PARIS Hilton has filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles demanding the closure of a website where visitors can pay to view nude photos and other items that formerly belonged to her.
Hilton's suit says the website - parisexposed.com - which displays photos, home videos, diary entries and audiotapes of her conversations, as well as images of her passport, is "one of the most reprehensible invasions of privacy of a celebrity". The site includes topless pictures of 25-year-old Hilton on holiday and also shows her frolicking in a bath.
Bathtub pics?
In a declaration to the court, the Simple Life reality television star says the items were put into storage two years ago after she and her sister Nicky moved out of a house after it was burgled. Hilton claimed the removal company was supposed to pay the storage fees and that she was "shocked and surprised" to learn that the amount had not been paid and that her belongings had been sold at a public auction. "I was appalled to learn that people are exploiting my and my sisters' private personal belongings for commercial gain," she said in her court statement.
"Including all our nudie pics, the fiends!"
Hilton is seeking closure of the site on the grounds that the information shown could be used by people "to steal my identity, or even worse, to harass or stalk me".
The lawsuit claims the possessions were bought by defendants Nabil and Nabila Haniss for $3590 and sold to a third person, Bardia Persa, for $12.937 million. That's gotta be a misprint. She's got a cute enough butt, but it's not $12.937 million cute. 50 bucks, tops.
Visitors to the site pay around $51.75 to view the items. Okay, well, maybe $51.75. But not one penny more!
In addition to claiming invasion of privacy, Hilton says she filed copyright registrations last week for three pieces of writing that are contained in the belongings. She claims the site is engaging in copyright infringement. The publicity hungry Hilton has struggled to keep her personal life private in the past. A home sex video of her and a former boyfriend leaked onto the internet in 2003, and in 2005 a computer hacker broke into her mobile phone address book.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/31/2007 00:00 ||
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...I just do NOT understand the interest in this woman. I have no doubt that she has SOME redeeming qualities - but the fact of the matter is that she has no talent, even less brains, and makes Olive Oyl look like Morganna the Kissing Bandit.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
01/31/2007 5:51 Comments ||
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DHAKA - Senior officials at Bangladeshs election commission are expected to resign on Wednesday, raising hopes that a political crisis that has gripped the country for months could be drawing to a close.
Local media said the acting chief election commissioner and three of his deputies would meet President Iajuddin Ahmed on Wednesday to hand in their resignations.
Commission chief Mahfuzur Rahman is accused of bias by former prime minister Sheikh Hasina and her allies and roundly accused of incompetence for failing to organise an election that would keep her in power was originally scheduled for Jan. 22. Hasina has said she would not participate in any election supervised by Rahman and his team. Western governments and the United Nations say an election without the participation of all major parties would not be acceptable.
Officials were not immediately available for comment, but local media -- quoting unnamed government and commission sources -- said the resignations were imminent. The commissioners have previously said they would quit only if the president, who is the ceremonial head of state and constitutional chief of the armed forces, asked them to step down.
The heads of both the administration and election commission have already changed once under pressure from feuding political parties and President Iajjuddin declared emergency rule on Jan 11. Ruling on a writ filed by a private citizen, the High Court said on Monday that elections could not be held until the voter registration process had been completely overhauled.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/31/2007 00:00 ||
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Rushing to be like ZimBOBwe are we?
CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan lawmakers voting in the Reichstag on Wednesday gave initial approval to a bill granting President Hugo Chavez the power to rule by decree for 18 months, saying the measure should be called an "enabling law." I call it "voting" for a dictatorship, but I'm no Rooters reporter, so whadda I know?
Posted by: BA ||
01/31/2007 10:36 ||
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And 18 months will become 2 years. And 2 years will become 5 years. And then...el presidente for life, anybody? This was all depressingly predictable. And the real pisser is that the left will defend him the whole way.
Posted by: Jonathan ||
01/31/2007 13:26 Comments ||
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Enabling Law: right out of the Nazi playbook...couldn't even come up with their own title.
#3
Since Chavez now has the power to rule by decree, what's stopping him from decreeing that he is now and forecermore heriditary dictator-for-life with the power to rule by decree in perpetuity?
Some people are just so stupid it boggles the mind.
HAVANA (AP) - Cuban state television Tuesday showed a video of a healthier looking Fidel Castro meeting with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and saying his recovery was "far from a lost battle," in the first images of the ailing leader shown in three months. Castro stood and appeared alert in the 10-minute video clip, which state TV said was shot during Chavez's previously unannounced visit to Havana on Monday.
I want to see a time stamp and a copy of Monday's WaPo in the video.
The video seemed to be aimed at knocking down recent rumors about Castro's health, including a report that he was in grave condition. Castro looked heavier than in previous images that had showed him much more thin and frail. Dressed in a red, white and blue track suit, the 80-year-old was shown sitting and drinking juice.
"This also is far from being a lost battle," Castro said of his current health problems. He noted that when his severe intestinal problems struck last summer he was still not fully recovered from a devastating October 2004 fall that severely injured a knee and a shoulder. "One after the other," Castro said of his health troubles.
Later in the video, Chavez was even more optimistic, saying Castro had already won the battle to recover his health. The Venezuelan president's brother, Education Minister Adan Chavez, was also seen in the video visiting Castro. On the video, Castro was also heard reading aloud a headline from a printout of an article dated Saturday from the Web version of Argentine newspaper Clarin.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/31/2007 00:00 ||
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I want to see a time stamp and a copy of Monday's WaPo in the video.
#7
Castro stood and appeared alert in the 10-minute video clip, which state TV said was shot during Chavez's previously unannounced visit to Havana on Monday.
We're just putting the finishing touches on the animatronic facsimile.
MOSCOW (AP) - The head of a center that trains security personnel and held a competition for Russian special forces confirmed Tuesday that it has used shooting targets showing the photo of a former agent who was fatally poisoned in London last year.
However, Sergei Lysyuk, head of the Vityaz Center, said he had been unaware that the photo target showed the poisoned ex-agent, Alexander Litvinenko. "The fact that it was Litvinenko, we only found out later from the press," Lysyuk told The Associated Press. "We did not shoot at Litvinenko, we shot at a target."
