A man has been charged with felony assault after he allegedly shoved a phone down his girlfriend's throat. The Missouri woman who was taken to St. Maryâs Medical Center in Blue Springs with a cell phone lodged in her throat may not have voluntarily swallowed the device. âSubsequent investigation found that she didnât swallow the cell phone voluntarily,â Police Sgt. Allen Kintz told the Associated Press. âOur initial press release was that she had swallowed a cell phone.â
We were wondering about that...
The 24-year-old womanâs boyfriend has been charged with felony assault after he allegedly shoved the phone down his girlfriendâs throat in an argument. The cell phone was removed from her throat by doctors at the hospital.
"Can you hear me now?"
Posted by: Fred ||
12/29/2005 00:00 ||
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The President of Kenya is appealing for international help to prevent more deaths in what is being called the "Christmas famine" in the country's north-east. Mwai Kibaki has visited the country's north-east, where at least 20 people have died of malnutrition and related illnesses this month. Most of the dead are children and aid workers fear that the toll is much higher in remote villages that cannot be accessed. The area is affected by a severe drought and the situation is worsening. The number of people who need food is likely to rise from 1.3 million to 2.5 by February. The Kenyan Government has released $US40 million for new wells. It is asking the international community for another $US100 million.
We were just discussing Kenya last night. Like George Moonbat sez, it's all the fault of the Brits, for mistreating the Mau Maus and for what they did in India 130 years ago. Not that famine is anything to joke about, but neither is it something to trivialize. My guess is that Kenya will receive adequate assistance and that their government will take just as adequate measures to get relief to their people — quite unlike Zim or Somalia or a few other places. The longer-term solution will be infrastructure, to whit, the distribution system, since famine is a localized event. But then we'll hear the Moonbats of the world bitching because the Masai, formerly mighty hunters, will be reduced to going to the grocery store.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/29/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
I met a girl from Kenya once. Worked for Westfield, Bondi Junction, Sydney, Australia.
Her dad was in the Kenyan government.
She got to fly all round the world. Best education in the best schools. They lived the RICH life.
Wonder about whether the Kenyan govt doesn't siphon off all the cash that SHOULD have gone to building up the country....
BRISTOL, EnglandâIn front of the altar at St. Paul's Church, two young acrobats balance upside down with their toes pointed heavenward. Unicycles lean against 200-year-old pews and trapezes hang from 12-metre-high scaffolding alongside stained-glass images of Moses, David and Elijah. "I love to see the church used like this," says the Rev. David Self, the local Church of England vicar, watching 20 teenagers training to become circus performers. "If we worship and celebrate a God who is creative, for me this is part of His work."
"Besides, I got nuttin' else to do. Bein' a vicar ain't what it used to be, and it never was that strenuous..."
St. Paul's, a towering 18th-century landmark in this industrial city 160 kilometres west of London, is an emblem of a movement to save this nation's majestic but increasingly empty churches by converting them to inventive new uses. Hundreds of historic houses of worship are being turned into apartments, offices, pubs, spas, shops and, in the case of St. Paul's, an academy to teach circus and theatre skills to underprivileged youths. "These churches are part of the nation's identity," says Paul Lewis, a Church of England official who oversees conversions of church buildings. "Sometimes the economic reality is that churches have to be closed. At the end of the day, it's better to have the buildings being used."
"I mean, we don't have any use for them anymore. Back in the old days, when we used to worship God, then we had some use for them..."
The Church of England, founded by King Henry VIII in 1534, is the nation's largest. But it has closed about 1,700 churches since 1970, as attendance has declined and centuries-old buildings have become too costly to maintain. Fewer than 7 per cent of Britons now attend church regularly, according to Christian Research, a private group that studies church issues. Church of England officials say that while the church has 24 million baptized members in England, only about 1 million of them are in the pews on a typical Sunday.
... and most of them aren't particularly interested.
Many of the buildings being converted are cavernous structures erected in the 18th and 19th centuries, with imposing spires rising in crowded city centres. But residents have migrated to the suburbs, especially since World War II, and left behind aging buildings that are extremely expensive to heat and maintain. The Church of England still operates more than 16,000 churches, and about 500 new ones have been built in the past 35 years, many in suburban areas. But, Lewis said, the church continues to shut about 30 buildings a year. "There is a great sadness surrounding the closure of these historic buildings," said Steve Bruce, a professor of sociology at the University of Aberdeen. "But they have to be shut down and sold off. There is absolutely no reason to suppose that there is going to be a great turnaround in church attendance."
