An Argentine prison uprising over Mother's Day visiting hours killed at least 17 people before being brought under control on Sunday, according to officials and media reports. About 200 inmates joined the uprising that began on Saturday night at the prison in Magdalena, 75 miles (120 km) south of the capital of Buenos Aires, said Argentine television station TN. At least 17 people died before order was restored on Sunday morning, Fernando Diaz, director of the Buenos Aires province penitentiary service, told TN. "We have taken control of the jail, which was in the hands of inmates overnight, and there is no area outside our control now," he said. "The inmates have returned to their cells and we are doing a recount."
The prisoners began their revolt to have visiting hours extended on Sunday for Mother's Day, TN said, citing family members and onlookers. Smoke was shown rising from the prison compound after inmates set mattresses aflame, sparking a fire that later spread and may have been fatal, TN said. Officials would not comment on the cause of the blaze. Several family members said they entered the prison early Sunday morning and saw corpses "piled on top of one another." They put the death toll at closer to 30 people. Hundreds of inmates' relatives stood outside the jail at midday, demanding information about the identity of the dead.
And a wonderful time was had by all, except for the dead guys.
#2
More at link
[snip]
In a CDC briefing on Monday, Crawford said that between April and May 2005, the deadly flu had also crossed over to domestic dogs. But she noted that in 80% of dogs the disease is mild â with the animal having only a cough and runny nose.
However, as with human flu, in a minority of cases there may be complications and the dogs can develop pneumonia. The mortality rate is currently between 5% and 8%.
The team is urging anxious dog owners to take a commonsense approach. If their dog has had a respiratory illness it should be kept at home for two weeks, says Crawford, to let it recover and prevent other dogs becoming infected. But if a dog remains well, life should go on as normal.
Posted by: Red Dog ||
10/16/2005 1:06 Comments ||
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#3
If their dog has had a respiratory illness it should be kept at home for two weeks, says Crawford, to let it recover and prevent other dogs becoming infected.
KUWAIT CITY - Kuwaitâs powerful Prime Minister Shaikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah is expected to become the new crown prince as part of key changes to resolve a ruling family crisis in the monarchy, a family source said on Saturday. The 76-year-old prime minister would replace ailing current crown prince Shaikh Saad Abdullah Al Sabah, who has been having medical treatment in London for the past two months, the source told AFP.
Only 76? Why, he's a mere tad, still burping milk.
âThere is little doubt that Shaikh Sabah will be new crown prince in the near future,â said the source. âThis has to come after offering other sides in the family some incentives to strike a balance. The issue has not been completely settled and a number of scenarios are still being discussed. The leadership is looking for consensus.â The family source, who did not wish to be identified, said crucial consultations for the changes were not expected to be finalised before Shaikh Saadâs return from London on October 19.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/16/2005 00:00 ||
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SALAMANCA, Spain (AP) - Leaders of the world's Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking countries demanded on Saturday that the United States abide by U.N. resolutions to end its "blockade" against Cuba, in a resolution that earlier drew criticism from the U.S. government.
Sure, just let us know when Fidel and Raoul are gone ...
The U.S. Embassy in Madrid objected to the use of the word "blockade" instead of "embargo" in the statement by the 17 leaders present at the annual Iberoamerican summit. Spanish officials countered that "blockade" had been used in U.N. resolutions as well. "We call on the United States of America to comply with that laid down in 13 successive resolutions approved by the General Assembly of the United Nations, and to bring an end to the economic, trade and financial blockade it maintains against Cuba," one of a set of final statements said.
Foreign ministers from Latin America, Spain and Portugal at the summit had drawn up a similarly worded draft Thursday, irking the U.S. Embassy, which said it could be interpreted as a "kind of support for the dictatorship in Cuba."
The final statement on the embargo differed only in the title and final phrase by qualifying the word "blockade" with the adjectives "economic, trade and financial."
Spain's Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said similar wording had been used by the United Nations and nothing should be read into any change in the final phrasing.
Hours before the summit's end, the U.S. Embassy issued a statement saying Spain had excellent relations with the U.S. government.
And then we note ...
Relations between Madrid and Washington suffered when Zapatero withdrew troops from Iraq shortly after being elected in March 2004. Those relations have yet to fully recover.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/16/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
Zapetero, the president told you that you are either with us or against us. Since you are obviously against us, FOAD.
#5
This is just an attempt by Spain to build an Hispanosphere in opposition to the Anglosphere. At the same time the Franch and Spanish are seeming to bury the hatchet in the EU, they are mobilizing their former colonies in to linguistic groups to think locoly and act globally. The Scots are apparently deciding that England should return to its Norman roots and become part of France.
