LUCASVILLE, Ohio (AP) -- Ohio executed a 5-foot-7, 267-pound double murderer on Tuesday who argued his obesity made death by lethal injection inhumane. Your two murders of the college students was not very humane, either.
Richard Cooey, 41, died at 10:28 a.m. at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville, said Jim Gravelle, a spokesman with state attorney general's office.
There were no immediate reports of difficulties finding suitable veins to deliver the deadly chemicals, a problem that has delayed previous executions in the state. We are Americans. We are problem solvers.
Cooey's attorneys had argued that his weight problem would make it difficult for prison staff to access a vein. A prisons spokeswoman said Cooey received a pre-execution exam early Tuesday and was cleared.
He walked into the death chamber at 10:15 a.m. wearing gray pants and was strapped onto the gurney.
"You (expletive) haven't paid any attention to anything I've said in the last 22 1/2 years, why would anyone pay any attention to anything I've had to say now," Cooey said looking at the ceiling. He made no other comment. Point taken.
Cooey tapped the fingers of his left hand several times before he died and his face took on a purple shade.
He was the first inmate executed in Ohio in more than a year, and the state's first since the end of the unofficial moratorium on executions that began last year while the U.S. Supreme Court reviewed Kentucky's lethal injection procedure.
Cooey, who killed two University of Akron students in 1986, lost a final appeal earlier Tuesday when the U.S. Supreme Court turned down without comment his complaint that the state's protocol for lethal injection could cause an agonizing and painful death. He wanted the state to use a single drug rather than a three-drug combination, and asked for a stay of execution pending a hearing on that motion.
The court on Monday denied a separate appeal based on Cooey's claim that his obesity was a bar to humane lethal injection. The argument also had been rejected by a federal appeals court in Cincinnati and the Ohio Supreme Court, with both courts ruling that he missed a deadline for filing appeals. Rules is rules. Your S.O.L.
Cooey is 75 pounds heavier than when he went to death row -- the result of prison food and 23-hour-a-day confinement, his lawyers said.
Send him to Maricopa, I hear the sheriff there doesn't let anyone get fat ...
They also argued that a migraine medicine prescribed by a prison physician could reduce the effect of the anesthetic used as part of the three-drug lethal injection. They claimed that Ohio has a history of botched executions.
The last Ohio inmate to be executed was Christopher Newton -- who was similar in size to Cooey -- in May 2007. The execution team had trouble putting IVs in his arm, which delayed his execution nearly two hours. There were similar problems in the execution of another inmate in 2006. A firing squad could have taken care of that glitch.
Cooey made an earlier trip to the death house. But a U.S. District Court judge intervened hours before his scheduled execution in July 2003 when the Ohio Public Defender's office said it needed more time to assess the case after an appeals court dismissed his previous attorneys for inadequate representation.
Cooey and a co-defendant were convicted in the sexual assaults and slayings of University of Akron students Dawn McCreery, 20, and Wendy Offredo, 21, in September 1986. His co-defendant was 17 and was sentenced to life in prison because of his age.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
10/14/2008 17:30 ||
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#1
Fat lady sings for fat inmate.
Posted by: Mike ||
10/14/2008 18:50 Comments ||
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#2
I don't care if they have to tap his groin. He deserved killing and he got a less messy exit than I'da given him
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/14/2008 19:43 Comments ||
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Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
10/14/2008 19:59 Comments ||
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#4
"the damage to the home will cost nearly $30,000 to repair. The rat was unharmed."
Not after Mom gets home....
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
10/14/2008 20:01 Comments ||
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#5
Sounds like George V. Higgins meets Carl Hiaasen. George wrote "The Rat on Fire", you know.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
10/14/2008 21:46 Comments ||
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#6
Hehe - reminds me of RAISING ARIZONA, the scene where the "LONE BIKER OF THE APOCALYPSE" Bounty Hunter = Devil discovers shennagians were afoot in Arizona when His attempt to casually kill a fluffy wabbit via hand grenade failed.
Police in Italy are looking into reports that the Naples mafia plans to carry out its threat to kill the author of the best-selling book "Gomorra," which has been made into a hit movie about mafia brutality, by Christmas.
Roberto Saviano, 29, has lived in hiding with 24-hour police protection for the past two years since the "Camorra," as the mob in his hometown is known, decided to punish him for the huge success of his book, which is based on his own investigations. It has sold 1.2 million copies in Italy and been translated into 42 languages. Now that it has hit the big screen and is a candidate for the Oscars, the mafia is even angrier and wants Saviano and his bodyguards killed as soon as possible.
