Former German Minister of Defense and Minister of Technology Andreas Von Buelow has written Die CIA und der 11. September (9/11 and the CIA), a book based on dubious sources, which claims the government was involved in the attacks. A sampling of Von Buelow’s argument is available here.
The book is notable, if for no other reason, because it is one of three 9/11 conspiracy books that have been on the German bestseller list. According to one poll, 20% of Germans believe the Bush administration staged the attacks to advance his case for world domination. That’s a sizable number and illustrates how strong the anti-Bush sentiment is in Europe.
Schwarzenegger Would Accept Gay Marriage
This should take a little shine off the Schwarzenegger star at the Republican National Convention this summer:
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, wading even deeper into the debate over gay and lesbian unions, said he would be “fine” with same-sex marriage if California voters approved it and proclaimed he had “no use” for a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.
Schwarzenegger made the comments Monday on the “Tonight Show with Jay Leno,” two days before President Bush is scheduled to arrive in California, putting the Republican governor in direct opposition to the Republican president on a divisive issue in an election year.
There’s also been a little gay marriage flare up in New York. It’s interesting how muted the opposition to gay marriage among state officials has been there, too. Apparently, the gay rights lobby pulls a lot of weight in both states.
Tracking Money
Ashura Bombings
Clearly not a good day in Iraq. Thus far we’ve dodged the biggest potential land mine there–ethnic turmoil. And there’s no immediate indication that today’s violence has changed that. But you have to wonder how much more of this a nation can take before things become unglued.
Water on Mars?
According to Space.com, NASA is scheduled to have a “major press event” today “to announce ‘significant findings’ about water on Mars.”
I’m don’t know what the evidence is; even if I did, I might not understand it. I wonder though: given the mission’s $820 million price tag, isn’t there quite an incentive to puff up the findings to justify the cost?
Blog Stats
The Pew Internet & American Life Project conducted a survey which finds, among other things, that:
2% maintain Web diaries or Web blogs, according to respondents to this phone survey. In other phone surveys prior to this one, and one more recently fielded in early 2004, we have heard that between 2% and 7% of adult Internet users have created diaries or blogs. In this survey we found that 11% of Internet users have read the blogs or diaries of other Internet users. About a third of these blog visitors have posted material to the blog.
I’ve conducted independent research and find that slightly more than 0.00000% of Internet users regularly read Resonance.