#1
Grew up around the corner from my mother. These days and for a longtime that neighborhood has been a "No Go Zone" - Newhallville in New Haven.
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07/09/2012 3:53 Comments ||
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#2
Borgnine joined the United States Navy in 1935, after graduation from James Hillhouse High School in New Haven, Connecticut. He was discharged in 1941, re-enlisted when the United States entered World War II, and served until 1945 (a total of ten years), reaching the rate of gunner's mate 1st class. He served aboard the destroyer USS Lamberton (DD-119). His military decorations include the Navy Good Conduct Medal, American Defense Service Medal with Fleet Clasp, American Campaign Medal, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal and the World War II Victory Medal.
You're not going to find entries like that on much of today's Hollyweird resumes.
#4
"McHale's" was funny (not least due to Tim Conway) and probably closest to Borgnine's real jokester personality. But for great acting jobs, I'd go with "Marty" and "The Wild Bunch", with maybe Fatso from "Here to Eternity" tossed in as an example of the classic "heavy"...
They got married and had a baby. That's bucking the tide in the land of the Franks -- look at their president's current living arrangements.
[An Nahar] A bride gave birth only minutes after tying the knot at a townhall wedding in western France, making it more of a "big day" than anticipated, the local mayor told Agence France Presse Sunday.
"It did rather shake us up," admitted Jean-Robert Gachet, mayor of Jallais, after hearing that mother and baby were doing well.
Saturday's ceremony at 11:00 am was nearly called off after the heavily pregnant bride had several false alarms, although her due date was July 14.
The bride was "definitely a bit worn out, but we put that down to the stress of the wedding. I tried to hurry it up a bit so that she didn't get too tired," said Gachet.
But only moments after the happy couple said their vows and emerged outside to pose for the traditional photos, while the guests left for the reception, the bride suddenly felt unwell and went back into the townhall.
Emergency services were called, but her waters had already broken and she gave birth to a little boy on the spot at 12:15 pm.
"The cry of the new born boy was an emotional moment! It was a first for us and for the emergency services," Gachet said.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/09/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
At my sister's wedding reception, as I was standing between my Mother and Father, the preacher walked up and asked me, "Young man, when are you getting married?", to which I promptly replied (innocent, did not know the true meaning of the response), "Well sir, It will have to be a shotgun wedding."
I played a wedding for the money,
And I wished that I could tell the bride and groom
Just what I thought of marriage
And what's in store after their honeymoon.
And I was grumblin' to the dancers
'bout how men and women ought to live apart
And how a promise never made can not be broken
And can never break your heart
When suddenly from out of nowhere,
A little girl came dancing 'cross the floor,
And all her crinolines were billowing
Beneath the skirt of calico that she wore.
Oh what a joy fell on the honored guests
As each of them was drawn inside her dream,
And they laughed and clapped and stomped their feet
And hollered at her "dance little jean"
Dance, little jean, this day is for you,
Two people you love, stood up and said "i do"
Dance little jean, the prayer that you had
Was answered today
Your mama's marrying your dad
Well, my cynical heart just melted
'cause I knew what this get together meant
How it ended year of tears and sad confusion
That the little girl had spent.
Well they told the band to pack it up
About the time the couple cut the cake,
But we played as long as they stayed
For love and laughs and little jeanie's sake.
Dance, little jean, this day is for you,
Two people you love, stood up and said "i do"
Dance little jean, the prayer that you had
Was answered today
Your mama's marrying your dad
[Al Ahram] Egypt's Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) is currently holding an emergency meeting to discuss President Mohamed Morsi's Sunday decision to reinstate parliament's lower house, according to an Ahram Online correspondent close to the military council.
Morsi's surprise decision essentially revoked the military council's mid-June decision to dissolve the People's Assembly following a High Constitutional Court (HCC) verdict deeming an elections law -- which governed last year's legislative polls -- unconstitutional.
The administrative court is scheduled to rule on the constitutionality of the SCAF decision to dissolve the lower house on Monday.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/09/2012 00:00 ||
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[Daily Nation (Kenya)] The leader of one of Libya's main Islamist parties has said a rival liberal coalition had a solid advantage after the country's first election since the ouster of Muammar Qadaffy. ...a reminder that a single man with an idea can change an entire nation, usually for the worse... "The National Forces Alliance achieved good results in some large cities except Misrata. They have a net lead in Tripoli ...a confusing city, one end of thich is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn... and in Benghazi," said Mohammed Sawan, who heads the Justice and Construction party.
