jeremyjarratt.com

Former U.S. soldier droppin’ some Truth about this bullshit war in Iraq. Do your self and your conscience and your country and your fellow human beings a favor by watching this and then doing something about it.

Check out this angrily passionate editorial by the great Keith Olbermann re: the new, absolutely diabolical Military Commissions Act. (Read up on it and know that this is terrible and insane.)

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May I just take a moment of your time to point out that:

Every white (and non-American Indian) person living in the United States today is a descendant of debatably illegal immigrants? And that, while we’re on the topic, the non-white immigrants to this country were nearly exclusively brought here in chains by whites?

So just exactly what god damn right does anyone have to say that any human being is illegal or that they are trespassers?

The New Colossus
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
-Emma Lazarus

Massive props to Karina Garcia, Political Chair of the Chicano Caucus at Columbia University, where she is a senior, for taking on that racist, slimey, pig-fucker Jim Gilchrist (founder of the anti-Mexican Minuteman Project, a vigilante group which patrols the US-Mexican border, taking the law into its own shotgun-carrying hands).

Recently, he was at Columbia University, where his lap dogs kicked a student, who was passing in front of the stage, in the face. The resulting chaos, in which students waved banners and protested peacefully, was labeled by his hatemonger group (and, go figure, by FOXNews) as a “riot” by “thugs”! You can see a clip of this happening at the link below. Hopefully someone will post this to YouTube soon…

Check out the RealPlayer video of Gilchrist on the progressive syndicated program “Democracy Now!” (128k stream, 256k stream) where he abruptly cuts off a barely-begun debate as soon as he is asked a question. What a coward.

“The only function of the Suspicious Looking Device is to appear as suspicious as possible, whether carried in hand or placed indiscrimately in public places.

“The SLD contains LEDs, a LED array, a character display, an optical distance sensor, capacitive touch sensor, buzzer, and motors.”

Homeland Security Secretary (and Skeletor imposter*) Michael Chertoff, presumably issuing a sweeping indictment of all thought-criminals everywhere:

“Clearly, at the end of the day, we’ve got to eliminate that pool of people who are susceptible to becoming killers.” (Spoken at around 7:20 on the stream’s timeline; emphasis mine.)

Possible translation?:

Are there any queers in the theater tonight? Get them up against the wall!
There’s one in the spotlight, he don’t look right to me! Get him up against the wall!
That one looks Jewish! And that one’s a coon!
Who let all of this riff-raff into the room?
There’s one smoking a joint, and another with spots!
If I had my way, I’d have all of you shot!

(Roger Waters, “In the Flesh”)

Pre-Crime, anyone?

* doesn’t he remind you of Senator Palpatine, just before he becomes the evil Emperor? I tell you, Michael Chertoff will likewise reveal himself to be Skeletor one dark day….

Dear NSA

Woman, 56 and wheelchair-bound, killed by Taser. Taser use is quickly getting out of control. When i lived in Jacksonville, Florida, it was practically a death sentence to be mentally impaired and have a bad day. I remember several incidents where citizens would have a bit of a public freak-out and wind up in the morgue. Then, it was a case of the police using unsafe choke holds. Now, they’re using the magic of electricity to subdue. I think it’s just a little too easy. I mean, i don’t like guns one bit, but this allegedly non-violent solution is unfortunately a heavy factor in many unnecessary deaths. From a related article:

And even though Scottsdale, Arizona-based Taser, Inc–the company that created it–said it should never be used on children or the elderly, Florida leads the nation in deaths by Taser. The oldest victim to date? Ninety-five. The youngest? A 6-year old boy.

Googlemap of historic nuclear accidents. Spooky, and makes you rethink how safe nuclear energy is.

ACLU releases its FOIA-enabled report on prisoner abuse.

Boing Boing has a great roundup of Immigrants’ Rights rallies for May 1.

Neil Young’s new Living With War album now streaming. It’s a fuckin’ scorcher of a rock record!

Weird Video: “Stop the Madness,” the only White House-sponsored rock video ever made. Antidrug. Very, very bizarre. I’m telling you, i actually took drugs just so i could stop this madness. [disclaimer: i do not use any drugs besides nicotine these days.] Although this video probably aired less than 20 times nationwide, it was probably actually really, really cool… for a negative amount of time. Seeing such sights as Nancy Reagan lip-synching the words, and a living, talking threatening David Hasselhoff poster, however, may make you feel like you really are on drugs.

Weird Video: C for Cookie, a V for Vendetta spoof. Awesome!

Weird Video: New Logitech Orbit webcam. Awesome!

The Secrets of Rennes-le-Château; Notes on a Strange World (Skeptical Inquirer November 2004) This is a must-read for fans of Holy Blood Holy Grail and The Da Vinci Code.

National Geographic: The Lost Gospel of Judas Found in the 1970s, and recently pieced together and translated. Paints Judas not as a traitor, but as the best pal, handpicked by Jesus to turn him in.

And MySpacers, please read this: Hacking a MySpace Layout by Mike Davidson of Newsvine. Complete with downloadable sample CSS and a tutorial, this post is easily the best thing referencing MySpace in a long time. Here’s what i did to mine. (Note the banner up top: Latin for “this place is terrible”.)

WikiTruth: censored Wikipedia articles, retrieved from the digital void and set out in the sun again. No editing, natch.

Even Generals want to see Rummy quit.

10 Wackiest e-commerce sites, from Wired.

Great works of art, as the artists might have done them as children. (Check out the Escher!)

Nahuelito, presumably a close cousin to Nessie, recently spotted and photographed. Clever hoax, or real?

Make those cool stickers like the feed linkifiers on the sidebar.

California Department of Corrections (not the Billboard Liberation Front, as was previously stated) salutes US Military in Iraq.

Big Brother has his eyes on you, NYC.

from the Missing Link files: 375 million year old Fishapod fossil discovered. A fish with a freaking neck. Oh, and finger-like bones attached to wrist-like bones. Fuck you, Creationistas! (See also: Ray Troll’s related artwork)

“Dark Miracle: Trinity, the Manhattan Project, and the Birth of the Atomic Age”, a fabulous piece by Josh Ellis (see also: video of Ed Grothus’ Black Hole tour)

SXSW video coverage. Sweet.

Big Brother is (or will soon be) watching you, via SkySeer. Already this drone camera-plane is in use in L.A. skies.

Remember this, GWB? “Leaks of classified information are bad things. We’ve got too much leaking in Washington… I want to know who the leakers are.” Does anyone have a mirror for Mister Bush?

PS3 for $600-700?!

It’s All in the Mind, man: psychedelics research.

Israeli soldier murders journalist. From a related BBC News story:

“The inquest has heard that Mr Miller approached an armoured personnel carrier, carrying a white flag which he shone a torch on, calling out that he was a British journalist and wearing a helmet marked TV. He was shot in the neck, unprotected by his body armour.

He had been attempting to ask for permission to leave the area.”

So, yeah, just keep on supporting Israel, all you Left Behind-reading end-times obsessed know-nothing Revelationist fuckwits.