Hi there, !
Today Thu 01/11/2007 Wed 01/10/2007 Tue 01/09/2007 Mon 01/08/2007 Sun 01/07/2007 Sat 01/06/2007 Fri 01/05/2007 Archives
Rantburg
533579 articles and 1861573 comments are archived on Rantburg.

Today: 88 articles and 473 comments as of 8:57.
Post a news link    Post your own article   
Area: WoT Operations    WoT Background    Non-WoT    Opinion       
US Gunship Hits Al-Qaeda In Somalia
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 5: Russia-Former Soviet Union
2 00:00 ed [4] 
2 00:00 Brett [2] 
6 00:00 Free Radical [5] 
1 00:00 Excalibur [4] 
7 00:00 borgboy [1] 
10 00:00 wxjames [1] 
5 00:00 Redneck Jim [2] 
14 00:00 trailing wife [1] 
1 00:00 JosephMendiola [1] 
9 00:00 tu3031 [1] 
12 00:00 Frank G [1] 
13 00:00 Frank G [1] 
1 00:00 Anguper Hupomosing9418 [1] 
4 00:00 tu3031 [2] 
14 00:00 ed [2] 
4 00:00 Chuck Darwin [7] 
Page 1: WoT Operations
32 00:00 Lone Ranger [2]
5 00:00 doc [9]
7 00:00 Frank G [4]
4 00:00 3dc [2]
8 00:00 BA [1]
0 [2]
11 00:00 JosephMendiola [1]
3 00:00 wxjames [8]
12 00:00 Ebbeater Phinerong7477 [1]
12 00:00 xbalanke [2]
0 [2]
0 [6]
1 00:00 phil_b [2]
0 [1]
0 [2]
4 00:00 Eric Jablow [2]
1 00:00 Spomort Greling4204 [3]
0 [1]
7 00:00 BA [2]
0 [1]
0 [5]
0 [1]
3 00:00 Frank G [1]
6 00:00 USN, Ret. [1]
0 [1]
8 00:00 Redneck Jim [2]
0 [1]
8 00:00 gorb [2]
16 00:00 Verlaine [2]
Page 2: WoT Background
1 00:00 twobyfour [6]
10 00:00 ed [8]
1 00:00 Verlaine [4]
19 00:00 CrazyFool [1]
4 00:00 bigjim-ky [1]
22 00:00 Mike N. [2]
2 00:00 Mark Z [1]
9 00:00 USN, Ret. [4]
7 00:00 Chuck Darwin [6]
0 [1]
13 00:00 gromgoru [1]
3 00:00 SpecOp35 [2]
21 00:00 tu3031 [4]
6 00:00 liberalhawk [1]
1 00:00 Anguper Hupomosing9418 [6]
7 00:00 USN, Ret. [1]
1 00:00 Jackal [1]
1 00:00 gromgoru [1]
10 00:00 mojo [2]
2 00:00 Procopius2k [1]
3 00:00 Excalibur [1]
7 00:00 Zhang Fei [1]
1 00:00 Glavitle Spick2241 [1]
1 00:00 Dunno [5]
11 00:00 wxjames [1]
3 00:00 gorb [7]
1 00:00 mojo [1]
Page 3: Non-WoT
0 [3]
8 00:00 Frank G [1]
0 [5]
14 00:00 Frank G [1]
4 00:00 Pappy [1]
5 00:00 CrazyFool [2]
1 00:00 bigjim-ky [1]
Page 4: Opinion
1 00:00 Penguin [4]
5 00:00 Jonathan [3]
2 00:00 JosephMendiola [1]
2 00:00 Anguper Hupomosing9418 [4]
0 [1]
0 [2]
4 00:00 FOTSGreg [1]
4 00:00 Anguper Hupomosing9418 [1]
7 00:00 Pappy [1]
-Lurid Crime Tales-
Norwegian Passenger bites Air France airline worker
An Air France passenger went amok at Oslo's main airport at Gardermoen on Monday and ended up biting one of the airline's employees at the check-in counter.

The passenger, a 37-year-old Norwegian citizen who is nameless in the article, reportedly was furious because he was told he had too much baggage, and then missed his flight after being told to deposit some of the excess baggage at the airport's lost-and-found department.

He got so angry that he first tried to throw a vase at the Air France worker behind the counter. When he missed, he jumped over the counter and physically assaulted the employee, biting him in the chest.

The 40-year-old Air France worker, who bled from the wound, was taken to an emergency clinic for treatment. "I don't know what kind of treatment he'll get, but probably a rabies shot," Petter Olausson of the Gardermoen police station told Aftenposten.no. "That's at least what I'd ask for."

The passenger was taken into police custody and faced questioning later on Monday. "We're just waiting for his victim to get back from the clinic," Olausson said.
Why, so the perp can bite him again?
Posted by: mrp || 01/08/2007 12:57 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Not my first choice of airline employee to bite. Though I do enjoy garlic...
Posted by: Excalibur || 01/08/2007 14:24 Comments || Top||

#2  The Air France guy could be of any nationality.

