There is *zero* evidence of grief in this article.
MECCA, Saudi Arabia (Reuters) - More than two million Muslim pilgrims have begun streaming out of Mecca towards Mena on the first day of a haj pilgrimage marked by grief over the Asian tsunami disaster and security fears. This year's haj has a particular poignancy for thousands of pilgrims from Asia, where most of the world's one billion Muslims live, after December's devastating tsunami caused by an undersea earthquake off Indonesia. Tragedy has struck the haj before. Saudi Arabia has cranked up its largest security operation ever for the ritual, a once in a lifetime duty for every able-bodied Muslim, fearing attacks or deadly stampedes like one last year that killed 250 people.
Indonesian officials have said they expect the country to reach its 205,000 pilgrim quota despite the killer waves that killed more than 175,000 people.
Indonesia not grieving.
Some prominent clerics in Saudi Arabia, which imposes a hardline brand of Sunni Islam alien to most Muslims, have suggested the disaster was Indonesia's punishment for its Western-style mixed-sex beaches, bars and nightclubs.
Soddies giddily opportunistic; not grieving.
But most Muslims said the Koran did not support such a view. "Although the Koran does talk about God using natural phenomenon to punish people who have gone astray, it is not for us to say or to know," said Sayeed Mohamed, a preacher from South Africa where Islam is growing fast.
South Africa waxing Talmudic; not particularly grieving.
Other pilgrims were more concerned with key issues to Muslims, such as Israel's occupation of Jerusalem's holy sites. "We saw the tsunami disaster on teevee, but it's far from us. We care about Palestine," said Nasser Abdullah from Yemen.
Yemen seething at the Zionists; definitely not grieving.
#2
Spot on, Seafarious. If they were truly grief-stricken, thye would've donated their travel money to the survivors, rather than selfishly spending it on Haj for themselves. Surely charity ranks higher among the five Pillers of Islam?
#3
You are forgetting that Zakat is not supposed to benefit infidels.
Posted by: Steve from Relto ||
01/18/2005 13:01 Comments ||
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#4
"Some prominent clerics in Saudi Arabia, which imposes a hardline brand of Sunni Islam alien to most Muslims, have suggested the disaster was Indonesia's punishment for its Western-style mixed-sex beaches, bars and nightclubs
So thats why most of the dead were devout and observant muslims who had voted for sharia law to be implemented?
The disconnect with reality among these people is appalling.
#5
I wouldn't expect the Muslim faithful to cancel their travel plans because of the tsunami; Haj is a central requirement of Islam and usually a once-in-a-lifetime type of thing.
I was just pointing out that the article did not show any evidence that even one pilgrim felt any personal sympathy towards the victims.
My guess is that Haj is the most important of the five pillars, since the money for Haj goes right into the Prince's pocket rather than being frittered away on widows and orphans.
Venezuela dispatched extra troops as part of an effort to tighten security along its border with neighboring Colombia, but officials on Monday denied that the move was linked to a heated dispute over the capture of a rebel leader in Caracas by bounty hunters paid by Colombia. Top Colombian lawmakers, meanwhile, endorsed Colombian President Alvaro Uribe's stand in the dispute. "We're looking for the unity that the country needs right now," Colombian Sen. Jairo Clopatofsky, a pro-Uribe legislator, told reporters after he and other lawmakers met with the president. The dispute — the most serious between the two nations in decades — arose after Colombia acknowledged it paid a bounty to have Rodrigo Granda, a top member of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, captured in the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, last month and taken to the Colombian border, where he was arrested.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/18/2005 00:00:00 ||
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The way that Chavez tightens Border Security remains me of the way airports tighten their security here. Law abiding citizens are searched. Terrorists..please come in!!
Nothing is too petty for the ChiComs to get in a spitting match over. I'm beginning to wonder if they're secret Muslims... the resemblance in behavior is uncanny, no?
China said it had received assurances from the United States that Taiwan has not been invited to send a delegation to President George W. Bush's second-term inauguration this week. The statement contradicts earlier reports from Taiwan, whose media has said Nobel laureate Lee Yuan-tseh would head the island's delegation to the ceremony on Thursday. "China has expressed its concern to the US side," foreign ministry spokesman Kong Quan told a regular briefing. "The US response is they have not invited and do not recognize the so-called special envoy delegation from Taiwan," he said.
The Chinese statement was immediately dismissed by Michel Lu, spokesman for Taiwan's foreign ministry. "How could we attend the celebration without an invitation? It's not possible," he told AFP. "We urge Beijing to change its narrow-minded way of thinking and drop its irrational rhetoric." China regards Taiwan as part of its territory awaiting reunification, by force if necessary, despite their split in 1949 at the end of a civil war. Taiwan's China Times Express this month also cited informed sources as saying Lee's delegation would comprise Taiwan's top China policy maker Joseph Wu, deputy defense minister Michael Tsai and several parliamentarians. Of course, I hope Taiwan (China) is, indeed, invited. The Commies can go suck a trailer hitch.
January 18, 2005: China appears to be building small amphibious ships in as many as five different shipyards (Lunshan, Huangpu, Jiangnan, Shanghai and Zhonghua). These are ships that could make the run across 300 kilometers of open water, at least in good weather. Larger amphibious ships, like their new LSD (landing ship dock) are building at a more leisurely pace. In any event, the LSD and LST type ships are also useful for longer range amphibious operations. But the smaller craft have only one target; Taiwan. If there is no invasion attempt against Taiwan, the hundreds of new small amphibious craft can be used for river and coastal shipping operations (which carry a lot of cargo in a country that is still underserved by modern highways and railroads.) But in the meantime, this building program is sending a rather unpleasant message to Taiwan.
Looks like they are planning on a swarm attack, figure even with heavy losses enough will get through to establish a beachhead. Not a bad plan when you don't care how many troops get killed.
Posted by: Steve ||
01/18/2005 9:40:52 AM ||
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#1
The US is working on counters, including the Streetfighter class of ship, a multipurpose platform designed for littoral (coastal) warfare. Something like a 500-600 ton PT boat with an estimated cost of $90M/each. The catamaran-style littoral ships are also under heavy development by the US and Australia. Also, the US plans to have a fleet of 8(?) Seawolf subs stationed at Guam, a formidable force, indeed. For further information, check out the magazine "Proceedings of the US Naval Institute", which is the premier magazine for US and international naval information and commentary, and a lot less expensive than a subscription to Jane's.
#3
Trent Lott was said to be very disturbed by this development. In a meeting before the Senate, he demanded that sanctions be imposed on China until a proportionate number of those contracts be awarded to Pascagoula, Miss.
#5
If you sink enough of those amphibs just off the beach,what are the Chicoms going to do,crawl over the wreckage.That would make a bunch of slow moving targets.
Watched a Discovery docu titled:"Stealth and Beyond" focusing on Navel warfare.The U.S. Navy plans to deploy a new destroyer or frigate(don't remeber wich)by 2015.Along with all the stealth tech(angled superstructure,noise/IR reduction,etc)this bad boy will have 2 155mm deck guns firing 10 rounds/min.Thats more fire power than two and a half gun batteries.
#8
Raptor, that'd be the DD(X) design (aka Zumwalt class apparently). The Navy was originally planning a whole new cruiser and destroyer design till budget drawdowns caused them to merge that into one program. It'll be interesting to see how the Navy affords this program as a lot of the funding has to be chosen currently to either keep our current aircraft carrier fleet up or lose one of the planned carriers and instead get the DD(X) program going faster.
China is building up military forces and setting up bases along sea lanes from the Middle East to project its power overseas and protect its oil shipments, according to a previously undisclosed internal report prepared for Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld.
"China is building strategic relationships along the sea lanes from the Middle East to the South China Sea in ways that suggest defensive and offensive positioning to protect China's energy interests, but also to serve broad security objectives," said the report sponsored by the director, Net Assessment, who heads Mr. Rumsfeld's office on future-oriented strategies.
The Washington Times obtained a copy of the report, titled "Energy Futures in Asia," which was produced by defense contractor Booz Allen Hamilton.
The internal report stated that China is adopting a "string of pearls" strategy of bases and diplomatic ties stretching from the Middle East to southern China that includes a new naval base under construction at the Pakistani port of Gwadar.
Beijing already has set up electronic eavesdropping posts at Gwadar in the country's southwest corner, the part nearest the Persian Gulf. The post is monitoring ship traffic through the Strait of Hormuz and the Arabian Sea, the report said.
Other "pearls" in the sea-lane strategy include:
Bangladesh: China is strengthening its ties to the government and building a container port facility at Chittagong. The Chinese are "seeking much more extensive naval and commercial access" in Bangladesh. Burma: China has developed close ties to the military regime in Rangoon and turned a nation wary of China into a "satellite" of Beijing close to the Strait of Malacca, through which 80 percent of China's imported oil passes. China is building naval bases in Burma and has electronic intelligence gathering facilities on islands in the Bay of Bengal and near the Strait of Malacca. Beijing also supplied Burma with "billions of dollars in military assistance to support a de facto military alliance," the report said. Cambodia: China signed a military agreement in November 2003 to provide training and equipment. Cambodia is helping Beijing build a railway line from southern China to the sea. South China Sea: Chinese activities in the region are less about territorial claims than "protecting or denying the transit of tankers through the South China Sea," the report said.
China also is building up its military forces in the region to be able to "project air and sea power" from the mainland and Hainan Island. China recently upgraded a military airstrip on Woody Island and increased its presence through oil drilling platforms and ocean survey ships. Thailand: China is considering funding construction of a $20 billion canal across the Kra Isthmus that would allow ships to bypass the Strait of Malacca. The canal project would give China port facilities, warehouses and other infrastructure in Thailand aimed at enhancing Chinese influence in the region, the report said.
The report reflects growing fears in the Pentagon about China's long-term development. Many Pentagon analysts believe China's military buildup is taking place faster than earlier estimates, and that China will use its power to project force and undermine U.S. and regional security.
The U.S. military's Southern Command produced a similar classified report in the late 1990s that warned that China was seeking to use commercial port facilities around the world to control strategic "chokepoints."
A Chinese company with close ties to Beijing's communist rulers holds long-term leases on port facilities at either end of the Panama Canal.
The Pentagon report said China, by militarily controlling oil shipping sea lanes, could threaten ships, "thereby creating a climate of uncertainty about the safety of all ships on the high seas."
The report noted that the vast amount of oil shipments through the sea lanes, along with growing piracy and maritime terrorism, prompted China, as well as India, to build up naval power at "chokepoints" along the sea routes from the Persian Gulf to the South China Sea.
"China ... is looking not only to build a blue-water navy to control the sea lanes, but also to develop undersea mines and missile capabilities to deter the potential disruption of its energy supplies from potential threats, including the U.S. Navy, especially in the case of a conflict with Taiwan," the report said.
