Doggedly searching for the crux of the biscuit.
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A story from right here in Durham.
The robber was holding a gun to 5-year-old Mary Long's head when a 3-foot-tall Mighty Morphin Power Ranger leapt into the room.
"Get away from my family," 4-year-old Stevie Long shouted, punctuating his screams with swipes of his plastic sword and hearty "yah, yahs." The robber and his accomplice, who was waiting outside the apartment Friday night, fled with credit cards, jewelry, cash and other items that Stevie's mother, Jennifer Long, dumped from her purse.
"I scared the bad guys away," Stevie said Tuesday evening at the apartment at 901 Chalk Level Road in north Durham. [...]
Relatives said the robber abandoned plans to take Stevie's mother to an ATM to withdraw cash when he saw Stevie. "It tripped him out, and that's when they moved on," said Evans, who did not witness the incident. [...] A counselor said Stevie needs to improve his distinction between fantasy and reality, said Heather Evans, Stevie's aunt. "He fully believed he morphed," she said.
Scary story. The kid was lucky not to get shot.
National Review editor Rich Lowry, the keen mind behind this cover, is a flippin' flippity-floppity flip-flopper, and probably French. (via)
Hole mounting captive nuts. (via)
The fragile situation in Lebanon probably blows up tomorrow.
Dennis Prager hates the US Constitution as much as he hates Muslims.
Wasps squirt pepper spray from their heads during fights.
Need a gift idea for that special someone who has everything? They'll never expect this.
Very cool medically-inspired art. Check out the meat pillows. (via)
While we're on about crazy comments, here's a pretty good one.
In honor of the thread that will not die (Is Barack Obama the Anti-Christ?), Robust McManlyPants has whipped out his massive, throbbing Photoshop skills to produce a thing of beauty.
In case you don't get the reference (hi, Mom!), it's here.
Update: Gaijin Biker sez, "More contrasty."
You got your stupid in my hypocrisy!
You got your hypocrisy on my stupid!
Mmmm, tastes instalicious.
Update: It just keeps getting better.
A homeowners' association in southwestern Colorado has threatened to fine a resident $25 a day until she removes a Christmas wreath with a peace sign that some say is an anti-Iraq war protest or a symbol of Satan. Some residents who have complained have children serving in Iraq, said Bob Kearns, president of the Loma Linda Homeowners Association in Pagosa Springs. He said some residents believed the wreath was a symbol of Satan. Three or four residents complained, he said. [...]
The subdivision's rules say no signs, billboards or advertising are permitted without the consent of the architectural control committee. Kearns ordered the committee to require Jensen to remove the wreath, but members refused after concluding that it was merely a seasonal symbol that didn't say anything. Kearns fired all five committee members.
Just so we're clear, this is the wreath that has this halfwit all riled up and spitting. The woman with the wreath is handling it much more gracefully than I would, because I'd already have put up the twelve-foot inflatable Santa doing this.
Sleep in heavenly peace.
Update: It appears the media attention has convinced Mr. Kearns to drop his idiotic campaign.
"We want to let you know that this evening we just received a letter from the Loma Linda Home Owners Board of Directors stating: 'We had a misunderstanding with your Christmas decoration and for that we apologize. We withdraw any and all previous requests for removal of your decoration,' " Jensen told The Associated Press.
None of the three members of the board was available for comment late Monday. Kearns and Jeff Heitz had their phone numbers changed to unlisted numbers Monday.
Via Obscure Store.
Scott Eric Kaufman is measuring the speed at which a meme moves across the ether for a panel at the Modern Language Association. Give a brother a hand already.
Just a couple of brief announcements. Today marks my thirty-eighth complete trip around the Sun. I know you're pondering what sort of expensive gift to buy, but I'd prefer you just send cash, because (in case you don't keep up with my news by reading every four-hundred-comment thread at unfogged.com) the missus is knocked up again and due 'long about the beginning of June. Do I dare to eat a peach? I do.
For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind.
Followers of the militant Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr took over state-run television Saturday to denounce the Iraqi government, label Sunnis "terrorists" and issue what appeared to many viewers as a call to arms. The two-hour broadcast from a community gathering in the heart of the Shiite militia stronghold of Sadr City included three members of al-Sadr's parliamentary bloc, who took questions from outraged residents demanding revenge for a series of car bombings that killed some 200 people Thursday.
With Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki relegated to the sidelines, brazen Sunni-Shiite attacks continue unchecked despite a 24-hour curfew over Baghdad. Al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia now controls wide swaths of the capital, his politicians are the backbone of the Cabinet, and his followers deeply entrenched in the Iraqi security forces. Sectarian violence has spun so rapidly out of control since the Sadr City blasts, however, that it's not clear whether even al-Sadr has the authority - or the will - to stop the cycle of bloodshed...
Sunni politicians vowed to file complaints against the channel for inciting sectarian violence. Ordinary Sunnis were shocked to hear their neighborhoods singled out for attack on the government's station.
"I got four phone calls from friends telling me to change the channel to Iraqiya and see what's happening," said Mohamed Othman, 27, a Sunni resident of Ameriya, one of the districts mentioned in the program. "I think this is an official declaration of civil war against Sunnis. They're going to push us to join al-Qaida to protect ourselves."
As the post notes, "the Rwandan genocide began when Hutu radicals used state radio to call for the massacre of Tutsi and any Hutu who didn't support the massacre of the Tutsi." Moreover, all indications are that the US hardly even knows who the various armed groups are. I have a bad feeling that, as bad as the past few months have been, they will seem easy compared to what comes next.
A disaster on this scale ought to render the Republican Party unelectable for a generation. It won't, but it should.
Update: From the Washington Post.
In the aftermath of one of the deadliest spasms of violence, a new level of fear and foreboding has gripped Baghdad, fueled in part by sectarian text messages and Internet sites, deepening tensions in an already divided capital. In interviews across Baghdad on Saturday, Sunnis and Shiites said they were preparing themselves for upheaval, both violent and psychological. They viewed the bombings that killed more than 200 people Thursday in the heart of Baghdad's Shiite Muslim community of Sadr City as a trigger for more reprisal killings. [...]
Since those attacks, quasi-armies of residents in mixed and majority-Sunni Arab neighborhoods have formed to protect their streets. Sunni Web sites are offering advice on how to kill Shiite militiamen. College students and executives pace at their homes, clutching rifles and handguns around the clock. Iraqis are posting pleas on Internet message boards to buy extra ammunition and weapons.
Despite a government-imposed curfew, Iraqis described Shiite militiamen murdering Sunnis at checkpoints, controlling neighborhoods with impunity and conspiring with Iraq's majority-Shiite police force, which the Interior Ministry controls. Other Iraqis spoke of mortar shells raining on their mosques and gun battles outside their houses, deepening their mistrust of Iraq's security forces and elected politicians.
Over the past two days, warnings have spread through messages delivered to the cellphones of Sunni Muslims. In Arabic, they read: "Very big armed groups are being formed in Sadr City, backed up by the Interior Ministry, to kill great numbers of the citizens of Baghdad once the curfew is lifted. Spread the word among our people."
Every so often, you snap a picture that succinctly and completely sums up an individual's personality. Like this.
Remember Brian Atene's Full Metal Jacket audition video I linked a few weeks back? The one with the 20-years-later follow-up? Turns out the follow-up wasn't actually Atene. But this is.
Via BoingBoing.
I've posted some of these previously, but Ogged spotted a post just crammed full of video clips of reporters stumbling badly on-air. I know I shouldn't laugh at the grape-stomping mishap—really, I do—but it never stops being funny.
Something smells funny about these investigative techniques.
In X-rated testimony as graphic as a pornographic film, a dominatrix today described a bizarre sexual encounter in the woods she claims to have had with a town police officer.
"He wanted to go to a motel in the Bronx where I would defecate on him, but I told him I was uncomfortable going to the Bronx," testified the dominatrix, Gina Pane, 31, buttoned up in an olive-gray suit with her black hair pulled back in a bun. "I suggested that we go into a woody area. He was very excited."
The officer, she testified, performed a sexual act after she was finished. [...] Ward's lawyer said the officer did nothing sexual or inappropriate in the woods, but was recruiting the dominatrix to be a confidential source for narcotics investigations.
Sorry, but I only crap on clients in classy neighborhoods. I have standards.
