LEAR: No, no, no, no! Come, let's away to prison: / We two alone will sing like birds i' the cage:

Federal Bureau of Investigation
New Orleans [Louisiana USA]

Department of Justice Press Release

For Immediate Release

January 26, 2010
United States Attorney's Office
Eastern District of Louisiana
Contact: (504) 680-3000

Four Men Arrested for Entering Government Property Under False Pretenses for the Purpose of Committing a Felony

NEW ORLEANS -- JOSEPH BASEL, age 24; ROBERT FLANAGAN, age 24; JAMES O’KEEFE, age 25; and STAN DAI, age 24, were charged in a criminal complaint with entering federal property under false pretenses for the purpose of committing a felony, announced the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Louisiana.

According to the complaint, which was unsealed earlier today, the arrest of FLANAGAN, BASEL, O’KEEFE, and DAI took place after BASEL and O’KEEFE attempted to gain access to the New Orleans office of United States Senator Mary Landrieu on January 25, 2010, while posing as telephone repairmen. According to the complaint, FLANAGAN and BASEL were each dressed in blue denim pants, blue work shirts, light green fluorescent vests, tool belts, and construction-style hard hats when they entered the Hale Boggs Federal Building, located at 500 Poydras Street, New Orleans, Louisiana 70130. Once in the building, FLANAGAN and BASEL sought access to the offices of Senator Landrieu. O’KEEFE was already present in the office, holding a cellular phone so as to record FLANAGAN and BASEL. Once inside Senator Landrieu’s reception area, FLANAGAN and BASEL told a member of Senator Landrieu’s staff that they were telephone repairmen, and they requested access to the main telephone at the reception desk. FLANAGAN and BASEL then manipulated the telephone system. FLANAGAN and BASEL next requested access to the telephone closet because they needed to perform work on the main telephone system. They were directed to the main office of the United States General Services Administration, also inside the Hale Boggs Federal Building, where they again represented themselves to be employees of the telephone company and stated that they needed to perform repair work in the telephone closet. Both FLANAGAN and BASEL stated that they had left their credentials in their vehicle. In addition, the complaint alleges that O’KEEFE and DAI assisted FLANAGAN and BASEL in the planning, coordination, and preparation of the operation. The men were apprehended by the United States Marshal’s Service soon thereafter.

If convicted, FLANAGAN, BASEL, O’KEEFE, and DAI each face a maximum term of 10 years in prison, a fine of $250,000, and three (3) years of supervised release following any term of imprisonment.

The United States Attorney’s Office reiterated that the complaint is merely a charge and that the guilt of the defendant must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.

The investigation is being conducted by Special Agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Deputy Marshals with the United States Marshal’s Service. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Jordan Ginsberg.

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wtf moment du jour, all guesses and comments welcome

Hi Gyesik and Matthieu,

Consider the following proof for your goal:

Theorem le_Pfact: forall x:nat, exists y, Pfact x y.
Proof.
fix circ 1.
intro.
destruct x.
exists 1.
constructor.
destruct x.
exists 1.
constructor.
pose proof (circ x) as H.
destruct H. (* existential var becomes x0 *)
exists (x * x0).
constructor.
assumption.
Save.

I find the above style of inductive proof much easier. Of course, the hypothesis "circ" must be applied in a well-founded way. However, there's no need to have an adequate induction principle readily available (or even bother to know what that induction principle should be).

Hope this helps,

Razvan

Matthieu Sozeau wrote:
{
{ Le 27 janv. 10 à 10:57, Gyesik Lee a écrit :
{
{{ Hi,
{}
} Hi Gyesik,
}
{{ as in the following case, an induction principle provided by Coq is sometimes not strong enough:
}}
{{ (A modified version of the example in Section 8.4.1.1 of CoqArt book.)
{{ ===================
{{ Open Scope nat_scope.
}}
{{ Inductive Pfact : nat -> nat -> Prop :=
{{ | Pfact0 : Pfact 0 1
{{ | Pfact1 : Pfact 1 1
{{ | Pfact2 : forall n v : nat, Pfact n v -> Pfact (S (S n)) (n * v).
}}
{{ Axiom lt_wf : well_founded lt.
}}
{{ Theorem le_Pfact : forall x : nat, exists y, Pfact x y.
{{ induction x.
{{ (* then the induction hypothesis is not strong enough*)
{{ Abort.
}}
{{ induction x using lt_wf.
{{ (* then the claim can be easily proved. *)
}}
{{ ===================
}}
{{ I am wondering if Coq provides a kind of mechanism producing the induction principle reflecting the well-foundedness of the canonically definable structural orderings on inductive types.
}
} My soon-to-be-released Equations [1] plugin has ML code to generate this order on any non-impredicative, computational inductive family (ie. most datatypes). You can derive both the subterm relation (actually the transitive closure of the direct subterm relation) and its wellfoundedness proof and a [Below] predicate that can be used to recurse and get a tuple
} of all the possible recursive calls in the context. You don't need to worry about guardness checks anymore if you use any of these, but you have to provide proofs that recursive arguments decrease in the first case or find your way in a tuple in the second case. This is partially automatable though.
}
} }}
}
} Require Import Equations.
}
} Open Scope nat_scope.
}
} Inductive Pfact : nat -> nat -> Prop :=
} | Pfact0 : Pfact 0 1
} | Pfact1 : Pfact 1 1
} | Pfact2 : forall n v : nat, Pfact n v -> Pfact (S (S n)) (n * v).
}
} Derive Subterm for nat.
}
} Theorem le_Pfact : forall x : nat, exists y, Pfact x y.
} apply FixWf; intros.
} destruct x. econstructor; constructor.
} destruct x. econstructor. constructor.
} destruct (H x). solve_rec.
} exists (x * x0). constructor; auto.
} Qed.
}
} Derive Below for nat.
}
} Definition rec_nat (P : nat -> Type) (step : Π n, Below_nat P n -> P
} n) n : P n :=
} step n (below_nat P step n).
}
} Theorem le_Pfact' : forall x : nat, exists y, Pfact x y.
} induction x using rec_nat.
} destruct x. econstructor; constructor.
} destruct x. econstructor. constructor.
} simpl in X. destruct_conjs.
} exists (x * e0). constructor; auto.
} Qed.
}
} }}
}
} [1] http://mattam.org/research/coq/equations.en.html
}
} -- Matthieu

PizzaQ for X-treme Cineastes / Amanda Plummer! / down on the floor motherfuckers / Christopher Plummer / Tammy Grimes / what's in the box?

Click image, nothing happens.

