Workers at a British factory making French fries were evacuated two days running last week after bomb parts turned up in potatoes imported from France and Belgium, the site of battles in World War 1 and 2.
The Scarborough plant, owned by Canada's McCain Foods, the world's largest producer of frozen fries, was emptied on Friday after a worker spotted a shell tip among the potatoes as they were being cleaned for slicing.
"The police were called and the bomb squad advised a 100m exclusion zone should be set up," said a McCain spokesperson.
On Saturday, an entire hand grenade was discovered in the potatoes and the plant in northern England was evacuated again.
A spokesperson for North Yorkshire police said "The army took the device away and blew it up in a controlled explosion in a field nearby."
The Scarborough plant was opened in 1969 and uses 1 400 tons of potatoes a week. Production is back to normal.
McCain's Whittlesey plant near Peterborough in eastern England also has also been evacuated several times this year after World War 2 ordnance was found in batches of potatoes.
"Occasionally during the use of imported potatoes from Belgium and northern France, ordnance debris from the World War 1 and 2 is found," said the firm.
#2
The real risk, which happens occassionally, is that some farmer discovers a drum of mustard agent left over from WWI. The gunk is black and tarry, but has lost none of its zip.
#3
The Spring Valley section of Upper Northwest DC was found to have been used as a munitions and chemical weapons dump after WWI. They are using planted ferns to draw the toxins out of the soil.
Robert Luskin, Karl Rove's lawyer, says he spent most of the day on May 12 taking his cat to the veterinarian and having a technician fix his computer at home.
He was stunned, therefore, when journalists started calling to ask about an online report that he had spent half the day at his law office, negotiating with Patrick Fitzgerald -- and that the special prosecutor had secretly obtained an indictment of Rove.
The cat's medical tests, Luskin says, found that "the stools were free of harmful parasites, which is more than I can say for this case."
Yee-ouch!
Rest at the link.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
05/22/2006 12:24 ||
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#1
The claim that President Bush's top political strategist had been indicted in the CIA leak investigation was written by a journalist who has battled drug addiction and mental illness and been convicted of grand larceny.
I find everything about this article funny, including where it appears.
ATHENS, May 21,2006 (Islamonline.net & News Agencies) The Finnish masked, horned quintet heavy metal band Lordi won late Saturday, May 20, the Eurovision, the world's most-watched song contest, the first win for Finland in the contest's 51 -year history.
"How weird is this," the band's bat-winged lead singer, known as Mr. Lordi, told a televised news conference after the event, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
"We're a rock band and we just won a pop song contest."
Lordi scored 292 points from telephone voters in 38 countries with its song "Hard Rock Hallelujah" that both shocked and amused viewers.
Having been voted for by all countries except Albania, Armenia, and Monaco, the band gained the highest number of points in any Eurovision contest to date.
Thirty-five countries participated in the annual contest, with 24 acts making it to Saturday's grand final.
Russia finished second with 248 points while Bosnia came third with 229 .
The Eurovision contest was broadcast live across Europe with an estimated 100 million viewers tuning in and some 25,000 visitors and journalists arriving in Athens for the event.
Last year's final in the Ukraine was watched by more than 100 million viewers in 40 countries, three times the number of viewers who watched the final of American Idol, the biggest US television hit.
First held in 1956, the contest is best known for launching the careers of performers such as Abba and Celine Dion.
Although widely associated with kitsch and trite lyrics and dominated by western European countries, Eurovision has seen an eastward shift in recent years, with the addition of nearly a dozen new countries emerging from the break-up of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia.
Satanism
Mr. Lordi hailed the result as "a victory for open-mindedness."
He also took the opportunity to insist that his band has nothing to do with Satanism, an accusation leveled by religious groups on the basis of some of their lyrics.
The video-clip for the fire-spewing, firework-exploding entry "Hard Rock Hallelujah" shows the band storming into a school gymnasium, striking dead a group of cheerleaders and raising them again as zombies.
"We have nothing to do with Satan worship," Mr. Lordi said. "This (act) is as serious as horror movies, this is entertainment."
Monster costumes are an integral part of Lordi's publicity image.
The band's members refuse to be photographed or even interviewed without their costumes.
In a brief segment on the BBC reporting about their participation in Eurovision, they were shown lounging beside the pool in full sunlight, while wearing their costumes.
On March 15, the Finnish tabloid Ilta-Sanomat published a photograph of Lordi in civilian clothing, with his face partially showing.
He dismissed this as an insult and an attempt to destroy the "monster image" they have worked 10 years to create.
Any Win
In Finland, young people on the streets of the capital Helsinki welcomed the news of the triumph enthusiastically, reported the Daily Telegraph.
"It's amazing that Finland has finally won something. Though I don't like Lordi myself, it's great! We don't win anything," said Mari Pelli, an 18-year-old childminder. Is baby-sitting his career or just his passion?
"I'm very happy that they won. Eurovision is a show for entertainment, not for music," said Mikko Mattila, a30 -year-old student.
"It's not Sibelius, but they have their own way. Lordi is the best," said Satu Puolakka, a 19 year-old student.
By right of victory, Finland will now host the 2007 Eurovision contest.
The choice of Lordi to represent Finland in the contest initially met with some controversy back home, with some critics calling for the president to veto the entry of the band.
#5
I love this band. Aparently the only way they are able to break out of the Euro 'apologies and appeasement' straitjacket is by putting on thirty pounds of latex masks and eight foot retractable wings. They did their Eurovision performance while wearing hats with the Finn flag on them. There is hope for Europe yet.
Btw, african countries which criticize France pitiful effort to control (african) immigration are also known for having harsh immigration control measures, including mass expulsions and rampant racism/abuse of migrants, so this is not surprizing. Still, nice double standards.
By MARK STEVENSON, Associated Press Writer
MEXICO CITY - If Arnold Schwarzenegger had migrated to Mexico instead of the United States, he couldn't be a governor. If Argentina native Sergio Villanueva, firefighter hero of the Sept. 11 attacks, had moved to Tecate instead of New York, he wouldn't have been allowed on the force.
Even as Mexico presses the United States to grant unrestricted citizenship to millions of undocumented Mexican migrants, its officials at times calling U.S. policies "xenophobic," Mexico places daunting limitations on anyone born outside its territory.
In the United States, only two posts the presidency and vice presidency are reserved for the native born.
In Mexico, non-natives are banned from those and thousands of other jobs, even if they are legal, naturalized citizens.
Foreign-born Mexicans can't hold seats in either house of the congress. They're also banned from state legislatures, the Supreme Court and all governorships. Many states ban foreign-born Mexicans from spots on town councils. And Mexico's Constitution reserves almost all federal posts, and any position in the military and merchant marine, for "native-born Mexicans."
Recently the Mexican government has gone even further. Since at least 2003, it has encouraged cities to ban non-natives from such local jobs as firefighters, police and judges.
Mexico's Interior Department which recommended the bans as part of "model" city statutes it distributed to local officials could cite no basis for extending the bans to local posts.
After being contacted by The Associated Press about the issue, officials changed the wording in two statutes to delete the "native-born" requirements, although they said the modifications had nothing to do with AP's inquiries.
"These statutes have been under review for some time, and they have, or are about to be, changed," said an Interior Department official, who was not authorized to be quoted by name.
