Today's top read is on the case of Haji Sahib Rohullah Wakil. Well worth your time.

And the good read follow-up is by Glen Greenwald, who is quickly becoming a favorite.

And then, like once a month, I pass out and sleep the day away. Whuf.

On the other hand, I signed up for the feed from ZooBorns.com, which is deadly, as I will wake up and get a faceful of a headline like "lemur twins look awfully surprised."

Red Line delays to continue through at least the 19th.

SOME NEWS:
* Good read: why does everyone hate the media?
* "...Even for those detainees to whom the Obama administration deigns to give a real trial in a real court, the President has the power to continue to imprison them indefinitely even if they are acquitted."
* "Secret History: can Leon Panetta move the CIA forward without confronting its past?"
* The protests in Iran lead to turmoil in the ruling elite.
* How do you fight deficits during a recession?
* Charting the future of Mars exploration.
* Could a global catastrophe have made us smarter?
* A comic book crossover I'm interested in reading!

asimplelife clued me into dump.com. Today's victory: a timeline of the future, at the movies.

In case you forgot, Japan is cooler than you.

TUESDAY NEWSDAY:
* Must read: Andrew Cohen reviews the Supreme Court's term.
* The Huffington Post hires Dan Froomkin. Like, right away. Which means, I have a reason to read the Huffington Post now. More from Glen Greenwald here.
* Uighur protests spread in China.
* "All this talk about Sarah Palin's constituency being 'real Americans' raises the question, yet again, of who the unreal Americans are."
* Spider builds lifesize decoys of itself.
* MGK breaks down reality TV with a convenient graph. Most of what I like? Upper right corner.
* Solid. Heavy metal in Morocco.
* Whoah. Pictures from the future: Bladerunner Tokyo.

Now...
The mist across the window hides the lines
But nothing hides the color of the lights that shine
Electricity so fine
Look and dry your eyes

We...
So tired of all the darkness in our lives
With no more angry words to say
Can come alive
Get into a car and drive
To the other side...

"Virtually every tactic which the article describes the Iranians as using has been used by the U.S. during the War on Terror, while several tactics authorized by Bush officials (waterboarding, placing detainees in coffin-like boxes, hypothermia) aren't among those the article claims are used by the Iranians. Nonetheless, 'torture' appears to be a perfectly fine term for The New York Times to use to describe what the Iranians do, but one that is explicitly banned to describe what the U.S. did. Despite its claimed policy, the NYT has also recently demonstrated its eagerness to use the word 'torture' to describe these same tactics... when used by the Chinese against an American detainee.

"Notably, the NYT article today seems to take particular offense that the Iranian Government is putting people on trial using confessions they obtained via torture ('the government planned to put on trial several Iranian employees of the British Embassy — after confessions were extracted')."

CAN'T TRUST THAT DAY:
* Six unanswered questions after the Metro crash.
* "Just imagine if the Uighurs were a Christian - rather than Muslim - minority, battling against the tyrannical Communist regime in Beijing, resisting various types of persecution, and demanding religious freedom."
* 'What we buy more of during a recession.'
* Why the fundamentalist set adores Sarah Palin.
* Don't put too much faith in the "organic" label on food.
* Is climate change leading to smaller sheep?
* 'The sordid history of the sexually exotic East.'
* Sarah Vowell on the renaming of Rhode Island.
* Cursed director Terry Gilliam, on Heath Ledger's last movie.

Oh, damn you letsbefriendsagain.com for making a good point.

Now, back to pouring over the WeeklyCrisis.com archives.

On a related note, today's victory was introducing Z. to Static Shock, which she totally digs.

Michael Yon spins a good yarn. Today's recommendation is 'Lithuanians on the Moon', coming straight out of the Ghor Province in Afghanistan. An intriguing slice of life from the other side of the planet.

The BBC list nine reasons to celebrate America.

India retools grenades to contain ridiculously hot chilli instead of explosives, to be used as nonlethal weapons.

...Which leads me to a good article by Robin D. Laws, who notes all these modern advances in nonlethal weaponry will, in fact, be used by fascist regimes to quell demonstrations like we saw in Iran. So, you know, six of one, half-dozen of another.

Zooborns.com

The Management is not responsible if you become ded of cute.

FRIDAY LATE NEWS:
* Iranians talk about life in the aftermath of the protests. And what next for the protest movement?
* Obituary: "The Washington Post died today. It was five months short of its 132nd birthday."
* The Obama administration will make its mark with urban policy.
* 'Five media myths debunked by Michael Jackson's death.'
* Wow. Every time I think Rep. Michele Bachmann can't surprise me anymore, she goes above and beyond the call of duty.
* "If your plane crashes and you find yourself floating in the ocean, what should you do?"
* BANJO. Three new dinosaur species identified in Australia.
* They're fast-tracking the new Predator movie for next summer.

Attention Metro: if you don't mention to your riders that you'll be operating on a reduced weekend schedule on Friday*, then you will end up with a bunch of irate riders outside the locked gates at early a.m., because that's when they expect to be able to ride your overcrowded mass transit train.

Bitches.

* - because it makes perfect sense, when there's a lot of extra people in town for a holiday, to run fewer trains on your already overcrowded system.

THURSDAY NEWS:
* "A group called Velvet Revolution is targeting 12 Bush administration attorneys for disbarment for their role in justifying and providing legal cover for the torture of detainees."
* Good read: "Manly men have been running the world forever. But the Great Recession is changing all that, and it will alter the course of history."
* Another good read: NPR's refusal to use the work 'torture' and perceived impartiality in the media.
* Michael Scherer on the administration's continued selling of the stimulus.
* Every time I don't think reports on Scientology can surprise me anymore, I'm totally mistaken.
* Heh. Advice from the original self-help book, published in 1859.
* Next TV remake: Alien Nation?
* The coming decade belongs to Guillermo del Toro.

Once in a while, I re-find a blog I used to read, and am reminded of how awesome it is. This is why I've just been using LJ feeds to keep track of all sorts of these through the friendslist. It's fancy. Today's comic book reading: Weekly Crisis.

Three great examples, discussing what's wrong with mainstream comics: why we can't have nice things, what DC is doing wrong, and what Marvel is doing wrong.

SOME NEWS:
* No one seems to talk about the people detainees killed while being tortured in American custody.
* Good read: Bob Woodward, on how to avoid future problems in Afghanistan.
* Analysis: how Justice Kennedy is shaping the Roberts' Supreme Court.
* How will the Arab world read Obama's Guantanamo policy?
* The Explainer on the logistics of managing prison overcrowding.
* Whatever happened to Ahmad Chalabi?
* Freakin' dinosaur scales.
* What life is really like for free-range pigs.
* Cracked.com presents six real islands more terrifying than the one on Lost. (Courtesy msteleute.)