Blair Had to Talk Bush out of Boming Al-Jazeera

LONDON (Nov. 22) - A civil servant has been charged under Britain's Official Secrets Act for allegedly leaking a government memo that a newspaper said Tuesday suggested that Prime Minister Tony Blair persuaded President Bush not to bomb the Arab satellite station Al-Jazeera.

Supreme Fuck Up

Things are going from bad to worse for Bush's wayward Supreme Court Justice nominee, Harriet Miers. This story was broken in yesterday's (Sunday October 24) editition of the Fort Worth Star Telegram.

Texas Paid Miers 10 Times the Value of Dallas Property
Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers collected more than 10 times the market value of a small piece of land in a Dallas Superfund cleanup site. The windfall came in 2000 after a judge who received thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from Miers' law firm appointed a close professional associate of Miers to the three-person panel that determined how much the state should pay. The panel recommended a $106,915 payment, which the state objected to as excessive.

You can read the full story at the Star Telegram's website here.

I sent this off as an anonymous tip to the right-wing online 'journalist' Matt Drudge, it will be interesting to see if he puts it up on his site.

This is a further blow to Miers, after it was reported that she did not have enough votes to pass the Senate Judicial Committee confirmation hearing.

Republicans, Mexicans and Hebrews, Oh My!- Part I

Media Racism and the Language of Prejudice

After spending most of the morning packing to move, I decided to drop-in to my neighborhood corner store for 40 ounces of cool refreshment. On my way out the door, I noticed many of the daily newspapers running headlines proclaiming that whites were now in the minority in Texas. This is misleading on several levels. Lets look at the word minority itself:
mi·nor·i·ty - (m-nôr-t, -nr-, m-)
n. pl. mi·nor·i·ties
1. a) The smaller in number of two groups forming a whole.
b) A group or party having fewer than a controlling number of votes.

2. a) An ethnic, racial, religious, or other group having a distinctive presence within a society.
b) A group having little power or representation relative to other groups within a society.
c) A member of one of these groups. See Usage Note at color
3. Law. The state or period of being under legal age: still in her minority.
[Source]

The first definition is false, considering Texas has more than two ethnic groups. This however, is the definition they are using (more on that later). The second and fourth definitions are ridiculously wrong. The third is disqualified on broadness. Having a "distinctive prescence" is applicable to all major ethnic groups and isn't exactly front page news. In fact, the white presence is better described a 'hegemonic' than 'distinctive.' Also, the final two definitions are obviously non-applicable.

You may be asking what possesed respected newspapers to run these headlines? The short answer is racism. They are using the first definition, "The smaller in number of two groups forming a whole." Here, they are dubiously dividing the ethnic make-up of Texas into two groups. The first group is obviously 'white.' What is the second group, you might be asking? The second group is the ridiculous grouping of 'everyone else.'

This distinction is patently racist, as it is the product of the infamous 'us vs. them mentality.' It claims that there are 'whites' and 'everyone-else'. This obviously implies that whiteness is either the normal or desireable state. The term 'non-white' is a highly dubious grouping. It tells us nothing about the people included in the group, other that they probably have a hard time catching a cab and getting a job or loan. The term 'white' itself is largely worthless. It consists mainly of a despicable racist heuristic. As used by the US census, the term includes:

people having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa. It includes people who indicated their race or races as "White" or wrote in entries such as Irish, German, Italian, Lebanese, Near Easterner, Arab, Polish, or Iranian. (See also Whites)

[Source]

You may also note that these groups have very little in common with each other. This definition is also highly problematic.

A more contemporary criticism is that many Black people have lived in areas of North Africa associated with Arab and thus considered "white". Mostafa Hefny, an obviously Black Egyptian, is among those whose original ancestors were from North Africa and who is classified as White, despite the obviousness of his Black identity and his socialization as a Black man in America. [Source]

Now, lets look at Texas' demographic make-up. The reason for these headlines is the recent estimate that the white population has (most likely) dropped below the 50% mark. This may seem alarming, until you look at the date from the 2000 census:

White persons, not of Hispanic/Latino origin, percent, 2000

52.4%

Persons of Hispanic or Latino origin, percent, 2000 (b)

32.0%

Black or African American persons, percent, 2000 (a)

11.5%

Asian persons, percent, 2000 (a)

2.7%

American Indian and Alaska Native persons, percent, 2000 (a)

0.6%

[Source]

These are the 2000 findings of the US Census. Since then, it is estimated that whites have dropped below the 50% line. Even so, they are by far the dominant racial grouping in Texas based on numbers alone. In political power, the discrepency is more apparent. Our government is overwhelmingly white. A vast number of hispanics are ineligible to vote, and the turnout of the black vote is far lower than whites.

Why then, is the news media acting like we are being now being overwhelmed by some foreign group? The answer is racism. The terms used in these stories are both racist and anarchronistic. They do not further any dialogue, being largely meaningless. Take for example the recent internet headline: Texas Becomes a Majority-Minority State.

What the fuck is a majority-minority state? The term is empty filler, completely void of meaning. It is logically contradictory. It either means that:
a.) Texas has both a majority and a minority, like every other fucking state that ever existed
b.) That minorities are now the majority in Texas

It is obvious they are referring to the latter, using the '50% definition' of minority. This flies in the face of reason. Minority and majority are polar oppisites, one obviously cannot be the other. If whites dropping below the 50% line puts them in the 'minority,' then obviously every other grouping is a minority since they are much farther below the 50% mark. The logical conclusion of their argument is: Texas is now all minorities, since no group has a population greater than 50% of the state total. This is again contradictory as minority cannot mean majority. The only way their logic works, is if they use 'minority' as meaning 'non-white,' which is both semantically incorrect and racist.

