Politics & World Absurdities

Here's where I post links to news about politics stuff and weird things in the world.

You'll notice things in this category listed as "Todd Lockwood Digests." These are mailings by artist Todd Lockwood culled from news stories about governmental and environmental concerns. Todd considers himself a moderate, and is often annoyed by Democrats as well as Republicans. If you'd like to be added to his mailing list, contact me and I'll forward your message to him ... or just find his email address on his site and mail him directly.

Nov 7th 2004 update: The election is over, but there are still shenanigans going on. As these old articles about Bush won't affect the election, I'm moving them to a separate page for readability purposes. In any case, be sure to read Todd's So Long For Now, covering some major points and major links.

For more Bush lies, be sure to check out Misleader.org which catalogs his lies and includes cites to newspapers that prove he's lying.

And for more frequent updates and ongoing discussion, take a look at the Friendly Politics & World Absurdities folder on my Message Boards.

11/8/03 End of an Error.com ... check it out, buy a bumper sticker.

11/4/03 Jerk father vandalizes an old lady's home because his kid said she didn't give him any Halloween candy. Why don't we require a license to breed?

11/4/03 Catholic schoolgirls chase down and pummel the guy who flashed them. Awesome. :) (CNN)

11/4/03 Israelis planning on training pigs to guard West Bank settlements. Not only are the pigs smart and have noses like bloodhounds, but since Muslims consider pigs unclean, any terrorist (say, a suicide bomber) who touches one (say, when he's flying apart in little chunks in all directions) isn't eligible for 70 virgins in heaven. Clever. (ABC)

10/11/03 Airport screeners were given job test answers beforehand. How does this help make us safer? (ABC News)

10/11/03 Women arrested for child pornography for taking a picture of her child breastfeeding. Utterly absurd. (Dallas Observer)

10/10/03 Mormon teacher claims religious harassment because he wasn't allowed to object to Gay And Lesbian Pride Month. (KUTV, from AP)

10/9/03 Get Your War On -- political and war satire using 70s corporate clip art with modern text.

10/9/03 Religious conservative Pat Robertson suggests nukes should be used to wipe out the US state department. As someone on the message boards said, if he were a Muslim priest, he'd probably already be waiting in jail right now. (CNN.com)

10/9/03 The Vatican says condoms don't stop AIDS, probably in yet another attempt to stop people from using birth control. (The World Health Organization says condoms do block the HIV virus). Some priests in Africa are even campaigning against the condom use by telling people that the condroms distributed by health organizations are laced with HIV. Why do people still take advice on sex and reproduction from old foreigners who take vows of celibacy? (Guardian)

10/4/03 CIA secret operative outed by white house officials in response to her husband's critical comments of the reasons for the war in Iraq. This is nothing but an attempt by the white house to punish those who disagree with them. Did I mention this operative's job was to find terrorist groups trying to smuggle WMDs into the USA? Now her whole team is at risk and can't do their job. The white house says that the Justice Department will investigate to find any wrongdoing, but Ashcroft (head of the Justice Dept) is hardly neutral in this matter. We need a neutral special prosecutor to investigate this so the white house doesn't sweep it under the rug. The link is an online petition, please sign it. (MoveOn.org)

10/4/03 Woman's Family Angry Over Her Burial because even the "large" coffin they purchased wasn't large enough for her 500-lb. corpse. (WKMG Florida)

10/4/03 Schwarzenegger admits and apologizes for sexually harassing women, but since the most recent allegation is from 2000 this isn't exactly a thing of the past (like his Hitler comments, which I'm willing to write off because they were said 30 years ago by a much younger and ignorant Schwarzenegger). Still, this is not the behavior we want in a California governor. And I love (sarcasm) that the republican party totally supports him, when they reviled Clinton for his skirt-chasing. (BBC)

10/4/03 Man tortured by Saudi jailers, probably because they wanted a non-Saudi to confess to a series of crimes against westerners. Reminder: Saudi Arabia is an ally of the US government. (CBC News, Canada)

9/22/03 The Bush administration is using conservative lobbyists to attack scientists working for the US government if they produce research work that says pollution is responsible for global warming. (Guardian Unlimited) Here's another article on the same topic. (Greenpeace) You will inherit nothing but smoke and ash.

9/22/03 Drunk US soldier in Iraq shoots a tiger to death after the tiger mauls his buddy (drunkenly trying to feed the tiger through the bars of its cage). Next time, shoot your buddy, then yourself, asshole. (CNN.com)

9/21/03 Modest Needs, a charity site that accepts donations to help people with unexpected bills. It's really nice, check it out.

9/21/03 Norwegian man runs over child while text messaging on his cell phone. Perhaps that'll convince people here that we need a law against cell phone use while driving, too. Why do these jerks and drunk drivers survive these accidents, and little kids die? (Nettavisen)

9/16/03 College freshman builds fusion device. (Deseret Morning News)

9/11/03 Unanswered questions about the World Trade Center attacks. (San Francisco Gate)