Neighborhood militias are forming in Iraq due to the ineffective police force. Members of the parliament are in support of the militias, but some fear that forming these groups is helping establish a foundation for civil war. Knowing that these militas are probably either Sunni or Shi’ite and not both, I can see why they have such concerns. It also makes sense that these militas would be better at spotting strangers in their own neighborhoods than the police forces are, but it’s clear just how unstable Iraq must be.

Two-thirds of Britons believe that their involvement in the Iraq war prompted the bombings in London, despite the government’s claims to the contrary. 75% also said that they believe there will be more bombings in the future. Why is it that Americans still can’t understand that more hostility will likely be directed at us for our involvement? Everyone here still seems to subscribe to Bush’s theory that they just “hate our freedom”.

Bush: “Oops, did I say I’d fire anyone involved in an intelligence leak? Shoot, I mean.. um… anyone who committed a crime will be fired.” Okay, so he didn’t say it exactly like that, but one has to believe he’d protect the brain behind his campaign, and the strategist that’s brought him popularity even after dozens of unconscionable actions. Heck, I can’t blame him. Still, this rephrasing could make a big difference if and when investigations start taking place.

Residents of Ontario are told to reduce power usage or face blackouts! I’ll tell you what, the blackout of August 14, 2003 was one of the coolest days of my life. So here’s a message for residents of Ontario:
Crank your air conditioners! Turn on every light in your house, your TV, your stereo… turn up the volume, and plug in anything that has a cord! Let’s shut this shit down and have another huge party!!!

A tee-ball coach allegedly paid a team member $25 to throw a ball at a mentally handicapped boy. Real fuckin’ nice. The boy apparently went a step above and pelted him both in the head and the nuts. Why did this happen? If you ask me, it’s because the coach’s name is Mark Downs, and with a name like that you know damn well ol’ Mark was teased as a kid for supposedly having Down Syndrome. When you’re a kid, things like that make sense. “His name is Downs, he must have it.”

In possibly the most disgusting case of homophobic-related crime, a father repeatedly beat his 3-year-old son out of fear that he was turning gay. His Bible-study friend qualified his actions by saying he was trying to teach him to fight because he thought he was turning into a sissy. As always, a term had to be assigned to this phenomenon… “gay panic.” I actually like this term. It accurately conveys the hysteria that must plague morons like this guy. I can just imagine the many ways in which this man over-compensates to appear more manly. I bet he has a NASCAR tattoo covering his entire back, a Harley, and brags about fake affairs he’s having with strippers.

The dumbest dog in the world. Really, I’ve never seen anything like this! (You may want to open the link in Internet Explorer, because it’s a video and it will probably work better.)

When is this fucking heat wave going to end? For the past, oh, 6 weeks, most of America has been subjected to record-high temperatures. Here in Ohio the humidity is killing me. We wait for 8 months while the weather sucks in hopes for 3 months of sunny goodness, and then we have this bullshit. Having a barbeque sounds like a recipe for heat stroke and even riding my motorcycle seems unappealing. Just in my commute home from work (without a/c) I become drenched with sweat. This totally fucking sucks. If conspiracy theorists are serious about the government being able to control the weather, well, go ahead then! I’d like to request 73 F, partly cloudy, with the humidity around 0%. Thanks.

New marine monument.

A 12-year-old boy in the UK killed himself after his mom took away his PlayStation. He hung himself with a tie from the top of his bunk bed. Hey, that’ll show her! Now she’ll.. um… never take anyone’s PlayStation away?

If I ever see someone doing this on the street I’m going to pop it.

Today’s top Internet mystery: The Peter Griffin picture; real or fake? If this is a real person and their name is Peter Griffin, that would just be too incredible. Either way, whoever this is looks exactly like him.

Some guy in India spent decades building a rock garden using thrown-away materials, and boy is it cool. Take a look through the picture galleries. This is amazing.

Last night, the Moon played live on WRUW’s Live From Cleveland broadcast. The temperature in Studio A hovered around 120 F, but once we got settled in, all was well. The room had even shrunk since the last time we played there, due to some temporary shelving they’d installed. After hearing a CD of the show, I’d say the mix was pretty good overall. They must have thought we got too loud about halfway through because they turned us down a bit during Blurry Blue. There will be an archived version of the show on their website for one week, and it seems to be working for me now. Try this link directly to the mp3 if you want… I’m not sure if it’ll work. It takes a little while to get going because the previous show ran over a little bit. Everything got dialed in about halfway through the show and started sounding pretty darn good.

Security camera picture of the suicide bomber who blew up the double-decker bus in London. Freaky.

Kucinich is getting married! Congrats.

Is this a tooth from the loch ness monster?!?! I’m going to have to say no. I vote that it’s a crab’s claw, though I don’t know what crab. However, the gentlemen that found the “tooth” claimed to have pulled it from a deer carcass that was definitely ripped in two pieces somehow. Seems to me they’d have had to mutilate a carcass pretty good to get it to look how it does in the pictures.

