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James Ujaama nabbed in Belize
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Page 3: Non-WoT
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10 00:00 trailing wife [1] 
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4 00:00 Zhang Fei [1] 
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Page 1: WoT Operations
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Page 4: Opinion
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Page 5: Russia-Former Soviet Union
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-Short Attention Span Theater-
Dog weddings called off on grounds of cruelty
A Hindu wedding ceremony of 18 dogs has been called off in India after hardline religious groups and animal rights activists said it was a mockery of the religion and cruel to the canines, a newspaper reported on Sunday. The marriage of nine dogs to nine bitches to promote canine culture was expected to take place on Sunday in the northwestern town of Jaipur, the Times of India reported.

But the wedding which, according to Hindu rituals involves sitting in front of a sacred fire and exchanging flower garlands, was canceled after groups including People for Animals (PFA) criticized the event. The marriage would also have included a procession and a huge feast with a special dance party. Event management company B Positive and the Pink City Canine Club were organizing the spectacle.

"In my opinion, marriage of dogs is cruelty on animals," the newspaper quoted the PFA's chairman Naresh Kadyan as saying. "People hold the front legs of the dogs against their will and force them to dance, which is cruel. The lights, noise, sound used in these kinds of events also hurt them."

The organizers said they were sorry for hurting people's sentiments but added they still planned to go ahead with the other events, including a beauty pageant for "unmarried dogs."
Posted by: ryuge || 12/19/2006 07:08 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I can understand the religious mockery angle, but what is cruel in that? Sounds like the dogs wouldn't mind, would get a treat out of it (and dogs do love to eat), not too mention the dogs might get to know the bitches better, if conditions are right (something dogs do enjoy a lot too), and everyone would have a bit of fun.

Uptight animals rights activists. Bah.
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 12/19/2006 7:45 Comments || Top||

#2  I agree A5089 - it's wacky and tacky, but not cruel. What is it about animal "rights" people that they get so upset about such minor things? Lord knows there are plenty of major things to be upset about, especially in India.
Posted by: Spot || 12/19/2006 8:18 Comments || Top||

#3  But children with misshapen teeth can still marry dogs, right?
Posted by: Jackal || 12/19/2006 9:04 Comments || Top||

#4  When my girlfriend was running for Judge this past year, we were going to lots of different events, sometimes 3 or 4 a night. One Saturday AM, we were slightly misinformed about one event; it was supposed to be some kind of benefit for an animal rescue foundation at a local gallery. It was, but it turned out to also be a birthday party for a dachsund, and she had all of her maybe 250(!) fellow dachsund friends over for a snack and a playdate. Maybe 300 owners and their food (they had cake and limitless food) and free drink (heavy drinkers, Dachsund owners....), mixed in with 250 8 inch high dogs running and playing in a high end timber loft art gallery in Chicago. While we were hustling votes.... That was surreal....
Posted by: Mark E. || 12/19/2006 9:05 Comments || Top||

#5  I would have liked to see the beauty contest.
Posted by: Jackal || 12/19/2006 9:06 Comments || Top||

#6  (heavy drinkers, Dachsund owners....)

You'd be too if your pet was easily mistaken for a ballpark snack.

Someone needs to direct PFA's attention excessive quantities of spare time to the misery known as halal slaughter.
Posted by: Zenster || 12/19/2006 18:20 Comments || Top||


Africa Subsaharan
Uganda: LRA rebel's truce extended for 2 months
(SomaliNet) The Ugandan government and the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels on Saturday night inked an agreement that extended the cessation of hostilities agreement by two months from the date of signing.
Posted by: Fred || 12/19/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  That koni fu~ckers existence on the earth should of been terminated years ago, I'd do it myself.
Posted by: pihkalbadger || 12/19/2006 10:12 Comments || Top||


Britain
Scots troops must share their kilts
EFL
Soldiers in Scotland's new "super regiment" have to share kilts because of a shortage of the ceremonial dress.

The Royal Regiment of Scotland has 5,000 soldiers but just 320 kilts, just one for every 15 men. The kilts are worn during ceremonial or public duties.

The shortage comes after the Army decided to end its 150-year association with Borders-based kilt makers Robert Noble, which has produced military tartan since 1850.

The Army has put to tender a £1 million contract for the new kilts. It has received 320 "trial" kilts but will not receive a full set until 2008.

An MoD spokesman said: "A planned deployment will be agreed with the Royal Regiment of Scotland on a roll-out basis with two battalions of kilts made by May 2007 and the full programme completed by January 2008."
Posted by: mrp || 12/19/2006 08:58 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Can I be the kilt fitter? Ah, those Scottie lads...
Posted by: Jules || 12/19/2006 9:18 Comments || Top||

#2  Most of us have our own clan kilts its just the MOD "lets all look the same" regimental ones that are tardy...schrechin hooja's.
Posted by: pihkalbadger || 12/19/2006 10:49 Comments || Top||

#3  And, on that ages old question of what is under the kilt, some alternatives are...

