Who knew that there are misdemeanor nuclear weapons possession and felony nuclear weapons possession? While I’m stretching my illegal drug analogy a bit, the case seems to be made by the International Atomic Energy Agency. The State Peace and Development Council (aka Myanmar’s military dictators) is pleased, I’m sure.

From The Irrawaddy:

Thanks to a loophole in the international regime to control the proliferation of nuclear weapons, military-ruled Burma could very well carry out its reported intent to go nuclear behind a veil of secrecy, free of scrutiny from the International Atomic Energy Agency.

That is the privilege the Southeast Asian nation enjoys under the Small Quantities Protocol it signed with the Vienna-based IAEA in April 1995, three years after Burma, also known as Myanmar, became party to the Nuclear Non- Proliferation Treaty.

This protocol allows parties to the treaty, which seeks to build a global nuclear non-proliferation regime, to have up to 10 tonnes of natural uranium and 2.2 pounds [1 kilogram, JH] of plutonium without having to report such possessions to the IAEA.

This means also that countries like Burma do not have to open their doors to IAEA inspection teams and can avoid disclosing details about new nuclear facilities until six months before these start operations.

Now, isn’t that comforting?

The above is, of course, total bull shit. So why is Facebook trying to get me to confirm my email address?

This looks very similar to the old spammer trick of telling you can opt out of spam by simply clicking on the unsubscribe link. What really happens is that you’ve just told the spammer that they have a good address and the spam comes flooding in.

Facebook isn’t that stupid, is it?

Tim Russo writes:

Much will be written and said about the media environment which then took over at warp speed, and the cowardly decisions made by people in power with almost no facts except the edited ones from a lunatic fringe internet racist shoved in their face every 5 minutes by their TV screen. The right wing noise machine is so powerful, so effective, relies on an audience so ignorant and so proud to be so, it can make any lie, ANY lie, into a weapon. But the real kernel of truth about America within this episode is about race in America, and about justice in America.

And without the election of Barack Obama, none of this would have been revealed to anyone. Barack Obama has brought out the absolute worst in our country’s absolute worst racists. They will not stop, they will get louder, and that is, frankly, a very good thing. We are seeing our country very differently, every single day, learning something new, something old, and hopefully, well-meaning Americans will learn from it all and change our country for the better.

I’m willing to bet that you’d be hard pressed to find anyone in my hometown of Marietta, Ohio, who could answer the question: Which way to the henge? Most people know about the burial mounds and Mound Cemetery, but they don’t know about the ceremonial and astronomical aspects of the earthworks left by the Mound Builders.

We really don’t know much about the builders of Stonehenge or the newly discovered second henge nearby, which has allowed writers like Anne Rice and Bernard Cornwall to wonderfully speculate.

What a strange and beautiful place. From the BBC:

Archaeologists have discovered a second henge at Stonehenge, described as the most exciting find there in 50 years.

The circular ditch surrounding a smaller circle of deep pits about a metre (3ft) wide has been unearthed at the world-famous site in Wiltshire.

Archaeologists conducting a multi-million pound study believe timber posts were in the pits.

Project leader Professor Vince Gaffney, from the University of Birmingham, said the discovery was “exceptional”.

The new “henge” – which means a circular monument dating to Neolithic and Bronze Ages – is situated about 900m (2,950ft) from the giant stones on Salisbury Plain.

When someone asks you, “A penny for your thoughts” and you put your two cents in, what happens to the other penny?

I could never bring myself to forward all the email jokes, cartoons and other Internet comedy that land in my inbox. But then I started posting the ones my dad sends me. Judging from my comments and emails, my dad has become one of my greatest blogging assets. So for your morning blog chuckle I present: From My Dad.

Tom Peters writes:

Emails today: Try complete sentences, no abbreviations, paragraphs 100% of the time. Good writing matters.

Yes it does.

