i believe i posted about the original article

so when i saw this, i thought i'd best post it as well


'NYT' Correction on Article, from Last December, To Appear This Sunday -- Nothing to 'Crow' About?



By Greg Mitchell

Published: April 10, 2009 9:20 AM ET

NEW YORK An extensive and unusual correction appears in The New York Times Magazine arriving this Sunday. One question that arises: Why did it take so long?

The correction reveals that a very short piece in the magazine's December 14, 2008, issue -- about experiment involving crows at the Binghamton (N.Y.) zoo -- was wildly inaccurate and exaggerated, and the newspaper's fact-checker failed to make essential inquiries. As usual it does not name the reporter, who was freelancer Claire Trageser..........

the peeps show iii winners

there is no ifs ands or buts, you MUST go see the top 40. you will NOT be disappointed in a one of 'em





audio of the winner


photos of the top 40

the photo above from the slideshow:

Stardate 2351.6 by Cherry-Ann Santos, Upper Marlboro. "What was once the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority is now the Washington Metropolitan Area Transporter Authority, because today the commute is inter-galactic," writes Santos, who (get this) works in public relations for Metro. "Whether you are traveling to Maranga IV for a meeting with your Klingon business partners, or to the spas of Alpha Centauri, Metro will get you there."

Wmata Photo By Larry Levine

i think 'a little out there' is an understatement

found via boing boing

Posted by Xeni Jardin,

wow

rather hard to believe someone in this day and age would say this, but it appears they did

you know when some of our ancestors came through ellis island

their names were butchered.

betty, we can't ALL have names like brown. MY name sure is nowhere NEAR there AND i don't want it to be either. i'm proud of my hard to spell name. it's not really hard to pronounce but people are intimidated by it 'cause it's so long and chuck full o' vowels
Asians should simplify their names, GOP lawmaker says
John Byrne

In a puzzling move which she insisted isn't about race, a Republican state lawmaker in Texas said in House testimony Wednesday that Asian Americans should change their names to ones that are “easier for Americans to deal with.”

Democrats jumped on the comments by state Rep. Betty Brown. Her remarks came during a Texas House Elections Committee hearing, who'd invited a Chinese American representative to testify about ballot accessibility.

“Rather than everyone here having to learn Chinese — I understand it’s a rather difficult language — do you think that it would behoove you and your citizens to adopt a name that we could deal with more readily here?” Brown remarked.

“Can’t you see that this is something that would make it a lot easier for you and the people who are poll workers if you could adopt a name just for identification purposes that’s easier for Americans to deal with?” ...................

if everyone stopped thinking

their god was better than everyone else's god the world would be a far far better place. if everyone stopped trying to put words in their god's mouth (you know tell everyone else what their only one and true god said when they themselves have NEVER heard their god say boo) the world would be a far far better place. if everyone followed the golden rule, do unto others, the world would be a far far better place.

but no one does. they think their god is better than the next god. they think unless you believe EXACTLY what they believe you will go to hell.

well people open your minds AND your hearts. we're all alike. there are good ones of us and bad ones. ones that need help and ones that can offer help. ones that are role models and ones that should be in jail.
no one is better than the next. no one god's is better than the next either
please remember your bible was written BY MAN FOR MAN. it was written in days gone by. in days where if you ate raw pig meat or shell fish you'd get sick (hence the no pig meat and no shell fish). and please remember this as well; let she or he who is without sin CAST THE FIRST STONE

Faith Groups Increasingly Lose Gay Rights Fights

By Jacqueline L. Salmon

Washington Post Staff Writer

Faith organizations and individuals who view homosexuality as sinful and refuse to provide services to gay people are losing a growing number of legal battles that they say are costing them their religious freedom.

The lawsuits have resulted from states and communities that have banned discrimination based on sexual orientation. Those laws have created a clash between the right to be free from discrimination and the right to freedom of religion, religious groups said, with faith losing. They point to what they say are ominous recent examples:

-- A Christian photographer was forced by the New Mexico Civil Rights Commission to pay $6,637 in attorney's costs after she refused to photograph a gay couple's commitment ceremony..............

it's NOT christmas

and i'm not in new york and kirsty is dead and shane is alive and i just had to post it (again) anyway

one word

awesome!

