There's some disturbing news about marijuana use among teens. A new study from the White House is linking the drug to violence and even gang membership.http://wkbt.com/Global/story.asp?S=6693805
COLUMBIA, S.C. – Police on Wednesday were investigating how a naked couple
fell 50 feet from the roof of a downtown office building to their deaths.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/nation/20070620-0825-nakeddeaths.html
President Bush vetoed legislation this afternoon to expand federally funded embryonic stem cell research, as the White House sought to emphasize scientific
advances that would allow researchers to pursue the potentially life-saving work
without destroying human embryos.
A Republican senator blocked a vote in the Judiciary Committee on whether to
authorize subpoenas to the Justice Department to obtain secret legal opinions and other documents related to the National Security Agency’s program of domestic eavesdropping. The action by Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona will block the vote for a week.
A resident of a Hamas-dominated neighborhood, identifying himself only as Yousef for fear of reprisal by his neighbors, said Gazans would always back the winner, regardless of ideology.
"Today everybody is with Hamas because Hamas won the battle. If Fatah had won the battle they'd be with Fatah. We are a hungry people, we are with whoever gives us a bag of flour and a food coupon," said Yousef, 30. "Me, I'm with God and a bag of flour."http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070615/ap_on_re_mi_ea/israel_palestinians
The stage for the struggle between Fatah and Hamas was set last year, when Hamas
won parliamentary elections. Hamas reluctantly brought Fatah into a coalition government in March to quell an earlier round of violence, but the uneasy partnership began crumbling last month over control of security forces.http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070615/ap_on_re_mi_ea/israel_palestinians
Abbas just disbanded the government, announced the State of Emergency ( HUGE
SIGNIFICANCE) and called for early elections as soon possible….as for the confederation, I have to tell you that now, from official sources, i have confirmations! It’s ready… They are building roads connecting the West Bank to Jordan PLUS … i received news from a source in a West Bank municipality about what is happening and they apparently received orders to clean the grounds for the arrival of the Badr Brigades ( under Jordanian rule) …. You can’t possibly imagine what is happening over here! I am seeing it and not believing it ….
As for Gaza…it will be Egypt’s business from now on … Pre 1967 coming back ? I don’t know …but it looks much like it! Nobody can wait anymore and everything
can happen in hours! IN HOURS… i repeat, i’m not analysing anymore, i’m just
watching …. http://olehgirl.com/
This column has no particular favorite and will make no predictions. Even so, it’s not necessary to be a prophet to know how Beltway pundits will handle the so-called character issue. The Republican nominee will be a virile, decisive straight-shooter who’s 100 percent “authentic” and “comfortable in his own skin.” The Democrat will be an indecisive phony, uncertain of his / her identity, but willing to strike any pose or pander to any constituency in a self-serving bid for power. That was the basic script for the media’s astonishing “War on Gore” in 2000, the campaign of falsehood and vilification that helped elevate George W. Bush, an ex-preppie cheerleader and bicycling enthusiast dressed up in rugged “Texas Rancher” costumes, to the presidency over then-Vice President Al Gore.http://www.nwanews.com/adg/Editorial/192900/
Look, an American presidential election is essentially a long-running reality TV show. So there’s definitely something in what they’re saying. “Hardball” has very low ratings outside of D. C., but it and programs like it are where the Beltway group narrative gets worked out, the basic story line that pundits use to sell themselves as experts without studying tedious issues like health care or foreign policy. The brilliant blogger “Digby” asks a penetrating question: “Why do so many male Washington courtiers have giggling mancrushes on... Republican politicians ?” Personally, I blame “heterosexual panic.” Half the insulting e-mails and all the anonymous phone calls this column generates deal in sexual insult. Whether it’s fear of terrorism, uneasiness at the prospect of a woman president or cultural change generally, the GOP base responds like trained seals to tough-guy poses. It follows that Democrats must play the foil: John Edwards a foppish girlyman, Hillary Clinton an unnatural woman, Barack Obama a racially confused Oreo—well, you get the picture. Yes, it’s pathetic. And no, it has nothing to do with reality or the nation’s problems, but it’s nevertheless something Democrats can’t afford to ignore.
