Mom's fish intake may boost child's brain power

Researchers found that among 341 3-year-olds, those whose mothers ate more than two servings of fish per week during pregnancy generally performed better on tests of verbal, visual and motor development.

So for those of you mothers who can afford it, eat plenty more fish now before our rape of the sea is complete so that your children can grow up strong and smart and avoid starvation when the ecosystem we've fucked up collapses.

The rest of you lower-income mothers, carry on.

Clinton compares herself to 'Rocky'

"Let me tell you something, when it comes to finishing a fight, Rocky and I have a lot in common. I never quit. I never give up. And neither do the American people," Clinton said.

OK, so this was a quote from yesterday. If you don't like it, get the hell off my lawn!

It's a shame that she holds Philadelphians in such disdain that she links to a fictional, long dead pop culture icon rather than the great leaders that invented this government in that city back in 1787.

To her, folks are too stupid to draw a parallel between - oh - the fight of our country's life and the fight of her candidacy's life.

Nope. Link to 'Rocky' instead. Dur, dur, dur.

She's nearly as condescending as Al Gore when she speaks to Americans.

"I never quit. And neither do the American people." Ew. Ick. Yuck that's a sticky one. Glad I'm keyboarding wearing nitrile gloves.

Olympic torch passes through Kazakhstan

The president of Kazakhstan ran with the Olympic flame Wednesday in a tightly guarded ceremony that he praised as a display of his country's tight relationship with China, the host of the Summer Games.

He only stopped once on his portion of the circuit. That was when he used the torch to light a fire under a giant cauldron of oil in which several political dissidents had been secured...

Experts dubious of Ga. 3rd-grader plot

The district attorney is seeking juvenile charges of conspiracy to commit aggravated assault against an 8-year-old boy and two girls, ages 9 and 10. The girls are also charged with bringing weapons to school.

You've come a long way, baby.

Paper or plastic? Either bag would cost you 20 cents extra under Nickels' plan

To reduce trash, Mayor Greg Nickels wants Seattle shoppers to pay a fee on all disposable bags — paper and plastic — at grocery, convenience and drug stores.

Customers would be charged a 20-cent "green fee" per bag used at the checkout line. If approved by the City Council, the fee would take effect Jan. 1.

That's the good news.

The bad news is that all of the cloth bags available contain fibers from plants grown in Uzefartistan where farmers fertilize the soil with dead baby harp seals.

The bags themselves are sewn in Bendonesia by 8-year old sweat shop workers in factories fronted by Closemindian terrorists.

Other than that, it's a fucking excellent idea!

God bless Reuters photographer Lula Marques-Folha Imagem and her creative cropping talents!

Mid-size black hole answers question

Books | "This Is Who I Am," a book of nude photos, tells women to love themselves as they are

If "The Vagina Monologues" could be translated into photography, that's what this book would be.

Rosanne Olson's collection of photographs and short essays, "This Is Who I Am: Our Beauty in All Shapes and Sizes," is an exploration of how real women relate to their real bodies — in all their freckled, scarred, pudgy and wrinkled glory.

See guys don't get this at all. Why are women so hung up on their bodies?

Ask your typical guy how he feels about his body and he'll say something like, "There's the Chippendale's' dancer and then there's me and you know what? I can weld with my lighted farts and he can't so I'm cool. Wanna grab a beer?"

It's a damn puzzle to us.

China sentences rights activist to jail

Hu [Jia], one of China's most prominent human rights advocates, was given 3 1/2 years in prison for "inciting state subversion," said his lawyer, Li Fangping. The evidence against Hu included five Internet articles he wrote and two interviews he gave to foreign media, Li said.

Here we're not willing at all to risk our safety for the sake of freedom.

Land of the free. Home of the brave. They're just lies we sing to ourselves before ball games.

Clintons made $109 million since 2000

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and former President Clinton made nearly $109 million since they left the White House, capitalizing on the world's interest in the former first couple and lucrative business ventures.

Well, to be fair, that's only a little over $13 million a year on average. Hillary can still see the plight of middle class Americans from atop her ivory tower. Especially if she stands on stacks of greenbacks.

Olympic torch relay descends into chaos as torch is extinguished 5 times

Organizers canceled the final leg of the Olympic run through Paris after chaotic protests Monday, snuffing out the torch and putting it aboard a bus in a humiliating concession to protesters decrying China's human rights record.

Another protester threw water at the torch but failed to put it out before being taken away.

Here, in the land of the free where we enthusiastically take on a trillion dollars in debt and eagerly sacrifice thousands of our best and brightest to force a country into a religious civil war in the name of freedom, the greatest fear authorities have concerning the Olympic torch is that some brave Wal-Mart shopper will attempt to cook a hotdog over it.

King County facing possible budget meltdown

Budget Director Bob Cowan is warning the County Council of a $20 million shortfall in the 2008 budget and a $60 million shortfall in 2009.

"We have to go back to the fundamentals of government, looking at every dollar and how it is spent and seeing what we can do to prioritize," said Kathy Lambert, vice chair of the Council Budget Committee.

