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Islamic courts vow to make Somalia Islamic state
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-Short Attention Span Theater-
Study says millions have 'rage' disorder
To you, that angry, horn-blasting tailgater is suffering from road rage. But doctors have another name for it — lack of maturity and self-discipline intermittent explosive disorder — and a new study suggests it is far more common than they realized, affecting up to 16 million Americans.

"People think it's bad behavior and that you just need an attitude adjustment, but what they don't know ... is that there's a biology and cognitive science to this," said Dr. Emil Coccaro, chairman of psychiatry at the University of Chicago's medical school.

Road rage, temper outbursts that involve throwing or breaking objects and even spousal abuse can sometimes be attributed to the disorder, though not everyone who does those things is afflicted.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: ryuge || 06/06/2006 00:25 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I'm happy that they found a new billing code to charge their patients' insurance diagnosis to help all those poor victims.
Posted by: Desert Blondie || 06/06/2006 0:57 Comments || Top||

#2  Clearly, the State must step in and Do Something.
Posted by: Seafarious || 06/06/2006 1:04 Comments || Top||

#3  Sigh.. they are so-fulla-crap it's called losing it! Rational and irrational people do it Even people with real mental disorders do it.


Some new BS the healifeelies have ginned up to make money. There are enough real disorders out there that are untreated such they don't need to pull a new one out of their rear ends.
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 06/06/2006 2:49 Comments || Top||

#4  Triglycerides, baby. Fuck 'em if they can't take a joke. It's not rage, it's just smackdown practice. Sometimes you get fed up with smug wimpy fools who think they can taunt with impunity, that you have to obey the ruleset they've adopted. Woops, your bad, LOL. The ongoing Pussification of America. Kiss my very rare ass, LOL.

Already over-studied, but they think they hear more grant money jingling in Sugar Daddy's pocket...
Posted by: flyover || 06/06/2006 3:41 Comments || Top||

#5  There's a large body of scientific evidence that many and arguably most people suffering from psychiatric disorders are just exhibiting the behaviour that gets rewarded by the Psychiatric/Psychological/Social system.

Ever wonder why electroconvulsive therapy is the most effective treatment for a number of psychiatric disorders?

If you answered, 'It's very unpleasant and people don't want to repeat the experience,' you get the cigar.
Posted by: phil_b || 06/06/2006 5:25 Comments || Top||

#6  "To you, that angry, horn-blasting tailgater is suffering from road rage."

He's not "suffering" from anything: he's just an asshole.
Posted by: Dave D. || 06/06/2006 7:23 Comments || Top||

#7  Being a Mechanic, and knowing how sensitive today's automotive electronics really are, I've dreamed of an "Electronic Gun" that kills auto computers.

Nice thought, instant asshole remover, push the button and his car dies. Much expensive Dealership time connected to their computer is needed to ressurect the car, after a few times either the attitude changes, or he's broke and walking.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 06/06/2006 8:38 Comments || Top||

#8 
This article makes me angry with RAGE!


"He's not "suffering" from anything: he's just an asshole."

Maybe he's an asshole because the idiot he's tailgating is chatting on the phone, reading or otherwise not paying attention and driving 15 mph below the speed limit.

Not that I advocate tailgating, too risky, the idiot in front of you might hit the brakes. But
you get my drift.

Constantly having to deal with the mindless idiots spawned by todays society/education system...etc. can provoke even the most even tempered of people into an occasional rage.

Well...excluding me, of course! 8-)

-M
Posted by: Manolo || 06/06/2006 8:46 Comments || Top||

#9  What's that smell? Oh! it's the steaming pile of bullshit coming from this article.

Reduce any bad behavior to the category of a disorder, and you remove any culpability. The defense attorneys are salivating over this one. Haven't we given them enough BS for their arsenal already?
Posted by: mcsegeek1 || 06/06/2006 9:27 Comments || Top||

#10  I DON'T HAVE RAGE ISSUES, YOU PRICKS!!! FUCK YOU, FUCK THE HORSE YOU RODE IN ON AND FUCKING DIE!!


The statement above does not condone anger or diddling horses
Posted by: DarthVader || 06/06/2006 9:56 Comments || Top||

#11  intermittent explosive disorder

IED?

I think somebody's pullin' my chain...
Posted by: mojo || 06/06/2006 10:29 Comments || Top||

#12  I think the cause of the rage is the MSM.
Being lied to day after day without any recourse, without any vent, causes internal pressure. This can only be released by lashing out at out fellow man, or by sawing the head off Dan Rather.
Posted by: wxjames || 06/06/2006 10:55 Comments || Top||

#13 
"...intermittent explosive disorder involves multiple outbursts..."

This is what happens to me when I eat too much Wendy's chili!

-M
Posted by: Manolo || 06/06/2006 11:12 Comments || Top||

#14  What kind of disorder do you have if you have a history of knocking the fuck out of people throwing their little temper tantrum?
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 06/06/2006 12:15 Comments || Top||

#15  I'm just glad to know I'm not alone.

Group hug?
Posted by: DoDo || 06/06/2006 12:39 Comments || Top||

#16  Big Jim, I think that's known as 'Republicanism'.
Posted by: mcsegeek1 || 06/06/2006 12:54 Comments || Top||

#17  "...because the idiot he's tailgating is chatting on the phone, reading or otherwise not paying attention and driving 15 mph below the speed limit."

He's probably a Democrat. Ram him.

Posted by: Dave D. || 06/06/2006 13:19 Comments || Top||

#18  My job is working with mentally ill kids, and I'll trade salaries with any of ya'll. Now I'm also sceptical of some of these acronymic collection-of-symptom diagnoses, but you're ignorant if you think these kind of things represent anything near socially acceptable behavior. If you saw one of these kids with "IED" in action, you'd be the first to say, "That kid is CRAZY!"

The profession is moving away from excusing behavior with diagnosis, and focusing on taking responsibility for yourself, and whatever it takes to change the way you act.

The media, of course, will be the last to catch on.

Posted by: markawarka || 06/06/2006 13:37 Comments || Top||

#19  A couple more comments:

"How did mankind manage to survive before psychology?"

Well, lots of people didn't (survive, that is). Lot's of people still don't. Folks tend to kill other folks when they are enraged. If knowing more about psychology can improve things, there is nothing wrong with that. The trick is judging whether or not it's improved.

On the other hand:

"a new study suggests it is far more common than they realized, affecting up to 16 million Americans."

Somebody is looking for more funding.
Posted by: markawarka || 06/06/2006 13:45 Comments || Top||

#20  Dr. Emil Coccaro can KISS MY ASS!!!
Posted by: tu3031 || 06/06/2006 14:23 Comments || Top||

#21  markawarka - you've made some good points that are a good antidote for any excess snarkiness I may have made in my comments, and I do know people who have been helped by the good work of mental health care professionals. I wonder about the potential for abuse of this diagnosis by many and do still have some skepticism about those who will be claiming to have this disorder.

The profession is moving away from excusing behavior with diagnosis, and focusing on taking responsibility for yourself, and whatever it takes to change the way you act.

