When newly-inaugurated president George W. Bush addressed the U.S. yesterday (Jan. 20) he may have secretly been saying that four more years means four more years of war. At least, that's the claim of reverse speech expert Jon Kelly. He claims that when Bush said, "We will encourage reform in other governments by making clear that success in our relations will require the decent treatment of their own people," in reverse he said, "Hero's gonna shell Iran." And when Kelly played in reverse Bush's statement, "And as hope kindles home millions more will find it," he heard the Prez say, "Bombs will make laws."
If you believe Bush's backwards inaugural address is real, then things haven't changed much since his 2001 inaugural speech. Kelly says back then Bush reverse-talked about a "Mission of Baghdad" when he said, "And to all nations we will speak to the values that gave our nation birth." jimmy page unavailble fer comments
#9
Actually it's a ham radio operator, there is another picture in that set. The guys shirt in the other picture has the callsign kc2ufo or some such, he is wearing foil too. It looks like field day pictures.
#10
In my early days on the web I used to read the reversespeech.com website regularly. it's quite ... ummmm ... entertaining. I alway meant to ask the guy if tinfoil hats affected reverse speech in any way.
#11
I came *this close* to doing Nuggets From Rense after I got done doing Nuggets From Pravda last night...
BTW, .com, I kinda need some pictures if you have them handy... a _decent_ scan of the sign from Tremors: the Series, and one of the Lion Tamer Sketch from Monty Python. I've been trying to find them on the net, to no avail.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
01/21/2005 21:51 Comments ||
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#12
Phil - Don't the Python pix - and I don't know what Tremors is, sorry!
It's not like I order up pix, lol. I find what I find and, when I have the raw material, will make some.
So what is it now, God obsessed right wing crazy or Satan worshipper?
OSLO, Norway - President Bush's "Hook 'em, 'horns" salute got lost in translation in Norway, where shocked people interpreted his hand gesture during his inauguration as a salute to Satan. Bow to me, Norway! Worship me! Satan demands it!
That's what it means in the Nordics when you throw up the right hand with the index and pinky fingers raised, a gesture popular among heavy metal groups and their fans in the region. Beavis and Butthead roadtrip to Norway.
"Shock greeting from Bush daughter," a headline in the Norwegian Internet newspaper Nettavisen said above a photograph of Bush's daughter Jenna, smiling and showing the sign. They must've just missed when her eyes glowed red and her serpents tounge shot out of her mouth.
My kind of woman
For Texans, the gesture is a sign of love for the University of Texas Longhorns, whose fans are known to shout out "Hook 'em, 'horns!" at sporting events.
And weddings, funerals, church services, etc....
Hook 'em Horns! Satan demands it!
Bush, a former Texas governor, and his family made the sign to greet the Longhorn marching band as it passed during the inaugural parade through Washington during Thursday's festivities, explained Verdens Gang, Norway's largest newspaper. They probably still think it was a sign of his deal with Satan. But even the moonbats know Rove's on the hook for that...
#3
Lol! Who cares what they think? Jan Egeland is one of them and apparently is a fair example of Norgie Wank-o-Matics. Yeah, dipshits, it means what you mean when you do it. Couldn't have any other explanation. Eat some yellow snow.
#4
Why were Norwegians watching the Bush inauguration for? I mean don't they have a life? I didn't watch it and I live here in teh US and voted for him. I wasn't even that interested in the whole inauguration story.
#5
I don't think Bush could so much as blink without grievously culturally offending someone, somewhere. Kerry, on the other hand, could have pulled his pants down and wiggled his French-looking arse and the media world would have muttered appreciations.
We should cut the Norgies some slack. I mean, they have only been obsessing over our evil culture for, ohhh, 60 years, how could they have known about UT ?
Posted by: Carl in N.H. ||
01/21/2005 13:59 Comments ||
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#7
Bulldog--LOL! I can see the headlines now--"Parisians applaud cheeky Kerry's ass dimples"
Posted by: Dar ||
01/21/2005 14:04 Comments ||
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#8
When I was living in Australia, some financial institution (I think) aired a commercial showing a variety of behaviors, and pointing out that a behavior or gesture can be friendly or innocuous in one culture, and an insult in another. They specifically mentioned the Horns gesture, contrasting it with the Italian version. The message was that you need this savvy company to help with your overseas business.
#10
Ha! I made a bet that his gesture would be translated as Satanic somewhere in the world. I also noted that he hesitated before doing it - and then apparently made a conscious decision to join in the fun.
#17
I find young Norwegians very in tune with US culture. Most of them learned to speak English by watching American cartoons because the Norwegian TV programming used to be so crappy. I would be suprised if they were not more curious about what "the cowboy" was doing rather than offended.
I remember the roar of laughter that went up when JFK said "Ich bien ein Berliner" which translated in slang to "I am a popular German pastry" .
As far as I am concerned , Bush was really saying, Stick this up your ass, Molly Ivans.
#19
It's Bush's way of thanking the Australians for helping out in the WoT. That's why, when they were making the hand gesture, they were chanting: "Aussie! Aussie! Aussie!", or something like that.
#26
some financial institution (I think) aired a commercial showing a variety of behaviors, and pointing out that a behavior or gesture can be friendly or innocuous in one culture, and an insult in another
A word to the Rantburg-ly wise: if you're ever in Brazil, do not under any circumstances use the A-OK forefinger-to-thumb with other three fingers upright gesture. You'll be insulting the honor of any Brazilian lady within eyesight and be lucky to escape with all your limbs.
