Giant hairy she-males... I think I already saw that somewhere on the internet... Serously, toxic-induced hermaphrodism already was noticed among french rivers fishes for example, I'm sure this is not good for the general population... could this be related to the loss of fertility in developed countries?
By David Usborne in New York
Toxic waste creates hermaphrodite Arctic polar bears Wildlife researchers have found new evidence that Arctic polar bears, already gravely threatened by the melting of their habitat because of global warming, are being poisoned by chemical compounds commonly used in Europe and North America to reduce the flammability of household furnishings like sofas, clothing and carpets.
A team of scientists from Canada, Alaska, Denmark and Norway is sounding the alarm about the flame retardants, known as polybrominated diphenyls, or PBDEs, saying that significant deposits have recently been found in the fatty tissues of polar bears, especially in eastern Greenland and Norway's Svalbard islands.
Studies are still being carried out on what impact the chemicals might be having on the bears, but tests on laboratory animals such as mice indicate that their effects can be considerable, attacking the sex and thyroid glands, motor skills and brain function.
There is also evidence that compounds similar to the PBDEs have contributed to a surprisingly high rate of hermaphroditism in polar bears. About one in 50 female bears on Svalbard has both male and female sex organs, a phenomenon scientists link directly to the effects of pollution.
"The Arctic is now a chemical sink," declared Colin Butfield, a campaign leader for the Worldwide Fund for Nature, which last month indicated that killer whales in the Arctic were also suffering from elevated levels of contamination with fire retardants as well as other man-made compounds. "Chemicals from products that we use in our homes every day are contaminating Arctic wildlife."
The pollutants are carried northwards from industrialised regions of the US and western Europe on currents and particularly on northbound winds. Contaminated moisture often condenses on arriving in the cold Arctic climes and is then deposited, ready to enter the food chain.
For several years, scientists have observed how the concentrations of the pollutants are magnified as they ascend the food chain, from plankton to fish and then to marine mammals such as seals, whales and polar bears. The new study, first published last month in the journal Environmental Science and Technology, shows, for instance, that one compound was 71 times more concentrated in polar bears than in the seals they normally feed upon.
Conservationists are especially alarmed by these new findings because of the already fragile condition of the Arctic polar bear populations, some of which could be devastated before the end of the century. As warming temperatures erode their hunting grounds, polar bears in Canada's western Hudson Bay region, for instance, saw their numbers slide from 1,100 in 1995 to only 950 in 2004.
The dangers now posed by the PBDEs are reminiscent of the crisis 30 years ago over PCBs - polychlorinated biphenyls - a highly toxic by-product of many industries that was also found to be migrating to the Arctic. The dumping of PCBs was swiftly banned. Since 2004, manufacturing has stopped in the US of two of the most toxic retardants, called penta and octa. Stockpiles of both still exist, however.
According to Derek Muir, of Canada's Environmental Department and a leader of the new research, there are signs of a slightly different retardant, typically used in construction materials and furnishings, also showing up in the Arctic and in the bears, called HBCD. "It's a chemical that needs to be watched, because it does biomagnify in the aquatic food webs and appears to be a widespread pollutant."
The research team tested 139 bears captured in 10 different locations across the Arctic region. They found that the bears in Norway's Svalbard, a wildlife refuge where all hunting is banned, had 10 times the levels of the chemicals than bears in Alaska and four times those in Canada.
Toxic waste creates hermaphrodite Arctic polar bears
Wildlife researchers have found new evidence that Arctic polar bears, already gravely threatened by the melting of their habitat because of global warming, are being poisoned by chemical compounds commonly used in Europe and North America to reduce the flammability of household furnishings like sofas, clothing and carpets.
A team of scientists from Canada, Alaska, Denmark and Norway is sounding the alarm about the flame retardants, known as polybrominated diphenyls, or PBDEs, saying that significant deposits have recently been found in the fatty tissues of polar bears, especially in eastern Greenland and Norway's Svalbard islands.
Studies are still being carried out on what impact the chemicals might be having on the bears, but tests on laboratory animals such as mice indicate that their effects can be considerable, attacking the sex and thyroid glands, motor skills and brain function.
There is also evidence that compounds similar to the PBDEs have contributed to a surprisingly high rate of hermaphroditism in polar bears. About one in 50 female bears on Svalbard has both male and female sex organs, a phenomenon scientists link directly to the effects of pollution.
"The Arctic is now a chemical sink," declared Colin Butfield, a campaign leader for the Worldwide Fund for Nature, which last month indicated that killer whales in the Arctic were also suffering from elevated levels of contamination with fire retardants as well as other man-made compounds. "Chemicals from products that we use in our homes every day are contaminating Arctic wildlife."
The pollutants are carried northwards from industrialised regions of the US and western Europe on currents and particularly on northbound winds. Contaminated moisture often condenses on arriving in the cold Arctic climes and is then deposited, ready to enter the food chain.
For several years, scientists have observed how the concentrations of the pollutants are magnified as they ascend the food chain, from plankton to fish and then to marine mammals such as seals, whales and polar bears. The new study, first published last month in the journal Environmental Science and Technology, shows, for instance, that one compound was 71 times more concentrated in polar bears than in the seals they normally feed upon.
