We take possession of our new place tomorrow. It's a freshly built condo in the crackiest part of town. We are the gentrification vanguard reclaiming a part of the city in the name of turning a profit in three years.

If you're deeply bored here are some pics of it.

I'm now tearing down the computer and packing it up. I won't have net access shudder till Wednesday by the earliest.

I'm pretty sure I'll snap and run to the Internet cafe across the street.

So till then, as always I recommend the list to the left of much better sites.

Actually I recommend them even when I am doing stuff here.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is preventing some information related to al-Qaida terror leader Osama bin Laden from being released, invoking a law that permits the feds to withhold data if it "would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy."

No, seriously, what?

he probably deserved it anyway.

Texas may have put innocent man to death, panel told

With Texas' criminal justice system the subject of intense scrutiny for a crime lab scandal and a series of wrongful convictions, a state Senate committee heard testimony Tuesday about the possibility that Texas had experienced the ultimate criminal justice nightmare: the execution of an innocent person.

Yeah, nightmare for the criminal justice system. Pity that.

It's happened, if this guy is innocent it's just happened again. It will happen again in the future. The only way to be sure that you're not murdering an innocent person is to not have the death penalty.

(Via POE News)

In Afghanistan, two years after the overthrow of the brutal Taliban regime, the Loya Jirga has approved a constitution that reflects the values of tolerance and of equal rights for women. Under President Karzai's leadership, and with help from democratic countries around the world, the Afghan people are building a decent, just and a free society -- and a nation that will never again be a safe haven for terror.

January 26, 2004 - Vice President Dick Cheney

---

 

The advance of women's rights and the advance of liberty are ultimately inseparable.

March 12, 2004 - President Bush

---

A woman has been stoned to death in Afghanistan, reportedly for committing adultery.

snip

Correspondents say this is the second time a woman has been stoned to death since the ousting of the Taleban in 2001.

Both events happened in the same area.

During the Taleban's rule, women were regularly stoned to death for adultery.

(Via POE News)

Szewczyk said the protesters are entitled to their opinions, but says he doesn't think U.S. citizens should show they're divided during wartime because it makes the United States look weak.

---

"Of course the people don't want war. But after all, it's the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it's always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it's a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger."

so just skip down to the new desperate quote.

Norquay had said Thursday that "Osama bin Laden-Martin" was sending in his videotaped address to the nation "from the cave."

See here's the thing, the Liberals are in the soup over this scandal, bad people have done bad things and they need to be fired / charged / sent to jail and Martin needs to get that done if he wants to win the next election with a majority or hold on to his minority.

Or not, the above quote is an example of how the Tories got their blue asses kicked (in Canada the bad guys are blue, the not-quite-as-bad guys are red, the really good guys are orange but they don't win elections here either because they're sadly incompetent / stunningly stupid at politics). Canadians really don't groove with negative campaigns much Each one that the Conservatives have launched since their version of Reagan resigned (as the most reviled PM in recent Canadian history, he was only like Ronnie in the sense that they were Irish with big hair and both did what was best for America and Americans) has been more mud slingy than the last.

Looks like they're getting ready to top themselves by making gratuitous terrorist comparisons. Of course I, and others, are gearing up to make gratuitous Bush comparisons with the Tories whose platform has a lot of lumber with "Made in the USA" stamped on it (Iraq, Star Wars, ban gay marriage, ban abortion, save poor oppressed white Christians, close the Maple Syrup mines and free the orphan slaves who toil within until death, etc.)

But the Tories are schizoid, half of them are Bible thumping Reform freaks and the other half just want to make lots of money so they can get that can upgrade their mistresses to trophy wives. As such they're going to stumble jerkily about trying to get to the same place but with different directions.

It's going to be fun to watch.

The story put out by many in the Western press, that the guerrilla war was winding down after the successful elections, was never true. The guerrillas are unaffected by the elections, and work on their own timetable, in hopes of destabilizing Iraq and ultimately taking it over. Judging the intensity of the war by a week or a month's worth of statistics is poor methodology. The guerrilla war will go on for several years at least, and the political process has nothing to do with it.

