This interview with Major Barry D. Wingard, Jr. – defense counsel to a number of Guantanamo detainees – has garnered a lot of attention today, but not nearly as much as it should. Go check it out.
Month: June 2009 Page 2 of 4
Maybe an enterprising Virginia paper would want to do what the Boston Globe did?
The Boston Globe has been doing some terrific reporting about how small town police departments in Massachusetts have been using the Pentagon’s surplus weapons program to acquire some ridiculously high-powered weaponry. The paper found that 82 police departments across the state have obtained more than 1,000 military-grade weapons over the last 15 years, including…
Police in Wellfleet, a community known for stunning beaches and succulent oysters, scored three military assault rifles. At Salem State College, where recent police calls have included false fire alarms and a goat roaming the campus, school police got two M-16s. In West Springfield, police acquired even more powerful weaponry: two military-issue M-79 grenade launchers.
Police departments need to be sufficiently equipped, yes. They do not need grenade launchers or armored personal carriers. I wonder what we’d find in the garages and warehouses of departments in Virginia.
TBogg nails it:
There was a disputed election in Iran and thousands of political bloggers who have never lived outside of the city in which they were born and who have absolutely no experience in Middle East affairs will now tell you what this all means, how this will impact the region, and what to expect by drawing upon their extensive background in World of Warcraft and a hardly used MCSE certification.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcHT8-ps64w[/youtube]
It’s hard enough getting the straight news in your own language and culture. So when you spin the globe and move beyond your familiar languages, it can feel nearly impossible. There are, however, some universals. Check out TehranLive.org for photos of what’s happening in Iran right now. It’s not necessarily true that you can believe your own lyin’ eyes, but it’s probably more information than you’re going to get from your usual sources.
Update: As noted below, the photographer responsible for the image below (as well as the TehranLive.org site) has gone missing. Some info (and lots of speculation) in the last comment thread at his site.
Not a lot to say, other than that this was inspired by recent conversations about the P&O Ferry between Zeebrugge and Hull. I’ve got a couple dozen tracks that are well associated with that route.
OMD’s original:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJfKyHR5-1M[/youtube]
Nada Surf’s cover (please, just ignore the video):
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5otlEMk_0k[/youtube]
Photo by Simon Barrow
Against my better judgment, I pass along the following.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4T1RMuoQnKo[/youtube]
Also, just try me. I will close comments so fast . . .
Sometimes I find myself well and truly disgusted with Virginia and its very much accepted culture of bigotry. This is one of those times. From the Virginian-Pilot:
For more than a year, Virginia’s largest women’s prison rounded up inmates who had loose-fitting clothes, short hair or otherwise masculine looks, sending them to a unit officers derisively dubbed the “butch wing,” prisoners and guards say.
Dozens were moved in an attempt to split up relationships and curb illegal sexual activity at the 1,200-inmate Fluvanna Correctional Center for Women, though some straight women were sent to the wing strictly because of their appearance, the inmates and corrections officers said.