Chinese weapons for sea-lane control include new warships equipped with long-range cruise missiles, submarines and undersea mines, the report said. China also is buying aircraft and long-range target acquisition systems, including optical satellites and maritime unmanned aerial vehicles.
The focus on the naval buildup is a departure from China's past focus on ground forces, the report said.
"The Iraq war, in particular, revived concerns over the impact of a disturbance in Middle Eastern supplies or a U.S. naval blockade," the report said, noting that Chinese military leaders want an ocean-going navy and "undersea retaliatory capability to protect the sea lanes."
China believes the U.S. military will disrupt China's energy imports in any conflict over Taiwan, and sees the United States as an unpredictable country that violates others' sovereignty and wants to "encircle" China, the report said.
Beijing's leaders see access to oil and gas resources as vital to economic growth and fear that stalled economic growth could cause instability and ultimately the collapse of their nation of 1.3 billion people.
Energy demand, particularly for oil, will increase sharply in the next 20 years — from 75 million barrels per day last year to 120 million barrels in 2025 — with Asia consuming 80 percent of the added 45 million barrels, the report said.
Eighty percent of China's oil currently passes through the Strait of Malacca, and the report states that China believes the sea area is "controlled by the U.S. Navy."
Chinese President Hu Jintao recently stated that China faces a "Malacca Dilemma" — the vulnerability of its oil supply lines from the Middle East and Africa to disruption.
Oil-tanker traffic through the Strait, which is closest to Indonesia, is projected to grow from 10 million barrels a day in 2002 to 20 million barrels a day in 2020, the report said.
Chinese specialists interviewed for the report said the United States has the military capability to cut off Chinese oil imports and could "severely cripple" China by blocking its energy supplies.
Posted by: Anonymoose ||
01/18/2005 8:58:12 AM ||
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The "Chinese company with close ties to Beijing's communist rulers" is Hong Kong based Hutchinson-Whampoa, which is perhaps the largest commercial shipping company in the world. In addition to now managing both ends of the Panama Canal, they are building an enormous deep water port in the Caribbean, and acting as an extensive economic-diplomatic support structure for Chinese initiatives throughout South America, especially oil-rich Venezuela.
#2
Hutchinson-Whampoa also fronted the Husky Energy deal in Canada, where now the Chicoms have a majority ownership. They are also getting resources for the Chicoms, like acquiring Noranda. Nice having Chicom controlled vital industries in our northern neighborhood.....warm, fuzzy feeling.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
01/18/2005 22:59 Comments ||
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AILING federal Labor leader Mark Latham was expected to step down from his position possibly within the next 24 hours, NSW Premier Bob Carr said today. Hip hip - Hooray!
And former ALP leader Kim Beazley was an interested and credible candidate for the top job, he said. Pressure is mounting on Mr Latham to end the speculation over the leadership, sparked by last week's announcement he was suffering from a second bout of pancreatitis. As the federal malaise threatened to disrupt Labor's dominance across state and territory governments, Mr Latham has been urged to draw a line in the sand over his leadership. "I think there's an expectation now as this concern has gathered pace over recent days that he will do that (step down)," Mr Carr told Sydney radio station 2UE. "(There's an) expectation that his silence means that he's reached a decision to move on. I would think the party would be expecting it and the party would welcome it, and we say that out of all concern for him and his family given the obviously serious health condition that the Lathams are now coping with."
When asked if he believed it would be in the best interests of the party for Mr Latham to step down, Mr Carr said; "I not only believe it, I think that's the consensus that's emerged within the Labor Party. "Indeed I'd go a step further. I think there's an expectation that that is going to happen," he said. There was also an expectation Mr Latham should step aside sooner rather than later, he said. "Labor's on the canvass, I think we wanted after October 9 some evidence of a plan for federal Labor to reconstruct and to pull together," he said. "The vacuum that we're now experiencing delays that ..."
Kim Beazley was a prime candidate for the top spot, Mr Carr said. "I don't think it's appropriate for state leaders ... to baptise people," he said. "I'd simply say at this stage Kim Beazley is off running, running strongly. That's the impression I've got. "Kim Beazley is undoubtedly interested and I think Kim returning to the leadership gives that stability we're all seeking. "I think Beazley's got a lot of credibility across the board." When asked if changes could be expected within 24 hours, Mr Carr replied: "I've got that instinct from talking to people that an announcement is sooner rather than later".
Posted by: God Save The World ||
01/18/2005 5:11:45 PM ||
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BERLIN Suppose George Bush comes calling on the European Union at its Brussels headquarters a month from now and embraces the idea of an emergent EU that looks to itself like the world's first soft-power superpower?
**SNIP**
If Schröder says world mulipolarity cannot be Europe's forward vision - in Paris last week, Jacques Chirac's personal bugaboo, the presidential hopeful Nicolas Sarkozy, marked himself down as opposing it as a confrontational idea - then multipolarity's place as an emblematic banner for a European superpower would die forgotten as French excess. Should Schröder find this too much disloyalty to Chirac, or if Chirac did not subtly recant beforehand, perhaps on a quick trip to Washington (he is seriously conflicted about how much soft power Europe can acquire before China howls in laughter), then Bush would return home without a quid pro quo.(which would happen cos that's the way it is).
**SNIP**
The United States can't be interested in consecrating a Europe that could well turn out to be a Righteous Power, instructing, pontificating and limiting its responsibilities to what Robert Zoellick,(I like him already) Condoleezza Rice's future deputy secretary of state, said a year ago was Europe's predilection for endless negotiations in excellent hotels in pleasant locations. (And they say we don't pay attention to them) This Righteous Power aspect (the phrase is that of a former Bush White House official), sometimes comparing the supposed new nobility of Europe's purpose with the Americans' hard-power clangor, is obvious in many European descriptions of life as the gentle superpower.
--SNIP--.
In an article in which she acknowledges plenty of European incoherence, another German, Ulrike Guerot of the German Marshall Fund, all the same projects a dreamlike EU becoming "the real superpower" of the 21st century, "endowing humanity with a global consciousness" that emphasizes "global cooperation over the unilateral exercise of power". (And I've won the lotto -- in my delusion/dream)
In truth, the Bush administration may be too exquisitely cynical to think anything palpable is required from Europe in response to the president's planned cuddly diction, convinced there is no new reason to suppose, all the talk aside, that the EU will soon be anything other than what it is now. That is a place, Guerot says, whose governments flee precise definitions of its future for fear of getting pinned down on how much has to be shelled out for building some credibility into the desired softness.
.
Are the costs of either effective hard or soft power beyond Europe's reach, as some in Washington dismissively think?
.
At the moment, French generals are complaining about the non-pertinence in a terrorism-driven era of Chirac's plan to spend €8 billion (the equivalent of about one-tenth of France's debt) on new submarine-launched nuclear missiles with a range sufficient to hit China - or US. And here, Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer returned from the tsunami area in Asia acknowledging that the Americans were "very much faster" getting aid to its victims because they had the proper transport aircraft - and that Germany might think of renting some as a stopgap in the future.
Posted by: anonymous2u ||
01/18/2005 11:59:04 AM ||
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For the life of them, it sounds like the "leadership" of the EU is something like the BBC comedy series "Keeping Up Appearances", writ large. With Chirac and Schröder being Hyacinth and Richard Bucket, respectively.
#4
Joschka Fischer returned from the tsunami area in Asia acknowledging that the Americans were "very much faster" getting aid to its victims because they had the proper transport aircraft - and that Germany might think of renting some as a stopgap in the future
Let's see... the Germans rented cargo aircraft (Tikhonovs, I think) from Uzbekistan to get their gear to Afghanistan in 2002, and now are looking to rent ours as well. Why not? Helps reduce the trade deficit. Ramp it up.
A U.N. tribunal convicted and sentenced two former Bosnian Serb army commanders to lengthy prison terms Monday for their roles in the 1995 slaughter of thousands of Bosnian Muslims from Srebrenica, Europe's worst massacre since World War II. Col. Vidoje Blagojevic, 54, received an 18-year term for complicity in genocide and other war crimes. He was the wartime commander of the Bratunac brigade that took part in the killing of more than 7,000 Muslims near the eastern Bosnia city of Srebrenica. Dragan Jokic, 47, a major in the Zvornik brigade who assumed command during a week of killing at the end of the 1992-1995 war, got a nine-year sentence. He was convicted of murder, extermination and persecution on racial grounds. Prosecutors had sought 15-20 years in prison for Jokic and 32 years for Blagojevic. Both men were acquitted of allegations of command responsibility. The court said the men had merely passed on orders, rather than given them.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/18/2005 00:00:00 ||
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Yes, but didn't they sit in jail when they weren't in the courtroom? We knew they were guilty, they knew they were guilty, the purpose of the trial was simply to demonstrate to the folks back in the Yugoslav countries that they would be formally punished. Its like all those Hutus in Rwanda, waiting for years in Black Hole of Calcutta jails for their own turn in the courtroom. I know its supposed to be "innocent until proven guilty," but sometimes its about demonstrating the culpable will be held responsible in front of the whole world, and by the world punished.
Brussels intends to do away with the cruet - that set of salt and pepper and in southern Europe, olive oil and vinegar - on restaurant tables. This act of cultural and culinary terrorism shows the very worst side of Brussels' regulatory mania and is an insult to those devoted to Mediterranean cuisine.
"No cruets for you!"
The decision has all the hallmarks of a grey Eurocrat, sitting bored out his mind in a Brussels restaurant, tucking into a meal of mussels and chips, washed down with pink beer, perhaps called delirium tremens, made by Trappist monks somewhere in darkest Belgium. Regulate, regulate, regulate. The Eurocratic ideal runs something like this: the size of the Euro-apple must be five point three one centimeters around the girth. The delicious Portuguese bravo d'esmofe measures five point one three centimeters about the girth: destroy it! Burn it at the stake! Stamp it into the ground! Thus the Europeans will never know what it is like to eat the bravo d'esmofe, which is like standing enraptured in paradise while your taste-buds explode around you in ecstasy, a type of culinary orgasm but without the sex.
Ummm... Okay. I'll have to try that sometime. I won't need a rubber, will I?
Likewise, Mediterranean cuisine. Come to Portugal in the summer and ask for a delicious portion of charcoal-roasted sardines, which are traditionally served with bread - good, Portuguese bread, not the plastic stuff from packets - boiled potatoes and a green pepper salad. Any decent self-respecting Portuguese reaches for the cruet set and pours a good helping of luxuriously smooth olive oil on his potatoes and green peppers, then mops up the remainder with healthy chunks of his bread. Now the E.U. decides that the cruet set is anti-hygienic. Why? After it has been in use for so many centuries as part of each and every lunch and dinner table around the Mediterranean, the population seems to have survived this dangerous piece of equipment.