I'm stunned by the ferocity of the attack. Usually this kind of stuff happens after the passenger gets tanked after a bout of heavy on-board drinking and breathing hours of 5-10 thousand ft. pressurized cabin air. I hope there's a follow-up.
Posted by: mrp || 01/08/2007 14:50 Comments || Top||

#3  Now, this doesn't sound at all like a socialist Norwegian. Was this ass seething ? Did he have a half-assed hat on his head ? Did he look like a camel herder ? Just a suspicion.
Posted by: SpecOp35 || 01/08/2007 17:46 Comments || Top||

#4  It's been a long winter and cabin fever powerful. The Air France guy should be thankful he wasn't cannibalized on the spot.
Posted by: ed || 01/08/2007 19:03 Comments || Top||

#5  expect to read another "prisoner cooks, eats cellmate" story
Posted by: Frank G || 01/08/2007 19:28 Comments || Top||

#6  What's all the fuss? I'd have done the same thing! :-)
Posted by: gorb || 01/08/2007 19:34 Comments || Top||

#7  Accompanied by red or white wine? Perhaps a fruity Chardonney with a hint of woody aftertaste...
Posted by: borgboy || 01/08/2007 21:34 Comments || Top||


Prisoner butchered, cooked with onions
A CONFESSED cannibal apparently killed a cellmate and cooked parts of his lungs with onions before eating them. Reminiscent of psychopath Hannibal Lecter in the 1991 film The Silence of the Lambs, Nicolas Cocaigne, 35, was charged with premeditated murder and "violating the integrity of a corpse".
"Nicolas Cocaine"? I'll bet he's a druggy.
I'll resist the urge to ask what wine was served.
The body of Thierry Baudry, 31, was found in a cell at Rouen prison. According to the prosecutor, he had been beaten, cut with scissors and a razor, strangled and finally asphyxiated with a plastic bag. A third detainee in the cell was charged with being an accessory to murder. Detectives were running tests on samples of fat and onion taken from a saucepan in the cell, Le Parisien reported yesterday.

Paris psychiatrist Samuel Lepastier said Cocaigne probably suffered major schizophrenia and had a fit of rage.
No, reeeeaaalllly?
Cocaigne's lawyer, Fabien Picchiotino, said the prison authorities had ignored early warnings. "This drama could have been avoided if my client had been placed in psychiatric care, or if the recommendation of the investigating judge to place him in solitary confinement had been followed," he said.

Cocaigne, who was awaiting trial on charges of armed rape, allegedly explained the attack by saying he was overcome with a sudden violent urge. He reportedly got angry because his cellmate failed to respect prison cell rules. "You can't always detect the mentally ill among the prison population," Dr Lepastier told Le Parisien.
Sometimes they give themselves away, though.
Prison director Yves Bidet declined to say whether he had been warned that Cocaigne was dangerous.
Posted by: Fred || 01/08/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Well, err, who was watching these sports? Must have had plenty of time to pull this off. Any screaming heard ? And, just how did he build a fire and saute his dear old mate ?
Posted by: SpecOp35 || 01/08/2007 0:43 Comments || Top||

#2  I guess he just couldn't stomach his cellmate anymore...

No problem. he'll pass his mate in the bathroom I'm sure....

And then throw up his arms in disgust...
Posted by: CrazyFool || 01/08/2007 0:51 Comments || Top||

#3  "A CONFESSED cannibal apparently killed a cellmate and cooked parts of his lungs with onions before eating them."

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Cocaigne thought he was cooking & eating the heart; the 3rd prisoner claims he slept through the attack.
Posted by: Sweeney Todd || 01/08/2007 1:09 Comments || Top||

#4  A third detainee in the cell was charged with being an accessory to murder.

"What, are you kidding me? He was growlin' and chewin' on the guy's lung, fer chrissake. You wanna go over there and say 'hey, knock it off'? You go right ahead. Not me, pal."
Posted by: mojo || 01/08/2007 2:32 Comments || Top||

#5  "A CONFESSED cannibal apparently killed a cellmate and cooked parts of his lungs with onions before eating them."

Beats liver, fava beans and a nice chianti any day!
Posted by: TZSenator || 01/08/2007 2:51 Comments || Top||

#6  The way my luck runs, that's the kind of cellmate I'd get.
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 01/08/2007 8:22 Comments || Top||

#7  "It was the smell of onions cooking that alerted us. It smelled delicious"
Posted by: Frank G || 01/08/2007 10:05 Comments || Top||

#8  I can see a nice rump roast, but the lungs?
Posted by: DarthVader || 01/08/2007 10:52 Comments || Top||

#9  The food in that prison must SUCK.
Posted by: Cyber Sarge || 01/08/2007 11:29 Comments || Top||

#10  4 out 5 cannibals love thoracic cavities Darth.

/heh go ahead and groan!
Posted by: Crest || 01/08/2007 12:54 Comments || Top||

#11  Prison Director Yves Bidet said "It's a wash"
Posted by: Grunter || 01/08/2007 13:50 Comments || Top||

#12  If Mr Cocaigne had a saucepan, cooking fat and other ingredients, and the tools with which to prepare them (one imagines he didn't peel and slice that onion with his teeth and fingernails), presumably he had a hot plate as well. Admittedly I know very little on the subject, but since when do prisons allow convicts to prepare gourmet meals in their cells?
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/08/2007 21:52 Comments || Top||

#13  TW-
Well it IS France.

Groan.... Crest
Posted by: DarthVader || 01/08/2007 22:55 Comments || Top||

#14  Well it IS France.

No no chance for a nice bottle of chianti?
Posted by: ed || 01/08/2007 23:01 Comments || Top||


-Short Attention Span Theater-
Scots dump 40m poo in Edinburgh field
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 01/08/2007 08:44 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Sniff, sniff, and to think it only took 40 + yarna since the pre-Woodstock, pre-Berkeley Monterey music festival to do it. HOW CAN WE WIN THE WAR???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 01/08/2007 21:05 Comments || Top||


Geostationary Banana Over Texas
Canadians pay money for Argentinians to launch giant bananas at the US from Mexico. I was tempted to file it under "Signs and Portents".
The French gave us the Statute of Liberty, Mexico sort of gave us Texas and now Canada wants to give us a giant helium-filled yellow banana. More specifically, Montreal artist Cesar Saez hopes to send a 1,000-foot long banana dirigible into the southern sky next year to make giant loops over the Lone Star State.

If all goes well, the giant bamboo and paper banana will be launched from a site in Mexico in summer 2008 and drift eastward over Texas before it disintegrates. Even at a stratospheric altitude of 20 miles, the yellow fruit will be visible to earthbound Texans, said Saez, who has raised about a fifth of the estimated $1 million he needs for the project.

