Terrorist Activity In America

American Terrorism...but we don't call it that AUSTIN — A package left at a women’s clinic that performs abortions contained an explosive device capable of inflicting serious injury or death, investigators said today. “It was in fact an explosive device,” said David Carter, assistant chief of the Austin Police Department. “It was configured in such a way to cause serious bodily injury or death.” The package was found Wednesday in a parking lot outside the Austin Women’s Health Center, south of downtown Austin. Nearby Interstate 35 was briefly closed, and a nearby apartment complex was evacuated while a bomb squad detonated the device. Of course, Zuzu is correct. if this bomb were placed anywhere else, the country would be all kinds of 'Al Qaeda! Al Qaeda!' But, because it was done by, what I can only assume are, Christian Extremists, its perfectly normal, and admirable. No one has ever been able to show me the difference. Because there isn't any. Tags:abortion terrorism

Teacher Transferred For Article About Tolerance

Approving article about tolerating homosexuals gets teacher transferred A high school teacher who faced losing her job after a student newspaper published an editorial advocating tolerance of gays can continue teaching at another school. ... School officials in the conservative northern Indiana community about 10 miles east of Fort Wayne said Sorrell did not comply with an agreement to alert the principal about controversial articles. This is just sad. 1) We wonder why so many people grow up not caring about the issues of the day. We are telling them that expressing their ideas is bad, dangerous. They should keep their mouthes shut. 2)Sadder still is that tolerance of homosexuals is considered 'controversial' And the midwest wonders why they are seen as backwards hicks. Tags:homosexual+rights Civil Liberties Freedom Of The Press Freedom Of speech

Fox News Is Only As Reliable As The Onion

Fox News: If I read it, it must be true On Tuesday, Fox News morning show “Fox & Friends” aired at least eight segments on a purported “news” story that was actually a parody article written by a publication similar to The Onion. The backstory: Last week in the town of Lewiston, Maine, a group of Somalian Muslim middle school students were the subject of a cruel prank when their peers placed a ham steak next to them in order to personally offend the students. School officials filed a report because the students considered the act to be a hate/bias crime. This actual story was then spoofed by a parody site called Associated Content, which made up quotes and details, such as the school’s intention to “create an anti-ham ‘response plan.’” On Tuesday, Fox & Friends reported these parody quotes and details as actual news. Poking fun at the students, hosts asked whether ham was “a hate crime…or lunch?” and showed screen shots of ham sandwiches, starving Somalians, belching, animal noises, and mock “reenactments” of the incident. Ironically, the hosts assured viewers several times, “We’re not making this up!” No, I'm not making this up Tags:Fox News MSM Islam

Condi doesn't feel like playing

Condi Doesn't Want To Go To Congress Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Thursday she has already answered the questions she has been subpoenaed to answer before a U.S. congressional committee and suggested she is not inclined to comply with the order (emphasis added) Ms. Rice, While I can certainly understand not wanting to give testimony before Congress, and I can sympathize with how you might feel this is a waste of time since you believe you have already answered these questions, and how you feel that all the answers they want are, in fact, protected by executive priviledge... This is a subpoena, not an invitation, bitch. Get your not-inclined-ass in the chair. Yours Truly, The American People Tags:Condoleezza Rice

Piggy-kiddie-riotie

Muslim Kids Hate Pigs, School A school in Amsterdam will no longer be teaching students about farm living, after Muslim pupils began trashing the classroom when the subject of pigs came up its pretty rare that I agree with anything the hate-mongering-muslim-fearing LGF says, BUT... this is nuts. It seems to me that these kids have learned that, if something offends their (apparently) delicate sensibilities, violence is the immediate answer. Of course, this doesn't strike me as markedly different than some of the responses to being taught evolution so... (for the record, Jews have been anti-porcine for much longer...) Tags:islam religion pigs

Bush Quits!!

Bush wants to appoint a war czar As atrios reminds us, the Commander In Cheif IS the war czar. At least, so says the Constitution. The White House wants to appoint a high-powered czar to oversee the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan with authority to issue directions to the Pentagon, the State Department and other agencies, but it has had trouble finding anyone able and willing to take the job, according to people close to the situation Tags:bush Afghanistan Iraq war

Rumors of Alan Johnston vs Supportable claims

Little Green Footballs Spreads A Rumor Shocking... Notice that the link leads to a 2 paragraph Jerusalem Post article that has as its only source Al-Hayat. 1) Since when is the fact that another newspaper ran a story considered supporting evidence? 2) Conveniently, that other newspaper is in arabic. The english site has no mention of this. Neither does a site translated by google. So, all we have here is "I heard from a friend who heard" Tags:journalism Little Green Footballs Alan Johnston

I shall suck-it-up no more

I have begun the conversion from standard, closed source, payware to open-source shareware and freeware. My hesitation had been based on concerns about reading certain documents and media, but I was simply wasting my time with that. I've found a reader for PDFs, and Democracy Player for all media EXCEPT Real Media. Given that I don't have an RM player installed at the moment, and have not felt any particular loss for it, I am unworried. Actually, Democracy Player may be way more than I need, but its fun and fine for now. Open Office, of course, is next. I contemplated Linux, and may still dual boot to it, but I need to make sure I have a Windows system for work (yes, yes, it would probably be fine in Linux, but I try not to muck with that which makes me monies) Tags:software freeware shareware open-source

