27.2.03

More on Bush (Moron Bush)

The House Appropriations Committee of our U.S. Congress hosts this point by point unmasking of President Bush's broken promises. (Complete with photos of him at the events where he made the promises, and relevant passages from his speeches.)

many thanks to Robot Wisdom for the pointer.

26.2.03

Bush Makes Bald Faced Lie

Raise your hand if you're surprised about this. I shouldn't be, but I am. How can this be that the President of the United States can just make things up and use them as support for his agenda? Does it give you more confidence in his other unproven assertions about Hussein's capabilities or North Korea's impotence? What is going on with this guy? Why is he putting us in these straightjackets? Who's future does he think he's risking on these schemes?

to quote a Haiku by an esteemed Scranton poet and baker:

Ugh. Ugh. Ugh. Ugh. Ugh.
Sigh. Sigh. Sigh. Sigh. Sigh. Sigh. Sigh.
Ugh. Ugh. Ugh. Ugh. Damn.

25.2.03

The University Carillon in Leuven

Is made up of 63 bells, the largest of which, known as the "Leuven Liberty Bell" weighs about seven tons. Concerts are played regularly by Luc Rombouts, the University Carilloneur or by guest musicians. The instrument was donated as part of the reconstruction of the library, funded mostly by American universities and academies who were heartbroken at the destruction of the historical university library by Axis troops in the first World War. The library was again heavily damaged in the second war (this time by an Allied bomb), but was repaired. The tower that houses the bells is replete with American imagery (eagles and stars) and dominates both the Ladeuzeplein and the Herbert Hooverplein.

The inscription on the No. 4 bell reads:

Interpres variae sum interpres vitae voce sonora :
Fortunam celebro sit bona sitve mala.
Sit pax in Terris, concordia regnet in orbe :
Ex alto cunctis haec pia vota cano.


[My voice reveals life's changes;
I celebrate fortune in good days and bad;
Let there be peace on the Earth, understanding around the globe;
This is my wish to all of you from this tower.]
Other Notable Urines

20.2.03

Speechwriters Wanted

This site lets you compose a speech for President Bush, complete with sound effects, by dragging text, similar to composing a poem on someone's refrigerator. Then you can see and hear the result. Very fun.

17.2.03

Sleepwalking Through History

From the conclusion to a speech given by Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV) before Congress on February 12, 2003:

"To engage in war is always to pick a wild card. And war must always be a last resort, not a first choice. I truly must question the judgment of any President who can say that a massive unprovoked military attack on a nation which is over fifty percent children is 'in the highest moral traditions of our country'. This war is not necessary at this time. Pressure appears to be having a good result in Iraq. Our mistake was to put ourselves in a corner so quickly. Our challenge is to now find a graceful way out of a box of our own making."

See the full text at Sen. Byrd's website or, with all the usual Senatorial interjections and cockstrutting, in the Congressional Record.

14.2.03

Pre-Positioning (Dr. Laura gets blown off)

This memo to the staff at Sacramento's KBFK (NewsTalk 1530) & KSTE (Talk 650), both owned by ClearChannel Communications, dictates how station staffers are to carry out wartime coverage, and also to make sure that the new desperately panicked listeners remain loyal consumers after the panic dies down.

"Remember to ask me if regular programming should continue to run on weekends and if we have specialty shows that can't or won't talk about the war we will probably blow them off. Even Dr. Laura. Remember, no fishing shows, gardening shows. We are AT WAR."
The US and the UN

We're at odds because Bush wants to undermine the central guidelines of the UN Charter, not because the UN has fallen away from its task. Stephen Zunes offers a fairly clear rebuttal to the rhetoric in this article.

10.2.03

Happy Friday

Just the thing for the bitter valentine hater in you, NotSoSoft offers
Anti-Valentine E-cards

I Cover the War

At a recent press conference for the UN security council, the large reproduction of Picasso's Guernica which depicts and evokes the horror of war, was covered by a blue curtain. Irony is still dead. (the real story) - apparently ArtDaily's take on it, no longer available online, was a bit one-sided)

9.2.03

Big

If you need anything made into a giant airbag, go see the professionals at the Art of Air

8.2.03

l33t xpl41|\|d

Ever run across gibberish like the above? Hie thee to How to Speak Like a Cyber Freak.

"It's about the superior feeling you get when posting on a forum that you are the only person who knows what you've written. It's about being able to call somebody else a llama simply because you are l33t3r than they are. And most of all, it's about feeling closer to the gaming community that you know you are the worst part of."
Campaigns of Deceit

Tony Blair's government cobbled together some student work from the web, threw in a few tidbits of "intelligence," and called it a "Dossier" attesting to Iraq's efforts to decieve UN arms inspectors. They didn't provide proper citations for their sources, and implied that the report was the work of British Intelligence. A bit sad, especially for all the Iraqi's we're about to kill on such manufactured "evidence" of wrong-doing, which, even if substantiated, doesn't amount to much. The weapons programs Iraq is accused of hiding were openly supported by the West (the US and UK) during the Iran-Iraq war.

Here's the Yahoo story which links to Blair's "Dossier" and to the paper by Ibrahim al-Marashi, a student researcher in Monterey, California, from which large sections of it were lifted. Check for yourself.
The Periodic Table in Verse

Mike Stanfill has put Tom Lehrer's classic "The Elements" into a nice Flash animation. [link]

4.2.03

The Island of San Serife

Lost Things in the Garden of Type is a pleasant introduction by John Trantor to some of the concerns of the historian of typefaces. [Note: In keeping with its policy to earn humongous profits, Microsoft no longer offers its "web fonts" for free.]

2.2.03

Fun and Happy

And more than a little bit strange...

We Like The Moon - found via Dave Barry's weblog. (!)