Hi there, !
Today Sun 12/19/2010 Sat 12/18/2010 Fri 12/17/2010 Thu 12/16/2010 Wed 12/15/2010 Tue 12/14/2010 Mon 12/13/2010 Archives
Rantburg
533915 articles and 1862585 comments are archived on Rantburg.

Today: 72 articles and 188 comments as of 19:49.
Post a news link    Post your own article   
Area: WoT Operations    WoT Background    Non-WoT        Politix   
Suicide Attack Kills 33, Wounds 95 Mourners in Iran
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 4: Opinion
7 00:00 gorb [2] 
7 00:00 Rambler in Virginia [3] 
8 00:00 newc [2] 
2 00:00 armyguy [3] 
0 [2] 
9 00:00 Water Modem [8] 
3 00:00 Alaska Paul [2] 
Page 1: WoT Operations
1 00:00 Anonymoose [1]
13 00:00 trailing wife [8]
0 [1]
1 00:00 JosephMendiola [5]
4 00:00 Scooter McGruder [2]
0 [7]
0 [6]
0 [3]
0 [4]
0 [2]
2 00:00 JosephMendiola [5]
2 00:00 g(r)omgoru [2]
2 00:00 ryuge [4]
0 [2]
1 00:00 Anonymoose [7]
2 00:00 mom [3]
Page 2: WoT Background
0 [3]
1 00:00 JosephMendiola [7]
2 00:00 Frank G [4]
2 00:00 john frum [2]
5 00:00 trailing wife [2]
10 00:00 P2Kontheroad [1]
2 00:00 imoyaro []
0 [1]
0 []
1 00:00 g(r)omgoru [1]
4 00:00 Steve White [6]
2 00:00 Besoeker []
2 00:00 Anonymoose [2]
3 00:00 tu3031 [3]
6 00:00 trailing wife [3]
3 00:00 trailing wife [3]
1 00:00 Jeremiah Flainter9609 [3]
3 00:00 gorb [6]
1 00:00 JosephMendiola [6]
6 00:00 European Conservative [8]
2 00:00 trailing wife [2]
0 [6]
1 00:00 Jeremiah Flainter9609 [6]
1 00:00 Paul [4]
2 00:00 ryuge [3]
Page 3: Non-WoT
1 00:00 trailing wife [12]
7 00:00 badanov [5]
4 00:00 Pappy [4]
0 [4]
11 00:00 Water Modem [5]
2 00:00 notascrename [8]
0 [3]
1 00:00 Anonymoose [1]
3 00:00 Glenmore [3]
2 00:00 Anonymoose [3]
3 00:00 Besoeker [4]
3 00:00 Cyber Sarge [4]
0 [3]
4 00:00 Besoeker [2]
5 00:00 Lord Garth [4]
0 [3]
1 00:00 Scooter McGruder []
1 00:00 Water Modem [8]
0 [3]
1 00:00 Redneck Jim [4]
Page 6: Politix
1 00:00 Iblis [2]
3 00:00 Beavis [9]
4 00:00 Frank G [2]
6 00:00 DarthVader [1]
China-Japan-Koreas
What Are They Hearing in North Korea These Days?
Libby Liu of Radio Free Asia has an op-ed in Huffasnuffaguffalus. Pay attention, it isn't often we quote that source. She's talking about getting news into the North Korean people:
... mounting evidence suggests that there are cracks, through which North Koreans are able to get a glimmer of the world outside their own.

Cell phone use has shot up, especially along the Chinese border where wireless signals are stronger. This also is just one of the means by which many relatives of the 20,000 North Korean defectors in the South keep in touch with their family members.

Restricted technology such as MP3 and MP4 players, DVDs of South Korean soap operas and films, and even USB memory sticks are increasingly making their way into the hands of many North Koreans who get these goods on the black market.

Some of the most sought-after pieces of hardware are shortwave devices to listen to foreign radio.
She winds up with this observation and plea:
For the regime of Kim Jong Il, the threat is real. As the cracks widen, more outside information is disseminated within North Korea. This makes it much more difficult, if not impossible, for the country's authoritarian government to be the sole source of information for its people.

The fact remains, despite these cracks, that many North Koreans still are less than fully aware of the perilous position their leaders have placed them in during this current crisis.

