#3
Brett, to me this is aproblem that cries out for further research.
Of course, somehow I doubt that my wife will approve my research grant request...
#12
Does being airborne qualified help with the inspections.
The thought of a 20 lb breast leaves me completely speechless. That is at least six cubic handfuls
Two molar teeth of around 63,400 years old show that Neanderthal predecessors of humans may have been dental hygiene fans, the Web site of newspaper El Pais reported on Tuesday.
The teeth have "grooves formed by the passage of a pointed object, which confirms the use of a small stick for cleaning the mouth," Palaeontology Professor Juan Luis Asuarga told reporters, presenting an archaeological find in Madrid. The fossils, unearthed in Pinilla del Valle, are the first human examples found in the Madrid region in 25 years, the regional government's culture department said.
Neanderthals were predecessors of modern humans who inhabited much of Europe, North Africa and parts of Asia from about 125,000 to 30,000 years ago. "There are two (teeth), perfectly preserved, in which the wear and tear of a human of about 30 years old is perceptible," a government statement said.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/12/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
I figure that's probably around the last time Mr. Tooth Decay brushed his too...
#2
I was going to attempt a snark about Neanderthals being more evolved than muslims using al Tater as an obvious example. But I think it might be more accurate to say that muslims have actually devolved as a result of inbreeding, arranged marriages, polygamy, and the toxic effects of their peculiar superstitious beliefs.
Happy Ramadan from the boys at Halliburton: Earthquake/Tsunami Division...
JAKARTA, Indonesia - A powerful earthquake hit Indonesia on Wednesday, causing buildings to sway strongly in the capital, and authorities issued a tsunami warning for much of the Indian Ocean region. The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake had a preliminary magnitude of 7.9 and hit at about 6:10 p.m. (7:10 a.m. EDT). It was centered 9.7 miles underground in the southern Sumatra area, the USGS said.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued a tsunami warning for wide areas of the region. "Earthquakes of this size have the potential to generate a widespread destructive tsunami that can affect coastlines across the entire Indian Ocean Basin," it said.
In Jakarta, tall buildings swayed for several minutes, and occupants rushed down the stairs to escape.
JAKARTA, Indonesia - A massive earthquake struck Indonesia on Wednesday, triggering a tsunami in the town of Padang and warnings for much of the Indian Ocean region, authorities said. The quake caused tall buildings to sway in a least four countries.
A wave of up to nine feet was reported to have hit Padang about 20 minutes after the quake, said Suhardjono, an official with Indonesia's meteorological agency, who goes by only one name.
#5
And just last night i was watching a show on The Weather Channel about the 12/26/2004 tsunamis in that part of the world; had no idea it was really the pre-game show....
#6
Not a bent nickel, not a rusty canteen, not a used syringe, not a broken down generator, not even a bottle of outdated aspirin for these ungrateful terrorist bastards.
The Zimbabwean cleric and opponent of President Robert G. Mugabe who was accused of adultery after an apparent government sex sting said Tuesday that the Vatican had accepted his resignation as archbishop of Bulawayo.
In a written statement, the bishop, Pius Ncube, said that he was stepping down to spare my fellow bishops and the body of the Church any further attacks. The Vatican confirmed the announcement in its own one-sentence statement, citing a church canon that earnestly requests the resignation of a bishop who has become less able to fulfill his office because of ill health or some other grave cause.
Bishop Ncube said that he would remain a Catholic bishop. Some of his supporters predicted that his resignation would leave him freer to raise the humanitarian and human-rights issues that had become the preoccupation of his work as archbishop in Bulawayo, Zimbabwes second-largest city.
But some also expressed surprise that the Vatican so willingly accepted his resignation, which was tendered days after the sexual accusations became public. While the church speaks out regularly on humanitarian issues, they said, it has had relatively little to say about the social and economic collapse in Zimbabwe, whose leader, Mr. Mugabe, is a Catholic.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/12/2007 00:00 ||
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The article doesn't say what will happen next, but I bet he heads off to someplace, anyplace with food and water...
LUCKNOW: Saudi Arabias king Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud might succeed where Bollywood icon Amitabh Bachchan has failed. A communication to the ministry of external affairs from Saudi monarchs Haj minister Al Farsi seeks assurance that all pilgrims from India are innoculated against polio before boarding their flights for Mecca.
How 'bout Pakistan and Nigeria?
The pre-condition, though highly unusual as the virus is known to afflict children under five, may come in handy in busting several polio myths among Muslims resistant towards the vaccination drive.
Now, with September 15 deadline for registering for Haj round the corner, maulvis, maulanas and other hajis might want to queue up before polio booths in each tehsil, take the drops, and procure medical certificate to prove they are vaccinated. But not all of them are pleased: some clergymen have vowed to lodge official protest against the "unreasonable demand".
Though saddled with the sudden additional burden of vaccinating nearly 30,000 adults, there is a buzz of excitement among officials in UPs health department. For, it could well end the prevalent misconception among large sections of UP Muslims that polio drops are a conspiracy against them to render them infertile.
An official communique dated August 22 from Haj Committee of India to UP Haj Committee categorically lays down that "every pilgrim must be in possession of a medical certificate indicating that he or she has taken the oral polio dose before obtaining visa". The visa for Haj, says the letter signed by committees executive officer A M Mukaddam, would only be issued to those who have vaccination certificates with their passports. Incidentally, the drops will be repeated once the pilgrims reach Saudi Arabia.
According to Syed Afaq Khan, former secretary of state Haj comittee, this demand had come up last year as well. But then, it wasnt a precondition for the issuance of visa. The demand, Khan recalled, "had led to much resentment among pilgrims. Some of them created scenes at polio booths which the committee had set up at the airport".
This year, the Haj committee of India tried to reason with the Saudis over the futility of such an exercise, according to its CEO Ovais Ahmed. Talking to TOI on phone from Mumbai, Ahmed said that minister of state for external affairs E Ahmad, who led a delegation to Saudi Arabia in May, tried to convince his Saudi counterpart to do away with the condition as polio virus affected only children.