BONFIRES blazed and the Viking wine flowed as Tasmanians tonight celebrated the birth of Crown Princess Mary's first child. About 200 people gathered under a full moon at Blackmans Bay for the island state's first official celebrations since their most famous former resident gave birth to a prince yesterday.
A large contingent of Australian Danes showed up for the bash after a day of "traditional Viking tea" (otherwise known as gluhwein) and Danish pastries. "It's beautiful news. Mary is a great ambassador for Australia," Else-Marie Millin said. "Danes now refer to Tasmania as the heart of Australia. She's a Tasmanian, we're Tasmanian now, it's almost like (the baby is) a part of us."
Kingborough Mayor Don Hazell organised the bonfires at short notice after hearing news of the birth yesterday. Mr Hazell had just won a game of lawn bowls when he discovered the prince had beaten his due date by two weeks. "We started to talk about the situation on Friday, not expecting this baby to arrive so quickly," he said.
The 78-year-old mayor chopped three tonnes of wood from his property to host bonfires at Blackmans Bay and Taroona, where Mary was raised. "I'm very pleased (with the attendance) considering we only had a few hours to get the wood and get it all going," he said. "This new child is half ours, we reckon."
Bonfires are now burning on both sides of the world in a tradition dating back to the Bronze Age.
The prince, who is expected to be named Christian, is second in line to the throne after his father, Prince Frederik.
The celebrations will continue in Tasmania throughout the week, with the State Government due to announce an official function earlier this week. Plans are also being finalised on the state's gift to the royal couple.
Australia's latest navy ship, HMAS Armidale, is ready to start patrolling the coastline. A Defence spokesman said the first of the Armidale class patrol boats today completed her mission readiness evaluation. "This key milestone means Armidale is now ready to start patrolling and protecting Australia's coastline," the spokesman said.
HMAS Armidale is the first of 14 new state-of-the-art patrol boats that will serve at the front line of Australia's border protection. They will patrol the coast for suspect fishing boats, as well as people breaching quarantine, customs and immigration laws.
HMAS Armidale is home ported in Darwin and has a crew of 21.
Two more Armidale class patrol boats were officially named yesterday during a ceremony at Western Australia's Austal Ships construction facility. The government said the two boats, Larrakia and Bathurst, would be in service by the end of December. "These new Armidale class patrol boats offer increased patrol range, surveillance and boarding capability in comparison to the Fremantle class patrol boats they are replacing," Defence Minister Robert Hill said.
The new patrol boatsâ class is named after the original HMAS Armidale, a Bathurst Class corvette, which served as an escort vessel, protecting Australian coastal and mainland to New Guinea convoys. She was sunk by enemy action on 1 December 1942 during operations off Betano, on the south coast of Timor. Of the crew of 149 only 49 survived.
Posted by: God Save The World AKA Oztralian ||
10/16/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
Sleek looking ship, but with only a 25mm gun and two 12.7mm machine guns it could use a little more firepower.
#3
This Website has more info on the new class of navy ships.
Posted by: God Save The World AKA Oztralian ||
10/16/2005 2:35 Comments ||
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RWV, you have a point, but doesn't more risk being too much gun - yes, that's possible - for a high-speed patrol boat?
Posted by: Edward Yee ||
10/16/2005 5:09 Comments ||
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Oztralian, does Oz have a separate coast guard? If so, what are they using?
Posted by: Jonathan ||
10/16/2005 6:46 Comments ||
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Jonathan, Australia does not have a separate Coast Guard, the RAN does it all. According to Wikipedia, they have 15 Fremantle class patrole boats with 12 of these Armidales to come.
Have to agree they look good. Might make a nice yacht, too. Sort of like a marine Hummer...
#7
You don't bring a cannon to a police drug deal intercept because if you do, the police end up not shooting at all most of the time.
The NORKs have been smuggling hard drugs, and other things, into Australia and this class boat seems to be ideally sized and armed to deal with that sort of thing - human smuggling too.
#11
Hmmm, Built by Austal, that jives with a newspaper announcement that the Mobile Austal Shipyard was to make "Navy" ships (Didn't state what nation's Navy)
So, "Made In America" for the Australian Navy?
wonder if they will simply sail them home, or deliver on a ship for unloading in Aussieland?
Since they're to be Aluminum, it's possible to send by freight.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
10/16/2005 14:12 Comments ||
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Austal also makes high speed transports; the one variant of the USN LCS was based on the design.
(2005-10-16) -- Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, who has devoted two years to investigating who leaked the name of CIA operative Valerie Wilson, has reportedly narrowed his probe in the past week to focus on who unmasked a covert blogging operation at The New York Times.
Bloggers, the generally cranky, rumor-mongering pseudo pundits who lack editorial oversight, expressed shock this week to learn that The New York Times itself had secretly employed former reporter Judith Miller as a blogger who operated behind the facade of the Times' masthead.
