prize winner, a former "60 Minutes" producer, and the former executive director of Investigative Reporters and Editors -- are taking the church's money to examine the paper's conduct.

While the journalists have promised an independent review, the Times has refused to cooperate, saying their work will be used to fuel the church's ongoing campaign against the Florida paper.......

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Monday, February 22, 2010

no samantha bell


you fucking cannot retract your statement you thought your father (john stack) was a hero. no i will not allow you fucking retract it

you said it. you fucking meant it. if your father did commit this act (i am uncertain if i can say he actually DID do it since he's not here to defend himself) HE WAS A FUCKING COWARD as are you for saying he was a hero (if he committed the terrorist act of flying a plane into a building. hey just because his name was JOE stack and he was a white american what makes him different from khalid al-mihdhar, nawaf al-hazmi, mohamed atta, marwan al-shehhi, ziad jarrah, hani hanjour and whoever the fuck else was responsible for 9/11?) nothing makes him different is the fucking answer. WHOEVER FLEW THE PLANE INTO THE IRS BUILDING IN AUSTIN WAS A FUCKING TERRORIST. plain and simple

hey, i don't like abattoirs. i REALLY don't like them. i feel VERY strongly they should be abolished. so to make people sit up and take notice should i fly a plane into one and kill some people who work there? well i would be doing it to speak up for the injustices happening inside. if no one did it, HOW WOULD ANYONE KNOW I FELT ABATTOIRS are hell on earth? now, would people listen if i did that? hey sam, would YOU consider me a hero if i flew a plane into a building and killed some people because of my beliefs?

WOULD YOU? well WOULD YOU?

no, you can't retract your comments. i'll bet you did because people a lot more unkind than i have been in touch with you. isn't that right, sam?

well i do NOT for one instant wish you harm. i don't. i really don't. i DO want you to feel just for one whole minute the pain of each and every family effected by terrorism world wide. just for ONE moment mind you. i want you to feel what they feel. then i want you to tell me what you think of your father


oh one more thing. there WAS a hero who died that day. his name was

VERNON HUNTER

Victim’s family breaks their silence

if you read the above you will see what sort of family mr hunter had. THEY FORGIVE JOE STACK. that's the sort of people they are. loving and giving it sure appears to me.
my thoughts and prayers go out to the families of ALL those involved in this tragedy. yes, even the stacks (but i am NOT as forgiving as the hunter family. that's for sure)


pic from the link above: vernon hunter and his wife


EXCLUSIVE: Stack's Daughter Retracts 'Hero' Statement

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resistance is futile a DELICIOUS cupcake!


via

love


from the intersection (at discover) from their science of kissing series

via bifurcated rivets

speaking of those wild and wacky saudis

now they be at faux 'news' too!!! (that 'splains LOADS)



Trento’s Take: Fox News Can’t Upset Murdoch’s Saudi Prince
Last month I appeared on Fox News Network’s morning show, Fox and Friends, to talk about airline security. Normally such appearances end up as clips on the Fox News Web site. Granted, the Steve Doocy interview was hardly groundbreaking, but that is seldom a criterion for feeding the beast that is a major cable network news Web site. Curiously, I was quoted in a written piece on the site that got a fair amount of pick-up, but no video. It was not until a few days later that I learned what may have been behind the absence of a video clip on the Web site. I had said to Doocy that Saudi Arabian money was still financing Al Qaeda. Doocy did not react to my comment. But ten days later I learned that Fox’s parent company, News Corporation, was, at the time of my interview, negotiating with a Saudi prince to vastly increase his stake in the company........

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i don't even understand HOW (or why)

this person who (allegedly) tortured almost a whole country GOT INTO THE UNITED STATES much less LIVES HERE

NO immunity for him or any OTHER war criminal. NONE (that includes prosecuting the bush administration and if need be the current one as well if we find out they're doing nasty shite as well)


The War Criminal Next Door


Virginia resident Mohamed Ali Samantar oversaw a reign of terror in Somalia. Will the Supreme Court grant him immunity?

