THE Lord of the Rings character Gollum was paranoid and had a split personality but this was because he probably suffered from vitamin deficiency, anaemia, hyperthyroidism and a metabolic disease called porphyria.
That is the conclusion of a group of British doctors who sift through Gollum's symptoms in a tongue-in-cheek diagnosis published tomorrow in the British Medical Journal.
"Gollum's diet is extremely limited, consisting only of raw fish. Vitamin B-12 deficiency may cause irritability, delusions and paranoia,'' they say.
"His reduced appetite and loss of hair and weight may be associated with iron deficiency anaemia. He is hypervigilant and does not seem to need much sleep.
"This, accompanied by his bulging eyes and weight loss, suggests hyperthyroidism. Gollum's dislike of sunlight may be induced to the photosensitivity of porphyria. Attacks may be induced by starvation and accompanied by paranoid psychosis.''
Porphyria is an inherited disease of the metabolic system.
The "study'', lead-authored by psychiatrist Elizabeth Sampson of the Royal Free and University College Medical School in London, describes Gollum as "a single, 587-year-old hobbit-like male of no fixed abode.
"He has presented with anti-social behaviour, increasing aggression and preoccupied with the 'one ring' ... He has no history of substance misuse, although like many young hobbits, he smoked 'pipe weed' in adolescence.''
The diagnosis concludes: "Gollum displays pervasive maladaptive behaviour that has been present since childhood with a persistent disease course.
"His odd interests and spiteful behaviour have led to difficulty in forming friendships and have caused distress to others. He fulfills seven of the nine criteria for schizoid personality disorder.''
In JRR Tolkien's trilogy - subsequently turned into a trio of Oscar-winning films by New Zealand director Peter Jackson - Gollum, a thin, pale, gangrel creature, is enslaved by a magic ring made by the evil Sauron.
In his desperation to retrieve it, his mind persistently fights between a "good'' personality, Smeagol, and a nasty one, Gollum.
#2
"Gollumâs diet is extremely limited, consisting only of raw fish. Vitamin B-12 deficiency may cause irritability, delusions and paranoia,ââ they say.
I will remind the doctors that it was only after the Ring made him mad did he take to dwelling in the dark places of the earth, living off raw fish (and the occasional unwary traveller).
The Air Force has concluded that pilot error and a poorly designed aircraft control caused an F-16 pilot to fire rounds into a New Jersey elementary school, according to a report obtained Friday by The Associated Press. The pilot never intended to strafe the Little Egg Harbor Township Intermediate School, according to the report, which called the firing of the aircraft's gun an "unfortunate and unintentional mistake."
Ya think?
The pilot, Maj. Roberto Balzano of the 113th Wing of the District of Columbia National Guard, based at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland, was wearing night-vision goggles on the training mission Nov. 3 when the shooting occurred. Balzano, referred to in the report as the "mishap pilot," or MP, was verifying his aircraft position in relation to his intended target on the Warren Grove Gunnery Range in southern New Jersey. "This was accomplished by pulling the trigger, commanding the aircraft's targeting pod to emit a laser marker for orientation," the report said. "Unfortunately, the MP forgot that his aircraft's air-to-ground gun mode was selected and armed ready to fire. The MP immediately realized his error when the aircraft gun's discharged."
"Ah crap, there goes my career!"
Balzano has more than 2,000 hours of experience flying planes, 975 hours of which were in the F-16s.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/17/2004 10:40:04 AM ||
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Well, on the bright side those kids will be telling this story to their grandchildren.
Posted by: Matt ||
12/17/2004 11:17 Comments ||
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Pilot Error, Poorly Designed Aircraft Control, Caused F-16 to Fire at NJ School
There's two solutions: either stress more training on the trigger's multi-mode capability, or change the control mechanism. I can't imagine finding fault to be both pilot error AND a puportedly poorly designed aircraft control.
#3
I can't imagine finding fault to be both pilot error AND a puportedly poorly designed aircraft control.
"The weapons control system is fool-proof. Unfortunately, we have yet to develop a system that is pilot-proof."
Posted by: Steve ||
12/17/2004 12:59 Comments ||
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#10
There are nearly 4 thousand F-16s zipping around the world, they fire millions of 20mm practice rounds every year, and this has been going on since the 70s.
If this system is poorly designed, why haven't there been dozens; nay, hundreds; of incidents like this? It is a weapon of war, not a consumer product; the guy is a field grade officer, he is supposed to know what he is doing and how his equipment works.
The state Supreme Court will hear the appeal of a woman who thinks 90 days in jail is too harsh a penalty for having sex with a dog.
Eeeeewwwwww!
Ramon Anglemeyer was charged after her arrest in January of 2003 when Lincoln police seized videotapes at the home of John Ways Jr. The tapes showed Anglemeyer having sex with a canine.
"Want some dog biscuits, little fellah?"
The high court will hear oral arguments in the case on January 5th.
I just squirted coffee out my nose...
Ways owned a strip club until he was sentenced to six years in a federal pen for possessing an explosive device. On appeal, Anglemeyer says her conviction was based on her association with Ways, rather than evidence presented against her. She received the maximum sentence: 90 days and a $500 fine. When sentencing Anglemeyer, Lancaster County Judge Gale Pokorny said she and Ways had made similar tapes involving animals and other woman. He concluded that Ways and Anglemeyer were part of a pornography business.
Holmes! Brilliant! What led you to that conclusion?
#1
The Cornhuskers must get frisky during the winter.
Posted by: Capt America ||
12/17/2004 2:46 Comments ||
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A man in New Hampshire was briefly arrested for having sex with a beached whale but was soon released when police identified the "victim" as my ex-wife (aka Jabba the Slutt).
#6
Colonial barfly #1: I say, what has become of old Nigel?
Colonial barfly #2: Gone native, living upcountry in a tree with a baboon, last I heard.
#1: A baboon you say? Male or female?
#2: Why male, of course. Nothing queer about old Nigel, you know!
