LUSAKA (Reuters) - A 50-year-old Zambian man has hanged himself after his wife found him having sex with a hen, police said Friday.
"If the egg can get out, I can get in!"
The woman caught him in the act when she rushed into their house to investigate a noise. "He attempted to kill her but she managed to escape," a police spokesman said.
"The woman caught me doinking a chicken! She must die!"
"She got away."
"Oh. Okay. Then I'll kill myself."
The man from the town of Chongwe, about 50 km (30 miles) east of Lusaka, killed himself after being mockedhooted at admonished by other villagers. The hen was slaughtered after the incident.
"The chicken must die to preserve his honor!"
"Mmmmmm! Fried chicken!"
The British government should offer a bounty on the heads of gray squirrels, an imported pest that is threatening populations of its indigenous red cousins, a lawmaker said Thursday. "Not only do they drive out red squirrels but they destroy trees and rob birdsâ nests and in one case there was a case of rabies as a result of a gray squirrel biting a human," Lord Livsey of the small centrist Liberal Democrat party said in the House of Lords. "Will the government consider the setting up of a fund to save red squirrels and a pound ($1.80) ... for every gray squirrel tail presented?" he asked. The environment minister, Lord Whitty, said such a plan had operated in the 1950s "and actually the gray squirrel population went up quite dramatically in that period, so it wasnât very effective."
"Gray squirrels are frequently a pest. They are not a protected species and people can destroy them but the present focus must be on protecting those few remaining areas where we have a significant red squirrel population." The red squirrel is protected by the Wildlife and Countryside Act which prohibits any unauthorized killing, injuries, theft or sale of the creatures. The Wildlife Trust says there are only 161,000 red squirrels in Britain, compared with 2.5 million gray squirrels. Grays, native to North America, were introduced in Britain in 1876. Note to Mucky - buy Loreal products in bulk and send them to the UK pronto. Some little bucktooth rodents need a good dye job, pronto.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
05/28/2004 3:38:06 AM ||
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Oh great, a squirrel race war. When are the Islamazoid nutters going to jump into the fray?
Posted by: ed ||
05/28/2004 10:37 Comments ||
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Badanov, did you have anything to do with this? :-)
Posted by: Mike ||
05/28/2004 10:49 Comments ||
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#3
"...Lord Livsey of the small centrist Liberal Democrat party..."
Just because their policies are ludicrously inconsistent, doesn't make them 'centrist'. Their policies are as incoherent as their leader Charles Kennedy is after a night on the Glenmorangie. The Lib Dems are rampantly populist, illiberal, luddite, Europhile statists, more interested in exterminating Yankee squirrels than defending the national interest in the WoT, for instance. Extreme, and more subversive than Labour's been in recent years.
#7
The environment minister, Lord Whitty, said such a plan had operated in the 1950s "and actually the gray squirrel population went up quite dramatically in that period, so it wasnât very effective."
#1
"turned to the diet in 2001 when his weight increased to 10.5 stones (67kg)."
But how long did he wait to get medical attention - and the FIRST thing that the Atkins books sayis "SEE A DOCTOR".
"In October 2003, after three episodes of chest pain, doctors found that a major artery was almost completely blocked."
Yup - this damned fool waited 2 YEARS before getting looked at - after starting the diet alreay largely obese.
And get this:
"his favourite foods were cheese every day and cheesecake three times a week"
This idiot was NOT following Atkins if thats how he was eating. You're allowed 1 ounce of cheese a day - and cheesecake is LOADED with sugars and very much off limits.
I went on the Atkins diet, followed it to the letter. That includes the part about exercising regularly, and getting regular medical checkups. And eating leafy green vegetables or cruciform veggies (thats broccoli and cauliflower) as the primary source of carbohydrates.
Lost over 40 pounds, dropped my blood pressure back to the normal range, got my blood sugar normal again, and have my cholestoral and liver enzymes well into the healthy range.
But you have to follow the diet strictly - or you will just end up taking in a ton of fatty foods and enough carbs to keep you from burning it - meaning you put weight on and mess up your health big time.
And here's the clincher:
[Thr group funding this guy] Physicians Committee for Responsible Nutrition ... "a well-known vegan and animal rights group, has a long history of initiating these kinds of scare tactics that are designed to convince the American public to stop eating animal protein of any sort."
Professor Benjamin Zipursky, of Fordham University's School of Law in New York, said the lawsuit had legal shortcomings which he felt would prevent it succeeding "It really reads as if it were done by someone who is doing it for reasons of publicity rather than private gain"
I'm still on it - on the maintenance phase. And it works - but you have to follow ALL the direction, not just the easy ones that tell you you can eat a lot of meat. Vitamin and mineral supplements (and some optional herbal ones), regular and frequent medical checkups wiht your MD, and frequent aerobic exercise and resistance training are very important parts of this regimen.
You cannot blame the diet when you are doing stupid crap like not seeing your doctor regularly, and eating cheesecake 3 times a week (and probably not exercising or taking his vitamins at all either).
#3
What - Atkins doesn't make you immune from heart disease?! You're still mortal when you're on it?
These stories about people 'dying/suffering illness whilst on diets' are stupid beyond belief. People. Will always. Get. Heart. Disease. And it's not necessarily because of what they ate or didn't eat.
From WorldNetDaily
Thousands of foreign maids in Saudi Arabia are fleeing the homes of their sponsors, some citing sexual abuse and enslavement charges. There are 80 runaway maids in one villa near the Sri Lankan Consulate alone, according to a report in Arab News. Another 100 are reported in Riyadh. The Sri Lankan press has been filled with sensational stories about the "sale" of runaway maids and accusations against Saudis for mistreating their domestic help. Sri Lankan Ambassador Ibrahim Sahib Ansar is in Saudi Arabia now to investigate the charges. Arab News talked to some of the runaways and found their stories range from ill-treatment from sponsors or family members, non-payment of salaries, physical harassment, long working hours without off-days and denial of medical help. One runaway maid told Arab News she was in her teens when she was sent by an agent in Colombo to work with a Saudi family. The maid, who has taken refuge in the consulate, said she received no remuneration during her 18 years of service.
There are some 350,000 Sri Lankans working in the kingdom. Nearly 20,000 cases of maids fleeing their sponsors were reported last year â particularly Indonesians, Filipinos and Sri Lankans. "In 2002 alone, a total of 3,610 maids who accused their employers of harassment were sent back to Indonesia after they ran away and took shelter at the embassy," said Tumpal Martua Hutasuhat, head of the consular affairs at the Indonesian embassy. Tumpal said many migrant workers, especially maids, suffer harassment, violence and sexual abuse. However, some 60 percent of the cases involve unpaid salaries, while 5 percent are related to sexual abuse from the employers. Ansar agrees non-payment of salary seems to be a major complaint among the runaway maids. The Sri Lankan government has stipulated that a female maid should be paid a minimum of $125 a month and a male domestic helper $200.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
05/28/2004 4:53:07 AM ||
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I hate it when the help runs away. That's why I keep 4 angry goldies around.
#2
I remembering reding an article in the Arab News where the infractions committed by maids were listed. One of the infractions deserving a beating by the Madam was not knowing how to work an appliance. These people are f***ing sick!
A Haitian man accused of torture, on the run from U.S. immigration officials for nearly two years, has been apprehended and soon will be deported back to Haiti, local immigration officials said Wednesday. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Detention and Removal officers arrested Michael Fortuna on Monday after finding him hiding out in a house in Key West. Fortuna, 47, had been on the run since Sept. 12, 2002, when the Board of Immigration Appeals upheld a lower courtâs decision to deport him after determining that he was a human rights abuser linked to the Haitian paramilitary group FRAPH. Instead of turning himself in, Fortuna fled, according to the news release by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
05/28/2004 3:01:32 AM ||
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The former security chief for deposed Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide has been identified in court as a U.S. government informant in its investigation of alleged drug trafficking by members of Aristideâs administration. No evidence has been presented in open court linking Aristide -- now in Jamaica making arrangements to go to South Africa -- to a suspected narcotics conspiracy in the widening federal probe of high-ranking officials in his toppled government. But an attorney said in court that former Aristide security chief Oriel Jean -- extradited in early March from Canada on a drug-smuggling conspiracy charge -- was cooperating with the federal government. On Friday, lawyer Lawrence Besser, representing a former commander in the Haitian National Police, said Jean ââwas seeking favors from the governmentââ such as a reduced sentence in exchange for information about Aristideâs inner circle. Federal prosecutors objected to Besserâs identifying Jean as a confidential source. An identified confidential source? Isnât that an oxymoron?
Besser said his client, Rudy Therassan, a commander in the Haitian National Police, also provided information to the U.S Drug Enforcement Agency until last year. Therassan was arrested in Miami-Dade County earlier this month on a warrant alleging he received hundreds of thousands of dollars to protect cocaine shipments passing from Colombia via Haiti to the U.S. At Therassanâs detention hearing, Besser also identified another government informant, Beaudoin ââJacquesââ Ketant, as the drug trafficker who paid Therassan $150,000 for each planeload allowed to land on a major highway in Haiti. Assistant U.S. Attorney Lynn Kirkpatrick again objected but did not say whether Ketant or Jean were informants. Iâm just objecting on general principles.
In February, Ketant said in a Miami federal courtroom that he couldnât have thrived without paying millions in bribes to his close friend, Aristide. Ketant was sentenced to 27 years in prison and ordered to pay $30 million in fines and forfeitures. I thought Haitians were poor.
After his sentencing, Miami attorney Ira Kurzban, general counsel to the Haitian government and an advisor to Aristide, said that Ketantâs accusation ``is just another piece of the effort to politically assassinate President Aristide.ââ
Posted by: Super Hose ||
05/28/2004 3:13:02 AM ||
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Surely the Congressional Black Caucus could help out? Sorry, I forgot that a) they don't spend their own money and b) Jean-Bertrand isn't much use as a political tool any more.
