#2
My favorite version of "Deck the Halls" comes from none other than Walt Kelly's Pogo 'Possum:
Deck us all with Boston Charlie,
Walla Walla, Wash., an' Kalamazoo!
Nora's freezin' on the trolley,
Swaller dollar cauliflower alley-garoo!
Don't we know archaic barrel
Lullaby Lilla Boy, Louisville Lou?
Trolley Molly don't love Harold,
Boola boola Pensacola hullabaloo!
More at link.
#5
Of course, Walt had variations on his variations.
"Tickle, Salty, Boss Anchovy,
Walla walla wash and a Kangaroo..."
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
12/12/2004 12:21 Comments ||
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#6
No catalog of perverted Christmas carols would be complete without Bob Rivers':
Walking Around in Women's Underwear SUNG TO THE TUNE OF "WINTER WONDERLAND"
Lacy things the wife is missin'
Didn't ask for her permission
I'm wearing her clothes
Her silk pantyhose
Walking 'round in women's underwear.
In the store, there's a teddy
With little straps like spaghetti.
It holds me so tight
Like handcuffs at night.
Walking 'round in women's underwear.
In the office there's a guy named Melvin
He pretends that I am Murphy Brown
He'll say, "Are you ready?"
We'll say, "Whoa man!"
Let's wait until the wife is out of town."
Later on, if you wanna
We can dress like Madonna
Put on some eye shade
And join the parade
Walking 'round in women's underwear.
Lacy things, missin'
Didn't ask, permission
I'm wearing her clothes
Her silk pantyhose
Walking 'round in women's underwear.
"It's not everyday that you get to build a campus," says Chadi Chamoun with a wide Cheshire cat grin. A young Lebanese architect who splits his time between Beirut and London (where he's finishing his PhD at the Bartlett School of Architecture), Chamoun speaks in a vintage New York accent betraying the fact he spent a good many years growing up in Queens. He came back to Lebanon to work with his father, Rachid Chamoun, who directs the urban planning program at the Lebanese American University (LAU). On a table in front of Chamoun the Younger are drawings for one of his and his father's most unusual projects to date - a full-scale master plan and design scheme for the new American University of Kuwait (AUK) in Kuwait City.
AUK opened its doors to a modest class of 500 students this fall. Established in 2003 as a private liberal arts university - the first of its kind in Kuwait - the school rests on the site of an old elementary school. "Incidentally, it's all pink," notes Chamoun. Refurbishing the existing structures may be sufficient for now. But eventually, AUK's campus will cover 40,000 square meters in the heart of Kuwait's bustling Salmiya neighborhood. Chamoun's plans include numerous building rehabilitations and the construction of five entirely new structures to house, among other things, a school of arts and sciences, a school of architecture and engineering, a tower for graduate education, an administrative building and a multi-use student union fused with a library and spliced with a food court, bookstore, running track, recreation rooms for student clubs and offices for visiting scholars.
AUK is the latest contender to enter the region's burgeoning ring of American-style institutions of higher learning. It joins the American University of Beirut (founded in 1866), the American University in Cairo (established in 1919), the American University of Sharjah (which opened its doors in 1997) and the American University in Dubai (which held its seventh commencement exercises last spring). Contrary to easy assumptions, none are linked into a satellite system of schools and none save AUS bear any connection to the American University in Washington, DC.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/12/2004 4:11:08 PM ||
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A FILIPINO expatriate worker was spared beheading in Saudi Arabia after the Philippine government paid "blood money" to waive his death sentence, a Philippine official said today. Saudi judges ordered the release of Primo Gasmen last week after the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs paid $US15,000 ($19,868) to the family of a Nepalese national he stabbed to death in 1998. "We are very happy and relieved that he is being released," said the vice consul of the Philippine embassy in Riyadh, Romulo Israel. "It was a real struggle to free him."
He hoped Gasmen, who converted to Islam during his almost six years in prison, would be freed and repatriated before the end of the year. Saudi Arabia executes convicted murderers, rapists and drug smugglers, most often by public beheading with a sword. At least 52 people were executed last year and 45 in 2002.
Former US president Bill Clinton will be at the American University in Dubai (AUD) tomorrow to sign his book My Life and to release its Arabic version. My Life has been hailed as the most encompassing presidential memoir ever written. Its content and style combine to make it fascinating reading.
The wife suffered through My Life; thought it was a crushing bore and needed another editor.
Clinton has visited the university on two occasions previously. He was the guest speaker at AUD's fifth commencement exercise on June 11, 2002, while in September 2003, he addressed 30 AUD students on the topic of "Overcoming Cultural Misperceptions". He also launched The William Jefferson Clinton Scholars programme at the American University in Dubai which offers scholarships to American students to enable them to study at the AUD. The first group of students is set to arrive in January 2005. After leaving the White House, Clinton established the William Jefferson Foundation which aims at strengthening the capacity of the people in the United States and throughout the world to meet the challenges of global inter-dependence, through its work in racial, ethnic and religious reconciliation.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/12/2004 12:04:02 AM ||
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#1
my mother in law bought it -- read half the first chapter and gave up --- too boring
Supporters of closer relations with Beijing won a surprise victory in legislative elections here today, as voters appeared to reject President Chen Shui-bian's increasingly forceful calls in the past two weeks for greater Taiwanese independence from mainland China...
President Chen's last-minute tilt was partly successful: while polls just a few days ago showed the Taiwan Solidarity Union expanding its delegation in the legislature to as many as 20, from 13 in the last election, the final vote on Saturday showed that the party wound up with only 12 seats.
But the Democratic Progressive Party itself fared much worse than expected, picking up only two seats to claim 89. The Nationalist Party gained 11 seats, for a total of 79, while the even more pro-Beijing People First Party lost 12 seats, retaining only 34 seats, and the New Party kept its only seat.
Independents kept all 10 seats they previously had. Typical NYT spin: He didn't win, because he didn't win as much as the polls said he would.
#1
The people of Taiwan want to reunify with mainland China BUT NOT UNDER COMMUNISM. I believe the effort of Chen Bian will not be seriously affected, as many in the DPP's opposition are tired of accom mainland China andor Chinese Communism.
China has expressed "deep concern" about Japan's defense policy overhaul, reported Xinhua, China's main government-run news agency. "We are deeply concerned with the great changes of Japan's military defense strategy and its possible impact," said Zhang Qiyue, a spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry. Translation: Shit! Couldn't they have stayed asleep until it was too late?
The Japanese government has approved a new National Defense Program Outline. The outline features more proactive use of force and deeper involvement of the self-defense-oriented troops in international affairs. Doncha love diplo-speak: "more proactive use of force" - heh.
Japan, the outline says, will continue to watch China's moves in military modernization and marine activities. The document describes China has a potential threat. F**kin' Duh.
Zhang said she expressed China's "strong dissatisfaction" to the Japanese government. "This is totally groundless and extremely irresponsible," she said.
Copyright 2004 by United Press International. Heh. The Goldren Dragon is unhappy and sounding a bit pissy. Gooood.
Posted by: .com ||
12/12/2004 1:18:05 AM ||
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#1
Yeah, this is great. Their belligerent attitude finally got a rise out of someone other than us. They think they can intimidate Taiwan, but the samurai are a different story.
#6
"Deep concern"? I love it. US + Japan + Australia + India. There's a coalition of democracies that we should be transforming into something close to a formal alliance.
