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The Archive

Bush’s ‘new environmentalism’ hit
Wednesday, May 30, 2001

Bush: The Environmental President!

. . . environmental groups saw the president’s trip as a smokescreen, with the focus on less federal intervention as an invitation for special interest groups to get their way on public lands.

The criticisms include the fact that the vast majority of the $5 billion Bush will seek from Congress would not go to protect wildlife or to add new parks to the system, but to maintain roads and park buildings.

The National Parks Conservation Association, which regularly works with the National Park Service, gave the president a C+ for “emphasizing infrastructure over nature and education.” The group also graded the president on six other park protection issues, giving him a D overall.

Am I alone in noticing that Bush doesn't do any actual work (he leaves that to Cheney), but instead only stumps (that's appropriate, considering what he's going to do to our forests) at photo-ops to sugercoat his 'compassionate conservative' agenda?

Jerry Bruckheimer: Top Gun firing on all cylinders
Wednesday, May 30, 2001

Yes, Jerry Bruckheimer is the McDonalds of movie producers, but the article completely misses the point. Nothing sells like formulaic crap, as long as you spend enough on advertising hype.

Thanks, LinkMachineGo.com :)

Quintin Tarantino sums up 'Top Gun'

Is Bruckheimer subversively peddling homoerotica to meatheads? Maybe he's more sophisticated than I'm thought.

Now, may I please add to my list of directors that should never be allowed behind a camera of any kind ever again?

The nominees are:

Michael 'everything goes better with pointless explosions' Bay

Kevin 'I made Waterworld and The Postman' Costner

Renny 'every movie I touch turns to shit' Harlen

And the winner is. . . Kevin Costner!

Mr. Costner's long overdue award is to have his eyeballs plucked out with a grapefruit spoon.

PG&E wants OK to double top executives' pay
Wednesday, May 30, 2001

Run your corporation into the ground and get huge bonuses!

Just weeks after handing out $50 million in bonuses while on the verge of financial collapse, PG&E is asking a judge's permission to award $17.5 million in additional payouts to the management team that guided the utility into bankruptcy.

It's another ringing endorsement of our system of capitalism.

Battle to clear Salem 'witches'
Tuesday, May 29, 2001

The Salem Witch Trials always make me think of this.

E-mail users warned over spy network
Tuesday, May 29, 2001

Echelon rears it's ugly Hydra head.

Computer users across Europe should encrypt all their e-mails, to avoid being spied on by a UK-US eavesdropping network, say Euro-MPs.

The tentacles of the Echelon network stretch so far that the UK's involvement could constitute a breach of human rights, they say.

Echelon Research Resources

Dust Keeping the Lights Off
Tuesday, May 29, 2001

Itty-bitty sensor technology could help with energy conservation.

The Particles of Star Trek

Just because.

The Ossuary in Sedlec
Tuesday, May 29, 2001

Someday I will design a habitat around a skull and bones motif.

Thanks, Gutter Sludge :)

The 'X' in What's Next
Tuesday, May 29, 2001

Let's see, you're a marketing research company that helped create and then doomed the dot-com 'revolution' by hyping it to death.

Now it's gone bust. So what do you do?

Tout another fake 'revolution' as the Next Big Thing [TM]!

Buzzwords sell very nicely to the clueless, even though you're not selling anything but an idea. . .

Thanks, Tomalak's Realm :)

Photographica
Monday, May 28, 2001

A photo metablog. This I like.

Bush backs Florida drilling, 2 say
Monday, May 28, 2001

Bush is hellbent on breaking even more environmental promises.

As if we're surprised at this point.

The Bush administration favors drilling off the coast of Florida, according to House Republicans who heard the news from Vice President Dick Cheney.

It is the first time the administration has tipped its hand on the incendiary issue, which could pit brother against brother in the Bush family. Florida Gov. Jeb Bush is adamantly opposed to any drilling in the proposed site, called Lease Sale 181.

President Bush left Florida voters with the impression that he agreed with his brother. As a candidate, he said he opposed drilling off the coast of Florida, and as president he has said he would defer to governors on drilling in and near their states.

Turn away from Arctic drilling

What greater message to send to the future than a message, for once, of thoughtfulness and prudence and of pushing one's self away from the trough rather than going into the last chapel to rob or gorge upon nothing less than the spirit of that place?

Get over nuclear fears, energy chief says

"We need to stop living in the past," Abraham said. "We need to stop thinking of this industry in terms exclusively dictated by Three Mile Island."

That accident near Harrisburg, Pa. - a partial meltdown of a nuclear reactor, which remains unusable because of radiation contamination - reversed the fortunes of the U.S. nuclear power industry. The last time an American utility committed to building a new nuclear power plant was in 1978, the year before the accident, said Steve Kerekes of the Nuclear Energy Institute, a trade group.

Three Mile Island's bitter aftertaste is not the only obstacle to the administration's plans for nurturing nuclear power. Other potential stumbling blocks include the lack of a facility to safely store nuclear waste, uncertainty about whether new nuclear plants would turn a profit, and opposition from environmentalists, public health advocates and consumer groups.

Forget Three Mile Island. Forget Chernobyl.

You can trust us! We're the government!

In America, Hard Work May Get You Nowhere
Monday, May 28, 2001

A recent story in the Washington Post Magazine looked at the arrival in a poor D.C. neighborhood of one of those groceries teeming with choice Roquefort, fresh swordfish, delectable macaroons. At work in this emporium are the likes of an Eritrean who escaped a burning village, a Sudanese refugee and an African American who just hopes to make it out of a shelter down the street.

Free Market Fables

Laissez faire capitalism? It doesn't exist; never has, never will.

Capitalism doesn't apply to industries that depend on huge government subsidies. Why bother to compete with the free market when you have john and jane taxpayer to bail you out?

For example:

In 1998, taxpayers spent $126 million opening up roads so that the timber industry could cut down trees in national forests. This year, with government help, the industry blocked the free market import of lumber from Canada on grounds that Canada's subsidies, oh dear, were higher than ours. The result: The price of a sheet of plywood has gone up 40% in the U.S.

As Others Abandon Plains, Indians and Bison Come Back
Monday, May 28, 2001

More than 60 percent of the counties in the Great Plains lost population in the last 10 years. An area equal to the size of the original Louisiana Purchase, nearly 900,000 square miles, now has so few people that it meets the 19th-century Census Bureau definition of frontier, with six people or fewer per square mile. And a large swath of land has slipped even further, to a category the government once defined as vacant.

Since the South is being flattened and paved over by runaway suburban sprawl, maybe I should seriously consider a move to North Dakota.

Thanks, RandomWalks :)

U.S. Plans Offer to Russia to End ABM Treaty Dispute
Monday, May 28, 2001

Bush's plan to sell his ABM fantasy to the Russians?