Italian papers said the Naples mob's notorious Casalesi clan -- in the news recently over the murder of six Africans, which sparked riots by other immigrants -- had moved the threat into the "operative" phase and wanted Saviano dead by Christmas. The source of the tip-off was a "supergrass" related to the jailed Camorra godfather Francesco Schiavone, aka "Sandokan."
The Camorra has its finger in every pie in Naples and the surrounding areas, from the protection racket to drugs and even waste disposal, as Saviano's book documents in great detail.
With his shaved head, dark close-cropped beard, piercing eyes and black T-shirt, Saviano has become a symbol of the fight against organized crime for a new generation of Italians. He marked two years living under escort on Monday, telling a radio show of his relationship with the policemen who have been his only company since he was forced to leave his home.
"Many days are terrible," said Saviano, who spends some of his time boxing with escorts "who sometimes call me 'captain.'"
The writer said it was the millions of people who had bought the book who really worried the mafia. "It's the readers who have frightened the crime bosses, not me," said Saviano.
Some politicians urged the Italian public to show their solidarity with the writer. "Nobody must touch Saviano!" said the former cabinet minister Giovanna Melandri, denouncing the Camorra as "one of the main cancers blighting our country."
#2
I heard a story when I was grwing up, might be true, might be an urban legend, that there was once some sort of protest rally by an "Italian-American Anti-Defamation League" or some such, protesting The Godfather as an inaccurate portrayal of Italian-American subculture. In the middle of the proceedings, so they say, someone got shot to death by a hitman.
Posted by: Mike ||
10/14/2008 14:14 Comments ||
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Poll workers from opposing sides in the presidential race apparently clashed in a physical altercation Friday at a Cuyahoga Falls [OH] nursing home when one accused the other of improperly marking a ballot. The incident is being investigated by both the police and the Summit County elections board. The board probe could lead to a closer examination of the other votes with which the Democrat poll worker was involved.
The alleged assault piqued the interest of Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign -- as the voter in question reportedly wanted to vote for McCain but her ballot was initially marked for Sen. Barack Obama.
#3
I am sick & tired of voter fraud of any kind. I want to see lawsuits flying right & left, wailing & gnashing of teeth, and buckets of tears shed all around. Maybe someday national elections will be fair and will also seem to be fair.
CINCINNATI (AP) The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected an appeal from an Ohio prisoner who argued he is too obese to be executed. Richard Cooey is scheduled to be put to death Tuesday. The court denied his request for a stay without comment Monday. Cooey is 5-foot-7 and weighs 267 pounds.
State officials said prison staff examined Cooey's veins and found no problems that would interfere with the execution.
And if they did, it isn't anything that would keep him from a firing squad ...
Cooey has one more appeal pending before the court. It argues Ohio's method for lethal injections could cause an agonizing death and violates the constitutional prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.'
Cooey, 41, raped and killed two college students in 1986.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/14/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
I still haven't figured out how he got/stayed so fat in prison.
It's not like he can raid the refrigerator anytime he wants to....
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
10/14/2008 0:11 Comments ||
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#2
This jerk has already lived far too long. Kill him and be done with it. Lethal injection is far more merciful than what he did to the young women he killed.
#4
Cooey, 41, raped and killed two college students in 1986.
Gee. I wonder what sort of humane criteria were factored into his decision to rape and kill these two college students. Any others we don't know about? Execute the ba$tard and be done with it.
#5
The guillotine would avoid all these arguments about inadequate dosages of chemical agent to cause quick death. Nobody's neck is fat enough to resist the blade.
#6
Cooey has one more appeal pending before the court
How many appeals did his victim get. Neither this nor the 'one more' indicated that there was anything wrong with the verdict or the penalty. The state either carries out its responsibility or forfeits it to others to do - see first scene from the Godfather movie as one appeals an injustice to another power who will grant justice.
#9
barbara, if you go too jail fat you usually stay fat. If you go skinny then you tend too gain weight. One thing is that you are in a cell or pod for most the day without anything too do. Also i don't know about other states but when Zell Miller was gov. of georgia he did away with all the weight lifting equipment and such. And if he was that fat before he went too jail he was prob lazy as hell and wasn't going too do any kind of working out after he got there.
