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Mali and Niger forces retake Ansongo
Today's Headlines
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-Lurid Crime Tales-
Mom loses second son to gun violence
Posted by: Fred || 01/30/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336135 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Both "kids" were in their 20's. To me that's not a kid and the interview and tone make it sound like there are little kids or at most early teens.

There's a cultural problem here that never gets addressed. Read Patrick O'Brien's tales of the British navy during the Napoleanic era and see what ages went with what responsibilities.

Pretty soon "Cradle to Grave" will mean that you never leave the cradle till they bury you.
Posted by: AlanC || 01/30/2013 7:10 Comments || Top||

#2  Neoteny is what happens to pets (i.e. they never grow up to be adults).

State funded pets for bureaucrats.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 01/30/2013 8:15 Comments || Top||

#3  According to the Obama video The Life of Julia you are a child from cradle to grave and are taken care of by the state.
Posted by: JohnQC || 01/30/2013 9:37 Comments || Top||

#4  How are all these people getting shot when guns are illegal in Chicago?
Posted by: SteveS || 01/30/2013 11:49 Comments || Top||

#5  An esteemed City Councilwoman from Sacramento noted that empty guns shoot people ALL THE TIME.
Posted by: Frank G || 01/30/2013 12:00 Comments || Top||

#6  Two groups of young men GANGS had a confrontation about 1:40 p.m. and the man was shot.

At the risk of sounding insensitive the article makes no mention of comments from the father(s).
Posted by: DepotGuy || 01/30/2013 19:22 Comments || Top||

#7  Frank, not only can empty guns do that - today I was told in no uncertain terms that "assault weapons" could accidently kill kids if they're carried about. or even allowed to exist.
Posted by: lotp || 01/30/2013 21:39 Comments || Top||

#8  Terribly useful as a bludgeon, donchaknow.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/30/2013 23:05 Comments || Top||


-Obits-
Patti Andrews Dies
Patty Andrews, the last surviving member of the singing Andrews Sisters trio whose hits such as the rollicking "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Company B" and the poignant "I Can Dream, Can't I?" captured the home-front spirit of World War II, died Wednesday. She was 94.

Andrews died of natural causes at her home in the Los Angeles suburb of Northridge, said family spokesman Alan Eichler in a statement.

Patty was the Andrews in the middle, the lead singer and chief clown, whose raucous jitterbugging delighted American servicemen abroad and audiences at home.
Posted by: Glenmore || 01/30/2013 20:31 || Comments || Link || [336134 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Aaawwwww - many of their hits were still being requested + played on late 1960's-early 1970's Radio here on Guam during the Vietnam era, along wid Sinatra + others.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 01/30/2013 22:35 Comments || Top||


-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
Catch a Wave (and You're Sittin' on Top of the World')
100 foot waves counts as 'weather', right?
This is some seriously awesome surfing!

Surfer Garrett McNamara catches what could be the largest wave ever surfed, off the coast of Nazare, Portugal, on Jan. 29. The estimated 100-foot wave, if confirmed, would beat the current world record of 78 feet, which McNamara has held since 2011.
Go look at the picture.
Posted by: Glenmore || 01/30/2013 20:27 || Comments || Link || [336142 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Yuuuppp - reminds me of all those "Surfin' Hawaii" + "Cliff-Dive Acapulco" movies from the 1970's, + for some mysterious reason Ron Ely as "Tarzan"!?

HHHMMMM, HHHHMMMM, ... BUT N-O-T "GIDGET"???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 01/30/2013 22:43 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Egypt's revolution: Dark days
The Muslim Brotherhood, amidst widespread public anger, wanted to mark the second anniversary of Egypt’s revolution by planting 500,000 trees, helping a million hospital patients and renovating 2,000 schools. Instead, the country looks like it is falling apart. The past two days in Egypt looked at times like a slow-motion repeat of the revolution that toppled Hosni Mubarak two years ago: the marches, the gas, the shouted demands to topple the regime, and a miscalculated response by the president (Mr Morsi took to Facebook and Twitter to express his condolences to the families of those killed).