Powerline, yesterday:
I wrote in June that based on the data at that time, the murder rate in Iraq outside of Baghdad is about the same as American cities like Chicago, Philadelphia and Milwaukee. With the current numbers, it looks like that would still be true. A consensus seems to have developed that Iraq is a disaster because of out-of-control sectarian violence. That consensus is driving proposals to change our policy in Iraq, perhaps in the direction of a pull-out that could lead to truly cataclysmic violence. So I think it makes sense to step back and get a more realistic picture of the level of what is happening in Iraq: violent? Yes. A disaster comparable to a civil war? No.
His numbers are nonsense, of course, if for no other reason that deaths outside of Baghdad are vastly more likely to go unreported. And I suppose it is helpful to exclude Baghdad, where a quarter of the population lives, where US and Iraqi government forces have the strongest presence, and where you nonetheless get stories like this:
The death toll from a series of car bombs in a Shia militia stronghold in Baghdad on Thursday has risen to 115, an Interior Ministry source said. A further 125 people were wounded in three apparently coordinated car bombs and a mortar blast in different parts of the Sadr City neighbourhood. A series of car bombs exploded in a Shia militia stronghold in Baghdad on Thursday and gunmen mounted an audacious daylight raid on a Shia-run government ministry.
Three apparently coordinated car bombs and a mortar blast in different parts of Sadr City neighbourhood destroyed whole streets, leaving bloodied remains amid mangled vehicle wrecks in one the worst bomb attacks in the capital this month.
Five people were wounded at the Health Ministry, about 5 km (3 miles) from Sadr City, an Interior Ministry source said, when about 30 guerrillas fired mortars, rocket-propelled grenades and machineguns into the compound in one of the biggest public shows of force by militants in the city since the 2003 US invasion.
A United Nations report released on Wednesday said Iraq's civilian death toll hit a high in October of 120 a day.
Comparable to a civil war? Hmm.
This looks to be an interesting special. Imaging fetal animals with ultrasound and cgi.
Images from here.
I am truly grateful:
God has returned, he's making more land, and he's finally cleaning up professional sports.
Here's a good detail on the probable loss of the ten-year-old Mars Global Surveyor. It likely couldn't position the troublesome solar panel on one side in an unorthodox manner, move its other to compensate to gain adequate power, and then twist its communication hardware towards Earth accurately after it came out from the darkness behind Mars.
Also along those knotted lines, here's a good detail of the challlenges facing Nancy Pelosi as she decides who to appoint Chair of the House Intelligence committee.
Republicans decide not to do their jobs.
Republicans vacating the Capitol are dumping a big spring cleaning job on Democrats moving in. GOP leaders have opted to leave behind almost a half-trillion-dollar clutter of unfinished spending bills.
There's also no guarantee that Republicans will pass a multibillion-dollar measure to prevent a cut in fees to doctors treating Medicare patients.
The bulging workload that a Republican-led Congress was supposed to complete this year but is instead punting to 2007 promises to consume time and energy that Democrats had hoped to devote to their own agenda upon taking control of Congress in January for the first time in a dozen years.
Also via TPM, this sums it up pretty well.
If I could walk that way, I wouldn't need talcum powder.
It happened as three men were attempting to kidnap a teenager in a dispute over stereo speakers in Wichita, Kansas. One of the three pulled out a gun, fired it at the teen and missed, reports the Wichita Eagle. The gunman jammed the pistol back into the waistband of his pants - and it went off, hitting him in the left testicle. The 23-year-old man's reaction to his injury caused the gun to fire again, hitting himself in the left calf. The man was arrested after he walked into a medical centre seeking help.
Phrases on the marquee at the local strip club to cater to a more literate crowd.
You forgot Poland: "Tony Blair conceded last night that western intervention in Iraq had been a disaster. In an interview with Al-Jazeera, the Arabic TV station, the prime minister agreed with the veteran broadcaster Sir David Frost when he suggested that intervention had 'so far been pretty much of a disaster'."
"Deputies arrested a 20-year-old man after he accidentally turned himself in to the Isla Vista Foot Patrol office for public intoxication. The self-incriminating subject stumbled into the station, which was full of officers, as he was looking for his misplaced cell phone. His speech was slurred and incoherent, but deputies managed to find out that the man had walked to the station from his residence on Madrid Road after chugging copious amounts of vodka. The man then handed over the keys to his home and car, and announced to the officers that he was 'officially drunk'."
