Empire Strikes Back.

"The storm yesterday afternoon was part of the latest blast of bad weather to hit New York.

The murky skies and lightning, seen from across the East River in this dramatic picture, were accompaniedby 72mph winds and a deluge which saw an inch of rain fall in nearby Central Park.

There was no damage to the 1,454ft Empire State Building.

The lightning rod at its very top absorbs such strikes around 100 times a year.

It may not, however, have been such a good day to visit the outdoor viewing gallery on the 86th floor."

Just thought this was cool. You don't see this very often in LA with their buildings not being so tall. But the person who took that picture must have been waiting very patiently. Or he just used photoshop.

At least this is better than talking about how Al Gore is tired of politics.

If Jenny Jameson supports Hillary, then...

PR.com: "Who's your favorite Democratic front runner for 2008? Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton or John Edwards?"

Jenna Jameson: "I love Hillary. I think that in some ways she's pretty conservative for a Democrat, but I would love to have a woman in office. I think that it would be a step in the right direction for our country, and there would be less focus on war and more focus on bettering society."

PR.com: "Do you find that the climate of the adult industry changes when there is a Republican administration versus Democratic?"

Jenna Jameson: "Absolutely. The Clinton administration was the best years for the adult industry and I wish that Clinton would run again. I would love to have him back in office. I would love to have Al Gore in office. When Republicans are in office, the problem is, a lot of times they try to put their crosshairs on the adult industry, to make a point. It's sad, when there are so many different things that are going on in the world: war, and people are dying of genocide...I look forward to another Democrat being in office. It just makes the climate so much better for us, and I know that once all our troops come home, things are going to be better and I think that getting Bush out of office is the most important thing right now."

So I guess it's pretty straight forward. Clinton loves porn. Jenna Jameson does porn. Therefore, Jenna Jameson is loved by Clinton. Also, if you're a Democrat, you support porn. And if you're a Republican, you're against it. Sounds about right.

"A remote chain of Arctic islands is advertising itself as a showcase of bad things to come from global warming.

Visitors to Svalbard can see reindeer, seals or polar bears in the Arctic, where U.N. scientists say warming is happening twice as fast as on the rest of the planet in what may be a portent of changes further south.

"Svalbard is an important meeting place...You clearly see the melting of the ice, problems for polar bears, for birds, which are damaged by global warming and environmental pollutants," Norwegian Environment Minister Helen Bjoernoy told Reuters.

A group of Dutch, British and Irish students attended a climate change college in Longyearbyen run by Ben & Jerry's, a U.S. ice cream maker, to educate them about climate change and help them launch grassroots environmental campaigns back home.

Briton Rob Bell, for instance, wants mobile phone companies to create chargers that switch off when the phone is full: "If everyone unplugged their phone chargers it would be enough to power 33,000 homes for a year."

Very interesting, and also very compelling to see how the world has changed due to global warming. The statistics is very interesting too, stating that if everyone unplugged their phone chargers, it would be enough to power 33,000 homes for a year. I would like to see how they came up with this statistic. Anyways, it's a real situation with the climate changes and we should all do our part to not further damage the environment more than it is already.

Goodbye Falwell.

"The Rev. Jerry Falwell, the television evangelist who founded the Moral Majority and used it to mold the religious right into a political force, died Tuesday shortly after being found unconscious in his office at Liberty University. He was 73.

Ron Godwin, the university's executive vice president, said Falwell was found unresponsive late Tuesday morning and taken to Lynchburg General Hospital, where he was pronounced dead about an hour later.

Sen. John McCain, the school commencement speaker last year, said Tuesday that his prayers were with Falwell's family.

"Dr. Falwell was a man of distinguished accomplishment who devoted his life to serving his faith and country," McCain said.

Days after Sept. 11, 2001, Falwell essentially blamed feminists, gays, lesbians and liberal groups for bringing on the terrorist attacks. He later apologized.

