Final, Conclusive, Incontrovertible, Indisputable Evidence Is In

It's pretty much settled then:

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - The use of mobile phones over a long period of time can raise the risk for brain tumors, a new Swedish study said on Friday, contradicting the conclusions of other researchers.....

Except for when they don't, but then they do, but you have
nothing to worry about. That is until next week when the
sure-if-you-don't-mind-a-tumor-the-size-of-a-baseball study
comes out. Whatever happened to the inconclusive research
project? How refreshing would that be, to have the the
lab-coated Big Scientist say, "Well we studied this thing
for six years and all we can really conclude is that if you
put salt on your food it will be salty and that greasy
food will have grease in it. We really don't know what we're
doing. Thanks for your time."

Nuke Test Without the Nukes

Funny the Post didn't notice:

A huge mushroom cloud of dust is expected to rise over Nevada's desert in June when the Pentagon plans to detonate a gigantic 700-ton explosive -- the biggest open-air chemical blast ever at the Nevada Test Site -- as part of the research into developing weapons that can destroy deeply buried military targets, officials said yesterday.

Sure, it's not a nuke but the test is to determine what
a nuke would do. How do you know that? Show me the plane
that could get off the ground with a 700 ton bomb. You
would have to build the bomb in place over the target.
What they're doing is studying the effects of a huge blast,
one that couldn't come from a conventional bomb dropped
from the sky.

Me, I'm cautious about anything that would make the use
of nukes more likely.

Standing Security on It's Head

Expose the Left (video) noticed. The democrat plan, or statement
of things the democrats (and everyone else) would like
to see happen, was upside-downed by Nancy Pelosi. This
visionary plan includes the revolutionary concepts of not
setting a timetable for withdrawal and getting bin Laden.
Republicans everywhere are slapping their heads and
saying, "Why didn't I think of that?"

Latest 411 on Harrison

Contactmusic.com reports that Harrison Ford hates the internet:

HARRISON FORD hates the internet, because it means anyone can spread malicious gossip about him. The actor, who plays a computer-security specialist in his latest film FIREWALL, sees a need to censor his words to avoid being misrepresented online. He says, "The worst thing about the internet is that anything and everything is up for grabs. How can that be, when I limit my public conversations to about once every couple of years? "Any kind of rubbish goes on the internet and it can have a f**king life of its own."

Whew, what a long article. They could have trimmed it
down a little:

Some insiders in the movie industry speculate that Harrison
Ford is referring to foot fetish sites when he says that, "any kind
of rubbish goes on the internet." He did not say which rubbish
was his favorite but, importantly, he did not rule out the foot
fetish sites -- thereby fueling further speculation.

Update: More from contactmusic.com:

LISA MINNELLI SAYS 'I'M SICK OF SEX'

Harrison Ford has yet to comment.

The Appeasement Solution

Long article, that just keeps getting more depressing as you read,
but you should read it all, from the Brussels Journal:

The wave of robberies the city of Malmö has witnessed during this past year is part of a “war against the Swedes.” This is the explanation given by young robbers from immigrant backgrounds when questioned about why they only rob native Swedes, in interviews with Petra Åkesson for her thesis in sociology. “I read a report about young robbers in Stockholm and Malmö and wanted to know why they rob other youths. It usually does not involve a lot of money,” she says. She interviewed boys between 15 and 17 years old, both individually and in groups.

Almost 90% of all robberies reported to the police were committed by gangs, not individuals. “When we are in the city and robbing we are waging a war, waging a war against the Swedes.” This argument was repeated several times. “Power for me means that the Swedes shall look at me, lie down on the ground and kiss my feet.” The boys explain, laughingly, that “there is a thrilling sensation in your body when you’re robbing, you feel satisfied and happy, it feels as if you’ve succeeded, it simply feels good.” “It’s so easy to rob Swedes, so easy.” “We rob every single day, as often as we want to, whenever we want to.” The immigrant youth regard the Swedes as stupid and cowardly: “The Swedes don’t do anything, they just give us the stuff. They’re so wimpy.” The young robbers do not plan their crimes: “No, we just see some Swedes that look rich or have nice mobile phones and then we rob them.”

