BREVITAS

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CITIES

BBC - The 700-year-old red light district is a big tourist attraction
The Dutch city of Amsterdam is to close one-third of the brothels in its
famous red light district. The city has reached a deal to buy 18
buildings and turn them into shops or housing. The mayor of Amsterdam,
Job Cohen, said that although prostitution was legal in the Netherlands,
there was too much of the sex trade in the city centre. He also said
that the trade involved exploitation and trafficking of women, and other
kinds of criminal activity.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7005768.stm

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ECOLOGY & NATURE

NY TIMES - The cap of floating sea ice on the Arctic Ocean, which
retreats under summer's warmth, this year shrank more than one million
square miles - or six Californias - below the average minimum area
reached in recent decades, scientists reported Thursday. . . Scientists
said on Thursday that this year's ice retreat was probably unmatched in
the 20th century. . .

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/21/science/21arctic.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

PROGRESS REPORT - Al Gore is currently in Australia speaking on climate
change, where he has launched a "passionate attack on the climate
policies of Prime Minister John Howard and US President George Bush."
Yesterday, he spoke to a sold-out crowd of more than 700 people, and
tomorrow's event is anticipated to have similar attendance. . . But
according to the event organizer, Max Markson, Prime Minister John
Howard's Liberal Party has prohibited its members from attending the
events. "There is absolutely an official boycott in place. We had one
NSW Liberal MP [agree to come] and he had to ring back and apologize and
say he wasn't allowed to come," says Markson.

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/09/19/howard-bans-gore/

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HEALTH & SCIENCE

AP - A friendly game of soccer works off more fat and builds up more
muscle than jogging, new research shows. Danish scientists, who
conducted their research on 37 men, also found the soccer players felt
less tired after exercising than the joggers because they were having
more fun. . . Each period of exercise lasted about one hour and took
place three times a week. After 12 weeks, researchers found that the
body fat percentage in the soccer players dropped by 3.7 percent,
compared to about 2 percent for the joggers. The soccer players also
increased their muscle mass by almost 4.5 pounds, whereas the joggers
didn't have any significant change. Those who did no exercise registered
little change in body fat and muscle mass.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/20/
AR2007092001327.html?nav=rss_health


BBC - A diet rich in potatoes, white bread and white rice may be
contributing to a "silent epidemic" of a dangerous liver condition.
"High-glycaemic" foods - rapidly digested by the body - could be causing
"fatty liver", increasing the risk of serious illness. Boston-based
researchers, writing in the journal Obesity, found mice fed starchy
foods developed the disease. Those those fed a similar quantity of other
foods did not.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7006191.stm

PR WATCH - Peggy O'Mara, the editor of Mothering Magazine, reports that
"in addition to the inaccurate information on breastfeeding" by the
media, the "marketing practices of the formula companies continue to
undermine breastfeeding." She notes the existence of several "stealth"
websites "that appear to be grassroots advocacy sites, but are actually
mouthpieces for the formula industry." One of the websites,
MomsFeedingFreedom.com, is campaigning against proposed restrictions on
the free bags of infant formula being given to new parents by hospitals.
The website is funded by the International Formula Council and run by
Kate Kahn. "A sister site, Babyfeedingchoice.org, is licensed to Kellen
Communications, a public relations firm whose clients include the
International Formula Council," O'Mara writes. BantheBags, which
supports a ban on free samples, argues that the "sites use classic
formula company strategies, paying lip service to benefits of
breastfeeding even as they promote formula."

http://www.prwatch.org/node/6466

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FREEDOM WATCH

AP - A federal judge has ruled that a display of the Ten Commandments

at an eastern Kentucky courthouse does not violate the Constitution. The
Ten Commandments display, part of the "Foundations of American Law and
Government" exhibit at the Rowan County Fiscal Court, came under fire in
2001 when the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky filed a lawsuit
claiming the display was unconstitutional. Aside from the Ten
Commandments, the display includes the Mayflower compact, the
Declaration of Independence, the Magna Carta, the Bill of Rights and
other commemorative items. In his ruling released yesterday in ACLU of
Kentucky v. Rowan County, U.S. District Judge Karl Forester said the
display "does not have the effect of endorsing religion."

http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/news.aspx?id=19073

FIRST AMENDMENT CTR - Two students in northern New Jersey can wear
buttons featuring a picture of Hitler Youth to protest a school-uniform
policy, a federal judge ruled yesterday. U.S. District Judge Joseph A.
Greenaway Jr. sided with the parents of the students, who had been
threatened with suspension by the Bayonne school district last fall for
wearing the buttons. However, the judge added in his ruling that the
boys will not be allowed to distribute the buttons at school. . . Citing
the Supreme Court's 1969 ruling Tinker v. Des Moines Independent
Community School District, which involved students who wore black arm
bands to protest the Vietnam War, Greenaway wrote that "a student may
not be punished for merely expressing views unless the school has reason
to believe that the speech or expression will 'materially and
substantially disrupt the work and discipline of the school.'". . . The
buttons bear the words "no school uniforms" with a slash through them
superimposed on a photo of young boys wearing identical shirts and
neckerchiefs. There are no swastikas visible on the buttons, but the
parties agreed that they depict members of Hitler Youth. . . Bayonne
instituted mandatory uniforms last September for grades K-8, and
fifth-grader Michael DePinto wore the button several times before
objections were raised in November, attorneys for the plaintiffs said.

