* WORLD MILITARY FORUM > CHINA SHIPYARD CONSTRUCTING US-STYLE, MFP VESSELS FOR SUPPORT OF VARIOUS PLA-LED MILITARY OR HUMANITARIAN AMPHIBIOUS LANDING OPERATIONS.
[Iran Press TV] Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir Head of the National Congress Party. He came to power in 1989 when he, as a brigadier in the Sudanese army, led a group of officers in a bloodless military coup that ousted the government of Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi and eventually appointed himself president-for-life. He has fallen out with his Islamic mentor, Hasan al-Turabi, tried to impose shariah on the Christian and animist south, resulting in its secessesion, and attempted to Arabize Darfur by unleashing the barbaric Janjaweed on it. Sudan's potential prosperity has been pissed away in warfare that has left as many as 400,000 people dead and 2.5 million displaced. Omar has been indicted for genocide by the International Criminal Court but nothing is expected to come of it. has formed a new government, a month after he secured a landslide victory in elections boycotted by the opposition and marred by allegations of fraud.
Bashir announced the cabinet line-up late Saturday, appointing his presidential assistant Ibrahim Ghandour as foreign minister, while Mohammed Zayed took over as oil minister, state-run broadcaster al-Sudan reported.
The 71-year-old president removed long-time Defense Minister Abdelrahim Mohammed Hussein and appointed Lieutenant General Mustafa Osman Obeid, the army's chief of staff, as acting defense minister.
Bashir reappointed both of his vice presidents, Bakri Hassan Saleh and Hassabo Mohammed Abdelrahman, to the same positions.
According to al-Sudan, the new government would be made up of 31 cabinet ministers.
Early on Sunday, Bashir also issued a decree that appointed governors for the African country's 18 states. The former defense minister, Hussein, was appointed governor of Khartoum State.
Bashir won the presidential election in April with 94 percent of the votes.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/08/2015 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Sudan
SEOUL -- North Korea lashed out at South Korea's top military officer Saturday for making what it called "provocative" remarks during his visit to the inter-Korean maritime border in the Yellow Sea, saying its attack on a border island "not a past thing."
On Thursday, Adm. Choi Yun-hee, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, visited a Marine Corps unit on South Korea's westernmost island of Yeonpyeong in the Yellow Sea, during which he called for a watertight combat readiness against North Korea. He also ordered his troops deployed there to retaliate against any North Korean military provocations without hesitation.
In 2010, North Korea launched an artillery attack on the island, killing two soldiers and two civilians. The area has long been an inter-Korean powder keg, where the navies of the two Koreas fought bloody battles in 1999, 2002, and 2009, resulting in dozens of casualties on both sides.
"(Choi's words) reveal that the root of the evil that threatens the regional peace and stability is the United States and the Park Geun-hye group," the North's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea said in a statement carried by its Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). Park is the South Korean president.
The North's committee, a party organization which handles inter-Korean affairs, also denounced South Korea for raising tensions on the volatile Peninsula by test-firing a new missile earlier this week that can cover virtually all parts of the North.
"The inter-Korean relations are getting deteriorated and the situation on the Korean peninsula is inching close to the brink of a nuclear war" due to the U.S. and South Korea, the committee said, warning that the shelling attack on Yeonpyeong "is by no means a past thing."
North Korea's missile technology is believed to be superior to that of South Korea.
Only because we've restrained the South Koreans, a restraint that I think we should reconsider.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/08/2015 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Commies
WASHINGTON -- North Korea is unlikely to conduct another nuclear test at least until this fall, a U.S. think tank said Friday, citing satellite imagery showing no signs of preparations at the country's underground test site.
"Recent commercial satellite imagery indicates that North Korea is conducting regular spring construction and maintenance activities at its Punggye-ri nuclear test site," the website 38 North said in a report by analyst Jack Liu.
"There are no indications of nuclear test preparations at this time. Given the time and effort such preparations require, North Korea is unlikely to conduct another nuclear test until at least fall 2015 at the earliest," the report said.
The North has conducted its three nuclear tests in 2006, 2009 and 2013, all at the Punggye-ri site in the country's northeast.
Speculation mounted in early 2014 that the North could conduct its fourth nuclear test after the regime threatened to conduct a "new form of nuclear test." In November, Pyongyang again threatened to test a nuclear device after the Third Committee of the U.N. General Assembly passed a resolution that called for referring the North to the International Criminal Court for human rights violations.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/08/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
Takes that long for the man on the bicycle to charge up the battery.
