some newsness pulled from cnn…i think i’m going to make an effort to stop using the word retarded. i use it a little too much. .
sample this track from MF DOOM, intro’d by Charles Bukowski poem, “Dinosauria, We”…i love it.
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Obama’s late-night slip teaches how words hurt
By Jessica Ravitz CNN
(CNN) — In a quick and clearly unscripted moment, President Obama exhibited the power of words during his history-making visit Thursday with Jay Leno.
Special Olympics is running a campaign to stop the use of the “R-word.”
While joking on The Tonight Show about his bowling prowess (during last year’s campaign trail he shamefully scored 37 in a game), Obama said he’d been practicing at the White House lanes and boasted to Leno, “I bowled a 129. It’s like — it was like Special Olympics or something.” The comment during the taping of the show prompted Obama to pick up the phone on Air Force One and call Special Olympics Chairman Timothy Shriver to preemptively apologize for the remark before it hit television screens. He also reportedly invited Special Olympic athletes to Pennsylvania Avenue to hit the lanes and give him tips or shoot some hoops. The president “expressed his heartfelt and sincere commitment to work with our athletes and make this country a more accepting place for people with special needs,” Special Olympics President and CEO J. Brady Lum said.
This sudden and unexpected spotlight on the Special Olympics, an organization that for more than 40 years has served and honored those with intellectual disabilities, comes less than two weeks before the nonprofit launches a new campaign, Spread the Word to End the Word. March 31 is being billed a “national day of awareness,” a call to Americans to consider their use of the word “retard,” or as the organization would prefer, the “R-word.” “Most people don’t think of this word as hate speech, but that’s exactly what it feels like to millions of people with intellectual disabilities, their families and friends,” a statement about the campaign reads. “This word is just as cruel and offensive as any other slur.”
The push for increased respect is being spearheaded by young people who are collecting pledges or vows to not use the word at http://www.r-word.org/, and are leading online discussions on how people can get involved in this cause. So far, across the country, 300 schools have already committed to hosting rallies on March 31, Lum said.
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FBI planting spies in U.S. mosques, Muslim groups say
By Eliott C. McLaughlin CNN (CNN) — Ten U.S. Muslim organizations threatened this week to cease working with the FBI, citing “McCarthy-era tactics” by the agency, including efforts to covertly infiltrate California mosques.
Stephen Tidwell, then of the FBI’s Los Angeles office, speaks at the Islamic Center of Irvine in 2006.
The groups claim the FBI has sent undercover agents posing as worshippers into mosques, pressured Muslims to become informants, labeled civil rights advocates as criminals and spread misinformation.
The FBI declined to comment on specific allegations but called the proposed move unproductive. “Limiting honest dialogue, especially when complex issues are on the table, is generally not an effective advocacy strategy,” spokesman John Miller said in a statement. “The FBI has continued our outreach efforts, across the board, with a number of concerned groups and where we agree — or disagree — most have concluded the best results are achieved through continued conversation. We believe that, too.” The group’s statement, dated Tuesday, said several incidents of the FBI “targeting Muslim Americans lead us to consider suspending ongoing outreach efforts.” The statement was issued by the American Muslim Taskforce on Civil Rights and Elections, whose director, Agha Saeed, couldn’t immediately comment because of a family emergency. The FBI has sent “agents provocateur” into California mosques, according to the statement, which says an FBI agent threatened to make one mosque member’s life a “living hell” if he did not become an informant.
Though the statement does not name the mosque member, the Council on American-Islamic Relations said last month it would seek an investigation into the February 21 arrest of Ahmadullah Niazi, an Afghanistan native.
“Mr. Niazi previously reported to [CAIR's Los Angeles office] and other community members that, during a raid of a friend’s house, an FBI agent urged Mr. Niazi to work with the agency, saying that if he refused to cooperate his life would be made a ‘living hell,’ ” a news release said. Niazi, a member of the Islamic Center of Irvine, told CAIR his arrest was retaliation for his refusal, the release said. The FBI directed questions about Niazi’s arrest to the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles, California, which declined comment. Niazi, 34, was indicted last month on charges of perjury, procuring naturalization unlawfully, using a passport procured by fraud and making false statements. A search warrant for Niazi’s Tustin, California, home said Niazi became a naturalized citizen in 2004 and made false statements about his past aliases and international travel.
He also made false statements about contact with his brother-in-law Amin ul-Haq, the indictment said. Ul-Haq is said to be Osama bin Laden’s security coordinator and has been labeled a “specially designated global terrorist” by the U.S. government, the indictment said.
i stopped a little early doing the 5 lug to shower and get ready to go out tonight, but michele isn’t ready and ankur’s not here =( so i came online…my sister sent me a link to an hd video of nine inch nails and i got to thinking… .