More at the link, of course...
I love the old churches of Europe. I've been to Notre Dame, and I've been to Aachen and to Rheims, among others, purely to admire the architecture. It's sad to realize that they're going to become just buildings, and that eventually they'll be torn down because they're too expensive to keep up. But I'm not surprised. When you stand for nothing, where's the surprise when nobody wants to join you? If there's no good, no evil, no heaven, no hell, no sin, no redemption, and God is a vague idea rather than a literal presence, then the buildings are white elephants, suitable for training acrobats and jugglers and clowns.
If the Church of England and its intellectual clones spent a bit more time dwelling on the concepts of good and evil, and maybe took a stand on the side of good, people might start coming back, rather than wandering off to either join other churches or to sit at home and try and figure things out for themselves. Their children might even be raised with those very concepts of good and evil and be steered toward the good.
What need has a church to be "inclusive"? It doesn't mean welcoming all who accept the theology, regardless of social status, color, or what have you. The term's been redefined so that everybody can be a part of the "congregation," whether they believe or not. But that's not really a congregation. It's just a crowd, and a dwindling crowd at that.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/29/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
I have rolls and rolls of film from a week wondering into the churches of Florence and Pisa. It's one of my favorite vacations. Wasn't just the architecture but the sense that the old-timers really knew something about getting you indoors to connect you to the Almighty. Wonder if any of the present-day Italians feel that way?
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/29/2005 0:07 Comments ||
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#2
The next time time any of you make it to England try and get to see Greenstead Church. Its an undiscovered gem. A wooden church built in the eighth century. I grew up a few miles away and was completely unaware of its existence until about ten years ago. BTW, thousand year old Norman churches are a dime a dozen in the area.
#3
Great post Fred. I've visited many a British Church/Cathedral in my days - my mother used to love to stop at any an all of them. It annoyed me then, but I'm glad of it now. But that was years ago.
They are glorious symbols of the beauty and tradition that was once contained both inside and out for thousands of years. The music, learning, fellowship and (lowers voice so as not to offend) faith.
Today, as in many of our major Protestant churches here in America, they are more often than not empty because they are spirtually empty. Throw your money in the plate and ease your guilt for the collective sins in the world. No additonal effort is required on your part.
Personally, I have little problem with the idea of circus performers in St. Paul's - it somehow seems a fitting venue for what the Anglican church has become. Besides, it hardly means the end of the spirit of Christ that was once contained within: Joy, hope, faith, love, forgiveness and redemption. A mansion does not make a home any more than a cathedral makes a church. It is the spirits inside them that give them life...or the lack thereof.
#4
The Anglican church has ceased to exist as a Christian Church, at least doctrinally. And that has caused it to die spiritually, which is now being reflected in the physical churches themselves. It was bound to happen, given the original resons for the founding of the Church of England and the lack of any real theological or spiritual leadership in the Church for the past century. The only place the Anglican Church is doing well at all is in the Third world, which is philosophically much more tradtional and conservative than the ArchDruid of Canturbry and his gang of limp "anything goes" syncophants. You may as well be a zarathustrian if you dont really want any strong beliefs, and if you dont want God active in your world view (as the Anglicans seem to have discarded the Holy Trinity as being central), why not be done with it and be a Buddhist or an athiest? Its much more honest intelectually.
A theology that asks little and gives little will eventually be little.
Same goes for the traditionalist protestant churches world-wide: they are growing while the liberal "main line" protestant denominations fade into becoming a pale imitiation of the bloodless and rootless Unitarians.
On the Catholic side of things: There is now a "fight" for the doctrine of the Catholic Church similar in nature. Luckily, we Catholics have the Traditions, Magestarium and a couple thousand years of deep (and conservative) scholarship to draw upon, and we have had a steadfast Pope who was conservative (John Paul the Great), and his successor Benedict XVI is similarly inclined. They have laid the groundwork by appointing conservative bishops world-wide who carry on the work of JP-tG. And there is also the Church Militant rising from the laity: many of us are working hard to bring reform to the bishoprics that have been saddled with asses, like the Archdiocese of Los Angeles (Mahoney is an unmitigated disaster!), and Boston (which is only now recovering from Cardinal Law's ineptitude and mismanagement, and his focus on wordliness that nearly destroyed the Church there). We are reminding our shepherds that some of us are sheepdogs, not sheep. And we will drive off the shepherds we see harming the flock, treating them the same as we would any wolves.
