Harare - A six-year-old Zimbabwean boy killed a four-year-old by burying him alive in a river bed, state radio reported on Monday.
According to the report, the killing happened in Buhera, eastern Zimbabwe, after the two children were playing.
The report said: "At a later stage, the six-year-old boy asked the four-year-old boy to lay his head in a hole he had dug and covered him with sand."
The child's body was discovered by his aunt and sister, who reported the killing to the police.
Police spokesperson Oliver Mandipaka said that under Zimbabwean law, the six-year-old was considered a minor and couldn't, therefore, be charged with murder.
A gunman opened fire inside a busy shopping mall Sunday, wounding at least six people and taking three others hostage in a music store before he surrendered to a SWAT team, authorities said. Witnesses described seeing a man walking backward through the mall, firing a rifle. At least six people were injured, one critically, as shoppers and store clerks scrambled for cover. Tacoma Police spokesman Mark Fulghum said the suspect was a young man, but he had no other details or possible motives.
The gunman came out of the Sam Goody music store without a gun and surrendered to the SWAT team, Fulghum said. He said police were interviewing the victims and the three hostages - two men and a woman - to determine what happened during the nearly four hours he was inside.
Authorities said they began getting calls about 12:15 p.m. that shots had been fired inside the Tacoma Mall. The first caller said there was a gunman, "He was in the mall, walking along, firing," Fulghum said. State Patrol and police units from nearby agencies clustered around an entrance at the south end.
Six people were taken to hospitals, most with minor injuries, according to Tacoma Fire Department Deputy Chief Jon Lendosky. One person was in critical condition at Tacoma General Hospital, spokesman Todd Kelley said.
#4
"...Court records show Maldonado has an extensive juvenile criminal history dating back to 1998. He has been convicted of burglary, theft and possession of burglary tools and he had been ordered not to possess any weapons, the Times reported."
Three convictions and he was on the street anyway. Maybe its time for Washington State will rethink their sentencing guidelines.
#6
"...Court records show Maldonado has an extensive juvenile criminal history dating back to 1998. He has been convicted of burglary, theft and possession of burglary tools and he had been ordered not to possess any weapons, the Times reported."
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot? Any good leftie knows that even law-abiding citizens can't possess any weapons in WA State anyways, so why was this an "order"? (/sarcasm off/)
Posted by: BA ||
11/21/2005 9:53 Comments ||
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#7
you guys probably didnt know that Washington is a great example of the RED BLUE polorization states.
Everything outside the Puget Sound East Side Corridor and a little of the West, is very conservative. The huge Metro areas of course are very liberal,VERY! Thus there is always a pretty good debate going on between the polotics of Spokane vs Seattle.
Posted by: bk ||
11/21/2005 11:26 Comments ||
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#8
also the weather has really been foggy lately, extremely dreary around here.
Posted by: bk ||
11/21/2005 11:27 Comments ||
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#9
we do get a pretty good share of crazies up here though, its a combo of the weather and the heavy PC atmosphere me thinks.
Posted by: bk ||
11/21/2005 11:29 Comments ||
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#10
Actually,
WA is a "shall issue" state; I live in OR, and have a CCW there, and was easily able to obtain a WA CCW by simply applying.
So it seems not many people take advantage of being armed. Too bad, there are 2 excellent firearms schools up there; Insights training and Seattle firearms academy.
Despite being 83 years old and reliant on oxygen tubes for a lung ailment, Harry Carpenter wouldn't let his wife of 57 years be robbed by knife-wielding intruders in his own home. Two would-be robbers bravely forced their way into the home of Carpenter and his wife, Jackie, Wednesday evening while the two were having dinner, according to a police report. One of them made Harry Carpenter sit down in the sun room, while the other went with Jackie Carpenter, 80, to get money from her bedroom. Carpenter tried to come to his wife's rescue but was threatened with the knife.
Then he got his break — his wife pretended to faint and the intruder who was holding him went into the other room to see what was happening. Carpenter shuffled to the laundry room, where he kept an old, unloaded rifle that he used to shoot squirrels, he said. When one of the intruders came back, he found Carpenter aiming the rifle at him and yelled at his companion to flee. Police were unable to locate the two suspects, who didn't get any money.
Good man. I'll bet he's a problem to his children, too. Good on him!
Posted by: Fred ||
11/21/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
sweet old crank with a gun..sounds like a great Western. DVD yet?
Posted by: Red Dog ||
11/21/2005 1:48 Comments ||
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#2
Who's the next on the list of these fearless villains? The old blind lady down the street? Or is it that kindergartener with the big lollipop? They'll probably have to settle for the pregnant war widow on food stamps, she won't put up as much of a fight as the other two.
#3
The movie The Grey Fox shows the other side of the coin, the bad guy who spends a long term in jail and when he gets out returns to a life of crime in a very different world. Richard Farnsworth is outstanding. The Carpenter story is far too good for Hollywood to lower itself to.
#5
"Unloaded?" he failed his classes in gun handling, weapons are always loaded.
If unloaded they are no more than a useless, unwieldy club.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
11/21/2005 8:58 Comments ||
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#6
I don't know how many of you subscribe to the American Rifleman. Every month there is a section entitled "Armed Citizen." These are a series of factual accounts of citizens whose house was broken into, or they were assaulted, or someone had a murderous intent. They picked up the gun to protect themselves. Had they not had a gun, the outcome might have been bad for them and their loved ones. Often, these are elderly citizens. Sometimes just brandishing a weapon is enough to stop the crime.
#7
Odds the intruders were drugies?
Why is we would only legalize the stuff, none of this would happen /sarcasm. And just how would drugies like these get the resources to buy 'legal' drugs? Why by home invasion threatening the weakest targets.
#8
Why is we would only legalize the stuff, none of this would happen /sarcasm. And just how would drugies like these get the resources to buy 'legal' drugs? Why by home invasion threatening the weakest targets.
