Catotonic wrote:
This program and hardware are being used to assess road conditions, but there is some talk of using it to register speeds and ticket accordingly. Is it just me or are people actively looking for ways to Big Brother each other?

Pretty petty reasoning to give away privacy.

Missouri To Track Through Cell Phones

Acidus wrote:
The dead walk the earth!!!

She's really the head of the sith.

RE: Judge or Zombie? (JPG)

Anti-pornography film produced by financier Charles Keating, linking pornography to the Communist conspiracy and the decline of Western civilization.

Thought I'd meme this as current events make this much funnier than usual. Make sure to catch the second half Here. Endless great sound bites from George Putnam.

Internet Archive: Details: Perversion for Profit (Part I)

President Bush yesterday suspended application of the federal law governing workers' pay on federal contracts in the Hurricane Katrina-damaged areas of Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, and Mississippi. The action infuriated labor leaders and their Democratic supporters in Congress, who said it will lower wages and make it harder for union contractors to win bids.

Bush Suspends Pay Act In Areas Hit by Storm

"Somebody asked George H.W. Bush Monday about the criticism of his son's handling of Hurricane Katrina, and the former president said that the critics ought to tell it to his wife -- and that they ought to don a flak jacket before trying. But this morning, it's Barbara Bush herself who might want to think about some protective clothing, at least metaphorically speaking.

The former first lady toured the Astrodome Monday, and along the way she opined that many of the refugees from New Orleans were so poor to begin with that they ought to be pretty happy with their temporary digs in Houston. "What I’m hearing, which is sort of scary, is they all want to stay in Texas," Barbara Bush said in comments first aired on the public radio program "Marketplace" and reprinted by Editor & Publisher. "Everyone is so overwhelmed by the hospitality. And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this is working very well for them."

In the midst of that last line, you can hear the former first lady chuckling."

There just aren't words, really, to say how tactless that was.

Barbara Bush on those lucky refugees

Wal-Mart LP's Kill Suspected Shoplifter

Man held down on burning pavement until he died

Wal-Mart loss prevention workers tackled a man suspected of stealing diapers - a new father with a two month old child - holding him down with a choke hold and knee to the back while he was shirtless on the scalding pavement of a Wal-Mart parking lot in Texas.

The incident was witnessed by dozens of shoppers, including a prominent Texas attorney, Charles Portz:

Charles Portz said he was getting out of his car when he saw a heavy blonde haired man being chased by five people who appeared to be security or store employees. He said he saw them wrestling the man to the ground. "The blacktop was extremely hot," said Portz "He had no shirt on and they wouldn't let him up off the blacktop." He said one of the men had Driver in a chokehold and had his knee in the back of his neck as the men tried to subdue him. "He kept trying to get up and they kept pushing him back down," Portz said.

According to Portz, Driver began to plead with them men. "He's begging, 'Please call an ambulance, let me up, do something, I'm gonna die," said Portz. He said the loss prevention employees called the police more than once, but another bystander called for an ambulance after realizing Driver was in trouble. Portz said he eventually began to plead with the Walmart employees. "I told them, this guy doesn't look like he's breathing," Portz said, "They said, 'He's all right." He says he continued to plead with the men, pointing out that the man's fingernails were turning gray. "They said he's just high on something," adding, "They just kept him pinned down for twenty minutes or more until the ambulance came." He said he believed Driver was dead when the ambulance left with him, but he was not certain.

The store employees could not have known that the witness who was pleading with them to let Driver get up from the hot pavement was a high profile Houston attorney, from the Portz and Portz law firm. He said after the man was handcuffed he continued trying in vain to persuade the Walmart employees to allow him to get up, even pointing out that a second pair of cuffs could be used to attach the ones already on Driver to a nearby truck trailer. "The problem is they kept him down on the blistering concrete with no shirt on," Portz reiterated. He said law enforcement arrived at about the same time as the ambulance.

* * *

Very sad. I believe people who practice frontier justice should receive it as well. I know the death of this piece of shit employee won't bring the guy back to life, but he definately deserves a similar fate.

At least have him held down in a choke hold on hot pavement for about half an hour, let him see how he fares.

It also makes me mad that when the self checkout lanes fuck up, THERE"S NO ONE around for about an hour. Steal some fucking Diapers and get service... Hmph..

Walmart Kills Houston Man for Shoplifting

Mike the Usurper wrote:
During a round-table interview with reporters from five Texas newspapers, Bush declined to go into detail on his personal views of the origin of life. But he said students should learn about both theories, Knight Ridder Newspapers reported.

"I think that part of education is to expose people to different schools of thought," Bush said. "You're asking me whether or not people ought to be exposed to different ideas, the answer is yes."

ID in science should be there... but they need to do it the right way. It's obviously a religious creationist theory, and a great example of why the scientific method has become so important in today's day in age. In ancient times, they truly believed interesting and ridiculous things. Teach kids the difference between "Proof & Theory" and "Faith & Myth." An excellent idea.

RE: CNN.com - Bush: Schools should teach 'intelligent design' - Aug 2, 2005

Acidus wrote:

Excellent interview of Bush on a variety of topics. Lots of the same old same old on Iraq: "I never had doubts" blah blah lbah. I wonder how many sons and daughters of the US have to die before doubts do begin.

His position in farm subsidies surprised me, especially after his stand on Steel tariffs.

I was most interested in his energy policy. My favorite quote?

BUSH: I believe we're going to be able to have coal-fired plants that have zero emissions.

[waits for Janelane, resident energy chick...]

Finding cleaner energy sources and population control is the solution to global warming (assuming that the human influence in the equation is correct). The causes of global warming are not well understood... 98% of greenhouse gases are not produced by man and even though there is an apparent correlation to the human consumption of fossil fuels, 70% of the warming happened 10 years before the industrial boom. Also there is a similar correlation between sun cycles and global warming, but this has yet to be proven as a cause as well.

Legislation at this point would drive energy prices to INSANE, and they're already through the roof. Doing so might also have little impact on the effect of global warming since the cause is only suspected. We are likely within decades of finding an energy solution, I'm willing to bet that there is a higher chance of that having a positive effect than the chance of the world melting within that same time. Wrecking the economy for a ritual karmatic solution is silly.

RE: UK Bush Interview: Enviroment, Trade, Africa, Iraq

AHOSKIE, North Carolina (AP) -- Two employees of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals have been charged with animal cruelty after dumping dead dogs and cats in a shopping center garbage bin, police said.

HAAAHAHHHAAAAA... Aaah hypocrits god bless'em.

CNN.com - PETA employees charged with animal cruelty - Jun 17, 2005

] The poster didn't mention that the 5-foot-9, 135-pound
] Claxton relied on a wheelchair, that police no longer
] considered him a serious threat and that he had no
] further sex offenses. But the flier's creator saw fit to
] add something incendiary. At the bottom of the page, in
] bold block letters, were the words "CHILD RAPIST."
]
] Four days after the fliers appeared, 38-year-old Chuckie
] Claxton was found dead, an empty bottle of scotch, a bag
] of pills and one of the posters beside him.

The fact that the media seems to be gathering sympathy for sex offenders seems odd to me. Not that I think the Public Notification Laws are a fair way to deal with the issue, but you'd figure sex offenders would be less fucking squeamish. What did they expect raping women and children was going to do for their rep in the first place?

ABC News: Sex Offender's Suicide Raises Questions