Bill Maher Says McCain And Obama Are Lying!

About their faith. It's brilliant, and we all know it's true.

Whither goest Britain...?

How sad (and scary) is it to see one of the greatest bastions of human freedom have its own ideas taken and warped into a vehicle of self-immolation. I hope Dominic Grieve is not just a voice in the wilderness.

Planet Equality and the eclipse of nation
Melanie Phillips

On the eve of the Tory Party conference, the shadow Home Secretary Dominic Grieve issued a blunt warning.

In the name of multiculturalism, he said, Britain had done something terrible to itself. It had downplayed British cultural identity, leaving long-standing inhabitants fearful and new immigrants alienated, creating a vacuum ripe for exploitation by extremists.

His warning could not be more timely or appropriate. Multiculturalism and its allied doctrines of human rights and anti-discrimination are acting as a kind of corrosive acid eating away at our institutions, values and national identity.

What’s more, they are also actively preventing us from defending our own country. Just look what happened when the Army said it wanted to put a 15 per cent cap on the number of recruits it takes from overseas.

The decision was taken because it believes that any more foreign soldiers would dilute the British Army’s cultural identity. No less troubling, there is also the risk that foreign soldiers in British ranks might be banned by their own governments from taking part in certain conflicts, such as in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Read it all.

We are not alone

Bankruptcy, not bailout, is the right answer

SPACE IS RED!

SpaceX and CPC both had sucess in space this weekend with Falcon I and Shenzhou VII.

http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/09/space-x-did-it.html?fark

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7639498.stm

New Old Ant Found

Of course, EO Wilson is pleased.

Disgusting

A prominent gay Iraqi activist was assassinated in Baghdad.

This morning, I received news from Iraq that the coordinator of Iraqi LGBT in Baghdad, Bashar, aged 27, a university student, has been assassinated in a barber shop.

Militias burst in and sprayed his body with bullets at point blank range.

He was the organiser of the safe houses for gays and lesbians in Baghdad. His efforts saved the lives of dozens of people.

What sickness...

Jetpack! (well, wing)

This is just the sort of thing that makes me happy:
A Swiss man became the first person to fly solo across the English Channel using a single jet-propelled wing - link+video.

Klingons For Jesus?

Yep.

CFI: It's Time for Science and Reason

I [heart] EO Wilson (Roll Tide!).

Only Nixon Could Go To China

And only GW Bush could socialize our banking and insurance institutions.

Let's here it for the pro-free market, pro-capitalist Republicans! Yeah!

FDR got nothin' on me!

Please, Ask This One About Dinosaurs...

"Lord Make A Way, Lord Make A Way!"

Just in case anyone missed this, here's video of Sarah Palin crediting a Kenyan witch hunter for helping her win the Alaskan governorship. And it's not from some "way back when" time: this video is from June 2008.

What she says between 0:13 and 0:15 will be in my head for the rest of the election, after which we can only hope she'll go back to the Christer fundangelical/meth capital she calls home.

From ICECAP

Lehman Brothers Close Ties to Gore, Hansen and Carbon Trading

Al Gore’s carbon trading business GIM was banked with Lehman Bros. It will be interesting to see how this will play in the future but I suspect that this increases the risk of participating in Carbon trading. Merrill Lynch, was also deeply involved in this business.

Last year Lehman Brothers released a long and highly publicized report about climate change in which they preached about decarbonization, trying to make their investors keep getting high profits from the Kyoto carbon trade scheme and the support of huge public subventions. All that, of course, with the applause of the usual choir of politicians, the entire media and the Greens.

A year ago they couldn’t predict their bankruptcy but were predicting the climate 100 years ahead. Thousands of green militants have been using the Lehman report as a proof of global warming and impending chaos. Lehman Bros said it! sacred words! Its scientific advisor is James Hansen! The report is the basis for policies on climate change in Spain, Argentina and several other countries playing the progress game; it is used by economy professors playing the climatologists; by newspapers editorials, and even by a State Secretary: Lehman Bros, said it!

