Ok, I'm blogging another blogger blog, which is a level of referentialness that might cause the interwebs to collapse, but this was too, too awesome. These are the kinds of things I dream about...

THE NEWS BLOG

Bush Sets Target for Transition In Iraq

Curious that they seem to have decided finally on an "end date," right when we appear to be gearing up for action against Iran. Curious.

There's a pretty significant point that Rounds's argument rests on: that unborn children are the most vulnerable members of our society.

I would have to say that that is completely untrue. First of all, they're pretty nice and safe in those wombs there, probably more so than they'll ever be for the rest of their lives. The only real threat is the woman who wants an abortion, and chances are she wants it because the child won't be very well off once it comes out of the womb. Thereby contributing to that part of the population that is, actually, vulnerable and threatened.

Then again, I guess it's asking too much to expect these people to use logic in their legislation.

S.D. Enacts Ban on Nearly All Abortions

The more of these kinds of articles I read, the more I feel like I'm sinking into some nightmare.

It occurs to me that I want to see a study showing how many women died from illegal abortions before 1973, combined with child abuse records, child abandonment records, and cases of child poverty, and compare them to comparable post-1973 information. Any takers? Any one already done this? Perhaps I'll have to do a little sleuthing.

Oh, and thanks mom and dad, for getting me out of that state when I was young.

Vote Due on South Dakota Bill Banning Nearly All Abortions - New York Times

Ohhhh. So cooool. I'm the biggest dork in the world.

Cut Out + Keep Blog ~ By Cat Morley

I just had this very odd moment, when I actually considered that dinosaurs did exist, and weren't just something made up for the movies, a la King Kong or Godzilla.

Scientists Find Oldest Ancestor Of T. Rex

Oooh, pretty pictures!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/laurapants/

Heeheehee.

Overcompensating: Actual Things That Happen to Jeffrey Rowland: A Lot

"You can't spell science without s-i-n."

TIME.com: Viewpoint: The President and the Minotaur -- Page 1

New funnies. (At least, new to me.)

The Adventures of Dr. McNinja

Ok, this is maybe my new favorite thing ever. Not only can you buy the most random ass stuff imaginable, but they write funny copy, too.

American Science & Surplus: Incredible Stuff at Unbelievable Prices

Ok, I'm becoming ridiculously obsessed with the crafting. I just keep thinking of stuff I want to make. This might become a problem. Of course, we'll see if I actually MAKE anything...I can be terrible about moving from inspiration to...er...actually doing stuff. Yeah....

But craftster is my new favorite.

Wait--when did Hugo Chavez become a dictator? I believe he was democratically elected?

Through The Ropes

Yes, this is my general life plan, too. Except I keep getting distracted by all the frivolous distractions.

Scary Go Round :: Monday-Friday Comic by John Allison

So, they had to go to Randolph, Utah, population 480, to find people who still like the president?

And any article that contains this line must be worth reading:
"Dijon mustard," Louderman says as the woman drives away. "I don't know what Dijon mustard is. Don't care to find out, either."

Can I move there? Please?

Utah Town Has Question About President: 'What's Not to Like?'

Um, is it April Fools' Day? Is this really for real?

MediaGuardian.co.uk Media BBC's Jesus sings Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now

Heh heh, it's an especially good one this morning...

Questionable Content: New comics every Monday through Friday

Interesting...very interesting. The man who commodified irony is a staunch Republican? You learn something new everyday...

As if I needed another reason to loath Urban Outfitters...

pw: philadelphia weekly online

Democrats Split Over Filibuster On Alito: "Some Republicans poked fun at Kerry -- the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee, who may make another White House bid -- for allowing others to announce the filibuster plan earlier in the day while he was attending an economic conference in Davos, Switzerland."

Er, I'm not understanding where the fun-poking comes in. "Haha, you were in Switzerland!" Whaaat?

