petsoncrack.org

Amnesty International: Absurd except when it isn't

As the folks at Think Progress note, the Bush administration has been more than happy to rely on Amnesty International's work when it's politically expedient -- say, to make the case for invading Iraq. But it's a different story now that Amnesty International has turned its attention to abuses by the United States.

Fighting off a sudden case of lame-duckness, George W. Bush held a press conference this morning in the White House Rose Garden, where he was asked about Amnesty's new report detailing allegations of abuse of detainees at Guantanamo Bay. The president's response: "It's absurd. It's an absurd allegation. The United States is a country that promotes freedom around the world."

Bush said that the allegations were made by people -- and we're assuming that he was talking about the detainees, not Amnesty -- "who hate America." That much may be true, but it doesn't make their allegations false.

-- Tim Grieve

Top Ten Favorite Words (Not in the Dictionary)

according to merriam-webster online:

1. ginormous (adj): bigger than gigantic and bigger than enormous

2. confuzzled (adj): confused and puzzled at the same time

3. woot (interj): an exclamation of joy or excitement

4. chillax (v): chill out/relax, hang out with friends

5. cognitive displaysia (n): the feeling you have before you even leave the house that you are going to forget something and not remember it until you're on the highway

6. gription (n): the purchase gained by friction: "My car needs new tires because the old ones have lost their gription."

7. phonecrastinate (v): to put off answering the phone until caller ID displays the incoming name and number

8. slickery (adj): having a surface that is wet and icy

9. snirt (n): snow that is dirty, often seen by the side of roads and parking lots that have been plowed

10. lingweenie (n): a person incapable of producing neologisms

Star Wars III Easter Egg Hunt...

Happy Sunday morning everyone, I hope everyone is enjoying thier Memorial Day weekend.  I just came accross this 'Star Wars III Easter Egg hunt' via blogsnow.com.  I haven't seen the movie yet, and my torrent download of the movie is just a few percent completed, but I've heard it's supposed to be really good movie, alot better than the last two. Hmm... maybe E.T. has made another cameo in this movie, that would be totally kick-ass! I have a pretty busy week lined up, gonna see NIN tomorrow in San Diego, starting my student teaching at a elementary school in Santa Ana, alot of tutoring w/ two students also from Santa Ana, gonna see A Prarie Home Companion this Friday, and supposed to stay a night in Mexico this weekend... Oh and get my car's clutch fixed this weekend.... wish me luck!

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Church Sign: "The Koran Needs To Be Flushed"

This sign posted in front of Danieltown Baptist Church has sparked debate in Rutherford County about religious tolerance.

By JOSH HUMPHRIES Daily Courier Staff Writer

FOREST CITY -- A sign in front of a Baptist church on one of the most traveled highways in the county stirred controversy over religious tolerance and first-amendment rights this weekend.

A sign in front of Danieltown Baptist Church, located at 2361 U.S. 221 south reads "The Koran needs to be flushed," and the Rev. Creighton Lovelace, pastor of the church, is not apologizing for the display.

"I believe that it is a statement supporting the word of God and that it (the Bible) is above all and that any other religious book that does not teach Christ as savior and lord as the 66 books of the Bible teaches it, is wrong," said Lovelace. "I knew that whenever we decided to put that sign up that there would be people who wouldn't agree with it, and there would be some that would, and so we just have to stand up for what's right."

Seema Riley, a Muslim, who was born in Pakistan and reared in New York, was one of those upset by the sign.

She moved to Rutherford County for the "small town friendly" atmosphere, she said. When she saw the sign on the side of the highway Saturday she felt angered and threatened.

"We need a certain degree of tolerance," said Riley. "That sign doesn't really reflect what I think this county is about." read more...

Teamsters on strike at Coca Cola plants in Los Angeles and Conn.

By SCOTT LEITH
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 05/24/05

Coca-Cola Enterprises was hit with a strike Monday by about 2,000 workers in Los Angeles and Hartford, Conn., just as the Atlanta-based bottler prepares for Memorial Day — one of the most important weekends of the year for soft drink sales.

Teamsters union members are jousting with CCE over health care costs.