PS Sorry, Volodya. Russia's in the doghouse and will be for a while. Perhaps they'll stop screwing with us in Iran. That's the best we can hope for in the near term.
#7
CHINA, Communism, and Radical Islam share one common attribute in that once you submit or convert, you can NEVER leave lest on pain of death, exile, or both, for you as well as your family, clan, and friends - you know, individual- and societal/mass-based freedom, democracy, and utopianism!?
#8
Rest assured that buried somewhere deep in the politburo's archives is an ancient map depicting Japan as a territorial possession of China. If it isn't there right now, don't worry, it will be soon. Japan needs to take a page from Taiwan. So far as China is concerned, an island is an island is an island ...
Ukraine's Opposition leader, Viktor Yushchenko, has arrived back in Kiev to resume campaigning in the lead-up to his country's repeat presidential election this month. Mr Yushchenko was discharged from a Vienna clinic overnight where it was confirmed he had been the victim of dioxin poisoning. Mr Yushchenko thanked his doctors and said he was happy to be alive. His once healthy-looking face is now barely recognisable and the disfigurement is one of the symptoms of dioxin poisoning. That is the diagnosis given by the doctors in Austria. They say his recovery will be long and difficult but the presidential candidate has returned to Ukraine and the campaign trail. Mr Yushchenko is confident of winning the poll and analysts say the doctors' findings have boosted his chances.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/12/2004 7:35:23 PM ||
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Dec. 12, 2004 - A Ukrainian presidential candidate's chief of staff believes "Soviet Union sort of KGB experts" were behind a plot to poison his candidate, the aide told ABC News' "Good Morning America" today.
Austrian doctors said Saturday that Viktor Yushchenko, who faces a Dec. 26 runoff in Ukraine against the Kremlin-backed candidate, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, was poisoned with dioxin as he campaigned for president. When asked by ABC News' Bill Weir if the Russian government, and specifically President Vladimir Putin, had anything to do with the poisoning, Yushchenko chief of staff Oleh Rybachuk said: "I am not very positive about government, but what I might say that was Soviet Union sort of KGB experts are clearly involved in this plot."
Rybachuk did not directly implicate Prime Minister Yanukovych in the poisoning, which is believed to have happened at a dinner party in September, but said it was a much broader conspiracy. "I wouldn't call this ordered by the prime minister," said Rybachuk. "Let's say it more broadly. It's the regime."
Rybachuk added that Yushchenko had been forewarned of the plot. "I actually talked to [Yushchenko] in late July when getting messages from both Ukrainian and Russian ex-secret service agents saying there was a plot and poisoning is number one," he said. Rybachuk said the agents told Yushchenko the goal would not be to kill him but to make him an "invalid" in order to knock him out of the campaign. "We couldn't believe they would dare, but they did," said Rybachuk.
They are the KGB, after all.
Yushchenko has called for an investigation into the poisoning plot, but said it should wait until after the Dec. 26 election. Nevertheless, Ukrainian prosecutors today reopened a probe into the allegations of poisoning.
Yushchenko will take a couple of days off before resuming the campaign, said Rybachuk. "The worst is over," said Rybachuk. "He feels great ... [but] he needs rest."
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
12/12/2004 5:54:38 PM ||
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#1
This brings up a good question, can you buy Dioxin at Walmart? Or is it just a tad more difficult to acquire? Who has it? Heh.
#2
Rybachuk said the agents told Yushchenko the goal would not be to kill him but to make him an "invalid" in order to knock him out of the campaign.
I was wondering why dioxin was used, since I don't think anyone has ever died of dioxin poisoning. It does cause horrible cloracne and bebilitating pain, so the above expanation makes a lot of sense. They thought the Ukrainians would reject him Yushchenko if he looked like a cross between Quasimodo and the Friday the 13th monster. Dioxin is a powerful carcinogen so Yushchenko will probably have a whole range of cancers starting in the next few years. Maybe Dr. Steve will be kind enough to fill us in on the carcinogenic effects and timelines.
Try Dioxins-R-Us. Dioxin is a waste product from burning, especially plastics, and many manufacturing processes using chlorine (e.g. paper). So no more huffing the burning trash pile.
Posted by: ed ||
12/12/2004 21:12 Comments ||
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#3
Ed - from what I've read recently, all that is true, but the possibilities of cancers may be overblown. The worst that was predicted by "experts" was a lifetime of acne/cyst issues, some pain....IIUC
sounds like they thought his looks was what attracted his support. Very shallow, hmmmm?
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/12/2004 21:50 Comments ||
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Turkey has been struggling over whether to agree to a troop withdrawal from the breakaway Northern Cyprus as the price for negotiations to enter the European Union. The EU has demanded that Turkey recognize the Republic of Cyprus as a sovereign state even before the European summit on Dec. 17 in the Hague. Recognition of the Greek Cypriot republic would result in a Turkish admission that its troops have been occupying the territory of an EU state. Turkey has deployed more than 30,000 troops in Northern Cyprus, down from 40,000 in 2002. So far, the Turkish General Staff has ruled out a withdrawal without a solution to the conflict on the island. "It is a requirement under the EU's obligations towards Turkey that the EU clearly preserves our membership perspective at the Dec. 17 summit, without creating any doubts," a Dec. 7 statement by Turkish President Ahmet Sezer, Prime Minister Recep Erdogan and Chief of Staff Gen. Hilmi Ozkok said.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/12/2004 3:23:49 PM ||
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#1
Go for the perfecta. Do the right thing, remove the troops, I'm sure the central powers will look on this move with great favor. Perhaps there will be a ceremony and a fine sash will be awarded.
Ukrainian Prosecutor General Svyatoslav Piskun, who had resumed his post by the decree of Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma on Friday, stated in an interview with Channel 5 that he intended to conduct an investigation of violations during the presidential elections.
Does that include Yushchenko's poisoning?
According to the Prosecutor General, he intends to ask Speaker of Ukrainian Parliament Vladimir Litvinov "a permission to work next Tuesday or Wednesday in parliament as regards accusations of human rights violations during the presidential elections."
"We will gather all statements and notices, analyze them and then take necessary legal measures. In some instances we might open criminal cases, in others we might reject the accusations. Those are normal procedures for the Prosecutor General's office," he said. Moreover, in his opinion, parliament does not have to approve his nomination to the post again because it did it on July 4, 2002 and today the President simply reinstated him at the post. Former Prosecutor General Gennady Vasilyev resigned on December 8, and on Thursday the Pechorsky district court reinstated Mr. Piskun as the Ukrainian Prosecutor General.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/12/2004 1:37:38 AM ||
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Italian politician Rocco Buttiglione, a conservative Catholic and confidant of Pope John Paul II who was recently denied a position in the European Union's Cabinet for having called homosexuality a sin, found a receptive audience in Washington last week. "In Europe, it is fashionable to be anti-Christian," Mr. Buttiglione told the American Enterprise Institute.
