Posted by: Fred ||
11/25/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
The corker is that Hogan didn't even know of this until a reporter asked him about it. Personally, my entire image of this man was irreparably shattered when he was outed for steroids abuse.
#2
Last week she was caught on tape defending street racing, and celebrating eluding law enforcement. Last I heard, he street racer brat son crippled a friend in an accident.
#4
How come??? Although its techn/legally not of our business, as a Celeb many Amers will wanna know. First DOG THE BOUNTY HUNTER troubles wid show + family discord, NOW THE HULK - as iff the latter wasn't enuff, BATTLE STAR GALACTICA'S FOURT SEASON IS REPORTEDLY ITS LAST - you know, SEVEN YEARS/SEASONS??? OWG-SWO, ATTACK IRAN NOW, D *** NG IT, BEFORE ALL AMERIKA = MSM TV LOSES THE TREASONOUS SEXY CYCLON BABES + MRS. HOGAN'S CHOCO CHIP COOKIES FOREVER!
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has lost his lead eight days before a referendum on ending his term limit, an independent pollster said on Saturday, in a swing in voter sentiment against the Cuba ally.
Don't you worry, he'll find it election night.
Forty-nine percent of likely voters oppose Chavez's proposed raft of constitutional changes to expand his powers, compared with 39 percent in favor, a survey by respected pollster Datanalisis showed.
Just weeks ago, Chavez had a 10-point lead for his proposed changes in the OPEC nation that must be approved in a referendum, the polling company said.
Despite the swing, company head Luis Vicente Leon said he did not rule out a comeback by the popular president.
Luis certainly knows how the local politics work.
Chavez has trounced the opposition at the polls on average once a year and can deploy a huge state-backed machinery to get out the vote, Leon said.
Still, the survey was the latest blow to Chavez. He has suffered a series of defections over his plan, including an ex-defense minister who had restored him to power after a brief 2002 putsch but who called Chavez's reforms a new "coup." "The debate over voting 'yes' or 'no' has burst into the very heart of Chavez's support base," Leon said in an interview. "We can see moderate Chavez backers ready to vote 'no' even though they like him."
Saturday's poll was the first Datanalisis survey in the campaign to project Chavez could lose. It also contrasted with the general trend of most other surveys taken earlier this month that have shown Chavez winning amid low turnout and despite widespread skepticism of his proposal.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/25/2007 00:00 ||
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"In the months to come we will have a total[itarian] renewal of the top leadership of the state," Pooty gloated. "It's all about meeeee", he uttered under his breath after microphones were turned off.
BEIJING (Rooters) - An altercation between a Han Chinese shopowner and Tibetan monks in rural Tibet escalated into an ethnic riot, a source with knowledge of the incident said on Sunday, the latest sign of discontent in the unsettled region.
The riot began after three Buddhist monks from the Baiga temple in Tibet's Naqu district got into a scuffle with the shopowner. When police arrested the monks, but not the shopowner, anger flared. "The Han owner, he attacked the monks first," the Beijing-based source, familiar with Tibetan affairs, said of the incident which happened last week.
The monks were taken from the local police station to the county Public Security Bureau, where they claimed they were beaten.
Hundreds of herdsmen went to the bureau to demand their release, and when their demands went unmet, they began smashing shops owned by Han Chinese. The estimated 600 herdsmen also attacked the police who initially arrested the monks and smashed cars and government offices.
When police began filming the riot to collect evidence, it further angered the crowds. "The herdsmen were very agitated and they wouldn't let police film them," the source said. The riot forced authorities to call in 800 paramilitaries, seal off the area and cut telephone links.
You need to cut the telephone wires to control a riot?
An official reached by telephone at the Public Security Bureau in Biru county, which overseas Baiga village where the incident began, acknowledged that there had been unrest but gave no further information. "This is confidential. I can't talk about this," said the official, who hung up when asked his name. He said the situation was now stable.
"I can say no more!"
