'm 25 years old,'' Marilyn Monroe says in "Some Like It Hot.'' "That's a quarter of a century. Makes a girl think.''
The Miracle on Ice hits the quarter-century mark today, and if I said not a year has gone by that I don't think about it, I would be exaggerating only a bit.
There never has been anything like it, of course. Not for the sheer surprise of it. Or the enormity. Or the impact. Or the joy.
Usually, when you are present at something that was not supposed to happen -- that was not supposed to be possible -- it takes time to get your arms around it. To understand what it means and how it will change the lives of those who made it happen....
Oboy. Another lost doinker story. I think I'll go lie down for the rest of the afternoon...
A woman upset about an impending breakup with her boyfriend cut off the man's penis and flushed it down a toilet, police here are alleging.
Upset doesn't quite cover it
Utility workers recovered the severed member Sunday and surgeons reattached it. Kim Tran, 35, was charged with first-degree assault, domestic violence and tampering with evidence. She was being held in custody without bail. Police spokeswoman Anita Shell said police received a call just after midnight Sunday that a 44-year-old man had been dropped off by his girlfriend at Providence Hospital with amputated genitals.
Well, that was big of her
"It was brutal, brutal," Shell said. The man's name has not been released in keeping with department policy in domestic violence cases, Shell said.
Also to protect him from ridicule, read on..
Investigators determined that the man and Tran had argued over a impending breakup on Saturday night. The relationship had lasted a little more than a year but the man no longer wanted to be involved, police said. At some point, the couple decided to have sexual relations and the man agreed to have his arms tied to a window handle above their bed.
STUPID!! Make-up sex = Good, Break-up sex = bad. Break-up sex tied to a bed = Darwin Award nominee
The woman then pulled out a kitchen knife and severed the man's penis, police said. She flushed the penis down the toilet, untied the man and drove him to the hospital. She assisted him to a nurse's station and then drove home, Shell said.
"Here, he's all your's."
Officers arrived at the couple's home and found the woman cleaning up the bloody scene. A police supervisor contacted officials at the Anchorage Water and Wastewater Utility and asked them to go to the home to see if the man's body part could be recovered.
Now there's a service call you don't get everyday
Utility workers removed the toilet and found the severed member, which was rushed to Providence Hospital and reattached successfully early Sunday morning.
Posted by: Steve ||
02/22/2005 1:03:24 PM ||
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At some point, the couple decided to have sexual relations and the man agreed to have his arms tied to a window handle above their bed
Why reattach? Anyone this stupid needs to have his DNA not passed on in the gene pool. Now someone who he could impregnate (If it still works) might produce stupid offspring...
#2
Excuse me, officer, we're looking for... what?
That's what I thought you said.
Posted by: Anchorage Water and Wastewater Utility ||
02/22/2005 13:30 Comments ||
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More with the Southeast Asian women severing members. Is this some kind of underground cultural thing, or do they just like to take matters into their own hands?
Posted by: Jonathan ||
02/22/2005 13:45 Comments ||
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The field of Neuro surgery is always advancing, so there is hope. The poor guy can always call Adam and Eve for prosthesis or adaptive equipment.
I hate to see any guy left all "balled" up.
Lets here it from Trailing Wife and Barbara Skolaut.
Will health insurance pay for this? Or is it considered cosmetic surgery?
ANdrea Jackson
Posted by: Andrea ||
02/22/2005 14:46 Comments ||
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We gotta hear from AP. I figure the chilly pipe conditions allowed for easy recovery and reattachment. Something to remember if you consider moving.
#6
Good Lord, Andrea, why on earth do you think I'd know such a thing!?!
Nontheless, hazarding a guess, it seems logical that this could reasonably be called emergency surgery for the gentleman involved.... I certainly wouldn't think of it as optional cosmetic surgery, since it was not his decision to be dismembered. On the other hand, I would think the insurance company would then go after the woman to be reimbursed for the costs, as it certainly was an optional action on her part to cause the damage.
#7
# 6 Do we have any personal injury lawyers out there? WHich way would you swing your gavel??
You are correct the penis should be treated as
any appendage in need of surgery. WHAT A WORLD.
Call up Barbara Skolaut and get the input. We are waiting....
Andrea Jackson
Posted by: Andrea ||
02/22/2005 18:24 Comments ||
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chanting of USA -- USA. It was that hockey team that first heard those words USA -- USA
The Miracle on Ice was more than just an Olympic upset; to many Americans, it was an ideological victory in the Cold War as meaningful as the Berlin Airlift or the Apollo moon landing. The upset came at an auspicious time: President Jimmy Carter had just announced that the United States was going to boycott the 1980 Summer Games in Moscow because of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and Americans, faced with a major recession and the Iran hostage crisis, were in dire need of something to celebrate. After the game, President Carter called the players to congratulate them, and millions of Americans spent that Friday night in revelry over the triumph of "our boys" over the Russian pros.
As ABC hockey announcers Al Michaels and Ken Dryden walked through Lake Placid one afternoon a quarter-century ago, they talked about the sliver-sized hope they had for the upcoming game at Olympic Center.
No, not about the United States hockey team beating the mighty Soviet Union -- that would have been ridiculous. Maybe, they reasoned, the U.S. could keep it a game for two periods. It would be great if they could keep the score to, say, 3-1. That's all anyone could ask for.
"Just give us a game that isn't a complete rout," Michaels said.
Several hours later, the United States clung to a 4-3 lead. The Olympic Center was in a frenzy.
Finally, as the puck skittered toward center ice and the last seconds ticked off, another thought -- a single word -- replaced "ridiculous" in Michaels' head.
Michaels then translated that spontaneous thought, that word, into the single most famous phrase in sportscasting history, one he swears was unscripted: "Do you believe in miracles? Yes!"
"I don't know where 'Yes!' came from," Michaels said last week. "I still don't know where 'Do you believe in miracles?' came from. It was a stroke of good fortune. . . . It provided a signature for what had taken place."
Posted by: Sherry ||
02/22/2005 10:38:51 AM ||
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#1
And if that had occurred today:
1- Howard Dean says he supposes that's a good thing.
2- Amnesty International reports on vicious bodychecking by the American players.
3- A columnist in the Boston Globe writes, "The Game Is Lost."
4- John Kerry explains that he used to deliver hockey pucks to the Cambodian National Team.
5- Hillary barges into the team's post-game buffet.
Posted by: Matt ||
02/22/2005 10:56 Comments ||
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6- Ward Churchill calls those who get injured on the field "little Eichmanns."
7- Intl. ANSWER cries foul whenever the American team gets a goal.
8- The UN rules against America unless the other team is Israel.
9- Kofi Annan bribes the referees.
10- The ELF booms the zamboni.
Posted by: Steve from Relto ||
02/22/2005 11:03 Comments ||
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Shaddap, you dorks, this is one I like to enjoy.
There's an excellent film called "Miracle on Ice" that deals with the 1980 U.S. hockey team. It uses real footage from several games, including the win over the Russians. The crowd counting down the seconds before the win is chilling. I remember it well...I hadn't heard the end of the game since it was on originally. The movie is a worthwhile watch if you can pick it up cheap.
#7
On the other hand, one of the more poignant themes of Star Trek-DS9, was Commander Sisko's devotion to the dying, if not dead, sport of Baseball. I didn't care much for the series, but the way the writers weaved that theme throughout selected episodes, at certain times, really made one think, "Yes, nothing is forever. Cherish what you have and enjoy it now, for it may not be around for your descendants."
#9
It's because they don't have a large enough rink on the Frigate Class Starships to field a decent size team. Therefore they foregoed it. I thought everybody knew that. It was mentioned several times by the Chekov in Trek On 1992, 1995 and 1997. It was also part of a trivia question on TREK GUM Card.
#10
In these days, Michaels and Dryden would be censured for outright rooting for the US team. Just give us a game that isnât a complete rout. Are those the words of an unbiased journalist? No. The NYT would have a reported embedded with the Soviet team. (Name of Duranty, probably.)
Scientists have warned that Tehran could be next in line because of its location in a high-risk fault zone. An expert at the Moroccan National Centre for Earthquake Research, Nasir Jabbur, says the Sumatra quake responsible for the December 2004 tsunami has accelerated the frequency of tremors along these fault lines. "This is one of the reasons why Iran has witnessed two devastating earthquakes in just over a year. And today's quake is only 250km away from the epicentre of Bam. Tehran is about 700km from the epicentre of the Zarand quake and could be next in line," Jabbur said. Many seismologists suggest Tehran is especially vulnerable to a big quake due to the fact that the city straddles several major fault lines and has not experienced a substantive tremor since 1830.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/22/2005 8:01:03 PM ||
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"At the feast of Belshazzar and a thousand of his lords,
While they drank from golden vessels, as the Book of Truth records,
In the night, as they reveled in the royal palace hall,
They were seized with consternation â âtwas the Hand upon the wall!"
http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/h/a/n/handwrit.htm
Posted by: Tom ||
02/22/2005 20:16 Comments ||
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The Damavand volcano is just 50Ks from Tehran. Its classified as dormant - likely to erupt again. It clearly has had major eruptions in the last 10K years although no eruptions in the historical record. An ideal candidate for a large explosive eruption.
TEHERAN - An earthquake measuring 6.4 on the Richter scale hit southeast Iran on Tuesday morning destroying some villages and killing at least five people, state television reported. The earthquake, centred on the town of Zarand in Kerman province about 440 miles (700 km) southeast of Teheran, struck at 5:55 a.m. (0225 GMT), television said.
"Up to now only five people have died, but we can't say that's a final figure because some villages have been destroyed and we don't have access to them," Ali Sharifi, head of Kerman's university of medicine told television.
Major settlements appeared to have escaped heavy damage suggesting the overall death toll would not be as high as in some similar strength tremors in the earthquake prone country. "In Zarand and Kerman only some walls have collapsed and there were no casualties but we still don't have any figures on casualties in the villages in Kerman province," Interior Ministry spokesman Jahanbakhsh Khanjani said.
Television said 25 to 30 percent of property had been damaged in five villages close to Zarand. Kerman Governor Mohammad Ali Karimi told television that aid groups had been sent to the villages but he had not yet asked for any help from other provinces.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/22/2005 12:07:27 AM ||
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Hmmm were any UFOs flying overhead when the earthquake struck? Were local military authorities firing at a flock of birds because they confused them with Isralei F-15s, and there are "secret" nuclear facilities nearby? Is it truly an act of God who is pissed at all the nasty stuff done in His name? Inquiring minds want to know...
