Dith Pran, a photojournalist for The New York Times whose gruesome ordeal in the killing fields of Cambodia was re-created in a 1984 movie that gave him an eminence he tenaciously used to press for his peoples rights, died in New Brunswick, N.J., on Sunday. He was 65 and lived in Woodbridge, N.J.
The cause was pancreatic cancer, which had spread, said his friend Sydney H. Schanberg. . . .
Slide show of Mr. Dith at the NYT site here. Mr. Dith, after coming to the U.S., worked as a NYT photojournalist, and a few of his photos are presented. Number 16 in the series is a recent photo of him. He had quite an eye as a photographer, and he's a genuine hero.
Posted by: Mike ||
03/30/2008 10:15 ||
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This guy was a real hero.
Too bad the MSM and the movie industry tried to play the killing fields as a surprise and the fault of the US.
Everyone knew in the late 60's and early 70's that Pol Pot's view of communism was very very far out there.
As far as the killing fields were concerned, even the National Geographic commented on the forced evacuation of Phenom Phen by the Khmer Rouge. The French, the Germans, the Brits and our own diplomats knew what was happening and the media wanted to ignore it. They had glamorized the Khmer Rouge and the Viet Cong for so long they just could not say anything negative about their little "revolutionary chic" darlings.
Another failure of objectivity by the media when the truth would have saved millions.
Dith Pran was a hero and should be remembered as a man who tried for years to get those mass murders publicized.
Zimbabwe's opposition claimed an overwhelming victory against President Robert Mugabe in yesterday's presidential election, saying that the flow of results showed its candidate, Morgan Tsvangirai, had 'massacred' the ruling Zanu-PF party.
Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change defied a government ban on pre-empting the official announcement of the election results and said figures gathered by its agents monitoring the poll count showed a large vote against the man who has ruled Zimbabwe for 28 years.
Smart thing to do too on the international stage. The MDC has learned from its last ill-considered boycott.
'We've won this election,' said Tendai Biti, the MDC's secretary general. 'The results coming in show that in our traditional strongholds we are massacring them. In Mugabe's traditional strongholds, they are doing very badly. There is no way he can claim victory unless it is through fraud. He has lost this election.' The MDC said it would begin releasing election results gathered from its agents at polling stations ahead of the electoral commission, in a move to head off any attempt by the government to tamper with the figures before they are official.
The move came despite a warning by Zimbabwe's police chief, Augustine Chihuri, who said he will not permit the opposition to declare victory.
Even if they win ...
He also warned against a plan by the MDC to call large numbers of people on to the streets to defend the result. Police were posted at all major intersections in Harare yesterday, while lorry loads of riot police were held in reserve.
Hours earlier, thousands of Zimbabweans slept at polling stations and queued for hours before they opened after the opposition called for a large turnout to counter efforts by Mugabe to rig the election.
Voting was relatively smooth in most areas but poll monitors reported numerous irregularities and said they were concerned at the large numbers of people who were told they could not vote because of errors on the electoral roll.
African election monitors wrote to the Electoral Commission questioning the registration of more than 8,000 voters on vacant lots in Harare, or crammed into small shacks. The opposition alleges that, in fact, voters live miles away in rural areas but were bussed in by the government to counter the opposition vote in the capital. Before the vote, Tsvangirai said the MDC had uncovered evidence of widespread vote-rigging, including the names of a million 'ghost' voters on the roll.
A third candidate, Simba Makoni, a former finance minister who broke with Mugabe, has also accused the government of throwing the weight of state machinery behind the president's campaign, from propaganda on the country's only television station to threatening to cut off government-supplied food to rural opposition voters. 'Even if the MDC wins, the election cannot be said to be free and fair,' said Tsvangirai.
In southern Bulawayo, an opposition stronghold, Moffat Simon Mabhena, 78, was among those lining up to vote hours before the polls opened. 'The message is very clear: We want to see change in this country,' he said. 'I have been here since 2.30am and it's because I want to see Robert Mugabe out.'
The state-run Herald newspaper published a poll giving the President 57 per cent of the vote in an opinion poll, enough to avoid a run-off vote. The opposition says that number is no more than a guide to the scale of the fraud the government has planned.
The opposition has called on supporters to gather at polling stations for the count, to ensure that the correct results are posted and transmitted to the main collating centre in the capital. Noel Kututwa, chairman of the Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) monitoring group, said: 'In past elections, it's at the tabulation stage that most of the problems have happened.'
