[Asia One] A gang of car thieves planning a fight mistook a group of coppers for their rivals and attacked them.
A gang member died in a subsequent fight with their rivals while two others suffered serious injuries after they were rammed by a car during the incident near Taman Intan Baiduri in Kepong at 3am yesterday.
The coppers had been sent to patrol the area in an unmarked car after authorities received a tip-off that the gangs were planning a fight.
City CID chief Datuk Ku Chin Wah said members from one gang laying an ambush mistook the unmarked car as that belonging to their rivals.
"The gang chased after the coppers in their two Proton Wiras until they reached a residential area.
"Three gang members then got out of their car and tried to attack the coppers with samurai swords and a pistol.
Goodness. People really do bring knives to gun fights.
The coppers were forced to defend themselves by opening fire at the men, but they missed," Ku said.
"Sergeant, take the men to the range! No donuts until they can actually hit the target!"
He said the gang members were running away after realising that they had ambushed the wrong "gang" when a Perodua Kancil, believed to be driven by a member of the rival group, rammed into them some 200m from the scene of the shootout.
Ku said another confrontation took place between the gangs, leading to one of the men from the first group being killed after he was hit in the head with a hard object.
Perhaps it was the pistol mentioned above, which hadn't got much use up to this point.
"We tossed in the slammer six people from both gangs.
"An ambulance later rushed the two men rammed by the car to Selayang Hospital," he said adding that one suspect managed to escape with a samurai sword and gun.
Police also seized a metal rod, knife and a fake gun.
It sounds like that's one evidence locker where the evidence needn't be recycled, it just keeps flowing in.
The six have been remanded for a murder investigation.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/10/2011 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
[Arab News] A large number of illegal foreigners and some Saudi citizens have made selling fake Zamzam water a lucrative profession. They mix the holy water with ordinary water and sell the mixture as pure Zamzam water.
Homeopathy is highly respected in some quarters. So long as one molecule of the original material remains, it compels the entire solution to resonate in sympathy... or something like that.
The fake water
No, no -- the water becomes pure Zamzam. It's Science!
may have adverse health effects that can be perilous for the users. The sellers of fake Zamzam water are spreading along the highways, around the exits and entries of Makkah, and near the holy mosques. They continue their illegal trade without heeding the concerned authorities that are always after them.
Arab News made a tour of the places where fake Zamzam water is put for sale. The tour started at the central area of the Haram in Al-Ghazzah area, where many people from the African communities practice this illegal profession. They buy new empty gallons in various colors, put a small quantity of Zamzam water in them and fill the rest with plain water. They do the mixing of water in far away places and then bring their products to Al-Ghazzah area with its concentration of pilgrims and visitors. Their selling operation continues 24 hours a day, but they run away and hide whenever a security team is spotted.
In Kudai area, which has a pumping station for Zamzam water, a number of Africans, Burmese and Bangladeshis fill their gallons with Zamzam water. They empty part of the gallons in other containers, fill them with ordinary water, and sell the mixture to the salesmen around the Jeddah-Makkah Expressway. Evidently, they do this illegal job away from the eyes of the passport police.
Along the expressway, particularly near the gas stations around Makkah exits, are some groups of people selling their fake water round the clock. They put their gallons on small trucks parked there, after covering them with cloth. They leave for their homes at night and return next day to continue their job. The Zamzam water may be exposed to direct sun rays and to dust, making the fake holy water unhygienic.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/10/2011 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[7 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
It seems they need a giant regulatory agency to certify Zamzam. Then they can tax it, until the well runs dry.
Posted by: Bobby ||
05/10/2011 6:12 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Doesn't mixing Zamzam water with pure grain alcohol render it halal?
The BBC said it had asked a pilgrim to take samples from the Zamzam water taps in Makkah and the Zamzam water being sold in bottles to compare them with the water on sale illegally.
These showed high levels of nitrate and potentially harmful bacteria, and traces of arsenic three times the permitted level, just like the illegal water, which was purchased in the UK, the BBC said, referring to contaminated holy water sold in some UK shops.
