NEW YORK (Fortune) -- When the story first came out, the only appropriate response was sympathy. Jon Corzine, the well-regarded governor of New Jersey and former co-CEO of Goldman Sachs (Charts, Fortune 500), was critically injured last week in an accident on the Garden State Parkway. He was flown by helicopter to a hospital in Camden with a broken leg, collarbone, a dozen ribs, and other injuries. owwww dat hurtz...and dat too.. owww
The initial description of the incident steered the blame away from Corzine and focused attention on another driver. According to newspaper reports based on accounts by authorities, the Chevy Suburban in which Corzine was riding hit a guardrail on the parkway after swerving to avoid another driver in a red pickup truck who was pulling off the shoulder. Corzine was thrown from the front seat of the vehicle into the back seat and badly beaten up. biff.. smack..thump..crunch.. snap Bwaaaaa Fact Number One: Why was Corzine thrown around the inside of the vehicle? Simple - he wasn't wearing a seat belt. "It was not his habit," said a former aide, Scott Kisch, to Newsday. Not, not wearing a seat belt *WAZ* a bad habit.
Not wearing a seat belt happens to be a violation of New Jersey state law. It is also beyond stupid. I won't drive down my driveway to the mailbox without buckling up. mailbox you say? No shiite? well that's just plain stoopid. Fact Number Two: Corzine was going too fast - way too fast. absolutely brilliant! now dey don't make 'em like dey used to. Getr that man a Pulitzer!
When originally questioned about the accident, Corzine's driver, a state trooper, had told investigators he didn't know how fast he was driving. A state police official added that speed was "not a factor" in the accident. But a crash data recorder in the Suburban told another story. It turns out that Corzine was leading a two-car caravan with emergency lights flashing that was going down the road at 91 miles per hour. The speed limit on the parkway is 65 mph. "with emergency lights flashing" oh now that chaps my hide bawaaa, and i'll bet the lucky dawg waz making siren sounds too bawaaa! Fact Number Three: The state police driver had been involved in four - count 'em, four - previous accidents, two while on duty. One hopes that Corzine selects better-qualified people for other state jobs. Bwaaaaaaa! Fact Number Four: Police caught up with the driver of that red pickup they said caused the accident. But it turns out he wasn't responsible. He had pulled over the side of the road to make way for Corzine's motorcade, its lights blaring. When he swerved back on the road, another pickup truck behind him swerved to avoid hitting him, and collided with the Suburban. The driver of the second truck wasn't to blame, either. you means it waz dat copper and the Gubnor's fault all along!
Concluded the New York Times, from which much of this account was gleaned: "It now seems clear that Mr. Corzine's own vehicle was responsible for the crash." NYT, all that's fit to [excuse my French] shit.
Red Dog
Posted by: The Regents of the University ||
04/19/2007 13:06 ||
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After 31 years of teaching English, Jim Vincent, an associate professor of English studies at Robert Morris University, has noticed a trend found on college campuses across the country: More students have mental health issues. Campuses across the country have been working to try to identify and help students with mental health issues. A spring 2006 survey of nearly 95,000 students on 117 campuses paints this portrait:
* Nearly half of the students felt so depressed it was difficult to function at least once during the prior academic year; 16 percent felt that way on at least five occasions.
* About 9 percent had seriously considered attempting suicide; about 1 percent had attempted it.
* Nearly two-thirds had felt things were hopeless at least once.
* More than 93 percent had felt overwhelmed by all they had to do at least once.
rest at link...
Posted by: Dave D. ||
04/19/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Take your average kid.
Tell him that his culture, nation, religion, parents, and (in the case of those descended from Europeans) his heredity are at best banal and boring but more likely evil and to be smashed.
Send him to a school for twelve years that reinforces this notion at every turn instead of making him proud to be a part of the greatest concept in politics and society that man has yet devised.
At the same time, said school tells him that he deserves the same self-esteem as a straight-A student or the captain of the basketball team or a kid who has a hard but rewarding job after school even if he has bad grades and sits around all day watching TV or video games.
Tell him that there is no such thing as objective truth, or right or wrong.
Make him live in an environment where he is constantly bombarded with messages that if something occurs in life that makes you work hard and have stress, that's just unfair and unhealthy. As a corollary, imbue him with the notion that it is the responsibility of some agency (union, government) outside of himself to make sure that he always has an income stream that he'll never have to spend an iota of mind energy worrying about.
Provide him with entertainment that is masquerading as art which does nothing to goad him to think or have a long attention span or have decent cultural values. Also, make sure that the same entertainment implies that if his girlfriend has looks less than a supermodel or if (gulp!) he has to spend some of his life lonlely without a girlfriend, his existence is useless.