Buy their weapons and give them military aid!

Mr. Bush, administration officials said, will use the June 16 meeting with Mr. Putin to get acquainted, and serious discussions are not expected to begin until the two leaders meet again the following month in Italy at the annual economic gathering of industrialized nations. By then the adminisration hopes to have a list of initiatives in hand. But one senior official warned that "the hardest thing to put on any list" would be joint research and development, "given their own proliferation practices."

"We wouldn't be confident that the technology would stop with the Russians", he added.

It Gets 78 Miles a Gallon, but U.S. Snubs Diesel
Sunday, May 27, 2001

Should we reexamine the oft maligned diesel automobile?

Much of planned income-tax cuts may never materialize
Sunday, May 27, 2001

As Republicans, Democrat turncoats and the White House crow over their victory for fiscal irresponsibilty and eventual insolvency, here's some things to keep in mind.

Take the tax cut of 1981, which Republicans to this day credit with renewing the nation's economic strength. As it became clear that the tax cut was making the federal budget deficit worse, Congress quickly reversed course though both parties were under intense pressure from anti-tax forces.

Although it initially left in place the personal income tax rate reductions at the heart of the 1981 plan, Congress raised other taxes in each of the subsequent four years of Ronald Reagan's presidency. It then raised income taxes in 1990, with the elder George Bush in the White House, and raised them yet again on upper-income people in 1993, this time at the behest of President Bill Clinton.

Californians see rewards in conservation
Sunday, May 27, 2001

For months, Californians have been engaging in acts so egregious that Beltway types fear they threaten "the American way" of life.

Like conserving energy. In huge numbers.

A Cure for Everything: Just Pop a Few Pills
Sunday, May 27, 2001

(Don't bother clicking the link. It's gone.)

Why deny yourself or change your incredible lifestyle when the American medical community, in conjunction with the pharmaceutical industry, can give you the life you’ve always dreamed of? Veggie burgers at the family barbecue? Forget about it! A side of greens instead of fries? Why? Hours spent doing aerobic exercises, which do nothing for those showoff abs and biceps? Talk about waste! Now, for an unlimited time, America’s doctors and druggists are offering an easy way out of your artery-choking lifestyle. Don’t give up the cheeseburgers. Don’t buy that NordicTrack. Take our miraculous drugs and live the life you’re entitled to as a red-blooded American!

What has raised my ire lately is that I can't change the channel without seeing that Zoloft ad with that happy-bouncy oval thing. I imagine that Zoloft and other SSRIs wouldn't be so popular if drug marketers told people how expensive they are and that they have nasty side effects. For example, you can't have an orgasm when you're on them and that a one month supply costs over one hundred dollars. I think a lot of people wouldn't find that possibility appealing! I'm not saying that there aren't people out there who truly need antidepressants, but they should not be handed out like Sweet Tarts. I hate the mass marketing of medication as a way to fill drug manufacturer's coffers.

Rx Industry Goes for KO

The drug industry’s political spending could easily top $230 million for the 1999-2000 election cycle. This record amount includes: approximately $170 million for lobbying ($82 million in 1999 and a projected $86-$90 million in 2000); almost $15 million in direct campaign contributions to Republicans and Democrats; at least $35 million in campaign ads by the drug industry front group Citizens for Better Medicare; and $10 million funneled to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce for pro-drug industry campaign ads.

Prozac class drug blamed for killing

Thanks, Unknown News :)

Last, but not least, The Prozac-Pez World Wide Web Site.

All my clever ideas have been removed from my brain and exploited by someone else on the world wide web! Dammit!

Stop, watch: time for ratings in minute detail
Sunday, May 27, 2001

You too can become a tool of marketing bean counters 24-7!

Unmasking the Face on Mars
Sunday, May 27, 2001

'It's just a mesa', says NASA.

Conspiracy theorists are not convinced.

Enterprise Mission now says it's a Mayan lion!

DarkPlanet - Planetary Anomalies

Lunar Anomalies Homepage

S P A C E W A R
Sunday, May 27, 2001

Reliably, at any nighttime moment (i.e. non-business hours) in North America hundreds of computer technicians are effectively out of their bodies, locked in life-or-Death space combat computer-projected onto cathode ray tube display screens, for hours at a time, ruining their eyes, numbing their fingers in frenzied mashing of control buttons, joyously slaying their friend and wasting their employers' valuable computer time.

Check the date.

I have a sneaking suspicion that I linked to this some time ago.

I can't remember. So sad.

Dave. . . My mind is going. . . I can feel it. . .

Error 404 Foretold in Bible Lexicons
Friday, May 25, 2001

No, it's not another in a long line of obvious and unfunny Onion parodies. This is for real. Maybe.

(No, I don't like The Onion. Excuuuuuse me!)

Here's something onion related, but more interesting, courtesy of the Department of the Navy. Onion Router!

Also onion related, The Art of Michael Whelan, one of my favorite SF/Fantasy artists.

As long as there are states of mind and soul that require expression, there will be metaphor, symbolism, and allegory in art. Modern obsession with art as a "product" has made allegory especially unfashionable, but it's a momentary diversion. The human soul demands more, and fashions change.

Malbolge: Programming from Hell
Friday, May 25, 2001

Don't ask me to help. I could barely figure out Fortran!

Current NIDS Data
Friday, May 25, 2001

I'm loving this because now I can track local severe weather outbreaks without having to deal with the pop-ups and ad bloat on intellicast and weather.com.

Since the dot-com sector fell into the ninth level of profitability hell, the commercial websites are now so desperate for ad revenue that they are insisting on bugging us with Flash and full page pop-ups. Guess what? If you annoy your customers, they'll probably will go elsewhere to find the information they need.

I've relied too much on commercial sites lately.

Gotta try harder to find those non-commercial alternatives.

Jeffords Leaves GOP, Shifts Senate Control
Thursday, May 24, 2001

The defection of Sen. James Jeffords (I - VT) gives George 'I'm a uniter and not a divider.' Bush, Dick ' What, me sell out to the energy lobbyists?' Cheney and the radical right a long overdue and much deserved slap in the face.

McCain urges tolerance in GOP

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., a maverick who unsuccessfully fought Bush for the GOP presidential nomination last year, criticized Republicans for intolerance of internal disagreement while treating Jeffords too harshly.

"Tolerance of dissent is the hallmark of a mature party, and it is well past time for the Republican Party to grow up," he said in a written statement.

Expected shift in power has Capitol buzzing

"If you're going to threaten retaliation, revenge and punishment to people because they don't vote exactly how you want them to, you're going to pay a price," said Sen. John McCain, the Arizona Republican who has had his own run-ins with the administration.

