STOCKHOLM, Sweden - The massive moose didnât take it for a joyride, but she did run off with Bjoern and Monica Helambâs bicycle, the couple said Monday. The married couple was ready for the moose, which has visited their yard in Vuoggatjalme in northern Sweden annually since 1995 to snack on their roses. This year, though, they put their bicycle in front of the flowers in a bid to protect them. "So we thought we would at least protect our favorite roses from her appetite by making it harder for her to get to them," Bojern Helamb told The Associated Press.
It didnât help. The moose, dubbed "Droopy Ear" because of her deformed ears, slid her head through the bikeâs frame and munched on the roses last week, sating her appetite with a flowery feast. "Then she disappeared, with the bike hanging around her neck," Helamb said. He found the bike later, about 1,640 feet from the house, bent apart and beyond repair. Despite purloining the bicycle, Droopy Ear came back over the weekend for roses, but was chased away by the couple.
Posted by: Shep UK ||
05/24/2004 15:03 Comments ||
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#2
A moose with a deformed ear wanders around Sweden with a rose in its mouth and a bicycle around its neck. Didn't I see this in a Bergman film? The moose of course is mankind, the bicycle represents the stifling comformity of the modern world, and the rose is joy. The significance of the ear is left as an exercise to the reader.
He was a scrawny calf, he looked rather woozy
Noone suspected he was packing an Uzi.?
If so: Yup, very cool.
Posted by: Evert V. in NL ||
05/24/2004 15:30 Comments ||
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#9
"Wi nøt trei a høliday in Sweden this yër? See the løveli lakes, the wøndërful telephøne system, and mäni interesting furry animals including the majestik møøse. A Møøse once bit my sister...No realli! Mynd you, møøse bites Kan be pretty nasti..."
--Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
Posted by: Mike ||
05/24/2004 15:49 Comments ||
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#10
We'll fight for bovine freedom
and hold our large heads high!
We will run free like the Buffalo
Or dieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
Cows With Guns!
#12
I am reminded of the old Woody Allen standup routine (back when he was funny) about his shooting a moose, and ending with: âMr. Berkowitz was shot, stuffed, and mounted, at the New York Athletic Club. And the joke's on them, 'cause they're restricted.â
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
05/24/2004 17:01 Comments ||
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#13
Cow tse tung.
Nuff said.
Posted by: Evert V. in NL ||
05/24/2004 17:07 Comments ||
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#13
congrats Mucky - tried to comment, but your haloscan timed out....Whatup with that?
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/24/2004 16:52 Comments ||
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#14
im not shure. this computer here at work not showing me the coment at all and is not showing me hotmail either. so im thinking the net admin do something. gonna go check it off the network in while. thanks frank. :) im also trying get peples here blogs linked up. was working on it saturday and html code gave me headache after a while. will be adding more.
EFL âOnly nuclear power can now halt global warmingâ Leading environmentalist urges radical rethink on climate change
By Michael McCarthy Environment Editor 24 May 2004
Global warming is now advancing so swiftly that only a massive expansion of nuclear power as the worldâs main energy source can prevent it overwhelming civilisation, the scientist and celebrated Green guru, James Lovelock says.
[not the same Prof Lovelock as in the Wild Wild West series]
His call will cause huge disquiet for the environmental movement. It has long considered the 84-year-old radical thinker among its greatest heroes, and sees climate change as the most important issue facing the world, but it has always regarded opposition to nuclear power as an article of faith. Last night the leaders of both Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth rejected his call... [some Greenies would rather go back to gathering/hunting - others want us to have mandatory birth control, others want...]
Posted by: mhw ||
05/24/2004 9:48:16 AM ||
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#1
Loveless, not Lovelock, in the Wild Wild West series
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/24/2004 9:53 Comments ||
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#2
Geee, the EpiphanyBat strikes 84 yr old! Knocked him from the loonie bin into the light. Slather on the sunscreen, Jimmy.
"an article of faith"
Yeah, you gotta watch those little buggers - they'll trip you up every time...
#3
Thank you, Frank G, for providing that vital clarification. I was going to post the exact same thing. People must get their fictional history straight.
While expanded nuclear power generation could go a long way towards altering some very basic energy relationships, both with the environment itself and our friends enemies the Saudis, it is fusion power that desperately needs increased funding.
Confronted with contaminant half-lifes of days instead of tensofthousandsofyears, such technology holds the real key to environmentally friendly electrical power generation.
Humanity has historically built its cities on ocean waterfronts that will all be submerged if significant melting of the ice caps occurs. This single potential economic loss alone drives the need to harness clean power generation.
All who are interested may wish to peruse a link I have posted before. It is a splendid primer on laser fusion as envisioned by scientists seeking to go beyond current inertial confinement research being conducted at the National Ignition Facility.
#4
that was my picky asshole attitude poking through...BTW - Lovelock is also a town in Nevada, northeast of Fallon
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/24/2004 10:42 Comments ||
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#5
Zenster I'm sorry, while you can be funny, you have shit for brains when it comes to actually understanding things. Fusion power may or may not work at some indeterminate time in the future, but despite many billions of dollars spent it does not work today, nor will it work on any relevant timescale.
Disposing of waste from nuclear power stations is a complete non-issue. Just put it in a deep hole. End of story! We dig up Uranium which has a half life of millions of years and bury byproducts that have a half life of tens/hundreds of thousands of years. Please explain the issue?
Posted by: Phil B ||
05/24/2004 10:42 Comments ||
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#6
Isotopes with 10,000+ year half-lives are just barely radioactive. The truly nasty ones have half-lives of 30-40 years.
#7
Phil B, just because we have available fission based power generation right now does not preclude the importance of pursuing fusion as well. Burying highly radioactive nuclear waste makes about as much sense as digging a septic tank next to your water well. The uranium we mine up is far less concentrated than the stuff we bury.
While it represents a short term solution, we owe it to future generations not to rely upon stopgap measures and come up with some truly viable long term solutions. Advances in materials science will solve issues like hydrogen embrittlement and other problems facing fusion power generation.
#8
Adding to what Phil B and mojo said, I sometimes point out to the antinuke types that the half life of some of the stuff that comes out of coal power plants and from the left over material that makes solar cells (e.g., mercury, arsenic) is basically forever. Of course this doesn't get very far because they then get into the 'we use to much energy - why can't we be more like Sweden' argument.
#9
The uranium we mine up is far less concentrated than the stuff we bury. So mix it up with the stuff we dig up in the first place. Ergo no problem.
And BTW my comments are not gratuitous personal insults. They are considered and objective observations.
Posted by: Phil B ||
05/24/2004 11:28 Comments ||
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#10
Zenster -- Where do you get these figures that the oceans will rise and submerge cities from? This is an honest question, not a flame.
Granted, melting the ice and snow on land surfaces such as Antarctica, northern Russia/Siberia, and northern Canada will affect sea levels, but the Arctic ice pack displaces the same volume of water it would occupy if it melts.
I'm not saying, "Go ahead, melt the poles!" I just find all of this global warming "science" and "facts" very suspect. After all, the Ice Age 10,000 years ago wasn't caused by man. The drastic climate changes over the millenia (inland seas and rain forests in the Dakotas and Montana as shown by fossil records, for example) weren't caused by man. Maybe this "earth goddess Gaia" the enviros love so much has a mind of her own.
Posted by: Dar ||
05/24/2004 11:31 Comments ||
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#11
NOTE: Gratuitous personal insults do the most damage to those who succumb to such ill-mannered conduct.
#13
Where do you get these figures that the oceans will rise and submerge cities from?
----------------------
Ice caps are found in several places in the Arctic region (Greenland, Iceland, Baffin Island, and the island of Spitsbergen) and over most of the Antarctic region. Approximately 90% of the ice on earth, is found either in Greenland or in Antarctica. The largest ice caps on the planet are found there. Greenland is a plateau surrounded by mountains. Antarctica is composed of mountains, valleys, and lowlands. From my research, I have found different values for the volume of the polar ice caps. For Antarctica, the approximate volume is 30,000,000 km3. For Greenland, it is approximately 3,000,000 km3.
... Since the 1900s, the climates of Antarctica and Greenland have been gradually warming. Since 1850, the mean temperature of the earth has risen by one Celsius degree. As temperature rises, glaciers will melt, especially the the ones outside of the north and south poles. By 2100, melting glaciers will contribute to a sea level rise of 50 cm. This will cause coastal flooding.
----------------------
That's 50 cm. just from Greenland, which is exhibiting significant melting. Remember, many coastal beaches are very flat and even a rise of one inch represents a lot of sumbersion. Greenland's ice melt alone would result in almost two feet of rise and Greenland is puny compared to Antarctica.
Although there remains important work to be done concerning verification of global warming, it certainly behooves us to address the topic with some sense of priority.
#14
Adding to what Phil B and mojo said, I sometimes point out to the antinuke types that the half life of some of the stuff that comes out of coal power plants and from the left over material that makes solar cells (e.g., mercury, arsenic) is basically forever.
