The UAE will allow establishment of human rights organisations by any group as stipulated by the country's law which caters to freedom and respect of people's rights, a senior official at the Ministry of Interior said yesterday. Answering a 'Khaleej Times' question on whether an application for establishing a human rights group would be accepted, Major General Saif Abdullah Al Shaafar, Assistant Under-secretary for Security Affairs said since the law allows for establishment of such organisations, there would be no reasons to reject any such application. "I don't see why not. Since it is a legitimate right, I think no group will be denied that right as long as it is going to work for the welfare of the society," he stated.
Maj-Gen Shaafar was speaking after inaugurating a two-day symposium on human rights organised by the ministry, under the patronage of Major-General Shaikh Saif bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Minister of Interior. "By grace of God, there haven't been any human rights violations committed by the state security here. Our constitution inspired its principles from the true Islamic religion and our traditions and values. The issue of human rights is not something new to the UAE society. We are proud that the UAE society, both citizens and expatriates, lives in peace and security and co-exists in harmony."
"O-o-o-okay, that's done with. Now, where can we kill some Joooos?"
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/28/2004 12:00:00 AM ||
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âWe are proud that the UAE society, both citizens and expatriates, lives in peace and security and co-exists in harmony."
Translated into reality: Everyone knows their place. We pay 'em enough to.
#2
I have spent several months in Dubai, UAE, and can tell you from personal experience that it is absolutely the safest place in the world. Everybody, including half naked Russian whores, wander around the streets at all hours of the day and night, you don't see the police anywhere, and nobody gives you any problems. 1 thing you cannot do however, and that is discuss politics. I was speaking to a Palestinian taxi cab driver about the situation in Jenin when a Emirati came along and physically grabbed him and dragged him away while I was forcibly pulled back into my hotel by the staff. Other than that, Dubai is as close to a perfect Libertarian society as you and I will every likely to be in. You can do any kind of business you want (except sell drugs) and have all the woman and booze you can pay for - as long as you don't make trouble.
Posted by: Michael E. Piston ||
11/28/2004 16:21 Comments ||
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No, drugs, no politics, other than that Libertarian. :)
Seventy per cent of the public believe that the police should not enforce the ban on hunting when the legislation comes into effect in February. An opinion poll, conducted by ICM for The Sunday Telegraph, found that seven out of 10 of those questioned believed that police officers should concentrate on other areas of crime once hunting with hounds becomes illegal. Only 20 per cent said that they thought the police should be used to enforce the ban. Seven per cent said that officers should give equal emphasis to tackling hunting and other crimes. The poll also found that half the public supports the ban, while 35 per cent oppose it. More surprisingly, 23 per cent of Labour supporters were against it. Opposition to the ban was strongest among lower earners, bearing out claims by the pro-hunting lobby that the sport is not the preserve of "toffs".
Hunts will meet this week to decide how to co-ordinate civil disobedience when the ban comes into force on February 19 next year. Many hunts are planning to restyle themselves as hound exercise clubs, while others will become drag hunts. Almost all intend to continue to hunt and challenge police to catch them in the act of killing a fox. Steven Clark, a joint master of the Barlow hounds in Derbyshire, said: "Our unofficial plan will be to continue as normal." George Bowyer, a joint master of the Fitzwilliam Hunt, said: "I think the most likely thing is for people and farmers to go draghunting or out as hound exercise clubs and have the odd 'accident'."
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Posted by: Bulldog ||
11/28/2004 6:49:53 AM ||
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Sorry people of England, but your betters have spoken. Now doff your caps, tug your forelocks, and get back to work. If your betters wanted to hear from you, they would have actualy listened to you.
I suggest that you apply for immigration at the U.S., or Austraian embassies now, before the lines get long, and your betters prohibit emmigration from the (future) Soviet Socialist Republic of England.
Posted by: N Guard ||
11/28/2004 9:48 Comments ||
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Actress Vanessa Redgrave, her foolish brother and the father of a Guantanamo terrorist detainee on Saturday launched a new political party devoted to generating lots of publicity for Vanessa human rights. The Peace and Progress Party says it will field mouthpieces candidates and endorse useful idiots politicians with strong leftist credentials human rights records in the next general election. Organizers discussed the party's mind-numbing platform and doomed strategies at a conference that drew several hundred rubes and simple-minded rustics people. ``Our goal is to smash capitalism ring the alarm bells about the human rights abuses our government is sanctioning, and to install the dictatorship of the proletariat act as a focus for people who want to stand up against them,'' said Vanessa Redgrave's brother, political wanker activist Corin Redgrave.
Redgrave suggested four British terrorist prisoners at Guantanamo Bay could run as propaganda talking points party candidates, as a means of blubbering protesting against their rightful detention and the non-existent alleged human rights abuses at the prison on a U.S. naval base in Cuba. ``It could be one highly effective way of demonstrating the extent of their foolishness sending a message through the polls,'' Corin Redgrave said, recalling how the Irish nationalist cause was buoyed when the 1980s hunger-striking terrorist prisoner Bobby Sands was elected to Parliament.
Always useful to compare your fledgling party to an IRA terrorist. Lets everyone know where you stand on 'human rights'.
Working for the release or fair trial of terrorist prisoners in Guantanamo Bay will be a useful distraction focus for the group, said Azmat Begg, whose evil son, Moazzam Begg, is one of four terrorists Britons held at the prison in Guantanamo Bay. ``The mainstream political parties have correctly shown no interest in the human rights abuses going at Guantanamo Bay and in Iraq,'' Begg said. ``That's why a party based on human rights as its major distraction its central issue is so vital as a cat's paw for Vanessa.'' Other speakers at Saturday's conference included Burns Weston, a useful idiot and president of the University of Iowa Center for Human Rights, and prominent Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, a vocal Chechnyan sympatheizer critic of Russia's military campaign against separatist terrorists rebels in Chechnya.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/28/2004 12:11:18 AM ||
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#1
Vanessa believes in human rights for everyone except Jews, Israelis and the right wing.
#6
I hope everyone here realizes that the Redgraves don't give a damm about human rights or gitmo detainees. These people are hardcore extreme Marxists. Smash the capitalist system revolutionary types who would happily hang 90% of RB regulars from lamp-posts given the opportunity and without regard for our 'human rights'.
#7
And who does she thinks she is? What are the singular merits she has? What makes her think she is superor to us the unamashed masses? The fact she was reasonably pretty and slept with the right people, is it that?
#8
As I said elsewhere, I miss times not too long ago when actors were considered on one step above societal level than gypsy brigands.
And let's not forget the fact that the actors in theatres (as opposed to movie *'s) had to memorize the whole play, word for word. No multiple takes.
I worked in a theater for a while as technician. The actors had really good memory, being trained in remembering. But most of them had a composite personality that was a parcel of their professional deformation.
Movie stars, are trained to render discrete pieces of a story line. No one can convince me that it does not reflect back on their mental faculties. The apparent abiltity of actors to render cognitive dissonant snippets without a flinch or any awareness of some fault in the logic is a point in my case.