Which is a shame but did anyone really think the Insurgents were going to 86 their RPGs and AK-47s after the election?

Oh right, morons.

But you still have -- and we said there would be difficult days as we continue to move forward in Iraq to help the Iraqi people realize a brighter future -- you still have enemies of freedom who are desperately trying to do everything they can to stop the transition to democracy and freedom in Iraq.

April 21, 2005 -Scott McClellan

Yet another to toss onto the pile.

UPDATE: Speaking of piles...

Recent new attacks in the past few weeks are a desperate move by the insurgents.

April 23, 2005 - U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman, Occasional Democrat

It's even more maddening with their version of the egg-in-the-bottle trick (which is meant to show that with God, nothing is impossible), which includes the explicit instruction to ask the child "Why do you think that happened?" and then doesn't provide the answer.

This isn't science, it's stage magic. I mean, sure, God could force the egg through the neck of the bottle, but He didn't, save in a very Deist sort of sense.

Via Political Animal.

wanna go down to the Mexican border, get high and make sure no one violates anyone's rights?

I'd probably say no if someone asked me, but then I don't work for the ACLU.

Outright fabrication? Hoax? Real? The ACLU does mention observers for the Minute Man thingy.

I get the link from this guy and you decide.

Better yet send it off to the Snopes people, see what they say.

Just go.

Via PowerLine who asks: How Sick Can the Left Get?

Well gee there Assrocket it wasn't a Liberal who talked about man on dog action to a startled reporter if the first place now was it?

Sigh. If only we could have classy shirts like the wingnuts.

Like this one, ha ha the elephant is pissing! Look at him go! Something for the kids next Christmas I think.

Of course I would be a colossal idiot to even suggest that these (and others) shirts represent all conservatives' views in anyway, rather than just a guy with a website trying to make a buck. Colossal idiot or dumb monger in chief of the Blog of the Year, your choice.

But for a sensible reason this time:

FREDERICTON - A Fredericton hospital is being criticized for removing all Bibles from its patients' bedside tables in a quest to control infections.

"We have disinfection processes to disinfect other surfaces, but we don't have anything to disinfect books," said Jane Stafford, a spokeswoman for the River Valley Health Authority, which operates the Dr. Everett Chalmers Regional Hospital.

snip

"If the Bible is a threat in a drawer, where does it stop?" said the pastor of Fredericton's Skyline Acres Baptist Church. "Is it possible for these germs to reside and live on lampshades, curtains? You see what I'm saying."

Um that you're a bit of a twit? Pop quiz; can you clean a lampshade? Can you disinfect curtains? Can you toss a Bible into a washing machine? Do the patients handle a lampshade? Do they flip through the curtains under lining the dirty/silly bits? (oh like your hobbies are so great) You see what I'm saying.

The city's mayor, Brad Woodside, is downright critical of the decision.

"I think it's political correctness at its extreme and I'm rather disappointed," he said. "To me, it's absolutely ridiculous. I've had a number of calls on it from people that are concerned."

Wow, he's like Mayor McCheese; his head is full of ground hoofs, snouts and pubic hairs. They're not saying that the Bible is disallowed in the hospital, they're saying that multiple sick people handing the same un-washable book could be a source of infection as the final graph makes clear:

Stafford said the hospital has nothing against the most important book in Christianity. Patients are more than welcome to bring their own Bible when they come for surgery or treatment, she said – and the hospital's chapel is always open.

I hope the Pastor and the Mayor aren't the town's only learned elders.

for my Jesus house:

(Taos, NM) March 25, 2005 - Artists say they've found stone tiles with Jesus' image on them. The stones are on exhibit in New Mexico.

The artists say they found them while working on a warehouse. They say they also found barbed wire that resembles the crown of thorns Christians believe Jesus wore the day he was crucified.