[Iran Press TV] Three of Italia's eight northern regions have refused to accept more migrants, days after thousands were rescued and arrived on Italian soil.
On Sunday, the northern regions of Lombardy, Liguria, and Veneto vowed to defy the government of Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi by refusing to allow in new migrants.
Lombardy's President Roberto Maroni said he would soon be requesting local mayors and officials in his region to refuse to welcome "undocumented Democrats" allocated by Rome.
He added that municipalities failing to do so would not receive funding from the region.
Liguria's newly-elected President Giovanni Toti voiced his support for the stance taken by Maroni, saying, "I have already said it: we will not receive any more migrants."
Veneto's President Luca Zaia also said the current migrant situation had increased "social tensions."
The remarks come as some 4,000 migrants crammed in fishing boats were rescued in the Mediterranean. Those rescued are expected to be dropped off at ports on Sicily and other locations in southern Italia.
Why not take them back to Libya?
Posted by: Fred ||
06/08/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
Now, now, ITALIA, what's a few Half-Milyuhn???
* TOPIX > [BreitBart] ONE-HALF MILYUHN MIGRANTS WAiTING TO BE USHERED INTO EUROPE.
[RUDAW.NET] Democracy won over dictatorship in The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... 's general elections on Sunday, said Selahattin Demirtas, leader of the HDP that looks set to become the first Kurdish-rooted party to enter parliament.
"In this election, supporters of peace and the democracy won against dictatorship and autocracy," Demirtas said at a news conference after initial results showed the HDP had beaten the 10 percent required to get into the 550-seat parliament.
"Our victory was the victory of the proletariat, the working class and the exploited people of Turkey," Demirta said. "It was the victory of those who intend to raise the Kurdish question."
Demirtas reiterated that he would stand by promises made during the election campaign.
"Whatever we said during the election campaign will come true. From now, the HDP is a real party in Turkey. Thousands of people have a share in such an outrageous victory."
With 99 percent of the votes counted, preliminary results showed that the HDP had won 12.6 percent of the votes across Turkey. With 10 percent of the votes, the HDP would win about 80 seats in the next parliament.
The victory means that the HDP, which is a pro-Kurdish party, had managed to win the votes of many non-Kurds, ending the single party rule enjoyed by the AKP since 2003.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/08/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
Because it would deny Erdogan 80 seats, this was the first time, I was hoping a socialist party would win.
[Iran Press TV] The official results of the 25th Turkish parliamentary general election will be announced “within 11 or 12 days”, the supreme election committee chairman says.
According to unofficial results four political parties, including the Justice and Development (AK) Party, pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), Republican People’s Party (CHP), and Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) had surpassed the 10 percent election threshold, Sadi Guven told reporters in the capital Ankara late on Sunday.
"According to unofficial results, AK Party, CHP, MHP, and HDP have surpassed the 10 percent election threshold," he said, adding,"The official results will be announced in 11 or 12 days".
The turnout was 86.47 percent, he announced.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/08/2015 00:00 ||
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I predict discovery of a large quantity of uncounted ballots.
[Boston.com] Prior to his sentencing, Dukakis pleaded for leniency for Phillipos in a letter to the court. Dukakis and Phillipos were family friends, and the former governor took a young Phillipos to the 2004 Democratic National Convention. Dukakis, who testified on behalf of Phillipos during his trial, said in the letter that Phillipos didn’t deserve jail time. No, I concur, he did not deserve jail time. He actually deserves a firing squad, as does anyone connected with the murderous attack. Pillipos' political party affiliation comes a no surprise however.
[DAWN] KARACHI: The disclosure at a meeting on Saturday that nine of the total 14 assailants who killed 45 people of the Shia Ismaili community in the Safoora bus carnage are still on the lam set alarm bells ringing and prompted the Sindh police chief to assign the task of their arrest to a five-member committee.
Five suspects -- Tahir Hussain Minhas, Saad Aziz, Hafiz Nasir alias Yasir, Mohammad Azhar Ishrat and Asad-ur-Rehman -- are already in police custody for allegedly targeting the innocent people, including women, in an armed attack on a community bus near Safoora Goth on May 13.
Sources said that Inspector General of Police Ghulam Hyder Jamali chaired a meeting at the Central Police Office where he was informed that total 14 assailants took part in the attack and nine of them were still absconding.
