Scientists have discovered giant sinking mucus "houses" that double the amount of food on the sea floor. The mucus houses, or "sinkers," are produced by tadpole-like animals not much bigger than your index finger. As sinkers drop to the sea floor, small sea critters and other food particles get stuck to the mucus and end up on the bottom of the ocean. For years scientists have observed loads of life at the bottom of the ocean. But they weren't able to find enough food — carbon — to support all that life. Sinkers, previously overlooked, may help fill that gap.
"We have 10 years of data on sinkers, and using average figures from those years, we can account for twice as much carbon than sediment traps can measure below 1,000 meters," Rob Sherlock of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute told LiveScience. The animals responsible for making sinkers are called giant larvaceans. They spin a mucus web, about a yard in diameter. They sit in the middle of the house and use it to filter food that is small enough for them to eat. "Larger particles get stuck to the outside of these filters, and after some amount of time the filters get plugged and the animal moves out," Sherlock said. "The house deflates and begins to sink, picking up more particles. It's a fast-sinking carbon bomb." Sherlock usually sees twice as many sinkers as active houses, and sometimes four to five times that amount. So how did they evade scientists for so long?
"A sinker is basically snot," Sherlock said. "It's very fragile. We have very skilled ROV (Remotely Operated Vehicle) pilots and special containers to collect these things. We were only able to adequately collect one out of four."
The bottom of the ocean is covered with giant larvacean snot. Enjoy your weekend at the beach.
Posted by: Steve ||
06/10/2005 15:51 ||
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#1
I don't care how much the grant is to study this, I ain't doing it.
Too bad Costeau's dead. He'd do anything for money...
(CBS/AP) An attack on a Los Alamos nuclear lab auditor outside a bar was unrelated to his status as a whistleblower, authorities said Thursday, calling into question the man's allegation that he was beaten to ensure his silence. Tommy Hook, 52, suffered a broken jaw, a herniated disc and missing teeth in the attack outside the Cheeks nightclub in Santa Fe early Sunday. He has said the beating was carried out by thugs intent on keeping him from talking about alleged financial irregularities at the nuclear lab.
But investigators disputed that account Thursday, saying the attack occurred after Hook's car struck a pedestrian while leaving the club.
Hah, I said it smelled funny
"Facts, evidence and information obtained during the course of this investigation has led investigators to believe that the altercation involving Mr. Hook is an isolated incident and is in no way related to Mr. Hook's whistleblower status at the Los Alamos National Laboratories," Santa Fe Deputy Police Chief Eric Johnson said in a statement. The investigation is "leaning toward a fight in the parking lot as a result of Mr. Hook backing into a pedestrian," Johnson said. He said after Hook hit the pedestrian, he exited his vehicle, "at which time the confrontation escalated into a physical attack."
Pedestrians buddies join in, kick the shit out of the guy, walk away happy, he tries to coverup and maybe score some cash
Police said they have identified people involved in the attack and were sending the case to prosecutors. They did not release the identities of anyone involved. "It's going to go to the D.A. and they're going to have to decipher who should be charged with a crime," Johnson said.
Can you say "Making a false statement"?
Hook did not return calls Thursday. A colleague and fellow whistleblower, Chuck Montano, said Hook had secluded himself to recover from his injuries.
Posted by: Steve ||
06/10/2005 13:59 ||
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Hook had secluded himself to recover from his injuries.
Never saw this on "The Untouchables"...
Thieves who operate by the seat of their pants and not much else have resurfaced in southern Cambodia, after months of lying low after a crackdown. Dubbed the underwear gang by villagers, the scantily clad robbers have struck in several parts of Takeo province during the last few weeks, the Cambodian Daily newspaper reported yesterday.
Sok Tum, a police commander in Tram Kak district, told the newspaper that two burglars wearing nothing but underpants and daubed in oil - to make them harder to identify and their bodies more difficult to grip by pursuers - had raided two homes in Leay Bo sub-district on May 30. Muldoon, it's a hunch but let's focus on oil covered guys in their underwear.
Other areas had also been targeted he said. Residents have restarted 24-hour community watch patrols to prevent further attacks. "The underwear thieves resurfaced because the villagers stopped their patrols," Sok Tum said, attributing the cessation to the people's need to focus on farming. "We encouraged the villagers to keep watching their neighbourhoods. And they can ring my police any time." Calling all ox carts, calling all ox carts...
Previous underwear gangs were accused of rape and others carried automatic rifles, but the current one appears to be unarmed, preferring stealth and intimidation over brute force. Sounds like a Cambodian "thing"...
Times have changed.
WASHINGTON -- Elvis Presley was considered an exemplary soldier and denied special treatment in the Army despite his enormous celebrity for fear that would detract from the "highly favorable public impression" he had made serving as a mere draftee armored scout car driver in Germany.
World heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis won the Legion of Merit for "outstanding meritorious conduct" as an Army sergeant in World War II and was able to use his influence to gain admission to officer candidate school for fellow soldier and future baseball great Jackie Robinson and other African-Americans otherwise discriminated against in the military.
Actor Steve McQueen, who played tough-guy, loner roles in "The Great Escape," "The Sand Pebbles" and other memorable war movies, was something of the same in real life--doing 30 days' confinement for going AWOL as a U.S. Marine.
And Beat Generation author Jack Kerouac, remembered for his wild, unfettered stream-of-consciousness novels, lasted just eight days in the Navy before being placed under psychiatric observation and later discharged as unfit for military service.
Continued on Page 49
Lyndon Johnson, then a leading member of Congress, joined the Naval Reserve after Pearl Harbor as a commander, assigned to war production duties. Traveling to the Pacific, he flew as an observer on a bombing mission over New Guinea and was awarded the Silver Star for gallantry by Gen. Douglas MacArthur, the most decorated U.S. soldier in history.
Kissin up by halftrack mak, believe L Bones Johson also won a Purple Heart for a bad knee boo boo during his 3 week congressional tour of duty.
#2
Strange. Very strange.
Previous attempts to obtain family or personel records from the National Personnel Records Center, Military Personnel Records,9700 Page Blvd., St. Louis, Mo. 63132-5100, would have the stock reply of - "The facility had a major fire in 1973 which destroyed nearly 80% of pre-1960 records. It has Army and Air Force records only."
Suddenly all this appears.
#3
Jert-
Sadly, a generation or so of slacker personnel at NPRC used the 'fire' excuse when they just didn't feel like doing their jobs. Even the NPRC website now admits that only a very small percentage of the records held there - mostly pre-WWII Army and USAAF, if I remember correctly - were ever affected, and a surprising number of those were actually reconstructed.
And BTW, supposedly Elvis always remembered his military time with considerable fondness. Say what you will about the King - he did his time in the suit and did it well.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
06/10/2005 10:33 Comments ||
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#4
He had "a good many bloody struggles with the mosquitos," said Abraham Lincoln of his military experience in the Black Hawk War.
Posted by: Red Dog ||
06/10/2005 12:14 Comments ||
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#5
Jimmy Stewart was in there with the best of the lot.
An interesting view from a guy who served with Stewart... snipped from near the end: "After Stewart's death in 1997, Air Power History published a memoriam that included this little-known item: "In 1966, during his annual two weeks of active duty, Stewart requested a combat assignment and participated in a bombing strike over Vietnam. Stewart's stepson, 1st Lt. Ronald McLean, was killed at age 24 in the Vietnam War.
In his World War II years, Stewart flew 20 combat missions, among them the tough ones: Brunswick, Bremen, Frankfurt, Schweinfurt and Berlin."
This will be pretty easy to ace, after reading the article.
#8
Jert-
My apologies, I misremebered the data. Would point out tho that that still leaves the millions who served in the USN, USMC, USAF (after '64), and USCG - many of whom have gotten the 'destroyed records' letter.
Also, while I was doing some research for my book, I ran across a great many veteran's affairs sites websites that stated flatly that the damage wasn't as bad as stated or was reconstructed. I know a WWII USAAF vet of who requested - and GOT - his records in 2004, and his discharge was in Summer '45. So I'm inclined to agree that something's fishy, just not sure what.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
06/10/2005 19:11 Comments ||
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#9
Okay he asked, what book? And put me down for one.
