A gang of intruders has broken into a museum in Paris and inflicted serious damage on a painting by Impressionist artist Claude Monet. Four or five people were caught on camera breaking into the Musee d'Orsay via a back door early on Sunday.
An alarm sounded but the apparently drunken group fled after punching a 10cm (four inch) hole in the famous painting.
More at the link about this and other vandalisimes - this is not, apparently, an isolated instance at French art museums.
RB coverage of previous commentary by art critics here and here.
#4
Nope. But it's awesome when you see it in real life. As you move, the light seems to flicker off the water and the boat almost seems to move gently.
#7
In a few short seconds these sub-morons vandalize an artistic treasure that they themselves couldn't create in a lifetime of trying even if they had a Liquitex enema and several Kolinsky sable brushes rammed up after it. Effing cretins!
Typhoon Krosa lashed eastern China on Sunday, forcing the evacuation of more than 1.4 million people, the state news agency reported. The storm earlier hit Taiwan, leaving at least four people dead and 52 injured. After making landfall on eastern coastal China at Zhejiang and Fujian provinces, Krosa was downgraded to a tropical storm. The storm, with gale force winds and torrential rains, destroyed homes, cut power and disrupted road, sea and air travel, the Xinhau news agency reported. More than 75,000 boats were ordered to return to port to ride out the storm, it said. No casualties were reported.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/08/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
In Zhejiang province here. Typical typhoon, that is to say, a weakling. Just rained for a day and a half, then the wind picked up for about three hours. For five minutes it was blowing hard, but that was it. For a storm-lover like me, yet another disappointment.
Crowds of angry Bedouins have rampaged through the streets of an Egyptian town in protest at what they say is the failure of police to protect them. Thousands were said to have taken part in the protest on Sunday in the northern Sinai town of el-Arish.
The Bedouins accused the police of failing to act after they were attacked by a rival tribe on Saturday. Northern Sinai has become increasingly tense in recent years as ties between inhabitants and police deteriorate. Crowds of Bedouins destroyed the offices of the ruling party, burning down furniture and pulling down pictures of President Hosni Mubarak. Police used tear gas to break up stone-throwing protesters and a number of arrests were reported.
Witnesses said the dispute began after a fight between two men from the el-Fawakhria and el-Tarrabeen tribes. Hundreds of el-Tarrabeen members then came into town on Saturday in trucks, opening fire on an el-Fawakhria neighbourhood and wounding five people.
El-Fawakhria tribesmen took to the streets in protest on Saturday and repeated the demonstrations on Sunday. The BBC's Heba Saleh in Cairo says the latest violence can only strain further what is already a very difficult relationship between the Bedouins and police.
Thousands of Bedouins were rounded up and many were tortured in the wake of bomb attacks by Islamic militants against tourist resorts in Sinai over the past two years, our correspondent says.
Mexican President Felipe Calderon criticized the planned U.S. border fence designed to stem illegal immigration, saying countries should be "building bridges, not fences" in an interview broadcast on Monday. so we eliminate the border, eh Calderon? Fine. We'll incorporate Mexico as the 51st state, and you can go F yourself.
On ABC television's "Good Morning America," Calderon lauded President George W. Bush's failed attempt to get the U.S. Congress to approve comprehensive immigration reform, and said the way to stop illegal immigration is to build economic growth and opportunities in Mexico, not fences.
"The world is open in new ways," he said. "We are building fences instead of bridges."
The U.S. Congress last year authorized construction of 700 miles of fences along portions of the border, although it has not yet given final approval to all construction costs.
Asked about estimates that Mexicans in the United States illegally send home $20 billion to their families, Calderon said the exodus is not a boon to the Mexican economy because the country is losing ambitious young people. If this is true, you should support the fence.
He mentioned complaints by U.S. farmers that the crackdown on migrants meant they did not have enough workers to harvest their crops, and said "capital and labor are like right shoe and left shoe."
He predicted the flow of Mexicans illegally crossing into the United States would decrease, possibly within a decade, as Mexico's economy grew. "I want to build the conditions in Mexico to provide the opportunities here in our land." Where have we heard that one before? I'll stick with the fence.
