IN a new twist in Rio de Janeiro's crime files, scissor-wielding thieves have clipped off the long, flowing locks of a 22-year-old Brazilian woman as she rode in a city bus.
"We got on at the same stop and they sat behind me,''"sales assistant Mirna Marchetti says. "Then all of a sudden I felt someone pulling my hair. My friend tried to help me but they just cut it off, right at the base.''
Marchetti's hair was dark, straight and reached down to her waist. Police suspect the thieves hope to sell the hair to a hairdresser or beauty salon, which can charge more than 500 reais ($320) for top-quality hair extensions. "This is a new kind of crime," said a police officer at the station where the report was filed. "They really did mean to steal her hair."
I Have Had My Differences With Members of the Press. But it's Nothing That Burying them Under Tons of Earth Won't Solve
Does President Bush have it in for the press corps? Touring a Caterpillar factory in Peoria, Ill., the Commander in Chief got behind the wheel of a giant tractor and played chicken with a few wayward reporters. Wearing a pair of stylish safety glasses--at least more stylish than most safety glasses--Bush got a mini-tour of the factory before delivering remarks on the economy. "I would suggest moving back," Bush said as he climbed into the cab of a massive D-10 tractor. "I'm about to crank this sucker up." As the engine roared to life, White House staffers tried to steer the press corps to safety, but when the tractor lurched forward, they too were forced to scramble for safety."Get out of the way!" a news photographer yelled. "I think he might run us over!" said another. White House aides tried to herd the reporters the right way without getting run over themselves. Even the Secret Service got involved, as one agent began yelling at reporters to get clear of the tractor. Watching the chaos below, Bush looked out the tractor's window and laughed, steering the massive machine into the spot where most of the press corps had been positioned. The episode lasted about a minute, and Bush was still laughing when he pulled to a stop. He gave reporters a thumbs-up. "If you've never driven a D-10, it's the coolest experience," Bush said afterward. Yeah, almost as much fun as seeing your life flash before your eyes. Insert Rachel Corrie joke below.
Posted by: Mike ||
01/31/2007 10:40 ||
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#1
Joke, my ass. When the bulldozer guy tells you get out of the way, get outta the fuckin way!
Trust me on this. I'm an authority on the subject. Or I was...
#5
Missed a golden opportunity. He could have claimed that there was a wardrobe -- uh, steering column malfunction or something. After that, all he would have to do to silence a critical journalist is whisper "vroom, vroom" and the guy would back off.
Posted by: Jonathan ||
01/31/2007 11:21 Comments ||
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#6
[[[[[[[[[[[ [[[[[[[[[[[
vroom vroom! clank clank !
/W
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/31/2007 11:28 Comments ||
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#5
What a hoot. Maybe accurate and truthful? Eye blinks must be some kind of code. Time dig out the bong, brown acid, and old Apple computer to decipher what it all means.
#7
I think the eyeblinks are her way of balancing out Wesley Clark....or perhaps body language taht she's being deceitful...or both
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/31/2007 11:43 Comments ||
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#8
I think what you're seeing is not blinks, but an attempt to ape Nancy's lidless stares.
"Her hair is gray and old
Her lips chapped and dry
Her hands are always cold
She's got Charlie Manson eyes
Her once good looks are gone
She'll no longer entice
A big mole on her nose
She's got Charlie Manson eyes"
IMMIGRANTS who want to live in the small Canadian town of Herouxville, Quebec, must not stone women to death in public, burn them alive or throw acid on them, according to an extraordinary set of rules released by the local council. "We can't? Well, that does it! We're movin' to Montreal!"
The declaration, published on the town's website, has deepened tensions in the predominantly French-speaking province over how tolerant Quebecers should be toward the customs and traditions of immigrants. "We wish to inform these new arrivals that the way of life which they abandoned when they left their countries of origin cannot be recreated here," said the declaration, which makes clear women are allowed to drive, vote, dance, write cheques, dress how they want, work and own property. "Therefore we consider it completely outside these norms to ... kill women by stoning them in public, burning them alive, burning them with acid, circumcising them etc." "Well... Can we still work 'em over with knuckle dusters a coupla times a week?"
