Dura lex, sed lex... well, not too dura here.
LUCKNOW, India A man in northern India will be publicly slapped 51 times as punishment after village elders found him guilty of raping a neighbor who is deaf and mute, a village chief said Friday. The elders stepped in to review the case because local police had failed to arrest the accused man after a complaint was filed by the victim's husband, village head Badr-ul Hasan told The Associated Press. "Police told us that since the woman is deaf and mute, she is not able to narrate the incident," Hasan said. WTF? No sign language in India? Guess not...
Village courts generally settle land disputes and other disagreements among residents, not criminal offenses. But many rape cases go unreported in India, especially in villages, since women fear further harassment by police, who often work with corrupt local politicians and landlords.
A village court made up of five elders heard from both sides on Wednesday. It found the man guilty, fined him $110 and ordered he be publicly slapped 51 times, Hasan said. Has amnesia international issued a statement on this cruel and unusual punishment?
#4
I wonder what would happen if we had the same penalty here? More rape or less? I guess it depends whose doing the slapping, and what kind of mood she is in.
A strict vegetarian and devout Muslim was horrified to discover she was eating pork half-way through her McDonald's meal. Sixteen-year-old Jasmin Athas ordered a veggie melt meal at the chain's restaurant in Rose Crescent, Cambridge - only to find it contained a large rasher of bacon. Jasmin, who was visiting the UK from Sri Lanka and had spent the day in Cambridge because she plans to apply to university here, was shocked and felt sickened when she realised what she was eating.
Her uncle, Nick Tillekeratne, from Slough, was with Jasmin and her mother at the time. He said: "It was only when Jasmin began eating the veggie melt that she realised there was bacon in it.
"Believing that McDonald's has a worldwide reputation for quality, and great respect for the dietary habits of their customers, she did not bother to check. But a part-eaten piece of bacon fell out and that's how the shocking discovery was made."
Jasmin said: "I felt disgusted. I have been a vegetarian for 10 years and I am also a Muslim - we never even have pork in the house. I was very upset. You don't expect that from a big company like McDonald's." When they asked to speak to the manager, he apologised and offered a free meal voucher - but the voucher is redeemable only at the Rose Crescent outlet.
Mr Tillekeratne, 39, an accountant, said: "Jasmin was devastated. She felt sick for a week afterwards at the thought of eating bacon, which she has never eaten in her life. She has been a vegetarian for 10 years and somebody just destroyed that. I have written to the company but I have not received any response or any official apology."
A McDonald's spokesman told the News: "Naturally we were very concerned to hear of this customer's experience and that on this rare, isolated occasion we did not meet our usual high standards. We also appreciate how upsetting it must have been for her to consume a product that is against her religious beliefs and we offer our sincerest apologies. This was a case of genuine human error and we are taking the matter extremely seriously. The restaurant launched a full investigation at the time of the incident, with the staff members working on that shift."
#2
It was a mistake; no negligence. However, a Muslim co-worker once begged me for a sandwhich during Ramadan. Many Muslims embrace Islam by compulsion alone. Believe it or else.
That's not fair. McDonald's does better for, say, low-fat food than a lot of supposedly higher-quality restaurants.
As for the story -- if you have dietary requirements, it's your responsibility to enforce them. Asking for something different is good, but screw-ups happen; if you don't look, it's your fault.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
11/10/2006 7:45 Comments ||
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#4
Hate to let Jasmine in on the secret. The same grill used to cook the bacon also grills all the other food. Then there is airborne bacon cross contamination. Then their is porcine environmental contamination of the water, soil, and air. Better not eat anything derived from them. (OK, so I don't as bad as first thought)
Posted by: ed ||
11/10/2006 8:12 Comments ||
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#5
Now she is never going to be a virgin houri in Paradise, damned for all eternity by her inadvertent pork exposure.
#8
She sounds like the veil-obsessed women in Islam-trying to be pure and holy as saints. Clue in, Miss Jasmin-Glenda Good Witch is a hard target to hit when the people of McDonalds, and YOU YOURSELF, are only human. Grow up.