The IGP formed a high-powered committee and also directed the city police to ensure extraordinary security measures at all public places, government/semi-government buildings, foreign missions and also provide full security cover to 'vulnerable communities'.
The sources said that the five-member committee would be headed by the DIG-East and comprise the SSP of the Special Investigation Unit, the SSP-East, the SSP-Investigation (Malir) and an official of the Counter Terrorism Department.
A police front man also confirmed the formation of the committee by the IGP.
The meeting was told that two Kalashnikovs, three 9mm pistols, two cars and four cycle of violences -- all used in the Safoora carnage -- had been seized on leads provided by the five held suspects. Seven laptop computers and half a kilo poisonous substance was also seized from them.
DIG-East Munir Sheikh told Dawn that the bully boy group consisted of total 30 bully boyz and 14 of them had actually taken part in the bus attack.
'Held suspects involved in 37 terrorism cases'
Speaking at a presser at the CPO, DIG-South Dr Jamil Ahmed said that the five suspects also "confessed to their involvement" in 37 terrorism cases in Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... and Hyderabad.
Of the 37 cases, 33 acts of terrorism were carried out in different areas of Karachi and four in Hyderabad.
Some of these cases pertained to killing of human rights ...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty... activist Sabeen Mahmud, armed attack on American academic Dr Debra Lobo, attack on the Bohra community in Hyderabad and kaboom on worshippers belonging to the Bohra community in Karachi's Aram Bagh area and killings of a number of coppers.
Talking to Dawn, Karachi police chief Ghulam Qadir Thebo said that the five-member body would not only be responsible for the arrest of the absconders but it would also investigate and legally pursue the cases against the held suspects.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/08/2015 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Lashkar e-Jhangvi
[DAWN] Chief of Army Staff (COAS), General Raheel Sharif said aim of the ongoing operation Zarb-e-Azb ..the Pak offensive against Qaeda in Pakistain and the Pak Taliban in North Wazoo. The name refers to the sword of the Prophet (PTUI!)... was to bring enduring peace and stability in Pakistain and the region.
Speaking at a reception hosted in Colombo, Sri Lanka for him by Quetta Alumni Association -- an effective body of large group of Sri Lankan military students trained in Pakistain -- he said with the support of our nation we had successfully dismantled terrorists' infrastructure and created significant effects.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/08/2015 00:00 ||
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Long piece from Politico on the maneuvering of the DoD and the U.S. arms industry to sell weapons to India. The idea is that India then will serve as a counter-weight to China. This includes, perhaps, helping the Indians build their own aircraft carrier.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/08/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
Heck, just give them free all the defense tech date the Chinese have already stolen. It's not like it's really a secret anyway. Not that it will matter much as the Indian defense procurement system is so corrupt, they'll still not get what their armed forces need even when its handed to them.
[RUDAW.NET] Kurdish Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani warned Sunday of the "continued violation of the Iraqi constitution" by Baghdad, and accused the central Iraqi government of pressuring the Kurdistan region.
Speaking at a platform in Sulaimani, Barzani said Baghdad's decision to cut the Kurdistan Regional Government's (KRG) budget "had put the people of Kurdistan in economic misery," which "would not be tolerated anymore."
"We value the wellbeing of all Iraqi people, but we won't tolerate the kind of deprivation and misery that is inflicted on the people of the Kurdistan region," Barzani told delegates representing Iraq's different provinces.
Barzani said the KRG had "fully" committed to the budget agreement between Erbil and Baghdad signed in December last year, but that Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi's government "had not lived up" to the terms of the same agreement.
"In short, we agreed to export 550,000 barrels per day through the Kurdistan region pipelines to The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... via SOMO (Iraqi State Oil Marketing Organization), and in return the Kurdistan Region would receive 1.2 trillion Iraqi dinars ($1 billion) from the national revenues, which equals 17 percent of Iraqi incomes," Barzani said.
He added the Abadi government had not delivered its part of the deal despite the fact that the KRG had increased its oil output in a record time to meet the agreement.
"Unfortunately Mr Abadi cut another 10 percent of April's payment of the already reduced budget," Barzani said describing the cut as "very dangerous," which is against the "principle of agreement and alliance."
Barzani slammed Baghdad for not assisting the Kurdistan region "in a time of crisis" when the KRG had to deal with "millions of refugees and ISIS brutality."