If this is true, it is a big step in the right direction and a very welcome change indeed. So keep up the good work markawarka - working with seriously mentally ill children is hard work which benefits society and I, for one, thank you.
Posted by: ryuge || 06/06/2006 17:18 Comments || Top||

#22  intermittent explosive disorder

Don't the Palestinians already have a lock on this one?
Posted by: Zenster || 06/06/2006 19:56 Comments || Top||

#23  I've got a 30-year-old (physically, mentally about 14) son that goes through this type of behavior whenever he screws up, only he takes his anger out on himself. He DELIBERATELY screws up rather frequently. So far, all the psychologists he's been to haven't been able to do much. His problems go back to his birth-parents who abused him terribly before we adopted him, and may be unsolvable. In the meantime, he's in a group facility. If he fails there, he'll end up in a lock-down facility.

Diagnosis is one thing - treatment something else. Sometimes, there are kids that just can't be helped.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 06/06/2006 20:33 Comments || Top||

#24  It's amazing what problems a little seratonin imbalance can cause. From simple depression to anxiety disorders, including debilitating obsessive-compulsive behaviours and post-traumatic stress disorder, and now episodic uncontrolled rage response.

Trailing daughter #1 was just diagnosed with anxiety and panic attack disorders; the plan is for her to go on a seratonin re-uptake inhibitor medicine plus psychological/behaviour modification counselling for a year, after which it is hoped she'll be fine... and hopefully never need either meds or psychotherapeutic intervention ever again. I read the article to indicate that this rage disorder will be treated similarly: medical treatment plus behaviour modification to reset the person's response mode. This is a good thing, guys -- it gives the person a chance to break a bad pattern, and makes him/her responsible for accomplishing it.
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/06/2006 23:08 Comments || Top||

#25  Think a traditional computer (leave out the asynchronous arm kind) with a clock signal delivered to each gate complex to declare windows when things can happen.

Now if you compare computers to a brain .. then ...
seratonin controls the "regular clocking" distributed in the brain much the same way a computers clock distribution circuitry does.

Now many really wild drugs like LSD make this clock random or screw up its phases so you get the effect known as "Tripping". Drugs with finer tuning attempt to stablize and regulate this clocking leaving a flat and stable psyche.

So rage being a defect in clock stablity makes sense. That said lots of other factors come into play too.

Posted by: 3dc || 06/06/2006 23:25 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Saudi morality police turn witch hunters
KSA's new improved Committee for the Prevention of Vice and the Promotion of Mai Tai Cocktails. You put the lime in the coconut and...
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia's powerful morality police is launching a witch hunt in the birthplace of Islam.
Run, Harry Potter! The Death Eaters!
The Authority for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice is setting up special centres in all cities to "register complaints on sorcerers and charlatans, track them and terminate them", the authority's chief Sheikh Ibrahim bin Abdallah al-Ghaith told al-Madinah newspaper.
"Terminating" them sounds pretty permanent.
Islam forbids magic and practicing it is considered blasphemy. Saudi newspapers often report incidents involving so-called sorcerers, mainly from the Indian subcontinent and Africa. Some Saudis pay them vast amounts of money, hoping to uncover hidden treasures or get jobs, according to the papers.
Ummm... The customers aren't blaspheming, but the witches are? Sounds logical... I guess... In an Arab sort of way...
The ones with 'vast amounts of money' get to make the rules in most lands ...
The religious police have wide powers in Saudi Arabia, which imposes a strict version of Sunni Islam, to prevent the spread of drugs, alcohol and prostitution as well as stop unrelated men and women mixing in public.
Posted by: Fred || 06/06/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Bet only women are convicted.

Posted by: DoDo || 06/06/2006 0:14 Comments || Top||

#2  I hear witches can float. They better drown all the womenfolk to make sure they don't practice black magic....
Posted by: Scooter McGruder || 06/06/2006 0:25 Comments || Top||

#3  And what else floats?
Posted by: Steve White || 06/06/2006 0:54 Comments || Top||

#4  A duck!
Posted by: Monsieur Moonbat || 06/06/2006 3:47 Comments || Top||

#5  And what else floats?

lead balloon?
Posted by: RD || 06/06/2006 7:01 Comments || Top||

#6  She turned me into a newt.
Posted by: Mike || 06/06/2006 11:02 Comments || Top||

#7  There are ways of telling whether she is a witch.
Posted by: Mike || 06/06/2006 11:03 Comments || Top||

#8  Trivia bit: the Arnold movie "The Terminator", was a huge hit in the Middle East.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 06/06/2006 11:17 Comments || Top||

#9  If she ... weighs the same as a duck ... she's made of wood...And therefore.....a witch!

Posted by: mcsegeek1 || 06/06/2006 14:08 Comments || Top||

#10  Floats?

Of course this means that oil == witch
but
as a previous poster pointed out
Nanotech terminators pool like oil or mercury so..
oil == witch == terminator2 == evil == AQ they are supposed to hunt too == muslim fanatic == Saudi Morality Police

The circle is unbroken!

Posted by: 3dc || 06/06/2006 16:05 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
Mexico Hopes Reserve Will Slow Crossings
Don't dismiss this out of hand. The more you read and think about it, the more it seems like part of the solution. Though the border is going to have to be more than 30 feet wide.
MEXICO CITY (AP) - Mexico is creating an environmental reserve about 30 feet wide and 600 miles long on the Texas border, a "green wall" to protect the Rio Grande from the roads and staging areas that smugglers use to ferry drugs and migrants across the frontier.

Much of this border zone is remote and inhospitable - generally too rough to hike through unless you're a black bear or a pronghorn sheep, species that have flourished in the area's deserts and mountains. And that's the way Mexico wants to keep it.

While the proposed Rio Bravo del Norte Natural Monument is only about 30 feet wide, it will connect two large protected areas south of the river. When a third nature reserve, known as Ocampo, is created this year, the protected areas in Mexico will form a "wall" of millions of acres of wilderness, matching Texas' Big Bend parks foot-by-foot along the border. "This stretch of border is the safest one we have. It's safe because it has wilderness on both sides," said Carlos Manterrola, who heads the environmental group Unidos Para la Conservacion.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve White || 06/06/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  And they get points from the greenies, too.

Shows their evolving and they have money (ours) to do this.
Posted by: anonymous2u || 06/06/2006 1:16 Comments || Top||

#2  30 ft wide?

That'll work.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 06/06/2006 6:04 Comments || Top||

#3  So they will fence off their 10-paces-wide National Park, and patrol it to stop 4WD vehicles cutting tracks into remote areas?
This shows the contempt Mexico has for the US.
Posted by: Grunter || 06/06/2006 9:11 Comments || Top||

#4  pronghorn sheep?!.... hello, antelope, not sheep
Posted by: bk || 06/06/2006 9:45 Comments || Top||

#5  I bet this has something to do with deniability.