Why do they hate the Swedes so much? “Well, they hate us,” Petra Åkesson reports them as answering. “When a Swede goes shopping, the lady behind the counter gives him the money back into his hand, looks into his eyes and laughs. When we go shopping, she puts the money on the counter and looks the other way.” Åkesson, who is adopted from Sri Lanka and hence does not look like a native Swede, says it was not difficult to get the boys to talk about their crimes. Rather they were bragging about who had committed the most robberies. Malin Åkerström,a professor in sociology, sees only one solution to the problem: “Jobs for everybody. If this entails a deregulation of the labor market to create more jobs, then we should do so.”

Note the (predictable) Swedish solution. May God
bless and protect their confused little heads.

The SUV Jihadist

From Frontpage mag:

Before he drove a rented SUV onto the campus of the University of North Carolina and tried to run down and kill as many people as he could on March 3, Mohammed Reza Taheri-Azar left a letter of explanation in his apartment. It is chillingly detached, almost clinical: “In the name of Allah, the merciful, the compassionate. To whom it may concern: I am writing this letter to inform you of my reasons for premeditating and attempting to murder citizens and residents of the United States of America on Friday, March 3, 2006 in the city of Chapel Hill, North Carolina by running them over with my automobile and stabbing them with a knife if the opportunities are presented to me by Allah.”

Lucky then that Allah decided the boy should end up
looking like an ineffectual idiot. Of course the kid's
connection to Islam was from reading the Qur'an "15 times"
on his own. Does an abortion clinic bomber have a connection
to Christianity if, in formulating his fevered ideology, he
reads the bible 15 times? I've long thought that the people
who murder abortion providers are just defective humans who
would be murdering someone anyway; they only latch on to the
right-to-life movement in order to feel better about their
sick obsession. Same with this miserable little cur. The
only difference between him and the "zombie rave killer" was
that he had a more elaborate, though invalid, rationalization
for what he did.

Did it ever occur to Mr. Taheri-Azar that he could have taken his
talents and education and put them to good use in rebuilding
Iraq? Why didn't he day-dream about being one of Iraq's Founding
Fathers? Nah, he came to this country at the age of two. He
doesn't care about Iraq. He didn't have the courage get his
finger purple, he had exactly enough commitment to rent a car
with his father's money and steer it towards the innocent and
unsuspecting. Give him the cell next to Eric Rudolph.

tag Taheri-Azar

Rahman Escapes, Other Christians Under the Gun

Michelle Malkin reports the good news that Abdul Rahman appears to
have made it to Italy. The bad news is that frustrated Islamists
may be taking it out on Christians still in Afghanistan.
Here's hoping the "Moderate Muslims" come back from vacation
soon; their country needs them.

Does the Muslim faith really want coerced members? If you have
to threaten death in order to keep people in the faith, how
"devout" are they going to be?

Rahman on the Move? Hope so

From the AP via Yahoo:

KABUL, Afghanistan -
Afghanistan's parliament demanded Wednesday that the government prevent a man who faced the death penalty for abandoning Islam for Christianity from being able to flee the country. Italy granted asylum to Abdul Rahman, 41, and the Foreign Ministry said he would arrive there "soon," maybe within the day.

Rahman was released from prison Monday after a court dropped charges of apostasy against him because of a lack of evidence and suspicions he may be mentally ill. President Hamid Karzai had been under heavy international pressure to drop the case.

I hope this is true. My next wish is that one day he'll
be able to return safely. How many years off is that?

Food Stories

Found on BoingBoing:

I'm producing a series of short spots for the Food Network called "The Power of Food". They're basically little 60-second mini-documentaries that tell the story of real people whose lives were changed by food. They can be funny, touching, or both. For instance:

* How being part of cooperative garden in the middle of the inner city changed a kid's perspective on his future
* Someone trying to track down a certain ingredient met a future spouse in the one store they found the ingredient in.
* A woman quit her job to go home and take care of her cancer-stricken mother. She started researching nutritional treatments and ended up starting an organic farm business.

I'm pretty much looking for anything with a strong, tangible hook, where food has really affected someone's life. They need to be more than just "I love food, therefore I became a chef or opened a bakery" (even though that's a great thing)....

I checked, and they're not interested in the story
of how a couple of drinks, the family pet, and the barbeque
pit came together to test the limits of "forgive and forget"
at our house.

Outstanding

"I can confirm that he was released," Justice Minister Sarwar Danish said yesterday. "He is not in detention. I do not know if he is with his family or where, but he has been acquitted."