I used to be a member of Amnesty International and sometimes I feel like an ex boyfriend breathing a sigh of relief I no longer have anything to do with those losers.
#10
Vanessa has long been a true believer and whacka-mole for the Paleos. Years and years ago, it killed her career, and soon after she was videod proudly dancing around a fire with an AK and a checkered head scarf--like in the 1970s. I don't even think the Paleos want much to do with her, as that degree of fanaticism scares everybody but suicide bombers.
TWELVE hundred years ago, the Danes spread their genes in Britain by rape and occupation.
Now they are taking a less confrontational approach: a Danish sperm bank is stocking up on large amounts of semen ready to flood the British market when sperm donation rules are changed next year.
Cryos International, the world's largest sperm bank, based in the university town of Aarhus, has recruited 40 donors - mostly blond, blue-eyed students over 182cm tall - who meet British regulatory requirements. Cryos, whose motto is "We keep the stork busy", hopes to take advantage of a likely sperm shortage from next April, when sperm donors in Britain lose their anonymity, meaning any children they beget will be able to trace them.
Experience in other countries has shown that letting children trace their biological fathers cuts sperm donation by more than 85 per cent. Ole Schou, managing director and founder of Cryos, said: "The system in the United Kingdom will collapse. We expect in the near future sales to the UK will increase dramatically. We will be very busy. We have 40 donors prepared for that, and we are trying to find more."
The company has 250 specially screened Danish donors on its books, and pays them £25 ($60) for each sample. The sperm is deep frozen and exported to 40 countries, including Britain, Kenya and China.
Since being set up in 1987, Cryos has been responsible for almost 10,000 births, with such big demand in the US for Scandinavian looks that the company has opened an office in New York.
Cryos sperm is popular because, as well as being plentiful, it is filtered to a higher quality, leading to a higher-than-average success rate for conception.
In Britain, couples have the donor chosen for them by the clinic they are using, but in the US parents can choose the donor and are given full information about him. Cryos's US website outlines the physical and medical characteristics of some of its donors, such as Ante, the 195cm, blond, blue-eyed medical student, or Borg the 192cm blond, green-eyed MA student. Potential clients find out full details of donors, such as Jens, who is blond, blue-eyed, enjoys soccer, skiing, salsa and badminton, plays the piano, speaks English and German, and is earning his masters degree in physical chemistry.
To prevent accidental incest, there are limits to how many babies can be sired by one donor - it is 10 in Britain, but 25 in Denmark. One Cryos donor has sired 101 children, unbeknown to himself, because his sperm has been sent to many different countries.
The Department of Health is responding to the looming British sperm shortage by planning a recruitment drive for donors, and is considering increasing the current maximum pound stg. 15 fee.
"It's really odd that to overcome a shortage, we have to import from overseas, and that we can't sort it out in-house to serve the country's needs," said Allan Pacey, head of andrology at Sheffield Teaching Hospital.
IMPASSE CONTINUES: Ukraine's parliament declared the country's disputed presidential election invalid Saturday amid international calls for a new vote.
WHAT IT MEANS: Parliament's vote has no legal standing, but came as representatives of Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych and Viktor Yushchenko sought a solution in talks. The Supreme Court will begin considering the case Monday.
OUTSIDE VIEW: The White House, which with the European Union rejected the election commission naming Yanukovych winner, said it was hopeful recent developments "can pave the way for a democratic process which reflects the will of the Ukrainian people."
Posted by: Fred ||
11/28/2004 1:17:47 PM ||
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Ukraine's outgoing president called on the political opposition to end its four-day blockade of government buildings over the disputed presidential election, saying Sunday that compromise was the only solution to the crisis gripping this former Soviet republic. But opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko, who claims he was cheated out of victory through fraud in the Nov. 21 presidential runoff, urged his supporters to stay in the streets. Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators have thronged downtown Kiev for a week to support Yushchenko's claim that the election was rigged and he was robbed of victory.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/28/2004 1:08:26 PM ||
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GREECE — a country where only 13 per cent of school children choose French as their first foreign language — will today [26/11/04] be accepted as the 57th member of the Organisation of French Speaking Nations. The Greek Foreign Ministry said that it would join La Francophonie at the organisation's two-day summit in Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso to support the battle against the spread of English. Although Greece could hardly claim to be a fully fledged French-speaking country, its application will be welcomed by President Chirac of France, who is in Ouagadougou for the meeting. It will, by no means, be the only non-francophone member of what is, theoretically, a francophone association.
Set up ten years ago, after France had tried and failed to bind its former colonies into a form of French commonwealth, the International Francophonie Organisation includes a disparate array of countries. Albania, Bulgaria, Poland, Lithuania, Macedonia, Moldavia, Romania, the Czech Republic, Slovenia and Egypt are among them. The official objectives of the organisation are to use "the links created by sharing the French language" to promote "peace, cooperation, and development". The promotion of democracy and "dialogue between civilisations" are also goals for La Francophonie. However, in practice, the organisation's main concern is to stop English from becoming more dominant than it already is — and to preserve a space for other languages. Many member states see La Francophonie as a lever to promote their own language, rather than French.
A current of anti-Americanism also runs powerfully through the organisation. Paris sees it as a body that will help M Chirac in his campaign for a multipolar world in which Europe acts as a counterweight to the US. Giorgos Koumoutsakos, the Greek foreign ministry spokesman, said yesterday that his Government "believes in multilingualism". He added: "We want to join this organization because we don't want a monopoly by a single language but to have many languages. "We need to express ourselves in many languages. Anything that can be done to avoid the move towards single language is worth doing." In the sixth form, a vast majority of Greek pupils drop French. At this level, 91.2 per cent study only English.
Posted by: Bulldog ||
11/28/2004 5:33:01 AM ||
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#1
It's prolly safe to assume that Iraq was DFRed* recently. What's wrong with all of these stupid people? Don't they realize French is the language of LoveDiplomacyScienceTechnologyCommercethe Past the Future? Sacre bleu!
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/28/2004 11:39 Comments ||
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#5
A friend of mine from the Royal Swedish Air Force told me about a meeting he attended in France. The Swedes were welcomed by a French general in french. The Swedish general responded in french and then the meeting proceeded in English, a language in which all parties were equally proficient. French is OK unless you want to discuss science, technology, aviation, business,...
Greece is not an "ally" of France even if we consider antiAmericanism alone -- Greek antiAmericanism seems to me for example to have very different roots than French antiAmericanism, since for example in Greece the most anti-American tend to also be the most anti-EU as well, representing an aversion to the whole of the West.
"Now I see," said the blind carpenter as he picked up his hammer and saw.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
11/28/2004 14:00 Comments ||
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Anything that can be done to avoid the move towards single language is worth doing.
They're opposed to people being able to talk to each other, preferring that only governments do so.
#8
Mrs. Davis, I'm tired of your inane babble and your mirthful wallowing in your own ignorance. If you have something to say to me, say it, if you have something to dispute, dispute it.