[Asia One] When separatist rebels in the remote Indian state of Manipur banned Hindi movies a decade ago, they had little idea it would trigger a cultural invasion from a country more than 2,000 miles away. But when Bollywood was forced out, the Koreans moved in.
In the markets of the state capital Imphal, shops are packed with DVDs of South Korean films and television soap operas, as well as CDs of Korean pop stars, with a particular focus on preening boy bands.
Hairdressing salons are covered with head shots of Korean celebrities and offer a wide range of spiky, "Korean-style" cuts which are hugely popular with young Manipuris of both sexes.
Teenagers also trawl through Gambhir Market, a three-story warren of tiny boutiques, for skinny jeans and other clothing trends inspired by Korean television shows.
Even the language has made inroads, with Korean phrases like annyeong-haseyo (hello), kamsahamnida (thank you) and sarang-haeyo (I love you) peppering conversations in schoolyards and market-places.
"When we're back at boarding school, my friends and I practice our few phrases of Korean and often talk about what it would be like growing up in Korea," said female student Akshaya Longjam, 14.
"It just seems so much fun and everybody is good-looking; the girls are pretty and the boys are so cute," said Longjam, a dedicated fan of the Korean boy band Big Bang and its star singer G-Dragon.
At first glance, Manipur would seem the unlikeliest of takers for the so-called "Korean Wave" of pop culture that swept over China, Japan and much of Southeast Asia at the beginning of the last decade.
Tiny, landlocked and with a population of less than three million, Manipur borders Myanmar and is one of India's "Seven Sisters" - seven northeastern states connected to the rest of India by a sliver of land that arches over Bangladesh.
In the 1970s, 80s and 90s, entertainment for Manipuris was largely supplied by India's dominant cultural force, Bollywood.
But then in 2000, a number of the multiple armed secessionist groups that have been active in Manipur since the 1960s ordered a ban on Hindi movies and Hindi satellite TV channels, in a professed bid to "protect" Manipuri culture.
Backed by threats to bomb recalcitrant cinemas and cable operators, the ban was extremely effective and remains in force today.
Desperate to fill the vacuum, cable operators experimented with whatever came to hand, including Arirang TV, a 24-hour, English-language network based in Seoul that began beaming in a diet of dramas and cultural features.
Korea's KBS World followed with its own stable of subtitled soap operas and, within a few months, Manipur was hooked.
"Watching Korean soaps and films takes me away from the realities of daily life in Manipur," said 19-year-old college student Soma Lhishram.
"We have a problem with water, electricity, roads... you name it. But everything looks so perfect in Korea. It's like a fantasy world."
The attraction is partly a cultural one. The Mongol roots of ethnic Manipuris mean their physical features are far closer to those of Koreans than other Indians.
The family-oriented soap operas resonate strongly in what is a socially conservative state, while teen romance dramas have a mass following among the young.
Lhishram, a part-time actress, is a particular fan of the high school drama "Boys Over Flowers" and one of its heartthrob stars, Lee Min-Hoo.
"It's a big dream of mine to travel to Korea and to work on a film there," she said during a break in shooting for a Manipuri language music video in the grounds of a local college.
Endless repeat viewings of all shows are also available thanks to thousands of English-subtitled DVDs - many of them pirated - which are smuggled in from Myanmar and retail in Imphal markets for less than a dollar.
Otojit Kshetrimayum, a research scholar in sociology at Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University, has written an academic paper on the phenomenal popularity of all things Korean in Manipur.
"The key factor is cultural proximity, both in appearance and values," Kshetrimayum said. "The themes and characters that the Korean movies and dramas depict strike a chord with both the younger and older generations in Manipur."
Posted by: Fred ||
05/10/2011 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[7 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Der Spiegel had an interesting article on Germans fetishizing native Americans of the 1800's due to the influence of a popular German author. Some kind of chord has been struck there also. 2000 years ago German tribes were in a situation very similar to that of north American tribes dealing with colonization by Europeans.
#2
When we lived in Germany in the '90s, there was a local subculture keen on American square dancing. The next village over had an annual Country 'n' Western fest with bands from all over... the usual German beer and sausages with mustard... and loads of men in Western shirts and cowboy boots, their women in ruffled gingham dresses held wide by ruffled petticoats.