#9
..At the risk of starting a real argument, I'm a bit conflicted on this one - if it was a an Orthodox Jew instead of a Muslim, I think we'd be more understanding. Now, having said that - ed has a point; it should be clear that Mickey D's AIN'T halal, and anyone with an ounce of sense should have figured that out ahead of time.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
11/10/2006 9:21 Comments ||
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#10
ed has essentially nailed this one. There are no vegetarian fry baskets or grills at any fast food restaurants. Cross-contamination is the rule, not the exception.
That's not fair. McDonald's does better for, say, low-fat food than a lot of supposedly higher-quality restaurants.
RC is quite right. Read the (admittedly McDonalds authorized) history of their franchaise titled, "Behind the Arches" by John F. Love. McDonald's pioneered many aspects of fast food preparation, from establishing standards for ground beef patties (previously made from whatever was swept up from the killing floor), single-handedly developing the cryogenically frozen hamburger patty and breaded fish fillet to literally inventing the frozen French fry (dubious bragging rights included).
In a time when fast food franchaises were sold and just as quickly forgotten, McDonalds set extremely high standards for site hygeine, consistent preparation and general food quality across the board at all locations. My own background in food service and management gives me a pretty solid appreciation for what they achieved in their timeframe of the early 1960s.
Of course, not everything is all (congested) hearts and flowers. McDonalds did conspire to conceal the nature of their transfat content. They certainly tightrope ethical boundaries by running ads suggesting that you eat their +1,500 calorie meals more than once a day. Most important of all to remember is that when McDonalds speaks of "quality" it is their quality standards (i.e., USDA, OSHA & HACCP regs) being adhered to and not necessarily that of truly well prepared food.
I heartily recommend the book, though. It contains some exceptionally useful insights regarding management practices and commercial enterprise in general. For instance; The original McDonalds executive board was composed entirely of sales people who had risen through the ranks and actually understood the basic mechanics of how to market a profitable product. The author wryly notes how America's boardrooms are now filled with the current gold standard of Harvard MBAs who, more often than not, have never done any heavy lifting in their entire lives.
McDonalds also made the majority of its profit from the land that franchaises were sited upon as opposed to the foodstuffs sold to them. This eliminated a huge conflict of interest that many other franchaises experienced when corporate profits depended upon jacking up supply pricing that drove franchaises out of business only to have the rights sold yet another time.
Although written in 1987, at the peak of McdDonalds corporate performance, the statistics about their company are still jaw dropping. As one accounting executive interviewed for the book said, "numbers like these simply do-not-compute". Such as:
* One in seven American people got their first job at a McDonalds.
* McDonalds trains more people than the US military.
* Rated as a seperate nation, McDonalds is the eighth largest Coca Cola syrup customer.
* Over 50% of the US population lives less than a three minute drive from a McDonalds.
* The ketchup served by McDonalds would fill the Mississippi River several times over.
Finally, there are hilarious anecdotes about how, for instance; When McDonalds was just starting, Kraft Foods refused to develop a more tangy cheese slice for their cheeseburgers only to lose what would become one of the single largest corporate accounts in all history.
However, the one gigantically important and instructive lesson of the book is about how their profits centered on property ownership. The mechanics of their site selection and buy-backs of privately held locations is a roadmap for any well built business and a stroke of genius.
As for myself, knowing how to cook well and how commercial food is typically prepared, I have not voluntarily eaten at a McDonalds in over 20 years.
#11
Mike wrote: "..At the risk of starting a real argument, I'm a bit conflicted on this one - if it was a an Orthodox Jew instead of a Muslim, I think we'd be more understanding."
Any Jew who kept Kosher and mistakenly ate pork would be upset at himself, and not the restaurant. I know this from personal experience.
#12
This was at a Mcdonalds, right? So how do we know it was even real bacon?
It was probably that poor excuse called "Canadian bacon".
One in seven American people got their first job at a McDonalds.
Not me. Subway was my first job. McDonald's was second, third, and fourth. (Different summers; different location each time.)
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
11/10/2006 10:16 Comments ||
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#13
McD's in the US recently had to pay out a fairly impressive sum to Hindus who dicovered that the fries were being treated with some sort of beef-based flavoring. I'm not too exercised about this incident unless the Asian community starts demanding that all pork products be removed from McD's in Leeds or Birmingham.