#8
A dog, a strip club owner, and an explosive device. Something tells me that this situation was maybe a six-pack shy of becoming a Homeland Security issue.
#9
"A dog, a strip club owner, and an explosive device....." Well, if anyone involved said "Here, hold my beer and watch this!", there could have been Darwin Award potential, for sure.
Posted by: ed ||
12/17/2004 06:04 ||
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I think that we should make it abundantly clear to the Saudis that the difference between them and the Taliban is that they are still in power. And that it would be a shame if they became just like the Taliban.
Cuba responded Friday to U.S. diplomats' refusal to take down Christmas decorations by putting up a huge billboard in front of the U.S. Interest Section emblazoned with a swastika and showing photographs of Iraqi prisoners being abused by American soldiers. The billboard, put up overnight, had a large swastika in red and the word "fascists" covered with a "Made in the U.S.A." stamp. It sat prominently on the Malecon, Havana's coastal highway, facing the mission's offices.
"I'm Fidel Castro, and I approved this message."
The U.S. Interest Section, headed by chief James Cason, ignored a demand earlier this week to remove Christmas decorations that included a reference to dissidents jailed by Fidel Castro's government. The trimmings included a Santa Claus, candy canes and white lights wrapped around palm trees and a sign reading "75" a reference to 75 Cuban dissidents jailed last year. All of the decorations will stay up until after the holidays, the U.S. official reiterated Friday.
What's diplospeak for "Neener neener?"
Cuban Parliament Speaker Ricardo Alarcon called the sign "rubbish" this week, and said Cason seems "desperate to create problems." Cuba had warned the U.S. Interest Section to remove the decorations or face unspecified consequences.
"We hear your vacquero Presidente likes to play poker. Well, we'll see your mistletoe and raise you a Bush = Hitler billboard."
#2
Swastika? Yawn.
"Prisoner abuse"? Big double yawn.
Any way we can outline the "75" in neon? Maybe they'll come up with something better the second time.
France and Germany continue to pressure the European Union to drop its arms embargo (enacted in 1989 to protest violent government suppression of a democracy movement that year.) France, in particular, sold China many high teach weapons systems in the 1980s, and now wants to sell replacements, and new stuff. China may already be getting military technology from European firms, as China is accustomed to getting stuff any way it can. For example, this week the United States demanded that the Israeli Minister of Defense be fired because Israel upgraded electronic gear, containing American technology, that it had sold to China in the 1990s. The U.S. allowed Israel to repair the equipment, but later found out that it had been upgraded. The U.S. is mad at Israel for improving Chinas air defense and electronic warfare systems. It's not just that many of the Israeli systems contain American technology the Chinese will steal, but because China's threats against Taiwan may one day have American pilots and sailors getting killed because of those systems. China has long tried to steal whatever military technology it could. Many nations are still willing to deal with China, knowing that they are dealing with thieves. The sales arrangements simply take into account the possibility of technology theft, and force the Chinese to pay a premium for their potential larceny. Russia, Israel, France, and even American firms, have done business this way. However, the Pentagon has no patience for this sort of thing, knowing that American troops will ultimately pay for these deals in blood.
Posted by: ed ||
12/17/2004 1:02:24 PM ||
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QUEENSLAND police have stepped up their hunt for Russian fugitive Oleg Kouzmine, requesting international assistance to find the man wanted in connection with the Gold Coast murder of a former KGB colonel.
The police moves to get an Interpol red notice come as a Russian-American businessman, Igor Solonkovich, has revealed his dealings with Mr Kouzmine led to him being wrongly accused of being a mafia standover man and charged with extortion.
Mr Solonkovich, who runs a successful export business in New York State, says the episode in which he hunted down 40-year-old Mr Kouzmine, alleged to have fled Russia with about $1million of other people's money, almost ruined his business and his life.
Speaking exclusively to the The Weekend Australian from New York, Mr Solonkovich said although charges had been dropped, he wanted to clear his name in Australia once and for all.
A warrant is out for the arrest of Mr Kouzmine in connection with the 2000 slaying of Geunnadi Bernovski. Mr Kouzmine, his business partner, left the country shortly after the shooting.
"We were trying to go through Interpol and the Russian police," Mr Solonkovich said.
Posted by: tipper ||
12/17/2004 9:50:22 AM ||
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The father of a teenager taken by a shark while swimming at an Adelaide beach yesterday says the family does not advocate the killing of any sharks.
Doesn't Bill Murray have a movie coming out along that line?
Nick Peterson, 18, was killed by a shark at West Point beach while riding a surf board behind a boat. The South Australian Government has authorised police and wildlife officers to destroy the shark.
"They only want revenge. Hardly a valid reason for bumping off a living creature..."
His father, Philip Peterson, says the Government should instead electronically tag sharks known to inhabit metropolitan beaches. "We acknowledge that the sea is in fact the shark's domain and we don't, and I certainly personally don't, advocate the indiscriminate killing of any shark," he said. "In this case I gather it's a white pointer or white pointers but at the same time we would like to see funds provided to make our beach safer consistently without argument."
Come to think of it, killing all carnivorous creatures that come within range would seem to accomplish that. But I'm pretty old fashioned...
South Australian Acting Premier Kevin Foley says the Government believes the great white should be killed even though it is a protected species. He has also announced increased surveillance in the area and on the beach after the tragedy. Meanwhile, police have confirmed material found earlier today is not the remains of Mr Peterson.
Who is it? Maybe their kinfolk would like the perpetrator made into soup?
Sea Rescue Squadron searchers spotted a four-metre shark close to shore a few kilometres north at Grange. Police and fisheries officers have been given the authority to kill the white pointer which took Mr Peterson or any other large shark posing a threat to human life. The Opposition supports destroying dangerous sharks but Fisheries Department chief Will Zacharin says public safety, not vengeance, will guide them. "We're not on a hunt here, we're about beach safety and we'll be patrolling those areas to see if there are any large sharks onshore, if we have to respond we will," he said.
