LIBERTY, Ohio -- An unusual and noisy mystery has people in a small town north of Middletown on edge, worried and asking questions, News 5âs Brian Hamrick reported.
Liberty, Ohio, is a quiet little community, except for one thing -- the scream.
Jamie Young told Hamrick she heard it while she and her husband were walking one evening.
âIt scared me. I didnât want to finish my walk,â Young said.
But instead of running into her house, she said she recorded the noise and sent a tape to the local newspaper. It sounded kind of like "Yeeaaaaaarrrrrgh!"
With a sensitive microphone and some special peril-sensitive sunglasses ghost-hunting goggles, Hamrick went hunting for the haunting sounds, traipsing boldly into the most likely spots -- from a graveyard to an old church where flea market dealer Walt Wilson sells some truly frightening things. But heâs not worried.
âI donât think itâs going to wind up grabbing any of us and running off with us,â Wilson said.
Residents have no shortage of ideas about whatâs making the sound, from cats to owls to something even scarier. Like, gulp left-wing Democrats.
Townspeople said they called in an animal expert, who told them the noise didnât come from an animal.
So until the 2008 Iowa caucus for now, the scream remains a mystery.
GARDNERVILLE, Nev. -- A cat in Nevada is recovering from a foray atop a power pole that left it jolted, frizzled and dazed -- and with a little less fur. Firefighters believe the cat touched a relay switch on the 25,000-volt line while checking out a bird's nest. It fell from the 40-foot pole and sparked a fire outside a firehouse.
Firefighters found the singed cat near the base of the pole. They assumed it was dead, until they noticed it was breathing. They put it on a blanket and gave it oxygen. It turns out the burns weren't as serious as they looked. One of the firefighters said "the fire just burned all his hair off." The cat's expected to make a full recovery, and will be put up for adoption if no one claims it. "If nobody claims it"? I want this critter for breeding stock in my master plan to create the Kzin from scratch.
Due to a Spitzer Space Telescope pointing error, the infrared observatory didnât actually observe 2003 UB313 as had been previously reported. Astronomers had used the "nondetection" to establish an upper size limit on the largest known Kuiper Belt object. If Spitzer sees the body in follow-up observations scheduled for late August, it could mean that 2003 UB313 is much larger than the original limit of around 3,400 kilometers (2,100 miles). Hubble Space Telescope observations are also in the works.
When I first read the title, I understood "most leftists are chimps", I must be bigoted or something...
WASHINGTON (AP) -- When it comes to fishing tasty termites out of their mounds, wild chimpanzees don't have the right stuff. Most, in fact, are southpaws. A three-year study of 17 wild chimps in Gombe National Park, Tanzania, found that 12 of them used their left hands when using sticks to probe for termites. Four were right-handed and one was listed as ambiguously handed.
"Contrary to previous claims, wild chimpanzees show population-level handedness in tool-use,'' reported the research team led by William D. Hopkins of the Yerkes National Primate Research Center at Emory University in Atlanta. Population-level handedness indicates a preference for one hand in a large group. Hopkins' findings are reported in Tuesday's issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The paper also looked at previous studies of chimpanzees and found that others had noted a left-handed preference when using sticks to fish for termites, but there had been reports of a right-handed preference when cracking nuts.
Scientists have long debated whether nonhuman primates exhibit handedness. Because the hands are controlled by opposite sides of the brain, the finding could indicate that this brain division had begun as long as 5 million years ago, prior to the split between humans and chimpanzees.
Richard W. Byrne of the University of St. Andrews in Fife, United Kingdom, who has reported on hand-preference in mountain gorillas doing complex tasks, said: "It now looks as if whatever gives a population skew to manually skilled behavior has its roots deep in the shared ancestry of humans and all other African great apes.'' Byrne, who was not part of Hopkins' research team, said the findings show that with a big sample of chimpanzees there is a slight but real group hand-preference when chimpanzees fish for termites, although many previous researchers with smaller samples had concluded there was not.
Among humans, a right-handed preference has been estimated for about 90 percent of the population. But Byrne noted that the figure "depends on asking people which hand they write with, and in studies of nonliterate people's behavior, much lower figures (for right-handedness) are found.''
A larger question concerns the evolution of language, Hopkins said in a telephone interview. Most people, right and left handed, use the left hemisphere of the brain to process language, he explained. The argument has been made that if humans developed language after the split from apes, and language is related to handedness, then there shouldn't be handedness in apes, he said, "This reinforces the view that the whole historical link between language and handedness is probably not a correct one and people need to rethink those ideas,'' Hopkins said.
The stone is one of country's most cherished cultural objects along with a cherished cookoo clock and recalls a gathering called two centuries ago to reassert Switzerland's identity in the chaos of Napoleon's Europe.
While stone-throwing has its roots in the Middle Ages, competition above regional level began with the 1805 festival of Alpine herdsman at Unspunnen, a grassy meadow near Interlaken. The event, first re-enacted in 1905 using the stone stolen Saturday, involves throwers lifting the boulder above their heads, running and getting crushed by the heavy stone hurling.
