Alex the parrot

Research parrot dies
In the grander scheme of things, this is, of course, completely unimportant news. But all the same, one could argue Alex contributed more to the world than, say, Paris Hilton ever did ...

Great image of the day

From Alison at Creekside, Humpty Harper defines "consensus"


Alison notes that the "consensus among Canadians" Harper promised before extending the Afghanistan mission has now become "50 per cent plus one" in a parliamentary vote.
And I note that my little prediction back in June is coming true:

MacKay . . . predicted [Canada's] involvement in the rebuilding and redevelopment of the war-torn country will continue for a "very long time."
"That's the exit strategy," MacKay said.
"When the Afghanistan government can take care of its own interests, then we can come home . . . ."

Another F.U., or maybe two

So here's today's headline: Top U.S. commander says 30,000 troops could leave Iraq by next summer.
Yeah . . .
But, darn it, they just won't know for sure until next March.
Which is, of course, AFTER all the Democratic primaries.
So none of the Very Serious Democratic presidential candidates will be allowed to criticize the war in the meantime, because that would Endanger The Troops and Jeopardize The Mission and Unnecessarily Lengthen The War. And that would all be the Dems' fault.
And then, gosh darn it, Bush would have to fight Congress tooth and nail to get Our Boys Marching Home just in time for the Republican Convention.
And Bush is also giving everyone a crystal rainbow pony castle set, too . . .



Gee, I think I'm getting a little cynical in my old age, eh?

The human face of data mining

The F.B.I. data mining revelations seem sort of technological and confusing until you see the human face of Mahar Arar.
It was this kind of "community of interest" thinking -- where guilt by association is assumed and supposedly proven by innocuous contact with someone else who is being watched for no good reason either -- that got Arar shipped off in the middle of the night to a Syrian prison for two years.

Rock 'n roll party

Here's the first of the "story series" songs (at least, these were the first I heard)

It's My Party


Followed by Now Its Judy's Turn To Cry


Then there was Edward Bear's Last Song plus Close Your Eyes, but darn it they're not available on YouTube.
But as a consolation prize, here's this classic:


And this version by Twisted Sister.

If a tree falls in the forest...

So Bush thinks he's going to make big bucks giving speeches after he is finished being president? People won't even come to listen to him NOW:

The event had inauspicious beginnings. Bush started 10 minutes late, so that APEC workers could hustle people [ie, business leaders] out of the theater's balcony seating to fill the many empty portions of the main orchestra section below _ which is most visible on camera. Even resettled, the audience remained quiet throughout the president's remarks, applauding only when he was finished.

Think about it

Professors Keil and Lehrer ask:

Have we arrived at the point where thinking critically has become a dangerous activity?

The answer sometimes appears to be "yes".
If poetry is the art of creating imaginary gardens with real toads, then social science tries to find the toads in society's gardens -- which turns out not to be a very popular activity these days with some politicians and prosecutors.

Conservativism is just a theory, too

Could somebody please tell John Tory that the economic, social and political beliefs of conservatives could also be described as "just a theory" -- but this is what he expects the people of Ontario to vote for.
Here's the story: Conservative leader muses about creationism in schools

...the Conservatives are promising to give private religious schools $400 million if they opt into the public system, teach the provincial curriculum, hire accredited teachers and administer standardized tests. But that doesn't mean Christian schools couldn't teach creationism on top of the existing provincial curriculum, said Tory, who is embarking on his first campaign as Conservative leader. 'It's still called the theory of evolution,' Tory said ...

I guess this is the kind of dumb stuff politicians say when they are pandering to the religious right.
You know, I was raised in a Christian church and so I had always respected Christianity as a strong and robust religion which had, at its core, a profound respect for truth and truth-seekers. So I really don't understand what has happened in the last decade -- has Christianity now become just a thin and brittle veneer, that its adherents are afraid can be shattered by the simple scientific truth of evolution?

Pavarotti has died

YouTube - Luciano Pavarotti - Ave Maria - Schubert

A commenter on YouTube called him the greatest tenor of our times. He brought his music to millions, too.