#10
Ship-
Hopefully the leadership will allow me one shameless plug: The Long Patrol: CSS H.L. Hunley 1863-2004 , tenatively scheduled for November 05 from Brundage Publishing. Waiting on the final edit proofs now before we get a solid publication date.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
06/10/2005 21:02 Comments ||
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#11
On 16 Jan 2001 Teddy Roosevelt received the Congressional Medal of Honor (somewhat late) for his bravey on San Juan Hill in 1898.
From the Rantburg Weather Center: A hurricane watch has been issued from the mouth of the Pearl River to Panama City, Fla. Friday as Tropical Arlene continues to gain strength, according to the National Hurricane Center. On its current track, the center of Arlene will be approaching the northern coast of the Gulf of Mexico on Saturday. However, most of the weather associated with Arlene will arrive much earlier than the center, according to a report issued Friday. Some strengthening is forecasted during the next 24 hours and it is possible that Arlene could reach hurricane strength before landfall, the National Hurricane Center said. Maximum sustained winds are near 60 mph with higher gusts. Also at 11 a.m., a tropical storm warning was issued for the northern coast of the Gulf of Mexico from Grand Isle, La., to St. Marks, Fla., including Lake Pontchartrain.
The poorly-defined center of Arlene has reformed a little north of the previous position, according to the National Hurricane Center.
At 11 a.m. EDT, Arlene's poorly defined center was about 470 miles south-southeast of Pensacola. The storm was moving north at about 13 mph, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said. Wind and rain extended 150 miles to the north and east from the storm's center.
Projected Track map here.
Posted by: Steve ||
06/10/2005 13:25 ||
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I'm the one who's below sea-level, Mr. Weather Dude.
Posted by: Matt ||
06/10/2005 15:21 Comments ||
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Don't worry Matt, you got those emergency flood walls to protect 'ya. Did Orleans Parish remember to pay their lift bill this month?
Prisoners in Saudi jails have sent a barrage of complaints to the country's first human rights commission, officials from the group said. Saudi Arabia set up the National Human Rights Association (NHRA) in March 2004 as part of government efforts to improve the kingdom's human rights record . Western diplomats say there was also foreign pressure for the creation of the commission. "We have received about 2000 valid complaints so far - most of those have been processed and resolved, either through letters to officials or some sort of action," Dr Lubna al-Ansari, an executive director of the NHRA, told Aljazeera on Thursday.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/10/2005 00:00 ||
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Lol! The headaches of that democracy thingy will do the Saudis in.
If they were smart, they'd clear the decks of all their 1/4 measures and follow the Qatari Modelâ¢. It's the Muzzy "No Pain & No Gain... No Really" solution.
Vela Pie pokes her head out of a wooden tool shed before emerging slowly, afraid for her life after seeing two fellow Haitians beheaded with machetes.
The assailants attacked a group of Haitian farm workers while they slept in wooden shacks in this northwestern agricultural town of 8,000. Residents and authorities believe they were seeking revenge for the killing of a Dominican woman, allegedly by Haitians.
"They arrived at night and started shooting in the air, saying they were guards," said Pie, 68, hiding on the property of friendly Dominicans. "When people walked outside, the men started swinging their machetes."
Hundreds of Haitians have fled or been forcibly repatriated since Monday's attacks, while others like Pie have gone into hiding. Many had arrived last weekend to work in banana fields during the June harvest.
The May 9 attack that killed the Dominican woman prompted the government to expel more than 2,000 Haitians, while some Dominicans went on a rampage in Haitian ghettos, burning dozens of shacks.
Continued on Page 49
MIAMI, June 10 (UPI) -- U.S. authorities will reportedly allow four Cubans who arrived on U.S. shores in a classic car converted into a boat to stay. The creator of the unconventional contraption, Rafael Diaz Rey, his wife and two children will be allowed to stay in the country because they have the proper paperwork, the Florida Sun-Sentinel reported Friday.
"He had the pink slip for the Merc and the inspection sticker was cutrrent"
U.S. customs officials intercepted the family off the coast of Florida Tuesday in a bright-blue 1948 Mercury.
The apprehension marked the third time in two years the U.S. Coast Guard apprehended a classic jalopy on the seas heading for U.S. shores.
Last year, a 1959 tail-finned Buick -- also piloted by Diaz -- was found off the coast of Marathon, Fla. In 2003, 1951 Chevy truck was caught near Key West. In 1994, Diaz tried navigating the high seas to the states for the first time in a car-boat made out of a 1947 Buick.
Give this guy a guest spot on "Monster Garage". I'll bet Jay Leno or David Letterman will have this guy on, they're both car nuts.
Posted by: Steve ||
06/10/2005 08:55 ||
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Monster Garage?
Heck, isn't Junkyard Wars still on some channel or another?
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
06/10/2005 9:09 Comments ||
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#6
Okay, I have a question. And please don't flame because I'm seriously not trying to be a troll. Can somebody tell me why illegal aliens from Cuba are acceptable? Is it that there are less of them, or simply because Castro is a tyrant asshole? And if it's the latter, would Mexicans be more accepted if Mexico went the Stalinist path?
It is because of a 1966 law, the Cuban Adjustment Act, that stipulated Cubans who made it to American territory could stay. (So, if you Cuban and make it, you are not illegal.)Until 1994, this meant that if you were caught by the Coast Guard, you could stay "American Territory", but following the 1994 exodus, Clinton 'reinterpreted' the law, to mean only those who made it to land could stay.
This guy is allowed to stay because he had a visa to enter the U.S., but Castro was being petty and not giving him an exit permit.
By the way, I'm a 1994 rafter, and I'm a little envious of this guy. I mean, I had to row in a raft made out of inner tubes for God's sake.
#8
It's also a matter of numbers - open borders to Mexicans and 50 million would be here within 20 yrs (crossers and high birth rate). They can't be absorbed.
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/10/2005 10:48 Comments ||
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#9
This Buick should have been saved, displayed at the entrance to U.N. in New York and in Europe and after a couple of years moved to Smithsonian for all the next generations to see the real history.
#10
BH - Speaking for myself, I certainly have no problem with immigrants of any nationality. I have a problem with illegal immigrants however. This Diaz guy is not an illegal immigrant, and he's got panache and persistence to boot! He's the kind of new immigrant blood our nation needs to be infused with periodically to remind the rest of us just how lucky we are.
Posted by: Dar ||
06/10/2005 10:52 Comments ||
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#11
So it sounds like a technicality based on the law that Sorge cited that makes these immigrants legal, even if the method of arrival is less than orthodox. That's fine, I just want to understand why it's assumed that, as Dar says, "He's the kind of new immigrant blood our nation needs to be infused with periodically to remind the rest of us just how lucky we are." We know nothing of his background. He may have been a doctor or a criminal. He's accepted by virtue of having made it onto US soil, whereas Mexicans who accomplish the same goal are not.
Sorge: I'm not trying to give offense. I'm glad you made it here and have made a life for yourself. I'm just pointing out that there seems to be a double-standard in place and wanted to know what factors make this logical. I'm guessing that Frank G. is correct: that the numbers make the difference.
#12
BH - He's displayed how innovative, persistent, and hard-working he is; how badly he wants to make a better life for his family; and he was approved for a visa--I think he'll make a fine addition.
Even if he is a criminal, he'll still raise the general IQ level of our criminal element! How many criminals display the ingenuity and persistence he has, while bringing his entire family with him? I think his travails to get to our shore speak volumes for his character.
Sorge--Can you speak about what repercussions you would have faced, if any, if you'd been returned to Cuba as Rafael had been at least once before?
Posted by: Dar ||
06/10/2005 12:17 Comments ||
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#13
In additional the whole "law" thing, there is the matter than a Cuban refugee is not likely to put his former homeland's government and policy above his own. You don't have groups of people from Cuba advocating that southern Florida be merged into Cuba and separated from the US.
Contrast that to MALDEF, La Raza, LULAC, the Aztlan types, etc. Now most Mexicans probably don't support those radicals, but some will, and they can live here and still be Mexicans in all matters (voting in Mexico, speaking only Spanish, sending money to Mexico).
I would have been in deep trouble, because I left the day before I was suppossed to begin my military service. Trying to leave Cuba used to earn you a one-year sentence, but by the time I left it was only losing your job, losing your home if it was built by the government, and a hard time making a living. (Because the police would keep an eye on you.)