FYI, Church's Fried Chicken was recently bought by (Bahraini?) investors and is now sharia compliant in financing and menu. Caribou Coffee is owned by Saudis and is also sharia-compliant.
#15
Any Jew serious about keeping kosher would not eat at McDonalds or any other restaurant not certified as kosher, precisely because of the cross-contamination issues that ed mentions. It isn't merely the individual foodstuffs that are permitted/forbidden, but the cleanliness of the place in which the foods are handled and served. For instance, if the soap used to clean the dishes is not kosher, neither is the food subsequently served upon them, even if the ingredients are without question and the kitchen is sterilized daily. If Miss Athas didn't wish to be exposed to non-halal foods, she should not have even walked in to a non-halal restaurant. Some people whould not be allowed out without minders!
#16
This story just made my day. You know what really has Jasmin's goat (heh heh)...she LIKED IT. And now she knows what she's been missing the whole time and she's PO'd. I'd be too. I saw the postings on Sharia-complant. Is the like XP compliant? Should I be testing for this? Couldn't hurt...if the Donks get their way we'll all be Sharia compliant.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
11/10/2006 16:32 Comments ||
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#17
A funny story about cross contamination.
In Israel, most large hotels offer big Sunday buffets in their restaurants, and they are very popular. Well, in one such hotel, halfway through a buffet, a customer noticed steam rising from the hot water warmers of the "meat" buffet, and drifting over to the "dairy" buffet.
So, they immediately had hysterics while screaming at the top of their lungs, which shut the buffet down.
To resolve this situation, and ones like it, there are committees of Rabbis that will come and examine the situation to determine if indeed a violation is happening. Such committees are very expensive, but the hotel restaurant had no choice.
The committee debated and argued for several hours before coming up with an experiment to determine if the steam carried contamination. They would precipitate the steam into a bowl, then offer it to a dog. If the dog drank the water because it smelled meat, then the buffet was not kosher.
Well, when they offered the water to the dog, he wanted nothing to do with it, so they agreed that the buffet was indeed still kosher, and thus the hotel restaurant could re-open for business.
The restaurant manager later confided to a friend that he had put a spoonful of Lysol in the water to insure that even if the dog was just thirsty...
#18
Sharia-compliant basically means no pork, no alcohol, no payment of interest on loans, and the appropriate number of holy men and moose limb elders employed to supervise the scurrying of the infidels and make lots of calls to London, Damascus, and Kuala Lumpur.
#19
Judging from her picture, I doubt she is very devout. Probably just looking for some $$$'s. On the subject of pork, I'll be having a generous helping of the pork shoulder I smoked this last weekend, served up on jalapeno cheese bread, washed down with a COLD Shiners Bock! Burp!
#23
My bet is that she has a more then passing familiarity with "pork"...probably the sausage.
Don't fool youself girl, it's going right up your poop chute...
Posted by: Frank Zappa ||
11/10/2006 18:32 Comments ||
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#24
Well, when they offered the water to the dog, he wanted nothing to do with it
I wouldn't even ask a dog to drink the water from a steam table. Yerg!
My bet is that she has a more then passing familiarity with "pork"...probably the sausage.
None of that haram "hide the sausage" for Muslims. It's strictly, "cars and garages".
Mick Dundee, did you see the recipes posted in honour of Ramadan? What a pity you didn't add yours to the effort!
I'm summoning sufficient gumption to rev up the "Holidays at Rantburg" recipe thread series. I'll probably post it on Friday night - Saturday morning so that people can have more time to contribute (hint, hint). We'll be looking for that Smoker Pork Shoulder recipe, Mick Dundee! As for myself, I'll be posting my killer-diller Triple Sausage Red Wine and Herbed Sourdough stuffing recipe. I've seen people declare that they don't like stuffing only to wolf down a plate of this savory ambrosia. Dang it all, maybe I need to start posting this beast tonight!