"Despite the heavy burden on the KRG due to the influx of refugees to Kurdistan, and the protracted war against the terrorist group ISIS, the Iraqi government did not meet its obligations towards the Peshmerga as part of the Iraqi defense system and even obstructed the way for international aid to reach the Peshmerga," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/08/2015 00:00 ||
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Because that's all the Iraqi military needs, is more training...
KRUEN -- Britain is to expand its military training mission in Iraq in the coming weeks, Prime Minister David Cameron announced on Sunday, saying the Iraqi army needed more help to deal with improvised bombs planted by Daesh militants.
Cameron, speaking before a meeting of the Group of Seven industrial nations (G7), said Britain would send 125 new military advisers to Iraq, most of whom would train the Iraqi army in how to counter improvised explosive devices or IEDs. That will take the total number of British military trainers in Iraq up to 275, officials said, and the overall number of British personnel engaged in various roles against Daesh across the region up to around 900.
“We’re already the second largest contributor in terms of air strikes in Iraq, and support for the Syrian opposition,” Cameron told reporters at the G7 in Germany.
“But I’m announcing today that we’re increasing our training effort in Iraq. It’s a particular request the Abadi government has made, it’s a particular thing we’ve been working with the Americans on.”
Cameron was due to brief US President Barack Obama and Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi on the plans at the G7. He was also expected to discuss with Obama what more Britain can do to help train moderate Syrian opposition forces in locations outside Syria such as Turkey.
British officials said the new trainers would be deployed in “a handful of locations” across Iraq including Taji, Besmaya and Al Asad. Around 100 would carry out IED training, while 25 would focus on first aid, equipment maintenance, or logistics and information support.
A spokeswoman for Cameron’s office said Daesh routinely planted large numbers of bombs when retreating, and that training Iraqi forces to clear them would allow local people to return more quickly to their homes. She said the deployment was consistent with the scale of Britain’s current engagement in Iraq, and did not herald deeper involvement.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/08/2015 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Islamic State
[DAWN] The rickety internet huts have fallen silent in the crowded camps of displaced Rohingya Moslems in western Myanmar, no one comes anymore to bargain for the release of loved ones being held for ransom in Thailand and Malaysia.
"Before, every day at least 10 to 15 people would come here to negotiate with human traffickers," said Tun Win, a young man who offers a video-call service from one of the bamboo and thatch huts, "Now, it's nothing."
For now at least, the smugglers who preyed for years on the misery of Myanmar's Rohingya appear to be going out of business, and Asia's most acute migrant crisis since the 'boat people' exodus at the end of the Vietnam War is ebbing.
Until last month, their grim trade ran like clockwork.
Rohingya and their neighbours in Bangladesh, dreaming of a life free of persecution and poverty, were lured on to primitive boats in their thousands, taking perilous voyages from the southeast corner of the Bay of Bengal that they hoped would end with safety and jobs in Malaysia.
For many, though, the journey ended with brutal captivity in secret camps dotted along the jungle-cloaked border between Thailand and Malaysia. From there, smugglers made demands for their prisoners' return, often haggling with relatives in those now-empty internet huts.
That chain was broken early last month when Thailand ordered a crackdown on trafficking after the discovery of 33 bodies in shallow graves near the border. Weeks later, Malaysia found 139 graves in abandoned jungle camps on its side.
"Everyone has run away," said Thatchai Pitaneelaboot, a police Major General investigating trafficking in Thailand.
Supply chain disrupted
The crackdown sparked a humanitarian crisis at sea. Smugglers jumped ship and left thousands of migrants adrift rather than risk being caught in the widening net of Thai and Malaysian Sherlocks.
More than 3,000 abandoned migrants have come ashore in Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand in the past month, and hundreds have returned to Myanmar and Bangladesh, but the United Nations ...where theory meets practice and practice loses... estimates that some 2,000 are still adrift at sea.
The disruption of the smuggling supply chain has led to a sharp drop in boat departures, said Chris Lewa, whose Arakan Project tracks boat movements from Myanmar's Rakhine State and southern Bangladesh. Just over 300 boarded boats in May, down from around 5,000 in April and an average of 7,000-8,000 per month in November - March, she estimated.
Most of the would-be migrants of the last two months never sailed in the end because of the crackdown, she said. They were kept offshore and many were subsequently taken back - for a fee.
Even if the Thai government has dealt a blow to the smuggling trade, many argue that only by tackling the root causes will Southeast Asia's cycles of migration stop.
