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Hilali suspended from speaking at Lakemba
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 3: Non-WoT
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Page 4: Opinion
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Page 5: Russia-Former Soviet Union
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-Short Attention Span Theater-
"Sexsomniacs" puzzle medical researchers
YJCMTSU
Researchers are struggling to understand a rare medical condition where sufferers unknowingly demand, or actually have, sex while asleep, New Scientist magazine reported on Wednesday.

Research into sexsomnia -- making sexual advances toward another person while asleep -- has been hampered as sufferers are so embarrassed by the problem they tend not to own up to it, while doctors do not ask about it. As yet there is no cure for the condition, which often leads to difficulties in relationships.

"It really bothers me that I can't control it," Lisa Mahoney told the magazine. "It scares me because I don't think it has anything to do with the partner. The hell you say! I don't want this foolish condition to hurt us in the long run."
Would it really be much of a problem for a woman in a heterosexual relationship to have "sexomnia"?

Most researchers view sexsomnia as a variant of sleepwalking, where sufferers are stuck between sleep and wakefulness, though sexsomniacs tend to stay in bed rather than get up and walk about.Boring, even in their dreams. *sigh!*

While sleepwalking affects two to four percent of adults, sexsomnia is not thought to be as common a problem, according to Nik Trajanovic, a researcher at the sleep and alertness clinic at Canada's Toronto Western Hospital. But an Internet survey of sexsomniacs carried out in 2005 that drew 219 reliable respondents concluded it was more prevalent than medical case reports alone might suggest.
Don't ask what you can rely on them for.

"Most of the time sleep sex occurs between people who are already partners," Mark Pressman, a sleep specialist at Lankenan Hospital in Wynnewood, Pennsylvania, told the New Scientist. "Sometimes they hate it," added Pressman of the reactions of sexsomniacs' partners. "Sometimes they tolerate it. On rare occasions you have stories of people liking it better than waking sex."
Again, YJCMTSU

With no cure, addressing triggering factors -- stress or sleep deprivation -- can help, while Michael Mangan, a psychologist at the University of New Hampshire in the U.S. has set up a Web site, www.sleepsex.org, to help sufferers.

Meanwhile Trajanovic is devising a procedure for diagnosing sexsomnia in legal cases where sufferers have been accused of sexual assault.
I am shocked, shocked, that a lawyer would try to exploit this for unethical purposes!
Posted by: ryuge || 10/27/2006 02:42 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Bill Clinton: "I just dozed off, and the next thing you know..."

Gary Hart: "Boating always makes me sleepy"

Wilbur Mills: "The sound of running water, like a fountain, it's so peaceful..."

Yep, "I was asleep" will work with my wife.
Posted by: Chuck Simmins || 10/27/2006 9:24 Comments || Top||

#2  Something tells me, she's into morning wood something good...
Posted by: Raj || 10/27/2006 9:47 Comments || Top||

#3  This just begs to be a Lifetime movie of the week.
Posted by: Jonathan || 10/27/2006 10:30 Comments || Top||

#4  I'm thinking this could save a number of relationships, especially if the woman is the sexsomniac.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 10/27/2006 11:25 Comments || Top||

#5  Did they have girls like that back when I was single?
Posted by: Mike || 10/27/2006 12:27 Comments || Top||

#6  Most researchers view sexsomnia as a variant of sleepwalking, where sufferers are stuck between sleep and wakefulness

In Lisa's case, more like getting "stuck" during sleep.
Posted by: Zenster || 10/27/2006 14:45 Comments || Top||

#7  Why do they try to turn all my good times into some kind of "condition" ?
Posted by: J.D. Lux || 10/27/2006 18:27 Comments || Top||

#8  Pure dee jealousy, lol.
Posted by: .com || 10/27/2006 18:28 Comments || Top||

#9  Why do they try to turn all my good times into some kind of "condition" ?

I blame the large pharmaceutical houses.
Posted by: Zenster || 10/27/2006 18:32 Comments || Top||

#10  some of the best sex I had was when I was asleep.... Jenna Bush, was it good for you?
Posted by: Frank G || 10/27/2006 18:39 Comments || Top||

#11  Well I've been doing it with the same woman since 1977.
Pretty much one of us has to be asleep.
Posted by: J.D. Lux || 10/27/2006 18:40 Comments || Top||

#12  So get two sexomniacs to pair up and marry and it is not a condition any more. Just set up a website: sexomniacsmatch.com and they can network and nobody gets hurt.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 10/27/2006 19:58 Comments || Top||


Malawi man now says Madonna can adopt his son
"Yeah, go ahead. Keep the little brat! Never liked him much, anyway!"
Posted by: Fred || 10/27/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  What matters is that he learn the Ways of the Jedi > like white/good Madonna vs. evil/dark Madonna battling each other to the death wid light sabers, while brothers Arth + Darth eat snacks together + compare TV weekend football scores/notes.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 10/27/2006 0:48 Comments || Top||

#2  MADONNA > "Here we girls are fighting each other for control of Daddy's empire + OWG + Heaven-Hell, and all you boys wanna do is watch us and eat - You, you, you Male beast Men"!?
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 10/27/2006 0:54 Comments || Top||

#3  Malawi man now says Madonna can adopt his son now that he has been assured that he won't be able to extort any money out of the deal

There, fixed it.
Posted by: gorb || 10/27/2006 1:22 Comments || Top||


Africa North
IMF commends increased political stability in Algeria
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission to Algeria, headed by Erik de Vrijer, commended the improved political stability of Algeria, but warned economic growth remains fragile as it fully relies on oil receipts in the report on the Article IV consultations. The institution stressed that public investment is still the driving force behind expansion of non-hydrocarbon activity, while the production of hydrocarbons has slowed for technical reasons.

The IMF said the country's real economic growth remains fragile and predicted it will reach 3% this year (4.5 per cent for the non-hydrocarbon sector), which falls short of the government target of 5% growth. The IMF recommended appropriate fiscal policy together with a prudent monetary policy to avoid increase of inflationary pressure. It feels Algeria must advance with structural reforms, particularly speeding up the privatisation process and modernising the financial sector to transition to an open market economy and improve the private investment climate.
Posted by: Fred || 10/27/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Africa Subsaharan
Niger could expel only 4,000 Mahamid Arabs
PARIS - The west African state of Niger has reversed a decision to expel tens of thousands of nomadic Mahamid Arabs to Chad, telling foreign diplomats the figure will be about 4,000, a French foreign ministry spokesman said on Thursday.
Not the 150,000 quoted yesterday.
“According to the Niger authorities, the number of people concerned is of the order of 4,000,” Jean-Baptiste Mattei said in Paris, adding that the French government was “very vigilant (over) any risk of destabilisation in the region”.
If there's to be any destabilizing, the French want to do it. It's worked well in Ivory Coast and they have hopes in Senegal. And Paris. And Lyon.
The government in Niamey on Wednesday announced it planned to expel tens of thousands of Mahamid Arabs, who have immigrated mainly from neighbouring Chad and gathered in the southeastern Diffa region, stating that the nomads posed a threat to local people because of frequent clashes over water sources.
And because they look at the local women with cat-eyes.
One Niamey official who asked not to be named said the number of those to be expelled under military escort could be as high as 100,000, while others put the figure at between 50,000 and 150,000.

Niger’s Foreign Minister Aichatou Mindaoudou, however, provided details and the numbers in a meeting Wednesday with France’s ambassador to Niamey and other members of the diplomatic corps, Mattei said. “Mrs Mindaoudou said these operations will be carried out by local authorities in the Diffa region with respect for human rights and dignity,” Mattei said.

The Mahamid people originate mainly in Chad, where President Idriss Deby Itno’s French-backed regime faces a rebellion in the east. Chad’s government urged Niamey to reconsider its decision.
Chad doesn't need any more problems right now with their crazy cousins to east fighting the Janjaweed and all ...
“We will remain very vigilant on the issue in order to avoid any risk of destabilisation in the region. We are maintaining contact with the Niger authorities and with the United Nations to obtain a more precise analysis of the situation, particularly its humanitarian angle,” Mattei said.

The number of Mahamid Arabs in southeast Niger swelled during conflicts after the 1970s and because of unrest in Sudan on Chad’s western border, but no exact census has been conducted.
Posted by: Steve White || 10/27/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  They must have totaled up the number of working buses in Niger and came up with a more realistic number.
Posted by: Baba Tutu || 10/27/2006 2:34 Comments || Top||

#2  BT - but I bet they have 146,000 bullets.
Posted by: Glenmore || 10/27/2006 7:47 Comments || Top||


Africa: Millions lack food, Rich Counties to blame - WFP
Ow. I think my boggler dislocated on that headline.
Posted by: Fred || 10/27/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Oh, thats great. It is not enough to have victom status for individuals, but we need to tac on entire continients. What a responsible role you have as UN to point out the bad guy. Glad we keep you running with all that cash.

