Hi there, !
Today Tue 12/12/2006 Mon 12/11/2006 Sun 12/10/2006 Sat 12/09/2006 Fri 12/08/2006 Thu 12/07/2006 Wed 12/06/2006 Archives
Rantburg
533401 articles and 1861020 comments are archived on Rantburg.

Today: 77 articles and 326 comments as of 11:58.
Post a news link    Post your own article   
Area: WoT Operations    WoT Background    Non-WoT    Opinion       
Chicago jihad boy nabbed in grenade plot
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 5: Russia-Former Soviet Union
3 00:00 badanov [5] 
3 00:00 gorb [3] 
12 00:00 trailing wife [4] 
4 00:00 3dc [1] 
0 [1] 
0 [1] 
8 00:00 Zenster [1] 
13 00:00 tu3031 [1] 
7 00:00 USN,Ret [4] 
16 00:00 Thoth [8] 
20 00:00 BA [1] 
Page 1: WoT Operations
2 00:00 trailing wife [6]
3 00:00 Thinemp Whimble2412 [4]
5 00:00 Whiskey Mike [4]
5 00:00 Phineter Thraviger [4]
2 00:00 borgboy [1]
3 00:00 gorb [1]
7 00:00 gromgoru [9]
4 00:00 Zenster [4]
0 [6]
0 [5]
10 00:00 frozen al [6]
1 00:00 DepotGuy [8]
1 00:00 Lancasters Over Dresden [9]
2 00:00 Eric Jablow [1]
Page 2: WoT Background
0 [7]
1 00:00 john [6]
1 00:00 Lancasters Over Dresden [3]
5 00:00 Lancasters Over Dresden [3]
1 00:00 Thinemp Whimble2412 [1]
9 00:00 Barbara Skolaut [5]
12 00:00 Thinemp Whimble2412 [5]
2 00:00 Thinemp Whimble2412 [2]
4 00:00 Thinemp Whimble2412 [4]
0 [7]
0 [9]
2 00:00 anonymous5089 [3]
8 00:00 BA [3]
1 00:00 gromgoru [1]
2 00:00 DepotGuy [1]
15 00:00 Zenster [3]
1 00:00 gromgoru [1]
4 00:00 Lancasters Over Dresden [8]
0 [5]
3 00:00 RWV [1]
1 00:00 Frank G [1]
4 00:00 Zenster [1]
3 00:00 trailing wife [4]
8 00:00 Zenster [2]
2 00:00 gromgoru [1]
5 00:00 Sneaze Shaiting3550 [1]
1 00:00 Jackal [1]
0 [1]
25 00:00 BA [4]
Page 3: Non-WoT
4 00:00 gorb [4]
0 [8]
1 00:00 gromgoru [1]
1 00:00 Procopius2k [1]
0 [1]
2 00:00 The Ghost of Gerry Studds [1]
1 00:00 Mitch H. [1]
3 00:00 rhodesiafever [1]
2 00:00 gorb [5]
14 00:00 exJAG [1]
1 00:00 trailing wife [1]
15 00:00 Zenster [2]
2 00:00 Nimble Spemble [1]
2 00:00 Shipman [1]
3 00:00 Zenster [1]
Page 4: Opinion
2 00:00 borgboy [3]
0 [8]
1 00:00 Glenmore [1]
2 00:00 mrp [5]
11 00:00 Sneaze Shaiting3550 [5]
2 00:00 tu3031 [1]
0 [5]
6 00:00 JohnQC [1]
-Lurid Crime Tales-
Local Power-freaks get "Holiday Trees" Removed From Seattle Airport
All Holiday trees at Sea-Tac Airport were removed this morning after several community member complaints. You will defer to my beliefs in public, or else. They say the trees don't represent all cultures and religions...
Hmmm....
Just call them Christmas trees, Hanukkah bushes, Solstice shrubs, 5-6 foot natural air fresheners...
That has Christians, Jews, atheists, and yuppies covered. Who could possibly feel excluded?


The trees will not go up again...the airport policy on decorations will be reviewed after the holidays.

High-level stuff. It usually takes the threat of a fatwa to get the muckymucks to roll over that fast, but we'll see.
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy || 12/09/2006 20:34 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  My religious beliefs insists that holiday decorations be present and that they are referred to as they should be. I'm offended that my religion is being violated. :-)
Posted by: gorb || 12/09/2006 22:13 Comments || Top||

#2  Could the usual suspects be innocent this time?

The Port of Seattle says it had little choice. It says a Seattle rabbi with the Central Organization for Jewish Learning hired an attorney and threatened to sue if the airport did not erect an eight foot menorah to balance the message of the Christmas trees.

According to airport spokeswoman the two sides could not reach an agreement before the lawsuit was to be filed, so the trees were removed instead.


Problem is, a google search failed to turn up a single hit on "Central Organization for Jewish Learning" and the likely permutations. Seattle has no shortage of Jew-haters. Could this be a false-flag operation to discredit local Jews?
It could also be a lone self-declared "rabbi" telling the PC port officials what they desperately want to hear anyway.
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy || 12/09/2006 22:14 Comments || Top||

#3  Could not happen without reporters willing to file stories using unnamed sources. I do not doubt that people have called to complain as part of a campaign but I cannot imagine any Jewish religious group wanting to kill Christian symbols.
Posted by: badanov || 12/09/2006 23:16 Comments || Top||


Phelps clan to target Sweden (Swedish lefties overjoyed)
Minister of hate to "hunt down" Swedish king
Published: 25th August 2005 15:32 CET
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/1961/

The fanatical American Baptist minister, Fred Phelps, is on his way to Sweden.
Phelps calls himself a Baptist but he is not associated with any recognized denominational group and is routinely denounced by every Baptist organization of any significance.
His "church" is in fact a sado-mascochistic lawyer cult limited to his immediate family and a handful of similarly inbred nutcases.