In recent weeks, Jeffords, chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, had protested the size of Bush's proposed tax cut and campaigned for increased funding for a variety of education programs, particularly special education.

But he was met with a rebuke from the White House. Officials there refused to invite him to a ceremony honoring the national teacher of the year, who was from Vermont. And one of his top legislative priorities, the New England Dairy Compact, was also threatened with extinction.

Switch would mark end of smooth sailing for Bush

The prospect of a Jeffords defection threw off stride what had become a virtual Bush political juggernaut in getting his will, controlling the message and--with Democrats in the minority in both houses--having practically the only megaphone in Washington. Bush's reputation as a highly skilled, highly persuasive politician also has been wounded. And, it is often said by pundits, where blood is drawn in Washington, sharks tend to congregate.

Lott's Future Hangs in the Balance

Has the Evil that is Trent Lott [TM] finally got his comeuppance?

Vermont's Independent Streak

This is, after all, the land of socialist Rep. Bernie Sanders, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, and legislators who blazed the way on civil rights -- from abolishing slavery to establishing same-sex civil unions. Although a midterm party defection can lead to punishing political repercussions elsewhere, Vermonters suggest that this could be one of the few places where Jeffords can not only get away with switching sides, but may actually be rewarded for it.

Bravo to Sen. Jeffords, clearly a man of conscience and to the people of Vermont, who clearly have a better understanding of Democracy than the other forty-nine states do.

I certainly encourage as many Congressman and Congresswomen as possible, both Republican and Democratic, to go independent and break the stranglehold of the two party system.

250 Scientists Express Grave Concern Over Energy Plan
Thursday, May 24, 2001

Conservation must be front and center in our energy future. Unfortunately, energy conservation is painted as a return to the Stone Age, conjuring images of people huddling in the cold of their living rooms in front of lifeless TVs. But in reality, just the opposite is the case. In the last 20 years some of the country's best scientists and engineers have produced great innovations in the efficient use of energy. Cars that get 70 or more miles per gallon, appliances that use half the energy they did ten years ago, lighting fixtures that last for years at a fraction of the energy cost, and new homes that heat and cool with modest amounts of energy are proven winners in energy and economic terms. Just a 3 mile-per-gallon increase in the fuel efficiency of SUVs alone would reduce U.S. oil consumption more than the entire Arctic National Wildlife Refuge could supply. A study by five national laboratories concluded that a government-led efficiency program emphasizing research and incentives to adopt new technologies could reduce the growth in electricity demand by as much 47 percent. This would drastically reduce our need to build new power plants.

Government releases latest rollover test results
Thursday, May 24, 2001

SUVs flunk rollover tests. Again.

Will suburbanite lemmings that buy them for status finally get the message that they aren't safe? I think not.

Venezuela to Seek Ford Explorer Ban

Venezuela's consumer protection institute INDECU said on Thursday it would ask the country's Public Prosecutor to ban sales of the Ford Explorer sports utility vehicle (SUV) because it suspected faults in the vehicle had caused fatal crashes.

If only regulators in the U.S. were so concerned about safety. . .

The End of the Road for the Explorer?

Ron Wright, an inventory-control manager at Houston’s Lone Star Ford is trying to stay upbeat about sales of the Ford Explorer—even if Ford Motor Co. has launched a massive second-round of tire replacements on the vehicle. “People still buy cigarettes, don’t they?” he asks.

My thoughts exactly.

Quiddity
Wednesday, May 23, 2001

A weblog that has long deserved permalink status, but has been neglected for far too long by yours truly. Anyone who leads me to a link of Hunter S. Thompson and a blow-up sex doll gets high marks from me. I also dig 500 Questions.

199. If you had 5 dollars, went to the store to buy one apple for 50 cents, but they were out, how many apples would you have?

If I had 5 dollars I wouldn't spend it on apples.

Me either!

Bush Gets Solid Marks
Wednesday, May 23, 2001

Solid marks? Hardly.

Bush has established an image as a president who favors monied interests over average Americans. For example, 3 in 5 surveyed said he cares more about protecting the interests of large corporations than of ordinary people.

A majority (53 percent) said the Bush tax cut will benefit mainly upper-income people. That percentage has grown in the past two months and is higher than when the same question was asked about Reagan's tax cut in 1981 and the plan approved by congressional Republicans in 1999.

Even with recession concerns, a majority said they favor protecting the environment over encouraging economic growth (52 percent to 44 percent) or finding new sources of energy (54 percent to 43 percent). Only about 1 in 6 said the president favors protecting the environment over economic growth or energy development.

Asked whether oil companies should be allowed to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, those surveyed opposed the idea 55 percent to 41 percent. The public also opposes building more nuclear power plants, which the administration is exploring as part of its national energy policy review.

'What can I do to help?' you ask. It's quite simple. Hold your representatives feet to the flames on every issue. Make sure they know how you feel. I can guarantee that the radical right is mobilizing. We should do the same.

When It Rains, It Pours
Wednesday, May 23, 2001

Republicans rake in 23.9 million dollars in one night as Bush proves he's just as big a money whore as Bill Clinton.

"Yes, folks, this is a fundraiser!" RNC Finance Chairman Al Hoffman told last night's crowd. "It's morally right to give money and time to the party of your choice. And it's patriotic, as well."

Translation? It's morally right for big money to buy politicians.

The Texan parable
Wednesday, May 23, 2001

The Texas legislature will now have to clean up Bush's legacy of tax cut and budget chicanery.

If Mr Bush’s agenda of tax cuts, education reform and business-friendly deregulation has proved too much even in a conservative bastion such as Texas, surely his attempt to reproduce those policies on a national scale is doomed? In fact, Mr Bush’s Texan legacy is more complicated. In terms of specific policy issues, the current rebellion says very little about his national agenda. But, in terms of fiscal shortsightedness, the message is much more worrying.

Yet, the Senate passed Bush's tax cut. Now Texas's problems will apply to the country at large. Good luck to the next President of the United States, he or she will need it!

U b e r - C o o l
Monday, May 21, 2001

My favorite high school iconoclast, Daria Morgandorffer, enters her final season on MTV tonight. Now, the world will be made safe for teenybopper pop and cliched rap videos where half naked women fall out of their string bikinis.

It's a Sick Sad World!

Madonna x Daria

Daria - Evangelion fanfic

Numerology Compatibility - Daria Morgandorffer and Jane Lane

God, I luv the net!

EverQuest and the Collective Unconscious
Monday, May 21, 2001

Are massively multiplayer RPGs a microcosm of society?

A fascinating premise, to be sure.

