#7
On Monday, questioning of jurors got under way, and Jackson's lawyers announced they may call Elizabeth Taylor, Jay Leno, Quincy Jones and Kobe Bryant to the witness stand...
...Other possible witnesses included Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross, Chris Tucker, former child actor Corey Feldman, Backstreet Boy Nick Carter and younger brother Aaron, CBS correspondent Ed Bradley, CNN's Larry King, Fox broadcaster Rita Cosby, New Age guru Deepak Chopra, psychic Uri Geller, illusionist David Blaine, Las Vegas tycoon Steve Wynn and relatives of the late Marlon Brando.
I feel sorry for Rita. She's the only one of that bunch of wax museum refugees that's worth a damn.
#9
Who cares what a bunch of celebrities think? Additionally, their opinions -- unless they were in Jackson's bedroom with him and the youngster du jour -- are not germane to the issue at trial.
#14
How many people in this world would be willing to contribute a buck so we could pay some orderly to stick a pillow over his face and end this international freak show once and for all?
I'm in.
They are called Charley, Left-Arrow, Diagonal-Line and Six-Point. The four female penguins at Bremerhaven Zoo in Germany are at the centre of debate after being brought in to tempt "gay" male penguins. The zoo imported the penguins from Sweden last month after finding through DNA tests that three of their five existing pairs were all male. The zoo had been mystified why its endangered Humboldt penguins had failed to breed, until they realised the males had paired off, the zoo's director Heike KÃŒck said.
"Oh, so that's why!"
Last year, two of the male pairs spent months sitting on a stone instead of an egg.
"Charles, I don't think this damned thing will ever hatch, I really don't."
"Are you sure you laid an egg, Thomas?"
But the zoo's decision to introduce females has sparked a furious response from gay and lesbian groups in Germany. "All sorts of gay and lesbian associations have been emailing and calling in to protest," a spokesman for Bremerhaven's Zoo on the Sea in north-western Germany said.
Ms KÃŒck defended her decision to bring in the females, which, she said, had had little success in "turning" the males.
"Hey, studmuffins! Gotta nice lookin' sardine for ya, whattdya say?"
"The central question is, are our penguins really gay or is it simply a lack of opportunity?" she told Der Spiegel. "So far the males have scarcely thrown the females a single glance. The men have had the opportunity but haven't done it.
Maybe if you'd quit peeking in every five minutes ...
"If the penguins really are gay then obviously they can stay gay."
The experiment goes to the heart of a debate among biologists as to whether homosexuality exists in the animal world. Scientists have found numerous examples of same-sex behaviour in emus, dolphins and pigs, while same-sex couples in other penguin species are also well documented. They include Eric and Donald Dora, two King penguins who live together in Edinburgh Zoo. Yesterday Heiner Klös, a biologist at Berlin's Zoo, said: "The pairs show signs of courtship but they don't actually get round to mating. So I don't think we can say that they are actually gay."
"They may just like watching football and drinking beer together," he added.
In case the existing males show no interest in reproduction, the zoo has also flown in two new male penguins, "so the ladies don't miss out altogether", Ms KÃŒck said.
"I'm tellin' ya, Chad, if we can't get laid now, ..."
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/15/2005 12:00:35 AM ||
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#1
Did they fly the penguins in on the CIA's ghost plane, ready to strut their stuff and flaunt their femalian feathers in front of the helpless Zoo prisoners?
Welcome to Alberto Gonzales' Amerikkka Bremerhaven Zoo 'n' Torture Lab...
#3
Sheesh. Amazing. Instead of studying whether homosexuality exists, the host of idiotic zoophillic assumptions are legion and inane, perhaps they should study whether there are stupid animals. Y'know, the ones that skipped Health 101, for instance.
#6
I need money to do a study on why Gus the Goose, a new resident at the Deacon Blues Pork Palace and Potbles Parlour, has a thing for Buddy the Dog. They are both male so I need LOTS of money to do a study on cross-species homosexuality.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
02/15/2005 13:03 Comments ||
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#7
DB - Lol! That's too broad - I have at least 50 images that qualify as an editorial comment! ;-)
#8
"...spent months sitting on a stone instead of an egg..."
Ms Kück didn't know the sexes of her penguins and didn't remove the stone? What is this -- don't ask, don't tell?
Posted by: Tom ||
02/15/2005 13:15 Comments ||
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#13
Tw, right. I have to find Gus a girlfriend, it really freaks out the dog. Gus follows him all over the barnyard and even tries to get in the dog bed with him. Connie the Short Bus Lady and I sit out on the front porch with a cooler of beer and watch the show. Real cheap intertainment. I'll be traveling to a farm a few miles away this weekend to find Gus a female goose. I'll look for the one with the biggest honkers.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
02/15/2005 15:54 Comments ||
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#14
The zoo had been mystified why its endangered Humboldt penguins had failed to breed, until they realised the males had paired off to watch the Oscars.