No, reeeeaaaalllly? Any good Chicago ward-heeler knows that ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/30/2008 00:00 ||
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Joseph Stalin: "it's not the votes that count--it's who counts the votes that counts." (Or was that Chicago's Mayor Daley who said that.)
Voting ended on Saturday in Zimbabwe's most crucial election since independence in 1980. Polling stations closed around 7 p.m. (1700 GMT) after 12 hours of voting in presidential, parliamentary and local elections which many Zimbabweans hope will reverse the country's economic collapse under veteran President Robert Mugabe. In many places, including Harare, voting was heavy in the early morning but subsided later in the day.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/30/2008 00:00 ||
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Lines were long at the polling stations here well before morning had unscrolled its first light. And when the doors did not open exactly at 7 a.m., voters in the impoverished township of Warren Park rushed the schoolyard gate, most of them desperate to cast a ballot to oust the man who has been president for most of their lives, Robert Mugabe. People want him gone, finally and forever gone, said Charles Musonza, an out-of-work tailor and one of those surging toward the front. Zimbabwe has been ruined by Mugabe. There is no future if he wins.
Mr. Musonza ordinarily considers himself nothing more than a flyspeck within the hinges of power, but Saturday was election day here, the peoples day, his day. The voters, he said, held the power now.
Still, Mr. Mugabe is so often accused of stealing the last presidential election that many Zimbabweans scoff at the very notion of a fair vote. In 2002, reported results had challenger Morgan Tsvangirai piling up a big lead. Then, suddenly, the announcements stopped. When they resumed, hours later, Mr. Mugabe was well ahead.
Results from Saturdays presidential race are not expected until Sunday at the earliest. By and large, the vote was peaceful, with the long lines dissipating as the day went on. There were only minor reports of irregularities at the polls.
But questions about a fix will it happen, how will it be done hung in the air, so much so that Mr. Mugabe, 84, addressed the matter to reporters as he voted at a Harare primary school. We do not rig elections, he said dismissively, dressed, as is his custom, in a finely tailored suit and well-buffed shoes. We have that sense of honesty. I cannot sleep with my conscience if I have cheated in elections. He added, Why should I cheat? The people are there supporting us.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/30/2008 00:00 ||
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Zimbabwe's opposition accused President Robert Mugabe of rigging the country's election to stay in power despite economic disaster and African observers also said they had detected fraud.
As polls closed, Tsvangirai's MDC party said their voters and officials had been turned away from polling stations and erasable voting ink was used to enable fraud by government supporters. Combined with inflated voter rolls and the printing of 3 million surplus ballot papers, this "ensures that there will be multiple voting," said MDC secretary-general Tendai Biti.
Observers from the Pan-African parliament said in a letter to the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission that they had found more than 8,000 non-existent people registered on a piece of empty land in a Harare constituency. Biti said the MDC had also found "ghost voters" in Harare.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/30/2008 00:00 ||
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Let me know if observers detect integrity. That will be news.
HARARE - President Robert Mugabe denied planning to rig Zimbabwes elections on Saturday and said that although he was sure of winning he would be ready to accept defeat.
Not that he's expecting to be defeated, of course ...
We do not rig elections. We have that sense of honesty. I cannot sleep with my conscience if I have cheated in elections, he told reporters as he voted as a primary school in Harare. Why should I cheat? The people are there supporting us. The moment the people stop supporting you, then thats the moment you should quit politics.
Zimbabweans are voting in the most crucial election since independence from Britain in 1980, with Mugabe facing the biggest challenge of his 28-year-rule. He faces a formidable two-pronged attack from veteran opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai and ruling party defector Simba Makoni. Both accuse him of plotting to rig the poll.
If no candidate wins more than 51 percent of the vote on Saturday, the election will go into a second round, when the two opposition parties would likely unite. Critics say Mugabe will do his utmost, including rigging, to avoid this happening.
He said on Saturday that a second round was unlikely. We are not used to boxing matches where we go from round one to round two. We just knock each other out, said Mugabe. Thats how we have done it in the past. Thats how we will do it this time."
Asked how he rated his chances of winning, Mugabe said: Very good. I rate them the same way as in the past. We will succeed. We will conquer.
