Archive for April, 2004

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A Hamas suicide bomber blew up two armed Palestinians who tried to rob him at gun point in the Gaza Strip.

Hamas claimed the “stickup men” worked for Israeli intelligence, while Palestinian security forces said the two were ordinary thieves.

Rather than give up his explosives, the bomber detonated them, killing himself and the two robbers near the border fence between Gaza and Israel.

Palestinian security officials said the the gunmen were criminals who were involved in a car theft ring that brought stolen vehicles from Israel to Gaza.

Hamas said the bomber was on his way to try to infiltrate into Israel, accompanied by another Hamas member and a guide, when they were stopped by the armed men.

The robbers forced the bomber to lie on the ground and tried to steal the bomb, but the militant detonated it, killing all three. The other Hamas man and the guide escaped.

There have been cases of rival groups stealing each other’s explosives, but no group claimed the two gunmen, and their families did not go to the hospital to take the bodies, indicating that the two were not militants, who are revered in Palestinian society.

A Hamas official said that whatever their intention, the two should be considered agents of Israel.

“Anyone who tries to stop a fighter from doing his work is a collaborator,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity….

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I would like to take a break from my INFO paper to mention three contemporary artists I recently discovered and can’t get enough of: Jack Vettriano, Robert LaDuke, and M. Kungl. All three have strong art-deco influences and an exaggerated, colorful, and essentialized style that is bursting with joy for life. And of course, all three have been soundly rejected by the art world. If you are looking for new posters/calendars, I highly recommend all three, especially Vettriano. If you are looking for prints/originals, Quent Cordair might be more to your liking. (And my gallery!)

(The unfortunate thing about artists that mainly sell posters is that they are not friendly about allowing high quality images of their work to be shown on the web. If you know of any online galleries by the above, please let me know.)

(Update: More about Jack at the AtlasSphere. Also see his gallery.)

Washington, April 9, 2004. A hush fell over the city as George W. Bush today became the first president of the United States ever to be removed from office by impeachment. Meeting late into the night, the Senate unanimously voted to convict Bush following a trial on his bill of impeachment from the House.

Also see the relevant Filibuster cartoon.

A controversial college professor who thinks parents should be able to kill disabled children says though President Bush makes himself out to be a good Christian leader, he has the moral development of a 13-year-old boy.
…
A truly Christian leader, he said, would have “turned the other cheek” when the United States was attacked by terrorists Sept. 11, 2001, because the response led to the loss of innocent life.

I presume no explanation is needed for my readers to see the irony of his argument…

The Agitator:

Norway is the latest European police state country to go fjord-to-fjord smoke free, though with an interesting twist. Apparently, bar and restaurant owners are subject to fines if their patrons are caught smoking, but same owners do not have the authority to eject patrons for lighting up. And patrons themselves can’t be punished for smoking in public.