More than 10,000 Congolese civilians have fled into Uganda to escape renewed clashes between tribal warriors and former rebels, almost half of them since mid-January, the U.N. refugee agency said on Monday. The refugees survived a perilous 35 km (22 mile) canoe journey across stormy Lake Albert from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) before washing up in western Uganda. "They say they are fleeing fighting between Mai-Mai militia and former rebels from RCD-Goma, and between the Hema and Lendu (tribes)," Roberta Russo, UNHCR spokeswoman in Uganda, told Reuters.
She said 10,385 refugees had so far been registered at a camp by the agency near Kyaka village, 200 km (125 miles) west of the capital Kampala. Of them, 4,258 have arrived since January 14, she said. In recent years, remote western Uganda has seen repeated influxes of Congolese villagers fleeing fighting in their country's mineral-rich Ituri province. At least 50,000 people have been killed there by militias since 1999, and clashes have continued despite the end of Congo's wider war in 2003. The trigger for the latest flare up in fighting was not immediately clear. Russo said about 70 refugees were crossing the lake to Uganda each day, and that most new arrivals were Congolese women and children following husbands who fled earlier. U.N. aid officials said earlier this month some 85,000 people fearing rape and death in northeastern Congo had fled their homes so far this year. Most of them were staying with host families or makeshift camps elsewhere in the region.
Kuwait's Islamist Ummah Party announced yesterday total backing for women's full political rights, becoming the first Sunni Muslim group in the emirate to support women's suffrage.
"Oh, yass! Certainly! See? We're not involved with the guys in the shootouts!"
The party "approved by a majority the principle of women's political participation in voting and candidacy," said a statement issued after a meeting to discuss women's rights. "The party calls on the national assembly and the government to approve women's political participation and to comply with Shariah regulations and social practices," the statement added. The party has three supporters in the 50-seat parliament but it was not immediately known whether those MPs will abide by its decision.
The Ummah Party was launched last month by a group of Salafi Islamists to become the first political party in the Gulf Arab region. The government has not recognized its establishment and summoned its 15-member office bearers for interrogation at a police station. They were, however, released without pressing any charges against them. The statement also called for broadening political participation in Kuwait by enfranchising servicemen and lowering the voting age to 18 years from the current 21.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/22/2005 00:00:00 ||
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Kuwait's government, which last year sent a female suffrage bill to parliament for approval, is committed to allowing women to vote and run for political office, a minister said on Sunday. "The government is serious about the passage of the law as soon as possible," Social Affairs and Labour Minister Faisal Al-Hajji told state news agency KUNA, adding the issue was discussed during Sunday's Cabinet session. "Women practice their political rights in most countries in the world, including Islamic Gulf states, even becoming ministers," said Hajji, who is also acting information minister. "Democracy will be complete only with the joining of its two wings, men and women," he said. "Social norms should not become an obstacle barring women from attaining full political rights."
Looks like the Sabahs are putting the Islamist bloc behind them. I'm impressed, even though there's no way of telling how long it'll last.
In 1999, HH the Amir Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah issued a decree granting women the vote but it was defeated in the 50-man parliament by an alliance of Islamist and tribal MPs. Last May, the government referred another bill to the House but the Assembly has not set a date for a debate. Kuwaiti women serve as diplomats, run businesses, lead the humanitarian and education sectors and help steer oil and banking industries. But they have had to watch their sisters make modest progress in other Gulf states, such as Bahrain and Qatar where they can vote and stand for election, without gaining the same rights. Kuwaiti officials have said pressing ahead with reforms is a priority as the oil-rich state promotes itself as a modern, investor-friendly nation.
Rather than as an Islamist backwater like some of its leading lights would like it to be...
On Wednesday, 10 liberal, independent and Shi'ite MPs filed a motion to refer the Election Law to the Constitutional Court to rule on Article 1, which limits voting rights and candidacy to males above 21 years of age, Arab Times reported. The MPs said the law violated Kuwait's Constitution which stipulates gender equality. Women have edged closer to political participation after some Islamist MPs said last year they would support the female vote, but not moves to allow women candidates in parliamentary polls. The Kuwaiti government Sunday called on parliament to hold a special session to debate a bill granting women full political rights, Hajji said. The Cabinet discussed the issue today ⊠and requested the parliament speaker convene a special session to debate this bill at the earliest time," Hajji was quoted as saying by KUNA.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/22/2005 00:00:00 ||
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The IRA's money laundering empire is so vast that they have been negotiating to buy a bank in Bulgaria, it was reported yesterday. The Provisionals have been working with a Bulgarian crime syndicate for the last year, trying to take control of a bank to be used to launder cash from their criminal operations, security sources said. The banking operation would have lasted until 2007, when Bulgaria joins the EU, and would then become subject to stringent financial controls, the Irish Times reported.
Noel Conroy, the Garda commissioner, confirmed that his detectives had been working abroad. "It's a bit too early to go into details, but we will be following up in relation to matters overseas," he said. The IRA's "colossal" money laundering business has unravelled after Irish security services spotted a Bulgarian arms dealer at a meeting in Ireland. Yesterday, as detectives continued to follow his trail, a further £437,000 in cash was taken by Garda officers from several premises, bringing to almost £3 million the amount recovered from the £26 million Northern Bank robbery in Belfast in December. Police believe the Bulgarian bank would have been used to launder the estimated £30 million a year the IRA receives from counterfeiting, robberies, extortion, racketeering and smuggling.
Using a scam the Italian mafia devised of buying banks in Latvia before it joined the EU last year, the IRA would have used the bank to provide it with paperwork and cash from a legitimate institution. Mr Conroy said forensic tests were expected to confirm that the money seized in the Republic was connected to the Northern Bank robbery. Standing next to Mr Conroy at a press conference in Hillsborough Castle, Hugh Orde, the Police Service of Northern Ireland's chief constable, announced a new protocol that would cement a new level of co-operation between the two forces. Officers from both sides of the border would work in each other's services.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/22/2005 12:48:33 AM ||
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great icon!
did you know the Speed Queen washers are assembled in Saudi Arabia?
Princess, 3, Could Be Heir to Japan Throne-Reports
Princess Aiko, 3, could become next in line to the Japanese throne after her father, Crown Prince Naruhito, under plans now being considered, Japanese media quoted a government source as saying late on Monday. Girls have value? - Must not be an Islamic country.
I don't think there's any Islamic equivalent to Amaterasu...
The question of who is next in line to the Chrysanthemum throne has sparked controversy because of a law which limits accession to males. No boys have been born into the imperial family since Prince Akishino, the crown prince's younger brother, in 1965. Long dry spell. No girls born in my family since 1959. Eight straight boys including BigEric, and various nephews and cousins. I can see how a pattern is frustrating.
An advisory panel to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on the imperial succession issues is discussing a proposal to revise the Imperial Household Law, which limits accession to the throne to males. On who would be next in line after the crown prince, Kyodo news agency quoted the government source as saying: "It will go to Princess Aiko." Papa what are you getting me into?
The crown prince's brother, Akishino, is second in line to the throne under the current law. Is Akishino OK with little niece getting the thumbs up?
Posted by: BigEd ||
02/22/2005 5:24:38 AM ||
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It's much more of a golden shackle life than even that of the English Royal Family. Lots of time spent in shrines taking part in rituals as the embodiment of the nation. The rest of the time pretty much scheduled decades ahead for court ritual. Not much time to be a human being instead of a figurehead.
#3
Bah.... more silly traditions from a time long ago. No place for monarchs in the modern world, even figurehead ones. To the American eye, all kingship rituals are preposterous on their face.
Posted by: Mark E. ||
02/22/2005 12:31 Comments ||
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Mark E you seem to forget our own Royalty - the Judiciary - sits for life, is unaccountable to the people, issues decrees that can't be linked backed to the fundamental document of law. For what its worth, we cross the line when in the Kansas City MO school system case the Federal Judge declared a tax on the citizens of MO to fund his program [BTW, the system still ended up decertified years later even with the money]. Our Legislative reps didn't impeach the wanker, too easy to hide behind the robes and say 'he did it'. The case ended up before the Supremes who did reverse his decree only because "all other measures hadn't already been exhusted". In other words, the court reserves the right to tax without consent.
#8
The bane of Japanese society - women getting married at an age too old to reproduce effectively. Crown Princess Masako miscarried her last pregnancy 4-5 years ago. Otherwise, they [probably] would have had a family with several girls, with the youngest a boy. This could have had a big impact on Japanese family sizes. But...nope...Naruhito married for love, instead of his country, and got a woman with a womb full of past-date rotten eggs.
Hat Tip DRUDGE / Daily Standard Piss Off A Belgian novelty shows what the good people of Brussels really think about George W. Bush.
by Paul Belien The newest Belgian fad--a Bush urinal sticker.
WHEN JOHAN VANDE LANOTTE, Belgium's Vice Prime Minister, goes to the toilets today, he finds the urinals in the offices of his ministry decorated with stickers. They show an American flag and the head of George W. Bush. "Go ahead. Piss on me," the caption says. Vande Lanotte is one of Bush's hosts in Brussels. Is peeing on your guest's head appropriate? In Belgium it is. After all, Brussels' best known statue is that of "Manneken Pis," a peeing boy. The Belgians, whose parliament is FIRST ethnic, then ideological, show they're "intellegence" and "class".
No, it's not appropriate. It's deliberately insulting.
The piss stickers, specially made to be used in urinals, can be seen these days in the public toilets of Belgian schools, youth clubs, and pubs. They were designed by Laurent Winnock, president of the Young Socialists, the youth branch of Vande Lanotte's Socialist party. Winnock did his creative work during his office hours, which would not be worth mentioning if Winnock did not work in the offices of Vice Prime Minister Vande Lanotte, as one of his press spokesmen. See what Socialist governments will pay a salary for. Somebody is showing they have no practical talent, and is praised!
If it's done on government time, the government owns it.
