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Yemen prepared to grant top Sheikh Sharif asylum
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-Lurid Crime Tales-
Tiresome preacher sez he's not gay
The Rev. Ted Haggard emerged from three weeks of intensive counseling convinced he is "completely heterosexual" and told an oversight board that his sexual contact with men was limited to his accuser.
"Really. It was just the one guy. And only the one time. And nothing really happened."
That is according to one of the disgraced pastor's overseers, who on Monday revealed new details about where Haggard has been and where he is headed. The Rev. Tim Ralph of Larkspur also said the four-man oversight board strongly urged Haggard to go into secular work instead of Christian ministry if Haggard and his wife follow through on plans to earn master's degrees in psychology.

Haggard broke a three-month silence in e-mails over the weekend to select members of his former church. New Life Church interim Fresh from counseling, Ted Haggard reportedly called his "sexual immorality" a case of acting out.
Acting what out?
Senior pastor Ross Parsley forwarded Haggard's message to the wider church body Monday. In the message, Haggard revealed that he and his wife, Gayle, intend to leave Colorado Springs and pursue master's degrees through online courses.
Good idea. I'm perfectly willing to entrust my own fragile psyche to a correspondence course psychologist.
Haggard mentioned Missouri and Iowa as possible destinations.
"Though Tasmania would be better. The climate, y'know..."
Another oversight board member, the Rev. Mike Ware of Westminster, said the group recommended the move out of town, and the Haggards agreed.
"Anchorage is nice."
"This is a good place for Ted," Ware said. "It's hard to heal in Colorado Springs right now. It's like an open wound. He needs to get somewhere he can get the wound healed."
"Someplace like Paraguay."
Sex-addiction program
Haggard, 50, resigned as president of the National Association of Evangelicals and was fired from the church he built from nothing into a 14,000-member congregation after a former male prostitute in Denver alleged a three-year cash-for-sex relationship. Haggard admitted to "sexual immorality" and a long battle against feelings contrary to his beliefs. He admitted buying methamphetamine but said he never used it.
"Really. How can you think I'd do such a thing?"
Haggard did not respond to interview requests.
"I don't wanna talk about it."
Among other things, the overseers urged Haggard to enter a 12-step program for sexual addiction, Ware said.
"In the event of an erection lasting more than four hours, seek immediate professional help."
Ralph said three weeks of counseling at an undisclosed Arizona treatment center helped Haggard immensely and left Haggard sure of one thing. "He is completely heterosexual," Ralph said. "That is something he discovered. It was the acting- out situations where things took place. It wasn't a constant thing."
"Y'see, usually he's completely heterosexual. But sometimes he's kinda homo. Other times he's queer like a 3-dollar bill. And then there was his Liberace phase..."
Why Haggard chose to act out in that manner is something Haggard and his advisers are trying to discern, Ralph said.

In investigating Haggard's assertion that his extramarital sexual contact was limited to former male escort Mike Jones, the board talked to people close to Haggard and found no evidence contradicting him, Ralph said. "If we're going to be proved wrong, somebody else is going to come forward, and that usually happens really quickly," he said. "We're into this thing over 90 days, and it hasn't happened."

Steering Haggard away from a return to ministry was based, in part, on Haggard's high profile, Ralph said. He cited biblical passages about holding influential figures to a higher standard. "Nobody is saying he can't go back into ministry," Ralph said. "Somewhere down the road, that could very well happen, and that would be wonderful."
Posted by: Fred || 02/06/2007 10:42 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I'd never heard of this idiot before he was a "newsmaker" right before the elections. I'd like to hear even less of him now.
Posted by: Frank G || 02/06/2007 11:54 Comments || Top||

#2  Ummmmmmmm...Ted? Just go away. Where? Ummmmmmm...someplace that's not here.
Posted by: The Oversight Board || 02/06/2007 11:59 Comments || Top||

#3  Well, at least, it makes for funny inlines and choice of pics.
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 02/06/2007 11:59 Comments || Top||

#4  I suspect it could play right into the church's hands. If he says he "got over it", that's exactly what the leadership of the church wants their followers to believe, so they can hold him up as an example. And BTW, the guy gets to keep his zillion dollar a year job.
Posted by: gorb || 02/06/2007 14:14 Comments || Top||


Today's Idiot
I dunno, the psycho astronaut may trump this...
Chewbacca arrested for head-butting in Hollywood

LOS ANGELES, Feb 3 (Reuters Life!) - A Chewbacca impersonator was arrested after being accused of head-butting a Hollywood tour guide who warned the furry brown Wookiee about harassing two Japanese tourists, police said on Saturday.