'Conquer' being the key word.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/30/2008 00:00 ||
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Fresh protests have taken place in Lhasa, the capital of the China-held autonomous region of Tibet, according to the Tibetan government-in-exile. Chinese security forces sealed off parts of the city on Saturday as rumours of the new protests circulated, weeks after Lhasa was shaken by fierce anti-government riots. "Around 2pm (0600 GMT) ... Tibetans gathered for a protest in front of Ramoche Monastery," the exiled government said on its website.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/30/2008 00:00 ||
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Chinese security forces sealed off parts of Lhasa on Saturday and Tibet's government-in-exile said it was investigating reports of fresh protests, weeks after the city was shaken by an anti-government riot.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/30/2008 00:00 ||
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Now if the Chinese were as willing to do this with Pyongyang...
And since they're not, it says a whole lot. Note well, the 'historical' Chinese claim to Tibet is just as valid applied to the region of North Korea.
Few ruling cliques are better at propaganda than the Red Chinese ...
BEIJING - China offered to pay compensation to the families of the civilians it says died in violence in the Tibetan capital this month, as Beijing kept up an intense propaganda campaign in the wake of the unrest. The rash of anti-Chinese protests, and Chinas response, have become a focus of global concern months before the Olympics. Beijing hopes the games that start in August will be a chance to showcase progress in the worlds fourth biggest economy.
By the governments count, 18 civilians were killed during anti-Chinese violence in Lhasa on March 14, when demonstrators hurled rocks at police and burned and looted stores and homes.
Their families would each receive 200,000 yuan ($28,530), a notice from Tibets regional government said. Anyone injured in the chaos that engulfed in Lhasa after days of Buddhist monk-led demonstrations was entitled to free medical care, the state-run Xinhua news agency quoted it as saying. Measures are to be taken to help people repair their homes and shops damaged in the unrest or to build new ones, it said.
The Tibet government-in-exile, established when the Dalai Lama fled to India after an abortive uprising in 1959, has estimated there have been 140 deaths in the violence.
Since the unrest, China has been on a propaganda offensive, attacking foreign news organisations for biased reporting, quoting Buddhist clergy condemning the riots, praising the authorities for exercising restraint and highlighting the material gains the ruling Communist Party has brought to Tibet. It has also pinned blame for the unrest on the Dalai clique -- meaning the Dalai Lama and his supporters -- who it says want to disrupt the Olympics and seek Tibet independence.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/30/2008 00:00 ||
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Partition of Kosovo would be just, but would not solve the problem of minorities there, says John Bolton. I think a partition would be just, at least as far as the Serb population on the border with southern Serbia is concerned. It would in any case reflect ethnic and political reality, the former U.S. ambassador to the UN told Voice of America. Its not enough to say that weve accepted Kosovos secession. If we havewhy not accept this kind of partition of Kosovo. However, it wont solve the problems of Serbs and other minorities that live throughout Kosovo, he stressed.
With regards to the U.S. administrations decision to send arms to Kosovo, Bolton said that it was mistaken for any Western country to risk aggravating the very fragile situation in Kosovo, as the weapons could fall into the hands of extremists, who could misuse them. Foreign assistance should focus on respecting the human rights of non-Albanians, institution-building and observing the rule of law. Im really scared that Kosovo could be a failed state and a danger to Europe, but I dont think its inevitable, the U.S. diplomat underlined.
The U.S. diplomat added that it was entirely possible that the question of Kosovo could be considered at the forthcoming meeting of Russian and U.S. Presidents Vladimir Putin and George Bush in Sochi on April 6. Thats a good chance for both presidents to try and solve certain matters before the end of their mandates. For the U.S., the question of the missile shield in Europe is very important. Thats one of the reasons why I didnt think it was wise to introduce the added problem of Kosovo independence into U.S.-Russian relations, he explained.
In Boltons opinion, Kosovo could become an obstacle to relations between the two countries. I didnt understand why Washington recognized Kosovo independence so hurriedly That issue could have been the subject of further negotiations, while the U.S. and Russia settle bilateral matters, he said.
As regards the Serbian parliamentary elections, Bolton said that it was important for the Serbian people to bear in mind priorities and not allow the victimization that many Serbs feel over the way the U.S. and Europe have treated them over Kosovo cloud their decision at the ballot box."
"Serbias future should primarily be borne in mind, and thats what should be voted for, said the U.S. diplomat.
BRUSSELS - The NATO military alliance called on Russia late Friday to rejoin a post-Cold War era treaty that regulates armed forces in Europe, and warned that it would not uphold its end of the deal indefinitely if no solution could be found.