The BBC will be made to sign up to a specific commitment to broadcast news that is "balanced and fair" as part of its new royal charter, The Telegraph has learned. The clause will be the first time the corporation's editorial obligations in news have been explicitly included in the charter and will inevitably raise concerns of government interference following the David Kelly affair. Details of the new commitment, which will be included in the Green Paper on charter renewal due to be published next month, came yesterday as Tessa Jowell, the Culture Secretary, said that ensuring the BBC delivered high quality news was among her key concerns. In a speech to the Oxford Media Convention, she said the new charter would aim to create "a BBC even more capable of achieving high benchmarks, especially in news, that the rest of the industry has to live up to, and make clear that it should compete on grounds of quality, not just share".
Previous charters have shied away from specifying the editorial standards to which BBC news should aspire, stating merely that it should seek to inform as well as educate and entertain. However, it is understood that the Government is determined to put some flesh on those bare bones. An informed source said: "The diversification of channels has put a lot of pressure on mainstream public service broadcasters really to make it clear what 'good' news is: namely, that it is impartial, balanced, authoritative and objective. The charter renewal agreement will put news as the central spine around which the BBC is built." The new clause is certain to cause concerns that the government is taking its revenge for the Kelly affair. One of No 10's most vociferous complaints during the row was that the BBC had failed to give the Government a chance to respond properly to the full allegations made by the former Today programme reporter Andrew Gilligan. Also yesterday Michael Grade, the corporation's chairman, said BBC television and radio channel controllers would be fired or have their budgets cut if they failed to meet their public service obligations.
Posted by: Bulldog ||
01/21/2005 4:28:04 AM ||
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#1
Please forgive me if I don't hold my breath.
I expect the BBC to fight this in any case if not outright ignore it.
#2
The Telegraph has learned. The clause will be the first time the corporationâs editorial obligations in news have been explicitly included in the charter and will inevitably raise concerns of government interference following the David Kelly affair.
God forbid the BBC ever become fair and balanced.
Previous charters have shied away from specifying the editorial standards to which BBC news should aspire, stating merely that it should seek to inform as well as educate and entertain
Via Bros. Judd:
The latest sign that PBS may be indeed moving away from reflexive lefty politics (paying attention to where the money is or preparing for the fall and accusations of support???) is its hardheaded and compelling new documentary Fidel Castro, which premieres Jan. 31 and is the first non-American biography in the network's American Experience series. (As executive producer Mark Samuels pointed out at the PBS news conference, an argument can be made that Castro, with his half-century-long "impact on American history," is an American experience, besides being "also a tremendous story.")
**SNIP**
Babalu Blog is an informative blog on Cuba.
I see a casino in my future and my husband sees diving.
So, Fred, a pic of a cigar?? Plantains??? How about Redford w/a dunce or useful fool hat? I wonder if Kostner has a deal for a casino after the commie bastard croaks.
Posted by: anonymous2u ||
01/21/2005 10:40:39 AM ||
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#1
I see drilling in the Straits and real compeition for Mikey Mouse.
Not sure what you mean by "straights" but if you're talking near cuba, not without a fight by the Saudi's. They already have a Saudi funded US non-profit set up that aims to "keep the oceans safe" - but whose real aim is, IMHO, to prevent just such a threat. They join hands with all the LLL pseudo "popular culture" scientists to put forth the ideas in the book, Blue Frontier.
Via Tim Worstall, who also says there's a persistent rumor that some of the stuff for sale is original Lend/Lease items, never unpacked.
Russia is to sell thousands of Second World War tanks, machineguns and cannons in an attempt to raise funds and remind the world of its pivotal role in defeating Hitler. The Kremlin hopes that they will be bought by museums and enthusiasts as interest in vintage weaponry peaks during the 60th anniversary of the end of the war, a landmark that will be celebrated with great fanfare in Russia.
The Russian state arms dealer, Rosoboronexport, has sold a few vintage weapons piecemeal since the late 1990s but now it has launched a serious sales campaign. The hardware has been stored in warehouses even though most of it was decommissioned decades ago. The company is tempting collectors with a selection of weapons that includes Maksim machineguns, 76mm ZiS-3 field guns, PPSH sub-machineguns and T-34 tanks, the backbone of the armoured columns that drove the German army out the Soviet Union in 1944. For the more ambitious there are T-54 tanks, built in the immediate post-war period and used to defeat the Hungarian uprising in 1956, and even Soviet-era submarines. Rosoboronexport said it took the decision to market the weapons because of growing interest abroad.
"In many battles during the Second World War, home weapons won a victory many times over those of the fascist Wehrmacht, surpassing them in quality and reliability, combat effectiveness and simplicity in use," the company boasts. "After 60 years, demand for them is still growing among foreign museums, military-technical associations, state and private collections."
While it has not yet published a price list, it is likely to sell rifles and pistols for a few hundred pounds each. Tanks in good working order are expected to cost upwards of £10,000. Alexander Ouzhanov, a Rosoboronexport spokesman, said: "There are two main aspects to this trade. One has to do with the country's image. The second is commercial."