The riot was the most recent of a string of incidents in Tibet, where tensions between Chinese and Tibetans remain high, nearly five decades after Communist troops took control of the isolated, mountainous region. Many in Tibet still pledge loyalty to the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism, despite Beijing's condemnation of him as a traitor for staging a failed uprising against Chinese rule and fleeing to India in 1959.
Naqu district was birthplace of a young nun who was killed last year when Chinese soldiers fired at a group of Tibetans as they attempted to cross a mountain pass into Nepal. Several in the same area were also arrested last year for burning furs after the Dalai Lama called on Tibetans not to wear the furs and skins of endangered animals.
Incoming Labour prime minister Kevin Rudd, a Mandarin-speaking former diplomat, has pledged closer Australian ties with overseas allies and unity at home after ending 11 years of conservative rule under John Howard. Rudd (50) presented himself as a new-generation leader by promising to pull about 500 front-line Australian troops out of Iraq and sign the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, further isolating Washington on both issues.
"To our friends and allies around the world, I look forward as the next prime minister of Australia to working with them in dealing with the great challenges which our world now faces," he told cheering supporters at a victory party late on Saturday.
The surge to Labour left Howard battling to win even his own parliamentary seat, which he has held since 1974. He was in danger of becoming the first prime minister since 1929 to lose his constituency.
As part of Rudd's promised "fresh thinking", he also teamed with a female deputy, former lawyer Julia Gillard, who will be Australia's first woman deputy prime minister.
"King Kevin the new conqueror," said the Sun-Herald newspaper in Howard's home town of Sydney on Sunday. "It's Labour in a Ruddslide", said the national newspaper the Australian.
Up to six government ministers, including Howard, looked likely to be ejected in only the sixth change of government since World War II. Labour is set to hold up to 86 seats in the 150-seat Parliament.
Rudd is expected to forge closer ties with China and other Asian nations and has said he wants a more independent voice in foreign policy, with past Labour governments more supportive of an energetic United Nations and global organisations.
But he has also promised to maintain Australia's close alliance with the US as the cornerstone of Australia's foreign and strategic policy. "Rudd will have to open negotiations soon with the United States about the withdrawal of Australia's combat troops from Iraq. This is a delicate operation because it will be Labour's first testing of the alliance," veteran political commentator Michelle Grattan wrote in the Sun-Herald.
US President George Bush congratulated Rudd on his election victory, and praised Howard's leadership. "The United States and Australia have long been strong partners and allies and the president looks forward to working with this new government to continue our historic relationship," the White House said in a statement.
Rudd promised to sign the Kyoto climate pact immediately and lead his country's delegation to next month's UN climate summit in Bali, which is expected to kick-start talks on a post-Kyoto deal to slash greenhouse-gas emissions globally. He also pledged unity at home, vowing to shut down controversial offshore detention of illegal immigrants and to take care of Aborigines in the wake of a conservative intervention to seize control of remote indigenous communities with troops and police.
"I will be a prime minister for all Australians, a prime minister for indigenous Australians, Australians who have been born here and Australians who have come here from afar," he said.
Family Minister Mal Brough, responsible for the Aboriginal intervention to stop rampant sexual abuse of children and "rivers of grog" in remote outback towns, was a high-profile casualty of the Labour win, losing his Queensland seat.
But Labour could be frustrated by a hostile Upper House. The conservatives will have a Senate majority until July next year, possibly delaying Rudd's agenda and his promise to dump unpopular labour laws that supercharged his victory. Centre-left Labour will have to negotiate with diverse minor Senate parties including the left-leaning Australian Greens and the conservative, Christian-values Family First party.
The election was fought mainly on domestic issues, with Labour cashing in on anger at labour laws and rising interest rates that put home owners under financial pressure at a time when Australia's economy is booming. The result puts Labour in power nationally and in all of Australia's six states and two territories. The lord mayor of the northern city of Brisbane is now the senior-ranking elected official in Howard's Liberal Party.