"We'll hunt down your king," he said ominously to Expressen. "It doesn't make any difference where he tries to hide."


Phelps' hatred of the royal family and all things Swedish is linked directly to his equally virulent hatred of homosexuals. He praises homophobic crimes, including murder. When controversial Swedish minister, Åke Green, was convicted of inciting hatred of homosexuals following an anti-gay sermon, Phelps saw red and turned his attention to Sweden.

"You're doomed to spend eternity in hell," he continued. "All you Swedes and your Swedish king and his family."

The minister and twenty members of his congregation from the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas, are planning to come to Sweden at the beginning of September. They are bringing plenty of placards in order to spread their message that Sweden is the cradle of all evil and that the king rules a nation of sodomites.
He said the same thing about Lubbock and its mayor.

King Carl Gustaf is their primary target.

"Your king represents your doomed country and we'll find him wherever he may be."

Phelps claims that Sweden deserved to suffer in the Boxing Day tsunami catastrophe in southern Asia and has designed a monument to 'celebrate' the deaths of over 500 Swedes in Thailand.

The left-leaning Swedish media will naturally fail to mention Phelps' most prominent outrage, his attempts to desecrate the funerals of fallen soldiers. They can't confuse public sympathy by highlighting his anti-war views and hatred of the American military. That might take away from their focus, to discredit American Christians.

The royal household regards the proposed visit as a serious risk and has increased security around the king and the royal family.
Stop whimpering, royal girly-men. This bitch-pack's bark is much worse than its bite.

"We'll be informing Säpo of this," said royal spokeswoman, Ann-Christine Jernberg. A royal girly-girl.

So, should Sweden laugh, cry or take Fred Phelps seriously? Expressen columnist, Lars Lindström, is in no doubt that this is no joke.
You can throw him in a dungeon if you like. We'll get around to filing a diplomatic protest in, say, 2090.

"If he were a cartoon character, I'd laugh. But now I just feel ill. Minister Fred Phelps has such extreme views that even the Christian far right in the USA feel a bit queasy."
This invites a false inference by drastically (and willfully) understating the case. Phelps has no support whatsoever outside his own weird little cult.

Lindström argues that it isn't just singled out Sweden that's exercised about Phelps, but that he attracts a lot of attention in his home country. Sure enough, Lindstrom uses ambiguity to imply widespread support for the Phelpers in the US (why else would Lindstrom find this "attention" a cause for concern?)

"Phelps has eleven lawyers fighting for his constitutional right to cast the objects of his hatred to the fires of hell. To dismiss him as a village idiot is to take the easy way out."
No, he is still the village idiot. Lindstrom conveniently neglects to mention that all 11 of these lawyers are members of Phelps immediate family and the two or three deranged clans associated with them. This omission again invites the inference that Phelps has substantial support among Americans.

"With friends like Fred Phelps, Åke Green doesn't need a single enemy," concludes Lindström.
Ain't that the sad and sorry truth?

Once again, where does Phelps get the money for these expeditions? Phelps himself admits to spending $250K per year on this depravity. His mob has won a couple of lawsuits, but the proceeds come to less than $250K over the last 15 years. Somebody needs to find the money trail and follow it.
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy || 12/09/2006 18:30 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Interesting pics from the Log Cabin Republicans of Georgia:


Fred Phelps, Jr. (left) and Al Gore (center) Fundraiser at Phelps Home Topeka, Kansas 1989


Left to right: Fred Phelps, Jr., Tipper Gore, Betty Phelps, Al Gore

Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy || 12/09/2006 19:21 Comments || Top||

#2  Why would they let him and his fellow nutjobs into their country?

Not that I'm against it, you understand. Somebody besides us should have to suffer this idiot for a while.

Can we pay Sweden to keep him and his in-breeds?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 12/09/2006 22:30 Comments || Top||

#3  OK, I've got it:

1) Someone tell them there are homosexuals in Iraq.

2) Wait a couple of days and put 30 airplane tickets to Iraq in his mailbox along with a "Note from God" telling him to go there and picket the Sunni Triangle.

3) Put 30 picket signs written in arabic in his car that poke fun at Mighty Mo, his slippers, Islam, Bin Laden, the Heroic Resistance(TM), and anything else they'll react to. These should be labeled as coming from God, too. Don't worry, they'll believe this, too.

4) Watch for the festivities that evening on Al-Jizz!
Posted by: gorb || 12/09/2006 22:37 Comments || Top||


Police chief's letter to polygamist leader: I love you
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 12/09/2006 06:06 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Gunman, 3 victims dead in Chicago tower
CHICAGO (AP) - A gunman carried a cache of weapons past security in a giant envelope Friday afternoon, chained a law office's doors closed and fatally shot three people before a police sniper killed him as he held a hostage at gunpoint, authorities said.

Officers entered through another door in the U-shaped office, and a SWAT officer shot the gunman from about 45 yards away, Superintendent Phil Cline said.

There was no negotiation and the hostage was unharmed, he said.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: .com || 12/09/2006 01:08 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Patent attorneys?!?!
Posted by: exJAG || 12/09/2006 8:10 Comments || Top||

#2  Well, patent attorneys deal with inventors who tend to be a little more on the squirrely side of the human spectrum. My last office job was fa consulting firm who dealt with intellectual property, and some of our inventor-clients...lets just say I was amazed that some of them were allowed out unsupervised.
My abiding nightmare was that one of them someday would come bombing through the front door with a gun.
Posted by: Sgt. Mom || 12/09/2006 8:28 Comments || Top||

#3  Hmm. I guess that makes sense. I am a patent attorney, and we're about as threatening as librarians. It's just that in biotech, I tend to think of clients only as institutions and their relatively normal employees.

But now that you mention it, I had a couple of individual "inventors" consult me when I was doing military legal assistance. They were pretty squirrely -- adamant that their little widgets are tantamount to cold fusion. One guy expected to leave my office with a patent and a million-dollar contract with the Army, and just about f***ing erupted when I explained that the process was considerably more involved.