"We weren't shooting at him, he was just a target."
Got it.
Russian media this week published photographs of Sergei Mironov, head of the Russian parliament's upper house, visiting the center in early November. His visit, to present awards in a competition for Interior Ministry special forces, came about a week after Litvinenko fell ill; one photo shows the Litvinenko target in the background.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/31/2007 00:00 ||
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Good on them, its his own fault for turning against his country. Pussy
Posted by: alex ||
01/31/2007 8:40 Comments ||
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They must not like him at home. I've got to admit after 911, I was so pissed about Osama Bin Laden, that I used his photo for target practice. Wish I had the real thing.
Murataly Jumanov of the Moslem Religious Directorate told Osh-TV on January 14 that the 22 pilgrims from Kyrgyzstan killed in a traffic accident last week were proclaimed shahids. They will be interred in Saudi Arabia, Jumanov said.
The senior mufty said that once the news of the catastrophe came from Saudi Arabia, the Moslem Religious Directorate and Agency for Religious Affairs dispatched their representatives to Osh in the south of Kyrgyzstan. Four groups were formed in Osh, comprising officials of the muftijat, Agency, and regional and municipal administrations. They visited the perished pilgrims' families with condolences. The families were informed of the decision of the Saudi authorities to proclaim the pilgrims shahids (martyrs who died for the faith) and have them interred on the territory of this country.
The tragedy occurred on January 12 when the coach with Kyrgyz pilgrims was on its way home. The interim report flashed to the government of Kyrgyzstan listed 23 victims of the accident. The information had been checked and the list announced by Osh-TV included 22 names. One of the pilgrims initially proclaimed dead (Usmonjon Saidhosilov, born in 1941) turned up hospitalized in Saudi Arabia. More than 20 others victims are being treated for wounds of varying severity.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/31/2007 00:00 ||
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Apparently those who die on the Hajj are given the same honor as those killed fighting in a jihad. This attitude is probably what drives the Shiites to assemble in large numbers for Ashura, even though the terrorists can kill them more easily then.
TWO South Korean computer programmers have been arrested on suspicion of sending out 1.6 billion spam e-mail messages in violation of the country's commerce laws, police said today. Hopefully, a death penalty will soon follow...
The two men, one aged 20 and the other 26, are suspected of sending out the unsolicited e-mail messages between September and December last year in what police describe as one of the biggest spam blasts in the country's history. The two are suspected of obtaining personal and financial data from 12,000 South Koreans who responded to their spam messages. The pair then sold information on those people to lending services firms, police said. Police said they will soon turn over evidence on the pair, who were not named, to prosecutors who will then tell the court what sort of criminal penalties they are seeking against the two. I suggest using them as dog food. After making them test shark repellent...
"This kind of spam mailing is causing enormous problems in South Korea and we think these two are responsible for some of the biggest abuses," a police official said.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/31/2007 00:00 ||
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They should go to jail for the combined time it took the recipients to delete their spam mail plus the time it took their victims (however you define that) to reconstruct their lives.
Nappy time, monsieurs et madames... PARIS - The French already enjoy a 35-hour work week and generous vacation. Now the health minister wants to look into whether workers should be allowed to sleep on the job. Shit, it's France. Have the union ask for overtime. Why not?
France launched plans this week to spend $9 million this year to improve public awareness about sleeping troubles. About one in three French people suffer from them, the ministry says. I can't sleep. It's the government's fault. Have the government help me.
Fifty-six percent of French complain that a poor night's sleep has affected their job performance, according to the ministry.
"Why not a nap at work? It can't be a taboo subject," Health Minister Xavier Bertrand said Monday. He called for further studies and said he would promote on-the-job naps if they prove useful. The unions are probably planning the strikes already.
France's state-run health insurance provider will send letters explaining the importance of good sleep. The Health Ministry's Web site offers tips on how best to get a good night's rest. Try not to worry abut ze name change to Frogistan.
The ministry's online "Passport to Sleep" recommends cutting down on coffee, tea, colas, and athletic activity after 8 p.m., shunning TV time or working late in the evening, and listening better to the body's own sleep signals, such as yawning. ...and try not to worry about your car being torched.
Bertrand said sleepiness causes 20 percent to 30 percent of highway accidents across France each year.
#2
Heck, if they take their nap on the stamping machine in the steel mill they'll fall asleep fast. I just don't want to be on the bus when the driver decides it's nap time.
#3
The ministry's online "Passport to Sleep" recommends cutting down on coffee, tea, colas, and athletic activity after 8 p.m., shunning TV time or working late in the evening, and listening better to the body's own sleep signals, such as yawning.
Notice - no word regarding wine or other alcoholic beverages there.
Drink alcohol, stay up to late, get up to early, go to your 35-hr work week (at which you probably spend about 20 hrs actually doing actual work), wash, rinse, repeat - and one wonders why the poor souls are tired all the time.
#4
"Drink alcohol, stay up to late, get up to early, go to your 35-hr work week (at which you probably spend about 20 hrs actually doing actual work), wash, rinse, repeat - and one wonders why the poor souls are tired all the time."
Two problems with this.
One, you left out the midmorning white wine break that's popular there.
Two, what's this reference to washing?
Posted by: no mo uro ||
01/31/2007 18:55 Comments ||
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#4: "Two, what's this reference to washing?"
Damn, nmu - you owe me a new monitor!
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
01/31/2007 20:16 Comments ||
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Just so they don't nap more than 35 hours per week at work. Won't want to break the law.
Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...it's a secret.
PRISTINA, Serbia (Reuters) - The Kosovo daily Lajm left four pages of its morning edition blank on Wednesday, saying it was told not to publish the text of a confidential United Nations plan for Serbia's breakaway province. Hmmmmmm...how do we know that that wasn't the actual plan?