But right now, I stand by everything I said in that sentence you quoted, and I also stand by everything I said that you didn't quote.
Glad to see how easily you consider yourself verified by events, even when Francophonie includes countries like Poland, Czech Republic and Romania, which you'd be unlikely to consider "allies" of France. But allow me to keep on thinking that I have a better knowledge of Greek politics and attitudes than you do.
Anything that can be done to avoid the move towards single language is worth doing. They're opposed to people being able to talk to each other, preferring that only governments do so.
They're linguistic nationalists, wanting to "protect" their language. Nationalism makes them inherently opposed to EU supranationalism and fearful of cultural contamination from nations linguistically dominant in the present day. So they oppose the strengthening of the concept of "working languages" in contrast to smaller languages.
This linguistic xenophobia is at its core an anti-EU force. But *hey* Mrs. Davis, feel free to consider it part of an evil EU scheme instead, as all things must be. Even though that makes no sense at all. But hey I wouldn't want to stop you from being a political simpleton.
#9
Come on, Aris. Why wouldn't these countries join the Phrancohpone group? (And when I say country, I mean, of course the elites of those countries) It just means trips to Phrance for the elites and much good food and wine. Should I stay in Cairo/Bucharest/others? Or go to Paris?
Speaking of Greece. If one thinks Phrance is a washed-up has-been, look at Greece! Greeks were passed-up two millenia ago. Other than Zorba, what has Greece produced for the last 2,000 years?
#10
"fearful of cultural contamination from nations linguistically dominant in the present day"
That would be France and the perceived contaminant is English.
Czech Republic is not much Francophone... yes, I knew about a handfull people that could muster it fluently. But due to cultural proximity, German was the most learned, folloved by the current lingua franca--English.
I don't count Russian that was mandatory on all edumacational levels before 1989. Students pretended to learn it and proffs pretended to give grades. :-)
#13
Spanakopita and dolmas? I also prefer Greek belly dancers. I used to pay 'em on the side at my favorite Greek restaurant to sensuously bump my client's chair across the room when we showed up for lunch. The "shy" clients (they were Oil & Gas guys - usually in R&D) never forgot the attention - blushed like little boys - prolly telling their grandchildren about it today, recalling what studs they were.
#18
Greece is the only part of Turkey that will ever be in the EU.
Posted by: Random thoughts ||
11/28/2004 21:43 Comments ||
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Seriously, Aris, some of those countries are surprising. I can understand, say, Romania, since they've had relations with France since before WWI, and had many of their elite educated there, but Bulgaria?. I don't see them as Francophone.
Though I guess the rest of the article makes it that several of the others are simply anti-English. If this thing had real teeth, I wonder how long it would be until it simply forbid more than X% of the people from learning English.
I suppose the elites would not apply the rules to themselves, but simply keep the peasants ignorant.
#1
One thing that drives Europhiles bonkers is to even suggest the axioms of European "failure." Failure can mean many things, from the EU devolving into a collapsed confederation with a powerless rump parliament, to a continually brawling pair or trio of competing blocs that stalemate any mutual decisions, to the suggestion that undemocratic Bureaucratocracy is doomed to failure. The bottom line is that Europe has no glue to hold it together, no philosophy of the people, no commonality of origin, direction or purpose. It is not held together by a strong belief in freedom and the rights of man, and it has no document to succinctly express their core values. It shows all the prospects of the Holy Roman Empire, which was neither Holy, nor Roman, nor an Empire; and was in slow decline almost from the moment of its inception.
#2
Dear God... that's just pathetic. I can't think of any other word for it. And from this is supposed to come greatness? Grandeur? Gloire?
You really should consider leaving, Bulldog. Really.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
11/28/2004 11:57 Comments ||
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#3
Well, I see why Aris is so beside himself in his odas regarding EU. If those people are in, then Aris has his chances too--albeit he may lack the proper credentials (not red or corrupt enuff and such)--and there is a chance that that once again, Aris-tocracy would rule.
#4
Yes, please Bulldog, do consider leaving the EU. Alongside the rest of the United Kingdom.
UK won't though. We know that already.
---
As for the rest it's bitterly funny how the article distorts things. It says "The Latvian candidate, Ingrida Udre, was withdrawn as a candidate. Her crime? To tell MEPs that she favoured tax competition."
*Really*?? Because what *I* had heard, was that the problem with Ingrida Udre was that she faced allegations of irregularities in the funding of her political party. Irregularities which unlike the case with Mr. Barrot were discovered before the vote took place.
It fell to a man called Nigel Farage, capo of the UK Independence Party, to inform the chamber of Mr Barrot's conviction. The pro-EU parties had not looked into his background because, deep down, they didn't want to find anything.
And what is the reason, pray tell, that the UKIP party did not inform the chamber *before* the vote on the Commissioners took place? What is the reason that Mr. Nigel Farage didn't see fit to reveal his information a mere week or two earlier, before the vote took place? Is it because in that case Mr. Barrot might have indeed been replaced, and then you wouldn't have a thing to be scandalized about?
As for the six ex-communist Commissioners, what the article conveniently forgets to mention, is that each country's government appoints its *own* Commissioner from its own ranks. So instead of saying that there are six ex-communists Commissioners, we should have been told the exactly equivalent "there are six countries in the EU with ex-communist parties in control".
So, do you want the EU to be able to tell to its member states that they must choose representatives from *outside* their democratically-elected ruling parties? Is that really what you want? On my part, I'm all in favour of supranationalism and all in favour of a President appointing his own Commission with no national say in each appointment, but am not so sure *you* would be.
And as a sidenote, do you want to make a wild guess whether these states with former communists in command belong to "old" or "new" Europe, and whether the same former-communists you now despise were the very same former-communists that you praised for supporting USA in Iraq?
And "Cornilies", don't try to guess at my motives ever again. I don't have much humour in the midst of enemies.
#5
I don't have much humour in the midst of enemies
enemies? Not hardly, Aris. I remain a devoted skeptic, nothing more. Remember that. There's no personal animus, as there is for, say...Murat. To date, I don't recall you ever wishing death and injury on American troops. I can accept that we disagree vehemently on the benefits of the EU, no problem, but that doesn't make us enemies IMHO
Frank
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/28/2004 17:27 Comments ||
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Oh, lighten up, Aris! I think that Aris-tocracy is pretty cool coinage. :-)
"I'm all in favour of supranationalism and all in favour of a President appointing his own Commission with no national say in each appointment".
#7
*Really*?? Because what *I* had heard, was that the problem with Ingrida Udre was that she faced allegations of irregularities in the funding of her political party. Irregularities which unlike the case with Mr. Barrot were discovered before the vote took place.
LOL There are a few of reasons being given for Udre's rejection. For example, the unprovenallegations of financial irrregularity. Which, unlike Barrot's fraud, are unproven and allegations. Barrot was actually convicted of campaign funds embezzlement and would have spent time in prison if he hadn't been saved by a convenient presidential amnesty. Other reasons for Udre's rejection? A combination of incompetence and political horse trading, at least according to Der Tagesspiegel and others. Not that incompetence alone is enough to bar someone from being a Commissioner, as Laszlo Kovacs would attest (deemed too incompetent for the weighty responsibilities of the Environment, he's been given Udre's lowly Taxation post instead).