Posted by: chris ||
10/14/2008 8:57 Comments ||
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Guess he never read all the studies that show that obesity shortens your life, eh?
(He's lucky I'm not the judge. 1000 calories per day, strictly monitored, until he gets skinny....then we kill 'em. And I would be sure to be eating french fries when giving the ruling, too.)
To give you some context for cruel, here's how Richard Cooey killed his two victims.
A chunk of concrete dropped from an Interstate 77 bridge crashing onto Offredos black Pontiac Fiero as she and McCreery were returning from a waitressing shift in the wee hours of the morning.
The concrete had been dropped by then 17 year old Clint Dickens, who along with Cooey and Kenneth Horonetz jumped into Cooeys car and pretended to rescue the women. Instead, the three men took McCreery and Offredo to a wooded area. Horonetz got scared and fled, after which Cooey and Dickens subjected McCreery and Offredo to 3½ hours of fear and torture and agony,
By the time McCreery and Offredo were dead, they had been repeatedly raped, stabbed with a pocket knife and bludgeoned with a nightstick. Cooey then carved the letter X into the stomachs of both women.
Dawn McCreevy was a voracious reader who planned a career in fashion and marketing and longed to travel to London. Wendy Offredo was a National Honor Society scholar who aspired to be a fashion model and actress.
How about they beat his fat ass to death with a cinderblock?
#15
Actually this did work in washington state once - a guy got so fat that he claimed that hanging would be 'cruel and unusreal' punishment and got it deferred to life. I think WA since changed the 'default' method to injection.
Then the SOB got a liver transplant - all on the taxpayers dime.
Posted by: Tom ||
10/14/2008 11:25 Comments ||
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His final statement was: ''You [expletive] have not paid attention to anything I've had to say for the past 22 years. Why would you pay attention to anything I have to say now?''
#18
Personally, there was a movie with Pitt and Freeman which came to mind, then I remembered Method Man had a lyric quote I thought was more appropriate for this POS.
Bless you for your compassion and love for this lost soul. However the Gov't has followed it's God given mandate. Cooey chose not to repent. His choice, given by God.
#22
And not a single last meal joke in the whole bunch...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
10/14/2008 15:33 Comments ||
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Cooey was given his final meal around 4 p.m. Monday. It consisted of a T-bone steak with A-1 sauce, french fries, onion rings, hash browns, four eggs over easy, toast with butter, a pint of Rocky Road ice cream, and "real" bear claws from the bakery. Prison staff members said Cooey spent much of the early morning pacing and sitting quietly and went to sleep around 4 a.m.
Cooey slept for just over an hour and got up around 5:20 a.m. He showered and declined breakfast.
Something about his eyes, which seem smaller, and his forehead, which seems smoother. Compared with images from last year, he seems better rested -- yet also, strangely, a little sleepier.
Or go to YouTube: In the July 2007 CNN debate, his face turned sharp and keen with his impassioned call to send troops to Darfur, a frustrated pair of vertical lines in his brow as he described the suffering of refugees. This month, debating Sarah Palin, we heard similar anger in his voice about a lack of funding in Afghanistan -- but saw a tranquil brow.
Karen Bradley, a University of Maryland professor who studies politicians' body movement and what it conveys to voters, says it's "a little strange that nothing moves from his eyes on up" -- since she otherwise finds Biden a compelling communicator who powerfully telegraphs his conviction on a topic via other body language.
Barry Cohen, a Rockville plastic surgeon, is more blunt. "He clearly has had Botox," the doctor, a Republican, told us. "The lines are gone on his forehead. There is no way makeup or surgery could do that." Georgetown spa owner Erwin Gomez, who knows his way around some of D.C.'s most scrupulously groomed faces, agrees: "On the right and the left temple, you can see the lines, but he has no wrinkles in the forehead." He suspects the senator had a shot of Botox in his brow to disable his scowl muscle -- which can also bring an unwanted heaviness to the eyelids.
Well? "Completely untrue, completely unsubstantiated," said Biden spokesman David Wade. "A lot of Americans will have fewer worry lines on their faces" when George Bush is out office, he added. "But my goodness, until then can't we actually talk about the economy, the millions of foreclosures and the fact that Americans lost 2 trillion bucks in their 401(k)s this month? Seriously."