But because the "model" statues are fill-in-the-blanks guides for framing local legislation, many cities across Mexico have already enacted such bans. They have done so even though foreigners constitute a tiny percentage of the population and pose little threat to Mexico's job market.
The foreign-born make up just 0.5 percent of Mexico's 105 million people, compared with about 13 percent in the United States, which has a total population of 299 million. Mexico grants citizenship to about 3,000 people a year, compared to the U.S. average of almost a half million.
"There is a need for a little more openness, both at the policy level and in business affairs," said David Kim, president of the Mexico-Korea Association, which represents the estimated 20,000 South Koreans in Mexico, many of them naturalized citizens.
"The immigration laws are very difficult ... and they put obstacles in the way that make it more difficult to compete," Kim said, although most foreigners don't come to Mexico seeking government posts.
J. Michael Waller, of the Center for Security Policy in Washington, was more blunt. "If American policy-makers are looking for legal models on which to base new laws restricting immigration and expelling foreign lawbreakers, they have a handy guide: the Mexican constitution," he said in a recent article on immigration.
Some Mexicans agree their country needs to change.
"This country needs to be more open," said Francisco Hidalgo, a 50-year-old video producer. "In part to modernize itself, and in part because of the contribution these (foreign-born) people could make."
Others express a more common view, a distrust of foreigners that academics say is rooted in Mexico's history of foreign invasions and the loss of territory in the 1847-48 Mexican-American War.
Speaking of the hundreds of thousands of Central Americans who enter Mexico each year, chauffeur Arnulfo Hernandez, 57, said: "The ones who want to reach the United States, we should send them up there. But the ones who want to stay here, it's usually for bad reasons, because they want to steal or do drugs."
Some say progress is being made. Mexico's president no longer is required to be at least a second-generation native-born. That law was changed in 1999 to clear the way for candidates who have one foreign-born parent, like President Vicente Fox, whose mother is from Spain.
But the pace of change is slow. The state of Baja California still requires candidates for the state legislature to prove both their parents were native born.
#1
The fact of the matter is that Western countries are the only countries in the world with race-neutral or somewhat race-neutral immigration policies. People who criticize Western immigration policies for racism are operating from the principle that non-Western shit doesn't stink.
#2
J. Michael Waller, of the Center for Security Policy in Washington, was more blunt. "If American policy-makers are looking for legal models on which to base new laws restricting immigration and expelling foreign lawbreakers, they have a handy guide: the Mexican constitution,"
Maybe they should build a wall. You know, to keep us gringos out...
#3
Uncle Sam takes in hundreds of thousands of people a year. Just because he's such a nice guy. How many people does Mexico take in as a matter of routine? Zero. Only investors, retirees and celebrities may apply.
ASTANA. May 22, 2006. KAZINFORM. Three nationals of the Republic of Dagestan, Russian Federation, were arrested as a result of raiding at Kurmangazy district, Atryau oblast, by the officers of the department for fighting against fish stock criminal trespass and the oblast organized crime control department.
According to the environmental police department the dreaded Green Fuzz they were detained on the northern coast of the Caspian Sea.
18 sturgeons, 10 common carps, an automatic weapon and 60 ball rounds, navigator and fishing gear were found out and withdrawn in a Baida boat with three outboard engines. Fishing ain't for sissies!
#7
Wasn't the CASPIAN wiped out enviromentally by the "former" USSR, alongst wid the URAL, ala CBS's 60 MINUTES report a few years ago. Well, as long as these boyz don't mnind or care about coming down wid cancers, etc. from contaminated fish.
Fiji's re-elected government plans to bar the nation's armed forces commander from politics in the South Pacific island nation, the prime minister said on Sunday. Laisenia Qarase, who was sworn in on Thursday for a second five-year term following a narrow election win, said he will seek a "proper interpretation" from the Supreme Court on the constitutional role of the military — a move that could put him on a collision course with armed forces chief Commodore Frank Bainimarama.
Bainimarama, who backed the opposition Fiji Labour Party in the election, marched troops through the capital, Suva, during the May 6-13 election, fuelling fears of a coup if Qarase retained power. "The role of the army is confined to the operation of the military and within the barracks," Qarase said in an interview with a newspaper.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/22/2006 00:00 ||
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Whahahahha.... it's a very short drive from the barracks to the government house. A few sips of Kava and Frank will be headed on over. Bula Bula!
The French intelligence officer at the centre of the Clearstream corruption scandal has refused to give evidence to the inquiry, his lawyer says.
General Philippe Rondot, seen as a key witness, was taken by police to appear before investigating magistrates.
He had earlier stopped talking to them, complaining of leaks to the press.
It is alleged that Dominique de Villepin, now prime minister, once asked him to find compromising evidence against his rival, Nicolas Sarkozy.
Mr de Villepin and Gen Rondot deny the claims.
Mr de Villepin and Mr Sarkozy are rivals to be the right's candidate for the presidency next year.
Gen Rondot, a 69 year-old senior intelligence official, has given evidence to the inquiry, but stopped answering questions after parts of his notes - implicating the prime minister and President Jacques Chirac - were leaked to the media.
On Monday, he again refused to answer magistrates' questions, the French news agency AFP reported.
His lawyer Eric Morain said Gen Rondot "reiterated his demand to be questioned in the presence of his lawyer, which was turned down, so he refused to answer the judges' questions".
List
It is alleged that Mr de Villepin, at the behest of President Jacques Chirac, commissioned a covert inquiry into claims that Mr Sarkozy had an account with a Luxembourg finance house, Clearstream, through which kickbacks from a defence contract were supposedly being laundered.
At the centre of the affair was a list naming politicians, including Mr Sarkozy, who were allegedly involved.
A judge conducting an official inquiry ascertained that the claims were false and investigating magistrates are trying to figure out who fabricated them and why.
Last week, a senior executive at European aerospace and defence group EADS, Jean-Louis Gergorin, admitted sending the list to a judge but denied creating it.
He earlier resigned to defend himself against claims of his involvement.
Naval Air Station Keflavik will be shuttered by October
EFL
NAVAL AIR STATION KEFLAVIK, Iceland Many people at Naval Air Station Keflavik, Iceland, knew the base could be closed down. Rumors that the U.S. would one day pull out of the remote Cold War post had circulated for years, locals said, and talks between the two nations governments this winter hinted that movements were afoot.
But few ever thought that when word did come about Keflaviks future, it would be so sudden or call for the base to be shuttered on such an aggressive timeline.
There was a pervading feeling that, Theyll eventually draw down, but not during my time, said Tech. Sgt. Dave Oddo, of the 932nd Air Control Squadron.
On March 15, however, the U.S. government announced it would close the base by this October, ending a 65-year American military presence in the country in just over six months.
That was a jaw-dropper, said Staff Sgt. Rhodello Nuval from the 85th Group Civil Engineering Squadron.
A mix of about 1,200 U.S. Navy and Air Force personnel man the base and the Keflavik airport, home to the 56th Rescue Squadron, known for saving scores of lives in the country in the past three decades.
With the March announcement, airmen and sailors who signed up to live and work in Iceland for coming years suddenly faced immediate reassignments and household moves to different countries, plus an unexpected turn in their careers that some said alters their plans for their military future.
We were really heartbroken we couldnt go over to Europe, Oddo said. Something like this, it really does change your mindset.