The grammar alone makes me want to ask what you're smoking. At least by lowering the price, druggies would have to break into fewer homes to score.
#9
At least by lowering the price, druggies would have to break into fewer homes to score.
I personaly favor the idea of a "Drug Lottery".
Drugs are free (The ones now illegal) just apply at your nearest Police Dept and your drug of choice will be given in modest quantities (10 Day supply) with no questions asked.
And the knowledge is distributed widely that one dose in ten-thousand (At random) is poision.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
11/21/2005 9:31 Comments ||
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#13
Actually, I believe the British-run Opium dens in the Far est were a variant on what Redneck Jim is proposing: the Boxer rebellion was partially motivated by outrage at the waste of human lives caused by the Opium dens, and that the British, in the ensuing peace treaty, required that China not restrict Opium importation by the British.
#14
One of my favorite senior citizen self defense stories was when a knife-wielding maniac decided to rob this little old lady. When the police arrived it was a terrible mess--blood and pieces of flesh everywhere. According to a cop, it looked like the robber had been attacked by an enraged grizzly bear.
Then the police noticed something unusual. There were lots of bloody dimes laying around. The little old lady said that she packed her 12-gauge with them.
Then she asked, if when they were done, she could have her dimes back, as they were "lucky dimes".
#15
Ptah, you are talking about the Opium war which was a seperate conflict from the Boxer Rebellion.
I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong but the way I recall the Chinese Government would only sell tea for silver. The British couldn't grow tea in their India colony but they could grow Opium (or at least it was plentiful there already). Besides there wasn't enough silver around and brining it from England was a nightmare so they sold Opium to the Chinese bureaucrats in exchange for silver to buy tea with. The bureaucrats then made a fortune of the Opium trade within China.
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and Russian President Vladimir Putin are set to hold talks in Tokyo later Monday, with the two-hour meeting focusing on a longstanding territorial row and economic cooperation.
Given that no tangible progress is expected on the territorial dispute over a group of islands off Hokkaido, energy and economic cooperation issues, including a planned oil pipeline linking eastern Siberia with the Russian Far East, are more likely to take center stage. "Okay, two minutes on the islands - then we talk money."
Putin will attend a forum Monday morning and a luncheon, both hosted by the Japan Business Federation. On Tuesday, he will meet with Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko before ending his visit.
HUNDREDS of right-wing demonstrators made fascist salutes and shouted insults against gays, Muslims and immigrants at a rally marking the 30th anniversary of the death of dictator General Francisco Franco yesterday. Waving Spanish flags with the insignia of the Franco regime's Falange party, the crowd gathered at the Plaza de Oriente, in Madrid, beside the royal palace - a traditional meeting place for Spaniards nostalgic for Franco's rule.
Franco died on 20 November, 1975, aged 82, after nearly 40 years in power. Representatives of far-right parties from Germany, Italy and France attended the gathering. At several points during the rally the 1,000-strong crowd shouted insults about Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, Spain's socialist prime minister.
Franco supporters are a small minority in Spain and there is no significant far-right party. The demonstrators ranged in age from the elderly to young couples pushing prams with babies. Boys in their teens or younger walked around wrapped in the Spanish flag. Blas Pinar, the ageing leader of a largely defunct far-right party called New Force, told the crowd that Franco had transformed Spain from a country riddled with poverty and illiteracy into one with "enviable industrial development" and an acute, unified national identity. Pinar then depicted Spain's post-Franco, democratic constitution of 1978 as the root of all ills in a country he described as riddled with crime, decadence and regional separatism that threatens to break the country apart. His grandson, Miguel Menendez Pinar, spoke insultingly of homosexuals and Muslims, adding: "Spain is dying, or better said, Spain is being murdered."
Posted by: Fred ||
11/21/2005 00:00 ||
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#2
BS
the murder of entire peoples happens all the freaking time.
No One Really Cares. (almost)
Just ask Tibet or the poor folks in Sudan (though the ones in Sudan got token assistance)
Ask the little people in Africa, you'll have a hard time finding them because they have been EATEN. (folks involved in war over there got it in their head that eating the flesh of the pygmies offered some sort of magic-based advantage)
(They actually went before the un begging for help. I don't recall a 'save the pygmy' initiative, but maybe there was one.. ye'd think something odd like that would make headlines though)
lots of people pretend to care.
Almost no one really does. They just lie to convince themselves that they are good people.
I don't care either; I'm not interested in lying for the sake of my self-image.
Four years after 9/11 and the "crazy zeitgeist" that permeated the United States, most Americans have still not learned to know their enemies instead of just hating them, U.S. political journalist Chris Matthews says.
In a speech to political science students at the University of Toronto yesterday, the host of the CNBC current affairs show Hardball had plenty of harsh words for U.S. President George W. Bush, as well as the political climate that has characterized his country for the past few years.
"The period between 9/11 and Iraq was not a good time for America. There wasn't a robust discussion of what we were doing," Matthews said.
"If we stop trying to figure out the other side, we've given up. The person on the other side is not evil -- they just have a different perspective."
He said Bush squandered an opportunity to unite the world against terrorism and instead made decisions that have built up worldwide animosity against his administration.
#2
Four years after 9/11 and the "crazy zeitgeist" that permeated the United States, most Americans have still not learned to know their enemies instead of just hating them, U.S. political journalist Chris Matthews says.
Sorta like you Mr. Matthews and the real mainstream America. You've learned nothing about 'Red' country while you keep to your European enclave on the coast.
"The period between 9/11 and Iraq was not a good time for America. There wasn't a robust discussion of what we were doing," Matthews said.
Sorta like between Pearl Harbor and the surrender in Toyko harbor. The rest of us are busy killing the enemy and winning the war while you particpate in [scroll down] Sen. Sam Brownback and Jill Manning's oral public masturbation because as the old saying goes - if you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem. There's a reason we refer to self important little wastes of time like you as 'wankers'.
