At a presidential inaugural gala for Pennsylvanians last night, actress Sharon Stone, a native of the Keystone State, stopped by to rouse the crowd about her home state. Here are excerpts of her speech:
"Do you know that our state has more natural resources than almost anywhere else in America? We have oil. Do you know that Pennsylvania has the first oil well ever drilled anywhere in the world? At Drake's Well. We have oil. We have natural gas. We have water. We have lakes. We have milk. We have forests. We have football. ... We have anthracite. We have coal workers. We have railroad workers. We have factory workers. We have moms. We have single moms. Do you know what else we have? We have dignity. We have honor. ... When we came across the seas, we brought the Liberty Bell. We brought the Liberty Bell from another nation with us because we brought the American dream...."
"That bell had a crack in it. And so you know what Pennsylvanians did when that bell had a crack in it? We melted it down. And we built it again. Because Pennsylvanians know what to do when the going gets tough. We fix it. We fix it. ... Because Pennsylvanians know it's not how you fall; it's how you get up. ... And you know what happened with that Liberty Bell when they did it again? It didn't ring. So you know what we did? We melted that sucker down again, and we built it again because that's what Pennsylvanians do.twice ,eh We don't give up when it doesn't work. We do it again. Because Pennsylvanians know what to do when the going gets tough. When we fall down, we get up. Hand by hand. Family by family. City by city. Country by country. ..."
"We didn't say 'yes we can' just for this president. We said 'yes we can' for every family. 'Yes we can' for every child. 'Yes we can' for every state. We know we're world citizens. And do you know why we know we're world citizens? Because Pennsylvania carried that Liberty Bell over here originally from a place far away, from another country. We carried the American dream over here from another country. We didn't carry it over here just for a bell for an American dream. We carried that bell over here for an American reality. So I'm here to ask you a question. Are we going to ring that bell and turn that American dream into an American reality? And I'm going to ask you, can you turn that American dream into an American reality?"
RAS AL KHAIMAH // Snow covered the Jebel Jais area for only the second time in recorded history yesterday. Jebel Jais is at about 25N latitude; about the same as Key West FL
So rare was the event that one lifelong resident said the local dialect had no word for it.
According to the RAK Government, temperatures on Jebel Jais dropped to -3°C on Friday night. On Saturday, the area had reached 1°C.
Major Saeed Rashid al Yamahi, a helicopter pilot and the manager of the Air Wing of RAK Police, said the snow covered an area of five kilometres and was 10cm deep. "The sight up there this morning was totally unbelievable, with the snow-capped mountain and the entire area covered with fresh, dazzling white snow," Major al Yamahi said.
"The snowfall started at 3pm Friday, and heavy snowing began at 8pm and continued till midnight, covering the entire area in a thick blanket of snow. Much of the snow was still there even when we flew back from the mountain this afternoon. It is still freezing cold up there and there are chances that it might snow again tonight."
Aisha al Hebsy, a woman in her 50s who has lived in the mountains near Jebel Jais all her life, said snowfall in the area was so unheard of the local dialect does not even have a word for it. Hail is known as bared, which literally translates as cold. barad is also the old testament word for 'hail' used in the Ten Plagues narrative
"Twenty years ago we had lots of hail," said Ms al Hebsy. "Last night was like this. At four in the morning we came out and the ground was white."
Jebel Jais was dusted in snow on Dec 28, 2004, the first snowfall in living memory for Ras al Khaimah residents. Jebel Jais is about 4500' high; there is a resort at about the 3000' level which is probably where the temperature was taken
The arrest of renegade Congolese Gen. Laurent Nkunda by his former Rwandan allies portends a dramatic shift in a complex conflict that has raged and simmered across the region since 1994, when the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide spilled across the border into eastern Congo.
The Rwandan troops moved against Nkunda late Thursday during a joint military operation with Congolese forces whose main purpose is to dismantle the Rwandan Hutu militias that organized in Congo after the genocide and have remained.
The operation is part of a wider political and economic deal to smooth over the perennially caustic relationship between Congo and Rwanda, which has fueled a conflict estimated to have taken as many as 5 million Congolese lives and displaced more than a million people over the past decade.
Nkunda, a brash leader fond of sharp suits and gold-tipped canes, began his rebel career by declaring that he was protecting Congo's minority Tutsis from the militias, known as the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, or FDLR. He was supported by Rwanda, who shared his complaint that the Congolese army had failed to disarm the militias.
But in recent months, Nkunda began to speak of "liberating" all of Congo, and after striking a deal with the Congolese on a variety of issues, his Rwandan backers finally turned on him.
