Yahoo! News - Naked boater faces charges
Was the boat that he pooped on his private property? And did he do his pooping on the poop deck?FOXNews.com: Israel - Lebanese Guerrillas Plan to Thwart US Attack on Iraq
Iran has been supplying Lebanese guerrillas with thousands of missiles for an attack on Israel that would apparently be timed to disrupt a possible U.S. strike on Iraq, a senior Israeli official said Friday.If this is true, I don't see how it can be anything but disasterous for the Arab world. Once the attack on Iraq begins, it won't be "thwarted". The entire idea that we would say, "whoops, I guess we better stop" is insanely naive.
What I think could happen is that we would not be in a position to stop Israel if something was timed like that. In the last Gulf war, when Iraq attacked Israel, the only reason we were able to keep the Israelis out is because we leaned hard on then diplomaticly and had the Patriot Missile as a placebo. This time, we are in war while Israel is attacked from the north. We make loud noises about putting up with it (just like we put up with the WTC attack, right?) while Israel invades Lebanon, dominos into Syria, and waits for Jorden to say peep so they have an excuse to take them out too.
God help the Middle East if the attack actually turns and threatens Israel as a whole. I hope our boys over there are current on thier radiation pills.An MBTI Type Analysis of the Cowboy Bebop Crew
Okay, so maybe no one but me cares. I've turned into a huge Cowboy Bebop fan (linked above for all of you who aren't hip), and one of the things that I like about it is how internally consistant and developed the characters are. I was pretty sure that Spike was an ISTP, and I started looking at the relationship between him and Faye, and from that I started typing all of the characters as best I could. (Except for Vicious. I always assume that any really good villian is an INTJ like me, so someone else will have to tackle that one.)Anyway, once I started, this is what I came up with:
- Jet: ISTJ
- Faye: ENFP
- Spike: ISTP
- Ed: ENTP
I had to type Faye backwards -- I started with the duality relationship between her and Spike, and then verified it by taking her traumatic amnesia into account in the reading of the portrait. The clincher that convinced me was the behavior she showed in the Betamax tape in Session 18. Also, the way she shadowed into an ISTJ in Real Folk Blues (while Jet was busy shadowing into an ENFP, amusingly enough) helped confirm this one.
Jet wasn't quite as hard to type. I typed him based on the portrait of the type (starting with the assumption that he was a Guardian from his former detective job) and the portrait seemed to fit him very well. That's about all I have right now, but if I get a good response, I might start my own "MBTI in Cowboy Bebop" fan page...
Grand Rapids Press: Truth hurts for potential juror
The story is this: A woman is on a panel for a jury trial. She is asked if she can be impartial to the testimony of police officers. She says, "no." The judge then tells her, "Well, you can change your mind or I'm sentincing you to community service."This is really stupid. Working on trial teams in litigation, I've seen a lot of juries picked. We want the jurors to answer, and we want the truth. The only message this judge is sending is, "give me the answer I want or get punished." I'll tell you a little secret from the litigation side -- if you aren't giving us the answer we want, we still want the answer! We want the answer so we can make sure that you aren't on the jury!
The judge in this case is complaining that it is too hard to pick juries. Cue Chris Farley as Matt Foley: Well LA DE FRICKIN DA! We are talking about trials. These are big deals dickhead! There are real people on both sides of these deals. They deserve a fair trial. It takes you three panels to get a jury seated? Tough titty. That's your job, judgey. If the attorneys want to keep blowing jury panels until they get one they can agree on, that's thier right. Life sucks -- get a helmet.
New Scientist: Earth's magnetic field 'boosts gravity'
This story is interesting to me, because from my "well informed lay-person's" understanding of gravity and EM, I had always been told that only mass effected gravity, not any kind of EM. This seems like a big deal to me, and I think it is a sad state of affairs that this isn't being shouted from the rooftops.My question, and I'm assuming that there will be experiments to test is, is, "does EM only boost gravity, meaning that there is a minimum shelf, or is there some kind of give and take relationship, meaning that if the right kind of magnetic field is applied, can gravity be lessened?" I think this could tie in nicely with the rumors of the superconducting "shield" that has been talked about and that NASA and Lockheed are trying to make prototypes of. We already know that there are some pretty unique magnetic properties of superconductors; it might be time for me to find out who produces the rare-earth minerals they use to make them and buy some stock.
Jonah Goldberg: Buffy the U.N. Slayer
This is a really good column. This is a basic political dynamic that gets swept under the rug because of how dangerous it is for the rest of the world and the idea of a one world government.The whole issue of the US operating unilaterally is only one the table because the US can operate unilaterally. Because we can and they can't, it is an issue with them. The reality is that because we can, there is no reason for us not to.
