by Tom Tomorrow. I’m sure I’ve posted this before somewhere, but it is high time I posted it again. Some people need to read it.
Category Archives: Crime
aliens arrested in Roswell
It had to happen sooner or later! From The Register, via Fark.
It appears that the black helicopter brigade were right all along about Area 51, since US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operatives this week arrested 15 aliens at the facility who were, chillingly, in the process of painting military aircraft when the net closed.
That’s according to an official ICE report under the splendid headline “ICE arrests 15 aliens in Roswell working for US military contractor“.
The aliens in question were described as
“determined to be illegally residing and working in the United States” and will be sent back to their place of origin.
Stay vigilant. ®
TWAT: the war against tees, Bush loses a round
So I guess that means the terrorists win. Meet the tiny tee terrorist.
and his weapon of mass destruction
Thirteen year old Zachary Guiles wore this t-shirt to school one day, thinking no doubt that he was giving The Man the finger.
But The Man don’t like to be fingered.
Next thing you know, Zach‘s cool, antiestablishment shirt is festooned with duct tape censoring out parts of the obvious message. I’m not making a great leap when I say that the coke lines were probably on the no-fly list, and perhaps the words “World Domination Tour” and maybe even “Chickenhawk In Chief“.
An appeals court in New York found that Zachary’s constitutional rights were violated when officials at his Vermont school made him stick duct tape over parts of the T-shirt. The shirt also said the president was undertaking a “world domination tour” and showed a picture of his head superimposed on a chicken’s body, along with cocaine, a razor blade and a martini glass. Zachary was suspended for a day, but continued to wear the T-shirt to school, complete with duct tape.
and rightly so; covering up the occurrance is nothing more than capitulation to censorship, so I am very glad that our young freedom fighter Zach bore the scars of his battle proudly.
But he did not bear them lightly, nor did he bear them alone.
Lawyers for Williamstown middle high school argued the images contravened the school’s ban on clothes promoting drink and drugs, but the court rejected the idea on the grounds that the T-shirt expressed “an anti-drug view”. Mr Bush has spoken of his battles with alcohol earlier in his life.
The T-shirt “uses harsh rhetoric and imagery to express disagreement with the president’s policies and to impugn his character”, the court ruled, but the images “are not plainly offensive as a matter of law”.
“The standard that the court set was that a kid has free-speech rights as long as the expression of those rights doesn’t upset the normal workings of a school,” said Allen Gilbert, of the American Civil Liberties Union, which brought the case.
Zachary said: “I think this is a very good sign that even with the current administration … there can still be a justice that allows free speech.”
He sounds almost as surprised as me!
TWAT: what the terrorists want, and how not to give it to them
This is from Bruce Schneier, a man after my own shrivelled heart. Looking around the globe at the hysterical overreactions on the part of individuals, corporate staff, and governments, he concludes that the terrorists are not the losers in TWAT: we are.
I’d like everyone to take a deep breath and listen for a minute.
The point of terrorism is to cause terror, sometimes to further a political goal and sometimes out of sheer hatred. The people terrorists kill are not the targets; they are collateral damage. And blowing up planes, trains, markets or buses is not the goal; those are just tactics. The real targets of terrorism are the rest of us: the billions of us who are not killed but are terrorized because of the killing. The real point of terrorism is not the act itself, but our reaction to the act.
And we’re doing exactly what the terrorists want.
Go on and read the rest before you board so much as a skateboard.
lost and found: the Scream!
Munch ado about something: Edvard Munch’s The Scream, one of the most popular paintings of the 19th Century, has been recaptured from its kidnappers relatively unharmed, along with The Madonna, another Muncherpiece. The Guardian has the full report:
“The pictures came into our hands this afternoon after a successful police action,” said Iver Stensrud, head of the police investigation.
There had been a £163,000 reward for the recovery of the paintings, which were both completed in 1891 and are now owned by the city of Oslo. Mr Stensrud said no reward had been paid.
He refused to discuss the methods or details of the search and said it was not possible for the news media, or the public, to see the paintings immediately.
“All that remains is an expert examination to confirm with 100% certainty, that these are the original paintings. We believe these are the originals,” Mr Stensrud said. “I saw the paintings myself today, and there [was] far from the damage that could have been feared.” …
The court did not identify the armed men who entered the museum and threatened employees with their weapons. However, Judge Arne Lyng sentenced Petter Tharaldsen, 34, to eight years in prison, Bjoern Hoen, 37, to seven, and Petter Rosenvinge, 38, to four years for their part in the robbery…
The Scream, depicting a tortured soul, is arguably Norway‘s greatest cultural treasure. It is widely recognised around the world and enjoys cult status with students. A chain of pubs in the UK which is popular with students uses the image on the signs hanging outside its premises.
raincoaster 