Last Friday, Belgian television asked Robert "Steve" Stevaert, the Socialist party leader, what he thought of the stickers. It had not been his idea, he stressed, but he refused to distance himself from it. He hardly could, seeing as the stickers can be ordered for free through the party's official website. For Belgian television viewers the message was clear: Bush may be our government's guest, the ministers will greet him, smile and tell him that he is most welcome, but we all know what they think of the bastard.
And by extension, what they think of us.
Bastard?
Belgian TV producers : Let's see your family tree. Who is calling who a bastard. Children by a mistress is common in your country!
For those who missed the "subtlety" of the urinal stickers, Laurette Onkelinx, the Belgian minister of Justice and one of the Socialist party's most powerful figures, let go during prime time on Sunday evening, as Air Force One was about to land in Brussels. "I would rather have had John Kerry visiting us," she said on television. When the interviewer asked whether it was not undiplomatic to say so, she answered: "No. That is how I feel about it." Didn't "Get any" last night, eh Ms. Onkelinx? And so you need to take it out on the president of the country who save your countrie's ungreatful backside twice in the last 100 years? Sprecken ze Deutsch? Sprecken ze "Heil Hitler?" No? Well, remember who you diss babe!
We wish Bush had been visiting someplace else, too, like Warsaw or even Berlin. It's not very sanitary, having him wading through a piss bucket.
Meanwhile, however, a citizen of Ghent, where the stickers had also been distributed, has filed a complaint with the Belgian judiciary headed by Onkelinx. "This sticker has nothing to do with freedom of speech," he says. "If I go to the gents in the pub nowadays, I am forced to pee on Bush and the American flag because it is impossible to miss this sticker." Find a sticker of your Socialist Prime Minister and put it over the sticker of Bush... Then you can joyfully aim!
I do not know whether the president is aware of the real feelings of his Belgian hosts. Has the American Embassy in Brussels informed him? This question crossed my mind, as he was delivering his speech to a crowd of politicians, journalists, and businessmen in the prestigious halls of Brussels' Concert Noble on Monday afternoon. There, under a huge painting of Leopold II, Belgium's late-19th-century king (and the tyrant of the Congo), Bush addressed a few hundred people invited by the U.S. Embassy. I know some of them. They used to be my colleagues. Bush has the guts to show up anyway. Besides in their infinite wisdom, the EU chose your left-wing nuthouse city to be its capital. Not a wise decision.
Fifteen years ago, I was sacked by a Belgian newspaper because I had written an article in the Wall Street Journal which the Belgian politicians did not like. Being a somewhat conservative and pro-American journalist, I was a regular contributor to the Journal in the late 1980s and early 1990s. These articles were not liked by my liberal colleagues, nor by the Belgian regime. On April 6, 1990, I was fired after writing a Journal op-ed piece about how a major story had been ignored by the Belgian media under political pressure from the top political parties. The more things change the more they stay the same! Political Correctness. "Freedom" in old Europe is idle talk, an abstraction!
That day ended my career as a newspaper journalist. None of the Belgian papers has been willing to employ me since. Fifteen years later I am still known by my former colleagues as "that fascist from the Wall Street Journal." And now I could see those same editors sitting in the audience, listening to a man whom they despise. That's why your nation is considered a junior associate in the "Axis of Weasels"
Indeed, they think that the world will be saved if America becomes more like Europe, whereas I think that Europe will be saved only if it becomes more like America. But that is an opinion which no one in Europe is allowed to have. Those who do, get peed upon. Yup PC run amok. Dr. Paul Belien is the author of the forthcoming book A Throne in Brussels on the "Belgianisation" of Europe (Imprint Academic, May 2005).
#1
The Belgians, whose parliament is FIRST ethnic, then ideological, show they�re "intellegence" and "class".
Yup. They're frogs first, Flemish always second.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
02/22/2005 17:13 Comments ||
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That's an awful lot of Belgies sticking their fingers in urinals to put those stickers in place. Well if anyone had any doubt at all about the absolute moral and political bankruptcy of Second International Socialism, this should erase it.
Europe's choices: Facism, Sharia, or John Locke. Choose wisely.
#6
I would say boycott Belgium but they don't really sell anything I can think of. A useless little country of useless little people. I bunch of pissants if you will.
#7
SPD: sublime beer and chocolate. However, there are more than enough micro-breweries producing US-made Belgian recipes and enough fine confectioners to fill the void for me.
US President George W. Bush is expected to use his visit to Europe this week to seek more support in his administration's bid to keep China's growing military might in check, analysts said.
Bush departed for Europe on Sunday, a day after the United States and Japan declared Taiwan was a common security issue amid the concerns about China's threat to invade the island if it declares independence.
Washington and Tokyo also urged China "to improve transparency of its military affairs" in a joint statement Saturday amid concerns an EU plan to lift an arms embargo against Beijing could upset the region's military balance.
The European Union imposed the arms embargo after China's military crushed the 1989 Tiananmen democracy protests.
By removing it, the US fears Beijing will have greater access to high-tech weapons systems that could be used to thwart any US intervention in the Taiwan issue, said Richard Fisher, deputy head of the Washington-based International Assessment and Strategy Center.
"As both Japan and the US begin to seriously prepare for a real war on the Taiwan Strait, it is simply sickening that European leaders are proposing to take any steps that would help to enable (China's) dictatorship kill (Taiwan's) democracy," Fisher told AFP.
Despite the embargo, EU companies were already involved in China's military modernization and lifting the embargo would only heighten existing cooperation, he said.
While Britain's Surrey Satellite Technologies was enabling new Chinese military anti-satellite capabilities, advanced Rolls Royce turbo engines were powering China's homemade JH-7A fighter bomber and Eurocopter was helping China build combat and transport helicopters, Fisher said.
German diesel engines were outfitted on China's fleet of conventional "Song" class stealth submarines, while French engines power China's new naval frigate. Both could be used in an potential naval blockade of Taiwan, he said.
"As such, European companies have a presence in all PLA (People's Liberation Army) military industrial sectors," Fisher said.
"Even if the EU Code of Conduct is modified after discussion with Washington to continue denying the sale of full EU-made weapon systems to China, a very likely increase in the sale of military technologies will serve to accelerate PLA modernization."
Although much of China's efforts to modernize its military have come from Russia, there was still a lot of European technology China would want, said Ellis Joffee, an expert on the People's Liberation Army at Hebrew University in Israel.
Since the 1990s, Beijing has purchased about 20 billion dollars worth of Russian military hardware, including advanced Sukhoi SU-27 and SU-30 fighter jets, modern Russian destroyers and submarines, with about 12 billion dollars of weapons already delivered, he said.
"What is driving China to develop is their desire to have a capability to deter or defeat US intervention in the Taiwan Strait and deter Taiwan from extreme provocation," Joffee told AFP.
"The acquisition of the Russian weaponry and the ongoing training by the military, is constantly raising the price for any US intervention."
If the arms embargo was lifted, it was unlikely China would rush to Europe to begin a buying spree, but by lifting the embargo greater exchanges with EU military industries would likely increase, he said.
"I'm sure that there are some systems out there that they will want to buy from EU countries. There are a wide range of weapons sytsems to choose from, like ship-to-ship missiles, airborne warning and control systems and radars," he said.
David Shambaugh, a leading expert on the Chinese military at George Washington University, further dismissed notions in Europe that it was better to sell weapons to Beijing now as it would only be a matter of time before China would be capable of producing its own high-tech weapons.
"Without access to Western defense tech or end-use weapons, China's indigenous defense capacity will remain quite handicapped," Shambaugh told AFP.
"There is broad consensus in the PLA watching community in the US that, with a few exceptions (like ballistic missiles and missile guidance systems), all other conventional weapons indigenously produced in China's military industrial complex are 10-20 or more years behind the state of the art."
Posted by: ed ||
02/22/2005 3:28:14 PM ||
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Letting China in the WTO was a big mistake.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
02/22/2005 17:16 Comments ||
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#2
this is nothing new,
folks without a stake in a given conflict will make any money they can.
for historical proof, look to the hitler, his military build up was largly financed by American and British companies (including, a great irony, one Jewish banking company)
Hmmm - Probably the reson the SocDems still have a shot is my father's family who came here from that region 100+ years ago en masse, and upon gaining US citizenship, increased Republican vote in the Chicago suburbs and downstate Illinois...
#2
EEK, thats a thread I posted to as well. Well it was a narrow SPD victory with the Danish Party giving them a win. A very weak coalition. The BBC has more on the subject in english.
A little over two centuries ago, a small group of planters, landowners, merchants, and lawyers met in Philadelphia to decide how their new country was to be run. Within four months this remarkable collection of patriots, veterans, pragmatists, geniuses, oddballs, and the inspired succeeded in agreeing the extraordinary, beautiful document that, even with its flaws, was to form the basis of the most successful nation in history.
On February 28, 2002, another constitutional convention began its work, in Brussels this time, not Philadelphia. Its task was to draw up a constitution for the European Union. The gathering in Brussels was chaired by Giscard D'Estaing, no Hamilton or Madison, but a failed, one-term president of France best known for his unseemly involvement with Jean-Bedel Bokassa, the cannibal "emperor" of central Africa. Giscard's convention was packed with placemen, cronies, creeps, and has-beens to make up a body where to be called second rate would have been an act of grotesque flattery. Only a fool, a braggart, or a madman would have compared this rabble with the gathering in Philadelphia. Needless to say, Giscard managed to do just that. The rabble returned the compliment. At ceremonies held to celebrate the conclusion of the convention's work, one over-excited Austrian delegate compared Giscard to Socrates, a remark that would undoubtedly have reduced that ancient, and unfortunate, Greek to yet another swig of hemlock.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
02/22/2005 11:03:10 AM ||
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On February 28, 2002, another constitutional convention began its work... ...The gathering in Brussels was chaired by Giscard D'Estaing, no Hamilton or Madison, but a failed, one-term president of France best known for his unseemly involvement with Jean-Bedel Bokassa, the cannibal "emperor" of central Africa. Giscard's convention was packed with
{INSERT PHOTO HERE : "Village Idiots Convention" from the Woody Allen Movie, "Love & Death"}
placemen, cronies, creeps, and has-beens to make up a body where to be called second rate would have been an act of grotesque flattery.
#2
At ceremonies held to celebrate the conclusion of the convention's work, one over-excited Austrian delegate compared Giscard to Socrates, a remark that would undoubtedly have reduced that ancient, and unfortunate, Greek to yet another swig of hemlock.
