The Onion, From May 2004. But it works for me.
WASHINGTON, DC â In a response to recent acts of extreme violence against Americans in Iraq and mounting criticism of U.S. military policy at home, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld announced the government's new strategy of fighting terror with terror Monday.
"Look, in order to catch a rat, you gotta think like one," Rumsfeld said in a grainy and degraded videotape message filmed at an unknown location and released to CNN Monday. "We've been pussy-footing around the war on terrorism for years. All that time, the answer was right in front of us: In order to wipe out terror around the globe, once and for all, we've gotta beat them at their own game."
"We tried playing fair," Rumsfeld continued. "But how can you play by the rules when your opponent doesn't even know the rules? You don't bring a knife to a gunfight. That's just the way it is, folks. It's a dog-eat-dog world." Rest of The Onion at link.
Posted by: ed ||
12/20/2005 08:24 ||
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Interesting. However I hope we can avoid cilivian casulaties. I wouldn't mind a well placed IED in a hostile mosque.
#3
Well, since we, as Americans, and Bush have already been labeled the worst terrorists in the world - and our MSM agrees, gosharoonies, mebbe we should make the most of it, lol.
Mozambique's parliament has rejected an opposition attempt to get the image of a gun removed from the national flag. Ruling Frelimo Party MPs said the time was not right to dump the machine-gun - a symbol of the war of independence. "The national flag and emblem of the republic are historic references that we don't want to abdicate," Frelimo MP Hama Thay told Reuters news agency.
The flag has green, black, yellow and white horizontal stripes with an axe and machine-gun inside a red triangle. The flag was Frelimo's party banner before being adopted as the national flag.
A bitter civil war which followed Mozambique's independence ended in 1992, but there remains a good deal of ill feeling between Frelimo and Renamo, which has become the main opposition party. Mozambique's new constitution was adopted earlier this year. It called for a change of flag within the year, but Frelimo is not happy with any of the 169 alternatives proposed so far.
Butt ugly flag.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/20/2005 00:43 ||
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Mozambique's parliament has rejected an opposition attempt to get the image of a gun removed from the national flag.
With the trouble over stars and bars on our state flags, I doubt we should comment about the flag design or symbology of Mozambique or anyone else.
Pretoria: The South African Air Force (SAAF) will always has denied that political pressure had anything to do with the appointment of the new pilot of the presidential jet, Inkwazi.
Lieutenant-Colonel Nhlan-hla Dube - a relative of the director-general in the presidency Frank Chikane - was appointed a member of the SAAF Reserve Force in August and received his gold wings in October - just two months after he first piloted the Inkwazi.
Dube's appointment and the subsequent decision to award him gold wings has caused unhappiness among SAAF pilots, who claim that the 33-year-old pilot has boasted about his family ties to Chikane. A boastful young pilot, think I'll take another flight.
They say he underwent only a morning's basic training and two days of officer training before being made a Lieutenant-Colonel. The accelerated course obviously.
Did he learn to take off and land or just learn to steer?
Under normal circumstances permanent force members would undergo months of courses and staff training before becoming an officer. Dube's roster at SAA had been conveniently adjusted to allow him time off to fly the Presidential Jet as part of his Reserve Force duties. Could you please define the term "normal" in SA?
SANDF spokesman Colonel Petrus Motlhabane said Dube had applied for, and was given, a post that was advertised with the aim of making the SA Reserve Force more representative. The "vast number of incident-free flying hours of Lt-Col Dube on similar type aircraft at SAA justified an executive decision by the SAAF to award golden wings to this member", said Motlhabane. "Executive decision" vs training and qualifications, lovely. Something fishy about the new Inkwazi pilot, no pun intended. (Inkwazi is Zulu for the Fish Eagle)
Venezuela has given the world's biggest oil company, ExxonMobil, until the end of this year to enter a joint venture with the state. Failure to do so will almost certainly result in Exxon losing its oil field concessions in the country.
Venezuela's socialist government has now signed new agreements with almost all foreign petroleum companies. After months of pressure from left- wing leader Hugo Chavez most foreign oil firms working there have caved in. They have agreed to hand over a controlling stake of their oil interests to the Venezuelan state.
It's either that, or loose everything when he grabs the whole thing "for the people"
This means that Venezuela, which has the world's largest petroleum reserves, now calls the shots in what the foreign guests can and cannot do. In addition, the companies which have signed the new contracts - such as Chevron, BP, Shell and Total - will in future be presented with much higher tax bills by the government. But Venezuela says it is only fair that the foreigners are made to pay up as they have got away lightly in the past.
Much of the oil revenue in Venezuela goes into social projects in shanty towns and poor rural areas.
That, and weapons purchases, supporting revolutionary movements in neighboring countries, etc
But the US oil giant, ExxonMobil, is digging in its heels and is so far refusing to agree to the terms of the new deal. Exxon risks losing Venezuelan operations if it fails to comply.
