Priorities.

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/7047694/fcc_censorship

On February 16th, the Bush administration won House approval for a bill that would raise the maximum FCC fine to $500,000 per violation. Under the new measure, Clear Channel — and Stern himself — could each have been fined a total of $9 million.
[...]
A review of fines levied by other federal agencies suggests that the government may be taking swear words a bit too seriously. If the bill passes the Senate, Bono saying “****ing brilliant” on the air would carry the exact same penalty as illegally testing pesticides on human subjects. And for the price of Janet Jackson’s “wardrobe malfunction” during the Super Bowl, you could cause the wrongful death of an elderly patient in a nursing home and still have enough money left to create dangerous mishaps at two nuclear reactors.

Kill all the old ladies and poison all the people you want. Just don’t say a naughty word where fragile ears could hear it.

Panelists Decry Bush Science Policies

Via ABCnews:

The voice of science is being stifled in the Bush administration, with fewer scientists heard in policy discussions and money for research and advanced training being cut, according to panelists at a national science meeting.

Speakers at the national meeting of the American Association for Advancement of Science expressed concern Sunday that some scientists in key federal agencies are being ignored or even pressured to change study conclusions that don’t support policy positions.

The speakers also said that Bush’s proposed 2005 federal budget is slashing spending for basic research and reducing investments in education designed to produce the nation’s future scientists.

You’ve been hit by, you’ve been struck by, a stock operator.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,148013,00.html

Thirty-five Greenpeace protesters got more than they may have bargained for when they stormed the International Petroleum Exchange in London on Wednesday. According to “The Times” of London, they slipped into a closing door and then roared onto the trading floor, blowing whistles and sounding foghorns.

They were hoping to paralyze oil trading at the exchange. But the traders, most of them under 25 years old, rushed the protesters, pushing filing cabinets on top of them and kicking and punching them until they retreated. Twenty-seven protesters were arrested. Two were hospitalized, one with a broken jaw and the other with a concussion. One protester says, “I have never seen anyone less amenable to listening our point of view.”

That’s odd. Things always work out just swell for me when I express my point of view with whistle/foghorn interpretive dance.

40000 troops have enlistments extended to 2031

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/6862691/the_return_of_the_draft/

David Qualls, who joined the Arkansas National Guard for a year, is one of 40,000 troops in Iraq who have been informed that their enlistment has been extended until December 24th, 2031. “I’ve served five months past my one-year obligation,” says Qualls, the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit challenging the military with breach of contract. “It’s time to let me go back to my life. It’s a question of fairness, and not only for myself. This is for the thousands of other people that are involuntarily extended in Iraq. Let us go home.”

The Army insists that most “stop-lossed” soldiers will be held on the front lines for no longer than eighteen months. But Jules Lobel, an attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights who is representing eight National Guardsmen in a lawsuit challenging the extensions, says the 2031 date is being used to strong-arm volunteers into re-enlisting. According to Lobel, the military is telling soldiers, “We’re giving you a chance to voluntarily re-enlist — and if you don’t do it, we’ll screw you. And the first way we’ll screw you is to put you in until 2031.”

GAAAAAH!!! NOOOOO!!

I helped fill one of the most infuriating prescriptions of my life. I’m still ticked about it.

Woman on welfare. Been on welfare for years. No intention of getting off it. Two kids with two different last names. No kids with the new husband. Hubby is fully capable of working but just doesn’t want to (Hey, neither do I. Suck it up and walk it off, jerk-o).

We get a prescription for her for a drug to enhance her fertility. [Edited later to add: The sig on the prescription left no doubt that this was being prescribed specifically for fertility.] It wasn’t one of the really really expensive ones. This is a $65 per month hormonal item. Nonetheless, I’m thinking No way could Title XIX pay for this.

It went through. That’s right. Your tax dollars and mine are helping these deadbeats have welfare kid number three.

GAAAAH!!! WHY GOD I NO LONGER BELIEVE IN???? WHY???

Some days I should’ve just stayed home and drank.

Valentine’s at the drug store

You know how I know it’s almost Valentine’s Day at the drug store?

We have a run on Viagra refills.

Unmitigated Awesomeness

Snow Crystal Photographs

… Capturing the fleeting beauty of snowflakes …

Via CalTech.edu

If you don’t want to click this, I’m not so sure it’ll work out between us.

Clear Channel sucks

My boss was bored at work awhile ago (unusually light workload) and wrote down the name of every song played on the Clear Channel pop station during the work day. He’d google the lyrics to get the name and artist, then mark down what time it played. He gave each song it’s own number so when it inevitably played again later he’d just note the time and the number.

After 75 songs, there had only been 17 unique songs played. 13 of them were repeated 5 times approximately 90 minutes apart. One song (some rap crap)* was played seven frickin’ times (Iowans love rap, after all). Only 3 songs had only been played once in that short span of time.

Needless to say, all 17 songs sucked.

 

* Note: I’m not one of those people who says all rap sucks, because it doesn’t.  But this particular song suuuuuuuucked.

New salvo from the Onion

Via The Onion:

DRESS UP DOLL BORN TO AREA COUPLE

NEW YORK—Two years ago, Manhattan married couple Ron Garver and Becky Meyers weren’t sure they were cut out for parenting. They worked long hours, had a thriving social life, and their East Village apartment was small and cramped. But 24 months and 73 outfits later, Garver and Meyers are the proud parents of a 10-month-old dress-up doll.
[...]
The baby does not always wear special outfits, however.

“If we’re spending the night in, she might just lounge around in a Nike sweatsuit, some grubby old T-shirt from two months ago, and one of those sweaters Grandma sent,” Garver said.

The look on the kid’s face in all the pictures is hilarious.

Press Conference reporter planted by White House?

Via boston.com:

The Bush administration has provided White House media credentials to a man who has virtually no journalistic background, asks softball questions to the president and his spokesman in the midst of contentious news conferences, and routinely reprints long passages verbatim from official press releases as original news articles on his website.

Jeff Gannon calls himself the White House correspondent for TalonNews.com, a website that says it is “committed to delivering accurate, unbiased news coverage to our readers.” It is operated by a Texas-based Republican Party delegate and political activist who also runs GOPUSA.com, a website that touts itself as “bringing the conservative message to America.”

Here’s some info I found out on another site:

“Talon News registers its domain name March 29, 2003. The site goes live April 1, 2003, and on April 3, 2003, the pseudonomic “Jeff Gannon,” with no journalism experience and with a $50, two-day seminar at a right-wing propaganda institute under his belt, is seated four rows away from where the most powerful – and most guarded – person on the planet makes his pronouncements.”