A hotel employee told police that she saw four men enter the hotel and steal the iconic stone, adding that the thieves left behind a smaller stone marked with the emblem of the neighboring canton of Jura.
How exactly can you fence a stone marked with an emblem?
The Unspunnenstein was stolen before in 1984 by a separatist Jura youth organization, but it was recovered in 2001.
"Hans, get that idiot stone out of our living rÞÞm!"
"But Gertrude, honey, it's a memento of my days in the separatist youth organization!"
"I don't care, it doesn't go with the curtains! I mean, really!"
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/21/2005 00:16 ||
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Double the guard on the Stone of Scone before its gone.
RIYADH â Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia, has allocated $1.25 billion for expansion work at the Prophetâs Mosque in Madinah, official media said yesterday.
King Abdullah, who acceded to the throne of the kingdom after the death of his half-brother king Fahd on August 1, ordered that the expansion work started at the holy place be completed at a cost of 4.7 billion riyals. The work includes the construction of courtyards, roads, car parks and tunnels.
No mosque is complete without a proper ammo dump tunnel.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/21/2005 00:00 ||
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Why expand it? Within 5 years it will be nothing but a bad memory, and current charcoal and silica dust.
Posted by: Vlad the Muslim Impaler ||
08/21/2005 3:11 Comments ||
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The funeral of King Fahd, which was conducted in a simple manner in Riyadh earlier this month, has encouraged a well-known Christian priest in Italy to embrace Islam, press reports said. The priest, who watched the late kingâs funeral on satellite television, was impressed by the lack of pomp and pageantry in the royal funeral, Al-Riyadh Arabic daily reported without mentioning his name.
Usually they don't when the story's made up...
King Fahd was buried in Al-Oud graveyard the next day of his death after a solemn funeral ceremony attended by world leaders. Islamic preacher Dr. Abdullah Al-Malik said the simple funeral of the king had a dramatic effect on the priestâs mind, which led him to Islam. âAlthough he had read several Islamic books before, they didnât have the same impact.â
Posted by: Fred ||
08/21/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
Well, you know how worked up we Catholics get when someone chooses to leave the faith. We hunt 'em down, gut 'em like a deer, ululate & have random gunfire in the air.
Really. It's a sacrament or something. We get 72 communion wafers in the afterlife if we get a heretic to the faith.....
Well, the guys do. All I would qualify for is the chance to bake the wafers in the afterlife.
#2
I just noticed (I've been slower than usual, lately) that the guys in the hoods are holding their Holy Korans in their left, that is bottom-wiping, hands. Come to think of it, how do they turn the pages without dirtying it?
#3
No worries, trailing wife - Koran itself is dirty enough...
Posted by: Matt K. ||
08/21/2005 0:38 Comments ||
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#4
You're assuming they wipe in the first place (those dudes with the hoods)
Posted by: Rafael ||
08/21/2005 0:40 Comments ||
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#5
Maybe the picture was mirror imaged somewhere on its journey to us.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
08/21/2005 0:48 Comments ||
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#6
Some commentators have been talking about how leftists are turning to Islam because it gives them yet another platform from which to assail the West. I can see some priests who are liberation theologians (i.e. Marxists) turning to Islam.
#7
Well, where the Arab society has us beaten, hands down, no contest, is in Urban Legend production. They have vast libraries of them. I think we have an Urban Legend Gap. Better page Gen.'Buck' Turgidson right away.
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/21/2005 11:42 Comments ||
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#14
"The stereotypic image of the Muslim holy warrior with a sword in one hand and the Koran in the other would only be plausible if he was left handed, since no devout Muslim should or would touch a Koran with his left hand which is reserved for dirty chores."
http://www.secularislam.org/research/origins.htm
#15
no devout Muslim should or would touch a Koran with his left hand which is reserved for dirty chores
like signing Welfare checks, ya lazy Mofos?
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/21/2005 15:12 Comments ||
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#16
I think, from comparing these two photos, we can conclude that even fanatical Muslims will hold the Koran in their left hand. Note the emblem on the child's shirt in the second photo for reference.
http://www.jewishworldreview.com/images/suicide_bomber_mommy.jpg
http://www.ananova.com/images/web/82244.jpg
A young Saudi went to a local barbershop to have his hair cut and left without his mustache, Al-Madinah reported. The young man gave specific instructions to the barber on how to cut his hair. Instead the barber removed half the man's mustache. The young man was in shock, staring for a few minutes, refusing to believe his mustache was gone. He beat the barber and attacked him with a razor blade. People in the shop saved the barber from the man who had threatened to put him in the intensive care unit for having removed the most valuable thing on his face.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/21/2005 00:00 ||
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... and between legs of their muslim women.
Posted by: Matt K. ||
08/21/2005 0:46 Comments ||
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"between the legs..." Honor? What are you talking about? It's just property, nothing more, like a favored pet. For a Saudi, there is only dishonor possible with owning some wymyns - a stone heart and a strong backhand is essential in prevention. They know goats and other myn are much less trouble.