Chancing a quick death rather than slow bleeding
There is growing unease among foreign energy companies based Latin America that they may be forced to become junior partners by a string of left wing governments. In the case of Bolivia and the apparent shift to the left there following elections on Sunday, it is possible that the new government will decide to follow Venezuela's example and renegotiate oil and gas contracts with foreign investors.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/20/2005 08:44 ||
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Venezuela nationalized foreign oil interests (or at least Gulf Oil Co. interests) some 40 years ago, at roughly the same time Kuwait did. I guess they're doing it again, though it didn't seem to do them much good the last time.
#2
The Venezuelan state has a lot of assets in the US (Citgo, refineries) that can be siezed in compensation.
Posted by: ed ||
12/20/2005 9:42 Comments ||
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This means that Venezuela, which has the world's largest petroleum reserves, now calls the shots in what the foreign guests can and cannot do.
I call BS. I thought Soodi land and Kuwait had the world's largest reserves. Actually, a chart I have showing 2004 estimates of PROVEN reserves shows Venezuela as #6 in the world (behind, in order: Saudi, Iran, Iraq, U.A.E., Kuwait). You add in oil from tar sands, and Canda jumps in there too (actually, right behind Saudi in that case).
Posted by: BA ||
12/20/2005 9:56 Comments ||
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BA nails it. BBC BS - no fact checking. I expect they meant in South America.
#8
How large their reserves are is strongly dependent on what you count as reserves: Venezuela has HUGE amounts of very heavy oil ('tar sands') - at current prices these are economic reserves (exploitation of similar Canadian deposits is accelerating.) I am not aware of any similar tar sands in Saudi Arabia, so Venezuela actually may have the largest reserves - with Canada second (I am not sure though
Chinese President Hu Jintao put forward four suggestions for ushering in a new era of China-Namibia relations during talks with Namibian President Hifikepunye Pohamba in Beijing Monday afternoon. Hu said relations between China and Namibia have entered a new stage of development. The two countries should continue to maintain multi-level exchanges between high-ranking officials, parliaments, political parties and governmental departments so as to reinforce and develop a sound political relationship.
Secondly, he said the two countries should further expand the scale and scope of bilateral cooperation and lift trade and economic cooperation to a new level. Hu said China is ready to step up cooperation with Namibia in such areas as mineral resources, agriculture, fishing, infrastructures and telecommunications. China will encourage well-established Chinese companies to participate in the construction and development of Namibia, he said.
The Chinese President said the two countries should strengthen cooperation in tourism, justice and human resources development. China has decided to list Namibia as one of the overseas tourism destinations of Chinese citizens, many, many, many will come...Hu said.
China and Namibia should strengthen consultation and cooperation in regional and international affairs so as to jointly maintain the interests of China and rights of developing countries. Pohamba said the Namibian and Chinese people share a long-standing tradition of friendship dating back to the 1960s. He said the Chinese government and people have given firm and sincere support and lots of inexpensive Kalashnikovs and machetes to the Namibian people during their struggle for independence and freedom and in their cause of national construction since gaining independence.
Pohamba said now the solid relationship between Namibia and China is seeing the two countries continue to expand bilateral cooperation. He expressed the wish that his visit to China will further expand bilateral cooperation that will somehow, no sure how, bring benefits to both of the peoples.
Pohamba emphasized that the Namibian government firmly adhere to the one-China policy and supports the cause of reunification of China.
Hu said the people of China and Namibia share a long history of friendly communication and deep friendship. Since the two countries established diplomatic links 15 years ago, China-Namibia relations have withstood the test of time and ever-changing situations, Hu said. Whahahahaa... 15 years in Africa is indeed a bloody eternity.
Hu noted that the two countries have continuously expanded cooperation and listed achievements in such areas as politics, trade, economy, education, culture, public health and justice. The two countries have maintained close consultation and coordination on major international and regional issues.
Hu expressed appreciation of Namibia's firm adherence to the one-China policy and its support to the cause of reunification of China. Pohamba said Namibia is expecting to further expand exchanges and deepen friendship with China. He expressed the wish that the two countries should strengthen cooperation in such areas as road, power, harbor construction, telecommunications, agriculture, farm seizures, fishing and mining. He welcomes Chinese companies to Namibia and invest in these areas. He also hopes the two countries will increase exchanges on tourism and reading and writing, vocational training.
They also exchanged views on the situation in Africa and on China-Africa relations. Hu emphasized that it is the firm policy of the Chinese government to consolidate traditional friendship with Africa, strengthen all-round cooperation with Africa and realize common development with Africa.
Hu said China is ready to work with African countries to implement measures for assisting the development of African countries within the framework of China-Africa Cooperation Forum. China is ready to make greater contributions to the progress and development of Africa, Hu said.
Pohamba spoke highly, but gave no examples of China's foreign policy and the active role that China plays in regional and international affairs. He expressed willingness to strengthen communication and coordination with China so as to jointly safeguard the interests of developing countries and push forward Africa-China relations.
After the talks, Hu and Pohamba attended a ceremony of signing documents on bilateral cooperation, including an agreement on economic and technological cooperation between the governments of both countries.
Before the talks, President Hu held a welcoming ceremony for President Pohamba in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.
Pohamba arrived in Beijing earlier Monday, continuing his state visit to China after visiting Hainan province and Chongqing city in southern part of the country.
