AIG: The Scum Also Rises

In the last week or so, failed “insurance” giant AIG’s web of deceit, blatant conflicts of interest, and fraud continued to unravel faster than we could keep track of it.
Here is a sampling, and only a sampling, of recent AIG developments:
No Leg to Stand On: ABC News reported that a blind amputee, “insured” by AIG [...]

Home Grown Hate

Today’s Virginian-Pilot details a report prepared by the Virginia Fusion Center, a multi-agency intelligence clearinghouse affiliated with the Virginia State Police.
The 2009 Virginia Terrorism Threat Assessment is intended to inform law enforcement authorities of potential terrorism threats. The internal report has drawn criticism for singling out Hampton Roads’ two historically black universities, Norfolk State [...]

Exporting Hate

It was a busy week for hate groups and their leaders, but the highlight was yesterday’s detention of David Duke in the Czech Republic on suspicion of supporting or denying the holocaust.
Duke, a prominent white supremacist, was in Prague, the Czech capital, to speak at the invitation of local Nazis to publicize the Czech translation [...]

There Is No Truth To the Rumor . . .

Every Friday, we take a look around and debunk gossip, bust urban legends, and, we hope, give you a little smile to start your weekend.
There Is No Truth To the Rumor that Sean Hannity will be waterboarded for charity, as he jokingly offered on Thursday.  He doesn’t have the stones. However, if he offers to bungee [...]

Sports Shorts

Ah, Springtime.
Baseball is in full swing.  Pro basketball and hockey are into playoff season.  Pro football pretends to be relevant by whipping its faithful into a frenzy with the NFL draft and the scent of Mel Kuyper’s hair gel.  The end of a dramatic Masters means U.S Open golf and Wimbledon tennis will soon usher [...]

Investigate Torture and Follow the Law

As we learn more and more about the Bush-Cheney legacy of torture, we come to the realization that something must be done.  If we in the United States won’t do it, someone in the international community will, and we will not like what we cannot control.
It appears from the release of the Jay Bybee/John Yoo [...]

Survivors Reunite

B-14594.
B-14595.
B-14596.
B-14597.
Four men have carried these sequential numbers, tattooed on their right arms, for sixty-five years.
The four Polish Jews, then teenagers, stood in line at Auschwitz, survived the selection process of Dr. Josef Mengele, and endured Nazi death marches to other camps. Against all odds, they lived, and emigrated to Israel after the war.
This week, [...]

Nothing Neo About Nazis

The Virginian-Pilot reports that at least five incidents of anti-Semitic vandalism occurred in the Ghent neighborhood and on Granby Street yesterday.  Synagogues and streets were marred by anti-Semitic graffiti and messages.  Norfolk police are investigating.
Police and the Anti-Defamation League believe the vandalism may be tied to the anniversary of Adolf Hitler’s birth on April 20th, noting [...]

There Is No Truth To the Rumor . . .

Every Friday, we take a look around and debunk gossip, bust urban legends, and, we hope, give you a little smile to start your weekend.
There Is No Truth To the Rumor that President Obama will prosecute CIA interrogators.  Seems they “ver only follovink ohrderz” and he doesn’t want to demoralize the CIA.  
This is an [...]

We Remember, But Have We Learned?

April 16, 2007.
The kind of day when you remember where you were.  You remember where you were when you heard that a mentally ill student had gunned down 32 of his fellow students at Virginia Tech.  
Today we pause to remember a sad anniversary.  We mourn the dead.  We get angry that warnings were ignored. [...]