we've talked a lot on here about the idea that a journalist can be objective ... that it is impossible for a journalist not to imbue his article with some of his own bias and life experience ... the pure objectivity is a fairy tale, at least as far as journalism goes ...

I wonder if this translates over to the supreme court, and Obama's nomination to replace Justice Souter. I've been reading all day the back and forth heating up between right and left about the nomination.
One of the main complaints against Sotomayor so far is that she has no problem allowing her life experience and her ethnicity color her judgments ... this is based on her own writings:

[from WSJ] In a speech published in the Berkeley La Raza Law Journal
in 2002, Judge Sotomayor offered her own interpretation of this
jurisprudence. "Justice [Sandra Day] O'Connor has often been cited as
saying that a wise old man and wise old woman will reach the same
conclusion in deciding cases," she declared. "I am . . . not so sure
that I agree with the statement. First, . . . there can never be a
universal definition of wise. Second, I would hope that a wise Latina

In unveiling the regulatory plan, Mr. Obama would signal to Europe that he intended to crack down on the risk-taking and other free-wheeling practices by the financial industry that resulted in the global economic meltdown.

there's several things wrong with this paragraph that was in the NY Times article about Obama possible regulations on exec comp ... but in
general ... any kind of 'cracking down' on risk in our financial system is not a good thing ... risk is the foundation of our system ... I don't see that limiting risk or 'protecting' the system from risk will do anything but change the capitalist system, such that it
is ... investors take risks every day, business owners do the same ... our system thrives and grows (and declines) on risk ... the freedom to
take risks and determine what level of risk you're willing to take,
and the value of risk ... isn't that intrinsic to this system? how are
you going to take risk out of the equation?

not a good thing at all ...

Glennn Beck appears to be going crazy. Or something...

Glenn Beck was a hardcore addict that once upon a time found God and Mormonism. From there he somehow went on
to become a conservative radio host, author, and now has a 5pm show on Fox News daily. He spent most of the
Bush years as a lock-step neo-con. Late in Bush's second term he started to distance himself but still
pretty much towed the party line.

During the campaign season he claimed something to the effect that supporters of Ron Paul were domestic terrorists and should be rounded up and put into concentration camps. This obviously caused a firestorm of complaints on the tubes and lead to Ron Paul supporterss demaning that Ron Paul be allowed to defend himself and his beliefs on Beck's show,
which Beck obliged. The exchange was civil and Beck conceded that Paul was right about many of his economic ideas but he took exception with foreign policy issues, drug legalization, and some other standard libertarian ideas.

Over the course of the next year or so Beck slid towards accepting
many Ron Paul/libertarian positions, particularly
a lot of anti-Fed ideas and sound money positions. (Although Beck has

Jack Kerouac, Barak Obama, and Louis Armstrong

What do they have in common?

They all made their marks and entrance to the public consciousness as a voice of change. And they all have, or will, most likely make their exit from the public eye as a person bypassed by history.

Jack Kerouac foretold the counter-culture. A voice of a generation. In the end, he was a drunk fool and supporter of the Vietnam war who could not let go of his Catholic faith in a rapidly changing world.

Louis Armstrong was arguably the first mainstream African-American public figure. He brought Jazz to the masses and his life and death followed the course of American pop-culture for most of the mid-20th
century. In the end, he died being viewed as corny, outdated, and even an Uncle Tom.

Barak Obama came into power on a wave of Hope and Change. Its pretty clear that the individuals he has surrounded himself will in all liklihood not to be up to the challenge of what will unfold over the

A democrat says we are losing a war and they are a surrender monkey. A republican says we are losing a war and that makes him a what? A patriot.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/02/25/mccain.afghan.war/

btw, did you guys know that mccain was a prisoner of war?????? i think it was korea or something...

"How real is the possibility of such an overwhelming rush of refugees? He said the DPS gives it a high probability of happening within six months!"

[...]

"Whatever you choose to do, your district can support you. We have some volunteers and other resources we can call on...although we can't and won't try to take over your response effort. Those who indicate an interest beforehand will hear from us when we know it's happening. That may not give you much notice, though. Even the DPS planner said they expect their best warning source to be CNN. The next six months may see an historic event that will influence US-Mexico relations for a century and change the lives of many Mexican citizens. Let us know if you want to be part of it."

The violence situation in Mexico, particularly very close to US borders, has gotten pretty out of control over the past year. It seems to be reaching some sort of critical breaking point, as drug cartels
are now on the verge of fully taking over towns in areas near the border.

