"A dictionary is just like a teacher ... except it doesn't talk" by a 7 year old

I was sent this amazing Public Service Announcement from Australia, and had to share it with everyone. It's titled Children see Children do.

For all my PhD buddies out there, this comic is a timeless classic. Enjoy:

http://www.physics.ohio-state.edu/~wilkins/physics/Dont-say/

Here's a teaser:

Wow
What a week.
The Bush-Cheney Administration is leaving office with a bang.
First Bush with the glorious victory tour which was derailed by a shoe.
Now Cheney calmly admits he approved the use of torture, and also believes Guantanamo should remain open. Perhaps he wants to also privatize it and manage it with one of his companies for a ridiculous sum...

Read more
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-cheney16-2008dec16,0,5456856.story?track=rss

This story gets better and better (if only this last part was true)
The Yankees have signed the infamous shoe hurler. If he can throw a shoe 75 mph, he can obviously throw a baseball 90+....

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andy-borowitz/yankees-sign-iraqi-hurler_b_150950.html

You know someone had to go out and do it after what happened. While I won't endorse what happened, nor support such behavior, I have to admit, playing the game sure helped ease my tension and relief alot of built up stress and frustration.

Enjoy

http://www.kroma.no/2008/bushgame/

President Bush decided to take some time out in his last few glorious days in office to bask in the successes of his administration. He visited his two bastions of liberty, Iraq and Afganistan. He was honored with thanks and a medal. He also had to duck. Not not accountability for all the wrong he and his administration had done. A reporter in baghdad called him a dog and threw his shoes at him. The first shoe, Mr. Bush deftly ducked. The second Mr Maliki showed us his defensive prowess by blocking with his hand. Enjoy:

First let me clarify, by War on "Terror", I mean the accountability that will be faced by the administration leaving office now. Last week, we saw that Dick Cheney and Alberto Gonzalez were facing charges for their abuses in some private for profit prisons in Texas, one of Governor George W. Bush's legacies from running that state. Now we see two positive developments:

1. The abuses at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo were authorized by Donald Rumsfield personally and other senior officials.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081211/pl_nm/us_usa_abuse_1

2. The Supreme Court is evaluating whether the FBI director and attorney general can be sued for abuse to those illegally detained and abused in the post 9/11 era.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081211/POLITICS/812110332/1020

The Supreme Court's decision in that case on the culpability and liability of senior government officials for misconduct and illegal policies is key to holding this administration responsible for all its abuses.

Violating our constitution and the trust of the people of not only the US but of the world should not go unpunished. They should be brought to justice.

It's so hard to speak about tragedies such as the one that recently unfolded in Mumbai. It reinforced the fears we all have of terrorism. What these young men thought they would achieve in massacring innocent people is so removed from logic. Yet when we see the types of portrayals of senseless violence in today's movies and video games, its hard not to be surprised by such tragedies.

Sometimes the pictures speak better than words. One picture particularly stands out from this tragedy. This is a picture of the now orphaned son of the murdered rabbi and his wife. No matter your religion, no matter your nationality, the tragedy that is depicted is one that must never be repeated or tolerated.

As God says in the Quran, " Whosoever kills one person, it is as if they killed all of humanity. and whosoever saves one person, it is as if they saved all of humanity".

"Most Dangerous Woman in the World"
I put that in quotes for a reason.

Thats what John Ashcroft, President Bush and the US government will have us believe is an applicable moniker for Aafia Siddiqui. She was supposedly a name given by Khaled Shaikh Mohammed, the supposed mastermind of 9/11. Her picture was on every evening news when John Ashcroft listed her as one of the 7 most dangerous people. She is currently incarcerated and charged with attempting to kill a US officer.

Is that the end of the story? Did we just capture and put away one of our most vile enemies? Hurrah to the war on terror?

Or is there more to it?

This story has so many question marks, it would be the most amazing suspense thriller. Even after the ending, we would have so many questions.

This MIT educated Phd, social activist, charity organizer, mother.
Missing for 5 years.
Her children missing or dead.

Our government disclaims involvement in her disappearance. But it was announced likewise on the evening news that she had been captured. And Pakistan acknowledged she was captured and handed over to the US. That was 2003.

Another case of illegal rendition?

Her defense claims she was held in solitary confinment for 5 years, no charges, no trial, only torture using her children who she is left to believe were killed. Then she supposedly grabbed the gun of a US officer and shot him with it.

Heck you hold me in solitary confinement based on no charges and no trial for 5 years, and use the threat of harming my children against me, there's no telling what state of mind I will be in. Or how desperate I will be. If in fact she did attack those guards, she would have one heck of a self defense claim under these circumstances.

She may have for all we know associated with some of those terrorists. We don't know. What is also intriguing is if she is such a dangerous person, and is involved in Al-Qaeda and 9/11, why not charge her with all that? Thats the beauty of our system of justice, we prove them guilty then punish them. Not the other way around. Innocent until proven guilty, right? The only charges she faces are related to those who held her, and seemingly those who held her did so against every right we claim as sacred.

I pray that the truth of these matters comes to us. I pray that if she is an innocent victim, that she be freed, and those who violated her and her family be brought to justice. I pray that if she is a criminal, that she be tried and brought to justice.

For more on the story, check out Spiegel:
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,593195,00.html

It truly was a sad day for the American justice system. A trial that had ended in a mistrial last year with no chance of any convictions, as some of the jurors had testified, was retried this year and convictions on all counts were achieved. On its face, it may seem like justice was served. But as Bob Ray Sanders of the Daily Telegram describes, the outcome is another chapter in a tragedy that is not ending.

http://www.star-telegram.com/news/columnists/bob_ray_sanders/story/1064204.html

What I found also especially intriguing is the government agencies trying to mute a witness for the defense. The CIA and the Department of State attempted to intervene to prevent a former employee from testifying for the benefit of the defense:

http://crimeblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2008/11/behind-the-scenes-the-cias-pro.html

Publish Post

What a blatant violation of everything our legal system stands for. Not only is the prosecution supposed to provide any exculpatory evidence it has in its possession, it has a duty as an officer of the court to ensure the proceedings are just. When the prosecution has the CIA, the department of state, and the Israeli government behind them, I guess the circumstances change, and the requirements of justice change, and the scales are tipped.

I am confident that this sham of a decision will be overturned. Because I believe in our system of law.

It is truly unfortunate that political motivations and outright racism have put another stain on our history.


(Dec 4, 2008 - I found this wonderful piece from Alternet to supplement the commentary here:
http://www.alternet.org/story/108740)