Black Man, Black Woman, White Baby

Kate said,
"The flowers of intolerance and hatred
Are blooming kind of early this year.
Someone's been watering them."

I hope this woman gets the Lawyer From Hell and sues the living shit out of Breitbart, the NAACP, and the USDA.

What's the appropriate amount of time to spend reading a book that you already don't like ? How many pages are enough to have given it a fair shake ?

I really hate abandoning books in the middle - especially books that have won bunches of awards - but I'm working on one right now that just seems to get dumber and dumber by the page. And I find myself seeking out reviews of it to see if anyone else felt the same way. So far, no - everyone loved it. Which makes me think SF readers are stupid - cause it can't be me....

The upper house of Russia's parliament on Monday passed a bill granting expanded powers to the country's main security agency, a move that critics say echoes the era of the Soviet KGB.

The bill, which now goes to President Dmitry Medvedev to be signed into law, would allow the Federal Security Service (FSB) to issue warnings to people suspected of preparing to commit crimes against Russia's security.

Human rights and democracy activists say this power could be used to intimidate government opponents and stifle protests.

"This law is targeted against the opposition ... It's a draconian law which is unprecedented in the world and is reminiscent of our repressive past," Boris Nemtsov, a former deputy prime minister who is now leader of the opposition Solidarity movement, was quoted as saying by Interfax.

Former KGB agent Gennady Gudkov told NPR that the the law is written so vaguely that the government could use it "as an instrument to pressure the opposition."

Yipes. How frightening it must be to live in such a society.

Wait for it...
Wait for it...

In other, unrelated, news:

The American Civil Liberties Union launched a new website Tuesday to track incidents of domestic political surveillance by the government along with a report claiming such incidents have increased steadily since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

According to the report there have been 111 incidents of illegal domestic political surveillance since 9/11 in 33 states and the District of Columbia. The website, Spyfiles, will serve as the ACLU's online home for all news and reports of domestic spying.

“In our country, under our Constitution, the authorities aren’t allowed to spy on you unless they have specific and individual suspicion that you are doing something illegal,” said Michael German, ACLU Policy Counsel and a former FBI Special Agent. “Unfortunately, law enforcement in our country seems to be reverting to certain old, bad behaviors when it comes to political surveillance."

German told Hillicon Valley the report shows that law enforcement and federal officials are working closely to monitor the political activity of individuals deemed suspicious, an activity that was previously common during the Cold War. That includes protests, religious activities and other rights protected by the first amendment, German said.

But, we um... we, well, we,... uh... at least we don't use that fucked-up backwards alphabet that Russia uses !

Freedom!

Refudiate !

Lemurs On The Run

The outline of my hand is going weird too...

251 million years ago a mammoth undersea methane bubble caused massive explosions, poisoned the atmosphere and destroyed more than 96 percent of all life on Earth. Experts agree that what is known as the Permian extinction event was the greatest mass extinction event in the history of the world.

55 million years later another methane bubble ruptured causing more mass extinctions during the Late Paleocene Thermal Maximum (LPTM).

The LPTM lasted 100,000 years.

Those subterranean seas of methane virtually reshaped the planet when they explosively blew from deep beneath the waters of what is today called the Gulf of Mexico.

Now, worried scientists are increasingly concerned the same series of catastrophic events that led to worldwide death back then may be happening again-and no known technology can stop it.

The bottom line: BP’s Deepwater Horizon drilling operation may have triggered an irreversible, cascading geological Apocalypse that will culminate with the first mass extinction of life on Earth in many millions of years.

Yay!

Though, I gotta wonder - who was doing deep-sea oil drilling in the Gulf 251,000,000 years ago ?

This Just In!