Thanks for the welcome, and the excellent observation. In my defense, however, my low-tech solution using car parts got me here ten years before Rafael. He was very ambitious; floating a car when the inner tubes would do.
Violent protests forced Congress to suspend an emergency session intended to elect a new president Thursday as the nation's armed forces chief threatened military intervention if the rioting seriously escalates. A conservative senator later rejected moves to name him Bolivia's leader, hoping to defuse the crisis.
"Hey! No way, Jose!"
The weeks-old unrest registered its first death as protests erupted in violence near the southern city of Sucre. Thousands of miners and farmers clashed with riot police outside the whitewashed hall where the session was to have been held. Acrid white tear gas fired by helmeted officers mixed with black smoke belching from tires lit by the demonstrators.. Hormando Vaca Diez, in line to become president, took shelter in a local army regiment in Sucre, 450 miles southeast of La Paz, according to the independent television network PAT. The report could not be immediately confirmed. Vaca later said during a televised news conference that he would reject lawmakers' efforts to name him president in hopes that that would bring an end to the spreading protests. "I would decline irrevocably the presidency," Vaca said. He also accused opposition leader Evo Morales of sending protesters into the streets to block lawmakers from carrying out their duties.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/10/2005 00:00 ||
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A third Chinese official has defected in Australia and already been granted refugee status after revealing he witnessed a dissident being tortured to death in China, his lawyer said.
The unnamed official was a senior officer in a branch of the Chinese security service known as "610" and defected after witnessing repeated human rights abuses by other agents, lawyer Bernard Collaery said on ABC television late Thursday.
Collaery, a prominent lawyer and former attorney-general of the Australian Capital Territory, said the official's assertions backed up claims made earlier this week by a Chinese diplomat seeking asylum in Australia and another Chinese security agent whose defection in February has just come to light.
The two other officials, Chen Yonglin from China's consulate in Sydney, and policeman Hao Fengjun, have said China has some 1,000 spies and informants in Australia, many of them monitoring the activities of dissident movements like the Falungong meditation group.
Both men are seeking political asylum, claiming their lives would be in danger if forced to return home.
The defections have posed a delicate problem for the government of Prime Minister John Howard, which is striving to expand political and trade ties with China.
After sending out mixed signals on Chen's bid for asylum, Health Minister Tony Abbott, said Thursday the fugitive diplomat would not be sent home.
"Mr. Chen is in Australia, he is being dealt with in accordance with the ordinary process of Australian immigration law, and he is at no risk of being sent back to China," said Abbott, one of Howard's closest aides.
China has ridiculed claims by Chen and Hao that it was involved in widespread spying in Australia, both to obtain military and industrial secrets and to monitor expatriate Chinese dissidents.
"They have on various occasions expressed views and used words which we believe are only fabrications and lies," foreign ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said on Thursday in Beijing.
But Collaery told ABC's Lateline program the third defector's accounts of activities by China's "610" bureau and notably its mistreatment of Falungong practitioners confirmed the stories of Chen and Hao.
"He took exception to a wide-spread torture of practitioners within his police district by this insidious gestapo apparatus that has been grafted on to the state's security processes in and throughout China," Collaery said.
Collaery says the final straw for the man came when he was unable to prevent the death of a man in custody.
"He hears the beating in his police station. He intervenes. He's told to go away. He goes upstairs to his office," Collaery said.
"His conscience stricken, he comes back downstairs and says: 'This must stop'. And then sees this naked man with his head in a chair, his legs poking out, clearly deceased, and he's horrified by it. That's the last straw."
Collaery would not identify the man for fear that harm would come to relatives still living in China. He also did not say when the man came to Australia.
But he said the safe house where the man had been hiding was ransacked, presumably by Chinese agents, and that this supports claims by Hao and Chen that China maintains a network of spies in Australia.
"About two months after we placed him in hiding, while he was out, his entire premises were ransacked criminally," he said.
There was no immediate reaction from Australian officials on Collaery's claims.
#2
The companies that make drugs won't stop because the marginal cost of a pill is almost zero. As long as they're making a marginal profit they will sell to all these countries that legislate prices.
The R&D cost is recovered in the US since we don't legislate drug prices. Yup, that's right fellow americans...we're subsidizing the rest of the worlds drugs so they can buy them on the cheap and we pay through the nose.
When more americans wake up to this fact they'll demand change. All we have to do is tell drug companies that if they sell a drug for cheaper in another country due to gov't regulation they are not allowed to sell the drug in the US. They'll stop selling to the rest of the world overnight to continue making the real money in the US and the other countries will stop illegally regulating drug prices, forcing us to subsidize their health industries or they'll have to give up access to the drugs themselves.
#3
We can't do that, D_A_P, unless we withdraw from all the international agreements we made in the 90s. Under the rules set up along with the WTO and the World Intellectual Property Org. if a company refuses to sell its products in a country the country can abrogate its patents and produce the product itself without royalties.
We agreed to that in order to get some countries to at least begin to protected patented knowhow.
#4
Unfortunately, the US will probably be forced to institute price controls because of the free rider problem. The 4-5% of the world population in the US won't subsidize the rest of the world forever when medicines are taking up ever larger percentages of US health care budgets and development cost of new drugs are approaching $1 billion. Instead, price controls based on an average of selected countries' prices will probably be implemented. I think a higher price should be allowed if R&D and manufacturing is done in this country.
Posted by: ed ||
06/10/2005 11:40 Comments ||
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#5
Drug companies are Companies not charitable institutions. Generic drug manufacturers don't develope, test,research or incur any of the very expensive aspects of inventing a drug and getting it in your medicine cabinet. They just suck the gravy off the achievements of others. I have nothing to do with the pharmacology industry so I'm not grinding an axe here, but fair is fair. Unless you want to subsidize them and make the liberals squeal like pigs, you have to let the poor bastards make a buck or two for their stock holders. There just isn't any other way around it.
#8
National Medical Insurance is easy, I need cheap auto insurance because ima not all that good a driver and my camarobirds tend to shoot away without any warning.
Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende has again impressed upon EU President Jean-Claude Juncker the Netherlands wants to pay less into the union's coffers.
The Netherlands is the largest contributor to the EU on a per capita basis and Balkenende said this had to change. "We have again strongly indicated where we stand," the prime minister said.
Luxembourg, which currently holds the EU presidency, proposed reducing the annual Dutch contribution last week by EUR 350 to 500 million. However, the Dutch government said the offer was inadequate.
Balkenende said Luxembourg Prime Minister Juncker understands the Dutch position, but is also dealing with the wishes of other
EU member states.
Nevertheless, Balkenende hopes to reach a deal over the Netherlands' demands at a crucial EU summit in Brussels next week. He refused to speculate on the consequences if that does not occur.
Balkenende also used his visit to Luxembourg on Wednesday to explain why the Dutch public voted 'no' against the EU Constitution at its 1 June referendum.
"I said it does not mean the Dutch population is opposed to the EU, but that there are doubts about the tempo of change within the EU and the financial position of the Netherlands," he said.
Meanwhile, the two largest factions in the European Parliament are divided on the issue whether the ratification process over the constitution should continue.
The Christian Democrat faction said in a debate on Wednesday the ratification process should be temporarily frozen, urging for a period of reflection.
The Socialists called for other EU member states to give their opinion — either by a parliament vote or referendum — over the constitution.
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso is also urging for a period of reflection, but still wants EU states to give a judgement on the constitution.
Urging for democracy and debate, Barroso said "we must listen more to the public and find a solution based on that".
EU leaders will meet in Brussels on Thursday and Friday next week to discuss the EU 2007-2013 budget and to decide whether to continue or temporarily freeze the ratification process.
Britain has already put on hold its referendum, but Ireland, Denmark and Poland are prepared to proceed despite the recent Dutch and French no votes.
Should the ratification process be put on hold, the question that will emerge is when the process can start again. It is also uncertain whether a new treaty will be drawn up or whether the current constitution can or should be re-negotiated if the ratification process continues
Posted by: too true ||
06/10/2005 09:35 ||
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Aw, their little wussy union is falling apart. (Que the sad violin music) Maybe if they quit being so worried about being trendy and made some laws that make sense to normal people they could get somewhere. They seem to be more worried about taxing companies to death and jam-packing the place with (welfare collecting)arabs that hate them than they do about their economy or security.