"So don't go takin' no revenge on them things!"
Police are warning anyone who is planning to hunt and kill the protected species themselves will face the full force of the law.
How about if they give the critters first bite?
The South Australian Opposition supports the Government's decision to authorise the destruction of the shark. Liberal Leader Rob Kerin has also urged the Government to maintain shark patrols during the summer. South Australian Conservation Council president Jane Corin says nothing will be achieved if the white pointer is hunted down. "If we keep killing the sharks, that species will be removed from our seas," she said. "It is a top predator and plays a major role in keeping the seas free from disease and injured animals. "It's not a course of action that any government should be advised to take."
Do you categorize surfers as "disease" or as "injured animals"?
Posted by: God Save The World ||
12/17/2004 4:21:12 AM ||
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#1
how convenient, just in time for that new movie coming out about killing the shark. I heard it stinks, BTW.
#2
I am rather dumbfounded by Mr. Peterson and Ms. Corin. They would not protect their children from becoming the prey of sharks. If they won't eliminate even this threat, how can their children and fellow citizens rely on them when human predators come for them?
Posted by: ed ||
12/17/2004 9:31 Comments ||
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#3
"weâll be patrolling those areas to see if there are any large sharks onshore, if we have to respond we will"
"Candygram"
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/17/2004 9:41 Comments ||
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how can their children and fellow citizens rely on them when human predators come for them?
They can't, these types will be too busy trying to understand "why can't we just all get along?"
Posted by: Steve ||
12/17/2004 9:41 Comments ||
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#5
If they know which shark it is, kill it, because it knows the taste of man now, otherwise don't just kill a random shark for revenge.
#6
I'm with you, ed. I kinda had the same reaction when Reginald Denny got the crap beat out of him in LA and then sympathized with the people who did it.
1) If the shark cues into humans as an easy food source, problems will continue (as SS1654 said). Predators learn pretty quickly which "animals" provide the best feeding targets. If this is indeed the case, they can haul the shark into different waters, thereby preserving its beneficial ecological functions, OR they'll have to kill it to protect surfers and swimmers in that area.
2) Could've been just a one-time attack. Under normal conditions, sharks are the seas' garbage disposals and are needed just as carrion birds are on land. If it was an abberation, killing the shark would be pointless and stupid.
Here in Colorado the authorities usually always hunt down and kill mountain lions that prey on humans. If they don't, the lion "tags" humans as an easy food source. It's too bad, though, because often the lion is a nursing mother and their natural food sources have been so severely diminished by man's encroachment, they turn to what they can get. It ain't personal.
About sharks--they mostly go after anything that moves. Here's an idea: Maybe surfers should stay out of known shark infested waters? Ya can't clear the whole friggen coast line, ya know.
More info here
AN evangelical Christian ministry has been found to have vilified Islam during a seminar and in a newsletter which mocked the religion.
That would seem to be part of the mission now, wouldn't it.
The Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) today blasted the Catch the Fire Ministries, its pastor Danny Nalliah and speaker Daniel Scot over the March 2002 seminar in Melbourne and several articles in the church's newsletter.
In a decision handed down today in a key test of Victoria's three-year-old racial and religious vilification laws, Judge Michael Higgins found in favour of the Islamic Council of Victoria, which took the action against Catch The Fire. Judge Higgins found that Catch the Fire and Pastor Scot had breached section eight of the Religious and Racial Tolerance Act.
The Aussies, the Canadians, the Brits ... something is rotten in the Anglophone states.
Also found in breach was church leader Pastor Nalliah, who was an unsuccessful senate candidate for the Family First party in this year's federal election. Judge Higgins will decide on penalties, which could include orders for an apology or damages, early next year.
Judge Higgins said the seminar run by the ministry, a newsletter on its website, and a website article written by an author identified as Richard all breached the Act. In a summary of reasons for his decision, Judge Higgins said Pastor Scot had throughout the seminar made fun of Muslim beliefs and conduct. "It was done, not in the context of a serious discussion of Muslims' religious beliefs," Judge Higgins said.
For that you have to come to Rantburg.
"It was presented in a way which is essentially hostile, demeaning and derogatory of all Muslim people, their God, Allah, the prophet Mohammed (PTUI) and in general Muslim religious beliefs and practices."
Judge Higgins said that, during the seminar, Pastor Scot had claimed that the Koran promoted violence, killing and looting and that Muslims were liars and demons.
Fred ... we're in deep trouble.
Pastor Scot also had said Muslims had a plan to overrun western democracy by violence and terror and wanted to turn Australia into an Islamic nation, and he exaggerated Muslim population numbers in Australia.
It was all the seething that caused him to mis-count.
"I find that Pastor Scot's conduct was not engaged in reasonably and in good faith for any genuine religious purpose or any purpose that is in the public interest," he said.
Judge Higgins said an article in the church's newsletter, written by Pastor Nalliah, incited fear and hatred of Muslims, as did a third article by a person identified as Richard, which claimed it was not possible to separate Islam from terrorism.
It's an honest mistake.
Victoria's Equal Opportunity Commission welcomed the decision on the case, which was the first to be heard by VCAT since the Racial and Religious Tolerance Act took effect at the start of 2002. "The decision is very significant in terms of showing how the Act operates in practice," said the commission's chief executive, Dr Helen Szoke. "It demonstrates exactly how we can censor peoples' beliefs where the line is drawn between legitimate public debate and behaviour that incites hatred."
Looks like the Thought Police have all the power they need. Time for them to crank up the Pre-Crime Squad.
A full reason for the decision is expected to be handed down in the next fortnight, including any penalties.
Yasser Soliman, president of the Islamic Council of Victoria, said it had been important to make a stand against vilification of Muslims in the community. "We also had the support of the Catholic Church, the interfaith community and the Uniting Church and the Jewish community" Mr Soliman said.
"And also the Masons, the Trilateral Commission, the Mossad, and those funny guys who were worshipping comets, whom we will kill later," he added.
