Hi there, !
Today Sat 01/05/2013 Fri 01/04/2013 Thu 01/03/2013 Wed 01/02/2013 Tue 01/01/2013 Mon 12/31/2012 Sun 12/30/2012 Archives
Rantburg
531691 articles and 1855967 comments are archived on Rantburg.

Today: 56 articles and 161 comments as of 12:03.
Post a news link    Post your own article   
Area: WoT Operations    WoT Background    Opinion        Politix   
Fourteen Killed as Nigerian Troops Clash with Islamists
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 3: Non-WoT
5 22:53 CrazyFool [] 
2 20:14 JosephMendiola [2] 
3 15:19 trailing wife [] 
3 15:49 Rambler in Virginia [] 
8 19:30 tfsm sorta on the road [] 
4 22:34 JosephMendiola [] 
1 17:12 tipper [] 
0 [] 
21 22:11 USN,Ret. [] 
0 [] 
0 [] 
0 [] 
5 17:54 Nimble Spemble [1] 
15 22:08 Redneck Jim [] 
Page 1: WoT Operations
3 12:47 SteveS [1]
3 07:17 Besoeker []
0 []
0 []
2 22:47 JosephMendiola [1]
0 [1]
0 []
0 []
0 []
0 [2]
0 []
0 []
0 []
2 10:35 AlanC []
0 []
0 []
0 []
0 []
0 []
Page 2: WoT Background
2 18:10 Fred []
6 21:45 Slusorong Bonaparte9215 []
6 14:05 Nimble Spemble []
0 []
1 01:12 JosephMendiola []
0 []
0 []
0 []
1 01:18 JosephMendiola [1]
1 01:41 JosephMendiola []
Page 4: Opinion
2 16:56 Steve White []
0 [1]
2 20:11 JosephMendiola []
0 []
1 19:57 JosephMendiola [1]
2 14:14 Rjschwarz [1]
15 22:43 Uncle Phester [1]
1 00:23 JosephMendiola []
1 04:05 g(r)omgoru []
Page 6: Politix
8 22:45 tipper []
12 22:31 USN,Ret. []
4 10:15 JohnQC []
19 23:20 DarthVader []
-Lurid Crime Tales-
New Year off to a BANG, BANG, BANG in Chicago
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/02/2013 08:04 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Interesting that the 'hate speech' comments have been deleted.
Posted by: Skidmark || 01/02/2013 9:31 Comments || Top||

#2  Many of the shootings took place in the wee hours after midnight. So, one thing you could do to be safer in Chicago would be to go to bed at a decent hour. I mean, what the hell are they doing out on the street at 3:15 a.m.? Isn't it cold?

Also, a lot of the shots, even the non-fatal ones, hit important parts of the body such as the head, throat, chest, mouth, abdomen and scrotum. That's pretty good shooting, huh?
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 01/02/2013 14:21 Comments || Top||

#3  I really don't understand this article. I mean, for all practical purposes, guns are outlawed in Chicago. How can there be so many shootings.
/sarcasm
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 01/02/2013 15:49 Comments || Top||


-Short Attention Span Theater-
Playboy Founder Hefner Marries for Third Time at 86
Only three? I'm shocked.
[An Nahar] Playboy magazine founder Hugh Hefner has tied the knot for the third time, marrying a former Playmate 60 years his junior in an intimate New Year's Eve ceremony at the Playboy Mansion. Hefner, 86, and Crystal Harris, 26, announced the nuptials on their Twitter feeds -- @hughhefner and @crystalhefner -- and posted pictures of the wedding.
Imagine how disappointed he'll be if he ever discovers that sex isn't the only thing in life.
"Happy New Year from Mr. and Mrs. Hugh Hefner!" Hefner said in a message accompanied by a picture of the octogenarian sporting purple pajamas and a captain's hat and the blonde Harris in her wedding dress.

Harris posted a picture on her own Twitter feed of the ceremony conducted under an archway of red, pink, purple and white flowers.