Supporting an alleged war criminal's bid to evade accountability is surely not a popular stance. But when the Supreme Court took up the case of Somali General Mohamed Ali Samantar last fall, an odd coalition of defenders emerged. Among them were the government of Saudi Arabia, various pro-Israel groups, and three former US attorneys general. At stake is whether foreign officials can be sued in US courts for human rights abuses, or whether they are protected by a swath of immunity that shields them from answering for even the most heinous acts. Supporters of Samantar’s position contend that if the Supreme Court rules against him, it could leave officials from Saudi Arabia, Israel, the US, and elsewhere vulnerable to an avalanche of lawsuits. And the case raises major foreign policy questions, particularly as the Obama administration wages an aggressive fight against terrorism around the world.

The case is the first ever to target a member of the brutal regime of Somalia's late dictator Mohammed Siad Barre. Samantar served as his defense minister and later prime minister, and he oversaw the country's armed forces as they engaged in a litany of human rights violations. "He was the dictator's enforcer," says J. Peter Pham, the director of the National Committee on American Foreign Policy's Africa Project. Samantar moved to the US in 1997 and for years has battled a lawsuit by alleged victims of the regime’s abuses—who collectively tell of torture, rape, extrajudicial killings, wanton imprisonment, and the abduction of family members who were never heard from again. Samantar's lawyers argue that he's immune from such suits under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA), a 1976 law that, with some exceptions, protects countries (and any "agency or instrumentality" of those nations) from being sued in US courts. ../.



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so the person ultimately responsible


Probes overlook McChrystal's role in costly Afghan battles


WASHINGTON — Army Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, kept a remote U.S. base in the country manned last year at the local governor's request despite warnings from his field commanders that it should be closed because it was vulnerable and had no tactical or strategic value.

McChrystal's decision to maintain the outpost at Barg-e Matal prompted the top American commanders in eastern Afghanistan to delay plans to close a second remote U.S. outpost, Combat Outpost Keating, where insurgents killed eight U.S. troops in an assault Oct. 3, a McClatchy investigation has found.

Keeping Barg-e-Matal open also deprived a third isolated base of the officer who would have been its acting commander and left its command to lower-ranking officers whose "ineffective actions" led "directly" to the deaths of five American and eight Afghan soldiers in an ambush Sept. 8, according to a high-level military investigation............


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Sunday, February 21, 2010

who is she?

m
ever wonder who the woman was singing (way better than) with mick on gimme shelter? look it up


pic via





and here is another take on it. just merry and mick. almost everything else stripped out

sit down before watching this one


CPAC speaker "condemn[s] CPAC for bringing" gay GOP group "to this event"





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if i just say i believe in hell


would that make it exist and these people BURN FOREVER in it?

people fucking DIED and were injured. they were someone's family. someone's loved one. someone's friend. someone's neighbor. they were working stiffs like you and i. they were NO DIFFERENT than us.

what the fuck kind of person glorifies A FUCKING TERRORIST?

Video game commemorates Austin suicide pilot
By Stephen C. Webster

The smoke over Austin is hardly two days settled and already, many have risen to defend the actions of Joe Stack.

And now, there's this: an 8-bit style video game called "Tax Time," published on Newgrounds.com, commemorating his deadly attack on a Texas IRS office.

In the game users must obtain a can of gasoline, burn a house, then pilot a single-engine airplane into an IRS building. Upon successful completion, the game declares: "Justice is Served!" Along the way, if players manage to hit a malfunctioning Toyota Prius, they are rewarded with the "Auto Recall" medal.

The game was created by Newgrounds member Falcon, whose profile says he is located in Austin and makes games in 24 hours or less..........


in case you've not read it, here's stack's (alleged) suicide note: (they're all fucking cowards and traitors to this country. anyone who believes it's ok to fly planes into buildings just because you're a white man really IS a fucking traitor)

If you’re reading this, you’re no doubt asking yourself, “Why did this have to happen?” The simple truth is that it is complicated and has been coming for a long time. The writing process, started many months ago, was intended to be therapy in the face of the looming realization that there isn’t enough therapy in the world that can fix what is really broken. Needless to say, this rant could fill volumes with example after example if I would let it. I find the process of writing it frustrating, tedious, and probably pointless… especially given my gross inability to gracefully articulate my thoughts in light of the storm raging in my head. Exactly what is therapeutic about that I’m not sure, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

We are all taught as children that without laws there would be no society, only anarchy. Sadly, starting at early ages we in this country have been brainwashed to believe that, in return for our dedication and service, our government stands for justice for all. We are further brainwashed to believe that there is freedom in this place, and that we should be ready to lay our lives down for the noble principals represented by its founding fathers. Remember? One of these was “no taxation without representation”. I have spent the total years of my adulthood unlearning that crap from only a few years of my childhood. These days anyone who really stands up for that principal is promptly labeled a “crackpot”, traitor and worse.

