• A. Throw things like rice, confetti, toast, and toliet paper around
• B. Get up on the stage and do the Time-Warp (it's just a jump to the left...)
  
• C. Actually meet one of the Time-Warpers/Wedding Photographer from the film, and hear some stories about the filming process
• and finally, D. Have an opportunity to wear neon-green hair and white socks with black pumps -- and have no one think you look out-of-place in the least.
  

Who Are We?
The Internets Veterans For Truth are a few long-time bloggers, designers, and techies who decided (in slackerly fashion, around the end of last week) that some of the clips that've been floating around online needed to be seen by everybody.

A few catchy slogans, registered domains, and a mess of volunteered hours of encoding, design, dev, and server wrangling later...

Also, we served alongside George W. Bush in the hot, dry Texan jungles of the Internets Deltas.

Ron Sexsmith
Garden State soundtrack
Azure Ray
Chantal Kreviazuk
Jeff Buckley
Sarah Slean
Coldplay
Aimee Mann
Joss Stone
Cowboy Junkies
Johnny Cash
Jonatha Brooke
Natalie Merchant
Remy Zero
The Shins

• NASA photo analysis: Bush wore a device during debate:

George W. Bush tried to laugh off the bulge. "I don't know what that is," he said on "Good Morning America" on Wednesday, referring to the infamous protrusion beneath his jacket during the presidential debates. "I'm embarrassed to say it's a poorly tailored shirt."

Dr. Robert M. Nelson, however, was not laughing. He knew the president was not telling the truth. And Nelson is neither conspiracy theorist nor midnight blogger. He's a senior research scientist for NASA and for Caltech's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and an international authority on image analysis. Currently he's engrossed in analyzing digital photos of Saturn's moon Titan, determining its shape, whether it contains craters or canyons.

For the past week, while at home, using his own computers, and off the clock at Caltech and NASA, Nelson has been analyzing images of the president's back during the debates. A professional physicist and photo analyst for more than 30 years, he speaks earnestly and thoughtfully about his subject. "I am willing to stake my scientific reputation to the statement that Bush was wearing something under his jacket during the debate," he says. "This is not about a bad suit. And there's no way the bulge can be described as a wrinkled shirt."

Nelson and a scientific colleague produced the photos from a videotape, recorded by the colleague, who has chosen to remain anonymous, of the first debate. The images provide the most vivid details yet of the bulge beneath the president's suit. Amateurs have certainly had their turn at examining the bulge, but no professional with a résumé as impressive as Nelson's has ventured into public with an informed opinion. In fact, no one to date has enhanced photos of Bush's jacket to this degree of precision, and revealed what appears to be some kind of mechanical device with a wire snaking up the president's shoulder toward his neck and down his back to his waist.

• Berkeley Breathed has a new cartoon out -- starring an oversized hamster outfit, Dick Cheney, and Teresa Heinz Kerry.
  

• Yet another example of the GOP attempting to suppress voter turnout among minorities here. This is a travesty.
  

We are looking for compelling stories that both entertain and promote strong values. Of course, they should also be fun to read and should provide readers with an uplifting and satisfying ending. They should be just like life — except with the right comeback at the right time. These novels can be written in the first- or third-person and can be single or multiple points of view. The writing should be lively and intelligent, with a certain amount of attitude. Think chick lit for all ages. Think romantic comedy with a divine twist.

... There should be no explicit sex in these stories, and a minimum of sensuality and sexual desire. Both humor and drama have a place in these books; foul language, swearing and scenes containing violence do not. Though the stories may take place in urban environments, hanging out in bar settings, drinking alcohol or becoming involved in sexual situations is not appropriate for Christian characters.

.... Because Steeple Hill Books sells to both CBA and ABA bookstores, we must adhere to CBA conventions. The stories may not include alcohol consumption by Christian characters, dancing, card playing, gambling or games of chance (including raffles), explicit scatological terms, hero and heroine remaining overnight together alone, Halloween celebrations or magic or the mention of intimate body parts. Lying is also problematical in the CBA market and characters who are Christian should not lie or deceive others. Possibly there could be exceptional circumstances (matters of life and death), but this has to be okayed by an editor.

