Russia has been chosen to host the 2018 World Cup and Qatar has been selected to stage the 2022 tournament.
The Russian bid was picked ahead of England, Spain-Portugal and Holland-Belgium to host the 2018 event.
Qatar got the better of the United States, Australia, Japan and South Korea to stage in 2022. I put this under "lurid crime tales" because you don't have a section called "corrupt FIFA officials.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
12/02/2010 11:09 ||
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#1
Whew! That was a close one.
So far the US has been lucky, dodged an Olympics and now a World Cup...what else is out there, Winter Olympics?
By scanning the brain for 10 minutes using magnetic resonance imaging, researchers were able to measure six physical differences of microscopic fibers in the brains of 30 males with confirmed high-functioning autism and 30 males without autism. Simple enough if you have high-functioning autism. Try that with someone who is lower-functioning, though.
The images of the brains helped researchers correctly identify those with autism with 94 percent accuracy, says Nicholas Lange, an associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and one of the study authors. Not bad.
Using the MRI, the study authors measured how the water in the brain flows along the axons or nerve fibers in the parts of the brain that control language, social and emotional functioning. The scans revealed that the wiring of the brains of those with autism was disorganized compared with the brains of a typical person without autism. This is how they could determine which brains scans belonged those study participants with autism. So they can tell how the nerves are laid out by looking at the water in them? I had no idea these tests were that precise. Kinda scary.
#2
There has long been a need to confront the serious problem of personal information dossiers, databases and surveillance. This is because its ability to dehumanize and destroy has reached the level of an uncontrolled weapon, and one in the hands of people with evil and criminal intent, both domestic and foreign.
Add to that that there exists no data correction or verification authority for such information, and you have a disaster waiting to happen, accidental or intentional.
One possible solution would be to create a very tightly regulated commercial verification authority to act as a buffer between organizations and individuals.
This company would keep all of your relevant personal information, based on your providing them original documents, your fingerprints, retinal scans, voice print, DNA, writing samples, educational, medical and dental records, bank and employment records, etc.
Then, when any other corporation demanded these things, you would refer them to your account with this company. They would *not* provide this information to others except in a very narrow way, and only confirm that it existed and was legitimate.
Otherwise, that other company had no "need to know".
On top of this, once it performed to this standard, a law would be needed to protect people with such accounts, that they could not be compelled to provide information except through the verification authority, solely so they could engage in business.
In addition, even the US and State governments would be excluded from unnecessary dossiers and databases outside of those of a criminal or contract nature.
As things stand right now, most cabinet level agencies, and many other agencies and offices, have in their possession databases of personal information about citizens, very redundant and often incorrect, though they have no legitimate reason for doing so.
Once an individual had chosen to put his information with a verification authority, his name would by force of law be removed from government and commercial records. This would make data aggregation and mining for illegitimate reasons much more difficult.
#6
reading the comment of anonymoose above i am very much reminded of someone i know here in town that claims to be a 'serious Conservative' yet to him all problems are 'fixed' with a large (and usually very convoluted and oppressive) new government program or agency. his 'solutions' are in general not all that different than my 'flaming liberal' mother's and boil down to something along the line of "the government needs to make you do it, and take away your money/freedom/livelihood/ability to work,vote,or travel if you do not comply."
the solution is usually also sold as 'simple' or 'cheaper' than simple enforcement of current regulations or a return to a set of regulations that did work - which is the essence of true Conservativism IMHO.
no direct offense intended 'moose. just keep getting tickled when i read stuff like above and think of that particular jackwagon.
Posted by: abu do you love ||
12/02/2010 20:56 Comments ||
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#7
Abu: I was very careful to describe this as a tightly regulated commercial service. The people who used it would also need a law protecting their right to their own "personal information control."
The role of government in this is strictly limited, to insure that the verification company did not misuse the data.
#8
yes, did not mean to imply otherwise. i think it was the complex robust-ness of your comment that set me off and i just got a chuckle thinking of that other guy. yours is private but with him it alwaysstarts with "now you know how conservative i am" then pulls out a giant rube goldberg contraption filled with new byzantine bureaucracies that deny basic freedoms - usually with draconian punishments for non-compliance such as opting out. crazy thing is he is a school teacher.
maybe compared to his coworkers he is conservative. his wife and mine sometimes have social activities that overlap. listening to him talk about the teacher lounge etc is one of the major reasons i am glad we home-school.
Posted by: abu do you love ||
12/02/2010 23:24 Comments ||
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New Life Form Discovered
Per Gizmodo, NASA is preparing to announce the discovery of an entirely new form of life:
Hours before their special news conference today, the cat is out of the bag: NASA has discovered a completely new life form that doesn't share the biological building blocks of anything currently living in planet Earth. This changes everything.
At their conference today, NASA scientist Felisa Wolfe Simon will announce that they have found a bacteria whose DNA is completely alien to what we know today. Instead of using phosphorus, the bacteria uses arsenic. All life on Earth is made of six components: carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and sulfur. Every being, from the smallest amoeba to the largest whale, share the same life stream. Our DNA blocks are all the same.
But not this one. This one is completely different. We knew that there were bacteria that processed arsenic, but this bacteria--discovered in the poisonous Mono Lake, California--is actually made of arsenic. The phosphorus is absent from its DNA. The implications of this discovery are enormous to our understanding of life itself and the possibility of finding beings in other planets that don't have to be like planet Earth.
