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For all the talk of privacy on slashdot you’d think everyone and their uncle would be submitting this story. Haven’t seen it there yet, though. Sure there aren’t any gadgets involved, but if Uncle Sam can poke his nose in this area then you better believe he won’t care at all about probing your computer. Privacy is a group of behaviors and conditions; the more areas of strength there are, the better privacy can be maintained. In the case at hand, Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote “Liberty protects the person from unwarranted government intrusions into a dwelling or other private places.”

The U. S. Supreme Court today ruled that the anti-sodomy laws of Texas (at least) are unconstitutional. If you are having a hard time understanding how criminalization of homosexuality might influence technology / encryption / computers / mathematics / artifical intelligence / etc. (you know, the stuff you read at slashdot every day), take some time to learn about Alan Turing.

Read the majority and dissenting opinions in PDF, or follow the links at daze reader. With so many challenges to privacy and so many setbacks, we should be ready to celebrate our victories. Here’s to sodomy!

The Moscow Times takes George W. Bush to task for being swayed by voices in his head in sending the United States to war. “No votes, no inspections, no proof or lack of proof — in fact, no earthly reason whatsoever — could have stopped Bush’s aggressive war on Iraq. It was God’s unalterable will: the Lord of Hosts gave a direct order for George W. Bush to ‘strike at Saddam.’ And strike he did, with an awesome fury that rained death and destruction on the mustachioed whore of Babylon, with a firestorm of Godly wrath that consumed the enemy armies like so much chaff put to the flame — and with an arsenal of cruise missiles, cluster bombs, dive bombers and assault helicopters that killed up to 10,000 innocent civilians: blasted to pieces in their beds, shot down in their fields and streets, crushed beneath the walls of their own houses, boiled alive in factories, ditches and cars, gutted, mutilated, beheaded, murdered, women, children, elders, some praying, some wailing, some cursing, some mute with fear as metal death ripped their lives away and left rotting hulks behind. This was the work of the Lord and His faithful servant, whom He hath raised high up to have dominion over men. And this is the mindset — or rather, the primitive fever-dream — that is now directing the actions of the greatest military power in the history of the world. There can be no doubt that Bush believes literally in the divine character of his mission. He honestly and sincerely believes that whatever ‘decision’ forms in his brain — out of the flux and flow of his own emotional impulses and biochemical reactions, the flattery and cajolements of his sinister advisers, the random scraps of fact, myth and fabrication that dribble into his proudly undeveloped and incurious consciousness — has been planted there, whole and perfected, by God Almighty.”

Avast! It be the Pyrate queene Granuail!

Joseph Kony heads up the Lord’s Resistance Army, a group of Christians trying to get Uganda to accept the Ten Commandments of the Bible as the nation’s supreme law. Kidnaping, mutilation, forced prostitution, child prostitution and murder are the ways God has led him to carry out his mission.

I respectfully suggest that Christians might do better to address ‘house cleaning’ issues such as this madman (or this one, or even this one) instead of wringing their hands over rock and roll music, hemlines and television programs.

Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas said President George W. Bush gave this as his reason for the invasion of Iraq: “God told me to strike at al Qaida and I struck them, and then he instructed me to strike at Saddam, which I did, and now I am determined to solve the problem in the Middle East.”

I feel less safe knowing the President of the United States is psychically controlled by an invisible monster that lives in the sky.

Greg Palast is an investigative reporter for BBC television and author of the New York Times bestseller, “The Best Democracy Money Can Buy” (Penguin/Plume 2003). His disquieting article The Screwing of Cynthia McKinney is based on his contribution to the compendium, “Abuse Your Illusions,” released this month by Disinformation Press. Here’s how it begins…

Have you heard about Cynthia McKinney, former U.S. Congresswoman? According to those quoted on National Public Radio, McKinney’s “a loose cannon” (media expert) who “the people of Atlanta are embarrassed and disgusted” (politician) by, and she is also “loony” and “dangerous” (senator from her own party). Yow! And why is McKinney dangerous/loony/disgusting? According to NPR, “McKinney implied that the [Bush] Administration knew in advance about September 11 and deliberately held back the information.” The New York Times’ Lynette Clemetson revealed her comments went even further over the edge: “Ms. McKinney suggest[ed] that President Bush might have known about the September 11 attacks but did nothing so his supporters could make money in a war.” That’s loony, all right. As an editor of the highly respected Atlanta Journal Constitution told NPR, McKinney’s “practically accused the President of murder!” Problem is, McKinney never said it. That’s right. The “quote” from McKinney is a complete fabrication. A whopper, a fabulous fib, a fake, a flim-flam. Just freakin’ made up.

But on the other hand, according to CounterPunch, here are some of Rep. McKinney’s remarks on September 14 2002 at the reception for the Congressional Black Caucus…

And after I’ve asked the tough questions, here’s what we now know:

That President Bush was warned that terrorists were planning to hijack commercial aircraft and crash them into buildings in the US;

That in the weeks prior to September 11, 24-hour fighter cover was placed over the President’s ranch in Crawford, Texas;

That in the weeks prior to September 11, Attorney General Ashcroft stopped flying commercial aircraft and instead flew Government aircraft;

That the US received numerous high level warnings from a wide range of foreign intelligence services warning of impending hijackings and terrorist attacks;

That a number of FBI agents were pleading with their superiors to conduct intensive investigations into the suspicious activities of various men in US flight schools;

That in the days prior to September 11, highly suspicious stock market activity in aviation and insurance stocks took place indicating that certain well-placed people had advance knowledge of the attacks.

