Spanking is more effective than exercise at keeping the blues at bay, say Russian researchers who carried out tests on caning.
"Oh, spank me, Dmitri! But be gentle!"
They recommend that people receive 30 weekly sessions of 60 of the best. High levels of pain make the body produce endorphins or 'happy chemicals' and this leads to feelings of euphoria.
Ummm... Only if you're inclined that way, I think...
Endorphins also boost the immune system, release sex hormones and reduce appetite.
"C'mere, Dmitri, you wild stallion!"
"Pavel! Unhand me!"
Dr Sergei Speransky, who now charges patients £57 for treatment at Novosibirsk Institute of Medicine, said: 'The treatment works. I'm not sadistic, at least not in the classical sense, but I do advocate caning.'
£57 per treatment? I'm buying a stick and going into business for myself...
Posted by: Fred ||
03/30/2005 3:45:37 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#9
As I was waiting for my wife (shopping) I was listening to Rush Limbaugh talking about it. He even had a Dominatrix on the phone confirming the "euphoria" side of spanking but she was sceptical about the apetite side of it!
Edited for brevity.
A 5-year-old girl called 911 on Monday after waking to gunshots and finding her dead mother and dying father in bed. Police say a gunman seeking revenge for drug charges snuck into the family's Florida home and opened fire; he then killed himself in his home later that day. There's no shortage of drug violence, of course, but here's the kicker:
Authorities said David Edward Johnson targeted the couple after being arrested for possession of marijuana and steroids; he thought the couple had turned him in. The couple apparently feared the suspect and tried to get a court-ordered injunction to keep him away from their family. However, a judge denied the request on account that there was not enough evidence to support the stalking charge. Is there enough evidence now, asshat?
The judge, in denying the case, said "no violence was alleged and it was hard to prove stalking with the allegations" presented, according to court papers. "Looking back on it, I would have liked to have done it differently," Circuit Judge Richard Graham said. "But you review each case on a case-by-case basis." These Florida judges are doing great work this month helping innocent people die...
Posted by: Dar ||
03/30/2005 3:33:10 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
#8
FRED I AGREE HIND SIGHT IS ALWAYS 20/20.
I ALWAYS FEEL BETTER SAFE THAN SORRY.
ANDREA JACKSON
Posted by: Andrea Jackson ||
03/30/2005 17:55 Comments ||
Top||
#9
Restraining orders aren't worth a damn. Get a good security system and a concealed carry permit. A 12-gauge at home (up on hooks, out of the kid's reach) might have helped.
#10
I recommend a Winchester Defender 12 Ga with pistol grip and 18" barrel - holds 8 shells. You won't need them all. Mossberg makes a nice similar model
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/30/2005 22:42 Comments ||
Top||
#11
Right-o, Frank. The **chukk-chukk** of the pump action of loading of a cartridge in the chamber will put the fear of G-d into most people looking at the business end of a shotgun.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/30/2005 22:56 Comments ||
Top||
#12
If it doesn't, there won't be much left to argue with
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/30/2005 23:29 Comments ||
Top||
#13
Frank G - Might not need them all but I'd use them all. No burgler is suing me, lol.
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats ||
03/30/2005 23:35 Comments ||
Top||
Joan Kennedy's heartbreaking battle with the bottle took another downward turn when a passerby stumbled upon the ex-socialite passed out and suffering from broken bones on a Hub street early yesterday.
Always figured it would be Teddy who turned up this way. But, there's still time
The 68-year-old ex-wife of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) suffered a concussion and multiple shoulder fractures and was taken to Tufts New England Medical Center around 3 a.m., according to her son, U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.). ``You want to make sure there's someone there for her all the time . . . . but at the same time you don't want to encroach on her privacy too much,'' Kennedy told the Herald in an exclusive interview as he visited his injured mom yesterday at Tufts. ``When things like this happen, it makes you feel as though maybe you should have done more to make sure there's someone with her 24/7 and perhaps that might become necessary.''
Joan, I feel sorry for.
Patrick Kennedy, 37, and his siblings, Edward Kennedy Jr., 44, and Kara Kennedy Allen, 45, were recently named their mother's temporary guardians but Patrick Kennedy may be named her permanent caretaker following an upcoming custody hearing, a source close to the family said. Somber and visibly shaken, Patrick Kennedy said he was ``very concerned'' for his mother and expressed heartfelt thanks to the unnamed do-gooder who found her sprawled out cold on the street and called 911. Police had no report on the incident.
If there was one, it's been shredded by now.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/30/2005 3:07:14 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
9 weeks of sobriety and then buy her a speargun.
EFL - We're ALL GONNA DIE! Women and children hurt most...HT to Drudge The human race is living beyond its means. A report backed by 1,360 scientists from 95 countries - some of them world leaders in their fields - today warns that the almost two-thirds of the natural machinery that supports life on Earth is being degraded by human pressure. The study contains what its authors call "a stark warning" for the entire world. The wetlands, forests, savannahs, estuaries, coastal fisheries and other habitats that recycle air, water and nutrients for all living creatures are being irretrievably damaged. In effect, one species is now a hazard to the other 10 million or so on the planet, and to itself.
"Human activity is putting such a strain on the natural functions of Earth that the ability of the planet's ecosystems to sustain future generations can no longer be taken for granted," it says. The report, prepared in Washington under the supervision of a board chaired by Robert Watson, the British-born chief scientist at the World Bank and a former scientific adviser to the White House, will be launched today at the Royal Society in London. It warns that:
· Because of human demand for food, fresh water, timber, fibre and fuel, more land has been claimed for agriculture in the last 60 years than in the 18th and 19th centuries combined.
· An estimated 24% of the Earth's land surface is now cultivated.
· Water withdrawals from lakes and rivers has doubled in the last 40 years. Humans now use between 40% and 50% of all available freshwater running off the land.
· At least a quarter of all fish stocks are overharvested. In some areas, the catch is now less than a hundredth of that before industrial fishing.
· Since 1980, about 35% of mangroves have been lost, 20% of the world's coral reefs have been destroyed and another 20% badly degraded.
· Deforestation and other changes could increase the risks of malaria and cholera, and open the way for new and so far unknown disease to emerge.
*snip*
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/30/2005 1:05:47 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
How many trees die to produce craptastic 'journalism' like the Guardian?
Water withdrawals from lakes and rivers has doubled in the last 40 years. Humans now use between 40% and 50% of all available freshwater running off the land
And what the hell is wrong with that?
Earth to idiots: the planet is a closed system. Water doesn't escape into space or anything. Humans and animals take water in, use some of it for nourishment and hydration, and then either breathe or pee the rest of it out. It evaporates back up into clouds which then rain/snow/sleet water back to earth. Some of the water is locked into ice sheets and glaciers; the amount changes depending on the season.
So what exactly is the problem?
Other than these moonbats are idiots of the first order, that is.
I'm dying to see Steve Milloy fisk this piece of crap.
#13
RE: the direction sign of Doom. Why are they picking on Fairbanks, winter ice fog capital of the US?
No used water for us up here! No sir! We only drink newly minted water. From virgin hydrogen and oxygen molecules we make the finest dihydrogen oxide. Ya wanna live in a sewer, go swim in the sea. Yep!
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/30/2005 20:03 Comments ||
Top||
#14
AP, I combine dihydrogen oxide with some CH3CH2OH (C2H6O) to give it a bit of edge. Some other compounds as well, their composition is a trade secret. Yum.;-)
SLIDELL -- A Slidell family experiencing car trouble was surprised last Wednesday after finding thousands of dollars worth of cocaine wrapped around the vehicle's gas tank, authorities said. Two bricks of cocaine worth $40,000 were discovered wrapped around the fuel line of the family's 1996 Toyota Camry last week after a vehicle inspection, St. Tammany Parish Sheriff's Office spokesperson James Hartman said. The family, whose name is being withheld for safety reasons, noticed the vehicle decelerating on its own, Hartman said. Concerned, the family took the car to their regular mechanic in Slidell to investigate the problem, he said. After eliminating electrical, transmission and engine trouble, mechanics examined the fuel system. During the check, workers discovered two kilograms of cocaine wrapped around the Toyota's fuel line, Hartman said. The wrap holding the cocaine to the fuel system unfurled, causing the car problems, said Hartman.
Tape blocked the fuel pickup, most likely
The St. Tammany Parish Narcotics Task Force responded to the scene and opened an investigation into the source of the drugs. The family told officials they had purchased the Toyota from a Slidell used car dealer in 1997 and that they had no idea they were hauling cocaine under their car for the past eight years, Hartman said.
For Sale: 1996 Toyota Camry, low milage, only driven to Mexico on weekends
From their investigation, detectives quickly concluded the family had no prior knowledge of the drugs. Detectives are currently investigating the origin of the cocaine, working backward from the time the Slidell family purchased the vehicle, Hartman said. No arrests had been made in the case as of yesterday, deputies said.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/30/2005 11:59:14 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Lol! Anyone know the Statute of Limitations on illegal drugs in LA?
#6
.Com et al I lived in Davie, Ft. lauderdale in 2000 and a co worker of mine rented a car from a rental company at Ft. lauderdale International
airport while his car was being repaired. He had the same experience- while driving the rental he was rear ended at the end of an exit ramp in Ft. lauderdale- the car had to be towed, and the garage found a block of cocaine in the spare tire area of the trunk. My coworker was arrested for the crime and he did not put the coke there- the car had been rented to several other's before him and "someone was trafficing drugs" by renting that car! WHAT A MESS***
Andrea Jackson
Posted by: Andrea Jackson ||
03/30/2005 17:46 Comments ||
Top||
#7
Hmmm. This is at least the third time you've told an anecdote like this...
Andrea, baby, shouldn't you be asking yourself why you know so many felons?
#8
I don't know so many felons. Yes, this story is like one in the past which makes the response appropriate. I don't judge or label one as a "felon" I look at the whole picture. I know that a defendant can be painted a criminal.
I try to see both sides of the coin and be fair.
Andrea Jackson
Posted by: Andrea Jackson ||
03/30/2005 17:59 Comments ||
Top||
#9
It depends on your meaning of felon. For instance parking a horse trailer in Davie used to be de regieru now it's illegal... what can I say. Tragedy, now the horse must walk.
PINELLAS PARK, Fla. (AP) - A federal appeals court agreed to consider an emergency bid by Terri Schiavo's parents for a new hearing on whether to reconnect her feeding tube, raising their fading hopes of keeping the severely brain-damaged woman alive.