The unrest felt darker, more anarchic, than the uprising of 2011. The peaceful protests that began on Friday in Cairo to mark the two-year anniversary of the revolution by Sunday had been overtaken by the armed street battles in Port Said. Hard-nosed Suez, where the first demonstrator was killed in 2011, again provided the spark. Protesters ripped down police shacks and set government buildings alight. The police killed ten of those protesting.In the coastal city at the northern mouth of the Suez Canal, 33 civilians and two police officers were killed after relatives tried to storm a prison housing 22 local football fans sentenced to death on Saturday over a bloody stadium stampede last year.

The riots have revealed worrying signs of a state that is both absent and untrusted by the people. Two years of transition and seven months of Brotherhood administration have failed to restore a sense of accountability. The Port Said families took matters, violently, into their own hands because they did not trust the court. The Ahly fans threatened to do the same. Protesters in Tahrir Square believe that Mr Morsi has lied to them too often to remain in office. The opposition says it will boycott elections unless the president reviews the transition process. Who will lead Egypt out of its current crisis is unclear.
Posted by: Pappy || 01/30/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336087 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Who will lead Egypt out of its current crisis is unclear.

The army. Coup could be days away.
Posted by: phil_b || 01/30/2013 1:23 Comments || Top||

#2  Isn't this about the point in the process that Napolean arose? I'm sure there are several candidates for that position in the 'gyptian army.
Posted by: AlanC || 01/30/2013 7:04 Comments || Top||

#3  Morsi has been busy the last few months trying to ensure that the army is on his side. He's been elevating officers who were members of the Bruderbünd and removing officers who weren't. Not sure that's enough to save him, but the Egyptian military isn't necessarily what it was a couple years ago.
Posted by: Steve White || 01/30/2013 8:25 Comments || Top||

#4  He's been elevating officers who were members of the Bruderbünd and removing officers who weren't. Steve White

Appears to be working for Obama.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/30/2013 8:26 Comments || Top||

#5  The Arab Spring is in a free fall and no one knows where it will end up. At some point, with the disorder in these various countries, food will become a problem.
Posted by: JohnQC || 01/30/2013 9:57 Comments || Top||

#6  What's bitterly amusing is reading all the comments on this at the Economist and Foreign Policy sites; most of them are along the lines of "the Muslim Brotherhood won the election and the secularists should acccept it" and "this is not the way Democracy is supposed to be", and "if they're unhappy, they should deal with it in parliment and not on the streets".

Kind of like the old-hippies-turned-wealthy-retirees in Haight-Ashbury complaining about the new breed of hippies 'infesting' the streets in front of their condos.
Posted by: Pappy || 01/30/2013 11:43 Comments || Top||

#7  Isn't this about the point in the process that Napolean arose?

Naw. We gotta have Robespierre first.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 01/30/2013 14:27 Comments || Top||

#8  But then it's hard for me to imagine a Napoleon coming out of Egypt. They might try but I just can't believe they have that sort of thing in them.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 01/30/2013 14:30 Comments || Top||

#9  What's bitterly amusing is reading all the comments on this at the Economist and Foreign Policy sites

Spengler responds to one of those who attacked his predictions here.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/30/2013 14:58 Comments || Top||

#10  Buyer's Remorsi yet?
Posted by: European Conservative || 01/30/2013 16:19 Comments || Top||

#11  EC wins the vile pun of the day award!
Posted by: Steve White || 01/30/2013 16:31 Comments || Top||

#12  Abu, if you can't imagine an Egyptian Napoleon, check out the original Mohammad Ali, and imagine him loose in today's Middle East.
Posted by: Grunter || 01/30/2013 16:48 Comments || Top||

#13  U.S. better shut off the 16 F16 aircraft and 200 Abrams tanks going to Egypt. They have no external threats on their borders. Such a transfer of weapons will only threaten Israel.
Posted by: JohnQC || 01/30/2013 16:49 Comments || Top||

#14  I recommend the tanks and planes be held in escrow at the Port of Ashdod until things settle down a bit :-)
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/30/2013 16:59 Comments || Top||

#15  Make Israel the escrow-broker :).
Posted by: CrazyFool || 01/30/2013 17:39 Comments || Top||

#16  "Buyer's Remorsi yet?"

Dang, EC - and English isn't even your first language (I presume)!