Killers Have More Fun (1998)

A Rape in Cyberspace (1993)

Robotic plane aids polar research
Monday, May 21, 2001

Fuel efficient robot aircraft can be used to collect enviromental data and participate in search and rescue opperations.

Environmental Research Aircraft and Sensor Technology

Annan slams Bush on global warming
Monday, May 21, 2001

Obviously, Mr. Annan just doesn't understand Bush's 'pretend it doesn't exist and maybe it will go away on it's own' approach to global warming.

Great apes in peril
Monday, May 21, 2001

They may be extinct in the wild within the decade.

Tyre scare prompts Explorer recall
Monday, May 21, 2001

The recall is the second in three months for the 2002 Explorer, which is meant to be a safer version of the vehicle at the centre of last year's Firestone tyre safety scandal.

Meet the new SUV, same as the old SUV.

Air heads
Monday, May 21, 2001

Long flights over several time zones shrinks your brain.

Could this in part explain 'air rage'?

U.S. Cools to Ban on Germ War Weapons
Monday, May 21, 2001

A confidential Bush administration review has recommended that the United States not accept a draft agreement to enforce a 1972 treaty banning germ weapons, according to American officials.

Smoke and Mirrors
Sunday, May 20, 2001

Truax, spun from Dr. Suess' conservationist classic The Lorax, is one of the "educational" materials distributed to schools produced by the Hardwood Forest Foundation and the National Oak Flooring Manufacturers Association. The colorful book, written and illustrated in the Suess style, chronicles Truax, a calm and thoughtful logger, who tries to explain the "facts" of forest management to the psychotic treehugger Guardbark.

We live in an age where propoganda is beamed at us the moment we pop out of the birth canal. Control children's minds early and you won't have to worry when they grow up and become adults.

Aren't you angry yet?!?

I swear, sometimes I think I'm living on the Brain Slug planet.

Fired U.S. Mapmaker Has Bit Part in Bush Energy Plan
Saturday, May 19, 2001

The strange saga of Ian Thomas, who was fired for publishing a map that showed that caribous calve exactly where Bush/Cheney want to drill.

What you're seeing is a feint over ANWR. They'll give up at the last second and just use that as an excuse to drill on every other piece of federal land they can get their greedy little hands on.

Oil industry eager to drill in Rockies

Opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling is the hot-button issue in the Bush administration's new energy plan, but the real prize for the oil industry is the prospect of increased drilling on federal lands in the Rocky Mountain region.

George Bush's 'to do' list:

Create phony economic crisis - slash budget, increase deficits!

Check.

Create phony energy crisis - drill wilderness, build nuke plants!

Check.

God only knows what's next.

Mr. President, Take a Look at Brushy, Ky

On these mined mountains, don't expect to see trees, topsoil, spring-blooming bushes or delicate native grasses. Animals are just as scarce. You will be puzzled by the hollows, referred to as "hollers" in these parts. Small valleys they are no more. They are filled with crumbled mountaintops. Their streams are rock ditches draining into stagnant holding ponds.

Bush Orders Quicker Power Plant Approvals

Cheney called conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh's radio program and said the administration is confident in its ability to implement the energy policies. He denounced some of his critics as "people who don't have the knowledge or the guts to address us on the policy issues."

This is from a man too chickenshit to set foot in California.

Energy at what cost?

Mr. Bush also promises incentives to explore alternate forms of energy, but the funds to pay for research would come largely from royalties generated by exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge -- a linkage that environmentalists are sure to oppose.

One of the greatest abuses of power is when politicians make corporate payola and screwing over those who would dare oppose it national policy. Mr. Bush, Mr. Cheney, I thank you for strengthening my resolve.

'Iron Chef' to America
Friday, May 18, 2001

James T. Kirk himself will host the U.S. version of 'Iron Chef', set to air next fall on UPN. I guess Bill needs to make back some of the money he lost on those worthless Priceline.com shares.

Soaking up SpongeBob

Thanks, tvtattle :)

Shaping the sandwich of the future
Friday, May 18, 2001

British Sandwich Week? Who knew?

Vigilantes Prowl Indian Capital for 'Monkey Man'
Friday, May 18, 2001

Monkey Man Mania continues unabatted.

Two die as Dehli 'monkey man' stalks the slums

Monkey mystery baffles Delhi

Demonic creatures that lurk in the shadows, leap from rooftops and generally scare the hell out of people are nothing new.

The Mad Gasser of Mattoon

The Jersey Devil of the Pine Barrens

Chupacabras

Spring Heeled Jack

Mass hysteria or something more sinister?

Your guess is a good as mine. I think they are a physical manifestation of the collective unconscious.

The Heritage of The Great War: 1914 - 1918
Friday, May 18, 2001

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields

John McCree

The Boreal Crown and the Downfall of Civilization
Friday, May 18, 2001

One reason why these changes will occur so rapidly can be explained by the fact that Civilization has literally knocked Earth out of its true position in the cosmos. normally, since stars and planets are sexual beings, they enjoy sexual intercourse. Their sex organs -- so to speak -- consist of great cosmic rays (which Fourier calls "aromal rays"); celestial bodies project these rays at one another and thereby experience the bliss of fertilizing potency of erotic contact.

Planetary sex? OK, I don't quite get it either. It's amazing what you find just by plugging random phrases (like civilization equals alienation) into Google.

Ten Reasons the Senate Should Oppose John Walters
Thursday, May 17, 2001

New drug czar nominee is bad news.

He'll pass with flying colors.

After all, the Senate doesn't want to look soft on illegal drugs!

Oppose John Walters Nomination for Drug Czar

Tidepool
Thursday, May 17, 2001

A comprehensive environmental weblog, updated daily. Hooray!

Close SUV Loophole
Thursday, May 17, 2001

Not to her great credit, U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein owns a gas-guzzling SUV, even though she believes in global warming and doesn't want to drill in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. In fact, last year the Los Angeles Times reported that she owned three SUVs. Which makes her your perfect "SUV Democrat".

Democrats somehow remain baffled on why greens don't take them seriously on environmental issues. Could it be because they are just as hypocritical as their Republican brethern? I don't entirely agree with this article, but I'm glad to see that even some conservatives understand that improving fuel efficiency benefits everyone.

Symbol of a Shift at Interior
Thursday, May 17, 2001

More anti-enviromental corporate insiders are nominated for top posts at the Department of the Interior.

As a top official in the Interior Department under James G. Watt, J. Steven Griles argued for oil drilling off the California coast. He pressed to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil exploration, and urged cutting the fees paid by coal companies for operating on federal land. On leaving government, Griles went to work for the mining industry he once regulated, then as a lobbyist for utilities and the oil business.

