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The Leading Light In Not Only Doughnuts: Canada! I don't know if any of you have noticed but Canada is becoming fiercely fashionable in the rest of the world, perhaps as a model of an American-European fusion that everyone else can live with. Paul Robinson's list of Canada's virtues is impressive and difficult to dispute. Perhaps the lil' ol' U.S. are lagging dangerously behind in the general rush to jump on the Canadian bandwagon? And yet... And yet... What is it about Canada or, more to the point, about the dismissive attitude of that great country's neighbours?
comment posted at 2:20 PM on Jun-3-03

Pentagon: space is for Americans only
At the National Space Symposium in Colorado Springs in early April, (NRO director Peter) Teets proposed that U.S. resources from military, civilian and commercial satellites be combined to provide 'persistence in total situational awareness, for the benefit of this nation's war fighters.' If allies don't like the new paradigm of space dominance, said Air Force secretary James Roche, they'll just have to learn to accept it. The allies, he told the symposium, will have 'no veto power.' Suckers!
comment posted at 6:47 AM on May-30-03
comment posted at 5:56 AM on May-31-03
comment posted at 4:41 AM on Jun-1-03

Bob Hope turns 100 today. And he's still alive, unlike that Emerson fellow.
comment posted at 11:52 AM on May-29-03
comment posted at 9:20 PM on May-29-03

Britain finds Iraq's 'smoking gun': a top-secret missile Ok. Now reveal what you have always believed and affirm or deny this.
comment posted at 7:57 AM on May-26-03

Footage of a young Jay-Z freestyling. You gotta start somewhere (From trickology.com if you care).
comment posted at 1:13 PM on May-23-03

I'm glad I live in D.C. Why? Because we'll never run out of News of the Wierd: "FBI Specialist runs over the foot of a "person of interest" then gets police to issue him a ticket for 'walking to create a hazard'."
comment posted at 11:23 AM on May-23-03

All we need is Radio Ga Ga... Ever heard of Clear Channel? They are the largest owners of radio stations and billboards in the United States. They are based in Texas. Bush is from Texas. Bush is running for President in 2004. Bush and CC are friends. Before the conspiracy bangwagon gets too full, think of all the money and energy spent of political advertising near the end of their campaigns, it's sad to think that most people vote (or don't vote) for what a candidate looks like on a 30 foot billboard rather than his/her political views. Will Bush win the 2004 election? Be very afraid
comment posted at 11:46 AM on May-21-03
comment posted at 12:42 PM on May-21-03
comment posted at 1:54 PM on May-21-03
comment posted at 10:39 AM on May-23-03

Women in Iraq
some worry that women are being sidelined as never before. Thikra Nadr, a novelist in her mid-forties who published a tale about a government that ruined the country through deprivation and war, said she cannot remember a time when women had less visibility or freedom. “The long period of sanctions reduced the role of women in Iraq,” she said as a generator roared across the street from her ground-floor apartment in the middle-class Mansour district. “But this period we’re living in right now has completely canceled the role of women in society.”
Isn't it time that this issue was addressed? Or was the "liberation" talk just another sound bite from the spin machine?
comment posted at 11:40 AM on May-21-03
comment posted at 12:47 PM on May-21-03
comment posted at 10:56 AM on May-23-03

This week's most buried headline could be a real stinker this week for the Pentagon. Apparently over $1 trillion are missing as well as "dozens of tanks, missiles and planes."
comment posted at 12:30 PM on May-19-03
comment posted at 1:10 PM on May-19-03

Is student loan debt destroying your life? Loan indebtedness has increased 66% since 1997. It's hard to feel too sorry for Yale Law grads making $100,000+, but I know real people with salaries in the mid-40s making payments in the range of $1600/mo. (And that's over 30 years.) When will policymakers realize that this is going to have substantial consequences for our economy and quality of life?
comment posted at 1:35 PM on May-14-03
comment posted at 1:38 PM on May-14-03

I thpeak with forked tongue - well, no, I don't, but then I refuse to even pierce my earlobes. So where exactly is the line that makes one a standard practice, and the other a travesty that needs to be banned? After all, putting holes in your ears doesn't make you a better kisser.
comment posted at 9:41 PM on May-13-03
comment posted at 11:54 PM on May-14-03

Hold the beauty of life in the palm of your hand. The owners of this website create dolls based on medical photos and records of "micropreemies" (or, to the more traditional, miscarried fetuses). They will create a doll at cost for a grieving parent, and encourage their dolls' use for pro-life purposes. Am I the only one who finds it creepy to wear your miscarried child as a lapel pin?
comment posted at 11:42 PM on May-12-03

