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14 Arrested in Spain on Terror Charges
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 5: Russia-Former Soviet Union
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1 00:00 Raj [5] 
16 00:00 DMFD [11] 
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5 00:00 Redneck Jim [3] 
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13 00:00 Captain America [7]
2 00:00 Bright Pebbles in Blairistan [6]
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1 00:00 Sock Puppet of Doom [7]
3 00:00 Cyber Sarge [2]
3 00:00 Steve White [2]
5 00:00 trailing wife [7]
1 00:00 Excalibur [5]
1 00:00 Cyber Sarge [4]
5 00:00 Barbara Skolaut [8]
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Page 4: Opinion
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7 00:00 Jan from work [8]
4 00:00 jds [9]
4 00:00 Zenster [4]
3 00:00 Glaimble Protector of the Apes4393 [2]
2 00:00 Procopius2k [3]
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-Lurid Crime Tales-
Canada Seeks Man With Groin-Kick Request
GUELPH, Ontario -- Police in Ontario are looking for a man who allegedly approached women and asked them to kick him in the groin. Three women reported similar incidents to police over the past two months, and two of the women reported the suspect was on a bicycle. None of the women reported injuries.

Police Sgt. Cate Welsh said Monday the man's request is not a crime, but they are concerned nonetheless. "That kind of behavior tends to be a precursor to sexual assault. That's what we're trying to determine," Welsh said.
You kick a man in the groin and he's going to assault you ... how?
Posted by: Anonymoose || 05/28/2007 15:47 || Comments || Link || [9 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "That kind of behavior tends to be a precursor to sexual assault."

I don't think so--not if you kick him hard enough. I'd volunteer to oblige this Darwin candidate.
Posted by: JohnQC || 05/28/2007 18:05 Comments || Top||

#2  None of the women reported injuries.

Ambiguous. Did they kick or not?
Posted by: twobyfour || 05/28/2007 20:00 Comments || Top||

#3  "None of the women reported injuries."

Too bad he didn't ask me.... :-D
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 05/28/2007 23:06 Comments || Top||


-Short Attention Span Theater-
Gay Aussie hotel wins right to ban heterosexuals, les*bians
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 05/28/2007 12:56 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  That's so, um, tolerant...
Posted by: Raj || 05/28/2007 15:00 Comments || Top||


What can be done to make The View watchable?
Iowahawk and Jim Treacher debate the burning issue:

The Iowahawk View

Jim, in a recent post at the Daily Gut, you said that "I want to see an episode of [The View] where everyone is chained to the floor, audience included, and over the course of the hour the studio is slowly filled to the top with water. In particular, I want to watch the last 5 minutes." While I can't speak to your personal entertainment choices, I think you are grossly underestimating what it would take to make The View watchable to the average sentient human being. . . .

Rebuttal: Jim Treacher

Dear America-hating Communist:

I'm an idea man. I'm not really interested in your "logistic problems." Blah blah blah. We can put a man on the moon (allegedly), but you're telling me we can't drown a few clucking hens? . . .

Rejoinder: Iowahawk

. . . Oh, I suppose I could get on board with your plan if it included electric eels or a climactic shark release into the submerged studio; few of us can resist a bloody feeding frenzy, plus it would provide a potential promotional tie-in with the Discovery Channel. But it would also mean pumping in salt water, and the inevitable rust problems long after the janitors drain the studio and mop up the remains. . . .

Did I say "burning issue"? I meant "drowning".
Posted by: Mike || 05/28/2007 07:58 || Comments || Link || [11 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The view has never been watchable. Rosie leaving is good. The only thing better would have been to do what Iowahawk suggests. Maybe have the show in some mooselimb country with Rosie with a burqa about to get stoned for being a loud-mouthed useless idiot.
Posted by: JohnQC || 05/28/2007 9:42 Comments || Top||

#2  Elisabeth Hasselbeck is hot as H-E-double hockey sticks. I can think of all sorts of entertaining viewing.
Posted by: Excalibur || 05/28/2007 9:48 Comments || Top||

#3  Why would anybody care?

Maybe of some of the "fans" got off their dead asses and actually did something with their lives, they wouldn't have time to watch TV anyway.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 05/28/2007 9:53 Comments || Top||

#4  I say move it to Gaza or Tehran.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 05/28/2007 9:58 Comments || Top||

#5  If they got rid of the current batch and hired a bunch of hot dikes that got nekkid a lot....

