News Archives

29 June 2006Anarchy in Holland?
Everyone is talking about the fall of the Dutch government. I suspect it won' change ery much. Tourists will continue to come and go. Trains will run on time and life will go on much as normal as it can...
29 May 2006No Trace of Irony?
In this place where valor sleeps, we are reminded why America has always gone to war reluctantly, because we know the costs of war. We have seen those costs in the war on terror we fight today. These grounds are...
26 May 2006How Would A Patriot Act?
If you want to keep up to date with the all the legal machinations of the Bush Administration and the twisted logic of his one-eyed defenders, there is no better place than Glenn Greenwald's Unclaimed Territory. Glenn's insightful commentary rooted...
25 May 2006Fuck Ya!
A lifetime of sodomy, a deserved reward for fucking over so many people. (I guess we have to wait for the sentencing, but this is a great start)....
22 February 2006How Do You Spell Civil War in Arabic?
Just like this. A picture really is worth 1000 words....
14 February 2006Cheney's Got A Gun
Apparently Vice President Dick Cheney shot someone over the weekend in a bizarre hunting accident.And now iIt seems that the boys at The Daily Show have manged to find some humor in it. Shit, can't we let the VP maim...
11 February 2006Awesome!
New tomb found in the Valley of the Kings. Not royal, just connected. How cool is that?...
11 November 2005War on Terror Touches Home
A friend forwarded me this story this morning about Moustapha Akkad's death in the hotel bombings in Jordan. What's the big deal, you say? Well, his daughter Rima was also killed in the bombings. Rima Akkad was a member of...
10 November 2005A Date With the Big House
My brother Brian has been going down to Tampa to cover the al-Arian trial for the Investigative Project. If you want to see his write ups on the closing arguments in the case, they're here: Monday: Day 1 Tuesday: Day...
20 May 2005Good Thing We Don't Condone Torture Redux
This is just despicable, plain and simple. Sort of makes flushing a Koran down the toilet seem like child's play. In U.S. Report, Brutal Details of 2 Afghan Inmates' Deaths Even as the young Afghan man was dying before them,...
28 March 2005Christian Jihad: Evolution Under Attack
I shouldn't be surprised as I watch the Christian Jihad in America weave its nefarious way from one aspect of society to another, but this "debate" over evolution is shocking. I just saw a report on the NewsHour about the...
28 March 2005Tidak Bagus
The poor little island of Nias can't catch a break. It got hammered by the tsunami last December. It's probably barely recovering and it' been hit by an http://www.smh.com.au/news/Asia-Tsunami/Quake-toll-up-to-2000-says-Indonesia/2005/03/29/1111862346536.html?oneclick=true">8.7 magnitude quake that has killed around 2000 more people. I spent...
01 February 2005Just When You Thought Beer Couldn't Possibly Be More Useful
Man peed way out of avalanche need I say more? Thanks to Jen for this tidbit....
27 January 2005Good Thing We Don't Condone Torture
I'm trying to find words to accurately sum up this story on the AP wire about using women to "break Muslim detainees at the U.S. prison camp in Guantanamo Bay by sexual touching, wearing a miniskirt and thong underwear and...
28 October 2004Eyewitness to a Failure in Iraq
Eyewitness to a failure in Iraq by Peter W. Galbraith | October 27, 2004 from the Boston Globe IN 2003 I went to tell Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz what I had seen in Baghdad in the days...
26 October 2004What's This About?
Powell's China Comments Anger Taiwanese TAIPEI, Taiwan - Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) has angered Taiwanese officials and lawmakers by making unusually strong comments denying that the island is an independent nation and suggesting Taiwan...
26 October 2004Is This Really Happening In Our Country?
from the Des Moines Register: One of the latest incidents came when John Sachs, 18, a Johnston High School senior and Democrat, went to see Bush in Clive last week. Sachs got a ticket to the event from school and...
