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October 2007 - Posts

The death trade

Wednesday, October 31, 2007 4:50 PM
This article provides an in-depth survey of the current state of international arms trading. A couple of choice quotes: Vast government subsidies are sought after in the pursuit of arms trading. US and European corporations receive enormous tax breaks
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The fox and the henhouse

Tuesday, October 30, 2007 11:15 PM
The head of the Consumer Product Safety Commission is against consumer product safety : With all the product recalls in recent months, the commission has been in the public spotlight, and lawmakers have decided to act with a new bill. "What we're trying
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Immunity for Blackwater thugs

Monday, October 29, 2007 10:43 PM
Let me see if I have this sequence correct : State Department hires armed Blackwater thugs to provide "security" in Iraq in order to mask the true number of US personnel deployed there. Said thugs murder 17 unarmed Iraqi civilians. State Department grants
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The Last Supper, in 16 billion pixels

Sunday, October 28, 2007 9:14 PM
Whoa : A 16 billion pixel image of Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper has been posted on the internet, giving art lovers a detailed view of the 15th Century work. [...] "You can see how Leonardo made the cups transparent, something you can't ordinarily see,"
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Child labor in Gap sweatshops

Saturday, October 27, 2007 7:29 PM
This is outrageous : Child workers [in India], some as young as 10, have been found working in a textile factory in conditions close to slavery to produce clothes that appear destined for Gap Kids, one of the most successful arms of the high street giant.
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Environmental alarm bells are ringing

Friday, October 26, 2007 8:54 PM
The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) has released a landmark report (called GEO-4) on the state of the global environment. Authored by 388 scientists from around the world and peer-reviewed by another 1,000, the report details the most urgent
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Electrocuted in the shower, and red-headed Neanderthals

Thursday, October 25, 2007 10:23 PM
I just came across two unrelated BBC stories that, for some reason, seem to go well together. First, there's the story of the British dude electrocuted while on vacation with his girlfriend in Paris : An inquest has heard how a Sussex man was electrocuted
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Randy Neal goes statewide

Thursday, October 25, 2007 6:07 PM
Randy Neal, proprietor of KnoxViews and all-around swell guy, has just announced the launch of TennViews ; he describes the site's purpose this way : TennViews is a virtual town hall for talking about politics, culture, and life in the great state of
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Second verse, same as the first

Wednesday, October 24, 2007 10:27 PM
From ABC , via HuffPo : Tucked inside the White House's $196 billion emergency funding request for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is an item that has some people wondering whether the administration is preparing for military action against Iran. The
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Rep. Pete Stark apologizes for telling the truth

Tuesday, October 23, 2007 8:08 PM
During the debate on whether to override Bush's veto of S-CHIP funding last week, Rep. Pete Stark (D-CA) set wingnuts aflame with manufactured rage over these remarks he made on the House floor: You don't have money to fund the war or children. But you're
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Blazin' download speeds coming soon

Monday, October 22, 2007 10:10 PM
Holy crap : IBM (NYSE: IBM) disclosed Monday that it has teamed up with Taiwanese vendor MediaTek to develop computer chipsets that the companies say will allow consumers to wirelessly zap high-definition content to televisions and other devices at push-button
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Quote of the day (on the blogosphere)

Sunday, October 21, 2007 5:11 PM
The following appeared in the comments on this post , which is talking about over-inflated subscriber estimates in Google Reader: Dig a little deeper and you will find the entire blogosphere is actually just Robert Scoble creating 100,000 accounts to
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Just tinkering

Saturday, October 20, 2007 5:27 PM
I've been tinkering with some stuff under the hood today. For one thing, I've registered the domain name http://russmcbee.mobi , which I intend to employ as a mobile/WAP version of this site. I'd like to find a way to make an automatic, mobile-friendly
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Idiotic White House officials, and a sign of the Apocalypse

Friday, October 19, 2007 8:35 PM
It comes as no surprise that a member of the Bush regime would say something this idiotic about global warming : The president's top science adviser said yesterday there is no solid scientific evidence that the widely cited goal of limiting future global
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Mukasey defends Bush's lawlessness

Thursday, October 18, 2007 10:45 PM
Michael Mukasey proved on Thursday that he is unfit to serve as Attorney General of the United States : President Bush's choice for attorney general, Michael B. Mukasey, embraced some of the administration's most controversial legal positions yesterday,
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First anniversary of a dark stain

Wednesday, October 17, 2007 9:57 PM
One year ago today, President Bush signed into law the Military Commissions Act of 2006 . This malignant, perfidious law gives the president the authority to suspend habeas corpus for anyone he chooses. It also sanctifies the admissibility of evidence
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An error message that explains a lot

Wednesday, October 17, 2007 8:04 PM
A while ago, my Flash player crashed Internet Explorer 7. Yeah, I know; you're saying "Use Firefox instead of IE7, dummy." Anyway, the Windows Error Reporting Service dutifully sent the error message to Microsoft; I expected some message to come back
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Blowing away the fog of fear-mongering

Tuesday, October 16, 2007 10:05 PM
This pretty much says it all : The New York University Center on Law and Security has completed a review of cases classified by the federal courts as terrorism related, starting from September 11, 2001 and going up through September 11, 2006. The report
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Where there's smoke there's fire

