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7/10/2004
Bush, Kerry and Kenny Boy
 Bush and Kenny BoyA clearly-rattled President George W. Bush walked out of a media briefing Thursday, refusing to answer questions about his close relationship with indicted Enron executive Kenneth Lay, a campaign benefactor Bush nicknamed "Kenny Boy" when the two were up-and-comers in Texas.
The President, visibly upset, stomped off the stage when reporters pressed him about his relationship with Lay and left White House press secretary Scott McClellan to deal with the questions.
It has been "quite some time" since Bush and Lay talked with each other, McClellan said Thursday, brushing off questions about whether the two were friends.
"He was a supporter in the past and he's someone that I would also point out has certainly supported Democrats and Republicans in the past," McClellan said.Kerry and Kenny BoyPresident Bush may know indicted ex-Enron boss Ken Lay as "Kenny Boy," but Sen. John F. Kerry and his millionaire wife also have past financial and personal ties to Lay's shamed energy firm, documents show.
Kerry and Teresa Heinz Kerry reported more than $250,000 in Enron stock ownership before the firm's 2003 collapse. Kerry also was forced to return a campaign contribution from an implicated Enron executive.
And Heinz Kerry served on a charity board with Lay, even after he was implicated in the alleged fraud, records show.
Kerry has railed against the Bush administration's handling of the Enron scandal on the campaign trail.
posted by Kevin at 10:38 PM
7/9/2004
Society as Troglodyte Hell
The mistake we make---as informed and active individuals---is that we believe that others will "see the light" if they just knew what we knew. This isn't the case. The vast majority of people simply refuse to look. And many of those who do take the time and energy to delve deeper find that they want to quickly return to the warmth and comfort of their fictional belief systems that have been made real and tolerable by copious amounts of booze, television and profligate consumerism. The Internet creates a fallacy, though, that activists and dissidents etc. are making a difference. In reality, the Internet allows people like us to find each other, interact and pat ourselves on the back. There are various self congratulatory articles, lots of emails of appreciation, posts to newsgroups, etc. What tangible effect does all of this have on core policies? Hmmm? Are the elite quaking in their boots yet? Don't hold your breath. Much of this online nonsense is just another monkey trap that distracts us away from doing anything significant. It's just beating around the bush... After years of doing this, I have concluded that this amounts to nothing more than preaching to the choir. There's nothing wrong with that. It's an ok way to meet interesting people, etc. It just doesn't lead to any tangible shift in the policies that affect our lives the most. Political dissent, protests, and voting have about as much to do with affecting change as playing video games, watching football or sitting in traffic. In 1984, George Orwell writes: Being in a minority, even a minority of one, did not make you mad. There was truth and there was untruth, and if you clung to the truth even against the whole world, you were not mad. The only hope for the individual is to create his or her own reality in spite of the fact that the rest of society has gone mad. Like-minded individuals must seek each other out, and provide for a common defense against the heirarchies that wish to kill or enslave them. Society, in general, is a massive freight train that is heading toward oblivion at maximum speed. Those of us who know what is happening, and oppose it, have roughly the same capacity to stop that train as a bunch of ants meandering along the tracks. The more I learn about this society, however, the more I ask myself, "Why would anyone want to stop this train?" At this point, I have as much contempt for the elite as I do for the fat, dumb troglodyte masses. It's abundantly clear that people, in general, want to be imprisoned; they want the ugly reality. Who am I to presume that it should be any other way? Lead, follow or get out of the way. <--- I'd focus primarily on that last option. I have a different outlook now. More SUVs, WalMarts on every corner, dump your used motor oil into the sea and make parking lots out of all remaining open space. We don't have long to wait now, the end of the line is in sight, and to the conductor at the controls of this crazy train, I say: "More coal, my man. More coal." Related Story #1: Half of U.S. Shuns LiteratureA report released yesterday by the US national endowment for the arts says the number of adults who read no literature increased by more than 17 million between 1992 and 2002.
