Obama's smoking gun

America's daytime diva Oprah Winfrey will join Illinois Senator Barack Obama on the hustings next month in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, three early-voting states critical to his bid to upend New York Senator Hillary Clinton for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination. Historically, high-profile endorsements – political or celebrity – have proved far more effective at drawing crowds than actually influencing races, but Winfrey may prove to be the exception. full article, more and more than a motherfucking shitload

Goodbye Freedom

Three articles that peaked my interest today concerning our, Dutch, freedoms. Parliament wants to ban really violent videogames (bad for freedom) Parliament wants to ban growshops (bad for freedom) Parliament wants an inquiry into terrorism policy (good for freedom) I made a quick roundup of the parties and their stances on these issues. They really show their colors.

For some reason the table wouldn't show correctly in Blogger so I made a screenshot of it. D66 FTW!

Judge jails whole courtroom

Restaino, who became a judge in 2002, was hearing domestic violence cases in Niagara Falls, New York when a phone rang.

"Everyone is going to jail," the judge said. "Every single person is gong to jail in this courtroom unless I get that instrument now. If anybody believes I'm kidding, ask some of the folks that have been here for a while. You are all going."

When no one came forward, the judge ordered the group into custody and they were taken by police to the city jail, where they were searched and packed into crowded cells.

Later in the afternoon, after being told reporters were calling, the judge ordered the defendants released. The judge has been removed from the bench.

Mercedes CLS with Apple iMac

(not the same car with the Apple iMac, but the same model)

WTF x 1000

Another example of weird shit on the internet.

Russian elections next sunday

Election officials have been ordered to make sure that United Russia collects double the number of votes it is expected to win in State Duma elections on Sunday -- even if they have to falsify the results, a senior election official said. The Central Elections Commission strongly denied the allegation. But accounts from other people familiar with the issue -- including opposition politicians and state-paid workers, who spoke of mounting pressure to round up votes for United Russia -- appeared to confirm the election official's remarks. The official, who heads a key regional election committee, said United Russia was gunning for double the number of votes that the latest opinion polls indicate it will win. [..] At Oryol State University, professors have told students to vote for United Russia or face dismissal, said a journalism student, who requested anonymity to avoid the risk of being expelled. He said the students had also been told to vote at an on-campus polling station, which is to be supervised by a teacher. "Many students are afraid, especially those who live in the dorms, and they say they have to vote for United Russia," he said. He said rumors were swirling around the campus that cameras have been hidden in the polling station to see how students vote. please read the full article

Terminator is almost ready

I've figured out how to manually change the colors of the YouTube embed, with extremely ugly consequences. Enjoy!