War without end

WE NOW KNOW WHY the Bush administration hasn’t made the capture of Osama bin Laden a paramount goal of the war on terror. Emphasis on bin Laden doesn’t fit with the administration’s strategy for combating terrorism. Here’s how President Bush explained this Tuesday: “This thing about . . . let’s put 100,000 of our special forces stomping through Pakistan in order to find bin Laden is just simply not the strategy that will work.”

Rather, Bush says there’s a better way to stay on offense against terrorists. “The way you win the war on terror,” Bush said, “is to find people [who are terrorists] and get them to give you information about what their buddies are fixing to do.” In a speech last week, the president explained how this had worked–starting with the arrest and interrogation of 9/11 planner Khalid Sheik Muhammad–to break up a terrorist operation that was planning post-9/11 attacks on America.

This is incredible. But maybe not so.

Out, damned spot….

Washing Hands Reduces Moral Taint: Behavioral researchers Chen-Bo Zhong of the University of Toronto and Katie Liljenquist at Northwestern University explored the so-called “Macbeth effect” in a series of experiments with undergraduates. The research revealed that, unconsciously at least, you can wash away your sins.

The Curse of Janet Jackson’s Boob

About a dozen CBS affiliates say they won’t show a 9/11 documentary scheduled to air Sept. 10 because of foul language by the firefighters in it. Another dozen say they will delay it until later at night and two dozen others are considering what to do.

Why? Because the American Family Association has mobilized its 3 million members to flood the FCC and CBS with complaints.

The documentary, which has already won a Peabody Award, is hosted by Robert DeNiro. It began as a project to follow a rookie firefighter on an ordinary day but resulted in the only known video of the first plane striking the World Trade Center.

War profiteering

The study focused on the pay of the CEOs of the 34 publicly traded U.S. corporations that were among the top 100 defense contractors in 2005 and for which defense contracts made up more than 10 percent of revenues. On average, CEOs of corporations with extensive defense contracts are getting paid about double what they made before Sept. 11, 2001.

What the…

Welcome to the “Flat Daddy” and “Flat Mommy” phenomenon, in which life-size cutouts of deployed service members are given by the Maine National Guard to spouses, children, and relatives back home.

I’m speechless.

Brits to censor Tom and Jerry

If you’re gonna be concerned about editing Tom and Jerry cartoons to eliminate any possible bad influences that could possibly be mimicked by young children, shouldn’t you…oh, I don’t know, start with the all the scenes where the animals bludgeon each other? I mean, smoking is terrible and all, but I sort of have a feeling I’d rather come home one day from work and catch my son lighting up a cigarette than see him sawing his little sister in half.

Maynard Ferguson

I thought this would have been more prominent in the news when it happened. Jazz trumpeter and bandleader Maynard Ferguson died August 23. He started out with Stan Kenton, before forming his own band in 1957. He had just completed, in July, a run of shows at the Blue Note in New York.

Cut-rate Commies

Wal-Mart, capitalist retailer for the masses, now has its own Communist Party branch.

Today’s Pictures

I’m more interested in a photography that is ‘unfinished’ — a photography that is suggestive and can trigger a conversation or dialogue. There are pictures that are closed, finished, to which there is no way in.

Paolo Pelegrin

These are beautiful and heartbreaking.

Lede of the Day

Eighteen Indonesian prisoners broke out of jail using an unusual weapon – the chilli pepper.

Prisoners at Pematang Siantar jail in Sumatra mixed hot chillies with water in plastic bottles to spray at guards.

The fiery liquid temporarily blinded the guards, allowing prisoners to grab their keys and make the break for freedom.
Sixteen of the inmates had now been recaptured, a police official said, but two were still on the run.

The men were meant to be on their way to breakfast but instead stormed the prison gate, Detective Den Martin told the Associated Press news agency.

They were spraying the chilli water and shouting “attack, attack”, he said.