(ht: americablog)

this is sickening

but they've done it before - in wars gone by. an example you ask? agent orange exposure i answer. that's only ONE example of our brave men and women getting the shaft from the good ol' boyz network

again, this makes me want to effing puke

still don't believe the good ol' whiteboy network (the ones that run stuff including our military) doesn't give a flying fuck about our returning heroes? two words for ya

WALTER
(and)
REED

Tale of the secret Army tape

After a soldier taped a psychologist saying he'd been pressured not to diagnose PTSD, the Army launched an investigation. Read the details of how the Army declared itself innocent.

Editor's note: Read about Sgt. X's tape -- and listen to a segment of it -- in the first story in this series, "I Am Under a Lot of Pressure to Not Diagnose PTSD." Read a summary of the Army's internal investigation, in which it determined that it was not exerting such pressure, here.

By Mark Benjamin and Michael de Yoanna

April 9, 2009 | In a story published yesterday, Salon reported on a surreptitious tape recording of an Army psychologist telling a patient last June that he had been pressured not to diagnose soldiers as having post-traumatic stress disorder. The soldier, whom Salon dubbed Sgt. X to protect his identity, recorded the Fort Carson, Colo., psychologist, Douglas McNinch, twice describing pressure to label soldiers with "anxiety disorder" instead of PTSD. The diagnosis of anxiety disorder could result in improper treatment and lower disability payments if the Army discharges a soldier from the military. "It's not fair," McNinch said on the tape. "I think it's a horrible way to treat soldiers."

But neither the U.S. Senate nor the Army apparently agrees with McNinch's assessment of the treatment that returning soldiers are receiving. By early July, news of the tape recording had made its way to both the Senate Armed Services Committee and the upper reaches of the Pentagon. Despite prodding from Sen. Kit Bond, the Senate Armed Services Committee declined to investigate the tape's implications. A veterans' advocacy group then had a combative July 14 meeting at the Pentagon with the Army's vice chief of staff, at which the vice chief was reportedly dismissive. Two weeks later, the Army issued the results of an internal investigation and absolved itself of any wrongdoing.

Today's article describes the contentious meeting at the Pentagon, how the tape got to the Senate and the secretary of the Army in the first place, and which Senate aide determined it was not worth investigating. It also details how the individuals assigned by the Army to investigate the tape were connected both to the individual who had allegedly pressured McNinch not to diagnose soldiers as having PTSD and to earlier questionable in-house investigations of Army medical care............

a rose by any OTHER name is

still a steamin' pile o' shite!


Ex-Blackwater Workers May Return to Iraq Jobs

By ROD NORDLAND

Published: April 3, 2009

BAGHDAD — Late last month Blackwater Worldwide lost its billion-dollar contract to protect American diplomats here, but by next month many if not most of its private security guards will be back on the job in Iraq.

The same individuals will just be wearing new uniforms, working for Triple Canopy, the firm that won the State Department’s contract after Iraqi officials refused to renew Blackwater’s operating license, according to American diplomats, private security industry officials and Iraqi officials. Blackwater — viewed in Iraq as a symbol of American violence and impunity — lost the contract after being accused of excessive force in several instances, particularly an apparently unprovoked shooting in downtown Baghdad in 2007 in which 17 civilians were killed.

Despite the torrent of public criticism against Blackwater, American officials say they are relieved that the old guards will stay on. Otherwise, Triple Canopy, they say, would not be able to field enough qualified guards, with the proper security clearances, before the new contract goes into effect in May.

“There is just no other way to do it,” said one Western diplomat, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he is not permitted to discuss the issue publicly.