"Nobody tells this Wookiee what to do," "Chewie" from the "Star Wars" movies said before slamming his head into the guide's forehead, the Los Angeles Times newspaper reported.
The 6-foot, 5-inch-(1.96-metre-) tall 44-year-old man was charged on Friday with misdemeanor battery and later released on $20,000 bail, the Los Angeles Police Department said.

"Superman" and other movie and cartoon impersonators were reported to be witnesses to the aggression in front of Grauman's Chinese Theater amid concern that such behavior could endanger their livelihoods.

Street performers at the world-famous cinema collect tips from tourists by posing for photos, but some are known to turn hostile if they don't get money. Two years ago, Mr. Incredible, Elmo the Muppet and the dark-hooded character from the movie "Scream" were arrested for "aggressive begging," the L.A. Times reported.
Could anyone live down the indignity of being assaulted by ELMO?? That's aggravated battery with intent to mentally disable.
Posted by: Free Radical || 02/06/2007 00:24 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under:

#1  This guy cudda been a contenda for the award...
Dispatcher: 9-1-1, What's the nature of your emergency?
Caller: Yeah, I'm having trouble breathing. I'm all out of breath. Darn....I think I'm going to pass out.
Dispatcher: Sir, where are you calling from?
Caller: I'm at a pay phone. North and Foster.
Dispatcher: Sir, an ambulance is on the way. Are you an asthmatic?
Caller: No
Dispatcher: What were you doing before you started having trouble breathing?
Caller: Running from the Police.

Posted by: GK || 02/06/2007 5:41 Comments || Top||

#2  "Let the wookie win".
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 02/06/2007 10:33 Comments || Top||


YJCMTSU: Astronaut Arrested For Attempted Kidnapping....
Space shuttle astronaut arrested at OIA on attempted kidnapping, battery charges
The Right Stuff but The Wrong Approach...
A NASA astronaut is charged with attacking her rival for another astronaut's attention early Monday at Orlando International Airport, the Orlando Sentinel has learned. Lisa Marie Nowak drove from Texas to meet the 1 a.m. flight of a younger woman who had also been seeing the male astronaut Nowak pined for, according to Orlando police.
Check the link for her mug shot. Princess Ardala, she ain't.
Nowak -- who was a mission specialist on a Discovery launch last summer -- was wearing a trench coat and wig and had a knife, BB pistol, rubber tubing and plastic bags, reports show. Once U.S. Air Force Capt. Colleen Shipman arrived, Nowak followed her to the airport's Blue Lot for long-term parking, tried to get into Shipman's car and doused her with pepper spray, according to reports.

Nowak, 43, is charged with attempted kidnapping, battery, attempted vehicle burglary with battery and destruction of evidence. Police considered her such a danger that they requested she be held without bail in the Orange County Jail, reports show. Nowak told police that she was "involved in a relationship with," Bill Oefelein another NASA astronaut, and categorized the relationship as "more than a working relationship but less than a romantic relationship," according to the charging affidavit.
"Houston, we have a nutcase..."
Nowak told police that she found out Oefelein was involved with Shipman and planned a trip to Orlando to talk to Shipman about their relationships with Oefelein. She told police the BB gun "was going to be used to entice Ms. Shipman to talk with her," the affidavit said.
I find showing a weapon doesn't so much entice talking as it induces screaming...
Shipman told police that when she arrived at the airport and was waiting for the airport satellite parking shuttle, she noticed a woman wearing a trench coat near the taxi stand. The woman boarded the bus after Shipman, according to police, and followed her to Shipman's car. When Shipman got into her car, reports show, she heard "running footsteps" coming toward her. Nowak tried to open the car door, then claimed she needed a ride, or use of a cell phone. When Shipman rolled down her window a couple of inches, Nowak "sprayed some type of chemical spray into the vehicle," reports show.
All of which goes to show that Nowak was indulging in some world class stalking...
Shipman is an engineer assigned to the 45th Launch Support Squadron at Patrick Air Force base, near the Kennedy Space Center. A 2002 graduate of Penn State University, she began working at Cape Canaveral in May, 2005, according to air base Public Affairs Officer Ken Warren.

Police said that along with the weapons and other items in Nowak's car, they found e-mails from Shipman to Oefelein, Mapquest directions from Houston to the Orlando airport, and diapers, which Nowak told police she used so she wouldn't have to stop on the drive.
I repeat: ewwwwwwww...
Monday's arrest is the first-ever on felony charges for an active-duty astronaut, that the space agency was aware of, according to a spokesman. "Her status as an astronaut with NASA is currently unchanged.
"But give it a few minutes, they'll drop her faster than a sweatsuit in August."
I cannot speculate on what might happen beyond that," said James Hartsfield, a NASA spokesman at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, where Nowak and Oefelein work.

