#2
No, there is no rational reason to get involved in the Congo's bloodshed. The Central African region made up of the Congos, {whatever names they happen to be using this week}, is important for certain mineral exports but all sides have shown eagerness to export same to anyone with money. Also, the strategic value of the Congo decreased when the Belgians lost their national redoubt there when the region became independent, and almost completely vanished with the end of the Cold War. Especially since all sides are more than happy to sell anything and everything to anyone and everyone.
Arguing against involvement by the West is : 1) the tribalism mentioned in the article; 2) automatic white liberal Western guilt that will be taken out on any troops involved; 3) the lack of any appreciable infrastructure; 4) who do you back since there are no angels there; and 5) the presence of several hemorrhagic fevers with no known treatment regimes and extremely high lethality rates.
Pakistani UN peacekeeping troops have traded in gold and sold weapons to Congolese militia groups they were meant to disarm, the BBC has learnt. These militia groups were guilty of some of the worst human rights abuses during the Democratic Republic of Congo's long civil war. The trading went on in 2005. A UN investigative team sent to gather evidence was obstructed and threatened. The team's report was buried by the UN itself to "avoid political fallout".
These events took place in and around the mining town of Mongbwalu, in north-eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. The Pakistani battalion of the UN peacekeeping mission deployed there in 2005 and helped bring peace to an area that had previously seen bitter fighting between the Lendu and Hema ethnic groups. Locals welcomed them, but the lure of the rich alluvial gold mines proved too much to resist for some, recalls the head of the miners' association, Liki Likambo. "I saw a UN Pakistani soldier who came to buy gold in one of the gold negotiators here in Mongbwalu. I was there in the shop. I saw it with my own eyes."
Soon the Pakistani officers were doing deals directly with the FNI militia. Evarista Anjasubu - a local businessman said he had known of transactions between Pakistani officers and two of the most notorious militia leaders called Kung Fu and Dragon who controlled the gold mines. "They were already friends. I knew well. It was gold that was the basis of their friendship. So the gold extracted from the mines went directly to the Pakistanis. They used to meet in the UN camp in Mongbwalu, in a thatched house."
When the UN was alerted to the allegations of gold trading by Human Rights Watch in late 2005, they instituted a major investigation by the Office for Internal Oversight Services. What they uncovered was even more explosive. This is from a witness statement given to the UN by a Congolese officer engaged in the disarming of the militia in the nearby town of Nizi:
"The officer expressed his regrets over the malpractices of a Pakistani battalion under the auspices of Major Zanfar. He revealed the arms surrendered by ex-combatants were secretly returned to them by Major Zanfar thereby compromising the work they had collectively done earlier. "Repeatedly he saw militia who had been disarmed one day, but the next day would become re-armed again. The information he could obtain was always the same, that it would be the Pakistani battalion giving arms back to the militia."
A UN investigation team arrived in Mongbwalu in August 2006. At first the Pakistani battalion there cooperated with them. But when they attempted to seize a computer with apparently incriminating documents on it a stand-off ensued. The Pakistanis surrounded the UN police accompanying the investigators with barbed wire and put two armoured personnel carriers outside their living quarters at a nearby Christian mission. Thoroughly intimidated, the investigators were airlifted out of Mongbwalu. The UN in New York has refused to explain what took place or why, nearly two years after the allegations first surfaced, the Congolese people have no idea what action - if any - has been taken to discipline the Pakistani soldiers concerned.
#1
Was going to post this one myself. Interesting passage from the BBC's coverage:
"This I can categorically deny. What we have done is just the opposite. We have demobilised more than 20,000. We have taken in caches of arms. We have destroyed arms. We have done public burnings of these arms. And there is absolutely nothing to that allegation."
Where is the mountain of charred gun barrels? I'd say there was some "recycling" going on.
LONDON - Britain wants to extradite a former KGB agent from Russia and charge him with murdering exiled Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko using radioactive polonium, prosecutors said on Tuesday.
The move triggered instant diplomatic repercussions, as Britain summoned the Russian ambassador and told him it expected full cooperation over the case. Russia should comply with our legal request, Prime Minister Tony Blairs official spokesman said.