Russia unilaterally pulled out of the Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) treaty in December, accusing NATO members of failing to ratify an adapted 1999 version of the agreement that is considered a cornerstone of Europes national security policy. Russian military officials were also angered at NATO troop inspections connected to the treaty and demands that Moscow withdraw forces from breakaway regions in the former Soviet states of Georgia and Moldova.
NATO in a statement insisted it had met all of the concerns Russia has raised over the CFE in a package of measures proposed by the United States and backed by its Western allies in the fall of 2007. According to the proposal, NATO members would have moved forward with ratifying the 1999 addition while Russia at the same time addressed outstanding issues over its Georgia and Moldova forces.
The alliance said it has continued to implement the CFE treaty in good faith since December, but warned that this situation cannot be sustained indefinitely.
It's an empty threat: eastern European nations don't have the money to increase their defense spending; western European nations and Canada don't have the will, and America has other things to do.
The CFE treaty, first agreed in 1990, places a cap on weapons programmes, including on tanks and other armoured vehicles, artillery systems, fighter planes and helicopters.
Russias suspension risks eroding the integrity of the CFE regime and undermines the cooperative approach to security which has been a core of the NATO-Russia relationship and European security for nearly two decades, the statement said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/30/2008 00:00 ||
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Didn't we do this already, under the League of Nations? IIRC from my history, there was something about limiting the number and size of warships each nation could have, the number and size of aircraft, tanks, etc., plus the number of troops. It didn't work then, either. Both Germany and Japan violated both the letter and the spirit of the document the first chance they got. Who is nieve enough to believe the Russians won't?
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/30/2008 23:16 Comments ||
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ION TOPIX > MOSCOW TIMES - RUSSIA'S NEXT COLLAPSE MAY BE ITS LAST; + WAFF.com > UKRAINE LOSES CONTROL OF SHIPYARDS TO RUSSIA. Control of Ukraine econmy precludes need for Russ invasion???
ALso, Russ Govt has reportedly chosen what stragic econ sectors to accept FDI's.
#1
"China and Chinese people have helped Tibetan people to improve human rights," said one organizer who spoke in English. "How can somebody who cannot even read or write understand anything about human rights? If they cannot read or write, how can they understand what they have lost in the past in Tibet? People were just blind faith to believe in their religion. They were controlled."
Boy, those Tibetans are really ungrateful. When I think of human rights, I immediately think of the Chinese....yup
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/30/2008 14:54 Comments ||
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Tibet was a vassal state to the Mongol and Manchu empires, both of whom also invaded and ruled China.
For China to claim that Tibet is Chinese because of that link is absurd. By that logic, the US could claim India and Australia, since all three were ruled by the British at the same time.
Posted by: john frum ||
03/30/2008 15:03 Comments ||
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"Leave Canada!" others urged.
Didn't realize that Canada was part of the Chinese motherland?
Did some emissary of the Chinese emperor evacuate his bowels there a few centuries ago?
Posted by: john frum ||
03/30/2008 15:06 Comments ||
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#4
I'm sure the Chinese taught all they know about human rights to the more than 1 million Tibetans they have murdered since 1950.
BTW, talk to any mainland Chinese immigrant about Tibet. They turn into rabid little fuckers in an instant.
Posted by: ed ||
03/30/2008 15:09 Comments ||
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#5
By that logic, the US could claim India and Australia, since all three were ruled by the British at the same time.
#6
Come on guys, keep your eyes open. The Tibetan priest caste kept slaves serfs on plantations and in general, behaved like Jerry Falwell. It was no mountain paradise. And by saying this, I'm not defending the 19th century nationalism that Chinese people keep.
#9
Well, the issue has been muddied severely and it's hard to wade through the Chinese propaganda. But from what I've read gromky's right: under the Tibetan priests most of the population were serfs and conditions were pretty bad.
#10
I was rash and wrong. Gromky's been a long-term reliable (to my knowledge) poster, and I shouldn't have disparaged him without hard info. My apologies, Gromky. I disagree with your take but am willing to listen. Explain?
Frank
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/30/2008 18:55 Comments ||
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FG: I was rash and wrong. Gromky's been a long-term reliable (to my knowledge) poster, and I shouldn't have disparaged him without hard info. My apologies, Gromky. I disagree with your take but am willing to listen. Explain?
