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...And so the Lies Continue
It is very frustrating to hear the President speak. He continues to employ
a tactic of fearmongering and outright lies in an attempt to take power
from the other branches of government. Congress is already nothing more
than a Roman Senate to Emperor Bush. The Supreme Court did act in the right
direction today, but they could have done more.
In responding to the decision, Bush immediately began saying things such as
"I'm not going to jeopardize the safety of the American people.", "...this
ruling, as I understand it, won't cause killers to be put out on the
street.", and "To the extent there is latitude to work with the Congress to
determine whether or not the military tribunals will be an avenue in which
to give people their day in court..." That's right, he's illegally
detaining hundreds of innocent college students and farmers in order to
protect us. He has no interest in giving these people a day in court. If
that were the case, why weren't they offered habeas corpus when they
were first arrrested? Why weren't they offered trials in accordance to the
Geneva Conventions? Why can't they see the "evidence" against them? The
answer, of course, is Bush has no interest in following the law. The
evidence against these people is "classified", likely because it's so weak
a toddler could see no cause to keep them in prison.
The absolute most infuriating thing to hear, though, was this comment. "I
understand we're in a war on terror, that these people were picked up off
of a battlefield." What a load of BS! The Report on Guantanamo Detainees by Prof. Mark Denbeaux at
Seton Hall University points out that only 5% of detainees were captured by
US forces, and 86% were handed over to the US by either Pakistan or the
Northern Alliance. Not to be forgotten, the detainees turned over to the
US were handed over at a time when the US was offering large bounties for
capture of suspected enemies. No doubt many of the men in custody are there
because of a corrupt individual seeing US money waved in front of him. Either Bush has his head in the sand
or he has no problem spreading fear through lies. And if these people were
picked up on a battlefield, then there is no debate that the Geneva Conventions apply. Which is it,
Mr. Bush? It's time to come clean. You've already cost hundreds of innocent
men five years of their life. The only thing you're accomplishing now is
instilling more hatred against the United States. You don't want to
jeopardize our safety? That's exactly what you're doing.
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June 29, 2006
A Momentary Glimpse at Reason
Today, the Supreme Court finally reached a decision in the case of a detainee held at Guantanamo Bay. In the case, Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense, et al., Ahmed Salim Hamdan challenged the attempt by the Bush administration to try him via military tribunal. In a surprisingly lucid decision, the US Supreme Court ruled that any prosecution "must be understood to incorporate at least the barest of those trial protections that have been recognized by customary international law." However, while this decision does seem to afford the detainees more rights, it does not address the fact that many are being held illegally (that is, with no probable cause other than a paid informant, at best). At least now they should be able to see the evidence against them, as before they were not allowed to see the evidence since it was classified.
June 26, 2006
The New York Times a disgrace?
Today President Bush and Vice President Cheney attacked the New York Times for revealing the latest Big Brother tactic: secretly spying on bank data. Bush actually said that the disclosure of this program by the NY Times was a disgrace and a threat to national security. Cheney felt that the awarding of the Pulitzer prize to the NY times after the earlier revelation of the phone data program was disgraceful. No, gentlemen, the only disgrace are the actions by you that are threatening our freedoms and way of life. It's now becoming clearer and clearer that the Bush administration has done more harm to our freedom and our future security than any terrorist could have dreamed of doing himself.
June 23, 2006
Secret program to by U.S. government to sift through bank data
Where does it end? If the Patriot Act, the NSA's warrantless collection of phone records, and the denial of basic human rights to detainees in Guantanamo Bay aren't enough evidence, then the citizens of our country will never understand the complete disregard for the constitution in our current leaders. But, here's one more piece of evidence: A secret program by the CIA to collect and sift through banking data. The troubling part of this is once again, no warrants or even evidence is needed for the data to be taken and analyzed.
June 15, 2006
Why do Brazilian Soccer Players Only Have One Name?