The bulk of Libya's population and registered voters are concentrated in the capital, which lies in the west of the oil-rich desert country, and in the eastern city of Benghazi.
"But it is a tight race for us in the south," Sawan added.
Libyans on Saturday voted for a General National Congress, a 200-member legislative assembly which will steer the country through a transition period following the toppling and killing of Qadaffy last year.
A total of 80 seats in the incoming congress are reserved for political entities while the remaining 120 are open to individual candidates, some of which are openly allied to specific parties.
From the parties, the National Forces coalition of ex-wartime prime minister Mahmud Jibril is seen as the key liberal contender, facing competition from two Islamist groups -- the Justice and Construction party and Al-Wattan.
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07/09/2012 00:00 ||
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[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Rebel fighters in the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...formerly the Congo Free State, Belgian Congo, Zaire, and who knows what else, not to be confused with the Brazzaville Congo or Republic of Congo, which is much smaller and much more (for Africa) stable. DRC gave the world Patrice Lumumba and Joseph Mobutu, followed by years of tedious civil war. It's principle industry seems to be the production of corpses. With a population of about 74 million it has lots of raw material... seized control Sunday of more towns in the country's east, but said they would cede most of their gains to UN peacekeepers and police.
"We have seized Rubare, Rutshuru, Kalengera and Kako," said rebel leader Colonel Sultani Makenga at Bunagana, the border post with Uganda.
"Even though we have taken these districts, we will withdraw and leave them to MONUSCO and national police," added Makenga, who was wearing a regular army uniform with a pistol at his hip, surrounded by around 30 well-armed bodyguards.
Known as M23, the rebels are mutinous Tutsi troops who abandoned the regular army earlier this year in a dispute over pay and conditions.
They said they took the Nord-Kivu province towns of Rutshuru, Ntamugenga and Rubare, less than 10 kilometres by road from the bustling provincial capital Goma, shortly after midnight.
According to M23 front man Lieutenant Colonel Vianney Kazarama, the rebels faced no opposition from the Congolese army, known as the FARDC.
"Our men have just taken the town of Rutshuru. On Saturday evening the FARDC came down to our position at Mbuzi. We decided to pursue them and they lost Ntamugenag, then we came down to Rubare," Kazarama told AFP.
Sporadic gunfire was later heard in Rutshuru but it may have been celebratory shots had gun sex.
The gains came two days after the rebels captured Bunagana, after the army led a botched offensive to try to dislodge them from their hideouts in the surrounding green hills.
But according to the M23 front man and local civilians, the attack quickly turned into a defeat for the army, with 600 troops dumping weapons and supplies and fleeing across the border into Uganda.
A UN peacekeeper from India was killed in the fighting.
Despite pledging to withdraw from the other towns, Makenga said the rebels would keep Bunagana "because we need our enemies to be far away from our positions.
"It is for the government of Kinshasa to determine if it wants peace, (or) if it wants to stop fighting us. If they want war, they will continue to attack us and we will continue to retaliate," he said.
"We are not there to take the towns but to get our voices heard," he added.
The government knew what their main demands were, he said: that Congolese refugees in Rwanda be allowed to return; a proper democracy and the confirmation of their military ranks they previously had within the army.
On Sunday, eight armoured vehicles from the United Nations ...a lucrative dumping ground for the relatives of dictators and party hacks... mission in DR Congo fled Rutshuru for a UN base five kilometres away in Kiwanja, where many local residents were sheltering in a camp for displaced people.
Fighting in the resource-rich region between government troops and the rebels has intensified in recent days.
The Tutsi soldiers had been integrated into the army but started defecting in April and formed M23, which is short for the March 23 Movement.
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07/09/2012 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Mutineers from the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...formerly the Congo Free State, Belgian Congo, Zaire, and who knows what else, not to be confused with the Brazzaville Congo or Republic of Congo, which is much smaller and much more (for Africa) stable. DRC gave the world Patrice Lumumba and Joseph Mobutu, followed by years of tedious civil war. It's principle industry seems to be the production of corpses. With a population of about 74 million it has lots of raw material... on Sunday seized control of three towns in the country's eastern Nord-Kivu province, Agence La Belle France Presse reported.
