Robert Webster of St. Jude's told a meeting on biosecurity in Lyon, France in March that his lab has found that H5N1 grows well in pigs, making hybridisation theoretically possible. But it might not get far - infected pigs, Webster told New Scientist, do not pass H5N1 to each other. This means relatively few pigs will catch it.
Poultry may be more important for the virus's evolution. And this week Vietnam announced that it had found H5N1 infection in 71% of farmed ducks in the crowded Mekong Delta, where there have been many cases of human infection.
Ducks seem able to harbour the virus without showing symptoms, and in Vietnam many live in the open where they can spread the virus. So far Vietnam has not vaccinated poultry, but the Vietnamese agriculture ministry announced in March that it would start vaccinating ducks in the Mekong delta for H5N1 flu in April.
Pieraz 2 trots in his enclosure while his birth mother grazes contentedly
Cloned foal is a racing cert for science
(Filed: 15/04/2005)
Pieraz is a horse who could revolutionise blood stock breeding, reports Roger Highfield, Science Editor. But he could have been British
A project to clone elite showhorses reported its first success yesterday with a cloned foal of Pieraz, an Arab endurance champion.
Pieraz 2 trots in his enclosure while his birth mother grazes contentedly
Although clones are banned from thoroughbred racing, a French scientist has stored tissue from champion showhorse geldings (castrated horses), for the creation of breeding stock.
The birth of the foal - Pieraz 2 - in Italy marks the first success for this commercial enterprise after almost three years of attempts by scientists in Cremona.
Prof Twink Allen, head of the team at the Equine Fertility Unit in Newmarket, the father-in-law of the jockey Frankie Dettori, welcomed the news but said it was a pity that, given that Britain had pioneered this technique with Dolly the sheep, his efforts to do the same had been blocked by the Home Office. "It was a British discovery and we are not allowed to use it commercially - as ever, the rest of the world cashes in on our scientific discoveries."
Prof Allen has been keen to clone horses in Britain since the birth of the first cloned horse - Prometea - announced in August 2003 by Prof Cesare Galli, of the Laboratory of Reproductive Technologies, Cremona, who also works with a French company, Cryozootech.
Yesterday, Prof Galli announced the birth of "Pieraz-Cryozootech-Stallion," or "Pieraz 2" for short, the second horse clone and the first produced for the purpose of creating a breeding animal from a sterile one.
"This new approach opens the possibility of preserving the genetic heritage of many exceptional horses whose genes are presently lost because of the castration," said Prof Galli.
"Prometea was just a scientific experiment and, scientifically, there's not much new about the new clone.
"But from an industry viewpoint, the new horse is the real thing."
Pieraz, an Arab horse, was the world champion of endurance races in 1994 (at Den Haag, Holland) and in 1996 (at Fort Riley, America) and is now retired in America in the stables of its owner, trainer and rider, Valerie Kanavy.
Endurance horse racing involves races of 50 miles or more across open country, with horses making regular "pit stops" for food, water and veterinary inspection
Pieraz's foal was born on Feb 25 this year, weighed
92 lb and is in good health, like Prometea the first cloned foal which is now two years old. "Repeatability of the technique is now proven," said Prof Galli.
The cells of Pieraz used for the cloning work were provided by Cryozootech, a company founded in 2001 by Dr Eric Palmer, horse IVF pioneer. Dr Palmer had been approached in 2002 by Valerie Kanavy, the owner of Pieraz, who was impressed by the idea that, in spite of having been castrated, her champion could transmit his qualities to future generations.
Dr Palmer's genetic bank of cells stored in liquid nitrogen now contains the cells of 30 different horses, each of them exceptional in its specific category. Among these are samples from ET, the world's top showjumper, and from Rusty, a top dressage horse.
The cells of Pieraz were passed to Prof Galli, whose company performed the cloning procedure and the embryo transfer that led to the clone birth.
The idea of cloning him was to "recreate his testicles" for breeding purposes, said Dr Palmer. "The plan is to make this horse a stallion".
The clone will be mature enough to breed within two years. But although the new clone is Pieraz's genetic twin, there is no guarantee that it will perform as well, Dr Palmer said.
Prof Twink Allen was at first told he could not clone horses at all but has now been given approval to apply to clone for scientific reasons. Yesterday, he accused the Government of capitulating to animal welfare groups.
Animal Aid, a British-based animal welfare lobby group, opposes cloning of horses on the grounds that cloned embryos are often deformed or grossly over-sized, and so should not be created for what they argue is a leisure activity.
However, Prof Allen points out that most deformities reported to date have been in cattle and sheep, while the two cloned horses and three cloned mules born so far have been healthy. This may be due to key differences in the way the placenta attaches to sheep and cattle compared with horses.
A German man with a longheld grudge against a dentist tried to run him over - but got the wrong dentist. Hate it when that happens. Mistaken revenge loses its sweetness.
The 47-year-old, from Bielefeld, hated the dentist after he allegedly pulled out the wrong teeth in 1992, and then botched the repair work. I guess a malpractice suit was not an option.
The anger boiled over after a heavy drinking session, and the man climbed into his car to drive to the dental surgery and tell the dentist what he thought of him. "Dammit, **hic** Ima gonna fin' that worfless dentiss an' gib 'im a piece o' my bumper!" **hic**
But he mixed up his dentist with another dentist who, by chance, was leaving the surgery after work, and on the spur of the moment decided to run him down. "That's 'im! Eat chrome, ya bastard molar mechanc!" **hic**
Police said it was a miracle that the injured man suffered only cuts and bruises and had not been killed. "It was a friggin' miracle!" said Sargeant Legume.
The defendant admitted to trying to kill him and said: "I hate him deeply. I've been in pain for years since he worked on my teeth." The man is now facing charges of attempted manslaughter and grievous bodily harm. "I feel better, only it was the wrong man. The devil is always in the details. Anyone know a good lawyer?"
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/15/2005 3:31:24 PM ||
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too bad he didn't run over a lawyer.
Posted by: Sue Spemble ||
04/15/2005 16:31 Comments ||
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What'd I do wrong?
Posted by: Mike ||
04/15/2005 16:38 Comments ||
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#7
Ah yes, German dentistry. Where the philosophy is, if a little pain strengthens the soul, more pain must be even better. And, where people have to go to the service provider decreed by their insurance company. Quite possibly the gentleman in question had no choice about going back to that particular butcher, unless he paid out of his private purse... and why would he do that when he had insurance? Oh yes, and you can't sue the practitioner for negligent malpractice, only for deliberate malice. I learned quickly to arrange for dental appointment during Stateside visits -- I don't deal well with being tortured, I'm afraid.