He said he hoped the United States and Mexico could see each other as allies as they confront challenges from Asian economies.
"I hope that one day the people in America could see the Mexican people as friends, like allies." Here's a hint: We DO see the Mexican people as friends. But we see the Mexican government for what it is: a corrupt oligarchy who doesn't give a damn about it's own people and wants to pass off it's problems to someone else.
#1
countries should be "building bridges, not fences"
I'm in full agreement, 8-12 lanes per bridge with toll station on each North bound lane. The Texas, Arizona, New Mexico and California Tollway Commission, the IRS, the INS, US Border Patrol, Education Systems, and the Social Security Administration can come up with the toll. Be prepared to dig deep Felipe, because we sure as hell have been!
#2
Build a 20' high bridge parallel to the border, all the way from California to Texas and the gulf coast. Put the piers with no space between. Works for me.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
10/08/2007 16:15 Comments ||
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Weighed down by the burden of restoring and protecting hundreds of crumbling archaeological and cultural sites, the cash-strapped Italian government has resorted to a direct appeal to Italians for contributions through a three-day TV telethon.
With the aim of raising 3.5m over the weekend, Italian opera singers, actors and conductors were enlisted to plead for cash in a stream of adverts on state broadcaster RAI, warning of dire consequences if sites such as the Palatine hill home of Emperor Augustus were not patched up.
Launching the marathon fundraiser on Thursday the culture minister, Francesco Rutelli, told TV audiences of the dangers of leaving digs and monuments unprotected from tomb raiders in a country that boasts 41 Unesco designated sites but can only afford 300m of the 700m required for their annual upkeep.
Italy's culture ministry pointed out that Italians only donated 42m in 2006 to protect their cultural heritage, compared with the 350m handed over by the French.
As the weekend drew to a close, donations were nearing the target, albeit with 300,000 of that coming from a US foundation.
The telethon comes amid rising resentment in Italy at the perceived free-spending habits of privileged politicians.
In an attempt to give an example of honest toil by politicians, Mr Rutelli displayed some of the artworks Italy claims were stolen and smuggled from its shores and has won back through the courts from the Getty Museum in Los Angeles.
Mr Rutelli said the works would go on free display at the Quirinale in Rome, the sprawling presidential palace which has taken centre stage in the row over politicians' spending after it was revealed that the cost of maintaining the president and his army of guardsmen, gardeners and silver polishers was higher than that of Buckingham Palace.
Police in Denmark say they expect to bring charges against many of the 437 people detained overnight following clashes in the capital, Copenhagen.
Police used tear gas against thousands of young demonstrators who were protesting against the closure of a youth centre earlier in the year. The protesters had tried unsuccessfully to occupy a different building. A police spokesman said a record number of people were detained. They have all been released but charges could follow. Some of the demonstrators threw smoke bombs, set fires and tried to break through police barriers and climb over police cars, the spokesman said.
"It started out as a peaceful demonstration but then there was more and more violence and the riots against the police started," spokesman Flemming Munch told AFP news agency.
Organisers of the demonstration said as many as 4,000 people took part. Left-wing activists had occupied the youth centre, in Copenhagen's Noerrebro district, since 1982. But the building was sold by the city in 2000 to a Christian group.
Squatters were evicted in March 2007, which led to violent street clashes and hundreds of arrests. The youth centre was later demolished.
White House hopeful Barack Obama stood in front of a pulpit Sunday and told worshippers that his faith "plays every role" in his life. "It's what keeps me grounded. It's what keeps my eyes set on the greatest of heights," Obama told members of the Redemption World Outreach Center, whose 4,200-seat sanctuary was mostly full.
Faith, he said, is "what propels me to do what I do and when I am down it's what lifts me up." The Democratic presidential candidate said God "is with us and he wants us to do the right thing," including breaking down the divisions between Democrats and Republicans and among religions.
When people work together, he said, there is "nothing that can stop us because that's God's intention."
The Illinois senator is a member of the United Church of Christ, a church of about 1.2 million members that is considered one the most liberal of the mainline Protestant groups.
