a quick poll--need some input

[IntenseOperator]

Men and women differ in their eating habits: study Wed Mar 19, 10:35 PM ET



WASHINGTON (AFP) - Men and women have different tastes in food, with men favoring meat and poultry, and women fruits and vegetables, researchers said in what was touted as the most extensive study to date of gender differences in eating habits.

ADVERTISEMENT

More than 14,000 adult men and women were surveyed from May 2006 to April 2007, for the Foodborne Disease Active Surveillance Network (FoodNet), to determine their eating habits, including high risk foods such as undercooked meat and eggs.

"There was such a variety of data, we thought it would be interesting to see whether there were any gender differences," said Beletshachew Shiferaw, a lead researcher on the study.

"To our knowledge, there have been studies in the literature on gender differences in eating habits, but nothing this extensive," the epidemiologist told the 2008 International Conference on Emerging Infectious Diseases in Atlanta, Georgia.

Researchers found that men were more likely to eat meat and poultry, especially duck, veal, and ham, and certain shellfish such as shrimp and oysters.

Women instead were more likely to eat vegetables, especially carrots and tomatoes, and fruits, especially strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and apples.

Women also preferred dry foods, such as almonds and walnuts, and were more likely to consume eggs and yogurt when compared with men.

There were also some exceptions to the eating trends of each gender: men were significantly more likely to eat asparagus and brussels sprouts than women, while women were more likely to consume fresh hamburgers as opposed to the frozen kind, which the men preferred.

And regarding high risk foods, the researchers found that significantly more men consumed undercooked meat and eggs than women, while more women were more likely to eat alfalfa sprouts.

 

[IntenseOperator]

Oil Falls Below $102 on Waning Demand
Thursday March 20, 12:59 am ET
Oil Prices Fall Below $102 After US Report Shows Oil, Gasoline Demand Softening


SINGAPORE (AP) -- Oil prices extended their sharp retreat Thursday after data released the previous day showed demand for petroleum products is waning in the face of record high prices.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration's weekly inventory report said Wednesday that overall consumption of oil and its products fell 3.2 percent over the last four weeks compared with the same period last year. Demand for gasoline fell 1 percent during the same period.

ADVERTISEMENT


The demand numbers in the report overshadowed data showing that supplies of crude oil grew less than expected last week, while gasoline and heating oil supplies fell.

Light, sweet crude for May delivery dropped 56 cents to $101.98 a barrel in Asian electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange by midday in Singapore. The contract fell $5.96 to settle at $102.54 a barrel Wednesday.

Crude for April delivery declined $4.94 to settle at $104.48 a barrel before expiring.

The reaction to the tepid demand data marked a change from recent focus on the falling U.S. dollar, with investors looking more closely at oil supply and demand fundamentals.

Prices have jumped sharply in recent weeks as investors looked to the dollar for direction and ignored evidence of rising supplies, falling demand and a weakening economy.

Oil and other commodities are viewed as a hedge against inflation and tend to rise in price when the dollar falls. Also, a falling dollar makes oil less expensive for overseas investors.

Investors shrugged off EIA data showing that crude oil supplies grew just 200,000 barrels last week, much less than the 2.1 million barrel increase analysts surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires had expected on average.

Gasoline inventories fell 3.5 million barrels, when analysts had expected a small increase, and supplies of distillates, which include heating oil and diesel fuel, fell 2.9 million barrels, more than double the expected decline.

Further depressing demand for oil was refinery activity, which fell by 1.2 percentage points last week to 83.8 percent of capacity, a sign refiners are cutting back on production of low-margin gasoline. Gasoline crack spreads -- the difference between what refiners pay for oil and make for selling gasoline -- have dipped into negative territory several times in the last week, analysts said.

Heating oil futures fell 0.31 cent to $3.0136 a gallon while gasoline prices lost 1.48 cents to $2.5455 a gallon.

Natural gas futures lost 10.9 cents to $8.915 per 1,000 cubic feet.

In London, Brent crude futures dropped 58 cents to $100.14 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

 

[IntenseOperator]

About the closer's job ...
Wood, the leader in the clubhouse, hit by back spasms; best-laid plan in doubt

March 20, 2008Recommend

BY GORDON WITTENMYER gwittenmyer@suntimes.com
MESA, Ariz. -- Like Cub clockwork, the coronation of Kerry Wood as the team's closer no sooner got under way than Wood got waylaid by injury.

Maybe the back spasms that forced him to be scratched from Wednesday's game are no big deal. But because they belong to Wood, they are necessarily a big deal.

? Click to enlarge image

Cubs pitcher Kerry Wood developed back spasms and was scratched from Wednesday's pitching assignment.
(AP file)



RELATED STORIES
Lou will wait no later than Friday to settle on rotation
Cubs recap

Inside the Cubs: Updates from our blog

And whether they keep him out just two more days or another week, or return in the cold of April or never return, they've already put the Cubs' closer plans in doubt until at least the final week of camp.

Unless Wood's back pain lingers deep into next week, manager Lou Piniella seems intent on making him the closer. And Carlos Marmol's recent struggles -- including his worst outing of the spring Wednesday -- haven't suggested a persuasive alternative. Neither have the last three weeks of results from veteran Bob Howry, who has been outpitched by Wood and Marmol.

So Wood remains at the top of the list despite the likelihood he won't pitch again until at least Saturday, in part because the Cubs won't chance his back on the long bus ride to Tucson on Friday.

And Piniella still wants to test Wood's ability to pitch on back-to-back days, which he originally was scheduled to do Wednesday and today. He also wants to see Wood follow that up with an outing of more than one inning.

''Hopefully, it'll only be two or three days,'' said Piniella, who planned to announce his decision by this weekend. ''If it's not, then we'll have to go to Game Plan 2.''

That could mean delaying a decision on Wood's role until close to the season opener a week from Monday, or choosing Marmol or Howry and using that pitcher in the closer role in the final days of camp.

''Remember, we've got three people here in my mind that can close and I'm very comfortable with,'' Piniella said. ''So, no, a bad back doesn't change our plans. But we do still want to see him throw the ball back-to-back [days], and we want him to pitch an inning-plus.''

Wood, who was not available to media Wednesday, received treatment on the back and was to be re-evaluated today, although Piniella said Wood won't pitch today against Colorado.

Wood has had a history of recurring back problems in his career, although none of his 11 stints on the disabled list was attributed to his back.

''The key is it has nothing to do with his arm,'' Howry said. ''Back spasms are treatable, and they go away.''

Not that the team has an explanation for what caused the pain that came Tuesday and worsened Wednesday.

''They kind of pop up out of nowhere. It's not any activity or anything else,'' pitching coach Larry Rothschild said. ''And a lot of times it's happened at this point in the spring. It's something we haven't figured out. He's done exercises and tried to maintain it and everything else. But once in a while, he gets up and it's locked.''

Considering that durability was the primary issue in Wood's candidacy for the closer job, this latest bout with the back leads to an obvious question about his fitness for an April schedule that calls for the first 25 games to be played outdoors in potentially cold-weather cities.

''He's been through the cold,'' Rothschild said. ''It's something that hot, cold, cloudy or sunny, there's really no way to know when it's going to lock up.''

Said Piniella: ''If we had to be concerned about everything to be concerned about, we'd never sleep around here. It's just a stiff back and nothing more, and it could happen to anybody.''

Wood, whose velocity has reached 98 mph this spring, wanted to pitch Wednesday until talking with trainers.

For now, the Cubs are crossing their fingers for their star-crossed pitcher's quick return.

''We basically have a pretty good idea what we want to do,'' Piniella said of decisions regarding the rotation and bullpen. ''And this weekend we'll have some ideas on the rotation for [the media], and if Wood can pitch over the weekend, we'll have some ideas on the closer, and we'll go from there.''

 

[IntenseOperator]

Juan as in gone? Don't be so sure
Uribe may be on waivers, but outright release isn't a certainty

March 20, 2008Recommend

BY JOE COWLEY jcowley@suntimes.com
TUCSON, Ariz. -- If the White Sox have started the ball rolling to rid themselves of former starting shortstop Juan Uribe, they sure have a funny way of showing it.

As of Wednesday evening, they hadn't notified Uribe or agent Martin Arburua whether they had put Uribe on waivers, and they have him scheduled to start at second base this afternoon against the Dodgers in Phoenix and Saturday against the Cubs in Mesa.