Nowak's biography shows she is a 1985 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis with a degree in aerospace engineering, and a former test pilot who has logged more than 1,500 hours of flight in at least 30 types of aircraft.
Oy gevalt...
She joined the space program in 1996. Three members of her astronaut class died in the 2003 in-flight disintegration of Shuttle Columbia. Married and a mother of three children,her interests include running, messing around with other astronauts playing the piano and collecting African violets, according to her NASA biography.
I find this whole sordid affair entirely implausible. Shipman would *never* leave Frank G.
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 02/06/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [12 views] Top|| File under:

#1  ...a trench coat and wig and had a knife, BB pistol, and latex gloves...A steel mallet, several feet of rubber tubing and hand-written directions...

Boy, does this have Made For TV Movie written all over it. Working title: Trailer Trash Ass-tronauts
Posted by: SteveS || 02/06/2007 0:25 Comments || Top||

#2  I should not say this, but ROFLMAO!!!!!This is el bizarro!!!! The BB pistol.....I don't get it, other than it may be a larger caliber look alike.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 02/06/2007 0:36 Comments || Top||

#3  Are there Texas cheerleaders involved too?
Posted by: Eric Jablow || 02/06/2007 0:46 Comments || Top||

#4  Lisa Marie Nowak


A married mother of three, Nowak told police that she was "involved in a relationship with," Bill Oefelein, another NASA astronaut, which she categorized as "more than a working relationship but less than a romantic relationship," according to the charging affidavit

does this mean they swapped used diapers?

They also found diapers, which Nowak said she used so she wouldn't have to stop on the 1,000-mile drive..
***

Lisa Marie Nowak, "How 'bout a nice trip to MARS with me RD"?

Lisa, I'll get back to you on that!

/OMG
Posted by: RD || 02/06/2007 0:53 Comments || Top||

#5  Iff I'm reading it correctly, Ofelelein was having an affair with two women not his wife, said affair(s) has now becoming public. Can anyone say, "Conduct unbecoming a Commissioned Officer(s)", or "Conduct detrimental to Uniformed/National Service".
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 02/06/2007 0:57 Comments || Top||

#6  You can put a fork in NASA, they're done. This sinister farce has no bearing on NASA's plans but it is a PR disaster of epic proportions for an agency that runs on PR.

Their grandiose Constellation Program (the last word in 1960s ballistic missile technology) will be superceded by events before it ever leaves the ground. Once private sector space ventures return a real profit, and are seen to do so, they will grow by leaps and bounds.
This will ultimately yield a family of re-usable orbital vehicles that will leave NASA's money-sucking white elephants stuck on the pad for lack of funds or interest.
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy || 02/06/2007 1:56 Comments || Top||

#7  Nowak -- who was a mission specialist Lunar Coupler on a Discovery launch last summer...
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/06/2007 5:17 Comments || Top||

#8  Anyone wanna bet that frantic negotions with The Jerry Springer Show aren't taking place, even as we speak?
Posted by: Dave D. || 02/06/2007 6:25 Comments || Top||

#9  Can you say "space case?"
Posted by: Mike || 02/06/2007 6:34 Comments || Top||

#10  Nowak told police that she found out Oefelein was involved with Shipman and planned a trip to Orlando to talk to Shipman about their relationships with Oefelein. She told police the BB gun "was going to be used to entice Ms. Shipman to talk with her," the affidavit said.

Shipman, wherever you are, you's got some 'splainin' to doo!
Posted by: BA || 02/06/2007 8:59 Comments || Top||

#11  What happens in orbit, stays in orbit.

"Wanna see my missle?"

Post-flight insertion in 10, 9, 8. . . .

Aero Engineers gone wild!

Pure.comedy.gold.

All joking aside, I hope some flight surgeon somewhere is getting crucified over a psychological evaluation that resulted in a "cleared for flight" status.

Posted by: GORT || 02/06/2007 9:30 Comments || Top||

#12  The New York Times says this happened because of the underlying stress of the war in Iraq.
Nah. I made that up.
Well, I dunno, I haven't seen the Times yet today...
Posted by: tu3031 || 02/06/2007 9:47 Comments || Top||

#13  It was Bush.
Posted by: mcsegeek1 || 02/06/2007 10:06 Comments || Top||

#14  tu, this time it was anxiety over No Child Left Behind what done her in. Also a lingering suspicion that Diebold deliberately threw the last election to the Donks in order to make them look bad.
Posted by: Seafarious || 02/06/2007 10:11 Comments || Top||

#15  I was thinking about this bizarre story last night after I read it. GORT goes the right direction in his comment: something was missed by the flight surgeon. Astronauts get First Class medicals and a whole lot more. Ima sure that there is some heavy duty psychological screening.

