http://www.tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?pid=28817

This is the real cost of cronyism - the loss of top management in every area. This is Fascism. This will affect the US and the world for years to come.

I have nothing to add. I just wanted to point out an excellent compendium of facts, and also that Tom Engelhardt is seeking further information on the Fallen Legion.

You can download it for free from www.starwreck.com

You'll need Divx and bittorrent. Download the one with English subtitles!

There are several unique facets to this movie that give us hope for the future.

Firstly it was made totally outside any kind of studio system, Hollywood or otherwise. In fact it was made totally outside any kind of institutionalized moviemaking. It was made by a bunch of passionate young Finns, some of them unemployed, from Tampere, an industrial city in middle Finland. They made it in their spare time, using dozens of friends, ordinary computers for rendering the CGI, a small studio with a blue linoleum wall and semi-pro HD video equipment.

Why is this movie important?

::flippancy::

http://www.keesler.af.mil/

couple more items below...

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/77868922-0228-11da-9481-00000e2511c8.html

It says that "The US ranked 11th in the Brands Index, which asks people around the world to rate 25 countries according to their cultural, political and investment potential and other criteria. Australia received the highest overall score, with respondents expressing "an almost universal admiration of its people, landscapes and living and working environment", according to the report."

(well, Australia somewhat fricks with my argument, but anyway...)

All very predictable really, from a European viewpoint. But the kicker (and it is a very strong mule) comes here right after the fold:

The stress of daily exposure to possible immediate death requires measures that are not in the army manual.

In an economy of opportunity, geographically close to the producers of the poppy and the cannabis sativa, availability is all.

Imagine what it would be like to be several months without  'normal happiness' - to be an 'automaton' sent out almost every day in harm's way.

Surrealism needs a surrealistic  answer.

And has anybody thought about what will happen when these surrealists return home?

To me, the details are evidence of who I wish to be associated with.

It is, of course, subjective

Let me explain a little on the flip...

From the BBC. They were talking about the UK:

"The three men met on Sunday for celebrations to mark the 750th anniversary of the founding of Kaliningrad, formerly known as Koenigsberg, an exclave of Russia surrounded by Poland and Lithuania.

"The only thing they have ever done for European agriculture is mad cow disease," Mr Chirac said, according to the newspaper's report.

"After Finland, it is the country with the worst food."

little bit more>>>

87%  tailgating
85%  litterbugs
77%  queue jumpers
72%  spitting
67%  pavement dogturds
62%  website popup ads

more below the fold

The notion that human social interaction systems could prosper without leaders goes against all our experience of hierarchical systems in the Western world. From school to a job, from the church of our choice to the political system we live in, everything is about a pecking order of power in which we are encouraged to move up the ladder to gain more power. In doing so we often have to give up individual feelings to `play the game'. Many of us feel entrapped in this game as we grow older. Forums such as this one however, empower people to speak out and in doing so find themselves to be part of an alternative system with different rules from the ones they have been taught to obey. In fact, people find that instead of having to obey rules, they are the rules.

More below

The Review Conference of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4586159.stm

This is Bolton's watch and he's clearly dropped the ball (bomb).

Is he so tied up with other parts of his career?
Was it a deliberate plan to screw up the conference?
Is he totally out of his mind?

Odyssey Sirens 'were monk seals'

A German scientist claims to have found the Sirens of the Greek myth of Odysseus, who lured ships onto the rocks with their song: they are, in fact, monk seals.

Karl-Heinz Frommolt, head of the Achieve [ED. Archive?] of Animal Sounds at the Humboldt Museum in Germany, believes he has identified the Sirens' lair on the Li Galli islands, off Sorrento on Italy's Amalfi coast. The island is known as Le Sirenuse, the Island of the Sirens.

His team identified a configuration of rocks which amplifies sound coming from the island. However, tests showed a human voice could not reach far enough out to sea - whereas a moaning monk seal's could.

I have problems with links, sorry.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4559217.stm

the meat course follows below...

Dogs can be vital to police work, but only if they know what to sniff for

(news today)

A team of Australian drug sniffer dogs has been sent back for retraining, after it was found they could only track talcum powder, not cocaine.

Melbourne police found that the white powder used to hone the dogs' nostrils was not in fact an illegal substance.

A probe is now under way to see whether any illicit drugs have gone missing.

"They're very good at detecting talcum powder," joked Assistant Commissioner Paul Evans. "If there's any missing kids, we'll find them fairly quickly."

Well, as Uncle Pavlov explained 'We're all salivating at some thought or other, but are we sure it's not just talcum powder?"

Or did dog-handler K.Rove switch the power-powder on his programmed sniffer?

This weird story in the Brit Electronic Telegraph snapped me up into full consciousness Telegraph

It tells of paedophiles going through evangelical 'Alpha' training in prison, and subsequently joining congregations on their release to get close to children in church.

a tad more below...

The real criminal here is the culture that she was brought up in, and the grossly inadequate training given to her for the job she had to do.