Conservationists are especially alarmed by these new findings because of the already fragile condition of the Arctic polar bear populations, some of which could be devastated before the end of the century. As warming temperatures erode their hunting grounds, polar bears in Canada's western Hudson Bay region, for instance, saw their numbers slide from 1,100 in 1995 to only 950 in 2004.
The dangers now posed by the PBDEs are reminiscent of the crisis 30 years ago over PCBs - polychlorinated biphenyls - a highly toxic by-product of many industries that was also found to be migrating to the Arctic. The dumping of PCBs was swiftly banned. Since 2004, manufacturing has stopped in the US of two of the most toxic retardants, called penta and octa. Stockpiles of both still exist, however.
According to Derek Muir, of Canada's Environmental Department and a leader of the new research, there are signs of a slightly different retardant, typically used in construction materials and furnishings, also showing up in the Arctic and in the bears, called HBCD. "It's a chemical that needs to be watched, because it does biomagnify in the aquatic food webs and appears to be a widespread pollutant."
The research team tested 139 bears captured in 10 different locations across the Arctic region. They found that the bears in Norway's Svalbard, a wildlife refuge where all hunting is banned, had 10 times the levels of the chemicals than bears in Alaska and four times those in Canada.
#2
They found that the bears in Norway's Svalbard, a wildlife refuge where all hunting is banned, had 10 times the levels of the chemicals than bears in Alaska and four times those in Canada.
#4
I say proximity to discos and androgynous males therein.
Posted by: ed ||
01/12/2006 12:03 Comments ||
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#5
Phil_b
To be entirely sure, I'd have to read the original professional report. However, I'd guess that (i) the methodology and (ii) the interpretation of results in that that paper are (somewhat) less than perfect.
Happens even then authors don't have a politico/ideological ax to grind.
#7
Any minute now, someone's going to form a letterhead group called Transgendered Polar Bears Against Global Warming, or some such.
Posted by: Mike ||
01/12/2006 12:16 Comments ||
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#8
Please tell me the rate of hermaphrodism in polar bears for the last 150 years. What, you mean no one has ever studied it before? A statisically insignificant data point is generated and that means that evil industrialists are the cause.
#12
Frank G : speaking of that gay cowboys movie I so much read about, I really wonder why the Hollywood suits didn't call it "Bareback mountain", given the opening (hum) of the plot, the lurid (unlubrificated, guess that hurts, especially if you're going to ride a horse for hours the next day) love in the tent.
Posted by: Mike ||
01/12/2006 13:52 Comments ||
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#14
could this be related to the loss of fertility in developed countries?
Nah, that's socialism. Too much imposed control on what is naturally a chaotic environment leads to entropy which leads to stagnation which leads to decay which leads to a couple chapters back in the history books.
#15
I suppose someone did a study of the incidence of pre-PBDE hermaphrodite bears, and thats how we know that the 1/50 rate is a significant increase compared to the historical norms for Norway's Svalbard. Who is out there sexing these rare polar bears in large numbers? Still no cure for cancer.
#17
I understand that everything is Bush's fault, but I'm not exactly sure how pollutants would get there from the U.S. The Atlantic currents flow north to south along the east coast, as do the Pacific currents along the Pacific coast. The prevailing jet stream flows west to east in North America, sucking air south from Canada.
#18
:-) I tried it, but the crowd said I'd be a better engineer...not sure what they were saying..
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/12/2006 17:32 Comments ||
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#19
Nah, that's socialism.
Question: Is there *any* country (other than the United States) that you DON'T consider to be a socialist one?
Just want to see if there's any true correlation between childbirths and your belief in which nations constitutes socialist ones and which don't. But if there's only one non-socialist nation in the world, namely yours, attempts at correlation become meaningless.
Going by the fertility rates at a CIA info page we have:
Estonia - 1.39 children per woman
Singapore - 1.05 children per woman (third lowest fertility in the world)
Mexico - 2.45 children per woman
There doesn't seem to be any positive correlation here between socialism and low fertility rates -- or the opposite, capitalism and high fertility ones.
Indeed going by the index of economic freedom and comparing the five most economically free with the most economically repressed countries, and correlating fertility rates with each:
Most free
---------
Hong Kong 0.93
Singapore 1.05
Ireland 1.87
Luxembourg 1.79
United Kingdom 1.66
Iceland 1.92
Least Free
----------
North Korea 2.15
Iran 1.82
Burma 2.01
Zimbabwe 3.18
Libya 3.34
Venezuela 2.26
...we see that the more economically free countries seem to tend to have fewer children than the more repressed ones, though that's far from an absolute.
#23
Frank G.
As to that movie... I don't buy it.
I grew up about 7 miles from GoatRope (er cowboy) country and have lots of real cowboy type relatives.
I just don't see it. Before this century if there was any hint a cowboy was gay (only they would have used a different word starting with the letter Q) that cowboy would have had the living daylights whupped out of him by the other cowboys and likely dragged through Texas Sandburs, Tared and Feathered and left for Indians to laugh at.