Contrariwise, in Cincinnati the dirndl-clad females and lederhosen-wearing males of all ages flow up and down the streets during Oktoberfest, freely mingling with those dressed in the local idiom.
#3
Oh, yes - Karl May, sort of the German version of Zane Grey. It's true that many Germans today absolutely adored the adventure stories about Winnetou and Shatterhand. I believe many of his books were dramatized for TV, too.
One of the things that I want is for the Adelsverein Trilogy to be translated and available in German. I would so clean up! I've had emails from German-Americans asking if it is, and I am sorry to have to say "Not yet."By the way, my latest, Daughter of Texas is out now, too. (It's about the early days in Texas, and the war for independence.)
[Straits Times] A MAN involved in the pest control business has claimed eating queen termites can boost the sexual prowess for men. Ummm... Okay. I'll bite. No, wait. No, I won't.
What if it were dipped in chocolate?
Metro Ahad reported Abdul Rahim Abu Bakar as saying queen termites had special properties similar to that of viagra. He said the bug must be swallowed alive 15 minutes before the start of sexual activity for it to be effective. "Gosh, honey. I don't... I don't know what's wrong!"
"Did you remember to eat your termite, dear?"
'The effect is as if we are running in a marathon non-stop,' claimed the 45-year-old man, who said he started eating queen termites seven years ago. Y'know, that's just about the time I didn't start eating termites, queen or otherwise...
Abdul Rahim claimed the price of a queen termite can be as high as between RM2,500 and RM5,000, depending on its size and colour. Viagra's cheaper... Or so I've heard.
He said that he once pocketed RM7,000 by selling three queen termites. "Don't eat 'em all at once, now! Oh, and in the event of an erection lasting more than four hours don't forget to seek professional assistance!"
Well-known gynaecologist Datuk Dr Ismail Thamby, however, brushed off Abdul Rahim's claim as just a myth. No! Reeeally? And what does a gynecologist know about eating termites, anyway?
Absolutely nothing. A gynaecologist, on the other hand...
'If there is any effect, it is only psychological in nature because the person who eats it believes it works,' he said. "I believe I have lift-off! I believe I have lift-off! I believe I have lift-off!..."
Posted by: Fred ||
05/10/2011 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[9 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
"I have lift-off" > LMAO, I gotta remember this one.
[Bangla Daily Star] Police tossed in the calaboose an outlaw early Monday and seized two bombs and a shutter gun from a house in Pabna Sadar upazila.
If it has a name, it must be somewhere...
They also jugged the house owner for interrogation, Habibul Islam, officer-in-charge of Ataikula Police Station, told The Daily Star.
I should say so. Only miscreants (and the Rab evidence locker) have a need for shutter guns. We won't discuss the kind of people who keeps bombs at home. But unspeakable only begins to describe them.
The OC said police in the early hours raided the house of Lokman Hossain at Teligram on information that outlaws took shelter there,
Another triumph for Mahmoud the Weasel.
reports our Pabna correspondent.
Ah, a professional journalist. That explains Thus, the brevity.
For the first time since the Communist revolution 52 years ago, Cubans will be allowed to buy and sell houses and newer automobiles, and they may be able to travel abroad as tourists more freely, under policy changes announced Monday that are intended to shake up the countrys foundering economy.
Cubans lined up at kiosks to pay the equivalent of 12 cents for booklets outlining 313 guidelines approved at a historic Communist Party congress last month.
The publication lacked many details on what restrictions, taxes and other potential roadblocks the initiatives might include, according to reporters in Havana who purchased it. It was not available online and details on how the changes will be carried out will probably not be known until Cubas legislature codifies them in the coming months.
But analysts said that simply bringing into the open what had been a black market of house and automobile swaps could be one of the most significant changes to the economy in decades and could inject badly needed cash into the system.
Many Cubans hardly ever move, and they often are stuck driving crumbling Soviet-era cars bought from state dealers. Individuals are permitted to sell cars made before the 1959 revolution, but only to another owner.