We are looking for authors writing from a Christian worldview and conveying their personal faith and ministry values in entertaining fiction that will touch the hearts of believers and seekers everywhere.

I adore Jon Stewart. Have you watched his CSPAN Interview? (bit torrent required)

Really -- Stewart is more than just someone to make you laugh. He's articulate and poignant in his criticisms. It also doesn't help that I agree with him wholeheartedly -- from his views on the media to the Iraq quagmire, to his disdain for that "douchebag of liberty" -- Robert Novak.

I downloaded the show, and I found myself stopping intermittedly to transcribe different bits of what he was saying.

• Stewart: [about the media's responsibility] It's about a process, not about a moment. It's not about one debate, and it's not about one issue. It's about holding to account this idea that debate is two advocates for two corrupt organizations that -- to have a Democratic strategist and a Republican strategist is NOT a debate. That's Coke and Pepsi discussing beverage supremacy. And it's not real.... they have a role, and they have a job -- but they're not doing it.

• Stewart: [concerning FOX's popularity as "fair and balanced"] FOX didn't come out of the gate and just automatically earn its street cred, they earned it over time by presenting a narrative. But it's not helping, just like Al Jazerra's narrative isn't helping -- it helps make them popular, but it doesn't help the country. there's a responsibility within the media to help.

• Stewart: [regarding the Bush administration] I have never seen reality distorted in such a way that I feel like they're trying to gaslight me. I don't think that effective policy means say it louder, and more times. Doesn't work for me. And Iraq was a mistake. MIS-TAKE. And when the President says, "history will judge if I made mistakes" -- you know what, we don't have the luxury for history to judge it. You better judge it NOW. We don't have the time. The idea that he can't think of one -- I got a list, and I'd be happy to talk to him about it.

With Tuesday's election deadlocked, Kerry took aim at the president's perceived strength -- national security -- and hammered him for a fourth consecutive day on the missing explosives.

Bush on Wednesday accused Kerry of opportunism, saying: "A political candidate who jumps to conclusions without knowing the facts is not a person you want as commander in chief ... that is part of a pattern of a candidate who will say anything to get elected."

Kerry threw the words back at the president 24 hours later, announcing he was going "to apply the Bush standard" and declaring: "Mr. President, I agree with you."

"George Bush jumped to conclusions about 9/11 and Saddam Hussein," he said. "George Bush jumped to conclusions about weapons of mass destruction and he rushed to war without a plan for the peace. George Bush jumped to conclusions about how the Iraqi people would receive our troops. He not only jumped to conclusions, he ignored the facts he was given."

Secret plans for the war in Iraq were passed to British Army chiefs by US defence planners five months before the invasion was launched, a court martial heard yesterday.

The revelation strengthened suspicions that Tony Blair gave his agreement to President George Bush to go to war while the diplomatic efforts to force Saddam Hussein to comply with UN resolutions were continuing

• Returning to Persian dance class. I'm all loose and feeling fine. I also had a nice chat with my instructor, who's from Iran. She's in the process of moving and having her parents come visit from her country. When I mentioned the election (can I *not* mention it everywhere I go?! sigh), she was very much for a Kerry win. I can't blame her -- knowing the new "Bush doctrine," her country could be next on the neocons' list.

• The preview for the new extended Return of the King is now out! There's going to be an extra 50 minutes of scenes added -- I'm already anxious to see them! I'm especially looking to the showdowns of Gandalf with Saruman and the Witch King. The day it comes out, I'm watching all three extended videos back-t0-back. At this rate, it's going to to take ALL day. Love it. (thanks Ryan!)

• The BoSox are on the verge of winning. Pretty exciting, especially for a fair-weather baseball fan like meself. :)

Subject: Why we have no flu vaccine
Text: Do not miss the last line of this post

How the vaccine works:
Influenza vaccine is produced by growing the virus in eggs. The virus is killed and processed to create the vaccine, which is given by injection under the skin. The body then produces antibodies to the virus over the next two to four weeks. If the immunized person then comes into contact with the influenza virus, the antibodies attack and kill the virus before it has a chance to cause infection. The vaccine contains the 3 most likely strains to be active during the "flu season"

Why the shortage:
Almost half of the nation's flu vaccine will not be delivered this year. Chiron, a major manufacturer of flu vaccine, will not be distributing any influenza vaccine this flu season. Chiron was to make 46-48 million doses of vaccine for the United States. Chiron is a British company. Recently British health officials stopped Chiron from distributing and making the vaccine when inspectors found unsanitary conditions in the labs. Some lots of the vaccine were recalled and destroyed.

