Quote of note:

One "white" student learned that 14 percent of his DNA came from Africa - and 6 percent from East Asia. The student told The Daily Collegian, the student newspaper, earlier this year: "When I got my results I was like, there's no way they were mine. I thought it was just an example of what the test was supposed to look like. Then I was like, Oh my God, that's me."

Debunking the Concept of 'Race'

Black Americans who explore their family histories typically hit a dead end in the early 19th century, when black Americans who were slaves were not listed in the census by name. Now some black Americans are trying to fill in the gap with genetic screening tests that purport to tell descendants exactly where in Africa their ancestors came from. But, like most people, those who think of themselves as African-American will need to search well beyond Africa to find all of their origins.

When the 2008 campaign begins in earnest, I'll be saying really bad, really nasty things about any DLC candidate. They are NOT centrists, much less progressives.

Planting Her Flag
Hillary Clinton is carefully positioning herself as a hawkish centrist. How proving that she is tougher than the boys could work for her in 2008.
By Eleanor Clift

July 29 - Hillary Clinton wants to be the darling of the left and the candidate of the center, and why not? More than any other Democrat, save one her husband she knows what it takes to win, and she fully and completely comprehends the opposition.

Liberals went ballistic this week when Clinton called for a ceasefire among Democrats at a much ballyhooed appearance before the DLC, the centrist Democratic Leadership Council that helped elect her husband president. Clinton s  Rodney King Moment,  is all about 2008, says a former John Kerry adviser:  What she s saying is,  Why can t we all get along and support me?  

Quote of note:

"Maybe in the cold calm reflection of a boardroom [we] can say it was better to do this or that," Stone said. "But that's not what we are supposed to do; we are supposed to look through the eyes of the officer at that time."

Okay, let's do that.

The incident took place early on the morning of June 23, 2004, alongside Compton Creek. Miller had led officers on a high-speed chase out of South Los Angeles, then jumped from the car and ran along the dirt creek bank with several officers on foot in pursuit.

When Miller stopped and put his hands in the air, one officer tackled him. While Miller was on the ground, Hatfield arrived on foot and kicked him, struck him with a flashlight, and kneed him as news cameras rolled overhead.

Kneed him?

one kick, 11 flashlight blows and five kneeings

Yup.

Hatfield kneed Miller twice, then seemed to consciously take time to reposition himself to deliver three more kneeings, Williams said. That in particular was seen by panel members as "a malicious, intentional act apparently for the purpose of punishment," Williams said.

Do you REALLY want to put yourself in the mind of the officer at the time?

"Officer Hatfield is not a bad person," Zabel told the panel in closing arguments. "He didn't get out of bed that morning and say, I am going to beat someone up. But he was in a long pursuit, then a 200-yard foot pursuit, and he was upset. He was mad — mad at the suspect."

Hatfield's reaction was like a mundane case of road rage, Zabel said, "but for a police officer, it is unacceptable."

..."I accept full responsibility for my actions on that day," he said. "I want the board members to know that, at the time, I honestly thought I was doing the right thing...Nothing I did was with evil or wrongful intent or the intent to inflict unnecessary pain on Mr. Miller."

So...what the intent in beating him AFTER he had stopped, raised his hands and was tackled by another guy anyway? What was the intent after in setting him up for three more properly delivered knee strikes after the first two that were delivered after the perp was subdued?

Oh, yeah: the Quote of note:

Officers O'Connor and Behrens were disciplined for failing to recognize the appropriate actions they should have taken during the use of force; Bueno for failing to secure evidence; and Watson for using unnecessary force and unauthorized tactics.

Another officer, David Hale, is scheduled to go before a board of rights in the fall. L.A. County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley has declined to file charges against any of the officers. [P6: emphasis added]

Firing of Officer in Taped Beating Is Urged
An LAPD disciplinary board rules against John Hatfield, who was seen beating a car theft suspect with a flashlight during a 2004 arrest.
By Jill Leovy
Times Staff Writer

You might as well just go ahead and hate me for this post right now.

I couldn't help thinking of all the people who suggested the tsunami Asia and Africa experienced recently was a punishment from God as I read about the quadrennial Boy Scout Jamboree.

A North Carolina man involved with the jamboree died of a heart attack walking on the grounds as the jamboree was beginning. On Monday, four Scout leaders from Alaska were killed when a pole they were holding to erect a dining canopy apparently hit a power line and they were electrocuted.

On Wednesday, as many of the scouts were waiting in nearly 100-degree heat at the base amphitheater for Bush to arrive, 306 people -- parents, Scouts and others -- suffered heat exhaustion, many of them collapsing on the ground.

Bush, having been kept away from the last Jamboree by lightning strikes...

Quote of note:

"American taxpayers are paying for the training of those Colombian soldiers," she said. "When they leave to take more lucrative jobs, perhaps with an American military contractor … they take that training with them. So then we're paying to train that person's replacement. And then we're paying the bill to the private military contractors."

Worry Grows as Foreigners Flock to Iraq's Risky Jobs
By Sonni Efron
Times Staff Writer
July 30, 2005

WASHINGTON — For hire: more than 1,000 U.S.-trained former soldiers and police officers from Colombia. Combat-hardened, experienced in fighting insurgents and ready for duty in Iraq.

Quote of note:

Most are pointing fingers at American missionaries associated with the Antioch Community Church in Waco, Texas.Preferring to identify themselves as aid workers and not missionaries, members of this Church have put on plays about Jesus, made children draw pictures of him, and tried to heal the sick and handicapped through public prayer services. Their actions have also angered local Christians, according to a Sri Lankan minister who witnessed one of the prayer sessions. The group however denied that their team was trying to convert but asserts that their missionary work cannot be separated from their aid delivery.

