News – Truth Below the Gloss
Middle East
The malnourishment of Iraqi children is at a high currently. Considering the hopeful images portrayed by the Bush administration, how is such a thing possible? How can nearly one in ten be suffering from something so simple to rectify? Nor is it just children.
Palestinians married to Israeli spouses lose a court fight to live with their loves in Israel. According to Israeli law, only Palestinian women over the age of 25 and men over the age of 35 have the right to join their partners in Israel. Obviously, they fear that some terrorist will go through a marriage to an Israeli, just to be able to enter their country and do some act of terrorism.
The US denies the possibility of direct talks with Iran, saying the UN is the best forum for such things. Funny, when otherwise US politicians can’t find enough bad things to say about the UN. Like, he’s your child when he’s bad, he’s mine when he’s good or something like that. Typical.
Guns secretly shipped by the US, through a web of private companies, have gone up missing on the way from Bosnia to Iraq and may have ended up in the wrong hands. That might be one place the terrorists are getting their hardware from.
Israel is 58 years old, as is the conflict that has continued to swirl around it. Likely a conflict that will continue for decades to come, thanks to inept politicians. The link above is written by a displaced Palestinian.
North America
Troops with signs of severe mental illness are being sent to Iraq or kept in combat despite military regs that dictate mentally unfit troops be evacuated. Likely this is one reason for the elevated percentage of suicides amongst troops.
Laura Bush says she doesn’t believe all the bad polls about her husband’s approval rating. Obviously, since she’s his loving wife. It would be silly to think her views are not justifiably skewed. “I don’t really believe those polls. I travel around the country. I see people, I see their responses to my husband. I see their response to me,” she said. Of course, by and large those are events, which are scrubbed of dissenters.
There is evidence that Cheney may have wanted even more eavesdropping than the NSA is doing now. With domestic calls and emails being tracked as well. At least we know where he stands now. Then again, given his personality, clues would hardly be needed.
Bush is expected to call out the National Guard to help patrol the US/Mexico border in a soon to be delivered speech. A little concession he likely hopes will shore up his sagging poll numbers. Of course, every short-term fox he’s tried has ultimately been futile at keeping those numbers up.
Some Evangelical Christians are harping all over the DaVinci Code, now that the book has become a movie. Making videos to debunk the -fictional- story. This quote I find the most amusing: They are designed to show the perils of blurring fact and fiction in Dan Brown’s bestseller and take advantage of the reawakening of interest in the Bible it and the upcoming movie have caused among faith seekers. If you consider the Bible fact to begin with, I say. Which I don’t. Thus I find the outrage to be amusing, though I have no plans to see the movie.
Mind you, if the Christians just shut their yaps and let the movie make its normal pass through he theaters without all of the controversy, it would likely soon be forgotten by all but those who are already into the conspiracy theory thing. But, as usual, the abused must strike back, thus blowing the whole issue into the public eye, validating those who hold the opposing view by their resistance. Again, typical.
Ways that the NSA surveillance could be made more palatable to the public.
Next on the list after sugary drinks and smoking? Indoor tanning salons.
General
The Blogs look at Tony Snow’s first day as press secretary, the fraudulent South Korean stem-cell researcher’s indictment, the new Google Trends
Today’s Papers has Gen. Michael Hayden’s nomination as CIA chief succeeding based on his answers to questions raised over his involvement in the NSA’s warrantless domestic spying program, a long needed revamp to the federal flood insurance meeting with congressional opposition, conservative Christian leaders threatening to withhold support for republicans unless they get serious on social issues and more in the one page news.
Amusements
How thick should the asphalt be under the 45 million dollar Gulfstream Jet that you just parked on? I dunno either, but it should be thicker than this
Not to be out done in the stupid department, two teens arrested after braging about arson on MySpace
Having fixed all of the problems in South Carolina, a senator spends $100 million dollars on preserving a civil war submarine
Top “shameless exploitation of the issue by politicians” now is restricting what communities sex offenders can live
Homeowners associations banning residents from leaving hurricane shutters up, no matter how many cyclones hit
Artist creates an 8ft tall sculpture of a nude woman made from 4,200 Scrabble tiles – worth more than 76,000 points. That’s a lot of wood
Dumbasses refuse to evacute farms despite volcano spewing large clouds of gas: “My feeling is it will not blow at thistime”
Canadian navy shopping for 25-year-old electrical parts to use on its “new” submarines because attempting to install modern equipment tends to cause “catastrophic damage”
Commandment number 11 – Thou shalt not let beer go to waste. Even as the cops are busting your party
Another pretentious top 10 list (this time tv season finales), but don’t pretend you won’t look to see what’s on it
Whimpering coming from woman’s chimney turns out to be stuck burglar
Fark Photoshop Challenge: Photoshop Super Bowl champion quarterback Big Ben Roethlisberger’s unsteady scooter ride
Fark Photoshop Challenge: Today’s Iron Photoshop ingredient: Kites
Fark Photoshop Challenge: Photoshop a Mother’s Day card