These are very important steps, said Arch Ritter, an economist at Carleton University in Ottawa who studies Cuba. To have a housing market, for example, will be of tremendous importance to Cuban citizens, because there hasnt been a market in 50 years. In Cuba, people are born in the same house they die in.
Cuban expatriates in the United States have closely followed the changes, eyeing the potential to snap up real estate through relatives on the island, though it remains to be seen if the government will put brakes on foreign ownership or financing.
Many of these changes are already under way, announced in a number of speeches by President Raúl Castro over the past several months. In the speeches, Mr. Castro declared that Cuba, hit hard by the global recession, deteriorating sugar market and, the government says, repercussions of the United States economic embargo, must move from an almost entirely state-based economy toward one allowing at least a little more free enterprise.
Mr. Castro has vowed to maintain socialism while taking steps like expanding the ranks of the self-employed and increasing the leasing of state land for private farming, all subject to heavy taxation.
But the publication released Monday included new or seldom-discussed nuggets. One was an effort to promote formation of cooperatives that The Associated Press reported could function as midsize companies, selling products directly to consumers.
The document also said leaders should study a policy that allows Cubans living in the country to travel abroad as tourists. Tourist travel is already technically permitted, but an onerous, expensive bureaucratic process effectively halts all but select Castro loyalists from leaving.
#2
Try http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/10/world/americas/10cuba.html. Sorry about not embedding it, but I'm still getting used to the tricks of the iPad -- computery is not one of my strengths, no matter how end-user oriented.
[Al Jazeera] Japan's Hamaoka nuclear plant is to be shut until it can be buttressed to withstand a tsunami as severe as the one which devastated the country's northeast coast in March, triggering the world's worst atomic crisis in 25 years.
Monday's decision by Chubu Electric Power Co, Japan's third biggest power operator, to close the plant situated 200km southwest of Tokyo followed a request by Naoto Kan, the prime minister.
Government experts put the chance of a magnitude 8.0 quake hitting the Hamaoka area in the next 30 years at 87 per cent, which has raised questions over why it was built there in the first place.
"By halting the Hamaoka nuclear plant, we are causing great short-term trouble to not only those in the plant area but also many others including our customers and our shareholders," Akihisa Mizuno, Chubu Electric president, told a news conference.
"But firmly implementing measures to strengthen safety would become the cornerstone to continue safe and stable nuclear power in the long-term and in the end lead to the benefit of our customers."
The plant has five reactor units, but only two are currently running - numbers four and five. Reactors one and two, built in the 1970s, were stopped in 2009, and three is undergoing maintenance.
The move signals a potential shift in energy policy after the Fukushima Daichi plant in the northeast was damaged by a giant tsunami triggered by one of the biggest earthquakes ever recorded on March 11.
Reopening Hamaoka could take two years, raising the risk of a shortage of electricity after the Fukushima plant was shut down by the tsunami.
Government under pressure
Chubu said it could restart the plant once its tsunami wall and other safety steps had been approved by the authorities.
Another power operator said it had discovered a tiny amount of leaked radiation at its Tsuruga plant on the west coast. The revelation raised more public concern over an industry that supplies about 30 per cent of the quake-prone country's electricity.
Japan Atomic Power, however, said it had stopped the leak and that there had been no impact on the environment.
The government is under heavy pressure to review its energy policy after the March quake and tsunami crippled the Fukushima nuclear power plant run by Tokyo Electric Power.
Nearly 26,000 people were killed or are unaccounted for following the natural disaster which triggered the world's biggest nuclear crisis since Chernobyl in 1986. The plant is still leaking radiation.
Banri Kaieda, the trade minister, said the government would consider bearing the cost of closing the plant if requested by Chubu.
The company's shares were down 11 per cent at $19 in afternoon trade, after falling as low as $18. Chubu's tumble helped push Tokyo's electric and gas subindex down 2.7 per cent.
"This news is triggering uncertainty not just about Chubu Electric but the whole utility sector," said Yoshinori Nagano, a senior strategist at Daiwa Asset Management.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/10/2011 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
It could be closed for awhile, given the state of current anti-Quake,Tsunami technology.