Anyone who has even a mild interest in
soccer will soon find that Brazilian
soccer players typically are known only by a single name. For instance,
currently
two most famous players are Ronaldo and Ronaldohino (literally, little
Ronaldo). And who can forget perhaps the most famous soccer player of all
time, Pele? Did you know his full name was Edson Arantes do Nascimento? Take a look at their World Cup roster and you will see most of the team only
goes by a single name.
Several other countries also have players that go by single names (such as
Portugal, the nation that colonized Brazil, another former colony of
Portugal, Angola, and Spain). But perhaps due to Brazil's dominance, they
are the most well known.
But why only one name? In Brazil, it is convention. In all settings, nicknames and firstnames are used by virtually everyone (clergy, doctors, even the President, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is known by Lula). One reason for the preferential use of first names or nicknames could be because of Brazil's historically high illiteracy rate. Thus shortened spoken names (and thus names easier to spell) are used more often than longer birth names. Another reason might have roots in the slave system. Although slavery was abolished in Brazil in the late 1800s, slaves were documented by use of just their first name or first name and country of origin. The custom in many places (such as England and the US) is to refer to athletes by their surnames, thus when the English introduced soccer to Brazil the Brazilians at first conformed to the English way. However, as the sport gained popularity the convention of nicknames quickly gained favor. All information for this entry was taken from an article at Slate. Click here to read the original article.
June 13, 2006
2006 World Cup
As just about everybody in the world knows (except for the United States and probably Canada, too), the 2006 FIFA World Cup started last week. I've been following it as closely as I can, and thus far the best website I've found for following the action (free of charge, that is), is from the FIFA website itself. It's actually associated with Yahoo, but the Emirates Airline MatchCast updates scores scores and times faster and closer to real time than other websites similar offerings (such as ESPN GameCast, Fox Sports Match Tracker, or Sports Illustrated MatchCast). So, to those of you at work or without cable who want a free and reliable way to track ongoing World Cup games, I recommend the MatchCast from FIFA. Follow the link below to find and use it.
June 11, 2006
Fun with Colors
Stare at the image below for 20-30 seconds, then, without moving your eyes, move your mouse pointer over it to show the next image. Is the second image in color or black and white? 
June 07, 2006
What should you do if you find something somebody left behind?
This story resonates because I have a coworker and friend who left his phone at a Starbucks one time and never got it back. Also, my girlfriend accidentally left her digital camera in a taxi last year and was unable to locate it. People, if you find something that valuable you should at least try to find the person who lost it. It's the morally right thing to do. To keep it or, worse yet, sell it, just shows a complete lack of respect for your counterparts in the human race. What if it was your phone or camera? A phone is absolutely easy to return, and a camera would take a little more effort. But not impossible, especially since the owner would be calling the taxi company about it. Without further ado, here is the story of a stolen sidekick.
June 06, 2006
Let's play, "What the #%@! is President Bush talking about?"
This is the the inaugral edition of this little "quiz". Feel free to post your comments if you feel the proper answer is not listed. "This national question requires a national solution. And on an issue of such profound importance, that solution should not come from the courts but from the people of the United States. An amendment to the Constitution is necessary because activist courts have left our nation with no other choice. When judges insist on imposing their arbitrary will on the people, the only alternative left to people is an amendement to the Constitution, the only law a court cannot overturn. . ." ". . .I appreciate you taking an interest in this fundamental issue. It's an important issue for our country to debate and resolve. And the best way to resolve this issue is through a constitutional amendment, which I strongly support. God bless." - President Bush in a speech at the White House. Now that you've read the quote, what was our leader speaking about:
June 02, 2006
Leonardo da Vinci and Mona Lisa break their centuries long silence
A Japanese scientist has attempted to create what Mona Lisa may have sounded like when she spoke. The geek in me thinks that's just plain cool. You'll just need to click the button under their portraits to hear them. Unfortunately, you will need to use Internet Explorer to hear her speak, but here's the link. Hear Mona Lisa and Leonardo da Vinci speak for the first time in centuries! |
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