#18
One of my former techs worked at the Broolkfield Zoo. Her job there: sexing penguins. As it turns out, no, you can't just pick them up and look at their bottoms, because externally they're identical. They keep the business parts hidden inside so as to be better streamlined for swimming (e.g., evading leopard seals). So you have to draw blood and do DNA testing to sex them.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/15/2005 17:43 Comments ||
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#19
Leopard seals make us all shrivel.
Posted by: George the Penguin ||
02/15/2005 18:11 Comments ||
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They keep the business parts hidden inside so as to be better streamlined for swimming
If I spent half my life standing on an Antarctic ice shelf, with my legs an inch and a half long, I wouldn't fancy having my tackle hanging out either.
Can you dig it?Two granite lions placed as guardians of an ancient city proved impotent before the power of the sea. But that same force has brought them to light centuries later. The Boxing Day tsunami has revealed what archaeologists believe to be the lost ruins of an ancient city off Tamil Nadu in Southern India.
Undoubtedly the 3,762nd holiest site in Islam, as well.
The 30-feet waves, which reshaped the Bay of Bengal and swept more than 16,000 Indians to their deaths, shifted thousands of tons of sand to unearth the pair of elaborately carved stone lions near the 7th-century Dravidian Shore Temple at Mahabalipuram. Indian archaeologists believe these granite beasts once guarded a small port city under the Pallava dynasty, which ruled much of southern India from 100BC to AD800. The six-foot high lion statues, each hewn from a single piece of granite, are breathtakingly lifelike. One great stone cat sits up alert while the other is poised to pounce. Two foundation walls also remain visible beneath the murky waters. The tsunami also desilted a large bas-relief stone panel close to the Shore Temple. The half-completed sculpted elephant scoured clean by the waves now attracts mobs of visitors who touch its eroded trunk as a good luck talisman.
Scientists from the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) are descending on the World Heritage temple complex of Mahabalipuram, south of Madras, to examine these relics and to launch an underwater survey. They were discovered by a fisherman who survived the disaster when he was catapulted aloft by the tsunami and reportedly clung for hours to the great arch of the Shore Temple. He spotted the undersea structures from this perch and told district authorities. Marine archaeologists have been working with divers from Delhi and a team from the Scientific Exploration Society in Dorset to search for any remnants of this ancient port since April 2002. "The sea has thrown up evidence of the grandeur of the Pallava dynasty," the superintendent ASI archaeologist, T Sathiamoorthy, said last week. "We're all excited about these finds." Sailors used to refer to Mahabalipuram as the "Seven Pagodas".
#1
....And government operatives visit the retired Professor Henry Jones Jr. once they find a batterd fedora and bullwhip in the mouths of one of the lions...
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
02/15/2005 7:32 Comments ||
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LONDON (AP) - An animal rights protest at a major British hare-hunting event turned violent Monday when spectators pelted the demonstrators with a dismembered hare, bottles, firecrackers and chunks of earth, but nobody was injured, police said. Police on horseback stopped about 20 of the hundreds of jeering spectators who tried to charge the protesters, authorities said. Three people were arrested.
The clash was the result of a controversial ban on hunting with dogs that comes into effect later this week. Organizers of the Waterloo Cup had moved the hare-coursing event forward several weeks to ensure it would take place before the ban comes into effect. Hare-coursing involves two dogs chasing a hare and will become illegal under the new Hunting Act, which takes effect Friday.
Animal rights groups have welcomed the move, saying hunting is unacceptably cruel. But hunters argue that the prey die quickly, and that the sport is vital to the culture and economy of rural Britain. Hunting supporters have mounted a legal challenge to the ban. Last month they lost the first round of their bid to overturn the ban and a decision on the second round is pending.
The Waterloo Cup, held at Altcar in northwest England over three days, was founded in 1836 and used to attract daily crowds of 75,000. Some 10,000 spectators are expected to attend this year's event, which usually takes place in late February.
``This is not a day of jubilation for us,'' Tony Moore, founder of Fight Against Animal Cruelty In Europe, said of the violent protest. ``I just feel bad that it has taken so long to achieve this ban. We shouldn't have to be here today.''
Several of the some 200 demonstrators taunted the hunting supporters with chants of ``Losers'' and ``We are the champions.''
Simon Hart, chief executive of pro-hunting group the Countryside Alliance, insisted that this year's Waterloo Cup would not be the last. ``I am absolutely, 100 percent certain that the Waterloo Cup will take place in some form in 2006,'' Hart said. ``It may not be here, it may not even be in this country, and it may be in a different form, but the Waterloo Cup will live on. We will return.''
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/15/2005 12:14:25 AM ||
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#1
The anti-hunt protesters really are today's Little Hitlers. Their determination to force others to bend to their will and their absolute conviction in their own moral authority is quite awesome to behold. They represent the inching roll on the steamroller of PC-ism. They're simply not something you can resist with arguments about individual liberties and personal choice - suich concepts are utterly alien to them. Fishing will be the next sport to go under unless they're stopped - they've said as much.
#2
This is Transnational Socialism. This is one the many faces of it. "animal rights", the ban on capital punishment and all rest the PC crap are in support of Transnational Socialism. The UK is after all a socialist country. The Politicians are proud of the fact.
