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Aoun Returns From Exile
Today's Headlines
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Page 3: Non-WoT
3 00:00 Frank G [10] 
3 00:00 Barbara Skolaut [2] 
8 00:00 Deacon Blues [7] 
5 00:00 Shipman [8] 
4 00:00 Shipman [3] 
7 00:00 Frank G [3] 
6 00:00 eLarson [5] 
36 00:00 Chuck Simmins [5] 
1 00:00 trailing wife [3] 
5 00:00 Shipman [2] 
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3 00:00 Raj [1] 
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Page 1: WoT Operations
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Page 4: Opinion
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-Short Attention Span Theater-
Worst logo ever contest
Posted by: Sobiesky || 05/08/2005 19:46 || Comments || Link || [10 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Dangit, Peggy, you almost made me spit beer through mah nose"

Good stuff
Posted by: eLarson || 05/08/2005 20:49 Comments || Top||

#2  lmao! goddamer thisn need be farked. :)
Posted by: muck4doo || 05/08/2005 22:04 Comments || Top||

#3  the lower one should be on Neverland's gates
Posted by: Frank G || 05/08/2005 22:12 Comments || Top||


Britain
Whisky 'can beat cancer': research
Posted by: tipper || 05/08/2005 10:52 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Works good when I have a sore throat, I can say that much definitively.
Posted by: eLarson || 05/08/2005 12:22 Comments || Top||

#2  Plum brandy does that too, eLarson. But I attributed that to the fact that ethanol kills these little parasitic suckers.

Hokay, well, a bottle of whiskey to my medicine cabinet. ;-)
Posted by: Sobiesky || 05/08/2005 14:25 Comments || Top||

#3  Yes, if you go online to any search engine and research medicinal purposes of whisky- you will find year's worth of reading. I will post this week the article about Pot being allowed by law in Canada to treat M.S. patient's.

Andrea Jackson
Posted by: ANdrea Jackson || 05/08/2005 14:29 Comments || Top||

#4  What about beer dammit?!?!?
Posted by: JerseyMike || 05/08/2005 17:37 Comments || Top||

#5  Jersey Mike- Beer makes one PEE~~(-!

Andrea Jackson
Posted by: AA A Andrea Jackson || 05/08/2005 17:53 Comments || Top||

#6  Beer is exceedingly good for the heart. Lowers blood pressure, thins the blood, gives one a relaxed view on the world (ie lowers stress the number 1 or so killer). Besides it tastes damn fine. Especially a good english pale ale such as Fullers or Bass my favorites.
Posted by: BrerRabbit || 05/08/2005 18:10 Comments || Top||

#7  someday they'll find it was the pretzels, beer nuts, and chips....all along
Posted by: Frank G || 05/08/2005 18:52 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
Argentina protests inclusion of Falklands/Malvinas in EU constitution
Argentina officially rejected Wednesday the inclusion of the Falkland Islands, South Georgia and South Sandwich islands as "British Antarctic Territory" in the European Union Constitutional Treaty and has informed European institutions of its "reservations" about the case.

"Malvinas are not a territory where the new European Constitution is applicable", pointed out the Argentine Foreign Affairs ministry in a release...
Posted by: Anonymoose || 05/08/2005 17:38 || Comments || Link || [8 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Well, EU constitution sucks, I agree on that point, but what's it to Argentinians? Didn't they lose when trying to 'acquire' Falklands? Big time? I know, they sinked a few fregates or what not, but they got dished out a can of whupass otherwise.
Posted by: Sobiesky || 05/08/2005 17:53 Comments || Top||

#2  Uh.... Argentina, baby, do y'all really want to fight that war again?

What's British for "whoop-ass"? :-D
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 05/08/2005 18:38 Comments || Top||

#3  The British public would not support aht war now. Also the UK armed forces are too small and poorly equiped to do it again. Labor has cut them through the bone and will cut some more.

Malvinas will belong to Argentina, all they have to do is wait.
Posted by: Sock Puppet 0’ Doom || 05/08/2005 18:41 Comments || Top||

#4  waaaaa - STFU losers
Posted by: Frank G || 05/08/2005 18:52 Comments || Top||

#5  That would be Para Barb.
Posted by: Shipman || 05/08/2005 19:58 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
Managing China's Rise
Contending effectively with China's ambitions requires a better understanding of our own
by Benjamin Schwarz

When President Bush took office, in 2001, the dominant national-security issue for his administration—and for most foreign-policy analysts, whether Republican or Democrat—was not terrorism or even Iraq but China. The issue, specifically, is that China will eventually emerge as what Pentagon planners call a "peer competitor" to the United States in East Asia—that is, a great power with the economic and military muscle to challenge America's preponderant position in a region that is sure to be the economic pivot of the new century.

Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve White || 05/08/2005 12:35:14 AM || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  ima not wanna know how yer manage em risin china. im thawt thisn em family website.
Posted by: muck4doo || 05/08/2005 2:09 Comments || Top||

#2  Mucky, that would be bone china, no?
Posted by: Sobiesky || 05/08/2005 2:27 Comments || Top||

#3  Ben Schwarz has been talking about how multipolarity is a good thing for the better part of a decade. Heck - in his mind, the 9/11 attacks were probably a good thing, since they put Uncle Sam in his place. You gotta love the Atlantic - the way this liberal sees it, Uncle Sam is either incompetent or evil, which means that anybody else is the good guy.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 05/08/2005 2:55 Comments || Top||

#4  In the '60s and '70s guys like him were talking about how the Soviets were only a defensive power, just trying to defend themselves with a buffer from a repeat of WWII. Riiiiight.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis || 05/08/2005 7:57 Comments || Top||

#5  Admittedly, German interests in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries could not be accommodated... But it's also true that in the same period the United States peacefully rose to be a great power...

Perhaps he needs to understand that the US and German societies and governments were just slightly different? States are not interchangeable units with exactly the same goals and methods of achieving their aims.

Idiot Continentalist. The whole world is not mitteleuropa, and Metternich or Bismarck would be completely clueless in the world situation today.
Posted by: Jackal || 05/08/2005 12:10 Comments || Top||

#6  States are not interchangeable units with exactly the same goals and methods of achieving their aims.

Very succinctly put! Grand slam!
Posted by: eLarson || 05/08/2005 12:29 Comments || Top||


How We Would Fight China
The Middle East is just a blip. The American military contest with China in the Pacific will define the twenty-first century. And China will be a more formidable adversary than Russia ever was ...
Long article in the Atlantic Monthy by Robert Kaplan. It describes some of the issues, pluses and minues in our current approach to China. A good Sunday morning read.
Posted by: Steve White || 05/08/2005 12:29:54 AM || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  im hater long artakels!

>:(

ima guesin we blokade msg?
Posted by: muck4doo || 05/08/2005 2:08 Comments || Top||

#2  Apart from the intro, the article is subscriber only.
Posted by: phil_b || 05/08/2005 5:43 Comments || Top||

#3  Mucky you're up mighty late.
Posted by: Shipman || 05/08/2005 6:19 Comments || Top||

#4  Here's how we will fight China:

By 2010 the ENTIRE Chinese navy will be laying at the bottom of the ocean.
Posted by: badanov || 05/08/2005 7:51 Comments || Top||

#5  My thoughts are: China has not been able to overcome Taiwan - which is within shelling distance - and the last time it tried to project forces even one kilometer beyond its borders, Vietnam soundly thrashed them.

I would not want to try to invade China - 'shades of Napolean and Hitler invading Russia - but China's ability to project power beyond its borders is doubtful.

In modern warfare, logistics is critical - and once extended beyond its borders, China may be unable to support its forces. Although the Chinese business sector has shown some ability to extend itself, the Chinese government bureaucracy has yet to demonstrate that it can project itself.

I sincerely doubt that Chinese aircraft carriers, carrier-based pilots, and attack submarines are ready to compete head-to-head with US counterparts.
Posted by: Lone Ranger || 05/08/2005 9:02 Comments || Top||

#6  Any Chinese external 'adventures', like Taiwan, will only come about in the last gasp of the existing regime, a la the "Falklands". The internal pressures and instability of the regime will undermine the existing government faster than it can organize and train itself for the Greater China push. Most 'threat' assessments generally ignor the internal issue. Remember, that unlike Western democracies, the party has to watch the military as closely as it watches its citizens.
Posted by: Jomolet Glaque2594 || 05/08/2005 9:09 Comments || Top||

#7  M'more worried about them trying to "wait" and starve Taiwan out by encirclement and diplomatic isolation -- "the best victory is not fought" and all that.
Posted by: Edward Yee || 05/08/2005 9:45 Comments || Top||

#8  China operated on a different time scale than we do.
They have all the time in the world to achieve their aims and we would do well to remember that.
Posted by: bk || 05/08/2005 10:20 Comments || Top||

#9  China operates on a different time scale than we do.
They have all the time in the world to achieve their aims and we would do well to remember that.
Posted by: bk || 05/08/2005 10:20 Comments || Top||

#10  Don't fool yourselves! Both the US and China have been feverishly preparing for conflict for almost 25 years now. And it is not in any way still just at the planning stage. China has been vigorously spreading its tentacles East, South and West, and both sides are scrambling for any advantage. And I will note that China has several advantages that the US will be very hard-pressed to overcome. The first of these being almost unlimited manpower, think in the HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS, the second being the ability to trade space for time. Third, the Chinese are also willing to sustain a conflict for decades. Now compare them honestly with shrinking technological advantage. The USs options are to first, align with India and its vast manpower resources, while trying to diplomatically isolate China; second, to keep the battle at sea as much as possible, instead of being drawn inland; and third, to have to nearly occupy Taiwan as it becomes a nuclear power--the only way it can ever assure its independance--with the recognition that it is, and will remain, a de jure as well as de facto separate nation. To do so it will have to form alliegence with Japan, who will be compelled by circumstances to remilitarize enough to balance their combined power against China beyond that conflict.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 05/08/2005 11:10 Comments || Top||

