A TASMANIAN man (they're devilish, those Tasmanians!)
at the centre of a two-day missing persons operation in New Zealand has been found drinking in a bar and oblivious to the search. (and everything else)
Michael Craig, known as Mick, had been last seen on security footage stumbling out of a South Island pub in the early hours of Saturday morning. Mr Craig, who is in New Zealand for a fishing trip, was finally located at another bar, in nearby Christchurch, yesterday night unaware of any concern over his disappearance....
Posted by: Mike ||
12/07/2009 14:13 ||
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Sounds like he has become comfortably numb.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
12/07/2009 14:40 Comments ||
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The global carbon credit market will grow in leaps and bounds if government leaders attending this week's climate change conference in Copenhagen commit to stiffer reduction targets for CO2 emissions. The value of the carbon market--currently worth as much as $126-billion--may grow to as much as $1.9 trillion by 2020. There is a sucker born every millisecond.
To help keep track of dealings and hold accountable parties that are buying and selling these carbon credits, Probe International has created an interactive Carbon Credits Database. The database provides a comprehensive list and associated documentation of all the projects around the globe that have received carbon credits through the UN's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). CDM actually means, Collect Dummy's Money
Carbon credits are quickly becoming a popular tool for both governments and private parties to offset their "carbon footprint." Even rock stars buy them to "green" their image and assuage anxious fans who fear planetary damage from energy intensive concerts. But whether carbon credits will save the planet is doubtful. Indeed, growing evidence suggests they do harm. Like Medieval indulgences. Nothing new under the sun. Except it was the Church then, now it is the UN and Gaia.
Officially, carbon credits, specifically those issued through the CDM, allow companies or governments in the developed world to "offset" their carbon emissions by financing "green" or carbon reducing projects in the developing world.
This market, supporters claim, acts as an efficient way to cut global carbon emissions. Everyone fixates on carbon, but there is a lot more to the responsible stewardship of the environment than playing around with carbon.
But, in reality, as Probe's carbon credit database shows, all is not well on the carbon-trading front. Carbon credits are financing projects such as hydro dams that are causing environmental and social problems of their own, while discouraging developing nation governments from introducing more stringent national pollution standards.
Moreover, carbon markets seem especially prone to fraud and organized crime. This summer, for example, officials in the UK discovered an alleged $60 million fraud involving the trading of carbon credits. And Peter Younger, an environmental crimes specialist at Interpol warned, "there will be fraudulent trading of carbon credits. Absolutely, organized crime will be involved," he added. Ah, business opportunities in a green environment. Cue Al Gorilioni.
If organized crime and environmental damage aren't enough to cast a shadow over carbon credits, there is the added problem that carbon credits are a highly vulnerable asset because governments determine the value of CO2 by fiat. That is a guarantee of a disastrous scheme right there.
Government manipulation of the carbon market could leave investors holding devalued assets. Or, if investigations into the recent leaked emails--known as "Climategate"--conclude that the climate data has indeed been distorted and that the scientific basis for man-made global warming is unfounded, governments may retract regulations that created the carbon credits in the first place. Either way, investors in carbon credits are in a high-risk market.
For the details of CDM carbon credits, you can go directly to our carbon credit database.
Things you should know about carbon credits:
China has received almost 50 percent of all carbon credits issued through the CDM. These credits are worth $3.2 billion at current prices.
China has also received around 4 million CDM carbon credits worth $75 million at current prices and used the funds to build 47 new dams.
China has received nearly 8 million credits for wind projects, worth $153 million at current prices. An estimated $2.5 million of these wind credits are now under review by the UN because they may not have been eligible. And if the wind credits are not eligible, will China give them back? Wotta joke.
India has received 20 percent of all carbon credits issued through the CDM. These credits are worth $1.9 billion at current prices.
