"Never trust the advice of a man in difficulties." Aesop (620-560 BC)

By nature my mind is empty.
Even in sleep, I am awake.
I think of things without thinking.
All my impressions of the world
Have dissolved.
My desires have melted away.
So what do I care for money
Or the thieving senses,
For friend or knowledge or holy books?

-Ashtavakra Gita 14:1-2

Scotland Against Criminalising Communities (SACC) has launched its website:
SACC - Scotland Against Criminalising Communities - is a grassroots group set up to campaign for the repeal of the terrorism acts, to highlight their current discriminatory use and to offer solidarity to the communities most affected by them.
See how our communities are being scapegoated to promote our government's War on Terror.
Find out how to fight back.
Get the latest campaign news
More information: [email protected]

"Just because there are a few people at this electronic voting machine manufacturing company who got caught pledging to do everything in their power to see to it that a specific candidate gets elected, that's no reason to disqualify our company from the submitting a bid to provide the state with proprietary, no-audits-permited, black-box vote- counting software!" It's a darn good thing for some very powerful people that nobody gives a damn about this sort of thing anymore.

Back in November of the year 2000, astronomers first reported - then retracted - that an asteroid would very likely smash into our planet sometime in the year 2030. Ever since then, I've been a wondering which story to believe… the original report? Or the hasty, embarrassed retraction? Was the original report a test to see how people would react to such a faraway threat? Was the retraction sincere or forced? If a potentially world-ending asteroid were on its way, and there was nothing that could be done about it… would the Powers That Be let the rest of us know? Nagging doubts remain. Conclusions elude.

On September 3 1752, absolutely nothing happened because this day doesn't exist. And neither do the next 10 days. You see, when the English-speaking world decided to adopt the Gregorian Calendar (which we're still using today), all the days between the 3rd and the 14th of September had to be skipped, in order to catch up. People were so freaked out - believing the government had stolen part of their lives somehow - that there was rioting in the streets. Thankfully, in these more enlightened days of ours, sparking such violent unrest takes something serious. Say, an event on the magnitude of the home team's failure to secure a win in the big game. However, I still think that those missing days have, in fact, been wiped from our collective conscious, and that the lizard equine conspiracy can probably be traced back to that specific time. Is it coincidence that the all the great leaps in technology date from post 1752? I think not.

I had to read this one twice before I believed it. Folks, as their own country struggles through an illusory, jobless economic "recovery," the Republican party has shown their fiscal common sense by contracting telemarketing call centres in the Asian nation of INDIA to call Americans on the phone and ask them to donate money to Preznit Dubya's re-election (sic) campaign. Brain... melting... The irony... killing me...

Well well well… Susan Smith is looking for pen-pals. You remember Susan Smith, don't you? The lying murderer who strapped her two beautiful boys into a minivan and sank it in a lake because her new boyfriend couldn't handle the "responsibility," who then went on CNN and acted all scared and weepy while accusing "a black man" of stealing her darling children away? Yeah… that Susan Smith. According to her online personal ad (yes, some prison inmates get "net time" nowadays), Susan enjoys "reading, working puzzles, and writing. I love rainbows, the beach, Mickey Mouse, mountains and waterfalls." Oh, and of course: "I am a Christian and I enjoy attending church." I thought about maybe dropping her a line, just to use my deductive reasoning powers to destroy her Christian "faith" -- but 1. it's probably better she believes there's a Hell waiting for her, and 2. she isn't worth the time, effort, or the cost of a stamp.

NEPOTITIS (n) A disease wherein an employer shows favoritism and grants patronage to his or her family members and friends, despite the fact that they have repeatedly shown themselves to be as utterly freaking useless as he or she is..a common expression in the Scottish Parliament.

On September 5 1991, Cult of $cientology devotee John Travolta grows a beard... his wife, fellow cult-member Kelly Preston! HAHA! Just kidding. John Travolta's not gay... most of the time.