#1
Arsenic, a "semi-metal", can best be described as biology's skeleton key.
Appropriately, the amount of arsenic that can be in US drinking water is minuscule, because it is totally unpredictable. Inorganic compounds are the most dangerous, as if it is bound in organic compounds, it will tend to stay in that compound instead of interfering with other organic tissues.
It effects people different based on sex, race, age, family, type of exposure, length of exposure, etc. In some people it can cause gangrene, in others, cancer, in others, nothing. There is no universal diagnosis for it.
One weird ability is to dampen the body's immune system pathogen recognition. When a new pathogen enters the body, it is identified and an appropriate response is made. But when the recognition system fails to note it, it reproduces unchecked, and then at some point, the body notices the larger infection and overreacts. This overreaction can be more harmful than the pathogen.
But arsenic is so common around the world that biological systems are attuned to it somewhat. This is how people can develop a resistance to it by consuming a small amount of it over time.
Outside of well water, the biggest source in the US today is from wood treated with a green copper-arsenic solution. That combination is deadly to termites and other insects that attack wood.
#2
This is being spun as an indication that the universe must contain other life forms.
Maybe.
But don't forget the Fermi paradox -- "Where are they?" The more we find life forms that *could* exist elsewhere, and fail to actually find anything out there, the more it will beg the question - why not? "Where are they?"
#3
Any possible lifeforms are such an incredible distance away from us that about the only way we could communicate with them would be to erect a signaling panel in space, between our Sun and their sun.
Like ship-to-ship communication, large panels would be opaque until an electrical current went through them, then they would become transparent.
But it would still be between 50 and 100 years for even a simplex (one way) message. So if we set up a system, we would send a continual data stream in their direction.
Then when they got the message, they would have to set up a similar system, so true communications would take between 100-200 years.
#4
Any possible lifeforms are such an incredible distance away from us that about the only way we could communicate with them would be to erect a signaling panel in space, between our Sun and their sun.
Like ship-to-ship communication, large panels would be opaque until an electrical current went through them, then they would become transparent.
But it would still be between 50 and 100 years for even a simplex (one way) message. So if we set up a system, we would send a continual data stream in their direction.
Then when they got the message, they would have to set up a similar system, so true communications would take between 100-200 years.
#5
I think you just need to aim and transmit with enough power and they'll get it in the time it takes light to travel in empty space. We are already sending signals in every direction without terrestrial communications.
[Asharq al-Aswat] In what may be regarded as the biggest defection from within the ruling regime in Libya, Tripoli acknowledged publicly for the first time on Monday the defection of Nuri al-Mismari, Libyan leader Col Muammar Al-Qadaffy's aide de camp to France after disappearing for approximately two months. Informed Libyan sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that Al-Mismari, regarded as one of the most prominent of those close to Colonel Al-Qadaffy and his confidante, dissented from the Libyan regime and left for Tunisia before eventually ending up in France.
Acting on official Libyan arrest warrant and extradition request on charges of committing huge financial violations and squandering public Libyan funds, the French authorities jugged Al-Mismari at his place of residence on Monday. However, The infamous However... it is not yet clear whether or not France will later extradite him to the Libyan authorities.
Al-Mismari is the first Libyan official to abruptly withdraw from Colonel Al-Qadaffy's inner circle, despite being a permanent fixture in Al-Qadaffy's entourage, where he could be seen in the famous nomadic Libyan tent which Colonel Al-Qadaffy uses wherever he travels, an expression given to those regarded very close to and supporters of Colonel Al-Qadaffy.
According to exclusive information made available to Asharq Al-Awsat, Al-Mismari suddenly decamped from Libya for fear of being jugged or killed having learned that the Libyan authorities were in the process of preparing an official bill of indictment detailing a host of charges against him in preparation for bringing him to justice.
Informed Libyan sources, which insisted on anonymity, told Asharq Al-Awsat that Al-Mismari seized the opportunity of concluding a visit to an African country on official assignment by Colonel Al-Qadaffy to tell him that he would return to Libya after spending some time in neighboring Tunisia. However, The infamous However... Al-Mismari suddenly left for France without advance notice. Unconfirmed reports say that he submitted an official request for political asylum in France.
Al-Mismari refused to willingly return to Libya after being contacted by a number of Libyan officials close to Al-Qadaffy. He also requested a high-level Qatari official to convey a personal message to Colonel Al-Qadaffy to the effect that he does not at all intend to return to Libya and in return he will not join any party opposed to Colonel Al-Qadaffy's regime, and will absolutely not engage in any political activities.
No official announcement has so far been made by the Libyan authorities on the ramifications of the dissent and defection of Al-Mismari or his arrest in France. However, The infamous However... Libyan Press news agency disseminated the news of his arrest, but did not name him, contending itself with saying that the French authorities jugged a prominent Libyan official the day before yesterday during his stay in France after the Libyan authorities submitted a request to the French authorities to remand him in jug in response to an arrest warrant issued by the Libyan authorities.
In recent days, several independent opposition Libyan websites reported on rumors of Al-Mismari's defection from Libya before the news was officially confirmed to Asharq Al-Awsat of his arrest in France in response to an official request from Libya.
