An Ohio businessman has allowed controversial art to be displayed in his store window before, but he's drawing the line at Nazi gingerbread men. Charlie Palmer says he's pulling the display from his hardware store in Oberlin. The artist says he deliberately picked the subject to provoke thought, not offend anyone. "Because nuthin' sez "Happy Holidays!" like goose-stepping fascists!"
He put up the display on Friday after Palmer left. The store owner says he put a blanket over it once he started hearing negative comments over the weekend. Palmer says the artist won't be allowed to use his window ever again. Last winter, the same artist used the window to display a "caroler-bashing" snowman and a little boy excited about using his chemistry set to create the illegal drug crystal meth. Maybe Charlie's been using that crap himself if he let this guy set the "artwork" up in the first place...
We knows about the stogies and booze... but grean tea? Whoa...
Men who smoke and drink daily are nine to 11 times more likely to get cancer of the esophagus, according to a new Tohoku University study. Yah, we know about these... Surprisingly, drinking several cups of green tea a day also increased the risk of that cancer, the study found. Damn. Sorry, tw.
But the higher risk of cancer was most noticeable among smokers. Roughly 70 percent of the men could have avoided esophageal cancer by quitting smoking, the researchers calculated.
"Esophageal cancer is representative of a cancer that can be prevented through a change in daily habits," said Tohoku University's Shinichi Kuriyama, who oversaw the research study. "The most important thing is to quit smoking. The worst situation is smoking while drinking alcohol."
The project was led by Atsunobu Ishikawa at the Department of Public Health and Forensic Medicine at Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine. It followed about 27,000 men in two studies: one that began in 1984 of 9,000 men over 40 in Miyagi Prefecture, and another that started in 1990 with 18,000 men in the same age group.
The subjects were asked about their diet and daily habits. The first group was followed for nine years, the second for seven years and seven months. Of all the subjects, 78 men eventually developed esophageal cancer.
The researchers measured the cancer rate against three habits--smoking, drinking alcohol and drinking green tea.
Smokers were about five times more likely than non-smokers to develop esophageal cancer. Those who drank alcohol almost daily had a 2.7-fold greater risk than those who drank only rarely.
In addition, men who drank more than five cups of green tea a day had a 1.7-fold greater risk of cancer than those who did not. That might be because the men drank the tea while it was still very hot, the researchers speculated. Experts believe drinking hot liquids increases the risk of developing esophageal cancer. An earlier study by the same team found that green tea helps reduce the mortality rate for cardiovascular disease. Okay, so if I toss the smokes, shitcan the alky, and cool my tea... I just invented iced tea! Woohoo!
The team also calculated the risk of a combination of the three habits. Those who neither smoked nor regularly drank alcohol or green tea were given a base risk of 1. Smoking and drinking alcohol increased the risk of getting esophageal cancer to 9.2 times; adding more than three daily cups of green tea into the mix pushed it up to 11.1 times.
#2
Yes, chronic ingestion of hot liquids or foods is a contributing factor to squamous cell carcinoma. Nothing we didn't already know. The added risk isn't from drinking green tea, but rather from drinking any hot liquid. Nice science there.
And what about the offsetting reduced risk of other kinds of cancer, due to drinking green tea regularly?
#8
The # that screamed the most to me in all this "science" was that only 78 guys got esophogal cancer, out of roughly 27,000! That's WAAAY less than 1/2 of 1%! So much for all the scare tactics.
Posted by: BA ||
11/21/2006 14:38 Comments ||
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#9
Whew -- thanks for the warning, .com! I can only be grateful I'm not a man who smokes and drinks daily, or I'd be headed for the compost heap already, I guess... ;-) Bad study, though, if they didn't bother to think of accounting for the temperature of the tea when swallowed. I remember reading about the study that revealed the reason Japanese men had so much higher a level of esophogal cancer than Japanes women was that the women served their menfolk the tea first, so that by the time the women daintily sipped theirs, it had cooled considerably. Damn, but I hate poorly done research!
#13
I should get a study for guys that drink whiskey and eat pork rinds for 20 years. We'll outlive all of you. My great grandfather lived to 93 by my method.
KABUL Heavy rain again battered remote villages in western Afghanistan already devastated by flooding, as the death toll rose to 120, officials said Monday.
Aid workers delivered several tons of food and aid to people in Badghis province, said Habibullah Murghabi, the head of a government-appointed disaster committee. The delivery had taken more than two days of travel by donkey and horse to reach flood-affected villages in the mountainous region.
Murghabi said the death toll in Balamurghab and Ghormach districts had risen to 62, while 92 people were reported missing. "The roads are still bad, and last night there was heavy rain again. It's still raining now," Murghabi said by telephone from Badghis.
Heavy rain Thursday triggered flash floods that inundated several villages in Badghis. Some 50,000 families live in the inundated area.
Other affected areas in the west include Farah province, where at least 18 people have died in recent days, said provincial police chief Gen. Sayed Aga Saqib. One village of eight houses had been washed away, he said.
Floods also hit the southern province of Uruzgan over the weekend, killing 40 people and destroying hundreds of homes in four districts, said Qayum Qayumi, the governor's spokesman.
