1. Obama beat Hillary among women voters 35 to 30 percent.
2. Amid record Democratic turnout, as many people under 30 showed up to caucus as those over 65.
3. Sixty percent of the GOP electorate in Iowa were born-again Christians.
4. Rudy Giuliani finished with a mere 4,013 votes, in sixth place, with less than half of the support of Ron Paul.

Maybe he's not so Ready after all.

Iowa By the Numbers

Boys in nursery schools should not be discouraged from playing with toy guns and other weapons, the government says.

In guidance for nurseries in England, the Department for Children, Schools and Families says staff should resist a "natural instinct" to stop such play.
...
Teachers have condemned the advice, saying toy guns "symbolise aggression".

in which case the government is showing sense and the teachers are full of crap

' "natural instinct" to stop such play ' -- they are just being boys

playing with guns, toy swords and fighting is not about learning to be aggressive but about learning how to cope with aggression and negotiate a social hierarchy. By using violence literally or symbolically boys are reenacting a stage of our social evolution when hierarchies were established through physical aggression (in certain geopolitical contexts we still haven't escaped that ) but largely now in the 21st century we have established better strategies, better morally and better for the health of society and social cohesion

i would certainly let my sons play with toy guns and i would try and get them to learn a martial art (similarly daughters) because i think it is better to redirect rather than suppress instincts

BBC NEWS | Education | Toy weapons 'help boys to learn'

It is a shameful distinction, but Texas is the undisputed capital of capital punishment. At a time when the rest of the United States is having serious doubts about the death penalty, more than 60 percent of all American executions this year took place in Texas. That gaping disparity provides further evidence that Texas's governor, legislature, courts and voters should reassess their addiction to executions.

State without pity - International Herald Tribune

THE separation of the wealthiest from the rest of the country is alarming. But it would be even more alarming if we recognized that income isn’t the only measure of wealth. Health and education are forms of wealth, too, essential to happiness and a strong society. Yet in the discussion of America’s growing wealth gap, they too often go unnoticed.

the article contains an suggestion which is very socialist and a good idea!

Gold in the Ivory Tower - New York Times

It is this order to choose Allah above his sense of conscience and compassion that imprisons the Muslim in a mindset that is archaic and extreme.

If moderate Muslims believe there should be no compassion shown to the girl from Qatif, then what exactly makes them so moderate?

When a “moderate” Muslim’s sense of compassion and conscience collides with matters prescribed by Allah, he should choose compassion. Unless that happens much more widely, a moderate Islam will remain wishful thinking.

Islam’s Silent Moderates - New York Times

Garry Kasparov said that Russia’s election were the "dirtiest" in the nation's history.

"There are no illusions that what is being called elections was the most unfair and dirtiest in the whole history of modern Russia," Kasparov said at a news conference, pointing at reports of massive vote violations.

"We fully realize that it's useless to seek the truth in Russian courts," he added.

Kasparov, who heads the Other Russia coalition of opposition groups, was arrested and jailed for five days for leading a protest rally in Moscow on Nov. 24. His group was not allowed to run for parliament.

Kasparov said that activists of the pro-Kremlin youth group Nashi, which means Ours, attacked his group's office Monday.

Earlier Monday, Nashi held a rally in Moscow, mobilizing its supporters to thwart what it described as a possible attempt by U.S.-backed "thieves and traitors" to mount protests and seize public buildings and squares. A U.S. Embassy spokeswoman called the claim "ridiculous."

Kasparov calls Russian elections 'dirtiest' in nation's history.

Decius wrote:
I think you are focused on the wrong stuff.

noteworthy wrote:
Amar has taken justice into his own hands, vowing to avenge Jafaar's death 100 times over....

Decius wrote:
Its a war. This is going to happen. If this sort of story were an impediment to peace no war would ever have ended.

noteworthy wrote:
Still, the returnees are not "a good problem to have", because many of their homes are now occupied (illegally) by people from opposing sects.

Decius wrote:
Yes it is, because previously no one wanted to return because it was too dangerous. When you're in hell, a day when only your feet get burned is a blessing. The fact that you'd prefer to spend the day in Iowa is beside the point.

noteworthy wrote:
Mrs. Aasan's family fully expected to get attacked when traveling after dark. She was "thrilled and relieved" that they managed to cheat death that night.