Outgoing Foreign Minister Alexander Downer glumly said it had been hard for the conservative government to present itself as fresh and new after more than 11 years, despite 16 years of economic expansion and unemployment at 33-year lows. "I think at the end of the day, people just thought it was time for a change," Downer told local television on Sunday.
#2
Oz...welcome to the land of liberal government. May the absurdity of Kyoto, and jihadism jump up an personally bite every one who voted for Rudd in the butt.
#1
The Pope favoured the idea of a watchdog for church music when he was the cardinal in charge of safeguarding Catholic doctrine.
Without wishing to be too blunt, I'd sure as Hell like to know when Benedict will install a watchdog to purge the church of its known sex offenders. I love Gregorian chants and have always been intrigued by their prototypical forms of musical notation but all of this is window dressing compared to the importance of him defending his flock from predatory priests.
#2
Zenster, you obviously haven't a clue about what the Catholic Church has endured after the disclosure of predatory priests and the cover-up attempts by some bishops.
Dioceses have filed for bankruptcy, personnel records of clergy and laity have been combed for evidence, often going back 40 or fifty years, people in retirement homes have been investigated and sometimes arrested. Churches, convents, rectories, schools, and other properties have been sold to pay restitution and lawyers' bills.
Friend, every Catholic worthy of title, including the Holy Father, knows perfectly well the crimes (and most of them occured in the 50's, 60's, and 70's) and the associated penalties still being exacted.
Perhaps even worse is the toxic atmosphere of liability terror that permeates the parish halls and offices across the country. For a taste, I'd suggest reading this essay.
#3
Friend, every Catholic worthy of title, including the Holy Father, knows perfectly well the crimes (and most of them occured in the 50's, 60's, and 70's) and the associated penalties still being exacted.
Fear not, I'm rather well aware of the sea change being experienced within the Church. As you yourself admit, there are "penalties still being exacted", so the job is clearly not yet done. I just happen to have some difficulty with an institution that delegates itself authority to dictate conduct for man and woman alike without any religious authority given to the second sex.
However, that is not my central point. Even amidst all of the devastating parish closures and bankruptcies there have remained a sufficient number of obviously concealed histories and coverups whereby I feel obligated to be concerned.
Moreover, in the larger picture of things, if so much progress has been made toward ridding the Church of its predatory felons then I must, once again, hope that Pope Benedict would find it of far greater importance to assail Christianity's greatest menace, which is not modern liturgical music but Islam.
#5
I'm glad the Holy Father has taken the time to address the issue of music in the liturgy. You should attend Mass, Zenster. Maybe pray for the Pope to declare a crusade. Or watch other people worship. It's ... healthy.
Being an atheist or an agnostic must be hell if all you can do is wait for the Pontiff to hoist his crozier and call for a crusade.
#6
The reform of Liturgical Music has been rumbling seriously for about a decade, having beguin back in the 1980's. The problem is during the latter part of John Paul II's Papcy, the Bishops were allowed much latitude, and this resulted in abuses, especially in LA and other ultra-liberal dioceses - where they invented garbage like "liturgical dance" which is nowhere to be found in the General Intstructions Roman Mass - the Official Missal (I.e. the "rulebook" for Catholic Mass).
This is simply the return of common sense, and putting the majesty and sense of awe back into the Mass in those areas, and making it something set apart from the daily world while still in it. It is reaching back centuries and drawing on proven traditions, unlike the commonplace pop-style music which is transitory in the long run, and whose use marks the mass as mundane and nearly meaningless.
Its much like the return of the Traditional Latin Mass and the influence that is having on the Novus Ordo Mass - its a way to uncover and restore the dignity of the Mass to those worshiping, instead of trying to hide it under a layer of pop culture.
It puts the emphasis back on God and less on entrtaining.