#1
"....Speaking on Monday, the Iranian leader described Mugabe as a prominent, influential and just leader, a person who loves freedom, a freedom fighter, the Herald said.
"We do not condone US and British hegemony. We have good cooperation to do away with this control," Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying before a state banquet hosted in Mugabe's honour."
Mugabe has no honour. He is a terrorist on Chinese money. And freedom fighter? Dont even try to make me laugh, when I was taken from a party in the back of an army lorry, with about 200 other people. (Personal, I know).
What I mean to say is, the West lost interest at a pivotal point in the Rhodesian war, and went for a political scenario, and Lost that One too. What a fucking laugh that was. The war there was almost won, but bets were hedged, a la Thatcher, Kissinger and pulling out of SA.
All signs from then on said we were going to roll over in a PC world.
#2
True, the West - and more precisely, european whites -, has been chased out of africa (and pretty much everywhere else), and are now under siege in their heartlands... a great reflux of european civilization that started with decolonization, which I understand from a nationalist point of view (though this was horribly done, as it left the field open for marxism), but went on to include TRUE "african-european" countries, like french Algeria, Rhodesia, South Africa...
Ethnic and racial cleasing, pure and simple, sanctioned by the Forces of Progress.
#4
But Mugabe -- who proudly describes Iran as a great friend -- dismissed the accusation, saying that "only God can judge".
"The West" could have turned Southern Africa into a garden if it wanted to and deflected communism in that part of the world. That never was, and is not happening.
#5
A5089 and RF: remind me the proportion of Rhodesians who were of European origin. I'm guessing it wasn't even 10%.
The old Rhodesia denied 90%+ of the population their intrinsic human rights. That's simply not acceptable.
The new Zimbabwe is doing the same thing (new boss, different color but same attitude as the old boss), and it's equally unacceptable. It may be that Zimbabwe has to split into tribal regions to survive since the two major tribes can't get along.
But pining for the old days when the Euros ruled the place isn't going to work. And if you reply that the old Rhodesia worked pretty well, my answers are 1) for who? and 2) how 'bout that Belgian Congo, eh?
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/21/2006 14:29 Comments ||
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#6
Belgian Congo was a nightmare, I agree, an actual hidden genocide for the sole benefit of the belgian crown... but what bugs me is that first generation third world migrants in Europe are to be granted all rights, citizenship, free healthcare, education,... for ever and for all eternity, even illegals just granted amnisty... whereas whites who have been living for generations, born and raised, in africa are colonists per nature and have to reliquish the power to the countries they've created from scratches.
All this to give the keys to commies bent on racial revenge.
I'm not longing for colonialism, each people has a right to live free, but white europeans were NATIVES too, it's a real injustice for them to be ousted.
#7
Well, Steve, as a third generation white african, it sucks to see my "land" given up by the West for PC B-S; and there were a lot of BLACK rhodesians, (not in your 10%), who were sold out too. It's no good saying it's the same Boss. That just dont cut it.
Ok, your figure of 10% ratio is about right, for race, ca 1970, back it up with the starving figures today compared to back then.
I don't live in yesterday, although all that is happening in Zimbabwe was well predicted, and a foretaste of what has followed when PC B-S tells your enemy you have rolled over.
#8
If it's equally unacceptable why have Britain and the US not stepped in to topple Mugabe? My answer: because they originally said to him (Mugabe) who was originally seen as an unlikely candidate for presidency; "Are you a nice chap? Do you want a country?" in a desperate bid to rid themselves of the niggling Rhodesia issue. I agree with anonymous that the long term ripple effect is the mass migration of (legal/illegal) immigrants into Europe. The Rhodesians fought against terrorism and the same will happen in Europe and America, but by the time this takes place on a large scale, it will be their own 'citizens' that will attack.
#9
I'll diverge a bit from the developing thread to focus on one particular point...
Seeing as how stepping in and trying to save a population that isn't interested in saving itself is proving to be a very bad bet, I'd like to propose that everyone flush the BS of the US being the World's Police. That was a two or three joke movie. Oh okay, make that a four joke flic: Fuck Yeah!
#10
strategic interests should guide our intervention. In some cases, I would even offer that humanitarian interests could be strategic - for us - because of who we are. The downside is intervening before the sides have worn each other down and trying to enforce peace. Peacekeeping is not as good as peacemaking...by destroying the insurrectionists and combatants, wholescale
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/21/2006 16:57 Comments ||
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#11
To get back to the article Zimbabwe sees kindred spirit in Iran...hold on one second i can't breathe i'm laughing so hard. The joke is still on the rest of the world though as Mugabe sits rubbing his hands together chuckling with glee.
This is rich, given official France's aid and support to the genociders, before, during and after... and the still ongoing propaganda war waged by the quay d'orsay, "Marianne" or "Le Monde" (french rags) to absolve France by claiming there was a "double-genocide", and that the hutus french clients were no more to blame than the tutsis.
Rwanda rejected calls by a French judge to indict President Paul Kagame over his alleged involvement in the death of the country's former leader. "The allegations are totally unfounded. The judge is acting on the basis of gossip and rumours," Justice Minister Tharcisse Karugarama said.
