muddysmind.com

Annan Unaware of Son's Oil-For-Food Link

By EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated Press Writer

UNITED NATIONS - Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he was unaware his son received $30,000 a year for over five years from a Swiss-based company under investigation in connection with suspected corruption in the U.N. oil-for-food program in Iraq.
The disclosure of the payments was the latest embarrassment for Annan and the United Nations related to the program to help Iraqis cope with U.N. sanctions imposed after Saddam Hussein's 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

Under that contract, Kojo Annan was paid $2,500 a month — $30,000 a year — in return for which he agreed not to work for a competitor, Wolfe said.

Read the entire article here.

cwilli note: 30,000 a year would have fed an entire city in Iraq. The oil for food program took food right out of Iragi mouths. How anyone could still believe that the UN is not a corrupt, good for nothing, orgranization is beyond me.

Get the US out of the UN and get the UN out of the US. Sign this petition and write your representative and senator!

Star Trek not so silly anymore

Demo Advances Quantum Networking

Researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology have transferred information stored in the properties of a cloud of rubidium atoms to the properties of a single photon.

The ability to transfer information from atoms to photons is needed for quantum computers, which use the properties of particles like atoms and photons to compute. Quantum computer designs generally use atoms as memory that can store information long enough to perform computations on it, and photons to transfer information.

Full Story @ Technology Review

Seems we're edging closer and closer to having the processing power to get us into space and moving at light speeds. However I think we're long overdue to replace those aging IBM Thinkpad 760XD laptops on the space station. Sad when you think about the International Space Station is run by something you can buy on ebay for about forty dollars. :-(

Declaration of Independence Banned at Calif School

A California teacher has been barred by his school from giving students documents from American history that refer to God -- including the Declaration of Independence.

Steven Williams, a fifth-grade teacher at Stevens Creek School in the San Francisco Bay area suburb of Cupertino, sued for discrimination on Monday, claiming he had been singled out for censorship by principal Patricia Vidmar because he is a Christian.

"It's a fact of American history that our founders were religious men, and to hide this fact from young fifth-graders in the name of political correctness is outrageous and shameful," said Williams' attorney, Terry Thompson.

"Williams wants to teach his students the true history of our country," he said. "There is nothing in the Establishment Clause (of the U.S. Constitution) that prohibits a teacher from showing students the Declaration of Independence."

Full Story @Reuters News

New DeviantArt

Weeding through the stack of shots I took during my last visit to the Air Force Museum, this one of a P-51D. They had several nice dioramas setup depicting what life was like during the war.

NFL = No Family League

I used to love watching my beloved Steelers with my kids. However after last years stupid bowl and the recent Monday Night Football lead in with some ugly hooker stripping for T.O. (In addition to the mass quantities of tasteless beer commercials) it's worthy of a R rating.
Guess we'll stick to backyard football, no bare backed whores or "wardrobe malfunctions" there.

Nice work ABC/Disney, Fox and CBS... you guys sure know how to fsck up a good thing.

It's too bad you can't sit down to a football game anymore with your kids.

Office Dares

This was way to funny to pass up, thanks for the Laugh John.

ONE-POINT OFFICE DARES

1) Run one lap around the office at top speed.

2) Ignore the first five people who say 'good morning' to you.

3) Phone someone in the office you barely know, leave your name and say,
"Just called to say I can't talk right now. Bye."

4) To signal the end of a conversation, clamp your hands over your ears
and Grimace.

5) Walk sideways to the photocopier.

6) While riding in an elevator, gasp dramatically every time the doors
open.

THREE-POINT DARES

1) Say to your boss, "I like your style" and shoot him with
double-barreled fingers.

2) Babble incoherently at a fellow employee then ask, "Did you get all
that, I don't want to have to repeat it".

3) Page yourself over the intercom (do not disguise your voice).

4) Kneel in front of the water cooler and drink directly from the nozzle
(there must be a 'non-player within sight).

5) Shout random numbers while someone is counting.

