Rock 'n' roll pioneer Ike Turner's death last month at age 76 was caused by a cocaine overdose

Can't say I'm surprised.

Ike Turner's death tied to cocaine - Yahoo! News

I peered out from the side of the desk as a man, dressed as a member of the Afghan security forces with a long beard came from the men's locker area, firing an AK-47. He turned his head, saw me crouched behind the desk, looked directly at me and then fired into the chest of the other woman. She fell to the ground and he ran out, stepping over her body.

Scary as hell.

Lisa Gans: Eyewitness To Terror At Kabul Hotel

A court commissioner gave sole physical and legal custody of Britney Spears' two little boys Friday to ex-husband Kevin Federline and suspended the troubled pop star's visitation rights.

When K-Fed is so much better with the kids that he gets sole custody and visitation is revoked, there's something SERIOUSLY wrong with Brit's brain.

Court awards Spears' kids to K-Fed - omg! news on Yahoo!

The arms traffickers have left Mexico awash in AK-47s, pistols, telescope sighting devices, grenades, grenade launchers and high-powered ammunition, such as the so-called cop-killer bullets believed to be able to penetrate bulletproof vests.

"You're looking at the same firepower here on the border that our soldiers are facing in Iraq and Afghanistan," Thomas Mangan, a spokesman in Phoenix for the ATF, said in an interview.

So, we get their tired, their poor, their huddled masses yearning to breathe free, and they get our automatic weapons (and factories, but that's a different point). What happens when we start getting their tired and poor armed with what used to be our guns?

U.S. Guns Behind Cartel Killings in Mexico - washingtonpost.com

The Canadian dollar has reached parity with the U.S. dollar for the first time since 1976.

ummm.... holy shit?

ABC News: Dollar Drops to Canadian Dollar's Level

A Polk County judge on Thursday struck down Iowa's law banning gay marriage.

The ruling by Judge Robert Hanson concluded that the state's prohibition on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional and he ordered the Polk County recorder to issue marriage licenses to six gay couples.

That's ain't them damn liberals in Massachewsetts doin' this. It's pig raisin' country!

Update Having now read the opinion, the following line really stands out.

"So far as this court can tell, (symbol thingy I don't have a key for)595.2(1) operates only to harm same-sex couples and their children."

(underline in the original p.55)

That sounds pretty damning to me...

Update 2 The order has been stayed pending appeal.

Gay Marriage in Iowa? Yep! - DesMoinesRegister.com

U.S. computer company Apple Inc. and German automaker Volkswagen AG are discussing the possibility of building an "iCar" which would feature products by the producer of the ubiquitous iPod personal music player.

The IT people here are worried...

I have to fix what???

Volkswagen and Apple heads discuss possible

Experts said the rise in income was mainly a reflection of an increase in the number of family members entering the workplace or working longer hours. Average wages for men and women actually declined for the third consecutive year.

Funny how the headline and actual data are almost 180 degrees apart.

Census Shows a Modest Rise in U.S. Income - New York Times

In an interview on May 14, Craig told the Idaho Statesman he'd never engaged in sex with a man or solicited sex with a man. The Craig interview was the culmination of a Statesman investigation that began after a blogger accused Craig of homosexual sex in October. Over five months, the Statesman examined rumors about Craig dating to his college days and his 1982 pre-emptive denial that he had sex with underage congressional pages.

When it rains it pours doesn't it?

Men's room arrest reopens questions about Sen. Larry Craig

Shaping the Bush administration's message on the Iraq war has taken on new fervor, just as anticipation is building for the September progress report from top military advisers.

For the Pentagon, getting out Iraq information will now include a 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week Iraq Communications Desk that will pump out data from Baghdad _ serving as what could be considered a campaign war room.

WHOA WHOA WHOA! Getting out the news is nice and all, but this strikes me as putting politics over security. Someone at the Pentagon should be looking at this and saying "Hold it."

Pentagon Setting Up War Information Room - The Huffington Post