#1
There used to be a very interesting local policy concerning US military personnel and off-base activities. I wonder if that policy is still in effect. I also wonder what prompted the rapid closure.
#5
The 1951 U.S.-Icelandic Defense Agreement paved the way for a permanent U.S. military presence at the Keflavik base in Iceland, an outpost that played a crucial role in U.S. strategy during the Cold War. The article explores two gender-related aspects of the U.S.-Icelandic Cold War relationship: the restrictions on off-base movements of U.S. soldiers, and the secret ban imposed by the Icelandic government on the stationing of black U.S. troops in Iceland. These practices were meant to "protect" Icelandic women and to preserve a homogeneous "national body." Although U.S. officials repeatedly tried to have the restrictions lifted, the Icelandic government refused to modify them until the racial ban was publicly disclosed in late 1959. Even after the practice came to light, it took another several years before the ban was gradually eliminated. Misguided though the Icelandic restrictions may have been, they did, paradoxically, help to defuse domestic opposition to Iceland's pro-American foreign policy course and thus preserved the country's role in the Western alliance.
The US has been trying to close the base for years after the Soviet's breakup, but the Icelanders like to have the F-16's and SAR services provided by the US. Now they will have to buy their own helicopter fleet.
Posted by: ed ||
05/22/2006 20:46 Comments ||
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The ideal soldier of the future knows no fear or fatigue, coolly picks the optimal way out of mortal danger and can even survive explosions with nothing but scratches: meet the military robot.
The German army took a close look this week at potential robot recruits, inviting inventors to an infantry training ground at Hammelburg, 85 km east of Frankfurt, to demonstrate what land robots can do.
Major-General Wolfgang Korte, head of the army administration, was impressed at the range of capabilities. "I've seen how much they can do," he said at the European Land Robot Trial (ELROB), described as Europe's first competitive display of robots in uniform.
Fire brigades and police were also invited to the event, which was confined mainly to autonomous vehicles on wheels and tracks. Self-guided aircraft and submarines appear at other venues.
Korte is keen to acquire autonomous devices to aid human soldiers, but cannot place procurement orders without government approval.
Lieutenant-Colonel Juergen Amman, overseeing the show, said he hoped the German armed forces could acquire such robots within the next five years, but admitted, "Right now, we are at the very start".
The German Army's robot experience is relatively limited: it uses remote-controlled tracked devices for bomb disposal and remote-controlled drones for filming and other intelligence gathering over battlefields. But the robots shown at Hammelburg go much further.
In the mock town at Hammelburg, used to train infantry in urban warfare, some of the devices explored buildings without human guidance. Others autonomously hauled ammunition over bumpy ground or toted self-firing guns.
Klaus Schilling, a professor of robotics at nearby Wuerzburg University, says the potential of such autonomous vehicles is still largely undeveloped, even as the devices get smarter year by year.
For the army, ELROB was like the starting line in a race, the first showing on this scale by developers of what is possible.
Some 20 teams from eight European nations, representing both defence suppliers and universities, entered robots for the realistic missions on the trial schedule. They were required to back up human soldiers in the alleyways of the training town and in open country.
Machines on offer ranged from an extremely agile surveillance robot - about the size of a car battery - to a computer-powered car that can compile 3D maps of countryside in real time as it drives along.
Amman said that the army is comfortable with the variety of the robots. "We were not looking for standard robots, but for differing machines for differing missions," he said.
Unlike the DARPA Grand Challenge, a race for autonomous vehicles sponsored by the US Defence Department, no prize money was offered at Hammelburg, and there were no winners or losers.
Entrants could hope for international attention, though, with more than 1,000 guests including venture capitalists and foreign military attaches in attendance. Broadcasters were also keen to see what was going on: nearly 30 television teams were accredited.
Supply orders were not, however, in immediate prospect. "We will be doing a critical evaluation of what we have seen," said Korte. Army officials, however, say there is no budget to buy any yet.
Montenegro voted yesterday by a comfortable majority to split with Serbia and establish a new small independent state in the Balkans, killing off what remains of Yugoslavia. In a referendum that attracted a turnout of almost 90%, much higher than at any election since democracy arrived in 1990, voters decided by a majority of 56% to 44% to opt for independence rather than a creaking dysfunctional union with Serbia, according to a projection by an independent monitoring organisation last night.
Another League of Nations holdover bites the dust...
The Centre for Monitoring estimated the vote for independence at 56.3%. The separatist camp of the country's prime minister and former president, Milo Djukanovic, instantly started celebrating with fireworks and gun sex gunfire on the streets of Podgorica, the Montenegrin capital, leading to warnings from the opposition pro-Serbia unionist side.
"We have urges, too, y'know. You wouldn't like us when we're aroused!"
The verbal clashes suggested that more serious trouble might be brewing.
Comes as a surprise, huh?
"It's a preliminary estimate, but I don't expect it to change seriously," said Marko Blagojevic, the head of the polling organisation. "We haven't been wrong in Montenegro yet." The official results are expected today. If, as expected, the prediction is confirmed, it will establish a new small state in the Balkans and leave a shrunken Serbia nursing intense grievances from 15 years of Yugoslav disintegration.
Serbs nursing intense grievences, now where have we heard that before?
But while the margin of victory appeared solid, the projection was close enough to the threshold set by the EU to make a dispute over the outcome almost inevitable.
Unsurprise Number Two...
The leader of the pro-Serbia unionist side, Predrag Bulatovic, refused to concede defeat and talked of "destabilisation" and "tricks."
"We lost. That means they cheated."
Tensions have been running high in the small highland republic between independence-seekers and the pro-Serbia unionist camp, although there were high hopes that the separation of Montenegro from the rump Yugoslavia could turn out to be a peaceful, if fraught, process, in contrast to the bloodshed which accompanied the independence campaigns of Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, and Kosovo in the wars of the 1990s.
If history is any judge, I'd say....no
I thought Slovenia broke off peacefully? Somebody told me they just stopped answering the phone from Belgrade one day...
... they had a two-day war, as I recall, then the Serbs realized that their supply route to Slovenia ran through Croatia, and that wasn't a smart move ...
In the run-up to yesterday's vote, the tensions between Serbia and Montenegro were such that they could not agree on a common entrant for Saturday's Eurovision song contest in Athens, and pulled out. Both republics are, however, fielding a common side at the World Cup in Germany next month, meaning that the football festival will be Yugoslavia's swansong. Controversial terms set for the referendum by Brussels meant that the independence-seekers had to take 55% of the vote for the outcome to be recognised by the EU.
Last I looked, 56% was greater than 55%...
The vote was heavily monitored by international observers, making ballot-rigging less likely. But Mr Bulatovic complained: "Such a crucial decision [independence] must not be carried out by a trick." He demanded that the government call off victory celebrations.
"Stop that gun sex, dammit!"
Serbs outnumber Montenegrins nine to one in the loose union set up three years ago on the insistence of the EU foreign policy chief, Javier Solana. The Montenegrin government reluctantly assented to the union on condition that yesterday's referendum would be held.
The solid yes vote for independence, restoring the Montenegrin statehood abolished by the great powers at the end of the first world war when the kingdom of Yugoslavia was formed from the ruins of the Habsburg and Ottoman empires, will reverberate across the Balkans, most notably in its core state, Serbia, where the nationalist government of the prime minister, Vojislav Kostunica, has been seeking to prevent the Montenegrin secession.
