Max: Disturbing Revelation for a Winter's Night

If you strip away the progressive pretension from it, "Blue Collar Man" is a country song.

Max: Tru Geek

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Max: The Civil War In Four Minutes

The Civil War In Four Minutes

Max: What Will Happen When We Leave Iraq?

A surge of their own: Iraqis take back the streets

"I help to keep the peace so that I can row in peace, and that is my passion," said Muhammad, who asked that neither his real name nor that of his rowing club be used. "Now when I go out on the river, you can hear the birds and the hum of the generators. When I began it was only gunfire and bombs."

Muhammad is one of the thousands of young Baghdadi men to have joined neighbourhood security groups, which have mushroomed over the last year and are a crucial factor in the dramatic decline in civilian deaths. US soldiers call them "concerned local citizens"; Iraqis just call them sahwa (awakening) after the so-called Anbar awakening in western Iraq, which has seen Sunni tribal sheikhs take on foreign-led Islamists.

There are now an estimated 72,000 members in some 300 groups set up in 12 of Iraq's 18 provinces, and the numbers are growing. They are funded, but supposedly not armed, by the US military. "It is Iraq's own surge," said a western diplomat, "and it is certainly making a difference."

Max: Man Conquers Space

In this movie.

Max: Everything Mike Hukabee Isn't

He is a bass player, though. Do we really want a bass player as President?

Max: Pot - Threat or Menace?

Max: Fucking With Writers Is Dangerous

Max: Map Mystery

Centuries-Old Map Baffles Researchers

The map was created by the German monk Martin Waldseemuller. Thirteen years after Christopher Columbus first landed in the Western Hemisphere, the Duke of Lorraine brought Waldseemuller and a group of scholars together at a monastery in Saint-Die in France to create a new map of the world.

The result, published two years later, is stunningly accurate and surprisingly modern.

"The actual shape of South America is correct," said Hebert. "The width of South America at certain key points is correct within 70 miles of accuracy."

Given what Europeans are believed to have known about the world at the time, it should not have been possible for the mapmakers to produce it, he said.

The map gives a reasonably correct depiction of the west coast of South America. But according to history, Vasco Nunez de Balboa did not reach the Pacific by land until 1513, and Ferdinand Magellan did not round the southern tip of the continent until 1520.

Max: Fastest Growing City in the World

Jericho: Cool Pen!

A few months back, I was playing around with my four color Bic pen. I love that pen. But, I have to admit, I'm not a fan of the four chosen colors. Kinda boring, they are. Red, Blue, Green and Black. I use the Black all the time. The other three only get used if I'm doodling or making a point in my notes.

I have another four color pen, Foohy brand, made for the kid market. It has Lime Green, Magenta, Teal and Purple. Again, I use the Purple a bunch, but not the other colors.

So, what occurred to me was this: wouldn't it be cool if you could buy a pen that allowed you to add and remove colors?

Yup, someone has already done it. Pilot sells a pen in Japan under their HI-TEC-C brand called the Coleto. Check this out! It's an empty pen that you can fill with three colors. Or one color! Or whatever! They have like 10 colors. You can swap them on the fly if you wish. They also have three widths; .05, .04 and .03. You could have a pen, that was one color, but three different widths! It's insane!

I found the pen at a local store that carries Japanese pens, pencils and stationary. I made mine Black, Blue and Purple, all .03. Very cool! The only thing that would make it better would be if the barrel held four pens! The pen doesn't feel as sturdy as my Bic, but, the Bic is a Mac truck - this is an art-car!

Max: The Bass Player

Max: Glen Wool

Max: Blow Me!

Max: Nice Work if You Can Get It

Max: Shrub Getting Head

Disturbing

Max: Shrub - Liar or Moron?

Once again, Keith Olbermann is the only one who calls Shrub out for his crimes.

There are few choices more terrifying than the one Mr. Bush has left us with tonight.