Denver lawyer Bennett W. Raley, nominee for assistant secretary for water and science, once advocated repeal of the Endangered Species Act. Boise lawyer William Gerry Myers III, Bush's pick as Interior's solicitor, filed a lawsuit on behalf of cattlemen to overturn Clinton-era grazing regulations.

At the United Co., where Griles was a vice president, one of his main tasks was helping oversee its Dal-Tex mine in West Virginia. The mine -- one of the nation's largest "mountaintop removal" mines -- stirred controversy because miners detonated mountain ridges and filled in valleys, burying trees and streams.

Neighbors, environmental lawyers and mine regulators complained of boulders flying into homes, and choking dust that worsened neighbors' allergies and asthma. United massively expanded the mine's size, and set up huge coal-loading machines that ran 24 hours a day, right next to homes.

Sheesh, I thought Norton was bad!

Sheriff Protects Medical Pot Users
Thursday, May 17, 2001

Local law enforcement officials don't think Monday's Supreme Court ruling against medical marijuana use will affect county residents. But Sheriff Tony Craver isn't taking any chances.

He's already taken measures to protect medical marijuana card holders. The data base of patients, Craver said, has been removed from the agency's computers. He and District Attorney Norm Vroman devised the cards shortly after California voters approved medical marijuana use.

I'm gratified to see that there are some law enforcement officials that understand that doing the right thing is sometimes more important than blind obedience to the law.

The Land Prop. 215 Forgot

In the aftermath of Monday's Supreme Court ruling that federal authorities can shut down marijuana distribution centers, users elsewhere in the state soon may experience the logistical and legal difficulties medicinal marijuana patients in Contra Costa and the Tri-Valley have long faced. Soon, Barnes and others may have to return to the bad old days of obtaining pot either from a dealer on the street or by growing their own.

Following that logic it's clear that the Supreme Court must tacitly approve of illegal drug dealing.

Anti-Pot Politics a Disservice To The Ill

Yes, "kicked away" is a good way to describe the way marijuana, even for legitimate relief of illness, has become a political football. Poll after poll tends to show that most people support doctor-approved medicinal use of marijuana.

Yet the issue has failed to catch on with most Washington politicians and most state legislatures, except for Hawaii. It is as if the issue has nothing to do with real science or even real people anymore, just politics and posturing.

Backer of Nevada Program To Keep Working

Assemblywoman Chris Giunchigliani said Monday that she will continue with legislation to set up a medical marijuana program in Nevada, despite an 8-0 U.S. Supreme Court decision that outlawed a similar program in California.

Green issues 'ignored'
Thursday, May 17, 2001

British politicos strangely silent on environmental issues.

Baseball's Strawberry Gets Treatment, No Prison
Thursday, May 17, 2001

Former baseball great Darryl 'Cokehead' Strawberry get slap on the wrist for drug charges, even though he's violated probation for the fourth time.

What a load of bullshit.

Nothing about our judicial system is such a sham as is sentencing for drug violations. Rich folks and celebrities are above the law. They can do whatever they please and get away with it every time. I guarantee that people like you and me would be rotting in prison long before we commited four probation violations.

People can take all of the drugs they want. Go ahead and legalise them all. If they want to destroy themselves that way, it's a personal choice and I could care less.

I'm infuriated by a system that has such grotesque and blatant double standards. Everyone should recieve the same treatment under the law.

Money talks. Forget blind justice. It doesn't exist.

The bad oil on Bush's energy plan
Thursday, May 17, 2001

Last week, President George Bush's spokesman Ari Fleischer was asked whether Americans needed to "correct our lifestyles" to solve what the administration calls an "energy crisis" in the United States. That would be America's love affair with four-wheel-drives and its desire for ever-bigger houses with year-round air-conditioning and heating.

"That's a big no," Fleischer replied. "The President believes that it's an American way of life, and that it should be the goal of policy makers to protect the American way of life. The American way of life is a blessed one."

Hmmm, I didn't know that God supported massive waste and destruction of the environment.

PG&E Corp. accused of gouging in East
Thursday, May 17, 2001

PG&E is not just screwing over Californians.

Judge orders PG&E to pay overdue taxes to counties

SFO accuses Texas firm of gouging

Misinformation and Scare Tactics
Thursday, May 17, 2001

This is an Op-Ed piece by Jimmy Carter, the only president in history who understood the need for clean, renewable energy sources (and in part was laughed out of office for it).

No energy crisis exists now that equates in any way with those we faced in 1973 and 1979. World supplies are adequate and reasonably stable, price fluctuations are cyclical, reserves are plentiful, and automobiles aren't waiting in line at service stations. Exaggerated claims seem designed to promote some long-frustrated ambitions of the oil industry at the expense of environmental quality.

Bush Plan: Deja Vu All Over Again

While Americans love driving, they don't like talking about, or thinking about, the complexities of energy production and all the things that can go wrong.

Artists Carpet Sidewalk with Grass in Protest
Tuesday, May 15, 2001

Upset that redevelopment plans for the historic manufacturing zone label sidewalks and streets as ''open space,'' artists unfurled 5,000 square feet of sod on the Summer Street Bridge yesterday, covering a sidewalk from end to end.

Cool! I like the concept of art as civil disobedience.

Cheney: Nuclear Plant Liability Act Renewal Needed
Tuesday, May 15, 2001

Asked whether Bush would seek a renewal of the Price-Anderson Act, which exempts nuclear power companies from unlimited liability in the case of nuclear catastrophes, Cheney said, "That's an important consideration. It needs to be renewed."

So what if a reactor blows and you eventually die of radiation induced cancers and your children are born stillborn and deformed, meltdowns happen!

I wonder what the children of Chernobyl would have to say about that. Let's face it, this is the only way they're going to get any nuke plants built, unless they plan to build them at the North Pole. I predict that the public simply isn't going to stand for a bunch of nuclear reactors (or nuclear waste dumps) in their backyards.

Nuclear Bailout: Price-Anderson Act

Mr. Fix-It

Talk about an interesting approach to income redistribution: The government gives people back some money so they can pass it on to Exxon or Shell.

We know several things now. First, there's absolutely nothing the president won't say in support of his tax cut. When times were good, he told us we needed a tax cut to keep the good times going. When times threatened to go bad, he said we needed a tax cut to get the economy moving. Now that times look a bit better, he says we need a tax cut to pay the gas bills. Someday soon, he'll tell us tax cuts will solve the problems of crime, drug abuse, teen pregnancy, traffic jams and static cling.

The greatest disgrace of all was how quickly the Democrats in Congress sold all of us out by backing Bush's tax cut.