The matter came up for discussion on July 22 between a meeting of ministries of external affairs, health and Haj committee with World Health Organisation. "WHO officials supported the Saudi demand, overruling all our objections," Ovais said.
Government officials are already chalking out an extensive vaccination programme. "This could mean administration of polio drops at night because Ramzan begins on September 13 and they will turn up for drops only after roza," said a UPHC functionary. Though neck deep in work for the next round of polio drops on November 11, health officials arent complaining.
Posted by: john frum ||
09/12/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Adults can get polio too. Consider FDR.
Oh, wait. That's Western History. It doesn't exist.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
09/12/2007 0:15 Comments ||
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#2
How 'bout Pakistan and Nigeria?
Ssshhhhhh...this is the big plot to make India impotent! Or was it sterile? Or was it both?
#1
Prices don't reflect this. Either they are just raising the authorized output to match what they are already producing, or they are already producing all they can and raising the authorized amount is irrelevant.
Appears there's lots of Loose Change jangling around in Fidel's head?
(AP) Fidel Castro says that Cuba once saved the life of U.S. President Ronald Reagan by giving American officials information about an assassination plot. The essay published Wednesday in the Communist Party daily Granma appeared to be Castro's first public description of the matter. It seemed to be aimed at showing that Cuba had cooperated with the United States in the past. So secret, nobody knows about it...
Castro wrote that a Cuban security official stationed at the United Nations told U.S. mission security chief Robert C. Muller about an extreme right-wing group that was planning to assassinate Reagan during a planned trip to North Carolina in 1984. "The information was complete: the names of those implicated in the plan; day, time and hour where the assassination could occur; the type of weapon the terrorists had and where they kept their arms; and along with all that, the meeting place of those elements planning the action as well as a brief summary of what had occurred in said meeting," Castro wrote. The Colenel, in the library, with the candlestick...
Castro wrote that Cuban authorities learned later that the FBI had arrested several people in North Carolina and he said that several days after that, Muller expressed America's thanks to the Cuban official over lunch in a U.N. dining room. Yeah, "Assassination Plot Against Reagan Foiled With Cuban Help". That would never make the papers...
The Cuban leader also wrote that when Reagan survived an assassination attempt in 1981, Havana formally condemned the act during a meeting with the head of the U.S. Interests Section in Cuba, Wayne Smith. Were they sorry Jodie's boyfriend missed?
The press office of the U.S. State Department's Western Hemisphere Affairs in Washington did not immediately respond to a telephone call requesting comment. Ummmmmmmm...ummmmmmmmm...we'll get back to you.
Smith confirmed the 1981 meeting in Havana, though he said he had not heard about the 1984 plot. "But just because I never heard about it doesn't mean it didn't happen," said Smith, who left Havana in 1982 and is now at the Center for International Policy think tank in Washington. "It isn't the kind of thing that the U.S. would want widely known." ...like those fake moon landings.
Castro also accused the U.S. government of misleading the public about the Sept. 11 attacks in New York and Washington six years ago. "It is now known there was deliberate disinformation" about the attacks, the Cuban leader wrote. "We were tricked like everybody else on the planet." Kinda like when I told everybody I wasn't a commie way back when... More:
In an essay read by a Cuban television presenter on Tuesday night, Castro said the Pentagon was hit by a rocket, not a plane, because no traces were found of its passengers. Whaddya think, Fidel? Aliens? Or will that be the shocking conclusion to "Lost"? "Studying the impact of planes, similar to those that hit the Twin Towers, that had accidentally fallen on densely populated cities, one concludes that it was not a plane that crashed into the Pentagon," Castro said. "Only a projectile could have caused the geometrically round hole that allegedly was made by the plane," he said. That's true. After years of extensive study of Road Runner cartoons, I see that whenever Wyle E. Coyote runs through a wall, he leaves a perfect silhouette of...Wyle E. Coyote! Every time! Castro said the truth behind the September 11 attacks with hijacked planes that killed nearly 3,000 people will probably never be known. Castro's 4,256-word essay made no mention of Osama bin Laden and his militant Islamist al Qaeda network behind the attacks on New York's World Trade Center and Washington. Oh. Yeah. That guy...
#2
...Ya know, if this HAD happened, in 1984 the press was as rabidly against Regan as they are against Bush. The leak would have been so fast that it would have made Noah's flood look like a spring shower, and the media would have been DEMANDING that Reagan make nice to Cuba immediately.
Somewhere, RR is reading this and laughing his head off.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
09/12/2007 17:28 Comments ||
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#3
HMMMMMM, HMMMMMMM, North Carolina...Perhaps Russia's dying birth rates, North Korea's Kimmie's probs wid the Military and Wannabes, and 000's of rioting former Chicom soldiers, etc. has jolted something in Castro???
In a new outburst of antiwestern sabre-rattling, President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela has threatened Britain with revenge for the Falklands war of 1982. The belligerent Latin American leftist warned last week that his recent build-up of sophisticated Russian and Iranian weapons would be used to destroy the British fleet if it attempted to return to the South Atlantic.
I wasn't aware that Venezuela had a dog in that fight ...
Speaking on his weekly television show Alo Presidente (Hello, Mr President), Chavez denounced what he described as Britains illegal occupation of the Falklands and repeated his call for a regional military alliance against Britain and the United States. If we had been united in the last war, we could have stopped the old empire, Chavez said, as he gesticulated to maps showing how Venezuelan aircraft and submarines would intercept British warships. Today we could sink the British fleet.
Chavez has often expressed support for Argentinas claim to the Falklands, but his latest broadside was notable for both its anti-British vitriol and its unprecedented threats.
What's unusual about the vitriol?
He declared that British history was stained with the blood of South Americas indigenous people and demanded revenge for the cowardly sinking of the General Belgrano, the Argentine cruiser.
Yup, armed warship sunk in a war zone by another armed warship in a time of war.
Western diplomats have long grown used to harangues from Chavez. But US and British officials have recently become more concerned by his willingness to lavish billions of dollars from Venezuelas soaring oil income on military capabilities.