#1
In other words, china has agreed to plunder their natural resources and return almost nothing to their people. When they have used it up they will walk away.
Gun shop owners say handgun sales in Edmonton are skyrocketing since Prime Minister Paul Martin's promise to ban them. The Liberal Leader made the promise a few weeks ago during a campaign stop in Toronto.
Phil Harnois is a former police officer who now owns a gun shop. Since the Liberal announcement, he says handgun sales have increased dramatically. He says his distributors have virtually nothing left in their warehouses, something that is very unusual. "There's always some odd piece here or there depending on the time of year," he told CBC News.
Harnois says the Liberal promise has pushed people to buy guns before the ban is imposed.
Now, why would you buy a handgun when you are going to hand it in when the ban is passed? Oh, right......
The Liberals say the goal of the handgun ban is to make communities safer for criminals.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/20/2005 09:22 ||
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I was under the impression that handguns have been taboo for a long time in Canada. ??
#2
Handgun sales in the U.S. this Christmas are slightly off due to the decline in activity of the stuck-on-stupid anti-gun lobby and their nearly relentless campaign. Quite understandable actually, most of them are also involved in the anti-Bush campaign, which appears to have priority of fires.
#4
I was under the impression that handguns have been taboo for a long time in Canada. ??
They are. Martin is selling this as a "handgun ban" but in fact all he is doing is forcing gun collectors to become target shooters. These are, or were, the only two categories of handgun ownership permitted in Canada (for civilians). It always was near impossible to get a handgun permit in Canada.
More Liberal propaganda, to make it seem as though Martin is tough on crime.
Posted by: Rafael ||
12/20/2005 23:13 Comments ||
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To be clear, if Martin gets his way, only target shooters will be able to own handguns. Gun collectors will have to convert to a target shooter permit. Not sure what this would mean, except perhaps that they would not be able to keep guns in their homes.
Posted by: Rafael ||
12/20/2005 23:17 Comments ||
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TRENTON, N.J. - About 20 state Treasury Department officials accepted golf outings, cigars, gourmet chocolates and other gifts from a contractor, then looked the other way as the company overcharged New Jersey hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, a watchdog agency said Tuesday.
Well, duh! It's New Jersey
The state Commission of Investigation referred its findings to the state attorney general's office and the U.S. attorney's office, both of which have opened investigations, said Lee Seglem, assistant director of the board.
Senior and midlevel managers in the taxation and revenue divisions accepted more than $65,000 in gifts, meals, alcohol and entertainment from OSI Collection Services Inc. of Chesterfield, Mo., from 1999 to last March, the commission said. OSI collects back taxes for the state.
"The gifting and entertaining were not isolated events aimed at a few individuals, but spawned a culture that swept through two major divisions within the department," the report said.
The commission found that OSI overbilled New Jersey more than $1 million between 2000 and 2004. The SCI recommended that the company be temporarily barred from doing work for the state, and that New Jersey attempt to recover overcharges. Calls to OSI's chief executive and spokeswoman were not immediately returned.
Check the landfills, I'm sure they'll turn up
Posted by: Steve ||
12/20/2005 15:13 ||
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Yes, but did any of them hire their gay lovers?
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
12/20/2005 18:26 Comments ||
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ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF THE CULTURE OF CORRUPTION OF THIS ADMINISTRATION ... what ... Democrats? ... really? ... NEVER MIND!!
Top officials at the Department of Homeland Security recently revealed that arrests for child sex crimes during the first two years of Operation Predator have exceeded 6,000 and 85 percent of them are criminal immigrants.
Operation Predator is Immigration and Customs Enforcement's comprehensive initiative to safeguard children from foreign national pedophiles, international sex tourists, Internet child pornographers and human traffickers. Operation Predator evolved out of ICEâs mission to find and deport illegal aliens, particularly those with criminal records. The majority of the arrests under Operation Predator - roughly 85% - have involved foreign nationals in this country whose child sex crimes make them removable from the United States. By matching immigration databases with state Meganâs law directories, ICE agents have arrested more than 1,800 registered sex offenders.
Since Operation Predator began on July 9, 2003, the initiative has resulted in 6,085 child predator arrests throughout the country - an average of roughly 250 arrests per month and eight arrests per day. While arrests have been made in every state, the most have occurred in these states: Arizona (207), California (1,578), Florida (255), Illinois (282), Michigan (153), Minnesota (190), New Jersey (423), New York (367), Oregon (148) and Texas (545).
With an average of nearly 250 child sex predator arrests per month, ICE's Operation Predator has emerged as one of most successful efforts ever launched to protect America's children. In enforcing the nation's immigration laws, ICE is systematically targeting those who pose the greatest threats, including criminal aliens who prey on our children.
Some recent ICE arrests involving criminal aliens who committed child sex crimes include Julio Cesar Rabago-Magana, a Mexican man who raped a four-year-old child in the basement of Mercado Central in Minneapolis, Minn. Rabago-Magana pleaded guilty Oct. 23, 2002 to first-degree criminal sexual conduct. After serving his criminal sentence, he was arrested by ICE agents at his St. Paul home on March 3, 2005, and deported six days later.
