THE NSW Liberal Party yesterday sacked its candidate for a key marginal seat after learning of an obscene group text message, involving a goat, which he sent to local councillors as a joke.
Brenton Pavier was dumped as the candidate for the must-win seat of Wyong after Liberal HQ learnt several people - one of them a woman - had received disgusting messages. In his SMS, Mr Pavier sent out a hoax message purporting to be from a video store, alerting customers they had outstanding videos. The list named bogus X-rated movies, one with a title involving indecent acts with a goat.
A dejected but defiant Mr Pavier admitted sending the text but claimed it was a harmless prank.
The dramatic action came less than 12 hours after The Daily Telegraph publicised the 46-year-old's pursuit of romance on an online dating service.
Posted by: Mike ||
02/22/2007 18:10 ||
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An 81-year-old Sierra Vista man accused of filming sex acts with children in Asia decades ago was arrested Wednesday on federal charges after summer rains caused a septic tank to cough up the evidence, according to the FBI. Deborah McCarley, a spokeswoman for the bureau, said Walter C. Stevens faces a single count of possessing child porn that was transported across state lines. She said it is unclear whether prosecutors can file additional charges based on conduct overseas.
The videotapes were unearthed in August when monsoon storms opened a large chasm above an old septic tank. Neighbors found the tapes and gave them to Sierra Vista police, who passed them on to the FBI. The bureau's lab in Quantico, Va., repaired and enhanced the films, helping investigators identify Stevens, who had lived in the area for 20 years and managed the property where the evidence was recovered.
According to McCarley, Stevens acknowledged to agents that he attempted to erase the videos with a magnet about two years ago then threw them into the septic pit.
Investigators believe two films were produced in Japan between 1965 and 1975, showing Japanese victims as young as 5. Other tapes were produced in Korea from 1975-80 and in Thailand from 1980-86, depicting Asian girls ages 11 to 14. McCarley said Stevens apparently filmed the sessions with a reel-to-reel camera, then reproduced them years later on a video recorder.
Stevens surrendered to authorities after being advised of a federal criminal complaint. If convicted, he will face up to 10 years in prison.
United States 4, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics 3
"Eleven seconds. You got ten seconds, the countdown going on right now. Five seconds left in the game! Do you believe in miracles? Yes!"
Posted by: Mike ||
02/22/2007 08:20 ||
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#1
Famous last words: "Ahhh, they're losing. I'm going to bed".
#2
Gosh I wonder why they (U.S.) didn't just quit when they had the star player thrown into the penalty box late in the 2nd quarter? I mean at that point it was starting to look like a quagmire? I never watched much Hockey but I watched on from the first puck drop and until the Medal ceremonies were concluded. I hate to admit it but I think I had something in my eye late in the fourth quarter when victory was certain.
#3
I recall that evening with perfect clarity, even the time spent after my high school hockey team finished a half keg of beer watching the replay on ABC.
By now, everyone should've seen Disney's excellent Miracle but for the Rantburg crowd especially, I heartily recommend the HBO documentary Do You Believe In Miracles?
All the primary sources are interviewed (the Soviet Sportswriter is great) and the political dimensions are more fully explored. It's on sale at Amazon and I've used it in my US History classes to explain the Cold War and the rise of Reagan. The students love it.
In this film, Barry Rosen, held by Ahmedinnerjacket and his filthy friends for 444 days in our embassy describes his joy at learning of the US victory. It's a small but very telling moment that still chokes me up.
#5
The most exciting, tension-filled game of anything I've ever seen. That the good guys won only makes it better.
If I were the sort who believes in signs, portents, and prophecies, I could make a really good argument that The Miracle on Ice was one of two prophetic prefigurations of the Reagan Revolution, the other being Tom Petty's "Refugee."*
I plan to watch Miracle again tonight--at least, the USA-USSR game sequence.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
*Stop laughing, willya? Just pay attention to the lyrics:
We got somethin' we both know it, we dont talk too much about it (Patriotism and national pride in decline?)
Aint no real big secret, all the same, somehow, we get around it
Listen, it dont really matter to me, Baby
You believe what you wanna believe
You see, you dont have to live like a refugee . . . (Remember, too, just a few years before, we'd taken in a lot of boat people from Vietnam and Cambodia)
Somewhere, somehow, somebody must have kicked you around some (Vietnam, the USSR, Jimmy Carter)
Tell me why you wanna lay there, revel in your abandon (The 1970s weren't called "the Me Decade" for nothing)
Honey, it dont make no difference to me, baby
Everybody has to fight to be free
You see, you dont have to live like a refugee . . .
Baby, we aint the first
I'm sure a lot of other lovers been burned (This isn't the first crisis in our history)
Right now this aint real to you (Remember the Left lecturing us on "inordinate fear of communism?")
Its one of those things you got to feel to be true
Somewhere, somehow, somebody must have kicked you around some
Who knows, maybe you were kidnapped, tied-up, taken away, and held for ransom (The embassy in Iran was attacked the year after this single charted)
Honey, it dont really matter to me, baby
Everybody has to fight to be free
You see, you dont have to live like a refugee . . .
Posted by: Mike ||
02/22/2007 12:35 Comments ||
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#6
Remember it like it was yesterday.
It was a Friday night. Good neighborhood tavern. Maybe 40 -50 guys. Lots of cold beer. Decent television.
No one knew the outcome, or if they did they didn't dare breath a word.