He's basically recycling Chinese propaganda regurgitated by Western Maoists. Here's an article from a leftist who's not a Maoist reassessing the ethnocentric and Communist propaganda of the Han supremacists who populate and rule the Chinese empire.
#12
ZF - understood. I still disagree with Gromky. I'm just willing to listen. I think the western media's been in the tank for China, like all leftists.
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/30/2008 19:51 Comments ||
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Taking a page out of the Kennedy playbook...
Hillary Rodham Clintons cash-strapped presidential campaign has been putting off paying hundreds of bills for months freeing up cash for critical media buys, but also earning the campaign a reputation as something of a deadbeat in some small business circles.
A pair of Ohio companies owed more than $25,000 by Clinton for staging events for her campaign are warning others in the tight-knit event production community and anyone else who will listen to get their cash upfront when doing business with her. Her campaign, say representatives of the two companies, has stopped returning phone calls and e-mails seeking payment of outstanding invoices. One even got no response from a certified letter.
Their cautionary tales, combined with published reports about similar difficulties faced by a New Hampshire landlord, an Iowa office cleaner and a New York caterer highlight a less-obvious impact of Clintons inability to keep up with the staggering fundraising pace set by her opponent for the Democratic presidential nomination, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama.
Clinton's campaign did not respond to recent, specific questions about its transactions with vendors. But Clinton spokesman Jay Carson pointed on Saturday to an earlier statement the campaign issued to Politico, asserting: "The campaign pays its bills regularly and in the normal course of business, and pays all of its bills." Up next - Clinton campaign 'misremembers' paying all of its bills...
There's a long history of this in politics. Today's Chicago Tribune has an article (no link, unfortunately) about a local printer stiffed by an alderman. It happens, and frequently. If I were doing business with a political campaign for any reason my mantra would be "show me the money, and cash up front."
Interesting Entertaining view from the other side of the Pond - & companion to CNN piece already posted.
Plans for Al Gore to take the Democratic presidential nomination as the saviour of a bitterly divided party are being actively discussed by senior figures and aides to the former vice-president.
The bloody civil war in Iraq - oops, sorry, wrong story between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama has left many Democrats convinced that neither can deliver a knockout blow to the other and that both have been so damaged that they risk losing November's election to the Republican nominee, John McCain. And this is a problem because....?
Former Gore aides ... delusional as ever, but do carry on
... now believe he could emerge as a compromise candidate acceptable to both camps at the party's convention in Denver during the last week of August. Two former Gore campaign officials have told The Sunday Telegraph that a scenario first mapped out by members of Mr Gore's inner circle last May now has a sporting chance of coming true. So now we know where that crap came from. AlBore still has delusions of grandeur. I'd say I'm shocked, but I hate to lie.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/30/2008 11:20 ||
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Let see...
Pissed off black vote from Obama not getting it? Check.
Pissed of fem vote from Hillary not getting it? Check.
"Old White Guy" card off the table for slamming McCain? Check.
Looney enviro right when GW is being discredited? Check.
#6
By the time the ugly deal is done the AlGore will have lower negatives than Obama or Clinton, it's not a bad tactical idea, merely impossible to execute. But gawd, Ima do so want to be there, if it's tried. DEWEY!
VLADIMIR PUTIN, the Russian president, is to raise plans for a tunnel to link his country with America when he meets his US counterpart, George W Bush, next Sunday. The 64-mile tunnel would run under the Bering Strait between Chukotka, in the Russian far east, and Alaska; the cost is estimated at £33 billion.
This would make the 'Bridge to Nowhere' look like a bridge to .. somewhere.
Proposals for such a tunnel were approved by Tsar Nicholas II in the early 20th century but were abandoned during the Soviet era. If finally built, the tunnel would allow rail connections between London and New York.
A Kremlin spokesman confirmed last week that Putin seeks to build a real bridge between Russia and America when he meets Bush at the Black Sea resort of Sochi.
I got a bridge we can sell him ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/30/2008 00:00 ||
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Oh, for Pete's sake - why don't they just sneak in from Mexico like everybody else?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/30/2008 0:10 Comments ||
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Can you imagine the Quality Control (Construction and Materials) required for something like that (not even talking design). Russia's is worse than ours and ours gave us the "Big Dig" in Boston.
#13
OK, getting serious for a sec, it's still a big distance _to_ there from the Russian oilfields, _to_ the pipeline from the Bering Straits, and then you don't have a natural gas pipeline anyway...
