About Me
Friday, December 28, 2007
Thursday, December 20, 2007
The Gender Gap - Clinton 4 Prez
"In general, men have the most problem electing women to executive jobs -- such as governor," says Celinda Lake, a Democratic pollster and strategist working with Sen. Joe Biden in the presidential race. "They wonder, 'Can she be effective? Will other men -- in Congress, world leaders -- be willing to listen to her?' "
But Lake and others also note that Clinton does have unique negatives. "In Senator Clinton's case, men have stored a lot of doubts about her," Lake says.
Bruce Nielsen, who picks up recycling for the city of Buffalo, is one of those men.
"No way -- not even close," he says during a phone interview after participating in a Post poll. "Where do I start? I guess her views on the war, and the fact that I'm afraid if we pull out of Iraq too fast, she'll bring the war over here." Clinton now favors a phased troop redeployment starting immediately.
And then: "I just don't like her personality. She wears the pants in that family. She's pushy. The way Bill got caught [philandering] -- I think she should have left him. I pretty much lost respect for the woman.
"This has nothing to do with gender. I just don't like the woman."
So whom is he leaning toward?
He struggles with a name, and then turns from the phone to ask his wife: "What's the colored fella's name? Obama. Yeah, Obama, I like him.
"He's a good family man, strong family values. He respects people and he seems honest. Experience -- probably not as much as the others, but he's not afraid to get his hands dirty."
But Lake and others also note that Clinton does have unique negatives. "In Senator Clinton's case, men have stored a lot of doubts about her," Lake says.
Bruce Nielsen, who picks up recycling for the city of Buffalo, is one of those men.
"No way -- not even close," he says during a phone interview after participating in a Post poll. "Where do I start? I guess her views on the war, and the fact that I'm afraid if we pull out of Iraq too fast, she'll bring the war over here." Clinton now favors a phased troop redeployment starting immediately.
And then: "I just don't like her personality. She wears the pants in that family. She's pushy. The way Bill got caught [philandering] -- I think she should have left him. I pretty much lost respect for the woman.
"This has nothing to do with gender. I just don't like the woman."
So whom is he leaning toward?
He struggles with a name, and then turns from the phone to ask his wife: "What's the colored fella's name? Obama. Yeah, Obama, I like him.
"He's a good family man, strong family values. He respects people and he seems honest. Experience -- probably not as much as the others, but he's not afraid to get his hands dirty."
Monday, November 12, 2007
0-0=25
Kansas State (2-0) entered the ESPN/USA Today poll at No. 24, while Syracuse joined at No. 25 despite having yet to play a game. The Orange are scheduled to host Siena on Monday night.
ESPN/USA Today Poll
1. North Carolina (14) 0-0 747
2. UCLA (10) 1-0 744
3. Memphis (6) 2-0 715
4. Kansas (1) 2-0 680
5. Georgetown 1-0 636
6. Louisville 0-0 610
7. Tennessee 1-0 606
8. Indiana 0-0 504
9. Washington State 1-0 502
10. Duke 1-0 428
11. Marquette 1-0 404
12. Michigan State 0-0 400
13. Oregon 2-0 398
14. Gonzaga 1-0 320
15. Texas A&M 1-0 289
16. Texas 0-0 269
17. Arizona 0-0 266
18. Arkansas 1-0 205
19. Pittsburgh 3-0 201
20. Stanford 3-0 191
21. Southern Illinois 0-0 155
22. North Carolina State 0-0 127
23. Villanova 1-0 114
24. Kansas State 2-0 89
25. Syracuse 0-0 69
ESPN/USA Today Poll
1. North Carolina (14) 0-0 747
2. UCLA (10) 1-0 744
3. Memphis (6) 2-0 715
4. Kansas (1) 2-0 680
5. Georgetown 1-0 636
6. Louisville 0-0 610
7. Tennessee 1-0 606
8. Indiana 0-0 504
9. Washington State 1-0 502
10. Duke 1-0 428
11. Marquette 1-0 404
12. Michigan State 0-0 400
13. Oregon 2-0 398
14. Gonzaga 1-0 320
15. Texas A&M 1-0 289
16. Texas 0-0 269
17. Arizona 0-0 266
18. Arkansas 1-0 205
19. Pittsburgh 3-0 201
20. Stanford 3-0 191
21. Southern Illinois 0-0 155
22. North Carolina State 0-0 127
23. Villanova 1-0 114
24. Kansas State 2-0 89
25. Syracuse 0-0 69
Monday, October 22, 2007
When Life Immitates Life
BBC NEWS
When work becomes a game
By Mark Ward
Technology correspondent, BBC News website
Video games are big business and soon they could be big in business too.
