Nicaragua destroyed 333 anti-aircraft missiles Thursday, further paring down a stockpile that had previously been estimated at about 2,000 missiles left over from the 1980s Contra war. The U.S. government has long urged Nicaragua to destroy all of the SA-7 shoulder-fired missiles, expressing concern they could fall into the hands of terrorists. The Nicaraguan Army said it had destroyed the weapons "in order to achieve a reasonable balance of forces and promote stability, confidence and transparency in the region." The army destroyed about the same number of missiles in May and says it wants to hang on to only about 400 of the missiles, arguing they are needed to offset neighboring Honduras' military capabilities. Honduras and Nicaragua have become embroiled in a border dispute in recent years.
Just wait til one of 'em starts another war over a soccer match.
Nicaragua had previously suggested it would eliminate all of its remaining Sam-7 surface-to-air missiles in exchange for planes and radar modules from the U.S. military. The U.S. government has not made any offer, but Nicaraguan officials estimate they would need aid of about $80 million. The leftist Sandinista government, which ruled Nicaragua from 1979 to 1989, obtained the missiles from the Soviet Union to fight off U.S.-backed Contra rebels.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/30/2004 12:45:12 AM ||
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Nicaraguan officials estimate they would need aid of about $80 million.
...plus about $1,000,000 for the military itself.
Posted by: Rafael ||
07/30/2004 1:05 Comments ||
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Just wait til one of 'em starts another war over a soccer match...
Won't be as much fun as the last time - Salvadoran P-51Ds vs Honduran F4U Corsairs - and supposedly, the old Sandinista AF had a working P-61B Black Widow nightfighter.
Man, I'd pay good money to see a fight like THAT.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
07/30/2004 1:42 Comments ||
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I remember seeing a news report one time that was talking about how Honduras' air force was one of the most modern in the Central America. The film clip showed what looked like an F-86 Sabre taking off.
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats ||
07/30/2004 13:26 Comments ||
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A black widow! Damn never heard that before.... when the sun go down not even a mustang has a chance!
Howls of my 'ignorance' / trollfoolery in 5, 4, 3...
Doctors do it. Journalists, too. Lawyers, cab drivers and even priests take part. Why,it's a national pastime!
Strikes and labor protests in Greece come in just about every fashion. But a new one could be brewing: walkouts during the Summer Games that begin in two weeks. Just what the doctor ordered...
Ambulance drivers, paramedics and hotel workers all announced "warning" work stoppages to demand Olympic bonuses and other pay hikes. The 11th-hour threats to the government and private employers are clear: Cough up the cash or risk embarrassing strikes during Athens' big moment. Like Henry Hill in Goodfellas, 'Fuck you, pay me!'
The government is in an awkward spot. Over a barrel is more accurate.
It says it just can't afford any more bills with a runaway Olympic budget that could approach $12 billion. But it also doesn't want to issue emergency decrees that could trample on Greek workers' cherished right to protest. "The strikes are justified," salesman Skefos Tsoukalis said. "But it's an entirely inappropriate time when we are the center of the world's attention."
If they don't do it while they have you by the snarglies then it's just part of the usual background noise, isn't it?
Via Drudge...
ATHENS, Greece - Nearly 50,000 telephones at Olympic sites and parts of Athens went dead for more than 10 hours Thursday, officials said. "Aris? Aris? Can you hear me now?"
The outage follows a July 12 electricity blackout across southern Greece that raised concern over the stability of public utility networks ahead of the Aug. 13-29 Games. I had my $ on a strike, but we have the French for that!
The phones went down during attempts to upgrade the system, officials said.
"Some 48,000 fixed-line phones stopped working during work to improve a telephone switching center," Christos Malapanis, an official at the Greek Telecommunications Organization, or OTE, told state-run NET television.
Upgrades can be tricky, just ask Fred about his server.
Fred! You nailed the Greek telephone system too?
I confess. It was me. I dropped a line of code, see? And... Poof! No more ringy-dingy!
Company officials told The Associated Press that sites affected included the Olympic Village, which opened last week, a media village, and four other games facilities. A back-up network kept about half the telephones working at the affected sites, the officials said. OTE and Greece's Public Power Corporation are both Olympic sponsors. Like Jerry Glanville quipped (my all-time favorite NFL quote) - "It stands for 'Not For Long' if you keep making calls like that!"
Posted by: Raj ||
07/30/2004 9:20:05 AM ||
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DEH is the "Dimosia Epixeirisi Hlektrismou"- (Public Electricity Company), while OTE is the "Organismos Tilepoikinonion Ellados" -- (Organization of Telecommunications of Greece).
A common joke was that in truth they stand for "Den Exoume Hlektrismo" ("We have no electricity"), and "Oute Tilefona Exoume" ("Nor have we any telephones.")
As a sidenote, linguistic jokes are hard to do in translation.
------
And as a secondary issue, it's only the mass transit I'm worried about.
The stadiums were never an issue -- I knew they'd be completed in time which made all the jokes of raj only the more infuriating for their utter stupidity and ignorance. Electricity and telephones -- pfft: They were working to updade the system and had a glitch or a blunder. Unproffessional, sure, but also *TRIVIAL*.
I'm worried about the tram on the other hand, because it's not a self-contained system, it affects traffic throughout the city. And having been only introduced to public use a week or so ago, it seems there are still glitches with the traffic lights that normally ought to give it right of way. This has led to traffic jams and delays, and I've no idea whether they'll fix it in time.
#2
all the jokes of raj only the more infuriating for their utter stupidity and ignorance.
That's quite a rebuttal, isn't it? The fact is, there were numerous reports that specualted about the stadiums not being built on time or within schedule whilst being threatened with strikes by the people building them, so it's a big leap to accuse me of ignorance based on that.
#4
Yes, there were quite a few reports. And in this forum, we *always* take media opinions (especially BBC) as factual unbiased information, right?
And the accusation of trollery comes first and foremost btw, which btw is worse than a mere accusation of ignorance. If you had been an informed rather than an uninformed troll, that might have made you less annoying, but not any less of a jerk.
"Within budget"? Sure, nothing hardly ever gets built within budget. You are actually trying to make *that* a supposedly standing point?? The Olympics are an international affair but I think that whether too much is being spent on them and too little on other issues is something for the Greek people to evaluate on election-time. Which perhaps they did, since they voted in a different government.
#5
Aris, Raj is right about the Olympic venues;
out of 36 or so planned venues, only about 23 were going to be usable for the Games, meaning at least a dozen were totally scrapped.
And I haven't read any reports that the venues left are finished.
But then, as you judged, I'm too stupid to Google...LOL
#7
Bull, shipman. He stalked me across threads, even ones that had nothing whatsoever to do with either Olympics or Greece or anything whatsoever.
That's not recurring joke, that's bullying -- trying to stop me from participating in any thread whatsoever so as to avoid his comments. He's nothing but a little trollish jerk.
#8
Aris, TNX for the acronym jokes. (Well, I appreciated em!)
Americans have them too: An oldie: The US Color television standard is called NTSC (after the National Television Standards Committee). It requires extremely phase-stable transmission circuits, or the hue will shift; so it's sometimes known as Never The Same Ccolor.
Newer one: One type of personal interface called PCMCIA led to the translation: "People Can't Memorize Computer Industry Acronyms."
Yah, geek humor. So sue me.
Posted by: Old Grouch ||
07/31/2004 0:38 Comments ||
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More than 3,000 militant French surgeons are threatening to down scalpels and cross the English Channel to Britain for a week of symbolic exile next month in protest over rates of pay and high insurance premiums. "We are going abroad because nobody will be able to force us to work when we are there," one surgeon, Philippe Breil, said.
French law would oblige them to work if asked to do so by their local authority. The surgeons are planning their protest for the week beginning 30 August and say they will meet up at a conference centre in Wembley. With more than half France's 6,000 surgeons out of the country, only emergency operations could be practised during their protest, organisers say. On a campaign website, a urologist, Gerard Maudrux, appealed to fellow surgeons to join the protest. "If you don't do it for yourselves, do it for surgery itself, for your patients, so that tomorrow they are operated on by real surgeons who have the time and financial means and equipment to carry out surgery worthy of its name," he said.
The surgeons are angry that patients' fees have not increased for 15 years, but their insurance premiums have increased tenfold over the period. They are also concerned about the future of their profession. Many French surgeons are nearing retirement in the next few years, their average age is 55, and poor pay means fewer medical students are choosing to specialise in surgery. "Doing nothing today is irresponsible. Being responsible today is to warn that the situation is serious: tomorrow we won't have any more surgeons," said Dr Philippe Cuq, on behalf of a French surgeons' association. The protest increases pressure on the conservative government of the prime minister, Jean-Pierre Raffarin, which is trying to reform France's indebted health-care system by cutting costs. Ah, don't you love socialized medicine? Seems to be taking the same disasterous nose dive in Canada, UK, Fraaance. This "terror" folks is coming to your neighborhood soon, if Kerry/Edwards/Hildabeast have their way.
Posted by: rex ||
07/30/2004 3:45:40 AM ||
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How could it come to this when their government is in control of things?!
#2
"How come we don't get the cool new blue scrubs like John Kerry?"
Posted by: Mike ||
07/30/2004 9:20 Comments ||
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Always extolling the virtues of the socialist paradise that is Fwance... until somebody tells them to do something they don't want to do. Then it's strike time.
Did somebody forget to translate Hayek into Fwench, or do they need a comic book version?
#7
As someone that currently has to live with socialized medicine, it's no fun. I have a bad back. I've been having problems with my legs going numb on me off and on for the last eight or nine months. My primary care doctor scheduled me for an MRI of my lower back, where I have several ruptured/herniated disks (there's a good possibility something might be pressing against the sciatic nerve). The appointment was made July 12th. I get the MRI August 30th. That's just for the scan. THEN I get to schedule an appointment to see a doctor to discuss the results.
At least with TriCare, my prescription medications are free, except the ones for the medications the local pharmacy no longer carries. Then I get to pay a co-pay. All of this is my "free, lifetime medical care" promised me and my dependents by my Air Force recruiter.