Montenegrin independence will confirm Serbia as the big loser of Yugoslavia's disintegration. It fought four wars to maximise its hold on as much as possible of former Yugoslavia as a Greater Serbia, but is emerging with nothing but core Serbia. Negotiations under way in Vienna are expected to result in Serbia's loss of its Albanian-majority southern province of Kosovo.
I'm sure that will go smoothly, not!
"Serbia can only watch as the scales tip one way or the other," the analyst Bosko Jaksic said in a commentary in the Belgrade daily Politika yesterday. "Maybe it's time to bury the past."
Belgrade liberals agree and argue that the departure of Montenegro and Kosovo will enable Serbia to concentrate on reforms and domestic rebuilding after 15 years of disaster, wars, and misgovernment. But nationalists in power in Belgrade see Montenegro and Kosovo as fundamental parts of Serbia and are unreconciled to their loss.
And nobody, but nobody, holds a grudge like a Serb. They can give muslims lessons in seething and Dire Revenge
Posted by: Steve ||
05/22/2006 00:00 ||
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Nah, there is still Vojvodina to go. It used to be an 'autonomous' province like Croatia, etc, till Slobo incorporated it into Serbia along with Kosovo.
#2
I sure hope this doesn't lead to any new nastiness over there - the kind with bullets and explosives. My daughter just left for a summer in Croatia, near Dubrovnik. Such a beautiful place (former Yugoslavia), so tragic what has happened to it.
The European Union urged Canada to respect goals for slowing global warming under the U.N.'s Kyoto Protocol on Monday as environmentalists accused Ottawa of seeking to scupper the pact.
Canada, the president of May 15-26 U.N. climate talks in Bonn, has said it cannot meet a legally binding target to cut emissions of heat-trapping gases by 2012 and that it will only take part in an extension if all nations agree.
"What I expect is that the Canadians will honor their commitments," EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas told reporters in Brussels.
"The Canadian government of (Prime Minister) Stephen Harper is trying to sabotage 15 years of international efforts to address climate change," the Climate Action Network, grouping environmentalists, said in a statement.
Canada's new Conservative government says it has inherited an economy where emissions of greenhouse gases, mainly carbon dioxide from factories, power plants and cars, have already soared 35 percent above 1990 levels.
And Canadian Environment Minister Rona Ambrose said on Sunday that Canada would take on new commitments to cut emissions, mainly from burning fossil fuels, beyond 2012 only if there were a broad international consensus.
"If it includes all of our international partners, Canada will be at the table," she said, adding that any agreement might be part of Kyoto or outside the pact. The United States, the world's biggest source of emissions, is outside Kyoto.
"We are ready to work with the international community on this issue," Ambrose told CTV television in an interview. Canada accounts for 3.3 percent of emissions by industrialized nations, roughly level with Italy on 3.1 and above France on 2.7 percent.
RISING SEAS
Negotiators from 163 nations are meeting in Bonn for talks on ways to extend Kyoto beyond 2012 to help prevent what could be wrenching climate changes such as more heat waves, droughts, floods and rising sea levels.
On Saturday, Canadian newspapers reported that Ottawa had instructed Canadian negotiators saying that: "Canada will not support agreement on language in the work program that commits developed countries to more stringent targets in the future."
More...
#1
Well of course they do NOW. They are governed by the Conservatives. It was all good right up until about a year ago, though. No problems to report back then. They all started right when Harper took over.
#6
Canada is critical leverage for the argument that teh US is out of step with their allies/neighbors. Stick a fork in Kyoto, it's done. Even Blowhard Al can't revive it with his ridiculous "it could happen" movie
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/22/2006 19:54 Comments ||
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#7
Facts the media never tells you: number 4562
Canada is the biggest* per capita consumer of energy on the planet, by quite a large margin. Under Kyoto they have pulled even further ahead.
* Excepting a couple of Gulf statelets and Singapore which has a very high concentration of energy intensive industries. Link
And note that nobody seems to care about this. All they care about is 'respecting Kyoto'. Further proof that Kyoto has nothing to do with the climate and everything to do with tranzi politics.
2004 Vice Presidential Contender Blasts Bush and Readies to Run Again
By ED O'KEEFE
May 21, 2006 - Former Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., says George W. Bush is the "worst president of our lifetime," and "absolutely" worse than Watergate-tainted President Richard M. Nixon.
In an exclusive appearance on "This Week with George Stephanopoulos," the former presidential and vice presidential contender said of Bush, "He's done a variety of things -- things which are going to take us forever to recover from. Forever?
"You have to give Bush and Cheney and gang credit for being good at politics -- you know, good at political campaigns," Edwards added. "They're very good at dividing the country and taking advantage of it. What they're not good at is governing, and it shows every single day in this administration. And the country is paying a huge price for that."
The former senator, pitching his "college for everyone" program in rural North Carolina, also responded to recent criticism by Mary Cheney, Vice President Cheney's lesbian daughter. In "Now It's My Turn: A Daughter's Chronicle of Political Life", Cheney, the 37-year-old second daughter of the vice president and second lady, labeled Edwards as "complete and total slime" for congratulating Cheney and his wife during their 2004 vice presidential debate for "embrac[ing]" their daughter's sexual orientation.
Edwards did not back down, telling Stephanopoulous, ABC News' chief Washington correspondent, "I think what I said then was appropriate. And I do believe that it was in a very partisan political environment. We were in the middle of a very hot campaign, very close campaign."
Mary Cheney, a close political advisor to her father, told ABC News "Primetime" anchor Diane Sawyer in May that she seriously contemplated quitting the 2004 campaign over the Bush's opposition to gay marriage.
"I struggled with my decision to stay," she said.
Edwards told "This Week": "What happened is that the vice president had mentioned in several public appearances the fact that he had a gay daughter, had talked about some differences in policy that he had with the president. He was asked a question in the debate where that was referenced by the moderator, Gwen Ifill. He responded. I said that actually the fact that they had a gay daughter and embraced her is something that should be applauded for. He said thank you."
Mary Cheney has claimed in her book that her father was acting.
"He didn't seem like he was acting," Edwards told Stephanopoulos, "although you never know with the vice president."
Mary Cheney has since returned to private life, working at AOL and living with her longtime partner, Heather Poe, in Virginia.
With regard to her father, Edwards continued to level sharp criticism.
"It is not an accident that he's unbelievably poorly thought of," Edwards said. Yeah, that's right. An 8 year smear campaign by the left is no accident.
"He is one of -- if not the -- principal architects of this disaster in Iraq. He put us on an energy path that the American people are paying an enormous price for right now. He paid little to no attention to making sure the government was prepared to respond to the kind of disaster that hit our Gulf Coast. We've got a health care crisis going on, he's had no proposal of any kind that I know of. And people don't trust him anymore, which is understandable. I wouldn't trust him."
Edwards made the pitch for a Democratic president in 2008, claiming the Bush has "intentionally ignored" the law and constitution in the NSA wiretapping controversy.
"If I were in the Senate, I would vote for censure," over that controversy, Edwards said. "Again, I don't think this is where I'd spend my energy, but if I had an up-or-down vote, I'd vote for it."
