The oil boom of the 1980s made London the worlds premier party town
The accusation last week that Heather Mills, the former model and soon to be ex-Lady Paul McCartney, was immersed in a party scene where girls regularly took money from wealthy Arabs for sex in the early 1990s sent shock waves round Britain. Certainly Mills herself was dismayed and plans to sue over the claims but should the rest of us have been so thrown by the idea? There was indeed a shadowy world of late-night parties where middle-class English roses would do all sorts of things for the right price, as anyone who experienced the heady days of petrodollar fever will remember.
It began with Opecs quadrupling of crude oil prices in 1973, continued by virtue of arms sales to the Middle East in the 1980s and petered out only in the early 1990s, after Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait. During that time Arab money flooded into Britain and with it insanely rich Arab party givers.
#2
I've heard stories about the North Slope in AK where that wasn't true, but certainly barring bizarro man-made exceptions, you've nailed it. Opportunity talks.
#3
Looking at prostitution as something unnatural or abnormal is downright bizarre. Sex is the most normal thing there is. So is money changing hands.
99.999% of all prostitution is indistinguishable from "normal" sex. So why the shock and outrage?
Are females "wrong" for having sex with those outside of their "tribe"? Not biologically. It is a biological prerogative in some to help prevent inbreeding.
Are females "wrong" for wanting sex with multiple partners? Not biologically. Females can under some circumstances "choose" which sperm they allow to fertilize their egg, out of a selection of sperm. Conversely, different men's sperm compete with each other inside the female to reach the egg first.
#5
Thanks for that Moose, now hang on a sec whilst I step way-y-y-y back to avoid the splatter ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/18/2006 15:41 Comments ||
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#6
Moose, I've seen so many statements like yours that I wonder when exactly it was normal for people to get married and start families, and actually give their children a decent education and a good start in life.
The Europeans have brought into that idea so heavily they're going to go vanish into the demographic black hole.
I think you're looking at behavior that was on the margin of most societies in history and pretending it was in the center there.
Posted by: Phil ||
06/18/2006 16:13 Comments ||
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#7
99.999% of all prostitution is indistinguishable from "normal" sex
Fuck's sake moose!!!
I've taken a group of local, special needs kids in yellow hats and we've dug my local bowling green for fish but that is a BRAVE statement.
#2
The muslim community in Nigeria argued that the vaccines were impure and would stop Nigerian women from giving birth. They further argued that it was part of the efforts to eliminate islam in Nigeria. The problem was only solved after the intervention of Nigeria's government and the importation into Nigeria vaccines from muslim countries. However, the fear among Nigerians is yet to be wiped out.
Perhaps you thought the conspiracy theorists were bad here?
Posted by: grb ||
06/18/2006 1:04 Comments ||
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#3
The vaccines actually had small quantities of estrogen and some other hormones found in bith control pills.
However they were in tiny amounts and would have no effect. The hormones were a side effect of the manufacture process (culture in monkey cells).
Purification simply cannot remove all traces.
You can't explain this to the imams though...
Posted by: john ||
06/18/2006 10:00 Comments ||
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#4
I agree with the Imams, don't vaccinate a single muslim.
MOSCOW - Scores of Russians demonstrated in the capital Moscow on Saturday against the planned abolition of exemptions from military service, hated for its endemic bullying and brutality. Yes to the abolition of military service, no to the abolition of the exemption, read banners carried by about 100 demonstrators who responded to a call from small parties from the liberal opposition, the SPS (Union of Right Forces) party, the Republican Party and the party of Soldiers Mothers.
The plan is part of a proposed reform of the armed forces, under which the length of mandatory military service would be cut in half from its current two years to one year from January 1, 2008. The bill, backed by President Vladimir Putin and adopted on a third and final reading in the State Duma, the lower house of parliament, is part of a Kremlin campaign to modernize the countrys armed forces, aimed eventually at establishing an all-professional military.
The Russian army today numbers around 1.3 million people, but mobilization of conscripts has become increasingly difficult, in large measure because of criminal hazing and other abuses which remain widespread in the armed forces.
Under the terms of the bill, the length of military service will be reduced gradually to 18 months starting in January next year and to 12 months from 2008 for men between the ages of 18 and 27. While halving the length of service, it also scraps a 9 of 26 exceptions that most often result in total exemption from military service, notably for rural doctors and teachers, fathers of one child under the age of three and men whose parents are handicapped or retired.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/18/2006 00:00 ||
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For those of us who occasionally have wondered what happened to Mademoiselle Sabine Herold, the lovely French student who stood against the strikers a few years ago, it appears that she has been quietly busy. To wit:
AN ambitious young Frenchwoman whose fight against trade unions has earned her the nickname Mademoiselle Thatcher is to stand for parliament at the start of a political career which she hopes will revolutionise France. If elected next year, Sabine Herold, the darling of the French right, will become the countrys youngest MP so far at the age of 25.