I'm jealous. ;-p
Posted by: Barbara || 01/30/2013 18:20 Comments || Top||

#17  the salafists will say that the MBrotherhood isn't islamic enough and thus the cure is more islam

whoopee
Posted by: lord garth || 01/30/2013 18:58 Comments || Top||


Tunisian officers sentenced for Regueb protest
[MAGHAREBIA] The military court of Sfax on Tuesday (January 29th) sentenced two officers to prison for the death of five protesters during the uprising against Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. Commander Mourad Jouini received a 10-year term and Lieutenant Bassam Akremi was sentenced in absentia to 20 years in prison for repressing demonstrations in Regueb on January 9th, 2011.
Posted by: Fred || 01/30/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336087 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


Economy
GDP Shows Surprise Drop for U.S. in Fourth Quarter
Posted by: DarthVader || 01/30/2013 09:23 || Comments || Link || [336087 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Although really not that surprising for those of us paying attention.
Posted by: DarthVader || 01/30/2013 9:24 Comments || Top||

#2  Defense spending dropped. Wait til the sequester hits
Posted by: Frank G || 01/30/2013 9:39 Comments || Top||

#3  Mildred, does our IRA include any General Dynamics, Northrop, SAIC, or Lockheed Martin holdings ?
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/30/2013 9:46 Comments || Top||

#4  But, but, but, but the economy is getting better. I was told so.
Posted by: JohnQC || 01/30/2013 9:48 Comments || Top||

#5  Wait until the rest of the tax increases, more government regulations and Obamacare hit as well.

With those things piling on a already stumbling economy, it will be the equivalent of a bunch of people pulling on the feet of a strangling man and finish it off that much faster.

There will be a lot of people asking themselves, "Why did I vote for Obama?"
"Because you are a fucking idiot, now live with the mess you created."
Posted by: DarthVader || 01/30/2013 9:48 Comments || Top||

#6  4th quarter included Christmas which is usually a good time for the economy. What is propping up the stock market?
Posted by: JohnQC || 01/30/2013 9:49 Comments || Top||

#7  What is propping up the stock market?
Posted by JohnQC


Global markets and continued profits are two important factors John. Capitalism survives in spite of the socialists in D.C. Imagine would could have been achieved with a businessman at the helm.

Posted by: Besoeker || 01/30/2013 10:01 Comments || Top||

#8  GDP Shows Surprise Drop for U.S., in 4th Quarter.

All very conveniently camouflaged in the media by Gabby Giffords and the gun debate.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/30/2013 10:07 Comments || Top||

#9  Unexpectedly....
Posted by: Andy Snatch8562 || 01/30/2013 10:20 Comments || Top||

#10  The economy is going to hit the floor faster than a stunt man in a Jackie Chan movie...
Posted by: Steve White || 01/30/2013 10:27 Comments || Top||

#11  4th Qtr also included the presidential election, which can make people skittish. Personally, I am interested in January sales compared to previous years.

The entertainers were harping about the news that the market is approaching the 2008 mark. Great. I do know my can of beans does not cost the same as it did four years ago.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 01/30/2013 10:53 Comments || Top||

#12  my can of beans does not cost the same as it did four years ago
so I sacrifice convenience and buy dried beans and cook 'em. For now natural gas for my stove IS less than it was 4 years ago (thank you, fracking.)
Posted by: Glenmore || 01/30/2013 11:08 Comments || Top||

#13  Personally, I am interested in January sales compared to previous years.

Railway orders are half of what they were last year, so if a huge slowdown and contraction doesn't show up this quarter it will next quarter.
Posted by: DarthVader || 01/30/2013 12:11 Comments || Top||

#14  Is an Economic Recession no longer defined as "three straight quarter where the GDP drops" ?
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/30/2013 12:12 Comments || Top||

#15  IMO, the drop in Federal expenditures (not just defense) was mostly due to agencies getting ready for the sequester; without that drop, the 4th Q number would have been about +2.5% (annualized)

that kind of drop in Federal expenditures is just one thing that needs to happen;

the other is entitlement reform - that will be more difficult
Posted by: lord garth || 01/30/2013 12:39 Comments || Top||

#16  SW, I like that one "The economy is going to hit the floor faster than a stunt man in a Jackie Chan movie..." thats original.
Posted by: Dale || 01/30/2013 12:50 Comments || Top||

#17  besoaker,

The declaration of the beginning and end of a recession is not via a precise formula and there is no actual statute that requires such declarations

In practice, there is a business cycle committee within the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER). The NBER is a private not for profit NGO. They do not make policy recommendations. I think they get funding from large corporations and govt contracts but I'm not sure on this.
Posted by: lord garth || 01/30/2013 12:53 Comments || Top||

#18  interesting personal take....(well to me anyway)

A week ago a 90' tall pine tree snapped in a high wind. Fortunately it only grazed the house, unfortunately it caught my car square. Well, a 10 year old Honda Accord fought the tree and the tree won, it was totaled.