"Our members don't deserve to be saddled with increased health care costs while executives at Coke are still doled out expensive perks," said Jack Cipriani, director of the Teamsters Brewery and Soft Drink Workers Conference. "This is the beginning of a long, hot summer."

Bob Phillips, spokesman for Coca-Cola Bottling Company of Southern California, a unit of CCE, said the company made a fair offer.

"We're disappointed that they've decided not to accept," he said.

Teamsters spokesman Galen Munroe said the strike involves about 400 workers in Connecticut and 1,750 in Los Angeles.

Phillips, however, said there are about 1,600 strikers in L.A. They include production staffers, warehouse workers and truck drivers. read more...

		Burger King's 'Star Wars' tie-in is the fast-food chain's first global promotion.
		By Rene Alston, USA TODAY

One day after a record-shattering weekend for Star Wars, Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, an advocacy group is asking Burger King to stop the tie-in of its Kids Meals with the film because it is rated PG-13.

The same group, Dove Foundation, got McDonald's 13 years ago to apologize for "confusion" from its promotion of PG-13 Batman Returns with Happy Meals. Now, it's going after BK's latest Kids Meal promotion targeted at kids ages 4 to 9. The meals feature characters from Sith or other Star Wars films.

"When Burger King puts that in a Kids Meal, there's an implicit endorsement of the movie," says Dick Rolfe, chairman of Dove Foundation.

This is no small matter. Product licensing and promotion is a $100 million annual business. Since the first Star Wars was released in 1977, the six films have racked up almost $9 billion in merchandise sales and product promotions. read more...

Rift over recruiting at public high schools

		ANY TAKERS? Army Staff Sgt. Christian Marsh watched a wave of students pass by at the Edmonds-Woodway High School in Edmonds, Wash. Recruiters are struggling to meet enlistment numbers. DAN DELONG/SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER/AP/FILE

How to order food in a restaurant

posted May 18, 2005 at 10:57 am

When you're out to eat with friends and family, it can be challenging to decide what to order off the menu. There are often too many choices on the menu, everything sounds good, nothing sounds good, you're unfamiliar with a particular type of cuisine, you'd like have what that woman over there is having but you don't know what that is, etc. etc.

-- Julia Scott

[15:48 EDT, May 18, 2005]

-- Page Rockwell

[18:36 EDT, May 18, 2005]

Lawmakers introduce a bill to make the retailer cover the costs for more of its employees so the state won't have to foot the bill.

By Amy Worden

Inquirer Harrisburg Bureau

Posted on Mon, May. 16, 2005

Two Fronts in the War on Poverty

Bush's 2006 budget proposed slashing public housing subsidies, food stamps, energy assistance, community development, social services and community services block grants.

By Michael A. Fletcher

Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, May 17, 2005; Page A01

BALTIMORE -- Jacquelyn D. Cornish keeps several postcards on her desk at the Druid Heights Community Development Corp., which has marshaled millions in government money in a decades-long effort to renovate houses and rebuild a proud community ravaged by drug addiction, crime and poverty. The cards are from agents looking to buy homes, a small but promising sign that the organization's work is making a difference in this tough corner of west Baltimore.

Just a mile away at Sacred Zion Full Gospel Baptist Church, federal money is spent on, as President Bush might say, changing hearts. Here, the drug-addicted and the HIV-infected come in for quiet counseling sessions in a corner of the fluorescent-lighted sanctuary, or to let counselors know they have established some shred of normalcy in their chaotic lives by reconnecting with family, finding an apartment or joining a church.

Both Sacred Zion and the Druid Heights corporation are engaged in the type of "social entrepreneurship" encouraged by Bush, who says both faith-based and secular groups play a vital role in the difficult task of bringing relief to the distressed and impoverished. But the president's budget proposals say something else when it comes to the nation's fight against poverty. read more...

Gov. Readies Special Election to Attack Legislature, Unions

By Robert Salladay, Los AngelesTimes Staff Writer

May 17, 2005

SACRAMENTO - After five months of failing to sway Democrats to his "year of reform," Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has directed his political staff to prepare for a special election campaign that would attack the California Legislature and its union benefactors.

Escalating the governor's fight, chief political consultant Mike Murphy said Monday that Schwarzenegger would almost certainly call a special election that would include his package of reform initiatives, and possibly another measure that could disable the money-raising machine of public employee unions.