Libyan circles in and outside Libya told several stories on Al-Mismari's taking this unprecedented step, most notably that he was personally insulted by Colonel Al-Qadaffy during the Afro-Arab summit which Libya hosted last month. These circles said that Al-Mismari received threats that he will be subjected to an official interrogation for embezzlement of public funds, taking advantage of his position as an official in charge of protocol and arrangement of Colonel Al-Qadaffy's special ceremonies.
Immediately after Al-Mismari's defection to France, the Libyan authorities imposed a semi-house arrest on his family and prevented his wife and daughter from traveling abroad to join him.
Al-Mismari's defection in this manner came as a big shock to senior Libyan officials. One of them told Asharq Al-Awsat that he does not expect the Libyan regime to sustain a violent jolt as a result of Al-Mismari's defection, notwithstanding the enormous amount of information he has, having worked very closely with Colonel Al-Qadaffy over the past 10 years. During that period, he witnessed most of the important dramatic transformations that occurred to Libya's relations with the outside world, notably the United States and its Western allies. This official, who asked not to be identified, added: "After all, Al-Mismari was an ordinary employee, and although he held a high post, he was an extremely marginal figure."
Musa Kusa, secretary of the General People's Committee for Foreign Liaison and International Cooperation (foreign minister), issued a decision early this month appointing Fawzi Ammar Abu-Subu as general director of public protocol and ceremonies to succeed Al-Mismari, in the first signal that Al-Mismari had officially quit his post. This decision has not yet been officially announced despite although it has been the talk of officials of the Libyan Foreign Ministry.
Toward the end of 2007, Al-Mismari lost his son, Mahfuz, in a controversial incident after faceless myrmidons stormed his house in the Al-Andalus neighborhood in the Libyan capital Tripoli. Rumors earlier circulated that he decamped, but Al-Mismari denied the rumor in part and parcel.
Al-Mismari, who speaks fluently several languages and majored in tourism, hotel management, and public relations, was famous among the Libyan people as "Nuri Harakat," as he was known for being tall, well-dressed, and a close companion of Colonel Al-Qadaffy by virtue of his post. Al-Mismari had often been responsible for all arrangements relating to Colonel Al-Qadaffy's foreign tours and meeting with officials in Libya and beyond. One of the anecdotes that the Libyan people do not forget is that Al-Mismari held a censer with burning frankincense and walking around Colonel Al-Qadaffy during one of his visits to Tunisia. He was also seen joking with some African dancers, holding a drum, and dancing with former US President Bill Clinton.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/02/2010 00:00 ||
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[Al Jazeera] Cote d'Ivoire's election commission has delayed announcing the results of Sunday's presidential runoff elections.
Supporters of the main challenger Alassane Ouattara on Tuesday accused Laurent Gbagbo, the incumbent president, of trying to block the first results because, they said, he knew he had lost.
A news conference held on Tuesday to start announcing the result was cut short when pro-Gbagbo members of the election commission tore up results as a front man tried to read them out.
Al Jizz's Yvonne Ndege, reporting from Abidjan, said the chaotic scenes at the election commission have caused a stir in Cote d'Ivoire.
"The spokesperson for the commission tried to announce some of the results but he was stopped by other members of staff, who also work for the commission," she said.
"What they basically said was that he had no right to read the results that he had in his hand. There was a small scuffle breaking out where the results were essentially snatched from his hand."
Sunday's tight race had triggered violence and rekindled simmering tensions in the world's top cocoa grower, divided by a 2002-2003 civil war.
The poll aims to reunite Cote d'Ivoire after its northern half was seized by rebels, but the electoral
battle lines during the campaigns looked ominously similar to the ethnic and territorial ones of the 2002 conflict
Fraud accusations
The pro-Gbagbo members of the election commission accused the body's front man of "an electoral hold-up" before tearing up a sheet of results.
One shouted that the results had not yet been consolidated so could not be read out.
Gbagbo's party said it would formally challenge the results in the rebel held north, where his rival Alassane Ouattara did well in the first round, because of intimidation by rebel New Forces soldiers of Gbagbo's supporters.
"The presidential camp is trying to prevent the proclamation of the results," Marcel Amon Tanoh, Ouattara's campaign director, said earlier in the day.
"If Mr Laurent Gbagbo knew he'd won, he wouldn't have ... prevented the CEI [commission] from speaking on the radio and TV ... Gbagbo knows he's lost."
Representatives of Gbagbo's campaign were not available to respond to the accusation.
Hillary Clinton, ... sometimes described as the Smartest Woman in the World and at other times as Mrs. Bill... the US secretary of state, called on "Ivorian leaders to act in a responsible and peaceful manner."
"We strongly urge candidates to allow the counting and announcement of the results to take place without interference and to respect the results that are announced," she said.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/02/2010 00:00 ||
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A Saudi religious police commander criticised the kingdom's ban on gender mixing on Tuesday and said women did not have to veil their faces to applause from his female audience.
Sheikh Ahmed Al Ghamdi, outspoken head of the Makkah branch of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, also said there was nothing in Islam to prevent women from driving, despite the Saudi ban on the practice.
"There is a difference in interpretation of the (Koranic) verse... which leads some scholars to rule that the whole body must be covered ... However other scholars approve showing the face, hands and elbows. And some even okayed the hair," he said.