The service at the center, founded by an International Pentecostal Holiness Church minister, had members on their feet much of the time singing, swaying and raising their hands. Thumping, rock-concert loud music played from a pulpit sometimes awash with fog and filled with a band and choir.
Obama asked the church's members to pray for him and his family. "Sometimes this is a tough role, being in politics. ... Sometimes you can become fearful. Sometimes you become vain and sometimes you will seek power just for power's sake," he said. Obama told the audience that people ask him, "`What role does faith play?' I say, `It plays every role.'"
Last week, Obama attended services at a black Baptist church in West Columbia and a white Baptist church a few miles away in Columbia. His campaign is in the midst of what it calls "40 Days of Faith & Family" _ an effort to introduce early voting South Carolina to how Obama's family life and faith have shaped his values.
In an interview with The Associated Press last week, Obama was asked about walking the line where politics and the pulpit meet. "There are no set guidelines or play book. When I go to church, I go there to worship. I am perfectly content to sit and listen to the music and pray and listen to the sermon," Obama said after last weekend's church services.
Other times - such as this Sunday - Obama takes to the pulpit. In those instances, he said, "my job is to try to draw a connection between the values that I express to the church and the challenges and issues that we face in politics. ... I don't think there's anything wrong with expressing faith in the public square and I think there's nothing wrong public servants expressing religiously rooted values."
#1
The Illinois senator is a member of the United Church of Christ, a church of about 1.2 million members that is considered one the most liberal of the mainline Protestant groups.
So much so that they should just merge with the Unitarians and be done with it.
#2
Yes, but not in the way the media portrays it. Obama's Preacher And Clinton's Pollster Obama remained mostly secular until his arrival in Chicago as a young community organizer and met Wright, "a dynamic pastor who preached Afrocentric theology, dabbled in radical politics and delivered music-and-profanity-spiked sermons."
However now that Obama's running for the White House, the Times says, Wright's "assertions of widespread white racism and his scorching remarks about American government" have forced the senator to distance himself from the man who presided over his wedding and baptized his two daughters.
In February, Obama canceled Wright's delivery of the invocation when he officially announced his presidential run. Wright himself acknowledges that some of his positions may be too radical for Obama to embrace.
"If Barack gets past the primary, he might have to publicly distance himself from me, Wright said. I said it to Barack personally, and he said yeah, that might have to happen."
Posted by: ed ||
10/08/2007 18:33 Comments ||
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#3
"Afrocentric theology" + OBAMA = JFK & Catholicism > Wel-l-l, in Obama's defense I don't see many African-Americans moving back to Africa = staying in Africa permanently. The Commies and Lefties loved the USSR-Commie Bloc as long as they didn't have to move or live there. In any case, WOT > among many other -isms and premises, is WAR FOR GLOBAL SECULARISM - Inter, Intra, Extra, Anti-, Ante, etc., INCLUDING KIND OF SECULARISM. Despite their rhetoric, IMO however grudgingly most Ultra/Radical Leftists have come to recognize the value and importance of God = faith in all things.
WASHINGTON - Sandy Berger, who stole highly classified terrorism documents from the National Archives, destroyed them and lied to investigators, is now an adviser to presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Berger, who was fired from John Kerrys presidential campaign when the scandal broke in 2004, has assumed a similar role in Clintons campaign, even though his security clearance has been suspended until September 2008. This is raising eyebrows even among Clintons admirers.
It shows poor judgment and a lack of regard for Bergers serious misdeeds, said law professor Jonathan Adler of Case Western Reserve University, who nonetheless called Clinton by far the most impressive candidate in the Democratic field.
Adler told The Examiner that it is simply incomprehensible to me that a serious contender for the presidency would rely upon him as a key foreign policy advisor.
Berger panicked because he realized he was caught, said a report by the National Archives inspector general, which also recounted his initial reaction. Berger lied.
Berger also lied to the public, telling reporters he made an honest mistake by inadvertently taking the documents, which he blamed on his own sloppiness. Bill Clinton vouched for the explanation for Berger, who served as his national security adviser.
Berger later conceded: I was giving a benign explanation for what was not benign.
