Below the fold . . .
… when a Republican state senator from Yakima [WA] reignites a controversy “by comparing stem-cell research to the Holocaust, just weeks after House Republicans apologized for making a similar remark.”

… when the Moonlite Bunny Ranch, a brothel in Mound House, Nevada (I swear that’s the name of the town), asks to be taxed because it’s a sign of legitimacy.

Image Hosted by ImageShack.us… when the United Arab Emirates says it will use robots as jockeys for camel races “after widespread international criticism of the use of young children to ride camels during the long and often hazardous races.” Note: “Many [of the child jockeys] are said to be have been kidnapped and trafficked from South Asia.”


… when recently freed Mamdouh Habib — about whom I wrote many diaries because of his horrific ordeal and torture in Pakistan, at Bagram Air Base, in Egypt for six months, and then at Guantanamo — fires his Aussie lawyer who worked on Habib’s behalf without pay. Habib “has told friends and supporters he sacked his lawyer of three years, Stephen Hopper, after he discovered he would lose almost half the $140,000 he received for [an Aussie TV] 60 Minutes interview in income tax.”

… when Florida legislation “backed by an offshoot of the Church of Scientology aims to discourage public school students from seeking mental health services [and] would require schools to tell parents that any mental health treatment would be part of a student’s permanent record, which is true only in limited cases now. It also would require school officials to tell parents that no medical test can diagnose mental illness, they can refuse psychological screening and that students can’t be barred from school activities if they refuse treatment.”


… when Saddam Hussein could avoid the gallows under a secret proposal by insurgent leaders that Iraq’s new administration is “seriously considering” (I’ll believe that one when I see it and, for the record, I’m against Saddam, or anyone, receiving the death penalty.)


… when more people watched the BBC’s coverage of the Grand National [horse race] than the wedding of Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles”


… when the Washington, D.C. area has not spent the majority of $145 million — $120 million — “in anti-terrorism grants awarded by the federal government over the past three years, including funds earmarked for such critical items as hospital beds and protective gear for rescue workers. Long after the 2001 attacks on New York and Washington, homeland security spending across the country remains bogged down by administrative problems, back orders for equipment and long timelines to implement new technology, such as communications systems.”


… when scientists blame dandruff as the source of one of “the world’s most enduring pollution mysteries: the origin of much of the vast clouds of fine dust in the atmosphere.” “Millions of tons of dandruff are circling the Earth, blocking out sunlight, causing rain and spreading disease, startling new research shows … more than half of the dust is a rich soup of organic detritus, including particles of decaying leaves, animal hair, dead skin and dandruff …”


Kinda leaves me scratchin’ my head.