Reuters has seen a copy of the document the newspaper had planned to print and can confirm, as Western diplomats have already said, that it contains no reference to Serbian sovereignty or to independence. It does, however, include provisions that diplomats say would -- if adopted by the U.N. Security Council -- open the door to a declaration of independence by Kosovo's Albanian majority and recognition by individual states. Serbia categorically rejects independence. It is offering "substantial autonomy" to Kosovo's Albanian majority, insisting it must preserve what a senior Serb official this week called a "membrane of Serbian sovereignty." A membrane? That's different...
Under the plan drawn up by a U.N. mediator, however, Kosovo would have its own "national" symbols, including a flag and anthem reflecting its multiethnic character. ...and lots of five star hotels, restaurants, and underage brothels. Oh, wait. That's the headquarters renovation plan. Sorry.
Lajm said it had received "suggestions from different circles" that it would not be beneficial to Kosovo to disclose the plan two days before it is officially handed over by the U.N. envoy, former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari, who is due in Belgrade and Pristina on Friday. Political sources say leaders on both sides have already seen the plan. Ahtisaari's spokesman declined comment. We can say...no more.
Reuters, citing diplomatic sources, published details of the plan last week, including proposals that Kosovo may seek membership of international organizations. This could include the U.N., World Bank and International Monetary Fund. The Illuminati wasn't consulted? They'll be pissed...
Senior newspaper sources noted that Kosovo's interim government has been under pressure from Western powers to maintain diplomatic confidentiality during the process and would be cast in a poor light by an obvious leak of the plan. Sounds like that worked out good...It is almost eight years since NATO bombed Serbia for 11 weeks to drive out forces under late leader Slobodan Milosevic, whose 1998-99 war against separatist guerrillas killed some 10,000 Albanians. Bill Clinton's War. You know, The Good War.
The West sees no prospect of forcing Kosovo's 90-percent Albanian majority back into the arms of Belgrade. Russia has expressed skepticism about the Ahtisaari plan, and has asked for more time before it goes to the U.N. Security Council. Time? Sure. How much ya need? Beacause this is the UN and I don't think too many people give a shit aboout this anyways...
The document seen in Pristina provides for creation of a professional and multiethnic "Kosovo Security Force" with a lightly-armed component and a civilian body to control it. Kosovo would have its own "national" symbols, including a flag and anthem reflecting its multiethnic character instead of the Albanian double-headed eagle which it currently uses. We demand you use a gay armadillo. Silence! The UN has spoken!
It would also have control over borders -- a red line for Serbia which says its territorial integrity is inviolable. I'm hazy on the details, but haven't they tried that before?
(Xinhua) -- Several thousand foreigners are now coming to work and study in Denmark despite tougher immigration laws, according to reports reaching here from Copenhagen on Tuesday.
Denmark's efforts to attract a new, more educated and self-reliant type of immigrant seem to be paying off, reported national public broadcaster DR. Figures from the Danish Immigration Service indicate that there are more newcomers now entering Denmark than there were just five years ago, when the perceived problem was dealt with through tougher immigration laws. But the new wave is not made up of asylum seekers or those seeking family reunification. Instead, people are coming to Denmark to work or get an education, according to DR.
In 2006, 46,500 aliens were given temporary residency, nearly 30,000 of those coming to either work or study. In 2001 that number was a mere 13,000, making up only one-third of all residency permits issued, the report said.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/31/2007 00:00 ||
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Just when you thought the Turks were going to see reason.
ANKARA, Turkey - Turkey warned Lebanon and Egypt on Tuesday not to press ahead with oil and gas exploration deals signed with Cyprus, saying Turkey and Turkish Cypriots also had rights in the region. Turkey was determined to protect its rights and interests in the eastern Mediterranean and will not allow attempts to erode them, Turkeys Foreign Ministry warned in a statement.
Lebanon and Cyprus signed an agreement for the delineation of an undersea border on Jan. 17 to facilitate future oil and gas exploration between the two east Mediterranean countries. The 200 kilometer-wide (120 mile-wide) seabed separating Lebanon and Cyprus is believed to hold significant crude oil and natural gas deposits. The Norwegian energy consulting firm PGS recently began a 3-D seismic survey to determine the volume of exploitable hydrocarbon reserves off the Lebanese coast.
The exclusive zone agreement is designed to mark the underwater areas where each country can carry out exploration and exploitation work once oil or gas is discovered. A similar agreement signed between Egypt and Cyprus allowed for the joint exploitation of potential undersea oil and gas fields between the two countries.
Turkey and Greece came to the brink of war in early 1987 over a similar oil drilling rights dispute in the Aegean Sea. A clash was averted after Turkey withdrew a seismic exploration ship and agreed not to test in contested waters if Greece did the same.
The Turkish Foreign Ministry said Turkey had legitimate and legal rights and interests in the eastern Mediterranean and insisted Turkish Cypriots also had a say on oil and gas rights concerning the island. The delineation of the continental shelf or of exclusive economic rights in the eastern Mediterranean is only possible through arrangements that would take into account the rights and interests of all parties, it said.
It also said Lebanon had signed the deal despite assurances to Turkish leaders that it would not, the ministry said. Cyprus does not represent the whole of the island, the Turkish statement said. 'Therefore laws on the issue enacted by the Greek Cypriot government or agreements made with other interested parties have no validity for us.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/31/2007 00:00 ||
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Prime Minister Stephen Harper once called the Kyoto accord a "socialist scheme" designed to suck money out of rich countries, according to a letter leaked Tuesday by the Liberals.
The letter, posted on the federal Liberal party website, was apparently written by Harper in 2002, when he was leader of the now-defunct Canadian Alliance party. He was writing to party supporters, asking for money as he prepared to fight then-prime minister Jean Chrétien on the proposed Kyoto accord.
"We're gearing up now for the biggest struggle our party has faced since you entrusted me with the leadership," Harper's letter says. "I'm talking about the 'battle of Kyoto' our campaign to block the job-killing, economy-destroying Kyoto accord."