Lehman Brothers spoke in his report about the climate in 2100 and its economic and financial projections, about climate change costs several decades away. They dared to recommend their investors what they considered a central value of the carbon ton in 50 years from now. Their sources and support references were taken from the IPCC AR4, AR3, and so on. Really impressive.

But even with their high ability to peek into the future, they couldn’t predict their demise one year ahead though there were many people that had been warning about this present crash for years. But Lehman Bros were recommending investments 30, 50, 100 years ahead. Some days, reality imitates fiction. Who was Lehman Bros’ ‘scientific’ adviser on climate? You guessed it, James Hansen, the same guy that wants to drive the world to bankruptcy as he did with Lehman’s Bros.

But the story has some connections with Hansen being the ‘scientific’ adviser to Al Gore, who’s the Chairman of the Board of the Alliance for Climate Protection. As seen in Alliance’s website, the managing Director is none less than: Theodore Roosevelt IV. Managing Director, Lehman Brothers, Chair of the Pew Center for Global Climate Change.

Theodore Roosevelt IV is Managing Director at Lehman Brothers and a member of the Firm’s senior client coverage group, which oversees the Firms client and customer relationships. Mr. Roosevelt is an active conservationist. He is Chair of the Pew Center for Global Climate Change, Vice Chair of the Wilderness Society, and a Trustee for the American Museum of Natural History, The World Resources Institute, the Institute for Environment and Natural Resources at the University of Wyoming, and a Trustee of Trout Unlimited.

The Lehman reports in two parts can be found on this site ‘Intellectual Capital’. In “The Business of Climate Change ll”, the following acknowledgement is made: “On the scientific side, we are grateful to Dr. James Hansen, Director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, who, at the end of a particularly informative dinner hosted by Ben Cotton of the Man Group, gave generously of his time to clear up a number of scientific questions that had been niggling us. Dr. Peter Collins and Richard Heap of the Royal Society provided valuable input and brought us up to date on the more controversial areas of scientific developments in the domain of global climate change.” H/T Eduardo Ferreyra originally posted to Climate Sceptics Internet discussion group.

Lehman’s failure provides a preview of our future if more companies bank their future on the speculative advice of these advocacy scientists, politicians and environmental groups, while ignoring short term realities.

Pope Panzer Kraut The First Just Blew Out My Irony Meter

Pope condemns 'pagan' love of money, power

But since this is coming from the boche head of a theocratic city-state AND of a financially unaccountable religious racket that rakes in millions upon millions of tax-free dollars every year, I guess 'Christian' love of power and money is virtuous.

"I 'Jesus-love' power and money tthhiiss much!"

I'm Neither Shocked Nor Surprised

The Family Research Council, the fundamentalist Christian (white, heterosexual, patriarchal) organization founded by that odious superstitious twat James Dobson, held a summit recently. On sale were boxes of Obama Waffles.

On first glance, the cover is just silly. Why anyone would want to buy such nonsense (directed against either party) is beyond me. It shows a kind of childish, emotionally retarded mentality. But then again, these people believe in imaginary super-beings, so...


But take a look at the top of the box.


Let's give it up for those precious lambs of god! They sure do know how to live down to our expectations of them.

“Stop Blogging. Stop Blogging Right Now!”

The New York Times has a great piece on Palin. Some highlights:

Interviews show that Ms. Palin runs an administration that puts a premium on loyalty and secrecy. The governor and her top officials sometimes use personal e-mail accounts for state business; dozens of e-mail messages obtained by The New York Times show that her staff members studied whether that could allow them to circumvent subpoenas seeking public records.
__________________________________________________________
Ms. Palin ordered city employees not to talk to the press. And she used city money to buy a white Suburban for the mayor’s use — employees sarcastically called it the mayor-mobile.
__________________________________________________________
As she assembled her cabinet and made other state appointments, those with insider credentials were now on the outs. But a new pattern became clear. She surrounded herself with people she has known since grade school and members of her church.
__________________________________________________________
The Wasilla High School yearbook archive now doubles as a veritable directory of state government.
__________________________________________________________
Dan Fagan, a prominent conservative radio host and longtime friend of Ms. Palin, urged his listeners to vote for her in 2006. But when he took her to task for raising taxes on oil companies, he said, he found himself branded a “hater.”