Mr. Buttiglione, Italy's minister for relations with the European Union, recently led an unsuccessful effort to have the Continent's new constitution include an acknowledgment that Christianity played a role in the development of Western democracy. "I wanted to add the Christian roots in the constitution in order to make it clear that this Europe is the Europe that has arisen out of Solidarnosc," he said. He was referring to the Vatican-backed trade union Solidarity, which in the early 1980s inspired the collapse of communism in Poland and began a revolution that spread throughout Eastern Europe. "This is the spirit of Europe [that constitution writers] did not want to recognize. They wanted a Europe that goes back to the anti-clericalism of the Third French Republic," Mr. Buttiglione said.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/12/2004 1:33:07 AM ||
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#2
"In Europe, it is fashionable to be anti-Christian,"
No, in Europe it is still fashionable to be Marxist even with its massive failure laying right in front of it. Marxism is practiced like a religion and like the boys in Islam, is intolerant of competition. Given the opportunity and power, they'd oppress the Christians as much as the Jews have been.
Posted by: Don ||
12/12/2004 9:57 Comments ||
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#4
"I wanted to add the Christian roots in the constitution in order to make it clear that this Europe is the Europe that has arisen out of Solidarnosc,"
If that had been the case he'd have urged for a mention of the Solidarnosc in the preamble rather than for mention of Christian roots.
"They wanted a Europe that goes back to the anti-clericalism of the Third French Republic"
If that had been the case we'd have included "All religions must die" in the preamble.
Buttiglione is a little me-so-very-very-oppressed theocratic jerk. He's just disappointed that the flimsy facade he had tried to erect, pretending to be a fellow indeed personally religious but in favour of secularism, wasn't capable of deceiving the European Parliament.
#6
Which brave little countries are you talking about, Shipman? France? Not so little.
But if your stupid trollish ignorant-beyond-belief clueless self is talking about Greece, I assure you that it being the leader of conservatism in the European Union, it was definitely among the nations that desired to have such a reference to so-called "Christian roots" inserted in the preamble.
Greece, 10 million.
New York City and close-in suburbs (w/in 20 miles of Manhattan), 14 million.
And of course the huge (in population countries):
India was at a billion in 2000 and China was at 1.3 billion - but India's birthrate (1.38%) was higher than China's (0.9%) so they may be on the verge of catching up
Whereas France's birthrate was 0.38%, Germany's was 0.29% and Italy's was 0.09%.
So France, with a population that is less than 1/4 of the US and about 4.5% of China could reasonably be said to be a "small" country. Ditto for natural resources, by the way, if you don't like population as a measure.
Just for comparison .... The US was at 276 million with a birthrate of 0.9%, but our immigration rate is high and those populations will swell the birthrate as well if previous trends hold true over the next decade.
Posted by: too true ||
12/12/2004 17:22 Comments ||
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#9
Ah, more members of the troll-brigade. Whatever, assholes.
Don't you people even *care* about trying to appear sentient? Which at some point means that you'll need to actually think and respond to what a person *says* rather than simply initiate your automatic insult program, to be applied regardless of topic or content of thread?
#10
Last post was in response to Asedwich, not too true.
too true> "France, with a population that is less than 1/4 of the US and about 4.5% of China could reasonably be said to be a "small" country."
Yeah, compared to those countries. Not compared to the rest of the EU member states, where France is second largest (alongside UK and Italy), behind Germany -- and since this thread is a reference to a dispute between EU member states, it wouldn't make much sense for Shipman to be making a comparison between France and China.
#11
Oh, Aris, you're so effective when you stomp your little feet and turn blue in the face! Do it again, do it agin! So cute! I'm about to capitulate!
#12
AK, Pretty much all of the European countries qualify under the "Little, Shitty" program with Greece being among the leader in both qualifications.
#13
Brett> AK, Pretty much all of the European countries qualify under the "Little, Shitty" program
I know -- that's the kind of everlasting American gratitude of the "we will remember and honour and never forget your support" I had been talking about that the Eastern European so-called "New Europe" nations will receive for their assistance in Iraq.
A poem from me to you:
"Memories are truly short /
when comes the time to insult."
#14
Sniff, sniff. AK, you are soooooo sensitive. Those terrible Amis are so cruel!
AK, ever heard of a man named James Van Fleet? You might not be aware, but he could be considered the father of modern greece. Check it out, dude! (i.e. google his name and 'greece')
#15
When y'all get out of Kindergarten, let me know. You think it's about "sensitivity", Brett? It's not -- if I were so easily hurt, I'd have died long time ago.
It's about *contempt*, instead. Time and again people of this forum seems to like finding ways to increase my contempt towards them by constantly representing themselves as even stupider and less worthy of discussion than I'd already considered them.
Oh, American assistance towards Greece in WW2 and shortly thereafter! Wow, I've *never* heard that one before in this forum-- nor have I ever seen efforts by idiots to think that it makes them less personally contemptible when they attempt to distract from their own *personal* ugliness and stupidity of mind by mentioning good actions of worthy compatriots in decades past.
The world can now count on one geopolitical earthquake every 10 years.
Between 1985 and 1995, it was the fall of the Berlin Wall, the implosion of the Soviet Union, the collapse of Communist parties the world over, and America's emergence as the world's only superpower. Between 1995 and 2005, it was the 9/11 attacks against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon that triggered a war on, and the defeat of, Afghanistan's despotic Taliban regime followed by a war on, and the defeat of, Saddam Hussein's bloody tyranny. So between 2005 and 2015, what's on the global menu?
Movers and shakers as well as long-range thinkers and planners meet in a wide variety of intelligence and think tank huddles. These over-the-horizon, out-of-the-box appraisals range from good news scenarios (the minority) to the kind of global unraveling funk whose only antidote would be the shelter and solace of a desert island.
Behind all the geopolitical jargon about the "functioning core of globalization," "system perturbations," and "dialectics of transformation," there is the underlying fear of a Vietnam-like debacle in Iraq that would drive the United States into isolationism - a sort of globalization in reverse.
Among the most interesting and optimistic librettos in the game of nations is peace in the Middle East made possible by a deal with Iran. Keeping this kind of negotiation with the ayatollahs secret in the age of the Internet and 4 million bloggers taxes credulity. It would also take a Kissinger or a Brzezinski to pull it off. However, if successful, it would look something like this:
-- A nuclear Iran removed from the "axis of evil," and recognized as the principal player in the region, is the quid.
-- For the quo, Iran agrees to recognize Israel and the two-state solution that establishes a "viable" Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza.
-- Iran ends all support for terrorist activities against Israel. Iran-supplied and funded Hezbollah disarms and confines its activities to the political and economic arena in Lebanon.
In reality, Iran is automatically the region's dominant power after U.S. armed forces withdraw from Iraq. The Shia side of Islam, long the persecuted majority in Iraq, will emerge victorious in forthcoming free national elections. A minimum of 1 million Iranians have moved into Iraq since Operation Iraqi Freedom 2œ years ago. The Iran-Iraq border is porous, mountainous, largely unguarded, and no one has even an approximate count. The Jordanian intelligence service believes the Iranian influx into Iraq could be as high as 3 million.
In Syria, the Alawi regime, in power since 1970, is also a Shia sect of Islam. In Lebanese politics, the Hezbollah party is a Shia movement. The oilfields of Saudi Arabia are located in the eastern province of the kingdom where, Shia are the majority - and Iran is a hop, skip and jump away.
One all too realistic geopolitical nightmare scenario was a WMD terrorist attack on the West Coast. A nuclear device detonates in a container ship about to enter Long Beach in California. News had just broken about the pollution of the U.S. food supply, and most analysts assumed transnational terrorism was behind it. The United States can kick butts anywhere, but seems helpless in coping with asymmetrical warfare.
