Hi there, !
Today Sat 10/11/2008 Fri 10/10/2008 Thu 10/09/2008 Wed 10/08/2008 Tue 10/07/2008 Mon 10/06/2008 Sun 10/05/2008 Archives
Rantburg
532930 articles and 1859712 comments are archived on Rantburg.

Today: 91 articles and 327 comments as of 7:26.
Post a news link    Post your own article   
Area: WoT Operations    WoT Background    Non-WoT    Opinion       
World's Stock Markets Plunge
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 5: Russia-Former Soviet Union
2 00:00 Procopius2k [2] 
2 00:00 JosephMendiola [] 
3 00:00 JosephMendiola [1] 
4 00:00 USN, Ret. [] 
13 00:00 JosephMendiola [1] 
3 00:00 Frank G [] 
0 [] 
1 00:00 Besoeker [1] 
5 00:00 lotp [] 
Page 1: WoT Operations
4 00:00 Tyranysaurus Snart3464 [6]
2 00:00 Jolutch Mussolini7800 []
5 00:00 Old Patriot []
9 00:00 Barbara Skolaut []
3 00:00 Old Patriot [1]
0 [2]
1 00:00 Frank G [1]
0 [1]
0 [1]
7 00:00 .5MT []
6 00:00 sinse [3]
0 []
2 00:00 USN, Ret. [3]
3 00:00 The Sanity Inspector [6]
0 []
0 [2]
0 [2]
4 00:00 logi_cal [1]
3 00:00 JosephMendiola [2]
Page 2: WoT Background
4 00:00 Glenmore [1]
18 00:00 Betty [2]
0 [2]
0 [7]
1 00:00 Frank G [7]
12 00:00 mhw [1]
0 [2]
2 00:00 ed [3]
0 [1]
9 00:00 Besoeker [1]
0 []
0 []
0 [3]
0 []
0 []
18 00:00 JosephMendiola []
4 00:00 Danielle []
0 [3]
0 [3]
0 []
3 00:00 g(r)omgoru []
0 [2]
0 []
0 [2]
2 00:00 Darrell [2]
3 00:00 JosephMendiola [1]
0 [2]
0 []
2 00:00 Scott R []
Page 3: Non-WoT
1 00:00 JosephMendiola [2]
9 00:00 DMFD [3]
32 00:00 Mike N. [3]
2 00:00 rjschwarz [5]
9 00:00 The Left []
14 00:00 Grunter [2]
6 00:00 ed []
9 00:00 Old Patriot [2]
10 00:00 logi_cal [1]
1 00:00 ed []
9 00:00 Frank G [2]
1 00:00 JosephMendiola [1]
28 00:00 DMFD []
0 []
0 [1]
0 []
0 [1]
0 [1]
0 []
1 00:00 JosephMendiola [1]
0 [1]
7 00:00 DMFD [1]
4 00:00 JosephMendiola []
0 []
0 []
4 00:00 Frank G [6]
Page 4: Opinion
1 00:00 bigjim-ky [1]
0 []
1 00:00 Grenter, Protector of the Geats [3]
2 00:00 rjschwarz []
6 00:00 rjschwarz [1]
7 00:00 Besoeker []
0 []
0 []
-Short Attention Span Theater-
Today's statistical outlier
A Kansas man whose girlfriend was physically stuck to the toilet in their home wins $20,000 in the state Lottery — for the second time this year.

Kory McFarren of Ness City cashed in his winning $2 Bonus Crossword ticket in Great Bend Monday. On July 29, the 37-year-old McFarren received six months of probation after pleading no contest to misdemeanor mistreatment of a dependent adult.

McFarren called Ness County deputies in February to report that his girlfriend, Pam Babcock, had refused to come out of the bathroom for two years. Authorities found her stuck to the toilet.