Then, if he's more energetic than normal, give him pyschotropic drugs to make his union teacher's job less stressful, and to alleviate his parents' fear that the neighbors might find out that their little one isn't perfect.
Any wonder that we've got all these messed up kids out there?
Posted by: no mo uro ||
04/19/2007 6:29 Comments ||
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#2
Wow. You been workin' on this manefesto for a long time, no mo uro?
I am impressed, and plan to e-mail your words to my group. Along with Dave D.'s summary of the article, of course.
Posted by: Bobby ||
04/19/2007 7:04 Comments ||
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#3
I don't know how much work went into it, but a lot of observation did.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
04/19/2007 7:41 Comments ||
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#4
no mo uro, you GET IT. I became pretty messed up emotionally in college, and it took me years to unravel why. I arrived at precisely your answer.
Universities are indoctrination centers -- they want students to be screwed up, to be victims, to be dependent, to hate "the system." The 60s radicals who run them figured out that there is no angry revolutionary proletariat, so they've basically manufactured one.
I'm not saying moonbat professors created Cho, but it comes as no surprise that every now and then you'll get a brittle one who goes off the deep end.
#5
"Then, if he's more energetic than normal, give him pyschotropic drugs..."
Hell, the bastards load the kids up with Ritalin even if they're normally energetic. Especially if they're male.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
04/19/2007 9:08 Comments ||
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#6
I'm not sure any of the indices mentioned in the article have actually increased over the years, but the diagnosis of them as "Mental Health Issues" has. So add to no mo uro's list that the "helping professions" in need of victims to treat, convince the student that he is in fact a victim in need of help.
Note also that unlike agriculture and manufacturing there is rarely any increase in the productivity of the "helping professions"; teaching, government, health care, law. Yet as fewer workers are needed in agriculture and manufacturing because of their gains in productivity more and more young people end up in jobs in the "helping professions". So these helpers need more and more victims to help and if they don't really exist, they need to be created. This will be a growing problem for our culture as the forces forvictimization become dominant.
#7
* Nearly half of the students felt so depressed it was difficult to function at least once during the prior academic year; 16 percent felt that way on at least five occasions.
- Keep working the feelings will fad away.
* About 9 percent had seriously considered attempting suicide; about 1 percent had attempted it.
- Keep working the feelings will fad away.
* Nearly two-thirds had felt things were hopeless at least once.
- Keep working the feelings will fad away.
* More than 93 percent had felt overwhelmed by all they had to do at least once.
#8
Hmmm.... mostly liberal environment. Self loathing. Hatred of anything that is progress. Taking away your hard earned material goods to give to lazy people. False guilt over false claims of environment disaster.
Gee, I wonder why people have mental health issues.
#9
Clinical depression can be a serious problem. However, being depressed once in a year (for a few days) does not constitute clinical depression. Feeling overwhelmed at least once in a year (like at finals time) is normal.
College is the first time students have to face the fact that they're on their own. It's like the brilliant idea somebody once had of releasing 'domestic' turkeys into the wild.
#12
Yeah, I had all those feelings, including running away to Sweden or Austrialia, because, you see, my generation had the Vietnam War as a backstop: flunk out and you're on the next plane to Apocalypse Now, and I wudnt smart enuf to be like Jon Carry.
Posted by: Bobby ||
04/19/2007 10:25 Comments ||
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#13
* Nearly half of the students felt so depressed it was difficult to function at least once during the prior academic year; 16 percent felt that way on at least five occasions.
Difficult to function? Once a year? That sounds normal. Five occasions? As post adolescents drinking and smoking all night? What do you expect?
* About 9 percent had seriously considered attempting suicide; about 1 percent had attempted it.
Obviously they all failed. I would question the seriousness of the attempts.
*Nearly two-thirds had felt things were hopeless at least once.
Try raising kids.
* More than 93 percent had felt overwhelmed by all they had to do at least once.
Felt overwhelmed? Who doesn't?
Serously, these things need to be taken with a grain of salt.
#15
Drug use is a big factor, too, I bet. Hydroponic Cannabis, crystal meth, crack cocaine are all contemporaneous with increased mental health disorders.
#16
Tell him that there is no such thing as objective truth, or right or wrong.
While your other points are well-made, nmu, this one's the real soul-killer. It demagnetizes your moral and ethical compass. It makes anything palatable, be it cults, criminal behavior or depravity. This line of pap has been fed to generations of American children. We are only now beginning to see the results. While Cho did undergo some undeserved ridicule and bullying that helped stoke his resentment, it is the above philosophical blank-out that helped him overcome any compunctions about killing so many people.