In its order late Tuesday, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals didn't say when it would decide whether to grant the hearing. It was not clear what effect reconnecting Terri Schiavo's feeding tube would have on her, as she approached her 13th day without nourishment.
The order issued allowed Bob and Mary Schindler to file the appeal, even though the court had set a March 26 deadline for doing so.
Its one-sentence order said: "The Appellant's emergency motion for leave to file out of time is granted." Twice last week, the court ruled against the Schindlers.
In requesting a new hearing, the Schindlers argued that a federal judge in Tampa should have considered the entire state court record and not whether previous Florida court rulings met legal standards under state law. It also stated that the Atlanta federal appellate court didn't consider whether there was enough "clear and convincing" evidence that Terri Schiavo would have chosen to die in her current condition.
Attorneys for the Schindlers didn't immediately return phone messages Wednesday. George Felos, Michael Schiavo's attorney, declined comment.
Time was running out for Schiavo, however. Bob Schindler described his daughter on Tuesday as "failing."
"She still looks pretty darn good under the circumstances," Schindler said. "You can see the impact of no food and water for 12 days. Her bodily functions are still working. We still have her."
Doctors have said Schiavo, 41, would probably die within two weeks after the tube was removed March 18. Her husband, Michael Schiavo, insists he is carrying out her wishes by having the feeding tube pulled.
The request for a new hearing also asks to have the tube reinserted immediately "in light of the magnitude of what is at stake and the urgency of the action required."
The order was a ray of hope for the Schindlers, who are battling their son-in-law over their daughter's fate. The case has wound its way through six courts for seven years; the U.S. Supreme Court declined to intervene five times.
Protesters keeping a 24-hour vigil outside the hospice praised the latest decision.
"There's a chance for a miracle," said Christine Marriott, 43, who rushed to the hospice after hearing the news on TV. "Anything positive is a breath of life."
Early Wednesday, a man was arrested when he tried to bring a plastic cup of water into the hospice. Officers stopped him at the gate as he shouted: "You don't know God from Godzilla!"
He became the 48th protester arrested since the tube was removed on a court order sought by her husband. Terri Schiavo suffered catastrophic brain damage in 1990 when her heart stopped for several minutes because of a chemical imbalance apparently brought on by an eating disorder.
The Schindlers have maintained that their daughter would want to be kept alive.
Their attorneys raised the issue of the new request after a Saturday deadline set by the court, saying they have had more time to research the issues and have become convinced that the federal court in Tampa had "committed plain error when it reviewed only the state court case and outcome history."
Attorneys for the Schindlers have argued that Terri Schiavo's rights to life and privacy were being violated.
"I think the courts want to be sure that there's no accusation that any legal argument was ignored," said attorney Neal Sonnett, former chairman of the American Bar Association's criminal justice section.
Federal courts were given jurisdiction to review Schiavo's case after Republicans in Congress pushed through unprecedented emergency legislation aimed at prolonging her life. But federal courts at three levels have rebuffed her parents.
On Tuesday, her mother, Mary Schindler, made a terse but emotional appeal to Michael Schiavo: "Michael and Jodi, you have your own children. Please, please give my child back to me." Michael Schiavo and fiancee Jodi Centonze have two children, born long after Terri Schiavo's collapse.
Although supporters of the Schindlers have claimed the dehydrated woman is being denied comforts such as ice chips for her dry mouth or balm for chapped lips, Felos defended how Schiavo is being cared for.
"Obviously, the parents and the siblings are desperate. Desperation may lead to different perceptions," Felos told CNN. "I can only tell you what I've seen, and Terri is dying a very peaceful, cared-for death."
The Rev. Jesse Jackson prayed with the Schindlers on Tuesday and joined conservatives in calling for state lawmakers to order her feeding tube reinserted.
The former Democratic presidential candidate was invited by Schiavo's parents to meet with activists outside Schiavo's hospice. His arrival was greeted by some applause and cries of "This is about civil rights!"
"I feel so passionate about this injustice being done, how unnecessary it is to deny her a feeding tube, water, not even ice to be used for her parched lips," he said. "This is a moral issue and it transcends politics and family disputes."
First lady Laura Bush also commented on the case Tuesday, saying the government was right to have intervened on behalf of Schiavo.
"It is a life issue that really does require government to be involved," Bush said aboard a plane bound for Afghanistan, where she was promoting education and women's rights.
RE-ELECT PINELLAS COUNTY SHERRIFF JIM COATS.
HE GETS THINGS DONE! SEE BELOW!
"An unidentified man is detained just before sunrise Wednesday, March 30, 2005 outside the Woodside Hospice, where Terri Schiavo resides, in Pinellas Park, Fla."
Above Photo - HAT TIP - DRUDGE
Posted by: BigEd ||
03/30/2005 10:51:42 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
BigEd, please don't get your hopes up. If the order is accurately stated in the article it is just procedural.
Posted by: Matt ||
03/30/2005 11:10 Comments ||
Top||
#2
It's too late to save Terri. The dehydration I'm sure has done irreversible damage to Terri's organs. These judges need to be held accountable for the torture that they have inflicted on this human being that could not defend herself.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/30/2005 11:26 Comments ||
Top||
#3
One more thing: the husband agreed to an autopsy. I'm sure that the procedure will be rigorous and objective.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/30/2005 11:27 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Matt - I understand what you are saying... But if they agree to take paperwork,
we may know about more where individual judges stand... Judge Pryor, eg, may be forced to declare himself. And W can then decide whether his recess appt was worth the effort, and mabye withdraw the regular appt if he doen't understand the situation....
The fact that the first en banc was refused, means that only 3 judges positions we know for sure, because of the procedural nature of the decision... This may give us more of a chance to know of these judges because of the nature of the appeal....
Judge Wilson, Clinton appointee.
The only judge, along with Judge Tjoflat on the en banc to show humanity...
By the way... Santorum is saying the House should get "involved" with Greer and Whittimore...
Hannity is asking about the word "impeachment"...
Santorum is saying, "that is for the house to decide..." and impeachment is the "most extreme solution." (but seemed to be ENCOURAGING the house to ACT)
But not only should Whittimore be impeached, they ought to consider adding Birch, a Bush 41 appointee to the court of appeals. The imperial condescending arrogance of this b-----d.
I concur in the denial of rehearing en banc in this case because any further action by our court or the district court, would be improper, as I explain below.
An axiom in the study of law is that âhard facts make bad law.â The tragic events that have afflicted Mrs. Schiavo and that have been compounded by the resulting passionate inter-family struggle and media focus certainly qualify as âhard facts.â And, while the members of her family and the members of Congress
have acted in a way that is both fervent and sincere, the time has come for dispassionate discharge of duty. A popular epithet directed by some members of society, including some members of Congress, toward the judiciary involves the denunciation of âactivist judges.â Generally, the definition of an âactivist judgeâ is one who decides the
outcome of a controversy before him according to personal conviction, even one sincerely held, as opposed to the dictates of the law as constrained by legal precedent and, ultimately, our Constitution. In resolving the Schiavo controversy
it is my judgment that, despite sincere and altruistic motivation, the legislative and
executive branches of our government have acted in a manner demonstrably at odds with our Founding Fathersâ blueprint for the governance of a free people âour Constitution. Since I have sworn, as have they, to uphold and defend that Covenant, I must respectfully concur in the denial of the request for rehearing en
banc.
#1
'Fool... You know that Greer and his Pinellas deputies have arrangements to fly on to Rome after they finish their business in Monte Carlo with Prince Ranier...
Save some cost of back and forth trans-Atlanic Flights. County Taxpayers would scream, don't you know...
#2
The local radio news announcer this morning started out by saying the "Pope was entering the hospital to have a feeding tube re-attached". Then there was dead silence while he thought about what he had just said.
Posted by: john ||
03/30/2005 15:26 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Very interesting set of circumstances!
I guess what's good for the goose is
not good for the gander?
Andrea Jackson
Posted by: Andrea Jackson ||
03/30/2005 17:39 Comments ||
Top||
#2
I beleive that the Pope taking a feeding tube was a direct gesture to the whole Schiavo thing.
This Pope has always been all about being true to his word. He shamed the communists in Poland and started in motion the things that would eventually bring down Communism. He forgave the man who tried to assasinate him instead of going to a Holy War mode. He has stood firm for the princple that Life is important and precious, be it the elderly or the unborn. And even though he opposed the war on terror by these principles (much to my chagrin), he did not make it a dogmatic statement, leaving room for those who argued on the Just War theory to proceed. And now he is dying and still teaching by way of how he dies. Incredible. John Paul II will be written as one of the giants of the 20th century. JP-II, Reagan and Thatcher will be the dominant figures in the latter part of the 1900s.
He shamed Communism into changing, and now he is doing the same to the "Culture of Death" here and abroad by his actions.
For you non-Christians out there, this is one of the ways the Pope "Picks up and bears the Cross" for the faithful, trying to provide a living example of the things he teaches, one of which is suffering in grace.
#3
I beleive that the Pope taking a feeding tube was a direct gesture to the whole Schiavo thing.
This Pope has always been all about being true to his word. He shamed the communists in Poland and started in motion the things that would eventually bring down Communism. He forgave the man who tried to assasinate him instead of going to a Holy War mode. He has stood firm for the princple that Life is important and precious, be it the elderly or the unborn. And even though he opposed the war on terror by these principles (much to my chagrin), he did not make it a dogmatic statement, leaving room for those who argued on the Just War theory to proceed. And now he is dying and still teaching by way of how he dies. Incredible. John Paul II will be written as one of the giants of the 20th century. JP-II, Reagan and Thatcher will be the dominant figures in the latter part of the 1900s.
He shamed Communism into changing, and now he is doing the same to the "Culture of Death" here and abroad by his actions.
For you non-Christians out there, this is one of the ways the Pope "Picks up and bears the Cross" for the faithful, trying to provide a living example of the things he teaches, one of which is suffering in grace.
#4
I beleive that the Pope taking a feeding tube was a direct gesture to the whole Schiavo thing.