Hunting is for the rich and landed nobility (even if this is pure bunk) The kind of people the Labor party faithful love to hate.
Sorry UK folk I don't hold out any hope for your "hunting" rights coming back to you. Every European country except France have very weak hunting cultures. You will have to do your hunting across the channel.
#3
The UK is after all a socialist country. The Politicians are proud of the fact.
That depends entirely on where you draw the line. I'm guessing you think anywhere with nationalised anything and tax banding is 'socialist'. Of course socialist politicians from socialist parties like Blair will claim to be advancing socialism - that doesn't mean its a complete or irreversible process. We couldn't possibly have the fourth largest economy in the world, with a population our size, without having a resilient capitalistic culture. What ridiculous negativity.
Every European country except France have very weak hunting cultures.
That's nonsense. Hunting on the continent is more popular than on this side of the channel - in France and elsewhere - where in different countries everything from songbirds to seals to stray dogs are considered fair game. And in parts of the UK hunting remains a major activity - the Highland economy relies on it.
#4
The UK is the most urbanized country in the world except microstates like Singapore. This is urbanites imposing their views on rural people. It has little or nothing to do with socialism.
#5
So it's not classist socialist Labor party members getting even with the evil "rich" land owning country folk /"nobility"? Could have fooled me. All I have seen or read points to that being the case.
Yes the UK nanny state qualifies as Socailism to me. Blair has been lucky I believe in retaing enough of the Thatcher and Major reforms to keep the economic engine going. He still has a socialist agenda and makes no bones about it.
#6
SPOD I am about as rabidly antisocialist as they come, but this is not a Leftist issue worth bothering about. We should worry about Iran, Iraq, the MSM systematically lying, the gross politicization of science, Europe's irrational anti-americanism (I'm not an american), etc, etc.
This is a broken window issue. Of itself it is unimportant. But as an indicator of what is happening to the moral health of the UK, it is indicative of worse to come. And the UK, as much as Caliphornia, has been a leading indicator of what will happen in the U. S. What this says is that the loons are gaining power and will turn it into an asylum.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
02/15/2005 7:27 Comments ||
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An animal rights protest at a major British hare-hunting event turned violent Monday when spectators pelted the demonstrators with a dismembered hare...
Shades of "Jude the Obscure", if they threw the right parts.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
02/15/2005 7:53 Comments ||
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#9
i don't find it too smart too throw things at ppl with weapons
#10
TGA,help me out here.I understand Boar hunting is very popular in Germany,if these creatures are anything like Javalina(wild pigs native to American S.west),them's be some mean ass critters.
#11
TGA,help me out here.I understand Boar hunting is very popular in Germany,if these creatures are anything like Javalina(wild pigs native to American S.west),them's be some mean ass critters.
#12
I don't personaly see any value in Trophy Hunting, but if that's what someone else likes to do and wants to that's their descision. I dated a woman here in East Tennessee who killed a wild boar with a Bowie Knife. That was hunting! Those things are awful mean and I wouldn't face off with one with nothing but a Bowie Knife. She has since moved to Utah so look out Utahans.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
02/15/2005 9:53 Comments ||
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#13
Them Boars are alot more aggressive than havalinas!
#14
You know of course that The Plague remains in the soil. Now the idiots are going to have a population explosion of vectors that'll will reintroduce modern man to the wonders of the 14th Century. When the Bambi mentalitiy meets the harsh reality of lessons learned the hard way.
#18
Bubonic Plague is supposed to be easily cured with antibiotics. Still, there is the discomfort factor of the buboes, and the panic factor at the very name of The Plague, so perhaps the idiots will learn something. On the third hand, those most likely to be exposed to the disease are those in the countryside, not the city dwellers. Definitely a mixed curse the English have got there!
#19
5 to 6 cases of the plague show up on the average every year in New Mexico. [Unofficial State Motto: Home of Flea, Land of the Plague]. Those infected have a better than 50-50 chance of survival 'if' it is recognized fast enough and heavily treated, though recovery sometimes is not full. Recognition by medical personnel who see it more often than those who haven't for hundreds of years, helps in the speeding of that process. The state gets transfers from out of state medical facilites that are too slow to act. All too often it is in the later phases of the disease and the patient does not recover. While it is often contracted in rural areas, it does appear with greater frequency among pets of homeowner on the edges of metro areas like Albuquerque.
#20
I'd love to get fluffy's take on it all. He looks like the sort who'd never think twice about taking fellow members of his species or others to task whether for good reason or just for the fun of it. Surely he is not above biting ears. Is that wrong?
#22
In 10,000 years the protesters dirty old polyester coats will still be filling up landfills. My leather coat will be long composted. Same for fur coats.
PARAMARIBO, Suriname - India will seek the support of the 15-member Caribbean Community in its bid for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council, an official said. Speaking to reporters on Monday, Indian Minister of State Rao Inderjit Singh said a permanent seat would allow his country to be an advocate for developing nations around the world. "India would cater to the hopes and aspirations of the developing world, which we feel today has been underrepresented in the UN," Singh said in Paramaribo, where he will be a special guest at this week's Caribbean Community summit. Caribbean officials were busy dividing the boodle and weren't immediately available for comment.