I'd watch.
Posted by: DarthVader || 05/28/2007 9:59 Comments || Top||

#6  I'm so glad you posted this. It gives me a chance to link to this fine effort which you simply must see. (Not responsible for any eye or brain damage.)
Posted by: Angie Schultz || 05/28/2007 10:34 Comments || Top||

#7  thanks, Angie. Denny's a peach ;-)
Posted by: Frank G || 05/28/2007 10:37 Comments || Top||

#8  Nothing's better than The View.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 05/28/2007 10:56 Comments || Top||

#9  Elizabeth ("Survivor" airhead), ranted about stem-cells long before the fat clam diver came aboard.
Posted by: Gling Bucket7816 || 05/28/2007 11:40 Comments || Top||

#10  I don't understand why Rosie leaving would be a good thing. I would rather see Rosie retained, Barbara Streisand and some other kooks added. The more that Americas sees of the kooks the better.
Posted by: Super Hose || 05/28/2007 11:44 Comments || Top||

#11  #4 CF: "I say move it to Gaza or Tehran."

Now that I'd watch! :-D
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 05/28/2007 13:16 Comments || Top||

#12  What can be done to make The View watchable?

A.) Why bother?

B.) Who said it can be done?

C.) Who said it was in the first place?

Program directors demented enough to hire Rosie in the first place should be begging on street corners right about now.
Posted by: Zenster || 05/28/2007 15:44 Comments || Top||

#13  I suppose I could get on board with your plan if it included . . . a climactic shark release into the submerged studio

Now, if the sharks had laser beams on their heads . . . .
Posted by: Mike || 05/28/2007 21:55 Comments || Top||

#14  or even angry sea bass?
Posted by: Frank G || 05/28/2007 22:06 Comments || Top||

#15  How about use attractive women and dress them scantily.
Posted by: jds || 05/28/2007 22:12 Comments || Top||

#16  Nuke it from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.
Posted by: DMFD || 05/28/2007 22:37 Comments || Top||


U.S. Men Overwhelmed by Grocery Stores
So, this guy walked into a grocery store ... and got completely overwhelmed.

U.S. men are doing more and more grocery shopping, both for themselves and their families, but retailers are still not doing much to make the trip any more enticing, retail consultants and industry experts said.

"Men do represent a large part of grocery shopping dollars and they aren't being very well accommodated ... sales are being lost," Mandy Putnam, vice president at consulting firm TNS Retail Forward said.
Nah, their better half comes back later and get it, ya moron!

In a recent report titled "Men in Grocery Stores," Putnam said that men shop inefficiently, which leads to missed sales for retailers. Many men have difficulty finding items, forego buying rather than risk purchasing a substitute that their significant other would make them take back for an item on the grocery list and hesitate to ask for help if they can't find an item, Putnam said in her report.

"They never ask for help, except maybe from the butcher, but they always say they never had problems finding anything when the cashier at the register asks," she said.
They lie? Men lie? I'm offended that this article suggests men lie and perpetuates the stereotype that men don't ask for directions! I need a lawyer!
Posted by: Bobby || 05/28/2007 06:55 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Men don't shop for food. They don't gather food. They hunt. If the object of your hunt doesn't kill or maim you in the process, you either eat it there or drag it home for later use. How complicated can this be?
Posted by: Procopius2k || 05/28/2007 7:22 Comments || Top||

#2  "The other night, my wife wanted to make encaladas, but we were out of refried beans, so she sent me to Giant Eagle. I walked in, and . . . my God! The produce aisle! The potatoes; all those eyes watching me! It was too much--I was overwhelmed!

[collapses in sobbing heap]

"I'm sorry. I tried to be a man, but I'm not strong enough. Please forgive me."
Posted by: Mike || 05/28/2007 7:55 Comments || Top||

#3  That's ok. I'm overwhelmed by hardware stores, and by WalMart. And yet those businesses somehow not only survive, but make a profit.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/28/2007 8:16 Comments || Top||

#4  And then there's the whole paper-or-plastic bag thing. I order both 'cause I am a manly man.
Posted by: regular joe || 05/28/2007 8:28 Comments || Top||

#5  forego buying rather than risk purchasing a substitute that their significant other would make them take back

I hear you there.