The foreign ministers of France and Germany emerged from talks in Berlin on Thursday saying they were adopting a joint stance on efforts to keep the EU constitution ratification process alive.
The constitutional crisis dominated talks between German foreign minister Joschka Fischer and his French counterpart Philippe Douste-Blazy.
Fischer and Douste-Blazy spoke of ways to keep the constitution ratification process alive in the wake of rejections by referendum voters in France and the Netherlands.
"Europe cannot afford a time-out from world politics," Fischer warned. To that end, he said Germany and France will take a common stance at the upcoming Brussels summit.
However, no details of that stance were divulged. But we are united! UNITED, I say!
Douste-Blazy waved aside speculation about unilateral Franco- German action aimed at cementing power for their countries at the expense of other EU members.
"Paris and Berlin want to continue to be the engine of European integration," Douste-Blazy said, "but only in cooperation with the other partners."
Douste-Blazy added, "We do not want to be exclusive." Of course not - it's no fun if there aren't other members to follow your policies.
DPA
Posted by: too true ||
06/10/2005 09:31 ||
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snif
Together again
My tears have stopped falling
The long lonely nights
Are now at an end
The key to my heart
You hold in your hand
And nothing else matters
We're together again
Together again
The gray skies are gone
Your back in my arms
Now where you belong
The love that I knew
Is living again
And nothing else matters
We're together again
From the UK, although Norway has similar legislation and other EU countries for all I know. Extremist religious groups that advocate child abuse will be given protection under a Bill published by the Government yesterday. The Racial and Religious Hatred Bill would outlaw remarks considered likely to stir up hatred against all religious groups, including those whose followers believe in beating children to drive out demons.
The Bill contains no definition of "religious belief" and ministers confirmed it would cover members of the African religion whose adherents were convicted last week of cruelty to a girl of eight they regarded as a witch. Satanists, pagans and atheists would be protected. Looks to me like suicide bombers would be protected as well.
Having good reason for making insulting comments that could provoke hatred of a particular religious doctrine would be no defence, nor would the fact that they were true. So it doesn't matter if what you say, nor does it what your intention was. It only matters that it is 'considered likely to stir up hatred'. I guess that depends on who is doing the 'considering and as we know some religions are more sensitive to (valid) criticism than others.
Snip, Reg Required
#1
Hastily drafted legislation to counter the 'fire and brimstone' mullahs like Abu Hamza and Omar Bhakri Mohammed. Whilst it may deter such lunatics it is widely expected that the Muslim community will be the main benefactors of the legislation - using it to stifle any criticisms of their faith. This legislation will do much to stir racial tensions in the UK - if extremist Muslims don't get their way in court some crazed Mullah will simply pronounce a fatwah.
I'm also sure that extremist Christians will ensure we don't see films like The Life of Brian or TV series like Blackadder being shown. Shame.
Posted by: Howard UK ||
06/10/2005 6:00 Comments ||
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#2
I guess they Europeans were unhappy when they abolished the ol' heresey laws and decided to bring them all back.
I guess they feel they have moved forward by applying an equal opportunity clause.
#3
The words "profoundly misguided" come to mind when I heard of this legislation. What a mess! Put it in the context of a fully implemented EU and you could call it a disaster waiting to happen. Wonder if it still allows business as usual if your particular religion explicitly advocates multiple forms of violence against whole groups of people regardless of religion? How does that work in the case of the despised, "apostate" category, for whom Alan reserved special hatred?
#5
Not really splitting hairs, BH. Hinduism would still exist if Christianity did not, but Satanism couldn't, since it exists only to be in opposition to Christianity. A "second-order" religion, if you like. And since it exists only to ally with what they and others recognize as evil, I don't quite see how any of the usual arguments for religious tolerance apply.
Given that most of the "Satanists" I've heard of are angst-y adolescents, I suppose this bill makes it an offense to laugh at black-clad teenagers...
Posted by: James ||
06/10/2005 10:55 Comments ||
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#6
Blasphemy laws!
Well at least those lucky Euros don't have to live in GWB's theocracy.
An Italian prosecutor asked a military judge Thursday to sentence 10 former members of the Nazi SS to life in prison for their alleged role in a 1944 massacre in northern Italy, a defense lawyer said. Prosecutor Marco De Paolis made the request during closing arguments at the trial in La Spezia, a city on the country's west coast, said Luigi Trucco, a lawyer for one of the defendants. The defendants are being tried in absentia and are believed to be in Germany, he said.
The next hearings were scheduled for Tuesday and Thursday when a prosecutor for an attached civil lawsuit and the defense lawyers will make their closing remarks, Trucco said. A verdict is expected to be handed down the following week, he said. In August 1944, about 300 SS troops surrounded the Tuscan village of Sant'Anna di Stazzema, which had been flooded with refugees, ostensibly to hunt for partisans. Instead they rounded up and shot villagers, according to survivors. Others were herded into basements and other enclosed spaces and killed with hand grenades. Historical documents are not clear on the precise number killed, but the most commonly cited number is 560 people.
The slaughter was one of the worst in a series of atrocities by Nazi troops in central and northern of Italy during World War II. Italian authorities began investigating the massacre a few years ago when officials found reports on the killings drawn up by Allied forces at the end of the war. Among those on trial is Gerhard Sommer, the officer suspected of giving the orders for the shooting. In 2002, Sommer told German public television ARD that he was a company commander in the division, but that he had "an absolutely pure conscience."
Never forgive. Never forget.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/10/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
...IIRC, one good thing that came out of Nuremburg was the decision that membership in the SS made you de facto a war criminal. That makes stuff like this a whole lot easier to deal with, even sixty years downrange.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
06/10/2005 7:58 Comments ||
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#2
Our fathers had the appropriate answer to the SS
To paraphrase the Condottieri Carmagnola's declaration in 1422 to the Swiss outside Arbedo, 'Men who did not give quarter did not deserve to receive it'.
#4
Camp guards were not Waffen-SS (combatant SS). The Waffen SS perpetrated their share of atrocities and there was constant movements of people between the two entities (later one SS division the TotenKopf was formed with former camp guards) but Wafen-SS and the camp guards were still two separate entities.
I've been to Dachau. In the museum they have posted many of the papers from the camp administration. The personnel records are those of the 'Waffen' SS. The tour is very interesting. Did you know that next to the concentration camp was a Russian POW camp. The guide said the SS soldiers would use the Russians for live target practice. Total killed in the POW camp was larger than the concentration camp.
This is an exceedingly long, but deeply detailed treatment on Jane Fonda's treasonous activities against the United States in a time of war. Not a lot of new information can be taken from the article, except ( and I wasn't aware of this myself ) that Fonda broadcast over radio enemy propoganda, reading from scripts provided by an armed enemy of the United States and did so of her own volition. Edited for excerpts from her broadcasts
If, as she claims in her autobiography, the purpose of her broadcasts was to apprise pilots and ground troops of what our bombing was doing to the North, why did she broadcast the following statements (among others like them)?
· The Vietnamese people were peasants—leading a peaceful, bucolic life before the Americans came to destroy Vietnam.
· The Vietnamese seek only "freedom and independence"—which the United States wants to prevent them from having.
· The Vietnamese fighters are her "friends."
· The million infantry troops which the United States put into Vietnam, and the Vietnamization program, have failed.
· The United States seeks to turn Vietnam into a "neocolony."
· Patrick Henry's slogan "liberty or death" was not very different from Ho Chi Minh's "Nothing is more valuable than independence and freedom."
· Nixon violated the 1954 Geneva Accords.
· Vietnam is "one nation, one country."
· The Communists' proposal for ending the war is "fair, sensible, reasonable and humanitarian."
· The United States must get out of South Vietnam and "cease its support for the . . . Thieu regime."
· "I want to publicly accuse Nixon here of being a new-type Hitler whose crimes are being unveiled."
· "The Vietnamese people will win."
· "Nixon is continuing to risk your [American pilots'] lives and the lives of the American prisoners of war . . . in a last desperate gamble to keep his office come November. How does it feel to be used as pawns? You may be shot down, you may perhaps even be killed, but for what, and for whom?"
· Nixon "defiles our flag and all that it stands for in the eyes of the entire world."
· "Knowing who was doing the lying, should you then allow these same people and some liars to define for you who your enemy is?"
