okay... maybe i can look past the midichlorians...

"This really came out of the Vietnam era," Lucas said of the "Star Wars" story during yesterday's press conference, noting the relevance today and adding that such themes have recurred throughout history, as well. And, he emphasized that "Star Wars" is strikingly relevant today. [Ed. Note: A partial plot summary of "Revenge of the Sith" is included in this paragraph.] A key line that draws parallels to today occurs during a key confrontation between Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen), accepting the role of Darth Vader, and Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) his betrayed mentor. If you're not with me, you are my enemy," threatens the wayward Jedi, with his master responding, "Only a Sith deals in absolutes." The democratic Republic, led by a poisoned Senate, hands over power to its Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, a Sith Lord known as Darth Sidious who empowers Darth Vader.

"When I wrote 'Star Wars', Iraq didn't exist. We were just funding Saddam Hussein and giving him weapons of mass destruction, we weren't worried about him," said George Lucas yesterday at the press conference. And then he added, "The parallels between Vietnam and what we're doing in Iraq now are unbelievable. I didn't think it was going to get quite this close -- I hope this doesn't become true in our country. Maybe the film will wake people to see how easily a democracy can be subverted."

like the "Free State" project in reverse... one can hope... one can hope...

Calling the approval of same-sex marriage in Massachusetts "the straw that broke the camel's back," a group of Christian activists is in the beginning stages of an effort to have one state secede from the United States to become its own sovereign nation.

"Our Christian republic has declined into a pagan democracy," says Cory Burnell, president of ChristianExodus.org, a non-profit corporation based in Tyler, Texas. "There are some issues people just can't take anymore, and [same-sex marriage] might finally wake up the complacent Christians."

Burnell is leading the charge for a peaceful secession of one state from the union, and after originally considering Alabama, Mississippi and South Carolina due to their relatively small populations, coastal access, and the Christian nature of the electorate, Burnell says South Carolina has been selected as the target location.

(no subject)

http://web.morons.org/article.jsp?sectionid=2&id=6237

"Last week we reported on a Swedish study that confirmed a different reaction from the anterior (toward the front of the body) hypothalamus in homosexual versus heterosexual men. Homosexual men's hypothalami responded to a pheromone called 4,16-androstadien-3-one (AND for short) emitted in male sweat. I went so far as to pay for that article and download it. The study concluded:

In contrast to heterosexual men, and in congruence with heterosexual women, homosexual men displayed hypothalamic activation in response to AND. Maximal activation was observed in the medial preoptic area/anterior hypothalamus, which, according to animal studies, is highly involved in sexual behavior. As opposed to putative pheromones, common odors were processed similarly in all three groups of subjects and engaged only the olfactory brain (amygdala, piriform, orbitofrontal, and insular cortex). These findings show that our brain reacts differently to the two putative pheromones compared with common odors, and suggest a link between sexual orientation and hypothalamic neuronal processes."

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Read the whole article at the link. Great armament against those bigoted xians who want to deny gay rights...

(no subject)

then again, here's a (not so) nice point the poster of previous article said:

"Now we know that the anti-gay and religious fundamentalist groups in this country are not to be bothered by facts and science and research. They're not to let reality get in the way of their blind bigotry and abject hatred. Nothing will ever convince them that homosexuals aren't recruited, brainwashed and trained by the gay mafia so that they can attack family values and rape their children in public schools while destroying Christianity. These people are not rational, so dealing with them rationally is pointless."

(no subject)

NEW YORK -- Newsweek magazine, under fire for publishing a story that led to deadly protests in Afghanistan, said Monday it was retracting its report that a military probe had found evidence of desecration of the Quran by U.S. interrogators at Guantanamo Bay.

Earlier Monday, Bush administration officials had brushed off an apology that Newsweek's editor Mark Whitaker had made in an editor's note and criticized the magazine's handling of the story.

"It's appalling that this story got out there," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said as she traveled home from Iraq.

"People lost their lives. People are dead," Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said. "People need to be very careful about what they say, just as they need to be careful about what they do."

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Spare me the bleeding heart routing Rummy...  Like you give a fuck about dead people.  If you did, you'd be ordering an end to the war in Iraq.  If you were careful about what you do, maybe 20,000 Iraqi's wouldn't be dead right now...