#11  Of course China will just dig a tunnel to Taiwan wide enough for massive troop movements. If it's good enough for the North Koreans (and the Chinese digging to North America in a B-movie) it's sound enough politics for the party. Reality be damned. Short of destroying everything it's pretty much the only chance they have.
Posted by: RJ Schwarz || 05/08/2005 12:00 Comments || Top||

#12  Kidding of course.
Posted by: RJ Schwarz || 05/08/2005 12:00 Comments || Top||

#13  -moose:
That huge Chinese army can't really get anywhere. All right, they could invade VietNam (though it didn't work out too well in '79) and the rest of Indochina, but couldn't get beyond Burma. They won't be invading Central Asia or India over some of the worst terrain in the world. Siberia? OK. Maybe, if they are willing to risk a nukular war with Russia.

But off-shore in Asia or the Pacific? Having a huge army is worthless if you can't control the waterways to transport it anywhere. See: Britain vs. Napolean or Hitler.

Now, if we were stupid enough to attempt to invade mainland China, well, that might be a different matter. But what foreign policy objective could we possibly meet even with a successful invasion? I just don't see how we can care what mainland China does on the continent.
Posted by: Jackal || 05/08/2005 12:19 Comments || Top||

#14  Anybody got a list of Chinese pilots who have landed on a carrier at night in heavy seas?
Posted by: Matt || 05/08/2005 12:47 Comments || Top||

#15  The Chicoms would not do a head-on assault. They may use more finesse. Bill Gertz suggested that they do something like nuclear blackmail from ports in Panama (which are operated by a chinese sympathizer or front company Hutchinson-Wampoa).

The Chicoms are also cultivating relationships with Castro and Chavez. Why go through the front door when you can sneak through the back, the window, or the ventilating shaft, or the basement? Do not underestimate the Chicoms. They could be rattling on Taiwan while they are doing something else out of view. Classic magician's trick.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 05/08/2005 13:29 Comments || Top||

#16  Anybody got a list of Chinese pilots who have landed on a carrier at night in heavy seas?

Is that one of those books like "Great Swedish Humorists of the 20th Century" or something? :)
Posted by: eLarson || 05/08/2005 13:36 Comments || Top||

#17  More like famous Swedish linebackers.
Posted by: badanov || 05/08/2005 13:57 Comments || Top||

#18  But... but.... but...
The chinese are our *friends*! They are a big contributer to my campain fund The DNC The democratic process!

I'm sure that missle tech. I gave them would never be used for non-peaceful uses. They are as honest as the North Koreans....
Posted by: Billary Clinton || 05/08/2005 14:05 Comments || Top||

#19  Jackal: One possible scenario would be to first create a distraction, and then flood Taiwan with soldiers. How many would be enough? Five million? Ten million? And not garrisoned like soldiers, but intersperced throughout the population. Intellectually speaking, it could be seen as "spending assets profusely in a war of economy". As example, the Pacific fleet just happens to be several days away when some horrific disaster happens in the US, say a nuclear bomb goes off in San Diego. Within an hour or two all of America's attention is focused on the event, and the entire US is in a totally *defensive* mode, as it was on 9-11. And then a massive missile barrage attacks Taiwan, followed by a massive floatilla, screened by every anti-aircraft ship they can muster to keep US fleet aircraft away from the floatilla, even giving up their entire coastal defense to protect the floatilla corridor. They would figure that it would be days or weeks before the US would even start to think of Taiwan. In this way, China gets at least 1-2 million soldiers into the already shocked Taiwan, then by the time the US fleet draws near enough to intervene, the Chinese military just evaporates. What does the US do? Re-invade Taiwan?
Posted by: Anonymoose || 05/08/2005 14:20 Comments || Top||

#20  'Moose, I usually leave the military analysis to the posters who actually understand which end the bullet comes out of, but I gotta say the Chinese flotilla scenario doesn't do much for me. Getting even a small invasion force across the Formosa Strait would require skills that AFAIK the Chinese haven't mastered or even practiced. Again AFAIK, the last amphibious operation was the Brits invading the Falklands in 1982, and even the Brits, who have a substantial history of carrier operations and amphibious assaults, took (by the standards of that war) substantial casualties when someone forgot to tell the Welsh Guards to get the hell off the ship. Put the shoe on the other foot: how risky would it be for the US Marines, the world's premier experts on amphibious operations, to launch a cross-channel attack from Taiwan?
Posted by: Matt || 05/08/2005 15:24 Comments || Top||

#21  I can't get the link to work but here's an interesting comparison to Normandy including an overlay map:

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/taiwan-d-day.htm
Posted by: Matt || 05/08/2005 15:42 Comments || Top||