India is among several countries that claim to have achieved regional superpower status and have been pressing for permanent Security Council seats. In return for the Caribbean Community's support, India will consider providing aid to the region, Singh said, noting that his country has already agreed to help finance an Information Technology training center in Guyana. India has also expressed interest in hosting a Caribbean Arts festival later this year, Singh said.
Yah mon! Cool runnings, sahib!
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/15/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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Yeah, you know, you can't actually be a "regional superpower". By definition, a "superpower" has sway outside of its own region. I think you mean "regional power", poindexter.
But if you're looking to game the UN, the Caribbean is definitely the place to start. It's a treasure-trove of General Assembly votes, with one of the highest per-capita fractional ratios of inhabitants to Assembly seats.
If the General Assembly had any actual real-world importance, it might almost inspire a seat-poor mega-country like India to pull a CIS, and split into a federation of "sovereign" republics. Luckily, all the General Assembly is good for is funding massive NGO junkets and passing "Jews suck" resolutions.
I don't think the Assembly even has any "constitutional" power, in terms of amending the Security Council, does it? That's done by the Council proper, if I'm not mistaken.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
02/15/2005 10:17 Comments ||
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#2
Yeah, you know, you can't actually be a "regional superpower". By definition, a "superpower" has sway outside of its own region. I think you mean "regional power", poindexter.
You are nitpicking. There can be many "powers" in a region, bigger and lesser -- a regional superpower however has inordinate amounts of sway in its region compared to that of its neighbours.
I don't think the Assembly even has any "constitutional" power, in terms of amending the Security Council, does it?
The General Assembly actually managed to evict Taiwan from the Security Council and place mainland China in its place, if I remember correctly.
#3
Uh Mitch, if they (India) get some Carribean countries to help them, that would make them a Major World power. Last time I checked India is not in the Western hemisphere. I say its about time India got a seat and we kick off France. India represents 1Billion people and France is miniscule by comparison.
#4
France has a permanent seat and they aren't even a regional power. I say giv'em Frances chair. I got 20 bucks that says India could kick there butts.
#5
Sarge: true. But Indian influence in the Caribbean would make it a superpower, and not a regional power.
Aris: the RoC/PRC gambit was based on a credential end-run which managed to avoid a Security Council veto. Unless India managed to convince the General Assembly to, say, decredential Russia and declare India the holder of the Soviet Union's old seat, I don't think they're going to be able to leverage Assembly influence in this fashion.
Although I like the idea of decredentialing Russia in favor of Ukraine, now that I think on it.
Hrm. I think I may have left the wrong impression. I'm all in favor of having India permanently on the Security Council, along with Japan and Brazil. Maybe South Africa.
The ugly question is, who doesn't belong on the Council? A case could be made for removing the UK and France, and passing the combined seat to the EU. Keep in mind, that I don't want to see the UK out of the Council, but any line of argument that holds that France doesn't belong on the Council has to apply to the UK as well. Me, I think that any nation with a functional aircraft carrier belongs on the Security Council. Call it the "Big Stick" proviso.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
02/15/2005 13:59 Comments ||
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#6
France's Chair - 1 Chair for the EU - Britain's
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/15/2005 14:17 Comments ||
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#7
"a regional superpower however has inordinate amounts of sway in its region compared to that of its neighbours."
Hey anyone can be a superpower, but how many can be a HYPERPOWER! The one thing the French did right was give us a new better sounding title.
Romania's new prime minister knows his priorities. His country may be struggling with a massive budget deficit, but Calin Popescu Tariceanu isn't asking for painful sacrifices: he's cutting taxes. Within 48 hours of taking office, his government issued an emergency edict to take effect in time for the New Year. From last month, companies and private citizens pay tax at a single rate of just 16 percent. Cue the rejoicing among the country's top earners, previously charged at more than twice as much.
A costly bid for popularity—or the new orthodoxy? Once upon a time, the "flat tax" was just a pet cause of free-market ideologues, spurned by practical politicians. No longer. Romania joins a lengthening list of converts among the post-Communist states of Eastern Europe. Estonia began the trend back in 1994, to be followed by Latvia, Lithuania, Ukraine, Russia and Serbia. Last year Slovakia fixed a universal rate of 19 percent. Opposition parties are pressing for similar deals in Poland and the Czech Republic. Even fiscally orthodox Old Europe is taking note. "There is discussion all over the EU," says Katinka Barysch, of the Centre for European Reform in London. "People are asking, if the Slovaks can have such a beautiful and simple system then why can't we?"... No mention of the Paul Bremer flat tax in Iraq.