Oh, and I have to pay $460 a year for it, on top of all that.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
07/30/2004 19:22 Comments ||
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OP, your right, socialized medicine s*%ks! IMO, this is because socialized medicine (being an arm of the government) is granted immunity from lawsuits for the kind of BS you're being put through -- so, there's no downside to delaying care and indulging all kinds of bureaucratic SNAFUs. You might have a way out, though. The difference (in your case) being that TriCare in Colorado (where you're from, if I remember) is administered through TriWest Healthcare Alliance. Triwest is a private company, and would not be immune from suit and might be more concerned about doing right by you if they knew about the hell you're going through. The contact page for TriWest is at this link. The phone number is 1-888-TRIWEST (1-888-874-9378), 8 a.m.-6 p.m., Monday through Friday. The relationship between TriCare and TriWest is described here. Your situation still might fall under the federal Tort Claims Act, and/or ERISA preemption, but (to make a long story short) I'd call TriWest directly and bitch them out. The care you're being given sounds ridiculously delayed, IMO.
#10
Cingold, the problem is that the AF Academy, where MRIs are done in this part of the world, makes its own appointments. They have one machine, six technicians, and service 41,000 active duty, reserve (we have 4200 that qualify for medical care) and retired military folks. The problem is that Congress refused to fund a second MRI facility at Evans Army Hospital, about 25 miles south of the Academy. It's either wait, or go downtown. I'm just waiting for my PCM to recover enough from a rafting trip on the Arkansas (broke an arm and a couple of ribs) to decide which way is best to go. It's still a run-around, but I can't blame either Tricare or the Air Force - just a Congress that cuts every last dime it can from the military budget.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
07/31/2004 0:22 Comments ||
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OP, your right, socialized medicine s*%ks! IMO, this is because socialized medicine (being an arm of the government) is granted immunity from lawsuits for the kind of BS you're being put through -- so, there's no downside to delaying care and indulging all kinds of bureaucratic SNAFUs
First off, OP, I take it you are in an HMO of sorts. Socialized medicine is much worse, and the latter is what the Troika of Democrat Lawyers Kerry/Edwars/Hildabeast want for us: equal access to mediocre rationed health care, but with no limits on frivolous lawsuits, full access to trial by jury, and no costs will be assigned to the loser. So what the Troika is offering is the worst of all possible worlds. I hope you can get faster medical care than you are scheduled for currently but unfortunately, HMO's do have the gate keeper thingie which hangs things up alot...that's how HMO's cleverly try to keep their costs down - through gatekeepers. I don't think a "threat" of legal action will help you much, but I'm not familiar with lodging lawsuits to get what I want in life.
However, I will take this opportunity to address some "fuzzy" comments that Cingold brings up about socialized medicine. Socialized medicine is rotten for many reasons but the reason you quote, Cingold, that lawyers can't sue a gov't run system is hardly the reason. Nice try, no cigar.
a) socialized medicine is supposed to bring down costs so everyone can enjoy "free" care, so it would be counter productive to allow personal injury lawyers continue to escalate costs as they have been doing for so many years with frivolous lawsuits
b) because it's "free" everyone uses socialized medicine "freely", ergo long delays, because everyone goes to the socialized "trough"
c) because gov't runs socialized medicine, physicians are treated like gov't "property", with no respect, and therefore and thusly after a while intellectually gifted college graduates figure there's no point going to med school and be treated like a postman, so there are too few physicians to handle all the folks embibing in "free" medical care. But who said "free" medical care would be prompt? All that is promised with socialized medicine is free and equal, albeit mediocre, health care.
Also, there's another dirty little secret about "cost cutting" in socialized medicine countries - after you hit 65, well you are a poor investment to the gov't, to put it delicately...no expensive medical intervention for seniors...count on flu shots and arthritis medicine, and perhaps cataract surgery and hip replacements but there's an 18 month wait.
d)One of the MAJOR reasons cited by liberals and Democrats to institute socialized medicine is to bring down the costs - yes? But as I have mentioned above, the Kerry/Edwards/Hildabeast version of socialized medicine does not include a lid on medical lawsuits because all three are lawyers and are looking out for their own.
e) Before implementing socialized medicine in the USA, I'd like to see a trial run done on another profession first, to iron out the bureaucratic kinks, so to speak. Also, rather than using a profession that deals in life and death issues to "experiment", I think we should use a less essential but very costly service in society, especially in the USA - ie. Legal Services. I suggest we socialize the law profession, make all lawyers gov't civil servants, and see how that works out first. I am sure personal injury lawyers, in particular, would be thrilled at the thought because it would make them even more "available" to the little people in society, whose rights, I'm told, they seek to champion.
Posted by: rex ||
07/31/2004 0:31 Comments ||
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EFL
Lucjan Wisniewski is an unsung hero of one of the last great World War II battles lost by the Allies -- the Warsaw Uprising in 1944. He fought to liberate his country from Nazi rule, but unlike his Western peers, he was prosecuted for doing so afterwards. To this day he keeps one of his battalion's most treasured possessions -- its ragged, blood-stained banner -- rolled up at home. He will finally hand the banner to a museum on Sunday exactly 60 years after Poles took up arms in an attempt to drive the Nazis from Warsaw and save themselves from another totalitarian regime, Stalinist communism.
World leaders, including German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and Secretary of State Collin Powell, will also pay tribute to the doomed uprising, long played down by historians and neglected by politicians in Poland and abroad. "After six decades of waiting and agony, our banner will find its rightful place," said Wisniewski, referring to the Warsaw Uprising Museum to be opened on the Aug. 1 anniversary.
Poland's Western allies placed little pressure on Soviet leader Joseph Stalin to aid the uprising, which many Poles felt was a meager reward for their war efforts in engagements like the Battle of Britain and the fight for Italy's Monte Cassino. Outgunned, outnumbered and ignored by Soviet forces, who stopped their advance on the outskirts of Warsaw, the uprising collapsed after 63 days, leaving the city in ruins and more than 160,000 dead. The remnants of the underground Home Army who survived the uprising were interrogated, detained and sometimes executed by Moscow-trained communists determined to impose their rule. "A museum commemorating the uprising was unthinkable for years, and this may be the last anniversary many veterans will attend," said Marcin Roszkowski, one of the museum's organizers. I didn't realize that the anniversery of that kind of betrayal and brutal slaying of a brave group of people could be celebrated. When are the Ketyn Woods massacres celebrated, maybe I can plan a vacation around the gala affair?
We don't need to celebrate, we need to remember.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
07/30/2004 3:41:04 AM ||
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Nice post SH. Someday I hope to go to Poland. I'd like to talk to the guys who forced the crack in the dam.
#2
*whew!* I'm glad to see Rantburg is restored! I was afraid all my witty, pithy comments were gone forever!
But seriously, I have to recommend the movie Uprising, which was very well done--especially for a made-for-TV movie--that portrays the Warsaw Ghetto plight and the uprising. Even though David Scwimmer from "Friends" is one of the stars and everyone affects Polish accents to varying degrees of success, I highly recommend the movie for the subject material and respect it pays the real Polish-Jewish heroes.
Posted by: Dar ||
07/30/2004 17:34 Comments ||
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Dar, you have made the same mistake that the State Department did. The State Department released a statement saying that Colin Powell was to attend thought that this ceremony for the Ghetto uprising - this is a different Polish uprising. As happened in many places during WWII before an area was liberated, a radio announcement was made that Warsaw was on the verge of being liberated to encourage partisans to help out the cause. In this case the partisan AK rose but Stalin ordered his troops to hold in place for 30 days. This surprised the partisans and the Germans both. There was a short period of time while the Red Army was holding before the Germans realized their cue and returned to the city to massacre the AK - thus making Stalin's subjugation of Poland all the easier.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
07/30/2004 22:35 Comments ||
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SH--Respectfully, I haven't made the same mistake. I am aware that the Reds left the Jews to fight on their own and be subsequently massacred because they didn't want anyone in the way when they came through and "liberated" Poland. They were more than content to let all their opponents massacre each other and save them the effort. I know my history--where WWII is concerned, at least!
Posted by: Dar ||
07/31/2004 0:30 Comments ||
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Hee hee, looks like Lumpy Riefenstahl tried to pull one straight out of the Goebbels playback and faked a reputable paper's headline (Goebbels actually did this several times). Unlike his predecessor and role model, however, Lumpy does not have the benefit of working for an all-powerful psychopathic dictator (yet) and has therefore been BUSTED:
BLOOMINGTON -- Filmmaker Michael Moore's Bush-basing documentary "Fahrenheit 9/11" apparently has upset more than Republicans.
The (Bloomington) Pantagraph newspaper in central Illinois has sent a letter to Moore and his production company, Lions Gate Entertainment Corp., asking Moore to apologize for using what the newspaper says was a doctored front page in the film, the paper reported Friday. It also is seeking compensatory damages of $1.
A scene early in the movie that shows newspaper headlines related to the legally contested presidential election of 2000 included a shot of The Pantagraph's Dec. 19, 2001, front page, with the prominent headline: "Latest Florida recount shows Gore won election."
The paper says that headline never appeared on that day. It appeared in a Dec. 5, 2001, edition, but the headline was not used on the front page. Instead, it was found in much smaller type above a letter to the editor, which the paper says reflects "only the opinions of the letter writer."
"If (Moore) wants to 'edit' The Pantagraph, he should apply for a copy-editing job," the paper said.
Lions Gate Entertainment did not immediately return phone calls seeking comment Friday.
#1
To the tune of "When He's a Bad Bart." by Gilbert and Sullivan.
Young Michael Moore: When I'm making films I will tell taradiddles
Chorus: He'll tell taradiddles when he's making films
YMM: And truth I will kill and with facts I will fiddle
C: With facts he will fiddle and truth he will kill
YMM: You have to be spaced if you'd be concientious
C: To be concientious you have to be spaced.
YMM: So I spit in the face of all morals sententious
C: All morals sententious he spits in the face.
He spits in the face in the face of all morals sententious.
When he's making films he will tell taradiddles
With facts he will fiddle and truth he will kill.
The truth he will kill and with facts he will fiddle
And tell taradiddles when he's making films
When he's making films he will tell taradiddles
With facts he will fiddle and truth he will kill.
The truth he will kill and with facts he will fiddle
And tell taradiddles when he's making films.
