The new thing in Sweden is Cheap Monday jeans, with a skull and an upside down cross. the designer says its intended to be a critique of christianity, and that organized religion is responsible for wars and other acts of inhumanity. They go for $50 a crack, and so far 200,000 has been sold! Sweden is a lutheran country, but church leaders arent concerned (this is sweden after all). They will ultimately come to the US, and I can't wait to see the fuss jerry falwell and pat robertson will make over it. I bet the republicans will run against cheap monday jeans in the next election!
Friday, December 30, 2005
Tuesday, December 27, 2005
The-Christmas-Story
This is a great site that explains the origins of Christmas celebrations and traditions. You will be amazed! There are also some great links if you scroll down - stuff about how "life is love," parenting advice. Great site!!!
Wednesday, December 21, 2005
flying spaghetti monster
In response to the intelligent design theory, someone wrote a letter to the Kansas Board of Education suggesting that if ID were to be taught, then the theory of the Flying Spaghetti Monster would also have to be taught. This picture is the author's depiction of the creation of the world by the monster. there is a web site that is very amusing.
Wednesday, December 14, 2005
Iran's President
So there are two countries in the middle east. One has been hit with UN sanctions for 10 years, its military is a wreck, no spare parts, no one has sold them any military equipment in a decade, they are in debt, broke, coalition forces patrol much of their skies in no fly zones. Another country, with a larger population, has a stronger military, less debt, and has a President who believes the holocaust is a lie, that Israel should be moved to Canada, or Germany or Austria, has nuclear power, has missles capable of traveling thousands of miles. So which country do we invade? You got it! The first one! Bush just gave another speech about how Saddam was a "threat" - to who? the iraqi people? yes. America? No. What threat? Bush now says the war is justified because we have a democracy in Iraq - yeah, some democracy, with these islamic clerics running neighborhoods, and entire cities. The winner in Iraq? Its IRAN! Yes Iran won the US Iraq war.
bloody santa
Joel Krupnik and Mildred Castellanos decked the front of their Manhattan mansion this year with a scene that includes a knife-wielding 5-foot-tall St. Nick and a tree full of decapitated Barbie dolls. Hidden partly behind a tree, a merry old elf grasps a disembodied doll’s head with fake blood streaming from its eye sockets.
In a telephone interview Wednesday, Krupnik explained that his family thought it would be a fun way to make a comment about the commercialization and secularization of Christmas.
In a telephone interview Wednesday, Krupnik explained that his family thought it would be a fun way to make a comment about the commercialization and secularization of Christmas.
world map based on population
Here is how the map of the world looks if drawn on the basis of population size rather than geographic size.
Monday, December 05, 2005
bomber and his sister - childhood photo
An undated family handout shows the suicide bomber Lotfi Amine Abu Saada, and his sister posing in the village of Allar near the northern West Bank city of Jenin. Five Israelis were killed and dozens wounded today when a suicide bomber blew himself up at the entrance to a shopping mall in the northern coastal town of Netanya.(AFP/Saif Dahlah)
bomber's sister reacts
Would Lofti had killed himself, and others, if he knew how grief stricken his sister would be? I wonder....this is a heartbreaking picture, and imagine the grief of all of the others left behind...
gunmen celebrate the suicide bombing
Compare this picture with the one of Lotfi's sister (above) - how can anyone celebrate such loss, such grief? These are members of our own race - the human race - they should be crying....
love and death
This is a funny film - woody allen spoofs ingmar bergman, dostoyevsky, Tolstoi and the Marx brothers all in one film! my favorite part is when he and diane keaton as pretending to be Don Francisco and his sister and they meet Napoleon: it goes something like this...
Napoleon: This is an honor for me.
Boris: No, it's a greater honor for me.
Napoleon: No, a greater honor for me.
Boris: No, it's a greater honor for me.
Napoleon: No, a greater honor for ME.
Boris: Well, perhaps you're right. Perhaps it IS a greater honor for you.
Napoleon: And you must be Don Francisco's sister.
Sonja: No, YOU must be Don Francisco's sister.
Napoleon: No, YOU must be Don Francisco's sister.
Sonja: No, YOU must be Don Francisco's sister.
Boris: No, it's a greater honor for ME.
Napoleon: I see our Spanish guests have a sense of humor.
Boris: She's a great kidder.
Sonja: No, YOU're a great kidder.
Boris: No, YOU must be Don Francisco's sister.
Napoleon: This is an honor for me.
Boris: No, it's a greater honor for me.
Napoleon: No, a greater honor for me.
Boris: No, it's a greater honor for me.
Napoleon: No, a greater honor for ME.
Boris: Well, perhaps you're right. Perhaps it IS a greater honor for you.
Napoleon: And you must be Don Francisco's sister.
Sonja: No, YOU must be Don Francisco's sister.
Napoleon: No, YOU must be Don Francisco's sister.
Sonja: No, YOU must be Don Francisco's sister.
Boris: No, it's a greater honor for ME.
Napoleon: I see our Spanish guests have a sense of humor.
Boris: She's a great kidder.
Sonja: No, YOU're a great kidder.
