British geologists are celebrating the 6,000th anniversary of the birth of the universe today.

At 6pm tonight at the Geological Society of London, scientists will raise their glasses to James Ussher, Archbishop of Armagh, who in 1650 used the chronology of the Bible to calculate the precise date and moment of creation.

Working from the book of Genesis, and risking some speculation on the Hebrew calendar, he calculated that it began at 6pm on Saturday October 22, 4004 BC.

Actually, he put the date at October 23, and then pedantically realised that time must have begun the night before, because the Bible said that "the evening and the morning were the first day."

One thing that this does not take into account, is that 6,000 years after 4004 BC is actually 1997AD -- seven years ago.

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In a scenario that is unsettlingly reminiscent of the Paul Bigley kidnapping a month ago, CARE International's senior worker in Iraq, Margaret Hassan, kidnapped less than a week ago, was shown pleading for her life on a video released to Al Jazeera earlier today.

"Please help me. Please help me," said a terrified Hassan, breaking down in tears and burying her face in a tissue. She said she might be killed like British hostage Kenneth Bigley, who was beheaded by his captors earlier this month.

"This might be my last hours," she said in the video aired by the Arabic television station Al-Jazeera. She begged the British people to "ask Mr. Blair to take the troops out of Iraq, and not to bring them here to Baghdad. That's why people like Mr. Bigely and myself are being caught. And maybe we will die like Mr. Bigley. Please, please, I beg of you."

Unlike past kidnappings, no deadline has been set for Coalition forces to respond to the kidnapper's would-be demands and Hassan's pleas. However, many fear that Hassan may become the first Western woman to be beheaded by the monsters as the days progress.

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John Kerry, looking more like Elmer Fudd than American Sportsman, went goose hunting yesterday in Ohio.

Kerry stepped out of a field in a camouflage jacket and toting a 12-gauge shotgun, but with someone else carrying his goose.

"I'm too lazy," Kerry joked. "I'm still giddy over the Red Sox. It was hard to focus."

The GOP and the National Rifle Association criticized Kerry's obvious 2nd Amendment photo op.

Campaigning in Ohio, Vice President Dick Cheney (news - web sites) on Thursday criticized Kerry's hunting excursion, saying, "The second amendment is more than just a photo opportunity."

The National Rifle Association said it bought a full-page ad in Thursday's Youngstown newspaper that says Kerry is posing as a sportsman while opposing gun-owners' rights. Kerry has denied NRA claims that he wants to "take away" guns, but he supported the ban on assault-type weapons and requiring background checks at gun shows

"If John Kerry thinks the Second Amendment is about photo ops, he's Daffy," says the ad the NRA said would run in The Vindicator. It features a large photo of Kerry with his finger on a shotgun trigger but looking in another direction.

Meanwhile, labor unions have been circulating fliers among workers that say Kerry won't take away guns. "He likes his own gun too much," says one of the fliers from the Building Trades Department of the AFL-CIO that features a picture of Kerry aiming a shotgun.

It sounds like the Kerry campaign is in meltdown with stupid (Kerry's "gay" gaffe in the final debate) quote after stupid (Teresa Heinz-Ketchup's insult of teachers and librarians this week) quote after stupid (Kerry's "Elmer Fudd" photo op yesterday) image.

How long before he pisses off yet another group of Americans with his obvious pandering and idiotic statements? I'm sure he "has a plan" to prevent himself from looking stupid. But of course, he'll never let us in on what his plan is.

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Martha Stewart is taking up her time in prison by helping her fellow inmates with their microwave recipes. Meanwhile, her lawyers are working on her appeal.

"She's making the best of what's necessarily a difficult situation," lawyer Walter Dellinger said on NBC's "Today." "There is no freedom. It's regimented. She has no privacy. They are subject to strip searches. But she's so resilient."

the appeals brief, made public Thursday, argues prosecutors and the trial judge kept the jury from understanding the difference.

"A barrage of pre-trial leaks and in-court accusations left the indelible impression that she was guilty of that offense," it says. "Tarring Stewart with an uncharged, highly inflammatory crime was fundamentally unfair."

Because inmates can only use a microwave to do their own cooking, Stewart is working with fellow prisoners to "come up with some creative recipes" based on the limited number of ingredients available at the prison commissary, Dellinger said.

"She has a group that is cooking," he said. "She is trying to figure out innovative ways to do microwave cooking which is all they have."