#3
The constitution paves the way for the transfer of increasing amounts of defense and diplomatic activity from Europe's national capitals to Brussels. Article 1-16 commits all member states to a "common foreign and security policy." "Member states" are required to "actively and unreservedly support the Union's common foreign and security policy in a spirit of loyalty and mutual solidarity and shall comply with the Union's actions in this area. They shall refrain from action contrary to the Union's interests or likely to impair its effectiveness." In a recent radio interview, Spanish prime minister Jose Zapatero explained how this might work: "we will undoubtedly see European embassies in the world, not ones from each country, with European diplomats and a European foreign service...we will see Europe with a single voice in security matters. We will have a single European voice within NATO."
"Hey Zappy, while you were talking I saw a bulge in your pantaloons. And why are you breathing so heavily? You like telling the Brits, Italians, and Eastern Europeans what to do, eh? Your kind would not get elected in those places very easily. So you are shoving your pacifist appeasing trash down thier throats, right?", one reporter asked...
The angered Zapatero screamed for the guards to "Throw out the heckler." His rage boiling. "You are no reporter, sir. I challenge you to pistols at dawn. Wait a minute. I am a pacifist? This is a dilemma!"
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.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/22/2005 12:52:15 AM ||
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Then of course Kyoto is making the problem worse by requiring increased taxation and decreasing economic growth.
#2
If the Euros had any sense, they'd start inviting in folks from (non-Muslim) SE Asia and Latin America instead of the Mohammadans they're selling their souls to now.
Their current immigration patterns aren't even particularly geographical -- why keep going down that insane path?
#3
And largely unremarked and uncounted is that Western Europe has a high emigration rate. Whilst it has slowed recently, the UK loses perhaps 75,000 a year almost all skilled mostly to USA, Australia and Canada.
#4
Get the heck out while the getting is good. Going to be a shame to see all those cathedrals turned into mosques without a shot being fired. They don't get much use as it is anyhow.
#9
*shakes head* I personally think the predictions of the assessment are correct from first principles, but I think Aris would have a field day razzing us, pointing out how it comes from the same people who missed 9/11 and failed to push the WMD->Bekka Valley connection WRT Iraq.
#10
This assessment is frustrating. First and foremost, while proper in usage, "the EU" isn't a single thing, it is a bunch of things, some of which exist, some of which are failing, and some of which haven't even been created yet, and may not ever exist. There is the economic-monetary union; the political-bureaucratic-domestic-policy union; the legal union; the foreign policy union; the constitutional-federal-presidential executive union and the military union. And they do NOT evenly parallel each other. Some may never come into being, some may remain even if the rest collapse, and some may last in one form or another as long as the Holy Roman Empire, and be as equally useless. As even the casual Euro-observer will admit, if you look at the EU in each of these areas, you see an entirely different situation.
#12
After reading another article which mentioned that Article III claims animals are sentient beings, too, I decided the CIA was too generous. I give a political union ten years at the most. It was noted other places today that it would give them a single anti-American voice, but I don't know that that will be enough to keep them together, not with the way the world is changing.
Posted by: The Doctor ||
02/22/2005 15:57 Comments ||
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Report: Vice president likely to step down 'due to his health'
Vice President Dick Cheney likely will step down next year due to health reasons and be replaced by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, according to a report by geopolitical expert Jack Wheeler.
On his website, To the Point, Wheeler reports there's a "red-breasted rumor bird" flying around Capitol Hill that has whispered the same thing to most congressional committee chairmen.
"We all know that Dick Cheney has been the best vice president of modern times, perhaps in American history," one such chairman told Wheeler. "And we know that he absolutely will not run for president in 2008. Further, he has an unfortunate history of heart trouble. So let's just say none of us will be surprised if, sometime next year, he will step down from the vice presidency due to his health."
Continued the source: "Should this happen, President Bush would need to appoint his replacement, just as Richard Nixon chose Gerald Ford to replace Spiro Agnew. It is quite clear to us whom the president would choose should he need to: Condoleezza Rice."
Wheeler goes on to analyze what such a scenario would mean for the 2008 presidential election.
Writes Wheeler: "Being a sitting vice president places Condi in an impregnable position for the GOP nomination in 2008 and sucks every breath of wind from Hillary's sails. Historically, it's hard for a party to keep the White House after they've had it for eight years. This is George Bush and Dick Cheney's way to buck history — and make it."
Serving as Bush's national security adviser during his first term, Rice took over the State Department last month. [BRAG] I proposed exactly this same scenario a while back, though it boggles the mind on the effects it would have both in the United States and around the world.[/BRAG]
#2
If it happens, it happens. Couldn't do much better than Condi for a replacement. But I hope Cheney will still be availabe for W to bounce ideas off of. The more brains to pick the better.
I don't know if he's been as bad as this article says, but. I do knoew there has been much concern about his "ticker".
Plus all the folks screaming about Republicans being racist will poop in the pants.
So, Harry Belafonte, what's this about "Bein' in 'da man's house?' "
Dr Rice would be one misdirected pretzel away from that very "big house".
And of course Hillary would probably begin a whole new series of fainting spells, poll or no poll...
#3
Sounds like a plan. We don't need the best GOP candidate in 2008, just the one that will win it. Right now, Condi is the only one that can deliver against Hitlary.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
02/22/2005 19:56 Comments ||
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#4
Do a straight swap: Condi becomes VP, Cheney to State. That way the GOP gets a viable candidate and W keeps a valuable advisor. Win/win.
Posted by: Jonathan ||
02/22/2005 21:52 Comments ||
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As President George W. Bush continues his European visit, meeting today with European leaders in Brussels at the NATO Summit, a recent Gallup survey shows Americans about evenly divided over the position of the United States in the world today. About half are satisfied, and half are not. A clear majority of the public believes world leaders do not respect Bush,>(the cause is not addressed - the can you blame them he's a FITB or We're back to normal crowds) though Americans are divided as to whether the United States is viewed favorably or unfavorably around the world. Most Americans also believe the United States should continue to play at least "a major" role in international politics, but the number saying this country should take "the leading" role has declined somewhat since 9/11....
As President Bush visits Europe this week, he is up against a continent brimming with hostile public opinion. But while Americans have grown used to being condemned as global bullies, at least one region has people looking to them for salvation.
For many of the young people who take to the streets in protest in Lome and other blighted, overlooked capitals across Africa, only one distant power seems great enough to defeat the local forces of tyranny: the U.S. military.
"Tell George Bush to send us guns," young protesters screamed last weekend in Lome, capital of Togo, where the dictator of 38 years had just died, only for his son to succeed him by military appointment within hours.
"We need American troops to deliver us from this regime," young men shouted.
America's export of democratic ideals, along with the hard-core rap music and imagery that has suffused African youth cultures, has made it seem like a beacon to Africa's downtrodden — or at least better than France, former colonial ruler and lasting influence in much of West Africa.
That was evident amid the tear gas and riots in the former French colony of Togo, when thousands protested against the military's appointment of Faure Gnassingbe as president. Young people, many in American-branded jeans and baseball caps, begged Western journalists to send the message that they wanted the U.S. Marines to come in stop a new dictatorship from blossoming.
That was before pressure at home and abroad elicited a pledge from Gnassingbe late Friday to hold presidential elections within 60 days, and matters may yet be resolved peacefully.
Similar pro-American sympathies have been noticeable in other places wracked by civil war, ethnic hatred and disease.
In Ivory Coast, where pro-government mobs attacked French families last year and clashed with French peacekeepers, any foreigner could win immunity and cheers simply by producing an American flag — or even a red-white-and-blue car air-freshener. Demonstrators waved posters appealing to Bush for help.
The French, whose soldiers, traders and technocrats are still deeply engaged in West Africa, get the blame for much that goes wrong here. The United States keeps a much lower profile. French criticism of the Iraq invasion only adds to Washington's luster. So while the educated classes of Africa debate the rights and wrongs of U.S. policy, at street level Americans are often seen as knights in armor who would surely ride to the rescue if only they knew how bad things were.
As U.S. troops rolled into Baghdad in 2003, many people of eastern Congo, 3,000 miles away, were being slaughtered in ethnic massacres. Over and over, frightened Congolese were heard demanding American intervention.
Months later, rebels descended on Monrovia, Liberia, a country founded by freed slaves returned from America. Deposed President Charles Taylor finally agreed to step down — but not until U.S. troops arrived.
The 100 soldiers who joined a West African peacekeeping force were the first U.S. military mission on African soil since 10 years previously, when the killing of 18 U.S. soldiers in Mogadishu, Somalia, doused any American appetite for further African interventions.
Yet many Somalians say the American troops are still the only ones who can deliver their city from warlords and drug-addled gunmen.
In the former French colonies, the call for American firepower usually comes in the same breath as vitriolic hatred for the French — delivered in French, the lingua franca inherited from colonial times.
During the demonstrations in Lome (pronounced low-MAY), Togo's beach-front capital, protesters confronted journalists shouting, "Are you French? If you are, we will kill you." A French radio journalist was doused with gasoline but escaped unharmed.
Few listened to the funeral dirges and electronic anthems droning out of state radio in ceaseless homage to the dead president. In neighborhoods full of restless, unemployed youth, Busta Rhymes and DMX blared from a distant boom box, near a mural honoring slain rapper Tupac Shakur.
"People are hungry and dying here," said a 24-year-old calling himself LL Cool J, after the American rapper...
Posted by: Anonymoose ||
02/22/2005 11:36:42 AM ||
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#1
Somebody better tell these folks not to hold their breath. Or to start building nukes.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
02/22/2005 11:59 Comments ||
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"...the former French colony of Togo..."
"Are you French? If you are, we will kill you."
Ahhh, the legacy of the superior French culture.
Posted by: Tom ||
02/22/2005 12:05 Comments ||
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#3
No.
The whole freakin' continent, not to mention a good share of the adjoining ones, are damned shizoid: One moment ya want us to come ridin' in and rescue you, the next you want us out, the next after that, if we're not out the previous moment, you wanna kill us, and the next after THAT, you're screaming that we left too soon and are to blame for the ensuing bloodshed. No F*ck*n' thank you!
We love our troops because they're willing to die for their country, and their country is OUR country. And we're is democratic enough to know, without a doubt, that our country is US, which means that they're willing to die FOR US.