FIVE-POINT DARES

1) At the end of a meeting, suggest that, for once, it would be nice to
conclude with the singing of the national anthem (extra points if you
actually launch into it yourself).

2) Walk into a very busy person's office and while they watch you with
growing irritation, turn the light switch on/off 10 times.

3) For an hour, refer to everyone you speak to as "Bob".

4) After every sentence, say 'Mon' in a really bad Jamaican accent. As
in "The report's on your desk, Mon". Keep this up for one hour.

5) While an office mate is out, move their chair into the elevator.

6) In a meeting or crowded situation, slap your forehead repeatedly and
mutter, "Shut up, darn it, all of you just shut up!".

7) At lunchtime, get down on your knees and announce, "As God as my
witness, I'll never go hungry again".

8) In a colleague's diary, write in 10am: "See how I look in
tights". (Extra points if it is a male, even more if he is your boss)

9) Carry your keyboard over to your colleague and ask "You wanna
trade?".

10) Repeat the following conversation 10 times to the same person:
"Do you hear that?" "What?" "Never mind, it's gone now".

12) Come to work in army fatigues and when asked why, say, ! "I can't
talk about it".

13) Posing as a maitre d', call a colleague and tell him he's won a
lunch for four at a local restaurant. Let him go.

14) Speak with an accent (French, German, Porky Pig, etc) during a very
important conference call.

15) Find the vacuum and start vacuuming around your desk.

16) Hang a two-foot long piece of toilet roll from the back of your
pants and act genuinely surprised when someone points it out.

17) Present meeting attendees with a cup of coffee and biscuit, smashing
each biscuit with your fist.

18) During the course of a meeting, slowly edge your chair towards the
door.

19) Arrange toy figures on the table to represent each meeting attendee,
move them according to the movements of their real-life counterparts.

And if that wasn't enough for you...

:)

How to keep a healthy level of insanity:

1) At lunchtime, sit in your parked car with sunglasses on and point a
hair dryer at passing cars. See if they slow down.

2) Tell your children over dinner. "Due to the economy, we are going to
have to let one of you go."

3) Every time someone asks you to do something, ask if they want fries
with that.

4) Put your trash bin on your desk and label it IN."

5) Put decaf in the coffee maker for 3 weeks. Once everyone has gotten
over his or her caffeine addictions, switch to espresso.

6) Finish all your sentences with "In accordance with the prophecy."

7) Dont use any punctuation

! 8) Use, too...much; punctuation!

9) As often as possible, skip rather than walk.

10) Ask people what sex they are. Laugh hysterically after they answer.

11) Specify that your drive-through order is "to go."

12) Sing along at the opera.

13) Go to a poetry recital and ask why the poems don't rhyme.

14) Put mosquito netting around your work area. Play a tape of jungle
sounds all day.

15) Five days in advance, tell your friends you can't attend their party
because you're not in the mood.

16) Have your co-workers address you by your wrestling name.

17) When the money comes out of the ATM, scream "I Won! I Won! 3rd time
this week!!!"

18) When leaving the zoo, start running towards the parking lot yelling,
Run for your lives, they're loose!"

And the final way to keep a healthy level of insanity....

19) Send this to everyone in your address book, even if they sent it to
you or have asked you not to send them stuff like this.

Arafat is dead and the world is a better place

Most of the media wants to call him a hero or a person with 'undisputed courage as a guerrilla leader', they are wrong. Arafat was a terrorist and I for one think that the middle east now has a chance (although small) of finally having peace because he is gone.

If you listen closely you can hear the crackling sounds of him burning in hell.

Read a good article call 'Arafat the monster' here

France Dispatches More Troops to Ivory Coast

PARIS (Reuters) - France has ordered more troops to Ivory Coast to protect French citizens after nine French soldiers and a U.S. aid worker were killed in a government bombing raid and Ivory Coast troops fired on French forces.