Marat Kenzhetayev, a researcher with the Centre for Arms Control, Energy and Environmental Studies, said: "The move is probably more to do with PR than making serious money. Russia's arms exports in 2004 came to $5.6 billion (£2.98 billion). Sales of the vintage arms sales might make, at best, a few million dollars. No collector will buy tanks by the hundreds or thousands. "As regards prices, they will be much cheaper than their modern equivalents. "Unfortunately, it's not like the market in antique furniture."
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/21/2005 18:47 Comments ||
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#8
Any weenie in Hollywood aught to be picking some up for future films and not have to rely upon some CGI mapping. Just think of all those wonderful pro-Stalin films they can write with full patriotic fervor. Down with the Fascist! Calling Mr. Stone, Calling Mr. Stone. Time to rev up your next message film to damn those Repulicans.
Posted by: Don ||
01/21/2005 19:06 Comments ||
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#9
Somebody should tell these guys about eBay. Not sure about the shipping arrangements available, lol, but...
#10
I can just see a UPS truck with a T35 in back LOL
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/21/2005 19:11 Comments ||
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#11
A T-35 ? No way. Do you know what the milage is on that thing ? The pits. And parking ? Don't get me started. And they leak. And they don't do hills.
#12
think Amazon has SuperSaver free shipping on either? Me neither
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/21/2005 19:24 Comments ||
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#13
IOW, ala LendLease they're selling AMERICAN or AMERICAN-DESIGNED [REJECTED?]WEAPONS, includ the T-34! Stalin and his boys said it, in paraphrase -neither Britain, France, Europe, or Russia, either alone or together, could hope to defeat Nazi Germany and its Wehrmacht. In reality,
thanx to his nation-wide collectivization, purges, and other harsh pogroms, and
without US intervention or aid the best Stalin could hope for on the Eastern Front was stalemate!
PEARL HARBOR was the best thing Stalin could hope for, and knowing its benefits for him and Commie Russia did nothing to stop it.
A CZECH man allegedly hid in a restaurant bathroom until the employees had left and then hooked up beer kegs directly to his mouth.
Cleaning staff found him drunk and lying on the floor of the bar at the restaurant in the city of Brno, about 200km east of Prague, the CTK news agency reported.
"He had broken the door of the cooling mechanism ... and detached the hoses leading from the keg, squashed them in his mouth and literally filled himself up with beer," CTK quoted a police official as saying.
The man was to be charged with damaging property because of the 8000 crown ($450) damage to the beer cooling box.
It won't be Iraq, or Iran, or even the Middle East. It won't even be the broader issue of unilateralism versus multilateralism. The next crunch point in relations between the EU and the United States is going to be China.
So says Richard Bernstein, the veteran journalist who served as Time magazine's first Beijing bureau chief, writing in the International Herald Tribune today.
And, as long as EU is seeking to recruit China as a "strategic partner," ignoring growing Chinese-American rivalry, the outcome does not look good.
Bernstein selects two events from the past few days to illustrate the European-American divide on this question.
The first, he says, was the decision of China's government to make a non-event of the death of Zhao Ziyang, the former party chief and prime minister, who fell out of favour in 1989 when he opposed the use of military force to quell the student-led democracy protests of that year, and remained under house arrest until his death this week.
His second was a recent decision by the United States to penalise eight Chinese companies, including some of the country's biggest military contractors, for supplying missile technology to Iran.
According to Bernstein, the relegation of Zhao to non-personhood shows that China is still very much a Communist dictatorship, a factor which tends to have considerably more weight in US policy-making on China than it has in Europe.
As to arms transfers to Iran, this related to the biggest area of trans-Atlantic disagreement, the avowed intention of EU member states (or most of them) to lift the arms embargo on China.
European diplomats claim that any lifting of the arms embargo would not be followed by actual arms sales to China, but what Bernstein picks up is a series of revealing comments made by Cristina Gallach, spokeswoman for the EU's foreign policy chief, Javier Solana.
Gallach refers to China's participation in Galileo, the EU's proposed rival to the US GPS system, "This does not match with an arms embargo," Gallach says. "There is a total incongruity, and the Chinese in particular are keen to remove this incongruity."
Read into that what you will but the most obvious inference is that there is no point in making available a satellite guidance system to the Chinese if you then do not allow her to purchase the weapons which can exploit the sophisticated guidance afforded by that system
Bernstein poses the question: Could that lead to conflict with the United States, the country that would face China militarily if it ever came to war with Taiwan?
"We look at the Chinese as a strategic partner," Gallach says. "Some Americans might have the temptation to look at China as a strategic competitor in the long term, so we have to start by analysing the situation in a sober manner, and to try to work together with the Americans."
The next source Bernstein enlists is David Shambaugh, a China specialist at George Washington University. Writing in a recent issue of Current History, he observes that China and the EU constitute "an emerging axis in world affairs," one of whose common points is "a convergence of views about the United States, its foreign policy and its global behaviour."...
There's more there and the link to the IHT article.
#1
Oh, foo. A teacup in a tsunami. The real conflict is the assumption, the preparation for conflict, not the actual causus belli. Both the US and China have been full-steam for a confrontation for 25 years, just accepting it as a given. Every effort to establish some superiority in the conquest of Taiwan, and really, the whole Pacific, by China, is met with an ever greater preparation by the US. At every level, with every action, both sides are preparing for the fight. The defender hopes to convince the attacker not to begin the campaign. The attacker is tantalized by the purse, the power a victory might promise. But the time is not yet. There are many preliminary fights to fight between now and then.