"No senior, we would go in there and look for coyotes and smugglers but that is a reserve and only the Federalies have the juresdiction."
Posted by: rjschwarz || 06/06/2006 14:11 Comments || Top||


Peru's business sector relieved by Garcia vote victory
Members of Peru's business sector breathed a sigh of relief Monday after Alan Garcia won the presidential elections, but they warned that he will have his work cut out in governing a deeply divided nation. "It is important that a democratic option won that does not aspire to destroy the fundamental legal framework, which is the constitution," said Compania de Minas Buenaventura SAA's (BVN) chief financial officer Carlos Galvez in a telephone interview with Dow Jones Newswires.

Garcia, a 57-year-old lawyer, ran the nation from 1985 to 1990 as leader of the social democratic party, Apra. Although that administration ended with spiraling inflation and rampant terrorism, a majority of voters decided Sunday that Garcia was a better choice than nationalist candidate Ollanta Humala. The 43-year-old Humala had spooked the business sector when he proposed a new constitution for Peru. Humala also planned to take control of energy resources, including the giant Camisea natural gas project, which came on stream in mid-2004.

The ex-military officer also promised to impose a windfall tax on mining projects, force all companies to pay royalties, and re-negotiate contracts that have guaranteed "tax stability" for many mining companies operating in Peru. In recent years Peru has become one of the world's largest producers of gold, copper, zinc and silver, and a boom in global commodities' prices has meant increased investment and higher revenues for companies operating in the sector. However, many of Peru's poorest people claim they have reaped no personal benefits and Humala sought to cash in on that social discontent. Garcia took a much more moderate approach during the campaign, saying the government could re-negotiate energy contracts but any changes would be negotiated and not imposed.
Posted by: Fred || 06/06/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Do they want cash or running water and sewers that work???
Posted by: anonymous2u || 06/06/2006 1:18 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
China's secret row bursts into the open
A FIERCE internal debate in China between economic reformers and new leftists opposed to the rush to embrace capitalism finally burst into the public eye yesterday.

The People’s Daily, the mouthpiece of the Communist Party that has ruled China since 1949, ran a commentary that left no room for questions over the direction of 28-year-old market reforms. “Unwaveringly keep to the path of reform,” read the headline.

A decision to publish such a prominent article in the newspaper, which is charged with reflecting party policy, could only have been made with the blessing of the party’s leader, President Hu Jintao. While the piece makes reference to the most pressing concerns of the new leftists, such as the widening gap between rich and poor, it is aimed at ending opposition to the pace of reform.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: DanNY || 06/06/2006 08:13 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  “I think reform has gone far beyond the ability of the masses to endure.”

"If, however, I were to be given a lucrative consulting contract by a multinational corporation, the masses might be able to suck it up a while longer."
Posted by: Matt || 06/06/2006 12:26 Comments || Top||

#2  Nostalgia is widespread for the days of Chairman Mao Zedong when everyone was equally poor.

Ahh! The punchline for communism everywhere.
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 06/06/2006 12:39 Comments || Top||

#3  “I think reform has gone far beyond the ability of the masses to endure.”

Heh. Judging by the hellacious pile of corpses over the last few decades, there is no doubt some of "the masses" didn't hold up too well.

I think the ChiComs should embrace Venezuelan-style Hugoism. No, it's not good advice, but it would be fun to watch. Plus between that, Venezuela itself and the Paleos, my Rantburg Popcorn Futures should go thru the roof.
Posted by: SteveS || 06/06/2006 12:47 Comments || Top||

#4  "Hold the Mao..."
Posted by: mojo || 06/06/2006 16:44 Comments || Top||

#5  And they're supposed to be the future - at least at the end of the 21st century - they won't be able to manage it any more than the russkies.
Posted by: anonymous2u || 06/06/2006 19:56 Comments || Top||

#6  mojo's on a roll
Posted by: Frank G || 06/06/2006 20:44 Comments || Top||

#7  SteveS: I think the ChiComs should embrace Venezuelan-style Hugoism.

The Communist Party is starting to look like the Nationalist Party (Kuomintang) before the Communists split off. What precipitated the split? The Nationalist Party purged its leftists, by dragging them out and shooting or disappearing them. It will be interesting to see if a factional war breaks out into the open today, and how army and police units line up. It could happen - and if it does, I expect the Chinese economy will go into the crapper, which will be a big drag on the world economy.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 06/06/2006 21:05 Comments || Top||

#8  It will happen, but the drag on the world economny will be temporary whereas the drag on China could be catastrophic. There's pleanty of empty maquilladoras.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 06/06/2006 21:17 Comments || Top||

#9  NS: It will happen, but the drag on the world economny will be temporary whereas the drag on China could be catastrophic. There's pleanty of empty maquilladoras.

I beg to differ. The drag on the world economy will be huge - similar to taking Japan off the economic map. Besides, Chinese jobs won't move to Mexico - they'll move right back to Northeast and Southeast Asia, from which they came. (Mexicans don't make much, but they're not very productive by Asian standards). The problem is that there'll be this huge hole representing domestic Chinese demand - a market in which, for example, 5 million cars were sold last year (compared to 1 million cars in India).
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 06/06/2006 22:21 Comments || Top||

#10  America survived the "British Invasion" + Japanese Cars/Just-in-Time national mania + German "spare parts" national mania - we can survive China.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 06/06/2006 23:06 Comments || Top||

#11 
"...Chinese demand - a market in which, for example, 5 million cars were sold last year..."

Okay. But were any of those cars American cars? Just how much does China actually buy from us, that we can afford not to sell?

But that's just me.

-M

Personally, I would like to see Chine implode like a sub below its crush depth, then consume itself in a cataclysmic civil war.
Posted by: Manolo || 06/06/2006 23:08 Comments || Top||

#12  Just how much does China actually buy from us

Not a lot. What the US does sell is primarily high tech machinery.
2005: Exports: $41.8B, Imports: $243.5B Deficit: $201.7B

2006 US Trade deficit w/ China will be $240-250B, or same as the entire GDP of Vietnam w/ 85 million people.
US-China Trade Statistics and China's World Trade Statistics
Posted by: ed || 06/06/2006 23:34 Comments || Top||

#13  P.S. Compare the US $200B deficit with China's $100B trade deficit with the rest of the world (Table 4). The US consumer is completely funding China's growth.
Posted by: ed || 06/06/2006 23:38 Comments || Top||


Suicide attack at Chinese wedding
A man strapped with explosives has blown himself up at his ex-wife's wedding in China, killing himself and eight other people, reports say.

Lu Wenfeng detonated the bomb at a ceremony in Heilongjiang province "out of resentment for his ex-wife", the official Xinhua news agency said. At least five people were hurt in the attack. The fate of Mr Lu's ex-wife and the man she was marrying is not known.

Mr Lu was married to Li Jinling for five years between 2000 and 2005.

Posted by: DanNY || 06/06/2006 08:09 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  This lack of chicks thing in China seems to be getting critical.
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 06/06/2006 12:56 Comments || Top||

#2  DanNY: This lack of chicks thing in China seems to be getting critical.