Unborn baby threatens mom in new burger ad.
Fast-food chain has tough-talking fetus suggesting he'll rip out mother's uterus.
A new ad campaign promoting spicy hamburgers features a tough-talking unborn baby threatening to rip out part of his mother's womb if she doesn't stop eating jalapeno peppers.
The animated commercial for Carl's Jr. restaurants depicts an ultrasound view inside a pregnant woman, as a baby boy tries to get his mother's attention by yanking on the umbilical cord, kicking his mom and ultimately grabbing part of the uterine wall in a suggestion he'll intentionally tear it out during birth.
"Mom! You're not wolfin' down jalapenos again, are ya?" the unborn child with an adult man's voice asks in the spot. "'Cause let me tell you about my friend, Ned. His momma ate nothing but spicy foods, [and the] homeboy came out red, mom. Bright red. So if you keep cramming those peppers down your neck, I might just bust out of here early, grab something on the way out, take it with me."
The child snatches his mother's interior as he makes the threat about grabbing something on the way out and taking it with him.
The ad closes with an announcer stating: "The new Carl's Jr. Spicy Six-Dollar Burger with crispy jalapenos. It ain't for babies."
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/15/2005 13:59 Comments ||
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#2
I've seen this commercial, and it didn't register as weird as far as I was concerned. Whoever thought this is "news" worth reporting needs a serious beating.
FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP) - An 81-year-old woman preparing to take a test drive at a car dealership hit her husband, a salesman, a car and a tree before running into a wall. ``She must have panicked,'' said Joe Sica, sales manager at Honda of Fort Myers.
Or she was senile, it happens.
The no-longer new Honda Accord shot backward after Dorothy Byrum got behind the wheel and apparently stepped on the gas wrong pedal Wednesday. The open car door hit her 88-year-old husband, Robert, and the salesman. Then the car struck the parked car, the tree and the wall. The air bag deployed, and Byrum was not injured. Her husband was knocked down but was in good condition the following day. The salesman was released after treatment and is expected to be out of work for about a week, Sica said. The car was written off.
2005 HONDA Accord EX, 1k, AC, mnrf, keyless, FWD, ABS, cruz, PW, PS, PB, driven by little old lady in dealership, $22975, call dlr
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/15/2005 12:45:39 PM ||
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It always seems that weird incidents where objects and people are hit occur in FL. I will never, EVER, ride a motorcycle in that state.
#3
Hey, B-O-R, ever hear of Bike Week in Daytona Beach? Only 500k of bikers from all over the world and lots of them are over 80!! This year we had a young mother backing out of her driveway and hitting a chick biker riding in front of her man and killing her. The guy gets off his hog and beats the living beegeezus out of the lady. You should have seen the photos. She was remorse and full of guilt (member of the local chamber) and refused to press charges. So, come on down and ride. But if you aren't at least 40 years old, 300+ pounds, bald as a baby's ass and have a full handlebar mustache - you'll look out of place.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
04/15/2005 15:28 Comments ||
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No such thing as negative publicity. Give the salesman a spif.
#6
I sincerely doubt the salesman will be back to work in a week. That delayed whiplash will kick in once his friends talk him into talking to a lawyer.
Posted by: Stephen ||
04/15/2005 18:48 Comments ||
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45 y.o. - 275 lbs; 6'-2" with a Wyatt Earp/Fu Manchu 'stache... does that count? BTW - leather pants make me sweat unless I powder my ...well, you get the picture
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/15/2005 18:58 Comments ||
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leather pants make me sweat unless I powder my ...
#9
This happens all too often in Florida. And seems it's rarely the oldster's fault, well maybe sometimes. In any event, you have to real careful in parking lots, but it does keep the adrenal glands pumping. Cause when you turn 65, you're forced to move to Florida. Or so it seems.
Posted by: Right in Florida ||
04/15/2005 22:02 Comments ||
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ITHACA, N.Y. — President Bush, Vice President Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld have shared a common political vision for most of their careers. Now they'll share something else -- a slime-mold beetle named in his honor.
Two former Cornell University entomologists, who recently had the job of naming 65 newly discovered species of slime-mold beetles, named three species after the American leaders, dubbing them: Agathidium bushi Miller and Wheeler, Agathidium cheneyi Miller and Wheeler and Agathidium rumsfeldi Miller and Wheeler.
According to rules established by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature, the first word of a new species is its genus; the second word must end in "i" if it's named after a person; and the final part of the name includes the person or persons who first described the species.
Naming the beetles after Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld had nothing to do with physical features, but was intended to pay homage to them, said Quentin Wheeler, a former professor of entomology and plant biology at Cornell for 24 years until October. "We admire these leaders as fellow citizens who have the courage of their convictions and are willing to do the very difficult and unpopular work of living up to principles of freedom and democracy rather than accepting the expedient or popular," said Wheeler, now the head of entomology at the Natural History Museum in London. . . .
. . . For anyone looking to hunt down one of the new slime-mold beetles, Wheeler said that Agathidium bushi has so far been found in southern Ohio, North Carolina and Virginia. All red states. Mere coincidence?Rumsfeldi and cheneyi are from south of the border in Mexico.
Posted by: Mike ||
04/15/2005 8:57:37 AM ||
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Agathidium rumsfeldi - also known as the Eagle Claw beetle...
#5
We've got to name a bug
One we just found yesterday
It's you we're thinking of
It's a tribute in a way
We named it for you
And you know that can't be bad
We named it for you
And you know you should be glad
It's a new beetle, yeah, yeah, yeah
A new beetle, yeah, yeah, yeah
And with a bug like that, you know you should be glad . . .
Posted by: Mike ||
04/15/2005 12:27 Comments ||
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Doctor Quentin Wheeler picks out a name for a beetle that someone just found
It crawls on the ground
"What should I call it?" The idea dawned like a button was pushed:
"I know, 'George Bush!'"
All the slime mold beetles
Where do they all come from?
All the slime mold beetles
What do we call them all?
Posted by: Mike ||
04/15/2005 12:45 Comments ||
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I'm pleasantly surprised. From the headlines I just assumed it was a dig at Bush and Co. (bugs, slime molds, Cornell, professors, ...). Maybe there's hope for academia yet.