? Click to enlarge image

White Sox' Juan Uribe
(AP file)



RELATED STORIES
Cabrera extension isn't a lock just yet
White Sox recap

Inside the White Sox: Updates from our blog

That doesn't mean they haven't put Uribe on waivers, but considering there are at least four types of waiver moves, the idea that the Sox have parted ways outright with the infielder seemed to be a big jump to conclusion.

''We had a meeting [Wednesday] morning, and we talked about Uribe like he was on the team,'' manager Ozzie Guillen said. ''This is news to me.

''Just because you're on waivers, it doesn't mean you've been released. Sometimes you're put on waivers to see if anyone wants you. We're going to wait and see the next couple of days.''

The waiver move first was reported Wednesday by WSCR-AM (670). It also seemed to be news to Uribe and Arburua, who said, ''I haven't heard anything like that.''

Speaking from Florida, Arburua went on to say: ''Everything I've been told by the club was positive about Juan. I heard he was hitting well, playing great defense. That would be a shock.''

If the Sox have put Uribe on outright waivers, according to major-league rules, if another team doesn't claim him in 72 hours, the Sox will have to release him and pay him his $4.5 million salary for 2008.

Guillen did have a closed-door meeting before the game against the Rockies, but Uribe ended any speculation that he was in that office, saying he didn't have any discussion with general manager Ken Williams or Guillen on Wednesday.

''My agent called and said reporters called him, but my agent told me he called Kenny and ... I don't know,'' Uribe said. ''No one has told me nothing. I got a surprise. My agent called me and said, 'Juan, what happened?' I say, 'What do you mean?' People here told me, 'Hey, the media [want to talk to you].' I say, 'For what?'''

Then again, the team doesn't have to notify a player or his agent about a waiver move unless he's being taken off the 40-man roster.

''I don't have control,'' Uribe said of the situation.

Uribe is hitting .333 while fighting off Alexei Ramirez and Danny Richar for the starting job at second, but Guillen remained hesitant to hand him the job.

''Why have we not named him the second baseman?'' Guillen said. ''I mean, Uribe is a great spring-training player, then all of a sudden spring training is over and we see a different player. If the season starts tomorrow, who pitches for Cleveland? [C.C.] Sabathia? Well, then the starting second baseman will be Pablo Ozuna. The next day? We'll see.''

Ramirez continued to open eyes Wednesday with his first home run, and like Uribe, he's versatile enough to play several positions.

The other possibility is that a waiver move was a prelude to a trade Williams has up his sleeve.

Richar isn't an immediate option, considering he was scratched from Wednesday's start and sent for an MRI exam on the injured back that has had him on the shelf most of the spring. If anything, Richar is more likely to start the season on the 15-day disabled list.

The one position up for grabs that Guillen seemed to clear up was the leadoff spot. To the surprise of no one, he said Jerry Owens likely will be his starter atop the lineup and in center field.

''If he plays the way he's playing, I don't see why not,'' Guillen said. ''We're on the same page with that. If he keeps playing like he has, then he will make my life a little easier. The way he's playing right now, we should give him the shot.''

 

[IntenseOperator]

reviews

Married Life (PG-13)

How to murder your wife
for her own good
By Roger Ebert

Remember the time businessmen were expected to drink martinis at lunch, and the time they were expected not to? Ira Sachs' "Married Life" begins with Harry taking Richard into his confidence at a martinis-and-cigarettes lunch that confirms the movie is set in 1949. Harry (Chris Cooper) is a buttoned-down, closed-in, respectable type. Richard (Pierce Brosnan) is more easygoing. You can tell by the way they smoke. Harry is painfully earnest as he tells his friend that he plans to leave his wife for a much younger woman. The younger woman truly and deeply loves him. All his wife wants is sex.

Funny Games (R)

Your choice: Sadism or masochism?
"Anyone who leaves the cinema doesn't need the film, and anybody who stays does."
-- Michael Haneke on his previous version of "Funny Games"

By Jim Emerson, Editor

The new Hollywood edition of "Funny Games," writer-director Michael Haneke's clinical reenactment of his Austrian torture-comedy experiment from 10 years ago, is an attempt to replicate the earlier study under English-language conditions.


Paranoid Park (R)

Teenage wasteland,
Northwest division
By Jim Emerson, Editor

The title of Gus Van Sant's "Paranoid Park" refers to a rough skateboard park underneath a bridge in Portland, Ore. -- a place where, they say, "dead bodies" are buried beneath the contoured cement. It also describes the confused conscience of Alex (Gabe Nevins), the emotionally isolated teenager who narrates the movie and who actually sounds like a teenager while doing it. In voiceover, Alex reads aloud from his journal as if he were delivering a book report in class, but he's trying to confess the darkest secret of his young life.


Let's Get Lost (No rating)

A portrait in shades of cool
By Jim Emerson, Editor

In the center of the frame, very close to the camera, hangs a studio microphone that could be mistaken for a vintage Soviet communications satellite. Chet Baker, 58, is recording Jimmy Van Heusen and Johnny Burke's "Imagination." His voice isn't quite as soft and papery as it used to be, but the image -- like every shot of Baker in Bruce Weber's "Let's Get Lost" -- is about the face, not so much the music.


The Band's Visit (PG-13)

"Here there is no culture at all."
By Roger Ebert

The eight men wear sky-blue uniforms with gold braid on the shoulders. They look like extras in an opera. They dismount from a bus in the middle of nowhere and stand uncertainly on the sidewalk. They are near a highway interchange, leading no doubt to where they?d rather be. Across the street is a small cafe. Regarding them are two bored layabouts and a sadly, darkly beautiful woman.


The Bank Job (R)

A B-grade movie heist
By Jim Emerson, Editor

A serviceable B-grade British heist movie, ?The Bank Job? is no worse than its generic title. And no better. It front-loads the naughty sex and back-loads the plot twists (the titular crime takes place in the middle), but apart from the prominence of Princess Margaret in the subterfuge, it?s a pretty routine job, as the use of the hackneyed phrase ?plot twists? earlier in this sentence should indicate.


Chicago 10 (R)

Activism as political cartoon
By Jim Emerson, Editor

"We believe that politics is the way you live your life, not who you support. It's not in terms of rallies or speeches or political programs. It is in terms of images and in terms of transforming people's lives."

That was Abbie Hoffman, the notorious Yippie, expressing his dedication to politics as "total theater" in 1968. He was just over 30 then, and never to be trusted, which is exactly what so many people found galvanizing about this gregarious, frizzy-haired prankster.


The Other Boleyn Girl (PG-13)

Catfight in the House of Tudor
By Jim Emerson, Editor

Mary Boleyn: "You know I love him."

Anne Boleyn: "Well, perhaps you should stop."

Sassed her, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!

If Russ Meyer had made "The Other Boleyn Girl," Anne and Mary Boleyn would have yanked some hair, scratched some eyeballs, walloped each other in their respective kissers, and the movie would have been all the better for it. Just imagine: "Beneath the Valley of the Tudorvixens": Meee-oww!


The Counterfeiters (R)

What it costs to stay alive
By Jim Emerson, Editor

Even if you didn't know that Stefan Ruzowitsky's "The Counterfeiters" was a 2007 Oscar nominee for best foreign language film, you'd probably guess it was, anyway. This Austrian drama about the Nazis' top secret Operation Bernhard, the largest counterfeiting scheme of all time, is paradoxically all too good at fitting the horrors of the Holocaust into a prestige movie format. Predictably, it won the Oscar.