Feed Lindsay! Over 30,000 people have signed the online petition to hopefully get Lindsay Lohan to get back to her original, more curvy body shape. I’m not one to get worked up over hot celebrity chicks, but Lindsay was pretty damn fly before she decided to see how anorexic she could get. Plus she really looks terrible in her current condition. Lindsay, I will be happy to take you out to the most fattening restaurants Cleveland has to offer. Just give me a ring and we’ll have you back to foxy in no time.

The shuttle launch was postponed again. This time it was due to a faulty fuel gauge of some sort. You know, maybe they need to invite some expert motorcycle chopper dudes to start stripping off the useless shit on this thing. From what I can tell, this thing is less likely to work properly than an ‘86 Pontiac 6000 with 280,000 miles on it. For starters, you can rip out whatever elementary school science projects NASA agreed to take along. We know the results already; we don’t need to bring them back and pretend to be astonished just for the kids’ sake. Then let’s figure out a less-complicated engine/fuel system. What have you guys been doing for the past two years?! JESUS.

If you’re lost on the whole Karl Rove scandal, here’s a nice summary for you, courtesy of DefectiveYeti. (You’ll need to scroll down a little.) This is the most boring scandal I can recall, but the thought of Big Head Rove slumped over in a dark jail cell is pleasing enough for me to at least read about it.

Poll suggests drop in Bush’s personal credibility. Hey, I’ve been suggesting that he doesn’t have any credibility for years now… where the hell has everyone else been? Seriously though, how is actual credibility measured by a poll? And would the results of such a poll really show a drop in his credibility? I think it just means people are finally realizing how little credibility he really has.

Cooter says not to see the new Dukes of Hazzard movie. You’re the boss, Coot. (To use a Wayne’s World-ism - AS IF!)

Here’s a fuck-ton of jazz photographs for no reason.

Make your own wanted poster!

Hey, here’s a really stupid idea: beer with nicotene added in, to help smokers quit! Why is it stupid? Let’s do a little math. 3 of these beers is said to equal a pack’s worth of nicotene. 1 chugging frat boy + tons of nicotene = instant death. Then again, I usually applaud inventions that aid in the process of natural selection. I just can’t stop thinking about how dizzy you’d be if you chugged a pint of that shit.

40 things that only happen in movies. Pretty funny. Here’s some I liked:
6. If you decide to start dancing in the street, everyone you bump into will know all the steps.
21. Cars will explode instantly when struck by a single bullet.
22. No matter how savagely a spaceship is attacked, its internal gravity system is never damaged.

True tales of whitetrashery: Meet the Criggers.

By now, I’m sure you’ve all heard that Karl Rove leaked the identity of an undercover CIA agent. The Dems are calling for his resignation, but considering they’d probably call for any members of the Bush cartel to resign if they missed an answer in a crossword puzzle, that’s not surprising. In classic deceptive form, Scott McClellan had said in 2003 that it was “totally ridiculous” to assert that Rove was involved in exposing the agent’s identity. The only reason this story gets any of my attention is because, just once, I’d like to see one of these guys get some comeuppance.

The author of DefenseTech.com is now in Iraq and blogging his experiences. I visit his site fairly regularly, just to keep an eye out for interesting technologies and the like, and I’m looking forward to reading his accounts of the situation over there. At the moment, he’s waiting for the Army group he’ll be embedded with, and is still in a rather large military camp with plenty of amenities. Probably the very next entry will be made somewhere on the battlefield.

What has the Arab media had to say about the London bombings? This AlterNet article attempted to find that out, and in doing so, the assertion was made that until the US and Britain pull out of Iraq, the aggression will continue to grow. If there’s one concept I’ve held onto since even before the first military strike, it’s that we are only increasing the hatred towards our country by our involvement in Iraq. The evidence could not be clearer, either. Back on topic, the article also tells us that the term ‘al Qaeda’ has become the equivalent of the term ‘mafia’, but for Islamic terrorists. It’s easy to see why that happened, because it allows them to appear deceptively large in number, even if that’s not the case. I’d like to add that it also shows how popular anti-American activism has become, and no one can deny that the term’s popularity is directly related to America’s political and journalistic fixation on the group.

UFO in Brook Park, Ohio? You’d think that aliens would find a slightly more interesting city to hover over, but hey, what do we know? A mysterious red ball was seen jumping around the sky by a bunch of residents there, and one resident claimed NASA told him it was a meteor. I’d like to remind residents of Brook Park that they live rather close to Cleveland Hopkins International Airport.

Here’s some ads from the 1980’s because they’re hilarious.

Everyone’s trying the Cockeyed.com Golden Ring Diet! So simple, it just has to work.

Oh, and keep this quiet. Here’s the Google Earth installer. Shhh!