But the mustache, whoa, now that's different. That's big juju, though most Saudis can't grow a decent one. They were always jealous of mine, especially back in my Yosemite Sam period. The qu'uran requires them to trim theirs to the top of the lip and to the corners of the mouth. If all you can field is peach fuzz, that doesn't leave much - which is what I saw - maybe 1 out of 20 had one you could actually identify as such at 10 paces.
#3
ROTFLMAO. .com I know they felt totally your presence. I am going to have to grow a nose beard again. It's a statement against the funders and facilitators.
#5
.com, have you ever heard abour so-called "honour killings"?
Nobody gets stoned there for trimming a moustache, eh?
Posted by: Matt K. ||
08/21/2005 8:07 Comments ||
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Matt,
Just as I predicted yesterday, you're out of gas. Your paragraphs yesterday are turning into senseless, half completed sentences today.
Also, just as I predicted yesterday, you have no knowledge outside the Bosnia subject matter. I am still waiting for your Canadian style enlightenment, oh wise one.
#7
In addition to what the title states, the mustache in the muslim shows strength. This barber (follicle engineer) was very lucky to make it out alive. I believe this "follicle engineer" will end up in intensive care because this profession is right up there with collecting garbage, in the East and won't be missed. It's hard for people in the US to understand this because the profession is considered respectable, here.
For some Sunday humor, here is a link to Muslim hygiene. I love the quote in the bottom of the article. I quote, "Letting them grow long resembles animals and some of the disbelievers."
Because otherwise, they represent highly advanced human species. There is nothing like going on a killing spree with proper hygiene.
#8
Matt, dear, .com spent many, many years working in Saudi Arabia. For some reason he became the Western confidant of choice for both his male and female Saudi colleagues, and returned to the States with an understanding of their culture almost as his deep as his dislike. Hence Poison Reverse's comment to you.
[EFL]
History teaches us that no world power dominates the scene for ever. At present, America looks like the unconquerable superpower. Yet perhaps there are signs, if we could but read them, of cracks in the structure which a shrewd surveyor would see as fatal.
...
It may well be that in 80 or 100 years' time, it will seem obvious that, let us say, the humiliating withdrawal of American troops from Baghdad - which is bound to happen - was the first crucial step in the diminution of American power.
When I saw the title, I was expecting a discussion of porous borders, increased voter fraud, and Hawaii. Instead we get just another recitation of the European wet dream.
Maybe Wilson gets his news from the Guardian and the BBC.
#1
Whatever. I have been seeing this old line trotted out since the 70s. The soviets would beat us in the 70s, Japan would take over the economic world in the 80s, EU power house dominating in the 90s, China nowdays....
Fact is, America is nearly 30% richer than the 70s, more people own homes and buisnesses, inflation is still at an all time low, we haven't seen a real recesison since the early 80s, our GDP is booming and needed by the rest of the world and the EU to keep them from sliding into a depression.
Keep wishing A.N. Wilson, we ain't going anywhere unless we let our liberals take over. Then we are f00ked.
#2
Wet dream indeed, cause if America falls it takes the very floor that nearly everyone else stands on with them. This is just as much self-loathing as kicking the yank. The fun time after the fall of Rome was not known as the Dark Ages for nothing.
I'm not worried. How many million aliens pack up every year to head to this doomed land?
Unlike the Romans or the Europeans, the Americans are not really interested in real estate. They would rather do business with other countries than have to run them. Its the culture that spreads and with it the ideas that are more important. If and when America joins history, I suspect that like the Goths and other tribes who stood upon the remains of Rome, they will make every effort to assume the trapping and legitimacy of that great civilization.
#3
First of all, *what* "empire"? If it's not geographical, do they mean economic? Agricultural? Scientific? Political? Isolationist? Demographic? Or some combination thereof?
Second, "cracks" imply that America is declining. What if other blocs are *improving*, thus closing the *gap* with America. The world is not a zero-sum game, many can "win" at the same time.
Third, leftists are always quick to say that the concept of "mercantilism" is dead (historically, the nation with the most 'specie', gold and silver, is the strongest.) They are wrong in this regard. Mercantilism has *grown* to include far more than specie. Dozens of other real products, both limited in quantity and renewable resources, their degree of refinement, and the industries that exploit them, show which countries dominate in the world.
And, both "real" and "imaginary" money, and their ratio to one another in an economy also show its strengths and weaknesses. (Imaginary money is created in any commerce. The more commerce, the more imaginary money is created. Say you earn a "real" $1 bill. You instantly owe taxes on that dollar to the amount of 50 cents. But since you can still spend the entire dollar *right now*, 50 cents of imaginary money has been created. When you spend it, whoever gets it also has to pay 50 cents taxes, so now you have $1 real and $1 imaginary money. A single real dollar can temporarily "create" and "add" hundreds or thousands of imaginary dollars to an economy.
As long as imaginary money does not inflate, and keeps its "full faith and credit", compared to real money, it radically strengthens an economy.
Lastly, as one in the eye to the Telegraph, in historical economics, ONE and ONLY ONE factor determines which major powers in the world are on the upswing or decline. Mining.
Mining is an economic pebble in the pond, sending ripples of prosperity throughout an economy. From ancient times to modern, as a nation mines, so too are its fortunes. It is the only known 100% correlation in all of macroeconomic history of major nations.