Answer Man
The Questions That Will Not Die
This column originally ran August 27, 2000: The Answer Man has a special folder for The Questions That Will Not Die. These questions are like urban legends. While the general population faithfully repeats the story about the blind date who stole the kidney, the AM is asked yet once again if there is not a ghost in "Three Men and a Baby." This column is dedicated to answering Questions That Will Not Die and no others. Clip and save.
great movies
Ordet (1955)

A hard winter worth braving
By Roger Ebert

For the ordinary filmgoer, and I include myself, "Ordet" is a difficult film to enter. But once you're inside, it is impossible to escape. Lean, quiet, deeply serious, populated with odd religious obsessives, it takes place in winter in Denmark in 1925, in a rural district that has a cold austere beauty.
From the Archives
Hitchcock: "Never mess about with
a dead body -- you may be one..."
by Roger Ebert (1969)

Alfred Hitchcock waited in a deep chair by the window, like a judge in chambers preparing for a last word with a strangler. The pale morning sunlight struggled into the room and collapsed at his feet. It was a grey morning, a foggy Chicago morning. On such mornings, he said, he is reminded sometimes of the Acid Bath Murders...


overlooked dvd of the week
The Piano Teacher

Be careful what you wish for...
From the director of "Funny Games."

by Roger Ebert (2002)

There is a self-assurance in Isabelle Huppert that defies all explanation. I interviewed her in 1977, asking her how she got her start in the movies. She knocked on the door of a Paris studio, she said, and announced, "I am here." Was she kidding? I peered at her. I thought not. In Michael Haneke's "The Piano Teacher," which won three awards at Cannes 2001 (best actress, actor and film), she plays a bold woman with a secret wound.

 

[IntenseOperator]

Coach of several sports loved to teach
JEFFREY L. AARON | 1955-2008

March 19, 2008Recommend (12)

LARRY FINLEY Staff Reporter/lfinley@suntimes.com
Jeffrey Aaron could be fun and frequently funny, but he was very serious about teaching math and coaching baseball at Glenbrook South High School.

"He had the ability to break things down to the simplest form, in the classroom or on the baseball field," said Jack Adams, a retired math teacher at the Glenview school. "He had a unique ability to reach kids in the lower-level classes and the highest level of calculus. The way he could communicate was unbelievable. For him, everything was about the kids. It wasn't about Jeff."

Glenbrook South Principal Brian K. Wegley described Mr. Aaron as "a wonderfully warm and caring person, well-loved by his peers and by his students."

Mr. Aaron, 53, died Monday at his Northbrook home. The cause of death was not immediately known.

Mr. Aaron taught math for 31 years and coached sports for 24 years at Glenbrook South in Glenview, where he also was the announcer for boys basketball games.

"He worked hard at all subjects," Adams said. "But the calculus was a challenge for him. He went back to school to learn new techniques for teaching the course. Once he started doing something, there was nothing that could stop him."

Mr. Aaron taught calculus, advanced algebra and advanced algebra honors classes.

Adams recalled how, over Thanksgiving and Christmas, "When most of the teachers were thinking about a couple days off, he was looking forward to seeing his former students come back [from college] and talk to him about how they were doing. We would have to add extra chairs in the office we shared."

"He took teaching very seriously," said Brian Robinson, the head athletic trainer at Glenbrook South. "If a student wasn't grasping a concept, he didn't point a finger at the student, He tried to improve the way he was teaching."

Mr. Aaron was born in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, on March 12, 1955. He received his bachelor of arts degree from the State University of New York in Buffalo in 1977 and his master's from Northwestern University in 1979. He began teaching part time at Glenbrook South in 1977 and full time the following year. He was an assistant football coach from 1979 to 2003, an assistant baseball coach from 1979 to 1987 and the head varsity baseball coach for 13 years, from 1988 to 2000. He continued on as an assistant baseball coach until 2003.

"He loved sports, especially baseball," said Robinson. "He ate, slept and lived baseball, especially coaching kids in baseball. He was about teaching the game. He gave them a lot of leeway. He let the pitcher and catcher call the pitches. He taught them the game and let them play it."

Mr. Aaron had been the game announcer for the Titans boys basketball team for about 25 years and "had great fun doing it," Robinson said. "He made it fun and exciting. He would definitely embellish his comments and come up with words not common to a sports arena. He would tally up the score and say that a 'plethora of points' had been scored. Sometimes, to the chagrin of the referees, he would say 'an alleged transgression' had been called, instead of a foul."

His survivors include his parents, Frank and Shirley Aaron, and two brothers, Bob and Mark.

A memorial will be held at 4 p.m. today in the Norman E. Watson Auditorium at Glenbrook South. Other services are pending.

 

[IntenseOperator]

Shining a light on hazards of fluorescent bulbs
Energy-efficient coils booming, but disposal of mercury poses problems

By Alex Johnson
Reporter
MSNBC
updated 6:10 p.m. CT, Wed., March. 19, 2008
Compact fluorescent light bulbs, long touted by environmentalists as a more efficient and longer-lasting alternative to the incandescent bulbs that have lighted homes for more than a century, are running into resistance from waste industry officials and some environmental scientists, who warn that the bulbs? poisonous innards pose a bigger threat to health and the environment than previously thought.

Fluorescents ? the squiggly, coiled bulbs that generate light by heating gases in a glass tube ? are generally considered to use more than 50 percent less energy and to last several times longer than incandescent bulbs.

When fluorescent bulbs first hit store shelves several years ago, consumers complained about the loud noise they made, their harsh light, their bluish color, their clunky shape and the long time it took for them to warm up.

Since then, the bulbs ? known as CFLs ? have been revamped, and strict government guidelines have alleviated most of those problems. But while the bulbs are extremely energy-efficient, one problem hasn?t gone away: All CFLs contain mercury, a neurotoxin that can cause kidney and brain damage.

The amount is tiny ? about 5 milligrams, or barely enough to cover the tip of a pen ? but that is enough to contaminate 6,000 gallons of water beyond safe drinking levels, Stanford University environmental safety researchers found. Even the latest lamps promoted as ?low-mercury? can contaminate more than 1,000 gallons of water beyond safe levels.

There is no disputing that overall, fluorescent bulbs save energy and reduce pollution in general. An average incandescent bulb lasts about 800 to 1,500 hours; a spiral fluorescent bulb can last as long as 10,000 hours. In just more than a year ? since the beginning of 2007 ? 9 million fluorescent bulbs have been purchased in California, preventing the release of 1.5 billion pounds of carbon dioxide compared with traditional bulbs, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

?Using them actually reduces overall emissions to the environment, even though they contain minuscule amounts of mercury in themselves,? said Mark Kohorst, senior manager for environment, health and safety for the National Electrical Manufacturers Association.

Public, agencies ill-informed of risks
As long as the mercury is contained in the bulb, CFLs are perfectly safe. But eventually, any bulbs ? even CFLs ? break or burn out, and most consumers simply throw them out in the trash, said Ellen Silbergeld, a professor of environmental health sciences at Johns Hopkins University and editor of the journal Environmental Research.


?This is an enormous amount of mercury that?s going to enter the waste stream at present with no preparation for it,? she said.

Manufacturers and the EPA say broken CFLs should be handled carefully and recycled to limit dangerous vapors and the spread of mercury dust. But guidelines for how to do that can be difficult to find, as Brandy Bridges of Ellsworth, Maine, discovered.

?It was just a wiggly bulb that I reached up to change,? Bridges said. ?When the bulb hit the floor, it shattered.?

When Bridges began calling around to local government agencies to find out what to do, ?I was shocked to see how uninformed literally everyone I spoke to was,? she said. ?Even our own poison control operator didn?t know what to tell me.?

The state eventually referred her to a private cleanup firm, which quoted a $2,000 estimate to contain the mercury. After Bridges complained publicly about her predicament, state officials changed their recommendation: Simply throw it in the trash, they said.

Break a bulb? Five steps for cleanup
That was the wrong answer, according to the EPA. It offers a detailed, 11-step procedure you should follow: Air out the room for a quarter of an hour. Wear gloves. Double-bag the refuse. Use duct tape to lift the residue from a carpet. Don?t use a vacuum cleaner, as that will only spread the problem. The next time you vacuum the area, immediately dispose of the vacuum bag.

In general, however, the EPA endorses the use of fluorescent bulbs, citing their energy savings. Silbergeld said that could send mixed signals to confused consumers.

?It?s kind of ironic that on the one hand, the agency is saying, ?Don?t worry, it?s a very small amount of mercury.? Then they have a whole page of [instructions] how to handle the situation if you break one,? she said.

Limited options for safe recycling
The disposal problem doesn?t end there. Ideally, broken bulbs and their remains should be recycled at a facility approved to handle fluorescent lamps, but such facilities are not common.

California is one of only seven states ? Minnesota, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin are the others ? that ban disposing of fluorescent bulbs as general waste. And yet, qualified recycling facilities are limited to about one per county. In other states, collection of CFLs is conducted only at certain times of the year ? twice annually in the District of Columbia, for example, and only once a year in most of Georgia.