In quick succession:
-- The dollar ceases to be the world's reserve currency
-- The shaky coalition that governs Iraq collapses, and civil war breaks out between Sunni and Shia
-- The fear of the unknown produces a new consensus in the United States that global civilization is no longer America's business.
-- The debate in the United States shifts to the requirements for adequate city perimeter defenses.
-- Now that the United States is no longer the global cop, the defense budget of almost half a trillion dollars can be drastically pruned and savings transferred to homeland security.
-- U.S. client states are informed they are now on their own. Congress abolishes the global aid function.
-- Egypt loses its annual stipend of $2.5 billion; Taiwan and Israel are told they will now have to fend for themselves.
-- Social trust becomes the new glue of society - bonding with like-minded neighbors that share each other's values.
-- International coalitions dissolve and new ones emerge. China seizes new opportunities for its short- and long-range needs for raw materials in the developing world - from Brazil to sub-Sahara's pockets of mineral wealth.
-- The United States, Canada and Mexico form a new stand-alone alliance with Britain.
-- Turkey, Israel and Iran become a new core group for self-protection against dysfunctional neighbors that have no upward mobility.
-- The European Union and Russia, in continuing decline, close ranks; the EU inherits de facto responsibility for Africa south of the Sahara, plagued by genocidal wars and the AIDS epidemic.
-- China and India, with one-third of the world's population, and competitive with Western countries in high-tech jobs and technology, move into a de facto alliance.
-- Pakistan's pro-American President Pervez Musharraf does not survive the 9th assassination plot; an Islamist general takes over and appoints Dr. A. Q. Khan, the former CEO of an international nuclear black market for the benefit of America's "axis of evil" enemies, as Pakistan's new president.
-- The House of Saud is shaken to its foundations as a clutch of younger royal princes, who have served in the armed forces, arrest the plus 70-year-olds now in charge - known as the Sudairi seven - and call for the kingdom's first elections.
-- Osama Bin Laden returns to Saudi Arabia, where he is welcomed as a national hero. Bin Laden scores an overwhelming plurality in the elections and is now the most popular leader in the country.
-- Dr. A. Q. Khan sends Bin Laden a message of congratulations and dispatches his new defense minister, Gen. Hamid Gul -- a former intelligence chief and admirer of the world's most wanted terrorist, who hates America with a passion -- to Riyadh. His mission is to negotiate a caliphate that would merge Pakistan's nuclear weapons with Saudi oil resources and monetary reserves.
-- Northern Nigeria sends a message to Islamabad and Riyadh requesting that it be considered as a member of the caliphate.
-- Absent the long-time global cop, and traditional alliances in shambles, transnational criminal enterprises thrive as they enjoy unfettered access the world over.
-- U.S. multinational companies, unable to protect their plants and employees, devolve back whence they came.
-- International airlines morph back into inter-regional air links.
-- Switzerland, a small defensive country with compulsory military service, is in vogue again; larger countries with several ethnic groups begin breaking down a la Yugoslavia.
-- Goods stamped "Made in China. Secured in Singapore" are back in business, smuggled into the United States.
-- The EU can no longer cope with millions of North Africans and sub-Sahara Africans flooding into Spain, Italy, France, who then roam freely and hungry in the rest of Europe. Islamist radicals sally out of their European slum tenements to join the siege of U.S. Embassies to protest their jobless plight.
-- Japan goes nuclear after U.S. troops are withdrawn from South Korea.
A slight detour from this global ship o' fools imaginary cruise had Pakistan and India, no longer restrained by the United States, stumbling into miscalculation and exchanging a nuclear salvo over Kashmir. One billion Indians survive minus one city, Islamabad. Pakistan, part of India prior to independence in 1947, collapses as a unitary state, and becomes part of India again.
To be warned is forewarned. Short of WMD terrorism, the intelligence insiders are concerned about implosions in the former Soviet Muslim republics. They also say there is no more important objective for the Bush 43B Administration than to repair transatlantic relations. Chris Patten, the EU's outgoing foreign minister says, "The world deserves better than testosterone on one side and superciliousness on the other."
Posted by: tipper ||
12/12/2004 8:58:47 AM ||
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#1
Many of these scenarios violate a principal of planning, "Never allow your opponent a single advantage." In other words, if they have an advantage, it is not through your permitting it, actively or passively. These scenarios also are scant in predicting possible major armed conflicts and regime changes. For example, there will be a US foreign policy under a republican administration.
#2
Many of these scenarios don't pass the "WTF?" test.
"The debate in the United States shifts to the requirements for adequate city perimeter defenses"
Yeah, right, can't wait to bring up the issue of the type of crennelation we need on our defensive walls,and how deep the moat should be, at the next town meeting.
Posted by: Carl in N.H. ||
12/12/2004 10:22 Comments ||
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#3
Don't forget the asteroid impact or the dreaded global warming rising of the oceans sending coastal areas under hundreds of feet of water.
May you live in interesting times.
Posted by: Don ||
12/12/2004 10:24 Comments ||
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#4
Carl, be sure you store enough food to withstand a seige (or cable TV outage...or some other calamity)
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/12/2004 10:27 Comments ||
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#5
ima have 472 gigabytes of 80s video stored against the day the cable is destroy
#6
I realy wish these LLLs would stop masturbating like this in public. The days when we would retreat into "Fotress America" are as over as the antebellum south. With the exception of a few hollyweird types, most of the american people know what the stakes are. For comparison, look at what happend at the nadir of the post vietnam period, the carter presidency. we most definately did not retreat into a shell. We may have been not quite as aeffective as we are today, but we were involved and busy bothering the rest of the planet.
A nuking scenario like this would more likely trigger an invasion of Iran/Norkland/wherever as the highest likelyhood. Much less likely, but a very real possibility would be a demonstration saturation nuclear bombardment of one of the usual suspects. As for EU, putty, et al, there would be a deathly silence waitning for our response. We would prolly finish up by enunciating some variation on "no Izzy/failed/semi-unfriendly state will be allowed to have any kind of nuclear tech. period" policy. Enforced with preemtive zapping of capitals/rulers.
While I hope nothing like this ever happens, it would be....entertaining, i guess, to see the usuaal suspects fall all over themselves trying to convince us it wudn't them.
Posted by: N Guard ||
12/12/2004 11:52 Comments ||
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#7
Another bunch of morons who don't understand that most social change is just the expression of technology changes. To take one example, standoff precision weapons means the possesor can systematically destroy a country's power and communications infrastructure at minimal risk. Its real hard to run a country without telephones and electricity.
#8
The days when we would retreat into "Fotress America" are as over as the antebellum south
Yes, but one should never underestimate the appeal of isolationism's siren song to Americans of both left and right. It's the flip side of John Winthrop's City on a Hill: in the world but not of it, free of the taint of old world corruption, back to the garden, etc. Appeals as much to Susan Sontag et al as to Pat Buchanan and Ross Perot.
#9
Appeals as much to Susan Sontag et al as to Pat Buchanan and Ross Perot.
I know. However, the previous examples are marginalized. In a country of approx~ 300M persons there are going to be some number of people like this. A small number, but a noisy number.
I'm looking at the end result of policy decisions, and people like Perot and Sontag (now theres a match made in...somewhere!) have little or no input into policy decisions.