Confidence;

Nothing is worn under the kilt, it is all in working order;

Shoes and stockings.
Posted by: MacNails || 12/19/2006 10:55 Comments || Top||

#4  Ok, MacNails, but why did the Army request 320 "trial" kilts? What kind of evaluation procedure is required to test a kilt?
Posted by: mrp || 12/19/2006 11:11 Comments || Top||

#5  What's worn under the kilt? Who wants to know, really? Some questions are best left unanswered.
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 12/19/2006 11:26 Comments || Top||

#6  Reminds me of a black adder line about the warlike character and general grumpiness of the scots being attributable to the fact they wear kilts and never have invented underwear, in a country whose national symbol is the thistle.
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 12/19/2006 11:40 Comments || Top||

#7  hey Scots come in all shapes and sizes !

In all seriousness , I havent a clue MRP
Posted by: MacNails || 12/19/2006 11:49 Comments || Top||

#8  LOL! anonymous5089
Posted by: RD || 12/19/2006 11:49 Comments || Top||

#9  A proper kilt is not "one size fits all". The distance from the knee to the waste is different on each and every person. Some guys might wind up with a mini-kilt. Never call it a skirt. The last man who called my kilt a skirt WAS kilt!
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 12/19/2006 11:51 Comments || Top||

#10  Thanks, MacNails.

Words can hardly describe my anger and frustration at how the UK government has treated Britain's armed forces. Consolidation, force reductions and bloated spending on "European" defense programs has really put a bite on the UK's defense capabilities. This new kilt thing is just emblematic of how screwed-up things are over there.
Posted by: mrp || 12/19/2006 11:55 Comments || Top||

#11  Praps they're "utilikilts". With lots of pockets.
Posted by: Mitch H. || 12/19/2006 12:44 Comments || Top||

#12  They need to contact Mr. Angus Podgorney, kilt vendor to the stars (literally).

He once had an order for 160 million kilts from the planet Skyron...
Posted by: mojo || 12/19/2006 13:07 Comments || Top||

#13  This would be a good time to institute a compulsory underwear requirement for all Kilt wearers.
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 12/19/2006 14:31 Comments || Top||

#14  Couple years back, Mrs. Ret and her girlfriend, while spending a long weekend in Victoria, BC, asked THAT very question of a kilt-wearing young man at a local hotel. He obliged with a show and tell; big smiles but never did get a straight answer from m'lady......
Posted by: USN, Ret. || 12/19/2006 14:35 Comments || Top||

#15  The distance from the knee to the waste is different on each and every person.

What the ... you mean to say that they measure from patella to arsehole?
Posted by: Zenster || 12/19/2006 18:44 Comments || Top||


Christian Children Secretly Fed Meat From Muslim Bleed-Kill Animals
The Sun, London
December 18, 2006

PUPILS at a Church of England school are only able to eat Muslim meals because of a council ruling.

The only meat on the menu at the primary school is halal — where animals are controversially bled to death.
The poor creatures' throats are slit and they are left conscious while the blood flows out of their bodies. Civilized slaughter houses use either the bolt in the head or electrocution method. We don't want animals to suffer.

Children have been eating the meat for up to SEVENTEEN years at FOUR schools in Reading, Berkshire, without parents’ knowledge, the council admitted yesterday. The fact emerged after pupils were given letters from canteen managers to take home.

Islamic law insists on halal meat, produced by slashing an animal’s neck with a single cut. Animals are not stunned beforehand.

Parents are furious at the revelation. One said: “I have nothing against halal meat — especially for religious reasons — but my daughter is Christian not Muslim.” Reading Borough Council admitted halal meat had been served at four schools for “several years”.

A council spokesman said: “It became clear following the introduction of the new school catering contract with Scolarest that some parents might not be aware.

“Letters have been sent home. We are increasing options and offering fish each day.”

Scolarest said: “We provide halal meat in four Reading schools at their request.”

Posted by: Sneaze Shaiting3550 || 12/19/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Isn't Halal meat slaughtered in a religious ceremony where the meat is dedicated to Satan Allen?
Posted by: CrazyFool || 12/19/2006 0:23 Comments || Top||

#2  because of a council ruling.

Any more info?
Posted by: Jesing Ebbease3087 || 12/19/2006 2:11 Comments || Top||

#3  Well, there's a nice route towards making the West intensely Muslim unfriendly. Make halal slaughtering against the law on the basis of it being cruel and inhumane. As if any of our major meatpackers could ever get away with such a killing method.

Why isn't the tree-hugging warm fuzzy duckling and fluffy bunny crowd up in arms over this? This pushes so many of their buttons all at once. PETA should be storming the mosques and halal butchers even as you read this. Maybe I'll email them about this and see if a back fire can't be lit.
Posted by: Zenster || 12/19/2006 2:21 Comments || Top||

#4  PETA? Those lightweights? They're all glossy ad campaigns and no muscle. Besides, I think they're still bogged down with liberating the puppies from Huntingdon Life Sciences. For serious direct-action hooliganism, I'd try to get ALF interested.
Posted by: exJAG || 12/19/2006 3:53 Comments || Top||

#5  I predict a massive uprising by the Christian street any minute, since the authorties have clearly shown a total lack of respect for their religious sensibilities. They will gather en masse at Saint Paul's and march to the City, pillaging shops, burning cars and lynching the odd BBC journalist or lefty bureaucrat who is reckless enough to get in the way, or who fails to prostrate himself in abject repentence.