#7
Zen there is a council in just about EVERY diocese that handles these things. There are also USCCB rules for this, and you have to go through not just state, but Diocese classes and vetting before you are allowed to work with children (fingerprinting, NCIC and State checks, as well as strict psychological evaluations - and I'm going thru these on my path to possibly becoming a Deacon). Same goes for lay adults that work with children (minus the psych stuff) - they are NEVER allowed to be alone with a child that is not their own. Most of the abuse was in LIBERAL areas, like LA and Boston, with liberal bishops, who coddle active homosexuals in the Church. And there has not been a case reported where the abuse occured since the mid 1990's or so, with the vast majority of the abuse occuring in 1965-1975, with the crimes of hiding them occuring after that. Their time is at an end, and we regular Catholics have made sure of it.
The Pope himself has put forth some internal pressure on the Bishops councils in variosu countries, and the Vatican has recommended regulations such as we have in response to pressures. Look at Cardinal Stafford at the Vatican - the former ArchBishop of Denver, who has a ZERO tolerance policy for Priests convicted of abuse (and immediate removal from contact for those charged and suspected). He instituted the changes above back in the 1990's, and they have worked and been replicated all over the US. Thats why the moved him to the Vatican - so he can spread that.
For you to suggest the the Pope is responsible for this is to be ignorant of the structure of the Catholic Church, and its Bishops. ANd you obviously know nothing of anythign other than old news and violatiosn from decades ago that the news drags out as if they happen today.
You dont know jack squat, and yet you bray. SUrely you are not so stupid as to accept the MSM's version?
You might want to point your bigoted rhetoric against the Public Schhols - far more abuse goes on there than from Catholic Priests. And don't negelect the Protestants as well - in Colorado, as in many locations, they have comitted more abuse the Catholics, but have no central Church for the lawyers to pick clean. You never hear about it in the news, because the public schools cannot be sured for large sums over it, they have immunity, and portestants dont have biug funds to pay a penalty with, so they dont get a splash. Plus liberals in the press dont want to pick on public schools lest they lose their indoctrination machinery.
Plus Catholics are the last target for bigots in the country - its OK to pick on us.
Frankly, as a conservative orthodox Catholic, I am tired of this crap by misinformed ignoramuses outside the Church snd will not put up with it. Keep doing this, I am going to bust every post of this sort by nitpicking, unraveling the weak reasoning, showing the ignornace and lies, and discrediting the poster for playign at being a bigot.
#8
I agree with most of that, OS, except that the liturgical and musical abuses go back to the late 60's - during Paul VI's papacy. Even in Ohio, the local Franciscan seminary had nuns dancing in front of the altar during Mass - and that was in 1974.
Pope Benedict's recent motu proprio , is a watershed event, I believe (I still have my 1965 St. Joseph's missal, which includes the rubrics and liturgy for the Blessed John XXIII Mass).
#9
I believe the hardcore demands of Islam have been the main reason they get converts in the Western World. This converts who need discipline used to join the Catholics but somewhere the Catholics got as soft was the Protestants.
I hope they gain a spine again under Benedict. So what if the athiests and agnostics hate you, call them racists, pagans and cowards and go about God's work anyway.
#10
I'm not as Old School as OS seems to be but share his sentiments.
And, the change in emphasis on liturgical music is in fact important. The crappy hippy music was never that appealing to young people anyway and detracted from the ritual. I think younger people respond better to the old music anyway and, in fact, have led the movement to re-integrate some Latin hymns, etc. into the liturgy. If the Church loses a few lefties over this, it'll probably be better off. They might fit in better with the Anglicans, based on what I've read from the Archbishop lately.
I happen to think people want awe and structure in this chaotic world we live in and that getting rid of this lefty music will actually attract and retain more believers as weekly Communicants.
My offer to lead the purge was only half in jest. I'll round up the guitars, tamborines and recorders. No more open toed footwear for men on the altar either. If we have to 'break a few eggs', so be it.
#11
For you to suggest the the Pope is responsible for this is to be ignorant of the structure of the Catholic Church, and its Bishops. ANd you obviously know nothing of anythign other than old news and violatiosn from decades ago that the news drags out as if they happen today.
I do not lay all blame upon Benedict. I just want him to keep his priorities straight. Especially with respect to Islam.
You might want to point your bigoted rhetoric against the Public Schhols - far more abuse goes on there than from Catholic Priests.