The Justice Department initially said Berger stole only copies of classified documents and not originals. But the House Government Reform Committee later revealed that an unsupervised Berger had been given access to classified files of original, uncopied, uninventoried documents on terrorism. Several Archives officials acknowledged that Berger could have stolen any number of items and they would never know what, if any, original documents were missing.
At his sentencing in September 2005, Berger was fined $50,000, placed on probation for two years and stripped of his security clearance for three years.
#3
Another gift received because GWB didn't flush the Justice Dept of Clintonistas. The man should be serving time, at least equal to the period of pre-confinement that Wen Ho Lee did.
#4
I'm just speculating here, but I suspect Berger is serving as a paid advisor to Hillary. I suspect further that his salary far and away exceed the $50k fine plus court costs and attorney fees he incurred while covering up for Bill's administration. Whatever "hush" money Berger is being paid by Hillary is no doubt deemed a bargin by Bill.
Posted by: Mark Z ||
10/08/2007 10:47 Comments ||
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#5
This corruption knows no bounds. He should be in jail, not running campaigns.
#6
"Hillary" is not a person. It's a political product, being sold under the falsest of pretenses. It has no honor, no soul, and no integrity. It cares not one whit what it has to do to market it's "product". Lie, cheat, steal, smear, cover-up, whatever. Get used to it if this foul beast gets elected.
#7
Well, I'm no campaign strategist, but perhaps her opponents might want to bring this issue to the American public's attention?
Not that 95% of them would know who Sandy Berger is...
#10
"Foreign Policy Advisor"... with a suspended clearance.... whahahahhahaaaaa. I think this could be referred to in most circles as simply Clintonian "pay backs."
#11
Don't politicians usually wait until they get, like, 'elected' to surround themselves with felons and other convicted scoundrels? This cannot bode well.
#15
Hillary should get the best advice she can. Sandy is a convicted felon; Bill is a perjurer. Its started again, and Hillary isn't even the nominee yet. Perhaps her administration will solve the prison overcrowding problem - put them on salary and at the Whitehouse.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/08/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
WND > ITS OFICIAL - MIDEAST JIHADI OFFICIALS WANT HILLARY [ andor Democrats]TO WIN IN 2008. ALso REDDIT > HILLARY WINS [ 2008], USA GOES TO WAR AGAINST IRAN??? IRANIAN REVOLUTIONARY GUARD > Rejoice, Hillary leads in IOWA.
One of three helicopters escorting President Gen. Pervez Musharraf crashed in Pakistan's portion of Kashmir on Monday, killing four people on board, but the president was unhurt, officials said. Army spokesman Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad blamed a "technical fault" for the crash of the military helicopter and said Musharraf had already reached his destination when the accident occurred.
Musharraf traveled to Kashmir on Monday to commemorate the second anniversary of the Oct. 8, 2005, earthquake that killed nearly 80,000 people. The helicopter crashed in Mujhoi, about 12 miles south of Muzaffarabad, the main town in Pakistan's portion of the disputed Himalayan territory.
Posted by: Bobby ||
10/08/2007 07:11 ||
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#1
Check the ground crew. Anybody been a little TOO religious lately?
Vice Chief of Army Staff (VCAS) Gen Ahsan Saleem Hayat and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (CJCSC) Gen Ahsanul Haq retired on Sunday and their successors Gen Ashfaq Pervez Kayani and Gen Tariq Majeed will take charge as the new VCOAS and CJCSC respectively on Monday (today), Aaj television reported. Lt Gen Nadeem Taj will also take charge as new ISI director general (DG) on Monday.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/08/2007 00:00 ||
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Senior Israeli officials expressed support Monday for the transfer of Arab parts of Jerusalem to Palestinian control, offering a concession on one of the most contentious issues in the Mideast conflict. The offer appeared to fall short of Palestinian calls for a full Israeli withdrawal from key areas of the holy city.
The officials spoke as Israeli and Palestinian negotiators were to begin talks in Jerusalem to work out a joint document they hope to issue at a U.S.-sponsored peace conference next month. The meetings were closed.
Ahead of the talks, a confidant of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said he has proposed in recent talks with Palestinian officials to turn over areas of east Jerusalem to the Palestinians. The Palestinians claim east Jerusalem, which Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war, as capital of a future independent state.