A plastic jack-o'-lantern meant for collecting Halloween candy is threatening the life of a small deer that frequently visits a gated community. The fake pumpkin has been stuck on the animal's snout for at least several days. It appears to be snagged on the young buck's ears or horn buds and is keeping the animal from eating and possibly drinking. "It was like taking candy from a baby!"
Zoo personnel, as well as other animal experts, planned to return to the site Friday. They hope to shoot a tranquilizer dart into the deer, remove the plastic jack-o'-lantern after the buck becomes unconscious and take the animal somewhere to recover until he can be released back into the wild.
The bucket also would make it much easier for hunters to see the animal when the state's hunting season begins Wednesday. "But...but...I'm wearing orange! You can't shoot me, I'm wearing orange!"
The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
of the big lake they called "Gitche Gumee."
The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead
when the skies of November turn gloomy. . . .
Posted by: Mike ||
11/10/2006 08:05 ||
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#1
..My Dad worked for American Shipbuilding in Lorain OH west of Cleveland while I was growing up, and a few months before her loss Dad was aboard to survey some work (IIRC, her owners intended for her to get an overhaul during the offseason), and I got up close to her - she was a beautiful, beautiful ship with a proud, skilled crew. What most people don't realize is that the Great Lakes can be horrifyingly dangerous, even worse than the North Atlantic in winter. The Fitzgerald simply got caught in one of those corners that there was no way out of. I still vividly remember the papers that morning and the dawning realization that one of the largest ships on the Lakes had just flat out vanished.
BTW, some sites about the Fitzgerald
say that at the time of her loss she was the largest ship on the Lakes - at 729 feet she was near the top, but AmShip had already sent SS Roger Blough to sea in 1972 for US Steel at 858 feet, and Amship would go on to build SS James Barkerand SS Mesabi Miner, each 1000 ft long.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
11/10/2006 9:10 Comments ||
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#2
My dad worked on the lakes off and on in the 1940s, between graduating from high school at 16 and finishing his masters in 1952, with Submarine Service in WWII and college on the GI bill in between. He worked his way from steward to engine room crew to pilot, in order to pay his living expenses.
If you want to know what a storm on the lakes is like, churn up some waves in a bathtub and watch how they crash together. Then imagine 40 to 60 foot waves doing this.
Lightfoot's song has kept the Fitz in the public eye, but there are thousands of wrecks on the lakes. I recommend books on Great Lakes history by Dwight Boyer, some of which are still in print and some of which may be lurking around in your library.
#3
Mom-
Oh, absolutely - Boyer' books are classics, but not at all sure if they're still in print.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
11/10/2006 9:22 Comments ||
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#4
For years the Chicago Yacht Club tried to get Ted Turner do race in the anual Chicago-Mackinaw race. Turner always responded that he might as well race on a mill pond. When he finally did enter they had great weather till halfway through the race. By the time he got to the finish I think he had changed his opinion. IIRC he says the only worse weather he ever raced in was the infamous Fastnet Race of '79
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1979_Fastnet_race
The link below is an unabashed plug for a buddies book.
#6
It looks like all, or nearly all, of the Dwight Boyer books can be gotten on Amazon.
Posted by: Mike ||
11/10/2006 14:21 Comments ||
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#7
In regards to the Great Lakes and freakish weather and the loss of the , it's my understanding that the final investigaion report decided that a hatch cover had come loose or been accidentally left open enough that it was torn off in the storm. The ship was carrying an iron ore substrate that absorbed water extremely well. Water poured into the cargo hold at the rate of hundreds or thousands of gallons a minute, if not more. The ship became progressively more ungainly and unhandleable, and also began gaining enormous weight in the keel which may have begun to give way about the time they crossed a shoal which the ship should have had clearance for altough only by a few feet.
About this time, according to the report, the weather was really lousy with 40-60 ft waves smashing the ship from all directions. Note that waves produce troughs and peaks. Apparently, the Edmund Fitzgerald may have gone into a trough just as she crossed the shoals and was virtually simultaneously hit by waves fore and aft which lifted her out of the water and another wave which smashed her midsection. She broke into at least 2 pieces and went down within seconds - so fast that on one radar pass of a (relatively) nearby vessel she was there on one pass and gone on the next.