A Dangerous mix: Religion & Development Aid
July 2005
By Eman Ahmed, WHRnet

The Quote of note comes from the Executive Summary:

A previous report, published in 2004 by the Institute for Policy Studies1, demonstrates how multilateral support for oil is consistent with an agenda to diversify oil supplies for Northern consumption, and open Southern reserves to Northern corporate investment. It also noted that 82 percent of all oil extractive projects funded by the World Bank Group since 1992 are export-oriented, and primarily serve the energy needs of the North, not the South.

For Immediate Release June 30, 2005

G8 Oil Aid increases African Debt
Nigeria’s Increased Oil Production Projected to Generate $21 Billion in New Debt by 2010

London – New research published today reveals that the energy strategy for the G8 is fundamentally at odds with its development strategy for Africa and the rest of the world. Drilling into Debt (pdf), co-published by Oil Change International, the Institute for Public Policy Research, and the Jubilee USA Network (with additional support from Milieu Defensie and Amazon Watch), finds that oil production and export increases rather than relieves countries’ debt burdens, despite generating massive revenues.

The Republican's boomerang is about to slap them upside the head again.

The court agreed with Starr that the attorney-client privilege did not shield the White House lawyers or their notes. "We decline to endorse the position of the White House where it is based on nothing more than political concerns," the appeals court said.

The ruling set off a furor in legal organizations, which had maintained that the attorneyclient privilege protected government lawyers as well. When the Clinton White House appealed the issue to the Supreme Court, the justices refused to hear the case. Only two justices — Clinton appointees Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen G. Breyer — voted to hear the appeal.

It doesn't matter whether you agree or not. It's the interpretation of the same court that would have to decide on Roberts' claim of immunity. And any attempt on his part to deny that fact would be direct evidence of his position on stare decisis.

The study, which marks the first worldwide mapping of predatory fish diversity, identified five hot spots in the world that have a rich variety of species, two of them in U.S. waters. The hot spots are areas off the east coast of Florida, south of Hawaii, near Australia's Great Barrier Reef, near Sri Lanka and in the South Pacific north of Easter Island.

That Florida spot may be at risk because just on the other side of the peninsula is the Guld of Mexco and its infamous Dead Zone. In fact, its diversity may well be due to species relocating to escape suffocation.

Oceans Have Fewer Kinds Of Fish
Overfishing Among Causes, Study Says
By Juliet Eilperin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, July 29, 2005; Page A03

Liability Shield for Gunmakers Near Passage
By Shailagh Murray
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, July 29, 2005; Page A01

The nation's gun lobby is close to realizing a long-sought goal of protecting firearms manufacturers and dealers from being held legally responsible for violent crimes committed with their handguns and automatic weapons.

Supporters believe they have the votes in the Senate to pass as early as today a bill making it virtually impossible for victims of gun violence to file civil suits against the industry -- a testimony to the political clout of gun manufacturers, which have become increasingly vulnerable to civil lawsuits in the District and several states. Twelve Democrats, including Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (Nev.), are joining with the Republicans to support the legislation.

A Harvard Governor, Dissatisfied, Resigns
By ALAN FINDER

The only black member of the Harvard Corporation, the university's seven-member governing board, said yesterday that he was resigning over disagreements with Harvard's president, Lawrence H. Summers.

Dr. Summers has had several public disputes with prominent black faculty members and provoked outrage earlier this year when he made remarks suggesting that "intrinsic aptitude" might be a factor behind the low number of women in science and engineering.

The corporation member, Conrad K. Harper, said in a telephone interview, "I have concluded I can no longer support President Summers." The university announced his resignation yesterday.

Quote of note:

It also highlights yet again the importance of the time and effort he has put into helping retain the Republican majorities in the House and Senate, which for all their fractiousness tend to come through for him at the big moments. As he often does, Mr. Bush relied heavily on his party's leaders on Capitol Hill to make the deals necessary to achieve his broad legislative goals.

Despite Problems, Bush Continues to Make Advances on His Agenda
By RICHARD W. STEVENSON

WASHINGTON, July 28 - His problems remain many, and include the relentless violence in Iraq, the leak investigation that has ensnared some of his top aides and poll numbers that suggest substantial dissatisfaction with both his foreign and domestic policies. But President Bush has still had a pretty good July, showing how his own doggedness and a Republican majority in Congress have consistently allowed him to push his agenda forward even when the political winds are in his face.

"D'oh!" of note:

Democrats charged Republicans with buying votes and forcing members to vote against their consciences.

So what else is new?

"This became much bigger than Cafta, because it became a political issue," said Rob Portman, the United States trade representative.

...politics being the overriding priority, naturally.

Anyway...

How Cafta Passed House by 2 Votes
By EDMUND L. ANDREWS

WASHINGTON, July 28 - It was just before midnight on Wednesday when Representative Robin Hayes capitulated.

Mr. Hayes, a Republican whose district in North Carolina has lost thousands of textile jobs in the last four years, had defied President Bush and House Republican leaders by voting against the Central American Free Trade Agreement, or Cafta.

Controversial councilman offers city a settlement
Alpharetta's Kurey offers to quit for $100,000
By MICHAEL PEARSON
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 07/29/05

Alpharetta City Councilman R.J. Kurey, facing possible removal from office, says he'll quit if the city pays him $100,000 and drops the misconduct investigation against him, an attorney in the case said Thursday.