This Pope has always been all about being true to his word. He shamed the communists in Poland and started in motion the things that would eventually bring down Communism. He forgave the man who tried to assasinate him instead of going to a Holy War mode. He has stood firm for the princple that Life is important and precious, be it the elderly or the unborn. And even though he opposed the war on terror by these principles (much to my chagrin), he did not make it a dogmatic statement, leaving room for those who argued on the Just War theory to proceed. And now he is dying and still teaching by way of how he dies. Incredible. John Paul II will be written as one of the giants of the 20th century. JP-II, Reagan and Thatcher will be the dominant figures in the latter part of the 1900s.
He shamed Communism into changing, and now he is doing the same to the "Culture of Death" here and abroad by his actions.
For you non-Christians out there, this is one of the ways the Pope "Picks up and bears the Cross" for the faithful, trying to provide a living example of the things he teaches, one of which is suffering in grace.
#1
The Sumatra fault referred to in the article and which has been stressed by the boxing day earthquake runs under and seems to be the cause of the Toba volcano which nearly wiped out the human race in a super eruption 80k years ago.
From the "Paybacks a Bitch" DepartmentCEIBA, Puerto Rico (AP) - With her fidgeting baby on her lap, Gloria Reyes counts the few dollars in the cash register and looks balefully at the two customers having cold drinks to fight the tropical heat in her family's restaurant. Nearby, weeds grow in the lot of a closed gas station, a barbecue chicken restaurant's door is chained shut and only a few people walk this town's once-bustling streets on a sunny afternoon. "We're barely hanging in. I've lost three-quarters of my business since the Navy and the Americans left," said Reyes, 25, whose family owns the La Sombra, an open-fronted restaurant-bar with a large sign featuring an exotic-looking woman meant to attract sailors.
A year after the U.S. Navy left Roosevelt Roads Naval Station, taking with it 6,000 jobs and an estimated $300 million annually, Ceiba is struggling to get by as businesses close, unemployment rises and residents leave the town of 18,000. An ambitious plan to turn the empty base into a cruise ship dock, commercial airport, tourist resort and light industrial park cannot get under way until an environmental study is completed.
And we know how long those can take, don't we?
Roosevelt Roads was a support base for U.S. invasions of the Dominican Republic in 1965, Grenada in 1983 and Haiti in 1994. But its main purpose in recent years was to oversee bombing exercises on nearby Vieques island. The exercises provoked protests that contributed to the U.S. decision to end maneuvers on Vieques in 2003 and close Roosevelt Roads a year later.
Cause, meet effect. Effect, cause.
Officials said about 2,000 troops and civilian personnel moved from the area or were offered jobs elsewhere, and some 1,000 private contractors lost their jobs on the base. Some Puerto Ricans, especially the island's vocal pro-independence movement, celebrated on April 1, 2004, after the base closed. But others worried about the impact on the economy and on communities like Ceiba, located at the gates of the former station in eastern Puerto Rico. Ceiba's main business association says 15 of the town's 250 businesses have shut their doors because of the base closure and 40 percent of those still open are in trouble. The unemployment rate in the town is 17-20 percent, nearly twice the average in Puerto Rico.
"The community took a major hit with the closing of the base. Stores lost income not just from the people who were on the base, but from the departing contractors and the residents of Ceiba who lost the incomes," said Ceiba Mayor Gilberto Camacho.
Life sucks, don't it?
About 100 households left Ceiba after the base closed; the houses now stand empty, Camacho said. "Some business owners are barely able to pay their utility bills and debts. It's been a tough year," said Oscar Delgado, owner of Margie Hardware on Ceiba's main street. Delgado says business even for stores like his, which didn't directly depend on Roosevelt Roads, have fallen by 15-20 percent. Other businesses, such as bars and restaurants popular with base personnel, have seen revenues plunge up to 75 percent.
At La Sombra - Spanish for "The Shade" - Reyes says she has lowered the price of beer to $1.25 a bottle to attract customers and started serving food in the morning. "The breakfasts have helped us scrape by," she said.
The base was named for President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who ordered its construction in 1940. In the following decades, thousands of U.S. sailors came to the 8,600-acre base and to Vieques to train for conflicts from Vietnam to Afghanistan. In 1999, errant bombs killed a civilian guard during Vieques exercises, sparking a surge in protests by opponents who contended that the bombing harmed the environment and the health of Vieques' 9,100 residents.
The Navy denied it, but decided to close the range in 2003 and move training to the U.S. mainland. With the end of the Vieques bombing exercises, Roosevelt Roads' main reason to exist disappeared.
And was closed faster than any other base in history
Still, some see hope for the future. Camacho envisions a science park on the former base to draw tourists. He has already asked authorities to give the municipality a bowling alley, a 120-room hotel and a marina from the base.
...and a pony.
The federal government has the first option on base property. Officials say the U.S. Army Reserve, the Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. Postal Service and other programs have requested 250 acres. Then the local government will have the option to request land, and the Navy will be able to sell other property to private buyers.
"When we get around to it. Could take some time, lot's of paperwork to fill out. And our typist is on leave."
Posted by: Steve ||
03/30/2005 4:06:56 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
3 yrs(+) for a NEPA EIS document if the project was unopposed - I give this one 6-7 yrs
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/30/2005 16:38 Comments ||
Top||
#2
This horse is DOA, Frank. Messkit: meet sh*t.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/30/2005 16:43 Comments ||
Top||
#3
since the Navy and the Americans left
It's your Navy and you're an American. Time to maker hard thinking.
#4
"Typical Americans misunderstood us yet again, so let's review: We don't like you. We don't want to see you. We don't want you to practice here. We want you to stay, spend lots of money in our towns, and then get back on base where we don't have to look at you."
#5
Why not ask the DNC, Al Sharpton, and the other peaceniks for some money to hold over until business picks up? What's that? You haven't heard a squeak from them since the base annouced it was closing? Oh and they didn't leave a number to call for assistance? Tsk tsk, sucks to be you.
#6
Fish or cut bait. Become a state or walk away. Yeah Puerto Rico, I'm talking to you. We'd love to have you join the family but as a guest you've overstayed your welcome.
Pyongyang, March 29 (KCNA) -- Technicians and workers of the Hamhung Building Machine Plant in South Hamgyong Province, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, have manufactured a new vibrating tamper suitable for the actual conditions of the country with the help of the April 15 Technical Innovation Shock Brigade dispatched there. The tamper is made with an electric motor and vibrating apparatus instead of compressor, pipes and other auxiliary equipment. Its production cost is low and it is easy to operate. It also makes it possible to save a great deal of manpower and raise the speed and quality of projects remarkably. The tamper enjoys popularity among female users.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/30/2005 2:07:08 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
The secret is out! Kimmie watches the Power Rangers!
The world caught a rare glimpse of mob violence in North Korea Wednesday when soccer fans in the highly controlled state hurled bottles, rocks and chairs as the home team lost a World Cup qualifier to Iran.
Soccer fans, why do they hate.....everyone
North Korea is a land where sporting celebrations involve hundreds of thousands of people, with every detail finely choreographed. The Stalinist state limits what the outside world can see of it, and it always makes sure the little that is put in front of television cameras is seen in the best possible light. But that was not the case at Kim Il-sung stadium. North Korean soldiers and police stepped in to try to restore order after defender Nam Song-chol was sent off for shoving Syrian referee Mohamed Kousa during the match seen on international satellite television.
Bad Nam, no grass for you
The unrest continued after the final whistle, with match officials unable to leave the pitch for about 20 minutes as more projectiles rained down. The violence spilled over outside the stadium where thousands of angry North Koreans prevented Iran's players from boarding the team bus.
I'd say North Korea is ready for EU membership
Riot police finally pushed back the crowd far enough for the Iranian squad to depart two hours after the end of the game. "The atmosphere on the pitch and outside the pitch was not a sports atmosphere," said Iran's Croatian coach, Branko Ivankovic. "It is very disappointing when you feel your life is not safe. My players tried to get to the bus after the game but it was not possible -- it was a very dangerous situation." "North Korea is an organized society and that kind of behavior will not be tolerated," said a North Korean defector in Seoul who was once a soccer official in his homeland. "I have never seen anything like this myself," he said. "The people responsible are likely be tracked down and severely punished."
No doubts in my mind
North Korean official media had nothing to say about the violence in Pyongyang. The KCNA news agency carried a two-sentence report on the game that simply said Iran won 2-0.
Heh
Posted by: Steve ||
03/30/2005 1:52:48 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
What goes around comes around.
The "Axis of Evil" Challenge
North Korea vs Iran with a Syrian referee?
A Shanghai online game player has stabbed to death a competitor who sold his cyber-sword, the China Daily said.
The incident creates a dilemma in China where no law exists for the ownership of virtual weapons.
Qiu Chengwei, 41, stabbed competitor Zhu Caoyuan repeatedly in the chest after he was told Zhu had sold his "dragon sabre", used in the popular online game Legend of Mir 3, the newspaper said a Shanghai court was told yesterday.
Legend of Mir 3 features heroes and villains, sorcerers and warriors, many of whom wield enormous swords.
Qiu and a friend jointly won their weapon last February, and lent it to Zhu who then sold it for 7,200 yuan ($A1,129), the newspaper said.
Qui went to the police to report the "theft" but was told the weapon was not real property protected by law.
"Zhu promised to hand over the cash but an angry Qui lost patience and attacked Zhu at his home, stabbing him in the left chest with great force and killing him," the court was told.
The newspaper did not specify the charge against Qiu but said he had given himself up to police and already pleaded guilty to intentional injury.
More online gamers were seeking justice through the courts over stolen weapons and credits, the newspaper said.
"The armour and swords in games should be deemed as private property as players have to spend money and time for them," Wang Zongyu, an associate law professor at Beijing's Renmin University of China, was quoted as saying.
Other experts called for caution. "The 'assets' of one player could mean nothing to others as they are by nature just data created by game providers," a lawyer for a Shanghai-based internet game company was quoted as saying.
Virtual gaming is fast becoming a very popular worldwide trend. Games such as Legend of Mir 3 are known as "massively multi-player online role-playing games" (or MMORPGs).
The worlds created in them are incredibly detailed, and can develop and change even when players are off line.
They have attracted an enormous amount of subscribers and, according to a report in the Australian Financial Review, gamers are attracted to them because they have overcome the biggest problem in traditional computer games: loneliness.
Games writer Jason Hill said that while MMORPGs make up only a tiny percentage of the virtual gaming market, those who do play them tend to be very dedicated, spending a lot of time in these cyber-worlds.
"The actual items in the games, be they property or tools, become valuable because of the time people have spent building them up," he said.