Decius wrote:
This is meant as an example of progress. Previously this would have simply been impossible.

noteworthy wrote:
The people in charge are warlords, not police. Presently, the violence is suppressed, but the underlying forces are unresolved. With an eye on the clock, the Americans have resigned themselves to arming and training their former enemies, so that at least someone is in charge, knowing all the while that no one can be trusted. Increasingly, America's only leverage is its impending departure. In the vacuum that follows, power will accrue to the two-gun-toting maniacal warlords, not to the technocrats, whose most notable recent accomplishment is a restaurant opening, apparently.

Decius wrote:
The restaurant is the point, which is why it is ridiculous to pin an assessment of the success of this stategy on phoney political benchmarks, many of which will never be reached precisely because the people of Iraq do not want to reach them, and why there is absolutely no way that this situation will be resolved in the few months the Democrats wish to give it.

It doesn't matter what these technocrats agree to on paper because fuel is the only thing paper is good for in hell. They have some security. The thing they need to do with it is build an economy. Restaurants. Retail stores. Industry. Start employing people.

When its easier to put food on ones table by serving sandwiches than by rolling around with the local thugs, people will serve sandwiches instead. It isn't going to be pretty and it isn't going to be quick, but eventually people will have better things to do than shoot eachother.

I vote with Decius on this one

RE: Must Read: Iraq Round-Up

Former White House press secretary Scott McClellan names names in a caustic passage from a forthcoming memoir that accuses President Bush, Karl Rove and Vice President Cheney of being "involved" in his giving the press false information about the CIA leak case.

McClellan’s publisher released three paragraphs from the book “WHAT HAPPENED: Inside the Bush White House and What’s Wrong With Washington.”

[skipping to the juicy bits]

“I had unknowingly passed along false information,” McClellan wrote.

“And five of the highest ranking officials in the administration were involved in my doing so: Rove, Libby, the vice president, the president's chief of staff and the president himself."

Fmr aide McCellan feels like he got a raw deal. With his new publisher and these firebombs I'm sure he'll get a different deal. Book comes out April 21st.

--timball

McClellan points finger at Bush, Rove - Mike Allen and Michael Calderone - Politico.com

What should be done if one can-not accept the Byzantine system of power? Retreat into the catacombs? Wait until enough energy for another revolt has been accumulated? Try to hurry along revolt, thereby posing another "orange threat," which Putin and his allies have used, since the 2004 Ukrainian elections, to frighten the people and themselves? Attempt to focus on the demand for honest elections? Carry on painstaking educational work, in order to gradually change citizens' views?

Each person will have to decide in his or her own way. I imagine -- with both sorrow and certainty -- that the Byzantine system of power has triumphed for the foreseeable future in Russia. It's too late to remove it from power by a normal democratic process, for democratic mechanisms have been liquidated, transformed into pure imitation. I am afraid that few of us will live to see the reinstatement of freedom and democracy in Russia. Nevertheless, we should keep in mind that "the mole of history burrows away unnoticed."

Why Putin Wins

2. The London Brew-nami of 1814

The Industrial Revolution wasn't all steam engines and textile mills. Beer production increased exponentially, as well. Fortunately, the good people of England were up to the challenge and drained kegs as fast as they were made. Brewery owners became known as "beer barons," and they spent their newfound wealth in an age-old manner -- by trying to party more than the next guy.

Case in point: In 1814, Meux's Horse Shoe Brewery in London constructed a brewing vat that was 22 feet tall and 60 feet in diameter, with an interior big enough to seat 200 for dinner -- which is exactly how its completion was celebrated. (Why 200? Because a rival had built a vat that seated 100, of course.)

After the dinner, the vat was filled to its 4,000-barrel capacity. Pretty impressive, given the grand scale of the project, but pretty unfortunate given that they overlooked a faulty supporting hoop. Yup, the vat ruptured, causing other vats to break, and the resulting commotion was heard up to 5 miles away.

A wall of 1.3 million gallons of dark beer washed down the street, caving in two buildings and killing nine people by means of "drowning, injury, poisoning by the porter fumes, or drunkenness."

The story gets even more unbelievable, though. Rescue attempts were blocked and delayed by the thousands who flocked to the area to drink directly off the road. And when survivors were finally brought to the hospital, the other patients became convinced from the smell that the hospital was serving beer to every ward except theirs. A riot broke out, and even more people were left injured.

Sadly, this incident was not deemed tragic enough at the time to merit an annual memorial service and/or reenactment.

Drinking Stories That Put Yours To Shame