Gelernter in the L.A.Times:

If I'm carrying a bulky backpack and you look Middle Eastern, and both items belong in the profile —  why should I be stopped and not you? Equality doesn't mean you get a pass or special privileges just because your skin is dark or you appear Middle Eastern.

Conversely, why should I be stopped and not you? Equality doesn't mean you get a pass or special privileges just because your skin is light or you appear European.

You might argue that dark-skinned people are a special case, given the way the United States has treated them. I agree   we have treated them so solicitously, and worked so hard to suppress racial prejudice, that dark-skinned people owe their country the benefit of the doubt.

What a dick.

Quote of note:

Orville Schell, the dean of UC Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism, said DeFede's actions might not have elicited such a quick, sharp reaction in the past.

"Usually, somebody who had done an infraction like that and admitted it, they might have just said, 'Don't do it again,' " Schell said. "But I think in the present climate, where no media outlet feels it can sustain another hit, they're reacting with incredible rigidity and very punctiliously. Every media outlet now is bending over backward to prove its fidelity to the higher principles to the trade."

Miami columnist fired after politician's suicide
Star writer recorded talk with distraught city commissioner
Abby Goodnough, New York Times
Friday, July 29, 2005

Of course it will work. There have been commercial versions of this sort of program available to the wealthy for years. I've always wondered why these "proven techniques" aren't used in public schools. And don't tell me anything about cost...buying in bulk and negotiating the best price works for the government too (as long as there are no laws against it...).

Boost for College-Bound
Disadvantaged youths headed for some of the nation's top universities bone up on their writing skills in USC program. Researchers will track grades.
By Stuart Silverstein
Times Staff Writer
July 29, 2005

It's a giant leap from Compton High to Harvard University, but Leslie Jimenez is eager to get started as a freshman at the venerable Ivy League school this September.

Quote of note:

Should the job market deteriorate further, a big loser could be the housing market.

A sign from the job market?
By Paul J. Lim

Typically, job-cutting activity slows down during the sleepy summer months. In fact, over the past decade, there were 20 percent fewer layoffs announced between May and August than there were from January to April.

But so far this summer, companies are continuing to wield a big ax, which doesn't bode well for the health of the economy. Already, nearly 200,000 job cuts have been announced this summer. And five of the six biggest job cut announcements this year have come since May, according to the outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. This includes Hewlett Packard's recent announcement that it plans to reduce its workforce by 14,500 over the next year and a half.

Arts & Ideas: Boom time for personal caves
Posted 7/27/05
By Caroline Hsu

Homeowners looking to spend their equity have found a new way to bury money in their homes: by building a personal cave. Bored with high-end kitchens, spa-quality bathrooms, and plain-vanilla room additions, home improvers have moved into ever more exotic realms like yurts, geodesic domes, and now, caves.

Underground lairs appeal to modern homeowners for the same basic reason Neanderthals sought them out: The earth provides great shelter from the elements. Through the hottest summers and coldest winters, cave temperatures vary by only one to two degrees (high 50s to mid-60s). And besides all that, fans say, caves just feel good.

Quote of note:

Most Americans would surely applaud the legal settlement made in the Washington-area sniper case. The dealer that "lost" the sniper's assault rifle, and some 200 other guns as well, and the rifle's manufacturer paid $2.5 million to two surviving victims and the families of six victims who died. Yet the pending bill, according to legal experts, is so restrictive that if it had been in effect, this lawsuit would have been barred.

No Immunity for the Gun Industry

At a time when Congress is grappling with critical measures, including military and energy issues, the Senate majority leader, Bill Frist, has seen fit to catapult a special interest bill for the gun lobby to the head of the legislative queue. The bill would grant gun manufacturers, distributors and sellers an unreasonable degree of immunity from civil suits by families or communities harmed by gun violence. It would even require that lawsuits already filed be dismissed.

Quote of note:

He wrote in Nieman Reports that he did not believe the person who spoke to him was committing a criminal act, but only practicing damage control by trying to get him to write about Mr. Wilson.

Is this going to be the standard? If so, it better be applied to everyone, not just politicians.

Case of C.I.A. Officer's Leaked Identity Takes New Turn
By DOUGLAS JEHL

WASHINGTON, July 26 - In the same week in July 2003 in which Bush administration officials told a syndicated columnist and a Time magazine reporter that a C.I.A. officer had initiated her husband's mission to Niger, an administration official provided a Washington Post reporter with a similar account.

Quote of note:

"Something's fishy when the Bush administration delays a report showing no improvement in fuel economy until after passage of their energy bill, which fails to improve fuel economy," said Daniel Becker, the Sierra Club's top global warming strategist. "It's disturbing that despite high gas prices, an oil war and growing concern about global warming pollution, most automakers are failing to improve fuel economy."

E.P.A. Holds Back Report on Car Fuel Efficiency
By DANNY HAKIM

DETROIT, July 27 - With Congress poised for a final vote on the energy bill, the Environmental Protection Agency made an 11th-hour decision Tuesday to delay the planned release of an annual report on fuel economy.

Girl Fight
Students say a Marine Park brawl was kid stuff. Prosecutors are calling it race rage.
by Aina Hunter
June 28th, 2005 11:45 AM

...If the city's lawyers had followed the lead of the arresting cops and charged the younger kids with misdemeanors, lawyers say they might have pleaded guilty and received the slaps on the wrists reserved for first-time juvenile offenders. That was not to be. After pressure from the St. Edmund's parents who took turns writing letters and enlisting support from elected officials the Corporation Counsel attorneys ended up deciding it wasn't a fight at all, but an attack motivated by deep-seated racism.