This is the first of three installments of this article. In the next, we will examine the hidden racial history of Texas and what it means today. Finally, we will examine the effect of these demographic changes on our political process.

Just One Link

Everyone should check this out. It ties in to something I am working on for tomorrow.

99 Ways to Die

Ever wonder how you are probably going to die? I did, until I got this handy chart from LiveScience.com. If pondering your own mortality gets you down, you can ponder that of others. Is it really a suprise that at least one of the people we went to high school with is actually gonna die of "falling down?"

Cause of Death	Lifetime Odds
Heart Disease	1-in-5
Cancer	1-in-7
Stroke	1-in-23
Accidental Injury	1-in-36
Motor Vehicle Accident*	1-in-100
Intentional Self-harm (suicide)	1-in-121
Falling Down	1-in-246
Assault by Firearm	1-in-325
Fire or Smoke	1-in-1,116
Natural Forces (heat, cold, storms, quakes, etc.)	1-in-3,357
Electrocution*	1-in-5,000
Drowning	1-in-8,942
Air Travel Accident*	1-in-20,000
Flood* (included also in Natural Forces above)	1-in-30,000
Legal Execution	1-in-58,618
Tornado* (included also in Natural Forces above)	1-in-60,000
Lightning Strike (included also in Natural Forces above)	1-in-83,930
Snake, Bee or other Venomous Bite or Sting*	1-in-100,000
Earthquake (included also in Natural Forces above)	1-in-131,890
Dog Attack	1-in-147,717
Asteroid Impact*	1-in-200,000**
Tsunami*	1-in-500,000
Fireworks Discharge	1-in-615,488

** Perhaps 1-in-500,000

Great Moments in Tweaker Engineering

Tweaker Space Program set to Reach for the Sky

Despite several other unsavory characteristics, tweakers have a somewhat well deserved reputation for a willingness to work with their hands. For these, there is no project that is too outlandish, time-consuming, or tedious. It is in this spirit, that we are proud to update you on the status of the tweaker space program.


On June 24, 2005, Missouri State Highway Patrol pulled over a 1990 Ford Thunderbird driving down Interstate 70. Both driver and passenger ditched the vehicle, but were captured shortly thereafter with small amounts of methamphetamine on their person. After searching the car, officers found $13,500 under the passenger seat of the vehicle.


It was then the officers discovered a truly great acheivement in the history of tweaker engineering. In the trunk of the car, officers found a model rocket completely filled with methamphetamines. It was attaced to "an elaborate system of ropes and pulleys" which lifted the rocket into firing position when the trunk was opened from the inside of the car (US Attorney).


The rocket ignition was connected by wires to the car's cigarette lighter. This allowed the entire apparatus to be lifted from a prone to launch position, and fired from inside of the car. If the suspects hadn't panicked, presumably the situation would have unfolded like this:

1. Police pull over the Ford Thunderbird mobile speedlauncher.

2. Our two brave crankstronauts, Michael Sullivan and Joseph Seidl, would pull the trunk latch. This would open the launch bay and raise the meth rocket in launch position.

3. From inside mission control, the cab of the Thunderbird, Sullivan would press in on the cigarette lighter which would ignite the rocket engine.

4. The rocket would leave the trunk, bravely sending the prescious cargo where no crank has gone before.


We can only speculate what might had occured if the Deep Speed probe had actually been deployed. We do know that officers found over $150, 000 worth of methamphetamine in the vehicle. I wonder what the penalty would be if the rocket misfired and killed one of the State Troopers? I bet it would border on the severe. Unfortunately, the world may never know. We can only hope that this will not mark the end of deep speed rocket exploration.

June Science Roundup Part I

The horror, the horror.....

Well, since it has been a completely random amount of time since the last science roundup, I figured we must be a little past due, like much else in life. Enjoy.

Marijuana-like Chemical in Brain: The reason while people can run away after getting shot.

Researchers at the University of California at Berkley have discovered that endocannabinoids, the naturally occuring marijuana-like chemicals in our brain, are responsible for the long documented ability of humans to suspend their natural pain response in times of injury or great stress. This is what allows people (and other mammals) to run for great distances after receiving otherwise traumatic gunshot wounds.

"This study shows for the first time that natural marijuana-like chemicals in the brain have a link to pain suppression," researcher Daniele Piomelli, a professor of pharmacology and director of the Center for Drug Discovery at the UCI School of Medicine, said in a prepared statement.

For more information click here.



Scientist Create Zombie Hell-Dogs: Humans are Next


In a stunning victory for mad scientist everywhere researchers in Pittsburgh have suceeded in killing dogs, only to bring that back to life up to three hours later. They have accomplished this by draining the animals blood and replacing it with a frozen salt solution. The zombie dogs have been kept in this state for up to three hours without brain or heart activity before their blood is replaced and they are brought back to life through an electric shock. As you can tell by the photgraph, the animals absolutely love this. Research has shown that following the procedure the animals are completely normal and without brain damage, until they decide to take us out Pet Semetary style. Human zombification is currently in the works.

For more on this story click here.