At high noon in a packed pancake house in Los Angeles, California, the dainty, petite gamine neuresthenic Amanda Plummer whips out a huge-caliber revolver, leaps to a tabletop, squeezes off a few attention-getting rounds into the ceiling, and screams to 50 patrons something like

GET DOWN ON THE FLOOR MOTHERFUCKERS OR I WILL BLAST YOUR MOTHERFUCKING BRAINS ALL OVER THE FLOOR RIGHT NOW

in a startlingly sincere and convincing tone. I certainly would have licked bubble gum off the linoleum.

This public peepants moment takes place in the Neo-Noir masterpiece of psychopathia cinematica, "Pulp Fiction," by the Auteur Quentin Tarantino.

The quarterly periodical "Cahiers du Vleeptron" frequently discusses and attempts to diagnose Tarantino. Lately we are leaning towards some sort of glandular disorder, for which there is probably effective oral medication. Within six months, he could regularly experience the mental activity of an adult for the first time in his life.

On the other hand, I usually don't ask for my money back after seeing his stuff.

While you are pouring synthetic blueberry syrup on your waffles, the last thing you expect to see is Amanda Plummer going all Smith & Wesson in your face and shieking motherfucker.

PIZZAQ1 for Cineasts: What actor portrays her boyfriend or twin brother or fellow methamphetamine addict who is waving the other loaded revolver around, just as enthusiastically and happily as Amanda? 2 slices, imported Italian mozzerella.

PIZZAQ2 for X-Treme Cineastes:

What was in the attache case?

1 medium pizza, choice of 3 toppings.

PIZZAQ3 for X-Treme Cineastes:

What was in the metal ice-skates case in "Ronin" (by John Frankenheimer, co-scripted by David Mamet)?

1 large pizza, choice of 4 toppings, and 1 large Fanta-and-beer if it's summer.

**********
e-mail to f_minor, the community that worships the late Canadian pianist Glenn Gould

Gould said F Minor was his favorite key.
***********

The 2010 schedule of live theater and musicals at the Stratford (Ontario) Shakespeare Festival looks to be ... well, thrilling and magnificent, and Gouldheads who haven't had the pleasure and experience of attending this festival couldn't pick a better season to make its acquaintance, and touch an important dimension of Gould's legacy.

My wife and I have been dividing our getaway time for many years between the Stratford and the Shaw Festival (in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario). They're a half-day's drive apart, so you can fill a holiday with shows at both.

Both towns are beautiful and delightful to visit. Stratford in particular has scores of superb, duelling restaurants. During theater season you need a guide to find a bad meal.

(Keep well away from the swans; they're as nasty and dangerous as they are beautiful.)

The centerpiece of the 2010 Stratford season will be Christopher Plummer as Prospero in "The Tempest."

We saw him as King Lear a few years ago, certainly one of the thrills of my theater life. In our generation, Shakespeare doesn't get better than Plummer, and we also had the fantastic pleasure of seeing his daughter Amanda (her mom is Tammy Grimes) as Joan of Arc in Anouilh's "The Lark / L'Alouette."

Other but by no means all the 2010 treats at Stratford:

* As You Like It
* Dangerous Liasons
* Evita
* Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris
* Peter Pan (Barrie's original)
* Kiss Me, Kate
* The Two Gentlemen of Verona
* The Winter's Tale

Just click around

http://www.stratfordfestival.ca/

and you're certain to find stuff that seduces and sings to you.

Bob the Culture Vulture

the Massachusetts election tomorrow for US Senator -- a plague on both their houses

Hiya C*****, my thoughts on Tuesday as threatened ...

Clearly you'll vote ... and maybe more ... so you'll have fully participated in an important civic moment, and good on ya for urging all to do the same.

Well, I'll vote too ... but I can't remember when I voted with less enthusiasm or more disgust.

Obviously Scott Brown should not be our Senator. That part is screamingly obvious and simple.

But Martha Coakley is a candidate of spectacularly low and unworthy character and anti-achievements, a toxin in the body politic.

I don't mind getting e-mails that scream that we must retain a Democratic majority for Obama at all costs.

But I mind when they hallucinate that Martha Coakley is a fine and worthy successor to Ted Kennedy's senatorial record. She simply is nothing of the sort, and no amount of campaign screaming and deception can begin to make her resemble Kennedy's vision or record.

In general, I don't believe criminal prosecutors should rise higher in elected office. They inevitably bring a philosophy of governing far too heavy and reliant on punishment, cruelty, suffering.

But I've seen Coakley at work close-up. She is all those things: punitive, cruel, and worse. She is a happy cog in the machine that keeps Massachusetts near the top of the national list in racially disproportionate felony imprisonment. She promises voters she's tough on crime. It's always been easy-to-decode code: She promises white voters she'll imprison blacks and Hispanics.

And boy, did she deliver, term after term.

I suppose criminal prosecutors are a necessary evil of civilization. But Coakley is the worst of the old-time racist and lynch-mob-style DAs -- well, in perfect lockstep with Northwestern DA Scheibel ... who at least finally showed the grace of bowing out and ceasing her toxic activities.

But Coakley now threatens to represent and reflect my state, and that will be a minimum of six very unpleasant and unhappy years for me. I shall take little comfort that her vote assists Obama's initiatives.

But I am most dismayed at the vile stench of this campaign. I am deeply tempted not to reward the two-party system with a vote for either of these two degenerate, visionless candidates.

The United States, by percentage of adults and by raw numbers, is the world's largest prison. Martha Coakley has been a willing and enthusiastic reason why. I don't want to vote for either of these bums.

I shall vote for one of them -- or against one of them -- but it will be the most unhappy election day of my voting life. Both parties should have done so much better; at least one party should have given us someone distinguished, classy. A plague on both these candidates and the parties that have thought so little of us to have put them before us and subjected us to their vile, desparate attack ads.

Bob

Is this the face that launched a thousand ships? And sent Northern Ireland back to internecine religious violence?

Iris Robinson

il Smutto
(Italian-language tabloid published by
Agence-Vleeptron Presse, Ciudad Vleeptron)
Lunedì 11 Gennaio 2010

Il sexy-scandalo affonda Robinson
Si dimette il premier nordirlandese

La moglie lo tradiva con un 19enne.
«Ha coperto un prestito al ragazzo»

LONDRA -- Il primo ministro dell’Ulster, Peter Robinson, si è autosospeso dall’incarico per sei settimane, in seguito alle controversie sulla relazione di sua moglie Iris con un diciannovenne, al quale fece avere anche un prestito non dichiarato.

Robinson, che è leader del partito unionista Dup, ha chiesto alla collega Arlene Foster, attualmente ministro locale per le imprese, di prendere il suo posto. La notizia, data all’Assemblea nazionale dell’Ulster dallo speaker William Hay, è giunta poco dopo che Robinson aveva ricevuto una conferma di massimo sostegno dal suo partito. La sospensione, afferma la BBC, dovrebbe durare quanto una possibile inchiesta sul suo operato sul prestito ottenuto dalla moglie, del quale sapeva ma che non dichiarò, come invece impone di fare la legge.