While very few working people would say they haven’t had their fair share of taxes (as can I), in my lifetime I can say with a great degree of certainty that there has never been a politician cast a vote on any matter with the likes of me or my interests in mind. Nor, for that matter, are they the least bit interested in me or anything I have to say.

Why is it that a handful of thugs and plunderers can commit unthinkable atrocities (and in the case of the GM executives, for scores of years) and when it’s time for their gravy train to crash under the weight of their gluttony and overwhelming stupidity, the force of the full federal government has no difficulty coming to their aid within days if not hours? Yet at the same time, the joke we call the American medical system, including the drug and insurance companies, are murdering tens of thousands of people a year and stealing from the corpses and victims they cripple, and this country’s leaders don’t see this as important as bailing out a few of their vile, rich cronies. Yet, the political “representatives” (thieves, liars, and self-serving scumbags is far more accurate) have endless time to sit around for year after year and debate the state of the “terrible health care problem”. It’s clear they see no crisis as long as the dead people don’t get in the way of their corporate profits rolling in.

And justice? You’ve got to be kidding!

How can any rational individual explain that white elephant conundrum in the middle of our tax system and, indeed, our entire legal system? Here we have a system that is, by far, too complicated for the brightest of the master scholars to understand. Yet, it mercilessly “holds accountable” its victims, claiming that they’re responsible for fully complying with laws not even the experts understand. The law “requires” a signature on the bottom of a tax filing; yet no one can say truthfully that they understand what they are signing; if that’s not “duress” than what is. If this is not the measure of a totalitarian regime, nothing is.

How did I get here?

My introduction to the real American nightmare starts back in the early ‘80s. Unfortunately after more than 16 years of school, somewhere along the line I picked up the absurd, pompous notion that I could read and understand plain English. Some friends introduced me to a group of people who were having ‘tax code’ readings and discussions. In particular, zeroed in on a section relating to the wonderful “exemptions” that make institutions like the vulgar, corrupt Catholic Church so incredibly wealthy. We carefully studied the law (with the help of some of the “best”, high-paid, experienced tax lawyers in the business), and then began to do exactly what the “big boys” were doing (except that we weren’t steeling from our congregation or lying to the government about our massive profits in the name of God). We took a great deal of care to make it all visible, following all of the rules, exactly the way the law said it was to be done.

The intent of this exercise and our efforts was to bring about a much-needed re-evaluation of the laws that allow the monsters of organized religion to make such a mockery of people who earn an honest living. However, this is where I learned that there are two “interpretations” for every law; one for the very rich, and one for the rest of us… Oh, and the monsters are the very ones making and enforcing the laws; the inquisition is still alive and well today in this country.

That little lesson in patriotism cost me $40,000+, 10 years of my life, and set my retirement plans back to 0. It made me realize for the first time that I live in a country with an ideology that is based on a total and complete lie. It also made me realize, not only how naive I had been, but also the incredible stupidity of the American public; that they buy, hook, line, and sinker, the crap about their “freedom”… and that they continue to do so with eyes closed in the face of overwhelming evidence and all that keeps happening in front of them.

Before even having to make a shaky recovery from the sting of the first lesson on what justice really means in this country (around 1984 after making my way through engineering school and still another five years of “paying my dues”), I felt I finally had to take a chance of launching my dream of becoming an independent engineer.

On the subjects of engineers and dreams of independence, I should digress somewhat to say that I’m sure that I inherited the fascination for creative problem solving from my father. I realized this at a very young age.

The significance of independence, however, came much later during my early years of college; at the age of 18 or 19 when I was living on my own as student in an apartment in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. My neighbor was an elderly retired woman (80+ seemed ancient to me at that age) who was the widowed wife of a retired steel worker. Her husband had worked all his life in the steel mills of central Pennsylvania with promises from big business and the union that, for his 30 years of service, he would have a pension and medical care to look forward to in his retirement. Instead he was one of the thousands who got nothing because the incompetent mill management and corrupt union (not to mention the government) raided their pension funds and stole their retirement. All she had was social security to live on.