#10
Unless if was tongue in cheek: Wheeler said it was to pay tribute to Bush, Cheney and Rummy for all they have done under tough circumstances. The statement was real stand up and hard to believe an idiotarian or untreatable LLL could have made it without starting to giggle half way through.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
04/15/2005 15:31 Comments ||
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Respected colleauge, do you see this bug?
It was just discovered right here on the rug
It's a brand new species of the slime mold beetle
And it needs a name, so we're gonna call it Agathidium rumsfeld,
We'll call it "Rumsfeld!'"
Posted by: Mike ||
04/15/2005 15:59 Comments ||
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Wait: entymologists? What do they do, study insect languages?
By the way, Gary Larson got a louse named after him, and was so proud that he used it to decorate the endpapers for The Pre-History of the Far Side.
Saudi Arabia together with some Islamic countries are working on a pioneering project to launch a satellite, which will be used for moon sighting to decide accurate dates of religious rituals and festivals in the Islamic calendar.
A satellite? To spy on the Moon God? What won't they think of next?
A 15-member panel from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the UAE and Bahrain has already decided in consultation with the Cairo University's Space Studies Center to award the contract for manufacturing this first Islamic satellite to an Italian company at a cost of SR30 million.
Not just a satellite, but an Islamic satellite. Won't the turban burn off in the atmosphere?
"The Islamic satellite, expected to be used in crescent sighting and studying environment pollution and movement of clouds, will be put in orbit by the end of this year", said Dr. Ali Juma, chief of the 15-member panel. Dr. Juma said that "the satellite would solve many problems related to crescent sighting . Differences over the lunar months have prompted Arab and Muslim countries including Saudi Arabia to support the project".
Posted by: Fred ||
04/15/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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When they speak of moon sighting are they referring to Earth's natural satellite or about the ones in nudist beaches?
..
On first impressions it would appear that China's South Sea Fleet at Zhanjiang, with major bases at Yulin, Guangzhou, and Hong Kong,could easily dominate the whole Spratly archipelago. The nearest are just 70km north of Hong Kong and Chinese forces are camped on seven of the disputed reefs. Nonetheless, while the Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) looks quite formidable on paper, its actual capabilities are another matter. The modernisation of its surface combatant fleet has been slow and it has done little to enhance its amphibious warfare forces or perhaps, just as importantly, its mine counter-measure capability.
Similarly, although the Spratlys are only a two day boat trip from Vietnam, its Navy and Coast Guard remain small and under funded. Taiwan, in contrast, has, in recent years, procured a number of fairly new American and French frigates and destroyers, and Malaysia is also procuring a fleet of small frigates. The latter currently occupies three Spratly reefs. It is clear that tourists and 'bird-watching' towers are blatant attempts by Vietnam and Taiwan to reinforce their claims to the islands. Vietnam has made it clear that it intends to send more tourists to the islands, something that China is unlikely to take quietly. A war in the South China Sea would be disastrous for international trade, as 50 per cent of merchant tonnage and 30 per cent of crude oil shipments pass by the Spratlys. With ASEAN seeking to settle its members differences, a workable solution is unlikely to be forthcoming, which means at some stage a limited shooting match in the region is more than probable.
#3
Heh. I'd put some on the nasty little Vietnamese if the odds are good. China can't take 'em, one on one, heh. Malaysia can't even handle 18th century piracy right under their Malacca Straits nose. Taiwan - dunno.
...
the PLAN's evolving strategy has been described in terms of two distinct phases. The strategy's first phase is for the PLAN to develop a "green water active defense strategy" capability. This "green water" generally is described as being encompassed within an arc swung from Vladivostok to the north, to the Strait of Malacca to the south, and out to the "first island chain" (Aleutians, Kuriles, Ryukyus, Taiwan, Philippines, and Greater Sunda islands) to the east. Analysts have assessed that the PLAN is likely to attain this green water capability early in the 21st century. Open-source writings also suggest that the PLAN intends to develop a capability to operate in the "second island chain" (Bonins, Guam, Marianas, and Palau islands) by the mid-21st century. In the future, the PLAN also may expand its operations to bases in Myanmar, Burma. These bases will provide the PLAN with direct access to the Strait of Malacca and the Bay of Bengal.
...
#1
Socialism in any form is inherently expansive due to its penchant for achieving anti-efficient, alleged economies-of-scale. The Sraits of Malacca comprises the bulk of [profitable]maritime trade routes between the Americas and South/SouthWest Asia, Indian Ocean, and East Africa. These island chains is just an alibi for what the Commies really want - GLOBAL HEGEMONY, of which East Asia and the preservation of Mackinder's World Island is only the springboard. Remember, America and AMericans by 9-11 were given only two choices to make - accept Socialism and Socialist OWG/NWO, i.e. COMMUNISM; or be militarily attacked and obliterated circa 2020. America either goes down "peacefully" thru internal Socialist evolution via alleged GLOBAL EMPIRE and GLOBAL REGULATION, to be usurped Clinton-style by Commie Asia, or it will go down in pieces. America's choice is to be either DEAD or a LIVING SLAVE to the rampaging killing, looting, pillaging, raping, burning, city/town-storming Barbarian-Bandit hordes and armies of antiquity. THE FAILED/ANGRY LEFT has got no plan beyond achieving anti-democratic global domination via Mackinder's World Island - Iff SOCIALISM doesn't work, the answer is MORE SOCIALISM, iff Mackinder doesn't work, MACKINDER shall and must still rule! THE LEFTIES ARE FIGHTING FOR POWER, POWER FOR THE SAKE OF POWER, NOT SOCIAL IMPROVE
MENT, EQUALITY, TOLERANCE, OR PROGRESS! The Meat-eating T-Rexes can't survive without the plant-eating Dinos - America has the Commie Clintons, etal. from within, and the anti-American agendists from without demanding alleged global justice against America, Americanism, DemCapitalism, and alleged American Imperialism in case the Clintons fail, i.e. CAN AMERICA'S ARMIES AND ECONOMY TRULY STAND AND DEFEAT BOTH RUSSIAN AND CHICOM NUKES, ETAL. AND THE INFANTRY FROM OF ALL THE WORLD, ala GEORGE WASHINGTON. PROPHECY, the 300 Bushite Republican Spartans versus Commie Xerxes and his Milyuhn and Zilyuhn -man Army(s) of Asia at the Pass, the Thermopylae of Thermopylaes!? The Charge of the Light Brigade, into the Little Big Horn and Glory-y-y-y, "...NOBLE/GLORIOUS 600", "LOOK AT HEAVEN'S SCENE... FIND THE STREETS ARE GUARDED, BY REAGAN AND UNITED STATES MARINES!?