Like a drunk swearing off of the juice after a nasty hangover, here it comes again: another promise from King County to return to fundamental government.

It isn't that I begrudge aid for the poor or sheriff's deputies on the beat, far from it. Government has a responsibility to create a stable society and that means order (within reason) and comprehensive help for those less fortunate.

What it is, is that no one, from the Federalies to Checkbook Charlie at the Elks Club steak dinner really wants to spend the time to do anything more than throw money at problems or to even define their role in the process of funding.

After several years of binge-funding, King County is again forced into detox by reality. Oh, wait. No it isn't. Its trying to find a way to sneak its bottle in under its coat.

The county executive and the budget chair say the big problem is that King County has only two sources of revenue, property taxes and sales. They will push the Legislature in 2009 to add to their revenue sources.

KOMO-TV - Seattle, Washington | KOMO Weather

Saturday is THE day sun fans have been patiently (impatiently?) waiting for, as we're expecting a sunny and warm day, with temperatures well into the 60s, with some 70s not out of the realm, especially east foothills and southwestern Washington. The Portland/Vancouver area could even approach the mid-upper 70s.

If anyone wants me on Saturday, I'll be on a grassy, sunny hillside. Naked.

Seems to me that putting people in the street in front of you is a pretty shitty way to get you to stop at intersections.

Obama Concedes Remarks Were Ill Chosen

"It's not surprising, then, they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."

Everyone - Hillary Clinton and W-lite McCain, you , me, that guy over there and them folks across the way - we all know that Obama is having a hard time winning over the redneck bible-thumping xenophobes that make up most of small-town America.

Those are traditionally Republican-voting mouth breathers.

Obama should have realized that this is America and here our politicians dare not talk about the back-assward jerk offs in Buttfuck Idaho who beat their children after church on Sunday while on their way to a stocked pheasant massacre.

It seems to me that most things should be like forks. Just looking at one tells you which is the end you hold and which is the one you stab the food with. In other words if you need to explain how a particular thing works, your design sucks.

The Dalai Lama is supposed to have said:

Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon.

Marilyn Monroe sex film to be kept private

"The gentleman who bought it said out respect for Marilyn he's not going to make a joke of it and put it on the Internet and try to exploit her," said memorabilia collector Keya Morgan.

I think Marilyn would find great irony in someone "respecting" her by not giving up a clip of her sucking cock.

My new best friend is named Ed. He's from the Philippines and works at a couple of my company's properties as a "coach" for developmentaly disabled adults.

The clients sweep up and generally keep the places looking spiffy.

I've learned that Ed is quite a cook and that he'd like to start a catering business someday. Since I love to explore Asian food and am totally in love with the Philippines, Ed and I have been talking a lot about food lately.

Over the weekend his family drove up to Vancouver, B.C. (British Columbia, not Before Christ you dork). They brought home some three dozen Chinese baozi - steamed buns - from the famous New Town.Bakery and Restaurant.

Nice person that he is, today he brought me two Filipino-style baozi known as siopao in the Philippines. These rice-flour buns were filled with a Filipino pork dish called pork asado (asado baboy, I believe).

Man, they were deeeeelish! They're sweetish/savoryish with both sugar and the sweetish rice flour influencing that side of the deal and soy sauce influencing the savory side.

Lunch was Heaven today I tell you! Hea-ven!

Thanks, Ed!

Carter, defying Israel, meets Hamas ex-minister

"Mr. Carter wanted to listen to the positions of different Palestinian figures. The meeting was very good and he promised to continue such meetings," said Shaer, who was among several Palestinian political figures to meet with the former president.

Carter has angered the Israeli government over plans to meet Hamas' top leader, Khaled Meshaal, in Syria, and for describing Israeli policy in the occupied Palestinian territories as "a system of apartheid" in a 2006 book.

Even Bush crone James Baker admitted that sometimes you have to talk to people you don't like. I applaud JC for doing just that even if his trip won't amount to doody-poo in the larger picture.

Pope lands in US, vows to fight clergy sex abuse

"I am deeply ashamed, and we will do what is possible so this cannot happen again in the future," the pope said on the flight from Rome to Washington as he played the "Tickle Game" with a 7 year old boy.

Afghan parliament committee drafts Taliban-style moral law

An Afghan legislative committee has drafted a bill seeking to introduce Taliban-style Islamic morality codes banning women from wearing make-up in public and forbidding young boys from wearing female fashions.

Sooooo... How's that whole concept of "fighting for freedom" going for you, boys?

Report: NYC Freedom Tower plans found in trash

The government agency building a 102-story skyscraper at the World Trade Center site is investigating the discovery of two sets of blueprints for the building that a homeless man says he found in the trash.

The schematic documents for the Freedom Tower, under construction at ground zero, were marked "Secure Document - Confidential," the New York Post reported Friday.

It's slips like these that serve to enforce my position that the federal Executive Branch should be allowed to not only search our homes and listen to our phone calls, but also to put our eyes out lest we see something we shouldn't.