Why is our vaccine made in the UK and not the US?

The major pharmaceutical companies in the US provided almost 90% of the nations flu vaccine at one time. They did this despite a very low profit margin for the product. Basically, they were doing us a favor. In the late 80's a man from North Carolina who had received the vaccine got the flu. The strain he caught was one of the strains in that years vaccine made by a US company.

What did he do? He sued and he won. He was awarded almost $5 million! After that case was appealed and lost, most US pharmaceutical companies stopped making the vaccine. The liability outweighed the profit margin. Since UK and Canadian laws prohibit such frivolous law suits UK and Canadian companies began selling the vaccine in the US.

By the way...the lawyer that represented the man in the flu shot law suit was a young ambulance chaser by the name of John Edwards.

FROM NOW ON

Have we been blind
Have we been lied to
Best keep our eyes open
From now on
There's no peace of mind
When the war's inside you
It feels like something's broken
Something's gone

But it's a new day from now on
And this time I won't wonder
From dusk till dawn
If a new day's coming
It's a new day from now on

We live in times
Where choice is frowned upon
Afraid to even raise
Our voice in song
Or speak our minds
For fear of falling on
The wrong side of opinion
Where has freedom gone

But it's a new day from now on
And this time I won't wonder
From dusk till dawn
If a new day's coming
It's a new day from now on

They're in the business of panic and control
We're in the business of the heart
And of the soul

Have we been blind
Have we been lied to
Best keep our eyes open
From now on
But it's a new day from now on
And which case I won't wonder
When Monday's gone
If Tuesday's coming
It's a new day from now on

New day from now on
And this time I won't wonder
From dusk till dawn
If a new day's coming
It's new day from now on

You've always painted the Bush administration as these macho poseurs, phony gunslinger tough guys. Is that the kind of daddy we're looking for?

Yeah. And that's probably why Bush didn't let his own daddy speak at the Republican National Convention -- which was unbelievable that a former president who went to war with Iraq wasn't given a speaking slot. But Bush didn't want the real daddy, because the real daddy has differences with him on the Iraq war. The ironies of that are beyond belief. The father went to war in Iraq to defend the principle that you can't invade another country unilaterally; the son goes to war with Iraq to establish the principle that you can invade another country unilaterally.

It is a great advantage for us to be able to consult someone who knows us, so that we may learn to know ourselves. And it is a great encouragement to see that things which we thought impossible are possible to others, and how easily these others do them. It makes us feel that we may emulate their flights and venture to fly ourselves, as the young birds do when their parents teach them; they are not yet ready for great flights but they gradually learn to imitate their parents.

Our outward comportment and behaviour may be better than theirs, but this, though good, is not the most important thing: there is no reason why we should expect everyone else to travel by our own road, and we should not attempt to point them to the spiritual path when perhaps we do not know what it is.

from Teresa of Ávila, On the interior castle of the soul

The rapture: When all the believers in Jesus Christ, who have been born again, are taken up to heaven.

After the rapture, there will be a lot of speculation as to why millions of people have just disappeared. Unfortunately, after the rapture, only non believers will be left to come up with answers. You probably have family and friends that you have witnessed to and they just won't listen. After the rapture they probably will, but who will tell them?

We have written a computer program to do just that. It will send an Electronic Message (e-mail) to whomever you want after the rapture has taken place, and you and I have been taken to heaven.

If you wish to do something now that will help your unbelieving friends and family after the rapture, you need to add those persons email address to our database. Their names will be stored indefinitely and a letter will be sent out to each of them on the first Friday after the rapture. Then they will receive another letter every friday after that.

This rapture letter service is FREE and will hopefully gain the person you send it to an eternity in heaven.

