"GNUALMAFUERTE writes
'As we mentioned before, NASA's Department of Astrobiology had an important announcement to make today. It looks like Gizmodo was right. You can watch the presentation online right now. It looks like the bacteria in question uses arsenic as a phosphorus replacement in its DNA.'"
The real news, from the great Ronald Bailey at reason, 'splains it better. The bacteria were not living an arsenic lifestyle until they were wrangled into the lab and were fed arsenic salts instead of potassium salts.
What does the big S in NASA stand for anyway? Yea, it is really close to the E on the keyboard.
For about two days I have been hearing of "censorship" at the National Portrait Gallery related to a video of ants crawling over a Jesus figurine. The "censorship" amounted to tax-paying patrons complaining about the tasteless excuse for art and associated complaints of wasting tax dollars. It is not like anybody mentioned drawing pictures and got enough death threats to go into hiding. No truck driver attacked the images as if they were of Mohamed giving oral pleasures to Jesus either. No, nothing like that, just some complaints about a public display of Jesus on public property. Good thing the artist did not show Jesus in a manger, then the tables would be turned!
I learned on "conservative" talk radio that the video is now on display in the front window of a Dupont Circle gallery, but I did not catch the name of the gallery. A Google news search for "jesus ants dupont" gave me this gem by Tyger Latham: Tis the season for controversy : Washington Blade – Gay News
Do not bother going there to see a still of the art in question, or even a link to the YouTube video of Fire in My Belly. Yes, this "censored" work is available online with a mouse click. It is supposed to be thirty minutes long, but that version is a few seconds over four minutes. YouTube requires you to sign in due to the adult nature of the video, there is a lot more to it than just ants crawling on a Jesus figurine. Brace for complaints of YouTube 'censorship' too, since you have to actually sign up for an account to see it there.
There is only one link in the article, and that link is for the CNS News articleThe Washington Blade is complaining about and they have a still from the video:
Fire in My Belly, courtesy CNS News
Do not bother going to the Blade article for other images from Hide/Seek either. You need to go to CNS for those too.
Brothers kissing at gunpoint, courtesy CNS.
Do not bother going to the Blade article looking for the new location of Fire in My Belly either. Transformer Gallery now displays Fire in My Belly on a video screen in the front window for all to see (1404 P Street Northwest, Washington D.C., DC 20005-1908), which I discovered by listening longer to "conservative" talk radio. Not as easy as going to YouTube, but if nobody knows it is on YouTube, the gallery might get a few more visitors. They do not know what censorship is either. Here is a sample:
In early response to the National Portrait Gallery and the Smithsonian Institution's censoring of David Wojnarowicz's 1987 video work A Fire in My Belly, from the current Hide/Seek exhibition, Transformer initiated a screening of the work in our storefront project space at 1404 P Street, NW, Washington, DC. The work currently on view is an approximately four minute excerpt of the original thirty-minute work in progress by the artist.
If you are interested in another generous portion of whine, go to the gallery link and read the rest there. Why they 'censored' more than twenty-six minutes from the work is anybody's guess. Mine guess is, they are 'boldly and bravely' using the approximately four minute YouTube version. The Smithsonian is not censoring this and neither is anybody else. They chose to remove that portion of the display and the Smithsonian was displaying the entire video. I have not heard of anything else being removed from Hide/Seek.
Do not bother going to the Blade article unless you are interested in wasting time reading a multi-paragraph, disingenuous whine about social conservatives wanting to keep art away from the masses. Do you know who else tried to do that? Yes, the Nazis are mentioned. In the piece, Tyger Latham closes with a 'Just like the Nazis' moment, dredging out Degenerate Art (entartete Kunst), brought to you by the National Socialist German Worker's Party, as a curious example of how Americans complaining about tasteless displays make them just like Nazis. Maybe Latham means CNS is like the Nazis because they will show you what the Washington Blade will not?
Latham does give a concise description of the video, at the end of paragraph two:
Fortunately, if you are anything like me, looking at “ants crawling over the image of Jesus on a crucifix” or “… a man’s genitals, a bowl of blood, and mummified humans” sounds pretty intriguing and not an entirely bad way to spend a Sunday afternoon.
Latham might find that a fun outing, but many would disagree. That material, and Latham's idea of fun, is better viewed/done in an adult bookstore, private club, or online. Perhaps Latham is not aware of those. Numerous fiction works at the BDSMlibrary (where I have one story posted and recently submitted another) contain that imagery. Mummification should be under one of the bondage categories.
The Libertarian lesson? If you want to display your art, do not go begging the government for permission. Private galleries are much more difficult to censor, and should not be censored. the Transformer Gallery is freely displaying the video that they chose to edit.