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Posted by: Steve White ||
01/31/2007 13:45 ||
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#1
Prime Minister Stephen Harper once called the Kyoto accord a "socialist scheme" designed to suck money out of rich countries, according to a letter leaked Tuesday by the Liberals
Harper is very perceptive. I s'pose the LP put it on their website for the same reason Harper sent it in the first place: fundraising from the base.
Can posting a mass-mailing really be called a 'leak'?
#2
Harper is right. Here's a story that was in my local newspaper today about what the donks believe about "global warming". Instapundit had an artice yesterday about two books from the scientific community that expounded that ALL climate change could be accounted for by solar variables and solar cycles, and that the findings could be verified by climate models. The entire "global warming" meme is an attempt to grab more control of commerce, and has nothing to do with a "weather emergency".
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
01/31/2007 16:12 Comments ||
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I urge all Canadians who believe in global warming to immediately shut off their heaters and send the unused oil south.
Posted by: ed ||
01/31/2007 18:32 Comments ||
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Prime Minister Stephen Harper once called the Kyoto accord a "socialist scheme" designed to suck money out of rich countries...
Senator Joseph Biden doesnt think highly of the Iraq policies of some of the other Democrats who are running for President. To hear him tell it, Hillary Clintons position is calibrated, confusing and a very bad idea. John Edwards doesnt know what hes talking about and is pushing a recipe for Armageddon in the Middle East. Barack Obama is offering charming but insubstantial fluff. And all of them are playing politics.
Let me put it this way, Mr. Biden said. You didnt hear any one of them get in this debate at all until they announced for President.
Mr. Biden, who ran an ill-fated campaign for President in 1988, is a man who believes his time has finally come, announcing this week that he was filing papers to make his 2008 Presidential bid official. Although he admits to a tendency to bloviate, he thinks that an aggressive advocate with rough edges might be just what the party needs right now. Democrats nominated the perfect blow-dried candidates in 2000 and 2004, he said, and they couldnt connect.
Though Mr. Biden, 64, has never achieved his national ambitions, he has in recent years emerged as one of the partys go-to experts on foreign policy. In the past week, he has spearheaded the Democratic pushback against the Presidents plan to increase troop levels in Iraq, opposing the move with a non-binding resolution that his party has rallied around.
#1
I disagree with a lot of what Joe says in this. I'll credit him with trying to be serious and think the problem through, which is more than I can give Edwards, Obama and the Hildebeast.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/31/2007 11:13 Comments ||
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"Mr. Obama's spokesman refused to confirm that the Senator is, in fact, 'clean'"
lol Drudge focused on that one word
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/31/2007 11:14 Comments ||
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#3
We saw this tried before in other formerly British colonies. Think India and Pakistan, Israel and Transjordan. The results were somewhat less than optimal.
#8
I presume Biden was thinking of Presidential candidates.
Were Shirley Chisholm, Jesse Jackson, and Al Sharpton serious, articulate, whatever? (Actually they were pretty articulate, just not in a way to appeal to centrist voters like Obama does, which is what I think Joe was driving at)
On Iraq - Is Biden actually trying to run to the RIGHT of Hilary on Iraq? Thats what it looks like.
#7
This is a tempest in a teabag . . . and a trap.
One reason all of this stuff may be appearing now--early in the first inning of the '08 race, is to discredit opposition to this man's candidacy. Methinks someone is trying to establish the meme that anyone who doesn't want to vote for Obama! must be doing so because of irrational anti-black or anti-Muslim prejudice--and get people baited into calling him "jihadi"* in comment threads.
I'm not going to vote for Obama because he's in favor of cutting and running from the WoT, because he's pro abortion, because he wants to raise taxes, because he's inexperienced--for many reasons of substance. I don't care what his parents identified him as on a school registration form in 1960-something in Indonesia, what color God painted him, or what his double-great grandpa's position on interfaith dialogue and the free coinage of silver was, none of it's relevant. If the meme catches hold that opposition to Obama! is based solely in prejudice, enough people who are otherwise persuadable to vote against him might vote for him for the wrong reasons (that is, out of disgust with the perceived anti-Obama yokels) that he wins.
Please do your part to prevent that from happening.
*Pet peeve: it bothers me that a lot of people hereabouts are too quick to make categorical judgments about Moslems based on the irrationality of the Wahabbists. Those Iraqi police and troops who are fighting alongside us are Moslems. So are the Afghans. So's Omar who blogs at "Iraq the Model." So's the guy who walked ten miles to tell us where to find Jessica Lynch. So's Ayaan Hirsi Ali. These people are on your side, and most of 'em are taking very real risks to stand with us. Do you think it's a good idea to trash-talk your allies?
Posted by: Mike ||
01/31/2007 11:17 Comments ||
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A ninth suspect has been arrested by police investigating an alleged Iraq-style kidnapping and beheading plot in the UK.
Those that help in the WOT should be commended. Well, there is this side of the story too. I would like to hear more about the Muslim contribution to fight the WOT.
While I'm the first to question any Muslim's run for office here, we need to protest him based upon the issues. Not something that happened to him as a kid almost 40 years ago. Same thing could be said (on our side of the aisle) of Mitt Romney to a lesser extent (a Mormon). Jeebus, while I think Mormon's are a cult themselves, I find myself wholesale agreeing with almost every stance Romney takes. And, he's doin' it in Taxachusetts for Pete's sake.
Same could be said for a Muslim runnin' for office. If there's one out there who wants to take the war to the jihadis, lower taxes, cut spending, believes in the Constitution (not "interpretations" of it), etc., I'd wholesale vote for him/her. It's the issues, stupid™!
Posted by: BA ||
01/31/2007 11:26 Comments ||
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Mike,
You're right. I have made a categorical judgment about muslims and islam. My judgement is well founded. I've been paying attention since 9-11.
I don't trust muslims because I've learned a thing or three about islam since 9-11.
Were I serving in Iraq next to members of the Iraqi army or Iraqi police, would I trust them? No. Were I serving in Afghanistan next to members of the Afghan army, would I trust them? No.