A whole generation is growing up for whom video games are a key part of how they relax, whether it be fragging friends in a first person shooter or backing up the main tank in a Warcraft raid.
And it is not just youngsters. There are plenty of older folks who shake off the dust of the working day in many different virtual worlds.
Statistics from the the US Entertainment Software Association (ESA) back this up. It claims that the average player is 33 and has more than a decade of gaming under their belt.
All of a sudden, say academics and researchers, companies have realised that all the time employees spend gaming in virtual worlds is changing them.
Ian Hughes, IBM's metaverse evangelist, said many organisations were considering ways of harnessing the skills and familiarity their employees have with virtual environments.
This familiarity has driven many organisations to consider virtual worlds as places where employees can meet, mix and get on with the job.
"A lot of people are more accepting of that way of working just because of games," he said.
"It's about harnessing that ability to play to get work done."
The formidable organisational skills needed to run a game team or guild, organise raids involving perhaps 40 people and co-ordinate their different abilities to defeat a game's strongest foes are all relevant to work, said Mr Hughes.
Game gear
But it is not just the skills that gamers hone in futuristic or fantasy worlds that businesses want to co-opt. Some are taking their inspiration directly from the way that online games are structured.
Dr Byron Reeves, a professor of education at Stanford University, said some firms were taking elements from games to overcome the difficulties of working life in the 21st Century.
"The problems associated with distributed teams, collaboration and information overload right now are so severe, and the opportunities so good, that they are willing to look at anything," he said.
Dr Reeves has founded a company called Seriosity that applies game elements to workplaces.
It was working with five or six unnamed Fortune 500 companies to harness the efficiencies of those game mechanics, said Dr Reeve.
One of the programs developed by Seriosity adds a virtual currency element to e-mail in a bid to help people cope with information overload.
Anyone sending a message adds some of their limited supply of virtual coins, called Serios, to show how important they consider that e-mail to be.
It was a more finely grained grading system than the low, medium or high importance flags found in most e-mail programs, said Dr Reeves.
It had other benefits too, he said. It revealed not just the flow of messages but also started to show who people pay attention to and who did a good job of getting responses.
Some companies were starting to adopt even more of the elements familiar from games.
"There are people right now trying to map it one-to-one," said Dr Reeves.
Level playing field
Convinced that games can help them thrive some companies have turned work groups into guilds, rewarded staff with experience points when they complete tasks, giving out titles and badges when a guild finished a project and portraying objectives as quests.
Some were also considering using a virtual currency as a reward system allowing workers to cash in their savings for benefits or extras for their office space. The top performing guilds also get to do the best projects.
None, so far, he said, were tying wages to how people performed in the quests and against other guilds.
"Mapping levels and points on to wages is the most extreme application," he said.
Companies were adopting game mechanics for several reasons, said Dr Reeves.
Partly because workers were so familiar with this structure, he said, and because people become powerfully motivated when they know how they compare to their contemporaries.
The main reason was for the transparency it gave to the way workplaces were organised and for revealing who got things done.
"It exposes those that do and do not play well," said Dr Reeves. "There is a leader board and you know the rules."
It had the potential to turn workplaces into meritocracies where the most accomplished are easy to spot because they have racked up all rewards, achievements and levels required for a particular post.
While it may not sweep away systems of privilege or end nepotism it had the potential to make workplaces fairer and take some of the grind out of the day job, he said.
"The whole idea here is to get the objectives of the individual players aligned with the objectives of the organisation," said Dr Reeves. "Do that and you have something good."
