Miscellaneous things for today

• A truck accident in Kabul leads to violent demonstrations.
  
  
• Worth reading: the first chapter of "What to Eat," by Marion Nestle, which documents the subtle war supermarkets play for your mind.
  
  
• There's a "Spider-Man" burglar on the loose in Osaka.
  
  
• Lest we forget: The Vice-Chairman of the Texas Republican Party has had an association with radical anti-semitic elements:
  
  

  
  
  Barton also has ties to extremist elements. In his literature, Christian Reconstructionist authors and organizations are sometimes recommended. Reconstructionist activist Gary DeMar's book God And Government is suggested reading, and Reconstructionist-oriented groups such as the Plymouth Rock Foundation and the Providence Foundation are touted as resources.
  
  Perhaps most alarming, Barton also has had a relationship with the racist and anti-Semitic fringes of the far right. According to Skipp Porteous of the Massachusetts-based Institute for First Amendment Studies, Barton was listed in promotional literature as a "new and special speaker" at a 1991 summer retreat in Colorado sponsored by Scriptures for America, a far-right ministry headed by Pastor Pete Peters. Peters' organization, which is virulently anti-Semitic and racist, spreads hysteria about Jews and homosexuals and has been linked to neo-Nazi groups. (The organization distributes a booklet called Death Penalty For Homosexuals.)
  
  Peters' church is part of the racist "Christian Identity" movement. and three members of The Order, a violent neo-Nazi organization, formerly attended Peters' small congregation in LaPorte, Cole. After members of The Order murdered Denver radio talk show host Alan Berg in the mid 1980s, critics of Peters' ministry in Colorado charged that his hate-filled sermons had spurred the assassination.

  
  
  Speaking of Barton, Walt Starr has the canonical list of religious-right made-up quotes.
  
  
  
• The world's largest Buddhist monument was not destroyed in the recent huge earthquake in Java, but a huge 1000 year old Hindu temple complex was reduced to rubble.
  
  
• Dog bites man: The New York Post doesn't like the new film on Tom DeLay...in imitation of Steve Colbert, they overlook DeLay's law-breaking to say, " Even inveterate DeLay haters will be nonplussed by the allegations that DeLay used corporate contributions to finance campaigns: Doesn't every politician above the level of student-council president do that? Democrats and Republicans alike routinely worm their way around soft-money rules."
  
  
• Tom at Blogmandu critiques Zaadz, yet another site/group I'd never heard of before...and Ken Wilber makes an appearance on that site, if you poke around a bit.
  
  
• Evidently Wiccan veterans still can't get Wiccan headstones.