Hat Tip: Michelle Malkin
A marijuana-laden dump truck got stuck in the Rio Grande on Thursday evening in Hudspeth County, leading to a standoff between U.S. law enforcement and what appeared to be the Mexican military, sheriff officials said.
"It's a very serious incident," Hudspeth County Chief Deputy Mike Doyal said.
"We are very fortunate (Thursday) night no one got hurt," Doyal said. "Everyone had the presence of mind not to cause an international incident, or start shooting."
The incident began when Border Patrol agents tried to stop the dump truck on Interstate 10, sheriff's officials said. The truck fled to Mexico in the Neely's Crossing area.
The truck got stuck in the riverbed, and the driver took off running. Agents "started to retrieve the bundles (of marijuana) when the armed subjects appeared," said Agent Ramiro Cordero, a Border Patrol spokesman.
The Border Patrol called Hudspeth County sheriff's deputies and Texas state troopers for backup, both agencies confirmed.
Doyal said the truck driver returned with the armed men, including men who arrived in official-looking vehicles with overhead lights and what appeared to be Mexican soldiers in uniform and with military-style rifles.
The Mexican army is used in anti-narcotics operations. Army officials could not be reached for comment.
The standoff ended when the "soldiers" used a bulldozer to pull the dump truck into Mexico, sheriff's officials said.
Doyal said the bulldozer is kept in the area and is suspected of being used to create makeshift paths across the river.
Time to equip the Border Parol with RPG's. That would have taken care of both the Dump truck and bulldozer. If the mexico objects then ask Fox what Mexico was doing sending a dumptruck of pot into the united states.
#1
So why didn't the Border Patrol ask to call in F-16s or armed helicopters from Fort Bliss? If they don't have the authority, then what good are the Border Patrol if they can't intervene during an armed incursion into the United States by a foreign military.
Posted by: ed ||
11/21/2005 12:17 Comments ||
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#2
A congressional blue-ribbon roundtable committee is in order here to determine a need for a special inquest hearing to determine a need for closed-door hearings to determine if anyone should ask anyone anything not offensive to those engaged in cross-border relations and economic/trade projects. The committee is in order to also ensure that Fox is not embarrassed or put on the spot as to give the PRI an advantage come next election. In the eyes of the corrupt legal system, if it quacks like a duck, waddles like a duck and swims like a duck... it doesn't mean it is a duck. It could be a shetland pony. The military is not going to react to any incursion on the border other than occupy real estate for terrain denial... or do a show-of-force by flying around aggressively. The Border Patrol management, notice I did not say leadership, barely backs up their own officers when attacked by the Mexican or domestic press. Why would anyone think they would risk paperwork requesting assistance from the military? If anything, it would get all jacked-up and the military-appearing Mexicans would have returned south before you could say Ole! Chances are that the Border Patrol guys were out-gunned and out-manned and definitely lacking a menacing (probably stolen) bulldozer of their own. I think the U.S. law enforcement folks on the ground probably did the right thing. Maybe they figured that it was better to bring their ass home alive rather than be judged a dead jackass by all the warped media and liberal facists strangling the country. I'd grab what pot I confiscated, turn it in, fill out the inhuman amount of paperwork that goes with it, answer the pointless accusatory questions by desk-jockey supervisors and map out one more what-if scenario for the future. Dead folks cannot do that... nor change tactics. They did the right thing on the ground. Back at Border Patrol Headquarters is where even scarier things happen, and even the greater threat.
#4
ROFL, FDP - I was choking on my KFC, no - not choking that chicken - before I finished the first sentence. Reminded me of Administratium, LOL.
This will be a large data point added to the debate and demands that the government get serious. You can bet the Texas Delegation will be making noises on the hill - they will be horsewhipped by the voters if they don't.
I'm happy that none of our people were hurt. I'm disgusted that all of theirs survived and got the dope.
November 21, 2005
Seeking Clean Fuel for a Nation, and a Rebirth for Small-Town Montana
By TIMOTHY EGAN
HELENA, Mont., Nov. 15 - If the vast, empty plain of eastern Montana is the Saudi Arabia of coal, then Gov. Brian Schweitzer, a prairie populist with a bolo tie and an advanced degree in soil science, may be its Lawrence.
Rarely a day goes by that he does not lash out against the "sheiks, dictators, rats and crooks" who control the world oil supply or the people he calls their political handmaidens, "the best Congress that Big Oil can buy."
Governor Schweitzer, a Democrat, has a two-fisted idea for energy independence that he carries around with him. In one fist is a shank of Montana coal, black and hard. In the other fist is a vial of nearly odorless clear liquid - a synthetic fuel that came from the coal and could run cars, jets and trucks or heat homes without contributing to global warming or setting off a major fight with environmental groups, he said.
"Smell that," Mr. Schweitzer said, thrusting his vial of fuel under the noses of interested observers here in the capital, where he works in jeans with a border collie underfoot. "You hardly smell anything. This is a clean fuel, converted from coal by a chemical process. We can produce enough of this in Montana to power every American car for decades."
Coal-to-fuel conversion, which was practiced out of necessity by pariah nations like Nazi Germany and South Africa under apartheid, has been around for more than 80 years. It is called the Fischer-Tropsch process. What is new is the technology that removes and stores the pollutants during and after the making of synthetic fuel; add to that high oil prices, which have suddenly made this form of energy alchemy feasible. The coal could be converted into gasoline or diesel, which would run cars, or into other types of fuel.
With coal reserves of about 120 billion tons, Montana has one-third of the nation's total and a tenth of the global amount. Most of it is just under the prairie grass in the depopulated ranch country of eastern Montana. Mr. Schweitzer wants to plant coal-to-fuel factories in towns that have one foot in the grave. It may not provide enough fuel to wean the West off imported oil, but it may be enough to show the rest of the country that there is another way, he said.