Oh, wait a minute.
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy || 12/19/2006 6:02 Comments || Top||

#6  Schools not serving pork anymore, or even offering only halal™ food are found in France too, an another symptom of cultural meekness and multiculti submission.
Btw, halal™ slaughter is very painful, it requiers the edge of the blade to slit the throat in a forward-backward motion, in the same wound channel. But, hey, it's Holy!
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 12/19/2006 6:39 Comments || Top||

#7  Zen exJag is right. I've written to PETA demanding a protest about Muzzy slaughter houses. No response what so ever.

But please give it a try! The backfire idea should not be taken off the table. Setting PETA against pIslam, what a hoot :)! It actually makes sense. The problem is PETA only goes after Christians. It's a liberal asshat thing.
Posted by: Icerigger || 12/19/2006 8:00 Comments || Top||

#8  PETA Europe Ltd
PO Box 36668
London
SE1 1WA
England
020 7357 9229
020 7357 0901 (fax)
Info@peta.org.uk

I'm writing PETA. Should be interesting.
Posted by: Icerigger || 12/19/2006 8:03 Comments || Top||

#9  Backfire 101. I just sent this. Waiting for the non-rely but heh Zen you have a good idea. Come on Ranters let's flood their mailboxs with protests! In the meantime I'm having a cheeseburger for breakfast. No Halal schit for this household.
Ice

To whom it may concern,

Please where is are fellow PETA members in London!? Animals that are fed to these school children are being bled to death in an murderous ritual. Where are our protestors? Is the Halal murder of these inocent animals being ignored for religious reasons?

These animals are wide awake and held down while their throats are slit wide open and left to bleed to death on a cold concrete floor. Where are the notices on the PETA websites? Where is our outrage?

Has my PETA lost it's nerve?

Mike, USA

http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2006580420,00.html

Islamic law insists on halal meat, produced by slashing an animal’s neck with a single cut. Animals are not stunned beforehand.

PUPILS at a Church of England school are only able to eat Muslim meals because of a council ruling.

The only meat on the menu at the primary school is halal — where animals are controversially bled to death.

Info@peta.org; Info@peta.de; MediaInfo@peta.org
Posted by: Icerigger || 12/19/2006 8:19 Comments || Top||

#10  Much like everything else, it starts as a choice. Then, becomes a one-way mandate for "tolerance" reasons. Why can't they just serve both (halal and non-halal)?
Posted by: BA || 12/19/2006 10:25 Comments || Top||

#11  Why can't they just serve both (halal and non-halal)?

I would wager for the same reason that they typically cannot serve Kosher meals side-by-side with non-Kosher.

Dietary ritual usually requires entirely separate sets of storage areas, preparation surfaces, containers, cookpots, utensils and strict measures against intermingling of prohibited food stuffs. There are often purification rites for the food preparation area as well. Few, if any, school cafeterias are capable of meeting such requirements. Only by going entirely with a single dietary regime are they able to maintain compliance.

Icerigger, keep up the good work! It's time to begin unblinding liberals about their little Islamic darlings. The Brits are espeically attuned to issues of animal cruelty. The sooner that halal slaughtering is outlawed, the quicker the West will be on track to survive.
Posted by: Zenster || 12/19/2006 12:42 Comments || Top||

#12  Good god am I whipsawed on this one. On the one side, I could give a shit about kosher or halal. On the other side I could give even less of a shit about animal cruelty when it comes to ritual slaughter and butcher-work, and PETA could all march into the slaughter-pens and butcher each other with the slaughterhouse employees' nailguns in some sort of suicidal demonstration of the issue, and I could still care less.

Wait a minute, I do believe I find myself on the Muslim side of things. Fancy that.

Go halal!
Posted by: Mitch H. || 12/19/2006 12:49 Comments || Top||

#13  YOu fuckking.\
Posted by: FreePalestins || 12/19/2006 13:13 Comments || Top||

#14  YOu fuckking.\ !Viva Che! !Viva Fidel!
Posted by: FreePalestins || 12/19/2006 13:13 Comments || Top||

#15  Clean up in aisles 13 and 14 - troll droppings!
Posted by: Spot || 12/19/2006 13:31 Comments || Top||

#16  Viva Pali peeples! The man is have me down. Caplist entity wall agaist you up it!
Posted by: HalfEmpty || 12/19/2006 13:42 Comments || Top||

#17  Ewe fuckking ? It sounds like Free Palestins has been holding the tail during the halal ritual bleeding.
Posted by: wxjames || 12/19/2006 13:43 Comments || Top||

#18  Ingalish, I speeek Ingalish,
Posted by: Manuel || 12/19/2006 13:46 Comments || Top||

#19  I can shout, don't hear you.
Posted by: .com || 12/19/2006 14:23 Comments || Top||

#20  ?Que?
Posted by: trailing wife || 12/19/2006 14:28 Comments || Top||

#21  Several people have pointed out elsewhere that Sikhs are forbidden to eat such meat. Cultural sensitivity, anyone?
Posted by: James || 12/19/2006 14:39 Comments || Top||

#22  Viva Fidel, now that's a loaded statement.
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 12/19/2006 15:19 Comments || Top||

#23  The covert halal diet makes sense if you want to smooth the transition to islam.
Posted by: Mark Z || 12/19/2006 16:33 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
In Chinese Boomtown, Middle Class Pushes Back
Posted by: .com || 12/19/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Of course, they can only push so far:
It started when Mr. Jiang filed a series of lawsuits to try to resolve a number problems related to property management. After a string of defeats, he sought help from his local representative, only to discover that the man was a party to one of his lawsuits.