Never open a book with weather. If it’s only to create atmosphere, and not a charac­ter’s reaction to the weather, you don’t want to go on too long. The reader is apt to leaf ahead look­ing for people. There are exceptions. If you happen to be Barry Lopez, who has more ways than an Eskimo to describe ice and snow in his book Arctic Dreams, you can do all the weather reporting you want. Elmore Leonard

Ten rules for writing fiction from The Guardian.

Found in my electronic chapbook.

When I was growing up I had a bedroom in the basement where I had tacked a copy of M.C. Escher’s Relativity directly above my bed. I could lose myself in there for hours. Being able to move around inside of it is way cooler.

The Friendship bridge between Myanmar and Thailand is not so friendly this week due, in part, to the fact that the bridge connects Thailand to one of the regions of Myanmar that the State Peace and Development Council (aka, Myanmar’s military dictators) would like to pacify in advance of its faux elections.

From The Irrawaddy:

Commodities are piling up on the Thai side of its border three days after the Burmese authorities blocked all trade crossing the Friendship Bridge between Mae Sot in Thailand and Myawaddy in Burma.

Observers said the closure of the border is part of a wider strategy to crack down on illegal trade. A similar policy has been implemented at the border crossings at Tachilek-Mae Sai and Kawthaung-Ranong.

The majority of goods that have been prevented crossing the border into Burma are foodstuffs, clothing, cars and furniture.

“Not only is trade halted, but people are also prohibited from crossing the [Moei] river,” said a Karen businessman in Mae Sot.

Hundreds of Burmese workers stay in Myawaddy but cross the border every day to work in Mae Sot. Sources said that over the last three days, they must cross the river by boat or on rubber tires before dawn so the border guards do not see them.

The illegal trade that the generals fear is with the Karen people.

Roldo Bartimole writes:

Is Republican Sen. George Voinovich’s middle name Hypocrite?

It should be.

Constituents receive a scare e-mail message from Senator that starts with line in bright red: “Currently, the U. S. Debt is estimated at,” and then the answer goes green and says “this month: $13,274,281,889,041.”

That’s a lot of money.

Then the parsimonious – or so he claims – Sen. Voinovich gives us another red line: “Your share of today’s public debt is:” (back to green) “$42,350.”

That’s a lot of money, especially if you have children.

Voinovich can scare the hell out of you.

Well, the Senator then paints himself as a man with “management experience as Mayor of Cleveland and Governor of Ohio,” as well as telling us his personal mantra to “work harder and smarter and do more with less.”

I wonder what he was thinking then when he voted for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars WITHOUT PAYING FOR THEM. Without Continue Reading »

It’s been a busy week in Wally World: the Universe’s source of cheap plastic crap. On The Writing On The Wal — the blog USA Today says should be on its readers’ radar — Jonathan Rees and I continue our work dedicated to drawing back the curtain on the Bentonvile Behemoth’s corporate disinformation and other flackery.

HOW MANY CHAIRS CAN FIT IN A WALMART…? Filling abandoned Walmarts has become it’s own business with the ever increasing presence of empty Walmarts, closed because larger supercenters have opened nearby, creating Walmart’s own special version of suburban blight. Keep reading…

HOW WALMART CONQUERED CHICAGO… There is a political theory that the best way expand a business is to exploit disaster-shocked people. When people are in survival mode because of some crisis they are most vulnerable to political and economic change that they would otherwise resist. Keep reading…

MEL BROOKS UNDERSTOOD THE CHALLENGE… Thirty-six years ago I was twisted in a theater seat near paralyzed by laughter as I watched Mel Brooks’ Blazing Saddles for the first time. The movie is a brilliant take on the United States in general and labor relation specifically. Keep reading…

WALMART COLLECTS EXCESSIVE SALES TAX… Walmart is up to its old sales tax shenanigans again and this time Pennsylvania consumer advocate Mary Bach is taking Walmart to court. Given the number of people who use coupons at Walmart, the company could be pocketing millions in extra sales tax dollars. Keep reading…

WALMART SKEWS COUNTY PLANNING… Walmart, like all big box companies depends upon roads, cars, gasoline and the people who love all three. When you throw mass transit in the mix, these sprawl builders jepordize careful planning that threatens their cars, cars and more cars philosophy. Keep reading…