Boris: No, YOU must be Don Francisco's sister.
Paradise Now
This film is amazing, and very controversial. No, it does not defend suicide bombers. It shows the plight of Said (Sy - eid) who hates his life in the West Bank, who is unsatisfied with his job as a mechanic in a auto repair/ junk yard, who is not interested in marrying or having a family, who is depressed and desperate about his life. His father was executed as a collaborator, he hates the Israeli Defense forces, doesnt think there is really paradise after death - he doesnt care about paradise, even nothingness would be better than his current life. His friend Khaled begins to question whether suicide bombing is effective, is the right thing to do. Ok, jews are portrayed in this film as affluent and overweight, or materialistic (bikinis on the beach) or as collaborators themselves (any thing for a buck - a jewish couple arranges to drive them to Tel Aviv for money I guess). But this does not glamorize or glorify terrorism. There is no music in the film - there is silence at the end. The director wants us to make sense of this. The ending was terrifying - the audience sat there for several minutes before anyone could move. Shocking is a good word to describe this film. I almost cried at the end - how do we create a world like this? We humans are absolutely terrifying when it comes to how we treat each other, the types of communities we create.
The Vietnamization of Iraq
Here is a speech made by Pres Nixon in 1969: the word Vietnam is substituted with Iraq. Of course, the twist is at the end, where Nixon introduces "the silent majority," that mythic vast swarm of people who supported him (?). The silent majority were the working class people who don't vote (over half didnt vote in 1968 Presidential election) but found their "voice" in Nixon's demogogic speeches. (He says we would let down our allies if we left Vietnam - - what allies, South Korea?)
Good evening, my fellow Americans:
Tonight I want to talk to you on a subject of deep concern to all Americans and to many people in all parts of the world the war in Iraq.
I believe that one of the reasons for the deep division about Iraq is that many Americans have lost confidence in what their Government has told them about our policy. The American people cannot and should not be asked to support a policy which involves the overriding issues of war and peace unless they know the truth about that policy.
...
The war was causing deep division at home and criticism from many of our friends as well as our enemies abroad.
In view of these circumstances there were some who urged that I end the war at once by ordering the immediate withdrawal of all American forces.
From a political standpoint this would have been a popular and easy course to follow.
…
For the future of peace, precipitate withdrawal would thus be a disaster of immense magnitude.
A nation cannot remain great if it betrays its allies and lets down its friends.
Our defeat and humiliation in Iraq without question would promote recklessness in the councils of those great powers who have not yet abandoned their goals of world conquest.
This would spark violence wherever our commitments help maintain the peace in the Middle East, in Berlin, eventually even in the Western Hemisphere.
Ultimately, this would cost more lives.
It would not bring peace; it would bring more war.
For these reasons, I rejected the recommendation that I should end the war by immediately withdrawing all of our forces. I chose instead to change American policy on both the negotiating front and battlefront.
...
We are Iraqizing the search for peace.
…
Under the plan, I ordered first a substantial increase in the training and equipment of Iraqese forces.
...
—The Iraqese have continued to gain in strength. As a result they have been able to take over combat responsibilities from our American troops.
...
We have adopted a plan which we have worked out in cooperation with the Iraqese for the complete withdrawal of all U.S. combat ground forces, and their replacement by Iraqese forces on an orderly scheduled timetable. This withdrawal will be made from strength and not from weakness. As Iraqese forces become stronger, the rate of American withdrawal can become greater.
…
My fellow Americans, I am sure you can recognize from what I have said that we really only have two choices open to us if we want to end this war. -I can order an immediate, precipitate withdrawal of all Americans from Iraq without regard to the effects of that action.
-Or we can persist in our search for a just peace … through continued implementation of our plan for Iraqization if necessary a plan in which we will withdraw all our forces from Iraq on a schedule in accordance with our program, as the Iraqese become strong enough to defend their own freedom.
I have chosen this second course.
It is not the easy way.
It is the right way.
It is a plan which will end the war and serve the cause of peace not just in Iraq but in the Pacific and in the world.
In speaking of the consequences of a precipitate withdrawal, I mentioned that our allies would lose confidence in America.
Far more dangerous, we would lose confidence in ourselves. Oh, the immediate reaction would be a sense of relief that our men were coming home. But as we saw the consequences of what we had done, inevitable remorse and divisive recrimination would scar our spirit as a people.
…
In San Francisco a few weeks ago, I saw demonstrators carrying signs reading: "Lose in Iraq, bring the boys home."
Well, one of the strengths of our free society is that any American has a right to reach that conclusion and to advocate that point of view. But as President of the United States, I would be untrue to my oath of office if I allowed the policy of this Nation to be dictated by the minority who hold that point of view and who try to impose it on the Nation by mounting demonstrations in the street.
…
And so tonight to you, the great silent majority of my fellow Americans, I ask for your support.
Good evening, my fellow Americans:
Tonight I want to talk to you on a subject of deep concern to all Americans and to many people in all parts of the world the war in Iraq.
I believe that one of the reasons for the deep division about Iraq is that many Americans have lost confidence in what their Government has told them about our policy. The American people cannot and should not be asked to support a policy which involves the overriding issues of war and peace unless they know the truth about that policy.