Lo scandalo, da affare familiare - la signora Robinson, 60 anni, deputata al parlamento dell’Ulster, aveva ammesso l’infedeltà e il marito l’aveva pubblicamente perdonata - si è presto trasformato in un caso politico. Un programma della Bbc aveva rivelato che Mrs. Robinson (tutti ormai la chiamano così evocando la matura seduttrice de Il Laureato) aveva ottenuto un prestito di 50.000 sterline per aiutare il giovane Kirk McCambley ad aprirè un caffè.

Mrs. Robinson si sottopone attualmente a cure psichiatriche: dopo la fine della relazione ha detto di aver pensato al suicidio. Peter Robinson dovrebbe rispondere questo pomeriggio al parlamento di Stormont, a Belfast, alle interrogazioni di vari esponenti sulla vicenda.

- 30 -

Hot Dog, Lobster Tonight!

FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION (FBI).
J.EDGAR HOOVER FBI BUILDING
935 PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE ,
NW WASHINGTON , DC 20535.

Foreign Remittance/Cyber Division
Attention: Fund Beneficiary

This is an official advisory notice from the FBI Foreign Remittance/Cyber Division.

It has come to our notice by the Bank of England which in secrecy has released all winning sums from casino,inheritance, contract sums, lottery winnings e.t.c amounting to 29 billion GBP

£29,000,000,000

about to be distributed among its beneficiaries.

These information(s) among your email contacts was provided by the Bank of England to investigate as this monetary distribution continues.

You are to contact the Qualisteam Banking And Finance Plc as you are to follow all its statutory claims requirements.

Qualisteam Banking And Finance Plc®
International On-line Transfer Unit
#287 High Holborn, Chancery Lane,
England WC1V 7HZ
Phone:- + 44 (0) 70-2403-9881
Fax:- +44 (0) 70-0608-5242
Email:- qualistaem.intl.plc@live.co.uk

Note No secret transfers because all funds are in bond and insured.

N.B: Endeavour to send Your Full Names, Address, Telephone Number and means of identification (international passport, drivers license or work I'D card) to Chief Claims Officer, via email or fax, to process the immediate payment of your prize. The FBI cyber division has access to Federal, State, and local databases to verify reported information. All claims are subject to audit. Any person knowingly submitting a fraudulent claim without getting an email of fax notice will be subject to ALL LEGAL PENALTIES.

For immediate disclaimer(to wave all legal rights in future),Please clink this link http://safelyremovename.com

Assistant Director
Robert Millier
Cyber Division

Don't piss Him off, you'll be real sorry

Click image to enlarge.

Wikipedia:

Deuteronomy (Greek: Deuteronomion, "second law") or Devarim (Hebrew: דְּבָרִים‎, literally "things" or "words") is the fifth book of the Hebrew Bible, and the fifth of five books of the Jewish Torah/Pentateuch.

=============

(Jews don't call this "the Old Testament," because that would imply there has been a subsequent Testament -- a new contract between God and humankind -- and Jews don't recognize such a new arrangement.)

Numbers and Deuteronomy are the Books of Laws God expects His followers to obey scrupulously. Moses received the laws from God personally, and explained them to the Jews.

This section follows a long section describing the joys, health and prosperity God promises to bring to those who obey His laws.

So much for the Carrot.

Now the Stick. Here's what God has in store for those who disobey His commandments and stray from his laws.

Emerods are hemmorhoids.

I don't know what the Blotch of Egypt is, but it doesn't sound good. I don't think they sell anything at the pharmacy for it. None of this sounds good.

I would interpret all this as a cautionary: Don't piss off This God. Don't even think about it. You'll be sorry.

This is my favorite English-language translation of this stuff, the King James Bible. Jews in English-language places don't use this, but use their own translation, entirely from the Hebrew original.

When Roman Catholics reach for an English-language Bible, they use the Douay translation, which is a translation from Saint Jerome's Latin Vulgate. The King James Version uses the original Hebrew and the Greek translation made from it in Alexandria, Egypt, called the Septuagint, as sources. Almost nobody in the ancient Mediterranean was familiar with Hebrew or the religion of the Jews, but Greek was the universal Lingua Franca understood everywhere (Alexander the Great had seen to that), so the Septuagint launched the ideas of Judaism, and thus the ideological and theological environment of Christianity, into the Big World.

* * *

Deuteronomy 28

[15] But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day; that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee:

[16] Cursed shalt thou be in the city, and cursed shalt thou be in the field.

[17] Cursed shall be thy basket and thy store.

[18] Cursed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy land, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep.

[19] Cursed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and cursed shalt thou be when thou goest out.

[20] The LORD shall send upon thee cursing, vexation, and rebuke, in all that thou settest thine hand unto for to do, until thou be destroyed, and until thou perish quickly; because of the wickedness of thy doings, whereby thou hast forsaken me.

[21] The LORD shall make the pestilence cleave unto thee, until he have consumed thee from off the land, whither thou goest to possess it.

[22] The LORD shall smite thee with a consumption, and with a fever, and with an inflammation, and with an extreme burning, and with the sword, and with blasting, and with mildew; and they shall pursue thee until thou perish.

[23] And thy heaven that is over thy head shall be brass, and the earth that is under thee shall be iron.

[24] The LORD shall make the rain of thy land powder and dust: from heaven shall it come down upon thee, until thou be destroyed.

[25] The LORD shall cause thee to be smitten before thine enemies: thou shalt go out one way against them, and flee seven ways before them: and shalt be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth.

[26] And thy carcase shall be meat unto all fowls of the air, and unto the beasts of the earth, and no man shall fray them away.

[27] The LORD will smite thee with the botch of Egypt, and with the emerods, and with the scab, and with the itch, whereof thou canst not be healed.

[28] The LORD shall smite thee with madness, and blindness, and astonishment of heart:

[29] And thou shalt grope at noonday, as the blind gropeth in darkness, and thou shalt not prosper in thy ways: and thou shalt be only oppressed and spoiled evermore, and no man shall save thee.

[30] Thou shalt betroth a wife, and another man shall lie with her: thou shalt build an house, and thou shalt not dwell therein: thou shalt plant a vineyard, and shalt not gather the grapes thereof.

[31] Thine ox shall be slain before thine eyes, and thou shalt not eat thereof: thine ass shall be violently taken away from before thy face, and shall not be restored to thee: thy sheep shall be given unto thine enemies, and thou shalt have none to rescue them.

[32] Thy sons and thy daughters shall be given unto another people, and thine eyes shall look, and fail with longing for them all the day long: and there shall be no might in thine hand.