We will NOT throw them away to save idiots, bigots, racists, the bi-polar, liberals, or whales.
I'd tell ya to go to Hell, but you've already got the French.
#4
Ptah, I honestly don't know what the f**k to say ... (re: them, not you. You, I'm cool with.)
Posted by: Edward Yee ||
02/22/2005 13:27 Comments ||
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Ptah: Don't write off Africa so easily. There are one heck of a lot of Africans who are the very models of enlightened western civilization. And they are not such just as individuals, but as a class in their native countries. In all fairness, if you saw Americans as only inner-city gangsters, Indians living in abject poverty on some reservation, and the Amish, you could easily believe that America is a very primitive place. So what Africa needs, more than anything else, are the institutions that inexorably lead to democracy. Institutions that are taken for granted in the US. To be given the same "nation building" support that has been given to Iraq. But here's the irony: when an African nation makes even the least movement towards such a situation, towards these institutions, it immediately becomes the destination for everyone else on the continent! Because there are vast numbers of Africans who want it, however they can get it, even in what to them is a foreign country. And they are willing to relocate. Enlightened democracy often fails there because it is too popular.
#6
Interesting perspective moose. I'm one those who has given up on Africa. Nothing seems to work. I think it was Blair who recently appealed for a 50Billion fund to fix Africa. If I thought it would make enough of a difference I would support it, but more aid hasn't worked to date and I see no reason it will work in the future. I have no idea what to do about Africa and I don't see anyone else who does. The latest depressing news was a huge jump, nearly 60%, in South African mortality rates over the last 6 years.
#8
Problem is Africa had been built along the lines of colonization districts, ie the colonial power subdivided its empire according to conveniency: if such tribe was easier to reach from town A than from town B then it went into A even if B was populated with friendly tribed and B with mortal ennemies. Not a problem since the colonial army would go after anyone causing trouble. But independence meant the minority tribe had to deal with an army formed by its ennemies, with politicians who did their utmost to prevent their economic success and unfair judges.
So the first step would be to break the artificial states norn from colonization whose mere artificialness voids any attempt to implement democracy and rule of law. This precludes economic progress: people will not do business if they fear the other guy will not fill his part of the contract hoping an unfair judge will rule for him.
#9
You know, I wish the beautiful people of Africa all of the peace and happiness in the world - but that place is such a mess that it's hard to even know where to begin.
MATARA (Sri Lanka) — Visiting former US president Bill Clinton declared yesterday he was happy to learn that the government and Tamil parties had begun working together after the tsunami disaster urging the two parties to use the opportunity to narrow the differences.
President Chandrika Kumaratunga who met former presidents Clinton and George Bush over dinner, had informed them that the government and the LTTE were trying to reach a working arrangement to oversee reconstruction work in the North and East. Clinton said he too had personal differences with his one time rival George Bush but the two of them have come together to help raise private funds for tsunami-affected countries.
The two former presidents fielded questions from the media after visiting a camp run by a US Christian Children's Fund for children affected by the tsunamis in Habaraduwa in the Matara district. "We want the government of Sri Lanka to have a plan" finalised for its requirements and a monitoring process to ensure equitable distribution of foreign funds, said Clinton adding that the Indonesian authorities had already set up an independent authority to overlook post tsunami reconstruction.
Bush said he was very appreciative of the work done by the US marines noting that despite fears by various quarters, "they came, they helped, they worked side by side with Sri Lankans and they left."
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/22/2005 00:00:00 ||
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Found via slashdot. Not as much solid cost information as I was hoping for; I think it might work better if it could easily switch feedstocks, to ride out price fluctuations.
...The key question is whether the end products are pure enough and cheap enough to compete with other biofuels and petroleum. Until recently it seemed that turkey fuel would score big on both counts. CWT saw opportunity in the mad cow scare of December 2003. Expecting U.S. authorities to ban the feeding of animal offal to livestock—a practice linked to mad cow disease—CWT and ConAgra formed a joint venture that built a $30 million plant in Carthage, Mo. The venture assumed that nearby turkey processors would provide lots of free turkey waste. Last year the Carthage plant began selling its output to a Midwestern manufacturer, which buys it for roughly $40 a barrel (25% less than conventional fuel) and uses it to run its plant. The Carthage factory now produces 400 barrels a day.
That's a drop in the ocean of U.S. oil consumption, currently running around 20 million barrels a day. But making more turkey fuel isn't as hard as nailing down its costs. It turns out that feeding animals to animals remains standard practice in the U.S., despite a modest tightening in the regulations last year. So instead of being free, turkey leftovers cost $30 to $40 a ton, a hefty expense considering that one ton of turkey yields just two barrels of oil...
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
02/22/2005 7:04:18 PM ||
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#1
Sounds like another good reason to make the feeding of animals to like animals illegal.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
02/22/2005 19:22 Comments ||
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Nothing goes to waste in the meat processing industry. Nothing. The scraps that don't go into hot dogs or sausage or such get rendered down to recover the oils and the resulting solids go into animal feed. I know of one meat processing plant that even has a cover on its wastewater treatment pond that captures any methane and feeds it back to a boiler.
It's not unusual for a pork processing plant to process 7,000 pigs per day. Can you imagine the massive pile and foul stench if any of those wastes were just piled up somewhere in a dump?!?
Posted by: Tom ||
02/22/2005 21:01 Comments ||
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The U.S. dollar was weaker against other major currencies in European trading Tuesday. Gold prices rose. 2-year Euro vs. Dollar Chart. The euro was quoted at $1.3219 in European trading, up from $1.3057 Monday. Later, in midday trading in New York, the euro traded at $1.3233... Gold closed in London at $434.60 bid per troy ounce, up from $427.10 on Monday...
#4
saw on LGF today that Soros was doing the driving down - he's no American.
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/22/2005 19:11 Comments ||
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#5
What gave me away?
Posted by: George Soros ||
02/22/2005 19:19 Comments ||
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the cat
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/22/2005 19:34 Comments ||
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#7
Soros may be profiting from the downturn, but he's not driving it. He only realizes that Bush wants the dollar to drop precipitously, and even though he hates Bush, he won't stop profiting off his policies. What Bush is doing, however, is sticking it royally to both China and Europe, who have been behaving like economic parasites for years now, propping up their expansions at our expense. This now makes them get their own houses in order, a little painfully, or continue to be dorks, a lot painfully. Their choice. Either way, the US wins.
From Faith Freedom, not exactly muslim-neutral, but good to know anyway, perhaps too optimistic?
Islam in Fast Demise
In Africa Alone Everyday, 16,000 Muslims Leave Islam
By Ali Sina
Hitler said if a lie is repeated often enough and long enough, it would come to be perceived as truth. One such lie often repeated is "Islam is the fastest growing religion".
Despite the fact that Muslims by virtue of being poor and uneducated are much more reproductive than others, Islam as a religion is not growing but dying fast.
More and more Muslims are discovering that the violence evinced by some of their coreligionists is not an aberration but is inspired by the teachings of the Quran and the examples set by its author. Muslims are becoming disillusioned with Islam. They find out that the mechanistic ritual of praying five times per day, reciting verses that they do not understand and indeed mean nothing, getting up at taxing hours of the morning and abstaining from food and water until the sunset are not means to becoming more spiritual but are instruments to control their mind. These enlightened Muslims no more heed to the fear mongering verses of the Quran that threaten to burn them and roast them in the fires of hell if they dare to think and question the validity of that book.
Every day thousands of Muslim intellectuals are leaving Islam. They find Islam inconsistent with science, logics, human rights and ethics. Millions of Iranians already have left Islam. The enlightened Muslims of other nationalities are not far behind. This is the beginning of a mass exodus from Islam. It is a movement that is already in motion and nothing can stop it.
However the exodus from Islam is not reserved to the intellectuals but also the average Muslims are finding that Islam is not the way to God but to ignorance, poverty and wars. They are leaving Islam to embrace other religions especially the Christianity.
Perhaps it is best to listen to the truth coming from the mouth of the horse. The Internet site aljazeera.net published an interview with Ahmad Al Qataani An important Islamic cleric who said: "In every hour, 667 Muslims convert to Christianity. Everyday, 16,000 Muslims convert to Christianity. Ever year, 6 million Muslims convert to Christianity."
What Muslims say among each other, is not the same thing that they say for the consumption of the Westerners.
These are huge numbers. If this trend continues we can expect to see Islam become insignificant in Africa in just a few decades. This is good news for those who are concerned about the on going slavery in Africa and the prospects of war and genocide.
In fact with the weakening of Islam, we can hope to see peace in many war-ridden parts of the world including Palestine. By now it should be clear that any road map to peace between Israel and Palestine will be blocked by the Islamists and the terrorists. Peace in Middle East is not possible as long as Islam is the ideology of the masses.
It is important that we realize that this terrorism that is threatening the peace of the world and these wars that bleed the Muslim nations are not economically motivated but are they are hate motivated. They are religious wars. The weakening of Islam means peace for mankind.
Al Qataani and al Jazeera Network were alarmed by these huge numbers of Muslims leaving Islam, but humanity must rejoice over these numbers. The weakening of Islam means the triumph of mankind.
The following is part of the transcript of Al Jazeera's Interview with Al Qataani translated to English. Here is the original transcript in Arabic Snip, transcript of an interview w/a learned elder of islam, from Al Jihadzeera, long and full of victimization : rest at link.
This article starring:
AHMED AL QATAANI
Learned Elders of Islam
Posted by: Anonymous5089 ||
02/22/2005 10:48:10 AM ||
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On the other hand, this could be a tactic on al-Jizz's part to rally the troops - threatening them with extinction if they are not sufficiently faithful and working hard to convert others. 6 mil a year is a lot of conversions, that sort of social change would be visible. Hope there's some truth to it, though, and can't wait until we see some equivalent numbers coming out of Asia.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
02/22/2005 12:49 Comments ||
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#3
Ooookay, so exactly how many of those 6 mil are being executed In Accordance to the Islamic Holely Writ?
AFAIAK, the real test of failing Islam is dropping numbers of people dropping on their faces and hoisting their asses in the air when the Muzzin calls for prayer, AND dropping contributions to mosque coffers NOT derived from oil profits.