"Today is the day I become Mrs. Hugh Hefner. Feeling very happy, lucky, and blessed," she tweeted shortly before the wedding.
Cha-ching...
Hefner and Harris had planned to marry in 2011 but she called off the ceremony at the last minute.
"I'm much too young," had quothen the maiden. "Wait a year, then I'll be all grown up."
Posted by: Fred || 01/02/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Feeling very happy, lucky, and blessed

A sentiment also frequently voiced among Powerball winners.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/02/2013 1:54 Comments || Top||

#2  I think this is the one. The Last One.
Posted by: Bobby || 01/02/2013 6:02 Comments || Top||

#3  in potentia non sit amor
Posted by: Jack Snusotch2775 || 01/02/2013 9:27 Comments || Top||

#4  Eeeewwwww! Gonna be takin' a lotta them little blue pills!
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 01/02/2013 12:47 Comments || Top||

#5  I am puzzled by his motives. He was already taking blue pills for the occasional pathetic poke at a dozen girls (politely hiding their disgust) in one night. So it wasn't about sex. But I doubt he married a bimbo named Crystal for her wit, compassion, steadfastness, intellect, tolerance, wisdom, and character. He's 86. Just afraid of being alone when he croaks?
Posted by: RandomJD || 01/02/2013 16:54 Comments || Top||

#6  "Can't you see that this is the last act of a desperate man?"
"We don't care if it's the first act of Henry the Fifth, we're leaving!"
-- Blazing Saddles
Posted by: Muggsy Mussolini1226 || 01/02/2013 17:02 Comments || Top||

#7  "Only three? I'm shocked."

I'm shocked he married at all, tw.

Why buy the cow when you can get a whole herd's worth of milk for free?
Posted by: Barbara || 01/02/2013 18:51 Comments || Top||

#8  The way I saw this described last year when it was announced was "cooking a steak over a pilot light."

By now the pilot light is probably a little dimmer.
Posted by: tfsm sorta on the road || 01/02/2013 19:30 Comments || Top||


CNN viewers stunned as Kathy Griffin tries to perform oral sex on Anderson Cooper live on New Year's Eve broadcast
Is he the one who is gay? That would certainly add a layer to the entire situation...
[Daily Mail.CO.UK] Before the show had even begun, Anderson - predicting Kathy would get up to her usual behavior - tweeted: 'As always, I await New Year's Eve with Kathy Griffin with grave reservations and tremendous fear, and I want to apologize in advance to anyone she may offend/assault/attempt to kiss.'

To which Kathy responded: 'I don't know what Anderson has been doing this past year. I assume he has been sitting, eating Bon Bons in his mother's apartment [while] watching reality TV, while I was helping spread democracy in Egypt or Syria or whichever.'
Sounds like she was about as drunk as she could get without falling down. CNN continues not only to crash and burn but to bore into the ground.
Posted by: Fred || 01/02/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  We're trying to get jobs on HLN, aren't we???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 01/02/2013 1:07 Comments || Top||

#2  The class of the left must out.
Posted by: AlanC || 01/02/2013 7:54 Comments || Top||

#3  Apparently only one other question remains.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/02/2013 7:59 Comments || Top||

#4  What is CNN?
Posted by: newc || 01/02/2013 8:44 Comments || Top||

#5  Well I never heard of, what I now know to be, this bimbo before. So I did some research. Doesn't drink. (Must have been drugs) Relates well to gays. (Went to high school dances with class fag) An example of why I am no longer part of mainstream America. Her ability to prosper with this schtick explains much of the last election.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 01/02/2013 9:33 Comments || Top||

#6  According to a survey, three of their five viewers were appalled.
Posted by: SteveS || 01/02/2013 10:22 Comments || Top||

#7  Who is CNN? And what is this Kathy Griffin you're talking about?

Al
Posted by: Frozen Al || 01/02/2013 10:34 Comments || Top||

#8  It's called "Fag Hag"...not that there's anything wrong with that.
Posted by: Sgt. D.T. || 01/02/2013 10:48 Comments || Top||

#9  CNN was the first cable news network, a pioneer in the field.

Its a reminder that dotage awaits us all, sooner or later, unless somebody shoots us first.
Posted by: Fred || 01/02/2013 10:51 Comments || Top||

#10  unless somebody shoots us first.

Not to worry: Obamacare death panels will get you (our British National Health Care.)
Posted by: Glenmore || 01/02/2013 10:55 Comments || Top||

#11  Both are classless.
Posted by: JohnQC || 01/02/2013 11:05 Comments || Top||

#12  Her ability to prosper with this schtick explains much of the last election.

yup
Posted by: lotp || 01/02/2013 12:17 Comments || Top||

#13  "Oh, look at me! I'm being outrageous...AGAIN!"
When you're a no talent douchebag, what else are you gonna do to justify your presence? That's why she's there.
Reason No. 1381 I'm glad I deep sixed the TV...
Posted by: tu3031 || 01/02/2013 12:24 Comments || Top||

#14  Talentless skank.
Posted by: Muggsy Mussolini1226 || 01/02/2013 13:25 Comments || Top||

#15  Today's MSM = pimps (politicians) and hoes (media types).