You mention Omar, Hirsi Ali, and the "guy" that tipped us off about Miss Lynch. If you tried real hard you might name another four or five "muslims" off the top of your head that are deemed "moderate". But I'll bet not many more than that. BTW, are Omar, Hirsi Ali, and the other "guy" really moderate muslims? Or maybe they're just muslim in name only. Omar keeps a low profile. Hirsi Ali has bodyguards. There is a reason for that.
I'll concede this to you Mike: Obama should be judged on the issues. We both agree that neither of us will be voting for him. I agree with your assessment of Obama on the issues.
But when I find out that somebody, anybody, has islam in their background they don't get a pass. They won't be given the benefit of the doubt from me.
Call it islamophobia if you want too. I don't care. I think my approach is quite healthy and not irrational.
Posted by: Mark Z ||
01/31/2007 12:39 Comments ||
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#11
I wonder who is playing who here. The last thing we need is another Keith Ellison. That being said I could see both sides playing this one.
My pet peeve:
Pet peeve: it bothers me that a lot of people hereabouts are too quick to make categorical judgments about Moslems based on the irrationality of the Wahabbists
Right. So the moderate followers of a desert cult that requires our enslavement, death or conversion are just peachy? You have got to be fuvking kidding. Do yourself a favor and read Islam's own historical references regarding Muhammad's terrorism which are the foundation this death cult.
I just hope you're kidding or file this under WTF? comment of the day.
#12
Hey, Justice. You been in Florida lately? Up around Ocala way?
Cops believe goat may have been sexually assaulted
CRESTVIEW A female goat might have been sexually assaulted and killed Saturday near the Okaloosa-Walton county line, according to lawmen and the Panhandle Animal Welfare Society.
PAWS director of animal services, Dee Thompson-Poirrier, described the crime scene off U.S. Highway 90 as brutal.
The goats death was suspicious, but there was no evidence it was the victim of a ritualistic animal sacrifice, she said.
The incident was reported by the goats owners, a Crestview couple, according to authorities. They couldnt be reached for comment Monday.
Responders used a rape kit provided by the Okaloosa County Sheriffs Office to preserve evi-dence in line with crime-scene standards.
It was the only clean way we knew of to get a specimen, Thompson-Poirrier said.
Semen was found inside the goat, but PAWS was still trying to find a laboratory that could quickly process the sample because the Florida Department of Law Enforcement is backlogged.
Though the semen hasnt been proven as human, Thompson-Poirrier and a veterinarian who examined the goat want the semen tested and compared to the states convicted-felon database.
The goat owner does not have male goats (anymore), Thompson-Poirrier said. She added the large goat was pregnant.
It has since been necropsied, and tissue samples, which should help determine a cause of death, were taken. The goat will be cremated.
A human suspect has been tentatively identified but police havent made an arrest yet, according to Thompson-Poirrier and lawmen.
She said the incident, which would be a felony because the animal died, is being taken seriously. Were concerned that an individual who can do this can escalate into doing something worse, she said.
#13
We cannot take the chance if there is any legitimate concern about his faith, and mindset, etc. etc.... My opposition to him has been his lefty politix, so this debate is of no concern to me, but those who are inclined to vote for him may want to check out someone else if questions about his background, education, and mindset continue to manifest themselves.
#15
While I hate feeding trolls, I don't believe there is a "32nd" Airborne for the U.S. Of course, that could be arranged, if needed, troll.
Posted by: BA ||
01/31/2007 14:00 Comments ||
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W.A.S.P.?
*chuckle*
I havent heard that since the late 90's.
Must be some kind of anarchist r-tard or something.
Usually the kind of person that has a Kill Bush bumper sticker on one side of his subaru and a Peace/Love sticker on the other side.
*Sigh*
Your kind would be the first ones put to the sword by the hordes of invading muslim barbarians my mixed up little friend.
#18
Mark, Ice, for the record, I do not accept the truth claims of Islam, I am well aware of the history thereof, and I yield to no man in my desire to see Islamofascism put out of business. I've been hanging out here in the 'Burg ever since Fred first enabled comments, so I think I've got the track record to back that comment up. That is to say, I believe we're all on the same side here. (JRTS* excepted, of course.)
It is an objective fact that we have Moslem allies, including the government of Iraq. I do not know if a majority of Moslems are on our side, or persuadable to be onm our side, or not, and neither do you; whatever the opinion poll would break down to, there are a non-trival number of Moslems who are on our side, many in places where being on our side can get you killed. I don't think it's a good idea to categorically insult your allies. (If all Moslems were uniformly evil, the only rational thing to do in Iraq would be to pull a Ted Kennedy on 'em and bail out like we did on South Vietnam.)
Let's put it this way: in this next election, the Dems will be campaigning on an implied premise that there is no WoT and we should go back to September 10, 2001. That is a powerfully comforting to a lot of people. If we on the Right live down to the straw-man caricature that the political Left likes to draw of us,** it will repel more people than it attracts to our cause, and we'll lose the election. It'll be 9/10/01 again, until the next big thing--except next time, we won't lose a skyscraper, we'll lose a city.
I don't want that, and neither do you.
*Proof that Murphy's Law applies in all jurisdictions: I post a comment saying that not all Moslems are lowlifes, and a self-identified Moslem comes along and does all he can to prove me wrong. Sheesh.
**You know, racist, stupid, trying to scare people, afraid of the nonexistent terrorists, et cetera, et cetera.
Posted by: Mike ||
01/31/2007 14:20 Comments ||
Top||
#19
You're right. I have made a categorical judgment about muslims and islam. My judgement is well founded. I've been paying attention since 9-11.
That's DAMN right. You have a brain, and a self-preservation instinct. So do I.
#20
BTW, are Omar, Hirsi Ali, and the other "guy" really moderate muslims?
You bring up a good point. Hirsi Ali makes no bones about it, she states she is an atheist. Hard to argue with that. I think that most "Muslims" that can be reliably identified as moderate, are in fact probably apostate.
Posted by: Chuck Darwin ||
01/31/2007 15:35 Comments ||
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#21
Actually, there may be very simple explanations for this that has nothing to do with Obama being a real muslim.
