Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Jesse Ventura asks, 'If waterboarding is okay why don't we let the police use it?'

 Photo and text from the Raw Story...

 By David Edwards and Stephen Webster

 Former Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura, making a guest appearance on ABC’s The View, gave co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck a lesson or two about the torture technique known as waterboarding.

Ventura, who underwent a barrage of torture techniques at the military Survival, Evade, Resist and Escape (SERE) school, confirmed for Hasselbeck that waterboarding is torture and not just an “enhanced interrogation technique.”

“If waterboarding is okay, why don’t we let our police do it to suspects to learn what they know?” he asked to a chorus of applause.

Click here for rest of the story.

Check out some cool movie posters made with Lego parts

There is seemingly no end to Lego creativity. Models, stop motion movies, amazing ads and art recreation…
And now, even movie posters are being recreated with that unique-tongue-in-cheek style you can only get with lego bricks and minifigs. For 20 more posters
click here.

images and text from Speckyboy

What do you think about parents allowing an 8-year-old to change gender?

From the Associated Press...

Omaha couple to allow 8-year-old to live as a girl

A west Omaha couple says their 8-year-old son has asked for years to wear dresses and change his name, so they’re enrolling him in a new school where he can live openly as a girl.


The parents say their middle child is transgender, and he’s asked to be called a girl since age 4.
“One night she said, ’Every night when I go to bed, I pray my inside will match my outside. But it never happens,“’ the mother said, recalling a conversation with her child.

The family, which is not being identified to protect them from possible harm, met with therapists and gender experts before deciding to switch the child’s gender affiliation.
Ellie Hites, an Omaha therapist who’s worked with more than 200 transgender people in the city, says it’s healthier to live as one’s chosen gender when there’s a discrepancy with the biological gender.


“It’s like they arrive here with one biology but the mental set is counter to that,” she said.
Many of Hites’ transgender clients have suffered from nervous breakdowns, suicide attempts and deep depression because they’ve been forced to hide their true identity, she said.
As the 8-year-old explained: “It’s kind of like you’re trapped somewhere and you can’t get out.”
He’s been allowed to dress as a girl at home, but has had to dress and act as a boy in public. The family says that will soon change.

Read the rest here.

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

The Anonymous Hugging Wall for Social Facilitation & Mood Elevation

As part of the her ongoing series Methods & Apparati for Social Facilitation and Mood Elevation, Keetra Dean Dixon has created “The Anonymous Hugging Wall”. It is yet unclear if they come in deluxe form or what their cost may be.

Other parts of the series include the “Full Spectrum Optical Invigoration Unit, Psuedo Simile Guides, and the Colling Inhalation Aid (aka Fridgi-Poofs)”.

Story and text by The Laughing Squid

Audacity Vs. Reality: Jews and Arabs will never agree

By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY...

Middle East: President Obama seeks a grand, unlikely reconciliation between Jews, Shiites and Sunnis. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's decidedly undreamy Mideast agenda is about survival.


Read More: Middle East & North Africa


In the Middle East of the early 21st century, the world is challenged by two big facts: one, a problem with no solution; the other, a problem it's been pretending isn't really there.

The first fact is the troubled co-existence of Israel with its hostile Muslim neighbors.

It's obvious that the Jewish state will never be accepted as legitimate by a large number of Arabs.

There will always be Muslim nations and armed organizations that will never accept its right to exist, and that would try to get rid of it.

Yet year after year we hear most of Western Europe, Third World nations and now apparently America insist that a Palestinian state is the key to a lasting Mid East peace.

Click here for the rest.

image via www.naiveabroad.com/

Monday, May 18, 2009

California Desalination Plant to Be Largest in Western Hemisphere

It looks like steps are being taken to meet California's water needs for the future. The new desalination facility is supposed to be done by election year (2012). This article by GREENBIZ.COM gives the particulars:

By GreenBiz Staff
Published May 18, 2009

The San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board last week unanimously voted to begin work on a $300 million desalination facility to help meet the water needs of the region.

The reverse-osmosis desalination facility will be built by the Connecticut-based Poseidon Resources, and the company expects the facility to be online by the beginning of 2012. When it is fully operational, the plant will be able to produce 50 million gallons of drinking water every day, or about 10 percent of the region's water needs.
Poseidon is building the facility in Carlsbad, just north of San Diego, and it is just the first of many such facilities in the works in California. The state is in the third year of a drought, and faces pressures on water supplies from a growing population and agricultural water needs.

Read the rest here.

(photo above - This desalination plant in Perth, Australia, will be the largest in the Southern Hemisphere when completed) photo by ABB.com

Oh yea...those were the good old days for us guys!

image via Fukung

An ill Wind: Parachutist reads the warning sign too late!

image via sharenator

Sunday, May 17, 2009

Western Conference Finals next:Lakers finally close out tough Rockets

photo by Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times

Lakers center Andrew Bynum steals the ball from Rockets point guard Aaron Brooks, who was driving through the lane, in the first half today.

In a series that should never have gone to 7 games, the Lakers won when it counted this afternoon. Still unanswered; which Laker team will show up against the Denver Nuggets Tuesday night (6:00 p.m. California time) during the Western Conference Finals? Why did a seriously undermanned Houston team match up so well for so long? What Laker weaknesses were exposed? I've never seen a more erratic (okay chaotic) team than this seasons version of the Lakers. If you're into betting, leave the Lakers alone! They'll break your heart and wallet!

When a warning causes a political flap, America's enemies rejoice

FROM TODAY's Time-Standard...

Dave Stancliff

Posted: 05/17/2009 01:27:20 AM PDT

Politicians leaning left or right must learn how to cooperate to effectively fight the rising threat of extremists in our country.

A recent assessment report to law agencies, released by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), warned that extremists in America are taking advantage of current events to recruit members.

This report has caused a lot of controversy, for all the wrong reasons.

Click here to read the rest of the column.

image via Google Images

Trump's Lowest Grift Ever Saved for Holy Week

This is a story about how the devil's puppet, aka Donald Trump, mocked Christianity by selling a book combining the Bible, the Constitu...