Filmmaker! When he's a filmmaker he'll tell taradiddles
Filmmaker! With facts he will fiddle with facts he will fiddle
And truth he will kill.
EFL.You could tell their hearts weren't really into it up here. The Dems really aren't their enemy, right?
The protests were muted, the arrest tally small. But the mix of anti-war, anti-corporate, anti-government-as-usual groups are leaving Boston and the Democratic National Convention with a promise: Wait until New York. The NYPD welcomes you!
"We never advertised massive turnouts in Boston," said Leslie Cagan, national coordinator for United for Peace and Justice, a coalition of anti-war groups. "There is, though, a tremendous amount of energy for the protests at the Republican convention." And they like that Tides Foundation money. Embarrass the boss's husband and maybe the checks stop coming.
In the months leading up to this week's convention, local and federal authorities built an army of 5,000 law enforcement officers and prepared for as many as 2,500 arrests. Recent history gave them the impetus. Anti-war rallies have drawn tens of thousands of people around the country over the past year. The political conventions in Los Angeles and Philadelphia in 2000 saw hundreds of arrests.But arrests related to protests reached a grand total of four this week. The most action took place in court, where demonstrators unsuccessfully challenged rules that limited protests to a small area adjacent to the convention center. Kooks in a Cage. Continued on Page 49
Posted by: tu3031 ||
07/30/2004 10:34:01 AM ||
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Bring them on! Show the country who really supports the Democrats. Maybe they can bring in soime oakland PD? They did a good job at the dock protest.
#2
I work a few avenues over from Madison Square Garden. I am not looking forward to sidewalks crowded with smelly hippies and their giant puppets. Nor the inevitable subway delays due to bomb scares. Nor the re-enactment of Chicago '68.
#4
The freaks and the terrorists love the Dims--Boston hardly registered with any of them, but NYC is gonna get hit hard, unfortunately. I feel for you, growler! It's gonna be ugly...
Posted by: Dar ||
07/30/2004 13:38 Comments ||
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The freaks and the terrorists love the Dims--Boston hardly registered with any of them, but NYC is gonna get hit hard
You are plain wrong, #4. The "freaks and terrorists" were indeed "registered" at the Democrat Party Convention...as delegates.
Posted by: rex ||
07/30/2004 13:43 Comments ||
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#6
They've been putting on the giant puppet show for what, 5 years? Probably more because I think they had them a the WTO protests in Seattle. So they've got at least 5 years of experience and inevitably the work looks like a junior high threw the thing together over a weekend.
Haven't these people any pride in their work? They should be making masterpieces by now. Wonderful works of art that CNN and Fox would both be delighted to show footage of. Instead the best I've seen is the pink tank.
Something tells me they're hearts aren't in it and they've been running on fumes for years.
#8
they've been running on fumes for years.
Yep, and we all know what those meth fumes, second-hand reefer smoke, and hell, who knows, probably airplane glue to boot, will do to your mind over time... Just look at Michael MHore... Just think, he could have been a Cub Scout once.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
07/30/2004 19:37 Comments ||
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One of my abiding memories of the pro-Osama riots in the fall of '01 was a brief video of mounted police in Los Angeles charging straight at a mob of moonbat blackshirts. The assembled mumia-cong masses dropped their hostile sneer and scattered in all directions, abandoning backpacks, water-bottles, posters, and the occasional ill-fitted Birkenstock.
I think we should put all of the NYC police on horseback, give them those odd fur caps, and arm them with sabers so they ride down the latter-day Bolsheviks cossack-style.
BOSTON, July 29 -- The Democratic Party is planning a $100 million advertising campaign in support of John F. Kerry, employing novel tactics to enable its presidential nominee to husband limited resources for use in the fall campaign against President Bush (news - web sites), party officials said Thursday.
Husband limited resources??? OMG, W, give it up now. You can't go up against the (b)millionaire king daddy number #1 ketchup master blaster resource husband of all time. Go back to Texas and chop some wood and ride your bike, bro.
Flush with more than $60 million in the bank, the Democratic National Committee (news - web sites) has set up a separate campaign operation with its own pollster, television consultants and media buyer to run a full-scale "independent" drive on behalf of Kerry. On Saturday, the first week's TV buy, worth $6 million, starts in 20 battleground states.
The first commercial is likely to use film clips of Kerry's acceptance speech at the convention here Thursday. Under federal campaign law, starting Friday, the Kerry campaign may spend only the $75 million it has agreed to accept from the federal government to run its general election campaign. Party officials are concerned that the rules could leave Kerry at a disadvantage to Bush, who may spend privately raised funds until he formally accepts the GOP nomination Sept. 2.
To counter Bush, the Democrats have adopted ambitious plans to take every advantage of the new campaign finance law, which allows the parties to mount independent expenditures on behalf of their nominees as long as the efforts are not coordinated with the candidates' campaigns. The new plans reflect the Democrats' unexpected success in tapping new donors for the fall campaign, with party officials estimating that Kerry, the party and independent liberal groups could raise as much as $225 million for unseating Bush in November
After Kerry's acceptance of his party's nomination Thursday night, his campaign halted fundraising and shifted to federal funding. At the same time, the Kerry campaign linked its Web site to that of the Democratic National Committee, in a bid to channel prospective donors to the party's fundraising operation. Party officials say they expect the most expensive Democratic general-election campaign in history.
EFL... well I don't want to put anyone hard at work to sleep.
#6
THey can yell and scream as much as they want to, but when you don't have a message, it's just so much noise. The only message the Dummycheats have this year is "we're not Bush". That's not going to get them the White House. Hell, they'll do well to keep the seats in Congress and the Senate they currently hold, unless they come up with something better than that. Of course, their only OTHER messages are more government, more taxes, less responsibility, less chance of ever breaking out of the box the dummycheats are building for all of us. Most Americans have awakened to that fact, and the Dummycheats are running scared.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
07/31/2004 0:38 Comments ||
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Proof that some people have waaaaaay too much time on their hands.
In one respect, Bush's skeptics are right: Bush never did report to the Alabama Air National Guard. He may not even know where its barracks were. That's because during the period in question, Bush was serving his country elsewhere, in a clandestine military unit: the Special Undercover Missions Service (SUMS), an elite air-force agency specializing in national security and acts of espionage. Created by the Eisenhower administration in 1958 to respond to growing concerns about aerial reconnaissance by the Soviet Union, SUMS operated for twenty-one years in a shroud of secrecy. There is no offcial record of the organization; SUMS is said to have been terminated by President Jimmy Carter in 1979.
If the young Bush was looking for globe-trotting action, he could not have picked a better time to join SUMS. The agency was a favorite of then president Richard Nixon and his FBI chief, J. Edgar Hoover, who, before his death, in May 1972, regularly used SUMS operatives for missions both military and cultural. Under the Nixon White House, SUMS agents were dispatched to Vietnam, Russia, Korea, East Germany, China, and Israel. They were also assigned domestically, spying on individuals and groups believed to be detrimental to U.S. interests. Before Bush's arrival, SUMS is believed to have briefly infiltrated the Allman Brothers Band, the Students for a Democratic Society, and The Dick Cavett Show.
"For politicians, SUMS was a fantasy agency—they were autonomous, intelligent, and eager," says Prentiss. "If the White House wanted them to pop out of a hole in Cambodia, they could do that. But if they wanted them to ball Janis Joplin, they could do that too. Those guys could do anything."
So, has anyone double-checked their sources? I'd also like to see these "S-signal" photos ... because if any of this is true ... our president is better-than-the F***ING man.
Posted by: Edward Yee ||
07/30/2004 17:32 Comments ||
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#4
My friend called me about this last night. He read it and told me of the pic.
He wanted to know if it was satire or not and asked that I poke around the blogosphere to see what's what.
#5
Best line: Indeed, Bush found the Stones to be a band obsessed with drugs, women, and haircuts, but not revolution. "He did learn that Mick wanted to make solo albums," said one former FBI agent. "Come to think of it, we should have stopped that."
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
07/30/2004 18:41 Comments ||
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#6
I spent 26 years in Intel. I've never heard anything about this group, or any group similar to this. I had a friend that, as a Marine, infiltrated the SDS in the 1960's, so there's some truth that we did things like that. I had my personal involvement in "spook" activities, and some of the things I ended up doing were really, REALLY strange, but they were directly military-related. I find this more in the line of a Scrapleface article than GQ, but who knows, there may be some truth to it. GWB in the late 1960's and early 1970's would have been exactly the type of person attracted to clandestine operations.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
07/30/2004 19:03 Comments ||
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#7
At Intel or in Intel? Big difference in the stockoptions.
#12
Old Spook - yes, I graduated from Lowry - in 1966! I'm not working out of anywhere these days - laid up with a bad back. Email me offline if you want more...
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
07/31/2004 0:15 Comments ||
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#13
Gentlemen and ladies, this story is delightful, yes, but is nothing more than a very good zoo. The Magnificent Ambersons, heh, a front org for the good guys. RL, SO
Posted by: Red Lief ||
07/31/2004 0:19 Comments ||
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#14
Right, Bush can't put together a coherent sentence, but he was a spy. HA! It was a satirical article!
Miami-Dade County elections officials said Friday that they have found detailed electronic voting records from the 2002 gubernatorial primary that were originally believed lost in computer crashes last year. "The data has been located on a compact disc that was in the files of the election office," said Seth Kaplan, spokesman for the office of Supervisor Constance Kaplan. "We are very pleased."
"It was under a removeable hard drive marked "Property of Los Alamos"
When the loss was initially reported this week, state officials had stressed that no votes were lost in the actual election. The record of those votes had been believed lost during the crashes in May and November of 2003. Seth Kaplan said that backup disc was likely lost due to transition in the office within the past year. Constance Kaplan took over as elections supervisor in July 2003.
Seth Kaplan, spokesman for Constance Kaplan. Nice to see some things never change.
County officials had said they did not have a backup system in place until December. A team from the Division of Elections was brought down to Miami earlier this week to work with local officials to see what happened and whether the information was retrievable.
I mean, if you can't trust data on a CD you found in filing cabinet.....