This is why it's essential for international powers to consider ways of working together to keep the North Korean people informed. Radio is proving to be one of the answers.
Radio is indeed one of the answers. The more information we can get to the North Korean people, the sooner the day will come when they decide that their evil masters are idiots. And depose them.
Posted by: Steve White || 12/16/2010 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Restricted technology such as Talk Radio and Blogs, and access to worldwide news outlets and films, and even USB memory sticks are increasingly making their way into the hands of many Americans who get this information off the internet.

For the regime of the Democratic Party, the threat is real. As the cracks widen, more outside information is disseminated within the U.S. This makes it much more difficult, if not impossible, for the country's authoritarian government and Mainstream Media to be the sole source of information for its people.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 12/16/2010 0:41 Comments || Top||

#2  Jailhouse rock?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 12/16/2010 1:22 Comments || Top||

#3  CrazyFool---you stole my thunder, good on ya!
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 12/16/2010 10:42 Comments || Top||


Fifth Column
Poor Bradley Manning given reason to regret what he did
Wahhhhhhh!
By Glenn Greenwald

From the beginning of his detention, Manning has been held in intensive solitary confinement. For 23 out of 24 hours every day -- for seven straight months and counting -- he sits completely alone in his cell. Even inside his cell, his activities are heavily restricted; he's barred even from exercising and is under constant surveillance to enforce those restrictions. For reasons that appear completely punitive, he's being denied many of the most basic attributes of civilized imprisonment, including even a pillow or sheets for his bed (he is not and never has been on suicide watch). For the one hour per day when he is freed from this isolation, he is barred from accessing any news or current events programs. Lt. Villiard protested that the conditions are not "like jail movies where someone gets thrown into the hole," but confirmed that he is in solitary confinement, entirely alone in his cell except for the one hour per day he is taken out.

Good
Posted by: Beavis || 12/16/2010 15:28 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  A civilian would consider it inhumane but in the military suck it up. That's all I have time to say.
Posted by: Almost Anonymous 5839 || 12/16/2010 16:33 Comments || Top||

#2  Could periodic freezing RAIN be introduced into his cell, along with 24x7 artificial daylight?
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/16/2010 18:06 Comments || Top||

#3  It's good that he's being given time and space to ponder his past and future choices. In these difficult times so few are vouchsafed that opportunity while scrambling for the filthy lucre necessary to keep a roof overhead and food in the belly.
Posted by: trailing wife || 12/16/2010 18:21 Comments || Top||

#4  I really like the picture. Nice job, someone.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike || 12/16/2010 18:36 Comments || Top||

#5  As I've said before, I am willing to be recalled from retirement to sit on Manning's court martial.

Of course, the defense team might object to my attitude of "bring the guilty bastard in so we can give him a fair trial before we hang him"
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 12/16/2010 18:58 Comments || Top||

#6  Dave D. is a bad, bad, bad, bad man WhiskeyM.
Posted by: Goldies Every Damn Where || 12/16/2010 19:20 Comments || Top||

#7  Stick him in there with some Victoria's Secret model quality roommate. He'd hate that.
Posted by: gorb || 12/16/2010 20:14 Comments || Top||


Interview with Abigail Esman
Abigail Esman worked with Ayaan Hirsi Ali on the project that ultimately became the film "Submission,". Her latest book is Radical State: How Jihad Is Winning Over Democracy in the West.
Posted by: ryuge || 12/16/2010 03:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front: Politix
Holiday thank you from the First Lady.
Dear American Taxpayers,

For only the second time in my adult life, I am not ashamed of my country. I want to thank the hard working American people for paying $242 thousand dollars for my vacation in Spain . My daughter Sasha, several long-time family friends, my personal staff and various guests had a wonderful time. Honestly, you just haven't lived until you have stayed in a $2,500.00 per night suite at a 5-Star luxury hotel. Thank you also for the use of Air Force 2 and the 70 Secret Service personnel who tagged along to be sure we were safe and cared for at all times.

Air Force 2 only used 47,500 gallons of jet fuel for this trip and carbon emissions were a mere 1,031 tons of CO2. These are only rough estimates, but they are close. That's quite a carbon footprint as my good friend Al Gore would say, so we must ask the American citizens to drive smaller, more fuel efficient cars and drive less too, so we can lessen our combined carbon footprint.

I know times are hard and millions of you are struggling to put food on the table and trying to make ends meet. I do appreciate your sacrifice and do hope you find work soon. I was really exhausted after Barack took our family on a luxury vacation in Maine a few weeks ago. I just had to get away for a few days.

Happy Holidays,

Michelle (Moochelle) Obama

P.S. Thank you as well for the $2 BILLION trip to India! Love ya, mean it.