Behind TV Analysts, Pentagon’s Hidden Hand - New York Times

Five years into the Iraq war, most details of the architecture and execution of the Pentagon’s campaign have never been disclosed. But The Times successfully sued the Defense Department to gain access to 8,000 pages of e-mail messages, transcripts and records describing years of private briefings, trips to Iraq and Guantánamo and an extensive Pentagon talking points operation.

Internal Pentagon documents repeatedly refer to the military analysts as “message force multipliers” or “surrogates” who could be counted on to deliver administration “themes and messages” to millions of Americans “in the form of their own opinions.”

Goddamned crazy Lbs and their goddamned crazy conspiracy theories!

Imagine that bunch of crazy Libs who have said all along that the Administration had plants at all the networks, parroting the party line on Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantanamo, etc.

We've been living through a dark time in America - one in which a right-wing junta comprised of cowards has constantly and consistently run an orchestrated campaign of lies and deceptions in order to manipulate the nation towards war and bankruptcy.

Wait. American Idol is on! Bye!

Danny Westneat | A crusade to edit America

The other day a man wearing a brown fedora strolled through Pike Place Market. Unlike most tourists, he wasn't there to browse or buy.

Seattle, bookish as it may claim to be, was revealed to be barely literate.

Opinion | The "God bless America" test

First, there was the faith test: Profess publicly that Jesus Christ is your Lord and Savior.

...God and country test: Embrace the nation's beloved slogan, "God bless America."

McCain Vows War on Poverty, Says Nation in Recession

"I have no doubt President Johnson was serious and had the very best of intentions'' in 1964, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee said at a town-hall event in Inez today as he continues his week-long courtship of voters in America's economically hard-pressed areas.

Hello and welcome once again to Panzo Interactive!

Panzo-I is one small space in the Rising Panzo Empire where you the reader can provide feedback that will ultimately be ignored!

Today's tiny concession to the realities of marketing is this: WHAT WOULD THEY SAY NEXT?!

Finish the above statement by John McCain: "I have no doubt President Johnson was serious and had the very best of intentions.''

Here are a few to oil your sluggish, chemically supine minds:

Albert Hofmann, father of drug LSD, dies in Switzerland

Albert Hofmann, the father of the mind-altering drug LSD whose medical discovery inspired — and arguably corrupted — millions in the 1960s hippie generation, has died. He was 102.

He died while flying a purple crocaphant through the yellow checkered sky of Zwilimonggo with three Charo look-alikes singing Inna-gadda-da-vida in twelve-part harmony.

What a long, strange trip it was.

Blaming the victim: Abused Afghan women often end up in jail

"If my wife goes to the bazaar without my permission, I will kill her. This is our culture," Abdul Qayum shouted scornfully during an interview in his office in the city of Jalalabad.

His colleagues laughed approvingly. "This is Afghanistan, not America," Qayum said.

It's so good that America is wasting precious lives and spending untotaled billions in the forced displacement of one group of brutal assholes with another group of brutal assholes.

As is usual with our self-serving and short-sighted foreign policy, in the end we create more Saddams and more Talibans and more al-Qeadas for us to fight in twenty years.

It's good business for the American military-industrial complex and lots of fun for our politicians but the people of these cultures deserve better than what America forces onto them.

Sitting on the prison floor with a black scarf over her hair and shoulders, she described being married in Pakistan as a preteen to an abusive man, who fathered her son, Bilal.

"She spent several nights with the man," he said. "She committed adultery. It was rape, but the woman is also guilty."

May Day Marches To Affect Thursday Afternoon Commute

Two parades, an anti-war and pro-worker, will begin at 12:30 p.m. and will march to Pier 66.

...The "May Day March & Rally" will then hold a rally at the Port of Seattle’s Pier 66.

...A march affecting the afternoon commutes from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. will be the "9th Annual May Day Rally & March."

US report says al-Qaida gaining strength

Al-Qaida has rebuilt some of its pre-Sept. 11 capabilities from remote hiding places in Pakistan, leading to a major spike in attacks last year in that country and neighboring Afghanistan, the Bush administration said Wednesday.

Attacks in Pakistan more than doubled from 375 to 887 between 2006 and 2007, and the number of fatalities jumped by almost 300 percent from 335 to 1,335, the State Department said in its annual terrorism report.

Well, as long as they're back to killing their own people and not threatening the American potato chip supply, John Q. Public won't care that this is another administration failure.

Prom invite is written on lacrosse players' bare bottoms

"Inappropriate is inappropriate," school athletic director Dottie Davis told The Ann Arbor News. "It disrespects women, and that's the clear message we need to have the students understand - what may be fun to them isn't necessarily fun to everyone else."

I'm at a complete loss. How does writing on your ass disrespect women?

There are a lot of things in this culture that disrespect women. High heels, padded bras, thongs, rap, most hip-hop, seven-eighths of the Religious Right, Botox, Revlon et. al., Cosmopolitan, daily dramas (soap operas), Hollywood, on and on...

Writing on your ass does NOT disrespect women.