"Because it was very important that we all stood together against vilification and understand that vilification is a tool used by extremists, and we must always condemn extremism and vilification.
As long as it's being done by kufirs.
"That was important, because left unaddressed, it was limiting the (Muslim) community's ability to be seen as average Australians.
"People were being demonised, (being denied) the ability to get jobs, to be friends, to be safe.
"We had to act upon it and felt it was important to have it determined by law."
Mr Soliman said he was saddened that the Islamic Council had to take legal action, but hoped the decision would help promote goodwill between different religions. He said he had told Pastor Nalliah that he would like to develop a better relationship with his church.
Pastor Nalliah said the decision was a blow for freedom of speech in Victoria. He said Catch the Fire would probably appeal to the High Court, depending on the final decision and penalties imposed by Judge Higgins. "Sadly, we've lost the right to speak as a nation, in a sense, as a result of this verdict," he said. "It's a loss for freedom of speech, not just for us, but for all Australians.
"Certainly it (the Act) goes too far."
Posted by: tipper ||
12/17/2004 12:19:21 AM ||
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the Koran promoted violence, killing and looting
Well, it does.
And one of the first people they'll kill if they get into power is that judge, along with all the others.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
12/17/2004 1:08 Comments ||
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Nyah, nyah! Yer prophet was a psychotic pedophile!
#3
He needs to take a page out of that other trial where they pastor(?) read directly from the Koran and the prosecuting atty asked the judge to make him stop.
#4
In some parts of the United States, there are laws against "interfering with the free exercise of religion."
In idiotarian-occupied regions, especially certain California jurisdictions, this is "liberally" interpreted to include picketing outside the various Houses of Superstition and even the direct mailing of critical material to adherents.
As in Australia, this censorship is enforced with the usual mind-boggling hypocrisy of the Left since practically anything short of lethal violence is still permissible if directed against Jews or Evangelicals.
#8
There is even a secret gang of Zionists conspirators right in Berkeley. They are hiding a bulldozer by disguising it as a VW bus, and plan to use it to plow under the next demonstration by the local chapter of Students in Solidarity with Bus-Bombers.
#9
wow! Talk about setting the bait for your own trap. In the chess game of life, this was a really stupid move for the Moslem extemists - and from what I've heard - even the average Mosque.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/17/2004 9:06 Comments ||
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#11
Atomic Conspiracy asked:
"Question for our Antipodal readers: Have any Islamo-fascist demogogues and Moon-cult Streicherists been prosecuted under this law?"
Amir Butler "executive director of the Australian Muslim Public Affairs Committee (AMPAC)" had this to say;
"At every major Islamic lecture I have attended since litigation began against Catch the Fire Ministries, there have been small groups of evangelical Christians - armed with notepads and pens - jotting down any comment that might later be used as evidence in the present case or presumably future cases. (The Islamic Council of Victoria is suing Catch the Fire under Victoria's Racial and Religious Tolerance Act 2001.)"
The state is going crazy over this.
Expect the present Labor Government to lose power over this, and only this legislation.
The lines are being drawn. What these idiots fail to realise is that the Christians are the majority. Any Laborite who listened to talk back radio today must be cacking their pants.
I think it's called "unintended consequences"
The government is running for cover. Wont help them.
#13
Tipper is right. There does seem to be an anti-PC backlash developing here in Oz. It looks like Labour will be kicked out here in Western Australia in the next state election (Feb). Also the evangelicals are organizing and while they are probably well under 5%, it makes them a potent constituency. Unintended consequences indeed.
THE search mechanism used by the Kazaa file-sharing network could contain malicious code, the Federal Court heard yesterday.
I tried Kazaa once. I regard it as malicious code.
Counsel for the record companies, John Nicholas SC, said in recent years there had been a spate of viruses and other "sinister" applications and code transferred via the internet. Under cross-examination by Mr Nicholas, expert witness KPMG forensic director Rodney McKemmish agreed it was possible the Kazaa file-search mechanism could contain malicious code. "But the running of code is a separate issue," Mr McKemmish said. Kazaa is the world's most popular internet file-sharing software. It allows users to swap digital music files over the internet. But the record companies that license the music claim Kazaa is the world's biggest music piracy system. They are suing Sharman Networks, which develops and distributes the software, for copyright infringement.
I have nothing against peer-to-peer file sharing, and the music companies are fighting a losing battle against it. But Kazaa in itself was (presumably still is) a dirty program, chock full of spyware, adware, and who knows what else. I download my music — mostly 20s and 30s jazz that nobody seems to like but me — from newsgroups.
Posted by: God Save The World ||
12/17/2004 9:06:05 PM ||
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When I first got pest patrol, I ran it and found almost 500 nasty little spyware adwre etc files buried in it. Limewire was better: only about 200. Was I ever pleased.
Posted by: Weird Al ||
12/17/2004 7:24 Comments ||
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I use Spybot, AdAware and the new Yahoo anti-spyware programs. Run them all at least once a week, if one doesn't find a spy, the others do.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/17/2004 8:33 Comments ||
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There's another thing that Kazaa does. Y'know that click-through thingy that Amazon has where, if you buy a book via a link on someone's page, that person gets a kickback or some such? Kazaa changes the link so that Kazaa is listed as the referring party, no matter who referred you to the site.
#5
#4 And I have some great swampland in Florida I can let you have real cheap. Set up something like pest patrol and clean out it's memory. Then log onto the Kazaa, Limeware sites, etc. Check pest patrol. Instant spyware from their home pages. (Limewire assured me they didn't have any either. Grokster is at least honest. When you go to their home site, they tell you what's going to happen).
Posted by: Weird Al ||
12/17/2004 14:56 Comments ||
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#6
Back in my day, we didn't have any sissy Windows or Icons. All we had were 1's and 0's. AND SOMETIMES, WE DIDN'T EVEN HAVE 1's! I ran an entire network for a year using nothing but 0's. And we LIKED it!
#7
did you wear an onion on your belt (which was the fashion at the time), Grandpa?