I'm with BH in calling this BS. I'm so f*cking disgusted with the religion, I'm prepared to spend $3 a roll on toilet paper printed with "...And Mohammed is His Prophet" in Arabic so I can wipe my *ss in comfort with it.
#4
Where do I put my order for a roll of that paper?
Maybe I'll take several and put them in the bathrooms at the local mosque.
Posted by: John ||
02/22/2005 13:00 Comments ||
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#5
One of the problems with spokesmen for Islam is that they just make stuff up. So the 6 million figure may be made up of vapor.
However, another problem may be based on one of the more curious beliefs of Islam. Based on the theory that the Quran is true and all other sources are corrupted or false from the start, many muslims believe that all children are born muslim at birth and, in non Muslim families, the children are 'converted' to the religions of their parents during childhood.
This belief, btw, allows anyone estimating the total world Muslim population to 'count' all children under a arbitrarily set age as Muslim.
#9
Not a bad read, for sure, but it's over a year old, published in November 2003 . . .
Posted by: The Doctor ||
02/22/2005 15:54 Comments ||
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#10
John and Raj,
Its not that bad an idea. We keep reading the lengths the tribals will go to in PakLand to save a torn or burned koran.....
A C-17 load of toliet paper with the koran printed on it and dropped from high over the tribal areas could keep 100,000s of tribal land folk busy saving all those holy pages.. And just imagine the scream when it rains....
âIn every hour, 667 Muslims convert to Christianity. Everyday, 16,000 Muslims convert to Christianity. Ever year, 6 million Muslims convert to Christianity."
Faster, please.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
02/22/2005 20:00 Comments ||
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#12
# 11 Barbara I think your stat's are incorrect.
Or where are you getting the amount's from?
I am waiting for a response on the detached penis story.
Andrea Jackson
Posted by: Andrea ||
02/22/2005 20:34 Comments ||
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#13
# 11 Barbara I think your stat's are incorrect.
Or where are you getting the amount's from?
I am waiting for a response on the detached penis story.
Andrea Jackson
Posted by: Andrea ||
02/22/2005 20:35 Comments ||
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#14
From the article, Andrea. Do read the article before going after Barb - that's a good luv.
Posted by: too true ||
02/22/2005 20:37 Comments ||
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European Union foreign ministers have renewed sanctions against Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe for another year. However, they said the measures - a response to the political and human rights situation - could be re-examined after next month's parliamentary poll. The extension, which came on the day Mr Mugabe celebrated his 81st birthday, was passed unanimously without debate. The sanctions include a ban on Mr Mugabe and other government officials from travelling to EU countries. They were first implemented three years ago... Now, if Mugabe were willing to challenge the US, and could afford to buy French-made arms, it would be an entirely different situation.
Posted by: Anonymoose ||
02/22/2005 11:59:18 AM ||
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The sanctions include a ban on Mr Mugabe and other government officials from travelling to EU countries. They were first implemented three years ago..
#2
Obviously Mr. Mugabe's immediate problem is that he is clearly not offering to buy sufficent military equipment from the EU. He could take guidance from China in this matter.
Posted by: john ||
02/22/2005 15:36 Comments ||
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#3
Given Mugabe's mindset, I doubt he would have purchased from Europe, even if there was no embargo. In any case, Zimbabwe just inked an agreement to buy arms from China.
(CNSNews.com)- A foundation that uses events such as the "Race for the Cure" to raise money to fight breast cancer is jeopardizing women's health by using some of those funds to support local chapters of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, according to a former advisor to the foundation. Planned Parenthood clinics provide breast cancer screening and education, but the organization is also the nation's top abortion provider.
"You can't affirm life with one hand and support an organization that kills people with the other," said Eve Sanchez Silver, a medical research analyst and two-time breast cancer survivor who severed her ties with the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation after learning that its chapters supplied $475,000 in grants to local Planned Parenthood affiliates in 2003. Silver and many others in the medical and scientific community believe that abortion makes a woman more vulnerable to developing breast cancer. --------snip-----
Silver spent almost four years as a charter member of the foundation's National Hispanic Latina Advisory Council. In that capacity, she helped the Komen organization set national and international policy, particularly regarding Hispanic populations. That all changed after Silver received an e-mail about Joan Archer, a breast cancer patient who returned a wig to an Iowa chapter of the foundation last May. Archer cited Komen's financial support of Planned Parenthood as one of the reasons for giving back the wig. "The people who sent that to me said, 'This can't be true because Eve (Silver) is a part of this organization, and there's no way she'd be a part of this,'" Silver said. "I checked it out to see if it was so, and it was."
The following weekend, Silver attended a meeting with Komen's leaders at the foundation headquarters in Dallas. "They were getting ready to revamp their program, and I wanted to know if they would consider not funding Planned Parenthood. "I said: 'As a Latina adviser, I have to tell you that this is a serious break in the fabric of the reality of the organization. It's not in line with what I believe Komen to be. I don't understand why this is happening.' " According to Silver, the foundation officers responded that they were helping Planned Parenthood in an effort to support any organization providing breast care services.
However, as the Cybercast News Service previously reported, an examination of Planned Parenthood's recent annual reports shows that while the organization's overall revenue has increased five years in a row and the number of abortion procedures performed at Planned Parenthood clinics has soared during the same period, the number of breast exams conducted at Planned Parenthood facilities in 2003 (the most recent year available) fell by 13.3 percent.
Silver's second objection to Planned Parenthood is that the organization was founded by Margaret Sanger, a leader in the science of selective breeding or eugenics. "[Sanger's] plan was to eliminate people of color," Silver said. "As a woman of color, I have no interest in supporting an organization that is designed to kill the very people I'm supposed to be representing." When Komen officials refused to back down on their financial support of Planned Parenthood, Silver resigned from the foundation.
Posted by: Steve ||
02/22/2005 9:27:41 AM ||
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#1
Apparently the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation has plenty of money if they can afford to give some to other places.
#2
wow! I think it's a mistake for CNS to try and turn this into a pro-life issue as they seem to be doing in this article.
It is an outrage that money, which people, (including myself) contributed in the belief that it was going to fund the fight against breast cancer, was diverted to ANYTHING other than it was intended.
#3
Silver and many others in the medical and scientific community believe that abortion makes a woman more vulnerable to developing breast cancer.
Umm, Not exactly. Here's the lowdown as best as I can make it out to be.
The best evidence and research falls out as a byproduct of a long term life study of women. Such studies are a goldmine of information, provided one asks the right questions up front. Because many medical conditions are known to be hereditary, one of the research goals was to determine if Cancer was also hereditary. Thus, one (out of a multitude) of medical questions about medical history obviously included "did your mother have cancer?". Follow up is mandatory in these cases, since many of these women's mothers were still alive and hadn't shown signs of cancer YET.
When some of the participants developed breast cancer, same as their mothers, the researchers ran extensive correlations involving environment, diet, lifestyle, and other factors.
What they found was very interesting: The highest correlate they found was that women whose mothers had breast cancer GOT breast cancer after getting a first trimester abortion. How high a correlation? A Jaw dropping 100 PERCENT. A 75% correlation in a case like this calls for a round of drinks at the local bar AND a paper in the most prestigious medical journals. 100% is totally unheard of. So much so, THAT THE RESULTS WERE DISMISSED. There was NO FOLLOWUP. (The handwave said the numbers were too small to be significant, so the 100% correlation was a statistical fluke. The problem is that the correlation factor has, as a byproduct, an estimation of the probability of the result being a fluke, with the higher numbers indicating a higher probability of flukiness.)
What is more significant is that there was NO significant correlation between breast cancer for women whose mothers had breast cancer, AND who either had SPONTANEOUS abortions, OR who went full-term and had their child.
The lack of follow-up is what is suspicious to me, personally, seeing how the logical hypothesis that would follow would be this: We know that pregnancy initiates a whole slew of biochemical changes in a woman's body. One of those stimulates the growth of breast cells in order to prepare the woman for nursing (I had a lady friend who had been quite delighted about the increase in her bust size while she was pregnant with her daughter). The Hypothesis states that as the preganacy proceeds to the latter stages, a different set of hormones kicks in to counteract the initial surge from the first kind of hormone (The study of hormones reveals that they come in counteracting pairs, and it is rare to find a hormone that acts like an accellerator without finding one that acts like a brake.) The hypothesis states that the initial hormone dosage at the beginning of the pregnancy sets up conditions that would normally be favorable for breast cancer to develop, but only if allowed to continue. A side effect of the second hormone set dosage counteracts the effects of the first set, removing the conditions that would, left unremoved, would allow breast cancer to develop.
The hypothesis accounts for the study results thusly: the early term pregnancy introduces the first hormone set, but the early term abortion prevents the introduction of the second hormone set. If the pregnancy is continued, then the second hormone set is introduced. The spontaneous abortions, followed by no statistically equivalent change in breast cancer frequency, can be explained by stating that the first hormone set is NECESSARY for the pregnanacy to continue, AND that the hormones are probably fetal or placential in origin: Many hormones in nature do multiple duties and have multiple effects on the body, based on the organ system being affected, so this is not unusual.
Mind you, this is just a hypothesis: the value of any hypothesis lies in its ability not only to explain the facts (any LLL can do THAT), but suggest alternate lines of research to pursue. You have to actually pursue the research to determine whether the hypothesis is worth elevating to a theory or should be discarded. For instance, this suggests we MUST start tracking women who have had abortions and do life studies to confirm the effect. This suggests that we MUST do such research in order to determine if women at risk in this situation should be warned. This suggests that we should look closely at hormone level increases or decreases during the early part of pregnancy, and correlate gainst any counter changes in the latter part of pregnancy. This suggests we should be looking closely at hormone levels in woman and spontaneously aborted child. Once we've determined what hormone (or hormones) are involved and to what degree, we should synthesize them and start clinical trials in abortion clinics to determine the efficacy of post-abortion injections of these hormones. Clinical trials should be started to monitor pregnant women early in their pregnancy, identify those with hormone imbalances, give some remedial hormone treatments, and track the results. Most importantly, if these hormones always work, and pregnancy only affects the levels, then some breast cancers may be caused by haywire hormone levels and can be treated, or better yet, prevented, by hormone treatment intervention.
