thanks again, entheo

Their beliefs are bonkers, but they are at the heart of power

In the United States, several million people have succumbed to an extraordinary delusion. In the 19th century, two immigrant preachers cobbled together a series of unrelated passages from the Bible to create what appears to be a consistent narrative: Jesus will return to Earth when certain preconditions have been met. The first of these was the establishment of a state of Israel. The next involves Israel's occupation of the rest of its "biblical lands" (most of the Middle East), and the rebuilding of the Third Temple on the site now occupied by the Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa mosques. The legions of the antichrist will then be deployed against Israel, and their war will lead to a final showdown in the valley of Armageddon. The Jews will either burn or convert to Christianity, and the Messiah will return to Earth.

[...] The true believers are now seeking to bring all this about. This means staging confrontations at the old temple site (in 2000, three US Christians were deported for trying to blow up the mosques there), sponsoring Jewish settlements in the occupied territories, demanding ever more US support for Israel, and seeking to provoke a final battle with the Muslim world/Axis of Evil/United Nations/ European Union/France or whoever the legions of the antichrist turn out to be.

[...] American pollsters believe that 15-18% of US voters belong to churches or movements which subscribe to these teachings. A survey in 1999 suggested that this figure included 33% of Republicans. [...] And among them are some of the most powerful men in America. John Ashcroft, the attorney general, is a true believer, so are several prominent senators and the House majority leader, Tom DeLay. Mr DeLay (who is also the co-author of the marvellously named DeLay-Doolittle Amendment, postponing campaign finance reforms) travelled to Israel last year to tell the Knesset that "there is no middle ground, no moderate position worth taking".

arjuna infected me with this :)

Magic Cone

another wonderful Guardian article

Blair's vision of a new world order is critically tainted

I would be remiss if I didn't post this.

Using M.R.I.'s to See Politics on the Brain

When Mr. Graham emerged from his hourlong session in the magnetic resonance imaging machine, the researchers had no questions for him, but he did field an old-fashioned one from a reporter wondering what had most impressed him. He cited two images: the Sept. 11 segment of the Bush commercial and the nuclear explosion that the "Daisy" advertisement suggested would be a consequence of electing Mr. Goldwater.

"I was shocked at how much political capital Bush is trying to make out of 9/11," Mr. Graham said. "But I found it kind of interesting that Johnson was using the same kind of technique against a Republican."

The researchers had already zeroed in on those images and their effect among Democrats on the part of the brain that responds to threats and danger, the amygdala. Mr. Graham, like other Democrats tested so far, reacted to the Sept. 11 images with noticeably more activity in the amygdala than did the Republicans, said the lead researcher, Marco Iacoboni, an associate professor at the U.C.L.A. Neuropsychiatric Institute who directs a laboratory at the Ahmanson Lovelace Brain Mapping Center there.

"The first interpretation that occurred to me," Professor Iacoboni said, "is that the Democrats see the 9/11 issue as a good way for Bush to get re-elected, and they experience that as a threat."

But then the researchers noted that same spike in amygdala activity when the Democrats watched the nuclear explosion in the "Daisy" spot, which promoted a Democrat.

Mr. Freedman suggested another interpretation based on his political experience: the theory that Democrats are generally more alarmed by any use of force than Republicans are. For now, Professor Iacoboni leans toward this second interpretation, though he is withholding judgment until the experiment is over.

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Oversleeping until the time you're supposed to be on the freeway is Not Good(tm).

I need a new alarm clock. One with a real snooze button to save me when I slip back into sleep.

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Language a Battleground in Abortion Suits

Here's an informative page.

Primer: Why Bush Secretly Moving $700 Million Violates The Law

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Just say no to drama.

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Today was Administrative Officials' Day.

We here at my office got the big fat nothin'.

anything compared to the neocons is far left

Fox News. Not here yet, but already hilarious

I've never been called "a douche-nozzle" before. At least, not that I know about anyway. The insult came from one supporter of the Fox News Channel. But then I don't think The Globe and Mail has ever been called "the far-left Toronto Globe and Mail" before. That's what this great newspaper was called by Bill O'Reilly on the Fox News Channel on Monday night.

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Why is the media giving Bush's push for the Patriot Act a pass? Someone with a readership needs to detail exactly why the Act is a bad idea and why it should be allowed to lapse.

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I am officially disgusted with American Idol. Stan Laurel gets to stay, but the best voice gets the boot? Ridiculous.

only the good

Poets Die Young

Poets die young -- younger than novelists, playwrights and other writers, a U.S. researcher said on Wednesday.

It could be because poets are tortured and prone to self-destruction, or it could be that poets become famous young, so their early deaths are noticed, said James Kaufman of the Learning Research Institute at California State University at San Bernardino.

[...] Kaufman has also studied poets and mental illness.