"Pretty please?"
He stressed that while Britain had important political and economic ties with Russia: This doesnt in any way obviate the need for the international rule of law to be respected and we will not in any way shy away from trying to ensure that happens in a case such as this.
A source at the Russian prosecutor-generals office told RIA Novosti news agency: Under the constitution of the Russian Federation, Russian citizens cannot be handed over to foreign countries for prosecution and Lugovoy appears to be a Russian citizen.
The murkiest case of murder and espionage since the Cold War has already strained relations between the two countries, and the extradition move looked set to aggravate tensions further. I have today concluded that the evidence sent to us by the police is sufficient to charge Andrei Lugovoy with the murder of Alexander Litvinenko by deliberate poisoning, said Ken Macdonald, head of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/23/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
That and 50 pense could buy you a cup of coffee tea. Another example of the Brits wasting time and money chasing smoke through streets of trying to stay relevant. My advice, teach MI-5 the polonium 'method' for use in Russia, and shake...don't stir!
The Publishing House of the Workers' Party of Korea published the Complete Collection of Kim Il Sung's Works Vol.69. The collection contains 55 works of President Kim Il Sung including his historic speeches, conclusions and talks between January and August, Juche 68 (1979).
The works contain unique ideas, theories and policies he laid down for the victorious advance of the socialist cause on the basis of a profound insight into the requirements of the developing revolution. Such works as "On Further Strengthening the Party Guidance to the Socialist Economic Construction" and "Let's Bring About a Fresh Turn in the Party Guidance to the Administrative and Economic Work" expound the idea of further increasing the militant functions and roles of the party organizations to bring about a great change in the party guidance to socialist construction.
Such works as "On Developing Transport Rapidly in Keeping with the Requirements of a Higher Stage of Socialist Economic Construction" and "On Putting Enterprise Management on a Regular Basis and Improving Labour Administration" deal with the tasks to be implemented to steadily round off the inter-sector structure of the economy and strengthen the country's economic independence so as to meet the lawful requirements of the socialist economic construction. In his "On the Tasks Facing the Korean Scientists and Technicians in Japan for Developing Science and Technology in Our Country," "It Is Necessary to Intensify the Study of Methods of Cultivating Crops to Suit the Conditions of Alpine Areas" and other works the President indicated the orientation and ways of rapidly developing all fields of the socialist cultural construction including science and education. And in his "We Should Reunify the Country by the Concerted Efforts of Our Nation" and "Talks with the UN Secretary General and His Party" and other works he enunciated the idea of preventing the permanent division of the nation and achieving the country's reunification by the concerted efforts of the Koreans.
The book also indicates tasks and ways of carrying out the revolution and construction including the issue of successfully building the revolutionary battle sites and revolutionary sites as centres for the education in the revolutionary traditions, the issues of turning the city of Pyongyang into a more beautiful and modern city and providing its citizens with good living conditions and the issues of developing the democratic national education of the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan and intensifying the movement of Koreans in Japan.
#4
Guys, if you want to know just how truly nutso these folks are and the name "Ryugyong Hotel" doesn't ring a bell, check out this link: , or Google Ryugyong Hotel and to the the entry from The Shape of Days. It's surreal.
Posted by: Mac ||
05/23/2007 4:04 Comments ||
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#5
Sorry; link didn't come through.
Posted by: Mac ||
05/23/2007 4:05 Comments ||
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#6
If shredded properly and mixed with rain water, twigs and grass it makes a delightful soup.
#8
he was also a composer, setting "On the Tasks Facing the Korean Scientists and Technicians in Japan for Developing Science and Technology in Our Country," and "It Is Necessary to Intensify the Study of Methods of Cultivating Crops to Suit the Conditions of Alpine Areas" to a Motown beat....unfortunately they never caught on, except at gun-point
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/23/2007 7:43 Comments ||
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#9
...Brilliant idea #231:
"I hate runny Camembert."
Brilliant idea #232:
"What is that thing that hangs down in the back of your throat called?"
