If you decide to install your own hardwood floors, be very careful when trying to cut small pieces on a table saw. If the blade catches one of those small pieces and shoots it out the back of the saw it could catch you right on the end of the thumb while travelling at approximately 700 miles an hour. Should this happen, your thumb will swell up to twice its normal size, turn 11 separate colors at once, and begin blinking on and off like a defective light bulb. Your pain meter will immediately peg. Your wife or husband will ask where the hell you learned those words, or maybe warn you that you have to eat with that mouth.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/15/2002 07:14 pm ||
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#1
Fred, the injured party wouldn't be anyone we know, would it?
Hope your thumb gets better soon. (Typing must be a b*tch. I'm sorry!)
#2
One word: Pusher wood block. And safety goggles.
Our carpenter (a family friend) lost 3/4" of his handed thumb cutting on a table saw in our basement. He was a lousy carpenter in other ways, too, it turned out, but that was the worst.
(My dad was also a lousy judge of contractors; our landscape architect dropped a foot-thick tree branch through our neighbor's porch.)
Posted by: Dan Hartung ||
08/16/2002 1:12 Comments ||
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#3
I can still move it, so it's not busted. It just hurts when I do... The floor looks a lot better than my thumb.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/16/2002 7:08 Comments ||
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If Iraq strikes at Israel with non-conventional weapons, causing massive casualties among the civilian population, Israel could respond with a nuclear retaliation that would eradicate Iraq as a country. This grave assessment, from American intelligence, was presented last week to the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee. During the 1991 Gulf War, then U.S. defense secretary Richard Cheney told CNN that Israel could respond with nuclear weapons to an Iraqi strike that included the use of chemical weapons. This assessment has only been strengthened since then, because according to all the signs, Iraq now has biological weapons that could cause mass casualties. No doubt we'll all feel very sorry afterwards. Not as sorry as Iraq, though. And our postmodernist grandchildren will no doubt argue that such strikes weren't necessary because plague was, after all, a treatable disease, while being a thin film of lingering radioactivity isn't...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/15/2002 12:50 pm ||
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I suspect that Harry Truman's memoirs are on Ariel Sharon and Bejny Boom-Boom's reading list right now, and there's probably a lot of folks in suits and accents visiting the Truman Library for research purposes.
Posted by: Laurence Simon ||
08/16/2002 7:46 Comments ||
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If Iraq attacks Israel in response to an American invasion, as it did during the Persian Gulf War, this time Israel will react, the Israeli air force chief said. Maj. Gen. Dan Halutz, speaking in comments televised Wednesday, did not say how Israel would respond, but Israeli officials have hinted that the response to a conventional attack would consist of air strikes and ground attacks by airborne forces. In 1991, Iraq fired 39 Scud missiles with conventional warheads into Israeli cities, causing extensive damage but few casualties. The United States asked Israel not to respond, as this would have led Arab countries to quit the broad alliance Washington had formed. Israel complied, reluctantly. This time there will be precious few Arabs in any coalition, and Israel defending herself isn't going to make those who aren't in it any madder than they already are. But then, they're always mad about something, aren't they?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/15/2002 12:51 pm ||
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The ruling Revolutionary Command Council on Thursday nominated President Saddam Hussein for another term. Wotta surprise.
INA said the council, Iraq's top decision-making body, re-nominated Saddam because "his leadership of the revolution and the state ... has been a strong guarantee for protecting Iraq's independence and continuing on the march to development despite the imperialist and Zionists' plots and the unjust embargo imposed on our people," INA reported. "We want to renominate Sammy because he's got us all in poop up to our upper lips. When somebody else gets in, they're gonna line us up along a wall and shoot us in batches, but that's better than having Sammy's guys kill us slowly if we try to dump him. So there."
A decree in May set the referendum for Oct. 15. Golly. Wonder how he'll do?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/15/2002 12:51 pm ||
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Aircraft from the U.S.-British coalition patrolling southern Iraq bombed two Iraqi air defense sites, the U.S. Central Command said. The attack on Wednesday with precision-guided weapons at about 5 p.m. EDT was a response to Iraqi actions threatening coalition planes patrolling the southern no-fly zone, a Central Command statement said. Yup. Routine patrols, routine whacks at air def sites...
In Iraq, an unidentified military spokesman said four civilians were injured in the attacks, the official Iraqi News Agency reported Thursday. It's always a good idea to keep a good stock of civilians on hand at air defense sites...
"The evil U.S. and British warplanes attacked residential areas and service installations in Wasit and Missan provinces ... Wednesday night," the spokesman said, according to agency. Wasit and Missan are 106 miles and 267 miles respectively southeast of Baghdad. "Our courageous air defenses drove the planes away," he told INA. "Alistair?"
"Yes, Dwayne?"
That looks like the courageous Iraqi air defenses!"
"Oh, dear! Let us fly away, quickly!"
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/15/2002 12:51 pm ||
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I find it amazing that after 10 years there are still air defense sites to hit in the no fly zones. Our boys know that area like the back of their hands. Either we're just playin' around or Sammy is indeed moving new gear into the areas all the imte.