Journalism has not been dead for years now.
Posted by: Dino Shomomp7692 || 01/02/2013 15:43 Comments || Top||

#16  correction - Journalism has been dead for years now.
Posted by: Dino Shomomp7692 || 01/02/2013 16:18 Comments || Top||

#17  Sounds like Anderson and Griffin planed this from the onset.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 01/02/2013 16:35 Comments || Top||

#18  Don't be such a prude Cooper, this isn't your first tranny.
Posted by: Dino Splat7065 || 01/02/2013 17:26 Comments || Top||

#19  Snark of the Day nomination for #18.
Posted by: Dopey Sinatra9196 || 01/02/2013 18:05 Comments || Top||

#20  she has basically been working and re working the same jokes and comments for more than a decade

and yes, generally she is both obscene and boring

however, there was one skit after her return from Afghanistan, in which she spent a fair amount of time on FGM


maybe, just maybe, this contributed to the anti FGM movement
Posted by: lord garth || 01/02/2013 19:39 Comments || Top||

#21  #4 What is CNN?

Why the Crotch Nibbling Network, thilly.
Posted by: USN,Ret. || 01/02/2013 22:11 Comments || Top||


Hillary's 'clot' is subdural hematoma
Followup, though the URL is the same as yesterday's story. I really dislike how the NYT does that.
WASHINGTON -- Doctors treating Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Monday said that she suffered a blood clot in a vein between her brain and skull behind her right ear but predicted that she would make a full recovery.

Mrs. Clinton was hospitalized on Sunday with a blood clot stemming from a concussion she suffered earlier this month, a State Department spokesman said.

Her doctors said in a statement on Monday that the clot did not result in a stroke or neurological damage and that she was being treated with blood thinners. In a statement, Drs. Lisa Bardack and Gigi El-Bayoumi, who are treating Mrs. Clinton, said: "She will be released once the medication dose has been established. In all other aspects of her recovery, the secretary is making excellent progress and we are confident she will make a full recovery. She is in good spirits, engaging with her doctors, her family, and her staff."
I don't like treating a subdural with anticoagulants. Too much can go wrong.
Mrs. Clinton, who had canceled most of her public events in recent weeks because of the injury, was at a follow-up examination on Sunday when doctors discovered the blood clot, according to Philippe Reines, her longtime spokesman.

Aides said that Mrs. Clinton, 65, had become dehydrated this month because of a stomach virus she contracted during a trip to Europe. She fainted and struck her head, causing the concussion. State Department officials had said that Mrs. Clinton fainted when she was at home alone in Washington but added that the concussion was not diagnosed immediately.

She canceled a planned trip to Morocco, and Victoria Nuland, a State Department spokeswoman, gave a mixed picture about the severity of her illness, describing her as having a "very uncomfortable stomach virus" and then saying she was "under the weather."
Concussion symptoms and subdural symptoms are often the same/similar, and distinguishing between the two isn't easy. With the history of the fall, however, you'd thought she would have had either an infused CT or an MRI immediately, and a 2nd scan 48 hours later.
An expert not involved in Mrs. Clinton's care said that clots are most common in the leg
That would be a deep vein thrombosis.
or in a large vein in the head.
That would be a cavernous sinus thrombosis; those are downright dangerous.
Dr. David Langer, a brain surgeon and associate professor at Hofstra-North Shore-Long Island Jewish School of Medicine, said that prompt treatment usually dissolves the clots, but that untreated clots in the head can become more worrisome and even lead to a hemorrhage inside the brain. Blood-thinning drugs can dissolve the clots, he said, and patients may need to stay on them for weeks or months to make sure the problem does not recur.
The alternative is surgery to remove the clot: that can be a real problem, of course, but long-term anticoagulation for a subdural also has real risks.
Let us hope she heals well and quickly, so that she can enjoy her retirement.
Posted by: Steve White || 01/02/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Maybe she's been eating too much of Champ's arugula...loads of Vit. K to speed up clotting time
Posted by: Warthog || 01/02/2013 0:46 Comments || Top||

#2  Sitting on the right side of the aircraft possibly ?
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/02/2013 1:12 Comments || Top||

#3  Anything more in the world news about the C-12 crash B?
Posted by: Skidmark || 01/02/2013 1:34 Comments || Top||

#4  Nothing so far Skid, the Fiscal Cliff drama has consumed everything. I'm curious what the next made for teevee crisis will be.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/02/2013 1:47 Comments || Top||

#5  Ron Paul Forums has a good foto of a C-12. At this point all reporting appears to originate from the alleged GRU and initial Russian news piece. The whackjobs and conspiracy crowd are certainly running with it however.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/02/2013 2:39 Comments || Top||

#6  I don't like treating a subdural with anticoagulants. Too much can go wrong.

