The Seventh Sense

Blogging May Be, Er, Sporadic For The Next Few Days

Hurricane watch issued for NC

Can't Hide The Truth

Bush kas launched a public relations offensive designed to convince you how swimmingly Iraq is, and how Iraq nay-sayers (which constitute two-thirds of all Americans) are a bunch of terrorist-kissing pansy appeasers.

His problem, of course, is that facts impede the lies message that Bush is trying to convey.  Here's a screen capture from CNN earlier today.  Bush is giving a speech about how great things are in Iraq, but "breaking news" (aka "reality") overshadows his message:

RELATED:  Keith Olberman channels Edward R. Murrow.  See it now:

Olbermann delivered this commentary with fire and passion while highlighting how Rumsfeld’s comments echoes other times in our world’s history when anyone who questioned the administration was coined as a traitor, unpatriotic, communist or any other colorful term. Luckily we pulled out of those times and we will pull out of these times.

Remember - Rumsfeld did not just call the Democrats out yesterday, he called out a majority of this country. This wasn’t only a partisan attack, but more so an attack against the majority of Americans.

MORE:  Other commentary on Rumsfeld's speech.  From Seattle:

Rumsfeld told an American Legion convention that Winston Churchill had once said attempting to accommodate Adolf Hitler was "a bit like feeding a crocodile, hoping it would eat you last." Rumsfeld went on: "Can we truly afford to believe that somehow, some way, vicious extremists can be appeased?"

Of course, no one is calling for negotiations with Osama bin Laden. But the Bush administration has a record of twisting critics' views to create false choices.

As any administration knows, rhetorical misdirection can help win the immediate argument. Rumsfeld received a standing ovation. But resolute administration avoidance of the real issues has contributed to the widening disillusionment even among former supporters of the war from both parties over failure to address fundamental problems in the incoherent, poorly executed Iraq campaign.

Rumsfeld employs tactics of distraction, diversion and delay with both the public and critics within the administration. When some of the sharpest attacks on his leadership are coming from former generals, Rumsfeld's crying appeasement is audacious, misleading and manipulative, but completely in character.

ALSO RELATED:  WaPo:

U.S. military leaders in Baghdad have put out for bid a two-year, $20 million public relations contract that calls for extensive monitoring of U.S. and Middle Eastern media in an effort to promote more positive coverage of news from Iraq.

Let me get this straight.  Over 60% of the country is opposed to the War in Iraq, which is paid for with our tax dollars.  Now we have to pay for a public relations firm so that we can be convinced that our disapproval is wrong?

"The Scream" Found

Reuters:

OSLO (Reuters) - Norwegian police recovered "The Scream" and another stolen masterpiece by Edvard Munch on Thursday, two years after the works were seized from a museum by gunmen.

"We are 100 percent certain they are the originals," police chief Iver Stensrud told a news conference. "The damage was much less than feared."

"The Scream" depicts a terrified figure under a blood-red sky. The other, "Madonna," shows a bare-breasted woman with long black hair.

McDonalds Hearts Hedgehogs

I don't think I've ever had a McFlurry, but to those who have: Do you know they kill hedgehogs?

Yup.  Apparently the discarded McFlurry containers trap hedgehogs who stick their head in to get some of that McFlurry McGoodness.  And the hedgehogs.

But thanks to the fine efforts of the British Hedgehog Preservation Society (or NAMBLA), those little bastards won't be dyin' no more.  McDonalds announced today that they are redesigning the containers.  The Hedgehog Society people are really happy.

My Prediction: The Next Media Frenzy

With the JonBenet/Karr non-story now officially dead, I predict that the media will now swarm over this story.  It's got all the elements: sex (child molestation) and murder.  Plus, it involves white people in a Connecticut suburb:

FAIRFIELD, Connecticut (AP) -- A lawyer climbed through a neighbor's bedroom window and stabbed him to death after being told by a family member that the man had molested his 2-year-old daughter, authorities say.

Barry James, 58, was stabbed in the chest nearly a dozen times Monday. The lawyer, Jonathon Edington, 29, was charged with murder and burglary and was released on $1 million bail Wednesday.

Capt. Gary MacNamara said that police had not received a complaint about the child being assaulted before the killing, and "we have no indication it's true or not true." (Watch how killing shocks quiet Connecticut neighborhood -- 1:32)

Edington's attorney, Michael Sherman, said the information came from Edington's wife. "The daughter gave the mother information which was alarming and disturbing. The mom relayed it to her husband. That was the spark," Sherman said.