This is a very salient point regarding why we need to migrate away from fossil fuel based power generation. Worst of all, even if all the major industrialized nations abandon coal fired generation, just China, using its own domestic coal reserves, could negate all other attempts at reducing CO2 emissions.
Coal is still the main source of energy in China today because it's cheap and plentiful (China has the largest coal reserves in the world) ... China consumes only twice the energy as Germany (China has about 17 times more people) but emits 15 times more dust and 4 times more toxic gases. This is mostly due to emissions ... By the year 2020, China is predicted to be the world leading producer of carbon dioxide and other gasses that cause global warming.
#16
Zenster
And the coal problem is one reason why the Chinese are building their version of the TVA. Of course the greenies are against that too -- big time.
#17
Uh just so ya know zenster there are several potential ways of fusion as a viable source of energy. The current way is to look at a helium-tritium mix (which has a half life of 12.5 years). Thats actually extremely radioactive but also gives the most energy output and is a lot easier to achieve, the mix you're thinking about thats not so radioactive is the deuterium mix that has a lower energy release amount but theres a lot more of it around. The safest mixture would be deuterium + He3 but the US for instance has only about 200 or so kilos and there is much more on the rest of the planet.
#18
I'm not up on the latest fusion stuff but my memory is that the neutrons from the various fusion reactions are quite energetic; typically upwards of 10 Mev.
Have we made any progress in how to build structures which capture the energy from these energetic neutrons (I suppose the structures would hold water which the neutrons would boil) and yet don't destroy the material that makes up the structure?
#19
Actually fission is very viable in a particle accelerator driven thorium reactor. This has multiple advantages. Thorium is 3 times as plentiful as uranium. Thorium dioxide is not corrosive (compared to uranium compounds) and thorium dioxide has a high melting point (ca. 3800 C). The particle accelerator is needed to turn on the reaction since thorium is fertile not fissile (i.e. turn off the accelerator the reaction stops). A thorium reactor could easily produce both hydrogen and electricity. Finally nuclear waste could be mixed with the thorium to increase the energy production and transmute the long life waste into short life waste of low radioactivity. Another advantage for the US is that thorium is found, among other places, in the Northeast; no importation.
#20
By God, how I love Rantburg. Only here can I get intelligent discussion of the science behind nuclear fusion as an energy source (as opposed to the politics) posted next to a story of a bicycle-thieving moose!
#21
Adding onto what Chemist has posted, check this specs page describing the process and this recent (last Fall, the most recent authoritative article I found) article about US - Russian joint project status.
#23
The Indians were trying to build Thorium cycle breeders (irradiate one Thorium isotope to breed another fissile isotope, distinct from what chemist is describing above). I don't know how far they got.
#24
I thoroughly enjoyed this exchange. Well done (except for the ocasional insult)
Posted by: Evert V. in NL ||
05/24/2004 16:06 Comments ||
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#25
There are two myths in these comments that should be knocked down.
1. The last ice age ended 10K years ago. In fact we are still in an ice age and the last 10K years have been what is called interglacial, where the ice sheets temporarily retreat.
2. Coastal flooding/inundation is caused by rising sea levels. This is simply not true! Far and away the major cause of coastal flooding is the land sinking. You can think of the continents as floating on the earth's mantle and for every piece that is rising up (effectively for every mountain range) another part is sinking down.
Posted by: Phil B ||
05/24/2004 20:29 Comments ||
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#26
Nuclear power is a failed technology. It isn't going to be vastly expanded because the hidden costs associated with waste disposal, health risks and accidents are such that expensive "green" alternatives are actually cheaper in the long run. They have bigger startup costs but over time it evens out.
There are other alternatives that can't be used. They may not offer the seductive big hit of energy but long-term they are more cost-effective in social, environmental and dollar terms.
Radiation causes cancer, period. The more cancers and birth defects you get in a target population, the more it costs that population in terms of time off work, hospital and palliative care and associated drug and illness costs.
As for global warming: nothing can be done about it now anyway. If all the industrialised countries followed Kyoto to the letter, we would only hold back global warming by 3 MONTHS. Can't remember where I read it but it was a scientific study exploding the myth of Kyoto.
Kyoto was all about punishing developed countries for being rich and successful, and trying to give money to poor countries. It was global socialism pure and simple, nothing to do with the environment.
The best we can do is wean ourselves of Saudi Black Slag so we aren't paying money to people who are trying to kill us, and just deal with the effects of global warming as they arise.
"Green" energy is a myth. If it were real, it would be funding its own way, not sucking off the government teat and using the force of law (aka "regulations") to make us adopt it.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
05/24/2004 21:00 Comments ||
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#28
Radiation also kills germs period. Radiating meat would reduce poisening by toxins.
Of course the deeper greenies don't want us eating meat anyway.
...and is only 5 points behind (second-placed) Labour. If the traditional third party (the Lib Dems) is pushed aside by a single-issue UK-out-of-the-EU group, this is going to send shockwaves far and wide. UKIP homepage.
Voters in next monthâs European elections could shock the political establishment by giving the United Kingdom Independence Party more seats than the Liberal Democrats, a poll suggests today. A YouGov survey for The Telegraph indicates that UKIP, which is committed to British withdrawal from the European Union, is ahead of the Lib Dems among those who are "very likely" to vote. The European elections traditionally return more right-of centre politicos than do national elections. The reason being, those who take their politics seriously vote all the time, those who donât really understand it all only bother turning up at the polling station for the big ones. Itâs also a good opportunity for protest voting...
According to this measure, which can be more reliable, particularly when turnout is low, the Conservatives are on 31 points, Labour 23 points, UKIP 18 points and the Lib Dems 15 points. See above.
UKIP could win more than a dozen seats if these figures are repeated in the combined European, local and London mayoral and assembly elections on June 10. Such a result, relegating the Lib Dems to fourth place, would be a humiliation for their leader, Charles Kennedy, and would send shockwaves through Westminster, where the three main parties support EU membership and often dismiss those arguing for withdrawal as extremists. When all voters are considered, regardless of their likelihood of turning out, the Conservatives are still ahead, on 28 points, with Labour just behind on 27. The Lib Dems are on 18 points and UKIP is in fourth place on 14 points. The YouGov survey shows that voters differentiate between European and local elections. In the latter, UKIPâs poll standing is in single figures. Many of those questioned would also vote differently in a general election, with 36 per cent choosing the Conservatives, 33 Labour, 19 Lib Dem and only four per cent UKIP. Roger Knapman, the former Tory MP for Stroud who leads UKIP, welcomed the poll, which he said demonstrated the way the public was turning against the EU. "For the first time most people want us to get out of the European Union and renegotiate a common market, which is what we wanted in the first place," said Mr Knapman, who was a whip in John Majorâs administration. That attitude is strenghtening, not diminishing. Anecdotally, I know of a fair few voters who are considering voting UKIP in the coming elections, as the mainstream parties are increasingly out of step with feelings on the street. Euro federalism is very unpopular in the UK. If the Tories went Euro-sceptic (in a sane way) at the next election, theyâd walk it....
Although UKIP won three seats in the 1999 European elections, with seven per cent of the vote, the main parties have largely treated it as an irrelevance. That would change drastically if it was to overhaul the Lib Dems. All three parties would come under pressure to reconsider their positions on Europe, and Tony Blair might have to rethink his laughable chances of winning the referendum he has promised on the proposed EU constitution. But last night Lord Rennard, the Lib Demsâ main election strategist, played down the significance of the findings. He said that, even if his party was to receive just 15 per cent of the vote, that would still put it ahead of its result in 1999, when its share of the vote was 12.7 per cent. "That suggests that any rise in support for UKIP has come from the Conservative Party and the Labour Party," he added. Yesterday, in an interview broadcast before the YouGov figures were available, Michael Howard, the Conservative leader, was asked if the Tories would be damaged if UKIP reached double figures. "I donât know. I donât know how many votes theyâre going to get, I donât know where their votes are going to come from," Mr Howard told BBC1âs Breakfast with Frost. Many will be from your flock, Howard.
"What Iâm clear [about] is that our vision for the future of Europe is the right vision, a vision in which we are there, taking part, arguing our corner, but also arguing for a more flexible Europe." Commenting on the Telegraph poll, a Labour official said: "Even if it is right that the Tories are on 31 points, then thatâs a lead of eight points. "Thatâs exactly the same lead they had five years ago. It shows theyâve made no progress at all." Long Live Spin!
The Tories won the 1999 European elections convincingly, partly because the turnout was only 24 per cent. Labour supporters were disproportionately likely to stay at home. This year turnout is likely to be higher, helped by all-postal voting in some regions and because other elections are being held on the same day. But the YouGov poll suggests that percentage turnout is still only likely to be in the 30s, which is why the "very likely to vote" polling figures could turn out to be more reliable than the "all voter" ones.
Posted by: Bulldog ||
05/24/2004 6:48:12 AM ||
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#1
The link to the UKIP homepage is wrong (for some reason!). How's this?
