ineffabelle

Republicans join Kucinich in historic anti-war vote
from lassiter

this is a good account of things in Iran (or in Tehran anyway) by Robert Fisk here, one of the few "official" journalists that I trust:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/06/17/2600571.htm

what is most interesting to me is this part:
"My suspicion is that [Ahmadinejad] might have actually won the election but more like 52 or 53 per cent. It's possible that Mousavi got closer to 38 per cent.
But I think the Islamic republic's regime here wanted to humiliate the opponent and so fiddle the figures, even if Ahmadinejad had won.

The problem with that is they're now going to claim they're going to need a recount. If the recount is to actually give Mousavi the presidency, someone is going to have to pay the price for such an extraordinary fraud of claiming Ahmadinejad won 30, 40, 50 per cent more than he should have done.

You've got to remember as well, on the election night, if the count was correct it meant that they would have had to have counted five million votes in two hours."  And they don't have automatic voting machines, it's largely paper ballots there.

This is what I believe right now too.  I think something very fishy is going on there, at the top, behind closed doors.  There is some sort of split I believe in the Guardian Council, and various old school power factions are waging a struggle, using the people as their personal "armies". 
Even if A-jad won, the announcement of his victory and the official count are suspicious, not only in their numbers, but in the timing of everything.  It's almost as if they wanted to either demonstrate that they could come up with any numbers they want to, and get away with it, or they wanted this situation to occur.

I wouldn't be surprised if the victory announcement came unexpectedly for A-jad himself.

unconfirmed - several Generals have been arested -
in azadi sq the killing was by baseej ONLY - military did not react -
only baseej militia and Etellaat folowing orders - they cannot contain country without Army -
unconfirmed - military has refused orders to shoot protesters -

http://www.takepart.com/blog/2009/06/15/inside-tehran-an-eye-witness-account-from-james-longley/

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/
I usually don't like this guy but he seems to be doing a good job with keeping up on the iran stuff.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/13/iran-demonstrations-viole_n_215189.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jun/15/iran-students-protest-election-results

I just found out something interesting... when you see pictures of people "rioting" in other countries, and there are small fires everywhere, the fires are often lit to disperse tear gas.  Something to keep in mind if the shit ever hits the fan here.

the hidden and glorious secret:
the anvil always wins.

"Gris was predominantly Spanish, and Gertrude Stein used to say that only a true Spaniard could behave as he did, that is, he would speak Spanish and sometimes return to his family in Spain. It was really quite marvelous to see."
- Woody Allen

There's so much to this.

Breaking news: World not safe enough for idiots yet.  "We're working on it round the clock, says President."

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/PainNews/story?id=7788538&page=1

(1:26:41 AM) annamnesis: I don't want to slowly pull liberty back, like pulling teeth
(1:26:49 AM) annamnesis: I want to see it while I am alive.
(1:26:58 AM) name withheld: haha, yeah
(1:27:27 AM) annamnesis: I want to knock out the damn teeth
(1:27:33 AM) annamnesis: till there's no more bite
(1:27:47 AM) annamnesis: we already have won the drug war, more or less
(1:27:56 AM) annamnesis: we're going to win the copyright war
(1:28:01 AM) annamnesis: which is a big one
(1:28:28 AM) name withheld: Pirate Party
(1:28:32 AM) annamnesis: hell yes
(1:28:43 AM) annamnesis: we have a seat on the goddamn EU parliament
(1:29:05 AM) annamnesis: the big war coming up is the sex war
(1:29:10 AM) annamnesis: and that one is a tough one
(1:29:25 AM) annamnesis: because a lot of our natural allies are squicked out by many of us
(1:30:01 AM) annamnesis: but it's the same principle
(1:30:38 AM) annamnesis: I don't like crack heads and junkies (while they are on the shit)
(1:30:54 AM) annamnesis: but I don't think they should be in jail for it.
(1:31:55 AM) name withheld: right
(1:33:10 AM) annamnesis: but religion doesn't attempt to control drugs as much as they try to control sex
(1:33:42 AM) annamnesis: there is no westboro baptist church picketing drug rehab places going "god hates junkies"

"Preventive war was an invention of Hitler. Frankly, I would not even listen to anyone seriously that came and talked about such a thing."
- Dwight D. Eisenhower

If you like the Arcade Fire and Siouxsie and the Banshees, you may like this:

[21:12] name withheld: *shudders*
[21:12] name withheld: Okay, I'm going to drink the Joose now
[21:13] name withheld: "Joose is an alcoholic energy drink, similar in design and purpose to competing beverages such as Sparks and Tilt. It is growing in popularity due to its relatively high alcohol content (9.0-9.9% ABV) compared with other beverages generally available at a convenience store, such as beer (typically 4-6% ABV) and other alcoholic energy drinks (typically 7-8% ABV)."
[21:13] name withheld: Oh god
[21:14] annamnesis: ahh yay!
...
( Read more... )

One of my old long island peeps just came out with an album, and it's friggin awesome!

Listen here.

"Just say that the conservative Christian claim that humans have souls and that they get those souls at conception (which is the claim I was raised with) is correct. Then assume for a moment that their other claim is also correct and that there is only one very specific way for those souls to go to Heaven. I was also taught that aborted and miscarried fetuses, babies, and young children got a free pass into Heaven because they did not yet understand "right and wrong", so were still innocent. That would mean that almost everyone (based on percentages) in Heaven would be one of these "free pass" souls. Aborted babies would almost certainly end up in Hell if they weren't aborted, considering that parents who would abort would not train their children in the proper way (once again, according to the conservative Christian position). So, it seems a bit cruel to send all those people to Hell just to promote your agenda."
- Kent McManigal

this may just be my favorite XKCD ever:
Troll Slayer

I got out of work and opened up google and it usually gives me some headlines... my brain must have been a bit tired or something but I mixed the top two up and saw "General says US Army ready to be gay in Iraq in 10 years"

ain't no party like a broken computer party... 'cause a broken computer party DON'T STOP.

Oh hey there.

This is pretty much a place holder until I get this thing actually set up.

Brainz.org's 10 most revealing psych experiments.

thanks to amp23 for the link

"So there is a pretty easy reply to people who say that man is innately evil, that without a control apparatus people would just go around killing and stealing, and so on and so forth, the reply being “who would you kill first?” Of course they do not want to kill anyone, and they will say so, although they are convinced that the masses harbour in their hearts a desire to kill.

So from a logical point of view, we have a paradox which leads to three possible solutions: either the answerer is somehow special and has escaped the evilness of human nature, or he is lying to himself and really does want to kill, or he is wrong in his basic belief. "

- Francois Tremblay

from splodefromcute:
reposted because I know there's at least one of you out there who will love it...

Edit, since some of you are getting the wrong video here's the link to the real one:
Baby Raccoons in Red Hammock

an observation:
it's easy to do things you don't care about.

and now, a cat playing a theramin:  (from splodefromcute)