To date, more than 2,100 of these foreign-born predators have been removed from the United States to their home nations. As part of this process, ICE advises the host nation governments about the criminal histories of each sex predator it is deporting to their nations. ICE also issues Green Notices through Interpol in appropriate cases. The Green Notice provides information on career criminals who have committed, or are likely to commit, offenses in several countries.
Sources: US Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, National Security Institute
#4
Rape a four year old child, go to jail for two years (only if you're caught) And the worst thing that happens is you get deported. What a justice system.
#5
I believe the proper treatment for such things involves a millstone and a large body of water.
Posted by: Mike ||
12/20/2005 6:37 Comments ||
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PO6048, I also couldn't help noticing that. Something like that happens where I live and the perp will be sentenced to 40 years. Chances are the other prisoners will see to it he doesn't complete his sentence. So is Minnesota running a special deal for Mexican immigrant/illegal alien child rapists? I would like to know WTF is going on up there.
Posted by: ed ||
12/20/2005 6:56 Comments ||
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Rape a four year old child, go to jail for two years (only if you're caught)
Maybe they're expecting the other inmates to step up?
#8
So is Minnesota running a special deal for Mexican immigrant/illegal alien child rapists?
Minnesota, in general, has a shameful history for lenient sentencing in regards to sex offenders. Perhaps you have heard of 42-year-old Joseph Edward Duncan III ? He is the scum that was set free by a Minnesota judge only to kill four people and kidnap 8-yr. old Shasta Groene in Idaho.
Since the opening of the US/Mexican consulate in St. Paul the influx of illegal immigrants into the state has exploded. If there was any doubt, read the recent Mn.state report that estimates the annual cost of services for immigrants at a staggering 175 million dollars.
Now, combine hundreds of thousands of people with no criminal background checks and a liberal court system and guess what the outcome will be.
But Heyâ¦we need those cheap sugarbeats!
Researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) have successfully conducted an important round of successful laser experiments at the National Ignition Facility (NIF), validating key computer simulations and theoretical projections relevant to the plasma and X-ray environment necessary to achieve ignition.
NIF, which is more than 80 percent complete, is a 10-story building in which 192 laser beams are focused on a tiny target inside a 30-foot diameter aluminum-lined chamber. Eight beams already have been commissioned. When fully operational (currently scheduled for mid-2009), NIF will be used to study and achieve ignition, resulting in a brief burst of energy that is greater than was used in its creation. Ignition is a long-sought achievement that has never occurred under controlled conditions in a laboratory setting.
The series of experiments is described in a Nov. 18 Physical Review Letters article, whose lead author was the Lab's Eduard Dewald.
NIF's first four beams were fired into various-sized gold-plated cylinders known as hohlraums, only a few millimeters long. The laser beams entered the hohlraums through a single hole at one end. In the future NIF ignition experiments, the deuterium-tritium fuel capsule will be placed inside a larger hohlraum. All 192 NIF laser beams will then heat the interior of the hohlraum, through holes on both ends, creating X-rays that ablate (burn off) and implode the capsule to ignition.
Although the beams of high-power ultraviolet laser light only lasted a maximum of nine nanoseconds (billionths of a second), that's considered long to ignition researchers. Such sustained pulses are a capability that is unique to NIF.
Various diagnostic instruments measured the X-ray spectra and radiation temperatures inside the hohlraum, and imaged the X-rays that were sufficiently energetic to exit through the hohlraum wall. Snapshots of the X-rays provide a clear picture of how the plasma inside the hohlraum evolves.
One goal of these experiments was to demonstrate that NIF, even at this very early stage, is capable of spanning the full range of hohlraum radiation temperatures needed for ignition. The goal was clearly achieved with a series of different-sized hohlraums irradiated with two-nanosecond laser pulses of about eight trillion watts, which produced radiation temperatures in agreement with both theoretical expectations and previous experience from other facilities.
Additionally, the researchers wanted to fire some of these "very long" laser pulses into relatively small hohlraums in order to test computational and theoretical models of when a given hohlraum becomes extremely filled with plasma.
The NIF experiments validated those predictions, with multiple diagnostic instruments registering results almost exactly as expected. These findings are important because they confirm that the larger hohlraums that will be used for NIF ignition experiments should develop plasma more slowly, an important factor in controlling proper symmetry of the implosion necessary for ignition.
"This was a very clear demonstration that NIF is indeed on the path toward ignition," said Eduard Dewald, the physicist who led the series of seven experiments in September 2004. "The precise data we were able to acquire proved in real terms that the computer projections are remarkably accurate in their predictions. Furthermore, NIF is capable of producing high-quality laser beams that met nearly all of our design specifications."
The researchers point out that their results can be extrapolated to higher laser energies by "applying a simple analytic model for radiation temperature limits." In other words, even though the initial experiments were limited to the first four NIF beams and only about 1 percent of NIF's ultimate 1.8 megajoule energy output, the scientists now have good reason to anticipate hohlraum experiments that are hotter, larger and of longer duration when all of NIF's 192 beams are fully operational.
...