But the alternatives - do nothing or surgery - also have too much that can go wrong.
Posted by: Glenmore || 01/02/2013 8:19 Comments || Top||

#7  Doc, would anticoagulants be the speedy (if semi-risky) way to handle this? I thinking the Clinton machine doesn't want this hospital stay dragging out.
Posted by: Shipman || 01/02/2013 9:54 Comments || Top||

#8  Just throwing this out here: If she was put down and the Seal Commander killed defending her, will she blow the lid off when she's better? It would sky-rocket her popularity and absolutely sink Obama's, sweet revenge. That's assuming they're connected, which I think they aren't. It's fun playing the "what if" game though.
Posted by: Charles || 01/02/2013 10:25 Comments || Top||

#9  Isn't beer a nice mild anticoagulant?
Posted by: lord garth || 01/02/2013 10:29 Comments || Top||

#10 
Posted by: Hellfish || 01/02/2013 12:18 Comments || Top||

#11  Anything more in the world news about the C-12 crash

Last report that came out was that a "repaired C12" had left Iran last week.
Posted by: Pappy || 01/02/2013 17:08 Comments || Top||

#12  Secretary Clinton has been released frommthe hospital, according to Rooters:

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was driven away from New York-Presbyterian hospital on Wednesday with her husband, Bill, and daughter, Chelsea, and an aide, a Reuters photographer witnessed. The four of them left the building and entered the same vehicle, which drove away.

It was unclear where she was going or whether she was discharged from the hospital, where she was admitted for treatment of a blood clot.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/02/2013 19:00 Comments || Top||

#13  It was unclear where she was going or whether she was discharged from the hospital, where she was admitted for treatment of a blood clot.

Probably somewhere in Antarctica, where it would be too much of a hardship for her to testify before Congress.
Posted by: tfsm sorta on the road || 01/02/2013 19:04 Comments || Top||

#14  "Secretary Clinton has been released from the hospital"

Saw that on the local evening news. Guess which Clinton's picture they showed leaving the hospital?
Posted by: Barbara || 01/02/2013 20:16 Comments || Top||

#15  I don't like treating a subdural with anticoagulants. Too much can go wrong.

We can Hope something "Goes Wrong" And then we won't have "Bullary" to worry about.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 01/02/2013 22:08 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Egypt satirist faces probe for insulting president
[Reuters] An Egyptian satirist who made fun of President Mohamed Mursi on television will be investigated by prosecutors following an accusation that he undermined the leader's standing, a judicial source said on Tuesday.
Ahah. Not being allowed to make fun of His Excellency el Presidente, he hopes For Life. The very essence of freedom of speech.
Bassem Youssef's case will increase worries about freedom of speech in the post-Hosni Mubarak era, especially when the country's new constitution includes provisions criticized by rights activists for, among other things, forbidding insults.

In a separate case that fuels concern about press freedom, one of Egypt's leading independent newspapers said it was being investigated by the prosecutor following a complaint from the presidency, which accused it of publishing false news.

Youssef rose to fame following the uprising that swept Mubarak from power in February 2011 with a satirical online programme that was compared with Jon Stewart's Daily Show.

He has since had his own show on Egyptian television and mocked Mursi's repeated use of the word "love" in his speeches by starting one of his programmes with a love song, holding a red pillow with the president's face printed on it.

The prosecutor general ordered an investigation into a formal complaint against Youssef by an Islamist lawyer. The complaint accuses him of "insulting" Mursi, an Islamist backed by the Muslim Brotherhood, and "undermining his standing".
Posted by: Fred || 01/02/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring



Africa Subsaharan
Region Sends Troops to Rescue Central African Regime
[An Nahar] The prospect of a rebel takeover of the Central African capital Bangui dimmed Tuesday as the regional bloc sent troops to prop up the regime of President Francois Bozize and force peace talks.

With the Seleka rebel coalition threatening to march on the capital, Gabon, Congo-Brazzaville and Cameroon have each pledged 120 troops to join 400 Chadian soldiers already deployed by multinational African peacekeeping force FOMAC to protect the key town of Damara, according to a FOMAC source.