As word of the reporter's secret mission began to trickle from the newsroom, the paper yesterday was forced to 'out' itself in a nearly 6,000-word piece that fanned the flame of controversy surrounding Ms. Miller's covert activities.
According to the article, the formerly-respected journalist had allegedly been doing whatever she wanted at the Times, much to the annoyance of her colleagues, without submitting to the controlling influence of editors.
Editorial oversight, experts say, is the key distinction between journalists and bloggers.
Mr. Fitzgerald will now reportedly seek a warrant to search Ms. Miller's home and office in an attempt to confirm her blogger status before pursuing the source of the leak.
One unnamed Justice Department official said, "If they find a computer and a pair of pajamas in this same room, Fitzgerald will have all he needs to establish intent to blog."
The journalist who first revealed Valerie Wilson's CIA employment, columnist Robert Novak, remains at large.
From the "How dare you dis Billary!" dept...
During his tenure as director of the FBI, Louis Freeh presided over a series of blunders and failures that brought the bureau to a low point in its history. From the embarrassment of the Russian mole Robert Hanssen to the bungling of the Wen Ho Lee investigation to the wasting of hundreds of millions of dollars in a failed attempt to build a modern, computerized case management system, the bureau under Freeh's leadership stumbled from one blunder to the next, with little or no accountability. The nadir, as the nation knows too well, was reached in the astonishing string of failures that helped leave America vulnerable to the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
In the face of this record, Freeh has now published "My FBI," a book distinguished by its shameless buck-passing. Nothing, it seems, was ever Louis Freeh's fault.
Who was to blame for the fact that there weren't enough FBI agents working on counterterrorism? According to Freeh, it was Congress. But in testimony three years ago, Freeh declared that "Congress has shown great foresight in strengthening" counterterrorism efforts, tripling the FBI's counterterrorism budget from $97 million in 1996 to more than $300 million in 1999. Whose fault was it that the FBI remained incapable of basic file management? Congress's, Freeh contends -- it underfunded the bureau's technology program. But as the report of the Sept. 11 commission points out, Congress did not meet FBI requests in the late 1990s because the bureau had squandered so much money already. Equally appalling is Freeh's recent claim on "60 Minutes" that the bureau was too distracted by the many "scandals" in the Clinton White House to attend to the terrorist threat. Of course, none of those politically motivated witch hunts, in which Freeh did the bidding of his congressional patrons on the partisan right, resulted in a conviction. And never mind that Freeh's FBI ought to have been able to protect the American people while pursuing other investigations at the same time.
Freeh's claim, moreover, that no one, including White House counterterrorism official Richard Clarke, told him that radical Islamist terrorism was a major threat, is totally disingenuous. As the Sept. 11 report, the congressional joint inquiry and a book by former National Security Council officials Daniel Benjamin and Steven Simon show, there were countless memos circulating in the bureaucracy and numerous meetings that Freeh refused to attend. As Benjamin and Simon aptly wrote in "The Age of Sacred Terror," the FBI under Freeh was "a surly colossus" that listened to no one, provided intelligence to no one and took direction from no one.
Perhaps no part of Freeh's auto-whitewash is more self-aggrandizing and inaccurate than his rewrite of the history of the investigation into Khobar Towers. Freeh claims the White House did not support his attempts to probe the Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia and was unable or unwilling to help the FBI gain access to witnesses.
In fact, on numerous occasions senior Clinton administration officials reiterated requests for full cooperation on Khobar Towers, including access to key witnesses, with interlocutors at the highest levels of the Saudi government. This culminated in a face-to-face demand by President Bill Clinton to Crown Prince Abdullah in Washington in the fall of 1998. Freeh, who was not in that meeting and cites only unnamed sources, claims that Clinton never pushed seriously for cooperation, instead asking Abdullah for a contribution to his planned presidential library.
This account does not pass the straight-face test. Those who were in the room, including several still in government service who cannot speak publicly, all concur that Clinton pushed Abdullah hard for cooperation, telling him that the future of the American-Saudi relationship depended on the kingdom's cooperation. In short order, that cooperation was forthcoming and produced the information that led to the eventual indictments. Freeh alleges that the real reason for the Saudi turnaround was the intervention, at his request, of former president George H.W. Bush. That Bush added his voice to the chorus of administration demands reflects well on our former president, but the argument that the Saudis would deliver on the basis of an appeal from someone who was out of office as opposed to someone whose actions would determine the course of U.S.-Saudi relations is completely implausible.
