May 26, 2004
The big pants were a dead giveaway
Shocking news, y'all.
Spanky the Clown has been arrested on child pornography charges. Nambla the Strongman and Buttfuck the Lion Tamer are also under suspicion.
(Hat tip to FlipExpress, formerly Delusional Duck, formerly Phillip Coons, formerly Delusional Duck again. I'm waiting a week before I change my blogroll ;-)
Posted by: Jim at
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ok, wait... I just got that. about the pants? eww.
Posted by: Claire at May 26, 2004 10:46 PM (l1oyw)
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See, Claire? The true secret of comedy isn't timing, it's placement! :-)
Posted by: Jim at May 27, 2004 04:59 AM (saeHM)
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May 25, 2004
A profile of torture
I've found the story of one torture victim and it truly is horrible. Here are the
highlowlights:
... forcing him to strip, eat chalk, and chew cigarette ends.
They are accused of a wide range of offences including causing bodily harm and coercion over beatings inflicted on the victim from September last year.
Prosecutors say the victim's [peers] knew about or were involved in what they call the "systematic torture" that began two weeks after he arrived at the institution.
The alleged acts include forcing the [victim] to expose his genitals, and punching or beating him with objects including sticks and a screwdriver.
The alleged abusers videotaped their actions...some of the pictures were distributed on the internet.
Prosecutors say the [alleged abusers] have all confessed but one of the defence lawyers...said none had been able to explain why they acted as they did.
The four alleged ringleaders have been in custody since early February.
...
The victim, who is undergoing therapy, was not present for Tuesday's hearing but has been asked to give evidence next week.
And if that's what the Europeans are doing at their vocational schools then God only knows what they're doing in their prisons.
The students, aged 16 to 18, allegedly beat and kicked their 17-year-old victim...
They were all students at a vocational school in Hildesheim, near Hanover, on a one-year course to prepare them for jobs.
(Hat tip to Angelfire)
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Oh ...wait. it's ok - they're Germans.
Posted by: Claire at May 25, 2004 04:48 PM (l1oyw)
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Wow! and I thought this shit only happened in Iraq-and oh yeah...Texass.
What's that grinding sound???
Posted by: rob at May 25, 2004 08:50 PM (5cPts)
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Holly SHIT!I am NOT kidding you...I WENT to that school for a while!
I never encountered such behavior there (accept for the occational flushing of someones head in the toillet:-).Its one of the BETTER schools,or at least it used to be....told ya Germany is ROTTEN!
An uhm....they spelled Hannover wrong,its supposed to be with TWO N's.
Posted by: LW at May 25, 2004 11:20 PM (saeHM)
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The Horror! Where's the outrage?
Posted by: Madfish Willie at May 26, 2004 12:16 PM (rQ9MS)
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May 24, 2004
I despise judicial activism and Congressional idiocy
Judges are supposed to have absolutely no place in creating laws. The way its supposed to work is that the Legislature makes laws, the Executive (Pres) enforces laws and the Judiciary makes sure that the laws are legal. That's worked really well for a very long time.
Judicial activism is what happens when rulings from the bench create de facto laws. By blatant abuse of their powers, judges take on the properties of the Executive and the Legislature. This is bad. What you have here is the body that is supposed to be a check against the creation of bad laws acting AS a body creating laws. You also get the beginnings of an oligarchy as the 9 unelected members of the Supreme Court (appointed for life, remember) become the first word on laws as well as the last word.
So judicial activism is a very bad thing and it must be stopped. The Legislature has a plan that nominally addresses the problem on the way to doubling it. The Congressional Accountability for Judicial Activism Act of 2004 would let them overturn Judicial decisions.
Let's review - the problem is that the Judiciary is using assumed powers to create laws. Congress' answer is to grant themselves veto power over the Judiciary. Put another way, in order to stop the Judiciary from creating as well as judging laws, Congress wants to give themselves the exact same set of powers.
Fucking morons.
(Hat tip to Dopple-G)
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Posted by: pylorns at May 24, 2004 01:45 PM (FTYER)
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Article 1, Section 1 of the US Constitution states:
All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.