The city on a hill, in the world but not of it does have its appeal, and a lot of people, including me would like to tell the rest of the planet to f__k off. But I, and by extension I hope the majority of Americans also understand that the world is not going to let us stay aloof. We're too much of a temptation, and as a result we have to be active in the world, if only out of self preservation. If in the process we make the world a little better, well thats just gravy, and makes the nasty bits of the job easier to endure.
Posted by: N Guard ||
12/12/2004 16:01 Comments ||
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#10
Since this is Arnaud de Borchgrave, someone who once seemed to be quite erudite - now seeming to be so full of himself he's liable to explode, nothing in it surprises me.
Much wild-eyed conjecture, so little revealed logic behind it. Individual items could, indeed, playout... but equally likely (more so?) would be the Mother Ship returns to take us all home.
It's hard to accept that Benador Assoc "houses" such a bandwidth - from Mansoor Ijaz to Arnaud - that's some spectrum.
#11
Maybe in the world of that author a nuke on US soil resutls in a restreat to a defensive core.
But "Jacksonian" america is going to take the gloves off - and several places in the Middle east will be given ultimatums: Kill these Islamofascists off yourselves, or the next nuclear detonation will be 100KT at 500m over the main mosque in your capital, simultaneously with 3 1MT detonations at 100m over Mecca.
Simple as that - this guy doesnt understand the "Jacksonian" mindset that dominates in times liek that - its the same mindset that dropped the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the one that sent flamethrowers after the Japanese in bunkers when they would not surrender, the same mindset that won Iwo Jima in spite of the cost so that we could bomb all the cities in Japan flat, then burn the rubble with incendiary bombs. Its the mindset that is shown by Alvin York, Audie Murphy, Carlos Hathcock, Shugart & Gordon, and the current btrave warriors in Afghanistan and Iraq.
*THAT* is the mindset that would be loosed upon the Islamist's world - one that will, like Grant, accept nothing but the complete and unconditional surrender and remaking of the poisoned culture of Islam, or, failing htat, its complete and permanent eradication, root and branch, from the earth.
The world has yet to the the American people in full fury - but if they pop a nuke on us, they will see horrors they had never imagined, unleashed upon them; Delivered harshly and coldly, from a determined and angry people bent on the eradication of that threat to its children, homes and society.
#12
These are just PC "Pipe Dreams", whims and whists, morso since the Failed Left itself has no intention of allowing or tolerating most or all of these scenarios. The USA cannot be in "isolation" because the Failed Left and Commie Clintons are out to force Socialism, OWG, and Empire on the USA, i.e. GLOBAL INTEGRATION, by any means necessary. The International Lefts are so desperate and power-mad/obsessed they are willing to work for a global empire of the failed and failing, not of the successful, let alone one of the prosperous. They are forcing and tricking America into accomplishing the historically GLOBAL agenda of [revolutionary]International Leftism-Socialism-Communism-Progressive while Communism-centric Russia-China modernize, whereupon US power will be finally usurped and suborned once America is sufficiently destabilized, no different than what the Clintons and LeftMedias did to the Reagan-Republican economy, validating its superiority once a DemLib became POTUS but giving themselves the full credit for same instead of to Reagan, GOP-Rightism or even DemoCapitalism. Bill Clinton validated and justified Leftism-Socialism once, before, and forever, unto eternity, and thus by extens also validating ditto for GLOBAL SOCIALISM, GLOBAL WELFARISM-SUBSIDISM, GLOBAL INEGRATION AND CENTRALISM, and GLOBAL OWG, etc. NO MATTER THEIR PC RHETORIC, NOR WHETHER USURPED OR NOT, THE LEFT WILL GEN NOT TOLERATE, NOR ACCEPT, THE USA NOT ENGAGING OR WARRING FOR GLOBAL EMPIRE! When Putin and Russia, now includ China, talk about waging PREVENTIVE, MIL-BASED MEASURES ags terror or to protect ags terror, THEY ARE TALKING ABOUT THE USA, i.e. ATTACKING THE USA-NORAM, IFF ONLY BY PC "MISTAKE" ala the USA in IRAQ-AFGHANISTAN ["NO WMDS IN IRAQ/ME"], NO MATTER HOW MANY ISLAMISTS ARE PC OR VERIFIABLY/MERITOR WIPED OUT! Remember, "Justified" US Global Empire = the USA is a ROGUE that must itself be inevitably and finally destroyed, "CONSTRAINED/SUBORNED AND CONTROLLED" as was said in PRAVDA. Americans must prepare for "...the day when AMerica is no longer the BIG BOY on the block" - you know, Bill Clinton's hatred of California-based BIG BOY-label restaurant food, the burgers that gave him heart problems!
#13
There is this common assumption that the US could not retaliate if terrorists attacked US w/nuclear weapon. It is far more likely that a "kill 'em all and let God sort them out" policy would follow. First,I would expect every terrorist camp in world to be hit in short order. Diplomatic niceties would be ignored by US. Iran,Syria,Saudi Arabia would be given ultimatums to immediately stop financing terrorists and to turn over any terrorists in their countries. Any nation sponsoring Islamic terrorists could expect a wave of missile attacks turning out the lights. Widespread condemnation of US actions could lead to US leaving UN,w/the funds US spend on Un going to defense build-up and direct foreign aid to countries helping US.
Posted by: Stephen ||
12/13/2004 0:05 Comments ||
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#14
Maybe in the world of that author a nuke on US soil resutls in a restreat to a defensive core.
But "Jacksonian" america is going to take the gloves off - and several places in the Middle east will be given ultimatums: Kill these Islamofascists off yourselves, or the next nuclear detonation will be 100KT at 500m over the main mosque in your capital, simultaneously with 3 1MT detonations at 100m over Mecca.
Simple as that - this guy doesnt understand the "Jacksonian" mindset that dominates in times liek that - its the same mindset that dropped the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the one that sent flamethrowers after the Japanese in bunkers when they would not surrender, the same mindset that won Iwo Jima in spite of the cost so that we could bomb all the cities in Japan flat, then burn the rubble with incendiary bombs. Its the mindset that is shown by Alvin York, Audie Murphy, Carlos Hathcock, Shugart & Gordon, and the current btrave warriors in Afghanistan and Iraq.
*THAT* is the mindset that would be loosed upon the Islamist's world - one that will, like Grant, accept nothing but the complete and unconditional surrender and remaking of the poisoned culture of Islam, or, failing htat, its complete and permanent eradication, root and branch, from the earth.
The world has yet to the the American people in full fury - but if they pop a nuke on us, they will see horrors they had never imagined, unleashed upon them; Delivered harshly and coldly, from a determined and angry people bent on the eradication of that threat to its children, homes and society.
#15
Maybe in the world of that author a nuke on US soil resutls in a restreat to a defensive core.
But "Jacksonian" america is going to take the gloves off - and several places in the Middle east will be given ultimatums: Kill these Islamofascists off yourselves, or the next nuclear detonation will be 100KT at 500m over the main mosque in your capital, simultaneously with 3 1MT detonations at 100m over Mecca.
Simple as that - this guy doesnt understand the "Jacksonian" mindset that dominates in times liek that - its the same mindset that dropped the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the one that sent flamethrowers after the Japanese in bunkers when they would not surrender, the same mindset that won Iwo Jima in spite of the cost so that we could bomb all the cities in Japan flat, then burn the rubble with incendiary bombs. Its the mindset that is shown by Alvin York, Audie Murphy, Carlos Hathcock, Shugart & Gordon, and the current btrave warriors in Afghanistan and Iraq.