BTW- I'm not concerned that we don't know where he has gone. I
don't want to know. I don't want anyone to know. Why tell the
hotheads where to look for him? Sad that his family is lost to
him but they were lost long ago it seems.

So Where's Abdul Rahman to Go?

Forbes is reporting that Abdul Rahman is still in jail
as of Monday night, but will be released soon and is
seeking asylum in "another country." From the State
Department's Sean McCormack:

Asked whether the U.S. government was doing anything or has made any offers to secure Rahman's safety after he is released, McCormack said where he goes after he is freed "is going to be up to Mr. Rahman."

That could mean that we haven't offered or it could just
mean that there's no sense stirring the pot at this time.
Where to go? Well I hope France isn't on his short list:
(from the CPE protests, photos from France-Echos : le blog in English)







It's not clear what passage in the Qur'an prescribes this
punishment for the crime of being a "pork eater" on the
streets. The woman in the center picture looks unlikely
to repeat her crime. Note the fist just before this brave
Muslim boy swings it to her face. What a fine advertisement
for the strategy of appeasement.

Russians, the innocent bystanders

From ABC concerning the recently released report that
Russia supplied Saddam with intelligence before the war:

MOSCOW Mar 27, 2006 (AP)— Russia's foreign minister accused the United States on Monday of having "hidden political motives" for a report that said Moscow turned over information on American military plans to Saddam Hussein during the invasion of Iraq.

Sergey Lavrov's comments were the first formal statement from President Vladimir Putin's government about the Pentagon report, though a spokesman for Russia's foreign spy agency over the weekend denied the report's allegations.

"Hidden political motives" doesn't mean it's not true. Fact is
that we did much more than this to hinder the Russians when they
were in Afghanistan. I have to wonder if this wasn't a little
official, or unofficial, payback.
So lets look the other way this time.

Western Support for Abdul Rahman

From the A.P.

Muslim clerics have threatened to incite Afghans to kill Rahman if he is freed, saying that he is clearly guilty of apostasy and deserves to die.

The case of an Afghan who could have been executed for converting from Islam to Christianity reflects contradictions embedded in the Afghan Constitution. Correspondent Steve Coleman reports.

Monday's protest ended peacefully about two hours after it started in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, said police commander Nasruddin Hamdrad. The protesters chanted "Death to Bush!" and other anti-Western slogans, while the police stood guard.

I had suspected that at some point this would turn into a
referendum on the west. There seems to be a generalized
resentment of the west that can be brought to the forefront
whenever the Islamic world feels threatened. So did President
Bush speak harshly enough about the Rahman case, or was his
tone more measured than we knew? It would do little good to
bellow and threaten if the end result would be more anger toward
Mr. Rahman.

And if we made demands on the government of Afghanistan; if we
told them what they must do, well then we haven't really given
the reins of government back to the people. The point was to
kick the Taliban out, not to set up an American colony.

So I'm thinking we've done what we can do. And, thank God, the
outcome is looking pretty good. Now the danger for Mr. Rahman
will be on the streets of Afghanistan. Will the leaders of the
religion of peace incite violence against Abdul Rahman? Some of
them already have. Will Mr. Rahman escape to a country where
Islamic hot-heads can't find him? I hope so, though it's been
reported that he wants to stay in his homeland.

Rally Links

We've got out of town visitors so I'm in speed-post
mode. (ok, as usual) But I wanted to link to some
of the good folks from the rally who have done a
much better job than me in reporting what went on.

Concerning that reporter who asked in six different
ways if "now isn't everyone disappointed with President
Bush?" Well, what can I say? His questions, taken all
together were more of a statement than questions. I'm
glad Cam Edwards made a counter statement. Video of
that here.

Other links here, here, here, and here.

Oh and here.

And a few more...

I tell you what, I could crop pictures quicker using
a box-cutter on the LCD screen. Anyway, here's the last
few. Click to enlarge by the way.
From the Abdul Rahman rally.

Rally for Abdul Rahman - new pictures

Not a huge turn-out, but on the upside, everyone there
was someone worth meeting. People who have concern for their
fellow man are good people to know.
The police were pleasant too -- not many hot-heads in the
crowd, except, you know, for me. No, I was well behaved too,
in spite of a rough night, and even rougher traffic getting
up to embassy row.
















