JKane

I like Five Guys better than In and Out, but would put The Habit above both of them.

In general I wholeheartedly agree with you, but I think that COS probably does more harm to it's adherents than is generally done to those of most other religions. COS goes beyond all the usual abuses into being an outright scam and pyramid scheme. The only way one can advance within it is to pay 100k+ or become an indentured servant. Family and friends are to be recruited and those that try to talk sense must be shunned. And they're always out there, trying to gather more people to take advantage of. Especially in my city, home to L. Ron Hubbard Way, a museum of the horrors of psychiatry, and massive "church" megacomplexes.

The more you watch the better you will get. Maybe DVDs and some streaming versions have CC/subtitles? But that won't help with colloquialisms. Still, I've gotten to the point where I can even make it through dense cop shows and catch most everything. Big improvement from years ago when I couldn't understand why so much of their political humor kept mentioning Military Police... Skins is slang for condoms, by the way, and the original version of the show was great. Usually American re-dos are nothing but massive disappointments, but I'm curious to see this and being human, though I don't hold out much hope. Skins was amazing because it was basically an American concept (90210) told in a way so opposite of the vacant, idiotic American style (especially prevalent now with shit like The Hills) that I really cared, which even when I was that age I never did about any of our similar shows.

I like Wendy's. Have never understood the popularity of In and Out, would take Wendy's or Fatburger over them any time. Not quite Fast Food, but Denny's has a surprisingly good burger, available on wheat bun with fruit side instead of fries.

There is also a BBC documentary, from the power-struggle perspective: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uANSkJO01FE

I have reservations about somebody who only realizes Scientology is bullshit because of an internal power struggle with Miscavige. It's batshit from day one, not something that's been perverted recently and turned bad by one man! There's another blown 'celebrity' (I didn't really remember him from much) who has already spoken in great detail about all the bullshit Scientology is built on: Operation Clambake is the leading authority and source of truth on Scientology I have found, and anytime anybody mentions Scientology I make sure to tell them of it. I ask all webmasters/bloggers to put up a link to it on their front page somewhere to keep it high in google search rankings, like this: Church of Scientology.

Yep, really touched me too, already started a thread about it here right after I read it...

JKane: 422

The-agonizing-last-words-of-bill-zeller. I have no particular connection to Mr. Zeller or his experiences, but his eloquent farewell to a tragic life resonated with me. Something about his feeling he's too broken to have a loving relationship and dead-on description of useless counseling hit a bit close to home, at least.

I understood he's under the UCMJ, but had assumed it has somewhat similar provisions... can the UCMJ run counter to the Constitution? By the way, I've been meaning to mention somewhere, Wikipedea needs donations for their hosting fees, as people do your year-end donations please keep that in mind! It's surprising how many times in a week I end up there, so I'm glad I finally contributed the other day. There's also the EFF.

I'd mostly agree with you KY, IF he'd been convicted of something--but he hasn't, he hasn't even been accused! He is both an American citizen and serviceman, as such there can be no justification for stripping him of both due process and the presumption of innocence. If he's as mentally precarious as portrayed then he probably belongs in a hospital, not a bare concrete cell with a light 24/7, until he is fit to stand trial. What purpose in the world does limiting a prisoner's access to news serve? I would think a vital part of participating in your own defense is understanding what the jury pool (or court marshal panel) has been told about you!

I'm right there with you TY. There was a time I thought a McCain/Powell ticket in 2008 would be unbeatable, and as big a bed wetting liberal as I am that I'd find it difficult not to vote for it (esp. against my perception of Hillary at the time). But then, after having denounced him sometime around 2000, McCain got up on a stage with Jerry Falwell at his sham university and embraced him. Pretty soon McCain was waffling or outright reversing himself on every maverick or straight-talking position he'd ever had. Pandering to the assholes he'd rightly showed contempt for before--but they never forgot or came around, so it was all for not. But thanks for bringing us Sarah Palin, you senile old coot! I think what Rove did to him in 2000 scarred him far more than those years as a prisoner of war. It's kind of funny when you think about it that two war heroes have run, in a time of war, and both lost pretty easily. I guess the lesson in all this is that rich chicks dig soldiers!

Yep, and they're already doing protectionist things with many of the crucial raw materials they have. You need their stuff to build Li-Ion batteries? You have to build them in China, where they'll steal your intellectual property and be undercutting you with the same stuff made cheaper down the street!

