"We will disrupt their workday with a mildly offensive blinking neon light!"

"Death to America!!!!"

"Death to America!!!!"

Dude, say whatever you want. That meeting was intense. You were not there. Infidel...

Osama Team Hunger Force

Proclaiming “God hates fags” and “Thank God for dead soldiers,” the small band of evangelicals from Topeka, Kan., has ignited a firestorm by spreading its gospel of damnation at the funerals of AIDS victims and slain soldiers

This is so messed up, I can't get my head around it at all. God is angry at the US for accepting gays so He is killing soldiers? I think? Oh man.

Almost every religion has some tradion about respecting the deceased, and you don't have to agree with a war to respect that. Except, do they disagree with the war? Who can tell? What a bunch of nuts.

'Thank God for Dead Soldiers'

According to one who was present, Churchill suddenly blurted out: "Are we animals? Are we taking this too far?"

This is a well written article, makes me really want to know more.

One can easily come to this same conclusion just by readin Vonnegut's "Slaughterhouse Five"; it is good to see solid research behind it. One hopes it will be incorporated in the curriculum of War Colleges around the world.

Funny to think that even in the savagery of war, there is still this expectation of some sort of restraint. I suppose this is one viewpoint of an "anti-terrorism" action, the belief that ultimately there may be people who wage war with these weapons and do not have the veneer of civility we demand, even in combat.

So sad, so sad.

Among the Dead Cities

This guy has such a creative an personal way to raise money for Katrina relief.

Dare him to do something, and name your price. He will accept, reject or haggle, and document the dare on his website. People go from small (grow a bad moustache) to bigger (a prank involving his neighbors and a pizza delivery). He is game to try anything that doesn't hurt anyone and is family-friendly.

Dare Him for Charity

I just went to see this exhibit, based on this thread.

First off, thought the museum is located on scuzzy Hollywood Blvd next to Ripley's and the Guiness World's Records Oddities it was pretty museum-like in content. This special project was quite interesting, though it only took up one poster in one room.

There was a very cool display of the creepy Real Dolls, the female exposed down to steel armature on one side. A small theatre showed a 20 minute loop of very silly digital animation porn and gives "Uncanny Valley" a new meaning.

It was yet another interesting memestreams find.

Celebrating the Body Beautiful

These take my breath away

Tsunami - Receding waters, Kalutara Beach, Sri Lanka

] Despite statements to the contrary, quiet preparations
] for the return of the draft have been under way for some
] time. The Selective Service System's Annual Performance
] Plan for Fiscal Year 2004 - despite a ton of
] obfuscatory jargon, acronyms, and bureaucrat-speak -
] can't quite manage to bury all of its bombshells.

] Strategic Objective 1.2 of the 2004 plan commits the
] Selective Service System to being fully operational
] within 75 days of "an authorized return to conscription."
] Strategic Objective 1.3 then commits them to "be
] operationally ready to furnish untrained manpower within
] DOD timelines."

...

] The 2004 plan commits the SSS to report to the president
] on March 31st, 2005, that the system is ready for
] activation with 75 days. If they manage the task, then
] the first lottery could happen as early as June 15th,
] 2005.

A mother of two sons breathes deeply.

AlterNet: The Coming Draft

Imminent threat? I never said there was an imminent threat!

Warning: this is almost painful to watch.

See Rumsfeld Backpedal!

Most of this site seems, well, have to say it, crackpot, albeit well presented.

However, the lack of military response, given the sophistication and speed of information disemination is appalling, although more an example of human fallability than an immaculately crafted cover-up to me. Look at what our leaders were doing at the time! Bush's failure to get off his butt and go check out the situation (or failure to have a team that took care of it for him) is a far more heinous lapse than whatever his National Guard issues were thirty years ago.

Can you see the commercial? A clock ticking in the corner of the screen showing the President reading to the classroom of children while a voiceover says "9:02 am President Bush has been informed that a plane has hit the WTC. 9:06 am President Bush has now been informed that a second plane has hit the WTC."

At 9:06 Andrew Card whispered into Bush's ear that the second plane had hit the Twin Towers, as Bush sat in front of the class. He looked momentarily befuddled, but then appeared uninterested in further details. He remained seated and read out loud with the kids for at least eitht more minutes, not leaving the classroom until 9:16. Why didn't the Commander-in-Chief interrupt the photo op to respond to the nation being under attack? Did he lapse into a stupor because of shock? Even so, why did the Secret Service not immediately evacuate him to secure quarters?

9/11 Where were Bush, Chaney, Rumsfeld and Myers?

] On 21 September 2002, The Memory Hole posted an extract
] from an essay by George Bush Sr. and Brent Scowcroft, in
] which they explain why they didn't have the military push
] into Iraq and topple Saddam during Gulf War 1. Although
] there are differences between the Iraq situations in 1991
] and 2002-3, Bush's key points apply to both.
]
] But a funny thing happened. Fairly recently, Time pulled
] the essay off of their site. It used to be at this link, which now gives a 404 error. If you go to the table of contents for the issue in which the essay appeared (2 March 1998), "Why We Didn't Remove Saddam" is conspicuously absent.

Bush Sr. Essay on Reasons Not to Invade Iraq Removed from TIME site