randomWalks

"I saw the heads of my two little girls come off," said Lamea Hassan, 36. "My girls—I watched their heads come off their bodies. My son is dead."

Clarity
I think what you'll find,
I think what you'll find is,
Whatever it is we do substantively,
There will be near-perfect clarity
As to what it is.
And it will be known,
And it will be known to the Congress,
And it will be known to you,
Probably before we decide it,
But it will be known.
—Feb. 28, 2003, Department of Defense briefing 

originally posted by xowie

I watched so much and from such an early age, in fact, that I didn't understand what TV was for. I say this to people and they think I'm kidding, but I didn't realize that 'The Dick Van Dyke Show' was supposed to be funny I thought you just watched it. The people said things, and they moved around, and you just waited till you saw the kid—you know, you liked to see Richie.

Madonna has pulled the US release of her new video, which contained images of transvestite soldiers, Iraqi children and a grenade being lobbed at a lookalike of US President George W Bush. Australian Broadcasting Corp.

Texas prosecutors today agreed to throw out the convictions of 38 people, nearly all of them black, who faced drug charges based on the uncorroborated testimony of a white former undercover police officer. Washington Post

On Monday, March 31, the Los Angeles Times published a front-page photograph that had been altered in violation of Times policy. Editors Note, Los Angeles Times

"I am an American," he says after a minute. "I stand with the pope and former President Jimmy Carter. In this country, you say what you think."

originally posted by xowie

U.S. officers say they recognize that roundups of men who appear to be civilians, and who may or may not be armed, will be among the most controversial tactics they could employ, and, if applied indiscriminately, could undermine their campaign to win the "hearts and minds" of the Iraqi people.

originally posted by xowie

"What's the sin of the children? What have they done?"

originally posted by xowie

Grim preview.

originally posted by xowie

I’ve got an old pair of red/blue 3D glasses near my desk, “just in case” – Boy Scouts motto, you know, ‘be prepared’ – so I was searching images.google for some 3D pictures. There doesn’t seem to be any way to view the results as a slideshow, which seems not only fairly obvious but probably trivial with the Google API. In fact, the halfbakery has already considered the idea but I’m not sure the lazyweb has. What do you think?

• 3D Tintin
• 3D fractals OS X screensaver
• 3D camel movie
• 3D nighttime parking lot
• 3D Grateful Dead shots
• 3D high speed shots

Blogs Against War aggregates posts for peace across a growing number of weblogs. If you use Movable Type, it’s easy to have links to (and excerpts of) your peace-related posts show up on Blogs Against War automatically. If you don’t use Movable Type, there’s a form you can fill out which will accomplish the same thing. I really hope this takes off. Please encourage your favorite peacebloggers to contribute.

Other weblogs about peaceblogs:
• "PeaceTrack is a site devoted to gathering reports of peace activities"
• Peaceblogs.org is a site devoted to making connections between bloggers who oppose the impending war against Iraq
• Diveintomark.org has collected a list of blogs for peace

See also the wonderful A Beginners Guide to Trackback from the brilliant folks at Movable Type.

‘The enemy we’re fighting is a bit different than the one we war-gamed against.’

Van Riper had at his disposal a computer-generated flotilla of small boats and planes, many of them civilian, which he kept buzzing around the virtual Persian Gulf in circles as the game was about to get under way. As the US fleet entered the Gulf, Van Riper gave a signal - not in a radio transmission that might have been intercepted, but in a coded message broadcast from the minarets of mosques at the call to prayer. The seemingly harmless pleasure craft and propeller planes suddenly turned deadly, ramming into Blue boats and airfields along the Gulf in scores of al-Qaida-style suicide attacks... "A phrase I heard over and over was: 'That would never have happened,'" Van Riper recalls. "And I said: nobody would have thought that anyone would fly an airliner into the World Trade Centre... but nobody seemed interested."

originally posted by daiichi

In the midst of all this, Dr Ahmed Sufian lashed out: "Our floors are covered with blood of our people, the walls are splashed with blood. Why, why, why? Why all this blood? I'm a doctor, but I can't understand such things. They say [they] come to free us? Is this freedom?"

originally posted by daiichi

R.A.: Most of the drawings in it are of Aline. Is she your muse?

R.C.: Oh, you know. She's around a lot, and she always wanted me to draw her. Back in the 70's and 80's, she'd say: ''I'll pose. I'll pose.'' After about half an hour, she'd say, ''Can I go yet?''

L.E.: Do girls ever dress up like one of your fantasies to meet you?

R.C.: When Aline first met me, she used to dress up to suit my fancy. She kind of got tired of that. She used to put on white knee socks and these little schoolgirl outfits. She was a lot chubbier in the early days. Now she's gotten quite thin. It's a little disheartening to see her derrière go down. But she's happier being that way, so what the heck. But she's still quite muscular. She says her ideal body type now is Lance Armstrong's.

originally posted by xowie

[....] a small number of anti-Muslim American soldiers endanger their brothers-in-arms and tarnish the reputation of American soldiers generally.

Filmmaker Michael Moore’s next project.

It won't help him at the polls, but Pat's message has penetrated the smoky haze and captured the imagination of the stoner demographic.

To them he offers the promise not of a chicken in every pot, but of a pot sign for anyone who isn't chicken to grab one.

"It seems the younger generation has decided that being a stoner is cool," said Pat, who was born a Stoner and will die a Stoner. He is running for re-election as alderman.

"It's irritating," he said. "They're $4.87 apiece with the wires."

originally posted by xowie

Bush is still really pissing me off. Why can't I just forget about him?

originally posted by daiichi

According to a report to be published today by the US watchdog Center for Public Integrity, at least 10 out of 30 members of the Pentagon committee are executives or lobbyists with companies that have tens of billions of dollars' worth of contracts with the US defence department and other government agencies.

originally posted by xowie

4. Have you noticed that what the Iraqis say in press conferences is essentially true, even those things which are mocked by the U. S. press because they conflict with the American stories which turn out to be lies, but everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, said by the Americans is a lie (I'm not exaggerating - EVERYTHING)?

originally posted by xowie

1. The anti-war movement supports our troops by urging that they be brought home immediately so they neither kill nor get killed in a unjust war. How has the Bush administration shown its support for our troops?

a. The Republican-controlled House Budget Committee voted to cut $25 billion in veterans benefits over the next 10 years.

b. The Bush administration proposed cutting $172 million from impact aid programs which provide school funding for children of military personnel.

c. The administration ordered the Dept. of Veterans Affairs to stop publicizing health benefits available to veterans.

d. All of the above.

originally posted by xowie

Yesterday, in southern Iraq, U.S. troops provided an ironic example. They named two temporary refueling facilities Camp Shell and Camp Exxon.

A tad indelicate? Deliberately insensitive, given the criticism that the United States has undertaken the war to secure Iraqi oil? Neither, said a Pentagon spokesman, who explained that the camps are "basically gas stations."

originally posted by xowie

Bring them home NOW.

originally posted by xowie

Dear President Bush,
Please stop the violence because I believe it is wrong. And can you stop war and bombing places? I want peace to come soon! I love everybody in Iraq. Please could you change your ways?
Love Marianne Blough — 2nd grade