#10
Good heavens, reading this stuff is going to work better than a bottle of Jack Daniels or a bottle of Poiteen when I can't get to sleep. Hard to believe, it's only volume 69.
/Sarc on
When will it be available on Amazon?
/Sarc off
#11
RE#9: B.I. #232 Answer: Uvula
I know cuz I don't have mine anymore; taken out in a (misguided) attempt to cure chronic snoring; didn't bother me (I slept through it), but Mrs. Ret wasn't amused......
removed w/ a laser, and it looked like on old fashioned wooden marble with a flat spot where the cut line was. didn't roll real well; I got 2 tries before the Dr. took it away.
Posted by: Bobby ||
05/23/2007 16:01 Comments ||
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#13
Building FactsThe building has reached it's full structural height, but it's currently no more than a massive concrete shell.
- Construction was halted in 1992 because of financial problems, and the building's future still remains undecided.
- The North Korean government is currently trying to invite a foreign investment of 300 million US dollars for a new structural system.
- The pyramid-shaped building has a 75-degree slope.
- The building has been incorrectly listed with a height of 300 m for the past several years. The updated height of 330 m makes it the world's tallest building intended for hotel use.
- It would have surpassed world's tallest building in purely hotel use at time of scheduled completion and ranked 7th tallest building in the world.
- First building outside New York & Chicago with over 100 floors.
Which makes it even more sad....
Posted by: Bobby ||
05/23/2007 16:05 Comments ||
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#14
Is this being sold as a companions set to Al Whores new book?
Initial public reaction to the immigration proposal being debated in the Senate is decidedly negative.
A Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey conducted Monday and Tuesday night shows that just 26% of American voters favor passage of the legislation. Forty-eight percent (48%) are opposed while 26% are not sure. The bi-partisan agreement among influential Senators and the White House has been met with bi-partisan opposition among the public. The measure is opposed by 47% of Republicans, 51% of Democrats, and 46% of those not affiliated with either major party.
The enforcement side of the debate is clearly where the public passion lies on the issue. Seventy-two percent (72%) of voters say it is Very Important for the government to improve its enforcement of the borders and reduce illegal immigration. That view is held by 89% of Republicans, 65% of Democrats, and 63% of unaffiliated voters.
Advocates of comprehensive reform have taken to arguing that those who want an enforcement-only policy must explain how they would deal with the 12 million illegal aliens already living in the country. The public reaction to that question appears to be Why? Only 29% of voters say it is Very Important for the government to legalize the status of illegal aliens already in the United States.
Thirty-eight percent (38%) of Democrats believe that legalization is Very Important. Just 22% of Republicans and 27% of unaffiliated voters share that view.
Read the rest. The political geniuses in the Senate have clearly stepped in doo-doo.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
05/23/2007 18:34 ||
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#1
We are witnessing the Balkanization of America. We have given away our culture to PC and political greed. We don't need an immigration bill. We need to enforce the existing laws. If we started enforcing the existing laws and sending the law breakers to prison, we might see some of the illegals head back to Mexico. Controlling our borders ought to be a priority to stem the flow of illegals. This also gives us some measure of real security in the U.S. Our politicians need to "grow a set."
#2
One question: I had gotten the impression that this was a "concensus" bill, in that republicans and democrats had reached general agreement on its provisions. My question is: Whose concensus was being reached? According to the theory of elected representation the actions of our politicians are supposed to represent "the will of the people."
Whose "will", and whose "concensus" did the language of this immigration bill really reflect? With some 48% of Americans opposed to it, attempts to pass this certainly do not seem to represent "the will of the people." With each passing day, it becomes more apparent that this bill was a product of closed door bipartisan attempts to satisfy ulterior motives having nothing to do with what the American people actually want.
This legislative abortion was a naked ploy at republicans satisfying their big business patrons with cheap labor and democrats stuffing the ballot box with any sort of vote they could sneak under radar.
These politicians sought to totally bypass popular opinion and the public's welfare in a craven effort to realize motives that had nothing to do with this nation's security, well-being or future prosperity. This entire crop of penny-ante hustlers needs to be impeached or run out of office in the next elections.
#1
Queen Nancy seems to be seeking our input; conducting her own poll, as it were.