WaPo is owned by BushCo

WaPo retracts FACTS that go against Bushco's Iran/Iraq theory In short A while back, NYT reports that US intelligence thinks certain explosives are coming from Iran. Lieutenant-Colonel Scott Bleichwehl then informs Reuters that they have found a factory producing just such explosives. WaPo dutifully reports this online. But an hour later, they remove the paragraph about the factory from the story. As Jon Stewart put it, its almost as if the mainstream media has completely abdicated its reponsibilities. (thanks atrios) Tags:iraq iran MSM

popurls | popular urls to the latest web buzz

popurls | popular urls to the latest web buzz just testing a feed

Florida To Restore Felon Voting Rights

Florida To Restore Felon Voting Rights Over the strong objections of one Republican, Florida's clemency board has worked out a deal with Gov. Charlie Crist to allow most felons released from prison to have their voting and other civil rights restored. The thing is, the WHOLE POINT of the prison system, the criminal system, all of it, is that the person does the crime and then does the time (or whatever). After that, society should not brand him in any way (I'll acknowledge a grey area for sexual predators, etc.). If I go to prison, serve my time, and then continue to be punished, what incentive do I have to follow the rules at all? Tags:Civil Rights

Google's not showing Katrina Victims Respect???

Google Should Be Ashamed Of Themselves The subcommittee chairman, Democratic Rep. Brad Miller, wrote Google CEO Eric Schmidt to say that "Google's use of old imagery appears to be doing the victims of Hurricane Katrina a great injustice by airbrushing history." Which is worse...what Google did, or being a part of a government that let Katrina slaughter a city? You tell me, Mr. Miller. Tags:Katrina Google Brad Miller

Instapundit gets what it deserves.

Instapundit = WHAT??? MORE: Ware denies the heckling, and he's got video. Looks like Drudge got burned, as, to a lesser degree, did those of us who relied on him. Dear Glenn Reynolds, who the fuck is relying on Drudge??? Love, me (thanks atrios) Tags:Instapundit drudge

Everyone has an opinion more important than yours.

I wonder... If you went to a doctor and he said you had cancer, you would go get a second opinion. As well you should. Even if the second doctor confirmed the diagnosis, you might go to a third. Hey, this is a big deal and you want to make sure that you are getting the right information. After the third doctor gives you the same answer, you would probably resign yourself to the truth of the situation. And, if you bumped into a friend of yours and mentioned your condition and they replied: "Yeah, I'm not convinced you have cancer" you would probably think them a bit of a nutjob. Let's suppose that (morbidly) you carry around an X-Ray or some such that shows your tumor, and you show it to your friend. "No, sorry, still not convinced." At this point, you would probably think them either delusional, in denial, or a moron. Why? Because you have evidence (the X-Ray), and multiple opinions from people who are experts in their fields and have spent a great number of years accumulating knowledge and experience in this area. Your friend (assuming he is not an oncologist) is just some guy who knows next to nothing about cancer (certainly compared to your series of doctors). You would, in fact, consider your friend's opinion to be near meaningless and without worth. You are comparing an opinion with an informed, educated opinion. Yet, somehow, people don't know the difference between the two when it comes to climate change. I was listening to BBC this weekend and there were some scientists (climatologists, environmental scientists, etc.) on discussing global warming. People called in and said that they weren't convinced that global warming was happening, and even less convinced that it was in any way due to humanity's behavior. None of these guys were scientists. None of them mentioned any kind of training in climate study. One or two tossed out a factoid here and there, but at best these were from the Encyclopedia Britannica. 2500 scientists (and, really, far more) are saying that man is causing global warming. And, somehow, these callers felt that they knew more. Someone out there will call my siding with the experts as: a. elitism (you know...anyone who is pro-higher-education must be an elitist) or b. blindly following authority (cause, y'know, listening to your doctor is a bad thing) I listen to my mechanic when I need my car fixed. I listen to my doctor when my back hurts. I listen to the C# programmer on my team when I need C# code written. Why is this any different? Oh, right, it isn't. Its just not much fun, and offends our self-importance. Tags:environment science global warming stupidity

Sam Harris Can't Prove I'm Delusional!

Sam Harris vs Rick Warren Of course, Warren's arguments aren't really arguments in that they don't offer much in the way of evidence. Also, he seems to enjoy twisting language: "You have faith that there is no God. " Which is a pretty absurd use of the word 'faith'. I don't believe that there is a polka-dotted gorilla in my closet. However, I don't think anyone would say that I have FAITH that there isn't a polka-dotted gorilla in my closet. Here's a pretty good bit to illustrate: HARRIS: It is intellectually dishonest, frankly, to say that you are sure that Jesus was born of a virgin. WARREN: I say I accept that by faith. And I think it's intellectually dishonest for you to say you have proof that it didn't happen. Here's the difference between you and me. I am open to the possibility that I am wrong in certain areas, and you are not. Apparently, it's intellectually dishonest for me to say men can't pass through walls, ducks can't speak French (le quack?), and cars don't taste like jellybeans just before they need a oil change. OK, I might be able to prove or disprove the last one, but I can't really prove the first two. Its VERY hard to disprove anything. Usually, its done by displaying some sort of logical contradiction. For example, you can't have a round square, by definition. Or, to steal from a classic video game, you can't have 'tea' and 'no tea' at the same time. Or, mathematically, if A = B, and B = C and B<>D then I can prove that A <> D. But outside of things like that, it gets pretty difficult (if not plain old impossible). In the end, Warren's argument breaks down to (as they ALWAYS do): "I believe X. You can't prove X is wrong. Therefor, I win." Or, in less glowing terms: "Nyah Nyah Nyah, you can't catch me." Tags:Sam Harris Rick Warren Atheism Religion