In fact, qualified places to recycle CFLs are so few that the largest recycler of of fluorescent bulbs in America is Ikea, the furniture chain.

 

[IntenseOperator]

 

[IntenseOperator]

Clinton releases first lady papers
Schedules show plain and some substantive activities for a first lady
Video


Clinton documents reveal little
March 19: Released documents from Hillary Clinton's schedule as First Lady so far reveal little more than general information about meetings and appointments. Much of the specific information has been redacted. MSNBC's Kevin Corke reports.
MSNBC




AP Video: In her own words
Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., speaks to the primary themes of her presidential campaign.
Cartoons: Clinton
MSNBC.com's editorial cartoonists weigh in on Hillary Clinton's candidacy.

AP Slide show: A political life
From Watergate to Whitewater, politics has played a major role in Hillary Clinton?s life.

updated 11:29 a.m. CT, Wed., March. 19, 2008
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - Hillary Rodham Clinton kept her schedule packed when allegations exploded that her husband had an affair with a White House intern, according to papers released Wednesday that show her daily activities as first lady.

The private crisis came at the most public of times for the wife who initially believed her husband's protestations of innocence, before his story crumbled.

She had speeches scheduled, at home and abroad. She appeared by Bill Clinton's side at an education event where he angrily dismissed the reports of his womanizing. And if that were not enough, there was his State of the Union address.

Her schedule has her choosing flowers for a black-tie dinner, congratulating "Guns Aren't Cool" award winners and reading to kids in the week in January 1998 that upended her life and threatened his presidency. She denounced a "vast right-wing conspiracy" in a TV interview.

The National Archives in Washington and former President Clinton's presidential library in Arkansas jointly released her first lady schedules after months of pressure from critics who say the Clintons were delaying the disclosure.

In all, 11,046 pages have been made available. Nearly 4,800 pages have parts blacked out. Archivists said that's to protect the privacy of third parties. Schedules for more than 30 days of activities were not included in this release.

Sen. Clinton said in her memoirs that she had little choice but to carry on with her appearances when the Monica Lewinsky revelations came out. It was on Jan. 21, 1998, when her husband woke her up, sat on the edge of the bed and said, "There's something in today's papers you should know about." He told her of the reports of his relationship with the former intern, and she believed his denials at first.

"I knew that both Bill and I had to carry on with our daily routines," she said in her book.

Her Democratic presidential campaign released a statement Wednesday saying the schedules spanning her two terms as first lady "illustrate the array of substantive issues she worked on" and her travel to more than 80 countries "in pursuit of the administration's domestic and foreign policy goals."

Clinton says her years as first lady would help equip her to handle foreign policy and national security as president.

But the schedules show trips packed with plainly traditional activities for a first lady as well as some substance.

For example, in her January 1994 visit to Russia with her husband, her schedule is focused on events with political wives. She sat in on a birthing class at a hospital, toured a cathedral and joined prominent women in a lunch of blinis with caviar and salmon.

The Clinton campaign said the schedules are merely a guide and don't reflect all of her activities.

 

[IntenseOperator]

Spitzer gal was 17 in ?Girls Gone Wild? video
Joe Francis may find himself in trouble yet again for filming underage girls
Video


'Kristen' gone wild
March 19: The call girl at the center of the Eliot Spitzer scandal was caught on camera during a "Girls Gone Wild" event when she was 18 years-old. MSNBC's Mika Brzezinski reports.
MSNBC



Most popular
? Most viewed ? Top rated ? Most e-mailed

The 10 safest states for kids
Shining a light on hazards of fluorescent bulbs
Why the West can't infiltrate al-Qaida
New report: Zoo unprepared day of tiger attack
Rocker sent packing on ?American Idol?
Most viewed on msnbc.com
Couple, married 83 years, share their secret
Poll: More citizens see government as secretive
25-foot birdie putt keeps Tiger perfect in '08
83-year-old grandma foils purse snatcher
Spacewalkers attach arms to giant robot
Most viewed on msnbc.com
Shining a light on hazards of fluorescent bulbs
The 10 safest states for kids
Couple, married 83 years, share their secret
Are we wired to cheat on our mates?
Woman Sits On Toilet For Two Years--Really She Did!
Most viewed on msnbc.com

updated 8:48 p.m. CT, Wed., March. 19, 2008
LOS ANGELES - A $1 million offer to the call girl linked to former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer was rescinded because she?d already shot footage for ?Girls Gone Wild.? Now it might be the video maker who will lose out.

A lawyer for Ashley Alexandra Dupre, now 22, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that Dupre was 17 when the footage was filmed. After hearing from her attorney, the company said the video?s Internet release will be delayed.

?Girls Gone Wild? founder Joe Francis originally reached out to Dupre, offering $1 million for her to appear in a non-nude spread for his company?s new magazine and a chance to join the ?Girls Gone Wild? tour bus.

But on Tuesday ?Girls Gone Wild? employees found archived footage of Dupre filmed in 2003, and Francis retracted the offer.

In a statement Wednesday, Francis said he had received an e-mail from Dupre?s lawyer Don Buchwald, saying Dupre may have been 17 in the videos shot in Miami and not 18 as Francis had first claimed.

In an e-mail to one of Francis? publicists ? forwarded by Buchwald to the AP ? the attorney said he was ?informed by Ashley that the video was in fact taken when she was underage (that is 17).?

Buchwald added in the e-mail that Francis was aware of Dupre?s age during the filming.

Francis said he bought Dupre a Greyhound bus ticket back home to North Carolina in 2003. Dupre returned home after she spent a week on the ?Girls Gone Wild? bus in Miami and filmed seven full-length tapes, which included nudity, after signing legal papers, the company said.

?It was because she was underage that he sent her home on a Greyhound bus back to North Carolina. It would be outrageous at the very least to play the video of an underage female on the Internet,? Buchwald said in the e-mail.

Francis said all nude images of Dupre were taken in public places and contain no sexual contact.

He added that his company has a ?corporate policy? not to use individuals under 18 in their videos. Given this policy, the company delayed the release of Dupre?s footage on the Internet. The company was ?investigating the matter? and ?will make our decision shortly,? Francis said.

Ed Griffith, spokesman for the Miami-Dade County state attorney?s office, declined to comment on the subject, adding that ?we would be foolish to make a broad general statement.?

Lewd or lascivious acts committed upon or in the presence of those under 16 is illegal in Florida, said Miami-based defense attorney Roy Kahn. ?Just taking nude video or photographs alone in a public place wouldn?t be illegal if the person is 17. It doesn?t violate lewd and lascivious conduct with a minor,? Kahn said.

Slide show

The week in celebrity sightings
Michael Stipe murmurs, Charlize Theron stays low-key, Sir Paul bids money farewell, and more.
more photos



Francis returned to California last week after being sentenced to time served and fines in Florida in a case involving the filming of underage girls. He still faces trial on federal tax evasion charges that carry a penalty of up to 10 years in prison.

By late Wednesday, Dupre was still depicted on the ?Girls Gone Wild? Web site, with a free sampling on the front page of her dancing in a bikini and the rest available with a $29.95 monthly subscription.

?It?s kind of like finding a winning lottery ticket in the cushions of your couch,? Francis told the AP ? before he saw the e-mail from Dupre?s attorney.


Click for related content
ABC to probe prostitution in 2-hour special
Spitzer scandal a dream for late-night comics
Call girl?s lawyer blasts media for using photos
Scandal has a price ? and a payoff


Hustler publisher Larry Flynt told the AP last Friday that he e-mailed Dupre offering her $1 million to appear nude in his magazine, but didn?t sound optimistic that she would settle for that amount.

Dupre?s public profile has skyrocketed since Spitzer resigned last week amid the prostitution scandal. He was accused of spending tens of thousands of dollars on prostitutes, including a February tryst with a call girl named ?Kristen,? since identified as Dupre.

Dupre?s MySpace page was hit more than 5 million times in the days immediately after the scandal broke. Her musical efforts were listened to hundreds of thousands of times online and played on national airwaves.

 

[IntenseOperator]

J.Lo?s cover deal with People was no cakewalk
Plus: Nicole Kidman spends time with kids; Conan O?Brien?s recipe screwup

By Courtney Hazlett
The Scoop
updated 9:34 p.m. CT, Wed., March. 19, 2008


Courtney Hazlett
The Scoop


Jennifer Lopez?s babies are finally going public in this week?s issue of People, but several sources familiar with the early stages of bidding among the many interested magazines said that the arrangement wasn?t an easy deal to strike.