#2
The thing that gets me is that the EU is willing to sell their souls to a communist dictatorship in order to stick it to the US. The bare dirty fact of life is that there will probably be a superpower. It will probably be either the US or the Chicoms. I do not see the EU doing this. I do not see Russia in this, either. The question is who would you like to deal with in the end: the big bad US or the big bad Chinese Communists?
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
01/21/2005 17:10 Comments ||
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#3
AP -- you have hit the nail on the head. While the China - US confrontation seems to be inevitable, the Euros have positioned them as neutrals at best.
Drop the alliance bullshit, time to have new friends. The Euros are so stupid as to believe that giving China GPS technology and weaponry will counterbalance the Americans. They are playing with fire and they will get burned.
Posted by: Captain America ||
01/21/2005 23:27 Comments ||
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#4
I see the future of the US with Asia and the Pacific Rim. I would also like to see S America, but there is too much trouble.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
01/21/2005 23:31 Comments ||
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via Instapundit
THE CIA has predicted that the European Union will break-up within 15 years unless it radically reforms its ailing welfare systems.
The report by the intelligence agency, which forecasts how the world will look in 2020, warns that Europe could be dragged into economic decline by its ageing population. It also predicts the end of Nato and post-1945 military alliances.
In a devastating indictment of EU economic prospects, the report warns: "The current EU welfare state is unsustainable and the lack of any economic revitalisation could lead to the splintering or, at worst, disintegration of the EU, undermining its ambitions to play a heavyweight international role."
It adds that the EU's economic growth rate is dragged down by Germany and its restrictive labour laws. Reforms there - and in France and Italy to lesser extents - remain key to whether the EU as a whole can break out of its "slow-growth pattern".
Reflecting growing fears in the US that the pain of any proper reform would be too much to bear, the report adds that the experts it consulted "are dubious that the present political leadership is prepared to make even this partial break, believing a looming budgetary crisis in the next five years would be the more likely trigger for reform".
The EU is also set for a looming demographic crisis because of a drop in birth rates and increased longevity, with devastating economic consequences.
The report says: "Either European countries adapt their workforces, reform their social welfare, education and tax systems, and accommodate growing immigrant populations [chiefly from Muslim countries] or they face a period of protracted economic stasis."
As a result of the increased immigration needed, the report predicts that Europe's Muslim population is set to increase from around 13% today to between 22% and 37% of the population by 2025, potentially triggering tensions.
The report predicts that America's relationships with Europe will be "dramatically altered" over the next 15 years, in a move away from post-Second World War institutions. Nato could disappear and be replaced by increased EU action.
"The EU, rather than Nato, will increasingly become the primary institution for Europe, and the role Europeans shape for themselves on the world stage is most likely to be projected through it," the report adds. "Whether the EU will develop an army is an open question."
Defence spending by individual European countries, including the UK, France, and Germany, is likely to fall further behind China and other countries over the next 15 years. Collectively these countries will outspend all others except the US and possibly China.
The expected next technological revolution will involve the convergence of nano, bio, information and materials technology and will further bolster China and India's prospects, the study predicts. Both countries are investing in basic research in these fields and are well placed to be leaders. But whereas the US will retain its overall lead, the report warns "Europe risks slipping behind Asia in some of these technologies".
For Europe, an increasing preference for natural gas may reinforce regional relationships, such as those with Russia or North Africa, given the inter-dependence of pipeline delivery, the report argues. But this means the EU will have to deal with Russia, which the report also warns "faces a severe demographic crisis resulting from low birth rates, poor medical care and a potentially explosive Aids situation".
Russia also borders an "unstable region" in the Caucasus and Central Asia, "the effects of which - Muslim extremism, terrorism and endemic conflict - are likely to continue spilling over into Russia".
The report also largely en dorses forecasts that by 2020 China's gross domestic product will exceed that of individual western economic powers except for the US. India's GDP will have overtaken or be overtaking European economies.
Because of the sheer size of China's and India's populations their standard of living need not approach European and western levels to become important economic powers.
The economies of other developing countries, such as Brazil, could surpass all but the largest European countries by 2020.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
01/21/2005 7:12:47 AM ||
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#1
The Holy Roman Empire lasted from about 800AD to 1806. After its first Emperor, Charlamagne, it was a powerless, laughable joke. But it still took it the better part of a millenium to die. The disintigration of the EU would probably be faster.
Posted by: Yosemite Sam ||
01/21/2005 10:11 Comments ||
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#7
just a thought - will canada be able to have contests like this once it goes over to Shira Law?
Posted by: Yosemite Sam ||
01/21/2005 10:12 Comments ||
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#8
Are these really natural wonders of Canada? Someone should be tasked with determining this. I will make the sacrifice and volunteer. Could this be like a Chinese menu where you select one from each column (and maybe each row)?
#12
The Ayes Eyes have it, IMHO. The sparkle in 13, 19, and 49 strike me as genuine and hit the spot. I like 23's skydiving and kickboxing aspirations - but she's only 17 - at least 10 years too young, lol!
Dahlia. I think I'll take her. Is Overnight Express available?
#19
# 13 ..... Candice.
Talk about a Libido riser. Guess I may want to stay off the internet. Rantburg post yesterday had a sure fire way to lower your libido.
