April 2004 Archives

In case all the rhetoric about American troops in Iraq just doing there jobs and performing admirably, which I have no doubt at all most of them are doing, there is now evidence that some soldiers are taking part in sadistic and criminal acts of torture and humiliation. Photos have come out showing US soldiers forcing Iraqi prisoners to strip naked and march around while American troop jeer among other abuses. What is this? How can we be taking the high road and have our soldiers attacking prisoners and violating international and military law? This is disgusting and despicable.

American and allied troops have my complete and utter support, they are indeed performing their jobs as well as can be expected, they are good and decent people on the whole. I respect them—everyday they do a job I don’t have the willingness to do. But when this kind of thing happens it tarnishes all our best efforts and good intentions for peace and democracy in the world.

[via the BBC] [via the Mirror]

A friend of mine, who shall remain nameless because she refuses to read this blog, sent me a link to an article about snails on CNN. But these aren’t just any snails, these are Giant African Snails and according to CNN they really like to have sex. Or they like to do whatever it is that snails do to reproduce… I have a feeling they just run over each other’s slime trail and new snails spontaneously combust at the intersections. Who knows? But after 7 years in one family’s Miami yard, there were 18,000 of these enormous snails hanging around. Gross! It took 10 years to get rid of them all, says the USDA. Now they are back. The USDA’s Safeguarding, Intervention and Trade Compliance Program has seized several specimens from schools in the midwest.

These things eat 500 kinds of plants and can transmit meningitis in their ‘mucous’ (read: slime, eww). Needless to say they are evil little buggers and will cost you $1000 if you are caught in illegal possession of one. But even more frightening is they might eat your household pets and small children, so watch out.

Over the first 20 years of the federeal Endangered Species Act, 114 species became extinct—and nearly half of that number were in Hawaii—says the Center for Biological Diversity.

[via the AP]

Have you ever gotten a piece of mail in a bag, only to find that it wasn’t really supposed to be in a bag? Well, I haven’t either, but I’ve heard rumors about it and I think my cousin may have once or twice been so affected by our glorious postal service here in the US. As I was surfing about today I ran across some letters from postal plant managers to a few postal ‘customers’ who had, let’s call them less than satisfactory, experiences. Here are some highlights:

It appears that the mail we deliver to you today is not among the many hundreds of millions that we delivered just this morning without incident. Indeed, as you can see from the need for this bag, your mail is not entirely in one piece. We have managed to salvage several bits of the front of an envelope that once contained a letter intended for you.

You can facilitate delivery of your future packages by asking your senders to avoid busy holiday seasons and Tuesdays, which are never good for us.

It is not our policy to meticulously stalk, track down, hunt, kidnap, and box up our customers’ loved ones. Still, the occasional mishap does occur. Because we know your family is important to you we are forwarding this cardboard tomb to you in an expeditious fashion.

You can read the full letters at McSweeny’s.

Not really, but I am going to China next month on a study abroad trip for three weeks. It’s really exciting. Last week I picked up my tickets from the travel agent and sometime in the next week or two I am going to head up to the Chinese Consulate and get myself visa’d. Have you seen the Chinese visas? They are way spiffy and a bargain at 50 bucks, don’t you think?

After this course my college career will be at an end, which as I have said before is a bit freakish. I just now feel like I’m living the ‘college life’—ya know?, going out and partying until the wee hours, staying up late, last minute trips to Boston, whatever. Sometimes I wish I could go back to freshman year and do it ‘right’. I was too much of a tight ass the first time around. Oh well, such is life.

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary. —H.L. Menken

A high school in Georgia is having three proms—one for blacks, one for whites, and one for latinos. And apparently it’s not possible for a white guy to get a ticket to the black or latin prom.

[via The Atlanta Journal-Constitution]

This photography was taken by Pavel Štecha during the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia. The photo shows thew view from the top of Wenceslas Square in Prague.

A friend of mine called Nick Mosquera recently posted the following bit of drivel on another weblog, The Billiken’s Bluff, run by a mutual friend of ours.