I think there might be a fundamental difference between how men and women shop. Men tend to go in, get what they want, pay up and get the heck out. While women on the other hand go in and shop. Stroll up and down each and every isle and linger.
At least that has been my observation.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 05/28/2007 8:50 Comments || Top||

#6  boy.... weak news day, huh, Yahoo?

As a single Dad, I've never had much trouble finding food, meat, even Tampons for the daughter, and I didn't need help. Go figure. I guess it's because they group similar items together (rather than randomly scattered), and put signs above the aisles ...for us dumb guys
Posted by: Frank G || 05/28/2007 9:01 Comments || Top||

#7  Oh please.

Overwhelmed?! That's a girly word. Real men are never overwhelmed. By anything. Ever. We may choose not to play the silly game, but we are not overwhelmed.

I've been doing the grocery shopping for years and consider myself an expert. However, the article makes some valid points specifically -sales are being lost as men are not accommodated. I have a few suggestions:

1) Train your staff on customer service. It may seem I enjoy verbally beating the hell out of your checkout girl Buffy (I do!) when she and Skippy are yappy away about how wasted they were last night when she should be scanning my items and looking me in the eye. Beat it pimpleface. Go get it hard somewhere else 'cause I'm spending $200 bucks here and I want the order to be correct. Oh, I embarrassed you Buff? Well, let me tell you something sister, this is called 'work' for a reason. Socialize when you're off the clock. Still pissed at me? Hold on a sec - the service desk is only 5 steps away. Oh Ms. Manager, Buff here . . . .

2) Organize your shelf space into logical units. NOT what is frozen, what is dry packed, etc. You know, spaghetti, sauce, parmesian cheese, crushed red pepper flakes, etc. all together. Or pre-made pie crusts located close to pie fillings - NOT in the frozen food case. Pretzels absolutely must be where? That's correct class, by the beer. Sheese!

3) Again, train your staff. When stocking shelves, DO NOT park your loading carts side by side and block the &%#$ing aisle. I WILL move your boxes to get them out of my way and I really don't care where they end up. Got it?

Credit where it's due - I haven't noticed any carts with the one wobbly wheel since I hauled my tools in, flipped a cart over and commenced to work on it on a Saturday morning. You should have seen the look on your face when the law got there and said "Hey Gort, how's it going?" Priceless. Ignore me at your own peril.

Oh yeah, one last thing - this isn't the store's fault but could we do something about the two old ladies walking arm in arm, looking at everything, buying nothing but performing an excellent example of the Romulan Blocking Maneuver? Man that annoys me.
Posted by: GORT || 05/28/2007 9:21 Comments || Top||

#8  I am annoyed by the silly law that requires an older person to come over to scan my beer.
Either hire older workers or buy politicians that will change that stupid law.
Posted by: 3dc || 05/28/2007 9:32 Comments || Top||

#9  From TFA: retailers are still not doing much to make the trip any more enticing, retail con or am used tosultants and industry experts said

How's about: you shop or you starve.

But seriously, I shop at one store without regard to price because it has everything I need. I don't get overwhelmed in a new store; I get irritated that the store I usually shop at didn't have the item I wanted, and I invite my irratability along for the trip to the new store. He seems to enjoy it.
Posted by: badanov || 05/28/2007 9:35 Comments || Top||

#10  As is almost always the case when a women writes about mans behavior, she's wrong. Note to all female journalists: When writing about male behavior, talk to one first.

Its not that its difficult to find items. Its that the grocery store is full of items that we don't know what to do with. When women are an item, they know. What they can make with it, and if they think they might want to make said item, they pick up the requisite ingredients. Whereas when men go shopping, we haven't a clue what these items can be used for, so we never even give them a look.

That and I suspect a mans tendency is to impulse shop is probably mostly limited to snack items and females would be more likely to impulse buy a an entire meal or dessert ingredients etc.
Posted by: Mike N. || 05/28/2007 9:58 Comments || Top||

#11  #5 CFL "Men tend to go in, get what they want, pay up and get the heck out. While women on the other hand go in and shop."

Not this woman, in a grocery store or elsewhere.* I go, get what I want, and get the hell out of there.

*I will browse in bookstores, but I don't consider that shopping - that's hunting and gatherin for the mind and soul. ;-p
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 05/28/2007 10:00 Comments || Top||

#12  gathering

Why, yes, I am Southern - why do you ask?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 05/28/2007 10:02 Comments || Top||

#13  What's the big deal? Spaghetti, meat, chili, chips, salsa, and beer. A few veggies here and there that'll mostly go into the spaghetti sauce or the chili or as a side with the meat. Oh, and maybe some more meat to go on the grill (gotta' grab a bag of charcoal too) and some barbecue sauce, taco fixin's (especially the spices and peppers), and other such stuff.

