connecting*the*dots

Just a reminder how sick and twisted one human being can become if they try hard enough.

(originally uploaded by Jacob Krejci)

Ah, the joys of a secular nation. This craziness was found in Franklin, North Carolina.

Oh, by the way, on the right side of the billboard is the Ten Commandments.

Ana in Honolulu forwarded me this after coming across it in a Google search. Anyone happen to know where the shot was taken?

UPDATE: It appears that Mantis dropped this stencil across the UK.

(Fabrizio Costantini for The New York Times)

Iraq’s Shadow Widens Sunni-Shiite Split in U.S.

[…] “Escalating tensions between Sunnis and Shiites across the Middle East are rippling through some American Muslim communities, and have been blamed for events including vandalism and student confrontations. Political splits between those for and against the American invasion of Iraq fuel some of the animosity, but it is also a fight among Muslims about who represents Islam.” […]

Last Monday, Ed Cone posted a letter from Nelson Johnson regarding Smithfield Packing’s refusal to give its employees Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. day off. A handful of comments down the line, Smithfield’s unconscionable operating tactics were exposed.

Now, for the company PR:

UPDATE: Here’s a shot from Smithfield’s waste facility, featured in Jeff Tietz’s Rolling Stone article, Boss Hog:

Margaret Bourke-White
Bread Line during the Louisville flood, Kentucky
1937

(originally uploaded by Mr Case)

Translation: “You… and how many more?”

I almost died on Friday as I moved my brother into his new house. We absolutely baked in the 100 degree+ sun for 6 hours, taking breaks every 20 minutes or so just to stay conscious.

A big shout of respect to day laborers.

Once we finished up I headed over to the Juice Shop on Lawndale to grab a smoothie, hoping and praying for a brain freeze. The girl at the counter looked at me as if my hair were on fire while I tried my best to order a tall citrus smoothie (so good!)… I think my eyeballs were cooked up and clouded like poached eggs, as everything was foggy for the remainder of the afternoon.

So yes, the weather has been crazy hot for my first summer in North Carolina and I’m kinda depressed about it. Unlike some people, I actually buy into the thesis behind Al Gore’s scientifically fueled presentation / movie, so the heat is not only unbearable, but a moment to moment reminder that we’re in deep shit as a planet.

And then Sandi Fontaine comes along and confuses me even more:

I don’t know if I want to slap her silly or ask for a tall glass of milk.

(via Neatorama)

Israeli girls write messages in Hebrew on shells ready to be fired toward Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon.

The smile on her face makes her look like she’s writing a holiday card. Wow.

UPDATE: Marcus took down his blog as he now prepares to run for the chair of the state Republican Party. God bless Google cache.

12 hours after experiencing this film and I still can’t formulate a pointed opinion. My mind is playing a constant, rotating game of tennis with the traditional protagonist / antagonist roles. So many unanswered questions, thoughts…

If you enjoy a ride, well, Hard Candy is that type of film. Just don’t bring the kids.

Seriously.

WOUB: Radio & Television
Rock band promotional sticker triggers bomb alert on OU campus

ATHENS, OH (2006-03-02) A sticker on a bicycle outside a restaurant on the campus of Ohio University is behind a bomb scare this morning.

Ohio University Dean of Students Terry Hogan says an Ohio University police officer spotted a bicycle attached to the Oasis restaurant at 5:30 a.m. this morning with a sticker containing a message attached to it.

“‘This Bike Is a Pipe Bomb’ is the name of a band out of Pensacola, Fla.,” said Hogan. “The sticker was actually a promotional item for that entity.”

A bomb squad was called in from Columbus to investigate the bike, resulting in an evacuation of four buildings on campus for more than three hours.

The area was cordoned off and Gordy Hall, Ellis Hall, Scott Quad and Konneker Alumni Center were all closed until 8:40 a.m. when police allowed students students and faculty into the buildings and the immediate area.

Hogan says police were informed from the owner of the bike that the sign in question was just a sticker. The bomb squad disabled the bike to confirm that.

The bike owner’s name is not being released but Hogan says he has cooperated with the investigation.

All in all, Hogan says the university is pleased with the response from OUPD and Athens Police and fire in handling the scare. He says protocol updated after 9/11 was used for the first time in response to the potential threat.

OUPD is investigating the incident but no criminal charges have been filed.

You know, every day, I’m more and more amazed at how people in this country have absolutely no fucking clue. How could any rational human being take this bumper sticker as a threat? It’s not like the damn thing was ticking; someone had to pause, read the words, make a judgement call on the potential danger to the community and alert the authorities (if it wasn’t an “authority” find in the first place). But, hey! At least the new post-9/11 protocols are working correctly.

bin Laden completely proved that we’re a country of religion, not faith. We’re so busy looking up for direction from leaders and God, we’ve completely lost our faith in our common man.