#25
3dc - I agree, I'm sure there were some....but they'd have had to be awfully discrete for the reasons you note. This is Hollywood celebrating itself and their values, nothing more. I have a couple friends/coworkers who are gay and a two cousins that are as well. All I ask is (the same as my hetero friends) keep it to yourself. I don't need public displays of affection, or to hear how "hot" that guy is. They agree or they wouldn't be friends
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/12/2006 20:24 Comments ||
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#26
I really wonder why the Hollywood suits didn't call it "Bareback mountain"
I read somewhere (can't remember where and don't know if it's true) that they originally did intend to call it that but changed their mind. However, for reasons unclear - (as it would have generated tons of publicity for their target audience) they decided it wasn't a good idea.
Birthrates mean nothing, note North Korea, if they don't live beyond adolescence. It is the adult population, or least one that can reproduce that makes the difference. If you breed them you got to feed them, otherwise its just a number count for the bureaucrats.
Muldoon! Call out the Glue Sniffing Gangster Monkey Squad! A city police force is struggling to contain a marauding band of terrifying, glue-sniffing "gangster monkeys". Tonight on "CSI:Phnom Penh"...
Wild macaques have been stealing bags of glue from addicts, getting high and launching attacks in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The crazed beasts have been biting people and stealing laundry. Might be time for Monkey Midnight Basketball.
Deputy governor of the city's Daun Penh district Pich Socheata, said: "We have to remove the nasty creatures from the city. They grab glue bags from street kids, climb up into the trees and sniff it up." Officials have so far "detained" 15 macaques. Has Monkey Rights Watch heard about this? Are there Monkey Gulags?
#4
that's either Fred Gwynne or John Kerry in that pic....
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/12/2006 12:10 Comments ||
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#5
Ook-ook!, ook-ook!, watcha gonna do?
Watcha gonna do when they come for you?
Ook-ook!, ook-ook!, watcha gonna do?
Watcha gonna do when they come for you?
Cairo - An Egyptian cleric's controversial fatwa claiming that nudity during sexual intercourse invalidates a marriage has uncovered a rift among Islamic scholars. According to the religious edict issued by Rashad Hassan Khalil, a former dean of Al-Azhar University's faculty of Sharia (or Islamic law), "being completely naked during the act of coitus annuls the marriage"...
For his part, Al-Azhar's fatwa committee chairman Abdullah Megawar argued that married couples could see each other naked but should not look at each other's genitalia and suggested they cover up with a blanket during sex.
Since any idiot can issue a fatwah, and two have done so on this subject, I think I'll issue one, too:
Married couples validate their marriages by looking at each other naked, particularly in the area of the pee-pee. Not only are they required to look, but they're also required to fondle That Which is Not Available to the General Public and to exchange mutual compliments on size, texture, flavor, hair styling, and desirability, as appropriate.
This was revealed to me in a dream, where I was visited by the Angel Trixie, so there's no arguing with it. It comes directly from Upstairs.
#1
Communism in practice killed off whatever various international wars for the Proletariat didn't - sound like the Raddies and God-based Socialists are trying to go one further and make sex akin to biological poison, or at least have as many horny hungry thirsty poor desperate males - read, future People's Army soldiers - as China and India.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
01/12/2006 13:15 Comments ||
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#12
Good news all around!
Idiots who are moronic enough to comply with this latest fatwa will encounter more situations where their aardvarking* is less than successful due to intervening clothing layers.
Less than successful Islamic aardvarking = A safer world.
Uganda's President has launched his election campaign, pledging he will work for Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya to have one president within eight years. Yoweri Museveni says he wants to win to fulfil the dream of Uganda's political forefathers.
"Yes, I dream of the Caliphate East African Federation. It is written."
He says he wants to work for Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania to be governed under one president as an East African Federation by 2013. The three countries form the East African Community (EAC), which is little more than a customs union. The EAC has ambitious plans for a common currency by 2009 and a federation and regional government by 2010. Mr Museveni says it must strengthen itself for its member states to throw off the legacy of colonialism spit, spit
and underdevelopment.
"We survived colonialism, and while it was good for the tribal economy, we also survived the slave trade, we cannot make ...another more and more and more and more
... historic mistakes of remaining weak," he said. "It would be a disaster for Africa if this generation of leaders also failed to implement the dream of our political fathers, shaman, and tribal elders."
The election on February 23 will be the country's first multi-party poll since Mr Museveni was elected in 1986. Like Robert Mugabe in Zim.
Even better than that.
The Government has changed the constitution to allow him to stand for another term of 50 years, after 20 years in power. His main opposition rival, Kiiza Besigye, has recently been released on bail after being charged with treason, and will soon be re-captured and eaten.
Foreign donors have in recent weeks suspended direct aid to his Government, citing concerns about Mr Besigye's case and the repeal of presidential term limits. Five European countries have cut millions of dollars in aid to Uganda. Mr Besigye says he rejects the "unreasonable and paternalistic" interference in Ugandan politics from Western governments. You could do with a little more starch in the Fatigue blouse there Yoweri.
#1
Uganda's President has launched his election campaign, pledging he will work for Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya to have one president within eight years.
And who might you have in mind for the job, Yoweri?
Let me guess...
A south African slum was strewn with debris and the shells of burnt out cars yesterday after three people died in unrest sparked by an influx of migrants from Zimbabwe.