I think Charlotte Corday beaned Murat with a cruet before doing him in in his bath, but that was probably a fluke...
Could it maybe explode? Could someone spit in the olive oil and stand giggling in the corner when the next customer pours it all over his bacalhau a lagareiro (codfish cooked in an oven and served with potatoes in their skins, punched to break them open and then soaked in olive oil)? Or is Brussels worried about the quality of the olive oil? People have been managing quite well until now. No, we do not want those plastic McDonald's-style sachets thank you, the ones you can never open and when you do manage to finally rip the top off, you get a free shower of some God-awful concoction which tastes of plastic. And stinks. Olive and oil and plastic are like fish and sugar. Or is this not about regulation, for regulation's sake? After all, with all the pressing issues around the world and especially now, the European Union Eurocrats are obsessed with a cruet set? Are they so worried that we will consume too much olive oil? Are they that worried about the quality, these Eurocrats who allow people to buy packets of cigarettes complete with dire messages, warning them that they will get cancer? So, if the olive oil in the cruet is that dangerous, how about banning cigarettes altogether?
It'll come. Just wait...
Give me my cruet any day and allow me to pour a nice, healthy helping of olive oil and vinegar on my salad, on my peppers, on my tomatoes, in my soup, on my plate to soak up with my bread, on my olives, on my fish, on my potatoes, let me enjoy my Mediterranean diet. It is not for no reason that the Mediterrean diet is regarded as one of the healthiest and the fundamental ingredients are the staple members of the cruet set: olive oil and vinegar. If they do not produce or use these products in Brussels, let them eat mussels, without the cruet.
What do they eat in Brussels, besides Brussels sprouts and chocolates? I've been there, but it was a long time ago, and somehow I didn't bring away any fond gastronomic memories with me...
Waffles, Fred. Golden brown waffles dripping with maple syrup, creamy butter, and a sense of smug superiority.
But let Brussels not come and dictate to me how I eat my food, in the region I have chosen to live, and interfering at the same time in the cultural values I have chosen to defend. The cruet on the table is a part of Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, Greek culture, it is a fundamental part of Mediterranean culture in Mediterranean cuisine. Defend the cruet, I will. And I exhort our Mediterranean readers to Defend the Cruet. Set up a Cruet Defence Movement and refuse to eat in restaurants which do not have cruets on tables, or else refuse to allow people to bring their own cruet into the restaurant.
"Aux barricades! And bring sardines!"
I for one will begin taking my portable cruet set into restaurants with me. Not because I am against the European Union, but because I stand up for the preservation of cultural heritage and the cruet set is the tip of the iceberg. What we are witnessing is an Americanization/banalization/plastification of cultural/culinary habits in Europe. Ban the cruet, replace it with the plastic sachet. Start putting ketchup on your dolma, try mayonnaise with your moussaka, smother your sardines with a new green-style sauce containing Christ alone knows what and hey! why not exchange your charcoal roasted fish for a greenburger with plastic mash? Or how about a Double MackSalad with Healthfries, Freedom Chips and Democracy Sundae? Complete with three plastic sachets of sauces and a shitty plastic toy which might disintegrate in your three-year-old's mouth. Choking him to death but thank God he didn't use the cruet. No, I'll take my chances with the cruet set, please, as people have been doing in this part of the world for hundreds of years. Cultural terrorism by Eurocrats, no thanks.
Getting ready for a condiment jihad...now accepting applications for the Balsamic Martyrs' Brigades...
Posted by: Fred ||
01/18/2005 10:16:20 PM ||
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"What we are witnessing is an Americanization/banalization/plastification of cultural/culinary habits in Europe."
What the heck does the U.S. have to do with out-of-control Belgian food Nazis? Must be the obligatory anti-American reference. Apparently no story (on any topic whatsoever) is complete without one
#3
Just wait...when they start regulating dicks. EU average is 5.9" (15 cm) in 'ready' state. The excess would be chopped off, while the substandard wieners would be adjusted by a stretcher therapy.
#4
I guess the next BelgianCrat wiseacring will go like this :
"According to Article 37.117 of the European culinary code of regulations, all French restaurants would be limited to serving kidney pie and green peas as the mandatory entree."
Just give them another 5 years and the entire continent will be eating dreck.....
#6
JFM,
Its going to be even worse because as the Iron Curtain slowly descends over Europe, the New Khalifa and the Sharia will raise their ugly heads from within...
#7
What do they eat in Brussels? Everything. In very large amounts. And its all delicious; they've murdered many meat inspectors to ensure that.
Mussels, chocolates, french fries with mayonnaise, meltingly tender illegally hormone-fed veal, mtih-f beef, mtih-f pork, crepes with chocolate sauce, sugar-crusted Belgian waffles with berry sauce, plain Belgian waffles with chocolate sauce, French wine, Trappist beer, stew cooked with beer, stew cooked with wine, sliced baguette to dip in the sauces, chocolate-hazelnut butter on bread for breakfast, and the children eat their afternoon bread-and-butter with chocolate sprinkles on it (British translation "hundreds and thousands", for the Aussies "fairy bread" but with only chocolate)...
Given their eating habits, I have never understood the Brussels obsession with regulating the foodstuffs of others, since it all ends up in sleekly prosperous Brussels bellies in the end.
#8
TW, that's more like my memory of Belgium, yum. And don't forget the pies, cakes, and pastries. Just because BS is coming out of Brussels doesn't mean that Belgians are doing it.
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/18/2005 11:06 Comments ||
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#15
All fun aside, do not confuse "Brussels bureaucrat" with a Belgian or Euro regs with Belgian cuisine. Most of the real heavy hitter bureaucrats I have worked with and know in Brussels are either Irish, Italian or Luxembourg. And in defense of Belgian cuisine (which should need none among true gourmands)it is the finest in Europe - where the hell do you think the French learned to cook? Plus what country would you rather govern - one with 150 cheeses or one with 600 different types of beer?
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
01/18/2005 11:28 Comments ||
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#16
Plus what country would you rather govern - one with 150 cheeses or one with 600 different types of beer?
Come to Britain and you can have the beerand the cheese!
Posted by: Homer ||
01/18/2005 11:37 Comments ||
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#20
You know you've hit rock bottom when PRAVDA is making fun of you.
I thought you've hit rock bottom when you start to BELIEVE what Pravda is saying.
"Brussels intends" is for me the first warning sign (beyond the name Pravda, ofcourse) -- who is this Brussels? Is it the European Commission, the Council? Or it just indeed the advice of a minor bureucrat who has no power or authority, a foolish law that will never pass? A reporter uses the vague "Brussels" only when he doesn't care to clarify but to obfuscate instead.
I've checked a couple other articles that this guy "Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey" wrote: http://english.pravda.ru/author/_78.htmld
Check them out yourselves (there's a list at the end of the above page). An apologist for Putin's own barbarism in Chechnya, he nonetheless calls Darfur simply as "no less barbaric" than *Abu Ghraib*: the only entity he hates and mocks more than the European Union seem to be the United States and Israel.
An example: When he defended Prince Harry, he referred to "Sharon's units in the Lebanon as they were committing their massacres of civilians"
And you are free to read for yourselves what he's saying on Iraq, the reelection of Bush and so forth.
If you "hit rock bottom when Pravda starts mocking you", I'm afraid that the USA hit rock bottom long before the EU did.
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Either way, even in the slim possibility this "cruet set" thingy is real, I'm guessing such a law will be cheerfully ignored, and certainly nothing will ever be done to enforce it. In Greece atleast we cheerfully ignored the law against kokoretsi.
#21
even in the slim possibility this "cruet set" thingy is real, I'm guessing such a law will be cheerfully ignored, and certainly nothing will ever be done to enforce it. In Greece atleast we cheerfully ignored the law against kokoretsi.
I think it's time you guys asked yourselves whether you actually want to be involved in the European project, or not. You seem to want to have your cake and eat it. If Greece, and yourself as an individual, are so contemptuous of consensually drawn European laws you should consider leaving the union.
OT, but, Aris, what's your opinion of Prince Harry's decision to wear a German uniform with Nazi insignia to a party? Do you object to people wearing such clothing? Do you support the efforts of some German politicians to ban the swastika symbol across Europe?
#22
I'm guessing such a law will be cheerfully ignored, and certainly nothing will ever be done to enforce it. In Greece atleast we cheerfully
ignored the law against kokoretsi.--
Aris, you don't get it. They would hire more people to ferret out the law-breakers. It's for your health, you know.
After all, Britain has people testing waves to see if you have a TV and haven't paid your tax.
#23
They would hire more people to ferret out the law-breakers.
Don't bank on it. Flouting European laws is a normal way of life for many Europeans - not just the Greeks. Seems offensive to us uptight by-the-letter Anglos, but, especially in the Mediterranean countries where corruption is a sport, dodging inconvenient laws is a shrug-of-the-shoulders no-brainer.
#24
And more than that, it's seen a sign of cleverness. Cheating is a sport there, not a sign of a lack of ethics or a compromised intellect, as is the case here.
#27
And you want to join forces with that 3rd world mentality ...because...???
Do you mean me? Perhaps I should have inserted the sarcasm on/off at the appropriate positions in comment #21. I would far rather Britain pulled out of the EU.
#29
"I think it's time you guys asked yourselves whether you actually want to be involved in the European project, or not. You seem to want to have your cake and eat it."
Always the best option, whenever possible. :-)
"If Greece, and yourself as an individual, are so contemptuous of consensually drawn European laws you should consider leaving the union."
*g* I'm contemptuous of all laws, whether European or national, that interfere with the liberal rights of individual people. It has nothing to do with the Europeanness or not of the law -- a Greek law that would try to do the same should be ignored just as cheerfully. Such an attitude is good to have to have for *any* central authority that interferes with individual rights.
I'm free to eat kokoretsi or not. Greece-the-state obeys the law that bans kokoretsi, but Greek people cheerfully ignore it. Neither Greece-the-state, and certainly not the EU are arrogant enough to think they can enforce it. Everyone wins.
If anything, the fact that it's a European law is better, as it makes it even less likely to be enforced. The smaller the state's power to restrict the people's non-harmful actions, the better. When a religiously conservative Greek minister tried to have bars close very early in the nights, the Greek people ignored him with contempt also. Except in that case the *nation's* power to enforce the law was greater, which made the violation of our rights real on a practical level, rather than the just theoretical level which the kokoretsi-thingy is.
This isn't exactly the equivalent of the UK Conservatives claiming they'll be nationalizing the Common Fisheries Policy, thus violating the rights under treaty of the citizens of other member-states. Unlike the violation of the CFP, which is fundamental to the EU's framework, nobody else is hurt by allowing people to eat kokoretsi as they want.
This is the difference between a libertarian-attitude ignoring of EU law, and a nationalistic-attitude ignoring of EU law. The former simply rebels against restrictions, the latter just wants the restriction to be placed on a national rather than an EU level. The latter is contemptible, the former is good to have.