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/17/2004 17:15 Comments ||
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#8
I remember that onion, the whole clan lusted after it that winter. It was the same winter we made it to spring with one rasher of bacon and CPM running the windmill.
Brussels leaders name a date for final talks on admitting the European Union's first Muslim member.
Advocates of the European Union as a fully fledged superpower have predicted that the addition of Turkey's military would make it a true global player.
Ankara's forces are greater than those of France and Britain combined, with 514,000 men under arms and 380,000 in reserve, plus a robust air force with American fighters.
A NATO official described the forces as "very experienced and well-trained", after years of battles against Kurdish guerillas.
EU leaders reached a historic agreement this week to offer Turkey negotiations, starting in October next year, to join the bloc. But they insisted that Ankara must act towards recognising Cyprus by then.
If the negotiation succeeded, Turkey would become the first Muslim member of the 25-nation European Union and one of the largest. Europe's borders would be expanded to Iraq and Syria.
If it failed, another way would be sought to anchor the mostly Muslim NATO ally, viewed by Washington and others as a key Western ally, to Europe. "Tonight the European Union has opened its door to Turkey," European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso told an EU news conference on Thursday.
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Earlier, the Turkish Prime Minister had indicated that he would all but recognise Cyprus. "It will be resolved tomorrow," Recep Tayyip Erdogan said after talks with Greek Prime Minister Costas Caramanlis. Mr Erdogan hinted that Turkey was prepared to sign a protocol extending Ankara's customs union to cover all EU states, thereby indirectly recognising the status of the island.
The Turkish Government knows that its chances of joining improved dramatically when the EU launched its defence and foreign policy drive with the 1999 Amsterdam Treaty. The new geopolitical calculations turned Turkey from likely burden to potential asset almost overnight.
Turkey is regarded as central to the EU's drive for global status, given Europe's lack of brawn.
British EURO MP Charles Tannock said Turkey's size and military strength were keys to why so many Euro MPs backed its entry. "They see Turkey as being so useful for the anti-American, anti-Israel agenda that they are willing to sweep all the allegations of human rights abuses under the carpet," he said.
#2
"They see Turkey as being so useful for the anti-American, anti-Israel agenda that they are willing to sweep all the allegations of human rights abuses under the carpet"
I thought that Bush and Blair also supported Turkey's entry into the European Union? Is that also because of Bush's and Blair's anti-American and anti-Israel agenda?
#6
Because you've got more than two brain cells, mucky? ;-p
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
12/17/2004 20:44 Comments ||
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Valentine> "Aris are ya having a problem with reading comprehension skills? "
I think my comprehension skills are better than yours on this subject -- unless you think there's a magical reason why MEPs would have a different view on the effects of Turkey's membership than Prime Ministers would.
Think of it reasonably. Among the countries that most object to Turkey's entry are France, Germany, Austria, and until recently Greece (and Greece's objections were waived for tactical reasons, not because the Greek establishment really wants Turkey in). Among the countries that most support it are the United Kingdom and the United States.
Does that seem consistent to you with Charles Tannock claim that it's anti-Americanism and anti-Israel politics that have made so many MEPs back Turkey's entry? Wouldn't you then expect to see the most anti-American nations offer the most support, and the most pro-American nations offer the least support?
#8
I think it's hilarious that what the FrankenReich(tm) is saying to Turkey boils down to: "We only want you so far as we can use you. We don't like you, but you have what we want to use, with you paying for it, so we don't have to. How's about we let you halfway in if we can use your army to do what we want to do?"It's like the big kids sneering at the little kid who owns the ball, bat and gloves.
#9
Could be the Euros just appreciate the way the Turks backstabbed the US by keeping the 4th ID floating around with nothing to do during the Iraq invasion. Also, they could be hoping that with a little encouragement, the Turks might actually be dumb enough to try and invade northern Iraq in the spring under the guise of sending 20,000 troops to protect Turkish interests.
#10
RWV> No offense, but if we suffered so much from anti-USA obsession then we'd be intentionally disobeying Bush's recent stated desire to see Turkey get membership in the Union.
Once again, you can't have it both ways. You can't say that all those MEPs are so willing to see Turkey enter because of anti-Americanism, and yet ignore that Turkey's entry is exactly what Bush urged for (inappropriately IMO but that's a different issue).
In my experience most far-left anti-US people see Turkey as an American Trojan horse in the Union, and would therefore vote *against* its entry.
#11
This is one of the more ridiculous articles, and threads, I've seen on Rantburg. Turkey is a member of the US-dominated western military alliance, NATO. The US strongly supports Turkish membership in the European political and economic union. So now we have anti-American euro-idiots claiming that the entry of America's military ally, Turkey, into the political union will help that union's members stand up militarily to their American military ally.
Copenhagen. Denmark's best-known tourist attraction, the Little Mermaid statue, was given a traditional Muslim robe on Thursday in apparent protest over Turkey's possible EU membership.
"Turkey in the EU?" read a sign hung around the statue, covered from head to foot in the black burqa worn by many devout Muslim women, Danish broadcaster DR News reported.
In Denmark, 49 per cent are against opening talks with the mainly Muslim state, according to a Gallup opinion poll.
The bronze statue of a naked mermaid sitting on a rock on the seafront in Copenhagen is based on a Hans Christian Andersen fairytale.
No one has claimed responsibility for the burqa protest.
Interesting personal remembrance by a fellow who was General McAuliffe's aide. Registration required.
Text posted by request...
Vincent Vicari remembers the Battle of the Bulge.
On Dec. 16, 1944, the field phone rang in the command post of the 101st Airborne Division's artillery regiment near Reims, in eastern France, and a voice told him to wake his boss, Brig. Gen. Anthony McAuliffe, and have him report immediately to HQ. He recalls that as McAuliffe went out the door, he said, "Lieutenant, stay by that phone. Don't move." And he remembers the call an hour or so later, instructing him to alert all units to "get ready to move out, immediately." Those units would soon be spending Christmas fending off Adolf Hitler's last desperate attempt to turn the Allied tide that had been advancing since D-Day, six months earlier. The six-week battle to come would be the largest of the war in Western Europe.