It found that 47% of American adults read poems, plays or narrative fiction in 2002, a drop of seven percentage points from a decade earlier. Those reading any books at all in 2002 fell to 57%, from 61%.
The NEA chairman, Dana Gioia, said the findings were shocking.
"We have a lot of functionally literate people who are no longer engaged readers," Mr Gioia said. "This isn't a case of 'Johnny Can't Read', but 'Johnny Won't Read'.
"We're seeing an enormous cultural shift from print media to electronic media, and the unintended consequences of that shift."
A total of 89.9 million adults did not read books in 2002. The number of books bought in the US in 2003 was reported in May to have fallen by 23m from the year before, to 2.2 bn.
The NEA study was based on a survey of more than 17,000 adults. The drop in reading was widespread, but the fall was marked for adult men, of whom only 38% read literature, and Hispanics overall, for whom the figure was 26.5%.
The decline was especially severe among 18 to 24-year-olds. Only 43% had read any literature in 2002, down from 53% in 1992.Related Story #2: Americans Object to Graphic War Images They Sought OnlineHalf of Americans object to the online availability of graphic war images, though millions have actively sought them out, a new study finds.
In a report released Thursday, the Pew Internet and American Life Project also found a major cultural divide: Men, Democrats and younger Americans were more likely to approve of having such images on the Web.
Television, newspapers and the Web sites of mainstream media outlets generally refrained from using the most graphic images of Iraqi prisoner abuses and the killings of Nicholas Berg and other Americans in Iraq.
But photos and even video could be readily found elsewhere, at anti-war sites, Web journals, the Drudge Report and discussion boards frequented by sympathizers of terror groups.
According to the study, 24 percent of adult Internet users, or 30 million people, have seen such graphic images online, and 28 percent of those people actively sought them out. That comes out to more than 8 million active seekers.
Yet overall, Americans disapprove of the postings by a margin of 49 percent to 40 percent. Another 4 percent say approval depends on circumstances, while the rest wouldn't say or have no opinion.
A third of the Americans who saw the images - some 10 million - regret doing so.
Sree Sreenivasan, a Columbia University online media professor who is not connected with the study, said Americans aren't always prepared for what they click, even though many links carry warnings about the images' graphic nature.
"Our experiences on the Internet are built upon experiences with previous media," he said. "What's graphic in most people's minds is a slasher movie or a Sopranos episode with a beheading. Those don't prepare you for how graphic (these images) could be."
Lee Rainie, director of the Pew study, said Americans generally embrace the principle that more information is better, "but once they encounter real-life applications of that principle, in many cases, they are unhappy."
MSNBC.com cloaked the more disturbing images with a black "curtain" carrying a warning before visitors click. But the most graphic images were left off the site entirely, consistent with NBC broadcast guidelines, said Dean Wright, the site's editor in chief.
"We want our Web site to be a place where the mainstream news consumer can feel safer," he said.
He said a small number of visitors complained that the site was censoring the reality of war, just as a small group complained that even the moderate images were too much. But he said visitors were overall happy with MSNBC's judgment calls.
posted by Kevin at 10:35 AM
Bush Military Records 'Destroyed'
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Military records relating to George W Bush's National Guard service more than 30 years ago have been accidentally destroyed, the Pentagon has said.
The New York Times quoted an office of the department as saying the records were lost as staff tried to salvage deteriorating microfilm.
posted by Kevin at 10:03 AM
7/8/2004
This Is What Happens When People Spawn Boys
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My hat is off to this young man. Nice work: Like any red-blooded, masculine man of the male gender, I love PVC weaponry. You should too. If the concept of heading on down to the local Home Depot and transforming $100 worth of random pipe bits into a killing machine doesn't appeal to you, you're a goddamn pansy. Also, you're probably sane and will live significantly longer than I will. Nonetheless you disgust me, and I take comfort in the knowledge that your obituary will be nowhere near as humorous as mine. For those of you who laugh in the face of hypersonic shards of plastic puncturing your spleen, here's an intimate look at how I've kept myself busy for the past week: building a PVC flamethrower.Research Credit: JL
posted by Kevin at 1:24 PM
Cryptogon Reader Contributes $20!