He said the kingdom's mixing ban should be applied only to men and women meeting in secret, not in public places -- a rule normally enforced by the religious police.
Islam "orders a woman to cover her body to allow her to participate in social life, not to prevent her from doing so," he said.
The women in the audience, all clad in the all-black shroud-like abaya they must wear, broke out in applause.
Ghamdi, who was mysteriously fired and reinstated in April after breaking ranks with the religious police to endorse mixing, was speaking at a conference on "Women's Participation in National Development", where the hot issue was the barriers posed by Soddy Arabia's ultra-strict ban on women working.
Because Saudi women are not permitted to mix with unrelated men, must have a male guardian and are not permitted to drive, there are huge limitations on their employment opportunities.
Recently, top religious officials strongly objected to a labour ministry effort to allow Saudi women to work as cashiers in supermarkets.
Labour Minister Adel Fakieh said on Tuesday that 200,000 women in the kingdom, or 44 percent of the workforce, were unemployed, and that of them 157,000 had degrees above the level of high school.
"The unemployed women are educated above high school, while unemployed men mostly don't have degrees," he said.
Meanhwile, the country's sole female minister, Deputy Education Minister Noura al-Fayez, also came in for criticism for not having achieved much in terms of women's educational advancement and opportunities.
She urged the audience of Saudi women to have patience, and told them she could do little about certain issues, like the high accident rate for rural women teachers who must travel great distances to work because they are not permitted to live away from their families.
On Monday, King Abdullah's daughter Princess Adela bint Abdullah said a greater effort was needed to provide jobs for Saudi women.
"Women's participation (in the workforce) is behind expectation. A society cannot walk with a limping leg," she said.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/02/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Four of the nineteen 9-11 attackers were from this guy's family, by the way.
#2
Something that never ceases to amaze is how SA is so "classically" conservative. That is, conservative by the pure definition of the word: very hesitant to change.
However, that being said, change is relative. So success or failure in SA is based on how you conform to the status quo, *whatever* the status quo can be. That is, the status quo is just the mid point to change, so is also relative.
This means that the hold on power of either reactionaries or liberals is tenuous at best.
#3
Isn't this the same organization that wouldn't let uncovered girls to escape a burning building?
Posted by: Alan Cramer ||
12/02/2010 9:27 Comments ||
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#4
Because Saudi women are not permitted to mix with unrelated men, must have a male guardian and are not permitted to drive, there are huge limitations on their employment opportunities.
so did he address them from a different room via TV?
or did all those unmarrieds have to have a keeper?
The Fed said it did not lose money on any of the transactions that have been closed, and that it does not expect to lose money on the assets it still holds.
#3
I disagree. The Fed did exactly the right thing.
Credit had dried up. The banks weren't lending to consumers and businesses and weren't even lending to each other. After Lehmann collapsed there was a critical lack of confidence, and that meant that the banks simply would not put money out there.
Complain all you want, but without lending the economic order would have tumbled.
The Fed pumped liquidity into the system. They were the only ones with the confidence and the trust of the banking system (you expected the Euros to have confidence in their Central Bank? Hah).
The liquidity and TARP I saved our system.
By the way, Bernanke designed that with W's express approval. W understood.
These weren't the questionable programs; those came later in TARP II, the home mortgage programs, bailing out GM, etc.
But the response in 2008 and early 2009? Exactly right.
Bernanke and the Fed saved us from a Depression. They really did.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/02/2010 11:01 Comments ||
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#4
the headline is a bit deceptive
These were very short term loans. Typically a day or a week. Let's say the Fed made a $10B loan every other day for three months and it was paid off every other day, that would amount to $450B. However, at any given time only $10B would be at risk.
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
12/02/2010 11:03 Comments ||
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#5
Deceptive? Headlines?
Whaddaya think this is, Zimbabwe? California?
Posted by: Bobby ||
12/02/2010 18:42 Comments ||
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#6
Bernanke and the Fed saved us from a Depression. They really did.
No, Bernanke and the Fed saved the elite from destruction. The middle class has been in for a screwing since the Ponzi schemes of the New Deal and the Great Society were introduced and Clinton and Bush dismantled the rational structuring of the financial services and real estate financing industries in a naive attempt to expand home ownership. All Paulson and Bernanke's shenanigans did was to further increase the debt on the shoulders of the middle class to preserve the wealth of the elite.
We would be in a strong recovery by now if events had been allowed to take their natural course. Sure the crash would have been much deeper, but it would have been shorter. Instead we have prolonged the pain and suffering for many more by postponing the recovery substantially, perhaps a decade. Housing prices still have not reached rock bottom. And an entire generation will be brought up to believe they must rely on the almighty government for their bread and shelter. It is an evil thing Bernanke, Paulson and Geithner have done for their pals at Goldman Sachs.
#12
The telling phrase was "a few politicians and many of the people" are tired of one way tolerance. It was a warning - I wonder if any of the other politicians took it seriously.
Mullen told a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing that the military is based on meritocracy, "what you do, not who you are." He said if Congress changes the don't ask, don't tell policy then the U.S. military will comply. See ya JACKASS already got another job
#3
And if some people have a problem with that, they may not want to join the service.
It isn't like, at enlistment, there will be any official questions if you disagree that gays should serve openly or anything. And of course, to preserve cohesivness, once the policy is changed those already enlisted won't be asked there assesment one way or the other. However, those that choose to openly voice thier disapproval, regardless of integrity, will be discharged.