It is part of a pattern, Mr. Fagan said, in which Ms. Palin characterizes critics as “bad people who are anti-Alaska.”

Palin is simply awful, and thus the perfect poster-creature for the modern (ie, Christian autocratic nationalist) Republican Party.

A Nice Summation

From Huffington Post:


On Tuesday, as McCain campaign surrogates were dispatched far and wide to ensure railroad coverage of the contrived "lipstick" controversy, Barack Obama responded not with a harder counterpunch or attack ad, but a call for the country to keep its focus on...actual issues.
"You know who ends up losing at the end of the day?" Obama said about the latest dust-ups during a stop in Virginia. "It's not the Democratic candidate, it's not the Republican candidate. It's you, the American people, because then we go another year or another four years or another eight years without addressing the issues that matter to you. Enough."
So, if you've spent the last few days following what's become of the presidential race, here's the actual news you may have missed:

U.S. global leadership is dwindling: "An intelligence forecast being prepared for the next president on future global risks envisions a steady decline in U.S. dominance in the coming decades." According to the U.S. intelligence community's top analyst, U.S. leadership is eroding "at an accelerating pace" in "political, economic and arguably, cultural arenas."

Market diving, another massive bank may collapse: Stocks fell 280 points on Tuesday, a dive that was accelerated when concerns mounted about the Lehman Brothers investment bank's ability to raise capital. "Waves of selling wiped out nearly half of Lehman's value in the stock market on Tuesday, leaving the firm, one of the nation's oldest and largest investment banks, in an all-out fight for survival," the New York Times reported.

Fear of violence, terrorism slows Iraq withdrawal: "U.S. defense officials said the president's decision to withdraw only 8,000 soldiers from Iraq reflects a persistent concern among top commanders that the improvements in security could be temporary and that renewed violence could erupt. Officials fear that Iran might reactivate the Shiite Muslim militias it's armed and trained and that the Sunni group al Qaida in Iraq is trying to reestablish itself in Mosul, Iraq's third-largest city."

Iraqi parliament gridlocked: "Iraqi lawmakers returned from their summer recess Tuesday, still gridlocked over the critical law on provincial elections and with no new vote in sight."

Economy weakening: "The U.S. economy continues to be marked by weak housing and labor-market conditions," the Wall Street Journal reported today, "suggesting economic performance will be sluggish at best through the end of the year."

On 9/11 anniversary, aviation still vulnerable: "The nation's top domestic security official," Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, "said Wednesday aviation remains vulnerable to terrorist attack seven years after 9/11."

Unemployment rising: The nation's unemployment rate has "bolted above the psychologically important 6 percent level last month for the first time in five years," the AP noted over the weekend, "and it's likely to go even higher in the months ahead, possibly throwing the economy into a tailspin as Americans pick a new president." Moreover, a new study released yesterday showed that pending home sales dropped 3.2% in July, reversing gains made in June.
Federal deficit ballooning: The weak economy is not only devastating the federal government's coffers -- likely driving the federal budget deficit over the $500 billion mark by January, according to government estimates -- but is also depleting state unemployment insurance trust funds.

U.S. 'running out of time' in Afghanistan: "The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said today the U.S. is 'running out of time' to get the war in Afghanistan right and announced that he was developing a "new, more comprehensive strategy" to cover the entire region."

Military suicides reaching record levels: Suicides among active-duty soldiers this year "are on pace to exceed both last year's all-time record and, for the first time since the Vietnam War, the rate among the general U.S. population," according to Army officials.

U.S.-Russia relations worsening: "Just three months ago, President Bush reached a long-sought agreement with Russia intended to open a new era of civilian nuclear cooperation and sent it to Congress for review. Now, according to administration officials, Mr. Bush is preparing to scrap his own deal."

