Recent US engagement in Libya has reminded me of something strange about one of 2009′s biggest stories. On November 5, 2009, a U.S. military psychologist, Major Hassan, entered the Fort Hood military base in Texas and opened fire, killing 12 and wounding 31 more before he was shot multiple times and taken into custody. At [...]
If you haven’t seen the Cairo speech, you can get the transcript here or the video here. As a political statement to assuage the so-called ‘muslim world,’ I suppose it’s not bad. Interpreted in the light of facts, history, and a rational, ethical perspective, however, and it’s overwhelmingly bullshit. Here are the 10 worst examples [...]
We know that people have trouble evaluating risks. (To be more precise, people have trouble with conditional probability) One way this manifests itself is in society’s preoccupation with dramatic but minor threats (like terrorism) while less dramatic (or more abstract), but much more serious threats are ignored. Here are eight bona fide existential threats to [...]
Check out this story about how the MPAA sponsored a study linking piracy to organized crime and terrorism. The mighty Motion Picture Association of America, you see, has a problem: prosecutors are reluctant to waste millions of dollars in public money going after millions of software, music and movie downloaders. Somehow, the MPAA has to [...]
In the following video, Keith Olbermann summarizes the damning historical case against the Bush Administration. Many years from now, museums and history professors my play this tape in memorial to the effects of voting for someone you’d like to have a BBQ with, instead of someone with morals and brains. Only Americans would elect a [...]
During current Israeli invasion of Gaza, Israel has killed at least 919 people, including 284 children. Since the beginning of the war in Iraq, estimates vary from 250 000 to 1 000 000 dead Iraqis. So I ask you, who are the terrorists? Have Hamas or Hezbollah killed 284 innocent Israeli children? Did Saddam Hussein [...]
War on Bullshit Thought of the Day: Prostitution may be the oldest profession, but men made war before money was invented to pay prostitutes.
Well, folks, today is the anniversary of the tragic attack of the World Trade Center seven years ago. Seven years later, and we still have not caught the man behind that attack; seven years later, and we still have not ended the ‘threat of terrorism’ as W. promised; seven years later, and we are still [...]
Listening to the bullshit propoganda being spread in the current presidential race, I was just beginning to think neo-cons couldn’t get any dumber. Then I saw this headline and pissed myself: Neocons Call for U.S. to Launch War with Russia. That’s right, you heard me. Neocon leader William Kristol says we owe it to Georgia [...]
A lot of folks are watching the escalation in terrorism along the Pakistani-Afghani border, the growing tension between Iran and Israel, and the pronounced anti-Americanism the world over, and they fear war. There is a movement of doomspeakers who believe our end is coming – or at least some turbulent years – where we will [...]