French President Jacques Chirac ordered the Ivory Coast planes involved in the Saturday airstrike destroyed and a defense source said French forces would also destroy five Ivorian military helicopters, leaving the country with only one helicopter.

Mobs of machete-wielding pro-government supporters rampaged through Abidjan, furious at the French destruction of the planes. Plumes of smoke rose from the plush Cocody suburb.

The French embassy said a French school in Cocody had been set ablaze, four French policemen were evacuated from a building by helicopter before it too was burned down and that there was a loud explosion near the embassy.

The escalating tension between the East African country and its former colonial ruler followed three days of a government air offensive to retake the rebel-held north of the country.

Full Story @ Reuters.com

Fair Tax? Maybe? Perhaps? Even Hopefully?

The president is talking about tax reform as one of his top agenda items for the next 4 years. My congressman tells me they're going to try to pass the Fair Tax bill "after the election" (this was in April.) They have the votes.

Is the president talking about the Fair Tax? He calls his plan for tax reform "revenue neutral." The press is thinking he means he's not going to cut taxes with the reform. To me this sounds more and more like the Fair Tax. In fact, it's the only major tax reform bill currently sitting in congress (Senate and House) that I know about.

I'd like to hear what people think about the idea because I frankly can't see any downside. It'll help the poor. It'll help the middle class. It'll tax currently untaxed money (crime money, black market money.) It will remove the corporate tax burden freeing up profits for jobs - not to mention free up conformance costs which are astronomical (has anyone heard how tall GM's tax return was last year?) It'll cause lower prices through competitive pressures. Everyone has more money because nothing is taken out of their checks. Sorry,

I fail to see any major problems. It's fair: if you are truly poor you won't pay taxes unless you buy something you probably can't afford like a brand new car or a big screen tv. Government costs go down.

I'm not saying it's perfect, no form of taxation is, but it's better than our current system where 10% pay 50% of the taxes before they even get to touch it.

Underour current system, a millionaire who makes $15k a year on a small business that he runs in his retirement as a hobby, would get money back where as a person making 200k might have to pay out of pocket. Under this system, that millionaire would pay taxes.

It Was All Over When Michael Moore Showed Up

He Was For Nader...Before He Was Against Him

I sensed it was all over for John Kerry in Florida upon learning that Roseanne Barr and Michael Moore would be at the Tallahasee/Leon County Civic Center election eve to rally the faithful to depose Prince W come on E-Day. After all, Leon County is a safe haven for Democratic presidential candidates such as Mondale, Dukakis, Clinton and Gore.

As the final returns from Florida starkly prove, the Michael and Roseanne road show would have done better to work the I-4 corridor circuit where the election was actually decided.

It was Moore's second appearance in Tallahassee in a month. In October he spoke to a full house at Ruby Diamond auditorium on the FSU campus. Moore started his entertaining October anti-Bush harangue by bellowing out, "It's great to back! The scene of the crime." Moore, of course, was referring to the infamous 2000 election.

Full Story @ counterpunch

County by County Breakdown: Bigger Blowout than 2000

I just found the USA Today county-by-county break down of the election. What a blowout. In 2000, we had the biggest county to county blowout since Reagan blew Mondale out of the water in '84. This time was bigger. I just wish I had the actually figures from '84 to compare, but either way it's huge. Shows where Democratic support really is though: the inner-city. That doesn't immediately suggest anything (you can interpret it a number of ways) but that is how it is.

Kerry concedes; Bush re-elected

President Bush won a second term from a divided and anxious nation, his promise of steady, strong wartime leadership trumping John Kerry's fresh-start approach to Iraq and joblessness.

After a long, tense night of vote counting, the Democrat called Bush Wednesday to concede Ohio and the presidency.

Read the entire article here

Honest News?

I was book marking news sites on my laptop today and google'd for "honest news" seeking other news sources.
I think the word honest has changed in recent years and nobody told me.
The first page of "honest" news source contained, Al Jazeera, Progressive-News.com, World Socialist Web Site and others that were to say the least, disturbing.