God is being edited out of religious education lessons in schools for fear that His presence might bore children.
A study at Exeter University found that biblical accounts of the Good Samaritan, David and Goliath and Joseph were taught as ethical stories, with no reference to God, in increasingly secular classes on religion.
Teachers said that they were reluctant to introduce theology because they did not believe in God or feared that constant references to Him would put off children or be seen as indoctrination.
The study, which was commissioned by the Bible Society, incorporates three separate pieces of research into pupils' and teachers' attitudes to RE lessons.
More than 1,000 children in nine secondary schools in the South-West, the Midlands and the North-East of England were asked to name and describe a bible story and to state its meaning.
Only one in five children gave what researchers classed as a theological response that mentioned God. The vast majority gave secular, ethical answers.
One 14-year-old who chose the "feeding of the 5,000" said its message was "don't take things for granted and share things".
Another said that the story of David and Goliath meant that "even when the odds are stacked against you, you can still come out on top", while a 15-year-old girl said that the Nativity signified "that the birth of a newborn baby is the best gift of all". Despite such apparent lack of religious understanding, the number of teenagers who took a GCSE in RE last year rose seven per cent to 141,037, making it one of the fastest growing subjects.
Prof Terence Copley, who led the study, said that observations of RE lessons showed that stories such as Joseph were told without any of the 50 references to God that appear in the Hebrew Bible narrative.
"During the presentation of biblical text, God in the narratives is often consciously or unconsciously edited out by the teacher," he said. "This might be occurring because teachers interpret the goal of learning from religion to mean learning secular morals from religion. Teachers often ignored the God-centred dimension of the Bible in which God as the hero acts as the driving force behind events."
Prof Copley suggested that presentation of the Bible in RE lessons was symptomatic of ambivalence towards religion in Britain. "Our young people are the products of a culture that has been secularised," he said. "The leading position of the Church, church-going and automatic subscription to the Christian moral code, have gone."
Despite this, however, most pupils questioned said that the Bible was still important. Three quarters of children disagreed with the statement "the Bible is no longer relevant because people no longer believe in God". Only 15 per cent said it as "a waste of time".
The more positive attitudes to the Bible expressed by pupils contradicted the expectations of teachers who told researchers that when asked, children would say the Bible was "boring, old -fashioned, and uncool".
Canon John Hall, the Church of England's chief education officer, said that teachers were wrong to assume that children might be bored or put off by religion.
"There is in much of the education system a strong presumption of secularism which is not articulated but is just there. In some ways, it is 30 years out of date. In fact, children have a real interest in spirituality. Children need to know the place of Christianity in our cultural heritage. They need to be confronted with the reality of Christ so that they can respond, or indeed not respond, to it."
David Holloway, the vicar of Jesmond and a member of the evangelical group Reform, said schools were legally required to teach Christian values, but that "political correctness and multiculturalism" had influenced the content of lessons.
"What parents want is that RE is mainly Christian and that children also learn about other faiths," he said. "We need to realise that other faiths still only make up a tiny proportion of the population.
"There are teachers who take a liberal view, but omitting God does not help any religion."
Terry Sanderson, the vice-president of the National Secular Society, said, however, that pupils should not be forced to read the Bible at school. "The fact is that children have rejected the Bible," he said. My kid rejected having to go to bed at a reasonable time, too. Come to think of it, most kids don't like vegetables either. Guess we should let them all run free in the woods.
A spokesman for the Professional Council for Religious Education said: "It is a very interesting piece of research and provides a valuable tool for people to consider when addressing Biblical material. I am very happy with the way RE is taught in the majority of cases."
Although RE is compulsory in schools, it is not a national curriculum subject and local authorities are left to determine what is taught, resulting in a huge variation in style and content. To address concerns about this, a new national guidance on RE was published last year. It says that children should learn about the six principal religions represented in Britain - Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism and Sikhism. The guidance was welcomed by the main faith groups, although some Christian groups complained that it put too much emphasis on other faiths.
This is much worse than never exposing kids to religion at all. Europe really is sunk, isn't it.
Yes, I'd agree it is. I'm an atheist - and I find this beyond stupid - it's closer to criminal. Credit where due never hurt anybody. It's just the right thing to do, period. Morality tales work - they teach important lessons. Taken out of context - i.e. removing God - who knows? I certainly don't - and neither do these people who are terrified of God, in all the flavors presented. A fair number of Secularists - or whatever you want to call them - are nothing but cowards, scurrying around behind the scenes to subvert that which frightens, challenges, or annoys them. Gutless jerks. Sometimes I wish the Christians would stop turning the other cheek and go this route, instead. I'm not good with passivity shit, but I can respect taking a stand.
Unbelievable. The UK Govt wanks as badly as any, IMHO.
#2
Government is never going to do a good job of teaching religion, either in the US, Great Britain or anywhere else, unless it's a highly authoritarian version (think Wahabi) the kids would be better off without. If it isn't taught (and modelled) at home, teaching it in schools is worse than pointless.