The only clues so far in the story is that she is a mother of three and her bizarre behavior. Now men are men and women are women. With any intense working relationship that requires close teamwork, strong bonds are made. Each astronaut works out the balance needed to maintain proper working relationships at home and for the mission.

So it would seem to me that some answers for Nowak's behavior lies in her relationship at home, but her absolutely obsessive and bizarre behavior points to some kind of psychosis, which is very disturbing when it shows up in the Space Program.

I remember knowing a PanAm pilot telling me about the program that the company had many years ago. They had psychologists available to work with pilots when they had problems. PanAm recognized that pilots stressed with personal difficulties could be a danger to many, so the pilots were encouraged to get counselling if they found themselves in stressful personal situations, without repercussions. They would be able to be off the flight line while they sorted out their issues.

Ima not a psychologist, but Ima married to one (she had to take extra courses after we got married, heh). But Nowak's behavior is crazy, especially by one who has risen through the ranks based upon abilit and deed. And like other commenters for this thread, it points to some serious systemic problems in NASA. Maybe this is an abberation, or maybe she is the canary in the proverbal coal mine.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 02/06/2007 10:18 Comments || Top||

#16  SPACE MADNESS!
Posted by: Cyber Sarge || 02/06/2007 10:33 Comments || Top||

#17  So, how many families have been destroyed?
Posted by: anonymous2u || 02/06/2007 10:55 Comments || Top||

#18  Next on Lifetime: "Mother May I Blastoff With Danger". With Tori Spelling...
Posted by: tu3031 || 02/06/2007 10:57 Comments || Top||

#19  That's why I like Shipman. Always full of surprises. :)
Posted by: Thoth || 02/06/2007 11:19 Comments || Top||

#20  Good commentary, AP.

In any sufficiently large set of people, there will be found members of the set who are, to coin a phrase, deeply messed up. As more and more people joined the astronaut corps, something like this was bound to happen eventually. The real test for NASA will be how it handles this. Oefelein should be shown the door, and there should be consequences for the flight surgeon. If it all gets swept under the rug, or we get Clintonian non-consequence statements that "mistakes were made," that's a leading indicator of something massively wrong with NASA's institutional culture.
Posted by: Mike || 02/06/2007 11:30 Comments || Top||

#21  Iff I'm reading it correctly, Ofelelein was having an affair with two women not his wife, said affair(s) has now becoming public.

He had two kids, but his marital status is unclear. He might be divorced. Furthermore, Nowak says that their relationship was not (yet, anyway) a romantic one. So your judgment is a little premature.

(Oh, wait, this is Joe. Nevermind.)

You can put a fork in NASA, they're done.

Oh, please. Talk about premature. Yeah, they're going to catch some major-league flak from Letterman, et al. But this is kind of like indicting the entire US Government based on the behavior of Ramsey Clark.

I'm thinking there's something else going on here -- brain tumor, drug problem of some kind.

Then again, I always root for the brain tumors. I hate to think someone whose judgment should be sound is actually a nut.
Posted by: Angie Schultz || 02/06/2007 11:33 Comments || Top||

#22  Judging from the mug shot, Nowak won't be appearing on the "Hoosegow Honeys" list this week.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 02/06/2007 11:53 Comments || Top||

#23  Now, now. Our mugshot cameras are the finest in the industry...
Posted by: Make Me Look Ugly, Inc. || 02/06/2007 12:12 Comments || Top||

#24  Shipman, you little tramp! Why, when I get my hands on you.... Manolo! My Depends! I'm on a road trip!
Posted by: Frank G || 02/06/2007 12:17 Comments || Top||

#25  AP-

On reflection, I'm beginning to wonder if I've not been a bit harsh on Ms. Nowak. Without making any excuses for her utterly over-the-top actions,take a look at her CV: Annapolis grad, USN pilot and test pilot (which means she was carrier qualified - and that is an accomplishment that speaks for itself)with 1500 hours and astronaut. All of those require some pretty solid emotional grounding, as well as mental reserves that most of us can only envy. IOW, I'm now wodnering if there might not be an organic cause behind her actions. To just suddenly snap over an emotional attachment like this seems way out of character for someone with her accomplishments.

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 02/06/2007 12:24 Comments || Top||

#26  Something to consider... and I do know something about this from personnel experience...

Sometimes chemical imbalances can occur after child birth. I'm not talking about post-partum but about deeper psycological problems...

I know for a fact that a woman can be completely normal, intelligent, emotionally stable and then develope chemical imbalances later in life...