I'm sure this (combined with the Wikileaks soldier Bradley Manning) will be used as ammo by asshats like McCain as justification on grounds of mental stability...

The Volt was also named one of Car and Driver's 10 best. I sat in one at the autoshow: a lot of luxury features--BUT really crappy fit and finish for a $40k car. Very plasticy, very Chevy. I love the idea, but am waiting for v2 or anybody else to make one. Though the all-electrics look very tempting (well, I wouldn't say look--given how unbelievably FUGLY the Leaf is!), especially the ones with Tesla drivetrains like the forthcoming Toyota Rav4.

Pretty sure he did just turn himself in--when asked.

From the first result in google, a thorough story that makes it clear that at it's worst it's a lot more complex and a lot less like "Rape" then it's made out to be. Even the Swedes agree: Aug. 21: The chief prosecutor dismisses the rape charge and arrest warrant, saying what occurred were no more than minor offenses. In the following days, the claimants appeal, and a special prosecutor reopens the case, eventually reissuing the arrest warrant. By now the press had gotten hold of the story. Miss A spoke to a Swedish newspaper, saying: "In both cases, the sex had been consensual from the start but had eventually turned into abuse."

Except it's class warfare either way. The rich in our country pay among the lowest taxes in the developed world. Their wealth has grown precipitously while their taxes ever-diminish. The current depression is affecting the middle and lower classes far more than the wealthy, and the deficit which is being created will one day HAVE to come out of Social Security or Medicare, services the middle class and below rely on but for which the wealth have plenty of alternatives. There's simply no where else for the money to come from, especially since even cutting programs the military no longer wants is a non-starter with Republicans. These Republican spending priorities have already gravely injured public education (especially in California), again disproportionately affecting the poor and middle class--at a time they desperately need the chance to acquire more professional skills to find employment. Then there's the fact that these cuts were enacted to temporarily stimulate the economy, which the current state of the economy PROVES was a failure. So I can see no justification for extending the cuts for the wealthy, and I can certainly see no justification in the world for slashing the estate tax on monies over 5 million dollars!

On the bright side, Obama's concessions have really paid dividends! Since the deal, Republicans have blocked both the 9/11 responders health bill and DADT repeal, BOTH having been passed by the House and having gotten 57 Yea votes in the Senate. There are times I'm so pissed at the direction politics continues to descend into in the this country that I'm nearly shaking with rage. (The only other times are when I deliberately don't pay attention, in order to lower the levels of both my despair and blood pressure!)

Sorry but this is a steaming pile. Mistake by a couple journalists? Because they didn't know she was still deep cover? What the fuck does that matter? It was still against the law and it could have put her life in danger even if that was the case! And the point of their bs was that it was she who was sent to Niger--not her husband, so she'd obviously *just* been on a gov't mission! And where exactly did the journalists get the information in the first place? From a source so powerful one chose to go to jail rather than reveal it. Followed by refusals to testify under oath by senior administration. None of this comes from the Oliver Stone movie, which may well have exaggerated several things. But the core is clear: 'his wife is CIA' was casually talked about within the Cheney administration and the best case to be made is that a reporter overheard this and used it without thinking. Except reporters get confirmations and the government usually acts to get injunctions or embargo this type of info, often not ultimately succeeding but usually delaying the story for several weeks at least. How long before the Wikileaks dumps did we know something was out there and the government was trying to prevent it's release? And for all people have to say about Assange, some things weren't released, on *reasonable* government request. Funny, don't remember any such fight before the Plame info... Why would I ignore that Joe Wilson had a couple meetings with Kerry? The real question is WHAT THE FUCK DOES THAT MATTER? HE WAS ULTIMATELY PROVEN **CORRECT**!!! There was no yellowcake deal from Niger and the documents in question were forgeries! AND HOW THE FUCK DOES THAT RELATE TO THE TREASONOUS OUTING OF HIS *WIFE*? Christ, being wrong on both sides the equation doesn't cancel the wrong out!

Except the charge isn't rape, it's sex without a condom apparently due in at least one of the two cases because the condom broke.

That is very interesting. I wonder if Mormons' opinions on gays have evolved, they hated the backlash they got for h8, or there's a significant threat to the church's tax-exempt status because of their former political activism.