In March, Herold helped to launch Liberal Alternative, a political party that already has representatives in 150 French towns and cities. She hopes that it will soon have several MPs.
She certainly does not lack confidence. As a 21-year-old student Herold was catapulted into the limelight after leading a rally against the unions which had paralysed the country in 2003 in one of its many bouts of discontent.
I like what Margaret Thatcher did in Britain, she acknowledged, noting that Frances unions still enjoy the disruptive power that has not been seen in Britain for more than two decades. The unions in this country should be made more accountable. They are not even obliged to reveal the source of their funding.
In her view, neither of the main candidates in next years presidential election will be able to shake France out of its stagnation and energise its outmoded economy. No matter how much Nicolas Sarkozy, the conservative interior minister and most likely candidate for the centre-right, promises a rupture with the past, he has a strong dirigiste streak, complained Herold, referring to the French tradition of big intrusive government. On the left, Ségolène Royal, star of the opinion polls, might find it hard to impose some of her policies without alienating her Socialist party. It is not even certain that they will anoint her as their candidate, said Herold, referring to the outrage of Socialist militants at Royals recent recommendation of boot camps for unruly youths.
Herold, the daughter of schoolteachers from Lille, strongly believes that her free market party will come to dominate French politics. In France, 30 is the average number of years most of the politicians have been on the scene, she said. In our party, it is the average age of the leaders. With her good looks and quick wit she will pose a credible challenge to Françoise de Panafieu, the veteran conservative MP whom Herold wants to evict from her seat in the 17th arrondissement of Paris in legislative elections next June.
Herold says that her party will also nominate a candidate for the presidential ballot next May, but it will not be her. I think I am still a bit young for that, she said. She is about to start a job in a small venture capital firm after graduating last week from a Paris business school. Some of our politicians have never really done anything in the real world. I want to know what business is.
She already has more experience of the outside world than many politicians. Her studies involved a year of theology at Birmingham University.
At the exclusive Sciences Po, the familiar name for the political sciences school in Paris, she met Edouard Fillias, who became her mentor. Under his guidance she began devouring political texts by liberal thinkers; when he set up Liberal Alternative she happily took on the role of spokeswoman. The party is quickly gathering supporters and has set up fundraising committees from London to New York, hoping to profit from expat French who have been exposed to Anglo-Saxon economics. In 10 years I am sure we will have ministers in the government, said Herold. And in 40 years, who knows? We will at least be one of the main parties, perhaps even having put a president into the Elysée Palace. Of that I am sure.
#2
Serbs need to learn some lessons from history..
When Abu Abdullah (Boabdil), the last muslim king of Granada, surrendered to the forces of Ferdinand and Isabella, he looked at the Alhambra palace for the last time with tears in his eyes.
His mother, Aisha, reproached him saying "Do not cry like a women for a kingdom you could not defend as a man."
Posted by: john ||
06/18/2006 10:57 Comments ||
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LVIV: Ukrainian border guards said on Saturday that they had detained a group of 33 illegal immigrants, including eight Pakistanis, near the border with Slovakia in the western Zakarpatye region. "At first border guards found a group of 25 illegals within 100 metres of the Slovak border and after a few minutes of searching another eight illegals were found," said an official with the border service. The men were detained overnight and were made up of 15 Indians, eight Pakistanis, five Afghans, four Bangladeshis and a Chechen, he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/18/2006 00:00 ||
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The May 13 story on the Web site Truthout.org was explosive: Presidential adviser Karl Rove had been indicted by Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald in connection with his role in leaking CIA officer Valerie Plame's name to the media, it blared. The report set off hysteria on the Internet, and the mainstream media scrambled to nail it down. Only . . . it wasn't true.
As we learned last week, Rove isn't being indicted, and the supposed Truthout scoop by reporter Jason Leopold was wildly off the mark. It was but the latest installment in the tale of a troubled young reporter with a history of drug addiction whose aggressive disregard for the rules ended up embroiling me in a bizarre escapade -- and raised serious questions about journalistic ethics.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Mike ||
06/18/2006 16:19 ||
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#1
...raised serious questions about journalistic ethics.
Former President Bill Clinton said Saturday that, if he returns to the White House in 2008 because his wife becomes president, his role would be to "do whatever she wants" because that's what a good citizen would do.
Clinton said he didn't know if U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, a Democrat from New York seeking re-election this year, would run for president in two years as some have speculated, but he predicted a woman could win the most powerful office in the world.