I spent a great deal of time yesterday updating my del.icio.us links. There are lots of sites on here. I'm a nerd. Thanks to Mr. X for introducing me to this very cool thingymabobber.

Dude, I'm way too tired to be awake right now.

del.icio.us/lkrier

Hm.

saki store blog: Best Buy BS

Oh man, I always wanted to go here. And I didn't even know about the hillavator!

Cooking For Engineers - Dining Out: Shadowbrook Restaurant (Capitola, California)

You might have thought there was nothing to laugh at about Islamic extremism and hotel bombings. You were wrong.

The inner workings of a terrorist's mind (You have to register with the New Republic to read this, but it's free.)

It's good to know that corporate lobbying has taken such a hit with the whole Abramoff scandal.

Closed-Door Deal Makes $22 Billion Difference

Of course, this argument relies on unquestioned ideas of economic efficiency and "a better life."

Why America Has to Be Fat

Ok, let me rephrase. I don't just feel chills. I feel nauseating fear and disgust in the pit of my stomach. Did it only take 30 years for people to forget what it was like in a pre-Roe America? Are people really so ignorant about abortion that they believe it doesn't happen when it's illegal?

Most importantly, is the "pendulum" really swinging against Roe, or is this a media-generated story without a solid basis in reality, as too many reporters' stories are? I can only hope...

Protesters See Mood Shift Against 'Roe'

These things give me chills. And wait--people who are antiabortion, and yet wear t-shirts that say "sex is good, the pill is bad"? Errrr...

Serious, serious, fearful chills.

Protesters See Mood Shift Against 'Roe'

The funny of the day.

Cat and Girl

The funny of next Tuesday: The State of the Union address. I'm all about getting some peeps together for watching and drinking and lamenting. Who wants to help me come up with the 2006 rules for the SOTUA drinking game? Good times, good times.

Call me ignorant, but I hadn't realized that someone actually invented smallpox blankets, as an intentional attempt at biological warfare. I thought it was just kind of a gross oversight. We're worse than I thought.

Jeffrey Amherst, 1st Baron Amherst - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

So, I guess winter had to come sometime. I can't really complain, considering that for most of January we had awesome 50 and 60 degree days, but I thought we were only supposed to get "light snow"?

And I definitely slipped on the Icy Walkway of Death outside my house this morning. That was awesome.

Local Weather Forecast for Boston, MA (02116) - weather.com

Mostly, I just think this headline is really funny.

Politics Alleged In Voting Cases

Oh so terrible. So very terrible.

Paris Hilton Deposition

Oooh. This is where my book fetishism could get out of control. I think...yup, I'm salivating.

Book Details

A woman is fired from her job as school bus driver when the school district finds out she's a practicing pagan. Ok, so this story is about some very serious things, like civil rights, religious freedom, and bigotry, but there are too many humorous elements here for me to leave it alone, and not just because practicing pagans are inherently funny.

I mean, her vampire husband is running for governor? "Being a witch involves a complex of actions that puts children in jeopardy?" The best part? The school district doesn't feel that she can be a good role model, as a witch bus driver. Since when is the school bus driver meant to be a role model?

Princeton 'witch' disputes her firing

Besides that this case just generally fascinates me, notice John G. Roberts's ruling, which contradicts his previously stated propensity to protect states' rights. Roberts, Scalia, and Thomas were the dissenting judges. This bodes well, don't you think? Sigh.

Justices Uphold Oregon Assisted-Suicide Law

While I'm not about to argue that Alito is my first choice for the Supreme Court, or that I'm in any way satisfied with his selection, I am a little bit frustrated by the knee-jerk liberal reaction against him. I don't think they're really wrong about him, but the point is that I don't know, and neither do they. It's just another wedge in the increasingly hostile and sometimes blind divide between the politically rabid right and left.

No matter who Bush nominated, it was guaranteed that MoveOn.org was going to freak out and demand daily that we block the nomination. What does this accomplish? How can it help to start your attack on a nominee before he's even spoken a word? All is does is make the liberal side look reactionary and dogmatic.