As I see it, JAPAN = TOKYO + CHUBU ELECTRIC must first plan for surviving agz a new TOHOKU/SENDAI-LEVEL QUAKE AS FOLLOWED AFTER BY TSUNAMI - its lessor priority would be to plan for survival agz a HIGH-MAG QUAKE [megaquake?]OR ASTEROID-COMET IMPACT EVENT ACROSS THE FAR PACIFIC.
* PEOPLE'S DAILY FORUM > ARE MEGA-EARTHQUAKES ON THE RISE?
Iff US-World Perts are going to be forecasting intensification in SOLAR ACTVITIES as manifest in TECH, ENVIRO DESTROYING SOLAR FLARES, + SEA, GLOBAL TEMPERATURE RISES,"WEIRD WEATHER",...
@ETC. GWCC then IMO by extension/definition the FREQUENCY, MAGNITUDE OF NATURAL EARTHQUAKES MUST ALSO INCREASE.
The TOHOKU/SENDAI EVENT + FUKUSHIMA CRISIS may only be the beginning for Japan.
Again, as JAPAN "sinks" the seafloor around GUAM-WESTPAC may rise in LT, as experienced by my future descendants.
ANTI-CHINA, PACIFIC ISLAND(S)-DESTROYING/SINKING,
US "EARTHQUAKE BOMBS" NOTWITHSTANDING, as per 1960's-70's Guam Taotamonas + HUGO CHAVEZ.
[Iran Press TV] The export volume of Germany, the world's second-biggest exporter after China, has shown a 7.3 percent increase in March the highest monthly number since 1950. Y'know, I'll bet if we made stuff we could export it, too...
Europe's economic powerhouse drove its trade surplus up to 15.2 billion euros (USD 22 billion) in March, official data showed on Monday.
The calendar and seasonally adjusted trade surplus had come to 11.2 billion euros in February, according to figures published by the national statistics office, Destatis.
Germany exported goods worth a nominal 98.3 billion euros in March while taking in imports worth 79.4 billion euros, the data showed.
"That was the highest monthly figure recorded for both exports and imports since the collection of foreign trade statistics had started in the Federal Republic of Germany in 1950," a Destatis statement said.
On a monthly basis, exports were 7.3 percent stronger and imports were up by 3.1 percent.
"The 'made in Germany' brand is extremely popular abroad," Economy Minister Rainer Bruederle was quoted as saying by AFP.
On an annualized basis, the value of goods shipped abroad by Germany gained 15.8 percent in March, while imports were 16.9 percent higher, Destatis said.
The German government now expects the economy to expand by 2.6 percent in 2011, and by 1.8 percent next year.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/10/2011 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Ok, the 'Service Economy' thing has not worked out. We have proven that you cannot have a viable economy if all you do is either make and sell burgers to each other or send and read memos about making burgers.
We have to reindustrialize and actually make and sell stuff. Why hasn't either party produced just one candidate or officeholder who sees this and calls for it?
Posted by: Bill Griling5080 ||
05/10/2011 1:20 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Because our political class consists of men and women who don't know how stuff is made and brought to market. Even those of our politicos who have business experience are basically just service providers, dealmakers, other intermediaries or trust funders who don't understand the logic and processes behind creating and selling a P R O D U C T.
#3
We have to reindustrialize and actually make and sell stuff. Why hasn't either party produced just one candidate or officeholder who sees this and calls for it? Posted by Bill Griling5080
The above, while the only hope for our standard of living and (western society as we know it) to survive, is unlikely to happen. Those who hold power owe no real allegiance to this country, they are internationalists, the globalists. They've monitored the demographics and went "all in" for China many years ago. The chips are on cheap labor and the economic growth engine of China, not the US. We are now mortgaged to the Chinese through loans and commerce. How long will it be before we default on the paper and see Chinese oil rigs off our costs drilling into their collateral? The only questions which remains is how dreadfully low will these people, with Obama at the helm take us, and will anything remain? The American diaspora has already begun. It began with the wealthy and their international investments.