When it was over grown men - and I do mean men - cried for joy. With no shame.
Greatest moment in sport history, bar none.
A great nation - down but not out - raised it's head, and stood up from the canvas.
Thanks for the reminder, Mike.
Posted by: Mark Z ||
02/22/2007 15:46 Comments ||
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#7
As I remember it, I heard the score on the radio earlier, which was electric enough. The replay wasn't on until later that night. Still gut wrenching watching it.
And here's a personal anecdote. We're in a bar on Revere Beach the night after Thanksgiving, 1979. There's a guy passed out cold on the bar. So I ask the bartender what's up with him. And he says, "Oh, that's Mike Eruzione. He's captain of the US hockey team and he's home for a couple of days."
So it was a bigger miracle then most people think...
#9
I'd have bet you everything I owned that the Russkies were going to win that game. In retrospect, I think that was one of three things that turned us around. The others were the elections of Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan.
1973-1979 was a bad, bad time in the U.S. I didn't know if we were going to make it. Jimmah darned near did us in and, if he could have, he would. What a loser!
Posted by: mac ||
02/22/2007 23:02 Comments ||
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#5
Isn't Dar es Salaam the center of East African Islam? And the preventative for these attacks is " smearing themselves with pig's oil?" This sounds like a psy-op to me. Plus, where do they even find pig's oil in a Muslim place?
A gunfight between villagers over disputed salt beds left at least three people dead and a dozen others injured Wednesday in southern Bangladesh, police said.
Two rival groups tried to capture 20 acres of salt beds in the coastal district of Coxs Bazar, 295 kilometres south of the capital, Dhaka. Both sides exchanged about 100 rounds of gunfire, and a teenage schoolboy was among the three killed, local police officer Saifuddin Shaheen said. Three people were arrested and security forces were deployed in the area to contain the situation and investigate the incident, he added. At least a dozen wounded villagers were taken to nearby hospitals.
Farmland along Bangladeshs southern coastline is used alternately to raise shrimps or produce salt by retaining seawater. Fights often break out over control of the lucrative businesses.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/22/2007 00:00 ||
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A BOATLOAD of 85 Sri Lankans are being housed on board a naval ship after being intercepted heading to Christmas Island. Border protection officials have been monitoring the leaky boat since it was first spotted by a plane on Monday.
Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews said the group agreed to come on board HMAS Success last night, and would remain there temporarily. Mr Andrews said the vessel was not engaged in any legitimate commercial activity and the men were "potential unauthorised arrivals". His office late today said the men had indicated their intention to reach Christmas Island but had "not expressed any particular intent" towards claiming asylum.
HMAS Success intercepted the boat in international waters, about 50 nautical miles from Christmas Island, early Tuesday. "During subsequent contact between HMAS Success and those on the boat, it was determined that their vessel was unseaworthy," Mr Andrews said. "Because of fears for their safety if they remained on the unseaworthy vessel, the group agreed to come aboard HMAS Success last night."
"This group will remain on board HMAS Success until more details are available." Mr Andrews' office could not say where the men would be taken next.
Refugee advocates today said it was likely the men will be taken to a detention centre on Christmas Island or to Nauru for processing under the so-called "Pacific Solution".
#1
I've always had a secret curiosity, but sheepish unwillingness to ask the proper definition of "BOATLOAD." Now we have it! It's 85 in count! Still curious, can I assume one would 'round up' to 43 for half a Boatload?
#2
We can now place the boatload alongside the millihelen as a reliable standard of measure. One millihelen being the amount of beauty required to launch a single ship.
INDONESIA'S resort island of Bali has banned screenings of a film on the 2002 bombings there because it could "reopen old wounds", a provincial film board official said today.
Long Road to Heaven, Indonesia's first film on the bombings that killed 202 people, had a high-profile release in Jakarta last month. The movie looks at the tragedy from different points of view, including those of a Balinese taxi driver who lost a relative in the blast, an American surfer searching for peace after the Sept. 11 attacks and Muslim militants who were blamed for the bombs.
"If this movie is allowed to be screened in Bali, we fear people who do not understand it would trigger conflict and direct hatred at a certain group," said I Gusti Ngurah Gde, head of Bali's provincial film body. "If the Bali bombing tragedy is revived, this would reopen old wounds, especially among the victims," he said.
The movie was shown to Bali officials and relatives of bombing victims last week at the governor's office. "Almost all of us said we should reject the screening of this movie across Bali," Mr Gde said.
He said it also could further harm the island's main industry, tourism, which was badly hurt by the bombings. Mr Gde did not mention which group would be targeted but Muslims, a minority group on the predominantly Hindu island, faced hostility after the 2002 bombings and another string of blasts in Bali three years later.
In December, Indonesian censors barred a documentary on the bombings from an international film festival in Jakarta over concerns that remarks made by one of the bombers in the film could encourage terror attacks.
#1
"If this movie is allowed to be screened in Bali, we fear people who do not understand it would trigger conflict and direct hatred at a certain group,"
Good, that's the way, identify the people responsible.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
02/22/2007 9:59 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
A gunfight between villagers over disputed salt beds left at least three people dead and a dozen others injured Wednesday in southern Bangladesh, police said. 
A BOATLOAD of 85 Sri Lankans are being housed on board a naval ship after being intercepted heading to Christmas Island. Border protection officials have been monitoring the leaky boat since it was first spotted by a plane on Monday.