#22  Moose, the problem with that scenario is that almost everyone in govt to the public will then believe that China INTENTIONALLY nuked the US (even if its through a 3rd party, even if we find no evidence of China's involvement) just to provide a distraction. In that kind of situation I'd shudder to think what our response would be but you can almost 100% guarantee a full on economic blockade that includes sinking commercial ships trying to dock into Chinese ports. Sink a few and no one will be willing to underwrite any shipping to China. From there you can pretty much say economic meltdown and the taking of Taiwan would have been a pyrrhic victory.
Posted by: Valentine || 05/08/2005 15:45 Comments || Top||

#23  Regarding an amphibious/flotilla invasion of Taiwan, what insures its success? Dumb WWII-type sea mines in the Straits on the general approaches, Harpoon & Penguin missiles, plus F16s means that any Chicom assault simply results in Chinese takeout for all the sharks in the area. Also, once that vast flotilla gets into artillery range {even before the pre-registered beaches}, all those ships start going boom. Then once the landing craft start for shore, the pre-registered artillery on the beaches comes into play. And that does not even account for the shore emplacements, mobile light armour strike forces, or hasty defenses.
Posted by: Shieldwolf || 05/08/2005 15:56 Comments || Top||

#24  The very essense of military strategy is doing things your enemy thinks are impossible. The French knew with certainty that the Vietnamese could not lift artillery up the mountains ringing Dien Bien Phu, "It just couldn't be done." Or, for that matter, the retreat at Dunkirk, in which 165,000 men were evacuated in what was thought was going to be a major defeat. So the question is raised, If the Chinese *were*, *somehow*, to get a major force on the ground in Taiwan, is there anything the US could do (not just militarily, but politically), not to stop it, but to *reverse* it? The prospect here is a corridor, filled with every conceivable type of ship, all in turn filled with soldiers. Calculate the time of crossing, then calculate if they were willing to accept 75% casualties *to win*. How many *available* US aircraft would be needed to prevent 10,000 ships from reaching a missile-devastated Taiwan?
Posted by: Anonymoose || 05/08/2005 16:50 Comments || Top||

#25  Was it Kublai-Khan that lost his entire fleet in East China Sea, I believe about 70,000 men? At the time, the Chinese ships were superior to to anything else in the world. One typhoon type of storm and the Kublai-Khan's dream about conquering the world evaporated.

Well, we do have Haliburton tectonic generator, but do we have something to generate a typhoon? Maybe a small tsunami may do.
Posted by: Sobiesky || 05/08/2005 17:10 Comments || Top||

#26  How about 10,000 inflatable Zodiacs. No infrastructure to launch and missiles useless against them.
Posted by: phil_b || 05/08/2005 17:15 Comments || Top||

#27  Moose, Just a thought experiment...
What do you think would happen when, at the same time that China is attempting to invade Taiwan, the dams on Yellow River would burst open?

Posted by: Sobiesky || 05/08/2005 17:19 Comments || Top||

#28  Phil, that presuposses there are people on them. They may be, at some initial point. So, the issue is to figure out how to remove them.
Posted by: Sobiesky || 05/08/2005 17:24 Comments || Top||

#29  Anybody got a list of Chinese pilots who have landed on a carrier at night in heavy seas?

There are more than 10. Luckily they are/were employed by the only navy that matters.
Posted by: Shipman || 05/08/2005 17:29 Comments || Top||

#30  Better yet, how about 10,000 inflatable bulletproof Zodiacs using the cloak of hard-to-see on a dark and stormy night created by Sun-Mat-Sins secret Stormy Night 'O Darkness Machine. It would be on a Thursday during the U.S. PTO Meeting. We wouldn't have a chance.
Posted by: Shipman || 05/08/2005 17:33 Comments || Top||

#31  US Patent and Trademark Office? Ship, youse not making sense. Please explain.
Posted by: Sobiesky || 05/08/2005 17:45 Comments || Top||

#32  Parent Teacher Organizastion , it's usually on Thursday evenings, everybody that's anybody would be stuck in a media centre somewhere in East Twinfick. Have you also noticed that all the good reference works on Zodiacs Massed to Invade are missing? Can you see now?
Posted by: Shipman || 05/08/2005 20:02 Comments || Top||

#33  LOL - think a 100 mile string of burning 55 gallon drums of oil might have some effect on the Zodiac Flotilla™? Jeeesh. What a lowtech solution....
Posted by: Frank G || 05/08/2005 20:22 Comments || Top||

#34  All the Chinese need to take Taiwan is a friendly/socialist government in the USA. No one gets hurt.

Wonder this time how they will funnel their billions into the 2008 elections, this time to get the government that will look the other way?
Posted by: badanov || 05/08/2005 20:33 Comments || Top||

#35  Left out Brazil, AP.
Posted by: Pappy || 05/08/2005 21:13 Comments || Top||

#36  Did you ever see a pup roll over and wave its feet in the air? That'll be Taiwan. Guys, the KMT was in Peking!!! Chang is roatating in his grave over it, but the enemy of communist China for the last 50 years went to Peking. There's so much trade and interdependent capital invested that all China has to do is make a big enough show. Let the industrialists in Taiwan save face by claiming it was overwhelming and inevitable.
Posted by: Chuck Simmins || 05/08/2005 21:36 Comments || Top||


Down Under
Australian Plane crash cause still a mystery
THE pilot of a plane that crashed in far north Queensland gave no indication the aircraft was in trouble, Australia's air safety watchdog said today.