...
The war was causing deep division at home and criticism from many of our friends as well as our enemies abroad.
In view of these circumstances there were some who urged that I end the war at once by ordering the immediate withdrawal of all American forces.
From a political standpoint this would have been a popular and easy course to follow.
…
For the future of peace, precipitate withdrawal would thus be a disaster of immense magnitude.
A nation cannot remain great if it betrays its allies and lets down its friends.
Our defeat and humiliation in Iraq without question would promote recklessness in the councils of those great powers who have not yet abandoned their goals of world conquest.
This would spark violence wherever our commitments help maintain the peace in the Middle East, in Berlin, eventually even in the Western Hemisphere.
Ultimately, this would cost more lives.
It would not bring peace; it would bring more war.
For these reasons, I rejected the recommendation that I should end the war by immediately withdrawing all of our forces. I chose instead to change American policy on both the negotiating front and battlefront.
...
We are Iraqizing the search for peace.
…
Under the plan, I ordered first a substantial increase in the training and equipment of Iraqese forces.
...
—The Iraqese have continued to gain in strength. As a result they have been able to take over combat responsibilities from our American troops.
...
We have adopted a plan which we have worked out in cooperation with the Iraqese for the complete withdrawal of all U.S. combat ground forces, and their replacement by Iraqese forces on an orderly scheduled timetable. This withdrawal will be made from strength and not from weakness. As Iraqese forces become stronger, the rate of American withdrawal can become greater.
…
My fellow Americans, I am sure you can recognize from what I have said that we really only have two choices open to us if we want to end this war. -I can order an immediate, precipitate withdrawal of all Americans from Iraq without regard to the effects of that action.
-Or we can persist in our search for a just peace … through continued implementation of our plan for Iraqization if necessary a plan in which we will withdraw all our forces from Iraq on a schedule in accordance with our program, as the Iraqese become strong enough to defend their own freedom.
I have chosen this second course.
It is not the easy way.
It is the right way.
It is a plan which will end the war and serve the cause of peace not just in Iraq but in the Pacific and in the world.
In speaking of the consequences of a precipitate withdrawal, I mentioned that our allies would lose confidence in America.
Far more dangerous, we would lose confidence in ourselves. Oh, the immediate reaction would be a sense of relief that our men were coming home. But as we saw the consequences of what we had done, inevitable remorse and divisive recrimination would scar our spirit as a people.
…
In San Francisco a few weeks ago, I saw demonstrators carrying signs reading: "Lose in Iraq, bring the boys home."
Well, one of the strengths of our free society is that any American has a right to reach that conclusion and to advocate that point of view. But as President of the United States, I would be untrue to my oath of office if I allowed the policy of this Nation to be dictated by the minority who hold that point of view and who try to impose it on the Nation by mounting demonstrations in the street.
…
And so tonight to you, the great silent majority of my fellow Americans, I ask for your support.
Friday, December 02, 2005
Bush to Blair: Bomb Al Jazerra
NEWSPAPERS editors were threatened with prosecution under the Official Secrets Act last night if they published details of a conversation between Tony Blair and George Bush in which the President is alleged to have suggested bombing al-Jazeera, the Arab news network. Lord Goldsmith, the Attorney-General, informed newspapers editors including that of The Times that "publication of a document that has been unlawfully disclosed by a Crown servant could be in breach of Section 5 of the Official Secrets Act."
Supposedly, Scott McClellan, Bush's press secretary, said he never seriously suggested that al Jazerra should be bombed, but he did not deny the president told Blair that. Analysts assume that Bush was joking. However, before Bush departed, Blair once again brought up the bombing suggestion, and told the President, again, that he did not approve of bombing al Jazerra.
Of course, al Jazerra's office in Baghdad was bombed, and one reporter was killed.
Now we also hear that the Pentagon is paying journalists in Iraq to publish positive stories about the American presence.
In the documentary, "The Control Room," about al Jazerra, the executive producer, Samir, explains that every successful war needs propaganda. He is right. The bush administration wants a specific spin on the news, is willing to pay cash for it, and maybe even bomb al jazerra to prevent any other spin from occurring. This destroys our nation's credibility - free speech is one of the requirements for democracy, a free press is needed also.
Supposedly, Scott McClellan, Bush's press secretary, said he never seriously suggested that al Jazerra should be bombed, but he did not deny the president told Blair that. Analysts assume that Bush was joking. However, before Bush departed, Blair once again brought up the bombing suggestion, and told the President, again, that he did not approve of bombing al Jazerra.
Of course, al Jazerra's office in Baghdad was bombed, and one reporter was killed.
Now we also hear that the Pentagon is paying journalists in Iraq to publish positive stories about the American presence.
In the documentary, "The Control Room," about al Jazerra, the executive producer, Samir, explains that every successful war needs propaganda. He is right. The bush administration wants a specific spin on the news, is willing to pay cash for it, and maybe even bomb al jazerra to prevent any other spin from occurring. This destroys our nation's credibility - free speech is one of the requirements for democracy, a free press is needed also.
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