Together India and China have received around 68 percent of all carbon credits issued through the CDM, worth $4.6 billion at current prices, and used them to build 70 new dams, more than 100 wind projects and more than $3 billion worth of hydrofluorocarbon-23 (HFC-23) projects--a byproduct in the manufacturing process of HCFC-22, which is a gas used as a refrigerant.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/07/2009 12:15 ||
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The Russians are threatening to dump a boatload of carbon credits on the market. Won't that be a hoot.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
12/07/2009 12:37 Comments ||
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Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
12/07/2009 12:38 Comments ||
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#3
If the UN was serious about the environment they'd put forth a policy to buy up vast tracts of jungle to prevent deforestation, habitat loss, and species becoming endangered. They'd spare all those massive carbon sinks. Heck, NGO's could do much the same thing, if they really cared. Instead we have carbon credits in which a grove of trees is planted and then the credits sold off to a dozen people so they can believe they personally are responsible for the grove.
The irony, Michaels says, is that the famously leaked e-mails from the Climate Research Unit show it is not clear what the climatic effect of the permits is in the first place.
"We're just not that good at modeling the climate, it was admitted in those e-mails, so how do you put a value on these permits?" he said.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/07/2009 16:12 Comments ||
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#7
more than $3 billion worth of hydrofluorocarbon-23 (HFC-23) projects--a byproduct in the manufacturing process of HCFC-22, which is a gas used as a refrigerant.
One of the worst scandals, which hardly anyone knows about, is that HFCs were mandated by that wonderful model for international cooperation (endsarc) the Montreal Protocol to replace (supposed) ozone depleting CFCs.
#8
Cornsilk Blonde, I agree. I have always laughed at how Liberals bashed the supposed intent of Conservatives when they do things, holding themselves up as Godly because their intent was so pure. I always felt it was a foolish way to look at the world. If it works, it works. Who cares what the intent was. Now I understand it was all a smoke-screen. I'm totally pessimistic about the intent of anyone in our political class.
Congress savaged him. Wall Street Journal editorials doubted him. His home-town buddies urged him to use the money to buy the Cleveland Browns and fire the coaches. His wife spoke to him so rarely, she described them as "dead to each other." He lost sleep, gained weight and saw a close adviser, Don Hammond, suffer a heart attack at his Treasury desk. On May 1, after serving seven months under Presidents Bush and Obama, he resigned.
Within a week, Kashkari and his wife put their belongings into "indefinite storage." They moved to a cabin near the Truckee River in Northern California. "Off the map," he told his friends. He threw away his business cards, and made a list of the things he wanted to do:
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17 people including one Swiss citizen have been arrested in Morocco, accused of trying to spread Christianity.
According to the Moroccan interior ministry, authorities intervened after hearing about evangelical missionary efforts. They feared that the mission could lower the religious values of the kingdom.
The Federal Department of Foreign Affairs has not yet confirmed the arrest of the Swiss. The other detainees, are said to be from Guatemala, South Africa and Morocco itself. Yet another example of "Muslim Tolerance (tm)".
#1
And yet Morocco is one of the "moderate Muslim" countries. Imagine the outcry from these "moderates" if non-Muslim countries arrested people for trying to spread Islam.
Exit polls in Bolivia show that leftist President Evo Morales has easily won re-election. Bolivian media report that President Morales gained a little more than 60 percent of the vote, earning him a second five-year term on Sunday.
Mr. Morales is the South American country's first indigenous president. He was first elected in 2005.
Sunday's vote followed ratification of a constitutional amendment earlier in the year that allowed Mr. Morales to run for a second term.
Want to bet that he'll run for a third? And change the constitution again if necessary?
Bolivia's voters also are choosing a new Congress, which the president's Movement Toward Socialism party is expected to dominate.
During his first term, the leftist anti-U.S. leader nationalized key sectors of Bolivia's economy, including mining and energy. Bolivia is South America's poorest country despite the fact that it holds significant natural gas reserves.
The VoA reporter doesn't connect the first and second sentences, but I did.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/07/2009 00:00 ||
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He won the election the save way Ahmedinejad did.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
12/07/2009 13:45 Comments ||
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Four American teenagers, all children of U.S. military personnel, have been arrested on charges of attempted murder after a woman was knocked off her motorbike with rope strung across two poles, Japanese police said.