Navy Sonar System Threatens Marine Mammals
Tuesday, May 15, 2001

According to the Navy's study, scientists briefly exposed a 32-year-old Navy diver to LFA sonar at a level of 160 decibels -- a fraction of the intensity at which the LFA system is designed to operate. After 12 minutes, the diver experienced severe symptoms, including dizziness and drowsiness. After being hospitalized, he relapsed, suffering memory dysfunction and seizure. Two years later he was being treated with anti-depressant and anti-seizure medications.

The Navy will no doubt try an end run on this issue, claiming that 'national security' is more important than dead whales. Please consider sending a fax and contact your representatives now. The LFA sonar is a grave threat to marine life.

Bush energy plan will not tap renewables
Tuesday, May 15, 2001

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Bush received $1,846,331 in funding from the oil and gas industry during the election campaign. In fact, the oil and gas industry made its largest contribution ever to a presidential campaign, and more than 75 percent of the money went to the Republican Party.

If, as Bush claims, oil companies can drill without causing any environmental damage, why doesn't he drill for oil under his own ranch in Texas?

Insiders to Fill Environmental Roles in Bush Administration

Mr. Bush has announced his intent to nominate a mining industry lobbyist as the No. 2 person at the Interior Department and is appointing a lobbyist for the National Cattlemen's Beef Association to be the department's chief lawyer.

His choice for No. 2 at the Environmental Protection Agency was a lobbyist for Monsanto, the chemical company now devoted to agribusiness. He wants as chairman of the Council on Environmental Quality a lawyer who represented General Electric in its fight with the E.P.A. over toxic waste sites.

Sure, we can trust these guys to protect the environment!

Leave Endangered Whales Alone, U.S. Tells Japan

The United States on Monday expressed strong opposition to a Japanese whale hunt about to start in the northern Pacific and said it might consider sanctions if endangered species were killed.

Are the Japanese likely to take seriously an administration so cavalier on environmental issues? I think not.

Prices Soar for Norway Whale Blubber

But anticipation among the whalers over what could be their first whale exports in more than 15 years was tempered by fears that the blubber was so tainted by environmental toxins that key markets might reject it

Ironic, isn't it?

People versus nature
Tuesday, May 15, 2001

The world has no hope of protecting species from extinction by fencing off "biodiversity hot spots", warns a new report. It says these areas of high biodiversity are home to up to a billion of the world's poorest people, who desperately need the land for farming.

Managing the rainforests

Is 'sustainable management' the answer?

Immortalised in stone
Tuesday, May 15, 2001

New asteroid will be named '18610 Arthurdent'.

Oddly enough, it was a coincidence since it was named before Douglas Adams passed away on May 11.

Dartmouth Shuts Down Fraternity
Tuesday, May 15, 2001

Dartmouth College said Friday it is shutting down a fraternity for printing newsletters in which members detailed their sexual escapades with undergraduate women who were identified by name.

The newsletters named women with whom frat members claimed to have had sex. One of the newsletters said that a future issue would give one member's "patented date rape techniques".

I know several women who have been date raped by fraternity members at various colleges and yet people still wonder why I despise the anachronistic and elitist fraternity/sorority system.

Unanimous court strikes down medical use for marijuana
Monday, May 14, 2001

Supreme Court gives the finger to the sick and suffering.

The battle may be lost but the war goes on.

Author Douglas Adams dies
Sunday, May 13, 2001

In spite of having taken what he regarded as an extremely positive piece of action, the Grebulon Leader ended up having a very bad month after all. It was pretty much the same as all the previous months except that there was now nothing on the television any more. He put on a little light music instead.

I cried when I found out. I remember listening to the radio version of Hitchhiker's on NPR when I was a mere hatchling. I can think of few authors who works have given me such great pleasure and amusement, as well as proving to me that I am not alone in knowing that the universe is completely insane and a very wacky place to boot.

Godspeed, sir.

Why the Bush Oil (Energy) Policy Will Fail
Sunday, May 13, 2001

Bush's bogus energy policy will fail.

Estimates of current government subsides to the oil industry range from $2 to $35 billion per year. The Bush oil plan would shower the energy industry with an additional $20 billion. These additional subsidies are based on flawed economic, political, and environmental logic. But we should not be surprised. The president, vice president, and secretary of commerce are from the oil business, and the largest contributors to Bush political campaigns are from the energy industries. Such credential do no constitute a sound basis for economic 'busy work' in ANWR. The Bush plan would disturb one of the last great wildernesses on the planet for a flow of oil that will not significantly reduce our import dependence, will not tilt the world oil market in favor of U.S. consumers, and in the process actually will harm the economy.

No, this was not written by leftist paranoids, but by two professors from Boston University.

Found on The Hubbert Peak of Oil Production Home Page.

Thanks, LarkFarm :)

BLM Attacked For Inaction on Tortoise Land
Sunday, May 13, 2001

Bush administration to endangered wildlife: piss off!

A federal judge sharply criticized the Bush administration this week for reneging on an agreement to force ranchers off a half-million acres of the Mojave Desert reserved for threatened desert tortoises, warning that he would hold government officials in contempt of court if they did not honor their promises to restrict economic activities on sensitive public lands.

Save the Whales? Not if Japan's Bribes Pay Off

Japan is bribing poor nations in a tit for tat effort to renew commercial whaling.

For Atherton Martin, Dominica's past Environment and Fisheries Minister, the meeting last year should have been simple. The Japanese ambassador had flown in from Trinidad to talk about whaling, but insisted on tying the subject to aid. As Martin answered that Dominica's priority was renewable energy, the ambassador stared out of the window, and simply said: 'Fisheries'. As part of the strategy to encourage the commercial exploitation of the sea, Japan's preferred method of aid is building fish processing plants.

The ambassador went to Prime Minister Roosevelt Douglas and repeated the offer. In the run-up to last year's IWC meeting in Adelaide, Japanese officials visited Douglas, and threatened to pull the aid if Dominica didn't vote with Japan. When the Cabinet met, it decided to abstain on the sanctuary. But before the vote was cast, Douglas phoned his representative Lloyd Pascal and instructed him to vote with the Japanese.

Study: Calif. Gas Prices Inflated
Sunday, May 13, 2001

Energy corporations conspired to screw Californians and helped cause the phony 'energy crisis'.

Natural gas suppliers were able to corner enough of the pipeline capacity into California to drive up prices artificially, an Assembly subcommittee has concluded, contradicting adamant industry denials.

El Paso Natural Gas Co. and its affiliates negotiated contracts with each other and boosted the cost of natural gas nearly 500 percent during the 12 months ending in February, the Energy Oversight Subcommittee says in a report to be issued Monday.

How Texas firm outfoxed state, PG&E

After losing PG&E, El Paso leased the utility's entire block of pipeline capacity to another Texas gas and electricity giant, Dynegy. Gas experts were stunned that one firm would bid for all that space -- but they, and Morris, were even more surprised by what followed.