?Jennifer has a long history of making things go exactly her way ? just look at some of the riders for her appearances. There were some surprising demands this time around though,? said one source.

Among them, it?s Jennifer now, and not J.Lo, a point that has been brought up in recent weeks. ??J.Lo? was from her Puffy and Ben Affleck days ? she?s in a different place now. She wants whoever does the story to not call her that in the piece or ever again for that matter,? the source revealed. Whether this demand stuck remains to be seen. Reps for Lopez did not comment, nor did People.

There was also an issue as to who would take the photos. In this case, it wasn?t which professional photographer would have access to the inner Lopez/Anthony sanctum ? it was a matter of whether Marc Anthony, apparently a budding photographer, could snap the shots.

?When you?re paying an incredible amount of money for the photos, the idea of having Marc take the pictures doesn?t sit well,? the source noted. (Again, no word from any of the involved about the veracity of this claim.)

Slide show

Making of a superstar
From Fly Girl to international celebrity, Jennifer Lopez's rise to fame -- and her search for love -- has made her a global phenomenon.
more photos


Finally, why sells photos to begin with? Another source said that in some sense, the couple could use the cash not because they have the new expenses of two kids, several nurseries, nannies and added security, but because Anthony is still smarting from that $2.5 million he owed the state of New York in back taxes, interest and penalties.

?It?s kind of mind boggling that a couple worth that much would think of it that way, but hey, celebrities have bills too, I guess.?

Nicole Kidman spends time with her kids
Nicole Kidman often goes months at a time without being spotted with her children from her marriage to Tom Cruise, so when there is a sighting, it makes headlines.

The last photo of Kidman with her kids appears to be one with daughter Isabella in Australia in May 2007. There?s no photo from this most recent outing in L.A., but Kidman?s rep confirms that it did take place.

What was on the agenda? Us Weekly reports that Kidman and kids spent some time visiting with Naomi Watts at her home in L.A., and Kidman did some house hunting as well.

?Nicole had her people call Naomi's next-door neighbors to ask if they would be interested in selling their house ? even though it wasn't on the market,? a source told the magazine. The neighbors reportedly turned down the offer.

Conan O?Brien'? St. Patty?s Day Stewgate
Conan O?Brien is many things, but a cook? The March issue of Good Housekeeping features a St. Patrick's Day stew recipe from Conan O'Brien, except the late-night host didn?t create any such recipe or send it to the mag.

Slide show

The week in celebrity sightings
Michael Stipe murmurs, Charlize Theron stays low-key, Sir Paul bids money farewell, and more.
more photos


On his St. Patrick?s Day show, he said, ?I've never cooked anything in my life. I didn't send this to them. They completely made this up.? Conan was a good sport about it: He asked, ?Would you please just send me some of that stew? I'd love it if you sent me some so that I could try it.?

Well, there?s no stew, but a Good Housekeeping spokeswoman has issued a statement saying they had been duped.

?According to a reputable source, which has regularly provided celebrity recipes to the magazine, this was Conan?s personal St. Patrick?s Day stew recipe. Now that Conan has made us aware that he can't cook ramen noodles, let alone a stew, we will no longer be using that source and would love to invite (O'Brien) to the Good Housekeeping Test Kitchen to take a cooking class with our food director, Susan Westmoreland.?

ennifer Aniston on quest for a baby daddy


Aniston?s ex did ?lousy job of being a rock star?
Remember Adam Duritz? He?s the guy who a) briefly dated Jennifer Aniston, b) once bore a striking resemblance to Sideshow Bob from ?The Simpsons? and c) headlined The Counting Crows (he still does, when they actually play).

Duritz sat down with Blender magazine to talk about how things have turned out since his rock-star days, and he doesn?t paint a pretty picture.

?I'm 43, single and I sit at home a lot. That's not what I was supposed to accomplish in being a rock star. I wasn't supposed to mess this up quite so badly ? I've done such a lousy job of being a rock star.?

Duritz apparently doesn?t do well mixing alcohol and dates, either. ?I?m occasionally mute. I had a date once where I could not think of anything to say for an hour. I sat there in my mind, going, ?Say something.? It was a party, and I was holding a balloon. I must've looked like a 6-year-old.? What a catch.

 

[pt1gard]

from the movie DINER, "very mature, Fenwick":mj07:

keep it coming, you amuse me, i block you like everyone else will ... :0corn

so IO, what do you think happened on 9/11, the sheaple party line, 19 boxcutters?

IO, what do you know about the london bombings?

IO, do you think Bush is right about his comments on the iraq war today, that its going well. the surge is working... i mean USA only dumped 526 billion $$$ in it thus far ... only lost a reported 4K men, only displaced 4.5 million innocent iraq citizens, murdered over 200K of them, and only have the highest suicide and dessertion rate ever for USA soldiers ...:shrug:

course your recruiting pal doesnt slip those stats out to the young suckers he sends to inhale nanoparticles of DU:nono:


ps and you guys think im obsessed:142smilie

 

[pt1gard]

THE BABS INCIDENT--LIES ABOUT CELL PHONE

THE BABS INCIDENT--LIES ABOUT CELL PHONE

Mother of All Lies About 9/11
Barbara Olson's "Phone Call" From Flight 77

BY Joe Vialls, 27 March 2002



This is a story about a little white lie that bred dozens of other little white lies, then hundreds of bigger white lies and so on, to the point where the first little white lie must be credited as the ?Mother of All Lies? about events on 11 September 2001. For this was the little white lie that first activated the American psyche, generated mass loathing, and enabled media manipulation of the global population.

Without this little white lie there would have been no Arab Hijackers, no Osama Bin Laden directing operations from afar, and no ?War on Terror? in Afghanistan and occupied Palestine. Clearly the lie was so clever and diabolical in nature, it must have been generated by the ?Power Elite? in one of its more earthly manifestations. Perhaps it was the work of the Council on Foreign Relations, or the Trilateral Commission?

No, it was not. Though at the time the little white lie was flagged with a powerful political name, there was and remains no evidence to support the connection. Just like the corrupt and premature Lee Harvey Oswald story in 1963, there are verifiable fatal errors which ultimately prove the little white lie was solely the work of members of the media. Only they had access, and only they had the methods and means.

The little white lie was about Barbara Olson, a conservative commentator for CNN and wife of US Solicitor General Ted Olson. Now deceased, Mrs Olson is alleged to have twice called her husband from an American Airlines Flight 77 seat-telephone, before the aircraft slammed into the Pentagon. This unsubstantiated claim, reported by CNN remarkably quickly at 2.06 am EDT [0606 GMT] on September 12, was the solitary foundation on which the spurious ?Hijacker? story was built.

Without the ?eminent? Barbara Olson and her alleged emotional telephone calls, there would never be any proof that humans played a role in the hijack and destruction of the four aircraft that day. Lookalike claims surfaced several days later on September 16 about passenger Todd Beamer and others, but it is critically important to remember here that the Barbara Olson story was the only one on September 11 and. 12. It was beyond question the artificial ?seed? that started the media snowball rolling down the hill.

And once the snowball started rolling down the hill, it artfully picked up Osama Bin Laden and a host of other ?terrorists? on the way. By noon on September 12, every paid glassy-eyed media commentator in America was either spilling his guts about those ?Terrible Muslim hijackers?, or liberating hitherto classified information about Osama Bin Laden. ?Oh sure, it was Bin Laden,? they said blithely, oblivious to anything apart from their television appearance fees.

The deliberate little white lie was essential. Ask yourself: What would most Americans have been thinking about on September 12, if CNN had not provided this timely fiction? Would anyone anywhere have really believed the insane government story about failed Cessna pilots with box cutters taking over heavy jets, then hurling them expertly around the sky like polished Top Guns from the film of the same name? Of course not! As previously stated there would have been no Osama Bin Laden, and no ?War on Terror? in Afghanistan and occupied Palestine.