Our dear leader has been talking a bit at length about compromise lately. I say at length because he is using a lot of words without saying anything. Watch and listen for yourself:
He seems to be under the delusion that all of the new faces on Capitol Hill are there to kiss his ass. No, Mister President, the bunch that got voted out. Members of Congress, all the way down to local dog catchers, were booted for going along with your socialistic schemes. Get it through your thick head, they were sent to the congress to undo everything you have done.
Health care compromise now means that, a repeal will be drafted in the House, sent to the Senate where 20-plus Democrat Senators are up for election in two years. Once the Senate Democrats see the writing on the wall, the bill repealing your monstrosity of nationalization it will be on your desk to sign. Now, you keep saying compromise. If you believe in it then you sign the damn thing! If you just want to reinforce the impression of slickster liar that you are, you will veto it and call your obstructionist act something else.
How about that Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty with the Russians you are trying to ram through? Looks like the ramming table has turned. You, Mister President, conjured up a deal to reduce our defenses and make a potential enemy stronger. Guess what? The Senate has noticed. Cooperation, in this case, means grow a pair (borrow one from Hillary) and get a fair agreement with the Russians. Ever since the midterm elections you have enjoyed invoking Reagan, now you get a chance to act like him. That nut from Hillery will help.
Actually, not having a treaty with the Russians works out just fine. The Congress has the duty to equip the military, as a 'constitutional scholar' like yourself should know. Doing that, without the hobbles of a badly crafted treaty, should work out fine.
Compromise, yes, look it up before you say it again.
"Ecuador appears to be modifying its offer of unconditional residency to the embattled founder of the online whistle-blower WikiLeaks.
Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino said in a TV interview Tuesday that the possibility 'will have to be studied from the legal and diplomatic perspective.'"
They really are "Venezuela lite" aren't they? Why would any country offer this person asylum?
"Speaking to more than 100 students at American University, Cantor said, 'What you will see us do is to push for repeal of the healthcare bill, and at the same time, contemporaneously, submit our replacement bill, that has in it the provisions [barring discrimination due to pre-existing conditions and offering young people affordable care options].'"
Calling all voters in VA 7, please find a conservative to replace this fool! Recall him and ban him from running for office ever again!
Mr. Cantor, you were sent from Virginia to the House of Representatives to repeal Maobamacare, not suck up to a salad tossing politician from Chicago (or Hawaii, or Kenya, depending on the week). What is your next trick, raising taxes when that witch from California snaps her fingers?
Read it all on her blog. The thing is, Assange is a total pansy and the stupid shit he pulls on the internet only supports that. Things like editing video from US Army attack helicopters to make it appear as if the pilots committed atrocities. When Limbaugh talked about Althouse's post on the air, he pointed out that he never called G. Gordon Liddy a sissy and mentioned some others.
According to NetCraft's records, the whistle-blowing website is mirroring the diplomatic cables on Amazon's US-based EC2 service and France-based servers operated by French ISP Octopuce. The main WikiLeaks site is mirrored on Ireland-based Amazon servers.
WikiLeaks also uses a US-based domain name registrar (Dynadot) and a US-based DNS service (EveryDNS).
See Amazon's EC2 site for more details. Rush observed, as I have, that if this wuss has all of his classified documents hosted and mirrored by Amazon, the government could take the domain away with a few keystrokes. Rush said it better, "if only WikiLeaks had pirated songs, Obama would shut them down overnight" (not an exact quote). That is the truth too. If this administration gave one hoot about classified military information, Assange would already be behind bars or worse.
The Obama regime only sounded alarmed after State Department memos were released by WikiLeaks, with the 'monumental, damaging revelation' that US diplomats were "spying" on their UN counterparts. Don't believe me? Electron-slinging, Leftist leader, David Corn wants Hillary Clinton to resign over this issue. Foror failing to protect national secrets,? Nope. For spying on UN diplomats. The extent of the "spying" so far appears to be observing what they do. Not even sexy enough to get into one of my novels!
"A Pentagon study released today will show that the majority of soldiers don't care if their comrades are gay or straight.
The survey conducted to investigate the effect of repealing the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy in the military has found that most people believe it would cause no harm.
The findings is expected to re-ignite the debate this month on Capitol Hill over the 17-year-old policy which restricted homosexuals from openly serving."
This puff piece does not have much to go out of your way for, other than the bit quoted below. I am sure Wolffe believes being a busybody is the highest form of caring.
"Others witnessed something other than steadiness: a steeliness when shutting down even close aides, and a soft touch when opening up to others. Senior staff spoke privately of policy discussions that ended with a piercing presidential stare and an icy, abrupt command from Obama: “Next!”