"In a lot of games people might have to forage for the raw materials and then take them to a smelter [if they were making a sword or sabre, for example], otherwise the item might be a reward for completing a difficult quest.
"All of that means the item will be difficult to get, and the popularity of these games among certain groups means that these items then become very valuable."
Legend of Mir 3 has not yet been released in Australia. MMORPG enthusiasts here are more likely to be playing the very popular Everquest, or a new contender, World of Warcraft.
"These two are both fantasy games, with a niche appeal, but when people get into it they really get into it," Jason Hill explained.
The case of Qiu Chengwei and Zhu Caoyuan follows a report in the Australian Financial Review over the Christmas break, which told how 22-year-old University of Sydney graduate, David Storey, bought a virtual island - for $35,000 - on December 14 last year.
The island included an abandoned castle, some beautiful beaches ready for development and the potential for the development of lucrative hunting and mining industries. However, it only exists in cyberspace, inside a multi-player computer game called Project Entropia.
Now that Storey owns the island, if any other players visit it for a spot of hunting or a bit of a mine, he is entitled to a percentage of their takings. Every month, for the next twelve months, he can sell five plots of land on his island, which could net him as much as $40,000.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/30/2005 12:33:04 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#8
A Shanghai online game player has stabbed to death a competitor who sold his cyber-sword, the China Daily said.
The incident creates a dilemma in China where no law exists for the ownership of virtual weapons.
Why is this a dilemma? The reality -- or not -- of the motive is immaterial in face of a FREAKING MURDER!!!
And, really, folks, where have you been? People have been doing this for quite a while -- selling off characters, weapons, chunks of land, that they've "built up" in a game.
I also don't understand why there needs to be a special set of laws for "virtual property". Simple contract and fraud law should be able to handle it.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/30/2005 12:12 Comments ||
Top||
#9
I know I'm going to sound dumber than dirt here (yes, I realise it's not the first time ), but how in the name of sheeted hell does one come to be able to own virtual property in the first place?
Posted by: Weird Al ||
03/30/2005 14:05 Comments ||
Top||
#10
Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Games (MMORPGs)...
Persistent virtual worlds with their own rules. These include virtual property (usually items) which can be traded, including for real-world money.
Three years ago, I saw a calculation based on the exchange rate between the dollar and the EverQuest 'plat' which put EQ as the 55th largest economy in the world.
#11
IIUC most MMORPGS discourage this sort of thing, as it sort of ruins some aspects of the game. In particular there are groups in third world countries where shift workers play an account 24/7 getting stuff to sell via Ebay to first world players. The prices are high enough this is actually a way to make a living - its called "farming".
I prefer Europa Univeralis, myself (do i dare to tell you ive just expelled ALL the muslims from Spain?)
#12
If the profits are so good ... its time to fire up my sniffers again and hack my way into MMORPG profits that no judge on the planet is going to give a damn about.
#13
no judge on the planet is going to give a damn about.
Not entirely true. Most of the operators (Blizzard - WoW, Verant/Sony - EQ and SWG, Microsoft - AC) look very harshly on that kind of thing. Account hacking is generally a bannable offense. If you somehow circumvented a ban and came back a second time, they'd likely respond very harshly.
IIUC most MMORPGS discourage this sort of thing
A couple years ago, Verant faced off with EBay over this. I believe EBay saw Verant as a small company they could ignore and blew them off. Verant responded by referring the matter to Sony. I stopped paying attention at that point. That said, it still happens.
Spanish government plans to sell military equipment to Venezuela have been branded a "monstrous error" by political opponents.
The deal involving ships and transport planes worth 1.3bn euros ($1.7bn; £1bn) was denounced by Spain's conservative opposition leader Mariano Rajoy.
Venezuelan foes of President Hugo Chavez had also criticised it, he said.
But politicians of the governing Socialist party hit back, saying the sale would create jobs in Spain.
The row in Spain follows international concern over Venezuelan plans to buy 100,000 AK-47 assault rifles from Russia.
The US state department has accused Venezuela of starting an arms race and has suggested the rifles could end up in the hands of Colombia's left-wing Farc rebels.
But Venezuela and Russia have both dismissed the US objections, saying the deal does not break international law.
Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero is attending a four-nation summit in Venezuela that also brings together Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Colombian President Alvaro Uribe.
The arms deal is expected to be signed on Wednesday.
On the eve of the signing, Mr Rajoy, who leads Spain's opposition Popular Party, told local television: "I think that what we are doing today in Venezuela in selling arms to Chavez is a monstrous error that the Spanish government should absolutely not make."
He added: "It's something that has met with blanket criticism across the whole of the Venezuelan opposition... who suffer under the Chavez yoke."
But Socialist Party manager Jose Blanco said the sale would provide employment for Spanish workers - including those at the publicly-owned Navantia shipyards, which he said had been left "technically bankrupt" by the previous Popular Party government.
This is not the first time that Spain's two main parties have been at loggerheads over relations with Venezuela.
In December, Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos drew fierce protests for suggesting that the Popular Party government of former Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar had supported a failed coup bid against Mr Chavez in 2002.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/30/2005 12:22:32 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
"..... rifles could end up in the hands of Colombiaâs left-wing Farc rebels." But that is exactly the reason for buying them!
#2
"....Last week in Brasilia, U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld made manifest his concern over the consequences for the hemisphere if Venezuela were to go ahead with the purchase of 100,000 Russian Kalashnikov AK-47 assault rifles. Rumsfeld thus publicly expressed the fear of the U.S. authorities that these weapons could end up in the hands of the FARC, the ELN, and other terrorist groups.
It is more than likely that, in private, the Secretary of Defense provided details confirming that the true intention of the Hugo Chávez administration is to share weapons with subversive groups in neighboring countries and with groups that are in agreement with his revolutionary ideals. One such detail could be the fact that there are four models of Kalashnikov rifles, two of which are being used by the OTAN and other armies in different parts of the world, and two that are already obsolete and more than 20 years behind the times, technologically, which are being used by some third world armies and a large number of terrorist and subversive groups.
To everyoneâs surprise, Venezuela is acquiring the two obsolete models, which are compatible with rifles used by the FARC, the ELN, and other subversive groups, and, what is more, it is buying 100,000 rifles, 20,000 more than necessary, given that the National Armed Force has only 80,000 members. These two facts are viewed by observers as an indication that the Venezuelan government is thinking of sharing weapons with subversive groups in the region."
#3
Jean-François Cope, a Cabinet minister, said: âVoting âyesâ means showing your attachment to the French model and your rejection of the âAnglo-Saxonâ or Polish model.â
First, what is the Polish model he's speaking of?
Second, I'm sure that quote will play well in EU countries that do not particularly appreciate the "French model".
#7
Is the panic the polls show that the population won't support or that a rigged election won't sell any more in France than in the Ukraine? Its win the EU vote and lose your head [a fine French tradition that could be revived] or lose the EU vote and just accept a lesser position in the world. That would certainly get the old guard in a scramble.
#10
Umm...on further consideration the Napoleonic saying of "The Old Guards dies, but never surrenders" may be in play. We hope
It was at Waterloo. An infantry a unit of the guard was surrounded by the British/Belgian/Dutch/Germans and asked to surrender. The poetic version is that they answered "The Guard dies but doesn't surrender". The real answer was "Merde" who is somewhere in the middle between "Nuts" and "Go f..k yourselves".
#11
I thought the Old Guard turned and fled - for the first time - after failing to break Wellington's line at Waterloo, and it was at that point that the rest of the French Army realised that the battle was lost.
A Bosnian Serb charged in connection with the massacre of 8000 Muslims during Bosnia's 1992-95 war is to surrender to the UN war crimes tribunal. Bosnian Serb President Dragan Cavic said on Tuesday that the transfer of Ljubomir Borovcanin to The Hague will take place within the next few days. Cavic, however, did not elaborate whether Borovcanin had already turned himself in to Bosnian Serb or Serbian authorities. In July 1995, Bosnian Serb forces killed 8000 Muslim males when they captured the eastern town of Srebrenica in the worst atrocity in Europe since World War II. At the time Borovcanin was deputy commander of special police forces. Borovcanin, 45, is accused by the UN court with complicity in genocide and crimes against humanity.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/30/2005 00:00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
This was just begging to be fisked.
Malnutrition rates in children under five have almost doubled since the US-led intervention - to nearly 8% by the end of last year, it says. Wait, I thought that the US led blockade was causing all them kids to starve. I'm sure that the Baathists kept impeccably accurate statistics and all, so it must be them darn Merkins. They're capitalists, ya know.
The report was prepared for the annual meeting of the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva. It also expressed concern over North Korea and Sudan's Darfur province. Who's in charge of the HRC this year anyway? I can't remember if its Libya or Burma.
UN specialist on hunger Jean Ziegler, who prepared the report, blames the worsening situation in Iraq on the war led by coalition forces. That's right. Saddam used to get very worried about kid's nutrition. Why him and his two sainted sons Usay and Qusay were known to start lopping off heads when they heard about some poor Shiite youngster going to bed hungry.
He was addressing a meeting of the 53-nation commission, the top UN rights watchdog, which is halfway through its annual six-week session. At the end of which, I'm sure that they'll publish a detailed plan to end all forms of oppression worldwide along with a budget and manpower request to the security council.
When Saddam Hussein was overthrown, about 4% of Iraqi children under five were going hungry; now that figure has almost doubled to 8%, his report says. Like I said, no Baathist was ever known to lie or even harm the downy head of a baby duck.
Governments must recognise their extra-territorial obligations towards the right to food and should not do anything that might undermine access to it of people living outside their borders, it says. Actually, Jean, it has nothing to do with extra-territorial obligations and everything to do with the obligations of an occupying power under the Geneva Convention. But to acknowledge the GC would lend a cloak of legitimacy to the US occupation. So better just to just make up international law as you go.
That point is aimed clearly at the US, but Washington, which has sent a large delegation to the Human Rights Commission, declined to respond to the charges, says the BBC's Imogen Foulkes in Geneva. "So have you stopped beating your wife?"
Increasing hunger
Mr Ziegler also says he is very concerned about the lack of food in North Korea, where there are reports that UN food aid is not being distributed fairly. And that would be on account of what? Sorry. I forgot the rule. We can't criticize out fellow leftists no matter how heinous their crimes are.
In Darfur, the continuing conflict has prevented people from planting vital crops, he says. Is conflict the proximate cause or i-s-l-a-m-i-s-t-s?