#29
Gretal...#26. Oh, please to let me play Hanzel. I vill vear ze tight leiderhosen, unt I vill get mine car antenna to give you ze delicate "dirrrection" across ze hindquarters. Yahh, yah. Ohhh, ze mind it swims.
#2
Who are those people? That's looks like the kind of thing that makes me glad I don't have TV
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
01/21/2005 20:38 Comments ||
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#3
And now she sez Bush, who "crawled out from under some rock", is not a legitimate President because he said "So help me God" in taking the oath of office. I presume that she is thus claiming to be a greater Constitutional scholar and legal mind than Chief Justice Rhenquist, who prompted Bush to say those words. There's no lack of confidence. Good. They can continue their practice of playing the barbarians getting creamed and utterly rejected by civilized Americans. A few more cycles is all I ask...
#4
So many foamers and droolers... where the hell have these people been all these years? Hibernating?
Posted by: Dave D. ||
01/21/2005 20:42 Comments ||
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#5
Are you watching, Mrs D? The speaker I'm referring to is a woman named Robin Morgan, apparently a contributor to something called "What We Do Now" - I presume a study or something and she is presenting her piece of it now. Her especiality appears to be the religious references that offend the seculars. She's a trip - calling upon quotes from Jefferson and others, out of context and in fits and starts spanning 200+ years, to support her stance that religiosity has dangerously damaged the US Constitution and Bush is its evil perpetuator. At least that's my take. She's wrapping up now with James Madison and his adamant stand that there be a separation of church and state. That there is, but that individuals have the right to be personally religious seems to be the missing component from the arguments I've heard thus far. It's actually very absurd to be so worked up and frightened, I'd say.
He's really off his rocker - he's got it in for Jeb and Harris. Can't understand by using exit polling how all of a sudden, Cabana Boy lost.
The girl before him wanted to target groups and went thru the demo breakdown of the election. She wants to target black conservatives, feminists, union workers....
#7
We are in WW3 or whatever, people, and the prize is free and sovereign America as we know it gets to stay free and sovereign, as opposed to being some Left-perpetuated, glorified, PC slave-tribute state amongst all others under OWG. Rest assured no matter what France, etal. does against America, it and they be PC slave-tribute states as well - to [help]kill America is ultim to kill thenmselves!
#9
Robin Morgan? Who the hell is she! Why didn't these people call ME! What about ME and what I have to say! I'll show THEM! I'll show ALL OF THEM!!!
Posted by: Michael Newdow ||
01/21/2005 20:52 Comments ||
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a2u - I didn't dial it in soon enough to hear those speakers. Before I forget, thanks for the heads-up! It is interesting, but more spooky than informative, lol!
Check out the questioner up now!!!! Personifies the Moonbats!!!!!!
#24
Ralph Nader the un-christian coalition. Our freaker Army and Ralp did not motiviate them to the greater good of the Dems... You are a frickin Genius Palast
#32
They get weirder and weirder...they concluded the conference (I counted no more than a dozen people in the audience towards the end) by agreeing not to smile, not to be agreeable.
Remarkable.
Posted by: Captain America ||
01/21/2005 21:32 Comments ||
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#33
Audience straight out of the bar sceen in Star Wars.
Posted by: Captain America ||
01/21/2005 21:34 Comments ||
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#34
Do I detect you grinning, CA? That's it! You're out of the .communist party!
#41
President Bush sprinkles a bunch of references to "God" in his inauguration speech and people go ape shit. Ima born again pagan and it does not bother me, heh heh. They need to get a life.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
01/21/2005 22:43 Comments ||
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via the Diplomad
It has been three weeks since my ship, the USS Abraham Lincoln, arrived off the Sumatran coast to aid the hundreds of thousands of victims of the Dec. 26 tsunami that ravaged their coastline. I'd like to say that this has been a rewarding experience for us, but it has not: Instead, it has been a frustrating and needlessly dangerous exercise made even more difficult by the Indonesian government and a traveling circus of so-called aid workers who have invaded our spaces.
What really irritated me was a scene I witnessed in the Lincoln's wardroom a few days ago. I went in for breakfast as I usually do, expecting to see the usual crowd of ship's company officers in khakis and air wing aviators in flight suits, drinking coffee and exchanging rumors about when our ongoing humanitarian mission in Sumatra is going to end.
What I saw instead was a mob of civilians sitting around like they owned the place. They wore various colored vests with logos on the back including Save The Children, World Health Organization and the dreaded baby blue vest of the United Nations. Mixed in with this crowd were a bunch of reporters, cameramen and Indonesian military officers in uniform. They all carried cameras, sunglasses and fanny packs like tourists on their way to Disneyland.
My warship had been transformed into a floating hotel for a bunch of trifling do-gooders overnight. Read the whole thing.
Posted by: ed ||
01/21/2005 08:43 ||
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I hope we get some good PR in the Muslim world out of it. After all, this is Americans saving the lives of Muslims.
Even the faintest thought that such a thing might come about is absolutely ludicrous.
#2
I can easily imagine this gentleman, biting his lip and wishing through some charity of heaven that he be given license to summon several burly tars to heave these persons overboard.
#3
Next time these douchebags grab a Seahawk for a ride, how about the pilot gives them a demonstration of his evasive manuevers on the way in? "Watch this, guys! These things can LOOP!"