*THAT* is the mindset that would be loosed upon the Islamist's world - one that will, like Grant, accept nothing but the complete and unconditional surrender and remaking of the poisoned culture of Islam, or, failing htat, its complete and permanent eradication, root and branch, from the earth.
The world has yet to the the American people in full fury - but if they pop a nuke on us, they will see horrors they had never imagined, unleashed upon them; Delivered harshly and coldly, from a determined and angry people bent on the eradication of that threat to its children, homes and society.
Cambodian police are investigating a raid on a US-funded women's shelter in which gunmen abducted 93 women and young girls. Police had rescued them from a brothel, officials said yesterday.
And the pimps wanted the back...
Washington has demanded a full investigation into the incident which began on Tuesday when the victims were rescued from a brothel in Phnom Penh, and taken to the shelter. A day later 30 armed gunmen abducted the group in a raid on the shelter, which has closed temporarily after its employees were threatened by the intruders. Police said they did not know who had stormed the shelter and no arrests had been made. "We cannot ignore this and we need further investigation," General Heng Peov, Phnom Penh's police chief, said.
What you need to do is track them down, get the girlies back, and kill the guys who took them. What's complicated about that?
About 50 of the women had earlier shown up at the US embassy in Phnom Penh yesterday to say they were not prostitutes but worked at the hotel as bar or massage girls, Heng Peov said.
I guess there's a diffo in Cambodia...
He said the group, aged 18 to 28, had either returned to work at the hotel or had gone home. "They were not sex workers. They just worked as massage or karaoke girls," said Heng Peov.
Then how'd they get kidnapped?
Embassy officials were unavailable for comment, but in Washington a top US diplomat in charge of combating human trafficking demanded a full investigation. "What the government of Cambodia has to do is arrest the traffickers, free the victims and stand behind the police chief who made the raid," said John Miller of the State Department. Cambodia's Anti-Human Trafficking and Juvenile Protection Department, headed by General Un Sokunthea, had rescued the women and children and arrested operators of the brothel hotel on December 7, the State Department said in a statement. The statement said eight brothel operators were reportedly released a day later and went back armed to seize the victims from a shelter run by the NGO Agir pour les Femmes En Situation Precaire [Acting for Women in Distressing Situations].
Posted by: Fred ||
12/12/2004 4:12:59 PM ||
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VICTIMS, LAY GROUPS SAY QUIET EFFORTS DO LITTLE TO REASSURE
The Diocese of San Jose has assigned two priests to watch over four colleagues removed from ministry -- and parish residences -- for sexual misconduct. The Oakland diocese just hired a retired probation officer to keep tabs on nine priests, including three who moved out of state.
#2
I've heard the suggestion that the only realistic way the Catholic church can solve both its priest shortage and improve quality control is to import seminary students from the poorest places on Earth. Send them to isolated seminaries on room & board only, with their pay going to their families. Then place them in countries where they *don't* speak the language, where they only give mass, and are under the strict control of a senior priest, who goes between churches to hear confessions and perform more personal services. If they screw up at all, they are out and get sent back to their family. Their passport is kept by their Bishop. After 10 or so years of very faithful service, then teach them the local language and send them to an educational seminary to learn everything else they need to know. On graduation, they become a senior priest with four or five probationaries. It solves several problems: enough priests, well-behaved priests, and taking entire families out of poverty.
A lot more than a dummy satellite is riding on the successful first flight of the super-sized Delta 4 Heavy rocket set to blast off today. The future of United States rocketry, and perhaps the nation's plans to send people to the moon and Mars, faces a major turning point when The Boeing Co. lights the three engines on the most powerful rocket launched from Cape Canaveral besides the Saturn 5 and the space shuttle. The thundering roar, which will be heard and felt for dozens of miles, will slowly lift the rocket off Pad 37B on a mission to prove Boeing's concept of strapping three Delta 4 core boosters together to create a launcher capable of delivering more cargo to orbit than NASA's shuttle...
"We redesigned this engine with simplification in mind," said Mike Costas, a program manager for the RS-68 engine for Boeing's Rocketdyne division. "It's very simple to build." Yet, "it's the largest hydrogen-fueled rocket engine in the world," Costas said. What does that mean? Quite simply, more power. Each of the three engines create more than 660,000 pounds of thrust and 17 million horsepower. That's about the equivalent of 850 Boeing 747s. The engines are not exactly fuel-efficient either, consuming a ton of propellant per second or five tanker-trailer loads per minute... Hoping for eventual 150 ton payloads. (Insert 'Monster Island' joke here.)
Today's launch was scrubbed because of a computer glitch, they'll try again tomorrow.
In fact, the D-IV Heavy does outlift the Titan IVB (25K kg payload to LEO vs. 21K) and does so at less than half the launch cost (170M vs. 430M).
Both outdo the Golden Killer-Goose (aka "Shuttle") by a huge margin.
Saturn I-B's LEO payload was around 20K kg and Saturn V's 110K.
It is interesting that this is an all liquid-fuel rocket, like the Saturns and unlike other recent US heavy lift boosters. Some analysts have asserted that reliance on solids is a false economy in a really well run program (something we haven't had for a long time).
With a NERVA-derived nuclear upper stage replacing the RL-10, LEO payload would double at no increase in cost. A bonus would be a wave of potentially suicidal depression among eco-wackies and media disinformationists.
The number of starving in the world has increased by nearly 20 million since the mid 1990s
While hundreds of billions of dollars are spent on weapons, war, killing and destruction and countless more billions are spent on Christmas, the number of people starving in the world is increasing, instead of decreasing. However boring those people are who spread gloom and doom stories at Christmas time trying to make the rest of us feel guilty as we tuck into our stuffed turkeys and push yet another glass of wine into our already bloated bellies, the latest report from the FAO deserves mention this Christmas. "Bloated bellies." Is anyone else's self-loathing meter begining to jump?
"The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2004" is the name of the report released yesterday, December 8th, by the UNO's Food and Agriculture Organization. To ignore this report is a sin. Says who?
While certain nations spend billions, not tens of billions but hundreds of billions of dollars on the destruction of the State of Iraq (and tens of thousands of its citizens, including innocent women and children), the number of starving in the world has increased by nearly 20 million since the mid 1990s, according to the report. "[H]undreds of billions of dollars on the destruction of the State of Iraq ..." Horseshit detectors on overload! Saddam was destroying the state of Iraq and killing its people, not America.
Furthermore, between 2000 and 2002, the number of starving rose to 852 million people, nearly one billion. At the beginning of the third millennium, what are we doing? I'd say that killing off the terrorists who are currently diverting much of our world's wealth towards fighting their psychotic minions is a sterling way of ensuring that we all get back to ending starvation. In the meanwhile, isn't it important to identify the fanatics who prevent such expenditures as the true culprits instead of trying to blame those who are interdicting them?
At this rate, the Millennium Development Goals (MDG), which intended to halve the number of starving by 2015, will never be reached and what a pitiful comment on humankind that some of us spend so much on illegal wars, slaughtering children with cluster bombs in a quixotic quest for Weapons of Mass Destruction which continue to go AWOL, while at the same time more and more people find themselves without enough money to put a meal on the table. Funny, no mention of how the Iranian mullahs are so busy crippling Iran's economic future and committing human rights violations by the score. The mullahs (and several thousand Iranians) are about to find out just how "Quixotic" their nuclear weapons quest really is.