Crash investigators would spend many weeks finding out what went wrong so the industry could learn from the tragedy, the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) said.
Attempts to reach the wreckage are continuing today, but all 15 people on board are believed to have died.

"We really don't have any idea at all (about what went wrong) at this stage," CASA spokesman Peter Gibson told Sky News.

"The Australian Transport Safety Bureau accident investigators ... will begin that task today of trying to work out what went wrong.

"There was a standard broadcast about four or five minutes before the aircraft was due into Lockhart River ... that he (the pilot) was on approach into Lockhart River.

"(There was) no indication anything went wrong at all, the site of the accident is directly on track into Lockhart River so what happened between that broadcast and the accident site is unknown at this stage."

Ten male passengers and three female passengers - including a police officer - and two male crew were on board the routine domestic flight when it went down about noon (AEST) yesterday.

The Aero-Tropics Air Services plane had left the small Aboriginal community of Bamaga, 40km from the tip of the peninsula, and had almost reached Lockhart River, just south of the Iron Range National Park, when it crashed.

The pilot radioed air traffic control four minutes before the twin propeller plane was due to arrive at Lockhart River at 11.45am (AEST), and was preparing to land as scheduled.
Posted by: Thineling Flomoper5900 || 05/08/2005 00:00:00 AM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Bad weather, mountainous terrain, no all weather capability at the airport. Landing at these remote airports can be a hairy experience. One time the plane I was on aborted the landing 5 times in a row.
Posted by: phil_b || 05/08/2005 2:01 Comments || Top||

#2  ..or reflection of Venus and swamp gas. ;-)
Posted by: Sobiesky || 05/08/2005 4:35 Comments || Top||

#3  Five aborts? Hell, I'm getting off that plane.
Posted by: Shipman || 05/08/2005 6:21 Comments || Top||

#4  When I was doing my instrument training, a long-time friend who flew all kinds of small and large aircraft told me a bit of wisdom:

Shoot the approach 3 times. If you do not succeed after that, get out of there and go to your alternate. Your mind will start thinking that it sees things, or enough things to convince you of the runway environment. Works for me and I have been flying for 19 accident free years (knock on aluminum).
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 05/08/2005 13:23 Comments || Top||


International-UN-NGOs
...and if you can figure this one out
Man divorces second wife for Canadian citizenship.
A Jordanian woman, whose husband divorced her three times, has been told by the Sharia Court she cannot return to her husband.
Court officials have said the divorce is final and the woman cannot live with her former husband.
The woman, who is the man's second wife, told the court her husband did not want to divorce her but wanted her two children to be eligible for his Canadian citizenship. For this he needed to get a divorce as he was not allowed to have two wives.
The woman, the mother of a boy and a girl, and her husband, who is married to another woman, tried to include these two children in his citizenship application.
The woman was told the third divorce has officially been registered in the UAE courts and that it does not have anything to do with the intention of the husband.
When he applied for the elder girl, he divorced his wife and got an official divorce letter from the court. Immediately after that, he returned to his wife.
When he later applied for the son, he divorced his wife for the second time, got an official letter, applied to the authorities and returned to his wife.
Recently, a heated argument started between the woman and her husband, who was identified as T.H, ending up with the woman being divorced for the third time.
The woman approached the court, and informed the judges about the divorce, which her husband initially denied.
The third divorce was registered and the man tried to convince the judges the first two divorces should not be counted as they were not meant to separate the couple but to facilitate the official procedures of the new citizenship.
The court did not accept these claims and told the woman she was divorced from her husband and should not live with him under the same roof or else they would be accused of adultery.
The woman told the court she feared her husband would take her children and leave the UAE. She added her husband had promised her he would handle her case after finishing the children's cases.
She said she was promised her husband would divorce his first wife and register her in the citizenship application, but after the divorce she no longer trusted him.
The woman was told the third divorce has officially been registered in the UAE courts and that it does not have anything to do with the intention of the husband.
Is the woman's name "J-Lo?"
Posted by: Anonymoose || 05/08/2005 17:38 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Moose, Is the woman's name "J-Lo?"

No. See, after the [third] divorce she no longer trusted him... She gets it! ;-)
Posted by: Sobiesky || 05/08/2005 18:08 Comments || Top||

#2  A woman word is worth half of a mans. That is the law of allen. She sould have know that. That is the word right from the prophet profit.
UAE court is just being allen like and correct.
Posted by: Sock Puppet 0’ Doom || 05/08/2005 18:37 Comments || Top||

#3  No, no, honey. That's not quite how it works.

