happy belated veteran's day

"Few people have the imagination for reality." - Goethe

Senator Al Franken tears the living shit out of a Halliburton/KBR lawyer over imprisonment after gang-rape coverup.

It's not 1993 anymore.

In 1948, President Harry Truman signed an executive order ending racial segregation in the armed forces. In the 2008 presidential campaign, candidate Barack Obama promised to end another kind of discrimination in the military: the long-standing ban on gay service members. But nearly six months into his presidency, he has yet to make good on that promise. Congress also has taken no action.

Now the latest push is coming, at least in part, from elsewhere. Former Army linguist Jarrod Chlapowski told reporters in Washington on Wednesday that he and others hope to make a national cause of repealing the "don't ask, don't tell" policy, which prohibits openly gay people from serving in the military. The Clinton-era law has led to the dismissal of more than 13,000 gay service members.[...]

"A lot of people ask me, you know, 'Why is a straight, Irish Catholic former altar boy of the year in 1987 at St. Anthony's fighting for this?' " Murphy said at the launch of the tour. "Cause I took an oath. I took an oath as an officer. I took an oath as a congressman to support that Constitution and what that Constitution stands for — and that's equality." [...]

So far, Murphy has persuaded 151 Democrats and one Republican to co-sponsor his bill.

NPR | Veterans Call Out Obama On 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell'

And, in the end, our curiosity got the better of us.

"The most interesting thing about the whole endeavor for me was the very fact that the U.S. had chosen to occupy Saddam’s palaces in the first place. If you’re trying to convince a population that you have liberated them from a terrible dictator, why would you then sit in his throne?"
Saddam's Palaces: An Interview With Richard Mosse

“I intend to leave after my death a large fund for the promotion of the peace idea, but I am skeptical as to its results.” - Alfred Nobel

The camera was developed by Harold Edgerton in the 1940s and was first used to photograph the rapidly-changing matter in nuclear explosions within milliseconds of ignition.
Rapatronic Photography

"It requires a very unusual mind to undertake the analysis of the obvious." - Alfred North Whitehead

As Shawn approaches his Monte Carlo in the high school parking lot, a red Viper is parked next to him. Sitting on it is Cindy, polishing her toenails.

"Ten people who speak make more noise than ten thousand who are silent," -Napoleon Bonaparte