It's not really an issue yet. The one-child program was promulgated in the late 70's, and really started getting enforced in the mid-80's. The net result is that the sex differential is only starting to hit 20 year olds right around now. But the typical Chinese gets married around age 25. The one-child generation hits that age around 2010.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 06/06/2006 18:37 Comments || Top||

#3  The other thing you have to understand is that people with more than one child tend not to report that fact to the census. There is a penalty of $13,000 per child for every child in excess of one. As a result, even though the official figures indicate a sex imbalance, the reality could be quite different. I personally know of several Chinese who have had more than one child in recent years, some of them surreptitiously. It's not easy to track the number of children in a family. As long as Chinese society was organized around paid government-employed snitches, it was possible to keep a close eye on those numbers. Today the number of secret police is way down, thanks to the government's shift in priorities, and there's so much more geographical mobility that I would say the one-child policy is a dead letter, since it's almost impossible to enforce.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 06/06/2006 18:45 Comments || Top||

#4  Is it correct that this is more an urban phenomenon ?

I've read that in the major cities like Shanghai, this rule is just ignored by the uppler classes.

But with greater CCP control in the rural areas, the gender imbalance is greater here.

What about the societal preference for males
(that also is severe in South Korea and in India)?


Posted by: john || 06/06/2006 20:12 Comments || Top||

#5  john: What about the societal preference for males
(that also is severe in South Korea and in India)?


I think the problem of societal disincentives is not as bad in China - because of the institution of a bride price. In India, the bride has to bring with her a dowry from her family to present to the groom's family - i.e. the bride's family not only has to bring her up; it's got to pay a substantial sum for her to be married off. In China, the groom has to present a bride price to the bride's parents - i.e. the groom's family has to pay a substantial sum to the bride's parents in order to get the bride's hand in marriage, meaning that the bride's family gets back a part of the cost of bringing her up. In China, as potential brides become scarcer, bride prices should skyrocket. I have read that dowries in India are plummeting. Interestingly enough, even in two nominally socialist countries, markets are reducing the disincentives for having daughters.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 06/06/2006 20:55 Comments || Top||


Europe
Massive Refinery Fire in Antwerp
No word on the cause as yet. The refinery belongs to Total.
Posted by: lotp || 06/06/2006 16:37 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  So as a result, the cost of gas in Lexington will go through the roof I presume.
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 06/06/2006 17:13 Comments || Top||

#2  Any employees come dressed all in white and completely shaved?
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 06/06/2006 18:09 Comments || Top||


Spanish court probes Chinese 'genocide' in Tibet
MADRID — Spain's national court opened an investigation into the supposed genocide perpetrated by the Chinese government in Tibet. Thubten Wangchen, the director of the Tibet House Foundation in Barcelona, was questioned as a witness in the case. Wangchen simply confirmed accusations made by the complainant, the Support Tibet Committee (CAT), which accuses seven Chinese leaders of the death or disappearance of more than a million Tibetans since the beginning of the Chinese army occupation in 1951.

Judge Ismael Moreno will preside over trial of the case in the national court, which for purposes of the investigation has dispatched commissions to the United Kingdom and Canada to question other victims and witnesses.

After taking the stand, the Tibetan exile, a nationalized Spaniard presenting his own individual accusation, told reporters that this was "an historic day" because "for the first time" a Tibetan gets to tell a judge what happened in Tibet. In his testimony to the magistrate, he said that the object of the trial is not so much that the accused members of the Chinese government be handed over to Spain, but that "what happened in Tibet be discussed at an international level," so that "the Chinese government admits its errors and begins to respect human rights".
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve || 06/06/2006 08:45 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Pinochet, journalist death in Baghdad, now Tibet. Is this some sort of Spanish cultural imperative left over from the inquisition?
Posted by: Snerese Angeang9015 || 06/06/2006 10:30 Comments || Top||

#2  Still no match for GWB the worst criminal in the history of the world.
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 06/06/2006 11:15 Comments || Top||

#3  Snerese Angeang9015 - you missed them trying 911 suspects instead of turning them over to the US.

Posted by: 3dc || 06/06/2006 11:33 Comments || Top||

#4  Oct 19, 2005: Spanish Judge Issues Warrant for Three GIs
A judge has issued an international arrest warrant for three U.S. soldiers whose tank fired on a Baghdad hotel during the Iraq war, killing a Spanish journalist and a Ukrainian cameraman, a court official said Wednesday.
Posted by: ed || 06/06/2006 11:54 Comments || Top||

#5  Spain is a spoiled girl wanting attention?
Posted by: 3dc || 06/06/2006 12:16 Comments || Top||

#6  3dc - don't insult girls.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 06/06/2006 15:25 Comments || Top||

#7  Sorry Barbara. I was thinking attention seeking petulant Texas cheerleader mothers but that seemed unfair to cheerleaders... so I screwed up.
Posted by: 3dc || 06/06/2006 15:47 Comments || Top||

#8  Good luck to the Spanish with that.
Posted by: SR-71 || 06/06/2006 17:04 Comments || Top||


Today in History: D-Day, 1944
"...we were hearing noises on the side of the landing craft like someone throwing gravel against it. The German machine gunners had picked us up. Everybody yelled, 'Stay down!'... I noticed the lieutenant's face was a very gray color and the rest of the men had a look of fear on their faces. All of a sudden the lieutenant yelled to the coxswain, 'Let her down!' The ramp dropped...."

--Pvt. H. W. Schroeder, 16th Infantry Regiment, U.S. 1st Division
Posted by: Mike || 06/06/2006 07:49 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Total Allied casualties on D-Day are estimated at 10,000, including 2500 dead. British casualties on D-Day have been estimated at approximately 2700. The Canadians lost 946 casualties. The US forces lost 6603 men.

That's for for one day. Oh the horror of it all. It's a quagmire. Time to pull our troops out. Oh, wait...
Posted by: Uloger Whease2177 || 06/06/2006 8:45 Comments || Top||

#2  Mere words are inadequate in describing the bravery and sacrifice made to safeguard our future.
Posted by: Captain America || 06/06/2006 8:53 Comments || Top||

#3  Out of respect and affection for the brave men who fought and died on this day 62 years ago, I thought it appropriate to post the speech given by President Ronald Reagan at Omaha Beach, June 6th, 1984:

"Mr. President, distinguished guests, we stand today at a place of battle, one that 40 years ago saw and felt the worst of war. Men bled and died here for a few feet of--or inches of sand, as bullets and shellfire cut through their ranks. About them, General Omar Bradley later said, "Every man who set foot on Omaha Beach that day was a hero."

No speech can adequately portray their suffering, their sacrifice, their heroism. President Lincoln once reminded us that through their deeds, the dead of battle have spoken more eloquently for themselves than any of the living ever could. But we can only honor them by rededicating ourselves to the cause for which they gave a last full measure of devotion.

Today we do rededicate ourselves to that cause. And at this place of honor, we're humbled by the realization of how much so many gave to the cause of freedom and to their fellow man.