But modern mining concerns are not limited to the actual place of mining. A Japanese company can own a mine in Canada, for example. American companies own mines all over the planet. And while the local economy profits somewhat, the big money flows back to America.
So, put it all together and yes, America is the dominant nation in the world. Though Japan is #2 as an economic power, the EU is #2 as a trading bloc, Russia is #2 as a military power, the US, Canada and Argentina clearly dominate agribusiness, China is the largest market, and Africa has the most immediate potential for mining.
I would hardly look at Africa as a rising empire, however.
#4
A lot of leftists are from priviliged families, schooled in private schools and universities which all teach classical education. And likely ( dunno, not rich ) they hammered home the idea of America as an empire just like Rome.
Anonymouse is right. This has been standard fare for all good leftists since the 70s. They choke it down when no evidence exists to support it and they spit it uout as everyone's daily bread.
Stoopid folks, such as moi back then, repeat it as if it were Gospel, unknowing what it really means, and what it really means is it is just another pile of bile our "betters" like to spit at us.
#6
I think this guy views Uncle Sam's alliances with a broad variety of powers and occasional military interventions as an empire. The dissolution of empire would then mean the end of these alliances and a halt to American military interventions.
The problem with Wilson's hypothesis is that his recent research has had to do with the collapse of the British empire, and his instinct is to apply his particular knowledge of the British empire to situations that have nothing in common with it. In other words, because he has a hammer in hand, he sees nails everywhere.
Even his analysis of the British empire's collapse is riddled with flaws - he ascribes it mostly to the machinations of the State Department, even though the true cause was military pressure from the colonies. In the old days, before the advent of ethnic- or religion-based nationalism, it was possible to keep the natives down with small forces coupled with firepower superiority. Over time, that firepower superiority because less pronounced, as native troops learned the ways of their colonial masters and defected to the ranks of native agitators.
Yet another factor was in play - as Britain became more "civilized", empire became impossible because the harsh measures traditionally employed to maintain it, periodic massacres like the one at Amritsar - became all but impossible because of a squeamish public. If Britain was unable to hang on Ireland, which shared with Britain skin color, language, religion, climate, culture, time zone and so on, how was it going to hang on to India, which was foreign in every sense? How was it possible that Indians would see themselves as British subjects over the long run?
Without the brutal application of military force and the loss of perhaps hundreds of thousands of British troops, there was no way Britain could have hung on to India. And the British public was not prepared to either inflict massacres on Indian civilians or take large numbers of British casualties. Once the Indians lost their awe of British power - through the Japanese defeats of British forces coupled with their acquisition of Western military skills from their British colonial masters - the writing was on the wall. If Britain would not relinquish India voluntarily, it was a matter of time before a bloody revolt broke out. The British merely got out early and gracefully - the French paid dearly for their intransigence in Algeria and Vietnam.
#7
An interesting hypothesis of the fall of the British Empire in India puts the blame squarely on the shoulders of--women.
That is, for most of their occupation of India, British women were excluded from the entire country, except for the few high and mighties. This resulted in many Brits taking Indian mistresses. In turn, this created close interconnection between them and their community, along with a great source of intelligence as to what was going on and how much it really mattered.
Finally, British women, suspecting hanky-panky, insisted on being allowed to live there, and once there, to exclude any Indian women from the vicintity of the men. This cut off lines of communication and made the Brits an island surrounded by a sea of Indians. From there it was a one-way ticket out of the country.
Posted by: bk ||
08/21/2005 20:16 Comments ||
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#9
China would slit their own throats in the process since then the US would not be able to buy their goods cheaply and the Yen, which despite what the Chinese say, is still leaning heavily on the dollar.
It would be a lose-lose situation for everyone.
#10
Brit women vs.Indian women > I'm reminded of the scene from LION IN WINTER, when Katherine Hepburn's character Queen Eleanor of Acquitaine tells her prince-sons - "...Now my children, you know the important role of SEX on history", or words to that effect!?
A 12-year-old English cancer sufferer who dreamed of visiting Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo has had his hopes dashed after the charity that "granted him his wish" closed its UK office.
Daniel Round of Norden, Essex, was over the moon in February when he was awarded the trip of a lifetime to his hero's zoo by the Children's Wish Foundation, the UK's Rochdale Observer reported yesterday. Daniel is in remission from cancer of the spine which has left him wheelchair-bound.
Daniel was told he would be jetting off to Australia before he starts high school next month. But he was devastated to be told that the trip was off, at least for now, after the charity's London office closed. All wishes are now being handled by its head office in the US, which is unable to say when Daniel's wish may be granted.
His mother, Juli Round, said her son had been "to hell and back". "We hadn't heard from the foundation for three months so I asked them to reassure Danny that he was still going, which they did," Ms Round said. "Then we were told he might be going in September, which I was angry about because I didn't want him to miss more school.
"Three days later the foundation said their office had shut and all their wishes transferred to America." She said the family had since received an email from the head office in Atlanta to say the foundation was still "waiting for the paperwork to come".