No bodies were ever recovered (something that inspired no end of conspiracy theories about UFOs, aliens, and the Great Lakes Triangle), but the ship's bell was a few years ago - something that was significant to the families of the 29 crewmen who died aboard her that day.
A family planning doctor told a patient that she had "something sinister" moving in her stomach and needed an exorcism to ward off evil spirits, a medical tribunal heard yesterday. Dr Joyce Pratt, 44, informed the young woman that she was being tormented by black magic and sent her away with crosses and stones to protect her. She also claimed to have visionary powers and told the patient that her mother was a witch who was planning to kill her, it was alleged.
Dr Pratt, who worked for the NHS Westside Contraceptive Services in Westminster, London, is accused of serious professional misconduct and was due to face a General Medical Council "fitness to practise" panel in Manchester yesterday. But she failed to appear, and a summary of the case was read out before being adjourned for a date to be set.
The panel was told that Dr Pratt left her victim, known only as Mrs K, "very shaken and intimidated" after a routine consultation.
Mrs K had complained of pain and bleeding. She attended the clinic for an injection, but was apparently told instead that she was possessed by an evil spirit and needed religious help. Dr Pratt then urged her to visit a priest before claiming that her mother was a witch who was plotting with her husband to kill her, it was claimed.
The doctor is then said to have boasted to the clinic nurse that she was a visionary whose special powers had been recognised from an early age. The nurse was so alarmed that she told a manager and contacted Mrs K to ask if she was all right, the tribunal heard.
Dr Pratt is also accused of failing to co-operate with investigations by her employer and the local primary care trust. She had apparently refused to provide an up-to-date telephone number and address, and had not attended at least one previous hearing after claiming that she was unaware of it.
In a letter read to the panel yesterday, Dr Pratt asked for the hearing to be postponed because her barristers were "frauds".
The panel will now decide whether to restrict Dr Pratt's work practices until the tribunal officially opens, but the hearing will not begin until she secures legal representation. When a new date for the tribunal is set, the panel will decide whether Dr Pratt's conduct was "irresponsible, unprofessional, intimidatory to her patient and liable to bring the profession into disrepute".
UFO sightings and alien visitors tend to be solely the reserve of sci-fi movies. So when a former MoD chief warns that the country could be attacked by extraterrestrials at any time, you may be forgiven for feeling a little alarmed.
During his time as head of the Ministry of Defence UFO project, Nick Pope was persuaded into believing that other lifeforms may visit Earth and, more specifically, Britain.
His concern is that "highly credible" sightings are simply dismissed. And he complains that the project he once ran is now "virtually closed" down, leaving the country "wide open" to aliens.
Continued on Page 49
#2
This guy was was interesting at one point, now you just looks like a twat saying that. All credability gone out the window.
Posted by: Shep UK ||
11/10/2006 5:35 Comments ||
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#3
Bet they dont land in the Middle East though ,they've surely got more brains than that .. Travel a gazzion miles to land in Tehran ! whoops u-turn !
#9
...Call Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum, they know how to handle this.
(BTW, is there anybody else here who thinks that the shots in Independence Day of the US fighters and attack ships gathering for the big finish would make one hell of a screen saver?)
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
11/10/2006 9:15 Comments ||
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#10
Thanks Mike (#5). Remember, in case I get out of hand - "Klaato Barada Nikto"
There is no wedding, no romantic interest and no plot to speak of. Instead the reader of Karl Marx's epic work, Das Kapital, is treated to a lengthy treatise on the division of labour and capitalist modes of production, offered up in long, convoluted sentences. Yet none of this has deterred a German theatre group from achieving the seemingly impossible: bringing the huge classic on economic theory to the stage.
Wanna bet ithe theatre group is sponsored by state funds and doesn't have to sell a single ticket to keep the lights on?
Not since Proust was serialised has a dramatist faced such a gargantuan task - turning catchy topics such as "the production of absolute surplus value" into a crowd puller.
To that purpose, the stage of the Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus is bedecked with bookcases and a bust of Marx. Eight people - selected from among the few who have read the book from cover to cover - tell their own stories, creating a theatrical collage where Marx forms the common thread.