Thank you. Thank you.
posted by Kevin at 9:33 AM
Synthetic Biology May Spawn Biohackers
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And then it was too late... Design automation systems tailored to the task of genetic engineering could prove to be double-edged tools. While they represent a central thrust of the emerging synthetic biology movement, they also can lead to the accidental or deliberate creation of pathogenic biological components.
One expert in the field, Harvard University genetics professor George Church, compared the potential misuse of synthetic biological designs with the danger posed by nuclear weapons. But there is one important difference, in his view - it is much harder to build a fusion device than to genetically engineer a pathogen. And the complexity of biological processes also increases the danger of accidents.
posted by Kevin at 9:24 AM
The Future of Food: GMO-Food Foes Turn to Film
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The new documentary, created by Deborah Koons Garcia, uses archival footage and interviews with farmers and agriculture experts to argue that GMO foods are jeopardizing our food safety. During the past 10 years, the film tells us, genetically engineered crops have infected our food supply and undermined cultivation methods that have been refined over thousands of years.
posted by Kevin at 8:51 AM
Coalition of the Billing
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Once upon a time, politics by other means took the form of war between state-sponsored armies. Then along came the creeping tide of international terror, whose practitioners play by different rules. Terrorists have little use for top-heavy chains of command, cumbersome procurement procedures, and pesky government oversight. They eschew conventional rules of engagement and international codes like the Geneva Conventions. Faced with such an agile enemy, beleaguered states are turning to a force that operates under a similar lack of constraints: private military contractors. Once the hired guns settle into the trenches, though, it can be hard to get them to leave.
The role of private companies in Iraq has been widely reported. What hasn't gotten so much play is that, taken as a whole, contractors make up the second-largest armed force there, after the US military. Although this "army" is mostly on the Pentagon's payroll for now, it doesn't fly any flag or belong to any state. It's a multiethnic, for-profit, postnational force, and its sole agenda is to mind the bottom line. It has no incentive to stand down as long as there's money to be made. It's not afraid of terrorists, and whatever passes for an Iraqi government in the future will likely live at its mercy.
posted by Kevin at 8:38 AM
Bloggers Suffer Burnout
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Blahg: Billmon's inability to keep up with the demands of moderating comments in the face of a job, family and other responsibilities is just one manifestation of a problem increasingly faced by popular daily bloggers: burnout. While they enjoy what they're doing, many find that keeping up with the pressures to post regularly and to be sharp, witty and incisive is often too much.
posted by Kevin at 8:33 AM
7/7/2004
Fuck for Forest
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Is it The End yet? Controversial Kristopher Schau loves to shock his audience, and few knew what was in store for them as they went to his concert at the Quart music festival. In the middle of the concert, a young couple entered the stage.
«How far are you willing to go to save the world?» asked the young man, and without much ado, the couple pulled off their clothes.
Cumshots provided the background music as the couple had intercourse right in front of the audience. A banner was raised on stage informing the audience that the couple was having sex to save the rainforest. After completing the intercourse, the couple received applause from the audience and disappeared.
posted by Kevin at 3:15 PM
7/6/2004
Courier Robots in Hospitals
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Near a pair of swinging doors at a local hospital, a cart sits apparently abandoned. Yet at the push of a button, it perks up to say, "thank you" and rolls itself out the door toward the pharmacy.
The 50-pound machine, which looks like a vacuum cleaner mated to a cabinet, is designed to autonomously ferry loads of linens, medical supplies, X-rays, food and other materials.
In a push to lower costs and free up workers for more critical tasks, hospital officials are turning more and more to robots like TUG to ply their hallways.