That brusque manner was a stark contrast to the personal attention he paid to those who needed help. He encouraged overweight staffers to shed pounds. He gave one aide a salad for lunch, then listened to him protest that he could take care of his own health. “I love you, man,” Obama said. “I want you to look after yourself. Eat the salad.”"
I know, I know, people like Wolffe and Obama are concerned for everybody. Why, if everybody stayed healthy, all of that 'free' health care Obama, Pelosi, and Reid just handed out would be so much cheaper, right? The non-sequitur just around the corner for the wagon circlers will be: "If dress codes can be imposed in the workplace, why not eating codes? It is for the good of all!" 'Butt out' never occurs to some people.
Thanks, WikiLeaks for the 'news' that the Middle East wants Iran bombed out of the nuclear club. The 'revelation' here is that Israel is the only country that wants to do it themselves. The list of our Middle East allies who want the good ol' USA to do it is growing: United Arab Emirates Saudi Arabia Jordan Egypt
Not an all inclusive list, I am sure. Just the top players that I could find stories about. Now, what of that whole business that "the Jews" (meaning Israel proper and anybody Jewish, by people using it as an invective)? Israel is the only damn country in the area that wants to take care of this themselves and the only country in the world that the USA is preventing from de-nuking Iran.
I denounce Wikileaks and that little traitor Private that leaked this stuff. However, I must say, the only people this stuff seems to be embarrassing is a bunch of worthless seat-warmers in Foggy Bottom, at the Department of State. Apparently, nobody over there knows that you do not put anything in a memo that will be embarrassing on the front page of a newspaper.
Liberaltarian Matt Welch, at Reason, was brought to a state of glee for completely different reasons. He just likes seeing Arabs embarrassed. Welch does give a nod to the effect of this release on authoritarian states lying to their masses. As if this will awaken them more. Most of the folks I met from those countries mention their leaders lying without prompting.
Curious how WikiLeaks never 'finds' any documents from the troublemakers in the 'religion of peace' (I am assured, the bad ones are in the minority) to "open the minds and eyes" of the jihadis?
Rush Limbaugh stated that the leaked documents contain nothing about North Korea supplying Iran with nuclear technology, missiles, etc. Guess he missed #3 in this story.
*****
In Suki IV: Finally A Vacation (War With Iran) I speculate that in the 2030s the whole world has dragged their feet about the Iranian problem. Just like today. Different nations urged the US to form a coalition with them (yes, I showed our allies in a nicer light than their behavior currently reveals). The budding alliances came and went, while only one country continued to plan how to deal with Iran.
Finally, Iran's target list was discovered for rocket and ship-borne nuclear weapons. To their lackadaisical surprise, European, Asian and African targets were on the list for missiles, the Americas were slated for nukes on freighters.
The world allied with Israel and Israel led the way, as the freighters were on the way to their targets. No nukes were used by the allies.
Actually, this is a newsflash to me. I was one of those people who thought that the Saudis, the ones who run the official stuff anyway, despised al Qaeda too and wanted to be rid of them. No, they are the biggest funder of al Qaeda. What? That wasn't in the latest WikiLeaks classified document dump? Actually, it was an announcement by the Bush administration in 2008. Jihad Watch had the story in 2004. The only reason I looked it up today is because Rush Limbaugh said, near the top of his show today, that this 'news' was in the Wikidump. I couldn't find an article about it, found the two linked to above instead.
I don't think being armed with this information will help when I am pestered by people who insist that it is "the Jews." Stock answer from them: "You can't believe our government, the Jews run that too, just like the press."
Different Saudi story coming up that relates to my books.
San Diego County authorities confirmed Thursday they have found pentaerythritol tetranitrate, or PETN, a favorite of al Qaeda bomb-makers that is now the target of new U.S. airport body scans and pat downs.
They also found more hexamethylene triperoxide diamine, or HMTD, in a bottle inside the house, but the two types of homemade explosives were not immediately removed because they are too volatile and the house is too cluttered to negotiate safely, Assistant Sheriff Ed Prendergast said.
Authorities had already recovered 8 or 9 pounds of HMTD, an explosive powder that suicide bombers use, authorities said.
The search of the house also turned up items “suggestive of armed robberies,” Prendergast said in a written statement.
Under pen name "Ibn al-Mubarak," he wrote an article in 2009 for the inaugural issue of Jihad Recollections about how to shape up for violent Jihad: "Getting in Shape Without Weights." In it, he blasts "un-Islamic" gyms with "music, semi-naked women, free mixing and the danger of showing off."
Mohamud was also a rapper in a former life. According to the FBI's affadavit, Mohamud considered launching a Mumbai-style attack using small arms: "He said that because he had been a rapper, he could obtain a pistol or AK-47." We were unable to determine Mohamud's Jihadi emcee name, or the potency of his flow.