#1
It will be interesting and very worthwhile in watching and recording the experiences with the flat tax. The rest of the EU could have a flat tax, but watch out, it will probably head for 100% if nobody is watching. Thinking about it, that could happen to the US, too, if we aren't vigilant. Heh.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/15/2005 22:01 Comments ||
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Joschka Fischer, Germany's foreign minister, was fighting for his political life last night after accepting the blame for a legal loophole that allegedly allowed tens of thousands of criminals from the ex-Soviet bloc to enter the country on tourist visas. Commenting publicly for the first time on a scandal that last week brought down his fellow Green, Ludger Vollmer, Mr Fischer admitted "oversights and mistakes" within his ministry. Chancellor Gerhard Schröder rushed to the defence of the government's number two and the man without whose support he would not have won the 2002 election, saying that Mr Fischer had his "full trust and full support". "You have to make the case; I'm sorry but I am not convinced."
"The best thing he could do is to resign," Christian Wulff, the prime minister of Lower Saxony, told a meeting of his Christian Democratic Party. The head of the CDU, Angela Merkel, stopped short of calling for Mr Fischer's resignation but made pointed reference to several ministers who had lost their posts due to "lesser offences". She said in a newspaper interview: "Mr Fischer apparently closed his eyes to massive visa abuse by women forced into prostitution, illegal workers and criminals. That endangered our country's security." The opposition argues that a statute introduced in 1999 allowed hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants from eastern Europe, especially Ukraine, to cross into Germany between 2000 and 2003, often with the help of criminal gangs. Among them were drug and human traffickers, prostitutes and one of the Chechen terrorists involved in the 2002 Moscow theatre siege.
Germany's relatively liberal immigration legislation has been under particular scrutiny since late 2001 when it emerged that several of the September 11 hijackers had lived and studied in Germany with ease, despite being under the observation of intelligence officers. Since then debate has focused on how to balance stricter controls while maintaining an open society.
Posted by: Bulldog ||
02/15/2005 6:33:35 AM ||
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Lovely guy, a communist street fighter who brawled with the police. He reportedly hit one with a Molotov cocktail. He is the FM of Germany.
I doubt he will go down on this. His deputy Vollmer fell on his sword for this.
Germany's economy shrank 0.2% in the last three months of 2004, upsetting hopes of a sustained recovery. The figures confounded hopes of a 0.2% expansion in the fourth quarter in Europe's biggest economy. The Federal Statistics Office said growth for the whole of 2004 was 1.6%, after a year of contraction in 2003, down from an earlier estimate of 1.7%. It said growth in the third quarter had been zero, putting the economy at a standstill from July onward.
Germany has been reliant on exports to get its economy back on track, as unemployment of more than five million and impending cuts to welfare mean German consumers have kept their money to themselves. Major companies including Volkswagen, DaimlerChrysler and Siemens have spent much of 2004 in tough talks with unions about trimming jobs and costs. According to the statistics office, Destatis, rising exports were outweighed in the fourth quarter by the continuing weakness of domestic demand.
But the relentless rise in the value of the euro last year has also hit the competitiveness of German products overseas. The effect has been to depress prospects for the 12-nation eurozone as a whole, as well as Germany. Eurozone interest rates are at 2%, but senior officials at the rate-setting European Central Bank are beginning to talk about the threat of inflation, prompting fears that interest rates may rise. The ECB's mandate is to fight rising prices by boosting interest rates - and that could further threaten Germany's hopes of recovery.
Posted by: Bulldog ||
02/15/2005 5:48:56 AM ||
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#1
The MSM is blind to the obvious - demand falls as populations age. We have seen it in Japan and now Germany.
#2
I don't think Japan has had 12% unemployment and the sort of welfare culture that makes unemployment an appealing lifestyle. Nor legistlation that demands companies excessively over-compensate workers they need to lay off. Germany's economic problems are mainly political in origin.
#3
Perhaps it's a tactic to get the Muslims to emigrate.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
02/15/2005 7:28 Comments ||
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#4
I believe that Japan, Inc. has generally preferred to keep their "unemployed" on corporate payrolls with nothing to do -- part of the social contract between the government, the companies, and their loyal employees, whose salaries have historically been rather low. Back in the '80s, when Japan was supposed to take over the world, this intertwined paternalism was touted as Japanese Capitalism's superiority over the American version. Perhaps one of our financial types, or an RB correspondent from the Far East, can tell us what the effective -- as opposed to official -- unemployment rate is in Japan.
#6
Phil_b makes a very worthwhile point - on a per capita GDP basis, Europe looks a lot less anemic when compared to the US. The US still looks healthier, but demographic differences do explain a lot of the difference.
#7
Europe is looking sicker in the GDP per capita. In the early 90s, they were sitting at 86% on average of the US. After 10 years they have slid to 84% and falling. The EU, like the Ottoman empire in the past is now the sick man of europe and dying. It will be interesting to see if it goes with a bang or a whimper.
#8
Currently seems that USA per capita GDP is around 37800$ and Big european countries around 27000$ , as a Portuguese i think it was never so big in last 20 years
Posted by: z man ||
02/15/2005 12:10 Comments ||
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#9
I didn't realize you are Portuguese, z man. How wonderful!