Other robots include the RoboCart -- a motorized table -- and the droid-like HelpMate, a four-foot tall cabinet with flashing lights and turn signals that would be welcome in any sci-fi movie.
posted by Kevin at 4:00 PM
GPS Tracking Via Cell Phones a New Ally for Managers
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Business 101: Whoever thinks up the most evil plan and implements it in the shortest amount of time wins: Its most advanced product, AtlasTrack, works with Global Positioning System satellites and Nextel's wireless network, allowing businesses to monitor employees' whereabouts. It's designed to track messengers, cable TV installers, construction workers, sales personnel, and other workers who are constantly out in the field.
Radio chips in the phones send messages to the home office as often as once a minute, allowing a dispatcher to:
* Identify the location of the phone, and whether it's stationary or moving.
* Pull up maps that show the current location of all employees.
* Click on the name of a particular worker to get a map of the route traveled that day, along with specific addresses visited, and even the vehicle's speed at any particular moment.
* Get an automatic warning whenever a driver is stuck in traffic or speeding.
Employee-tracking cell phones are an expansion of electronic monitoring conducted by many companies. Techniques include audio and video surveillance, as well as routine screening of e-mail and Web use.
posted by Kevin at 5:30 AM
Oregon to Test Mileage Tax as Replacement for Gas Tax
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Oh sure, GPS tracking units in all cars, RFID systems interrogating you at the gas station. Oh absolutely. Yes, sir, where do I get my black-box sir? How does this grab ya? I'LL BE DEAD BEFORE I SUBMIT TO THIS!!! I can't believe this is happening in Eugene. Actually, I can believe it. Oregon, in general, and Eugene, in particular, is trouble. People aren't going along with the program up there. I wonder what the plan will be... since just about everyone in Oregon is heavily armed... Let's pretend someone waves a magic wand and turns every car into a fuel-sipping, gas-electric hybrid. What difference would it make?
The air would be cleaner.
Oil imports would drop.
And the transportation budgets of Oregon, Washington and almost every other state would deflate like a punctured balloon.
Think about it: Most money for highway construction and maintenance comes from state and federal taxes on gasoline. If people bought a lot less gas, highways would get a lot less money.
In Oregon, a state task force has concluded this scenario isn't all that far-fetched. It has proposed a possible long-term replacement for the gas tax, something no one has tried before:
A tax based on how many miles you drive.
posted by Kevin at 5:19 AM
'Fahrenheit' Banned in Iowa Theaters for Inciting Terrorism
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Despite expanding its run to 1,710 screens nationwide, "Fahrenheit 9/11" won't be shown at select theaters in Iowa.
R.L. Fridley, the president of the Des-Moines-based Fridley Theatres in Iowa and Nebraska, is refusing to show the incendiary documentary, claiming it incites terrorism, reports the AP.
posted by Kevin at 5:16 AM
Poll: Over 40% of Canadian Teens Think America Is "Evil"
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Forget winning the hearts and minds of our enemies... how about our closest allies? Can West News Services, owners of several Canadian newspapers including the National Post as well as the Global Television Network commissioned a series of polls to determine how young people feel about the issues that were facing the country’s voters. Dubbed "Youth Vote 2004", the polls, sponsored by the Dominion Institute and Navigator Ltd. were taken with a view to getting more young people involved in the political process.
In one telephone poll of teens between the ages of 14 and 18, over 40 per cent of the respondents described the United States as being "evil". That number rose to 64 per cent for French Canadian youth.
posted by Kevin at 5:14 AM
Super Size Me, Jesus: Megachurches
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I don't have any use for organized religion, but if I was seeking proof that The Apocalypse was upon us, I wouldn't have to look any further than mainstream Christianity: After a 14-month, $75-million renovation, the Compaq Center will reopen as Lakewood Church, the nation's largest house of worship.