We are now rushing toward Zimbabwe. Our immigration policy and open border to the south is clearly a demographic tool and further proof of intent of the globalists. The denial of the Global War on Terror and radical Islam is yet another signal of a culture and society in peril. We are to be homogenized into multi-cultural, politially correct, egalitarian oblivion. Decades of half-wars and meaningless 'nation building' among sixth century cave dwellers drain our economy and line the pockets of the military industrial complex. Western society stands on the brink. Rome 400 A.D. is us. I am not hopeful.
#5
That's half of it, Besoeker, especially the part about outcome egalitarianism.
The other half is a public that believes that showing up any job every day for a few hours should entitle them to 4000 square feet, two new cars every five years, a cruise and another exotic vacation every year, enough money to send all their kids to private college, and retirement at 60 expecting 30 years of living just as well if not better with no health care expenses and without having to work at all.
Both factors. You can't fix one and not the other and expect manufacturing to come back here.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
05/10/2011 5:40 Comments ||
Top||
#6
Agreed, lex. But those of us that actually produce stuff have so many barriers up to go into any meaningful office, what to do?
Posted by: no mo uro ||
05/10/2011 5:42 Comments ||
Top||
#7
All economies are service economies. Manufacturing is merely a service. There's a limit to the amount of physical stuff the economy demands.
Germany has you should also not stubbornly high unemployment, so shipping all that wealth abroad for so few imports is not exactly wise.
The wests problem was simple, stupid people believed that falling house affordability was wealth.
They believed that debt induced GDP growth was actual growth.
They believed that there was no such thing as too much credit.
Once the economy is back to reciprocal (i.e. taxes on government created rights and no taxes on trading (selling and buying), working, employing, saving and investing). Then people will start to re-create wealth.
#8
The other half is a public that believes that showing up any job every day for a few hours should entitle them to 4000 square feet,
Correction - they believe that they should get all this just for sitting on their fat ass in front of the T.V. and voting for whoever will give promise it to them.
"Obama's going to fill my gas tank! Obama's going to pay my mortgage!".
That they have a fundemental right to free healthcare (no matter how much they abuse themselves), Plenty of free food, plenty of free clothing and shelter, and 2-3 60" HDTV's and the cars and vacations you mentioned.
#9
Frankly, I've never believed that the fellow showing up to work site with a lunch pale was the problem. I always figured he was the probably the solution! (Read Amnity Slaes, The Forgotten Man) I suspect we could all be conservative Anabaptists, riding around in horse drawn wagons and the outcome would be quite similar. Bottome line...it's a common occurrence and recurring theme throughtout history, we've been betrayed by our betters.
[Al Jazeera] The European Union is considering lowering the interest rates of bailouts for Greece and Ireland, in an effort to avoid debt restructuring. ... thereby demonstrating that neither country can afford even the restructured debt...
A front man for Olli Rehn, the EU Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner, said on Monday that the European Commission was in favour of a rate cut over debt restructuring, following talks over the Greek debt crisis.
The EU's executive arm also said it hoped to see a decision on the rate charged to Ireland, which has a joint EU and International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout.
The new Irish government's bid for lower interest payments has so far been blocked by Germany and La Belle France, which want Dublin to drop its veto on harmonising the corporate tax base in Europe in exchange or raise its own low corporate tax rate.
A senior German politician has said a further cut in the rate on emergency loans to Greece would be justified if the country carried out further reforms to reduce its debt risks.
The discussion over the eurozone debt crisis comes as Standard and Poor's downgraded its debt rating for Greece by two points, bringing it further into junk territory.
The rating's agency cut its rating for long-term debt to "B" from "BB-" and short-term debt to "C" from "B".
"The downgrade reflects our view of increasing sentiment among Greece's key eurozone official creditors to extend the debt payment maturities of their 80 billion euro ($115bn) of bilateral loans pooled by the European Commission," Standard and Poor's said.
But Athens said the downgrade "placed the agency's reliability in doubt".
Debt markets have become increasingly jittery as Greece has failed to meet targets to cut its deficits as the austerity measures it has introduced has sent the economy into a tailspin.