It almost sounds as though you're criticising UKIP for pointing out Barrot's criminal history. Surely that can't be the case. I can't believe you would resent the actions of the only group in the European Parliament who actually bothered to do their homework regarding members of the new Commission. As you seem to be so critical of UKIP for making their discovery, I wonder whether you would rather that no one had found out about Barrot's history, and that he'd had been waved through to the post unhindered? If that is the case, how can you cite mere allegations of financial irregularities as a resason to reject Udre? If allegations of financial irregularity were suddenly enough to bar people from holding office, I think there would be quite a few vacancies opening up in Brussels.
And what is the reason, pray tell, that the UKIP party did not inform the chamber *before* the vote on the Commissioners took place? What is the reason that Mr. Nigel Farage didn't see fit to reveal his information a mere week or two earlier, before the vote took place?
Poor Little Aris. Welcome to the world of politics. People aren't always nice to their political enemies in the way you seem to expect. If the opposition have left their goal open, it's still acceptable to score. It's naive to be asking why UKIP won such a spectacular victory. You should be asking how the hell they were given such an easy one. Why did the French think a man with such a blot on his record would be suitable for such a post, and why, apparently, didn't anyone else bother to check him out? Is it that hard to find an honest politician in Europe?
As for the six ex-communist Commissioners...
And you wouldn't object to six ex-Nazi Commissioners, would you? If you live in a one-party state and you just desperately need to be in power, there's simply no choice but to join the anti-democratic socialist autocrats, right? A profession's a profession, after all. Not all politicians have the luxury of being able to cultivate and employ a conscience.
#9
And "Cornilies", don't try to guess at my motives ever again. I don't have much humour in the midst of enemies.
Or I'll scratch you're fucking eyes out.
Posted by: Abdullah of the One Name Only Clan ||
11/28/2004 19:24 Comments ||
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#10
"Which, unlike Barrot's fraud, are unproven and allegations."
Which unlike Barrot's fraud however was a *known* allegation, it wasn't something the MEP were in complete ignorance of.
Laszlo Kovacs would attest (deemed too incompetent for the weighty responsibilities of the Environment, he's been given Udre's lowly Taxation post instead).
Laszlo Kovacs was deemed incompetent for the responsibilities of the *Energy* department. I assume he was better prepared during his hearing for the Taxation and Customs Union department.
It almost sounds as though you're criticising UKIP for pointing out Barrot's criminal history.
NO!! I attack them for *hiding* it until a time it was politically convenient. Such knowledge should have been shared immediately, if they had it, during the weeks and months that the virtues and vices of the Commissioners were discussed, during the weeks and months *before* the vote on the new Commission. Two Commissioners were removed after those discussions and a third one forced to change portfolios. Why didn't they share such info, to urge that Barrot be likewise removed?
I criticize UKIP for not pointing out *sooner*, if they knew about it. It shows that they don't care a bit about keeping crooks out of office, they only care about scoring political points.
It is morally *criminal* if they withheld such knowledge. An analogy: If before the presidential preliminaries, the Republican party knew that Kerry was a convicted murderer, then they'd have likewise an obligation to give this news to the public, so that the Democrat party itself would remove him. NOT wait until he's the Democrat candidate for President before revealing the damning evidence.
And if a third party knew such info, they should definitely not wait until after Kerry became *president* before revealing the information a day after the election and trying to put a stain on the whole system.
I wonder whether you would rather that no one had found out about Barrot's history, and that he'd had been waved through to the post unhindered?
But the point is that he WAS INDEED waved through to the post unhindered. That's the point of my rage. That the UKIP (intentionally?) waited until *after* Barrot occupied the post before revealing the information. Worse that the ignorance of the other MEPs is knowing and doing NOTHING. Which is what the UKIP may have done. If it knew.
Welcome to the world of politics. People aren't always nice to their political enemies in the way you seem to expect. If the opposition have left their goal open, it's still acceptable to score
Go on scoring then, but don't even pretend you care about corruption, if instead of fighting it, you prefer to only point it out after intentionally allowing it to take position in order to shame your opponents.
As for the six ex-communist Commissioners... And you wouldn't object to six ex-Nazi Commissioners, would you?
I do object to the six ex-communist Commissioners. I suggested changes in the system, didn't I? If Barroso could handpick his own team rather than be dependent on national governments, it'd be unlikely that this right-wing politician would have chosen ex-communists.
Let us hear your own suggestions for creating a system that wouldn't permit ex-communist governments from installing ex-communist Commissioners.
#13
snarky gets you nowhere, EU boy - answer the question
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/28/2004 21:05 Comments ||
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#14
BTW - "no" is an answer - the rest is left to conjecture, no?
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/28/2004 21:06 Comments ||
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#15
One Volk! One Reich! One Euro!
Posted by: trawling for allan ||
11/28/2004 21:07 Comments ||
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#16
You're welcome, Aris. The feeling's mutual.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
11/28/2004 21:10 Comments ||
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#17
"snarky gets you nowhere, EU boy - answer the question."
That was a question? Didn't people here say that only asshats answer normally what's a sarcastic comment?
But if "Have Brussels write a new regulation" wasn't meant sarcastically, then *no*, it's the treaties that say Commissioners are nominated by the member states. So, if you want to stop ex-communist parties in government from nominating ex-communists, then it's an amendment to the treaties that is required, AFAIK.
LOCAL leaders from Ukraine's eastern regions voted unanimously today in favour of holding a referendum on their "regional status", a euphemism for autonomy from the capital Kiev. Delegates at a regional congress all raised their hands in favour of "a referendum to be held in December this year to determine the status of the region". Any move towards autonomy for the east is anathema to nationalists and liberals 13 years after the country won independence from the Soviet Union. Ukraine's pro-Western opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko earlier today demanded that prosecutors open a criminal inquiry into the heads of pro-Russian eastern and southern regions for threatening to declare autonomy. "We demand the opening of a criminal inquiry against the separatist governors," Mr Yushchenko told a crowd of more than 100,000 supporters massed in Kiev's central Independence Square. "The idea of creating an autonomous territory comes from the governors of regions where there was a record amount of (electoral) fraud," in the presidential election contested on November 21, he added.
Posted by: tipper ||
11/28/2004 9:49:19 AM ||
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EFL
It was 5.30pm on election day in Ukraine when the thugs in masks arrived armed with rubber truncheons. Vitaly Kizima, an election monitor at Zhovtneve in Ukraine's Sumy region, watched in horror as 30 men in tracksuits stormed into the village polling station. "They started to beat voters and election officials, trying to push through towards the ballot boxes," he told The Telegraph. "People's faces were cut from blows to the head. There was blood all over."