It was an Army made up of mostly draftees and National Guardsmen, quite a different Army from today. Instead of Humvees, they had Jeeps; instead of Bradleys, they had trucks, all of them unarmored. That was when the infantry wasn't going by shoeleather express. And they were fighting off the Brutal European Winter. That was in the days before Global Warming, of course...
Whatever was brewing, 1st Lt. Vicari and the rest of his unit didn't welcome it. They were recovering from three months of combat in Operation Market Garden, the failed British-led invasion of Germany via Holland. "We were exhausted and we'd had no time to refurbish," Vicari says. "We had no winter equipment. We were still in the same torn uniforms, short of food, ammo and everything else."
Units weren't rotated to the States to rest and recuperate. When they were lucky, they were pulled off line and got reinforcements. I suppose there might have been somebody on the Home Front complaining — there were those who were on the other side, but the citizenry had the habit of beating them up. It didn't do any good to run off to Canada, because if you did you'd get drafted there, too.
But orders were orders. By midnight, the troops had gathered their gear and boarded hastily organized convoys of trucks, jeeps and other vehicles for a bone-numbing dash to the front.
I can't describe how cold those stinkin' jeeps were in winter. Most were open — without even the canvas covers. The damp cold would go through a field jacket and liner and fatigues and undershirt and woolies without pausing. My Dad tried to describe that to me. At the time, as a kid, I thought, "Yeah, that musta been tough." On winter exercises with 3rd Armored Division in the early 80s, I actually got the appreciate the actuality. I felt that cold right into my bones.
"Nobody knew where we were going," recalls Vicari, now 84 and living in Easton, Pa. "We had never heard of a place called Bastogne." Bastogne, Belgium, a market town where several roads converged, was critical to blocking the German advance. The troops also didn't know Allied intelligence had been fooled into concluding that a German code name, "Wacht am Rhein"--Watch on the Rhine--referred to a defensive buildup, not a surprise counteroffensive into Belgium.
There'd be congressional hearings about that today, with people sacked and all the politically wounded publicly shot...
Aided by heavy overcast that grounded Allied aircraft, 200,000 German troops and 600 tanks were surging westward through the rugged Ardennes, driving a wedge into American lines that on battle maps would become famous as "the Bulge." "We gamble everything," Gen. Gerd von Runstedt, Germany's commander in the west, had told his forces in Daily Order No. 54 on Dec. 16, according to Alex Kershaw's "The Longest Winter," a new book. Stretched thinly across the forested terrain were five U.S. Army divisions--outmanned, outgunned and mostly untested in battle. By contrast, The 101st Airborne, the "Screaming Eagles" had jumped into the dark behind enemy lines on D-Day and fought across France and Holland. They were seasoned veterans, but even their biggest weapons were no match for the German army's fearsome 70-ton Tiger tanks.
But they were at that time probably the best single division in the U.S. Army...
As the Americans rumbled through a bitterly cold predawn, they met their defeated comrades stumbling to the rear. "Whenever the convoy slowed, we jumped off the trucks to get their ammo, hand grenades and guns," Vicari says.
[Insert 2004-style comments about incompetence in the supply system here. Then ignore.]
By getting to Bastogne first, the Americans were able to block German movements in southern Belgium. But after a week of fighting, the paratroopers and their supporting forces found themselves surrounded. German artillery shelled the town. Snow and fog allowed only a few supply drops, and many parachutes drifted into German lines, delivering much-needed ammunition, food and medical supplies to the wrong side. "Some of the townspeople gave us white sheets to cover our uniforms in the snow," remembers Vicari. "It was so cold that GIs had to keep their rifles under their coats to keep them from freezing."
Elsewhere, other American units fought stubbornly to stop the German advance and prevent capture of fuel supplies, a prime German objective. Thousands of GIs were taken prisoner, however, and at Malmedy, Belgium, more than 80 were machine-gunned by Waffen SS soldiers in one of World War II's most notorious battlefield atrocities.
That's the same sort of thing we expect from our present enemy...
My godfather was one of those taken prisoner by the SS, he managed to get away somehow. Never talked about it, but till the day he died he would have nothing to do with anything German.
Meanwhile, English-speaking Germans in American uniforms had slipped through U.S. lines, hoping to create chaos. Some were caught and at least 18 were executed as spies.
We don't seem to do that anymore. Too bad...
At Bastogne, the 101st's paratroopers repulsed repeated attacks and were desperately low on ammunition. In the wintry darkness, American soldiers sang "Silent Night" and heard Germans singing "Stille Nacht," the same carol. On Dec. 22, four German couriers approached U.S. lines under a flag of truce, carrying a message "from the German commander to the American commander." Asserting that Bastogne was "encircled," the note gave McAuliffe, who was acting commander of the 101st in the absence of Maj. Gen. Maxwell Taylor, two hours to surrender or face "total annihilation."
What came next would be one of World War II's seminal moments. As Vicari, McAuliffe's personal aide, recalls it 60 years later, "General Mac read the note and said, `Aw, nuts.' Then he asked, `What should I tell them?"'
Lt. Col. Harry W.O. Kinnard, the division operations officer, said, "Why not tell them what you just said?"
"What did I just say?"
"You said, `nuts,"' Kinnard replied.
McAuliffe scribbled a reply: "To the German commander. Nuts! From the American commander." He handed the message to Lt. Col. Joseph Harper, who had escorted the couriers. To the Germans who didn't understand the Yankee colloquialism, Harper explained: "It means the same thing as `go to hell."'
Some have speculated that "nuts" might have been a sanitized version of what the tough paratroop general actually said. Not so, Vicari says. "General Mac was the only general I ever knew who did not use profane language," he says. "`Nuts' was part of his normal vocabulary."