But for the most part, the one-term senator, who retired from the Senate to run for president, seemed relieved to be without a vote in Congress.
"I just think that if you don't live in Washington -- which I don't anymore, thank goodness; I live here in North Carolina -- for me, it gives me a completely different perspective."
Edwards endorsed the Kennedy-McCain approach to immigration -- "earned citizenship" and increased border protection. He suggested raising the minimum wage, expanding the earned income tax credit, and strengthening organized labor as the keys to a better economy. His main focus these days, however, is education.
In Snow Hill, N.C., to deliver $300,000 in college scholarships to seniors at Greene Central High School, Edwards told Stephanopoulos, "Any kid here who graduates from high school qualified to go to college, willing to work at least 10 hours a week the first year they're in school, we pay for their tuition and books." No, Mr. Edwards, the TAXPAYERS pay.
Edwards would like to take this plan, which debuted as a campaign proposal during his failed 2004 presidential bid, and his anti-poverty campaign nationwide.
"I think you have to convince the country that it's [the] moral and just thing to do," he said. But he acknowledged, "I don't think [Americans are] completely there. I think that in their conscience inside they're there, but they haven't had any leadership. No one has ever made them think about it."
As to whether he might be the one to press such an agenda in the 2008 presidential campaign, Edwards said, "I'm thinking about it, and I'm very seriously considering it. I just haven't made a final decision.
"[I] don't have a time frame," he added, "but can't wait too long."
Edwards said he might not run if his wife's health problems flared up. Elizabeth Edwards, the former senator's wife of 29 years, was diagnosed with breast cancer on Nov. 3, 2004, the day that Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., and his running mate Edwards conceded defeat to the Bush-Cheney team.
"She's doing great," Edwards said. "All the tests are good, and they're very encouraging. But we have young children, Emma Claire and Jack, and the health of Elizabeth and how my family's doing would have to be at the front of anything."
Edwards said his losses as a presidential and vice presidential candidate in 2004 -- his only losses in a short, but meteoric political career -- may have affected his outlook.
"In honesty," Edwards said, "going through a campaign has a natural maturation process. I mean, it changes you. It changes the way you see things. It changes how you feel about your own views and your willingness to stand with them, no matter what kind of opposition or unpopularity they have. I think it just gives you a different perspective."
If he does run, Edwards said the possibility of opposition from Kerry or Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., in a 2008 Democratic primary would not faze him.
Calling Clinton a "formidable candidate", Edwards said, "I just think that anybody who suggests, particularly now that you can predict what's going to happen is just living in never, never land." This clown made his millions suing doctors because babies were born with Cerebral Palsy, and he attributed this to the 'negligence' of the doctors in allowing long labor and not performing a c-section. The AMA has come out with numerous reports since that show no link between the two. Millions based on lies.
#1
And since Nixon was worse than hitler, then chimpie Bush is even worser than hitler. Voilà! Being a politician seems very easy, I should have considered it, since I have no talents nor skills, and no morality of self-dignity either, I could have been a contender!
#2
I actually agree with Edwards - to a point. But then I think Nixon was a pretty decent (though not great) President (despite Watergate he was much more moral and ethical than either of his two immediate predecessors). Makes me part of a tiny minority; oh well.
The government has decided in principle to increase the number of provinces in Pakistan to 10, Radio Tehran reported. Punjab, the largest province, will be divided into three parts: Potohar, Southern Punjab and Central Punjab. Sindh will also be divided into three units. NWFP will be divided into two units, according to the report. Radio Tehran said the costal belt from Gwadar to Makran would also be made a separate administrative unit.
The federal government will lead the federation and the elected assemblies of the ten provinces will choose the chief ministers. Various political and regional parties have long demanded new provinces in Pakistan.
I'd say one Punjab is probably more than enough, myself. The Balochs will go nuts over a proposal to tear off Gwadar. They're already up in arms about it — literally. Since the source is Radio Terrorhan, there's probably nothing to it, which doesn't mean that the holy men won't go nutz.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/22/2006 00:00 ||
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DERA GHAZI KHAN: A man cut off the nose and lips of his 18-year-old wife on suspicion of having an affair in Gadai in Chah Pippulwala district on Saturday. Ayesha and Eisa Khan Khosa married one and a half month ago and Khan suspected Ayesha of having an affair with her cousin. They recently argued and Ayesha moved to her brother's house. On Saturday, Khan and his brother came and took her back after persuading her to go with them. On the way they mutilated her and left her injured. She was taken to the DG Khan district headquarters hospital. Police have arrested Khan and his brother from the tribal area.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/22/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Shoot him in both ankles, both knees, both wrists, and both elbows, use a .22.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
05/22/2006 11:25 Comments ||
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#2
Then drag him through thumbtacks and dip him in rubbing alcohol.
PAKPATTAN: The Punjab government has decided to take over 378 colleges from the administrative control of the district governments from the next fiscal year and proposals for their development budget plans have been sent to the authorities concerned, source said.
An agreement has been signed with the World Bank and most of the funds would be spent to improve college infrastructure. Colleges came under the direct administrative control of the district governments after introduction of reforms in the education sector, but policy formulation curriculum and other related issues remained a provincial subject.
At least 418,559 students are studying in 378 colleges, which have 15,853 teachers. The colleges were being ignored and the district government did not release enough funds to run the colleges. The drop out rate in the colleges had increased and the condition of the college buildings had become terrible. "No hiring of teachers and other staff was made during the past three years and 15 principals were removed for showing poor results," sources said.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/22/2006 00:00 ||
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Physicists say they have cracked a problem facing nuclear fusion, touted as the cheap, safe, clean and almost limitless energy source of the future.
The US researchers say they have found a way to cut down erosion of the metal reactor wall, which would be a crucial step to improving efficiency.
They publish their work online today in the journal Nature Physics.
In fusion, atomic nuclei are fused together to release energy, as opposed to fission, the technique used for nuclear power and atomic bombs, where nuclei are split.
In a fusion reactor, particles are rammed together to form the charged gas plasma, contained inside a doughnut-shaped chamber called a tokamak, by powerful magnetic coils.
A consortium of countries signed a deal last year to build the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) in southern France as a testbed for an eventual commercial design.
But many experts have been shaking their heads at the many challenges facing the ITER designers.
One challenge has been the phenomenon of edge localised modes, or ELMs, sudden fluxes or eddies in the outer edge of the plasma that erode the reaction chamber's inner wall.
The tokamak's inner wall is an expensive metal skin that absorbs neutrons emitted from the plasma. And erosion would mean that the wall would have to be replaced more often.
Eroded particles also have a big impact on the plasma performance, diminishing the amount of energy it can deliver.
A team led by Todd Evans of General Atomics, California, believes that the problematic ELMs can be cleverly controlled.
The scientists found that a small resonant magnetic field, derived from special coils located inside a reactor vessel, creates 'chaotic' magnetic interference on the plasma edge, which stops the fluxes from forming.
The experiments were conducted at the General Atomics' DIII-D National Fusion Facility, a tokamak in San Diego.
Nuclear fusion is the same process used by the Sun to radiate energy. In the case of our star, hydrogen atoms are forced together to produce helium.