· American troops are fighting for ESSO, Shell and Coca-Cola.
· "Should we be fighting on the side of the people who are, who are murdering innocent people, should we be trying to defend a government in Saigon which is putting in jail tens of thousands of people into the tiger cages, beating them, torturing them . . . . And I don't think . . . that we should be risking our lives or fighting to defend that kind of government."
· "We . . . have a common enemy—U. S. imperialism."
· "We thank you [the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese] for your brave and heroic fight."
· "Nixon's aggression against Vietnam is a racist aggression [and] the American war in Vietnam is a racist war, a white man's war."
· Soldiers of the South Vietnamese army "are being sent to fight a war that is not in your interests but is in the interests of the small handful of people who have gotten rich and hope to get richer off this war and the turning of your country into a neocolony of the United States."
· "The only way to end the war is for the United States to withdraw all its troops, all its airplanes, its bombs, its generals, its CIA advisors and to stop the support of the . . . regime in Saigon . . . ."
· "There is only one way to stop Richard Nixon from committing mass genocide in the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, and that is for a mass protest . . . to expose his crimes . . . ."
· "In 1969—1970 the desertions in the American army tripled. The desertions of the U.S. soldiers almost equaled the desertions from the ARVN army . . . ."
· American soldiers in Vietnam discovered "that their officers were incompetent, usually drunk . . . ."
· "Perhaps the soldiers . . . who have suffered the most . . . [are] the black soldiers, the brown soldiers, and the red and Asian soldiers."
· Recently I talked to "a great many of these guys and they all expressed their recognition of the fact that this is a white man's war, a white businessman's war, that they don't feel it's their place to kill other people of color when at home they themselves are oppressed and prevented from determining their own lives."
· "I heard horrifying stories about the treatment of women in the U.S. military. So many women said to me that one of the first things that happens to them when they enter the service is that they are taken to see the company psychiatrist and they are given a little lecture which is made very clear to them that they are there to service the men."
· The Iraqi people were peasantsâleading a peaceful, bucolic life before the Americans came to destroy Iraq.
· The Iraqi seek only âfreedom and independenceââwhich the United States wants to prevent them from having.
· The Iraqi fighters are her âfriends.â
· The million infantry troops which the United States put into Iraq, and the Iraqization program, have failed.
· The United States seeks to turn Iraq into a âneocolony.â
· Patrick Henryâs slogan âliberty or deathâ was not very different from Saddamâs âNothing is more valuable than independence and freedom.â
· Bush violated the 1954 Geneva Accords.
· Iraq is âone nation, one country.â
· The Communistsâ proposal for ending the war is âfair, sensible, reasonable and humanitarian.â
· The United States must get out of Iraq and âcease its support for the . . . regime.â
· âI want to publicly accuse Bush here of being a new-type Hitler whose crimes are being unveiled.â
· âThe Iraqi people will win.â
· âBush is continuing to risk your [American pilotsâ] lives and the lives of the American prisoners of war . . . in a last desperate gamble to keep his office come November. How does it feel to be used as pawns? You may be shot down, you may perhaps even be killed, but for what, and for whom?â
· Bush âdefiles our flag and all that it stands for in the eyes of the entire world.â
· âKnowing who was doing the lying, should you then allow these same people and some liars to define for you who your enemy is?â
· American troops are fighting for Halliburton, Shell and Coca-Cola.
· âShould we be fighting on the side of the people who are, who are murdering innocent people, should we be trying to defend a government in Saigon which is putting in jail tens of thousands of people into the tiger cages, beating them, torturing them . . . . And I donât think . . . that we should be risking our lives or fighting to defend that kind of government.â
· âWe . . . have a common enemyâU. S. imperialism.â
· âWe thank you [the Fedayeen and Iraqis] for your brave and heroic fight.â
· âBushâs aggression against Iraq is a racist aggression [and] the American war in Iraq is a racist war, a white manâs war.â
· Soldiers of the free Iraqi army âare being sent to fight a war that is not in your interests but is in the interests of the small handful of people who have gotten rich and hope to get richer off this war and the turning of your country into a neocolony of the United States.â
· âThe only way to end the war is for the United States to withdraw all its troops, all its airplanes, its bombs, its generals, its CIA advisors and to stop the support of the . . . regime in Saigon . . . .â
· âThere is only one way to stop Bush from committing mass genocide in the Democratic Republic of Iraq, and that is for a mass protest . . . to expose his crimes . . . .â
· âIn 2003-2005 the desertions in the American army tripled. The desertions of the U.S. soldiers almost equaled the desertions from the Iraqi army . . . .â
· American soldiers in Iraq discovered âthat their officers were incompetent, usually drunk . . . .â
· âPerhaps the soldiers . . . who have suffered the most . . . [are] the black soldiers, the brown soldiers, and the red and Asian soldiers.â
· Recently I talked to âa great many of these guys and they all expressed their recognition of the fact that this is a white manâs war, a white businessmanâs war, that they donât feel itâs their place to kill other people of color when at home they themselves are oppressed and prevented from determining their own lives.â
· âI heard horrifying stories about the treatment of women in the U.S. military. So many women said to me that one of the first things that happens to them when they enter the service is that they are taken to see the company psychiatrist and they are given a little lecture which is made very clear to them that they are there to service the men.â
#6
"I heard horrifying stories about the treatment of women in the U.S. military. So many women said to me that one of the first things that happens to them when they enter the service is that they are taken to see the company psychiatrist and they are given a little lecture which is made very clear to them that they are there to service the men."
Thank you Jane, that was truely disgusting. On behalf of my great-aunt the WAAF, my daughter the Marine, and myself as a career Air Force NCO, may I observe that you did certainly did more to screw over the American military man than any of us ever did!
Incredibly and strongly worded editorial this morning at the Rocky Mountain News
My guess is that university officials will "bravely" resist the impetus to fire this charletan based on Churchill's free speech rights and his tenure, as we all know, Churchill doesn't even posses the minimum education necessary to even be a university professor.
Edited for delicious parts
His claims of Indian ancestry, although almost certainly bogus, at least may have stemmed from family lore. Churchill should have acknowledged the truth many years ago instead of slyly trying to throw critics off his track, but it will be difficult for the committee to categorically conclude he knew all along that he was no more of an Indian than King George III.
There are those who insist that the committee's conclusions will be tainted by the fact that the probe would not have occurred absent the controversy provoked by Churchill's 9/11 essay. In other words, however outrageous Churchill's misconduct, it amounts to a pretext for retribution against unpopular views. ...snip...
Nonsense. The argument implies that any professor who resorted to incendiary speech would be vulnerable to similar charges. And that is simply not the case. You could comb the work of most CU professors from now till their retirement and fail to unearth any significant transgressions.
#7
Last weekend Churchill spoke at the Steam Plant Theater in Salida, Colorado, and I decided to see the freak show for myself. The 3 hour drive was worth it. After enduring a tedious 1.5 hour presentation of the whining and seething of leftist victimization, I came to 3 primary conclusions:
1. Churchill is taller, and more boring, than Noam Chomsky.
2. Churchill is even uglier in person than in his photos.
2. His gibberish should come with subtitles for the non-leftist audience members
I was the second person to get the microphone during the post-blatherspeech Q&A. Without addressing Chief Yakking Ward directly, I turned to the audience and said, âI want to address the young people in the audience. Whatever path you take politically or philosophically in life, I encourage you not to support hate mongers, like him (pointing at Churchill). That's all I have to say". Then, with the money quote from heaven, the very next person to speak said, â I want to respond to the guy (yours truly) who says âdonât support youâ. Iâm a young person and I totally support you, even though I didnât understand really anything you just saidâ. Churchill tried to narrow it down and asked what he didnât understand, the examples, the presentation, the issues, to which the young man replied, âpretty much all of it.â
PRICELESS!
Here is Churchill reading the anti-Churchill, anti-leftist pamphlet I handed out before the speech (entitled LIBERAL YES LEFTIST NYET), including this copy I personally handed to the scumbag for his very own. So much entertainment for only $10!
#9
tu3031 - Right you are, sad but true. That's why these leftsist scum can't be allowed to spew their vile filth without blow-back from the untenured, non-leftyist masses. Without that blow-back, young people like that kid, and others like him on every campus in America, misinterpret the lack of opposition as evidence that Churchill's view of the world is correct and truthful.