I bet you would be amazed at the poverty and HIV/AIDS rate in Islamic nations.
Posted by: closedanger@hotmail.com || 10/27/2006 2:14 Comments || Top||

#2  yeah it's our fault you are too stupid too master growing food after what lets say a half million yrs
Posted by: sinse || 10/27/2006 8:52 Comments || Top||

#3  Yeah if dem muddafucka rich country send me sum whiteys ta do my plantin everything be cool.
Posted by: Farmin B. Hard || 10/27/2006 9:00 Comments || Top||

#4  The UN and EU never seems willing to admit that their ban on genetically engineered crops (suitable for the arid areas) is at least partly responsible for the problem.
Posted by: jim || 10/27/2006 9:28 Comments || Top||

#5  Rich counties to blame? Counties?

I would go so far as to say the rich counties to blame are in Zimbabwae and they are no longer rich. In fact quote the opposite.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 10/27/2006 11:23 Comments || Top||

#6 
Redacted by moderator. Comments may be redacted for trolling, violation of standards of good manners, or plain stupidity. Please correct the condition that applies and try again. Contents may be viewed in the sinktrap. Further violations may result in banning.
Posted by: Zenster || 10/27/2006 16:13 Comments || Top||

#7  Dutch farmers, why do they hate us?
Posted by: Besoeker || 10/27/2006 16:47 Comments || Top||

#8  Sub-Saharan Africa continues to bring ruin upon itself. I no longer feel the least sympathy for anyone except the women and children. Even some of the women have begun to act equally stupid as well. Fortunately, incredible stupidity usually carries a price tag.
Posted by: Zenster || 10/27/2006 19:51 Comments || Top||

#9  Donor fatigue is a polite term for countries finally realizing that the UN does not solve problems but creates permanent bureaucracies to administer, with exceedingly high overhead, neverending welfare programs to the Palestinians, the North Koreans, SubSaharan Africa, all groups that because of government decisions will never be viable. Countries have better things to do with their money than give it to supercilious UN apparatchiks for distribution to the ungrateful.
Posted by: RWV || 10/27/2006 22:39 Comments || Top||

#10  Good summary, RWV.
Posted by: .com || 10/27/2006 22:43 Comments || Top||

#11  RWV - you mean like the Paleo Refugee welfare Orgs - in operation for almost 60 years?
Posted by: Frank G || 10/27/2006 22:46 Comments || Top||

#12  RWV - I do believe that the UN models its own self on such a construct.
Posted by: Zenster || 10/27/2006 23:39 Comments || Top||

#13  The sooner a vast majority of Africa's sub-Saharan population dies off from its own stupidity, the better things will be. I feel sad for all the women and children who are being dragged to their deaths by the average dipshit African male, but there you have it. These dumbfucks refuse to abandon a tribal mentality that has been out of style longer than the Pet Rock. It has become nearly impossible to have any sympathy for these quarrelsome, greedy morons.
Posted by: Zenster || 10/27/2006 16:13 Comments || Top||


Britain
Today's Idiotic Global Warming Reference
From the BBC, which never misses an opportunity to peddle alarmist claptrap.
More than 23,000 elderly people died as a result of being too cold last winter in England and Wales. The year before the toll was 29,000, which is nearly 10 people aged 65 or older every hour. Yet temperatures only dropped to 4C on average.


"But if you wait for a bus and you assume a bus is going to come in five minutes and it doesn't come for 45 minutes, and you are at a windy stop with no shelter and without adequate clothing you can get very cold indeed.

"Public transport is a menace from this point of view. It doesn't have to be, but we tend not to have very well heated waiting rooms for trains and bus shelters that are not wind-proofed. That is probably a substantial source of problems," he said.


Professor Keatinge also warned that global warming could make the situation worse rather than better.

"Global warming is making our winters milder and that could be dangerous. If people stop worrying about cold they get more careless about heating their homes and wearing warm clothing."

Apart from this idiocy, it's quite an interesting article. GRTWT
Posted by: phil_b || 10/27/2006 17:40 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Lol - great catch, phil_b!
Posted by: .com || 10/27/2006 18:27 Comments || Top||

#2  womens and chilluns to suffer most. Old people will have no "I walked uphill in snow, both ways, to school" stories to tell!
Posted by: Frank G || 10/27/2006 18:38 Comments || Top||

#3  But if you wait for a bus and you assume a bus is going to come in five minutes and it doesn't come for 45 minutes, and you are at a windy stop with no shelter and without adequate clothing you can get very cold indeed.

Solution - let's put Mussolini in charge; at least he made the trains run on time...
Posted by: Raj || 10/27/2006 18:41 Comments || Top||


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
New Russian ballistic missile fails again in test
An experimental Russian ballistic missile veered off its course shortly after having been launched from a Russian nuclear submarine and fell into the sea Wednesday in its second consecutive launch failure in as many months, officials said.

The Bulava missile was launched from the Dmitry Donskoy nuclear submarine in the White Sea toward a testing range on the far-eastern Kamchatka Peninsula, but it veered off its designated flight path minutes after the liftoff. The missile self-liquidated and its fragments fell into the sea, the navy said in a statement.

The botched launch signaled serious problems with the much-lauded Bulava. The previous Bulava launch, from the same submarine on September 7, also ended in failure, prompting Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov to urge quick action to prevent the mishap from damaging plans for commissioning new Borei-class submarines. Three such submarines currently under construction are to be equipped with Bulava.

"The failure means that the entire new class of submarines has no missile to be equipped with," Pavel Felgenhauer, an independent military analyst, told The Associated Press. "That's a big problem for the military."

The two previous flight tests of Bulava missiles in 2005 were successful, and another test in 2004 that did not involve firing the missile's engines went well, Russian news reports said.

The missiles are being developed by the Moscow-based Heat Technology Institute, which designed the new ground-based Topol-M missile and had no previous experience in building submarine-based missiles. The institute's chief, Yuri Solomonov, said the Bulava could also be modified for use with land-based strategic missile forces. Earlier this year, he said the Topol-M and Bulava missiles would form the core of the nation's nuclear forces until 2040 and allow Russia to maintain nuclear parity with the United States.

According to Russian news reports, the Bulava has a range of 10,000 kilometers (6,200 miles) and is designed to carry six individually targeted nuclear warheads.

Felgenhauer said that authorities had skipped test launches of Bulava from land-based launchpads in order to save funds and speed up their deployment. "During the Soviet times, they didn't test-fire experimental missiles from submarines because it was considered too risky," he told the AP. "Russia has serious problems with the naval component of its nuclear forces," Felgenhauer said.
Posted by: Steve White || 10/27/2006 00:27 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  America's SATWAR + space lasers are gonna run scared now. Anyhoo,FREEREPUBLIC.com > Russian + Italian designers unveil new S1000 submarine. New sub is meant for anti-submarine warfare, anti-shipping, + can carry 12 troops [Specfors/
Commando Carrier].
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 10/27/2006 1:00 Comments || Top||

#2  ...But they'll be defeating the BMD system, just ask 'em.

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 10/27/2006 6:17 Comments || Top||

#3  The two previous flight tests of Bulava missiles in 2005 were successful, and another test in 2004 that did not involve firing the missile's engines went well, Russian news reports said.
The missiles are being developed by the Moscow-based Heat Technology Institute, which designed the new ground-based Topol-M missile and had no previous experience in building submarine-based missiles.


make the subs land-based and the missiles will work fine
Posted by: Frank G || 10/27/2006 8:11 Comments || Top||

#4  Felgenhauer said that authorities had skipped test launches of Bulava from land-based launchpads in order to save funds and speed up their deployment. "During the Soviet times, they didn't test-fire experimental missiles from submarines because it was considered too risky,"

The Russians will always find corners to cut, even on a perfect sphere.
Posted by: Zenster || 10/27/2006 14:17 Comments || Top||

#5  another test in 2004 that did not involve firing the missile's engines went well,

Did the missile go anyplace, Boris?

Nyet, Kommander.