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - North Korea turned over 19 sets of remains to the U.S. Army on Thursday, part of a project to find the thousands of American soldiers who went missing in the Korean War. The remains, in caskets draped with powder-blue United Nations flag, were loaded into black hearses after a ceremony outside the 8th U.S. Army headquarters in Seoul that included a 21-gun salute and "Taps." They will be flown to Hawaii for identification.
U.S. and North Korean teams recovered the remains as part of a joint search project that began in 1996 and has so far recovered more than 180 remains thought to be of U.S. soldiers. "Most important is that we will be taking missing Americans from the Korean War back to American soil so they are no longer lost in the hills in North Korea," said Lt. Col. Jerry O'Hara, a spokesman for the U.S. military's Hawaii-based Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command's Central Identification Laboratory. The recovery missions have continued despite heightened tensions between the former adversaries over North Korea's nuclear weapons program. The United States and North Korea have agreed to keep the remains issue separate from the nuclear problem, which is being addressed in six-nation regional talks.
Twelve of Thursday's remains were discovered near North Korea's Chosin Reservoir, where the U.S. Army's 7th Infantry Division fought fierce battles with Chinese forces backing North Korea in November and December 1950. More than 8,100 U.S. troops remain missing from the Korean War, including 1,100 from the Chosin campaign. The seven others repatriated were found in Unsan County, north of the capital, Pyongyang. Members of the Army's 1st Cavalry and 25th Infantry divisions fought in Unsan County in November 1950.
O'Hara said it could take years to identify the remains brought home Thursday, if they are identified at all. As of the beginning of May, only 14 of the 186 remains retrieved through the joint project had been named.
Identified or not, they deserve to be home with us. God bless 'em all.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/28/2004 1:11:02 AM ||
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near North Korea's Chosin Reservoir, where the U.S. Army's 7th Infantry Division fought fierce battles
Well, not to be nit-picky about it but the 1MARDIV was there too.
A Tunisian entrepreneur who created "Mecca Cola" as a protest at U.S. foreign policy was found guilty of making false claims about his company by a Paris court Thursday. The court ruled that Tawfik Mathlouthi shouldnât have claimed that 10% of his profits were paid to a "foundation" - a term strictly defined under French law. It also said the company hadnât been properly registered with the authorities. But the court didnât impose any penalty against Mathlouthi, turning down the prosecutionâs demand for a EUR3,000 fine.
Mathlouthi launched Mecca Cola in France in November 2002, pledging that 10% of its profits would go to Palestinian causes, and another 10% to European charities. The headquarters of Mecca Cola were transferred to Dubai after legal proceedings were launched against the company. "Many companies are not based in France," Mathlouthi told The Associated Press. "This is because I am taking on a symbol and am upsetting it."
Mecca Cola was once described by Mathlouthi as "a little gesture against U.S. imperialism and foreign policy," a criticism of Washingtonâs support for Israel. The companyâs Web site showed pictures of young Palestinians throwing stones at Israeli tanks, masked youths wielding slingshots and woman in a veil grappling with Israel forces. Mathlouthi has denied a direct attack on Coca-Cola Co. (KO), though the red-and-white swoosh labeling on his product bears a strong resemblance to the U.S. brand.
#1
The court ruled that Tawfik Mathlouthi shouldnât have claimed that 10% of his profits were paid to a "foundation" - a term strictly defined under French law. It also said the company hadnât been properly registered with the authorities. But the court didnât impose any penalty against Mathlouthi, turning down the prosecutionâs demand for a EUR3,000 fine.
Taking a page from Spain's strategy book, are we France?
Link via Drudge. McCartney speaks out against war Better late than never?
Former Beatle Sir Paul McCartney has criticised the UK government for being too hasty in going to war in Iraq. "Maybe our government went in too fast with the Americans," he told the weekly Portuguese magazine Visao on Thursday. Gunning for a position as an EU Parliament member?
"It would have been better if the UN had been together," the 61-year-old singer continued. "Now itâs become very bloody with Iraq, itâs very difficult." No one, including Tony Blair, said this war would be easy, Paul.
The singer, who is currently touring Europe, opens the Rock in Rio music festival in Lisbon on Friday. Going to play Madrid in the near future, Paul?
Sir Paul said he understood the need to act after the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001. Thatâs the kinda, sorta angle - leaves him a good amount of wiggle room.
"If someone came to my house and blew it up, I wouldnât just want to sit there and say thank you," he said.
"Iâd be angry like I think anyone would be, so I could see America and Britain being angry. I would certainly hope so...
"To look for Bin Laden seemed reasonable to go against terrorism, but the war has become very difficult." It would be helpful if celebrities offered alternatives instead of rote criricism; otherwise I think they should all just STFU.
Sir Paul, who became a father for the fourth time last October, wrote a song, Freedom, after witnessing the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center. Someone must have got to him - was there a recent seance and Linda McCartney appeared to whisper sweet nonsense into his ear?
The Rock in Rio festival - modelled on an annual Brazilian festival which has been running since 1985 - is held over the next two weekends. Rush fans - go get âRush in Rioâ on DVD - it kicks ass, even if Alex Lifeson doesnât!
Britney Spears and Peter Gabriel are among the more than 70 performers taking part in the event, held at Lisbonâs Bela Vista Parque. Britney Spears should be before the World Court for crimes against music. Nice knockers, though...
Sir Paulâs performance is part of a European tour which began in the Spanish city of Santander on Tuesday. I heea thatâs a nice city - anybody ever been there?
#1
nice to find another Rush fan on rantburg! opening night setlist of the 30th anniversary tour looked pretty good. Looking forward ot shows in Vegas, Saratoga and Jones Beach. And the "Rush in Rio" DVD does kick ass.
Posted by: scott ||
05/28/2004 16:47 Comments ||
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#2
"To look for Bin Laden seemed reasonable to go against terrorism, but the war has become very difficult."
Only a fool would have thought the whole operation was going to be easy.
#3
We ought to cut him a little slack. No anti-Bush ad homonyms, not vitrolic. Ol' Pauly Veggiematic seems reasonable when compared to the typical lefty.
#6
We ought to cut him a little slack. No anti-Bush ad homonyms, not vitrolic. Ol' Pauly Veggiematic seems reasonable when compared to the typical lefty.
He bloody well better be reasonable if he expects to continue selling records at 61.
#7
I'm sure it would have been better if the UN had been together. But it wasn't together. And do you have any ideawhy, Paul? Well, probably he doesn't, does he?
#8
I'm sure it would have been better if the UN had been together. But it wasn't together. And do you have any ideawhy, Paul? Well, probably he doesn't, does he?
#9
I'm sure it would have been better if the UN had been together. But it wasn't together. And do you have any ideawhy, Paul? Well, probably he doesn't, does he?
#10
I'm sure it would have been better if the UN had been together. But it wasn't together. And do you have any ideawhy, Paul? Well, probably he doesn't, does he?
Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer vetoed a controversial education reform bill on the grounds that it would promote religious schools and did not comply with the secular principles of the Muslim nation. The government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, which has its roots in a banned Islamist movement, backed the law in parliament earlier this month despite a public outcry and objections from the influential army. The bill was designed to make it easier for graduates of religious vocational schools to obtain university degrees other than in divinity studies, thus opening the way for them to hold public office. Sezer, who rejected four key articles of the legislation, said "the real aim" of the bill was to encourage youths to attend religious schools, which are tasked by law to train imams and other Islamic clergy. "It is a fact, however, that the number of students attending such schools is in excess even today," the president said in a 19-page statement explaining his rejection. "Allowing graduates of religious schools to benefit from the same university education rights as graduates of general high schools does not comply with... the principles of secularism," Sezer said. "Legislation which... does not comply with the state's objectives and raison d'etre and which is passed only thanks to parliamentary majority has an adverse impact on the conscience of the society."
Posted by: Fred ||
05/28/2004 1:56:03 PM ||
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"Train leaving for the 7th Century! All Aboarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrd!!!
We'll see if Turkey is railroaded back to the past or if she wants to be a part of the modern world. You cannot have it both ways.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/28/2004 16:05 Comments ||
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#2
The Turkish military is truly the guardian of the secular republic. Erdogan has been steadily chipping away at the military since he came to power. Right now the Army is the only thing keeping the black turbans at bay. This tension between the Islamists and the Army was the underlying cause of Turkey's otherwise incomprehensible confusion during the invasion of Iraq.
#3
Right now the Army is the only thing keeping the black turbans at bay.
If you didn't notice, this veto here was the lawful decision of an elected politician, NOT an intervention by the army.
Erdogan has been steadily chipping away at the military since he came to power.
That's because in democracies the military obeys the civilian authority -- and since Erdogan came to power Turkey has gotten more democratic and free by every passing year. See Freedomhouse's ratings if you don't believe me.
#4
Katsaris, you told us you weren't going to post here anymore.
Lying again?
And, as usual, taking the contrarian position and the pro-Islamist one.
Erdogan's only been PM for 2 years during some very extraordinary times--how can you authoritatively say Turkey's "gotten more free" under his leadership so glibly?
I, that's right--you're Katsaris, Mr. Know-it-all.
Posted by: Jen ||
05/28/2004 21:58 Comments ||
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#5
You are right, I shouldn't have posted. Bad of me. But it's a difficult choice when the immorality of staying silent in the face of ignorance is contrasted to the immorality of breaking one's word.
But as to your question, yeah, that's right: it's because I'm a know-it-all.
Also this: http://www.freedomhouse.org/research/freeworld/2003/countryratings/turkey.htm
And this: http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.asp?HC=Main&D=2004-05-27&ID=34019
And this: http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.asp?HC=Main&D=2004-05-27&ID=34020
And this: http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.asp?HC=Main&D=5/24/2004&ID=33779
And this: http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.asp?HC=Main&D=2004-05-14&ID=33020
And the rankings of press freedom as again done by FreedomHouse (58 in the 2002 press freedom edition, 55 in the 2003 press freedom edition, 52 in the 2004 Press freedom edition, the lower the better - aka "slowly but steadily improving")
And also the fact that for the first time in 30 years Turkey allowed the Turkish Cypriots to decide by themselves whether they wanted to unite with the Greek Cypriots or not.