Other parts of Freeh's account of the unfolding of the Khobar Towers investigation are also riddled with distortions and inaccuracies. For example, Freeh writes as if no acknowledgment of Iranian involvement in the bombing was made until after George W. Bush came into office. This is false: The Clinton administration publicly and unequivocally placed blame on senior Iranian officials. Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder made this point at a press conference on Oct. 4, 1999. Moreover, Freeh's story has changed. In "My FBI," Freeh leaves out the admission that he made to the New Yorker magazine in 2001: that he personally made the decision to hold back on an indictment of Iranian officials until a new administration came into office. The material for indictments was available, and there is no evidence that the Clinton administration did not want to pursue the case. Freeh, however, slow-rolled the case, apparently for political reasons.
A central claim of "My FBI" is that Clinton was more concerned about a rapprochement with Iran than about the safety of Americans. Yet Freeh fails to note the obvious: A principal aim of the administration's aggressive diplomacy and intelligence work was to reduce the terrorist threat coming from Iran and its surrogates in the Middle East.
I can understand why Freeh would write a book such as "My FBI" defending his tenure. After all, no one else would.
John Podesta was President Bill Clinton's last chief of staff and earlier served as counsel to the Senate subcommittee on security and terrorism, which had oversight of the FBI. He is now president of the Center for American Progress. Yup. This is what I love about WaPo. Mr Podesta has no axe to grind here, no ox to gore, no reasons, whatsoever, to be anything less than honest and straightforward. Fair and balanced. That's WaPo, alright. Freeh is The Devil. The Clinton WH was Camelot II. Clinton musta kept him around to frighten ill-behaved children into being good.
Wonder if his was one of the egos she quietly bruised. This WSJ article is interesting, too.
Posted by: too true ||
10/16/2005 07:38 ||
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#1
Miers is an unknown quantity. That is why elements of the left and right are supporting her because each believes she will help their cause.
And that is why we will continue to see these attacks from both sides against conservatives, who oppose the nomination mainly because Meirs is an unknown quantity.
Every commenter I have seen who opposed her would instead welcome a Priscila Owens or Janice Rogers Brown nomination and for obvious reasons. The "ego bruised" because the nominee is a woman is a damn lie.
So for give me if I remove the sexist tag from me and place it back on you.
#2
(1) Miers is NOT an unknown quantity to Frum - they worked in the White House together.
(2) I didn't use the sexist label for you or anyone opposed to Miers - touchy touchy!!!
Posted by: too true ||
10/16/2005 10:49 Comments ||
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To clarify, I don't think the fact that Miers is a WOMAN is what bruised Frum's ego- although it might have contributed. It's the fact that despite his high profile at the WH - he was the 'axis of evil' coiner for the SOTU speech - this quiet spoken Texan got a whole lot more done and had more influence over time.
That she did so because she had risen as a woman when being a woman in her profession was hard is just another data point about her - but to this woman of about the same age, it's a telling one.
I've broken enough ceilings of my own to know what that takes.
Posted by: too true ||
10/16/2005 10:51 Comments ||
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#4
And, just to drive the point home, Miers is still in the WH and Frum is not. In fact his tenure there was rather short IIRC.
Posted by: too true ||
10/16/2005 10:59 Comments ||
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Alright, then I apologize. But if you oppose the Meirs nomination, get ready to place yourself in a crossfire.
The left is already getting their favorite canard, the sexist, sexism charge, ready for the hearings.
Background piece. Short version: there is no stampede to divest.
CHICAGO - Some U.S. Protestant churches are turning their back on the idea of dumping investments in companies profiting from Israel's West Bank occupation, people involved in the issue said yesterday. Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, along with a debate over whether divestment is the right move in the first place, may have helped cool what looked like a growing trend just a few months ago.
"My reading, as a central Jewish player in this, is that there never was a [general] move toward divestment," said David Elcott, director of inter-religious affairs for the American Jewish Committee. "Here is the reality: No church in the U.S. except the Presbyterians has voted for divestment," he said, and the only place where divestment looked like it was moving forward may have been in the media," he said.
U.S. Episcopal Church leaders recently rejected divestment in favor of corporate engagement, and another major denomination, the United Church of Christ, turned down divestment at its convention last summer. The 2.5 million-member Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the largest body of that denomination, approved in 2004 a "phased, selective divestment" involving its $8 billion portfolio beginning in July 2006.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/16/2005 00:06 ||
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#1
When one considers that a definite portion of this investment happens strictly with an end towards securing Israel's putative role in the Apocalypse, there arises a distinct reek of extremely unenlightened self-interest.
#3
The fact that divestment was put up for the vote in so many denominations says that it was, too, a movement. They were just caught in time, and shamed into backing down.
And, as this was about investing Church funds and, especially, ministers' retirement funds, self-interest should be involved in the decision making... as opposed to the rank ideology of divestment from Israeli companies just because the Palestinians don't like them.
#4
Churches should invest ethically, not for profit maximization. Methodists investing in Seagrams is not a good idea. Disinvestment should have failed on the issue of ethics, not profit maximization, and I hope it did.