#4
Knowing how steep companionways can be, I'm surprised no NGOers slipped on one on the way out.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
01/21/2005 11:28 Comments ||
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#5
Well it almost sounds like a Kerry Presdency.
Posted by: Bill Nelson ||
01/21/2005 11:59 Comments ||
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#6
Thanks for the great link, ed. I'm glad this guy is using a pen name to preserve his own butt in this mess. That SOB bitching about eating off paper plates should be the first of those NGO parasites to get dumped on the beach.
Posted by: Dar ||
01/21/2005 14:12 Comments ||
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#7
Lol, tu! I suggest giving them the gunner's seat in a Snake and a rockin' 180 knot ride at 50 ft, doing barrel rolls through the tree-tops.
#8
When our wardroom treasurer approached the leader of the relief group and asked him who was paying the mess bill for all the meals they ate, the fellow replied, âWe arenât paying, you can try to bill the U.N. if you want to.â
We had to dedicate two helos and a C-2 cargo plane for America-hater Dan Rather and his entourage of door holders and briefcase carriers from CBS News. Another camera crew was from MTV. I doubt if weâll get any good PR from them, since the cable channel is banned in Muslim countries. We also had to dedicate a helo and crew to fly around the vice mayor of Phoenix, Ariz., one day. Everyone wants in on the action.
You know this really pisses me off.....
To add a kick in the face to the USA and the Lincoln, the Indonesian government announced it would not allow us to use their airspace for routine training and flight proficiency operations while we are saving the lives of their people, some of whom are wearing Osama bin Ladin T-shirts as they grab at our food and water. The ship has to steam out into international waters to launch and recover jets, which makes our helos have to fly longer distances and burn more fuel.
#11
The cost of this effort is immense. Another story spiked by our idiotarian MSM. Note the opportunity cost, measured in terms of combat readiness:
What is even worse than trying to help people who totally reject everything we stand for is that our combat readiness has suffered for it.
An aircraft carrier is an instrument of national policy and the big stick she carries is her air wing. An air wing has a set of very demanding skills and they are highly perishable. We train hard every day at sea to conduct actual air strikes, air defense, maritime surveillance, close air support and many other missions â not to mention taking off and landing on a ship at sea.
Our safety regulations state that if a pilot does not get a night carrier landing every seven days, he has to be re-qualified to land on the ship. Today we have pilots who have now been over 25 days without a trap due to being unable to use Indonesian airspace to train. Normally it is when we are at sea that our readiness is at its very peak. Thanks to the Indonesian government, we have to waive our own safety rules just to get our pilots off the deck.
In other words, the longer we stay here helping these people, the more dangerous it gets for us to operate. We have already lost one helicopter, which crashed in Banda Aceh while taking sailors ashore to unload supplies from the C-130s. There were no relief workers on that one.
An international team of scientists believes it has found cancer's master switch with the discovery of a gene they dubbed "Pokemon." Like the electronic game figures - tiny monsters with bad tempers - the cancer-triggering gene apparently instigates the misbehavior of other cancer-causing genes, leading to tumor formation. In today's issue of the journal Nature, researchers at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan, in collaboration with teams in Japan and Britain, announce that the gene plays a key role in starting a malignancy. As a result, scientists now believe they have stumbled upon an important new target for an anti-cancer drug.
Dr. Carlos Cardon-Cardo, a molecular pathologist at the cancer center and a senior author of the research, defined Pokemon as an oncogene, which means it is capable of causing cancer. Dozens of oncogenes have been discovered over the past 25 years. But unlike the others, Cardon-Cardo said Pokemon has a governing role - it is needed for other genes to function. Eliminate Pokemon, he said, and you stop the activity of other cancer-causing genes. "This is the master switch that interacts with other genes," Cardon-Cardo said. "It acts differently than other oncogenes. Others regulate cell growth, but Pokemon impacts on critical properties of cancer cells."
Among those key properties, Pokemon enhances a cancer cell's ability to resist aging and death. This immortalizing factor essentially endows cancer cells with a Peter Pan-like quality that renders them robust indefinitely, the very trait that makes tumors difficult to treat. Dr. Pier Paolo Pandolfi, the study's lead investigator, said even though Pokemon shares a name with imaginary figures, whimsy was never intended. "This is very serious and the name was serendipitous, pure serendipity," Pandolfi said. Pokemon stands for POK erythroid myeloid ontogenic factor. In the study, scientists discerned Pokemon's role in human lymphoma, which originates in the lymph nodes. But Cardon-Cardo added that Pokemon is far more pervasive. "We know already that as an oncogene, Pokemon is involved in other ... tumors," and is likely active in a wide range of cancers: breast, prostate, bladder and lung malignancies, he said.
Pandolfi said the aim would be development of a drug that acts on the gene because it affects multiple forms of cancer, just as the drug Gleevec is used to treat a variety of distinct cancers that share one molecular flaw. "This is going back to a unifying theme to understand how cancer works," Pandolfi said. "What is emerging is this idea that genes work in networks. Targeting specific sites will be important in drug development. "Pharmaceutical companies do not like to invest in something like this when the gene is rare. This one is not."
