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5. mars 2004
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Robert Fisk is a bloody liar
Rabid America-hater and leftist journalistic icon Robert Fisk now claims that he's never heard about any problems or issues between Sunnis and Shias in Iraq. Indeed, he argues, they were always such great friends. The Americans are just lying, again.
Obviously, this is at odds with reality. But as Cointelpro Tool demonstrates, it is also the opposite of what Robert Fisk himself has been saying for years!
10:36:45 PM 
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Iraqi constitution delayed, again
The Iraqi governing council has again delayed signing of an interim constitution, after having reached an apparent agreement.
The council agreed to the accord unanimously Monday. But Iraq's top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani, rejected provisions put into the text at the Kurds' request, said a source in the council.
"The marja'iya (al-Sistani's office) will not accept it," the source said.
And when al-Sistani says "jump", all the Shiite members of the governing council just asks "how high." Now, it is an interesting development that an Ayatollah is an uncompromising democrat (apparently), but it is hardly a good start for Iraqi democracy that one unelected man has such tremendous power based on religious authority alone.
One of the controversial clauses dictates that any three provinces can use veto against constitutional changes with a two-thirds majority (kind of a Swiss arrangment):
The clauses say that if two-thirds of the voters in any three provinces reject the permanent charter, it will not got into effect. The Kurd self-rule region includes three provinces in the north.
"Some of these provinces have only 400,000 or 500,000 people. We cannot have that number of people rejecting a constitution for 25 million people," al-Bayati said.
First, it requires all three, not one of them, to veto a provision. Second, constitutional changes are not supposes to be easy to make. A constitution should be a consensus project, not something passed by 50.1% of the people.
If two-thirds of all Kurds reject it (or all Sunnis or Shiites for that matter), it is clearly something wrong with the document.
The council members that refused to sign were Ahmad Chalabi of the Iraqi National Congress [...]
Oh, him again. Wasn't he supposed to be America's puppet? Hah!
The draft recognizes Islam as a source of legislation. In a concession to religious conservatives who wanted Islam to be the main source, it also states that no law will be passed that violates the tenets of the Muslim religion.
Ouch! Will the judiciary be secular or religious? If a group of conservative clerics can veto any law for being "un-Islamic", we can ask if this was the kind of state the US went to war to create.
6:23:57 PM
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So much for the Biblical view of marriage
From The Hill:
Do not thou be too hasty, quoth McDermott
Amid increasing rancor over same sex-marriages and the federal marriage amendment, Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.) took to the House floor last week to denounce the invocation of “biblical principles” of marriage by the “presidential prayer team.”
In a one-minute address, the fiery Seattle liberal said the book of Genesis allows for marriage “between one man and one or more women” and that “marriage of a believer and a nonbeliever shall be forbidden.”
And from Deuteronomy: “A marriage shall be considered valid only if the wife is a virgin. If the wife is not a virgin, she shall be executed.”
And he said, according to the Bible, “divorce is not possible, and finally, if a married man dies, his brother has to marry his sister-in-law.”
Hey, don't give Bush & co any ideas for more constitutional amendments.
Wonkette nudged me in the right direction.
PS: Actually, the so-called Old Testament allows men to divorce their wives at will (unnecessary to say, women had no such rights). But in the New Testement, Jesus made statements that can be interpreted to disallow divorce altogether. One rare example of the rather draconian family law of the Torah becoming even stricter under Christianity.
5:56:30 PM
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Coin flip no toss up
Flipping a coin is 50/50, right? Well, not exactly, says statisticians who have actually studied coin tossing for years. There is a 51% bias towards the coin landing showing the same face it started on.
"I don't care how vigorously you throw it, you can't toss a coin fairly," says Persi Diaconis, a statistician at Stanford University who performed the study with Susan Holmes of Stanford and Richard Montgomery of the University of California, Santa Cruz.
So, when somebody asks "heads or tails" look at the coin, and chose the face you see on the coin before it is flipped. It will slightly improve your chances of winning. Barely.
2:33:26 PM
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McSuper size no more
McDonald's has decided to drop the super-sized fries and soft drinks from its menu, in what is described as a response to growing concerns over obesity.
The Oak Brook, Ill., company will eliminate the seven-ounce fries carton, its largest, and stop serving 42-ounce drinks as an everyday offering.
The drinks will still be available as a promotional item, the company told Dow Jones.
"The driving force here was menu simplification," spokesman Walt Riker said after McDonald's disclosed the change Tuesday. "The fact of the matter is not very many Super Size fries are sold."
The seven-ounce carton will be out of restaurants by Dec. 31, the report said.
The company will also drop a 14-ounce version of its fruit and yogurt parfait, replacing it with one half that size. It will also replace 2% milk with 1% milk.
Looks like more than a "menu simplification" to me. Why can't corporations openly tell us what they are doing, especially when it is something good? Oh yes, if they do, they'll drown in braindead lawsuit threats, because a change in direction can be interpreted as an admission of error.
1:00:37 PM
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Spoiler Nader is at it again
A new Associated Press poll has Kerry and Bush tied in a presidential race, but it is still chilling reading for democrats.
The Republican incumbent had the backing of 46 percent, Kerry 45 percent and Nader, the 2000 Green Party candidate who entered the race last month, was at 6 percent in the survey conducted for The Associated Press by Ipsos-Public Affairs.
Six percent for Ralph Nader at this stage is very, very bad news for Kerry. The only good news is that Nader is unlikely to get a nationwide organisation running this year, since he will not get the Green party support.
From Talking Points Memo, where Joshua is not happy about the news.
7:12:10 AM
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© Copyright 2004 Jan Haugland.
Last update: 31.03.2004; 03:00:50.
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This is my blogchalk:
Norway, Bergen, Norwegian, English, Jan, Male, 31-35.
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