"OT, but, Aris, what's your opinion of Prince Harry's decision to wear a German uniform with Nazi insignia to a party? Do you object to people wearing such clothing?"
I think they should have the *right* to wear it. I also think it was very irresponsible and stupid for him to do so.
I also think that UK should abolish its monarchy, which would make us indifferent to what the third-in-line from the throne chooses or not to wear.
Do you support the efforts of some German politicians to ban the swastika symbol across Europe?
#32
Greeks prefer to live as law-breakers rather than to protest an absurd law? We Brits aren't inured to flaunting the law, and consequently get enraged at having to deal with the stupidity and miles of red tape emanating from Brussels. I can see why you are so much more fond of the EU than we are.
What about Greek farmers who fraudulently claim EU subsidies they're not entitled to? That's another petty victimless crime? After all, it's not Greek money they're stealing, and it seems like a fairly libertarian-attitude ignoring of EU law. Everyone wins, huh? How would you feel about a food producer who flaunted regulations regarding proper storage of fresh meat? Do you cheerily laugh off bouts of gastroenteritis from dodgy kebabs?
I'm glad to see that we agree re. Harry and the German 'Liberals' [sic]. As regards the Royal family though - they're a nice little earner, thanks. We'll probably keep them for a while longer.
#33
Greeks prefer to live as law-breakers rather than to protest an absurd law?
Our way of protesting at the absurdity of the law is breaking it. The process of breaking it shows there's no victim caused, thus proving the absurdity of the law.
Other than that, I'm not interested in your irrational accusations, Bulldog. Stealing money is hardly a victimless crime, neither is causing food poisoning though improper storage of meat.
#36
Jules> No. If the law wasn't absurd, there'd be victims caused by the lawbreaking, there'd be *someone* to protest it with a personal stake in it, someone who was hurt through our violations.
Not circular at all. It all depends on the existence of victims.
Other than that I confess that I've not protested enough: I've only eaten kokoretsi a handful of times. To my defense, I really dislike its taste. :-)
#40
Quick question: Isn't it better on principle to have laws that comport with reality, and to have said laws represent the will of the people, at least on some level? Laws shouldn't be ignored; they should be respected. To have laws that are ignored or looked down upon as stupid formailities that are ignored is unhealthy for the body politic. It denegrates the other, "good laws" that the society demands. cf. the broken window theory of policing (success), and on the other hand, the war on drugs (failure). Moreover, government will always demand more laws; more ways to control the behavior of it's subjects. When the "legislature" lacks systems for accountability or perverts those systems, you can bet that they will overreach.
Posted by: Mark E. ||
01/18/2005 13:27 Comments ||
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#41
It denegrates the other, "good laws" that the society demands.
Yep. Let's test out this theory of "victimless crimes". Would someone name a few victimless crimes?
#42
Ok, Jules.....jaywalking, and for the most part, possession of marijuana. Could even throw in prostitution sometimes (neither party a minor, both consenting adults....then, definitely a victimless crime.)
#43
It denegrates the other, "good laws" that the society demands.
Agreed, unfortuanately, but blind obedience to the law is even worse.
Disrespecting authority has on the whole never been as harmful as unthinkingly bending to it.
Would someone name a few victimless crimes?
Public nudity. (though in some limited cases -- like in crowded places -- that becomes a public health concern)
The anti-sodomy law of Texas which existed until recently. Do you think all gay people in Texas would have done well to respect this law, and thus legitimize the intrusion of the state in their sex lives?
Posted by: Tom ||
01/18/2005 13:54 Comments ||
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#45
Aris, you obviously haven't seen some of the naked people I have, or you wouldn't say it's a "victimless" crime! :)
Most of the people you wouldn't mind seeing naked rarely are....
#47
Jules, I wasn't arguing for using marijuana, just the possession of it. Personally, I don't think marijuana's that bad. But just having it in your backpack or in your house.....where's the crime there?
Even if one party in the act of prostitution is married, really, how's that different from adultery (except someone's getting paid?) Adultery has been decriminalized in a lot of jurisdictions, and even where it's still on the books, I've never heard of it being enforced. I'm not arguing the morality of it....even if both parties are unmarried, it's personally repulsive to me. But they aren't technically hurting anyone unless they are passing a disease on to another partner.
#48
Weirdly enough I would *not* put jaywalking in the list of crimes that's always victimless. In occasion it can be irresponsible -- and dangerous for the drivers as well.
I was justifiably shouted at when I once stupidly jaywalked (jay-ran :-), in such a potentially-dangerous situation.
#49
In comparing alcohol and marijuana and what effects each has on people and safety, I would put alcohol on the side of greater overall harm.
In terms of prostitution, I agree that adultery is not much different than prostitution, other than the fact that prostitution is paid for (we could always collect taxes-just kidding) but I couldn't disagree more about it not hurting anyone else. It seems like it often does-even if not immediately. IMO, it destroys trust (marital or otherwise) and falsely disassociates the hormonal, biological, social and psychological aspects/consequences of sex. It also tends draw other law-breaking parts of society to its environs.
#50
falsely disassociates the hormonal, biological, social and psychological aspects/consequences of sex. It also tends draw other law-breaking parts of society to its environs.
Sounds like Hollywood to me! ;)
But seriously....if you have Trixie the independent businesswoman providing a service to Buford, ok....but does it really matter if she's doing his electrical work or providing a service of a more, um, personal nature? That's why I say, yeah, it's a victimless crime in some circumstances, not all.
If Buford and Trixie aren't married, aren't passing on a disease, and both are legally of age, why is it that if she charges for it she's a criminal, but if, after a few drinks she does the same damn thing she's not?
#51
You make a good point, and I don't disagree with you that they are both consenting and no kids/spouses are involved-I should not butt in. :)
OTOH, I feel kinda sorry for Trixie. She doesn't know her body or herself very well. For those interested in the other explanation, do a little research on oxytocin. That'd be a good start.
The problem with just blithely ignoring those stupid little laws (which we all have to some extent) is that they are threat in the back pocket of any would be dictator. Depending on the severity of the consequences, which itself is a changeable thing, they can be enforced at will to either add revenue to the govt or harrass those who disagree. A proper society is one in which the law is obeyed because it is correct to do so. That posits that the laws are agreed upon by the people and are worthy of being obeyed.
Having a raft of laws that really don't make sense leads to all sorts of bad things. If you are constantly flouting laws, where do you draw the line? In the same place as everyone else, or do you have hundreds of different lines to choose from?
#54
I could be wrong, but what I got out of this article was that all these silly laws (should they ever come into being), are just bad for business. Well, except maybe the producers of little plastic sachets. Which gets me thinking... who is the real sponsor of such laws in Europe, hmm?
Posted by: Rafael ||
01/18/2005 15:55 Comments ||
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#55
#31 - at least he's capable of ignoring - something you have yet to master.
#56
Eoz> Not having ever cooked it, I don't know if this recipe is typical but here you go: http://greece.hispeed.com/kokoretsi.htm
2b> You're only saying that because when I choose to ignore something, I *actually* ignore it, rather than going "I'm ignoring you" all the time. You wouldn't want me posting "ignore" messages every time Mrs D is speaking about "he who must not be named".
#57
face it, Frank got the upper hand by ignoring you first and even got the satisfaction of driving the point home with one word instead of the 15000 you post to the same effect.
Maybe when you reach the age of 16 you will understand.
#62
Aris, Aris, Aris....I could not have provided you with a better set up....and then even encourged you with the reward...sigh... the opportunity lost was yours.
#64
This isn't Monkey Island, 2b, with mockeries and retorts. This isn't kindergarten, with gangs of petty bullies using taunts and countertaunts, because if they dare to get physical the teacher will grab them by the ears.
Opportunity lost to do what? Play your ritualized games of superiority? Make a step towards some "alpha" position in the hierarchy of trolls and mockers that I wouldn't even desire?
Even when dealing with such stalking or trollery as Frank's or Tom's, I never play with "setups". I'm trying to make you see sense, I'm not trying to grab points in some game you are participating in, and which I'm not.
#67
Okay, is everyone pretty much ready for Speed Weeks! I know RB types are into NASCAR, but remember that Speed Weeks takes off with a little meth and THE 24 HOURS OF DAYTONA! Yes boys and girls the 24 Hours is the only keeping race that helps keep you safe from OWG! Please come to Florida spend your money, nothing larger than 50's please.
#1
N.B.: Though the lefties in Hollywood periodically whimper about how the blacklist destroyed careers, they always neglect to mention two salient facts. First of all, NONE of the individuals in question were punished by Washington--they were all punished by their peers in the industry. The second, and more important thing is that only ONE of them ever renounced his true belief in hard-corps Stalinist communism. The rest of them WERE communists, and most went to their graves just as dedicated in their hatred of America and democracy as they had been in their youth.
WASHINGTON, Jan. 18 (UPI) -- The Florida delegation to the Democratic National Committee has voted unanimously to endorse Howard Dean for party chairman, the New York Times said Tuesday. Florida's backing derails efforts to orchestrate the simultaneous endorsement of one candidate by all 50 state party leaders later this month and gives a major lift to Dean, who is believed to have the support of a plurality of committee members. Most Democrats have held back from publicly endorsing any candidate in the crowded field. Florida Democratic Chairman Scott Maddox said his state delegation had endorsed the former Vermont governor despite concerns he might not be the right ideological symbol for the party.
"The only knock against Howard Dean is that he's seen as too liberal," Maddox said. "I'm a gun-owning pickup-truck driver and I have a bulldog named Lockjaw. I am a Southern chairman of a Southern state, and I am perfectly comfortable with Howard Dean as DNC chair." "What our party needs right now is energy, enthusiasm and a willingness to do things differently," he said. "I think Howard Dean brings all three of those things to the party."
Oh, please, please, please!
Posted by: Steve ||
01/18/2005 1:37:24 PM ||
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"I'm a gun-owning pickup-truck driver and I have a bulldog named Lockjaw."
The only option then is that it is the water.
"Yeaaaghhh!!!"
Though... would be nice if after the big bang of self-implosion of donkey characters an opposition party (centrist would be my preferrence) is established by non-moonbat leftovers. "loyal" opposition, that is.
#4
"The only knock against Howard Dean is that he's seen as too liberal," Maddox said. "I'm a gun-owning pickup-truck driver and I have a bulldog named Lockjaw.
Anybody ever piss on the side of your pickup truck on Adams St. across from the 1st Baptist Church and laugh in your face? LOL! He called the cops and they laughed....
From the NY Times. Presented to you in its entirety....have at it, Rantburgers! Maybe it explains PEST?
PRESIDENT BUSH begins his second term this week as the leader of a nation that appears to be sharply divided. Since the election, there's been endless discussion about the growing gap between "red" and "blue" America. When former President Bill Clinton said a few months ago that he was probably the only person in America who liked both Mr. Bush and Senator John Kerry, it seemed it might be true.