And if he did choose to try the 'tox -- hey, so what, because, supposedly, everyone is doing it these days! D.C. dermatologist Tina Alster declined to assess any one VIP face ("I know too many of them"), but among her political clientele, as many men as women are getting Botox -- Republicans and Democrats alike. She had to cut her summer vacation short to meet the surge in demand before the conventions. "People who knew they were going to be on TV," she explained. Oh, and not just politicians: journalists, too. Even grubby print journalists, who increasingly fill the ranks of the 24-7 cable punditocracy.
The stuff wears off in about six months, so she expects another rush before the inauguration, "at least among one party or another."
A Michigan mother drove roughly 12 hours to Omaha, so she could abandon her 13-year-old son at a hospital under the state's unique safe-haven law, Nebraska officials said Monday.
One hell of a car ride for a 13 year old ...
The boy from the Detroit area is the second teenager from outside Nebraska and 18th child overall abandoned in the state since the law took effect in July.
"I certainly recognize and can commiserate and empathize with families across our state and across the country who are obviously struggling with parenting issues, but this is not the appropriate way of dealing with them, whether you're in Nebraska or whether you're in another state," said Todd Landry, who heads the state's Department of Health and Human Services' division of children and family services.
There was no sign the boy was in immediate danger before he was abandoned early Monday, but an investigation into the boy's situation was still continuing, Landry said. The boy has been placed in an emergency shelter. Landry said the family doesn't appear to have ties to Nebraska and he wasn't sure if the family had sought help in Michigan first.
State officials have met with the boy's mother, Landry said but wouldn't immediately address her reasons for leaving her son. He said he believed the boy's parents were married but wasn't sure if the father agreed to the decision. "Regardless of why or how, our focus remains on the safety of the child," he said. If a parent believes that they can no longer support a child, or that the child is at risk by remaining with them, and they have the foresight to give the child to someone who can care for them, then they are probably right. As sad as it sounds, the State will probably take better care of the child.
The Nebraska law is flat-out wrong and needs to be changed. Now.
#1
Actually, what Nebraska has done is let the chickens come home to roost. States have made it a felony crime to hit your children but sometimes, particularly with young teen males, that's almost the only way to get the message across.
Okay, if the state is going to limit the power of parents to deal with their parenting problems, the state should now have to show how much better it can handle those problems. Nebraska is stepping up to the plate to do so. Let's see how well it works.
Posted by: ed ||
10/14/2008 1:39 Comments ||
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I can't imagine anything more dangerous to a child than MAKING a mother keep it when she doesnt want it. I'm sure there are plenty of fine people in Nebraska that are eager to adopt.
During the investigation, investigators said they found the girl's mother restricted her water intake to about half of a small Dixie cup per day. The mother only let the girl shower every two or three weeks, and watched her during each shower and bathroom break to keep the girl from surreptitiously drinking water, Urquhart said.
OTOH you hear about the parent who nearly lost their son to CPS because they fell at school and scraped their face and then someone at the grocery store turned them in for 'abuse' (look at his bruises! Must be abuse!) - lucky for them the school had documented the fall and scrape.
The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) would take initiative to bring back dreaded criminal Trimoti Subrata Bain, who was arrested in Kolkata, India.
Wonder how long he lasts before a 'crossfire' occurs ...
CID chief and Additional Inspector General of Police Mohammad Javed Patwary told The Daily Star last night, "We just heard about the arrest of Subrata Bain but we are yet to get any formal message from the Indian police."
"Being confirmed, we would take initiative to bring him back," the CID chief said. He said, "Even though there is no extradition treaty between Bangladesh and India, we have brought back several criminals who were hiding in India and like them we will try to bring him back following the procedures maintained earlier."
Javed Patwary said, "If the Indian police do not inform us, we will contact them."
The CID so far brought back eight criminals, including two top criminals--Khandaker Tanveerul Islam Joy and Hares Ahmed--who were hiding in India.
CID Special Superintendent of Police Abdullah Aref said the CID would try to bring back Subrata Bain as soon as possible. Sources said Indian Special Force arrested Bain in a midnight drive Saturday at a flat on Park Avenue in Kolkata.
Sources said Subrata Bain had been hiding in India after the home ministry on December 27, 2001, published a list of 23 top criminals of Dhaka and declared rewards for their capture. On the list, Bain was in the top five. Police said Bain has 17 cases including murders cases filed against him in Ramna Police Station alone.
Over/under = 2 days once back in RAB custody.