This shameful comment on the development of humankind is compounded by the statement from the General Director of the FAO, Hartwig de Haen, who declared that "Enough is known about how to end hunger and now is the time to capture the momentum towards that goal," adding that it is a question of "political will and prioritization." It certainly is. And fighting terrorism rates a lot higher than bailing out corrupt third world dictatorships that are busily starving their populations.
So, we see very clearly the political will and the list of priorities drawn up by the clique of sycophants who backed George Bush's act of butchery in Iraq. First, crawl around the legs of the elitist regime in Washington, hoping for contracts to be doled out, second try to stimulate the arms industry, selling more and more equipment to slaughter fellow human beings and to hell with the rest of humankind. Well, that bit of spewing makes quite clear the author's political agenda.
History always judges in hindsight and en masse and it will be interesting to see how the history book will describe mankind at the beginning of the Third Millennium, when we will be seen as collectively spending more on killing each other and destroying our cities than defending and saving members of our own species in need. Boy howdy, this is sure to keep me awake during the long winter nights.
In the forefront of the fight to set things right is Brazil's President Lula da Silva, who together with the UNO, Chile, France and Spain has formed the Quintet against Hunger, a movement which stimulates partnerships such as self-financing farming schools, which teach farmers how to make the most of their local conditions. Yeah, that'll put an end to world hunger in a hurry.
The United Kingdom has also launched an idea to provide an international fund, based on the sale of government bonds, to provide 50 billion USD per year to address the problems of the world's poorest nations by 2015. Yes, we should feel guilty this year as we carve our stuffed turkeys and stuff them down our gullets because at the beginning of the Third Millennium, mankind was supposed to have risen to a higher and nobler state of development. And a little something known as Islamist terrorism is impeding our attempts at reaching such a goal. Exactly why are we supposed to feel guilty about this?
We all know who we have to blame for this but the history book will blame all of us, not only Bush, Rumsfeld, Cheney, Powell, Rice et alia. It is time mankind said a collective NO! to war and destruction of families and homes and YES! to developing the countries which have been held down for so long, by using subsidies and tariffs, while at the same time the "developed" world claims that it practises a policy of free trade. "[T]he countries which have been held down for so long" by their kleptocrats and religious loons, more like.
The fact that hunger and famine is rising, reaching almost a billion, at the beginning of the century, is a telling comment on the deplorable political leadership demonstrated by those who deride the UNO as a League of Nations and then proceed with a shocking act of mass murder, spending hundreds of billions of dollars in the process. The only thing that is shocking is this jerkoff's massively misplaced priorities. It's pathetic to see such idiotic drivel being passed of as journalism. Anyone got some background on this wanker?
Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey
Posted by: Zenster ||
12/12/2004 2:24:56 AM ||
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#1
Wow. Never heard of him before... Since he thinks Lulu is a peach, the rest fits the mold of Socialist Fool. Hell, he's even got a calendar which sez we're behind schedule on his Global Nobility Progress Chart. Lol! He's just another wanker who'd like to be in charge, methinks. Why, if he were King of the World, there'd be World Hugs and Blue Skies Forever - after he looted the treasuries of those pesky little country-thingys with their trivial local concerns. Think Globally, Act Stupid.
#2
One other glaring conclusion from Transparency International's survey of world corruption is it hurts the poor far more. Combine this with corruption being most serious in Brazil and normally by government employeess, and there is a great deal Lulu can do help the poor in his current position. But of course you are not a real socialist unless you blame the evil capitalists and imperialists for all your problems.
#7
Lets not forget the European buearucrats who threaten to refuse to purchase African crops, thus undermining the economic viability of the state, if the county dared to feed its hungry with 'genetically engineered' American grain. Nothing scientific, just pure self-serving power politics to enhance starvation someplace in the world.
Posted by: Don ||
12/12/2004 10:16 Comments ||
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#8
...Maybe one of our folks with access to more info can confirm this, but I was once told that there has not been a major famine due solely to natural causes in more than a century now - all of them have been due primarily to political or military confict in the affected regions even if weather/crop failure and/or disease was a factor.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
12/12/2004 11:28 Comments ||
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#9
The drought in the Sahel region might qualify, but even that was man made to an extent. I can't think of a single preventable (world wide foot surplus) famine since?
#10
there's a world wide foot surplus? Boy, howdy, I'm musta been asleep...
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/12/2004 11:44 Comments ||
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#11
First of all, there are worse things than hunger. Ask the Kurds and the Marsh Arabs and the Iranians and the Kuwaitis about Saddam. Thank us for funding his removal.
Second, I'm tired of this "developing countries held down" crap. Some countries have unsustainable populations given their inherently poor agricultural conditions. People in these areas have always starved when the weather turned against them or the locusts came through. If you want to help them, move them out and don't allow them back.
Third, get you f'ing hand off my wallet. I'm sick of being preached to by U.N. commissions, consultants, and lobbyists who eat extradordinarily well while being paid to preach.
Finally (quitting now before I blow a gasket), click on the writer's name at the end of the article and read his bio. I love the part about "providing people with information, to not let them fall into the quagmire of carrot-and-stick control by the invisible barons who control the business and the mass media corporations". This f'ing idiot is working for Pravda for God's sake. LOL
Posted by: Tom ||
12/12/2004 11:59 Comments ||
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#12
While hundreds of billions of dollars are spent on weapons, war, killing and destruction and countless more billions are spent on Christmas, the number of people starving in the world is increasing, instead of decreasing.
Tell them to convert to Christianity then they too can spend 'countless billions' on Christmas.
However boring those people are who spread gloom and doom stories at Christmas time trying to make the rest of us feel guilty as we tuck into our stuffed turkeys and push yet another glass of wine into our already bloated bellies, the latest report from the FAO deserves mention this Christmas.
I promise when I down my next glass of wine I won't feel guity, and thanks for reminding me to order a turkey for Christmas.
"The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2004" is the name of the report released yesterday, December 8th, by the UNO's Food and Agriculture Organization. To ignore this report is a sin.
Somehow I don't think you're going to give us a fire-and-brimestone sermon about the Saving Grace of Jesus Christ... Call it a hunch.
While certain nations spend billions, not tens of billions but hundreds of billions of dollars on the destruction of the State of Iraq (and tens of thousands of its citizens, including innocent women and children), the number of starving in the world has increased by nearly 20 million since the mid 1990s, according to the report.
Notice the pejorative term 'certain nations'. And we did notice that a lot more people are starving then in Clintonesque 90s. Has nothing to do with the Liberation of Iraq.
Furthermore, between 2000 and 2002, the number of starving rose to 852 million people, nearly one billion. At the beginning of the third millennium, what are we doing?
Let me answer this. We were approving the flying of aircraft into buildings and murdering Americans. And s852 billion is not anywhere near 'nearly a billion' and given the way NGOs and the left play with statistics I have serious doubts about the methods used and the numbers you wind up with.
At this rate, the Millennium Development Goals (MDG), which intended to halve the number of starving by 2015, will never be reached and what a pitiful comment on humankind that some of us spend so much on illegal wars, slaughtering children with cluster bombs in a quixotic quest for Weapons of Mass Destruction which continue to go AWOL, while at the same time more and more people find themselves without enough money to put a meal on the table.
Check the sked of the UN. The war is legal, and I thought this missive was about food. And that people can't put food on the table certainly isn't the west's fault.