#3
I have my own personal problems with God but it is simply impossible and ridiculous to give children (or anyone else) a proper understanding about what the Western civilisation and culture is about without teaching them about Christianity.
Shall we remove the Gothic cathedrals because they might bore the kids?
#4
The true reason for removing God is to replace it with something else. This is bad news even from a non religious stand point. It's simple dishonesty.
They might as well replace it with Aesop's fables.
The agenda is anti religious.
The religious indoctrination of children and adolecents (christian or other) should be the responsibility of the parents of faith in question. The state should stay out of it period.
#6
I don't favor indoctrination of any kind, religious or otherwise, but I am honest enough to state it for what it is. Religious education = religious indoctrination. At least the sect I was raised under and indoctrinated in was one that allowed me to make the choice with free will as an adult to if I would be a member or not. Many don't get such a choice.
#7
Compulsory religous instruction in UK schools is one of those historical anachronysms that was a joke when I went to school there over 40 years ago. They couldn't get anyone to teach the class and discipline completely broke down.
#8
SPoD, instead of avoiding religion, 8th/9th graders should have a comparative religion course within the history curriculum. By that, I don't mean "Let's now imitate mooselimbs" crap. I mean serious stuff. I had that in the commie school (yea, it was naturally marxized and engelized, but by that time I learned to filter these overlays out), and I appreciated it, because it could explain a lot of historical relationships. It was more expanded on the secondary level and included religious literature and writers within literature curriculum and later in philosophy curriculum.
iowahawk
Cambridge, MA - Two years ago this month, Alan Lowenstein, associate professor of philosophy at Harvard University, came to a fateful conclusion. "I suddenly realized that the oppression of western technology extended to my own life," he explained. "That's when I got rid of my computer, threw away my Brooks Brothers suits, changed my name to Grok and moved into a cave."
A passionate critic of Euro-American "linear thought," Grok is one of a growing number of college professors around the nation who have relocated to caves, mud huts and makeshift sweat lodges to demonstrate their disdain for western culture and technology. For Grok, 44, the move to a cave was a natural step in his intellectual progression.
A SAUDI academic has been sentenced to 200 lashes and time in jail for insulting an Islamist colleague, a Saudi-owned newspaper reported today. Hamza al-Muzaini, a lecturer in linguistics at King Saud University, was accused by Abdullah al-Barak, a lecturer of Islamic culture at the same university, of defamation and insult, the London-based Al-Hayat reported. Barak, who is described as a radical salafist - a strict form of Sunni Islam - reportedly accused Muzaini of "mocking long beards" and questioning his knowledge in an article published a few months ago, other reports said.
Muzaini was sentenced to 200 lashes, four months in prison and banned from publishing, a verdict he immediately appealed, the newspaper said. Muzaini maintains that his case should be examined by the ministry of information as it involves alleged libel, while Barak insists it is a personal matter that should be dealt with by a normal court. The court has now appointed a committee to "implement the publications law, which dictates that cases involving publication (offences) should not be referred to (normal Islamic) courts," said the newspaper. Saudi Arabia applies strict sharia, or Islamic law, under which beheadings, as well as mutilating hands and floggings, are accepted punishments.
#2
First there was mustache cursing. Now we have insulting beards. Prolly a "metaphor" for the length of, um, something else. This is some heavyweight shit. It should go all the way to the Islamic Supremes!
EFL - Read the whole thing. Anti-immigrant sentiment appears to be growing in the United States, Mexican President Vicente Fox said Wednesday, and he urged U.S. officials to act quickly to control movements. Mexico's National Human Rights Commission recently issued a warning about several new grass-roots movements inspired by Arizona's Proposition 200. Other Mexican officials have cited the Minuteman Project, a plan by activists to patrol the border during April, as a sign of rising extremism. "There are signs of these kinds of problems present today, and (they are) progressing," Fox said during a news conference for foreign reporters. "We have to act quickly and on time to prevent these kinds of actions." So patrolling the border is now a sign of extremism?
Fox also harshly criticized the construction of walls along the border, including a new "triple fence" planned for the San Diego area. "We are convinced that walls don't work. They should be torn down," he said. "No country that is proud of itself should build walls. No one can isolate himself these days." Fox said he understood Americans' concern about protecting their southern border. But he dismissed fears that terrorists have sneaked into the United States through Mexico. "We have absolutely no evidence of that," he said. And prior to 8:46 AM ET on September 11, 2001 we had no solid evidence that Islamist terrorists were operating within the United States.
Posted by: AzCat ||
03/20/2005 6:34:03 AM ||
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#1
Vincente is in for some big surprises.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
03/20/2005 7:41 Comments ||
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Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
03/20/2005 8:17 Comments ||
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#4
I let the RNC know that my usual donations is withheld pending action on the border.
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/20/2005 8:22 Comments ||
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#5
donation......nice....need coffee
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/20/2005 8:35 Comments ||
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"We are convinced that walls donât work. They should be torn down,"
Didn't we hear the same thing about Sharon's wall?