The tempest is over. The teapot is calm again.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/30/2004 1:34:23 PM ||
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The Los Alamos comment had me laughing out loud.
John Kerry concluded his acceptance speech Friday night, the jubilant convention crowd cheered and the balloons dropped. A few of them. Too few. "Go balloons," said convention producer Don Mischer, instructing the balloon droppers. "Go balloons. Go balloons!" His voice was becoming increasingly frantic — and it was going out over CNN. "I don't see anything happening," he said angrily. Unknown to him, CNN was running his name and title across the bottom of the screen.
Long minutes after the place was supposed to be a blizzard of balloons and confetti, Mischer was still shouting that it wasn't happening, at least it wasn't right. Viewers saw a lot of balloons, in fact, and Kerry, family members and delegates happily batted them around. But nothing like the 100,000 that had been supposed to cascade down.
At one point Mischer used a profanity to rebuke his balloon-dropping crew. CNN was still broadcasting his voice. Finally, they all showered down. And Mischer's unhappy moment of TV fame was over.
The full transcript of Mischer's "I Don't Have a Balloon" speech is here; the film version is reviewed here.
Posted by: Mike ||
07/30/2004 1:10:59 PM ||
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Life is too damn short to bother looking at either.
#6
Any bounce Kerry gets may be attenuated by voter fatigue-- the Democrats been hyperventilating the same, over-the-top nonsense for so long, I suspect only the True Believers are still listening.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
07/30/2004 12:57 Comments ||
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#7
Rex, I agree. I was sorely dissapointed by the lack of cowbell. It was like these folks got Stepfordized before taking to the stage.
I think the real cowbell action was across the street at various private gatherings.
JOHN KERRY told us more last night about his childhood memories of bike riding in Berlin than he did about his nearly three decades in public office.
Somebody else noticed that too
"I ask you to judge me by my record," he implored, but then said virtually nothing about it. There was a single throwaway line about his time as a prosecutor. Nothing at all about being elected lieutenant governor.
That's because he was Lieutenant Governor to Mike Dukakis...
"Um, guys, can't we work in a hamster joke here? ..."
And just three sentences about his 20 years in the US Senate. Twenty years! A third of his life! Yet neither in his speech nor in the video that preceded it did Kerry say anything about what those two decades have meant to him or what lessons they may have taught him or how he thinks they have prepared him for national leadership.
Because he doesn't want anybody to look too closely. And if they do they're part of the "Republican attack machine."
Now, now, it would have taken too long to name all the important legislation he's sponsored. National Hamster Week. ...
"Judge me by my record," he says. But all night long -- all week long -- there is only one part of Kerry's long record that the Democrats have wanted Americans to notice: the part that ended 35 years ago when he came home from Vietnam.
After four months...
Why are they so reticent about everything he's done since?
Because it would show who the real Kerry is
Not that we've met him yet.
His political career wasn't the only thing missing from Kerry's speech. "This is the most important election of our lifetime," he said. "The stakes are high. We are a nation at war -- a global war on terror against an enemy unlike any we have ever known before." And with that, he launched right into a discussion of -- what? The nature of that unprecedented enemy? The threat from radical Islam? His strategy for victory? No: After raising the specter of an enemy "unlike any we have ever known before," Kerry promptly started talking about â jobs. Coming less than three years after 9/11, this is the most important election of our lifetime. But why that is, Kerry has yet to say.
Probably because he's yet to figure it out. He's still not positive which way the wind blows...
He spoke of his empathy for the young grunts "carrying an M-16 in a dangerous place" and about his respect for "all who serve in our armed forces today." Couldn't he have spared a few words to salute those troops for their two great achievements of recent years -- the toppling of vicious tyrannies in Afghanistan and Iraq?
Because the left-wing of the Democratic Party doesn't think we should have done either, at least under a Republican president.
Kerry's cheapest shot came at John Ashcroft's expense: "I will appoint an attorney general who actually upholds the Constitution." And how, exactly, does Ashcroft undermine the Constitution? By abiding by the Patriot Act that Kerry supported? That's something else the Democratic nominee never explained. He did, however, enjoin President Bush to stick to the "high road" and avoid "small-minded attacks."
Like Kerry's record in the Senate
All in all, it was a pedestrian address, uninspiring, cliched, and humorless. It made sure to work in all the poll-tested buzzwords -- I counted 17 mentions of "strong" and "strength," 28 of "value" or "values." But buzzwords don't decide elections, and they aren't the key to a swing voter's heart. Kerry may yet prevail over George W. Bush, but he didn't close the sale last night.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/30/2004 10:34:05 AM ||
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After raising the specter of an enemy "unlike any we have ever known before," Kerry promptly started talking about -- jobs.
The Dems know that they have no footing on the war or security issues. If he attempted to address either of them he would expose--one of many---weak points in his career. For Kerry to go on at length about the WoT would be like Bill Clinton preaching about the virtues marital fidelity.
#2
But all night long -- all week long -- there is only one part of Kerry's long record that the Democrats have wanted Americans to notice: the part that ended 35 years ago when he came home from Vietnam.
Yes, it took 35 years, but these people and their candidate have now embraced the war that they despised so much. What a bunch of assholes.
#3
"I will appoint an attorney general who actually upholds the Constitution."
Oh man, this is too scary to even contemplate...if Billy Jeff appointed Janet Doofus Reno, and Kerry is more off the wall than Billy Jeff, who would Kerry appoint? Perhaps, Hildabeast??? Eeeeeek...
Posted by: rex ||
07/30/2004 12:02 Comments ||
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#4
The link no longer works ... the page that comes up says the content is "not available". FWIW.
Posted by: too true ||
07/30/2004 12:49 Comments ||
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EFL
As Sens. John Kerry and John Edwards arrived in Boston today for the Democratic National Convention, so did the California man who is their single biggest contributor. Bam!
He is Stephen Bing, a wealthy film producer who, with little fanfare, has managed to steer a total of more than $16 million of his money to Democratic candidates and the supposedly independent groups that support them. Bam!
In fact, Democratic Party officials said they knew nothing absolutely nothing, nope not a thing about the man who law enforcement officials tell ABC News is Bing's friend and business partner — Dominic Montemarano, a New York Mafia figure currently in federal prison on racketeering charges. Gasp!
Montemarano has a long criminal record and is known to organized crime investigators by his street name, Donnie Shacks. "Donnie Shacks' main activity was murder. No question about it. That was his main function for the Colombo family and for organized crime in general. He was one of the top hit men in the New York area," said Joe Coffey, a former NYPD investigator. Bam!
According to The Los Angeles Times, Bing paid Montemarano's legal fees after his most recent scrape with the law. Montemerano's lawyer said his client was an employee of Bing's. I see Halliburton behind this one. Bada, Bing!
Posted by: Dragon Fly ||
07/30/2004 10:33:45 AM ||
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Wasn't he the guy who was banging Liz Hurley? And tried to deny it? Bright boy. Shit, if it was me, I'd be renting out billboards.
#2
Shit, if it was me, I'd be renting out billboards
I favor T-shirts myself.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/30/2004 11:22 Comments ||
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#3
Isn't this a repeat from yesterday?
(I wouldn't necessarily take this as a bad thing, if I trusted the Democrats' judgement or competence to have the right people whacked. Unfortunately I don't.)
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
07/30/2004 11:28 Comments ||
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#4
Re: Elizabeth Hurley; yes, that's him.
Posted by: Edward Yee ||
07/30/2004 12:51 Comments ||
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EFL
Would-be first daughter Alexandra Kerry revealed Thursday night that her father's habit of throwing saving men overboard didn't end with his Swift Boat rescue of fellow Vietnam veteran Jim Rassman. Really? Do say more!
In a very, very, very bizarre recollection, Alexandra told the Democratic Convention crowd how the family waited dockside one summer day to embark on a trip, when the cage housing her sister's hamster "Licorice" tumbled into the drink. Rich. Vivid. Imagery.
"My dad jumped in, grabbed an oar, fished the cage from the water, hunched over the soggy hamster and began to administer CPR," the Kerry daughter told the audience. "There are still to this day some reports of mouth-to-mouth, but I admit it's probably a trick of memory." Or dad was lying about what really happened between him and the hamster.
Posted by: Dragon Fly ||
07/30/2004 7:22:22 AM ||
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#1
Ahw man. I see that someone elese posted this. I hate when that happens. I stink!
#5
Found this comment over on Silent Running, I wish I had said this:
After four days, millions of dollars spent, thousands, no millions of words of coverage, a multimedia extravaganza to "introduce" John Kerry to America. Speeches recalling heroism. Speeches citing compassion and ideals. All carefully scripted, to hone and refine an image, one searing vision for people to take away from this tremendous display of party unity...
The vision of John Kerry giving a wet rodent mouth to mouth.
Good job, folks.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/30/2004 10:08 Comments ||
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#6
I'm starting to understand why the Bush campaign hasn't gone into attack mode to paint a negative image of Sen. JoKe.
#7
"My dad jumped in, grabbed an oar, fished the cage from the water, hunched over the soggy hamster and began to administer CPR," the Kerry daughter told the audience.
#8
I would love to have seen Teddy Kennedy's face as she told this story.
Are you thinking like I'm thinking that it was actually Swimmer who kicked the hamster cage into the water in the first place? He, he, he...
Posted by: rex ||
07/30/2004 13:39 Comments ||
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#9
Remember when some magazine asked the assorted candidates which pet had most effect on them?Here we have Kerry jumping into water to save a glorified rat because it was his daughters' pet(a nice thing to do IMHO);just the sort of story that would humanize him and would have gone over very well w/the youth-oriented magazines' readers.Instead,Kerry stated his favorite pet was a dog that belonged to one of crewman aboard his boat in Viet Nam.Just how can someone be both so calculating and so inept at same time?
Posted by: Stephen ||
07/30/2004 14:02 Comments ||
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Posted by: someone ||
07/30/2004 4:41:33 AM ||
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#1
I love Guiliani. He was our anchor in New York on 9/11 and the aftermath-he kept us from spiraling away into a catatonic stupor from the horror we smelled and saw around us, and showed us instead what a leader does in a catastrophe. After the commission, some have tried to make hay out of the fact that some people didn't make it out of the towers. I am astounded that so many did make it out. That they did is a tribute to the leadership of Giuliani, and the almost incomprehensible courage of the firefighters and police force in the pits of hell. Give the Dems hell, Giuliani, you're the best.