#16
Russia has already demonstrated exactly how untrustworthy it can be when it controls the central heating. And as Mr. Wife commented, "What's the point? There aren't enough people there to make it worth while."
#20
Snarks aside the Russian railway system actually works very well, They are setting up a rail link from China to western Europe. This is an idea that will eventually happen.
#22
There is also a conceptual design for a bridge from Wales on the Seward Peninsula past the Diomedes and onto Chukotka Peninsula in the Russian far east. There are some serious issues in the Bering Straits, including some righteous ice flows. I have flown over the Straits and have seen ice pressure ridges over 50' high.
So the whole project is kinda visionary, if you have the spare cash. I do not see our govt having any, nor the banks for a while.
In comment #16, TW hits it on the head. Can you trust the Russians, especially transparent soul boy pooty poot? Better we develop our domestic energy instead, from a national defense point of view......current traitor members of Congress can't grasp that one.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/30/2008 17:11 Comments ||
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Gieauteen teen In comment #16, TW hits it on the head. Can you trust the Russians, especially transparent soul boy pooty poot? Better we develop our domestic energy instead, from a national defense point of view......current traitor members of Congress can't grasp that one.
It truly is a crime, think of a mom with two kids trying to swing it with gasoline prices, heating oil etc all the while we have...
#1) VAST, PROVEN, ACCESSIBLE, RESERVOIRS OF OIL AND NATURAL GAS IN ALASKA AND OFF THE COAST OF CALIPHORNIA! [sorry joe, i stole yourn caps]
#2) In 2008 The drilling and pumping Technology of oil and gas is something to behold,
It has evolved into a damn Art Form of Clean and Safe Technology. Drilling and Pumping is Super Safe for all us varmints and Super clean too so that Mom, Caribou and sea life can benefit from drilling for our energy.
#25
ION, INTERFAX > RUSS ANTI-SUBMARINE PLANES PATROL/FLY OVER THE BARENTS, BALTIC AND PACIFIC OCEANS.
One or more successful Russ "Rod from God" = deep Deep DEEP PENETRATOR(S) will flood the thingy???
In reality, Russ = USSR = Russ history wid these kinds of international contrux projects is NOT GOOD. THERES ALWAYS A FIRST TIME.
#26
It would be good for both countries and allow us access to Asia and Europe by more than just ship. i would imagine that it would have mostly Chinese goods going to the US and US coal going to Russia and China in the other direction.
#28
BIIIIGGGG problem: US/Western technology established a standard roadbed gauge of 4'8". Soviet rail gauge is 5'. You can run Russian trains on Western rails using dual-flange systems, but you CANNOT run Western equipment on Russian rails. Guess which side will demand the other change?
Soviet/Russian rail systems are ok, but not great. They have the same problems the US has, plus the tendency to overload their system. There are rail crashes in Russia, and they're not rare.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/30/2008 23:30 Comments ||
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#29
Bridge to Hawaii
A man walking along a California beach was deep in prayer. All of a sudden he said out loud, "Lord grant me one wish."
At once the sky clouded above his head and in a booming voice the Lord said, "Because you have TRIED to be faithful to me in all ways, I will grant you one wish"
The man said, "Build a bridge to Hawaii, so I can drive over anytime I want to."
The Lord said, "Your request is very materialistic. Think of the logistics of that kind of undertaking. The supports required to reach the bottom of the Pacific! The concrete and steel it would take! I can do it, but it is hard for me to justify your desire for worldly things. Take a little more time and think of another wish, a wish you think would honor and glorify me."
The man thought about it for a long time. Finally he said, "Lord, my wife says that I am uncaring and insensitive. I wish that I could understand women. I want to know how they feel inside, what they are thinking when they give me the silent treatment, why they cry, what they mean when they say "nothing", and how I can make a woman truly happy."
After a few minutes God said, "You want two lanes or four on that bridge?"
#9
Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen trial baloon: Superdelegate 'primary' in mid June, just after the last of the Dem primaries on June 3rd. Objective to 'convince' the supers to agree to vote for one candidate at the convention.
Describing as an 'error' the NDA government's decision to recognise Tibet as a part of China, former Defence Minister George Fernandes has said the Communist nation was "potential threat number one" to India and flayed the UPA dispensation for allowing it to be 'bullied'.