LP News Online: November 2002: Colorado Libertarians amused and irritated at secret ‘spy file’ kept by Denver police
The funny thing is that I have been thinking about filing a FOIA and Privacy Act letter with the DOJ, FBI, DEA and BATF to get all of my federal files. (Bonus points to those of you who know what all of the TLAs are, including this one.)Arab View: Extension of terrorism by other means
This guy is either really stupid, or a flat liar.Let's go down the list:
Hasn’t the US proven itself to be a terrorist country by resorting to methods of terrorizing peace-loving people in various parts of the world?No, it hasn't. The US doesn't orchestrate its attacks to maximize civilian casualties, as Muslim terrorists have done in New York and Israel.
Isn’t its endorsement of Israel’s use of advanced weapons to strike civilian targets in Palestine yet another example of sponsoring terror? Isn’t the US’ justification of Israel’s bombing of civilian centers as Israel’s right of self-defense just another form of terror?No, it isn't. Israel has not been reported in any major news source as attacking "civilian" targets. It attacks terrorists who hide among civilians. The most egregious part of this lie is that the Palestinian terrorist's definition of an Israeli civilian doesn't exist.
Why does the US call the Israeli suppression of the Palestinians a war? It is rather a mighty army attacking unarmed people. The Palestinians have no army but a group of boys and youths armed mostly with stones.And sniper rifles. And high explosive suicide bombs. Soviet RPGs. AK-47s. Mortars. Syrian missiles. Another lie.
On the contrary, the supporters of a people resisting a mighty occupation army and fighting for their freedom are called terrorist gangs! The support by Muslim charitable organizations for the hungry, sick and destitute Palestinians is viewed as supporting international terrorism!Yeah, pretty much. When you decide to spend the money that people give you on bombs for blowing up Jewish children and bribes to families of suicide murderers, that is called "supporting terrorism." If you had a charity that was dedicated to buying guns for bank robbers and paid thousands of dollars to the families of bank robbers who were arrested, wouldn't you say that the charity supported bank robbery?
The US will declare war on these countries if they do not obey its dictates. Is there any worse terrorism than this US behavior?Well, your own "Arab News" has a nice long section on the attacks on NY and DC on September 11, 2001. You should take a look, asshole.
The US keeps the UN under its thumb. The latest evidence is the UN’s refusal to admit that there was an Israeli-perpetrated massacre in Jenin. Instead, the international organization holds both Israelis and Palestinians equally responsible for the deaths and destruction in the camp.Actually, the UN found that the deaths didn't occur. It is hard to hold two groups "equally responsible" for something that never happened in the first place.
Is not the implied or open US intimidation of a country, which refuses to support an attack against Iraq without a convincing reason, another form of terror?No, it is called diplomacy. Does writing columns full of lies intended to intimidate a country into changing its opinion make one a terrorist? No, it makes one an asshole. Asshole.
Jerusalem Post: Shots fired at home of ex-PA minister who challenged Arafat
Arafat rules as a despotic thug.There isn't any polite way to put it. He is the definition of despotism and tyranny. He is unelected -- there hasn't been an election since the formation of the PA. He has a shadow secret thug force -- the Al Asqa Murder Brigade -- that he uses to exert power through the use and threat of use of force. He sanctions a regime that ignores any rule of law and routinely organizes lynch mobs reminiscent of the Jim Crow Southern US.
He cannot be dealt with in a diplomatic manner. The very basis of terrorism is a rejection of the diplomatic process, including even war (a dipomatic process itself.) Arafat is a murdering thug warlord and needs to be destroyed, the sooner the better. The sooner he is gone, the sooner we can get to some kind of freedom for the Isreali Arabs in the PA territory.
BBC News - Fatwa for 'gay Jesus' writer
Let's see... how do we put this...Don't kill anyone for us! Okay? Is that clear enough? No more killing!
"Well, Jesus, that guy over there says you're a fag. You want me to go kill him for you?"
"Nah, that's ok. Turn the other cheek, you know. Wait a second, I didn't mean it like that! Stop looking at me like that! You laugh and I'm gonna give you a noogie, I swear to dad! Yeah, I'm wearing a dress. So what? We are all wearing dresses. It's the first century, for my sake."
Jerusalem Post: 'Arafat and his people have turned Ramallah into West Beirut'
Well...Duh. Who was it that turned West Beruit into West Beruit in the first place? I'll give you a hint -- his initials were Yassir Arafat.