EFL:TORONTO, June 9 - The Supreme Court on Thursday struck down a Quebec law banning private medical insurance in a decision that represents an acute blow to the publicly financed national health care system. The high court stopped short of striking down the constitutionality of the country's failing vaunted health care system nationwide, but specialists across the legal spectrum said they expected the decision to lead to sweeping changes in the Canadian health care system. "The language of the ruling will encourage more and more lawsuits and those suits have a greater likelihood of success in light of this judgment," said Lorne Sossin, acting dean of the University of Toronto law school.
Patrick Monahan, dean of the Osgoode Hall Law School of York University in Toronto and a well-known critic of the national health care system, was even more emphatic about the import of the decision. "They are going to have to change the fundamental design of the system," he said. "They will have to build in an element of timely care or otherwise allow the development of a private medical system."
The Canadian health care system provides free doctor's services that are paid for by taxes. The system has generally been strongly supported by Hillary Clinton the public, and is broadly identified with the Canadian national character. Canada is the only industrialized county that outlaws privately financed purchases of core medical services.
But in recent years patients have been forced to wait longer for diagnostic tests and elective surgery, while the wealthy and well connected either sought care in the United States or used influence to jump medical lines.
The court ruled that the waiting lists had become so long that they violated patients' "life and personal security, inviolability and freedom" under the Quebec charter of human rights and freedoms, which covers about one-quarter of Canada's population. "The evidence in this case shows that delays in the public health care system are widespread, and that, in some serious cases, patients die as a result of waiting lists for public health care," the Supreme Court ruled. "In sum, the prohibition on obtaining private health insurance is not constitutional where the public system fails to deliver reasonable services."
The case was brought to the Supreme Court by Jacques Chaoulli, a Montreal family doctor who argued his own case through the courts, and George Zeliotis, a chemical salesman who was forced to wait a year for a hip replacement while he was prohibited from paying privately for surgery. Dr. Chaoulli and Mr. Zeliotis lost in two Quebec provincial courts before the Supreme Court decided to take their appeal. In a news conference, Dr. Chaoulli declared a victory and predicted that the decision would eventually apply to all Canada. "How could you imagine that Quebecers may live," he asked, "and the English Canadian has to die?"
Posted by: Steve ||
06/10/2005 11:44 ||
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#1
The courts actually struck down a socialist law and came down on the side of individual choices and rights?
#4
I had no idea that the Canadian Government outlaws private medical services! No wonder the Canadian Expats would come here, all the way from the Magic Kingdom, to have knee surgeries and other surgeries that we consider minor.
#6
It's due to climate change, Seafarious, causing more runoff from the glaciers, which leaches the minerals and toxins from the land that cause cerebral looniness. Alementary, dear Watson.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
06/10/2005 21:39 Comments ||
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#3
The U.N. has long been rife with corruption and excess. The pampered pontificators and America hating beaurocrats/"spies under official cover" have fastened onto the U.S. and our generosity like a slimy lamprey to suck the materialization of our guilt for having made a decent life for ourselves. I.E. our money! Let's get out quick before they hand us a bill for a couple billion to remodel their posh U.N. brothel, oops, I mean building. Brussels would be a much more appropriate venue for the troupe of vampires that descends on anyone with a buck in their pocket. Besides, the EUnics can do anything we can do, only better, right? So let them go the way of the League of Nations. They have become just as effective and even less relevent to the world.
#4
The USA in reality can't and won't get out of the UNO - firstoff, the UNO is based in NYC and America precisely because the US was charged with ensuring that the post-League of Nations, post WW2 new UNO works; and second, iff one accepts that 9-11 and the WOT is actually about SAVING SOCIALISM AND SUBORNING/IMPOSING THE SAME AND SOCIALIST ORDER ON THE USA, then to leave the UNO is like leaving a rampaging enemy army on your own territory, to do as it pleases, while yours are off campaigning somewhere else. We are in World War 3/4, the Failed Left is de facto "FINAL CONFLICT/STRUGGLE" mode against America, the West, Western democracy and Capitalism, etc. - read, EITHER AMERICA WINS THE WOT AND SUBORNS LEFTISM-SOCIALISM-COMMUNISM FOREVER, OR ELSE SOCIALISM WILL KILL AND RULE OVER AMERICA, AND THE WORLD, where America nor the West is neither democratic nor sovereign. Radical Islam + the Lefties are both fighting for a SUPER-REGULATED = "ULTRA-CONSERVATIVE", REGRESSED, GOVERNMENT/
PROPAGANDA-CENTRIC LOCAL, NATIONAL, REGIONAL, AND GLOBAL ORDER, WHERE FORCE AND THE STATE DECIDES EVERYTHING. The WOT >Its about POWER/CONTROL, for BOTH AND ALL SIDES, and what -Ism and Nation(s) will dominate the control the new OWG and NWO - the fact that America and the US DemoLeft is being mostly harshly criticized and underhanded by their own alleged "patriotic" US DemoLefties should show ITS NOT AMERICA OR THE US LEFT THAT THE US LEFT WANTS TO DOMINATE THE FUTURE OWG AND NWO.
That bleat's starting to wear pretty thin by now. Rich countries have been "helping" poor countries since I was a tad. Some of those same poor countries — war-shattered Japan and Korea, idyllic, agrarian Thailand, steamy, rubber plantation Malaysia — are now in a position to do some helping of their own. The starving children in India are now starting to get plump and happy. Others countries, starting from similar or worse circumstances, shackled themselves to Marxism, "third way" National Socialism, Islam, or outright kleptocracy, and they're stuck right where they were. Places like Zim-Bob-We have actually regressed.
I was a toddler when the Marshal Plan was implemented. I was in junior high when the colonial powers left most of Africa. How the hell old are my grandkids going to be before the continuous demand for money for kleptocrats finally ends? Or will it? Why is it our responsibility to clean up the mess left by Emperor Freddie, Idi Amin, Mobuto Sese Seko, Kwame Nkruma, Samuel Doe, Charles Taylor, Sane Abacha, Jonas Savimbi, and the rest of the host of dear departed or absconded whose relatives send me spam every day, begging my help in secreting their hard-won millions? At what point do the inhabitants of those countries stop either killing each other or hollering "Death to America" and actually start living humdrum lives with families, jobs, and civic responsibilities?
Posted by: Fred ||
06/10/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
Total development aid to Africa is $40 billion per year (sub-Saharan Africa's total GDP is about $300 billion). If even half of the aid was actually used for development, instead entirely stolen, then their power, water, and transportation structure would be several times better off. Wipe out their debt and the kleptocrat's cycle of borrowng and stealing will just kick into high gear again.
Posted by: ed ||
06/10/2005 1:03 Comments ||
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#2
Total aid to Africa since decolonization is in the region of a trillion dollars. Yet large areas and perhaps most of sub-sharan Africa continues to get worse. People get sicker die sooner and are poorer. If aid works, why hasn't it worked to date? Name a single African country that is a model for how aid should work.
#4
Aid is warranted for short-term problems like tsunami relief.
Aid is rarely good for the long haul: it's just permanent welfare payments to the dominant thugs. Take North Korea for example: why have we been providing food to a country that can afford a million-man army and nuclear and missile facilities?
I view any payments to the U.N. as welfare payments to Kofi. It's high time that he gets a real job.
Posted by: Tom ||
06/10/2005 8:07 Comments ||
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#5
Nice suit, Kofi. Bet that ran you at least a grand, if you even had to pay for it.
Sorry I can't help you out, but the doc says I suffer from compassion deprivation brought on by constant pleas of corrupt, incompetent diplomats to open my wallet and reward failure. They're pretty sure there's no cure.
#6
Step 1: Get rid of all the morons in charge of those nations.
Step 12: Export Capitalism 12a: Ensure property rights for citizens 12b: Ensure it is possible for people to license new businesses
(Better yet... just get them a copy of Hernando De Soto's book... it has all the steps in it.)
Step 23: Get out of the way and watch them surpass Socialist Europe.
#8
Kofi should just pack up the U.N. and move it to a third-world African country.
For starters, his $1-billion new building would be a great construction project for the local economy. $1-billion will buy a lot of mud bricks, and poor families could sleep in the building at night when Kofi and his staff aren't working there.