[…] Seems the state of Illinois is offering an official letter of regret to the State of Utah and the Mormon church for the execution of its founder, Joseph Smith, and the expulsion of its followers. I guess the passage of time and common sense proved to be inadaquate. This article came the day after my buddy Dave met with a pair of Mormon prophets that came to his apartment to convert him. He debated them a bit- they complained he wouldn’t pray with them. It’s a shame he didn’t have this in his arsenal, though I’m sure they would have been proud of the Land of Lincoln for finally burying the hatchet. As much as I’m angry with people who would be willing to travel for two years of their life trying to convert people to a cultish religion, I have to admire their tenacity (their only allowed to call home twice during that time). It’s take a special kind of sheep to worship that intently.

The moral of these stories? Seems it’s real easy to lose sight of the “big picture,” whether you’re banning coffe from the diet, or attempting to add more sugar and saturated fat to it. I imagine that the atmosphere around the SFA headquarters, with everyone doped out on Cheeze-its and Pixie Stix, is similar to that in downtown Salt Lake. They’re both cults, and both completely reliant on propaganda. If I had to choose, though, I’d definitely take the one that’s encouraging me to destroy my body over the one that really wants me to feel guilty for having one. Amen.

Naturally I felt compelled to respond to such a ridiculous attack on Mormonism and anyone of honest faith of any kind. Here is my response:

In this my first post on The Billiken’s Bluff, I would like to thank Nick for diverting us with his insightful and timely analysis of Mormonism (and its compelling parallels with the snack food industry). It was refreshing to read such well-researched and informed reporting because so often these days one is forced to slog through raving drivel that neglects historical context and personal faith and attachment. The kind context that comes, for example, from knowing that Mormons were subjected to extermination orders in Missouri, which led them to go to Illinois, where they were repeatedly attacked by mobs, murdered, and had their property destroyed.

Furthermore, other less talented writers would avoid getting right basic facts like the name of the Mormon fellows that go around proselytizing—missionaries not ‘prophets’—but then again ‘prophets’ is a more controversial word; an easy way to make a uninteresting story interesting. Many would think these ‘prophets’ insane to devote two years of their lives to the service of their honest faith, and assume they are suffering from brainwashing and lack of caffeine in their diet. Clearly Nick understands that rational people can respect the faith of others without resorting to petty name-calling and fear mongering. I admire that commitment to common decency and mutual respect.

Today’s “Doonesbury” comic strip has the President referring to Condi Rice as “Brown Sugar”. The cartoonist had better watch out for the Justice Department because you know John Ashcroft is watching.

In fact, I bet he’d like nothing better than to reprise the very popular Alien and Sedition Acts of the early 19th century. He’d be more than happy to haul in anyone who makes fun of the President. I mean, if a guy as level headed as John Adams will sign them, then what makes us think President Bush would decline to do so. That way he can keep everything the government does a secret and jail you for calling him out on it.

[via Drudge Report]

Maybe it’s my delicate sensibility, but this just looks gross. Why anyone would want to have jewelry implanted into their eye is simply beyond my feeble understanding. Nevertheless it is true that ophthalmological surgeons in the Netherlands have developed “JewelEye”, a technique for implanting small pieces of specially designed accessories into the muccous on the outer layer of the eyeball.

Evidently the procedure has already been performed on five women and one man. And there is a waiting list at the clinic in Utrecht that performs the operation.

[via Yahoo! News]

I am a grammar god! Whoo hoo!

You are a GRAMMAR GOD! If your mission in life is not already to preserve the English tongue, it should be. Congratulations and thank you!

[Take the quiz at Quizilla]

Everyone knows that politicians aren’t the most honest creatures on the planet. They distort. They decontextualize. And they prevaricate. And at times it seems impossible that the real facts will ever be known for sure. Indeed, it is nearly impossible for each of us to do all the research necessary to find out what the real facts are in order to honestly evaluate the things our elected officials say. Luckily we have great institutions at our universities that are willing and able to step up and give us honest information, without bias and, even better, with SOURCES.

Factcheck.org is a new-ish website set-up and run by the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania. It offers evaluations and context, and often refutations, on the claims made by politicians. There is a particular emphasis on the current president campaign.

The comment function has not been working for some time now evidently. Oops, my bad! I’m lazy and didn’t properly test it.

But it will work now. Happy commenting!