Bruce Willis Buys Girl Scout Cookies for U.S. Troops

Scientists’ deaths are under the microscope.
Do you wanna feel good today?
Start off thinking about how many ‘enemies of the state’, like Iraq, Iran, and Korea have fairly openly admitted to their biolgical and chemical weapons programs.
Also keep in mind that most western powers officially closed down their biological weapons programs deccades ago. The men who originated and ran these programs are slowly getting old and dieing.The few people replacing them have very little practical experience.
And now, over the course of five months, 11 of the worlds top microbiologists, all from non-enemy states, have died of unnatural causes.

“A find of Bashkir scientists contraries to traditional notions of human history: stone stabs which is 120 million years covered with the relief map of Ural Region.”

— Pravda
I don’t know what to say. Read the article.
While I long ago stopped believing in the “fertile crecent” as the birth of civilization, this would simply throw out everything we know about human evolution.
Keeping in mind, of course, I know nothing abvout Pravda’s reliability, and the highly suspect quality of it’s translation.

Civilian Service
“In many parts of the world, in many battles, leaders of armed movements enlist young children – both boys and girls – to carry out military or terrorist operations. In some cases, these children and teens are regularly drugged with substances that will make them more aggressive in their actions and less apprehensive when it comes to one’s natural fear of losing limbs or life. In these situations, it becomes much more difficult by moral standards (if not by those standards related to internationally accepted rules of war) to differentiate between a soldier and civilian. Certainly, when the child is shooting at you and is dressed in military garb, one could understand the viewpoint that this child is in fact a soldier. But from the kid’s perspective, it’s not quite that clear.
“There are other examples of this blurred line between civilian (or forced fighter) and members of a military force. In the earliest days of our confrontation with the Taliban, there were many stories written about the forced recruitment of young males who were handed a gun and sent to the front lines. In many cases, these ‘soldiers’ were given no viable alternative. Either they joined the battle or they were killed and their family members were endangered. So when the front lines of the Taliban resistance were obliterated, one can assume that among the dead were many of these young men who chose to stand in the line of fire only because the alternative was even worse – and in many cases they were likely supportive of the other side. After all, the Afghan people were the most tormented victims of the Taliban for years before most of us heard of their horrible regime.
“Under dictatorial rulers, being forced to fight against one’s own personal cause is commonplace. In a recent article in The Atlantic on Saddam’s rule in Iraq, Mark Bowden (author of Black Hawk Down) describes a scenario faced by one combatant during the Gulf War:
“There was no hope: he foresaw death everywhere. If you went toward the American lines, they would shoot you. If you stayed in the open, they would blow you up. If you dug a hole and buried yourself, American bunker-buster bombs would stir your remains with the sand. If you ran, your own commanders would kill you?because they would be killed if their men fled. If a man was killed running away, his coffin would be marked with the word “jaban,” or “coward.” His memory would be disgraced, his family shunned. There would be no pension for them from the state, no secondary school for his children. “Jaban” was a mark that would stain the family for generations. There was no escaping it.
Some things are worse than staying with your friends and waiting to die. Hussain’s unit manned an anti aircraft gun. He never even saw the American fighter jet that took off his leg.”…
“So is the person described above (and the thousands of his fellow fighters who lost much more than legs) a soldier, or a civilian placed in the line of fire by an insane ruler who calls for holy martyrdom from the safety of an underground bunker?
“This is the situation for many citizens who live under the heavy hand of a tyrant. They live for years under the dictatorship of a madman and often their only way out is to be fodder on the front lines, killed at the hands of their liberators. And somewhere, there is always another thug collecting kids for the next unholy battle. “

—nextdraft.com

Musharraf Claims Victory in Vote to Extend Term
Oh wait… let me look suprised.
😐

“Judge Rejects Jailing Of Material Witnesses
Ruling Imperils Tool in Sept. 11 Probe

— washingtonpost.com
Yup… this is non-biased reporting.
God forbid we release a man from jail who hsn’t been convicted of a crime and is not expected to testify.
The idea that we have the right to incarcerate people because they might be valuable to a criminal trial is just sick. By this same interpretation of the law, if you happened to be taking a plane on September 11, the US government have every right to lock you up for 8 months without trial.
Yeah, the kid most likely lied. He very probably knew all about the attacks. Does he deserve to go free? Unless you are going to take him to court and prosecute him, yes. Otherwise it is no different than if I locked up someone I hated in my basement.

Thong-Wearing Teens Kicked Out Of Dance
Oy.
When uptight morals collide with sexual casualness in one person, it all goes so terribly wrong.

“The original library of Alexandria housed 500,000 scrolls, which made it a center of culture and scholarship from the third century B.C. into the early Christian era. The modern Bibliotheca aims for similar stature as a global hub of information.”

— Wired

“Likewise with the Online Personal Privacy Act. It is masquerading as pro-consumer when in fact it is pro-business. The new legislation is similar to laws passed in Europe that divide your personal information into two types. The first is “sensitive” information, such as your financial and medical history, race, lifestyle, religion, political affiliation, and sex life. The second is “nonsensitive” information, and among that will include your name, address, and records of anything you buy or surf on the Internet. Under the act, business can’t collect or divulge the sensitive bits without your express consent, but anything classified as nonsensitive can be freely collected and sold at will.
“But the nonsensitive clause is a huge gaping loophole through which business will ride roughshod. Never mind that part about “sensitive” information being forbidden. Most things that businesses want to know about us can be inferred just by examining the things we buy, read and click on. If they can put that information together with our names, which the bill allows, then any concept of “privacy” protection is rendered meaningless. The Online Personal Privacy Act legitimizes the kind of intrusive spyware program activity that is currently proliferating. “

— Salon.com

Israel Lists Demands for UN Mission to Jenin
(Reuters) Apr 29 2002 7:12PM
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – Israel appealed to the United States on Monday to make sure a U.N. fact-finding mission it has held up for more than 10 days into the devastation at the Jenin refugee camp would not present conclusions in its final report.

— AOL’s Today’s News
So now the people being investigated are allowed to make demands of the investigators? Man… why didn’t someone tell me this when I was growing up… I so could have gotten out of cleaning my room.

Wal-Mart cultivates an aw-shucks, we’re-just-folks-from-Arkansas image of neighborly small-town shopkeepers trying to sell stuff cheaply to you and yours. Behind its soft homespun ads, however, is what one union leader calls "this devouring beast" of a corporation that ruthlessly stomps on workers, neighborhoods, competitors, and suppliers.

— AlterNet
These people make Bill Gates and Company look like the playground bully.

"You weren’t alive during the Microsoft conflict. We were beating each other with our own severed limbs."