. while i don’t consider myself a hardcore rocker (i don’t live a crazy life, don’t drink much, no tattoos), i love music and have a decent collection of important albums from both during and before my life. some of it i find important to me and whatever i was dealing with, while others are just known as classic. hip hop has always been my favorite to listen to when i’m driving or chillin and definitely more fun to talk about…but nothing compares to listening to live rock. the hot anticipation, everyone there for the same reason, wondering if it’s going to be the best concert ever…i love it. .
so back to my point…nine inch nails. trent reznor is the reason nin exists. he started it, built it, and has survived in it long enough to sober up and create some of the most unique music of my life. i bought his first album, pretty hate machine’, when i was about 15 and i haven’t stopped since. trent is a control freak…every light, note, beat, and person has to appease him or he’ll flip, and he knows it. ‘pretty hate machine’ was apparently created in a studio that trent was a janitor in and was able to get time at night to mess around. since he was alone he had to improvise with using electronic sounds in place of a live production and, some would argue, industrial rock was born. he went on to create one of the strongest albums of the 1990s, the downward spiral. this elevated trent from great musician to an icon. it’s hard to believe there were only about 3 fully-produced albums nine inch nails put out in the 90s, but the effect they left was massive. influencing marilyn manson, playing with jane’s addiction…it’s crazy. he had years of fall out with his record company that he basically wanted nothing to do with towards the end of his contract. and he showed it real soon after being let go by his label by releasing ‘the slip’ without notice on his site, with a message: “thank you for your continued and loyal support over the years – this one’s on me”. madness! .
rewind to 2005…i’m in rutgers, i meet a girl, she asks me to go to a nin concert. i never really went to many concerts before this, i liked seeing incubus, i saw a couple shows here and there, but i never really was able to take in what it takes to create a great show. since trent is supposedly cleaned up now and is able to focus his full attention to something, he’s in the midst of creating something big. when ‘with teeth’ came out he started experimenting with state of the art lighting and stage setup that makes his concert all the more spectacular. fuck kanye and his light show. trent reznor appreciates technology and makes it his bitch. he’s also done some of david fincher’s music, including the intro to fight club and for se7en. a funny thing is i was in love with aaliyah and when she died, it got to me a little bit. and those that know me know what i’m talking about. i read later that timbaland has an admiration for trent reznor and aaliyah was a big fan of trent’s music. so much that they were in the works for trent to produce a song for her…i could only imagine what that could have been like. it’s funny how things work, y’know. .
so while i am no longer talking to the girl that took me to that concert, i brought my sister to the show and now she is borderline pyscho about trent reznor and anything nine inch nails. yay! maybe eventually david will want to come with me too =D .
we went to virginfest last year and they have 2 stages, headlining the final night was nin on one stage, kanye on the other. as much as i love kanye’s music, nin and trent reznor are on two different levels. .
so anyway, my sister sent me a vimeo link a while ago to nin’s page where rob sheridan is publically showing off his work that will inevitably lead to an hd video of their tour. trent wanted to create a full hd video for showtime but apparently it fell through so we’re getting the next best thing, free video! while you never know what trent’s planning (he’s always hinting at stopping nin) he still releasing things that leave us further and further entertained. his tours for the last few years have been entirely scripted and extravagant, but he said that nin will be going back to the raw and spontaneous sets that made them what they were…but this year, with jane’s addiction! .
so as you could see i am overly excited for what’s to come and i am very glad trent reznor has gotten himself together enough to show more people what he’s capable of. fuck…now i want to go. like right now right now. .
- sal .
trent had a house in new orleans and moved out just months before katrina. he never had much of a tv presence, nevermind a broadcasted performance. but this benefit concert for katrina had much meaning for him, so he performed ‘hurt’
Have you seen this man? Japanese police searching for a man involved in a hit-and-run incident have prepared a wanted poster using the Mii feature on Nintendo’s Wii console.
Rather than using the traditional methods such as photofit software to appeal for information from the public about a criminal, police officers decided to hop on a Wii and create a cartoon-like image of the suspect instead.
The Mii feature allows Wii users to create customised characters by choosing features such as face shape, eye colour, hair style and facial expression. This character can then be used in games such as Wii Sports and Wii Fit, and also to catch criminals, apparently.
The poster, which shows a man with long brown hair, sunglasses and killer cheekbones, has been posted at the scene of the collision in Kanagawa to help jog people’s memory, along with a picture of the type of car involved.
Do you think you could be tracked down by your Mii?
Started out skiing like crap and was mad because the boots I rented are crap. But I got used to them and started doing a lot better. My toes are hurting though because the boots don’t fit correctly. I
knocked down a couple kids. One deserved it though. :)