25 October 2004The Bullshit Piles Up So Fast in Iraq,
You Need Wings To Stay Above It
380 tons of powerful conventional explosives --MISSING. When Scott McClellan, the president's press secretary was asked about this, he said that not only did we only find out about the theft in the last few weeks, but "that the sites...
21 October 2004Bush Supporters Still Believe Iraq Had WMD or Major Program
A report from the Program on International Policy Attitudes graphically illustrates how the support for President Bush regarding the war in Iraq is based largely on innaccurate information. Big surprise, considering much of Bush support is not rooted in anything...
20 October 2004God: The Ultimate Flip-Flopper
[File this under funny if it weren't so damn scary] There's this extraordinary story on CNN where the founder of the U.S. Christian Coalition Pat Robertson describes a conversation he had with George Bush prior to the start of the...
19 October 2004Sinclair Getting Hammered
Sinclair Broadcasting Group (SBGI), the conservative publicly traded owner of over 60 local television stations which plans to air the anti-Kerry film "Stolen Honor", is getting hammered in the market, down yet again, and trading at or near 52-week lows....
05 October 2004Who's The Best Fighter Pilot You Ever Saw?
You're looking at him. I didn't really know Gordo Cooper, but I felt like I did. Almost everything I know about this man comes from reading Tom Wolfe'sThe Right Stuff and repeatedly watching the movie in which he was played...
22 September 2004It's All But Over Now
Black Gay Republicans Break with Log Cabin Republicans, Endorse Bush As they say in Samoa, e moi which means either, are you serious? or you've got to be shitting me. Black and gay and republican? How large of a group...
20 September 2004The Politics of Pixar
Just down the street from where I'm sitting at Chiron in Emeryville is the corporate offices of Pixar. Yes, that Pixar. Monsters, Inc. Finding Nemo. Infinity and Beyond. and Steve Jobs. There's a interesting article in one of the local...
20 September 2004Wed Britney Wed
Two times in one year. Pretty impressive, Britney. It has be some sort of a record. It had to have least tied the record. No one could marry 3 times in a year, could they? I wonder what odds the...
13 September 2004I Want My AK-47
On the day that President Bush, by virtue of not insisting that the House act on the Assault Weapons Ban, is letting the bill lapse because of his allegiance to the NRA, I get this email from my former housemate...
13 September 2004This Turns My Stomach
There's a story on the wire today about Schwarzenegger signing a bill barring necrophilia. That's not a problem. Those fuckers are sick and need to be put away. It's the inspiration for the original bill that is really sick and...
16 August 2004They Held the Olympics and Nobody Showed Up
I've been watching the Olympics for three days now and there's the awful trend that is really sad for the organizers of the games in Athens. After an Opening Ceremonies where the stadium was packed full of enthusiasts, athletes have...
05 August 2004The Imam and the Pizza Parlor
When I heard about how the Feds had arrested an Imam and an accomplish for laundering money through their pizza parlor to buy a shoulder fired rocket to assassinate the Pakistani ambassador to the UN, my first thought was not...
14 July 2004Upping the Ante
FOX Sports Net is showing the American Poker Championships LIVE from the Turning Stone Casino in upstate New York. It's down to two players, Phil Ivey and John D'Augustino playing for half a million. How long will it last? Who...
09 July 2004We're Putting the Band Back Together
When I was listening to General Richard Cody or some other member of the Joint Chiefs talking about the need to call up these musicians after being questioned by a Democatic congressman (thank you, CSPAN), I couldn't believe the answer....
08 July 2004Kenny-Boy, Finally
Former Enron Chairman and CEO Kenneth Lay pleaded not guilty today to 11 criminal charges related to the company's 2001 collapse into bankruptcy. Lay was released on a $500,000 bond. In a related move, the Securities and Exchange Commission accused...
07 July 2004Between Iraq and Hard Place
Forget Farenheit 9/11, if you want to see a fascinating, unbiased documentary about how America got involved in the war with Iraq check out Frontline's "The War Behind Closed Doors". The movie takes a hard look at "the people, the...
