- Amnesty International says global arms shipments are 'out of control'. You can read more here.
- Defense Secretary Rumsfeld may strut around proud as a flipping peacock over how he leads his department, but defense contractors continue to come under serious scrutiny. On Tuesday, another contractor was busted:
About 70 federal agents raided a nonprofit company in Texas that provides the U.S. Army with combat uniforms and suits used in Iraq to protect soldiers during chemical warfare.
[...]
The company has received $579.9 million in no-bid defense contracts between 1998 and 2003, according to the Washington- based Center for Public Integrity. In 2003, the most recent year available, the company received $270 million. The contracts are awarded under a federal program for companies that employee disabled workers.
According to reports in the El Paso Times, the national center is under investigation for violating terms of the program, which requires 75 percent of the work on the contract be completed by severely disabled employees. An agency that provided oversight of the program has determined that only 7.8 percent of the national center's work was done by the disabled, the paper reported.
Gotta love those no-bid contracts.
- Across the pond, Britain's Minister For Equality won't rule out that 'homosexuality is a sin'. The minister is a devout Catholic and is a member of the secretive Opus Dei - probably not the best choice for a minister of 'equality'. By the way, a new study reveals that 'Lesbians' brains react differently to sex hormones than those of heterosexual women'. I wonder how many centuries it will take the Catholic church to catch up on that one.
- Canada beats the US and the United Kingdom in the best places to be a mom index. Those annoying, commie-like Scandinavian countries still rank first and I don't think it has anything to do with Ikea furniture and spas.
- Bush isn't the only guy on a mission from God. Another Texas oil man is on his own religious quest:
CAESAREA, ISRAEL – At first glance, Texan John Brown might be any graying insurance broker or mid-level executive crunching numbers in any concrete-and-glass office park in any suburb of the world. But, surrounded by maps depicting ancient Judean tribes and thumbing through a well-worn leather Bible, Mr. Brown's business is what he considers a mission from God himself: to strike oil in the Holy Land.
Brown is using 'bible cues' and 'his own sense of God's calling'. Good luck with that, Mr Brown. (Is there something odd in the Texas water or...?)
- The UN Security Council has decided to offer Iran 'sanctions or incentives'.
Representatives of the five permanent members of the council, the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France, as well as Germany agreed Tuesday to tell Iran what consequences it will face if it refuses to stop its program of uranium enrichment.
On the opposite side, they also agreed to tell Iran what benefits it will receive if it complies with the world organization's demands.
That's a step forward since China and Russia had refused to sign on to any resolution that would have allowed for a military option - still hoping for that diplomacy thing to work. A vote on such a resolution is not expected this week.
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