Choba squatter camp, 20 miles south of the capital, Pretoria, has had 10 days of unrest in a throwback to the riots that occurred in the worst days of apartheid.
Hundreds of thousands of desperate Zimbabweans have fled the economic crisis and repression of President Robert Mugabe's rule. Unprecedented numbers have poured into South Africa, competing for jobs and housing, and causing massive resentment.
The scale of the influx is shown by the incessant deportation of illegal immigrants back home. Last week alone, South Africa sent back 6,000. Last year more than 97,000 were deported. Countless others slip through the net. Official figures released by Mr Mugabe's regime in 2004 suggested that 3.4 million Zimbabweans, one quarter of the population, lived abroad, with 1.2 million in South Africa. Many end up in slums like Choba, where at least 20,000 people live in shacks of corrugated iron and plastic sheeting.
South Africans blame crime and unemployment on the new arrivals.
"The Zimbabwean people steal, in the night they kill and they take money," said Timothy Mbanba, 57. "People here want to work for 60 rands (£5.60) per day. But the Zimbabweans will work for 30 rands or 20 rands so the businessmen hire Zimbabweans and they take our jobs."
Unemployment in South Africa stands at 26 per cent.
#1
Bad Bob is your pal, lets see you solve this one ANC comrades. Maybe mounted horsemen and sjamboks will make a comeback. Wouldn't that be a bit or irony.
#2
Yes, but since it would be a black government using black troops to oppress black people, the MSM will not report it. Or if they do report it, they will whitewash it. The only time anything in Africa gets a major mention in the MSM, is when they can blame local whites/Asians for it, or when they can damn the West for it.
At least 50 pilgrims died and others were injured Thursday in a stampede on the last day of Jamarat (a symbolic stoning ritual at the Hajj) in Mina, Saudi Arabia, said CNN. CNN cited officials saying the number of people killed Thursday was unknown, but news agencies put the toll in the dozens -- and perhaps higher than 50. Maj. Gen. Mansour al-Turki, an Interior Ministry spokesman, said the stampede happened after some pieces of luggage dropped from moving buses, added CNN, noting that Saudi authorities transported the injured pilgrims to nearby hospitals.
The radio report I heard sez the pilgrims raced out of lunchtime prayers, all fired up, and tripped over luggage that "fell off a bus", leading to the tramplage.
Posted by: kelly ||
01/12/2006 11:35 Comments ||
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#4
*sigh* I think this is rather sad. The Muslims who should be dying are those killing innocents in countries around the world, not Muslims doing one of the more innocuous duties of their religion.
Still, I don't blame anyone here for indulging in a bit of joy at the suffering of adherents of the bloodiest religion on the planet today. A REAL religion would preach that adherents be true, honest, kind, and humble toward God AND their fellow man, regardless of religion. Islam teaches humility only toward God, but arrogance and superiority toward men that are not Muslims.
If it seems like an annual event, it is! Ahhh, to live and die in Mecca will most certainly please Allan! Allan be praised, Allan the merciful! Muslim pilgrims stampeded on the last day of a symbolic stoning ritual at the hajj on Thursday, and the Interior Ministry said an unknown number of people were killed. The Al-Arabiya network reported that dozens of pilgrims died.
The stampede occurred as tens of thousands of pilgrims filed past al-Jamarat, a series of three pillars representing the devil that the faithful pelt with stones to purge themselves of sin. The ritual has seen deadly stampedes in the past, including one in 1990 that killed 1,426 people and another in February 2004 that killed 244.
A ministry spokesman, Maj. Gen. Mansour al-Turki, said the stampede happened after some pieces of luggage dropped from moving buses. The pilgrims apparently tripped over them as they were rushing to the pillars, he said. Al-Turki said there were deaths, but he could not give an exact number.
Posted by: The Angry Fliegerabwehrkanonen & Deacon Blues ||
01/12/2006 08:09 ||
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#4
Devil Takes Hajj Battle, Beats Vegas Spread
by Scott Ott
(2006-01-12) â Oddsmakers in Las Vegas warn customers never to wager against the Devil in his annual contest versus stone-throwing Muslims during the Hajj (pilgrimage) to Mecca.
This year, not only did the Devil extend his undefeated streak, but he beat the spread that Vegas insiders had pegged at 250 deaths, based on his 2004 performance.
The ceremonial stoning of the Devil is a highlight of the annual pilgrimage, and an economic shot-in-the-arm for the local healthcare and funeral services industries.
An unnamed Saudi cleric, speaking for Allah, the official deity of Islam, defended the Pilgrimsâ effort despite this yearâs toll of 345 dead and hundreds injured.
âThey put their hearts into it,â the Imam said. âBut we just didnât execute on the fundamentals â like standing up and staying out from under foot. This game is 90 percent mental, so weâll have to go back to the Koran and work on the basics.â
During his annual post-stampede news conference, the Imam brushed aside suggestions that he might forfeit future match-ups with Satan, or attack in smaller groups to reduce accidental trampling. Instead, he searched for a silver lining in the depressing performance.
