as put forth in an 83-page opinion, the osaka high court (outranked only by the japanese supreme court) has determined prime minister junichiro koizumi's visits to the yasukuni shinto shrine violate japan's constitutional barriers between church and state. in an article which appeared in the october 1, 2005 edition of la times. staff writer, bruce wallace, Link notes: "Yasukuni honors the souls of Japanese killed in wars since the 19th centur...
as new orleans sank beneath the flood, the rest of the world was deluged with tales of wholesale mayhem perpetrated by and upon those too old, too young, too sick, too scared, too venal, too stupid, too bloodthirsty, too angry, too poor or too subhuman to get outta the place before they found themselves swimming in a stinking stew of shit and decomposing bodies. the streets were full of thugs, armed with stolen weapons, attempting to blast rescue choppers outta the skies...willing ...
either i had a whole lotta incompetent or unscrupulous connections, ridiculously low quality standards (not to mention an even more ridiculously low tolerance for psychotropics and euphorics) or i musta fell in with really bad company who had even worse dope. for whatever reason--but surely not for lack of trying--something went woefully wrong. unlike all those stereotypical 60s survivors about whom it's claimed (when they're not making the claim themselves)...
i very clearly remember the first time george bush proclaimed a national day of prayer. it was also in september, just a few days after those planes smashed into the towers, the pentagon and a wooded area in pennsylvania. prior to reading the official proclamation document and then hearing bush's address at the episcopal national cathedral, i disliked him both as a man and as president. by dislike, i mean exactly that. no less; no more. i didn't focus much e...
this is a link to a new orleans isp that managed to stay online during most of last week. one employee provided frequent posts as well as a live cam view of his area of the city. Link i'm not going to reveal very much of this because: a. i havent read it all and i have to split for a while; b. you need to read this for yourself. i will respond to comments. bakerstreet, here's his first mention of people at the convention center and how they g...
according to the la times saturday edition, 44 members of an elite louisiana army natioinal guard special response team, who'd been assigned to the superdome since arriving in new orleans before katrina hit, were in the first truck of the first convoy headed to the convention center. their orders were to retake the city. for the first time since the place went to hell, they were venturing out into the mean streets where they'd heard police had been killed, sn...
to augment my income, i spend several months each year traveling the country & conducting seminars. during the course of these events, i refute the wickedness of modern life and admonish attendees to adopt and practice good moral behavior. for a number of years, i've been accompanied by my assistant to whom i'll refer by his initials: k.r. a quiet man with a good heart who'd suffered an unfortunate accident in his youth from which he never completely r...
some of yall may remember my previous report on the one, the only turkmenbashi (father of turkmens) saparmurat niyazov and his plans to build an ice city in the midst of one of the world's hottest deserts. Link sadly, it appears as if that plan has been put on the back ummm freezer for the time being. there is good news tho. amazing tho it may seem, it has nothing to do with geico. earlier this month, niyazov arranged to have part one of the most popul...
we the sons of mesopotamia, land of the prophets, resting place of the holy imams, the leaders of civilization and the creators of the alphabet, the cradle of arithmetic have spent most of the summer writing a draft constitution. by the prophet's beard, it was no easy chore even tho we had 139 constitutions given to us as samples. one of those was highly recommended to us by our beloved liberators mpbut. naturally it was theirs. while studying it, we came across something that made u...
considering how many jusers live in texas, it's a dadgum shame i hadda learn about this not just from the mainstream media (i guess hbo counts) but from that tool of stalin, bill maher. musician, author, philosopher, raconteur and recent slot mahine jackpot winner kinky friedman is gonna run for governor of texas next year and yall aint nearly as excited as two armadillos encountering a rather comely lizardskin boot discarded along the median somewhere on i-30? &...
like cindy sheehan, linda will mourns a dead son. like ms sheehan, ms will wants something she's not gonnna get from the older men whom she considers responsible for her son's death. like ms. sheehan's son, ms will's boy believed he was doing the right thing. casey sheehan was a volunteer who'd re enlisted. ms will's son had to do more than merely volunteer. he had to compete against thousands of others in order to prove himself one of a relative handful who are a...
yeah i know. this is the third time i've claimed i was the man with the plan to bring an end to the conflict between the israelis and palestinians. so i don't blame anyone for being slightly apprehensive. but we all know the third time's a charm. besides which, i'm no longer relying on common sense or logic as i did earlier. (if you're innarested, you can a bare-bones version of plan 2 in the thread of scatter629's excellent post, 'ben franklin & jerusale...
anything's possible. while i'm not expecting the great american novel from our soon-to-be-hiatusized boy of letters, he may have the makings of a marketable story (and film) already in the hopper. the public loves stuff like 'the great imposter', 'catch me if you can', 'walter mitty', etc. (hell, i can see johnny depp as the male lead). how about an update of pinocchio? the problem is new york and hollywood can be so fickle. which is why i'm once again su...
NOTICE: i realize myrrander staked out a position on sheehan's protest and then did a near 180 ° reversal; now i'm finding myself in the same position. i'm sure some of yall are gonna see this as flip-flopping but...hey i gotta be true to myself and while i can't speak for him, i'm sure myrrander does too. on at least 2 (perhaps more) threads discussing the cindy sheehan protest outside the president's prarie chapel ranch in crawford, texas, i did my best to repudiate claim...
from the first time i heard them on record, i've always liked the rolling stones. sometimes i've liked them way more than others. their first four albums ('the rolling stones england's newest hitmakers', '12 x 5', 'out of our heads' & 'rolling stones now') contain cuts that are truly masterpieces of the genre. but even when they were caught up in the silliness of trying to out-sergeant pepper the beatles as 'their satanic majesties' or th...