The next day the weather cleared, enabling American P-47 Thunderbolts to attack enemy positions while cargo planes dropped supplies to Bastogne's defenders, who by then knew that Lt. Gen. George Patton's 4th Armored Division was fighting through German-held territory to relieve them. Asked how quickly he could get to Bastogne, Patton had assured skeptical superiors he could turn his tanks north toward Bastogne in 48 hours. He didn't tell them they were already on the way.
On the day after Christmas, Lt. Col. Creighton Abrams, commanding the 37th Tank Battalion and under orders to attack German positions in a nearby village, realized that the road to Bastogne was open. His first four Shermans roared into the battered town about 4 p.m. Vicari recalls Patton arriving soon after, war correspondents in tow. He pinned a Distinguished Service Cross on "General Mac." Bitter fighting continued across the front, but the Bulge was shrinking. The Germans began retreating, and by Jan. 28, the battle was over. The Allied toll included 8,600 Americans and 200 British killed. The Germans suffered 17,000 dead.
That would be almost nine years of operations with casualties at the current levels in Iraq.
War historians offer a mixed verdict: the Battle of the Bulge delayed the Allied timetable for victory in Europe by at least six weeks, but by depleting the best of Hitler's forces, it made the final push to Berlin less costly in the long run. Bastogne today is a tourist favorite that annually celebrates its famous survival. It has a Place McAuliffe and even a Rue Nuts.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/17/2004 1:01:06 AM ||
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#1
Steve, would it be too much to ask you to post the text, or portions, of the article?
Posted by: Red Lief ||
12/17/2004 2:26 Comments ||
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#2
Red Lief - You can get a temporary login here - just paste the URL into the box and let it look up a login for you. Sometimes it takes more than one to get in, but it will get you there. Save it for next time to run into one of these jerk sites, heh.
Hat Tip to tipper who shared this with us quite awhile back...
#3
I've heard that General McAuliffe's response to the Germans request for surrender wasn't actually "Nuts". His response was supposedly much more profane, and it was cleaned up for propaganda use.
Anyone out there have any info on that?
#5
According to a book I have titled "The Battle of the Bulge" what he actually said was, "The Germans want us to surrender? Aw, nuts." Then he said he didn't know what to say to them and someone in the room said, "Why don't you tell them what you just said. Nuts." This version was supposedly recounted by an aide who was in the in the room.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
12/17/2004 9:12 Comments ||
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#7
Use of profanity, while not unknown, was far less common among members of that generation. Declining to use such language was seen as a matter of self control and discipline, qualities no longeer in vogue thanks to the baby boomers.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
12/17/2004 9:32 Comments ||
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#8
I heard a fantastic radio interview last night with a lieutenant in the Combat Engineers battallion at the Battle of the Bulge. Prior to the actual fighting, the CE's were in the Belgian forest near the Luxembourg border, cutting down trees and running them through the sawmill. The wood was being sent to Paris for whichever reason. At any rate, the Army was running three shifts, and the Belgians were horrified! that the Americans were working so hard, operating the mill 24 hours a day. Mon Dieu! they said, shaking their heads...
Ukrainian presidential candidate Viktor Yanukovych has cautioned the international community and foreign political leaders against moves that may split the country's political elite.
A bit late for that, isn't it? Shoulda thought about that before you poisoned anybody...
Yanukovych's statement, which, among other issues, suggests a number of ways to pull the country out of its political crisis, was circulated by his election headquarters on Thursday. "Frankly speaking, I am very surprised by the short-sighted position of European nations that are continuing to apply here, in Europe, their sophisticated political technologies based on methods typical of totalitarian sects. It is like setting fire to your neighbor's barn that shares a wall with your house," he said
Posted by: Fred ||
12/17/2004 00:00:00 ||
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#1
It is like setting fire to your neighborâs barn that shares a wall with your house," he said
More Canadians, especially young people, are sitting in church pews these days, says Reginald Bibby, one of Canada's best-known pollsters on religion. And all the groups from Protestant, to Roman Catholic, to non-traditional are showing "important signs of new life." Attendance is up by as much as "four or five percentage points" since the late 1990s, says the University of Lethbridge sociologist who has just published a new book, Restless Churches, in which he argues his case through a blizzard of statistics. Lots of people are hurting, struggling to find meaning and worried about their kids, said Bibby. "People are saying, 'Well you know, jeez, I'd like my kids to turn out OK.' " If they can find meaning in a church, "that makes people feel good about the organization." In a survey Bibby completed in 2003, 26% of Canadians said they attended religious services about once a week, up 5% from a similar poll in 2000.
The extent of an apparent plot to poison Viktor Yushchenko, Ukraine's opposition leader, and then cover up the evidence now reaches across Europe.
Yushchenko, who said he was poisoned with dioxin at a dinner with Ukraine's secret police, was found to have ingested 6,000 times the level of dioxin healthy people have, the Financial Times reported Friday.
Soon after Yushchenko first claimed he had been poisoned, President Leonid Kuchma's son-in-law engaged a French public relations team to initiate a media campaign, centered on a Vienna clinic, calculated to disparage the poisoning accusations, the newspaper said.
Yffic Nouvellon of EuroRSCG and his public relations team arranged a press conference where Lothar Wicke, general manager of Vienna's Rudolfinerhaus Clinic, contradicted Yushchenko's poisoning allegations.
Nouvellon also contacted international media offering "evidence" Yushchenko had not been poisoned. When asked during the media campaign, Nouvellon denied any connections to Kuchma's family.
The clinic's president has since cut its ties to Nouvellon and EuroRSCG and confirmed that Yushchenko was poisoned with the most powerful form of dioxin, TCDD, notorious from its use by U.S. forces in the Vietnam War in the defoliant Agent Orange, Sky News said.
he queries he receives from Iranian Muslims about converting to Judaism say less about the lure of the Jewish faith, Menashe Amir believes, than about the abysmal situation in the land of the ayatollahs.