Like PG&E, Dynegy didn't need all that pipeline space to serve its own customers. But unlike what PG&E did when confronted with all that extra space, Dynegy didn't resell it at a huge discount. In fact, Dynegy didn't sell any of the space. Instead, it raised the price so high that seemingly nobody wanted to buy it.

Energy Proposal To Emphasize More Production

Although the rhetoric will be green, utilities, automobile dealers, appliance manufacturers and other business interests are sufficiently confident the plan will benefit them that they have formed a lobbying organization, the Alliance for Energy and Economic Growth, to promote Bush's recommendations for streamlining regulations and building a new energy infrastructure.

What does that mean?

It's quite simple: more environmental regulations will be gutted by the Cheney/Haliburton administration.

(If you think Bush is in charge, consider seeing a psychiatrist.)

Trade growing in stolen meteorites
Saturday, May 12, 2001

The plunder of scientific treasures is always an outrage.

Blinking problem signals a dangerous situation
Saturday, May 12, 2001

Still. How much more self-centered can a driver be than to not signal? How to fathom the level of self-absorption that says, in effect, I don't see that the laws of the land -- much less the strictures of basic courtesy -- apply to me; and when I say "me," I mean me, me, me, me, ME.

Hey, this is the good 'ol U.S.A., the 'everyone should follow the law, but I don't have to because my mommy told me that I'm special' country. In addition, some people will always break the law if they aren't enforced by the police, who almost never use turn signals themselves. If you are one of these solipsists, than you deserve a steel toed boot to the ass, preferably delivered by yours truly!

Cell phones take drivers' eyes off the road
Saturday, May 12, 2001

Thomas Dingus, director of the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, said using cell phones and other electronic devices while driving is two to five times more dangerous than changing the radio station or eating lunch, which also can cause drivers to take their eyes off the road.

It's sad that this issue was almost completely ignored by the press and the government until that dumb supermodel got hurt. Who cares if us normal folks get maimed of killed, but we have to make sure that the beautiful remain unharmed! Will the government do anything to solve this problem? Of course they won't! The cell phone lobby makes them wet their pants.

No let-up in monkey-man’s menace
Saturday, May 12, 2001

He's not the good monkeyman!

Weird Wisconsin
Saturday, May 12, 2001

Excellent. I'd like to do a page like this on North Carolina.

As you know, my poor HTML skills make it highly unlikely.

Paramount Confirms Enterprise, Announces Full Cast
Saturday, May 12, 2001

I'm hopeful about this. Scott Bakula is a good choice.

The fanboys are tearing it to sheds, just as I expected.

Road Ban in U.S. Forests Blocked
Friday, May 11, 2001

Timber and mining interests are dancing the jig.

Lawmakers, execs declare war on anti-spam bill
Friday, May 11, 2001

Please forward your spam to barr.ga@mail.house.gov.

If Mr. Barr loves spam so much, let's bury him in it!

The Unrefined Truth
Friday, May 11, 2001

Gasoline prices are rising again, and the administration is rushing to turn this into another argument for its drill-and-burn energy strategy. But a look at the causes of the current gasoline shortage actually suggests a quite different moral: namely, that conservation ought to be a major element in our energy strategy, and that lack of conservation is a large part of what we've been doing wrong.

(Sorry, registration required for NYT site)

Personally, if I have to see one more at the pump interview on the evening news where some loser has the unmitigated gall to whine about gas prices while driving a vehicle that gets ten to fifteen miles to a gallon, I think my head will explode a la Scanners.

Thanks, dangerousmeta :)

Bush cancels car fuel-efficiency deadline

Meanwhile, those caring environmentalists at Ford are getting ready to roll out their new F-650 Super CrewZer™, a 23,000 pound monstrosity with 110 gallons of fuel tankage. Price? A bargain at $90,000.

Isn't it already bad enough that I have to put up with testosterone poisoned meatheads trying to run my Honda Civic down with their F-250 pickups? Now we'll all have to put up with civilians driving rigs the size of a tractor-trailer.

The Grand List Of Console Role Playing Game Clichés
Thursday, May 10, 2001

Third Law of Travel

The only way to travel by land between different areas of a continent will always be through a single narrow pass in a range of otherwise impenetrable mountains. Usually a palace or monastery will have been constructed in the pass, entirely filling it, so that all intracontinental traffic is apparently required to abandon their vehicles and go on foot up stairs and through the barracks, library and throne room to get to the other side. This may explain why most people just stay home. (In some cases a cave or underground tunnel may be substituted for the palace or monastery, but it will still be just as inconvenient with the added bonuses of cave-ins and nonsensical elevator puzzles.)

# Find, Find,
Find and Kill,
# Kill Soft-skin human
Hairy ape
# I wait, wait
Here
# Wait Here- #

OK, it's not from an RPG, but it could be!

Primal is a lot like Wing Zero.

Thanks, Flangy News :)

Open-Air Urinals to Help Rescue Landmark
Thursday, May 10, 2001

Public pee problem is dissolving British landmark.

Eddie Breen's Piggyback Art
Thursday, May 10, 2001

Art can neither be good or bad, only interesting or boring, says Eddie Breen, the leading practitioner of piggyback art. He takes paintings that he considers boring or incomplete, and inserts nuns, flying jesuses, flame people, or demons, changing the meaning of the compostion in ways to suit his visions, to coopt the elements and create his own worlds.

We're both into skull motifs.

Konzentrationslager
Thursday, May 10, 2001

Just when I thought that nothing made out of LEGOs could surprise jaded, cynical me. I don't want to spoil the surprise by giving too much away, but be sure to read the article as well as viewing the images.

Day of Glory for USSR's Night Witches
Thursday, May 10, 2001

They flew flimsy wood-and-canvas planes into hails of deadly flak and wore no parachutes. They preferred to commit suicide by crashing rather than be taken as POWs. Their German enemies dubbed the daredevil female Soviet pilots the Nachthexen: the Night Witches.

Who says that women can't fight?

Soviet Women Pilots in the Great Patriotic War

Congress Approves Bush Budget
Thursday, May 10, 2001

*sigh*

Time to Tackle Tilt Toward Wealthy?

IRS surfers hit sites for porn, chat
Thursday, May 10, 2001

As if we didn't have enough reason to dislike the IRS.

A sampling of Internal Revenue Service employees found they used about half their online time at work to visit sex sites, gamble, trade stocks, participate in chat rooms and do other non-work-related activity, the Treasury Department´s inspector general said.

taquitos.net
Wednesday, May 9, 2001

My rage has burned like a supernova, so pass the chips!

Why I'll Masturbate on May 20
Wednesday, May 9, 2001

Every day is Masturbation Day (except in Alabama).