Okay, yeah, I see your point, Sgt. Mom!
Posted by: exJAG || 12/09/2006 10:00 Comments || Top||

#4  So there is a animated fly on the GIF....
hmmm ... is that patentable?

With reference now to FIG. 1, there is showm a simple animated GIF photo exemplary pest elimination device. The elimination device 24, 34, 44 can be attached to a helmet a gun or a hand for example.

....
Posted by: 3dc || 12/09/2006 11:01 Comments || Top||

#5  You called it, Sgt. Mom:
The gunman who fatally shot three people in a law firm's high-rise office before he was killed by police felt cheated over an invention, authorities said Saturday.

. . . Jackson, 59, told police before he was shot that he had been cheated over a toilet he had invented for use in trucks, Police Superintendent Phil Cline said Saturday.

The Chicago PD did some nice shooting, too:
He was holding a hostage at gunpoint Friday when a SWAT officer shot him from about 45 yards away, Cline said earlier. There were no negotiations and the hostage was unharmed, police said.
Posted by: exJAG || 12/09/2006 14:47 Comments || Top||

#6  Sigh. Color me un-surprised. The combination of being very creative, but somewhat unstable, in combination with very real odds against getting a new invention into the profitable market-sector... it had some really nasty potential.
And my office was closest to the front door, at that firm, too. I often thought about asking for getting a panic button installed.
Posted by: Sgt. Mom || 12/09/2006 15:14 Comments || Top||

#7  I want to patent thisn here device I invented that killz all the lawyers thru the internets.

I calls it a Henry VI.

Posted by: Billy Shakespeare Jr. || 12/09/2006 16:06 Comments || Top||

#8  GREAT graphic!!!

There was no negotiation and the hostage was unharmed, he said.

KORBEN: Mind if I go? I'm an excellent negotiator.

COP 1: Uh... Sure, go ahead.

Korben gets ready.

COP 1: We're sending someone in who's authorized to negotiate.

[INTERIOR OF POLICE STATION]

Korben walks quickly into the room, heads straight for Akanit, raises his gun and puts a bullet through his head.

KORBEN: Anyone else want to negotiate?

COP 2: (to another Cop) Where'd he learn to negotiate like that?
Posted by: Zenster || 12/09/2006 18:50 Comments || Top||


Wagnerian plot of a sex-mad mother grips German court
GERMANY is gripped by the case of the opera singer, her star lawyer husband and her sex-mad mother who nearly killed him in a bizarre sadomasochism game.
I think this was on Lifetime for Women a couple weeks ago. Or was it The Leather Channel?
A court in Stuttgart is hearing evidence against 69-year-old Margot Walter who beat and strangled her son-in-law Franz-Peter to the brink of death in his office earlier this year.
"Ach, I löve yöur leather cörset, Mistress!"
"Ja, ja. It's my favörite. I göt it in '53."
Edith Walter, 47, a famous opera singer who sports Pamela Anderson hair and short skirts, told the court her mother was shameless, often went out wearing no knickers and accompanied her husband to swinger clubs.
"Fritz! Över there! Löök, getting öut öf der Limösine!"
"Ach mein Gött! It's a 69-year old Willie!"
"Schie schöuld really cöver that thing up mit unterpantsen!"
Margot denies charges of attempted manslaughter, saying 66-year-old Franz-Peter was wounded in sex games that went wrong.
"Ja, ja! We wass just having ein bischen öf Fun!"
She went to his office in the family home near Stuttgart earlier this year as her daughter was giving an opera lesson to young students upstairs. When Edith returned, her husband was trussed up, lying in a pool of blood and was being throttled with the telephone cord by his mother-in-law.
"Gasp! Hoo, boy! Dieses ist really Fun!"
Wolfgang Pross, the judge in the case, asked Margot what the nature of the relationship was between her husband and her mother. She replied: "When I saw Peter lying in his own blood, my mother merely said, 'I am sorry but I love him.'
AoS at 1135 CST: pic added. Sorry folks, don't know how we missed that one. :-)
Posted by: Fred || 12/09/2006 00:48 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Wow. This story beats the crap out of OJ. :-)
Posted by: gorb || 12/09/2006 1:03 Comments || Top||

#2  Somehow I can't picture the elder lady just saying "Es tut mir leid, aber ich liebe ihn" -- that's some tough, germane love. At a minimum she should have tied up her daughter, too.
Posted by: Kalle (kafir forever) || 12/09/2006 4:14 Comments || Top||

#3  Edith Walter, 47, a famous opera singer who sports Pamela Anderson hair and short skirts, told the court her mother was shameless...

Only momsey? Take a look in the mirror kid. Has Springer gone German?
Posted by: Procopius2k || 12/09/2006 9:03 Comments || Top||

#4  When Edith returned, her husband was trussed up, lying in a pool of blood and was being throttled with the telephone cord by his mother-in-law.
YJCMTSU.

Posted by: anonymous5089 || 12/09/2006 10:22 Comments || Top||

#5  Just when I was about to say this thread is worthless without pics...
Posted by: Raj || 12/09/2006 11:39 Comments || Top||

#6  You could have used this one. It's so much more Rantburger, heh.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 12/09/2006 12:42 Comments || Top||

#7  P2k: have you no shame? That caused my monitor to puke!!!!
Posted by: USN,Ret || 12/09/2006 23:31 Comments || Top||


