Ok, I don't like to think about shooting puppies either, but I'm wondering....exactly how is what the man was doing that different from what the animal shelter will do?

If they don't find a home for them, they will euthanize them. That's a nice way of saying "kill them." Its maybe just not as messy as a shot in the head, but just as deadly.

[ It's because in one case there is, presumably a standardized method, which is known to be as humane as possible, whereas some guy with a gun isn't necessarily going to have the quality control, for lack of a better term. If he misses the head, and only injures the dog, then that dog suffers until he shoots again, not to mention all the other dogs sit there and watch their brothers get killed, which even an animal recognizes as a frightening situation.

In the grand scheme, it's not pure evil or anything, but it's definitely not the right way to go. -k]

Puppy shoots man

The Audi-Oh vibrator was designed to be used at dance clubs... there are two microphones on the pager-like control box which pick up sounds and translate them into variable vibrations pulsating through the mini-bullet vibe.

Techno Trance++.

Audi-Oh

] The Pentagon has determined that a detainee held for an
] extended period in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, should no longer
] be classified as an unlawful enemy combatant and will be
] returned to his native country, a senior official said
] Wednesday.

Supreme Court ordered judicial process nets innocent victim.

The New York Times - U.S. Will Send Detainee Home From Cuba

I haven't bothered to read this whole article. Its making the rounds because of this quote. This is something I've been thinking about for the past 2 days, and here it is.

The Fundies and the Islamists want the same basic things from a policy standpoint. The reason that the fundies seem less extreme is that in the U.S. they are marginalized. Most of their platform is illegal (which is why they want Constitutional Amendments) and so the things they can realistically get are more limited. If they were in power they'd want more. They also produce their share of terrorists.

The irony here is that Bush defending me from Islamic fundamentalism is of little value if he also props up the Christian fundamentalists. I'll end up having to live with the same laws either way. The Christians would likely stop short of requiring women to wear veils in spite of the fact that unveiled women are in direct violation of biblical edict. However, the institutionalization of religion, coupled with violent responses to "immoral" behavior, particularly sexuality, are in the cards no matter what group of religious nuts ends up running this country in the future.

[ Gore's gonna catch hell for this, of course, but he's fucking 100% right. Killing an abortion doctor is terrorism, plain and simple. As you say, it's the legal stucture and what's left of reason which keeps this country from being the same fundamentalist hell that other nations are.

I wish we could stop calling these fuckers Christian. They're not. At the best, they're Biblical Fundamentalists, and at worst, they're simply hypocrites using whatever passage justifies their stupid hateful beliefs. -k]

Gore compares Islamists and Fundies

] ``It's kind of like a panic on the part of Kerry: Just
] because he got clobbered with his record he thinks
] something like this would hurt Bush,'' said Pete
] Domenici, a Republican Senator from New Mexico. ``But
] they're not in the same ballpark.''

[ Wait a sec, what?! So, completely unsubstantiated claims of possible exaggeration of war injuries are MORE RELEVANT than the standing CiC having outright lied about his service, having performed poorly when he did serve, and having gotten the opportunity to fuck around back home due to family connections and nepotism?

He's fucking right they're not in the same ballpark... if those "I think Bush is honest and forthright." numbers don't drop precipitously, my faith in the American public is gonna hit a new low. -k

and PS, what the fuck kind of bullshit response is this from the Kerry camp : ``These are questions for Scott McClellan and Dan Bartlett to answer, not the Kerry campaign,'' That's the softest answer i've ever fucking heard.]

Bush's Guard Record Raises Credibility Questions

] British scientists are developing a robot that will
] generate its own power by eating flies.

[ Wow. -k]

MSNBC - Smelly robot eats flies to generate its own power

] The ruling says artists must pay for not only large
] samples of another artist's work, but also snippets —
] smaller notes, chords and beats that are not the artist's
] original composition — which had previously been
] legal, according to The Associated Press.
]
] ...
]
] "Get a license or do not sample," the court said Tuesday.
] "We do not see this as stifling creativity in any
] significant way."

[ Unless you make rap, electronica or are a DJ, which we don't consider significant.

OTOH, having read the opinion, i'm not sure it's as bad as all that. I'm not a lawyer... maybe someone who is can follow up...

it's here : http://pacer.ca6.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/getopn.pl?OPINION=04a0297p.06 -k]

MTV.com - News -Court Rules That All Musical Samples Must Be Paid For

] Mere days from assuming the presidency and closing the
] door on eight years of Bill Clinton, president-elect
] George W. Bush assured the nation in a televised address
] Tuesday that "our long national nightmare of peace and
] prosperity is finally over."

[ This is *awesome*! This Onion article ran in January of '01 -- and it's frighteningly prophetic, though at the time surely would've been classified as over the top, like most Onion humor.

Well, Mr. Chak decided to fill in the blanks and hyperlink passages in the Onion bit to real news stories which match up with them in real life. It's well done, and so so sad. -k]

The Onion / CHAK | Bush: 'Our Long National Nightmare Of Peace And Prosperity Is Finally Over'

] The board of Log Cabin Republicans, the largest group for
] gay men and lesbians in the party, voted overwhelming
] last night against endorsing President Bush for
] re-election because of his support for a proposed
] constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.
]
]
] The decision ends six months of soul-searching as the
] group, which endorsed Mr. Bush in 2000 and Bob Dole in
] 1996, wrestled with its divided loyalties.

[ It's about damn time. -k]

Gay Activists in the G.O.P. Withhold Endorsement

] Having exchanged intellectual curiosity for ideological
] certainty, they had forfeited their powers of observation
] as well as their senses of humor; no longer courageous
] enough to concede the possibility of error or enjoy the
] play of the imagination, they took an interest only in
] those ideas that could be made to bear the weight of
] solemn doctrine, and they cried up the horrors of the
] culture war because their employers needed an alibi for
] the disappearances of the country's civil liberties and a
] screen behind which to hide the privatization (a.k.a. the
] theft) of its common property%u2014the broadcast spectrum
] as well as the timber, the water, and the air, the
] reserves of knowledge together with the mineral deposits
] and the laws. Sell the suckers on the notion that their
] "values" are at risk (abortionists escaping the nets of
] the Massachusetts state police, pornographers and
] cosmetic surgeons busily at work in Los Angeles, farm
] families everywhere in the Middle West becoming chattels
] of the welfare state) and maybe they won't notice that
] their pockets have been picked.

[ A good article. It's obviously from a left perspective, but removing the few potshots, there's a cogent analysis of the way in which the right has conciously, deliberately and effectively controlled the entire tone of american political and cultural debate for the past 30 years.

You wonder why the left seems to be on the defensive all the time... it's because it *is* on the defensive all the time. The intrinsic liberal philosophy of ideological tolerance and equanimity is the very weakness which demolishes cohesion and precludes the kind of lockstep certainty and consistency available to the right. Logic and truth have trouble keeping up with constant, disciplined distortion. -k]

The Republican Propaganda Mill, a Brief History | Harper's