So tell me agian how this change will improve retention or overall effectivness?
#4
Since he's proposing a basic change to the terms of service after the contracts have been signed, how about recognizing the basic rights of contract and 'human' dignity of the individual free citizens and allow those who signed 'a priori' the right to end their enlistment contract without penalty? /rhet question cause everyone else doesn't have rights.
#5
I disagree with Mullen about a lot, but in this case he is merely telling his boss's boss, Congress, that he will follow the orders it gives. You can't blame him for saluting, even if he thinks the CO is a (fill in the blank).
And he is on the JCS, so he is a politician, a bureaucrat, an appropriator, not a warrior. That's what happens when you have a military-industrial complex instead of a military.
#6
ArmyGuy: what do you expect an officer to do when he/she gets an order?
Salute, say, "yes sir", and carry the order out, that's what.
If Congress changes the law, the military will comply. That's what Admiral Mullen said, and that's exactly what he's supposed to say. Anything else is (at the least) insubordination.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/02/2010 13:08 Comments ||
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#7
No, you do NOT simply salute and follow orders - that leads to things like concentration camps. If you disagree with an order, you can : 1) refuse to obey, and take the kick; 2)refuse to obey, resign, and publicly announce why you resigned; 3) not say anything and leak the hell out of things that embarass the order giver.
#9
Alternate headline: Mullen calls for largest military RIF since the end of the Civil War. (N.B.: back then the US Army went from over 1m to about 25,000, or 1/40th of its size.)
An effective and motivated military is. Slaves and drafted peasants, of course, are cheaper and usually more obedient but have shown to be rather wanting in history against the alternative. Palace guards will fight to protect their paymasters, but the bulk of the horde usually takes the first opportunity to do something else.
#12
Shieldwolf: a military person obviously should never obey an illegal order. I'm not mil/ex-mil, but I'm told that there is a considerable amount of training on what constitutes a legal versus an illegal order.
That isn't the issue here: DADT, or no DADT, both are legal structures put in place by Congress which (after all) constituted the military. So if Congress says that gays can serve, that's the end of discussion.
Yes, you could resign your commission or refuse to re-up at the end of your term, and you could afterwards talk about that as you wish. But while in the service, one's options are 1) obey and 2) obey.
No doubt the mil/ex-mil people here will correct me if I get any of this wrong.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/02/2010 14:17 Comments ||
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#13
"Ready... Wait for it!... FLOUNCE!"
-- Monty Python
Why should they have to wait till the end of their 'term'? The state is changing the conditions of contract. Again, if the whole issue is about 'human rights and respect' then why isn't that consideration also granted those already under contract by releasing them now rather than the end of their 'term'? What you are witnessing is not principle but the imposition of power. Just don't try to obscure that fact.
#15
You can disobey any order that you feel is illegal and officers by their commission are to disobey orders that will "serve to harm the service." As for having to obey officers that give stupid, destructive, or illegal orders, the US military has a long tradition of fragging such officers. I served in the US Army, and we had one thing pounded into our heads through out Basic and AIT : do not follow an illegal order, and you have a legal obligation under the Nuremberg Standards to refused orders that you feel needlessly endanger civilians, allied troops, your troops, or yourself. We do NOT have a slave army, and any officer that tries to make it so needs to catch a FMJ right betwen the eyes.
#16
Besides which, the "Admiral" is violating the UCMJ by publicly supporting a position that is a political call, and is NOT supported under present law. But since Zero is President, he is encouraging this slide into politics by officers, as long as it makes his agenda. DADT is the law, and until Congress changes it, everything the "Admiral" is discussing is a political call that he is supposed to be No Commenting on. He has been pushing the repeal of DADT since Zero got into office, and has more than once violated the bright line on serving officers actively involving themselves in politics. This is a butt kisser that needs to be fired by the incoming Republican President, in a formal dismissal letter.
#17
Just throwing out a quick quotation by a guy named Fehrenbach, This Kind of War, chapter "Proud Legions".
"In 1945, somehow confusing the plumbers with the men who pulled the chain, the public demanded that the Army be changed to conform with decent, liberal society.
...
The Doolittle Board of 1945-1946 met, listened to less than half a undred complaints, and made its recommendations. The so-called "caste system" of the Army was modified."
It is a long chapter which must be read for full context; the above is the guts to Fehrenbach's theory of why at the squad level the Army was unprepared for Korea while the Marines, who kept to the old ways, was able to perform much more effectively.
I know much is different now than post-WWII, but much is the same. As a civilian, I am of the opinion that this is a military issue to be resolved by the military or even branch by branch, however they want to do so to best serve their interests. The US military is under the control of the civilians via the US Constitution. The civilians IMHO should only set the tone and broad mission and let the military decide for itself how to best accomplish that goal.
Women, gays, and underage soldiers have served since the beginning alongside the classic soldier, with the understanding that they all act like professional soldiers. That this issue seems to have originated from the civilian side and is requiring more than just bringing up the idea seems to me like meddling for politics. The US Military has consistantly made the best decisions for themselves according to their needs, I trust them to do the same again. The topic has been more than sufficiently brought to focus, perhaps put it on the back burner and let the Armed Forces come to their recommendations without the paparazzi or gauntlet throwing.