Some very practical people, including the Canada Council for the Arts, which contributed $15,000, are taking him at his word. "There's no question this is a serious artistic project," said Donna Balkan, a spokeswoman for the national arts organization.
Serious military project, is what she means. Consider the possibilities of a giant banana as a weapons platform. And, as usual, our leaders are asleep at the switch:
After several hours of consultation and review, a spokesman for Gov. Rick Perry released a cryptic statement. "If it works, people will probably go ape over it. We have to be careful, though, because putting bananas in orbit could create a slippery situation," Robert Black said.
More at the link, and snark and half-assed research at my blog. Giant banana project site here.
Posted by: Angie Schultz || 01/08/2007 00:13 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  More "art". God forbid that anyone denounce this is the crap that it is, lest we be labeled as redneck philistines.
Posted by: gromky || 01/08/2007 1:08 Comments || Top||

#2  DEFENSETECH.org > US Navy is serious about dev OTH hi-tech Dirigibles for Sea Control and GMD, including anti-Cruise Missle + anti-FBM/ICBM detection and fire control. Dirigibles > some will follow Cold War-style, 24-7-365 local DEFENSIVE rotation patterns ala B52's/SAC bombers, others will flank + follow USN task forces, and others will be independent routings.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 01/08/2007 1:08 Comments || Top||

#3  OTOH, "Before it disintegrates" - as a person living in the tropical Pacific, as horrible a sight as PAULA "DELILAH/BATHSHEBA" ABDUL kicking a tropical plant = coconut.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 01/08/2007 1:15 Comments || Top||

#4  I hope they launch the banana just before next deer season so everyone can get in some free target practice.
Posted by: Ron Mitchell || 01/08/2007 2:29 Comments || Top||

#5 
Some very practical people, including the Canada Council for the Arts, which contributed $15,000, are taking him at his word.

Geostationary Banana Over Texas

NO WAY
DANGER RANTBURGERS
CALL NORAD


Banana = Trojan Horse
Posted by: RD || 01/08/2007 4:34 Comments || Top||

#6  Guardsmen overrun at the Border, call for Banana Back-UP
12 News Jan. 4, 2007 02:44 PM

A U.S. Border Patrol entry Identification Team site was overrun Wednesday night along Arizona's border with Mexico. According to the Border Patrol, an unknown number of gunmen attacked the site in the state's West Desert Region around 11 p.m. The site is manned by National Guardsmen. Those guardsmen were forced to retreat.

The Border Patrol will not say whether shots were fired. However, no Guardsmen were injured in the incident. The Border Patrol says the incident occurred somewhere along the 120 mile section of the border between Nogales and Lukeville. The area is known as a drug corridor. Last year, 124-thousand pounds of illegal drugs were confiscated in this area.

The Border patrol says the attackers quickly retreated back into Mexico.



Posted by: Besoeker || 01/08/2007 4:52 Comments || Top||

#7  Geostationary: sometimes called geosynchronous - a characteristic of a satellite orbit in which the satellite circles the globe, over the equator, in synchronization with the earth's rotation. When did they move Texas to the equator? And isn't 20 miles kinda low for a geosynchronous orbit? I can think of a lot of terms to describe this project, but "Geostaionary" ain't one of 'em.
Posted by: GK || 01/08/2007 8:00 Comments || Top||

#8  Is this just a clever new way to smuggle in more mexicans? Some tracer rounds from a F-22 could end that little party very quickly.
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 01/08/2007 8:26 Comments || Top||

#9  "Are you happy to see me or is that a banana in your horizon?"
Posted by: USN, Ret. || 01/08/2007 14:48 Comments || Top||

#10  *Rimshot*
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 01/08/2007 18:16 Comments || Top||

#11  This has a certain appeal.
Posted by: ed || 01/08/2007 19:37 Comments || Top||

#12  Maybe a certain appeal, ed, but think of the slippery slope it starts.

Mewonders if the lettuce ladies will get involved too?
Posted by: BA || 01/08/2007 20:03 Comments || Top||

#13  bamboo and paper frame...$1 million. Guess he's trumped the Nigerian email scams...
Posted by: Frank G || 01/08/2007 20:09 Comments || Top||


107-year-old pastor weds 30-year-old
SAMUEL Akinbode Sadela, Nigeria's oldest preacher at the age of 107, said he derived his strength from God after marrying a 30-year woman. "The Lord is my strength. I am very strong and energetic,'' members of his congregation quoted him as saying today after the wedding in Lagos.
"The little blue pill helped, though..."
Sadela, founder of Gospel Apostolic Church, has been on the pulpit for 75 years. Sadela first got married in 1934, and the marriage lasted for 21 years, but none of the couple's seven children lived beyond their infancy. A second marriage, consummated in 1965, was blessed with four children, but only two survived. His second wife died in 2001. And then he met the new woman of his life, 77 years his junior. The marriage with Christiana Sadela is "a fulfilment of the scripture and worthy of thanksgiving and appreciation to God'', his church said. "Nothing is impossible for God,'' it said.
Sounds like the consumation was successful.
Posted by: Fred || 01/08/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The older the... Doumbek, the better the music.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/08/2007 0:57 Comments || Top||

#2  Jeez...107? He's lucky just to be above ground right now.
Posted by: gromky || 01/08/2007 2:10 Comments || Top||

#3  30? What's he want with an old bag like that?
Posted by: Mohammed || 01/08/2007 9:20 Comments || Top||

#4  The Lord is my strength.

That's good, cuz he's gonna need it...
Posted by: tu3031 || 01/08/2007 11:57 Comments || Top||


-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
New York probes 'gas-like odour'
"Hey, y'all! Try some o' this chili! I think it's the best Cooter's ever made!"
Authorities were investigating the source of a mysterious gas-like odor Monday that stretched across a large part of Manhattan, including Rockefeller Center. The Fire Department began getting calls about the odor around 9 a.m. Monday, said spokesman Tim Hinchey. Consolidated Edison was investigating, utility spokeswoman Joy Faber said.