Saying the black girls had called the white ones "honky crackers," and shouted "black power" and "Martin Luther King," they charged them under the state hate crimes law raising what might have been relatively minor counts to alleged felonies that included gang assault.

They shouted "Martin Luther King"??

Who really believes that? And for the record, they wouldn't have shouted Malcolm X either.

Quote of note:

The emerging details of the incident in and around Times Square, provided chiefly by the police, have begun to shape a fuller picture of what became a wild scene at one of New York's busiest tourist attractions: police officers ordering tourists to put their hands up, bomb-sniffing dogs climbing aboard the bus, and five men who appeared to be South Asian winding up handcuffed and lined up in a row on their knees. They were questioned and then released.

And what has followed has been almost equally striking: a public apology by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who defended the police, but criticized the Gray Line employees for overreacting, a message that for some has raised questions about just what a public frightened by terrorism is supposed to do with what they feel are legitimate worries.

How the Fear of Terror Itself Fueled a Tour Bus False Alarm
By KAREEM FAHIM and WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM

Senate Panel Approves Bill to Fully Fund Pension Plans
By Bloomberg News

The Senate Finance Committee approved legislation yesterday that would require companies to fully fund their traditional pension plans and give some airlines 14 years to pay off their obligations.

"The fragile state of our nation's pension plans has caught the attention of Americans everywhere," said the finance committee's chairman, Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that companies underfunded their pensions last year by as much as $600 billion.

Rewriting the laws governing traditional, or defined-benefit, pension plans covering 34.6 million Americans has become a priority for Congress this year. A temporary solution passed two years ago will expire at the end of the year. Recent bankruptcies by airline and steel companies have left the government agency that insures the plans, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, with a deficit of $23.3 billion.

Iraq Wants Quick Withdrawal of U.S. Troops
- By ROBERT BURNS, AP Military Writer
Wednesday, July 27, 2005

(07-27) 13:06 PDT BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) --

Iraq's transitional prime minister called Wednesday for a speedy withdrawal of U.S. troops and the top U.S. commander here said he believed a "fairly substantial" pullout could begin next spring and summer.

Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari said at a joint news conference with Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld that the time has arrived to plan a coordinated transition from American to Iraqi military control throughout the country.

Asked how soon a U.S. withdrawal should happen, he said no exact timetable had been set. "But we confirm and we desire speed in that regard," he said, speaking through a translator. "And this fast pace has two aspects."

Police Slaying Re-Creation Stirs Doubt
Reenactment shows an officer wasn't in path of a moving car when he shot the driver, 13.
By Richard Winton and Andrew Blankstein
Times Staff Writers
July 27, 2005

An elaborate re-creation of the fatal police shooting of 13-year-old Devin Brown, staged on a vacant lot in Granada Hills by the LAPD with help from Hollywood experts, casts doubts on a central justification for the shooting: that the officer was standing in the path of the teenager's oncoming car when he opened fire.

The Feb. 6 shooting unfolded at the end of a brief chase in which Devin drove onto a sidewalk, then backed the stolen car toward officers at 83rd Street and Western Avenue in South Los Angeles.

From the book, "On Bullshit" by Harry G. Frankfurt, a book I recommend any prospective political read BEFORE opening that account on Blogger.

Telling a lie is an act with a sharp focus. It is designed to insert a particular falsehood at a specific point in a set or system of beliefs, in order to avoid the consequences of having that point occupied by the truth. This requires a degree of craftsmanship, in which the teller of the lie submits to objective constraints imposed by what he takes to be the truth. The liar is inescapably concerned with truth-values. In order to invent a lie at all, he must think he knows what is true. And in order to invent an effective lie, he must design his falsehood under the guidance of that truth.

On the other hand, a person who undertakes to bullshit his way through has much more freedom. His focus is panoramic rather than particular. He does not limit himself to inserting a certain falsehood at a particular point, and thus he is not constrained by the truths surrounding that point or intersecting it. He is prepared, so far as is required, to fake the context as well. This freedom from the constraints to which the liar must submit does not necessarily mean, of course, that his task is easier than the task of the liar. But the mode of creativity upon which it relies is less analytical and less deliberative than that which is mobilized in lying. It is more expansive and independent, with more spacious opportunities for improvisation, color and imaginative play. This is less a matter of craft than of art. Hence the familiar notion of the "bullshit artist."

In fact, I recommend it to anyone who attends to the news at all.

Quote of note 1:

Former police commissioner John Stevens stunned many over the weekend when he wrote in a newspaper column that the policy had been imported from Israel, where the authorities had drawn a stark conclusion: "There is only one sure way to stop a suicide bomber determined to fulfill his mission: destroy his brain instantly, utterly."

Ian Blair, Stevens's successor as police commissioner, further fueled the debate when he told a Sky television interviewer that, despite his deep regrets over Menezes's death, the same thing could happen again.

Quote of note 2:

"Shoot-to-kill keeps us secure, and I feel protected, but at the same time I'm scared," said Angel Henry, 22, an airline employee who is part Jamaican and says that at times she feels singled out for having black features. "It's a Catch-22 situation. We've got to just ride it out."

Quote of note 3:

...a senior police official of South Asian ethnic origin who would not allow his name to be used said he felt queasy when "two colleagues of the firearms branch saw me running up the road with my rucksack on."

In Britain, a Divide Over Racial Profiling
By Glenn Frankel and Tamara Jones
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, July 27, 2005; Page A01

The Quote of note is the extract from my RSS feed.

