
Happy New Year
This Is Important, You Should Know About It of the Day: President Obama today quietly signed into law the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012, which contains controversial provisions requiring military custody for any non-citizen suspected of terrorism and affirming the president’s authority to indefinitely detain any supporter of al-Qaeda “or associated forces, irrespective of citizenship.
In a signing statement, the President said he had “serious reservations” about the bill, and criticised lawmakers for interfering with the work of counterterrorism professionals.
“Moving forward, my administration will interpret and implement the provisions described below in a manner that best preserves the flexibility on which our safety depends and upholds the values on which this country was founded,” the statement said.
The Obama administration was successful in striking down a provision that would have removed the ability of the executive branch to override the military custody requirement. Additionally, US citizens and legal immigrants may not be subjected to military custody under the revised bill.
However, an amendment to explicitly exclude American citizens and lawful residents from indefinite detention was rejected by Congress.
“My administration will not authorize the indefinite military detention without trial of American citizens,” Obama said. “Indeed, I believe that doing so would break with our most important traditions and values as a nation.”
The President’s personal stance aside, in addition to creating myriad difficulties for counterterrorism agents working with suspected terrorists to gain information, the NDAA provisions leave the door wide open for future presidents to indefinitely detain American citizens without trial.
This is an incredible montage of short clips from just about every significant event in history from 1911 to present. Elections, wars, protests, disasters, and more. Wow.
Penn Jillette: An Atheist's Guide to the 2012 Election
I have tried with friends to say the most blasphemous sentence I can possibly say and it does not come close to the blasphemy of Michelle Bachman saying that earthquakes and hurricanes were the way God was trying to get the attention of politicians.
This Is Insightful, You Should Watch It of the Day: Tate presents: Straight Talk with Maurice Sendak.
“People said, ‘why didn’t you do Wild Things 2? Wild Things 1 was such a success’. Go to hell. Go to hell. I’m not a whore. I don’t do those things.”
[22words.]
Marilyn Monroe photographed by Phillipe Halsman in 1952
Bruce Willis, Quentin Tarantino, Uma Thurman, Samuel L. Jackson and John Travolta photographed by Annie Leibovitz for Vanity Fair in 1994
Quentin Tarantino photographed by Martin Schoeller
Movie Trailer of the Day: Danny Trejo as Epic Beard Man in a movie called Bad Ass that co-stars Charles S. Dutton and Ron Perlman? Good news, guys: Christmas came early this year.
[kym.]
Looks Legit of the Day: Astrophotographer Alan Friedman spots an anomaly in the lunar crater Archimedes.
Normally the crater Archimedes shows a smooth volcanic floor, small pockmarks of more recent craterlets and shadows from the craggy wall that surrounds it. So what is this? A transient lunar phenomenon? Or the stuff that dreams are made of?
Hmmmm.
Hmmmm indeed.
[alanfriedman / badastronomy.]
Cate Blanchett as Katharine Hepburn in The Aviator
Michael Caine in Funeral in Berlin (1966, dir. Guy Hamilton)
Bluebeard (1901, dir. Georges Méliès)
“King Bluebeard turned all the keys of the castle over to his wife, saying, ‘You may go anywhere in the castle, unlock everything, and look at anything you want to, except for one door, to which this little golden key belongs. If you value your life, you are not allowed to open it!’
‘Oh no!’ she said, adding that she surely would not open that door. But after the king had been away for a while, she could find no rest for constantly thinking about what there might be in the forbidden chamber. On the morning of the fourth day, she could no longer resist the temptation, and taking the key she secretly crept to the room, stuck the key into the lock, and opened the door.”
-Charles Perrault, Bluebeard
Marilyn Monroe at the opening of A View From The Bridge, October 12th, 1956