#17
No objective truth or right or wrong...Zen, this is Stalin's long term plan come to fruition. I'm often accused of being a nut when I talk about the ongoing/growing impact of communism on our society, but this was the centerpiece of Stalin's strategy to destroy our country and our way of life.
Teach your kids. Ingrain your traditions into them. Teach them right and wrong. Teach them and let them experience competition and loss. Only if they are well grounded will they be able to call bullshit on the drivel they will be fed at college.
Actually, Zenster, I reserve that term specifically for the emotion/sin of envy.
But it seems that Cho had that in spades as well.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
04/19/2007 17:32 Comments ||
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My grandma once noted that during times of war mental illness seems to diminish. She was a teacher and a very astute and social woman so I am inclined to believe her observations.
Those were the days when there was some hardship imposed on people when they went to war. Nowadays you wouldn't even know it except for what goes on in the news.
And back then people were more connected to reality and consequences and didn't think that milk "comes from the store". They had real things to do and it kept their minds occupied. I think that if your mind doesn't have something "important" to focus on then you lose it. Kids nowadays don't stand a chance. They teach them all this weird stuff at the expense of the stuff they need to know. More and more people take society country for granted. "It will always be there" seems to be the attitude. And like many have said here too much emphasis has been put on esteem and safety and insulation from the real world. How will they ever understand the idea that there are a bunch of people who want to turn the world into a hellhole? How are they going to recognize a threat that is anything other than a gun in their face? How are they going to figure out that dealing with a country that doesn't have these handicaps is not like dealing with an individual who wants to play nice?
I don't want to live in a society that only has 1% who can figure it out. They'll be paralyzed by the 99% who don't get it, and the political games that half of the 1% play simply to attain power for no purpose other than just to have it.
And I do believe that incidence of mental problems is on the rise. Look at autism. Look at the severe cases. Any moron could see there is a problem. The severe cases years ago were far less common as a percentage of the population than now. What about other severe mental illness? I'll bet they are all going up in parallel, but I could be wrong.
So the idea that work is very important to a human is very correct. I know I would do wierd things if all I had to do was play all the time. Maybe the socialists are onto something here, but the seem to have drawn a bunch of effed up conclusions from the idea that work is very central to a person.
#20
"the political games that half of the 1% play simply to attain power for no purpose other than just to have it"
This is precisely the price we pay for trying to get kids to a place of ultimate comfort and elimination of stress from their lives (like the ads where the suburban mommies put wrap their children in bubble wrap) - political ennui in the face of real existential danger.
I have a hunting/fishing buddy who is a millionaire many times over, but made sure his kids worked at hard blue collar jobs as soon as it was legal for them to do so. And he raised them in such a way that if they screwed up, they had to suffer the consequences (i.e., no insulating "bubble wrap").
They went to college - one does white collar work, the other went back to a blue collar-type business, which he now owns. If you met either of these kids, you'd never, EVER pick them out as a rich man's sons. They are down to earth, hard working, and decent folks who do NOT have the "beautiful person" demeanor. And neither of them, of course, are moonbats.
The ennui that forms that 1/2 of 1% can be cultivated, but so, too, can its antidote.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
04/19/2007 18:00 Comments ||
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The daughter of Space Adventures CEO Eric Anderson was among those injured Monday at Virginia Tech, where a student gunman killed 32 people and himself in the deadliest campus shooting in recent U.S. history. Anderson's step-daughter Kristina Heeger underwent surgery for three gunshot wounds following the Virginia Tech shooting in Blacksburg, Virginia, and is reportedly doing well, according to his assistant Terese Brewster.
"She is in stable condition and the prognosis is good," Brewster told Space News in an e-mail.
A University of Colorado student was arrested after making comments that classmates deemed sympathetic toward the gunman blamed for killing 32 students and himself at Virginia Tech, authorities said. During a class discussion of Monday's massacre at Virginia Tech, the student "made comments about understanding how someone could kill 32 people," university police Cmdr. Brad Wiesley said. Several witnesses told investigators the student said he was "angry about all kinds of things from the fluorescent light bulbs to the unpainted walls, and it made him angry enough to kill people," according to a police report. Witnesses "said they were afraid of him and afraid to come to class with him," Wiesley said. OK, looks like we have a problem here...
The student, identified by police as Max Karson of Denver, was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of interfering with staff, faculty or students of an education institution. He had a court appearance set for Wednesday afternoon. His father, Michael Karson, told the Camera newspaper that the comments may have been misinterpreted and questioned whether his son's free speech rights had been violated. ...as well as someone who doesn't see it.
"I would have hoped that state officials would know their First Amendment better than they seem to," he said. University spokesman Bronson Hilliard said privacy laws prevented him from releasing personal information about the student. ...including information that might end up protecting the public.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
04/19/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Read WND??? WND > article alleges that ALLAH, BUDDHA, etc. were invoked post-shooting.