Asked at an Association of Alternative Newsweeklies convention what his role would be if his wife were elected, the former two-term president said, "I'll do whatever she wants, and I have no idea what that is. I honestly don't know whether she's going to run."
#1
because if you vote for Bush, you burn another black church or you drag another black man behind a pickup truck.
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/18/2006 11:50 Comments ||
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#2
Reminding his audience that he grew up in the South as a native of Arkansas, Clinton said right-wing ideologues and "ultra-conservative, white Southerners" have "demonized" those who think differently from them.
Pot. Kettle.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
06/18/2006 12:04 Comments ||
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#3
"We've got to find ways to get back to evidence-based politics."
Depends on what the meaning of 'is' is.
#6
Here in Alabama we get a real disgust for people who call Arkansas "South", not only is it both West and North, but evokes mental images of Plains Indians and Desert, neither of which are "South"
The closest real "Hillbillies" are in Tennesee, Arkansas is more "Po White Trash" than real Hillbillies.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
06/18/2006 16:44 Comments ||
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#7
What he really means is - Hillary is going to move to the center and all of you left leaning journalists need to stop the divisive politics of socialist v/s moonbat.
Taking strong exception to remarks by the Army Vice-Chief, Lt Gen K Pattabhiraman, that the force could "do without women", senior BJP leader Sushma Swaraj on Sunday demanded that he be suspended immediately. "It is a reflection of the working of the Army and its mindset. If I was the defence minister I would have called the vice-chief and told him we can do without you, you can go," Swaraj said. "The mindset of Army officers is such that they would not create a conducive atmosphere for women to work in," she alleged.
Since Congress president Sonia Gandhi is a woman, she should ascertain the facts from Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee and issue directions accordingly, Swaraj said. The Army has, however, said Pattabhiraman was "misquoted" and it was the government's policy to encourage women to join the armed forces. There are currently over 900 women officers in the Army.
Swaraj said a more conducive environment should be provided to women cadets and officers in the Army to enable them to work in a stressful atmosphere. She said she would visit Bhopal, the home of Lt Sushmita Chakraborty who shot herself at the Northern Command headquarters in Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday, to meet her parents on June 21.
Asked whether women were suited to the defence forces in view of practical problems they faced, Swaraj said women today are capable of doing any work. "The questions being raised about practical problems are only excuses."
Posted by: john ||
06/18/2006 18:57 ||
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#1
Memo to the Army Vice Chief: you may be prepared for combat against the Chinese PLA or the Pakistan army but an enraged feminist will get you every time. STFU next time.
Posted by: john ||
06/18/2006 19:20 Comments ||
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You might have heard of rent-a-womb, but who ever heard of rent-a-wife! Certain people, especially in tribal belts of Gujarat, have smelt an irresistible business opportunity in the skewed sex ratio in the state.
If many tribal daughters are being sold in marriage, there are also reports of husbands agreeing to their wives staying with higher caste men, who are not able to find a wife in their own community, for a monthly rental.
In Netrang taluka in Bharuch, police officials quote the recent instance of Atta Prajapati allowing his wife Laxmi to stay with a Patel in Mehsana for a monthly rental of Rs 8,000.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: john ||
06/18/2006 17:40 ||
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#1
Rent a wife for Rs 8,000 a month in Gujarat
8000 Rs = $174.00
John, sound like a good deal to me but can a guy insist on a low maintenance clause?
Two inter-state gangsters wanted in several cases, including murder, kidnapping and extortion, and carrying rewards on their heads were killed in an encounter with police in northwest Delhi in the wee hours today.
Satish Chaudhary, who was the kingpin of the notorious Satish gang, and his associate Vijay Pandit were killed by a team of Delhi Police's Special Cell in an encounter near Swarn Jayanti Park in Rohini in Northwest Delhi early today, DCP (Special Cell) Ajay Kumar told a press conference.
Acting on a tip-off that Chaudhary, who was one of the most wanted gangsters of UP and Delhi, would come to Rohini to meet his associates, the police team laid a trap to nab them.
"Chaudhary and Pandit reached the spot in a Wagon R car, but when police intercepted the vehicle and asked them to surrender, they started firing indiscriminately on the police team," Kumar said.
Police returned the fire and in this exchange of fire the two gangsters were injured, Kumar said. Chaudhary and Pandit were taken to hospital, where they were declared brought dead, he added.
Kumar said a 9mm pistol with magazine, a .30 mm pistol of Chinese make and five live cartridges were recovered from the slain gangsters. The car in which they were travelling was also seized.
Posted by: john ||
06/18/2006 12:40 ||
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#1
This is an attempt to show how moderate they are.
The Pak military is good at personal interaction. They will drink whiskey at the officers club with western officers and be "buddies".
