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Green-on-green clash in Khyber tribal region kills 32
Today's Headlines
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Page 4: Opinion
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Page 6: Politix
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2 02:17 tu3031 [336083]
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11 18:29 JohnQC [336086]
-Short Attention Span Theater-
Penalty could keep smokers out of health overhaul - Bloomberg
Shouldn't he be dealing with bedbugs or something...
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/26/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336087 views] Top|| File under:

#1  If the bedbugs were smoking and drinking large sugary beverages, the lil' sumbitches would history by now.
Posted by: SteveS || 01/26/2013 1:43 Comments || Top||

#2  Smokers be advised; your yellow arm band is for your protection and the protection of those around you. Don't leave home without it!
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/26/2013 2:02 Comments || Top||

#3  It's Bloomberg BusinessWeek, not Nanny New York.
And doesn't a certain US president like to fire up a Newport every once in awhile?
Posted by: tu3031 || 01/26/2013 2:24 Comments || Top||

#4  You don't seem to be able to grasp the simple principle of Quod licet Iovi, non licet bovi, tu3031
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 01/26/2013 6:09 Comments || Top||

#5  If instead of tax, smokes should be sold bundled with health insurance vouchers.

Problem sorted. Now back to proper health problems the state should worry about like immigration.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 01/26/2013 7:03 Comments || Top||

#6  What about second hand smokers?

Second hand Doctors?
Posted by: junkiron || 01/26/2013 11:41 Comments || Top||

#7  A related AP piece contains a brief tidbit that should send chills down the collective (pun not intended) spines of all Americans:

So let's return to the original question: Why provoke a backlash? If 1 in 5 U.S. adults smoke, and 1 in 3 are obese, why not just get off their backs and let them go on with their (probably shortened) lives?

Because it's not just about them, say some health economists, bioethicists and public health researchers.

"Your freedom is likely to be someone else's harm," said Daniel Callahan, senior research scholar at a bioethics think-tank, the Hastings Center.


Goodbye America, we hardly knew ye.
Posted by: AzCat || 01/26/2013 12:16 Comments || Top||

#8  All hear-say.
Posted by: Shipman || 01/26/2013 12:16 Comments || Top||

#9  Whoops same time post... never mind.
Posted by: Shipman || 01/26/2013 12:17 Comments || Top||

#10  >"Your freedom is likely to be someone else's harm,"

Which is why we're subsidising peoples bad habits with state wage based fees rather than risk based insurance fees....

The people on benefits are most fat. Is there a correlation between living on benefits and poor health? Should we be slashing benefits? If it saves one life...
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 01/26/2013 12:50 Comments || Top||

#11  Bingo, BP! :-D
Posted by: Barbara || 01/26/2013 13:12 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Steyn on Benghazi and the Hildebeast
An excerpt:
Nor was the late Christopher Stevens any old ambassador, but rather Secretary Clinton's close personal friend "Chris." It was all "Chris" this, "Chris" that when Secretary Clinton and President Obama delivered their maudlin eulogies over the flag-draped coffin of their "friend." Gosh, you'd think if they were on such intimate terms, "Chris" might have had Hillary's e-mail address, but apparently not. He was just one of 1.43 million close personal friends cabling the State Department every hour of the day.

Four Americans are dead, but not a single person involved in the attack and the murders has been held to account. Hey, what difference does it make? Lip-syncing the national anthem beats singing it. Peddling a fictitious narrative over the coffin of your "friend" is more real than being an incompetent boss to your most vulnerable employees. And mouthing warmed-over clichés about vowing to "bring to justice" those responsible is way easier than actually bringing anyone to justice.
Posted by: badanov || 01/26/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336124 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Some might believe that personal cables and concerns from the Ambassador of the most troubled regions of an entire continent of Africa are not read by the Secretary of State. I do not.

Some might believe that the message traffic from the Chief of Station of a country where the US is involved in one of the most sensitive, clandestine operations of recent times are not monitored by the Director, Central Intelligence and the President of the United States. I do not.

Some might believe that the Director, National Intelligence has no concern or interest in the activities and threat of AQIM, or what diplomatic, intelligence, or military actions are being taken to counter such a threat. I do not.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/26/2013 1:26 Comments || Top||

#2  Some might assume that all the ibid cited personages are doing their jobs---instead of being busy with much more important (to them) things. I do not.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 01/26/2013 5:57 Comments || Top||

#3  Hey, cut em some slack. There was an election going on. The ONE had to be re-elected. There was dirt that had to be dug up on Romney. Fast and Furious had to be buried.
Posted by: JohnQC || 01/26/2013 11:16 Comments || Top||

#4  The problem is that, late in his career, "Chris" agreed to the role of part-diplomat, part-special-operative to Libyan rebels.

Unfortunately "Chris" was subject to the "should you or any of your I.M. Force be caught or killed, the Secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions" clause.
Posted by: Pappy || 01/26/2013 11:34 Comments || Top||

#5  Ditto! Everybody wants to be an operator. Be careful what you ask for.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/26/2013 11:37 Comments || Top||

#6  but not a single person involved in the attack and the murders has been held to account
I seem to remember the loss of 2-3 Generals and the censure of an Admiral. Seems an appropriate subject matter for an investigative author like Robert Kaplan.
Posted by: Skidmark || 01/26/2013 12:17 Comments || Top||

#7  Weren't there also approximately 10-20 or so Benghazi staff who got out safely? Who are they, where are they and what do they have to say?
Posted by: warthogswife || 01/26/2013 13:18 Comments || Top||

#8  Last word was that they were evacuated to Landstuhl.