An 18-year-old man, a 17-year-old girl and two 15-year-old boys were taken into custody on Saturday, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department said. They are accused of causing a severe head injury to a 23-year-old restaurant employee by stringing a rope between poles across a road.
U.S. Forces Japan was informed of the August incident in late October, a public information officer said. There was no clear explanation for the delay in the handover of the suspects to police, other than it involved rules between Washington and Tokyo covering U.S. forces and their dependents in Japan.
The U.S. military presence and impact on Japanese residents have been a thorny issue over the years.
#2
It seems not long ago some idiot military child threw a cinderblock off a German overpass. Do we have to restrict military families from going overseas? Does this stuff happen here and we just don't hear about it because of all of the other 'noise' going on?
#3
"Military brats" are always problematic, and they are often first to admit it. Frequently relocating, often in foreign cultures, and enduring much boredom, it is easy to fall prey to bad habits and mischief.
The quality of school varies wildly, and any friend they make will be gone as soon as any of their military tours are up.
When Ma Ying-jeou gave his rival candidate a thrashing in May's presidential election , the Harvard-educated lawyer proved he had the charisma to convince Taiwan's 17m voters that his scandal-scarred Kuo-mintang party deserved to be in power. He has retained his celebrity status while the opposition Democratic Progressive party licks its wounds after an extended graft trial sent Chen Shui-bian , Mr Ma's pro-independence predecessor, to prison in September.
But the KMT's unexpected loss of five out of 17 provincial mayoral seats in Saturday's local elections must have been a salutary lesson for the president.
Speaking after the first significant poll since he came to office, Mr Ma looked drawn and chastened. "The results were not ideal . . . we have been sent an alarm signal and we will thoroughly reflect on our policies," he said.
Halfway though a four-year term, his presidency is most noted for its pragmatic approach to mainland China: it has become the party mantra that closer ties are necessary for the sake of the economy. So far Mr Ma has approved direct sea and air links between Taiwan and the mainland for the first time since civil war split the two in 1949, changed travel restrictions and eased cross-strait investments.
Later this month representatives of the Beijing and Taipei governments will discuss an economic co-operation framework agreement which prepares the ground for mainland banks to invest in Taiwanese financial institutions.
The ECFA is anathema to the DPP, which had stressed the need for a distinct national identity for Taiwan during its eight years in power, a view that infuriated Beijing and led to very limited interaction between the two sides. The doubters warn that as long as Beijing considers Taiwan a renegade province that must be united with the motherland - by force if necessary - the government is putting the island's security at risk.
Saturday's outcome suggests Mr Ma's government may not have the blanket support required to introduce more radical measures. The ECFA, for example, is already being described as going too far, too quickly, by some legislators.
The DPP, meanwhile, has seized on Saturday's results as proof of a successful comeback, claiming the electorate had spoken on the mainland issue.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/07/2009 00:00 ||
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I am still convinced that because the mainland would have to have an enormous armada of both military and civilian vessels to cross the Taiwan Strait, the Taiwanese should invest in literally millions of coffee-can sized naval mines that would fill those dangerous waters like jellyfish, then "pollute" the waters with them just as the armada launches.
With a very short range beacon, so that they would not set each other off, and a lifespan of only a week or two before they became inert and sank, they would severely degrade many of the lightly armored or unarmored troop ships, thus evening the odds.
#4
I imagine the Taiwanese people will soon realize the US is unlikely to defend them right now, and the PRC treated Hong Kong reasonably well. They might soon start thinking about becoming a Special Autonomous Area and hoping for the best.
I imagine that the entire region will change beyond the next administrations ability to restore things.
#7
I think the folks in Hong Kong didn't like the PRC much but they came to accept the facts when the time loomed closer and closer and they realized the UK was gonna do nothing to slow or prevent the change-over. Many people grow tired of fighting and living in fear and depending upon others for their protection. Younger generations think differently than older ones.
I don't really know any Taiwanese so I might be totally misreading them, but I've noticed this trend in the West and Taiwan, at this point is still part of the west. I hope they are different. I'd love to see them influence the PRC just by continuing to succeed.
#8
I know a few Taiwanese and have been in Taiwan recently.