In retrospect, the situation was laughable because here I was living on peanut butter and bread (or Ritz crackers when I could afford to splurge) for months at a time. When I got to know this poor figure and heard her story I felt worse for her plight than for my own (I, after all, I thought I had everything to in front of me). I was genuinely appalled at one point, as we exchanged stories and commiserated with each other over our situations, when she in her grandmotherly fashion tried to convince me that I would be “healthier” eating cat food (like her) rather than trying to get all my substance from peanut butter and bread. I couldn’t quite go there, but the impression was made. I decided that I didn’t trust big business to take care of me, and that I would take responsibility for my own future and myself.

Return to the early ‘80s, and here I was off to a terrifying start as a ‘wet-behind-the-ears’ contract software engineer… and two years later, thanks to the fine backroom, midnight effort by the sleazy executives of Arthur Andersen (the very same folks who later brought us Enron and other such calamities) and an equally sleazy New York Senator (Patrick Moynihan), we saw the passage of 1986 tax reform act with its section 1706.

For you who are unfamiliar, here is the core text of the IRS Section 1706, defining the treatment of workers (such as contract engineers) for tax purposes. Visit this link for a conference committee report (http://www.synergistech.com/1706.shtml#ConferenceCommitteeReport) regarding the intended interpretation of Section 1706 and the relevant parts of Section 530, as amended. For information on how these laws affect technical services workers and their clients, read our discussion here (http://www.synergistech.com/ic-taxlaw.shtml).

SEC. 1706. TREATMENT OF CERTAIN TECHNICAL PERSONNEL.

(a) IN GENERAL - Section 530 of the Revenue Act of 1978 is amended by adding at the end thereof the following new subsection:

(d) EXCEPTION. - This section shall not apply in the case of an individual who pursuant to an arrangement between the taxpayer and another person, provides services for such other person as an engineer, designer, drafter, computer programmer, systems analyst, or other similarly skilled worker engaged in a similar line of work.

(b) EFFECTIVE DATE. - The amendment made by this section shall apply to remuneration paid and services rendered after December 31, 1986.

Note:

· “another person” is the client in the traditional job-shop relationship.

· “taxpayer” is the recruiter, broker, agency, or job shop.

· “individual”, “employee”, or “worker” is you.

Admittedly, you need to read the treatment to understand what it is saying but it’s not very complicated. The bottom line is that they may as well have put my name right in the text of section (d). Moreover, they could only have been more blunt if they would have came out and directly declared me a criminal and non-citizen slave. Twenty years later, I still can’t believe my eyes.

During 1987, I spent close to $5000 of my ‘pocket change’, and at least 1000 hours of my time writing, printing, and mailing to any senator, congressman, governor, or slug that might listen; none did, and they universally treated me as if I was wasting their time. I spent countless hours on the L.A. freeways driving to meetings and any and all of the disorganized professional groups who were attempting to mount a campaign against this atrocity. This, only to discover that our efforts were being easily derailed by a few moles from the brokers who were just beginning to enjoy the windfall from the new declaration of their “freedom”. Oh, and don’t forget, for all of the time I was spending on this, I was loosing income that I couldn’t bill clients.

After months of struggling it had clearly gotten to be a futile exercise. The best we could get for all of our trouble is a pronouncement from an IRS mouthpiece that they weren’t going to enforce that provision (read harass engineers and scientists). This immediately proved to be a lie, and the mere existence of the regulation began to have its impact on my bottom line; this, of course, was the intended effect.

Again, rewind my retirement plans back to 0 and shift them into idle. If I had any sense, I clearly should have left abandoned engineering and never looked back.

Instead I got busy working 100-hour workweeks. Then came the L.A. depression of the early 1990s. Our leaders decided that they didn’t need the all of those extra Air Force bases they had in Southern California, so they were closed; just like that. The result was economic devastation in the region that rivaled the widely publicized Texas S&L fiasco. However, because the government caused it, no one gave a shit about all of the young families who lost their homes or street after street of boarded up houses abandoned to the wealthy loan companies who received government funds to “shore up” their windfall. Again, I lost my retirement.

Years later, after weathering a divorce and the constant struggle trying to build some momentum with my business, I find myself once again beginning to finally pick up some speed. Then came the .COM bust and the 911 nightmare. Our leaders decided that all aircraft were grounded for what seemed like an eternity; and long after that, ‘special’ facilities like San Francisco were on security alert for months. This made access to my customers prohibitively expensive. Ironically, after what they had done the Government came to the aid of the airlines with billions of our tax dollars … as usual they left me to rot and die while they bailed out their rich, incompetent cronies WITH MY MONEY! After these events, there went my business but not quite yet all of my retirement and savings.