The thugs - believed to be loyal to the pro-Russian presidential candidate Viktor Yanukovich from his stronghold, Donetsk - were repulsed only when locals pushed them back and a policeman fired warning shots. The catalogue of abuses in the contest between Mr Yanukovich, the prime minister, and his opponent, the pro-Western Viktor Yushchenko, is growing longer by the day...
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
11/28/2004 9:25:02 AM ||
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EFL
I moved to Canada after the 2000 election. Although I did it mainly for career reasons -- I got a job whose description read as though it had been written precisely for my rather quirky background and interests -- at the time I found it gratifying to joke that I was leaving the United States because of George W. Bush. It felt fine to think of myself as someone who was actually going to make good on the standard election-year threat to leave the country. Also, I had spent years of my life feeling like I wasn't a typical American and wishing I could be Canadian. I wanted to live in a country that was not a superpower, a country I believe to have made the right choices about fairness, human rights and the social compact.
So I could certainly identify with the disappointed John Kerry supporters who started fantasizing about moving to Canada after Nov. 2. But after nearly four years as an American in the Great White North, I've learned it's not all beer and doughnuts. If you're thinking about coming to Canada, let me give you some advice: Don't.
Although I enjoy my work and have made good friends here, I've found life as an American expatriate in Canada difficult, frustrating and even painful in ways that have surprised me. As attractive as living here may be in theory, the reality's something else. For me, it's been one of almost daily confrontation with a powerful anti-Americanism that pervades many aspects of life. When I've mentioned this phenomenon to Canadian friends, they've furrowed their brows sympathetically and said, "Yes, Canadian anti-Americanism can be very subtle." My response is, there's nothing subtle about it.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
11/28/2004 9:04:32 AM ||
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#1
Interesting article; she paints a picture of Canadians as being almost obsessed with America and its faults-- real or imagined.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
11/28/2004 10:01 Comments ||
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On other hand it is true the majority of Americans have next to little or no idea when it comes to Canada's history which in throughout the eastern Provinces is interwoven with Colonial America in the French & Indian Wars, The Revolution right up until the War of 1812.
Even many Canadians know do not fully grasp both our nations are natural enemies of Islam's radical jihadists. A united front is far better equipped to defeat the terrorist enemy, then squabbles over border & cultural issues.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
11/28/2004 10:20 Comments ||
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#3
Lol... My response is NSFW4* - so pass it by if easily offended by certain pixel patterns and suffer self-imposed emotional distress when encountering certain semantic phrasings. Hey, it's your button.
America is alive. A reasoned complete response to this article would be, easily, as long as the article. As someone who has been an "ex pat" for most of the last decade, I understand all of the aspects she describes - and more she's blissfully unaware of. Personally, I think she's a total wimp. I wonder, would she be happy in a locale where Americans were not hated, but much of what she knows as "normal" was not available? What about a locale where the language barrier existed and was a huge impediment and expense in her daily life. What about a place where they'd really really like to cut your head off? She whineth much - and over such a small pivot point: they don't like / trust Americans. Sniff, sniff.
My point is that I don't want her to scare the nitwits off - Go to Canada! Hurry! You'll Love It! Trust Me!
[ranty-rant-rant]
I'll keep it simple.
As an American, a real (Lol!) American, a people who giggle while they poop on pretense, revel in the simplisme because complexity seldom actually exists as anything more than a series of simple issues / choices, bridle at kow-towing and anyone who tolerates it or practices it, ridicule class system climbers and everything related to the range from royalty to coastal snobbery, refuse to stoop unless forced but joyfully soar above the eagles when allowed, love a blowhard - as entertainment and object lesson in a runaway ego, jeer as openly as cheer, recognize that actions determine who is friend and who is foe, consider nuance the province of the weak-kneed gutless turd, happily pass out pins when confronted with yokels living in bubbles of puffery and buffonery, laugh at everything - including ourselves, and stop laughing when there's work to be done -- I offer the main theme from Team America - cuz it's funnier than anything I could come up with (credit where due, lol):
"The world is made up of three kinds of people - dicks, pussies, and assholes."
She's a pussy - and no I'm not being redundant - stay there, cow, we don't need you. Canadians are increasingly choosing to be cowardly hypocritical assholes who love and depend upon our economic engine while spitting in our faces and spouting the old canard, the obvious fallacy of moral superiority. Pfeh, fuckwits. Fair Warning: we are the dicks who will fuck you if you get in our way. There's shit to be done. You want to sit it out? Your choice, but know this: every choice has consequences. Figure it out for yourselves.
Fuck yeah.
[/ranty-rant-rant]
* Not Safe For Wimps, Weenies, Wussies, and Wankers.
#4
A little known factoid is that many more Canadians emigrate to the US than the other way around. So I encourage all the dhimis to line up at the Canadian Embassy and GO!
#5
Canada is very useful as an object lesson. Canada shows the absolute waste and parasitic drag induced by manadatory bilingualism. Canada shows the utter failure of state run medical delivery systems. Canada shows the futility of "morally superior" impotence. Canadians were with us when they needed us to protect them. Now the Lilliputians are busy telling themselves how great they are for a national policy of obstructing Gulliver. Like masturbation, satisfying at the moment but ultimately nonproductive. Fairly safe too, because Gulliver doesn't really notice or consider them worth the trouble of squashing.
It gave .com a chance to give an excellent rant on page 2. It does give an interesting perspective on the LLL view of the Nirvana to the North.
C Sarge, that is a very interesting statistic. Do you have an on line link? I'd really like to see that. Given the variance in population, that more Canadians come to America than vice versa is quite surprising.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
11/28/2004 13:19 Comments ||
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#10
Mrs. D: I've often seen the figure that there are over a million Canadians in greater Los Angeles alone. Probably overstated, but Canadians are constantly coming and going in large numbers.
I wouldn't read too much into this article. The subtitle could have been, "Self-absorbed American let down by self-absorbed Canadians". Confusing Torontonians with the rest of Canada is a mistake. There is a reason that Toronto is known elsewhere in Canada as, "Toronto: Center of the Universe".
#13
I wouldn't read too much into this article. The subtitle could have been, "Self-absorbed American let down by self-absorbed Canadians". Confusing Torontonians with the rest of Canada is a mistake. There is a reason that Toronto is known elsewhere in Canada as, "Toronto: Center of the Universe".
I completely disagree with this. Iâm speaking as a dual US and Canadian citizen currently living in Edmonton, Alberta. Anti-Americanism is very alive and well in this part of the country and has been around long before 9/11 anyone here ever heard of George Bush. Granted, it got worse under Chretienâs watch, as he fanned these flames, but itâs been around and itâs been around all over this country.
Posted by: SM ||
11/28/2004 14:17 Comments ||
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#14
Last time I went to Canada it was closed. Annoyed people kept telling me it wasn't so bad once you got used to.
#15
I lived for 12 years in Toronto and the pervasive institutionalized Anti-Americanism drove me crazy. It was petty, nasty and plain vindictive. It was instrumental in my leaving and to this day I flatly refuse to move back there, despite everyone in my family having Canadian passports and my wife regularly trying to persuade me. And BTW I'm not an American.