Murphy said the governor has asked him to conduct polling and voter focus groups on a so-called paycheck protection initiative that would require public employee unions to get permission from members before using their dues for political campaigns.

"Arnold has not touched the Legislature with a feather yet compared to what the real campaign will be," said Murphy, one of the governor's closest advisors. "It's a referendum on the governor versus the Legislature, and he will win."

With a deadline approaching to call a special election, Schwarzenegger is trying to refocus his efforts to pass a handful of voter initiatives that would strike at the heart of Democrats who control the Legislature and the public employee unions that fund their campaigns. The governor also is taking more control of the political efforts, Murphy said, now that his signature-gathering effort is complete. read more...

US 'backed illegal Iraqi oil deals'

Report claims blind eye was turned to sanctions busting by American firms

Julian Borger and Jamie Wilson in Washington
Tuesday May 17, 2005
The Guardian

The United States administration turned a blind eye to extensive sanctions-busting in the prewar sale of Iraqi oil, according to a new Senate investigation.

A report released last night by Democratic staff on a Senate investigations committee presents documentary evidence that the Bush administration was made aware of illegal oil sales and kickbacks paid to the Saddam Hussein regime but did nothing to stop them.

The scale of the shipments involved dwarfs those previously alleged by the Senate committee against UN staff and European politicians like the British MP, George Galloway, and the former French minister, Charles Pasqua. read more...

Battlespace America
The new Pentagon can peruse intelligence on U.S.citizens and send Marines down Main Street.
By Peter Byrne

May/June 2005 Issue

In early 2004, Sahar Aziz, a law student at the University of Texas at Austin, organized a conference called "Islam and the Law: The Question of Sexism." The seminar attracted several hundred people. Unbeknownst to Aziz, who is Muslim, in the audience were two Army lawyers in civilian attire. They reported to military intelligence that three Middle Eastern men had asked them "suspicious" questions about their identity during a refreshment break. A few days later, two military intelligence agents materialized on campus, demanding to see a video-tape of the seminar along with a roster of attendees.

Aziz didn't respond and instead helped arrange a press conference. When the Wall Street Journal highlighted the episode in a story about domestic intelligence gathering by the military, the Army's Intelligence and Security Command acknowledged that the agents "exceeded their authority" and introduced "refresher training" on the limits of the military's jurisdiction.

As it turns out, though, it may be the public that needs a refresher course on the role of its military forces. In 2002, the Defense Department updated its Unified Command Plan, which made the already blurry lines between civilian and military even less legible. Since then, all over America, law enforcement and intelligence agencies have been making information about the public available to a Pentagon power center most people have never heard about: U.S. Northern Command, or NORTHCOM, located at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs. Hidden deep inside Cheyenne Mountain, more than 100 intelligence analysts sift through streams of data collected by federal agents and local law en- forcers–continually updating a virtual picture of what the command calls the North American "battlespace," which includes the United States, Canada, and Mexico, as well as 500 miles out to sea. If they find something amiss, they have resources to deploy in response that no law enforcement agency could dream of. They've got an army, a navy, an air force, the Marines, and the Coast Guard. read more...

GOP now goes after NPR

It's becoming increasingly clear that Kenneth Tomlinson, the Republican chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which oversees public television and radio, doesn't let the facts get in the way of his crusade over what he considers fairness and balance.

For months, he's been telling reporters that PBS stations suffer from a liberal bias, despite the fact that CPB's own internal polling has demonstrated—twice—that the vast majority of Americans have no problem with PBS's objectivity.

Today's New York Times reports that Tomlinson is now moving to set up a monitor to oversee NPR's Middle East coverage to check it for bias, too. That, despite the fact that Tomlinson must know that CPB polling data already shows Americans don't think NPR has a bias problem when it comes to Middle East reporting. read more...

The bigger story on Quran abuse at Gitmo

This afternoon, Newsweek fully acknowledged its blunder with the Quran-abuse story: "Based on what we know now, we are retracting our original story that an internal military investigation had uncovered Quran abuse at Guantanamo Bay," the magazine said in a statement.

