One trip on a NYC subway and he'd scurry right back to Japan, thankful that there only the women eat and put on makeup in public: "Women start applying make-up here, there and everywhere in the carriage as though they're sitting in front of the mirror of their dressing board at home! Office ladies are slathering on foundation and you can see their ( Read more... )

A classified National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) assessing terrorism trends by 16 American intelligence agencies says that our invasion and occupation of Iraq has helped spawn a new generation of Islamic radicalism and that the overall terrorist threat has grown since the Sept. 11 attacks:
The classified National Intelligence Estimate attributes a ( Read more... )

liz_marcs has an amazing post up which talks about the nature of truth and propaganda, stories that must be told, VJ Day and Pearl Harbor, fearmongering, tonight's ABC "docudrama" and 9/11. It's more than that.... I can't do it justice in a blurb.

I Remember Townsend

"FDR was right. Fear itself is the enemy. It makes you do stupid things. It makes you ( Read more... )

Fearmongering.... Fearmongering.... Fearmongering.... Fearmongering.... Fearmongering.... Fearmongering.... Fearmongering.... Fearmongering.... Fearmongering.... Fearmongering.... Fearmongering....

Otherwise known as scaring the electorate into voting for you.

'cause hey, it's worked before"We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. We must ( Read more... )

“Jill Carroll, a freelance reporter for The Christian Science Monitor, was kidnapped by Sunni Muslim insurgents in Baghdad on Jan. 7, 2006. Over the next 82 days, she was shuttled blindfolded among at least six safe houses and had closer contact with Sunni insurgents than any American who has lived to tell the tale.The Christian Science Monitor has ( Read more... )

Non-Politics
Our solar system has nine twelve planets? Astronomers have drawn up a new way to define the word planet. This would mean adding three new planets to the Solar System, boosting the current tally of nine to 12. Astronomers are voting on the new definition in Prague this week.

Try to take over the world....: Scientists have repaired ( Read more... )

Yesterday, I posted a rant about how the Department of Homeland Security slashed the budget with which New York City fights terrorism by 40%. Per State Spending figures from the DHS are here. (pdf)

Today ABC is reporting that a Department of Homeland Security strategic report published just a week before Tuesday’s announcement that New York’s ( Read more... )

Miscellany
I’m an avid reader of linguistic expert ozarque’s LJ, even though it feels like I can never think of anything intelligent to add to the conversation over there. She’s been discussing gender and language for the past couple of weeks and all of her posts on the subject have been absolutely brilliant. Part I-A, and Part I-B, Part II and Part III ( Read more... )

The Job Interview Questions Database for Job-Seekers. There are 109 questions, divided by category.

The Free Wifi Spots in Airports database.

Internet users share many common interests, but men are heavier consumers of news, stocks, sports and pornography, while more women look for health and religious guidance. (Newsday has the best headline ( Read more... )

The London Review of Books has an essay up from author Eliot Weinberger: “What I heard about Iraq in 2005.” The essay details truths, distortions and half-truths through quotes from the major players in the war and is a follow-up to his essay “What I Heard About Iraq” first published by the LRB in February. The first essay has since been made ( Read more... )