#2
He brushed off the anti-Bush film, âFahrenheit 9/11.â âI havenât seen it. I donât really need Michael Moore to tell me about September 11,â he said.
Is it weird enough for you yet? Alex was the one with the justly famous see-through dress at Cannes.
Would-be first daughter Alexandra Kerry revealed Thursday night that her father's habit of saving men overboard didn't end with his Swift Boat rescue of fellow Vietnam veteran Jim Rassman. In a bizarre recollection, Alexandra told the Democratic Convention crowd how the family waited dockside one summer day to embark on a trip, when the cage housing her sister's hamster "Licorice" tumbled into the drink. "My dad jumped in, grabbed an oar, fished the cage from the water, hunched over the soggy hamster and began to administer CPR," the Kerry daughter told the audience. "There are still to this day some reports of mouth-to-mouth, but I admit it's probably a trick of memory."
Why "hunch over" the soggy hamster? If you're going to do mouth-to-mouth, why not lift it up?
Actually, the textbook definition of CPR is mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, though what techniques may be appropriate for hamster rescue is anybody's guess. Too bad Sen. Kerry didn't have his trusty 8mm camera along to reenact his hamster heroism for posterity. My oft-quoted animal companion, Roswell the Atomic Poodle, does not understand why anyone would revive a hamster instead of devouring it on the spot. Then again, Ros is not a liberal.
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy ||
07/30/2004 12:45:19 AM ||
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#1
When I was about 14 I did a chest massage on (what seemed to be) a dead kitten. Worked, too. I didn't learn that in Vietnam, though. I think it was on Medical Center.
#6
.com
Whoever "groomed" those critters should be put in jail.
Some years ago, my wife took Ros in for his semi-annual trimming (we keep his hair as natural as possible).
The groomers inadvertantly gave him the full shaved poodle treatment, pink claws and all. I was horrified. He looked like a miniature drag queen. He did bag quite a few ground squirrels in that condition, though. Apparently the rodents just didn't take him seriously enough to flee.
#8
AC, poodles were 'groomed' in a similar fashion long ago, when they were hunting-dogs. Easier to find and treat wounds. The injuries healed better too.
#11
Ok, ok, Pappy and rkb; even I can learn something every day. Poodles that actually engage in waterfowl hunting can be exempt from the Atomic Empire's new anti-poodle-shaving ordinance. Pink claws are still out, purple and plain red too.
#12
Yeah. I mean, I have show dogs (not Poodles, two other breeds but even mine don't have colored nails. Neither do any of the Best in Show poodles who've been top winners in the last [insert number here] years.
#13
Poodles, esp the unaltered full-size variety, are killer hunting dogs - the equal of any of the water dogs. The twits who worked so hard to wussify 'em, well, that's just a crime. Great dogs. I thought you'd get a kick out of the Serengeti / skeleton. No matter the outside appearance, they have hunter's hearts!
#14
Oh, almost forgot an on-topic (sorta) picture I located... BTW, AFAIK, it could be a guinea pig - I have no expertise on rodentia other than ferrets... which are a scream! It was long ago, but mine was named Critter and kept the house in a near-riot all the time, not to mention phreaking out both my cat (British Blue) and dog (Weimaraner) - he scared the hell out of both of them, heh.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/30/2004 12:27:19 AM ||
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....we are here tonight united in one simple purpose: to make America stronger at home and respected in the world. Here's Cox and Forkum's July 28 take on the meaning of that phrase
#2
Couldn't help but think of Rufus T. Firefly every time he said "Help is on the way!"
Oh, and I caught at least one "John F. Kennedy" slip (courtesy of Joe Biden), and I'd bet there were others.
Posted by: Another Dan ||
07/30/2004 1:21 Comments ||
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#7
"...stronger at home and respected in the world."
I'm getting tired of hearing that crap. Being respected is not the same as being liked, and nothing John Kerry has ever proposed is ever going to earn us anything other than contempt wrapped up in flattery and false declarations of friendship.
Part of Kerry's schtick is that we've somehow "alienated our traditional allies" or something to that effect. Can anyone recall him EVER being specific about WHICH "allies" he means? I can't; and I can't imagine who he could possibly mean other than France, Germany and Russia.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
07/30/2004 6:45 Comments ||
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#8
"Respect" from the Europeans is a codeword for us doing things their way, just like "non-partisanship" is a Democrat codeword for getting things their way.
#11
Kerry is wooden, but the title here is an insult to good Ents everywhere.
Maybe to trees, too.
Posted by: too true ||
07/30/2004 9:39 Comments ||
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#12
Watching the convention last night was like watching someone drown. Took a loooong time and was quite painful.
No style or substance.
There's a Bible verse that goes, "Where there is no vision, the people perish." John Kerry has no vision. Neither does the Democratic party. Instead, they have hallucinations.
#15
I compared him to Treebeard for the long face and the wooden delivery. But y'all are right, the Ents are our friends and allies ;-)
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/30/2004 13:27 Comments ||
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#16
'"Respect" from the Europeans is a codeword for us doing things their way, just like "non-partisanship" is a Democrat codeword for getting things their way.'
virginian, you just said it all!
#17
I didn't watch the speech. I watched an old "Kolchak the Night Stalker" episode instead. It was about a politician that sold his soul to the devil. Is that close enough?
A lot of Rantburgians have wanted to know the latest on this - basically, they are having scale-up engineering problems
....The latest target date for opening the Carthage plant is now this fall [04]. Engineers have already run the plant at capacity [200 tons/day]for as much as 12 hours at a time, and preliminary tests show the equipment works efficiently. Out of 100 Btus in a given unit of feedstock, only 15 Btus are used to power the process, with the remainder residing in oil, gas, and chemicals. Most important, the oil produced in these tests easily meets the specifications for diesel fuel...
#1
I they can scale this up efectively great. 30 to 40 bucks less going to the ass hats per barrel. Plus we can let the froggies buy the rights for 10 or 15 Dircksons
#3
My bet is that the cost of making this oil to a quality level that the EPA will approve for trucks or boilers will leave little room for profit compared to simply rendering the wastes into animal feed for which there is already a good market. So the economics won't justify the process until the price of oil skyrockets. The BSE argument is faulty: rendering destroys the BSE too. The Europeans had BSE problems because fuel is more expensive there so they did their rendering at lower temperatures than we do in the US. As a result, their rendering didn't reliably destroy the BSE.
Posted by: Tom ||
07/30/2004 20:31 Comments ||
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#4
If they could adapt that process to run on bullshit, the Democratic Party could power the entire nation.
The French could add peaking capacity.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
07/30/2004 20:32 Comments ||
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#5
Lets hope we can hook this up to a sewage plant.
The signs would be great, "I gave a shit for oil independence!"
A doff of the derby to Dragon Fly.
I followed DF's link to Michelle Malkin's "No Girlie Men Allowed" where she features a lament by Jennifer Martinez: Ok folks, I have had it. I've taken all I can stand and I can't stand no more. Every time my TV is on, all that can be seen is effeminate men prancing about, redecorating houses and talking about foreign concepts like "style" and "feng shui." Heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, trans-sexual, metrosexual, non sexual; blue, green, and purple-sexual-bogus definitions have taken over the urban and suburban world!
Real men of the world, stand up, scratch your butt, belch, and yell "ENOUGH!" I hereby announce the start of a new offensive in the culture wars, the Retrosexual movement...
See the proposed RetroSexual Code for men at the link.
Posted by: GK ||
07/30/2004 11:43:04 AM ||
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There's still hope I can go to a retirement home instead of a museum...
Yes! I confess!
I smoke (cigarettes at work, a pipe at home).
I drink whiskey.
I look at pretty girls.
I own both a chainsaw and a .38!
Posted by: Fred ||
07/30/2004 11:57 Comments ||
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#2
Ha! Jennifer forgot something....everyone knows you're supposed to sniff after you scratch.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
07/30/2004 12:17 Comments ||
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#3
Guilty as charged:
Dip Skoal
Drink beer, only to excess
Look at pretty women
Own ax
Lost count of number of guns I own
Drive F-150 with V8 engine
Hunt & fish, eat same
Garage full of tools I know how to use
Hair moving from head to other areas, don't care
Closet full of camo gear
Favorite movies - Zulu, Kill Bill, Outlaw Josey Wales, Patton, Destination Tokyo
Posted by: Steve ||
07/30/2004 12:29 Comments ||
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#5
Ha, gotcha beat, Steve. I own a Dodge 2500 with a V-10! I live in a house with no AC, cook on a wood cookstove, ride a horse in reenactments. I can't help it, I like to watch women. I want to see a man on TV whos not a bumbling idiot or a raving homosexual.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
07/30/2004 12:47 Comments ||
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#6
Ok, Father Confessor:
I drink (20 pack's about right), smoke, smoke some more, love big tits, have gas powered tools, fart like a racehorse, belches that can be heard from 100 feet, curse like Whoopi Goldberg, drive like Richard Petty, try to ride my bike like him, too, have a double-sided ax, love grilling, and Billy Jack's my role model.
(note to self - pick up chainsaw & a handgun soon...)
#7
This is why I like hanging with you folks. I'll admit that I still push my mower, A cal-trimer when wet and a Honda mulcher when dry, buts thats as PC as I want to get and keeps me buff. When I pour two fingers worth, it's one, one and a half, almost there, twoooo. I like my beer ICE cold, of the Lager style, gulped! My Silverado stays clean and has a throaty growl. I clean up my own messes but I don't do laundry or make beds (usually).
As an artist, I paint manly scenes of conflict as beautifuly as I can. Rich, colorful, landscapes with all hell breaking loose.
#11
While I don't fancy smoking products past my occasional cigar, I do have a S&W 686, and have both gas and electric chain saws. At this very moment I am looking at a "pretty member" of the opposite sex, and not the Pretty One I am married to... I also can snore loud enough to wake myself up...
-I'm a girl.
-I like to hang tuff with the retrosexual crowd here at Rantburg, then go work on my embroidery.