Daniel, who had to fight for survival in the intensive care unit at the Royal Manchester Children's Hospital, was nominated for the wish by his nurse. He had to write to the foundation, which grants wishes to children with life-threatening illnesses, to tell them why he wanted to go.
He spent two months putting his feelings in writing and drawing pictures of the reptiles and animals he wanted to see. Daniel also dreamed of one day emulating his hero Irwin and opening his own zoo in Australia. "He told them it was his ultimate wish to visit the crocodiles and reptiles at Australia Zoo," Ms Round said. "Before he went to sleep at night I would tell him dream of Australia but now the magic has gone."
A spokeswoman for the Childrens Wish Foundation International in Atlanta said: "We had fantastic staff in London who we loved dearly and it was a sad day when we had to close".
Posted by: Oztralian [AKA] God Save The World ||
08/21/2005 01:58 ||
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Yes, a fantastic staff who apparently had no warning they were about to close as the only excuse for not forwarding projects early to the US. Otherwise, I would suggest that they were not so fantastic as all that.
Ecuador's army has regained control over a number of oil installations that slowly resumed crude oil production after protestors crippled it in the Amazonian region of the country last Thursday. The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Saturday quoted Energy Minister Ivan Rodriguez as saying the economic impact was "worse than any war". Officials estimate oil production will not return to normal until November. Protesters want some of Ecuador's oil money to be invested in the region. They want more of the country's oil wealth to be spent on infrastructure and new jobs. Ecuador is the fifth biggest oil producer in South America.
The army has used tear gas to disperse some of the protesters amid clashes that have left dozens injured. Correspondents say the unrest is the worst faced by President Alfredo Palacio since he came to power in April, the BBC added. According to the president of the country's Petroleum Industry Association, oil revenues have been put towards paying for both state sector salaries and a significant amount of the national debt.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/21/2005 00:00 ||
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China will continue to suffer from short supply of mineral resources and the situation could be even worse in the coming two decades, said a leading expert in policy-making.
Liu Jiansheng, deputy director of the Policy Research Office under the State Council, made the comments at the third China international symposium on nonferrous metals mining held from Tuesday to Thursday in Xining, capital of northwest China's Qinghai Province.
Liu said that China's consumption of minerals would peak in the first 20 years of the century, as the nation planned to quadruple the 2000 level of gross domestic product, or GDP, to 35 trillion yuan (4.32 trillion US dollars) by 2020.
To achieve the goal, the nation should ensure an average GDP growth at some 7.2 percent. It is predicted that minerals consumption will outperform the GDP in terms of growth rate during the 20-year-period, Liu said.
Official statistics show that 92 percent of the primary energy, 80 percent of raw materials for industrial production and more than 70 percent of raw materials for agricultural production came from mineral resources.
According to Liu, China's per-capita mineral resources is equivalent to 58 percent of the world average, ranking the 53rd around the globe. And its per-capita deposit of iron, aluminum and copper was one sixth, one ninth and one sixth, respectively, of the world average.
It is predicted that in 2020, shortage of copper will reach 3.57 million tons, while that of aluminum hit 10.55 million tons in China.
#1
Great, not only are they buying all the scrap metals in Asia and the world, all the concrete and steel in America, now we will have to deal with a shortage of Copper and Aluminum.
Posted by: 49 pan ||
08/21/2005 21:32 Comments ||
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#2
Anyone know a reliable supplier for recycled LDPE and HDPE plastic? I'm buying...
#3
Sounds like how the USSR bankrupted itself - no free markets and limited international trade > Commie Socialist Big Govt used up many if its domestic natural endowments. Proved their supp for Enviro agendas by wiping out various Seas but being unable to afford the cleanup or any cleanup in favor of nuclear parity with the USA-NATO. THe "SHARP SWORD" of force and intimidation always came first with the Ultra-Left, NOT AND NEVER UNIVERSAL DEMOCRACY OR LIBERTARIANISM. Might as well been BIG UNIONS here in the USA!?
#4
This is a particularly ignorant piece. Aluminum is the most abundant metal on the surface of the earth and I believe Iron is the second most abundant. I can state categorically there will not be a 'peak' in production of any of these metals cause by declining availability of ore, although costs may increase as lower grade ores are used, but even that is far in the future on a global basis.
Nine people have been injured in the evacuation of a Qantas passenger jet after it made an emergency landing at Osaka airport in Japan.
The airbus A330 was on its way from Tokyo to Perth about 1:00am AEST when instruments reported smoke in the cargo hold. The aircraft diverted to Osaka where an emergency landing was made.
Posted by: Oztralian [AKA] God Save The World ||
08/21/2005 00:33 ||
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Will someone clear up this "Rain Man" (Dustin Hoffman-inspired) question: Is it true Qantas has never suffered a fatal air disaster?
The Australian Prime Minister is to receive a prestigious American award for outstanding leadership in public life, at a ceremony in Sydney tomorrow night.
John Howard will be presented with the Woodrow Wilson Award from the political centre of the same name in Washington, which is part of the influential Smithsonian Institution. It is the first time a serving political leader has been recognised and Mr Howard is the first person outside North America and Europe to receive the honour.
The US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, was a member of the judging panel.