Actually, it does seem to be working!
BTW, Senor Fox has now wasted 4 years of even making an appearence of reducing the level of human dumping across the border. Give the man a seat next to Kofi and Chirac.
#7
Hey guys, ol' Vicente really is looking out for the US's best interests.
He said that the U.S. population is aging and will need Mexican labor in the future and that turning millions of undocumented Mexicans into legal, taxpaying workers could help keep the Social Security system afloat.
Is he trying to get a campaign contribution from the AARP?
#8
He's noting that the demographic bulge in the US has passed but Latin America's is just getting started. The geeks at RB might find these demographic projections interesting: http://devdata.worldbank.org/hnpstats/HNPDemographic/dependency.pdf
(Sorry for unembedded URL, but when I tried to embed it I got some unwanted stuff added to the link.)
Posted by: Robin Burk ||
03/20/2005 9:57 Comments ||
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#9
Fox is just using the US as a safety valve and as a source of cash for Mexico. He needs to deal with his problems instead of dumping them on us.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/20/2005 11:29 Comments ||
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Mr. Fox doesn't think much of walls and fences? Ask him when he plans to tear down the walls surrounding his presidential compound in Mexico City. The walls surrounding his villa isn't there for aesthetics. It serves a purpose.
Posted by: Mark Z. ||
03/20/2005 11:44 Comments ||
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#11
Mr. Fox doesn't think much of walls and fences? Ask him when he plans to tear down the walls surrounding his presidential compound in Mexico City. The walls surrounding his villa isn't there for aesthetics. It serves a purpose.
Posted by: Mark Z. ||
03/20/2005 11:44 Comments ||
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#12
If Fox were smarter, I'd say he's baiting us.
Posted by: regular joe ||
03/20/2005 12:12 Comments ||
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#17
Fox is right. The Mexican method of just shooting people who try to illegally cross their southern border works much better than fences. Perhaps we should just mine a 500 meter strip north of the border in the desert and close the border crossings in urban areas. Based on observations in San Diego, we would be better off without the illegals. Farmers can machine pick most of those crops and, if hotels and restaurants have to increase their prices to cover the costs of hiring Americans, so be it. It would be offset by not having to subsidize the medical care and education of illegals. By the way, they work in a cash economy and DON"T pay taxes.
#18
I agree - a wall won't work. What we need is a good deep trench, say 1000 meters deep and a couple of hundred meters wide, filled with half-starved critters with big teeth. Can't tunnel under that deep a trench. It might even make Douglas a seaport, who knows... And build it half on the Mexican side of the border!
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/20/2005 18:32 Comments ||
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This is the sleeper issue that could well tip the 2008 presidential election (given that the crucial swing states are all located in the southwest: New Mexico, Colorado, Nevada; perhaps Texas and California will be in play as well).
If the Republicans don't get serious about this-- and that means punishing their beloved business constituency for employing illegals-- then don't be surprised if Hillary sneaks in and grabs the issue for herself. Mark my word, this issue will bite the Republicans in the ass if they don't wake up, and fast.
#21
Note also that all the fastest-growing states are in the rocky mountain west, esp Colorado and New Mexico. This has big implications for 2008 and beyond.
#22
Add Nevada to the list also. You're looking at 40% population growth each decade in these states, vs population declines in the NE and rustbelt blue states. This issue will become huge in US politics, just as the hispanic vote will become huge.
Wonder what Rove's calculations are on this... screw the "minutemen" and pander to the hispanic vote? Or come up with a humane and principled stand against illegal immigration, with a consistent and carefully-phrased message that makes clear to hispanics that legal hispanics have the most to lose from the mess we have now?
I'd choose Door #2 myself, but I've no idea which way Rove will incline. It's very, very easy to pander to both employers and the hispanic "activist" idiots on this.
#23
Hi Mike... all I can say is, are sharks with laser beams on their heads too much to ask?
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
03/20/2005 20:40 Comments ||
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lex - I am inclined to believe that when the issue is serious, W & Co have the cojones to take it on.
What I wonder about at the moment is that they have invested so much in the fight over SocSec that there will be a letdown afterwards for the other issues still on the agenda. I've never seen such backassward self-delusioned morons as the Dhimmidonks in their lies and obfuscation campaign against fixing a problem their own icon, Clintoon, admitted was crucial - and getting worse. Suicide comes to mind.
Of course, if the fools force the Nuke Option in the Senate over losing / wrong-headed propositions, well, that will just make others easier to pass in that half of the legislature.
He said he'd tackle early in this term. I think SS has momentarily derailed it, but I have no doubt it's still on the table. The upcoming meeting with Mexico and Canada indicates it's still a high priority.
I'm not sure what to make of this. These are illegal economic migrants who have a vested interest in maximizing the perception that they will face persecution if they are repatriated. They may be genuine converts, but it smells like its false and cynically abetted by christian supporters who have been campaigning to get them released before they converted (and others who have not converted).