"This country has no energy plan, no vision for the future," said Mr. Schweitzer, who spent seven years in Saudi Arabia on irrigation projects. "We give more tax breaks and money for oil, and what do we get? Three-dollar gas and wars in the Middle East. If you want to control the destiny of this country, it's going to be with synthetic fuels."
For now, the governor's ideas are just speculative. Although several energy companies have expressed interest in building coal-to-fuel plants, no sites have been chosen or projects announced. Because it would be such a novel, financially risky undertaking, companies have been hesitant to go the next step. But Mr. Schweitzer hopes for a breakthrough, with several plants up and running within 10 years, and he says he does not need legislative approval to give the go-ahead if companies commit.
The governor has met with the president of Shell Oil, the chairman of General Electric and other captains of big energy, as well as with smaller companies that develop synthetic fuels.
"This is not a pipe dream," said Jack Holmes, the president and chief executive of Syntroleum, an Oklahoma company that has a small synthetic fuels plant and wants to build something bigger. "What's exciting about this process is you don't have to drill any wells and you don't have to build any infrastructure, and you'd be putting these plants in the heartland of America, where you really need the jobs."
Certainly jobs are a big motivating factor. Montana is a poor state and ranks last in average wages. Mr. Schweitzer, whose approval rating is near 70 percent, says thousands of good-wage jobs can be gained in towns that are dying.
He is also promoting wind energy and the use of biofuels, using oil from crops like soybeans as a blend. The governor signed a measure this year that requires Montana to get 10 percent of its energy from wind power by 2010, a goal he said would be reached within a few years. Still, the Big Sky State, with a population under a million, has fewer people than the average metro area of a midsize American city, and its influence is limited. The governor acknowledged as much.
"I'm just a soil scientist trying to get people in Washington, D.C., to take the cotton out of their ears," Mr. Schweitzer said with somewhat practiced modesty. "But if we can change the world in Montana, why not try it?"
By some estimates, the United States has enough coal to take care of its energy needs for 800 years. The new, cleaner technology stores the pollutants in the ground or processes them for other uses.
The United States imports about 13 million barrels of oil a day. To replace that oil would be a monumental undertaking, with hundreds of coal-to-fuel plants. But Mr. Schweitzer points to South Africa, where a single 50-year-old plant provides 28 percent of the nation's supplies of diesel, petrol and kerosene. But the South African plant uses old technology that does not remove the pollutants.
In this country there is a small factory in North Dakota that converts coal to natural gas. And Pennsylvania is moving forward on a plan to produce diesel from coal. Neither of these plants would come close to the scale of the plants Mr. Schweitzer is envisioning in Montana, where it would cost upward of $7 billion to build a plant that could turn out 150,000 barrels of synthetic fuel a day, for about $35 a barrel.
One surprising thing, thus far, is that many people in the environmental community have not rejected the coal-to-fuel idea out of hand. Environmentalists like the process for producing clean fuels from coal. They say the technology is there and it can be done in coal-rich empty quarters of eastern Montana, North Dakota or Wyoming.
Still, they worry about strip mining the ranch country and about whether there will be a global commitment to make synthetic fuels the clean way rather than in a dirtier way along the lines of a plan in China, where the government has joined with major global oil companies to build about a dozen coal-to-fuel plants.
"It's a very interesting moment in energy history," said Ralph Cavanagh, an energy policy expert at the Natural Resources Defense Council, one of the nation's most powerful environmental groups. "Certainly this process can be done. This is a promising direction. The question is, Are we going to do it clean?"
Because there is no federal mandate to process coal in a way that reduces the emissions that can cause global warming, Mr. Cavanagh says he fears that any new coal operations will simply add new pollutants to the atmosphere. Coal plants without the cleaning technology are the biggest source of man-made carbon dioxide, a gas that is considered a central contributor to the warming of the earth, according to many studies.
There is another problem as well. Some Montana ranchers and environmentalists who fought big coal-mining proposals in the 1970's are worried about what new mining will do to the grasslands.
"The governor's idea is a big one," said Helen Waller, a farmer who is active with the Northern Plains Resource Council, a Montana environmental group. "I'm not sure it's the best one. I don't think there's any such thing as clean coal. And even if there were, it would require a lot of productive ranchland to be ripped up."
Mr. Schweitzer said the mining could be done in a way that restored the land afterward. "I call it deep farming," he said. "You take away the top eight inches of soil, remove the seam of coal, and then put the topsoil back in."
But given Montana's history of abuse by mining companies - the giant open-pit mine in Butte is the most visible legacy of a bygone era - some Montanans remain skeptical.
"I just think there's a better way that doesn't involve tearing up productive ranchland," Ms. Waller said.
Damn nice to see domestic solutions to America's overdependence on foreign oil!
#2
One surprising thing, thus far, is that many people in the environmental community have not rejected the coal-to-fuel idea out of hand.
Because the environmentalists realize that synfuel from Montana coal will probably cost something like $120/barrel including pollution control and land reclamation they realize its just a talking point.
#3
Not while the price of oil keeps falling. But if we had a floor of, say, $50 per barrel levied via import fees and extraction taxes on domestic crude, oils companies would start exploiting it immediately.
#4
HERE is a powerpoint presentation of the basics of the Fischer-Tropsch process. There have been quite a few improvements on the basic process that was developed back in 1923. Basically one would use coal and natural gas in the presence of a catalyst and pressure to build synthetic hydrocarbon fuels.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/21/2005 21:59 Comments ||
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GO3953: Not while the price of oil keeps falling. But if we had a floor of, say, $50 per barrel levied via import fees and extraction taxes on domestic crude, oils companies would start exploiting it immediately.
I think this might be politically feasible, assuming that offsetting across the board income tax cuts were also implemented. But politicians who want to hike gas taxes never mention tax cuts. Which is another way of saying that most of the pro-gas tax crowd are classic tax-and-spenders.