"He was becoming a liability for the Rwandan government," said François Grignon, Africa director for the International Crisis Group, a research organization.
Rwanda has a history of brutal military interventions in eastern Congo, and the joint operation poses serious political problems for Congolese President Joseph Kabila. But diplomats and other observers nonetheless cast the move against Nkunda and the FDLR as a potentially positive step toward repairing a relationship that is key to stability in the region.
"It's hugely significant," said Alan Doss, the United Nations envoy to the region. "I hope it will result in now putting to an end this chapter -- dealing with the FDLR problem and ending a rebellion and putting the country back on the road to peace."
In New York, U.N. officials said the U.N. peacekeeping operation in Congo had been caught off guard by the joint offensive and expressed concern for civilians who might get caught up in a potentially messy operation.
"We fear that any additional conflict now is going to drive even more people from their homes," said Ron Redmond, a spokesman for the office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, noting that at least 250,000 people had fled recent months of fighting between the Congolese army and Nkunda's forces.
The presence of about 5,000 FDLR militiamen in eastern Congo has long been a source of tension between Rwanda and Congo, which has promised and failed many times over the years to disarm them. Though many rank-and-file FDLR fighters were barely teenagers when they fled into Congo, they remain under the command of leaders who allegedly participated in the Rwandan genocide, when Hutu extremists killed 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus in 100 days of well-planned violence.
Those leaders have disavowed any former ambitions to invade Rwanda and are now entrenched in Congo's lucrative mining business. They have set up what amounts to a parallel government across areas of eastern Congo, where their hardened militiamen have made a way of life out of preying on villagers.
The existence of the FDLR gave Rwanda a reason to back the Tutsi-dominated rebellion led by Nkunda. Both Rwanda and Nkunda have accused the Congolese military of collaborating with the FDLR instead of disarming them.
In recent months, however, Nkunda's well-trained forces advanced across a swath of eastern Congo, creating a humanitarian catastrophe, humiliating the notoriously incompetent Congolese army and ultimately threatening Kabila, Congo's first democratically elected leader in decades.
Their advance, plus a recent U.N. report that exposed Rwanda's support for Nkunda and Congo's collaboration with the FDLR, apparently pushed the two sides to agree to a wide-ranging deal, according to a U.S. official familiar with its details.
According to the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to preserve his relationship with both countries, Kabila agreed to allow Rwandan troops onto Congolese soil to help disarm the FDLR, while Rwanda agreed to deal with Nkunda. The economic component includes Congo's cooperation in a regional economic group that will ease trade between the massive mineral-rich nation and the tiny but mighty Rwanda, which has big economic ambitions. The two nations are also supposed to resume diplomatic relations that have been severed for more than a decade.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/25/2009 00:00 ||
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British workers could have their working week cut to three days under plans being considered by the government to help companies cope with recession.
Does this apply to government ministers?
The government is understood to be considering paying firms to cut the working hours of thousands of staff instead of retrenching them in an attempt to stop unemployment soaring past two million.
Now business secretary Stephen Mandelson is facing calls to offer compensation for workers who have their hours cut.
Unnamed ministerial sources told The Observer newspaper that a compensation scheme for workers was an option being discussed but was "not imminent". "Government sources said there were issues about whether to restrict compensation to the car industry or apply it to all firms," the newspaper said.
The Department for Business is already advising employers on its website to consider cutting staff hours as a way to save money, saying it might be better than making staff redundant.
Similar measures were after a series of crippling strikes by mine workers in the 1970s which had dramatic knock-on effects through the rest of the nation's economy. Former prime minister Margaret Thatcher introduced a short-time working directive in the 1980s to cover earnings lost through shorter hours.
#4
I don't suppose you'd be compensated for lost wages if you are white. You'd just have to learn to live on 3/5ths of your salary.
That's not a bad deal for the govt. Kinda sucks for people who work for a living though.
manages to piss off Argentina, declared PNG. HT to BigHollywood.breitbart.com, which if you liked Dirty Harry's Place, is the new home of John Nolte (Editor in Chief) and Andrew Breitbart - Conservatives in Hollywood. Whoda thunk it? You'll like it
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/25/2009 17:37 ||
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#1
SO if I go to Argentina, I'm _still_ gonna have to pretend to be Canadian, eh?
#5
I think the Andrew Lloyd Weber version kinda portrayed her as a hooker, too. "Another suitcase in another hall," etc. Prob'ly a lot better music than in the Ollie version.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/25/2009 20:08 Comments ||
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#6
Stone's confused her with Madonna again.