Yet, surprisingly, recent neuroscience research suggests that Democrats and Republicans are not nearly as far apart as they seem. You mean they're the same species? Next he'll be saying they could interbreed! In fact, there is empirical evidence that even the fiercest partisans may instinctively like both Mr. Bush and Mr. Kerry, although they struggle against this collaborative impulse.
During the eight months before the election, I was part of a group of political professionals and scientists from the University of California, Los Angeles, who used functional magnetic resonance imaging, or f.M.R.I., to scan the brains of 10 Republicans and 10 Democrats, producing images like those seen above. We measured brain activity while subjects looked at political advertisements and at images of the presidential candidates.
The news media have focused on our finding that the amygdala, a part of the brain that responds to danger, was more heightened in Democrats when viewing scenes of 9/11 than in Republicans. This might seem to indicate fundamental differences, but other aspects of our results suggest striking commonalities.
While viewing their own candidate, both Democrats and Republicans showed activity in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, an area associated with strong instinctive feelings of emotional connection. Viewing the opposing candidate, however, activated the anterior cingulate cortex, which indicates cognitive and emotional conflict. It also lighted up the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, an area that acts to suppress or shape emotional reactions.
These patterns of brain activity, made visible on the f.M.R.I.'s, suggest that both Bush and Kerry voters were mentally battling their attraction to the other side. Bush voters wanted to follow Mr. Kerry and kick the crap outta him; Kerry voters found someone to blame appeal in Mr. Bush. Both groups fought this instinct by arguing to themselves that their impulses were wrong. By recalling flaws associated with the opposition, the voters displaced attraction with dislike. Because the process happened nearly instantaneously, only the final sense of dismay reached full awareness.
Simplifying the neurophysiology somewhat, one can regard the process of reaching an opinion or making a choice as a collaboration between two regions of the brain - the limbic area, which feels emotions, and the prefrontal cortex, which controls the processing of ideas and information. The two areas work in tandem: thoughts provoke feelings, and in turn, the intensity of these feelings determines how the thoughts are valued. In reacting to pictures of the opposing candidate, the voters we tested countered the feelings of connection with even stronger hostile emotions, which they induced by calling up negative images and ideas. And facts, in the case of the Bush voters....
This dance between strong emotions and interconnected ideas is well known in psychiatry, and it forms the foundation of cognitive behavioral therapy, an effective form of talk therapy. When there is a divorce, for example, adolescents may induce in themselves feelings of rage toward one parent out of loyalty to the other. A cognitive behavioral therapist could help quench this rage by challenging the child's beliefs about the estranged parent. Without the beliefs to sustain it, the rage disappears. So all we really need is a good shrink....right....
In the case of this past election, while we witnessed an electorate that seemed irreconcilably divided, using f.M.R.I., we could see that the Republicans and Democrats we tested liked both candidates. The initial reflex toward allegiance is easy to explain: people rise through the ranks to run for higher office because they are able to evoke in others a powerful impulse to write huge checks to their campaigns join their cause. Voters sense this attraction, and to keep from succumbing, they dredge up emotion-laden negative images as a counterweight. So...the reason this Democrat-leaning girl couldn't bring herself to vote for Kerry is that I found him so damn sexy??
This suggests that the passions swirling through elections are not driven by a deep commitment to issues. We are not fighting over the future of the country; we are fighting for our team, like Red Sox and Yankee fans arguing over which club has the better catcher. Both in an election and in baseball, all that really matters is who wears the team uniform. Uh, no....Barry Bonds could be the newest Diamondback, and I'd still think he sucks!
Will an awareness that we are conning ourselves to feel alienated from each other help to close the political gap? It is unknown, because neuroscience has advanced only recently to the point where humans can begin to watch themselves think and feel. If we are going to solve the nation's complicated problems, it is important to close this gap because in a setting where emotions run high, careful thoughts have no chance against intoxicating ones. In divisive politics, as in highly spiced dishes, all subtlety is lost.
So, Democrats, admit that you admire the confidence and decisiveness of President Bush. That will never happen! And Republicans, concede that you would like a president to have the depth of knowledge and broad intelligence of Dr Condoleezza Rice Mr. Kerry. Now that f.M.R.I. is revealing our antagonisms as a defensive ploy, it is time to erase the red and blue divide.
Um, not exactly, heh. How about links to those fMRI images? True, people have interesting subconscious reactions - often differing from the eventual conscious reaction. But (knew that was coming, huh?) I completely reject this puffery.
It is my real-life experience, not interpretation of fMRI images, that the conscious mind goes through much hand-wringing, weighing of pros and cons, wearing sack-cloth and ashes, and gnashing of teeth as a delaying tactic prior to finally accepting on the conscious level what the subconscious decided the instant a question or dilemma is posed or encountered.
#4
.com, sorry about not being able to post the "images" along with the story. I couldn't get it to work. All it was was two pictures of the same brain...one with a pro-Bush caption, one with a pro-Kerry. Not much to see, there.....but what else do you expect from the NY Times??
#5
DB - :-) I looked, but couldn't locate an image I once had which fit the topic - in the humorous vein. Sigh. BTW, you should be able to get the direct path to any image by right-clicking and selecting Properties, heh. Just FYI...
#6
The NYT under Pinch Sulzberger has ceased to be a serious newspaper. It's really more of a lifestyle guide for childless urban and college-town liberals. Sort of a better-behaved and duller version of the Village Voice.
#8
Pinch's NYT is a gay-friendly, college-educated version of USA Today: lots and lots of lite articles about subjects near and dear to the NPR crowd. There are still some excellent reporters (John Burns esp, also Gretchen Morgenson in the business pages) and a few reporters who rise to the occasion now and then (Dexter Filkins occasionally hits it), but by and large the reporting in the Times is shoddier than it was ten years ago and the proportion of content devoted to heavy subjects has fallen considerably.
What content has taken its place? Well, every time I open the Times there's at least one front page article on either gay issues, or porn, or the housing market, or the science of aging or urban frivolities that have nothing to do with the core issues that sway elections and world affairs. This is simply pandering to a core market arbitrarily defined as liberal yuppies who fear Karl Rove more than Osama, who care more about real estate and Thai restaurants than they care about understanding swing voters or China or Ukraine.
We know from various sources, including the Washington Post, that Retired Lt. Col. Bill Burkett liked to post messages to a Yahoo discussion group for Texas Democrats. Well, a sharp-eyed TKS reader noticed a recent posting on that Yahoo group:
Date: Mon Jan 3, 2005 8:05 pm Subject: Followup to the Bill Burkett, CBS - National Guard Controversy from Nicki Burkett
From: BBurkett16@a...
Sent: Monday, January 03, 2005 1:01 PM
Subject: (no subject)
Ladies and Gentlemen:
This morning I received a phone call and later a URL address from a senior journalist in Washington.
For the first time, someone put the CBS story into a slight bit of context; from which some of you reported or went quiet as soon as the lynch mob took over. In one case on this list, our attorneys are actively considering legal actions within the statute of limitations and following the report of the VIACOM Panel. This past week, we may have scared the Devil out of senior folks at CBS and throughout the journalistic World. We are now negotiating with the VIACOM panel for an in-depth interview to explore the facts and documentation of the story; the roles of CBS, ABC, the Associated Press, New York TImes, USA Today and numerous others who actively sought Bill out as a source on the story and their backlash after the story went elsewhere. We have already received open-ended offers from NBC, publishers and lately a Movie producer.
This is background information only. But please understand that Bill has remained quiet while VIACOM conducted it's investigation.
However, this article from the Columbia Journalism Review, what we are told is the media's most highly respected ethical publication.
This URL is sent for your review of the story.
If you choose to republish, as many of you will, please contact the publisher. Not us.
http://www.cjr.org/issues/2005/1/pein-blog.asp
Thank You
Nicki Burkett
Bill's gonna sell his story to the highest bidder?
Posted by: Steve ||
01/18/2005 11:52:21 AM ||
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EFL
The people who live in a Hialeah neighborhood say they are outraged by displays of hatred on a house there. The home has six swastikas splashed across a fence and another one etched into the door. But it is a message apparently directed at President George W. Bush that has caught the attention of the Secret Service. "Knock, knock!"
Yanis Leidy, who lives near the home that is located on the corner of East 52nd Street and 9th Court, is worried. "It concerns me," Leidy said. "It worries me that this person might do something else." Not after the Secret Service stops by for Cuban coffee and fried plantains.
The fence has other prominent signs Vote Kerry and warnings, but most disturbing may be a spray-painted message the U.S. Secret Service will investigate as a possible threat against the president. While displaying swastikas is not illegal just really ignorant, the message could be another matter. Maybe they can go to a costume party with Prince Harry.
Prominently painted on an awning are the words, "Die Bush." Nice people, heh!
Posted by: Dragon Fly ||
01/18/2005 10:41:57 AM ||
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#1
That's German for "The Bush"
Posted by: Sideshow Bob ||
01/18/2005 10:46 Comments ||
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Vice President Dick Cheney is playing a potentially pivotal role in shaping the Bush administration's ambitious domestic agenda, supporting larger personal investment accounts for Social Security than many other Republicans and helping gauge how the White House should proceed on Capitol Hill, administration officials and associates of Mr. Cheney say. Advertisement On issues like Social Security and overhauling the tax code, they say Mr. Cheney tends to mix an instinct for free-market conservatism with a pragmatic knack for vote counting, being the former House member that he is. Although Mr. Cheney is most identified in the public mind with foreign policy, he has also begun assertively rebutting administration critics on domestic issues, as he did in a speech last week on Social Security, while he works behind the scenes to hold together an increasingly fractious Republican Party.
As on Iraq and other foreign policy issues, Mr. Cheney's views on domestic matters tend to favor bold action even at the risk of short-term political backlash - what his critics would consider overreaching, reinforcing President Bush's own instincts. But even as he usually favors conservative approaches to whatever issue is under consideration, he also has a realistic streak honed by his keen sense of what members of his party on Capitol Hill are willing and able to push through Congress and deliver to Mr. Bush's desk, people who have discussed domestic issues with him say. On Social Security, Mr. Cheney, in internal administration discussions, has been advocating that the personal accounts Mr. Bush wants to create within the retirement system be at the large end of what has been under consideration, a position likely to hearten many conservatives in Congress who also want to establish the biggest possible accounts, they say. But he has also been supportive of benefit cuts that some conservatives are telling the White House would be political suicide...
Posted by: Fred ||
01/18/2005 10:02:58 AM ||
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Wait! The guy carrying the sign is a lesbo?
Posted by: Captain America ||
01/18/2005 15:14 Comments ||
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#9
As a child attending a catholic school, obviously the nones were unable to give us first hand (err) sex education. They were much more familiar with hand-to-hand combat.