30 of Australia's longest-term immigration detainees are having their cases reviewed and could be freed because they have converted to Christianity since arriving. The Sydney Morning Herald reports that the Federal Government has made the move quietly as it searches for a "face-saving way" to soften its policy on failed asylum seekers who have been in custody for more than three years, and cannot be repatriated to their countries of origin.
It follows strong lobbying efforts by several Government backbenchers, churches and the powerful Family First party for the Government to relax its refugee policy for Christian converts. It also follows the case of one convert, deported from Baxter detention centre last October within a week after the election, and promptly interrogated in Iran for 48 hours before being charged with leaving the country illegally.
The case was taken up by Family First, whose spokeswoman, Andrea Mason, described the action as "repugnant". The Government is keen to build bridges with Family First, which controls one vital vote in the Senate, where the Government has a majority of a single vote. Previously, the Immigration Department has viewed conversions to Christianity with suspicion. But yesterday a spokesman for the Immigration Minister, Amanda Vanstone, confirmed the only reason for reconsidering the 30 cases was their new religion. Asked what had changed in the detainees' circumstances to warrant such reconsideration, he said: "Just that they brought new information that they've converted to Christianity and that they want their claim - that they may be persecuted if returned - to be examined."
He said all 30 were "all unauthorised boat arrivals", mostly from Iran and a few from Iraq, who had been in detention for more than three years. They include Peter Qasim, a Kashmiri whom India will not take back, and who is in his seventh year of detention. The president of the Uniting Church, the Reverend Dean Drayton, has supported the applications of about 50 Iranian Christians, most of whom have converted while in detention. In the past month, he said, the Government seemed to be "far more open to requests" for the applications to be reconsidered. "I don't think there has been a change of policy but the minister has the power to intervene and provide a reassessment of cases and I think the minister's been doing that."
Not since Agincourt has there been such a threat to French culture from across La Manche. A British institution will this week rubbish France's perennial claim that its unique soil and climatic conditions are responsible for producing some of the world's finest wines.
In a move that is likely to send tremors from Burgundy to Bordeaux, two economists conclude that environmental conditions - or what France's oenophiles lovingly refer to as 'terroir' - is not important when it comes to producing memorable wine. zoot alors! zees impeerialiste Anglos, is there noething they will not do?
The academics compared environmental conditions and wine-making techniques across 100 vineyards, including those owned by such revered wineries as Mouton-Rothschild, Latour, Lafite-Rothschild and Margaux, with the prices the vintages fetch at market.
Their findings will not make pleasant reading for those who argue truly great wine is a result of mystical synergies between the earth and the vine.
The seismic findings are likely to be seized upon by wine producers in other countries who have long maintained the quality of their output is equal to that of their French rivals. But it is likely to be dismissed by France's leading viniculturalists.
'AOC laws are too strict. Many exceptional wines such as Daumas-Gassac, produced in Languedoc, are unable to obtain an AOC label, essentially because they use vines that are not in conformity with AOC rules,' they say.
#2
I am making my first batch of wine at home (Amarone -- can't wait until it is ready to drink !)
I think Monsieur Daguenau just gave me the label name I am going to slap on the bottles....
Posted by: Carl in N.H. ||
03/20/2005 18:47 Comments ||
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#3
Way to hit the frogs where it really hurts them, in the pocketbook. Their wine sales are down, expecially to the U. S. This won't help and I couldn't be happier.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
03/20/2005 19:01 Comments ||
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To make matters worse, Argentina is now producing huge amounts of top notch wine--grown in their hot, dry climate with high-grade French grapes that couldn't do well in cool, moist France. The American wine experts are going ga-ga over it, which is making French wine even less desireable.
French President Jacques Chirac has vowed to launch a new "counter-offensive" against American cultural domination, enlisting the support of the British, German and Spanish governments in a multi-million euro bid to put the whole of European literature on-line. The president was reacting last week to news that the American search-engine provider Google is to offer access to some 15 million books and documents currently housed in five of the most prestigious libraries in the English-speaking world. The realisation that the "Anglo-Saxons" were on the verge of a major breakthrough towards the dream of a universal library seriously rattled the cultural establishment in Paris, raising again the fear that French language and ideas will one day be reduced to a quaint regional peculiarity.
So on Wednesday Chirac met with Culture Minister Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres and National Library president Jean-Noel Jeanneney and asked them "to analyse the conditions under which the collections of the great libraries in France and Europe could be put more widely and more rapidly on the Internet". "In the weeks to come, the president will launch initiatives in the direction of his European partners in order to propose ways of coordinating and amplifying efforts in this field," a statement said. "A vast movement of digitalisation of knowledge is underway across the world. With the wealth of their exceptional cultural heritage, France and Europe must play a decisive part. It is a fundamental challenge for the spread of knowledge and the development of cultural diversity."