What this shows is that the leadership of the Mainline churches is totally out of contact with the membership. They have screwed up the liturgy and destroyed congregations with their little flings. There wouldn't be nearly so many no-name churches sprouting up had they kept to their knitting.
A large earthquake struck offshore northeast of Taiwan on Saturday, the Central Weather Bureau (search) said. No injuries or damage were immediately reported on the island.
The 7.0-magnitude quake, with an undersea depth of 190 kilometers (118 miles), hit at 11:51 p.m. local time (1551 GMT) in the East China Sea, it said.
It struck about 175 kilometers (110 miles) east of the Taiwanese capital Taipei (search), the bureau said.
Quakes frequently rattle Taiwan, but most are minor and cause little or no damage. However, a 7.6-magnitude earthquake in central Taiwan in September 1999 killed more than 2,300 people.
#4
Been a'feelin several light tremors/aftershocks? here in Guam - no biggies yet. Strange though that our local geological center nor newspapers have reported any.
China has announced the completion of the first railway line to Tibet - one of the world's highest train routes. The pan-Himalayan line climbs 5,072m (16,640ft) above sea level and runs across Tibet's snow-covered plateau - dubbed the roof of the world. Trains travelling on the line will have to have carriages that are sealed like aircraft to protect passengers from altitude sickness. The line is expected to take its first passengers next year.
The official Xinhua news agency said $3bn had been spent on the challenging 1,142km (710-mile) final section, after four years in construction. The workers who built the line had to breathe bottled oxygen in order to cope with the high altitudes.
I seriously doubt that the overlords cared much about the workers one way or the other. It's a people's paradise, remember.
China says the line will promote the development of impoverished Tibet.
Makes it easier to move troops and military supplies, too.
The line links the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, with the north-western province of Qinghai. But even before the railway line opens there are concerns about its future. The National Climate Centre said in June that rising temperatures would affect operation of the railway by 2050.
#1
(Sigh) Being a Machinery Oriented person the very concept of sealed railway cars pressurized like aircraft cabins, coupled with the hostile terrain, "Government" maintenance, and the severe weather almost guarantees a thousands dead disaster.
Plus just how do they intend to deal with common breakdowns, It would require workers to inhabit "Space Suits" during even the most common repairs.
Picture a coupler fracture due to metal crystalization at extreme temperatures, not reparable on site, and with the train still undamaged and upright but unable to procede.
What do you do? leave the passengers and go for help? how long will the heat and fuel hold out untill rescue, does each car carry a generator, air compressor, heater? or are those supplied from the engine(s)?
Deadly setup.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
10/16/2005 14:03 Comments ||
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#2
meant for troops and arms - hardships come with the job. Wonder how it does in avalanches?
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/16/2005 14:37 Comments ||
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After the devil went down to Georgia, it seems, he got censored in Prince William County.
In preparation for a guest appearance at the Peach Bowl in Atlanta, the marching band at C.D. Hylton High School had a logical and seemingly innocuous idea: play a Georgia-themed song. They decided on "The Devil Went Down to Georgia," by the Charlie Daniels Band.
But early this month, a local newspaper, the Potomac News, published a letter by a Woodbridge crank resident who, after having seen the C.D. Hylton Bulldawg Marching Band perform the country-western hit at a football game, wondered how a song about the devil could be played at school events, because of the separation of church and state.
Fearing bad public reaction, Hylton's longtime band director, Dennis Brown, pulled the song from the playlist. "I was just being protective of my students. I didn't want any negative publicity for C.D. Hylton High School," he said. But Brown's strategy backfired. The decision has created a furor, and even Charlie Daniels has weighed in.
"I am a Christian, and I don't write pro-devil songs. Most people seem to get it. It's a fun little song," Daniels said Friday in a telephone interview from Mokena, Ill., where he was scheduled to perform a concert. "I think it's a shame that the [marching band director] would yield to one piece of mail. If people find out that he can be manipulated that easily, he's going to have a hard way to go." Next target: Edith Hamilton's Mythology
Christine Heeren, whose daughter Sandrine, 17, is the band's color guard captain, said many parents are frustrated that the song won't be performed but are unanimous in their respect for Brown as a thoughtful and popular band director. "I am quite in a dilemma," she said. "The children were more disappointed because they spent a lot of hours in marching band camp. It takes a lot of patience and drilling."
Residents, alumni and parents have been fulminating in the Potomac News and on its Web site against censorship, the values of the media, the band director and, perhaps not surprisingly, the writer of the letter, Robert McLean. In the paper's online forum, people have written about a range of topics -- abortion, presidential politics, whether Daniels rocks or not-- that show how testy emotions have become.