4 -year-old Accused of Improperly Touching Teacher
A four-year-old hugged his teachers aide and was put into in-school suspension, according to the father. But La Vega school administrators have a cover different story.
I'll bet they do. Or if they don't, they're working on it frantically.
Damarcus Blackwell's four-year-old son was lining-up to get on the bus after school last month, when he was accused of rubbing his face in the chest of a female employee.
I can relate to this.
The prinicipal of La Vega Primary School sent a letter to the Blackwells that said the pre-kindergartener demonstrated "inappropriate physical behavior interpreted as sexual contact and/or sexual harassment."
Makes sense to the principal. Only the principal. And maybe other highly trained educational professionals who are beholden to him for their jobs. The Thin Blue Academic Line, I guess.
Blackwell says it's ridiculous that the aide would misread a hug from a four-year-old. Blackwell wrote to administrators demanding that the whole incident be expunged from his son's academic file because his son is too young to know what it means to act sexually.
Makes sense to everyone else on the planet. Except highly trained educational professionals at La Vega.
David Davis, the executive director of the Advocacy Center in Waco tends Read: I agree. But I have to cover my a$$ here for some stupid reason to agree with Blackwell. He says assuming the boy has not had sexual encounters, or been inappropriately exposed to pornography, most four-year-olds are sexually innocent.
Another highly professional statement. Wouldn't have guessed that myself. Thanks for the info. Got any links to the double-blind studies needed to divine that clever conclusion?
Blackwell got a response from the La Vega administration. The sexual references on the discipline referral were removed. But the thing that makes Blackwell most upset is they told him "your request for an apology by the aide and removal of all paperwork regarding this incident is denied." Now the young student's file will refer to the incident as "inappropriate physical contact." And Blackwell says he will continue to fight the district.
Looks like La Vega officials know they're wrong, but are immature and it shows in needing to hold onto some manufactured thread of validation with the inappropriate physical contact line. Well, it's a start.
La Vega I.S.D. administrators told News Channel 25 they couldn't comment on this case because of student privacy issues.
How convenient. Otherwise I'm sure they'd love to discuss it.
Posted by: gorb || 12/09/2006 00:14 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Which one is four years old ?
Posted by: wxjames || 12/09/2006 0:41 Comments || Top||

#2  The smarter one.
Posted by: gorb || 12/09/2006 0:48 Comments || Top||

#3  Which one is four years old ?

For how fast they grow up now, probably the one with the boobs.
Posted by: Zenster || 12/09/2006 1:11 Comments || Top||

#4  Could we bring back corporeal punishment, at least for teachers?
Posted by: gromgoru || 12/09/2006 7:01 Comments || Top||

#5  If the kid tried to put a dollar in her thong, slipped some tongue into her ear, and requested a table dance, well, ok.

But other than that, it just shows how warped that aide and her supervisors are if they think a little four year old boy was coming on to her. Anyone who interprets an innocent preschool child's affection as sexual behavior has no business being around kids in the first place. That's the kind of mindset that pedophiles have. They justify their sick behavior by saying the kid wanted it or was coming on to them....just like this gang of idiots are doing.
Posted by: Swamp Blondie || 12/09/2006 7:07 Comments || Top||

#6  She got a kick out of the hug and was afraid it showed.
Posted by: SwissTex || 12/09/2006 8:53 Comments || Top||

#7  abishop@lavegaisd.org

Email the district administrator and let them know your view on this. The administrators hide behind their computer screens. Let's bring it to them.
Posted by: Art || 12/09/2006 11:21 Comments || Top||

#8  Playing doctor usually doesn't start till at least age five (^8
Posted by: 3dc || 12/09/2006 11:23 Comments || Top||

#9  A four year old child is not tall enough to "Rub his face against a teacher's chest"

So what's the truth here, she was leaning way way over?
She squatted down?
Either way it's hardly a four year old's fault, he's well acustomed to rubbing his face against a female chest at that age.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 12/09/2006 12:18 Comments || Top||

#10  Damarcus Blackwell's four-year-old son was lining-up to get on the bus after school last month, when he was accused of rubbing his face in the chest of a female employee.


Either that is one very tall 4-year old, or the aide bent down to hug him, presenting boobs first, envelopping the kid's face. Bet the aide is amply endowed. Bet the kid was just trying to breathe. I'm with RedNeck on this one.
Posted by: Thinemp Whimble2412 || 12/09/2006 12:42 Comments || Top||

#11  The poor kids was probably taking an opportunity to wipe a runny nose!
Posted by: Jim || 12/09/2006 12:52 Comments || Top||

#12  The poor kids was probably taking an opportunity to wipe a runny nose!

As seen in Garfield.

This story is the exact equivalent of the UK fellow being harassed by police for carrying a potentially harmful cricket ball. PCness gone amok, Nanny-State in its glory.
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 12/09/2006 13:39 Comments || Top||

#13  Btw, when I was 5 (?), I hid under the table where my then teen aunt had an UK penpal, come to visit her, sit down for a little chat... and I bit her on the inside of the thigh, don't know what motivated me. That english girl slapped me and called me a "little pig", en français dans le texte. Those were the days.
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 12/09/2006 13:41 Comments || Top||

#14  So what's the truth here, she was leaning way way over?

She was holding the child in a suggestive manner, and he took advantage. Shocked by her own feelings of lust she had to file charges to deflect attention from herself and onto the 4 year old. Where it rightly belonged!

/sarcasm

Posted by: Mick Dundee || 12/09/2006 14:37 Comments || Top||

#15  The question for me is why the employee felt complelled to bring charges? The American public education system has been in decline for the last 40 years and incidents like this are an example of how far it has fallen. Teachers who can't seem to teach students to read, write, or reason are caught up in inculculating social dogma. I didn't even mention math and science, if it weren't for foreign students, they wouldn't even bother with holding math and science classes.

A step in the right direction would be outlaw the NEA and the ACLU. Another would be for the parents of this kid to sue the "female employee" and various school officials involved in this idiocy into bankruptcy and the school district into receivership.
Posted by: RWV || 12/09/2006 15:08 Comments || Top||

#16  Teachers who can't seem to teach students to read, write, or reason are caught up in inculculating social dogma.

Hey, what do you know : same thing in France, in England, and I'd guess in most of Western Europe.
Gramsci's long march through the institutions has been very successful.
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 12/09/2006 15:57 Comments || Top||

#17  She must have turned him over and stuck his -youknow- in her mouth.