Posted by: Besoeker || 12/16/2010 08:45 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Also from the First (to the tune of "Jingle Bells"),

WoofWoofWoof
WoofWoofWoof
WoofWoofWoofWoofWoof
(repeat)
Posted by: AlmostAnonymous5839 || 12/16/2010 9:43 Comments || Top||

#2  Ya.....and Merry CHRISTMAS!!! 2 u.....you big FAT ASS
Posted by: armyguy || 12/16/2010 10:57 Comments || Top||


Science & Technology
The 'West and the Rest.' Life expectancy trends spanning 200 years.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/16/2010 11:57 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Spelling correction... 'expectancy'
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/16/2010 12:03 Comments || Top||

#2  How about "expectoration"?

Let's face it, there are way too many people who are decrepit at 40. Many others with internal self-destruct switches that prevent them from getting through their teenage years.

If you're going to live to be 200, you shouldn't have children until you are in your 80s. You should leave your teenage years in your 30s.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 12/16/2010 14:18 Comments || Top||

#3  This will be yet another divide between the haves and have nots. No one in Africa (or subject to ObamaCare) will ever live that long. In fact, we can expect US longevity rates to start declining now that the US government is running things.
Posted by: Iblis || 12/16/2010 16:14 Comments || Top||

#4  now that the US government is running ruining things.

There, FIFY, you're welcome.
Posted by: Almost Anonymous 5839 || 12/16/2010 16:24 Comments || Top||

#5  It's also life and CASH, watch China played like a basket ball then go sub-orbital.
Posted by: Goldies Every Damn Where || 12/16/2010 19:24 Comments || Top||

#6  Always fascinating to see data displayed visually (3 cheers for Edward Tufte!)

It would be interesting to see the same data set plotted with additional property rights and market economy axes. I would bet they track right along with lifespan and income.
Posted by: SteveS || 12/16/2010 20:57 Comments || Top||

#7  The sad thing is that some people will complain that there not everyone is together on the graph today like they were in 1810. They would rather that everyone was poor and sick rather than that some are poor and sick and some are rich and healthy.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 12/16/2010 22:37 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
California's Central Valley has become a Third World Toilet
Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 12/16/2010 10:36 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Another shining example of the virtues of socialism. I've been to two third world countries, and the descriptions here sound strikingly similar.
Posted by: Keenster || 12/16/2010 11:11 Comments || Top||

#2  A real sob story here. But I have a problem with it. I've seen the Central Valley myself. How many of these unemployed farm workers are legal citizens and how many aren't? I want to know before I shed any tears.

Maybe we need a new paradigm for agriculture in this state.

You want to be Lord of the Manor and sit on the porch while Mexicans do all the work? Hmmmm. Or maybe you're some big corporation whose shareholders and officers all think of the farm the same way they would a factory? Better make sure those factory workers are legal.

I wonder how much a jar of almonds or a bottle of wine would cost if the farmers didn't have to cheat to produce it. But my fear is that they wouldn't bother. They'd sell the land to a developer who would pave it all and build a massive housing tract. I bet the developer wouldn't have any trouble getting water hookup permits either. Somehow they never do. Not in this state. Maybe the farmers just aren't greasing the right pols.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 12/16/2010 12:31 Comments || Top||

#3  I read it yesterday; it was quite good, but I couldn't help thinking how potent some of those images would be on video.
Posted by: eLarson || 12/16/2010 13:35 Comments || Top||

#4  Victor Davis Hanson needs only to mount his bicycle at Stanford University's Hoover Institute and ride 5 miles to the northeast. He will be in the Redwood City neighborhood in which I was raised. He will see what used to be lawns turned into parking lots and what used to be flower beds growing corn, squash and peppers.
My own birthplace is now housing two to three families.

All this only 25 miles south of Nancy Pelosi's digs.
Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 12/16/2010 13:59 Comments || Top||

#5  Redwood City, Climate Best by Government Test.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 12/16/2010 14:14 Comments || Top||

#6  Welcome to the globalist vision of the world for all of us but the wealthiest. Soros is proud, I'm sure.

Who was it that wanted all this illegal immigration to staff the farms with slave labor? The farmers and corporations that have taken over farming. Blaming it stricly on socialists is pretty humorous. Everytime anyone says anything about restricting third world immigration, we get all the sob stories about the price of lettuce.

The only farming family I've ever met from the San Joaquin Valley had a fleet of Rolls-Royces and whose son traded stocks for his own account in a beach house in Los Angeles.

