all-encompassingly

an article in last december’s blood-horse magazine reported on harry reid’s efforts to outlaw internet wagering, a ban he seeks because of his fears that the web is prone to be used as a vehicle for laundering money. reid’s home state of nevada has been washing the money of italian gangsters for years, and [...]

passionate protests in iraq involve people cutting themselves. passionate protests in america (and other western nations) involve people getting naked.

the red hot valentines are a band from champaign, illinois. i vigorously recommend the tune, “bring back the good times.”

Over the recent months I have wondered if we as Americans have become too silly. While humor certainly has a place in relieving the palpable tension of war and helping reduce stress; like all virtues, its overabundance is a vice.
I am, as much as anybody, guilty of overindulgence in the sarcastic and silly. [...]

Winner of all-encompassingly’s inaugural Billy Packer “Assert the Painfully Obvious” Award goes to Iran’s Oil Minister, Bijan Namadar Zanghaneh. When commenting on the possibility of Iraq leaving OPEC (the oil cartel) and ridding itself of the onerous export quotas imposed on member countries, Zanghaneh made the following erudite observation:
“…the long-term interests of other OPEC [...]

A thought provoking article appeared today on Arab News, “the Middle East’s Leading English Daily,” regarding the necessity of industrialization of the Arab world. In part is said:

Attaining economic freedom is the first step toward self-reliance. I find it extremely odd that a country such as Saudi Arabia, which is blessed with huge oil [...]

Over the past several weeks the increasing number of SARS cases has received considerable attention. It is now known that SARS originated in China and that the communist regime (which is as overdue for a regime change as any in the world) purposely hid the seriousness of the illness, as well as the number [...]

i wish i could avoid all weddings. there is too much formality and sentimentality and schedule-keeping involved in weddings and whatnot. the depressing thought (for me) is that very few of my friends are married, and most of them, if not all, will eventually get married. i am doomed to be a [...]

on tuesday, former president bill clinton blasted US foreign policy.
“Our paradigm now seems to be: something terrible happened to us on September 11, and that gives us the right to interpret all future events in a way that everyone else in the world must agree with us,” said Clinton, who spoke at a seminar of [...]

it wasn’t . (click to read about the attack of the killer ‘yardys’)

cedar rapids has always been a puzzling place to me. they actually claim to have five seasons instead of four (the fifth lasts all year and is called ‘a time to enjoy’). but this problem they have now with belligerent [...]

the war in iraq is playing out like a ‘who’s who’ of international shooting-in-the-air supremacy. and kentuckians have shown they deserve the outright title.

in the photo (left) an exasperated daschle defends himself before viewers of the jerry springer show. reportedly, daschle’s mother tricked him into appearing on the show by telling him that president bush had resigned and named him the new president. while this proved to be false, daschle later said, quote, “i was pretty [...]

Martha Burk’s sideshow fit right in–alongside a drag queen, an elvis impersonator, and a klansman. the curious quartet is now inseparably linked (in the already storied annals of georgia history) by their participation in a most bizarre ‘free speech freak show’. read the article or see what people are saying

It looks like former U.N. Weapons Inspector and all-around wacko Scott Ritter is back. He was on CNN yesterday arguing with another former weapons inspector, all the while alienating rational thinkers around the world. The topic of discussion focused on whether Iraq does indeed still posses weapons of mass destruction. Ritter now [...]

with the fall of the bloodthirsty dictator, some impoverished iraqis have taken to looting to get stuff they need. that’s too bad, but what bothers me is the way the UN is responding: they demand that US and british forces halt the looting
with good reason, the UN is concerned. but why didn’t [...]