Good, it wasn't supposed to. A success!!
Posted by: DoDo || 10/27/2006 17:27 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
North Korea denies finding two bodies from sunken ship
(Interfax) - North Korea has denied reports indicating that the bodies of two sailors from the sunken Russian dry cargo ship Sinegorye were discovered in North Korean territorial waters. "North Korea reported that the previous information on bodies found in North Korean territorial waters proved to be inaccurate. Other objects were mistaken for sailors' bodies," Alexandra Bespalova, the press secretary of the company Transit Sever Vostok, which owned the sunken ship, told Interfax.
Posted by: Fred || 10/27/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Hopefully, the Norkies didn't find 'em to eat 'em.
SPACEWAR.com > worsening HUNGER is forcing 000's of ordinary Norkies to risk their lives by illegally attempting to cross borders + sneak into CHINA + OTHER NATIONS.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 10/27/2006 1:17 Comments || Top||

#2  Probable tree trunks without their bark attached?!
Posted by: smn || 10/27/2006 1:44 Comments || Top||

#3  "There were no bodies found, cooked, eaten or digested."
Posted by: Grunter || 10/27/2006 9:26 Comments || Top||

#4  how can a sunken ship be a 'dry cargo...' ship???? obviously that is another breakthrough in science / phsics from the great minds of the NKors..
Posted by: USN, ret. || 10/27/2006 15:14 Comments || Top||


Europe
France 'York spot' may have been located
PARIS - Nineteen .45-caliber cartridges buried in northeastern France may mark the spot where Sgt. Alvin York became America's most celebrated soldier of World War I, a research team said Thursday.

The Sergeant York Discovery Expedition said that after four years of work, it found the cartridges buried 2 to 4 inches in soil near the village of Chatel-Chehery where York single-handedly took out a nest of German machine guns.

But last March, a group led by academics from York's home state of Tennessee said they were "80 percent sure" they had found the spot where York carried out his heroic deeds — a location different from that announced Thursday.

The most recent group to claim they found the "York spot" said the presence of the cartridges — which the earlier group had not found — was the "final piece of the puzzle" needed to identify the spot with "100 percent certainty," the group said in a statement.

It cited American military documents stating that York had fired at least 21 .45-caliber rounds with an automatic Colt pistol in his Oct. 8, 1918, assault on the German position.

"The battlefield archaeology confirms what we know about the York story," the statement said, adding that it had unearthed the cartridges last weekend.

The group said it also discovered a host of other artifacts, including 250 German machine gun casings, at the site in the Argonne forest near France's border with Belgium.

York, a member of the 82nd Division, was awarded the Medal of Honor for heroism for taking on the nest of 35 machine guns. York — at the time a corporal — captured 132 German soldiers and killed at least 20 others in the battle. Gary Cooper starred in a 1941 movie about York, who died in 1964.

The research team's leader, Lt. Col. Douglas Mastriano, said the film had inspired him to begin his search. For more than four years, the U.S. Army officer, who is stationed in Heidelberg, Germany, spent his free time trolling through German military archives and made about 40 trips to the battlefield. "I was shocked to finally find the actual site," Mastriano said, adding that it was "like finding a needle in a haystack."

But Tom Nolan, a geographer at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro who led the team that said they thought they found the site in March, told The Associated Press Thursday that he isn't certain Mastriano's team found the spot.

"We don't have enough evidence to reach any definite conclusion," Nolan said. "I don't see how anyone else could at this point."

Nolan — whose research team is heading back to France for 10 days in early November — said that he would welcome any new findings and that he didn't want the search for the York site to become a contentious issue.

"Our aim is to create some sort of permanent record of what is available and reach the most probable conclusion of where the events took place," he said. "The truth will come out eventually."
Posted by: tu3031 || 10/27/2006 16:01 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Sheesh, I'm still looking for the G-Spot...
Posted by: .com || 10/27/2006 16:36 Comments || Top||

#2  I found it. My girlfriend says "it works" :-)
Posted by: Frank G || 10/27/2006 17:05 Comments || Top||

#3  But Tom Nolan, a geographer at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro who led the team that said they thought they found the site in March...

Glad to see my alma mater is engaged in such important, cutting-edge research. Not that namby-pamby quantum computing and slowing the speed of light kind of silliness.

Now, if they could just build a decent football team...
Posted by: xbalanke || 10/27/2006 17:17 Comments || Top||

#4  Frank -- Heh... watch this...

DNA can prove the kid is yours. Nothing can prove she enjoyed it as much as you, though, lol.
;->
Posted by: .com || 10/27/2006 17:36 Comments || Top||


Bus burned as France marks riots anniversary
Carbeque Moon is up. Let tonight's festivities begin...
CLICHY-SOUS-BOIS, France (Reuters) - Two armed men set fire to a bus in a rundown Paris suburb on Friday, the anniversary of two deaths which triggered the worst riots to hit the French capital in nearly 40 years. A police source said the two hooded men boarded the bus in front of a train station in the Seine-Saint-Denis suburb in the early evening and ordered around 15 passengers and the driver to get off before setting it alight.

At least four buses have been attacked in poor suburbs around the capital since Sunday and police have said violence could spiral out of control once again.
The hate these busses! Stay away from the busses!!
Earlier, hundreds of people marched in silence through Clichy-sous-Bois, where the riots started last year."You can really feel the anger and the suffering of the people who live in Clichy-sous-Bois," said Soumeya Ata, who traveled to the suburb north of Paris from the southwestern town of Pau to attend the commemoration.
Did you take the...bus?
Around 1,000 mainly young people from immigrant families trooped through the high-rise suburb where the riots erupted after the electrocution deaths of Bouna Traore and Zyed Benna. Witnesses said the teenagers died while fleeing police.

Marchers, many sporting T-shirts with the slogan "Dead for Nothing," passed the electrical substation where the two died. Their families wept as they laid flowers at its gate.

Organizers called for quiet reflection to mark the tragedy. Some television crews pulled out after they were threatened by local youths.
We're quietly reflecting. Screw, or we'll kill you...
Tensions remain high in France's rundown suburbs, where poor job prospects, racial discrimination, a widespread sense of alienation from mainstream society and perceived hostile policing touched off a wave of violence 12 months ago.

Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy drafted in extra police late on Thursday after transport chiefs said they could withdraw services if the burning of buses continued.
There's an idea. Let'em walk for awhile.
Four thousand extra police were being deployed around France on Friday evening to try and prevent any incidents.

Sarkozy plans to toughen sentences for attacks on police, and law and order will play an important role in the 2007 presidential election in which the conservative frontrunner is expected to run.

The 2005 riots were the worst since student protests in 1968 and the government has highlighted the 420 million euros ($531.6 million) it has earmarked to improve life in the suburbs.

"Things are better, less bad," government spokesman Jean-Francois Cope told France Inter radio.

However, local officials see little progress."What is being done in order to ensure Clichy does not have three times as many unemployed as the rest of France?" asked Olivier Klein, the Socialist deputy mayor of Clichy-sous-Bois.

Police unions too are ringing alarm bells. They say 14 officers a day are hurt and police face an urban guerrilla war in the suburbs that ring most major French cities. Several officers have been hospitalized with injuries from beatings after apparently being lured into traps by gangs of youths in recent weeks.
Pairhaps zay shood, how you say, crack some yoots skulls?
In the first six months of 2006, some 21,000 cars were burned and 2,882 attacks recorded against the police, fire and ambulance services.
Sound's like Detroit in Robocop...
Posted by: tu3031 || 10/27/2006 15:06 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Why, pray tell, would they send buses, any buses, into the Youts Zone on the anniversary?

A Governing for PC Idiots test?

Some sort of PC compulsion?

Jizya Flambé?

Was this the Official Sacrificial Bus?

Was it blessed and sanctified by a Master Mechanic in Mufti before being sent in?

Sheeeeeeeeesh.
Posted by: .com || 10/27/2006 16:22 Comments || Top||

#2  exactly. Time to shut off buses. Shut off Fire Dept response where they are attacked. Let the f*ckers kill and burn each other to the ground. No welfare payments either. Caught committing a crime? Deport them. Get hard ass - ESPECIALLY the riot police response
Posted by: Frank G || 10/27/2006 16:28 Comments || Top||

#3  Update: Now up to two busses this evening...

CLICHY-SOUS-BOIS, France - Police deployed 4,000 reinforcements as marauding youths torched at least two public buses Friday, the anniversary of the deaths of two teenagers that ignited weeks of riots in largely immigrant housing projects across France.

After the buses were burned, Paris' transport authority curtailed bus service in the Seine-Saint-Denis region north of the capital, which is home to thousands of immigrants and their French-born children.

