News – Assumption Makes an Ass of You and Me

Middle East

Rummy opines that Osama might be unable to command alQueda, since we haven’t heard from him. In other words, Rummy talks out of his backside, blowing up the fact that we’ve not heard much from him lately to mean something deeper than it likely is. It amuses me how easy it would be for a savvy terrorist to trick the US into thinking certain things, just by not attacking, not speaking publicly. Our officials are so happy to leap to positive conclusions rather than truly investigate things like this. By that, we are less safe.

Two foreign teachers were snatched by gunmen in Gaza according to witnesses.

Poll returns show a trend toward religious Shia parties, with Bush favorite Allawi trailing in third.

Saddam’s trial rolls on again, this time with him in attendance. Good, it wouldn’t be enjoyable without his antics.

Asia

North Korea now plans to build a light water nuclear plant of its own and develop other reactors capable of producing fissile material, apparently. Thus the drama continues to go on and on and on.. one wonders if the story of North Korea’s disarmament will ever end.

North America

Senators from both sides of the aisle want to look into Bush’s secret spying. One wonders how much the senate was really told about this when they were ‘informed’ of these warrantless wiretaps. At the very least, the republicans wouldn’t be raising a stink if they knew ahead of time this was going on. Perhaps they were told, but not told the whole story. That would go right along with the secrecy that this program has been under and would explain the outrage on both sides.

Looking at Bush’s bogus analogy on pointing out his spying. Was anything special really revealed to the terrorists? In my opinion, only if they’re stupid.

I say enough of the secrecy. Bush, overall, doesn’t have the credibility with Americans to justify it.

The legislative bullshit rolls on, with the defense spending and budget bills too close to call. Why? Because some idiot senators lumped in unpopular legislation with those meant to be of help. This is one of the most annoying things that I observe in government. Drilling in ANWR has nothing.. I say again, -nothing- to do with national security. Even if it did, you’d better serve national security by promoting alternate fuels we can grow and make domestically from resources that aren’t finite and don’t require the potential for ecological disaster in one of our green spaces(oil wells do malfunction and fail, don’t they?). And I’ve heard some of the bull that’s in this budget bill as well, I wouldn’t be quick to vote for it either if I was in such a position. We need to end this sort of legislative lumping.

The Patriot Act might expire, though I doubt it will. The situation is, if it does fail, it will be the fault of all sides. Both sides are playing chicken over the law, make no mistake. So if it does and you comment on it, make sure to note how both sides allowed the law to expire.

A federal judge says no to teaching intelligent design in Pennsylvania. He wrote that advocates of intelligent design “have bona fide and deeply held beliefs which drive their scholarly endeavors” and that he didn’t believe the concept shouldn’t be studied and discussed. But added, “our conclusion today is that it is unconstitutional to teach ID as an alternative to evolution in a public school science classroom.” All considered, I agree. ID needs to mature before it becomes taught in schools.

General

A new study shows that it is possible to master pain mentally and hope that this could result in better therapies for those with crippling chronic pain. Pain is pretty much all in the mind, impulses sent from the nerves to the brain to register the unpleasant sensation. The only question is how you would go about muting those impulses.

The Blogs look at Iraqi election returns, the NYC transit strike and the Times’ persons of the year.

Today’s Papers has a look at the supposed War on Christmas, more looks into the initial results of Iraq’s election, a federal judge on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court resigning over the revelation of Bush’s secret spying and more in the one page news.

Amusements

Two men arrested for stealing train horns and attempting to pimp their ride with them

Gwen Stefani is pregnant with Gavin Rossdale’s child. Gavin to keep his shirt on at all times so the baby has no confusion as to who’s serving the drinks

Oklahoma woman nicknamed “Stretch” sets hospital record with 14-pound, three-ounce baby

In another stroke of diplomatic genius, a U.S. television host describes Canada as ”a stalker” and a ”retarded cousin”

Santa Claus now robbing banks in Texas to bankroll his eight tiny reindeer

United Nations creates new agency to help states recover from wars the United Nations failed to prevent

Latest roadrage involving hand grenade brought to you by Garland, Texas

Moose lured into family’s yard by mating call of boy’s saxophone. Turns out he was just horny

The evolution of Santa

Man accused of exposing himself at medical clinic claims it was a wardrobe malfunction. Janet Jackson, Justin Timberlake unavailable for comment

Fark Photoshop Challenge: Today’s Iron Photoshop ingredient: Butter

Fark Photoshop Challenge: Photoshop these balanced rocks

Fark Photoshop Challenge: Photoshop this philodendron