So, I've gone out to buy a new car and decided on another Honda Accord sedan. When digging out the title to the junker I found the original bill of sale. 10 years ago it cost $23,000. My replacement is going to cost $23,000. The price has not gone up; the sales tax on the other hand is $400 more.

MA democrats suck.
Posted by: AlanC || 01/30/2013 13:54 Comments || Top||

#19  AC registrations have gone up also. In VA I have been told $200. extra per vehicle. Easy money.
Posted by: Dale || 01/30/2013 14:05 Comments || Top||

#20  Well Obama is blaming Republicans... so the MSM will be hooting this from the heights for the next week.
Posted by: DarthVader || 01/30/2013 14:45 Comments || Top||

#21  He's blaming the Republicans and Fox News. Its the "look here don't look over there" approach to politics.
Posted by: JohnQC || 01/30/2013 16:38 Comments || Top||

#22  It is my understanding that there is absolutely no truth to the rumour that Senator Mary Landrieu form Louisiana is blaming Fox News and Rush Limbaugh for a severe case of Candidasis.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/30/2013 16:46 Comments || Top||

#23  <-DRAWROF
Posted by: Procopius2k || 01/30/2013 17:39 Comments || Top||

#24  P2K == always click on your posts -- took me a few on this one! Nice........
Posted by: Sherry || 01/30/2013 17:44 Comments || Top||

#25  "MA All democrats suck."

FTFY, Alan.
Posted by: Barbara || 01/30/2013 18:24 Comments || Top||


North Dakota struggles to cope with its oil-boom prosperity
[STARTRIBUNE] The oil boom has meant explosive growth for North Dakota, but life there can be frustrating and lonely, as well as lucrative.
Shucks, who'd want to be frustrated and lonely if all they got in return was prosperity?
If you have prosperity you can fix lonely...
Posted by: Fred || 01/30/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336125 views] Top|| File under:

#1  30 years ago I'd be putting a fresh coat of paint on my wagon.
Posted by: Shipman || 01/30/2013 5:16 Comments || Top||

#2  Who writes this shit?
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 01/30/2013 6:41 Comments || Top||

#3  Author was one of Fred's cub reporters at the Times-Picayune. When she finds herself a handsome, Okie roustabout, she'll probably come around. I'll give her the benefit.

Pam Louwagie writes about various topics around the five-state region. A Star Tribune reporter since 2001, she has worked on the newspaper’s investigative team and covered federal courts and legal affairs. She previously worked at the New Orleans Times-Picayune and the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Posted by: Rantburg || 01/30/2013 7:25 Comments || Top||

#4  The way it's worded makes it sound like prosperity created the loneliness when it probably allows people to mitigate it (by attracting other people).

Productive people move away from poverty (see california).
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 01/30/2013 8:17 Comments || Top||

#5  The StarTribune is one of those lefty vanity newspapers.
Posted by: Vortigern Hupoluse1541 || 01/30/2013 8:34 Comments || Top||

#6  If you have prosperity you can fix lonely...

Yes, the invisible hand of capitalism will provide.

File under - Camp Followers
Posted by: Procopius2k || 01/30/2013 9:42 Comments || Top||

#7  The StarTribune is one of those lefty vanity newspapers.

Useful information, Vortigern Hupoluse1541. Thanks!
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/30/2013 11:23 Comments || Top||

#8  There's a fair amount of resentment, mostly from people not directly benefiting from the oil boom. I spent a great deal of time in Watford City and Williston. Alot of the smaller stores jack their prices way up and then give locals these discount cards so they're not being fleeced. This sort of thing breeds resentment in the rig workers who basically trash the town with alot of minor damage and such. I remember stopping to refill the gas tank when I was heading to a rig and finding "Rig jerks leave!" written on the trash can next to the pump. Another time, some lady followed me to the grocery store to yell at me for "turning right in front of her and nearly causing an accident." Given her car had been 300 yards down the road when I turned and the roads were ice free and the speed limit was 20mph, I felt fairly sure she wasn't in much danger. But she felt she had to abuse one of the horrible rig workers when she had the chance.