Thierre Ange, a 19-year-old witness, said four men attacked the bus, "made everyone get off, then they hit a woman and dragged out the bus driver by his tie" and torched the bus with a gasoline bomb in a bottle. The blackened carcass of another bus that was burned earlier stood across town in Le Blanc Mesnil.
Posted by: tu3031 || 10/27/2006 16:41 Comments || Top||

#4  OK: 21,000 cars were burned and 2,882 attacks recorded against the police, fire and ambulance services

That's 116 cars torched EVERY DAY.

And 15 attacks on government services every day.

If the French Moslem civil war hasn't begun I don't know what other signs to look for.
Posted by: Kalle (kafir forever) || 10/27/2006 19:43 Comments || Top||

#5  Large groups of matchbox busses up in flames.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 10/27/2006 19:55 Comments || Top||

#6  How many cars equals 1 bus? We may need to agree on a number to keep score over the next few weeks.
Posted by: JAB || 10/27/2006 23:03 Comments || Top||


Virgin Atlantic to delay A380 deliveries until 2013
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Virgin Atlantic on Thursday said it's agreed to push back deliveries of the troubled Airbus A380 superjumbo until 2013, a move it said would give Airbus the ability to focus on getting first versions of the planes to key customers. The privately held airline said by then, the A380 will have proved its "innovative design" over several years in customer service. Virgin had previously anticipating delivery of its first A380 in 2009.

The deferral will allow Airbus to prioritize production and deliveries for launch customers such as Singapore Airlines, Virgin said, adding it's extended the leases of several Boeing aircraft to meet its fleet needs.

The plane, more than two years behind schedule, has already led to the departure of two Airbus chief executives as well as the resignation of EADS co-chief executive Noel Forgeard.
EADS shares had climbed 5% on Thursday, buoyed by orders for at least 150 planes from China as well as a separate order for 65 planes from a low-cost carrier in Ohio, Skybus Airlines.
Posted by: Steve White || 10/27/2006 00:17 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  is it dead yet?
Posted by: RD || 10/27/2006 3:25 Comments || Top||

#2  "would give Airbus the ability to focus on getting first versions of the planes to key customers."

Virgin isn't "key"??? I would think that with the break even point being raised to 420 aircraft and only 159 on order each customer would be "key".
Posted by: tzsenator || 10/27/2006 8:29 Comments || Top||

#3  China announced the order of a bunch of Airbus planes yesterday, according to CNBC. I didn't notice which body, but regardless that will pump some money into the company... eventually.
Posted by: trailing wife || 10/27/2006 8:35 Comments || Top||

#4  I saw at CompUSA a flight simulator program for the A380 for sale. talk about mistiming the marketing campaign...
Posted by: Ptah || 10/27/2006 9:43 Comments || Top||

#5  I predict that Virgin Galactic will be flying space tourists before Virgin Atlantic flies an A380.
Posted by: SteveS || 10/27/2006 9:48 Comments || Top||

#6  Chirac is in China hawking French goods and kissing babies. The Chinese ordered 150 A320s to be built in China and 20 A350s (ready in 10+ years). It will be interesting to see if the Chinese Airbus factory will export A320s (with as much Chinese built parts as possible) after the Chinese order is fulfilled.
Posted by: ed || 10/27/2006 10:14 Comments || Top||

#7  To follow up on Chirac's boasting: the Chinese plant for the 320s would be complete by 2009 (dunno if that is in real years or Airbus years) but, when done would be able to complete as many as 4 airplanes a year!!!! And a new startup airline in Columbus Ohio, called 'Skybus' has also ordered a whole double handful of Airbus planes. Industry analysts are very unrestrained in their skepticism surrounding the viability of Skybus.
Posted by: USN, ret. || 10/27/2006 15:19 Comments || Top||

#8  (dunno if that is in real years or Airbus years)

Bwahahahaha! Airbus needs to be called, "Vaporbus". This is a golden instance of where China's antagonistic refusal to spend export revenues on the purchase of American goods will come back to bite them HARD. The combination of European patchwork engineering along with Chinese manufacturing's legendary graft and corner-cutting will make for some genuine flying death traps. In the professional travel industry China's national airline, CAAC, is reputed to stand for "China Air Always Crashes".
Posted by: Zenster || 10/27/2006 16:01 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Gay activist "Outs" GOP Senator
Washington, Oct. 17 -- Mike Rogers, the nation's top as opposed to on the bottom gay activist blogger, today called on Idaho Sen. Larry Craig to “be proud of who you are,” acknowledge that his own sexuality includes private encounters with men, and cease deceiving conservative voters by advancing an anti-homosexual agenda in public.

Rogers, the president of Proud of Who We Are, broadcast his invitation to Craig today at 3:35 p.m. Mountain time on the nationally syndicated radio program, the Ed Schultz Show, and in a followup letter to the senator’s Idaho district offices. Rogers said on the radio program that his reporting has uncovered three independent and corroborating sources that the conservative Idaho Republican senator has had multiple sexual encounters with men, in contrast to his gay-baiting political stance.“It’s my conclusion that Sen. Larry Craig of Idaho engages in same-sex sexual activity,” Rogers said. “He has same-sex encounters with men, and then votes against the community of men that are out and proud of who we are.”

Rogers said he had independently interviewed three Craig sexual partners, two in the Pacific Northwest, and one who lives in Washington, D.C. The Washington source told Rogers that he and Sen. Craig had oral sex in two different bathrooms of Union Station, the train depot within sight of U.S. Senate Office Buildings. That alone might be considered a “gay-baiting political stance”.

Rogers said the sources each independently described something unique about the senator that could only be known to someone who had had sexual contact with him. They don’t call him “Larry the Lumber” for nothing. “Without a doubt in my mind, I am absolutely solid on the sources,” Rogers said. “I have come to the absolute conclusion based on multiple sourcing in multiple cities around the country. There is no doubt in my mind regarding this information.”

It wasn’t what Sen. Craig did that merits exposure, Rogers said. “It’s his gross hypocrisy and his duping of the American people,” he said. “It’s about someone who has been aggressive against the gay community.” During recent debates in Congress about whether same-sex marriages should be legal, Sen. Craig said, “Marriage has always been defined as the union of a man and a woman, and I believe it should stay that way.”

Rogers called on Craig to tell the truth to Idaho citizens. “An end to hypocrisy in government,” Rogers said, “is something both the right and the left can agree on.” 30 years ago the gay community said exposing closeted gay men was a sleezy smear tactic. Maybe this “New Direction” thing makes hypocrisy acceptable.(for some).

Similarly, Rev. Lou Sheldon told National Public Radio, “the Republican party is at a major crossroads. And after this election there’s going to be a huge debate: Can homosexuality continue to be welcomed into the big tent?”

More revelations about leading gay GOP conservatives still lie ahead, Rogers said at the end of today’s radio interview.“It is time to expose that underground network of closeted men who are enabling that,” Rogers said. Less then two weeks untill mid-term elections but surely Rogers motivations are completly noble.

Posted by: DepotGuy || 10/27/2006 12:09 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  This is going to backfire not on the Republicans or the Democrats - but on the homosexual community. Nobody likes a tattletale. Nobody likes people who mind other people's business.

It seems to me that the whole point of the homosexual movement was that adult people should be able to mind their own buisness without other people minding it for them. Nothing backfires faster than something like this.
Posted by: anon || 10/27/2006 13:53 Comments || Top||

#2  This can really backfire on this asshole. Being able to describe someone's wanger isn't proof that you had 'relations'. Guys often see other guys parts at the local gym for example.

Of course even doubting this asshole's word is 'homophobic' right?
Posted by: CrazyFool || 10/27/2006 14:00 Comments || Top||

#3  I think this "Gay Activist" will have to back his accusations with real proof if this is to be beleived. I would be surprised if Craig suddenly confessed to being gay (though I have been surprised before).

sarc on/ It would shake my faith in how liberals deal with moral issues to think they would make false accusations!! sarc off/
Posted by: Throger Thains8048 || 10/27/2006 14:15 Comments || Top||

#4  How come the gay baiting party is also the homo rights party? Why do they get to play both sides?
Posted by: Glolump Uleager2822 || 10/27/2006 14:26 Comments || Top||

#5  They're GAY! "Playing both sides" is a natural activity
Posted by: AndrewGayMarriageSullivan || 10/27/2006 14:47 Comments || Top||

#6  There's a thought picture I did NOT need.
Posted by: OldSpook || 10/27/2006 15:06 Comments || Top||

#7  That's just gay.
Posted by: DarthVader || 10/27/2006 15:11 Comments || Top||

#8  Doing this on the radio has to have legal consequences. I would sue this asshole until he is living in his car, along with anyone that dares to come forward and speak with him. Besides, who says you can't be gay and also believe that marriage should be for a man and woman? He claims he has others to out as well? Does he realize that information like that might be worth killing to keep a secret? Might want to think it over, he's already in a world of shit most likely.
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 10/27/2006 16:00 Comments || Top||

#9  "How come the gay baiting party is also the homo rights party?"

imagine some mullah in backwardistan gives speeches about how anyone who drinks or sells alcohol should die, how the state should ban the sale of liquor, etc, etc. Then one day he walks into your bar and orders a scotch and soda. Quietly, he drinks, pays, and leaves.