Overall, Mr Ziegler says, he is shocked by the fact that hunger is actually increasing worldwide. Well the data over at the World Bank site is far from complete, but of the countries that they have data for, child malnutrition rates have declined in 10 of 15 cases from 1990 to 2002. But I don't know about those bankers. All they care about is money, unlike those noble Baathists and NorK Communists.
Some 17,000 children die every day from hunger-related diseases, the report claims, which it says is a scandal in a world which is richer than ever before. "The silent daily massacre by hunger is a form of murder," Mr Ziegler said. "It must be battled and eliminated." I'm sure that most of your speech addressed how to fix the problem and was not just an hour of moral posturing and finger pointing. That darn BBC. Their agenda always gets in the way.
Disabled activists stage a protest calling for continued care and feeding of Terri Schiavo during a protest at the Thompson Center Plaza in Chicago, Illinois. Schiavo, the brain-damaged woman caught in a right-to-die controversy, weakened but clung to life as final pleas were made to save her 12 days after her feeding lifeline was cut.
Hat tip: (AFP/Getty Images/Scott Olson, and Yahoo)
A protester in a wheelchair argues with police outside the Woodside Hospice where Terri Schiavo is a patient on Monday, March 28, 2005 in Pinellas Park, Fla. The man briefly crossed police lines, but choose to leave when told he would be arrested. Weak and emaciated, Terri Schiavo clung to life Monday in the tightly-guarded hospice where protesters kept up an anxious vigil, clutching fading hopes that government would step in to reconnect her feeding tube.
Hat tip: (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, and Yahoo)
Disabled groups are up in arms over this state assisted murder of Terri Schiavo, and with good reason.
New documents found in the files of the former East German intelligence services confirm the 1981 assassination attempt against Pope John Paul II was ordered by the Soviet KGB and assigned to Bulgarian agents, an Italian daily said. The Corriere della Sera said that the documents found by the German government indicated that the KGB ordered Bulgarian colleagues to carry out the killing, leaving the East German service known as the Stasi to coordinate the operation and cover up the traces afterwards. Bulgaria then handed the execution of the plot to Turkish extremists, including Mehmet Ali Agca, who pulled the trigger.
The daily said the documents had been handed over to Bulgaria and would be made available to the Italian parliamentary commission inquiring into the activities of formerly Communist eastern European regimes in Italy. The newspaper said the documents consist mostly of letters from Stasi operatives to their Bulgarian counterparts seeking help in covering up traces after the attack and denying Bulgarian involvement. Ali Agca, who is now in jail in Turkey, claimed after his arrest that the operation was under the control of the Bulgarian embassy in Rome. The Bulgarians have always insisted they were innocent and argued that Agca's story was part of an anti-communist plot by the Italian secret service and the CIA. The paper said the documents back up the pope's own memories of the assassination attempt in May 1981 in his book "Memory and Identity: Conversations Between Millenniums," in which he said he was convinced that the attack was not planned or directed by Ali Agca.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/30/2005 3:26:09 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
John Barron and others had this figured out within months of the assassination attempt. It was a simple matter of cui bono -- who benefits? Only the Soviets could benefit from killing John Paul II. It was well known that the Bulgarians did much of the KGB's wet work, and that the Bulgarians controlled a number of Turks. All this document does is confirm the obvious.
Posted by: Jonathan ||
03/30/2005 16:42 Comments ||
Top||
#2
I think it was supposed to be obvious so the successor would get the clue. Now about this Fatima thing....
The International Telecommunication Union is one of the most venerable of bureaucracies. Created in 1865 to facilitate telegraph transmissions, its mandate has expanded to include radio and telephone communications. But the ITU enjoys virtually no influence over the Internet. That remains the province of specialized organizations such as the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN; the Internet Engineering Task Force; the World Wide Web Consortium; and regional address registries. The ITU, a United Nations agency, would like to change that. "The whole world is looking for a better solution for Internet governance, unwilling to maintain the current situation," Houlin Zhao, director of the ITU's Telecommunication Standardization Bureau, said last year.
Who the hell told you that? Nobody's complained to me. Well, not about that, anyway...
Zhao, a former government official in China's Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, has been in his current job since 1999. Though Zhao is far too diplomatic to state it directly, the ITU's increasing interest in the Internet could presage a power struggle between ITU, ICANN, and perhaps even the U.S. government, which retains some oversight authority over ICANN and appears content with the current structure.
Guess nobody's complained to them, either. About that.
In a series of speeches over the last year, Zhao has suggested that the ITU could become involved in everything from security and spam to managing how Internet Protocol addresses are assigned. The ITU also is looking into some aspects of voice over Internet Protocol--VoIP--communications, another potential area for expansion. "Countering spam is just one of many elements of protecting the Internet that include availability during emergencies and supporting public safety and law enforcement officials," Zhao wrote in December. Also, he wrote, the ITU "would take care of other work, such as work on Internet exchange points, Internet interconnection charging regimes, and methods to provide authenticated directories that meet national privacy regimes." .....
Posted by: 3dc ||
03/30/2005 12:16:22 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
The UN can have my broadband connection when they pry it from my cold, dead network card.
Posted by: Jonathan ||
03/30/2005 6:52 Comments ||
Top||
#2
What, again? There must be quiet, level-eight-on-the-Richter-scale rumblings in Chinese society for the oligarchy to continue making this demand. Or else they anticipate such rumblings in the future, and are acting prophylactically.
#3
The ITU is as effective as any tranzi burachary (why can I never spell that word) in implementing standards as anyone who has tried to take a modem or telephone from one country to another can attest to, i.e if the ITU were in control there is no way the Internet would exist.
#9
RB-ers : Since my day-job is in Telecomm, I am well aware of the ITU
director of the ITUâs Telecommunication Standardization Bureau...
The Telecommunication Standardization Bureau (TSB)
.....maintains the ITU-T Website, diffuses and provides information on the activities of the Sector including the schedule of meetings, TSB Circulars, Collective Letters, and all working documents
.....provides and updates the List of ITU-T Recommendations, the ITU-T Work Programme Database, the ITU-T Patent Statements Database, and the ITU-T Terms and Definitions Database (SANCHO)
.....provides and updates any other database as requested by the various study groups
.....centralizes and provides information on Alternative Calling Procedures - Call back .....provides country code number assignment for telephone, data and other services (i.e.) assigns 44 for Britian, 49 for Germany, and 1 for the US, Canada, and the Caribbean....
.....acts as Registrar for Universal International Freephone Numbers (UIFN)
.....provides technical information on international telecommunications and collaborates closely with the ITU Radiocommunication Sector and with the ITU Telecommunication Development Sector for matters of interest to developing countries
.....provides administrative and operational information through the ITU Operational Bulletin
.....ensures the editing of Recommendations and other texts approved by ITU-T, coordinates the editing publication and posting of the Recommendations
Usually populated by meddlesome bureaucrats from the various agencies in various countries... We probably send some odd FCC alumni...
#11
IMHO the chinese are worried about losing their stranglehold on information control, and they are..... The UN sees a world-tax on the internet as the ultimate feathering of their nest. These should both be beaten like red-headed step children when they try and encroach on the net
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/30/2005 11:05 Comments ||
Top||
#12
We'll see what Al ("Inventor of the Internet") Gore has to say about that!
World Bank president nominee Paul Wolfowitz will discuss his agenda and development ideas with Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, current president of the European Union, and other EU officials on Wednesday, diplomats said. The talks at EU headquarters in Brussels could also include World Bank governors and some EU finance or development ministers, a diplomat said Tuesday on condition of anonymity.
President Bush's nomination of Deputy Defense Secretary Wolfowitz, an architect of the Iraq war, has drawn criticism, especially from some international aid and other groups. They question his development credentials and worry that he would try to use the bank to help the United States' friends and punish its enemies. The 184-nation World Bank's stated mission is to fight poverty and improve the living standards of people in developing countries. The nomination has generated little enthusiasm in European capitals. Nevertheless, Germany, Britain and Italy already have backed him publicly.
EU Development Commissioner Louis Michel originally had invited Wolfowitz to Brussels to discuss his vision of development policy at the World Bank. Officials said Michel would not be at Wednesday's talks, though, because he was on an official trip in the Caribbean. The EU could make their backing for Wolfowitz conditional on his having a European deputy, possibly Jean-Pierre Jouyet, chairman of the Paris Club of creditor nations. The bank's 24-member board meets Thursday to vote on Wolfowitz's nomination.
The United States, as the bank's largest shareholder, traditionally puts forward a candidate to lead the bank, which the board usually accepts. This could be interesting... UPDATE:Paul Wolfowitz, the US nominee to head the World Bank, received broad endorsement on Wednesday from European Union ministers and senior officials after promising to keep the institution "truly multinational.'' Arriving in Brussels, Mr Wolfowitz was eager to present his vision for the World Bank ahead of the board's vote on Thursday to appoint a successor to James Wolfensohn.
Mr Wolfowitz emphasised his commitment in the fight against poverty, praised the EU's efforts in development and pledged strong EU representation at the bank and regular dialogue with Brussels.
After a two hour meeting with Mr Wolfowitz, Agnes van Aardenne, the Dutch development minister, said: "We have seen that he is very much committed to the mission of the World Bank as a multilateral institution and this removes a lot of our concerns.'' Her views were echoed by other EU ministers, who said they shared in the optimism that Mr Wolfowitz, one of the architects of the invasion of Iraq, would be able to distance himself from the US administration once in his new job.
Oh, darn. Now what are the Dimmicrats going to do?
Posted by: .com ||
03/30/2005 5:10:54 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Jon Stewart snickered about this nomination last night on the Daily Show. But one of the other guys pointed out that Bush (exact quote here, ok?) "...has huge balls." The follow-up to the gag is that with each of these maverick Bush appointments, his testicles grow even larger. I thought it an interesting point for that show to make.
Uranus may be responsible for recent devastating Asian sea quakes because the mystery-shrouded "planet of calamity" is unusually close to the Earth, tabloid newspaper readers in Germany were warned on Wednesday.
Under the front-page headline "Uncanny Uranus", the report in theBild newspaper cited an array of experts, ranging from Nasa scientists to TV astrologers, saying the seventh planet from the sun possesses a "quadripolar" magnetic field that acts as "a giant cosmic vacuum cleaner".
