Strange friends...

As many of you probably already know, FOX News (and the FOX network) are owned by Rupert Murdoch, and he for whatever reason is a hardcore Bushite. Sadly, they recently started beaming FOX News into Canada; I guess they figured America's "socialist" neighbours to the north needed some re-education. I tried sitting through an hour of FOX News - it was just too painful (unfortunately, it's bundeled with my other satelite programing, so it's here to stay) and was every bit as bad as I'd been told by my American friends.

What I find really funny though, is that so many of Bush's friends in both the "civilian" world (for all of Bush's "moral fibre" talk and the aura of godliness which surrounds him) and the political sphere (including "think tanks" which are typically just glorified lobbying groups) are downright amoral in their business and political dealings. I just find it odd how "godly Bush" keeps such friends, or if we're to totally absolve him of those relations, what is it that they see in him which allows for them to support him?

This whole subject came up, because I happened to catch a mention of Murdoch in a recent article about the proliferation in America of big time cable/satelite providers offering "X-rated" programming to their subscribers. According to the article, Murdoch's DirectTV service, offers such programming...

The Internet has become a carnal cornucopia, with graphic images, videos and cartoons. Satellite providers also have gotten in on the act. EchoStar Communications Corp., the nation's second-ranked satellite TV provider, has offered triple-X programming for several years on its Dish Network. Satellite leader DirecTV Group Inc., owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., peddles fare that falls just shy of triple-X.

The same goes for people closely associated with Bush by his own decision. For example Bush's (controversial) pick for attorney general, Alberto Gonzales, is definately not a "pro-lifer". The fact of the matter is when the man was a member of the Texas Supreme Court, he voted in favour of allowing teenage girls to obtain abortions without any sort of parental notification - this is not just being "pro-choice" in some hazy, morally confused sense (as are many who say they are not for making abortion illegal), but "crazy pro-choice", NARAL, NOW, or Planned Parenthood style. While I can understand being able to overlook little ideological or prudential differences with someone, how could a "godly", "born-again" (or as some are so deluded to believe, "anointed by God" - funny how some American Evangelicals are getting downright "Byzantine" with their President) Christian President like Bush possibly elevate someone like Gonzales?

Frankly, I think the answer is very clear; Bush does not give two shits about the abortion issue...and as an addenda, all of you American Christians who support him are being played. But then again, I guess so long as Bush's activities in the Middle East satisfy the millenialist-apocalyptic sadism of said "Christians", they'll be able to overlook practically anything he does. Lip service for the protection of good American babies, will more than cover all of the dead, dark, foreign babies (and mommies, and daddies, and grandmas, and grandpas, etc., etc.) Bush's war making has resulted in.

Time for some bad news (but isn't it usually?)

Bad politics...

Bush promotes 'nuclear hawks'

...and some freaky new diseases.

Two New Yorkers Diagnosed With Rare STD

Bird Flu Claims More Victims, Regional Outbreak Feared

And for more levity...

Check out the Dribble Glass; I thought their bill board section was particularly funny.

Where was this place when I was twelve?

Prank Palace, where you can purchase worthwhile keepsakes...

What mom always wanted!

"Bird Brain" may not be much of an insult anymore...

Birds rise in intellectual pecking order

The skylark could be going up in the world. The crow has something to crow about. Scientists could be about to think again about the little grey cells of the grey goose. From now on, a bird's brain may no longer be classed as birdbrained. ... Birds have repeatedly shown human experimenters that they deserve a higher place in the intellectual pecking order. ... African grey parrots can use words and numbers correctly in conversation with humans. Pigeons can memorise up to 725 different visual patterns, choose between man-made and "natural" objects and most astonishingly of all, distinguish between Picasso and Monet, and cubism from impressionism. New Caledonian crows in the wild routinely make and use two different kinds of tool to get food and a crow reared in an Oxford laboratory stunned scientists with its command of Archimedean physics when it picked up a length of wire, bent it into a hook and started fishing out titbits from a tube. ...

Fortunately, he seems to be alright for now

Pope to spend few more days in hospital: Vatican

The Pope's condition is stable after a restful night of sleep, his physicians confirmed Wednesday morning. He was hospitalized late Tuesday after experiencing breathing problems and is expected to stay in hospital for at least a few more days. ...

I knew this was going to happen...

Iraq vote lacks legitimacy, Sunni clerics say

Iraq's new government will lack the mandate to write a new constitution because large numbers of Sunni Muslims did not vote in the country's landmark elections last weekend, Sunni clerics said in a statement. ... "We make it clear to the United Nations and the international community that they should not get involved in granting this election legitimacy because such a move will open the gates of evil," The Association's statement said. ...

Proof that kids know dick.

U.S. students say press freedoms go too far

One in three U.S. high school students say the press ought to be more restricted, and even more say the government should approve newspaper stories before readers see them, according to a survey being released today. ... Although a large majority of students surveyed say musicians and others should be allowed to express "unpopular opinions," 74% say people shouldn't be able to burn or deface an American flag as a political statement; 75% mistakenly believe it is illegal.