âIf itâs any comfort to the families of our deceased Hajj rookies,â he said, âat least Muslims are required to make only one trip to Mecca in a lifetime.â
Posted by: From Scrappleface ||
01/12/2006 18:47 Comments ||
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#5
LOL - Hajj rookies indeed
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/12/2006 20:17 Comments ||
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President Alejandro Toledo of Peru has chided Venezuelan counterpart Hugo Chavez for "meddling" in Peru's elections with his support of an ex-army nationalist and criticism of a front-runner as "the candidate of Peru's oligarchy". "Let it be clear, Hugo Chavez is not the president of Latin America. He can have all the petrodollars he wants but that does not give him the right to destabilise the region" Toledo told local radio on Wednesday.
In a speech on Tuesday in Caracas, Chavez said Lourdes Flores, Peru's pro-market, centre-right candidate for the April elections, represented "Peru's oligarchy" in a country where more than half the population lives on $1.25 a day or less. Flores appeared to antagonise Chavez over a visit she made to Venezuela in 2001, where she criticised the anti-US leader as undemocratic and compared him to Peru's disgraced ex-President Alberto Fujimori, who dissolved Congress during his hard-line 1990-2000 rule.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/12/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
And Lance still hasn't gotten his low gear sprocket back, I see...
Posted by: Phil ||
01/12/2006 1:03 Comments ||
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MELBOURNE'S train temptress has struck again. However police and rail officials have met to plan an end to her saucy crime spree.
"Okay, Crowley! Here's the plan..."
The woman broke into a cabin on a peak-hour Frankston train on Tuesday night and broadcast X-rated praise of the driver to stunned commuters.
"Betcha can't guess what we're doin'! Wow! That's a big 'un!"
The husky-voiced intruder is believed to be the serial seductress behind a similar break-in and announcement on the Sandringham line last week. The trespasser evaded capture by authorities on both occasions.
"She got away again, chief!"
"Drat! And button your fly, Crowley!"
As her break-in broadcasts become more frequent, longer and more detailed, pressure is building for Connex to catch the profane prankster before more commuters are subject to her sexy speeches.
"Don't listen, Little Timmy! You'll go crazy!"
"There was a woman on the address system. It was very graphic about how she was going to have sex with a driver for about three minutes," said Angela, a passenger on the Frankston-bound train. "I thought she was in cahoots with the driver."
"Hey! You can't come in here!... Well. Maybe you can! Are those real?"
Angela said there were families on board unhappy their children were exposed to the content.
"Mom! What's a â ?"
"I told you not to listen! I'm gonna wash your ears out with soap, young man!"
Passengers on the trains during both incidents believed the woman was in the cabin with the driver or was a voice on a 1900 sex call.
"We thought that wuz why the train wuz goin' around in circles!"
The broadcasts are now thought to be the work of a lone female hijacking the PA system in vacant train cabins.
Ahah! The lone wolfette!
Police are scanning CCTV footage from stations to identify her. Ticket inspectors have been briefed to be on the lookout for the woman. "When the train comes to a stop at a station it is easy for them to slip out of the cab and merge with other passengers," said Connex spokesman Andrew Cassidy said.
So to speak, anyway. Not the way she claimed to have merged with the driver...
Per the fatwah, they must be married now...
Connex yesterday discussed the incidents with Transit Safety Division officers. Connex has said some people are aware of a weakness that allows them to force their way into vacant cabins and hijack the PA. They said the flaw would be fixed this year.
#3
You know it is, unless you change trains at the Solomon Islands.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/12/2006 9:06 Comments ||
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#4
I bet the cops want to find her (wink, wink, nudge, nudge, say no more).
Reminds me of the Seinfeld episode when Elaine left dirty talk on Jerry's recorder at the back of the comedy club. Yeah they wanted to find who it was too.
If you've gotta have a crime wave, well I think this is the one I'd like to deal with.
Photo caption: Sens Leahy (top), Kennedy, Feinstein, and Schumer prepare for a final day of inquisition of Judge Alito. (Rooooters)
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter excused Samuel Alito in early afternoon Thursday, wrapping up two-and-a-half days of questions for the Supreme Court nominee about everything from abortion and presidential powers to his association to a controversial Princeton alumni group and a failure to recuse himself on one case.
"I know the judge probably thinks he's doing nothing here but being on the hot seat but we're talking about a lifetime appointment," the committee's ranking Democrat, Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, said Thursday at the start of the hearing.
After questioning ended Thursday, committee members went into the routine, closed session to review the FBI file of the nominee. Witnesses in support and opposition to the nominee later appeared before the panel, including judges who have sat with Alito on cases. They testified that he is a man of great intellect and respect for the law, and he is a careful jurist who does not let his personal views taint his rulings.
The American Bar Association has found that Alito has the "proper judicial conduct and evenhanded application in seeking to do what is fundamentally fair," Stephen Tober, chairman of the ABA's Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary, said later during witness testimony. "His integrity, his professional competence and judicial temperament is indeed found to be of the highest standard."
#1
Very well. Would you...ahhhhm...like a ride...ahhhhm...home, Judge Alioto?
Posted by: Sen. Edward M. Kennedy ||
01/12/2006 16:56 Comments ||
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#2
"Since Iran is on the brink of acquiring nuclear weapons and has announced its intent to use those weapons as soon as it gets them, let's spend three days asking a blazingly qualified judge about his membership in an obscure college organization thirty years ago. It's the best use of the Senate's time."
