Spot's Lunch

From Athens

ATHENS, Greece - For years, tourists to the Acropolis have been frustrated to find
ancient monuments shrouded in scaffolding, thanks to a long and painstaking
restoration project. Shown here, beach volleyball isn't anything like restoring
ancient monuments.

WaHoo

Finally some good food research is being done. I've had it up to
here, or maybe even here, with those studies telling us that there's
grease in Mexican food. We *know* there's grease in it, that's why
we like it. Anyway, this is the best science news since that study
linking well, you know, and a lowered incidence of breast cancer.
(& btw, I'm pretty sure it's also good for your hair and usually improves
your gas mileage)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Dark chocolate can not only soothe your soul but can lower blood pressure too, researchers reported Monday.

The study, published by the American Heart Association, joins a growing body of research that show compounds found in chocolate called flavonoids can help the blood vessels work more smoothly, perhaps reducing the risk of heart disease.

Lanzillo

From Ann:
The only way a supreme court nominee could win the approval of NARAL and Planned Parenthood would be to actually perform an abortion during his confirmation hearing, live, on camera, and preferably a partial birth one.

My idea was to make up a name, Lanzillo Phadodah, or something like that. Then wait for
the attack.... "Frankly, we expected this president to nominate someone who could unite
this country, this Lanzillo Phadodah is an extremist slap in the face to the good people
who .... blah-blah-blah-blah-blah"
Ah well.

Happy Day

Hope today isn't as brutal as yesterday. I'll settle for less humid.
Thought I was going to fall right over for awhile there.

This is a cheerful picture anyway. On Yahoo it was right next
to a picture of a sumo wrestler getting a wedgie.

I'm sure I'll get one for Christmas

A combination lock for your soda? Who cares that much about their soda?
Now a pie-lock, or a cake strong box, sure, I'd pay good money for
something like that.

Yawn

I'm off to take the kid to camp -- several hours away so I'm up at this
insane hour. How do people function this early in the morning? I keep
walking into doors and forgetting to breathe. My hats off to you
you good people who do this *every* day.

Part of the Problem

Speaking Saturday, Tony Blair noted that we must struggle against the
"evil ideology" of al Qaeda for the hearts and minds of the people. Of course
we've been doing that from day one in Iraq, whether by building schools,
with visiting nurses programs, by passing out candy and toys -- We've been
doing it in ways too numerous to list.

Sure, the media can't get the word out on all the good things that are going
on in Iraq. I understand. Good works aren't NEWS. A US serviceman stepping out
of line is news but nobody wants to read about Marines building an outdoor
market.

But maybe it says something about the mind-set of the media when staffers
at Reuters are able to ask Zakaria Zubeidi, head of the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade,
to make a guest appearance in a spoof video made for a departing employee.
No, the spoof video isn't sinister; being able to ask a favor of a man
who claims to have caused 300 acts of terror *is*. Can you possibly expect
Reuters to act as an unbiased conduit for news if they number this man
as a friend?


From Ynet News:

"The video's theme was what Israel would be like in 10 years," said an Israeli government official who attended the party and viewed the video.

"All of a sudden, at the end, there is Zakaria Zubeidi, playing the head of Reuters. Zubeidi was sitting in Reuters' Jenin office, saying he was Reuters’ chief,” the official said.

'They thought video was hilarious'

The party included guests from the BBC, ITN, the Independent newspaper, and French journalists.

"They all thought the video was hilarious," the official said. He added that only a few individuals did not seem amused during the screening.

"They were laughing; they thought it was very funny, he said.”

Reuters spokeswoman Susan Allsopp said in a statement to Ynetnews that the film “was a spoof video put together for a departing member of staff by a few of his colleagues in Israel and the Palestinian territories. It was shown at a private farewell party and was meant to be humorous.

Good News

Maybe terror gets old after awhile. From a Pew research poll:

"There's declining support for terrorism in the Muslim countries and support for Osama bin Laden is declining. There's also less support for suicide bombings," said Pew Center director Andrew Kohut.

"This is good news, but still there are substantial numbers who support bin Laden in some of these countries," he told a news conference.

In Morocco, 26 percent of the public now say they have a lot or some confidence in bin Laden, down from 49 percent in a similar poll two years ago.

Barbarians?

From several months back:

Police in Berlin arrested three Muslim brothers in what appears to be the latest in a series of so-called "honor killings."

The slaying of a 23-year-old Turkish woman, Hatun Surucu, who died of multiple bullet wounds to the head and chest, bears all the marks of an honor killing, a police psychologist said, according to BBC News.

"In Islamic culture, the woman is the bearer of the family decency," explained Karl Mollenhauer. "She must maintain the honor of the family. Men must defend that honour."

It would be the sixth honor killing in as many months among Berlin's 200,000-member Turkish community and the 45th in the past eight years.

Surucu had taken her 5-year-old son and run away from her husband of eight years, a cousin with whom she was united in an arranged marriage.

The killing has prompted an unusually strong response, with Turkish women taking to the streets to protest, the BBC said.

"This tragedy has shaken us awake. We've been very surprised by the response," Eren Unsal from the Association of Secular Turks told BBC News.

Unsal noted that for the first time, political decision-makers and private groups in the community have been willing to sit down together to talk about addressing the problem.

The BBC reported, however, that just yards from the site of the killing, children on a school playground were heard praising it, saying the victim had lived like a German.

"Living like a German" is a reason for execution in the children's minds?
Despair for the future as well.