Mike Tyson trades in his boxing gloves to work in Heidi Fleiss' legal brothel for women.
The Brazilian Happy Penis program.
"An unidentified source at the National Security Agency said, 'We have no comment on the possible levitation of one or more Caribbean islands'. Another manager at NIMA, who also refused to be identified, added 'We have no comment on the possible levitation of one or more Caribbean islands'."
Am I supposed to believe that nobody cocked an eyebrow at any point during the design phase of this toy?
I don't know about the rest of you, but the amount of penny stock spam arriving in my inbox has gone through the roof since the summer. A real flood, and devilishly clever at avoiding the spam filter. Turns out it's the fault of a sophisticated botnet of over 70,000 infected computers being controlled by Russian hackers. Interestingly, the Trojan comes with its own virus scanner that removes competing malware.
With friends like these, who needs enemies?
"It's kind of a shocking picture of -- you don't want to see Jamey Singleton getting out of the shower, you want to see him doing the weather."
(via)
As a rule, Top 100 Albums of All Time lists suck. They tend to be heavy on the conventional wisdom and, specifically, the conventional wisdom of the baby boomer generation. Time Magazine has just put out a list and the conventional wisdom charge rings truer than ever. While the list doesn't actually rank them from 1 to 100, it does break them down into decades, which is fair enough, as arbitrary divisions go. If you want a peek inside the hip and up-to-date minds of the Time Magazine staff, only 9 albums from the 2000s made the cut and those nine include the following four:
Hank Williams, The Essential Hank Williams Collection: Turn Back the Years
Sam Cooke, Portrait of a Legend 1951 - 1964
Elvis Presley, Elvis: 30 No. 1 Hits
Muddy Waters, The Anthology, 1947 - 1972
Really, guys. You could at least try.
Bush appoints anti-contraception activist to "oversee $283 million in annual family-planning grants that, according to HHS, are 'designed to provide access to contraceptive supplies and information to all who want and need them with priority given to low-income persons'." The appointee is medical director for a non-profit group that believes that distributing contraception is "demeaning to women." Not that the GOP is beholden to a bunch of goddamn religious fanatics or anything.
I know the phrase gets tossed around a lot, but Bush really is vying for the title of worst president to ever hold the office.
Update: Hey look! Contraception isn't the last stop on this guy's crazy trolley.
Just got an email from my ex-wife:
I have no idea where this came from or what it means, but I can't stop laughing at it.
I can't stop laughing either. So, of course, I forwarded it to the usual suspects around the office and the first reply I got back was, "Isn't it from the ad against Harold Ford?"
Brief but cool slideshow of mantis closeups.
Brown Betty ain't what she used to be.
Despite my claims to the contrary, pet monkeys are not a good idea unless you wear armor.
I don't understand the math in this paper (though the press release helps), but page through it and click the Quicktime symbols for the animated eye candy.
There's a massive hurricane at Saturn's south pole right now, wider across than Earth and the first such storm observed on another planet. More here.
Check out the zoom function on these megapixel photos.
Another reason to hammer the stem cell issue.
Eaton's approach was inspired by the similarities between embryos, embryonic stem cells and tumours. "Embryos and tumours both grow as balls, they derive nutrients from the host, and they both express peculiar proteins - some of them in common," he says.
These shared proteins made Eaton think that a vaccine prompting an immune response to embryonic stem cells would also trigger an attack against tumours. He and his colleagues injected mice with stem cells and gave the mice a booster shot ten days later. The researchers then transplanted lung cancer cells under the animals' skin — a standard animal model for the disease. The stem-cell injection protected 20 out of 25 mice from developing tumours, whereas tumours grew in all unvaccinated mice.
"We were absolutely shocked," Eaton says.
Even more effective was a mixture of stem cells and cells engineered to make a molecule that stimulates the immune system. None of the mice given this vaccine developed tumours when implanted with cancer cells. Eight of nine animals given this treatment were also protected from lung cancer induced by chemicals thought to mimic the effects of cigarette smoke.