What kind of sick pervert would consider a 4-year-old rubbing his face in her breast to be a sexual contact?
Posted by: CrazyFool || 12/09/2006 16:05 Comments || Top||

#18  Playing doctor usually doesn't start till at least age five

I can still remember the time I got caught playing doctor with the little girl next door.



Fortunately, it was a Wednesday and we were out golfing. [rimshot]

The poor kids was probably taking an opportunity to wipe a runny nose!

Or he was just hungry.

"I didn't breast feed you for fourteen years for this!"
[/Ethel Tirebiter]
Posted by: Zenster || 12/09/2006 17:12 Comments || Top||

#19  Instead of piling on the teacher (which is rightly deserved by the way), I feel this is actually the fault of the P.C. NEA/ACLU driven lawsuits that have FORCED this on school boards. Both my parents, my sis and my wife are teachers and it absolutely befuddles me at HOW MUCH paperwork they have to "file" just because of an "incident" like this. Kids are brutally honest, and (this is an extremely big what if) what would've happened if lil' Blackwell went home and told his dad that teach not only gave him a hug, but stuck her boobs in his face. Granted, NO 4 year old is doing that for sexual reasons (unless a LOT wrong is goin' on at home), but the teach was probably told by the principal or someone to file this complaint to cover their (the school's) arse in case the parents and/or the ACLU wanted to file a lawsuit. I truly believe that education is probably only second nowadays to fast foods in being "scared" of being sued (and rightly so, with all the PC police freaks out there).

My mom sums it up this way (she taught for years before staying home when I and sis were born, then went back to teaching when we reached middle school age, so she was out for a total of 8-9 years or so)...."It used to be when a kid got in trouble, the parents would ask, 'What did lil' Johnny do?' Now, it's 'What did YOU do to lil' Johnny?'" No one in this day and age can believe their "lil' Johnny" would do ANYTHING wrong, so the blame the teachers. Easy scapegoat for some who refuse to parent correctly. Just playing devil's advocate here. I'm not saying the teach was right (not at all), but it's just the culture wrought upon them by an over-obsessive litigative society gone amok!
Posted by: BA || 12/09/2006 21:41 Comments || Top||

#20  P.S. I say I'm amazed at how much paperwork they had to complete, and I'm a Fed. Govt' employee, lol!
Posted by: BA || 12/09/2006 21:42 Comments || Top||


-Short Attention Span Theater-
Museum loses bid on gallows by a neck
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 12/09/2006 06:08 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The situation is ... no I can't says it... puns are too awful this early....
Posted by: 3dc || 12/09/2006 9:45 Comments || Top||

#2  Too bad they didn't hang Richard Speck or Gacy from it.
Posted by: Penguin || 12/09/2006 13:04 Comments || Top||

#3  Richard Speck, the man who refined man boobs to an art form, while performing his videotaped coke-fueled homosexual orgies in jail. Gotta admire than, I guess, that was the only redeemable quality this sad excuse of an human being had.
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 12/09/2006 13:22 Comments || Top||

#4  Loan it to Iraq for Saddam. Then it would be worth some REAL money!
Posted by: 3dc || 12/09/2006 14:26 Comments || Top||


Typhoon: Mass Evacuation Ordered in Philippines
The second typhoon to hit the Philippines in two weeks made landfall Saturday, forcing the evacuation of thousands in an eastern province where hundreds died in the last storm.

Typhoon Utor, packing sustained winds of 75 mph, made landfall in Guiuan, a town in the Eastern Samar province - about 400 miles southeast of Manila - at noon Saturday. It was expected to cross the central Visayas region and be over the South China Sea by Monday, chief weather forecaster Nathaniel Cruz said.

The new typhoon's path is just south of the region where Typhoon Durian left more than 1,000 people dead or missing last week.

Fernando Gonzales, governor of hard-hit Albay province, said Saturday about 15,000 people from about a dozen villages, including those wiped out by mudslides caused by Durian, were ordered evacuated to temporary shelters in government buildings, schools and churches.

Those numbers are in addition to the more than 100,000 people already in evacuation centers following Durian, the National Disaster Coordinating Council in Manila said.

That typhoon unleashed tons of rocks and other volcanic debris from the slopes of the Mayon volcano, sending walls of mud and boulders onto villages below.

The latest typhoon prompted the postponement of next week's Southeast Asian and East Asian summits in central Cebu city and nearby Mactan island.
Posted by: .com || 12/09/2006 03:43 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Africa Subsaharan
S.Africa: European Official Gang Raped in Durban, 11 Tourists Mugged
Business as usual. HT African Crisis.
A visiting European swimming official has been gang-raped near the Durban beachfront paddling pools while her male companion, also a tourist, was held down. The latest gang-rape came just a day after Durban unveiled its beefed up holiday safety programme.

The shocking attack on Wednesday was at the Lower Marine Parade children’s paddling pools, the scene of the gang rape of three teenagers on December 16, the Day of Reconciliation, last year. The victim, whose age is unknown, was in town with her team which was competing in this week’s International Paralympic Committee’s (IPC) Swimming World Championships at the King’s Park Aquatic Centre. She is not believed to be disabled.

Reliable sources said that the woman, who was staying in a beachfront hotel, decided to go for a walk on the beach with a male swimming official from another country. It was just before 1am when the unsuspecting couple were attacked by four young men. “The man was held down while she was gang-raped,” a source said.

The victim was taken to a local hospital for treatment and is understood to have returned to the championships on Thursday. Four suspects have been arrested, SAPS provincial spokeswoman, Senior Superintendant Phindile Hadebe confirmed last night.

A source in the hospitality industry described the incident as outrageous, but wondered why the couple had ignored clear safety tips in their hotel. Said another: “This is horrifying, but what were they thinking going for a walk at that time of night?”