Overwhelmed? Hardly. What's that about my cholesterol? It's fine, don't worry and it's my business anyway - unless I drop dead of a stroke or heart attack in one of the store's aisles and then I won't really care anyway, right?

Barb - you're southern? No, really?

:-)

Does chicken count as a meat? Doesn't matter as long as it grills up, fries, or broils nicely.

Posted by: FOTSGreg || 05/28/2007 10:50 Comments || Top||

#14  No, I never go in those places. I need something that respects my hunter/warrior heritage, and down-plays all of that girlish browsing.

For a start, the whole idea of checkouts is ass-backwards. You should pay as you go in. Instead of regimented shelves (dangerous defiles in my mind), you should stride into a space that is more open, where no-one would dare get in your way.

To one side would be corrals, filled with a variety of critters. You would butcher your own, using store supplied knives, axes and the like, and take whatever cuts you want. There would be friendly competition with the other guys for the choicer animals. Sorta like Lord of the Flies, but with better weapons. Offcuts would be left to the less discerning shoppers.

On the other side would be a variery of bushes and trees that would supply all of your non-meat requirements. You know, spaghetti trees, pizza bushes and the like.

So, once you have what you want, you head for the exit. On the way out, beers are awarded, based on how well you have demonstrated your hunting style, with extra points for rebel yells, and deductions for injuries.

Yep, that is how real men should shop. Nice and quick. Get what you need and out of there.
Posted by: Bunyip || 05/28/2007 11:08 Comments || Top||

#15  Ahem, this man had NO problem going to the store and shopping for food. I make a list, drive tot he store, gather the items, pay for them, return home, and put them away. Funny I have never ever not found something I was looking for, never wet myself during the pocess, and didn't fall to the floor in a fit because I thought I was "overwhelmed" by the experience.
Posted by: Cyber Sarge || 05/28/2007 12:21 Comments || Top||

#16  Oh I get it now, of the Democratic contenders for the White House THEY are "completely overwhelmed" by a trip to the grocery store. I mean really can you picture Edwards or Obama with a shopping cart? No neither can I.
Posted by: Cyber Sarge || 05/28/2007 12:32 Comments || Top||

#17  Grocery Store Shock and Awe™ to dems, I guess. Maybe the intimidated shoppers should have a separate 400 sq ft room with a few items on sale to build up their confidence to the BIG SPACE. You shop like you train. I guess.......
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 05/28/2007 13:18 Comments || Top||

#18  What's hard about shopping for food? You review your current bench stock, make a list of those parts you are low on, go to the supply depot, compare prices for best value, review any new products against future mission requirements, fill your cart and take them to the computer scanner and present your card. Simple.

Now, buying my wife a gift, that's hard.
Posted by: Steve || 05/28/2007 13:21 Comments || Top||

#19  just hunt for the food groups and buy catch them.
Posted by: RD || 05/28/2007 14:57 Comments || Top||

#20  There are so many choices at the booze necessity store. I could wander around in there forever. The rest of the stuff is easy.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 05/28/2007 15:00 Comments || Top||

#21  I was really overwhelmed when I went 'shopping' yesterday. Should I buy three pounds of baby back ribs, or should I buy four?

That has to be the dumbest article I've read all year...
Posted by: Raj || 05/28/2007 15:05 Comments || Top||

#22  Overwhelmed at the grocery store? nah. Why? that's women's work. leave me in the autoparts store or any decent hardware store (real hardwood floors preferred) to fondle the grade 8 bolts and stainless steel cotter keys, and i'm good for the day, but don't ask me to be successful with a list more that one item long at the safeway.....
Posted by: USN, ret. || 05/28/2007 18:22 Comments || Top||

#23  Not Goceries, but a comment on shopping in general...
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 05/28/2007 18:37 Comments || Top||

#24  The only valid point this article makes concerns how the stores are losing money by not making an effort to target their male customers. It's slowly happening with salty snacks being placed near the beer and grill seasonings displayed at the meat counter, but there's still a long way to go.