Damara is the last strategic settlement between the rebels and Bangui, after Seleka seized much of the chronically unstable country in a three-week advance to within 160 kilometers (100 miles) of the capital, which sits on the southern border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
...formerly the Congo Free State, Belgian Congo, Zaire, and who knows what else, not to be confused with the Brazzaville Congo or Republic of Congo, which is much smaller and much more (for Africa) stable. DRC gave the world Patrice Lumumba and Joseph Mobutu, followed by years of tedious civil war. Its principle industry seems to be the production of corpses. With a population of about 74 million it has lots of raw material...
Bangui itself was rocked by deadly festivities Tuesday after police potted a young Moslem man suspected of links to the rebels, according to a police source. The man, who was tossed in the calaboose
Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit!
overnight, was shot down when he tried to escape, the source said.

He said the man's death had sparked festivities that killed a policeman and added that tension remained high in the PK 5 neighborhood, which has in recent years been shaken by violence between Christians and Moslems.

The Seleka rebellion is seen by many people in the 85-percent Christian country as being Moslem-dominated, and there are likely many Moslems in the rebels' ranks, according to analyst Roland Marchal, a specialist in central African conflicts at the Gay Paree-based National Center for Scientific Research.

The central African military reinforcements were sent in after the rebels vowed on Monday to take Damara, which sits about 75 kilometers north of the capital.

Some of the 120 Gabonese troops arrived on Tuesday morning in Bangui, with most of the rest expected by the end of the day, the FOMAC source said.

The 120 troops from Congo-Brazzaville arrived on Monday, while the Cameroonian contingent is expected by the end of the week.

A Gabonese general will command the full force of 760 foreign troops in Damara, the source said.

In a nationally broadcast New Year's address, Bozize thanked his Chadian counterpart, President Idriss Deby, for sending in troops to protect his regime.

"Thanks to the Chadian army you are listening to me on the radio and watching me on television," he said.

"Otherwise, we would all be in the bush. Bangui would be empty today and embroiled in unrest. Thanks to the Chadian army, thanks to President Idriss Deby Itno of Chad."
Posted by: Fred || 01/02/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Us regimes gotta stick together.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/02/2013 1:13 Comments || Top||

#2  Is it just me, or is that kind of a small force to accomplish anything other than keeping themselves from being mugged by random bandit gangs?
Posted by: Mitch H. || 01/02/2013 9:59 Comments || Top||

#3  Moslems? Had to get all the way down to the fifth paragraph to confirm my suspicions.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 01/02/2013 16:18 Comments || Top||

#4  Meanwhile, back in Mali ....

* WORLD NEWS > [NY Daily News] AL-QAEDA CONTROLS TERRITORY LARGER THAN FRANCE IN NEW [Northern] MALI STRONGHOLD.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 01/02/2013 22:34 Comments || Top||


U.N. Security Council imposes arms embargo on Congo rebels
[LA Times] In a bid to quell violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
...formerly the Congo Free State, Belgian Congo, Zaire, and who knows what else, not to be confused with the Brazzaville Congo or Republic of Congo, which is much smaller and much more (for Africa) stable. DRC gave the world Patrice Lumumba and Joseph Mobutu, followed by years of tedious civil war. Its principle industry seems to be the production of corpses. With a population of about 74 million it has lots of raw material...
, the United Nations
...a lucrative dumping ground for the relatives of dictators and party hacks...
Security Council imposed an arms embargo late Monday on two gangs accused of rape and mass killings.

The decision came just before Rwanda, which has been accused of backing the rebels, temporarily joined the powerful council. The country has fervently denied involvement in the Congo crisis, but U.N. experts and human rights
...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty...
groups say its fingerprints are evident in the recent bloodshed.

The new sanctions target the M23 rebels, who are suspected of being funded and armed by Rwanda, and the FDLR, an armed Rwandan group linked to Hutu fighters who fled their homeland after its devastating genocide in 1994, during which hundreds of thousands of Tutsis and sympathetic Hutus were slain.

The Security Council also slapped a travel ban and financial freeze on the M23 president and one of its military commanders, expanding the list of rebels under targeted sanctions.
Posted by: Fred || 01/02/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


At least 60 crushed to death in Ivory Coast stampede
[Dawn] At least 60 people were crushed to death in a stampede outside a stadium in Ivory Coast's main city of Abidjan after a New Year's Eve fireworks display, the government said on Tuesday.

The incident took place near Felix Houphouet Boigny Stadium where a crowd had gathered to watch fireworks, emergency officials said.

One of the injured, speaking to Rooters at a hospital, said security forces had arrived to break up the crowd, triggering a panic in which many people fell over and were trampled.