#6
Article: Neither of these plants would come close to the scale of the plants Mr. Schweitzer is envisioning in Montana, where it would cost upward of $7 billion to build a plant that could turn out 150,000 barrels of synthetic fuel a day, for about $35 a barrel.
I can see why the oil companies are begging off. Both the winning and losing bids in the Unocal acquisition saga involved paying no more than the high teens per barrel of oil reserves. Why would oil companies want to pay double that for coal gasification infrastructure in Montana?
#7
People have to quit thinking about how much the oil companies make, are willing to pay and willing to risk. We need a stratigic fuels program. Screw the oil companies and enviros. If tehy can't get out of the way run over them. Make them road kill on the way to energy independence.
We need to be free of foreign control over our energy future. There are only 2 things we have lots of that can provide that, Coal and Nuclear power. Time to get with it and quit being held hostage to oil company profits and Middle Eastern assclowns. This is one way of many we can use to get their.
#8
Still, they worry about strip mining the ranch country and about whether there will be a global commitment to make synthetic fuels the clean way rather than in a dirtier way along..
Geez, there's always something these guys have a beef with...
The U.S. is unprepared for the next flu pandemic, lacking the manufacturing capacity to provide 300 million doses of a vaccine for three to five more years, Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt said Sunday. "What we all learned from (Hurricane) Katrina is that sometimes we have to think very clearly about the unthinkable," Leavitt said. "We're not as prepared as we need to be. ...We will not have enough for everyone."
While stressing that chances remain slight, health experts say it could lead to a global pandemic if the bird flu mutates to start spreading easily among people. "We can't put a number on how probable that's going to be," said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the infectious disease division of the National Institutes of Health. "It's a low probability. When the consequences are unimaginable, you must assume the worst-case scenario."
Added Dr. Michael Ryan of the World Health Organization: "This is certainly a dangerous virus, and it has crossed the species barrier now in 130 cases. We're probably closer to a pandemic at any time in the last 37 years." The U.S., which has not seen any signs of the strain in birds or people, has only enough doses now for 4.3 million people.
President Bush has proposed stockpiling enough of the anti-flu drugs Tamiflu and Relenza for 81 million people, a goal drug manufacturers believe they can reach by mid-2007, said Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "We're not prepared for vaccination, that's why we need to scale up. We are doing studies to extend the value of the vaccine ... allowing us to vaccinate more people with the same doses," so the timeframe might be quicker, she said.
Except that this virus is already showing that it can mutate to be resistant to Tamiflu. Relenza is another choice, but it has problems and it's difficult to manufacture.
Leavitt said the low supply means state and local governments will have to make tough choices on how best to allocate the vaccine should an outbreak occur. The federal government has suggested top priority be given to first responders.
Nearly all of the 67 human victims caught the virus from close contact with sick chickens, with only one confirmed case of a person infecting another person. The fear now is that the strain, called H5N1, will acquire the ability to spread easily from person to person. Fauci said the chances of that remain slight, noting that the strain will have to genetically mutate in ways that are possible but "not necessarily inevitable."
"We know it can jump from a chicken to a human," he said. "If this virus was the seasonal flu with the inherent capability that the seasonal flu has of going from human to human, you would have seen an explosion of cases in Southeast Asia. ...We're not seeing that now."
Ryan said his group is working to improve health surveillance in Asia, which he called the weakest link, particularly since health experts are preparing to provide an emergency "fire blanket" to control an outbreak should one occur. "If we were to detect the emergence of the pandemic strain early enough, some models suggest that with the application of social distancing or quarantine-like measures and the rapid distribution of antivirals in that population, we may be able to significantly slow down or even stop the emergence of a pandemic strain," he said.
Gerberding advised that Americans should take the usual precautions in guarding against the common flu, such as washing hands frequently and getting a flu shot. "H5N1 is a bird problem, and it's not in the United States at this time," she said. "Even if it does enter through a migratory bird at some point, which won't be surprising, we have a wonderful system of surveillance."
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/21/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
Flu vaccines are not that effective. Their effectiveness depends on several factors and varies from 80%+ in kids, around 50% in adults to less than 20% in old people, and lower when new strains arise. It seems that what makes pandemic strains pandemic is their ability to evade immune protections, i.e. vaccines will be less efective than normal.
#2
I read an article about a new flu vaccine that guards against all types of flu, current and future strains. That was about two months ago, now not a peep. Was it a bullshit story or was it real, and why havent I heard anything else about it. It was based on some basic principle of flu infection and was not strain specific. Like most worthwhile inventions it was probably bought by Glaxo and pigeon holed to it would not be out there to compete with their products.
#3
Richard Preston's "Demon in the Freezer" details how the smallpox eradication effort progressed and is an excellent case study in how pandemics are dealt with and should be tackled.
Note that mass vaccination proved to be ineffective in smallpox for the same reasons it would be with a flu pandemic, mutation of disease.
The way this is dealt with is containment, and response must be lightning fast.
Chandigarh, Nov. 21: Honorary Capt. Umrao Singh, the last of the 40 gallant Indians to be decorated with the Victoria Cross, died fighting his final battle with cancer at the Indian Army’s Research and Referral Hospital in Delhi Cantonment on Monday afternoon.
He was the last of a very special breed of brave soldiers, who possessed "exceptional courage and gallantry," said Lt. Gen. J.F.R. Jacob (Retd), who vividly remembers Havildar Umrao Singh as "a very fine chap." Himself a young major in 1944, the general said the award of the Victoria Cross, then the highest possible gallantry medal, "could not have been better deserved."
The exceptional valour displayed by the then 24-year-old gunner relates to a battle in the Burmese Aarkans on December 15, 1944. In charge of a field gun in the advanced section of his battery in the Kaladan Valley, Havildar Umrao Singh helped successfully repulse many repeated assaults by Japanese soldiers. In the final attack he killed three of the enemy in hand-to-hand combat using little more than his hand-spike (implement employed to push in shells in artillery guns). "They found him lying face down on the dead Japanese soldiers with his fingers still tightly clutched around the hand-spike," Gen. Jacob remembered.