She was worried that if the suspects were “young men” they would be released from custody and be back on the streets to attack again. “If the authorities got rid of the street children and vagrants along the beachfront, then surely those still hanging around have to be criminals and the police could act. Often the police drive past criminals, believing them to be street children and vagrants.”

The attack comes at a time when South Africa is observing 16 days of activism against the abuse of women and children and follows the recent mugging of 11 cruise liner passengers at Durban’s North Beach.

Crime came under the spotlight during the recent provincial tourism conference in Durban, when delegates were told that the city had the most significant tourism development potential in the country – but also the biggest safety and security problem.
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 12/09/2006 14:18 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Ummm, I believe South Africa is a world leader in the category of .... rape. Sad, very sad.
Posted by: Lancasters Over Dresden || 12/09/2006 15:27 Comments || Top||

#2  “This is horrifying, but what were they thinking going for a walk at that time of night?”

Hmm... that South Africa was a 'civilized' place? Obviously they were wrong.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 12/09/2006 16:01 Comments || Top||

#3  the scene of the gang rape of three teenagers on December 16, the Day of Reconciliation

I'd hate to see what happens on their "Day of Revenge".

“This is horrifying, but what were they thinking going for a walk at that time of night?”

The voice of reason.

“If the authorities got rid of the street children and vagrants along the beachfront, then surely those still hanging around have to be criminals and the police could act. Often the police drive past criminals, believing them to be street children and vagrants.”

The voice of eliteism. (i.e., "Keep that riff-raff away from the water's edge.)

Anyone idiotic enough to walk about at one o'clock in the morning in a crime-ridden nation is begging for disaster. I can only suppose that eliteists refuse to consider such an indecent notion as self-responsibility.
Posted by: Zenster || 12/09/2006 16:27 Comments || Top||

#4  Good luck with the World Cup.
Posted by: Steve White || 12/09/2006 16:52 Comments || Top||

#5  It's definitely one of the more likely spots to get raped, and it also has a high HIV infection rate.

I've wanted to go to South Africa. I heard it was beautiful. However....I think I'd rather go somewhere else safer, thankyouverymuch.
Posted by: Swamp Blondie || 12/09/2006 18:02 Comments || Top||

#6  I'm not sure I'd go to Africa on a bet.

I'll take Belize instead.

Posted by: FOTSGreg || 12/09/2006 18:25 Comments || Top||

#7  Foot-ball, a gentleman's game, played by thugs.

(Rugby, a thug's game, played by Gentlemen).

Phok phoot-ball, Johanna, I aint gonna play (Sun City, lol!), and will not pay a red cent to lively up/ptomote this shite.

Why on earth anyone go to this place? Full of Paleo wanna-bes, from about 700 years ago.
Posted by: Sloluque Omairt2392 || 12/09/2006 18:28 Comments || Top||

#8  With the new batch of ANC cadre winning the elections, SA will be Zimbabwe South in about in 3 years. The ANC is already talking about gangstering the white-held farms, just like Mugabe did. The whole of southern and central Africa is just a write-off, anymore. And you are safer vacationing in Beruit, than in Joburg : Hizb'allah protects tourists because of the jobs and money they bring in.
Posted by: Shieldwolf || 12/09/2006 19:20 Comments || Top||

#9  A source in the hospitality industry described the incident as outrageous, but wondered why the couple had ignored clear safety tips in their hotel.

Clausal oxymoron, I guess.

It's getting to be about time to vacate the country if you have more than three functional neurons. Now I'm just trying to figure out which place would be least bad to flee to.
Posted by: gorb || 12/09/2006 21:04 Comments || Top||

#10  So I guess if I'm insane enough to go to South Africa someday, I should just stay in the hotel...
Posted by: tu3031 || 12/09/2006 21:08 Comments || Top||

#11  The attack comes at a time when South Africa is observing 16 days of activism against the abuse of women and children and follows the recent mugging of 11 cruise liner passengers at Durban’s North Beach.

So, I guess they remain inactive the other 349 days of the year? Jeebus, SA sounds more and more like ZimBOBwe every day.
Posted by: BA || 12/09/2006 22:02 Comments || Top||

#12  Not just South Africa, tu3031. When Mr. Wife went down to Caracas on a business trip a few years ago, the hotel doorman called a cab to take him to the pub across the street, as it was deemed unsafe for gringos to walk across the street without an armed guard... a considerable change from a decade earlier, when a friend of ours happily wandered the streets doing errands while his wife worked at the office (he was a trailing husband, and thoroughly enjoyed it the opportunities that entailed) with only a loaded pistol in his pocket.
Posted by: trailing wife || 12/09/2006 22:30 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
‘Truthiness' named word of the year
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (AP) — After 12 months of naked partisanship on Capitol Hill, on cable TV and in the blogosphere, the word of the year for 2006 is “truthiness.”
Shit. I mean, gosh darn it.
The word — if one can call it that — best summed up 2006, according to an online survey by dictionary publisher Merriam-Webster.
Not enough "taqiyya" votes. Too bad.
“Truthiness” was credited to Comedy Central satirist Stephen Colbert, who defined it as “truth that comes from the gut, not books.”
It just hit me that there's a subtle implication lurking in there: books are bad. Wottan asstard. Lol. Truthiness means something very different to me and, I believe, others as well...
“We're at a point where what constitutes truth is a question on a lot of people's minds, and truth has become up for grabs,” said Merriam-Webster president John Morse. “‘Truthiness' is a playful way for us to think about a very important issue.”
It means that the truth, the actual truth, has been nuked in favor of what feels good. And I'm right, lol. Fuck Colbert.
Other Top 10 finishers included “war,” “insurgent,” “sectarian” and “corruption.” But “truthiness” won by a 5-to-1 margin, Morse said.
Gosh, reality words lost out to a fantasy word. Go figure.
Colbert, who once derided the folks at Springfield-based Merriam-Webster as the “word police” and a bunch of “wordinistas,” was pleased.
Time to suck up, bitch.
“Though I'm no fan of reference books and their fact-based agendas, I am a fan of anyone who chooses to honour me,” he said in an e-mail to The Associated Press.
I am known to suck among the very best.
“And what an honour,” he said. “Truthiness now joins the lexicographical pantheon with words like ‘squash,' ‘merry,' ‘crumpet,' ‘the,' ‘xylophone,' ‘circuitous,' ‘others' and others.”
Coming from you that means, well, nothing.
Colbert first uttered “truthiness” during an October 2005 broadcast of “The Colbert Report,” his parody of combative, conservative talk shows.
Never seen it - except as excerpted by others. It's "hitman" theater - a.k.a. modern journalism.
Posted by: .com || 12/09/2006 00:44 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  It's not a word. It's a joke.
Posted by: gorb || 12/09/2006 1:02 Comments || Top||