Herouxville, which has 1300 inhabitants, is about 160km northeast of Montreal. Andre Drouin, the councilor who devised the declaration, told the National Post newspaper the town was not racist. "We invite people from all nationalities, all languages, all sexual orientations, whatever, to come live with us, but we want them to know ahead of time how we live," he said. There go all the immigration applications from Donga Bonga...
The declaration is part of a wider debate over "reasonable accommodation", or how far Quebecers should be prepared to change their customs so as not to offend immigrants. The Herouxville regulations say girls and boys can exercise together and people should only be allowed to cover their faces at Halloween. Salam Elmenyawi, president of the Muslim Council of Montreal, said the declaration had "set the clock back for decades" as far as race relations were concerned. "It's just racist not to let us kill, maim, or mutilate our wimmin in a painful and degrading manner!"
"I was shocked and insulted to see these kinds of false stereotypes and ignorance about Islam and our religion ... That statement fits well with the story immediately following this one...
in a public document written by people in authority who discriminate openly," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/31/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Town's here.".website is here. Using my crude knowledge of French, could find nothing to match the citation. Any Rantburger read French? How is it racist to say a town won't tolerate burning women alive?
#3
"set the clock back for decades" as far as race relations were concerned.
But not quite back to the 13th century, eh Salam?
Posted by: Bobby ||
01/31/2007 6:02 Comments ||
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#4
"I was shocked and insulted to see these kinds of false stereotypes and ignorance about Islam and our religion ... in a public document written by people in authority who discriminate openly," he said.
#7
It is my understanding with immigration, is that you are trying to ASSIMILATE into the new culture. Hence, you give up a lot of your old culture for the new culture. America has proved that isn't a far-fetched idea. Otherwise, go the fuck home and stop leaching off the welfare system, you parasite.
#8
We come here to show you how to live a clean life and you disrespect our ways and our peaceful religion. We have showed how to pray and avoid pork and enjoy the farm animals and the children of our brothers, and yet you criticize us, stupid infidel. We have showed how to keep women clean and loyal and barefoot, and yet you criticize.
Allan says you must give us land and taxes or we should kill you, but we have extended the hand of peace. And now this....a thousand goats and nine year old twins will not remove the shame upon me.
#9
This story smells funny. I was hoping some Francophone Rantburger would go directly to the city's web site & find and translate the "offensive" rules. This may be much ado about nothing, or even a story planted by some imam for political gain.
#10
Municipalité Hérouxville
Publication of Standards
The social development and territory security are some of the major objective goals of the democratically voted individuals in our MRC. Hérouxville being part of the MRC, we share these same objectives.
To do this, we would like to invite, without discrimination, in the future, all people from outside our MRC that would like to move to this territory.
Without discrimination means to us, without regard to race or to the color of skin, mother tongue spoken, sexual orientation, religion, or any other form of beliefs.
So that the future residents can integrate socially more easily, we have decided unanimously, to make public, certain standards already in place and very well anchored in the lives of our electors.
These standards come from our municipal laws being Federal or Provincial, and all voted democratically. They also come from the social life and habits & customs of all residents of our territory.
Our objective is to show that we support the wishes of our electors and this being shown clearly by the results of our poll regarding this issue. And our goal is to inform the new arrivals to our territory, how we live to help them make a clear decision to integrate into our area.
We would especially like to inform the new arrivals that the lifestyle that they left behind in their birth country cannot be brought here with them and they would have to adapt to their new social identity.
Published by
The mayor and 6 city counselors of Hérouxville, democratically elected.
1
Municipalité Hérouxville
The Standards
Our Women
We consider that men and women are of the same value. Having said this, we consider that a woman can; drive a car, vote, sign checks, dance, decide for herself, speak her peace, dress as she sees fit respecting of course the democratic decency, walk alone in public places, study, have a job, have her own belongings and anything else that a man can do. These are our standards and our way of life.
However, we consider that killing women in public beatings, or burning them alive are not part of our standards of life.
Our Children
Our children are required to attend public or private schools to insure their social development and to help integrate into our society. Any form of violence towards children is not accepted.