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The Horserace Blog has a detailed dissertation as to why black voters will cost Ketchup Boy the White House.

Regular readers are well aware that I think this election is over, that George W. Bush will be reelected. There are two reasons why I think this is the case:

1. Kerry is going to under-perform badly among black voters relative to GoreÂ’s performance in 2000.
2. Bush is going to over-perform among Catholics relative to his performance in 2000.

Two weeks ago, the latest Pew Poll came out showing Kerry enjoying 70% support among blacks. Just today The Center for Policy and Economic Studies announced that in their poll, Kerry enjoyed 69% support among blacks compared to 18% for Bush. They conducted a similar poll at the same point in the 2000 race. It showed Gore 74%, Bush 9%. According to this poll, then, Kerry is underperforming among blacks by roughly 14% of the vote, a statistically significant difference. What would that mean if these numbers hold for the next month?

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1 Sometimes I wish I were black so I could not vote for Kerry and make it hurt worse

Posted by: Sharp as a Marble at October 20, 2004 12:28 PM (VxPRK)

2 Have you seen this? http://www.beliefnet.com/story/154/story_15467_1.html Summary: A recent Pew Research Center poll released Wednesday has Kerry winning among white Catholics 50%-43%. What do you make of it?

Posted by: Gol at October 22, 2004 05:39 AM (8FL1r)

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'Nuff said.

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John Kerry says that he'll quit using the color-coded terror alert system that's been in use since shortly after 9/11, in a new Rolling Stone interview by publisher Jann Wenner being published late this week.

"I think Americans, sadly, laugh at it," Kerry said, referring to the alerts in an interview to be published Friday in Rolling Stone. "They don't know what to do."

Kerry said he felt "a sense of bitter disappointment" by the ads run by the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth that questioned his conduct and the medals he received as a naval lieutenant during the Vietnam War. But he insisted he and others had dealt effectively with the ad controversy, despite widespread criticism that his campaign had been slow to respond.

"Look, when people hold up something that's a complete and total lie, it takes a few days to show people and convince them. We did. They've been completely discredited," Kerry said. "I was surprised that the media, even when they knew it was lies, continued to cover it and treat it as entertainment."

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Former President Jimmy Carter, appearing on MSNBC's Hardball on Monday evening, uttered words that I would never have though I'd hear from a president, sitting or former.

I think another parallel is that in some ways the Revolutionary War could have been avoided. It was an unnecessary war.

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When's the last time anyone heard from the elusive Osama Bin Laden?

To be exact -- and if you even believe it was him -- it was the May 7 audio tape offering gold for the assassination of Jerry Bremer.

Prior to that was the European "truce" offered by audio tape that showed up in the wake of the Spanish train bombings, which, if memory serves, was unauthenticated by the CIA. Then was an audio tape that surfaced on Al Jazeera in early January.

Last time we SAW him? A year ago -- October 19, 2003 -- a video of Osama with no sound, looking hale and hearty (in stark contrast to the frail-looking Osama from the Tora Bora bombing era of December 2001) picking his way up a slope in an unidentified rocky region.

Gregory Djerejian points out the signs that are becoming increasingly obvious: that Osama is as dead as Elvis, lest he show up at your corner 7-Eleven.

Folks, bottom line: we have to go all the way back to December 26th 2001 to see a video of UBL that really seems to get close to passing a smell test evidencing that's he actually, you know, alive (and he didn't look too smashing in it either).

Now, does anyone seriously believe that UBL wouldn't, if he were alive, be doing his very damnedest to release a tape, soonest, rubbing Bush's nose in it for not having caught him--dead or alive? Just as a little pre-election present, say, maybe to give the opposition a little assist in hyping the disingenous Tora Bora meme? Doubtless, he would, no? Unless, of course, he's dead. Which, I'm beginning to feel pretty comfortable concluding, may well be the happy reality as we sit here today.

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Click the link to take the Insanity Test:

•Turn on the Speakers and allow the page to load fully
• Stare at the Picture without laughing for 60 seconds
• If you start laughing consider yourself legally insane

Then I lost it. Completely.

I'm still wiping tears out of my eyes.

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Parents of a 16 year-old boy who died after swallowing cocaine are suing the city of Dearborn, MI's police department for $50 million dollars.

Lawyers for the family of Quantrell Pryor claim that police saw Pryor swallow the cocaine, yet did not take him to the hospital until it was too late to save the boy.

