New York’s health department is to release what may be the world’s first municipally branded condom.

The city, which distributes 1m free condoms a month, wants to create its own distinctive packaging to help track and promote condom use.

“We wanted to develop condom packaging that was noticeable and memorable so that we can later track the effectiveness of our distribution,” said Sandra Mullin, a spokeswoman for the health and mental hygiene department. “We also aim to use the packaging to promote condom use and awareness.”
Although there were no details of what images the packaging would carry, city officials have said the New York condom is not part of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s larger branding campaign, which includes products that use the logos of the police and fire departments. Royalties from sales go to the city.

The health department has expanded condom distribution to help stop the spread of Aids and other diseases in the city.

The Free Condom Initiative, a web-based programme to distribute condoms to social services organisations, was launched in June 2005.

While some New Yorkers may welcome condoms bearing an image of the Statue of Liberty or the slogan “I(heart)NY”, others were not impressed.

“That’s not the place that you want people to think of New York City,” said Reverend Bill Banuchi, executive director of the state’s Christian Coalition. He said it was “absurd” to spend taxpayers’ money on “such a base concept”.

The burning question? Just how are they going to track their use????

I have a much better idea:

They’ll never even get opened and it solves everything, Kinda like a fruitcake. You just need one and you pass it around forever.

I’m sick today and decided to spend the day being a complete lay-about watching the SciFi channel.  After two wonderful episodes of the classic Twilight Zone (they never get old, BTW) the SciFi channel whose job it is to show Science Fiction started airing a program which had no business on it’s station.

Was it Fantasy? No, that would have been acceptable.

Was it a conspiracy-minded X-Files or X-files rip-off?  No, again acceptable.

No, it was Passions, a Soap Opera and from the 5 minutes I sat there shocked and disbelieving that it was on SciFi I came to a conclusion that it is a bad Soap. A very bad soap.

Oh how the mighty has fallen.

if I remembered who/where, I’d tell ya...

in re the White House Press Corps recent pathetic tantrum:
From here on out—for the duration of the administration—each and every White House press release ought to be given, in series, to the Wichita Times, the Pierre Post, the Tampa Tribune, the BFE Shopper News, and so on.

*goes out to chase squirrels*

In her science project,] [t]he 12-year-old compared the ice used in the drinks with the water from toilet bowls in the same restaurants. ...

Her discovery: Seventy percent of the time, the ice had more bacteria than the toilet water.

...Of the bacteria found in the ice, three out of the five restaurants tested positive for fecal coliform or E. coli…

Hugh Hewitt: Okay. And so you’re basing your suspicion that the Vice President was drunk on Harvard football game tailgating parties?

Larry O’Donnell: No. That’s just a rhetorical flourish. I’m basing it on this, Hugh. I’m basing it on, I believe the Vice President is very smart. I believe Karl Rove is very, very smart. I believe the President is very smart about a situation like this being brought to him at 7:30PM on a Saturday night. Those three people decided we cannot let this out tonight, and I believe they decided it for a very smart reason.

Audio

H/T: DB

On at least the first part of my post concerning what Cheney should do.

Though she does not come to the next logical conclusion.

Dear schitzoids,

Since so many of you so often throw Bush’s “relationship” with the Saudis and Bin Laden family....and all your conspiracy theories you’ve spawned from that....and it’s soooooo eeeeeeeevil...just think! You have a chance to make sure it doesn’t happen again! Gore’s recent paid for junket to go there and seDISS the very country that he was Vice President of and aspires to be President of....seems to put him in their pocket pretty tight, no?.
Bet you didn’t even think of that, huh.

SondraK

Shopkeepers in central England have been trying out a new device that emits an uncomfortable high-pitched noise designed to disperse young loiterers outside their stores without bothering adults.

Police carrying out the pilot project in Staffordshire say some of those who have tested the “Sonic Teenager Deterrent,” nicknamed the mosquito, have talked of buying one of their own.

The device which costs 622 pounds (908 euros, 1,081 dollars) “doesn’t cause any pain to the hearer,” according to Inspector Amanda Davies, quoted by Britain’s domestic Press Association news agency.

“The noise can normally only be heard by those between 12 and 22 and it makes the listener feel uncomfortable,” she added.

Once in their early 20s, people lose their capacity to hear sounds at such a high pitch.

We’re filthy with teenagers in my neighborhood…

I have failed us....

Capitol Chat Transcript: Liberal comedian, author and radio host Al Franken

Moderator: Welcome to The Olympian’s Capitol Chat. I’m your moderator, State Government Reporter Adam Wilson. Our guest today is liberal author and radio host Al Franken.