These women officers will interact with their western counterparts.
This is the side they wish the west to see.
The US and NATO soldiers facing attack from taliban forces being protected by the Pak military see the other side.
Posted by: john ||
06/18/2006 11:13 Comments ||
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#2
Why do i imagine female F-16 pilots bombing taliban "insurgents" in Afghanistan.
On June 7th, the U.S. Navy held another "Sink-Ex" (Sinking Exercise) some 450 kilometers off North Carolina. A Sink-Ex uses decommissioned navy ships for target practice, or, as in this case, to test new tactics. What the navy wanted to examine was the ability of current naval guns (from .50 caliber machine-gun to 5 inch cannon) to disable ships without sinking them.
The subjects of the Sink-Ex were two decommissioned Spruance-class destroyers (Comte de Grasse and Stump). These 7,800 ton ships, two of the largest destroyers ever built, were to be first subjected to gunfire, then Harpoon and Maverick missiles from air force B-52 and B-1B bombers overhead.
The missiles did not get used, because the hail of gunfire sank the two ships within 90 minutes. With cameras and sensors recording the damage, a variety of guns were turned loose on the ships, to see what kind of damage could be inflicted, how quickly and how accurately.
Most of the results are classified, but it did appear that the .50 caliber and 20mm machine-gun were very accurate and effective, and capable of quickly disabling a ship without sinking it. Also tested were 40mm automatic grenade launchers. The two ships were quickly sent to the bottom (12,000 feet below) with 5 inch gun fire directed at the waterline of the two 28 year old ships.
#1
5 inch gun on a ship not designed to take damage without a DC party present.
Yep, that'll sink it.
US ships are so effective because of the US Navy sailors on board. No finer navy, no better sailors in the world that the US Navy. Our sailors make all the difference.
I can't imagine anyone was surprised the ships sank exept perhaps media weenies who were salivating over the headline "Lightweight Guns Sink Destroyers". In the real world, anyone pinging a US destroyer with a 5 inch gun would, no doubt, incur stern looks and harsh curses from its crew.
#3
5 inch guns was the equipment for large WWII fleet destroyers. The smaller escort destroyers had smaller guns. And of course the 5 inches gun was able to sink a WWII destroyer
So it is no wonder it can inflict severe damages on modern destroyers: these are four times larger than their WWII counterparts but are not better armored and modern shells are more effetcive. Also in the real thing the destroyer has a crew who is doing damage control, is taking evasive action and has blown that 50 cal machine gun sky high.
#4
The 5 inch guns of several destroyers were crucial to the eventual success of the divisions landing at Omaha Beach on D-Day. The 5 inch is nothing to sneeze at.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
06/18/2006 19:39 Comments ||
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GAINESVILLE, Fla., June 14 (SPX) -- Regenerative medicine scientists at the University of Florida's McKnight Brain Institute have created a system in rodent models that for the first time duplicates neurogenesis - the process of generating new brain cells - in a dish. Writing inthe June 13th Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers describe a cell culture method that holds the promise of producing a limitless supply of a person's own brain cells to potentially heal disorders such as Parkinson's disease or epilepsy.
"It's like an assembly line to manufacture and increase the number of brain cells," said Bjorn Scheffler, M.D., a neuroscientist with UF's College of Medicine. "We can basically take these cells and freeze them until we need them. Then we thaw them, begin a cell-generating process, and produce a ton of new neurons."
If the discovery can translate to human applications, it will enhance efforts aimed at finding ways to use large numbers of a person's own cells to restore damaged brain function, partially because the technique produces cells in far greater amounts than the body can on its own.
It might help liberals and progressives, and if they can figure out a way to transplant normal brain cells grown like this, even Cindy Sheehan could be helped. Maybe.
In addition, the discovery pinpoints the cell that is truly what people refer to when they say "stem cell." "As far as regenerating parts of the brain that have degenerated, such as in Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease and others of that nature, the ability to regenerate the needed cell type and placing it in the correct spot would have major impact," said Dr. Eric Holland, a neurosurgeon at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York who specializes in the treatment of brain tumors, but who is not connected to the research. "In terms of tumors, it's known that stem-like cells have characteristics much like cancer cells. Knowing what makes these cells tick may help by furthering our knowledge of the biology of the tumor."
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/18/2006 15:41 ||
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#1
"We can basically take these cells and freeze them until we need them. Then we thaw them, begin a cell-generating process, and produce a ton of new neurons."
That's great, Doc, but do you know any patients who need that many?
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
06/18/2006 16:31 Comments ||
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#2
I'd be happy to take some off of their hands, Rob -- when they grow human brain cell. Rodent cells are a little beyond the pale, even for me.