This heavenly Hoover is literally sucking the Earth's tectonic plates out of their beddings, according to Bild, Europe's largest daily newspaper with more than five million readers.
This magnetic pull is strongest along the Earth's equator because the tropics are marginally closer to Uranus than the poles are.
The magnetic forces "are strong enough at the equator to suck up electrically charged dust particles", which could, in turn, disturb the Earth's crust and spawn killer sea quakes and resulting tidal waves.
The reason these natural phenomena have increased of late is that the distant planet's orbit has brought Uranus uncomfortably close to Earth.
Instead of being its usual 3,14-billion kilometres from Earth, Uranus currently is a mere 2,59-billion kilometres away.
And it will remain this close through the year 2012, so Bild warns that we could be in for more uncanny Uranian catastrophes well into the next decade until Uranus slowly retreats back into its proper place in the Outer Solar System.
"With its 11 rings and 18 moons, Uranus is in fact different from everything else in our Solar System," said Edward Stone, Voyager project scientist since 1972.
The German paper quoted Stone at length, saying that Voyager 2 had raised almost more questions than it had solved... The mind boggles.
#1
Uranus - the Elder of Elders, the Dark/Great Father,Great Chaos, Father of Fathers, father of Saturn/Cronus whose the father of Zeus and his Gods-Siblings, and Neptune is His Emotional alter-ego. Janus of the Four Heads/WInds/Directions is Uranus the All-Seeing.
PINELLAS PARK, Fla. - With time running out for Terri Schiavo, a federal appeals court Wednesday rejected her parents' latest attempt to get the brain-damaged woman's feeding tube reconnected.
The Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed to consider an emergency bid by Bob and Mary Schindler for a new hearing in their case, raising a flicker of hope for the parents after a series of setbacks in the case. But the court rejected the bid 15 hours later - the fourth time since last week the court ruled against the Schindlers.
"Any further action by our court or the district court would be improper," Judge Stanley F. Birch Jr. wrote. "While the members of her family and the members of Congress have acted in a way that is both fervent and sincere, the time has come for dispassionate discharge of duty."
"Dispassionate discharge of duty"??? What crock. Is the judiciary doing their duty? No. The judiciary is flexing its muscles, defying Congress and the Executive branch. They obviously lacks judicial temperment ,and clearly don't give a flip about Terri Schiavo.
Birch went on to scold President Bush and Congress for their attempts to intervene in the judicial process, by saying: "In resolving the Schiavo controversy, it is my judgment that, despite sincere and altruistic motivation, the legislative and executive branches of our government have acted in a manner demonstrably at odds with our Founding Fathers' blueprint for the governance of a free people - our Constitution."
Actually, it's the judiciary that is at odds with the Constitution. Congress functions as the direct voice of the people. Congress was clear about the will of the people, but the death-loving judges are hiding behind technicalities of language. Essentially, the judges are thumbing their noses at the people of the United States.
To be granted, the parents' request would have needed the support of seven of the court's 12 judges. The court did not disclose the vote breakdown.
Wonder why they didn't disclose the vote breakdown. Death threats? Impeachment fears?
The Schindlers visited their daughter Wednesday morning at her hospice and urged their supporters to keep trying. "I was pleasantly surprised by what I saw," Bob Schindler said. "So she's still fighting, and we'll keep fighting."
"We know that some of her organs are still functioning. ... It's not too late," he said.
The fact that Terri has lived this long CLEARLY indicates the "will to live." That people are equating dying with a disability is beyond me. Terri wasn't terminally ill, she wasn't being kept alive artifically, she didn't even need the feeding tube, since she could swallow without aspirating and enjoyed pudding, jello, and popsicles until Michael Schiavo refused her those things. With rehabilitation, Terri could have been taught to eat on her own. She is being killed because she has a disability that prevents her from being able to speak.
In requesting a new hearing, the Schindlers argued that a federal judge in Tampa should have considered the entire state court record and not whether previous Florida court rulings met legal standards under state law.
. . . the ENTIRE court record -- ya think? Nah, that would be too hard and they've got their afternoon golf games to think about. Meeting legal standards = covering their friends' behinds. The fact that Greer dismissed so much evidence makes it clear that he is not following the rule of law, even IF his buddies affirm him.
The Schindlers' motion also said the federal appellate court in Atlanta didn't consider whether there was enough "clear and convincing" evidence that Terri Schiavo would have chosen to die in her current condition.
The only "evidence" is Michael Schiavo's word. If this doesn't send a chill down your spine, it should. An abusive MAN, who is not longer married to a WOMAN, can, on his word alone, put her to death. The judges want people to fear them, and they want absolute power. If we let them, it's our fault.
HOLLYWOOD--Considering how steeped in elitism last month's Academy Awards were--with "lesser" winners forced to stay back in their aisles or dutifully line up on stage, thus robbing them of a once-in-a-lifetime trip down the aisle--Hollywood sure has embraced communism with open arms. In a town where antiwar activism is hot, a militant icon is even hotter: "The Motorcycle Diaries," a saintly portrayal of Ernesto "Che" Guevara in his early days, executive produced by Robert Redford and the toast of the Sundance Film Festival, won the Oscar for best song. "Al Otro Lado del Rio" was sung onstage by Antonio Banderas, accompanied by Carlos Santana--clad in the ubiquitous Che T-shirt that has become the brand of wannabe suburban revolutionaries.
Now that "Motorcycle" has ridden into the awards sunset--ironically, considering the nature of communism, also picking up two Independent Spirit Awards--the sequel to Che canonization is on the horizon. Filming is scheduled to start later this year on "Che," a Steven Soderbergh ("Traffic") vehicle starring Benicio del Toro as the famed Marxist. The plot line as listed on the Internet Movie Database: "An epic about Argentine revolutionary Che Guevara, who fought for the people." Wait, there's more. IMDb lists another movie titled "Che" currently filming, written and directed by Josh Evans, son of Ali McGraw. If one can assume that Sonia Braga's "Celia" character is Guevara's mother, are we in store for another innocent, youthful portrayal of the guerrilla in "The Tricycle Diaries"?
Annoying as the Che adulation is, a recent comment by a 14-year-old on an online movie message board was truly disturbing: "I just saw The Motorcycle Diaries, which further made me question: Why is communism bad? . . . Young people are told how bad communism is, but we are not told why. . . . The Motorcycle Diaries showed me how Ernesto Guevara wanted to help people. . . . But this did not explain why he was such a 'bad' person and apparently deserved to be murdered by the U.S."
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve ||
03/30/2005 3:16:45 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#2
See "We The Living" (based on Ayn Rand's novel; filmed in Italy as "Noi Vivi") for an excellent, heart-wrenching story of life in early Soviet Russia.
EFL: Conservative columnist and author Ann Coulter was greeted with a mixture of standing ovations and heckling after she took center stage Tuesday night at Kansas University's Lied Center. As soon as she stepped up to the microphone, Coulter fired off one zinger after another about liberalism while promising to answer questions from left-wing members in the audience who could "thrash their way to a coherent thought."
"I've come to find I like liberals a lot more," Coulter said early in her speech. "They're kind of cute when they're cold, shivering and afraid."
Coulter received several standing ovations during her speech, but she also found herself interrupted several times by a small, scattered group of hecklers.
"I think there are some people in the audience who meant to be at the sexual reorientation class down the hall," Coulter said, in response to the heckling.
Coulter resumed her critical remarks, calling Sen. Ted Kennedy a "human dirigible" and the Democrats' "spiritual leader." She also made fun of the Democrats' dalliance with filmmaker Michael Moore and former presidential candidate John Kerry, who she said got away with telling "big, fat, enormous lies." Despite Kerry's loss, Democrats think their political stances and ideas just "need new labels for their bottles," Coulter said. She also blasted the nation's judicial system for its handling of the Terri Schiavo case. "We no longer have a single check on the judiciary," she said.
Coulter's appearance spurred mixed emotions among those who came to see her. About a dozen protesters stood outside the center before her speech, carrying signs bearing quotes from her books and columns. Ron Warman Jr. dressed up in a clown suit to express his dislike of Coulter. "I think she's a clown or a witch," the 45-year-old Lawrence man said.
Some of the protesters, such as Robert Richardson, said they were members of the Society of Open-Minded Atheists and Agnostics. "We're just not open-minded enough to like Ann Coulter," Richardson, 28, of Lawrence, said.
Others, such as Mollie Devine, 26, said she was a big fan of Coulter. "I love her," the Lawrence woman said. "She doesn't back down. She's also funnier than the other (conservative) columnists." Mary Anne Smith, 38, said she welcomed a chance to hear a noted right-wing conservative speak. "We hear so much of the liberal side in Lawrence," she said. "I'm excited she came here, and this is not a very easy place to come."
John Altevogt, a conservative GOP activist from Wyandotte County, also welcomed Coulter. "Ann Coulter is logical, rational and an independent thinker," he said. "In essence, everything the left hates in their womenfolk."
Posted by: Steve ||
03/30/2005 1:41:00 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I read Ann Coulter's column from time to time, just to get a feel for what goes on on the far side. She's the only person I know of who can make Bill O'Reilly cringe. I'd love to send her some comments, but interestingly, she doesn't have an e-mail address on her site. WhaFo not? Huh? Whafo?
Posted by: Weird Al ||
03/30/2005 14:08 Comments ||
Top||
#4
I noticed that most of the 'protestors' were not even students at KU. Sounds like rent-a-crowd folks with nothing better to do that day. Love the way Ann causes LLL to go even loonier!
#7
Apparently, Mr. Warman didn't get the memo telling him that giant puppets are the only appropriate method of showing the corrupt, misogynistic, environment-destroying, homophobic, saber-rattling, patriarichal nature of the Bushitler regime and all its fascist running-dog lackies like the gender self-hating toady Ann Coulter.
From today's Richmond Times-Dispatch. Quoted in its entirety since it will probably go to paid archives after a couple of days.
Women Stir Desire -- And Should Editor, Times-Dispatch: You go, girl! Be all God intended you to be. This letter is from a "girl-watcher." It matters not whether girls are black, white, Hispanic, Asian, or any racial mixture or color in between. I watch and love them all.
I'm reacting to the news story, "Mideast Muslims Condemn Service." It details a controversy over a mixed-gender worship service in New York. [led by a female professor from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond]
A comment by an Islamic professor disturbed me: "A woman's body stirs desire in men." Of course it does! Wasn't that what God designed woman's body to do? With all due respect to Islam, I'm puzzled by some of its logic. I cannot understand why the exotic beauty of its women must be hidden behind veils and under long black robes, as if they were unsightly and loathsome creatures. Its men don't hide their faces behind masks and their bodies under black robes so as not to "stir desire" in women.