Congress is working on legislation to address global warming - what would you like to see included?
Odd, since she won't accept e-mails, except from her constituents.
29,270 people have responded.....
Posted by: Al Gore ||
05/23/2007 15:20 Comments ||
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#2
Queen Nancy will listen to this one:
1) Increase taxes on companies that use new timber (either from the US or imported) in their products when alternative recycled resources are available. Use these taxes strictly as subsidies for alternative energy sources.
2) Stop urban sprawl. Construction companies continuously cut down forests and pave over fields in order to put up new housing in the suburbs. Our natural lands are disappearing at an alarming pace and we are continuously encroaching on animal's habitats. Encourage companies to instead refurbish land that once held factories, plants, and condemned housing.
3) Resurrect the legislation that was meant to increase fuel efficiency on cars. Encourage companies to further the development of hybrid and alternative fuel vehicles, and provide larger tax cuts/incentives to people who do purchase these vehicles. The current yearly tax incentives aren't quite attractive enough for someone looking into a new car to warrant purchasing a vehicle that costs $10K to $15K more than its conventional counterpart.
I'm glad to hear that Congress is working on this again. Let's hope that it's not too little, too late.
Posted by: Bobby ||
05/23/2007 15:52 Comments ||
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#3
I don't think Nancy would like any of my suggestions, as they involve her ass and anything you can jam up it...
#4
Construction companies continuously cut down forests and pave over fields in order to put up new housing in the suburbs.
You can't cut down trees already cut down by the farmers. A lot of urban sprawl was/is done on land already cleared by the agricultural side of the house.
Further, a lot of land in the what was the Great Prairies of Lewis and Clark's time, is now forested or treed by those who immigrated in the late 19th Century. New growth with trees not originally native to the soil.
#5
Bobby - I have read in several forums that there are now more forest lands than existed when the settlers arrived (the only gauge historically "accurate"). Previously, lightning fires et al swept unfought across wide swaths.
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/23/2007 19:40 Comments ||
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#6
A truly comprehensive plan would not only deal with global warming here, but would also address global warming on Mars. Congress must act quickly before the martian polar caps melt. (Think of the martian polar bears!) Let us not be guilty of geo-centric thinking.
House Minority Leader John Boehner, speaking to a private gathering of Republican activists last night, called the Senate's immigration compromise bill a "piece of shit" but said that he had promised President Bush earlier in the day that he would let his teeth be a barrier to such thoughts in public.
Boehner spoke last night at a small reception for the Republican Rapid Responders on Capitol Hill. "I promised the President today that I wouldn't say anything bad about ... this piece of shit bill," he said, according to two attendees.
Earlier in the day, Boehner released a statement saying that "The Senate agreement appears to recognize that additional border security measures and more effective immigration law enforcement must come before any other issues are addressed, but I have significant concerns about parts of the Senate proposal -- particularly provisions that would reward illegal immigrants who have consistently broken our laws."
A senior Republican official said yesterday that while the chances of the bill, which opens pathways to citizenship for most of the U.S.'s 12 million illegal immigrants, are "50/50" in the House and that the White House would spend its time lobbying Democrats, rather than Republicans, to achieve a majority.
Yesterday, the Senate beat back an amendment by Sen. Byron Dorgan that would have scrapped the bill's new guest worker program. The defeat of that effort was interpreted as a sign that a solid majority of Senators are prepared to support the bill's main tenets, for now. What happens when they hear from constituents over Memorial Day is unknown and unknowable.
A Boehner spokesman was not able to comment.
Boehner's tendency towards candor occasionally irks his staff, a fact that Boehner brought up with last night's audience. In 2006, Boehner called an idea put forth by then. Sen. Maj. Leader Bill Frist to provide Americans with a $100 rebate on gasoline "stupid."
#4
I met John Boehner at a small "meet the candidate" event in a neighbor's home in WestChester in 1990 when he was seeking the Republican nomination for Congress. He is, in person, very much what you see on television, a self-made man driven to do the best he can for his family and his country. He is a living Horatio Alger story. He worked his way from the mailroom to president of a small company in Ohio, then married the owner's daughter and proceeded to grow the business by orders of magnitude. He is also very much a gentleman and such language in public is unusual. In many respects, he reminds me of Duncan Hunter.