Four of the above came tidbits I learned from Rantburg just the last few days -- which shows why I still find Rantburg an extremely useful source of information, regardless of the fact that some of the people here don't seem capable of actually reading and comprehending the very info Rantburg is so useful in providing.
#6
With all due respect to Mr. Katsaris, the veto was by an elected politician, but it is not necessarily correct to say the Turkish military had nothing to do with it. One merely needs to look at Turkish history and extrapolate. A leopard does not change its spots overnight.
#7
Mr. Katsaris, your selection of articles support your point that there is continuing improvement in Turkish society. However, do you believe this progress would continue if Turkey were to become an Islamic republic?
Rightly or wrongly, I believe the reason Turkey is one of the most advanced countries in your part of the world is that Kemal Attaturk forced the separation of mosque and state. A secular society values education and benefits from the contribution of all its citizens. Islamic countries not so blessed seem hostile to the knowledge and ideas of the West (weapons technology excepted). From following the summaries of the Turkish press available in the West, it appeared that Erdogan and his party lean towards granting ever greater influence to religious leaders and that the Army is the only thing preventing it.
#8
However, do you believe this progress would continue if Turkey were to become an Islamic republic?
Obviously not.
But whether it's because of the EU, or because of Erdogan, or because of both, I've seen no signs that Turkey is moving towards *that* direction and every sign that Turkey is moving towards the direction of secular democracy instead -- as opposed to the secular dictatorships of the generals.
As for Erdogan in interviews he has called his "Islamist party" the equivalent of the European "Christian-democratic" parties. Aka they have a connection to the more religious voters and acknowledge christian tradition, but are also far from fundie members of the Spanish Inquisition intending to overthrow democracy and crown the Pope's representatives instead.
So far, I've seen no reason to disbelieve that, when the articles I referenced show religious (and ethnic) tolerance increasing in Turkey, not decreasing.
Melvin J. Lasky, an American writer and editor who shaped opinions against communism in Cold War Europe, has died at his home in Berlin. He was 84. Lasky, a native New Yorker, was the editor of two influential European magazines. His London-based magazine Encounter, which he edited from 1953 to 1991, was one of Europe's leading intellectual journals, and in his 15 years at Der Monat (The Month), he helped chronicle the aftermath of World War II.
Lasky served as a combat historian during the war and was among the first group of Americans into Berlin, entering with Gen. Lucius D. Clay's military government contingent after the Nazi capital was taken by the Red Army. Lasky stayed on as a freelance journalist, and in the fragile postwar years raised Clay's ire for criticizing the Soviet Union. The general was close to expelling him in 1948 when Moscow imposed the Berlin Blockade. Instead, Clay reversed course and hired Lasky as an adviser. As a journalist, Lasky interviewed world leaders including interviewing Winston Churchill, President Eisenhower, former German Chancellors Konrad Adenauer and Willy Brandt and former Czech President Vaclav Havel. He also associated with some of the world's best-known writers and intellectuals, including Thomas Mann, T.S. Eliot, Bertrand Russell, George Orwell, Alexander Solzhenitsyn and William Faulkner.
We need a few guys like this in the media right now. He was a staunch defender of freedom.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/28/2004 1:07:44 AM ||
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Look at the credentials as compared to the toothy brainless fools on the CBSNBCABCPBSCNN rotation. We need more people who turn to journalism after a career, rather than graduating from the J-schools, which are hotbeds of PC
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/28/2004 18:44 Comments ||
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Uh, donât ya mean Kerry/McCain? Where are the damn editors?
Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry holds an eight-point lead over President George W. Bush among registered voters in the latest CBS News poll, 49% to 41%, but one of the names currently bandied about as a running mate for him - Republican Sen. John McCain - gives Kerry an even larger edge when added to the ticket. Think this will make Kerry bite? I give it 50 / 50 odds now.
McCain has continued to face questions about joining his fellow Vietnam veteran Kerry on a ticket, Whatâs an article on Kerry without the obligatory Vietnam veteran reference?
despite having insisted that he is not interested in doing so. Americaâs voters, meanwhile, do have interest in such a bi-partisan slate: a hypothetical Kerry/McCain pairing holds a 14-point advantage over President Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney, nearly double the 8-point lead Kerry has alone over Bush.
KERRY & McCAIN VS. BUSH & CHENEY: CHOICE IN NOVEMBER
(Registered voters)
Kerry/McCain 53%
Bush/Cheney 39%
The Kerry/McCain ticket draws 15% of Republican voters while keeping the same level of support among Democrats - 80% - that Kerry enjoys alone. Interesting.
However, the addition of McCain brings many more veterans to the Democratic camp: tested one-on-one against Bush, Kerry loses to Bush among veterans, 54% to 41%. With Kerry and McCain together, the two tickets split the veteran vote. Upon futher thought, itâs not interesting, itâs obvious - it has to be the personal appeal, because McCain, although heâs grown in office become more liberal, is still far to Kerryâs right, which indicates Dems will vote for Kerry even if he announces the Miller guy in the President of Beers commercials as his running mate. People with no discernible political philosophy Independent voters, too, move to the Kerry/McCain ticket: 51% of them support Kerry over Bush, while 57% would back a Kerry/McCain ticket. Or youâre not paying attention: Kerry is Dukakis on stilts and a better haircut.
Views of McCain
Among those voters who have an opinion or know of John McCain, opinions of the Senator are overwhelmingly favorable. 46% say they have a favorable view of McCain, while just 9% are unfavorable. Iâd think more people would know about McCain; he loves the camera more than Chuck Schumer!
Independents hold the most favorable views. Republican voters, meanwhile, are more likely than Democrats to view the Senator in a negative light: 16% of them do, compared to just 4% of Democrats and 8% of Independents. Moreover, the Republican McCain has far higher favorable ratings than the Vice-Presidential nominee on the GOP side, Dick Cheney. The Vice-President elicits more negative than positive opinions from those familiar with him and, like the President, his negative ratings are up from last month. Despite four years in office, however, Cheney remains unknown to, or elicits no opinion from, more than one-third of voters.
The Other Senator Hairdo John Edwards
Adding one of John Kerryâs former nomination rivals to the Democratic ticket, North Carolina Senator John Edwards, also helps Kerry, though to a lesser extent than does McCain. Edwardsâ name has also been mentioned by many as a potential running mate, and a Kerry/Edwards ticket would give the Democrats a ten-point margin over the incumbent Republicans, 50% to 40% -- a slight gain for Kerry on his eight-point one-on-one lead over Bush. I wouldnât waste my time on Gephardt, heâs as exciting as Warren âThe Walking Casketâ Christopher. Why not Richardson? Heâs the dark horse and also helps with votes out west.
KERRY & EDWARDS VS. BUSH & CHENEY: CHOICE IN NOVEMBER (Registered voters)
Kerry/McCain 50%
Bush/Cheney 40%
The Kerry/ Edwards slate holds Democrats and draws a few more conservatives and Independents while dropping a bit with liberals. The Edwards addition also closes the gap with veterans. They donât mention liberal support with the Kerry/McCain ticket; does that put McCain to the left of Edwards in their eyes? Any takes on this & the likelihood of Kerry/McCain becoming reality?
I tend to doubt it. But it could end up Kerry/Kerrey.
#1
John Kerry holds an eight-point lead over President George W. Bush among registered voters in the latest CBS News poll, 49% to 41%
And which groups helped with this poll? I'll wait for a FoxNews poll before believing CronicBullShit.
Posted by: Charles ||
05/28/2004 12:51 Comments ||
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One thing you're seeing here is the "dream candidate" effect. McCain isn't running, and so he hasn't taken positions and campaigned. Therefore, people don't know what he's about, so they tend to imbue him with all the qualities of their personal ideal candidate. If he were to jump in--and I don't see McCain crossing party lines to play second banana to the Frenchman; there's not enough space in the cabin of that 757 campaign plane to hold both egos!--as soon as he opened his mouth and people learned more about him, many would realize that he's not their ideal,* and support would fall off rapidly.
Remember Weasel Wesley Clark? His poll numbers peaked the day he announced his candidacy. Same thing.
All this McCainMania will have one significant effect on the campaign, though. Since the press has spent so much ink and time building up McCain, whoever Kerry ends up with will invariably end up looking diminished in comparison.
*--If McCain has to reverse his position on issues in order to get the nomination--remember, kids, McCain is pro-life, and no one, but no one, gets nominated in the Democratic party without being pro-abortion--he'll fall even farther, as he'll end up disillusioning those people who know him and like him for what he is now.
Posted by: Mike ||
05/28/2004 13:06 Comments ||
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#3
McCain is different from Clark - McCain's already been around once, people have heard him before. I agree, though, that he aint interested being anybody's VEEP.
#4
Did you ever see that picture of Richardson, while being grilled the Grand Wizard of the senate, sucking his finger like a four year old caught stealing cookies? Pretty funny.
Point taken. I still think there's a "dream candidate" effect going on here, though perhaps to a lesser degree than there might be for someone who's never run before.
Posted by: Mike ||
05/28/2004 13:56 Comments ||
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#6
As stupid and unappetizing as this may sound, Bush should counter by asking Hillary to take Cheney's place. It puts her right where she wants to be - running in 08. Plus Bush is the boss and not Cheney. So why should Hillary have any more clout than breaking ties in the Senate (which is the weakest part of the promotion).
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
05/28/2004 14:19 Comments ||
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#7
Hillary would guarantee a Bush loss. Nice idea, but a total nonstarter.
McCain will never get on a ticket with a guy who called his fellow vets murderers and war criminals. Not a chance in hell...
But as an earlier poster said, this mini-boomlet of publicity hurts Kerry in the end, because he'll go with someone much less exciting.