Posted by: ed ||
01/25/2009 21:05 Comments ||
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#7
I dunno, he said whore, not whore and skank
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/25/2009 21:23 Comments ||
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#10
Andrew Lloyd Webber romanticized her, but whatever Eva Peron's love life, the Perons were a real disaster for Argentina. A commentator on another blog put it way better than me:
"If Obama is successful in implementing his policies the U.S.A. will become like Argentina after Peron. After the 2nd World war Argentina was the 4th richest country in the world then Peron came along with his social programs and it has been downhill ever since.This adulation of Obama gives me the creeps and is eerily similar to the devotion inspired by Eva Peron.
I have lived in Brazil for 25 years.The Salvador de Patria ( Saviour of the Country) phenomenon is very common in Latin America and I had always assumed it was a Latin characteristic. I never thought Id live to see it in an Anglo-Saxon country . Ive always thought that the Anglos would be far to sceptical and cynical to deposit their hopes in one person. Well you live and learn!"
A new study shows that immigrants of Turkish origin in Germany lag behind other migrant groups when it comes to education and jobs, news magazine Der Spiegel reported.
The study carried out by the Berlin-based Institute for Population and Development found that 30 percent of Turks and those of Turkish origin did not finish school and only 14 percent took the Abitur, or the final secondary school exam that is the required qualification for university. But more than 50 percent of those in other migrant groups manage to do the same, the report said.
The study, which Der Spiegel reported it had seen before its Monday release, compared for the first time the successful integration of individual migrant groups including those who have been naturalized in Germany. It has compiled a ranking of federal states based on the level of integration of its immigrants.
Immigrants of Turkish origin were also found to be the least successful in the labour market: they are often jobless, the percentage of housewives is high and many are dependent on welfare, the study said. The state of Saarland was found to have the worst record 45 percent of its Turks had no educational qualification of any kind. What? Memorizing passages from the Koran isn't an educational qualification, yet?
Reiner Klingholz, director of the institute, said language remained the key to education and successes.
For too long weve been used to the fact that we have primary school classes in which 80 percent of the children dont understand German, he said.
But Germanys Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble, a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative Christian Democrats (CDU), told Der Spiegel that the biggest integration problems would soon be solved.
Just simply wait for another Christian Democratic Party-led government for the next four years, he said.
#2
Turks are pretty much non secular, this "fad" of being a Muslim first in Turkey will go away when they realize it doesnt work in Europe or, for that matter, for Istanbul either
Posted by: Pro Turk ||
01/25/2009 12:09 Comments ||
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#3
Hell, I dont understand German, and I have German blood
Posted by: Pro Turk ||
01/25/2009 12:10 Comments ||
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#7
Understood - but keep in mind that the Germans did all they could to PREVENT assimilation for decades while still encouraging 'guest workers' to arrive there and contribute to low wages in industry.
#8
§7 - Yes and no : I know some quite successful Turkish people here - First generation, came here with no money and little education -- 40 years later, they are well off plus their children have university education etc . But this is in the countryside, in cities like Berlin they seem to be stuck in their Islamic parallel world, financed mainly by the German welfare state. Why should the Germans tolerate this ?!
.. and there is still the question : WHY do most immigrants from other parts of the world so much better ??
#4
He's willing to put his money on the line. From his Wikipedia bio:
Sunstein had a pet Rhodesian Ridgeback, Perry. During the Clinton impeachment hearings, Sunstein grew tired of appearing on news programs, and agreed to appear on Greta Van Susteren's CNN program only if he could bring Perry on the show with him; she agreed.[12] Perry died in the fall of 2008. The University of Chicago Law School has created the Perry/Sunstein fund in Perry's memory, a scholarship fund for a student with an interest in animal welfare.
Expect gradual extinction of grazing and hunting rights on federal land; and excessive regulatory burden on every individual and business involved in the raising, processing, and marketing of fish, poultry, and livestock. I doubt animals kept for individual family's sustenance will be exempt.
Prices for meat, fish, and dairy products are going to skyrocket if Sunstein has his way.
Followed your link. The auteur of that blog is certifiable.
If we were a truly enlightened society, we would have the sack to mark people like her as sufficiently mentally ill so as to not be able to vote.
But we aren't.
In the meantime, I'll grill up some mule deer sausage and use the enzymes and teeth that my DNA coded for to digest said sausage in a totally natural and intended way - and enjoy while I do.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
01/25/2009 17:34 Comments ||
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#10
but could you stomach some nice beef sausage right after watching feces-encrusted downed cattle tortured into the "kill shoot" for 45 minutes with tazers? i have watched such video, a meat-eater myself, and havent touched a burger since
Posted by: Mike N. ||
01/25/2009 18:30 Comments ||
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#12
Apparently, Mike, you didnt read the post where it stated im a meat-eater. i just avoid BEEF like the plague because ive seen how cattle are processed from slaughter to shrink wrap styrofoam container, and its nauseating. hope you dont mind my saying, but make sure your "salmonella" booster shots are up-to-date (oh, too bad for the consumer, they dont have said shots)
.