As if I don't know that? As a teacher, my father molested his JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL students. I know damn well the sort of shit that goes on there.
#13
I'm also Catholic. I don't mind the guitars so long as the musical selections are appropriate: definitely religious, definitely approved over long periods of time by practicing Catholics, and appropriate to that point of the Mass.
I also don't mind that the Mass is in English. I appreciate the Latin, but I also appreciate being able to participate and to say words that I understand.
The hippie music has to go. Fortunately, my church doesn't have any of that nonsense.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/25/2007 23:57 Comments ||
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Rudy Giuliani revved up his campaign bus Saturday for a weekend swing through New Hampshire, trying to rally support in advance of the state's Jan. 8 first-in-the-nation primary. "I thought with all the moving up of the primary, it might be today," Giuliani joked with voters at a town hall-style forum at a VFW hall Saturday morning.
Mere minutes into his first public event, the Republican ex-mayor was going off on Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton, mocking her health care plan by saying she believes Americans aren't smart enough to make decisions about their own treatment. "Hillary bureaucrats are going to make those decisions for you," he said, assailing the Democrats as "pessimistic" and "defeatist."
This is Giuliani's 20th trip here of the year, but a New Hampshire win is far from a given: Polling averages calculated on the Web site Real Clear Politics show Mitt Romney, the former governor of neighboring Massachusetts, leading in the Granite State by just over 14 points.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/25/2007 00:00 ||
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Rudy, Rudy, all I want to hear is how you're going to seal the southern border, repeal NAFTA and CAFTA and bring manufacturing back to the US, and make changes which almost guarantee that lawsuits will no longer result in massive payouts like SuperBall. America for Americans, Rudy babe.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
11/25/2007 11:46 Comments ||
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#3
I dare say, repealing NAFTA would be a good thing for the middle class of the USA. It could be done by the Congress because it is not a treaty. Laughing at the idea does not solve the problem, so if you have an opinion, by all means share it.
We have allowed the elites to outsource most manufacturing under the falsehood that we are a service economy. (prolly an early CFR propaganda)
Business was eager to comply because of law suits and higher profits. If we remove the costly law suits and build state-of-the-art manufacturing in the USA, then for a little more money we can buy American which would support American business and enterprise. More lathe runners and fewer forklift drivers.
I know it was a great plan for the multinational corporations to manufacture and sell their wares anywhere and everywhere, but they just didn't figure lead paint purposely added to the baby toys. Now the deed is done, so let's go back to the safe way, buy American, shitcan NAFTA and CAFTA.
#4
Any economic plan that includes a return to mercantilism should be hardily laughed at in the public sphere so as to lessen it's chances of actually occurring.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
11/25/2007 19:02 Comments ||
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Controversial Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasreen remained in hiding in India on Saturday, fearing attacks from radical Muslims who see her work as blasphemous, officials said. The author was driven to the Indian capital New Delhi late on Friday under police escort and housed under tight security at an official residence, Indian media said. The Press Trust of India said Nasreen was at Rajasthan House, a state government guest house, but authorities declined to confirm her location.
Federal cabinet ministers attended a meeting late on Friday to review security for the 45-year-old author, who has said her fugitive existence had pushed her to the brink of emotional breakdown.
Security issues: Keeping her (Taslima) safe is the most important task at hand in this case, said foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee. The cabinet discussed issues related to security for Nasreens stay in India in view of the threats issued by some fundamentalist Muslim organisations, a senior official, who asked to remain unnamed, told AFP.
Riots by thousands of Muslims in Kolkata calling for the writers expulsion from the country led to Nasreen being rushed out the eastern city late on Thursday. The Times of India said Kolkata police had informed Nasreen she was in imminent danger of an attack by Muslim extremists and moved her from the capital of the Marxist-ruled West Bengal state.