“It was only then that I realized that according to the election law, if I could get enough votes in the community, I could become a representative myself,” Mr. Jiang said. Or so it appeared. Mr. Jiang began sending out hundreds of short messages with his cellphone to seek backers for his candidacy. He printed campaign cards, which he distributed in the neighborhood to encourage residents to vote.

When he had enlisted enough support he tried to register his candidacy, but he was turned away by officials who told him he was not a Shenzhen resident and therefore could not even vote locally. On the eve of the election, Mr. Jiang filed suit over the denial of his voting rights. Three days before the trial was to begin, registration officials tried to force their way into his apartment. He agreed to meet them outdoors, whereupon the officials informed him that they would allow him to vote. Minutes later, court officials showed up telling him he could be a candidate if he dropped his lawsuit.

Mr. Jiang refused, saying the process was too tainted for him to participate, and his lawsuit was later dismissed. In another part of town, another resident sought election to the local district council, only to see the number of eligible voters double after the close of registration. Saying it was a clumsy attempt to fix the outcome, the candidate, Ma Jinhua, withdrew in protest.
Posted by: Zenster || 12/19/2006 2:06 Comments || Top||

#2  Ha, ha...good luck, buckos. The only way that the Party will change is if it wants to change.

“Facing boiling public opinion, the first thing the authorities think of is not ‘maybe we should listen,’ but repression,”

Yup, that's about right! Welcome to China! Good luck with the boycotts, idiots.
Posted by: gromky || 12/19/2006 2:48 Comments || Top||

#3  Welcome to the shithouse, we saved you a seat.
Posted by: bigim-ky || 12/19/2006 11:03 Comments || Top||


Great White North
Stephen Harper named Time's North American Newsmaker of the Year
Congrats, Mr. Prime Minister. The editorial staff prolly had to lie down after their vote...
Posted by: Seafarious || 12/19/2006 00:03 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  negotiated an end to softwood lumber disputes with the U.S.

Sweartagod that was the first thing I thought of when I saw the headline. The whole damn world is becomming ScrappleFace.
Posted by: SteveS || 12/19/2006 1:35 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Mark Tapscott: Pelosi preparing new shackles for free speech
WASHINGTON - Incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has cooked up with Public Citizen’s Joan Claybrook a “lobbying reform” that actually protects rich special interests and activists millionaires while clamping new shackles on citizens’ First Amendment rights to petition Congress and speak their minds.

Pelosi tried earlier this year to move H.R. 4682, the “Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2006,” which is now cited by Public Citizen’s Web site as the vehicle it is helping the incoming speaker to craft for the new Congress. The proposal Claybrook is helping craft for introduction early in 2007 is expected to be essentially the same bill Pelosi put forth this year.

That is bad news for the First Amendment and for preserving the kind of healthy, open debate that is essential to holding politicians, bureaucrats and special interests to account for their conduct of the public business.

The key provision of the 2006 bill was its redefinition of grassroots lobbying to include small citizens groups whose messages about Congress and public policy issues are directed toward the general public, according to attorneys for the Free Speech Coalition.

All informational and educational materials produced by such groups would have to be registered and reported on a quarterly basis. Failure to report would result in severe civil penalties (likely followed soon by criminal penalties as well).

In addition, the 2006 bill created a new statutory category of First Amendment activity to be regulated by Congress. Known as “grassroots lobbying firms,” these groups would be required to register with Congress and be subject to penalties whenever they are paid $50,000 or more to communicate with the general public during any three-month period.

In other words, for the first time in American history, potentially millions of concerned citizens involved in grassroots lobbying and representing viewpoints from across the entire political spectrum would have to register with Congress in order to exercise their First Amendment rights.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 12/19/2006 12:24 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Actions have consequences. Tip o' the iceberg, I'm afraid. Well America, you voted this witch from hell and all her scumbag friends into power. Oh, and FU America for doing so.
Posted by: mcsegeek1 || 12/19/2006 15:19 Comments || Top||

#2  Bite me, Nancy, I'll say what I like to whomever I please. If you can stop me, do it.

Otherwise...
Posted by: mojo || 12/19/2006 16:12 Comments || Top||

#3  They can't stop me from saying what I want. And if they try, well, we fought a revolution over that once before and we will do it again if need be.
Posted by: DarthVader || 12/19/2006 19:09 Comments || Top||

#4  How many armed milita members (as defined by federal law) does the speaker have?
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 12/19/2006 19:36 Comments || Top||

#5  How many armed milita members (as defined by federal law) does the speaker have?

None.

The California State Militia is an unarmed volunteer group whose charter is the support of the state police and national guard. I considered joining them not to long ago until I figured out they were basically intended to be unarmed slave labor in the event of a state disaster - not actual militia forces.

In any event, Pelosi and company do not want armed militia groups in the USA. Unless you're her or one of her bodyguards, you should not be allowed to carry or even possess a firearm.

Posted by: FOTSGreg || 12/19/2006 20:06 Comments || Top||


American abroad giving up citizenship because of Bush taxes
NYT registration required, so posted in full.
She is a former marine, a native Californian and, now, an ex-American who prefers to remain discreet about abandoning her citizenship. After 10 years of warily considering options, she turned in her United States passport last month without ceremony, becoming an alien in the view of her homeland. “It’s a really hard thing to do,” said the woman, a 16-year resident of Geneva who had tired of the cost and time of filing yearly United States tax returns on top of her Swiss taxes. “I just kept putting this off. But it’s my kids and the estate tax. I don’t care if I die with only one Swiss franc to my name, but the U.S. shouldn’t get money I earned here when I die.”