I don't know if Alito was sincere during his hearing. I have no way of knowing that. But because of they way our system works, I have to believe that he meant every word he spoke, and that, as an intelligent man, he IS capable of putting aside his personal feelings and making judgments based on fact. If we don't believe that Alito can do it, how can we believe that anyone can do it? And if it's not possible, what does that say about our judicial system?

I'm just so exhausted by ignorant politics, no matter what side the ignorance is coming from.

Whoa. Alright, Russia. This reads like something you might read in the Onion, but no, it really is Russia's primary newspaper. Oookaay.

Condoleezza Rice's anti-Russian stance based on sexual problems - PRAVDA.Ru

I think Mr. DeLay has a persecution complex. Yup, he's a little bit paranoid. And delusional. Everything, obviously, is because the Democrats are after him.

I really love, too, that his "internal polls" show that he's doing better than the Houston Chronicle poll. Really. You don't say. Now that's just crazy.

I am really looking forward to watching his slide into powerlessness and, if I'm lucky, the madhouse. Heh.

Texas Redistricting Is One More Hurdle for DeLay - New York Times

I think Mr. DeLay has a persecution complex. Yup, he's a little bit paranoid. And delusional. Everything, obviously, is because the Democrats are after him.

I really love, too, that his "internal polls" show that he's doing better than the Houston Chronicle poll. Really. You don't say. Now that's just crazy.

I am really looking forward to watching his slide into powerlessness and, if I'm lucky, the madhouse. Heh.

Texas Redistricting Is One More Hurdle for DeLay - New York Times

Hm. Maybe I should move to Vermont.

A fictional kingdom in Vermont - ExploreNewEngland.com

More comics. But hey! I did something useful today! I made a form...a beautiful, beautiful form.

Cat and Girl

Cat and Girl Battle International Communism

This article rocks.

Pop Comfort Over Ambition - New York Times

"'When Americans learn to speak a language, learn to speak Arabic, those in the Arabic region will say, 'Gosh, America's interested in us. They care enough to learn how we speak,' ' Bush said."

What a freakin' moran. :-)

Foreign-Language Learning Promoted:

I want to fight the War on Esoterics.

Don't Iraq The Boat - Wonkette

This picture (in the link below) just reminded me of an analogy Susan Faludi makes between headwear and maturity (in the excellent book Stiffed). Her point is that a cap is a sign of boyishness, and that prior to WWII, it was expected for men to eventually graduate to man-hat-wearing status. The fact that men no longer tend toward man-hats, and continue to wear caps pretty much until death, signifies an inability for contemporary men to, uh, grow up.

It's a pretty compelling argument in the context of the book. Read the book. Yeah, it's a thousand pages long, but it's really, really good.

Abramoff Plays Ball - Wonkette

Barista bandits? Only in Seattle.

"I bet they were strung out on something other than caffeine," said Michael Chiu, a spokesman for the police in Bellevue, east of here, which is working the "barista bandits" case, as it is known among the authorities, with the Seattle police and several other police departments.

Espresso Huts Are Target, and Barista Tips Police - New York Times

Ha! My family are not the only strange people who drink this. Reading this has convinced me that it's about time I introduce it to the Empress. Whether she'll like it is another story entirely...

TOM AND JERRY Recipe at Epicurious.com

Sometimes it's amazing to realize how much books can be worth:

Abebooks Search Results - darwin, charles

Jon Stewart to Host Oscars - New York Times

Brilliant.

Gasp! People like their electronic devices? I never would have guessed...

CJR Daily: Electricity: For Real, or Fleeting Fad?

Oooh, good Andrew Bird news. He's not coming to Boston again, but reissues! reissues!

Pitchfork: Daily Music News

Why does he always look so cartoonishly evil and weird? What's with the grimaces, and the staring eyes? I wonder is small children have nightmares about him?