He has businesses in Kolkata even through his cadres regularly extorted huge amounts of money from businessmen in Bangladesh and sent the money to India through hundi, illegal money laundering.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/14/2008 00:00 ||
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Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
10/14/2008 13:05 Comments ||
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I never thought I'd have any respect for anything Howard Stern did. He just proved me wrong.
As for the content, well they are voting for Sen. Obama because he's Black. Nothing more, nothing less, nothing else. But we're the racists because we won't mindlessly vote for him. I'm gonna go throw up now.
#4
You could probably find a similar level of ignorance among any group of voters chosen randomly on the street. Most people aren't political junkies.
Posted by: Mike ||
10/14/2008 13:12 Comments ||
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Oh, one other thing folks. Don't put the verb "exposing" next to the proper noun "Howard Stern." It creates a mental picture that I do! not! need!
Posted by: Mike ||
10/14/2008 13:14 Comments ||
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#6
I think this little "experiment" is interesting because it reveals the total and blind devotion to The One among these voters that supercedes any ignorance. Does anyone doubt that if you took Obama's policies and assigned them to McCain, they would still pick Obama? Whether or not they know a thing about their respective policies is really beside the point here.
#7
Should have taken it a step further and asked if they agreed with Obama's policies of annexing the Sudetenland and signing a non-aggression pact with Russia.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
10/14/2008 13:57 Comments ||
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#8
An impressive selection of people to represent our fine country.
#9
Why bother, Rex? All of them would have said yes.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
10/14/2008 15:25 Comments ||
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#10
Oh yeah, great game I've played a couple of times. Kills'em when I tell them they have been agreeing with the McCain stance. "No, thats Obama's platform!" Nope, unless you count those times at the debate when Obama leads his time with, "well I agree with what John just said.." or that obama may have said something similar but came out later and discounted what he had said so which is it?"
In the dispute over the palatial Jinnah House in south Mumbai, Dina Wadia, the only daughter of Mohammad Ali Jinnah, has stated before the Bombay High Court that her father is not governed by Islamic succession laws, but by Hindu customary law instead.
Wonder how that will go down in Pakistan
The building in question, blessed not only with history but also location -- facing the sea from the posh Malabar Hill -- is currently valued at Rs 300 crore.
In 1947, when Jinnah left India for Pakistan, the Government had taken it over as "evacuee property". However, Dina had remained behind in Mumbai, having been disowned by Jinnah. Now 88 years old, she lives in the United States. After a series of legal moves, Dina Wadia filed a writ petition before the Mumbai High Court in 2007, claiming that Jinnah House could not be classified as "evacuee property", as her father had died without leaving behind a will. So, she went on to claim, all his properties, including Jinnah House, devolved to his successors.
The trouble was that under Muslim succession law, Jinnahs property would devolve to a long list of family claimants, only one of which was his daughter. This meant that even if Jinnah House was not "evacuee property", Dina Wadia would have to share Jinnah House with other relatives of her father.
"Wadia" means shipbuilder. The Wadias built almost 400 ships for the East India Company and the Royal Navy in Bombay such as the HMS Minden, aboard which the Star Spangled Banner was composed, HMS Cornwallis, aboard which the treaty of Nanking ceding Hong Kong to Britain was signed and HMS Tricomalee, the oldest British warship still afloat
To overcome this, her lawyer Fali Nariman has stated in court that Jinnah, as a Khoja-Shia, was not governed by Muslim succession law, but by Hindu customary law -- in which intestate succession is to the daughter alone. To establish this, Nariman has relied on a long line of cases where the Indian Supreme Court has held that Khoja-Shias are governed by Hindu customary law. Khoja-Shias, like many Muslim communities in India, have traditions that are a mix of Islamic and Hindu rituals.
However, given the complicated legal issues involved in the case, what has taken a backseat is this most interesting aspect of the case: the claim by Jinnahs only daughter that the man who forged Pakistan claiming to be the representative of Indias Muslims be governed by Hindu, not Islamic, laws.
The Government, led by Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Gopal Subramaniam, has countered Dina Wadias argument by alleging that Jinnah did not die intestate, but had willed Jinnah House to his sister Fatima. Since Fatima also left India for Pakistan in 1947, ASG Subramanian contends that Jinnah House is rightly classified as "evacuee property", and now belongs to the Government.
Nariman has countered this by arguing that since the will -- even if genuine -- is not probated, it is not admissible in court. Some other relatives of Fatima have joined the melee, claiming that as per the will, Jinnah House devolves to the heirs of Fatima Jinnah -- them.