[33] The fruit of thy land, and all thy labours, shall a nation which thou knowest not eat up; and thou shalt be only oppressed and crushed alway:

[34] So that thou shalt be mad for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see.

[35] The LORD shall smite thee in the knees, and in the legs, with a sore botch that cannot be healed, from the sole of thy foot unto the top of thy head.

[36] The LORD shall bring thee, and thy king which thou shalt set over thee, unto a nation which neither thou nor thy fathers have known; and there shalt thou serve other gods, wood and stone.

[37] And thou shalt become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword, among all nations whither the LORD shall lead thee.

[38] Thou shalt carry much seed out into the field, and shalt gather but little in; for the locust shall consume it.

[39] Thou shalt plant vineyards, and dress them, but shalt neither drink of the wine, nor gather the grapes; for the worms shall eat them.

[40] Thou shalt have olive trees throughout all thy coasts, but thou shalt not anoint thyself with the oil; for thine olive shall cast his fruit.

[41] Thou shalt beget sons and daughters, but thou shalt not enjoy them; for they shall go into captivity.

[42] All thy trees and fruit of thy land shall the locust consume.

[43] The stranger that is within thee shall get up above thee very high; and thou shalt come down very low.

[44] He shall lend to thee, and thou shalt not lend to him: he shall be the head, and thou shalt be the tail.

[45] Moreover all these curses shall come upon thee, and shall pursue thee, and overtake thee, till thou be destroyed; because thou hearkenedst not unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which he commanded thee:

[46] And they shall be upon thee for a sign and for a wonder, and upon thy seed for ever.

[47] Because thou servedst not the LORD thy God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things;

[48] Therefore shalt thou serve thine enemies which the LORD shall send against thee, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of all things: and he shall put a yoke of iron upon thy neck, until he have destroyed thee.

[49] The LORD shall bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flieth; a nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand;

[50] A nation of fierce countenance, which shall not regard the person of the old, nor shew favour to the young:

[51] And he shall eat the fruit of thy cattle, and the fruit of thy land, until thou be destroyed: which also shall not leave thee either corn, wine, or oil, or the increase of thy kine, or flocks of thy sheep, until he have destroyed thee.

[52] And he shall besiege thee in all thy gates, until thy high and fenced walls come down, wherein thou trustedst, throughout all thy land: and he shall besiege thee in all thy gates throughout all thy land, which the LORD thy God hath given thee.

[53] And thou shalt eat the fruit of thine own body, the flesh of thy sons and of thy daughters, which the LORD thy God hath given thee, in the siege, and in the straitness, wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee:

[54] So that the man that is tender among you, and very delicate, his eye shall be evil toward his brother, and toward the wife of his bosom, and toward the remnant of his children which he shall leave:

[55] So that he will not give to any of them of the flesh of his children whom he shall eat: because he hath nothing left him in the siege, and in the straitness, wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee in all thy gates.

[56] The tender and delicate woman among you, which would not adventure to set the sole of her foot upon the ground for delicateness and tenderness, her eye shall be evil toward the husband of her bosom, and toward her son, and toward her daughter,

[57] And toward her young one that cometh out from between her feet, and toward her children which she shall bear: for she shall eat them for want of all things secretly in the siege and straitness, wherewith thine enemy shall distress thee in thy gates.

[58] If thou wilt not observe to do all the words of this law that are written in this book, that thou mayest fear this glorious and fearful name, THE LORD THY GOD;

[59] Then the LORD will make thy plagues wonderful, and the plagues of thy seed, even great plagues, and of long continuance, and sore sicknesses, and of long continuance.

[60] Moreover he will bring upon thee all the diseases of Egypt, which thou wast afraid of; and they shall cleave unto thee.

[61] Also every sickness, and every plague, which is not written in the book of this law, them will the LORD bring upon thee, until thou be destroyed.

[62] And ye shall be left few in number, whereas ye were as the stars of heaven for multitude; because thou wouldest not obey the voice of the LORD thy God.

[63] And it shall come to pass, that as the LORD rejoiced over you to do you good, and to multiply you; so the LORD will rejoice over you to destroy you, and to bring you to nought; and ye shall be plucked from off the land whither thou goest to possess it.

[64] And the LORD shall scatter thee among all people, from the one end of the earth even unto the other; and there thou shalt serve other gods, which neither thou nor thy fathers have known, even wood and stone.

[65] And among these nations shalt thou find no ease, neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest: but the LORD shall give thee there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind:

[66] And thy life shall hang in doubt before thee; and thou shalt fear day and night, and shalt have none assurance of thy life:

[67] In the morning thou shalt say, Would God it were even! and at even thou shalt say, Would God it were morning! for the fear of thine heart wherewith thou shalt fear, and for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see.

[68] And the LORD shall bring thee into Egypt again with ships, by the way whereof I spake unto thee, Thou shalt see it no more again: and there ye shall be sold unto your enemies for bondmen and bondwomen, and no man shall buy you.

PIZZAQ: Line Segment AC

Click image, gets bigger I guess.

To be precise, this is not The PizzaQ Thing Itself.

This is just a picture of the unique Shape of The PizzaQ Thing.

But the PizzaQ asks questions about The Thing Itself. The Real Thing. The Genuine Article. The McCoy.

1 Large Pizza with shitake mushrooms, shallots, garlic, and meat topping of your choice if desired.

* What is it? (Specifically, what is Line Segment AC ?)

* What is Point A?

* What is Point B?

* What is Point C?

* The Red Zone and the Green Zone are Different. How? (Not their colors; there's something very different in the Red Zone from what's in the Green Zone.)

* What up with that Shape? Is it Natural? Or Un-Natural?

BONUS:

* Have you ever been to Line Segment AC ? Please tell Vleeptron all about it. Including whom you went with, and how the food was. Would you go again?

First Day Issue / Postalo Vleeptron: Carpeting the staircase.

Click image to enlarge.

First Day Issue / Postalo Vleeptron: Carpeting the staircase.

Homage to Mr. Brumbacher (wood shop) and Mr. Showacker (metal shop).

First Day Issue: Postalo Vleeptron / Indian Pudding

Click image to enlarge.

First Day Issue: Postalo Vleeptron

Indian Pudding

It's quite likely that this rich, dark, sweet, thick, bubbling-hot dish -- a perfect tummy-warming dessert for a cold winter meal -- was originally an American Indian recipe taught to European settlers in New England. The mollasses was added after the rise of the Atlantic/Caribbean trade in African slaves and sugar/molasses.

When prepared traditionally, the very long cooking time makes it a dish rarely seen in restaurants. (It hogs up the oven for half the day.) Cooked right, it's a pure gift of midwinter love for family and friends. We've had perfect results adapting the recipe from a slow oven to the crockpot, which can safely be left to cook unattended for hours.