U.S., N. Korea Focus on Bilateral Talks

BEIJING, July 26 -- After conciliatory remarks formally launching the resumption of long-stalled negotiations, U.S. and North Korean diplomats returned to bilateral discussions Tuesday on how to reach the elusive goal of a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula.

Notice the significant difference in the headline.

Not that I'm knocking the approach to sanity. Not at all.

Anyway...

Improved Atmosphere Is Seen As N. Korea Arms Talks Resume
By Edward Cody
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, July 27, 2005; A16

Bill Wouldn't Wean U.S. Off Oil Imports, Analysts Say
By Justin Blum
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, July 26, 2005; A01

Despite repeated calls by President Bush and members of Congress to decrease U.S. dependence on oil imports, a major energy bill that appears headed for passage this week would not significantly reduce the country's need for foreign oil, according to analysts and interest groups.

The United States imports 58 percent of the oil it consumes. Federal officials project that by 2025, the country will have to import 68 percent of its oil to meet demand. At best, analysts say, the energy legislation would slightly slow that rate of growth of dependence.

Quote of note

Boston University's Blakely has studied black images in Europe, in particular "Black Pete," Santa's sidekick in Holland.

Black Pete hands out sticks and coal to bad children, and Dutch parents warn that Pete is a bogeyman who will take them away if they're not good, Blakely said.

"It's a controversial figure now in the Netherlands because of the rise in the black population over the last couple of decades," he said. "There are now objections to the deeply rooted, cherished cultural image who the Dutch insist is a wonderful figure.

"It's similar to the Mexican stamp. What the Mexicans are saying is they love their figure just the way he is. They're saying, 'We're not being conscious racists, so it's not racist.'

For blacks, caricatures jab at old scars
Foreign images revive debate on racial attitudes
By MARY LOU PICKEL
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 07/27/05

Just a few weeks after Mexican President Vicente Fox blundered by saying Mexican immigrants in the United States do work that "not even blacks" will do, the country came out with a postage stamp touting a 1940s-era comic book character of a black boy with ape-like features, reviving a debate about racial attitudes.

The Mexican stamp featuring "Memin Pinguin" has sold out, going for about $30 or $40 on eBay, even though the stamp has a face value of about $3.50 in Mexico.

The postage stamp has created the latest furor over Jim Crow-era images of blacks abroad. Such derogatory images remain alive in the United States and many other countries. Copies of "Little Black Sambo" flew off the shelves of large bookstores in Tokyo this year. "Darkie Tooth Paste" was a popular brand in Asia until a few years ago. Golliwog dolls of blacks with wide eyes and red lips are popular among the British on eBay, and "Black Pete" is Santa's sidekick during Christmas in Holland. In the United States, some antiques fairs specialize in black memorabilia, much of it from segregation days.

In countries with small black populations, there's little consciousness or open discussion of the harm that such images do, experts say.

Quote of note:

The revival of Nordic traditions may be a reaction to the cultural impact of globalization. Two years ago, some descendants of the Vikings took another major step into to the past when the pagan Asa religion was granted official recognition, granting tax benefits to those organizing the worship of Odin, Thor and other Norse gods. "It's all the same movement," says Senior Researcher Else Marie Kofod of the Danish Folklore Archives. "In these years, many old traditions are revived because there is a need for it. We live in a complex and material world where people have to create their own identity and perhaps find a new spirituality — and a way to do that is by searching for one's roots."

Email from Copenhagen: Return of the Vikings
Why some Danes plan to replace surnames with the patronyms of their horned-hatted forefathers
Posted Friday, Jul. 22, 2005

Quote of note:

...their popularity has sparked a debate in the Asian American community about the politics of whitening. Qui and others say the quest for white skin is an Asian tradition. But others—younger, American-born Asians—question whether the obsession with an ivory complexion has more to do with blending into white American culture, or even a subtle prejudice against those with darker skin.

The market research firm says cosmetics companies have taken note of the sensitivity, saying their Asian skin products in America are intended not for "whitening" but for "brightening."

"It's not a politically correct term because it seems to imply that looking Caucasian via a white complexion is the desired beauty goal," said Virginia Lee, a Euromonitor analyst.

Beauty and the Bleach
Some Asian American women spend thousands pursuing the traditional ideal of whiter skin. Others see a dark shadow of prejudice.
By Jia-Rui Chong
Times Staff Writer
July 26, 2005

Not directly, anyway...

New Name for 'War on Terror' Reflects Wider U.S. Campaign

Read it if you like...it makes no difference (your reading it or the gesture itself). But if you do read it, you should follow the First we have to define... thread first.

Quote of note:

"What people don't recognize is that some of those companies are DSW, BJ's Wholesale or Chipotle," said Robert McCullen, the chief executive of AmbironTrustwave, a Chicago firm that is the payment industry's largest data security auditor. "These are big names."

Main Street in the Cross Hairs
By ERIC DASH

Along a crowded stretch of highway just south of Miami's downtown is a shopping area that might be called the data theft capital of the United States. In the wireless hacker equivalent of a drive-by shooting wave, criminals obtained the cardholder information of tens of thousands of customers at four major stores there, including a DSW Shoes retail outlet that appears to have been the initial source of a chainwide data breach.

I am trying really hard not to have all manner of bizarre ideas behind this. It's not working.

But neither are the bizarre ideas worth a moment of anyone else's thought so...

A New Face: A Bold Surgeon, an Untried Surgery

A microsurgeon may soon perform the first face transplant. Is she giving people back a part of themselves or rushing a risky surgery?