-I'll be entering my alphabet sampler in the County Fair "home arts" competition next month.
-I like men.
-I like the smell of sweat.
-Well, most of the time.
-Don't like tobacco products...I lke my wine red and Australian.
-Now you know.
#13
I don't smoke or drink whisky, and I am sometimes seen hanging out at the faculty club. Otoh, I am 55 and my youngest child just turned a year old. Do I qualify?
#14
I'm a lady who loves her Retrosexual men like Fred and the RB gang, my boyfriend, President Bush, Rummy and Cheney.
Metrosexuals can just go to the kitchen and make tofu "meat"loaf, then they have EAT it!
#15
My apologies to you,Em,and the several other fair ladies who regularly post on Rantburg.
I should have been more sensitive in selecting a title, but I was in a hurry because I had to go walk my poodle. :)
#17
Speaking of Zulu, I own a nice Martini-Henry .455/.577 and it is my favorite. It was made in 1882 so is not a veteran of the famous campaign.
Somebody or other is making ammo for it again, but it costs about a hundred and twenty bucks for a box of twenty. I have some 1950 vintage Kynoch brass that a friend reloads for me at modest cost. This will not last forever so I shoot the old cannon sparingly.
It is very accurate, the recoil is not completely obnoxious, and it leaves a satisfying if indiscrete cloud of powder smoke.
#18
Capsu78--I also own a S&W 686, and it is sweeeeeet! I've never fired a more accurate pistol. Too bulky to carry, unfortunately, but I do have a spurless SP101 for that so I can still stay true to the .357.
Posted by: Dar ||
07/30/2004 17:40 Comments ||
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#19
I like my beer ICE cold, of the Lager style, gulped! Amen-brother. I got myself a simple metal bucket with Beer stencled on the side. I fill it full of ice and Lagers (Karl Strauss Endless Summer Gold is the fav) and barbeque away. The one thing decent to come out of Tijuana was the bucket of beer.
#20
Ex-smoker (of various substances)
whiskey: Maker's Mark (straight, heh)ooggle pretty women: check
guns: check The Outlaw Josey Wales is good, but my favorite is Unforgiven (best exchange:
You just shot an unarmed man!
He should have armed himself.)
#21
oooh! ooooh! ima play to. ima like woman but no fat woman allower. unless she is know some good tricks. ima like my guns and favorite in ruger mini14 ranch rifel with em 50 round clip. :)
ima have a 90 round drum bit it in get jam alot. ima like beer and am prefer cheap beer to em guines crap. ima smoke cigaretes and am likein tofu. ima watch hockey and football. real football not em soccer crap. and like raj im like big titty but am like litle perky one to. ima like most tity cept for saggy and hairy ones. and ima like women like em .com pichure ysterday. she in my typre to te. and im liking action movie to long as no animal in get hurt and ima hate my ex-wife! that in purdy retro ima thinking. and im like kittens to. :)
Hey, GK, I'm of the female persuasion too and this was okay -- I knew what you meant. Although it's my experience that really retro men are cool with women who can DEAL WITH IT themselves when the guys aren't around, if they have to. At least, my guy was happy to buy the Sig Sauer I wanted for me for XMAS. And to offer time on his military surplus rifle if I wanted that too.
He doesn't hunt or fish, tho. An urban boy originally. He does manage to win the combat shooting league award most seasons at his gun club and brings home the meat very reliably, albeit wrapped and trimmed.
badanov,
We are just trying to eliminate the stupid ones from the gene pool.
Posted by: Kathy K ||
07/30/2004 19:57 Comments ||
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#26
Shipman - I agree, but I think there are quite a few of us that are in the pack, including Fred (who very wisely refrained from commenting).
I'm an old Louisiana country boy from the 50's. I'm very comfortable with who I am, and what I am. I've dug outhouses, milked cows by hand, and plowed a half-dozen acres with a pair of matched black mules. I don't have a gun in my house, but anybody breaking in had better watch out for the axehandle (it's real, and it's beside my bed every night). I don't drink or smoke, and I've been married to the same lovely woman for 38 years. I like classical music and back-country hiking. I've been on the ground, shooting and being shot at, in Vietnam, and I've given intelligence briefings to several general officers and one vice-president. I live in the city, but prefer wide-open spaces. I can cook a 7-course meal, knit a sweater, tear down an engine, and build a stream-spanning bridge. I don't really care what other people think about me, but I don't like #$?%$@&! labels!
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
07/30/2004 19:59 Comments ||
Top||
#27
55 here. Married twice, didn't take either time. Flat broke. Two kids, one out of college and one in the Army NG in Iraq.
Beretta 92FS 9mm, Browning Buckmark .22, only shoot occasionally. Beer. Coffee. Cigs. Single. Retro, and old-fashioned.
Recovering Democrat.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
07/30/2004 20:29 Comments ||
Top||
#28
Folks like this are the reason that, as I am fond of putting it, the combined armies and police forces of Eurabia could not fight their way from Galveston to Crawford in a hundred years even if civilians were the only resistance.
#29
Thick steaks and a good Australian Red Wine - or a Guiness if I want a brew.
Desert: Vodka, straight, ice cold & Good cigars.
Tools:
5 different PCs, and a Sun Unix workstation
Deluxe mechanics rolling tool set
Aircompresser and air wrench set (Present from my wife - so she could airbrush paint).
SPlit maul and a wedge, chainsaw (Poulan, gas).
Glock 23 (.40S&W),
Kimber Custom Carry (.45) concealed (backup)
No-name .308
Weatherby Winmag for Elk/Bear
Remington 870 12 gauge pump, with folding stock, front handle and light, 18 inch barrel, choek and loaded with #8 birdshot (so I dont overpenetrate the walls in home defence).
a weapon that looks a lot like an AK 47 and fires 7.62 that I swear I didnt come from overseas, and it doesn have anything special with the trigger group and select fire switch...
And those are not A/N PVS, NVGs in the closet behind the shotgun and the not-an-AK-47, they're just really wierd binoculars I got from, umm, Walmart.
Transport:
Car: Saab Turbo. So sue me for wanting a bit of luxury after driving my other car. Power everything, solid acceleration, reliable, durable, and doesnt stand out like a Mercedes.
Other Car: Jeep CJ-5. Beat to hell from offroading and hunting. More plates welded to to (to replace rust) than original body anymore.
Main mode of fair-wather transport: Classic Honda V65 Magna for town, Goldwing for country.
Cooking:
Bread and cakes from scratch (Grandma's recipes), best cornbread outside the south, and the only real Carolina (vinegar based) BBQ west of the Smokies.
I own a custom fitted tux, a ghillie suit, at home in either. Refuse to wear speedo - surfer shorts do it (plus they have more room for my gun and my concealed carry pistol).
Have 50 annual rings on me - not as lean, not as mean.
Raised Pennsylvania Dutch/Italian Mennonite/Lutheran/Catholic household. Oldest of eight sibs. Pizza and scrapple. I'm still trying to sort all that out. Worked in a cement plant, steel mill - cube farms after that.
Joined the Navy after HS to beat the draft and score good duty - you know, always a bunk and hot meals. After hospital school assigned to 1st Marine Div. Became expert on mud by very close inspection during my all expense paid, four year trip that Uncle Sam paid for. Never did set foot on a ship. Jarhead, quit laughing.
I can stitch you up faster than Big Daddy Garlits - it won't be pretty but you won't bleed out either. Women dig scars.
Motor around in a completely rusted out F150 and a decadantly cushy 940 Turbo Volvo wagon. Do the heavy wrenching on both of them.
Springfield .45 sidearm, Springfield .4570 Trapdoor carbine, Springfield M1. Notice a theme here? The Model 700 Remington is Momma's. I don't wouldn't dare touch it. Only take them out for gardening. See below.
Developer after college - software project manager now. Wish I was back in the mill.
Five sons, one great wife (retired shrink) who can't cook, one former Mrs. Doc, no girlfriends.
Drink of choice - Yuengling but I'll settle for Shaffer. Lean towards the tee shirt/jeans but have a closet full of suits.
My flower gardens are doing just fine thank you now that the late Mr. Raccoon has gone to a better place.
Cry at some weddings and all funerals. Voted Dem until Jimma did his thing in Iran. Enough of that!
Just finished my rehabing my kitchen (see above) so I can throw nourishment at the five utes.
Seafarious - 10 years ago took a third in the county fair's quilt comp. (Ohio Star) Good luck! There's not much difference between sutures and sewing except the quilt doesn't jump when you stick it.
OP - Could you stand the label of "good man"? I knew you could.
I've picked up on Barbara's philosophy that she shared a while back; I try to do at least one non PC thing a day. It's the least I can do for my kids.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) said it has launched an investigation into atrocities in Uganda including the slaughter of more than 200 people this year. "The massacre is part of the investigation," Christian Palme, a spokesman for the prosecutor told AFP, referring to the killings in the Barlonyo displaced persons' camp in northern Uganda in February. He said however that the ICC probe was not specifically targetting rebels from the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) who allegedly carried out the attack.
Why the hell not?
"We will investigate any crime committed in northern Uganda since July 1, 2002 (the date the ICC became a legal reality). It is not restricted to any party," Palme said.
"... and it's so much easier to haul in Ugandan officials and jug them than it is to actually catch krazed killers running around in the bush..."
The spokesman said a team of investigators would be on the ground in northern Uganda "fairly soon".
"After dinner. What's the rush? The victims will still be dead."
#2
The spokesman said a team of investigators would be on the ground in northern Uganda "fairly soon".
#1 Funny, I don't recall there being any Americans or Israelis involved in Uganda...
Posted by: Raj
Raj---You are onto the point. Since the Israelis are not involved, everyone can take their time dealing with the issue. Same thing with Sudan and Dafor: Everyone will posture and huff and puff, but nothing will be done. It is all over except the dying of innocents. And that is the way of the UN and the Great Bureaucracy. Pretty sad for humanity.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
07/30/2004 17:39 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Raj - you beat me to it. :-p
I'm sure the ICC will proceed with all (non)deliberative speed until such time as they can figure out how to blame the U.S. and the Jooooooos.
Useless wankers.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
07/30/2004 17:53 Comments ||
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#4
Why weren't the Americans and Jooooos there? Cop out?
