Anti-aircraft missiles deployed in Washington

Military vehicles with anti-aircraft missiles have been deployed around Washington, and fighter jet patrols over the nation’s capital and New York have been increased as a result of the elevated threat of terrorist attack, Pentagon officials told CNN on Tuesday.

It’s the first deployment of “Avenger” air-defense systems since September, when Humvees outfitted with ground-to-air Stinger missiles were deployed with Sentinel radars around the Pentagon and other military installations. The “Avenger” is a portable, short-range air-defense system mounted on a Humvee that can rapidly fire eight Stinger missiles.

The steps come as security across the nation is being raised. On Friday, President Bush’s Homeland Security Council raised the national threat level from yellow to orange. Orange indicates a “high” risk of terrorist attack, and yellow indicates an “elevated” risk.

What do they know that they aren’t telling us?

Area Residents Heed Warnings to Prepare for Emergency

The scenario that many people had managed to push from their minds ? that terrorists would launch an attack on Washington, separating families and creating havoc ? came creeping back yesterday. For proof, one had only to visit the paint department of a local hardware store.

There, plastic dropcloths were being evaluated with one aim in mind: Would they work to seal a room?

A day after federal officials urged Americans to prepare their homes in case of a biological, chemical or radiological attack, and four days after the nation’s threat level was raised from yellow to orange, many Washingtonians found themselves on a grim shopping trip, just in case.

Okay, for starters, why did you even think you were at less risk a week ago than yesterday? Good God, this is why so many people were “surprized” by the September 11th attacks. They were bound to happen, we were always at risk, they just finally succeeded. And now folks are jumping around because we’re at an increased level of alert? Yeah, the threat’s grown so much that now I have to hide inside my basement instead of go out for a walk. Sigh.

“Yea, Bush” Rally

The Mary Washington College Republicans and the Fredericksburg Republican Committee are holding a “We Support the President” rally on President’s Day, February 17th at 6pm. We need your support! Please mark your schedules for this event! It’s time we showed folks that America supports President Bush.

Stay tuned to shaunkenney.com for more details.

Bin Laden again says he’s not dead and goes on about current events to prove it.

After initially denying the existence of such a message, the Arab network Al-Jazeera said Tuesday it would air an audio message purportedly from al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, calling on Muslims to “unite in defending the Iraqi people.”

Word of the tape first surfaced earlier in the day when U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell told a Senate panel a new message had surfaced believed to be bin Laden claiming he is “in partnership with Iraq.”

“(Bin Laden) speaks to the people of Iraq and talks about their struggle and how he is in partnership with Iraq,” Powell said during the hearing.

Al Qaeda initially dismissed Powell’s claim as a rumor, but Powell had assured senators they would be hearing bin Laden’s message “during the course of the day” on Al-Jazeera.

CNN experts believe the tape is indeed authentic as it’s being aired at the moment on Al-Jazeera. Huh.

Scientist invents Harry Potter invisibility cloak

It’s costly. It doesn’t work. It can’t reform. Kill DARE now.

Cue the pomp and circumstance: Kids around Southern California are graduating from Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) programs. Don’t get too excited, though - these “degrees” aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on.

DARE’s much-hyped plan to teach kids to “Just Say No” is short on success and long on evidence of failure. In 2001, the U.S. surgeon general and the National Academy of Sciences called DARE ineffective. And just a few weeks ago, the General Accounting Office - Congress’ investigative arm - issued a report stating, “the six long-term evaluations of the DARE elementary school curriculum that we reviewed found no significant differences in illicit drug use between students who received DARE in the fifth or sixth grade (the intervention group) and students who did not (the control group).”

Men prefer women with curves, says survey

Sophie Dahl’s decision to adopt a new slimline figure could have resulted in fewer male fans, a new report claims.

The vast majority of men prefer a woman to be curvaceous rather than very thin, according to the Safeway poll.

Women appear to agree with men, with most believing the type of fuller figure Dahl used to sport was more of a turn-on for a man.

Become an Objectivist in Ten Easy Steps (with illustrations)

Suspect Falls Asleep After Break-In

A burglary was bungled when the suspect was caught sleeping on the job.

A man was arrested Saturday morning when he was found taking a nap after breaking into a store owned by the wife of the county district attorney, police said.

The Euro Effect: The Real Reason for the War in Iraq

“If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, it expects what never was and never will be… The People cannot be safe without information. When the press is free, and every man is able to read, all is safe.”

Those words by Thomas Jefferson embody the unfortunate state of affairs that have beset our nation. As our government prepares to go to war with Iraq, our country seems unable to answer even the most basic questions about this war.

First, why is there virtually no international support to topple Saddam? If Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction (WMD) program truly possessed the threat level that President Bush has repeatedly purported, why is there no international coalition to militarily disarm Saddam?