It was Jeanneney who alerted Chirac to the new challenge. In an article in Le Monde newspaper, France's chief librarian conceded that the Google-Print project, with its 4.5 billion pages of text, will be a boon to researchers and a long-awaited chance for poor nations to get access to global learning. But he went on: "The real issue is elsewhere. And it is immense. It is confirmation of the risk of a crushing American domination in the definition of how future generations conceive the world. "The libraries that are taking part in this enterprise are of course themselves generously open to the civilisations and works of other countries ... but still, their criteria for selection will be profoundly marked by the Anglo-Saxon outlook," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/20/2005 5:27:49 PM ||
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#1
For a real alternative, all of the books should be translated into Spanish, as it is a widely-used language, like English and Chinese. If they had an automatic translator from French and German into English, Chinese or Spanish, it would help. Nobody should have to learn a dying language just to read a book.
#5
Well, the English language hasn't stolen enough of French to totally discard it. I mean, people still study hieroglyphics, right? In all those years they *must* have written something other than biographies of Napoleon, dreary and pessimistic philosophy and dreary and depressing screenplays.
#8
Oh dear, as if we needed Chirac to put our literature online. The Projekt Gutenberg has been doing that for year and Google will index it just fine.
What would help is reducing the copyright period. We once had 50 years (after the death of the author) and I think that's long enough. I think it's at 70 years now.
It would really help to reduce the timeframe for nonprofit online use. After all, you will still buy the novels you like to read.
#11
TGA: As far as copyright goes, I think it should be similar to the 19th Century US Mining Law still in effect: "Use it or lose it". Anybody can stake a claim, but they must improve it to the amount of $500 a year, or lose it. With copyright, unless you publicly market your product to a minimum gross profit every year, you should lose your copyright. This would both protect valuable copyrights, and open vast libraries of copyrighted, yet unavailable, material to the public domain. If you don't want to sell it, stand back, and let someone who wants to sell it.
#12
Hey - something positive, for once! It's not a negative reaction from the French! I'm all for it. Of course, this new project will be a great area for cost overruns and graft in general, but hey.
I'd like to say how shocked I am. But I hate to lie.
A £1m campaign to promote quality food has been scrapped after the government refused to support it, claiming a picture of Jersey cows in rolling green fields was "too British" and thus broke European regulations. That's what you get for submitting to your Masters in Brussels.
One photograph, headlined One Day with Daisy, was deemed to be too obviously of a British landscape and thus risked breaching articles 20 and 28 of the Treaty of Rome, designed to curb illegal state subsidies.
The European Union, however, has distanced itself from the move, saying the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), was "wrong". They may well be, but I can understand some Brit bureaucrat thinking, "Why take chances?"
Critics have attacked government officials for taking their desire to abide by EU rules to absurd extremes. Get used to it, guys. More's coming.
*snip*
Much more insanity and stupidity at the link, including this entertaining bit:
An article about barbecues was criticised for suggesting that British was best, in breach of article 28. However, Cowper added helpfully: "The commission has accepted the link between quality and the origin of some Scottish and Welsh meat products."
Makes me appreciate the CFR (for non-Americans, that's the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations). And that's saying a LOT.
And Mr. Cowper? Saying British barbecue is best isn't "a breach of article 28"; it's a breach of common sense and FACT. Everyone in the world knows Texas barbacue is best. ;-p
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/20/2005 2:57:20 PM ||
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Military families and veterans are helping organize a major anti-war rally outside Fort Bragg in North Carolina that could draw several thousand people Saturday, the second anniversary of the Iraq war.
Groups such as Iraq Veterans Against The War and Gold Star Families for Peace, whose members have lost relatives in Iraq, will play a prominent role...
Groups like Gold Star Families For Peace, made up of 60 families, and Iraq Veterans Against the War, with nearly 200 members, were formed within the past nine months. The members were brought together by grief and opposition to the Iraq conflict. More than 1,500 U.S. servicemembers have died in Iraq...
"We're showing folks all over the country and the world that even in the military community, there's huge opposition to the continuation of the Iraq war," Pearson says. A similar rally in Fayetteville on the first anniversary fell short of the 2,000 people predicted, city spokesman Jason Brady says... About 500 people from more than 270 anti-war groups met in St. Louis the weekend of Feb. 19 to plan educational campaigns and counterrecruitment seminars, says Bill Dobbs of United for Peace and Justice... Well, let's see. With one anti-war group for every two members, and multiple memberships, they can now brag that they have over 2,000 anti-war groups nationwide! With over 2,000 members! It's HUUUUGE!
#1
I would suggest that Ft Bragg is a rather poor choice of venues, but hey, that's just me. Let the "united" get together and march. It is America, in spite of what the money behind this thinks.
#5
They had "Huge" Anti-War Rally in San Francisco on Saturday but they didn't publish the number of how many low-life, hippie, pot-smoking, marxists, fairies showed up. I heard 'unofficial estimates' were less than 2,000. One protestor said they stood for the "silent (and absent) anti-war faction majority that is 'growing' in the U.S." Must be like the Democratic 'majority' that sits in Congress. Was this one of those female Harvard types that can't do math? Just a guess.
#6
...didn't publish the number of how many low-life, hippie, pot-smoking, marxists, fairies showed up.