Venting anger over the Tibet crisis and India's response to it, the NDA leader said the Olympic torch should not be allowed to come to India and that he had asked his 'colleagues' and others to make 'whatever effort' to prevent the flame's run in this country. "It was not a mistake but an error. It should not have been done," he said about India's decision to recognise Tibet as part of China during the previous Atal Bihari Vajpayee Government in which he was the Defence Minister.
Fernandes told Karan Thapar's Devil's Advocate programme on CNN-IBN that China is "still potential threat number one" and "could become an enemy", as he recalled his statement on similar lines 10 years back.
Commenting on the recent incident of Indian Ambassador Nirupama Rao being summoned by the Chinese Foreign Ministry past midnight, Fernandes said New Delhi had "surrendered" over the issue. "Well, our government allowed it. It has no shame," he said, adding that the government should have advised its envoy to wait till the next day. "Elsewhere that's what would have happened."
Rao was summoned past midnight to register concern over breach of security at Chinese Embassy here. "India has sold out to China," he alleged. Asked whether India was being "bullied" by China, Fernandes replied "absolutely, and it accepts it."
Posted by: john frum ||
03/30/2008 12:04 ||
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KMT Legislator Su Chi accused President Chen of restarting Taiwans nuclear weapons program... that Taiwans National Security Council (NSC) had secretly invited an unnamed former defense secretary and several nuclear weapons experts from a state with nuclear weapons to discuss this issue; Lending a modicum of credibility to Sus comments, on November 9, 2007, the Taiwan News, a Hong Kong-based newspaper, revealed that former Indian Defense Minister George Fernandes visited Taiwan in April 2007 and met with members of the NSC. India is an acknowledged possessor of nuclear weapons. [7] The Taiwan News article further revealed that former NSC officials Parris Chang and Antonio Chiang, as well as former Vice Defense Minister Lin Chong-pin, had secretly visited India numerous times at Fernandess invitation while he was defense minister (presumably in 2000-2001, the years when Fernandess tenure overlapped with that of Chens presidency). [8]
Posted by: john frum ||
03/30/2008 15:14 Comments ||
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#2
Shoot, don't remember the article off-hand, but IIRC it was an on WAFF.com > IIRC, Article argues that INDIA was indir responsible for its own historical failures agz Chinese-origin/specific iniatives and mil aggressions as due to the repeated failue of New Delhi to effectively respond to same. IOW, NEW DELHI APPEASETH TO MUCH-PREFERS {PRO-CHIN APPEAS TO HAVING POWERFUL MILITARY, STATE-MIL PLANNING, + NATIONAL ECONOMY.
WASHINGTON - The US has said it was fully prepared to move forward on the civilian nuclear agreement with India once New Delhi takes a decision on domestic political issues related to it.
They had a discussion about where we stand. We made it clear that we are fully prepared once the Indian government has taken certain steps to submit the agreements to the Congress so that they can be passed, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said when asked about the talks between US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Minister of External Affairs Pranab Mukherjee earlier this week.
Mukherjee wrapped up his two-day visit on Tuesday during which he held talks with President George W Bush and Rice. The minister said the government was trying to build consensus on the deal as there were reservations from the Left and the BJP.
Though US lawmakers had been pressing on a July timeline, the White House said after the parleys that the deal had not reached a now or never stage.
The Indian government has some decisions to make and with respect to the agreement and its own domestic politics and those are decisions only the Indian government can take and solely for them, Mccormack said.
He said the US was still committed to doing what we can to move the agreement forward, but again the Indian government is going to have to make some decisions for itself. McCormack said: There are some real possibilities there if you look at the very least a North-South access running from India up through Central Asia opportunities for trade and energy cooperation.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/30/2008 00:00 ||
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Link ||
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Muslims outnumber Catholics worldwide, according to the latest count by the Vatican published in its daily newspaper on Saturday. Muslims represent more than 19 per cent of the world's 6.5 billion population, while Catholics represent 17.4 per cent, according to the Vatican's latest yearbook based on 2006 figures, Sunday's edition of the Osservatore Romano reported.
Christianity overall was more widespread, however, with Catholics, Orthodox Christians, Anglicans and other Protestants jointly accounting for a third of the world population, it said.
The figures are based partly on United Nations statistics, the 2,000-page yearbook's director Vittorio Formenti told the newspaper. Formenti said the change was due to Muslim families having more children while Christian families were having fewer.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/30/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
But they're working on it....
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/30/2008 0:11 Comments ||
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#2
There's a hadith that says everyone is born Muslim.