Taiwan isn't Hong-Kong. First, the starit is much wider, i, fact much wider than the English channel who was so diffcult to cross and its history is completely different.
Orginal dwellers in Taiwan were Australains aborigines unrelated to Chinese. By 1300 AD some Japanese and Chinese pirates use it as a safeplace. Then, it becomes a Portuguese, later Dutch possession. It is the Dutch who imported the first proper Chinese settlers as man power. Somewhere by 1590 the Manchus conquer China and end the Ming dynasty. It is at this point that Ming loyalists escaped to Taiwan and conquered it from teh Dutch. After acouple decades the island fell into Manchu hands and this was first time it was united to China. Less than three centuries later it became japanese and for first and last time the Japanese behaved decently towards the liocals and in addition developped the island. I don't think the Taiwanese regret them but in 1945 they wanted their own country instead of being handled to China. However the Chinese had machine guns and they hadn't; Nowadays Taiwanese feel still less Chinese than in 1945. My only fear is that gentale and likeable people can summon enough reserves of meanness and violence to kill for their country.
Clashes between police and protesters continued overnight in Athens as it marked the first anniversary of the fatal police shooting of a teenager. Riot police fired volleys of tear gas and fought running street battles with demonstrators who pelted them with rocks and set fire to rubbish bins.
However, the protests have been nothing like the riot scenes of last year, a BBC correspondent says.
Six thousand police have been deployed on the streets of the Greek capital.
At one point about 200 masked demonstrators were holed up in Athens's neoclassical university building, smashing marble chunks off the steps to use as missiles against police. City officials said the university dean suffered head injuries when youths raided the building and was rushed to hospital.
Police officers corralled demonstrators into restricted areas and denied them the chance to run amok. Snatch squads on motorbikes roamed the streets and carried out a number of arrests. Some officers were pulled from their machines, and there were reports of bike riding policemen lashing out at people with their truncheons.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/07/2009 00:00 ||
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The Lancashire blacksmith's son and leader of the Communist Party of Great Britain stood in front of the group of high-flying young Left-wingers at Cambridge University.
Harry Pollitt told them: 'Don't join us. Work hard, get good degrees, join the Establishment and serve our cause from within.'
It was a few years after World War II and they took Pollitt at his word. Within a decade, the Communist Party foundered (its membership peaked at 60,000 in 1945) as Pollitt's bright young devotees infiltrated the Establishment.
They were soon exercising considerable influence in universities, the state education system, publishing houses, the legal hierarchy and the civil service. But it was in politics that these high-flying members of the Left established their greatest power-base, both in the Labour Party and the trades' union movement.
Just how deep the tentacles of communism reached into the heart of British government has now been revealed with the emergence of an extraordinary diary by Anatoly Chernyaev, the Soviet Union's contact man with the West at the icy height of the Cold War.
Meticulously detailed and written by hand on lined notepaper, the diary has come to light in the U.S. National Security Archive. It tells the story of a 'special relationship' not between Britain and America - but between the British Labour Party and Soviet communists.
It was a relationship that lasted more than 30 years, right up to Margaret Thatcher's arrival as Prime Minister in 1979 and beyond.
Indeed, one of the most shocking of the diary's many revelations is how Labour leaders Michael Foot and Neil Kinnock colluded with the Soviet communists to try to beat their 'common enemy', Margaret Thatcher.
But more worrying, perhaps, is the fact that the document shows in stark detail how the political ideology of so many of those who govern us today was shaped by the unspeakable communist creed of the Soviet Union.
The unpalatable truth is that many ministers in Government today rose through the ranks of a British socialist movement that was heavily influenced - and even controlled - by the Kremlin in Moscow.
Posted by: ed ||
12/07/2009 00:14 ||
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It's interesting how they implicate Neil Kinnock in this article when you remember that when Joe Biden was caught plagiarizing a speech, it was Neil Kinnock's speech that he plagiarized. The only thing I can't understand is why Gordon Brown and Barack Obama aren't closer. Maybe Obama's afraid that Brown will blow his cover.