#5
I'm glad someone of importance in Congress sees this bill as I do. If it passes, it's the death knell for the America I grew up in; we'll definitely have civil war within a decade, and maybe sooner. I remember hearing some police officer at the time of the Oklahoma City bombing commenting on Tim McVeigh's motivation: "Want more of these? Just keep pushing." I think the passage of this bill, with its huge influx of nonassimilating foreigners and the complete refusal to implement the enforcement provisions, would probably be one heck of a push. I truly fear for my country these days. It doesn't seem like there is anyone with patriotism and good sense at the helm anymore.
Posted by: Mac ||
05/23/2007 22:44 Comments ||
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MELBOURNE: Australia will not sell uranium to India until it signs the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Federal Resources Minister Ian Macfarlane has said.
The Minister's remarks were in contrast to the recent hints from Prime Minister John Howard that Australia could shift its policy and allow yellowcake to be exported to India.
"The answer is no," Macfarlane said adding "the Australian uranium industry can prosper without India, that's my answer. "We have a prohibition on the basis they have not signed the NPT," he told The Age newspaper.
As recently as March, Howard appeared to leave open the prospect of Australian uranium sales to India. Speaking during a visit by India's nuclear envoy Shyam Saran, the Prime Minister said: "We see India as a very responsible country.
The relationship between Australia and India is growing. It's a very important relationship. They will be considerations that we will bear in mind."
Asked about the steps the government is taking towards a framework for nuclear power in Australia, Macfarlane said companies, which he declined to name, have already approached him to discuss commercial opportunities to enrich uranium in Australia.
Macfarlane warned that Australia could not go down the nuclear route unless there was clear bipartisan support and the public accepted nuclear energy.
Posted by: John Frum ||
05/23/2007 16:00 ||
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Pakistan's Minister of Tourism has resigned after being criticised by a hardline Islamist cleric for hugging her instructor after completing a charity parachute jump in France.
Nilofar Bakhtiar, one of three women ministers in the Pakistani cabinet, completed the jump in March to raise money for victims of an earthquake that killed 73,000 people in Pakistan in October 2005. When Pakistani newspapers published a photograph of Ms Bakhtiar hugging parachute instructor, a pro-Taliban cleric issued a decree calling on the government to sack her for "obscenity".
In her letter of resignation to the prime minister Ms Bakhtiar wrote: "It is with deep regret that I want to relinquish the charge of the office of minister for tourism." She added: "Despite my exceptional commitment to the cause of tourism in Pakistan, I have taken the decision due to unavoidable circumstances."
An official in Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz's office confirmed that Ms Bakhtiar had handed in her resignation but he had yet to accept it.
Ms Bakhtiar was not available for comment but a newspaper cited her as saying she had been hurt by the way her parachute jump was sensationalised. "French media praised my daring attempt but unfortunately some irresponsible elements in Pakistan presented this noble cause in a malicious manner," she told the Dawn newspaper.
Criticism from radical clerics is not to be taken lightly in Pakistan. In February, a Muslim zealot shot dead a woman minister of the government of Punjab province because he thought women should not be in politics. The gunman was sentenced to death in March.
#2
I am suspicious of anything that comes out of Pakistan. She both knew the rules, and knew she was being photographed. This leads me to suspect that this might be a trick by Perv to further weaken Islamist support in his parliament.
Remember that not long ago he proposed more equality in the law for women, tremendously popular reforms, that was bitterly opposed by the Islamists. This hurt the Islamists a lot in the polls.
So this event might be to remind the voters, especially women voters, of what will happen if they ever support the Islamists.
It will be interesting to see if he accepts her resignation. If he doesn't, the Islamists will have a hissy fit, which will hurt them further.
Peshawar High Court bench comprising Mr. Justice Dost Mohammed Khan and Justice Jahanzeb Khan dismissed a petition filed against polio campaign on Tuesday.