Medical personnel estimated Babcock had been on the toilet for at least a month and said the seat had adhered to sores on her body. She was released from a Wichita hospital after several months of treatment.
Posted by: Mike || 10/08/2008 09:18 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  So do his lottery winnings go towards paying the hospital bill?
Posted by: Glenmore || 10/08/2008 9:31 Comments || Top||

#2  Or a non-stick toilette seat.
Posted by: Carbon Monoxide || 10/08/2008 10:04 Comments || Top||

#3  No, but he did buy a large can of PAM.
Posted by: Steve White || 10/08/2008 10:57 Comments || Top||

#4  If that's what it takes to get an extra 40k...
"Honey, can you come here for a minute and bring that tube of Liquid Nails with you, please?"
Posted by: USN, Ret. || 10/08/2008 17:30 Comments || Top||


It's time for the Ig Nobel prizes again! LOL
Posted by: lotp || 10/08/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Employees or relatives of employees of AIG, Lehman Bros, Goldman Sachs, Wachovia, Countrywide, members of the US Congress, Ben Bernanke, and Hank Paulsen are prohibited from entry.
Posted by: Besoeker || 10/08/2008 10:37 Comments || Top||


Africa Horn
South Sudan arrests 20 women for wearing pants, short skirts
A Southern Sudan Cabinet minister said on Tuesday that more than 20 women were arrested and beaten for allegedly dressing inappropriately under a new edict against "bad behavior."

"Between 20 and 30 girls were picked up from different points, hurled into police lorries, arrested and taken to the police station and some of them were beaten," said Mary Kiden Kimbo, the gender, social welfare and religious affairs minister in the semi-autonomous southern government. "This is absolutely not acceptable: it is not the job of police to judge what is and what is not a correct way to dress in such a manner of blanket punishment," she said.

The police crackdown on young women wearing trousers or short skirts follows an order from the commissioner of Juba county, the capital of Southern Sudan. Most of the women, said to be in their late teens and 20s, were rounded up as they left Catholic mass in Juba on Sunday, Kimbo said. Others were picked up in market places.

The order bans "all bad behaviors, activities and imported illicit cultures," according to a copy seen by AFP, signed by Juba's commissioner, Albert Pitia Redantore.

Inappropriate behavior may include wearing tight trousers, short skirts or skimpy tops considered "Western" attire.

The order, dated October 2, said that it aimed to "preserve the cultural values, dignity and achievements of the people of southern Sudan, checking out the intrusion of foreign cultures into our societies, for the sake of bringing up [a] good generation." Those deemed in contravention of the order are liable to three months imprisonment. Those convicted for a second time face another three-month sentence and a fine of 600 Sudanese pounds ($300).

Traditional values are important in largely Christian and animist Southern Sudan, which is recovering from decades of war against the mainly Muslim north. It was the imposition of Sharia law by the north that helped spark the southern rebellion, which was rooted in complaints of marginalization.
Posted by: Fred || 10/08/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Sudan


Arabia
Saudi religious police car chases end in crashes
High speed chases, car crashes and illicit escapades may sound like a Hollywood movie, but citizens in Saudi Arabia were anything but amused by the antics of some overly enthusiastic officers from the religious police in recent days.

Officers from the from the Commission for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice gained attention in recent days for their attempts to crackdown on "illicit privacy," a term that refers to the prohibition against an unrelated man and woman being alone together.

A car chase in the capital Riyadh by officers who suspected a couple of "illicit privacy" ended in a crash that damaged several vehicles. The chase ended when the man's car hit a fence and four cars, according to eye-witness reports. Officers arrested the woman after brutally beating the man and taking his identity card, the paper reported. The owners of the cars involved said they would ask the Commission for compensation for the damage.

The actions of the officers violated the Commission's rules against car chases. Commission Deputy Chief Sheikh Ibrahim al-Howaimel vowed to penalize the officers, the Saudi newspaper Al-Watan reported on Tuesday.

In Medina, Commission officers chased a man and his wife for alleged "illicit privacy," resulting in a dual car pileup. The man's brothers got in a brawl with police and the wife's brother, who tried to assault the Commission officers, was interrogated and released on bail.

The wife said she was the one who asked her husband not to stop because there was nothing to prove that the vehicle belonged to the Commission, and that is why she and her husband were scared and ran away.