Cyber Sarge, for the record, some of us Bay Area pot smokers are loyal Americans who just like a little weed once in a while. Please don't link us to the whackos, who probably just drink fair trade coffee and consider enjoying life boujois.
Posted by: Bay Area Redneck ||
03/20/2005 20:48 Comments ||
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So you're saying you don't want to be associated with this gentleman, I take it?
an old incident but it shows the depth of the corruption among UN peacekeeping forces
AUSTRALIAN soldiers drew arms to protect themselves from Jordanian peacekeepers after a Digger blew the whistle on other Jordanian soldiers' sexual abuse of East Timorese boys.
Corporal Andrew Wratten had to be evacuated and Australian commandos sent to protect Diggers in Oecussi, an East Timorese province in Indonesian West Timor, after he told the UN of the pedophilia that occurred in May 2001.
The Australians drew their Steyr assault rifles after being confronted by Jordanians armed with M-16s, in an escalation of verbal threats triggered by the later betrayal of Corporal Wratten by a Jordanian officer in the Dili headquarters of the UN Transitional Administration in East Timor.
Corporal Wratten, who was working at a fuel dump in the enclave, was told by a group of children that Jordanian soldiers had offered food and money in exchange for oral sex and intercourse.
The allegations involved East Timorese minors, all boys, the youngest of them just 12 years old.
Wratten informed PKF (peacekeeping force) that he had been receiving complaints from local children about Jorbatt (Jordan Battalion) abuse," said a senior UN official who was based in Oecussi at the time.
"A Jordanian officer in HQ informed Jorbatt that he had ratted on them. Wratten and his guys manning the helo (helicopter) refuelling pad in Oecussi town started getting threatened.
"There was one occasion where Aussie Steyrs were pointed at Jorbatt and Jor-batt M-16s pointed at Aussies."
A secret report into the abuse, obtained by The Australian, led to the expulsion of two Jordanian peacekeepers after an investigation ordered by then UNTAET chief, the late Sergio Vieira de Mello, in July 2001.
East Timorese human rights workers have confirmed the story. However, retired Australian major-general Roger Powell, the deputy UN force commander at the time, did not return The Australian's calls.
"As far as I understand, De Mello was very sensitive at the time to the harm such reports would have on the reputation of UNTAET, PKF — and by default himself," said one Western security analyst, based in East Timor in 2001.
Jordan's key role in Middle East peace negotiations added extra sensitivity.
In July 2001, a UN police specialist child interview team flew to Oecussi and spoke to 10 witnesses, including seven minors and three adults.
"The unacceptable sexual conduct alleged was that a minor had sperm around his mouth," the resulting report says.
The board of inquiry found in its report that Jordanian troops regularly offered food and money in exchange for sexual favours from women and boys, including the procuring of prostitutes from across the border in West Timor.
It found it was highly probable that widespread sexual misconduct had occurred after the Jordanians took over from the highly regarded Australian paratroop battalion in early 2000.
Posted by: too true ||
03/20/2005 4:04:33 PM ||
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Yeah, please don't say what we're all thinking.
There's a scene in the new HBO movie "Some Days in April" in which the bad-guy Rwandans rough up some blue berets. I thoroughly enjoyed it. The movie, that is.
Posted by: Matt ||
03/20/2005 17:22 Comments ||
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My first reaction was WTF are the UN doing promoting tourism and to Chernobyl of all places. As I read the article it became clear it was the UN is trying to justify the money it continues to spend on something that is no longer a problem. BTW calling it ecotourism is a stretch, more like ghoultourism.
IT'S not the first place I would think of to visit on holiday — more like the last. But one sunny Saturday in August, I find myself driving in a battered Lada from the Ukrainian capital of Kiev towards Chernobyl, site of the 1986 nuclear disaster. Chernobyl lies two hours north of Kiev by car, through idyllic, low, rolling hills. Fields of maize and golden seas of wheat spread across the landscape, while islands of pine, cottonwood and birch trees break up the near-flat panorama. The sky is big; the prevailing winds blow huge clouds across its vast expanse.
Until the late 1990s it would have been impossible to go there. The whole area was sealed off. Though still tight, security is now more perfunctory than intimidating. After passing through two checkpoints, one at the 30km mark and one at 20km, my driver Nikolay and I are on our way to Reactor No4. But first we have to pick up our guide, Yuiry Tatarchuck.
As we approach the reactor, with its concrete sarcophagus, Jim Morrison's lament, "This is the end, my only friend, the end," blasts from the Lada's crackling speakers. My two companions in the front seat don't seem to give it a second thought. But dread is probably the best way to describe what I feel at this moment.
The impetus behind tours to Chernobyl has come from an unlikely source. The UN Development Program and UNICEF released a report in January 2002 outlining the continuing problems facing Ukraine and its neighbours, Russia and Belarus.
The aim was to highlight the human consequences of the Chernobyl accident 16 years earlier. Experts in ecology, health and economics compiled detailed information, part of which was a recommendation that ecotourism was viable in certain sectors of the disaster area. The article then goes on to say radiation levels are only slightly above normal and families moved back into the area 3 days after the accident and still live there without apparent ill effects.