#3
Yes, maybe. But if the Pope called a real crusade, there are other Christians who'd probably take the sacrament driving the numbers well above what the muzzies could show. Deus vult!
Scientists in Japan have designed artificial molecules that when used with rats successfully reversed liver cirrhosis, a serious chronic disease in humans that until now can only be cured by transplants.
Cirrhosis is the hardening or scarring of the liver, and is caused by factors such as heavy drinking and Hepatitis B and C. The disease is especially serious in parts of Asia, including China.
Cirrhosis occurs when a class of liver cells starts producing collagen, a fibrous material that toughens skin and tendons. Such damage cannot be reversed although steps can be taken to prevent further damage. In advanced cases, transplants are the only way out.
In the journal Nature Biotechnology, the researchers said they designed molecules that can block collagen production by liver "stellate cells," which are also known to absorb vitamin A.
The scientists then loaded the molecules into carriers that were coated with vitamin A, which tricked the stellate cells into absorbing the molecules.
"By packaging the (molecules) in carriers coated with vitamin A, they tricked the stellate cells into letting in the inhibitor, which shut down collagen secretion," the researchers wrote.
In the study, the researchers induced liver cirrhosis in rats and then injected them with the vitamin A-laced molecules.
"We were able to completely eradicate the fibrosis by injecting this agent ... we cured them of the cirrhosis," Yoshiro Niitsu at the Sapporo Medical University School of Medicine in Japan said in a telephone interview.
"The liver is such an important organ, after you remove the fibrosis, the liver by itself starts to regenerate tissues. So liver damage is reversible."
Explaining how the damage reversal came about, Niitsu said: "Liver is itself responsible for the production and deposition of collagen, it also secretes certain enzymes that dissolve collagen ... dissolve the fibrosis which has already been deposited in the tissues."
Niitsu was hopeful that the molecules would provide a cure for cirrhosis patients in time.
"We hope it (a drug) will be ready for humans in a few years," he said.
#12
I stick to one or the other. Never mix. I gots a snifter of Laphgoiig right now. And I'm not sober. Been watching NCAA Basketball. Davidson is giving Kansas quite a fight. It's 51-49 Davidson with 7 minutes left in the game.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
03/30/2008 18:44 Comments ||
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#13
1:15 left. Kansas may win this game, but Davidson's won more in esteem and heart. Well done, Davidson. Playing against "Scholarship U" is tough.....
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/30/2008 19:00 Comments ||
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#14
Interesting -- the top 4 teams going to the Final Four!
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.
Zimbabwe's opposition claimed an overwhelming victory against President Robert Mugabe in yesterday's presidential election, saying that the flow of results showed its candidate, Morgan Tsvangirai, had 'massacred' the ruling Zanu-PF party.
Lines were long at the polling stations here well before morning had unscrolled its first light. And when the doors did not open exactly at 7 a.m., voters in the impoverished township of Warren Park rushed the schoolyard gate, most of them desperate to cast a ballot to oust the man who has been president for most of their lives, Robert Mugabe. People want him gone, finally and forever gone, said Charles Musonza, an out-of-work tailor and one of those surging toward the front. Zimbabwe has been ruined by Mugabe. There is no future if he wins.
Zimbabwe's opposition accused President Robert Mugabe of rigging the country's election to stay in power despite economic disaster and African observers also said they had detected fraud.
Partition of Kosovo would be just, but would not solve the problem of minorities there, says John Bolton. I think a partition would be just, at least as far as the Serb population on the border with southern Serbia is concerned. It would in any case reflect ethnic and political reality, the former U.S. ambassador to the UN told Voice of America. Its not enough to say that weve accepted Kosovos secession. If we havewhy not accept this kind of partition of Kosovo. However, it wont solve the problems of Serbs and other minorities that live throughout Kosovo, he stressed. 
BRUSSELS - The NATO military alliance called on Russia late Friday to rejoin a post-Cold War era treaty that regulates armed forces in Europe, and warned that it would not uphold its end of the deal indefinitely if no solution could be found.
VLADIMIR PUTIN, the Russian president, is to raise plans for a tunnel to link his country with America when he meets his US counterpart, George W Bush, next Sunday. The 64-mile tunnel would run under the Bering Strait between Chukotka, in the Russian far east, and Alaska; the cost is estimated at £33 billion.
WASHINGTON - The US has said it was fully prepared to move forward on the civilian nuclear agreement with India once New Delhi takes a decision on domestic political issues related to it.