Posted by: Matt ||
01/12/2006 17:07 Comments ||
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#3
kept the ill-informed and bloviating Donk Senators from helping Iran to acquire and deploy nukes...so long as it hurt Bush.
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/12/2006 18:39 Comments ||
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#4
"I know the judge probably thinks he's doing nothing here but being on the hot seat but we're talking about a lifetime appointment," the committee's ranking Democrat, Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont..."
Leahy is just jealous he can't get a lifetime pork barrel appointment, like Mass has given Kennedy.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
01/12/2006 19:00 Comments ||
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#5
Maybe it's the only way Mass can keep him out of state.
Oh, I can't wait for the spin on this...
RICHMOND, Va. - New DNA tests confirmed the guilt of a man who went to his death in Virginia's electric chair in 1992 proclaiming his innocence, the governor said Thursday. The case had been closely watched by both sides in the death penalty debate because no executed convict in the United States has ever been exonerated by scientific testing.
The tests, ordered by the governor last month, prove Roger Keith Coleman was guilty of the 1981 rape and murder of his sister-in-law, Gov. Mark R. Warner said. Coleman was convicted and sentenced to death in 1982 for the murder of 19-year-old Wanda McCoy, his wife's sister, who was found raped, stabbed and nearly beheaded in her home in the coal mining town of Grundy.
The report from the Centre of Forensic Sciences in Toronto concluded there was almost no conceivable doubt that Coleman was the source of the sperm found in the victim. "The probability that a randomly selected individual unrelated to Roger Coleman would coincidentally share the observed DNA profile is estimated to be 1 in 19 million," the report said.
A finding of innocence would have been explosive news and almost certainly would have had a powerful effect on the public's attitude toward capital punishment. Death penalty opponents have argued for years that the risk of a grave and irreversible mistake by the criminal justice system is too great to allow capital punishment. Well, what about...did he write any children's books?
"We have sought the truth using DNA technology not available at the time the commonwealth carried out the ultimate criminal sanction," Warner said in a statement. "The confirmation that Roger Coleman's DNA was present reaffirms the verdict and the sanction. Again, my prayers are with the family of Wanda McCoy at this time."
Initial DNA and blood tests in 1990 placed Coleman within the 0.2 percent of the population who could have produced the semen at the crime scene. But his lawyers said the expert they hired to conduct those initial DNA tests misinterpreted the results. The governor agreed to a new round of more sophisticated DNA tests in one of his last official acts. Warner, who has been mentioned as a possible Democratic candidate for president in 2008, leaves office on Saturday.
Coleman's case drew international attention as the well-spoken inmate pleaded his case on talk shows and in magazines and newspapers. Time magazine featured the coal miner on its cover. Pope John Paul II tried to block the execution. Then-Gov. L. Douglas Wilder's office was flooded with thousands of calls and letters of protest from around the world. They don't call them "cons" for nothing...
Coleman's attorneys argued that he did not have time to commit the crime, that tests showed semen from two men was found inside McCoy and that another man bragged about murdering her. "An innocent man is going to be murdered tonight," the 33-year-old said moments before he was electrocuted on May 20, 1992. "When my innocence is proven, I hope America will realize the injustice of the death penalty as all other civilized countries have." Any comments on this now, Roger? Ooooops, sorry...
Prosecutors said a mountain of other evidence pointed to Coleman as the killer: There was no sign of forced entry at McCoy's house, leading investigators to believe she knew her attacker; Coleman was previously convicted of the attempted rape of a teacher and was charged with exposing himself to a librarian two months before the murder; a pubic hair found on McCoy's body was consistent with Coleman's hair; and the original DNA tests placed him within a fraction of the population who could have left semen at the scene. Well, there won't be any of that recividism stuff from Roger anymore, will there?
Four newspapers and Centurion Ministries, a New Jersey organization that investigated Coleman's case and became convinced of his innocence, sought a court order to have the evidence retested. The Virginia Supreme Court declined to order the testing in 2002, so Centurion Ministries asked Warner to intervene. So I'm sure everybody mentioned in this story will be admitting they were wrong, right? Right?
Hello?
#2
CNN all but tried and convicted the prosecutor last night. This one's going straight down the memory hole.
Posted by: Matt ||
01/12/2006 16:46 Comments ||
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#3
I've lived in Richmond for many years and am THOROUGHLY sick of this case. There was never any real doubt, but that doesn't stop the criminal-lovers.
I know it's too much to hope that the usual suspects will now STFU. But I can dream, no?
Any bets on when the Austrians or Italians will make Coleman an honorary citizen and ask for his moldering bones to be exhumed and buried in their "enlightened" country? >:-(
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
01/12/2006 17:01 Comments ||
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#4
Well at least somebody admits they were wrong...
James McCloskey, executive director of Centurion Ministries, had been fighting to prove Coleman's innocence since 1988. The two shared Coleman's final meal together â cold slices of pizza â just a few hours before Coleman was executed."I now know that I was wrong. Indeed, this is a bitter pill to swallow," McCloskey said, describing Thursday's findings as "a kick in the stomach" and adding that he felt betrayed by Coleman.