#4
After the 'crusading' media in the 60s took on the warehousing and inadequate treatment of the mentally ill as in such productions as the Titicut Follies, the judiciary decided it was going to solve the problem by the usual dictates and decrees. One of which imposed an undo burden upon authorities to go well beyond reasonable doubt that an individual posed a immediate and undeniable threat to society. Since the ability to foretell the future still lacks judicial specifications, that means we the public pay in blood regularly because the butchers are left among us just waiting to kill. So in the aftermath of another blood bath, authorities then swing in the other direction seeking any and all means to cover their ass by hammering truly stupid people out of pure fear. The zero tolerance attitude brought to you by feeble administrators and lawyers who'll split a hair by atomic particles.
#5
Mark me as one of the crusaders who thinks we should not imprison people for their thoughts, only their actions. I'd hate to see who was in prison if President Hitlery Clinton could jail people for their thoughts.
#6
His father, Michael Karson, told the Camera newspaper that the comments may have been misinterpreted and questioned whether his son's free speech rights had been violated.
Given that this occurred during a class sob-fest, I mean discussion, I think it's entirely possible that what this person said was taken out of context / exaggerated. And, saying that someone's speech, on topic, in a classroom is interfering with with people is more than a tad bizarre.
For all I know this kid is just a conservative that is hated by the liberal establishment at that school.
I doubt that any of us have any where near enough information to make any kind of guess.
Two men were arrested Tuesday after they mistakenly called 911 when they were trying to page a drug dealer, police said. Paul White, 38, and Ryan Ogle, 25, punched 911 as an urgent code to the dealer when they made the call from a pay phone around 3 a.m., Sgt. Michael Olivieri said.
"No one said criminals are smart," Olivieri said.
Police traced the call and directed a patrol officer to the pay phone. When he arrived, the officer saw two men standing near the phone and a parked vehicle. A run of the car's license plate showed it was reported stolen. The officer searched the men and the car and found possible burglary tools, including saws, bolt cutters and a shaved ignition key. While in custody, officers also found a broken methamphetamine pipe hidden by one of the men, possibly in an attempt to destroy evidence. The men were booked for investigation of auto theft, possession of burglary tools, destruction of evidence and parole violation. Ogle was cited on a misdemeanor charge and released. White, who was on parole for a previous burglary violation, was being held on a parole violation, police said.
#1
I dunno'. I kinda' think the kid who emailed a buddy about "going for the record" and trying to kill 100+ fellow students and teachers at his high school might top this one.
Cho Had Harassed Two Female Students; Officials Concerned He Was Suicidal
A court found that Virginia Tech killer Seung-Hui Cho was "mentally ill" and potentially dangerous. Then it let him go.
In December 2005 -- more than a year before Monday's mass shootings -- a district court in Montgomery County, Va., ruled that Cho presented "an imminent danger to self or others." That was the necessary criterion for a detention order, so that Cho, who had been accused of stalking by two female schoolmates, could be evaluated by a state doctor and ordered to undergo outpatient care.
According to the "Temporary Detention Order" obtained by ABC News, psychologist Roy Crouse found Cho's "affect is flat and mood is depressed. "He denies suicidal ideation. He does not acknowledge symptoms of a thought disorder," Dr. Crouse wrote. "His insight and judgment are normal."
The evaluation came from a psychiatric hospital near Virginia Tech, where Cho was taken by police in December 2005, after two female schoolmates said they received threatening messages from him, and police and school officials became concerned that he might be suicidal.
After Dr. Crouse's psychological evaluation of Cho, Special Justice Paul M. Barnett certified the finding, ordering followup treatment on an outpatient basis. On the form, a box is checked, showing that Cho "presents an imminent danger to himself as a result of mental illness." Immediately below it was another box that is not checked: "Presents an imminent danger to others as a result of mental illness."
...The student complaints that brought Cho to the attention of authorities came during the same time that creative writing professor Lucinda Roy went to administrators to voice her concern about violent themes in Cho's writing. Roy told ABC News that Cho seemed "extraordinarily lonely -- the loneliest person I have ever met in my life."
[Roomate Joseph] Aust and another roommate, Karan Grewal, say they were aware that Cho had pursued women on campus. They said he also seemed to have an imaginary girlfriend, a supermodel named "Jelly."
Read the whole, sad thing...
Posted by: Dave D. ||
04/19/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Roy told ABC News that Cho seemed "extraordinarily lonely -- the loneliest person I have ever met in my life."
There was a reason for this. How sad that so many officials required proof of it first.
#7
My first comment about Monday's events was that we had to rethink our security.
Now we know that in fact our security managed to identify Cho accurately. Our security works, but we must not just drop the ball like in Cho's case.