/jeeebus
EFL & Hat tip to the lovelyMichelle Malkin
According to Michael Flocker's 2003 bestseller, The Metrosexual Guide to Style: A Handbook for the Modern Man, the trendsetting male icons of the 21st century must combine the coercive strengths of Mars and the seductive wiles of Venus. Put simply, metrosexual men are muscular but suave, confident yet image-conscious, assertive yet clearly in touch with their feminine sides. Just consider British soccer star David Beckham. He is married to former Spice Girl Victoria "Posh" Adams, but his combination of athleticism and cross-dressing make him a sex symbol to both women and men worldwide, not to mention the inspiration for the 2002 hit movie Bend It Like Beckham. Substance, Beckham shows, is nothing without style. Hey, get bent! I am all Mars.
Geopolitics is much the same. American neoconservatives such as Robert Kagan look down upon feminine, Venus-like Europeans, gibing their narcissistic obsession with building a postmodern, bureaucratic paradise. The United States, by contrast, supposedly carries the mantle of masculine Mars, boldly imposing freedom in the world's nastiest neighborhoods. But by cleverly deploying both its hard power and its sensitive side, the European Union (EU) has become more effective—and more attractive—than the United States on the catwalk of diplomatic clout. Meet the real New Europe: the world's first metrosexual superpower. I.Must.Stab.Pencil.In.My.Eye.Balls.Can.Not.Read.Any.More.
Posted by: Dragon Fly ||
07/30/2004 8:11:03 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
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#1
The EU is a superpower? Bwahahaha...EU and what army?
The EU is effective? at bending over and grabbing its ankles...
#2
I couldn't tell from reading that article whether the author is being sincere and oh-so-clever in a limp-wristed, swishy sort of way-- or whether he is being wickedly, brutally sarcastic.
If the former, the article is some of the most fatuous nonsense I've read in a long, long time. If the latter, it's brilliant.
Diplomatic faggotry is not going to bring victory over Islamic fascism.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
07/30/2004 8:37 Comments ||
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#3
Jaw-jaw is fine in a diplo world where everybody's nice and speaks the same sensible language. But you're going to need to resort to war-war when the barbarians crash your party.
Parag Khanna - early contender for idiotarian of the year?
#6
Foppish, vain, self-absorbed, effete, superficial, posturing, inconsequential, French, or affected; something like that.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
07/30/2004 9:30 Comments ||
Top||
#7
Ok , it's one thing to write about men's style, but why's she got to kick the USA in the stomach? No reason, she's just an asshole who didn't really think it though, American men always get ass overseas.
#8
Not she, he. Indian. Lived (and schooled?) in Switzerland. Came to the US to make his name and fortune. And judging from the article, gay all the way.
Posted by: ed ||
07/30/2004 9:58 Comments ||
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#10
Put simply, metrosexual men are muscular but suave, confident yet image-conscious, assertive yet clearly in touch with their feminine sides.
*snip* Meet the real New Europe: the worldâs first metrosexual superpower.
Am I missing something? Where has Europe shown itself to be muscular, confident, or assertive? By her own definition, Europe only exhibits the traits of femininity.
#15
Not all of the world is contained inside the countries that the US chooses to invade, therefore not all evidence of power needs exist within those countries.
There must have been atleast a dozen articles about how democratic reform in Turkey, a muslim nation of 70 millions, is closely motivated by its wish to establish closer ties with the EU, even full membership. Even when Bush visited Turkey, he had to use a European carrot, not having any worthwhile carrot of his own.
If you are to see Libyan reform as signs of American power, then you must see Turkey reform as signs of European power. And likewise with the boost of democratic reforms in Romania and Bulgaria, and likewise with much of the cooperation of Croatia and Serbia with the handing over of war criminals. Or the Cyprus issue which almost came to solution because of the EU -- and that chance was only destroyed by the chauvinism of the Greek-Cypriot president, not the Turkish side.
Bosnia, if it hangs together, will be the first nation to have modelled its flag, in colors and shape, after the EU one, even as many American nations modelled their flag after the USA flag. That's influence in the world.
Now, I freely admit that the EU doesn't currently have much (if any) "stick". And in the fight against Islamofascism we require more quantities of stick than of carrot. But the battle against tyranny isn't limited to *only* the fight against the Islamofascist powers. EU, for example, may be the only chance Ukraine and Georgia have of breaking away from the neo-Soviet sphere -- I'm gonna link an article relating to this later. And in those cases it's the carrot that matters more.
#16
Bosnia, if it hangs together, will be the first nation to have modelled its flag, in colors and shape, after the EU one, even as many American nations modelled their flag after the USA flag. That's influence in the world.
That's not true, according to the flag institute, who were consulted on the design. Their account suggests the similarities are coincidental, and also that "[international High Representative Carlos] Westendorp imposed the flag on Bosnia and Herzegovina". Two of the colours are clarified as "Reflex blue and Yellow 116c" - the same as the EU flag, but no political or symbolic reason for that is given. And the flag has "a certain number of stars, such as can be found on the flag of the European Union, though they are lined up in one line from fringe to fringe"; again, just happens to have stars. What do you base your claim on, Aris?
Anyway, thatâs broadly Mr Khannaâs thesis: unlike the insecure American cowboy, Europe is secure enough in its Martian hard power to know when to deploy a little sweet-smelling Venusian soft power. This may well be the dumbest essay the usually sober Foreign Policy has ever published. I had trouble keeping my Howard Dean metrosexual riff going beyond the second paragraph, but old Khanna flogs his metaphor into the ground and then scrapes it off the floor for more:
[above excerpt]
This sounds like one of those pieces an editor runs when he wants to get fired and go to Tuscany to write a novel. The Airbus 380 is a classic Eurostatist money pit, German law enforcement has been a huge flop against al-Qaâeda, and as for all the other fashionable projections of soft power, where are they? Europe wanted Kyoto: itâs dead. It wanted Saddam in office: heâs in jail. Right now cowboy Bush is leaving Sudan to the metrosexuals and what have they got to show for their projection of âsoft powerâ? Tens of thousands of corpses that no amount of cologne will hide the smell of.
#20
Bulldog> The very page you linked says "The moslem parliamentarian Zlatku Lagumdziji proposed to change the blue to 'European blue'."
This was ofcourse accepted. The earlier design was supposed to be a lighter blue referring to the United Nations "thereby expressing the membership of Bosnia and Herzegovina 'in the global community of states'" (quote again from the article you linked)
And again below that another quote: "He found that there was something to say for the proposal to change the UN-(light) blue to European (dark) blue."
And somewhere above that you get the reference: 'has a certain number of stars, such as can be found on the flag of the European Union, though they are lined up in one line from fringe to fringe'
someone> "It wanted Saddam in office: heâs in jail."
Yeah, that's *exactly* why Poland, Spain, the UK, Italy and so forth set troops, while about ten other EU nations vocally supported USA's efforts: because Europe "wanted Saddam in office".
It's quite clear that Steyn has an idiot's view of Europe, it obviously being a synonym for "France" or possibly "France and Germany" in his limited intellect.
#21
You have an incredible imagination, Aris. I'd bet that most people reading that page would come to a completely different interpretation from yours. You said:
Bosnia ... will be the first nation to have modelled its flag, in colors and shape, after the EU one
"Bosnia" didn't even model the flag, Aris!!! Westendorp did. And the colour choices - where does it say they're symbolic rather than aesthetic? It doesn't. Where's the white in the EU flag? Where's the triangle? Where's the shape you refer to at all? Why aren't the Bosnian stars yellow? Why can't you just admit you made an erroneous assumption when you saw the flag, and were ignorant of its history?
we get the following: "According to Duncan Bullivant, a spokesman for the office, the dark blue color and white stars on the new Bosnian flag symbolize the connection between Bosnia-Herzegovina and the European Union and the fact that the country belongs to Europe."
#23
And btw, by "shape" I meant the stars. I should have used another word perhaps -- in "in color and symbols" instead of "in color and shape"? If that's the fullness of your objection then, fine, I apologize for the misleading word "shape".
Bulldog, I've already given you more than one link that refer to the stars and colors symbolizing the European flag. Actually I've given you one link, and you've provided the other. So wait a few minutes and I'm gonna dig up some more.
#24
"The House of Representatives on Tuesday, however,
rejected all three proposals."
Once again, Aris: it was imposed on them. You started this conversation with some bollocks about the EU-lovin' Bosnians fawningly modeling their own flag on the EU's. The truth ain't nothing like that. Wake up!
#26
Go head and look for a link, Aris. If you find one that supports your claim, I'll happily have a look. It's your choice to keep digging. But I have to go to bed...
#27
Bulldog, why does it matter so much to you? Yes, Bosnia is an international protectorate and at that stage it could decide pretty much nothing by itself. Nonetheless they accepted this flag. Nonetheless you yourself gave the link where a Bosnian parliamentarian suggested the color turn into "European blue". *European* blue, Bulldog.
All the bullshit about "EU-loving Bosnians fawningly modeling their own flag" comes from you -- I never said them. The only thing I said is that to model your flag on that of another country means influence.
(If I had wanted to talk about EU-loving Bosnians, I'd have preferred to link to this article instead. )
All the bullshit about you wanting the stars to be the exact same color -- Bulldog, the Cuban flag was also modelled after the American flag and nonetheless its ribbons were *blue* and white, not *red* and white, and nonetheless there's no triangle in the American flag.
One more link, that connects color and stars with the European flag: http://flagspot.net/flags/ba.html
More to come, if you are so insistent on this point.
#28
Aris quote 1: Bosnia, if it hangs together, will be the first nation to have modelled its flag, in colors and shape, after the EU one, even as many American nations modelled their flag after the USA flag. That's influence in the world.
Aris quote 2: All the bullshit about "EU-loving Bosnians fawningly modeling their own flag" comes from you -- I never said them. The only thing I said is that to model your flag on that of another country means influence.
Do you expect people to take you seriously? Once again: Bosnians didn't model the flag, moreover they rejected it when they had the choice, and it was subsequently imposed on them. The supposed influence you laud, if there was any, was on Westendorp, who imposed the design on an unwilling people.