#18
The bottom line is that if homosexuals openly serve in the military, other service members will kill them. That pretty well ends that experiment.
However, because an entire command will be punished if a homosexual is killed because of their sexuality, commands will have no choice but to assign any other reason than that to the homicide.
Even the murderer, if apprehended, will be offered a lesser sentence if they assert that the motive was robbery, an ordinary fight unknowing of the victim's sexuality, even a lame lie--as long as they swear it wasn't what it was.
Right now, with DADT, there are no statistics of military personnel who are killed because of the suspicion that they are homosexuals. Commands are encouraged to rapidly transfer personnel thus identified ASAP, to get them out of harm's way until discharge.
But outside of those who collect such statistics, and in the civilian world, it will just appear that homosexual mortality is very high in the military. But that will be dismissed, as it will officially be because of other reasons. Bad luck.
1. 99% of the troops are going to salute smartly and follow the new rules: "It's okay to be gay!"
2. 99% of the gay troops will do their jobs as the outstanding soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines they already are.
3. There WILL be an incident where a thoroughly incompetent individual who happens to be gay will scream 'discrimination' in a desperate attempt to avoid discipline.
4. The service involved will WILDLY overreact and treat the 99% of accepting troops like the 1% that won't, and I will bet my retirement check that the reaction will include mandatory promotion and assignment regs specifically for individuals who openly self-identify as gay.
Watch what happens then, friends.
I knew lots of people who were gay while I was in the USAF. Twice I put my stripes on the line for them, including an incident where I directly defied DADT. I could care less who you sleep with as long as long as you can do your job. But the ramifications of turning this into a cause equal to that of desegregating the military is going to have nothing but bad results.
Mike
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
12/02/2010 19:26 Comments ||
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#20
Homosexuality is immoral by the standards of America for centuries. IF this nation has now accepted immorality as a requirement, the men and women who can not agree to that immorality no longer have a reason to follow those orders. Period.
Posted by: George Anguth7722 ||
12/02/2010 19:51 Comments ||
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#21
I think Mike K has hit the nail on the head - the problem will be that gays will become a protected group within the military, and, in the name of diversity, will be given special opportunities for advancement and other benefits. The other members will see this, and seethe silently in resentment. They know that if they so much as roll their eyes at a gay person, they will be up on charges so fast their heads will spin.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
12/02/2010 20:36 Comments ||
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#22
other members will see this, and seethe silently in resentment
guess that is the real world definition of a 'break down in unit cohesion'
Posted by: abu do you love ||
12/02/2010 20:41 Comments ||
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#23
dropping DADT will soon result in two officers entering a domestic relationship, recognized by thier home state and then demanding base housing. How's that gonna go over
Posted by: retired LEO ||
12/02/2010 21:30 Comments ||
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#24
sure, we should get rid of DADT so we can have pink barracks' for gays...I can't wait for my SNCOs to have to supervise that field day...Mullen's a douchebag, heard him spouting his nonsensical opinion abt DADT on Oprah or some shit last week. Hey Mullen, now that their telling everyone that their openly gay, how do the company grades protect them from the avg young and full of testerone servicemen who doesn't want that shit in their face? The reality is they will likely have their own off-base bars and get the shit kicked out of them. I don't condone that but after 14yrs and going on AD I foresee that happening. This isn't about individual rights and everyone knows that, it's more gay agenda pandering. We're simply not serious as a country about warfighting.
[Geo News] Pakistain's president, Asif Ali President Ten Percent Zardari, ... husband of the late Benazir Bhutto, who showed remarkably little curiosity about who actually done her in ... whose wife, Benazir Bhutto, was killed in a suicide kaboom, has made extensive preparations in case of his own liquidation, said The Guardian citing a document leaked by WikiLeaks.
Last year Zardari told the US ambassador, Anne Patterson, that if he was assassinated, "he had instructed his son Bilawal to name his sister, Faryal Talpur, as president".
This year Zardari requested the United Arab Emirates to allow his family to live there in the event of his death. His wife lived in self-imposed exile in the UAE for years before her ill-fated return to Pakistain in 2007.
The cables provide a changing portrait of Zardari, America's key Pak ally along with the army chief, General Ashfaq Kayani. A sharp-edged 2008 description of Zardari notes that he hails from a tribe with "little social standing" in Sindh; "there is a story that as children, Sindhis were told 'a Zardari stole it' if something went missing".
But later dispatches portray him as a more capable leader, with considerable political nous, although often burdened by his association with deep-seated corruption.
Zardari is frank about the strength of the Taliban -- "I'm sorry to say this but we are not winning" the war against snuffies he told the US vice-president, Joe Foreign Policy Whiz Kid Biden, in 2009 -- and his own limitations.
"I am not Benazir, and I know it," he told the US ambassador after his wife's death.
And he fears a fresh army coup. Zardari said he was concerned that Kayani might "take me out", Biden reported to Gordon Brown during a meeting in Chile in 2009. Brown said he thought it unlikely.
The observations on Pakistain's often beleaguered president are part of several portraits about prominent Pak politicians that are dotted with insight, colour and some surprises.
In November 2007 Maulana Fazlur Rehman, leader of the country's most fiercely pro-Taliban religious party, hosted a jovial dinner for Patterson at which he sought her backing to become prime minister and expressed a desire to visit America.
