It’s too nice to be inside so I’ll just link to the Propaganda Remix Project and Skeptic’s Annotated Bible and you can figure out what they are for yourself.

Confidence inspiring emails, number 563 in a series:
“Firstly I apologise if this is not your skill set or you are not looking for
work but [big IT recruitment company] have invested in our IS department allowing us to contact candidates like yourself about vacancies. This means that you have been selected because PHP is mentioned somewhere in your CV and I hope this is one of your key skills.”
*Somewhere* in my CV? You *hope*? At least read it, or does it take too long because you have to spell every word aloud?
“invested in our IS department” is just a very big phrase for ‘learnt to use search’, isn’t it, monkey boy?

“Since the “war on terror” began, al-Jazeera has been a thorn in the side of the Pentagon. “My solution is to change the channel,” Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt said this month in Baghdad, “to a legitimate, authoritative, honest news station. The stations that are showing Americans intentionally killing women and children are not legitimate news sources.”” (Guardian)
So they have to lie to be ‘a legitimate, authoritative, honest news station’?
“Twenty other al-Jazeera journalists have been arrested and jailed by US forces in Iraq and one, Tariq Ayoub, was killed last April when a US tank fired a shell at the al-Jazeera offices in Baghdad’s Palestine hotel. It was an accident, the Pentagon said, even though al-Jazeera had given the Pentagon the coordinates of its Baghdad offices before the war began.”
…
“The targeting of al-Jazeera is all the more remarkable, given that it is the only Arab TV network to routinely offer Israeli, US and British officials a platform to argue their case.”
…
“Al-Jazeera has a track record of honest and accurate reporting, and has maintained a principled pluralism in the face of brutal and authoritarian regimes within the region, and increasingly from those without. This is why it has been vilified, criminalised and bombed. It is also why it should be defended by those who genuinely believe that successful societies depend upon an independent media.”

Incredible site from a girl who rides through the post-Chernobyl Ghost Town.

“… a spokesman for radical cleric Moqtada Sadr said Australians were kidnap targets because of their troops’ role in the country.” (BBC)
Maybe it’s time to travel on my NZ passport again. Speaking of passports, it’s 945 days until I can apply for permanent residency and 1310 until I could apply for a British passport.

“There is only one thing surprising about the Federal Government’s plan to close the electoral roll as soon as the next election is called, and thus prevent tens of thousands of young Australians from voting. And that is that someone in government actually remembered young people do vote in this country.”
…
“At the 2001 election, 83,000 first-time voters signed up in the first seven days of the campaign. This month the Coalition, citing spurious concerns about electoral fraud, said it wants to prevent the same situation occurring this election. (Read: wants to stop some likely supporters of non-Coalition parties from casting a vote.)
In all, about 2.5 million Australians are aged 15 to 24 – not an insignificant number. As a demographic, though, they are increasingly crushed and buried beneath an ageing population – beneath 12.5 million voters, all of us shouting ourselves silly about real estate, retirement, superannuation plans and other issues as grey and lifeless as a politician’s suit.” (Age)
How can they get away with that? Great list of questions though:
“Which of our politicians can answer the following questions?
* What’s it like to know that no amount of education will guarantee you stable employment?
* What’s it like to hear everyone talking about security, and yet feel so insecure?
* What’s it like to begin adulthood in debt?
* What’s it like to be gay, knowing your Prime Minister would be disappointed if his child was the same?
* What’s it like to feel priced out of higher education because you lucked out in a generational lottery?
* What’s it like to know you will pay rent forever?
* What’s it like to know your generation is exhibiting signs of depression up to 10 times that of previous generations?
* And what’s it like to know that the current Government would rather you were off the electoral roll than on it?”

“Several Islamic militant groups are preparing attacks on London, making such a strike unavoidable, a radical Muslim cleric said in an interview published today.”
…
“He added: “We don’t make a distinction between civilians and non-civilians, innocents and non-innocents. Only between Muslims and unbelievers. And the life of an unbeliever has no value. It has no sanctity.””
…
“”The British also are terrorists, in Iraq … Terrorism is the law of the 21st century. It’s legitimate.”” (BBC)

“Several Islamic militant groups are preparing attacks on London, making such a strike unavoidable, a radical Muslim cleric said in an interview published today.”
…
“He added: “We don’t make a distinction between civilians and non-civilians, innocents and non-innocents. Only between Muslims and unbelievers. And the life of an unbeliever has no value. It has no sanctity.””
…
“”The British also are terrorists, in Iraq … Terrorism is the law of the 21st century. It’s legitimate.”” (BBC)

Bush-y fun for the whole family. I particularly like the ‘say something stupid’ button at the end.