Our Festivities
We listen to music, we drink alcoholic beverages in public or private places, we dance and at the end of every year we decorate a tree with balls and tinsel and some lights. This is normally called Christmas Decorations or also Christmas Tree letting us rejoice in the notion of our national heritage and not necessarily a religious holiday. These festivities are authorized in public, schools, and institutions and also in private.
Our Health Care
In our old folks homes men and women are treated by responsible men and women. Please note that there is no law voted democratically that prohibits a woman treating a man and a man treating a woman. In our hospitals and CLSCs woman doctors can treat men and women and the same for the men doctors. This same principle applies for nurses, firemen and women, ambulance technicians. These responsible people do not have to ask permission to perform blood transfusions or any task needed to save a life. For the last few years men have been allowed into the delivery room to assist in the birth of their baby. They have been with their wives to prenatal courses to help them in this task.
In the said establishments the patients are offered traditional meals. There is often music playing in the background. There are magazines or news papers available and any other form of multimedia that shows our community spirit and our way of life.
2
Our Education
In our schools certified men and women teach our children. The women or men teachers can teach boys or girls with no sexual discrimination. They do not have to dress any different to accomplish their tasks.
In our schools the children cannot carry any weapons real or fake, symbolic or not. The children can sing, play sports or play in groups.
To promote decency and to avoid all discrimination some schools have adopted a dress code that they strongly enforce.
For the last few years to draw away from religious influences or orientation no locale is made available for prayer or any other form of incantation. Moreover, in many of our schools no prayer is allowed. We teach more science and less religion.
In our scholastic establishments, be private or public, generally, at the end of the year you will possibly see Christmas Decorations or Christmas Trees The children might also sing Christmas Carols if they want to.
Many of our schools have cafeterias that serve traditional foods. Students may decide to eat elsewhere.
The history of Quebec is taught in our schools. Biology lessons are also given.
Our Sports & Leisure
For the longest time boys and girls have played the same games and often play together.
For example, if you came to my place we would send the kids to swim together in the pool, dont be surprised this is normal for us.
You would see men and women skiing together on the same hill at the same time, dont be surprised this is normal for us.
You would also see men and women playing hockey together, dont be surprised this is normal for us.
In our public swimming pools we have men and women lifeguards for our security to protect us from drowning, dont be surprised this is normal for us.
All the laws adopted that permit these phenomenons have followed a strict democratic process. You would appreciate this new life style and share our habits & customs.
Our Security
Our immense territory is patrolled by police men and women of the Surete du Quebec. They have always been allowed to question or to advise or lecture or to give out an infraction ticket to either a man or woman. You may not hide your face as to be able to identify you while you are in public. The only time you may mask or cover your face is during Halloween, this is a religious traditional custom at the end of October celebrating all Saints Day, where children dress up and go door to door begging for candy and treats. All of us accept to have our picture taken and printed on our drivers permit, health care card and passports. A result of democracy.
Our Work Place
The employers must respect the governmental laws regarding work conditions. These laws include holidays known and accepted in advance by all employees. These work conditions are negotiated democratically and once accepted both parties respect them.
No law or work condition imposes the employer to supply a place of prayer or the time during the working day for this activity. You will also see men and women working side by side. We wear safety helmets on worksites, when required by law.
3
Our Business
Our businesses are governed by municipal, provincial and federal laws. In our busi-nesses men and women work together and serve the clientele whether they be man or woman.
The products sold by these businesses can be of any kind. Food products for example must be approved by different governmental agencies before being offered to the general public. You might see in the same store several different types of meat, eg. Beef , chicken, pork and lamb.
Other stores offer their clientele a place and equipment to exercise. These places have windows that their clientele can look outside while exercising and are composed of men and women dressed in clothing appropriate for exercising.
Our Families
You will appreciate that both parents manage the children needs and both have the same authority. The parents can be of the same race or not, be from the same country or not, have the same religion or not, even be of the same sex or not.
If a boy or girl wants to get married, they may, they have the liberty to chose who their spouse will be. The democratic process is applied to ensure each and everyones liberty to choose.