So, imagine my confusion about this lesbian thing. I am just a babe at a loss over this hummersexual stuff, where women are butches and dykes against Bush. Since when did hummersexualty become political. I thought it was sexual preference.
Posted by: Captain America ||
01/18/2005 18:57 Comments ||
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#10
I'm sure the nuns who taught me could teach a few lessons to any bull dyke in Marin County.
From The Independent
.... New evidence has emerged and pressure is mounting on authorities to reopen the case of Sirhan Sirhan, who was convicted of the assassination and who remains in the California state prison in Corcoran. Celebrities and journalists are joining the campaign for a federal investigation, which has been sparked in part by a new book, Nemesis, by the British author Peter Evans. Evans, who spent 10 years researching the book, has unearthed evidence to support Sirhan's contention that he was hypnotised into being the "fall guy" for the murder. Evans identifies the hypnotist, who had worked on CIA mind control programmes and who was later found dead in mysterious circumstances. ....
Both Evans and Sirhan's lawyer, Larry Teeter, .... believe that while Sirhan fired several shots, none of them hit Kennedy. The assassination, they say, was carried out by a professional hitman who fled immediately, leaving Sirhan to take the blame. It was only because Kennedy had dismissed his Los Angeles police bodyguards that Sirhan survived and was not gunned down on the spot as his controllers had intended, reports Evans. ....
The author Dominick Dunne, in his Vanity Fair column last month, described Nemesis as presenting "a startling revision of American history". ....
On 17 April 1969, after 64 sequestered days and nights, and 16 and a half hours of deliberation, the jury of seven men and five women found Sirhan "alone and not in concert with anyone else" guilty of murder in the first degree. He was sentenced to death in the gas chamber, but the sentence was reduced to life imprisonment when the United States Supreme Court declared the death penalty unconstitutional. ....
Evans goes further and names the hypnotist as a Dr William Joseph Bryan Jnr. He had worked on a CIA mind-control programme called MKULTRA and claimed to have moonlighted as a technical adviser on The Manchurian Candidate. The hypnosis, says Evans, had been done over three months, a period known as the "white fog" when the Los Angeles police task force later investigating the assassination - and trying to construct a meticulous timetable of Sirhan's activities up to the shooting - lost track of him. Sergeant Bill Jordan, the detective who was Sirhan's first interrogator, told Evans: "We took him back for more than a year with some intensity - where he'd been, what he'd been doing, who he'd been seeing. But there was this 10- or 12-week gap, like a blanket of white fog we could never penetrate, and which Sirhan himself appeared to have a complete amnesia about." Dr Bryan was found dead in a Las Vegas hotel room in 1978. He had either shot himself or was murdered. The case remains unsolved. ....
The recollections of a waiter at the Ambassador at the time add weight to the theories that Sirhan was not the assassin. Phil Elwell, who owns the popular King's Head pub and restaurant in Santa Monica, recalls that his friend and fellow waiter Carl Ucker was in the pantry that night and grabbed Sirhan's gun hand. "He was holding Sirhan Sirhan's wrist, and although Sirhan was firing the gun, Carl said that there was no way that any of the bullets could have hit Kennedy," said Elwell. "Carl told the police this and went on a lot of talk shows saying the same thing, but nobody seemed to take much notice." ....
In Nemesis, Evans gives a totally different motive. He has unearthed startling evidence that the assassination was carried out by a Palestinian terrorist named Mahmoud Hamshari. Evans quotes sources as saying that Hamshari was receiving protection money from Aristotle Onassis to prevent attacks on his Olympic Airlines. Onassis, says Evans, had hated Bobby Kennedy since 1953, when Kennedy was one of the prime movers in scuppering a major deal Onassis was pushing through in Saudi Arabia. In addition, Kennedy stood in the way of his marriage to Jackie. She had promised her brother-in-law not to wed Onassis until after the 1968 election because they both knew how the American public would have reacted. She married Onassis in October 1968.
Dr Bryan was chosen to hypnotise Sirhan because he had links to both Hamshari and Onassis. Hamshari had visited him seeking a cure for migraine headaches, while Onassis had called on the doctor in an attempt to cure his sexual dysfunction, says Evans. It was Onassis's money, says Evans, that financed both the hypnotism of Sirhan and the assassination. He says that Onassis confessed his complicity in the assassination to one of his lovers, Helen Gaillet De Neergaard, when she was his guest on his private island, Skorpios, in 1974. She confirms this in a letter to Vanity Fair, published in the February issue. "Thank God the truth has finally been told for posterity," she writes. .... I wrote a series of articles about this several months ago. I intended to write one more article to conclude the series, but I became impossibly busy with my translation work and never did finish it.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
01/18/2005 10:46:25 PM ||
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he was hypnotised into being the "fall guy" for the murder
No need to read any further. This bullshit sounds like it came straight out of Conspiracy Central.™
Here's a fact: Middle Eastern moslems have been murdering people - particularly those who support Israel, as Kennedy did - FOR 40+ YEARS.
We need to start paying attention.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
01/18/2005 23:46 Comments ||
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I know, we had this yesterday. But, coming on the heels of the oil for food program and the ongoing revelations of UN hands in the till, my breath's still taken away...
More than 500 million people can escape abject poverty if rich countries give more money to the UN double development aid over the next 10 years, according to a new UN-sponsored report. Some 265 experts who contributed to the plan said 250 million people would no longer suffer hunger and 30 million children could be saved if $195 billion was invested over the next decade. Published on Monday, the report suggests money be spent on both long-term projects and quick fixes, such as supplying mosquito bed nets and creating free school lunch programmes. These would enable countries to meet global goals to combat poverty, hunger and disease that all nations promised at a UN summit in 2000. "The goals are not utopian. They are eminently achievable," said UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in accepting the report from Jeffrey Sachs, a Columbia University professor and lead author of the survey.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/18/2005 00:00:00 ||
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#1
Divert money from Kyoto compliance and buy those people netting!
#2
What they really need is DDT to kill the breeding mosquitos -- bed nets are more expensive, and have been demonstrated to be only minimally effective at best (which is slightly better than totally ineffective, after all). But those in power, having taken full advantage of DDT in their own countries, will now not allow it to those 3rd world countries that desperately need it. /rant
Trolling for comments? Why not just mention he-who-shall-not-be-named? After all, this is his favorite tranzi organization at its favorite work, stealing from those who make to subsidize those who don't.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
01/18/2005 7:30 Comments ||
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WashTimes had a good piece today on DDT rather than the politically correct bed netting. DDT has been found to not have any harmful affects, despite the damning press.
Posted by: Captain America ||
01/18/2005 9:55 Comments ||
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#7
Per WashTimes, "The butcher's bill from the tsunami that hit Southeast Asia and East Africa last month is broaching the 200,000 mark. That number, as tragic as it is, could be increased by some magnitudes if something isn't done immediately to halt the onset of malaria, which has already been detected in Indonesia. Yet, inexplicably, the most effective way to combat malaria — spraying the insecticide DDT — is not being used by the world's leading aid organizations. Instead, we're giving those most at risk bed nets. Why? Because of baseless Western fears that DDT is more dangerous to humans than malaria, which causes 2 to 3 million deaths every year." (more)
Posted by: Captain America ||
01/18/2005 9:58 Comments ||
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#8
hey..I'm with you on the need for DDT. But let's not delude ourselves that DDT isn't harmful. You are spraying a deadly poison in the air. It's a cost/benefit thing.
It almost wiped out the pelicans and other birds because it weakened the shells so it has a negative effect on the environment.
Let's not stick our head in the sand just for the sake of being able to make the point that there is a valid reason to use it.
#9
True enough, 2b. But do it quickly and effectively, and the damage will be short-term. Shoot, the DDT levels needn't even be as high as was used in the old days. In the 1950s my father discovered a catalyst (or something) that made DDT more effective at significantly lower levels. Unfortunately, Rachel Carson's Silent Spring came out the next year, so he never was able to get it into production. But what Daddy can do, so can others, and may well have done.
#10
More than 500 million people can escape abject poverty if rich countries double development aid over the next 10 years, according to a new UN-sponsored report.
I'll consider giving their silly report a look when they dispense with the idea of appropriating even more money out of the pockets of the U.S. taxpayer.
#11
Actually, 2b, you are incorrect about how DDT is applied: it's lightly sprayed on the walls of the homes to kill the bugs when they land there to rest. One treatment is good for 6 months, at a cost of about 2 cents US.
Hold on to your pocketbooks, the UN is trying to make itself relevant and respectable, via Lucianne:
Every year, 11 million children die - most under the age of five and more than 6 million of them from preventable causes such as malaria, diarrhoea and pneumonia.
In some of the most impoverished African nations, less than half of the children are in primary school, fewer still go to secondary school. Around the world, 114 million children do not receive basic formal education.
In a world where more than one billion people live on less than US$1 a day, sub-Saharan Africa emerges as the worst afflicted. The continent is burdened with a unique combination of foetid poverty, declining life expectancy and falling income per head. All at a time when so much of the developing world, particularly Asia and Latin America, is enjoying economic growth....
Hey, commie-lite, SOCIALISM KILLS, FREE MARKETS FEED (thanks Protest Warrior), OPEN UP THE EU!
And swing the corrupt dictators from the yard-arm.
Posted by: anonymous2u ||
01/18/2005 12:08:13 AM ||
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After the US came up big on SE Asia Aid, the UN is imposing the guilt complex on the world. For some reason, thought, the zillion page report only shows US government contributions while being critical of how little the US contributes to world aid.
Didn't President Bush correct these idiots before? Explaining to them that private and corporate contibutions are additive and substantial? Do these UN pinheads ever get it?
Posted by: Captain America ||
01/18/2005 0:28 Comments ||
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And if you look at Lucianne, if I counted correctly, 3! articles on this topic.
#5
Classic OPM (Other People's Money) approach to poverty. The most interesting aspect is how they have become sohpisticated anough to mix in tidbits of truth and "Quick Win" (as the article puts it) ideas - which they hope will whitewash this monstrosity. So you'll get a few nice moments where common sense can be applied - dragging the massive baggage of the real program - international socialism supported by taxes on successful democracies. Lol!
Why not just do the Quick Wins. Then tell the retards that there's more where that came from as soon as you get rid of the thugs and corruption and institutional religion. Oh, and that Shari'a Law shit? Not in this century, pal.
#6
"In a world where more than one billion people live on less than US$1 a day, sub-Saharan Africa emerges as the worst afflicted. The continent is burdened with a unique combination of foetid poverty, declining life expectancy and falling income per head."
Give them into the care of the UN, and they'll do just as well as the UN's poster foster children --- the Palestinians.