Great line of the day

TRex at Firedoglake cheers Teh Craig for announcing he's not resigning (even though he already said he was) because he's not guilty (even though he already said he was) because he's not gay.
Yeah sure, you're not gay -- you just like to have sex with other men, perfectly normal hetro behaviour!
Anyway, TRex talks about how Craig's dithering will screw up Bush and the Republicans:

[from TPM] If Sen. Larry Craig reconsiders and steps all over Gen. Petraeus’ week of surge, Bill Kristol’s head will explode. That Penatagon media war room they set up will be useless in the face of this cable TV zoo.

Wouldn’t that just be delicious? All the millions of dollars worth of spin and PR that the White House and the NeoCons have put into General Petraeus’ Magical September Moment may well be wasted. All the fatuous crap about having it on the anniversary of 9/11, all of it, gone, poof! Because if there is, in fact, one thing on this earth that Big Media loves more than a rich, dead blond, it would have to be the spectacle of a nasty, mushrooming Gay Republican Sex Scandal.

Emphasis mine.

No wonder Harper wanted an election last spring

Canada silent as nuclear energy partnership with US, Australia, others takes shape:

The initiative, called the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership, proposes that nuclear energy-using countries and uranium-exporting countries band together in a new nuclear club to promote and safeguard the industry.
Central to the plan is a proposal that all used nuclear fuel be repatriated to the original uranium exporting country for disposal.
That should be big news in Canada, the world's largest uranium producer.
But to date, the Canadian government's response is a closely guarded secret. In fact, there's been virtually no public debate at all . . . Harper's minority Conservative government clearly does not want to engage the Canadian public in any discussion about the initiative.

You can't make this stuff up.

You can't make this stuff up

Remember yesterday, when Bush said that it wasn't his policy to dissolve the Iraq army in 2003 but somehow it just happened, he can't remember why but he thought he likely objected?
Well, today Paul Bremner says that he wrote Bush about it before it was announced.

Gag me with a spoon

Check out the second update on Glenn Greenwald's post today. Euhhhh!

Burning man

Well, I'm convinced. More and more of the news in the blogs indicates that Bush and Cheney are going to take the US to war against Iran -- see this and this and this -- and there's nothing we can do to stop him and it will be a disaster for the United States and the Middle East and the world. And Bush is now so out of touch with reality that he can't even remember anymore that it was his administration which disbanded the Iraq army.
But, as Tony Soprano would say, what are ya gonna do.
Escapism, anyone? Here are some neat photos from this year's Burning Man festival in the Black Rock Desert in New Mexico :


Here's an interesting art piece, which is reflecting some of the festival participants as they ride past it. Below, more festival art.




The festival-goers are just as unique. Here is Dave the Troubadour, playing a flaming tuba.


You can see the "man" statue in this photo of the festival site during a sandstorm. The festival ended when they set it on fire on Saturday.

Night of the Living Dead in Iraq

"Success" in Iraq? Well, I had been wondering about the actual figures, and here they are. Juan Cole about the ballyhooed surge in Iraq:

I personally find the controversy about Iraq in Washington to be bizarre. Are they really arguing about whether the situation is improving? I mean, you have the Night of the Living Dead over there. People lack potable water, cholera has broken out even in the good areas, a third of people are hungry, a doubling of the internally displaced to at least 1.1 million, and a million pilgrims dispersed just this week by militia infighting . . . The government has all but collapsed . . . The parliament hasn't actually passed any legislation to speak of and often cannot get a quorum. Corruption is endemic. The weapons we give the Iraqi army are often sold off to the insurgency. Some of our development aid goes to them, too.
The average number of Iraqis killed in 2007 per day exceeds those killed in 2006 . . . Nation-wide attacks in June reached a daily all-time high of 177.5l . . . US troop deaths haven't fallen. They are way up . . .
8-2007 77 8-2006 65
7-2007 79 7-2006 43
6-2007 101 6-2006 61
5-2007 126 5-2006 69
4-2007 104 4-2006 76
3-2007 81 3- 2006 31
2-2007 81 2-2006 55
1-2007 83 1-2006 62
I mean, how brain dead do the Bushies think we are . . . And why does our corporate media keep repeating this Goebbels-like propaganda?

Why? Because it just feels so good to be "winning" for a change.