US President Barack Obama I bowled a 129. It’s like — it was like Special Olympics, or something... called last week on Myanmar to end discrimination against its 1.1 million Rohingya minority. Myanmar denies it discriminates against the Rohingya.
The government does not recognise them as an ethnic group and denies them citizenship. It classifies them as Bengalis, implying they are undocumented Democrats from Bangladesh, even though many have lived in Myanmar for generations.
With the onset of the monsoon, which makes sailing even more risky, migrant departures normally slow around this time of year. So the real test of whether the business has been broken will come in several months.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/08/2015 00:00 ||
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Tehran -- An EU delegation was stopped on Sunday from speaking to foreign media in Tehran, with an Iranian security official threatening action against reporters and photographers if they tried to film the incident.
Having called a Press conference at their hotel in the capital, the plans of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament were disrupted, prompting an angry exchange on the street. After being ushered off hotel premises, Elmar Brok, chairman of the committee, angrily told the security official: “You cannot stop me from talking to reporters.”
But they did, Elmar, they did...
But Brok, a German MEP, was pointedly warned he had no right to speak to media near the end of a two-day trip, which comes as world powers near a June 30 deadline for a deal on Iran’s disputed nuclear programme.
A crew from Press TV, Iran’s English language channel which is broadcast worldwide, was invited to interview Brok but he cancelled the engagement.
Foreign journalists were earlier told by a hotel manager that there was no permission for a press conference. Photographers and video reporters were also warned by the security official that they would face repercussions if they used their equipment in any way.
And they all complied...
The activities of foreign media in Iran, particularly Western outlets, are strictly controlled and subject to multiple regulations and restrictions by authorities.
Sunday’s incident occurred despite the group of seven European Union lawmakers being invited to Tehran by their Iranian counterparts.
“This is an old behaviour which has nothing to do with the new politics of Iran,” Brok later told AFP by telephone, alluding to hopes of better political relations if there is a nuclear deal.
“It leaves a bad impression but this unhappy incident did not spoil the visit,” he added.
Elmer has spent too much time around thugs and dictators. I think he has Stockholm syndrome...
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/08/2015 00:00 ||
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[DailyBeast] It sounded so authoritative, when a top B.O. regime official claimed this week that the U.S. killed roughly 10,000 bully boy in its fight with the self-proclaimed Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... . Until that figure was contradicted by a second official. And then undercut by a third.
Not only could B.O. regime officials not agree on the final corpse count, they could not say how they determined such a figure with no ground forces in Iraq and Syria to assess Arclight airstrike damage. Nor could those officials articulate how well such a statistic measures progress against the terror army.
By the end of the week, many administration officials were admitting a defeat of sorts. They conceded that it was foolish to talk openly about body counts in the first place, when dead fighters are such an irrelevant measure of the conflict.
So they finally learned a lesson from Vietnam, did they...
"The killed in action and other activities should only be measured in how much those deaths affect ISIS's capability to conduct operations, how it affects its maneuvering, its logistics, its command and control, or impinge its effectiveness to maintain the initiative and conduct operations," said retired Army Lieutenant Colonel Derek Harvey, who testified last month before the Senate Armed Services Committee about the U.S. strategy.
Or as an adviser to the U.S. military on its campaign against ISIS explained to The Daily Beast: "These are the types of numbers that novices apply."
The journalist clearly does not think highly of this approach. More at the link.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
06/08/2015 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Islamic State
#1
Whatever the body count is we can determine that:
A) It isn't as much as it should be
B) It isn't enough to keep ISIS from advancing
c) ISIS is refilling its ranks just as fast or faster than we are killing them
#5
FYI PRAVDA > ONLY IRAN CAN BREAK ISIS BY INVADING IRAQ AND SYRIA.
* TOPIX > [Russia Today = Middle East] IMPRISONED ISIS CELL LEADER "WON'T HESITATE" TO FIGHT [+ kill] AMERICANS, NO CARE FOR CIVILIAN CASUALTIES.
VERSUS
* BIGNEWSNETWORK > [Independent.UK] SAUDI ARABIA COULD GO NUCLEAR UNLESS IRAN TALKS [P5+1] LEADS TO "WATERTIGHT" AGREEMENT, WARNS AMBASSADOR [KSA to UK Ambassador].
* TOPIX > [Bloomberg] SCUD ATTACK ON SAUDIS MARKS NEW PHASE OF CONFLICT IN YEMEN.
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.