He and others like him should be removed from regular contact with society. This is one of those times when Nurse Ratchett is the right choice.
#8
On the form, a box is checked, showing that Cho "presents an imminent danger to himself as a result of mental illness." Immediately below it was another box that is not checked: "Presents an imminent danger to others as a result of mental illness."
Are nuts allowed to buy hand guns? Seems someone didn't pass along a bit of useful information for the background checks.
Having worked with teachers for years, this one has some gumption! You may have known of this, I didn't. H/T Gathering of Eagles
Back in September of 2005, on the first day of school, Martha Cothren, a social studies school teacher at Robinson High School in Little Rock , did something not to be forgotten. On the first day of school, with permission of the school superintendent, the principal and the building supervisor, she took all of the desks out of the classroom.
The kids came into first period, they walked in, there were no desks. They obviously looked around and said, Ms. Cothren, wheres our desk?
And she said, You cant have a desk until you tell me how you earn them.
They thought, Well, maybe its our grades.
No, she said.
Maybe its our behavior.
And she told them, No, its not even your behavior.
And so they came and went in the first period, still no desks in the classroom. Second period, same thing. Third period was the same. By early afternoon, television news crews had gathered in Ms. Cothrens class to find out about this crazy teacher who had taken all the desks out of the classroom.
The last period of the day, Martha Cothren gathered her class. They were at this time sitting on the floor around the sides of the room. And she says, Throughout the day no one has really understood how you earn the desks that sit in this classroom ordinarily.
She said, Now Im going to tell you. Martha Cothren went over to the door of her classroom and opened it, and as she did 27 U.S. veterans, wearing their uniforms, walked into that classroom, each one carrying a school desk. And they placed those school desks in rows, and then they stood along the wall. And by the time they had finished placing those desks, those kids, for the first time I think perhaps in their lives, understood how they earned those desks.
Martha said, You dont have to earn those desks. These guys did it for you. They put them out there for you, but its up to you to sit here responsibly to learn, to be good students and good citizens, because they paid a price for you to have that desk, and dont ever forget it.
Verified as a true story. More history of this teacher is located here.
A Sudanese man has been forced to take a goat as his "wife", after he was caught having sex with the animal.
The goat's owner, Mr Alifi, said he surprised the man with his goat and took him to a council of elders.
They ordered the man, Mr Tombe, to pay a dowry of 15,000 Sudanese dinars ($50) to Mr Alifi.
"We have given him the goat, and as far as we know they are still together," Mr Alifi said.
Mr Alifi, of Hai Malakal in Upper Nile State, told the Juba Post newspaper that he heard a loud noise around midnight on 13 February and immediately rushed outside to find Mr Tombe with his goat.
"When I asked him: 'What are you doing there?', he fell off the back of the goat, so I captured and tied him up."
Mr Alifi then called elders to decide how to deal with the case.
#10
Yup, it was here a little over a year ago.
A5089 managed to find an article Last Updated: Friday, 24 February 2006
I'm still wondering if she counts as one of his four allowed wives and whether he will be able to treat the others as fairly as he treats her.
A young whale thrashed the water, beached itself at an oil depot dock and died suddenly on Wednesday after two days of swimming aimlessly in a small bay off an industrial section of Brooklyn. Animal activists said the minke whale, about a year old, had been too young to survive on its own.
"It's very sad," said Kim Durham, a rescue specialist at the Long Island-based Riverhead Foundation for Research and Preservation, who had monitored the troubled animal's activities around the clock. "It was a very young whale that became confused and disoriented."
The whale died about 5 p.m. The end was witnessed by spectators who had been drawn to the dock area in Gowanus Bay by news accounts of the whale. A police harbor boat secured the whale's carcass, estimated to weigh about 3,500 to 5,000 pounds, to the Hess Oil Co. dock, where it was to remain overnight. It was to be towed to an Army Corps of Engineers dock at Caven Point, in Jersey City, N.J., on Thursday for a necropsy by Riverhead marine experts, according to Peter Shugert, a Corps spokesman.
Durham had said earlier that "something's not right" about the whale's condition and where it was. "It would be great if we could say to the whale, `Say, "Ahhh," and stick your tongue out,'" she said.
#2
NYC's polluted waters may as well as killed fluffy bunnies, baby seals, and "strawberry shortcake" pink unicorns as far as Radical Enviros are concerned.
A dedication ceremony was held Wednesday afternoon to unveil street signs to define Philadelphia's famed "gayborhood."
Singing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," a group of about 100 gathered at the corner of 13th and Locust Streets, in the Washington West neighborhood, where one of 36 discreet rainbow signs were unveiled. The sign is the same size as the Locust Street sign and fastened directly beneath it.