God created beautiful flowers to delight men's eyes. God created beautiful women not only to delight men's eyes but also to delight men with their intelligence, their companionship, and their unique ability to bear men's children. God expected men to develop self-discipline and control over their passions so they could love and respect women as He intended.
I doubt harsh laws governing women were decreed by any god. They probably were written by disgruntled, bearded old geezers who no longer could "cut the mustard" and hated all men who could. [Emphasis added]
Thomas Cannon, Richmond.
Now that is a righteous bitch-slap! :-D
[Thomas Cannon is a well-known local man who has been giving money to truly needy people for years, even though he himself has never been rich. I guess you could call him a local cultural icon. Obviously a very wise one.]
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/30/2005 11:50:41 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Blasphemer!
Lol! We're wired that way - both genders - of course.
Islam tries mightily to pervert it - and consequently screws everything up, of course. Not only do those who come from the veiled societies have real problems dealing with all other societies, think about the shock of it, but they also aren't able to marry until their late 20's to mid 30's in many Islamic countries due to the customs of heavy dowries and financial security demanded before marriage arrangements are even offered for negotiation.
Result? The men, in particular, are frustrated and fucked up beyond belief - and very often resort to homosexual behavior during the majority of the period of their peak sexual drive. Decade(s) after puberty before their first sexual activity with a woman. Boggles, no?
When they finally reach the point where they can fulfill Islam's social requirements, they tend to want the youngest and least experienced female whose father offers to negotiate - perhaps as compensation for their long delayed sex lives. It's just bizarre and absurd.
If you tried to design a social situation which was the most disruptive, destructive, and unnatural, you could not do worse than normal practice within strict Islamic societies.
Mohammed's own twisted life enshrined as custom - the real law of society.
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/30/2005 12:51 Comments ||
Top||
#5
The Mooselimb men are so sexually repressed I doubt they could look at all those women's butts in the air during prayer without comitting some "untoward" act and then blaming the women for engaging in "unholy behavior". They just can't help themselves. Nothing is ever their fault.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
03/30/2005 13:40 Comments ||
Top||
#6
Isn't there some Islamic sects which dont allow a child to even see its mother's face or a husband to see his own wife's face?
No wonder they can't stand the sight of a bare ankle without going into a fit...
Also, Beauty is only skin deep but ugly is right to the bone!
Andrea Jackson
Posted by: Andrea Jackson ||
03/30/2005 18:10 Comments ||
Top||
#12
Andrea-
I agree...
But the show is fun, and not to be taken seriously...Those two and others on the show are cute looking... I don't know 'em so I can say nothing more...
I will say that the Bio of the blond one says she is a maternity nurse, which at least on the surface, would tend to give one a favorable impression...
My wife watches the show with me and was harder on the BS artists among them that I was... This show is fluff and amusing, and not to be taken seriously...
#13
#12 Ed- I understand- both are fine to look at, but lord only knows what's inside! Can't judge a book by its cover.
ANdrea
Posted by: Andrea Jackson ||
03/30/2005 19:06 Comments ||
Top||
#14
9.8 Andrea!
Posted by: Reviews for a dollar ||
03/30/2005 19:18 Comments ||
Top||
#15
I will say again I make no judgements. You seem as though you assume because they are attractive, there is a character flaw in them, because you repeated your #11 post, and in my #12 post I said I agree. I do not know about the ladies...
If you want to know an example of what you are talking about, look at the previous show where a Woman chose from the men ("Jen"). There was something not right about her, she ended up rejecting everyone...
Most of the choosers on these shows are a little off. If you read the news accounts of thier activities after the final show is aired...
The Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe is not taking lightly a respected cleric's call for a Ukrainian-style uprising to overthrow his regime.
Bob is not one to go quietly
Sources close to Mr Mugabe said yesterday that the President had taken a last-minute decision to secretly arm thousands of party youth militias. He has already readied troops in case the opposition heeds the call from Pius Ncube, the Archbishop of Bulawayo, for a peaceful uprising to oust him from power if he steals tomorrow's ballot, as widely expected. Archbishop Ncube is the Roman Catholics' second most senior cleric in Zimbabwe. His unprecedented call for a peaceful uprising to stop Mr Mugabe, whom he has branded a brutal crook who relies on ballot theft to cling to power, has seemingly energised a previously cowed populace.
The sources said that Mr Mugabe had ordered the army to provide the youth militias with weapons and maintain them in army barracks should their services be required. The youth militias were indoctrinated at ruling party training camps across the country under a national youth service training programme.
Although they had been used previously to commit violent acts on Mr Mugabe's enemies, he had not integrated them with the army or provided them with heavy weaponry. Mr Mugabe has also recalled retired soldiers and taken delivery of a consignment of arms from China and Iran to ensure the army is well-equipped.
It is believed that about 40,000 militias had been trained in the youth camps. Up to 15,000 would have been roped into army barracks by now and supplied with heavy weaponry. Even if nothing happens after the election, they will be integrated into the army and police to ensure their loyalty, military sources said.
To ensure the loyalty of the militia, or the other way around?
The Zimbabwe army and the defence ministry refused to comment.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/30/2005 9:28:29 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Bob has the image of Nicolae Ceausescu and wife in front of a firing squad seared into his brain. He knows that he won't live a week after he leaves office.
#5
Anybody know offhand if he's tried to groom a successor? I'd guess he hasn't, given his personality. So . . . When Mugabe is finally packed off to hell, the "integrated" youth militia follow their own leaders and you get instant Haiti.
I notice that Mugabe is so nervous he won't even let Jimmy Carter issue the usual election certification.
Posted by: James ||
03/30/2005 11:55 Comments ||
Top||
Strange departure from Debka's usual centers of interest, from a "special correspondant" (Tm); good reminder of why I'm so glad I wasn't born in Africa, especially in Zim-Bob-we, though Liberia, Sierra Leone, Sudan,... you name it, are no better.
Amid rampant unemployment (est. 70%), repression, unbridled lawlessness, hunger, intimidation and an unchecked, untreated AIDS epidemic, Zimbabweans go to the polls Thursday, March 31. So secretive, brutal and repressive is the quarter-of-a-century old regime of President Robert Mugabe, 81, and his all-powerful ZANU PF party, that no one believes in the official figure of 5.6 million registered voters for 120 seats in parliament. Thirty are handpicked by the president.
Roman Catholic Archbishop Pius Ncube of second largest town of Bulawayo called Sunday, March 27, for peaceful Ukraine-style street protests to overthrow the ruler, because Thursday's election was certain to be rigged. If he were to put on his vestments and lead a march on Mugabe's palace, he feared he would be alone. "The people are so scared."
Since Mugabe came to power, Zimbabwe has been transformed from an African paradise with a 4.5% growth rate to the fastest shrinking economy in the world. Three quarters of the population live below the poverty line. Life expectancy has dropped from 61 to 39.
Yet Mugabe is expected to engineer another win for his ZANU-PF as he did in 2000 and 2002. He trumpets the poll as free, open and democratic and is echoed by his lone patron, South African president Thabo Mbeki.
Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, head of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, the MDC, predicts that widespread crop failure and drought in the once thriving country could leave seven out of 12 million Zimbabweans hungry before the end of the year. The quarter of a million-strong white population has been whittled down to no more than an estimated 35,000.
Tsvangirai, a former trade union head, has managed to survive long enough to run against Mubabe after being in and out of prison for years and constantly hauled back to face fresh charges ranging from plots to kill Mugabe to plans for sabotage against the country. More than 400 MDC partisans have been murdered by government militias since his party emerged in 1999. He himself escaped an assassination attempt last July.
Now, says the opposition, the ruler's strong-arm tactics have "eased." The thugs who raid government opponents' homes by night no longer murder and torture; they merely threaten to cut off food to whole, starving communities. No surprisingly, Tsvangirai's campaign attracts very small, albeit enthusiastic, audiences.
DEBKAfile's special correspondent reports: The anti-torture group "Redress" says that no free elections are possible in the current climate of fear. Countries deemed hostile to the ruling clique have been banned from sending monitoring teams for the vote, even former US President Jimmy Carter's peace center in Atlanta, which Mugabe brands a "terrorist organization." Zimbabwe's supreme court has barred more than three million expatriates from voting.
The last independent paper, Daily News , has been bludgeoned, beaten and bombed into silence. The foreign press is absent or rigidly monitored. Any real reporting is done with hidden cameras.
Mugabe's anti-Western and anti-White rhetoric has increased as polls approach. The MDC is accused of acting as a proxy for the government's enemies.
The country, isolated by sanctions, is acutely short of foreign exchange. The World Bank's lending program is "inactive due to arrears." Western donors have frozen economic assistance; the European Union bans visas for Mugabe and his top associates, while the US has lumped Zimbabwe with Iran and North Korea as an "outpost of tyranny."
North Korean advisers are known to have spent most of the 1980s in the country, training Mugabe's infamous Fifth Brigade and his bodyguards. They came with $18m worth of military hardware, T-544 tanks, armored personnel carriers, artillery and small arms.
No one knows if and when they left. They set up compulsory indoctrination centers for young people, teaching them blind loyalty to the ruling Party and its leader and hatred of political opponents, especially Whites and any other non-Black communities. They were also inducted into Korean martial arts and such assassination techniques as strangling with bootlaces. Young female inductees were rumored to have been forced to provide sexual favors to instructors and officers.
An ever-present scar on the Zimbabwean psyche, especially in Matabeleland, is the memory of the terrible massacre, pillage and rape - The Gukurahundi - unleashed during the North Korean era by the Fifth Brigade. No one knows the number of victims.
The writer, Peter Godwin, in his memoir "Makiwe" (the African word for white man), ventured into the site of the massacre in its immediate aftermath and found a scorched land, a ghost-land of silence and destroyed villages, and survivors too traumatized to speak.
In 2000, after the opposition won almost half the seats in elections, Mugabe loosed the "war veterans" with their machetes on white-owned and even black-owned farms, pillaging, destroying, murdering, raping their victims. Fire burned throughout the country. But the White owners were not the only victims. More than 400,000 Black farm workers and their families were thrown out of work and have been utterly destitute ever since. The captured white farms were not turned over to landless peasants but commandeered by party hacks and ZANU PF apparatchiks.