For starters, this could be a registration ploy to ensure that Obama got into the school. A catholic school would be more inclined to admit a muslim and maybe give them a price break given that the prime mission of the school would be to lead people to Jesus and catholicism. My understanding is that his dad (stepfather?) was a Muslim, so maybe they defaulted to the religion of the father.
I agree with mike in this: I oppose Obama for strictly practical and objective reasons. Liberals and lefties that want him to be elected DON'T want those reasons to be enumerated, so they'll fabricate accusations of racism and such to ensure that we don't get an audience. In a fair intellectual fight, lefties never win, so they have to fight dirty.
I am rather amused at how some commentators here are somewhat a-religious, and think that religious categories of moderate, conservative, fundamentalist, dispensationalist, and liberal when it comes to religion dictates the same objective behavior. They don't. Rather these categories refer to the relationship the individual has with respect to the core scripture of their religion. A liberal ALWAYS includes processes and facts outside of the scripture to interpret the scripture. A Conservative usually uses tradition to guide interpretation of the scripture. A fundamentalist literally reads the text, while a moderate picks and chooses which texts to interpret literally and which to interpret figuratively. A dispensationalist interprets the text in accordance to its historical chronological appearance.
These are ways to interpret the text, and they are found in ALL religions, jewish, muslim, buddhist, Hindu, and Christian. However, THE TEXTS BEING INTERPRETED DIFFER. A fundamentalist Muslim will be a Jihadist, but a fundamentalist Hindu will not in order to avoid taking life. A fundamentalist Bhuddist will be a strict pacifist. A Fundamentalist Jew will support the IDF in preserving israel, support annexing gaza and the west bank, but oppose Israel annexing Tahiti on the grounds that G-d did not give Tahiti to the Children of Israel. A fundamentalist Christian actually has nothing to say about national war at all, but will oppose christians taking personal revenge against individuals.
#22
Tu man, Crestview is over in the panhandle, a little bit south of Alabama and north of Fort Walton. Sandy loam farm country. Bob Sikes HeCoon hellhole zone.
Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, the largest Republican vote-getter in the 2006 congressional elections and the most popular Republican in Texas, said yesterday she would consider an offer to run for vice president next year. "If our party's nominee called me and said we are putting everything in the grid, and we think you are the best person, would I say no? I can't imagine that I would say no," she said. "Would I seek it or do something to promote it? Absolutely not," she told editors and reporters of The Washington Times at a meeting at the newspaper. Kay Bailey's such a disingenue...
Mrs. Hutchison, who garnered more than 2.6 million votes in November and defeated her opponent by 62 percent to 36 percent in an overall bad year for Republicans, attributed her popularity, in part, to her stand on Iraq. "People in my state see me as having a few degrees of separation" from the president. "I do not believe in pre-emptive strikes against foreign countries that have not attacked us, unless they are a threat to our country," she said. But she also said she believes Mr. Bush thought Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and therefore was a threat.
"I don't think we're in Iraq for the Iraqi people, but for the security of the United States," she said. "The president is against me on this, but I think we should be looking more at the Bosnia solution," she said, which would create in Iraq "semiautonomous regions that hold the country together by the sharing of oil revenues."
Posted by: Fred ||
01/31/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Every Intelligence agency in the world worth its salt thought Saddam had WMD.
#2
Oct 1997 UNSCOM completes the destruction of additional, large quantities of chemical weapons related equipment and precursors chemicals. Iraq had previously denied that part of the equipment had been used for CW production. Only in May 1997, on the basis of UNSCOM's investigations, did Iraq admit that some of the equipment had indeed been used in the production of VX.
#4
Hmmm, well ok but why not just run for the top spot? She would be a good choice and it would be a great entertainment on how her campaign is portrayed versus Mrs. Clintons. I lived in Texas for over eight years and have some knowledge about her and she is VASTLY more qualified than Hillary (that goes double for the rest of the Donk wannabes). I think I will send her a note this am and tell her to ditch the VP line and go for broke.
#5
Duncan Hunter would make a great Pres., but that's not likely to happen, too little well-known. He could (and should) be a considered VP, perhaps to geographically and ideologically balance out an easterner like Giuliani or Romney. McCain can go blow, and Hagel's a no-brainer (in all senses of that phrase) - out of the picture
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/31/2007 11:26 Comments ||
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#6
KBH would be a very interesting choice, whether it was Pres. or Veep. I've met her and talked to her a couple of times at the Fort Worth Stock Show. She shows up every year and is quite approachable.
She seems to be a sincere and concerned person, and she and Cornyn vote the way I expect most of the time. I'd like to see her run.
Posted by: Chuck Darwin ||
01/31/2007 14:12 Comments ||
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#7
As much as I love my homegirl Kay, she's dead in the water as a Pres/VP candidate.
#8
The president is against me on this, but I think we should be looking more at the Bosnia solution," she said, which would create in Iraq "semiautonomous regions that hold the country together by the sharing of oil revenues."
When the Archbishop of Canterbury supported the Catholic Church in the gay adoption row last week, many were surprised.
Dr Rowan Williams, usually considered a moderniser, was criticised by liberals for asking Tony Blair to exempt Catholic adoption agencies from Government regulations - being introduced in April - which will force all agencies to offer children for adoption to gays.
The Guardian newspaper, in a comment piece, even suggested that the church's moral authority was 'fatally compromised'.
Now it has emerged that Dr Williams may have been influenced by his close involvement with a remarkable couple who rescued a boy brutalised by a notorious social services paedophile ring.
Horrified by the inference that the Archbishop is homophobic, the couple have spoken for the first time of their friend's 'immeasurable' help as they struggled to save a child driven to despair by abuse while in the care of the London borough of Islington.
And they described how Dr Williams even devoted an entire week's prayers for Liam, the terribly damaged boy they went on to foster.
Liam Lucas was just one of the children abused by predatory paedophiles who took advantage of far-Left Islington Council's childcare policies in the Eighties and Nineties, when it pro-actively recruited gay social workers.