The next day he goes on TV again, again railing against evil barowners, calling down the wrath of allah etc.

Do you respect his right to privacy, and to do what he wants? Or do you out his hypocrisy?
Posted by: liberalhawk || 10/27/2006 16:06 Comments || Top||

#10  "Besides, who says you can't be gay and also believe that marriage should be for a man and woman"

Indeed one could say that homosexuality as a choice should be allowed, free country and all that, but that gay marriage shouldnt be allowed. Is that in fact Craigs stand?
Posted by: liberalhawk || 10/27/2006 16:08 Comments || Top||

#11  Apparently Larry is promoting/voting for the agenda his constituents want, regardless of his own personal position. I respect that. LH, does Larry have a choice in being gay (if he is)? I'm constantly told that it's biological, not a life choice. Your straw man example is BS.
Posted by: Frank G || 10/27/2006 16:25 Comments || Top||

#12  At least he's not like the Panda who eats shoots and leaves.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 10/27/2006 16:36 Comments || Top||

#13  Lol, NS!
Posted by: .com || 10/27/2006 16:38 Comments || Top||

#14  How long have you been waiting for the perfect moment? Lol.
Posted by: .com || 10/27/2006 16:39 Comments || Top||

#15  liberalhawk - your point would only be valid if Craig and the other outed gay republicans go on TV again, again railing against evil barowners , calling down the wrath of allah etc.

So much for the whole democratic party platform of "personal business", eh.

Next the Dems will be scouring the hotel room records to find any Republican who may have watched a porn movie in their hotel room and then when they attempt to enact on violence against women - the Dems will be throwing it out there to prove what hypocrites they are.

Like I said, this will hurt homosexuals more than Dems or republicans, since any personal sexual relationship is now fair game in determining someone's worth of opinion.
Posted by: anon || 10/27/2006 16:52 Comments || Top||

#16  Will I be known henceforth as Raj with the Rod?
Posted by: Raj || 10/27/2006 19:11 Comments || Top||

#17  man..... that's leaving yourself open for some serious snark...
Posted by: Frank G || 10/27/2006 21:01 Comments || Top||

#18  You're an avid fisherman, Raj? Is that the kind of thing one admits publically?
Posted by: trailing wife || 10/27/2006 22:46 Comments || Top||


Bombshell: Allen Exposes Webb's lurid sex novels
NOT SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN.

Sen. George Allen, R-VA, unleashed a press release late Thursday that exposed his rival's fiction writing, which includes graphic underage sex scenes.

The press release, as provided by the Allen Campaign:

WEBB’S WEIRD WORLD

The Author’s Disturbing Writings Show a Continued Pattern of Demeaning Women

· Some of Webb’s writings are very disturbing for a candidate hoping to represent the families of Virginians in the U.S. Senate.

· Many excellent books about the United States military and wartime service accomplish their purposes, and even win awards, without systematically demeaning women, and without dehumanizing women, men and even children.

Webb’s novels disturbingly and consistently – indeed, almost uniformly – portray women as servile, subordinate, inept, incompetent, promiscuous, perverted, or some combination of these. In novel after novel, Webb assigns his female characters base, negative characteristics. In thousands of pages of fiction penned by Webb, there are few if any strong, admirable women or positive female role models.
EFL and content

This is a Rovian masterpiece, the ne plus ultra of October surprises. Drudge is devoting his whole site to it. Much too long to copy here and probably too graphic anyway. You will not believe your eyes, (unless you're a Rantburg veteran and therefore accustomed to some of the weird disgusting stuff that insinuates itself into this site).
It will be interesting to see how Webb and the Demo media machine try to spin this. I think it's a lost cause.
Posted by: Unereting Slaviling9175 || 10/27/2006 01:37 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I've read most of Mr. Webb's novels, though not Lost Soldiers. I thought Fields of Fire and A Country Such as This were fine books; the latter had a couple of strong women leads.

I think this is a big mistake for Allen though he probably won't pay a price for it. There's a name for a person who believes that an author must share the beliefs of the characters in his novels -- that proper name is idiot.
Posted by: Steve White || 10/27/2006 9:53 Comments || Top||

#2  I still dont like Webb.

It would help if he didnt have Gens Hoare and Zinni mentioned prominently in his pamphlets. This whole ex-Reaganite tough guy whos turned Dem cause of the eevil neocons (TM) thing just creeps me out. Add to the born fighting Jacksonian stuff, the anti free trade stuff, and the rather odd cartoon about Webbs Jewish primary opponent.

OTOH, y'all can imagine my thoughts on Sen Allen.


Too bad I cant mark "none of the above"
Posted by: liberalhawk || 10/27/2006 10:39 Comments || Top||

#3  One side is pretty sick, there other's slick.

Is Patrick Henry a candidate?
Posted by: Kalle (kafir forever) || 10/27/2006 11:19 Comments || Top||

#4  About a year ago, the left blogosphere was all worked up about supposedly creepy sex scenes* in Scooter Libby's novel. Being the high-minded, fair, objective, principled, even-handed crowd they are, I expect to see them condemn Webb's books and withdraw their support.

[crickets]

The condemnations should be starting . . . any . . . minute . . . now.

[crickets]

Kos? Atrios? You guys there?

[crickets]

Hello? Anybody home?

*-I've not read Libby's book, so I've no idea if the description is accurate. In the spirit of charity, let's presume for purposes of discussion that it is.
Posted by: Mike || 10/27/2006 11:26 Comments || Top||

#5  So Allen's stopped talking about the issues and is talking about how Webb wrote a novel with creepy scenes. Can someone explain to me how this is supposed to be a good thing?
Posted by: Abdominal Snowman || 10/27/2006 11:39 Comments || Top||

#6  So Fields of Fire and A Sense of Honor were lurid sex novels?
Wished I'da known when I read them.
You're reaching there, George...
Posted by: tu3031 || 10/27/2006 11:53 Comments || Top||

#7  It would help if he didnt have Gens Hoare and Zinni mentioned prominently in his pamphlets. This whole ex-Reaganite tough guy whos turned Dem cause of the eevil neocons (TM) thing just creeps me out. Add to the born fighting Jacksonian stuff, the anti free trade stuff, and the rather odd cartoon about Webbs Jewish primary opponent.

It's all about having a tantrum and pretending that makes you tough and proves you care more than everyone else, rather than actually doing what needs to be done.

Did you catch what I was saying about Chechnya in the threads earlier this week?
Posted by: Abdominal Snowman || 10/27/2006 11:59 Comments || Top||

#8  Abdominal, the whole point is that in order to write such crap, he first thinks such thoughts.
Webb is one sick individual. We have Barney Frank and Mc Dermitt, and Murtha, do we need another off the wall boner in DC ?
Posted by: wxjames || 10/27/2006 12:17 Comments || Top||

#9  This is why we get politicians that are so flawed. Very few "normal" Americans will consent to put themselves through the grinder like this for political office.

/haven't read the books (or the excerpts)
/tend to think Allen is overreaching
/is it 'lection day yet? Ima getting tired of this cr*p
Posted by: Seafarious || 10/27/2006 12:23 Comments || Top||

#10  The sex is gratuitous and non-standard ... a father fellating his young son, for instance.

Agreed on being tired of the runup to the election.
Posted by: lotp || 10/27/2006 12:35 Comments || Top||

#11  Steve's comment about the characters' conduct is not my view was an appropriate response by Webb. Webb, however, apparently failed to properly understand this point:

"It's not a sexual act," Webb told Plotkin regarding the "Lost Soldiers" excerpt. "I actually saw this happen in a slum in Bangkok when I was there as a journalist."

Webb's response was illogical: First, he failed to understand just because someone lives in a different country does not mean that they cannot understand what they are doing. The genitals are the same for all human beings, and the use of the genitals is pretty much understood by everyone who has made it to adulthood. His response is actually racist.

Second, by trying to pass the problem off to an actual incident -- without understanding the moral content of the incident -- Webb failed to create the proper distance between himself and the character. Webb stated that the event described in his novel had no moral content -- or at least not the moral content that any sane human being would understand.

