Gay marriage is something that should be between a man and a woman

The Republican Party is using people in India to make fundraising calls.

The bribery investigation of Ariel Sharon and his sons continues, ignored by the US media. In 1999 Sharon repaid an illegal $1½ million campaign donation. He repaid it with money that almost certainly came from the exact same people, but better disguised (although they used the same Austrian bank). Austria is stonewalling the investigation. Actually, the Israeli justice dept is stonewalling its own investigation. To explain: Austria will only cooperate with criminal investigations, not what Austrian law considers “ethical” issues, like campaign finance laws. So Israel asked for cooperation only for campaign finance issues, dropping criminal charges (bribery, fraud). Under Israeli law the burden of proof in cases of politicians receiving money is on the politician.

In response to a request from the International Civil Aviation Organization, Canada will ban from its passport photos smiling or grinning.

“A saffron-robed Hindu ascetic who threw silver coins at crowds of pilgrims heading for a holy dip at the climax of the Kumbh Mela religious festival is believed to have triggered a stampede that killed 39 people and injured about 150 yesterday.” Evidently this pilgrimage ends in stampedes with monotonous regularity, the biggest resulting in 800 deaths in 1954. “Hindus believe that bathing in the river during Kumbh washes away sins accumulated over 88 previous births.” Is not learning from past mistakes a sin, or just stupidity?

It has been pointed out that Satan was so pleased with the 10 commandments monument being wheeled away in Alabama that the Dow closed down 6.66 points today.

Quote of the day, from The Arnold: “Gay marriage is something that should be between a man and a woman.”

Chile is moving towards legalizing divorce (you can get an annulment by saying/lying that the address you gave on your marriage license was false).

Bumper sticker: “My Boston Terrier is Smarter than Your Honor Student.”

Maureen Dowd, disputing Bush’s notion of a “total victory” against terrorism, says “Terrorism is not, as the president seems to suggest, a finite thing.”

The WaPo on the extent of war profiteering by Halliburton. Also, the US is going to order the opening up of Iraq’s economy to foreign investment. At a time when the Iraqis themselves are incapable of mustering capital, that would obviously mean that the economy would be sold up and taken over dirt cheap by foreigners... whoever they might be. There will be no requirement that profits be reinvested in Iraq and not taken out of the country. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss, except he can’t speak Arabic.

L.A. high schools are requesting that if students miss school, the parents reimburse them the $40 in state funding they lose per day.