#5
Why do I have a feeling that this is all funded by Anheuser-Busch. Sure our beer can kill a few brain cells but now you can grow them back. There's a advertising slogan for you.
Quietly but systematically, the Bush Administration is advancing the plan to build a huge NAFTA Super Highway, four football-fields-wide, through the heart of the U.S. along Interstate 35, from the Mexican border at Laredo, Tex., to the Canadian border north of Duluth, Minn.
Once complete, the new road will allow containers from the Far East to enter the United States through the Mexican port of Lazaro Cardenas, bypassing the Longshoremans Union in the process. The Mexican trucks, without the involvement of the Teamsters Union, will drive on what will be the nations most modern highway straight into the heart of America. The Mexican trucks will cross border in FAST lanes, checked only electronically by the new SENTRI system. The first customs stop will be a Mexican customs office in Kansas City, their new Smart Port complex, a facility being built for Mexico at a cost of $3 million to the U.S. taxpayers in Kansas City.
As incredible as this plan may seem to some readers, the first Trans-Texas Corridor segment of the NAFTA Super Highway is ready to begin construction next year. Various U.S. government agencies, dozens of state agencies, and scores of private NGOs (non-governmental organizations) have been working behind the scenes to create the NAFTA Super Highway, despite the lack of comment on the plan by President Bush. The American public is largely asleep to this key piece of the coming North American Union that government planners in the new trilateral region of United States, Canada and Mexico are about to drive into reality.
Just examine the following websites to get a feel for the magnitude of NAFTA Super Highway planning that has been going on without any new congressional legislation directly authorizing the construction of the planned international corridor through the center of the country.
* NASCO, the North America SuperCorridor Coalition Inc., is a non-profit organization dedicated to developing the worlds first international, integrated and secure, multi-modal transportation system along the International Mid-Continent Trade and Transportation Corridor to improve both the trade competitiveness and quality of life in North America. Where does that sentence say anything about the USA? Still, NASCO has received $2.5 million in earmarks from the U.S. Department of Transportation to plan the NAFTA Super Highway as a 10-lane limited-access road (five lanes in each direction) plus passenger and freight rail lines running alongside pipelines laid for oil and natural gas. One glance at the map of the NAFTA Super Highway on the front page of the NASCO website will make clear that the design is to connect Mexico, Canada, and the U.S. into one transportation system.
* Kansas City SmartPort Inc. is an investor based organization supported by the public and private sector to create the key hub on the NAFTA Super Highway. At the Kansas City SmartPort, the containers from the Far East can be transferred to trucks going east and west, dramatically reducing the ground transportation time dropping the containers off in Los Angeles or Long Beach involves for most of the country. A brochure on the SmartPort website describes the plan in glowing terms: For those who live in Kansas City, the idea of receiving containers nonstop from the Far East by way of Mexico may sound unlikely, but later this month that seemingly far-fetched notion will become a reality.
* The U.S. government has housed within the Department of Commerce (DOC) an SPP office that is dedicated to organizing the many working groups laboring within the executive branches of the U.S., Mexico and Canada to create the regulatory reality for the Security and Prosperity Partnership. The SPP agreement was signed by Bush, President Vicente Fox, and then-Prime Minister Paul Martin in Waco, Tex., on March 23, 2005. According to the DOC website, a U.S.-Mexico Joint Working Committee on Transportation Planning has finalized a plan such that (m)ethods for detecting bottlenecks on the U.S.-Mexico border will be developed and low cost/high impact projects identified in bottleneck studies will be constructed or implemented. The report notes that new SENTRI travel lanes on the Mexican border will be constructed this year. The border at Laredo should be reduced to an electronic speed bump for the Mexican trucks containing goods from the Far East to enter the U.S. on their way to the Kansas City SmartPort.
* The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) is overseeing the Trans-Texas Corridor (TTC) as the first leg of the NAFTA Super Highway. A 4,000-page environmental impact statement has already been completed and public hearings are scheduled for five weeks, beginning next month, in July 2006. The billions involved will be provided by a foreign company, Cintra Concessions de Infraestructuras de Transporte, S.A. of Spain. As a consequence, the TTC will be privately operated, leased to the Cintra consortium to be operated as a toll-road.
The details of the NAFTA Super Highway are hidden in plan view. Still, Bush has not given speeches to bring the NAFTA Super Highway plans to the full attention of the American public. Missing in the move toward creating a North American Union is the robust public debate that preceded the decision to form the European Union. All this may be for calculated political reasons on the part of the Bush Administration.
A good reason Bush does not want to secure the border with Mexico may be that the administration is trying to create express lanes for Mexican trucks to bring containers with cheap Far East goods into the heart of the U.S., all without the involvement of any U.S. union workers on the docks or in the trucks.