The PLAN's evolving strategy has been described in terms of two distinct phases. The strategy's first phase is for the PLAN to develop a "green water active defence strategy" capability. This "green water" generally is described as being encompassed within an arc swung from Vladivostok to the north, to the Strait of Malacca to the south, and out to the "first island chain" (Aleutians, Kuriles, Ryukyus, Taiwan, Philippines, and Greater Sunda islands) to the east. Analysts have assessed that the PLAN is likely to attain this green water capability early in the 21st century. Open-source writings also suggest that the PLAN intends to develop a capability to operate in the "second island chain" (Bonins, Guam, Marianas, and Palau islands) by the mid-21st century. In the future, the PLAN also may expand its operations to bases in Myanmar, Burma. These bases will provide the PLAN with direct access to the Strait of Malacca and the Bay of Bengal.
An Australian invention that immobilises radioactive waste is to be used to clean up five tonnes of nuclear waste at Sellafield in the United Kingdom.
Synroc is a synthetic rock that entraps plutonium and can be used to prevent it from being used to manufacture weapons.
The Sellafield clean-up will be made possible by 25 years of research at the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO).
ANSTO executive director Ian Smith says Synroc can prevent environmental contamination and means nuclear technology can be used without its offcuts falling into the hands of those who want to make weapons.
"It puts that material out of touch and it securely locks this material away for millions of years," Dr Smith said.
"In this case [in Sellafield], it represents a way of restraining plutonium so that it can't escape into the environment and can't be separated for any weapons use," he said.
"Over the past two years, ANSTO has worked to develop a tailor-made glass-ceramic matrix to imprison the Sellafield waste ready for long-term storage and eventual permanent disposal," Dr Smith added in a statement.
"The matrix is specifically designed for their particular needs, as ANSTO's technology can be adapted for a variety of radioactive waste requirements."
Synroc has been around since the 1970s but Dr Smith says the Sellafield project is the first demonstration of how it can be adapted to meet the specific needs of different nuclear sites.
ANSTO hopes to use the Sellafield clean-up as a pilot program for other initiatives.
Posted by: God Save The World ||
04/15/2005 5:19:09 PM ||
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Very clever, and very, very cool. Now to impose it on Iran -- a nice scale-up test for the process.
The morning newspapers have not been kind about the French president's performance.
Jacques Chirac appeared before an audience of 80 young people to launch his campaign for a Yes vote in the country's referendum on the EU constitution.
It was hosted not by heavyweight political interrogators, but by celebrities from the world of entertainment.
Even so, the front page headline of the daily Le Parisien read: "Chirac Struggles".
The broadcast, according to the paper, was confused, chaotic and very disappointing.
'Missed opportunity'
Le Figaro agrees. Mr Chirac stuck to tried and tested themes, it says, all of which have been heard before - that Europe needs to be strong and organised if it is to stand up with social and humane values in a world dominated by Anglo-Saxon style free-market economics and open markets.
The head of state often struggled to get his pro-European case across.
The paper said the broadcast was a "missed opportunity" that would do nothing to reverse the lead that the No campaign had built up.
Liberation accuses Mr Chirac of addressing the people of France like an avuncular schoolmaster addressing the children in his schoolroom.
It says he told the French people, in effect, not to worry about these matters and to leave it up to his wise judgement.
Mr Chirac's performance was a make or break attempt to appeal directly to the people over the heads of a pro-constitution, but increasingly distrusted, political elite.
Asked if he would resign if he lost the vote he said, emphatically, "No."
He said France should be proud of the European achievement. And he warned that a No vote would be disastrous.
It would destroy French influence at the heart of Europe, and turn France into the black sheep of the European family.
France's political elite of left and right are astonished that the No campaign has stolen so clear a lead.
Opinion polls give them between 51% and 55% of the vote.
Many say they fear that the new Europe is too Anglo-Saxon in its fondness for free markets and open competition, that it threatens the French social model.
Our Anglo-Saxon partners, President Chirac said, think the opposite. They think that it is too interventionist, too controlling.
And he appealed to the French not to use the referendum just to punish the incumbent government.
We face a question fundamental to the future of our continent, he said - do not muddle it up with passing day-to-day political concerns.
But the confidence of the No campaign is likely to be buoyed by the press coverage.
Mr Chirac and the Yes lobby will have to place their faith in the large number of French people who say they have not made up their minds.
The Yes vote is likely to be "softer" than the No vote - which means the higher the turnout, the more likely Mr Chirac is to pull off a victory against the opinion poll predictions. I don't quite understand the last paragraph. In any case, I think this shows very clearly that the French Elite and at least part of the French Government truly believe they should rule Europe and anything that downplays the French influence is "disastrous". It is clear they are mounting a campaign of fear that the French way of life will disappear if the EU Constitution is voted down, ignoring the very real Islamofication currently occuring. Just my opinion.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
04/15/2005 9:19:53 AM ||
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I donât quite understand the last paragraph
At this point it appears that the "No" people appear much more determined than the "Yes" people. If there is a rainy day, it will be the yes people who will stay at home. If they have to choose between voting and visting Mom (the election is cheduled for Mother's day) it will be the No people who will postpone their cisit to Mom (BTW flower vendors are angry against Chirac for scheduling that vote during the day they will make their biggest sales. Expect a massive No between them). In fact at this point the expections of the Yes are between people who don't track politics closely and thus are more likely to allow themselves being led by MSM, politicians and movie starlets.
#4
...he warned that a No vote would be disastrous.
It would destroy French influence at the heart of Europe, and turn France into the black sheep of the European family.
This could be one of the best things for the French-they need to get rid of the fear of being a black sheep. Being so hung up on what others think hobbles you. There are much worse things in life than what others misidentify you as being.
Like other quirks in life, a no vote could actually end up delivering more of the very self-determination and self-definition the French seek so much now. France has become rigid and hypervigilant-it's time for a reassessment and a change.
#5
Liberation accuses Mr Chirac of addressing the people of France like an avuncular schoolmaster Amusing. Avuncular is not quite the word I would have chosen...
Jules, you make an interesting point. Although I would argue that France already is the black sheep of Europe, and they need to accept that it can't be hidden. With regard to such things they seem to think that if they put their hands over everyone else's eyes, nobody will be able to see.
#8
I have, after a long time of deliberation, decided to campaign against the EU Constitution. This "Constitution" is not really terrible as such, but it shifts more power to less democratic political structures. It speeds up an unnecessary process of "unification", which does nothing for the different peoples in Europe, but guarantees work for eurocrats for decades.