Across the Hudson River, Jersey City, N.J., mayor's spokeswoman Maria Pignataro said officials there were told the odor was due to a gas leak in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood, just north of Greenwich Village. "The smell was very strong. It was very scary," said Yolanda Van Gemd, an administrator at ASA, a business school near the Empire State Building that was evacuated as a precaution.
Posted by: anonymous5089 & Fred || 01/08/2007 12:44 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Sorry about that. Shouldn't have gotten a red-hot from a street vendor.
Posted by: Jonathan || 01/08/2007 12:59 Comments || Top||

#2  "The smell was very strong. It was very scary,"

yalls been there.
Posted by: RD || 01/08/2007 13:13 Comments || Top||

#3  Any dead grackles lying around?
Posted by: Thinemp Whimble2412 || 01/08/2007 13:17 Comments || Top||

#4  "It may just be an unpleasant smell," Mayor Bloomberg said. "Our suggestion is that people should do their best to ventilate areas, open their windows or turn on any fans until this gas passes."

He sounds like my wife.
Glad I've got the dog to blame it on...
Posted by: tu3031 || 01/08/2007 14:37 Comments || Top||

#5  Testing, testing......
Posted by: USN, Ret. || 01/08/2007 14:49 Comments || Top||

#6  I'm betting on a Jets or Giants fan that made a NY in-your-face statement regarding his team(s) stinking up the field.
Posted by: Phineter Thraviger || 01/08/2007 14:50 Comments || Top||

#7  Lessee.../Moonbat rumor mill...

US government on orders of President Bush and CIA/Illuminati conducts tests of deployment system for airborne psychological mind control gas in NYC. Millions exposed...

/Moonbat rumor mill

Posted by: FOTSGreg || 01/08/2007 15:44 Comments || Top||

#8  They sent us home about this!
Posted by: Free Radical || 01/08/2007 16:06 Comments || Top||

#9  Damned high-fiber diet.
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 01/08/2007 18:34 Comments || Top||

#10  You can't smell natural gas, but they add something to it which smells a bit like onions.
So, That substance may have been released.....testing, 1, 2, 3.
Why ? Jihad with a deadly gas coming to NY ?
Posted by: wxjames || 01/08/2007 19:47 Comments || Top||


Dead birds close center of Austin, Tx
I am unsure where to post this, as where it belongs will end up being dependant on the reason. But this is pretty weird.

Apparently there are dozens of dead birds this morning in Austin and it is closed at the moment. Not that I will miss these grackles & pidgeons, but definately weird.

Disease? Gas Leak? Mahmoods Gassing Truck Company?


(CBS 42) AUSTIN Austin police have shut down Congress Ave. from Cesar Chavez St. to 11th St. after finding dozens of dead birds along the avenue downtown.

Congress Avenue from Cesar Chavez to 11th Street, as well as one block on either side of Congress Avenue are currently closed down and will remain closed until approximately noon. People that work in that area have been advised not to come in until further notice.

The Austin Fire Department is doing precautionary testing of the area.
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats || 01/08/2007 09:21 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Interesting. In looking around for more info on this I found a story about a gas leak in NYC this morning.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16524813/
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats || 01/08/2007 9:56 Comments || Top||

#2  I lived in Austin 40 years ago. Nothing I like better than the sound of grackles in the morning.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 01/08/2007 10:13 Comments || Top||

#3  Mucky alert!
Posted by: Frank G || 01/08/2007 10:23 Comments || Top||

#4  I live in Austin and have only heard the same thing. It doesn't appeart to be a terroristic act, but nobody knows what caused it. I was kidding my co-workers that it was probably Leslie, our cross dressing bum that caused the air sickness due to not showering in 3 weeks.
Posted by: texhooey || 01/08/2007 10:27 Comments || Top||

#5  Meanwhile, this morning in Tucson White rats pop up in toilets.
If the stars go out, I'm leaving.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 01/08/2007 10:35 Comments || Top||

#6  Heard this second hand....

Press conference . . . 3 different species, 60 birds total. Calls coming in from other parts of the city. Gas leaks ruled out at this time. A&M medical checking out the animals. Current theory is poison from some source...

My speculation: If poison it must be local... grackles fly off out of town during the day to eat and return at night. But with other species getting it too then its prolly here.
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats || 01/08/2007 10:50 Comments || Top||

#7  Maybe they have been eating D-Con or something.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 01/08/2007 10:59 Comments || Top||

#8  Enormous flocks of grackles gather just before dawn and around sunset, making an almighty racket and Jackson Pollocking any surface below their chosen perches... frankly anything that has killed them has my qualified approval.
Nasty things...think sewer rats with wings.
Posted by: Sgt. Mom || 01/08/2007 11:23 Comments || Top||

#9  Common Grackle
Starling

Either poisoned bird food or rotted/fungus tainted grain, would be my guess. Or a disease spread by crowded conditions amongst the flocking birds -- finches have been dying in large numbers in the US in recent years due to some disease spread by contact at crowded bird feeders.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/08/2007 13:21 Comments || Top||

#10  Just wait until you see what replaces them.
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 01/08/2007 13:23 Comments || Top||

#11  More starlings/grackles or whatever, Rob. They just keep on making baby birdies, y'know. The four most successful bird species in North America are the non-native European Starling, Rock Dove/Pigeon, European Sparrow and the native Common Grackle. What we need are more Peregrine Falcons to eat the problem for us.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/08/2007 13:38 Comments || Top||

#12  thezen mexican grakls. gonna miss they sweeet singin. :(

wernt lesly. hes been buzy
Posted by: muck4doo || 01/08/2007 16:11 Comments || Top||