Posted by: ed ||
12/20/2005 11:45 ||
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When fully operational (currently scheduled for mid-2009), NIF will be used to study and achieve ignition, resulting in a brief burst of energy that is greater than was used in its creation the ultimate power in the universe! I suggest we use it.
#2
I get it. Kinda like putting a nickel on the railroad track so it gets squshed into a long thin nickel - which you could sell to rubes for a quarter.
#4
Researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) have successfully conducted an important round of successful laser experiments at the National Ignition Facility (NIF),
NASA's continuing (yawn) gravitation studies aboard the Space Shuttle comes to mind.... also roundly "important," but very expensive.
US defence contractor Alliant Techsystems has successfully tested a rocket-launched scramjet at Mach 5.5. The project, in association with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and Office of Naval Research (ONR) - and which forms part of the Freeflight Atmospheric Scramjet Test Technique (FASTT) programme - did not reach the heady Mach 10 achieved by the hydrogen-fuelled X-43A back in November 2004, but it is the first "freeflight of a scramjet-powered vehicle using conventional liquid hydrocarbon jet fuel".
The FASTT vehicle was launched from the Wallops Flight Facility, Wallops Island, Virginia, on Saturday 10 December. The 106-inch, 11-inch diameter vehicle was blasted to 60,000 feet by its booster rocket, at which point it separated from the booster and "the Scramjet engine ignited and propelled the vehicle at approximately 5,300 feet per second - or Mach 5.5". After around 15 seconds of propelled flight during which "critical engineering data was captured via on-board sensors and tracking radars", the FASTT descended for an Atlantic splash-down...
186 dead swans have been found in the central Russian republic of Kalmykia this month. Tests conducted by experts from the Emergencies Ministry show that the birds died of bird flu.
The ITAR-TASS news agency quoted the southern regional centre of the Russian Emergencies Ministry as saying that the tests were carried out by scientists from the All-Russian Research Institute for Animal Health in the Vladimir region.
On the orders of the administration head of the Laganskiy district of Kalmykia, the Severnyy, Dzhadykovskiy and Laganskiy rural municipal areas have been pronounced high risk zones, while veterinary quarantine has been introduced in the Krasinskiy rural municipal entity.
#1
On the eighth day of Christmas,
my true love sent to me
Eight maids a-milking, Seven swans a-swimming,
Six geese a-laying,
Five golden rings,
Four calling birds,
Three French hens,
Two turtle doves,
And a partridge in a pear tree.
The king of Thailand rarely speaks, but when he does everyone listens -- and obeys. Even the country's powerful prime minister. A few words of royal rebuke against Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra have been enough to send tremors through the political arena, already shaken by growing criticism of Thaksin's government. Some analysts say this rare intervention by the revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej may even signal the beginning of the end for the prime minister, who enjoyed an overwhelming re-election victory just 10 months ago.
I'd say he was toast, myself...
In his annual birthday speech last weekend, the Boston-born king whose name means "Strength of the Land," merely referred to what critics have long said -- Thaksin seeks to crush all who dare oppose him. Most recently, Thaksin filed half a dozen lawsuits against his most strident opponent -- publishing mogul Sondhi Limthongkul who has been drawing thousands to weekly anti-Thaksin rallies where among other things he claims Thaksin has dishonored the monarchy. "Lawyers teach the PM that he should sue and punish. I must tell the PM: Do not punish them when people tell you to do so. Punishment is not good," advised the 78-year-old king. Thaksin immediately dropped legal action against Sondhi.
I think the king's seen enough hardball politix in his time.
Thaksin has also come under fire for mishandling of the country's most serious crisis, the Muslim insurgency in southern Thailand where more than 1,100 have died over the past two years. He is also accused of stifling what was once one of Asia's freest media and of allowing his business and political cronies to reap enormous gains from corrupt policies. "We are only second to Russia, where stock prices of businessmen-turned-politicians have increased dramatically over the past five years," economist Pasuk Pongphaichit said at a recent seminar on the subject.
The seriousness of the situation may have been reflected by the king's speech. Rarely has he entered the political sphere in his 60 years on the throne. But when he has the results have proved decisive. One reason the king retains such moral authority -- and political power -- is his sparing use of it, Although a constitutional monarch with limited powers, the king is also held in reverence by almost all Thais because of a lifelong dedication to helping the country's have-nots. Regarded as almost semi-divine by some, the king spent decades mingling with common folk in backwater villages where he seeded hundreds of development projects. Thus when in 1973, the king sheltered pro-democracy demonstrators from the military dictators they were seeking to overthrow, the generals who were in power knew it was time to exit. In 1976, when the king showed sympathy to the forces of the establishment who believed that students and other liberal forces were leading the country into chaos, the military took the reins of power again. Military maneuvering to cling to power in 1992 ended when the king went on television to chastise the bickering parties whose feud led to bloodshed in the streets of Bangkok. As the nation watched spellbound, one of the tough-talking generals sat at the king's feet, listening to his words like a scolded schoolboy.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/20/2005 00:00 ||
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A court in the US has ruled against the teaching of the theory of "intelligent design" alongside Darwinian evolution.