The key phrase here is "internal military investigation." Newsweek screwed up in that it clearly didn't have reliable information (from its single anonymous government source) that the Pentagon is taking action on -- or has even acknowledged -- the existence of such abuse.

And that's actually the much bigger story here. As Raw Story notes today, the Newsweek debacle aside, there have been numerous past reports -- including from the New York Times, Washington Post, UK Guardian, and the Center for Consitutional Rights -- of desecration of the Quran by U.S. interrogators at Gitmo:

"One such incident -- during which the Koran allegedly was thrown in a pile and stepped on -- prompted a hunger strike among Guantanamo detainees in Mar. 2002, which led to an apology. The New York Times interviewed former detainee Nasser Nijer Naser al-Mutairi May 1, who said the protest ended with a senior officer delivering an apology to the entire camp: 'A former interrogator at Guantanamo, in an interview with the Times, confirmed the accounts of the hunger strikes, including the public expression of regret over the treatment of the Korans,' Times reporters Neil A. Lewis and Eric Schmitt wrote in 'Inquiry Finds Abuses at Guantanamo Bay.' read more...

Iraq and the damage done

If you're still not sure about a direct connection between Iraq, Afghanistan and the war on terrorism, this BBC report offers one: According to the International Narcotics Control Board, an independent arm of the United Nations that monitors drug control initiatives, Iraq is now a key trafficking route for Afghan heroin. Smugglers are exploiting porous borders and the continuing chaos caused by the insurgency; the INCB says that Jordan recently seized large quantities of illicit drugs along its border with Iraq.

"Whether it is due to war or disaster," said INCB president Hamid Ghodse, "weakening of border controls and security infrastructure make countries into convenient logistic and transit points, not only for international terrorists and militants, but also for traffickers."

Ghodse added that no concrete figures exist yet for the amount of drugs smuggled through Iraq, but that they've seen "alarming" evidence of a growing problem.

-- Mark Follman

[13:08 EDT, May 13, 2005]

Schwarzenegger's $174-million proposal faces resistance from some educators.

By Evan Halper and Duke Helfand
Times Staff Writers

May 13, 2005

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger today will announce a plan to reduce class size in the state's lowest-ranked schools as he seeks to counter charges from education groups that his budget policies undermine California students.

The governor will include the $174-million proposal in his revised state spending plan, administration officials said. It is part of an effort by his administration to shift the education debate away from how much money the state is spending on schools. Officials want to focus it instead on ideas that could boost academic performance without increasing costs by billions of dollars.

Schwarzenegger this week unveiled a controversial proposal to turn around failing schools by handing them over to state-appointed trustees or management teams, or allowing them to reopen as charter schools with state permission.

The class-size reduction would provide 2,400 of the state's worst-performing schools enough money, in theory, to reduce the number of students per classroom to 20 for a single grade, the officials said. But schools would be free to reduce class size in any way they chose in grades 4 through 12.

"We are saying the school will be eligible for a pot of money, and if they want to use it to shrink some classes in each grade, then they can do that," said a senior administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. No officials would speak publicly about the proposal before the governor announced it.

The senior official said 632 public schools in Los Angeles County districts would qualify for the program; 308 would be in the L.A. Unified School District. In Orange County, 106 schools would qualify; in Riverside County, 131; in Ventura County, 45.

The governor has been taking fire from education groups and Democratic lawmakers for his intent to hold back more than $2 billion owed schools under voter-approved funding formulas. In a deal the governor struck with education groups last year, he vowed not to touch that money. But in the face of an $8.6-billion budget shortfall, he reneged. read more...

Working hard on a Walt Disney biography.

Save your money and forget Revenge of the Sith!
... because Grocery Store Wars the movie is now on-line!  

Join the adventures of Cuke Skywalker, Obi-Wan Cannoli, Chewbroccoli and the rest
of the Organic Rebels fighting against Darth Tader and the Dark Side of the Farm.

http://www.StoreWars.org

Join the Organic Rebellion Now!

The Lego Harpsichord fanpage

One word: Amazing!