Karugarama accused the judge, Jean-Louis Bruguiere, of playing political games over the allegations that will further worsen the already frosty relations between Kigali and Paris. "These are political games rather than a judicial process," he said.
On Monday, Bruguiere said Kagame should face prosecution before the international war crimes court in Tanzania because of his "suspected involvement" in the death of then Rwandan president Juvenal Habyarimana.
But Rwanda has accused France of abetting the genocide, in which around 800,000 people, mainly minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus, were slaughtered by Hutu extremists during a 100-day killing spree between April and July 1994. Paris has adamantly denied the allegation but Kigali has charged a commission with determining whether there is evidence to file a suit against France for damages at the world court.
The Rwandan minister said his government would not respond to Bruguiere's allegations by seeking to indict French President Jacques Chirac over the genocide. Kigali would not be dragged into "a sad situation where we would also engage in similar games by indicting (President Jacques) Chirac or other senior French officials," he said.
Bruguiere said Kagame should be arraigned before the Tanzania-based International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), which is currently hearing the case of several former high-ranking Rwandan army officers accused of genocide. Formed in late 1994, the court has so far tried 31 suspects, convicting 26 and acquitting five. Twenty-five trials are now in progress, with 12 awaiting their start.
The tribunal last month rejected a request to consider an earlier account from Bruguiere into the killing of Habyarimana which reportedly named Kagame as the main decision-maker behind the April 6, 1994 attack in which Habyarimana, a Hutu, was killed. Habyarimana's aircraft was shot down and his death sparked off the mass slaughter. Burundian president Cyprien Ntaryamira and a four-man French crew were also killed in the crash.
Kagame, who headed the Tutsi rebel force that took power in Kigali in July 1994, ending the genocide, has always denied any involvement in the attack on the aircraft carrying Habyarimana.
(SomaliNet) Zimbabwe's state owned airline,Air Zimbabwe, has plans to initiate a second flight to China, Zimbabwe's Herald newspaper has said.
Air Zimbabwe regional manager for China, Chris Kwenda, said that the new flight would cover the Harare (Zimbabwe's capital)-Guangzhou route via Singapore. "We will launch it mid-January. The plane will be flying to Guangzhou province. It is the number one producing region in terms of China's outbound tourism and there is potential business for Zimbabwe there," he said.
This move was welcomed by safaris with tourists who ply the China- Zimbabwe route. "Our people love Zimbabwe because it is more African than South Africa which is more European. We need three to four flights a week from Air Zimbabwe to do serious business," a statement from China Ocean International Tourist Service.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/21/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
I'm going to take Air Zimbabwe on a transoceanic flight? Who in their right mind would risk a trip like this?
(SomaliNet) Zimbabwe's President, Robert Mugabe, is in Iran to beg for money enhance Zimbabwe-Iran relationships, Zimbabwe's media has reported. "Zimbabwe and Iran share a lot in common and the leaders of the two countries have stood their ground against Western attempts to vilify their respective governments for their principled stance on sovereignty.
The visit will see the two countries strengthening ties on energy, telecommunications, transport and trade," Zimbabwe's State Radio said.
And to arrange some loans.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/21/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Calling all Iranian farmers, just give up your farms now!
This should be on the front page.
Bob has learnt a lot from terrorism and it worked for him.
For it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Chuck him out, the brute!"
But it's "Saviour of 'is country" when the guns begin to shoot;
An' it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' anything you please;
An' Tommy ain't a bloomin' fool -- you bet that Tommy sees! -Rudyard Kipling
These days, the guns are shooting and it's still "chuck him out, the brute!"
Lest anyone forget, Harrods is owned by Muhammed Al-Fayed, the father of Princess Di's boyfriend, Dodi Al-Fayed. The elder Al-Fayed has repeatedly charged that the couple's fatal motor accident was in fact an assassination arranged by British agents (as though a drunken Frenchman could not possibly have a car crash while playing dodg'em with a horde of paparazzi.)
A serving Army officer was banned from entering Harrods on Remembrance Day in case his uniform upset other shoppers. Lieutenant Daniel Lenherr had just taken part in a parade honouring Britain's war dead when the London department store turned him away at the door. The security guard told him other customers might be intimidated by the uniform.
The 26-year-old soldier, who serves in the 1st regiment of the Royal Horse Artillery, had been at commemorations in Hyde Park Corner last weekend when he decided to visit the shop with his wife Michelle and their one-year-old son. Mrs Lenherr, who lives in Tidworth, Hampshire, said: "We were horrified when we were refused entry on a day when we honoured the men who sacrificed so much for our freedom. I find it sad this can happen."
The store has stood by their dress policy, saying: "There is a long-standing tradition at Harrods that would normally preclude customers who are wearing non-civilian attire from entering the store. "Longstanding" since Islamic conspiraliars took it over.
"A lot of people assume that somebody in uniform is either there on official duty, which could cause them alarm, or they assume they're a member of staff and ask them where the lavatories are and so on." I wouldn't doubt that some of Harrods upper management might have good reason to fear the Army, though not the PC police. Note how almost in the same breath the Harrods dhimmi insults the uniform with the facetious suggestion that it resembles that of an usher or doorman.
If true it's a sad admission that most Brits wouldn't recognize the uniform of their country's army. But I suspect that's not the case.