Article 3, Section 2 of the US Constitution states:
The judicial power shall extend to all cases, in law and equity, arising under this Constitution, the laws of the United States, and treaties made, or which shall be made, under their authority.
It doesn't get much simpler than that. Yet somehow we have a bunch of idiots in power who think we're a bunch of idiots.
Posted by: Clancy at May 25, 2004 12:59 PM (EGVPL)
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Wait. We're NOT idiots?
Who put this on my forehead? I want names!
Posted by: Trey Givens at May 26, 2004 10:45 PM (yqaQ9)
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May 20, 2004
That's MUCH better!
Thanks to
new FTC rules, porno spam now has to have "SEXUALLY EXPLICIT" in the subject line.
Now instead of "Hungry teen wants your hot cock in her cornhole"
you'll get "Hungry teen wants your hot cock in her cornhole (SEXUALLY EXPLICIT)".
(Hat tip to Lovely Wife)
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May 19, 2004
Googol vs. Google
A googol is a number followed by one hundred zeros. The word was created by Professor Edward Kasner in the 1930s and used in a book of his in 1940. Kasner's descendants are getting
set to battle Google, saying that the US-based company profited at their expense.
Personally I think that Google does incorporate the theory of googol in their site. When you get a search return you get a "Gooooooooooogle" at the bottom of the page where each "o" is a link to a results page. It seems pretty obvious that these are in tribute to the many zeros in a googol. But does this constitute financial gain at the expense of the family? Intellectual property experts don't seem to think so.
"It would be an uphill struggle to try to assert any legitimate claim," said David Gourlay, a senior associate at the Dundas and Wilson Technology Group.
Gillian Cameron, a partner in the intellectual property and technology department at Maclay, Murray & Spens, said: "They would have to show the family had used the word as a trademark and it had somehow been misappropriated, which doesnÂ’t appear to be the case.
"Or they could argue that Google were piggy-backing on the goodwill of the mathematician, and somehow people associated googol with Mr Kasner," he added. "Again, this would be doubtful.
Kasner was an intelligent and middlingly successful mathematician who's single claim to fame is the description of a number that is never used except as an example of a really big number. The only problem being, of course, that he didn't get famous for it. Could anybody have named Kasner as the creator of "googol" before reading this?
I think the Kasner clan needs to sit down and stifle.
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Ooh Ooh, that company over there is very succesful and has loads of money. We have a tenuous basis for a law suit ... can we sue them please, can we, can we huh?
I'm almost considering encouraging the lawsuit. When Google's lawyers have finished savaging the Kasner family they should just have enough money left to get the bus home.
Posted by: Rob at May 19, 2004 06:57 AM (kXZI6)
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May 18, 2004
Follow the leader: Israel knows how to handle things.
You know that fence that Israel is building? The one that a certain [*cough* Arab *cough*] segment of the world population keeps crying about? The one that Israel says will save the lives of its civilians from Palestinian explodikazis but its detractors [*cough* United Nations *cough*] say is some sort of land grab? Yeah, that one.
Turns out it's working really well.
Which begs the question - would Israel be willing to help us to engineer a fence for Falluja?
(Hat tip to Meryl Yourish)
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Ah, but YOU have "show comments", which pop up on the same page! You get a dispensation for that....

(Though I STILL hate having to go back again after I've commented....)
Posted by: Susie at May 18, 2004 03:05 PM (SmnTx)
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Questioning Nick Berg
UPDATED: 18 May 2004
UPDATED: 17 May 2004
UPDATED: 16 May 2004
Comments have been closed.
My point has been made and I have no desire to keep dwelling on this particular horror. All of the crap being bandied about can be explained in reasonable terms without any conspiracy theory foolishness necessary.
If you have something that you believe proves something weird or odd or whatever other euphemism you choose to use then apply Occam's Razor to your supposition. If you cannot come up with a simple reason for whatever it is then contact the New York Times or a therapist. One or the other will be able to help you.
Sorry if this offends but I'm finding the continued curiosity to be somewhat macabre and disturbing and I want no part of it.
more...
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I have a question!
Who is that Paul guy over at Wizbang!, and how can I persuade Kevin to drop him as a contributor?
