h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-12153074

Officials decide to drop charges against pharmacies alleged to be recommending homeopathic remedies for malaria... scientific community shocked, pharmacy refuses to comment.

Sales of Glock 19s (the gun which was used to shoot Representative Giffords and so many others) have more than doubled in Arizona since the shooting.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-01-11/glock-pistol-sales-surge-in-aftermath-of-shooting-of-arizona-s-giffords.html


As dear to me as my American friends and relatives are, there is so much wrong with the society down there that I really have no desire to ever cross that border again.

It seems to me that one way or another--as a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy--the Righties are quite likely to be proven correct. Either lots of folks with guns eventually means only the suicidal will use them on innocent people and not very effectively then, or increasing levels of disorder will lead to the government taking away just about everyone's gun. People pretty much get what they ask for in the end, though this muddling along with lots of violence (and easy suicides and frequent accidents) could just be the norm indefinitely. I wish there was a magic spell to say.

>>..magic word...<<

Abracadabra.
It's Arabic. Or worse, Babylonian.
Couldn't possibly be Hebraic could it?
Or even African.
It's so hard to know exactly where the Greeks
got some of their better ideas.

~jwf~

dictdotcom:
abracadabra
magical formula, 1690s, from L. (Q. Severus Sammonicus, 2c.), from Late Gk. Abraxas , cabalistic or gnostic name for the supreme god, and thus a word of power. It was written out in a triangle shape and worn around the neck to ward off sickness, etc.

I'm just saying that it's like grinding gears to talk about the most sensible handling of the subject of guns, and worse now that people can't talk about much of anything politically contentious (here on a national level).

*with any reasonable expectation that minds will be changed.

Not as long as we maintain our blind linear view of history.
Not as long as we ignore the influences of past cultures.
The tower of Babel is still falling all around us.
Abba-cadavera baby.

~jwf~

Swedes? What on Earth do Swedes have to do with it? Does this have something to do with how Nobel made his fortune somehow?

<>

leave the gun laws alone as they are enshrined in the constitution

outlaw the ammunition

The ultimate hitchhiker http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/8195243/frog-hitches-ride-with-snake-to-flee-floods

Illinois governor weighs bill to abolish death penalty

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jvapBpr9fcfmdh0uELKHFp5o2ETw?docId=7fad55a9c44941c298d9a644ea087011

Sarah Palin yet again demonstrates her amazing erudition, comparing herself to all the generations of oppressed Jews in history.

'In an attack on her accusers, she said: "Journalists and pundits should not manufacture a blood libel that serves only to incite the very hatred and violence they purport to condemn. That is reprehensible."

Palin's bizarre use of language is sure to provoke further controversy – a blood libel refers to the false claim that Jews murder children to use in religious rituals. Giffords is Jewish.'

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jan/12/sarah-palin-response-arizona-shooting


If it weren't for her obvious and o'erweening ignorance, I'd suggest the woman had no shame.

I think Michael Palin and his family should legally change their names to make a statement. I'd hate to have that association tied to me.

And she does have no shame, no matter how much ignorance is a factor. She said her website didn't mean for the targets on districts to be targets, just some ordinary pointers you'd see on a map. Yet, verbally during the campaign of 2008 she repeatedly said, "We're not going to retreat; we're going to reload," and other similar gems.

>>If it weren't for her obvious and o'erweening ignorance, I'd suggest the woman had no shame.<<

I suspect that those they wrote it for her knew what they were doing.
It's important to Tea Party to keep alive the idea that they are persecuted by a liberal media and a liberal/fascist government.

She also quoted Reagan "We must reject the idea that every time a law’s broken, society is guilty rather than the lawbreaker. It is time to restore the American precept that each individual is accountable for his actions."

And later went on to say "Just days before she was shot, Congresswoman Giffords read the First Amendment on the floor of the House. It was a beautiful moment and more than simply “symbolic,” as some claim, to have the Constitution read by our Congress."

Kinda ironic for someone that wanted people, especially "peaceful Muslims" to "refudiate" the so-called "ground zero mosque". Funny how that crime didn't end with it's perpetrators and the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment got overlooked there, as it often does with folk her religious and political inclinations.

A tradgedy for free speech... an assault rifle accessory with "You lie!" etchings referencing the anti-healthcare reform bill sentiments of a Senator is currently unavailable.

http://www.free-times.com/index.php?cat=1992209084141467&act=post&pid=11861101110850039


How is the right meant to express themselves now?

I guess they'll have to buy that "Tea Party inspired" Sig Sauaer 9mm that's still on sale from the same supplier.

The latest victim of the Lorelei (A24145869):

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gzBOArITRYEqo8qKb2_XaTXQ3JjA?docId=CNG.7e25f7c5d89565fea10627f109f43804.e21

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-12171423

big corps still not understanding how the 'net works.
Sony sueing the bod what hacked the PS3 (rather than admit their implemented security was crud).

"In the filing, submitted to the Northern District Court of California, Sony asks for a restraining order that bans Mr Hotz from further hacking and prevents distribution of the software produced as a result."

Yeah, cos that'll work won't it?

I think Sony have christened their action:-

"Operation Stable Door Close" reports of horse dissapearing into the distance uinconfirmed.

FB

Professor Green attacker gets eight-year sentence.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/12180300

I just pity the prosecution lawyer, who had to stand up in court and say "I believe it was Professor Green with the broken bottle in the nightclub"