1 in 99? Sick, but not shocking.

The amount of people in prison is at an all-time high. This calls for a major reform.

It's about oil.

It's always about oil.

Paul-Bernanke Debate

Face it. Ron Paul is right.

Yep

Big Surge in US producer prices
Need I say more? Anyone keeping up with my economics rants will get the idea.
Greenspan negative on US economy
I don't have much time to talk about anything, plus I'm in class. Maybe I'll do some speculating later. Maybe I'll jump off of a bridge (dam).

Oooh also good news. Self-healing rubber. This is a cool material. I hope we start seeing it in use. Think of the possibilities

Maybe I should rethink this...

I hope you have a trashcan nearby
The answer to your immediate question is "back, nose, shoulder, elbow and foot"

Excuse me maam, i mean sir..... is that you judge?

A federal judge appointee dressed up like a lady and had a few too many gin and tonics and struck a car while driving. I would say what he does on the weekends is his business had it not been on Wednesday.

Just Plain L. Wrong.

"Apparent suicide" my ass.

A little spring cleaning

So I've noticed that a few of our members don't exist and never really have. I am going to delete those names who have had zero to contribute from our list of authors in a few days unless otherwise requested. That doesn't mean our blog isn't open to reading and commenting, you just won't be able to post. These people are (as far as I can tell) niffirgmada, Hilikus, and overt&cautious. So... let me know. Thanks!

Dumb.

The AP strung a story concerning the $4 million investment into an Oxford study, well not even a study, more like a waste of time and money-- no I mean a 3 year research project, seeking an answer to the age old question, "Why does mankind believe in God?"

"The grant to the Ian Ramsey Center for Science and Religion will bring anthropologists, theologians, philosophers and other academics together for three years to study whether belief in a divine being is a basic part of mankind's makeup."

Manikind's makeup... so there must be scientists right? No, no... wait, no scientists. Don't get me wrong I don't completely trust science either, I recognize it as historically a political tool, I'm just as postmodern as the next guy, and I most definitely value anthropology and philosophy over science... but not all disciplines can create experts on innate human impulse.

This is a spectacular way for the rich and educational elites to evaluate the function of their system on the poor or unaware (the religious) by wasting money and brain power.

What could possibly be solved or thought up with this Four Mil? Obviously religion serves a purpose in psychologically supporting people as they trudge through life (because life sucks), but to waste millions hoping to find some greater purpose to a belief in god is like laying a length of rope, untethered, across quick sand and telling one to walk across it (aka worthless).

"One implication that comes from this is that religion is the default position, and atheism is perhaps more in need of explanation," says the center Director.

Fuck off. religon is not a default position. ask an unconditioned 3 year old how he/she feels about "God" and he or she will answer "who?" That quote is simply absurd. ridiculous.
"Now I'm angry."-- crocodile smash game from Chuck E Cheese, which accurately reflects my emotion when talking about religion.

God damn capitalists waste money.

Dammit, I hate reading the news

We are at the mercy of the Federal Reserve Bank... great.
Does no one understand the implications of this? Why is this going on? Propping up the financial system with more manufactured currency will not last forever and will only serve to make the crash even more intense. I'm honestly getting really sketched out at this point. I think I posted about these auctions a bit ago but the scale is unheard of.

Big news

Castro steps down as Cuban Leader
The implications of this are wide. Will the US play a large role in instilling democracy in the country? Will world relations with Cuba improve; will the US reinstate trade with them (YAY Cuban cigars)? Fidel had a really interesting life, worth looking into. The linked documentary was awesome, I watched it a long time ago with a buddy of mine. I'll stop talking about this, because the BBC article does a great job of positing the many probabilities for the future regarding this country.
Also, a big frog

I wish I knew about this before..

Wikileaks, a site where whistleblowers can post documents, was shut down by a California judge. Now we join China and Thailand as the only three countries who ban this site. This is another attempt to protect the privacy of the government, by the people.. for the people?. Forget the conscience. Bush even threatens a veto of the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act (sort of). It would protect National Security workers, Contractors, and Scientists, three recently politicized jobs, if they leak illegal information. Bush won't have to do that, of course, because a hold has been put on this bill since June.. 

US Investigations into Mind Control Weaponry

This DangerRoom report, titled Nonlethal Weapons could Target Brain, Mimic Schizophrenia, centers around a declassified Pentagon report, obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, that displays government research into weapons that utilize microwaves to control or manipulate a human body. The report does not reference any current program, but was drafted in 1998... The waves and techniques researched can make one hear voices only within one's head; a nearby microphone would be impotent to monitor the waves. These waves were also found to be able to incapacitate targets through intense fever and hypothermia (by raising the temperature within one's head 1 degree Celsius).

The DangerRoom report links to a WaPo article that mentions that Kucinich introduced an amendment to a bill that would prohibit "psychotronic weapons," but the amendment was dropped.

You all know by now, but I hate the Fed

Money, Banking, and the Fed
Monopoly Men
There's about 2 hrs of video to watch here, and it backs up a lot of the things I try to explain to people all the time.
Also, read this BBC article about an unprecedented meeting between the US and Iran. I'm out for now.

For China it's sketchy, for us it's safety.

A recent revelation from the Bush white house of plans to shoot down an old spy satellite have raised eyebrows across the world. Read this article if you get a chance, because I remember reading about China shooting down an old satellite about a year ago and Time magazine was highlighting the implications of anti-satellite weaponry. Now, Bush assures the international community that our very same situation is over concerns of "poisonous rocket fuel raining down on the planet". Of course this has nothing to do with our ASAT (anti-satellite) capabilities. Definitely not while China and Russia continue to push for a treaty banning the weaponization of space, which (of course) we oppose. In that same Time magazine, they wrote a scathing article of the effects of space debris caused by such acts. They said that little pellets of metal are orbiting our earth and that more and more junk is blown up up there creating more pellets. These pellets can be as small as sand, but travel fast enough to ruin a satellite or potentially the international space station. Of course the white house claims that if they shoot it just prior to entering the atmosphere it will reduce debris, while the article quotes an expert in this field as saying "[T]here would be only a 1 in 1000 chance of wiping out the [International Space Station]. Great." This is a politically awkward subject internationally, so it will be interesting to see Russia and China's reactions to this.