Scotland rejected independence by 55% to 45%. With the results in from all 32 council areas, the "No" side won with 2,001,926 votes over 1,617,989 for "Yes". Turnout was nearly 85%.
#4
It might have been good for the Scots to break away from the culture of dependence on the English welfare state. But, uh, it would appear those who are dependent didn't think so. I don't much care either way as long as I can still get my Laphroaig.
#8
The Scots with something under their kilts all left for America generations ago. UK can look forward to the leftovers banging their begging bowls for at least another decade.
Posted by: regular joe ||
09/19/2014 16:01 Comments ||
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#9
I could be wrong but I understood the union came around when the scotish monarchy filled a vacancy on the English throne. The handouts came later
#10
rjscharz, that is also my understanding. Queen Elizabeth I had no children and no heirs so when she died that was the end of the Tudor dynasty. The Scottish King was invited to take the English throne thereby uniting the two countries and ending a lot of bloody wars between them. But then Cromwell took over the English throne and there was more fighting which the Scots lost.
I think a lot of the Scots who emigrated to the US were a lot like the Irish in that they emigrated because they were starving. Beautiful scenery from the pictures I've seen but not the greatest farmland and apart from the recent discovery of oil in the North Sea, not much in the way of natural resources.
Reassembled from the Grumman press release masquerading as a WaPo article. Some videos at the link.
The massive MQ-4C Triton maritime surveillance drone, expected to be operational in 2017, reached a new milestone Thursday. At 7:53 a.m., one of the 131-foot wide aircraft landed at Naval Air Station Patuxent River in Maryland following its first cross-country flight, the Navy said. The drone soared at heights of more than 50,000 feet at times; it departed from a facility in Palmdale, Calif., owned by its maker, Northrop Grumman, late Wednesday. It flew along the U.S.-Mexico border, over the Gulf of Mexico and across Florida before turning north up the Atlantic Coast.
The Triton had completed 15 test flights prior to the one landing in Maryland on Thursday. The first occurred in May 2013 from Palmdale. Northrop Grumman said Thursday that over the next few weeks, two other Triton drones will fly to Maryland. One is owned by the Navy; the other is a demonstration aircraft owned by the defense firm.
The drone is expected to supplement the Navytms new P-8 Poseidon surveillance plane, performing what the service calls Broad Area Maritime Surveillance, or BAMS. Northrop Grumman says the drone, a descendant of the Air Forcetms Global Hawk unmanned aircraft, will rely on radar, infrared sensors and advanced cameras to provide full-motion video and photographs to the military.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/19/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
When are they gonna start flying passengers from New York to London?
[Ynet] Shoppers in Sierra Leone rushed to stock up on food Thursday ahead of a three-day nationwide shutdown, during which the country's 6 million people will be confined to their homes while volunteers search house-to-house for Ebola victims in hiding and hand out soap in a desperate bid to slow the accelerating outbreak.
Good luck with that. Sincerely.
The disease sweeping West Africa has also touched Liberia, Guinea, Nigeria and Senegal ... a nation of about 14 million on the west coast of Africa bordering Mauretania to the north, Mali to the east, and a pair of Guineas to the south, one of them Bissau. It is 90 percent Mohammedan and has more than 80 political parties. Its primary purpose seems to be absorbing refugees... and is believed to have sickened more than 5,300 people, the World Health Organization reported. In a sign the crisis is picking up steam, more than 700 of those cases were recorded in the last week for which data is available.
Ebola is estimated to have killed more than 2,600 people, with most of the deaths in Liberia. But WHO has said that the official toll is probably a gross underestimate and that most patients are at home, infecting others, when they should be in treatment centers.
This is the Third World, O World Health Organization spokesperson. There weren't enough treatment centers a few weeks ago, before there were as many patients as now. But even if there were enough treatment centers, there aren't enough staff, equipment, or medicines to treat even the number of patients they had a few weeks ago...before half of the staff that came down with the infection died of it themselves.
#6
several op eds today questioning the wisdom of the regime sending the military in to fix the place up. needless chances of exposing our troops without proper training. Mrs. Ret said that a while back (about 4 weeks ago) all the discussions about Ebola at the NHOH at NASWI went dark. the games afoot.
[ABNA.IR] Speaking to Egypt's al-Yawm al-Sabi daily, Abdullah Rinat Muhammadov added that they exaggerate the differences between the two faiths.
He stressed that Islam attaches importance to upholding the rights of Christians and Jews, noting that the Holy Prophet of Islam (PTUI!) urged his lover companions to respect the rights of the "People of the Book".
He said Moslems have had friendly interactions with Christians since the early years of the advent of Islam.
Also not so friendly interactions, depending upon mood. As for the Jews, whose interactions Russia's Muftis Council official neglects somehow to mention, in Mohammed's tale even the rocks and the trees cry out for Moslems to kill them.
Elsewhere in his remarks, Muhammadov underlined Russia's commitment to dialogue among faiths.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/19/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
Why do I always get the feeling these fellows are condescending towards the rest of us?
Portly despot Fat Boy Kim Jong-un is absolutely crackers -- about Swiss cheese.
The tubby North Korean dictator has become hooked on Emmental and has gorged on so much that he has ballooned in size and is now walking with a limp.
The 31-year-old fell in love with the holey treat when he was a student in Switzerland.
He now imports it for his own consumption, while millions of his citizens starve.
All that cheese? The poor man must be dreadfully constipated, which would account for some of the ballooning and the funny walk -- he must be dreadfully uncomfortable.