It's sad if this is the case...

Blackvenom-2001
Posted by: Blackvenom-2001 || 02/06/2007 12:26 Comments || Top||

#27  looky rch'ere; if dis'ere Nowak hada led a normal hedonistic life like the rest of us normal folks she NEVER woulda worn diapers all the way from Houston to Orlando, no way no sur.. she woulda freeballed it instead.
Posted by: RD || 02/06/2007 12:38 Comments || Top||

#28  Well, between Uncle Harold and cousin Colleen things are always interesting around Christmas.
Posted by: Shipman || 02/06/2007 12:49 Comments || Top||

#29  do you jest Mr. Ship? :-)
Posted by: RD || 02/06/2007 12:56 Comments || Top||

#30  Ship, that Norwak is an engineer, remember what I told you about them engineers don't you?

Posted by: Colleen Shipman || 02/06/2007 14:05 Comments || Top||

#31  Ship, that Norwak is an engineer, remember what I told you about them engineers don't you?

That genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration, which is why engineers smell so bad most of the time?

(Free Radical is an engineer. With a working shower, btw.)
Posted by: Free Radical || 02/06/2007 14:41 Comments || Top||

#32  Chicks. Can't live with em, can't kill 'em...
Posted by: Bill Oefelein || 02/06/2007 14:44 Comments || Top||

#33  ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) -- A jail official says a NASA astronaut is being charged with attempted first-degree murder in alleged kidnapping attempt involving a romantic rival.

I guess I watch too much CSI. Soon as I heard she had large plastic bags and a knife, I knew a Do-It-Yourself dismemberment was in the cards. I smell a Lifetime movie of the week in her future.
Posted by: Steve || 02/06/2007 14:54 Comments || Top||

#34  or a job with the Swift Meat Co.....
Posted by: Frank G || 02/06/2007 15:02 Comments || Top||

#35  I told M'Lady this bizarre story this morning and she, as usual had some very good insights.

Of course one can have organic problems, like Angie's favorite one, the Brain Tumor™. You can also have hormonal issues, especially after childbirth, like the one who killed her kids in Texas a few years ago.

But M'Lady brought forth the idea of a balance or imbalance in one's life. In your teens and twenties, you are building your career. In her case, it is in some serious left brain stuff. Engineering, science, aeronautics, astronautics. Nowak was heavily into that. Then you have kids, hubby, relationship, all that. But during middle age, you need the creativity, the right brain stuff, say art or music, or something creative that you enjoy. If you are grounded in that when you are young, you have something to build on when you are older. E.G., Winston Churchill painted landscapes and such. For some reason, either real or perceived, she felt something strong with Bill Oefelein (Alaska guy, heh, maybe that's the problem). Maybe he was nice to her, considerate, took the time to be a friend, especially in her situation. Maybe that was all it was, regardless, that is all the info we have so far. Maybe she saw more in it than that, we do not know what things were like at home. Couple that with possible organic problems and you get something that is so bizarre and crazy. Especially from someone that has achieved so much and has come up through the ranks so far.

Many people will have a crisis in midlife, feeling totally empty, but rarely have a psychotic episode, like Nowak.

The fallout on the families from this incident will be great, and it is a great tragedy. Hopefully, examination of all the factors will give a greater understanding of the events.

It points out how important balance is in one's life, especially in middle age and later years.

That is basically M'Lady's 2 cents. She deals with problem kids in elementary and middle school as a psychologist. I mean some real abused problem kids. She finds them clinically interesting, but when she comes home, she gets her balance by playing music and writing songs, good creative stuff to balance the heavy sh*t and tragedy she sees every day.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 02/06/2007 16:09 Comments || Top||

#36  When I first read the article, it was so bizarre that I found it funny, but on later reflection, I find it very tragic. Something went horribly wrong. And it does not seem so funny now.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 02/06/2007 16:12 Comments || Top||

#37  The brain tumor thingy Angie raises is interesting. A cadaver study done some years ago revealed that some 20% had an undiagnosed small, benign tumor (micro-adenoma) in the brain. If that micro-adenoma exerts even a little pressure on a critical part of the brain, things can get quite interesting. And Alaska Paul's Lady raised a very good point about the criticality of balance.

Yes, Free Radical, a working shower and a fresh bar of soap are good things for engineers to keep handy. On the other hand, y'all are so cute when you think! ;-)
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/06/2007 16:38 Comments || Top||

#38  Here's the rap sheet via The Smoking Gun.
Posted by: Raj || 02/06/2007 17:27 Comments || Top||

#39  Oh, come on, you guys. The new chick is 17 years younger. Do the math. Would you rather play slap and tickle with a 39 ish woman or a 26 year old?