Many people there are nice and happy to do business with you, realizing that you're far from home and don't have many choices but to spend money in their stores. There was several places I ate that served decent food with good service and I tried to be generous in my tips in return. And I must also thank some of the postal workers there, who let me get letters and packages general delivery so that I could get mail from my then girlfriend.

As everything, it'll be what you make of it.
Posted by: Silentbrick - Schlumberger Squishy Mud Division || 01/30/2013 12:36 Comments || Top||

#9  Yeah, well, 'brick, there's a reason we're called 'oilfield trash.'
Posted by: Glenmore || 01/30/2013 12:50 Comments || Top||

#10  Schlumberger:

My father used to have a heck of a time keeping 12 volt batteries in oil lease pumping units out in the field. Locals would steal them as fast as you could carry them out, padlock bar or no. Got so bad he finally had mechanics rig pos/neg posts through the grill of the pumper's pickups so they could use jumper cables to start the old Buda engines. Putting junk batteries in the pumping unit battery boxes was good revenge as well. :-)
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/30/2013 14:10 Comments || Top||

#11  North Dakota isn't struggling with the oil boom. This headline is struggling for relevance. This oil boom spells opportunity.
Posted by: warthogswife || 01/30/2013 15:25 Comments || Top||

#12  Industry. Williston, which used to be a one-horse burg, now damn near as big as Minot, which had an air force base and a railroad yard.
Posted by: mojo || 01/30/2013 17:27 Comments || Top||

#13  Williston will get a SAC base. Oh, wait, no more SAC.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 01/30/2013 21:43 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Former Ogra chief arrested in Abu Dhabi
[Dawn] Former chairman of the Oil & Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) Tauqir Sadiq was arrested in Abu Dhabi, DawnNews reported on Tuesday.

Sadiq is accused of having caused a loss of Rs83 billion to the national exchequer and eventually fleeing away. He went into hiding soon after the Nov 25, 2011 Supreme Court verdict which had declared his appointment illegal and had directed the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to investigate corruption cases against him within 45 days.

Sources told DawnNews a three-member team of law enforcement officials from Pakistan had arrested the former Ogra chairman in Abu Dhabi with assistance from local police.

Authorities are making preparations to bring the former official back to Pakistan.

Last week, the Supreme Court had ordered the NAB to file within a week two corruption references in the case against Sadiq.

One of the references ordered to be filed points a finger at the prime minister who had allegedly approved Sadiq's appointment as chairman of the Ogra.

The other is against the officials who are accused of obstructing investigations against Sadiq and facilitating his escape from the country. They include Interior Minister Rehman Malik and Pakistan People's Party's senior leader Jehangir Badar who is a close relative of Sadiq.

Prime Minister Ashraf was water and power minister and head of the selection committee which had approved Sadiq's appointment.
Posted by: Fred || 01/30/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336086 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Blast in Peshawar outskirts kills one, injures three
[Dawn] At least one person was killed Tuesday when explosives planted in an open field blew up on the outskirts of Peshawar, the capital of northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

A police official at the local Sarband police station initially confirmed that four people were wounded by the explosion in the Achini Meira area, close to Ring Road.

The injured were shifted to the Hayatabad Medical Complex. However, one of the wounded lost his life at the hospital.

Police said the blast targeted an illegal gambling den being operated in the area.
Posted by: Fred || 01/30/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336087 views] Top|| File under:


Science & Technology
Update on Grounded (Reefed) Minesweeper
Unable to tow the minesweeper USS Guardian off a reef in the Philippines, the Navy has decided that the only way to free the ship without causing further damage to the reef is to cut the ship into pieces.