In our families, the boys and girls eat together at the same table and eat the same food. They can eat any type of meat, vegetables or fruit. They dont eat just meat or just vegetables they can eat both at the same time and this throughout the whole year.
If our children eat meat for example, they dont need to know where it came from or who killed it.Our people eat to nourish the body not the soul.
Other
You might still see crosses that tell our past. They are an integrated part of our history and patrimony and should be considered as such.
4
To publish all the laws and standards of Municipalité Hérouxville would be a tedious task. The standards published above are just a sample so the new arrivals to this territory can clearly identify with us before making their decision to move here.
Certainly, being the elected members, we would give the new arrivals the assurance that the conditions that they have fled from in their country would not happen again here in our territory.. Consequently, the peace of mind that we live with will always be.
It must be very clear that any person or persons, groups legal or not that would like to modify our habits and customs or our general way of life cannot do so without going through a referendum process following all laws put forward by our towns and municipalities. These referendums will be at the petitioner or petitioners cost.
Signed jointly by
the mayor and 6 city counselors of Hérouxville, all democratically elected. 5
Posted by: bk ||
01/31/2007 11:29 Comments ||
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#11
Municipalité Hérouxville
The Standards
Islam could use a Martin Luther to nail these on
the Great Mosque at Mecca.
#13
Bk-thanks for posting that. The declaration is very reasonable and proactively addresses the assumptions and expectations new immigrants may have in a considerate, frank and communicative way. There shouldn't be a single outrage by any Muslim for this declaration. If they are upset, it demonstrates how unreasonable, inconsiderate and presumptuously rude they are as immigrants entering another's homeland.
#14
bk -- Thanks so much for the translation. It sounds so much different than the leading news article. The manufactured Islamic outrage is so predictable, though.
NEW DELHI, JANUARY 29: Faced with sharp division of opinion, a committee appointed by Union HRD Minister Arjun Singh has decided against recommending quotas for Muslims in educational institutions.
The committee has recommended instead more neighbourhood schools in Muslim areas, scholarships, vocational training for youths and more seats in minority institutions such as the Aligarh Muslim University.
The committee, headed by Arjun Singhs deputy, Minister of State Mohammed Ali Ashraf Fatmi, reached this conclusion after deliberations on steps to improve education for minorities, taking off from the Sachar panel report.
While Fatmi had a strong personal view of recommending reservations for Muslims because the community is socially and educationally backward, a group of members of this committee opposed the idea of reserving seats for the minority community, sources said.
When his comments were sought, Fatmi declined, saying we will submit the report to Arjun Singh by January 31. I cannot talk about it now.
It is learnt that, instead of reservation, committee members emphasised the need for more neighbourhood schools, especially for Muslim girls, on the lines of Navodaya Vidyalayas opened in regions with concentration of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe populations.
The panel has decided that the government should set up primary schools for Muslim girls, on the lines of Navodaya Vidyalayas, wherever Muslim population exceeds 1,000, said sources. Just as SC and ST populations are prioritised, areas with Muslim population will also be given priority for schools.
Also recommended are school transport for girls, vocational training for Muslim youths, especially those belonging to families of artisans.
The report also seeks to increase the number of seats in minority institutions such as Aligarh Muslim University, Maulana Azad National University and Jamia Millia Islamia. Although Muslim MPs had asked for more campuses, the committee has left that to individual universities, and has asked them to indulge instead in capacity-building exercise, sources said.
The panel has asked for scholarships to be given to needy Muslim children. The youngsters need to be encouraged and, therefore, scholarships for poor Muslim children will have to be in place, sources said.
While mainstream education for Muslim children is being emphasised, modernisation of madrasas is not being ignored. Though hardly four per cent of school-going Muslims go to madrasas, there will be focus on teaching of modern subjects there, the sources said.
On coaching facilities for Muslims seeking admission to IITs and IIMs, sources said the focus would be on coaching for general improvement across the gamut, and not just competitive-exam specific.
The report follows the path set by the Sachar committee but the Planning Commissions Working Group report on the uplift of Muslims, authored by panel member Zoya Hasan, is also being looked at.