If only we could get more good bishops, archbishops and cardinals like Archbishop Chaput in Denver: his Archdiocese actually turns out enough priests to where it can help other dioceses! It is a conservative theology school from all that I have been able to find on the internet - and there is the "secret" to it all:
The adherence to the incorruptible core values of Christianity, the rock upon which faith is founded. Abandon those and you abandon Christianity, leaving you with nothing but empty rhetoric, empty souls, and empty buildings. The Anglican Church is finding this out the hard way.
#5
A very sad transition that we're watching before our eyes. "Many of the buildings being converted are cavernous structures erected in the 18th and 19th centuries.." When one walks through these awe inspiring buildings you really appreciate and admire the essence in the history, beauty and grace that they have. The locals never seem to realize what a gold mine in history and beauty that is in their backyard. They seem to take many of these buildings for granted.
Add the addition of mosques and the strong beliefs that go along with it, makes me not want to predict what is ahead.
Posted by: Jan ||
12/29/2005 10:27 Comments ||
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#6
"David Self, the local Church of England vicar, watching 20 teenagers training to become circus performers."
This must be the "Big Tent" philosophy of congregational inclusion I've been hearing about.
#8
If only we could get more good bishops, archbishops and cardinals like Archbishop Chaput in Denver: his Archdiocese actually turns out enough priests to where it can help other dioceses!
That's amazing, OldSpook! I have never heard of that (unfortunately...but considering my old diocese was saddled with a loser like O'Brien, it was amazing there were any priests at all left in Phoenix....)
#9
SM, I was actually thinking that too, but thought all of the christian windows and decor would deter this train of thought.
I would much rather see the circus in there
Posted by: Jan ||
12/29/2005 13:11 Comments ||
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#10
I want to see it Phil.
Posted by: Leon Clavin ||
12/29/2005 15:55 Comments ||
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#11
The Muslims manged to turn the Haggia Sophia in Istanbul into a mosque without any problem or qualms, simply by covering the human figures with plaques (many with lovely Arabic calligraphy thereupon). The Haggia Sophia is now a museum rather than an active mosque, but the Turkish government hasn't yet seen fit to uncover the covered Christian bits. Nor, under the current government, is that likely to happen anytime soon. So turning as many as needed English churches into mosques shouldn't pose any difficulties... and no doubt the Anglican authorities would be thrilled at the multi-culturalism of the whole thing.
Oldspook, you and your various cohorts of sheepdogs keep up the good work!
Using the 1965 Voting Rights Act, the government has alleged that Brown and local elections officials discriminated against whites. It is the first time the Justice Department has ever claimed that whites suffered discrimination in voting because of race. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
The Justice Department says Brown and local elections officials disenfranchised whites â challenging their voting status, rejecting their absentee ballots and telling voters to choose candidates according to race. Yep, they're Democrats. That whirring sound you hear is Harry Truman and Hubert Humphrey spinning in their graves.
Brown says he has merely tried to keep white Republicans from voting in Democratic primaries. He says the lawuit is all political â an attempt to discredit him because the Democratic Party in eastern Mississippi has been doing so well at bringing new voters to the polls, which may mean someday soon that Mississippi, a red state, could turn blue.
"The Justice Department's become an arm of the RNC," Brown said.
The Justice Department would not comment, but county prosecutor Ricky Walker is a potential witness for the government. Walker was surprised when Brown recruited a black candidate who didn't even live in the county to run against him. Walker, after all, is a Democrat.
"Mr. Brown seems to favor black candidates," Walker said. "He's always encouraged blacks to vote strictly for the black candidates." I'll go out on a limb here and guess that Walker is white.
Brown is unapologetic.
He says some local white Democrats aren't "true" Democrats. Just like ALL black Republicans aren't "black enough." >:-(
"We support the black candidates because we're sure they're going to vote for welfare in the liberal interest," Brown said.
Jesse Jackson/Al Sharpton, call your office. Your long-lost twin racist jerk brother just surfaced.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
12/29/2005 18:27 ||
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Oh I am really not suprised. I am sure some liberal judge will side with brown too.