The learned judges held that the vaccine being administered under the nation-wide campaign is completely safe. The court relied on the technical reports submitted to the Peshawar High Court by the National Control Laboratory. The report had stated that the vaccine contains no harmful substance and is perfectly safe for administration to children. The Ministry of Health and World Health Organization in their joint reply to the petition had submitted that the vaccine was manufactured by internationally recognized WHO approved manufacturers and had helped eradicate polio all over the world. The vaccine was also used to eradicate polio in almost the entire Muslim world. The Ministry of Health had also submitted that as a result of the administration of polio vaccine to children across Pakistan over the years, the disease has almost been wiped out and from thousands of people crippled a decade ago as a result of the disease there are now only seven cases reported across the country this year.
The petition was filed in the Peshawar High Court by a local advocate, Ghulam Nabi, making the Federal and Provincial Governments and World Health Organization respondent in the case. The petitioner had prayed that the campaign be suspended forthwith. The learned bench however dismissed the petition Tuesday asking the Government to continue the vaccination drive across the country.
Antigua and Barbuda - a nation of 70,000 in an area roughly half the size of San Francisco - has formally requested that the WTO allow it to suspend its intellectual property obligations to the United States, AP reports.
Although many in the US have mocked tiny Antigua'a case against the US with a shrug of the shoulders, the Antiguans have always carried in their pockets a nuclear option of sorts. Most Americans view trade disputes through the prism of tit-for-tat protectionist schemes. A perceived price subsidy leads to retaliatory tariffs, etc; but the obligations imposed by WTO obligations run deeper than that.
Repeated violation of WTO commitments in the face of contrary WTO rulings allows a victimized member country ultimately to suspend its own WTO obligations to the offending nation - a form of restitution much more punitive than tariffs alone. America runs a steady and hefty trade deficit in virtually every category of international trade other than intellectual property.
Were the WTO - with possible European, Japanese, and Chinese support - to allow the Antiguans to suspend all intellectual property obligations to the United States, the American IP industry could face a tiny adversary with an unlimited right to reproduce for its own benefit American IP goods of any kind.
This is no joke - America has done everything it can to stamp out the internet gambling industry, particularly that of Antigua in the three years since Antigua first challenged the US before the international body the US itself worked so hard to create. Antigua originally hoped to develop its ecommerce segment to reduce its dependence on tourism, but, as a result of American interference, in the last few years the Antiguan internet gaming industry has shrunk by about 85 per cent.
And little Antigua is not the only country feeling the pinch. The UK, which has possibly the most well-regulated gambling market in the world - at the very least among the major economies - has sat back and watched as the DOJ has repeatedly arrested UK businessmen and executives.
The idea that other countries will put up with this abuse indefinitely may finally have run its course. Once one country chooses to revise its definitions of its own commitments, as the US claims it will do, other impacted countries may do the same. The only question now is whether the major American trading partners - Europe, Japan, and China - join the party.
Unlimited DRM-free copies of American music, movies, and Microsoft software?
#2
Unlimited DRM-free copies of American music, movies, and Microsoft software?
Already done in most parts of the world. On the flip side, can Antigua or any other tourist and gambling den do without American banking services, such as credit cards? And pretty please, let's do have a trade war so the US can stop hemorrhaging $700 billion and 10 million jobs each year. Why we'll need millions more illegal aliens just to make a dent in demand.
Posted by: ed ||
05/23/2007 22:08 Comments ||
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"The Register" is the "Debka File" of the tech world. Take with a kg. of NaCl.
Climate change will be considered a joke in five years time, meteorologist Augie Auer told the annual meeting of Mid Canterbury Federated Farmers in Ashburton this week. That's assuming the Global Warming cult is about Global Warming in the first place, not a vehicle for something else, and actually care for facts.
Man's contribution to the greenhouse gases was so small we couldn't change the climate if we tried, he maintained.
"We're all going to survive this. It's all going to be a joke in five years," he said.
A combination of misinterpreted and misguided science, media hype, and political spin had created the current hysteria and it was time to put a stop to it.
"It is time to attack the myth of global warming," he said.
Water vapour was responsible for 95 per cent of the greenhouse effect, an effect which was vital to keep the world warm, he explained.