In Alabama, sex toys, or even ribbed condoms, can earn you a maximum of $10,000 fine and up to a year hard labor. A federal appeals court recently upheld this 1998 obscenity law, outlawing the sale of "any device designed or marketed as useful primarily for the stimulation of human genital organs." The unanimous decision ruled that Alabama's "interest in public morality is a legitimate interest rationally served by the statute."

In case you needed to be enlightened, here is some information about the male gender and masturbation.

There are three types:

1. Those who masturbate and admit it.

2. Those who masturbate and lie about it.

3. Those who don't masturbate (freeeeeks).

Normal guys just can't quit. Believe me, I've tried!

I say, get out there and participate in some self gratification!

(Oh yeah, like you need an excuse!)

The Top 679 Sample Sources
Wednesday, May 9, 2001

Music, music, music, etc.

The Aural Aesthetic of David Lynch

Pixies - Spanish Songs and Puerto-Rican References

To Constituents, The 'Junkyard Dog' Can Still Bite Back
Wednesday, May 9, 2001

Ohioans don't care that Traficant (D) is corrupt scum.

In its 41-page indictment on Friday, a federal grand jury in Cleveland alleged Traficant had ordered employees in his district office to perform manual chores on his farm without pay during their workday. It also accused him of writing letters to government agencies and holding meetings with federal and state officials on behalf of contractors who performed construction jobs at his farm without charge.

The 60-year-old, nine-term House member was also accused of helping a business executive, John J. Cafaro, win Federal Aviation Administration approval of new runway guidance technology in return for meals worth $3,200, thousands of dollars used to pay off a loan and make repairs to Traficant's boat. The indictment also alleges Traficant demanded a portion of staff members' government paychecks, including, from one employee, $2,500 a month that was placed in an envelope and slipped under the door of the district office.

Forests on the Road to Ruin
Wednesday, May 9, 2001

It seems not to matter that over 90 percent of those commenting nationwide, and overwhelming majorities in poll after poll (including 64 percent of Republicans), want their forests protected. The Bush administration says it wants to repeat the process all over again, to allow more "local input."

State Has Spoken On Forest Roadless Plan

Small impact or not, the proposal made a big impression on New Mexicans. More than 18,000 participated in the public review process, with 716 registering opposition and 17,976 expressing support for even broader protections. That level of interest was mirrored nationwide, with a record 2 million citizens submitting comments to the Forest Service.

A fine example of public opinion.

Guess what, Mr. Bush? We're watching you very, very carefully and you will be held responsible for your environmental actions. If you want to shoot yourself in the foot on this issue, I'll be delighted to do everything in my power to make sure your tenure as 'president' lasts only four years.

Plan for Missile Defense Not Clear
Wednesday, May 9, 2001

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said yesterday the administration has no clear plan for how to build the global missile defense that is at the center of its new strategic policy.

Duh! Of course, he's just saying this as a proposition to scuttle the 1972 ABM treaty.

Cheney castigates state over conservation
Wednesday, May 9, 2001

Cheney blames 'energy crisis' on conservation, seeks to block SUV fuel efficiency standards (what a shock). After all if we don't drill and build more refineries, than Haliburton won't make more obscene profits, eh?

Bush to Unveil Energy Blueprint

Somehow, we are not shocked.

There was no hint from Cheney, a former oil company executive, of federal intervention in the Western energy markets to contain out-of-control prices and no talk of tougher pursuit of refunds from price gougers. There also was no discussion of an investigation of astronomical oil industry profits or the sudden run-up of gasoline prices at a time when gasoline stocks have been increasing and summer is still a month away.

A phantom energy crisis

One reason Cheney is selling the idea of an energy crisis is so the administration can also sell the idea of drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. But the administration's phony crisis cannot justify the drilling. Slight, even trivial, gains in automobile fuel efficiency would conserve far more oil than the U.S. could ever hope to extract from the Alaskan preserve.

The emperor has no clothes!

There Is No Energy Crisis
Thursday, May 3, 2001

Even Forbes magazine, not exactly a hotbed of liberalism, says so.

The facts don't lie, but Bush and Cheney do!

Software aims to predict violence
Thursday, May 3, 2001

You'd better watch those cranky workplace e-mails.

By scouring thousands of e-mails and noticing subtle changes in writing patterns, investigators from Stroz Associates in New York think their software will be able to alert company officials that an employee is in danger of becoming violent.

Panel Votes to Reverse Bush Abortion Decision
Thursday, May 3, 2001

The House International Relations Committee adopted a measure yesterday that would reverse one of President Bush's first actions in office by overturning his restrictions on foreign aid to groups that offer abortion counseling or services.

I thought you could use some good news.

Missile Defense Talk Outstrips Technology
Thursday, May 3, 2001

Bush blunders forward with Clinton's missile 'defense' sham.

Wave of destruction
Thursday, May 3, 2001

Hey kids! Get on down to Radio Shack and start building your own devices to fry electronics! It's easy and fun too!

Low-Yield Earth-Penetrating Nuclear Weapons
Thursday, May 3, 2001

Republicans want a new class of dangerous 'mininukes'.

No earth-burrowing missile can penetrate deep enough into the earth to contain an explosion with a nuclear yield even as small as 1 percent of the 15 kiloton Hiroshima weapon. The explosion simply blows out a massive crater of radioactive dirt, which rains down on the local region with an especially intense and deadly fallout.

Moreover, as Congress understood in 1994, by seeking to produce usable low-yield nuclear weapons, we risk blurring the now sharp line separating nuclear and conventional warfare, and provide legitimacy for other nations to similarly consider using nuclear weapons in regional wars.

Duke Inc. offered to reduce bill if California halted probes
Thursday, May 3, 2001

Duke Energy Inc. of Charlotte, N.C., offered in April to stop imposing premiums on electricity prices and said it would accept less than the full amount it was owed for power sales. But in exchange, the state would have to drop all investigations and curtail litigation surrounding the pricing of electricity.

Unfortunately, these scumbags supply my electricity as well.

U.S. Sticking With Fossil Fuels, Cheney Says
Thursday, May 3, 2001

Hmm, I wonder why this is so?

Cheney, who headed the oil services company Halliburton Inc. before joining Bush's presidential bid, said the United States must increase the domestic production of oil from known sources and lay more natural gas pipelines - at least 38,000 miles (60,800 kilometers) more. The vice president said that over the next 20 years, the nation must build 1,300 to 1,600 new power plants, and repair, upgrade and expand electricity transmission grids.

Ford Touts Environmental Concerns
Thursday, May 3, 2001

FoMoCo up to it's usual corporate greenwashing tricks, talking environmental responsibility while selling some of the worst gas guzzlers on the planet.

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