On the heels of electoral victories barring same-sex marriage, some influential conservative Christian groups are turning their attention to a new target: the cartoon character SpongeBob SquarePants. Damn, that Lavender Brigade is getting bigger by the day.... "Does anybody here know SpongeBob in a biblical way?" Dr. James C. Dobson, the founder of Focus on the Family, asked the guests Tuesday night at a black-tie dinner for members of Congress and political allies to celebrate the election results. SpongeBob needed no introduction. In addition to his popularity among children, who watch his cartoon show, he has become a well-known camp figure among adult gay men, perhaps because he holds hands with his animated sidekick Patrick and likes to watch the imaginary television show "The Adventures of Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy."
Now, Dr. Dobson said, SpongeBob's creators had enlisted him in a "pro-homosexual video," in which he appeared alongside children's television colleagues like Barney and Jimmy Neutron, among many others. The makers of the video, he said, planned to mail it to thousands of elementary schools to promote a "tolerance pledge" that includes tolerance for differences of "sexual identity." The video's creator, Nile Rodgers, who wrote the disco hit "We Are Family," said Mr. Dobson's objection stemmed from a misunderstanding. Mr. Rodgers said he founded the We Are Family Foundation after the Sept. 11 attacks to create a music video to teach children about multiculturalism. The video has appeared on television networks, and nothing in it or its accompanying materials refers to sexual identity. The pledge, borrowed from the Southern Poverty Law Center, is not mentioned on the video and is available only on the group's Web site.
Mr. Rodgers suggested that Dr. Dobson and the American Family Association, the conservative Christian group that first sounded the alarm, might have been confused because of an unrelated Web site belonging to another group called "We Are Family," which supports gay youth. "The fact that some people may be upset with each other peoples' lifestyles, that is O.K.," Mr. Rodgers said. "We are just talking about respect."
Mark Barondess, the foundation's lawyer, said the critics "need medication." On Wednesday however, Paul Batura, assistant to Mr. Dobson at Focus on the Family, said the group stood by its accusation. "We see the video as an insidious means by which the organization is manipulating and potentially brainwashing kids," he said. "It is a classic bait and switch." I always thought homosexuality was the mother's fault....now I guess it's too much Saturday morning TV...
#6
I've always thought that religious conservatives' obsession with homosexuality involved a whole lot of displacement. These are people who are not at all comfortable with their sexuality.
Besides, SpongeBob and Patrick are just friends. Really.
Posted by: Jonathan ||
01/21/2005 16:06 Comments ||
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#7
Has he been slumming with that b*tch Tinky Winky again?
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/21/2005 17:15 Comments ||
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#10
Dobson's Focus on the Family is a wonderful organization. Dr. Dobson himself is a terrific person. But I am having trouble placing Sponge Bob on my parental radar screen.
My kid's know what the Bible says about homosexuality and God, and they are capable of faulting the sin, not the sinner.
Posted by: Captain America ||
01/21/2005 17:29 Comments ||
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David Atkinson spent 18 years designing an experiment for the unmanned space mission to Saturn. Now some pieces of it are lost in space. Someone forgot to turn on the instrument Atkinson needed to measure the winds on Saturn's largest moon. "The story is actually fairly gruesome," the University of Idaho scientist said in an e-mail from Germany, the headquarters of the European Space Agency. "It was human error - the command to turn the instrument on was forgotten..." I thought I'd heard a loud kind of "ARRRGGGHH!-y sound the other day.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
01/21/2005 16:27 Comments ||
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#5
Commands to spacecraft this far away are carefully scripted & computerized, since you don't get a second chance. And they had years for simulation & review. Seems to me the onus is on the ESA for not catching any flaws.
The U.S. Air Force could start operating aircraft in "near space," the no man's land above 65,000 feet (20,000 meters) but below an outer-space orbit, within a year, a top U.S. Air Force space official said Tuesday. The Air Force is actively exploring ways to use helium-filled free-floating balloons and remotely controlled gliderlike aircraft to protect U.S. convoys, track friendly forces, assess battle damage and boost communications between groups of troops in military hot spots like Iraq. Near-space craft could give the military new ways to achieve those missions and save money over current aerial vehicles and satellites.
Lt. Gen. Daniel Leaf, vice commander of U.S. Air Force Space Command, cited a planned demonstration this month of a balloon-type aircraft that would ascend to 60,000 to 70,000 feet (18,000 to 22,000 meters) above Phoenix, Ariz., where it would test relaying communications between ground troops, a hypothetical air support center and fighter jets patrolling the air. That balloon, Combat SkySat Phase I, was built by Space Data Corp., and carries a signal repeater for the U.S. Army's PRC 148 hand-held radio, according to published reports. Another demonstration of something known as the "Near Space Maneuvering Vehicle" is planned later this month or next in Oregon, an Air Force spokesman said. The Air Force could start using near-space aircraft to relay communications within the next year, but it could take up to a decade to develop other aircraft that would take on more sophisticated missions such as surveillance, Leaf said. Leaf said the Air Force was evaluating about 10 different concepts for aircraft that could be used for surveillance, intelligence and reconnaissance and perhaps to augment a fleet of Global Positioning Satellites orbiting the earth.