Exhausted and barely conscious, Havildar Singh was the lone survivor of that fateful day in the Kaladan Valley. There were as many as 10 enemy soldiers lying dead around him but he had succeeded in protecting his gun, which was pressed into action later the same day.
The brave havildar of the 24th Mountain Regiment, who was later conferred the rank of honorary captain, retired from the Army to live a full life with his children and later grandchildren in his ancestral village, Palra, in Haryana’s Jhajjar (then part of Rohtak) district.
He was diagnosed with cancer of the prostrate only recently (July 5 this year) and had undergone surgery for the ailment. However, doctors attending on him at the R&R Hospital said the malignancy had already spread to other vital organs.
Capt. Singh breathed his last on Monday afternoon, exactly 85 years after the day he was born on November 21, 1920 in the home of Mohar Singh Yadav. Today, he is survived by two sons, a daughter and four grandchildren.
Indian Army buglers will sound the Last Post at Palra village to bid a final farewell to Capt. Umrao Singh on Tuesday. The funeral, to be conducted with full military honours, is expected to be attended among others by top military brass, British diplomats and military officers, and several politicians.
Grieving but intensely proud of his truly illustrious grandfather, the soldier’s grandson, Sukhdev Singh, said many former soldiers, for whom Capt. Umrao Singh was nothing less than a legend, have already begun arriving in Palra to pay their last respects. "To them and to virtually everyone else in the village, he was simply but very fondly known as the ‘VC Sahib’."
Only six years ago, in London to attend a reunion of Victoria Cross awardees, Palra village’s VC Sahib was crossing the road when the traffic about him came to a halt. The then UK secretary of state for defence, Mr Michael Heseltine, who had seen the bronze Victoria Cross pinned on Capt. Singh’s chest, much to everyone’s surprise, jumped out of his car, raised his hand in salute and said, "VC first, Sir!"
He was a fighter to the last. Lt. Gen. Jacob remembers another time when Capt. Singh unhesitatingly walked up to British Prime Minister John Major and politely told him off about the "meagre" pension being paid to VC recipients. "The pensions were immediately raised to a respectable level," said the general.
Posted by: john ||
11/21/2005 17:48 ||
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#2
The then UK secretary of state for defence, Mr Michael Heseltine, who had seen the bronze Victoria Cross pinned on Capt. Singh’s chest, much to everyone’s surprise, jumped out of his car, raised his hand in salute and said, "VC first, Sir!"
Damn straight. The VC winner crosses the road first.
Nice to see that some politicians respect the veterans.
Posted by: john ||
11/21/2005 18:34 Comments ||
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#3
How beautifully "Kiplingesque". One couldn't make this up, it would be too... I don't know, Imperial India?
A salute to a good, and brave and dedicated soldier: "Durro mat, Umrao Singh!"
Sen. Sam Brownback has no trouble talking about sex. In hearing after hearing, he has brought forward experts in sexual dysfunction, lawyers fluent in the constitutional regulation of sex, and even journalists who have studied American sexual behavior.
His concerns are varied, ranging from the horrors of international sex slavery to child exploitation. But on Thursday, he convened his third hearing in just over a year on another sexual topic altogether: porn.
"I think most Americans agree and know that pornography is bad. They know that it involves exploitive images of men and women, and that it is morally repugnant and offensive," Brownback said, kicking off a hearing of the Senate's Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Property Rights, which he chairs. "What most Americans don't know is how harmful pornography is to its users and their families."
With those words, Brownback kicked off a 90-minute discussion of hardcore sex scenes, self-gratification and its negative impacts. "This is not just a simple, benign form of expression, but rather a potentially addictive substance," explained one of the subcommittee's panelists, Jill Manning, a sociologist from Brigham Young University. "People watch a movie, read a book, listen to music, but they masturbate to pornography. In that difference, you have a different stimulation to the brain."
She went on to explain that the experience of masturbation activates about 14 neurotransmitters and hormones, causing a quick chain reaction of brain activity. "There have been some experts who have even argued that, in and of itself, overrides informed consent when encountering this material," she said, apparently suggesting that an adult's own sexual self-stimulation can lead to a loss of judgment.
Pornography, she continued, had been shown to increase the risk of divorce, decrease marital intimacy and cause misunderstandings about the prevalence of less common sex practices like group sex, bestiality and sadomasochistic activity. Men are not the only victims. Women, she said, make up about 30 percent of the audience for online pornography.
The problems caused by porn can strike at the heart of a marriage. Another panelist, Pamela Paul, who recently wrote a book about the role of explicit sexual material in American culture, spoke of a fateful decision faced by some married men every day after work: They must choose between masturbating at a computer and finding sexual satisfaction with their wives.
"If they go to their wives, well, just practically speaking, they have to make sure they have done all of the chores around the house they were supposed to do. They need to have a half-an-hour conversation about what they did that day," said Paul. This courtship could take up to an hour and a half. By contrast, she said, it takes "five minutes to go online..." Or, they can do the healthy thing, and post to Rantburg!
#1
Geebus this is a waste of time and money. Please grow up and deal with some real issues. We have a first admendment it cover this. Finance a fence on the border to the south. Sexual slavery and Human trafficing is a real issue you can deal with that if your hung up, but lose your stupidty.
#3
Brownback, what a waste of a good cumshot. Food is a potentially addictive substance to some people too, are you gonna outlaw that as well? How about gambling? Alcohol? Games? Checkers? Breathing?
How about doing something of value, like stop stealing our oxygen and adding to the CO2 levels?
Moron.
We do not masturbate too much and I'm off to shave my palms.
#6
The late, lamented "Spy" Magazine had a humorous sidebar feature called "The Fine Print" in which they would take a deeper look at what Congresscritters were saying in the Congressional Record. One month they had the text of a speech by Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), in which he painstakingly listed each entry of a list of objects removed from human rectums. It went on for PAGES AND PAGES. I was laughing so hard I was crying. Dana, Dana, Dana, get over yourself already.