By this time, I’m thinking that it might be good for a change. Bye to California, I’ll try Austin for a while. So I moved, only to find out that this is a place with a highly inflated sense of self-importance and where damn little real engineering work is done. I’ve never experienced such a hard time finding work. The rates are 1/3 of what I was earning before the crash, because pay rates here are fixed by the three or four large companies in the area who are in collusion to drive down prices and wages… and this happens because the justice department is all on the take and doesn’t give a fuck about serving anyone or anything but themselves and their rich buddies.

To survive, I was forced to cannibalize my savings and retirement, the last of which was a small IRA. This came in a year with mammoth expenses and not a single dollar of income. I filed no return that year thinking that because I didn’t have any income there was no need. The sleazy government decided that they disagreed. But they didn’t notify me in time for me to launch a legal objection so when I attempted to get a protest filed with the court I was told I was no longer entitled to due process because the time to file ran out. Bend over for another $10,000 helping of justice.

So now we come to the present. After my experience with the CPA world, following the business crash I swore that I’d never enter another accountant’s office again. But here I am with a new marriage and a boatload of undocumented income, not to mention an expensive new business asset, a piano, which I had no idea how to handle. After considerable thought I decided that it would be irresponsible NOT to get professional help; a very big mistake.

When we received the forms back I was very optimistic that they were in order. I had taken all of the years information to XXXX XXXX, and he came back with results very similar to what I was expecting. Except that he had neglected to include the contents of Sheryl’s unreported income; $12,700 worth of it. To make matters worse, XXXX knew all along this was missing and I didn’t have a clue until he pointed it out in the middle of the audit. By that time it had become brutally evident that he was representing himself and not me.

This left me stuck in the middle of this disaster trying to defend transactions that have no relationship to anything tax-related (at least the tax-related transactions were poorly documented). Things I never knew anything about and things my wife had no clue would ever matter to anyone. The end result is… well, just look around.

I remember reading about the stock market crash before the “great” depression and how there were wealthy bankers and businessmen jumping out of windows when they realized they screwed up and lost everything. Isn’t it ironic how far we’ve come in 60 years in this country that they now know how to fix that little economic problem; they just steal from the middle class (who doesn’t have any say in it, elections are a joke) to cover their asses and it’s “business-as-usual”. Now when the wealthy fuck up, the poor get to die for the mistakes… isn’t that a clever, tidy solution.

As government agencies go, the FAA is often justifiably referred to as a tombstone agency, though they are hardly alone. The recent presidential puppet GW Bush and his cronies in their eight years certainly reinforced for all of us that this criticism rings equally true for all of the government. Nothing changes unless there is a body count (unless it is in the interest of the wealthy sows at the government trough). In a government full of hypocrites from top to bottom, life is as cheap as their lies and their self-serving laws.

I know I’m hardly the first one to decide I have had all I can stand. It has always been a myth that people have stopped dying for their freedom in this country, and it isn’t limited to the blacks, and poor immigrants. I know there have been countless before me and there are sure to be as many after. But I also know that by not adding my body to the count, I insure nothing will change. I choose to not keep looking over my shoulder at “big brother” while he strips my carcass, I choose not to ignore what is going on all around me, I choose not to pretend that business as usual won’t continue; I have just had enough.

I can only hope that the numbers quickly get too big to be white washed and ignored that the American zombies wake up and revolt; it will take nothing less. I would only hope that by striking a nerve that stimulates the inevitable double standard, knee-jerk government reaction that results in more stupid draconian restrictions people wake up and begin to see the pompous political thugs and their mindless minions for what they are. Sadly, though I spent my entire life trying to believe it wasn’t so, but violence not only is the answer, it is the only answer. The cruel joke is that the really big chunks of shit at the top have known this all along and have been laughing, at and using this awareness against, fools like me all along.

I saw it written once that the definition of insanity is repeating the same process over and over and expecting the outcome to suddenly be different. I am finally ready to stop this insanity. Well, Mr. Big Brother IRS man, let’s try something different; take my pound of flesh and sleep well.

The communist creed: From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.

The capitalist creed: From each according to his gullibility, to each according to his greed.

Joe Stack (1956-2010)




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