(Picture from WP)

(Oh, and the beginning of this article in the Post basically says Cheney's a big fat liar. What a shocker.)

I think the most annoying aspect of the Abramoff guilty plea is the way everyone is acting as though they didn't know this kind of shit went on. As though they're fooling anyone. Abramoff's public apology, his declarations of atonement and pleas for god's forgiveness...it's disgusting. He's not sorry he did it, and no one could possibly believe that he is--he's sorry he got caught.

What is saddening is that everyone knows the political system is corrupt, but no one cares. These "revelations" aren't surprising anyone. We've just accepted for so long that this is how politics works. It's disgusting. Can it be changed? I'd like to believe so, but the truth is, no one cares.

Bush to Give Up $6,000 In Abramoff Contributions

What a profound truth...heehee.

[Boy on a Stick and Slither]

It's not too often you're going to find a slang word that continues to be used for over 100 years.
From the OED:

cushty, a. (and adv.)
DRAFT ENTRY Sept. 2002
Brit. slang.
Brit. /kti/, U.S. /kti/ Forms: 19- cushti, cushty, kushti. [< Romani (in Britain and Scandinavia) kushto, kushti good, perh. influenced by CUSHY a. Cf. Hindi khush, pleasure.]
Good, wonderful; fine; brilliant. Freq. as a general term of approval or agreement. Also as adv.

[1889 A. BARRÈRE & C. G. LELAND Dict. Slang I. 528/2 Kushto, koshto, good.] 1929 E. MCCARTNEY Additions to Vol. on Slang & Idioms World War in Papers Mich. Acad. Sci., Arts & Lett. 273 Cushty, smart, good. 1937 ‘J. CURTIS’ There ain't no Justice xx. 226 Him and Tommy'd manage them cushty. 1972 Guardian 9 Oct. 16/5 ‘Kushti little trailer, you know,’ he mused. 1985 J. SULLIVAN Only Fools & Horses (1999) I. 4th Ser. Episode 5. 235 (Del is on the phone.) Del. No, no, no, everything's cushty! Yeah, no, no, no, you've got nothing to worry about! 2001 Daily Tel. 4 Apr. 22/5 Jamie Oliver has shot to culinary fame with almost indecent speed, but not everyone is a fan of his ‘cushty’ cuisine.

Because I didn't come across anything particularly interesting today, and because no one really reads this, so I can definitely indulge myself: the last 20 songs that I've heard on my iPod:

Girl Inform Me, The Shins
Hands Off, Old 97s
Turning Japanese, Liz Phair
Knives Out, Radiohead
Title Track, Death Cab for Cutie
It Hurts 2 C U Dance So Well, The Pipettes (It hurts me to type that title)
Ck86, Sweet William
Papa Was a Rodeo, Magnetic Fields
Amitryptyline, John Vanderslice
You Just Haven't Earned it Yet Baby, The Smiths
By The Way, Built to Spill
What You Are, Drill
Stable Song, Death Cab for Cutie
This Is Love, PJ Harvey
Trailer Trash, Modest Mouse
Immigrant, Sade
Sister Anne, Green Pajamas
Running Up that Hill, Kate Bush
Violent Love, Oingo Boingo
Offline P.K., Pinback

If you like that stuff, you should go to last.fm, sign up, and then search for username lkrier. Then you can listen to what I listen to. Or something. It's a cool site, even if you don't like what I listen to.

Craparagus.

Whaaat? Good god, I'm just glad I didn't have to write THIS story.

Down on the Ranch, President Wages War on the Underbrush

Heeheehee. Back to work, back to the internet comics. This one is especially for Crystal...scrabble. Heh.

Questionable Content: New comics every Monday through Friday

This one is way funnier.

Internet Archive: Details: Perversion for Profit (Part I)

Do they still make books this way? I hope so. I especially like the very bored old ladies putting signatures together. This is part of the "Americans at Work" series created by the AFL-CIO in the late 50s. Yay for the unions! And workers! And preserving literacy!