#7
# 5 .com sounds like one heck of a plan. Do you think that by allowing the government to have a significant role in the implimentation of this plan would ever reach it's goal? I hope to be around in 2015 (I'll be 50) Time will tell.
I think we need to work as individual's which would form a group to begin to solve such a dilemma. Yes education is empowerment. It is a good plan, however, time will tell ** LOL
Andrea Jackson
Posted by: Andrea ||
01/18/2005 19:44 Comments ||
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#8
# 3 do you mean ownership of property? I.e. a home or rental? Are you thinking about homeless
population? I have a plan for that social crisis.
I think the United States government should create a postage stamp (stamp out poverty /homelessness) to raise the funding
however, I really don't think our government cares about the homeless (a guesstimate amount of that population)is entered on the U.S. census). I have another hypothesis on how to assist with homeless population. (I'm keeping it a Chinese ancient secret). I know that I can put a significant dent in the homeless population by the 1 point plan I will embark on in the next few year's **
Andrea Jackson
Posted by: Andrea ||
01/18/2005 19:52 Comments ||
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#9
# 5 .com sounds like one heck of a plan. Do you think that by allowing the government to have a significant role in the implimentation of this plan would ever reach it's goal? I hope to be around in 2015 (I'll be 50) Time will tell.
I think we need to work as individual's which would form a group to begin to solve such a dilemma. Yes education is empowerment. It is a good plan, however, time will tell ** LOL
Andrea Jackson
Posted by: Andrea ||
01/18/2005 19:57 Comments ||
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Andrea: By "property rights" I mean the shared understanding that we need to keep our hands off each other's stuff. Societies that have that basic understanding are good at producing wealth and don't need ten point programs funded by taking stuff away from better off folks.
"Stamping Out Homelessness" with postage stamps sounds catchy. Head over to Photo Stamps and put together your own design. .com can help you with a suitable photo.
#11
You mean this 10-point plan?
1 Kenilworth, IL
2 Fairfax Station, VA
3 Great Falls, VA
4 Danville, CA
5 Atherton, CA
6 Short Hills, NJ
7 Purchase, NY
8 Portola Valley, CA
9 Bedford, NY
10 Overland Park, KS
#16
#10 C.L. thanks for the information. The program is currently under review. I will put it on my list of "things to do" and I will write a letter and send it first class to D.C.
You are correct- it is NOT the job of those who are wealthy, fortunate whatever you want to label that social class to be an anchor and to solve such a global crisis. We all need to work on this piece by piece- THE WORLDS BIGGEST PUZZLE.
Andrea Jackson
Posted by: Andrea ||
01/18/2005 21:07 Comments ||
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Iran's judiciary admitted yesterday it had made an administrative error by summoning Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi to a national security court, and said there was no danger she would be arrested. Judiciary spokesman Jamal Karimi-Rad also dismissed a complaint from Ebadi over the use of solitary confinement, saying such cells no longer existed and had been replaced by "comfortable suites".
"The prosecutor reviewed the case when he learned it concerned Ebadi, and found some mistakes had been made," Karimi-Rad told reporters. He explained that the clerk who wrote the summons "was not experienced enough", and had failed to state the reason for the summons and had also mistakenly called Ebadi to a branch of the feared Revolutionary Court - a body that normally handles political or national security crimes. The case, he explained, concerned a private complaint about an "insult". The spokesman also stressed this was also "pardonable".
"The prosecution would like to see the plaintiff. He has not been found yet," Karimi-Rad said. "It is a public case so should go to a public court and not a Revolutionary Court.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/18/2005 7:37:05 PM ||
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So no flag, huh? ROFL!!! Yeah, sure, this is the full story. Yewbetcha. Lol!
#1
whose gonna watch it? Oh...I suppose the over 40's-not-yet-hooked-into-the-blogosphere will continue to watch people like perky Katie (gag)but the rest of us who have discovered the online community simply have no time to waste with the opinions of one or two boring, bland, ho-hum people who are clueless to what's going on.
Why would I waste my time with plodding through their biased and mindless coverage when there is so MUCH to read that I can't even begin to start.
There are articles I still want to read on rantburg from Sunday but there is just soo many places that the links take me that I can't even barely read anything anymore- I've spun into a ADD like frenzy - skimming instead of reading- not wanting to spend too much time on any one piece cause I have things to do, things that need to get done, but I have to disconnect from my computer -
Somebody please - invent a optical scan reader that will read to me outloud what is written on the blogs- with voice activated commands - so I can put it on my myfi and get off the computer and have rantburg and the rest of the blogosphere to go.
#2
Well, there is software to read text aloud, but you have to feed it... Automating it would be interesting... might be able to do it from the XML feed...
#2
The Indians are unable to reform their decadent, inefficient, and incompetent government. A government that permits huge numbers of people to get advanced degrees, then does not permit them to use that knowledge in any way to their profit. An utterly stifling business climate, with a hatred, fear and loathing of initiative and novelty, and an unwillingness to just get out of the way and let people succeed. It breeds a near madness in those who know that "somewhere out there", they could be making a relative fortune with their hard-earned talents.
The breathtaking success of the probe Huygens, which landed on the Saturnian moon Titan last Friday after a seven-year trek across the Solar System, kicks off what promises to be a bumper year for space. Other highlights in the coming months include the launch of robot scouts to Mars and Venus, a US mission to smash open a passing comet and the test flight of a monster 10-tonne rocket. Robot Scouts? Watch the L-cubed freak out.
The United States and China are scheduled to resume manned space flights, while Europe is due to deploy its first satellite in a navigational constellation designed to rival the US Global Positioning System (GPS). In science, Earth's two closest neighbours are to come under scrutiny after the deep-space heroics on distant Titan. NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, due for launch in August, should powerfully add to the army of explorers -- two US and European probes and two US rovers -- which are sniffing around the Red Planet, searching to answer the mysteries of its lost water and atmosphere. More materials for the pfifltriggi.
Venus, a hell with fiery heat and an atmosphere of acid, will be visited for the first time in a decade. The European Space Agency's Venus Express probe, set to take off in October, could confirm suspicions that the planet known as the Evening Star fell victim to runaway global warming. "See? It's Bush's fault for not signing Kyoto!"
On July 4, a novel US probe, Deep Impact, is to rendezvous in deep space with the comet Tempel 1, and fire a metal slug into its heart -- a gigantic, soundless wack whose results should be visible from Earth as a whitish cloud. But it's not an act of cosmic vandalism: the idea is to find out more about comets -- the intriguing, primitive rubble left over from the building of the Solar System. The outcome will also give invaluable tips as to how Earth could destroy or deviate any asteroid on a future collision course. These missions are all very different but they share one important thing -- they are born of the "faster, quicker, cheaper" doctrine of robotic exploration, says Doug Millard, curator of space technology at Britain's Science Museum. "We won't see the like of Cassini-Huygens again," he said, referring to the US-European mission to Titan. "That was the last of the very big multi-billion-pound (-dollar, -euro) missions. It was a throwback to the Voyager, Pioneer era, the vanguard of the US space exploration programme of the 1960s and 70s. In those days, you built two spacecraft just in case one went wrong. Those days have long gone." Closer to home, fingers will be crossed when the US spaceship Discovery resumes flights by the shuttle fleet after the catastrophic loss of its sister craft, Columbia, on February 1, 2003. The gingerly-prepared mission has a May or June launch window. Pray for success and safety.
Late in the year, China is expected to launch Shenzhou VI, the second manned flight in its secrecy-shrouded space programme. Europe, too, will be seeking to make its mark in orbital operations. Next month will see the test launch of its Ariane 5 ECA, a behemoth with a 10-tonne payload. The first attempt went disastrously wrong when the rocket self-destructed over the Atlantic in December 2002. And in November, Europe is scheduled to launch the first Galileo satellite, creating a navigational web in orbit that is promised to outperform the GPS in terms of accuracy and become the leading tool in traffic management. Space policymakers in Europe and elsewhere will spend much of 2005 debating how far to join the United States in President George W. Bush's goal, sketched in January 2004, of resuming human missions to the Moon and thence to Mars. "But don't you see? He wants people on Mars for the war secrets!" /moonbat
ESA Science Director David Southwood said a major question was whether it was right to invest so much money on exploring the Red Planet. "Is real progress going to be made doing things on Mars and sending people to Mars, or is it a broader exploration (of the Solar System) that is needed?" he said in an interview.
Posted by: Steve from Relto ||
01/18/2005 9:14:15 AM ||
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Where are the manned space station & Moon colony, then? (f*cking NASA bastards).
Director Oliver Stone is so distraught over the criticism targeted at his last two big screen projects, he's preparing to flee America for France. The JFK movie-maker sparked controversy by meeting Cuban dictator Fidel Castro for his 2003 documentary Comandante - forcing TV network HBO to axe it from their schedule. Stone's recent historical epic, Alexander, was also subjected to scathing reviews in the US for portraying Macedonian warrior Alexander The Great as a bisexual. And Stone can't understand why years of hard work have failed to produce a positive reaction, so is desperate to seek comfort in his mother's homeland, to escape the bad vibes that are crippling his confidence in America. He says, "Since the Castro movie I did, things have been tough. Everyone was against it. Then I put my heart into Alexander, which wasn't appreciated either. The right thing is for me to stay out of America for a while. I'm planning to spend a lot more time in France."
Posted by: Anonymoose ||
01/18/2005 9:49:28 AM ||
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he's gonna be "preparing to leave" for at least 4 years, you watch....
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/18/2005 12:14 Comments ||
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Ollie, sweetie... if the Alexander movie were any more of a dog it would be shedding all over the furniture. People were actually howling with laughter during the tragic deathbed scenes... maybe you should consider doing comedy. It works for Jerry Lewis, and he is supposed to have a lot of fans in France.
OTH, Jerry is intentionally funny---maybe you should work on this, during your French vacation.
#14
Can we negotiate a package deal with the French?
Here's my proposal: French citizenship for any Hollywood idiotarian (Stone, Depp, Baldwin et al) so long as we get one French scientist, technologist or proven entrepeneur in return. No returns for a minimum of ten years, no joint citizenship and no tears. Deal?
Ajmal Khan, the Federal Minister for Sports, Culture and Youth Affairs, has ruled out screening of Indian films in Pakistani cinemas. "Exchange of films with India is not possible in the present circumstances because our film industry cannot compete with Indian movies and a decision in this regard will be taken at an appropriate time," the minister told the Senate Standing Committee on Sports, Culture, Tourism, Minorities and Youth Affairs in a meeting with the Pakistan Censor Board officials.
"Those dances in those Bollywood films, why, it'd have all our boys all riled up for ... gun sex. Can't have none of that, nope," Khan later added.
Singing, dancing, having fun, the occasional discrete titty bobble... No. That's just not Pak.