In 1999, he told an evangelical conference that the Antichrist was a male Jew who was probably already alive. Falwell later apologized for the remark but not for holding the belief. A month later, his National Liberty Journal warned parents that Tinky Winky, a purple, purse- toting character on television's "Teletubbies" show, was a gay role model and morally damaging to children."

For being someone so many people loved, he surely was pretty whacked out. He blamed the feminists, gays, lebians, and liberal groups for bringing the terrorit attacks for the Sept. 11 attacks. What the heck was he thinking. "Teletubbies" was a gay role model which damges our children? Wow, who actually listens to this guy?

Apparently a lot of people.

Why So High?

"Gasoline prices hit a new record at the pump on Monday, but gas futures prices fell on concerns that $3 gas will crimp demand. Oil prices, meanwhile, rose on reports of refinery problems in the U.S. and abroad.

The average national price of a gallon of gas hit $3.073 on Monday, up almost a penny from Sunday's also record-setting price, according to AAA and the Oil Price Information Service. Gasoline is now well above the previous record of $3.057, set on Sept. 5, 2005, soon after Hurricane Katrina.

"Tightness in the U.S. gasoline situation will continue to drive the market ... because the summer driving season is right around the corner," said Victor Shum, energy analyst with Purvin & Gertz in Singapore. "There's not a lot of time for refineries to catch up with demand."

How painful is that. It's already 3.45 per gallon where I live and I can't really imagine it getting that much higher. I know my friends in Northern California are paying even more, but that's understandable. But people in Arizona are paying a fraction of what we are paying. Ah, are the demands really that dramtically higher to constitute such a high spike in prices?

"Hamas-run television defied Israel and the Palestinian government on Friday by airing a controversial children's show with a Mickey Mouse lookalike preaching resistance and Islamic domination.

Israel and Jewish groups have slammed the Al-Aqsa television channel for allowing the copycat mouse "Farfur" and a girl co-star to urge resistance against Israel and the United States, and for its overtly Islamist message.

Padded out with Islamic songs and calling cities in Israel part of Palestine, Friday's episode apparently sought to prepare children for their end-of-year examinations.

Asked by an Al-Aqsa reporter why he looked around to see what his friends were writing, Farfur -- whose name means butterfly -- answered: "Because the Jews destroyed my home and I left my books and notes under the rubble."

"I'm calling on all children to read more and more to prepare for exams because the Jews don't want us to learn," said Farfur who failed the test."

I still find it hilarious but downright disturbing that this event has occured. What do you plan to prove with this show on hatred? Trying to influence a generation with more hate and anger to bring forth more violence? But you have to admit, watching that mickey mouse impersonater was both hilarious and very distasteful.

"He says President Bush isn't the only one to blame. "He's the person where the buck stops, but it goes through the secretary of defense and the planning agencies, the Department of State -- it's the whole administration," Romney says. "They made mistakes... and we're paying for those mistakes."

The president's "surge" policy of putting additional troops into Iraq may never work, says Romney, but it deserves a chance. "We're going to know in a matter of months if it's working or not working."

Romney acknowledges that voters may have a problem with his religion's history of polygamy. "That's part of the history of the church's past that I understand is troubling to people," he says. The practice, outlawed before 1900, is equally troubling to him. "I have a great-great grandfather. They were trying to build a generation out there in the desert and so he took additional wives as he was told to do. And I must admit, I can't image anything more awful than polygamy," he tells Wallace."

Mitt Romney has an interesting view here. President Bush isn't the only one to blame. There are a lot of different people who should be blamed on top of Bush but Bush is usually the one to blame for the war, assuming you go that way. There were a lot of mistakes during that period of time and we are all paying the price now.
I find very hard to believe that Mitt Romney "can't image anything more awful than polygamy." It sounds like a way to emphasize that he doesn't support it, but to put out that common is outrageous. Of course there are things more awful than polygamy.