Guardian Unlimited
Tape: Bush, Chertoff Warned Before Katrina

[…]

Six days of footage and transcripts obtained by The Associated Press show in excruciating detail that while federal officials anticipated the tragedy that unfolded in New Orleans and elsewhere along the Gulf Coast, they were fatally slow to realize they had not mustered enough resources to deal with the unprecedented disaster.

Linked by secure video, Bush’s bravado on Aug. 29 starkly contrasts with the dire warnings his disaster chief and a cacophony of federal, state and local officials provided during the four days before the storm.

A top hurricane expert voiced “grave concerns” about the levees and then-Federal Emergency Management Agency chief Michael Brown told the president and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff that he feared there weren’t enough disaster teams to help evacuees at the Superdome.

“I’m concerned about … their ability to respond to a catastrophe within a catastrophe,” Brown told his bosses the afternoon before Katrina made landfall.

Some of the footage conflicts with the defenses that federal, state and local officials have made in trying to deflect blame and minimize the political fallout from the failed Katrina response:

-Homeland Security officials have said the “fog of war” blinded them early on to the magnitude of the disaster. But the video and transcripts show federal and local officials discussed threats clearly, reviewed long-made plans and understood Katrina would wreak devastation of historic proportions. “I’m sure it will be the top 10 or 15 when all is said and done,” National Hurricane Center’s Max Mayfield warned the day Katrina lashed the Gulf Coast.

“I don’t buy the `fog of war’ defense,” Brown told the AP in an interview Wednesday. “It was a fog of bureaucracy.”

-Bush declared four days after the storm, “I don’t think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees” that gushed deadly flood waters into New Orleans. But the transcripts and video show there was plenty of talk about that possibility - and Bush was worried too.

Just in case you didn’t catch that deceitful declaration, here it is:

Forget the lies surrounding the Iraqi War.

Forget the illegal wiretapping of American citizens.

President Bush’s complete lack of leadership, responsiveness, honesty, hell, simple caring… regarding Katrina is more than enough grounds for impeachment.

At least on moral grounds.

(via The News Blog)

Sometimes the truth truly is stranger than fiction:

Chris Cunningham is now officially on my radar. Better late than never.

(via blather)

Clayton James Cubitt is living in a world of shit.

His mother evacuated New Orleans when Katrina hit and lost everything, including the trailer she lived in, which Clayton bought for her. Now FEMA refuses to provide grant money to her because the trailer is in his name and he lives in New York City; FEMA considers him to be an absentee landlord and his mother a mere tenant.

Un-fucking-believable.

Clayton is doing what he can to keep on rebuilding, one part being a donation page on his blog. It’s the holiday season; do what you can to help.

Here’s a comment I pulled from his blog, left by one of our men in Iraq, which frames these times all too clearly:

clayton,

Although I cannot directly share in the pain you are suffering now, nor the pain that your family will experience in the coming months and years to rebuild the generations of your family that seem to now be lost, I can offer you one glimmer of hope and faith… there are many wonderful people who would be by your side right now if they could.

Unfortunately, we are stuck… because of the decisions of the same bureaucratic SOBs that are making your life hell right now. They are and have been affecting many lives recently. I am serving for a military that has failed to appreciate its members for the better part of a decade, for a people that barely appreciate us, in a country (right now) that wants fiercely for us to just go back to our own home. The worst part isn’t knowing that the destruction we have seen here in Iraq is comparable to that which is found in a once glowing city of vast residency, a landmark of what it truly means to be an American, but it is in fact worse to know that the destruction, while comparable… was caused by US here.

I do my job because I have to help provide for my wife and son… but I’d rather be in New Orleans!

Keep on keeping on, bud. Eventually we will all be home… and to tell you the truth, your pictures and your words have created a connection. From half a world away in a war zone I can somehow feel that every service member would be proud to call a little house between two levees right underneath I-10… HOME.

-feeling the connection, and I’d rather be in New Orleans.

from Iraq,
-josh

I don’t often use these guys as an example of great journalism, but this Hardball segment is on point. They convincingly expose Dick Cheney’s lies regarding the tie between one of the primary 9/11 terrorists and Iraq.

The entire piece screams conspiracy to sell and then launch an illegal war.

Of course, this leaves me with a few questions:

• Who holds these men and woman accountable to such contradictions and lies? Congress? Another special prosecutor?
• Do we have to wait until there’s a Democratic administration in office before an investigation is launched?
• Is Patrick Fitzgerald’s investigation expanding?

If it’s proven that this unethical administration schemed to launch an illegal war by knowingly using false evidence — a war which has already killed tens of thousands of people — I want justice.

And no, my sense of justice would not equate with a misdemeanor.

When Wolf Blitzer asked for his opinion on the closed Senate hearing today, Carville responded with (paraphrasing):

"Sometimes you need to knock the mule over the head with a two-by-four"

Rock on… y’all.