Henry Lim's LEGO Sculptures

It has the classic Apple tag "Think Different"

Army to stand down all recruiting for one day

May 11, 2005
By Joseph R. Chenelly
Times staff writer

The Army plans to stand down all of its recruiters for one day on May 20 amid several allegations of misconduct by some of them trying to fill the ranks, according to Army Recruiting Command.

The active duty Army, Army Reserve and Army National Guard have each missed their monthly recruiting goals for three consecutive months.

As of the end of April, the three components combined had shipped some 16,500 fewer recruits to basic training than their goals had called for.

Recent reports have hinted that a few recruiters are getting desperate.

In Colorado, a 17-year-old high school student claims to have audio tapes of two recruiters telling him how to forge a high school diploma and cheat on a drug test so that he could enlist.

A recent article in The New York Times detailed claims that recruiters in Ohio knowingly pushed a mentally ill man through the enlistment process.

The television newsmagazine Inside Edition aired a report May 6 apparently showing recruiters on a hidden camera telling someone posing as a potential enlistee how to lie about possibly disqualifying background information. The show said that nine of the 13 recruiters it visited told the enlistee how to lie or cheat to get into the Army.

Recruiting Command is expected to issue a formal announcement of the stand down as early as later today.

Related Stories:

Recruiter Leaves Threatening Voice Mail Message for Potential Recruit (click to listen);
"That's the Greenspoint Mall Army Recruiting Station at 2 o'clock. You fail to appear and we'll have a warrant."

Army Recruitee Tells of False Promises;
"I would say, 'How dare you lie to my family and my son?'" Michael's mother Carol said.

Fudgepackers of the World Unite!

"I'm Fucking Yo Moms In Da Ass"
http://www.crackedouthiphop.com/vid/yomomsintheass.mov

...courtesy from our friends at videos.antville.org.

At Wal-Mart, Choosing Sides Over $9.68 an Hour

By STEVEN GREENHOUSE

It's Lia!

'Hardball with Chris Matthews' for May 9

CHRIS MATTHEWS, HOST:  Tonight, the U.S. Army wants you.  For the third month in a row, the U.S. military has failed to meet recruiting goals.  Is Iraq too hard to sell?  Tonight, an inside look at what critics are calling bait-and-switch tactics to snag volunteers.

Let's play HARDBALL.  

"Good evening.  I'm Chris Matthews in New York with a HARDBALL special report. 

With America at war in Iraq and the continued conflict in Afghanistan, how do you get young people to join the service without drafting them?  The Army and Marines have missed their recruitment goals for three months in a row.  In a few moments, we'll get reaction from the head of the Army Recruiting Command and hear from a counter-recruitment group. 

But my first guests are a high school student who enlisted in the National Guard after being recruited at his high school last year and his mother.  They do not want his identity made public because he fears retribution by the military for what he is about to say. 

This young man believes he was inappropriately pressured by the National Guard to sign up.  And once he did, he says they reneged on many of the verbal promises they made to him.  He was only 17 at the time.  And his mother said she agreed to sign for him under intense pressure as well.  I spoke to him earlier about his situation."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MATTHEWS:  Young man, what is your situation right now?  You are in the National Guard right now? 

UNIDENTIFIED MALE:  Yes, sir. 

MATTHEWS:  And how long is your hitch that you're facing right now? 

UNIDENTIFIED MALE:  An additional five years. 

MATTHEWS:  You have five years facing you right now.  And what assignment are you facing right now? 

UNIDENTIFIED MALE:  Well, right now, I'm awaiting my AIT training. 

MATTHEWS:  And what does that mean?  What are you training for? 

UNIDENTIFIED MALE:  What it is, when I signed up, they signed me up for an infantry.  So, that is my specialty training. 

MATTHEWS:  And where do you expect to be sent off to? 

UNIDENTIFIED MALE:  Fort Benning, Georgia. 

MATTHEWS:  Do you expect to be sent to Afghanistan or to Iraq? 

UNIDENTIFIED MALE:  After I signed up, they told me it was a very high.  Like, just recently, they told me it was a very high possibility I'm going to be going overseas.  

MATTHEWS:  Let me ask you about what the promises, what promises were you given by the recruiting officer? 

