January 2006
The Huffington Post: Cost Of Iraq Could Top $2 Trillion...
by mikepower
The cost of the Iraq war could top $2 trillion, far above the White House's pre-war projections, when long-term costs such as lifetime health care for thousands of wounded U.S. soldiers are included
Richard Dawkins: Beyond belief - The renowned evolutionary biologist tells John Crace why he finds the resurgence of religion so annoying
by mikepower
Even secularists talk about Jewish, Catholic and Muslim children. There's no such thing. Children aren't born with a particular religious gene. What they are is children of Jewish, Catholic and Muslim parents. If you started to talk about monetarist or Ma
The Bureaucrat in Your Shower
by mikepower
How the government stops you getting a decent shower. You mean they regulate how much my shower sprays? Yes indeed they do. Government believes that it has an interest in your shower? Yes it does.
The Village Voice: The Bush Beat
by mikepower
A year after tearfully accepting a Medal of Freedom from George W. Bush for his disastrous reign in Iraq, preposterous pasha Jerry Bremer has rewritten history with a ghosted "diary" and started a book tour by saying, "I didn't do it."
Leave the field now - the Iraqi endgame is about to begin: Simon Jenkins
by mikepower
The concept of an “occupying power” is near meaningless.This is not an occupation. It is a military squat.
The Economist: Luxury; Inconspicuous consumption
by mikepower
Now that luxury has gone mass market, how are the super-rich to flaunt their wealth?
December 2005
Junk Science - The Top 10 Junk Science Claims of 2005
by mikepower
It’s that time of year again when we at JunkScience.com reflect on all the dubious achievements and irresponsible claims made by the junk science community throughout the year.
Sidney Blumenthal: Victory in name only
by mikepower
Since the election of the Shia slate that will hold power for four years, dedicated to an Islamic state allied with Iran, the president and his advisers have fallen eerily silent. As his annus horribilis draws to a close, Bush appears to have expended the
Rolling Stone : The Magical Victory Tour
by mikepower
Bush in person always strikes me as the kind of guy who would ask a woman for a hand job at the end of a first date. He has days where he looks like she said yes, and days where the answer was no.
Truthdig - Dr. Germ and Mrs. Anthrax Set Free
by mikepower
Why is it not bigger news that those infamous Iraqi female scientists once routinely referred to in the media as “Dr. Germ” and “Mrs. Anthrax” have been quietly released from imprisonment in Iraq without any charges being brought by their U.S. cap
Mr. Cheney's Imperial Presidency - New York Times
by mikepower
George W. Bush has quipped several times during his political career that it would be so much easier to govern in a dictatorship. Apparently he never told his vice president that this was a joke.
Gospel truth
by mikepower
Bush professes to believe that Jesus is the son of God, whose words are literally divine commands. Yet anyone who compares what Jesus really said to Bush's actions in power...can readily see that this profession of faith is a monstrous deceit.
Tomgram: Elizabeth de la Vega on Shooting the Moon in 2006
by mikepower
While masquerading as hard-headed realists, the President and war hawks from both parties have been, at best, determined illusionists. They have shrouded the war in abstractions...all of which are, ultimately, obscene.
The Smirking Chimp
by mikepower
Adam McKay: Does Dick Cheney know he's evil? I mean it. Does he occasionally look up from his breakfast of one hard boiled egg and a plate of heart pills and say to himself, "Man, I'm an evil fuck"?
The Guardian: The interrogation camp that turned prisoners into living skeletons. German spa became a forbidden village where Gestapo-like techniques were used
by mikepower
The shocking story of Britain's own 'Abu Ghraib' from almost 60 years ago
James Wolcott: Intelligent Design: Opiate of the Dummies
by mikepower
Wielding a sword of truth and a surgical scalpel of reason (he's quite ambidextrous), NRO's John Derbyshire pierces the fatty deposits of bad faith in the postures of religious piety by certain conservative eggheads.
Max hastings: Sorry, prime minister, your legacy will be a disastrous foreign war
by mikepower
In his old age it will seem monstrously unfair to him, but Tony Blair will be remembered for one terrible misjudgment
Want a bargain? Get used to buying second-hand
by mikepower
The idea of buying used goods, especially when advanced around the holidays, can sound rather pathetic, as if one is living a real-life version of "A Charlie Brown Christmas." Who would want something used?
Psychology Today: Stirring Sound of Stress
by mikepower & 1 other
The internal alarm clock. Why we sometimes wake up a minute before the alarm rings.
November 2005
Review Essay: Norman Finkelstein's Beyond Chutzpah: On the Misuse of Anti-Semitism and the Abuse of History. By Matthew Abraham
by mikepower
Finkelstein in bullet points (via Jews Sans Frontieres)
The clitoris needs more respect, doctor says
by mikepower
Pioneering urologist Dr. Helen O'Connell says the clitoris just hasn't got enough respect from her fellow doctors -- and she's been working to change that.
Blair wont jump and cannot be pushed
by mikepower
Blair lives and rules by headlines and soundbites. He knows no other form of government. Who did we see last week hauled out of retirement but Campbell, cruising the studios in a whirlwind of spin. It brought a tear to the eye.
October 2005
The Hewitt horror show: Rod Liddle on Patricia Hewitt
by mikepower
Her entire career seems to have been built on the notion that social change must be enforced on a country that is too stupid or prejudiced to embrace her ideology voluntarily — regardless of the injustice to the individual.
Trying to interview George Bush
by mikepower
I stood up, turned around to face the door and seconds later the president strode towards me. Bush appeared shorter than on camera and he looked stern and rather grey that day.
Bush's Veil Over History - Kitty Kelley
by mikepower
President Bush seems determined to control what the public is permitted to know. And he has been spectacularly effective, making Richard Nixon look almost transparent.