On Earth, the fusion would take place in a reactor fuelled by two istopes of hydrogen, deuterium and tritium, with helium as the waste product. sounds clean to me, much cleaner than fission
Deuterium is present in seawater, which would make it a virtually limitless resource. Tritium would be derived from irradiating the plentiful element lithium in the fusion vessel.
The US$12.8 billion (A$21.6 billion) ITER scheme entails building the largest tokamak in the world at Cadarache, near the southern French city of Marseille. bad idea: US is too generous with technology. We should prevent idiot cultures like Islamofascists getting the benefits of technology that grows from a meritocratic free society. If the US works out how to make fusion reactors they should build them and keep the info TOP SECRET
If necessary, build reactors and man them in other WESTERN nations for a fee. But keep control of the knowledge so that should Francistan fall to the Islamonazis, they can simply blow it up and retreat back to the US if necessary. Free energy should be a privelidge for the civilised only.
The partners are the European Union, the US, Japan, Russia, China, India and South Korea.
It is designed to be a testbed of fusion technologies, with a construction period of about 10 years and an operational lifespan of 20 years.
If ITER works, a prototype commercial reactor would be built, and if that works, fusion technology would be rolled out across the world.
Then put ehanol/methanol in cars and we can stop importing Soddy oil. Oil from Canada/Australia/South America/Europe should be enough for plastics production
Other problems facing fusion technology include the challenge of creating a self-sustaining plasma and efficiently containing the plasma so that charged particles do not leak out.
In existing tokamaks, no one has achieved a self-sustaining fusion event for longer than about five seconds, and at the cost of using up far more energy than is yielded. more work clearly needed. get to it in SECRET!!!
A huge jolt of heat of nearly 100 million°C is needed to kick-start the process, which then has to be sustained by tiny amounts of fuel pellets.
#1
So after 30 years, if it works, a prototype reactor will be built say 20 more years. If that works then they will rolled out, say another 20 years before there is enough to make a difference. So it might be a solution in 70 years time.
I remember when they were saying abundant almost free energy from fusion reactors was only 30 years away. At this rate, I'll get to hear fusion reactors are only a 100 years away.
#3
I think environazis will love a fusion reactor, since it doesn't have pollutants other than helium, a benign gas.
And so what if it takes a long time to build?
It has been pointed out on this blog before that the long-term thinking of the Islamonazis is one of their strengths in the WOT and our short-term goals our a weakness for us.
Having a long-term goal and working towards it has seen Islam begin to win the demographics war, begin to progress on the slow march of chipping away at Western culture.
Meanwhile Western culture seeks to win short-term goals in a forever war.
We cannot win this unless we think long-term also.
And on yesterday's interesting discussion someone pointed out that for Islamofascism to shrivel up and blow away like dried up dog poo, you have to cut off the money to the saudis.
It may take a long-term solution to do that effectively.
I sincerely hope fusion works and I hope the government spends money on researching this properly.
Even if it only becomes a reality in my children's (should I have any) lifetime, it will ensure the future is Star Trek, not the Dark Ages with a burqa.
#7
I don't know. Nuclear is clean and safe too. Good luck building a plant in the US.
The environmentalist anymore care less about the environment and more about their political power.
I also hope this takes off. We should be investing heavily into this type of tech (as well as coal-to-petro conversion as mentioned in a different thread).
I don't know if I would want a future like 'Star Trek' -- too coy and 'perfect' for my taste. I'll be satisifed with 'Babylon 5'.... (not to start a flamewar or anything....). Islamists would make it 'Nazi Germany'.
#13
The environazis will HATE fusion reactors and ya wanna know why? Because they wont be using He-3 as a fusing product. There isn't enough of it on earth. Which means you use a standard tritium/deuterium mix to try to initiate a fusion reaction which in turn DOES leave some medium to short term radioactives (think about 5 to 50 years equivalent of the stuff). Me personally I'm holding out hope for breakthroughs from the Z-pinch device. That sucker is breaking rules of known physics every so often.
Unique historical treasures worth tens of millions of pounds were yesterday gathering dust in store rooms in Jakarta after being impounded by police. The 250,000 pieces of Chinese ceramics and Arabic and Persian glassware were recovered from a 1,000-year-old wreck in the Java Sea off Indonesia. Found with them were 13,000 Indian pearls, jewellery, about 1,000 rubies and sapphires and several gold pieces. They were salvaged from a ship that could rewrite the history of Islam in the world's most populous Muslim country.
But police tape blocks access to a riding centre in Pamulang, Jakarta, where the treasure was being kept, and the French and German chief divers have spent a month in jail.
The 18-month joint European and Indonesian operation on the vessel, 90 miles off the port of Cirebon, included an archaeological survey, with permits from all relevant ministries, and an agreement to share the proceeds 50-50 with the authorities. But after a rival salvage company filed a complaint that the team was not properly licensed the police stepped in and sealed everything.
The wreck, which has no name but was made of tropical hardwood to a Malay design and is bigger than the vessels in which Columbus crossed the Atlantic five centuries later, went down in a storm within a decade of 970 AD. Chinese ceramics on board date from the Five Dynasties period, a short interval between the Tang and Song dynasties. Among them are Islamic rosary beads and a mould to mass-produce small metal tags, with three of the 99 Arabic names for God. But the wreck predates the earliest proof of Islam in the Malay archipelago - a sultan's tombstone in northern Sumatra - by almost 300 years.
The implication is that instead of being spread across the Indian Ocean by Arab traders, as previously thought, the religion of Mohammed could have been brought to what is now the world's most populous Muslim nation from China, where there was already a Muslim presence.
Proving China should be a Muslim state.
If true, the impact on conceptions of national identity in Malaysia and Indonesia will be significant.
Horst Liebner, who was studying the finds until the police inquiry, said: "It gives us knowledge we never had before. Why would you trade Islamic goods to a Hindu and Buddhist society? No one would want to buy them. It was to be given out. These were people going around with Islamic ideas which they wanted to spread."
The divers on the project, Jean-Paul Blancan, 53, and Fred Dobberphul, 43, were released from prison only following diplomatic pressure. Mr Blancan contracted typhoid and dengue fever while in jail, but "the most frustrating thing was being there and being innocent". Mr Dobberphul added: "We try our best for this country. It was the first legal project ever, following all the regulations, without stealing, without bribing."
#5
You need the wall sized matrix of last name and position in gov to choose the proper bribe. Without it if you are lucky you just go to jail like these bozos.
#6
Looks like he got his big lesson in how the rest of the planet operates.
Posted by: bk ||
05/22/2006 11:57 Comments ||
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Horst Liebner, who was studying the finds until the police inquiry, said: "It gives us knowledge we never had before. Why would you trade Islamic goods to a Hindu and Buddhist society? No one would want to buy them. It was to be given out. These were people going around with Islamic ideas which they wanted to spread."
Yes. A boatload of islamonuts with enough money and brainwashing and violence to subdue y'all. The pestilence sure came well-funded. Origins that important?
KISSING in public will be punished with five years' jail in Indonesia if about 100,000 hardliners who marched through the capital's streets yesterday get their way.
The protesters, who arrived in buses organised by mosques and conservative Islamic groups, urged parliament to immediately pass an anti-pornographic Bill, which would also ban erotic poetry, dancing, drawing, writing, photos and film.
Critics fear if passed the law will signal the rise of extreme Islamic values.
Organisers predicted one million people would attend the demonstration but only about 100,000 turned out.