Here ya go in English/metric/Fahrenheit/Celsius:

6 cups (1.42 liters) milk
.......(whole, not low-fat)
1 cup (237 ml) yellow corn (maize) meal
......(coarsely ground is best)
1/2 cup (118 ml) molasses
......(Grandma's or Brer Rabbit)
1/4 cup (60 ml) brown sugar
1 teaspoon (5 ml) salt
1 teaspoon (5 ml) fresh ginger
.......or grated lemon rind
1/4 teaspoon (1.3 ml) baking soda
......(bicarbonate of soda)
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1 stick (113.4 grams) butter
......(margarine will do)

Watch the milk carefully for the instant when it starts to boil and scald, then remove from heat. Pour scalded milk slowly on the corn meal, then cook in double boiler 20 minutes.

============

A double boiler is a special-purpose two-pot gimmick with boiling water in the lower pot, so the ingredients in the upper pot are gently heated in a bath of boiling water.

You can improvise with a big soup pot of boiling water on the burner, and immerse a smaller pot in the boiling water. Forks or spoons in the bottom pot will keep the top pot raised.

============

Add the other ingredients.

Pour into buttered baking dish. Bake 3 hours in a very slow (250°F = 120°C) oven.

OR

Pour into electric Slow Cooker = Crockpot, set on lowest temperature for 4 - 6 hours (the longer it cooks, the better).

Serve with cream, fresh-made whipped cream (not hard to make) or vanilla ice cream.

what do giant twin heaving sweating undulating buttocks mean to you? / HAPPY NEW YEAR! / Tell Vleeptron Your Innermost Thoughts about 2009 or 2010

Please, by all means, click image.

Okay, here's The Light Cone deal, I shall try to make it as simple as possible.

Well, actually, if I explain everything about the Light Cone which my tiny miserable undisciplined brain understands ... that will be pretty simple.

1. The speed of electromagnetic radiation -- most of the time we just call it the speed of light, but light is just a small part of the electromagnetic spectrum -- in a vacuum is a fundamental fixed, unvarying constant of nature.

2. The only way we Know anything about the Universe is through receiving signals, quantities of perceivable information -- light signals, radio signals, sound waves -- and either seeing them, feeling them (infrared warmth on our skin), or recording them on machines sensitive to those parts of the EM spectrum.

3. So it follows that Everything We Know About the Universe is just all the received Light we get from the Universe.

A consequence of (1) is that, from HereNow (the point in Spacetime where we are right now), we can see plenty, but only within the boundaries of a certain Shape.

We can't see or know anything outside the boundaries of that Shape, because it would have been (mathematically, the math of the known laws of physics) impossible for Light to have come from outside the Shape and be seen by us in the HereNow, within the Time it takes for Light to travel through Space.

This Shape -- there's probably a much better technical word for "Shape" -- turns out to be The Light Cone.

The Light Cone defines all the Space we can possibly perceive, and it also defines all the Time we can possibly perceive or experience.

There may be Stuff going on outside the Light Cone, and it could be amazing Stuff, Stuff better than Sliced Bread or Chuck Berry -- but we just can't ever Know it. It truly is The Beyond.

You can't get there from here.

Einstein and the mathematician Minkowski worked out The Shape from simple but inevitable consequences of (1). It's the two ice cream cones, one of them Up, the other Down, connected at their Points. The only difference between an ice-cream cone and the Light Cone is that the fat part of both cones goes on Forever; the boundary of the knowable Universe goes out from the HereNow infinitely.

Got all that? Alles ist klar?

Incidentally, the Angle of the Light Cone -- the slope at which it expands outward from The Point -- is warm, familiar, simple 45 degrees. Euclid would call it a Bisector of a Right Angle. Or, if you prefer, pi/4 = 0.78539816339745+
radians.

(I don't know anybody who really would prefer radian measure, but I'm sure there are 40 or 50 geeks out there who like it better. I know people who, in a world of Billie Holiday and Enrico Caruso, go apeshit about Michael Jackson.)

So there it is: The Universe. Or at least the parts of it you'll ever see. There may be more, but it's Off Limits, like the other gender's public bathroom, or some of the Nixon Oval Office audio tapes for a few more years.

So what does all this mean?

It means:

Happy New Year
from Planet Vleeptron!!!

Agence-Vleeptron Presse's Art Director, Philippe de Montebello, wanted to make a Vleeptron Happy New Year Faux Postage Stamp, but he imposed a strange restriction on his design: It must be 100% free and absent of All

Visual Cliches associated with the New Year: the diapered baby crawling in, the ancient bearded man stumbling out, all that Hallmark crap.

Philippe said Non.

He pulled his hair, he sweated blood, he flagellated himself, and finally experienced the required Gestalt: The Einstein-Minkowski Light Cone.

And you can only get a Cliche-Free Einstein-Minkowsky Light Cone Happy New Year Faux Postage Stamp from Vleeptron. Nowhere else. Accept No Substitutes.

Leave A Comment. The Spirit of The Special Moment, when Earth's arbitrary odometer flips over to an arbitary Multiple-Zero moment -- what does the New Year mean to you?

You into Prophesy? Tell Vleeptron what kind of red-hot flinging plague-infested poop you think is coming our way in the next twelvemonth.

Or Antisy? (I think I just made that word up.) Looking Backward. Tell Vleeptron Your Thoughts about 2009.

This can be like one of those Internet Diaries, or Confessionals. Tell Vleeptron what you REALLY feel about the year just finishing, and tell Vleeptron how you REALLY feel about the next 365 days, which are, for the most part, Tohu v'Vohu -- Void and Without Form. Could go either way. We could all receive a $9400 check in the mail from a government agency we never heard of. Or sharks could eat us. Do you live anywhere near a big volcano? Who told you it was extinct, and not just Very Dormant?

But maybe you have Imagination or Intuition or A Hunch, or Insider Trading info, or a really hot Tarot Deck, and your Minor Arcana keeps coming up Morte and le Pendu and le Catastrophe.

Tell Vleeptron what you see.

Tell Vleeptron what you saw.

Tell Vleeptron what you will have seen.

Tell Vleeptron what you're going to see.

If you are or have been or will have been seen by Vleeptron, spill it. We want the skinny, what's the 411?

Meanwhile, I wish you all -- Adventure! Ah shit, let me see if I can find this speech ...

Found it!

BARNABY

The test of an adventure is that when you're in the middle of it, you say to yourself, 'Oh, now I've got myself into an awful mess; I wish I were sitting quietly at home.' And the sign that something is wrong with you is when you sit quietly at home wishing you were out having lots of adventure.