Angela Barron, an advisor at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, said games had long been used in training to expose personal preferences and prejudices.
Many organisations also used courses that revolve around games to help make teams work together better or expose power structures among workers.
She said this was the first time she had heard of elements of online games being used in a similar way.
"I would not have thought enough people play games for it to be a great motivator," she said.
But, she said, anything that helped staff develop a better working relationship and promote team work was likely to be a good thing.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/technology/7030234.stm
Published: 2007/10/22 09:38:56 GMT
© BBC MMVII
When work becomes a game
By Mark Ward
Technology correspondent, BBC News website
Video games are big business and soon they could be big in business too.
A whole generation is growing up for whom video games are a key part of how they relax, whether it be fragging friends in a first person shooter or backing up the main tank in a Warcraft raid.
And it is not just youngsters. There are plenty of older folks who shake off the dust of the working day in many different virtual worlds.
Statistics from the the US Entertainment Software Association (ESA) back this up. It claims that the average player is 33 and has more than a decade of gaming under their belt.
All of a sudden, say academics and researchers, companies have realised that all the time employees spend gaming in virtual worlds is changing them.
Ian Hughes, IBM's metaverse evangelist, said many organisations were considering ways of harnessing the skills and familiarity their employees have with virtual environments.
This familiarity has driven many organisations to consider virtual worlds as places where employees can meet, mix and get on with the job.
"A lot of people are more accepting of that way of working just because of games," he said.
"It's about harnessing that ability to play to get work done."
The formidable organisational skills needed to run a game team or guild, organise raids involving perhaps 40 people and co-ordinate their different abilities to defeat a game's strongest foes are all relevant to work, said Mr Hughes.
Game gear
But it is not just the skills that gamers hone in futuristic or fantasy worlds that businesses want to co-opt. Some are taking their inspiration directly from the way that online games are structured.
Dr Byron Reeves, a professor of education at Stanford University, said some firms were taking elements from games to overcome the difficulties of working life in the 21st Century.
"The problems associated with distributed teams, collaboration and information overload right now are so severe, and the opportunities so good, that they are willing to look at anything," he said.
Dr Reeves has founded a company called Seriosity that applies game elements to workplaces.
It was working with five or six unnamed Fortune 500 companies to harness the efficiencies of those game mechanics, said Dr Reeve.
One of the programs developed by Seriosity adds a virtual currency element to e-mail in a bid to help people cope with information overload.
Anyone sending a message adds some of their limited supply of virtual coins, called Serios, to show how important they consider that e-mail to be.
It was a more finely grained grading system than the low, medium or high importance flags found in most e-mail programs, said Dr Reeves.
It had other benefits too, he said. It revealed not just the flow of messages but also started to show who people pay attention to and who did a good job of getting responses.
Some companies were starting to adopt even more of the elements familiar from games.
"There are people right now trying to map it one-to-one," said Dr Reeves.
Level playing field
Convinced that games can help them thrive some companies have turned work groups into guilds, rewarded staff with experience points when they complete tasks, giving out titles and badges when a guild finished a project and portraying objectives as quests.
Some were also considering using a virtual currency as a reward system allowing workers to cash in their savings for benefits or extras for their office space. The top performing guilds also get to do the best projects.
None, so far, he said, were tying wages to how people performed in the quests and against other guilds.
"Mapping levels and points on to wages is the most extreme application," he said.
Companies were adopting game mechanics for several reasons, said Dr Reeves.
Partly because workers were so familiar with this structure, he said, and because people become powerfully motivated when they know how they compare to their contemporaries.
The main reason was for the transparency it gave to the way workplaces were organised and for revealing who got things done.
"It exposes those that do and do not play well," said Dr Reeves. "There is a leader board and you know the rules."
It had the potential to turn workplaces into meritocracies where the most accomplished are easy to spot because they have racked up all rewards, achievements and levels required for a particular post.
While it may not sweep away systems of privilege or end nepotism it had the potential to make workplaces fairer and take some of the grind out of the day job, he said.