Critics of Blackwater said they worried that the same people might perpetuate what they believed was a corporate culture that disregarded Iraqis’ lives. ...........

i certainly didn't see this coming

who would have thunk it? hmmmm. well i'd pretend to be stupid about it all. i'd allow them to continue to use the united states servers and at the same time, monitor them 24/7. the article below claims not too much can be gleaned from these terrorist or radical sights, but i have read stories to the contrary. you know the adage, keep your friends close but your enemy closer? well, i think it works in this case. we MUST know what they're doing. we also MUST STOP what we're capable of stopping.

(but on the other hand, the article below lists a couple websites. if i clicked on the links, would the cia or fbi or other united states security organizations be investigating ME?)


Extremist Web Sites Are Using U.S. Hosts
Ease and Anonymity Draw Taliban, al-Qaeda

By Joby Warrick and Candace Rondeaux

Washington Post Staff Writers

On March 25, a Taliban Web site claiming to be the voice of the "Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan" boasted of a deadly new attack on coalition forces in that country. Four soldiers were killed in an ambush, the site claimed, and the "mujahideen took the weapons and ammunition as booty."

Most remarkable about the message was how it was delivered. The words were the Taliban's, but they were flashed around the globe by an American-owned firm located in a leafy corner of downtown Houston.

The Texas company, a Web-hosting outfit called ThePlanet, says it simply rented cyberspace to the group and had no clue about its Taliban connections. For more than a year, the militant group used the site to rally its followers and keep a running tally of suicide bombings, rocket attacks and raids against U.S. and allied troops. The cost of the service: roughly $70 a month, payable by credit card..................

they say they have NO choice

they do. it's greed. it's pure and simple greed. the almighty dollar. the green back. i've written about chiquita several times before. how they funded BOTH sides and how THEY WERE COMPLICIT in deaths and torture and displacements. what happened to them? a slap on the wrist is all

what will happen to shell (if they are found guilty that is)? hmmmmmmmmmmmm, i wonder

ANYTHING FOR A BUCK

Suit: Shell complicit in execution of Nigerian rights activist
Stephen C. Webster
A landmark human rights lawsuit, accusing Royal Dutch Shell of complicity in the execution of author and human rights activist Ken Saro-Wiwa some 14 years ago, will proceed to trial in a New York courtroom.

The Center for Constitutional Rights and Earth Rights International, along with Mr. Wiwa's son, allege the International oil company "financed, armed, and otherwise colluded with the Nigerian military forces that used deadly force and conducted massive, brutal raids against the Ogoni people of the Niger Delta."

They claim Shell was complicit in the 1995 military executions of nine activist leaders, including Ken Saro-Wiwa.
......................
chiquita story 6
chiquita story 1
chiquita story 2
chiquita story 3
chiquita story 4
chiquita story 5

This just in as well

A mom killed her 20 year old son & then turned the gun on herself at a florida firing range. It's all on tape too. She had a history of mental illness-but I guess that doesn't matter when you rent [or buy ]

gun violence.................

IN the last couple of hours

5 dead in Alabama by gun and 4 shot in tekecula ca.
The al one involved a husband killing his wife and children and the ca one may also have involved a husband shooting his wife

gun violence........

she's 17 and she's in HIGH SCHOOL

and i just have to shake my head and say, holy shite! wow, brilliance

and i dedicate this posting to ANYONE who has said (or thought) women cannot 'do' math (a big eff you to them anyway)

(another boing boing ht)

this is absolutely fascinating

and of course interesting. i haven't finished watching it yet (it's almost an hour and a half long), but i will later on today.



(ht: boing boing)

shout out to iowa state senator mike gronstal!

Powerful statement on gay marriage by Iowa Senate majority leader

by John Aravosis (DC) on 4/07/2009 10:01:00 PM

You have to watch this video. It's only 2 minutes long. It's possibly the most powerful video I've seen to date on the issue of marriage equality for gay couples.



Transcript
One of my daughters was in the workplace one day, and her particular workplace at that moment in time, there were a whole bunch of conservative, older men. And those guys were talking about gay marriage. They were talking about discussions going on across the country.