Tami Sortman is president of the Philadelphia Gay Tourism Caucus: "Philadelphia four years ago started a gay-friendly campaign here to bring gay travelers into the city, and we felt that it was really important for these gay travelers to know when they are in the 'gayborhood' area. I live right here, just a block away, and I get people asking, 'Am I in the gayborhood yet?'"
Is this a great city, or what?
Posted by: Dave D. ||
04/19/2007 00:00 ||
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You welcome gays, I don't co there.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
04/19/2007 6:18 Comments ||
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#2
Clarification, this is a private matter, and should NOT be aired publicly.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
04/19/2007 6:20 Comments ||
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#3
They're taking that whole "City of Brotherly Love" thing a little too literally if you ask me.
Posted by: Mike ||
04/19/2007 6:47 Comments ||
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#4
Yeah, it used to be a private matter; now we're bombarded with this exhibitionistic crap 24/7.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
04/19/2007 6:51 Comments ||
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#5
"gayborhood" It sounds like the bad old days of red-lined communities where only the right kind of White people could buy houses.
#6
If you choose to you can live your life alone
Some people choose the city
Some others choose the good old family home
I like living easy without family ties
Till the whippoorwill of freedom zapped me
Right between the eyes
`Cause I live and breathe this Philadelphia freedom
From the day that I was born I've waved the flag
Philadelphia freedom took me knee-high to a man
Yeah gave me peace of mind my daddy never had
From the 1975 Elton John song Philadelphia Freedom, written in honor of Billie Jean King's tennis team, the Philadelphia Freedoms.
#13
Will the other neighborhoods be getting "Straight" signs?
No. But if you are a straight guy walking around in the gayborhood you can wear a sign so that you'll be left alone. The sign consists of 12" piece of duct tape placed horizontally across your butt.
BEIJING (AP) - Brush your teeth after eating garlic, be polite and don't smoke while driving. That was the message Wednesday to Beijing's taxi drivers...
Officials cautioned female cabbies against brightly dyed red or yellow hair and large, oversized earrings. Male drivers have been told to keep their hair short. And both were admonished to clean their cabs and brush away the garlic, a key ingredient in many Chinese dishes.
...They've also been told to stop spitting in public, prodded to speak better English and encouraged to form neat lines instead of pushing and shoving.
More Chinese pre-Olympic angst at link...
Posted by: Dave D. ||
04/19/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
I live in a city with something like 500,000 speakers of one or another Chinese dialect. Great local color and great food. But for the love of God, I wish someone would convince them to eat with their mouths closed. It is a barnyard sound.
Lt. Col. Jim Weaver retired at age 59 so he could be recalled to active duty and come to Afghanistan. His reason: "You don't get very many chances to build an army and a nation."
Considering that the life expectancy of an Afghan man is 43 and the median age is 17, Weaver, now 60, commands a great amount of respect from his Afghan National Army counterparts and the soldiers under them. As he walked around the 207th Corps., every ANA soldier he came across had a kind word or even a hug for him. It's clear that he is well-liked.
He has adopted the village Zangalah, which is about two miles from the base. The troops in Camp Stone affectionately refer to the village as Weaverville. "Afghanistan does not need an American solution for its problems. It needs an Afghan solution," Weaver said. In America, he said, we always are looking for the quick fix, but Afghanistan needs time.
Nice interview follows at link and there are links to many cool photos there as well.
#2
You'd be surprised, Blackvenom-2001. I've a neighbor, retired FBI, who went to Iraq for a year to run an investigation, just because they asked -- or so he said; I wouldn't be surprised if he'd made it known he was available. Mid-2005 to mid-2006, I think. Anecdotally a great many retired military tried to sign up after 9/11, but were told they were too old. Sheepdogs don't stop watching when they no longer go out with the herd. I learned that here.
This seems a good post to add this personal note: I just got word that my nephew will be "deployed soon." I use the quotes deliberately since that is literally all he is allowed to say about it. He's in the Navy and currently stationed at Ft. Meade, which is about all he's allowed to say about that. We'll only be able to contact him indirectly via his sister, who's also in the Navy.
On one hand, I don't think I could be prouder of him than if he were my own son. On the other hand, the necessary vagueness sure heightens the free-floating anxiety.
Posted by: Jonathan ||
04/19/2007 13:54 Comments ||
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#5
xbalanke, our thoughts and prayers go with your nephew until he comes safely home. Mr. Wife is tootling round Europe this week for a variety of training seminars and meetings. One of the reasons I read Rantburg is to know when and about what I need to worry. F'r instance, before he left we talked about what's been going on in the Paris subways; he assured me he only ever takes taxis or rental cars anyway. All the news here this week is about places other than where he's going, so I've been sleeping pretty well at night. Finally, I imagine you'll be able to sense from your sister if things go pear shaped, even if she doesn't say.
