Random News & Views Roundup

- Looks like Castro is dead, again. In other news, Elvis Presley is alive and is working as a WalMart greeter in Indiana (just as most of us suspected all along).

- Robert Fisk: Even I question the 'truth' about 9/11.

Let me repeat. I am not a conspiracy theorist. Spare me the ravers. Spare me the plots. But like everyone else, I would like to know the full story of 9/11, not least because it was the trigger for the whole lunatic, meretricious "war on terror" which has led us to disaster in Iraq and Afghanistan and in much of the Middle East. Bush's happily departed adviser Karl Rove once said that "we're an empire now – we create our own reality". True? At least tell us. It would stop people kicking over chairs.

- Bizarre, but such is the state of some of Canada's infrastructure:

Engineers in Montreal determined Friday night that there is a real risk of a downtown road collapse, prompting police to seal off a larger area after the discovery of a gaping crack in an underground tunnel that connects malls to the metro.
[...]
Engineers had earlier closed one block because of fears that the major street above could collapse unless it was reinforced.

Now that would have been one huge pothole.

- TPM: Right-Wing Launches Assault Against [John] Warner, Claims He ‘Hurts The Cause Of Freedom’. They really need to come up with new, even cornier slogans.

(There's been a lot of Iraq war-related news this week that I haven't been able to catch up on - not feeling well lately - but I plan to work on a lengthier post this weekend. Stay tuned.)

- A gaping hole has been found in the universe - no, not that huge empty space where Bush's brain is supposed to be - an actual astronomical phenomenon thingy.

- Another US "friendly fire" incident. This one killed 3 British soldiers in Afghanistan.

- From the Christian Science Monitor: An intensifying US campaign against Iran. And, Paul Craig Roberts offers his opinion piece on the warmongering at antiwar.com.

Lies, unprovoked aggression, and delusional expectations – the same ingredients that produced the Iraq catastrophe – all over again. The entire Bush regime and both political parties are complicit, along with the media and US allies.

- Assholes of the Week: Special Preachers, Priests and Clerics Edition. This one is a must read. Here's a sample:

*An unidentified Major in Iraq--a fundamentalist Christian pretending to be a "freethinker"--for attending the first meeting of atheist service members under the umbrella of the Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers, then verbally berating the other attendees, accusing them of plotting against Christians and disrespecting soldiers who have died protecting the Constitution. He threatened them with punishment, shut down the meeting and said that he would do whatever it took to shut down future meetings. He forced attendees to stand at attention while he yelled, berated and humiliated them. One attendee had fled when the shouting started, and he found a foxhole to hide in.

- Lastly, if you're a fan of kos of Daily Kos, watch this video.