Paedophiles exploited its well-intentioned commitment to equal opportunities and soon most of Islington's 12 children's homes had child molesters on the staff who cynically pretended to be ordinary homosexuals. Numerous children and other staff made allegations of abuse, but were branded homophobes and ignored.
Liam - now 29, in a permanent relationship and the proud father of year-old Isabella - was even falsely classified as gay by Islington social services, which decided he should be fostered only by single men.
Quaker couple Brian Cairns, 57, and his wife Kate, 56 - who became friends with the future Archbishop when they were students together - fought to foster him instead. The horrors Liam later disclosed eventually helped end a 20-year regime of appalling abuse.
A lengthy investigation by The Mail on Sunday's sister paper, the London Evening Standard, resulted in government-ordered inquiries, but at least 26 members of Islington social services staff, despite being accused of grave offences, were simply allowed to resign, often with glowing references.
Mr and Mrs Cairns and their foster son Liam were so concerned by the 'rigidity' of the current debate about adoption and equal opportunities for gays, and the invisibility of children's needs, that they have decided to go public.
The Church of England's own adoption agency already allows gay adoptions, and it is thought the Archbishop's support for the Catholic Church's exemption plea mainly reflects the importance he places on freedom of conscience and thought.
Mrs Cairns is herself a leading socialwork academic, author and trainer. "I am not anti gay, any more than is Rowan Williams,' she said.
"I have a close relative who is gay, and I am emphatically not opposed to gay adoption. I am, however, deeply concerned by the bullying, intolerant nature of the present attacks on people with religious or other concerns about it.
"It feels horribly familiar and I fear that rigid thinking about equal opportunities may again blind people to paedophiles who claim to be gay, when all they really want is access to vulnerable children.
"On radio and TV this week I have repeatedly heard politicians insist that every adoption agency, whatever its religious beliefs about the best home for children, must offer gay people "equality of access to all goods and services".
"My blood has run cold every time I have heard that. Children in care are not goods or services, chattels to be claimed or shared. They have, however, often been treated like that, as Liam's appalling experiences show.
"Rowan Williams is a deeply spiritual and humble man, he would never dream of telling anyone how he helped us. But he did - immeasurably."
Liam himself said: "There's a lot about my childhood I can't remember. There's a lot I can remember and wish I couldn't. The best I can say about it is that it's over, and that I learned a lot, that will probably make me a better person in the end."
He was in and out of Islington's care from the age of two, and witnessed his birth mother suffer domestic violence and descend into drug addiction. When he was nine she died of a heroin overdose.
The distraught, vulnerable boy was initially fostered by a motherly woman who asked to keep him. But the council instead sent him, from age five to 11, to a 'therapeutic' boarding school, New Barns in Gloucestershire. This was later closed following a child abuse and pornography scandal.
During school holidays he was fostered by a man later imprisoned for abusing another child in his care. When Liam was nine, Islington placed him in its children's home in Grosvenor Avenue, run by two single males. Both were eventually accused of abuse but escaped investigation by moving to Thailand.
Last year, Thai police charged the deputy head, Nick Rabet, 57, with serious sexual offences against 30 Thai boys, the youngest six years old. He escaped trial by killing himself.
Liam initially liked Rabet, a 'big kid' who pretended he was a sheriff and even wore a sheriff's badge. The unqualified social worker owned a Sussex manor house, which he had turned into a children's activity centre, with quad bikes, pinball machines and horses. He took Liam there at weekends.
Liam was abused by a friend of Rabet's, a senior social services colleague. It is believed he backed the council's decision to find the boy a gay foster father.
Mr and Mrs Cairns spotted Islington's advertisement in 1990 in a fostering magazine.
Mrs Cairns was haunted by the then 13-year-old boy's photo, and the council's claim that he was 'suitable for a single man'.
She said: "I instinctively felt that the ad was aimed at paedophiles."
Mrs Cairns and her husband, also a senior figure in social services, already had three children but immediately applied to foster Liam.
"Islington insisted Liam wouldn't settle in a family because they had decided he was gay,' she said. "I said, "So what? Don't gay people have families?" Besides, he was still a child - how could they be sure?'
Mrs Cairns believes children in care who genuinely identify as gay can particularly benefit from gay carers, but she mistrusts adults deciding children's sexuality for them. Former Islington senior social worker Liz Davies, who blew the whistle on the abuse scandal, said: "Other Islington children were also falsely classed as gay at a very young age."
A rebel Islington social worker defied his bosses and supported Mr and Mrs Cairns' fostering bid after Liam begged him: "I just want a family, I just want to be normal."
Mrs Cairns said: "He arrived and looked around and said, "Please, please don't send me back."'
She recalls that when he first joined the family at their Gloucestershire home, 'he had this shy, placatory smile. But it was belied by his eyes - it hurt me to look at him.
"You thought, My God, who left you with terrors like this? He had nightmares every night. He would wake screaming then pretend to me that he was just woken by a cough. He was so ashamed of his fear and trying so hard to be brave and pretend he was fine. It was heartbreaking. I'd sit up til he slept again. This went on for months."
Eventually, he disclosed abuse at both the home and at boarding school. But his sympathetic social worker, and Liam's files, simply vanished and nothing was done.
Mrs Cairns found the vice-chairman of the school governors, Peter Righton, former Director of Education at the National Institute for Social Work, had for years openly advocated sex with boys in care.
"Righton and I had sat together on the body which regulated social work training. I researched everything he had published and I felt sick. I was devastated by the betrayal of trust, and social work's naivety.
"He got away with this, and influenced social workers to this day, because they feared seeming "homophobic" by challenging him."
It prompted Mrs Cairns to begin confiding secretly with Scotland Yard.
The impasse ended in 1991, when police discovered Rabet's Sussex children's centre was partly financed by convicted child pornographers and that he was part of a ring of wealthy, well-connected paedophiles.
Police also discovered that Righton was a founder member of the notorious Paedophile Information Exchange, which campaigned for the age of consent to be reduced to four.