The play, Kapital: Volume One, is the brainchild of Rimini Protokoll, a collective of young German directors who have made a name for themselves in "documentary theatre". In Kapital, the participants make up a diverse bunch. There is a staunch Marxist who rails against Coca-Cola and the evils of consumer society, a socialist singer from the former communist east Germany, and a blind call-centre worker who dreams of going on Who Wants to be a Millionaire.
In an unusual take on audience participation, every theatregoer gets a rope with which to hang themselves bound book - Volume 23 of the Collected Works of Marx and Engels.
Reading the complete volume aloud, with analysis to work out what is being said, would mean a theatre audience having to sit and watch for an entire year. But the Rimini Protokoll directors have kept their version to the more manageable length of one evening. The collective says, however, that every performance is different, reflecting the spontaneity of a play that was rehearsed for only three weeks.
Marxism and spontaneity just wouldn't seem to go together.
The play, which made its debut on Saturday, has left some critics less than gripped. "Most of it remains something of a lecture which, like all lectures, is at times dry and boring," the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper reported.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/10/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
All hail Marx and Lennon. Groucho & John, that is.
(AKI) - The Greek parliament has approved a draft law for the construction of a mosque in Athens, one of the few European Union capitals not to have one. The Greek Education and Religious Affairs Minister Marietta Yannakou has drafted the bill for the construction of the city's first mosque. Once it is built - reportedly by 2010 - the mosque will be under the supervision of the Greek government. Athens has some 200,000 Muslim residents. It will be built in the Votanikos neighbourhood and will cost approximately 15 million euros to be funded by the government. Under the measure, the government will also appoint the mosque's imam.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/10/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
They're not using that old wrecked stone building on the hill for anything - maybe they can use that land for the Mosque. Bet they could demolish the wreck and sell the pieces to the British Museum to help fund the Mosque.
The Parthenon was made into a mosque around 1458. Moslems stored gunpowder inside the Parthenon and much destruction ensued by the late 17th century. The temple would have remained in great condition otherwise.
Modern Greece was recovered piecemeal from Moslem occupation during the 19th century.
#3
The only "first" about the upcoming mosque is that it would be the first since the Greeks drove their Muslim rulers out in 1821. The Parthenon was once a mosque, the Athens ceramics museum was once a mosque, and the "Mosque of the Conqueror" erected shortly after the Turks took over is now being used as a storehouse for archeologists.
The word was out in mosques, community parties and Islamic schools, Ramadan iftaars to Democrat Bob Casey in. Why would a normally sleepy Muslim community thrust itself into the forefront of national elections of historical significance? Would it matter? Apparently, it did.
The Muslim community of Pittsburgh estimated to be around 7,000-10,000 with its core of affluent groups of physicians, employed by the mammoth University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and the smaller Allegheny General Health system. The community is remarkably wealthy; Lexus and BMWs are parked in rows outside the Monroeville mosque called MCCGP, which is the Muslim community center of Greater Pittsburgh. Many children attend private schools and dinner table conversations resonate with investment options and real estate deals. However, mainstream politics are still a distant reality. Elections by-pass the community; most members are still struggling with INS petitions and work visas.
This year was different. Rick Santorum Republican Senator from Penn Hills had touted a belligerent line that prompted fear of the Iraq war. Santorum alienated himself to the Muslim vote; he lambasted an Iranian environmentalist Massoum Ebtekar, honored by the U.N. as a terrorist supporter. His stance on Iran was unequivocal; he termed it a leading sponsor of terrorism and his Iran Freedom Act strengthened the existing sanctions on Iran. Quiet simply, Santorum left no room of diplomacy; no chance for peace talks. He viewed the entire Muslim world as a harbinger of death and destruction. This July he spoke to the National Press Club in Washington D.C; Santorum compared Islamic fascists to Nazis and implied they enhanced the proliferation of terrorism all over the world.
Santorum's belligerent stance on the Iraq war and his liberal use of Islamic fascism galvanized the Muslim community into organized action. They reckoned it was only a matter of time when Santorum would focus on the seven million Muslims Americans and reduce them to second-class status. Racial profiling would rise; there were murmurs in the Senate of bringing every Muslim male for questioning in airports. Currency movements in and out of the country were already being monitored; an inevitable part of being a rich immigrant society.