The ship's wooden hull - covered in fiberglass
That should be easier to cut up than steel - or maybe they could just hire some teredo worms
- is punctured and parts of the ship have been flooded. As part of the salvage effort the 15,000 gallons of diesel fuel aboard the Guardian were transferred to a Malaysian tug contracted by the Navy. Other materials that might damage the reef have also been removed including : 671 gallons of lubricating oil; dry food stores; paints and solvents contained in storage lockers; and the crew's personal effects left behind on the ship.
I wonder what interesting items turned up in the personal effects.
A preliminary Navy review found that the digital chart the crew was using to navigate the ship incorrectly listed the reef's location by 8 miles. A review of additional charts created by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency found another navigational aberration off the coast of Chile. Both have been corrected.
Not sure that will help the skipper get another command.
Posted by: Glenmore || 01/30/2013 07:48 || Comments || Link || [336088 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Well skipper, sort of begs the question; if you can't find the bottom, how do find the.....
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/30/2013 9:25 Comments || Top||

#2  As with coral reefs, it's the mines you don't find that find you.
Posted by: SteveS || 01/30/2013 11:34 Comments || Top||

#3  A preliminary Navy review found that the digital chart the crew was using to navigate the ship incorrectly listed the reef's location by 8 miles.

Pretty much what I figured. aside from the idiocy of working off electronic-only. Paper charts may be 'archaic', but there are/were regular chart update notices sent out.

Congratulations, Skipper. You lost a ship and saved the Navy the hassle of breaking it up due to sequestration instead. I figure that's worth a Meritorious Service Medal. Maybe a White House mil-staff job as well.
Posted by: Pappy || 01/30/2013 12:57 Comments || Top||

#4  He's headed straight to a 2nd shift administrative position at the VA hospital in Twin Falls...
Posted by: Steve White || 01/30/2013 13:05 Comments || Top||

#5  Seems like watch keepers might have noticed the breaking surf over green water in the middle of the ocean. Or maybe it was dark. Dunno.
Posted by: Shipman || 01/30/2013 15:40 Comments || Top||

#6  Why not break up the reef and save the ship? The damned reef will grow back.
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 01/30/2013 17:05 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
New baby Pencilneck on the way
[GUARDIAN.CO.UK] Bashar al-Assad's wife Asma is expecting a fourth child, according to a Lebanese newspaper with a reputation for informed access to the inner workings of the regime in Damascus.
This would be a convenient reason for her to flee move to Moscow, Paris or Tehran. For good pre-natal care, you know...
The news that Syria's first lady is pregnant came from Al-Akhbar, which is published in Beirut. It attributed the news to unnamed "Arab visitors" who also heard her husband claiming to have gained the upper hand in the fight against rebels. But the paper gave no further details.

Nor was there any confirmation of the story from the government in Damascus or from Asma's parents, who live in London. Rumours about a pregnancy have been circulating for several months.

"On the personal level, the man [Assad] seems calm and in control," al-Akhbar reported. "His confidence level stands out. Also, there's the news of the pregnancy of his wife Asma, which could not be dealt with as a simple personal matter between a couple."

The report triggered abusive and vengeful comments from Syrian anti-Assad activists on social media such as Twitter and Facebook.

Assuming a degree of deliberate news management, the story may be part of an effort by the president to project an image of normality in the midst of a bloody crisis which has already seen 60,000 people killed since the uprising began 22 months ago.
Posted by: Fred || 01/30/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336088 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria

#1  I guess it's like in the movies, where the adrenaline rush of being in an impossibly dangerous situation leads to great s*x.
Posted by: Glenmore || 01/30/2013 8:32 Comments || Top||

#2  impossibly dangerous situation leads to great s*x. Posted by Glenmore

Is there another kind ?
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/30/2013 9:23 Comments || Top||

#3  Competing wid NOKOR's Jong-un is he???

Speaking of which, anyone have the latest on NOKOR's future First Baby Mama???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 01/30/2013 18:38 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
SAM launcher in Seattle Gun Buyback
Posted by: Skidmark || 01/30/2013 07:04 || Comments || Link || [336084 views] Top|| File under:

#1  It doesn't bother me so much when government buys broken crap. But the collector items sold by ignorant widows and destroyed by blinkered bureaucrats really rankle. It's the US version of burning the Timbuktu archives.
Posted by: Glaick Jolump2461 || 01/30/2013 8:07 Comments || Top||

#2  it's what's known as an empty tube. I have some semi-automatic toilet paper dispenser cardboard tubes rounds for the next gun buyback. Similar to those used on the battlefield
Posted by: Frank G || 01/30/2013 8:10 Comments || Top||

#3  I have an antique lamp in the attic which Ms. Besoeker purchased in the "Atomic City". I would gladly surrender it for $10.
Posted by: Rantburg || 01/30/2013 8:22 Comments || Top||