"The provisional corpse count is 60 and there are 49 injured," Interior Minister Hamed Bakayoko said in a statement broadcast on national television.

President Alassane Ouattara
...the current president-for-life of Ivory Coast. He actually beat his predecessor in an election before having to eject him from the presidential palazzo....
, visiting injured people at the hospital, called the incident a national tragedy and said an investigation was underway to determine what happened.

A Rooters correspondent said blood stains and abandoned shoes littered the scene outside the stadium on Tuesday morning.

"My two children came here yesterday. I told them not to come but they didn't listen. They came when I was sleeping. What will I do?" said Assetou Toure, a cleaner.

She did not know if her children had escaped unhurt.

The incident was the worst of its kind in Abidjan since 2010, when a stampede at a stadium during a football match killed 18 people.

Ivory Coast, once a stable economic hub for West Africa, is struggling to recover from a 2011 civil war in which more than 3,000 people were killed.
Posted by: Fred || 01/02/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Economy
Why did a Train Carrying Biofuel Cross the Border 24 Times and Never Unload?
Posted by: tipper || 01/02/2013 17:37 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  OOH, wow. Mega stupids.
Posted by: tfsm sorta on the road || 01/02/2013 19:02 Comments || Top||

#2  CN Rail, the operator of the train, stated their innocence in the matter as they had only “received shipping directions from the customer, which, under law, it has an obligation to meet. CN discharged its obligations with respect to those movements in strict compliance with its obligations as a common carrier, and was compensated accordingly.” Even so, they still managed to earn C$2.6 million in shipping fees.


CN recently changed management and its board of directors after a proxy battle. The new CN regime is more 'aggressively earnings oriented'.

Obviously.
Posted by: Pappy || 01/02/2013 20:25 Comments || Top||

#3  Q: "Why did the train....cross the border...?"
A: Because they were non-union and the non-flying egg-laying poulty local had all the roads under a no-compete contract.
Posted by: USN,Ret. || 01/02/2013 22:21 Comments || Top||

#4  The companies “made several million dollars importing and exporting the fuel to exploit a loophole in a U.S. green energy program.”

Not mega-stupid at all. Just playing the game - according to the foo'ed up rules some bureaucrats/legislators set up. Enron did the same thing in California, selling power across the state border and buying it back.
Posted by: SteveS || 01/02/2013 22:50 Comments || Top||

#5  If you read the article - each time the train crossed the border it generated energy credits in the EPA which they can sell to companies who don't make the arbitrary EPA limits.

Money for nothing.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 01/02/2013 22:53 Comments || Top||


Europe
Nearly 1200 Cars Torched In French New Year 'tradition'
Interior Minister Manuel Valls said Tuesday that 1,193 vehicles were torched by French youths overnight in what has become a dubious New Year's Eve tradition.
French yoots, not yoots living in France...
Hundreds of empty, parked cars go up in flames in La Belle France each New Year's Eve, set afire by young revelers,
...still undefined beyond their Frenchness...
a much lamented tradition that remained intact this year with 1,193 vehicles burned, Interior Minister Manuel Valls said Tuesday.

His announcement was the first time in three years that such figures have .been released. The conservative government of former President Nicolas Sarkozy
...23rd and current President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra. Sarkozy is married to singer-songwriter Carla Bruni, who has a really nice birthday suit...
had decided to stop publishing them in a bid to reduce the crime -- and not play into the hands of car-torching youths who try to outdo each other.

La Belle France's current Socialist government decided otherwise, deeming total transparency the best method, and the rate of burned cars apparently remained steady. On Dec. 31, 2009, the last public figure available, 1,147 vehicles were burned.
If neither publishing nor not-publishing makes a difference -- and we can assume that the torchiers are much too busy to watch the evening news or read the next morning's papers -- then informing the citizenry is the better choice.
Like many countries, La Belle France sees cars set on fire during the year for many reasons, including gangs hiding clues of their crimes and people making false insurance claims.

But car-torching took a new step in La Belle France when it became a way to mark the arrival of the New Year. The practice reportedly began in earnest among youths -- often in poor neighborhoods
What, all of them? Or only certain, specific groups, which clearly the editor intends shall remain unnamed...
-- in the 1990s in the region around Strasbourg in eastern La Belle France.

It also became a voice of protest during the fiery
...a single two-syllable word carrying connotations of both incoherence and viciousness. A fiery delivery implies an audience of rubes and yokels, preferably forming up into a mob...
unrest by despairing youths from housing projects
Again, all of them? Or only certain, etc...
that swept La Belle France in the fall of 2005. At the time, police counted 8,810 vehicles burned in less than three weeks.