The final version of the energy plan is certain to come under attack by some lawmakers and conservation groups who consider it too heavily skewed in favor of traditional oil and gas companies, which it showers with billions of dollars of aid and tax breaks at a time when high oil prices are producing huge profits.

And at a time when health care, and education (both K-12 and higher) are in actual need.

Lawmakers Reach a Deal on New Energy Policies
By CARL HULSE

WASHINGTON, Tuesday, July 26 - House and Senate negotiators came to agreement on broad energy legislation early today, hoping they have put together an overhaul of national energy policy that can clear Congress after years of stalemate.

I actually have some sympathy for the drill sergeants. They are now being punished for doing what they were trained to do.

Quote of note:

"If we don't do that, we won't get the support of the mothers and fathers," Colonel Shwedo said in a telephone interview from Fort Monroe, Va. "We won't attract the right kind of people into the military."

That's not all:

After one of the trainers, Sgt. First Class David H. Price, was demoted in April for telling a recruit to swallow his vomit, dragging another by his ankles and hitting a third with a rolled-up newspaper, one soldier wrote to The Army Times saying that when she was in basic training in 1988, "the drill sergeants were allowed to do a lot of things."

"Now if they look at a recruit the wrong way, they get in trouble," wrote the soldier, Specialist Kirstin Clary. "Back then, it was still the real Army and not a farce."

As Recruiting Suffers, Military Reins In Abuses at Boot Camp
By ERIK ECKHOLM

Quote of note:

The report sees the biggest risks to a successful Israeli disengagement coming from rocket or mortar attacks carried out by Islamic Jihad or other smaller, local militant groups that are not invested in Palestinian politics; from the risk of Israeli settler incursions intended "to provoke a violent Palestinian reaction" and pull in the Israeli Army; and from the continuing lack of clarity about the Israeli Army's intentions.

Security Forces of Palestinians Are Found Unfit
By STEVEN ERLANGER

JERUSALEM, July 25 - The security forces of the Palestinian Authority are divided, weak, overstaffed, badly motivated and underarmed, and more attention must be paid to building up institutions rather than personalities, says the first independent survey of the complicated Palestinian security environment since the death of Yasir Arafat.

Disgusting action of note:

Police said the man, identified as 24-year-old Charles Peralta, allegedly grabbed her and pushed her against a car.

"She starts to yell, 'My baby, my baby -- I'm pregnant!' " Sampson said. "Somewhere along the way, she gets kicked in the stomach."

Peralta's companion, Nicole Agriesti, 21, allegedly joined in the assault. The case is being considered a hate crime because witnesses told police that Peralta and Agriesti were yelling racist epithets at Calderon, who is a Latino.

Attack on pregnant woman may get worse for accused
- Suzanne Herel, Chronicle Staff Writer
Tuesday, July 26, 2005

Got an anonymous comment, just a URL and a "let me know what you think."

This sort of thing ALWAYS comes from a dick. Usually a dick that thinks it's clever and repeats old bullshit that's been dismissed so many times only a dick would believe it. So I didn't check the site. I only mention it so dicks know not to even bother.

It's because it's so easy it's boring. Check Powerline:

They Were Already Beneath Contempt...

...but now some Democrats have sunk lower. They are hinting that John Roberts is a homosexual because he was once photographed--more than thirty years ago--wearing plaid pants. You think I'm making this up?

Charmaine Yoest has the story. If you think that's contemptible, consider this: some on the Left have also suggested that Roberts' four year old son is "gay."

The direct challenge would be: show me a progressive that actually suggested this. Find me a blog that discusses the possibility of Justice Roberts being gay, as opposed to discussing right-wing blogs accusing progressives of such.

PBS SEGMENT

MR. MCLAUGHLIN: Issue four: NBA's nannies.

U.S. Army, yes. Pro basketball, forget about it; that's if you're 18. NBA Commissioner David Stern says if you're 18, you cannot play pro basketball. Two weeks ago, the NBA raised its minimum age for players to 19.

Lebron James, Kobe Bryant and Kevin Garnett -- all phenoms in their first year-- would have had their debuts postponed under the new rule. The president of the NBA Players Union challenged the new rule: "I can't understand why people think one is needed, except for the fact that the NBA is viewed as predominantly black."

Indiana Pacers' star forward Jermaine O'Neal was drafted by the NBA when he was 17. When he heard about the new rule, O'Neal was vexed: "As a black guy, you kind of think race is the reason why it's coming up. You don't hear about it in baseball or hockey. It's unconstitutional. If I can go to the U.S. Army and fight the war at 18, why can't I play basketball?"

Do you think it's okay for the Department of Defense to recruit 18-year-olds just out of high school, but the NBA forbids it?

Roberts Listed in Federalist Society '97-98 Directory
Court Nominee Said He Has No Memory of Membership
By Charles Lane
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, July 25, 2005; A01

Supreme Court nominee John G. Roberts Jr. has repeatedly said that he has no memory of belonging to the Federalist Society, but his name appears in the influential, conservative legal organization's 1997-1998 leadership directory.

Having served only two years on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit after a long career as a government and private-sector lawyer, Roberts has not amassed much of a public paper record that would show his judicial philosophy. Working with the Federalist Society would provide some clue of his sympathies. The organization keeps its membership rolls secret, but many key policymakers in the Bush administration are acknowledged current or former members.

William Raspberry is on the failing Black family again. And it's all about the absence of fathers.

Father absence is the bane of the black community, predisposing its children (boys especially, but increasingly girls as well) to school failure, criminal behavior and economic hardship, and to an intergenerational repetition of the grim cycle. The culprit, the ministers (led by the Rev. Eugene Rivers III of Boston, president of the Seymour Institute) agreed, is the decline of marriage.