Reading that comment thread turned my stomach.
Regarding the contractor thing: I've known a couple guys like Nick Berg. They were the kinds of guys who went to Alaska without jobs after the Valdez and figured they'd make a killing either helping to clean it up, or providing services to the cleaner-uppers . . . the kinds of guys who just carpe diem on stuff like that, who dive right in. The guys everyone else thinks are crazy.
But there was more about his day-to-day habits and work stuff in the Telegraph piece Meryl linked last night (second post, link reads "news you're not getting"). If you haven't already, you may want to check it out.
Posted by: ilyka at May 14, 2004 11:40 AM (T8/Db)
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Fantastic article. Can't believe I missed that one. I've got to slow down a little bit.
Posted by: Jim at May 14, 2004 01:07 PM (IOwam)
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He was released after his family filed a lawsuit in the US saying he was being held illegally by American forces.
Is it not equally "moon bat" to believe the implications of this paragraph, taken from The Telegraph story?
Posted by: Venomous Kate at May 14, 2004 02:41 PM (YvEJI)
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Yup. Answered it in the post, Kate.
Posted by: Jim at May 14, 2004 02:56 PM (IOwam)
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Interesting comments. Only thing I would quibble with is "He was a Jew and his passport reflected that."
Yes, indeed, he was Jewish, but American passports don't indicate the bearer's religion. And lots of American Christians would have Israeli stamps on their passports (even ones who don't support Israel only because they think it will bring about the End of Days).
Posted by: adamg at May 14, 2004 03:06 PM (rGKuR)
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Hey, to throw another link at you (but for pity's sake don't feel obligated to update this! I'm not trying to be a pest, it just comes naturally!), I noticed Judith Weiss has a whole collection of them in this post:
http://www.hfienberg.com/kesher/2004_05_09_kesher_archive.html#108437293586794858
Contrary to the "and he was carrying anti-Semitic literature" line, one of the links claims he was actually becoming a more observant Jew.
I haven't finished reading them all yet myself. Just FYI for you and anyone else who may be interested.
Posted by: ilyka at May 14, 2004 05:07 PM (BSlpz)
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Why do you think the video was edited exactly at the point where the figure in the middle was about to slash Nick Berg's throat?
Why do we hear what appeared to be a woman's scream several seconds before this gruesome act took place?
Did you notice the body language of the figure on the right of the screen? At one point, he has his finger "off" the trigger, which reminded me of the picture of Elian Gonzalez when the feds came in to get him. (just observing... not attempting to form a "moonbat" theory)
Nick claimed that he could build a computer from cardboard and wires. He also stated in emails that he had setup an email account for a relative by marriage in Iraq during his time there. Why would he not setup a free account for Moussaoui? Why would he allowed unfettered access by a person he has just met?
If the government had cleared Berg of any involvement (excepting a chance meeting) with Moussouai, why did they visit the Berg family residence 3 times during his confinement in Mosul?
Posted by: More Questions at May 15, 2004 07:34 PM (5VL9k)
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I've answered
More Questions in a post update.
Posted by: Jim at May 16, 2004 08:30 AM (saeHM)
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"I can very easily see letting somebody borrow my laptop if they asked to check their Hotmail account"
Agreed, but would you give that person the password to your own account? Or as you've stated, you would allow them access to check their *own* account. (or set one up for them)
If you recall, it was the password that was the important key element here.
Re: the video editing... Jim, if you can stomach it, watch it again. At the precise moment after they pushed Nick to the floor, the video is edited and the clock on the right side of the screen changes time. There may be an explanation for this, but it seems that the video was at the same location, running continously until this point. (4 plus minutes)
Sidenote: This was a horrific act of barbarity. My own personal feelings are that Nick had no idea what he had gotten himself into until the absolute last moments of his life. As we've read from news accounts, friends and family members, he was an adventurer and looked at forward to experiencing life to the fullest.
Posted by: More Questions at May 16, 2004 12:01 PM (5VL9k)
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I explain the video clock (and "11 hour gap") questions
here, and make a good case that there were 2 cameras used during the filming.