Posted by: Bob ||
08/15/2002 13:20 Comments ||
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A hardline conservative cleric blasted Iran's reformers Thursday for promoting "American influence" and "insulting God" in their battles with a powerful state institution that rules whether proposed laws agree with Islam. I think it's really neat the way he sprays spittle when he rants...
"Those who weaken the Guardians Council or the Revolutionary Guards are spreading discord among the people and want to promote American influence and secularism in our society," charged Mohiyeddine Haeri Shirazi. "Criticizing the decisions of the Guardians Council and the constitution comes down to criticizing the commands of God, to insulting God." Shirazi is the prayer leader in southern city of Shiraz. "Us theocrats are the state, and you're not. We interpret the word of God and you do as you're told. That's Islamic democracy..."
The reformist-dominated parliament regularly clashes with the Guardians Council, controlled by conservative clerics, which throws out proposed laws it deems are not in accordance with its interpretation of Islam. And ignores the rest...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/15/2002 07:19 pm ||
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Islamic militants arrested a group of construction workers for gang raping a 12-year-old boy, the Khorasan daily newspaper reported Thursday. The child had been kidnapped and taken to a building under construction in a residential area of northern Tehran where he was raped, the paper said without providing further details. Iranian law provides that those found guilty of rape or practicing homosexuality either be thrown from a mountain top in a bag or hanged. It's interesting, watching Evil deal with evil...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/15/2002 07:22 pm ||
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A man convicted of stealing a car was condemned to amputation of his right hand and left foot by a revolutionary court in southern city of Shiraz, the Khabar newspaper said Thursday. The thief, identified only as Ruhollah, was wearing make-up and women's dress to pass for a prostitute, together with his cousin, to rob his clients. Ruhollah was also convicted of carrying a knife, using a firearm and disturbing the peace. The court condemned his cousin to three years in prison as well as giving him a five-year suspended jail term. Iran applies a strict Islamic judicial code, with punishments including amputation and stoning to death. Executions are frequent. That's why they get along so well with the Soddies lately...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/15/2002 07:25 pm ||
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Iran has arrested and extradited to their countries of origin more than 400 al-Qaeda suspects, a website managed by former journalists of the suspended reformist daily Nourooz reported Thurday. The Emruz site, quoting an unidentified source, said "more than 400 members of al-Qaeda have been arrested and extradited by Iran". In February, Iran spoke of the arrest of 150 al-Qaeda suspects and said all of them were deported to their countries of origin, mostly Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. "In addition to the 16 Saudis, nationals from Yemen, Kuwait and Pakistan as well as Westerners — British, French, Dutch and Belgians — have been arrested and handed over to their embassies before being extradited," Emruz said quoting its source. The press reported earlier this year that 200 Pakistanis were also rounded up, but the information was never confirmed by the Iranian authorities or the Pakistani embassy in Tehran. I imagine they sorted through them and decided which ones they wanted to keep. The ones dumped would be cannon fodder...
President Mohammad Khatami promised during a visit to neighboring Afghanistan on Tuesday that Iran would never become a haven for al-Qaeda and that militants from the group would be arrested and deported. Unless they find employment locally.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/15/2002 07:31 pm ||
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A Muslim lawyer has reportedly accused Norway's Christian Democrats (Kr.F) as being racist because the party does not allow non-Christian members to hold posts. Abid Raja says that he wants to play an active role in the Kr.F but was denied doing so because the party's regulations restrict posts to professed Christians, according to Norwegian daily Vart Land. Last week Raja gave up his role as spokesman for the World Islamic Mission in Oslo, which precluded him from joining a political party, but has found he can only become a Kr.F member. "The Christian Democratic Party is high on my list," he told the daily. Its policies on alcohol, drugs and social issues appealed to him. The Kr.F, which was founded in 1933, has been part of Norway's coalition governments since 1963. Its leader Kjell Magne Bondevik has been prime minister for the past five years. Raja said that the party was racist because the country's definition of racism included discrimination based upon religious faith. To me, it would make sense that if you're going to be a Christian Democrat, first you'd have to be a Christian and then you'd have to be a democrat. If you're going to be spokesman for the World Islamic Mission in Oslo, you have to be an Islamist, right?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/15/2002 07:48 pm ||
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Pakistan's Supreme Court ordered authorities Thursday to release immediately a Christian sentenced to death in 1998 for blasphemy. He's been in jug for four years?
Defense attorney Abid Minto told the court Thursday that his client, Ayub Masih, had never made the allegedly blasphemous statements, but instead was a victim of a plot to steal his land, the government-controlled Associated Press of Pakistan reported. The court agreed. Masih was arrested in Punjab province in 1996 after a neighbor complained that he made statements supporting British writer Salman Rushdie, who was condemned to death by Iranian leaders because his novel "The Satanic Verses" was considered blasphemous to Islam. And supporting Rushdie would be, of course, blasphemous, 'cuz an ayatollah said it was...