Mr Howard's award will be recognised in a recorded message from the US President George W Bush, who will also deliver a message to Australians.
Posted by: Oztralian [AKA] God Save The World ||
08/21/2005 00:36 ||
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LAST MONTH, FOR THE first time in years, a member denomination withdrew from the National Council of Churches (NCC). The spunky, 400,000-member communion is the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America, and its decision to quit the reflexively left-wing NCC was based on a unanimous vote of clergy and lay delegates.
According to one church spokesman, a recent NCC fundraising letter helped spark the departure. It asked supporters to fight "right-wing attacks" on the controversial church agency. The letter named President Bush, Rush Limbaugh, James Dobson, and the Heritage Foundation as insidious forces that must be opposed.
"It got to be too much," Antiochian spokesman Rev. Thomas Zain told Ecumenical News International. The NCC, said Zain, has "lost its goal of Christian unity on a doctrinal basis. The goal seems to be including everybody and [promoting] niceties."
Homosexuality, increasingly the bellwether issue that divides religious traditionalists from liberals, was also a big factor for the Antiochians. The Episcopal Church and United Church of Christ, both pillars of the NCC, have largely accepted same-sex unions and openly gay clergy.
Officially, the NCC does not have a stance on homosexuality. But NCC chief Bob Edgar, a former Demo-cratic congressman and liberal Methodist seminary president, leaves little doubt that he favors same-sex unions. "We just feel we don't have much in common with the churches" in the NCC, said Rev. Zain on behalf of the Antiochians...
#1
The Episcopal Church is very split on these issues. The national leadership is leading where very few want to follow. More than a few dioceses are withholding their contributions from the national organization. The UCC is in the same boat. The "leadership" is blue, but the membership red.
#2
As a life long until recently Episcopalian I have lost faith in the church I was baptised into. So sad to bad. Father Richard our pastor sugested that I read go to the offical Epicopal Churches website and read the position paperg to better understand the church's decision. I did and after reading the positiong the church supports I'm moving on. I guess its the Catholic church next.
Via Drudge.
CRAWFORD, Texas (Reuters) - President George W. Bush, an avid mountain biker, got a chance to test his mettle against cycling superstar Lance Armstrong on Saturday. Lance does off-road training in the offseason.
The seven-time Tour de France champion joined the president for a two-hour, 17-mile trek through the canyons and river-crossings of Bush's 1,600-acre Texas ranch. Armstrong, a fellow Texan and Bush friend who nonetheless disagrees with the president on the Iraq war, called it a "dream scenario" to cycle with the president.
While many Americans wonder what attracts Bush to the Prairie Chapel ranch, where is he spending the month of August, Armstrong said he thought the biking opportunities were a big draw. "He rides his mountain bike fanatically," Armstrong said in a recent interview with ABC's This Week. "It might be the mountain bike trails he has there."
Armstrong, 33, called Bush "one competitive dude," but said in the ABC interview he had no doubt he could outpace Bush, even though trails can be challenging for road cyclists unaccustomed to rough, rocky terrain. Well, yeah, spot somebody 26 years...
"He's a good rider," Bush was said to have remarked about Armstrong after the ride, which featured only one 10-minute break to admire a waterfall on the property.
White House spokesman Trent Duffy said Armstrong was careful to respect "the first rule of biking," a hint that he did not overtake the president. Duffy said he did not know whether Bush discussed politics with Armstrong, who has spoken out against the war in Iraq. Armstrong has said he believes the money could be better spent on other things, such as fighting cancer. Which is why, among other things, you have private organizations that help fund these efforts. Oh, wait...
Armstrong, a cancer survivor who at one time was given a less than 50-50 chance of beating the disease, sits on the president's panel on cancer research and heads a nonprofit cancer foundation.
Armstrong and the Secret Service agents and staff members who rode with Bush were presented T-shirts that said "Tour de Crawford" and "Peloton One" -- a reference to the French word for group -- as well as a pair of riding socks with the presidential seal. Cool swag!
Bush, 59, took up mountain biking after a knee injury forced him to give up jogging a couple of years ago. But he has taken a few well-publicized spills, including one in Scotland last month when he collided with a police officer. The president was described by his doctors in his annual physical as being in "superior" condition for a man his age.
He takes pride in his six-day-a-week workout regimen and Democrats actually complain about it last week he showcased the statistics on his heart rate monitor for a group of reporters who rode with him. The monitor showed he burned 1,493 calories in a two-hour ride, also 17 miles.
Bush says exercise helps sharpen his thinking. Since this is Reuters, here's the obligatory cheap shot:
But some of his critics view his exercise obsession as an indulgence that takes time away from other priorities.
Among them is Cindy Sheehan, the Vacaville, California, mother of a soldier killed in Iraq, who until late last week was camped out down the road from Bush's ranch seeking a meeting with him to discuss her opposition to the war. Sheehan, who left her vigil on Thursday to tend to her sick mother, has said she believes Bush should take fewer bike rides to have more time to focus on the "the nation's work."
#1
you just know John Kerry's curled up in his biking spandex in a dark corner, moaning "that should've been me....Mummy T...."