Some who survived the battle of June 6, 1944, are here today. Others who hoped to return never did.

"Someday, Lis, I'll go back," said Private First Class Peter Robert Zanatta, of the 37th Engineer Combat Battalion, and first assault wave to hit Omaha Beach. "I'll go back, and I'll see it all again. I'll see the beach, the barricades, and the graves."

Those words of Private Zanatta come to us from his daughter, Lisa Zanatta Henn, in a heartrending story about the event her father spoke of so often. "In his words, the Normandy invasion would change his life forever," she said. She tells some of his stories of World War II but says of her father, "the story to end all stories was D-Day."

"He made me feel the fear of being on that boat waiting to land. I can smell the ocean and feel the seasickness. I can see the looks on his fellow soldiers' faces--the fear, the anguish, the uncertainty of what lay ahead. And when they landed, I can feel the strength and courage of the men who took those first steps through the tide to what must have surely looked like instant death."

Private Zanatta's daughter wrote to me: "I don't know how or why I can feel this emptiness, this fear, or this determination, but I do. Maybe it's the bond I had with my father. All I know is that it brings tears to my eyes to think about my father as a 20-year-old boy having to face that beach."

The anniversary of D-Day was always special for her family. And like all the families of those who went to war, she describes how she came to realize her own father's survival was a miracle: "So many men died. I know that my father watched many of his friends be killed. I know that he must have died inside a little each time. But his explanation to me was, 'You did what you had to do, and you kept on going.'"

When men like Private Zanatta and all our Allied forces stormed the beaches of Normandy 40 years ago they came not as conquerors, but as liberators. When these troops swept across the French countryside and into the forests of Belgium and Luxembourg they came not to take, but to return what had been wrongly seized. When our forces marched into Germany they came not to prey on a brave and defeated people, but to nurture the seeds of democracy among those who yearned to be free again.

We salute them today. But, Mr. President, we also salute those who, like yourself, were already engaging the enemy inside your beloved country--the French Resistance. Your valiant struggle for France did so much to cripple the enemy and spur the advance of the armies of liberation. The French Forces of the Interior will forever personify courage and national spirit. They will be a timeless inspiration to all who are free and to all who would be free.

Today, in their memory, and for all who fought here, we celebrate the triumph of democracy. We reaffirm the unity of democratic peoples who fought a war and then joined with the vanquished in a firm resolve to keep the peace.

From a terrible war we learned that unity made us invincible; now, in peace, that same unity makes us secure. We sought to bring all freedom-loving nations together in a community dedicated to the defense and preservation of our sacred values. Our alliance, forged in the crucible of war, tempered and shaped by the realities of the postwar world, has succeeded. In Europe, the threat has been contained, the peace has been kept.

Today the living here assembled--officials, veterans, citizens--are a tribute to what was achieved here 40 years ago. This land is secure. We are free. These things are worth fighting and dying for.

Lisa Zanatta Henn began her story by quoting her father, who promised that he would return to Normandy. She ended with a promise to her father, who died eight years ago of cancer: "I'm going there, Dad, and I'll see the beaches and the barricades and the monuments. I'll see the graves, and I'll put flowers there just like you wanted to do. I'll feel all the things you made me feel through your stories and your eyes. I'll never forget what you went through, Dad, nor will I let anyone else forget. And, Dad, I'll always be proud."

Through the words of his loving daughter, who is here with us today, a D-Day veteran has shown us the meaning of this day far better than any President can. It is enough for us to say about Private Zanatta and all the men of honor and courage who fought beside him four decades ago: We will always remember. We will always be proud. We will always be prepared, so we may always be free.

Thank you."

Posted by: mcsegeek1 || 06/06/2006 9:42 Comments || Top||

#4  D-Day photo essay here.
Posted by: Mike || 06/06/2006 11:12 Comments || Top||

#5  Good site, with search:

http://www.wwiimemorial.com
Posted by: mojo || 06/06/2006 16:45 Comments || Top||

#6  The National Guard unit of my hometown had 99% casualties. It would have been wiped out but for a dud mine.
Posted by: Pappy || 06/06/2006 20:47 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
$50 million in trips for Congress
EFL
Join Congress, see the world. Join a congressman's staff, see more of it.

Private groups, corporations or trade associations — many with legislation that could affect them pending before Congress — paid nearly $50 million since 2000 to send members of Congress and their staffers on at least 23,000 trips overseas and within the United States, according to a study released Monday.

Continued on Page 49
Posted by: ryuge || 06/06/2006 07:24 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Unfortunately, the trips all involve return tickets.
Posted by: Uloger Whease2177 || 06/06/2006 8:42 Comments || Top||

#2  Where do institutions like the Aspen Institute get the money to piss away with such ferver ?
Posted by: wxjames || 06/06/2006 10:50 Comments || Top||

#3  You can down load the Aspen Insitute's 2004 Annual Report (pdf).
Posted by: Pappy || 06/06/2006 14:09 Comments || Top||

#4  Hey. There's that phrase again. "Non partisan".
The phrase that pays...
Posted by: tu3031 || 06/06/2006 14:20 Comments || Top||

#5  Even a freakin' assistant professor gets a better travel budget than a Congressman (hyperbole off). Seriously, what do we expect from a bunch of people paid less than $175K per year, when they have to maintain 2 residences, master innumerable policy issues, and work 365 days a year? This is pitiful, they run the most powerful, prosperous country the world has ever known, and earn less than an owner-operator of a typical McDonalds. Pay them a million a year, give 'em another million a year for expenses, and neuter anyone who accepts a penny from anyone for anything.
Posted by: Perfesser || 06/06/2006 17:00 Comments || Top||


Government settles case with Wen Ho Lee
The government and five news organizations agreed Friday to pay former nuclear scientist Wen Ho Lee $1.6 million to settle his lawsuit that accused officials of wrongly identifying him as a suspected spy for China.

Lee sued the Justice Department and the Energy Department claiming officials violated his privacy rights when they leaked damaging information about him to the press during a 1999 investigation into files allegedly missing from the nuclear research facility at Los Alamos, New Mexico.

Government officials, including then-Energy Secretary Bill Richardson, publicly named Lee as a target of the probe, and investigators suspected the Taiwan-born U.S. citizen was spying for China.

Lee, 66, was indicted on 59 counts of stealing nuclear weapons data from the Los Alamos facility. He was fired from his job, labeled a national security threat and spent nine months in solitary confinement. He was released in 2000 and all but one count was dismissed.

He pleaded guilty to mishandling classified computer files, a felony. A federal judge sharply criticized the prosecution's case and President Clinton apologized to Lee for his treatment. Lee now lives near Sacramento, California.