To paraphrase from the song, fire has flown from their fingertips:
"God have mercy. How did we become a country full of weenies who give into the cranky nonsense of 1 voice?" one person tapped out on a computer. "I guess I need to go back to school. I thought the idea behind our country was that the majority ruled? You know, like the majority of people voted for the President's re-election and now the ruling party is knuckling under to every left wing nut out there? I give up!"
A person identified as Ticked Off Parent chimed in: "What's next? School Book Burnings because someone finds To Kill a Mockingbird offensive? Whoever started this should be banned from the school, NOT THE SONG!" Another wrote in: "So what if the song does actually 'revolve' around Satan? Satan has its rightful place in history as does Women's suffrage, slavery, and every other subject bad or good!"
Daniels's song, which won a Grammy Award in 1979, is a tongue-in-cheek, tale about a devil heading down to Georgia and challenging a young man named Johnny to a fiddling duel. The stakes are high: If the devil plays a better tune, then he gets to keep Johnny's soul. But Johnny is too talented and beats the devil, winning a golden fiddle, and making Daniels's song a metaphor for the triumph of good over evil.
Brown said the Bulldawg Marching Band has been practicing "Devil" since early summer and one student even purchased an electric violin for the routine. The band played the song during the pregame show of the state football championship in 2003, he said, and no one complained.
As for that nettlesome letter writer, Robert McLean? The defense contractor, whose children are home-schooled, said he went to Hylton's football game just because he enjoys the sport. His letter, he said, was meant to start a philosophical debate, not to wreck any student's marching band experience. Besides, he said, he loves "Devil." "It was one of the first 45s I had as a kid," he said. New Grad, 2008: "I am looking forward to college so I can finally learn something about this Michelangelo guy. My art teacher said he was way cool, but she couldn't show us his stuff or even talk about it cos' it's, like, religious.
#3
I cannot blame the band director. That a single determined idiot can disrupt a high school with his rantings is a fact of life. However, I look forward to the day when "interfering with public education" is seen as a misdemeanor offense.
A very straightforward law--any person who interferes with a public school with intent to disrupt, interfere, coerce, intimidate, harass or prevent their lawful activities, or interfere with students, faculty or administration, would be subject to criminal prosecution.
The law right now comes pretty close to having such a statute.
#4
I think it's a shame that the [marching band director] would yield to one piece of mail. If people find out that he can be manipulated that easily, he's going to have a hard way to go.
I have just become a Charlie Daniels fan.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
10/16/2005 19:12 Comments ||
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If writing new laws is the answer, you'll be writing a LOT of laws. Every day we discover new intrusions that lack even a whiff of common sense. Intrusions that serve no one - save the bottomless egos of well and truly sociopathic publicity hounds, such as Michael Newdow. Intrusions that contribute nothing to our society, but demonstrably detract. Our tolerance of this twisted newthink creates the niches and hernias where the specialty whores, such as race-baiters of the Jackson, Sharpton, and Farrakhan ilk, prosper.
This shit must be stopped before it infects everything - and it already exists, a hovering Sword of Damocles, in every conversation, every relationship, in the workplace, in your emails and diary scribblings and website bio, in inane dating rulebooks issued by the most inane of the intelligentsia at our universities - everywhere we go, everything we see, hear, read. We can see clearly where it is taking our cousins and ex-Allies on the continent, no?
Just my take after chewing on it a little while. This is a perversion of good intentions which has taken on a life of its own. A joke that stopped being funny and entered the realm of farce and tragedy quite some time ago.
An interesting "contest" might be to see who can come up with the earliest example (in the modern era - I claim Alley Oop anecdotes as my specialty, lol!) of obvious PCism run amok.
#7
I'm afraid the gleeful obstructionist PC environment will lead to vigilantism from what would otherwise (is a sane functional society) be non-offending majority. Celebrate nd push too far and expect the backlash on your backs from those who would willingly sacrifice to do it
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/16/2005 19:49 Comments ||
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#8
"in" not "is"
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/16/2005 19:51 Comments ||
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#9
I believe that PCism is the amok phase of attempting to codify common sense / common decency. Since our families have largely fragmented and many "parents" have obviously abdicated to the school system the role of parent (the culture of no rules and instant gratification has many costs, mostly hidden) and our school systems are run, for the most part, by Moonbats whose eyes sparkle at the very thought of social engineering, we find common sense and common decency are not only misnomers, but endangered values. They have gleefully filled that vacuum with shrill rules of insane design.
Nothing unique or particularly profound, just my little theory on how this slide into insanity was born.
Riverdale Kenneth M. Hoagland had heard all the stories about prom-night debauchery at his Long Island high school: Students putting down $10,000 to rent a house in the Hamptons for a weekend bash. Pre-prom cocktail parties followed by a trip to the dance in a limo loaded with liquor. Fathers chartering a boat so their kids could go out on a late-night "booze cruise."