#16
OK, so I did some research and found this fascinating document prepared by someone working for the Conference Board of Canada. The ratio is about 2.5:1.
But what is really amazing is the composition of the immigrants. The rate for Professional Managers is 59:1. Similar rates appear for engineers and nurses.
The study concludes "brain drain is rising and perhaps at an increasing rate...All economic factors such as higher incime, better employment opportunities, and lower taxes, have consistently been weighted in favour of the United States...Canadian professionals respond to these economic factors in a strong way.
"In adition the emotional and psychological barriers that used to keep Canadians at home are now much less relevant. The health care and welfare systmes, a hallmark of Canadian distinctiveness, similarly do not carry much weight...For many professionals working in the United States, the cost of health care is covered by their employer and the quality of the service is superior to Canada."
The bottom line is that even Canada is acting as a farm club for the U. S., sending us her best and replacing them with third world college graduates who could not get into the U. S. (Or so the Conference Board of Canada wants us, or the Canadian government, to believe.) It would be interesting to know how many third worlders who can't get in the U. S. are coming to Canada hoping their children will be able to get into the US via NAFTA.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
11/28/2004 15:06 Comments ||
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#17
Mrs. Davis, The info is on the Canadian and U.S. Immigration websites. According to Canada there were 5,818 U.S. citizens moving there in 2002 (last year reported). The U.S. reported 19,519 Canadian moving south that same year. Like a 3-1 advantage for the U.S. so we can afford to send some more loonies North.
#18
Mrs D raises an important point: the hatred of America shown by Canada and Europe's social egalitarian levellers is grounded in fear of a new economic and social order in which professionals and other knowledge workers with advanced education and skills reap huge benefits while those without such skills bump along sideways.
America is the magnet for well-educated strivers who want more freedom, more opportunity, more income and lower taxes. Each year we take more and more of the ROW's best educated, most talented and most productive professionals, technicians, scientists and entrepreneurs.
The harsh fact is that most of the value in this new economic order is created by these high strivers, no matter where they come from or in which nation they work. This is the rough truth that the anti-Americans deny.
#19
Lex, All that and, it is becoming more explicit and well understood by your "strivers" world wide. I have always thought we were the most revolutionary country in the world and represented a threat to tyrants around the globe. But to any country that does not take care of its best and brightest, we represent a more subtle and insidious threat, no matter how (classically) liberal its political institutions.
What it also makes me wonder about is when the U. S. will be approached by a now independent country with an application for statehood. If we were to revert to a more federal structure, I suspect we could grow through M & A.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
11/28/2004 15:59 Comments ||
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#20
Iâll also add to the economic side of the equation. I went to college in Canada. When I graduated, the economic situation was supposedly pretty good and I was told it would be easy to find a good job. Well, it took me a few months to find a job and it was working as a janitor for the university. Most of my other classmates had difficulty finding work after graduation too.
I was looking to leave Canada anyways and found a much better job as a financial analyst in New York City. I had a few finance and healthcare related jobs when I was down there, but a fairly lengthy period of unemployment due to 9/11 consequences.
Anyways, I loved living New York, but had to go due to some family issues up here. When I came back here, my father told me that the economy was âboomingâ and that I would have no trouble finding a good job.
And did I?
Iâm currently working at a call center and have had no luck finding anything else in my field, or any better job for that matter. Iâve had two other interviews in the seven months Iâve been back, but theyâve been as sales or other call center positions. Iâm making less than half the salary I did in the States and still paying higher taxes. I have a good education and good work experience, but this seems to be the best I can find. I also work with a lot of people with Masters Degrees who are having the same sort of luck in this âboomingâ Canadian economy.
Iâm planning on leaving in the New Year.
Posted by: SM ||
11/28/2004 16:09 Comments ||
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#21
Singapore, maybe Chile would be candidates.
Of course I favor our picking off the world's best and brightest, but I'll admit that the swiftness of the change in our economy and the inevitable increase in inequality are a bit scary because it's so heavily reinforcing: docs and lawyers marry docs and lawyers, execs marry execs, etc.
So let's keep rewarding the strivers and creaming off the best Canucks and Euros but at the same time, sharply increase needs-based scholarship $$$ to be sure that our meritocracy actually enables the children of less-educated parents to move up as well.
#22
And you'll be welcome here, SM, I'll bet. It sucks to be forced to accept such jobs - I hope you get something challenging / skill-enhancing when you come back.
This is a truly fascinating thread - almost makes me ashamed I ranted... almost, heh. Thanks for the info and research and experiences, all - excellent. Rantburg U rocks.
#23
Mrs D: Thanks for the link to the study. I'm looking forward to reading it.
SM: One of the reasons I don't read too much into this article is that Anti-Americanism is alive and well in my part of the country too (Seattle). Until such a time as you can get yourself south of the border, find some western separatists to hang out with. It will make you feel much better about being Canadian.
#24
I've been coming to Toronto once a week for the last 3 months. So far the only comments I've heard about the U.S. has been a group of immigrants bitterly complaining about the Canadians refusal to recognize their foreign education when applying for work while their friends in the States have no problems getting hired and 2 Canadian very loudly supporting U.S. foreign policy on the train. Oh, then there was a debate in my class between a Pakistani-Canadian who thought the Bush was a terrorist and an Indo-Canadian who assured here that Iraqis and Afghanis were grateful for liberations, particularly the Afghanis who had gained the right to shave. If there is tremendous popular feeling against the U.S. there all I can say is its very well hidden.
Posted by: Michael E Piston ||
11/28/2004 18:12 Comments ||
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From The Boston Globe, an article by Peter Skerry, professor of political science at Boston College and senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, who is working on a book about Muslims in America. Devin Fernandes is his research assistant.
.... According to James Gimpel at the University of Maryland, registration levels for individuals with Arabic names in places like San Jose, Los Angeles, Tampa, and Queens increased dramatically since 9/11. If such new registrants voted, then record numbers of Muslims overcame long-standing misgivings about their political participation in a non-Muslim society. Pre-election surveys indicate that between 70 and 80 percent of Muslims voted for John Kerry. This is hardly surprising, given that most Muslims, certainly most leaders, accuse President Bush of betraying his 2000 campaign promise to protect them from racial profiling and other infringements on their civil liberties. Pre-emptive war in Iraq and Bush's staunch support for Israeli Prime Minister Sharon also contributed to this lopsided outcome -- although Muslims generally did not discern much difference between Bush and Kerry on Mideast issues.
One surprise is that the partisan shift of Muslim voters since 2000 is not quite as dramatic as claimed. Then as now, there was no reliable exit poll data. Then as now, the void was filled by leaders claiming to have delivered a bloc vote -- as much as 72 percent to Bush. But a more reasonable estimate, based on pre- and post-election surveys, is that in 2000 Bush received about 50 percent of the Muslim vote, Gore about 25 percent, and Ralph Nader 10 percent.