Khan's statement was in contradiction with that of his predecessor Rais Munir Ahmed who had told the Senate that the government was considering exchanging films with India and screening Indian films in Pakistani cinemas. The minister said that Pakistani films did not reflect the true Pakistani culture, which was not a good sign. "Our film industry is going through testing times and is not producing quality films," he said.
Oh, so Oliver Stone's been there too, eh?
Khan said that there were no qualified film producers and directors and technology used in Pakistan films was also outdated. The minister said the government had decided to help the industry financially. He added that the government would provide financial assistance to legendry artistes Mehdi Hasan and Rangeela and the National Film Awards would be held regularly senators boycott meetings.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/18/2005 12:38:25 AM ||
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(2005-01-17) -- An Amber Alert has been issued nationwide today after the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was reported missing on the very day when millions of Americans planned to observe the slain civil rights leader's birthday.
In Jonesboro, Georgia, authorities monitored a speech Sunday by the Rev. Jesse Jackson, after an informant said Mr. Jackson might be carrying the King legacy. However, during his speech it became clear that the legacy was no longer in Mr. Jackson's possession.
Police have released a description of the legacy in Dr. King's own words from a speech he delivered on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. on August 28, 1963.
Analysis of the so-called 'I Have a Dream' speech shows that Dr. King was concerned primarily with freedom by means of equal rights and equal justice under the law for everyone.
Forensics experts have been unable to find a match for the King legacy among the words of any of the major American leaders who claim the King mantle.
"The King legacy is so easy to counterfeit and then pass off for personal gain," said one expert. "It's just a small cut to take Dr. King's dream that people 'will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character', and to slice out the 'character' part and leave nothing but empty skin. Equality of opportunity gets falsely transformed into equality of results as a birthright."
The most common counterfeits also lack what experts call the "backbone" of the King legacy -- trust in God.
Dr. King allegedy rested his assertion of equal rights on the passage in the Declaration of Independence that says, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
"Without a Creator," said the forensics expert, "the legacy of equal rights collapses into a vicious struggle where the strong prevail and no rights can reasonably be asserted. Dr. King knew there is no basis for equal rights without a loving and righteous creator God."
"The second most common measure employed by counterfeiters is to remove Dr. King's desire to unite the races," the source said. "The genuine legacy pictures Black and White holding hands, eating together, marching together as well as singing and praising God together. The counterfeiters inevitably portray civil rights as a struggle of innocent Black against malevolent White, or caring Democrat against selfish Republican. But the King legacy pitted the justice of God against the injustice of men and foresaw the day when God's victory would benefit Americans of every hue, faith and political stripe."
Indeed, the 'Dream' speech text seems to corroborate this when Dr. King said, "Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred."
A review of the archival audio reveals that the biggest applause line in the 1,619-word speech was as follows: "The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny.
Amid the roar of applause, Dr. King added, "And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone."
Meanwhile, as the search continues for the missing King legacy, Americans are left to struggle with what it all meant.
"The kids are out of school and I have the day off," said one suburban Philadelphia man, "so we're grateful for Dr. King's efforts to free all Americans from education and work. What a great dream."
In related news, the Columbia School of Journalism today holds a panel discussion titled 'Inequality in America." Professional journalists on the panel include Connie Chung, Geraldo Rivera, Charlayne Hunter-Gault, Ed Bradley and Rudi Bakhtiar.
Posted by: Korora ||
01/18/2005 12:01:46 AM ||
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#4
And don't forget the bling bling, lotsa bling bling. Keeping it real, doncha know.
Ott's remarkable knowledge and grasp of reality allow him to write such awesome parody. He's an amazing talent - and social critic. Twenty years ago, he'd have either been forced to scribble some art to go with his insightful observations and be an editorial cartoonist -- or maybe, if he was incredibly fortunate, he might have landed a column - after 20 years of obits and City Council meetings. Today, he can and has created his own personal brand of journalism and made his own source-point for dissemination.
ISLAMABAD: Dr Atta ur Rehman, chairman Higher Education Commission (HEC), said 250 expatriate professional Pakistanis had returned to help the government impart quality education.
How many survived the first month back home?
Under the faculty development programme, 1,500 expert expatriate Pakistanis would be inducted in different universities nationwide, Dr Rehman told PTV.
"Once they've had a head start, the fundos will start hunting them down..."
"We are converting brain-drain into brain-gain," he said, adding that presently only 1,700 out of the 7,000 university teachers had PhD degrees. He said he hoped the currant annual figure of 200 PhD would increase to about 1,200 to 1,500 within four to five years. He said 1,000 scholarships were annually given to deserving students who wanted to continue higher education. Dr Rehman said the government was sponsoring exceptional students for higher education abroad.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/18/2005 00:00:00 ||
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Dr Rehman said the government was sponsoring exceptional students for higher education abroad.
This doesn't seem like the best strategy for starting a gain unless they plan to send them to Burma and North Korea, in which case the result would till be questionable as to the brain part.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
01/18/2005 7:36 Comments ||
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Ahhh, I have that postcard. My favorite professor had one hanging up in his office. Shot in St. Louis. If you look closely, you can see the Arch over on the left. On the original, anyway.
The inspector general (IG) of the Punjab Police has said that stern action would be taken against people who were violating the Marriage Ordinance. He issued directives to SSPs and DPOs all over the province to take strict action against the marriage ordinance violators. The Supreme Court (SC) of Pakistan has imposed a heavy penalty on people who serve meals at valima receptions. However, hotels are continuing to serve meals.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/18/2005 00:00:00 ||
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Googled it, from PakNet: The Valima is the Groom's reception. Traditionally it was thrown to prove to the community that the marriage has been consummated. The bride and groom are brought out together and presented as a true husband and wife. There is usually dinner, and a chance for everyone to breathe a sigh of relief that it is all over.
Also: Once in the house the bride has to give some money to the groom's brother (relative if he doesn't have any brothers) to allow her to sit down. When the bride arrives into the grooms house the bride waits outside till the grooms parents give some money as a present to welcome the bride in their house and it means she no longer is an outsider but a member of the family.
The bride and groom are kept separated till the following morning when the groom's family invite all their relative and friend to celebrate their sons wedding and to announce the arrival of the bride who is now the daughter. When the reception is over the groom and bride go on their honeymoon.
Don't know why Pak Supremes are against dinner, unless there's a risk of getting cheese dip all over the automatic weapons?
Posted by: Steve ||
01/18/2005 14:58 Comments ||
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#4
Wrong pic, Fred. That's the splendiferous jacobean poet John Donne, who when it came to the ladies was about as unpuritanical as you can get.
#5
It's John "Wee shall be as a city on a hill" Winthrop.
Serving food at weddings is un-Islamic. So's dancing, music, the bride and groom holding hands with each other, smiling, and either party enjoying the consummation.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/18/2005 15:04 Comments ||
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#6
Oh well, I never really liked wedding cake anyway.
Posted by: Tom ||
01/18/2005 15:09 Comments ||
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#7
The Valima is the Groom's reception.
Ah, the chasan's tisch. except that comes BEFORE the ceremony, and therefore before the Yichud shteibel. Which is symbolic, nobody actually consumates the marriage in the yichud shteibel. And after that you have the main reception. Typical muslims, got it all bolloxed up. :) (and most non-Orthodox dont do a seperate chassans tisch, or even a kabbalas panim, but have adopted the western custom of a 'cocktail hour' immediately before the meal.)
#8
"So's dancing, music, the bride and groom holding hands with each other, "
Dont they know you can have dancing WITHOUT men and women dancing together? Somebody get them a copy of fiddler on the roof, or an invitation to a chassidic wedding. Then again, maybe not.
#9
Actually, for this law, you can blame the bridal-industrial complex. Apparently the tradition of the wedding feast was getting way out of hand and astronomically expensive for the families of the brides. It had grown from a simple meal to a multiple-day affair, with some families going into hundreds of thousands of dollars into debt for one wedding...
Posted by: The Punjab Association of Wedding Caterers ||
01/18/2005 17:02 Comments ||
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#13
# 9 Seafarious you are correct about the law and
the bridal industry complexity. I do have a friend, Rashmi (Pakistanian) who married my boss Dan....they were married in the United States and none of this occurred. What about the laws on SEX? Sorry- I don't ask Rashmi or Dan their business !
Andrea Jackson
Posted by: Andrea ||
01/18/2005 19:32 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Venezuela dispatched extra troops as part of an effort to tighten security along its border with neighboring Colombia, but officials on Monday denied that the move was linked to a heated dispute over the capture of a rebel leader in Caracas by bounty hunters paid by Colombia. Top Colombian lawmakers, meanwhile, endorsed Colombian President Alvaro Uribe's stand in the dispute. "We're looking for the unity that the country needs right now," Colombian Sen. Jairo Clopatofsky, a pro-Uribe legislator, told reporters after he and other lawmakers met with the president. The dispute — the most serious between the two nations in decades — arose after Colombia acknowledged it paid a bounty to have Rodrigo Granda, a top member of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, captured in the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, last month and taken to the Colombian border, where he was arrested.
Brussels intends to do away with the cruet - that set of salt and pepper and in southern Europe, olive oil and vinegar - on restaurant tables. This act of cultural and culinary terrorism shows the very worst side of Brussels' regulatory mania and is an insult to those devoted to Mediterranean cuisine.
Vice President 
More than 500 million people can escape abject poverty if rich countries 
Iran's judiciary admitted yesterday it had made an administrative error by summoning Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi to a national security court, and said there was no danger she would be arrested. Judiciary spokesman Jamal Karimi-Rad also dismissed a complaint from Ebadi over the use of solitary confinement, saying such cells no longer existed and had been replaced by "comfortable suites".
The breathtaking success of the probe Huygens, which landed on the Saturnian moon Titan last Friday after a seven-year trek across the Solar System, kicks off what promises to be a bumper year for space. Other highlights in the coming months include the launch of robot scouts to Mars and Venus, a US mission to smash open a passing comet and the test flight of a monster 10-tonne rocket. 
Ajmal Khan, the Federal Minister for Sports, Culture and Youth Affairs, has ruled out screening of Indian films in Pakistani cinemas. "Exchange of films with India is not possible in the present circumstances because our film industry cannot compete with Indian movies and a decision in this regard will be taken at an appropriate time," the minister told the Senate Standing Committee on Sports, Culture, Tourism, Minorities and Youth Affairs in a meeting with the Pakistan Censor Board officials.
ISLAMABAD: Dr Atta ur Rehman, chairman Higher Education Commission (HEC), said 250 expatriate professional Pakistanis had returned to help the government impart quality education.
The inspector general (IG) of the Punjab Police has said that stern action would be taken against people who were violating the Marriage Ordinance. He issued directives to SSPs and DPOs all over the province to take strict action against the marriage ordinance violators. The Supreme Court (SC) of Pakistan has imposed a heavy penalty on people who serve meals at valima receptions. However, hotels are continuing to serve meals.