"Herb, should we go to Waziristan or Chernobyl this summer? The brochures look so fantastic, I can't decide!"
Posted by: phil_b ||
03/20/2005 12:45:23 AM ||
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#1
There's an excellent tour of Chernobyl online here. She also has some other excellent pages online.
#4
Those people are likely living on borrowed time. We all live on borrowed time. The evidence is that long term low level radiation exposure reduces your life expectancy by between a couple of months and a couple of years, probably less detrimental to your health than driving a car.
#6
phil_b - if the "couple of months and couple of years" are between the ages of 95 and 97, OK.
But what if they're between the ages of 40 and 42? I'd already be dead.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/20/2005 8:16 Comments ||
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#7
Have you all seen the magnificant "Ghost Town - Motorcycling Through Chernobyl" website? (For those who have, she has really improved the site with new sections for gulags and the Orange Revolution.) http://www.kiddofspeed.com/ (main site) http://www.kiddofspeed.com/chapter1.html (ghost town - Chernobyl).
#8
..I have to confess, I'd like to see the place close up, but only as close as a helo flyby could get me. And the idea of Morrison's "The End" popping up at that moment is priceless.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
03/20/2005 11:57 Comments ||
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#9
The evidence is that long term low level radiation exposure reduces your life expectancy by between a couple of months and a couple of years, probably less detrimental to your health than driving a car.
#11
Would YOU live there? Everywhere has background radiation, some places more than others. If the radiation wasn't too high, the answer is yes I would.
#13
It's probably an interesting area for ecotourism. Nature has been left alone for 20 years and radiation might not really hurt you if you just go for a few days.
On the other hand I guess I'd still prefer Yellowstone...
#14
I saw a report that lots and lots of animals and plants are flourishing there after the people moved away, and that they seem to be reproducing without any obvious deformities. The Greens might object to human resettlement...
#15
The "Motorcycling through Chernobyl" website was widely debunked as a fake.
I am based in Kyiv and writing a book about Chornobyl for the Joseph Henry Press. Several sources have sent me links to the "Ghost Town" photo essay included in the last e-POSHTA mailing. Though it was full of factual errors, I did find the notion of lone young woman riding her motorcycle through the evacuated Zone of Alienation to be intriguing and asked about it when I visited there two days ago.
I am sorry to report that much of Elena's story is not true. She did not travel around the zone by herself on a motorcycle. Motorcycles are banned in the zone, as is wandering around alone, without an escort from the zone administration. She made one trip there with her husband and a friend. They traveled in a Chornobyl car that picked them up in Kyiv.
#18
I am not buying one guy who is wrting a books "word" for it being a fake. Her father apperently was a high mucky muck in the department that controls the power plant and the area. This site has been up for a long time.
British company Intelligent Energy today unveiled ENV, the world's first purpose-built, fuel-cell motorbike - ahead of any of the world's leading automotive companies. The ENV bike is the creation of Intelligent Energy, a British energy solutions company, whose board includes Chairman Sir John Jennings, the former Chairman of Shell Transport and Trading.
The ENV (Emissions Neutral Vehicle) bike was designed to Intelligent Energy's brief by a British team, led by multi-award-winning designers Seymourpowell. The ENV bike is fully-functioning and has been engineered and purpose-built (based around Intelligent Energy's CORE fuel cell) from the ground up, demonstrating the real, everyday applicability of fuel cell technology. The CORE, which is completely detachable from the bike, is a radically compact and efficient fuel cell, capable of powering anything from a motorboat to a small domestic property...
Key Components of the Bike Power System
Motor - 6kW, 48 VDC Brush motor (model LEM-170, supplied by LMC)
Motor Controller - Brusa Direct Current (model MD 206)
Fuel Cell - 1kW Intelligent Energy air-cooled (2 x AC32-48)
Hydrogen Storage - High pressure carbon composite cylinder (Luxfer L65)
Hydrogen Energy - 2.4kWeh
Storage Battery - 4 x 12V Lead Acid (15Ahr) connected in series
Performance Data
Acceleration - 0 20 mph in 4.3s (32kph), 0 30 mph in 7.3s (48 kph), 0 50 mph in 12.1s (80kph)
Top speed - 50 mph (80kph) (note: ENV has been tested to 50mph however, with further refinements and redevelopments, this top speed is expected to be exceeded)
Range - At least 100 miles (160km)
Physical
Bike mass - 80 kg (Total mass including CORE)
Fuel
Hydrogen - 99.9% purity
Oxygen - Taken from air
Hydrogen refuel time less than 5 minutes
Interface
Electrical connection - Multi-core (Intelligent Energy specific)
#2
Where's it get the hydrogen? How much does it cost, and how much energy does it take to produce? How does that compare to an equivalent gasoline engine?