To further add to the confusion, some within the previous NDA cabinet sided with Dina Wadia, and had informally agreed to give Jinnah House to her on a life-long lease. Former external affairs minister Jaswant Singh says this in a personal affidavit to the court.
While he admitted on August 29 that many within the NDA Government favoured giving Jinnah House to Dina, ASG Subramaniam claims that then prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayees final decision was that it remain with the Government.
Adding another twist to the tale, Nusli Wadia -- Dinas son and Jinnahs grandson
How ironic that the descendants of Mohammed Ali Jinnah, founder of Pakistan, are citizens of India
-- filed a petition with the Central Information Commission (CIC) in December 2007, demanding the release of former Attorney General Soli Sorabjees two legal opinions, in which he reportedly sided with the Wadias. In early October, the CIC ruled that the two opinions be made public. The Court has scheduled the next hearing for October 24.
Posted by: john frum ||
10/14/2008 00:00 ||
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Jinnah was a single-minded, tunnel-visioned cynic. If he had died, or Gandhi had died, or Britain could have held on 18 months longer (by which time both were dead), India might very well never have been partitioned. That would have been a tremendous blessing not only for everyone in the subcontinent but for the world as well.
#2
Humm, if my memory is any good his vision was an India as a confedratoiopn of Muslim states with the Hinus keeping only an area in the far South about twice the size of Ceylan. But perhaps I am confounding him with another guy.
Rehmat Alis concept of Pakistan was nebulous, impractical and fantasy-ridden. It was to include the entire northwest of India, Kashmir, the Kathiawar peninsula, Kutch, and several enclaves deep within UP, including Delhi and Lucknow. There were to be two independent Muslim states besides Pakistan: Bangistan comprising Bengal and Assam in the east and Osmanistan in the south. These two were to form a federation with Pakistan. The 243 principalities or Rajwaras were to be divided among caste Hindus and others and then herded together in a ghetto called Hanoodia. As for the Sikhs, they were to be pushed into an enclave called Sikhia. Other races and religions were to inhabit an encampment by the name of Hanadika. Every non-Muslim was to remain subservient to the master race he called The Paks. And yes, the subcontinent was to be renamed Dinia. He did not say how he was going to bring all that about.
Posted by: john frum ||
10/14/2008 11:35 Comments ||
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#1
The US = US-Allies haven't "lost" the GWOT" somuch as haven't absolutely or decisively "won" yet. AS BEFORE, US DOMIN OF DESIRED OWG-NWO = "GLOBALISM", ETC. IS NOT ASSURED OR CERTAIN YET, WHILST RADICAL ISLAM IS SERIOUSLY WEAKENED BUT STILL CAPABLE OF ACHIEVING VICTORY, espec POST-NUCLEARIZATION.
To paraphrase MACARTHUR > PROLONGED IN-DECISION, APPEASEMENT, + POLITICIZATION, etc. in WAR ONLY RESULTS IN PROLONGED/MORE CASUALTIES, + by extension RISK(S) OF DEFEAT.
Almost a year after two teenage girls were found dead -- allegedly executed by their father -- in the back seat of a taxicab in Texas, the FBI is saying for the first time that the case may have been an "honor killing" -- and the bureau is angering Muslim groups by calling it that. If we only had Sharia Law and the girls had worn Burquas this would have never happened.
Sarah Said, 17, and her sister Amina, 18, were killed on New Year's Day, but for nine months authorities deflected questions about whether their father -- the prime suspect and the subject of a nationwide manhunt -- may have targeted them because of a perceived slight upon his honor. How could a POS like this possibly have any honor?
The girls' great-aunt, Gail Gartrell, says the girls' father killed them both because he felt they disgraced the family by dating non-Muslims and acting too Western, and she called the girls' murders an honor killing from the start.
But the FBI held off on calling it an honor killing until just recently, when it made Yaser Abdel Said the "featured fugitive" on its Web site. "That's what I've been trying to tell everybody all along," Gartrell told FOXNews.com. "I would say that's a victory."
But others feel that calling the case an honor killing goes too far.
He said he worries that terms like "honor killing" may stigmatize the Islamic community. "We (Muslims) don't have the market on jealous husbands ... or domestic violence," Carroll said.