Nevertheless, does this year's vote suggest an emergent Muslim unity? Not exactly. Many national-origin, linguistic, and sectarian fault lines continue to fragment Muslims here. Not the least are those between immigrant-origin Muslims, primarily from the Mideast and South Asia and often well-educated and affluent, and African-American Muslims, native born but much less well off. The latter comprise about one-third of all Muslims in America, and among these the largest contingent are Sunni Muslims led by W.D. Mohammed, who over the last 30 years has steered his followers away from the cultish racism of the Nation of Islam, founded by his father, Elijah Mohammed.
Relations between immigrant-origin and African-American Muslims were strained in 2000, when immigrant leaders endorsed Bush without formal input from their African-American counterparts. In 2004, immigrant leaders tried not to repeat this mistake. But their efforts to include African-Americans were only partially successful. ....
.... civil liberties is an issue that rank-and-file Muslims consistently list among their concerns -- not surprising in light of the detentions and deportations that several thousand have experienced since 9/11. Muslims now routinely recount to outsiders and to themselves the civil rights struggles of other minorities -- blacks, Jews, wartime Japanese-Americans. The message is invariably a hopeful one: "If all those groups could overcome bigotry in America, then so can we." Such is the new Muslim-American mantra. Ironically, events since 9/11 and America's preoccupation with foreign policy have led Muslim leaders here to highlight domestic issues. As with other groups before them, the struggle of Muslims for civil rights and full inclusion will be a critical strand of their bond with America. With that in place, however, foreign policy concerns will emerge more prominently on the Muslim-American agenda.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
11/28/2004 2:35:57 PM ||
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Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, who missed the Supreme Court's November argument session while being treated for thyroid cancer, will be absent for the December session as well, the court announced on Friday. Kathleen Arberg, the court's public information officer, said Chief Justice Rehnquist was continuing to receive chemotherapy and radiation treatments as an outpatient and was meeting with his law clerks and court officials at his home. Ms. Arberg said she had no information on when the 80-year-old chief justice might return to the court.
This is indeed serious: most thyroid cancers are not treated this way; most get radioactive iodine as a first step. For them to go to chemotherapy and radiation together suggests either 1) a very aggressive cancer or 2) a cancer that has spread beyond the gland itself.
Given the apparent seriousness of his illness, there has been widespread speculation that the chief justice will announce his retirement sometime this winter. Jan. 7 will mark his 33rd anniversary on the court. The court hears arguments in 12 cases over a two-week period during most months of its term. The two-week session that begins on Monday will be the last of the year. Justice John Paul Stevens, who is presiding over the arguments in the chief justice's absence, announced at the beginning of each day of arguments during the November session that Chief Justice Rehnquist would participate in the decisions by reading the briefs and argument transcripts in each case. During the chief justice's monthlong absence from the court, he has taken part from home in the court's decisions on which new cases to accept for review. Whenever a justice does not participate, for any reason, in the consideration of a case, that fact is noted on the court's weekly list of orders, and there has been no indication with respect to Chief Justice Rehnquist. Presumably he plans to take part in the cases on the December calendar as well.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/28/2004 12:22:00 AM ||
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#1
...At this point now, I suspect Chief Justice Rehnquist has been told his chances are not good. He has served his nation and the Constitution well and honorably, and I pray that he and his family be given comfort and solace in the most trying of times.
The thought occurs to me that in his illness, he may have done us one last service: perhaps holding on without aggressive treatment longer than he should have to avoid the vicious fight that would have erupted over his successor prior to the election.
Mike
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
11/28/2004 11:21 Comments ||
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ACLU tells district: Force students to watch 'tolerance training' video.
If administrators of Kentucky's Boyd County school district can't find a way to force all students to attend sexual orientation and gender identity "tolerance training," the American Civil Liberties Union is threatening to take them to court — again.
Ten months ago, the district settled a lawsuit with the ACLU over the right of a student group, the Gay-Straight Alliance, to meet on campus. The year-long litigation strained relations in the conservative northeast portion of the state. In addition to allowing the group to meet on campus after school, district officials agreed that all students, staff and teachers would be required to receive "tolerance training..." So, I guess the ACLU is demanding that homosexual students be beaten to death, not just ignored.
#1
And the NY Times' readers wonder what is wrong with Kansas (and all the other red states). This only shows that ignorance reigns on the Charles River and Manhattan more so than in Topeka or Birmingham.
Posted by: Jack is Back ||
11/28/2004 19:03 Comments ||
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#2
"tolerate and celebrate us, dammit! Or we'll sue you"
ACLU= minor-league mullahs
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/28/2004 19:16 Comments ||
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#3
I certainly agree that homosexuals deserve to be accorded all the civil rights under the Constitution that I am, but I don't have to to be forced to accept the homosexual lifestyle as legitimate. I can't, under the Constitution, be forced to associate with groups I have no desire to associate with. My children should not be forced to attend a film espousing a position I find morally decadent and that is in conflict with my religious beliefs.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
11/28/2004 19:20 Comments ||
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#4
Welcome to Amerikkka, Deac.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
11/28/2004 19:21 Comments ||
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#5
I fought the KKK in Alabama growin up but I don't know how to fight this.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
11/28/2004 20:13 Comments ||
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#6
I sure hope your kids aren't in that district.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
11/28/2004 20:19 Comments ||
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#7
Folks it's called a counter suit againts the district and the ACLU. All you have to do is have more money, lawyers and guns than they do.
From The Washington Post, an opinion article by George F. Will
One study of 1,000 professors finds that Democrats outnumber Republicans at least seven to one in the humanities and social sciences. .... Another study, of voter registration records, including those of professors in engineering and the hard sciences, found nine Democrats for every Republican at Berkeley and Stanford. Among younger professors, there were 183 Democrats, six Republicans. ....
A filtering process, from graduate school admissions through tenure decisions, tends to exclude conservatives from what Mark Bauerlein calls academia's "sheltered habitat." In a dazzling essay in the Chronicle of Higher Education, Bauerlein, professor of English at Emory University and director of research and analysis at the National Endowment for the Arts, notes that the "first protocol" of academic society is the "common assumption" -- that, at professional gatherings, all the strangers in the room are liberals. .... This gives rise to what Bauerlein calls the "false consensus effect," which occurs when, because of institutional provincialism, "people think that the collective opinion of their own group matches that of the larger population." There also is what Cass Sunstein, professor of political science and jurisprudence at the University of Chicago, calls "the law of group polarization." Bauerlein explains: "When like-minded people deliberate as an organized group, the general opinion shifts toward extreme versions of their common beliefs." They become tone-deaf to the way they sound to others outside their closed circle of belief.
Academics such as the next secretary of state still decorate Washington, but academia is less listened to than it was. It has marginalized itself, partly by political shrillness and silliness that have something to do with the parochialism produced by what George Orwell called "smelly little orthodoxies." Many campuses are intellectual versions of one-party nations -- except such nations usually have the merit, such as it is, of candor about their ideological monopolies. In contrast, American campuses have more insistently proclaimed their commitment to diversity as they have become more intellectually monochrome. ....