The rebels, known as M23, took Rutshuru and the towns of Ntamugenga and Rubare, less than 10 kilometers away on the road to the scenic provincial capital Goma, shortly after 12:00 pm local time (1000 GMT).
The rebels said they did not face any opposition from Congolese government troops (FARDC).
"Our men have just taken the town of Rutshuru. On Saturday evening the FARDC came down to our position at Mbuzi. We decided to pursue them and they lost Ntamugenag, then we came down Rubare," M23 front man Lieutenant Colonel Vianney Kazarama told AFP.
Sporadic gunfire was later heard in Rutshuru but it may have been celebratory shots had gun sex.
Eight peacekeepers from the U.N.'s mission in DR Congo (MONUSCO) fled Rutshuru for a U.N. base five kilometers away in Kiwanja, close to which numerous local inhabitants have set up refugee camps.
Last week a MONUSCO peacekeeper from India was fatally injured in combat between the Congolese army and M23 rebels renegade military group, comprised of former Tutsi rebels, in Bunagana, a town near the Ugandan border about 20 kilometers south of Rutshuru.
Bunagana fell into rebel hands after the clash, according to the M23 front man and local civilians, causing around 600 Congolese soldiers to flee into Uganda.
Two months of fighting in the resource-rich region has pitted government troops against former Congolese Tutsi rebels, who were integrated into the army but defected this year and formed the M23 rebel movement.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/09/2012 00:00 ||
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[Saudi Gazette] A 34-year-old Saudi man died while his wife and two children sustained severe injuries after their car plunged off a bridge that was under construction on Friday in Baljurashi. The accident was the result of a chase by members of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (Hai'a).
The man's wife, who was five months pregnant, sustained severe contusions and abrasions and doctors say her right hand may be amputated. The couple's son was at death's door in the Intensive Care Unit while their four-year-old daughter was in stable, pH balanced condition.
Investigators are trying to figure out the events that led to the accident, said Lt. Col. Saad Tarad, front man for Al-Baha Police. Okaz newspaper contacted Nasser Al-Zahrani, a front man for the Hai'a, for a comment but he declined to speak on the phone and relayed a message saying that he was busy and should be contacted later.
Teams from the Civil Defense and Saudi Red Islamic Thingy Authority removed the injured from the wreckage and rushed them to the hospital. The husband's corpse is being kept in the morgue and has not been buried, pending investigations.
The dear departed's brother said his brother and family were picnicking at a park. As they began to leave shortly after midnight, they were approached by a Hai'a member who complained their car stereo was on loudly. His brother and the Hai'a member argued for a while before he left with his family.
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07/09/2012 00:00 ||
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[Saudi Gazette] The branch of the Commission of the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice based in the Grand Mosques is looking into a complaint filed by a female school principal against a Hai'a member.
In her complaint, the school principal claimed that the Hai'a member held her purse and pushed her and her housemaid and son several times during the Maghreb prayer last Wednesday.
When she told him that she would file a complaint he responded with, "Do whatever you want. I'm not afraid of you. Besides, I didn't touch your hands." Afterward, she went to the Hai'a center inside the Grand Mosque and lodged a complaint.
Al-Shareef Ahmad Al-Mansouri, front man for Hai'a Center inside the Grand Mosque, said that Khalid Al-Subai'i, director of the center, had started an investigation into the complaint.
The Hai'a member in question said that the woman called him names when he insisted that she move to the women's praying area.
He also said that he was responsible for organizing the lines of prayer performers and had to make sure that women pray in the area specified for them.
She told "Okaz" over the phone that as she circumvented the Kaba'a, the Maghreb prayer was called and she stopped to perform prayer. She moved with her son and housemaid to the back of Al-Mataf area and joined the congregation when the Hai'a member appeared and started pushing her and her housemaid in front of other worshippers.
"Investigators are still trying to figure out the truth," Al-Mansouri added.
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07/09/2012 00:00 ||
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[Bangla Daily Star] After a clash with the Shibir men, the activists of Bangladesh Chhatra League ... the student wing of the Bangla Awami League ... set fire to at least 15 rooms of Government MC College hostel in Sylhet last night.