Under its debt rescue plan agreed a year ago, it had been intended that Greece would return progressively to financial markets in 2012 to borrow the money it needs, but the interest rates demanded on the market are currently prohibitively high and make this outlook appear doubtful.
Leading eurozone finance ministers ruled out a restructuring of debt at an informal meeting on Friday but are looking at whether to increase help to Athens, a European source told the AFP news agency.
EU and IMF officials are to begin this week a review of Greece's progress before deciding whether to recommend it receive a 12-billion-euro instalment under its bailout loan.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/10/2011 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
File under "Be careful of what you vote for".
The ultimate goal of the newly formed political action committee Start our State is to split Pima County off into what would become the nation's 51st state, tentatively dubbed Baja Arizona. It'll never happen unless someone can figure out how to make a decent pattern for a 51-star flag.
Backers have until July 5 next year to collect the 48,000 legal signatures required to qualify for a spot on the ballot. If they succeed, it would mark only the first hurdle in a long, circuitous process that even the most determined of supporters readily acknowledge has little chance of bearing fruit. Unless, of course, "bearing fruit" means the salary for a bunch of lawyers who can't find something useful to do.
"We at least need to get it on the ballot, as a nonbinding resolution, to ask the people of Pima County if they want to be a part of Arizona," Tucson attorney Paul Eckerstrom, a former Pima County Democratic chairman who launched the campaign, told Reuters. "All the stars would have to align for this to happen, but it could conceivably happen by the fall of 2013." Fine. Give the libs their stupid state. In five minutes it will be overrun with illegal immigrants and all the liberals will declare their plan a success while simultaneously evacuating the state.
Of course, this state will have to be walled off before it is created because overnight it will be the official preferred entry point for more illegals. Unless the new state enacts some evil conservative legislation that makes illegal aliens, well, illegal. Or at least documents them.
Make sure you have a plan to recover the state after this stupid lesson is finished.
New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union; but no new States shall be formed or erected within the Jurisdiction of any other State; nor any State be formed by the Junction of two or more States, or parts of States, without the Consent of the Legislatures of the States concerned as well as of the Congress.
#4
Hey! I live in Pima County and my ethnicity is "Left-Handed Russian Jew" - legal of course since I was born in Los Estados Unidos.
The new state might be initially called "Baja Arizona" but would be a defacto "Norte Sonora". Seriously.
__________
Mebbe I should petition a demand for ethnic studies centering on "Left-Handed Russian Jewish Americans"? Think that would fly down here? Beats the La Raza effort down here in the schools.....we could teach Hebrew and Yiddush. :))
AUSTIN, Texas Texas senators have voted to allow concealed handgun license holders to carry their weapons into public college classrooms.
Monday's vote is a major push on an issue that has stalled in the Senate and House despite overwhelming support from lawmakers in the Republican-dominated Legislature.
Sen. Jeff Wentworth, R-San Antonio, had been unable to muster the votes he needed under Senate rules to pass the issue as its own bill. After several failed attempts, Monday's vote tacked the measure onto a universities spending bill.
Supporters call it a critical self-defense measure and gun rights issue. Opponents worry concealed handguns could lead to more campus violence and suicide.
The measure has met stiff resistance from higher education officials, notably from within the University of Texas system.
#2
If I remember correctly, the VT shooting was finally ended by a student who went to his car and got his personal sidearm and confronted the shooter.
There has been some speculation that having armed students will prevent classrooms shootings. The law abiding will follow all of the rules.
Remember: "If you outlaw guns, only outlaws will have guns" and I believe that. What makes you think a CRIMINAL will obey the law if he needs a weapon to rob a store?
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
05/10/2011 11:54 Comments ||
Top||
h/t Gates of Vienna
India has seen an upsurge in such killings that mainly involve young couples who marry outside their caste or against their relatives' wishes and are murdered to protect what is seen as the family's reputation and pride.
"It is time to stamp out these barbaric, feudal practices which are a slur on our nation," the Supreme Court said. The "West" maybe in decline, but civilization goes on
There are no official figures on honour killings, though an independent study last year suggested that as many as 900 were being committed every year in the northern states of Haryana, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh.