UNIDENTIFIED MALE:  Well, when I signed in, they told me I could do any job that I wanted.  And I told them originally that I wanted to become a medic in the Army.  But they changed that and they said I wasn't able to do that.  Then, also, they promised me a $6,000 bonus for enlisting, which I never got either. read more...

Navy Petty Officer Third Class Pablo Paredes Issues Final Statement Prior to Wednesday's Court Martial

San Diego, TX--(HISPANIC PR WIRE)--May 10, 2005

The following statement was issued today by Navy Petty Officer Third Class Pablo Paredes prior to his court martial trial in San Diego on Wednesday:

Yesterday I formally entered a plea of not guilty to charges of unauthorized absence and missing movement stemming from my refusal to board the Iraq-bound ship USS Bonhomme Richard on December 6, 2004. I will be tried in a special court martial on 05/11/2005.

At yesterdays preliminary proceedings, my attorney submitted a motion to dismiss the unauthorized absence charge, since it is part of the missing movement charge. Prosecutor Lt. Hale in turn moved to exclude all evidence pertaining to the legitimacy of the Iraq war. The presiding judge, decided to reserve ruling on both motions until the actual special court martial begins.

Like all members of the military, I have been trained to recognize my personal responsibility for participating in war crimes. Since the war is illegal and has been characterized by repeated and consistent violations of international laws and treaties, of the Geneva Convention rules of war, and of generally accepted standards of human rights, I have a reasonable belief that my training required me to avoid participating in these crimes.

When I appeared at 32nd Street Naval Station last December, I spoke to members of the media who were covering the departure of USS Bonhomme with some 2,800 Marines heading for Iraq. There I announced my opposition to war in general and to being a party to the death and destruction of which the Marines would be both victims and perpetrators. At that moment I expected to be taken into custody and was surprised when the Command Duty Officer told me to "get out of here."  read more...

Happy Mothers Day Peeps,

Here is crazy calendar I just found.  Ch-Check it out!

Kanichiwa Bitches!

British memo indicates Bush made intelligence fit Iraq policy

Posted on Thu, May. 05, 2005
By Warren P. Strobel and John Walcott

Knight Ridder Newspapers


WASHINGTON - A highly classified British memo, leaked in the midst of Britain's just-concluded election campaign, indicates that President Bush decided to overthrow Iraqi President Saddam Hussein by summer 2002 and was determined to ensure that U.S. intelligence data supported his policy.

The document, which summarizes a July 23, 2002, meeting of British Prime Minister Tony Blair with his top security advisers, reports on a visit to Washington by the head of Britain's MI-6 intelligence service.

The visit took place while the Bush administration was still declaring to the American public that no decision had been made to go to war.

"There was a perceptible shift in attitude. Military action was now seen as inevitable," the MI-6 chief said at the meeting, according to the memo. "Bush wanted to remove Saddam through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD," weapons of mass destruction. read more...

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- High school officials are being forced to provide thousands of students' names to military recruiters, spurring discontent among school administrators and some parents.

The federal requirement is embedded in the sweeping No Child Left Behind Act, a fact that disturbs many school officials, who say education legislation is no place for military-related provisions. And schools that are perceived as not complying stand the risk of losing some federal funding.

Military officials, though, say they are seeking the same kind of student access granted to private industry.

Across the state, school officials have divulged lists containing the names, addresses and telephone numbers of thousands of students, according to interviews with a number of administrators.

"The reason it was made a requirement was that districts were not openly complying with the [recruiters'] requests," said William D. Travis, Pittsfield school superintendent. "It just seems this level of access was clearly politically motivated, rather than sound educational policy."

"If we don't provide the list, they can take away funding," said William Samaras, headmaster of Lowell High School. "That's dead wrong. That should not be a part of an education plan." read more...

Reserve morale: Survey results are not encouraging

A newly released survey shows that reservists morale, and their propensity to re-enlist, is continuing to decline. The annual survey of active-duty and reserve members tracks service members intent to stay; their satisfaction with military service; the levels and impact of tempo; the stress in both their military and personal lives, and personal and unit readiness.

High court to review colleges bar on recruiters

By Hope Yen
Associated Press
May 02, 2005

The Supreme Court said Monday it will consider whether colleges and universities may bar military recruiters from their campuses without fear of losing federal funds.