"What I found was pretty consistent with the death finding actually, female poets were much more likely to suffer from mental illness (e.g., be hospitalized, commit suicide, attempt suicide) than any other kind of writer and more likely than other eminent women," he said.

"I've dubbed this the 'Sylvia Plath Effect."'

Sylvia Plath was a poet and novelist who killed herself in 1963 at the age of 30.

There could also be a more benign explanation for poets' early demise, Kaufman said. "Poets produce twice as much of their lifetime output in their twenties as novelists do," he said.

Why couldn't he have made this ruling yesterday? Ah well.

Judge Pulls Feds Off Medical Pot Group

A judge on Wednesday ordered the federal government not to raid or prosecute a California group that grows and distributes marijuana for its sick members.

The decision from U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel in San Jose was the first interpretation of an appeals court's December ruling that federal prosecutions of medical marijuana users are unconstitutional if the pot isn't sold, transported across state lines or used for non-medicinal purposes. Nine states, including California, allow medical marijuana use, but the Justice Department contends that federal drug laws take precedence.

Fogel ruled that the federal government cannot raid or prosecute the 250 members of the Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana, which sued the government after the Drug Enforcement Administration in 2002 raided its Santa Cruz County growing operation and seized 167 marijuana plants.

The group's director, Valerie Corral, said the group had been receiving and growing marijuana in secret since the raid out of fear of being prosecuted. But with Fogel's decision, the group plans on immediately planting hundreds of plants at Corral's one-acre property.

"You better believe it we're gonna plant," said Corral, who uses marijuana to alleviate epileptic seizures.

Justice Department spokesman Charles Miller said the government was reviewing the decision.

I forgot who turned me onto alternet. I love wallowing in my leftness.

Lost in Our Own Little World

Here, the debate about Iraq is almost completely focused on what the war has or has not done for the United States. Two concerns we all feel: How long will our soldiers' lives be at risk? Are Americans safer from the threat of terrorist attack? Other concerns seem a little abstract: Will U.S. military readiness be sapped by the construction of 14 "enduring" bases in the Tigris and Euphrates river basins? What course of action best demonstrates the firmness of our will? Though these questions spark much disagreement among politicians and policymakers, a bipartisan consensus holds that the U.S. cannot cut and run from Iraq because its standing as a world power would suffer grievously.

Our self-centered national debate starts with the assumption that Iraqis want the U.S. military to stay, as Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, said after the brutal slayings of four American security contractors in Fallujah, "until the job is done." Because there are few Iraqi voices in the American media, the public has precious little ability to fact-check this conventional wisdom. The White House cites a series of polls, most recently one conducted by Oxford Research International for the BBC and other broadcasters, showing that a majority of Iraqis believe they are better off today than under Saddam Hussein. The administration assumes this must also mean that Iraqis welcome the occupation. But Iraq is full of reasons to doubt this optimistic view.

Yeah, U.N. Do this now, while you've got the U.S. by the shorthairs

U.N. Group Seeks End to Executions

The top United Nations human rights body on Wednesday urged governments worldwide to declare a moratorium on executions.

In a 29-19 vote, the U.N. Human Rights Commission backed a resolution submitted by European countries that called for the global suspension of the death penalty as the first step to eliminating its use.

The United States, Japan, China, India and Muslim nations including Saudi Arabia opposed the resolution. Burkina Faso, Cuba, Guatemala, South Korea and Sri Lanka abstained.

"This position is rooted in our belief in the dignity of all human beings," said Irish Ambassador Mary Whelan, speaking for the 15-nation European Union. The EU drew support from Latin American countries on the 53-nation commission.

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US seeks major military base on united Cyprus
Greeks Object to U.N. Plan
Russia Blocks U.N. Cyprus Resolution

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Let's say you are a mother with several children. Your husband is abusive. In fact, you believe he killed several of your children. You are afraid of this man. Then someone comes in and takes him away.

Someone else takes you to the side and tells you that they will take care of you. In fact, this someone is an emissary of the person who took your husband away. You think of your remaining children. You thank them for their help.

This someone sets you up in a home, free and clear, but it's broken down in many places. The roof leaks. The phone is never on. Sometimes even the mail doesn't come. But how can you complain? Your children are being taken care of.

But you have to let this someone, or whomever he chooses, to inspect your place, because though it is your place, it is also his place, too. So your home is open to anyone he chooses, himself too. Anytime.

This someone reads over your shoulder. He takes your newspaper away. "You can't read this," he says.

He moves you from place to place without your prior consent.

He walks into any door as though he has a right to be there.

He and your children don't get along.

At one point, he's playing with the kids and roughs one of them up. He roughs her up according to the rules of the game, but you can tell from the way he's hitting her that he's doing so for other reasons, but you can't perceive them.

He is the United States and you are Iraq.