Virtually no international support? Do what? There’s a hell of a lot of support. Oh, wait, Germany, France and Russia are the the world. Nevermind that they have HUGE dealings in Iraq now. And some Middle Eastern countries are against it, not for their love of Saddam, but because of the thought that freedom for certain groups in Iraq will empower them elsewhere (Kurds, Shite Muslums). Of course, they’re not biased.

Secondly, despite over 300 unfettered U.N inspections to date, there has been no evidence reported of a reconstituted Iraqi WMD program.

Third, and despite Bush’s rhetoric, the CIA has not found any links between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda. To the contrary, some analysts believe it is far more likely Al Qaeda might acquire an unsecured former Soviet Union Weapon(s) of Mass Destruction, or potentially from sympathizers within a destabilized Pakistan.

That’s supposedly not the case anymore.

Moreover, immediately following Congress’s vote on the Iraq Resolution, we suddenly became aware of North Korea’s nuclear program violations. Kim Jong Il is processing uranium in order to produce nuclear weapons this year. President Bush has not provided a rationale answer as to why Saddam’s seemingly dormant WMD program possesses a more imminent threat that North Korea’s active program. Strangely, Donald Rumsfeld suggested that if Saddam were ‘exiled’ we could avoid an Iraq war.

Wow, someone hasn’t been paying attention.

North Korea already has the bomb. An attack on them will cause them to use it, thus destroying South Korea and Japan. Diplomacy is more necessary there, whereas Iraq has spurned diplomacy for the last 12 years.

I’m too bored to go on.

I don’t normally pay much attention to what the editors of the Washington Post have to say, given that most of the time they’re speaking out of their asses, but I must say that they’re on target here.

Standing With Saddam

France and Germany have finally responded to Iraq’s flagrant violation of United Nations disarmament orders by mounting an offensive. Yet the target of their campaign is not Saddam Hussein but the United States — and the proximate casualties look to be not the power structures of a rogue dictator but the international institutions that have anchored European and global security. Yesterday in Brussels, the two European governments, seconded by tiny Belgium, blocked the NATO alliance from making preparations to defend Turkey in the event of a war, even though the planning was supported by the alliance’s 16 other members. The two governments, meanwhile, sought support from Russia for a proposal to substitute an increase in U.N. inspectors, possibly accompanied by peacekeeping forces, for the “serious consequences” the Security Council threatened if Iraq did not voluntarily dismantle its weapons of mass destruction. Berlin and Paris say their purpose is to offer a peaceful way out of the Iraq crisis. But their exclusion of the Bush administration from their planning suggests that the real aim is to obstruct council endorsement of the military intervention that the United States is preparing.

Are France and Germany allies or not? Really. Now, I’m not saying they need to support us all the time, if they don’t like what we’re doing, fine, say that. But to deny support to Turkey is to doom an ally. The risk to them exists no matter what we or the alliance do, and even if it is caused by the United States’ actions, France and Germany have a responsibility to the alliance to support and protect those in direct risk of attack.

Iraq have violated the US agreements for the last 12 years. Adding more inspectors is not going to force them to disarm faster, no, they’ll just have to be sneakier. Saddam has forced us to this point and the legitimacy of the UN is at risk here. If it can not enforce it’s twelve year old sanctions, what can it enforce?

And, further more, look into it and you’ll see, Germany, France and Russia, the three most vocal opponents to war with Iraq, have extensive economic dealings with Iraq that would be ruined by a change in regime. Money drives all sides.

Satellite Images of Iraq

French Court Acquits Ex-Yahoo Chief Over Nazi Sites

A French criminal court on Tuesday acquitted the former president of U.S. Internet giant Yahoo Inc. of condoning war crimes by selling Nazi memorabilia, in a victory for campaigners for free speech on the Internet.

The court found Timothy Koogle and Yahoo did not condone or praise Nazism and that it had not shed favorable light on the policies of Adolf Hitler by selling objects from the Third Reich.

Koogle, who left his post at Yahoo in 2001, had in theory faced up to five years in jail and a fine of 45,700 euros ($49,000) in a trial triggered by a complaint filed by three French Jewish and anti-Semitism groups in October 2001.

Good Lord… Just one more reason why the French suck.

Three dead after web pact

Three Japanese people have been found dead after apparently organising their suicides via a website.

The 26-year-old man and two women are believed to have died of carbon monoxide poisoning.

A 17-year-old student who read about the plan on the internet reported the deaths to police.

The power of the internet.

The Oscar Nominations are out.

Poetic Licenses

Are “Choose Life” license plates free speech or state-sponsored infomercials?