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/21/2005 11:44 Comments ||
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#2
Bush, 59, took up mountain biking after a knee injury forced him to give up jogging a couple of years ago. But he has taken a few well-publicized spills, including one in Scotland last month when he collided with a police officer.
Lance, of course, has *never* fallen from his bike.
The press should be shot.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
08/21/2005 12:17 Comments ||
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#3
Article: But some of his critics view his exercise obsession as an indulgence that takes time away from other priorities.
Reuters reporters apparently do. But they have nothing to say about Clinton's fellatio obsession, which may also have taken time from other priorities, not to mention Clinton's long meandering jogs at a snail's pace.
#7
JFM:
While Lance may have some daft ideas, I don't recall his having any big press conferences or joining some Moronic Convergence. As long as he isn't using his celebrity to push his views on others, I don't really care.
I believe Steven King, who holds some rather extreme views, when asked about the war, said "Who cares what my opinion is? I'm a novellist. Why ask me?"
The United States has launched a last-minute drive to scrap much of a draft plan for comprehensive U.N. reform just weeks before it is to be adopted at a world summit, Western diplomats said on Wednesday.
One option put forward by Washington would be to return to square one and launch line-by-line negotiations on the document, the diplomats said, insisting on anonymity so as not to anger Washington.
But another top diplomat involved in the negotiations dismissed the others' concerns, saying the initiative was a negotiating tactic the United States fully expected would be rejected by U.N. General Assembly President Jean Ping, who is leading the talks...
The U.N. document, intended to serve as a blueprint for bringing the world body into the 21st century, touches on a broad range of issues from U.N. management reform -- a top U.S. priority -- to eliminating poverty, protecting human rights and ending the spread of nuclear arms.
Adoption of the document, currently weighing in at 38 single-spaced pages, is meant to mark the climax of a Sept. 14-16 U.N. summit expected to draw more than 170 world leaders to New York. Bush is among those expected to attend although he has not formally responded to an invitation...
"Their concern is that the draft is not in their view summit-worthy -- that it would be hard to convince Bush that it would be worth his while to come to New York to sign it," said an envoy involved in the talks, who also asked not to be identified by name.
"To be fair, they are not a voice crying in the wilderness," said this diplomat, adding that developing nations also had reservations about much of the text.
But the section of the document on development and poverty was the top target of the U.S. revisions, a tactic certain to anger developing nations, which make up the overwhelming majority of the U.N. membership, the diplomats said. This raises far more questions than answers. I wonder what the real story is?
#1
Sounds to me like it is not so much as whats said in the document but whats left out. Lots of spaces for agendized reading into the document. The Bush admin has always been strong in reform. This document must be garbage. Probable has statements in it like-The US will pay for all third world nations and accept fault for all that goes wrong.
Posted by: 49 pan ||
08/21/2005 21:02 Comments ||
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The World Bank plans to lend India $9bn (£5bn) over the next three years to help fund development projects such as road building and water improvement.
World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz is visiting India and said that the money would help sustain the growth needed to lift 250 million people out of poverty.
Although India is one of the world's fastest growing economies, millions of people live on less than $1 a day.
The World Bank money will be aimed at rural areas that are the hardest hit...
Reposting Badanov's story; something about the original was breaking formatting in a weird way -- wouldn't show up on page 3, but the title was in the banner and you could click it. Apologies, but I don't know how to rescue the comments.
You can call me a bad guy, or a rabid republican, but whatever you do, don't call me when this blows back, or has unintended consequences on blogger.com.
Great business model, BTW
EFL
The "Flag?" button is a means by which readers of Blog*Spot can help inform us about potentially questionable content, so we can prevent others from encountering such material by setting particular blogs as "unlisted." This means the blog won't be promoted on Blogger.com but will still be available on the web â we prefer to keep in mind that one person's vulgarity is another's poetry. Or something like that.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/21/2005 13:35 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
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#1
As per my previous comments. Lefties will use this to make sites they don't like invisible. Everyplace that has tried this that is worth a danm has stopped it. "Moderation bombing" is a way of life for the rabid left and TRANZIS, they co-ordinate via email and IM and attack. Some are more subtile and take weeks to do their job.
My suggestion is to register a domain name and find a real hosting service like many of us do.
I just love the freedom of speech:
when tranzi/dhimmis really state their case, behind their MCB, CAIR leaders. I don't want to get flagged, covert is good.
#4
When the Left proposes a flawed tool designed to give them supremacy in any field, the best option for us is to render the tool unworkable.
There sure are a lot of lefty hate sites on Blogspot. Some of them aren't even openly leftist, but damn, they sure hate blacks, hispanics, gays, and women. (Blogspot won't mind if they hate Jews, so don't claim that.)
Oh, those sites don't contain that language? Well, it sure looked like it to me---that's why I flagged them.
From every one of the available IP addresses on the local insecure wireless APs in the neighborhood. :)
A homosexual activist website in San Diego has published a threatening message directed specifically at a prominent ex-homosexual and more generally against other Christians activists.
Hillquest, a homosexual-oriented business promotion company, published the anonymous threat against James Hartline, who produces an email newsletter circulated through the Christian community in San Diego, and others like him. The message was signed only by "A Concerned Community Member."