13 April 2004Did You See the W Press Conference?
At first I was listening to it on the local NPR station, but at 7pm they decided to pre-empt the president for their regular classical music programing. Colorado public radio, like many other things in this fakakta state is a...
05 April 2004This is Cool (Literally)
Norwegian film festival cuts silver screen in ice...
05 April 2004Do You Shop at Walmart?
I'm embarassed to say that sometimes I do shop at Walmart. It's just the cheapest place around to buy cat food. And, you know, when I'm in there, I might pick up a few things for the house, groceries, whatever....
05 April 2004Zionist Pigs
My brother sent me a link to this page of pictures from an anti-war rally in San Francisco. Now I'm all for rallies of any sort and freedom of speech. I'm even liberal enough to not have a problem with...
18 March 2004Chinga te, Espana
Let's look at this chain of events: Spain was holding an election and the ruling party was winning in the polls There was a bomb in Madrid that Killed 200 people The bomb was blamed on the Baque separtists ETA...
08 March 2004Spalding Gray's Body
In a morose end to the story of the missing monologuist, Spalding Gray was found dead today, his body pulled from the East River in Manhattan. It's very sad to read that this great artist is now dead of an...
12 November 2003Give Me Some Money
The most secure currency in U.S. history was introduced into the economy on October 9th, as a newly redesigned, colorful $20 bill was issued by the Federal Reserve System. You can find this blurb on the U.S. Bureau of Engraving...
31 October 2003Two State Solution?
"If the Palestinians would adopt the ways of Gandhi, I think they could, in fact, make enormous changes very, very quickly. I believe in the power of individuals demonstrating peacefully." This is a quote from Paul Wolfowitz, probably the most...
16 October 2003Excuse Me While I Rule the World
"The Europeans killed 6 million Jews out of 12 million, but today the Jews rule the world by proxy. They get others to fight and die for them." Mahathir Mohamad has really lost the plot. Yes, he actually said this...
12 September 2003Too Much of Good Thing
I think you can safely files stories entitled, "Tourism a Huge Threat to Global Environment", under "Duh!" As more and more people have the wherewithal to travel beyond their borders to check out the wonder that is the rest of...
20 August 2003Go Slugs!
Princeton Review has released its rankings for American Universities, and UC Santa Cruz, not any big surpise here, is ranked number one for best campus. It's an amzaing place, situated on the hills amidst the redwoods overlooking the Monterrey...
10 August 2003Spectacular Mars
Never again in your lifetime will Mars be so spectacular! In August, the Earth and Mars will culminate in the closest approach between the two planets in recorded history. The next time Mars may come this close is in 2287....
07 August 2003Fiddling, Fumbling and Failing
I love that "The Terminator" could possibly be the next governor of the great state of California. Arnold hasn't make a decent movie in a long time and he needs a new gig, so this makes perfect sense. We also...
24 July 2003Father of Siva Afi Dies
Father of fire-knife dance dies By Terry Tavita 24 July 2003 The man credited as the father of the fire knife dance, ailao afi, has passed away peacefully in Hawai’i. American Samoa paramount chief Olo Letuli, 84, was a...
24 July 2003Cat Talk
I have a pretty good idea of what my kittens are thinking, but how cool would it be to know for sure? Now if only they could come up with a gagdet that could translate human speech into meows....
22 July 2003Whitney's Wacky Israel Visit
There's a copy of US magazine floating around the Peace Corps office here in Samoa. While I was waiting to get on a computer, I flipped through it's pages and came across this brilliant piece of journalism: Whitney's Wacky Israel...
22 July 2003Peace Corps to Return in Jordan
Peace Corps Program to Reopen in Jordan WASHINGTON, D.C., July 22, 2003 – Peace Corps Director Gaddi H. Vasquez announced today that Peace Corps volunteers would return to Jordan as early as January 2004. The program was suspended in...