There would be dramatic savings for Kofi on his clothing, restaurant, and housing costs (especially if he lives in his office). And his staff could all see the third world first-hand without requiring plane fare.
With living costs so low, Kofi and his staff could accept reduced salaries and contribute the difference to other poor countries.
Posted by: Tom ||
06/10/2005 11:26 Comments ||
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#9
Bravo to Tom! This thinking outside the box could be just what the UN needs! And add to this that Kofi would be even closer to his homeland nation of Ghana which would cut down on those commutes.
Although I'll probably see Ghana before Kofi does...
#10
Hey Annan, how about the rich fucking UN pay for something besides 5 star dinners and child hookers? Or even give the aid money that you have in your personal accounts that is supposed to go to the poor countries? Or even not hand out our forgien aid to the dictators instead of the starving people they rule?
#13
Why is it our responsibility to clean up the mess left by Mobuto Sese Seko, Jonas Savimbi, (names of kleptocrats who werent so obviously our responsibility snipped)
Do you really want a serious answer to that, Fred?
Public trust in newspapers and television news continued to decline in Gallup's annual survey of "public confidence in major institutions" in the United States, reaching an all-time low this year. Those having a "great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence in newspapers dipped from 30% to 28% in one year, the same total for television. The previous low for newspapers was 29% in 1994. Since 2000, confidence in newspapers has declined from 37% to 28%, and TV from 36% to 28%, according to the poll.
Gee, I can't imagine why.
However, some other institutions fared far worse this year, suggesting a broad level of distrust, cynicism or malaise.
Confidence in the presidency plunged from 52% to 44%, with Congress and the criminal-justice system also suffering 8% drops. Confidence in the U.S. Supreme Court fell from 46% to 41%. The 22% confidence rating for Congress is its lowest in eight years, and self-identified Republicans have only a slightly more positive view of the institution than do Democrats. The military topped the poll with a 74% confidence rating, with the police at 63% and organized religion at 53%.
Boy, that had to hurt
Big business and Congress (both at 22%) and HMOs (17%) brought up the rear.
Looking at the newspaper numbers, of those surveyed, 24% say they have "very little" confidence in them, while 1% said "none." By far the highest number, 46%, said "some," with 28% expressing strong confidence.
Posted by: Steve ||
06/10/2005 13:46 ||
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Looking at the newspaper numbers, of those surveyed, 24% say they have "very little" confidence in them, while 1% said "none." By far the highest number, 46%, said "some," with 28% expressing strong confidence.
Now the way I look at those numbers ...
"A new study shows 71% of the people don't have much confidence in the newspapers, but that includes papers without the political agendas of the NY Times, Boston Globe, and LA Times."
Howdayalikethat?
Posted by: Bobby ||
06/10/2005 14:35 Comments ||
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#2
Taking political bias out of the equation, the main problem that newspapers and TV news face are that they're junk.
What's in the news typically?
1. Celebrity trials
2. Missing attractive women (doesn't anyone ugly ever disappear?)
3. Celebrity romances
4. Missing attractive children (don't ugly children ever get snatched?)
5. Celebrity drug overdoses
And then the 1 page of the newspaper actually devoted to something "meaningful" reads like a term paper scratched out the night before by a high school sophomore beating a deadline.
There are a few topics that I know very well, and I can tell you that the articles I read on those subjects in the newspaper are usually riddled with errors or misconceptions. I'm sure the rest of you have seen similar things.
The Washington Post has started handing out a free "Express" paper every day. It takes about five minutes to read all the news on few pages with news. The rest is ads, sports, (which is OK, I just don't follow it) and the celebrity fluff - seemingly more than sports. There are a number of teasers to buy the Post (Read the FULL story today in the Post).
Posted by: Bobby ||
06/10/2005 15:12 Comments ||
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#4
They still print newspapers? how... er.... quaint.
Even FOX news is repleat with the 'fluff' pieces. I dont give a shait about Michael Jackson - throw him in genpop and let nature take its course.
I dont care about that woman who disappeared in Aruba - if she was homely or ugly do you think they would even mention it? Yet Fox news talks about little else. And J-lo can date my son's poopy diaper for all I care.
I read the sports page the other day -- The reporter was trying *real* *hard* to make his stories sound relevent to the existance of the universe. I dont mind sport - even watch it - but its gets far, far, too much attention.
Looks like I was right about Bob trying to be the new Pol Pot. EFL: President Robert Mugabe's onslaught against Zimbabwe's cities has escalated to claim new targets, with white-owned factories and family homes being demolished in a campaign that has left 200,000 people homeless. Across the country, Mr Mugabe is destroying large areas of heaving townships and prosperous industrial areas alike. The aim of this brutal campaign is, says the official media, to depopulate urban areas and force people back to the "rural home". ---------snip----------
Across Zimbabwe, the United Nations estimates that 200,000 people have lost their homes, with the poorest townships bearing the brunt of Mr Mugabe's onslaught. "The vast majority are homeless in the streets," said Miloon Kothari, the UN's housing representative. He added that "mass evictions" were creating a "new kind of apartheid where the rich and the poor are being segregated". Virtually all the areas singled out for demolition voted for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change in the last elections. The MDC says that Mr Mugabe ordered the destruction as a deliberate reprisal. But the regime is also seeking to depopulate the cities, driving people into the countryside where the MDC is virtually non-existent and the ruling Zanu-PF Party dominates.
The Herald, the official daily newspaper, urged "urbanites" to go "back to the rural home, to reconnect with one's roots and earn an honest living from the soil our government repossessed under the land reform programme".
Cuz it worked so well in Cambodia
Posted by: Steve ||
06/10/2005 13:00 ||
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U.S. surgeons have found a new way to perform a procedure on the esophagus that means patients can expect better recoveries.
Surgeons at the Oregon Health & Science University in Portland developed a different approach to the procedure known as laparoscopic esophagectomy. Until now, most surgeons found it too difficult to perform.
"We roll up the esophagus from the bottom, section by section, into the neck," explained Dr. Blair Jobe, author of a paper on the topic recently presented at a medical conference in Italy. "The technique is similar to taking off a sock, rolling it down from the outside in. This opens the surrounding space, making it easier and safer to cut attachments and tissue as you go."
The technique allows doctors to remove precancerous and other diseased tissue with fewer complications than the original method. The procedure would be called "eversion", the word for turning something inside out.
A handcuffed teenager under arrest for assault attempted to flee police as he was about to be transported in a patrol car. He became impaled on an iron fence that he tried to jump over.
Officers were attempting to place Cody Charles Carllson, 18, in the back of a patrol car when the he bolted and tried to vault an iron fence at the police station.
Carllson's hands were cuffed behind his back at the time.
Carllson did not clear the fence and became impaled on it. Forest Grove Fire Department teams responded and had to cut away a section of the fence so that Carllson could be freed.
Carllson and a small section of the fence were transported to a Portland hospital.
No details of Carllson's condition were immediately available, but he is expected to survive his injuries.
Carrlson was arrested on assault early Thursday morning on charges for an incident in May of 2005. Police say he stabbed another person in the back with some gardening shears.
(Sorry, this is an in-joke. Back in '90 or '91, a kid in New York tried to scale a cast-iron fence, slipped, and managed to impale himself in the head. The spike entered the fleshy part underneath his jaw, and came out his mouth. The Albuquerque Journal ran a huge-ass picture of the kid hanging from the fence with the spike sticking up out of his mouth. From that time on, we always think of the Journal whenever there are gross pictures in the newspaper, especially fence impalements. The Journal doesn't seem to have a picture of this one, though.)
#3
Thanks for the infor Angie. Why do they call this guy a teen though, he's 18. I thought you became classified as a adult at 18? Though jumping a fence handcuffed seems to indicate his mental capacity is in the early teens.
Posted by: Charles ||
06/10/2005 11:54 Comments ||
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#4
Just as an aside, there is a famous medical case of a mining engineer whose charges didn't go off, and was so annoyed that he decided to just put new charges on top of the old ones. So first he had to tamp the old ones down with a tamping rod. Shortly after the explosion and alarm bells, the engineer exited the mine, covered in dust and now incredibly mad over his own stupidity. Along with the tamping rod, which had entered under his chin and protruded from the top of his skull. After considerable fainting from the other miners, they whisked him to hospital, where the rod was removed, and he survived. After his recovery with only small disability, mostly a mangled tongue, he was pursued for some 20 years by agents of the Smithsonian Institution, hopeful that he would, pretty please, donate his skull to them with his demise? He finally relented, and on his death of old age, his skull, with new tamping rod stuck through as demonstration, was given an honorable exhibition in the medical section of the Smithsonian, where it remains to this day.