#19
Sham, I don't go this far with many posters here, especially new ones, but you can blow me.
We 'beef eaters' don't go around to websites and try to tell vegan shitbags how disgusting their food is or try to give them a health scare.
Spare me your activism. Go protest beef somewhere else. I'm sure there's a PETA protest at a McDonalds somewhere you could join. Go hold up some disgusting signs in front of children. We adults are going to call you on your BS.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
01/25/2009 20:10 Comments ||
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#20
Sham, I don't go this far with many posters here, especially new ones, but you can blow me.
We 'beef eaters' don't go around to websites and try to tell vegan shitbags how disgusting their food is or try to give them a health scare.
Spare me your activism. Go protest beef somewhere else. I'm sure there's a PETA protest at a McDonalds somewhere you could join. Go hold up some disgusting signs in front of children. We adults are going to call you on your BS.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
01/25/2009 20:10 Comments ||
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#21
See. I'm so worked up I repeat myself.
Posted by: Slereter Dark Lord of the Vegans6253 ||
01/25/2009 20:12 Comments ||
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#22
Memphis dry rub rack of ribs, roasted sliced golden potatoes, grilled mixed vegetables, spinach in a cream sauce reduction and BV Coastal cabernet sauvignon. That's what's for dinner. A little for everyone, so can't we all get along?
Posted by: ed ||
01/25/2009 21:34 Comments ||
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#23
Mmmm. I'll have a little of everything except the ribs, ed.
ShamWow, for a better understanding of what goes on at slaughterhouses, I would suggest reading Animals in Translation by Temple Grandin, an animal behaviour scientist and the person who designed many of the slaughterhouses in America. Or, you can try her more technical Livestock Handling and Transport, but I imagine that would go beyond your current need. Bottom line, my dear, you should know better than to let one sensationalist video of uncertain parentage form your opinion on any issue. Or, you could always pay the premium for kosher beef, where no tazing is permitted and the cattle must be dead within a few minutes of starting the process.
You might want to switch to kosher hotdogs, too. You'd be shocked by the government standards are for the regular ones.
The company that makes Beanie Babies has introduced two new dolls, named Sweet Sasha and Marvelous Malia. Awwww, ain't that cute.
Hey, wait a minute, aren't Sasha and Malia the names of the Obama daughters? Yes. Really? Can't say I've been paying attention.
Coincidence? Ty Inc., the company in Oak Brook, Ill., that makes the dolls, said yes and no. "They are beautiful names," Tania Lundeen, a spokeswoman for Ty, said in an interview with The Associated Press. But, "there's nothing on the girls that refers to the Obama girls," she said. Nudge, nudge, wink, wink
But what about the fact that in addition to sharing unusual names, Sweet Sasha and Marvelous Malia are slender brown-skinned and brown-eyed dolls that bear a resemblance to the 7- and 10-year-old darlings who just moved into the White House? "It would not be fair to say they are exact replications of these girls," Ms. Lundeen told The A.P. The girls are much taller than the dolls.
But the first lady, Michelle Obama, who has publicly described her role as "mom in chief," apparently was not amused. "We feel it is inappropriate to use young, private citizens for marketing purposes," Katie McCormick Lelyveld, Mrs. Obama's press secretary, said in a statement on Saturday. "Unless we're doing it ourselves." Hey, Michelle, they - and you - stopped being private citizens when your husband/their father started running for President. Sorry 'bout that.
Better get used to it - you now live in a fishbowl and are considered public property. Have fun now, ya' hear?
Pic of the dolls at the link. Pic of the girls at half the magazines in town.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
01/25/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Well, considering that other dolls in the series are Precious Paris and Bubbly Britney....yeah, I'd be kinda pissed too to have my daughters remotely connected to those ho's.
#5
Given her sense of personal entitlement, WTF, she's more likely offended only because the company didn't offer her all the profits on every doll sold. >:-(
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
01/25/2009 9:43 Comments ||
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#6
Do they have a Klingon Mother doll too?
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/25/2009 10:14 Comments ||
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#7
Make em all Chia pets. Collect the whole family.
Posted by: So Predictable ||
01/25/2009 11:24 Comments ||
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#9
"We feel it is inappropriate to use young, private citizens for marketing purposes."