(a few more summing-up words, Final Curtain)

-- "The Matchmaker," by Thornton Wilder

"The Matchmaker" -- and "Ferris Beuller's Day Off," and "Hello, Dolly!" and about a dozen other pieces of drama, musical-comedy and cinema -- is descended from John Oxenford's 1835 farce "A Day Well Spent," which was translated and lengthened into "Einen Jux will er sich machen" by Austrian playwright Johann Nestroy in 1842. Tom Stoppard has a version, set in Vienna at a season in which everyone is wearing kilts and Scottish Highlands attire, called "On the Razzle." It's a lot of fun, the best I've yet seen from this curious and ancient lineage. It's pretty filthy, but in a good-hearted sort of way. But it's pretty filthy. It's about the filthiest thing I ever saw on a stage -- and I once acted in "Lysistrata" wearing a giant synthetic erection under my tunic.

Stoppard addresses a rarely-asked question:

If you spend 15 years, hours and hours every day, staring down or ahead at the heaving, sweating, shaking, undulating, quivering monstrous buttocks of one or two dray horses, what effects might it have on your personality and behavior?

PS. If I'm all full of shit and totally wrong about the mathematics and physics of The Einstein-Minkowski Light Cone, PLEASE feel free to tell me. Send Vleeptron some equations. Specific numbers. Shock & Awe me. Rock my world.

"La Granja" / Mexican drug gang ballad, but in code, tells story of murderous new phase of drug industry

"La Granja" is the No. 1 hit song in Mexico right now. It's a new breed of song -- a narcocorrido, but in code, so radio stations that won't play overt and obvious (and highly popular and beloved) drug gang ballads can't find a clear reason to censor or ban "La Granga."

The lyrics and story roughly reflect George Orwell's novel "Animal Farm." "La Granja" was released as a video cartoon of the story; the cartoon will help tell the story and the meaning.

SOUND ON
OPEN IN NEW WINDOW

The female dog, la perra, is Mexico's hugely profitable and increasingly murderous illegal drug industry -- chiefly cocaine, heroin and marijuana. Nearly all of it is smuggled into the United States, where the demand and the money are.

Drug-gang violence, both in Mexico and in near-border USA cities like Phoenix, Arizona, are at a historic high. Since former Presidente Vincente Fox began a crackdown on drug gangs and their corrupt government and law-enforcement partners in 2006, about 13,000 people have been murdered in drug-related violence, according to the newspaper USA Today.

The English translation may be very iffy; if you can do better, por favor give it a whack, and mil gracias from Vleeptron.

************

La Granja (The Farm)

from the album La Granja (2009)
by Los Tigres Del Norte

Si la perra esta amarrada
Aunque ladre todo el día
No la deben de soltar
Mi abuelito me decía
Que podrían arrepentirse
Los que no la conocían

Por el zorro lo supimos
Que llego a romper los platos
Y la cuerda de la perra
La mordió por un buen rato
Y yo creo que se soltó
Para armar un gran relajo

Los puerquitos le ayudaron
Se alimentan de la granja
Diario quieren más maíz
Y se pierden las ganancias
Y el granjero que trabaja
Ya no les tiene confianza

Se cayó un gavilán
Los pollitos comentaron
Que si se cayó solito
O los vientos lo tumbaron
Todos mis animalitos
Por el ruido se espantaron

El conejo esta muriendo
Dentro y fuera de la jaula
Y a diario hay mucho muerto
A lo largo de la granja
Porque ya no hay sembradíos
Como ayer con tanta alfalfa

En la orilla de la granja
Un gran cerco les pusieron
Para que sigan jalando
Y no se vaya el granjero
Porque la perra no muerde
Aunque el no este de acuerdo

Hoy tenemos día con día
Mucha inseguridad
Porque se soltó la perra
Todo lo vino a regar
Entre todos los granjeros
La tenemos que amarrar

*********

The Farm

If the dog is stingy
even if she barks all day long
they don't have to let her loose
my grandfather used to tell me
that those who didn't know her
could regret it

[the fox refers to former Mexican Presidente Vincente Fox.]

thanks to the fox we came to know
that it started to break the plates
I think the dog bit at her rope for a long time
and finally broke free
and then she really made a mess

the pigs helped her
they feed themselves
thanks to the farm

every day they want more corn
and they lose profits
and the farmer who works there
isn't so confident about them

[The next stanza refers to the mysterious crash of a Learjet carrying Mexico's Interior minister on 4 November 2008.]

a sparrowhawk fell to the ground
the chicks discussed that
whether he fell on his own
or it was the wind that knocked him
the noise scared all my animals

the rabbit is going to die
in and out of the cage
and every day a lot of them die
all over the farm
because the field isn't sown anymore
as it was yesterday with a lot of alfalfa

they laid siege to
the borders of the farm
so that they continue to work
and the farmer doesn't go away
because the dog doesn't bite
even if he disagrees

today we're so insecure day by day
because the dog broke free
everybody knows it now
all we farmers have to tie her up.

First Day Issue / TdSPosta / Vleeptron New Smile Project Phase 3 / cursed to live for eternity as a high school boy

Click image for larger and more disgusting.

First Day Issue / Tierra de los Sueños / TdSPosta
Vampyr3000 / Vleeptron New Smile Project Phase 3

Soon -- maybe a month from now -- I will have Tom Cruise's Smile, and the damn thing will actually chew solid food just like I used to be able to!

But now ... well, about 2 weeks ago, this is what my mouth looked like. Vampyr 3000, all surgical steel and titanium.

I could tell it was so geeky horrible that I asked the dentist if he could take a photo of my mouth while these crazy things were in them. He thought that was a nifty request and ran to get his digital camera. He just sent me the photo via e-mail.

Technically these 4 tall black metal posts are called Pickup Impression Copings. While they were screwed into my jawbone, they made 4 marks in a soft gooey template, which will be the model for my lower teeth. They'll snap into four gold buttons. This procedure lines up the snaps on my gumline with the buttons on the denture.

By the year 3000, this is what Vampires, and other people who like to put on a jewelry and metal show in their mouth, will look like. Behold Vampyr 3000!

The face is Max Schreck, the actor who played Nosfaratu in the 1922 F.W. Murnau silent movie "Nosferatu," aka Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens (translated as Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror; also known as Nosferatu: A Symphony of Terror.)

Why is the entire entertainment industry so whacky about vampires?

In the early days of Vampires -- the Bram Stoker novel, the silent movies, Bela Legosi -- Vampires were either late middle-aged or incredibly old. Old guys drooling all over innocent young virgins, and sucking their blood, turning them into their Undead Love Slaves for Eternity.

Now all the vampires are teenage high school California pumped hunk Todds. Fascinating. Teenage high school vampires. Color me thrilled.