"All important parties in Pakistain had to get the approval" of the US, said his aide Abdul Ghafoor Haideri. After the meeting Patterson commented on the mullah's famously wily political skills. "He has made it clear that ... his still significant number of votes are up for sale."
The cables also highlight the contradictions of other prominent Paks. Officials noted that Amin Fahim, a Bhutto supporter hoping to become prime minister, led a religious Islamic group "while enjoying an occasional bloody mary".
The opposition leader, Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Müslim League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf... had a "notoriously difficult personality" while his family is noted to have "relied primarily on the army and intelligence agencies for political elevation".
America's perceived influence on Pak power politics is a frequent theme. In a May 2008 meeting with a visiting American congressional delegation, Zardari said: "We won't act without consulting with you."
Sharif repeatedly told the US ambassador he was "pro-American", despite his often critical public stance. He thanked the US for "arranging" to have Kayani appointed as army chief. "The best thing America has done recently," he said.
"The fact that a former prime minister believes the US could control the appointment of Pakistain's chief of army staff speaks volumes about the myth of American influence here," the ambassador noted tartly afterwards.But some dispatches make it clear that the Americans do wield great clout. After General Pervez Perv Musharraf ... former dictator of Pakistain, who was less dictatorial and corrupt than any Pak civilian government to date ... resigned as president in 2008, ambassador Patterson pressed Zardari to grant him immunity from prosecution. "We believed, as we had often said, that Musharraf should have a dignified retirement and not be hounded out of the country," she said.
The US -- and Kayani -- worried that Zardari would renege on his word. "Zardari is walking tall these days, hopefully not too tall to forget his promise to Kayani and to us on an immunity deal," wrote Patterson.
If Zardari didn't protect Musharraf then it would make him look bad. "I have to bring the army along with me," he said, also noting that the delay "does nothing for Zardari's reputation for trustworthiness".
The notable exception to that US influence, however, is the former cricketer Imran Khan, ... who isn't your heaviest-duty thinker... who delivered a long lecture to visiting US politicians about the iniquities of US policy.
Welcoming the group at his grand home outside Islamabad, Khan hosted an "hour-long, largely one-sided, and somewhat uncomfortable conversation".
To defeat the Taliban the US had to understand the "tribal character" of the snuffys, he said, and described the Pak drive against the Taliban in 2009 as "stage-managed" for US consumption.
There are apercus in the cables into the often inscrutable military leaders. Kayani is "direct, frank, and thoughtful" and has "fond memories" of time spent on a military training course in the US. It is also noted that "he smokes heavily and can be difficult to understand as he tends to mumble." The Inter-Services Intelligence chief, Lieutenant General Ahmad Shuja Pasha, was "usually more emotional" than Kayani.
US diplomats also have a ringside seat to civilian wrangles. In February 2009 Zardari aide Farahnaz Ispahani said the president was "very unhappy" with the way the prime minister, Yousaf Raza Gilani, had "gone off the reservation". In 2008 Zardari said Fahim "had spent most of the [election] campaign in Dubai (with his latest 22 year-old wife) and was simply too lazy to be prime minister".
The cables also record embarrassing mistakes in the embassy's efforts to manage its relationships with Pakistain's power elite. Six months after his dinner with the ambassador, Rehman was less enamoured of US policy when the FBI issued a notice suggesting he had orchestrated a suicide kaboom in Islamabad.
The embassy asked the FBI to urgently recall the notice -- he had been confused with another man with a similar name. Rehman was a "frequent and co-operative interlocutor with post and professes his support for co-operation with the United States", the request said.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/02/2010 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
HAIFA, Israel (AFP) A devastating fire killed at least 40 people on Thursday when it ripped through a forest near Israel's northern city of Haifa, prompting urgent calls for international help to put out the blaze, which officials said was the worst blaze in Israel's 62-year history.
Israel's Magen David Adom ambulance service initially said around 40 people had been killed, but later said they had recovered 22 bodies, with another 20 or so "missing" -- among them police and firefighters.
Police sources said the dead were prison guards who were on board a bus that was headed to evacuate prisoners from Damon jail in the middle of the Carmel national park. "All those who were killed were on board the bus. They were all prison guards," one source told AFP. Haifa's police chief was among those injured, with medical and police sources saying she was in "critical condition."
#1
IIUC it looks as though the bus was attempting, on purpose or not, to breach the fireline so as to assist the prison evacuation efforts.
Rest in Peace.
That is some tough terrain; tall trees, steep hills, swirling winds. Keep cool and breath clean y'all.
#3
Earlier on Thursday, some 40 members of the Prison Service the majority of whom were new recruits to the Prisons Service had been dispatched to the Damon Prison near Kibbutz Bet Oren to assist in the evacuation of some 500 prisoners from the facility. The bus however never made it to its destination. It traveled from Atlit to the prison via the winding, mountainous single lane Route 721, before suddenly becoming engulfed in flames, leaving no survivors on board. The victims' families were notified of their loses Thursday night.
A tearful firefighter spokesman said the blaze had traveled 1500 meters in less than three minutes, adding, "the bus had no chance. The passengers tried to escape but were all burned alive. It was a horrific scene." The spokesman added that the fire was very far from the road on which the bus was traveling when it first set off towards the prison, but had spread far faster than expected.