[The Gridiron Club, founded in 1865, is the oldest and most prestigious journalist organization in Washington DC. The annual Gridiron Dinner is attended by the media elite, at which the president is traditionally the speaker. This year, President Zero was the first president to refuse to address The Gridiron Dinner since Grover Cleveland.
[Last night, Saturday December 5th, the black tie dinner at the ballroom of the Renaissance Hotel had double the attendance of recent years - for instead of Zero, the speaker was Sarah Palin. The tradition of the dinner is that the speaker pokes fun at himself and the attendees. Sarah was such a hit there were dozens of the most liberal elite journalists in America laughing their heads off, many wiping tears of laughter from their eyes. Here's her speech. It is as clever as it is funny.] Here's some of it -- rest is at link -- worth the read
Good evening. It's great to be in Washington. I am loving the weather [it was snowing]. I braved the elements and went out for a jog! Or, as Newsweek calls it, a cover-shoot. I feel so at home here in DC. I can see the Russian Embassy from my hotel room!
It's a privilege to be here tonight at the Washington DC Barnes & Noble. Tonight, I'll be reading excerpts from my new book. Perhaps you've heard of it? "Going Rogue."
Yukon wasn't sure if I'd go with that title and somebody suggested I follow the East Coast self-help trend and go with, "How To Look Like A Million Bucks...For Only 150 Grand."
Todd liked, "The Audacity of North Slope." [She nods to him as he's at the head table]
Hey, I considered not having a title at all. I've said it before, but you Beltway types just don't seem to get it. You don't need a title to make an impact. But anyway, let's get started.
I'll begin my first reading on Page 209.
It was pitch black when we touched down in Arizona late on August 27, 2008. The next morning we drove to John McCain's ranch in Sedona. John was waiting on the porch. Before he can say a word, I tell him, I'm quoting now,
"I know why I'm here, and I'm ready. But, I'm worried. The cost of credit protection for the largest U.S. banks is rising precipitously. Have you given any thought to the run on the entities in the parallel banking system? Do you realize the vulnerability created when these institutions borrow short term in liquid markets to invest long term in illiquid assets?"
John said, "you betcha!" I thought, "you betcha?" Who talks that way?
Well, sometimes you just have to trust your instincts. When you don't, you end up in places like this. Who would have guessed that I'd be palling around with this group? At least now I can put a face to all the newspapers I do read.
It is good to be here and in front of this audience of leading journalists and intellectuals. Or, as I call it, a death panel.
To be honest, I had some serious reservations about coming to visit your cozy little club. The Gridiron still hasn't offered membership to anyone from my hometown paper in Wasilla, the Matanuska-Susitna Valley Frontiersman. And my dad thought it was just a plain bad idea to leave the book tour for some football game.
He might have a point! [She waves to her parents at a table at the back of the room] Hi, Dad! Hi, Mom! They crashed the party, you know. Click to read more
#7
Why did Sarah attend the gridiron dinner anyway? These so called media elites are the problem. Why give them any time?
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/07/2009 18:07 Comments ||
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#8
She has to tame the media elites some. She'll never have them on her side but she has to charm them enough for them not to want her blood. A good charm offensive is central to any conservative with national prospects. See Reagan and Dubya as examples of conservative pols who charmed the press, at least until they got elected.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/07/2009 18:13 Comments ||
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#9
Maybe so, Dr. Steve. But my attitude toward them is that THEY are half the problem. My attitude is to bypass them like Rabaul and Truck Island in WW2 and let them wither on the vine.
I just do not have the patience to charm a$$holes like these people. That is why I am not in politics and why I avoid Washington, D.C. like the plague. Sometime I will tell you how I really feel.
/heh
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/07/2009 18:37 Comments ||
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#10
the media are deathly afraid of her popularity, and ability to start the memes (see: "death panels") that hurt their agenda and are out of their control. The best thing she can do is approach them unafraid and mock them as she did, with a smile and a joke.
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/07/2009 18:50 Comments ||
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#11
The best thing she can do is approach them unafraid and mock them as she did Then of course, once she has gone into the den of lions & come out alive, she will have even more stories to tell & better jokes to make about them. That approach can be used to build on itself.
