A woman in West Virginia is really an African Princess: [link]

I'm not going to read the link. That way I can pretend that they found her by having her sleep on a pea.

Happy Birthday Sophia!

I'm at home with a cold today. I was feeling pretty chipper up until a minute ago. It's amazing how little energy you have when you are actually sick.

Remember that Canadian who was abducted and tortured by the US, only to be proven innocent?

In an embarrassing turnabout, the Department of Justice backed away Wednesday from a denial by Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales of responsibility for the treatment of a Canadian who was seized by American authorities in 2002. The man was deported to Syria, where he was imprisoned and beaten.

...

The attorney general’s comments caused puzzlement because they followed front-page news articles of the findings of the Canadian commission. It reported that based on inaccurate information from Canada about Mr. Arar’s supposed terrorist ties, American officials ordered him taken to Syria, an action documented in public records.

On Wednesday, a Justice Department spokesman said Mr. Gonzales had intended to make only a narrow point: that deportations are now handled by the Department of Homeland Security, not the Department of Justice.

[link]

Appalling. So he was intending to obfuscate, rather than flat out lie? Whoops.

And a telling little tidbit from the article -

In October 2003, Mr. Arar was released by Syria, where officials found no evidence that he had any connection to terrorism, and returned to Canada.

It occurs to me that he might actually be fortunate that he was in the hands of the freaking Syrians because it seems that the government of this country doesn't tend to connect the words "no connection to terrorism" with "release" anymore. But we are right on top of the word "torture."

... yeah, because it's pretty clear now that Security trumps Justice every time in this present Administration. Torture 'em all, and then let them rot in Gitmo, until either God sorts them out, or else the current administration is out of office.

Don't you know? Justice IS Security. Cause it's not like Justice is that concerned about the spirit of the law.

I have a lot of tech knowledge in my life and regrettably no boobs.

So, if he did have boobs, he would sit at home all day and feel himself up? Do you think he would feel erquired to pay himself for this service?

So, if he did have boobs, he would sit at home all day and feel himself up?

That's all John Crichton wanted to do when he finally got a pair of his own....

That African princess grew up in a town very near where I grew up, and being a black person on the rural West Virginia-Pennsylvania border would be an adventure I wouldn't wish on anyone. Kudos to her folks for being of a nobler sort.

It was either Bevis or Butthead who said, "If I had boobs like that, I'd never leave the house."

(Or it's possible I'm conflating the quote with something else.)

Remember the face on Mars? Turns out that from other angles it doesn't really look like a face....

Story: [link]

A strong myth developed, holding that the Face was an artificial structure built by some ancient civilization. Surrounding pyramids—also just interesting-looking massifs—fueled the myth. Last year, a study helped explain why: People see faces that aren't there—on Mars or in clouds—because we have "over-learned" to recognize the human face.