The other day will looking for some new Orson Scott Card books, a random thought crossed my mind: Someone could make themselves a quick millionaire if they built the Amazon version for Porn video’s and books. I’m not talking just site that sells porn, but a site that looks and feels as professional as Amazon.

When you enter a porn shop, you almost feel dirty because they are dingy. But if a porn show looked like Pottery Barn…

Then I wondered: Maybe, secretly, Amazon does sell porn.

I was right. Amazon has a basement full of porn.

Yeah, it’s not Adam & Eve, but who would have guessed Amazon had those goods?

I’ve never owned a PlayStation game console but the trailers for the new PS3 games Motor Storm and KillZone 2 look amazing enough to change my entire buying pattern. Maybe …

In the blogosphere (I hate that word), the Downing Street Memo has gained quite a bit of traction. Bit even here, in the “sub-etha,” the story has fallen to the wayside for various reasons. A new website, DowningStreetMemo.com has taken up the mantle to get this story out there. Below is an image they are using to spread the word.

Thanks to the Ticked Off Ohioan for the link.

It’s not being reported in the American press for reasons that any conspiracy theorist would love to debate. I’d rather say that I just cannot explain why this story doesn’t simply trump all the runaway bride and Michael Jackson blather that is on the air and in the papers.

I’m talking about the fact that Tony Blair and the US administration planned for the Iraq war nearly 8 months before we went to war. His administration even says that the US was going to fix the evidence and facts to fit the policy. The decision was already made 8 months before the war started. Yet, the British and the Americans governments continued to make a false case for the war simply to implement the plan they had already created.

All of these claims are based on the London Times report of a document which contains the minutes of a high-level secret meeting which Tony Blair attended and discussed these and more damning items. This document contains such gems as:

• Military action was now seen as inevitable.
• Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy.
• There was little discussion in Washington of the aftermath after military action.
• The Defence Secretary said that the US had already begun “spikes of activity” to put pressure on the regime. (Note that this is July 23, 2002).
• It seemed clear that Bush had made up his mind to take military action, even if the timing was not yet decided. But the case was thin. Saddam was not threatening his neighbours, and his WMD capability was less than that of Libya, North Korea or Iran.
• We should work up a plan for an ultimatum to Saddam to allow back in the UN weapons inspectors. This would also help with the legal justification for the use of force.
• The Attorney-General said that the desire for regime change was not a legal base for military action. There were three possible legal bases: self-defence, humanitarian intervention, or UNSC authorisation. The first and second could not be the base in this case. Relying on UNSCR 1205 of three years ago would be difficult.

How can this information be ignored by the journalists of the US? This information sends me into an absolute outrage, yet somehow the Bush administration has created an environment where no one in the press (at least, mainstream press) is willing to cover this story in any more powerful way than as a roadbump in Tony Blair’s reelection bid.

I recently saw Tom Smothers speak. He was not talking about this particular incident, but he did discuss the greater culture of silence that seems to have pervaded both the press and the public compared to the fairly repressive times in which his TV show was canceled for its anti-war and anti-administration content. He told the audience, “I don’t want to be a good German.” It’s inflammatory and provocative, as a good speech should be, but I don’t think he’s too far from reality.

What Bush is complicit in here is a criminal attack on another sovereign nation and he should be impeached and put to face the highest of all punishments for this crime.

University of Oklahoma head baseball coach Larry Cochell resigned Sunday after it was reported that he used racial epithets while ‘praising’ an African-American outfielder.

In two separate, un-taped interviews with ESPN, Cochell apparently, in describing freshman infielder Joe Dunigan said, “There’s no n—– in him.” The network informed Oklahoma that Cochell had used such racially-charged language.

If racism is born of ignorance, as is the generally accepted belief, is Cochell ignorant merely for using such language to describe a player, is he ignorant for thinking it acceptable to use language that if used by an African-American might have been acceptable, is he ignorant for thinking such a distinction truly exists, is racial tension a thing of the past that can be made light of, or something else?