The decline of marriage. Not the specific targeting of Black men for incarceration (nee slavery). That had nothing to do with it.

I am so tired of people just denying the obvious. Maybe this should be filed under "on Bullshit."

There's this mailing list called "Interesting People" that I get a forward from every few months. This one came from George at Negrophile...and there's more

Pattern of war
All wars and conflicts seem to generate a common and distinctive pattern of death statistics. Fifty years ago, the British mathematician Lewis Fry Richardson found that graphs of the number of fatalities in a war plotted against the number of wars of that size follow a relationship called a power law, where all the data points fall on a straight line if plotted logarithmically.

This power law encodes the way in which large battles with large numbers of deaths happen very infrequently, and smaller battles happen more often.

Recently, the same kind of power laws were found to hold for terrorist attacks over the past four decades or so. But the precise form of the power law depends on the type of country to which it relates. Terrorist attacks in Western industrialized nations are rare but tend to be large when they happen. Terrorist attacks in the less-industrialized world tend to be smaller, more frequent events.

Johnson says that the bomb attacks on London's public transport system on 7 July, in which more than 50 people were killed, fit this statistical picture. "They absolutely fall into line," he says.

In Iraq, the battle began as a conventional confrontation between large armies, says Spagat. But the presence of coalition forces "has fragmented the insurgency into a structure in which smaller attack units now predominate", he says. Since 2003, the 'casualties per attack event' for Iraq, measured over 30-day windows, have followed a gradually changing power law. The slope was initially equal to that found by Richardson for traditional warfare, but it is now approaching the value found for non-Western terrorism.

Quote of note:

There is a lesson to be learned in this collective shrug, and it isn't a pleasant one for investors. Put simply, it is that the odds of outguessing the stock market are steep.

There's another lesson as well: that all the reasons and argument had remarkably little to do with the actual mechanics of the market and everything to do with perceived self-interest.

Anyway...

So You Think You Can Outsmart the Market. Good Luck.
By MARK HULBERT

REMEMBER the debate about the accounting treatment of employee stock options?

The fight was intense. One side said that companies should be required to count options as expenses, in order to give a truer picture of profits, while the other said that such a move would lead to some companies' financial ruin. Well, the rules did change: the shifts were announced in December and took effect in June.

The stock market, however, has had remarkably little reaction to the enactment of the new rules.

Grover Norquist and crew are applying economic theory in the purest way they can think of to reduce unemployment. It's a classic supply and demand problem...not enough demand (jobs) to fully utilize the supply (people). And since this administration has tried SO hard to give the wealthy enough money to hire us all without any reduction in their own wealth or income without increasing the demand for workers, they've decided to take on the problem from the other direction: reduce the supply.

It's simple, really. If we engage enough people in the war effort (Conquest!), and under-equip enough of our soldiers (War!) we gain a significant reduction in unemployment. Now, having rendered the national budget non compos mentis, they move to do to the rest of the states what they've done to Colorado:

"Voluntary" participation. Self-"regulation." All terminology designed to let people get away with symbolic gestures rather than craft solutions...unless, of course, you recognize the problem being solved is the threat to their profit margin.

The only way "voluntary" controls work is if a penalty is assessed...just like all the other controls in the world.

Quote of note:

One senses that what really drives PhRMA nuts about Proposition 79 is a provision giving any customer the right to sue the drug companies for "profiteering." The industry understandably sees this provision as an invitation to massive litigation. It might explain by itself why the drug makers appear prepared to make the dueling prescription initiatives the focus of the most obscenely costly electoral campaign in state history.

Drug Firms' $50-Million California Prescription

When you do work for the government, who is your client...the sitting president or the government that is ostensibly of, for and by the people.

Quote of note:

Material that would come under attorney-client privilege would be withheld, Thompson said, calling it a principle followed by previous presidents of both political parties.

"We hope we don't get into a situation where documents are asked for that folks know will not be forthcoming and we get all hung up on that," Thompson told NBC's "Meet the Press."

Given that Roberts will have to recuse himself when the law doesn't match his faith, it may be a non-issue.

White House Won't Show All Roberts Papers
- By DOUGLASS K. DANIEL, Associated Press Writer
Sunday, July 24, 2005
(07-24) 23:52 PDT WASHINGTON (AP) --

Quote of note:

For years, Roberts has been carefully groomed for greater things, one of a new generation of post-Bork nominees, young conservatives who have been virtually raised on a hydroponic farm for flawless conservative fruit. They learned to confine their advocacy to legal briefs so that their true views are only known to the White House and to God.

Now, however, Roberts may have opened the door to the very questions that the White House sought to avoid with his nomination. If he would have to recuse himself before ruling contrary to his faith, the Senate is entitled to ask specifically how he would handle obvious conflicts on issues such as abortion and the death penalty.

The faith of John Roberts
By Jonathan Turley, Jonathan Turley is a law professor at George Washington University.

Via BBC, some streaming video (Real Media):

Eyewitness to the shooting

Follow up reporting on the victim.

In that second video a particular comment leapt out at me, that they don't know why he ran "particularly in such a sensitive time."

I can speculate.

A swarthy young is followed for several blocks by regular (and probably grim) looking guys. And he knows he looks close enough to Arab to catch hell..."particularly in such a sensitive time."

They try to catch his attention, he sees a gun and runs like hell.

Shot man not connected to bombing

A man shot dead by police hunting the bombers behind Thursday's London attacks was a Brazilian electrician unconnected to the incidents.