There is so FREAKING MUCH that can come out of pursuing the research: Post abortion prevention of cancer. A possible cure or preventative for cancer. A possible treatment that would save some pregnancies that would otherwise be terminated. But it is NOT being pursued because of POLITICAL CORRECTNESS: "Abortion is a low-risk procedure" is the mantra of PP and NOW, and nothing must be allowed to contradict The Word Of The Priestesses of Female Equality.
The following weekend, Silver attended a meeting with Komen's leaders at the foundation headquarters in Dallas. "They were getting ready to revamp their program, and I wanted to know if they would consider not funding Planned Parenthood. "I said: 'As a Latina adviser, I have to tell you that this is a serious break in the fabric of the reality of the organization. It's not in line with what I believe Komen to be. I don't understand why this is happening.' " According to Silver, the foundation officers responded that they were helping Planned Parenthood in an effort to support any organization providing breast care services.
God-damned Liberalism itself is a serious break in the fabric of reality. Too bad it doesn't involve creation of a wormhole to swallow up the offenders...
#4
ptah, Any thoughts on the effects of long term use of the pill in all this? I've always had unsubstantiated fears of fooling around with the endocrine system.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
02/22/2005 12:07 Comments ||
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#5
Ptah...very interesting thanks! If it's true, then it is criminal that these studies were squelched.
I have an interesting story to tell in this regard. For years, I worked in a hospital where it was my job to chart height, weight, labs, meds and nutritional intake on patients who had in been in for several days.
One pattern I noted was that women ...in the 30 - 50 yr age range who had breast cancer (as opposed to other cancers) frequently had very high cholesterol. Not just total cholesterol, but the ratios of HDL to LDL were unfavorable too. Unusually high levels for their age group.
One other intersesting fact was their pattern of their weight gain. They had not struggled with weight their whole lives, but rather, the weight increase tended to be more sudden and dramatic and correlating loosely with their breast cancer.
The trend was significant enough that one of the dieticians that I worked with, and I used to wonder - Did weight gain and poor diet (resulting in an increase in chol) increase one's risk for breast cancer? Or did the cancer cause the increase wt gain and cholesterol levels? Either way their was a clearly a relationship that was unique to breast cancer patients.
Years later, I was reading about dramatically successful endocrine treatments for prostate and breast cancer. You either respond or you don't. Truly breakthrough stuff.
Putting that together with the increases and weight gain in the cholesterol of the breast cancer patients, I again wondered if the key to cancer won't eventually be found in the endocrine system.
Reading your information above, it would be interesting to go back and see how many of these women had had abortions. Though people often lie about that - it's often in their charts...it could be done.
#7
I'm agnostic on this, and lazy to boot.
If abortion does significantly increase the probability of breast cancer, there should be a sharp rise in US incidence after Roe.
#8
Quite honestly, I doubt if the doctors would notice this in the same way that we did. Why? Because it was the comparison of "normal women" in the same age group, v/s those admitted for breast cancer that made the relationship stand out to us.
All day long, day after day, we looked at labs/weight histories and spoke at length to patients about their eating habits and weight history....not just for breast cancer patients, but for all kinds of patients. And generally, women patients in the hospital, aged 30-50, are more healthy than elderly who often have chronic illnesses.
It was in this light that it made it possible to notice this pattern. I've talked to other RD's to see if they noticed it too, but the way we charted things was unique and more detailed than is done in many other hospitals.
Even Doctors who treat only breast cancer patients might not see the same thing that we saw, though it does seem they could note higher than average cholesterol levels, but it would have to be for those in a similar age group - rather than as a whole.
#9
and one last thought - on the freak chance that anyone actually finding this interesting - but wishing to dismiss it as, "someone would have noticed that before".
Not necessarily - as we were not looking at it from the angle of women with breast cancer compared to women without - but rather we were looking at it from the view of typical weight/gain/labs for normal women of similar age and lifestyle, v/s an atypical number of women with breast cancer showing an atypical pattern.
In fact, we weren't looking for it at all. It was just there.
#10
Mrs. D, I would recommend asking your question regarding the pill to others. However, my wife had the same reservations, which is why we used the sponge. And I definitely have grave reservations about the Use of the Pill by teenagers, whose endoctrine systems are just coming on-line.
Dishman, the correlation was for a very small and specific set of people: those women who had early term abortions, AND whose mothers had breast cancer. There was very little to no correlation when other factors were considered. The statement in the article does imply a general relationship between Cancer and Abortion, which you picked up, but which is typical MSM incompetence. I mentioned the research, and the constraints, to correct any possible misunderstandings that that misstatement would have created.
I make no bones about it: I'm opposed to aborting Human beings, but my aborting the truth to stop it would only make things worse in the long run. I tried to couch my information in the context of a hypothesis that I advocated had to be explored.
Go read a typical label on any prescription drug you get: It usually states that certain people shouldn't take the drug, and lists the ailments or other drugs that the drug interacts badly with. I didn't even ASK that women be asked, when they get an abortion, "Did your mother have breast cancer?" I'm just pissed off that PC is preventing funding of what seems to me to be a potentially fruitful line of research. Once you've done the research, THEN you have a basis for policy recommendations, including requiring asking The Question. If the answer is yes, inform the patient of the risks and let them make an INFORMED decision.
Doing the reverse is best left to the Global-warming freakazoids.
#11
The problem with correlating breast cancer occurrence to birth control pill use is that hormone dosage levels -- and estrogen/progesterone ratios -- have been precipitously reduced since the original Pill came out. Also, the number of women who take the Pill to regulate hormone levels has increased, relative to those who take it only as their chosen method of birth control. That first group by definition has other endochrinological (sp?) health factors that could impact the rate at which they contract breast and other cancers, screwing up the statistics totally.
I suspect it will take at least another generation before all the factors can be teased out of this particular skein of factors and influences.
#12
studies have show 'the pill' to change the user's personal perception of what an attractive male should look like..(bad boy or not, etc)
I seriously doubt that's the only mental effect..so I'm anti-pill as well.. other methods for avoiding children work well enough without altering the person
I found this while I was researching what seems to be a very large volcanic eruption missing from the historical record. It is becoming more apparent that there must be regulation of any of man's activities which may result in significant climatic change. The earth is in a fairly precarious temperature balance given the present distribution and density of human population and agricultural production. A cooling trend could lead to continental glaciation in the middle latitudes. This tendency could be reversed by the use of carbon dust spread on snow and ice to reduce albedo and induce melting, but this method has been stated by Gates (1970) to be financially unrealistic.
Given the failure of the various national states to prevent the explosion of nuclear weapons, another source of atmospheric pollution, it is doubtful whether these same states will be able to control their present industrial air pollution. For this (and other reasons) the present division of humanity into sovereign states seems a dangerous anachronism. The federation of mankind into a world parliament would be one alternative which would permit the adoption of pollution controls sufficiently stringent to prevent climatic alteration and its social and economic consequences.
Posted by: phil_b ||
02/22/2005 3:07:35 AM ||
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#1
Hmm, so: 1) The atmospheric explosion of nuclear weapons contributes to global cooling; 2) The eco-nuts believe we're experiencing global warming; and 3) We need to off the regimes in Syria, Iran, & North Korea. Anybody besides me se a win/win/win situation in the making here?
#3
If anyone cares to take it further...
It occurs to me that a Solar Shield would run about $15T/K, or substantially less than Kyoto. I don't think it was really looked at, which means that Kyoto was the motive, rather than global warming.
#5
Global cooling? Get your woolies! GET YOUR GALOSHES!
Rainfall Los Angeles 2004-2005, through Feb 21 : 32.51 inches,
Normal 9.89,
Yeah teah yeah - You Seattle-ites are laughing at a mere 32 inches. But our ground is saturated. My back-yard has standing water...
Increase 22.62 - 229%
Yikes - Flooding, Tornadoes, and Blizzards Nearby!
No snow in LA yet - Last measured snow in Downtown LA : 1949...
Record (1883-1884) 38.18 inches,
Normal 15.06
Increase 23.12 - 154% for the old record.
Oh Temp was 58 yesterday. Normal 70. But that difference is mostly rain induced...
However RB-ers know Martin, "The Granite Lion", my cat. He sits on the window sill swishes his tail and meows constantly, complaining about the H2O. He is probably saying, "All those mice are drowning. They need to die a more dignified death. Be caught by me!"
#6
Well, looking out my office window in Pasadena, California, I see rain & clouds. That might be normal for some, but here in LA it is pretty odd. Granted, individual instances mean nothing, and one year is not a trend, but . . . .
#7
I'm concerned about global (as in: my region) wetting. I need a grant to study it
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/22/2005 14:54 Comments ||
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#8
Dude, I not only need a grant to study this, I think we ALL need a conference to consume beer discuss this important matter. Say... Tahiti?
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats ||
02/22/2005 15:28 Comments ||
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#9
Yes Lawrence! Plenty of good microbrewerys around LA. We need a committee to study the fesabilty of a committee to study the record rainfall in Los Angeles!
#12
Phil_b: Where and when was this unrecorded volcanic eruption you're looking for?
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
02/22/2005 16:46 Comments ||
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#13
I dunno about you but a tornado watch has been issued until 6:00PM here in the LA Area. Everyone is looking out the windows and looking up...Radar L A
Global Warming - Global Cooling?
I await to say the immortal words of Ray Bolger in the "Wizard of Oz", Itsa Twista Itsa Twista!
#16
still raining down south - just got home in Santee (next to El Cajon on your map)....1 hr commute for 20 mile drive - yikes
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/22/2005 19:02 Comments ||
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#17
Tornado warning? Get away from any trailer parks as they act like magnets to twisters. If you're interviewed after the tornado be sure to take your shirt off before the cameras start.
#19
WR - Having lived in the midwest most of my life, I'd say you have the protocol for the post-twister interview nailed. And of course the attraction for tornadoes by trailer parks is well-documented.
I did live in L.A. for a few years though, and what I was wondering is, has anyone ever done a study to determine why earthquake epicenters are always located under liquor stores?
Posted by: Darth VAda ||
02/22/2005 20:51 Comments ||
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#20
It's probably the same physical law that makes my toast fall butter and jelly side down.
#21
Phil F, in 1740 there was a famine across Europe, some Irish sources suggest it was worse than the Great (Potato) Famine. There was also a great freeze in England. Contemporary accounts say it was so cold that water poured out of a container froze before it hit the ground. It seems to have affected N. America as Florida recorded a snowstorm in that year. This strongly indicates a major volcanic eruption in 1739/40 yet the historical record contains nothing.