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
11/28/2004 12:32:37 PM ||
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#1
It should also be noted that arguments in academe are especially bitter precisely because they are so unimportant. For though they always insist that they "shape the minds of the youth", statistically, they don't. Children tend to vote just like their parents. Academics also insist that they "shape the public policy debate"; but that is put to the lie by anyone outside of their coffee klatsch, who are oblivious to their entreties. Another of their illusions is of the "inevitability of socialism", which was rattled down to its bone marrow by the collapse of the Soviet Union--and yet still survives. This has resulted in their still advocating issues as dead as whether the President should be limited to two terms. Nobody cares, and look at them oddly as they still act like socialism is relevant. Fortunately, today, many trees are spared being turned into asinine theses because of the Internet, which has spare electrons to burn for all the neglected university department web pages.
#4
Brilliant strategy followed by the perfessers, eh?
New Left academics pushed right-leaning academics and PhDs out of the field begining in the early 1970s. Right-of-center academics skip academe and head en masse to Washington instead.
Results? New Left academics thoroughly dominate academe from coast to coast. Right-leaning republican Party dominates executive, legislative and judicial branches of federal government as well as most governorships across the country.
"That man must be an intellectual. No one else could be so stupid." --Orwell
#6
May have posted this once before: my son is a freshman at a mid-West college. First day of class, his Ethic's prof says that anything a Republican says is "bull***t"! As my son is quite conservative, this rankled. The prof has, however, been more than fair in his grading.
#2
The rest of the article is much more interesting. It is a sad, sad commentary on the West that this thugocracy has been allowed to continue to exist. Africa in general is suffering because Western leaders are afraid that they might be called racist if they criticize black despots. From Idi Amin to Robert Mugabe, no excess is too great. If Rwanda were in South America or Europe, it would never have been allowed to happen. Political correctness is the death knell of black Africa.
#6
Note the MSM's bizarre silence about the nightmare that is post-apartheid South Africa. Ten years after the end of apartheid, you have a situation that in many ways is as bad as Iraq barely a year after Saddam's fall. Of all the states that are not at war, SA's Johannesburg is the most violent city on the planet. One third of the adult female population have been raped. 50% unemployment. 20% of the population (3.6 million) have AIDS.
Again, this is ten years after the end of apartheid. And the MSM call Iraq a disaster??
I have a dream. In the dream, the normal people of this earth simultaneously reach the breaking point with this sort of nitwit, wolf-caller, or general loon. One Thursday afternoon, around 2:30, the normal world with turn on them and beat the living crap out of them all en masse. I don't know if it'll do any good, but it'll let us vent.
Next time you go for a stroll on Mars, be sure you don't leave any litter behind. A plan to keep parts of the red planet in their pristine state could see seven areas turned into 'planetary parks', regulated just like national parks here on Earth. The scheme has been proposed by Charles Cockell, a microbiologist for the British Antarctic Survey in Cambridge, and Gerda Horneck, an astrobiologist from the German Aerospace Centre in Cologne, Germany. "It is the right of every person to stand and stare across the beautiful barrenness and desolation of the Martian surface without having to endure the eyesore of pieces of crashed spacecraft scattered across the landscape," they write in the latest edition of Space Policy.
Now, didn't that cause an almost uncontrollable urge to holler "Oh, shuddup!"?
Although scientists have found no life on Mars, Cockell and Horneck point out that many national parks on Earth are protected partly for their geological interest and natural beauty, such as the Grand Canyon and Antarctica. "And if Mars has simple microbial life, there are even greater reasons for establishing planetary parks - to protect that life from human destruction," they write.
No human being has set foot on the planet yet, and these guys are already demanding to be put in charge — because of their superior Virtue™...
"We've already crashed unmanned spacecraft there - Mars Polar Lander and possibly Beagle 2 - so there's already an environmental issue," Cockell told news@nature.com. He says the crashes are as irresponsible as dropping robots over the Antarctic...
Posted by: Anonymoose ||
11/28/2004 9:15:54 AM ||
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#1
Scientists propose conservation parks on Mars He says the crashes are as irresponsible as dropping robots over the Antarctic
Moonbat_mode ON ## Or is that marsbat?
We must protect the innocent martians from the greedy, exploitative Americans.
Moonbat_mode OFF
And so it begins...
Posted by: N Guard ||
11/28/2004 9:55 Comments ||
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#2
...Okay - at the risk of being labeled a Moonbat(TM), I believe we should have some idea of places where we don't want to drop survey landers - permafrost, for instance, because it is kinda fragile. And once we're there, hell yes, let's establish parks at Tharsus, or Mons Olympus, because these are places humans should see as unspoiled as possible, just like Yosemite or Everest.
This asshat, however, seems to be suggesting that we will be sending wave after wave of voyeuristic, autonomous golf carts to go charging around the Martian landscape like droids invading a planet in a Star Wars movie. WHAT in our history of planetary exploration so far makes him think this will happen? As a rule, NASA has done everything in its power to make its probes safe and as non-intrusive as possible given the demands of the mission. After all, these things have to be designed and built in accordance with Terran safety and environmental regs - and my understanding is that at least one or two missions have compromised their eventual goals in order to stay within those regs. These two need to remember that the 'astro' in their job descriptions means you cannot simply transfer your political and moral beliefs upwards - you are scientists whose job is to EXPAND knowledge, not restrict it.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
11/28/2004 11:45 Comments ||
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#3
I've always been a proponent of a permanent playground/park on Mons Veneris
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/28/2004 11:57 Comments ||
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#6
I just love this shit: ""It is the right of every person to" [insert your favorite whatever here]... Really? Point it out... And it is my "right" to ridicule such obviously buffoonery. Note to Cockell and Horneck: there is no there there, boys.
"However, establishing the parks would present an enormous challenge for international law."
Woohoo! A brand-new bureaucracy! Even Diplomad would be impressed by the futuristic ingenuity of it, lol!
Frank - If only it wasn't located next to a toxic waste plant, sigh. ;-)
#8
The basic thing to remember about people like this is that they NEVER produce anything but hot air and fatuous studies. They wait until productive people do something and then try to take over. If they would quit talking and actually work, people might pay attention to their ideas other than as a source of amusement.
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/28/2004 12:35 Comments ||
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#10
Surface area of Mars is equal to what? The Eurasian landmass. We've dropped equipment onto the surface a combined size of what? A small condo perhaps? It's hard to get perspective on this sort of thing but it really does seem like the problem is contained.
#11
The Problem is that useless fools like this even get a shot at a reading of their crackpot ideas/ideals. I suggest a good shit beating shoud be had to quell such asshattery. This paper is designed with the sole purpose of sucking up grant money, government funding and, limiting human expansion into space. Let the shit pounding commence.
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.
IMPASSE CONTINUES: Ukraine's parliament declared the country's disputed presidential election invalid Saturday amid international calls for a new vote.
