I think the photo speaks for itself.

mccain office closed_bf029.jpg (JPEG Image, 400x300 pixels)

Just as I seriously began to question my own health, I read about a study recently conducted by Hiscox, a British-based luxury-car insurer. Experts found that 100% of female participants showed a "significant increase in testosterone secretion" while listening to a Maserati engine revving - in fact, measurably more so than for any other sports-car sound.

I have no idea why such a thing would happen or what it would mean, but it's damn interesting.

Aural fixation - Drive a Maserati

The man then launched into a tirade of racist slurs, shouting 'I f***ing hate n*****s' and urging 36-year-old Mr Egwuatu to leave the shop with him.

The man then left the shop but when Mr Egwuatu re-emerged, the attacker was waiting for him in broad daylight with a threatening-looking dog and holding a gun behind his back.

I wasn't aware that particular term was in wide use in England. I also think the Secret Service is probably doing back flips trying to figure out how to handle security when Senator Obama wins, am concerned about what level of politicization the current administration has managed to inject into that organization. This has turned a corner into very scary stuff.

Man shot three times by racist gunman - for wearing Barack Obama T-shirt | Mail Online

COURIC: Like what ones specifically?

PALIN: Umm… all of them. Any of them that have been in front of me over all these years.

COURIC: Can you name any of them?

PALIN: I have a vast variety of sources where we get our news… Alaska isn’t a foreign country where it’s kind of suggested it seems like, wow how could you keep in touch with what the rest of Washington, DC may be thinking and doing, when you live up there in Alaska. Believe me, Alaska is like a microcosm of America.

You're right Sarah, the head of the US Government doesn't know how to read either.

Crooks and Liars » OMG: Palin can’t name one magazine/newspaper she reads

As tension mounted and the pilot rapidly descended from 32,000 feet, he was asked how many were on the jet.

"51 souls on board," he responded.

Just as reference, when pilots or ground control refer to the number of passengers as "souls" it means they are probably praying to God they get them down in one piece because they may not think they can do it on their own. (Thanks to reading John Nance for that one)

ABC News: EXCLUSIVE: FAA Tapes Reveal Drama of Obama Jet Incident

Couric: Senator McCain, Senator Obama says, while the increased number of US troops contributed to increased security in Iraq, he also credits the Sunni awakening and the Shiite government going after militias. And says that there might have been improved security even without the surge. What's your response to that?
McCain: I don't know how you respond to something that is as-- such a false depiction of what actually happened. Colonel McFarlane [phonetic] was contacted by one of the major Sunni sheiks. Because of the surge we were able to go out and protect that sheik and others.

Waitawhataminute? Because of the surge we what? Oh, you mean this guy? Yeah, we did a great job protecting him.

Let's get the facts straight. First, one of the primary generators of the "Anbar Awakening" was that they were pissed off about the Al-Q in Iraq types not caring who they blew up, Sunni, Shiite, US troops, didn't matter. Part two was us giving them cash, guns and ammo without strings to police their own area, and we cut our actions in the area down to going after the Al-Q in Iraq types. That had ZERO to do with the surge.

Second, if anything the surge has HURT that movement by redirecting the money and troops out of Anbar and into Baghdad.

Third, the point of the surge was to buy time and improve stability for the Iraqi government to get their shit together and take over their own immediate security. On that level, the surge has been a complete failure. The casualty rates hit a marked decline in October of last year, but those are US casualties, not Iraqi casualties for which we can't get numbers. In the meantime, there has been little to no motion from the Iraqi government, except for some no-bid contracts given to Exxon, Shell etc. for maintenance on oil facilities that aren't safe to go to. In the meantime, we can't get agreement on what happens after the end of the year when the UN mandate we used to go in expires.

In the meantime, we're losing the war in Afghanistan. Casualty numbers there are up, the Taliban is in resurgence, and the real Al-Qaeda is in full swing.

Between this, the Irag-Parkistan border comment the other day, Czechoslovakia, the repeated lack of knowledge on who is supporting whom in Iraq (then getting corrected and screwing it up again), getting pretty much everything backwards on the economy, the gas tax holiday, drilling expansion that won't change the price of diddly squat, the birth control/Viagra thing, and god only knows what else, I'm starting to wonder if we're looking at Alzheimer's. He gets told one thing and something else comes out.

This is not an "age" question. This is someone who no longer appears to have command of his mental faculties.

Marc Ambinder (July 22, 2008) - McCain Disputes Obama Account Of The Surge

Heavy metal pollution near Norilsk is so severe that it is now economically feasible to mine the soil, which has been polluted so severely that it has economic grades of platinum and palladium.

Wow.

NASA - Norilsk, Siberia

More evidence that sex offender hysteria motivates corrupt legislators to produce policy that is fucking stupid.

The facts are pretty darned sad. Barely more than a child himself at 19, Bradshaw was charged with statutory rape for having sex with a 15-year-old girl. Fine. That’s punishable. I’d prefer it had been kept out of the criminal justice system (see here for more) but its punishable. He gets 5 years.

After he gets out he gives an invalid address. For that, too, he pleads guilty and is sentenced to time served. When released he moves in with his sister but can’t live there because Georgia’s draconian sex offender law won’t let him live within 1,000 feet of a recreation center!

He moves in with an aunt but can’t stay there because the home is within 1,000 feet of the First Baptist Church! Growing desperate, he finds a family friend but this time inadvertently transposes the street address!

Now the cops move in. Bradshaw is arrested because he hadn’t moved into the friend’s single-wide trailer within the legally required 72 hours — and lied and said he did! His mandatory sentence for this infraction is life in prison.

A Georgia lawyer in this thread says that many of these people end up being homeless because they cannot find a place to live that complies with the law, and then they end up getting arrested for being homeless.

Fortunately we have elected representatives who are capable of forming logical thoughts:

Sen. President pro tem Eric Johnson (R-Savannah) said the law is clear.

"I wish it hadn't happened, but there are consequences for people's actions," said Johnson, a chief sponsor of the offender law. "What would have happened if he had given the wrong address and had lived in a place and was harming a child next door? The law is trying to protect children. Justice has to be blind to motive."

1. Eric Johnson recommended these particular consequences. He has to defend why they are appropriate, and not refer to them as if they are beyond his control!
2. This person is not a pedophile.
3. This is not an attempt to protect children. Strict statutory rape laws are designed to attack teenagers for having sex out of wedlock. In this case coupled with a hysteria driven over broad sex offender registration rule intended as marketing fodder for political campaigns.
4. No, justice does not have to be blind to motive! There is a difference between malice murder and involuntary manslaughter. If you don't understand that you shouldn't be writing laws.

Georgia Supreme Court considers proportionality in sex offender case

We're told the whole British accent thing -- well, it's more than an accent. Britney has multiple personalities, including, as people in her life call it, "the British girl." We're told when Spears loses the British personality, she has absolutely no idea what she did during the time she assumed that personality.

Well that would explain a bit...

Britney's Multiple Personality Disorder