TALK About all rant and no fact! Typical Republican tactic, state something AS fact often enough, even with no backup, and expect people to buy it! At least two Bush cronies, Libby and Armitage, were actively involved, and authorization clearly came from higher in the Administration... On July 14, 2003, Washington Post journalist Robert Novak, from information obtained from Richard Armitage at the US State Department, effectively ended Valerie Plame's career with the CIA (from which she later resigned in December 2005) by revealing in his column her identity as a CIA operative.[31][32] Legal documents published in the course of the CIA leak grand jury investigation, United States v. Libby, and Congressional investigations, allegedly establish her classified employment as a covert officer for the CIA at the time that Novak's column was published in July 2003.[32][33][34] In his press conference of October 28, 2005, Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald explained in considerable detail the necessity of "secrecy" about his grand jury investigation that began in the fall of 2003 — "when it was clear that Valerie Wilson's cover had been blown" — and the background and consequences of the indictment of Lewis Libby as it pertains to Valerie E. Wilson.[14] Fitzgerald's subsequent replies to reporters' questions shed further light on the parameters of the "leak investigation" and what, as its lead prosecutor, bound by "the rules of grand jury secrecy," he could and could not reveal legally at the time.[14] Official court documents released later, on April 5, 2006, reveal that Libby testified that "he was specifically authorized in advance" of his meeting with New York Times reporter Judith Miller to disclose the "key judgments" of the October 2002 classified National Intelligence Estimate (NIE). According to Libby's testimony, "the Vice President later advised him that the President had authorized defendant to disclose the relevant portions of the NIE [to Judith Miller]."[35] According to his testimony, the information that Libby was authorized to disclose to Miller "was intended to rebut the allegations of an administration critic, former ambassador Joseph Wilson." A couple of days after Libby's meeting with Miller, then-National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice told reporters, "We don't want to try to get into kind of selective declassification" of the NIE, adding "We're looking at what can be made available."[36] A "sanitized version" of the NIE in question was officially declassified on July 18, 2003, ten days after Libby's contact with Miller, and was presented at a White House background briefing on weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in Iraq.[37] The NIE contains no references to Valerie Plame or her CIA status, but the Special Counsel has suggested that White House actions were part of "a plan to discredit, punish or seek revenge against Mr. Wilson."[38] President Bush had previously indicated that he would fire whoever had outed Plame.[36] A court filing by Libby's defense team argued that Plame was not foremost in the minds of administration officials as they sought to rebut charges – made by her husband – that the White House manipulated intelligence to make a case for invasion. The filing indicated that Libby's lawyers did not intend to say that he was told to reveal Plame's identity.[39] The court filing also stated that "Mr. Libby plans to demonstrate that the indictment is wrong when it suggests that he and other government officials viewed Ms. Wilson's role in sending her husband to Africa as important," indicating that Libby's lawyers planned to call Karl Rove to the stand. According to Rove's lawyer, Fitzgerald has decided against pressing charges against Rove.[31] The five-count indictment of Libby included perjury (two counts), obstruction of justice (one count), and making false statements to federal investigators (two counts). But by all means pretend that that a boldly stated lie is all the justification needed for the fucking ridiculous statement Assange should be murdered when the many different Republicans mentioned have done FAR worse, to their own country! (Not even counting Plame!)

Really? Before anybody in the Cheney/Bush administration who actually committed treason against their own country in the Plame affair? Before the people who lied to the American people and congress in order to go to war for oil, in which they didn't even manage to *get* any oil but did manage to kill thousands of Americans and countless Iraqis? Before the contractors and corporations who killed American soldiers and civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan through gross negligence in the name of a buck? Before the contractors who killed dozens of innocent Iraqi civilians but face no criminal prosecution whatsoever? Yep, those priorities make exactly as much sense as cutting the Estate Tax and holding our government hostage until the wealthiest 2% get their rediculous tax cuts extended--i.e. only in a Republican's mind! Wikileaks and The Extreme Hypocrisy of Sarah Palin

I'm glad /b/ has taken up the cause. I don't feel certain internet backbones should be allowed to shit all over Internet standards, pulling stuff like not replicating WikiLeaks' DNS info or otherwise blocking access. It's not up to them to censor what I can access especially when there's been no court finding against the site. Amazon and Paypal, not so much, but they knew who they were doing business with long before this, to yank service with no notice was pretty shitty of them too. And if we can't have a watchdog press anymore (or at least one concerned with anything more than the latest celebrity gossip or which seasonal parade changed their name to Holiday instead of Christmas) I'll take what I can get. I'd really prefer stuff like All the Presidents Men and The Pentagon Papers, but if Wikileaks is all that's left, it's a hell of a lot better than what was available to us as we went to war in Iraq!