I am much closer to the position of the Czech president Vaclav Klaus, who sees Europe as a place of free exchange of ideas, people and trade. This is where Europe is best. A unification of Finns, Portuguese and Germans doesn't make anyone's life better.
I distrust the EU much more than before. I don't believe in an European Arrest Warrant, that undermines my (formerly) constitutionally guaranteed right of getting legal protection in the country I live in and am a citizen of. I don't belief in treaties that rob me of my stable currency to give me something else with promises and fair weather guarantees that are broken when the first little storm turns up.
Europe should be a free, democratic association of peoples. But there is no "European Demos", no "European People". And because there isn't, we need no European Constitution. Our national ones served us well.
Final point: Something that Valery Giscard d'Estaing thinks up, can't be good for us. I have come to know this guy during my time in Paris.
Non, merci
The French are probably voting down the Constitution for the wrong reasons. Mais ça m'est bien egal.
#10
Though Chirac is talking out of his rear end, a chronic condition, He means every word of it.
What is wrong with the Saxons and Angles? If I was in the UK or Germany I would heed this as a huge red flag as to what the EU constitution is truly about.
TGA said "Something that Valery Giscard d'Estaing thinks up, can't be good for us." I say Amen to that.
#11
Chirac, Paris and the French intellectual elite do not represent France anymore than Clinton, Kerry, the NYT/WaPO, and the eastern establishment represent America. France is very divided on this according to my brother in law who is French and lives in the Southwest of France. They sincerely believe that the EU constitution will bring unhelpful "harmonization" on issues such as agriculture (never mess with a frog's cheese and wine), taxes (never mess with a frong's ability to milk the system)and foreign policy (never mess with a frog's appreciation of the hun).
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
04/15/2005 15:36 Comments ||
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#12
The EU project was far more appealing to the EU publics when it was focused on securing benefits to Europeans within Europe: the elimination of military rivalry, free movement of goods and people, some degree of harmonization of laws in the intellectual property and other spaces, and not least, transfers (from rich Germans mainly) to poor nations and low-income small farmers in order to lift living standards while avoiding the steam-roller approach to small towns and villages that has erased all regional differences and regional charm from most of the US.
All of these are internal-facing. They don't touch on foreign policy or immigration policy or
economic "competitiveness" vis-a-vis the US, Japan and now China. Arguably, the EU was also a "magnet" designed to use soft power to draw the East European brethren out of the soviet orbit, but this was never a core reason for setting up the EU. Had it been, I'm sure a few of the EU's architects might have paid a little more attention to the likelihood that Poles and Czechs and Hungarians who suffered under command economies would have no love for French-style economic statism and dirigisme.
The lesson here is that so long as the EU remains focused on relations within and among EU member states, it does fine. The populace is happy and the elites generally do a decent job for them.
The project becomes unsustainable when the elites start to chase rainbows beyond Europe's borders. The people don't buy this vision of creating an EU "moral superpower" and economic fortress that can stare down the US and Japan, play a major role in the middle east and a lesser one in the far east. Pretty tough to persuade someone to take up the burdens of global greatness when he's too dedicated to his 8 weeks of vacation, convenience, and pleasure-seeking to be bothered with rescuing grandma from asphyxiation.
Paradoxically it's the EU's huge success in the social-economic area that is destroying its ambitions in the foreign-policy-unification area. Even more ironic that it will be the French people who rejected the essentially French messianic dream of EU superpower grandeur.
#13
Problem with the EU is that in fact people in it have three widely divergent views. We have the French and the Germans who look it as a way of world domination through the economic mass they get with the agregation of smaller and poorer countries, then there are some small countries whose politicians get theoir only moment of glory (think in the chief clown PM of Luxembourg, he is elected by just a couple hundred thoiusand people and suddenly he becomes a person whose voice is heard through the world), and then there are the Southern an Eastern Europe countries who see a great opportunity to get money from rich Europe.
#14
Really?
Who is the PM of Luxembourg?
I have no damn idea and don't care. Its too small to be seriously considered a country. Hell its not much bigger than the nation of Sealand.
or their strange site
Of course its main business is hosting offshore internet gambling so it is not much different than Luxembourg in persuing productive business. And both are a lots less atractive than Vegas or Reno.
#15
Not much is less attractive than Reno. She was uglier than Shalala.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
04/15/2005 19:29 Comments ||
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#16
This isn't a rejection of the EU; it's a rejection of the French dream of EU as Superpower. This is a superb development, good for Europe and for the world. Better that Europe remain rich and become humble and focused on its own internal problems.
Posted by: Howard UK ||
04/15/2005 08:41 ||
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#1
If I'm remembering correctly, my dad's division (7th U.S. Armored) was attached to the British 2d Army at that time, and they overran part of the Belsen complex.
Posted by: Mike ||
04/15/2005 8:48 Comments ||
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#2
Mike, please thank your father for me. I do believe I had relatives there as well as at Auschwitz.
#3
Don't forget that 1/2 of the 60,000 still living concentration camp prisoners were found so starved, diseased and abused that they died even after liberation.
Posted by: ed ||
04/15/2005 13:54 Comments ||
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#4
(I posted this earlier today at David's Medienkritik about the German medias tendencies.)
I am sorry that My country the US, the UK and, yes the former U.S.S.R., could not get to the Camps sooner. For that I am truly sorry. I think the Germans would do well to remember who stopped the mass murders and closed the German run death camps.
Any attempts to compare crimes against all of humanity to some current day actions of a few individuals, to these acts which were crimes planned, organized by and carried out in the name of the state of Germany, show the ignorance, insensitivity and immaturity of those that make them. Nothing more needs to be said.
Are todays German responsible for the death camps? Certainly not. They are however responsible for remembering them and not trying to attenuate the horrific nature of the Holocaust buy comparing it with anything else.
#5
Last Sunday we commemorated the liberation of Buchenwald. I met a survivor of Flossenbürg and now, after 60 years, I might have some hints about the fate of my father.
In these days I could punch every Abu-Ghraib whiner in the face.
#12
TW, will pass along the word when I see my parents on Sunday.
Posted by: Mike ||
04/15/2005 16:41 Comments ||
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#13
For information on names of about 3,000,000 people who died in the camps (roughly half the total and growing), go to: WWW.yadvashem.org. I don't know how to enter it as a link, so just run a search. Be prepared.