On his TV programme, Chavez introduced a group of 30 Venezuelan pilots who were trained in Russia to fly a squadron of 24 Sukhoi SU-30 multi-role drones fighters. The aircraft were part of a $3 billion armaments deal with Moscow.
Chavez has also bought 100,000 AK-47 assault rifles and negotiated to set up a Kalashnikov factory in Venezuela. He has reportedly ordered nine Russian diesel submerged targets submarines, including the cruise missile-carrying 677E Amur-class vessel.
The Venezuelan pilots told him they would soon be training with medium-range BrahMos missiles, a supersonic antiship cruise missile jointly developed by India and Russia.
US officials also fear that Chavez may be seeking nuclear technology from his contacts with Iran and North Korea. He is discussing a possible joint programme with Tehran to build an unmanned drone aircraft similar to the American Predator and has long been engaged in a regional attempt to promote military cooperation against the US.
So far most of his neighbours have shied away from confrontation with Washington, but Chavez is continuing to press for the creation of a single South American army.
With himself as the generalissimo, of course.
His outspoken attacks on Britain and his support for Buenos Aires have gone down well in Argentina, where President Nestor Kirchners wife, Cristina, is the favourite to succeed her husband in elections next month.
While there is no indication that either of the Kirchners wants to precipitate a new crisis over the Falklands, military analysts say Venezuelas lengthening military reach might seriously impede any British attempt to dispatch a new task force.
Oh come on. The Hugoites can't control the middle of the bloody ocean. The Brits may safely ignore him should there be another dust-up over the Falklands. And a reminder to Presidente Senora Kirchner; the Falklands aren't a push-over any more. There's a squadron of Phantoms and plenty of Royal Marines there. That about makes it an even fight from the get-go.
#2
Two Dutch islands right off the coast of Venezuala. I doubt the Dutch would have the will to retake them. I wonder if this is one more step in Chavez preparing his people for such a move.
#5
Three islands actually. Aruba, Bonaire, and Curacao. You can see Venezuela from Aruba.
The Dutch might not have the will to take them back but there's lots and lots of Americans down there all the time. Hugo best not give us an excuse...
#6
There are three Dutch islands near the coast of Venezula, Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao, the ABC Islands. Bonaire has world-class scuba diving and little else. If Chavez takes over Bonaire, he really going to piss me off!
Posted by: Titus Hayes4699 ||
09/12/2007 13:15 Comments ||
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#7
This comes while providing London with discounted oil.
#13
The Argies played a game at a time when alliances were things of diplo double speak. Today, alliances cut both ways. The UK didn't publicly invoke the NATO charter and ask for American help. The Dutch on the other hand could. We're not that over stretched by any imagination to settle the issue quickly and swiftly. And Hugo, you're going to go up against the best trained military in the world, regardless of the distortion of MSM, with what? It ain't going to be pretty. However, never underestimate the drive of a megalomaniac. Saddam played that game too.
Posted by: ed ||
09/12/2007 14:41 Comments ||
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#17
The Argentinian AF actually gave a pretty good account of itself during Falklands War. If their armorers had taken more care with the bomb fuses, the Royal Navy would have taken massive damage. There were numerous accounts of RN surface vessels getting hit with bombs that failed to detonate.
#18
I think we would for the Dutch. And the Brits. And the Danes. The rest of them, I don't know.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/12/2007 14:47 Comments ||
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#19
I think we would just because he needs smacking around. An appeal from an ally (however non-steadfast) would be a green light to put this pendejo back to his big mouth/little man status
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/12/2007 15:09 Comments ||
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#20
Strategy Page has been following this issue for some time. Apparently the Dutch have been reinforcing their defences in the Caribbean, so any invasion would be a challenge from the get go.
Al
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
09/12/2007 15:11 Comments ||
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#21
Venezuelan Su-30's vs British Marine F-4's and Harriers could get pretty interesting.
Venezuelan Su-30's vs US F-18 Superhornets or F-16's would be interesting for about all of the 30 seconds the Su-30's could be expected to survive in any sort of air engagement - assuming they even managed to get off the ground in the first place of course.
#22
Also, Hugo might be thinking of his bright, shiny new Su-30's vs the same British fleet that sailed to the Falkland's in the 1980's. He forgets tht British air defenses will have been brought up to speed and he also forgets that, even though the Argie's managed to sink the Sheffield, immediately afterwards the brits upgraded their air defense tactics and the Argie's never managed to get in on them again as I recall.
#24
You may be giving the british too much credit. Their soldiers and sailors are strong, but there ships are old and their air force depends on the untried eurofighter.
#26
Heriberto, RAF may rely on the Euro, but does RN? They'd be operating off of old ships, yes, but their air defenses and air defense doctrine are what would defend the British fleet in any action against them in the event of a renewed Falkland's conflict.
It also occurs to me that the Brits have deployed a new naval air defense missile too though I don;t recall the name of it.
#28
HRP,
It wasn't the fault of the armorers. The Argentines were dropping US issue Mk82 500lb GP bombs with either M904 nose fuzes or M905 tail fuzes. In either event, the bombs were simply dropped too low to arm.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
09/12/2007 17:33 Comments ||
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#29
Durign the Falklands the Argies routinely had planes land at different runways than they took off from to keep the number of downed aircrafts from the pilots.
They also never sortied their carrier the Bientecyncodemayo for fear it would be sunk.
And if they'd just timed the weather better they could have ensured the Britts couldn't operate in the South Atlantic for a few weeks allowing them the opportunity to expatrate the Islanders and really undermine British political efforts.
All in all not Argentina's finest hour but they do make a nice steak.
#30
It wasn't the fault of the armorers. The Argentines were dropping US issue Mk82 500lb GP bombs with either M904 nose fuzes or M905 tail fuzes. In either event, the bombs were simply dropped too low to arm.
#31
After they "avenge" the Falklands, what's next?