Yet even then, cars were not burned in big cities like Gay Paree, and that remained the case this New Year's Eve. Minister Valls said the Gay Paree suburban region of Seine-Saint-Denis, where the 2005 unrest started, led the nation for torched cars, followed by two eastern regions around Strasbourg.

For some, the decision to tell the public how many cars have been burned on New Year's Eve is a mistake.

Bruno Beschizza, the national secretary for security matters in Sarkozy's UMP party, said on iTele TV that publishing the numbers motivates youths to commit such crimes. "We know that neighborhoods compete," he said. Gang rivalries center on who can torch the most cars, with claims made on social networks like Facebook and Twitter, he said.
That should make it easier to track down the miscreants, surely.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/02/2013 11:23 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Tax car-torching, Hollande, and you'll solve the French budget crisis. :-D
Posted by: Barbara || 01/02/2013 16:28 Comments || Top||

#2  Clearly dey mean "Frenchiness", NOT "Frenchness".
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 01/02/2013 20:14 Comments || Top||


The Grand Turk
US to sell two frigates to Turkey
US House of Representatives approved a bill that would authorize US President Barack Obama to grant two guided missile frigates to Turkey, Anadolu Agency reported.

The bill was submitted by Republican member Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Democratic member Howard Berman, and it was debated at House floor through suspension of rules that by-passed a preliminary debate at the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.

If the bill also gets the backing of the US Senate, Turkey may receive the USS Halyburton (FFG-40) and the USS Thach (FFG-43) -- both capable of firing guided missiles --
Both are Oliver Hazard Perry class guided missile frigates and both were commissioned in 1984. Sounds like we're clearing out a few frigates that we'd be scrapping in the not too distant future. Curiously, reading up on both suggests that neither is armed with guided missile launchers now -- both have a 76 mm gun, a Phalanx system and ASW torpedo launchers. But the info on the web might be out of date.
along with several other countries, including Thailand and Mexico.
Posted by: Steve White || 01/02/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The single arm missile launcher was pulled a few years back, not certain why, running costs I would guess. Without the missile launcher it's only 9 times more effective than a LCS.

Posted by: Shipman || 01/02/2013 3:42 Comments || Top||

#2  My first thought was something on the order of "Old Ironsides"
Posted by: Cheaderhead || 01/02/2013 5:49 Comments || Top||

#3  Who would they use it against? Or is this just a way to drive Turkey deeper into financial issues, just as their population issues worsen?
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/02/2013 9:10 Comments || Top||

#4  Turkey already operates this class of frigate; likely these two would be added as a stop-gap measure until implementation of (or in place of) Turkey's announced indigenous frigate program.

As far as financial issues, the cost is somewhat less than a new one, usually overhauling/repair and updating the vessel.
Posted by: Pappy || 01/02/2013 17:27 Comments || Top||

#5  Who would they use it against?

Russia.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 01/02/2013 17:54 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Crude bomb found near home of Delhi rape suspect
[Dawn] Indian police on Tuesday tossed in the clink
Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un!
a man who was allegedly trying to plant a crude bomb near the home of one of the accused in the New Delhi gang-rape and murder case.

The 37-year-old man was arrested in the narrow bylanes of Ravi Dass Camp, a slum in southwest Delhi where four of the six accused lived, an officer in the city police control room said.

The low-grade device was filled with explosives usually used in firecrackers, he told AFP.

Two of the other accused come from outside Delhi, according to police.

The incident reflects growing anger across the country since the 23-year-old medical student was repeatedly assaulted and violated with an iron bar while being driven around in a bus on the night of Dec 16.

The suspects, some of whom were reportedly attacked in jail last week, are to be formally charged with rape and murder on Thursday.

The victim died of her grievous injuries in a Singapore hospital at the weekend.

Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde has said the suspects risked the death penalty if found guilty and the case against them appeared very strong.
Posted by: Fred || 01/02/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Anti-polio drive launched in Fata
[Dawn] A three-day anti-polio
...Poliomyelitis is a disease caused by infection with the poliovirus. Between 1840 and the 1950s, polio was a worldwide epidemic. Since the development of polio vaccines the disease has been largely wiped out in the civilized world. However, since the vaccine is known to make Moslem pee-pees shrink and renders females sterile, bookish, and unsubmissive it is not widely used by the turban and automatic weapons set...
campaign was launched in Fata on Monday except Kurram, Orakzai and North Wazoo Agencies and FR Beautiful Downtown Peshawar
...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire.
The campaign in Kurram and Orakzai agencies will start from January 7, whereas due to law and order situation in FR Peshawar campaign has been postponed till further orders, according to a blurb issued by the Expanded Programme for Immunization (EPI).