#6
Thanks for the words - I'll pass them along. Unfortunately, given the nature of his job, I can't really apply tw's algorithm since we can't even know which theater he's going to. Of course, that won't stop me from reading RB obsessivelyregularly and wondering.
A lone temple bell tolled through the Tokyo night. Seven priests chanted the doom-laden lament for the dead. Thousands of black-suited mourners queued solemnly in the rain to offer incense and prayers to their fallen hero, Raoh.
As the tears rolled down the cheeks of the bereaved, few seemed bothered that nobody had actually died.
For although Raoh exists only in the fantasy world of manga comics and anime cartoons, the grief experienced by ordinary Japanese at his funeral yesterday was real.
"He was like a father figure to me," Makoto Sounodai, a 21-year old Tokyo student, said. "I feel about him the way Westerners feel about Elvis."
Roland Kelts, of Tokyo University, an expert on anime, described the scene at the Koyasan Tokyo Betsuin temple last night as "perhaps the most extreme blurring of reality and fantasy that Japanese pop culture has produced". The full Buddhist shokonshiki, or spirit-rising ceremony, represented the first time that a Japanese temple had held a funeral for a fictional character.
As the arch villain of one of Japans best-loved and most violent comics, Raoh has as wide a fan base as any music or film star. "Raoh showed us the inner strength of men and showed that power can rule the world as effectively as love," said a sobbing 38-year old fan who called himself Lina, after one of the characters in the story.
As the seating inside the temple overflowed, 2,500 mourners watched the hour-long ceremony on giant screens outside. Those with seats at the front, who included the cartoonists and voiceover actors involved in the series, fingered Buddhist juzurosaries as Raohs soul was "sent back to his native star".
In Fist of the Northstar, a manga series that started in the 1980s, Raoh is a vast, merciless tyrant whose cruelty and thirst for power make him supreme in the futuristic, postapocalyptic wastelands. Raohs brother and hero of the series, Kenshiro, has struggled to defeat this despot for nearly three decades and, in the latest movie, succeeds.
Although the action in Fist of the Northstar involves severed limbs and blood-soaked executions, many admire the series for its complex plots and moral dilemmas. Keiko Tsurugai, 35, a mother of three, said that her love for the comics arose from the way they tackled the dichotomy of love and hatred between brothers.
The funeral highlights the central role that comics and animation play in the lives of ordinary Japanese. Despite the distractions of text messages and handheld videogames, manga remains the favourite reading material for the very long journeys endured by many commuters. For many, manga comics perform the entertainment functions of comedians, soap stars and film actors.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
04/19/2007 14:37 Comments ||
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#2
And they call Trekkers "obsessed!"
Posted by: Mike ||
04/19/2007 15:00 Comments ||
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#3
"Fist of the north star" aka "Ken le survivant" in France; it was one of the first anime serie aired regularly by the private channel tf1, a real breakthrough many judged bad for morality and all (not so untrue, hé hé hé), along with "Saint Seyya" and the original "Dragonball" (my favorite, even now I really can identify myself with the characters, the lil' pig who collects panties mostly), complete with italian-made credits with crappy, stooppid songs sung by the kiddies show's local band and hosts; very first one had been "Goldorak", original names escapes me at the moment a few years ago, to be precise, but this was the beginning of the whole anime thing in France. Talk about a culture shock! They soon realized their bad, bad judgement call and started heavily editing "Fist..." and "Saint Seyya", purging violence (exploding heads and all) and sex (the very ambiguous "masculinity" of SS, or the bare breasts and rape scenes here and then in "Fist...").
At the end, about 30% of SS and a whopping 70% of FOTNS were edited on average. Add the infantilizing translation of the dialogs, the very bad dubbing, the cheesy opening credits, and you can imagine the effects on a traumatized generation of young kids. Much worse than Global warming if you ask me, scarred for life.
A French court on Tuesday ordered construction work on a mosque in the Mediterranean port of Marseille to be suspended in response to legal action by far-right groups. The court found in favour of the National Front (FN), the Movement for France (MPF) and the National Republican Movement (MNR), who accused the city of granting a veiled subsidy for the mosque's construction, violating French law on the separation of Church and state.
Marseille city hall decided last July to break a decades-long deadlock over the future mosque by allocating a plot of land for its construction, on a 99-year lease, for a charge of 300 euros per year. The Marseille administrative court overturned the city's decision, ruling that the generous conditions amounted to a subsidy in disguise, demanding that the mosque renegotiate the terms of the lease in the next two months. Jean-Claude Gondard, secretary general of Marseille city hall, said the court decision would cause a delay of three to four months at most, and that a new lease would be submitted to the city council in June. He said the city was committed to file for planning permission in the autumn, but that "the mosque's opponents are very political, and liable to try to block the project every step of the way."
