More Evidence Religious Right is Anti-Woman

Many evangelicals unwittingly live as feminists, Moore says - (BP)

Canadian Minister Of Defence Claims US Developing Weapons vs. "ET" Civilizations

The former MoD claims that US ambitions to weaponize space and man a moon station are driven by knowledge of ETs and a desire to defend ourselves from them.

I also noticed the article emphasizes "ethical" ETs. I wonder if the Minister is doing this intentionally. Most people wouldn't bother commenting that ETs are ethical. Is this an attempt at influencing people to view aliens as benign or is he trying to send a subtle message that there are also malign aliens visiting?

Another Commercial Playist Update

Apparently, I'm not the only one to have this idea. Apple has released what it considers the top 50 songs used in commericals.

Commercial Soundtracks (Updated)

I also am mixing a CD composed entirely of songs that appear in television commercials. This gives quite a variety as older bands license songs to make money, while younger bands do it to get airplay and boost sales. A prime example of the latter is Dirty Vegas, whose license with Mitsubishi really paid off.

So far I have the following songs qued up to burn, and they're quite good so far. Just need a few more til I burn it.

1) Cherub Rock (Smashing Pumpkins) - Major League Baseball)
2) Days Go By (Dirty Vegas) - Mitsubishi
3) Lose Yourself (Eminem) - Apple iPod
4) Whip it (Devo) - Swiffer
5) Baby got Back (Sir Mix Alot) - Target Back to School
6) Pictures of You (The Cure) - HP
7) 100 Years (Five for Fighting) - JP Morgan
8) Do You Want My Way (The Who) - Monster
9) Just What I Needed (The Cars) - Circuit City
10) Jane Says (Jane's Addiction) - Jack Daniels
11) Supterstitious (Stevie Wonder) - Levi's
12) Under Pressure (Queen) - Zales
13) Take Me Out (Franz Ferdinand) - Sony PSP
14) Sweet Melissa (The Allman Brothers) - Cingular
15) The Boys are Back in Town (Thin Lizzy) - Wrangler Jeans
16) Dust in the Wind (Kansas) - Subaru B9 Tribeca
17) No Sleep Tonight (The Faders) - iTunes + Cingular

As always, suggestions and help on this topic are welcome.

My Online Personality Test Results

Main type	Variant

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Enneagram Test Results Type 1 Perfectionism 80% Type 2 Helpfulness 30% Type 3 Image Awareness 76% Type 4 Sensitivity 20% Type 5 Detachment 50% Type 6 Anxiety 46% Type 7 Adventurousness 56% Type 8 Aggressiveness 63% Type 9 Calmness 66% Your main type is 1 Your variant is sexual

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U.S. Fascism on the March

Congress Arrives at A Deal on Patriot Act

The deal basically extends most Patriot Act provisions for 7 years. Maybe these provisions arguably were needed in the immediate aftermath of 9/11. However, when the act passed, the public was assured that these extraordinary powers would would sunset after a few years. Unfortunately, Congress and the Bush Administration follow the basic bureaucratic desire to constantly aggrandize power and fight any diminution of power or authority.

American Fascism is on the march . . .

Politicizing the FDA

New York Times article
Washington Post account (better)

Congress' non-partisan investigative arm, The General Accountability Office, found numerous irregularities and substantial evidence of political interference in the FDA review process for making Plan B an over the countere drugs. One finding is that the FDA considered factors for Plan B that have not been considered in any other over the counter decision for the past ten years.

The Washington Post account states:

Senior Food and Drug Administration officials were told that the application to sell the "morning-after pill" without prescription was going to be rejected before the staff completed its scientific review and months before the decision was made public, government investigators reported yesterday

. . the GAO was unable to fully assess McClellan's role because he would not speak with investigators and because the agency provided no documents reflecting his communications with other officials. The FDA told the investigators that e-mails to and from McClellan had been deleted and that written memos were routinely destroyed.

Raising the possibility that this practice was a violation of federal record-keeping law, the congressmen wrote that "as the Plan B decision makes clear, retaining the documents of the agency head is essential for the transparent operation of government."

Basically, the sex-negative portion of our population prevailed upon the Bush Administration and HHS Secretary Leavitt to replace sound science on Plan B with ideological positions aimed at stopping people from being responsible with their sexuality. They would prefer instead if sex was only for procreation and not as an enjoyable act for those who don't share their values.

Bush Didn't Lie About WMD

Andrew Sullivan is very articulate in making a point I have tried to make repeatedly in the past: EVERYBODY was convinced that Saddam had WMD.

BUSH DIDN'T LIE: I'm sympathetic to the president's case that he was not the only one who supported war against Saddam because of the threat of WMDs. The consensus at the time - and it was shared by opponents and supporters of the war - was so overwhelming that Saddam's WMDs were a premise of everyone's case, pro and con. Maybe Scott Ritter and Baghdad Bob get a pass on this. But not many others. Nevertheless, all the rest of us were wrong. Were we lied to? I see no reason yet to believe we were - in the strong sense that deliberate untruths were consciously uttered. Was the post-9/11 atmosphere sufficient to blind many people to the possibility that they might be wrong about this premise? Certainly, that's the case for me. I wasn't skeptical enough. I followed the groupthink. I shouldn't have. It's also true, I think, that in the effort to ensure that the CIA was doing its job, some around the veep's office and elsewhere may have seized on materials of dubious, if not discredited, validity. In retrospect, they were not skeptical enough either - and they have a much higher responsibility in this respect than bloggers or even Democrats who do not have full access to the full intelligence.