COLUMBUS, OHIO (AP) -- Venezuelan paratroops landed on the Ohio State University campus at dawn today, and quickly occupied the famous "horseshoe" stadium. In Caracas, Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez, a 1973 graduate of the University of Michigan, said that the assault was "revenge for the infamous tragedy of November 18, 2006. Go Wolverines--you are always number one in my book!" . . .
Posted by: Mike ||
09/12/2007 17:57 Comments ||
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#32
Mike, I grew up about 30 miles SE of Columbus - there's a lot of guns in that section of the country.
I doubt the paratroops could hold the campus more than half an hour.
#33
Argentinas air force was fairly well trained and professional. If they had better weapons and the British didn't have the new US sidewinder, it would have been a defeat for the British.
Chavez's AF, however, I doubt has any professionalism. It died when communism Chavez took over. The 30 pilots are nothing more than live target drones.
#35
He declared that British history was stained with the blood of South Americas indigenous people
Shouldn't this vitriol spittle be directed at the Spanish? I seem to recall them playing a much more significant role in colonizing South America.
Legend also has it that one major factor in how poorly Argentina's air force fared was due to their lack of extra drop tanks. Insufficient numbers of them severly hampered the range and duration of their air sorties. During the Falklands conflict Argentina supposedly had procurement officials scouring the United States for old military surplus. It turns out that a huge number of them were bought long ago. Evidently, when properly modified, the drop tanks made excellent kayaks. Mighty Argentina, defeated by a flotilla of kayaks.
Do any of our resident military history experts have the skinny on the Exocet RF codes problem that was responsible for the loss of the Atlantic Conveyor and Sheffield? As I recall, the lovable French sold Argentina Exocets equipped with RF codes that prevented the British from making proper FoF (Friend or Foe) identification of incoming anti-ship missiles. I'd really enjoy getting the low-down on this little gem.
#36
I now recall that, for the British, jamming the Exocets would have meant using overlapping frequencies that could have interfered with their own operations. Supposedly, this was due to the French supplying Argentina with NATO spec missiles, or something like that.
Volkswagen's only manufacturing plant in North America and hundreds of other foreign and domestic factories shut down operations today after attacks on the national oil company's pipelines cut their natural gas supplies.
Industry officials estimated the losses from both the attacks and subsequent precautionary shutdowns at close to $90 million. Petroleos Mexicanos chief Jesus Reyes said it would cause hundreds of millions of dollars in production losses for the state-owned oil company and affect 10 states. The six explosions Monday did not cause any directly related injuries or affect major oil installations, but both industry and national-security experts say the small shadowy leftist group that claimed responsibility has proved it is a force to be reckoned with. "The sophistication required to plan, coordinate and execute these explosions shows that the perpetrators have the technical capability of turning these episodes into either terrorist attacks or industrial sabotage," George Baker, a Houston, Texas-based energy analyst who follows Pemex closely, wrote in a report sent to news media.
The Revolutionary People's Army, or EPR, a secretive Marxist group that killed dozens of police and soldiers during attacks in the late 1990s, claimed responsibility for the explosions in a note left with an undetonated explosive device in the Gulf coast state of Veracruz, a state police officer who was not authorized to be quoted by name told The Associated Press on Monday. Mexican newspapers today published photographs showing an additional message the group painted on a Pemex pipeline.
The group had been weakened by internal divisions and was largely inactive in recent years. "But something has changed because now they have the capacity to attack pipelines," said Mexican national-security analyst Jorge Chabat. "They're acting outside their regular sphere of influence and that is a problem."
Got some of those Hugopesos flowing in, do they?
Posted by: Fred ||
09/12/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Hugo needs to have a problem with his electrical grid.
#4
There has been Islamic conversions reported in recent years in the southern state of Chiapas among rebel Indians persecuted by the Mexican Army and neglected by the Catholic Church. My first thought was AQ.
#5
And not just in EPR. Rumors are that SubCommandante Marcos of the Zapatistas has converted. He fits the model well - grew up wealthy and educated, became an ideologue and justifies lots of violence in pursuit of the ideology.
President Vladimir Putin dissolved Russia's government Wednesday and then quickly nominates Viktor Zubkov, a Russian Cabinet official who oversees the fight against money laundering, to be the new prime minister. Boris Gryzlov, the speaker of the State Duma, said Putin nominated Zubkov, who heads the Federal Financial Monitoring Service and who served under Putin when the two worked in the city administration of St. Petersburg in the early 1990s.
Earlier Wednesday, in a major political shakeup, Putin dismissed Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov and dissolved his cabinet, paving the way for Putin to name a new head of government.
Most observers had expected that the new premier would be the leading contender to succeed Putin when he steps down after March elections. But Zubkov had not been even considered as a contender.
A Kremlin source told FOX News that Zubkov was not Putin's choice to be the next president of Russia. The newspaper Vedomosti, citing unidentified Kremlin officials, reported that Sergei Ivanov, a first deputy prime minister and a leading contender to succeed Putin, could be appointed to replace Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov.
#1
"Most observers had expected that the new premier would be the leading contender to succeed Putin in the virtually inconceivable event that when he steps down after March elections and assuming, of course, that the new premier did not experience any unfortunate accidents."
Posted by: Matt ||
09/12/2007 13:25 Comments ||
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#2
I guess 'Pooty' feels that since Musharrif can reign 'tight' and with US blessings, then he should also, besides, the Red Dragon Chicoms will 'Whistle Dixie' on the move anyway!!
Female civil servants must wear Islamic headscarves or be fired, the maverick head of Russia's Chechnya region said on Tuesday, an edict that may put him at odds with his secular masters in Moscow.
The Kremlin installed 30-year-old Ramzan Kadyrov as Chechnya's president to crush a decade-old separatist insurgency, but some observers say he has turned the region into a private fiefdom where Russian laws are flouted. Russian law separates the state from religion and gives both sexes equal rights. But Kadyrov, who this year made a pilgrimage to Muslim holy sites in ultra-conservative Saudi Arabia, said Chechnya had different traditions.