But the shop came under fire for its ban. Too bad the RHA itself can't bring it under fire during their next field exercises.
Shadow Defence Minister Mark Harper said: "It's an outrageous slap in the face to our Armed Forces who are serving our country around the world. On Remembrance Sunday it's even more of an insult. I cannot see any legitimate reason for a shop not to let in members of the Armed Forces in uniform."
And Thomas Carter MBE, a former Warrant Officer in the Royal Horse Artillery, said Mr Lenherr had been treated disgracefully. The 78-year-old said: "Harrods' policy is a load of rubbish. It treats members of the Armed Forces as sixth-rate citizens. It definitely makes it worse that it was on Remembrance Sunday, as that's the day everybody wears uniform."
Rival department stores Selfridges and Harvey Nichols said they had no problem with service personnel entering their stores in uniform.
#1
Oops, lost my cookie. This one is mine.
At least we'll know where not to shop next time we are in Londonistan, provided the dhimmis haven't banned "Islamophobic American agitators" by then.
#4
Rival department stores Selfridges and Harvey Nichols said they had no problem with service personnel entering their stores in uniform.
End of story. Harrod's should be delisted as a military purveyor.
Personally, I'd love to see a large number of Brit military in civilian togs hit their stores during peak Christmas shopping hours and sideline all of Harrod's staff for untold hours with endless questions and pricing requests without purchasing a damn thing afterwards.
#9
Wonder how they'd react to a bunch of skinheads with leather jackets and chains 'round their waists??
Posted by: DanNY ||
11/21/2006 18:23 Comments ||
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#10
The British military could send a few thousand of their men (all at once, in uniform, and at the hour of opening) to clog the entrances of Harrod's so that they could be turned away, one by one. It would make a very public point and would hit Harrod's in their pocketbook since apparently the store has no heart.
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/21/2006 9:53 Comments ||
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#2
Probably already happening FrankG. I'd be suprised if stocks don't take a dive for British Airways here soon.
Posted by: Charles ||
11/21/2006 10:38 Comments ||
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#3
An article today appearing under the Rantburg category labeled "Opinion" asks the rhetorical question "Is Britain Lost?"
Now that we know the BA airline employee lost her appeal to wear a crucifix, I think we can answer the rhetorical question so posed with an unqualified: Yes, Britain is lost.
Posted by: Mark Z ||
11/21/2006 13:17 Comments ||
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#4
Meanwhile's I suspect we'll see burkas and veils on all the BA stewardesses, eh?
Posted by: BA ||
11/21/2006 14:40 Comments ||
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#5
British Airways, forerunner of turban driven aircraft.
MEXICO CITY Don Quixote, move over. The losing leftist candidate for president swore himself in on Monday as the legitimate president of Mexico before a huge crowd of his avid fans, ignoring rulings by federal electoral authorities and the courts that he narrowly lost the election last July.
The candidate, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, a former Mexico City mayor who took on Mexicos entrenched oligarchy, chose the anniversary of the Mexican revolution for the event. He has continued to assert that his opponents used fraud to deny him victory.
Appearing on a stage in the historic Constitution Plaza, with Mexican flags and an enormous eagle banner behind him, Mr. López Obrador promised to goad the government of the president-elect, Felipe Calderón, a conservative from the National Action Party of President Vicente Fox, into adopting his proposals.
#2
Something of a culture shock for the Finns was the selection of beverages at the Mannschaftsheim - the canteen.
Beer is available there, and for those who buy five bottles, the sixth is free.
However, the Finns were not able to avail themselves of the unfamiliar luxury, because a policy of zero tolerance toward alcohol prevails during the exercises.
Six bottles of German beer! Now that's the way to keep the troops happy!
#3
Finnish soldiers have been banned from consuming alcohol on duty because otherwise they'll go Mongol in a fight. In fact the old term was originally spelled "Fight to the Finnish."
The 21-year-old Russian sat before a clerk of the US Army judge advocate's office, describing the furnaces at Auschwitz, the Nazi death camp where he had been a prisoner until a few weeks previously.
"I saw with my own eyes how thousands of Jews were gassed daily and thrown by the hundreds into pits where Jews were burning," he said.
"I saw how little children were killed with sticks and thrown into the fire," he continued. Blood flowed in gutters, and "Jews were thrown in and died there." More were taken off trucks and cast alive into the flames, he said.
Continued on Page 49
#2
The ESISC belgian think tank theorizes it might not be putin himself and the SVR, but rather the organized crime/military/business "grey area" of Russia, using old school means thanks to its intelligence connections.
Three top intelligence officials were removed on Monday in the most abrupt shake-up of Italys espionage community since the current structures were established almost 30 years ago. The government of Romano Prodi removed the chief of the national military intelligence agency, whom prosecutors want to put on trial for involvement in the suspected kidnapping by CIA agents of an Egyptian imam in February 2003. It also replaced the head of the domestic secret service and the chief of an intelligence co-ordinating committee that reports to the political authorities.
The shake-up signalled the determination of the centre-left prime minister to assert his authority in this most delicate of policy arenas. Pino Sgobio, a communist parliamentarian and member of Mr Prodis ruling coalition, said he hoped that the new intelligence chiefs would work in a transparent manner after the recent dark years of their predecessors.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/21/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Jeez. Looks like Frank Church faked his own death and moved to Italy.