Welcome to the brave new world of globalism, where you plunder and move on, leaving the mess behind.
Posted by: Black Charlie Chinemble5313 || 12/16/2010 14:36 Comments || Top||

#7  This is offensive to third world toilets.
Posted by: Iblis || 12/16/2010 16:40 Comments || Top||

#8  Do not forget, the State Legislature removed the water rights from the farmers to the populated areas. Not very long ago.
Posted by: newc || 12/16/2010 17:44 Comments || Top||


Is American exceptionalism being threatened by an Islamic tsunami?
Posted by: ryuge || 12/16/2010 02:45 || Comments || Link || [8 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Time to get rude.
Posted by: Jeremiah Flainter9609 || 12/16/2010 3:37 Comments || Top||

#2  Our demise lies in our diversity.
Posted by: HammerHead || 12/16/2010 9:47 Comments || Top||

#3  Only if we let it.
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 12/16/2010 10:02 Comments || Top||

#4  If you don't own a weapon,BUY ONE and whatever Ammo it uses.
Practise, Practise, Practise.
If you've never owned one before, start with a .22 Rifle or .22 Pistol.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 12/16/2010 11:35 Comments || Top||

#5  My wife says one can never have too much jewelry or too many guns. Christmas shopping is easy!
Posted by: Glenmore || 12/16/2010 12:43 Comments || Top||

#6  At what point does tolerating the intolerant become intolerable?
Posted by: eltoroverde || 12/16/2010 15:18 Comments || Top||

#7  Jewelry and guns?
Posted by: ryuge || 12/16/2010 15:56 Comments || Top||

#8  The spearhead of this movement is "collusion between Islamic ideologues and the far left to promote the idea of moral relativism

It didn't work out too well for the Communists in Iran after the revolution, did it? I'm sure our nation's academics would be just as surprised to find themselves up against the wall after all the "help".
Posted by: eLarson || 12/16/2010 19:11 Comments || Top||

#9  So Mr Rubin... please get some of your coreligionist to quit voting for the Democratic Left Wing.
Posted by: Water Modem || 12/16/2010 21:58 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
57[untagged]
2al-Qaeda
2Govt of Pakistan
2Commies
1TTP
1Govt of Iran
1al-Qaeda in North Africa
1Hamas
1Hezbollah
1Jamaat-e-Islami
1Jundullah
1Taliban
1al-Qaeda in Pakistan

Bookmark
E-Mail Me

The Classics
The O Club
Rantburg Store
The Bloids
The Never-ending Story
Thugburg
Gulf War I
The Way We Were
Bio

Merry-Go-Blog











On Sale now!


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.
Click here for more information

Meet the Mods
In no particular order...
Steve White
Seafarious
tu3031
badanov
sherry
ryuge
GolfBravoUSMC
Bright Pebbles
trailing wife
Gloria
Fred
Besoeker
Glenmore
Frank G
3dc
Skidmark

Two weeks of WOT
Thu 2010-12-16
  Suicide Attack Kills 33, Wounds 95 Mourners in Iran
Wed 2010-12-15
  Border Patrol agent gunned down in southern AZ
Tue 2010-12-14
  Another man arrested for plotting bomb attack on DC Metro
Mon 2010-12-13
  Six police among 13 killed in Iraq suicide attacks
Sun 2010-12-12
  Yemen jails 12 Qaeda members
Sat 2010-12-11
  Car Explodes in Stockholm, Gas Cannisters & Second Blast Involved
Fri 2010-12-10
  India's ambassador gets pat-down at US airport
Thu 2010-12-09
  Pakistan suicide attack kills 17: police
Wed 2010-12-08
  Lashkar-e-Jhangvi claims suicide kaboom on Balochistan chief minister
Tue 2010-12-07
  50 dead, 120 maimed in Mohmand double kaboom
Mon 2010-12-06
  Pirates hijack Bangladeshi ship in the Arabian sea
Sun 2010-12-05
  150 killed in Nigeria's oil delta
Sat 2010-12-04
  Officers killed in deadly Nairobi attacks
Fri 2010-12-03
  Nigeria charges 65 in oil region kidnappings
Thu 2010-12-02
  Senior Afghan Officials Release Top Taliban Fighters for Bucks


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.
18.218.196.182
Help keep the Burg running! Paypal:
WoT Operations (16)    WoT Background (25)    Non-WoT (20)    (0)    Politix (4)