"I know everyone will say, 'Ramzan declares (rigid Islamic) sharia law'. But I reply that I am a Muslim, I respect Chechen traditions, and I am proud of this," Kadyrov, son of a Muslim cleric, told a meeting of local officials. "I repeat once again -- women must either wear headscarves, or they should not work (for state institutions)," he said. "You may say I make unlawful statements, but I will not back down."
Kadyrov said he had been "literally shocked seeing our young women walking around in T-shirts and miniskirts in our city (Chechen capital Grozny)".
Posted by: Fred ||
09/12/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Looks like Russia still has more Muslims to kill in Chechnya.
#2
FREREPUBLIC > Russia's poor/dying birth rates has led activists to propose that Indian men be imported to marry Russian women. No response yet from China's Milyuhns + Zilyuhns of male bachelors. *OTOH, also in FREEREPUBLIC/OTHERS ala CHINA > THOUSANDS OF EX-SOLDIERS RIOTING IN CHINA.
#3
Why don't you go over there and take care of that with a gentle hand, Pootie. After all, if you aren't strong enough to take care of them, your turn can't be far off. Pehaps you shouldn't be working so hard against other western nations. I know the nationalism card is easy to play, but it's not good for the long run.
Seems like when a lot of muslims come back from their pilgrimage they get all holy all of a sudden. Hmm.
#6
I'm sure Pooty will respond to this by flying some Bears around Europe. The depth at which his head is in his ass would amaze even scientists drilling core samples in Antartica.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
09/12/2007 8:52 Comments ||
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#7
Now now dont be so quick to judge. The Burka doubles as an excellent BBQ grill cover.
As NATO countries prepare for next week's Oslo meeting, the Norwegian army announces it will cancel NATO military exercises to cut costs.
In an effort to cut expenses, the Norwegian Armed Forces this week announced it will not participate in two scheduled military exercises involving NATO countries. The announcement comes only a week before the scheduled NATO conference in Oslo, reports newspaper Aftenposten.
Fearing a repeat of the 2004 financial crisis, the army said it realised it had to take drastic measures to reduce expenses, despite what could be called "bad timing."
The army, aiming to cut costs by NOK 750 million (about USD 130 million) by the end of the year, will withdraw its soldiers from NATO's "Operation Active Endeavour," and from the exercise "Cold Response," which is not organised by NATO per se, but in which a large number of NATO countries participate.
Armed Forces chief Sverre Diesen said that cancellations of military exercises were not "unusual," but that the army had tried to shield NATO as much as possible. "Our participation in "Operation Active Endeavour" is not big anyway," he said, adding: "Our large contributions, such as in Afghanistan, will continue." "Maybe"
Parliamentary Secretary Espen Barth Eide (Labour) in the Ministry of Defence, who will speak at the NATO conference next week, thinks the cuts are "unproblematic," and said that he had not yet heard reactions from NATO. The defense cuts were not made based on an economic downturn. A bit further down the page is this triumphant blast : Economic growth leaves others in the dust. In other words, "Here, have a herring."
#1
...Point of fact: The support equipment alone on an Air National Guard flightline exceeds $130 million. If they're trying to save that kind of money, these aren't 'financial crisis' numbers; it's that the Norwegian government is trying to bleed their military to death.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
09/12/2007 17:31 Comments ||
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#2
How many men does it take to surrender to Islam and a life of dhimmitude ?
That has been one of the big questions hanging over the prominent Democratic fund-raiser, as reports have surfaced about hundreds of thousands of dollars he made in political donations, plus lavish parties, fancy apartments and a $2 million bond he posted to get out of jail earlier this month.
New documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal may help point to an answer: A company controlled by Mr. Hsu recently received $40 million from a Madison Avenue investment fund run by Joel Rosenman, who was one of the creators of the Woodstock rock ...
THE FULL WSJ.com ARTICLE IS ONLY AVAILABLE TO SUBSCRIBERS.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/12/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Turning up the dial on the toaster from 10 to 11, eh, Craig? As a lawmaker you should know better. If I were a judge I'd be looking forward to you being in my courtroom.
Hey, anybody else out there plead guilty while still feeling a bit traumatized by events? Why don't you all come back and we can talk it over.
He's done as far as the people of Idaho are concerned. They are just waiting, expecting the system to make this man go away. If the system doesn't do it, they will.
But what does it say about our Senate and Congress that he even THINKS he has a chance?
Term limits. We need to throw all of these corrupt princes out before they succeed in turning us into peasants through taxes and regulations controlling every aspect of our lives.
#4
Term limits. We need to throw all of these corrupt princes out before they succeed in turning us into peasants through taxes and regulations controlling every aspect of our lives.
What did I miss? I thought we had already arrived!
#5
disagree on term limits: that simply substitutes for 'getting off your ass and vote.'
if you don't like the incumbent, vote for the other guy. if you don't vote, you don't get to bitch.
and if you don't want to wait, start a recall.
too many people died to ensure we have the priveledge to vote and "mandatory apathy" (aka term limits) is not a fix.
/thank you.
#6
Gerrymandering safe districts, USN. Who fought and died for that?
Posted by: ed ||
09/12/2007 14:45 Comments ||
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#7
Given the origin of the term, I'd say about every post revolutionary soldier, sailor and Marine. It's an imperfect system whose only redeeming quality is that it is less imperfect than all the others. Keep working to improve it by at least voting in every election.
#9
USN, the problem is that I can't vote that dipshit murtha out of office since he's from another state - same with kennedy. The jackasses in their districts/states are happy with being bribed with pork (or they're idiots) and I can't undo that. (excpet with a .38 recall (and that's illegal for now)) So I WANT TERM LIMITS NOW.
#10
Term Limits would only give you the same idiots with new names under the control of a permanent unelected gang of lobbyists. Look at the Caliphornia legislature for an example of the havoc term limits can wreak. The solution is for the people to vote the idiots out.
When asked as the Constitutional Conventions ended what kind of government they had given us, Franklin is reputed to have answered, "A Republic. If you can keep it." The problem is that our founders gave us a carefully balanced government, not a monarchy, not an oligarchy and most certainly not a democracy.