...In the first three quarters of this year, U.S. venture-capital firms funneled $67.7 million into the solar-energy sector ... doesn't sound like much except it is accompanied by lots of govt R&D and lots of other stuff
... up from $31.4 million for all of 2004, according to the...
That's more than 30 times the amount invested 10 years ago...The NVCA says solar investments for the first three quarters of 2005 represented more than a third of the $194.6 million invested by venture-capital firms in the entire U.S. energy industry.... Thank god Al Gore is president or this would never have happened.
This post aims at developing an understanding of the context that lead to the initial (not necessarily ongoing) Palestinian refugee problem. The claim for or refusal of a âright of returnâ stems from the conditions that created the refugee problem in the first place. Trying to pin down that context, however, involves more than simply reading up on Israelâs War of Independence or the Palestinians Nakba (catastrophe). It also involves entering into âthe Wars of the Historiansâ.[1] As some know well and others not at all, the historical record and interpretation of the events of 1948 and the surrounding years, are hotly disputed. This post will certainly not change that circumstance. Challenge and dispute as you see fit. ...
#1
Whatever, it was THREE generations ago. There is NO way to restore the past. War sucks. It always screws somebody (maybe nearly everybody.) To me it seems like a whole lot more Jews were expelled over the years from Arab lands than Arabs from Israel, even assuming the Palestinian version of history and counting population growth since then. As far as I can tell, the Jews 'took' the historical land of Judea (which means land of the Jews?), an area with negligible natural resources and minimal Islamic historical significance, and made something of it, to the point where the Arabs who stayed are about the most free and wealthy in the entire Arab world (excepting 'royal' families). In a 'fair' world the rest of the Arab nations would have absorbed the fairly small number of 'expelled' and moved on, but instead they concentrated on making the problem grow. And grow. And grow. To where it is now inevitably going to lead to some kind of Armageddon where nobody 'wins' anything.
#5
Allan has always sent earthquakes, tornados, hurricanes, etc., etc, etc.
Itâs a test, not of oneâs faith, but of oneâs intelligence. The ability to adapt to an imperfect environment. Those who fail shall suffer the loss of family, friends, and community in great numbers. Thus the unending punishment of Allen of those who refuse the brain Allen has given them. Allen put very little cognitive abilities into the knees. Those who strive to understand the hand work of Allen are able to adapt technology and cultural behaviors which support survival and will be blessed by Allen with many generations of family and community. Allen smiles upon intelligent cognitive practitioners.
Thank you Chuck Simmins for all your hard work in compiling this information. I like the format too. This is dedicated to Matt, Glenmore, and all of Rantburg's once and future Gulf Coast readers.
Excerpt:
Something amazing is happening in my momâs little town of Pearlington, Mississippi, something inspiring and hopeful, something full of love and renewal. A grass roots movement is growing from the mud and despair of Katrina, and itâs making my heart grow by three sizes just to know it exists. I want to nurture it, protect it, share it with you. Its spirit was embodied in one amazing day this week, a day that represents to me all that is right with the world, all that is good and caring in the human spirit.
#1
Thanks for pointing this out to me.
I took the 'scenic' route in to the office downtown today for the first time in a month. Very little visible improvement - traffic signals still out, almost no people about. And surprisingly, on a gorgeous day like today, nobody working on anything. But there are now a few FEMA trailers in peoples' yards in Hollygrove.
I would blame the lack of progress on the politicians, who have given us the new #1 oxymoron - political leadership - but it's deeper than that ('in a democracy you get the government you deserve.') I could blame the insurance companies for being so slow to pay up - but there is plenty that could be getting done free, and isn't. Depression is almost epidemic (I saw in the paper this morning that a past friend couldn't take it and killed himself this week.)
But - Rebirth Brass Band is playing the Maple Leaf, so all is not lost!
I grow increasingly concerned that our fellow Americans are being forgotten. This is our tsunami. For the first time in memory, tens of thousands of Americans are living in third world conditions, wondering where their next meal is coming from, refugees in their own country.
The Gulf Coast recovery will take a decade or more. Here it is, four months after the worst disaster in American history and it's gone from our media.
#3
Gone from the MSM - what did you expect? They can not beat Bush up without getting a lot of their own in the same blame-game, and it shows soemthign no liberal wants to show: that government is ineffective and is NOT the solution. So its of no use to the MSM and they will ignore it, like the suprisingly strong US economy, or the elections in Iraq.