Well this is coming along nicely, if Jesus can show up on a hot tub, a wide screen plasma TV and a mini-bar I will have one swinging pad.

The last line of the article sums it all up so nicely:

Some believe this is a spiritual gift while others say they're just ordinary roof tiles.

The bad news; attacks have gone up in Iraq:

Pentagon spokesman Lawrence Di Rita says insurgent attacks have increased in Iraq in the last two weeks -- and he says most of the attacks have been aimed at Iraqis.

The good news; the insurgents are... well you know what they are:

Di Rita describes insurgents as "increasingly desperate" as the Iraqi government gains more support among the people. And he says the attacks may be just the insurgents' way to "grab headlines with more spectacular attacks."

Grab... more.... headlines?

Ad Man:
Well sir, advertising terrorism is a funny thing. If people stop paying attention to it, pretty soon, it goes away.
Lisa:
Like that old woman who couldn't find the beef?
Man:
Exactly. If you stop paying attention to the monsters terrorists, they'll lose their powers.
Lisa:
But people can't help looking at them. They're wrecking the town.
[out the window, the monsters terrorists wreck the town]
Man:
You know, maybe a jingo would help.
[plays a piano arpeggio, sings]
Don't watch the mon ter --
[plays another arpeggio]
Don't watch the... monsters terrorists-s-s.
[chuckles]
Well, it'll sound a lot better coming out of Paul Anka Wolfowitz.

BAGHDAD, April 21 (Reuters) - An Mi-8 commercial helicopter was shot down in Iraq on Thursday and all nine people aboard are believed to have been killed, U.S. military sources said.

The Russian-built aircraft was flying just north of Baghdad when it was hit, possibly by a rocket-propelled grenade, one source said. Reuters Television received footage of a helicopter that had been shot down in the area and which was still on fire.

Two years plus, no security in the sky or on the roads. I know, purple fingers, all worth it.

TORONTO (Reuters) - Canada has approved the controversial "morning after pill" to be available without a prescription, giving women across the country earlier access to the contraceptive as soon as this week.

But the decision has divided the public, with supporters saying on Wednesday that easier access will reduce the number of abortions, and opponents saying it could promote promiscuity or be used as a regular form of birth control.

On Tuesday, the Canadian government decided the drug levonorgestrel -- marketed by Paladin Labs Inc. under the brand name Plan B -- would be allowed to be dispensed by pharmacists without a prescription.

While it's great that it's availble I have to wonder about the taste of calling it Plan B. Sometimes marketing is too clever for its own good.

I love the whole promiscuity argument. Yes women who remained celibate are suddenly going to go full Girls Gone Wild now that there are no consequences! They were going to stay wholesome but now that they can abort with their morning coffee there’s no need!

Because there's no such thing as a pill that women can take everyday that prevents 99.9% of pregnancies.

Idiots.

WASHINGTON -- High-profile U.S. conservative Newt Gingrich has agreed to retract his statement that terrorists involved in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks entered the United States from Canada. The move came yesterday after Canada's Ambassador Frank McKenna fired off a letter of complaint.

snip

Gingrich, appearing Tuesday on Fox News Channel said: "Far more of the 9-11 terrorists came across from Canada than from Mexico."

And... Fox didn't correct him?!?! Oh right, they're not very good at the whole news / truth thing. I wonder will Fox make a similar retraction?

Bwahahaha! Yeah I know, I crack me up too.

In print?!

Inconceivable!

Gallup Finds 53% Feel Iraq War Not Worth It; Will Media Probe Why?

Why? What's to probe? It cost thousands of lives, billions of dollars and is no where near success. There were no WMD, so no threat to the U.S. or the region existed (seriously can anyone come up with any scenario where Iraq could attack Israel in any way and not end up a smoldering crater?).

The real questions are: Why did it take so long for more Americans to realize this and why is it only 53%?

God, Allah or Bill Hicks help Iraq if 53% rises to the point that the U.S. pulls out prematurely to save the GOP's election fortunes in 06 or 08.