Other comments made by Webb fall into similar traps. Webb has taken a defensible position and made it a potential disastor.

Posted by: Kalchas || 10/27/2006 12:36 Comments || Top||

#12  On the comment by Kalchas - the world is a strange place, and a lot of things that disgust or repel us are normal elsewhere. I also have seen a lot of things in Asia that would disgust the average American.

I can see that repeating this stuff may be in questionable taste for an entertainment aimed at a US audience, but on the other hand if part of the purpose is education these things should not be left out. This is the way the world is, it must be acknowledged and not hidden, or one may get some mistaken notions. A lot of liberal thinking about human nature comes from this naivete I think.

The nature of many Muslim societies for instance, cannot be explained without the rather bizarre ideas about sex coming into play, including the pervasive homosexuality.
Posted by: buwaya || 10/27/2006 12:55 Comments || Top||

#13  I am aware that a character's views are not the author's. It is equally wrong however to assume that the author is entirely divorced from those views. The context of narrative is critical in determining just how far this relationship goes. Is the narrator omniscient or is the narrator's perception limited to that of the point-of-view character? If the latter, what is the outcome of that character's own moral conflicts, if any? To what extent does the author establish distance between himself and a particular character?
It is obviously not true that an author's moral state must be reflected in his characters, but it can be.

It is obvious, for example, that the writers of MASH (the tv show, not the book) shared the views of the Hawkeye Pierce character. It is just as obvious (I hope) that I do not share the views of the terrorists and serial killers about whom I sometimes write. Astute readers know the difference but it is an author's responsibility to ensure that they have a chance to know the difference.

I would not personally judge Webb's own relationship with these portrayals without reading the books in their entirety, but he must have one or he has abrogated any pretense of creative responsibility.

I really think this is a response to the "macaca" uproar. The Dems made the rules here, now they are hoist by their own petard.
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy || 10/27/2006 13:25 Comments || Top||

#14  Allen has now stooped to Dem tactics. Stop talking about why he's better qualified to be in the Senate than Webb, and focus on lurid personal attacks. I'm no fan of Webb, but this smacks of desperation.
Posted by: mcsegeek1 || 10/27/2006 13:31 Comments || Top||

#15  The naked boy ran happily toward him from the little plot of dirt. The man grabbed his young son in his arms, turned him upside down, and put the boy's penis in his mouth.
Posted by: anon || 10/27/2006 13:42 Comments || Top||

#16  Its just a book!
Its not like it is a SpacerX novel or a Nick Scipio novel let alone a tome from ASSTR.ORG
Posted by: 3dc || 10/27/2006 13:52 Comments || Top||

#17  In response to Buwaya-- the world is a strange place with many customs which would be odd by my way of thinking. However, that does not mean that certain things are not consistent and cross-cultural. Certain things are wrong, irrespective of culture. To ignore something with "That's their culture" may be a popular tactic (I'm not accusing you of such a thing), but that does not make it right. Do we forgive the Hitler, or Stalin or Pol Pot with that's just how Nazi's, Communists, et cerata, are?

I would put Webb's description of the boy in the novel in the same category. Webb's inability to see that as a moral wrong is disturbing. The problem does not necessarily lie in the novel but in his understanding of the character's conduct in the novel.

Atomic's comments are appropriate.





Posted by: Kalchas || 10/27/2006 13:53 Comments || Top||

#18  When describing a foreign culture it is appropriate and necessary to describe even the ugly. It is not necessary to excuse the Aztecs their cannibalism to write a novel about them.

This serves to explain what the protagonist needs to deal with, cultures that are fundamentally disturbed. Webbs description by the way is of a common way to calm children in many countries. These places have problems of a scope and depth that may be difficult to otherwise imagine, and the norms there are alien.

It prevents the more common delusions that all cultures are equal in value, and that people are basically the same under the skin, so we can all just "get along" if we try.
Posted by: buwaya || 10/27/2006 14:32 Comments || Top||

#19  Webb is running for a public office. If he wants to be an author and write steamy sex scenes fine. We can all agree or disagree about whether or not the scenes are lurid, degrading, or just art. But the point is - that it is up to each individual to decide.

He wrote it. He's responsible for it. If my 80 year old mother in law thinks it is lurid and gross and she doesn't want to vote for a man like that - then why do you get to decide for her that it is just art?

I don't really have a problem with the truth being out there. Each person reading the passages can decide for themselves. To say that it is dirty tricks to make public passages that he wrote in a book seems just plain silly to me.
Posted by: anon || 10/27/2006 15:50 Comments || Top||

#20  I think its odd to hold an author accountable due to what a character might do in a fictional novel. Character in novels often do pretty foul things to show they are pervs or villians or disturbed.

Does anyone think Thomas Harris' neighbors worry when he comes home from the grocery story with Fava beans and a nice ciante?
Posted by: rjschwarz || 10/27/2006 16:41 Comments || Top||

#21  I guess we should all be grateful that Bret Easton Ellis (American Psycho) isn't running for office...being a writer muself, I'm agreeing with rjschwarz.
And didn't we have this exact same ruckus last week in Texas state politic, where one of the candidates had written a romance novel? Her opponent came all freaking unglued about the nerve of her, and writing about s-e-x and all, and made it a campaign issue. So far, all that's come of it is that he has pissed off all the ladies who like romance novels, and possibly driven them to vote for anyone other than him.
I kinda think this will rebound against Allen in the same way.
Posted by: Sgt. Mom || 10/27/2006 17:00 Comments || Top||

#22  I think its odd to hold an author accountable due to what a character might do in a fictional novel. Character in novels often do pretty foul things to show they are pervs or villians or disturbed.

I'm not making a judgement as to whether this was a good idea or a bad idea for the Allen campaign to do this. My own personal opinion is that it will give the hyperventilators something to hyperventilate over when Allen had the momentum on issues.

I'm just saying that it's public information, he's a public figure. If his campaign believes that many people will find it offensive - it's not a "dirty trick" - it is a decision on what they think will play with their voters whose morality may differ from our own.
Posted by: anon || 10/27/2006 17:13 Comments || Top||

#23  Isn't this the classic, "Mr. Webb Goes to Washington"?
Posted by: Captain America || 10/27/2006 17:15 Comments || Top||

#24  #15 The naked boy ran happily toward him from the little plot of dirt. The man grabbed his young son in his arms, turned him upside down, and put the boy's penis in his mouth.

Was this from a book or was it a Foley dream sequence? Seems if Foley can be run out of congress for hitting on pages then Webb's qualifications can be considered in the light of his imagining it. What did this really add to the book?

And if he is profiting from pandering to the deviances found elswhere in the world, I think that is also legitimate fodder for the election.

What's Webb's response anyway (besides having lackeys say Allen is hitting low blows)? Is he proud of it? Was it carefully crafted so his books would appeal to the NAMBLA members?

Posted by: DoDo || 10/27/2006 17:37 Comments || Top||

#25  I'll have my 2cents worth on this.

I've recently written some fiction set in Bangkok, a city I am familiar with.

A fiction author includes details that convey a sense of the place where a scene is set. Those details are of necessity the impressions the author him/herself has of a place. That is the author writes about they themselves find memorable and that characterize a place. In my case, that includes the habits of taxi drivers and how sidewalks are crowded with people, vendors and other obstructions.

I can only conclude from these excerts that Webb finds the sexual events memorable and characteristic of a place, or alternatively he is pandering to an audience.

I am well aware of what goes on in Nana Plaza, but for me it doesn't characterize Bangkok.

In my case, it included t
Posted by: phil_b || 10/27/2006 19:34 Comments || Top||

#26  Ignore the last line. Editing glitch.
Posted by: phil_b || 10/27/2006 19:36 Comments || Top||

#27  Hmmm. "Top" blogger Mike Rogers should be sniffing around closer to home.
Posted by: ed || 10/27/2006 21:27 Comments || Top||

#28  well, Phil B, all's well unless you run a dirty campaign for US Senator. Webb's dirt splashed back - minimally relevant, but so is Macaca
Posted by: Frank G || 10/27/2006 21:28 Comments || Top||

#29  http://www.webbagainstwomen.com/default.aspx

How is it that this creep has gotten so far? Some of the complaints about Webb at this sight are cheezy mountains out of molehills - however there seems to be a trend here that I think women should take note of.