#30
http://zeljko-heimer-fame.from.hr/descr/ba-prop.html : "The stars resemble the EU stars"
http://www.ngw.nl/int/bos/bosnia.htm : "the stars were taken from the flag of the European Union with their desire to be a part of the EU".
http://international-flags.net/buy-online/bosnia-and-herzegovina/ : "The blue, "in combination with the stars" is said to represent "Europe and the Council of Europe, of which Bosnia and Herzegovina is a part"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Bosnia_and_Herzegovina : "The stars, representing Europe, are meant to be infinite in number and thus they continue from top to bottom."
Anyway, even if my belief that the stars and colors are Europe-related is a mistake, do you atleast concede that this is a mistake shared by the entire Internet, with the exception of you ofcourse?
Or can you find a single page that claims they *aren't* connected?
#31
Bulldog> They never rejected the current flag -- they rejected a previous butt-ugly flag that had the UN color on it, not the EU color. I don't blame them -- I'd have also rejected it.
So far I know no vote on the current Bosnian flag. Will check to see if any was made.
#33
On my part I can't believe how much Bulldog obsessed about this to the point of saying "Why can't you just admit you made an erroneous assumption when you saw the flag, and were ignorant of its history?"
I can't "just admit that" because it's simply wrong -- I I was slow-witted enough that I never even thought of such a connection when I saw the flag, until I'd read it from several other sources, like Wikipedia or Flags of the World.
If it makes you feel any better I had also thought that any similarity between the Cuban and the American flag was coincidence until I read otherwise. So in short, I tend to be on the other side of the spectrum, Bulldog -- when my assumptions are wrong they tend to go on the side of seeing to *few* connections than are really there.
#34
Or can you find a single page that claims they *aren't* connected?
Sooo clever, Aris, asking someone to prove a negative. Well, this (taken from my original link) quotes the design commission's original report:
The commission agreed that all elements in the flag and the symbol as a whole had to be equally acceptable to every citizen and every group in the country. 'For that reason, the position was taken that those criteria which are most commonly applied in the world to such state symbols should be followed, but also that each of the chosen solutions (alternatives) should be easily recognised by its elements and colours as a symbol of our state'.
This was the reason why none of the symbols or colours of one of the ethnic groups were included in the three designs. Green or crescent or fleur de lys would be associated with the moslems; the red and white chess board pattern with the Croats and the combination of red, white and blue or an eagle with the Serbs. 'Instead, the Commission decided that elements of each of the elected solutions should be geometric figures and colours equally acceptable to all. In each of the three proposed solutions (Alternatives 1, 2 and 3), these elements are composed in such a way that they are harmoniously connected and imbued, symbolising in that manner the fateful connection between all citizens and peoples of Bosnia and Herzegovina, their joint life, equality and tolerance'.
Each of the three proposals had a light blue background. This should refer to the United nations, thereby expressing the membership of Bosnia and Herzegovina 'in the global community of states'. The choice of yellow in certain elements in each of the proposals was motivated by the fact that this colour is equally acceptable to all and is 'associated with the sun as the source of light and symbol of life'. Two of the three designs had a triangle 'which as an universal geometric figure can be associated to the geographic form of the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina and its three constituent peoples' (Alternatives 1 and 3). One of the designs (the one which was imposed in the end) 'has a certain number of stars, such as can be found on the flag of the European Union, though they are lined up in one line from fringe to fringe'"
There's only one mention of the "European Union", and it could easily be replaced with "United States" in the context it's found in - that's how much symbolism is involved. No mention of the stars representing Europe; just stars "such as can be found on the flag of the European Union".
As for your crap links: why do you think five dodgy site have more authority than my one which includes direct quotes from the designers themselves? And don't start squealing about Wikipedia - it's not a hugely reliable or authoritative source of information.
Yet again, it seems I need to summarise why your original assertion that: Bosnia, if it hangs together, will be the first nation to have modelled its flag, in colors and shape, after the EU one, even as many American nations modelled their flag after the USA flag. That's influence in the world. Is wrong.
1) The flag was not modelled by Bosnians, as you erroneously claimed.
2) It was in fact modeled by an international commission chaired by a foreign bureaucrat named Westendorp.
3) The design was rejected by said Bosnians, even when it was one of only three choices put to them as an ultimatum (and the only one of the three that resembled a conventional national flag).
Only you, with your disdain for democracy and your desperation to project the EU as something admired and influential, could conclude that because a foreign bureaucrat imposed a rejected flag design on an unwilling people, that "that's [EU] influence in the world." Your efforts to defend your overblown original statement are a joke. You'd better start looking elsewhere for you precious EU "influence in the world".
#35
Good one, Bulldog!
Don't forget Aris's virulent hatred of nationalism (of which the US is the chief pusher in the world!) as being the source of all Eeeeeeevil! LOL
Greece must be one pathetic place these days, Olympics or not!
#36
"Sooo clever, Aris, asking someone to prove a negative"
When I can give you a hundred pages that say one thing, it does indeed fall on you to show why you believe the opposite.
And as a sidenote, negatives are the only thing that can be proven in science actually. In science you can disprove theories but never prove them.
So, come on! Find me a single page (one not written by you) that says something to the point of the following: "Contrary to common opinion, the stars aren't supposed to represent Europe, and the color isn't supposed to represent the European flag either"
Can't you find a *single page* that says something to that point? Or that say that the stars and color represent something else, and not Europe?
"No mention of the stars representing Europe"
Yeah, that's why I gave you a dozen other links saying that the stars do indeed represent it.
"As for your crap links: why do you think five dodgy site have more authority than my one which includes direct quotes from the designers themselves? "
Because they are five, and because your "one" doesn't actually say that the flag's stars don't actually disagree with them. And because they are not crappy -- all pages that explain what the color and stars stand for, explain the exact same thing. All the Internet is in agreement, Bulldog, except you!!
And because you show signs of bias by calling the link I offered "crappy" simply because you don't agree with them.
"The design was rejected by said Bosnians,"
As I said already, no it wasn't -- the design that was rejected was the one with the UN blue, not the EU blue. Read your links again.
"Only you, with your disdain for democracy and your desperation to project the EU as something admired and influential, "
Fuck you, Bulldog, ad-hominem asshole. And "disdain for democracy"??? Yeah, that's *exactly* the reason that I care more about democracy and freedom that all the rest of you bastards combined -- Most of you don't give a damn about whether a dictatorship is a dictatorship as long as it's a *friendly* dictatorship.
If I had wanted to talk about the EU being something admired and influential, it'd be a lot easier to do that talking about the design of Bosnia's flag -- I'd have talked about the referendums and polls throughout the continent instead. The flag was a two-line *sidenote*, because in Bosnia it was unique, as opposed to the continent-wide "influence and admiration" for the EU. It was noted simply because of the handy comparison to the influence that the American flag had to the flags of other countries (not all of whom are democratic, btw).
And as for Bosnia itself, I'd have offered this: http://www.delbih.cec.eu.int/en/worddocuments/word234.htm which says that only 2.7% of Bosnians think membership in the EU would be a bad thing for Bosnia, while 73.2% say it would be a good thing.
You see, Bulldog, I'm not *desperate* to show support for the EU. It's a fact that such support and admiration is there. It's you who are desperate to show that it's not, and have fallen to ludicrousness and in your efforts to prove a falsehood.
You asked me where I came by the idea of the Bosnian flag being influenced by the European flag. I answered you where I came by the idea -- I've seen several sources that claim it and not a single one that disputes it. Find me a single source that disputes it and we'll talk again, ad hominem maniacal boy.
And as for Jen she still has a complete disconnect from reality, always lying about what I've said.
#37
I'm sorry...Who's the freak who disconnected from reality?
HELLO!
After wearing everyone out on a thread, you always come back the next day to add some more belligerent crap!
I swear to Zeus, you would argue about anything, but make it an obscurantist rant that is really wordy, long-winded and boring!
Are you John Kerry?
EFL
Until recently German Galdetsky, a 19-year-old Muscovite, was a promising young university student with a passion for computers. This week he sat in a neurological hospital with a hole in his head as his mother struggled to get him to relearn the basics of life - how to eat, walk and talk. Doctors treating him say the fact that he is alive at all is a small miracle. On March 25 an assailant fired a pneumatic gun into the side of his temple. Mr Galdetsky's apparent crime was to launch an investigation into a ring of Moscow policemen who had allegedly been sexually abusing teenage girls on the capital's metro.
Mr Galdetsky's shooting is only one of a string of recent cases in which Russian police are alleged to have beaten, raped or killed victims. Charges have also been brought against serving and former policemen for corruption and mafia-related activities. Experts say reported crimes are only the tip of the iceberg. Few victims report crimes committed by the police for fear of retribution. Despite pledges to clean up the police, the culture of immunity that dominated in Soviet times is creeping back under President Vladimir Putin. On Wednesday, young opposition activists who demonstrated outside the Lubyanka, base of the KGB and its successor the FSB, said they were taken in and beaten.
Mr Galdetsky's first contact with the police came on Feb 8. He was with a girlfriend, Olga, 17, at the Pushkin Square metro in central Moscow when two policemen walked up and told her to go with them to their booth. There, according to statements German later gave to a local newspaper, they told her to undress, threatening to beat her if she did not. When she began to cry, Mr Galdetsky demanded to know what was happening. According to his testimony, the police began to taunt Olga. One said: "Open your legs and show him that you are a whore." Mr German took a photograph of the police with his mobile phone, but they grabbed him and forced him to delete it. At first the police complaints authority refused to take Mr Galdetsky seriously. Later they told him that if he collected enough evidence on his own they might pursue the case. So he put out an appeal on a Russian website asking for other girls who had been sexually harassed by policemen to come forward. Many said they were too scared, but six agreed to give their names. Two of them, who have since gone into hiding, said they resisted the unwanted advances of two policemen and were then imprisoned for 15 days on charges of obstructing a police investigation.
When Mr Galdetsky had compiled his dossier he sent it to the complaints commission. Days later he was attacked. The assailant took his mobile phone and an exercise book detailing the information he had collected but left his money. Since that day Mr Galdetsky has had three major brain operations.
Posted by: Bulldog ||
07/30/2004 5:27:38 AM ||
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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.