Posted by: Weird Al ||
04/15/2005 17:18 Comments ||
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West Virginians know why Democrats brought in Barack Obama to raise money for Bob Byrd's bid for a ninth term. Byrd is acting scared. He is a legend. He never won a Senate race by less than 30 points. West Virginians put him right up there with Sears and Carter's liver pills. But times change, and whatever my disagreements with Byrd may be, he is a masterful politician. Byrd taught Ted Kennedy how to count votes in a 1971 upset over the No. 2 post in the Senate. Kennedy miscalculated.
Byrd continues counting. He might see himself falling a few votes short this time. The National Republican Senatorial Committee did a telephone poll of 500 likely voters on March 15-16 and found Republican Congresswoman Shelley Capito is within 10 points of Byrd. Byrd was ahead 52 percent to 42. The margin of error is 4.3 percent, meaning that in 19 out of 20 cases, the numbers for the two would fall between 48 and 56 for Byrd and 38 and 46 for Capito. The days of the 30-point wins may have passed.
Just a matter of getting the packaging right, of course. Voters'll never notice the substance, and the dead can always be counted upon...
Now that is one poll, by Republicans no less. Democrats are not releasing their poll results, but their reaction is curious. They sent in a rookie senator to raise money for their longest-serving senator. Shouldn't that be the other way around? "In 2006, Senator Byrd will be the target of Republicans because he stands up for what he believes," Obama said in a computer message to members of MoveOn.org.
Oh, that'll help in West Virginny...
In reaching out to the far left for help, Byrd is not only going where the money is, he goes where his political heart is. Calling for help this early looks like panic. Well, Republicans did knock off the Senate Democratic leader, Tom Daschle, last year. But Republicans tried to target Byrd for defeat when he was Senate leader in 1982 by running Cleve Benedict against him. Bringing up Byrd's Ku Klux Klan past failed as miserably then as it did in his first congressional race in 1952.
"Why Senator! You're as white as a sheet!"
"Of course Ah am!"
Posted by: Fred ||
04/15/2005 11:30:59 PM ||
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#1
How about arranging for some Deaniacs to be shipped in around poll time?
#3
Oh baby I am sending that chick some money TODAY! I supported Thune and that was sweet! This, well this would require me to take two week off from work for a good long drunk! Go Captio GO!
#4
Hmmm, no Senate election site up yet. She must not have started to campaign and she is with ten points of the Grand Kleagle? This could get really interesting come 2006.
#5
Maybe Pelosi would volunteer to do some fund raising for him. Or Butch Mikulski.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
04/15/2005 18:29 Comments ||
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#6
thanks Barak - you're my boy
Posted by: Robert Byrd ||
04/15/2005 18:30 Comments ||
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#7
Dammit! You can't unseat me. I haven't finished renaming everying building, highway, and bridge in the state of West Virginia!
Posted by: Sen. Byrd ||
04/15/2005 18:47 Comments ||
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#8
I am envious because I live in California and it's doubtful that somebody will defeat Dianne Finestien or even try. I think that if Bab's Boxer was running right now she would loose because everyone see what a empty-headed nutball she is. The fact that we had a big Presidential election really carried her and running against a stuttering imbicle didn't hurt either. Can you believe that she won WON two debates against another english speaking individual? My dog (who is really dumb) could out debate Bab's on her worst day. I can tell you one thing that I am not going to open my wallet to the Cal GOP unless they run some serious and winnable candidates. So I will have a couple hundred to pass along to other state races next year.
#9
Cyber Sarge if the California Republican party would quit trying to elect what ammount to old fashioned Orange county nut jobs a Republican might stand a chance. I won't hold my breath. They are as out of touch with reality as the California Democrats are.
I wish we could get an anyone but Babs campaign going and dump both of them.
#11
I "lived" in Fornicalia, Del Mar just north of Sammy Dago, for 3 years. There are solid intelligent non-idiotarians there. The question seems to me to be: Why aren't they recruited into the Pub Party? The country clubbers have a shit record, as evidenced by the place being run by morons. Embarrass them out of Party power. Nothing phreaks out a pretentious status type like a little public humiliation.
LET'S hear it for Dmitri Mendeleev. His periodic table has done a remarkable job of making sense of the elements, arranging them neatly into families whose members share similar properties. For more than a century it has been chemists' guiding light. But Mendeleev's classic layout is starting to prove inadequate at describing the unexpected ways in which chemical elements behave when divvied up into small chunks. And now some chemists think it may be time to build a whole new table, this time from something much stranger than atoms: superatoms.
According to Mendeleev's roll call, an element's chemistry can be deduced from where it sits in the periodic table. Reactive metals like sodium and calcium occupy the two columns on the left. The inert "noble" gases make up the column on the far right, flanked by typical non-metals such as chlorine and sulphur. Now this neat picture is being disrupted by superatoms - clusters of atoms of a particular chemical element that can take on the properties of entirely different elements. The chemical behaviour can be altered, sometimes drastically, by the addition of just one extra atom. "We can take one element and have it mimic several different elements in the periodic table," says Welford Castleman, an inorganic chemist at Pennsylvania State University who has studied the chemistry of aluminium superatoms.
It is a finding that is challenging our entire understanding of chemical reactivity. Adding superatoms to the periodic table would transform it from a flatland to a three-dimensional landscape in which each element is drawn out into a series of super-elements. Superatoms could have practical uses too: they could be combined into super-molecules to make new materials. And their unusual chemistry could be harnessed to make efficient fuels.
Continued on Page 49
EFL:Cue up Inspector Reynaud's picture please...
BOSTON (Reuters) - A Boston Globe freelance writer fabricated large chunks of a story published this week, the newspaper said on Friday in the latest incident to embarrass the U.S. media. Wow. Can ya believe that...
The Globe, which is owned by The New York Times Co., said it stopped using writer Barbara Stewart because of a story that ran on Wednesday about a seasonal hunt for baby seals off Newfoundland -- a hunt, it turns out, had not taken place. Wow. Can you believe that...
The story datelined Halifax, Nova Scotia described in graphic detail how the seal hunt began on Tuesday, with water turning red as hunters on some 300 boats shot harp seal cubs "by the hundreds." The problem, however, was that the hunt did not begin on Tuesday; it was delayed by bad weather and was scheduled to start on Friday, weather permitting, the Globe said in an editor's note. Well, it might not have ever happened, but that's probably what it would've looked like if the Globe was actually there to witness what never happened. Even if it wasn't there, that's what they'd think it'd look like. Can't alienate that core constituency...