#3
As if there's not more pressing and important issues to "solve" in the EU? France will be the first to fall, and some suspect Britain (Londonistan) may not be far behind. And, they're worried about dog/cat fur trade, the sweet kufirs.
Posted by: BA ||
11/21/2006 11:48 Comments ||
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#4
To assist in soothing those grieving, i am providing the following link for some theraputic activities; place your cursor over the snowman and left click, the fun will then begin.
http://n.ethz.ch/student/mkos/pinguin.swf
Clinton Pardoned Hastingss Co-Conspirator The convicted felon who went to jail rather than testify against Alcee Hastings.
By Byron York William Borders was a prominent Washington, D.C. lawyer when, in 1981, he was charged with conspiring with his good friend, federal judge Alcee Hastings, to solicit bribes from defendants seeking lenient treatment in Hastingss courtroom. Hastings was charged, too, though the men were tried separately. When it was all over, Borders was convicted, disbarred, and sentenced to five years in jail. Hastings was acquitted, but later impeached and removed from office.
She had only token opposition, but Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton still spent more on her re-election upward of $30 million than any other candidate for Senate this year. So where did all the money go?
It helped Mrs. Clinton win a margin of victory of more than 30 points. It helped her build a new set of campaign contributors. And it allowed her to begin assembling the nuts and bolts needed to run a presidential campaign.
But that was not all. Mrs. Clinton also bought more than $13,000 worth of flowers, mostly for fund-raising events and as thank-yous for donors. She laid out $27,000 for valet parking, paid as much as $800 in a single month in credit card interest and above all paid tens of thousands of dollars a month to an assortment of consultants and aides.
Throw in $17 million in advertising and fund-raising mailings, and what had been one of the most formidable war chests in politics was depleted to a level that leaves Mrs. Clinton with little financial advantage over her potential rivals for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination and perhaps even trailing some of them.
#5
So that's what the "Five Billion Dollar Birthday Bash" was really all about, buy your presidental favors now starting at only a half-million each and up.(and up, and up, and)
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
11/21/2006 20:40 Comments ||
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Leading Democrats who soon will control the legislative agenda in the U.S. Congress rejected on Monday a colleague's call for reinstatement of the U.S. military draft. "I don't think we need it," Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan told reporters. He is set to chair the Senate Armed Services Committee when Democrats take over both houses of Congress from Republicans in January.
Congressional Republicans also have not expressed support. Rep. Duncan Hunter, the outgoing chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said the military has been meeting its recruitment goals. "You have a draft and you have a lot of people who don't want to serve ... to force them to come in and take the place of volunteers doesn't make a lot of sense."
The top two Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives also voiced their opposition to a plan being pushed by Rep. Charles Rangel, a New York Democrat, for drafting soldiers into the army for the first time since 1973. "We did not include that" in legislative plans for early next year, said Democratic Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland, who will be House majority leader when the new Congress convenes in January.
"I just take this job and now I have to deal with this."
Incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California noted her opposition to the draft in remarks to reporters.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/21/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Some enterprising reporter should ask Charlie if he is going to vote for his bill this time if it comes up for a vote again.
#2
It will be interesting to see what happens to enlistment, and more importantly, re-enlistment rates. I have a feeling Chollie will be saying "I told you so" within two years.
#3
Normally I'd agree with you Nimble. But the evidence is to the contrary. Despite the never ending negative news bombardment coming out of Iraq, and the left's obsession with tearing down whatever esprit de corps the military has, enlistments, and even re-enlistments, are at near historic highs, with no end in sight. The military's way of saying 'f*ck you' to the left and the MSM.
#5
I just heard this asshole's voice saying that the people should only agree to fight a war that's been ginned up to be a serious threat to America.
Ginned up ? By who the macaca media ?
As in Kosovo is a great war, a good war, a just war. Whereas, Iraq is Bush's war, a bad war.
Charlie, you asshole, ginning up is just words. The bullshit macaca media can turn on the words, or turn them off. There is no reality behind the macaca. Ginning up is for getting drunk, you fartworth, not reason to wage war.
The biggest gap within the USA is between democrats and intelligence. And, it's widening.
#7
I don't favor a draft, but I do have to ask why it's automaticly a bad idea. McCain calls for an increase of troop levels by 50 -60k, but we don't have that many available. Where do they come from? If we wind up in another land war(I don't know where either) where do the men come from? We call up 250k reservists. Then what? We have 10 active divisions. Ten years ago we had 20 (I con't really care whose fault that is). They are the best trained strike force in the hisotry of combat, but not initially trained for what they're now doing. Sometime numbers really do make a difference. So is it a bad idea because of the person who offered it, or just a bad idea? If so, why?
Posted by: Weird Al ||
11/21/2006 14:56 Comments ||
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#8
Weird, there are other ways to address the numbers issue than going to a draft. The bottom line is money. We are not offering enough for the extra number of recruits we need to attract and keep them. All those divisions that used to be there were cut by Clinton (and the military). I agree wholeheartedly that we need a larger military, but the draft is the last resort to get there.