#8
Just as good as the guy who fled from the cops, jumped a fence, and landed in a parking lot. Twenty foot drop. At an L.A. Sherrif's substation. During roll-call...
Tony Blair must take some credit for edging the Bush administration closer to a deal on multilateral debt relief in Washington this week. But then reducing the debt burden for some of Africa's poorest countries will in no way "make poverty history". That is because the moral question of our time has little to do with public money and everything to do with private capital.
The calls for rich taxpayers' money to eliminate poverty, either as debt relief or as aid, drown out the whoosh of billions of dollars of private capital that is circling the globe, looking for a place to land and multiply. The real tragedy is that only 1 per cent of it finds its way to sub-Saharan Africa.
This vote of no confidence in Africa on the part of global investors is seen by some as a justification for doubling aid. But this is confounded by the fact that Africa delivers some of the highest returns on investment on the planet. Continued on Page 49
Posted by: too true ||
06/10/2005 05:44 ||
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#1
This article gets part of the answer right but small time entrepreneurs in Africa need access to really small amounts of capital to set up businesses, generally less than a USD100. Banks are not interested in lending such small amounts. The model that works is mutual societies, where people pool savings and make loans to members, often what is lacking is the knowhow of how to do this.
#6
Why sink money into Africa when some tinpot dictator might get a wild hair and decide to nationalize whatever you invested in? Call us when you give up your love affair with socialism and develop some respect for property rights.
#7
The problem in Africa is corruption and mismanagement not funding. Let's just remember the well known history of the bridge who cost gazillions to build but was not connected to any road and even if the roads had been built would have had near zero traffic because there was no economic activity in the regions around justifying its building.
Oh, and those gazillions weren't lost for everyone.
There are also countless examples of equipment who was built but no funding was earmarked for maintenance so after just a few years it was in ruins.
#8
Giving money to Africa will be more money for the policians/dictators to steal. I am sending money to one of those widows in Algeria that needs to get access to her frozen accounts. Just wnated you to know that I am doing my part for Africa.
The head of the US's largest and most powerful aerospace lobby group on Thursday warned that efforts in Congress to punish European companies as part of an acrimonious trade dispute over aircraft subsidies were gaining steam.
He accused Airbus, whose commercial rivalry with Boeing is tied up in a transatlantic dispute over subsidies, of trying to launch its nascent A350 aircraft with improper government aid.
Speaking in Paris, John Douglass, head of the Aerospace Industries Association of America, argued that the US had a strong case against the European Union, saying Boeing's government tax advantages were available to any aerospace company that does business in the US and therefore were not improper.
"Airbus claims that it does not require state launch aid to develop the A350, that its balance sheet is strong enough given sales of both the A380 [superjumbo] and A350," said Mr Douglass.
"If that is the case, then the only reason to seek European taxpayer launch aid is either to obtain an unfair comparative advantage or because Airbus's financial situation is not as favourable as they claim."
Mr Douglass's remarks repeated many accusations made by other US government and industry officials in recent weeks. But the tough tone of the US chief lobbyist, just three days ahead of the Paris Air Show, contributed to an increasingly bitter mood heading into the industry's showcase event.
The biennial air show, held in alternating years along with its sister event in Farnborough, England, is normally used to burnish the industry's image with the public, media and government customers.
But the World Trade Organisation dispute, coupled with the fact that the world's two largest commercial aircraft companies - EADS, Airbus's parent, and Boeing - enter the air show without chief executives, has put a damper on festivities. Boeing has been without a permanent chief executive since March, when Harry Stonecipher - the hard-driving industry veteran put in charge to clean up after a series of Boeing procurement scandals - was forced out when the company discovered he was having an affair with a co-worker.
EADS's board has twice been forced to postpone approving the company's co-CEOs - Frenchman Noel Forgeard, currently Airbus chief, and Thomas Enders, a German, head of EADS's defence business - because of infighting between the company's German and French shareholders over management structure.
Despite assurances that board approval would come in time for the show, held in the Paris suburb of Le Bourget, no agreement is expected soon.
Adding to the gloom, EADS officials said this week that the A350, which many in the industry expected to be formally launched at the show, would not get a formal unveiling until September at the earliest.
Still, EADS executives said they expect to announce at least 100 commitments to purchase the A350 - Airbus's answer to Boeing's increasingly popular 787 Dreamliner - at the air show.
look for this to get nasty quickly as the desperate French try every trick in the book to push Aerobus sales and slide EU subsidies by
Posted by: too true ||
06/10/2005 05:41 ||
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How about an oldfashioned bomb-off? Boeing destroys Toulon and Airbus tries to attack Everett.
Posted by: ed ||
06/10/2005 11:25 Comments ||
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because of infighting between the company's German and French shareholders over management structure.
Continueing the tradition of fighting over who gets more. And ed, I don't think we'd get the chance too destroy Toulon. Aerobus would do it for us, what with all the planes falling down after take-off.
Posted by: Charles ||
06/10/2005 12:01 Comments ||
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LOL! Yeah it'd be like an olde Group 7 BYOB matchup. For this distance Ima liking the Spirit of Missiouri. But a dark horse Lancer coming in low, from the north, and I mean really low, wings back, twisting and turning, with a good pilot, could he do it? HELL YES HE COULD DO IT!
President Robert Mugabe on Thursday defended the eviction of tens of thousands of traders and shack dwellers from city streets as a two-day strike against the campaign got off to a slow start. Many roads were quieter than usual in the capital, Harare, and other major centers. But banks, schools, shops and most other businesses were open as Zimbabweans apparently heeded police warnings not to participate in the protest. In an address to Parliament, Mugabe called the three-week blitz "a vigorous cleanup campaign to restore sanity" in urban areas. "The current chaotic state of affairs where (small and medium enterprises) operated ... in undesignated and crime-ridden areas could not be countenanced for much longer," Mugabe said at the opening of Parliament.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/10/2005 00:00 ||
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Methinks Bob is trying to be to be the 5th Shack Shaker or something...
Police were investigating the discovery of a body in a Detroit dumpster Wednesday afternoon, after the corpse was apparently stolen from a hospital as part of a scam to get insurance money. The body of an 86-year-old man, reported to have been a decorated World War II veteran, was found in a dumpster behind a drug store on Detroit's west side. Police told Action News that the man had died of natural causes at Providence Hospital in Southfield, but at 11:30 p.m. on June 4th, two men posing as funeral home workers stole the man's body from the morgue.
Investigators said the two men planned to take the man's body and name, then claim an insurance policy and cash in on it. Southfield Police made the gruesome discovery after receiving a tip from police in Grand Rapids that the men had already tried to do the same thing there. Following the tip, police found one of the two suspects at a west Detroit home not far from where the body was stashed. That man confessed, and told police they would find the body in the dumpster. Another man involved was later arrested. Police say that because the man had died of natural causes, they would not follow a murder investigation. Instead, police said they would pursue a felony fraud investigation.
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.
Violent protests forced Congress to suspend an emergency session intended to elect a new president Thursday as the nation's armed forces chief threatened military intervention if the rioting seriously escalates. A conservative senator later rejected moves to name him Bolivia's leader, hoping to defuse the crisis.
An Italian prosecutor asked a military judge Thursday to sentence 10 former members of the Nazi SS to life in prison for their alleged role in a 1944 massacre in northern Italy, a defense lawyer said. Prosecutor Marco De Paolis made the request during closing arguments at the trial in La Spezia, a city on the country's west coast, said Luigi Trucco, a lawyer for one of the defendants. The defendants are being tried in absentia and are believed to be in Germany, he said.
President Robert Mugabe's onslaught against Zimbabwe's cities has escalated to claim new targets, with white-owned factories and family homes being demolished in a campaign that has left 200,000 people homeless. Across the country, Mr Mugabe is destroying large areas of heaving townships and prosperous industrial areas alike. The aim of this brutal campaign is, says the official media, to depopulate urban areas and force people back to the "rural home".