66 beer bottles = one cheap rooftop solar water heaterTake 66 beer bottles. Fill them with water and connect so that it flows slowly from bottle to bottle. Place apparatus on roof (or better yet, build it in place) and voila, you have the ultimate in DIY solar thermal hot water systems. Not only do you get the pleasure of consuming 66 bottles of beer on the way, you also get the joy of providing hot water for your mother to shower in comfort.
That's Ma Yanjun, a farmer in Qiqiao village, Shaanxi province--the heartland
http://blog.sciam.com/index.php?title=66_beer_bottles_one_cheap_rooftop_solar&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1
of China. He built the contraption for his mother, according to Weird Asia News, making him both a devoted son and one of the numerous backyard enthusiasts who have discovered a simple way to harness the power of the sun. From the cold
of Vermont to the baking heat of South Africa, such solar water collectors--whether made from beer bottles, soda cans, or anything else--are a cheap and simple way
to heat water for your home--a different type of recycling if you will. You do need to remember, however, that the sun doesn't always shine and plan accordingly.
An internal FBI audit has found that the bureau potentially violated the law or agency rules more than 1,000 times while collecting data about domestic phone calls, e-mails and financial transactions in recent years, far more than was documented in a Justice Department report in March that ignited bipartisan congressional criticism.
The new audit covers just 10 percent of the bureau's national security investigations since 2002, and so the mistakes in the FBI's domestic surveillance efforts probably number several thousand, bureau officials said in interviews. The earlier report found 22 violations in a much smaller sampling.
The vast majority of the new violations were instances in which telephone companies and Internet providers gave agents phone and e-mail records the agents did not request and were not authorized to collect. The agents retained the information anyway in their files, which mostly concerned suspected terrorist or espionage activities.http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/13/AR2007061302453_pf.html
I wonder how much was collected for political purposes, rather than security.
And the corporations are willing to break the law, too.
AT&T agreed to allow large portions of sealed documents that sit at the heart of an anti-spying case against the telecom giant which alleges the company illegally installed secret surveillance rooms in its internet facilities at the behest of the National Security Agency. The case brought by the Electronic Frontier Foundation in January 2006 relies on documents provided to the group by Mark Klein, a retired AT&T technician who took three documents home with him when he retired in 2004.
AT&T acceded to the disclosure only after the EFF threatened to ask a federal appeals court to unseal documents that had been published by Wired News and Frontline, which would have forced the company's lawyers into the embarrassing position of arguing that documents available on the internet for more than a year were secret, according to Cindy Cohn, the EFF's legal director.http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/06/att_spy_room_do.html
But is there a point where the amount of information collected becomes overwhelming?
Half a Million Terrorists
Thank goodness our government is so committed to the "War on Terror" that they've managed to track all these evil people down and put them on a list!A terrorist watch list compiled by the FBI has apparently swelled to include more than half a million names. Privacy and civil liberties advocates say the list is growing uncontrollably, threatening its usefulness in the war on terror.The bureau says the number of names on its terrorist watch list is classified. A portion of the FBI's unclassified 2008 budget request posted to the Department of Justice Web site, however, refers to "the entire watch list of 509,000 names," which is utilized by its Foreign Terrorist Tracking Task Force.
In 1943, some American troops were stationed in Iraq. Here is a PDF of a War Department handbook introducing them to the country, and providing some dos and don'ts when interacting with the Iraqi people. Some highlights:~And
- NEVER discuss religion or politics or women with Moslems.
- Don't stare at anyone. Remember the fear of the "evil eye".
- Knock before entering a private house. If a woman answers, wait until she
has had time to retire.- If you see grown men walking hand in hand, ignore it. They are not
queer.- You can usually tell a mosque by its high tower. Keep away from mosques. [Emphasis in the original] If you try to enter one, you will be thrown out, probably with a severe beating.
- There are four towns in Iraq which are particularly sacred to the Iraq Moslems: Kerbala, Najaf, samarra, and Kadhiman. Unless you are ordered to these towns it is advisable to stay away from them.
- Moslems here are divided into two factions something like our division into
Catholic and Protestant denominations -- so don't put in your two cents when
Iraqis argue about religion.- There are also political differences in Iraq that have puzzled diplomats and
statesmen. You won't help matters any by getting mixed up in them.
then there's this:
- American success or failure in Iraq may well depend on whether the Iraqis
(as the people are called) like American soldiers or not. It may not be quite
that simple. But then again it could.