Any my daughter Kate, after listening for about 20 minutes, said to them: You guys dont understand. Youve already lost. My generation doesnt care.

I think I learned something from my daughter that day, when she said that. And Ive talked with other people about it and thats what I see, Senator McKinley. I see a bunch of people that merely want to profess their love for each other, and want state law to recognize that.

Is that so wrong? I dont think thats so wrong. As a matter of fact, last Friday night, I hugged my wife. You know Ive been married for 37 years. I hugged my wife. I felt like our love was just a little more meaningful last Friday night because thousands of other Iowa citizens could hug each other and have the state recognize their love for each other.

No, Senator McKinley, I will not co-sponsor a leadership bill with you.

from harold and kumar

which by the way was a rather guilty pleasure for me. i DID enjoy it and DID think most of it was funny (of course some of it was just gross) --
to THE WHITE HOUSE!

way to go kal penn


'House' exclusive: The shocking story behind last night's big death
by Michael Ausiello
DEFCON 1 spoiler alert! If you haven't seen last night's House, stop reading now. Everyone else, onward and downward!

Here are the six things you need to know up-front about last night's House:

• Yes, Kutner was the subject of my "suicide" blind item.
• No, his death wasn't a figment of House's Vicodin-impaired imagination.
• Yes, Kal Penn has left the show for good.
• No, he wasn't fired. He asked to go. (And man, wait 'till you find out where he's going.)
• Yes, this was the "cataclysmic" event that Hugh Laurie has been teasing all year.
• Yes, the trio at the center of this grim turn of events -- exec producers David Shore and Katie Jacobs, as well Kal Penn himself -- spoke to me exclusively about the surprising story behind Penn's exit, the decision to have the seemingly well-adjusted Kutner take his own life, and whether the tragedy will drive House-Cuddy and Cameron-Chase closer together or further apart.............................

Kal Penn takes a job with White House
Kal Penn, known for his role as a stoned underachiever in the "Harold & Kumar" movies, is putting aside the doobie -- and his role as Dr. Kutner on Fox's "House" -- in exchange for a new job at the White House.

The actor has been hired as an associate director at the Office of Public Liaison, where he will help the Obama administration connect with arts and entertainment groups as well as the Asian and Pacific Islander communities, according to an Associated Press report...........

can't embed the video

so go here to watch it.

the reporter is right. if peanut butter or pistachio nuts or spinich killed 32 people a day, they would be pulled within a day.

join the fight to stop gun deaths

freedom states alliance

and oh, to be clear about this, it's NOT barack obama that wants to take your guns away, IT'S ME

i'm posting this

because my debit card (atm) number has been STOLEN for the second time in a month. yes, that's right. TWICE in a few weeks. i'm pissed. i only go to legit online sites and legit bank machines (i wouldn't use an atm in a convenience store or the like) and pay my bills online at legit sites. so how the eff are they doing it? ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Local man finds card skimmer on ATM

Posted by Joel Johnson,

A Consumerist reader found a card skimmer on a WaMu ATM. He ripped it off and reported it to the police and the bank. The police said they'd never actually seen one in real life.

I always check for card skimmers at the ATM by smashing the front repeatedly with a sledgehammer, starting with the camera.........

(please click on the story link to read the comments. they're worth it)

to ponder..................

What you should be afraid of instead of terrorists

Posted by Cory Doctorow

Are you an American who worries about terrorism? Stop. If you want to worry about something, here's John Goekler's Counterpunch article on the statistically likely killers that you need to fear: According to the US Department of Health and Human Services, between 310,000 and 580,000 of us will commit suicide by cigarette this year. Another 260,000 to 470,000 will go in the ground due to poor diet and sedentary lifestyle. And some 85,000 of us will drink to our own departure.

After the person in the mirror, the next most dangerous individual we're ever likely to encounter is one in a white coat. Something like 200,000 of us will experience "cessation of life" due to medical errors - botched procedures, mis-prescribed drugs and "nosocomial infections". (The really nasty ones you get from treatment in a hospital or healthcare service unit.)......................