Posted by: dorkafork at May 16, 2004 12:25 PM (d8Baf)
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Sorry to be a pest Jim, but your explanation of Nick's scream is a stretch...
The scream begins as the hooded figure removes the knife. Nick was looking towards the camera and did not move until he was kneed to the ground. Unless there was a mirror that he was looking in, he had no way to realize the actions behind him.
Watch the video again. Until then, any comments on your part is purely conjecture and speculation. (with all due respect)
Posted by: More Questions at May 17, 2004 11:58 AM (5VL9k)
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dorkafork... I appreciate the explanation, but the main problem I have with the video is the timing of the edit. The alleged first camera runs continuously for 4 plus minutes and then when it appears they are about to behead, the camera switches.
I just find it curious about the timing.
Again, this is a horrific act which Nick Berg did not deserve.
Posted by: More Questions at May 17, 2004 12:05 PM (5VL9k)
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Who is going to bitch slap Michael Berg for whining and blaming everyone else for his son's misfortune. He's pathetic or maybe he is too intellectually challenged to realize that Iraq is a WAR ZONE!!!!!!
It really rubs me wrong to hear idiots complain about what everyone else is doing to them. Grow some balls Michael Berg....or just shut up. Your kid made a fatal decision.....deal with it.
Posted by: Kevin at May 17, 2004 12:38 PM (EhHfi)
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Regarding the computer password, we just don't have the information on what happened during that meeting. Maybe Nick was overconfident with his security. Maybe he had a text file called "passwords" on his desktop (don't laugh - I was a network admin and I've seen it more than once). The only real inferential data we have is that the pros who investigate this stuff for a living cleared him of suspicion.
More Questions - The sound is ahead of the video so it could certainly be Nick's scream on audio before Nick reacts on the video. If it wasn't Nick then it could have been one of the murderers. They take quite a bit of pride in screaming.
About the last thing that it could be would be a woman screaming. These are Wahabi Islamites. Women are not permitted to see a goat get sacrificed; there's no way in the world they would let one see a beheading.
Posted by: Jim at May 17, 2004 12:43 PM (IOwam)
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please someone bitch slap micheal berg...
Posted by: pylorns at May 17, 2004 01:44 PM (FTYER)
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Man...let go of it.I have already enough nightmares about this shit WITHOUT that I EVER saw the video,read the whole news about it or know any of the juicy details everyone apears to be so proud about knowing them.I don't need to see this HERE where I generally go to get a good laugh about some kind of idiocy!!
Not nice JIM!
But besides all this....who gives a shit about whats all arround his death?I mean honestly,the way he got mocked is BAD.Period.No matter what else is behind it,fact it,he got butchered in DELIGHT.But now....everyone seems to enjoy watching this shit and bragging about it.Why the fuck would one volutairly turture himself and watch this??????
Man...thats just as SICK!
Sorry but....I am not going to take another look on Snoozebutton untill this crap has diapeared way,way,way into the archive!
Sorry.
Posted by: LW at May 17, 2004 04:51 PM (saeHM)
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How can this be explained?
http://hellenes.iwarp.com/whats_new.files/image002.jpg
The following text is borrowed from hellenes.iwarp.com)
Look at the photograph above, which exists in the video of Nick Berg's
beheading. By mistake, in the right side you can see a person sitting with
his hands in the pockets (and an apparent belly) of a beige pair of pants,
wearing a khaki colored blouse, watching.
Posted by: sara at May 18, 2004 09:16 AM (fA0Uy)
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First, I don't see anybody sitting with a belly and their hands in their pockets. Second, so what if there was somebody there? Does it really shock anybody that these animals would have spectators present?
Posted by: Jim at May 18, 2004 10:25 AM (IOwam)
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May 14, 2004
Caveat emptor!
So, is £115.00 a lot to pay for an empty
X-Box box? The winner of that auction seems to think so:
never buy anything from this f**king w**ker £120 for a box
The seller has little sympathy for the careless bidder and, strangely enough, neither do I. May the buyer beware!
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May 13, 2004
This is why I love Georgia so much
Even our racist assholes have some redeeming qualities.