It was a clear September night when Yevhen Chervonenko left presidential hopeful Viktor Yushchenko healthy and in good spirits ahead of a secret meeting at a dacha near Kiev. Chervonenko, at the time Yushchenko's head of security and now Ukraine's new transportation minister, said he usually went everywhere with Yushchenko and even tasted his food. But that night was an exception. Yushchenko was going to the dacha to dine with Ukrainian Security Service chief Ihor Smeshko and his deputy, Volodymyr Satsyuk. "I was told that I was not required that night because the organizers wanted the meeting to be confidential," Chervonenko said in an interview. Yushchenko's bodyguards also were not allowed to accompany him, he said. The only member of his team who went along was his campaign manager, David Zhvania. Yushchenko, who was already leading Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych in the polls, had requested the Sept. 5 meeting to discuss the election campaign and death threats he had begun receiving in July. The men sat down for a meal of boiled crayfish, a salad of tomatoes, cucumbers and corn and beer, followed by cold meats washed down with vodka and cognac.
The next day, Yushchenko fell seriously ill and his body was racked with pain, Chervonenko said. Slowly, a mask of bumps and cysts crept across his once-handsome face - symptoms that he had ingested a dose of pure TCDD, the most hazardous dioxin, Vienna doctors later determined. Now that Yushchenko is Ukraine's president, difficult questions are being raised about who could have wanted him out of the race so badly that they were willing to kill him. Interviews with members of Yushchenko's camp and former KGB officers suggest a shadowy Ukrainian-Russian plot most likely involving members of the security services of both countries and quite possibly members of the former Ukrainian government or organized crime figures that feared losing wealth and influence.
Thirty-five people died and 200 were injured yesterday when a faulty electrical heater started a blaze in a Tehran mosque crowded with worshippers, Iranian state television reported. Aid workers and emergency services swarmed around the mosque, a Reuters witness said. The interior was blackened and strewn with burned shoes and clothes. Tehran's chief of police Morteza Talaee confirmed the death toll of 35 at the scene. Many people flocked to the Arg mosque searching for loved ones. "I have come to look for my daughter but I am scared she is dead," said Zeinab, clad in the all-enveloping black chador.
The students news agency ISNA reported a blast was heard then tents inside the mosque caught fire. Terrified worshippers trampled others trying to escape, some smashing windows in their desperation to flee the flames. "I saw some women throw themselves out of a second floor window, some died like that, others from smoke inhalation," said one of the guards at the mosque. ISNA reported the blaze started in the section set aside for women. Television said 20 of the dead were women.
A blast, then the tents inside the mosque caught fire. Yep. Sounds just like an electrical fire to me.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/15/2005 00:00:00 ||
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#1
An electrical explosion is possible(considering the quality of building inspection in that neck of the woods).Tents inside a Mosque!What's up with that?
#4
Saw a news clip that said it was a kerosene heater, so a low grade explosion is possible. Also 59 dead, mostly women.
Posted by: ed ||
02/15/2005 9:23 Comments ||
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#5
Somehow, somewhere, with them planting that explosion quote in there, the Joooooos or the CIA will be blamed. I do feel for the common man/woman there, though, as it at least appears the silent major minority under 35 or so are pro-US. I hope none of them were caught up in this. Like Bush said, We stand beside you in your quest for freedom.
Posted by: BA ||
02/15/2005 9:27 Comments ||
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#6
This is just a practice run for the "Lake of Fire"(TM) threat/promise, to the U.S., if we attack their reactors.
#7
ed
in the WaPo today the story was that one of those full body coverings for women caught fire from a kerosene heater
-- Allan must have been ticked off at some American something or other and took it out on these Persian muslimahs
College student Jayson Just commutes an odometer-spinning 2,000 miles a month. As CBS News Correspondent Sandra Hughes reports, his monthly gas bill once topped his car payment. "I was paying about $500 a month," says Just. So Just bought a fuel efficient hybrid and said goodbye to his gas-guzzling BMW. And what kind of mileage does he get? "The EPA estimate is 60 in the city, 51 on the highway," says Just. And that saves him almost $300 a month in gas.
That's in the lab, real world milage is a lot less. But I digress...
It's great for Just but bad for the roads he's driving on, because he also pays a lot less in gasoline taxes which fund highway projects and road repairs.
Just like raising taxes on cigarettes, the law of unintended consquences rises up and bites politicians in the piggybank
As more and more hybrids hit the road, cash-strapped states are warning of rough roads ahead. Officials in car-clogged California are so worried they may be considering a replacement for the gas tax altogether, replacing it with something called "tax by the mile." Seeing tax dollars dwindling, neighboring Oregon has already started road testing the idea. "Drivers will get charged for how many miles they use the roads, and it's as simple as that," says engineer David Kim.
Kim and his team at Oregon State University equipped a test car with a global positioning device to keep track of its mileage. Eventually, every car would need one.
Or you won't be allowed to drive it on a public road.
"So, if you drive 10 miles you will pay a certain fee which will be, let's say, one tenth of what someone pays if they drive 100 miles," says Kim.
The new tax would be charged each time you fill up. A computer inside the gas pump would communicate with your car's odometer to calculate how much you owe.
The system could also track how often you drive during rush hour and charge higher fees to discourage peak use.