#12
One of the things I like about Sarah Palin (and George W Bush) is that they don't seem to take themselves too seriously. They aren't afraid to poke fun at themselves. When Bush went last year (or the year before) he took along one of those look alike comedians who acted like his "internal voice", hitting all the stereotypes: Bush is stupid, Bush is tongue tied, etc. I thought it was hilarious.
Obama, however, seems to take himself waaaay too seriously - I can't see him ever poking fun at himself, or allowing anyone to make fun of him. Of course, some of the comedians (and SNL) are starting to poke fun at him. I can't wait until he declares them "not a real network" or lashes out in some other way.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
12/07/2009 21:56 Comments ||
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#13
In other words Rambler - they know that 'its not all about them'.
Virgin Galactic readies for Monday's unveiling of SpaceShipTwo -- the first-class space tourist's wonder machine at the core of the space tourism firm's suborbital fleet.
The scene is spacecraft manufacturer Scaled Composites at the Mojave Air and Space Port in California. No doubt, there's plenty of pomp and circumstance that's due this debut -- although specific aspects about the rocket plane's rollout remain under wraps.
SpaceShipTwo is a carbon composite cousin in construction and design to SpaceShipOne -- the privately financed, single-piloted spacecraft that bagged the $10 million Ansari X Prize purse by flying back-to-back treks to suborbital space in 2004.
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(MYFOX NATIONAL) - Archaeologists have found evidence of mass cannibalism at the site of an ancient settlement in what is now southern Germany. WiredScience reports that as many as 500 human remains unearthed near the village of Herxheim may have been cannibalized.
Researchers concluded that the "intentionally mutilated" remains from the early Neolithic period included children and unborn babies.
The report published in the December issue of the journal Antiquity suggests that a social and political crisis in central Europe at that time triggered various forms of violence.
"Human sacrifice at Herxheim is a hypothesis that's difficult to prove right now, but we have evidence that several hundred people were eaten over a brief period," anthropologist Bruno Boulestin of the University of Bordeaux in France said.
The early Neolithic was the period when farming first spread in central Europe and the research team believes that cannibalism in Europe was likely to have been rare -- possibly carried out during periods of famine.
Cannibalizing a[nd] human sacrifice has existed throughout recorded history and continues today in some remote areas of the world. Herxheim lies what, less than 50 kilometers from fantastic French cuisine. Classic Teutonic stubbornness.
#1
Actually, cannibalism is extremely rare in human history, and is usually based on hearsay. Anthropologists had a bad habit of asking one tribe if they were cannibals, to which they would reply "No, but that neighboring tribe are cannibals". Then they would ask the other tribe, and they would say the same thing about the first tribe.
So the anthropologist would write down that both tribes were cannibals.
Those tribes that were proven to engage in cannibalism, either burned the body to ash first, then drank some of the ash mixed into a drink; or they are one of those poor, damned tribes that suffer from Kuru, the nasty human form of Mad Cow disease, caused by eating human brain.
Ironically, eating brain in an extreme starvation situation, would be your first choice, because it is loaded with cholesterol.
#5
Waiting for Juan Cole to pop up and tell us that "dry the roots of all injustice" is not an expression found in Persian, and therefore Ahmadinejad didn't say anything like that.
I remember in the not-too-distant past a certain political element claiming that Iran was more of a democracy than the US, and that W was bad to doubt them. Any follow up comments on that, boneheads? Or is it another one of those things you think you don't need to apologize for? Being a progressive means never having to say that you were wrong about anything ...
Thousands of protesters demonstrated in the streets outside the campus in support of students inside. As they chanted "death to the dictator," riot police and Basij militiamen charged the crowds, the witnesses said.
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.
Suddenly, he was in charge of $700 billion. 
17 people including one Swiss citizen have been arrested in Morocco, accused of trying to spread Christianity.
Clashes between police and protesters continued overnight in Athens as it marked the first anniversary of the fatal police shooting of a teenager. Riot police fired volleys of tear gas and fought running street battles with demonstrators who pelted them with rocks and set fire to rubbish bins.