#2
UKIP is good news for Labour - splitting the centre-right vote as you so astutely observe - will afford the Labour party some protection from the drubbing it may have received. Isn't the UKIP a mix of the insane and dangerously right wing? I wouldn't give the Tories much of a chance with 'Il Vampiro' in charge. Still Labour for me I'm afraid.
Posted by: Howard UK ||
05/24/2004 7:24 Comments ||
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#3
Howard, yes in theory the UKIP is good news for Labour, and yet - even with this surprisingly large share of the intended votes going to the UKIP - the Tories are still put ahead of Labour! That suggests either not all the UKIP voters are drawn from the Tories, or that today's Tory-inclined (i.e. right-wing) support is much larger than people think.
Given the UKIP is the only player which offers what at least half the UK population desires - namely, less EU not more (as evidenced by the quarter who favour the proposed EU constitution versus the half who oppose, with another quarter undecided), and that their support is mostly confined to European elections, I think it's reasonable to assume that their support comes from more than just the Tory-voting base. Most of the read media are anti-EU - I think the tabloids and broadsheets are more in tune with popular sentiment than the parties, none of whom have the inclination or the courage to step off the slow-but-sure escalator to Eurofederalism and cop the hysterical national and continental flack that would entail.
Isn't the UKIP a mix of the insane and dangerously right wing?
Howard, you should visit their website and check it out for yourself. I attended a UKIP conference once. Actually, gatecrashed. Student days, and was very, very drunk at the time. They seemed like decent people to me, and not at all insane...
#4
Take your word for it.. I think they could do well (as a protest vote) - and I think you're right about the mainstream parties underestimating anti-European sentiment in the nation. The Euro-constitution is a no-win situation and could see the Labour party out of power if they push it too eagerly. I have to think the EU in a limited form is a good idea but the rate of change is currently mindblowing and may lead us down the dangerous road to European disunity that, ironically, the EEC was created to avoid. [Where you from Bulldog? London, personally - Derby originally.]
Posted by: Howard UK ||
05/24/2004 7:50 Comments ||
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#5
Just being sociable BD - I'd have a stab at Tonbridge Wells or Hemel Hempstead.
Posted by: Howard UK ||
05/24/2004 8:42 Comments ||
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#6
LOL Howard, not far west enough. From the west country originally, and now back in Wiltshire, having spent a few years in London and north of the border. Wouldn't mind moving back to London again if the opportunity arose. How are you finding it?!
The EU has grown beyond what most people originally envisaged, at least in the UK, and way beyond what most people want. Westminster tyrrany power is just about tolerable, but expecting us to take orders from Brussels is simply taking the piss....
#7
The Euro Court of Justice / Human Rights is the biggest joke. We should aim to trim it down to simple trade agreements and have done with the trimmings that cause the rancour.
London OK - wearing a bit thin after 10 years and working next to Regent's Park mosque can prove a little irksome! Wiltshire? The Vale of Pewsey? The White Horse? - think I had a girlfriend from Upavon once?! Very nice - green and pleasant. Mmmmm.
Posted by: Howard UK ||
05/24/2004 8:59 Comments ||
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#8
I had a girlfriend from Upavon once?! Very nice - green and pleasant. Mmmmm.
Clarification, Howard?! It is indeed a nice part of the world, but not all the girls are 'green' (though they may be, in one sense, if they have been rolling in the clover) or 'pleasant'. Not enough, anyway.
You in the Big Smoke this weekend? I'm paying a visit Sat - Mon.
#9
Apologies for the lackadaisical approach to sentence construction. Always around and about - time scarce as I'm completing my MSc dissertation at the mo.. fancy a pint on Sat afternoon/Sunday lunch Let me know! Email supplied.
Posted by: Howard UK ||
05/24/2004 9:33 Comments ||
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#10
Declining to drink the EU kool-aid, are they? The noive of some people. Listen to your betters!
#11
The EU Kool-Aid Acid Test? Must be on acid to dream up a Euro constitution.
Posted by: Howard UK ||
05/24/2004 10:52 Comments ||
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#12
To Howard and/or Bulldog :
I looked at the Independence website. It seems that some of the issues they talk about manifests itself here in the US. Stop excessive immigration, lessen federal bureaucracy, political correctness, etc.
If I were British, I would probably be "Conservative", yet the issues they raise, and the response they get, seems to resonate with a decent percent number of voters, even as a protest.
In 1992 the Perot movement failed only because of the flakiness of the leader. Yet Perot, who was sharp in many ways, raised similar issues that the UKIP does. If there is a leader who is not considered kooky, and the EU continues to step on you folks, as it seems to be doing from an outside observer's point of view, look out.
#13
Big Ed: I am becoming more conservative with age, certainly. I don't like what's beginning to happen in the UK - I get a strange view as I live in London which has always been the proverbial melting pot. I also get worried at the National Front doing so well in France. However, we have to duck out of the EU at some point - and the constitution, the holiest of holies, may be the opportunity. I dare say the govt will have to dangle the electorate a juicy carrot in some form to get out of this. I await the ensuing chaos with interest.
Posted by: Howard UK ||
05/24/2004 14:14 Comments ||
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#14
Howard : As I live in the Los Angeles area, I too see a skewed view of things, relative to the US as a whole.
You really have your hands full though.
The behemoth trend in the EU infrastructure is like the bloated government at the various levels here. It seems like the EU bureaucrats, like the bureaucrats here, want to ensure themselves a life of coming to work each day, kicking up their feet, doing little work, getting a payckeck, and spending the day viewing pornography on the internet.
They gather themselves into "Public Employee Unions" and have certain politicians with a leash around the neck. This is in order to self-perpetuate their own betterment at taxpayers expense.
#15
The UK as it stands right now is in the best possible position vis-a-vis the EU, so long as it does not go any further. For example, a single currency sounds great on paper, but you're giving up control over monetary policy for some rules and treaties that can be broken anyway. With a single currency on the continent, British exporters are happy and you have control over your own monetary policy! With no risk of paying fines, penalties, etc. if you refuse to toe the Brussels (aka French & German) line.
Don't give in!
Posted by: Rafael ||
05/24/2004 16:03 Comments ||
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Yes, yes. Of course Iâm shocked. Hacks are the same worldwide.
For all but a handful of its most powerful members, serving in the European Parliament can be a journey into political anonymity. Sometimes anonymity ainât a bad place to be...
But the ride is mighty comfortable. Do tell...
The Parliament is increasingly influential, passing laws on issues like agriculture, commerce and the environment, which affect life in 25 countries. Still, turnout for Parliament elections is slumping, and many Europeans cannot identify their representative. But if being one of 732 Parliament members does not assure great power or prominence, it certainly pays in perks. Sounds just like the deal the Mass state reps have...
"Itâs really like gravy train gone mad," a member from England said privately. It is the same deal Mass state reps have.
Take travel expenses. A legislator from Finland can fly round trip to Brussels, where the Parliament meets, for about $240. But under Parliament rules, members are reimbursed at the highest economy price, meaning that a Finnish member could receive about 10 times the cost of the trip. Iâm a busy man! Places to go, people to see, expenses to submit!
The pension plan is also generous, offering any member over 60 who has served at least five years about $1,500 a month. Nah. Thatâs chickenfeed...
There is no ban on relatives working as Parliament aides, and relatives of at least two dozen members do. There are taxi allowances, free language lessons and daily expense stipends, even on days when no official business is conducted. Most benefits are tax free. Tax free? No kidding?
Whether all this bothers Europeans may soon become clear. Beginning June 10, voters from Ireland in the west to Latvia and Lithuania in the east will cast ballots for the Parliament, in the first election since the European Union accepted 10 new countries earlier this month. Issues like trade and immigration have surfaced during the campaign, but so has the Parliamentâs smorgasbord of perks. Some see the benefits as threatening the European Unionâs bid for legitimacy as a continentwide force. The union, said Michiel van Hulten, a member from the Netherlands, needs "institutions that citizens have faith in." "This is a fight for the survival of the continent! Weâve got to protect our phony baloney jobs here!"
Thereâs an explanation for all the perks, but will it play in Paris or Prague? The benefits, which cost taxpayers more than $100 million a year, are intended to equalize legislatorsâ salaries, which are determined by their individual countries and vary widely. When the benefits are added up, according to payroll and expense records obtained by The New York Times and The International Herald Tribune, a Parliament member on the low end of the pay scale, who earns $40,000 a year, can bring in benefits worth three times that. Tell the voters itâs, "for the children". That goes over big here.
If voters are angry, it is perhaps in no small measure because of Hans-Peter Martin and his concealed minicam. Mr. Martin, a member from Austria, has surreptitiously filmed his colleagues using the benefits system and talking candidly about it â most expansively at a meeting of Socialist members in December. Hey, just because weâre Socialists doesnât mean we shouldnât make a few bucks. Power to the people! Pass it on...
"Iâm telling you, if we donât reform the expenses system, it will crucify us once again at the next election," warned Eluned Morgan of Wales. Another member, Bill Miller of Scotland, said the system had to be brought under control. "Iâve been accused of being greedy," he said. "Iâve been accused of being a parasite. Iâve been accused of being a leech. And thatâs just by members of my own political party." ...and I almost cry everytime I fill out my expense account. Waiter! More wine!