#13  DemoLefties win 2006 ergo is now a race to see whom introduces the most PDeniable, "justified" Commie-Governmentist legislations. Once the Earth is controlled, the Lefties only have 999,999 +/- more Earth-style planets to go before can demand the Sun to surrender, or else. OTOH, SCI-FI CHANNEL > CHILDREN OF MEN Series > in year 2027, Human civilization has collapsed due to human females suddenly being unable to have children - unless children are born, in 50+ yarns the human race will be in massive die-off mode due to "normal" aging + other dynamics. Race is on to save = control = extort = study the last female human pregnant teenager on earth.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 01/08/2007 20:14 Comments || Top||

#14  UPI says

A 10-block section of downtown Austin, Texas, was closed to traffic Monday after about 60 dead birds were found in the area along Congress Avenue. The bird carcasses -- mostly pigeons, sparrows and great-tailed grackles -- were discovered from Cesar Chavez Street to 11th Street well before dawn.

Samples [collected] from the birds and the environment were sent to a lab at Texas A&M University. Officials said they did not believe the bird deaths were caused by avian flu or the West Nile virus.


Bird ebola, perhaps? (A family joke. Not likely, I think.)
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/08/2007 23:07 Comments || Top||


Britain
Farm worker attacked by herd of pigs
LONDON (Reuters) - A British farm worker needed hospital treatment after being attacked by a herd of pigs, Norfolk police said Sunday. The 51-year-old man was knocked over by a sow at a Norfolk farm in eastern England, prompting the rest of the herd to attack him. "It seems that when he fell, he was attacked by one of the sows and then the other pigs joined in," a Norfolk police spokesman told Reuters. "He suffered bumps and bruises and a head injury though it is not considered to be life-threatening." The police spokesman said it was the first time he had heard of a pig attack in the area -- but it was unlikely the herd would be put down.
Pigs... why do they hate us?
If you ever spend any time around hogs, you quickly come to the conclusion that they're large and not particularly friendly. They're also omnivorous, which means they'll eat the occasional child that falls into the pen.

The herd is going to be "put down." Piggies don't have fur and they don't give milk. They're meat animals. They all end up in ham sandwiches eventually.
Posted by: Free Radical || 01/08/2007 16:06 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  mmmmm sausages
Posted by: Homer Simpson || 01/08/2007 19:11 Comments || Top||

#2  Send 'em to Texas and call 'em Peccaries.
Posted by: Brett || 01/08/2007 19:46 Comments || Top||


Gorgeous George could climb celebrity alphabet
It seems that the previously indefatigable George Galloway may be tiring of his parliamentary concerns. The MP for Bethnal Green and Bow long ago bored of appearing in the House of Commons and has, Pandora learns, privately discussed terminating his 20-year career as an MP. He will not stand again for his current seat - which he famously won by defeating Labour's Oona King in acrimonious circumstances.

An aide insists that he has not ruled out running in the neighbouring east London constituency of Poplar, home to enemy and Blairite junior minister Jim Fitzpatrick. (Fitzpatrick called Galloway a "C-list politician with an A-list ego" for entering Big Brother's "celebrity graveyard" - a sad decline from the moment in May 1998 when, during a grudge match between Scottish and English MPs, Galloway passed to Fitzpatrick to score a rocket.)

But Galloway is said to be so pleased with the public response to his TalkSport radio rant show - he now presents eight hours a week spread across Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights - that he wants to pursue his flowering media career. A spokesman for Galloway concedes: "George won't stand again in Bethnal Green and Bow. That's the only hard fact. Beyond that, the world is his oyster."

Says Bill Ridley, TalkSport's programme director: "We see a good future for George. He has come on in leaps and bounds as a broadcaster. People love his show. Or love to hate it. He could have a very successful media career."
Posted by: ryuge || 01/08/2007 07:02 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Not if he shows up wearing that d****d red leotard, he won't!
Posted by: Sgt. Mom || 01/08/2007 7:59 Comments || Top||

#2  ...BTW, finally ID'd the other loon in the pic (in the lovely teal unitard)- trust me, he/she/it is loopier than George.

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 01/08/2007 10:07 Comments || Top||

#3  OK, so Mike, spill it: who/ what is he/she/it????
Posted by: USN, Ret. || 01/08/2007 14:51 Comments || Top||

#4  Ayman al-Zawahiri in drag, who else could it be? LOL
Posted by: Seafarious || 01/08/2007 16:03 Comments || Top||

#5  A thousand pardons, I forgot to put down the name. And now the link at VH-1 is down, but IIRC that's the lead singer of The Cure.

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 01/08/2007 16:40 Comments || Top||

#6  Looks like The Cure didn't take...
Posted by: tu3031 || 01/08/2007 16:46 Comments || Top||

#7  Actually, I'm pretty sure the other individual is Pete Burns, former singer of 80's band Dead or Alive. Not a huge band, but some may remember their biggest single "You Spin Me Round (Like A Record)". He has accused Boy George of stealing his look and "mainstreaming his unique image". Meow!
Posted by: ryuge || 01/08/2007 18:33 Comments || Top||

#8  Ryuge-

That's it!!

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 01/08/2007 18:37 Comments || Top||

#9  Now it's Dead or Alive?
Put me down for Dead...
Posted by: tu3031 || 01/08/2007 21:44 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
Montserrat Volcano Shoots Ash 5 Miles Up - Resulting In A Cooler Summer?
The volcano that destroyed Montserrat's capital in 1997 shot a cloud of ash more than five miles into the sky on Monday, and one of the island's chief scientists said the blast was "a warning call."

The government has advised about 50 families on the northwestern side of the volcano's base that their homes were at risk from flows of blistering gas and debris if the dome collapses. Gov. Deborah Barnes Jones said she would sign an evacuation order Monday making it illegal for people to remain in the area.