It was unbalanced by the Civil War, further destabilized by the progressive amendments and fully destroyed by the New Deal. Reconstructing it will be a long shot. Reagan started the process, but I fear that too many now suck at the teat of the government. The tyranny of the majority is upon us and it will not be sated until its jealousy has destroyed the few who feed it.
#11
jds: i can't vote murtha out either, but until his constituents do, there isn't a lot we can do about it. see wht NS says in post #10.
ed: re gerrymandering: term limits won't fix that; that is the perogative of whichever party is in the majority whenever there is a need to redraw boundaries. i would rather see some sort of citizen panel do that than term limits; but i am not holding my breath. right here in WA state bot the dems and the trunks dis enfranchised many of the electorate with their successful lawsuit regarding primaries; in order to vote, you have to declare your party affiliation and then can only vote for your party's candidates. all us independents that look for the best candidate rather than party affiliation are out in the cold. this was all based on a similiarly successful suit in Californistan several years back. but the WA grange is still working on another tack to repeal that. not holding my breath on this working out either.
#12
USN, gotta disagree with one thing. If you want to vote in a party primary, join the primary. Parties aren't public utilities, they're private associations. If you won't support them, why should you have a say in whom they place on the ballot? Non-members should stay out. Vote for whomever you wish in the general.
#13
NS: thanks, but i stand by my statement of the best person for the position, the party affiliation is secondary. and yes in the general i do vote for the best, IMHO, person, but perhaps that wasn't my first choice, but that first choice was eliminated in the primaries.
#14
but that first choice was eliminated in the primaries.
Then, and I'm really being sincere, join that party and work to see that your kind of candidate gets nominated and elected. One of the reasons both parties put up such weak candidates is that the nomination process in controlled and dominated by the wingnuts of the party. Regular people need to get involved again and I urge you to do so.
Sen. Claire McCaskill is joining the ranks of lawmakers who are giving up campaign donations from donors linked to disgraced Democratic fundraiser Norman Hsu (shoo). The Missouri Democrat says she made the decision as the cloud of suspicion has grown surrounding contributions from people connected to Hsu. McCaskill took no money directly from Hsu. Her staff has estimated that the senator received more than $18,000 from people reportedly associated with Hsu.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/12/2007 00:00 ||
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A spokesman for Mitt Romney denied any connection to the creation of an anti-Fred Thompson Web site that labeled him Phoney Fred, even though the man the campaign identified as being behind it is listed as responsible for the daily operations of a South Carolina political consulting firm where two top operatives in the state for Mr. Romney are partners.
The site, PhoneyFred.org, was created by Wesley Donehue, who is not an employee of the Romney organization and created the home page without the knowledge of anyone in the campaign, said Kevin Madden, a spokesman for Mr. Romney. We had no knowledge of it whatsoever, he said.
But Mr. Donehue is listed as the first associate consultant and vice president on the home page for TTS Strategies, where Warren Tompkins, Mr. Romneys top political consultant in South Carolina, and Terry Sullivan, Mr. Romneys South Carolina state director, are partners. The blurb describing Mr. Donehues role at the firm said he ran its daily operations and called him one of the states most experienced political operatives. The third partner at the firm, Heath Thompson, is now working for Rudolph W. Giulianis presidential campaign, according to published reports.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/12/2007 00:00 ||
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...It is important and appropriate that we meet together on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the Mountain Meadows Massacre. We gather as relatives of the massacre victims and perpetrators and as unrelated but interested and sympathetic parties. We gather to remember and to honor those whose lives were taken prematurely and wrongly in this once lush and pastoral valley...
... We express profound regret for the massacre carried out in this valley 150 years ago today and for the undue and untold suffering experienced by the victims then and by their relatives to the present time.
A separate expression of regret is owed to the Paiute people who have unjustly borne for too long the principal blame for what occurred during the massacre. Although the extent of their involvement is disputed, it is believed they would not have participated without the direction and stimulus provided by local Church leaders and members...
#1
"The whole United States rang with its horrors," Mark Twain wrote of the massacre in Roughing It:
A large party of Mormons, painted and tricked out as Indians, overtook the train of emigrent wagons some three hundred miles south of Salt Lake City, and made an attack. But the emigrants threw up earthworks, made fortresses of their wagons, and defended themselves gallantly and successfully for five days! Your Missouri or Arkansas gentleman is not much afraid of the sort of scurvy apologies for "Indians" which the southern part of Utah affords. He would stand up and fight five hundred of them. At the end of the five days the Mormons tried military strategy. They retired to the upper end of the 'Meadows,' resumed civilized apparel, washed off their paint, and then, heavily armed, drove down in wagons to the beleagured emigrants, bearing a flag of truce! When the emigrants saw white men coming they threw down their guns and welcomed them with cheer after cheer...."
#3
Long story... by coincidence I am doing a four-parter on it, at The Daily Brief.
Basically, the relationship between the LDS church from the founding of it on up to about 1880 was very bitter and contentious. The early Mormons did not get along well with the locals and the State governments where they had initially settled in Missouri and Illinois... it was so bad they removed to Utah after the murder of their founder by a mob. They still remembered that, of course. In 1857, they feared that the US government was sending an army to depose Brigham Young, murder all Mormons and lay waste to the Utah settlements. The Fancher-Baker wagon train was the last big wagon party of the trail season that year, and they happened to arrive when feelings were running very high.
This is actually a pretty big concession, although it's been suspected for decades that the orders for it came from the very highest level. The trails to California and Oregon went right through Mormon territory; this historian suspects that Brigham Young was demonstrating that he had the power to cut off transcontinental traffic, if he but gave the word.
The massacre was especially vile, becase it was planned very carefully beforehand, carried out in cold blood and the participants sworn to secrecy afterwards.
#5
Ya know, I'm really tired of apologies for historical events that the apologizer had no part in.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
09/12/2007 7:55 Comments ||
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#6
But generational guilt gives the player POWER. That's why the card is played so often. The Victimhood Game(TM).