The grainy videos are marked by awkward camera angles â midsections, double chins and ceiling shots are common â but Mr. Martin gets people to talk. In videotapes provided to The Times and The Herald Tribune, a Finnish legislator, Reino Paasilinna, said it would be difficult to leave Parliament for another job because he would lose half his income. "Itâs almost 20,000 a month," he said, referring to euros. "And there isnât any taxation." Not to mention the "no heavy lifting" clause. Itâs in there somewhere...
Mr. Martin also taped a tradition known as "Strasbourg Fridays." One week a month, the legislature meets in Strasbourg, the French city where Europeâs union began. Although no meetings are usually scheduled on Fridays, members can collect a daily $314 stipend simply by signing in. Some members race to register at the Parliament office, which opens at 8 a.m., before dashing to the airport. Nice work if you can get it.
Posted by: tu3031 ||
05/24/2004 11:37:50 AM ||
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There is no ban on relatives working as Parliament aides, and relatives of at least two dozen members do. There are taxi allowances, free language lessons and daily expense stipends, even on days when no official business is conducted. Most benefits are tax free.
... "Iâve been accused of being a parasite. Iâve been accused of being a leech. And thatâs just by members of my own political party."
This guy needs to listen to his fellow poltroons.
I'd wager that this serves as a decent explanation for why Europe is such an economic powerhouse today. It sounds like what would happen if the Teamsters' Union Management got into European politics.
At least 16 people, including rescue workers and journalists, died when a lorry carrying fertiliser blew up after a road accident in Romania. The overturned truck caught fire and exploded as police and firefighters arrived at the scene in Mihailesti - about 70km (43 miles) from Bucharest. Two journalists filming the incident were among those killed in the blast at 0400GMT on Monday. The Interior Ministry said the truck was carrying ammonium nitrate.
Ammonium nitrate and fire is a bad combination, ask Texas City.
Romania's Junior Health Minister Aurel Nechita said at least seven firefighters, two policemen and the two reporters were among the dead. He said one of the dead police officers was the chief of police in Mihailesti, who died after he was rushed to hospital. An Interior Ministry statement said two fire engines and six cars were destroyed or damaged. Colonel Marian Bercan, of the local fire service, told AP that firefighters were preparing to extinguish the fire on the truck when it exploded. He said the firefighters did not know what the truck was carrying.
That's why we have hazardous warning signs on trucks, you might want to think about that.
The blast left a large crater and damaged nearby houses and electricity pylons. Transport Minister Miron Mitrea said an investigation was under way to establish the cause of the accident.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/24/2004 9:46:50 AM ||
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Note: the link is to an article in the weeklystandard.com, but it is difficult to resolve -- be patient, keep trying . . . :)
Just from the intro, and EFL
From the May 31, 2004 issue of The Weekly Standard: An encounter with the Cannes man
by Fred Barnes
A FEW YEARS AGO Michael Moore, whoâs now promoting an anti-President Bush movie entitled Fahrenheit 9/11, announced heâd gotten the goods on me, indeed hung me out to dry on my own words. It was in his first bestselling book, Stupid White Men. Moore wrote heâd once been "forced" to listen to my comments on a TV chat show, The McLaughlin Group. I had whined "on and on about the sorry state of American education," Moore said, and wound up by bellowing: "These kids donât even know what The Iliad and The Odyssey are!"
Mooreâs interest was piqued, so the next day he said he called me. "Fred," he quoted himself as saying, "tell me what The Iliad and The Odyssey are." I started "hemming and hawing," Moore wrote. And then I said, according to Moore: "Well, theyâre . . . uh . . . you know . . . uh . . . okay, fine, you got me--I donât know what theyâre about. Happy now?" Heâd smoked me out as a fraud, or maybe worse.
The only problem is none of this is true. It never happened. Moore is a liar. He made it up. Itâs a fabrication on two levels. One, Iâve never met Moore or even talked to him on the phone. And, two, I read both The Iliad and The Odyssey in my first year at the University of Virginia. Just for the record, Iâd learned what they were about even before college. Like everyone else my age, I got my classical education from the big screen. I saw the Iliad movie called Helen of Troy and while I forget the name of the Odyssey film, I think it starred Kirk Douglas as Odysseus. But will the press follow up on this? I doubt it!
So why didnât I scream bloody murder when the book came out in 2001? I didnât learn about the phony anecdote until it was brought to my attention by Alan Wolfe, who was reviewing Mooreâs book for the New Republic. He asked, by email, if the story were true. I said no, not a word of it, and Wolfe quoted me as saying that. That was enough, I thought. After all, who would take a shrill, lying lefty like Moore seriously?
(2004-05-23) -- After the stunning triumph of Michael Mooreâs Fahrenheit 9/11 at the Cannes Film Festival in France, the winner of the coveted Palme dâOr headed to the Gulf state of Qatar to accept another best film award from Al Jazeera.
The Arab networkâs Palme dâTree award recognizes Mr. Mooreâs anti-Bush documentary as a "stunning journalistic and artistic achievement which is all the more amazing because of the oppressive government under which it was produced."
"That someone could make a film like this in America, under the iron fist of the Bush-Cheney administration, demonstrates a kind of courage unknown and unnecessary in the free Arab film industry," according to the official news release from the Al Jazeera Film Festival.
Fahrenheit 9/11 edged out top Arab-produced films including, The Mighty Eternal House of Saud, Zarqawi: Hero of Modern Islam and Elegy for a Brother: Tribute to Saddam Hussein.
Mr. Moore said heâs delighted to receive recognition from both France and the Arab world in the same week, and that he hoped it would inspire other Americans to "rise up and overthrow the Bush regime and thus win freedom of expression for other documentarists."
Posted by: Korora ||
05/24/2004 9:20:14 AM ||
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Had me definately going until I re-read it and saw the scrabbleface tag....
#2
And I wouldn't have picked Qatar, either. It's pretty (good) liberal and very pro-America, and have done us a bunch of good turns in the past, unlike a bunch of the recalcitrants in the region.
#7
I swear to god, BigEd, in that latest pic (not the one of him in the evening dress!) he looks like Jabba in a suit.
It's enough to make a sensitive soul like me barf up my lunch.
#9
Read a piece thet had Quentin Tarantino (one of the Palme d'Or judges) saying there was nothing political about fatboy's win. Purely that his film was the best! don'tcha know...
Posted by: Super Hose ||
05/24/2004 16:46 ||
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Anyone remember the Clipper Chip debacle?
FBI is barking up the wrong tree on this one. Too late to close the barn door. [Insert more mixed metaphors here.] Good luck trying to tap Skype conversations. And good luck trying to stop people from using apps like Skype.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
05/24/2004 16:33 ||
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Here's a sample:
Since the programme started in Konduz on February 10, hundreds of young people have come forward claiming to have been child soldiers. But only a portion of them actually qualify for the programme. It appears that some militia leaders have encouraged youths and regular soldiers to apply for the programme because they âthought that they might receive some incentives for handing over the soldiers and young peopleâ, a UNICEF official in Mazar-e-Sharif told IWPR.
Of 500 youths who have applied in Kunduz, about 150 were determined to be eligible. The others were found to have had no combat experience, UNICEF officials said.
Those that do qualify first undergo a complete medical checkup, which includes screening for drug addiction and HIV, provided by the International Medical Corp under contract with the UN. After vowing not to join the military again, they are given an identity card and become eligible for continuing education programmes or vocational training in areas such as metal working or tailoring.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
05/24/2004 21:58 Comments ||
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Afghanistanâs first private television station went on air on Sunday in Kabul, some two years after the fall of the Taliban regime which arrested and punished those caught watching TV. Afghan TV is funded by an Afghan businessman and will have 18 hours of programming a day. Afghanistan has only ever had one state TV channel which broadcasts for a few hours in the evening, but under the Taliban there were no television stations and it was forbidden to listen to music or watch satellite broadcasts.
The free-to-air private station run by Ahmed Shah Afghanzai is a major step towards developing a private TV sector and intends to go national within a year, an achievement which will make it the countryâs first national channel. âAfghan TV has started operations with capital of 200,000 US dollars and the eventual capital to cover all the country via satellite is estimated at three million dollars,â Afghanzai said. During a one-month testing period the new station will broadcast Afghan, Indian and western music and films and hopes to broadcast 24 hours a day. âAfghan TV started its broadcast today,â said Afghan state television director Aziz Ahmed Arifar. âIt is the first private TV and the second Afghan TV registered at the ministry of information and culture.â Other private channels have registered with the ministry and are to start airing programmes soon.