Deputy Vice Premier Haim Ramon's proposal marked a potentially significant Israeli concession. Israel has annexed east Jerusalem and claims all of the city as its undivided capital.
But the Israeli transfer would not include the Old City and surrounding neighborhoods, Ramon said. These are the key disputed areas, since the Old City contains the holiest site in Judaism, the Temple Mount, and the third holiest site in Islam, the Al Aqsa mosque compound.
Ramon was not clear about what areas would be transferred. But his opposition to relinquishing control of the Old City and neighboring areas with holy sites - known as the "holy basin" - falls short of Palestinian claims to all areas captured in 1967.
"I agree that all the Palestinian neighborhoods except the Arab neighborhoods in the holy basin ... would be transferred," Ramon told Army Radio. Instead, he suggested a "special administration" to oversee the holy basin. He did not elaborate, but past talks have raised the idea of turning oversight to an international body.
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat refused to comment on Ramon's proposal, but said there have been no agreements on Jerusalem in preliminary talks so far. "We haven't started negotiations. It's premature to say anything about these issues," he said.
Olmert's office also tried to distance itself from Ramon, saying his comments reflected his own opinion and not that of the prime minister.
But Olmert said Monday he strongly backed the efforts to work out a deal.
"By no means will I miss any opportunity for dialogue that might, perhaps - and I emphasize the word 'perhaps' - lead Israel in the direction of significantly improving its ties with the neighboring Palestinian people," Olmert told his Kadima Party ahead of a major address to parliament.
Ramon said he expected Olmert and his main coalition partners would support a deal on Jerusalem. Media reports say Olmert sent Ramon unofficially but that any deal he works out could be presented officially to the government for approval.
In Monday's negotiations, Israeli and Palestinian working teams were to begin work on a document outlining a joint vision for peace, which they hope to present at the U.S.-sponsored Mideast peace conference. The conference is expected to take place in Annapolis, Md., in late November.
After a series of one-on-one meetings in recent months, Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas appointed negotiating teams to prepare for the conference.
Ramon said the talks leading up to the conference are integral for future Israeli-Palestinian relations. If the negotiations do not bear fruit, it will strengthen the Hamas militant group in its power struggle with Abbas, he warned. Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip in June, while Abbas controls the West Bank.
"If we miss this opportunity, and it becomes clear that we can't reach an agreement even with leaders like Abbas or Prime Minister (Salam) Fayyad, this means we'll have to deal with Hamas," Ramon told Army Radio.
Cabinet minister Avigdor Lieberman, head of the hawkish Yisrael Beitenu, said the party supports Ramon's offer on Jerusalem as long as the Palestinians agree to let Israel maintain control of West Bank areas of Jewish settlement blocs. The Palestinians want a future state to include the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem.
"Within this framework, we are willing to exchange refugee camps that are in the Jerusalem municipal boundaries," Lieberman told Israel Radio.
Lieberman holds a popular Israeli view that the Jewish state must give up the outlying areas of Jerusalem, where tens of thousands of Palestinians live, in order to preserve a Jewish majority in the city.
What a poor pathetic excuse for an Israeli. Still living under the pollyanna delusion of 'land for peace'. Olmert, you make me sick.
#2
ISRAEL NEWS/WORLDNEWS > Milyuuuhns and Zilyuuuhns of residents in Jerusalem, or at least 90-100K [mostly Paleos], may get JORDANIAN citizenship iff Jordan takes over the Temple Mount areas.
God and a scientist are talking.
The scientist says he has enough knowledge that he can now create a human out of clay, just like God did.
God says: "That's great, let me see you do it!"
So, the scientist bends over to pick up a handful of clay, and God says:
"Get your own clay."
Ed Pilkington in New York
Craig Venter, the controversial DNA researcher involved in the race to decipher the human genetic code, has built a synthetic chromosome out of laboratory chemicals and is poised to announce the creation of the first new artificial life form on Earth.
The announcement, which is expected within weeks and could come as early as Monday at the annual meeting of his scientific institute in San Diego, California, will herald a giant leap forward in the development of designer genomes. It is certain to provoke heated debate about the ethics of creating new species and could unlock the door to new energy sources and techniques to combat global warming.