#8
McCain isn't going to become the Democratic VP candidate. Period. And it's got nothing to do with loyalty - McCain is simply too conservative for the Democratic Party. Why would McCain risk his cushy Senate for a worthless VP post where he has no chance of doing anything that furthers his conservative agenda? McCain has no chance of ever being nominated as the Democratic candidate, which is the usual reason that people take VP slots. He can still run in 2008 for the Republican nomination, but not if he takes a VP slot with Kerry. McCain is much more hardcore than Bush about national security - unlike Bush, he has no problem with killing the enemy - at all (note that 30 years on, he still refers to Vietnamese communists as g**ks). If McCain had gotten the Republican nomination, we would probably be in Iran, and possibly North Korea as well. How does that square with Kerry's positions?
#10
In a way, I kind of regret that McCain lost the Republican nomination in 2000. If he had been president, Fallujah would now be a smoking hole in the ground, as would some of the the other Saddamite cities that have been killing GI's on a regular basis for about a year now. Being a straight shooter he would have told it like it is - that the interrogating hardened terrorists is not something one can be politically-correct about. I can't see McCain carrying out what GWB did in Fallujah, fighting, pausing, fighting and then pausing again. GWB's moves in Iraq are a lot like LBJ's Rolling Thunder bombing campaign in North Vietnam - by repeatedly calling bombing halts, Lyndon Johnson convinced the Vietnamese communists that he did not have the will to win, that he was too morally weak to defeat them. And so North Vietnam prolonged the war for another five years, resulting a dishonorable American withdrawal in 1972.
#11
Interesting spin here: Despite four years in office, however, Cheney remains unknown to, or elicits no opinion from, more than one-third of voters.
I'll bet they expected strong negatives on Cheney due to the Dreaded Halliburton Connection.
#12
yeah right, Bush-Hillary. Talk about watching your back! Return of the official food taster...
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/28/2004 16:12 Comments ||
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#13
Fox showed this this morning...McCain was on one of the late, late night talk shows. He was again asked about it. I can't remember the exact words of his reply but it went somewhat like "I was in a dark hole, out of it for 6 years. Why would I want to return to one?"
Posted by: AF Lady ||
05/28/2004 16:12 Comments ||
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#14
ZF: I'd like to believe that you are right about McCain's strong battlefield tactics. Nevertheless, one cannot forget the countervailing force of both Foggy Bottom and the media. Fighting the traditional war is well nigh impossible these days. Wretchard has a great post on this today. Anyway, I think the good Senator from Arizona would be more hamstrung than you might believe.
Posted by: remote man ||
05/28/2004 16:20 Comments ||
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#15
ZF: McCain's one major weakness (ego is not a weakness per se among politicians, it's usually an entry-level requirement!) is that he desperately seeks the approval of the media/opinion elite. I suspect that if he'd been president on 9/11, he would have done more of what the NYT wanted: consulted allies, worked through multinational agencies like the UN, given the inspectors more time, etc. In other words, he'd probably have been less assertive and decisive than W.
Now Gore, of course, would have been worse still.
Posted by: Mike ||
05/28/2004 16:31 Comments ||
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#16
I've reached the point where I'm amused about how "things would be better with 'X' as president, Fallujah would be a smoking hole in the ground by now!" after seeing the way the press has acted.
And I wonder, if given the Double Standard, they're right.
If a couple soldiers abuse prisoners while Bush is President, it's reason for the DoD to resign. If it turns out Kerry shot _South_ Vietnamese soldiers and civilians, it means he has the expertise to win the war. If it turns out he agitated on behalf of the North, and advocated the abandonment of the South, it means he's the guy to bring us peace and end the war.
Kerry is paradoxically the guy for people who want to bomb Fallujah flat and the people who want to pull out of Iraq and let the Saddam Fedayeen take control.
And given the Pravda-on-the-Hudson Press and the Pravda-in-Atlanta news networks, he can get away with holding both of these positions.
Maybe by adding McCain to the ticket, he could hold even more positions than that.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
05/28/2004 17:16 Comments ||
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#17
"In a way, I kind of regret that McCain lost the Republican nomination in 2000. If he had been president, Fallujah would now be a smoking hole in the ground, as would some of the the other Saddamite cities that have been killing GI's on a regular basis for about a year now. Being a straight shooter he would have told it like it is - that the interrogating hardened terrorists is not something one can be politically-correct about."
Lol, ZF!! McCain--a "straight shooter"?! (but I understand how you have come away with that perspective on McCain. He's smooth).
FYI: The men who actually served with McCain in Nam hate his guts for betraying their buddies to the enemy and cutting deals with the VC to save his ass. Heard it from the guys themselves. They were all in agreement. McCain, it seems, has spent the rest of his life since then, covering it up. Which is why he is . . . the way he is.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
05/28/2004 04:01 ||
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#1
"unprecedented and unconstitutional use of the Senate filibuster rule". Yeah, whatever. This sort of special pleading is why I'm no longer a Republican.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
05/28/2004 13:45 Comments ||
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#1
Consider the source. A student from an east coast university called a ROTC member a baby-killer. I am certain it hurt and were I in earshot, the offending student would have gotten an earful from me.
I think it is helpful in such situations to point out how in love our own media are with the armed enemies of the United States, and to help them with the illusion such a political stand will be gainful for them politicially.
If they complain you are questioning their patriotism, ask them to display a little, then we can question it. Otherwise we can't question them about something they do not have.
Let the media jerk off about Abu Ghraib. There is no scandal, but as long as the media can continue to focus in on this and not promote an agenda, they are hosed in November.
#2
Actually, in this day and age - it would probably be a fist meets nose type response. Enough of this "say anything you want, its free speech" type left-wing nasty verbosity. Time to fight back physically starting with that madman Al Gore (ryhmes with Bore).
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
05/28/2004 10:11 Comments ||
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#3
I think the media can thank Ted Kennedy and Kerry for much of their success.
This is the same kind of BS that Kerry did before.
EFL & Hat tip to The Corner
...How dare he. How dare a former vice president of the United States go beyond disagreeing with the current presidentâs policies - a right of anyone in this free country - and denounce Bush as ``incompetent.ââ Yep.
How dare Gore say that Americans have an ``innate vulnerability to temptation... to use power to abuse others.ââ And that our own ``internal system of checks and balances cannot be relied uponââ to curb such abuse. Do say more...
And this man - who apparently has so much disdain for the nature of the American people - wanted to be elected to lead it? Hammer meet nail.
Posted by: Dragon Fly ||
05/28/2004 8:53:59 AM ||
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Awesome editorial and from a paper in Kerry's home town. Dare I say a Rantburgian quality rant?
Gore's political epithet is written in the last paragraph:
It is Gore who has brought dishonor to his party and to his party's nominee. The real disgrace is that this repugnant human being once held the second highest office in this great land.
Posted by: ed ||
05/28/2004 9:29 Comments ||
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#2
the best part is this was basically his audition for the Dem convention speech rotation. Gore, Dean, Sharpton, and Kerry...woo hoo! we'll have some fun with that
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/28/2004 9:37 Comments ||
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#3
I have heard that the Boston media loathes him.
Posted by: Phil B ||
05/28/2004 9:38 Comments ||
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#4
For the most part the Herald is a decent
tabloid that falls down on the side of
common sense most of the time. It tends to be the working man's paper because it is a tabloid and the sports headlines are right on the back cover (say no more).
It is definitely considered lowbrow by Globe
and Times partisans.
#5
Low brow or not, the Herald, unlike the Globe, doesn't print p0rn0 photos on the front page and call them Iraqi rape photos.
Posted by: ed ||
05/28/2004 10:08 Comments ||
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#6
Phil B - I've followed Kerry ever since I was an undergrad. I was talking to this fellow female undergrad from Mass (I was a NH resident at the time) when she stated she was going to vote for Kerry "because he's cute", I kid you not.
Oh, your original point: There's one or two Kerry bootlicks in the local media (Globe writers, natch) but the rest can't stand him. The same goes for a vast majority of local politicians because Kerry rarely, if ever, helps them out, or returns their phone calls, or makes public endorsements for them. Basically, it's all about John Kerry.
#7
I've followed Kerry ever since I was an undergrad. I was talking to this fellow female undergrad from Mass (I was a NH resident at the time) when she stated she was going to vote for Kerry "because he's cute", I kid you not.
How do you think Clinton got elected?
Posted by: ed ||
05/28/2004 10:18 Comments ||
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#8
Cute?!! As a female, I don't think so! He looks like Lurch to me. Plus I don't vote on looks although I also know some females who do.
Wonder if there are any males who will vote for Hitlary because they think she's good looking?
Posted by: AF Lady ||
05/28/2004 10:24 Comments ||
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#9
He has just got to be nominated as player of the year in the international competition for self-flagellation. It should be held in Iraq on that holy day they flagellate themselves and cut slices into their scalps. He can be the anti-US team captain...
#11
1) Phil B - I've followed Kerry ever since I was an undergrad. I was talking to this fellow female undergrad from Mass (I was a NH resident at the time) when she stated she was going to vote for Kerry "because he's cute".
2)In the Battleground Poll (April), Senator John F. Kerry, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, won 55 percent of the women's vote compared to 42 percent for Bush. Men favored the president, 54 percent to 42 percent. "Gender Gap 25%"
3) Amendment XIX:The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.
Posted by: Tibor ||
05/28/2004 14:55 Comments ||
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#14
Yuck! Clinton or Kerry-both are very unattractive. Fellow American women--you need to get a grip on what is attractive-you're settling for too little.
Beyond that, how about voting for someone who has a brain. What was the quote from Amadeus? Something like
Money and looks don't matter...only talent.
#1
Oh, dear God . . .
If there was ever any evidence needed that pure Islam is a death cult, this is it. It's things like this that (sorry, Curious) make me want to say kill them all. I might not, but it gets me damned close.