James' 87-year-old mother discovered his body. When officers went to Edington's home, they found him standing by his kitchen sink with what appeared to be blood on him, and a large kitchen knife next to him on a counter, authorities said

"He's in shock," Edington's attorney said. "This is the most unexpected turn of events one can imagine with this young man's background."

Expect this story to be 24/7 for a while.

Student Wins First Amendment Case

I don't know why, but I'm always drawn to First Amendment cases involving public schools.  This story warmed my heart:

Court Sides With Student In Bush T-Shirt Flap

(AP) Vermont schoolboy was within his rights to wear a T-shirt depicting George W. Bush as a chicken and accusing him of being a former alcohol and cocaine abuser, an appeals court ruled.

Zachary Guiles' school violated the First Amendment when it ordered him to cover parts of the shirt, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan said Wednesday.

Guiles was a 13-year-old seventh-grader at Williamstown Middle High School in Williamstown, Vt., in May 2004 when he wore the shirt, which he had bought at an anti-war rally, to classes once a week for two months. Complaints from a fellow student and her mother who had different political views caused school officials to take a closer look.

Although teachers had told the complaining student that the shirt was political speech and protected by the Constitution, the mother complained to a student support specialist, who decided images of drugs and alcohol violated the school's dress code, the appeals court said.

The front of the shirt had Bush's name and the words "Chicken-Hawk-In-Chief" beneath it. Below the words was a large picture of the president's head, wearing a helmet, superimposed on the body of a chicken.

To one side of the president on the T-shirt, three lines of cocaine, a razor blade and a straw appear. Elsewhere on the shirt, the president is shown holding a martini glass with an olive in it.

After the school official ordered Guiles to turn the shirt inside out, tape over the shirt's images of drugs and alcohol or change shirts, he returned to school another day with duct tape covering the offending images and "Censored" scrawled on the tape.

After Guiles, who was suspended for one day because of the shirt, sued school officials in U.S. District Court in Vermont, a judge found that his First Amendment rights were violated but that the school could censor some images on the shirt.

The appeals court said the school had no right to censor any part of the shirt.

"The pictures are an important part of the political message Guiles wished to convey, accentuating the anti-drug (and anti-Bush) message," the appeals court wrote. "By covering them defendants diluted Guiles's message, blunting its force and impact."

Having read the opinion, it should be stressed that the only controversy with the shirt was the fact that it depicted drugs, not the anti-Bush sentiment.

Darwin Award Nominee

Oh, my:

A PRIEST has died after trying to demonstrate how Jesus walked on water.

Evangelist preacher Franck Kabele, 35, told his congregation he could repeat the biblical miracle.

But he drowned after walking out to sea from a beach in the capital Libreville in Gabon, west Africa.

One eyewitness said: "He told churchgoers he'd had a revelation that if he had enough faith, he could walk on water like Jesus.

"He took his congregation to the beach saying he would walk across the Komo estuary, which takes 20 minutes by boat.

"He walked into the water, which soon passed over his head and he never came back."

And Debbie Does Dallas Is A Travel Documentary

Conversation overhead outside Avenue Q, Golden Theater, W 45th St:

Tourist husband: So what is this show about?
Tourist wife: I believe it's like a Muppets story.

From the website Overheard In New York (where readers contribute random snippets of conversations they overhear while in the Big Apple)

Well, Which Is It?

Listerine label:

The label says Listerine is "as effective as floss".

But it also tells me to "floss daily".  Why should I floss daily if Listerine is as effective as floss?

Yes, these are the things that cross my mind from time to time.

RELATED:  Speaking of dentistry, check out this hellish dental instrument from 1939:

Device Takes Measure of the Teeth

WITH the aid of the “gnathograph,” an instrument as mouth-filling as its name, a dentist’s patients may now be assured of a perfect fit for artificial teeth. Fitted to the jaws as shown above, the new device registers the arrangement of the teeth and the direction of the “bite,” to guide the dentist in straightening teeth or fitting inlays, crowns, bridges, and plates.

Duh-nuh-nuh-nah-nanaah-nuh! They Say It's Her Birthday!

Emily Mark Version 26.0 (tm) [Now Fatsnack-free!] rolls out today.

Click here and let her know how you feel!

(Don't get pissed, Emily.  I could have chosen other photos!)