I wanna see a pic of Capt Shipman.
Posted by: Chuck Simmins || 02/06/2007 17:46 Comments || Top||

#40  She's mad 'cause Mr. Oefelein asked Ms. Shipman out to Launch instead of her.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 02/06/2007 18:53 Comments || Top||

#41  <>

Or maybe she WAS grounded precisely because they had concerns about her and that's one reason she went round the bend .... hard to tell from the info available so far.
Posted by: NASA observer || 02/06/2007 19:03 Comments || Top||

#42 

Colleen Shipman (COURTESY OF PENN STATE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION). Graduated in 2002.

Posted by: john || 02/06/2007 20:40 Comments || Top||

#43 
Capt Nowak and Cmdr William Oefelein trained together
Posted by: john || 02/06/2007 20:46 Comments || Top||

#44 
Posted by: john || 02/06/2007 20:49 Comments || Top||

#45  Wife runs group homes for mentally ill.
Says and I quote:

Psych folks avoid working with people like that because they will fixate on you. She would never accept somebody really crazy like that in her homes.

Says... doc likely passed her because he didn't want her to focus on him.

Posted by: 3dc || 02/06/2007 20:55 Comments || Top||

#46  3dc---wife speculated that flight doc didn't want the hassle? Heh. Boy, if our psychologist wives got together and chatted, we better go faaaaaaaaaar away, toot sweet. We'd be in deep sh*t, LOL!
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 02/06/2007 21:14 Comments || Top||

#47  I guess you gents have been given the "clinical look", the one that sez I can Baker Act you 'ya know?

Colleen has the Shipman red hair, but her features are kinda sharpish, likely the Connecticut cadet branch.
Posted by: Shipman || 02/06/2007 22:14 Comments || Top||


-Short Attention Span Theater-
Willy Spotted On Satellite
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 02/06/2007 10:57 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:

#1  And you thought they were talking about the killer whale.... tsk tsk tsk....
Posted by: BigEd || 02/06/2007 13:25 Comments || Top||

#2  And the resemblance to William Jefferson Clinton is remarkable. These kids have talent.
Posted by: BrerRabbit || 02/06/2007 13:49 Comments || Top||

#3  Ummm that angle is very tough... Remember what Rush said, "Willy's Willy is short and bends to the left..." :)
Posted by: BigEd || 02/06/2007 17:19 Comments || Top||

#4  I could've drawn a better, more realistic-looking one in elementary school. IONews, WALDO still not found.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 02/06/2007 20:54 Comments || Top||


Today in History: Ronald Reagan's Birthday
Posted by: Mike || 02/06/2007 10:03 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:


Britain
US immigration cavity search ends in agony
US immigration officials insisted the sufferer of an anal infection remove a small piece of medical thread which was being used by doctors to treat the condition. The man required treatment under general anaesthetic as a result.

The man had an anal fistula, which is a painful channel that can develop deep into the anus, caused by infection or digestive conditions such as Crohn's disease. More details, if absolutely necessary, from NHS Direct here.

Arriving on holiday in New York in August last year, the unnamed 48-year-old was interrogated and searched by immigration officers, according to a letter appearing in medical journal The Lancet. The rectal examination discovered a device called a seton, which doctors in the UK had inserted into the fistula to help control long-term infection.

The seton was made of a blue braided medical suture material knotted and passed into the hole where the fistula surfaced. After one baffled immigration officer pulled "very hard" on the seton, the patient was given the choice by the baffled immigration officers of either getting on the next plane home, or submitting himself to a procedure to have it removed.

Happily, as The Lancet's correspondent notes, the curious immigration officer yanking the seton did not damage "the anal sphincter muscles encircled by it".

The seton was duly removed by an airport doctor, who claimed to have no idea what it was. The man now requires treatment under general anaesthetic to have a replacement inserted.

The letter writer concludes by advising seton patients to carry a letter from their doctor when travelling "to the USA or any other country where they are likely to be searched in this manner".
Posted by: tipper || 02/06/2007 10:01 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Me thinks that I'd really, really, really have to have good reasons to suspect someone of something before I'd go looking up his......wazoo
Posted by: Steve || 02/06/2007 10:30 Comments || Top||

#2  "Hey, what happens when I pull on this?"
Posted by: Jonathan || 02/06/2007 10:59 Comments || Top||

#3  The patient's NHS doctor owed him a much more comprehensive set of instructions before the pt. left the UK. Obviously this wasn't done. At the very least, a comprehensive letter summarizing the patient's case should have been given him in the UK. This goes for any unusual condition, and would be a good idea for any patient getting regular medical attention in case something happens while they are away from home. Of course this would have required time and attention customarily lacking in the NHS. So blame Bush and US immigration instead.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 02/06/2007 11:58 Comments || Top||