Posted by: The Doctor ||
05/28/2004 14:10 Comments ||
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#2
Uh, I don't think our RoP friends have anything to do with this. The mother is Hispanic. A lot of anger in these murders, so I would first check out any boyfriends, ex-husbands.
Posted by: ed ||
05/28/2004 14:16 Comments ||
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#3
A question for Antiwar, and Gentle, and Muslim Lover, and any of the other Muslims or Islamic promoters who occasionally make rounds here:
Name me another major world religion which, in its current interpretation of its holy scriptures, promotes the killing of innocents and the pushing of war to convert those who do not believe.
You talk about the "true" Islam. Well, if this is it, it's a sick, twisted set of beliefs that is so insecure about itself that it must revert to blaming others for its failures and killing those who disagree with it, who dare to believe differently, who think "humiliation" is cause for brutal murder.
Part of my horror is no doubt due to the fact that it's happening here, and part of me doesn't want to believe that, but I'm also getting sick and tired of hearing about how great the damned religion is and then reading about the things its followers do.
Posted by: The Doctor ||
05/28/2004 14:20 Comments ||
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#4
I don't know, Ed; I'll admit part of it was a knee-jerk reaction (and I was typing my second comment while you were no doubt working on yours, and loaded the page before it was displayed), and if I'm wrong about it, I shall stand corrected.
Posted by: The Doctor ||
05/28/2004 14:22 Comments ||
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#5
Perps arrested. They're Hispanic. It's a machete thing, I think...
Posted by: Fred ||
05/28/2004 16:35 Comments ||
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#6
Per Fox and Mexico's Ambassador's staff: they're "undocumented immigrants" - in other words - Illegal Aliens, which, we are told, are always peaceful people here to do work we wouldn't. In this case, it's true. I personally, would never cut a child's head off with a machete...call me bad or lazy...
(/sick, sad, sarcasm)
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/28/2004 21:23 Comments ||
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#7
#2 Uh, I don't think our RoP friends have anything to do with this. The mother is Hispanic. A lot of anger in these murders, so I would first check out any boyfriends, ex-husbands.
ed, good on you for maintaining perspective. Though it is a difficult thing to do in these trying times, that only increases the criticality of doing so.
#8
Two arrested in children slayings.
Police said the two men are cousins, but the Mexican government identified Policarpio Espinoza, 22, as the children's uncle and Adan Espinoza Canela, 17, as their cousin.
#1
Dammit! Why doesn't Fox News round off the news every evening with a different 15-sec clip of the 9/11 atrocities - especially the bodies falling from the Towers. We know that ABC/CBS/NBC/CNN are too tilted to the Left to do it, but Fox certainly should have the cojones to wake up the American populace.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
05/28/2004 12:48:06 AM ||
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A liberal group that monitors conservative media "misinformation"
There's no goddam conservative news in the "media," let along misinformation.
These clowns remind me of Goebbels - tell a lie big enough and often enough and people will believe it.
Particularly if the liars control the media.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
05/28/2004 0:55 Comments ||
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#2
Well, there's a whole bunch of misinfo here, and it ain't Rush's.
First, there was a vicious battle in the mid-90s about whether or not to even put Rush on AFN. It ended when (I think) the SecDef insisted that no one wanted to listen to him, and Rush wheeled out thousands of letters and e-mails stating otherwise. The people who fought hardest against it were liberal 'media monitoring' organizations who insisted that the ONLY opinion that US service members out to be able to hear is NPRs Morning Edition and All Things Considered - which, by the way, cost the taxpayer more to put on AFN than Rush does. Rush doesn't make a dime from his show being on AFN - Metromedia Broadcasting, which owns the show, makes all the money, and they just charge a very nominal syndication license fee. NPR hits AFN up for everything they legally can. My guess is they claim poverty. Finally, AFN doesnt even run all of Rush's show - unless this has drastically chnaged, they only ran an hour or at most two. NPR of course, gets to run all of their shows.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
05/28/2004 1:28 Comments ||
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#3
Blogs over Limboghead like pundits:
http://ojr.org/ojr/ethics/1085527295.php
I ain't no neo-conman; ergo I ain't desperate:
http://www.chronwatch.com/
Hiroshima: thank you USAF; do it again in Fallujah.
#6
The 'liberal' Leftists in the mainline Media hate Rush, Fox and anyone else who is effective and gains far more ratings.
The true nature of the enemy within is displayed once again.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
05/28/2004 2:44 Comments ||
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#7
Why are the taxpayers footing the bill for NPR ?
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
05/28/2004 2:45 Comments ||
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#8
Mark don't worry about it. It's a good place to dump the hippies who are still on the waiting list for rehab. Keeps them off the street so only the studio smells like urine.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
05/28/2004 2:52 Comments ||
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#9
Mark don't worry about it. It's a good place to dump the hippies who are still on the waiting list for rehab. Keeps them off the street so only the studio smells like urine.
NPR is a critical outlet of information of what the left is thinking. I would love to shut NPR down too, except then we would have little idea of the next socialist Big Idea/Big Lie they will launch into.
However, having said that, it makes little sense to force AFN to rebroadcast defeatist radio, especially in time of war.
#10
Hold the phone, folks. I just googled David Brock, the 'CEO' of the group that wants Rush off AFN.
This is the ex-leftist who claimed he lied about Bill Clinton and a number of others. I may have my facts mangled here, but lies are the essence of what Brock is about.
Boy, you talk about a gaping maw in credibility, I give you David Brock.
#12
Liberals spent $2 million to set up mediamatters.org. My site hosting cost $4.95 a month for 200 mb storage and 6 gig a month transfer. I certainly would like to get in on this privatized liberal welfare.
#14
David Brock's staff at Media Matters is a gallery of political hangers on, leftists and folks who have no claim to ever having a real job.
David Brock has it in for Rush. Easily 80 percent of the entries in his site are about Limbaugh.
The staff:
Katie Barge
David S. Bennahum -- author Slate, The Economist, New York magazine, and The New York Times
David Brock -- 2002 New York Times best-selling political memoir in which he chronicled his years as a conservative media insider
Nicole Casta -- National Organization for Women (NOW) and The National Partnership for Women and Families
Amanda Fazzone -- author The New Republic Salon, Slate, Spin, TimeOut
Jamison Research -- Director at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) for the 2002 cycle
Marcia Kuntz -- Alliance for Justiceâs Judicial Selection Project legislative counsel to Representative Barney Frank (D-MA)
Shant Mesrobian
Kevin Nix
Andrew Seifter -- Sierra Club, Greenpeace, and the State PIRGs
Melissa Salmanowitz
Naomi Seligman -- Violence Policy Center (VPC)
Brian Szymanski -- technologist and independent media activist. He has been actively involved in computer recycling, independent radio, Free software, and anti-war and human rights activism.
Gabriel Wildau -- policy analyst for General (Ret.) Wesley K. Clarkâs presidential campaign
Oliver Willis -- profiled in The Boston Globe, in Baseline magazine, and on PBS
#15
With the increased access to streaming internet, and the potential of independent short wave broadcasts, do the Leftist Totalitarian Facists think thay can silence his "Dittoness" talking to the troops?
#16
A liberal group that monitors conservative media wants Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to remove radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh from the American Forces Radio and Television Services, formerly known as Armed Forces Radio.
"Free speech for me, but not for thee."
If it was a liberal talk show host that was the target of "removal", does anybody doubt that there would be the loudest howls of censorship emanating from the lefty camp?
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/28/2004 17:51 Comments ||
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#18
Picture the likes of NPR's leftwing, hippy dippy 'news' programmes during the years 1941-1945?
One can not even begin to fathom the United States government, while engaged in a two fronted world war, actual paying sell-outs with tax funds, to bash America's war efforts & side with the Japan & Nazi Germany, while rationing was being rigorously enforced on the home-front, in order to save every dime to support our troops in battle.
A bill must be submitted to the House regarding this mammoth act of fraud & deceit on the U.S. taxpayers.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
05/28/2004 19:43 Comments ||
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Residents of an impoverished Beirut suburb sealed off their district to bury their dead, killed when a strike against high fuel and other prices turned violent and troops fired on protestors. Police said five people, including a woman, were shot dead by soldiers in the southern Shiite-populated suburb of Hay al-Sellom after demonstrators threw stones. The sixth was a civil defence worker who died of injuries received when the labour ministry was subsequently stormed and set alight.
Troops were still present in force Friday on main roads fringing the southern suburbs, notably at the junctions on the highway to the international airport. But they were nowhere to be seen in Hay al-Sollom, where residents had blocked every access with burning tyres for the funeral of Ali Khorfan, 19. Hundreds of people marched behind the coffin, shouting slogans against Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri's government, in the district battered by the clashes and the rioting. Protection was provided by members of the Shiite Muslim radical group Hezbollah which controls the southern suburbs, in civilian clothes and unarmed. Residents said three other young men had been buried in their home villages in the south and east of the country.
Hariri said in a statement earlier he "deeply regretted" what had happened and warned "against the dangers of diverting the trade union movement from its objectives, exploiting social issues or using young people for personal political ends." He called on "all Lebanese to learn from what took place" and stressed that "anarchy is of no profit to anyone." All politicians should "reassess and assume their responsibilities," he said, adding that "attacking the prestige of the army is an attack on the dignity of the nation and the stability of the country." President Emile Lahoud, Hariri's political rival, who had earlier demanded a probe into the riots in order to "adopt the adequate legal measures," went to visit civilian wounded at the Hezbollah hospital on the airport road, state radio said.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/28/2004 1:50:56 PM ||
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05/28/2004 02:48 ||
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"Angry demonstrators set fire to Lebanonâs Labour Ministry in Beirut today..." OK, this is what I would have run with if I was the one writing headlines. Riot and protest fatalities are a big so-what when we're talking about the Syrian Empire, but the burning of a ministry is a pretty goddamn big deal in my book. The rest of the article makes it sound like Hezbollah is making a move. No sign of Syrian troops, yet.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
05/28/2004 13:50 Comments ||
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Three liberal opposition members have been sentenced to suspended prison terms for "propaganda" against Iran by calling for a boycott of February polls, the state state news agency IRNA reported Tuesday. The three -- Hassan Asghari, Shapour Rashno and Ezzatollah Jafari -- were each sentenced to 91-day suspended terms. A fourth defendant, Ali Mohammad Jahanghiri from Andimeshk in southwest Iran, was sentenced to six months in prison, but the verdict was commutted to a fine of three million rials (352 dollars).