After his release from prison, Lee sued the government under the Privacy Act, alleging officials leaked false and incriminating information to several reporters.
Rest at link.
Posted by: ed || 06/06/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  This is a event that will undermine Gov. Bill Richardson's [D-NM] presidential ambitions. Los Alamos was under his authority as head of DoE when these events unfolded. When the media was abuzz with stories of Chinese spying, Mr. Lee became the target of government efforts to show "gentlemen we got to do something to protect our phony baloney jobs". Mr. Clinton's administration had no problem with racial profiling.
Posted by: Uloger Whease2177 || 06/06/2006 8:39 Comments || Top||

#2  Mr. Lee also wanted the names of the people who leaked his information to the reporters but they refused. A judge ordered them to divulge their sources but they still refused and the Judge held them in contempt of court and the fines they would have to pay out of their own pockets would have bankrupted them. A deal was struck by wich the newspapers in question paid Mr. Lee an unspecified ammount of money in return for the Judge lifting the fines from the reporters. The MSM was calling foul all around. I still think the leakers names should be made public.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 06/06/2006 11:01 Comments || Top||


Representative Kennedy Ends Rehab
Representative Patrick Kennedy said today that he felt much better after almost a month's treatment for drug dependency in the Mayo Clinic, and that he was looking forward to resuming his duties. But he said that he continues to suffer from mental illness that leads to addiction, and will need help from a support group to avoid a relapse. "The key to recovery will be a small group of people who will watch over me," he said at a televised news conference that was accessible via the Internet.
Might be easier on your recovery, Mr. Kennedy, if you found a less stressful job to engage your mind and energy. And your constituents might benefit from having a full-time member of Congress. Just sayin', that's all.
Posted by: Fred || 06/06/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  That is not near long enough. A good drug rehab takes at least 2 years.
Posted by: 3dc || 06/06/2006 1:44 Comments || Top||

#2  You forgot he is rich 3dc. He is cured when his ass is out of a sling with the law and has the money to say so. Anyone else would be facing jail time and big fines. This is typical rich liberal BS.
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 06/06/2006 2:57 Comments || Top||

#3  LOOOOOOOOOOSER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Like father like son. DRUNKIN' LOUDMOUTH PIECE OF SH!T!!!!
Posted by: ARMYGUY || 06/06/2006 7:54 Comments || Top||

#4  If this were you or me we would be facing some serious jail time - and not in Club Fed either.

Since when has any Kennedy given a chit about their 'constituents'...
Posted by: CrazyFool || 06/06/2006 8:36 Comments || Top||

#5  "I see you're out of rehab."

"Yes, Uncle Ted."

"Let's drink to that!"
Posted by: Mike || 06/06/2006 9:21 Comments || Top||

#6  Now if they can only get Teddy and RFK jr. into some kind of program. If you haven't seen RFK Jr's whiny rant about the stolen Ohio election is very entertaining.
Posted by: Cyber Sarge || 06/06/2006 10:38 Comments || Top||

#7  Great. Now he gets to hang out with "dad", who could possibly be the most nondisciplined man in American history.
I need an over/under on relapse.
Posted by: tu3031 || 06/06/2006 16:07 Comments || Top||

#8  Ten bucks sez he's re-elected and checks back into the Mayo by Christmas.
Posted by: Inspector Clueso || 06/06/2006 16:58 Comments || Top||

#9  50 bucks says he had a drink on the way home. :-(
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 06/06/2006 17:49 Comments || Top||

#10  100 bucks sez he kills someone in his lifetime by driving drunk (including himself). 30 days was PR, not rehab. Shame on RI for sending him back
Posted by: Frank G || 06/06/2006 19:40 Comments || Top||

#11  Rhode Island deserves him.
Posted by: Pappy || 06/06/2006 20:49 Comments || Top||


Bush reiterates support for amendment banning gay marriage
For the second time in three days, President Bush implored the Senate to pass a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, saying Monday that the issue needs to be wrestled away from "overreaching judges" and placed in the hands of the American people.

Critics on both sides of the debate accused the president of playing politics with the socially sensitive issue by seeking to rouse social conservatives to support Republicans in this congressional election year even if the cause has no realistic hope of enactment. Bush's talk came as the Senate continued debate on a measure that isn't likely to win the two-thirds majority vote in both the Senate and House of Representatives that the Constitution requires. "Marriage is the most fundamental institution of civilization and it should not be redefined by activist judges," Bush said following a meeting with amendment supporters in the White House. "Our policies should aim to strengthen families, not undermine them. And our changing the definition of marriage would undermine the family structure."
Posted by: Fred || 06/06/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Isn't Andrew Sullivan opposed to this?
Posted by: Captain America || 06/06/2006 8:51 Comments || Top||

#2  He should be. It's pure idiocy.

A fine example of "things that should NOT be in a constitution."
Posted by: mojo || 06/06/2006 11:21 Comments || Top||

#3  This is the result of having a judiciary which believes and acts as though it is above the people. It long ago forgot Jefferson's warning about the 'consent of the govern'. I too would not like it having to be made a Constitutional Amendment, but I can not trust the judiciary to give a rat's fart about what the people want. Every referendum and legislative branch has turned back gay marriage, but it is those who are above the people to force it down their throats. Article IV, Section 1 means that each state must recognize the public acts and effects thereof of other states. The 14th Amendment stipulates that no state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of any citizen nor deny equal protection before the law. So, if one state recognizes and establishes gay marriages, then all states must recognize it and give the current judicial view on 'equal protection' then it will follow shortly that those within the other states will file and receive by judicial decree similar contracts without the consent of the govern. There is no legislative way around it. You have two choices, specifically by amendment take the issue away from the judiciary or make the judiciary directly accountable to the people.
Posted by: Hupaper Unolusing9804 || 06/06/2006 11:39 Comments || Top||

#4  Don't forget the amendment banning desecration of the flag, too. And let's look for Republicans to start visiting factories that make the American flag, everyone loves photo ops at factories that produce American flags. It's this kind of imagination and competence in government on the part of Republicans that made me pull the lever for Bill Clinton. Twice.
Posted by: Perfesser || 06/06/2006 12:11 Comments || Top||

#5  The gay marriage should be up to the people in the state to vote on. I rather they kept flag burning that way I know who the assholes are. :)
Posted by: djohn66 || 06/06/2006 13:14 Comments || Top||

#6  'Scuse me, but Al Q still wants to KILL US? Can we get back on topic here, Mister President?
Posted by: Seafarious || 06/06/2006 13:18 Comments || Top||

#7  The Democrats, over the last 20 years, have introduced nearly 100 bills to ammend the Constitution. But when the Republicans introduce simmilar legislation they are met with "We should focus on more important issues". Sorry to shatter some illusions but the majority of Americans believe that family issues are not only important but fundamental to civilization as we know it.
Posted by: DepotGuy || 06/06/2006 16:56 Comments || Top||

#8  And let's look for Republicans to start visiting factories that make the American flag

You mean factories in China?
Posted by: DMFD || 06/06/2006 19:22 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Israel sends rabbis to 'reform' its tourists in India
The Israeli government has decided to break up the party. Alarmed at increasing drug use amongst its youth, Tel Aviv has sent rabbis (Jewish preachers) to old Manali, Kasol and McLeodganj in Himachal Pradesh, Rishikesh in Uttaranchal, Pushkar in Rajasthan and Goa spots that attract Israeli youths due to easy availability of drugs, especially hashish.