The inability fo the 4th estate to report widely and fairly, to abandon their tacit political biases, is damaging the nation. Pinch Sulzburg and his elitist ilk need to be held accountable. Tar and feathers seem appropriate.
#4
You've probably seen the blue tarp roofs all over the surviving Gulf Coast buildings - today's New Orleans paper points out the cost of those things after applying layers of government contractors and bureaucracy - is around $175 a square, or roughly the same as a conventional new roof. Same system applies to pretty much everything from debris removal to levee repair. It's the only way they could possibly have spent the $30 billion + so far - about $15,000 per man, woman and child in the area. That's pretty amazing when you realize almost nothing has actually been rebuilt yet. In other words, America may not be 'forgetting' us, it just thinks (with good reason) that enough money has been spent that there shouldn't be a big problem.
#5
About two weeks ago one of the two local free weekly bettydcrockercrat papers ran an editorial about how horrible it was that Bush hadn't yet kept his promise to rebuild the gulf coast, and decried the "republican whisper campaign" about Louisiana's unfortunate history of corruption.
(As if it were some sort of historical anamoly, like the Pappy O'Daniel's Flour Hour or Huey Long's governorship, and there weren't corruption issues in the here and now about why the levees failed in the first place).
Posted by: Phil ||
12/29/2005 12:02 Comments ||
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#6
However, Laurence Simon had a link to a Houston paper recently that the Houston school district has gotten a grand total of $165,000 from Uncle Sam, out of miliions promised to absorb all those NO schoolkids...
#7
Seafarious - maybe the rest of the millions promised to Houston was chewed up in 'overhead'. That's how $2 worth of blue vinyl ends up costing $175. Or how the Air Force pays $500 for a $4 hammer.
Posted by: Leon Clavin ||
12/29/2005 16:05 Comments ||
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#9
Em, thanks for posting this and thanks also to Chuck Simmins. I generally agree with Glenmore's observations about what things are like now. The scale and visual impact of the destruction in the residential areas of Orleans Parish just can't be conveyed, and I haven't even seen the Mississippi Gulf Coast yet.
Posted by: Matt ||
12/29/2005 17:40 Comments ||
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#10
I think I'm starting to understand that the SOMEBODY who should be doing SOMETHING is...us.
#12
Will do. We've got a powerful piece of work in front of us.
Posted by: Matt ||
12/29/2005 19:02 Comments ||
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#13
Seafarious - I'm not sure who you mean by the 'us'. In my opinion the 'us' is mainly we who were affected - just get the f*** out of the way. Since probably mid-Oct or so I think the overall process has more been hindered by government than helped. Government needs to tell us the 'rules', pay what they promised to the lowest level possible, and then go away.
#14
Government can't win in these situations. They either pay $400 for a hammer today or take five weeks to purchase a $4 hammer, and use a ton of paperwork to do it.
There isn't enough money from government for what needs doing. The private efforts are so important. I'd like to see some banks choose to take a loss on the mortgages they now hold on bare ground, and forgive them. I'd like to see each and every little two bit politician stop posturing for the media. I'd like to see some planning for how folks with no money, no job and no home are supposed to return to the Coast. I'd like to see New Orleans hold an election on schedule. I'd like to see business micro loan programs to restart all the small businesses in the region. Heck, just get the traffic lights working.
This recovery ought to be a perfect example of the "can do" attitude of Americans, everything done twice as good in half the time. I'm certain the people of the Gulf Coast are capable of amazing things. Let's hope that the rest of America is willing to do the same.
Please keep me posted. I've been blogging this from day one and I'm not going to quit now.
#15
Given that what I sent to the Red Cross appears to have been largely wasted / squandered, I can only say that, in future, I will only trust the Salvation Army as an Org - and otherwise give directly to people - no middlemen need beg. Everyone's circumstances are different, but giving enough to really feel it struck me as the way to treat this. Now I consider myself to have received a painfully expensive personal lesson in fraud and waste.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
A man has been charged with felony assault after he allegedly 
BRISTOL, EnglandâIn front of the altar at St. Paul's Church, two young acrobats balance upside down with their toes pointed heavenward. Unicycles lean against 200-year-old pews and trapezes hang from 12-metre-high scaffolding alongside stained-glass images of Moses, David and Elijah. "I love to see the church used like this," says the Rev. David Self, the local Church of England vicar, watching 20 teenagers training to become circus performers. "If we worship and celebrate a God who is creative, for me this is part of His work."