#9
The bottom line is always money. The basic problem is that if you have a draft, you don't have to pay anybody very well, but then you lose the high level people we have now, who won't enlist for really low pay levels. On the other hand, one of the hard lessons people seem to have to relearn from time to time is that there is a difference between taking ground and holding ground, particularly if your enemy declines to meet you in the open field. I don't have the answer, except that 10 divisions isn't enough to hold the amount of hostile territory they're being asked to cover.
Posted by: Weird Al ||
11/21/2006 15:37 Comments ||
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#10
Weird Al,
We have 10 active divisions. Ten years ago we had 20 (I con't really care whose fault that is).
You don't care or you simply don't want to hear?
By the end of Ronald Reagan's second term in office the US had close to 600 combat ships afloat. By the start of GW Bush's first term in office the US number of combat ships afloat was just short of 200.
Clinton cut 2 full divisions out of the Army, close to 50 thousand active duty troops, and forced the shut down of God knows how many bases in this country and abroad.
Oh, and Charlie, just in case you haven;t figured it out yet - you don't have to "gin up" anything. We're already in a war! You just can't seem to get a handle on the fact that there's no real opposing force in the field numbering in the tens of thousands and overrunning American positions like there was in Korea.
Maybe that's part of Charlie's problem - he can't see we're at war because he can't recognize the forces opposing this country.
I guess, to folks like Rangel, they all look alike.
We have 10 active divisions. Ten years ago we had 20 (I con't really care whose fault that is).
You don't care or you simply don't want to hear?
By the end of Ronald Reagan's second term in office the US had close to 600 combat ships afloat. By the start of GW Bush's first term in office the US number of combat ships afloat was just short of 200.
Clinton cut 2 full divisions out of the Army, close to 50 thousand active duty troops, and forced the shut down of God knows how many bases in this country and abroad.
Oh, and Charlie, just in case you haven;t figured it out yet - you don't have to "gin up" anything. We're already in a war! You just can't seem to get a handle on the fact that there's no real opposing force in the field numbering in the tens of thousands and overrunning American positions like there was in Korea.
Maybe that's part of Charlie's problem - he can't see we're at war because he can't recognize the forces opposing this country.
I guess, to folks like Rangel, they all look alike.
#13
No, I actually don't care who cut us down to 10 divisions, because it happened and is done with. Was it a mistake and a stupid thing to do? Oh, yes. It doesn't change the reality of what we have to deal with. Could congress have stood up ten years ago and said, we won't let you do this? I don't know. The fact remains that we are in a muslim country where a goodly number of people (5k, 50k 500k, but enough to make trouble) really don't like us, and we don't have the strength to both put them down and keep them down.
Posted by: Weird Al ||
11/21/2006 15:58 Comments ||
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#14
Remember that "Peace Dividend" thingy? What was that, about a million years ago?
#15
Actually, Weird Al, I believe it does matter - the Camelot II Crowd is (partially) back in power. The total smackdown of the Moonbattery they indulged seems to me to be a survival thingy that needs public exposure - since we live by the vote and may die by it, too.
#16
Being a libertarian at heart, I think the whole thing was a balls-up from the word go. However, .com, if the congress in the 90's couldn't prevent the cuts, I don't think the congress now will have any more effect. Just to be pushy, how many divisions did the current administration add in it's first 70 months in power?
Posted by: Weird Al ||
11/21/2006 16:44 Comments ||
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#19
Is that an supposed to be an insult or a compliment .com? And I must have slept through the last hundred years or so, SR-71. Libertarians = Loosertarians? I thought it was more people who want to mind their own business. Troll under your own bridge, my friend. At least I didn't think a bunch of mulslim fanatics were going to greet us with open arms, just because they were in Iraq. Actually, they did at first, until the whole thing went south. Really tough to win a guerrilla (insurgent) war when you don't control the borders, or the people on the other side of the border.
Posted by: Weird Al ||
11/21/2006 17:07 Comments ||
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#20
we don't have the strength to both put them down and keep them down.
BS. We have the strength. We just won't use it, preferring to leave the cities intact and the civilian population alive.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
11/21/2006 17:08 Comments ||
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#21
I don't favor a draft, but I do have to ask why it's automaticly a bad idea.
Because it's slavery.
You call yourself a libertarian and you don't understand that?
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
11/21/2006 17:09 Comments ||
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#22
We prefer to leave the civilian population alive? So we should kill them to pacify them? I think Iv'e heard this before. As to a draft being slavery, I think it may be more something you might owe as a part of the social contract that keeps the bad guys away from your door. Again, I don't favor it, but there have been circumstances in the past where it was needed. Not now.
Posted by: Weird Al ||
11/21/2006 17:14 Comments ||
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#23
Lol. You disingenuously open a discussion that has been held at least 5 times - old Charlie floated this BS long ago - and then simply reject the posts with your contrarian pseudo-logic.
For example, my #15 is relevant. It is about the votes. It is about who's in power in the Big Chair and the Congress - both chambers. If had been a solid (non-RINO) Pubbie Senate to match the House of the last 6 years, then there could've been progress in restoring the military manpower, not just the shiny hardware that ends up being in someone's State or CD to provide jobs and let them preen about bringing home the bacon. Just an example. Manpower and bennies for the people in the Military are always at the bottom of the agenda for Congresscritters.