My guess is that High School Romance is aleady so confused and miserable and doomed that some producer decided Vampires would make a great metaphor for 16-year-old high school love -- finally an explanation of why everything's so painful, doomed, unsuccessful and miserable at that age.

That would indeed be Hell: To have to live forever as a high school student.

They need a Miracle along the way to Sainthood

Click image to enlarge saints.

I Need a Miracle

performed by The Grateful Dead
by John Perry Barlow and Robert Hall Weir

I need a woman bout twice my age
A lady of nobility, gentility and rage
Splendor in the dark, lightning on the draw
We'll go right through the book
and break each and every law

I got a feeling and it won't go away, oh no
Just one thing then I'll be okay
I need a miracle every day

I need a woman bout twice my height
statuesque, raven-dressed, a goddess of the night
Her secret incantations, a candle burning blue
We'll consult the spirits
maybe they'll know what to do

And it's real and it won't go away, oh no
I can't get around and I can't run away
I need a miracle every day

I need a woman bout twice my weight
A ton of fun who packs a gun with all her freight
find her in a sidewhow, leave her in L.A.
Ride her like a surfer running on a tidal wave

And it's real, believe what I say, yeah
Just one thing I got to say
I need a miracle every day

It takes dynamite to get me up
Too much of everything is just enough
One more thing I just got to say
I need a miracle every day
I need a miracle every day
I need a miracle every day (got to be the only way)
I need a miracle

© ICE NINE PUBLISHING CO INC

============================

The Times (London UK)
Saturday 19 December 2009

Pope John Paul II and Pope Pius XII
move closer to sainthood

by Simon Alford

[photo:] File picture showing late Pope Pius XII on his 80th birthday on March 11,1956. (AFP/Getty/Unknown) 'Heroic': Pope Pius XII

The controversial wartime pope accused of failing to openly condemn the Holocaust has moved a step closer to sainthood, the Vatican has confirmed.

Pope Pius XII will be declared venerable after the current pontiff Pope Benedict XVI approved a "heroic virtues decree," the first of three stages before canonisation.

To be declared venerable, a church investigation has to conclude that the person in question lived a life of exemplary holiness and heroic virtue. There must be nothing in the dead person’s writings that enables these characteristics to be challenged.

Pope Benedict has also agreed to declare his predecessor Pope John Paul II venerable, just four years after his death, it has been announced.

Related Links

* Pope John Paul II on fast track to sainthood
* Senior scholars join forces to protest
* Pope 'silent on Holocaust set to be saint'

Jewish groups had asked the pope to delay the process for Pius XII until further World War Two archives could be studied. He reigned from March 1939 until his death in 1958, and opponents claim he failed to explicitly speak out against Hitler or openly offer support to Jewish people.

Both Jewish and Catholic scholars have complained that Vatican archives on Pius XII are only fully accessible for the years up to 1939. It is understood the Vatican has said the 16,000,000 files relating to Pius XII's 19-year reign will not be ready for public viewing until 2014 at the earliest.

“We are saddened and disappointed that the pontiff would feel compelled to fast-track Pope Pius at a point where the issue of the record, the history and the coming to a judgment, is still wide open,” said Abraham Foxman, a Holocaust survivor and the director of the US-based Anti-Defamation League.

The Vatican has maintained that Pius XII worked behind the scenes during the war, fearing that any direct intervention may have worsened the situation for both Jews and Catholics.

In his wartime Christmas broadcasts on Vatican Radio, Pius XII offered support for "those who, although personally blameless, have simply on account of their nationality and origin been killed or reduced to utter destitution."

Elan Steinberg, vice president of the American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors and their Descendants, added: “We are left bereft in our feelings.”

Pope Benedict was first asked to make the decree in 2007, but put the process on hold while asking for a "period of reflection."

But the decision has received some support.

The Reverend Peter Gumpel, a German Jesuit priest and church historian who has spent 20 years supporting Pius XII's cause and has championed him as a defender of the Jews, said he was "delighted" by the decision.

“I’m glad that the truth has been professed,” he said. "The accusation that he was anti-Semitic or anti-Judaic is absolute nonsense.”

Pope John Paul has been on a fast track to sainthood since his death in 2005, after normal church rules, that prevent the process beginning for five years, were dispensed with.

Crowds had chanted “Santo subito!” (“a saint at once”) at his funeral, following his 27-year papacy.

Being declared venerable is the first of three stages which need to be completed.

The former pontiff is expected to be beatified, the second step, next year in recognition for a miracle. To complete the third stage to sainthood, John Paul must be recognised for a second miracle before he can canonised.

Last year Monsignor Slawomir Oder, the official in charge of the beatification process, finished a 2,000-page document summarising evidence that John Paul, who was the first non-Italian pope in 450 years, should be made a saint.

More than 250 claims of miracles have been made. One investigated in 2006 was that of French nun, Sister Marie-Simon-Pierre, who was cured of Parkinson’s disease.

Doctors declared her cure “scientifically inexplicable” after her sisters prayed for the late Pope’s intercession and she found herself able to pick up a pen and write.

In September next year the Venerable John Henry Newman, an English Cardinal who died in 1890, will be beatified during a visit by Pope Benedict to Britain.

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Mayon, Philippines: Earth's scariest, noisiest, most dangerous erupting volcano this week

Click image for larger.

a Christmas gift for Bethlehem's pilgrims

Tradition holds that Jesus was born in Bethlehem -- in Hebrew/Ivrit, Bet Lechem, House of Bread, probably a community of bakers 2000 years ago. Bethlehem is a tiny town on the outskirts of Jerusalem, but nearly sealed off and suffocated socially and economically from the rest of the world by "The Thing" -- Israel's Separation Barrier, an architectural descendant of The Berlin Wall designed to keep human beings imprisoned, isolated, and prevented from free travel.

Bethlehem is not in Israel, but in the Israeli-controlled West Bank territories taken by military force in the 1967 war between Israel and neighboring Arab/Muslim nations.

One of the most famous religious pilgrimages on Earth is the Christmas pilgrimage to Bethlehem to celebrate the birth of Jesus -- nobody can nail the exact date, but it was during the reign of the first Roman Emperor, Caesar Augustus. Jesus' parents went to Bethlehem in obedience to a Roman tax census, and finding no room at the inn, the child was born in a stable filled with farm animals.

Maybe I'll write more about the Suffocation of Bethlehem and the annual traditional world-class insult and military impediment to Christian Pilgrims, but for now, here's something of a Christmas Present -- if you can perceive the temporary restoration of the fundamental human right of travel and religious worship as a gift.

This "gift" is like thanking a hoodlum for not beating you up anymore.