High School Hazing??? Wha??? What an incredible example of both idiocy and some truly disgusting behavior. Personally, I grew up in the frosty northeast in the mid 80's where there was no shortage of inter-clique "Breakfast Club" style nastiness, but I had never even heard of such a thing until I had seen Dazed and Confused. Is this a regional thing? Certainly, there is no shortage of this kind of juvenile ridiculousness happening elsewhere in the country, but it never ceases to amaze me every time I hear about it. Were any MeFi'ers subject to this kind of awful ritual while they were growing up?
comment posted at 11:47 AM on May-7-03
comment posted at 1:04 PM on May-7-03

This truck garage across the train-tracks from our studio in Chicago just blew up (an hour or so ago) and our able intern Anthony has posted some footage of the blaze and 2 very brave guys in a cherry-picker. Scary.
comment posted at 11:20 AM on May-7-03
comment posted at 12:46 PM on May-7-03

Robots Have Feelings Too is a group art show at the Culture Cache gallery in San Francisco through mid-May. It features work by more than 60 established and emerging artists, illustrators, cartoonists and graffiti writers. The online exhibit is fun to surf, with samples and biogs for each artist, and links to their web page. Meet some new artists! (via HOPPE)
comment posted at 10:59 AM on May-7-03

Babies teach chemists the secret of soft skin. The Globe and mail reports the secret to the amazing soft skin of babies is the goo that surrounded them in utero. "One of the secrets to babies' smooth, soft skin is the greasy-looking white substance that covers them in the womb, scientists have discovered." Now we just need to find a way to bottle it... My elbows are chafed!
comment posted at 9:23 AM on May-7-03

Three very different historical tributes, in, perhaps, descending order of seriousness: a nostalgic reprise of a Soviet-era car, a proposed monument to The Terminator in Arnold Schwarzenegger's Austrian hometown, and the adventures of the Herbert Hoover action figure. (via The Situation Room)
comment posted at 2:54 PM on May-6-03

It started with a small dragon, tattooed above the right breast.
comment posted at 1:00 PM on May-6-03

Did Bush know? An article in today's New York Times (link to mirrored site with no reg. req.) pieces together data that the author claims proves that Bush and his inner circle were well-aware that they were using false "evidence" of Iraqi WMD. Sy Hersh from the New Yorker is also chiming in, as is Salon's Joe Connason and Katha Pollitt of The Nation. A pretty decent subsection of media is finally descending on this story. If Bush or Powell or Rumsfeld are proven to have been knowingly deceitful, will the American public be even half as angry as the rest of the world?
comment posted at 12:46 PM on May-6-03

The Coalition of the Shilling
Tired of killing Muslims, we are now trying to teach their survivors some democracy.
... this town shows virtually no interest in liberty, the Constitution, or democracy these days - except when prescribing them to those in far away lands.
... Don't be too hard on the Iraqis if they fall for it. After all, we did.

I may not agree with everything Sam Smith says but he does make some very good points about government and media today.
comment posted at 11:25 AM on May-6-03
comment posted at 1:50 PM on May-6-03
comment posted at 8:56 AM on May-7-03

Policeman mistaken for stripper! What would you do if you were mistaken for a stripper? Well that is exactly what happened to this Israeli policeman. Officer show me your badge! :-)
comment posted at 3:20 PM on May-5-03
comment posted at 3:27 PM on May-5-03
comment posted at 4:00 PM on May-5-03

The new rogue nations: those that care too much about liberties. e.g. Canada
comment posted at 9:47 AM on May-5-03
comment posted at 10:06 AM on May-5-03
comment posted at 10:13 AM on May-5-03
comment posted at 10:32 AM on May-5-03
comment posted at 11:04 AM on May-5-03
comment posted at 12:49 PM on May-5-03
comment posted at 3:50 PM on May-5-03

Baywatch , as practiced in Birmingham U.K. A little spoof of Baywatch, filmed around one of Brums landmark pieces of public art. It made me laugh anyway. (windows media player required)
comment posted at 9:05 AM on May-5-03

''Yes, I flew it!'' Bush shouted to reporters on the flight deck as he emerged from the aircraft. Too bad he couldn't have done that in Vietnam. Mr. Bush, whose permission to fly was revoked by the military (he was suspended, assigned to a disciplinary unit and not allowed to fly military assignments again) liked to portray himself to voters as a “fighter pilot.”
comment posted at 9:28 AM on May-5-03
comment posted at 10:34 AM on May-5-03
comment posted at 8:40 AM on May-6-03

Food Fight - When the Food Workers Union stages an impromptu walkout at the U.N., the diplomats start looting for lunch and booze. Disgusting. Delegates and patronage employees show their civility by looting the cafeterias, stealing everything not nailed down. I will remember this the next time anybody proposes the UN as a solution to world problems. Swine.
comment posted at 7:46 AM on May-4-03