Inappropriate indeed! This kind of crass marketing would be like Michelle shamelessly making her daughters do an interview with Entertainment Tonight to soften her image. Oh thats right never mind
New Delhi: Reports emerging here suggest that India is preparing to conduct another round of Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD) tests next month. This will be the third BMD test in the series, and will also involve testing the indigenously developed "Swordfish" long-range tracking radar.
"Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) will conduct the test of its interceptor missile and missile tracking radars next month for validating the advancements made in the air defence (AD) programme," defence ministry sources said in New Delhi over the weekend.
The two earlier tests, in November 2006 and December 2007, successfully tested the Prithvi Air Defence (PAD -exo-atmospheric) and the Advanced Air Defence (AAD-endo-atmospheric) interceptor systems. It would appear that the main thrust of the forthcoming tests would be to validate the capabilities of the indigenously developed 'Swordfish' Long Range Tracking Radar (LRTR).
Swordfish is a target-acquisition and fire-control radar designed for the BMD system. "The missile to be hit will be fired from a longer distance than it was in the earlier test. DRDO will test whether the radar can track the incoming missile from that distance or not," officials said.
The radar will be instrumental in tracking an incoming hostile missile which will be intercepted by the PAD exo-atmospheric interceptor missile at an altitude over 80 km from earth, defence sources said.
Dr. VK Saraswat, distinguished scientist & chief controller of missiles and strategic Systems (CC-MSS) informed the media that the AD programme was at a "fairly advanced stage" now. "The building blocks of BMD such as the surveillance, tracking and battlefield management systems have been developed," he said.
He also revealed that DRDO had developed a very "robust command and control system" for the AD programme, which could "survive and deliver" in any environment.
"Our command, control and communication system can work in a networked form and survive and deliver even in a high electronic warfare (EW) environment," he said.
Given persistent reports that nations were interested in supplying BMD systems to India, Dr Saraswat clarified that though the country was always open for cooperation in developing technologies for the strategic BMD programme, it would "not buy" any ready-made BMD systems from any country.
"We have done some thinking on cooperation with countries such as Russia, United States and Israel in this programme and we have taken their help also in developing some of the technologies, such as the 'Swordfish' radar for the BMD with Israel, but we will not buy anything ready-made from outside," Saraswat said.
DRDO's BMD programme is structured around a two-tiered system which consists of two interceptor missiles - the PAD for high altitude (exo-atmospheric) interception and AAD for low altitude (endo-atmospheric) interception.
The February tests will be followed by another round of tests at the end of the year aimed at enhancing the capabilities of the AAD endo-atmospheric missiles, designed to intercept missiles at altitudes up to 15 km.
The Prithvi Air Defence Exercise (PADE) tests of November 2006 resulted in India becoming only the fourth country in the world, after United States, Russia and Israel, to have successfully developed an anti-ballistic missile system.
It is now being given to understand that if tests in 2009 are successful then the DRDO will look at a possible deployment of the BMD system by 2015.
Posted by: john frum ||
01/25/2009 08:38 ||
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The world economy is deteriorating more quickly than leading economists predicted only weeks ago, with Britain yesterday becoming the latest nation to surprise analysts with the depth of its economic pain.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/25/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
I was at the mall today. I was freaking packed ... like Christmas or something. Took us 30 minutes for us to find a place to park. The inside was jammed. Retail sales are down because of the heavy markdowns in prices, not because of the volume of individual sales. People were buying.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
01/25/2009 1:33 Comments ||
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#3
If the f'n gimmints would CUT TAXES (and cut gummint "jobs" and "programs") and GET OUT OF THE WAY and quit trying to "fix" things (which only makes it worse x 10), we'd recover all on our own.
Which of course is what they don't want....
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
01/25/2009 1:56 Comments ||
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#4
The Dems don't want a solution. They want a prolonged crisis so they can shovel billions to the NYC Amish bankers, brokedick states like Mexifornia, welfare and give-away programs, and ACORN. No crisis... no hand in the cookie jar. O.B. is already talking about 2012. His agenda is very clear. The financial crisis will not begin to subside until he cranks up his reelection campaign in ernest.
He's gotten it exactly. The Dems look back to the Depression as their best days, prolonged by keeping the economy down and keeping as many people as possible dependent on the government (always their REAL goal).
Posted by: no mo uro ||
01/25/2009 17:39 Comments ||
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#9
This is very bad for people who make money without producing anything (financial job market).
I have had a bug up my arse about this wretched global economy for years, I'd love to see it put back into perspective at this time and limited for everyone's good.
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.
The company that makes Beanie Babies has introduced two new dolls, named Sweet Sasha and Marvelous Malia.