Internet Archive: Details: Bookbinders

Every now and then I will read a quote in an article that just appalls me with its appalling badness. Usually, these are quotes from religious fundamentalists. This is one of those quotes:

"This decision is a poster child for a half-century secularist reign of terror that's coming to a rapid end with Justice Roberts and soon-to-be Justice Alito," said Richard Land, who is president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission and is a political ally of White House adviser Karl Rove. "This was an extremely injudicious judge who went way, way beyond his boundaries -- if he had any eyes on advancing up the judicial ladder, he just sawed off the bottom rung."

The "secularist reign of terror"? Who do these people think they are? What are the judicial "boundaries" that Jones supposedly crossed. How ignorant can people be? Well, at least the ruling was sane...

Advocates of 'Intelligent Design' Vow to Continue Despite Ruling

FBI Papers Show Terror Inquiries Into PETA: Other Groups Tracked (WP)

Very amusing.

Best Rejected Advertising Volume Three

This is pretty cool.

Online Exhibition - Bound for Glory: America in Color, 1939-1943 (Library of Congress Exhibition)

This is where I always go when I go home. In high school, I used to hang out underneath that pier.

California Coastal Records Project - Image 200407879 - "Crystal Pier Hotel, San Diego"

You can almost see my old house in this picture. This site is awesome, but it's making me a little homesick. I guess it's ok because I'm going home tomorrow, and I can look at the ocean all I want. I miss the Pacific.

California Coastal Records Project - Image 200507073

Hee hee hee.

SALTED WATER FOR BOILING Recipe at Epicurious.com

Ok, I'm getting way too into this right now. Of course, I'm a bit of a book hoarder and I'm not yet sure that I'll be able to bring myself to release my books into the wild, but I like the idea A LOT. I wonder how often people actually do track books, how well this whole idea works...hmmm.

BookCrossing - Home - FREE YOUR BOOKS!

There's always something new to amuse me when I finish reading the archives of my favorite cartoons. This one spamused me. Ha ha. Ha.

Spamusement! Poorly-drawn cartoons inspired by actual spam subject lines!

Scientists discovered a gene that explains the appearance of white skin in humans; they think it probably mutated as people moved further north, in order to make it easier to take in Vitamin D from the sun in less sunny regions.

This is the kind of genetic science that totally fascinates me. I wish they didn' thave to give so many disclaimers about people not misunderstanding this discovery and using it in bad ways. But I guess I resolved myself long ago to the stupidity of most people.

(And will newspapers stop running ads about fungal infections in fingernails. They're gross.)

Scientists Find A DNA Change That Accounts For White Skin (WP)

Ok, weird.

Columnist Says Bush Knows Who Leaked Name

I always knew there was something going on with that hot pie filling...

Scary Go Round :: Monday-Friday Comic by John Allison

Today I learned a new word. Thank you, Scary Go Round.

CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Belial

Ok, weird. Who sponsored this ad site?

Black Page

"Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev told reporters: 'The combination of extremist ideology, a warped understanding of reality and nuclear weapons is a combination that no one in the international community can accept.'"

And yet...the US has nuclear weapons, and no one is imposing sanctions on us...

Iran's President Calls Holocaust 'Myth' in Latest Assault on Jews (WP)

There is a lot in here that's true, and a lot in here that's ignorant. People think they can eliminate prostitution, but that's impossible if their understanding of it doesn't become a little more nuanced.

I wonder sometimes if it will ever be possible to eliminate it completely. The pimp guy quoted at the end of the article has a point when he says that this stuff goes back a long time (they don't call it the oldest profession for nothing). But does the belief that "some women like to be exploited" have to be a part of it? Would prostitution be less wrong if pimps were eliminated, and women had control over the selling of their own bodies? If the violence and coercion weren't part of it?