As to the inference that men do not how to shop, that's horseradish. Just the other day I had to instruct some women about how to purchase corn on the cob. They were husking it in the store which starts the sugar to starch conversion process and initiates moisture loss on the spot. I also had to show them how to inspect ears before purchase, looking for small kernels in tight straight rows.

Few people I see, male or female shop intelligently. Not very many use coupons and frequently select brand name items whose cost is often double of others while not being much better in quality. I assiduously clip coupons and save on the order of $1,000 - $2,000 per year. Some examples:

A 4.58 pound Bone-In Pork Shoulder at 79¢ per pound. By carefully selecting mine, I managed to get all of 2-3 ounces of bone in my cut. That's a $12.78 piece of meat for all of $3.62.

30 oz. Best Foods / Hellman's Mayonnaise @ 2 for $5.00 with a 50¢ off coupon. That's $2.25 each for a $3.99 jar of mayo. More often I pay $1.99 per jar.

6.4 oz. Aquafresh Toothpaste @ $1.00 each instead of $2.79 apiece.

30 oz. tin of Rosarita Refried Beans @ $1.00 each instead of $2.49 apiece.

Seven tins of the beans, two jars of the mayo and four of the toothpaste equaled $16.98 for $39.39 worth of groceries. All of the items have prolonged shelf life and I saved over $20.00 on a $17.00 purchase. Store receipts typically indicate between 33% and 50% savings on nearly all of my shopping trips.

You can also realize tremedous savings at bakery outlet shops. I buy a +$3.00 24 oz. / 22 slice loaf of bread for $1.39. The higher quality means they use slightly more preservatives and one loaf lasts me an entire month without going bad. A $1.00 loaf from Foodmaxx or Target not only weighs less but is less than half the quality in terms of density of crumb and goes bad with in two weeks or less. I picked up a 16 oz. six pack of Coulumbo sourdough sandwich rolls that sells for over $3.00 for only $1.00. If I don't use them all and one or two go bad, I don't have to worry about discarding a whopping 33¢ worth of chow.

Preprocessed foods are the biggest burn of all. Not only do they cost well over double or triple of the raw ingredients, they are also frequently much higher in sodium, sugar and other artificial ingredients or extenders.

Now, you'll have to excuse me, I just butterflied off a nice chunk from my pork shoulder, hammered it onto a long strip, dusted it with a Chinese dry rub of 5 spice powder, white pepper plus powdered mustard, ginger, onion and garlic. I've rolled up some ngau-yook kaau (dim sum beef meatball mixture) inside, trussed it with twine and basted the entire thing with homemade char-siu Chinese BBQ sauce. It's heading for a low flame grill right now. This thing is either going to flop miserably of be one of my best receipes ever and I'm about to find out.
Posted by: Zenster || 05/28/2007 21:08 Comments || Top||

#25  MR, the female was apparently hungry.
I always feed my females before shopping. ;-)
Posted by: twobyfour || 05/28/2007 21:22 Comments || Top||

#26  Grocery stores need to be made more appealing to guys. I suggest the following:

A guy turns the corner and enters the beverage isle. Sees a row of coolers filled with beer. A supermarket worker runs up to him hands him a martial arts weapon, bows and leaves.

Guy: WTF?
[Ninja drops down from the ceiling]
Ninja: Before you take that beer, you must fight me to the death!! Prepare yourself! Hyaaaaa!!!
Posted by: DMFD || 05/28/2007 22:46 Comments || Top||

#27  #26 - and then the guy pulls out his ACP .45, blows away the ninja, gets the beer, stops off at the ammo aisle to pick up some more 45s, buys a cigar to celebrate, and goes home.
After all, this is the new convenience store, Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
Posted by: Rambler || 05/28/2007 23:07 Comments || Top||

#28  Ah, Zenster, one needs a certain kind of brain to do that -- the first part anyway. I married into a family of shoppers, but am totally incapable, despite trying really, really hard over the years, of doing so myself. I simply cannot keep comparison prices in my head. I've tried the coupon thingy, tried keeping lists of all the things I buy regularly and which shops have the best prices for them, tried making lists of sale items at all the nearby shops. This is as painful and unsuccessful as picking paint colours or wallpaper... and as likely to end with me in an ambulance with a stroke. *shrug*
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/28/2007 23:30 Comments || Top||


