Posted by: Percy Smiter of the Faeries3772 ||
09/09/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
Sex sells.
Who knew?
Posted by: no mo uro ||
09/09/2015 4:50 Comments ||
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#2
Yes. That is one of the pitfalls to avoid while in Taiwan. Believing the young women in mini-skirts sitting on chairs while waiting for clients in some stores are sex-workers. They are Betel Nut vendors. Main customers of Betel Nut are truck drivers since it keeps them from falling asleep. It is carcinogenic but they prefer it to coffee.
#3
Only one of the ladies showed her teeth in the photos but hers were pearly white. So I can assume that they don't use the product or the beta nut stains are not a given as I'd once heard?
The war in Ukraine has slipped off the front pages. Eighteen months ago, when Russian President Vladimir Putin seized Crimea and then instigated a pro-Russian rebellion in the Donbas region, Ukraine was hot news. Putin was roundly denounced, and Russia was hit with damaging economic sanctions. East-West relations soured badly, and diplomats wondered whether they were witnessing the beginnings of another cold war.
Now Ukraine, as a European crisis, has lost its urgency. One reason is the rush of other news, from global economic jitters and the flood of desperate Arab and African migrants to Europe to the preoccupying nuttiness of the U.S. presidential campaign. But there is another equally important reason. Putin seems to have won his little war in Ukraine, and his Western critics watch from the sidelines, sputtering with helpless rage.
Roughly a year ago, Putin faced one of the biggest decisions of his presidency: whether to strike a compromise deal with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko or openly commit his troops and tanks to the war. Much to the surprise of many observers, the Ukrainian army and militias seemed a battle away from defeating Putin’s rebels. Putin, facing defeat, doubled-down and ordered his forces to cross the border and turn back the Ukrainian advance. He clearly wanted to prove to Poroshenko and his Western backers that in a war between Russia and Ukraine, Russia would win.
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[Hurriyet Daily News] We live in days that can be frightening and amusing at the same time, days when the ruling classes defy any limit in self-ridicule, logic or reason. Columnists are instantly prosecuted for insulting some bigwig (almost always President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him... ) in columns that do not even mention names (including Mr. Erdogan's).
A totally blank column can be prosecuted for "implying that it might have been filled with words of insult against the president." Or some very important man may jump at a column mentioning "corrupt men, thugs, torturers and rapists" and file a complaint: "Honorable Judge, it's me who that columnist implied in that article." The judges may have a hard time in deciding who the real plaintiff should be if there are dozens of bigwigs who claim to be the "corrupt man, thug, torturer and rapist" in the article. That would be fun.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
09/09/2015 00:00 ||
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#2
Currently, 21% of the American people support this traitorous deal. The American people should revolt because they have taxation without representation.
[DAWN] THE order by the Lahore High Court directing print and electronic media regulators to ensure there is no media coverage whatsoever of the increasingly roundedAltaf Hussain ..The head of MQM in Pakistain, who has lived in London and hasn't laid eyes on Pakistain since Caesar made corporal. Judging from the size of him,he may be a Hutt... 's speeches and statements is extraordinarily troubling.
The MQM chief has clearly made some incendiary and disturbing speeches in recent times and wiser political counsel does need to prevail on him. But is it in the interests of the superior judiciary, acting on petitions seemingly moved by individuals with a thinly veiled agenda against the MQM and in favour of the military establishment, to be venturing so deep into the domain of what is quite clearly political speech?
Where Mr Hussain oversteps the mark in terms of language not fit for general TV viewership, a simple delay by a few seconds of live broadcasts can address the problem.
If Mr Hussain says something that is liable to be prosecuted under the law, the individuals or institution assailed by the MQM supremo can approach the courts directly for redress. Surely though, a state-sanctioned ban on coverage of any kind of leader of a mainstream political party is a step too far.
The public has a right to know what a political leader is saying and the leader has a right to reach out to the public.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/09/2015 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] AT long last, it seems the state is prepared to confront the evil that is sectarianism, one that has spawned religious violence in various forms over three decades in this country and laid waste to tens of thousands of lives.
The government's newfound resolve emerged during Monday's news conference addressed by Interior Minister Nisar Ali Khan after a two-round meeting with religious scholars belonging to an umbrella body representing madressahs from different schools of thought.
The second round of the meeting, at which the army chief and DG ISI were present, was chaired by the prime minister. The interior minister in his news conference said there will be no tolerance for hate speech against any faith or for statements declaring any sect as non-Moslem or its adherents as infidels.
In taking this step, the state is effecting no less than a policy change, and a very welcome one. As is now well known, the religious triumphalism that underpins faith-based violence in Pakistain was from the '80s onwards deliberately nurtured by the state to further its strategic regional objectives.
Patronage was extended to groups/organizations espousing jihadist ideologies; in the process, purveyors of bigotry and divisive ...politicians call things divisive when when the other side sez something they don't like. Their own statements are never divisive, they're principled... ness acquired the space to freely propagate their views.
As the extreme right, through the pulpit and the media, intimidated society into submission, the repercussions of this ruinous policy became manifest in sectarian killings, bombing of religious processions and places of worship, lynching of blasphemy suspects, desecration of graves, etc.
Turning back the tide will be a difficult though not impossible task. Some practical measures at the outset will demonstrate the government's sincerity of purpose.
Where hate speech is concerned it has, to its credit, already begun taking action. A number of holy mans have been sentenced to prison -- some for several years -- for inciting violence, and individuals found distributing hate literature have also been convicted.
Graffiti or banners glorifying religious violence or inflaming sectarian sentiments should also be removed. However, there's more than one way to skin a cat... the government's apparent resolve to discard the use of some snuffies as tools of statecraft will be tested in other, more telling ways.
For example, will there be a clampdown on banned groups who, despite their overt sectarian agendas, have hitherto been allowed to serve as 'cheerleaders' of state policies?
Will religious turban groups in Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... be put out of business or will they continue to serve as proxies to counter the insurgency in the province?
Ultimately, the battle is about changing a mindset, not only that of a people, but also of those who lead them. Long-term measures will determine our future course.
For instance, curricula must emphasise humanity's shared values rather than religious differences, the blasphemy law should be revisited so it cannot be used as a tool of persecution, and so on. The way ahead is clear, if we choose to take it.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/09/2015 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] While remembering the sacrifices and gallantry of our security forces, it is also important to let go of the myth of a victory that never was. The limited success our forces achieved in certain sectors must not be used to cover up the miscalculations and flawed military strategy.
We have never recovered from the effects of that military misadventure. It may have been driven by India's intransigence on Kashmire, but Pakistain has never been the same again after that futile war. What happened in 1971 is also to some extent linked to the events that followed the 1965 war.
In fact, the war was started when we launched Operation Gibraltar in early July 1965, infiltrating thousands of Pak soldiers into India-Indian Kashmiree under the assumption that Kashmiris would rise in revolt against the Indian forces. That never happened and within weeks the entire operation had collapsed. Meanwhile,
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
09/09/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
Grand Slam? As in baseball? Wouldn't a cricket term be better choice; or is the Pak leadership really a bunch of closet tennis fans?
#2
I once chatted up an Indian AF Colonel who told me that the Indian AF was so ill-prepared for the 1965 war they were reduced to dropping barrel bombs out of transport plans.
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.
[DAWN] THE order by the Lahore High Court directing print and electronic media regulators to ensure there is no media coverage whatsoever of 
[DAWN] While remembering the sacrifices and gallantry of our security forces, it is also important to let go of the myth of a victory that never was. The limited success our forces achieved in certain sectors must not be used to cover up the miscalculations and flawed military strategy.