The United Nations estimates that 5,000 women are killed worldwide every year in honor killings -- mostly in the Middle East, where many countries still have laws that protect men who murder female relatives they believe have engaged in inappropriate activity. A U.N. report includes chilling examples of such cases.
"On the order of clerics, an 18-year-old woman was flogged to death in Batsail, Bangladesh, for "immoral behaviour," the report reads. "In Egypt, a father paraded his daughter's severed head through the streets shouting, 'I avenged my honour.'"
But Islamic scripture in no way condones such actions, Carroll said. Maybe they get the idea from watching too many Freddie Kruger movies.
"People have their own cultural nuances and norms from before they got their religion," he said. "This is not Islamic culture." These "nuances and norms" are developed in the crib like SIDS.
Regardless of whether religion itself is to blame, Gartrell said it is important that society recognizes the case as having a cultural element, just to prevent similar crimes in the future. "That culture is so different," Gartrell said. "If people had been more educated about it, they would have known that when the girls told people, 'Dad wants to kill me' -- they were serious."
Many of the threats against Sarah and Amina Said were known to their friends and classmates. High school friends told the Dallas Morning News that the girls sometimes came in with welts and bruises, which they confided were inflicted by their father. One time, Yaser Said reportedly went into one daughter's bedroom waving a gun and making threats on her life.
After he threatened to kill one daughter in December 2007 -- documented in text messages Sarah Said sent to a friend -- the girls and their mother, Patricia, fled from their home in Lewisville, Texas, to Tulsa, Okla. But the mother soon had a change of heart and went back, leading to the tragedy on January 1. Some, including Gartrell, believe the mother may even have been complicit in the murders.
Dr. Phyllis Chasler, author of several books, including "The Death of Feminism: What's Next in the Struggle for Women's Freedom," said that the case fits the description of an honor killing. "The premeditation, the family collaboration, and the particular rules (set for the girls) make this consistent with an honor killing -- not just domestic violence," she said.
She said she hoped that calling the case an "honor killing" might indicate a shift in attitude at the FBI. "I think this may suggest that law enforcement is beginning to realize that they may have to treat these incidents differently if they are to either prevent or prosecute," Chasler told FOXNews.com.
She noted that the United Kingdom has a special police unit to deal with "honor-related violence," and said that she hoped that the situation in the U.S. does not get to the point where that becomes necessary.
But an FBI spokesman played down the significance of the listing, saying that the change on the wanted listing was simply due to more information coming out about the case since it was first listed and that it shouldn't matter what the case is called. "We're just looking at how do we find the guy?" said FBI special agent Mark White, media coordinator in the bureau's Dallas office.
Irving Police Department Public Information Officer David Tull agreed. "We just look at the facts. The man killed his two daughters. This is a domestic violence, multiple-capital murder case." Tull said that, unfortunately, there have still been no sightings or major leads -- a fact that distresses Gartrell. Check the local Mosques.
"I'm very upset about it," said Gartrell, who argues that the case needs special consideration. "This is not a typical murder case. When a family member murders another family member to protect [the family] name -- that's different."
A research team led by David E. Chavez at Los Alamos National Laboratory (USA) has now developed a novel tetranitrate ester.
As reported in the journal Angewandte Chemie, the compound has a particularly interesting characteristic profile: it is solid at room temperature, is a highly powerful explosive, and can be melt-cast into the desired shape.
Thanks to its low melting point of only about 85 degreesC, which is well below its decomposition point (141 degreesC), it can be melted and poured into molds, a much easier process for the production of explosive components.
The new compound contains four nitrate ester groups (-ONO2) and two nitrate groups (-NO2) bound to a total of six carbon atoms. Its crystals demonstrate the highest density found for a nitrate ester so far.
Computer calculations predict that the new tetranitrate ester should have an explosive power as high as that of octogen (HMX) - currently one of the highest-performance explosives. The sensitivity of the new compound toward shocks, friction, and sparks is equivalent to that of nitropenta.
#3
With a melting point of only 85 deg C, you would have to be careful not to leave your shaped charges sitting in your closed car in the summer. At least in Iraq.
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.
Poll workers from opposing sides in the presidential race apparently clashed in a physical altercation Friday at a Cuyahoga Falls [OH] nursing home when one accused the other of improperly marking a ballot. The incident is being investigated by both the police and the Summit County elections board. The board probe could lead to a closer examination of the other votes with which the Democrat poll worker was involved.
Joe Biden looks . . . different. 