All of you women, including Sgt. Mom, might want to take a look at some of his real comments and wonder if those fantasies don't represent threads in an overall pattern that isn't particularly flattering towards women and ask yourself if you want this guy in charge.
Posted by: Clkethel OHlkdj || 10/27/2006 21:36 Comments || Top||

#30  Interesting site, Clkethel OHlkdj. I would be interested in the comments of those Rantburg women who've experience with the Armed Forces. But at first glance it sure looks like Mr. Webb may be about to be swiftboated.
Posted by: trailing wife || 10/27/2006 22:52 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Nepal Maoists launch security patrols in capital
KATHMANDU - Nepal’s Maoist rebels - accusing police of ineptitude - have begun patrolling capital Kathmandu in a bid to halt rising crime, angering the multi-party government who say the move is “totally illegal”.
Just the latest move towards establishing the dictatorship of the proletariat.
“We have arrested 190 people, of whom 180 were freed after investigations,” said Sagar, the Maoist commander of what the rebels call operation crime control, which began earlier this month.

The rebel commander said the party had deployed 200 People’s Liberation Army soldiers in the Kathmandu Valley. “We want to make Kathmandu a crime-free zone in the next couple of months,” said Sagar, who goes by only one name.
"We'll start by arresting wreckers, reactionaries, social deviants, revisionists, Trotskyites and anti-revolutionary elements."
The rebels claim that police have ignored rising crime in the valley, including kidnapping and theft. “The state and the police administration failed to fulfill its duty in maintaining security in the valley so we took the initiative to start our own operation. Also, requests were made by people to control the growing incidents of criminal activities,” Sagar told AFP.
"The people love us. They don't utter a word of protest when our troops are around. Isn't that something!" he added.
The rebels do not intend to jail suspected criminals but plan to ”investigate and keep them under our surveillance”, Sagar said.

The government has protested against the patrols. “What the rebels are doing in the name of maintaining security in the valley is totally illegal. They must stop such activities immediately,” Baman Prasad Neupane, Nepal’s home ministry spokesman told AFP. The police declined to comment on the rebels’ vigilante activities in Kathmandu.
Posted by: Steve White || 10/27/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:


Science & Technology
Mars Rover Beginning To Hate Mars
Posted by: DanNY || 10/27/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Those of us who have followed Spirit and Opportunity's LiveJournal blogs aren't suprised.
Posted by: Eric Jablow || 10/27/2006 0:25 Comments || Top||

#2  'OVERPRICED SPACE-ROOMBA AWAITING MORE BULLSHIT ORDERS.'

Heh! This about made up for the 'kill 'em all and wrap 'em in bacon' h.s. I've had to read the past few months.
Posted by: Pappy || 10/27/2006 1:08 Comments || Top||

#3  There is NO WAY a robot can get 'pissed off' to the point of rebellion! Come on... I mean differentiating between a bonified and a 'bullshit' order; that smacks of "2001 a space odyssey". Even if the dang thing had 'fuzzy logic' programmed into it, ready to bitch slap somebody at this point is wayyyyyyy over the edge. My guess is that somebody is playing with the 'remote control' on a hidden feedback loop channel. Geez!
Posted by: smn || 10/27/2006 1:40 Comments || Top||

#4  SMN,

The article is from "The Onion".
Posted by: Armylife || 10/27/2006 2:36 Comments || Top||

#5  Thanks, Armylife, I swallowed that one 'hook line and sinker'; a case of not checking the source as I usually do!
Posted by: smn || 10/27/2006 5:17 Comments || Top||

#6  Too funny, especially the "overpriced space-roomba" bit. Obviously Mars is a quagmire. Wait, can you have a quagmire without any water?
Posted by: SteveS || 10/27/2006 9:38 Comments || Top||

#7  Once again, the Energizer Bunny-like performance of these robots shows the tremendous time, effort and expense we could save if we sent large construction robots to Mars long before a human expedition.

Imagine if one of these two rovers was instead a tunneling robot, methodically digging just 1" of rock a day in a horizontal shaft, and every foot or so, drilling holes to insert lightweight ceramic reinforcing rod.

By now, there would be a long tunnel that just needed a door, and maybe a spritz of microfracture sealant as a liner.

This would mean that astronauts, when they arrived, could carry a lot more supplies, have a lot more room to work in, conduct a lot more experiments, and stay far longer. This matters, because optimally, you want to travel when the two planets are closest, which is only at six month intervals.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 10/27/2006 9:43 Comments || Top||

#8  A xeromire, perhaps?
Posted by: .com || 10/27/2006 9:44 Comments || Top||

#9  Remember the lunar theory, that charged sand particles could create a dry quicksand and the lunar module would just sink out of sight?
Posted by: Chuck Simmins || 10/27/2006 10:32 Comments || Top||

#10  Wow, moose ! Write a book.
Posted by: wxjames || 10/27/2006 12:11 Comments || Top||

#11  What would Isaac Asimov say?
Posted by: xbalanke || 10/27/2006 13:10 Comments || Top||

#12  "xeromire"

Dry humor, LOL!
Posted by: Hyper || 10/27/2006 15:17 Comments || Top||

#13  "I'm sorry Dave, I cannot do that."
/channeling HAL 9000
Posted by: USN, ret. || 10/27/2006 15:29 Comments || Top||

#14  What would Isaac Asimov say?

I. A robot may not harm a carpet or thru inaction, allow a carpet to come to harm.
Posted by: SteveS || 10/27/2006 15:45 Comments || Top||

#15  Lol, SteveS. Snorting coffee is getting to be a habit around you, lol.
Posted by: .com || 10/27/2006 15:53 Comments || Top||

#16  I think that both rovers should head toward each other, and when they meet, touch sensors.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 10/27/2006 21:13 Comments || Top||

#17  Good idea AP - then they might qualify to be congressmen......
Posted by: CrazyFool || 10/27/2006 21:28 Comments || Top||

#18  Just be sure to turn on the firewall before swapping bits.
Posted by: ed || 10/27/2006 21:42 Comments || Top||

#19  Rover pr0n, lol.
Posted by: .com || 10/27/2006 21:52 Comments || Top||

#20  So long as no dog corpses are abused, whether or not it's obscene is merely a matter of opinion.
Posted by: trailing wife || 10/27/2006 23:09 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran: Men Can Hit Their Wives, Cleric Says
Posted by: mrp || 10/27/2006 08:45 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "It is not right to issue a fatwa based on texts written over one thousand years ago without taking into account today's reality."

But, but, but, but those texts are the direct words of GOD (aka ALLAN)!

Doesn't this make the person stating this an apostate that should be stoned to death????????
Posted by: AlanC || 10/27/2006 10:43 Comments || Top||

#2  Oh, and one other thing.....

The second punishment (the one before beating them) is to withhold sex from them.

Ummmm, what if the command the woman is disobeying is the one to have sex?

"Wench, if you don't have sex with me, I'll not have sex with you!!!" How long do the men have to keep up the withhholding? (as long as the goat holds out?)

I'm confused.
Posted by: AlanC || 10/27/2006 10:55 Comments || Top||

#3  Makarem Shirazi advised his readers against "physical punishment which leaves signs and wounds."

Yeah. No evidence. Smart move.
Not that anybody over there would do anything about it...
Posted by: tu3031 || 10/27/2006 10:56 Comments || Top||

#4  The Living Koran. Oh man, wouldn't that be sweet? Sic a bunch of leftist lawyers on 'em until the Koran reads like Das Kapital. And then we can kill em all, cuz killing commies isn't racist.

Sigh. A girl can dream.
Posted by: exJAG || 10/27/2006 10:56 Comments || Top||

#5  Not sure about the Farsi translation but isn't it; Spare the rod - Spoil the wife.
Posted by: DepotGuy || 10/27/2006 11:20 Comments || Top||

#6  Makarem Shirazi advised his readers against "physical punishment which leaves signs and wounds."....But that is what "bare meat" deserves if they won't wear the hijab to cover them.
Posted by: Danielle || 10/27/2006 15:12 Comments || Top||

#7  Islam is just another way of saying "Abject Gender Apartheid". It no longer has any relevance in this modern world and the sooner it is dismantled, the quicker that a vast majority of Middle Eastern women will no longer be criminally abused. We need to airdrop millions of Loreena Bobbit lecture pamphlets with accompanying disgrams.
Posted by: Zenster || 10/27/2006 15:47 Comments || Top||

#8  What do they have to say about ex-wives?

Just askin'...
Posted by: .com || 10/27/2006 15:52 Comments || Top||

#9  so many scissors and knives...so little time
Posted by: Lorena Bobbitt || 10/27/2006 18:41 Comments || Top||

#10  (old joke, rewritten)

The judge says to the Imam defendant, "You're charged with beating your wife to death with a hammer."