With 16,000 seats, two waterfalls and an interior camera ready for Sunday broadcasts, the reborn structure dovetails national trends that promise to shake up the economics of urban real estate: the increasing number of obsolete sports stadiums and the meteoric growth of huge religious congregations that need "megachurches."
Requiring arena-sized seating and vast parking lots, these churches are expensive to build and demand large plots of land that are difficult to come by in urban areas. That has made rejected sports arenas, faced with demolition, fertile ground for religious conversion.
It may be a commercial real estate boomlet in its infancy. Besides the Compaq Center, only the Forum in Inglewood has made the jump, now drawing about 6,000 on Sundays as the Faithful Central Bible Church. (The church moved in before all the Forum's event contracts had been fulfilled, so in the early days worshipers shared space with the Women of Wrestling league.)
But interest appears to be growing. Joel Osteen, the 41-year-old pastor of Lakewood Church, said half a dozen pastors from around the country had asked him how he went about signing the 30-year, $12.3-million lease on the Compaq Center.
Church leaders, he said, realize they have to be inventive these days.
"You have to change with the times," he said. "If Jesus were here he'd change with the times. He couldn't ride around on a donkey. He'd drive a car."Related: Who Would Jesus Bomb?Related: Hallelujah In Fallujah
posted by Kevin at 5:00 AM
Comic Relief
I'm going to periodically post stories that are so off the rails that they will serve as comic relief as this ship goes down. Forget the blow-by-blow account of this creaking, grinding disaster. Now it's only going to be the stuff that is so shocking that if someone tried to make it all up, they couldn't. Why bother? Because laughter is healthy!
posted by Kevin at 4:53 AM
7/5/2004
Taking a Break
No need to email stories. I'll start posting again when I feel like it. That could mean later today, or in a couple of days. I don't know what it was. I looked at the heap of stories waiting to be posted, and I thought, "They're all important and meaningless at the same time." I've posted more than 2,000 other stories just like them over the past two years on here.... It's like there are a couple of dozen core stories that just keep getting fed into a word randomizer. This stuff is now sounding like a broken record to me. Same shit, different day. It's not that I'm worn out, or depressed, (I passed through those phases long ago), I'm bored. This nonsense is a quagmire. Watching paint dry would be more of a challenge than figuring out where this thing is headed. I mean, what's so hard to understand about environmental collapse, energy crises, slave labor, tracking chips, retinal scans and killer robots? * yawn * This entire area of inquiry is a waste of time, at this late stage in the game. If you're not spending your day actively attempting to establish your arc, your plan for survival in the years ahead, you might as well forget about all of this stuff before it wrecks your head. Read some books, watch some movies, take a walk, pick some flowers. Whatever you like to do. You might as well be happy in the time you have left. That's pretty much where I am at this point. Comments from TR: I saw your post on your site. That's the same conclusion that I've come to: it's a fucking waste of time trying to cover every little aspect of this collapsing show. The details are irrelevant. Attempting to wake up stubborn idiots is a waste of time. At this point, it's so fucking obvious, you have to be blind not to see it. Now's the time for action. Time to fire it up.Comments from NF: saw your last post. i can't talk you out of it this time buddy. i'm reaching the same conclusions here. subtract out the psychological wear and tear, the emotions, the depression, forge ahead... and you come to the rational conclusion that the inevitable is upon us. more like the obvious. anyone who cares: 1) knows about what's going on 2) has already taken preparatory action to the best of their ability 3) has tried to warn others. so many inevitables. tis best to prepare and help people when they're ready to listen, if possible.Comments from AM: Have to totally agree with the take a break idea, it does all seem pointless and boring sometimes. It's very doubtful that anything will change or be avoided.
posted by Kevin at 5:47 AM
7/4/2004
Moore: Pirate My Film, No Problem
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Moore borrows another page from the Alex Jones playbook. Alex Jones has been advocating the non commercial distribution of his films for years. I'm not criticizing Michael Moore, I'm complementing him. I just wish Alex Jones would get more recognition for his efforts: Controversial film-maker Michael Moore has welcomed the appearance on the internet of pirated copies of his anti-Bush documentary Fahrenheit 9/11 and claimed he is happy for anybody to download it free of charge.
