8-5-04
Missouri OKs gay marriage ban
...Missouri voters overwhelmingly approved a constitutional amendment Tuesday to ban gay marriage, the first such vote since the historic ruling in Massachusetts last year that legalized same-sex weddings there.
It may be the 'Show Me" state, but it won't be the 'Blow Me' state.
8-6-04
Two leaders of a mosque in Albany, N.Y., were arrested on charges stemming from an alleged plot to help a man they thought was a terrorist purchase a shoulder-fired missile, federal authorities said Thursday.
In other words, they can't find the real terrorists, so they're setting up sting operations to entrap petty wannabees who don't actually have the guts to do the deeds themselves and who are stupid enough to be encouraged into a "conspiracy" to help supposed terrorists. These people are not the ones who are dangerous to this country, but if you can't get the real ones, then setting up these babies is better than nothing at all, especially with the elections coming up. Remind you of anything. The war on drugs, maybe?
Federal investigators concluded that Sen. Richard C. Shelby (R-Ala.) divulged classified intercepted messages to the media when he was on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, according to sources familiar with the probe.
They had to get him. He wouldn't toe the right-wing party line.
8-13-04
Turning Slackers Into Workaholics
Researchers use a gene treatment to turn off monkeys' dopamine receptors -- yielding harder-working, more focused monkeys. Despite obvious applications in the corporate world, the scientists say they're just trying to understand mental illness.
That's nice. But what we really need is a drug that turns
on the dopamine receptors...oh...wait a minute. We already have plenty of those, and most of them are illegal in Amerika.
8-26-04
"It's perfectly reasonable to use simple surgery to make a dog beautiful," says Brazilian vet Dr. Edgard Brito. "We all like talking to someone who looks good and smells nice. It's the same with dogs." The Sao Paulo vet helps beautify pooches with procedures like wrinkle-reduction, eyebrow-correction and even full canine face lifts. He's a big hit with owners of show dogs who say surgical enhancements can help their pets win big. "We imported Brutus from Argentina to be a show dog. But then one of his ears started drooping, which ... would disqualify him from a competition," explains one breeder. Brito straightened the ear by injecting Restylane, a substance commonly used to treat human wrinkles. "You only need one application," he says. "The ears will stand up forever."
[Wired]
Ah, doesn't this defeat the whole purpose of dog show competition? Isn't the purpose of standards for dogs to develop the animals'
genetics?
8-27-04
First lady Laura Bush considers much of the national media biased against Republicans, but she empathizes with Democrat Teresa Heinz Kerry, who told a journalist to "shove it."
Hmm. Maybe they're not so much biased against Republicans as they are biased against assholes.
8-30-04
Change, real median household income:
Bush II: -$1,535
Clinton: +$5,489
Bush I: -$1,314
Change, number in poverty:
Bush II: +4,280,000
Clinton: -6,433,000
Bush I: +6,269,000
(2003 adjusted dollars)
[
census]
I don't know why this should be such a big surprise to anyone, or even enough of a phenomenon to be notable. Democrats in office have always been more conducive to prosperity at the lower socio-economic levels, because Republicans act to divert toward the rich the flow of "capital" (i.e., money; capital is a business term that's used to disguise from the poor the fact their potential earnings are being converted into the assets of rich people).
9-16-04
The National Intelligence Council presented President Bush with several pessimistic scenarios regarding situation in Iraq, including the possibility of a civil war there before the end of 2005. Yet, Half the Nation Think He's Strong on Security. Say What!
The half who think he's strong on security aren't so concerned with security as they are with proving to the rest of the world that America is a country filled with powerful and independent people. The men adhere to the motto "Speak loudly and carry a big dick," while the women hang onto those dicks as tightly as they can. It's all a matter of projecting their insecurity away from themselves by supporting a president who attacks surrogate enemies. Security starts at home, whether that home is within the confines of the U.S., or within those of the bodymind. You can't become secure by blaming the big bad world and it's "evil-doers," especially when you're doing evil yourself.
10-2-04
You think terrorism started in this country on 9-11? Pull your head out of the sand and think again. Forget for a minute the previous attempts to bomb the World Trade Center and other buildings. Forget also the Oklahoma bombing. Focus instead on the predominance of drive-bys in poor neighborhoods. You think that isn't terrorism? Ignore the fact that some proportion of these drivers-by are American Islamists, at least in name. Focus instead on the frustration the shooters feel that provoke them to begin randomly (when this is the case) dropping innocent citizens in their tracks. Is this so much different than Palestinians bombing Jews? Okay, sure, a lot of drive-bys are drug related. So what? It's still terrorism. And anyway, the government is now saying, has in fact been saying for quite a while, but more so now, that Al Qa'ida is trafficking drugs to finance their terrorism. If Al Qa'ida's activities, financed by drug money, are terrorism, then so is our home grown variety. If Al Capone promoted terrorism, then so do today's gangstas. Terrorism isn't a new phenomenon in America. It's been here since the beginning. Indians terrorized settlers and vice versa. Massacres occurred, on both sides. Armies of militia and colonists scalped and abused Indian corpses. Wake up America. This is nothing new.
10-8-04
The day before the discovery of tainted flu shots from Britain, the media was hyping the necessity for everyone to get a flu shot; the day after the discovery, they were saying that it's not important for everyone to get one, that only those in high risk groups should get them. Now while it's perfectly understandable that agencies want to steer non-risk applicants away from getting flu shots to assure that there is enough of a supply for high-risk candidates, that's not the way they characterized it before the discovery. Why? Well, because the media is speaking (i.e., advertising in the guise of a news format) for the drug companies, et al., that stood to make a profit from the expanded supply. Add to that the fact that anyone with enough money will have no problem at all getting a flu shot, and we have the same old same old.