State television, which broadcasts for limited hours at the moment, is also slated to soon become a 24-hour channel aired via satellite all over Afghanistan with financial help from India. Cable television operators began broadcasting in the capital Kabul in late 2002 showing Indian and some English programmes, content strongly criticized by the chief justice as âun-Islamicâ. Cable operators were banned for a while but were soon active again and are now present in some of the largest provinces. The new station has some programmes planned in which women will not be wearing the traditional head scarf or may be wearing western clothes, a stance which could provoke a strong reaction from Islamist groups in Afghanistan which recently protested against broadcasts of women singing on state television. Afghanzai is concerned but said: âThere will be some reactions from certain circles but we will continue to go the way we have chosen.â
#1
I hope that this continues. The Turbans need to be spun, and women need to be on the air to set examples of what they can be besides burkha babes, so to speak. Expect mullahs to go mad for a while and break things, but I hope in the end that Afghan TV perseveres.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/24/2004 15:31 Comments ||
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Prisoner said lethal injection is cruel and unusual punishment What in hell are we supposed to do, tickle them to death?
The Supreme Court ruled unanimously Monday that a convicted Alabama killer can pursue an appeal claiming lethal injection is cruel and unusual punishment in his case. Justices said that lower courts were wrong to block appeals by death row inmate David Larry Nelson, who was less than three hours from execution last fall when the Supreme Court gave him a temporary reprieve. Nelsonâs case had given justices a stark look at how inmates are put to death. Nelson maintained that his veins -- damaged by drug use -- make it impossible to insert an intravenous line without cutting deep into flesh and muscle. The court was using Nelsonâs case to decide a technical question of whether last-minute appeals from death row inmates should be allowed in federal courts. Use his femoral artery. Him damaging his veins through self abuse in no way makes his legally adjudged execution "cruel" or "unusual."
Justice Sandra Day OâConnor, writing for the court, said that Nelson should be allowed to argue that his punishment would be unconstitutionally cruel unless special precautions were taken. Justices had been told in filings by physicians that if done improperly, the procedure could cause Nelson to badly hemorrhage and suffer heart problems before the deadly drugs kill him. Stop, stop, youâre ripping my heart out!
Alabama attorneys maintained it was too late for Nelson to try to stop his execution, arguing that his case was a prime example of a sluggish justice system and the need for limits on appeals. He has been on death row more than 20 years. OâConnor said the court was not going to "open the floodgates to all manner of method-of-execution challenges," as Alabama feared. Nelsonâs appeal had prompted legal challenges to the types of drug cocktails used in lethal injections in other states. Fine, then just use an air bubble.
Justices have clashed 5-4 in a string of emergency appeals this year from inmates seeking temporary reprieves, on grounds that their own lethal injections would be unconstitutional. Injection is available to inmates in 37 states. Alabama lawyers had said that Nelson should not have been allowed to challenge a procedural part of its death penalty system. OâConnor disagreed. "Merely labeling something as part of an execution procedure is insufficient to insulate it from a (legal) attack," she wrote. The case is Nelson v. Campbell, 03-6821. Yeah, but what about frivolous legal wrangling?
Also Monday, the Supreme Court agreed to decide whether a convicted California killerâs religious conversion should have been considered by a jury that sentenced him to death. A sharply divided federal appeals court set aside William Paytonâs death sentence in the 1980 rape and stabbing death of a woman, a decision that California officials said "jeopardizes the validity of numerous death penalty cases in California." In trying to sway jurors to spare Paytonâs life, defense attorneys told jurors he had made a sincere commitment to God and was a model inmate who could help others through a prison ministry. But jurors were told to disregard the so-called "mitigating" circumstances. Justices will decide if the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals set a wrong standard for jury instructions. The case is Woodford v. Payton, 03-1039. Letâs eliminate this whole issue and execute these maggots in a way that has never been "cruel" or "unusual." Just hand these sh!ts over to their victimâs families. Iâm sure theyâll come up with something innovative.
[/sarcasm]
#3
Wait, it would be cruel and unusual . . . why? His veins? Hell's bells, he ain't gonna be around to worry about it! And what's one more needle?
Maybe we should hang him, or put him in front of a firing squad?
Posted by: The Doctor ||
05/24/2004 14:20 Comments ||
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Isn't it ironic that "cruel and unusual" seems to apply as much to the witnesses as the condemned? That is, in addition to it "not hurting" overmuch, it has to "look good." Which is why we no longer hang, electrocute or gas. There are times when they just "aren't pretty to look at."
This is actually a serious problem when seen in the system as a whole.
For example, if you just kill someone, you might get 10 years; but if you kill someone, and *then* mutilate or otherwise abuse their dead body, you could get life or death. But, if you go into a mortuary and mutilate a dead body, you might just get six months for bad taste.
I was horrified by the statement of a juror in a CA capital murder case: "I was willing to give him (the defendant) the benefit of the doubt, UNTIL HE FLIPPED US (the jury) OFF; but that convinced me he was guilty."
eek.
Personally, I prefer hanging, but electrocution *can't* hurt, because electricity fries the brain faster than pain signals can be xmitted--it's not like getting a house current shock.
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has hit out at South Africa's former Archbishop Desmond Tutu as "evil".
"And I know evil!"
Archbishop Tutu once said that Mr Mugabe resembled a caricature of an African dictator. "He is an angry, evil and embittered little bishop," he told Sky News TV in the first interview he has given to British media for several years.
Angry and embittered, maybe. Evil, no.
Mr Mugabe, 80, also repeated his comments that he was unlikely to stand again when his term ends in 2008. He said he had not chosen a successor.
Anyone capable of being a sucessor would also be a threat to Bob.
In the wide-ranging interview, Mr Mugabe also attacked British Prime Minister Tony Blair for treating Zimbabwe as though it were still a colony. "You can see some of the mad things he has done and the world is now in turmoil," he said. He also criticised US President George W Bush for "cheating the world" over Iraq. His government would not accept international food aid in the coming year, Mr Mugabe said. Aid agencies warn of widespread famine due to poor harvests. But Mr Mugabe stood by his government's crop forecast of 2.4 million tonnes of maize, AFP news agency reported. "Why foist this food upon us? We don't want to be choked, we have enough," he said.
At least for his supporters
Mr Mugabe also defended his country's land reform programme, in which white-owned farms have been seized for redistribution to landless blacks. He claimed the white farmers were "ill-educated".
Posted by: Steve ||
05/24/2004 9:33:17 AM ||
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He claimed the white farmers were "ill-educated"
Them crackers don't know the first thing about harnessing a water buffalo.
A picture of Osama Bin Laden made from photographs of people who died in the September 11 attacks has been displayed on the streets of New York by a British art student. Daphi Dotan, 27, from Plymouth College of Art and Design, stuck the 44 in by 66 in photo collage in New Yorkâs Union Square for her final-year project and filmed the reactions of passers-by. She said the work, called Facing Terror, was inspired by the picture of the murderer Myra Hindley made from childrenâs handprints by the artist Marcus Harvey, but added that it was also a personal reaction to the September 11 tragedy.
"I felt like I had a strong need to interpret the terrorist attacks," said Dotan, who grew up in Israel and moved to Britain seven years ago. "For me, concrete statues or memorial gardens donât mean anything. I wanted to bring it home that people died in the attacks, and show how much damage they [the terrorists] caused to the people who lost friends and family. I chose Union Square because it was the place where people who lost loved ones gathered after 9/11."
Passers-by caught on Dotanâs film seemed shocked that Bin Ladenâs image was in the square, but their expressions visibly softened when they realised that it consisted of faces of the victims.The picture is made up of the images of 2,528 victims, which Dotan took a year to collect from memorial leaflets and internet sites. Bin Ladenâs face was produced through the use of computer software. The image is currently in Plymouth for the universityâs final year show, but Dotan hopes to take it back to New York and place it outside the United Nations building.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
05/24/2004 9:11:10 AM ||
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Mojo--I think I can understand why she did this, and not necessarily to generate controversy. Imagine instead if she had done the same thing only created a portrait of Hitler from a photo montage of Holocaust victims. She's created a portrait of a monster using the events he created and the people he victimized, basically showing what the man is made of. The substance of the man is exposed. The building blocks of this man, his reputation, and his infamy are innocent victims of his evil, his hunger for power, and his ego.
I can understand if people don't accept it because the events are still too recent and the memories still too painful, but I can understand why she created it as she did and what it symbolizes. She should do the same thing with Saddam.
Posted by: Dar ||
05/24/2004 11:22 Comments ||
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mojo I have to disagree.
Although I find this work ultimately tasteless, it makes clear that these people were killed at the hands of Bin Laden, thereby making the statement anti-idiotarian in nature.
This reminds me of a photo collage we saw not too long ago where some asswipe took photos of soldiers killed in Iraq... and made it into a picture of GW Bush. (In fact, it might have been 9/11 victims instead of Iraqi casualties. I don't remember.)
Posted by: Chris W. ||
05/24/2004 11:58 Comments ||
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Dar, I am with Mojo on this. Artists like to hide behind the double-entendre just in case someone takes exception they can say they got it wrong - they mean't it this way. Hey, wait a minute, maybe Kerry inspired her!!
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
05/24/2004 12:22 Comments ||
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Thanks Dar. Jack is Back and mojo: Reread the article. IMO, I don't think Dotan would do a "180" and claim that the piece is an antiwar piece--it would be a real stretch, and it wouldn't make any sense. I think Dotan is trying to get people to face the situation, when they'd rather forget about it and pretend there is nothing to be concerned about. The real Osama bin Ladin isn't some "misunderstood arab who's upset about Palestinian issues." The piece would suggest that OBL is a killer. And it's time to face it.