OPEC trying to prevent oil prices from falling: The OPEC oil cartel announced its intention to reduce oil production by approximately half a million barrels per day in what the New York Times described as "a bid to stem a rapid decline in oil prices in recent weeks."

And that's not even counting the 36 million Americans living in poverty this year, the sky high prices of gas and food, the sinking consumer confidence, and the 46.9 million people without health insurance (about 16 percent of the total population), etc.
No, the stories above are just from the last few days...



Does anyone think that John McCain can help resolve any of these issues?

Not Entirely Impressed

I downloaded Google's new Chrome browser. While better than the horrid Internet Explorer, it is still inferior to Firefox. I'll use it as my back-up, instead of IE.

Peter to the Rescue

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia will send a nuclear-powered battleship to the Caribbean for a joint naval exercise with Venezuela, Russia's Foreign Ministry said on Monday.
The maneuvers later this year will be the first Russia has conducted in Washington's traditional sphere of influence since the end of the Cold War.
Russia has heavily criticized the United States for sending a sophisticated command ship and two other naval vessels to Georgia, on its southern border, to deliver aid and show support for President Mikheil Saakashvili after Moscow sent troops into Georgia.
Kremlin leader Dmitry Medvedev asked on Saturday how Washington would feel "if we now dispatched humanitarian assistance to the Caribbean...using our navy."
Later that day, a Venezuelan naval official said four Russian warships would visit the Caribbean in November.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko said on Monday that the naval mission to Venezuela would include the nuclear-powered battle cruiser "Peter the Great," one of the world's largest combat battleships.

Shouldn't we protest this? I bet it leaks radiation all the way across the Atlantic! The last time an maintenance was done on this thing was right after the real Peter came back from Holland for the last time.

Read it... & the comments from Brits

Fitzgerald: Reasonable accommodation and Muslim demands

To Sum Up:

1) Islam is a Total System. It offers a Complete Regulation of Life. It is dualistic: Believer and Infidel; Dar al-Islam and Dar al-Harb (with a transient and trivial category, Dar al-Sulh, where a "truce" has been put into effect); What Is Commanded (Halal) and What Is Prohibited (Haram).

2) Muslims are obligated to participate in the "struggle," or Jihad, to remove all obstacles to the spread, and then the dominance, of Islam.

3) Those obstacles include the most important matters -- the legal and political institutions of a country. We recognize at once, or would recognize, a direct assault on, say, our Constitution -- which will forever be under assault or attempted undermining by those who believe in Islam, that is in the Shari'a, which in letter and spirit flatly contradicts the American Constitution.

What You Should Know About The USS Mount Whitney

The USS Mount Whitney

The USS Mount Whitney is a warship, but not like most would think. It's a command ship whose weapons consist of CIWS point defense guns and some other heavy machine guns. It's all electronics and storage space, designed to house Marine higher-ups offshore as they direct an amphibious landing. The ship is decades old and long overdue for retirement.

The USS Mount Whitney is the perfect "warship" to send to Georgia, since it is as non-threatening in reality as it is significant politically: it's our Mediterranean flagship.

Go Navy!

"In Dick Morris' Defense, He Is A Lying Sack Of Shit."

Laugh Out Loud Funny

Apathy Adventures
This is just too true.

The Real Deal

This weekend I went to Atlanta for Dragon Con and saw James Cawley (along with some staff and George Takei and Walter Koenig) the producer and star of Star Trek : Phase II (AKA New Voyages). Cawley was a total professional during a tough time with the con staff (they didn't have a screen or projector for the episode screening until an hour into the panel). We saw a rough cut of the new episode "Blood and Fire" based on a rejected Next Gen script written by David Gerrold. Cawley has the blessing of the Trek die-hards and he deserves it: he gets the hopeful message of the future. The last few episodes of Phase II are better than some whole seasons of Next Gen to say nothing of Voyager and Enterprise. Check it out