At the bottom of the sign: The People's Cube, accidentally cut off.









Keeping the grown-ups in line.

No way could I have made a sign this nice. I went signless.

The sign says I heart Freedom.
That's a good thing to heart. That's the truth.

Awwwww, come on

From Reuters via Yahoo:

By Saul Hudson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Washington increased pressure on
Afghanistan on Thursday to end the prosecution of a man facing
possible execution for converting to Christianity after the case angered
President George W. Bush's evangelical supporters.

Angered his WHAT? Are there any Americans who are saying that
this situation is ok? Aren't we all angered? How big of a ass
must Saul Hudson be to try and paint this as another example
of evangelicals telling the president what to do. There is very
important news here. Important issues. And this sorry excuse
of a reporter has to lead off with that?

Abdul Rahman again

I hope someone is considering getting Mr Rahman out of
the country if he is allowed to go free. Would it
surprise anyone if the man was killed on his way out
of prison? And of course it's not clear that he'll
escape a mental institution even if he does avoid the
criminal charge.

Anyway, this lower work load has got me thinking about
showing up for the rally at the embassy:

Friday March 24
Noon to 1pm
Outside the Afghan Embassy
2341 Wyoming Ave NW.
Washington DC

One thing I wondered about: will there be counter-protestors?

Trey Parker and Matt Stone

Trey Parker and Matt Stone - I love you guys.

So when Issac Hayes quit South Park (because his
Scientological sensibilities were shaken by an episode)
the creators, Matt and Trey, did a farewell episode.
Sort of a, "Bye Isaac, It's been fun."
Let's see... they turned his character into a pederast,
struck him with lightning, set him on fire, bounced him
down a cliff, impaled him on a tree limb, had a mountain
lion and a grizzly bear rip him to pieces, and then
had the pieces resurrected into a perverted Darth Vader.
Oh, and I think he took a few bullets in there as well.

It's good to see the boys don't keep their anger bottled
up inside. Also - remind me to never, never piss off Trey
Parker or Matt Stone.

Fall Out

So guess who I'm seeing next month?
I'll be the one fitting right in. OK, maybe not
exactly fitting. I'll be the one with three to
five giggling girls pretending that they don't
know me. Or, maybe my kid will confess to having
a dad, I dunno. She's asked me to wear my "If It's
Too Loud -- You're Too Old" t-shirt.

Smash the State

Know what I've gotten from the stills and videos of
yesterday's protests? It's like nobody put much effort
into it. Look how this guy identifies himself as
psychological counselor. I've put more effort into
bathroom stall writings.

Though I do applaud his instincts, if you're a lumberjack
you go where the trees are.

Addul Rahman

I know it will mean little; but it is doing something anyway.

Ambassador Said T. Jawad
Embassy of Afghanistan
2341 Wyoming Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20008


Sir,
I urge you to convey to your president the Christian world’s
astonishment that Abdul Rahman may be facing the death
penalty. Does Afghanistan have the right to do this thing?
Yes, at the cost of American lives, you are now a free country
and you are free to as you please. But is it right? The
civilized world tells you no. And I would warn you that you
would be taking the life of a man who worships the God of
Abraham and Isaac. Even worse, you would be doing it because
he worships the God of Abraham and Isaac. I do not understand
how Islam can justify this.

sincerely,

lumberguy

Also, an actual letter on paper means more trees to
cut down; a win-win situation.

Historic dissonance

From Opinion Journal- Best of the Web:

"President Bush sketched an expansive vision last night of what he expects to accomplish by a war in Iraq. Instead of focusing on eliminating weapons of mass destruction, or reducing the threat of terror to the United States, Mr. Bush talked about establishing a 'free and peaceful Iraq' that would serve as a 'dramatic and inspiring example' to the entire Arab and Muslim world, provide a stabilizing influence in the Middle East and even help end the Arab-Israeli conflict."--editorial, New York Times, Feb. 27, 2003

"One prominent neoconservative, Francis Fukuyama, asserts in a new book that the administration embraced democracy as a cornerstone of its policy only after the failure to find unconventional weapons in Iraq. The issue was seized upon to justify the war in retrospect, and then expanded for other countries, he says."--New York Times, March 17, 2006

Overload

Overload
What happens when the driver just can't stop
saying, 'well, maybe just one more.'

In five years..