Police sources told TOI these rabbis are trying to bring Israelis who have gone 'astray' back into the mainstream. They have opened Chabad houses (kind of religious centres) in hired rooms for group discussions, religious counselling and one-to-one discourses to make them good citizens once again.

Most Israeli youth come to India right after finishing their compulsory army training, which gives them a reasonable amount of money. And, Manali is their favoured haunt because of great weather, cheap hotels and above all, the good quality hashish grown in the region.

Sources said of the roughly 25,000 foreigners visiting Manali every year, over 5,000 are from Israel alone. An overwhelming majority of them are on their 'post-army trip' youngsters out to have a good time, which generally means smoking quality hashish. It is said more joints are passed around in Manali hotels than cigarettes.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: john || 06/06/2006 19:13 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Jooooooos on Ludes!
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 06/06/2006 19:41 Comments || Top||

#2  I ran into some Israeli's in their mid-20s at a hotel in New Delhi once (~4 yrs ago). Didn't seem like a band of wandering hippies, though. LOL
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats || 06/06/2006 21:27 Comments || Top||

#3  which bongs are kosher?
Posted by: Frank G || 06/06/2006 21:34 Comments || Top||


Couple gunned down for 'honour'
QUETTA: A couple were gunned down in an honour killing in Bagh near Sibi district on Monday. Mohamamd Akbar and his alleged girlfriend, who was not identified, were shot dead by the relatives of the girl because they felt the relationship was an affront to the "honour" of their tribe.
Posted by: Fred || 06/06/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:


Science & Technology
Raiders of the lost dimension
It all starts with a pigment called Han purple that was used more than 2,000 years ago to color Xi'an terra cotta warriors of the Qian Dynasty. The pigment is known in the scientific world as BaCuSi206 -- and when magnet lab scientists exposed it to very high magnetic fields and very low temperatures, it entered a state of matter that is rarely observed.

The most recent research, published in today's issue of the journal Nature, shows that at the lowest temperature point at which the change of state occurs -- called the Quantum Critical Point -- the Han purple pigment actually loses a dimension: it goes from 3D to 2D.
More at the link...
Posted by: DanNY || 06/06/2006 08:42 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:


Million-Year Forecast Shows Disasters Galore
Posted by: DanNY || 06/06/2006 08:41 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Of course, it's all Bush's fault!
Posted by: Xbalanke || 06/06/2006 12:40 Comments || Top||

#2  San Francisco's in for something? Well don't send the big, bad military to help. They don't like them.
Instead send grief counselors and the folks that pass out the free condoms. They'll get it done.
Posted by: tu3031 || 06/06/2006 19:14 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
Quake aid effort 'hits stride' amid volcano fears
Relief operations launched after the Java earthquake have hit full stride, UN officials say, but fears are growing of an impending volcanic eruption on the Indonesian island.

Simmering Mount Merapi was put on red alert on May 13 and looms over a plain already devastated by the quake which hit two weeks later, killing nearly 5,800 people and leaving 340,000 people homeless.

Vulcanologists have recorded escalating activity at the volcano, resulting in thousands of people being evacuated from hamlets near its peak this week. Some 22,000 were taken to safety last month but most had returned home by the time the quake hit.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Oztralian || 06/06/2006 08:59 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Indons to build reactor on volcano
Indonesia reactor plan 'poses threat'
A NUCLEAR reactor to be built in a part of Indonesia prone to earthquakes and volcanoes could pose serious health risks for thousands of people in northern Australia, researchers said today. Harmful substances released into the air in the event of an accident at the proposed nuclear plant on Java would take just days to reach Darwin. Clive Hamilton, director of left-wing think tank the Australia Institute, said the nuclear power plant would be built at the foot of Mt Muria
A dormant volcano in the same chain as Mount Merapi currently threatening and right near where the earthquake just killed over 6,000 people
on Java's north coast – an area of intense geological instability
And Islamofascist activity: Java is the heartland of the growing Islamofascist movement and also of the aggressive Javanese who have terrorised the rest of the archipelago, wrecking East Timor, killing the West Papuans etc..
When plans for a reactor at the site were first revealed in 1993, researchers at the Australian National University found a radiation leak at the plant could pose serious risks to people living in northern Australia, he said. "Although the risks of a major accident are very low, a cloud of radiation blowing over northern Australia would pose a severe danger to public safety and would jeopardise the cattle industries over an enormous area," Dr Hamilton said in a statement.
But what the hey, right? The Indos are such GREAT administrators, look how they rushed to help their own people after that earthquake, right?

Losers.

They didn't even give out the $3 million Australia donated.

NOTE: to “moderators” who gave me a final warning about my “racist” comments on Indonesians: when I refer to the 'dirty Indos' I am referring to the Islamofascist Javanese in the ruling class, the army and the TNI who have terrorised and invaded other nations in their archipelago — and who now want a nuclear reactor — and not to the people who happen to live in Indonesia and can be of Hindu, Buddhist, Christian or Moderate Muslim faith.

In other words it was not a racist slur, I am slagging off a group of people not defined by race but by politics and ideological outlook.

And this volcano, like Mount Merapi, is right in their power-base heartland, the island of Java.

By the way these are the same people who didn't have one iota of greatfulness when Americans and Australians helped their countrymen in Aceh after the Tsunami. We saved their lives, gave them money and they spat at our backs as we walked away. They waved placards demanding our heads cut off and rioted after the Danish Cartoons Controversy.

These are the same people who John Howard invited to rewrite our refugee policy specifically because they were angry we took refugees fleeing their cruelty and aggression in West Papua.

I bring to your attention the Islamofascist war does not just exist in the Middle East but also in Africa and South East Asia.
Posted by: Anon1 || 06/06/2006 00:10 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Why do they want to build it there instead of somewhere safer?
Posted by: 3dc || 06/06/2006 1:40 Comments || Top||

#2  An accident at the proposed nuclear plant on Java would take just days to reach Darwin.

I wouldn't trust the Indons to run a sweet (lolly/candy) shop properly, but Hamilton is just making alarmist stuff up with the above. There's this thing called the Intertropical Covergence Zone that continually draws air into the tropics. Radiation might reach Oz in months through the upper atmosphere, but it won't be here in days.
Posted by: phil_b || 06/06/2006 4:28 Comments || Top||

#3  It's difficult to see how anything short of a truly massive eruption would result in radioactive release, and were such an eruption to occur, the additional radioactivity for the plants uranium would be a tiny fraction of the radioactivity of the magma.

Everywhere has earthquakes. The biggest recorded earthquake in the continental USA was in Missouri and there are several nuclear power stations in the region.

BTW, Anon1 I agree with your sentiments moreorless but the word 'dirty' doesn't have the same meaning of dishonest and deceitful to an American, who would view the word simply as a racist pejorative.
Posted by: phil_b || 06/06/2006 4:48 Comments || Top||

#4  anon1, you need to find another phrase that better conveys your meaning. How about "dirty Islamofascists"?