There's a ton of info out there on specific threats lately so I'll spare a dozen links. So, with all this in mind, I came across the post below that is supposedly

We have a new channel on youtube if you'd care to post videos anonymously that may be controversial in nature.  I opened it last night in order to post a video response to a creationist that was spouting off pure nonsense.  I think the video's rather funny, but I made it so I'm probably not the best judge.

<

He's back, and full of hate for Iran:

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20090220/D96FA6903.html

Strongly against Iran's pursuit of uranium enrichment, Netanyahu said "It’s 1938, and Iran is Germany, and Iran is racing to arm itself with atomic bombs”. In an 8 March 2007 interview with CNN, he asserted that
there is only one difference between Nazi Germany and the Islamic Republic of Iran, namely that the first entered a worldwide conflict and then sought
atomic weapons, while the latter is first seeking atomic weapons and, once it has them, will then start a world war.

Netanyahu repeated these remarks at a news conference in April, 2008, stating that "where that [Nazi] regime embarked on a global conflict before it developed nuclear weapons," he said. "This regime [Iran] is developing nuclear weapons before it embarks on a global conflict."

The Securities and Exchange Commission obtained a court order halting an alleged Ponzi scheme by Hawaii-based Billions Coupons and its CEO Marvin R. Cooper that was targeting members of the Deaf community in the U.S. and Japan.

The SEC alleges Billions Coupons and Cooper raised more than $4.4 million from 125 investors since at least September 2007 by holding investment seminars at community centers for investors who were deaf.

The SEC is also alleging that Cooper pocketed at least $1.4 million in investor funds to pay personal expenses as well as purchase a new home.

This is the latest in a series of investor Ponzi schemes uncovered since the mammoth $50 billion investment fraud caused by Bernard Madoff was revealed in December.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/29280259

Jimmy Carter's former National Security Adviser expressed his concern about the possibility of riots on Morning Joe today. To stave them off, he proposes the creation of a voluntary National Solidarity Fund,
whose contributors would be those who made out very well in recent times.

JOE SCARBOROUGH: You also talked about the possibility of class conflict.

ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI: I was worrying about it because we're going to have millions and millions of unemployed, people really facing dire
straits. And we're going to be having that for some period of time
before things hopefully improve. And at the same time there is public
awareness of this extraordinary wealth that was transferred to a few
individuals at levels without historical precedent in America . . .
And you sort of say to yourself: what's going to happen in this
society when these people are without jobs, when their families hurt,
when they lose their homes, and so forth?

We have the government trying to repair: repair the banking system, to
bail the housing out. But what about the rich guys? Where is it?
[What are they] doing?

It sort of struck me, that in 1907, when we had a massive banking

An interesting article was published in the journal Science today that shows that the hallucinogen Dimethyl-tryptamine (better known as DMT) is an endogenous chemical signal that triggers activation of a certain neuro-receptor in brain tissue.  In other words, DMT is in everyone's brain and is actually a cog in the machinery of a healthy, well-oiled machine of the brain. 


This is pretty crazy, as most common hallucinogens are not endogenous brain chemicals, or at least aren't thought of that way.  This actually has therapeutic value, as it turns out schizophrenic patients have elevated levels of a DMT cousin (bufotenine) in their system.  (In other words, that crazy guy freaking out in the subway is tripping 24-7.)  Since there is target for DMT overstimulation, a drug that dampens the sigma-1 receptor output would be a potential therapeutic for schizophrenia.

I've seen this guy a few times, somebody sent me this one, it's pretty clever.

At least 30 people were killed and 55 injured when Israeli artillery shells landed outside a United Nations-run school in Gaza, UN officials have said.

A number of children were among those who died when the al-Fakhura school in the Jabaliya refugee camp was hit, doctors at nearby hospitals said.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7814054.stm

Boy, you guys really took it to Hamas ! Blowing the arms of 7 yr olds will show them who's boss. I'm definitely sure this will once and for all stop the violence and solve the deeply complex issues which plague the region.

Israel totally tried to bargain with the people who's land they stole, and
those jerks wouldn't be reasonable about it ! Random, unguided rockets that
kill about four people a year being fired from Gaza completely justifies a
full scale shock-and-awe with multimillion dollar equipment, paid and
provided for by the good ole US. But don't worry, everyone knows the US is
very Fair and Balanced in their Mid-East policy. How dare the Arabs plink
at Israel with their useless slings and arrows, onwards with the
extermination of the people who lived here before everything was stolen