This report is designed to examine the sequence of the Olson events and lay them bare for public examination. Dates and times are of crucial importance here, so if this report seems tedious try to bear with me. Before moving on to discuss the impossibility of the alleged calls, we first need to examine how CNN managed to ?find out? about them, reported here in the September 12 CNN story at 2.06 am EDT:

?Barbara Olson, a conservative commentator and attorney, alerted her husband, Solicitor General Ted Olson, that the plane she was on was being hijacked Tuesday morning, Ted Olson told CNN. Shortly afterwards Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon? ? ?Ted Olson told CNN that his wife said all passengers and flight personnel, including the pilots, were herded to the back of the plane by armed hijackers. The only weapons she mentioned were knives and cardboard cutters. She felt nobody was in charge and asked her husband to tell the pilot what to do.?

At no point in the above report does CNN quote Ted Olson directly. If the report was authentic and 100% attributable, it would have been phrased quite differently. Instead of ?Ted Olson told CNN that his wife said all passengers and flight personnel??, the passage would read approximately:- Mr Olson told CNN, ?My wife said all passengers and flight personnel?? Whoever wrote this story was certainly not in direct contact with US Solicitor General Ted Olson.

Think about it, people! If you knew or suspected your spouse?s aircraft had just fireballed inside the Pentagon building, how would you spend the rest of the day? Initially you would certainly be in deep shock and unwilling to believe the reports. Then you would start to gather your wits together, a slow process in itself. After that and depending on individual personality, you might drive over to the Pentagon on the off chance your spouse survived the horrific crash, or you might go home and wait for emergency services to bring you the inevitable bad news. As a matter of record, Ted Olson did not return to work until six days later.

About the last thing on your mind [especially if you happened to be the US Solicitor General], would be to pick up a telephone and call the CNN Atlanta news desk in order to give them a ?scoop?. As a seasoned politician you would already know that all matters involving national security must first be vetted by the National Security Council. Under the extraordinary circumstances and security overkill existing on September 11, this vetting process would have taken a minimum of two days, and more likely three.

The timing of the CNN news release about Barbara Olson, is therefore as impossible as the New Zealand press release back in 1963 about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. As reported independently by Colonel Fletcher Prouty USAF (Retired), whoever set Kennedy up, accidentally launched a full international newswire biography on obscure ?killer? Lee Harvey Oswald, without first taking the trouble to check his world clock.

It was still ?yesterday? in New Zealand on the other side of the International Date Line when the biography was wired from New York, enabling the Christchurch Star newspaper was able to print a story about Oswald as the prime suspect in its morning edition, several hours before he was first accused of the crime by Dallas police.

If the CNN story about Ted Olson had been correct, and he really had called them about Barbara on September 11, then he would most surely have followed the telephone call up a few days later with a tasteful ?one-on-one? television interview, telling the hushed and respectful interviewer about how badly he missed his wife, and about the sheer horror of it all.

There is no record of any such interview in the CNN or other archives. Indeed, if you key ?Barbara Olson? into the CNN search engine, it returns only two related articles. The first is the creative invention on September 12 at 2.06 am EDT [0606 GMT], and the second is on December 12, about President Bush, who led a White House memorial that began at 8:46 a.m. EST, the moment the first hijacked plane hit the World Trade Center three months before. CNN includes this comment about Ted Olson:

?In a poignant remembrance at the Justice Department, U.S. Solicitor General Theodore Olson referred to "the sufferings we have all experienced." He made no direct reference to the death of his wife, Barbara Olson, who was a passenger aboard the American Airlines flight that crashed into the Pentagon??

Regarding the same event, Fox News reports that, extraordinarily, Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson then said Barbara Olson's call, made "in the midst of terrible danger and turmoil swirling around her," was a "clarion call that awakened our nation's leaders to the true nature of the events of Sept. 11."

So Ted Olson avoided making any direct personal reference to the death of his wife. Clearly this was not good enough for someone somewhere. By the sixth month anniversary of the attack, Ted Olson was allegedly interviewed by London Telegraph reporter Toby Harnden, with his exclusive story ?She Asked Me How To Stop The Plane? appearing in that London newspaper on March 5, thereafter renamed and syndicated around dozens of western countries as ?Revenge Of The Spitfire?, finally appearing in the West Australian newspaper on Saturday March 23, 2002.

I have diligently tried to find a copy of this story in an American newspaper but have so far failed. The reasons for this rather perverse ?external? publication of Ted Olson?s story are not yet clear, but it seems fair to observe that if he is ever challenged by a Senate Select Committee about the veracity of his claims, the story could not be used against him because it was published outside American sovereign territory.

Regardless of the real reason or reasons for its publication, the story seems to have matured a lot since the first decoy news release by CNN early on September 12, 2001. Here we have considerably more detail, some of which is frankly impossible. In the alleged words of US Solicitor General Theodore Olson:

?She [Barbara] had trouble getting through, because she wasn?t using her cell phone ? she was using the phone in the passengers? seats,? said Mr Olson. ?I guess she didn?t have her purse, because she was calling collect, and she was trying to get through to the Department of Justice, which is never very easy.? ? ?She wanted to know ?What can I tell the pilot? What can I do? How can I stop this?? ?

"What Can I tell the pilot?" Yes indeed! The forged Barbara Olson telephone call claims that the flight deck crew were with her at the back of the aircraft, presumably politely ushered down there by the box cutter-wielding Muslim maniacs, who for some bizarre reason decided not to cut their throats on the flight deck. Have you ever heard anything quite so ridiculous?

But it is at this juncture that we finally have the terminal error. Though the American Airlines Boeing 757 is fitted with individual telephones at each seat position, they are not of the variety where you can simply pick up the handset and ask for an operator. On many aircraft you can talk from one seat to another in the aircraft free of charge, but if you wish to access the outside world you must first swipe your credit card through the telephone. By Ted Olson?s own admission, Barbara did not have a credit card with her.

It gets worse. On American Airlines there is a telephone "setup" charge of US$2.50 which can only be paid by credit card, then a US$2.50 (sometimes US$5.00) charge per minute of speech thereafter. The setup charge is the crucial element. Without paying it in advance by swiping your credit card you cannot access the external telephone network. Under these circumstances the passengers? seat phone on a Boeing 757 is a much use as a plastic toy.

Perhaps Ted Olson made a mistake and Barbara managed to borrow a credit card from a fellow passenger? Not a chance. If Barbara had done so, once swiped through the phone, the credit card would have enabled her to call whoever she wanted to for as long as she liked, negating any requirement to call collect.

Sadly perhaps, the Olson telephone call claim is proved untrue. Any American official wishing to challenge this has only to subpoena the telephone company and Justice Department records. There will be no charge originating from American Airlines 77 to the US Solicitor General.

Even without this hard proof, the chances of meaningfully using a seat-telephone on Flight 77 were nil. We know from the intermittent glimpses of the aircraft the air traffic controllers had on the radar scopes, that Flight 77 was travelling at extreme speed at very low level, pulling high ?G? turns in the process.

Under these circumstances it would be difficult even reaching a phone, much less using it. Finally, the phones on the Boeing 757 rely on either ground cell phone towers or satellite bounce in order to maintain a stable connection. At very low altitude and extreme speed, the violent changes in aircraft attitude would render the normal telephone links completely unusable.

Exactly the same applies with United Airlines Flight 93 that crashed before reaching any targets. The aircraft was all over the place at extreme speed on radar, but as with Flight 77 we are asked to believe that the ?hijackers? allowed a passenger called Todd Beamer to place a thirteen minute telephone call. Very considerate of them. The Pittsburg Channel put it this way in a story first posted at 1.38 pm EDT on September 16, 2001:

?Todd Beamer placed a call on one of the Boeing 757's on-board telephones and spoke for 13 minutes with GTE operator Lisa D. Jefferson, Beamer's wife said. He provided detailed information about the hijacking and -- after the operator told him about the morning's World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks - said he and others on the plane were planning to act against the terrorists aboard.? Note here that Mrs Lisa Beamer did not receive a telephone call from Todd personally, but was later ?told? by an operator that her husband had allegedly called. Just another unfortunate media con job for the trash can.

As previously stated it is the Barbara Olson story that really counts, a view reinforced by the recent antics of the London print media. The photo at the top of this page is a copy of that printed in the West Australian newspaper. You only have to study it closely for a second to realize its full subliminal potential.

Here is a studious and obviously very honest man. The US Solicitor General sits in front of a wall lined with leather-bound volumes of Supreme Court Arguments, with a photo of his dead wife displayed prominently in front of him. Does anyone out there seriously believe that this man, a bastion of US law, would tell even a minor lie on a matter as grave as national security?