One point Sullivan neglects is that it is also possible that the the US and the West were the victims of both Saddam's posturing to gain power and an aggressive disinformation program conducted by the Iranians (including Mr. Chalabi).

Marijuana grows brain cells - University Study

http://www.mapinc.org/norml/v05/n1728/a04.htm?134

Alito Signals Reluctance to Overturn Roe v. Wade

Alito Signals Reluctance to Overturn Roe v. Wade: "Alito Signals Reluctance to Overturn Roe v. Wade"

Once again, Bush is selecting a nominee who will actually vote to uphold Roe v Wade because he secretly believes in abortion rights. After all, his mother and wife are both pro-choice, as was his father until joining the Reagan ticket. Within a few years, it will be clear that abortion as a right is here to stay.

No Flu Vaccines for Creationists and Their Ilk

. . . Of Cabbages and Kings writes . . .

"No one wants bird flu to turn into a pandemic but if it does, I kind of hope it strikes first at the creationism and "intelligent design" folks not lethally mind you, just enough to put them in bed for a few days so when their heads clear they might wonder. You see, the pandemic, whether it comes or not, is living proof of evolution. In fact, influenza viruses are superb examples of how evolution works in quick time."

I have to agree with this. No vaccines or anitbiotics of any kind should be given to folks who don't believe in evolution. If evolution were false, there would be no need for new antibiotics to replace penicillin or amoxicillin since these organism would not evolve resistances to anitbiotics through the mutation and survival of the fittest processes. For the same reasons, flu shots wouldn't have to be updated every year if evolution were false and therefore one shot at anytime should be sufficient.

Let's see these people put their health where their beliefs are.

The Pussy Conundrum on Arrested Development

Arrested Development featured an interesting voiceover commentary on the word "pussy" and the contexts in which it can be discussed on tv. In England pussy is just shorthand for "pussycat," and thus a harmless word, whereas here it is considered a vulgar euphemism in American. Later on the narrator, as he often does, goes all post-modern by self-referentially noting it was shame that they had to bleep the word out when used in its proper English context.

Cow Tipping Debunked

I grew up in the red states and my friends and I used to tell stories about cow tipping when we got drunk. I however have never tipped a cow, despite many claims to the contrary and I doubt my high school friends did either. I think the whole cow tipping in rural America myth really took off after Heathers had a scene which revolved around the topic.

Television Soundtracks (Updated)

I'm thinking of burning a CD that is composed only of opening songs from TV Shows, the only catch is the show has be on currently, and syndication only doesn't count. I know there are more good ones out there, but so far I have:

1) Baba O'Reilly (The Who) - CSI:MY
2) Won't Get Fooled Again (The Who) - CSI:Miami
3) Who Are You? (The Who)- CSI
4) Sunny Days (Long Beach Dub All-Stars) - Joey
5) We used to Be Friends (Dandy Warhols) - Veronica Mars
6) ??? (The Smiths) - Charmed
7) In the Street (Cheap Trick) - That 70s Show
8) A Perfect Lie (Engine Room) - Nip/Tuck
9) C’Mon, C’Mon (The Von Bondies) - Rescue Me
10) C'mon A-My House (Rosemary Clooney) - The Girls Next Door
11) Sweet Dreams (The Eurythmics) - The Apprentice

If you have any suggestions, please add them in the comment section.

Special Edition Office Space DVD- With Flair!

Amazon.com: Office Space - Special Edition with Flair (Widescreen Edition)

This was too funny not to post. With Flair!

Good News in the War on (Some) Drugs

Thong Speed: Denver Voters OK Marijuana Possession

Ok, so check out this Burrito story

nbc4.com - News - Police: Burrito Sparks 7-Eleven Fight

Two presumably drunk people got into a fight over a burrito at 7-11 (you'd have to be drunk for this to happen). Drunk Guy A nukes his burrito, goes up to pay for it and realizes he needs to run to the car for more money. Drunk Guy B sees the already-nuked burrito and buys it as Drunk Guy A comes back into the store. DGA then starts fighting with DGB and it spills outside into the parking lot. DGA's girlfriend then releases the hound and their pitbull flies out of the car and bites 3 people, including one guy who wasn't even part of this.

Wow. All this over a burrito. I'll have to remember that next time I'm drunk at 7-11.

So this one time...

Rachel, bicurious and very sexual, met a couple that were swingers. She began hooking up with them regularly, and then began a torrid affair with the husband. This affair lasted about two years, during which time Rachel befriended Susan, the wife and hanging out with her when Richard, the husband, wasn't around. Susan eventually discovered that Richard and Rachel were seeing each other behind her back and divorced Richard.

(True story. Names changed to protect the guilty).

I later end up hooking up with a friend of Rachel's (a one-night stand that lasted too long) who ended up telling me the above story. Since Rachel had just told this girl that I was a bad guy because of my political beliefs, I didn't have much pause in repeating this story. This ended up causing some tension in their relationship and provided the catalyst for the end of that friendship because the person I told it to repeated it back to Rachel disbelievingly, and Rachel got upset with the girl with whom I was hooking up.

I do feel bad about repeating this story and the chain of events caused by my actions. I especially feel bad that I inadvertently ended a friendship because I thought this was juicy gossip. My only defense is that I was careless, thoughtless person back then and have changed since then.

(Names changed to protect the guilty)

Thanks to E: The Blog . . .

For all the TV and Commercial CD Mix suggestions!

Muchas gracias E!

And everyone else is invited to submit suggestions as well.