#2  Lol. Truthiness means something very different to me and, I believe, others as well...

Why does liberalism's much beloved 'infinite shades of gray' spring to mind?

I'm no fan of reference books and their fact-based agendas

Doesn't this statement essentially disinclude Colbert from all known reality?

I'll close by quoting Homer:

Facts are meaningless. You could use facts to prove anything that's even remotely true!

What? Like you were expecting something from "The Illiad"?
Posted by: Zenster || 12/09/2006 1:29 Comments || Top||

#3  xylophone, the only word in the German language containing a Y. But then I am horribly addicted to fact-based agendas and using German computer keyboards drove me nuts.

Funny comment, Zenster.
Posted by: phil_b || 12/09/2006 2:36 Comments || Top||

#4  xylophone, the only word in the German language containing a Y.

Nitpick: Xylitol
Posted by: Zenster || 12/09/2006 3:36 Comments || Top||

#5  Colbert is a satirist. He's not advocating for "truthiness" (yes, I refuse to treat it as a real word), he's observing that more and more Americans are more interested in asserting their own "truthy" version of an issue than learning the objective reality. Karl Rove's "secret numbers" that showed the 2006 election would go well or the 2004 election polls that supposedly looked so good for Kerry (although that may have been an honest reading of inaccurate data) are examples.

Of course, his examples are conservatives who won't accept the "truth" of global warming, evolution, failure in Iraq, etc., etc. That's a different issue, but the larger point is worth discussing.
Posted by: Thinese Slugum3677 || 12/09/2006 7:09 Comments || Top||

#6  “truth that comes from the gut, not books.”

sending up..take offs..parodies are Colbert's shtick.

in the main his target are Repub pols, Hollywood, and religious fundamentalists... [seems to me anyway]

He'd be alot funnier if he'd also spoof Democraps and all the little rat bastard traitors infesting media and academia; but then he'd be sending himself up.

take that Colbert!

:-)

Posted by: RD || 12/09/2006 8:49 Comments || Top||

#7  Ratz, I thought Rosebud was going to do a last minute darkhorse.
Posted by: Shipman || 12/09/2006 9:15 Comments || Top||

#8  "Reach out with your feelings, Luke."
Posted by: James || 12/09/2006 11:03 Comments || Top||

#9  “Truthiness” was credited to Comedy Central satirist Stephen Colbert, who defined it as “truth that comes from the gut, not books.”

He may define it that way, but that isn't how he uses it, either the day he introduced the term or since. He uses it exactly as we do, for something that feels like it ought to be true from a particular worldview, but isn't. This is the man who was shocked to discover, after joining The Daily Show, that he's a stereotypical liberal; before that he hadn't been aware he had any political opinions at all.

We'll go for taqiyya again next year, .com. ;-)
Posted by: trailing wife || 12/09/2006 11:31 Comments || Top||

#10  He may define it that way, but that isn't how he uses it, either the day he introduced the term or since.

I was telling my boyfriend that, on righty blogs, "truthiness" was something that sounded true, or that someone thought ought to be true, but wasn't.

And then I realized that was the same as "truth that comes from the gut, not books."

I'm no fan of reference books and their fact-based agendas

I'm pretty sure that was meant as a joke.
Posted by: Angie Schultz || 12/09/2006 14:00 Comments || Top||

#11  Smells like macaca to me.
Posted by: wxjames || 12/09/2006 18:17 Comments || Top||

#12  “Truthiness” was credited to Comedy Central satirist Stephen Colbert, who defined it as “truth that comes from the gut, not books.”

"And we well know that 'truth' has a liberal bias ...."
Posted by: Mizzou Mafia || 12/09/2006 20:31 Comments || Top||

#13  Jeez. What about "ubuntu"? I mean, Clinton said it, Tutu used it in a book...
Posted by: tu3031 || 12/09/2006 21:03 Comments || Top||


San Francisco Fights Over Its Character
SAN FRANCISCO Dec 8, 2006 (AP)— An effort to clean up some of the city's seedier neighborhoods and rid the streets of junkies, hookers and runaways has run headlong into San Francisco's free-to-be-who-you-are ethos.

Nearly four decades after the Summer of Love, residents and merchants frustrated with what they regard as blight are turning to the city for help or taking revitalization into their own hands.
I can't imagine why.
But other residents of the Tenderloin district and Haight-Ashbury contend a crackdown would rob their neighborhoods of their identity and violate everything San Francisco stands for.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: .com || 12/09/2006 00:23 || Comments || Link || [8 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Aw, come on, just when I've convinced al Qaeda to set off their dirty bombs in the city by the bay.
Posted by: wxjames || 12/09/2006 0:43 Comments || Top||

#2  Joey Cain ... complained that those who would drive the vagrants from the neighborhood are turning their backs on the Haight's "historic obligation" to shelter the downtrodden.

Perhaps Joey and his kind could take them under their wing and offer them a room in their house to live in. For free.