No doubt they've been served with non-disclosure agreements and/or incentives to stay shut-up.
Posted by: Pappy || 01/26/2013 15:37 Comments || Top||

#9  The loop is too large. Too many knowledgeable people. In addition to those rescued and their families, you've got contract aircrews, USAF crews, medical people at Landstuhl, snoopy investigative reporters, Hollywood movie makers, and a potential host of others. Someone will tell the story or write a book. I hope it's sooner rather than later.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/26/2013 15:55 Comments || Top||

#10  "Someone will tell the story or write a book. I hope it's sooner rather than later."

I'd suggest that "someone" stay far away from Fort Marcy Park, B, whether it's sooner or later.
Posted by: Barbara || 01/26/2013 17:49 Comments || Top||

#11  The agreement to trade the ambassador for the blind sheik didn't work out when he unexpectedly suffocated during the snatch.
Posted by: KBK || 01/26/2013 20:35 Comments || Top||

#12  "Suffocated"..is that the new spelling for "Empaled" until death ensue?
Posted by: Thrineger Thurong3165 || 01/26/2013 21:30 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Agents of death descend on Peshawar
[Dawn] The forces of doom and destruction have stepped up their deadly campaign in Beautiful Downtown Peshawar
...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire.
, unleashing a series of murders. They struck the city again and again during the past three weeks with ferocity, leaving the protectors of public life and property with shamelessly coward faces.

If businessman Abrar Hussain's violent killing in the most unfortunate circumstances on Jan 2 near Lady Reading Hospital did not move the saviours of law and order out of their perennial official slackness, Dr Shah Nawaz's murder committed 20 days later, with swiftness and deadly ease of the highest criminal order, should not be a surprise for anyone except for the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred || 01/26/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336128 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Pakistan

#1  "fergitaboutit, Jake. It's Peshawar"
Posted by: Frank G || 01/26/2013 13:04 Comments || Top||

#2  I'm not sure I see the difference between forces of doom and destruction, and business as usual.
Posted by: SteveS || 01/26/2013 15:26 Comments || Top||

#3  Pashtukz have been on a murdering rampage for the last millenia or so.
That until these famous Iranian nukes make them glow in the dark.
Posted by: Thrineger Thurong3165 || 01/26/2013 21:23 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
On the Sunday Morning Coffeepot: The Most Influential Writer You've Probably Never Heard Of
preview, by lotp
It was culture that won the last election for Obama and it is culture that we must influence if we want to change the course of the country. But if we are to influence our culture we must start by understanding it and how it got to this point.

When Barack Obama repeatedly hit the theme of Fairness during the recent campaign, it resonated with people in the middle of hard economic times. The libertarian and right side of the country never offered an effective counter to this meme, which appears to have taken them by surprise.

It shouldn't have. Liberal political thought has been steeped for several decades in a worldview around justice, fairness and equality of outcome vs. equality of opportunity whose premises were laid by the most influential political philosopher you've probably never heard of.

John Rawls died in 2002. His work isn't cited in court decisions and few today ascribe to the details of his positions. Yet he plowed the ground and planted the seeds that bore fruit last November and 4 years before that. Without knowing his name or examining his writings, most people under 40 (and many who are older) now take as obvious truths the assertions he laid out and refined over several decades.

On the SMCP this week we'll examine those assertions and the response they engendered on the left as well as on the right. And we'll look at the emotional motives that may have sparked his positions and that resonate with Obama voters today.
Posted by: lotp || 01/26/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336085 views] Top|| File under:



Who's in the News
42[untagged]
6Govt of Pakistan
4Arab Spring
4al-Qaeda in North Africa
2Lashkar e-Taiba
2Govt of Syria
2al-Qaeda in Pakistan
1Taliban
1al-Shabaab
1Fatah al-Islam
1Govt of Iran
1Hezbollah
1Salafists

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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.

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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.
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Two weeks of WOT
Sat 2013-01-26
  Green-on-green clash in Khyber tribal region kills 32
Fri 2013-01-25
  AQAP #2 killed for the THIRD time in Yemen
Thu 2013-01-24
  US drone strike near Sanaa kills 7 hard boyz
Wed 2013-01-23
  Nuristan Airstrike Kills 14 Insurgents
Tue 2013-01-22
  French seize control of Diabaly, Douentza
Mon 2013-01-21
  Nigeria: Gunmen attack Kano emir's convoy
Sun 2013-01-20
  Algeria crisis: Hostage-takers 'taken alive' at gas plant
Sat 2013-01-19
  Boko Haram leader Shekau shot, escapes to Mali
Fri 2013-01-18
  1,400 French soldiers in Mali for ground assaults: minister
Thu 2013-01-17
  41 snatched by AQIM in Algeria gas plant attack
Wed 2013-01-16
  France deploys armoured vehicles towards northern Mali
Tue 2013-01-15
  Pakistan paralysed after court demands PM arrest
Mon 2013-01-14
  Famed Tunisia Mausoleum Torched by Salafists
Sun 2013-01-13
  19 Killed in Failed French Raid to Free Somalia Hostage
Sat 2013-01-12
  French commandos attack al-Shabab base, explosions, gunfire heard

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