Some people have no sense of humor
The parent company of the Carl's Jr. and Hardee's fast food chains sued rival Jack In The Box Inc. on Friday to stop TV ads that it says suggest Carl's Jr. and Hardee's use cow anus to make Angus beef hamburgers.
I thought the truth was legal. Perhaps we are about to find out.
CKE Restaurants Inc. sued Jack In The Box in U.S. District Court on Friday over an ad in which executives laugh hysterically at the word "Angus" and another where the chain's pingpong ball-headed mascot, Jack, is asked to point to a diagram of a cow and show where Angus meat comes from.
W needs to hire this guy to deal with Murtha, Reid, et al.
"I'd rather not," the pointy-nosed Jack replies.
Thereby making Carl's the butt of the joke.
The employee asking the question traces a circle in the air with his pen while pronouncing the word Angus.
You mean like an "O", as in Pel-O-si?
CKE claims the ads create the misleading impression that Jack In The Box's new 100 percent sirloin burgers use a better quality of meat than the Angus beef used by Carl's Jr. and Hardee's. CKE claims the spots confuse consumers by comparing sirloin, a cut of meat found on all cattle, with Angus, which is a breed of cattle.
Personally, I couldn't give a $hit.
Executives at San Diego-based Jack In The Box had not seen the lawsuit and could not respond, company spokeswoman Kathleen Anthony said.
Must have been too busy giving each other high-fives for all the free advertising they were about to get compliments of their rival's masochistic tendencies.
Restaurants owned by Burger King Holdings Inc. and McDonald's Corp. also serve Angus beef burgers.
This ad might have wrecked 'em all.
CKE is known for running controversial ads for its chains, including one featuring a scantily clad Paris Hilton washing a car while eating a burger. But CKE claims the Jack In the Box ads go too far.
It's all about the meat.
"They're not being funny," CKE chief executive Andrew F. Puzder said Friday. "They need to stop misleading people about what Angus beef is."
Pudzer? Who are you to say what's funny or not? Better find a guy with a better name to make this statement.
Puzder said that the company asked Jack In the Box to drop the ads, but that the chain refused and pointed to a Carl's Jr. TV spot suggesting Carl's Jr. milk shakes were superior to those served by competitors.
Turnabout is fair play! :)
Puzder said the comparison was not valid because the Carl's Jr. ads did not suggest that Jack In the Box shakes were made from milk that came from an unsavory part of the cow.
What do you mean unsavory? You want unsavory? Try any part of Rosie the cow.
Posted by: gorb || 05/28/2007 06:03 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Somewhere, someone is saying, "You are so fired."
Posted by: Zenster || 05/28/2007 15:36 Comments || Top||

#2  Wait, milk comes from cows ?
Posted by: wxjames || 05/28/2007 17:28 Comments || Top||

#3  Wait, milk comes from cows ?
Posted by: wxjames || 05/28/2007 17:30 Comments || Top||

#4  CKE claims the spots confuse consumers by comparing sirloin, a cut of meat found on all cattle, with Angus, which is a breed of cattle.

Only if they think their customers are as stupid as the people in the commercials. I saw it. It was funny.

Didn't make me want to eat at Jack-in-the-Box, though. I did so once, in 1974, I think it was. Never again.
Posted by: Angie Schultz || 05/28/2007 17:56 Comments || Top||

#5  Yep that's why the taco bell dog commercials vanished, they were funny, but didn't increase sales.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 05/28/2007 19:07 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Ethiopia Honors Victims of Marxist Junta
Thousands of Ethiopians gathered in the capital on Sunday to remember victims of a brutal Marxist junta, weeping at the sight of flower-covered coffins with remains from mass graves across the country. The service marked the anniversary of the downfall of the junta's leader, Mengistu Haile Mariam -- known as "the butcher of Addis Ababa" -- who is living in exile in Zimbabwe.

Some experts say 150,000 university students, intellectuals and politicians were killed in a nationwide purge by Mengistu's Marxist regime, the Dergue, though no one knows for sure. Even those who were young during the 1974-1991 regime carried dark memories of the Red Terror, the 1977-78 siege when the government killed and imprisoned thousands of people.

Ahmed Hussein said that three decades ago police brought his younger brother home from jail and asked the family to gather outside. "They shot him in front of us," Ahmed said, his eyes welling with tears. "We were not allowed to cry."

Elderly women clutched black-and-white photographs of loved ones and wailed during the ceremony. "I used to see dead bodies on the street when I went to school," said Michael Melake, 35, an environmental activist. "It was like a kind of Holocaust for Ethiopia," he said.