#7
Sam's spending too much time at www.asstr.org .
He should have com hitch him up with a fine lady of the night in Vegas and get the hangup out of his system.
#9
I observed the 14th Anniversary of my Grampaw's death last week. I'll never forget what he told me while out fishing one saturday afternnon. "Mary a woman with small hands" I asked him why and he said "'Cause it'll make you pecker look bigger". I miss my Grampaw. He never said anything about wanking, though.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
11/21/2005 16:34 Comments ||
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#12
"US Senate Hearings: Americans Masturbate Too Much" Should read: "US Senate Masturbates Too Much." How about gettig some meaningful work done and forget about how many times people are whacking off. What idiot calls for these hearings?
#18
I'm glad Congress is devoting time to this. After all,it's not like there's more important issues - for instance war, terrorism, natural disasters, killer flus, etc.
#21
Yep, nasty old predator, carrot whacking men are the problem...we are the only ones who fantasize. She's from Kanada and studied in France. What can you expect.
Pope Benedict XVI has curbed the independence of Franciscan friars running the famed St. Francis Basilica in Assisi, decreeing they must now get permission for their activities from the local bishop.
Benedict's decision, announced Saturday, came after the outgoing bishop complained he had virtually no power over "autonomous enclaves" the Franciscans exercised over the basilica, its adjoining convent and a nearby church. The basilica is known for its frescoes attributed to Giotto and is a major pilgrimage and tourist destination.
"The local church is a family that lives around the bishop," the outgoing bishop, Monsignor Sergio Goretti, told the ANSA news agency. "In Assisi, it was absurd that there existed true and proper autonomous enclaves over which the bishop had no power."
He complained that he regularly found out about monks' initiatives from the newspapers, and that their work caused him problems.
In his decree, Benedict declared that the local bishop now would have full jurisdiction over the Franciscans' pastoral work. He said the friars must now ask for and receive permission for their initiatives from their bishop -- or if it has wider implications, from the Italian bishops' conference.
The Franciscans regularly host international peace conferences in the hillside town of Assisi -- such as one last month on converting nuclear weapons for peaceful purposes. They also welcome controversial leaders, including Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz, who visited after meeting with Pope John Paul II on the eve of the Iraq war.
Benedict urged the monks to follow his norms "in the spirit of sincere communion" with their new bishop, Monsignor Domenico Sorrentino, currently the No. 2 at the Vatican's office for liturgy and sacraments. Benedict also said he was appointing a cardinal to further cement ties between Assisi and the pope.
In a statement, the Franciscans expressed "joy and hope" over Sorrentino's appointment, but declined to comment specifically on the jurisdictional changes.
"In his message, we are happy to find a clear reference to the Franciscan values of Assisi, which for us is reason for joy and hope," the statement said.
The pope's decree covers the basilica and its convent as well as a smaller basilica, St. Mary of the Angels, in a nearby valley. St. Francis, who founded the Franciscan order, died in the chapel of St. Mary's in 1226. Remember that before he was Pope, he was in charge of The Holy Office, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which handles all doctrinal arguments, and used to be called the Inquisition. So he knows who all the troublemakers are. Pope John Paul II on June 28, 1988: "the duty proper to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is to promote and safeguard the doctrine on the faith and morals throughout the Catholic world: for this reason everything which in any way touches such matter falls within its competence." I can imagine times getting a lot harder for some of these individuals around the world.
Quake-stricken Pakistan heaved a sigh of relief on Sunday after world donors pledged almost $6 billion, and vowed in return to account for every cent as it distributes the aid to survivors of last month's huge tremor. Pakistan, seen as one of the most corrupt nations in a recent global survey, secured over $3 billion in fresh pledges at a donor conference on Saturday, taking the total to $5.83 billion, after the United Nations complained of a weak initial response. "It will help change the lives of millions of people stricken by the tragedy," the News newspaper said in an editorial on Sunday, having headlined its front-page story: "Finally, world conscience shaken and stirred. Hope wins the day."
I think the world conscience was stricken and stirred when the earthquake occurred, but that agencies were reluctant to donate because of the sure knowledge the money would be raked off by the handful.
The October 8 quake killed more than 73,000, mostly in the remote Himalayan region of Pakistani Kashmir and in North West Frontier Province, and left hundreds of thousands homeless. Fears had grown of a second calamity as winter closes in, threatening people living high in the mountains without proper shelter.
People who refuse to leave their mountain fastnesses for fear someone's gonna come sniffin' 'round their wimmin...
International aid banks and countries more than doubled their pledges at Saturday's conference in Islamabad, exceeding Pakistan's target of $5.2 billion, after U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan came to plead for more money. But in announcing their pledges, mostly in the form of soft loans, several donors, including the biggest, spoke of the need for proper accounting and for all of the cash to be spent on the survivors and on rebuilding their lives and communities.
As a lovely young maiden once observed to me: "Nebbah hoppen, G.I."... Well, maybe she wasn't a maiden. In fact, I'm sure she wasn't, now that I think about it.
Proper accounting systems do not yet exist in Pakistan to publicly track the aid money right down to district and village level, international aid group Oxfam said on Sunday. "Those kind of systems ... have not yet been established and they could be established," Oxfam's South Asia coordinator, Ben Phillips, told Reuters by phone. "There are methods that work and there should not be any reason for not giving money."
"Oh, yasss, sahib! We are using Islamic accounting system!"
Pakistan lies near the bottom of Transparency International's 2005 Corruption Perceptions Index, ranked 144th beside Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Paraguay, Somalia, Sudan and Tajikistan.
With all that money to skim, I'm sure the pols and holy men will be working overtime to move them even further down the list.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/21/2005 00:00 ||
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and on the twenty first day of November, in the year two thousand and five of our Sweet Lord and Saviour JESUS CHRIST, I vow never believe them.