...and enter the spinmeisters
Death penalty opponents praised Warner's decision to order the testing but warned that Coleman's case does not mean the death penalty is infallible. "Obviously, one case does not in any way reflect on the correctness of the other 1,000 executions we've had in the last 30 years," said Peter Neufeld, co-founder of the Innocence Project. "Other governors should take their lead from Governor Warner and do post-execution testing in their cases, because ... there's no reason not to â it's all about getting to the truth."
Then-Gov. L. Douglas Wilder's office was flooded with thousands of calls and letters of protest from around the world.
Oh, yeah - and by the way, Wilder doesn't take any crap from anyone. It's hard to fool him. And you can't "guilt" him.
He's a Dem, but a sane one. If the Dems were more like Wilder, and less like Reid, they'd definitely run the country. I'd vote for him again in a heartbeat.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
01/12/2006 17:16 Comments ||
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#6
maybe so Barbara, but in this day and age of DNA - the opponents of the death penalty are lying down with dogs - their credibility suffers with EVERY proven guilt by DNA - let's test em all and let the line form at the needle. There's no longer an excuse for lengthy appeals and delays other than full employment of anti-social lawyers
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/12/2006 18:37 Comments ||
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#7
Dig his ass up and fry him again just for good measure! Have his lawyer sit on his lap.
#8
Note that 18,000 executions occur every year in the US, in our homes, our neighborhoods, our businesses, our streets. Where oh where are these glad handlers to demand 'due process' and 'appeals' for these people?
If the state is unwilling, unable, or incapable of carrying out the sanction, then let the power revert back to the people where it was before the state lied and said it would perform justice and removed the culture of vendetta out of the hands of its citizens.
Nassau, Bahamas (AHN) - The identities of more than 50,000 customers of the Atlantis resort have been stolen.
According to CNET.com, Kerzner International, owner of the luxury 2,300-room Atlantis resort on Paradise Island, revealed details of the data theft in a document filed with the Bahamas Securities and Exchange Commission.
Information stolen included names, addresses, credit card details, Social Security numbers, driver's license numbers and bank account data, according to the filing.
"To date, the resort has not received any evidence that the information has been used to commit identity fraud or in any other manner adverse to its customers," according to a the statement.
#1
Why would a resort require their customers to provide Social Security numbers? The bigger question is...Why would anyone be so foolish as to willingly provide that information?
Worried that measures to limit smoking don't go far enough, Elk Grove Village officials are considering banning the sale of cigarettes, apparently the first time that has been seriously proposed in Illinois, experts said.
Mayor Craig Johnson said the village would be hypocritical to consider a current proposal to restrict smoking in bars and restaurants without going after cigarettes themselves.
"If we think smoking is so detrimental to the community that we should ban it, then we should think about a ban on selling cigarettes," Johnson said Wednesday after formally proposing the idea Tuesday to the Village Board.
Illinois law prohibits the sale of cigarettes to anyone under 18. Experts were unaware of any community prohibiting their sale completely, although proposals had been considered--and rejected--in Winthrop, Mass., and in the Indiana House of Representatives in 1997.
Elk Grove Village's proposal came as Des Plaines and Park Ridge considered tighter limits Wednesday on smoking in public places. In Chicago, most public places are to become smoke-free Monday.
Des Plaines officials rejected a ban on smoking in restaurants and public buildings, citing little support.
"My wife won't allow smoking in my house, and she has a lot more sway than government agencies," said Brian Burkross, one of about 45 residents and restaurant owners and managers who spoke against restricting smoking.
On Wednesday night, the Park Ridge City Council's Procedures and Regulations Committee recommended adoption of an ordinance banning smoking in all public buildings. The ordinance is expected to go to the City Council on Jan. 23.
If approved, it would go into effect in 60 days. Bar areas of restaurants would have six months to implement the ban. Stand-alone bars are not allowed in Park Ridge.
"This is more than an annoyance, this is a health issue," said Ald. Kirke Machon.
The proposal drew little opposition, with only three of the city's roughly 100 food-service establishments represented. Owners of those restaurants sought to have their bar areas exempted from the ordinance.
Machon said his research turned up no adverse economic effects from smoking bans in other communities.
Wednesday's actions were spurred by a new state law effective Jan. 1 that opened the way for more communities to enact tougher restrictions on public smoking.
Last month, Deerfield passed an ordinance banning smoking in public places and workspaces, which advocates call the toughest in the country.
Although municipalities receive significant revenue from cigarette sales, Johnson said, "People should start waking up and stop worrying about collecting taxes off cigarettes and do what is right."
Five years ago, Elk Grove Village became the first community in Illinois and the second in the nation to require all people--no matter their age--to show identification when purchasing liquor.
Johnson said the policy has successfully eliminated the problem of underage alcohol purchases.
Officials with the American Lung Association and the Illinois Coalition Against Tobacco welcomed the Elk Grove Village proposal, saying they were unaware of any other community banning cigarette sales.
"It's heartening to see a community say they won't have anything to do with the sale of cigarettes," said Janet Williams, spokeswoman for the coalition.