Masih was convicted in 1998 and sentenced to death, a decision that sparked nationwide protests by minority Christian groups and human rights organizations. Nevertheless, lower appeals courts upheld the conviction. Minto produced evidence that the accuser had used the conviction to force Masih's family off of their land and then acquired the deed to it through a housing program, the agency reported. To the Muslim, the land is much more valuable than a Christian's life...
Under Pakistani Islamic law, only the word of a Muslim accuser is needed to prosecute a non-Muslim on blasphemy charges, which can carry the death penalty upon conviction. That's because, as we all know, Muslims never lie...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/15/2002 12:51 pm ||
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Nasser Jerar, who lost his legs and an arm a year ago during preparations of a terrorist attack, was one of the most wanted men on the IDF's suspect list as the orchestrator of many Hamas attacks; most recently, he was the mastermind behind a plot to bring down a multi-story building in Tel Aviv. A true Bad Guy, at least what was left of him...
Shin Bet information led the counter-terror unit to the village of Tubas in the pre-dawn hours yesterday, where Jerar was believed hiding in a building complex. The force surrounded the complex and called out with megaphones for Jerar to give himself up. When there was no response, the force took neighbor Nidal Abu Muhsein, the 19-year-old nephew of a B'Tselem field investigator, and had him go door-to-door calling on the residents to leave. They took a nephew of a guy who works as a hand-wringer for a subversive "human rights" organization. That was bright.
The youth knocked on several doors, calling on people to leave. They all did, but not in the case of one house. When Muhsein knocked on that door, said the IDF, a burst of bullets killed him. Tubas residents said the bullets did not come from inside the house. Do the Tubas residents mean the IDF waxed him themselves? Why would they do that? They didn't like him?
In any case, troops opened fire, but unsure whether Jerar had been killed, and suspecting he may have booby-trapped the house, the army called in a bulldozer, which proceeded to knock down the house on Jerar. "Ding-dong, the witch is dead...!"
Jerar, 44, was born in Wadi Burkin, in the northern West Bank, and was one of the Hamas military commanders in the Nablus and Jenin area, orchestrating many terrorist attacks carried out inside Israel over the past few years. Until a year ago, he took part in many of those attacks, but in May 2001, on his way to ambush IDF forces, one of the bombs he had prepared blew up, taking his legs and an arm. Confined to a wheelchair, he continued playing a leading role in Hamas military activities in the Jenin area, becoming commander of the Hamas cells of the northern West Bank. "Most people didn't expect Jerar to actually die. Rather, they expected him to gradually erode, one piece being blown off at a time, until there was nothing left."
This article starring:
NASER JERAR
Hamas
Nidal Abu Muhsein, the 19-year-old nephew of a B'Tselem field investigator
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/15/2002 12:51 pm ||
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Marwan Barghouti was charged yesterday in Tel Aviv District Court with murder, incitement to murder, attempted murder, conspiracy, membership of a terrorist organization, acting as an accessory to murder, and activity in a terrorist organization. The indictment branded Barghouti an "arch terrorist whose hands are bloodied by dozens of terror actions." And he's one of the moderates...
Two of Barghouti's deputies, Nasr Aweis and Nasr Abu Hamid, also jailed by Israel, are to serve as witnesses for the prosecution against their former chief, as are a number of other Palestinian activists currently in Israeli custody. "Alright! Alright! Get off my head! I'll testify!"
The prosecution claims that Barghouti, who was subordinate to Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat, served as the head of Fatah, the Tanzim and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades in the West Bank. Any terror pie that didn't come out of the Hamas or Islamic Jihad oven came from Marwan...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/15/2002 12:51 pm ||
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Setting fire to U.S. and Israeli flags, and chanting "Dear Saddam, bomb Tel Aviv," several hundred lemmings Palestinians demonstrated Thursday in support of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and against U.S. policies. My goodness! Has anything like that ever happened before?
The demonstrators waved Palestinian flags as well as posters of Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat and Saddam, who fired dozens of Scud missiles into Israel during the 1991 Gulf War. They were marching through Rafah refugee camp, a flashpoint of violence in the south of the Gaza Strip since the Palestinian uprising which began nearly two years ago. "We are marching to Iraq, giving millions of martyrs on the way," they chanted. Good idea. And you're leaving... when?
Many of the marchers were youths and some were children. Some marched with bare chests, clutched automatic machineguns and had black paint smeared on their faces like combat soldiers. They like to pretend they are...
Raouf Barbakh, a member of Arafat's Fatah movement and an organizer of the rally, said Palestinians and Iraqis shared "the same present and the same future." That's what we're counting on...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/15/2002 12:51 pm ||
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Negotiations between the Palestinian Authority and Hamas on an end to bombing attacks inside Israel have failed, PA Minister, Nabil Sha'ath said Thursday. "To our regret, Hamas thwarted every plan," Sha'ath said in an interview to the Palestinian radio station The Voice of Palestine. Sha'ath added that contacts between the PA and Hamas in recent days had failed to produce any result in the creation of a national unity government that would include all of the Palestinian groups. You heard itread it here first...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/15/2002 01:06 pm ||
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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.