Historically, small numbers of Americans have turned in their passports every year for political and economic reasons, with the numbers reaching a high of about 2,000 during the Vietnam War in the early 1970s.

But after Congress sharply raised taxes this year for many Americans living abroad, some international tax lawyers say they detect rising demand from citizens to renounce ties with the United States, the only developed country that taxes its citizens while they live overseas. Americans abroad are also taxed in the countries where they live. “The administrative costs of being an American and living outside the U.S. have gone up dramatically,” said Marnin Michaels, a tax lawyer with Baker & McKenzie in Zurich.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Jackal || 12/19/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Oh, I didn't miss it. It was big news where I am. It totally sucks that US citizens get taxed twice.

On one hand, you have genuine expats who have found a better life overseas. On the other hand, you have rich assholes who are obsessed with avoiding taxes. How do you make one happy while putting the hammer down on the other?
Posted by: gromky || 12/19/2006 2:45 Comments || Top||

#2  To any American citizen who no longer wants to be an American citizen no matter where you live - good riddance! I don't care about your reasons, hardships, or other causations. Don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out (though my boot might).

(That goes equally for anyone living and working in the USA who doesn't want to be an American citizen eventually. Go home you pustulescent plague upon this country).

Posted by: FOTSGreg || 12/19/2006 5:47 Comments || Top||

#3  I should amend the above by stating that if you're here legally, have a green card, and are not actively working against the interests of the USA, welcome, and howdy!

But if you're here illegally, don't have a legal green card, and/or are working against the interests of the USA and its citizens, my statement above stands.

Posted by: FOTSGreg || 12/19/2006 6:26 Comments || Top||

#4  Yes, but watch them very carefully anytime they're in a position where because local conditions go south and the helos are at the American compound or pier, they'll be claiming citizenship.
Posted by: Glinemble Grolung7203 || 12/19/2006 9:34 Comments || Top||

#5  So far this year, the Internal Revenue Service has tallied 509 Americans who have given up their citizenship...

Look out! Don't get caught in the stampede!
Only in the fuckin New York Times...
Posted by: tu3031 || 12/19/2006 9:34 Comments || Top||

#6  I'll go ya one better, tu!

Historically, small numbers of Americans have turned in their passports every year for political and economic reasons, with the numbers reaching a high of about 2,000 during the Vietnam War in the early 1970s.

So much for that TRUE counter-culture argument thingy. I was born in the early 70's so I was always taught that almost half the nation's men left for Canada. I guess you could've done that and still not renounced citizenship, but only 2000 in the "reaction" to Vietnam? PSHAW!

Sounds like the 70's hippies were a lot like the modern-day Sheen's and Baldwin's....all threats (to leave the country), but no action.
Posted by: BA || 12/19/2006 10:21 Comments || Top||

#7  I can't really blame them if they are never going to move back anyway. Swiss taxes have got to be stiff to say the least. Anyway, the way they have it rigged up now, there arent a whole lot of great advantages to having citizenship right now. And in that I mean we let the illegals get away with so much shit.
Posted by: bigim-ky || 12/19/2006 11:09 Comments || Top||

#8  Reminds me of the issue with flagged merchant marine ships. If the US navy will protect every ship equally despite national flag, and the US taxes and union rules make it cheaper to flag your ship in Panama or Liberia you'd be a fool to seek out US paperwork.

You've got to make the citizenship mean something, you can't give the benefits to everyone and expect it to work.
Posted by: Glert Glaising6080 || 12/19/2006 12:22 Comments || Top||

#9  Those taxes haven't been raised for 30 years, IIRC.
Posted by: anonymous2u || 12/19/2006 20:59 Comments || Top||

#10  If I recall correctly from our stint abroad, US taxes (at least with regards to residency and income earnt in Germany and Belgium) were levied on the difference between the taxes at home and those where we were. That is, if the tax over there was 25%, and the tax here was 35%, we got credit for the taxes paid to Germany, and only had to pay the additional 10% to the IRS. The forms were ugly, especially as Mr. Wife's company paid on an equivalent net-after-taxes basis, which meant that nobody knew what the gross would be until Deloitte&Touche had done the calculations... and even then it wasn't final because Germany and the US haven't yet made a final determination on how it's to be handled. So each year we signed off on a 2" binder, countersigned the check from the company for the difference that went to the IRS, wrote a check for the amount D&T figured was our share, and hoped that the two countries would finalize things before we die of old age. We came back in 1996, D&T did our last Europe-connected tax return around 2000... except for the final one to be done some time in the future when the final determination can be made.

In the meantime, we're keeping the hard copies of every tax return with supporting documentation covering the time we were abroad plus the following years as we used up the accruals. The trailing daughters may need it someday.
Posted by: trailing wife || 12/19/2006 21:29 Comments || Top||


Johnson Conscious After Brain Surgery
Sen. Tim Johnson has been conscious at times since his emergency brain surgery last week, his spokeswoman said Monday. But he is currently being sedated so he can rest. The South Dakota Democrat has made it through the first 72 hours since the Wednesday evening brain surgery, spokeswoman Julianne Fisher said, a benchmark that doctors consider a good sign for recovery. The senator remains in critical but stable condition, she added.
"Oh, man! My head! What the hell was in that drink?"
Posted by: Fred || 12/19/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Functional recovery for the senator will have a lot to do with his ability to speak & understand.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 12/19/2006 0:32 Comments || Top||

#2  Yeah, but he can still be Senator, right?