The blast, accompanied by increased seismic rumbling, released gases and steam from inside a lava dome that has grown rapidly over the last week, said Dr. Vicky Hards, director of the Montserrat Volcano Observatory.

"I think it was a warning call ... of what it can do," Hards said.

The explosion around sunrise also sent a flow of volcanic material cascading two miles down the northwest flank, but did not immediately threaten any of the British Caribbean island's 5,000 inhabitants, Hards said. Sirens alerted people to listen to the radio for updates.

"People in the affected area know who they are and should work urgently on packing up and arranging for alternative accommodations," Barnes Jones said in a radio address.

Only "a handful" of residents were believed to still be living in the threatened area, said Mark Twigg, head of the governor's office.

"This causes genuine hardship for people who have to leave, and this is taken lightly by nobody," he said.

The volcano's latest burst of activity began on Dec. 24. Glowing streaks of red from the pyroclastic flows have created nighttime spectacles visible across much of the island. The volcano's rising dome remained in place after Monday's explosion, raising fears of a bigger event soon.

The Soufriere Hills volcano became active in 1995, and more than half the territory's 12,000 inhabitants moved away. An eruption in 1997 buried much of the south, including the capital of Plymouth, and killed 19 people.

Since then, the mountainous, teardrop-shaped island has gone on a building binge. A new city center is planned for Little Bay, the future capital, in northwest Montserrat. The island has a new airport to replace the one that was engulfed by lava flows and a 700-seat concert hall. A new parliament, courthouse and cricket field are planned.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 01/08/2007 16:05 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I blame Bush.

Seriously, is anyone monitoring the tempreture of the deep ocean trenches / faults?

There are two sources of heat for earth, that big yellow thingy in the sky, and a whole lot of hot metal in the middle. Any sign that the middle stuff is percolating out more than usual?
Posted by: AlanC || 01/08/2007 17:07 Comments || Top||

#2  AlanC, yea, it is percolating somewhat more than usual. The bottom of oceans temp has risen about 1.5 deg C in average, in the past 15 years or so, compared to measurements before that spanning about 50 years. Why, nobody has a friggin idea. I'll speculate that for some reason the charge of electric currents that run through our solar system has been on the rise. We may be living, in the near future, in interesting times ("May you live in interesting times" is a Chinese curse ;-) ).
Posted by: twobyfour || 01/08/2007 20:18 Comments || Top||

#3  I blame AlGore's speaking tour
Posted by: Frank G || 01/08/2007 20:51 Comments || Top||

#4  BANANARAMA > Its a Cool, Cool Summer ...FEEL THE FORCE, LUKE.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 01/08/2007 21:10 Comments || Top||

#5  Quite an ejaculation, methinks!
Posted by: borgboy || 01/08/2007 21:24 Comments || Top||

#6  I love staying in Antigua. Their big 'Hot 97' type radio station uses a radio ID saying "Broadcasting Live from Antigua, Barbuda, and (cue deep 'Monster Truck' voice): MONTSERRAT. (cue Volcano Erupting sound-effect.)
Posted by: Free Radical || 01/08/2007 23:58 Comments || Top||


Europe
Polish Bishop Quits Over Communist Ties
WARSAW, Poland (AP) - Warsaw's new archbishop abruptly resigned Sunday over revelations that he cooperated with Poland's communist-era secret police, stunning worshippers by sadly yielding the archbishop's throne just minutes before he was to be formally installed.

To cries of ``No, no!'' and ``Stay with us!'' in and outside St. John's Cathedral, a despondent Stanislaw Wielgus read from a letter to Pope Benedict XVI in which he offered his resignation ``after reflecting deeply and assessing my personal situation.''

The Vatican said Wielgus' past actions had ``gravely compromised his authority'' as one of the top church officials in the late Pope John Paul II's deeply Roman Catholic homeland, adding that the 67-year-old priest was right to go ``despite his humble and moving request for forgiveness.''
Correct decision. He can be forgiven but he can't be trusted ever again.
Posted by: Steve White || 01/08/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  A re-post from yesterday.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 01/08/2007 10:10 Comments || Top||


Fifth Column
Friends of deported Imam Fawaz Damra seethe
they say the prominent Ohio Muslim leader has disappeared after the U.S. government reported deporting him to his native Palestinian territories on the West Bank... Immigration authorities said Friday that Damra was flown to Amman, Jordan, at 4 a.m. EST Thursday, then crossed the Allenby Bridge to the West Bank.
But his friends and family in Cleveland and in Damra's hometown of Nablus say no one has heard from him since he was taken.... "Being Americans as we are, we expect a little fairness, to a degree, to the extent they would let him call his wife and children," said Haider Alawan, Damra's friend and member of the Islamic Center of Cleveland's council of elders.

Alawan said Palestinian government officials said they didn't know where Damra is. A spokesman for the Israeli Prime Minister's office said Sunday that it had no immediate knowledge of Damra's case, either.

"We want to know where the heck he is," said Don Bryant, president of the Greater Cleveland Immigrant Support Network and another of Damra's friends. "We are outraged with the way this was handled. He was taken away on a witch hunt."... Alawan said it is most likely that Israeli authorities are holding him. The Allenby Bridge border crossing between Jordan and the West Bank is under Israeli military control. If that is the case, he could be held in jail, Alawan said.
"You wouldn't let a man in custody say goodbye? And now, he's in a black hole in the Mideast."
Alawan has blamed Damra's conviction & deportation on the Jews. Damra started saying goodbye back when he lied about his ties to Islamic Jihad, and again in '91 when he said on videotape that Muslims should be "directing all the rifles at the first and last enemy of the Islamic nation and that is the sons of monkeys and pigs, the Jews," which was later shown on Cleveland TV. He's had years to say goodbye to his family. If he really didn't want to go back to that black hole, he might have behaved better while he was in the USA.
His lawyer said in the earlier citation "He was just a poster boy for the war on terrorism," Indeed.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 01/08/2007 11:40 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Yes, of course, it was the Jews fault. And, they welcomed this dastardly turd with open arms once he crossed the bridge. But , in their outstretched arms they were clutching Desert Eagles. A body was later seen below the bridge.
Posted by: SpecOp35 || 01/08/2007 17:58 Comments || Top||