Enough was enough, Hoagland said. So the principal of Kellenberg Memorial High School fired off a 2,000-word missive to parents at the start of the school year informing them that the Catholic school would no longer put on the spring prom. "It is not primarily the sex/booze/drugs that surround this event, as problematic as they might be; it is rather the flaunting of affluence, assuming exaggerated expenses, a pursuit of vanity for vanity's sake -- in a word, financial decadence," Brother Hoagland said, fed up with what he calls the "bacchanalian aspects" of the prom. God bless you, Brother - and thanks for your spiritual leadership. It needs to be extended to the parents, too, if their reaction to this is any indication ....
"Each year it gets worse -- becomes more exaggerated, more expensive, more emotionally traumatic," he added. "We are withdrawing from the battle and allowing the parents full responsibility. (Kellenberg) is willing to sponsor a prom, but not an orgy."
Why couldn't my parents have rented a house in the Hamptons? Cheez.
The move has brought a mixed, albeit passionate, reaction from students and parents. "I don't think it's fair, obviously, that they canceled prom," said senior Alyssa Johnson of Westbury. "There are problems with the prom, but I don't think their reasons or the actions they took solved anything."
In his letter, Hoagland cited a litany of problems that he says have developed over the years. He began a dialogue on the future of the prom last spring after it was discovered that 46 Kellenberg seniors made a $10,000 down payment on a $20,000 rental in the Hamptons for a post-prom party. When school officials found out, they forced the students to cancel the deal; the kids got their money back and the prom went on as planned.
But Hoagland said some parents went ahead and rented a Hamptons house anyway. And therein lies the problem .....
Amy Best, an associate professor of sociology and anthropology at George Mason University in Virginia and the author of "Prom Night: Youth, Schools and Popular Culture," said this is the first time she has heard of a school canceling the prom for such reasons. "A lot of people have lamented the growing consumption that surrounds the prom," she said, noting it is not uncommon to see students pay $1,000 on the prom and the surrounding folderol: dresses that cost hundreds, tuxedo rentals, flowers, limousines, pre- and post-prom parties.
Best pinned some of the blame for the burgeoning costs on parents, who are often willing to open their wallets for whatever their child demands. "It is a huge misperception that the kids themselves are totally driving this."
Edward Lawson, the father of a Kellenberg senior, said he and other parents are discussing whether to organize a prom for their children without the sponsorship of the 2,500-student school, which features pristine athletic fields, immaculate hallways and the latest in audio-visual technology. "This is my fourth child to go through Kellenberg and I don't think they have a right to judge what goes on after the prom," he said. "They put everybody in the category of drinkers and drug addicts. I don't believe that's the right thing to do."
Listen carefully to what the man said, Eddie, it wasn't just the drinking and drugs ...
Some parents lined up in their cars outside the school to pick up their children on a recent afternoon said they are backing Hoagland. "The school has excellent values," said Margaret Cameron of Plainview. "We send our children here because we support the values and the administration of the school ... Values??? She actually values the values of a Christian school? Thank God there are some parents who are responsible ...
... and I totally back everything they do. I trust my child with them and I trust everything, all the decisions they make for them."
Hoagland said in an interview that parents, who pay $6,025 in annual tuition, have expressed appreciation for his stern stand. "For some, it (the letter) was an eye-opener," he said. "Others feel relieved that the pressure is off of them."
Chris Laine, a senior from Rockville Centre, said the cancellation was "unfortunate, but you can't really argue with the facts they present. ... It's just what it's evolved into. It's not what it was 20, 30 or 40 years ago. It's turned into something it wasn't originally intended to be." He insisted, "there's never been a problem at the prom, but everything that happens after it has turned into something ... it's what an average 17 or 18 year old is doing, but it's not necessarily what they should be doing."
Besides, Laine noted, the senior class still has a four-day trip to Disney World scheduled for April. "We go to all the parks with our friends," he said just before hopping into his jet-black Infiniti and driving off to meet friends for an after-school bite to eat. "We fly down together and stay in the same hotel and so it's not like we're totally losing everything."
I see another tradition that should be changed ...
Posted by: too true ||
10/16/2005 07:31 ||
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#1
Ah, poor Hoagland. Did that mean old Pope Benedict shut down your liberation theology classes? How dare he! Damn these rich kids. Don't they know there are starving children in Honduras, Peru, etc.
Hmmm...can't find enough guilt in normal Catholicism to sell?
#2
Nice try, Mr. Principal, but what's to stop the seniors' parents from putting on a prom for them somewhere off school property?
If they've got the $20,000 to rent a house for post-prom party, they've surely got the money to rent a hotel ballroom.