First you get the Canadian citizenship, then.... :-p
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 05/08/2005 18:41 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
Kyoto Protocol--Propaganda or Censorship? Let's not be so picky, it's both.
Posted by: Sobiesky || 05/08/2005 17:37 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Shoulda 'been page 3, sorry 'bout that, but my cat decided that it is ready for submision. ;-)
Posted by: Sobiesky || 05/08/2005 17:47 Comments || Top||

#2  Kyoto isn't science, it's agitprop. The only good news is the Left/Tranzi/Greens have over-reached and it is too expensive. Expect a rush for the exits as early as the end of this year.
Posted by: phil_b || 05/08/2005 18:17 Comments || Top||

#3  Phil, I am not so sure, it is to them like a religion. They would repeat 'global warming caused by humans' mantra till kingdom come.
Posted by: Sobiesky || 05/08/2005 18:24 Comments || Top||

#4  Or till the glaciers grind them under.
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats || 05/08/2005 18:42 Comments || Top||

#5  What do you expect from people who want a return to the stone age, where of course, they will be far too pitiful to survive. It's always funny, how if the leftists get what they keep saying they want, they'd be the ones that die off from it.
Posted by: Silentbrick || 05/08/2005 18:47 Comments || Top||

#6  Silentbrick, I would not have issue with getting them what they want--I advocated for a chunk of time getting them to Greenland (all of them, if possible) and let them show us the paradise they dream about. Some may argue, and I wouldn't object, that Baffin Island may be even better than Greenland for their paradise.

Well, this is how it may look like for a while:


The problem is, they want everyone else in it, too.

Posted by: Sobiesky || 05/08/2005 19:00 Comments || Top||

#7  they don't want to give up their goodies, they just don't want you to have them. Example: shut down electrical power in Berkley - see how long that's acceptable
Posted by: Frank G || 05/08/2005 19:07 Comments || Top||

#8  The Kyoto Accord is nothing more than a Global redistribution of wealth plan. Socialism at it's "best".
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 05/08/2005 20:01 Comments || Top||


Phone call from mom in Iraq gets Georgia kid suspended.
I shit you not, Rantburgistas:Mother's call gets son in hot water

BY ANGELIQUE SOENARIE

Staff Writer


Kevin Francois gave up his lunch break to talk to his mother, but it ended up costing him the rest of the school year.

Francois, a junior at Spencer High School in Columbus, was suspended for disorderly conduct Wednesday after he was told to give up his cell phone at lunch while talking to his mother who is deployed in Iraq, he said.

His mother, Sgt. 1st Class Monique Bates, left in January for a one-year tour and serves with the 203rd Forward Support Battalion, 3rd Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division.

"This is our first time separated like this," said Francois, 17, on Thursday.

Bates came to Fort Benning with her son from Hunter Army Airfield in Savannah, Ga. She enrolled him at Spencer in August. Since her deployment overseas, Francois, whose father was killed when he was 5 years old, lives with a guardian who has five children in Columbus.

The incident happened when Francois received a call from his mother at 12:30 p.m., which he said was his lunch break. Francois said he went outside the school building to get a better reception when his mother called. A teacher who saw Francois on his phone told him to get off the phone. But he didn't.

According to the Muscogee County School District Board of Education's policy, students are allowed to have cell phones in school, but cannot use them during school hours.

"They are really allowed to have those cell phones so that after band or after chorus or after the debate and practices are over they have to coordinate with the parents," said Alfred Parham, assistant principal at Spencer. "They're not supposed to use them for conversating back and forth during school because if they were allowed to do that, they could be text messaging each other for test questions."

"Conversating?" This illiterate clown is an assistant principal? Fire him, today, for that alone.

Francois said he told the teacher, "This is my mom in Iraq. I'm not about to hang up on my mom."

Francois said the teacher tried to take the phone, causing it to hang up.

The student said he then went with the teacher to the school's office where he surrendered his phone. His mother called again at 12:37 p.m. and left a message scolding her son about hanging up and telling him to answer the phone when she calls.

Control issue (called it right for once)
Parham said the teen's suspension was based on his reaction when he was asked to give up the cell phone and told about the school's cell phone policy.

"Kevin got defiant and disorderly with Mr. Turner and another assistant principal," Parham said Thursday. "He got defiant with me. He refused to leave Mr. Turner's office. When a kid becomes out of control like that they can either be arrested or suspended for 10 days. Now being that his mother is in Iraq, we're not trying to cause her any undue hardship; he was suspended for 10 days."
More tortured syntax. Which teacher's college did this asshat go to? Don't they teach English there?
Wendall Turner is another assistant principal at Spencer.

Does he speak English?

Parham said the student used profanity when he was taken into the office. He said he tried to work out something with the student. But Francois said he was too frustrated he couldn't answer the phone when his mother called him the second time.

"I even asked Kevin, 'You know we can try to work something out to where if your mother wants to call you she can call you at the school,'" Parham said. "So we've tried to work with Kevin and we're going to continue to try to work with Kevin and his mother and his relatives. In the course of good order and discipline, we have to abide by our policy." Can someone translate, Educrat Jargo-gibberish to the King's English?
Francois admitted he was partially at fault for his behavior but said he should have been allowed to talk to his mother.