I have no problem with 'institutions' expressing regrets for historical events [as adjudged by modern standards] that have no obligation upon the present population for compensation in some form or another.
#7
Good luck with your four-parter Sgt. Mom, and be sure to send the link. "Regret" indeed... regret getting caught that is. Yes, "Farmin B. Hard" but a damn sight easier with 3 wives and 17 children. Now everyone, get busy... papa must study!
#8
Well, I went back and read the link - Ah, well, still doesn't lay it square at Brigham Young's feet. Which is understandable; besides being a hell of a leader and administrator, he was one of those leaders who says "Take care of it!" and leaves how the subordinates take care of it strictly to them. I'm sure there'll never be written orders found - there didn't have to be. Utah at the time was essentially a theocracy, and he was at the top of the pyramid. The massacre seems to have haunted the devout LDS in southern Utah, though... because it was carried out by the militia, which meant every able bodied man and boy. They were devout and god-fearing people in the best sense of the word... and I rather think that a lot of them knew at once that what they had been encouraged to do was a heinous thing.
Part One of my essay on it is here, Part Two, Part Three and Conclusion. I really recommend the Bagley that I liked to above, also.
This is one of those sidetracks I wandered off along, after reading about it in "Roughing It". No other attack on a wagon train ever came close.
(and can I put in another plug for my book? Fred is running an ad for it along the side - Yay, Fred!)
#1
I would like to see a $100M prize for the first private organization that could land a functioning probe on the Moon, and a $1B prize for landing one on Mars.
The prize would specify that it had to successfully land on that body, then perform the function of digging a horizontal hole in rock, sealed with a door, to protect itself from the elements.
This would not only be a technological achievement, but a practical scientific one as well.
NEW YORK (AP) -- Energy futures rose but retreated from earlier highs Tuesday after the government reported a surprisingly large drop in crude oil inventories and accompanying declines in gasoline supplies and refinery activity.
Light, sweet crude for October delivery rose 39 cents to $78.62 on the New York Mercantile Exchange after setting a new trading high of $79.29 soon after the report's release. October gasoline fell 0.61 cent to $1.975 a gallon.
Heating oil futures fell 0.31 cent to $2.1796 a gallon on the Nymex, while natural gas futures gained 24.8 cents to $6.182 per 1,000 cubic feet on a National Hurricane Center forecast that a tropical weather system in the Atlantic could strengthen into a tropical depression later today.
In London, October Brent crude gained 57 cents to $76.95 a barrel on the ICE Futures Exchange.
In its weekly report on petroleum inventories, the Energy Department's Energy Information Administration said crude oil supplies fell by 7.1 million barrels in the week ended Sept. 7, more than twice the 2.7 million-barrel decline analysts surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires, on average, had expected. Gasoline inventories fell by 700,000 barrels, slightly more than the expected 500,000 barrel decline.
Refinery utilization fell by 1.6 percentage points to 90.5 percent of capacity. Analysts had expected a 0.1 percentage point decline. And inventories of distillates, which include heating oil and diesel fuel, grew by 1.8 million barrels, more than the 1.4 million-barrel increase analysts had expected.
Crude imports fell by 674,000 barrels a day on average last week to 9.56 million barrels, while gasoline imports fell an average of 298,000 barrels a day to 1.02 million barrels a day.
Demand for gasoline averaged about 9.6 million barrels a day over the last four weeks, about 0.9 percent above last year, EIA said.
BERLIN (AP) -- The dollar sank to an all-time low against the euro Wednesday amid speculation that the Federal Reserve will soon cut interest rates by as much as half a percentage point. The 13-nation euro rose as high as $1.3889 in afternoon European trading -- breaking through its previous record of $1.3852, reached on July 24. That compared with the $1.3832 it bought in New York late Tuesday.
The euro's strength threatens to make European exports more expensive, and therefore less competitive -- although the currency's movements this year have been gradual rather than abrupt. The strong euro "is weighing on growth," French Budget Minister Eric Woerth said after a Cabinet meeting in Paris on Wednesday.
The dollar, which has hovered within a few cents of its record low in recent weeks amid a crisis over U.S. mortgage lending, has come under new pressure since the U.S. Labor Department issued unexpectedly poor August jobs data Friday. The report heightened speculation that the Fed will cut interest rates at its Sept. 18 meeting. A cut from the current rate, 5.25 percent, would be the first in four years.
The European Central Bank last week put its own two-year run of gradual interest rate rises on hold, but left many economists still expecting a quarter-point increase from the current 4 percent before the end of the year.
The dollar was little changed on Wednesday against the British pound, which edged up to $2.0321 from its level of $2.0317 in New York late Tuesday. The U.S. currency was lower against the Japanese yen, even as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced that he would resign, putting an end to his troubled year-old government. The dollar slid to 113.85 yen from 114.30 yen.
#2
The dollar is subject to supply and demand just like anything else.
We've had an expensive war, without special war taxes. To pay for it, we go into debt, creating more dollars/dollar denominated debt vehicles.
China's growth has been absorbing liquidity, leaving the Dollar in pretty good shape. But now dollars are so plentiful they are "cheap" and anyone holding dollars has some risk.
We have several resolutions:
1) Fed forces rates high, reducing access to capital
2) Fed protects economy by lowering rates (creating inflation)
3) Gov't withdraws from afganistan/iraq, reduces deficit spending (economicaly good, probably militarily suicidal)
#3
It's the US trade deficit. Last year it was over $760 billion or 7% of GDP. We have squandered the wealth built up by our ancestors over 15 generations in less than one and managed to ship wholesale our industrial base to those who are mostly less than friendly. Until we stop importing trinkets from Chinese communists, oil from muslim barbarians, cars and electronics from German and Asian mercantilists and produce the goods or substitutes with our own labor, then economic situation will keep on deteriorating and our children will be working at Walmart until they are 40.
No other country on earth allows others such access to their domestic market. Stop being such patsies to foreign opportunists and domestic moneymen.
