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In 1979 a secret unit was established by the most gifted minds within the US Army. Defying all known accepted military practice – and indeed, the laws of physics – they believed that a soldier could adopt the cloak of invisibility, pass cleanly through walls and, perhaps most chillingly, kill goats just by staring at them. Entrusted with defending America from all known adversaries, they were the First Earth Battalion. And they really weren’t joking. What’s more, they’re back and fighting the War on Terror. ‘The men who stare at goats’ reveals extraordinary – and very nutty – national secrets at the core of George W Bush’s War on Terror.
With first-hand access to the leading players in the story, Ronson traces the evolution of these bizarre activities over the past three decades, and sees how it is alive today within US Homeland Security and post-war Iraq. Why are they blasting Iraqi prisoners-of-war with the theme tune to Barney the Purple Dinosaur? Why have 100 de-bleated goats been secretly placed inside the Special Forces command centre at Fort Bragg, North Carolina? How was the US Military associated with the mysterious mass-suicide of a strange cult from San Diego? ‘The men who stare at goats’ answers these, and many more, questions.
Because of the typical Hollywood treatment this film has been denounced by the books author, but I have to say it looks pretty darn funny.
Earlier this month the Chairman of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee “amended” his 2007 financial disclosure form—to the tune of more than a half-million dollars in previously unreported assets and income.
When you’re a powerful Congressman and working diligently to increase tax rates to pay for President Obama’s health-care plan, we suppose it’s easy to lose track of one of your checking accounts. That would be the one at the federal credit union with a balance somewhere between $250,001 and maybe as high as $500,000. And when you’re crunched for time and pulling together bills to pass in a rush, we guess, too, that you might overlook several other investment accounts, even if some of them are sizable, such as the ones Mr. Rangel missed at JP Morgan, Merrill Lynch, Oppenheimer and BlackRock.
Oh, and those vacant properties in Glassboro, in southern Jersey? Everybody in Manhattan tries not to think much about New Jersey, so those lots and their as-much-as-$15,000 value must also have slipped down the memory hole. (The New York Post reported yesterday that Mr. Rangel failed to pay property taxes for two of the lots, according to the county clerk’s office.) The Chairman probably isn’t doing a lot of dining at KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell or Long John Silver’s, either, which may explain why he didn’t disclose the $1,001 to $15,000 in stock he owns in Yum Brands, the conglomerate that runs those chain restaurants. Compared to his undisclosed portfolio stake in PepsiCo—$15,001 to $50,000—that’s practically a rounding error.
Cut the guy a break, I’m always misplacing things, car keys, sunglasses,…….. it’s just stuff.
Slashdot – August 29, 2009:
The NY Times reports on legislation in Utah which harshly penalizes people who cause fatal car accidents while texting. Instead of merely facing a fine, offenders may now get up to 15 years in jail — the same as drunk drivers.
“In effect, a crash caused by such a multitasking motorist is no longer considered an ‘accident’ like one caused by a driver who, say, runs into another car because he nodded off at the wheel. Instead, such a crash would now be considered inherently reckless. ‘It’s a willful act,’ said Lyle Hillyard, a Republican state senator and a big supporter of the new measure. ‘If you choose to drink and drive or if you choose to text and drive, you’re assuming the same risk.’ The Utah law represents a concrete new response in an evolving debate among legislators around the country about how to reduce the widespread practice of multitasking behind the wheel — a topic to be discussed at a national conference about the dangers of distracted driving that is being organized by the Transportation Department for this fall.”
What with England turning into a police state, I assume the candy maker will get life in prison for this outrage. Can’t have cartoon fruit doing such things… in public, anyway.
A British man has complained to candy maker Haribo about a candy wrapper he described as sexually charged.
Simon Simpkins of Pontefract, England, said the Haribo Maoam wrapper depicts a “male” lime character engaged in a “sexy clinch” with a cartoon lemon, The Sun reported Tuesday. Simpkins said in his complaint to the company that the lime bears a “lurid and distasteful” facial expression, the British tabloid reports.