Be in a crabby mood most of the week preceding it, and then send out a few email invitations with only a day's notice.

• A nasty rumor circulated that *I* was the one who did the cooking of the turkey, and not chef Angela.

• The first game of the World Series was on -- and the BoSoxs need all the good mojo watching they can muster!

• Is our address still posted on our house?

• Maybe we gave people the wrong address! (because 1234 is too complicated of a number to remember)

• Every other house/street in Saskatoon must be experiencing a black out of power

• A massive car accident on College or 8th Street must be delaying everyone from showing

• There's a raging blizzard that hasn't made it our way, yet

• The monster that lives underneath our deck must be eating the guests before they make it to our back door

• The Rapture has occurred and and we're the only three people Left Behind -- doomed to become stars of a cheesy Christian book series, where we defeat the antiChrist of the U.N.

Just after 2 a.m. on Sept. 9, 1993, Christopher Simmons, 17, and Charles Benjamin, 15, broke into a trailer south of Fenton, Mo., just outside St. Louis. They woke Shirley Ann Crook, a 46-year-old truck driver who was inside, and proceeded to tie her up and cover her eyes and mouth with silver duct tape. They then put her in the back of her minivan, drove her to a railroad bridge and pushed her into the river below, where her body was found the next day. Simmons and Benjamin later confessed to the abduction and murder, which had netted them $6. Police called it ''a cheap price for a life.''

The two were convicted. Benjamin was sentenced to life in prison, and Simmons was given the death penalty. The Missouri Supreme Court overturned Simmons's sentence last year, and the case is now before the U.S. Supreme Court, which recently heard arguments on the constitutionality of the death penalty for those who are 16 or 17 when they commit their crimes. (The court has already ruled against execution of anyone under 16.)

Unlike other death-penalty cases, this one has drawn intense interest from the American Medical Association, the nation's psychiatrists and psychologists and other health and research groups. They've filed briefs with the court making a novel scientific argument -- that juveniles should not be executed because their brains are still developing. In other words, teenagers cannot be held fully responsible for their actions because all the wiring to allow adult decision making isn't completed yet. As Stephen K. Harper, a professor of juvenile justice at the University of Miami School of Law, puts it, ''Adolescents are far less culpable than we knew.''

The briefs in the Simmons case are based on research that shows that the human brain, once thought to be fully wired by about age 12, continues to grow and mature into the early or mid-20's. And the last part to mature is the frontal lobes, or prefrontal cortex, responsible for all the hallmarks of adult behavior -- impulse control, the regulation of emotions and moral reasoning.

''Scientists can now demonstrate that adolescents are immature not only to the observer's naked eye but in the very fibers of their brains,'' says the brief by the A.M.A. and the psychiatrists. ''Normal adolescents cannot be expected to operate with the level of maturity, judgment, risk aversion or impulse control of an adult.''

...

Nobody is arguing that teenagers deserve a pass; the new brain science is not a get-out-of-jail-free card. Sometimes adolescents do appear to act like adults -- but the point is that they can't do so consistently. And even when they seem to be acting like adults, they are using their brains in a different way. Adolescents, unlike adults, often operate from a more instinctual, reflexive part of the brain.

...

None of this means that Simmons should be absolved of his repugnant crime on the grounds that his amygdala made him do it. The question is whether he, and others who are 16 or 17 when they commit their crimes, should be held to the same standard as adults. ''There's no question that the new science is changing the debate,'' says Laurence Steinberg, a psychologist at Temple University and the director of the MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Adolescent Development and Juvenile Justice. In 2002, the Supreme Court ruled that mentally retarded criminals are exempt from the death penalty because of ''disabilities in areas of reasoning, judgment and control of their impulses.'' The scientific evidence suggests that 16- and 17-year-olds share similar ''disabilities'' in reasoning and judgment.

...

Was Simmons thinking and acting like an adult when he murdered Shirley Ann Crook? That's a question science can't answer. As the A.M.A. and the psychiatrists write in their brief, scientists can ''shed light on certain measurable attributes'' related to teenagers' culpability. But ''science cannot, of course, gauge moral culpability.'' That is what the Supreme