Theodore Olson?s own words indicate that he would be prepared to do rather more than that On March 21, 2002 on its page A35, the Washington Post newspaper printed an article titled ?The Limits of Lying? by Jim Hoagland, who writes that a statement by Solicitor General Theodore Olson in the Supreme Court has the ring of perverse honesty.

Addressing the Supreme Court of the United States of America, US Solicitor General Theodore Olson said it is "easy to imagine an infinite number of situations . . . where government officials might quite legitimately have reasons to give false information out."

 

[pt1gard]

OH YEAH JARHEAD


your quote, dont take popular opinion for fact....


UMMMM, geez, arent you doing that with the official story and 19 boxcutters and your murdering gov. sending your recruits you trick into going to iraq to die in an unjust war?:shrug:

hey, gomer, what about iran, you ready to grunt a gun into there?

 

[pt1gard]

one of you morons contradicted this drug truth on afghanistan

one of you morons contradicted this drug truth on afghanistan

http://www.npr.org/templates/player...ion=1&t=1&islist=false&id=19336834&m=19346611

 

[pt1gard]

BBC Censors Bhutto Frost Interview (Bin Laden murdered)

BBC Censors Bhutto Frost Interview (Bin Laden murdered)

http://youtube.com/watch?v=DGAOH_E3aQQ

tony blair does it as well as usa media:mj07:

 

[pt1gard]

mike malloy follow up on bhutto bombshell

mike malloy follow up on bhutto bombshell

http://youtube.com/watch?v=XLItJMVNleY

 

[marine]

http://www.npr.org/templates/player...ion=1&t=1&islist=false&id=19336834&m=19346611

you blazing fool.

No one contradicted that afghan had drugs and opuim as cash crops. I called you a liar when you said that production was at an all time high due to the US invasion of their country.

Fock, even you cant even keep your lies straight anymore.

 

[IntenseOperator]

Scary Bible Quotes
By God
Edited with an introduction by Michael Huemer.
Translation: New International Version.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


On Punishing ?Immorality?

Leviticus 20:9
If anyone curses his father or mother, he must be put to death.
20:10 If a man commits adultery with another man?s wife?with the wife of his neighbor?both the adulterer and the adulteress must be put to death.
20:13 If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They must be put to death.
Deuteronomy 22:20-1 If, however, the charge is true and no proof of the girl?s virginity can be found, she shall be brought to the door of her father?s house and there the men of her town shall stone her to death. She has done a disgraceful thing in Israel by being promiscuous while still in her father?s house.
Exodus 35:2
For six days, work is to be done, but the seventh day shall be your holy day, a Sabbath of rest to the LORD. Whoever does any work on it must be put to death.
On Destroying Other People

Deuteronomy 7:1-2 When the Lord your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess and drives out before you many nations . . . then you must destroy them totally. Make no treaty with them, and show them no mercy.
20:10-17 When you march up to attack a city, make its people an offer of peace. If they accept and open their gates, all the people in it shall be subject to forced labor and shall work for you. If they refuse to make peace and they engage you in battle, lay siege to that city. When the Lord your God delivers it into your hand, put to the sword all the men in it. As for the women, the children, the livestock and everything else in the city, you may take these as plunder for yourselves. . . . This is how you are to treat all the cities that are at a distance from you and do not belong to the nations nearby.
However, in the cities of the nations the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, do not leave alive anything that breathes. Completely destroy them?the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites?as the Lord your God has commanded you.
On the Evil of Biblical Law

Ezekiel 20:25-26 I also gave them over to statutes that were not good and laws they could not live by; I let them become defiled through their gifts?the sacrifice of every firstborn?that I might fill them with horror so they would know that I am the LORD.
On Slavery & Subjugation of Women

Ephesians 5:22-24 Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.
Exodus 21:20-21 If a man beats his male or female slave with a rod and the slave dies as a direct result, he must be punished, but he is not to be punished if the slave gets up after a day or two, since the slave is his property.
1 Peter 2:13 Submit yourselves for the Lord?s sake to every authority instituted among men.
2:18 Slaves, submit yourselves to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and considerate, but also to those who are harsh.
Leviticus 25:44-45
Your male and female slaves are to come from the nations around you; from them you may buy slaves. You may also buy some of the temporary residents living among you and members of their clans born in your country, and they will become your property.
Jesus, on His Second Coming

Matthew 24:29-34
[T]he sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken. . . . They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory. . . . I tell you the truth, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. [Emphasis added.]
16:27-28
For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father?s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what he has done. I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.
Scientific Errors

(1) Rabbits don?t chew cud.
Deuteronomy 14:6-7
You may eat any animal that has a split hoof divided in two and that chews the cud. However, of those that chew the cud or that have a split hoof completely divided you may not eat the camel, the rabbit, or the coney.
(2) No insects (including grasshoppers) are 4-legged.
Leviticus 11:20-22
All flying insects that walk on all fours are to be detestable to you. There are, however, some winged creatures that walk on all fours that you may eat: those that have jointed legs for hopping on the ground. Of these you may eat any kind of locust, katydid, cricket or grasshopper.
(3) This is only possible on a flat earth.
Matthew 4:8
Again the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor.
(4) pi does not = 3.
1 Kings 7:23
He made the Sea of cast metal, circular in shape, measuring ten cubits from rim to rim . . . It took a line of thirty cubits to measure around it.
(5) The earth moves. It does not have a foundation.
Psalms 104:5
He set the earth on its foundations; it can never be moved.
Selected Contradictions

(1)
2 Kings 2:11 As they were walking along and talking together, suddenly a chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared and separated the two of them, and Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind.
John 3:13 No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven?the Son of Man.
(2)
Numbers 23:19 God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind.
Exodus 32:14 Then the Lord relented and did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened.
(3)
Ephesians 2:8-9 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith . . . not by works.
James 2:14-17 What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? . . . Faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.
Revelation 22:12 Behold, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done.
(4) (Jesus speaking)
Matthew 5:16 Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your father in heaven.
Matthew 6:1 Be careful not to do your ?acts of righteousness? before men, to be seen by them.
(5) (Jesus speaking)
John 14:27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you.
Matthew 10:34 Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.
(6)
Genesis 32:30 So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, ?It is because I saw God face to face, and my life was preserved.?
Exodus 33:11 The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his friend.
John 1:18 No one has ever seen God.
(7) (Jesus speaking)
John 5:31 If I testify about myself, my testimony is not valid.
John 8:14 Even if I testify on my own behalf, my testimony is valid.

 

[IntenseOperator]

JESUS ON PEACE AND FAMILY VALUES
JESUS ON PEACE - Matthew 10:34
"Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword."

JESUS ON PEACE - Luke 22:36
He said to them, "But now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and if you don't have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one."

JESUS ON PEACE - Matthew 26:52 (KJV)
Then said Jesus unto him, "Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword."

JESUS ON FAMILY VALUES - Matthew 10:37
"He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me."

JESUS ON FAMILY VALUES - Matthew 8:21-22
And another of his disciples said unto him, "Suffer me first to go and bury my father." But Jesus said unto him, "Follow me and let the dead bury their dead."

JESUS ON FAMILY VALUES - Matthew 10:35-36
"For I have come to turn a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law ? a man's enemies will be the members of his own household."

JESUS ON FAMILY VALUES - Matthew 12:46-50
While he yet talked to the people, behold his mother and brethren stood without, desiring to speak with him. Then one said unto him, "Behold, thy mother and thy brethren stand without, desiring to speak with you." But he answered and said, "Who is my mother? and who are my brethren? And he stretched forth his hand towards his disciples, and said, "Behold, my mother and my brethren! For whoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother."

JESUS ON FAMILY VALUES - Matthew 19:29
"And every one who hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life."

JESUS ON FAMILY VALUES - Mark 3:33-35
"Who are my mother and my brothers?" [Jesus] asked. Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, "Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does God's will is my brother and sister and mother."

JESUS ON FAMILY VALUES - Luke 9:60
"Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God."

JESUS ON FAMILY VALUES - Luke 9:61,62
Still another said, "I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say good bye to my family." Jesus replied, "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God."