"If we didn't have the greenhouse effect the planet would be at minus 18 deg C but because we do have the greenhouse effect it is plus 15 deg C, all the time."
The other greenhouse gases: carbon dioxide, methane, nitrogen dioxide, and various others including CFCs, contributed only five per cent of the effect, carbon dioxide being by far the greatest contributor at 3.6 per cent.
However, carbon dioxide as a result of man's activities was only 3.2 per cent of that, hence only 0.12 per cent of the greenhouse gases in total. Human-related methane, nitrogen dioxide and CFCs etc made similarly minuscule contributions to the effect: 0.066, 0.047 and 0.046 per cent respectively.
"That ought to be the end of the argument, there and then," he said.
"We couldn't do it (change the climate) even if we wanted to because water vapour dominates."
Yet the Greens continued to use phrases such as "The planet is groaning under the weight of CO2" and Government policies were about to hit industries such as farming, he warned.
"The Greens are really going to go after you because you put out 49 per cent of the countries emissions. Does anybody ask 49 per cent of what? Does anybody know how small that number is?
"It's become a witch-hunt; a Salem witch-hunt," he said.
#1
O.K., so we have to find the witches and give them a fair trial, then tie them up and throw them in the pond. With sufficient grant money to study the relationship of sinkers or floaters to the actual proof of witchcraft, of course.
Posted by: Bobby ||
05/23/2007 15:15 Comments ||
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#2
The purchase of a sufficient number of my Carbon Credits will save the world from global warming.
Posted by: Al Gore ||
05/23/2007 15:16 Comments ||
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Simultaneous warming on Earth and Mars suggests that our planet's recent climate changes have a naturaland not a human-inducedcause, according to one scientist's controversial theory.
In 2005 data from NASA's Mars Global Surveyor and Odyssey missions revealed that the carbon dioxide "ice caps" near Mars's south pole had been diminishing for three summers in a row.
Posted by: John Frum ||
05/23/2007 15:51 Comments ||
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#4
Question: Are carbon credits an acceptable wedding or baby shower gift?
Yes, they are perfectly acceptable and are available for reasonable prices at Fred's Discount House of Carbon Credits. Ask for Ethel in the Bridal Boutique.
Posted by: Matt ||
05/23/2007 17:46 Comments ||
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#8
With considerable searching, I finally found out *why* it is said that a tiny amount of atmospheric carbon is a problem.
Auer is correct in point out that carbon makes up only 3.6% of greenhouse gases, and man-made carbon only 3.2% of that, for a grand total of man-made atmospheric carbon only accounting for .12% of all greenhouse gases.
So how can this tiny, marginal contribution matter? It has to do with radiation bandwidth.
That vast majority of the Sun's radiation that hits the Earth is reflected and radiated back into space. Only a portion of this *lost* energy is stopped by water vapor, however. It only stops a few, limited bands of radiation.
But carbon happens to stop *complementary* bandwidths of radiation to water. This means that a tiny amount of atmospheric carbon can stop a hell of a lot of heat from leaving Earth.
Yet this does not mean that the anti-carbon man-made global warming believers are right, yet.
This is because the carbon cycle *also* does not behave like the models suggest it should. Based on the existing models, there should be a hell of a lot more carbon in the atmosphere right now than there is.
So atmospheric carbon is being created, but it is also being absorbed somewhere.
So *that* is what decides who is right and wrong. If the atmospheric carbon *does* increase, then there will be global warming. If it *does not* increase, then there won't be global warming.
And finally, this also assumes that this is the critical factor in the heat cycle, as well.
So, Auer is mistaken on the point he was making, but there are two arguments he didn't make that actually determine things, one way or the other.
#9
Isn't it possible that with all we know and all we can measure, the full formula for global heating is not known, and other factors or combinations of known factors have significant impact ? I read about el nino, sun spots, volcanos, variations in earth's orbit with relation to the sun, but there is no exact mathematics in this. Finally, what difference does it make if the earth warms a few degrees ? Shore flooding ?