"I was mad at the time, but I feel now maybe I should've went about it differently," he said. "Maybe I should've just waited outside to pick up the phone. But I don't I feel I should've changed any of my actions. I feel I was right by not hanging up the phone."

For Francois, he said he gets to hear from his mother once a month, and phone calls vary depending on when she can use the phone in Iraq. Francois said his mother calls as late as 1 a.m. to 3 a.m. and tries to catch him during hours he's awake. He said the phone call Wednesday was the first time she called him while he was at school.

Francois, who said he's been struggling with his grades in school, wants to go back to school and finish the rest of his year. He fears he may have pay for summer school because of his punishment.

"My grades had been low, but I was bringing them up. My grades were coming back up. On one of my report cards I had like a 'F' in one of my classes, but I brought it back up to a low 'C.' This just brought me all the way down."




Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy || 05/08/2005 15:36 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  ima unerstood it fien ac.
Posted by: muck4doo || 05/08/2005 15:51 Comments || Top||

#2  UPDATE:After Protests, Student's Suspension Cut Kansas City Star
School officials have reduced the suspension of a student who wouldn't give up his cell phone while talking to his mother, who is on duty in Iraq. The reduction came after school officials in this military city received hundreds of angry phone calls and e-mails about the suspension. -Snip-
On Friday, after officials met with Francois, his guardian and a representative of Bates' unit, the suspension was cut to three days, which will allow Francois to return Monday. Said Francois: “I'm not a golden child and I've been wrong, but I was right this time.”



Posted by: GK || 05/08/2005 16:24 Comments || Top||

#3  I still think these shit head power control freaks need some "conversating" with a blanket and a baseball bat.
Posted by: Sock Puppet 0’ Doom || 05/08/2005 16:30 Comments || Top||

#4  This kid was the exception to the rules. I deal with about 960 exceptions every day.
Posted by: Shipman || 05/08/2005 17:05 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan/South Asia
Demand for Musharraf's image on currency note
LAHORE — The Pakistan People's Movement has demanded that all notes of Rs5000 denomination, proposed to be printed by the State Bank of Pakistan, should carry the picture of President Musharraf in recognition of the services he rendered to save the country after 9/11.
"Oh no, I couldn't, really, no ..."
PPM Chairman Chaudhry Ashfaq Ahmed has also printed a sample note with the picture of the general, and sent the same to newspapers. He argues that after Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah had created Pakistan, Gen Musharraf had saved it after the cataclysmic attacks of the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon. Since the general's achievement was quite significant, it should be accorded recognition, he said.
Posted by: Steve White || 05/08/2005 12:26:37 AM || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Oh that will go over well with the Deobandis! No images, guys, remember?
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/08/2005 5:44 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
Pictures from a illegal immgrantion anti REAL-ID rally
On Saturday afternoon, I drove to Rockville, Md., for a large "gathering to condemn the REAL ID Act." (The act will tighten driver's license standards to prevent illegal aliens from obtaining the IDs, close asylum loopholes, and provide funding to fix a huge gap in a border fence between California and Mexico.) Casa de Maryland, a government-funded open-borders group, organized the protest on the public school athletic field at Richard Montgomery High School.

You can see the rally photos I took at my new Flickr site (at link).

Talk show host Michael Graham was pulled aside by police after illegal alien advocates initially prevented him from entering the rally--on public school grounds. Organizers said he didn't have proper ID!

Question: How does Casa de Maryland get to be government funded?
Posted by: CrazyFool || 05/08/2005 00:14 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  FYI - Hat tip: Michelle Malkin :)
Posted by: CrazyFool || 05/08/2005 0:22 Comments || Top||

#2  Organizers said he didn't have proper ID!

Yes, the concept of irony does elude certain people...
Posted by: Raj || 05/08/2005 0:38 Comments || Top||

#3  Funny that more authorities didn't show up to arrest and deport the illegals. Would have been a HUGE PR move by the INS and would ahve sent the right message. FYI I pass by the Mexican Consulate and INS building on my way to work every morning. Usually there are at least 100 or more in line to get their LEGAL papers for working in the U.S. Why don't I see pictures of those people doing it right?
Posted by: Cyber Sarge || 05/08/2005 11:31 Comments || Top||