#4  Posted by: Rantburg

Boesoeker dear, you forgot to change your nym back. Some people might be confused by this.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/30/2013 11:03 Comments || Top||

#5  another empty tube that can be bought at an Army/Navy Surplus store. why would dumbass cops waste their budget buying crap like that unless it was hoped to be used to cause shock and panic?
Posted by: bigjim-CA || 01/30/2013 11:10 Comments || Top||

#6  Boesoeker dear, you forgot to change your nym back. Some people might be confused by this.
Posted by trailing wife


Yes, I'm slipping elsewhere as well. The so-called "golden years".
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/30/2013 11:14 Comments || Top||

#7  This new HP sometimes lists my name correctly, sometimes it comes off as 'Hidirgher Of Thorsville1011' or some other nuttiness. Sometimes I types it in wrong :-(
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/30/2013 11:20 Comments || Top||

#8  What was amusing were the collectors who showed up at the buy-back, offering to pay more than the '$200 gift card'. They did a rather brisk business.
Posted by: Pappy || 01/30/2013 11:47 Comments || Top||

#9  Buy a $50 trinket, sell it to the city for $200 turns a nice little profit quickly. I liked the part where officials seemed baffled that people would not take an IOU from the city in exchange for turning in a gun; wonder how many went ahead and turned the gun in and said to keep the money.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 01/30/2013 13:31 Comments || Top||

#10  Too lazy to go find the web link, but in $(YOUR_CITY_NAME_HERE), people were buying guns at Gander Mountain and selling them to the cops for a profit. If you call it arbitrage, it sounds dignified.
Posted by: SteveS || 01/30/2013 15:29 Comments || Top||


Hawaii Doing a Gun-Grab, too
The Hawaii Senate has introduced SB219 which reinstates the 1994 "assault weapon" ban. As I read it. it makes owning any semi-auto illegal (class C felony) and also prevents you from selling it (Class B felony). It makes owners instant criminals with no way out, other than giving it to the cops, who are of course exempt.
Posted by: Mercutio || 01/30/2013 04:51 || Comments || Link || [336122 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Constitutional?
Posted by: JFM || 01/30/2013 8:42 Comments || Top||

#2  It would be much more safe if the government was disarmed and the people all armed.

If the government want something involving force done they need to persuade the people to do it.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 01/30/2013 8:52 Comments || Top||

#3  Going after semi-automatic firearms? The government is going to transform large numbers of law-abiding citizens into lawbreakers with the stroke of a pen? This will not bode well. I see civil disobedience and possibly insurrection on the horizon. People are passionate about their freedom especially rights that insure these freedoms.
Posted by: JohnQC || 01/30/2013 9:26 Comments || Top||

#4  Since they've decided to ignore the Article 5 process, someday after it all sorts out, I look forward to these people being prosecuted for conspiracy to deny the fellow citizens their civil rights, just like the Klan.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 01/30/2013 9:45 Comments || Top||

#5  Bright Pebbles, that is a very bright observation, and indeed the founding principle behind the Second Amendment.
Posted by: Glenmore || 01/30/2013 11:03 Comments || Top||

#6  There is already a palpable anti-govt mood in Hawaii, especially the big island. This won't help.
Posted by: bigjim-CA || 01/30/2013 11:15 Comments || Top||

#7  Hopefully you are right bigjim.
Posted by: DarthVader || 01/30/2013 12:35 Comments || Top||

#8  Wait till they redefine semi-auto to include double action revolvers. One trigger pull, one shot and more than a 5 round magazine.
Posted by: AlanC || 01/30/2013 14:00 Comments || Top||

#9  Now, now, we can't have Angry Amerikkans of the OWG Mighty USSA = OWG Weak USRoA GSSR shooting up Mexican, Canadian, + Greenlander Citizens-Migrants + Communities can we???

OWG NAU 2015 = "BORDERS" ARE JUST LINES/SYMBOLS ON AN OBSOLETE OR KID'S PLAY MAP.

STATE SOCIALISM-GOVTISM = NEW "SOVEREIGNTY/
INDEPENDENCE/NATION-HOOD" + similar. The Globalist NAU-n-Higher will have the Power-n-Authority, NOT "Nationalist" Washington.

