Bomb suspect 'pleasant, polite'

Whenever an abomination is arrested there's a ritual dance that takes place between the neighbors of the aforesaid creature and members of the media. The media ask insipid questions such as; "So what was he like?" and the neighbors respond with the compulsory "He was such a nice man."

It's utter hooey, of course. The neighbors are never, ever going to say "Well... there was that one time he kept us awake all night throwing kittens into his wood chipper..." I think it's a dignity issue. Nobody likes to look stupid (though personally, I find I've gotten used to it) so instead of saying the truth and facing pointed follow-up questions with embarrassing answers they stick to the cliches. Sorta like professional baseball players.

Below is a snippet on the latest abortion clinic bomber:

Bomb suspect 'pleasant, polite': "Before Evans went on the 2002 crime spree that some Lufkin police still remember — it included holdups of a convenience store and a Whataburger — he lived with his mother and younger brother in a quiet neighborhood shaded by towering pine trees, according to public records and neighbor Paula Legg.

'They were really good people,' Legg said. 'Her little boy, he played baseball. They were just a normal family.'

Evans' mother, Susan Nabors, and her younger son moved in 2002 to a newer house across town, according to neighbors and public records.

People on the neatly kept street, with lawns thick with St. Augustine grass and small flower beds, recalled that Evans had lived regularly with his mother until recent months. They described him as pleasant and polite and said he mowed his mother's lawn."

The Bay Area Reporter Online | Defender of abstinence resigns amid allegations of prostitution

The Bay Area Reporter Online | Defender of abstinence resigns amid allegations of prostitution: "One of the primary defenders of the Bush administration's international abstinence only until marriage HIV prevention program has resigned after his personal cell phone number turned up on the list of a high class escort service.

Randall L. Tobias, 65, was the former head of the pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly and was named to lead the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief initiative in July 2003. He was put in charge of all international assistance programs for the U.S. government in January 2006."

Tobias has actually enforced a policy requiring contractors and grantees to condemn prostitution. This has quite naturally hampered the ability of these organizations to reach out to prostitutes. Prostitutes like the people he himself patronized.

Vatican calls verbal attack on Pope "terrorism"|International News|Reuters.com

Vatican calls verbal attack on Pope "terrorism"�|�International News�|�Reuters.com: "ROME (Reuters) - The Vatican's official newspaper accused an Italian comedian on Wednesday of 'terrorism' for criticizing the Pope and warned his rhetoric could fuel a return to 1970s-style political violence.

In an unusually strongly worded editorial, L'Osservatore Romano said a presenter of a televised May Day rock concert, which is sponsored by Italy's labor unions, had launched 'vile attacks' on Pope Benedict in front of an 'excitable crowd'.

'This, too, is terrorism. It's terrorism to launch attacks on the Church,' it said. 'It's terrorism to stoke blind and irrational rage against someone who always speaks in the name of love, love for life and love for man.'"

Actually, no it's not terrorism. It's criticism. Big difference. If you're going to play with the big boys and use your belief system to influence laws, scientific research and school curricula then you're open to criticism.

First seen on Culture Wars.

President Bush Discusses War on Terror, Economy with Associated General Contractors of America

President Bush Discusses War on Terror, Economy with Associated General Contractors of America: "By the way, in the report it said, it is -- the government may have to put in more troops to be able to get to that position. And that's what we do. We put in more troops to get to a position where we can be in some other place. The question is, who ought to make that decision? The Congress or the commanders? And as you know, my position is clear -- I'm the commander guy."[emphasis added]

At Hearing in Iraq, U.S. Colonel Is Cast As Flouter of Rules - washingtonpost.com

At Hearing in Iraq, U.S. Colonel Is Cast As Flouter of Rules - washingtonpost.com: "BAGHDAD, May 1 -- Witnesses testifying at a hearing here Tuesday said a senior U.S. Army officer accused of aiding the enemy kept top-secret papers at his base residence, allowed child detainees to make unmonitored calls on his cellphone and provided former president Saddam Hussein with Cuban cigars at taxpayer expense."

I'm really not sure where this is going. Lt. Colonel Steele is charged under Article 104 "Aiding the Enemy" of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Article 104 is a no-kidding death penalty offense. Whereas your typical murderer kills one person, someone guilty of Article 104 offenses could quite literally be responsible for the deaths of hundreds.

In light of that, I'm really confused at the carnival atmosphere of Lt Colonel Steele's Article 32 hearing (military analog of a Grand Jury). It sounds like he shtupped his interpreter; are we caring about that? He may have give Cuban cigars to Saddam Hussein; are we caring about that? He mishandled over 18,000 classified documents, possibly a new record, but unless we believe that led to compromise of the information contained in them the offense speaks more to character than criminality.

The meat of the charge, giving aid to the enemy seems to be centered around giving prisoners unsupervised/unmonitored access to a cellular phone. Camp Cropper is a complex place. Some of the prisoners there are very, very bad men. Some of the prisoners are MAMs, Military Aged Males, who got caught up in a roundup. All the MAMs want to do is go home. Problem is, now that we've caged them up with the bad guys, the bad guys have influence over them. So nobody, no matter how innocent they are, can be trusted. Lt Colonel Steele demonstrated horrifically bad judgment in allowing unsupervised/unmonitored communication out of his facility.

Additionally, the charge of fraternizing with the daughter of one of his prisoners is extremely serious. This is because of the enormous amount of power that Lt Colonel Steele wielded in his position as Camp Commander. Even if his intentions were totally innocent, there is just no way that an unprofessional relationship with the relative of one of his prisoners should have been allowed to develop.

So I'm confused. I don't see how giving cigars to a prisoner warrants discussion at an Article 32 hearing for a capital offense. I do not know what Lt Colonel Steele thought he was doing during his tenure on Camp Cropper. If he takes the opportunity to explain his actions, I'd be interested to hear his side. In the mean time, it's a good thing that he's no longer in charge of anything or anyone.

Why I don't do well in the bar scene...

I'm a huge nerd. I'm a nerd that has gone places and had adventures, but I'm a nerd.

The correct response when a woman brings up the apparent accuracy of her horoscope is "It's uncanny, isn't it?" The answer is not "You believe that crap? You know, there are thirteen zodiac constellations, not twelve... *snort* ... and because of precession of the poles the classic twelve are off by over a month and... *snort* ... anyway..." Also excitedly waving your hands around while you explain things frightens the normal people.

So anyhow, a friend of mine sent me this picture of her latest tattoo. I genuinely had to ask what it was. I learned it was her sign. So I sent her the table below off of NASA's kids site. My advice was to take her tattoo back and get the right one. (Follow the link for the full table, I trimmed a column off this one.)

Constellation	Dates
Sagittarius	Dec 18 - Jan 18
Capricornus	Jan 19 - Feb 15
Aquarius	Feb 16 - Mar 11
Pisces	Mar 12 - Apr 18
Aries	Apr 19 - May 13
Taurus	May 14 - Jun 19
Gemini	Jun 20 - Jul 20
Cancer	Jul 21 - Aug 9
Leo	Aug 10 - Sep 15
Virgo	Sep 16 - Oct 30
Libra	Oct 31 - Nov 22
Scorpius	Nov 23 - Nov 29
Ophiuchus	Nov 30 - Dec 17

Iraq's al-Qa'ida head killed | News | The Australian

Iraq's al-Qa'ida head killed | News | The Australian: "THE leader of al-Qai'da in Iraq, Abu Ayyub al-Masri, was killed today in an internal fight between insurgents north of Baghdad, the Interior Ministry spokesman said."

Well, saved the taxpayers the cost of a JDAM. Otherwise, nothing to be excited about.