#2
This only works if we reprise the Mexican American war of 1848 and garrison Mexico. Otherwise, it is a nightmare.
Posted by: Random Thoughts ||
06/18/2006 14:39 Comments ||
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#3
I disagree. For the past decade or so, the amount of rail traffic passing through Nogales alone just boggles the mind, the closest thing to bumper-to-bumper traffic for trains, heading in both directions.
US ports are also clogged with merchandise. We are in great need of some new trade route for the vast volume of material through our borders.
#4
'twould better serve our nation if that money were put to plain old porky subsidies for enterprising companies that would like to make stuff here instead.
Once the Republican North American Union plan is on track what is left for Americans to do?
Intellectual property ?
Service economy ? How many aromatherapists do we need ?
Posted by: J. D. Lux ||
06/18/2006 16:20 Comments ||
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#5
Cocaine should be down to about $10 a gram by the time this thing is up and running.
#6
"...Still, NASCO has received $2.5 million in earmarks from the U.S. Department of Transportation to plan the NAFTA Super Highway as a 10-lane limited-access road (five lanes in each direction) plus passenger and freight rail lines running alongside pipelines laid for oil and natural gas..."
I think these earmarks are line items in legislation (i.e., laws that authorize spending). Which is to say, the earmarks are the brain child of individual Reps and/or Senators.
BTW, since a transportation super corridor like this would probably cost at least $40M/mi, you can bet the farm that very little if any will be built in your lifetime.
#7
I still like the idea of a canal along the southern border of the US down the Rio Grande to the Gulf coast. That would eliminate the Panama Canal, provide a moat with Mexico, and be one neat civil engineering project, which would help Caterpillar.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
06/18/2006 16:39 Comments ||
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#8
I do not give a fig about the stacks of Happy Meal toys waiting to be unloaded.
If even one mile of this nightmare road to ruin is completed it is at the cost of our own crumbling highway system.
Shame on them !
I can point out numerous places where rebar is showing in bridges on major metropolitan highways.
This needs to be attended to first.
Posted by: J. D. Lux ||
06/18/2006 16:39 Comments ||
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#9
Cocaine should be down to about $10 a gram by the time this thing is up and running.
In the "new economy" even selling drugs will only pay third world wages.
Posted by: J. D. Lux ||
06/18/2006 16:52 Comments ||
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#10
huge NAFTA Super Highway, four football-fields-wide, through the heart of the U.S. along Interstate 35, from the Mexican border at Laredo, Tex., to the Canadian border north of Duluth, Minn.
sounds just f'ing lovely, change the last bastion of America into the Great Azteca Merchandise and Illegal River of Shit.
too bad your brain lost the whole concept of "Miniaturize" on this one Moose.
#11
GOT IT It took a while, but all the pieces are there.
First Piece, throw ALL the Illegals out, or scare them back home.
Second Piece, Talk about the Border fence (See point one) to keep them there.
Third piece. this new International Highway in the planning.
Conclusion, The United States plans to Bankrupt Mexico, Then offer "Economic Assistance" and quietly make Mexico a part of the United States.
Otherwise this planned Mega-Highway is a fools dream, BUT NOT IF IT'S ALL "AMERICA" in the end result.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
06/18/2006 23:11 Comments ||
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Myanmar's government has dismissed eight deputy ministers in a cabinet reshuffle. The military government announced the dismissal of the ministers and a supreme court judge without giving any reasons. The official announcement of Friday's dismissals, signed by Lieutenant-General Thein Sein - the fifth-ranking member of the government - said the eight deputy ministers were "permitted to retire", usually a euphemism for dismissal. New appointments to fill the posts were not announced.
Last month, the government dismissed two cabinet ministers and appointed four new ministers and four deputy ministers. Those who lost their portfolios were the culture minister and the minister for social welfare and resettlement. As has become customary, no explanations for the shifts were announced.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/18/2006 00:00 ||
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The following information is intended to keep you informed of ongoing maritime activity that may affect your shipping operations and planning.
Government vessels of every nation state may query commercial vessels requesting information concerning the vessels identification and the activity in which it is engaged.
However, we have received an increasing number of reports from commercial vessels, including fishing vessels, of incidents of harassment by small craft. These incidents are occurring in the Northern Persian Gulf.
The small craft have an official look about them and some are clearly armed. Persons on board the small craft, representing themselves as Iranian authorities, have coerced the operators of the commercial vessels to allow them to board.
Many of these boarding have resulted in the mental and physical abuse of the master and/or crew of the commercial vessel, up to and including extortion and armed robbery of Ships equipment; Cargo; Personnel property; and
Cash.