Police in Kolkata put her on a flight to Jaipur in the western state of Rajasthan but the local government there told her to leave at dawn on Friday because of what it said were security reasons. The doctor-turned-author who was raised in a conservative Muslim family but now describes herself as a secular humanist said on Friday the events had put a huge strain her. I am mentally distressed. I am not well at all, Nasreen told the Press Trust of India. I am not in a position to talk. I am shattered.
I have no place to go. India is my home, and I would like to keep living in this country till I die, she said.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/25/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Nice vid. What's interesting about this is its eventual potential; even right now, this prototype is quite amazing, though one can have doubt about its practicality, especially in a combat environment (as opposed to the moving of supplies).
Still, given the pace of technology, Shirow's landmates may be more than a fanboy's mecha fantasy, after all, eventually.
I wonder why firearms technology doesn't seem to follow the same steep trend of increase as associated fields (military robotics, networking, stealth, probably upcoming enhanced vehicles armoring,...)? I mean, you've got add-ons like red-dot sights, hi-tech scopes, or ballistic computers, but nothing on the guns themselves, the M16 for example even with its myriad of variants and add-ons still is a 40 years+ unchanged design, and a WWI rifle like the Mauser 98 works just as fine when it comes to put a bullet downrange.
#3
I haven't read Heinlein in quite some times, but this one looks more like the "Aliens" exoskeleton than the "Starship troopers" powered armor suits. So, there's still much work to do, but... OTHO, this might come in very handy, should we ever be faced with a troublesome giant spacebug Queen.
#4
Importantly, what has inhibited exoskeletons in the past is the obvious: they are large, heavy, and bulky.
But this may change, because of the invention of advanced materials. The capabilities of some of these defies experience, and seem impossible. For example, how could a thin carbon nanotube fiber be stronger than a thick steel bar? Or light, thin, almost flexible stuff that looks like plastic, but stops bullets better than armor?
So re-imagine that exoskeleton if it could fit in a jump suit slightly larger than the man wearing it? Much like the kevlar body suit that the President wears underneath his suit.
Importantly, if you integrated the mechanical hands into the palms of gloves, they would obey the gentle motion of your hands, but have the strength of the exoskeleton.
You would still need a backpack energy supply, of course, since things like fuel cannot be effectively reduced in size or increased in energy. But otherwise, in many respects it would be like a superhero costume worn by an ordinary person. To someone else it would look like you were unnaturally strong, but it would be the exoskeleton doing the work, with you just guiding it.
#5
Energy is the biggest constraint for fielding a whole slew of technologies, including dramatically different soldier-carried weapons.
re: suits, there has been some conceptual work on nanotech suits that could alternate between free movement states and armored states. These include some exoskeletal enhancement as well. Still a lot of work to do to turn those concept demos into workable, wearable, manufacturable and fieldable items.
#6
I see these exoskeleton suits eventually evolving into the Armored Combat Suits that John Ringo features prominently in his Legacy of the Aldenata series.
Quite a good read, and the suits are a considerable force multiplier.
#8
I've been thinking about this today, and they might be missing a bet here. That is, don't assume you need to do two handed lifts. What if, for example, you had a device that paralleled your right leg, up your right side and your right arm.
It would still be very useful, if you could lift a hundred and fifty pounds with "just one arm", like those heavy ammo cans he was lifting in the video.
Typically such lifts are "two man lifts" in the military, and it is a strain for both individuals. Often objects are two small for "three man lifts", but too heavy for "two man lifts".
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.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has lost his lead eight days before a referendum on ending his term limit, an independent pollster said on Saturday, in a swing in voter sentiment against the Cuba ally.
BEIJING (Rooters) - An altercation between a Han Chinese shopowner and Tibetan monks in rural Tibet escalated into an ethnic riot, a source with knowledge of the incident said on Sunday, the latest sign of discontent in the unsettled region.
Rudy Giuliani revved up his campaign bus Saturday for a weekend swing through New Hampshire, trying to rally support in advance of the state's Jan. 8 first-in-the-nation primary. "I thought with all the moving up of the primary, it might be today," Giuliani joked with voters at a town hall-style forum at a VFW hall Saturday morning.