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/20/2005 22:33 Comments ||
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#3
Good points Robert. Assuming the hydrogen is available its production will have consumed more fossil fuels than would the production and use of the amount of gasoline required by a similar gasoline-powered moped. Hydrogen is a fantasy until we construct a few hundred new nuclear power plants.
#6
This thing is horribly energy inefficient as it requires at least 3 and probably 4 energy conversions. 1. To generate the electricty, 2. To produce the hydrogen, 3. To consume the hydrogen to create electricty. 4. To store and then utilize in a conventional battery?? otherwise why does the thing have batteries.
#7
AzCat: This is a new technology, and one that we hopefully will be seeing a lot more of soon. It does not require centralized hydrogen production. Fuel cells split fuels like ethanol to very efficiently get energy from them, far more so than could any combustion engine. Already, very small fuel cells are powering cell phones, and they should have one capable of powering a laptop soon. And unlike a battery, you just squirt an ounce of alcohol into the cell, and it should give you all the energy your laptop needs for a couple of hours or more. Similar membrane splitting technology can split water into hydrogen and oxygen gas, then use them as fuel or recombine them into purer-than-distilled water. This technology really has OPEC shaking in its boots, and is one of the reasons the middle east is economically trying to horizontally expand beyond petrochemicals, mostly into tourism and transportation.
#8
Robert and AzCat - even the slightly-left-of-center Scientific American crowd agrees - the only practical, cost-effective way to go to a hydrogen economy is with nuclear power. Dass OK by me.
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/20/2005 23:57 Comments ||
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Saw this at Barking Moonbat EWS blog. Thought it interesting, dunno if Rantburg has any numismatists on staff...
An extremely rare coin from the days of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem (1099-1291) was found recently during the Israel Antiquities Authority's excavations at Jaffa's Flee Market. The excavations are being directed by Martin Peilstocker and Amit Reem.
The find, a rare Frankish silver half drachma, was identified by specialists in the IAA Coin Department and is the first specimen to come from a controlled excavation. It was minted only during a very brief period in Frankish Acre, between 1251 and 1257, imitating the half dirhem struck in Damascus by the Ayyubids during the first half of the 13th century.
The find was discovered in a domestic structure dating to the 13th century with ceramics dating from the same period. The half drachma carries a cross, a fleur-de-lis and an Arabic inscription within a square on both sides. The legend written in Cufic script surprisingly pronounces the Trinity, the central doctrine of the Christian faith (al Ab, al-Bin we al Rukh al Kuds, meaning "the Father, The Son and the Holy Ghost").
Both sides also contain four marginal legends around each square with the Christian blessing "his is the glory for ever and ever" which are all but obliterated.
Gold dinars and silver dirhems struck by Fatimid and Ayyubid rulers were extensively imitated by the Frankish kingdom of Jerusalem and the Northern principalities of Antioch and Tripoli during the 12th and 13th century.
In 1250, the papal legate, bishop Eudes de Chateauroux arrived in the Latin East. Upon learning that the Franks struck coins with the name of the Muslim Prophet and accompanying religious legends, he ordered an end to the practice, requesting the pope in Rome to intervene personally.
Pope Innocentius IV issued a stern reply and threatened to impose a ban and excommunicate all those striking such gold and silver dinars and dirhems mentioning the name of Muhammad and his birthdate (Hijra year).
To circumvent the papal prohibition minters in Crusader Acre resumed imitations but this time added Christian legends and symbols.
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.
A SAUDI academic has been sentenced to 200 lashes and time in jail for insulting an Islamist colleague, a Saudi-owned newspaper reported today. Hamza al-Muzaini, a lecturer in linguistics at King Saud University, was accused by Abdullah al-Barak, a lecturer of Islamic culture at the same university, of defamation and insult, the London-based Al-Hayat reported. Barak, who is described as a radical salafist - a strict form of Sunni Islam - reportedly accused Muzaini of "mocking long beards" and questioning his knowledge in an article published a few months ago, other reports said.
Anti-immigrant sentiment appears to be growing in the United States, Mexican President Vicente Fox said Wednesday, and he urged U.S. officials to act quickly to control movements. Mexico's National Human Rights Commission recently issued a warning about several new grass-roots movements inspired by Arizona's Proposition 200. Other Mexican officials have cited the Minuteman Project, a plan by activists to patrol the border during April, as a sign of rising extremism. "There are signs of these kinds of problems present today, and (they are) progressing," Fox said during a news conference for foreign reporters. "We have to act quickly and on time to prevent these kinds of actions."
French President Jacques Chirac has vowed to launch a new "counter-offensive" against American cultural domination, enlisting the support of the British, German and Spanish governments in a multi-million euro bid to put the whole of European literature on-line. The president was reacting last week to news that the American search-engine provider Google is to offer access to some 15 million books and documents currently housed in five of the most prestigious libraries in the English-speaking world. The realisation that the "Anglo-Saxons" were on the verge of a major breakthrough towards the dream of a universal library seriously rattled the cultural establishment in Paris, raising again the fear that French language and ideas will one day be reduced to a quaint regional peculiarity. 