Six Men Sentenced in Cross Burning
ROME, Ga. (AP) -- A federal judge sentenced six men to prison terms ranging from six months to 46 months Friday for burning a cross in the yard of a woman whose daughter was romantically involved with a black man.
Jerrell Timothy Garner, Stacy Paul Jones, Steven Garland Jones, Jeremy Ray Sims, Eric Shane Sullivan and Billy Richards Wells -- all of Trenton -- pleaded guilty Feb. 23 to conspiracy to deprive civil rights.
They still burn crosses? What's up with that? I never understood how a supposedly militant christian could rationalize torching the symbol of their church. Anyway, the redeeming part is here:
Sims and the Jones brothers made the cross and placed it at the foot of Eva Hurst's driveway in Sand Mountain on Nov. 5. They lit the cross and left, then worried that the flames might spread to a nearby tinder-dry forest, so Sullivan called 911.
I'm not sure if the redeemable part is that they were concerned enough about the possibility of a fire to turn themselves in to prevent it or that they were so stupid that they turned themselves in when they had gotten away scott free. Given that they lit up the cross next to the tinder dry forest in the first place I'm going to go with the "stupid" option for now.
(Hat tip to Lovely Wife)
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Awww, that is so SWEET! Those loveable, tree-hugging Nazi bastards.
Thanks for the touching story! Wow, they may have saved some endangered animals or something.
Posted by: rick at May 13, 2004 04:20 PM (oA/Vb)
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Tree-hugger skinheads! I never cease to be amazed by the eclectic mix that is America.
Posted by: Velociman at May 13, 2004 10:21 PM (CzA79)
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More discussion here: http://www.treygivens.com/2003/12/31/1617/
My favorite part is the transmission fluid, though
Posted by: Trey Givens at May 14, 2004 01:07 PM (JmLrk)
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May 11, 2004
Speedy Gonzales knows my seester.
Speedy Gonzales knows everybody's seester.
Check out this drop dead headline from Finance Asia.
And just in case somebody who knows English as a primary language tells them about it and they change it, I made a screenshot.
(Hat tip to Dopple-G)
(Hey...where's all the guest posters?)
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May 06, 2004
No, it wasn't the same as hazing
Rush isn't the only one, just the most prominent. Some people are comparing what was done in the Abu Ghraib prison to fraternity hazing. Here's
Rush Limbaugh's comment:
This is no different than what happens at the skull and bones initiation and we're going to ruin people's lives over it and we're going to hamper our military effort, and then we are going to really hammer them because they had a good time.
Granted, some of the pictures sure do look like what you'd see during pledge week. Guys stripped naked with a hood on, made to whack off or form a human pyramid while the Greeks ridicule them. In fact, if that ubiquitous female soldier that appears in so many of the pictures pointing at various cocks was a guy wearing a shirt with Greek letters on it you would have no problem believing the pics were shot at an ivy league school in the USA.
But it wasn't hazing. It was torture. It does not matter if the exact same things were done to those prisoners as the local chapter of Lamda Delta Phi does to their pledges. The two things are completely different. They are different in the same way that loaning your buddy $50 is different from being robbed at gunpoint. One is voluntary, the other is forced under threat of death.
If you can't see the difference between "If you want to get invited to the best keggers for the next four years you better put this hood on and jerk off on your buddy" and "Climb on your naked buddy's back or I will shove this probe up your ass and shock your genitals until they burn" then you need a serious reality check. Or a nationally broadcast radio show.
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I hate him. Fatuous asshole. And he wonders why he received so little sympathy for his OxyContin and Vicodin habit?
It's because he never gives any sympathy OUT.
Thanks for making the Left's arguments against this war for them, Rush. Oh: You didn't realize you were doing that? Well, you are.
Posted by: ilyka at May 06, 2004 12:19 PM (Hi8vN)
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I concur, Dad loves Rush, but i personally cannot stand the pompous windbag. He is at the fore of right- wingers and he is helping to promote all of the negative stereotypes that he rails so hard against. He needs to try to order someone else's dog around to let him know that he is not always right and not the highest form of life (insert substance abuse joke here) on the planet. Grrrr.
Posted by: tommy at May 06, 2004 01:12 PM (v0EoW)
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