#4  The Lancet has a more detailed account here. Ouch.
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 02/06/2007 12:17 Comments || Top||

#5  That's okay. Don't need details.
Posted by: tu3031 || 02/06/2007 12:22 Comments || Top||

#6  or pictures...or xrays...or...
Posted by: Frank G || 02/06/2007 12:25 Comments || Top||

#7  scratch and sniff article here.
Posted by: Dr Sphincter ani Externus || 02/06/2007 12:46 Comments || Top||

#8  "Just a left over piece of floss officer"
Posted by: Intrinsicpilot || 02/06/2007 16:59 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
Roman descendants found in China?
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 02/06/2007 11:00 || Comments || Link || [8 views] Top|| File under:

#1  If there are Roman tombs nearby, then odds are pretty good. However, there were some graves found in China a few years ago that were also clearly caucasians -- Celts, actually -- that were damned old. They could be descendants of that group.

Posted by: Rob Crawford || 02/06/2007 11:47 Comments || Top||

#2  A journey from Rome to China could have started with a single step, even way back when.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 02/06/2007 12:00 Comments || Top||

#3  Blond Chinese? That might explain the model who dropped the priceless mirror.
Posted by: GK || 02/06/2007 12:17 Comments || Top||

#4  Well Alexander made it to Afghanistan and India.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 02/06/2007 12:34 Comments || Top||

#5  I've read about and seen Viking graves in China on PBS TV. Tats, Red Hair, Clothes, bone stature and structure etc..
Posted by: RD || 02/06/2007 12:55 Comments || Top||

#6  Excepted from the Battle of Sogdiana, 38 B.C.:-

“Sogdiana straddled the Silk Route and dominated the fertile valuable Tarim Basin, and Chih-chih now ruled supreme. That was the last straw. Ch’en tang, the associate Protectorate to Kan Yen-shou knew that Chih-chih the madman must be crushed. An expeditionary force of 40,000 men in two wings, was sent after Chih-chih. Driving his meager army back to his capital, Chih-chih was cornered.

The city’s defenses consisted of an earthen wall, a double palisade, a moat, and towers for archers. There was a small force of Hunnic cavalry outside of the walls, and the Sogdian relief was notified of the Chinese advance. Approximately, 200 armored men were guarding the city’s gate. These men were Roman Legionaires, survivors of Crassus’ defeat in 54 B.C., relocated to Sogdiana by the victorious Parthians, and now were defending Chih-chih’s capital! Losers all, at this battle.
---
The Sogdian cavalry relief force arrived and attempted to break the seige from without. This failed miserably. The breach and ensuing combat resulted in Chih-chich’s death and 1,518 heads taken. Among the prisoners were 145 Romans and 1,000 Sogdians. The Sogdians were handed over to the Chinese auxiliaries as new recruits and the Romans were relocated to Li-chien in Kansu Province.”
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/06/2007 14:53 Comments || Top||

#7  Opps, forgot the source -

The Armies and Enemies of Ancient China 1027 B.C. - 1286 A.D., by John Greer - 1975.

Old news huh?
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/06/2007 14:56 Comments || Top||

#8  Well, after all, they were roamin'
Posted by: Chuck Simmins || 02/06/2007 22:31 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Indian HRD Ministry plans finishing school for engineers
NEW DELHI: Once finishing schools, mostly in Switzerland, were meant for rich girls on the threshold of marriage. Call it democratisation of the concept, HRD ministry is planning finishing schools for engineers.

The ministry's move is borne out of various Nasscom reports, which have said that though there was no dearth of engineering graduates in India, most of them were unemployable.

The ministry said that "while enhancing the quality of technical education should remain the goal in the long term" as an "immediate response", a programme of finishing schools would be started.

In the first phase of the programme, seven National Institutes of Technology will impart finishing school courses in selected areas of information technology. Areas and names of NITs are yet to be finalised but the ministry plans to put the scheme in motion as early as possible.

A Nasscom report had said that 12% of engineering services outsourcing (ESO) comes to India. It is estimated that by 2020, as much as 25-30% of a $150 to $225 billion market for offshored ESO would come to India.

But Nasscom had said that though India has 28% of the total talent pool suitable for ESO and ITO/BPO work available in low-cost countries, not all are equipped with the skill sets required to succeed in this market.
Posted by: john || 02/06/2007 16:42 || Comments || Link || [8 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Even allowing for a healthy growth rate of 4% a year in the number of graduates, the projected number of engineers with the right specialised skills will not be nearly enough to meet the potential demand," Nasscom had said.