Firemen brought the fire under control after an hour-long effort at 9:30pm, said the officer-in-charge of Shah Poran Police Station.
College sources said the clash started around 8:00pm after some BCL workers beat up a Shibir activist on the campus over seating in the class in the afternoon.
Activists of both the groups used sticks and iron rods during the clash, leaving about 20 injured. They were taken to the Osmani Medical College Hospital.
The injured include MC College Shibir President Monwar Hossain.
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07/09/2012 00:00 ||
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[Bangla Daily Star] More than 200 protesters took to Hanoi's streets yesterday in the second anti-China rally in the Vietnamese capital this month amid heightened territorial tensions over the South China Sea.
Demonstrators said they were stopped by security forces about 100 metres away from the Chinese embassy in the city, but no arrests were made in the latest public expression of discontent over Beijing's perceived aggression in the sea.
The crowd waved banners and chanted "Paracel -- Vietnam! Spratlys -- Vietnam!" during the peaceful rally, in reference to two potentially oil-rich island chains claimed by both Beijing and Hanoi.
Last Sunday, smaller demonstrations were held in both Hanoi and the southern economic metropolis of Ho Chi Minh City as the maritime dispute once again flared following 11 street rallies on the issue last year.
Relations between Beijing and Hanoi have soured recently, with Vietnam attracting China's ire last month after it adopted a law that places the Spratlys under Hanoi's illusory sovereignty.
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07/09/2012 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Belgium's seaside resorts are threatening to sue a top weather site they say is dissuading tourists with coastal forecasts of a gloomy summer, the Belgian press reported Friday.
The resorts slammed MeteoBelgique.be, one of Belgium's most consulted weather pages, for posting a general weather overview for the three summer months, when most sites only offer a ten-day forecast
"It's very hard to predict the weather so far in advance. So why make people panic?" said Hoorens Geert, in charge of tourism for the Belgian coast, quoted by the Belgian daily La Meuse.
The site said in a June blog post the weather would remain erratic over the coming months, especially in late July and early August, after an early summer marked by little sunshine and heavy rainfall.
The post included a reminder that "a dry, hot summer in Belgium, if that happens, like in 2003 and 2006, remains an exception that proves the rule."
"No, we are not in a Mediterranean climate where the summers are warm and rainfall is minor. It's important to remember..." the weather site wrote in June.
But Belgian resorts say the forecast is chasing away their customers, with the head of tourism at Knokke confirming there had already been cancellations.
"The damage could be significant" on an economic level, Daniel Despiegelaer said in an interview with the public television station RTBF, adding that the coastal resorts plan to talk over the possibility of filing a complaint.
"Our daily tourism totals about 200,000 people who each spend 35 euros ($43). If they don't come, that'll mean a loss of five to seven million" euros, Geert said.
Meteo Belgique addressed the criticism on its site, explaining that its seasonal trends "are not set-in-stone forecasts: we could never predict the weather Ostend will experience in one month and three days at 7:20 pm!"
"That said, it's possible to identify weather trends for that period," they added.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/09/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
They don't have a Farmer's Almanac?
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07/09/2012 9:39 Comments ||
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Texas Gov. Rick Perry said Monday his state won't expand Medicaid or set up an insurance exchange, joining a growing number of Republican governors who are rejecting two key parts of President Obama's health care law.
"I will not be party to socializing health care and bankrupting my state in direct contradiction to our Constitution and our founding principles of limited government," Mr. Perry said.
In the wake of the Pratt & Whitney settlement (the defense giant illegally sold a bunch of helicopter engines to the Chinese) we wondered who else had been busted for outlaw arms dealing that we hadn't heard about.
We went through the State Department's list -- which is long, diverse, and contains the names of both blue-chip companies and sketchy front corporations -- to find some of the biggest illegal arms.To keep it manageable we posted only the biggest within the last six years.
Turns out selling weapons and classified equipment to other countries without a permit is very illegal, but extremely lucrative. Hundreds of individuals are banned from doing business with the State Department for risking the practice and getting caught, but there seems little shortage of others to pick up the slack once they're gone.
ITT Corporation was fined $100 million in 2007 for exporting military-grade night vision goggles to the People's Republic of China.
Marsh Aviation and Floyd Stilwell were indicted in 2010 for violating the Arms Export Control Act and a charge of conspiracy after allegedly exporting T-76 aircraft engines to the Venezuelan Air Force.