Moulay Abderrahmane Ghoul, regional head of the French Council for the Mulsim Religion, denounced the far-right lawsuit as a "xenophobic and racist political act", but said "the city's will to build the mosque" was not in question... While Marseille's Muslim community is estimated at around 250,000 people, the city's 62 places of worship provide room for only around 6,200 faithful.
#5
While Marseille's Muslim community is estimated at around 250,000 people, the city's 62 places of worship provide room for only around 6,200 faithful.
Awww, that's too bad.
Pakistan's got plenty of mosques. Why don't they send the other 243,800 "faithful" there and they can do the Mo thing whenever they want?
#1
Hmmmm, I wonder if those of us emailing our congress critters for our state houses actually were heard. Of my 3 emails I got one reply and it was a I'm not taking a stand. But I would hope this passes so that we can defend ourselves.
A friend and I were talking the other night and the subject of packing a gun came up. He said something like "Well, at least I know nobody here's packing a gun."
#5
Hear, Hear, I've carried for forty years (so far) and never needed it yet, but I might, and if I do it won't do me a damn bit of good at home in a drawer.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
04/19/2007 20:48 Comments ||
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A man allegedly slaughtered his 14-year-old wife in Mohammad Agha district of the central Logar province last night, police said. Colonel Qudratullah Arabzai, crime branch chief of the police headquarters, told Pajhwok Afghan News on Monday the couple had married six months back.
The marriage was on the basis of Badal or exchange marriage, and the two families used to quarrel with each other, said the police officer. Arabzai said the accused Dad Mohammad was in police custody. Body of the slain woman was still in the house of her in-laws and had not been handed over to her parents, he informed.
Nasrin's mother Qudsia said her daughter did not visit them since her marriage six months back. She told Pajhwok Afghan News, Nasrin was upset and used to complain her over the telephone about the rude behaviour of her husband for the previous two weeks. Revealing the ordeal of her teenaged daughter, the dejected mother said Dad Mohammad (the accused) used to tie her (Nasrin's) hands and feet and beat her severely. Faqir Mohammad, neighbour of the accused, said family life of the couple was very disturbed. He said Nasrin was banned from meeting any one outside the four walls of her house.
#1
A 13-13 1/2 year od girl is NOT an adult woman, mentally or physically, although I'm sure the ACLU, NOW, and other FemmiRadicals will argue the point despite knowing the contrary, espec to protect Govt-subsidized "abortion-on-demand".
#2
As someone with some contact to the foster care system, I am somewhat uncomfortable with these types of articles. Evil has no state or government boundries.
#4
Angaiger Tojo1904: Evil has no state or government? I can name a dozen off the top of my head. Evil has a religion, it has an address and it has a meteorite shrine that should have been leveled 1400 years ago.
#6
Perfesser - I agree with your point and it is well taken. While it is not condoned or protected here, we have our share of horrific stories right here at home. That was my point - that these acts don't stop at the border.
#8
Maybe Joe he was disappointed by her old age. Muhammad child raped his bride when she was only 9 years old. I saw this kind of crap in Pakiland. Disgusting.
When President Bush ordered troops to Iraq, he probably never imagined that he would be ultimately be responsible for what very well could be the very first D&D convention/game day ever held in a war zone. Ziggurat Con, being held June 9 from 1200 to 2100 hours at Camp Adder/Tallil Airbase, is open to all allied military personnel and civilian contractors in Iraq.
KBR and MWR (the armys Morale Welfare & Recreation Department) have graciously allowed service members to use part of the Community Activity Center to hold the Game Day. The Ping Pong room will be set up for RPGs (Role-Playing Games, not to be confused with the rocket propelled grenades which share the same acronym), and the DVD Movie room will be playing Anime Movies all day in support of the event. At the link are suggestions on how to donate all the D&D crap that's been in the closet gathering dust for the past 20 years.
#1
Jackal, funny you should word your comment that way. I've got a boatload of D&D stuff and for some odd reason I've been unwilling to sell it or dump it even though I have no intent in playing again.
Very odd. Must be some kind of nostalgia reading the old stuff from time to time.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Two men were arrested Tuesday after they mistakenly called 911 when they were trying to page a drug dealer, police said. Paul White, 38, and Ryan Ogle, 25, punched 911 as an urgent code to the dealer when they made the call from a pay phone around 3 a.m., Sgt. Michael Olivieri said.
A Sudanese man has been forced to take a goat as his "wife", after he was caught having sex with the animal. 