In the midst of the daily media diatribe: "BUSH LIED, PEOPLE DIED," Dotan's art exposes the true face of terror: Islamofascism. And it causes people to think. The faces of the victims remind everyone that this isn't about what the Dems want us to think it's about. It's about a war that 's going on and about an evil man and his cohorts who, essentially, wants to make themselves gods and world dictators. Even the name of the piece "FACING TERROR" shows what a monster OBL is, and what all Islamofascism is really like, because his ugly face, and the deadly imposition of his personal aims and so-called ideals wiped out all those (actually) important lives. When we see their faces and his together--a choice is made--whether consciously or subconsciously. It was a brilliant way to demonstrate the crux of the issue regarding the WOT: for the sake of those people and all other victims of Islamofascism, we must win.
For the victims, perhaps it's hard to deal with. I can totally understand that. But it is the truth. OBL and his "army" did kill their loved ones. American PEOPLE died because of him. It's dangerous when that fact gets "abstracted"--which is what the left wants this election year.
Dotan's work simply reintroduced the human cost of ignoring reality, regarding the WOT.
" I wanted to bring it home that people died in the attacks, and show how much damage they [the terrorists] caused to the people who lost friends and family. . . . I chose Union Square because it was the place where people who lost loved ones gathered after 9/11." The picture is made up of the images of 2,528 victims, which Dotan took a year to collect from memorial leaflets and internet sites.
Islamic Terrorism is the enemy--not this art student. Never forget.
#6
I had a different take on this art piece. In many totalitarian regimes there is a cult of personality that includes huge whopping pictures of the "Dear Leader," "brave Iman," ad nauseum. In each case, the image of the leader, a metaphor for the regime, is constructed of the death of innocents.
If she did an album, there would certainly be a picture of Yasser, as she was born in Israel. Sadaam, Pol Pot, Che and Stalin would certainly be included.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
05/24/2004 16:01 Comments ||
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Ex-Lib, from an art critical perspective in explicating her work, you are probably as close as any of the opinions would be but my point was facetious in demonstrating the ambiguity that is always present in interpreting art. I think perhaps she should consider doing a potrait of Michael Moore using photographs of all the servicemen and servicewomen killed in Afghanistan and Iraq in the WoT.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
05/24/2004 16:22 Comments ||
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At least it looks like art,can't say that for most of the other shit that's out there
#9
Jack, Any portrait of Michael Moore shall be done in tiny images of Hostess and Coca Cola products.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
05/24/2004 22:03 Comments ||
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JIB: I know. The other side of left wackos and Islamoidz will probably love the OBL/victim piece. Sick bastards. But then, they see everything that way. Mike Moore would love it too, from that perspective. I think doing his portrait with the KIA's and the Hostess and Coca Cola products would be interesing, and very revealing about the sick hedonism that drives him. Again--he would probably love it. "Yuck, yuck! That's me all right!"
The very fact that there is a factor of ambiguity in art lets us see into the souls of the observers. That's important, methinks.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
05/24/2004 09:01 ||
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Poor confused kids... Indoctrinated with bullshit by the "faculty" only to have their elders, who paid for this vacation from reality, boo the moron commencement speaker - undoubtedly a darling of their abusers. Ala, The Jerk, "Shit... Shinola..."
#2
Good to know there are Americans who aren't just going to take an angry attack on the President. I'll agree that he had the right to say it, but not in that setting. He was invited to speak at a graduation. That is not a political arena. Period.
Admittedly, California may be a different story . . .
Posted by: The Doctor ||
05/24/2004 11:46 Comments ||
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How many times have you heard that anti war crap, even on Hannity and Combover. The guy is uninformed and he thinks he can just blow his nose and people will fall for it. The audience knew more about his subject then he did. Sadly, the only ones who knew less about the subject than the pompus ass were the students and the faculty.
#5
Some Hofstra professors said Doctorow was on target in discussing the war. "I thought this was a totally appropriate place to talk about politics because that's the world our students are entering," said sociology professor Cynthia Bogard. "I only wish their parents had provided them a better role model."
Lest we at Rantburg think every University leader or faculty member lives completely in dream world, allow me one example to the contrary, however small but telling. A few weeks ago I attended Dayton University's commencement exercises to celebrate the end of my number-one son's hand in my wallet. It is the practice for the Univ. President to announce each graduate and mention any honors he or she has earned. This year he also announced, when appropriate, "Mr. John Doe has also received a commission as Ensign in the United States Navy" etc.
It did my cynical heart good to hear a good part of the crowd enthusiastically applaud each of these special grads to the world of duty, honor and selflessness.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
05/24/2004 08:58 ||
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Addressed in 2-1/2 columns in our SD Union Trib Ombudsman's column this AM. Pretty tasteless. I remember when, even if you didn't agree with Trudeaus lefty slant (and I obviously don't), at least Doonesbury had some humor in it..for the last 15+ yrs, it's been nothing but a Republican bashing screed. Give me Calvin and Hobbes over Boopsie any day
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/24/2004 9:58 Comments ||
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Day by Day -- like Doonesbury, but with a brain and a sense of humor.
Posted by: Mike ||
05/24/2004 10:04 Comments ||
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#3
Apologies from such people remind me of the adage: "If you spit in one hand and apologize in the other, I know which one will fill up first." But to that I would add that such people, again, then try to shake your hand with the one they've been spitting in.
#6
biged he actualy has new strip that runs sunday only. i dont know if you local paper get it or not but we do over here. it just have opus now and evryone else is gone. opus move away from south pole back home and is trying find all his buddys but he finding out they grown or change or dead and stuff. im try and find link for you for it.
#10
I don't put too much faith in all this apologizing crap, as it's way too easy for someone who is truly convinced that they are in the right to say that they're sorry simply for the sake of trying to quiet down a furor that they created.
Hat tip Tim Blair
Elizabeth Eve never thought of herself as an exhibitionist. But these days, the 33-year-old history professor with the gold nose ring can barely contain the urge to lift her skirt and flash her skivvies.
"Wanna see my self-esteem?"
"There is something so liberating and exciting about it, youâve got to try it out," she said recently as she fidgeted, fully clothed, on the couch in her friend Tashaâs Manhattan apartment. "I was teaching a class on imperialism, " she continued, "and I was delivering all this material that was kind of new and upsetting, and everyone was getting all worked up and upset, and I was getting all worked up and upset, and all of a sudden, all I wanted to do was flash my underwear! It was crazy," she said with a throaty giggle.
Teaching a course on imperialism? Why, back in my day we learned how to be imperialists on street corners. I'm glad somebody's finally teaching the nation's youth how to do it right! Flashing her knickers is just a side benefit, assuming she's got something in there that people actually want to see...
Thatâs because she wasnât wearing just any panties.
How's she flash her undies, then? Haul 'em out of her purse?... Oh. You mean she was wearing underwear, but they were, like, special?
Elizabeth is part of Axis of Eve, a fledgling group of rabble-rousing feminists and anti-war activists who have taken to flashing their undies as a form of political dissent. The Eves, as they call themselves, are on a mission to sex up protest. They take to the streets wearing "protest panties" which come emblazoned with anti-Dubya double-entendres like "Expose Bush," "Lick Bush," "Give Bush the Finger" and "Drill Bush Not Oil." When the Eves flash them at rallies, the effect is somewhere between a 1970sâ love-in and George Bushâs worst, frat- addled nightmare of a panty raid gone awry.
Uhhh... Actually, it sounds kind of sophomoric. I guess it goes over well with the sophomores, though...
"The panties have this way of just mobilizing, energizing, inspiring," said Tasha Eve, a cultural anthropologist who co-founded the Axis with one of her best high-school buddies, Zazel Eve (as an act of sisterly solidarity, Axis members all use the last name Eve when they are in Axis mode).
I guess that makes sense. Not a lot of sense, but sense...
Tasha, who is 33, was presiding over a late-night panty powwow with Zazel and Elizabeth. As Elizabeth perched on Tashaâs couch, Zazel sprawled on the floor in a cream-colored body suit and lavender "Lick Bush" thong. "I think sometimes verbal discourse is insufficient as a mode of expression," Tasha said, as if she were delivering a lecture for her fellowship at a prominent New York university. "Thereâs something raw and wonderful and gratifying about the more gestural expression of the flash. By putting on these bold, outrageous displays, we want to inspire others to also be bold."
Somehow, I can't see my statistics professor flashing his undies because explaining regression theory verbally was insufficient as a mode of expression.
Boldness, of course, has its limits. Though theyâre willing to strip down to a string in front of a crowd of hundreds, theyâre not yet willing to go fully public by using their full names. "Weâre in this double-bind, because weâre engaged in this campaign of exposure, but we canât expose ourselves," said Elizabeth. "I mean, Iâm a college professor. Can you imagine what the mothers would be like? âNo, you canât teach our daughters!â "
Or even worse, "You're a tiresome twit. I'm moving my kid to Cal Poly."