The candy maker said the image was not intended to be interpreted as sexual.
“At no point was it intended to create sexual images,” a representative said.
DHS: Expect your computer to be seized without suspicion | Betanews
In what was presented to the public this week as a clarification of its privacy policy, the US Dept. of Homeland Security published a paper referring to new guidelines for its immigration and customs agents regarding how they may conduct border searches of travelers’ computers and electronic media. Clarifying the existing law, both sets of guidelines reiterated the department’s policy created during the previous administration: Agents may seize, detain, and/or retain individuals’ PCs and media without having reason to suspect that those people or those machines and devices are connected with a crime.
This is ridiculous. But my advice, smile a lot and tell these idiots (if it is an idiot in which you have to deal with) that you appreciate the fact that they are protecting you from terrorists.
Slashdot – August 28, 2009:
“BBC reports that a treasured piece at the Dutch national museum — a supposed moon rock from the first manned lunar landing given to former Prime Minister Willem Drees during a goodwill tour by the
three Apollo-11 astronauts shortly after their moon mission in 1969 — has been revealed as nothing more than petrified wood, curators say. A jagged fist-size stone with reddish tints, it was mounted and placed above a plaque that said, ‘With the compliments of the Ambassador of the United States of America… to commemorate the visit to The Netherlands of the Apollo-11 astronauts.’ The plaque does not specify that the rock came from the moon’s surface. Researchers from Amsterdam’s Free University said they could see at a glance the rock was probably not from the moon. They followed the initial appraisal up with extensive testing. ‘It’s a nondescript, pretty-much-worthless stone,’ wrote Geologist Frank Beunk in an article published by the museum. Beunk says the rock, which the museum at one point insured for more than half a million dollars, was worth no more than $70. The ‘rock’ had originally been been vetted through a phone call to NASA. As the US Embassy in the Hague said it was investigating the matter, the Rijksmuseum says it will keep the piece as a curiosity.”
Election result could end 54-year run of Japan’s ruling party, the LDP – Times Online — This is probably one of the biggest news stories of the last few years if it goes according to plan. In a nutshell it means the entire country known as Japan, Inc. has been replaced. It should be interesting as Japan has numerous systemic and weird problems.
When the Liberal Democratic Party LDP first came to power in Japan Stanley Matthews was at the peak of his football career, Winston Churchill had recently left Downing Street and Elvis Presley was still a struggling unknown.It has given postwar Japan its most impressive, as well as its most dismal, leaders and has led the country to unimagined prosperity and then into a lingering slump. Now, after 54 years in charge of the second richest country in the world, it faces defeat.
Read the PDF of the letter sent to Dan Levin, then acting head of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel in 2004. While some items are redacted to spare your delicate sensibilities, I think you’ll get the gist of what to do pretty quickly. Just remember like in the song — you have to be cruel to be kind!
The fax cover sheet has a brief note, “Dan, a generic description of the process.” The name of the sender, based at the CIA, has been obliterated. […] The document provides a step-by-step manual for extraordinary renditions.
[…]
None of this information is surprising. In fact it all tallies perfectly with the description of the renditions program that can be derived from the report prepared by the International Committee of the Red Cross, which used the appropriate legal designation for these techniques: “torture.”But this is an historical document, right? President Barack Obama shut down the black sites and the extraordinary renditions program immediately after taking office, right? Well, not entirely.
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John and Adam discuss the news of the day from an international perspective
Queue / cue / Q the closing credits — We hope you enjoy the show!
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Running time: approx. 90 mins.
This is why I don’t like net neutrality or any bill that gives government oversight of the internet.
Internet companies and civil liberties groups were alarmed this spring when a U.S. Senate bill proposed handing the White House the power to disconnect private-sector computers from the Internet.
The new version would allow the president to “declare a cybersecurity emergency” relating to “non-governmental” computer networks and do what’s necessary to respond to the threat. Other sections of the proposal include a federal certification program for “cybersecurity professionals,” and a requirement that certain computer systems and networks in the private sector be managed by people who have been awarded that license.
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