Mr Venter told the Guardian he thought this landmark would be "a very important philosophical step in the history of our species. We are going from reading our genetic code to the ability to write it. That gives us the hypothetical ability to do things never contemplated before".
The Guardian can reveal that a team of 20 top scientists assembled by Mr Venter, led by the Nobel laureate Hamilton Smith, has already constructed a synthetic chromosome, a feat of virtuoso bio-engineering never previously achieved. Using lab-made chemicals, they have painstakingly stitched together a chromosome that is 381 genes long and contains 580,000 base pairs of genetic code.
The DNA sequence is based on the bacterium Mycoplasma genitalium which the team pared down to the bare essentials needed to support life, removing a fifth of its genetic make-up. The wholly synthetically reconstructed chromosome, which the team have christened Mycoplasma laboratorium, has been watermarked with inks for easy recognition.
It is then transplanted into a living bacterial cell and in the final stage of the process it is expected to take control of the cell and in effect become a new life form. The team of scientists has already successfully transplanted the genome of one type of bacterium into the cell of another, effectively changing the cell's species. Mr Venter said he was "100% confident" the same technique would work for the artificially created chromosome.
The new life form will depend for its ability to replicate itself and metabolise on the molecular machinery of the cell into which it has been injected, and in that sense it will not be a wholly synthetic life form. However, its DNA will be artificial, and it is the DNA that controls the cell and is credited with being the building block of life.
Mr Venter said he had carried out an ethical review before completing the experiment. "We feel that this is good science," he said. He has further heightened the controversy surrounding his potential breakthrough by applying for a patent for the synthetic bacterium.
Pat Mooney, director of a Canadian bioethics organisation, ETC group, said the move was an enormous challenge to society to debate the risks involved. "Governments, and society in general, is way behind the ball. This is a wake-up call - what does it mean to create new life forms in a test-tube?"
He said Mr Venter was creating a "chassis on which you could build almost anything. It could be a contribution to humanity such as new drugs or a huge threat to humanity such as bio-weapons".
Mr Venter believes designer genomes have enormous positive potential if properly regulated. In the long-term, he hopes they could lead to alternative energy sources previously unthinkable. Bacteria could be created, he speculates, that could help mop up excessive carbon dioxide, thus contributing to the solution to global warming, or produce fuels such as butane or propane made entirely from sugar.
"We are not afraid to take on things that are important just because they stimulate thinking," he said. "We are dealing in big ideas. We are trying to create a new value system for life. When dealing at this scale, you can't expect everybody to be happy."
#1
I told/knew Venter 'twas the one - however, as argued yarns ago in 1990's, the greatest issue here is the potential for humanity's immoral abuse of the very artificial life = SENTIENT? LIFE it created, i.e GROWING A BABY OR ADULT ARTIFICIAL SENTIENT FORM JUST TO MEDICALLY/PHYSICALLY KILL IT FOR ORGANS [organ(s) replacement], LIKE SO-MUCH BEEF. And, lest we fergit, the potential parallel for the "SOLYENT GREEN" EFFECT, i.e. the utility of sentient para/pseudo-human = near-human life forms as a viable, recyclable, food source!? THE VATICAN ALREADY HIT ON THIS ALA VENTER BACK THEN.
Posted by: Bobby ||
10/08/2007 08:21 ||
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"At least nine nuclear power plant components such as giant pressure vessels and steam generators can be made in only one place, a Japan Steel Works facility, according to nuclear consultants. Some parts have a six-year lead time, the Keystone Center report said."
The US has nothing to make nuclear grade steel structures?
The Myanmar junta reduced security in Yangon sharply on Sunday, apparently confident it would face no further mass protests against military rule, but the streets remained unusually quiet and arrests continued.
The last barricades were removed from the centre of the former capital around the Shwedagon and Sule pagodas which were the starting and finishing points of protests soldiers crushed by firing into crowds and arresting monks and other demonstrators.
The few people on the streets said they were still fearful and the Internet, through which dramatic images of the protests and sweeping security force actions to end them reached an outraged world, remained cut off.