He also said the Air Force had no plans to put weapons aboard these aircraft. "There is a lot of excitement in the military, and the Air Force in particular, about near space and the potential it offers," Leaf told Reuters in a telephone interview from his office at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado. "This is not a passing fad or fancy," he said, although he acknowledged that industry faced significant challenges in developing materials that could withstand extreme ultraviolet radiation in the outer reaches of Earth's atmosphere. More work was also needed on ways to allow aerostats and other aircraft to hover in one place without the tethers that are used at lower altitudes, where such aircraft are already used for border patrol missions and other surveillance. Near-space aircraft, likely to cost far less than current unmanned aerial vehicles or satellites launched into space, could also help cover gaps in satellite coverage that could emerge as U.S. national security satellites age, Leaf said. Moreover, near-space aircraft such as balloons and gliders could be programmed to land in friendly territory, where they could be recovered and reused, unlike satellites.
Posted by: Anonymoose ||
01/21/2005 10:08:54 AM ||
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#1
I think they just invented the SR-71. Raises and promotions all around!
#2
Lol, gromky! It just won't be quite as fast, heh.
I worked with a guy waay back when, who was an SR-71 mechanic (He would object and say "technician", lol!) who told me that after a run over NorKieland where they'd fire a missile or ten, the pilots would track 'em and said they were about 1/3 of the way back to Beall before the missiles could even reach altitude, heh. He said they were not cocky, just proud to ride real rockets for a living, heh.
"But we can still kill 'em 'cuz we don't like 'em, right?"
"Oh, sure. That's okay!"
In the eyes of their families and tribes, Shahid Mustafa and Imam Khatoon committed an unpardonable, heinous crime: They eloped.
The young lovers fled at midnight from a remote village of Pakistan's southwestern Sindh Province and were married in a Karachi court two years ago. Back in the village, the girl's parents felt their daughter's actions had brought dishonor upon their family. They took their anger to a tribal jirga, or gathering, where the couple was placed under a death threat known as Karo Kari. "The armed men of the tribe are chasing us. They threatened me to send my wife back to her family, attacked our house, and shot twice at me and my wife to kill us," says Mr. Mustafa. Ten months ago, when Mustafa was away from home, the men of his wife's family kidnapped her and their infant son. Mustafa has not seen or heard from them since.
Though it may be too late for Mustafa's wife, and more than 1,200 other women in Pakistan killed last year in the name of "family honor," President Pervez Musharraf signed a bill last week making honor killing an explicit criminal act punishable by death. Rights activists say it is a small step forward and that more must be done to change tribal and feudal attitudes that treat women like property. "It is a landmark decision as the law protects the rights of women and eliminates such archaic rituals," says Wasi Zafar, the federal minister for law and parliamentary affairs. "But the problem is securing the rights of women, and it will be solved gradually and slowly by collective efforts of the society. Such inhumane crimes occur due to the tribal system, illiteracy, and poverty and we have to solve these issues."
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: tipper ||
01/21/2005 1:22:31 AM ||
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#1
How nice. Will this law be enforced as vigorously as the ones Pakistan already has on the books?
#2
I'm sure some deranged Pakistani "holy man" will found a workaround in the Koran. He's probably pouring through the book right now.
And, I'm telling you, it's in there. And he'll find it.
MADRAS: Another battered body was found Thursday at one of India's leading temples whose chief priest has already been accused of murder, police said. A milkman discovered the corpse of 40-year-old Srini Acharya in a pool of blood from a head wound at the Vishnu Uttaradi Mutt, a lodging house for pilgrims at the 2,500-year-old hermitage at Kanchipuram. The Vishnu Uttaradi Mutt is part of the Varadaraja Perumal Temple complex, where a 52-year-old former employee who had alleged financial irregularities was stabbed to death in September.
Jayendra Saraswathi, the most powerful of Hinduism's four chief priests, spent two months in detention on suspicion of murder, criminal conspiracy and suppression of evidence over the death of his one-time aide. The Supreme Court released him on bail January 11 but barred him from returning to the temple complex west of Madras. Saraswathi's high-profile detention had rocked the Hindu establishment and sparked mass media coverage. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh wrote to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayaram Jayalalitha asking her to ensure investigations against a "person of his eminence" are conducted "with extreme care and consideration." She has publicly stated that the evidence against the priest's involvement in the first murder is "shocking but solid". Saraswathi's hermitage controls assets worth more than 50 billion rupees (1.14 billion dollars). Police said the latest victim, Srini Acharya, had called in a colleague to look after the lodging house since he planned to return home Thursday to Bihar state after his mother died. A police spokesman said the latest murder may be linked to complaints by Acharya against locals encroaching on land owned by the lodging house.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/21/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
When newly-inaugurated president George W. Bush addressed the U.S. yesterday (Jan. 20) he may have secretly been saying that four more years means four more years of war. At least, that's the claim of reverse speech expert Jon Kelly. He claims that when Bush said, "We will encourage reform in other governments by making clear that success in our relations will require the decent treatment of their own people," in reverse he said, "Hero's gonna shell Iran." And when Kelly played in reverse Bush's statement, "And as hope kindles home millions more will find it," he heard the Prez say, "Bombs will make laws." 
"Does anybody here know SpongeBob 
MADRAS: Another battered body was found Thursday at one of India's leading temples whose chief priest has already been accused of murder, police said. A milkman discovered the corpse of 40-year-old Srini Acharya in a pool of blood from a head wound at the Vishnu Uttaradi Mutt, a lodging house for pilgrims at the 2,500-year-old hermitage at Kanchipuram. The Vishnu Uttaradi Mutt is part of the Varadaraja Perumal Temple complex, where a 52-year-old former employee who had alleged financial irregularities was stabbed to death in September.