And now this week we learn that the FBI had an informant living with two of the actual 9-1-1 hijackers. All of this has become public knowledge since I asked the simple question: What did the Bush Administration know and when did it know it.

Why would Cynthia McKinney be a target for a smear campaign? Greg Palast has a suggestion…

At BBC Television, we had Florida’s computer files and documents, marked “confidential” — stone-cold evidence showing how the [Gore/Bush] vote fix was deliberately crafted by Republican officials. Not a single major U.S. paper asked for the documents – not from the state of Florida nor from the BBC. Only one U.S. Congressperson asked for the evidence and made it public: Cynthia McKinney of Atlanta. That was her mistake.

After a brief dry spell, the Internet Infidels News Wire is back in full force. What will those wacky religions do next?

According to the Sunday Herald, the US Air Force Space Command has issued a Strategic Master Plan about increasing the presence of the US military in space, to the point of exclusion of all other military powers and even non-military services such as the European Galileo satellite system.

This is in apparent contradiction to several ‘peaceful use of space’ treaties published by the United Nations and signed by the US. According to the Herald, the Strategic Master Plan states ‘To fully develop and exploit [space] … some US policies and international treaties may need to be reviewed and modified’.

The Air Force Space Command is offline but is archived elsewhere. The document in question may be online but heavy traffic prevents me from confirming this.

An edition of Doonesbury from April 2003 is worth looking at.

Bob Mould was a member of Husker Du, then Sugar, now sometimes Bob Mould and sometimes LoudBomb, but don’t forget he was a writer for World Championship Wrestling for half a year. By the way, Husker Du means ‘Do you remember?’ and was taken from a Norwegian board game.

The Guardian Unlimited writes…

“What on earth is a bright?” And then you’re away: “A bright is a person whose world view is free of supernatural and mystical elements. The ethics and actions of a bright are based on a naturalistic world view.”

“You mean a bright is an atheist?”

“Well, some brights are happy to call themselves atheists. Some brights call themselves agnostics. Some call themselves humanists, some free thinkers. But all brights have a world view that is free of supernaturalism and mysticism.”

“Oh, I get it. It’s a bit like ‘gay’. So, what’s the opposite of a bright? What would you call a religious person?”

“What would you suggest?”

Is your name Steve? Are you involved in the sciences? Do you believe in evolution? If you answered ‘yes’ to all three of these questions, Project Steve is for you. If not, check out Project Steve anyway.

Munster House. Simpson House. White House. Two TV shows that inspired real life people. One real life Presidency put to shame by a TV show.

MC Pitman Photographs! MC Pitman Interviews! MC Pitman interviews again! MC Pitman mp3!

Attention, pleasanteers! I am going to buy a small advertisement for pleasant at google. Part of the process is submitting key words that will trigger our advertisement to show up. Please send me your suggestions for key words that should lead people to pleasant, in the order of your preference. Also, pleasant is still ‘hiring’ – if you are interested in writing for pleasant, contact me. Thanks!

An Iraeli man who wishes to remain anonymous named Oded Golan bought an old stone box either 20 or 30 years ago, paying either $200 or $700, from a dealer he can’t remember. The stone box is an ossuary, used for burying bones. There is some Aramaic writing on the side, which reads “James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus.” Jesus may or may not have had brothers, and Jesus may or may not have been the son of Joseph. The only thing consistant in the whole story seems to be that the guy can’t remember where he got the box from.

Nevertheles, Christianity Today, God and Science, Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry, In Plain Site and who knows how many other Christians got all excited about that stone box. Christians discredit science and history right up to the point it can be boogered up enough to confirm their views; then they’re all over it. The Christians are in something of a pickle because there is little (or no) credible independent confirmation that Jesus existed at all. They can see that this ‘science’ thing isn’t going away like they’d hoped and so they are doing what they do best; co-opting the winning team to their own ends.

But even though the box is a fake, do you think they will now take the route of science (we were wrong, let’s learn from the experience, we’re not afraid to question core beliefs) or the route of religion (we were tricked, God is testing us, that never happened, shut up)?

Zolo theory [1] [2]. Zolo practice [1] [2] [3].

And a shout out to ganguro!

Friendster allows you to volunteer your biodata and patterns of association. You benefit by learning who your friends are and how you know them – you might not have known these things before.

Jeffrey Sharlet, editor of Killing the Buddha, wrote “Jesus Plus Nothing / Uncovering America’s Secret Theocrats” for Harper’s Magazine. The article follows up on a report from the Los Angeles Times which stated six members of Congress live in a multi-million dollar Capitol Hill town house (while paying only a few hundred dollars a month in rent) that is subsidized by a secretive religious organization alternately known as the Core, the Fellowship, the Foundation or the Family. The goal of the religious organization is ‘an invisible world organization led by Jesus Christ.’ A key value of the religious organization is that doing right or wrong doesn’t matter, but being chosen to lead does matter. If God choses you to lead, what you do is automatically correct. They call this the Hitler Principle, but to show they aren’t right-wing anti-semites they also call it the Mao Principle. The religious organization keeps a deliberate low profile and is organized in isolated cells. The religious organization has existed since the 1930s. It (successfuly) courts world leaders; whether or not they are despots matters less than whether or not they are leaders. Because by definition leaders are chosen by God to lead. Even the Bible says that, silly (Romans 13:1). After you read the article, read interviews with Jeffrey Sharlet at mediabistro and Guerilla News Network. I do not care for religion.

The Everlasting Blort reminds me of Dr. Menlo, who suggests the Obscure Store and Reading Room. Three sites to keep you busy for hours.