Each Sunday after Islamic school, announcements reminded members that November 7 was Election Day. They would have to vote for the future of their children.
The Muslim community of Pittsburgh held fundraisers and endorsed Casey. One fundraiser held at a prominent physician Mehboob Chawdrys home in Monroeville, raised $11,000. Casey remarked, of the 200 fundraisers he attended, it was the first where people prayed. It was an informal, traditional setting. Children played about, women sat behind the men and listened quietly. Casey was quiet, understated and honest. On questions about Iraq he said he didnt have all the answers but was willing to learn. He shook hands with men and women on his way out, leaving giving an impression of humility and reticence.
I heard from a fairly reliable source that we have one of the biggest pools of potential terrorists in the nation; now I know where they are.
Posted by: The Doctor ||
11/10/2006 9:52 Comments ||
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#2
and his liberal use of Islamic fascism
Umm, I think it is the concept of "Islamic fascizm" as practised by Islamic fascists that prodded Santorums "liberalism".
U.S. Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite on Thursday angrily refused calls by a Muslim advocacy group to condemn a prominent Hernando County Republican who called Islam a "hateful, frightening religion." Brown-Waite instead criticized Gov. Jeb Bush and the head of the Republican Party of Florida, both of whom last week demanded an apology from Commissioner Tom Hogan and his wife, Mary Ann Hogan.
On Friday, Gov.-elect Charlie Crist severed Mary Ann Hogan's relationship with his campaign. "Mrs. Hogan expressed in her statements the views of many of my constituents, and while they do not encourage harmony in the community, they should demonstrate to you how many United States citizens perceive your faith," Brown-Waite wrote, responding to a Nov. 3 letter from the Council on American-Islamic Relations asking her to denounce the Hogans' remarks.
In her three-page reply, Brown-Waite blasted the leader of CAIR's Tampa chapter, accusing him of anti-Catholic comments, saying he staged a 2004 political "ambush" of her meeting with a local doctor and has done little to condemn terrorism by Muslim extremists.
Not true, said Ahmed Bedier, executive director of Tampa CAIR. "It's unethical and shameful for a congresswoman to resort to lies and fabrication in order to defend anti-Muslim bigotry," Bedier said Thursday.
Brown-Waite called Bedier a "master at manipulation," and said Bedier should ask families of those killed in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks if he's done enough to condemn Muslim extremists.
Bedier pointed out his organization's $10,000 cable TV campaign aired in 2005, which asked Muslims "not to allow our faith to be hijacked by criminals." CAIR sent a delegation to Iraq to plead for the release of kidnapped journalist Jill Carroll, he said. In September, after Muslims firebombed Catholic churches protesting Pope Benedict XVI remarks about Islam, he took up a collection to help the churches rebuild.
Brown-Waite's letter also accused Bedier of crashing a 2004 meeting between her and a local Muslim doctor. "Imagine how surprised I was upon entering the home to find a group of eight or more men sitting in a semicircle preparing to have a discussion with me," she wrote. Bedier said the event was arranged in several phone calls with Brown-Waite's assistant, and was not misrepresented.
Brown-Waite also accused Bedier of saying: " 'Catholic priests pose more of a terrorism threat by having sex with young altar boys than those who flew the planes into the World Trade Center.' " "That's a lie. She's twisting it," Bedier said Thursday. "I said we cannot stereotype and blame Islam for the actions of a few individual criminals, just like you cannot blame Catholicism for the actions of a few criminal priests."
YPRES (Belgium): On the 11th hour, of the 11th day (November 11) of the 11th month of the year 2006, Sonia Gandhi becomes the most senior Indian leader ever to lay to rest the ghosts of Indian soldiers who fought and fell here in World War I.
Eighty-eight years after the so-called Great War ended, leaving a variously estimated 43,000 to 65,000 Indians dead on the battlefield, Gandhi marks the ultimate sacrifice of the men who valiantly fought a white man's war, thousands of miles away from home, in a cause that was not their own.