#2  AP reports Damra is in Israeli custody.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 01/08/2007 18:36 Comments || Top||

#3  Bet he'll be a lot more forthright with the Israelis than with the Americans.
Posted by: ed || 01/08/2007 19:35 Comments || Top||

#4  "*ahem* You are now in the custody of the 'sons of monkeys and pigs'. Perhaps, when I remove the ball gag you have an apology and retraction? But first, how does this feel? *thwack*...ever made a really bad life choice? But, of course you have..."
Posted by: Frank G || 01/08/2007 19:47 Comments || Top||

#5  they say the prominent Ohio Muslim leader has disappeared after the U.S. government reported deporting him to his native Palestinian territories on the West Bank...

Damn, it works.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 01/08/2007 21:11 Comments || Top||


Olde Tyme Religion
Moroccan Journalists Tried for Defaming Islam
Two Moroccan journalists have been charged with defaming Islam™ and damaging public morality in an article about religious jokes. Their trial begins today (Monday) and if found guilty, they would face up to five years in jail. Idris Ksikes, manager of Nichane magazine, and Sana Al-'Aji, a reporter at the magazine, on December 9, 2006, published an article about Moroccan jokes in the realms of religion, sex and politics.

The Working Group on Press and Free Expression in North Africa (WGFENA) has demanded that the trial be halted. "The trial against the journalists and the shutting down of their newspaper… go against the freedom of speech," said a statement from the group. "The matter at hand is between the newspaper and its readers… not between the newspaper and the law," the group added.

The Moroccan authorities closed the magazine and withdrew copies from the stands following the publication of the controversial article.

Ksikes and Al-'Aji have received death threats, the BBC online Website reported. They said they were not trying to make fun of religion, but merely to examine Moroccan society by reviewing its popular jokes.
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 01/08/2007 13:25 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  And the sound of crickets from "the left" is deafening.
Posted by: Excalibur || 01/08/2007 14:30 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
Thailand Blocks Internet Buddha Porn
The Thai government blocked access Monday to a U.S.-based pornography website that uses an image of Buddha as its logo and is calling on Buddhists around the world to condemn the site, an official said.

The Chicago-based website, buddha-porn.com, features sexually explicit material beneath an image of a golden statue of a seated Buddha and contains pornographic images divided up in different categories named, the Buddha Galleries, Nirvana Galleries, and Satori Galleries — the last two referring to Buddhist beliefs about reaching enlightenment.

About 90 per cent of Thailand's 65 million people are Buddhist.

“It certainly crosses the line in a Buddhist society, “ said Culture Ministry official Ladda Tangsuphachai, adding that the site was blocked by the Information Ministry after culture officials brought it to their attention. “We ask Buddhists around the world to send letters to condemn the website,” he said...
Posted by: Anonymoose || 01/08/2007 16:58 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  “It certainly crosses the line in a Buddhist society, “ said Culture Ministry official Ladda Tangsuphachai, adding that the site was blocked by the Information Ministry after culture officials brought it to their attention.

This from a govt. official of the underage-sex-tour capitol of the world?
Posted by: xbalanke || 01/08/2007 21:31 Comments || Top||

#2  And I was so looking forward to BBW-Buddha.com
Posted by: ed || 01/08/2007 23:13 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
'She was a he': Iranian man wants divorce
An Iranian man has filed for divorce on the grounds that his wife used to be a man who had sex change operation, a press report said Sunday. The man, identified as Farhad, told the court he had learned only after marriage that his wife Mina was a transsexual, but tried to “cope with it” in the four years they have been married, the Etemad newspaper reported. But, infuriated by Mina’s recent complaint to the court to claim her dowry, the man sought to annul their marriage. “I asked around and learned our marriage is null and void,” he said. Mina said she does not want a divorce but only her dowry of 40 million rials (4,300 dollars). Iranian law allows transsexuals to have sex change operations and legally change their identities. Society, however, is hostile towards people with “confused sexuality”.
Posted by: Fred || 01/08/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Holy Shiite, Fatwa!
Posted by: doc || 01/08/2007 10:33 Comments || Top||

#2  I wonder if he'd divorce her if he found out she used to be a goat?
Posted by: tu3031 || 01/08/2007 10:35 Comments || Top||

#3  He's not the world's most passionate guy.
Posted by: Eric Jablow || 01/08/2007 17:07 Comments || Top||

#4  And the colored girls go, do-da-do...
Take a walk on the wild side.
Posted by: Chuck Darwin || 01/08/2007 18:27 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
Airport battles some dog & beer hating Muslim cabbies
Follow-up story.
MINNEAPOLIS -- Officials at Minneapolis-St. Paul International airport are proposing stiffer penalties - including suspension of an airport taxi license - to Muslim cab drivers who refuse service to passengers toting alcohol or service dogs.

Officials on Wednesday asked the Metropolitan Airport Commission for permission to hold public hearings on a proposal that would suspend the airport licenses of cab drivers who refuse service for reasons other than safety concerns. The penalties would also apply to drivers who refuse a fare because a trip is too short.

Drivers would have their airport licenses suspended 30 days for the first offense and revoked for two years after the second offense, according to the proposal. "Our expectation is that if you're going to be driving a taxi at the airport, you need to provide service to anybody who wants it," commission spokesman Patrick Hogan said.