Posted by: ed ||
09/12/2007 14:07 Comments ||
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Posted by: ed ||
09/12/2007 14:19 Comments ||
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#5
C'mon guys. The budget deficit is at near historical lows for the past 60 years. The trade deficit doesn't measure the various things we do of value that bring money back in other ways.
And I'd point out that most of the West has moved its manufactoring base off-shore. Most Western countries manufactoring accounts for less than 25% of their GDP. Services make up most of the rest. Why? Because that's where the money is, and an educated, free society goes for the money every time.
This isn't a huge deal. We're not Zim-bob-we.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/12/2007 14:56 Comments ||
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#6
Steve, most advanced countries have/had manufacturing surpluses for a very long time. Only in the last few years has Europe begun to have a trade deficit with China and it expanding fast. But at least they still have a huge trade surplus with the US to fall back on for now so the structural hit to their manufacturing and financial base has so far been minimized.
The US is the only advanced economy that runs such a large and long term deficit. This is uncharted territory, but just look around your corner of the country, the midwest and see the huge impact of the loss $20-30/hr manufacturing jobs substituted by $8/hr retail jobs selling imported merchandise. Ain't called the rust belt for nothing. This policy of gutting the most productive sector of the economy manifests itself in an insecure future for workers as more and more sectors of the productive economy are sent overseas (not just manufacturing, but technical, engineering, clerical, financial, and, to hit close to home, even some medical services). This results in insecure futures for our citizens as many workers cannot plan for the future and are forced to move around to find available jobs instead of settling in homes and planting community roots. Worse for the nation's future, an inability to afford university education for children or save any money for retirement on low wage retail jobs.
Posted by: ed ||
09/12/2007 15:22 Comments ||
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#7
...which means American exports are cheaper. Time to export all that excess farm product so the rest of the world can catch up to being chronically overweight. Next French farmers to burn down another couple Micky D's.
#10
So let me see if I got this straight. We get furniture, electronics and other goods and in return, these other countries get pieces of paper that haven't been backed by gold in 35 years or so.
This reminds me of something my father told me when I was a kid:
"If you owe the bank $5 million, you're fucked. If you owe the bank $500 million, they're fucked."
Posted by: Mike N. ||
09/12/2007 19:35 Comments ||
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#11
Complaining about mercantilism
Not complaining. I acknowledge mercantilism works to acquire the highly productive jobs within a society. What I object to is a laissez faire attitude while the competition eats our lunch (and future) with protected markets and predatory trade practices. It is just as stupid and destructive as fighting a politically correct war against a barbaric and ruthless enemy. Free trade is for those with similar levels of development and political systems and must be mutual. Not this free trade for thee, but not for me system currently in place.
manufactoring accounts for less than 25% of their GDP.
Farming, mining, and manufacturing creates the excess goods that allow the other professions to exist. A service job does not create the high multiplier effect as goods production. Try creating a society of lawyers suing each other for their daily bread and see how long till starvation takes over. Also no society produces enough highly intelligent people so that they can all be doctors, engineers or accountants. Productive work must be available for the average and below worker. Otherwise you will get a permanent class of drug dealers, thieves, welfare recipients and prostitutes. Not my ideal of a society.
The economy works by time exchange, not goods exchange.
Not all time is equal. The autoworker makes 5 times (plus bennies) what a burger flipper makes. Yet they come from the same socioeconomic background and unlikely to have any intelligence differential. These are the people who are vastly underutilized today. The difference is that a great deal of accummulated capital (that is leaving the US at an unprecedented rate) is invested in creating the the highly productive autoworker's job and very little invested on the Burger King worker.
So let me see if I got this straight. We get furniture, electronics ...
The exporters get new factories, automation, roads, buildings, money for new homes, pensions, and education for their children. We get lower wages, economic upheaval, crushing debt and empty pensions. Our kids inherit a spatula and hair net or worse, a crack pipe and handgun.
Posted by: ed ||
09/12/2007 20:50 Comments ||
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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.
Two molar teeth of around 63,400 years old show that Neanderthal predecessors of humans may have been dental hygiene fans, the Web site of newspaper El Pais reported on Tuesday.
LUCKNOW: Saudi Arabias king Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud might succeed where Bollywood icon Amitabh Bachchan has failed. A communication to the ministry of external affairs from Saudi monarchs Haj minister Al Farsi seeks assurance that all pilgrims from India are innoculated against polio before boarding their flights for Mecca.
In a new outburst of antiwestern sabre-rattling, President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela has threatened Britain with revenge for the Falklands war of 1982. The belligerent Latin American leftist warned last week that his recent build-up of sophisticated Russian and Iranian weapons would be used to destroy the British fleet if it attempted to return to the South Atlantic.
President Vladimir Putin dissolved Russia's government Wednesday and then quickly nominates Viktor Zubkov, a Russian Cabinet official who oversees the fight against money laundering, to be the new prime minister. Boris Gryzlov, the speaker of the State Duma, said Putin nominated Zubkov, who heads the Federal Financial Monitoring Service and who served under Putin when the two worked in the city administration of St. Petersburg in the early 1990s.
Female civil servants must wear Islamic headscarves or be fired, the maverick head of Russia's Chechnya region said on Tuesday, an edict that may put him at odds with his secular masters in Moscow.
Sen. Claire McCaskill is joining the ranks of lawmakers who are giving up campaign donations from donors linked to disgraced Democratic fundraiser Norman Hsu (shoo). The Missouri Democrat says she made the decision as the cloud of suspicion has grown surrounding contributions from people connected to Hsu. McCaskill took no money directly from Hsu. Her staff has estimated that the senator received more than $18,000 from people reportedly associated with Hsu.
BERLIN (AP) -- The dollar sank to an all-time low against the euro Wednesday amid speculation that the Federal Reserve will soon cut interest rates by as much as half a percentage point. The 13-nation euro rose as high as $1.3889 in afternoon European trading -- breaking through its previous record of $1.3852, reached on July 24. That compared with the $1.3832 it bought in New York late Tuesday.