Many go unreported, with police and local politicians turning a blind eye to what some see as an acceptable form of traditional justice by families seeking to protect their honour.
"All persons who are planning to perpetrate 'honour' killings should know that the gallows await them," Justices Markandeya Katju and Gyan Sudha Mishra said in their ruling, adding that no one can take law into their own hands. Just because his heritage is lost in his native land, doesn't mean Sir Charles haven't left a legacy of how civilized man behave
[Ma'an] Police identified the remains of a 20-year-old woman found in a well near Hebron on Friday, over a year after her disappearance.
Arrest them for polluting the drinking water. Don't they know there's a water shortage in the Middle East? That was supposed to cause the next round of wars before food prices went up.
Her uncle and three other relatives were jugged and questioned. Police told Ma'an on Sunday that the death was an honor killing, to which her uncle confessed, and revealed the grim details about the woman's murder.
Local prosecutor Ashraf Mash'al identified the woman as Ayah Ibrahim Barad'iyya from the southern West Bank town of Surif. Her body was found in a deserted well by Israel's separation wall in fields three kilometers from her home. It took two days to retrieve her remains from the well.
Mash'al said the woman was wearing a necklace inscribed with her name, and that a handbag containing personal documents was also retrieved from the well.
The facts of the case were "shocking," director of Hebron police Ramadan Awad told Ma'an. "As we interrogated her uncle, the people in the room could hardly hold back tears."
According to Awad, Ibrahim Baradh'iyya and his wife reported their daughter missing in 2010 saying she had left home on April 20, heading to Hebron University where she was studying, but never returned. They said they feared she had been kidnapped, and wondered if she had run away.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/10/2011 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
According to the National Weather Service Forecast Center in Tucson, from 12:55 p.m. to 1:55 p.m., the time parameters of the incident, winds were 23 to 28 mph, gusting to 47 mph.
#1
I lived there in the early 80's when the aerostat was first introduced as the ultimate cure for the flagging drug war. A newspaper friend of mine (who has since won a Pulitzer) was invited to the unveiling: he was shown live video shots from the aerostat following a truck/drug convoy from Hermosillo to the border. U.S. forces then seized the cargo. Nice dog and pony show story...but as an answer to smuggling the aerostat has not lived up to its initial billing.
p.s. Then I moved to the artist-colony town of Bisbee - discovering it to be a place where people went to bars to sober up from their yayo. Thirty miles away but in the Twilight Zone.
________________________
nostalgic Borgboy
#1
We ignore mines at our own peril, said Scott Truver, one of the United States leading experts on sea mine warfare. Mine warfare is not usually a priority until a [mine] goes off.
We've obviously ignored the opportunity to use them to close Somali ports to any sea traffic.
h/t Gates of Vienna
Gay men get cancer almost twice as often as heterosexual men, and lesbian and bisexual women who are cancer survivors reported being less healthy than heterosexual women who had the disease. Evolution will not be mocked!
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.
[Asia One] A gang of car thieves planning a fight mistook a group of 
A large number of illegal foreigners and some Saudi citizens have made selling fake Zamzam water a lucrative profession. They mix the holy water with ordinary water and sell the mixture as pure Zamzam water.
[Asia One] When separatist rebels in the remote Indian state of Manipur banned Hindi movies a decade ago, they had little idea it would trigger a cultural invasion from a country more than 2,000 miles away. But when Bollywood was forced out, the Koreans moved in.
At first glance, Manipur would seem the unlikeliest of takers for the so-called "Korean Wave" of pop culture that swept over China, Japan and much of Southeast Asia at the beginning of the last decade.
[Al Jazeera] Japan's Hamaoka nuclear plant is to be shut until it can be buttressed to withstand a tsunami as severe as the one which devastated the country's northeast coast in March, triggering the world's worst atomic crisis in 25 years.
[Al Jazeera] The European Union is considering lowering the interest rates of bailouts for Greece and Ireland, in an effort to avoid debt restructuring.
[Ma'an] Police identified the remains of a 20-year-old woman found in a well near Hebron on Friday, over a year after her disappearance. 