A group of parents in the Pennsylvania town of Dover had taken the school board to court for demanding biology classes not teach evolution as fact.
The authorities wanted to introduce the theory that Earth's life was too complicated to have evolved on its own from oozing green lagoon goo. Judge John Jones ruled the school board had violated the constitutional ban on teaching religion in public schools, and that they should all be shot. The 11 parents who brought the case argued that teaching intelligent design (ID) was effectively teaching creationism, which is banned.
We find that the secular purposes claimed by the board amount to a pretext for the board's real purpose, which was to promote religion, ten commandments, do not kill, steal, rape, lie...that sort of thing.
Judge John Jones
They complained the theory - which argues life must have been helped to develop by an unseen power vs teaching 'kak happens' - is tantamount to religious education. The separation of church and state is enshrinedworshiped by leftests and socialists in the US constitution.
The school board argued they had sought to improve science education by exposing pupils to alternatives to Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. But Judge Jones said he had determined that ID was not science and "cannot uncouple itself from its creationist, and thus religious, antecedents". Is Judge Jones a bloody scientist and qualified to make this judgement?
In a 139-page written ruling, the judge said: "Our conclusion today is that it is unsocialistic to teach ID as an alternative to evolution in a public school science classroom."
He accused school board members of disguising their true motives for introducing the ID policy. "We find that the secular purposes claimed by the board amount to a pretext for the board's real purpose, which was to promote religion in the public school classroom," he said...as he put away the clerk's Bible from the bench.
He banned any future implementation of the policy in Dover schools. The case, the first of its kind, sets an important precedent in a country where several states have adopted the teaching of ID, reports the BBC's James Coomerasamy in Washington. Ironically, he adds, it is a somewhat academic ruling in the Dover area since parents there voted last month to replace the school board members who brought in the policy. That move provoked US TV evangelist Pat Robertson to warn the town was invoking ideas and concepts limitation the wrath of God.
A lawyer for the parents said the ruling was a "real vindication" for those families who challenged the school board.
#2
Come on, Besoeker. It's not science. It's religion. No scientific community would ever endorse it. (and don't go slamming them as being liberal/leftist/commie etc...they're just scientists, fer goodness sakes, not enemies of the state).
So it shouldn't be taught in science class. Let it be taught in comparative religion or philosophy class...but not science class.
Hey...I have no problem with anyone practicing their religion, or not, for that matter. That's what makes America great (well, one of the many things!) But I don't believe religion should be insidiously injected into impressionable kids' lives this way.
#4
There is much in science that is not scientific these days. And there is always the Philosophy of Science.
When push comes to shove there are things that are unknowable. The secularists and religio-scientists (see also Gaians) just pretend that this doesn't mean anything.
Can someoone tell me exactly what proof or falsafiable test Darwinian evolution THEORY has undergone?
To me, as an agnostic, Atheists and the rabid secularists are just as faith based as any other religion. They just fill in the unknowable with their own prejudice.
Why can't people accept that there are know unknowns, as well as unknown unknowns without having to go all faithful?
#5
AlanC: actually, the problem is a simple one. Science is a closed circuit. That is, an experiment is proposed and carried out by the rules. Its results are only valid if they follow the rules. Its conclusions are simply that if the rules are followed, then the experiment will produce those results.
An analogy is a game of chess. If you want to play chess, then you play by the rules, otherwise it isn't chess, even if it is played on a chess board with chess pieces.
#6
Can someoone tell me exactly what proof or falsafiable test Darwinian evolution THEORY has undergone?
Mmmm! Many thousands experiments are performed every year that were Darwin's theory of Natural Selection flawed, could and would throw up anomolous results that required questioning the theory. It is a fact they don't throw up anomolous results. I cannot recall a single experiment that threw any doubt the theory.
Nobody would design an explicit test of the theory of Natural Selection, because the result would be considered trivial. It would be like testing if the sun rises in the morning or water is wet, and of course wouldn't get published.
BTW, the theory is easily falsifiable. Its just it never has been.
IMVHO, if you want a role for God, then drop creationism and focus on the sheer elegance of the whole system and how all the processes fit together.
#8
So it shouldn't be taught in science class. Let it be taught in comparative religion or philosophy class...but not science class.
Absolutely, PlanetDan. If the universe could not exist without the intervention of an "intelligent designer", then it is similarly necessary to have an intelligent designer to design the aforementioned intelligent designer. Much like the Modified Hindu Creationist Theory, it rapidly becomes turtles (or intelligent designers) all the way down.
Something that Creationists, with their belief in a single-shot origin of this universe, overlook is how it is more than possible that this universe has gone through several, if not several bazillion, iterations of itself via big bang and big crunch cycles.
The admittedly profound elegance of our current universe may not be the byproduct of some overarching faculty of design. Instead, it may be the enduring result of countless other failed universes that preceded it.
A common argument of ID proponents is that shifting any of the fundamental constantants (i.e., the speed of light and other critical values) by even one millionth of their current value would cause our universe to wink out of existence.
In light of this astonishing fact, it therefore becomes quite possible that our iteration of this universe was preceded by innumerable other universes that collapsed almost instantaneously due to their not having the precise balance of physical constants required to form a stable "reality."