Build them a shelter. If that isn't enough, change the laws to get them help for whatever mental condition they have that makes them think living out in the elements and the constant fear of getting shanked is better than working 8-5 to pay for shelter, getting healthcare benefits, and having a computer with a high-speed internet connection.
Posted by: gorb || 12/09/2006 0:56 Comments || Top||

#3  I knew if I left this story in the hopper .com would jump all over it ...
Posted by: Steve White || 12/09/2006 1:32 Comments || Top||

#4  Elected officials in San Francisco know they must tread lightly to avoid offending people's ultraliberal sensibilities.

So, I suppose they would tread equally lightly to avoid offending ultraconservative sensibilities? Hello, hypocrisy?
Posted by: gromky || 12/09/2006 5:25 Comments || Top||

#5  Only an Ultra Right Wing Conservative would object to street people defecating outside their ice cream shop don't ya know.
Posted by: BrerRabbit || 12/09/2006 8:32 Comments || Top||

#6  Only an Ultra Right Wing Conservative would object to street people defecating outside their ice cream shop don't ya know.

and the state health inspector.

On a side note, recalling that SF is a sanctuary city, why does anyone have a door on their house or apartment? I mean, if you really support he notion of open borders and an open society, you should demonstrate that by open portals [formerly known as doors] on all buildings. That should end the sight of people living on and urinating in the street. Issue solved.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 12/09/2006 8:56 Comments || Top||

#7  In hollyweed at a dinner party just before the first election of the Governator I met a leftist lady who supported him. I asks why... "Because he might get the bums who piss on my front wall off the street!"

So hollyweed get's that much. What the hell is wrong with SanFran?
Posted by: 3dc || 12/09/2006 9:43 Comments || Top||

#8  San Francisco has completely mainstream values. At least that's what Nancy Pelosi and the MSM keep telling us.
Posted by: DMFD || 12/09/2006 18:04 Comments || Top||

#9  When the Big One happens, I hope it swallows that place whole...
Posted by: tu3031 || 12/09/2006 18:23 Comments || Top||

#10  I'm from San Jose, but spent years working in San Francisco. By far the most beautiful large city in the U.S., and the most quirky. I've given my contributions to that as well, and have slept in Golden Gate park after getting stoned off my rocker a few times. Enough is enough though. Most San Franciscans aren't like the extremists you see on the news all the time. The extremists are the loudest though. I guess, kind of like how it is with Muslims. Don't know. If they clean it up, kudos to them!
Posted by: Thoth || 12/09/2006 19:19 Comments || Top||

#11  I knew if I left this story in the hopper .com would jump all over it ...

Like so much uncovered meat.

By far the most beautiful large city in the U.S.

An easy case to argue, especially since it routinely places among the top ten tourist destinations in the entire world. It is also restaurant heaven. Northern California has three of the top thirteen finest restaurants in the entire world, all within driving distance of SF. While the antics of its politicians leave much to be desired, the scenic beauty and quality of life in the Bay Area is unbeatable. It is one of the world's largest and safest natural harbors. The view from Mount Diablo is rivaled only by Mount Kilamanjaro (and better than Everest). The Central Valley supplies 50% of the produce consumed in the USA. Silicon Valley remains the technological engine of the entire world and California's economy usually places among the world's top ten nations.

We must be doing something right. Why else would so many people want to live here?
Posted by: Zenster || 12/09/2006 19:39 Comments || Top||

#12  Howdy, Thoth! Sen de a note when you get a chance. I lived and worked in San Francisco in 1982 for a short time. I liked it OK. I lived and worked in Portland, Oregon in 1990. I LOVED it. Have to disagree with ya Thoth, Portland is the most beautiful large city in the US>
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 12/09/2006 19:40 Comments || Top||

#13  Worked and lived in downtown SF for 15 years. I hate the place with a passion. While there are many nice parts, mostly it's an open gutter of a city. A couple of districts like Bernal Heights and the Marina hardly makeup for all of the districts like Hunters Point, The Mission, the Tenderloin, the Lower Haight; I could go on. The sheer volume of drunks, drug addicts, and vagrants in SF is nothing short of staggering. They're, what, 20% of the population.
Posted by: Secret Master || 12/09/2006 20:16 Comments || Top||

#14  Never been to Portland DB. Couldn't say on that one.
Posted by: Thoth || 12/09/2006 20:38 Comments || Top||

#15  I'm still ROFLMAO over the term "Tenderloin District". Completely sums up my (red-state, southern) impression of the looniest city in the US, lol!
Posted by: BA || 12/09/2006 21:50 Comments || Top||

#16  The Tenderloin looks a lot like the Bowrey in NYC.
Posted by: Thoth || 12/09/2006 22:42 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
77[untagged]

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
Sat 2006-12-09
  Chicago jihad boy nabbed in grenade plot
Fri 2006-12-08
  Olmert vows to do nothing ''show restraint'' in face of Kassams
Thu 2006-12-07
  Soddy forces, gunnies shoot it out
Wed 2006-12-06
  Sudan rejects U.N. compromise deal on Darfur
Tue 2006-12-05
  Talibs "repel" Brit assault
Mon 2006-12-04
  Bolton to resign
Sun 2006-12-03
  First blood drawn in Beirut
Sat 2006-12-02
  Hezbers begin campaign to force Siniora out
Fri 2006-12-01
  Hundreds killed, wounded in south Sudan clashes
Thu 2006-11-30
  'Israel losing patience over truce violations'
Wed 2006-11-29
  Kashmir bad boyz offer conditional hudna
Tue 2006-11-28
  Two Kassams land in Sderot area
Mon 2006-11-27
  Russers Bang Abu Havs
Sun 2006-11-26
  NATO says killed 55 Taliban in Afghan clashes
Sat 2006-11-25
  Olmert agrees to Hudna, promises Peace In Our Time


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.
3.141.100.120
Help keep the Burg running! Paypal:
WoT Operations (14)    WoT Background (29)    Non-WoT (15)    Opinion (8)    (0)