Got arrested.

I can taste again, that's good.

Every day, approx 4,000 young adults light their first cigarette.

A study by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University indicates that those who begin smoking by the age of twelve are:

   • sixteen times likelier to abuse marijuana,

   • five times likelier to abuse alcohol,

   • three times as likely to binge drink and;

   • seven times likelier to use other drugs like cocaine and heroin.

I guess that would qualify cigarettes as a gateway drug, right?

Obviously there is going to be a rousing chorus of indignant parents demanding that cigarettes be made illegal with stiff, decades-long minimum federal sentencing penalties for those who would peddle this kind of poison to our children.

Any second now. I'm sure of it.

J.K. Rowling read some Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows to a packed audience at Carnegie Hall then took questions.

She was asked by one young fan whether Dumbledore finds "true love."

"Dumbledore is gay," the author responded to gasps and applause.

"Oh, my god," Rowling concluded with a laugh, "the fan fiction."

Love it.

"Our country for the first time in my life time

has abandoned the basic principle of human rights.

We've said that the Geneva Conventions do not apply

to those people in Abu Ghraib prison and Guantanamo,

and we've said we can torture prisoners and deprive

them of an accusation of a crime to which they

are accused."

                  Former President Jimmy Carter

 

One of the best xkcd's ever.

KIM HAD HER BABY!!

And Ella, if you're reading this we wasn't talking to you, this ain't your part of the show right now. =)

And so without further ado I'd like to welcome Mary Grace Harper into the world and, by extension, the nightmare we all known as the "Bush Administration."

Just kidding. Well, ...kinda.

But yeah, wow. Congratulations to my two favorite fundies.

On the other hand, if you don't invite me down to RI for a liberal application of my Nikon you're coming off my top eight MySpace friend's list and nobody wants that...

Quiz time!

Who said, "...intimidation and force ... and reports about very innocent people being thrown into detention where they could be held for years without any representation or charges is distressing."

(a) Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary-General on Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp.

(b) Dana Perino, White House Press Secretary on Myanmar Buddhist protest crackdown.

But wait, there's more...

Helen Thomas: Would [Bush] tell congress before he attacked Iran?
Dana Perino: Helen, we are pursuing a diplomatic solution in Iran.
Helen Thomas: Does he feel committed to ask Congress for permission?
Dana Perino: We are pursuing a displomatic solution in Iran.

     October 1st, 2007 White House Press Briefing