Inauguration ceremony was held at the Fata Secretariat. Representatives from WHO and Unicef were also present on the occasion.

The number of children to be vaccinated in the campaign is 763,079. A total of 2,692 vaccinators would participate in the drive, working with mobile, transit and fixed teams.
That's 285 and a half kiddies per vaccinator, or thereabouts. If each vaccinator does a little over 90 kids a day for three days they could do it, though practically it'd be a stretch. Assuming they can catch the kiddies and nobody shoots them.
What odds the needles will be properly cleaned between injections? The possibilities for disease transference along with polio inoculation are fairly terrifying.
Posted by: Fred || 01/02/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Home Front: Culture Wars
Michigan-made Arab-American exhibit heading to California
Dearborn — A made-in-Michigan exhibition on Arab-Americans who have served in the U.S. military and diplomatic corps is heading to California.

The exhibition, "Patriots & Peacemakers: Arab-Americans in Service to Our Country," is preparing for two extended stays in Southern California. It stops at the Student Center of the University of California, Irvine, from Saturday until Jan. 26, and the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles from Feb. 16 to March 16.

The exhibit opened in 2011 at the Arab American National Museum in Dearborn.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 01/02/2013 08:40 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Can we assume Major Nidal Hassan's name was scrubbed from the list?
Posted by: SteveS || 01/02/2013 10:11 Comments || Top||

#2  Arab American is one thing. Muslim American another one.
Posted by: JFM || 01/02/2013 12:15 Comments || Top||

#3  Arab American is one thing. Muslim American another one.

JFM raises a good point. Most Arab Americans are Christian. Most Muslim Americans are Black or from the Indian subcontinent. Kahlil Gibran, for instance, was Arab American. Ditto, in the present tense, are Selma Hayek and Frank Zappa, according to the Arab American Institute.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/02/2013 15:19 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
33[untagged]
3Govt of Pakistan
3Govt of Syria
2Commies
2TTP
2Arab Spring
1Govt of Iraq
1al-Qaeda
1Govt of Sudan
1Usbat al-Ansar
1Hamas
1Hezbollah
1Jamaat-e-Ulema Islami
1Taliban
1al-Qaeda in North Africa
1Boko Haram
1Govt of Iran

Bookmark
E-Mail Me

The Classics
The O Club
Rantburg Store
The Bloids
The Never-ending Story
Thugburg
Gulf War I
The Way We Were
Bio

Merry-Go-Blog











On Sale now!


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.
Click here for more information

Meet the Mods
In no particular order...
Steve White
Seafarious
tu3031
badanov
sherry
ryuge
GolfBravoUSMC
Bright Pebbles
trailing wife
Gloria
Fred
Besoeker
Glenmore
Frank G
3dc
Skidmark

Two weeks of WOT
Wed 2013-01-02
  Fourteen Killed as Nigerian Troops Clash with Islamists
Tue 2013-01-01
  Pakistan: Six charity workers shot dead
Mon 2012-12-31
  Qaeda in Yemen offers bounty for killing US ambassador, troops
Sun 2012-12-30
  Pakistan reports 21 tribal policemen kidnapped, found dead
Sat 2012-12-29
  At Least 15 Killed in Sect Attack in North Nigeria
Fri 2012-12-28
  Militants kill two, kidnap 22 Pakistani soldiers
Thu 2012-12-27
  Somalia sets 100 days for Al Shabab militants to surrender
Wed 2012-12-26
  6 Killed in Attack on Nigerian Church
Tue 2012-12-25
  Drone Strikes Kill Six Qaida Suspects in Yemen
Mon 2012-12-24
  Tunisia arrests 16 al-Qaeda suspects
Sun 2012-12-23
  Egypt vice-president resigns on final day of referendum
Sat 2012-12-22
  Scuds pummel Syrian rebel positions
Fri 2012-12-21
  U.N. Security Council Approves Mali Intervention Force
Thu 2012-12-20
  Yemeni President Restructures Army, Removes Saleh Cronies
Wed 2012-12-19
  Three more polio workers shot in Pakistan; eight dead in 48 hours

Better than the average link...



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.
54.152.216.170
Help keep the Burg running! Paypal:
WoT Operations (19)    WoT Background (10)    Opinion (9)    (0)    Politix (4)