I'm going to start stockpiling valium for the inevitable day:

Foolish Dictator

From a NTT story via Tim Blair:

The Iraqi dictator was so secretive and kept information so compartmentalized that his top military leaders were stunned when he told them three months before the war that he had no weapons of mass destruction, and they were demoralized because they had counted on hidden stocks of poison gas or germ weapons for the nation’s defense.

Saddam's first mistake was assuming that we would
be deterred by his ruse. Deception worked in the old
USSR, many of the missiles in those military parades
were fake, but there is a difference between a nuclear
confrontation and limited chemical warfare. We could, and
would have, confronted a chem-bio armed Iraq.

OK It's hard to admit that the intelligence was wrong,
or mostly wrong. But was the U.S. response to Saddam's
elaborate lie wrong?
I'm thinking here about the foolish bank robber who,
when confronted by the police, reaches in his pocket
and announces that he's got a gun. It matters little
that he only had a bologna sandwich in that pocket,
he's still going to be the guy with the bullet holes
in him. (stealing my own comment)

Geese and Bats

Man, what nice weather. Sat on the back porch
and heard the geese flying over the house. They
do it every evening in the summertime. They go
from the day pond to the sleeping pond I suppose.
Then fly back the next morning.

I remember telling the kid that the geese were
hunting on those evening commutes, "See, they
use the honking as a kind of sonar to locate bats.
When they locate a big juicy bat, they swoop down
and snatch him from the sky." Most likely I'm
responsible for any bad science grades.

Something Fishy

Seen the story about the retired school teacher who
had his check held in limbo because Homeland Security
decided it was suspicious? There IS something suspicious
but it's with that story. I can't believe that paying
$6,522 on your credit card bill would raise any kind
of alarm, or, that if it did, Homeland Security would
be able to investigate all the occurrences of that type
that must happen daily. It just doesn't scan.

Cold Tuesday

OK maybe it wasn't COLD cold but it was cold enough
for me. And my next job is in a field so I've been
putting it off. Not that my alternatives have been
exciting. I've been dealing with real estate lawyers
and looking into branching out into other forms
of drudgery to make up for my lost contracts.

Which, other drudgery, is, well what I would like
to get more into is personal mobility carts. You know,
like in the supermarket. They're darned easy to work on,
and they do break down a lot. And I can get much more of
the supermarket work if I want it, all I have to do is
spread my card around... but what I'm internally debating
is whether I want to get into selling the things. See, I know
that for a long while you couldn't make a go of it by just
selling the carts to individuals. At least I know many
of the early companies struggled. Now the changing demographics
might be changing all that. More old folks means more carts.
(Take a good look at Eddie Van Halen and tell me a mobility
solution isn't just around the corner for him)

And with this baby-boomer thing happening, well, Eddie won't
be able to swing a bong without hitting three other guys in
mobility carts. But here's the thing; there are going to be a
lot of these things on the used-cart market. I mean, Eddie goes
to that mosh pit in the sky ... ok, long way off, but still,
he won't be taking the cart with. And would I want to be in
the used cart market? I dun think so. I'm too much of a sucker
for lil ol ladies. (the last three wheelchairs I worked on I
took zero, 20, and zero dollars for) Yeah, maybe I'll stick
with the commercial work.

Kirby Puckett

"When you're around him, he makes you feel pretty good about yourself. He can make you laugh. He can do a lot of things that can light up a room. He's a beauty."

cookie monster

So I've thought for awhile that this one boy
at school might be sweet on the lumberkid.
No proof or anything, just that he walks into
walls when she's around. Anyway, it's pretty
much official now; I see he's buying $49.00 worth
of Girl Scout cookies from her.

What ever happened to expressing your interest via
a solid punch to the shoulder?

Foil Hats

The oil-rich United Arab Emirates is a major investor in The Carlyle Group, the private equity investment group where the President's father once served as senior advisor....

Not only that, Condoleeza Rice is known to have stayed in a room at the
Fairmont hotel in Washington DC that was once occupied by the brother of
the man who was in charge of electrical maintenance at the World Trade Center.

It's Lunch

Whenever our pets APPEAR to be thinking, I'm convinced they're
just trying to imagine what something would taste like.

Pretty Stark Evidence

Of all the meth faces this one illustrates best what 5 years on methadrine will do to you. Though some people hit bottom sooner, this guy hits bottom best.