...Tired of watching the inane propaganda and drivel that passes for "news" on U.S.-based outlets (broadcast and cable)? Try Deutsche Welle out of Germany, or BBC World News. I'm fortunate to be able to get them back-to-back in the market I live in, from 6:30 to 7:30. Both also have their broadcasts online, if you can't get one or the other on your scrap of the planet.
...For the dumpster diver in all of us (and who can pass up a great curbside furniture bargain that just needs a little refinishing?), there's a relatively new online "freebay" kind of website - freecycle.org. There are freecycle communities springing up all across the U.S. and Canada, so surf on over and take a look. Needless to say, it's a very "green" concept.
...And, did you hear about the Prince Harry story? Gilliard has a little bit of it over on his site. Apparently, Harry was photographed at a party wearing a Nazi officer replica shirt, complete with swastika armband. Needless to say, his act of youthful stupidity (or was it royal arrogance?) is causing quite a titter worldwide.
...Meanwhile, the Asian tsunami toll reaches 225,000 dead and missing. And you think our own American fundie xians are a bit whacked in preaching this disaster as heavenly vengeance on the godless? You ain't heard nothin' yet:
"Some of our forefathers said that if there is usury and fornication in a certain village, Allah permits its destruction. We know that at these resorts, which unfortunately exist in Islamic and other countries in South Asia, and especially at Christmas, fornication and sexual perversion of all kinds are rampant. The fact that it happened at this particular time is a sign from Allah. It happened at Christmas, when fornicators and corrupt people from all over the world come to commit fornication and sexual perversion. That's when this tragedy took place, striking them all and destroyed everything. It turned the land into wasteland, where only the cries of the ravens are heard. I say this is a great sign and punishment on which Muslims should reflect."
So sayeth Sheikh Fawzan Al-Fawzan, a professor at the Al-Imam University on Saudi / UAE's Al-Majd TV. I guess fundamentalists are the same all over the world, and sectarian allegiance doesn't even enter into the equation.
Praise