"The main reason they ask about conversion is that they want to get out of Iran, and it has become more difficult to obtain visas to Europe and elsewhere," said Mr. Amir, longtime director of the Iran desk of the Israel Broadcasting Authority.
"They believe that if they convert to Judaism, they can receive refuge in Israel."
Mr. Amir has received dozens of queries about conversion in recent years, mostly through a weekly call-in program for Iranian listeners he conducts from Jerusalem. Callers dial a number in Europe and are rerouted automatically to the Jerusalem studio.
Many openly criticize the regime in Tehran, and some even give their names. There have been no reports of the government hunting them down.
"The regime apparently sees this as a way to let off steam," said Mr. Amir.
The Islamic regime in Tehran is so oppressive, he said, that it has made Islam hateful to many Iranians. "Some convert to Christianity, despite the fact that it could cost them their lives if it was discovered. A few think about converting to Judaism."
The Jewish community in Iran — which numbers 23,000, compared to 80,000 before the 1979 revolution — retains its vitality. There are 11 synagogues in the capital, Tehran, four in Shiraz and several in other towns.
"The Jews are doing all right economically, and their educational institutions function," said Mr. Amir.
They avoid contact with Israel or international Jewish organizations, but maintains ties, with the tacit approval of Tehran, with the large Iranian Jewish communities in Britain and the United States.
Mr. Amir and his team closely monitor Iran's pulse via Iranian radio and TV broadcasts, the press, the Internet and "other sources" and broadcast a daily 35-minute news program in Farsi to an audience estimated at up to 2 million Iranians.
Revolutionary governments grow stale and eventually alienate the populace. This is what Mr. Amir believes has happened in Iran. "It's clear that the regime has reached a dead end after 25 years," said the Tehran native.
"The country has become much poorer. The population has grown from 37 million to 67 million. They need to provide 800,000 new jobs each year, but can't. Unemployment is 15 percent. Poverty is spreading and many women turn to prostitution. Senior clerics in their Friday sermons speak out against the cost of living.
"When I ask callers why there has been no uprising, they say the regime is brutal and people are afraid. They point out that without American intervention, neither Afghanistan nor Iraq would have been freed from oppressive regimes."
There is no leadership around which the various opposition groups have been able to rally, he said, and there is little cooperation among the dissidents.
Mr. Amir believes the Iranian people would welcome an American intervention "with open arms." However, he believes that the Iranian regime is ready to collapse, even without foreign military intervention.
"If America invested in encouraging opposition groups inside and outside Iran, it would not need to send in a single soldier," he declared. If such an effort were made, he thinks, the results could be felt during the term of the second Bush administration.
As for "the Iranian bomb," dissidents want it as much as the regime, Mr. Amir said, although they would not like to see the ayatollahs get their hands on it. "Iran is a nation without a natural ally, and it always feels threatened by outside forces. Every Iranian wants the [atomic] bomb. They want deterrence."
Posted by: tipper ||
12/17/2004 9:39:28 AM ||
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The head of Egypt's Coptic Church has holed himself up in a desert monastery to protest the arrest of Christians demonstrating against a reported attempt to forcibly convert a priest's wife to Islam. Pope Shenuda III withdrew 10 days ago to the Anba Bishoy monastery, a fourth century retreat in the Wadi Natrun depression west of Cairo, his office told AFP Thursday.
"I am so angry about what has happened that I shall now go hide!"
The pope's whereabouts had been unknown since he cancelled two successive weekly meetings at Cairo's Saint Mark's Cathedral. "He told us last Saturday that he would return when he feels his mind is at peace," the patriarch's office said.
Other church sources said the cleric had vowed not to resume his normal duties until the authorities released all 37 Copts who were detained during December 8 clashes with security forces in the capital.
Worshippers took to the streets outside the cathedral as rumours spread that Wafaa Constantine, wife of a Coptic priest in a town north of Cairo, had been abducted and forced to convert to Islam by her civil service boss with the complicity of police. A state-owned weekly, Al-Musawar, had charged that the 48-year-old woman wanted to convert but had been prevented by her family.
But the pope's office said Wafaa Constantine had returned to her church on Tuesday and been accepted back into the congregation. "The patriarch granted her his mercy and assured her that she remained in the church," it said.
Egyptian law gives the Coptic Church authority to vet all conversions to Islam to ensure they were not made under duress.
Working well, isn't it?
Posted by: tipper ||
12/17/2004 9:46:26 AM ||
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Let's see: Christian cleric perceives possible injustice in the present, protests by self without violence. Muslim cleric perceives possible injustice, present or past, more often than not calls for mass killing/jihad by followers.
#4
Alec, I'll try this: "What is an anger management problem?" No? How about "what is chronic bloodlust on the part of the Muslim"?
Whatever the answer, since both Copts and Muslims in Africa seem to like cutting off pieces of women's genitals, we can be sure at least that she will be "trim and clean" for her new 'owner'.
#5
Is that a Copt thing too? I'm MUCH less sympathetic now
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/17/2004 17:19 Comments ||
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#6
That was the case for some Copt sects as late as the 1980s. As I understand it, Copts don't cut off everything-like they do in other places in Africa-they just cut off the 'fun' part. So with those Copts at least you don't have to cut your wife open to have sex.
Ejaz Shafi, a central leader of the Pakistan Muslim League (N), died late Thursday night. He was 60. He leaves behind his wife, two sons and two daughters. He suddenly felt unwell about 10:30pm. He was rushed to Aga Khan Hospital where he died about 11:30pm. He was suffering from diabetes. His Namaz-e-Janaza will be offered after Juma prayers at Masjid Al-Hambra in the vicinity of Tipu Sultan Road near his house.
Wonder if this is natural causes, or more of Perv's mending of fences?
Posted by: Fred ||
12/17/2004 00:00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
The father of a teenager taken by a shark while swimming at an Adelaide beach yesterday says the family does not advocate the killing of any sharks. 
THE search mechanism used by the Kazaa file-sharing network could contain malicious code, the Federal Court heard yesterday.