#4  This Real ID act is going to be a disaster. Both political parties have been inching towards a national ID card since Roosevelt (the bad one), and all supporters of the card have hilariously naive and totally unrealistic expectations of what they will "get" out of it. And be under no illusions, the card is *not* for your benefit, it is for the benefit of those who wish to get something out of you. First of all, the card will tout its security--an utter lie, as the cards will be issued by State DMVs, the singularly most corrupt and incompetant, nationwide, type of government agency. Second of all, it will create a motivation for illegal IDs that is *stronger* than was the motivation for alcohol during Prohibition *and* the motivation for illegal drugs during the War on Drugs. The ID will be your "right to be an American". What would you do to get and keep that right? Americans proudly proclaim that it is worth the shedding of their blood to keep their freedom and liberty *as Americans*. While mostly people think of the "freedom and liberty" part of that statement, the "as Americans" part is just as deadly serious. Third, what happens when "the noble experiment" comes crashing down like what is happening *right now* with the BILLIONS of dollars of Homeland Security technology, or more likely, like Canada's efforts at gun registration? Will the US government spend TRILLIONS of dollars trying to prop up the failed system, like with the War on Drugs; or will they humbly admit defeat, like in Prohibition? This is going to be a national nightmare, and millions of people are going to be hurt. It could very possibly result in a Civil War between the "government authorized American citizens", and the "Americans who have been denied their citizenship because they do not have a piece of paper."
Posted by: Anonymoose || 05/08/2005 11:41 Comments || Top||

#5  Only the Betty CrockerCrats will thrive. All will be useless.
Posted by: Shipman || 05/08/2005 17:35 Comments || Top||


Africa: Subsaharan
Obasanjo Defends Taylor Asylum Extension
President Olusegun Obasanjo yesterday defended Nigeria's extension of political asylum to former Liberian President, Charles Taylor in a meeting with United States President George W. Bush at the White House. He however expressed the hope that some arrangement could be made in the case to ensure that the course of justice is served.

Addressing the press outside the White House yesterday, Obasanjo emphasized the delicate nature of the situation and noted that Taylor's exile to Nigeria in 2003 helped end bloodshed in Liberia. In his own remark, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said: "President Bush is appreciative of President Obasanjo's leadership to help end the civil war and get Charles Taylor out of Liberia. They spoke about the need to continue working together to find a way to hold Charles Taylor accountable."
Posted by: Fred || 05/08/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:


Afghanistan/South Asia
40 Injured in Bangladesh Factory Clash
An angry mob in Bangladesh stormed a fertilizer factory yesterday, clashing with workers after the plant released a toxic gas that sickened more than a dozen local residents, police said. Fifteen people fell badly ill yesterday after inhaling toxic fumes from the newly built fertilizer factory near the Bangladeshi capital, police said "Fifteen people were taken to hospital after becoming seriously ill from inhaling gas emitted by a chemical factory at Fatullah," police officer in-charge Mohammad Shafiqullah said. People living in the residential area near the factory complained to authorities late Friday after their cows fell ill and the leaves of trees turned a reddish color, he said.
Posted by: Fred || 05/08/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:


2 Shias booked for blasphemy
MULTAN: Kabirwala Police have registered a case against two Shia men for making derogatory remarks about Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) and his companions (Sahaba-e-Karam) publicly. "The police have arrested Amir Hussain and Kazim Hussain who had used derogatory language against Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and Hazrat Umer Farooq (RA), which caused unrest in the town. However, the situation is now under control," Kabirwala DSP Khadim Hussain Niazi told Daily Times on the phone. He said a case had been filed under Section 298/A of the PPC against Amir Hussain and Kazim Hussain on a report by Afzal that they used objectionable words in the presence of traders Jan Muhammad, Abdul Sattar, Ashraf, Mukhtar and Nazar.
Posted by: Fred || 05/08/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  How much time, ink, paper and ad space have been wasted by writing pbuh? Cut that out and the GNP of moslem countries would go up by .001. It's the little efficiencies that add up.
Posted by: Shipman || 05/08/2005 6:05 Comments || Top||

#2  The Shias are well known for their hatred of the Prophet Mohammad, it's a good thing there were some pious citizens around to hear their blasphemy.
Posted by: Paul Moloney || 05/08/2005 8:01 Comments || Top||

#3  Guess these asclowns will frown on the breakfast I'm eating right now - 3 eggs and a 1/2 lb. of bacon.

Heretic! Deeelicious!
Posted by: Raj || 05/08/2005 10:47 Comments || Top||



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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.
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Two weeks of WOT
Sun 2005-05-08
  Aoun Returns From Exile
Sat 2005-05-07
  Egypt Arrests Senior Muslim Brotherhood Leaders
Fri 2005-05-06
  Marines Land on Somali Coast to Hunt Terrs?
Thu 2005-05-05
  20 40 64 Pakistanis Talibs killed
Wed 2005-05-04
  Al-Libbi in Jug!
Tue 2005-05-03
  Iraq: Bloody Battle in the Desert
Mon 2005-05-02
  25 killed in attack on Mosul funeral
Sun 2005-05-01
  Mass Grave With 1,500 Bodies Found in Iraq
Sat 2005-04-30
  Fahd clinically dead?
Fri 2005-04-29
  Sgt. Hasan Akbar sentenced to death
Thu 2005-04-28
  Lebanon Sets May Polls After Syrian Departure
Wed 2005-04-27
  Iraq completes Cabinet proposal
Tue 2005-04-26
  Al-Timimi Convicted
Mon 2005-04-25
  Perv proposes dividing Kashmir into 7 parts
Sun 2005-04-24
  Egypt arrests 28 Brotherhood members


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