IDF is Israel's military forces, Israel Defense Force. It falls to the IDF to stick weapons in the faces of Pilgrims trying to reach Bethlehem at Christmas.

There are appropriate, even honorable, worthy jobs for soldiers. This is not one of them -- using weapons to interfere with religious activities and worship.

But it seems as if this Christmas, Pilgrims are getting an easier time to visit Manger Square, Bethlehem. Merry Christmas to them all!

~ ~ ~

Jewish Telegraphic Agency
(newswire founded 1919, headquartered in New York City)
Thursday 24 December 2009

West Bank Palestinians
entering Israel

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- An unlimited number of West Bank Palestinians will be allowed to enter Israel for holiday and family gatherings.

More than 10,000 permits valid between Dec. 20 and Jan. 20 have already been issued, according to the IDF spokesperson and the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories spokesman in a statement released Thursday.

In addition, 300 Christian-Palestinian residents of the Gaza Strip over the age of 35 will be allowed to enter the West Bank for 24 hours during the Christmas holiday. Another 300 Christian Palestinians will be permitted to cross to the Ben Gurion International Airport. These permits will be issued subject to a security clearance.

During the holiday season, all the crossings into Bethlehem will be open 24 hours a day, according to an IDF official. Additional staff from the Civil Administration in Judea and Samaria are scheduled to help ensure easy passage for visitors.

"Israeli security forces will continue to operate in order to ensure freedom of religion and normal way of life for Palestinians uninvolved in terrorism," the statement said.

- 30 -

Bob is transformed into the Vampyr of the Future

Click image -- if you dare!

News from Republic of Gilead: Oklahoma legislature strangles women's privacy and reproductive health rights

I don't think I'll be setting foot in Oklahoma anytime soon.

I've been there, a long time ago, and I liked it.

But Oklahoma no longer seems to be in the United States of America.

~ ~ ~

CNN / Cable News Network
Friday 18 December 2009

Online posting of women's
abortion information
challenged in Oklahoma

by Wayne Drash, CNN

(CNN) -- A judge in Oklahoma extended on Friday a temporary restraining order on a law that would post information online about women who get abortions in the state.

In extending the restraining order, Oklahoma County District Judge Daniel Owens denied the state's motion to dismiss the case, putting the measure on hold until a February 19 hearing.

"We are very pleased with today's ruling. This law is a profound intrusion on women's privacy and a waste of taxpayers' money," attorney Jennifer Mondino of the Center for Reproductive Rights said in a written statement. The New York-based center had filed a suit on behalf of former state Rep. Wanda Jo Stapleton and another Oklahoma resident.

"Women in Oklahoma should not have to jump through hoops to access legal medical care and the government has no business violating the state constitution to impose those obstacles," Mondino said.

The law, passed in May, requires doctors to fill out a 10-page questionnaire for every abortion performed, including asking the woman about her age, marital status, race and years of education. In all, there are 37 questions the women are [required] to answer.

Critics say the act would be harassment and an invasion of privacy.

State Sen. Todd Lamb helped draft the abortion legislation and describes it as "a common sense measure with bipartisan support." He said the left has tried to skew the law's intent through a campaign of misinformation.

"We're not trying to embarrass anybody, hurt anybody or make anybody's identities known. That's not the purpose of the legislation," the Republican lawmaker said.

"We want to collect hard data that can be a useful tool in helping prevent future unwanted pregnancies."

One section of the "Individual Abortion Form" says the woman must state her reason for seeking an abortion and answer this checklist. "Having a baby:

• Would dramatically change the life of the mother;
• Would interfere with the education of the mother;
• Would interfere with the job/employment/career of the mother."

A Democratic former state legislator called the law "abusive and invasive."

"Nosy neighbors with some effort could identify or, even worse, misidentify these women who answer these questions," said Stapleton.

Lamb, who is running for lieutenant governor, rejects that notion. How can it violate women's privacy, Lamb said, if their identity is kept confidential?

The measure specifies women's identities will be protected. "Nothing in the Individual Abortion Form shall contain the name, address or information specifically identifying any patient," it says.

"Nobody's identity will be made known," Lamb said.

Troy Newman, the head of the Kansas-based anti-abortion group Operation Rescue, said the law is "designed so that the pregnant mother can have as much information as technology and medicine will allow."

"Naturally, the abortion industry wants to block this, because they know the more information the mom has, the less likely she is to abort her baby," Newman said.

The Center for Reproductive Rights argues that the measure is unconstitutional and in violation of the state's "single subject rule" because it covers different aspects of abortion. The law also bars women from seeking abortions solely because of the sex of the fetus, with fines up to $100,000 for doctors who "knowingly violate" it.

"We are very committed from keeping the law from going into effect," Mondino said. "The law represents a very serious invasion of women's privacy interests."

Lamb said he believes the law will stand. "None of the bill is being challenged on the merits of the legislation," he says.

Abortion rights supporters are extremely concerned about the intrusiveness of the questions, and fear that identities of women could be compromised, especially in small communities.

"It requires doctors to ask and submit answers to at least 37 intensely personal questions. There are details in those questions about rape, incest, abuse, relationship problems and emotional health," Stapleton said. "I think women can be identified."

According to state estimates, the Oklahoma State Department of Health will spend roughly $250,000 a year to carry out the law.

"To spend a quarter of a million dollars on this is absolutely ridiculous," Stapleton said, adding, "Oh goodness, all the publicity over this has severely blighted the image of Oklahoma."

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 1969 drafted criteria for vital statistics around abortion to look at infant and maternal mortality in an effort to make the procedure safer.

The CDC's guidelines have long been considered the standard and "all the states pretty much follow that," said Elizabeth Nash, who tracks state abortion legislation for the Guttmacher Institute.

"You compare the law in Oklahoma to the CDC standard, and you see the law in Oklahoma goes far beyond what has been considered appropriate for vital statistics purposes," Nash said.

The law's co-sponsor, Lamb, said legislators drafted the measure using portions of a Guttmacher study. "Some of this was gleaned from the Guttmacher Institute," he said. "It's not Draconian."

"If we collect this evidence, we can better treat, we can better counsel, we can better provide alternatives," Lamb said.

Why draft the legislation?

"I'm pro-life," he said. "Oklahoma is a conservative state. We are a pro-life state, and I believe it's important public policy to stand on the side of sanctity of life."

Stapleton, who served in the state House of Representatives from 1986 to 1996, said the law is another example of the GOP "onslaught" in recent years in Oklahoma, with lawmakers taking aim at abortion.

"They're trying to do away with abortions completely," she said. "They can't because of Roe v. Wade. But they're finding ways around Roe v Wade."

If the law does go forward, the state Department of Health is to have the Web site up and running by March 1, 2011. Doctors are to begin submitting completed questionnaires 30 days later.

- 30 -