Photos of Chernobyl after 18 years. I lived about 100 miles South-West of it at the time.

Martha Stewart convicted

Martha Stewart has been convicted on all four counts. I have nothing else to add to the matter other than this: a country that destroys its best, most productive minds does not survive for very long. If 30 years from now, all that is left of America is a broken-down starving dictatorship, today will be the day that finally doomed it. With the media in a witch-hunting frenzy, politicians of all stripes trying to beat one another to the next socialist regulation, and the courts going along, the thugs at the DOJ have nothing left in their way.

Every movement that seeks to enslave a country, every dictatorship or potential dictatorship, needs some minority group as a scapegoat which it can blame for the nation's troubles and use as a justification of its own demands for dictatorial powers. In Soviet Russia, the scapegoat was the bourgeoisie; in Nazi Germany, it was the Jewish people; in America, it is the businessmen. -Ayn Rand

To top off a lousy week, my digital camera broke today :-(
I'm in the market for a new one if any readers have suggestions for me.

Who stands to benefit from civil unrest in Iraq?

AlJazeera Poll: "Who stands to benefit from civil unrest in Iraq?"

Neighbouring Arab country : 13%
Neighbouring non-Arab country : 3%
Israel and the US : 38%
Internal Iraqi groups : 19%
Combination of the above : 12%
Unsure : 15%

Not surprisingly, "terrorists," "Baathist thugs," and "Al Jazeera" were not in the list. The article further implicates the US:

There might be infiltrators attacking the Shia to make it appear they are being targeted by Sunnis and the other way round. It is in the interest of both (Iraqi) Sunnis and Shia to agree on putting out this fire and not to react to such provocations," said Shaikh Salman al-Udah.

(Needless to say, the problem in Iraq is a bit more serious than “civil unrest.”)

Applied Death Worship 101

A wave of suicide bombings and mortar attacks on vast crowds of Shiite worshippers has killed at least 170 people in Baghdad and Karbala. ... The near-simultaneous attacks ripped through an annual ritual, banned under Sunni Saddam Hussein, during which Shiites beat their heads and chests and cut their heads with swords to honour a revered figure killed in battle 1,324 years ago.

Should it be any suprise that a religion glorifying death leads to death-worship in practice? Only to someone who glorifies death himself. The main difference between most Christians and Muslims is that the former tend to be much more consistent.

"Topless rights"

Do you support equal topless rights, allowing women to show their breasts openly, just like men?

Choice Votes Percentage of 10465 Votes

Yes 6366 61%

No 3869 37%

In related news, porn = adultery:

DALLAS -- This billboard in Dallas on Feb. 2, 2004, is a campaign by Dallas- based nonprofit software company by NetAccountability, a nonprofit software company that aims to help Christians confront the "secret sin" of pornography. The company is urging men to give their wives a special gift for Valentines -- abstinence from porn. The billboards are scheduled to be displayed on Friday, Feb. 13, 2004, the day before Valentines Day.

For the record, I am pro-porn, and pro-nudity ;-)