JESUS ON FAMILY VALUES AND PEACE - Luke 12:49-53
"I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! But I have a baptism to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is completed! Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division. From now on there will be five in one family divided against each other, three against two and two against three. They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law."

JESUS ON FAMILY VALUES - Luke 14:26 [What about John 3:15 and 4:19-21 (below)?]
"If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters ? yes, even his own life ? he cannot be my disciple."

JESUS ON FAMILY VALUES - Luke 19:27 [In the words of a king in a parable.]
"But those enemies of mine who did not want me to be king over them ? bring them here and kill them in front of me."

JESUS ON FAMILY VALUES - John 2:4
Jesus saith unto [his mother], "Woman, what have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come."

JESUS ON FAMILY VALUES - John 12:25
"The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life."

JESUS ON FAMILY VALUES - John 15:6 (KJV)
"If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned."

JOHN ON FAMILY VALUES - 1 John 3:15 [What about Luke 14:26 (above)?]
"Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him."

JOHN ON FAMILY VALUES - 1 John 4:19-21 [What about Luke 14:26 (above)?]
"We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, 'I love God,' yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother."

JOHN ON FAMILY VALUES - 2 John 1:7
Many deceivers, who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh, have gone out into the world. Any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist.

NOTE: Buybull thumpers often say that Luke 14:26 doesn't really mean ?hate,? it just means ?love less.? Some buybull translations even word it like that (e.g. Contemporary English Version), because they don't like that nasty word ?hate.? The original Greek word ?miseo? always means hate. It has no alternative meaning. The prefixes for misanthropy and misogyny come from miseo. This just shows how screwed-up their minds are. If hate equals a form of love, how can we trust anything that those translations say?

The "FAMILY VALUES" quotes above also show a classic method that cults use to separate followers from their families and friends. With a follower's normal connections to reality severed, the cult has a better chance to indoctrinate and keep the follower in line.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


FALSE PROPHESY AND FALSE PROPHETS
NOTE: if Jesus had actually told his disciples that he would resurrect after the crucifixion, why were they so upset when he was arrested, and dubious when he supposedly really did come back?

FALSE PROPHESY: JESUS PREDICTS HIS RETURN - Matthew 10:3 [We're still waiting.]
"I tell you the truth, you will not finish going through the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes."

FALSE PROPHESY: JESUS PREDICTS HIS RETURN - Matthew 16:28 [We're still waiting.]
"I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom."

FALSE PROPHESY: JESUS PREDICTS HIS RETURN - Matthew 24:34 [We're still waiting.]
"I tell you the truth, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened."

FALSE PROPHESY: JESUS PREDICTS THREE DAYS AND NIGHTS IN THE TOMB - Matthew 12:40 [Not a day and a half!]
"For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth."

FALSE PROPHESY: JESUS PREDICTS THREE DAYS IN THE TOMB - Mark 8:31
He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again.

FALSE PROPHESY: JESUS PREDICTS KINGDOM OF GOD - Mark 9:1 [We're still waiting.]
And he said to them, "I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God come with power."

FALSE PROPHESY: JESUS PREDICTS THE END OF THE WORLD - Luke 21:25-33 (NLT) [We're still waiting.]
"And there will be strange events in the skies ? signs in the sun, moon, and stars. And down here on earth the nations will be in turmoil, perplexed by the roaring seas and strange tides. The courage of many people will falter because of the fearful fate they see coming upon the earth, because the stability of the very heavens will be broken up. Then everyone will see the Son of Man arrive on the clouds with power and great glory. So when all these things begin to happen, stand straight and look up, for your salvation is near! Then he gave them this illustration: "Notice the fig tree, or any other tree. When the leaves come out, you know without being told that summer is near. Just so, when you see the events I've described taking place, you can be sure that the Kingdom of God is near. I assure you, this generation will not pass from the scene until all these events have taken place. Heaven and earth will disappear, but my words will remain forever"

FALSE PROPHESY: - Isaiah 7:14
Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.
[NOTE: The original text in Hebrew meant maiden, not necessarily a virgin. Also, the context shows that this was meant for its time, not about 700 years later.]

FALSE PROPHESY: - Matthew 1:23
The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel ? which means, "God with us."
[NOTE: They never called Jesus Immanuel. The author of Matthew was really reaching when he created this ?prophesy? from scriptures.]

FALSE PROPHESY: - John 3:13 (KJV) [See 2 Kings 2:11, next.]
"And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven."

ELIJAH WENT TO HEAVEN - 2 Kings 2:11 (KJV)
And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.

GOD, ON FALSE PROPHETS - Deuteronomy 18:21,22
You may say to yourselves, "How can we know when a message has not been spoken by the LORD?" If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the LORD does not take place or come true, that is a message the LORD has not spoken. That prophet has spoken presumptuously. Do not be afraid of him.

JESUS, ON FALSE PROPHETS - Matthew 7:15
"Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravening wolves."

JESUS, ON FALSE PROPHETS - Matthew 24:23-24
"Then if any man shall say to you Lo, here is the Christ, or, Here, believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs and false prophets and shall show great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the very elect."

JOHN, ON FALSE PROPHETS - 1st John 4:1
"Beloved, believe not every spirit, but prove the spirits, whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world."

PAUL, ON FALSE PROPHETS - 2 Peter 2:1
"But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction."

PAUL, ON FALSE PROPHETS - Galatians 1:8
"But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed."

JESUS ON TRUTH OF HIS TESTIMONY - John 5:31
"If I testify about myself, my testimony is not valid."

JESUS ON TRUTH OF HIS TESTIMONY - John 8:14
"Even if I testify on my own behalf, my testimony is valid."

JESUS ON TRUTH OF HIS TESTIMONY - John 8:18 [So, which is it?]
"I am one who testifies for myself; my other witness is the Father, who sent me."


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


THEFT AND ?FULFILLED? PROPHESY
NOTES:
Since the story of Jesus is either partially or totally fictional, when the gospels were written after about 70 CE (see first entry) prophesy could be ?fulfilled? by just adding it to the story ? and they still couldn't always get it right.
There is no evidence of a city of Nazareth in Galilee existing in the 1st century, even tho it's mentioned dozens of times in the New Testament. An author of the gospels got it confused with Nazirite (one who lives apart and has made a vow of abstinence), and Nazarene (a faction of the Essenes). There is also no mention of Nazarene in the Old Testament, just Nazirite.


TRUE PROPHESY - Mark 13:2
"Do you see all these great buildings?" replied Jesus. "Not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down."
[NOTE: This probably refers to the destruction of Jerusalem, in 70 CE. Most scholars think that it was written after the fact.]

JESUS ON THEFT - Matthew 21:2
"Go to the village ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there, with her colt by her. Untie them and bring them to me."

JESUS ON THEFT - Mark 11:2 [Identical to Luke 19:30]
"Go to the village ahead of you, and just as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here."

THE PROPHESIED COMING OF ZION'S KING - Zechariah 9:9 (NIV)
Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

JESUS RIDES TWO ANIMALS AT ONCE! - Matthew 21:7
They brought the donkey and the colt, placed their cloaks on them, and Jesus sat on them.
[Note that this impossible story resulted from a mistranslation of Old Testament Greek in Zechariah 9:9.]

THE PROPHESIED NAZIRITE - Judges 13:5 (NIV) [NOTE: This actually refered to Samson, not Jesus.]
because you will conceive and give birth to a son. No razor may be used on his head, because the boy is to be a Nazirite, set apart to God from birth, and he will begin the deliverance of Israel from the hands of the Philistines.

NAZARETH, NAZARENE, NAZIRITE CONFUSED - Matthew 2:23 (NIV)
and [Joseph] went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets: "He will be called a Nazarene."

NAZARETH, NAZARENE, NAZIRITE CONFUSED - Mark 14:66-67 (NIV)
While Peter was below in the courtyard, one of the servant girls of the high priest came by. When she saw Peter warming himself, she looked closely at him. "You also were with that Nazarene, Jesus," she said.

NAZARETH, NAZARENE, NAZIRITE CONFUSED - Mark 16:5-6 (NIV)
As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed. "Don't be alarmed," he said. "You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen!

NAZARETH, NAZARENE, NAZIRITE CONFUSED - Acts 24:5 (NIV)
We have found this man to be a troublemaker, stirring up riots among the Jews all over the world. He is a ringleader of the Nazarene sect


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------