As a lovely young maiden once observed to me: "Nebbah hoppen, G.I."... Well, maybe she wasn't a maiden. In fact, I'm sure she wasn't, now that I think about it.
negotiating tactic ima sure.
Posted by: Red Dog ||
11/21/2005 1:44 Comments ||
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Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
11/21/2005 8:15 Comments ||
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#4
I think the world conscience was stricken and stirred when the earthquake occurred, but that agencies were reluctant to donate because of the sure knowledge the money would be raked off by the handful.
Slight word correction, you meant to say "Truckload" instead of "Handfull".
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
11/21/2005 9:24 Comments ||
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According to the Pak physicist Pervez Hoodbhoy, the last earthquake aid funds (in 1971) were diverted to start the Pak nuclear weapon program.
One shudders to think what they will use these new funds for now... biological WMD ?
Posted by: john ||
11/21/2005 16:44 Comments ||
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Al Guardian. Use extreme skepticism.
President For Life Robert Mugabe has said Zimbabwe will process recently discovered uranium deposits in order to resolve its chronic electrical power shortage, state radio said Sunday. Mugabe, who has close ties with two countries with controversial nuclear weapons programs, Iran and North Korea, made the announcement Saturday, the radio station reported. It was not clear how Mugabe intended to use any uranium deposits since the country does not have a nuclear power plant and has driven out or killed anyone with any technical knowledge. The president announced plans in the 1990s to acquire a reactor from Argentina, but nothing else was ever heard about the proposal.
Either the Argies got cold feet or they were dissuaded otherwise.
"Zimbabwe will develop power by selling to terrorists processing uranium, which has recently been found in the country," the radio quoted Mugabe as saying. "The discovery of uranium will go a long way in further enhancing the government rural desertification electrification program," he was quoted as saying.
Zimbabwe was not previously known to have any workable deposits of uranium. South Africa has the region's only nuclear power station at Koeberg.
Zimbabwe has been plagued by a chronic shortage of foreign exchange since Mugabe's wrecking of the entire economy seizure of 5,000 white owned farms and the collapse of an export-oriented agricultural industry. It currently has a daily 400 to 450 megawatt generation shortfall on requirements of 2,100 megawatts. Zimbabwe has had great difficulty meeting bills from Mozambique, South Africa and Congo for imports from the regional electric power grid. Does Minin' B. Hard have any comment?
#3
This is pure bullsh*t for domestic consumption. There's a big difference between "having" uranium (which may even be doubtful) and processing uranium. Bob ain't got a clue.
#4
I wouldn't worry about this dickweed, his little country doesn't have the money to do anything like this. If they did, his band of cronies would just steal it anyway. He's trying the NKor trick of using the nuke stuff to try to get incentives to give it up.
#5
Sounds like a viable, desirable plan to me.
Then when all his "Scientists" are dead from mishandling the radioactives it will hasten their collapse.
Only down is the next inhabitants will have to check for "Loose" nuke material before moving in.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
11/21/2005 9:38 Comments ||
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Hmmm.... if Zimbaweewee follows the Norky model in uranium mining, then all those pesky people bothering presidente for life Moo Goo Gabby will have kill two birds with one hand grenade. Uranium workers will suddenly appear out of no where and what a population control tool! " Be non-compliant young virtuous lady and you could end up shoveling in the pits! " Moo Goo Gabby's mentors in Norkdom and their ChiCom cohorts will ensure that the entire apparatus is quickly assembled with no fuss and no muss. Moo Goo Gabby will then send his undesirables off to the uranium pits that will bear catchy names and drapped in cheerful banners decorated by the San Francisco and Boston liberal-fascists.
#7
Well Bad Bob probably doesn't know enriched uranium from Uranus but his buddies a bit futher south surely do. Deperate men take desperate measures. He bears close watching. Notice how silent we are here and in the UK on anything of this nature. Another attempt at African democracy/nation building gone mad. I believe the Rhodesian Government in Exile is fully prepared to return and set things straight.
#8
Thought this was a Jim Bob Cooter story. I thought my neighbor Jim Bob was acting up again. Thought maybe he saw the light and gave up the meth lab.
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.
Despite being 83 years old and reliant on oxygen tubes for a lung ailment, Harry Carpenter wouldn't let his wife of 57 years be robbed by knife-wielding intruders in his own home. Two would-be robbers 
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and Russian President Vladimir Putin are set to hold talks in Tokyo later Monday, with the two-hour meeting focusing on a longstanding territorial row and economic cooperation. 
HUNDREDS of right-wing demonstrators made fascist salutes and shouted insults against gays, Muslims and immigrants at a rally marking the 30th anniversary of the death of dictator General Francisco Franco yesterday. Waving Spanish flags with the insignia of the Franco regime's Falange party, the crowd gathered at the Plaza de Oriente, in Madrid, beside the royal palace - a traditional meeting place for Spaniards nostalgic for Franco's rule. 
The U.S. is unprepared for the next flu pandemic, lacking the manufacturing capacity to provide 300 million doses of a vaccine for three to five more years, Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt said Sunday. "What we all learned from (Hurricane) Katrina is that sometimes we have to think very clearly about the unthinkable," Leavitt said. "We're not as prepared as we need to be. ...We will not have enough for everyone."
Quake-stricken Pakistan heaved a sigh of relief on Sunday after world donors pledged almost $6 billion, and vowed in return to account for every cent as it distributes the aid to survivors of last month's huge tremor. Pakistan, seen as one of the most corrupt nations in a recent global survey, secured over $3 billion in fresh pledges at a donor conference on Saturday, taking the total to $5.83 billion, after the United Nations complained of a weak initial response. "It will help change the lives of millions of people stricken by the tragedy," the News newspaper said in an editorial on Sunday, having headlined its front-page story: "Finally, world conscience shaken and stirred. Hope wins the day."