This week, Virginia’s House of Representatives approved the creation of specialty “Choose Life” license plates. The Iowa state Senate introduced a bill this week that would do the same. The ACLU has threatened to sue if the Virginia measure is signed into law, which will produce the ninth lawsuit over this issue in three years. Alabama, Florida, Hawaii, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and South Carolina already have “Choose Life” license plate programs, and 13 other states are considering enacting similar legislation. So, it’s probably safe to say that a “Choose Life” tidal wave—and its litigation backlash is poised to hit the nation.

The legal issue isn’t complicated, and it helps to separate it from your feelings about abortion. It’s a free speech question: Can state governments endorse speech representing only one side of an issue as controversial as abortion? Has the state, by opening up license plates as a forum for private speech, incurred a constitutional obligation to allow speakers of every viewpoint equal access to that forum?

Okay, well, my thought is, well, what about the other side? If the state also created “Choose Choice” plates, wouldn’t everything be dandy?

Most of the courts that have considered the issue have wussed out on the First Amendment question altogether, finding the plaintiffs in those cases lacked legal “standing” to file suit, since they had never endeavored to sponsor “Choose Abortion” or “Choose Choice” license plates themselves. Another court decided last month that the “Choose Life” plates in South Carolina were unconstitutional, in that the state was promoting only one side in the debate. Immediately, a South Carolina legislator introduced a “Choose Death” license plate, which he insists fairly expresses the other side in the debate. Newspapers recently noted that the “Choose Death” plate may still prove popular with death-penalty enthusiasts (and perhaps with hunters, werewolves, and NRA members as well). Less clear is whether it will satisfy the plaintiffs from Planned Parenthood.

Uh…. My, how fair and completely impartial.

Dude, you’re going to jail! Sorry, couldn’t resist.

Who wants to be a Billionare?

Michael Davies’ Diplomatic Prods. is close to sealing a deal with the WB to produce a two-hour live special this September in which contestants will have a shot at winning $1 billion.

Davies, who brought “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (news - web sites)” to the U.S. and turned it into a megahit for ABC, plans to partner with Pepsi for the special event, which insiders likened to a real-life “Willy Wonka.”

Taken a good picture lately?

Are you going to the march against military action in Iraq? Are you affected by the congestion charges about to be brought in, in London? Your part in the news is important to us.

BBC News Online wants to report the world from your perspective.

And the digital revolution will help us to do that.

So, if you have been active with your phone camera, or any other digital camera, send us your pictures.

Sweet! Not that I personally am going to have anything decent to send them, but this is great.

A crack legion of spy kangaroos opens the German diplomatic pouch, and pulls out the double-secret UN resolution that Germany and France have been collaborating on (so to speak). Here’s the text of the proposal:

4. Modifies the inspection process as follows:

• Before starting a search, inspectors will now only count to nine, and may peek slightly through their fingers during the count;
• Weapons must be hidden in easy-to-find locations (e.g., the driver’s seat of UN vehicles), painted a bright yellow color, and have an attached sticker that says “I am an illegal weapon of mass destruction;”
• Saddam must yell “ollie ollie oxen free” before changing a weapon’s hiding place;
• Guards at presidential palaces must give the inspectors hints (e.g., “hot” or “cold”), and are not permitted to put evidence on high shelves or other out-of-reach locations;
• If Iraq bribes a Security Council member to prolong the inspections, the bribe must be at least €1 billion to our usual slush fund in Paris shared equally among the Security Council members;

Hollywood Foreign Policy Review

Mitnick Amused By Website Hacks

The world’s best-known computer hacker suffered the indignity of having someone break into his new security consulting company’s website. But Kevin Mitnick shrugged it off as “quite amusing,” not serious enough for him to call the FBI.

Mitnick, whose federal probation on hacking charges ended a few weeks ago, acknowledged that this weekend’s electronic break-in at Defensive Thinking of Los Angeles was actually the second time in weeks that hackers found a way into the computer running the firm’s website.

Squirrel Hazing

The Cubans are coming! The Cubans are coming!

I Don’t Like Those Drugs They Give My Sister

Hungry Ravens Feast on Sheep

Columnist Armstrong Williams recently reported that of the 535 members of the U.S. House and Senate, only one has a child or grandchild in military service. Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., has a son in the Army serving in Afghanistan.

Shuttle WAS Carrying Radioactive Materials - TX Sheriff

In an interview with National Public Radio last night, the Sheriff of Nacogdoches, Texas, Thomas Kerss, declared the following: “There was radioactive material on board.” Kerss also declared that all the debris found by the retrieval operations would be tested for radioactivity.

So the author of this article goes off on how NASA and the US government are now making the Texas people suffer and act and guinea pigs and all sorts of wonderful stuff.