With GPS, they'll know where you drive and when. With a high enough sample rate, they can tell at what speed you are driving. I'm sure the police and insurance companies will be interested in that data along with a whole bunch of other people. Remember, if you build a database, they will come.
That's an idea that could break the bottleneck on California's freeways. "We're getting a lot of interest from other states," says Jim Whitty of the Oregon Department of Transportation. "They're watching what we're doing. "Transportation officials across the country are concerned about what's going to happen with the gas tax revenues."
Privacy advocates say it's more like big brother riding on your bumper, not to mention a disincentive to buy fuel-efficient cars. "It's not fair for people like me who have to commute, and we don't have any choice but take the freeways," says Just. "We shouldn't have to be taxed." But tax-by-mile advocates say it may be the only way to ensure that fuel efficiency doesn't prevent smooth sailing down the road.
First they try to force us into these hybrids use less gas to save the planet. Then they tax you more for using less gas to save the roads they don't what you driving on in the first place.
Posted by: Steve ||
02/15/2005 1:05:26 PM ||
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#1
If you drive a car, Iâll tax the street,
If you try to sit, Iâll tax your seat,
If you get too cold, Iâll tax the heat,
If you take a walk, Iâll tax your feet.
#2
College student Jayson Just commutes an odometer-spinning 2,000 miles a month. As CBS News Correspondent Sandra Hughes reports, his monthly gas bill once topped his car payment. "I was paying about $500 a month," says Just.
I managed to have an apartment two doors from campus for that much. That included meals and utilities.
What's this guy's problem?
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
02/15/2005 14:07 Comments ||
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Seems his problem is similar to my two apartment mates when I was working in Portland, Oregon back in 1991. We lived 1/2 mile from the office we worked in. I walked, they both drove in separate cars. When I aked why they drove instead of walking they both told me, "Because I can drive. I don't have to walk". Saving wear and tear on their cars and saving money on gas didn't enter the equation for them.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
02/15/2005 14:18 Comments ||
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#4
This is bad in so many ways.
Oh, sure, they'll "replace" the gas tax. Then, they will "need" to add the gas tax back on to fund some idiotic light rail plan or something. It happens everywhere. All the states that added an income tax to reduce property or sales taxes soon had those taxes right back where they were.
Perhaps they shouldn't raid the gas tax money to pay for other things. In California about 15 years ago, a proposal to limit the use of gas tax money to just transportation (not just roads, but anything that could be called "transportation") was defeated after a huge ad campaign to "save our schools!" Gas taxes go into the general fund, you see, so whichever lobby is greatest gets the money.
Big-brother. "We have you travelling to Nogales 5 times last month. That's considered possible drug activity, so we are going to impound your bank account while we check you out. You can apply in court in 6 months to try to get it back. Oh, and you were doing 76 in a 75 zone, so we're going to tack the speeding fine on to your tax."
Interstate commerce. What if you commute from New Jersey to New York every day, but always fill up in New Jersey. How does New York get its share of the money? I've driven from Michigan to Indiana through Ohio, but never bought gas in Ohio. Will they send Me a bill? Should Michigan and Indiana be able to claim those miles as "theirs?"
Safety. It's very late, you are driving home from a long trip and stop off for enough gas to get you home. You only have so much cash and maybe you don't believe in credit cards. The pump says you have to pay $20 in tax before it will sell you any gasoline. There are no ATMs for miles around.
OTOP, I might as well buy that Magnum SRT-8. I won't pay any more tax than if I had a Prius.
#5
"First they try to force us into these hybrids use less gas to save the planet. Then they tax you more for using less gas to save the roads they don't what you driving on in the first place."
This reminds me of when I was a young'n in the Fey Area. A drought had been going on in California (DROUGHT! END OF THE WORLD! SKY FALLING!), and East Bay MUD told everyone to conserve water or else they would come take your firstborn child and shoot your dog for good measure. So, needless to say, we all conserved like the Dickens. Dead lawns, water collecting buckets in showers for flushing toilets, etc., we did it all. The response from East Bay MUD when the drought was over? They raised our water rates because we weren't using enough water and they couldn't make a profit.
As for the GPS/odometer thing, that's so un-Merkin I don't know where to begin. Oh yeah I do! I went out and registered as a Republican yesterday! (Yea4me!)
Posted by: Dr August Balls of Nice ||
02/15/2005 14:43 Comments ||
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this is bad in so many ways, many of which you guys already touched on. The proposals now in SD area are to build "HOV" (multi-passenger car pool lanes) and allow paying 1, 2, and, yes, 3 -passenger cars to use them via Fastrack pay/toll. The idea is to subsidize the bus service (which only covers 20% of their cost via paid fares) with these tolls. As I pointed out, much to the other task force member's displeasure, you're now building freeway lanes with public gas tax money and then charging them additional tolls to use them, in order to subsidize a non-economically feasible alternative. *crickets*. LOL
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/15/2005 14:45 Comments ||
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#7
And just when you thought it wouldn't get any funnier; the testicularly-challenged Washington State Legislature is considering a 6.5% 'vanity' tax on plastic surgery, botox and the like, rather than face up (no pun intended) to budget problems and cut spending. I can see it now: A car crossing into WA. from another state or Canada: " Excuse me miss, but I am the booby police. Are these perky breats yours? Do you have papers"
And for guys who get 'enhanced,' maybe a new version of a 'pole tax...'