The man, who died at Stockwell Tube on Friday, has been named by police as Jean Charles de Menezes, 27.

Two other men have been arrested and are being questioned after bombers targeted three Tube trains and a bus.

Police also said a suspect package found in north-west London on Saturday may be linked to Thursday's attacks.

'Tragedy'

Scotland Yard said Mr Menezes, who lived in Brixton, south London, was completely unconnected to the bomb attacks and added: "For somebody to lose their life in such circumstances is a tragedy and one that the Metropolitan Police Service regrets."

Following a referral log link, I found myself on a Babel Fish generated German language version of P6. I don't know why it caught my attention, but i noticed in the upper right corner of the page

Lurking in the space between words and the topic under discussion

was translated as

Lauern im Wortzwischenraum und das Thema unter Diskussion

and I'm "There a German word for 'the space between words'?"

Since I was very conveniently viewing the Babel Fish site already, I checked and found 'Wortzwischenraum' means 'word gap'; I assume, with neither need nor intent to verify, that's typographical terminology. My German reader sees "Lurk in the word gap and the topic under discussion."

Nice line. It could work.

You know...

Because digital or blogospheric porch conversations are subject to constraints which would not apply in the real world setting, by interests unique to the digital rationale publicity site

I'm on the verge of asking you not to comment on anything you haven't thoroughly explored on Vision Circle. The impact on your traffic will convince you I'm right about this mysogyny repels.

On the porch, in the barbershop, or around the kitchen table, a free-wheeling discussion of Faheem Akuta's Blacktown.net website would - and most definitely has -taken place countless times without fear of recrimination.

you may be right. But on the porch you wouldn't be obnoxious.

Quote of note:

...most high-spending states rank near the bottom in quality of care, Medicare data show. Louisiana ranked 50th in quality yet first in Medicare spending in 2001, the most recent year available. New Hampshire was first in quality but 47th in spending.

Medicare acknowledges that its system rewards bad care.

Bad Practices Net Hospitals More Money
High Quality Often Loses Out In the 40-Year-Old Program
By Gilbert M. Gaul
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, July 24, 2005; A01
First of three parts

As far back as 1999, federal and state regulators began to receive complaints that the heart surgery unit at Palm Beach Gardens Medical Center in Florida was a breeding ground for germs.

Dust and dirt covered some surgical equipment. Trash cans and soiled linens were stored in hallways. IV pumps were spattered with dried blood. One patient's wife said she saw a medical assistant tear surgical tape with his teeth.

State inspectors in 2002 found "massive post operative infections" in the heart unit, requiring patients to undergo more surgery and lengthy hospital stays.

In a four-year period, 106 heart patients at Palm Beach Gardens developed infections after surgery, according to lawsuits and government records. More than two dozen were readmitted with fevers, pneumonia and serious blood infections. The lawsuits included 16 patients who died.

How did Medicare, the federal health insurance program for the elderly, respond?

It paid Palm Beach Gardens more.

Quote of note:

The main problems: Jobs were few and far between, getting from here to there was a major ordeal, and added personal burdens -- from health concerns to child care quandaries -- could derail even the most determined attempts welfare recipients might make at self-sufficiency.

Job Market in W.Va. Defies Efforts to Reform Welfare
By Evelyn Nieves
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, July 24, 2005; Page A03

...In the Central Appalachian coal country, where the land is famously rich and the people famously not, welfare caseloads are down, but poverty still flourishes. Since the 1996 welfare reform law, or Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, took effect, the rolls in West Virginia have dropped from 38,404 to fewer than 10,000. In general, the law -- which sets a five-year limit for receiving welfare and requires recipients to get an education, take job training or perform community service -- is considered a success. But in West Virginia, many former recipients are worse off than before, according to research by West Virginia University.

Bribe of note:

Food, trinkets, pens and coffee mugs were being handed out to the whole office staff, about 20 people including med students and doctors -- all courtesy of Merck & Co. And to the physician who was the number one prescriber of Vioxx in the entire region that year, a marketing rep of the company awarded a pair of Philadelphia Eagles season tickets.

These Gifts Are Bad for Our Health
By Stephen Cha
Sunday, July 24, 2005; B02
NEW HAVEN, Conn.

When it comes to accepting gifts from the marketing reps of pharmaceutical firms, the American College of Physicians-American Society of Internal Medicine suggests that its members apply a simple litmus test: "What would the public or [our] patients think of this arrangement?"

Quote of note:

We noticed that as the NGOs moved in, brand-new SUVs, most often driven by aid personnel or government officials, became a common sight in the streets of our capital, Asmara. We had no allocation in our national budget for such vehicles, so where were they coming from? Upon scrutiny, it became clear that they were being provided by the NGOs and other donors and given to our various government agencies. When we inquired, the NGO officials told us the vehicles had been purchased for travel to rural projects. But in fact they were being used almost exclusively in Asmara, a city with very well-paved roads. Each SUV cost roughly the equivalent of what it cost to build a rural primary school and used enough gas to pay a government official's monthly stipend. Though the NGOs protested fiercely, we pulled the SUVs off the streets and put them into a rural transportation pool to make them available to all who needed them.

We wanted the NGOs to complement the efforts made by our own people, to work in areas we considered priorities, to concentrate on doing what we could not do for ourselves, and to be accountable to us. So we instituted guidelines to make all this happen. The ensuing outrage made the SUV drama pale in comparison. NGOs are not used to letting the recipient nation take control.

In Africa, Just Help Us To Help Ourselves
By Gebreselassie Y. Tesfamichael
Sunday, July 24, 2005; Page B03