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Iraq has dropped off of the news cycle in North America. We’re finished with the whole thing. The American presence in Iraq is still costing billions of dollars and hundreds of innocent lives on the ground. A shaky measure of stability has been achieved but nothing resembling a stable safe nation has yet been established.
“A suicide car bomber has killed at least four policemen and injured 10 outside a police station in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, an official in the interior ministry has said.
The attacker drove a vehicle packed with explosives into a gathering of police during a shift change at a station in the mainly Shia Amil district, in the southwestern area of Baghdad, the source said on Sunday.
This is the latest in a series of attacks on official buildings, including those to do with crime and punishment.”
Iraq is now fractured along sectarian lines. Bombings, shootings, kidnappings are all par for the course in America’s hub of Freedom and Democracy in the middle east. I’m thinking though that the oil is now flowing into the correct hands and the correct people are now in power. The people of Iraq can now squabble and kill each other as much as their inane religion dictates them to do because it will not effect the important people in Iraq.
I run across this argument WAY to often. As a way to help set the record straight I post Non Stamp Collector’s Special investigation on the big three strawmen the religiously addled attempt to use when discussing history.
Or more precisely, Jupiter’s large gravity well which does a marvellous job of sucking all sorts of interstellar debris away from Earth. Recently, Jupiter once again performed its role as our solar systems’ lifesaving vacuum cleaner.
Jupiter has been whacked again. An amateur astronomer in Australia peering at the giant gas planet Thursday reported witnessing a bright flash from an object hitting the Jovian surface and apparently burning up in the atmosphere.
Anthony Wesley, a computer programmer with a good reputation among professional astronomers, reported the cosmic collision to professional and amateur sky-gazers. The discovery was later confirmed by another amateur astronomer in the Philippines.
“When I saw the flash, I couldn’t believe it,” said Wesley. “The fireball lasted about two seconds and was very bright.”
Jupiter, takes a beating and keeps on ticking. :)
Sometimes, you just have to get out there and shoot some zombies.
Happy Zombies say "mmmmraargh"
There is nothing like relieving a little stress, by going on a zombie hunt. I hear New Orleans is in season right now…
We'll get to your problems soon, we promise.
For all the hoopla the regular G8 conferences cause what really happens there. It seems one of the more anti-democratic features of the ‘new globalized economy’. According to the CBC the tough issues will not even be seriously discussed.
“A leaked draft of the final communiqué for the upcoming G8 summit suggests Canada has dodged a bullet on the thorny issues of abortion and climate change.
The draft, obtained by The Canadian Press, says the world’s most powerful countries are prepared to throw money at “all factors” affecting the health of women and children in poor countries but doesn’t specifically mention abortion.
There is no agreement yet on specific funding for the maternal initiative, climate change, food security or aid to developing countries, despite strong words urging concrete measures.”
Our anti-choice Prime Minister and his merry band of pro-life fascists are out to scuttle reproductive freedom for the Third World. It is good to know that we will stick to our ideological beliefs in the face of the facts (abortions save womens lives).
“Action is required on all factors that affect the health of women and children,” the document says. “This includes addressing gender inequality, ensuring women’s and children’s rights and improving education for women and girls.”
Message to Harper Government: Women are people too.
Hello, hello?! Abortion is a part of women’s rights! But hey it is just the womenz anyways marginalizing them has always been a slam dunk.
Climate Change though, WoW! Canada looks like to be putting forth this bold initiative:
“On the environment, the only thing G8 negotiators have apparently agreed to is that fighting climate change shouldn’t hurt countries’ economies — a position the Harper government has been pushing.”
Taking the status quo is really a non initiative. Restructuring our economy so we are not shitting in the air we breath and the water we drink is going to hurt economically. It is necessary to do it sooner than later because right now we have the choice to do it, when our ecosystems ‘decide‘ they have had enough of us I assure you, gentle reader, that the economies will be much more than “hurt”.
Religion deserves only one thing… er two things. The first being relegated to the dustbin of history, secondly ridicule. A nice helping of that from a gentlemen named Marcus Brigstock.
Glenn Greenwald over at Salon.com has a great take down of the swirling pool of Israeli propaganda and lies that have engulfed the media coverage of the Gaza Convoy debacle.
Gems include:
“This campaign of suppression and propaganda worked to shape American media coverage (as state propaganda campaigns virtually always work on the gullible, authority-revering American media). The edited IDF video was shown over and over on American television without question or challenge. Israeli officials and Israel-devoted commentators appeared all over television — almost always unaccompanied by any Turkish, Palestinian or Muslim critics of the raid — to spout the Israeli version without opposition. Israel-centric pundits in America claimed, based on the edited IDF video, that anyone was lying who even reported on the statements of the passengers that Israeli fired first. In sum, that the Israelis used force only after the passengers attacked the commandos became Unquestioned Truth in American discourse.”
and…
Nobody’s claims are entitled to an automatic assumption of truth, including these passengers. But as Mackey argues, all of this compellingly underscores the need for an independent — not an Israeli-led — investigation. Mackey quotes Israeli journalist and blogger Noam Sheifaz:
Israel has confiscated some of the most important material for the investigation, namely the films, audio and photos taken by the passengers [and] journalists on board and the Mavi Marmara’s security cameras. Since yesterday, Israel has been editing these films and using them for its own PR campaign. In other words, Israel has already confiscated most of the evidence, held it from the world and tampered with it. No court in the world would [trust] it to be the one examining it.
Just as is true for the U.S. on so many occasions, Israel has made unmistakably clear that it is interested only in propagandizing and obfuscating. The very idea that they can be trusted to reveal what actually happened is ludicrous on its face […]
I recommend going to Salon.com to read the full article, it is both lobe blowing and informative.
Update( 19/06/2010): I recommend going to Fillibluster to see how Canadian politicians will twist and turn trying to avoid the ire of the Jewish lobby. Libby Davies is the most recent victim of daring to hold dangerous opinion that there are human rights violations being perpetrated in Gaza.
bleatmop
Mystro
The Arbourist
Dead Wild Roses 
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