#8
If they want to see high voter turnout and a bunch of politicians thorwn into the street and the law replaced at the first possible elections they should really consider this great idea.
Since politicians are into self-preservation this is all foolishness.
#9
Article: College student Jayson Just commutes an odometer-spinning 2,000 miles a month. As CBS News Correspondent Sandra Hughes reports, his monthly gas bill once topped his car payment. "I was paying about $500 a month," says Just.
Assuming that gas costs $2 a gallon, this kid would have to be driving a car with a fuel consumption rating of 8 mpg, to be paying $500 for just 2000 miles. Even a Ford Expedition doesn't use up gas at that rate.
#13
Perhaps they shouldn't raid the gas tax money to pay for other things.
This is the problem in a nutshell. Gas tax money can and does go elsewhere besides road upkeep/contruction. Quite frankly, it seems to go everywhere BUT road upkeep/construction.
#15
In the olden days, tax-by-the-mile was known as "toll roads." No modern technology required -- you are given a price card when you get on, and pay the appropriate toll when you get off. Even easier and lower tech, you pay a set fee when you get on, and another when you get off. Big deal.
The highways in New York State still operate that way, because of the high expense of maintaining the road surfaces due to the harsh Upstate/Western New York winters.
A mother was told she could not use a photograph of her bare-chested baby son for a passport because it was "offensive".
Tracey Barnes, 36, from Claverham, Somerset, said nine-month-old Lewis had his top removed after being sick down it, but passport officials told her a topless picture would offend people in "fanatical religious countries"...
Posted by: Anonymoose ||
02/15/2005 11:07:44 AM ||
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Unbelievable. Looking on the bright side, at least she wasn't arrested for child pornography and endangering an infant. Sheesh. Can't do anything anymore without fears of "offending" someone.
I'm just surprized he doesn't have more "holy men" around, giving him "spiritual guidance"...
Swazi King Mswati III has purchased 10 new BMWs for the royal household - two months after buying a super-expensive sedan for himself while his subjects continue living in abject poverty, a newspaper reported on Sunday. Africa's last absolute monarch spent some five million emalangeni (R5-million) on BMWs for his wives, the Mbabane-based Times Sunday reported. "It is true that new cars have been purchased for emakhosikati (queens) to his majesty... This is basically an upgrade of the ones they have been using," the chief executive officer of the king's office, Roy Fanourakis, told the newspaper.
This comes after it emerged in December that Mswati had bought himself a $500 000 (about R3-million) Daimler Chrysler flagship Maybach 62 as his debt-ridden country continues battling Aids and crippling poverty. The 36-year-old King Mswati is no stranger to controversy and frequently hits the headlines with stories of the lavish lifestyle he leads with his 11 wives and two teenage fiancees. He is also building 10 new palaces for his wives at a cost of 100 million emalangeni. Swaziland's government owes its suppliers more than 150 million emalangeni which dates back to 2002 and the country's budget deficit stands at 800 million emalangeni.
The bumper stickers on the new rides read: "Eat my exhaust, peasant."
Posted by: Seafarious ||
02/15/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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..Well, at least he's got good taste - those Maybachs are pretty hot:
http://wallpaper.net.au/wallpaper/automotive/Maybach%20Blue%201%20-%20800x600.jpg
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
02/15/2005 7:36 Comments ||
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does his country even have a road nice enough too drive these cars on?
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.
PARAMARIBO, Suriname - India will seek the support of the 15-member Caribbean Community in its bid for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council, an official said. Speaking to reporters on Monday, Indian Minister of State Rao Inderjit Singh said a permanent seat would allow his country to be an advocate for developing nations around the world. "India would cater to the hopes and aspirations of the developing world, which we feel today has been underrepresented in the UN," Singh said in Paramaribo, where he will be a special guest at this week's Caribbean Community summit. Caribbean officials 
Germany's economy shrank 0.2% in the last three months of 2004, upsetting hopes of a sustained recovery. The figures confounded hopes of a 0.2% expansion in the fourth quarter in Europe's biggest economy. The Federal Statistics Office said growth for the whole of 2004 was 1.6%, after a year of contraction in 2003, down from an earlier estimate of 1.7%. It said growth in the third quarter had been zero, putting the economy at a standstill from July onward.
Thirty-five people died and 200 were injured yesterday when a faulty electrical heater started a blaze in a Tehran mosque crowded with worshippers, Iranian state television reported. Aid workers and emergency services swarmed around the mosque, a Reuters witness said. The interior was blackened and strewn with burned shoes and clothes. Tehran's chief of police Morteza Talaee confirmed the death toll of 35 at the scene. Many people flocked to the Arg mosque searching for loved ones. "I have come to look for my daughter but I am scared she is dead," said Zeinab, clad in the all-enveloping black chador.