Stewart could not immediately be reached for comment. The newspaper, which received a complaint from the Canadian government, said it should not have published the story and should have insisted on attribution for details because the writer was not reporting from the scene. Details? Damn! They'll get you every time! They should've learned that the first six or seven times this happened to them...
"Details included the number of hunters, a description of the scene, and the approximate age of the cubs. The author's failure to accurately report the status of the hunt and her fabrication of details at the scene are clear violations of the Globe's journalistic standards," it added. The Globe's "Journalistic standard" is, I believe, "Don't get caught." It's over the doors on Morrissey Blvd.
Canadian Fisheries Minister Geoff Regan said his officials had called the paper to point out the error. Oh....ummmmmmmmm...gee. Thanks, minister...
Officials with the newspaper were not immediately available for further comment. Probably out drinking early today after this broke...
Fascinating. As if there were no real stories to write about. I guess that the credo invented by Newsweek several decades ago, "We're not in business of providing news, we're in business to influence perceptions", is now the 'in' thingy.
#5
LMAO - I think .com referred to this kind of thing as "predictive news."
Posted by: Matt ||
04/15/2005 20:33 Comments ||
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#6
Ironically, the saving grace of newspapers will be to become more like blogs. For example, the paper has an editor and some serious journalists, whose job it is to check facts, avoid plagiarism, and do phone confirmations with major players. But their reporters are all stringers, average people who send in email stories. If the stories are accepted, they get paid a nominal amount, say 25 cents for an average, 50 cents for a good, and for a real breaker, maybe up to a hundred dollars.Everybody, and I mean everybody, would provide them with a huge amount of fresh material. This would handle the local news.And then, the newspaper has agreements with literally hundreds of Internet sites, to use their original material for free, if they give a byline to the website or blog. This would create a virtual equivalent to a wire service a dozen times larger than AP, UPI and Rooters combined. Breaking news, information, opinion from the four corners of the world, all original, all scott free. The big advantage of this kind of newspaper is that it concentrates all the news you could get from hours and hours of surfing.
I thought this barbarism was mostly a North African problem. The article prefers the term "circumcision," but "castration" is truly a more appropriate analogue. EFL.
[A]ccording to a 2004 survey of women from the Kurdish-controlled Iraqi areas of Erbil, Dohuk and Sulaimaniyah, a staggering 75 per cent of 40,480 respondents were found to be circumcised.
The Kurdish method of circumcision involves the removal of a girl's external genital organs. The procedure is usually carried out by women who are not trained in surgery. There is no anaesthetic and little attention to hygiene. As a result, there is a high risk of infection and haemorrhaging. Women with disfigured genitals commonly have problems with urination, intercourse and childbirth.
In Iraqi Kurdistan, uncircumcised women are often looked down upon. ... "Our friends told us that if a girl isn't circumcised, the water from her hand is unclean and not fit for drinking and that God is angry with her. So we decided that the three of us should go to Hamdia's, a friend of ours, and circumcise one another."
Muslim clerics in northern Sulaimaniyah declared a fatwa on the practice in 2000. Muhammed-Amin Abdul-Hakeem Chamchamali, the head of the Kurdistan Religious Scholars Union, said the "common belief that uncircumcised women are dirty or unsuitable for marriage is unfounded" and they "are not guilty of anything in the religious sense". Do you feel his implacable outrage? No, me neither.
Roonak Agha of the Kurdistan Women's Union has launched a campaign to educate mothers against circumcising their daughters, which she says has begun to lower the incidence in some areas. "We held symposiums and seminars, and have made a concerted effort to stop circumcision. We have held talks with religious scholars here so that we can persuade mothers to put an end to this phenomenon." Islam?
Thanks to projects like these, circumcision is on the wane in the larger cities of Kurdistan. But in smaller towns and villages, the practice is more difficult to eradicate. C'mon, repeat after me, class: "Take a look at our own culture, first! We condone baggy pants, nipple-piercing, and Britney, and so we're Just As Bad." Absolutely; American mothers pin their daughters down and force them, under penalty of honor killing, to dress like skanks; it's obvious equivalence. Unbelievable.
While some progress is being made in tackling female genital mutilation, many victims of the practice continue to suffer the consequences. Sairan Muhammed said her husband took a second wife because of her sexual frigidity. That sound? Yeah, I need a new monitor ... and a new fist. One consolation for her, she said, is that her four daughters will not have to experience what she went through.I'm not a religious man, but 'Thank God' nonetheless.
What unimaginable self-loathing could possibly push Muslim women to such lengths just to accommodate the boundless sexual insecurity of Muslim men? Imagine for a moment restraining your own daughter or younger sister, ignoring her screams, knowing that at best, at best, she's doomed to life as a eunuch ... if she survives. And all so her groom, some bewhiskered old turd, won't feel like he wedded "a whore." Sub-human, soulless fucking barbarians. My inner struggle between "nuke 'em all" and "give them time" tilts yet again. Sorry, Fred, if my comments warrant deleting this.
Posted by: Rex Rufus ||
04/15/2005 4:18:19 AM ||
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#1
Rex, your comments are spot on. It is barbaric, there is no other word for it. I know we can't fix everything at once, but at some point we need to put some sharp, quiet words to the Kurds and start changing practices there.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/15/2005 9:14 Comments ||
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#2
Ok, I never, never, ever heard of female genital mutilation outside of Africa and some parts of Yemen. AFAIK, even in Saudi Arabia it is more or less unheard off, let alone in a land who is much farther of Africa, where Islam is taken with a grain of salt (remember that the Kurds don't want
Islam being the soure of Iraki law) and whose traditions give much more liberty to women than between Arabs.
And it doesn't fit with what I have seen of Kurdish women with their unveiled faces and freely dancing with men and looking quite joyous (has anyone seen an Arab woman laughing?).
So I will bite the bullet. I think it is a lie, a smearing campaign of the LLL aimed at denigrating a group who is relatively friendly to the US and at implying that women were better in times of Saddam.
An international media development charity, IWPR is led by senior journalists and peace researchers, with staff drawn from established media such as the BBC, The Guardian and Reuters. The Institute is a partnership between the London-based charity established in 1991, and the recently formed IWPR (US), based in Washington, DC, 501(c)(3) charitable status pending.
I think JFM gets credit for a hit.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
04/15/2005 9:54 Comments ||
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#4
"...staff drawn from established media such as the BBC, The Guardian and Reuters..."
Well, that's the trifecta of credibility, right there.
Salt, anyone? This needs a grain of it the size of a cattle lick.