The commission is expected to vote Jan. 16 on the request for public hearings. Airports Commissioner Bert McKasy said the issue raised by Muslim cab drivers who say that carrying alcohol or dogs, including those that help people with disabilities, violates religious beliefs is "unfortunate." "I think it's pretty much the consensus of the commissioners and the staff that we have to provide good service to the public, and that's pretty much the bottom line," McKasy said.

Each month, about 100 people are denied cab service at the airport. Airport officials say that in recent months, the problem of service refusals for religious reasons has grown. About three-quarters of the 900 taxi drivers at the airport are Somali, many of them Muslim.

Hogan said the goal is to have a new policy in place by May 11, when airport taxi licenses come up for annual renewal. "We want the drivers to know about the policy in advance, so that if they don't think they can work under these conditions, they have the option of not renewing their license," Hogan said.

Hassan Mohamud, imam at Al-Taqwa Mosque of St. Paul and director of the Islamic Law Institute at the Muslim American Society of Minnesota, one of the largest Islamic organizations in the state, said asking Muslims to transport alcohol "is a violation of their faith. Muslims do not consume, carry, sell or buy alcohol, and Islam also considers the saliva of dogs to be unclean, he said. Mohamud said he would ask airport officials to reconsider.

But many Somali taxi drivers don't have a problem transporting passengers with alcohol and are worried about a backlash, said Omar Jamal, executive director of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center. Jamal said he supports the tougher penalties. "We tell the taxi drivers, if you don't want to do this, change your job," he said. "You are living in a country where alcohol is not viewed the way it is in your country."
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/08/2007 05:01 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  More fiddling around by the Commission. Get off your worthless a***s and do something!
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 01/08/2007 10:11 Comments || Top||

#2  ...if they don't think they can work under these conditions, they have the option of not renewing their license," Hogan said.

How about we rephrase that:

...if they don't think they can work under these conditions, WE have the option of not renewing their license," Hogan said.

That's better...

Posted by: tu3031 || 01/08/2007 10:20 Comments || Top||

#3  Why not have a Muslim/Non-Muslim cabbie stations? That way everyone could avoid the argument and make a clear choice.
Posted by: Cyber Sarge || 01/08/2007 11:27 Comments || Top||

#4  “Islam also considers the saliva of dogs to be unclean.”

This is will most certainly invigorate the age old debate; Is a dogs’ mouth cleaner then a Muslims’ Humans’?”
Posted by: DepotGuy || 01/08/2007 13:40 Comments || Top||

#5  Why not just deport their asses back to Somalia and let the Ethiopians sort their attitude problems out? What total imbecile decided we needed them over here anyway? RUN 'EM OUT!
Posted by: mac || 01/08/2007 15:53 Comments || Top||

#6  There's something basically wrong with a culture that hates dogs.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 01/08/2007 16:42 Comments || Top||

#7  There is something basically wrong with a culture so oppossed to booze.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 01/08/2007 16:43 Comments || Top||

#8  and don't forget the womin...
Posted by: rjschwarz || 01/08/2007 16:44 Comments || Top||

#9  "Muslims do not consume, carry, sell or buy alcohol..." I am call BS on this. I know for a fact Muslims DO SELL alcohol I can easily walk to at least 2 places they are doing it in my very own town, it's hard stuff too, not just beer and wine. This is just more Saudi funded radical Suni islam.

Follow the money, it's Saudi money trying to infect this nation with this satanic moon god cult or destroy it so they can take out Israel. Saudi Arabia is not our friend and never will be.
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 01/08/2007 17:33 Comments || Top||

#10  Taxi Taqiyya
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 01/08/2007 18:26 Comments || Top||

#11  “Islam also considers the saliva of dogs to be unclean.”

I think I will send that one into the Myth Busters.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 01/08/2007 22:08 Comments || Top||

#12  “Islam also considers the saliva of dogs to be unclean.”

"but their urine and feces make excellent fuel and clothes' detergents. Plus, the dachsunds are excellent as Koobideh"
Posted by: Frank G || 01/08/2007 22:15 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
88[untagged]

Bookmark
E-Mail Me

The Classics
The O Club
Rantburg Store
The Bloids
The Never-ending Story
Thugburg
Gulf War I
The Way We Were
Bio

Merry-Go-Blog











On Sale now!


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.
Click here for more information

Meet the Mods
In no particular order...
Steve White
Seafarious
tu3031
badanov
sherry
ryuge
GolfBravoUSMC
Bright Pebbles
trailing wife
Gloria
Fred
Besoeker
Glenmore
Frank G
3dc
Skidmark

Two weeks of WOT
Mon 2007-01-08
  US Gunship Hits Al-Qaeda In Somalia
Sun 2007-01-07
  Iraqi Papers Sunday: Iranian Coup Plot Foiled?
Sat 2007-01-06
  Top Dems Oppose More Troops in Iraq
Fri 2007-01-05
  White House Postponing Loss of Iraq, Biden Says
Thu 2007-01-04
  Report: Supreme Ayatollah Khamenei is Supremely Stable
Wed 2007-01-03
  Iran Funding Both Shiite And Sunni Jihadists In Iraq
Tue 2007-01-02
  Islamists decamp from Kismayu
Mon 2007-01-01
  Baathists pledge loyalty to Izzat Ibrahim
Sun 2006-12-31
  Aethiops and Somalis moving on Kismayo
Sat 2006-12-30
  Saddam hanged
Fri 2006-12-29
  Daffy Janjalani presumed dead
Thu 2006-12-28
  Islamic Courts Hang It Up
Wed 2006-12-27
  Up to 1,000 Somalis dead in Ethiopia offensive
Tue 2006-12-26
  Islamic fighters quitting Somalia front
Mon 2006-12-25
  Ethiopia launches offensive against Somalia's Islamic movement


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.
13.59.9.236
Help keep the Burg running! Paypal:
WoT Operations (29)    WoT Background (27)    Non-WoT (7)    Opinion (9)    (0)