Head of the Commission office in Medina Dr. Abdullah al-Zahrani said the officers were suspicious of the couple's behavior and asked the man to stop, but he refused. When the officers managed to stop him the woman he was with ran away and the man's wife took her place. The couple denied the accusations and the husband said he will seek compensation for slander.
Posted by: Fred || 10/08/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Neanderthals can't drive!
Posted by: Carbon Monoxide || 10/08/2008 10:09 Comments || Top||

#2  Sheriff Roscoe P. Coultraine remake: "The Shieks of Hazzard."
Posted by: USN, Ret. || 10/08/2008 13:40 Comments || Top||

#3  Muttawa and the Bandit.
Posted by: ed || 10/08/2008 13:42 Comments || Top||

#4  Maybe if a lot of the few "members" of the "commission" turned up mysteriously deceased they'd rethink their position....
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 10/08/2008 13:45 Comments || Top||

#5  No need for 'deceased'.  How about 'neutered'?
Posted by: lotp || 10/08/2008 14:44 Comments || Top||


Down Under
Ex-Aussie Soldier told to take down Australian Flag
Posted by: Oztralian || 10/08/2008 19:18 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  And Soldier rightly tells city council to "Stuff it".
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 10/08/2008 21:46 Comments || Top||

#2  I thought it was an Anglo tradition to have the right to face one's accuser? What's up in Ozland?
Posted by: Procopius2k || 10/08/2008 23:35 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Palin may be related to Princess Diana, Roosevelt
Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin is distantly related to the late Princess Diana and late U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt, genealogy experts said on Wednesday. The governor of Alaska and the princess are tenth cousins, while Palin and Roosevelt are ninth cousins once removed, said Ancestry.com, online genealogists based in Provo, Utah.

The genealogical connections are not the first to gain attention in the U.S. presidential campaign. Last year, Lynne Cheney said she found while tracing her family roots that her husband Vice President Dick Cheney was a distant cousin of Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama.

Other researchers discovered Obama is distant cousins with actor Brad Pitt.

"When you've got candidates who have deep roots in America, there's a good chance that they're going to have some famous cousins," said Ancestry.com's chief family historian Megan Smolenyak. "We've all got literally millions of cousins. The trick is finding that one little connection that results in something like Sarah Palin being related to FDR or Diana," she said.

Palin and the late princess descended from John Strong and his wife Abigail Ford, Ancestry.com said. Strong was born around 1605 in England and emigrated to the United States, where he died in Massachusetts in 1699, Ancestry.com said.

Palin and Roosevelt share ancestor John Lothrop, who was born in England in 1584 and also emigrated to America, where he died in Massachusetts in 1653, Ancestry.com said. According to family and local histories, Lothrop was a Puritan Presbyterian minister who arrived in the Massachusetts colony in 1634, said Ancestry.com, which says it has access to 7 billion records online.
Posted by: tipper || 10/08/2008 06:39 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Look, if you have a Northern European ancestor in North America going back to the 1630s, you're probably related to me and *everyone else* with that ancestry. They have online you're-cousins-eleven-times-removed-with-Winston-Churchill applications which have *automated* this little parlor trick. This is how they discovered that Obama and Cheney are 'cousins'.
Posted by: Mitch H. || 10/08/2008 7:11 Comments || Top||

#2  More importantly, what's her relation to Michael Palin? Or John Cleese?
Posted by: ed || 10/08/2008 8:15 Comments || Top||

#3  We each have 2 parents, 4 grandparents, 8 great grandparents, 16 great great grandparents... Even at 16, 15 of them had different last names. By the time you take this back to the 1600's, you're pretty well related to everybody.
Posted by: Darrell || 10/08/2008 9:39 Comments || Top||

#4  Besoeker related to die Obamessiah? Not likely.
Posted by: Besoeker || 10/08/2008 9:43 Comments || Top||

#5  "Palin and Roosevelt are ninth cousins once removed."

When was she removed? Why was she removed? When did McCain know she was removed? How does this prove she's a racist?
Posted by: Carbon Monoxide || 10/08/2008 10:07 Comments || Top||

#6  How come nobody's ever related to Joe Schmoe?
Posted by: Crash Davis || 10/08/2008 10:39 Comments || Top||

#7  McCain ought to point out the smear Biden voiced on Obama's cousin, Cheney , in the VP debate.
Posted by: Jack is Back! || 10/08/2008 12:44 Comments || Top||

#8  Madonna is my 6th cousin and Celine Dion my 8th cousin once removed. That's why I post anonymously.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 10/08/2008 12:59 Comments || Top||

#9  Our deepest sympathies, Anguper.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 10/08/2008 13:34 Comments || Top||

#10  #7 McCain ought to point out the smear Biden voiced on Obama's cousin, Cheney , in the VP debate.