Sorry. I'm ashamed of myself....

I DO hope he recovers, Democrat or not.
Posted by: Bobby || 12/19/2006 5:57 Comments || Top||

#3  That's OK, Bobby. Senators are twits regardless of party.
Posted by: Spot || 12/19/2006 8:28 Comments || Top||

#4  But if he was a Republican, Harry Reid would be over there stepping on his oxygen hose.
Posted by: tu3031 || 12/19/2006 9:40 Comments || Top||

#5  Have there been any actual sightings? Maybe they'll try to pull a Castro.
Posted by: DoDo || 12/19/2006 11:33 Comments || Top||


International-UN-NGOs
Mystery Surfaces Over Apartment of Kofi Annan
HT No Pasaran!
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 12/19/2006 12:22 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  No scam too small.
12 days.
Posted by: tu3031 || 12/19/2006 12:57 Comments || Top||

#2  We should rid ourselves of these fleas.

I challenge a single person to give me one irrefutable example of how we benefit from being in the UN.
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 12/19/2006 14:44 Comments || Top||

#3  And while I'm at it, what part of this is a mystery?
He's helping himself, no news here.
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 12/19/2006 16:43 Comments || Top||

#4  Vampire vulture elite parasites.
Posted by: Zenster || 12/19/2006 19:07 Comments || Top||

#5  I challenge a single person to give me one irrefutable example of how we benefit from being in the UN.

All kidding aside, the US is there to provide some form of adult supervision.
Posted by: gorb || 12/19/2006 22:52 Comments || Top||


Olde Tyme Religion
Online animal sacrifice for Eid catching on
First it was banking, marriage matches and Eid cards, and now devout Muslims can also get the animal of their choice sacrificed online for festivities like Eid Al Adha. Many local and international are offering traditional sacrificial animals - goat, sheep, camel and cow - for sacrifice and billing it through credit card.
Click here to cut the sheep's throat.
Who's got the link to the webcam?
Well, it does beat stepping innit on the beach at Half Moon Bay...
Under the system, customers can either donate the animal directly to the poor or take home the meat from the trust office.
Yes! Ship my sacrificial goat meat next day delivery via FedEx! (Add $12.95 to price)
The system is also fast catching up with the people.
"Hey, Fatima! Lookit dis!"
"The online booking is for people who are busy and do not have enough time to visit offices or markets. We started the service two years ago but few people were aware of it. Now we have a good response from internet users," a local daily quoted Shakeel Dehlawi, director of public relations for the Alamgir Welfare Trust International, Karachi, as saying. "We offer a goat or sheep for only $84 [Rs5,000; Dh308], a full cow for $412 (Rs25,000) and a part of a cow for $60 (Rs3,600)," he said.
Posted by: Fred || 12/19/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  What about joooooos? Or do you still have to explode to kill those?
Posted by: Jackal || 12/19/2006 0:38 Comments || Top||

#2  Next year they'll offer sacrifice of infidels on-line.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 12/19/2006 12:25 Comments || Top||

#3  ... and a part of a cow for $60 (Rs3,600)

How do you sacrifice a part of a cow?
Posted by: xbalanke || 12/19/2006 13:06 Comments || Top||

#4  AH: Next year they'll offer sacrifice of infidels on-line.

Next year?
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 12/19/2006 17:39 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
Seven dead in Indonesian earthquake
A quake that struck the Indonesian island of Sumatra killed at least seven people, injured 150 and damaged hundreds of homes, local officials and police said Monday. Three aftershocks sent residents rushing out of their homes in the region, where memories of the 2004 tsunami which devastated Aceh further to the north are still fresh.

Rescuers worked all day to reach 20 villages which were cut off by landslides triggered by the 5.7-magnitude quake, police said. The epicentre of the quake, which hit at 4:39 am (2139 GMT Sunday), was 150 kilometres (95 miles) southeast of Sibolga at the relatively shallow depth of 17.7 kilometres, geologists said.
Posted by: Fred || 12/19/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Gee, that's too bad. And that's all they will get from Me.
Posted by: Jackal || 12/19/2006 0:39 Comments || Top||

#2  Someone just doesn't like these folks. I wonder why. All I'll give them is the finger.
Posted by: Zenster || 12/19/2006 1:54 Comments || Top||

#3  I was the only one at the Library to feel the quakin' and tremorin'.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 12/19/2006 2:05 Comments || Top||

#4  It might be helpful to point out that this quake is reported as having taken place in Sibolga, Sumatra, which is a good bit south of Aceh, has a lot of Christians in its population and is very close to the nearly 100% Lutheran island of Nias.



Well, then, why the earthquakes? Well, the Pacific Ring of Fire is a zone of frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions encircling the basin of the Pacific Ocean.


For example, the volcano Krakatoa is located on Rakata, an island in the Sunda Strait between Java and Sumatra, Indonesia. Its eruption in 1883 was one of the most catastrophic ever witnessed in recorded history. It still smokes, sometimes.


