News – Intimidating the Young

Americas

The Secret Service pulls a young girl out of class to interrogate her after she posts a doctored picture of Bush on her MySpace page. She put “Kill Bush” and a dagger in an outstretched hand on it. Such things, it seems, are a federal offense. Laughable in my opinion. I suppose having a pair of SS guys yelling at a 14 year old and threatening her with Juvie is enough punishment, eh ? The parents are most upset that, after coming to their house and finding her not there, they decided to head over to her school and pull her out of class rather than waiting for her to get home and talk to her with her parents there. Of course, if they’d done that, they wouldn’t have been able to safely intimidate the girl and make a public spectacle of her.

Of course, the event has hardly turned young Julia from her opposition to the Iraq War. Indeed, it seems to have spurred her on to more organized protest. Once again, overkill provides the opposite effect. You’d think Bush and his flunkies would have learned this principle by now.

David Kuo, a former official in the Faith-Based Initiatives program, claims in a new book that Bush’s top political advisers privately ridiculed evangelical leaders, while publicly embracing them. Again, I wouldn’t be surprised.

A US judge rejects attempts to ban the Rockstar game ‘Bully’ from release.

Why scrap Gitmo? An innocent man still locked up after all these years.

Middle East

It has been revealed that the US has been sending fat cash to the political opponents of Hamas, leading to Hamas accusing the US of voluntarily promoting internal strife in Palestine.

Iraq remains a hotbed of turmoil, leading some Iraqis to vacate. People don’t want to live their lived in constant fear. They want their quiet lives, which many can’t have in Iraq. Added to that is a massive drop in the number of Iraqis returning to Iraq this year, compared to last year.

Sectarian strife causes the cancellation of a reconciliation conference in Iraq. At this point, there is little reason to postpone it. The strife is constant. Until the government can quell the violence, they must simply accept the danger.

Gaza fishermen defy Israel’s ban on fishing. Many rely on fishing to feed themselves in the country. They can’t abide the long ban on supporting themselves, its been three months already, on some fools suspicion by the Israelis that militants might try and smuggle their captured soldier out of the country in a fishing boat. There are much easier ways to do it, I’m sure.

Africa

Madonna is in the middle of a fresh row over her adoption of a Malawi child. Some claim she bought the child and many human rights groups are united in having it investigated.

Questions on Darfur answered. Have something you’re not quite clear on? You might get it answered here.

Asia/Pacific

Australia will ban North Korean ships from its ports in response to its claimed nuclear bomb test.

Banned Chinese director Lou Ye criticizes China’s censorship laws.

South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon is voted in as the next Secretary General of the UN. An interesting turn considering one of the current foci of the UN.

Europe

Lecturers in British universities are being told to spy on “Asian-looking” and Muslim students they suspect of involvement in Islamic extremism and supporting terrorist violence. They will be told to inform on students to special branch because the government believes campuses have become “fertile recruiting grounds” for extremists.

Great, a new annoyance to piss off and hassle innocent Muslims with limited likelihood to impact terrorism or recruiting of terrorists. It’s the age of foot in mouth disease, my friends. Our leaders seem to have an obsessive taste for toes. So remember, my dark skinned friends(such as myself), don’t do anything suspicious or the Man will be coming to shake you down.

General

Ingredients in a mildly alcoholic milk drink could protect children from food allergies. Bet that’s not something you’d expect to hear, eh? It still needs testing, mind, but if it works out..

A Japanese woman gives birth to her own grandchild, as the child’s surrogate. This is a big deal in Japan, where the government doesn’t like surrogate births.

A sex offender gets plucked from the midst of MySpace by a thousand lines of computer code.

Explainer examines the study that puts the total deaths in Iraq at over 600k.

The Blogs look at the latest Nobel laurite, the pope’s attempt to bring back Latin mass and France outlawing denial of the Turkish-backed Armenian genocide of 1915.

Today’s Papers has the vagaries of crop insurance, that Americans like the ideal of government-sponsored “universal” health-care coverage but don’t want to pay more taxes or give up services to get it, the efforts of social conservatives to save Sen. Rick Santorum in the November elections and more in the one page news.

Amusements

Man’s retirement plan involves robbing a bank and then asking the judge for a three-year sentence, so when he gets out he can retire and collect Social Security

Kansas lawmaker gets into scuffle with giant cockroach masquerading as anti-abortion protester

Can you identify these 80s hair metal bands? Submitter got 4 of them, now forced to turn in his eyeliner, fishnet stockings and buttless chaps in shame (as if there isn’t enough shame in admitting he actually HAD those items in the 80s)

20 things the average person doesn’t know about Windows XP

Today’s storyof a repeat drunk driver showing up drunk for his court case brought to you by Kingston, Ont., and a judge who sends him home to sober up and to bring a toothbrush when he returns to court

Man with handicapped parking permit parks in a regular spot at a school. What could possibly go wrong?

When buying your former girlfriend porn, sex toys, and a blow up doll, don’t use her credit card. Even if you are a cop

Need a costume idea for Halloween? How about being a working Transformer?

Guy changing light bulb in bathroom discovers cache of old documents “missing” from old bribery scandal

The clever folks at Virginia’s Department of Transportation can’t afford to make road improvements, so they’re just going to change the light cycles and declare the problem solved

White guy with tattoo of black panther on his arm turned down for police job because it was “racist” (with pic of tat)

Teacher reprimanded for allowing students to use a trash can instead of peeing their pants during a school lockdown

Fark Photoshop Challenge: Photoshop this tennis serve

Fark Photoshop Challenge: Photoshop this bird in flight

Fark Photoshop Challenge: Photoshop these freaky Brazilian twins from a wedding