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Saturday, Jun 15, 2002

hail pan-britannia

got a small taste of what all of england must be like today (after they dispensed with denmark 3-0 in the round of 16) as i passed the Spring Lounge at the corner of mulberry and spring sts. about 40 drunken brits were out in front of the bar singing some patriotic tune in full throat as one ran in and out of traffic draped in the irish flag. i guess thats the best they could do at the moment. and the game had been over for 5 hours. no such glee at Ceci-Cela, the french patisserie across the street as the french were ousted last week after a lackluster effort. the us backed into the next round and awaits a quick exit at the hands of mexico at 2:30 est early monday morning unless they start playing some decent defense.

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code read

"But the history of the real codetalkers is no less remarkable. The idea of using Navajos to conceal the content of Marine messages came from Philip Johnston, a missionary's son who grew up on their reservation speaking the language. Of course, people have long spoken in foreign languages when they didn't want eavesdroppers to understand them. In World War I, eight Choctaws manned trench telephones for the Army's 36th Division. According to an article in the scholarly quarterly Cryptologia by Stephen Huffman, trials were made during World War II with Comanches, Ojibwas, Oneidas, Sac-Foxes and Muskogees."

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valley of the dolls

"Porn probably thrives here because it would be unwelcome anywhere else. The porn industry and the valley have developed an unspoken symbiotic relationship that neither would admit. The valley's middle-class community, founded with the slogan "The Town That Started Right," saw itself evolve into "The Valley of Sin" without putting up so much as a snivel in protest. And why would they? For most of its existence, the valley was little more than a working-class refuge and a cheap source of water for Los Angeles. But ever since porn producers began setting up shop, it has turned into the epicenter of a flourishing, billion-dollar industry. While the production of feature films in Los Angeles has decreased almost 13 percent over the past decade, adult movie production is up 25 percent and rising. Americans regularly spend more than $8 billion a year on pornographic videos, an amount easily three times larger than all of Hollywood's domestic box office receipts."

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red card

"Jay Nordlinger of National Review makes the move on goal that Tapped has been anticipating: namely, equating soccer appreciation with the Left. To wit:"

"It seems to me that we have surrendered to soccer -- the Left loves it, and the young ones are being indoctrinated in it. I remember my daily walks through my neighborhood in Washington, where I saw the baseball diamonds grassed over with those infernal soccer fields. I felt that we'd lost something -- and I think I know why, political neurotic that I am."

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dutch treatments

"THE HAGUE — The Dutch parliament was shocked by a US legislative proposal giving an official green light to a US invasion of the Netherlands should it be deemed necessary to free US citizens from the International Criminal Court in The Hague."

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did you even try?


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Friday, Jun 14, 2002

anal probe

"Margin of Error? History of Public Opinion Polling"

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plowed under

"Monsanto vs. Percy Schmeiser was heard in a Canadian court June 5 - 20, 2000. According to reports, Monsanto never directly tried to explain how their genes got into Schmeiser's field. In fact, the Western Producer, a Canadian agriculture magazine, quoted Monsanto attorney, Roger Hughes, as saying, "Whether Mr. Schmeiser knew of the matter or not matters not at all." In other words, Schmeiser's fields were contaminated by Monsanto's GM technology, and it didn't matter if Schmeiser was aware of the contamination or not. They were going to make him pay for it! Percy Schmeiser said, "It was a very frightening thing because they said it does not matter how it gets into a farmer's field; it's their property... if I would go to St. Louis (Monsanto headquarters) and contaminate their plots--destroy what they have worked on for 40 years--I think I would be put in jail and the key thrown away."

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c-schtick

this christ-on-a-cross inspired photo of shrub makes me nauseous.

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profiles in air rage

just your average potential terrorist - al gore? must have been due to that whole beard episode. via booknotes

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hiltons head

"Hilton is the San Francisco attorney who filed a $7 billion lawsuit in U.S. District Court on June 3 against President Bush and other government officials for "allowing" the terrorist attacks to occur. "

"Among Hilton's allegations: Bush conspired to create the Sept. 11 attacks for his own political gain and has been using Osama bin Laden as a scapegoat.

"Hilton said he has information that bin Laden died several years ago of kidney failure."

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runt for cover

funny Daily Show segment on bushdodging and the hyperventilating media that loves him.

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