INTENTIONAL INTERNATIONAL OR MULTI-STATE CHAOS > NO NEED FOR TIME-WASTING THINGS SUCH AS NATIONWIDE OR STATE-LOCAL VOTES ON "GLOBALISM" + OWG-NWO + STATE SOCIALISM.

Ergo, STATE SOCIALISM = NEW "SOVEREIGNTY" = aka NEW "1917" [Gun Sex = Civil War, Domestic Militancy OPTIONAL?]???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 01/30/2013 18:54 Comments || Top||

#10  I am starting to believe our country is run by the insane. The FBI has proven that more private ownership of guns and carry permits reduce crime. The two areas of the US that have the highest crime rate are the ones with the greatest gun control.
Our Federal government is confined to very specific functions by the Constitution of the United States. The "Bill of Rights" prohibits any and all branches of the Federal Government for legislating away any of the rights listed in the first ten amendments; and the tenth amendment says any right not listed in the first ten amendments is reserved for the states or the people. The US Supreme court has always ruled that when the Constitutions states "the people" it means the individual citizens have that right which cannot legally be infringed or abridged. This to me conveys that the states are also prohibited from legislating away a right listed in the "Bill of Rights". I believe our federal and state governments have grossly overstepped their boundarys on this matter. We are approaching the legal point at which insurrection is justified and legal.
Posted by: David169 || 01/30/2013 23:36 Comments || Top||


Tex Senator Cruz Offers Gun Makers Lone Star State Safe Haven After Rahm Emanuel Bullying
Feeling bullied by Rahm Emanuel? Bring your business down to Texas.

That's the message Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, is sending big banks and firearms companies, after the Chicago mayor urged those banks to stop lending to the gun manufacturers.

The freshman senator sent a letter Tuesday to the CEOs of Bank of America and TD Bank Group offering up the Lone Star State as a place where they could do business without hassle from the government. He said he understands that, since they do "considerable business" with Chicago, they might be worried about the "risks" of not complying with Emanuel's request.

"In light of the reception you have received in the Windy City, please know that Texas would certainly welcome more of your business and the jobs you create," Cruz wrote in his Jan. 29 letter. "Texans value jobs and value freedom, and over 1,000 people a day are moving to Texas (often from cities like Chicago), because Texas is where the jobs are."
Posted by: Dino Shomomp7692 || 01/30/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336089 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Bring your gun manufacturing business to Texas? The next step would be to pass legislation under the 10th Amendment which should allow firearms to be bought and sold within Texas.
Posted by: JohnQC || 01/30/2013 9:33 Comments || Top||

#2  Bought and sold within Texas without the scrutiny and control of the Federal government.
Posted by: JohnQC || 01/30/2013 9:34 Comments || Top||

#3  Bought and sold within Texas without the scrutiny and control of the Federal government

No doubt Texas would then get masses of gun tourists, just as California is getting masses of pregnant tourists, come to give birth to American citizens.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/30/2013 11:05 Comments || Top||

#4  Bought and sold within Texas without the scrutiny and control of the Federal government

You forget the infinite adaptability of the Commerce Clause...
Posted by: Glenmore || 01/30/2013 11:12 Comments || Top||



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Two weeks of WOT
Wed 2013-01-30
  Mali and Niger forces retake Ansongo
Tue 2013-01-29
  Sahel jihadist groups splinter
Mon 2013-01-28
  Timbuktu mayor: Mali rebels torched library of historic manuscripts
Sun 2013-01-27
  French and Malian troops begin restoring control in Timbuktu
Sat 2013-01-26
  Green-on-green clash in Khyber tribal region kills 32
Fri 2013-01-25
  AQAP #2 killed for the THIRD time in Yemen
Thu 2013-01-24
  US drone strike near Sanaa kills 7 hard boyz
Wed 2013-01-23
  Nuristan Airstrike Kills 14 Insurgents
Tue 2013-01-22
  French seize control of Diabaly, Douentza
Mon 2013-01-21
  Nigeria: Gunmen attack Kano emir's convoy
Sun 2013-01-20
  Algeria crisis: Hostage-takers 'taken alive' at gas plant
Sat 2013-01-19
  Boko Haram leader Shekau shot, escapes to Mali
Fri 2013-01-18
  1,400 French soldiers in Mali for ground assaults: minister
Thu 2013-01-17
  41 snatched by AQIM in Algeria gas plant attack
Wed 2013-01-16
  France deploys armoured vehicles towards northern Mali

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