People on the streets were too scared to talk despite the ruling generals saying for the first time they were willing to talk to detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, albeit on conditions she is unlikely to accept.
Senior General Than Shwe, the head of the lasted junta in 45 years of unbroken military rule in the former Burma, offered direct talks if Suu Kyi abandoned "confrontation" and her support for sanctions and "utter devastation."
Nyan Win, a spokesman for Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy, or NLD, said the offer could open a path to talks about talks.
"It is a significant improvement on the past situation. They have never committed themselves to talking to her," he said.
Myanmar analysts caution against optimism as hopes of change in the past have been dashed so often, punctuated by the army killing 3,000 people in crushing an uprising in 1988, and state-run newspapers said more people had been arrested.
They said on Sunday 78 more people suspected of taking part in mass protests which filled five Yangon city blocks had been picked up for questioning.
They said 1,216 people who took part "unknowingly" had been released in the Yangon area after signing pledges not to participate in protests and 398 of the 533 monks taken in monastery raids around the city had been freed.
There was no word on the numbers of arrests and releases in other cities where thousands of people were reported to have protested against military rule, but Nyan Win said a senior NLD member was arrested in the second city of Mandalay overnight.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/08/2007 00:00 ||
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The liberal talk radio network Air America announced this week it will launch a nationwide show focusing on atheism. The first national show will feature Christopher Hitchens, author of "God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything."
The Freethought Radio Program, hosted by the co-presidents of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, has been airing on Air America's Madison, Wis., affiliate since April 2006.
On Saturday, Oct. 6, the show will begin airing on 14 other affiliates from Palm Springs, Fla., to Eugene, Ore., and on XM Satellite radio. "You can turn on the radio or TV 24/7 to be preached at," Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of the FFRF, said in a statement. "This is one hour a week of the public airwaves that offers an alternative."
Gaylor said the program "offers irreverent views, news, music and interviews," including a regular news feature called "Theocracy Alert."
Peter Sprigg, vice president for policy at the Family Research Council, noted that atheists have the same free speech rights as all Americans. Yet, as he told Cybercast News Service, "I doubt atheist radio will be any more popular than liberal radio." "Conservative talk radio dominates, as do Christian radio programs," he said. "I don't think Dr. James Dobson, with Focus on the Family, has anything to worry about from atheist radio."
Sprigg further said that liberals often claim that one can be a Christian and a liberal at the same, but, in his view, the step to promote atheism on the airwaves is indicative perhaps that liberalism is incompatible with traditional religious belief.
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/08/2007 19:30 Comments ||
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#5
It will fail for the same reason AA failed. A gut churning, agonized, and ulcerous lack of humor, punctuated by hate, misery and pessimism. It would be hard for them to get listeners if they were paying $1/hr for people to listen to them.
Most people would prefer a hundred redwood splinters in their ass to listening to crap like that.
#6
At one time I really tried to listen to Air America but every time they sais anything I smelled bull$h!t. There was always a hole in any argument they put forth that you could drive a truck through. I just couldn't stand it.
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.
Mexican President Felipe Calderon criticized the planned U.S. border fence designed to stem illegal immigration, saying countries should be "building bridges, not fences" in an interview broadcast on Monday. 
Weighed down by the burden of restoring and protecting hundreds of crumbling archaeological and cultural sites, the cash-strapped Italian government has resorted to a direct appeal to Italians for contributions through a three-day TV telethon.
White House hopeful Barack Obama stood in front of a pulpit Sunday and told worshippers that his faith "plays every role" in his life. "It's what keeps me grounded. It's what keeps my eyes set on the greatest of heights," Obama told members of the Redemption World Outreach Center, whose 4,200-seat sanctuary was mostly full. 
Senior Israeli officials expressed support Monday for the transfer of Arab parts of Jerusalem to Palestinian control, offering a concession on one of the most contentious issues in the Mideast conflict. The offer appeared to fall short of Palestinian calls for a full Israeli withdrawal from key areas of the holy city.
The liberal talk radio network Air America announced this week it will launch a nationwide show focusing on atheism. The first national show will feature Christopher Hitchens, author of "God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything." 