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
05/28/2004 3:25:15 AM ||
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...a fine of three million rials (352 dollars).
Ahem... Quite the nasty conversion rate ya got there, guys.
It's al-Jiz, so lots of salt. Just the highlights, but the kookiness of Lebanon is on full display at the article.
BEIRUT (Al-Jiz). About five people were killed and many more wounded on Thursday after soldiers opened fire in Beirut during protests against soaring fuel prices. Another 17 people, including an army major and four soldiers, were hurt in clashes between the army and demonstrators, medics and witnesses said Thursday.
After the deadly incidents, the CGTL issued a statement calling on "workers, drivers and all those taking part in the general strike to end their demonstrations and maintain the civilized and peaceful aspect of their protest." The CGTL had called for sit-ins in major cities to protest government fiscal policies and petrol prices, which they want cut from about 17 dollars per 20 liters (5.3 gallons) to some 10 dollars. Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri has urged senior officials to investigate why gas stations have failed to comply with last week's cabinet decision to cut the price for 20 liters by about 1.30 dollars.
On Thursday, Hariri cut short his trip to Syria after a meeting there with President Bashar al-Assad, whose country is the main power broker in Lebanon.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/28/2004 1:25:53 AM ||
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So Hariri got his master's orders, hmmm?
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/28/2004 10:01 Comments ||
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I've split the headlines into Page 1 and Page 2. I found that WoT was getting lost in the politix and chicken rape. The disadvantage is that you have to scroll down to make sure you've gotten all the latest articles. Comments?
Posted by: Fred ||
05/28/2004 11:00:42 PM ||
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Speaking personally, I could live without the chicked rape stories.
Posted by: Phil B ||
05/28/2004 23:05 Comments ||
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When the call to prayer finally issues from the loudspeakers atop the little mosque in Hamtramck today, the sound is likely to be drowned out not so much by organized opposition as by the noise of the city itself. The collision of cultures in the 2.1-square-mile city jammed with shops and homes has already turned the busy cross streets of Caniff and Jos. Campau -- steps from the mosque -- into a deafening echo chamber. Church bells ring out hymns. Trains whistle. Trucks roar and squeal their breaks. Seagulls scream as they vie for litter. Hip-hop booms from cars. Janis Joplin belts out rock tunes from the door of the Record Graveyard, a trendy secondhand music shop. Boys under a basketball hoop in St. Ladislaus Catholic Churchâs parking lot yell, "Shoot! Shoot!"
And Wednesday, a vanload of tough-looking men who had driven more than five hours from southern Ohio spilled onto Caniff outside the Al-Islah Islamic Center to protest the mosqueâs plan to broadcast the call to prayer for the first time today. "Lord Jesus, we ask that you would move powerfully upon this city!" shouted the Rev. James Marquis of New Covenant Worship Center in Wellston, Ohio, as he marched with his men in front of the mosque. Most of the 10 men were big and broad-shouldered, with sternly furrowed brows. They moved quickly and shouted prayers spontaneously, using phrases like "Davidâs Mighty Men" and "spiritual warriors" to describe themselves. One had a black eye. Finally, two of the men raised shofars, horns traditionally used to invoke God, and punctuated their prayers with an ear-shattering exclamation point. Then, they jumped back into the van and headed 300 miles home.
Yeah, yeah. Cue the dueling banjos...
"These men coming here like this, thatâs scary," said Zakaria Ahmed, owner of the nearby Bengal Spices grocery store and a member of the mosque. "People are too overheated. Iâm alarmed at what could happen. I had a couple of windows broken in my shop last week. I think it could have been because of the call to prayer. Some people have called me names because of it." He shook his head in frustration, and added, "So much of this is based on misunderstandings. It didnât have to be like this."
"I'm the voice of sweet reason, and they're not..."
A dozen Catholic, Protestant and Muslim leaders from Hamtramck met at the Al-Islah mosque on Thursday to discuss the rising tension. They reached a consensus that, as the calls to prayer begin, theyâll make a joint public appeal for a cooling-off period of interfaith prayer and fasting.
Ecumenism in action. That's why the churches are full to overflowing, y'know...
They also agreed to try to disengage from the cityâs political turmoil. As things stand, a hotly contested city ordinance designed to regulate noise from houses of worship is on hold pending a citywide vote, likely in August. Before the City Council approved the ordinance last month,there were no local regulations governing sound levels outside religious institutions. The ordinance, which would have taken effect on Wednesday but was blocked by a petition drive, would have given the council the ability to regulate the level of such sounds. However, at this point civic and religious leaders agree that a call to prayer is legal with or without the ordinance. "So, weâre not going to take any position on the ballot issue," the Rev. Stanley Ulman, pastor of St. Ladislaus, told colleagues at the meeting. "Itâs irrelevant."
Heads nodded. The consensus was that the blinding international spotlight now cast on Hamtramck has led to far more confusion than cooperation. Contrary to the impression given by many news reports around the world, Muslim calls to prayer have drifted through the air of Hamtramck since the 1990s. However, because the four mosques broadcasting the call are located just over the line in Detroit, the Al-Islah case became the first to generate religious and cultural sparring in Hamtramck. And sparring is an accurate description of the in-your-face encounters that have erupted at the Hamtramck City Council. Months ago, leaders of the Al-Islah mosque, many of them recent immigrants from Bangladesh, went to City Hall much like a naive Jimmy Stewart in "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington."
Oooh. Nice imagery. You can tell they're the good guys at a glance...
"These are good, simple guys who work hard, take care of their families and, as their community grew, organized this mosque a couple of years ago," said Victor Begg of Bloomfield Township, the vice chair of the Council of Islamic Organizations of Michigan who coordinated Thursdayâs meeting of Hamtramck clergy. "These guys loved hearing the call to prayer back in Bangladesh, and they wanted to do that here, too," Begg said. "They were just trying to be good neighbors by asking City Hall about it. The next thing they knew, they were in the middle of a firestorm." Like an episode of "The Jerry Springer Show," Tuesday nightâs council meeting generated the latest in a long series of wild verbal confrontations in which people step up to a podium near the five council members and rail at them in furious tones.
So if you oppose the Islamic caterwauling you're a red-necked chair-flinger. Your better half â you're not married, 'cuz you don't want to be tied down â is a 350-pounder named Tiffany who has four children by five men and is having an affair with your sister on the side. Both of you are on welfare, at least one of you fraudulently...
This week, Robert Zwolak, an opponent of broadcasting the call to prayer and a political rival of the council, compared the councilâs actions in supporting the mosque to the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl in the Soviet Union in 1986. The council is poisoning the city, he said.
"Yasss... Everyone's radioactive now..."
Later, Councilman Scott Klein shot back at critics in an emotional, quavering voice: "I am appalled by the level of racism thatâs flowing around on this." At another point, a man in the audience jumped up and shouted, "Idiot council!" and stormed out.
Probably a reference to Councilman Klein...
Only a few feet from the podium, former Councilman John Justewicz heckled the council all evening, calling one councilman a liar and saying that another looked like he was high on drugs. Then, during a recess, Councilman Chuck Cirgenski shouted at Justewicz, "Eat me, John!"
Dang! Now that's some civil, well-reasoned discourse!
Justewicz barked back, "Yeah, youâd like that!" A day later, in calmer tones, both sides admitted that the flaring tempers were embarrassing. "It gets very nasty sometimes," said Shahab Ahmed, the brother of shopkeeper Zakaria Ahmed and, since January, the first Muslim to sit on the council. "I do fear that it could lead to violence, actually. And, now that the call to prayer issue will be on the ballot in August, this means weâll continue picking at these wounds."
Under the layers of scar tissue is a long history of harassment of non-whites in Hamtramck. In the 1950s and 1960s, city officials used an urban renewal plan to raze black neighborhoods. Black residents sued in 1968, but it was only in the last few years, after decades of delays, that the city began to move on a multimillion-dollar agreement to rebuild housing for affected families. Financial and political stresses have led to chronic woes, ranging from broken water mains to an explosion in the rat population three years ago. In 2000, the city was placed under a state-appointed financial manager because of unresolved deficits.
None of which has to do with the howling of Islamists blasting people from bed first thing in the morning...
As Tuesdayâs council meeting ended, Masud Khan, the mosqueâs secretary, sighed deeply. "Thereâs such a complicated political mess in this city, itâs hard to know what to do," he said. Recent years also have been hard on the Polish Catholics who once defined Hamtramck, Ulman said, sitting at home across the street from the mosque. Like other Polish-Catholic parishes in the city, Our Lady Queen of Apostles and St. Florian, St. Ladislaus is shrinking and now has only 1,250 members, Ulman said. "Weâve been slipping 3 to 5 percent a year for some time and, in the last two years, itâs been closer to 10 percent a year," he said. Within a year or two, the three parishes likely will share only two priests, he said.
That happens when you don't listen to the Pope. If you go using birth control, there aren't any little Catholics coming along, are there?
The U.S. census reported a steep drop in Polish-American density among the cityâs 23,000 residents, from 50 percent in 1990 to 23 percent in 2000. African Americans are 15 percent of the population, Arab Americans 9 percent. But because of a rapid influx of Bangladeshi immigrants since 2000, no one knows how many Asian Americans live there. After 22 years as an influential community leader, Ulman is moving away this summer to St. Mary of the Hills Catholic Church in Rochester Hills. For Catholics, this is a lot to accept, he said. "People fear theyâre losing their identity. This isnât the city they remember."