As for Libertarians, it's more than obvious that they usually play spoiler, rather than offer anything productive. Yes, there are exceptions.
#24
"As for Libertarians, it's more than obvious that they usually play spoiler, rather than offer anything productive." Ouch! Slapdown noted and difficult to argue. I did say "at Heart", if that helps any. I do object a bit to the pseudo-logic part. I just point out that we started this iraq thing with what we had on hand, and it seems like crying in your beer to say later it was somebody else's fault that we didn't have the strength to do it right. After all, if Cain hadn't killed Abel.....
Posted by: Weird Al ||
11/21/2006 17:28 Comments ||
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#25
We prefer to leave the civilian population alive? So we should kill them to pacify them? I think Iv'e heard this before. As to a draft being slavery, I think it may be more something you might owe as a part of the social contract that keeps the bad guys away from your door. Again, I don't favor it, but there have been circumstances in the past where it was needed. Not now.
I really didn't mean to start an argument (well, not really), but since a good debate is as good or better as argument...
During WW2, Korea, and Vietnam we seemed to have little problem with killing civilians in wholesale lots - and yes, to a large extent, it did pacify our enemies by killing them. There are few things more peaceful than a dead enemy.
If that's what it's going to take I say "Better them than us."
As to the draft=slavery issue, and I did bring this up the other day in quoting Milton Friedman's comments to Gen. Westmoreland, Weird All, your view is very Heinleinian - not that that's necessarily a bad thing. Universal service, if it is shown to be something that is expected and which earns you something respected should be something admirable. The draft is not IMO because it has been abused and misrepresented too many times in our past. I'd even go along with the idea of "service earns you citizenship, and citizenship gives you the right to vote". Heinlein liked that idea though his opponents called it fascism of the first order (and still do - just ask Verhoeven).
As to whether or not a draft is needed now, I tend to agree with your point, but not your reasoning. We definitely do need a more universal system of getting young people into the military because, again IMNSHO, the wolves are at the door or already inside the house.
#28
It's politically easy to cut shit (think: Peace Dividend Orgy), and tough as hell to rebuild. It's all about the votes and the gumption, or lack thereof, IMO - same as it is in warfighting and the ROE.
#29
Heinlein probably was a fascist at heart; witness "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress", but there is something to the idea that there ain't no such thing as a free lunch(abbreviated in his book, but originally from Coolidge) If you want the guv'mnt to do things for you, you owe something in return. Not popular in these days of "I'm entitled", but still the basis of group interactions.
Posted by: Weird Al ||
11/21/2006 17:43 Comments ||
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#30
Fairly simple. Want more divisions?
Pay for them. We had more and paid for more in the 80's, with less population.
the only thing holding the Army back from growing is the lack of funds and committment to do it - and its expensive to procures soldiers, rifles, ammo, traucks, tanks, Strykers, artillery, training, benefits, etc.
Fund it and they will come - but its a decade or more comittment. And riase what you are paying and you'll get more volunterring, especially if the economuy crashes.
#34
Ima with HiAss_Haji man. We must walk the walk and talk the talk. Which means taking their oils and greaseies and fouling their sheeps. Taking our army of coat hangers and going after their ass-fones! Total damn assimatrical war!
#39
Want more military you got to pay to play. You don't need a draft, you need to pay proffesional wages if you want professionals. Congress always wants to get by on the cheap for military manpower.
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) - Websites that publish inflammatory information written by other parties cannot be sued for libel, the California Supreme Court ruled Monday. The ruling in favour of free online expression was a victory for a San Diego woman who was sued by two doctors for posting an allegedly libelous e-mail on two websites.
Some of the Internet's biggest names, including Amazon.com, America Online Inc., EBay Inc., Google Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo Inc., took the defendant's side out of concern a ruling against her would expose them to liability.
In reversing an appellate court's decision, the state Supreme Court ruled that the Communications Decency Act of 1996 provides broad immunity from defamation lawsuits for people who publish information on the Internet that was gathered from another source. "The prospect of blanket immunity for those who intentionally redistribute defamatory statements on the Internet has disturbing implications," Associate Justice Carol Corrigan wrote in the majority opinion. "Nevertheless ... statutory immunity serves to protect online freedom of expression and to encourage self-regulation, as Congress intended."
Unless the U.S. Congress revises the existing law, people who claim they were defamed in an Internet posting can only seek damages from the original source of the statement, the court ruled.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/21/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11131 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I'd read the fine print on this - it IS out of a California court. Make sure it doesn't only protect Tranzi/LLL bloggers.
#2
LLL included, the day we crack down on people posting third-party information (usually via direct quotation or URL link online) is the day free speech dies. The internet (even with Kos et al) is the last final free frontier for speech, in my book.
Of course, I was hoping to hold Fred and the mods accountable for posting all the trolls we've received lately (/sarcasm).
Posted by: BA ||
11/21/2006 11:51 Comments ||
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NASA's best effort to find a missing Mars space probe failed Monday night, as scientists at the space agency began to lose hope for the 10-year-old planet-mapping workhorse. After more than two weeks of silence from the Mars Global Surveyor, NASA will make other tries, but scientists began to sound resigned Tuesday. "We may have lost a dear old friend and teacher," Michael Meyer, the lead scientist for NASA's Mars Exploration Program said in a news conference.