Justices will review a lower court ruling in favor of 25 law schools that restricted recruiters in protest of the Pentagons policy of excluding openly gay people from military service.

That ruling, by the Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, invalidated a 1994 federal law requiring law schools to give the military full access or else lose their federal funding. The appeals court ruled that the law infringed on law schools free speech rights. read more...

Army Misses Its Recruiting Goal Again

01 May 2005

A newly discovered fragment of the oldest surviving copy of the New Testament indicates that, as far as the Antichrist goes, theologians, scholars, heavy metal groups, and television evangelists have got the wrong number. Instead of 666, it's actually the far less ominous 616.

The new fragment from the Book of Revelation, written in ancient Greek and dating from the late third century, is part of a hoard of previously unintelligible manuscripts discovered in historic dumps outside Oxyrhynchus in Egypt. Now a team of expert classicists, using new photographic techniques, are finally deciphering the original writing.

Professor David Parker, Professor of New Testament Textual Criticism and Paleography at the University of Birmingham, thinks that 616, although less memorable than 666, is the original. He said: "This is an example of gematria, where numbers are based on the numerical values of letters in people's names. Early Christians would use numbers to hide the identity of people who they were attacking: 616 refers to the Emperor Caligula." read more...

Prepare for a Moon Spanking!
Originally uploaded by reubenrivas.

Woohoo I am Rich!! I had no idea. According to the Global Rich List I am in the top 14.12% richest people in the world. In fact "There are 5,152,548,512 people poorer than me." Yeah, I kick ass! Like Ignignokt (a Mooninite from Aquateen Hunger Force) say's "The Poor Shall Suffer Bigtime!" Click here to see how you rank among the world's have and pathetic have not's.

One year ago today...
Originally uploaded by reubenrivas.

Below are my thoughts on an activity, for my teaching credential program, that required me to reflect on 'Exploring Diversity' in today's society...

I attended parochial school until Jr. High, and can safely say that both private and public school have supported my academic/social development. I am afraid I can' t say the say the same for many of the jobs I have had. For the most part I have worked in the retail and customer service industries while attending college. Some employers did offer to pay for some college classes but only if they were 'work related'.  And as for scheduling, I have always had to make school schedule around my work schedule, which was often felt 'inflexible' at best. Even though I have finally made the transition out of the retail and customer service sector, hopefully forever, I still value it's experience and hope to convey to my students that college degree is no longer optional if one whishes to escape the dreary and dead-end world of the service sector economy.

Coming from a Mexican-American middle-class background with two fulltime working blue-collar parents, whom never graduated college, it is hard to attribute my academic success (or lack their of) to them. I am not really sure where my drive to complete a college degree came from, I have never been a big fan of school, but perhaps it was the many years I wasted putting work first and my education second, that has led me to realize that college degree is the bare minimum required to escape the vicious cycle of living pay-check to pay-check that is so common to those whom never complete anything more than a high-school education.

I don't think that I can accurately say that I have ever been a victim of racial discrimination, maybe I have but I was just too ignorant to identify it. I can safely admit that I have never considered myself to be part of the 'mainstream' society and often identified myself as someone who is an independent thinker. Whether it was my time working at Wal-mart or working for an Internet start-up company, my 'think outside the box' attitude has caused friction among peers and co-workers in my various social settings which may have led me to be on the receiving end of oppressive practices, up to and including being fired from the workplace.

I firmly believe that growing pains, caused by either internal or external forces, which have been experienced by individuals, have a positive character building affect on people. Even though it may seem like the end of the world when you feel life is treating you unfairly, these are the times when inner growth can occur and when we as teachers should help students identify any troubles they are having, help them overcome their obstacles and take value in the lessons that life has to offer.

As a teacher of students whom come from a wide variety of ethnic backgrounds, I have seen first hand that the color of ones skin has nothing to do with student's academic success. We all know that is wrong to prejudge students, and have varying levels of expectations for different ethnic groups. Despite what lies our leaders and mainstream American society tells us about all being 'created equal', we as teachers whom care about their students future academic and social success should strive everyday to make sure we are all 'treated equally' to ensure that we have the same opportunity to better ourselves, both academically and socially, in this great country that we call the melting-pot of the world, America.