#22
Phil, 1680-1720 was a period of decreased solar activity and occurence of sun spots in larger amount than recorded previously (Little Ice Age). In 1730's, the temperatures have risen to a level of 1990's and the precipitation levels dropped down substantially towards the end of the decade. That may explain the famine in 1739/40.
President Thabo Mbeki criticised the United States for calling Zimbabwe an "outpost of tyranny" saying, in an interview published on Tuesday, that it went against Washington's efforts to promote democracy worldwide.
"Yasss. We try never to call a spade a spade around here..."
The comment attacked by Mbeki was made by US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, who listed six "outposts of tyranny" last month; Zimbabwe, Belarus, Cuba, Iran, Myanmar and North Korea.
Y'see, y'gotcher basic Axis of Evil, and then y'gotcher Short List of Awful.
"It's an exaggeration and whatever (the US) government wants to do with that list of six countries, or however many, it's really somewhat discredited," Mbeki told the Financial Times.
"I mean, just because they chased all the white people out of the country and stole their land and farm equipment, and they're a one-party state, and they beat up guys that try to form an opposition with ax handles and such, and they took the former Breadbasket of Africa and turned it into just another basket case... Well, nobody's perfect. I mean, the same thing could happen here in South Africa."
South Africa has served as an important mediator with its troubled neighbouring state, trying to encourage reforms through a controversial "quiet diplomacy" that avoids overt criticism of human rights abuse, media clampdowns and harassment of the political opposition in the country. If South Africa were "to shout, they would shout back at us, and that would be the end of the story", he said.
Have you given any thought to invading them and killing all the ZANU-PF thugs you can find?
"I'm actually the only head of government that I know anywhere in the world who has actually gone to Zimbabwe and spoken publicly very critically of the things they're doing." Mbeki characterised his relations with Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe as "very good", and repeated his wish to see a "free and fair" vote in parliamentary elections being held there next month.
And I hereby repeat my wish for a full head of hair, a disappearing lard gut, and a weekend in the Poconos with Patty Ann Brown. Good luck, Thabo.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/22/2005 12:44:04 AM ||
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No one is buying your crap Mbeki. Mugabe is the reason his country is a hell hole and you are an enabler. Dr Rice is only saying what you lack the balls to say.
#2
M-Be : Look at the bright side. Zimbabwe is in the big leagues now. Africa got noticed! Bad Bob is up there with Crazy Kim, the magic Mullahs, Lucky Lukashenko, the General who's not Burmese, and Fidel who lives forever.
#3
The real reason, IMHO, that Mbeki is upset is because HE has aspiration to hit the same kind of despotic state as Bad Bob. You see, BB started off as an elected president and simply made good on his Marxist ambitions. The camels nose in the tent, one little bit at a time. BB definitely needs and hot-lead enema, along with most of the government.
Posted by: Jame Retief ||
02/22/2005 6:51 Comments ||
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#4
Didn't someone here write a song about Mugabe?
Posted by: Steve from Relto ||
02/22/2005 9:25 Comments ||
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Mbeki is trying to not alienate two factions: the die-hard ANC (who think what Mugabe did is fine and should've happened in S.A. - yesterday) and the Moderates/Indians/Asians/Anglos/Boers.
The former would replace him, probably quickly, likely violently. The latter would leave S.A. and wreck the country. Not that Mbeki would mind seeing the latter go - just not at this point in time.
Sectarian clashes during a procession to mark Ashura left three people dead and 20 injured in northern India on Sunday, officials said. The violence erupted as the Shia procession wound its way through the narrow streets of Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh, India's largest state, said Anuradha Shukla, a district magistrate. Some Sunnis shopkeepers objected to the Shia procession passing through their neighbourhood, and both sides started throwing stones at each other, she said. At least 14 shops and houses were burned. The mobs then fired at each other before police reached the site of the clashes and dispersed the protesters. A curfew has been imposed in parts of the city, Shukla said.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/22/2005 12:01:53 AM ||
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A village council has punished a 20-year-old man for adultery by ordering the betrothal of his 2-year-old niece to the husband of the woman with whom he had the alleged affair, police said on Monday. Tribal elders meeting last week also ordered Muhammad Akmal to pay a 230,000-rupee fine to the woman's husband, who has since divorced his wife.
Police said that the council in Kacha Chohan village decreed that the 2-year old girl would be married to Muhammad Altaf when she turns 18. Altaf, a 42-year old farmer, divorced his 32-year old wife over her alleged love affair with Akmal, and then asked elders to convene the panchayat, or council, on February 15 to arbitrate in the dispute and propose a punishment. Akmal, a bachelor and also a farmer, is Altaf's cousin. Area police chief Maqsoodul Hassan said officers have started an investigation, but had made no arrests because no one had filed a complaint. None of the parties to the dispute could be reached for comment Monday. Their Mazari tribal village has no telephone service. Rashid Rahman, a lawyer and Multan-based coordinator with the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, condemned the village council's decision. "These types of panchayats are illegal and nobody has the right to take a decision about a child's life," he said. "This country has its legal system and all decisions should be taken under it."
Posted by: Fred ||
02/22/2005 00:00:00 ||
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#1
Allah akhbar, baby! It is written!
âThis country has its legal system and all decisions should be taken under it.â
Yes words are printed on paper somewhere, but unless you get police to enter and take the child into protective custody, then she is doomed.
In the above movie Tom Selleck's character is taken prosoner by proto-Talibanis, and is released on the condition that he will let the tribal chief's son drop explosives on the British base. The son climbs in the back seat with the explosives. Oops - forgot to tell him to fasten the seat belt. Selleck takes off. Flies over the proto-Talibani encampment turning the plane upside down as he flies over the proto-Talibani encampment. The rebel leader's son falls out of the plane. Tents are blown up, and proto-Talibanis are blown to the virgins in pieces the size of a few atoms as Selleck's character escapes.
#2
How the hell does the neice enter into all this, anyway? Was the bachelors brother involved somehow? Was this really a fraternal gang-bang? How about some real punishment to the man involved in this crime rather than punishing his neice who will be married off to a 58-year old pedophile. Cause let's face it, if he waits 16 years for a two year old . . . there is something wrong with him.
Posted by: Jame Retief ||
02/22/2005 6:47 Comments ||
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#3
the council in Kacha Chohan village decreed that the 2-year old girl would be married to Muhammad Altaf when she turns 18. Altaf, a 42-year old farmer
all in a days work for...drumroll... the ROP
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 woman upset about an impending breakup with her boyfriend cut off the man's penis and flushed it down a toilet, police here are alleging. 
Scientists have warned that Tehran could be next in line because of its location in a high-risk fault zone. An expert at the Moroccan National Centre for Earthquake Research, Nasir Jabbur, says the Sumatra quake responsible for the December 2004 tsunami has accelerated the frequency of tremors along these fault lines. "This is one of the reasons why Iran has witnessed two devastating earthquakes in just over a year. And today's quake is only 250km away from the epicentre of Bam. Tehran is about 700km from the epicentre of the Zarand quake and could be next in line," Jabbur said. Many seismologists suggest Tehran is especially vulnerable to a big quake due to the fact that the city straddles several major fault lines and has not experienced a substantive tremor since 1830.
Kuwait's government, which last year sent a female suffrage bill to parliament for approval, is committed to allowing women to vote and run for political office, a minister said on Sunday. "The government is serious about the passage of the law as soon as possible," Social Affairs and Labour Minister Faisal Al-Hajji told state news agency KUNA, adding the issue was discussed during Sunday's Cabinet session. "Women practice their political rights in most countries in the world, including Islamic Gulf states, even becoming ministers," said Hajji, who is also acting information minister. "Democracy will be complete only with the joining of its two wings, men and women," he said. "Social norms should not become an obstacle barring women from attaining full political rights."
The IRA's money laundering empire is so vast that they have been negotiating to buy a bank in Bulgaria, it was reported yesterday. The Provisionals have been working with a Bulgarian crime syndicate for the last year, trying to take control of a bank to be used to launder cash from their criminal operations, security sources said. The banking operation would have lasted until 2007, when Bulgaria joins the EU, and would then become subject to stringent financial controls, the Irish Times reported.
A little over two centuries ago, a small group of planters, landowners, merchants, and lawyers met in Philadelphia to decide how their new country was to be run. Within four months this remarkable collection of patriots, veterans, pragmatists, geniuses, oddballs, and the inspired succeeded in agreeing the extraordinary, beautiful document that, even with its flaws, was to form the basis of the most successful nation in history.
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".
MATARA (Sri Lanka) — Visiting former US president Bill Clinton declared yesterday he was happy to learn that the government and Tamil parties had begun working together after the tsunami disaster urging the two parties to use the opportunity to narrow the differences.
It is becoming more apparent that there must be regulation of any of man's activities which may result in significant climatic change. The earth is in a fairly precarious temperature balance given the present distribution and density of human population and agricultural production. A cooling trend could lead to continental glaciation in the middle latitudes. This tendency could be reversed by the use of carbon dust spread on snow and ice to reduce albedo and induce melting, but this method has been stated by Gates (1970) to be financially unrealistic.
President Thabo Mbeki criticised the United States for calling Zimbabwe an "outpost of tyranny" saying, in an interview published on Tuesday, that it went against Washington's efforts to promote democracy worldwide.
Sectarian clashes during a procession to mark Ashura left three people dead and 20 injured in northern India on Sunday, officials said. The violence erupted as the Shia procession wound its way through the narrow streets of Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh, India's largest state, said Anuradha Shukla, a district magistrate. Some Sunnis shopkeepers objected to the Shia procession passing through their neighbourhood, and both sides started throwing stones at each other, she said. At least 14 shops and houses were burned. The mobs then fired at each other before police reached the site of the clashes and dispersed the protesters. A curfew has been imposed in parts of the city, Shukla said.
A village council has punished a 20-year-old man for adultery by ordering the betrothal of his 2-year-old niece to the husband of the woman with whom he had the alleged affair, police said on Monday. Tribal elders meeting last week also ordered Muhammad Akmal to pay a 230,000-rupee fine to the woman's husband, who has since divorced his wife. 