Flying into Belgium on Friday, for a three-day visit, Gandhi's first scheduled official act is the trek to Ypres, the flat, battle-scarred wastelands in the west Flanders region, 130 km from Brussels.
Posted by: john ||
11/10/2006 13:09 ||
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#1
Situated on the Rajpath in New Delhi, India Gate (originally called the All India War Memorial) is a monument built by Edwin Lutyens to commemorate the Indian soldiers who died in the World War I and the Afghan Wars. The foundation stone was laid on 10 February 1921 by the Duke of Connaught. The names of the soldiers who died in these wars are inscribed on the walls. It was completed in 1931. Burning under it since 1971 is the Amar Jawan Jyoti (The flame of the immortal warrior), which marks the Unknown Soldier's Tomb.
Posted by: john ||
11/10/2006 13:32 Comments ||
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#2
John, any reason why it's taken them about 90 years to finally get around to this?
#3
My theory is that it represents a change in the Indian world view.. less insular and more engagement with the west.
Also coming to terms with an army that was considered by many Indian politicans to be a tool of british colonialists, a mercenary force.
Nehru actually wanted to disband the entire Indian army. He almost did so.. only the attack by China and the loss of 5000 sq km of territory in Kashmir
Posted by: john ||
11/10/2006 19:58 Comments ||
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#4
prevented this.
Nehru's hatred for the man in uniform. Soon after Independence the first commander-in-chief of the Indian armed forces, General Sir Robert Lockhart, presented a paper outlining a plan for the growth of the Indian Army to Prime Minister Nehru.
Nehru's reply: "We don't need a defence plan. Our policy is non-violence. We foresee no military threats. You can scrap the army. The police are good enough to meet our security needs."
He didn't waste much time. On September 16, 1947, he directed that the army's then strength of 280,000 be brought down to 150,000. Even in fiscal 1950-51, when the Chinese threat had begun to loom large on the horizon, 50,000 army personnel were sent home as per his original plan to disband the armed forces.
After Independence, he once noticed a few men in uniform in a small office the army had in North Block, and angrily had them evicted.
It was only after the 1947-48 war in Jammu and Kashmir that he realised that the armed forces are an essential ingredient of any independent, sovereign nation.
"I remember many a time when our senior generals came to us, and wrote to the defence ministry saying that they wanted certain things... If we had had foresight, known exactly what would happen, we would have done something else... what India has learnt from the Chinese invasion is that in the world of today there is no place for weak nations... We have been living in an unreal world of our own creation."
Jawaharlal Nehru, Rajya Sabha, 1963
Posted by: john ||
11/10/2006 20:03 Comments ||
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#5
A few years later, he authorized initial nuclear weapons research (that would produce the bomb tested in 1974)
Posted by: john ||
11/10/2006 20:05 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.
A family planning doctor told a patient that she had "something sinister" moving in her stomach and needed an exorcism to ward off evil spirits, a medical tribunal heard yesterday. Dr Joyce Pratt, 44, informed the young woman that she was being tormented by black magic and sent her away with crosses and stones to protect her. She also claimed to have visionary powers and told the patient that her mother was a witch who was planning to kill her, it was alleged.
UFO sightings and alien visitors tend to be solely the reserve of sci-fi movies. So when a former MoD chief warns that the country could be attacked by extraterrestrials at any time, you may be forgiven for feeling a little alarmed. 
There is no wedding, no romantic interest and no plot to speak of. Instead the reader of Karl Marx's epic work, Das Kapital, is treated to a lengthy treatise on the division of labour and capitalist modes of production, offered up in long, convoluted sentences. Yet none of this has deterred a German theatre group from achieving the seemingly impossible: bringing the huge classic on economic theory to the stage.
(AKI) - The Greek parliament has approved a draft law for the construction of a mosque in Athens, one of the few European Union capitals not to have one. The Greek Education and Religious Affairs Minister Marietta Yannakou has drafted the bill for the construction of the city's first mosque. Once it is built - reportedly by 2010 - the mosque will be under the supervision of the Greek government. Athens has some 200,000 Muslim residents. It will be built in the Votanikos neighbourhood and will cost approximately 15 million euros to be funded by the government. Under the measure, the government will also appoint the mosque's imam.