The government is planning to erect a monument, library and museum in the capital to commemorate the victims.

Muluadem Assefa, 39, clutched a photo of her father, Assefa Casa, whom she believes was killed in jail in the 1970s. She never saw her father again after he was taken to jail.

Ethiopia, which has a long history of human rights abuses, will not see another Red Terror, said Deputy Prime Minister Addisu Legese, who attended Sunday's ceremony. "This will never, never happen again," he said. "We have fought for that."
This article starring:
Mengistu Haile Mariam
Posted by: Anonymoose || 05/28/2007 15:54 || Comments || Link || [9 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Howm Useless.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 05/28/2007 19:50 Comments || Top||

#2  who is living in exile in Zimbabwe

As economic advisor?
Posted by: Jackal || 05/28/2007 23:41 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Commission Members Probed for Forced Entry and Murder
Authorities are investigating a case of murder involving an alleged forced entry into a house and the beating to death of a citizen by members of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice. The deceased has been identified as Sulaiman Al-Huraisi, 28. He is survived by his wife and an eight-year-old child.

According to the brother of the deceased, Ali Al-Huraisi, the commission members entered his brother’s house in Al-Oraija district in Riyadh on Wednesday evening. They suspected him of possessing alcohol. “When they came into the house, they failed to show proper respect to the people there. There were women in the house as well as a six-month-old infant,” Al-Huraisi told Arab News. “It’s strange how these people ask women on the street where their male guardians are and yet they take it upon themselves to break into a house where there are women without having a female commission member present.”

Al-Huraisi said: “Everyone in the house, including my elderly father, was arrested and taken to the Oraija commission center,” he said. The father of the deceased said that commission members continued to beat his handcuffed son, even though he was already covered in blood, until he died at the center.

Ali Al-Huraisi said that he was not against the work of the commission in the Kingdom, but pointed out, “Even if they did establish that my brother had alcohol in the house, their mission is only to detain him and turn him over to the relevant authorities.” He said that his brother’s human rights had been completely violated and that by their acts, the commission members had shown they felt free to act as judge, jury and executioner. He went on to say, “Even terrorists — people who plot to destroy our nation — are not harmed when they surrender to security officers. They are arrested and are investigated by authorities. But they treated my brother as if he were worse than a terrorist. In fact, they did not treat him as a human being at all. He was detained after forced entry into his house and beaten to death before the eyes of his own family.”

He said that he had refused to accept his brother’s body from the morgue and would do so “only after we are recognized as human beings with dignity. I call on Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah and Crown Prince Sultan, as well as senior Saudi officials, to establish justice and return honor to our family.”

Interior Minister Prince Naif last year limited the powers of the commission to arresting suspects and handing them over to police. Security authorities will later hand the suspects and a report over to the Commission for Investigation.

The directive states: “The missions of all committees set up under the regional governorates (for investigative purposes) have been transferred to the Commission for Investigation.” A copy of the directive was sent to all governors and to the heads of both commissions, the Saudi Press Agency reported.

A spokesman for Riyadh police, Maj. Sami Al-Shuwairikh, told Arab News that the investigation into the alleged murder was ongoing. “It is still too early to announce the results of the investigation. Only when the investigation has been completed will we be able to establish whether the death was an act of murder,” he added. The officer denied a Reuters news agency report that the case had been transferred to the Interior Ministry.

Public criticism of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice has increased over the past year. The president of the commission, Sheikh Ibrahim Al-Ghaith, told Arab News in an interview in March that “members of the commission are not above the law.” He said that commission members, like any person, were subject to punishment if proven guilty of an offense. His statement, however, contradicts a fatwa (religious ruling or edict) issued 40 years ago which states that members of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice may not be tried. Al-Ghaith was unavailable for comment yesterday.

In a report issued last week, the National Society for Human Rights (NSHR) cited a number of human rights violations by commission members. These violations, the NSHR report pointed out, are also violations of international treaties to which the Kingdom is a signatory.

In the report, the NSHR mentioned that members of the commission had forcefully entered houses, beaten people and humiliated them during investigations, confiscated personal belongings and carried out unnecessary body searches.
Posted by: Fred || 05/28/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under:

#1  That's why I joined the CFTPOVAPOV. The unnecessary body searches! Va va voom!
Posted by: gromky || 05/28/2007 6:10 Comments || Top||

#2  Isn't "forced entry" a type of probe?