I haven't really thought about any of this since I was in school. It's always been something I was very opinionated about, and reading articles like this, where the complications remain under the surface the whole time, can be frustrating. But it's good to know that there are some things that politicians are willing to set aside ideological differences for.

In a Shift, Anti-Prostitution Effort Targets Pimps and Johns

From the Oxford English Dictionary:


girl power, n.

Brit. /gl pa/, U.S. /grl pa()r/ Forms: 19- girl power, girl-power, girlpower, (in sense 2) grrrl-power. [< GIRL n. + POWER n.1 In sense 1, formed in contradistinction to MANPOWER n. In form grrrl power (see sense 2, quot. 19922) after GRRRL n.; cf. RIOT GIRL n.]

1. The number of girls available to perform a task; girls considered collectively in relation to their capacity to perform work. Contrasted with MANPOWER n.
1952 M. LOWRY Let. 24 Nov. (1967) 323 Nearby is a Catholic church within which it says: ‘We want girl-power for our convent.’ 1963 Population Index 29 356 A dowry was required for a girl's marriage. Her farm family..needed cash more than it needed girl-power. 1989 St. Louis (Missouri) Post-Dispatch (Nexis) 18 June 1D, The St. Louis Boy Scout and Girl Scout councils and the Missouri DeMolay, the Masonic youth organization, quickly supplied the boy- and girl power. 1996 News Tribune (Nexis) 10 Mar. C1 Why waste so much manpower (more precisely, boypower and girlpower) in holding dozens of games designed to fill footnotes in a record book?
2. orig. U.S. Power exercised by girls; spec. a self-reliant attitude among girls and young women manifested in ambition, assertiveness, and individualism. Although also used more widely (esp. as a slogan), the term has been particularly and repeatedly associated with popular music; most notably in the early 1990s with the briefly prominent ‘riot girl’ movement in the United States (cf. RIOT GIRL n.); then, in the late 1990s, with the British all-female group The Spice Girls.
1986 Los Angeles Times (Nexis) 16 June V. 1 ‘Girl Power: Health Power’ motivates girls to assume long-term responsibility for their health and fitness. 1992 Star Tribune (Minneapolis) (Nexis) 14 Mar. 1B, Beatrice Joseph, 7, helped dissect a sheep's heart Friday to learn about the heart as part of the Minneapolis YWCA Girl Power program. 1992 Houston Chron. (Nexis) 4 Oct. (Lifestyle section) 3 Places like girl bedrooms, girl bathrooms and punk-rock clubs such as 924 Gilman in Berkeley, Calif., that have specially arranged girl nights, when girl bands sing songs about girl power. 1994 Rolling Stone 16 June 24/4 It has four all-girl bands... All amazing. Part of the grrrl-power underground that's so exciting. 1997 J-17 June 44/3 If something you've bought isn't up to standard, remember you're entitled to complain. Use your girl power and don't let the shop assistant fob you off! 1999 Times 2 Aug. 43/4 This was the fabulous, horrible lie of Girl Power as a movement with absolutely no meaning, it became a disembodied slogan capable of being slapped on any act. Girl Power, it seems, is simply Anything A Girl Does. 2001 Dreamwatch Mar. 24/1 Cameron has done it by mixing the sober feminism of his Terminator and Aliens characters with the sexed-up Girl Power of a Britney Spears concert.

I am fully in favor of taking up the first definition again--"I think we'll need 300 units of girlpower for this one, sir." Hee hee.

The 1999 example could pretty much be directly related to the 1997 example (in part two of the definition).

Sweet.

Scary Go Round :: Monday-Friday Comic by John Allison

Dude, could I get any more bored-er? I think not.

Oh..so THAT'S what's up with Christopher Walken.

Yes, I get paid to do this all day.

Niego

Heh! Exactly my sentiments...

Niego

An excellent method for solving moral conundrums--"What Would President Jimmy Carter Do?"