BURY THE BUREAUCRATS IN PAPERWORK… Subjects of governmental censure and punishment across America are standing up and cheering for Walmart’s deluge of paperwork burying the Justice Department over the case of Jdimytai Damour. Burying my rights is nothing to cheer about, however. Keep reading…

RECEIPT PLEASE…? I’ve written much before about Walmart checking your receipt as you exit the store. I find the procedure objectionable because the implication is that you are a shoplifter until Walmart makes sure you’re not. When it places bullies at the doors, however, it crosses a line. Keep reading…

If love is blind, why is lingerie so popular?

I could never bring myself to forward all the email jokes, cartoons and other Internet comedy that land in my inbox. But then I started posting the ones my dad sends me. Judging from my comments and emails, my dad has become one of my greatest blogging assets. So for your morning blog chuckle I present: From My Dad.

We don’t own the earth, not even the way
you buy a condo, Ken. We don’t time-share
here, but live on it as hair grows
on the scalp, from the inside; we are part
of earth, not visitors using the facilities.
If the plumbing breaks down, we can’t move out
to a bigger house. Rain is earth’s blood
and ours while we swim and life swims in us. p. 116

Available Light by Marge Piercy

Found in my electronic chapbook.

Whatever the reason — politics, storm damage, mismanagement, environment, pollution — that the former ricebowl of Asia produced only one-third the tonnage of rice in the first half of 2010 as it did the year before is a reason for serious concern. People had planned on eating the missing 480,000 tonnes.

From the Democratic Voice of Burma:

Figures released by the Burmese government’s Central Statistical Organisation show that exports fell from 750,000 tonnes in the first six months of 2009 to just over 270,000 this year.

It comes at a time when both global demand for rice is rising and predicted global exports are also increasing: the US Department of Agriculture puts global rice export projections for 2010/11 at 31.4 million tonnes, a six percent increase from the previous year.

The cause of Burma’s fall however can be largely attributed to mismanagement on the part of the military government, with 2009’s comparatively healthy figures following on the heels of cyclone Nargis in May 2008, which destroyed an estimated 1.75 million hectares of farmland, or 30 percent of the wet season rice area for Burma.

In the six months following the cyclone, Burma exported 105,000 tonnes of rice, but the government was heavily criticised by rights groups who alleged that millions were still going hungry in the Irrawaddy delta area. The Asian Development Bank warned that it could take up to three years before the economy recovers from the cyclone.

I wonder if the State Peace And Development Council (aka, Myanmar’s military dictators) ever heard of Ukrainian peasants?

When your friends can’t explain WHY they voted for Barack Hussein Obama, give them this list.

They can then pick a reason:

10. I voted Democrat because I believe oil companies’ profits of 4% on a gallon of gas are obscene but the government taxing the same gallon of gas at 15% isn’t.

9. I voted Democrat because I believe the government will do a better job of spending the money I earn than I would.

8. I voted Democrat because Freedom of Speech is fine as long as nobody is offended by it.

7. I voted Democrat because I’m way too irresponsible to own a gun, and I know that my local police are all I need to protect me from murderers and thieves.

6. I voted Democrat because I believe that people who can’t tell us if it will rain on Friday can tell us that the polar ice caps will melt away in ten years if I don’t start driving a Prius.

5. I voted Democrat because I’m not concerned about the slaughter of millions of babies through abortion so long as we keep all death row inmates alive.

4. I voted Democrat because I think illegal aliens have a right to free health care, education, and Social Security benefits.

3. I voted Democrat because I believe that business should not be allowed to make profits for themselves. They need to break even and give the rest away to the government for redistribution as the democrats see fit.

2. I voted Democrat because I believe liberal judges need to rewrite the Constitution every few days to suit some fringe kooks who would never get their agendas past the voters.

1. I voted Democrat because my head is so firmly planted up my butt, that it is unlikely that I’ll ever have another point of view.

Previously: How To Birth A Teabagger…

1021: The nectar in the bottom of the cup