Better luck on the next idea, though.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
10/16/2005 14:11 Comments ||
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#3
sounds like a rich neighborhood desperately trying to prove who's got more than their neighbor. Not exactly the teachings of Christ or a Catholic school. Good for the principal, although it won't dent the lifestyles of Reginald and Buffy, I'm sure
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/16/2005 14:46 Comments ||
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#4
Let them do it on their own dime, but it won't have the imprimature of the school and implicitly the chruch.
People who believe in something need to stand up for it even when the effort may appear futile. In fact, the futile stand is a more powerful statement than the successful.
Pakistan accepted Israel's offer of aid, albeit through a third party, on Saturday following the massive earthquake that killed tens of thousands of people one week ago.
Pakistan gave Jerusalem a list of items it needs, including tents, blankets, plastic sheets for protection against the rain and for collecting bodies, water-purification equipment and dry-food packages such as biscuits. However, Pakistan also said that the aid would have to be channeled through the United Nations, the Red Thingy Cross or donated to a relief fund.
Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam said since the two countries do not have diplomatic relations it could not receive aid directly from Israel. "We have established the president's relief fund and everyone is free to contribute to it. If Israel was to contribute, that's fine, we would accept it," Aslam told The Associated Press.
Earlier, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Mark Regev said Israel offered the aid through direct channels with Pakistan, and will decide Sunday what teams and equipment to dispatch to the disaster zone. Regev played down the diplomatic significance of the aid effort. "At the moment, everyone is talking about how we can help hundreds of thousands of Pakistanis in the area of destruction," he said. "There is a clear international effort to help Pakistan, and Israel wants to be part of that."
Israel - which has sent rescue teams to Turkey and Mexico to assist in evacuation efforts after earthquakes struck those countries - sent its offer of aid to Pakistan through "official channels" and the United Nations, said a senior government official. "The fact that there is a channel of communication is a sign of the times," the FT quoted Foreign Ministry official Mark Regev as saying.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/16/2005 00:01 ||
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Pakistan accepted Israel's offer of aid, albeit through a third party ...
I hope every last thumbtack and cracker in the Israeli aid packets has the Star of David emblazoned upon it. This sort of backhanded gratitude is simply outrageous. Either you accept someone's assistance and thank them for it or sit and stew in your own juices. That the Red Cross and UN play party to this sort of parasitic behavior makes them complicit in sustaining anti-Semitism.
Breakaway Somaliland's ruling party won the most seats in its first multiparty parliamentary elections since it separated from Somalia more than a decade ago, according to provisional results released Saturday by election officials.
The election is the latest step in Somaliland's efforts to set up democratic state structures and gain international recognition. The breakaway republic has already held a referendum over independence from the rest of Somalia as well as presidential and local polls. President Dahir Riyale Kahin's Udub party, or Pillar, won 33 seats, the opposition Kulmiye party got 28 seats, and U'id, or The Party for Justice and Welfare, won 21 seats, said National Electoral Commission Chairman Ahmed Haji Ali Adami. Somaliland's Constitutional Court will announce the final results within 20 days, after verifying the provisional numbers and investigating any complaints filed by candidates.
Spokesmen for the opposition parties said they were satisfied with the results of the Sept. 29 parliamentary polls. "We are happy, especially with how transparent the (election) process was," said Yusuf Mohamed Guled of Uid. "Unlike previous elections, this one was indisputable."
Kahin won the 2003 presidential elections, and his party won the 2002 single-party local polls. The majority of voters endorsed Somaliland's secession from the rest of Somalia in a 1999 referendum. The parties fielded 246 candidates in total to compete seats in the 82-member legislature. Somaliland has had a parliament since 1991, but until now lawmakers have been chosen by their clans through a process of consultation rather than voting.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/16/2005 00:00 ||
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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.
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.
About 200 inmates joined the uprising that began on Saturday night at the prison in Magdalena, 75 miles (120 km) south of the capital of Buenos Aires, said Argentine television station TN. At least 17 people died before order was restored on Sunday morning, Fernando Diaz, director of the Buenos Aires province penitentiary service, told TN. "We have taken control of the jail, which was in the hands of inmates overnight, and there is no area outside our control now," he said. "The inmates have returned to their cells and we are doing a recount."
KUWAIT CITY - Kuwaitâs powerful Prime Minister Shaikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah is expected to become the new crown prince as part of key changes to resolve a ruling family crisis in the monarchy, a family source said on Saturday. The 76-year-old prime minister would replace ailing current crown prince Shaikh Saad Abdullah Al Sabah, who has been having medical treatment in London for the past two months, the source told AFP. 
Breakaway Somaliland's ruling party won the most seats in its first multiparty parliamentary elections since it separated from Somalia more than a decade ago, according to provisional results released Saturday by election officials.