"The doctor said if he would have gotten here in 30 minutes or earlier, or even an hour earlier it would have made such a difference," said LaTanya Pryor, the teen's mother.

Dearborn police stopped Pryor last Tuesday outside the JC Penney department store at Fairlane Mall when they noticed the left rear window was broken out in the vehicle he was driving.

Pryor panicked and swallowed cocaine he had in his possession, according to the station's reports.

Pryor was taken by squad car to the Dearborn police station at about 5 p.m. Police said he repeatedly denied that he had ingested any drugs when questioned by officers.

Pryor was transferred by ambulance to Oakwood Hospital from police custody after going into convulsions inside an observation cell at about 6:20 p.m., police said.

It sounds like she's more concerned with the money, her claims to the contrary notwithstanding.

I'm sorry. The cops, nor the city, are not responsible for her son's stupidity.

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Police in a Cleveland suburb are investigating whether or not an NAACP voter drive gave a man crack cocaine in exchange for voter registrations.

Defiance County, OH police arrested 22 year-old Chad Staton after he told them he had accepted crack cocaine in exchange for submitting more than 100 phony voter registration forms in names that included Mary Poppins, Dick Tracy, Michael Jordan and George Foreman.

"Staton was to be paid for each registration form that he could get citizens to fill out," the sheriff said. "However, Staton himself filled out the registrations and returned them to the woman who hired him from Toledo."

According to (Defiance Co. Sheriff David) Westrick, the NAACP's National Voter Fund had submitted the false registrations to the elections board in Cleveland. George Forbes, Cleveland chapter president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said Monday that the voter fund operates independently from his chapter.

Officers said they interviewed a Toledo woman who claimed that she had paid Staton with cocaine for the registrations. Officers said they obtained a search warrant and took voter registrations and drug paraphernalia from her home.

And the Dems insist that WE are the paragon of dirty tricks?

Heh. Yeah, right.

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Metrosexual and Vice Presidential candidate John Edwards primps, puffs, combs and flips his hair around as he prepares for a television appearance in this video captured for posterity by the incomprable Harry Shearer.

He tries to straighten it with his fingers. A makeup technician approaches with a comb, but the senator likes it just so and does the combing himself. He signals he's ready for hair spray by closing his eyes expectantly, like a child.

I wonder if his wife does this for him at home. He looks like a prime candidate for the Fab Five from Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.

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The senior official from CARE International in Iraq has been kidnapped by the monsters.

Margaret Hassan was taken this morning, according to a CARE spokesperson.

Robert Glasser, a director with the charity, said Ms Hassan was CARE's head of operations in Iraq.

He said she was an Iranian national who had been caring for people in the country for more than 25 years.

Mr Glasser added he had no idea of a motive for the kidnap and believed Ms Hassan had been unharmed.

"We are doing what we can for her release," he added.

Just damn.

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A group of college students from Washington, DC, who describe themselves as "embarrassed," have started StopMarionBarry.com.

The site includes a request to sign a petition in protest of the candidacy of the former DC mayor and current DC City Council candidate.

Barry was arrested in 1990 for drug possession at a downtown Washington hotel. The FBI videotape of Barry's crime and arrest were broadcast worldwide. He served six months in jail, and was reelected to the mayor's office once again, serving until 1999.

In 2002, Barry campaigned for an at-large seat on the city council. During the campaign, Park Police caught Barry with "a powdery substance under his nose." Drug-sniffing dogs found traces of cocaine and marijuana in his car.

Barry's lack of common sense is well known, but the locals in DC continue to support him anyway.

Marion Barry, in his own words:

"First, it was not a strip bar, it was an erotic club. And second, what can I say? I'm a night owl."

"Bitch set me up."

"I am clearly more popular than Reagan. I am in my third term. Where's Reagan? Gone after two! Defeated by George Bush and Michael Dukakis no less."

"The laws in this city are clearly racist. All laws are racist. The law of gravity is racist."

"People blame me because these water mains break, but I ask you, if the water mains didn't break, would it be my responsibility to fix them then? Would it?"

"I am a great mayor; I am an upstanding Christian man; I am an intelligent man; I am a deeply educated man; I am a humble man."

"If you take out the killings, Washington actually has a very, very low crime rate."

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According to Ain't It Cool, Dark Horizons, Latino Review & Empire Online, former soap star Brandon Routh has been tapped by director Bryan Singer to be the new Superman.