The dispute is dredging up a lot of vivid memories. One of the most vocal opponents of the call to prayer, Joanne Golen, a lifelong resident, said she recently has been thinking back to the 1940s and her own anxieties about her immigrant grandparents. Thomas and Wanda Yonkoski arrived in Hamtramck in the 1930s and, by the 1940s, when Golen was a little girl, a decade in the United States had not changed their Polish ways. As Golen learned more about American culture at the Queen of Apostles grade school, she grew embarrassed by their customs. "I still remember the smell of Grandma cooking cabbage. Phew! Phew! Phew! It stunk," Golen said. "Grandma never learned to read English. And she wore this babushka, this scarf." At age 6, Golen summoned her courage and told her grandmother, "Babcia to jest Ameryka!" or, "Grandma, this is America!" She desperately wanted her family to assimilate as Americans and keep their Old World customs as private matters. "And thatâs what I want these immigrants to do, too, to assimilate," Golen said this week. "Donât impose your call to prayer on us. Keep it to yourself."
My grandmother was a stout Italian lady with a faint moustache â actually not that faint â and eyesight failing from diabetes. She never quite got the hang of English. My mother spoke Italian with a pronounced American accent, and she understood more than she actually spoke. My experience with Italian was between the ages of 6 and 8, reading Il Progresso to Grandmaw, pronouncing the words better than I understood them. After she died, virtually the entire language fell out of my head. None of my brothers or sisters got even that much experience with the language and not much more with the culture, and we're all more hillbilly than we are Italian. Most people don't assimilate in a generation. Most families eventually do assimilate.
Thatâs not the way people regard diversity today, said Tanya Whitfield, who runs the business closest to the mosque. Only three feet separate her Envy Me Salon from the Al-Islah center. "Iâm Catholic, too," she said, although as an African American she prefers to attend St. Gregory Catholic Church in Detroit, a more diverse parish. "I like to express my culture, and I think that these Islamic people have a right to express theirs, too. Thatâs what it means to live in a multicultural community, and I think thatâs healthy. Itâs not a problem."
Shahab Ahmed agreed. He named the driving school he operates in Hamtramck, Shondhan Enterprises Inc., because "the word âshondhanâ in Bengali means âEureka!â You say it when youâve been searching for something great and, after a long time, youâve found it. Hamtramck is a great city, if we would only understand its beauty." Ahmed said that the call to prayer is an essential ingredient to help the burgeoning Bangladeshi-American population feel at home.
That doesn't make much more sense than the lady who wanted the Banglas to assimilate this afternoon. A big part of the reason Bangladesh is in the condition it's in is the control of Islam on people's daily lives. If there is a rathole, where come here for a better life and still try to make it like there?
Muslims are expected to pray five times a day. Prayer times are based on the rising and setting of the sun and vary with the seasons. The daily rhythm of prayer is deeply ingrained in the cultural background of the cityâs new residents, Ahmed said. "This is important so that people coming here donât treat this city like a bus stop to someplace where they are more welcome," Ahmed said. "I love this city and I want these people to live together here for many, many years."
#1
All it will take is another attack by AQ in America and these "Asian Americans" will wish they'd assimilated better when they had the time. I predict ugly times for the Religion of Peaceâ¢
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/28/2004 15:43 Comments ||
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#2
The Islamic Society of North America has sent Chapter President Kareem Irfan to Hamtramck to get involved with this, so it is no small issue. Neither is it a question of racism. What has become obvious is that while the mosque members demand tolerance, they care little to practice what they preach. It is not necessary to publicly broadcast the call to prayers. 5x daily from 6 a.m. - 10 p.m. is quite excessive. The mosque members would do well to engage in a little sensitivity training themselves. This "in your face" attitude is what creates resentment.
Posted by: jawa ||
05/28/2004 15:53 Comments ||
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#3
I have a religious need to blare Dope's "Die M.F. Die" five times a day outside of a mosque.
Think that the city of Hamtramck would deny me my religious rights?
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats ||
05/28/2004 15:57 Comments ||
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#4
The call to prayer BTW is another means of reminding Islamists not to stray...if they could put a muzzein in your head to sing 24/7 they would - it's mind control, excessive and pathetic
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/28/2004 16:05 Comments ||
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#5
immigrants in america have historically assimilated to be an american...trying to force the culture of the country you LEFT on the adopted country is a recipe for disaster.
by assimilation we have avoided the immigrant ghettos that plauge europe. so if today's immigrants trully want peace and live in prosperity do not force a "europe" solution!
become American or get out!
i sure the hell would not want to hear the call to prayer 5 times a day...just reminds of people wanting to take over my country. i did not immigrate to thier country they came here - now deal with it!
Posted by: Dan ||
05/28/2004 16:11 Comments ||
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#6
I was in a back and forth today with a Morroccan (I think) named Abdel over at Healing Iraq. He took the usual position stating, and I quote "that Islam is THE universal religion". I really doubt that these folks will assimilate, even after a generation or two. I hope I am wrong. Unfortunately, I think that Frank G. is absolutely correct. Bad times ahead, especially after another attack.
Posted by: remote man ||
05/28/2004 16:13 Comments ||
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Boy, reading about the City of Halftrack's travails is depressing. The Muslims will just look at the 5x call to pray deal as their right and will play the suffering muslim thing to the hilt. These confrontations are just the beginning of the war in this country. They are just the skirmishes.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/28/2004 16:15 Comments ||
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#8
These guys loved hearing the call to prayer back in Bangladesh...
#9
by assimilation we have avoided the immigrant ghettos that plauge europe.
That isn't happening much anymore, especially here in California. We have bilingual schooling, bilingual ballots, choices of English or Spanish (!) when dialing customer service lines or at ATMs, the occsional billboard advertisement in Spanish, obssession with "diversity", etc.
We may have had avoided Europe's problems so far, but it appears that unless people here wise up, it's going to be our turn.
#10
Bomb-a-Rama is absolutely right. My field is English as a Second Language, so I have some familiarity with this topic; this bilingual rights stuff has to stop. A logical look at the question of providing translation/bilingual services:
When the Spanish-speaking immigrants in California feel they have a right to bilingual services, where does that leave rest of the non-native speakers in the US? If a Spanish speaker has a right to the services, why doesn't a Korean, a Russian, an Indian? Application of equal rights under the law and an electorate pushing for bilingual services rights would mean we would need to provide services for people with at least 100 different languages. It is a fool who starts down this road...Yes we can learn other languages---IF WE ARE INTERESTED IN DOING SO. ENGLISH SHOULD BE THE LANGUAGE OF INTERACTION IN OUR LAND.
#11
BAR and Jules - the rollback of bilingual ed was a voter-approved victory. Next fight? The reintroduction by Gil Cedillo(D-LA) of another attempt at CA Driver's Licenses for illegals. Let's at least shut off the spigot for illegals?
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/28/2004 18:02 Comments ||
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#12
yes it is true that we have bi-lingual in califorinia - like the DMV. why in the hell do we have test in every language but the road signs are in english - not much sense there.
but all in all we have avoided the problems of europe - and that is also culture in that spanish speaking people do not try and force religion on us...but they also pray to the same god.
on the surface it does seem bad in california - but a person who does not speak english will not go far (at least for now). they will be stuck working shit jobs and living in a majority spanish community - like Santa Ana.
i live in so california and i know many spanish heritage folks who do try and fit in..but it is not universal..
Frank G is correct though - shut off the spigot.
bring back Prop 187!
Posted by: Dan ||
05/28/2004 18:29 Comments ||
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#13
âon the surface it does seem bad in california - but a person who does not speak english will not go far (at least for now).â
That is only half the story. In the future a Californian who does not speak Spanish will not go far.
My radiologist friend already gets flack because she canât speak Spanish with some of her patients. People who interact with the public or manage employees will increasingly need Spanish-speaking on their resumes.
#14
the rollback of bilingual ed was a voter-approved victory.
So was Prop 187. Don't expect bilingual education to stay rolled back tho, because its backers will surely push it again.
My radiologist friend already gets flack because she canât speak Spanish with some of her patients.
Why does it always seem that here in the U.S., it is more often than not the American that is expected to respect the newcomer's sensibilities? Then, when Americans goes overseas, it is we that are expected to watch what we say and do????
#16
CS - I'd be right next to you in the court holding pen
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/28/2004 21:46 Comments ||
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#17
They first need an EMP to fry the Imam Amp and speakers to give people some peace and quiet. Then we worry about the political implications and debate.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/28/2004 21:58 Comments ||
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A UN helicopter opened fire on dissident soldiers in the troubled eastern Democratic Republic of Congo town of Bukavu and the UN mission there said it had ordered the soldiers to return to barracks by Saturday morning. The soldiers have been fighting regular troops since Wednesday in Bukavu, where at least 14 people are reported to have died in the clashes.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/28/2004 1:00:37 PM ||
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#1
Shooting at rival pimps, probably.
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats ||
05/28/2004 13:07 Comments ||
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I would venture to say that ALL towns in the so-called DR of Congo are 'troubled', even w/o a helicopter getting off a few rounds.
EFL.They want global warming? Oh, theyâre from Maine. Canât blame them. Ever been in Maine in February?
Environmental activists in Maine have latched onto a new summer disaster movie as a way to spread their message about the perils of global warming. Yeah, couldnât see this coming, could we?
Volunteers for the Natural Resources Council of Maine will pass out fliers to moviegoers at Portland-area theaters on Friday and Saturday nights after the opening of "The Day After Tomorrow." On Friday, at Hoyts Falmouth Cinema 10, the Sierra Club and the Maine Council of Churches will host a preview of the movie that depicts global disaster caused by climate change. The preview will be followed by a panel discussion featuring a University of New Hampshire scientist, the commissioner of the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, and others. The Maine Council of Churches? Maybe theyâll fly up Elian in the private jet to sign some autographs. Get Al Gore up there for a couple of sessions in the Stop Global Warming dunk tank. Heâs got the screaming freak act down.