Tasha and Zazel began plotting the Axis of Eve in late January, exactly two years after George W. Bush famously branded Iraq, Iran and North Korea as the pivotal points of another Axis. The two women had been feeling angry about the "dishonesty of the Bush administration" and frustrated by the "dominance of the family-values discourse," Tasha said. Their solution: "Expose Bush" -- literally and figuratively. "At first we were worried a little bit about having Bush down there, because a lot of us hate him so much," said Zazel. "But now, when I have to go into my corporate job as a photo editor, it makes me happy to have them on, because I have to assume a certain persona there."
By day, an underpaid photo editor. At night, a dimbulb...
"The panties were very efficacious in shifting Zazelâs mood," added Tasha. "Theyâre spirit-lifting."
Well, if they shifted Zazel's mood, then I'm sure we're all for it.
Throughout the winter and early spring, Tasha and Zazel worked to "spread the panty word." They launched a Web site (www.axisofeve.org), developed their own "panty lexicon" (replete with terms like "pantiology" and "pantificate") and set up a nonprofit group, Daughters of Eve, so that proceeds from their sales could go toward a voter-mobilization video called "Take Back the Vote" that Zazel is working on with the NAACP and ACLU. And they became walking billboards for their panties, traipsing to every lefty bash and book party in their thongs and fishnets in an effort to hawk their wares. The elastic really began to snap when Tasha, Zazel, Elizabeth and their fourth core member, Caitlin, went to Washington with a troupe of Eves for the April 25 March for Womenâs Lives. Wearing their signature undies under frilly spring skirts, they installed themselves at a strategic spot outside the Mall and began to flash. With each flick of their skirts, they would chant: "The panty line has been drawn! Which side are you on?" They neednât have asked.
"Wanna see the most important part of me? Wanna see where my head's at?"
"It was like Century 21 on a bad day," said Zazel, describing the frenzy as marchers jostled for a pair of $10 panties.
Uhhh... That's a real estate agency...
"It really turned into this contagious panty fever," said Tasha. "Three of us were taking orders, and it would be like, âOK, can I please have two mediums in a "Lick Bush," a large "Weapon of Mass Seduction" and a small "Down on Bush"?â We sold out our entire inventory in one hour." Even the SWAT team laughed.
I would, too. If I had fewer morals, I'd probably be hawking something tacky for lefties to buy, too, since they're apparently willing to part with the bucks...
The Republican National Convention -- which the Eves described bitterly, and biblically, as "when the snake comes to the Garden" -- will be a prime panty-flashing opportunity. The Eves are plotting a racy panty performance for Sept. 1 featuring 100 women dressed in white trench coats and their signature matching panties. "At 3 p.m.," the Axis Web site advertises, "Eves will perform a group flashing in order to create a media spectacle and send a political postcard: We will not tolerate lies and cover-ups!"
No doubt all the sophomores in the world will think it rilly kewl...
"Sometimes we do wonder, âIs this weird? Is this a turn-on or a turn- off?â " said Elizabeth, shifting again on Tashaâs couch. "But universally, it seems to be a turn-on. So many people are drawn to us." Except for one group of hold-outs: "We havenât sold any panties to Republicans," Tasha admitted. "I guess we havenât converted anyone yet." In any case, the Axis has been doing a brisk business. The most popular model by far, said Tasha, is "Give Bush the Finger." And theyâve also designed panties for first-time voters that read "My Cherry for Kerry."
"We think Kerry needs a little help in the sex-appeal department," said Tasha. Elizabeth and Zazel nodded vigorously.
Posted by: tipper ||
05/24/2004 5:20:00 AM ||
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#1
For sheer mental vacuity, this is right up there with Jane Fonda's "volcano that will erupt in a flow of soft, hot, empathic, breathing, authentic, vagina-friendly, relational lava that will encircle patriarchy and smother it" speech.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
05/24/2004 7:17 Comments ||
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#2
I wonder at what point 'feminism' went from irate bra-burning to giggling whilst flashing our tight panties?
#3
Tim Blair has a link to the group's homepage, complete with photo gallery. How do you say this, um, delicately? . . . Ladies, if you're going to flash your undies as a political protest, you might want to choose flashers who, uh, look good doing it. 'Cause you don't.
Posted by: Mike ||
05/24/2004 8:14 Comments ||
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#4
I think it was at about the twenty-minute mark, Bulldog.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
05/24/2004 8:15 Comments ||
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#5
"I was teaching a class on imperialism"
was as far as I had to read...
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/24/2004 9:53 Comments ||
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#6
Hey, back off, man! I'm a "cultural anthropologist"!!
#10
Some of the panties look like granny panties. They should make thong versions and sell them at those strip clubs trying to get folks to register to vote to get Bush out of office.
#11
Another fine example of how intellectually bankrupt the left has become.
Posted by: Chris W. ||
05/24/2004 12:01 Comments ||
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#12
Elizabeth Eve never thought of herself as an exhibitionist. But these days, the 33-year-old history professor with the gold nose ring can barely contain the urge to lift her skirt and flash her skivvies.
Sounds like she's not quite mature just yet......assuming that such an event is in the cards for this person.
#14
"And when I got done teaching my class on 'Imperialism,' I went to my next class and taught 'Lesbian Decadence and Political Underwearcover Techniques for the Promotion of Cultural and Societal Deconstruction.' It was a lot of fun. We had a good time laughing and being kind of wild. And then I figured out how I could benefit from capitalism, which I despise, and make a tiny little fortune selling my panties! And the whole time it was so fun and so thrilling to show my panties. And I liked it when other girls showed their panties. And I liked it when the other girls liked it when I showed my panties. And I liked it when the crowds cheered when we showed our panties. And I liked thinking about panties. I liked thinking about panties all the time. Then I made a discovery. It's all about me and my panties, and about the panties of my 'sisters.' and about our need to voice our political opinions with our panties. And it also gives me a really great method for scoping on possible future sex partners when I look at their panties. And I liked it when I flashed my class of college students, and their mothers didn't even know. It was revolutionary. I showed my panties as a sign of being upset, and everyone liked it. I just stood there, and showed them my panties. I stood there a long time. And then I showed them the opposite view. It was just me and my panties and the other girls sitting, watching. Watching my panties. (There were some boys there too, but I wasn't really thinking of them.) And then it came to me. I thought, 'If a lot of people get into this, it will make me feel like I've done something important.' Because my panties are important. And I'm sure I'm going to change the world. I'm going to change everything! I'm so excited! And to think it all started with my panties. Now I want to inspire others to be as bold as I am, with their panties! And my panties are what's going to do that. In fact, when I go to my job as a photo editor, I feel good knowing my panties are with me, and that I've been able to tell Bush just what I think of him with my panties. I've started to show my panties to my fellow workers when I'm in the restroom. I can always tell who the conservatives are when I do that. They just leave, or roll their eyes. They're no fun at all. But some of the other girls giggle. I like that. And they ask me where they can get some of those kinds of panties, and how they can be more like me. That's when I tell them about "Panty Power" and demonstrate. This panty freedom is just exhilarating!"
"And theyâve also designed panties for first-time voters that read "My Cherry for Kerry."
First-time voters? Uh-huh. Okay. Okee-do-kee. Now we see where this is going. "Photo-op central" for J F'himself-when-he's-not-too-busy-with-interns-Kerry. (But I think this campaign would have appealed more to Clinton. "Take the Pill--Be ready for Bill," "My Clit for Clinton," "This Babe's Buns Belong to Bubba" . . . ) OTOH, this really helps with the image of Kerry's campaign. Dignity is such a bore. I think they should keep it up. The "panty brigade" should be at every Kerry rally, because everybody is going to listen to them and what they have to say about Kerry and Bush. A brilliant strategy! "Sometimes we do wonder, âIs this weird? . . . " said Elizabeth, shifting again on Tashaâs couch. No way, ladies! As you said yourself, and have observed ". . .it seems to be a turn-on. So many people are drawn to us." Keep it up! People are counting on you, and time's running out. The election is drawing close. You've got to do your part for the Kerry team. You wouldn't be able to live with yourself it you let him down now. Remember, the ACLU and the NAACP are counting on you too. You've got to wonder how many people, before now, have passed those organizations by as being too "establishment." It's really great that you're working together.
After reading this article--and it was a tough decision, believe me--I'm forced to admit that I guess I'd rather display the flag of our country to make a political statement. For some reason, I think it says more. But . . . that's just me.
#16
Anon2U: I have no idea WTF you're talking about, (a mourning phase?) but if you're confused about this piece--I was doing a satire/expose of the article above, outlining what these people are really like, as if everything they said was recorded for our "reading pleasure." I mean, if they're into "peeking" I thought I'd give it a go, and "peek" too--into the inner machinations of their demented minds. Understand? The second part is my own opinion, and a little encouragement to the "panty girls" to "help" the DNC with their "ideas" to promote their candidate.
And the world of the LLL is pretty bizarro, as you put it.