(via Atrios)

From Digby:

While Ann Coulter makes the cover of Time for writing that liberals have a "preternatural gift for striking a position on the side of treason," her followers actually side with Iraqi insurgents against an American charity worker. At freeperland and elsewhere they laughed and clapped and enjoyed the fruits of the enemy's labor. This is because if you listen to Ann and Rush and Sean and Savage and all the rest of these people you know that there is no greater enemy on the planet than the American liberal. That's what Ann Coulter and her ilk are selling and that is what Time magazine celebrated with their cover girl this week.

Lots of muttering about the new Pope being too conservative, even being described as "strict". Well that will be quite the change from that hippy-dippy Pope John Paul George Ringo we just had. Ratzinger (who in this image looks... well you tell me) is going to roll back all the progressive changes that the last Pope made! Like... uh that thing... or um... huh... women still second class, wombs are still God's Easy Bake oven and none of the bee's wax of the person that provides its life-support, the church officials that protected child molesters are still unpunished (in fact one of them helped pick the Pope! Or helped God pick, I'm a little fuzzy on the details) and so on.

Meet the new Pope exactly the same as roughly the last two hundred plus old Popes.

Faithmouse has a Pope toon coming up:

For those of you who aren't Faithmouseketeers the guy on the lawn chair is the evil Liberal Star Nosed mole... I don't know, ask the guy who makes it.

Let me see if I can guess what the last panel is going to be... hmm Ratzinger plowing through the weeds in a Hank Hill style riding lawnmower right into the Mole slicing him up into little itty-bitty mole chunks?

Cool!

UPDATE: Edited because I'm really very bad at this whole writing thing.

UPDATE: Well I was right about the Hank Hill mower but no mole purée. Close enough.

Bette Shober (L) and Joanne Vrablik (R) take a closer look at what people believe to be an image of the Virgin Mary under a freeway underpass in Chicago, April 18, 2005. Police said the image might have been caused by stains from road salt that dripped from the Kennedy expressway onto the wall, but hundreds of believers have been coming to the underpass to view the image and pray at the spot. REUTERS/John Gress

(Via Skippy)

If this is the best that the opposition can come up with then just crown Bush Jesus II: Emperor of America (and the lesser states formally know collectively as the World) and be done with it.

(Via Americablog)

Marla Ruzicka (via Atrios)

It is my sincerest hope that these people develop some sort of bowel cancer that causes sudden and violent diarrhea and constipation at the exact same time creating such internal dissonance that they’re turned inside out three times before melting into foul smelling sludge.

I would settle for regular cancer though if science is too lazy to get off its ass to make my super-bowel bursting / inverting cancer.

Why do they hateRuzicka, Rachel Corrie and people like them so much? Obviously anyone that doesn’t goosestep along to their moron march is labeled and treated as an enemy; they lack the imagination for any other word.

But what is the real source of their rancor? Who knows? That’s one mind-trip to a collective psychosis that I wouldn’t take with RoboFreud, NinjaJung and a team of Alien killing Space Marines/ Orderlies with straight-jackets as back-up.

Perhaps they're just broken in the head.

But in the end they're just anonymous names joining a duck-speaking “Me too!” chorus in an echo chamber run by a man so pathetic and insecure in his beliefs that any dispute to them is deleted and the challenger banned.

The Tbogganator has some thoughts as well.

New Delhi - Residents of a small Indian village were at their wits' end when a group of intoxicated monkeys rampaged through their town after drinking a specially fermented drink.

According to news reports, the monkeys drank a substance made from marijuana leaves that residents were preparing for a religious drink called "pana".

The stunned villagers apparently chased the inebriated monkeys away with sticks and other weapons, driving them back into a nearby forest.

Three residents were injured and taken to hospital.

The intoxicating drink was being prepared outdoors as part of an offering to Hindu gods for the Oriya new year.

Some of the monkeys passed out and have since been returned to the forest.

Keep your hands off my stash you damn dirty apes!