Uh, hey, um, the shuttle does, oh, I don’t know, experiments with lots of different things that may be considered dangerous. And, well, a sheriff, not really knowing much about what was on board, may want to keep folks away. So let’s say that the debris is not only toxic, but radioactive too, so stay away!

Please, if it was really radioactive to the extent of harming people, I don’t think the folks searching for debris would be in regular clothes. The EPA is involved, and I haven’t seen protection suits, have you?

Pictures of Shuttle Debris

This older article over at A List Apart is pretty damn good: 10 Tips on Writing the Living Web

Also, I failed my first quiz today, getting 6 out of 10 on an Econ quiz because of trick wording. I still have a B overall, but I’m not pleased.

And I’m thinking of redesigning JSKOnline and J’s Notes and putting the two together into one big site on some server somewhere with a domain name and all that fun stuff in the next month or two. Yeah, it’s gonna be great. Hosting Matters looks like a damn good service, 35 MB storage, 3000 MB per month bandwidth, and 20 e-mail addys for $8.00 a month. Not bad at all. Though, $3 more a month gets ya 125 MB storage, 11000 MB bandwidth and 40 e-mails. Now, I don’t need 40 e-mails, hell, not even 20, but the extra storage is nice. Not that I need it at this point, but it’d be good to have. Just stuff I’m looking into…

Forget the groundhog I just saw a bunch of robbins hopping around, so spring is coming! (Long winter my ass.)

Disco Squirrels!

My Guilty Pleasures

Those of us in the “literary game” often have “guilty pleasures” that we indulge in when not translating Cicero from the Latin into the German and then back into the Latin, to see how funny it sounds. My favorite guilty pleasure is watching the new TV series “The Bachelor: Who Screws the Best?,” in which an ugly, poor, middle-aged married guy has sex with a series of young women who have been misled into believing that he is handsome, young, and rich, after which he decides which of them to propose to, at which time they are notified that he is actually ugly, poor, and middle-aged. I especially loved the moment when Desiree, the series’ “bad girl,” said, “Well, I thought there was a lot of hair on his back, but, still, I felt we were really connecting.” Also good is the new series “The Bachelor: Actually He Is Dead,” in which a group of young women attempt to win the favor of a propped-up, moldering corpse that they have been told is a young, handsome rich guy who is alive…

The Nokia N-Gage Nokia gets in the handheld gaming market. Looks pretty neat, too.

I’m losing patience with my neighbours, Mr Bush

by Terry Jones

I’m really excited by George Bush’s latest reason for bombing Iraq: he’s running out of patience. And so am I!

For some time now I’ve been really pissed off with Mr Johnson, who lives a couple of doors down the street. Well, him and Mr Patel, who runs the health food shop. They both give me queer looks, and I’m sure Mr Johnson is planning something nasty for me, but so far I haven’t been able to discover what. I’ve been round to his place a few times to see what he’s up to, but he’s got everything well hidden. That’s how devious he is.

As for Mr Patel, don’t ask me how I know, I just know - from very good sources - that he is, in reality, a Mass Murderer. I have leafleted the street telling them that if we don’t act first, he’ll pick us off one by one.

He takes fatal OD as Internet pals watch

“I told u I was hardcore.”

Those were the last coherent words Brandon Vedas, 21, typed into the computer in his Phoenix bedroom as he showed off for Internet pals watching on a Web cam by swallowing more and more prescription drugs.

Vedas died online as a crowd of virtual onlookers egged him to “eat more!” A chilling record of the Jan. 12 chat reads like an Internet version of the notorious 1964 Kew Gardens, Queens, stabbing of Kitty Genovese as her neighbors watched from their windows.

How to be an Internet Woo-Woo

Saddam’s bodyguard warns of secret arsenal

SADDAM Hussein’s senior bodyguard has fled with details of Iraq’s secret arsenal.

His revelations have supported US President George W. Bush’s claim there is enough evidence from UN inspectors to justify going to war.

Abu Hamdi Mahmoud has provided Israeli intelligence with a list of sites that the inspectors have not visited.

They include:

AN underground chemical weapons facility at the southern end of the Jadray Peninsula in Baghdad;

A SCUD assembly area near Ramadi. The missiles come from North Korea;

TWO underground bunkers in Iraq’s Western Desert. These contain biological weapons.

Shaun told me about this a few days ago and I didn’t believe it at first because the only source he had given me was from bushcountry.com who got their info from some group that looked like a crackpot organization. But now other media outlets are picking it up. Not that that makes it true, mind you, cause, well, they pick up some weird stuff that isn’t always true. Remember China thinking the Onion article about the retractable dome for the Capitol was true? Yeah.

GO VOTE TO GET THE TICK PUT ON DVD!!!!

Best Blurbs of the Year!

Time Travel and Modern Physics

Mmmm….. toe nails

fucked.

what fucked version of hello kittie are you?
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