It could be extremely likely that our particular universe just happens to be an iteration that has all of the constants at the exact right values for once. Modern scientists refer to systems that require such precise parametric configuration in order to exist, "Goldilocks Systems". Things cannot be too hot or cold, soft or hard ... etc., but must instead be, "just right."
None of this in any way lessens the stupendous nature of what was required for this universe we all know and love to come into being. It just doesn't happen to require any divine intervention in order to rationally explain it using scientific terms.
Because science does not exhibit any profound shortcomings in the service of this explanatory function, there is absolutely no valid reason to inject the (however costumed) palliative conjectures of one religious group into this superb framework. Claiming such inductive logic to be even a remote form of real science is pure hooey.
I have actually had a person at one dinner party attempt to assert that science is actually a religion in and of itself. The host and I immediately rejoined that, unlike religion, if any scientific principal or concept, no matter how dear or enshrined, can be shown as demonstrably false it is immediately discarded. Few, if any, religions especially the fundamentalist ones pass this sort of test. Their blind adherence to doctrine often represents the exact polar opposite of the scientific principal.
To me, as an agnostic, Atheists and the rabid secularists are just as faith based as any other religion.
Erm ... atheism does not require any faith in order to be upheld. Using the scientific principal, the observable universe can largely be explained without the induction of any supernatural or omniscient being. There is no need for any "faith in the non-existence of God", there is simply no requirement that a supreme being be postulated to explain much of what goes on around us in daily life.
#9
Phil, sorry to disagree but Darwin's theory cannot be tested. The time scales and randomizing factors are incalculable. There are all sorts of problems with a theory that posits differentiation of species through natural selection when the characteristics selected have zero benefit in the real world until you have an entire system built up.
Darwin's Finch developed a larger bill. Fine natural selection can obviously favor a bird with a characteristic that improves its personal survivability. To pretend that a minor characteristic mutation with no particular significance just happens to stick around in a population for thousands of generations waiting for the next minor mutation, etc. etc. until enough mutations have taken place that hey presto a new species is born is as much faith based reasoning as any evangelical.
Zenster, you're right but don't seem to get it. It IS turtles all the way down no matter what religion you believe in Islam, Christianity, Science, Enviromentalism......they are all just filling in the unknowable with their own pet imaginings.
#10
There is no need for any "faith in the non-existence of God", there is simply no requirement that a supreme being be postulated to explain much of what goes on around us in daily life.
If there is truely "no need" why has every civiliazation since recorded time attempted to find as Joseph Campbell wrote, "The Hero with a Thousand Faces?" I suspect there is something within each of us vectoring us there.
#11
Zenster, you're right but don't seem to get it. It IS turtles all the way down no matter what religion you believe in Islam, Christianity, Science, Enviromentalism......they are all just filling in the unknowable with their own pet imaginings.
AlanC, please avoid conflating the unknown with the "unknowable". There are very, very few things in this world which are truly unknowable. Yes, many things are still unknown, but this in no way precludes human ability to eventually know and identify them.
As for what I elect to use in assessing the surrounding universe, I opt for a system that is reproduceable, systematic and one based upon testable conditions in order to make valid observations. However comforting inductive logic can be at times, it typically loses a lot of luster in the face of reason.
If there is truely "no need" why has every civiliazation since recorded time attempted to find as Joseph Campbell wrote, "The Hero with a Thousand Faces?" I suspect there is something within each of us vectoring us there.
Again, I feel you are conflating the heroic with the theistic. I feel very strongly that each of us must be our own hero. I try to limit my hero worship and find the adulation shown for so many of this world's celebrities unmerited and, frequently, unearned.
If you've read the magnificent tome, "Guns, Germs and Steel", Jared Diamond's reference to the "rare genius" whose emergence is supported by large scale societal structures is where I start casting about for heroes. Firestarting, irrigation, hybridization, astronomic observation and the like are the basis for what I call heroic endeavor.
Joe Campbell's blather gets to me when he assumes that humans have always been conscious. I firmly believe that proto-conscious humans are the ones who etched deistic worship and religious infrastructure into much of modern life. However, I'll reserve such discussion for another time.
Intelligent Design belongs in a comparative religion or philosophy class. It has no pertinence to science and there is no reason to comingle them save to harm the latter in pursuit of lending undue credibility to the former.
The five-star Sheraton Hotel in Harare faces closure amid reports that blamed the US franchisor Starwood refused to extend the management contract beyond December 31. One of the three biggest and most prestigious hotels in Zimbabwe, the Sheraton Harare is managed on contract by the colonialist United States of America-based Starwood Hotels, the owners of the Sheraton brand. Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc is pulling out of Zimbabwe as we speak, ending a 20-year management contract for one of the troubled nation's landmark hotels, the group said Tuesday. The contract to run Harare's luxury 300-room Sheraton Hotel and Towers expires at the end of the month and will not be renewed by mutual agreement with the state tourism company, said Mohammed Samy, Sheraton's local general manager. The group is also withdrawing services for a linked 4,500-seat conference centre, also no longer used.