Although no deaths have been reported, the approaching onset of an active fishing season raises the possibility of more incidents of this nature.
While we do not in any way encourage physical resistance to an armed assault, we do encourage vessel owners and operators to consider carefully the areas in which they operate or transit.
And, as always, we strongly encourage you to notify the Piracy Reporting Center (PRC) of the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) immediately upon a suspected or actual attack via radio, satellite phone, or any other means available.
The golden buffalo, the legendary symbol of the American West, will soon roam again this time as the nation's first pure gold coin.
The U.S. Mint will start taking orders in the coming week for the coins. Officials believe they have found a winning combination that will appeal to nostalgia buffs and investors.
The coin will be slightly larger and thicker than a Kennedy half dollar, will contain one ounce of gold and will be designated a $50 gold piece. The actual price will depend on the market price of an ounce of gold, plus markups.
Continued on Page 49
#1
Let's hear it for a $100 gold piece with a picture of Ronald Reagan on the front and a holographic bald eagle on the back, like the Maple Leaf holograph.
Nevada Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori became the first woman to lead any church in the global Anglican Communion when she was elected Sunday to be the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church.
The choice of Jefferts Schori may worsen and could even splinter the already difficult relations between the American denomination and its fellow Anglicans. Episcopalians have been sparing with many in the other 37 Anglican provinces over homosexuality, but a female leader adds a new layer of complexity to the already troubled relationship.
Only two other Anglican provinces New Zealand and Canada have female bishops, although a handful of other provinces allow women to serve in the post. Still, there are many Anglican leaders who believe women should not even be priests.
Continued on Page 49
The Air Force has sent a memo to airmen explaining why the service is cutting the force by 40,000 in the coming years. The bottom line: The Air Force wants to free up money to pay for expensive weapons systems, such as the F-22 Raptor.
"We are reducing end strength and becoming more efficient," the memo states. "It is important to maintain our technological edge to fight the wars of today and tomorrow."
Warning that pink slips are coming, the memo adds, "We understand this could be a difficult time for some airmen and their families. We will use every authority available to minimize the impact for those transitioning to civilian life."
The active-duty Air Force is slated to shrink from 351,800 this year to 334,200 in 2007.
#2
I'm with you. It's stupid.
Maybe we can blindfold who's left, and see if F-22's can fly, as well as maintain themselves.
Posted by: J. D. Lux ||
06/18/2006 16:45 Comments ||
Top||
#3
OS, this goes along with the article a couple back about the Navy offering buy outs. The problem really is a fundamental readjustment from decades of funding and manpower alignment driven by Cold War planning and turf building within and between the services. The restructuring is focused upon what war(s) we anticipate in the forseeable future with reasonable guesstimation.
If you understand that the greatest cost to DoD is really personnel and their support [and include the ever increasing and longer living retirees*], they understand they can't afford to try to cover everything.
* Congress could help considerably by removing the 'obligation' they made by contract with the retirees, out of the DoD budget proper. However, then a big looming obligation becomes obvious and they're not to eager to show the public the effects of their earlier handiwork. Plus, as Congress starts, as they have, to renege on the promises, it'll really upset the AARP crowd.
#5
This is old news. The plan was detailed in PBD (Program Budget Decision) 720 published 20 December 2005 entitled Air Force Transformation Flight Plan.
The Air Force proposal streamlines organizations to a smaller, more agile force and transforms its organizational structures with an increased emphasis on supporting the Warfighter. This includes, but is not limited to, completing the Air Forces Warfighting Headquarters transformation in order to support the Combatant Commanders (COCOMs) and Joint Task Forces (JTFs). These organizational restructuring actions will result in a more streamlined structure with an enhanced ability to employ air, space, and cyberspace power in support of COCOMs and JTFs. Eliminating redundancies and streamlining organizations will make it possible to field a more capable force of military, civilians, and contractors while freeing up resources for recapitalization.
Additionally, the Air Force proposal continues enterprise-wide organizational efficiencies to produce investment capital. These actions include incorporating LEAN processes throughout the Air Force; centralizing and regionalizing targeted workloads, to include streamlining and centralizing Information Technology; and aggressively reducing contractor support throughout the Air Force.
The majority of the proposed savings will be generated through process efficiencies.....
The Air Force identifies 5 specific manpower reductions that can be achieved by eliminating the most expensive, least effective systems; recapitalizing, modernizing, and rebalancing the Air Force total force into a smaller, more lethal and agile force; and ensures continued COCOM assigned mission support in Air, Space, and Cyber Commons as it pertains to Air Force Executive Agency responsibilities....