"Now is the time to come together, to reconcile our differences that we all tout and to once again march under the same banner," said the message. "The moment was never riper for the San Diego (LGBT) community to push for the elimination and suppression of the James Hartline's (sic) of the world. We currently have an openly lesbian (interim) mayor of San Diego and an openly gay mayor of Chula Vista; PEOPLE....WE are in POWER! WE are IN CHARGE!" Allahu ahkbar!
Hartline characterized the publication of such a letter as "one of the most shocking examples of just how hateful and venomous are the attitudes of gays and lesbians towards Christians who are standing up for traditional family values."
The Hillquest website is operated by Ann Garwood and Nancy Moors. It is not the first time the site has targeted Christian activist Hartline. The website includes a "James Hartline Watch" page to monitor the activities of the private citizen. "Itâs time to take care of the source of our problem, James Hartline, with the martyr getting 72 stud-muffins" writes Hampson.
Hartline, meanwhile, is asking San Diegans and others to pressure law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, to investigate the threats. "Publishing death threats on Hillquest is a prosecutable offense," he says. But remember, they are for tolerance.
#3
There is a small, sensible voice out there for homosexuals. Not Christian, and not trying to "turn" them from homosexuality. Instead, it suggests that they watch out for signs of cult-like behaviors in the gay community. That is, pushing them to only have gay friends; insisting that they have to contribute to "the community"; trying to get them to adopt "us vs. them" attitudes with heterosexuals, to openly demeaning and despising heteros with spiteful jokes and hate speech. All told, adopting the "victim" role so beloved by other (perpetually) "victimized" minorities.
As with the latter group, this is an effort by their self-appointed leaders to get wealth and power. As a movement, it pushes not for equality, but for preferences in the name of equality, and not just acceptance, but indulgence. Many of the more freakish homosexuals join these groups both to prey on the more normal homosexuals, and to hide behind them when their freakishness is condemned.
About two-thirds of scientists believe in God, according to a new survey that uncovered stark differences based on the type of research they do. The study, along with another one released in June, would appear to debunk the oft-held notion that science is incompatible with religion.
Those in the social sciences are more likely to believe in God and attend religious services than researchers in the natural sciences, the study found. The opposite had been expected. Nearly 38 percent of natural scientists -- people in disciplines like physics, chemistry and biology -- said they do not believe in God. Only 31 percent of the social scientists do not believe.
In the new study, Rice University sociologist Elaine Howard Ecklund surveyed 1,646 faculty members at elite research universities, asking 36 questions about belief and spiritual practices. "Based on previous research, we thought that social scientists would be less likely to practice religion than natural scientists are, but our data showed just the opposite," Ecklund said.
Some stand-out stats: 41 percent of the biologists don't believe, while that figure is just 27 percent among political scientists.
In separate work at the University of Chicago, released in June, 76 percent of doctors said they believed in God and 59 percent believe in some sort of afterlife. "Now we must examine the nature of these differences," Ecklund said today. "Many scientists see themselves as having a spirituality not attached to a particular religious tradition. Some scientists who don't believe in God see themselves as very spiritual people. They have a way outside of themselves that they use to understand the meaning of life."
Ecklund and colleagues are now conducting longer interviews with some of the participants to try and figure it all out.
#1
Somehow I've never thought of "social scientists" as being scientists in any way, shape or form.
Posted by: john ||
08/21/2005 8:41 Comments ||
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#2
"Social Science" is usually sociology, history, etc. They like the trappings of terms like 'science', but they're none predictive. Not surprising you'll find the socialist and neo-marxists in that crowd in greater numbers. Obviously, the study was done by those types considering their prejudices and the comment "The opposite had expected".
#3
I'm not certain if scientists exist. Maybe, let's wait and see, the time frame in question is too small to warrant a Holy Investigation of things I done in one really bad week.
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.
The funeral of King Fahd, which was conducted in a simple manner in Riyadh earlier this month, has encouraged a well-known Christian priest in Italy to embrace Islam, press reports said. The priest, who watched the late kingâs funeral on satellite television, was impressed by the lack of pomp and pageantry in the royal funeral, Al-Riyadh Arabic daily reported without mentioning his name.
A young Saudi went to a local barbershop to have his hair cut and left without his mustache, Al-Madinah reported. The young man gave specific instructions to the barber on how to cut his hair. Instead the barber removed half the man's mustache. The young man was in shock, staring for a few minutes, refusing to believe his mustache was gone. He beat the barber and attacked him with a razor blade. People in the shop saved the barber from the man who had threatened to put him in the intensive care unit for having removed the most valuable thing on his face.
Ecuador's army has regained control over a number of oil installations that slowly resumed crude oil production after protestors crippled it in the Amazonian region of the country last Thursday. The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Saturday quoted Energy Minister Ivan Rodriguez as saying the economic impact was "worse than any war". Officials estimate oil production will not return to normal until November. Protesters want some of Ecuador's oil money to be invested in the region. They want more of the country's oil wealth to be spent on infrastructure and new jobs. Ecuador is the fifth biggest oil producer in South America.