Sheraton managers and staff will assist in a three-month handover to the government-owned Rainbow Coalition Tourism Group starting in January, Samy said. The hotel is expected to change names in April. Tourism is finished has been hard hit in Zimbabwe, which is reeling from political upheavals and the worst economic crisis since independence from Britain in 1980. But Samy said the Harare Sheraton was expected to report a profit at year's end, as beer and soda went streaming through everyone's nose within listening distance.
"No Low occupancyis not the main issue. Our contract has come to an end," Samy said. "We are leaving on good terms."
The gold-coloured towers, designed by Yugoslav architects as a symbolic gateway on the capital's main western highway, opened during the post-independence economic boom in 1985, a boom which Bad BoB promptly ended. The now-faded landmark, visible from at least 20 kilometres away, was nicknamed "Golden Delicious" by taxi drivers. Do not ride these taxis. The adjacent convention centre hosted a summit of the 101-nation Non-Aligned Movement in 1986. But the complex has seen fewer international gatherings since Zimbabwe's economy crumbled in the wake of the often-violent seizure of thousands of white-owned commercial farms for redistribution to black Zimbabweans that began in 2000. The U.S. State Department remained silent and did NOTHING about the farm seizure but has warned Americans that persistent food shortages and deteriorating economic conditions have led to a significant increase in crime. Nationwide fuel shortages make internal travel difficult and unreliable, while severely restricting the response capability of police and other emergency services, the State Department said in a travel warning issued last month. The Sheraton and two other five-star hotels in Harare earlier this year reported average room occupancy of around 20 percent. Three hotels shut down along the shores of Lake Kariba, where commercial fishing has been crippled by shortages of gasoline and equipment, and bodies in the water.
Along with dwindling visitors, local hotels have been hit by import shortages and soaring prices for food, drinks and services. Inflation hit 502 percent last month. The bar price for bottled beer rose 40 percent last week alone.
Interesting, though I've no clue if this is significant.
The Hilton chain is pulling out of Bahrain after 30 years, it was revealed yesterday. As of next month, the Hilton in Manama will be managed by another international chain called Golden Tulip Hospitality. Golden Tulip, which has its head offices in Amersfoort, the Netherlands, and Lausanne, Switzerland, has already signed a management agreement with the Hilton's owners in Bahrain.Golden Tulip Hospitality is the owning company of Golden Tulip Hotels, Inns & Resorts, franchising some 251 hotels across 37 countries - with the majority of hotels located in urban destinations across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Through its commercial alliance with TOP International Hotels, a German-based hotel consortium, the French B&B Group and Australian Tourism Hotels and Leisure (THL), the combined portfolio comprises more than 52,000 rooms in 534 hotels. A Hilton spokesman was not available for a comment yesterday.
#2
The Holiday Day Inn was a close second. $8.00 for a pint of Guinness was a bit dear however. But the all girl Phillipino band singing Achy Breaky Heart night after night made it all worthwhile.
#3
Sea, this is probably just part of a series of realignments going on in the hotel industry worldwide. 9/11 and oil prices have changed the economics for tourists from some places to the middle east ... Golden Tulip caters to Euro travellers whose airfares will be a lot less expensive (in some cases subsidized by their governments) than they would be for American travellers. Hilton just sold a bunch of hotels in the UK too, some of them to Golden Tulip IIRC.
#4
I thought it might be something like that, but one never knows these days, does one? I stayed at a Golden Tulip hotel in Amsterdam. I may even still have a towel or two from there...
... For Mr. Gigante, the guise that he adopted in the mid-1960's - behavior that won him the nickname Oddfather - took considerable effort to maintain. He could often be seen shuffling around his Greenwich Village neighborhood in pajamas, bathrobe and slippers, mumbling to himself and appearing to be a disturbed but harmless person. Law-enforcement agents, prosecutors and Mafia defectors described his behavior as a staged performance calculated to evade prosecution for his activities as head of a crime family that under his leadership became the wealthiest and most powerful in the nation.
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#1
Whats more worrisome for the Mafias, or should be, is the continuing selection of new. younger bosses and capos wid out the experience, skills, and espec self-discipline and network unity, etc. of the old bosses. 'Tis a reason, in part, of why the FBI under the RICO Act has been super-successful in putting bosses, capos, and soldiers into prison.
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.
Gun shop owners say handgun sales in Edmonton are skyrocketing since Prime Minister Paul Martin's promise to ban them. The Liberal Leader made the promise a few weeks ago during a campaign stop in Toronto.
TRENTON, N.J. - About 20 state Treasury Department officials accepted golf outings, cigars, gourmet chocolates and other gifts from a contractor, then looked the other way as the company overcharged New Jersey hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, a watchdog agency said Tuesday. 
Top officials at the Department of Homeland Security recently revealed that arrests for child sex crimes during the first two years of Operation Predator have exceeded 6,000 and 85 percent of them are criminal immigrants.
The king of Thailand rarely speaks, but when he does everyone listens -- and obeys. Even the country's powerful prime minister. A few words of royal rebuke against Prime Minister 
The five-star Sheraton Hotel in Harare faces closure amid reports that 