Routh is a native Iowan, and is known to most audiences for his role as Seth Anderson on ABC's One Life To Live in 2001 & 2002. Routh has had guest roles on Will & Grace, Cold Case & Gilmore Girls over the past couple of years.

Singer, of course, is known for directing both X-Men movies, as well as The Usual Suspects.

He's set to make us believe Routh can fly in July 2006.

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Rapper KRS-One has come out with a statement at the New Yorker Festival at the beginning of October that has many folks up in arms.

claiming that he and other African-Americans "cheered when 9/11 happened . . . I say that proudly."

As reported in the New York Daily News and confirmed by a New Yorker spokeswoman, the rapper explained his views by saying that prior to the attack World Trade Center security guards prevented black people from entering "because of the way we talk and dress. So when the planes hit the building, we were like, 'Mmmm -- justice.' [9/11] doesn't affect us. 9/11 happened to them, not us. The rich . . . those who are oppressing us. RCA or BMG, Universal, the radio stations."

KRS-One also criticized recent voter registration campaigns by members of the hip-hop community. "Voting in a corrupt society adds more corruption," he said. "America has to commit suicide if the world is to be a better place." This comment drew a heated response fellow panelist and former Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic, who yelled, "That is wrong, man. Suicide is not the answer."

Talk about hypocritical. Not only that, if he actually DID cheer, I would dare say that I would wonder about his sanity.

It sounds like when common sense was handed out, he missed the delivery.

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Matt Drudge has obtained a 66 page document to be issued by the Kerry/Edwards campaign and the Demcratic National Committee which directs supporters to make loud and vocal charges of voter intimidation against the GOP and the Bush Administration -- even if none exists.

A 66-page mobilization plan to be issued by the Kerry/Edwards campaign and the Democratic National Committee states: "If no signs of intimidation techniques have emerged yet, launch a 'pre-emptive strike.'"

If no signs of intimidation techniques have emerged yet, launch a "pre-emptive strike" (particularly well-suited to states in which there techniques have been tried in the past).

Prime minority leadership to discuss the issue in the media; provide talking points

Place stories in which minority leadership expresses concern about the threat of intimidation tactics

UPDATE (11:35A): More from Drudge:

One top DNC official confirmed the manual's authenticity, but claimed the notion of crying wolf on any voter intimidation is "absurd."

"We all know the Republicans are going to try to steal the election by scaring people and confusing people," the top DNC source explained.

(T)oday the Drudge Report posted a misleading statement about Democratic efforts to fight voter suppression.

In response, the Democratic National Committee released: 1) A statement from DNC Communications Director Jano Cabrera; 2) A brief review of past GOP voter intimidation efforts from this year alone; 3) The full excerpt from the DNC field manual which was a alluded to, but unfairly characterized, on the Drudge Report.

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Jesse Jackson, joining the other partisan pundits in the post-debate "spin alley," making the round of the television networks, repeated an earlier criticism of the Bush Administration -- insisting that Bush was pushing the "ideology of the Confederacy."

"[Bush is pursuing] the states' rights ideology, in contrast to the Union; the embrace of [former Confederate President] Jefferson Davis rather than Abraham Lincoln," Jackson told CNSNews.com.

Jackson said the Bush administration can be compared to the Confederacy because "it's anti-labor and it's anti-civil rights, it's anti-workers rights, and that is the Confederacy, and it's why people like [Mississippi Senator] Trent Lott and [House Majority Leader] Tom Delay have disproportional power in this administration."

When asked if he thought Kerry would support his comparison of the Bush administration to the Confederacy, Jackson responded, "This is my language. Kerry supports the Union and Bush supports states' rights."

Jackson added that Kerry "supports workers' right to organize and Bush supports right-to-work laws. And so the contrast is stark and clear in my mind."

"The Reverend Jackson has spoken for himself his entire life and does a very effective job doing that."

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In last night's debate, John Kerry insisted that he would stop outsourcing.

But less than a year ago, he insisted that he CAN'T stop outsourcing.

Well, any candidate for president who stands up and tells people, as some are, that theyÂ’re going to just stop [outsourcing] by getting tough on trade or whatever, is lying to the American people. Outsourcing is particularly painful at this moment because we havenÂ’t been creating jobs, and we havenÂ’t been creating jobs to some measure because of the overhang of the 1990s, the excess capacity that we were left with and the need to sort of burn it up.

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