On the panel were advisor Sudeep Banerjee, higher education secretary R P Agrawal, school education secretary Champak Chatterjee, CBSE chairman Ashok Ganguly, NCERT director Krishna Kumar, JNU vice-chancellor B B Bhattacharya, Jamia Hamdard chancellor Syed Hamid, academic Zafar Ali Naqvi, UGC vice-chairman Mool Chand Sharma, Hyderabad University vice-chancellor Syed E Hasnain and joint secretary Sunil Kumar.
Posted by: john ||
01/31/2007 18:00 ||
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If they lived in Herouxville they'd be in real trouble. TWO lovers were tied to trees and stoned to death for adultery by angry relatives in a Pakistani village. "Hrarrr! Yarrr! Get a rope!"
Police said the couple, in their early 40s, were killed in a barrage of rocks thrown by relatives of the woman in Donga Bonga village in central Punjab province on Sunday. "Donga Bonga"? There's an actual place called Donga Bonga? And it's inhabited by primitives who stone each other to death? Honest to Gawd, we don't make this stuff up.
"It was a case of honour killing and we have arrested two brothers of the woman,'' local police chief Zafar Bokhari said. Both of them were in their 40s. How was honor violated? They weren't closely enough related? Neither was a member of the animal kingdom?
Mr Bokhari said the woman's family was annoyed because of her alleged affair with a man from the same village and planned the murder with the help of other relatives. Oh, that explains it: A tragic end to the old Humpa Humpa in Donga Bonga... Donga Bonga police officer Haji Mohammad identified the woman as Ellahi Hussain and the man as Hafeez Shah. Mr Mohammad said the attackers dragged them from the house with a rope tied around the couple's neck to the trees, where they smashed their heads with stones and bricks. "Hey, Maqbool! I jest thoughta somethin'. Din't y'all used to have a sister? Whutever happened to her?"
"Smashed her head in with a rock."
"Oh. Hokay. Y'got any more o' that pone?"
Police reached the scene after some villagers heard the cries of the couple and contacted the authorities. "We saw them sleeping together and we could not tolerate this immoral act and decided to punish them,'' the woman's brother, Maqbool, told the police in custody. In Pakland, even the adults can't indulge in the occasional spot of adultery.
Mr Mohammad said police were conducting raids to arrest two others relatives who allegedly took part in the killing. Really, they don't feel shame like we do.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/31/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Man, there is a song there somewhere. Gotta be!!! Better get to work on the Donga Bonga Stoned to Death Blues.
Posted by: Alaska Paul in Hooper Bay, AK ||
01/31/2007 0:34 Comments ||
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#2
1 billion people live under such oppressive social norms. Hundreds of millions have died under it over the last 14 centuries.
And they want us to SUBMIT to their cult of death.
#3
Luckily the police arrived before they Maqbool and his colleagues had a chance to build a fire and dine on the corpses. Such a lovely area of the world Pakland.
#4
Great pics, especially the one from Deliverance! I'm sure you were torn between the pile of rocks and the caveman! :-)
I hope they give the murderers at least a week in jail. Or maybe sacrifice their favorite goat or something. That would make them think twice before they killed their other sister. Maybe.
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/31/2007 6:59 Comments ||
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#6
Well, they'll stone ya there in downtown Donga Bonga,
They'll stone ya 'cause they can't all get along-a.
They'll stone ya when you're foolin' around on the side.
Yeah, they'll stone ya as a matter of pride.
But I would not feel so all alone,
Everybody must get stoned.
Posted by: Mike ||
01/31/2007 8:22 Comments ||
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#7
Donga Bonga. It is where all the bongs come from.
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.
IMMIGRANTS who want to live in the small Canadian town of Herouxville, Quebec, must not stone women to death in public, burn them alive or throw acid on them, according to an extraordinary set of rules released by the local council.
TWO lovers were tied to trees and stoned to death for adultery by angry relatives in a Pakistani village. 
Donga Bonga police officer Haji Mohammad identified the woman as Ellahi Hussain and the man as Hafeez Shah. Mr Mohammad said the attackers dragged them from the house with a rope tied around the couple's neck to the trees, where they smashed their heads with stones and bricks. 