Kevin, Lacey: I heard you might run for senator in Minnesota. I know a lot of people find you out-of-touch with mainstream America and too far to the left. In an attempt to reach out to more conservative voters, would you consider going hunting with vice president Cheney?

HOW IN HELL DID WE MISS THIS?!?!
*I* wanted to ask Al Franken stupid questions.

“It was a typical clear and hot day when we were conducting a patrol just south of Fallujah with 15 Marines and five vehicles,” said von Kraus, then the platoon commander of 1st Platoon, Company A, 1st Reconnaissance Battalion, 1st Marine Division from Boston. “I had one of my three-man teams conduct a security sweep to our rear, and they opened fire on a group of insurgents who were setting up an ambush on a concrete overpass.”

Read More

I feel that currently my beloved country is being pissed upon rather too much. Denmark has not been neglecting its duties on the international stage. We have supported poor people with acts and advice, we have worked for peace, we have sent soldiers, policemen and experts to all the far flung corners of the world. We have democracy, a rule of law and a welfare state. Not all is perfect, but we harbor no malice towards our fellow men.

I’m sure Linda won’t mind me lifting her graphic. It looks like something we all need to button on our sites.

The folks at ABC who didn’t want to offend mooselimbs by showing the cartoons have newly leaked Abu Grahib photos up on their site.

I wrote them an e-mail telling them how impressed I was at their journalistic standards and what pillars of free speech they had become. *SPIT*

---MCPO Airdale

Thanks Airdale....
That means even more after hearing that even All Jizz decided to be a bit prudent:

Some key Iraqi officials urged their countrymen to react calmly since the pictures were old and the offenders had been punished.

In the Middle East, where there have been widespread anti-Western protests recently over caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad, Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya TV aired some of the Australian station’s footage but refrained from using the most shocking and sexually explicit images. CNN also broadcast excerpts.

Iraq’s acting human rights minister, Nermine Othman, said she was “horrified” by the pictures and would study whether any action could be taken against those responsible, even though some offenders have been imprisoned.

“There will be two kinds of reactions from Iraqis,” she told The Associated Press. “One will be anger and others will feel sorry that they (SBS) didn’t give them to the Iraqi government to investigate. Why use them? Why show them? We have had enough suffering and we don’t want any more.”

...and even Iraq’s acting human rights minister doesn’t see the point.

To add to my twisted segue, I’m in the middle of watching Triump of the Will…
perhaps someone can get Mikey Moore to have a view of it and see how it’s done and the rest of his ilk can learn what propaganda actually is.
Not to mention how retarded it is to Call Bush Hitler and us conservatives, Nazis.

Alright. I’ll step away from the bong now.

Detroit media is abuzz with reports about 16(!) pilots at Detroit Metro Airport being targeted with blinding laser pointers.

And guess where the laser pointers’ strobes are coming from?

Surprise, surprise--law enforcement investigators have pinpointed the lasers to Dearborn and Dearborn Heights--the HEART of Islamic America. We like to call it by a more appropriate appellation: “Little Ramallah.”

In fact, Dearborn Heights is the location of the Hezbollah Mosque (at which the feds kowtowed). Another location from which the laser pointers emanated, Michigan Avenue and Telegraph Road, is in the heart of Dearborn’s most extremist Muslim population.

It’s Dick Cheney!!!

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - Oil prices fell for the fourth straight session Wednesday, tumbling below $58 a barrel, after a government report showed crude stockpiles ballooned four times as much as traders and analysts on Wall Street had expected.
U.S. light sweet crude for March delivery fell $1.92 to settle at $57.65 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Just before the Energy Information Administration released its inventory report, the contract was up 29 cents to $59.86.

The government report showed crude supplies swelled by 4.9 million barrels in the week ended Feb. 10 to 325.6 million barrels, the highest level since the end of June. The rise more than exceeded estimates for a build of 1.2 million barrels.

Gasoline stocks rose for the seventh straight week, jumping by 2.2 million barrels to 225.5 million barrels, their highest level since June 1999, the EIA said. Analysts were looking for a 1.6 million barrel jump in gasoline supplies.

Crude prices edged up right after the report before turning lower.

“We’re building up crude stocks, we’re very comfortable on supplies worldwide,” said Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst at New Jersey-based Oil Price Information Service.

Oil prices have steadily declined over the past two weeks, losing about 13 percent since the start of February.

On Tuesday, the front-month crude contract fell below $60 for the first time in 2006, while gas futures sank as low as $1.3849 a gallon, their lowest in nearly a year.