Monday, October 15, 2007 8:52 PM
Some yahoo in Poland took a photo of a bonfire with a cheapo camera, and its cheapo slow lens (probably exposed for a full second) recorded an image of the flames repeatedly folding back on themselves. The gullible see an image of Pope John Paul II (
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Gore's talk on climate change

Sunday, October 14, 2007 9:20 PM
Via Djuggler , this video of Al Gore from February 2006 discusses fifteen things we can do as individuals to help mitigate the effects of global warming. The first several minutes are a hilarious monologue of self-deprecating humor and personal observations
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Gen. Sanchez begins to speak

Saturday, October 13, 2007 3:03 PM
The Iraq occupation isn't going well; in fact, it's going so badly that even General Ricardo Sanchez has begun to speak out in public. Sanchez was commander of US forces in Iraq right after the invasion and remained there until after the Abu Ghraib scandal
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A widening gap and a justified award

Friday, October 12, 2007 10:04 PM
Two mostly unrelated things struck me today. First, of course, was the news of Al Gore and the IPCC winning the Nobel Peace Prize . Any man who can push right wing zealots and their libertarian enablers to extremes of rage merely by winning an award is
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An omen from across the pond

Thursday, October 11, 2007 10:54 PM
The US Democratic Party would do well to pay attention to the self-immolation currently being pursued by the UK's Labour Party: This was more than a horrible humiliation for the prime minister. This was the week that social democracy ebbed away in England.
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An interesting clarification

Wednesday, October 10, 2007 11:15 PM
Jack McElroy, editor of the News Sentinel, received a letter from a reader who had some questions regarding the recent lawsuit against Knox County Commission: Maybe McElroy could answer the following questions in his Sunday column next week. ... Just
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Chalk one up for the police state

Tuesday, October 09, 2007 6:55 PM
The Bush Administration's use of torture got a big boost from the US Supreme Court today. This afternoon, the court refused to hear the appeal of Khaled el-Masri , a German citizen whom the CIA mistook for someone else, kidnapped, and sent off to Afghanistan
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Curious relics

Monday, October 08, 2007 8:36 AM
The Tennessee state Constitution carries some interesting relics of the past. Article IX is particularly fascinating: ARTICLE IX Disqualifications. Section 1 . Whereas ministers of the Gospel are by their profession, dedicated to God and the care of souls,
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Punching Monet

Sunday, October 07, 2007 9:29 PM
People are stupid : Intruders, apparently drunk, broke into the Orsay Museum in Paris early today and punched a hole in a renowned work by Impressionist painter Claude Monet, Le Pont d'Argenteuil. Here's the wound: In addition to the obvious stupidity
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Fansler's ruling, visual metaphors, and the fat lady clears her throat

Saturday, October 06, 2007 3:24 PM
Today's News Sentinel features two articles reporting on yesterday's ruling by Chancellor Daryl Fansler in Editor Jack McElroy's victorious lawsuit against Knox County Commission. Under the banner headline " Judge tosses 12 ," the paper's above-the-fold
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The butler did it

Friday, October 05, 2007 3:09 PM
Knox County Chancellor Daryl Fansler handed down his ruling earlier today in the aftermath of Tuesday's "guilty-as-hell" verdict in Jack McElroy's lawsuit against Knox County Commission. I think Fansler's remedies are fair, the opinion well-reasoned,
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Quote of the day (on bodily functions)

Thursday, October 04, 2007 12:37 PM
Newscoma cracks me up sometimes. Go read this , which brings us the quote of the day (and probably the month): It will be a bad thing and not a good thing, this peeing. Indeed. Share this post: Email | del.icio.us | Digg | Reddit
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Intermission

Thursday, October 04, 2007 10:57 AM
Knox County Chancellor Daryl Fansler is expected to issue his remedy sometime today in News Sentinel Editor Jack McElroy's suit against Knox County Commission. Right now, the case floats in a kind of intermission between acts, and I strongly suspect the
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"Government guilty"

Wednesday, October 03, 2007 10:22 AM
"Government guilty" That's the banner headline in today's News Sentinel. Today's front page is plastered with news stories about yesterday's verdict in Editor Jack McElroy's lawsuit against Knox County Commission; the only story on the front page not
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Slam dunk

Tuesday, October 02, 2007 3:34 PM
Today's verdict in Jack McElroy's lawsuit against Knox County Commission was a slam dunk for the plaintiffs and for the people of Knox County. As a citizen of Knox County, I'm thrilled with that outcome. Of course, the judge's remedy won't come down for
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Deliberations begin

Tuesday, October 02, 2007 11:02 AM
Jurors began deliberating this morning in the trial of News Sentinel Editor Jack McElroy's lawsuit against Knox County Commission. The KNS is live-blogging the verdict , which I think is very cool. Today's paper includes this article which recaps the
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A legitimately one-sided story

Monday, October 01, 2007 11:40 AM
Page B1 of today's News Sentinel carries a "Reporter's Notebook" article which recounts several distinct vignettes from the trial of Editor Jack McElroy's lawsuit against Knox County Commission. The printed version of the article is broken into discrete
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