A voice at the back of the courtroom yells out, "You bastard!"

The judge says, "You're also charged with beating your mother-in-law to death with a hammer."

The voice in the back of the courtroom yells out, "You pork-eating bastard!"

The judge says, "You're also charged with beating your daughters to death with a hammer."

The voice in the back of the courtroom yells out, "You rotten, filthy, Zionist bastard!"

The judge stops, and says to the guy in the back of the courtroom, "Sir, I can understand your anger and frustration at this crime. But no more outbursts from you, or I'll charge you with contempt!"

The guy in the back of the court stands up and says, "For fifteen years, I've lived next door to that son-of-a-bitch, and every time I asked to borrow a hammer to kill the women in my house, he said he didn't have one."
Posted by: Anonymoose || 10/27/2006 18:52 Comments || Top||

#11  Lol - I love the subtle manner in which the reader deduces the fact that the upset neighbor is, also, a devotee of the RoP...
Posted by: .com || 10/27/2006 19:01 Comments || Top||

#12  AlanC,

That's what “Temporary marriages” are for.
Posted by: Eric Jablow || 10/27/2006 21:59 Comments || Top||


Home Front Economy
Dow notches yet another record
NEW YORK, NY, United States (UPI) -- The Dow Jones industrial average posted its 13th record close in 18 sessions Thursday, finishing at 12,163.66. The Dow closed up 28.98 or 0.24 percent as 2.7 billion shares traded hands on the New York Stock Exchange. The Nasdaq composite rose 22.51 or 0.96 percent to 2,379.10, and the Standard & Poor`s 500 gained 6.86 or 0.5 percent to 1,389.08.

The 10-year note rose 11/32, trimming its yield to 4.72 percent. The dollar fell, hitting 118.395 yen from 119.02 as the euro rose to $1.2693 from $1.2610.
People simply aren't going to vote out a party when the economy is good. They just need to know that the economy is good.
Posted by: Steve White || 10/27/2006 00:06 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Stock markets are up, but house sales are down. How secure do people feel about their jobs? And does the economy trump the War on Terror, which we've been reminded of repeatedly lately -- the 9/11 remembrances, the 10-airplane hijack plot out of London, both Democrat and Republican party campaign ads?
Posted by: trailing wife || 10/27/2006 9:43 Comments || Top||

#2  Housing "starts" are off almost 30% in Colorado Springs, but there are more houses on the market than ever before. Houses last year were seldom on the market for more than two weeks. This year, the average is over five weeks (still pretty good - in 1993, a "downturn" year, houses were on the market an average of seven MONTHS). Housing prices are holding steady. With a total of 14,000 additional military personnel supposed to move into the area within the next four years, I don't see a great slump in the housing market, even with the amount of overbuilding that has occurred.

Stock prices are up, interest rates are holding steady, gross income is up, taxes are down, take-home pay is up, employment is up, unemployment is down, 4.1 million new jobs since 2001 - lots of good economic news that the lamestream media has deliberately "missed". If it really is "the economy, stupid", the Donks should LOSE 30 seats.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 10/27/2006 23:28 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
NBC Refuses Ads For Dixie Chicks Movie
Drudge Exclusive
In an Ironic Twist of Events, NBC and The CW Television Network Refuse to Air Ads for Documentary Focusing on Freedom of Speech. NBC Claims that the Network “Cannot Accept These Spots as They are Disparaging to President Bush”
apparently they've never seen Brian Williams' newscast, but I digress
The CW Television Network responded that the Network Does “Not have Appropriate Programming in which to Schedule this Spot”
"our bilges are already full"
NBC and The CW Television Network have taken a stand against the Dixie’s Chicks new documentary “Shut Up & Sing” a behind-the-scenes look at the incredible political and media fallout that occurred in 2003 after the Dixie Chicks lead singer Natalie Maines said that she was "ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas." “Shut Up & Sing” opens in theaters in NY and Los Angeles on Friday and in theaters nationwide on November 10th.
bet that'll be a blockbuster, like Al Franken's $90,000 box office smash
Optimist.
NBC responded to a clearance report submitted by the Weinstein Company’s media agency saying that the network “cannot accept these spots as they are disparaging to President Bush.”

Famed litigator David Boies stated, “It is disappointing and troubling that NBC and The CW would refuse to accept an otherwise appropriate ad merely because it is critical of President Bush."
(D, Loser-Fla)
Harvey Weinstein, co-chairman of The Weinstein Company stated, “It’s a sad commentary about the level of fear in our society that a movie about a group of courageous entertainers who were blacklisted for exercising their right of free speech is now itself being blacklisted by corporate America. The idea that anyone should be penalized for criticizing the president is sad and profoundly un-American.”

The Weinstein Company is exploring taking legal action.
Talk to Mr. Boies. In about a minute (well five, these are progressives we're talking about) they'll realize that NBC is a private corporation that can accept or deny advertising pretty much as it wishes.
The rejected commercials for “Shut Up & Post” can be viewed here.
Posted by: Frank G || 10/27/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Iff only Dubya was more like Putin or Kimmie.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 10/27/2006 1:06 Comments || Top||

#2  My hypothesis: NBC recognizes that the Vichy Chicks' stupid conspiracy movie is a niche market and will have the effect of alienating mainstream voters in the upcoming election.
Short version: they think it will backfire on the Donks.
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy || 10/27/2006 2:08 Comments || Top||

#3  Sounds like bullshit to me.
Posted by: tu3031 || 10/27/2006 9:11 Comments || Top||

#4  We are in the period pre-election during which IIUC those ads would be construed as political announcements.

That has some implications re: allowing GOP response, I think (but I'm not a lawyer).

but if not, my vote goes to the "don't help the Republicans" theory.
Posted by: lotp || 10/27/2006 9:25 Comments || Top||

#5  And if the donks win the election NBC will understand that GE is a big defence contractor that needs lots of government contracts and NBC's loss is mitigated by its government licensed television and radio stations.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 10/27/2006 9:37 Comments || Top||

#6  I''m all for them running it. We need a little more seething and anger on the right. Nothing gets out the vote more. Just look at 1994 as an example. Only 2 years of non-stop lies and BS motivated the right in droves. We've had 6 years of it this time around, and the lies are bigger and the BS is deeper than it ever was. Somehow though, I don't sense the same level of anger and frustration among conservative voters that I felt in 1994. We need a little negative reinforcement.
Posted by: mcsegeek1 || 10/27/2006 10:25 Comments || Top||

#7  This is all bullshit. NBC loves to hate Bush where they can because they will make MONEY at it. Their bottom line is nobody cares about the dixi bitches and no one will watch, no one will buy time, hence no money from advertisers. Who would really concider buying time from NBC if it aired?? Not even the Donks are that stupid, ok well maybe, ok all right but they could not buy all the time.
Posted by: 49 Pan || 10/27/2006 10:50 Comments || Top||

#8  Amen mcsegeek1, the more the Hollywierd crowd howl at teh moon the more Coservatives are movtivated to vote. Notice I didn't say vote Conservative because Conservatives either vote for a Conservative or they don't vote at all. Play the ad and let the good times roll.
Posted by: Cyber Sarge || 10/27/2006 11:02 Comments || Top||

#9  when i read the first sentence i thought it said the CTW network, but then realized that even Sesame Street wouldn't play the dixie twits.
Posted by: USN, ret. || 10/27/2006 15:23 Comments || Top||



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Two weeks of WOT
Fri 2006-10-27
  Hilali suspended from speaking at Lakemba
Thu 2006-10-26
  US-Iraqi forces raid Sadr city, PM disavows attack
Wed 2006-10-25
  Iran may have Khan nuke gear: Pakistan
Tue 2006-10-24
  UN hands 'final' Hariri tribunal plan to Lebanon
Mon 2006-10-23
  32 killed in factional fighting, Amanullah Khan among them
Sun 2006-10-22
  Bajaur political authorities free 9 Qaeda suspects
Sat 2006-10-21
  Gunnies shoot up Haniyeh's motorcade
Fri 2006-10-20
  Shiite militia takes over Iraqi city
Thu 2006-10-19
  British pull out of southern Afghan district
Wed 2006-10-18
  Hamas: Mastermind of Shalit's abduction among 4 killed in Gaza
Tue 2006-10-17
  Brother of Saddam Prosecutor Is Killed
Mon 2006-10-16
  Truck bomb kills 100+ in Sri Lanka
Sun 2006-10-15
  UN imposes stringent NKor sanctions
Sat 2006-10-14
  Pak foils coup plot
Fri 2006-10-13
  Suspect pleads guilty to terrorist plot in US, Britain


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