http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/news.aspx?id=19074

TEN THINGS TO REMEMBER IF STOPPED BY THE POLICE
http://governmentdirt.com/10_things_to_remember_when_confronted_
by_the_police_avoid_the_bro_dont_tase_me_moment


JONATHAN WEISMAN WASHINGTON POST - A Republican filibuster in the Senate
yesterday shot down a bipartisan effort to restore the right of
terrorism suspects to contest in federal courts their detention and
treatment, underscoring the Democratic-led Congress's difficulty with
terrorism issues.
The 56 to 43 vote fell short of the 60 needed to cut off debate and move
to a final vote on the amendment to the Senate's annual defense policy
bill. But the measure did garner the support of six Republicans, a small
victory for its supporters.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/19/
AR2007091900873.html?hpid=topnews


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MID EAST

AP -  Federal prosecutors are investigating whether employees of the
private security firm Blackwater USA illegally smuggled into Iraq
weapons that may have been sold on the black market and ended up in the
hands of a U.S.-designated terrorist organization, officials said.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-US-Blackwater-Probe.html?ex=
1348113600&en=b458e8275216e908&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss


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OUTLYING PRECINCTS

WONKETTE - Good news, Paultards! Doctor Congressman Ron Paul has won a
very important endorsement from the "Constitution Party" and its 2005
presidential candidate, Michael Anthony Peroutka. Mr. Peroutka says RP
is the best guy "from a Christian/Biblical and Constitutional
perspective" and other than the whole pussying out on Iraq thing, we
would have to sort of agree with Mr. Peroutka. You will two, after you
read his evidence: "Rep. Paul believes, correctly, that the Bible is the
infallible, inerrant word of God and thus it is not the role of
God-ordained civil government, at any level, to feed, house, clothe or
educate anybody."

http://wonkette.com/politics/dept%27-of-for-the-bible-tells-us-so/
holy-bible-and-ron-paul-team-up-against-the-poor-302035.php


NEW YORKER - Three times a year, the White House chooses a hundred
students for a three-month internship. [Rightwing Christian college]
Patrick Henry, with only three hundred students, has taken between one
and five of the spots in each of the past five years-roughly the same as
Georgetown. Other Patrick Henry students volunteer in the White House.
Tim Goeglein, the Administration's liaison to the evangelical community,
said that the numbers reflect the abilities of the Patrick Henry
students, who "have learned a way to integrate faith and action." For
the White House, it is also a way to reach out to its base while
building a network of young political operatives.

http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005/06/27/050627fa_fact?printable=true

DAVID SWANSON - As police officers were torturing a University of
Florida student with a taser in the back of a lecture hall as punishment
for asking inconvenient questions of Senator John Kerry, the Senator
chose not to order them to stop. Rather he calmly mumbled his
non-answers to the questions and even joked about the young man's
inability to come up on stage. Later, Kerry posted a statement on his
website in which he chose not to answer the student's questions in a
serious way, but rather expressed with full muddledness that he was for
arresting the student before he was against it and even expressed
concern that the police might have somehow been hurt.

http://davidswanson.org/node/932

CITIZENS FOR RESPONSIBILITY and Ethics in Washington has released its
third annual report on the most corrupt members of Congress. Sixteen
members have been replaced from last year's list of 25: Members of the
Senate: Sen. Pete V. Domenici (R-NM) Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) Sen.
Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK). . . Members of House:
Rep. Ken Calvert (R-CA) Rep. John T. Doolittle (R-CA) Rep. Tom Feeney
(R-FL) Rep. Doc Hastings (R-WA) Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA) Rep. William
J. Jefferson (D-LA) Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA) Rep. Gary G. Miller (R-CA)
Rep. Alan B. Mollohan (D-WV) Rep. Timothy F. Murphy (R-PA) Rep. John P.
Murtha (D-PA) Rep. Steve Pearce (R-NM) Rep. Rick Renzi (R-AZ) Rep.
Harold Rogers (R-KY) Rep. David Scott (D-GA) Rep. Don Young (R-AK) Rep.
Jerry Weller (R-IL) Rep. Heather A. Wilson (R-NM)

http://www.citizensforethics.org/node/30131

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FURTHERMORE. . .

HEADLINE OF THE DAY:Dominatrix Submits To City's Wishes
http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/14170556/detail.html

MORE ON BLACKWATER
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20071008/scahill0921

EXHIBIT: THE FEMINIST REVOLUTION LIBERATED ARTISTS, TOO
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/21/
AR2007092102218.html


MATHEMATICAL PROOF OF WHY HANGING OUT IS A GOOD IDEA
http://austin.craigslist.org/m4w/419154651.html

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