Considering that every day thousands of muslim children are brainwashed to devote their lives to murder Hindus, Jews and Christians, global warming is a non issue.
#11
wxjames: the problem is both a scientific and a philosophical one. The scientific questions are threefold.
The first part is: Is global warming actually happening, and is it a short-term or long-term event? The general and realistic consensus is yes, at least as evidenced by a lot of icecap melt. However, nobody has a clue to the duration of the event.
The second part is: Is man's contribution to global warming significant enough to make an impact?
The third part is: Is there anything we can do to either alleviate or reverse our impact, or maybe more?
This leads in to the philosophical question, which is not being debated yet. On one side are those who want to use global warming to control others, and to diminish the power of the United States.
On the other side are those whose inclination is to use technology to transcend any contribution made by man to global warming, and even reverse global warming not by cutting back, but by cooling the world. And not as outrageous as it sounds.
This latter philosophy is in the realm of amazing invention, which uses existing science in novel ways.
Just as one potential example, years ago, a very air polluted city in a valley ringed by mountains, with a perpetual inversion layer, existed in the Soviet Union. Ingeniously, they floated large, black balloons over the city. The heat generated from sunlight hitting the balloons formed updrafts of hot air air that "punched holes" in the inversion layer, pumping warm polluted air out and allowing cool fresh air to come in.
Something like this could be done in the upper atmosphere, but with the idea of pumping hot air up into the cold stratosphere, where it would be much easier for it to radiate its heat into space.
While the scale of that sounds silly on the surface, it is important to remember that this is a marginal problem, so several different relatively small scale solutions might be all that is needed to balance the small contribution man makes to the problem in the first place.
Even in death, the Rev. Jerry Falwell rouses the most volatile of emotions. A small group of protesters gathered near the funeral services to criticize the man who mobilized Christian evangelicals and made them a major force in American politics -- often by playing on social prejudices. A group of students from Falwell's Liberty University staged a counterprotest. And Campbell County authorities arrested a Liberty University student for having several homemade bombs in his car.
The student, 19-year-old Mark D. "Mastermind" Uhl of Amissville, Va., reportedly told authorities that he was making the bombs to stop protesters from disrupting the funeral service. The devices were made of a combination of gasoline and detergent, a law enforcement official told ABC News' Pierre Thomas. They were "slow burn," according to the official, and would not have been very destructive.
"There were indications that there were others involved in the manufacturing of these devices and we are still investigating these individuals with the assistance of ATF [Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms], Virginia State Police and FBI. At this time it is not believed that these devices were going to be used to interrupt the funeral services at Liberty University," the Campbell County Sheriff's Office said in a release.
Three other suspects are being sought, one of whom is a soldier from Fort Benning, Ga., and another is a high school student. No information was available on the third suspect. Authorities were alerted to the potential bomb plot after relative of Uhl called to say that he had homemade bombs in his possession. Officials searched Uhl's car where they found five incendiary devices in the trunk. Uhl is currently being held under no bond at the Campbell County Adult Detention Center.
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.
Pakistani UN peacekeeping troops have traded in gold and sold weapons to Congolese militia groups they were meant to disarm, the BBC has learnt. These militia groups were guilty of some of the worst human rights abuses during the Democratic Republic of Congo's long civil war. The trading went on in 2005. A UN investigative team sent to gather evidence was obstructed and threatened. The team's report was buried by the UN itself to "avoid political fallout". 
The Publishing House of the Workers' Party of Korea published the Complete Collection of Kim Il Sung's Works Vol.69. The collection contains 55 works of President Kim Il Sung including his historic speeches, conclusions and talks between January and August, Juche 68 (1979).
Climate change will be considered a joke in five years time, meteorologist Augie Auer told the annual meeting of Mid Canterbury Federated Farmers in Ashburton this week. 
Even in death, the Rev. Jerry Falwell rouses the most volatile of emotions. A small group of protesters gathered near the funeral services to criticize the man who mobilized Christian evangelicals and made them a major force in American politics -- often by playing on social prejudices. A group of students from Falwell's Liberty University staged a counterprotest. And Campbell County authorities arrested a Liberty University student for having several homemade bombs in his car.