The devastation in this region can be horrible, as it was when about 170,000 people died in and around Aceh.


And, the kindness of America in responding to the tsunami disaster (affecting mostly North Sumatra and Aceh) was not lost on the Indonesians, who repeatedly made comments like the following:
We in Indonesia are grateful and touched by the enormity of international response in meeting the needs of the victims and survivors. The continuing support and assistanceof the United States government provided to the people and government of Indonesia are of great importance in order to mitigate and alleviate the sufferings of the victims. We particularly appreciate the crucial role that the United States Armed Forces play in providing helicopters for relief assistance for victims and survivors at the remote and isolated areas
January 2005: Powell, in Indonesia, Vows U.S. Help With Post-Tsunami Recovery

Now the question I keep hearing is: Was all that good old American kindness wasted on a bunch of Aceh islamofascists? Well, I think that the answer to that is that Aceh just elected Irwandi Yusuf to be its governor, and "Irwandi is one of the few open critics of the imposition of Islamic sharia law. Aceh never demanded sharia, he says." Election Aceh’s first step towards freer future Basically, as the story goes, the Acehnese now just want to see the economic benefits of peace.
Posted by: cingold || 12/19/2006 3:49 Comments || Top||

#5  Cingold, you say that Irwandi Yusuf is against sharia. OK, fine, now that he is in a position to do something about it, lets see if he can walk the walk instead of talk the talk. When he has done so, tell him to get back to us.
Posted by: tipper || 12/19/2006 8:10 Comments || Top||

#6  So long as Bashir still breathes walks free, Indonesia can suck hind tit.
Posted by: Zenster || 12/19/2006 12:27 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
Joy Behar of 'The View' Likens Rumsfeld to Adolf Hitler
NEW YORK — The women of 'The View' did it again.

Specifically Joy Behar, who during a discussion Monday about Time magazine's 'Person of the Year' selection, likened former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to ... Adolf Hitler.

"You have to put, like, a Hitler type [on the cover]," Behar said in response to a question about whether Time's selection of "You" was appropriate.

"Like, you put Donald Rumsfeld there, or something," she said.

The show's audience — even show diva Rosie O'Donnell — was stunned by the comment, and as many began to jeer, Behar feigned surprise and yelled, "What's wrong with that?"

Behar is no stranger to the off-the-cuff comment.

Last Thursday, in a discussion about Democratic Sen. Tim Johnson’s emergency brain surgery, Behar offered a bizarre conspiracy theory.

“Is there such a thing as a man-made stroke?" she asked. "In other words, did someone do this to him?”

Her co-hosts, including guest host Dari Alexander of FOX News, appeared mystified by the absurd suggestion, but went along with it.

“Maybe they gave him polonium,” Alexander joked, a reference to the ex-KGB spy who was poisoned last month.

But Behar didn't let it go. When asked by 'View' regular Elisabeth Hasselbeck, “Why is everything coming from the liberal perspective a conspiracy?”

Behar answered: “I know what this, that party is capable of.”

Stay tuned.

Posted by: mcsegeek1 || 12/19/2006 09:16 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Stupid is ....
Posted by: 49 Pan || 12/19/2006 9:27 Comments || Top||

#2  Sounds like there's a competition on the View who can outStupid the others.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 12/19/2006 9:33 Comments || Top||

#3  Bigot.
Posted by: OldSpook || 12/19/2006 9:35 Comments || Top||

#4  Yet another reason we should adopt a "Starship Troopers" era Heinlein notion of the franchise. This ungrateful, ignorant sow does not deserve to vote.
Posted by: Excalibur || 12/19/2006 9:41 Comments || Top||

#5  What a self-important airhead. Rosie O'Dyke got in hot water for mocking the Chinese language. Babwa Wawa screwed half the public figures in NYC, when she was hot.
Posted by: Sneaze Shaiting3550 || 12/19/2006 9:42 Comments || Top||

#6  Once again, this makes me appreciate that I have a day job...
Posted by: tu3031 || 12/19/2006 9:55 Comments || Top||

#7  Excalibur,

No lets not do that. The left will make sure that it's your vote that is taken away, not theirs.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles in Blairistan || 12/19/2006 10:03 Comments || Top||

#8  exactly, tu! The race to the bottom continues. I was always taught 2 things that apply to this situation:

(1) If you don't have nuttin' nice to say, don't say nuttin' at all;
(2) When you hit bottom, you quit digging.
Posted by: BA || 12/19/2006 10:31 Comments || Top||

#9  The bottom dwellers are out there in force with the idiots, aren't they?
Posted by: DarthVader || 12/19/2006 12:07 Comments || Top||

#10  I'm betting Behar believes in "man made" global warming but not in any communist inspired genocide.

I wonder if Behar would know who Ayann Hirsi Ali or Walfa Sultan is? Naw...no way.
Posted by: Mark Z || 12/19/2006 12:21 Comments || Top||

#11  US impere now nazstisas, !Viva Che! !Viva Fidel!

