Rex Kickass

The people who tipped off the British about the plane bombing plot were also muslim.

The site you posted links to porn.

You want to be concerned about airplane bombings? Don't worry so much about liquid explosives. This is not an easy thing to do, and a terrorist is as likely to blow himself up on the way to the airport accidentally as he is to detonating a liquid explosive bomb on board an aircraft. What should concern you is that cargo that flies underneath you in a commercial flight goes uninspected. 21% of what travels on a plane receives no inspection whatsoever. If a bombing's gonna happen - it's probably gonna be there first.

Steff. Stop it.

QUOTE(The Critic @ Aug 12, 2006 -> 04:38 PM) I don't own anything by Billy Bragg, but I always like him when I happen to hear his stuff. I got the deluxe version with bonus DVD so I totally paid more than "3pounds99 for this seven track album." One of the bonus tracks "A Change Is Gonna Come" feels like the song that Jeff Buckley tried to make when he recorded "Hallelujah."

Actually Hezbollah is all about Hezbollah.

I am becoming obsessed with "The Internationale" album by Billy Bragg.

Want a stunning statistic? In cases of catastrophic airframe failure (loss of aircraft) about 55% of passengers survive.

Amazing column on slate about this from William Saletan http://www.slate.com/id/2147492/nav/tap1/

Alexa is a website that tracks traffic on commercial sites. It happened to be tracking Lieberman's and Lamont's site. Both had equal spikes in traffic. The difference? Joe Lieberman's website was on a shared server with 74 other websites. This website has trouble with 350 people on it at once. It wasn't a bandwidth issue. It looks more like a server issue.

QUOTE(WCSox @ Aug 10, 2006 -> 02:24 PM) That's nice, but it doesn't mean anything. Did the AUTHOR of the article endorse Lieberman? Did he change his mind and decide to toe the party line after Joe lost the primary? I find it absolutely laughable that people are actually asking Joe to quit because they think that he's too much of a "threat" to their agenda. That would be like the Sox asking the Twins and Red Sox to tank the rest of the season because they're all serious threats to their Wild Card aspirations. Connecticut Primaries don't have Wild Card berths.

QUOTE(My Dixie Normus @ Aug 10, 2006 -> 06:18 PM) Interesting thing I read was that the Brits became aware of this by doing much the same things that Bush is getting racked over the coals for, monitoring electronic communications and such. Don't have all the specifics but it seems to work. I wonder if this will put any egg on the face of the nay sayers. Mmmm, nah, probably not. Actually, that's not entirely true. Two men were on a "watch" list in the UK. (The US has had these too, with little interference or protest for decades.) They traveled to Pakistan to visit family and instead visited some terrorist group - which one isn't exactly clear, might be Al-Qaeda - might not. By tracing their actions after the two people returned to the UK, they identified a group of 25-30 British citizens of Pakistani descent that the two people seemed to be in close contact with. They also added in a spy of their own. (Again not illegal in the US either with the proper warrant) Just to let you know, it appears that the bomb was going to be made of a British sports drink, a peroxide based chemical mixed together in flight. The two combined can create a liquid explosive which was to be detonated by a flashlight bulb. No liquids are permitted into the sterile zone (secure) of an airport at this time in the US. The only exceptions are formula, breastmilk, insulin and prescription medication. Taste tests are required for these exceptions. Everything else goes into checked baggage or thrown out in the airport. Drinks may be purchased in the sterile area but not brought aboard the plane. Apparently TSA will be setting up second checkpoints at boarding locations to make sure nothing illicit is brought aboard carry on luggage. In the UK, books are not allowed on board at the moment, but I'm sure this will change shortly. In the UK, they also prohibited cargo from going on passenger aircraft leaving the UK for now. In the US, cargo still goes on your "super-secure flight" unscreened. 21% of the payload of your flight is completely unscreened if you are flying in the US.

This is not WWIII.

OK, I getcha.

In this sport, I wish people would just get over themselves and accept steroids as part of the game of pro cycling. It has been for decades, and it won't change because of a test here or there. There are so many other things that cyclists are allowed to do medically that do similar things, that I don't see why the line should be drawn at artificial testosterone or whatever.

Why is he even still a story?

QUOTE(Texsox @ Aug 10, 2006 -> 01:17 PM) I did that one just for you.

Personally, I think that the biggest part of this election had nothing to do with the Iraq war. It had everything to do with Lieberman not listening to his constituents. That's why every incumbent loses. He becomes out of touch with the people he represents. All Lieberman had to do was listen and pay attention to his constituency. But he never did that.

Balta, I'm not sure that I entirely agree with you. One of the things that the US has as an implied right or privilege is the ability to travel freely. The US currently prohibits travel to only North Korea, Iran and Cuba. If suddenly international travel for Americans by the American government was severely curtailed... I wonder if you'd feel the same way. I kind of believe that the ability to move freely is a right for law abiding citizens.

I knew I still had it in me. *Goldstar!*

All politics are local. The New Haven Register.

Loved snowcrash. Kinda weird book, but really captivating. I'm reading two books right now. "Hitler's Niece" by Ron Hansen. It's a novel about Hitler's niece. It seems pretty historically accurate and so far so good. I'm also reading "A Hundred and One Days" by Asne Seierstad. It's a book about a journalist's experience in Baghdad just before, during and just after the 2003 war.

I briefly thought this was about Art Buchwald.

QUOTE(samclemens @ Aug 10, 2006 -> 01:07 PM) that maybe an event like this stem the complaining about his security policies here (ex: FISA). what are you basing your assertion on? a loaded abc poll? the hatred for bush in the UK and europe is uncomparible to here. People in the UK have been living with terrorism longer than you've been alive. They just have a different perspective on it than you might. QUOTE(WCSox @ Aug 10, 2006 -> 01:11 PM) They don't like Bush or they disagree with one or two of his policies? There's a big difference. I'd argue that most people in Europe disagree with his policies and don't "hate" him either.

QUOTE(kapkomet @ Aug 10, 2006 -> 01:03 PM) oh, how cute. Now they're being like CEO's of companies doing mergers and all... capitalistic pigs. The real question is how many terrorist middle managers will lose their jobs with the merger?