Your point that the threat isn't confined to the middle east is a good one - and one that regular Rantburgers understand full well.
Posted by: lotp || 06/06/2006 8:09 Comments || Top||

#5  I bring to your attention the Islamofascist war does not just exist in the Middle East but also in Africa and South East Asia.

Thank you very much for stating that as most if not all Americans are ignorant of this FACT.
Posted by: bk || 06/06/2006 9:42 Comments || Top||


Cam Ranh Bay?
Rumsfeld Moves to Expand US Military Relations With Vietnam, Indonesia
U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld travels to Indonesia Tuesday for talks on re-establishing contacts with the country's military. Such military-to-military exchanges are emerging as a major theme of the secretary's visit to Southeast Asia. During a stop in Hanoi Monday, Rumsfeld reached agreement with Vietnamese officials to expand military contacts, further pushing the conflict of the 1960s and 70s into the past.

Officials say the expansion of U.S.-Vietnamese military contacts will begin slowly, with a small number of Vietnamese officers coming to a U.S. military base in Texas to study English. Officials say that will be followed by medical training for Vietnamese soldiers, help on removing land mines, and increased cooperation in the effort to find American and Vietnamese troops missing from the war. Officials say a U.S. navy ship will also visit Vietnam this summer, the fourth such visit in the last four years.
Posted by: DanNY || 06/06/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Viet Nam fears the Northern Dragon?
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 06/06/2006 0:29 Comments || Top||

#2  Anti-everybody Commie Vietnam is still willing to fight the Northern Dragon - too bad the pro-China = Anti-China starving Norkies aren't.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 06/06/2006 0:45 Comments || Top||

#3  Less than 6 years after the US left Vietnam and 4 years after South Vietnam fell, the Chinese invaded Vietnam over an old border dispute. Over 25,000 died on each side and Vietnam lost territory to the PRC all along the border. The Vietnamese and Chinese have had border wars for 500 plus years, regardless of what goverment has run either country. So yes, the Vietnamese are nervous about the Northern Dragon. And Cam Ranh Bay has been mentioned to the US more than once over the years, along with the old airbase at Ton Sun Nhut.
Posted by: Shieldwolf || 06/06/2006 1:35 Comments || Top||

#4  Ima thinkn' the Chnee woulda bee squrtn bricks. But I think thanks but no thanks.
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 06/06/2006 2:44 Comments || Top||

#5  The US may win this war yet.
Posted by: Captain America || 06/06/2006 8:55 Comments || Top||

#6  This should be good! The English classes are taught at Lackland AFB near San Antonio and there is a big Viet/Lao population in that area. Should spell the begining of the end for the Commies in Vietnam. I had a teacher at Hulbert Field that predicted this would happen eventually.
Posted by: Cyber Sarge || 06/06/2006 10:28 Comments || Top||

#7  The Viets are communist in name only at this time.

The slivers of land that Vietnam might have lost to China were more than made up by the serious ass kicking the PLA took. They discovered what happens when you fight a battle hardened military. The North Korean war was their model and they got whupped.
Posted by: Chuck Simmins || 06/06/2006 10:53 Comments || Top||

#8  We've been talking about this for the past 3 yrs. Pretty ironic. The V.C. and NVA - now there was a people worth killing.
Posted by: Broadhead6 || 06/06/2006 13:46 Comments || Top||

#9  Let's kill two birds with one stone: we recognize Vietnam if they agree to send a division to Iraq.

And we turn a blind eye to what they do when they get there. The best part is that we'll never hear a word of criticism from the MSM (people's struggle, Uncle Ho was a kindly old dude, etc.)
Posted by: Matt || 06/06/2006 14:05 Comments || Top||

#10  Is there any Chinese border that is NOT disputed?

It seems that where other folk see a border and another country, the Chinese Government sees a piece of the motherland thta must be reunited?


Posted by: john || 06/06/2006 16:46 Comments || Top||

#11  Ask the Russians how safe they feel about the Russian Far East, specifically Siberia and Kamchatka. Lots of minerals and resources, the Trans-Siberian railroad, port cities like Vladivodstok, small number of Russians, and a whole LOT of Chinese right next door. Also, China is making noises about how North Korea is historically part of China due to a Chinese kingdom that included part of Korea several hundred years ago. The Chinese operate like the Muslims : if they held it for 5 minutes 1400 years ago, it is theirs forever.
Posted by: Shieldwolf || 06/06/2006 23:17 Comments || Top||

#12  within 20 years via demography siberia will be china's.
Posted by: 3dc || 06/06/2006 23:29 Comments || Top||


East Timor talks postponed
A planned meeting has been postponed between East Timor's new Defence Minister Jose Ramos Horta and Alfredo Reinado, one of the leaders of 600 sacked members of the security forces. Mr Ramos Horta, who also retains the role of Foreign Minister, had been planning to fly to the mountains to the south of the capital where Mr Reinado remains holed up with a group of armed military policemen.

No reason was given for the postponement of the talks on bringing the rival factions of the police and military together for peace talks.

Instead, the Minister went for talks with a separate group of estranged military officers on the outskirts of Dili. A spokesman said the talks went well.

Australia's military commander, Brigadier Mick Slater, has said he will disarm the various groups and provide a safe venue for them to work out their differences. Brigadier Slater says more police are needed.

The United Nations special envoy to East Timor, Ian Martin, will brief the Security Council this week on the situation there. UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric says the council will then consider whether to send more UN troops to East Timor. "One of the many discussions that we need to have with the Security Council is the way ahead for the UN, what sort of presence and posture the UN will have in the coming weeks and months in Timor," he said.
How 'bout a League of Nations mandate for the Aussies to run the place for a few decades?
Posted by: Steve White || 06/06/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Singapore keen to deepen defence links with India
SINGAPORE - Singapore is keen to formalise its budding defence links with India and sign an agreement on troop training, Singapore’s defence minister said on Monday. An initial agreement to allow Singaporean ground troops and air force to train in India in the past two years was the latest in a string of defence agreements for the land-scarce city-state.

Singapore already has similar arrangements with partners such as Taiwan, Australia, New Zealand, Brunei, Thailand, the United States and France.

“Both the Indians and ourselves feel that this is a worthwhile cooperative relationship and we hope to sign an agreement that will allow this relationship, in particular the training relationship, to go on into the future,” Singapore Minister for Defence Teo Chee Hean told Reuters in an interview.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve White || 06/06/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front: Culture Wars
Utah Guardsmen Repair Border Fences
Posted by: borgboy || 06/06/2006 12:41 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Doing more in two weeks than Senators do in 6 years.
Posted by: Inspector Clueso || 06/06/2006 16:37 Comments || Top||

#2  Since the Guard is already there, why don't they just shoot anyone that tries to cross illegally?
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 06/06/2006 17:15 Comments || Top||

#3  They aren't armed.
Posted by: Pappy || 06/06/2006 20:47 Comments || Top||

#4  If they've got tools, they're armed. Just not with guns.
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/06/2006 23:16 Comments || Top||



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