#4
I've seen fires here in So Cal moving at 15' or more a second, depending on the Santa Ana winds. Tragic and horrific, but not uncommon, and even if they were unsecured, they would've died
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/02/2010 21:29 Comments ||
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Link is to the interview in German. Google translation here.
Here's the money quote (cleaned up Google translation):
Q: But isn't any attempt to solve the fundamental ecological problem doomed because this is a debate among the elites?
Dr EvilStrangelove Schellnhuber: Such debates are always held among a small part of the population.
If you ask: Will there be a majority for sacrifice in order to prevent a child's Exodus (sic!) he probably intended to say 'Exitus'
in the distant future, the initial answer will be 'no.'
But key questions such as these, as well as human rights issues should be regulated in the Constitution. That would imply that there would be judges ruling against a majority, provided that this ruling is correct according to our constitutional consensus. Thus you will also need a few people who represent an ethical elite. My spider sense is telling me that coincidentally Schellnhuber himself will be among the 'atomic supermen''ethical elite.'
In the end, problems involving causal distance, like climate change, will not be solved with the support of a broad majority. Western constitutions protect the individual's civil and human rights against an overreaching government and also against a possibly abusive democratic majority.
Dickless Schellnhuber is proposing a new constitutional doctrine of a radically different nature.
A self appointed elite is supposed to be given unchecked power. They're supposed to rule in the name of an unfalsifiable pseudoscientific ideology. They're supposed to be given arbitrary absolute power over the individual.
This is exactly what constitutionally enshrined rights and limits to government power are supposed to prevent.
In the (not so) olden days the word for 'ethical elite' was 'politburo.'
#6
And that is where the theory falls on its face. There are only so many ethical elite slots to fill, so there will be compitition among those who consider themselves appropriate for the task - so they jockey and maneuver to fill those slots and the effective ruthless get the job where the ethical get kicked out. Then they solidify their position to prevent their own ouster, but only by those who are less ruthless than themselves.
The only way it works is if there is a 100% ethical population to work from. Blow that idea with two examples:
Al Gore - well documented
Sheryl Crow - carbon guzzling tours and house. Decides to sell the house, ok. But rather than demolish the house and donate the property to be a park or something she takes the money and runs.
And what would be the strict definition of the right kind of ethical? Is forced sterilization and/or permits to have children ethical, and how would it be enforced? Look at military drafts, always seemed like the fortunate sons, as it was said, were able to find a way out or around (ironically, that included the singer of said song) while the poor had to bite the bullet. Is that the model?
Would it be by some popularity vote? No controversy with the dancing show eh? Then by computer...which one: Zardoz, Gort, Hal, Skynet, Matrix? Of course even if a pure program were installed it could never be changed, corrupted files, hacked..nope no non imposible.
We already see the justification of using lights containing mercury in favor of less pollution, the euthanasia of working vehicles in favor of production intensive green cars rather than letting the cycle over occur naturally. At what timeline would it be considered ethically pure to justify a nuclear strike against industrial centers where the strike's pollution pays for itself over x years considering the factory pollution, carbon footprint of people and vehicles, with radiation sterilization a bonus to add onto?
At least the divine right of kings has some sort of established cultural accountability. Perhaps the more appropriate phrase would be Masters looking for Slaves.
I'm not against good environmentalism - nobody likes to shit in their own bed or neighbors garbage thrown into one's kitchen - but this behind the scenes smokey room authoritarianism should give pause to both believers and non-believers. You believers need to realize that your good intentions are being used as a sales pitch, this is your version of the corporate logo wearing slave and now you, too, are suckers.
#7
Remember, they're not elite, they're just overly-credentialed ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/02/2010 13:06 Comments ||
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#8
"Nomenklatura is a caste system that applies only to the elite class. Its many levels enjoy varying degrees of privilege according to rank. For Politburo members there is no limit or restriction on privileges. Below this level the grading structure begins. The Central Committee defines the place of anyone eligible for inclusion in the various categories: high party apparatchiki, Cabinet ministers, diplomats or individuals with unusual abilities or exceptional talents such as artists, scientists, Olympic champions and the like. Factory workers, farmers, engineers, lawyers, doctors, store managers and other private citizens are excluded.
Members of the elite have extensive privileges: high salaries, good apartments, dachas, cars with chauffeurs, special railway cars and accommodations, VIP treatment at airports, resorts and hospitals off limits to outsiders, special schools for their children, access to stores selling consumer goods and food at reduced prices. They live far removed from the common man and, indeed, have to go out of their way if they wish to rub elbows with the less exalted. The highest group in the nomenklatura is separated from most citizens by a barrier as psychologically imposing as the Great Wall of China. This class constitutes virtually a state within a state."
#1
For supporters of the project, the choice for the commission was a clear one: approve the project in keeping with federal law that specifically allows for the construction of religious facilities and the 1st Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
Not for people or a Theocracy that intends to come in and set up thier own laws and disregards other peoples rights.
When MSM or Obama bring up the words "make this clear", they are trying to give a lie legitimacy.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
A Saudi religious police commander criticised the kingdom's ban on gender mixing on Tuesday and said women did not have to veil their faces to applause from his female audience.
The Fed said it did not lose money on any of the transactions that have been closed, and that it does not expect to lose money on the assets it still holds.