The activist, author and director told the Sunday Herald that, as long as pirated copies of his film were not being sold, he had no problem with it being downloaded.
"I don't agree with the copyright laws and I don't have a problem with people downloading the movie and sharing it with people as long as they're not trying to make a profit off my labour. I would oppose that," he said.
"I do well enough already and I made this film because I want the world, to change. The more people who see it the better, so I'm happy this is happening."
posted by Kevin at 2:13 PM
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:. Reading
 Fatal
Harvest: The Tragedy of Industrial Agriculture by Andrew Kimbrell
Readers will come to see
that industrial food production is indeed a "fatal harvest"
- fatal to consumers, as pesticide residues and new disease vectors
such as E. coli and "mad cow disease" find their way
into our food supply; fatal to our landscapes, as chemical runoff
from factory farms poison our rivers and groundwater; fatal to
genetic diversity, as farmers rely increasingly on high-yield
monocultures and genetically engineered crops; and fatal to our
farm communities, which are wiped out by huge corporate
farms.
 Friendly
Fascism: The New Face of Power in America by Bertram Myron Gross
This is a relatively
short but extremely cogent and well-argued treatise on the rise
of a form of fascistic thought and social politics in late 20th
century America. Author Bertram Gross' thesis is quite straightforward;
the power elite that comprises the corporate, governmental and
military superstructure of the country is increasingly inclined
to employ every element in their formidable arsenal of 'friendly
persuasion' to win the hearts and minds of ordinary Americans
through what Gross refers to as friendly fascism.
 The
Good Life
by Scott and Helen Nearing Helen
and Scott Nearing are the great-grandparents of the back-to-the-land
movement, having abandoned the city in 1932 for a rural life based
on self-reliance, good health, and a minimum of cash...Fascinating,
timely, and wholly useful, a mix of the Nearings' challenging
philosophy and expert counsel on practical skills.
 Silent
Theft: The Private Plunder of Our Common Wealth by David Bollierd
In Silent Theft, David Bollier
argues that a great untold story of our time is the staggering
privatization and abuse of our common wealth. Corporations are
engaged in a relentless plunder of dozens of resources that we
collectively own—publicly funded medical breakthroughs,
software innovation, the airwaves, the public domain of creative
works, and even the DNA of plants, animals and humans. Too often,
however, our government turns a blind eye—or sometimes helps
give away our assets. Amazingly,
the silent theft of our shared wealth has gone largely unnoticed
because we have lost our ability to see the commons.
 The
Self-Sufficient Life and How to Live It: The Complete Back-To-Basics
Guide by John Seymour The
Self Sufficient Life and How to Live It is the only book that
teaches all the skills needed to live independently in harmony
with the land harnessing natural forms of energy, raising crops
and keeping livestock, preserving foodstuffs, making beer and
wine, basketry, carpentry, weaving, and much more.
 When
Corporations Rule the World by David C. Korten
When Corporations
Rule the World explains how economic globalization has concentrated
the power to govern in global corporations and financial markets
and detached them from accountability to the human interest. It
documents the devastating human and environmental consequences
of the successful efforts of these corporations to reconstruct
values and institutions everywhere on the planet to serve their
own narrow ends.
 The
New Organic Grower: A Master's Manual of Tools and Techniques
for the Home and Market Gardener
This expansion
of a now-classic guide originally published in 1989 is intended
for the serious gardener or small-scale market farmer. It describes
practical and sustainable ways of growing superb organic vegetables,
with detailed coverage of scale and capital, marketing, livestock,
the winter garden, soil fertility, weeds, and many other
topics.
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