10 July 2003We're #73
In the recently released human development index , part of the Human Development Report for 2003 released yearly by the UNDP, Samoa is number 73 out of 173, middle of the pack. Acccording to the site, the index "measures a...
02 July 2003U.S. Cuts Miltary Aid to Samoa
Samoa, apparently guitly (along with 31 other nations) of supporting the International Criminal Court while not being of importance to US national security, has been cut off from military aid. How much military aid Samoa receives from the US is...
30 June 2003Can You Imagine the Smell?
What is going on over in Germany? This would be an interesting story if this was an isolated incident, but Reuters reports that: Germany often reports cases of people lying dead in their homes for months or years before discovery,...
07 June 2003Iraq's Hidden Treasure
Why does it seem incredible to me that we can find buried treasure hidden in a vault inside sewage water yet we have been unable to hunt down any "weapons of mass destruction." Am I alone in this? Treasures of...
05 June 2003Live Sheep Coming to Samoa
The government of Samoa has finally wised up to the fact that the mass consumption of low-grade fat-ridden imported meats from New Zealand and elsewhere are having huge, long-term detrimental effects to the health of many Samoans. To combat this,...
04 June 2003Gecko Technology Comes to the Masses
As someone who sees geckos on a daily basis (usually frantically running away from my kittens), I love this story. Gecko tape will stick you to ceiling 18:00 01 June 03 NewScientist.com news service A new material covered with nanoscopic...
31 May 2003Rudolph in Custody
It's amazing. The feds finally caught up with Eric Robert Rudolph, the so-called Olympic bomber. When I was living in Atlanta, just after the Olympics, and Richard Jewel was still the suspect everyone was talking about, Rudolph was bombnig abortion...
24 May 2003Well, George, We Knocked The Bastard Off
These are the famous words of Sir Edmund Hillary after he returned from conquering Mt. Everest. It would be great to be that non-chalant after becoming the first person (along with Tenzing Norgay) to climb the highest mountain on earth....
08 May 2003Yes, but Does He Have What it Takes to be a Peace Corps Volunteer?
I'm joking, of course. This story is absolutely incredible. I can't imagine what I would have done in a similar circumstance. Most likely I would have starved to death. Here's the full story from MSNBC: Climber recounts canyon ordeal (MSNBC...
24 April 2003Passover in Baghdad
This is a great email story from a jewish soldier in Iraq that was sent to me by my cousins from Arizona: Dear family and friends, This morning started with a cold rain. This was a blessing, as it padded...
24 April 2003Former Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Is in U.S. Custody
I put this up because I saw this picture on the front page of New York Times Online. What a brilliant portait. The shot was taken by one of the many great photographers at the Agence France-Presse. The cigar smoking...
21 April 2003Would You Like Fries With That, Soldier?
Fast food comes to Iraq Basra, Iraq (April 21 2003) -- Fastfood giants Pizza Hut and Burger King have set up their first franchises inside war-torn Iraq, even as many aid convoys waited on the borders for the war to...
11 April 2003Palagi Mafia in Apia?
On The Rocks bar, no Palagi mafia haunt by Afamasaga Toleafoa 11 April 2003 "This is not a Palagi Mafia haunt," Peter Blain, owner of 'On The Rocks Bar' in town said to me, as we sat down in the...
16 March 2003Peace March
Samoans March for World Peace By Terry Tavita 15 March 2003 An estimated 1,500 people marched through Beach Road yesterday afternoon to show their support for a world of peace. Waving banners and singing peace songs, Church leaders, women’s groups,...
03 March 2003Peace Corps Anniversary
Peace mission remembered on Peace Corps anniversary by Afamasaga Toleafoa 02 March 2003 This week marked the 42nd anniversary of the American Peace Corps movement. And to mark the occasion, I visited the offices of Mr Stacy Plemmons, country director...
15 February 2003But Seriously Folks
Here's the story from the Samoa Observer about the computers donated to the DOE by ANZ. I love the part about the computers being in "very good condition". That's sort of like saying someone who's dying of cancer is in...