The article notes that cancer vaccines are "notoriously more effective in mice than people," and concerns remain that the body's response to a vaccine based on this model could lead to the body attacking its own stem cells. Nonetheless it points to a whole new field of potential attack, beginning with discovering which molecules in the stem cells are responsible for the tumor-killing properties.
Hey, look! My pre-election predictions were exactly correct. That's a first. So, the implications of the blue sweep? Here are my quick reactions.
1. A minimum wage hike is inevitable. All six ballot measures dealing with the issue passed, all in traditionally Republican states and almost all with huge Yes votes (CO 53%, OH 56%, AZ 66%, NV 69%, MT 73%, MO 76%). The GOP has to see the writing on the wall on this one. No senator up in 2008 will oppose this, unless they are in a completely safe seat.
2. This should have been a challenging Senate election for Democrats. We were defending about the same number of seats and the pickups we made were in some solidly red states. 2008, however, looks golden for the Democrats. We're defending 12 seats while the Republicans are defending 21, and by my count, as many of half of their seats are potentially in play. Maybe three of ours are.
3. Facing a minimum of four years in the minority, and with a lot of the GOP senators getting long in the tooth, I expect a wave of retirements, some of which will turn safe GOP seats into competitive ones. A filibuster-proof majority from 2008-2010 isn't out of the question. 2010, assuming no deaths/retirements leading to special elections in the interim, will have Dems defending 15 seats and the GOP defending 19. Most of our seats are safe ones.
4. The House majority is fragile and likely to shrink or flip in 2008, unless we have a strong presidential ticket to drive turnout.
5. 28-22 lead in governorships is a good portent, because that's where our national candidates get built. Also, redistricting advantage.
6. The GOP increasingly looks like a regional party, representing southern conservatives who, let's face it, are different from conservatives elsewhere in the country. This is a good wedge, actually. "Mississippi religious fanatics" are the new "San Francisco radicals." It's imperative we get to work painting the GOP as captive to James Dobson and Pat Robertson. That's an easy stereotype to run against.
7. Arizona became the first state to reject an anti-gay ballot measure, and even though it passed in Wisconsin, the issue may have cost the GOP the state legislature. Slowly but steadily, gaybashing is losing its political power.
8. Forty-nine GOP senators and a presidential veto means very little legislation gets passed, though Pelosi will get good press from the changing House rules. Cracking down on earmarks and lobbying abuses isn't just good politics, it's good policy. I hope both sides can come together and do some work on fixing our electoral process, because the lack of trust people have in it now is dangerous.
9. George Allen's presidential aspirations are deader than dead. I continue to believe that McCain, who would be hard to stop in a general election, can't win his party's nomination because the Bible-thumpers don't trust him. Giuliani? Please. Condoleezza Rice? A party based on the Deep South isn't sending a black woman to the nomination in 2008. Replace "black woman" with "Mormon" in the previous sentence and you've scotched Mitt Romney's chances. Jeb Bush? The Bush brand may be too damaged to recover in two years and I can't see one family winning 3 times in such a short stretch. With no clear frontrunner, the GOP is headed for a brutal and vicious primary season. One dark horse candidate to keep an eye on is Chuck Hagel, and otherwise expect a retired general or two to consider a run.
Your thoughts?
Don't shoot fireworks out of your butt.
A man suffered internal burns when he tried to launch a rocket from his bottom on Bonfire Night. Paramedics found the 22-year-old bleeding, with a Black Cat Thunderbolt Rocket lodged inside him, when they attended the scene in Sunderland. He suffered a scorched colon and is now recovering in hospital, where his condition is described as stable.
However, if you absolutely must—and I know sometimes these situations do arise—at least stick to sparklers.
Is there anybody left who will deny that Diebold is a goddamned disaster at handling elections? The only, only, reason to use their machines is for the express purpose of electoral fraud.
Also, Ohio: get your shit together already. You make Guatemala look good, for crying out loud.
Update: How embarrassing is it that Nicaragua, the second poorest country in the Western hemisphere, can run a cleaner election than the United States?
I have a long history of erring on the side of optimism, so I'll withhold my predictions for fear of jinxing the results. But I endorse TBogg's predictions.
Meanwhile, Stuart Rothenberg's final call says 30-36 D pickups in the House and 4-7 in the Senate, while Charlie Cook calls 20-35 House seats, 4-6 Senate seats, and 6-8 governorships for the Democrats.