Free to enter US impere.
Posted by: FreePalestins || 12/19/2006 13:17 Comments || Top||

#12  *sigh* Why can't we get any good trolls instead of pathetic worms like FP?
Posted by: Dar || 12/19/2006 13:22 Comments || Top||

#13  Lunch is over, FP. Get back on them toilets! And make sure they sparkle like your mother's gold tooth.
Comprende?
Posted by: tu3031 || 12/19/2006 13:24 Comments || Top||

#14  Hey, #11 FreePalestins Loser - you misspelled your name.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 12/19/2006 14:20 Comments || Top||

#15  Who is Joy Behar?
Posted by: KBK || 12/19/2006 14:45 Comments || Top||

#16  I don't want a free Palestin. In fact, you couldn't pay me to take one - bad hygiene, always digging in the yard...and seething all the time.
Posted by: Frank G || 12/19/2006 14:46 Comments || Top||

#17  ROLF, #16 Frank. ;-p
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 12/19/2006 15:00 Comments || Top||

#18  I know it's not on topic, but as long as we're talking about it, What's a Palestinian?
Posted by: mcsegeek1 || 12/19/2006 15:15 Comments || Top||

#19  You mean The View is still on the air? Who knew?
Posted by: Mike || 12/19/2006 15:47 Comments || Top||

#20  I think Free Palestin owes us a quality hiakoo to make up for his angry minute.
Posted by: Shipman || 12/19/2006 18:42 Comments || Top||

#21  Viva Che? Viva Fidel? Dude, that's sooo last millennium. Where have all the good trolls gone?
Posted by: SteveS || 12/19/2006 18:54 Comments || Top||


The "War on Science"
Jonah Goldberg, "The Corner," National Review

With a few exceptions, I think the most bogus lefty storyline, meme, narrative or whatever you want to call it of the Bush years has been the Republican "war" on science. Most of the charges strike me as tiffs over funding, or fights over social issues which the left wants to gussy-up as battles between reason, science and goodness on one side and superstitition, religious zealotry and badness on the other. The best example is embryonic stem cell research where the left wants the mantle of "science" all for itself, the better to dismiss anyone who disagrees with their values (i.e. not their science) as luddite lunkheads. In other words, one side thinks embryonic stem cells are research fodder the other side doesn't. But the left calls the right "anti-science" not because pro-lifers don't understand or accept the science, but because pro-lifers disagree on this particular use of science. From, the prolife perspective, it's a bit like saying opposition to human experimentation is "anti-science." Note: My own views on this are ill-formed and complex but not necessarily uniformly pro-life. But I don't consider, say, Ramesh, anti-science simply because he doesn't want to use a particular scientific technique.

Meanwhile, much of the left (though not necessarily most liberals) is thoroughly and routinely opposed to scientific advance, from the use of DDT and Golden Rice to opposition to nuclear power and food irradiation (See today's great WSJ editorial on this). Pretty much all of these technologies, if persued, would save more lives, at least in the next couple decades, than fully funding embryonic stem cell research to Ronnie Reagan's heart's content. But the left stands in the way (while liberals let them) of all of this out of some mumbo-jumbo fear of technology or because they have special phobias about the direction of capitalism or because....I dunno why. But when I hear people say that the right is anti-science, I always want to ask "Yeah, as opposed to who?"
Posted by: Mike || 12/19/2006 06:08 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I allowed my Scientific American subscription to lapse as they became more obviously lefty. The final straw was some issue which "conservatives, and the Administration, opposed."

So much for telling both sides of the story.
Posted by: Bobby || 12/19/2006 6:37 Comments || Top||

#2  Discover magazine is easier to read, more interesting, and less snooty. Published by the Disney folks, ya know.
Posted by: Bobby || 12/19/2006 6:38 Comments || Top||

#3  Journals Science or Nature = truth. Politics should stay the feck away from science its what makes the US great.
Posted by: pihkalbadger || 12/19/2006 12:14 Comments || Top||

#4  Don't forget "Science News". Great little weekly rag with all of the breaking stories in well-written and easily read form.
Posted by: Zenster || 12/19/2006 13:13 Comments || Top||



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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.

Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.

Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has dominated Mexico for six years.
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Meet the Mods
In no particular order...
Steve White
Seafarious
tu3031
badanov
sherry
ryuge
GolfBravoUSMC
Bright Pebbles
trailing wife
Gloria
Fred
Besoeker
Glenmore
Frank G
3dc
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Two weeks of WOT
Tue 2006-12-19
  James Ujaama nabbed in Belize
Mon 2006-12-18
  Palestinian Clashes Kill 2; Presidential Compound Hit
Sun 2006-12-17
  Abbas Calls for Early Palestinian Vote
Sat 2006-12-16
  Street clashes spread in Gaza
Fri 2006-12-15
  Paleos shoot up Haniyeh convoy
Thu 2006-12-14
  Brammertz finds 'significant links' in Lebanon killings
Wed 2006-12-13
  Arab League seeks end to Leb crisis
Tue 2006-12-12
  Hamas gunnies kill three little sons of Abbas aide in Gaza
Mon 2006-12-11
  Talabani lashes out at 'dangerous' Baker report
Sun 2006-12-10
  Lahoud refuses to endorse Hariri tribunal accord
Sat 2006-12-09
  Chicago jihad boy nabbed in grenade plot
Fri 2006-12-08
  Olmert vows to do nothing ''show restraint'' in face of Kassams
Thu 2006-12-07
  Soddy forces, gunnies shoot it out
Wed 2006-12-06
  Sudan rejects U.N. compromise deal on Darfur
Tue 2006-12-05
  Talibs "repel" Brit assault


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