Merchants are likely to fight being told what they can or cannot sell, said Rob Karr, vice president of the Illinois Retail Merchants Association.
Elk Grove Village officials will consider the cigarette-sale ban and a restriction on public smoking during a series of meetings starting Wednesday.
"This is a legitimate product, like it or not," Karr said. "Where does this stop? There's a myriad of products that can be abused. Twinkies, ice cream, all to a certain amount are not good for you. Is the next step in the obesity battle a ban on the sale of ice cream?"
Stanley Magnuszewski, owner of Turner Liquors at Turner Avenue and Arlington Heights Road, said banning cigarette sales would hurt his business.
"Pretty soon the government will dictate what you can eat," he said. "As long as they are making them, we should be able to sell them."
#1
Five years ago, Elk Grove Village became the first community in Illinois and the second in the nation to require all people--no matter their age--to show identification when purchasing liquor.
Every village has its idiot, but in Elk Grove they seem to be more than proportionally represented.
#3
Ah Ah hm!
Folks. Grab on to your hats!
DuPage County is debating (not in public yet) a proposal to:
BAN ALL PUBLIC SMOKING IN DuPAGE County - INCLUDING IN YOUR CAR AS YOU DRIVE DOWN County Roads!
And you didn't hear it from me our my ....
who works for the .... dept.
#4
Bad news 2x4! I live in DuPage county and I've heard nothing about it. Although I'm an ex-smoker, I think this complete ban is just silly. In fact, DuPage is quite Republican, though perhaps not libertarian enough.
The U.S. trade deficit narrowed more than expected in November to $64.2 billion as shipments of aircraft, cars and other capital goods propelled exports to a new record and lower oil prices helped trim imports, a government report showed on Thursday.
The monthly trade gap fell 5.8 percent from the record set in October and was significantly below Wall Street's median forecast of $66.25 billion. October's record deficit was trimmed slightly to $68.1 billion from an initially reported $68.9 billion gap.
Separate reports showed new claims for jobless benefits rose less than expected last week, while import prices declined unexpectedly in December.
The November trade deficit was still the third highest on record -- behind the tallies for October and September -- and confirmed a new record annual trade deficit, with one month of data yet to come in 2005. The gap for the first 11 months of the year totaled $661.8 billion, surpassing the record of $617.6 billion set in 2004, the Commerce Department said.
The dollar strengthened against the euro and the yen in trading after the report, while bond prices trimmed gains.
"The improvement in the trade gap is always welcome but the continued high level is always a concern. Strong exports (are) a confirming sign that growth is picking up in the rest of the world," said Alan Gayle, a managing director at Trusco Capital Management in Atlanta.
"In general, the twin deficits (trade and federal) will be an ongoing source of volatility in the dollar and interest rates," Gayle said.
U.S. exports of goods and services increased 1.8 percent to a record $109.3 billion. Exports of both capital goods and consumer goods set records in November. Analysts had expected strong aircraft exports, after Boeing reported commercial orders had tripled to a new record in 2005.
Oil import prices, which had spiked in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in late August, declined further in November to $52.16 per barrel. The volume of crude oil imports increased in November, but the volume of all petroleum-product imports -- which also includes butane and propane -- fell from an unexpectedly strong surge in October.
Both factors helped trim imports to $173.5 billion, down 1.1 percent from the record set in October but still the second highest ever. U.S. imports of auto and auto parts set a record in November, as did imports of services. Imports of advanced technology products, which have grown rapidly in recent years, also set a record.
Meanwhile, the politically sensitive trade deficit with China narrowed nearly 10 percent in November to $18.5 billion, after rising for seven consecutive months. U.S. exports to China were mostly unchanged at $3.9 billion, while imports fell 8.4 percent to $22.4 billion.
A Labor Department report with more up-to-date information showed U.S. import prices fell unexpectedly 0.2 percent in December as the price of imported petroleum declined for the third straight month.
A second Labor Department report showed the number of U.S. workers making new claims for unemployment benefits rose 17,000 last week, slightly less than analysts had expected.
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.
A city police force is struggling to contain a marauding band of terrifying, glue-sniffing "gangster monkeys". 
Cairo - An Egyptian cleric's controversial fatwa claiming that nudity during sexual intercourse invalidates a marriage has uncovered a rift among Islamic scholars. According to the religious edict issued by Rashad Hassan Khalil, a former dean of Al-Azhar University's faculty of Sharia (or Islamic law), "being completely naked during the act of coitus annuls the marriage"... 
Muslim pilgrims stampeded on the last day of a symbolic stoning ritual at the hajj on Thursday, and the Interior Ministry said an unknown number of people were killed. The Al-Arabiya network reported that dozens of pilgrims died.
President Alejandro Toledo of Peru has chided Venezuelan counterpart Hugo Chavez for "meddling" in Peru's elections with his support of an ex-army nationalist and criticism of a front-runner as "the candidate of Peru's oligarchy". "Let it be clear, Hugo Chavez is not the president of Latin America. He can have all the petrodollars he wants but that does not give him the right to destabilise the region" Toledo told local radio on Wednesday. 
MELBOURNE'S train temptress has struck again. However police and rail officials have met to plan an end to her saucy crime spree.