Still, it was one of the largest shows of force by conservative Islam in years.
The protest virtually shut down main roads in the capital for several hours as the demonstrators -- shouting slogans and waving banners -- marched to the parliament, which was guarded by hundreds of police officers, some in riot gear.
"Pornography is part of the culture of the West and the unbelievers," said demonstrator Choirul Hassan.
"They are exporting this to Indonesia to destroy a whole generation of Muslim youth. They must be stopped."
Some demonstrators carried banners calling for the imposition of Islamic law in the country, which is home to about 190 million Muslims -- more than any other country -- but also has significant Christian, Hindu and Buddhist minorities.
Others held up posters showing monkeys dressed in underwear, with captions reading: "Only animals like to go naked!"
"Ban pornography and stop the sex industry," they shouted.
"Down with liberalism and secularism," read one banner.
The hardline opposition forced the closure of Indonesian Playboy magazine last month after only one edition, even though it had no nudity.
Those opposed to the Bill include the country's minority faiths, liberal Muslim groups, artists and several outlying regions which fear their traditional dances and culture may be criminalised.
They note the country has anti-pornography laws, and say police, long accused of taking bribes from criminals, should just enforce them better.
Pornographic videos and magazines are readily available for sale in the country.
they frequently terrorise the minorities: who could forget the beheading and slaughter of Christians in Aceh, or the bombing of Bali (the real targets were the Hindu Balinese as much as the secular Western tourists).
A dozen nukes over Java would do the trick.
But at the same time you need to destroy Muslim's sense of the superiority of their religion.
To undermine Allan-worship, you need to nuke Mecca, Medina and Riyadh.
But first: wean ourselves off Saudi Black Skag. Ethanol/methanol for cars and electricity generation plus coal, gas, geothermal and perhaps nuclear fusion (great advance was made this week on fusion research).
Then hit them with the big one.
If Allan was all-powerful he'd hardly let his holy land be nuked. That will have to rattle their religious supremacism.
#2
More time than Bashir got for trying to bump off VP Milliwatti and for running the Bali Opn. Makes Islamic sense.
Posted by: random styling ||
05/22/2006 2:39 Comments ||
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LOL I am thinking Bali and Jakatra had plenty of native grown pr0n for centuries before islam showed up. Lots on existing carvings too I would bet. All that matters to these rubes is their islam the realites of their histroy be damned.
Opposition lawmakers plan to charge President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo for recent actions declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court when they revive an impeachment bid against her next month, an opposition leader said Sunday. Arroyo survived an impeachment attempt in September when her allies in the House of Representatives blocked the complaints on a technicality. Her opponents have since held small but frequent street demonstrations calling for her ouster.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/22/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
bad news i want stability in philippines since i own shares in gold company mining there
#4
Just more theater from the oposition. They think they have something on her because she arrested all the senoir military and police that do not care for her. Then after things settled down she had them released. Business as usual for them, at least she released them.
As long as the mining company your invested in continues to pay support to the Chatholic church and the NPA taxes they will be fine no matter what happens in Manila.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
05/22/2006 12:07 Comments ||
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The idea to form the North American Union as a super-NAFTA knitting together Canada, the United States and Mexico into a super-regional political and economic entity was a key agreement resulting from the March 2005 meeting held at Baylor University in Waco, Tex., between President Bush, President Fox and Prime Minister Martin.
A joint statement published by the three presidents following their Baylor University summit announced the formation of an initial entity called, The Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP). The joint statement termed the SPP a trilateral partnership that was aimed at producing a North American security plan as well as providing free market movement of people, capital, and trade across the borders between the three NAFTA partners:
We will establish a common approach to security to protect North America from external threats, prevent and respond to threats within North America, and further streamline the secure and efficient movement of legitimate, low-risk traffic across our borders.
A working agenda was established:
We will establish working parties led by our ministers and secretaries that will consult with stakeholders in our respective countries. These working parties will respond to the priorities of our people and our businesses, and will set specific, measurable, and achievable goals.
The U.S. Department of Commerce has produced a SPP website, which documents how the U.S. has implemented the SPP directive into an extensive working agenda.
Following the March 2005 meeting in Waco, Tex., the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) published in May 2005 a task force report titled Building a North American Community. We have already documented that this CFR task force report calls for a plan to create by 2010 a redefinition of boundaries such that the primary immigration control will be around the three countries of the North American Union, not between the three countries. We have argued that a likely reason President Bush has not secured our border with Mexico is that the administration is pushing for the establishment of the North American Union.
The North American Union is envisioned to create a super-regional political authority that could override the sovereignty of the United States on immigration policy and trade issues. In his June 2005 testimony to the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Robert Pastor, the Director of the Center for North American Studies at American University, stated clearly the view that the North American Union would need a super-regional governance board to make sure the United States does not dominate the proposed North American Union once it is formed:
NAFTA has failed to create a partnership because North American governments have not changed the way they deal with one another. Dual bilateralism, driven by U.S. power, continue to govern and irritate. Adding a third party to bilateral disputes vastly increases the chance that rules, not power, will resolve problems.
This trilateral approach should be institutionalized in a new North American Advisory Council. Unlike the sprawling and intrusive European Commission, the Commission or Council should be lean, independent, and advisory, composed of 15 distinguished individuals, 5 from each nation. Its principal purpose should be to prepare a North American agenda for leaders to consider at biannual summits and to monitor the implementation of the resulting agreements.
Pastor was a vice chairman of the CFR task force that produced the report Building a North American Union.
Pastor also proposed the creation of a Permanent Tribunal on Trade and Investment with the view that a permanent court would permit the accumulation of precedent and lay the groundwork for North American business law. The intent is for this North American Union Tribunal would have supremacy over the U.S. Supreme Court on issues affecting the North American Union, to prevent U.S. power from irritating and retarding the progress of uniting Canada, Mexico, and the U.S. into a new 21st century super-regional governing body.
Robert Pastor also advises the creation of a North American Parliamentary Group to make sure the U.S. Congress does not impede progress in the envisioned North American Union. He has also called for the creation of a North American Customs and Immigration Service which would have authority over U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) within the Department of Homeland Security.
Pastors 2001 book Toward a North American Community called for the creation of a North American Union that would perfect the defects Pastor believes limit the progress of the European Union. Much of Pastors thinking appears aimed at limiting the power and sovereignty of the United States as we enter this new super-regional entity. Pastor has also called for the creation of a new currency which he has coined the Amero, a currency that is proposed to replace the U.S. dollar, the Canadian dollar, and the Mexican peso.
If President Bush had run openly in 2004 on the proposition that a prime objective of his second term was to form the North American Union and to supplant the dollar with the "Amero," we doubt very much that President Bush would have carried Ohio, let alone half of the Red State majority he needed to win re-election...
But what, oh what, would the earth do without Time magazine?
Suddenly and unexpectedly, Time announced in a recent issue, the crisis is upon us. Havent noticed the crisis? You must not be looking very hard. The climate is crashing, and global warming [what else?] is to blame. Time accordingly devoted a special report to saving Mother Gaia. The report is half anti-Republican polemic, half catalogue of global warmings supposed ills and none receives greater emphasis than the melting of polar ice. We see a photograph of a polar bear, standing all by his lonesome at the waters edge, and are told that the poor fellow might drown because polar ice caps are melting faster than ever. Later, we learn that the journal Science published a study suggesting that by the end of the century, the world could be locked in to an eventual rise in sea levels of as much as 20 ft.