#17
All I have to say is ha hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
hahahahahahahahhahahhahahhaaaahh
hahahahah hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
hahahahahah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!
GIGGLE GIGGLE SNORT GIGGLE HA HA HA HOO HOO HA HA GIGGLE SNORT THAT WAS REALLY REALLY FUNNY!! .............and stupid HA HA HA THEY'RE REALLY THAT STUPID! I DIDN'T THINK IT WAS POSSIBLE HA HA HA..............
Posted by: FED UP ||
05/25/2004 1:21 Comments ||
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#18
We have a fuckwit loose. Clean-up on aisle 3...
GET ready for the Fahrenheit 9/11 onslaught and, I safely predict, unprecedented levels of sycophancy for Michael Mooreâs newest agitprop. No Niger uranium WMD lies here! Mooreâs "documentary" will be gushed over regardless of how crazy the claims or how distorted the "facts".
Moore has cleverly set the stage for the propaganda offensive by suggesting that the distribution of his "documentary" has been sabotaged by Disney â a blatant lie uncritically now picked up by our local media. Moore has been one of the most prominent beneficiaries of what Roger Simon â the Hollywood screenwriter, novelist and blogger â has coined "the politics of the last five minutes".
Mooreâs Academy Award-winning Bowling for Columbine has, by definition, dropped off the radar of the "politics of the last five minutes" â but those of us with some memory left still recall those ominous pictures of the US bombers taking off in the Kosovo war in 1999. The dark implication was that the Boeing corporation â spookily nearby the Columbine massacre school â was, as the destructive representatives of US imperialism, all of a piece with those schoolboy mass murderers.
Mooreâs "documentary" didnât show that the Boeing factory near Columbine made weather satellites, not missiles. Nor did he take the trouble to explain that the Kosovo intervention was concerned with the rather more grown-up task of the prevention of genocide in the former Yugoslavia. Tony Blair and Bill Clinton courageously pre-empted the UN Security Council which was paralysed in the face of genocide â a familiar pose for that body. Does Moore stop to explain any of this? This was the awful truth that would have exposed Mooreâs message for the fraud that it was.
But why should thousands of slaughtered Kosovars spoil Mooreâs box office? What was even more breathtaking was Mooreâs presidential endorsement of General Wesley Clark â the military commander whom Clinton placed in charge of the Kosovo campaign. Once again, any regrets? Not a bit.
Mooreâs "documentary" claims may not be true, but to use John Pilgerâs formulation explaining the left-wing tabloid Daily Mirrorâs fabricated pictures of British soldiers mistreating Iraqi prisoners â "They may not be true, but what they represent is true." If the objective is anti-Americanism at all costs, itâs a small price to pay to overlook inconvenient "facts".
Last week, Christopher Hitchens nailed Moore and the European intellectual climate which gave rise to this fawning phenomenon. "Speaking here in my capacity as a polished, sophisticated European as well," Hitchens said, "it seems to me the laugh here is on the polished, sophisticated Europeans. They think Americans are fat, vulgar, greedy, stupid, ambitious and ignorant and so on. And theyâve taken as their own, as their representative American, someone who actually embodies all of those qualities."
In a world where "representations" trump reality, however, itâs no wonder that Mooreâs "documentary" was awarded the top prize at Cannes yesterday. This is the same mindset that regards the disgraceful treatment of Iraqi prisoners as the moral equivalent of the act of Islamist fanatics in hacking off the head of a non-combatant in Iraq. Mooreâs indignant "anti-imperialism" over Iraq makes a convenient existential leap right over Saddamâs republic of fear and the 200,000 mass graves, just as he silently omitted the Kosovo genocide, so as not to blunt the drama of his "documentary" sequence.
Moore is on record as hailing the already grotesquely misdescribed "resistance" as the equivalent of the minute men â the American revolutionaries â a statement so lacking in seriousness as to border on the unhinged. But donât hold your breath for Moore to be pressed on this.
Nor will watching Moore give anyone the slightest inkling that the real agenda of the Islamo-fascists is to make he wretched of the earth more wretched. Better to ignore the awful truth of this medieval reactionary force â even out of their own mouths â in the interests of a warm and fuzzy trip down memory lane.
Those tempted by Mooreâs latest flick would be better served by treating themselves to the latest movie from another old leftie â Canadian Denys Arcandâs brilliant Barbarian Invasions. Arcandâs characters â not all that unlike Moore â warmly remember the intellectual fashions of their enjoyable, if somewhat misspent, baby boomer youth as their friend, Remy, the philosopher and self-described "sensual socialist", waits to die. Remy recounts a meeting in the early 1970s with a beautiful young woman from China who he tried to chat up with fawning praise for Mao and the Red Guards. The woman, who had lived the nightmare that was the Cultural Revolution and was all too familiar with the genuine article, recoils in horror at Remyâs disconnected pitch. As he recalls these follies, Remy at least has the insight and humour to suggest that the Chinese womanâs horror was perfectly intelligible. He and his pals laugh over the fact there was only one self-loathing "ism" they didnât embrace in the â60s and â70s â "cretinism". Pity we canât say the same for Michael Moore.
Posted by: tipper ||
05/24/2004 4:34:08 AM ||
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#1
You fat bastard, you fat bastard, you ate all the pies...
Posted by: Howard UK ||
05/24/2004 7:33 Comments ||
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#2
I keep waiting for his expose' on the evil Krispy Kreme Doughnut empire. At least it'll have some credibility.
#5
Hitchens said, "it seems to me the laugh here is on the polished, sophisticated Europeans. They think Americans are fat, vulgar, greedy, stupid, ambitious and ignorant and so on. And theyâve taken as their own, as their representative American, someone who actually embodies all of those qualities."
Actually, Hitch, the guy is a complete mental midget and spoiled brat. The UK posters might well remember his temper tantrum ala Sean Penn in London where he evidently abused the stage crews and his roadies for some one man show.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
05/24/2004 16:29 Comments ||
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US scientists have developed an electronic nose device for diagnosing respiratory infections. It works by comparing "smell prints" from a patientâs breath with standardised readings. The doctor can then tell whether the patient has a bacterial infection and allow antibiotics to be prescribed correctly. The University of Pennsylvania team say the device is faster, cheaper and easier to use than current methods.
It can be difficult to distinguish common respiratory infections, such as pneumonia. This can mean that antibiotics are prescribed incorrectly. The researchers say their new device could help prevent this. All bacteria produce unique mixtures of exhaled gas, much like people have unique fingerprints. The e-nose recognises and identifies these patterns. This information can then guide whether an antibiotic is appropriate and, if so, which one. Dr Erica Thaler and colleagues have tested the device in three trials with success. The first two studies looked at pneumonia cases among patients who were on ventilators in a surgical intensive care unit. The e-nose effectively diagnosed 92% of pneumonia cases among 25 patients and distinguished 13 positive cases from 12 other patients who did not have this infection. The third looked at sinusitis - a common infection found in outpatient clinics. The e-nose effectively diagnosed 82% of cases among 22 patients, half with the infection and half without.
Dr Thaler said the device could radically change and improve the way both conditions are diagnosed. "And given that we can apply this sensory analysis to the detection of pneumonia and sinusitis, the, hopefully, it can be applied to common bacterial infections of the upper respiratory tract," she said. Professor Andrew Peacock, of the British Thoracic Society, welcomed the concept. "Lung specialists are commonly faced with a chest x-ray showing changes which could represent infection, tumour, fluid or a number of other causes. If we could quickly and accurately diagnose infection from a computerised âsniffâ, this would indeed be an advance." The e-nose is also being studied for its possible use in diagnosing other conditions such as lung cancer and liver and kidney diseases. It might be possible to detect chemicals and biological agents with the device. The study findings were presented at the combined annual meetings of the Triologic and the American Broncho-Esophagological Association in April.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
05/24/2004 3:04:30 AM ||
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Should we call it Ebolistan?
Teams of international scientists are travelling to southern Sudan, following an outbreak of a new strain of the deadly Ebola virus. World Health Organisation officials have traced an Ebola-like disease to the town of Yambio, in the Western Equatorial region of south Sudan. Fifteen cases of the potentially fatal virus have been confirmed over the past fortnight and four people have died. More than 100 others are being kept under surveillance. Four people are in isolation at Yambio Hospital, so the total infected could still rise.
The Ebola virus in its early stages is hard to diagnose because some of the symptoms, like fever and joint pain, mimic malaria. Many people go on to develop internal bleeding, a characteristic typical of Ebola, and without medical attention the prospects are bleak. A crisis group has been set up with aid agencies in the region, in an attempt to curtail the spread. The last major outbreak was in Uganda two years ago; hundreds died. The hope is that quick action now will avert a similar crisis in southern Sudan.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
05/24/2004 9:05:37 PM ||
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#1
I have read similar reports going back over a year.
Posted by: Phil B ||
05/24/2004 1:37 Comments ||
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#2
It's a voracious organism that likes to invade foreign bodies and breed mindlessly until it conquers or kills the host. Better give it a chair on the UN Human Rights Commission.
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.
