The expected outcome of years of extremist torture mongering, pundit plaudits, repeated public pronouncements of efficacy, and unseemly News Corp. Jack Bauer adulation is made manifest; a first cleanly refracted image of the Fox News future.

U.S. soldier 'waterboarded his own daughter, 4, because she couldn't recite alphabet'

A soldier waterboarded his four-year-old daughter because she was unable to recite her alphabet.

Joshua Tabor admitted to police he had used the CIA torture technique because he was so angry.

As his daughter 'squirmed' to get away, Tabor said he submerged her face three or four times until the water was lapping around her forehead and jawline.

Tabor, 27, who had won custody of his daughter only four weeks earlier, admitted choosing the punishment because the girl was terrified of water.

Look for Fox News and Charles Krauthammer to declaim the soldier's arrest; she clearly had it coming, probable links to al Qaeda.
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The grand strategic vision that has guided the US space program since the glory days of the Apollo missions has resulted in the final night launch of a NASA space shuttle: STS-130, heading off to the useless International Space Station.  Soon to be followed by the final launch of any NASA space shuttle at anytime of the day.

Truly, this is a triumph of money-grubbing, militarized corporatism over national pride and inspiration.  Because, really, what is the point of going to the moon if one can't make gobs of money from it or immediately turn it into a weapons platform or, preferably, both?



For those interested, these are the remaining shuttle launches on the docket.

STS-131: March 18, 2010, Discovery

STS-132:   May 14, 2010, Atlantis

STS-134:  July 29, 2010, Endeavour

STS-133: Sept 16, 2010, Discovery

That's all folks.  Now, we will wait upon the tender mercies of Virgin Galactic and Amazonian CEO's to deliver us into the final frontier.

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The goal … is to inject some machismo into their ministries — and into the image of Jesus — in the hope of making Christianity more appealing. “Compassion and love — we agree with all that stuff, too,” said Brandon Beals, 37, the lead pastor at Canyon Creek Church outside of Seattle. “But what led me to find Christ was that Jesus was a fighter."

The Christianists are insane.  We know this.  They know this.  They say this all the time.  They happily call themselves "crazy for Jesus."  You've heard this.  Of course, we all thought it was just a quaint, religio-nutter figure of speech.

Turns out, … not.  Turns out, their linguistic stylings are exactly like their beloved Bible: completely and utterly literal.  They are crazy.

Naturally enough, the Jesus-crazy, in a presumed mutation, turns out some people who don't like the historical, lovey-dove Jesus, all that forgiving and love-thy-neighbour sissy talk.  Fuck-up thy neighbour, is what they think he should have been saying.  Jesus may not have been a cage fighter, but by god, these good folks know he could have -- would have -- been one.  Isn't there one passage in the Gospels where Jesus is like a pissed off Tony Jaa delivering this world's most awesome hand-to-hand evil upon some muthafuckahs who surely deserve it?  Well, if there isn't, there should be.

So, a certain faction of Jesus' pals on earth have decided to toughen up his image.  By fighting each other in a cage.  I'm not entirely sure how that works, but they seem convinced of a certain efficacy.

You think I am exaggerating?< [...]More

Since US media coverage of all things Sarah Palin pales all else, more than a few may not have noticed that the CRU "Climate gate" charade is playing out heavily in the British press.

Without further commentary, the tale is summarily and succinctly told by the front pages of two UK dailies, Sunday, February 7, 2010 editions.  Any editorial bias and/or hidden corporate agendas,  either apparent or inferred, are purely coincidental.





Of the two, I suspect you will find the latter story the more interesting.

Think-tanks take oil money and use it to fund climate deniers

Yes.  Yes, they do.  And have been for years.  Naturally, recipients of oil revenue largess scoff at the notion of a conspiracy -- "I'm a grim and mirthless bastard!  fiercely independent!  No one has co-opted me!  Any coincidence between ExxonMobil's agenda and my own is purely that: coincidence."

It seems that the letter [...]More

'She insisted she's going to be buried in an Obama t-shirt'

A t-shirt not to be confused with the soon to-be-released Girl Buried in an Obama t-shirt t-shirt. Which will be Obamacare, rev. 1.7.1

That's quite a plan, Mr. Obama.  Apart from the feel-good aura of self-referentiality, what, exactly, are you proud of?  After refusing to stand for anything on the health care bill, you now stand up proudly and say this?  Your performance on health care to date mocks this woman's death.

You stood in front of the House Republicans and said you were not an ideologue.  "I'm not!" you said.  Republicans don't believe this, of course, but remember: this is a group of people who, if told that their "base" was growing restless because gravity was not in the Bible, and that the gub'mint was teachin' their kids 'bout this so-called "gravity" as if it were a fact, not a theory, well, this group of people that Obama was talking to that night would thenceforth not believe in gravity, or at least would find it troubling that their nation's children were learning only one side of the "gravity" story.  But Obama did tell the truth.

Mr. Obama, though the Republicans will never acknowledge it, you were being absolutely truthful, a rare moment that might otherwise be applauded in less dire contexts, where the prospects of such a lack of conviction might have less deadly consequences.  The President told us the truth!

Yes, sir, you are not an ideologue.  You appear to care about nothing, and any appearance made by the word care within any Obama namespace ought

[...]More

[Update below]

The Russian military allegedly dumped nuclear waste into the Baltic Sea in the early 1990s …

The partly enclosed Baltic Sea is known as one of the most polluted seas in the world.

But now it seems it was also used as a dumping ground for Russian nuclear waste and chemical weapons.

Radioactive material from a military base in Latvia is thought to have been thrown into Swedish waters.

According to a report on Swedish television, Russian boats sailed out at night, to dump barrels of radioactive material, from a military base in Latvia, into Swedish waters.

Update: you can watch the Swedish Television episode of uppdrag granskning for the exposé.  [In Swedish, though there is one brief segment where one hears, in English, "we know there are nuclear weapons in the Baltic."  And that is pretty much the story, attendant larceny and graft in tow.]

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Baptist missionaries baby shopping in Haiti have been charged with child kidnap and criminal association.  Of course, they don't see "man's law" as terribly relevant to the conduct of their lives. As one God's law nutjob tells us, "God's will be done."

Good luck with that, sister!  People on earth generally don't like their babies being stolen.

Ten American missionaries arrested in Haiti for trying to take 33 children out of the country after last month's earthquake were charged today with child kidnapping and criminal association.

The group, most of whom are members of an Idaho-based church group, were sent back to jail today after a closed court hearing in the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince.

Their lawyer, Edwin Coq, said that the judge had found sufficient evidence to file charges against his clients, who were arrested last Friday at Haiti's border with the Dominican Republic while trying to take the busload of ­children out of the country without documents or permission.

Not disabused by American unwillingness to see these activities for what they really are, a cartoon from the buitenlands frames the situation succinctly,