Wouldn't that make it a racist attack on the cousin of the one instead of a smear?
Posted by: CrazyFool || 10/08/2008 13:43 Comments || Top||

#11  I wonder how many hits Rantburg got from folks looking for Uncle Harold.
Posted by: .5MT || 10/08/2008 14:04 Comments || Top||

#12  "TOP GUN" > TOM CRUISE/MAVERICK to KELLY MCGILLIS > "I could tell ya, but then I'll have to kill you".
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 10/08/2008 19:48 Comments || Top||

#13  Lest we fergit, D *** NG IT, MORIARITY, THE ONLY REAL NON-BOTTLE ARYAN BLONDE AROUND HERE IS THE SEXY SLINKY BLACK CHICK!
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 10/08/2008 19:50 Comments || Top||


Biden's Mother-In-Law Dies
Vice presidential candidate Joe Biden's mother-in-law died Sunday afternoon, and the Obama campaign has canceled the Delaware senator's schedule through Tuesday, a spokesman said.

Jill Biden's mother after a long illness, said spokesman David Wade. "Other details will follow, but we appreciate everyone's respect for the family's privacy during this difficult time."
Posted by: Sherry || 10/08/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Prayers for Joe and his family.
Posted by: Woozle Unusosing8053 || 10/08/2008 10:03 Comments || Top||

#2  Especially Joe's son, who's in or on his way to Iraq right now.
Posted by: Eric Jablow || 10/08/2008 21:13 Comments || Top||

#3  a prayer for Joe's son
Posted by: Frank G || 10/08/2008 21:37 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Hindu Girl Mistaken For Christian, Gang-raped And Burnt Alive, Says Catholic Priest
A Catholic priest of Sambalpur diocese has claimed that a Hindu girl, mistaken for a Christian, was raped by a group of Hindu activists before being burnt alive.

Father T.V. Peter disclosed October 4 that a fanatical mob descended on a Church-run orphanage in Bargarh district where 20-year-old Rajani Majhi worked, raided the orphanage, gang-raped her and set her on fire, August 25, as anti-Christian violence broke out in the tribal-dominated areas of the eastern Indian State.

Peter, who is the procurator of the diocese, is also said to have expressed his willingness to testify in any court of law Majhi had been raped and killed by the VHP goons at the Padampur village orphanage. “Soon after the VHP men raided the orphanage, I went to the spot and spoke to some eye-witnesses. The mob thought she was a Christian girl but actually she was a Hindu and was adopted by a childless couple.

She was working in the orphanage,” Father Peter was quoted as saying by a news agency. He also alleged that the policemen present at the spot remained mute spectators to the criminal act. Rajani was a student in Padampur Women’s College and worked at the orphanage to support her education. The orphanage houses children of leprosy patients.

However, a day after Father Peter making the allegations, the Sambalpur diocesan authorities have denied such a thing had happened in the orphanage. The official spokesperson of the diocese, Father Alphonse Toppo, told the media October 5: “No such information has come to us. If Father Peter told some people that Rajani was gang-raped, then it is his view. We have not come across any such complaint.”
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 10/08/2008 10:39 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  “No such information has come to us. If Father Peter told some people that Rajani was gang-raped, then it is his view. We have not come across any such complaint.”

It's no biggie, no no she wasn't rapes, she was just burned alive.
Posted by: Harry Whamp1091 || 10/08/2008 12:07 Comments || Top||

#2  No such information has come to us. If Father Peter told some people that Rajani was gang-raped, then it is his view. We have not come across any such complaint.”