Comment: This is why I'm left cold by the "cult of youth"; we value age, precisely because (under normal circumstances) with it comes a measure of wisdom. Though to be fair to young people in all ages, today's (western) youth are particularly stupid and detached from reality. Summary; "Don't touch my Eminem - otherwise, Big Brother knows best."

The Jews and Jesus

Moshiach's Donkey: Taking a Deeper Look
(Author: Yanki Tauber ; Based on the teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson)

The prophet Zechariah describes Moshiach as "a pauper, riding on a donkey." The simple meaning of the verse is that Moshiach -- whom the Midrash describes as "greater than Abraham, higher than Moses, and loftier than the supernal angels" (Yalkut Shimoni after Isaiah 52:13) -- is the epitome of self-effacement. ... On a deeper level, Moshiach's donkey represents the essence of the messianic process: a process that began with the beginning of time and which constitutes the very soul of history. In the beginning, the Torah tells us, when G-d created the heavens and the earth, when the universe was still empty, unformed, and shrouded in darkness, the spirit of G-d hovered above the emerging existence. Says the Midrash: "'The spirit of G-d hovered' -- this is the spirit of Moshiach." For Moshiach represents the divine spirit of creation -- the vision of the perfected world that is G-d's purpose in creating it and populating it with willful, thinking and achieving beings. ... Conventional wisdom has it that the spiritual is greater than the physical, the ethereal more lofty than the material. Nevertheless, our sages have taught that G-d created the entirety of existence, including the most lofty spiritual worlds, because "He desired a dwelling in the lower world." Our physical existence is the objective of everything He created, the environment within which His purpose in creation is to be realized. ... So Moshiach, who represents the ultimate fulfillment of Torah, himself rides the donkey of the material. For he heralds a world in which the material is no longer the lower or secondary element, but an utterly refined resource, no less central and significant a force for good than the most spiritual creation.

Comment: Let it be said, first of all, that the Lubbavitchers are virulently anti-Christian, as their own literature makes quite clear. These sons of the Pharisees put to lie the idea that the Jewish religious authorities were anything but the primary architects of Christ's execution, or that there is not a strong thread within more rigorous/"orthodox" forms of Judaism to this very day which considers the condemnation of Christ to the Cross as being anything but the "just" sentence to be awarded to a false prophet.

With that said, it's interesting how these Hasidim nonetheless recognize a corpus of prophetic traditions and Jewish scriptural commentaries, which not only indicate "Moschiach" (aka. "Messiah", "Christ"), but quite specifically line up with qualities and claims associated with the Person of Jesus Christ. Even things we're continually told are "taboo" to Judaism (like the idea that the Messiah is somehow a manifestation of the divine, pre-existing the universe and above even the angels), you'll find are regular parts of Jewish mysticism surrounding their long awaited Moschiach. This is not to say that there are not other issues involved here (like their complaints that Jesus did not keep the rigor of the Torah's ritual - though in large part this is bellyaching that He did not observe the traditions of men, which if you cut through the crap Jews basically admit much of their cultus is in fact composed of; the only distinction being that they believe their rabbis have the authority to do such), but basically what it seems to come down to is "anyone but Jesus."

Interestingly, many of the Lubavitchers consider their deceased spiritual head ("Rebbe") Mendel Schneerson, to be the Messiah. Funny, he died a few years ago. Not a problem! They believe he'll rise from the dead and inaugerate the Messianic age! And you thought Christians were goofy for all of that "pagan" ressurection business...

Goin' Down...

Bill Gates, World's Richest Man, Bets Against Dollar

Jan. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Bill Gates, the world's richest person with a net worth of $46.6 billion, is betting against the U.S. dollar. ``I'm short the dollar,'' Gates, chairman of Microsoft Corp., told Charlie Rose in an interview late yesterday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. ``The ol' dollar, it's gonna go down.''

He's not that big of a dumb-ass...is he?

(courtesy of The Exile)



Super War Preview
The Iranian Suicide Bombers vs. The American Crusaders
By Gary Brecher

Everybody's asking me what'll happen if we attack Iran. To get a quick preview, just do what this guy in my eighth-grade class did: put a firecracker in your mouth, hold it between your front teeth, and light the fuse. Your friends won't believe you'll go through with it. So when it blows up in your face, you'll expect them to be impressed. And you'll be surprised, just like this guy in junior high was surprised, when all you get is a perforated eardrum and a reputation as the biggest dumbass in the school.

I guess it all depends upon how much you trust "them"...

Sensors Everywhere by Aaron Ricadela

Some big companies are trying to make the world--and almost everything in it--smarter. Science Applications International Corp., the big government IT contractor known as SAIC, is developing technology for the Defense and Homeland Security departments that could use hundreds of tiny, wireless sensors packed with computing power to help secure U.S. borders, bridges, power plants, and ships by detecting suspicious movements or dangerous cargo and radioing warnings back to a command center. BP plc, the world's second-largest independent oil company, aims to knock down the cost of monitoring equipment at a Washington state oil refinery, from thousands of dollars per measurement to hundreds, by replacing big, dumb, wired sensors with wireless ones in a network.

Comment: This reminds me a lot of promise/dangers behind another budding technology, nanotech.