#6
There probably are some primitive, tribal remnants of this in Kurdistan, but the scale certainly seems way off. Where woman-hating religions and superstition are strongest is where this practice is most widespread.
Seems to me the stopping of this might be a point of leverage for the US. "This practice needs to be outlawed in Kurdistan, or else..."
Still, nothing can compare to the infibulation in parts of Africa and the Arabian peninsula. Remove anything that could remotely be connected to pleasure, sew it up, and cut it open when you want in or baby wants out. Human beings can certainly be disgusting creatures when they want to be.
#7
Regardless of the extent this has occured in the past, its noteworthy that no one is quoted as defending the practice and the Kurds are clearly making good progress in eliminating it. Judge people not by what has happened in the past but by what they are working to achieve now.
#8
Tribalism is the ultimate root of collectivism. And any place you find either, you find stupid things like this happening. The cure is a combined injection of knowledge and liberty, and the destruction of the tribalist/collectivist inertia.
#9
Ok I have googled a bit about it and I stumbled upon this
http://www.kurdmedia.com/news.asp?id=5327
The source is Kurdish and NOT recent (I discarded page dated April 12, 2005 as suspect, ie could have been made by the "peace" group). So it seems the peace moonbats were right for once
#11
Honor Killings are also quite common in the Kurdish rural regions.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
04/15/2005 17:44 Comments ||
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#12
ok so honor killings and this genital mutilation shit has to stop. Start with our allies teh Kurds, if it's happening (I have my doubts on the extent of both - once is too much) then step it up on the world stage. Why are we not bombarding the world's airwaves with ridicule of muslim men's insecure sexualities and the horrors that result from same? Start with rapes in Paris, Belgium, etc....Make these losers international pariahs as they should be, and awaken women to the general use that kitchen carving knife can come to when necessary!
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/15/2005 18:12 Comments ||
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#13
You insensitive brute!
Posted by: Abu Bruce ||
04/15/2005 18:47 Comments ||
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#14
Frank G-Yep. The wrong starts with the shaming of men for their life force and finishes with extinguishing the offending "root cause"-females in sexual ecstacy.
And I accidentally stumble again on a word that keeps coming up in arguments around Islam-"root causes". Where there is no free will, people have no recourse-just doom from "root causes" in life. How incomprehensible and then ,when encountered, how completely shocking our political AND personal freedom must seem to those who do not believe in free will.
#15
As a guy with a unit (i.e. extra brain) - it causes me pain to recommend societal removal of same in Islam, but it would cure a lot of worldly ills, wouldn't it?
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/15/2005 19:05 Comments ||
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#16
I just want it all to stop. You know I usually write about women's issues and Islam, but I think that what Islam does to men is very ugly and debilitating. Islam insults the creation of life by intentionally causing pain, harm, destruction-they do it physically, through terrorism, honor killings and female genital mutilation, and they do it mentally and emotionally, too. It seems like a desecration of a gift, to me.
#17
don't give men a pass by blaming it on Islam. They can/should do better. The misogynist attitudes they perpetuate do damage, but all it takes it as mass-awakening to the damage done to women, and boys buggered by mullahs (yes, I'm RC and our priests need to pay for their crimes as part of a cleanup), to know this is a seriously f*&ked up cult "religion"
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/15/2005 19:36 Comments ||
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#18
Tribalism is the ultimate root of collectivism. And any place you find either, you find stupid things like this happening. The cure is a combined injection of knowledge and liberty, and the destruction of the tribalist/collectivist inertia.
#19
Tribalism is the ultimate root of collectivism. And any place you find either, you find stupid things like this happening. The cure is a combined injection of knowledge and liberty, and the destruction of the tribalist/collectivist inertia.
The state House passed legislation yesterday that would make Connecticut the second state to establish same-sex civil unions, and the first to do it without a court order. The House amended the bill to define marriage as being between one man and one woman. That means the Senate, which overwhelmingly approved the bill last week, would need to approve the amended version before it reaches the governor's desk. Vermont has approved civil unions and Massachusetts has gay marriage, but those changes came only after same-sex couples brought lawsuits. The Connecticut bill would give same-sex couples all the rights and privileges of marriage, but they would not be eligible to receive marriage licenses.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/15/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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#1
Does the Connecticutt house want some ice with that Kool-Aid?
#2
I guess being next door to Massachusettes rubbed off on them. Was this that popular an issue in Connecticut too? Funny how no State on the left coast has passed similar legislation, but that's probably a matter of time.
#4
CF, they are still crying in their corn flakes over in San Francisco after the courts ruled that Mayor Gavin was not KING GAVIN. King Gavin thought he had more power and authority than the State of California, which by the way voted against gay marriage. Saw a couple crying that one couldn't go visit the other if they were in the hospital. Like some Bay Area Hospital woudl deny visitation rights to a gay partner. If that all they want just spelll it out with a legal declaration and then they can hold hands through any operation or procedures.
#5
Got absolutely NO problem with that. If the legislature wants to vote on it and pass it - fine. If the people don't agree - they can vote themselves a new legislature. I just object to changing the laws via judicial fiat.
#6
I'm totally against gay "marriage", but recognize that there are homosexuals residing in loving long-term relationships that need recognition of that relationship in terms of healthcare bennies, end-of-life and hospital care decisions, et al. Grant them Civil Unions, especially to encourage long-term relationships, which are, unfortunately, as infrequent as marriages without divorce. Reserve "Marriages" for man-woman
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/15/2005 18:49 Comments ||
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#7
I live in Oregon {the Left Coast} and the State Supreme Court ruling reads like a direct slap at Multnomah County officials : basically reminding them that they are a constituent member of the state, and not the state in toto. Also, we just passed Measure 36 mandating that marriage is reserved as an agreement/contract/institution between a man and a woman.
The whines in Portland over the ruling was like a thousand jet turbines winding up :)
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.
Saudi Arabia together with some Islamic countries are working on a pioneering project to launch a satellite, which will be used for moon sighting to decide accurate dates of religious rituals and festivals in the Islamic calendar. 
The state House passed legislation yesterday that would make Connecticut the second state to establish same-sex civil unions, and the first to do it without a court order. The House amended the bill to define marriage as being between one man and one woman. That means the Senate, which overwhelmingly approved the bill last week, would need to approve the amended version before it reaches the governor's desk. Vermont has approved civil unions and Massachusetts has gay marriage, but those changes came only after same-sex couples brought lawsuits. The Connecticut bill would give same-sex couples all the rights and privileges of marriage, but they would not be eligible to receive marriage licenses.