I'm assuming they don't include any church witnesses as "any information".
Posted by: Harry Whamp1091 || 10/08/2008 12:09 Comments || Top||

#3  Compare wid TOPIX > WHAT REALLY ANGERED THE HINDUS AT KARNATAKA [India]. Oversealous or abusive prosletyzing + malicious degradation of the normally very tolerant, CHristian-accepting Hindu religion on the part of a local Christian missionary org. Artic indics that INDIA'S PEACE-MINDED, PRO-TOLERANCE/DIVERSITY HINDUS ARE FACING SERIOUS OR INTENSIVE PRESSURES TO CHANGE VIA CHRISTIANITY, AMERICANIZATION, NATIONAL MODERNIZATION, MARXISM, ISLAM/ISLAMISM, ...@etc.

IOW, THE HINDUS LOVE TOLERANCE AND DIVERSITY, ETC. BUT SAID SAME TOLERANCE AND DIVERSITY, ETC. DOESN'T LOVE HINDUISM.

You just know there's whole lotta TASERIN' that needs to be done.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 10/08/2008 23:08 Comments || Top||


Science & Technology
Pterodactyl-Inspired Robot To Master Air, Ground, And Sea
Posted by: 3dc || 10/08/2008 18:23 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "The next generation of airborne drones won't just be small and silent," says the multidisciplinary group, "they'll alter their wing shapes using morphing techniques to squeeze through confined spaces, dive between buildings, zoom under overpasses, land on apartment balconies, or sail along the coastline."

They left out "and freak the living hell out of the islamonutz."
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 10/08/2008 18:43 Comments || Top||

#2  "PTERODACTYL" = the LEGENDARY CROC/GATOR-HEAD THUNDERBIRD of INDIAN LORE [Cryptozoology]???

JAPAN is reportedly also working on their own advanced, military-capable UV.

* "Morphing techniques" > IIRC, didn't WIRED NEWS or DEFENCEDAILY report a while back that the USDOD had formally canceled the PROPOSED MORPH/TELESCOPIC-WING STRATEGIC BOMBER for the USAF, in favor the cheaper TRADITIONAL FIXED WING + MORE UV's???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 10/08/2008 20:07 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
65[untagged]
5TTP
3al-Qaeda in Pakistan
3Taliban
2Govt of Syria
2Hamas
2Islamic Courts
2Govt of Sudan
2SIMI
1Lashkar e-Jhangvi
1Palestinian Authority
1Govt of Pakistan
1Indian Mujahideen
1Govt of Iran

Bookmark
E-Mail Me

The Classics
The O Club
Rantburg Store
The Bloids
The Never-ending Story
Thugburg
Gulf War I
The Way We Were
Bio

Merry-Go-Blog











On Sale now!


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.
Click here for more information

Meet the Mods
In no particular order...
Steve White
Seafarious
tu3031
badanov
sherry
ryuge
GolfBravoUSMC
Bright Pebbles
trailing wife
Gloria
Fred
Besoeker
Glenmore
Frank G
3dc
Skidmark

Two weeks of WOT
Wed 2008-10-08
  World's Stock Markets Plunge
Tue 2008-10-07
  Iran forces down Corporate Executive ''Fighter Jet''
Mon 2008-10-06
  Saudi hosts Afghan peace talks with Taliban reps
Sun 2008-10-05
  Baitullah makes appearance amid reports of his death
Sat 2008-10-04
  US drone strikes kill 20 in North Waziristan
Fri 2008-10-03
  'Biggest suspect' in ship piracy arrested
Thu 2008-10-02
  U.S. Begins Transferring Sunni Militias to Iraqi Government
Wed 2008-10-01
  Baitullah reported titzup
Tue 2008-09-30
  ISI chief, four corps commanders changed
Mon 2008-09-29
  At least six dead in Tripoli kaboom
Sun 2008-09-28
  Sudan desert chase 'n gunfight kills 6 kidnappers
Sat 2008-09-27
  Car boom kills 17 in Damascus
Fri 2008-09-26
  Shots fired in US-Pakistan clash
Thu 2008-09-25
  NKor bans nuke inspectors
Wed 2008-09-24
  Five Indian Mujaheddin nabbed in Mumbai


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.
18.191.46.36
Help keep the Burg running! Paypal:
WoT Operations (19)    WoT Background (29)    Non-WoT (26)    Opinion (8)    (0)