In 1992, Righton was convicted of importing child pornography from Holland. Later, two teachers at New Barns were convicted of sexual abuse, five others tried, and the school was abruptly closed.
Islington admitted 32 'gross errors' in its treatment of Liam, and paid him £5,000 compensation.
His principal abuser quit Britain for a Third World country and is believed to have adopted a boy there.
Liam had a breakdown in 1994 after the ordeal of giving evidence at the trial of New Barns staff.
He became angry, took to drugs and drink, was violent and smashed things. "My descent into crime was sudden and violent and frightened me as much as everybody else,' he admitted.
Liam tried to hang himself and even attempted to strangle Mrs Cairns. She said: "He was wild-eyed and kept saying, "What do you mean, you love me? What does that mean?"
"He couldn't trust anyone, he was a child broken by grief and betrayal. It broke my heart but I had to report him to the police for our own safety."
Liam was sectioned to a mental hospital and later ended up for nine months, at just 17, in a secure jail. Mr and Mrs Cairns, feeling desperate, exhausted and lost, con-fided in their friend Rowan Williams, whose help they described as 'solid and generous'.
"He was deeply moved by Liam's sufferings and he didn't just calm us and provide advice, he offered to make Liam's recovery the focus of his prayers on his annual retreat.
"He is a deeply spiritual man but humble and reticent. He would never, ever volunteer this, but in 1995 he went on a pilgrimage to the shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham in Norfolk, fasted and devoted his week's prayers to Liam's healing."
Liam, who had no idea he was being prayed for so intensely, blamed Mr and Mrs Cairns for his incarceration and no longer kept touch. "But on the last day of Rowan's pilgrimage, at 5am, Liam woke suddenly and, he says, "just knew he had to write to Mum and Dad". He started to get better then,' said Mrs Cairns.
Liam remembers: "I didn't appreciate my foster family. I was too eaten up with bad memories of being a child and of being in care to appreciate what I had, but when I lost them I learned how much they mattered to me. I never thought before that I could trust anyone, or learn to love or be loved. But I did."
Although it was a long journey back to health, and the adult stability he has today, he took responsibility for his own behaviour.
Liam has never re-offended and today teaches social workers about the needs of children. Next month he will contribute to a TV programme for teachers on the same theme.
He considers thorough checks on carers essential. Islington dispensed with all but the most basic checks on self-declared gay staff in order to help them counter 'discrimination'. It meant they were not obliged to provide evidence of childcare experience, qualifications or professional references.
Many now fear such minimal checks will also be made on gay would-be adopters, for fear of prosecution for discrimination.
Mrs Cairns said: "Gay adoptions can work extremely well, but we need sensitively to match the right child to the right carer.
"Liam, for example, was genuinely terrified of men, and he wanted a mum. An abused girl might feel safest with a single woman, or a lesbian.
"We must be utterly rigorous in assessing everyone who wants to care for children, whether heterosexual or gay, male or female - remember Rose West.
"We cannot be less vigilant because an adult says they are from an oppressed group and their feelings should be protected. Child protection matters far more."
#1
Archbishop of Canterbury Shocks By Speaking Out Against Gay Adoption
AFAIK that's the one, and only one, issue he can be called conservative on. Whether it's from true conviction or an effort to keep the African, Asian, and Latin American bishops in the fold is still not clear to me.
#3
what a shame that they framed the discussion in terms of preventing paedophilia. Christian churches do more for orphaned children around the world than you can imagine. It would be a shame if they were forced to provide homes that they deem to be against their beliefs. It is not an issue about whether or not homosexuals make good parents or not. It is an issue that people who are going out of their way to do good deeds and help others should not be forced to act against their beliefs - no matter what their beliefs are. I wouldn't be opposed to a Muslim charity that only wanted children adopted into Muslim homes. (yes I know how they feel about adoption - but I'm just using it as an example.) I'm tired of people who get in the way of people who do good deeds and say - if you don't do it my way, you can't do it at all. The ones who suffer are the orphans.
My response would be if you think that children should be placed in homosexual homes, then start your own adoption agency - but until you do, don't get in the way of those who ARE finding homes for the children.
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.
PARIS Hilton has filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles demanding the closure of a website where visitors can pay to view nude photos and other items that formerly belonged to her.
DHAKA - Senior officials at Bangladeshs election commission are expected to resign on Wednesday, raising hopes that a political crisis that has gripped the country for months could be drawing to a close.
HAVANA (AP) - Cuban state television Tuesday showed a video of a healthier looking Fidel Castro meeting with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and saying his recovery was "far from a lost battle," in the first images of the ailing leader shown in three months. Castro stood and appeared alert in the 10-minute video clip, which state TV said was shot during Chavez's previously unannounced visit to Havana on Monday.
MOSCOW (AP) - The head of a center that trains security personnel and held a competition for Russian special forces confirmed Tuesday that it has used shooting targets showing the photo of a former agent who was fatally poisoned in London last year.
TWO South Korean computer programmers have been arrested on suspicion of sending out 1.6 billion spam e-mail messages in violation of the country's commerce laws, police said today.
PARIS - The French already enjoy a 35-hour work week and generous vacation. Now the health minister wants to look into whether workers should be allowed to sleep on the job. 
Senator Joseph Biden doesnt think highly of the Iraq policies of some of the other Democrats who are running for President. To hear him tell it, Hillary Clintons position is calibrated, confusing and a very bad idea. John Edwards doesnt know what hes talking about and is pushing a recipe for Armageddon in the Middle East. Barack Obama is offering charming but insubstantial fluff. And all of them are playing politics.
Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, the largest Republican vote-getter in the 2006 congressional elections and the most popular Republican in Texas, said yesterday she would consider an offer to run for vice president next year. "If our party's nominee called me and said we are putting everything in the grid, and we think you are the best person, would I say no? I can't imagine that I would say no," she said. "Would I seek it or do something to promote it? Absolutely not," she told editors and reporters of The Washington Times at a meeting at the newspaper. 