Environmentalists admit that many of the special-effects scenarios featured in "The Day After Tomorrow" are far-fetched. The $125 million movieâs pivotal scenes include a snowstorm in New Delhi, tornadoes in Los Angeles and grapefruit-size hail in Tokyo. For scientists, abrupt climate change usually means change that happens over a few decades, not a full-blown ice age that impossibly descends on New York City within just a few days."This movie distorts global warming, obviously," said Maureen Drouin, northeast regional representative of the Sierra Club. "Itâs a disaster movie. But we also feel that the Bush administration is distorting the science on global warming."â Itâs bullshit, but itâs our bullshit. The sheeple will eat it up. Also, Bush is Hitler...
Mark Hays, outreach coordinator for the Natural Resources Council of Maine, compared the movie to a "good fable.It essentially seeks to entertain while touching on more basic truths," he said. "The basic truth here is that global warming is real, itâs happening today, and there are going to be impacts that hit close to home here in Maine." Better pay attention to him. Heâs an "outreach coordinator".
To Jon Reisman, it is all just so much hype. Reisman, associate professor of economics and public policy at the University of Maine at Machias, said environmentalistsâ activities around "The Day After Tomorrow" fit a pattern in the development of climate change policy. "To get it on the agenda," he said, "you have to make people think something terrible is happening." A professor said this!? He obviously didnât get the memo...
Posted by: tu3031 ||
05/28/2004 11:19:24 AM ||
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#1
They want global warming? Oh, theyâre from Maine. Canât blame them. Ever been in Maine in February?
Heh, I will be loading up my SUV (a 4Runner qualifies, doesn't it?) and driving back and forth between the Bay Area and the Central Valley this upcoming holiday weekend. No need to send thanks; I am more than willing to help out.... ;)
But thanks to a commenter in Blairâs blog, I found this interview with Roland Emmerich interesting. Heâs the director of âIndependence Day,â which I liked, and the upcoming eco-shriek âThe Day After Tomorrow.â This is a German interview. I donât think heâll be saying this for American interviewers. I wish he would. After noting that everyone he knows in Hollywood drives electric cars, he weighs in on American politics.
Emmerich: The intelligent Americans are so appalled by what their president does, you cannot imagine it.
Q: Are these things really communicated in the open?
A: Yes, for the first time there are now open discussions.
Q: Whereas the infamous Patriot Act has even succeeded in muzzling media.
A: That is a giant problem.
Priceless. Just priceless. Two clueless twits who actually believe that the Patriot Act â the Infamous Patriot Act â empowered government to âmuzzle media.â No specifics given; no specifics are necessary. But things are looking up; for âthe first time there are now open discussions.â Because we're Americans with short attention spans, and we've forgotten all about the mass graves filled with local TV anchormen, NPR hosts, and newspaper editorial cartoonists.
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/28/2004 11:41 Comments ||
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#3
The basic truth here is that global warming is real Err! the movie is about global cooling. Unless global warming is going to make everywhere much colder. Yes thats it! Now Kyoto makes sense! We have to stop global warming because it is going to cause global cooling. So we have to reduce CO2 emissions, until we have to increase them.
Posted by: Phil B ||
05/28/2004 11:42 Comments ||
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#4
No specifics given; no specifics are necessary.
Exactly. Why let facts get in the way of a not so good Bush bash?
#5
The movie has been universally panned after the prescreenings. Don't think that this dog will earn back the advertising budget. It should have gone straight to DVD.
#6
#3 Phil B
I think the scenario is that the global warming causes a change in the Gulf Stream, which then brings less warm air to North America, causing an ice age.
I don't have any expertise (or opinion) about it, but did I see a TV show about this scenario on Discovery or some such cable channel, and it was disturbing.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
05/28/2004 13:06 Comments ||
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#7
99% Special affects, 1% Science. Kind of like an LA Times field poll. Question for the LLL: Was the directors last movies a correct depiction of how space aliens will try to conquer earth? And will the DNC try to negotiate with the aliens when they come? President to alien: âwhat do you want form us?â Alien: âDiiiiiiiiieeeeee!â Same as Jihadis, little room for negotiations.
#8
As a meteorologist with a little understanding of climate processes...I can assure you only thing: Anyone/any scientist who states emphatically that they "know for sure" what is happening is a liar.
The atmosphere and the ocean have countless modes and harmonics that make them impossible to fully quantify. Tree rings are about our only objective means of capturing recent climate history. The groups using glacier and Antarctic ice cores as well as ocean beds to look at various isotope ratios are guessing. That's the dirty little secret you will never see in Discover or National Geographic. There are a number of assumptions one has to make in order to extrapolate current processes back thousands of years.
The worst offenders are the climate modelers. If current numerical weather prediction models blow up after 5 to 7 days (on average) and become useless operationally...then why in the heck would one believe a climate model?
Climate models are grossly simplistic. The models are at the complete mercy of the modeler who plugs in the appropriate parameterization (read fudge factor) to emulate atmospheric processes that cannot be explicitly calculated. In other words the worldview of the modeler will absolutely affect the results of the model through the choice of paramterization schemes. I can run an identical climate model and get global Ice Age with one run and a global sauna with another simply by varying certain input parameterizations.
How do they get away with it? Most Americans are scientifically and mathematically illiterate...and that goes double for the liberal arts dominated press.
#9
And where did this "science" come from? Well, it's worth noting that "The Day After Tomorrow" was "suggested in part" by a book called "The Coming Global Superstorm," by Art Bell and Whitley Strieber. Art Bell is a UFO buff who hosts a syndicated radio show devoted to the paranormal. Whitley Strieber is the author of a best-selling 1987 book about his many encounters with inquisitive alien beings. The name of the book is "Communion: A True Story."
-Kurt Loder MTV Correspondent
Serendipity. MTV correspondent criticizes Global Warming disaster film because of association with UFO junkies!
#11
tu3031: Yes, I've been to Maine in February. It's colder than a fart in a dead Eskimo. I read Communion when it first came out and thought the guy took one to many acid trips.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
05/28/2004 15:04 Comments ||
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#12
Well first it heats up... then it cools. Real fast. So fast that anyone overtaken is just dead, dead, dead. BUT if you manage to get inside and slam the door, you're okay. Uh huh...
After you've warned people not to go outside or you'll die... you go outside and WALK from D.C. to New York. And when you get there, the storm is easing up. Phew... but a lot of hassle could have been saved just by waiting it out and taking a helicopter, no?
You'll get to see a young woman risk life and limb to save another's purse. Why? Because it has her passport in it! Can you imagine being at the end of the world as we know it and NOT have your passport?
This move is about as good as any other big budget summer film, which is to say it is big and loud and somewhat fun to view for the SFX. I predict it will have all the policy impact of, say, Independence Day.
Said Richard Roeper of the opening scene in Antarctica - The snow looked like potato flakes and the actors looked about as cold as models at an Eddie Bauer shoot. :)
#14
Wood's Hole Oceanagraphic Institution has a good summary of the science relating to "abrupt climate change." Link
Basically the film like most of the environmental movement is a bad joke promulgated by liberal arts majors who avoided science like the plague and a few scientists in search of grants from said liberal arts majors.
#15
I was being sarcastic. Anymouse is right. Climate results from a complex system we don't understand. One of my main beefs about the climate change 'debate' is the implied assumption that without human induced changes, the climate would be stable, which is we know for sure is untrue. The climate is changing all the time.
Posted by: Phil B ||
05/28/2004 20:33 Comments ||
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#16
"I'm not a real meteorologist but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night." Roland Emmerich
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
05/28/2004 21:01 Comments ||
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Posted by: Phil B ||
05/28/2004 02:53 ||
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#1
It's not a real mystery. Residing in territory run by Arafat does not lead to economic prosperity. Christians leaving Bethlehem is very bad news for Arafat's ecumenical image.He has tried to prevent the exodus unsucessfully.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
05/28/2004 4:09 Comments ||
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#2
Christians leaving Bethlehem is bad news but old news. Islam has been practicing various forms of ethnic cleansing for centuries. Combined with Dhimmidute the victims can't even blame those responsible.
#3
I must be a little slow this morning. I couldn't find anything in the article blaming Jews for anything. However, it's no surprise that Christians are leaving Palestinian areas. Radical muslims make it a point to kill or terrorize Christian populations wherever they can get away with it. Also, Islamofascists defecating in the Church of the Nativity tended to cut down on both the number of people wanting to pay thousands of dollars to make a pilgrimage to the holy latrine and the prospects for Bethlehem's economic future.
#4
and when the loudspeakers in Hamtramck start blaring the Muslim call to prayer 5 times a day, the remaining catholics will start fleeing there as well. Who will the Pope blame then?
Comes as a surprise, huh? Who'da thunkit?
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe will stay in office as long as his people want him to, but he does not plan to run for re-election in 2008, he said in a television interview broadcast Monday. Mugabe also lashed out at President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair for the war in Iraq, telling Sky News TV "they deceived the world with lies" about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction and now "the chickens have come back to roost." He also called South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a critic of Zimbabwe's human rights record, "angry" and "evil."
Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe as a tyrant and lout since it achieved freedom from Britain in 1980, appeared to dismiss the need for talks with his country's opposition movement, which disputes his victory in the March 2002 election. Opposition leaders and independent observers maintain Mugabe used intimidation and vote-rigging to win the poll and continue his authoritarian rule. When asked how long he intended to remain in office, Mugabe said, "For as long as the people want me to stay, but not for eternity, of course."
Of course.
In the interview, Mugabe stood by his government's forecast for a bountiful harvest this year that will be more than enough to feed his people.
And I forecast that I'm going to win this week's Powerball lottery.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/28/2004 1:15:49 AM ||
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When's the syphilis finally going to kill this scumbag off?
Posted by: Howard UK ||
05/28/2004 10:17 Comments ||
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Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe will stay in office as long as his people want him to,..
Uh huh. And Mugabe's goons will see to it that "his people" won't have much to say about wanting him out of office...
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.