/ducking & running>
Posted by: FOTSGreg || 05/28/2007 10:52 Comments || Top||


Down Under
Pipe bomb found near APEC venue
Posted by: Wholumble Floque6709 || 05/28/2007 07:02 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:


Europe
Swedish police: don't copy flaming boy
Police and school officials in Jonkoping, Sweden, are warning local students not to emulate a boy who lit himself on fire and jumped in a lake.

A video posted on the Internet depicts the boy covering himself in gasoline, setting himself ablaze and jumping into a swimming area at Tahesjon lake, The Local reported Monday.

The police said the boy could have gone into shock. They are planning a series of lectures at the teen's school explaining the dangers of making videos of dangerous stunts.

School officials in the town, meanwhile, are meeting with the parents of about 20 students who were present at the taping and cheered the fire-clad boy on.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 05/28/2007 14:19 || Comments || Link || [9 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Morons-R-Us heard from again.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 05/28/2007 19:53 Comments || Top||

#2  Sorry, no Award. Nice try, though. Better luck next time.
Posted by: Charles Darwin || 05/28/2007 20:51 Comments || Top||

#3  No guarantee the lad didn't permanently damage his reproductive apparatus, Mr. Darwin. Let's continue to hope.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/28/2007 20:55 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
Bhutan Holds Mock Elections Preparing For Democracy
The isolated kingdom of Bhutan took another step toward democracy Monday as voters lined up for the final round of a mock parliamentary election, officials said.

The vote is part of a "dress rehearsal" for a 2008 election in Bhutan, part of a remarkable transformation of the 100-year-old monarchy that is changing the world's last Buddhist kingdom into a democracy.

"Observers from the U.N., India and Denmark are monitoring the elections and we expect this final phase of the mock polls to pass off without a hitch," said Kunzang Wangdi, Bhutan's Chief Election Commissioner.

Last year, Bhutan's king declared his intention to step down in 2008, allowing national elections and parliamentary democracy. Under the new plan, which becomes effective after next year's vote, the king would become head of state and parliament would have the power to impeach him by a two-thirds vote.

The mock election is between the Druk Yellow party, which promises the "preservation of Bhutan's culture and tradition," and the Druk Red party, which would push "industry-led development."

Only 51 percent of the registered voters voted during the mock election's first round of polling on April 21, but authorities hoped Monday's turnout would be larger. Officials said they expected close to 300,000 registered voters to participate out of a population estimated between 700,000 and 2.2 million.

Nepal-based separatists have threatened to carry out bomb attacks in Bhutan during Monday's mock voting, and Bhutanese authorities have deployed soldiers to maintain calm.

Nepalese newspapers have published warnings by the Bhutan Tiger Force (BTF), the armed wing of the Bhutan Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist-Maoist), a group formed by Bhutanese refugees currently living in Nepal.

More than 100,000 Nepali-speaking people from southern Bhutan have been living in refugee camps in Nepal after fleeing Bhutan in the early 1990s. They fled after Bhutan launched a crackdown on their anti-monarchy and pro-democracy movement.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 05/28/2007 15:51 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Kind of like Massachusetts.
Posted by: Jackal || 05/28/2007 23:42 Comments || Top||



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Two weeks of WOT
Mon 2007-05-28
  14 Arrested in Spain on Terror Charges
Sun 2007-05-27
  U.S. Military Rescues 41 Iraqis From Al Qaeda Prison
Sat 2007-05-26
  Nangahar big turban snagged
Fri 2007-05-25
  Dems blink: House Approves War-Funding Bill
Thu 2007-05-24
  Israel seizes Hamas leaders in West Bank
Wed 2007-05-23
  PLO backs army entry into Nahr al-Bared
Tue 2007-05-22
  Hamas threatens new wave of suicide attacks
Mon 2007-05-21
  Leb army lays siege to camp as fight continues
Sun 2007-05-20
  Leb army takes on Fatah al-Islam at Paleo camp
Sat 2007-05-19
  White House rejects Democrats' offer on war spending bill
Fri 2007-05-18
  9 dead after bomb explodes at India's oldest Mosque
Thu 2007-05-17
  IDF tanks enter Gaza Strip
Wed 2007-05-16
  Chlorine boom kills 20 in Diyala
Tue 2007-05-15
  Paleo interior minister quits
Mon 2007-05-14
  Extra troops as Karachi death toll mounts


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