In 2001, a second rogue state leader, Muammar Qaddafi, became Mugabe's best friend. Giving up on influence on the Arab world, he preached African jihad against the Whites and lavished cash and oil to buy influence. Together they spread hate of Whites, including Jews. Mugabe's new patron pledged $1m for his campaign fund, signed a $360m oil deal and handed out several loans to rescue the country from collapse. Today, Zimbabwe is mortgaged to the hilt, its ruler believed to have signed over to Qaddafi most of the country's high-value assets: a stake in or ownership of its refineries, the Mozambique-Zimbabwe oil pipeline, the Harare Sheraton, Victoria Falls hotels, some 20 large ranches and mansions and even the famed Hwange national game reserve.
There are stories that poachers are killing off the game in this and other reserves out of desperation for food.
With inflation at a rampant 700%, bread is priced out of reach of the poor.
Hospitals are bare of the most basic equipment and supplies — even aspirin; surgical nurses bring kitchen rubber gloves from home. More than 700 die every week from AIDS, a million AIDS-orphaned children roam the streets in packs.
In 2002, the UN reported DR Congo, Rwanda, Uganda and Zimbabwe had systematically plundered Congo's mineral wealth during the 4-year war in which 2 million died. "Zimbabwean troops drafted to support the Kinshasa government were reinforced in places like Kasai where Zimbabwean parties own interests in diamond mines," said the report, accusing Congolese and Zimbabwean government and military officials of transferring at least $5 bn to private pockets.
Commander of Mugabe's defense forces, General Vitalis Zvinavashe, dismissed the UN report as a Western plot to tarnish his country.
Despite fears of the ubiquitous secret police, Zimbabweans know quite a lot about Mugabe's foreign adventure in DR Congo. They revealed to DEBKAfile's special correspondent that more than 11,000 Zimbabwean soldiers were sent to the country during the Congo war to guard Mugabe's diamond and mineral mines, his payback for guarding the Kinshasa government. The planes returned home loaded with incredible wealth amassed by their ruler and top military brass and also the body bags of the soldiers who had been killed or died of horrible diseases rife in the DR Congo hell hole.
Delivering the Easter Mass at Bulawayo's St. Mary's Cathedral, Bishop Ncube urged worshippers to remain hopeful. "Somewhere there will come a resurrection for Zimbabwe."
Posted by: Anonymous5089 ||
03/30/2005 8:58:37 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
Whatever your take on the OJ Simpson trial one has to admit that this lawyer made everyone realize that there really is a gift of gab.
But there is another side to his story that isn't that widely known.
Johnnie Cochran was the son of a Baptist preacher.
He learned his oratory skills watching his father preach the Word of God Sunday after Sunday for most of his life. It was only natural that he would be in some type of speaking profession.
Although he was counsellor to many "high profile" clients, he still considered the "little man" his most preferred client. And, he has the history to prove it!
Yes, he will be missed by many downtrodden and unknown that he represented in many a non-sensational litigation. His death will, no doubt, cause elation among those that he crossed swords with and those that hold a somber grudge against him for successfully defending OJ.
But, I have to wonder..is it the lawyer that they are happy to see gone or is it the Baptist preacher who is the real backbone of everything that we call American..even a OJ Simpson?
You see, when I hear recordings of Johnnie Cochran in trial, I hear the cadence and see the word pictures that only a black Baptist preacher can muster! A rhytmn that keeps the listener's attention fixed on every word ,every syllable..every sound.
The waiting for the return "amen" from the audience..the united assent by the congregation..the 'one point' being made over and over again until it rings in the ears like a battle cry! This is why he could win a trial for an OJ Simpson and anyone else for that matter.
Reader, black Baptist preachers argue their point..the Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, from a position of absolute undaunted fact. They do not preach Jesus from a view of intellectual observation. No..they preach it from actual experience, from the depths of their souls and being.
This is truth to them..truth unstoppable, unshakable, unfailing truth..and they lived it..daily!
Is this not the type of preaching that we Baptists were known for?
Brother, preacher..pray that you will be filled with the Holy Ghost so that you can preach so persuasively that your hearers can only repent or riot as they did when the apostle Paul preached.
Jn.
Posted by: John Willis- jnwillis@baptistrevivals.com ||
03/30/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
His death will, no doubt, cause elation among those that he crossed swords with and those that hold a somber grudge against him for successfully defending OJ.
You forgot to mention that Simpson is a double murderer. That may have something to do with the "elation" you expect to see from certain quarters.
Cochran was the son of a preacher-man? Then he should have known better than to throw in with a man who butchered two innocent human beings.
Cochran can explain it to the great judge in the sky. He's not as much of a pushover as Ito.
Posted by: Chris W. ||
03/30/2005 0:07 Comments ||
Top||
#12
Not sorry to see him dead and gone. He got his 67 years. He was an opportunistic, self seeking, jackass who set back race relations with the OJ Simpson trial. But his ego got glorified and that's all that counted for him.
#13
Attorney Cochran was there for the rich and famous as well as the poor, so it is said.
Yahoo.com said the O.J. trial was a racial
trial and the whites felt he was guilty
and the blacks felt innocent. Mr. Cochran was doing the job in which he was paid for by
Mr. Simpson. The million dollar question is "Where is the money that Mr. Simpson owes the Brown and Goldman family?". It has been said that he has not paid them a penny of the civil suit that was won by Brown/Goldman family. O.J. had the "dream Team" and that is exactly what happened.
O.J. said he wanted to find the "real killer"
how come that has not been done?
Andrea Jackson
Posted by: Andrea Jackson ||
03/30/2005 17:35 Comments ||
Top||
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.
Spanking is more effective than exercise at keeping the blues at bay, say Russian researchers who carried out tests on caning. 
The human race is living beyond its means. A report backed by 1,360 scientists from 95 countries - some of them world leaders in their fields - today warns that the almost two-thirds of the natural machinery that supports life on Earth is being degraded by human pressure. The study contains what its authors call "a stark warning" for the entire world. The wetlands, forests, savannahs, estuaries, coastal fisheries and other habitats that recycle air, water and nutrients for all living creatures are being irretrievably damaged. In effect, one species is now a hazard to the other 10 million or so on the planet, and to itself.
SLIDELL -- A Slidell family experiencing car trouble was surprised last Wednesday after finding thousands of dollars worth of cocaine wrapped around the vehicle's gas tank, authorities said. Two bricks of cocaine worth $40,000 were discovered wrapped around the fuel line of the family's 1996 Toyota Camry last week after a vehicle inspection, St. Tammany Parish Sheriff's Office spokesperson James Hartman said. The family, whose name is being withheld for safety reasons, noticed the vehicle decelerating on its own, Hartman said. Concerned, the family took the car to their regular mechanic in Slidell to investigate the problem, he said. After eliminating electrical, transmission and engine trouble, mechanics examined the fuel system. During the check, workers discovered two kilograms of cocaine wrapped around the Toyota's fuel line, Hartman said. The wrap holding the cocaine to the fuel system unfurled, causing the car problems, said Hartman. 
Pyongyang, March 29 (KCNA) -- Technicians and workers of the Hamhung Building Machine Plant in South Hamgyong Province, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, have manufactured a new vibrating tamper suitable for the actual conditions of the country with the help of the April 15 Technical Innovation Shock Brigade dispatched there. The tamper is made with an electric motor and vibrating apparatus instead of compressor, pipes and other auxiliary equipment. Its production cost is low and it is easy to operate. It also makes it possible to save a great deal of manpower and raise the speed and quality of projects remarkably. The tamper enjoys popularity among 
The world caught a rare glimpse of mob violence in North Korea Wednesday when soccer fans in the highly controlled state hurled bottles, rocks and chairs as the home team lost a World Cup qualifier to Iran. 
A Bosnian Serb charged in connection with the massacre of 8000 Muslims during Bosnia's 1992-95 war is to surrender to the UN war crimes tribunal. Bosnian Serb President Dragan Cavic said on Tuesday that the transfer of Ljubomir Borovcanin to The Hague will take place within the next few days. Cavic, however, did not elaborate whether Borovcanin had already turned himself in to Bosnian Serb or Serbian authorities. In July 1995, Bosnian Serb forces killed 8000 Muslim males when they captured the eastern town of Srebrenica in the worst atrocity in Europe since World War II. At the time Borovcanin was deputy commander of special police forces. Borovcanin, 45, is accused by the UN court with complicity in genocide and crimes against humanity.
New documents found in the files of the former East German intelligence services confirm the 1981 assassination attempt against Pope John Paul II was ordered by the Soviet KGB and assigned to Bulgarian agents, an Italian daily said. The Corriere della Sera said that the documents found by the German government indicated that the KGB ordered Bulgarian colleagues to carry out the killing, leaving the East German service known as the Stasi to coordinate the operation and cover up the traces afterwards. Bulgaria then handed the execution of the plot to Turkish extremists, including 
The International Telecommunication Union is one of the most venerable of bureaucracies. Created in 1865 to facilitate telegraph transmissions, its mandate has expanded to include radio and telephone communications. But the ITU enjoys virtually no influence over the Internet. That remains the province of specialized organizations such as the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN; the Internet Engineering Task Force; the World Wide Web Consortium; and regional address registries. The ITU, a United Nations agency, would like to change that. "The whole world is looking for a better solution for Internet governance, unwilling to maintain the current situation," Houlin Zhao, director of the ITU's Telecommunication Standardization Bureau, said last year. 
HOLLYWOOD--Considering how steeped in elitism last month's Academy Awards were--with "lesser" winners forced to stay back in their aisles or dutifully line up on stage, thus robbing them of a once-in-a-lifetime trip down the aisle--Hollywood sure has embraced communism with open arms. In a town where antiwar activism is hot, a militant icon is even hotter: "The Motorcycle Diaries," a saintly portrayal of 
Editor, Times-Dispatch: You go, girl! Be all God intended you to be. This letter is from a "girl-watcher." It matters not whether girls are black, white, Hispanic, Asian, or any racial mixture or color in between. I watch and love them all. 
Archbishop Ncube is the Roman Catholics' second most senior cleric in Zimbabwe. His unprecedented call for a peaceful uprising to stop Mr Mugabe, whom he has branded a brutal crook who relies on ballot theft to cling to power, has seemingly energised a previously cowed populace.