We have either a president who is too dishonest to restrain himself from invoking World War III about Iran at least six weeks after he had to have known that the analogy would be fantastic, irresponsible hyperbole, or we have a president too transcendentally stupid not to have asked, at what now appears to have been a series of opportunities to do so, whether the fairy tales he either created or was fed were still even remotely plausible.

A pathological presidential liar, or an idiot-in-chief. It is the nightmare scenario of political science fiction: A critical juncture in our history and, contained in either answer, a president manifestly unfit to serve, and behind him in the vice presidency an unapologetic warmonger who has long been seeing a world visible only to himself.

Max: Land of the Free

Evidence Of Innocence Rejected at Guantanamo

Just months after U.S. Army troops whisked a German man from Pakistan to the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in 2002, his American captors concluded that he was not a terrorist.

"USA considers Murat Kurnaz's innocence to be proven," a German intelligence officer wrote that year in a memo to his colleagues. "He is to be released in approximately six to eight weeks."

But the 19-year-old student was not freed. Instead, over the next four years, two U.S. military tribunals that were responsible for determining whether Guantanamo Bay detainees were enemy fighters declared him a dangerous al-Qaeda ally who should remain in prison.

Max: Wheeze of the Week, Mate

Max: Groundhog Day After Taking The Brown Acid

Max: Some Fucked Up Shit

Max: Thought Criminals Are Doubleplusungood

No Charges Over Online Columbine Comment

Wisconsin teacher who posted an anonymous comment online sarcastically praising the Columbine High School gunmen won't face criminal charges, a prosecutor said Wednesday.

Washington County District Attorney Todd Martens said the comment left by James Buss was offensive and disgusting, but was protected speech under the state and U.S. constitutions.

Buss, 46, a high school chemistry teacher in suburban Milwaukee, was arrested by police last week for a Nov. 16 post on a conservative blog that covers Wisconsin politics.

During a discussion over teacher salaries, Buss wrote that Columbine killers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold "knew how to deal with the overpaid teacher union thugs. One shot at a time!" He added that the gunmen, who killed 12 students and one teacher in the April 1999 attack, should be remembered as heroes.

Max: Neat

Max: Court Says CA Cops Must Obey CA Law

Reason Magazine - Hit & Run > Cali Court to Nosy Cops: Don't Bogart

Some good news on the Drug War front -- a California state appeals court has ruled that the Garden Grove Police Department must return eight grams of pot officers seized from medical marijuana patient Felix Kha during a 2005 traffic stop, because Kha's prescription was legal under state law.

Max: Putting Airstrip One In Its Place

US says it has right to kidnap British citizens - Times Online

[The Bush Administration] has told Britain that it can “kidnap” British citizens if they are wanted for crimes in the United States. A senior lawyer for the American government has told the Court of Appeal in London that kidnapping foreign citizens is permissible under American law because the US Supreme Court has sanctioned it.

Jericho: Wanna be "dangerous"?

Read this article and laugh at George Bush!

According to the new estimates, Iran has stopped its nuke program. Even if it restarted its program, it wouldn't have enough enriched, weapons grade uranium until at least 2010, but probably closer to 2015.

However, enriched uranium could do more for the electrical power needs of that country than it could for building one, count'em, ONE bomb.

The Bush administration has repeatedly touted the joy and beauty that is nuclear power. But, when a country, who might have some questionable values and goals, gets enough enriched uranium to build a nuclear power plant, suddenly they are "dangerous". What? Did Haliburton lose the contract to build the plant?

I love this quote: "...Iran will be dangerous if they have the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon" - ummm, Dubya, buddy - that's not exactly top secret info any more. Fifty or sixty years ago, maybe. But not today!

So, just to make sure that we are all "dangerous" - here is all the info you will need to build a nuclear bomb. That's right! If you read the previous link, you will have "the knowledge". You won't have enough fissionable materials - but neither does Iran - so you, too, can be a rogue state and a future nuclear power!

If you can obtain some fissionable material, either from a friendly rogue state, a friendly rogue U.S. agency or your local University - you, too, can join the Nuclear Club.

Dubya, pal, have a look at the Internet some time. The truth is out there.

Max: School House Cock