The $154 million surveyor, which was expected to operate for just two years, is the oldest of five different active space probes on or circling the red planet. Among its accomplishments are its more than 240,000 pictures of the red planet, offering the best big-picture view of the red planet. "Every good thing comes to an end at some point," said Arizona State University scientist Phil Christensen. "It certainly in my mind greatly exceeded our wildest expectations of what to hope for. It revolutionized what we were thinking about Mars."
On Monday night, NASA had hoped to catch a glimpse of the surveyor from the camera on the new Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. But the orbiter failed to spot it. Now NASA will try an even less likely search effort. Engineers will send a signal to the silent spacecraft, asking it to turn on a beacon on one of the two Mars rovers below. If the rover beacon turns on, NASA could figure out where the lost Mars Surveyor is, said project manager Tom Thorpe. NASA will keep trying small-scale efforts to contact the probe through the end of the year.
Launched on Nov. 7, 1996, the probe gave scientists the best topographic map of any planet in the solar system, said Cornell University astronomer Steve Squyres, who didn't have an instrument on board the probe but was part of NASA's scientific review team. "It's just been a fabulous mission," Squyres said. Mars Global Surveyor "just revolutionized our view of the Martian surface." The probe gave Earth its first detailed views of massive dust storms and gullies. It also revealed a new mystery about Mars: It once had a magnetic field.
The low-cost probe rose "from the ashes" of a dramatic Mars failure, Squyres said. In 1993, the $813 million Mars Observer disappeared just before getting to the planet. Most of that probe's instruments were built again and included on the Mars Global Surveyor. Christensen called the global surveyor "a workhorse" because of its numerous and diverse scientific instruments. "It really has opened up new vistas of Mars that we hadn't the foggiest notion of," said Arizona State University geologist Ron Greeley.
JOURNOS working for the US print media are steaming with righteous indignation as their bosses start outsourcing their jobs to India. Wait a minute....when a bunch of engineering and accounting jobs went there, it was a Good ThingTM!
The International Herald Tribune fumed that there was a sudden rush of advertisements on MonsterIndia.com for hacks to write for US and UK print media in Mumbai.
The article cites a WAN global survey of about 350 newspaper bosses in Europe, Asia and the United States. They expected outsourcing to increase, although few were willing to farm out all of their editorial functions. Part of the reason is that advertising revenues for print media is dropping and people are failing to buy hard copies of their news.
The article cites the outsourcing of the business pages of the UK's Daily Express to India as an example of what could happen in the US. The article mentions that much of the work being taken by India is the 'crap hack' work. Editors do not see the point of forcing hacks to churn out the Women's Institute results when they could be camped outside some b list celeb's house waiting to see who she is shagging this week.
However, the US print media, whose hacks are usually highly pretentious and not to mention over better paid than the rest of the world, are starting to panic that their gravy train could be hitting the buffers. Guess we can expect an avalanche of "outsourcing is eeeeevilll" stories in the next few months.
Gone will be the days that they could wax lyrical about themselves for ten paragraphs before telling the news if an Indian turns out to be better at finding a better angle from Bangalore. One could only hope. Getting lectured by my "betters" in the media when all I want to do is find out basic news without their "expert analysis" is a major reason I stopped buying papers in the first place.
#1
First they came for the engineers and I said nothing, then they came for the computer programmers and I said nothing, then they came for the help operators and I said nothing...
#2
This is a victory for us. The macaca media is knocked down in the sixth round. The internet and talk radio are using truth as a weapon. Could this be the beginning of the end for macaca ?
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.
(SomaliNet) Zimbabwe's President, Robert Mugabe, is in Iran to 
Three top intelligence officials were removed on Monday in the most abrupt shake-up of Italys espionage community since the current structures were established almost 30 years ago. The government of Romano Prodi removed the chief of the national military intelligence agency, whom prosecutors want to put on trial for involvement in the suspected kidnapping by CIA agents of an Egyptian imam in February 2003. It also replaced the head of the domestic secret service and the chief of an intelligence co-ordinating committee that reports to the political authorities.
William Borders was a prominent Washington, D.C. lawyer when, in 1981, he was charged with conspiring with his good friend, federal judge Alcee Hastings, to solicit bribes from defendants seeking lenient treatment in Hastingss courtroom. Hastings was charged, too, though the men were tried separately. When it was all over, Borders was convicted, disbarred, and sentenced to five years in jail. Hastings was acquitted, but later impeached and removed from office.
She had only token opposition, but Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton still spent more on her re-election upward of $30 million than any other candidate for Senate this year. So where did all the money go?
NASA's best effort to find a missing Mars space probe failed Monday night, as scientists at the space agency began to lose hope for the 10-year-old planet-mapping workhorse. After more than two weeks of silence from the Mars Global Surveyor, NASA will make other tries, but scientists began to sound resigned Tuesday. "We may have lost a dear old friend and teacher," Michael Meyer, the lead scientist for NASA's Mars Exploration Program said in a news conference.