Rocky Mountain Instruments pled guilty to twelve counts of willingly exporting defense articles without a license in June 2010. The company remains on probation and stay there until June 2015. They also paid a $1 million fine.
Chitron Electronics Inc. illegally exported military electronics components used in radar and electronic missile systems to the Chinese military in January 2011.
Boeing was hit with 86 violations after exporting military-grade gyrochips to China and other countries by including them in sold aircraft.
Iran has a number of Boeing 747s because of Balli Aviation Ltd, a subsidiary of British Balli Group PLC.
Platte River Associates was charged with trading with the enemy after exporting technical specialized computer software and training to Cuba to model the exploration of oil and gas resources in Cuban territorial waters. Platte River's president Jay Leonard then hacked into ZetaWare, Inc's computer system to access oil and gas software data.
The Chinese subsidiary of U.S.-based PPG Industries pled guilty in federal court to a list of charges related exporting high-performance coatings to the Chashma 2 Nuclear Power Plant in Pakistan.
BAE Systems, the British defense giant, had to pay a $400 million fine after pleading guilty to various charges which included conspiracy to defraud the United States and conspiracies to violate both the Arms Export Control Act and to make false statements about compliance with the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
Atmospheric Glow Technologies pleaded guilty to charges saying that the company sold U.S. military data and records about drones to a citizen of China.
Super Micro Computer Inc sold multiple motherboards to Iran in 2006. An employee of Super Micro knowingly caused 300 of Super Micro's P4SBA+ Motherboards to be exported to Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), to trans-shipment to Iran. Also implicated in the events was the project's financier, Mohammad Mayssami.
The pioneering work of Abdus Salam, Pakistan's only Nobel laureate, helped lead to the apparent discovery of the subatomic "God particle" last week. But the late physicist is no hero at home, where his name has been stricken from school textbooks.
Praise within Pakistan for Salam, who also guided the early stages of the country's nuclear program, faded decades ago as Muslim fundamentalists gained power. He belonged to the Ahmadi sect, which has been persecuted by the government and targeted by Taliban militants who view its members as heretics.
[Al Ahram] Jordanian MPs on Sunday amended a controversial electoral law, reserving more seats to party candidates, but failed to satisfy the Islamists, who have threatened to boycott early polls this year.
"The amendments increased seats that can be contested by party and coalition candidates from 17 to 27," prominent MP Khalil Attieh told AFP.
"This raises the number of parliamentary seats from 140 to 150, including 15 seats reserved for women candidates."
Following the approval of the law last month, the powerful Moslem Brüderbund described it as "provocative," saying they planned to boycott elections expected to be held by the end of this year.
"These changes are maybe good for kindergarten children. They are not good to start a real process of political reform," Zaki Bani Rsheid, deputy leader of the Brotherhood, told AFP after the amendments.
The Islamist movement will meet on Thursday to decide whether to go ahead with the election boycott, he added.
Jordan's King Abdullah II had ordered parliament to increase the seats for party candidates to "help develop political life in the country," urging the Islamists to take part in the elections.
The National Reform Front, headed by former premier and intelligence chief Ahmad Obeidat, also called for an election boycott, describing the law as "a real obstacle to reform."
"We call on all Jordanian people to boycott the elections," it said on Sunday.
Under the electoral law, voters can cast two ballots: one for individual candidates in their governorates and one for parties or coalitions.
According to the constitution, elections should be organised every four years, but Jordan held early polls in 2010 after the king dissolved parliament.
The Islamists boycotted those elections in protest at constituency boundaries, saying they over-represented loyalist rural areas at the expense of urban areas seen as Islamist strongholds.
They have repeatedly demanded sweeping changes that would lead to a parliamentary system in which the premier would be elected rather than named by the king.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/09/2012 00:00 ||
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Starfish Prime was a high-altitude test of a rather large nuclear warhead.
I don't care about the author's silly politics, but there is some depth, and a video.
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.
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] The leader of one of Libya's main Islamist parties has said a rival liberal coalition had a solid advantage after the country's first election since the ouster of 
Mutineers from the 
Belgium's seaside resorts are threatening to sue a top weather site they say is dissuading tourists with coastal forecasts of a gloomy summer, the Belgian press reported Friday.