Scary Go Round :: Monday-Friday Comic by John Allison

New comic addiction. I recommend going to the chapters link and starting from the very beginning. Oooh, scary comics. It's kind of like Scooby Doo. With scary sentient gasses and gingerbread houses. Very odd. But then, I always like odd.

Scary Go Round :: Monday-Friday Comic by John Allison

How many times must these things be said before the saying actually matters?

Nobel Lecture - Literature 2005

This is awesome for so many reasons.

Politics or Not, Bronx Warmly Receives Venezuelan Heating Oil

Because boyfriend is just an annoying word.

Thesaurus.com/boyfriend

I'm all about bringing back "gentleman friend."

I have a mild fascination with old postcards. They are about the only thing I ever look at in antique shops. I guess everyone thinks they're a little cool.

The Morning News - Real Photo Postcards, by Harvey Tulcensky & Laetitia Wolff

I heart Barbara Ehrenreich. Here she talks about her most recent book, Bait and Switch, activism, the frustrations of the white-collar job search, faith-based services providers, and her love of battle scenes in cheesy historical epics. Excellent. Always insightful. She's awesome.
The Morning News - Barbara Ehrenreich, by Robert Birnbaum

Alright. I read this story because I thought, "Cat-fox! Now that's news that won't be depressing! Who wouldn't want a cat-fox?"

Then I got to the part where the WWF says that their plans to further study this potentially new species might be stymied by the Indonesians' plans to build a palm oil plantation in this rainforest.

Sigh.

CNN.com - Researchers to trap mysterious cat-fox animal - Dec 6, 2005

Yet again, these people are crazy.

WSJ.com - Business

Ok, they say it all better-like. I ain't much of a writer.

Put Christ in Christmas or Wherever Else He Belongs - Wonkette

This is completely ridiculous. The fundies are running amok, going crazier than the secular lefties ever did, and really? Really? People are going to get pissed that a card says "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas"? They can't think of anything better to receive their ire, to focus their energy on? Is this really what christianity is all about now? Blech.

'Holiday' Cards Ring Hollow for Some on Bushes' List

I will never understand why it's ok for the US to decide who gets to have nuclear weapons.

Iran Plans to Build Two More Reactors

This seems a little bit wrong to me.

WHO Stops Hiring Smokers

The Washington Post has been running some interesting stories lately. Here's another one about CIA practices in the war on terror. Hopefully all of this coming to light will force some changes. But I doubt it.

Wrongful Imprisonment: Anatomy of a CIA Mistake

You know, I've started to notice that reporters will write about grassroots, internet-based activism that comes from the right, but much less often about those same efforts from the left. If journalists write about MoveOn or the Human Rights Campaign, it's often in an article expressly about progressive internet activism. But right-leaning organizations and efforts are mentioned in articles like this one, about Alito. Their planned campaign to get him confirmed is mentioned, but not MoveOn's ongoing campaign opposing him. Why is this?

Alito Distances Himself From 1985 Memos

So sad. I grew up reading the Berenstain bears (and especially my mom's old altered version, heehee). This is kind of an odd obit, though. In the end, Farhi questions whether the world presented by the Berenstains is really the world we want to teach our children. I say, there children's books. Let them rest in peace.

Stan Berenstain's Honey-Coated Medicine

Oh for the love of god. I especially like the part where Rumsfeld claims that Iraq isn't really our responsibility, and we should stop feeling like it is. Er. Yeah.

Rumsfeld's War On 'Insurgents'

"Bush cautioned that victory will require continued sacrifice. He became emotional as he read a letter left on the laptop computer of Marine Cpl. Jeff Starr, who was killed while fighting in Ramadi this year.

'If you're reading this, then I've died in Iraq,' Bush read, his voice cracking. 'I don't regret going. Everybody dies, but few get to do it for something as important as freedom. It may seem confusing why we are in Iraq, but it's not to me. I'm here helping these people, so they can live the way we live.'"

It probably would have been wise to first find out if they want to live the way we live.

Bush Presents Plan to Win Iraq War (WP)