This shameful comment on the development of humankind is compounded by the statement from the General Director of the FAO, Hartwig de Haen, who declared that "Enough is known about how to end hunger and now is the time to capture the momentum towards that goal," adding that it is a question of "political will and prioritization."
Man said a mouthful. Oopsie. Wrong term, eh?
All the world gotta dop is put down that bottle of 90 proof Marxism and start drinking from that nice platic bottle of market based economy and democracy.
So, we see very clearly the political will and the list of priorities drawn up by the clique of sycophants who backed George Bush's act of butchery in Iraq. First, crawl around the legs of the elitist regime in Washington, hoping for contracts to be doled out, second try to stimulate the arms industry, selling more and more equipment to slaughter fellow human beings and to hell with the rest of humankind.
Bush's 'act of butchery' costed fewer lives than even the UN is willing to admit they thought would happen. And you are still failing to tell me how the War in Iraq in 2003 has impacted events in in the 90s.
And actually, if you look, you are reading from Mugabe's playbook.
History always judges in hindsight and en masse and it will be interesting to see how the history book will describe mankind at the beginning of the Third Millennium, when we will be seen as collectively spending more on killing each other and destroying our cities than defending and saving members of our own species in need.
Your grasp of history is as tenuous as your grasp of politics. The USA will survive and history will be far kinder to it than to 'sycophants' such as yourself.
In the forefront of the fight to set things right is Brazil's President Lula da Silva, who together with the UNO, Chile, France and Spain has formed the Quintet against Hunger, a movement which stimulates partnerships such as self-financing farming schools, which teach farmers how to make the most of their local conditions.
We call those county extension offices. Every county in the US has one, by law, and we have had that since the middle 1800s. I can see how that would be an innovation to the likes of Brzil and France.
And I would bet this Quintet holds regular meetings with pate de fois gras and steak. Bitch about how evil the USA is then stick us with the bill.
The United Kingdom has also launched an idea to provide an international fund, based on the sale of government bonds, to provide 50 billion USD per year to address the problems of the world's poorest nations by 2015.
I got a better idea. No free markets and democracy, no food aid in times of crisis.
Yes, we should feel guilty this year as we carve our stuffed turkeys and stuff them down our gullets because at the beginning of the Third Millennium, mankind was supposed to have risen to a higher and nobler state of development.
That phrase, which was supposed to disgust me enough to spring into action, has in fact made me hungry.
We all know who we have to blame for this but the history book will blame all of us, not only Bush, Rumsfeld, Cheney, Powell, Rice et alia.
Actually, history will show Bush to be a prince and the rest of his Marxist critics to be gutteral sound producing frog felchers by comparison.
It is time mankind said a collective NO! to war and destruction of families and homes and YES! to developing the countries which have been held down for so long, by using subsidies and tariffs, while at the same time the "developed" world claims that it practises a policy of free trade.
Yes, take it up with the EU and all its subsidies, Make everything free market.
The fact that hunger and famine is rising, reaching almost a billion, at the beginning of the century, is a telling comment on the deplorable political leadership demonstrated by those who deride the UNO as a League of Nations and then proceed with a shocking act of mass murder, spending hundreds of billions of dollars in the process.
#16
Yes Frank, with the pioneering hog farms of the SE have some a huge foot surplus. AB keeps a huge jar of pickled ones in the O club. Pickled pig foots are nourishing, tasty and drive liverals crazy. What more do you want?
#18
F**wit. You want to reduce hunger? Then make GM seeds available across Africa, Asia and Latin America. And eliminate western trade barriers to third world cash crops so that millions of farmers will expand food production in those nations.
#19
Not much left to say after badanov's rant. One of the most profound developments of my lifetime is the world's steadily increasing capacity to feed itself despite an increasing population. The situation is now so good that traditional breadbasket food exporters are no longer needed to fill the gap (where nations cannot feed themselves). I have a better grasp of what is going on than most and even I was surprised when a fews weeks ago, the US dept of Agriculture announced the USA would cease to be a net food exporter next year (2005). Contrary to the author's premise, the world can feed itself, and hunger is almost entirely the result of states inability to address their own internal problems. It should be obvious that further progress on reducing hunger can only be by removing governments.
#20
Perhaps Zhang Fei can give us a figure-- I've heard it's as high as 200 million-- for the number of Chinese lives that were saved by the introduction of high-yielding, hugely efficient ie low-cost GM crops during the 1980s and 1990s.
This report is yet another UN exercise in scoring bureaucratic funding for projects that are flawed by design and whose only practical consequence will be to provide employment to UN hacks and Kojo-style hangers-on for a year or two.
#21
Contrary to the author's premise, the world can feed itself, and hunger is almost entirely the result of states inability to address their own internal problems. It should be obvious that further progress on reducing hunger can only be by removing governments.
This is absolutely correct. The world currently produces enough food to feed itself completely. It is the distribution (read: control) of existing foodstocks that cause famine.
Does anyone remember how Gorbachev's Russia had one of its best ever harvests and still had to import wheat from Canada and America because domestic trainloads of it rotted away on railway sidings while aparatchiks held out for their usual bribes?
#23
Excuse me,but I do not much care for turkey.We will be having ham,glased with pinapple and brown sugar.With chocolate and pumpkin pie for dessert.I would be more than glad to share this fine meal with anyone who is hungry and in need of a meal.Now just who are you going to be giving your food to sir?
There were 500 complaints [probably many, many more who would have complained but for intimidation]
this year of abuse allegedly committed by clerics, Aamer Liaquat Hussain, a minister in the religious affairs department, said....
That compares with 2,000 last year, [probably the intimidation was more effective this year]
but as yet there have been no successful prosecutions, Mr Hussain told the BBC... Mr Hussain said he had received death threats from clerics, but that he had done his job and his conscience was clear....The allegations involving Pakistan's Sunni majority and Shia minority referred to a tiny proportion of the country's 10,000 or so madrassas, he said [again probably because others are afraid to complain]
Posted by: mhw ||
12/12/2004 12:49:38 AM ||
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Posted by: Steve White ||
12/12/2004 12:00:00 AM ||
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#1
OK, so a new larger center's needed. Do it
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/12/2004 10:33 Comments ||
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#2
Perhaps we should ask the Chinese for a contribution, since they have been tweaking the Japanese with subs and supporting Kimmie. They need a reminder of why Japan is best left undisturbed.
Posted by: Tom ||
12/12/2004 11:33 Comments ||
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#3
...This one should be a no-brainer on somebody's part, especially after the money that got porked on the spending bills over the last couple weeks. Having said that, somebody really does need to take a long hard look at the future of the Arizona Memorial. The ship itself is starting to deteriorate badly - I was recently talking to a friend of mine stationed at Hickam AFB, and he was telling me that there are very real concerns that the Arizona's hull could be so far gone now that there may be nothing they can do to prevent massive oil leaks from her fuel bunkers. Any work that needs to be done is complicated by the fairly delicate ecology of Pearl Harbor and Arizona's status as a war grave. One way or the other, though, a call is going to have to be made.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
12/12/2004 11:43 Comments ||
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#4
all of the above is true, it just tweaks me that people can complain because of too many visitors paying their respects, causing damage. Fix it, and tell the overwhelmed to find somewhere else to work....possibly tending the non-existent caribou at ANWR
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/12/2004 11:46 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