It had also said India's weak engineering and physical infrastructure was likely to hamper growth. Nasscom had recommended that apart from improving it's infrastructure, India must expand its opportunities for engineering education.

"It must market itself in a systematic way, to let corporate decision-makers around the world know that Indian engineers can do much more than code," Nasscom had said, warning that otherwise ESO would be a missed opportunity for India.

The HRD ministry has also realised that there is a dearth of good managers in the manufacturing sector.

The ministry has brought together National Manufacturing Competitive Council, Confederation of Indian Industry, IIT-Kanpur and IIT-Chennai, IIM-Kolkata and the Japanese government to start a programme to train future leaders for the manufacturing sector.
Posted by: john || 02/06/2007 16:54 Comments || Top||

#2  Verbal and written communication skills for dealing with management and other non-engineers, social skills -- it really does matter that they know which fork to use (the one to the outside; putting the right one there is the butler's job!), when it's necessary to wear that blasted suit and tie, why it's a bad idea to complement your female boss's bosom, recognizing that technically cool is not the same as important... Engineers are to be smart people, and catch on quickly when the benefits of that which they previously scorned as shallow are pointed out, bless 'em! ;-) The same problem has recently been recognized in Britain with regard to all their technical graduates, not just engineers.
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/06/2007 18:25 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
X-Border Agent Said Beaten in Prison
EL PASO, Texas (AP) -- A former U.S. Border Patrol agent who was convicted of shooting a drug smuggling suspect and then lying about it was beaten by fellow inmates in prison, his relatives and a congressman said Tuesday.

Prison officials did not immediately confirm that Ignacio Ramos had been attacked.

The convictions of Ramos and fellow former agent Jose Alonso Compean sparked outcry from critics who argued that the men were merely doing their job defending the border against criminals.

U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., a vocal supporter of the agents and opponent of illegal immigration, criticized the Bush administration Tuesday for failing to protect Ramos and demanded a full presidential pardon for the two men.

"Not only did the administration choose the side of a foreign dope runner over the agents who stopped him from smuggling a load of drugs into the county _ now they've failed to protect that agent while his case is on appeal," he said in a statement.

Ramos and Compean, who reported to prison in January, were each sentenced to more than a decade behind bars. Ramos is being held at a medium- and low-security federal facility at Yazoo City, Miss. Compean is serving his sentence at the Elkton Federal Correctional Institution in Ohio; no problems have been reported with his detention.

The agents were convicted last year of shooting Osvaldo Aldrete Davila in 2005 near El Paso and then trying to cover up the incident. Davila was shot once in the buttocks.

Ramos' wife, Monica Ramos, told The Associated Press on Tuesday that her husband described being attacked late Saturday, when he "let his guard down." She said the attackers kicked and stomped him for several minutes.

He was able to identify one man in the group, Monica Ramos said.

Officials of the Federal Bureau of Prisons did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment Tuesday.
Posted by: Sherry || 02/06/2007 15:22 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Willing to bet the attackers weren't Swedes in the country legally.
Posted by: Icerigger || 02/06/2007 16:42 Comments || Top||

#2  This is so wrong. I hope we see something done about this.
I read that the bullet in Davila's butt wasn't even from Ramos.

Tancredo in 2008!
Posted by: Jan from work || 02/06/2007 17:37 Comments || Top||



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Steve White
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Two weeks of WOT
Tue 2007-02-06
  Yemen prepared to grant top Sheikh Sharif asylum
Mon 2007-02-05
  McNeill Assumes Command Of NATO Forces In Afghanistan
Sun 2007-02-04
  Truck boomer kills 135 in deadliest Iraq blast
Sat 2007-02-03
  22 killed and 245 wounded since Thursday in Trucefire™
Fri 2007-02-02
  Three wannabe head choppers in Brit court
Thu 2007-02-01
  Hamas ambushes Gaza "arms convoy" , Trucefire™ holding
Wed 2007-01-31
  Mo Jamal Khalifa mysteriously bumped off
Tue 2007-01-30
  Chlorine Boom in Ramadi
Mon 2007-01-29
  US and Iraqi forces kill 250 militants in Najaf
Sun 2007-01-28
  21 dead in festive Gaza weekend
Sat 2007-01-27
  Salafist Group renamed "Al-Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb"
Fri 2007-01-26
  US Troops Now Directed To: 'Catch Or Kill Iranian Agents'
Thu 2007-01-25
  Bali bomber hurt in Filipino gunfight
Wed 2007-01-24
  Beirut burns as Hezbollah strike explodes into sectarian violence
Tue 2007-01-23
  100 killed in Iraq market bombings


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