PBD720 called for reducing the B-52 fleet from 94 to 56, eliminating half of the C-21 fleet (78 to 36), eliminate the U-2 by 2011, eliminate the F-117 by 2008, and increasing the procurement of F-22s from 179 to 183 and stretching the production by 3 years.
This is not a happy document and it is not a happy force. The Air Force is already 40% smaller than it was when the Berlin Wall fell. One result of PBD 720 is a surprising number of newly commissioned 2nd Lieutenants are being sent home, told that the AF had no place for them and that their services are not required. This is just part of a painful restructuring of the force structure. To make matters worse, the AF has a looming problem among its civilian work force, depending on where you look, approximately 50% of AF civilians are elgible for retirement within 5 years (result of a hiring freeze during the 90s). Some other time, I may rant about how LEAN has become a dirty word.
#6
...The F-22 is running into a serious problem - its avionics are overheating on the ground. In addition, the skin panels are suffering from corrosion. Don't send one more damn person home until this airplane - which has been in test and evaluation for nearly FIFTEEN G*DAM*ED YEARS - is working properly.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
06/18/2006 21:05 Comments ||
Top||
#7
The F-22 suffers from lack of foreign opponents and domestic competition (JSF) for scarce dollars. The collapse of the Soviet Union pretty much removed the need for the F-22 as an air superiority fighter resulting in the continuing reduction in the number to be procured from 700 to 183. Since we always fight in an air supremacy environment, we really only need a few squadrons of F-22s to sweep the skies and then let the real work be done by less expensive warhorses like the F-15, F-16, B-52, and A-10. The F-22 is the last gasp of the fighter pilot mafia. It's been a good run for them. The bomber boys ruled the 50s and 60s and the fighter guys have had the last 30 years. Now the future belongs to RPV/UAV/UASs and white scarf fighter pilots will be replaced by kids putting their gaming skills to use fighting RPVs. The F-22 just doesn't have a mission to justify the cost of procurement. The AF can afford either the F-22 or the F-35 JSF. The JSF, planned replacement for the F-16s and F-18s has too much political juice not to go forward. So eventually, someone in Congress will grow a spine and tell Lockheed to pound sand on the F-22.
The Navy wants to know from its officers how much money would make it worth their while to leave the service. Under a new program, eligible officers would bid on how much money they feel they are entitled to separate voluntarily, said Jeri Busch, military compensation chief of staff for the Chief of Naval Personnel.
Officers must have between six and 12 years of experience and be in specialties that are overmanned or have skill-sets that are no longer needed, officials said. Maximum award levels will vary depending on specialty, but the average payout is expected to be between $55,000 and $60,000, Busch said.
The Navy hopes to entice between 200 and 300 officers to leave the service through the program this fiscal year, Busch said. She said she did not know how many officers are eligible for the program. Exactly who gets the cash and how much they get is determined by a bidding process, Busch said.
Under the program, each officer submits a bid of how much they would like to receive that is at or below the maximum amount allowed per community, she said. Each community has a target of how many officers can receive the money, she said.
So if one community has a target of 50 and 75 officers apply for the money, only the lowest 50 bids would be accepted, she said. Of those 50 bids, the highest bid would determine the award level for all 50, she said.
The program is based on lessons learned in the 1990s that broad-brushed, blunt instrument tools were ineffective. In actuality much of what happened, in the Navys experience anyway, during the drawdown is we ended up having the wrong people leave the service, perhaps, she said.
#2
"In actuality much of what happened, in the Navys experience anyway, during the drawdown is we ended up having the wrong people leave the service, perhaps, she said.
Meaning they had a lot more junior officers take the buyout than they expected. Frankly, it was a good deal and a good time to leave.
It's not a perfect parallel, I'm sure, but the oil industry played the voluntary golden parachute game from the late 80's through the mid-90's, and they're still paying for it.
The ones who were the most valuable took the deals and left - they knew they could find excellent employment opportunities. What the oil companies retained was staff that was very heavy with dead wood.
Within two years, the brilliant architects of the scheme were starting to call up their previous employees to offer them consulting contracts - at 3-4 times the salary package they had previously paid them.
Wouldn't it make more sense to target those who are, by peer review, failing to perform up to standard - and offer them a fair deal? Start there, anyway.
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.
Former President Bill Clinton said Saturday that, if he returns to the White House in 2008 because his wife becomes president, his role would be to "do whatever she wants" because that's what a good citizen would do. 
Myanmar's government has dismissed eight deputy ministers in a cabinet reshuffle. The military government announced the dismissal of the ministers and a supreme court judge without giving any reasons. The official announcement of Friday's dismissals, signed by Lieutenant-General Thein Sein - the fifth-ranking member of the government - said the eight deputy ministers were "permitted to retire", usually a euphemism for dismissal. New appointments to fill the posts were not announced.