[Al Ahram] Russia's annexation of Crimea was an act of "treachery" that plunged Europe into its worst security crisis in decades, Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko told a joint meeting of the US Congress Thursday. "The annexation of Crimea became one of the most cynical acts of treachery in modern history," Poroshenko told more than 500 US politicians, adding there is "no way, at no price, and under no condition" that Kiev will put up with the occupation.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/19/2014 00:00 ||
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#2
The idea that without Crimean dowry "the West" has about the same use for you and your Social-National* pals---as it has for Ebola, beginning to penetrate, Petro?
[ARABNEWS] Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko warned Thursday that Russia had put world security in peril, ahead of White House talks rich in symbolism but likely to dim Kiev's hopes for US security guarantees.
As an eastern European leader defying Russian President Putin, Poroshenko enjoyed a gushing reception on Capitol Hill, as he fired off a combative address to both chambers of Congress.
The White House, meanwhile, geared up to toast the Ukrainian chocolate tycoon turned president.
Poroshenko was to hold White House talks with President Barack Obama My friends, we live in the greatest nation in the history of the world. I hope you'll join with me as we try to change it... that officials said were meant to send a clear message to Russian President Vladimir Putin ...Second and fourth President and sixth of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead... .
"Maybe the picture of President Poroshenko sitting in the Oval Office will be worth at least a thousand words, both in English and in Russian," said White House front man Josh Earnest.
There were clear signs in Ukraine that Russia was taking a close interest in the talks. The Ukrainian government accused Moscow of massing 4,000 troops on border of Ukraine and annexed Crimea.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/19/2014 00:00 ||
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#4
Pragmatically, Putin is just "going/pushing for an Oscar" - he wants a unified, East-West JudeoChristian barrier to the soon-to-be-Nukulaar Global Jihad in the Black Sea region, NOT WAR WID THE WEST.
Ditto NO NUCLEAR GERMANY + NO NUCLEAR "OTTOMAN TURKEY II".
His real concern is where both Russia + USA are vulnerable, + that is vee CHINA in EAST ASIA -PACIFIC.
[AnNahar] A former U.S. Army officer has been jugged Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up! for seven years for leaking confidential military information to his Chinese girlfriend in Hawaii.
Benjamin Pierce Bishop, an ex civilian defense contractor and retired lieutenant colonel, also admitted retaining classified information at his home.
The 60-year-old was sentenced on Wednesday to 87 months behind bars and three years' supervised release, in a plea agreement after admitting to two charges in March.
In March 2012, he emailed classified information to his 27-year-old Chinese girlfriend, who was in the U.S. as a graduate student at the time.
The leaked information related to joint training and planning sessions between the United States and the Republic of Korea, and was classified as SECRET.
He also admitted keeping documents at his home including the U.S. Armed Forces Defense Planning Guides for 2014-2018, one called Optimizing U.S. Force Posture in the Asia-Pacific and another titled US Department of Defense China Strategy.
Bishop also took home a classified photograph of a Chinese naval asset, which his girlfriend had asked for.
"Willfully communicating national defense information to a person not entitled to receive it is a serious threat to our national security," Assistant Attorney General John P. Carlin said.
"Bishop violated his oath to protect the classified information with which he was entrusted. This conduct is unacceptable and we will continue to investigate and seek to hold accountable those who engage in it."
Officials did not say if proceedings had been launched against the girlfriend.
#4
Bishop is a knucklehead. He also didn't pay attention to the "screwing you get is not worth the screwing you get" rule. They need much older guys in these positions so they are not apt to succumb to these honey traps.
What I was wondering was "Why didn't the Chinese simply hack this info as they usually do?"
#5
They need much older guys in these positions so they are not apt to succumb to these honey traps
The gentleman and retired Lt. Colonel was fifty-eight when he gave away his corner of the family farm, JohnQC. How much older would have made him more sensible?
#6
TW: Maybe you never are too old to succumb to such nonsense. I was thinking that maybe at the age at which one's hormones don't lead their activities and when a pretty woman is just another pretty woman. I don't think it is ever appropriate to sell out your country for any reason. I would have expected more from Bishop.
[ABNA.IR] According to Egyptian news outlets, Egyptian Mufti Sheikh Shawqi Allam in a meeting with Shiite scholar Sayyed Ali Fadlallah on Wednesday called for strengthening unity among Arabs.
Allam stressed the need to "bolster unity among all the components of the Arab society, especially between Moslems and Christians, Sunnis and Shiites, at this delicate phase the region is going through."
Allam said the meeting focused on the Arab-Moslem situation and ways to unite Moslems.
The two sheikhs also discussed preparations for a large-scale Christian-Moslem meeting that would reject sectarian strife and stress the protection of the components of Islam and Christianity.
Allam hailed "Family House," an initiative launched by Al-Azhar, the highest seat of learning in the Moslem world, in 2011 to deal with tensions between Egypt's Christians and Moslems.
He described the initiative, which groups Moslems and Christians, as a "pioneering experience," stressing the need to spread this idea.
Fadlallah, for his part, underlined the importance of boosting Sunni-Shiite unity through holding extensive meetings.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/19/2014 00:00 ||
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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.
[BBC] 
Portly despot 
[Al Ahram] Russia's annexation of Crimea was an act of "treachery" that plunged Europe into its worst security crisis in decades, Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko told a joint meeting of the US Congress Thursday. "The annexation of Crimea became one of the most cynical acts of treachery in modern history," Poroshenko told more than 500 US 
...Second and fourth President and sixth of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead...
[AnNahar] A former U.S. Army officer has been 