And Faith Hill demands a recount.
Get your card for election night.
Update: The first time I hit the site, Mark Foley was in the rightmost column and the google ad beside his square was for a sex predator registry. Unfortunately, despite repeated refreshes, I've been unable to get it happen again.
I've been horribly remiss in answering emails, and I apologize to everybody who's not gotten a reply recently. I've been sick, work's been busy, guests, etc. So with that out of the way, links from the readership.
Who could have guessed this guy would be a wanted criminal?
Video of the first working flying saucer.
Move over Cydonia, Canada's got a giant face of its own.
Thanks to cw, Gaijin Biker, kachi, Leland, and Karen for the tips.
Naked man arrested after pulling awl from rectum
Alternate: Man removes sharp hand tool from rear at gunpoint
Let's take a little trip down memory lane. In February 2005, Jonah Goldberg proposed a bet to Juan Cole:
Anyway, I do think my judgment is superior to his when it comes to the big picture. So, I have an idea: Since he doesn't want to debate anything except his own brilliance, let's make a bet. I predict that Iraq won't have a civil war, that it will have a viable constitution, and that a majority of Iraqis and Americans will, in two years time, agree that the war was worth it. I'll bet $1,000 (which I can hardly spare right now). This way neither of us can hide behind clever word play or CV reading.
Cole turned down the wager, saying that he didn't view Iraqis as greyhounds at a track and found the offer disgusting. Now, we're still three months away from the two-year horizon Goldberg proposed, but we can safely assume, given the arc of events since then, that if conditions change between now and February, it isn't likely to be in a positive direction. So, let's evaluate the bet that never happened.
No civil war
Well, the administration refuses to ever use that term, but any objective observer would have to be brain damaged to deny it at this point. And as ThinkProgress notes, with four major internal conflicts raging simultaneously, it's worse than a civil war.
A viable constitution
Constitution approved by referendum in October 2005. Score one for Jonah! Though, as the US Institute for Peace notes, "viable" is quite a stretch.
A majority of Americans will agree that the war was worth it
Ahem. "The WSJ/NBC poll also found that 54% of the electorate thinks the Iraq war 'wasn't worth the human and financial costs,' [...] Far from being just a "blue state" phenomenon, our survey found 57% of those in Southern states in our poll said 'the U.S. should have stayed out of Iraq,' 62% said they were 'very sad' about the course of the Iraq mission, and fully 30% said they favored immediate withdrawal.
A majority of Iraqis will agree that the war was worth it
Ahem again. "71% of Iraqis want US forces to leave within a year. Of that group, 37% want a US withdrawal within the next six months. 61% approve of attacks on US troops. 78% think the US presence in Iraq is provoking more conflict than it is preventing."
Goldberg now, of course, has prime-time real estate on the op-ed page of the LA Times. Probably because of his superior judgement when it comes to the big picture.
If you ever want to really enrage a gay-bashing fundamentalist, tell them that their virulent homophobia is probably a reaction to their own repressed homosexual urges. Sends them into a sputtering rage almost every time. And you know why it's funny? Because it's so often true.
A gay man and admitted male escort claims he has had an ongoing sexual relationship with a well-known Evangelical pastor from Colorado Springs. Mike Jones told '9 Wants to Know' Investigative Reporter Paula Woodward he has had a "sexual business" relationship with Pastor Ted Haggard for the past three years.
Haggard is the founder and senior leader of the New Life Church in Colorado Springs. The church has 14,000 members. He is also president of the National Association of Evangelicals, an organization that represents millions of people. Haggard is married with five children and an outspoken critic of gay marriage. [...]
Jones started talking to 9 Wants to Know two months ago. He claims Haggard has been paying him for sex over the past three years, even though Haggard preaches that homosexuality is a sin. Jones also claims Haggard used methamphetamine in his presence on several occasions.
You may or may not be familiar with Haggard, as he doesn't sport the sort of public profile that Robertson or Dobson do, but this is a guy who wields more power than either one and who boasts of having weekly conference calls with President Bush. Oh, how I hope this story turns out to be true.
Update: The escort says he has voicemails and a letter from Haggard and that he will take a polygraph test.
Update 2: Looks like we can go ahead and assume that the methamphetamine accusations are the truth.