Science magazine has itself been prone to hysteria. The issue that Time mentions contains no fewer than eight studies and articles about the ice caps, and begins with a news story warning that startling amounts of ice slipping into the sea have taken glaciologists by surprise; now they fear that this centurys greenhouse emissions could be committing the world to a catastrophic sea-level rise. The policy implications of such reportage are clear, but in case you missed them, Time connects the dots: Curbing global warming may be an order of magnitude harder than, say, eradicating smallpox or putting a man on the moon. But is it moral not to try?
The answer is, yes, it may indeed be moral not to try. What is not moral is to distort the truth for political ends which is precisely what has been done with the ice-caps story. Heres what you havent read.
The world has two major ice sheets, one covering most of Greenland and the other covering most of Antarctica. While melting sea ice has captured its share of attention, its the land sheets that matter. Sea ice is already in the water, so its melting doesnt raise ocean levels. But if land ice melts, the sea gets higher. Time wants you to be very worried about this: By some estimates, the entire Greenland ice sheet would be enough to raise global sea levels 23 ft., swallowing up large parts of coastal Florida and most of Bangladesh. The Antarctic holds enough ice to raise sea levels more than 215 ft. Farewell, Dhaka, we shall miss thee.
Or not. Those numbers sound impressive, but the chances of the ice caps fully melting are about as high as the chances of Times giving you an honest story on global warming. The truth is that theres no solid evidence supporting the conclusion that weve locked the ice caps in to a melting trend. Lets look at Antarctica and Greenland in turn.
About Antarctica, University of Virginia climate scientist Patrick J. Michaels is direct: What has happened is that Antarctica has been gaining ice. He explains that there has been a cooling trend over most of Antarctica for decades. At the same time, one tiny portion of the continent the Antarctic Peninsula has been warming, and its ice has been melting. The peninsula constitutes only about 2 percent of Antarcticas total area, but almost every study of melting Antarctic ice youve heard of focuses on it.
So what about the rest of the continent? In 2002, Nature published a study by Peter Doran that looked at Antarctic temperature trends from 1966 to 2000. What it found was that about two-thirds of Antarctica got colder over that period. At the same time, Antarctica has gotten snowier, and as the snow has accumulated the ice sheet has grown. Snowfall is probably rising because water temperatures around Antarctica have gotten slightly repeat, slightly warmer. As a result, there is more surface evaporation, making for higher humidity and more precipitation. Higher humidity also means more clouds, which might explain the cooler weather.
How much ice has Antarctica gained? In a 2005 study published in Science, Curt Davis used satellite measurements to calculate changes in the ice sheets elevation, and found that it gained 45 billion tons of ice per year between 1992 and 2003. Far from flooding the coasts, thats enough to lower sea levels by roughly 0.12 millimeters annually.
#1
Those of us who know that 'global warming' is a total myth are probably pissing in the wind with rants like these. But the Algore environazis can't go unchallenged.
#2
I'm not so sure it's a total myth, where I live it's been recently noticably warmer than in december-january, and all the snow has melted, so who knows?.
#5
ooops ... sorry. should have read more carefully - that's what I get for commenting while doing other things too. It's actually a pretty good joke. ;-)
#7
That's thanks to all the Simpsons episodes I've taped. And besides, I'm fat, fat people are funny, I'm told, but this is bogus, because when I think about it, I'm not fat, I'm big-boned.
#9
I don't dismiss the concept that human doings might affect the climate.
Just as I accept that oil is not an infinite resource.
But when somebody tells me glaciers are melting I find it hard to get overworked.
It's the natural climate changes that are really scary.
Not much you can do about Glaciers, volcanoes earthquakes, or solar minimum/maximums, not to mention axial tilts and pole shifts.
#12
I accepted global warming when the US Navy announced that it needed to create an Arctic ocean surface navigational system. This also means force structure changes to accomodate a US Arctic Ocean fleet.
Check out this map with respect to military and civilian commerce needs and potentials, once a lot of that ice is gone. Canada, Russia, northern Europe and the US may be in for some very profitable times, all getting what amounts to a new coastline with respect to each other.
#13
The author is correct about Greenland and Antartic ice caps. Arctic sea ice is melting. However this is a lagging indicator and results from the warming we saw in the 1980/90s, which has now stopped.
#14
Maybe I'm stupid, but shouldn't we notice higher water lines ? Higher high tides and higher low tides and such ? Ships gettin closer to the bridges they pass under ?
#15
I propose a massive Get-Together and Feel-Good session regarding the Sun or Sol as some call it. The Consequences of Ignoring the Main Sequence A Case Study of UnHappy Times.
This will be followed by a short sponsored symposium on How to Make A Fortune in the Upcoming Era of High Gravity. Dr. Fischer will present. Dr. Fischer is a Co-Author of the ground breaking The Shipman-Fischer Rum Paradox, which explores the casauality and quality of .79 Highballs and their alcohol content vis 2.99 well specials. Highly recommended.
#18
Sun will explode circa 2009-2012 + Planet X is still a comin' - only Mother Hillary and OWG can save our Vaderian Male Brute male souls and honest Socialist Amerika from Rightism-based national Socialism.
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.
Fiji's re-elected government plans to bar the nation's armed forces commander from politics in the South Pacific island nation, the prime minister said on Sunday. Laisenia Qarase, who was sworn in on Thursday for a second five-year term following a narrow election win, said he will seek a "proper interpretation" from the Supreme Court on the constitutional role of the military — a move that could put him on a collision course with armed forces chief Commodore Frank Bainimarama. 
The ideal soldier of the future knows no fear or fatigue, coolly picks the optimal way out of mortal danger and can even survive explosions with nothing but scratches: meet the military robot.
Montenegro voted yesterday by a comfortable majority to split with Serbia and establish a new small independent state in the Balkans, killing off what remains of Yugoslavia. In a referendum that attracted a turnout of almost 90%, much higher than at any election since democracy arrived in 1990, voters decided by a majority of 56% to 44% to opt for independence rather than a creaking dysfunctional union with Serbia, according to a projection by an independent monitoring organisation last night.
DERA GHAZI KHAN: A man cut off the nose and lips of his 18-year-old wife on suspicion of having an affair in Gadai in Chah Pippulwala district on Saturday. Ayesha and Eisa Khan Khosa married one and a half month ago and Khan suspected Ayesha of having an affair with her cousin. They recently argued and Ayesha moved to her brother's house. On Saturday, Khan and his brother came and took her back after persuading her to go with them. On the way they mutilated her and left her injured. She was taken to the DG Khan district headquarters hospital. Police have arrested Khan and his brother from the tribal area.
PAKPATTAN: The Punjab government has decided to take over 378 colleges from the administrative control of the district governments from the next fiscal year and proposals for their development budget plans have been sent to the authorities concerned, source said.
Opposition lawmakers plan to charge President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo for recent actions declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court when they revive an impeachment bid against her next month, an opposition leader said Sunday. Arroyo survived an impeachment attempt in September when her allies in the House of Representatives blocked the complaints on a technicality. Her opponents have since held small but frequent street demonstrations calling for her ouster.