"The whole idea here is to get the objectives of the individual players aligned with the objectives of the organisation," said Dr Reeves. "Do that and you have something good."
Angela Barron, an advisor at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, said games had long been used in training to expose personal preferences and prejudices.
Many organisations also used courses that revolve around games to help make teams work together better or expose power structures among workers.
She said this was the first time she had heard of elements of online games being used in a similar way.
"I would not have thought enough people play games for it to be a great motivator," she said.
But, she said, anything that helped staff develop a better working relationship and promote team work was likely to be a good thing.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/technology/7030234.stm
Published: 2007/10/22 09:38:56 GMT
© BBC MMVII
Tuesday, October 02, 2007
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Also in Illegal News
September 25, 2007
Illegal Immigrants Charged In Maryland Terrorism Ring
Proving that immigration enforcement is crucial to national security, at least nine of the Middle Easterners recently arrested in Maryland for laundering millions to finance al-Qaida lived in the United States illegally.
A lengthy FBI investigation led to the indictments of dozens of Muslims, many of Pakistani descent, involved in a $5 million money-laundering scheme that financed illegal activities worldwide as well as terrorist organizations.
At least nine of the Muslims arrested are illegal immigrants who tried to bribe a public official to provide them with green cards that would have made them legal U.S. residents. The operation’s ringleader was Pakistani-born Mohammad Riaz Guijar who along with his brother ran a Maryland convenience store.
A federal indictment says that Guijar conspired with dozens of other defendants to pay an individual he believed was an official with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services nearly half a million dollars for residency cards. The same group gave $450,000 to a man they believed was a corrupt official with the Maryland Comptroller’s Office to release nearly $2 million levied against their store.
Federal authorities say the terrorist money-laundering ring has been operating for years and one of the masterminds with the strong al-Qaida connection, a Pakistani-American, lived in the Washington D.C. suburb of Laurel.
Pakistan's Ambassador in the U.S., Mahmud Ali Durrani, criticized federal officials, saying that similar cases in the past have shown that American authorities were often “too zealous.” The bottom line, however, is that investigators and prosecutors have sufficient evidence to indict nine illegal immigrants with terrorist ties.
This certainly contradicts the nation’s vast pro illegal immigration movement, which consistently paints the portrait of humble and desperate poor people--mostly Hispanic—who present no threat to the country because they seek only a better life and possess a willingness to do jobs that Americans refuse to do.
Posted by at September 25, 2007 02:53 PM
Illegal Immigrants Charged In Maryland Terrorism Ring
Proving that immigration enforcement is crucial to national security, at least nine of the Middle Easterners recently arrested in Maryland for laundering millions to finance al-Qaida lived in the United States illegally.
A lengthy FBI investigation led to the indictments of dozens of Muslims, many of Pakistani descent, involved in a $5 million money-laundering scheme that financed illegal activities worldwide as well as terrorist organizations.
At least nine of the Muslims arrested are illegal immigrants who tried to bribe a public official to provide them with green cards that would have made them legal U.S. residents. The operation’s ringleader was Pakistani-born Mohammad Riaz Guijar who along with his brother ran a Maryland convenience store.
A federal indictment says that Guijar conspired with dozens of other defendants to pay an individual he believed was an official with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services nearly half a million dollars for residency cards. The same group gave $450,000 to a man they believed was a corrupt official with the Maryland Comptroller’s Office to release nearly $2 million levied against their store.
Federal authorities say the terrorist money-laundering ring has been operating for years and one of the masterminds with the strong al-Qaida connection, a Pakistani-American, lived in the Washington D.C. suburb of Laurel.
Pakistan's Ambassador in the U.S., Mahmud Ali Durrani, criticized federal officials, saying that similar cases in the past have shown that American authorities were often “too zealous.” The bottom line, however, is that investigators and prosecutors have sufficient evidence to indict nine illegal immigrants with terrorist ties.
This certainly contradicts the nation’s vast pro illegal immigration movement, which consistently paints the portrait of humble and desperate poor people--mostly Hispanic—who present no threat to the country because they seek only a better life and possess a willingness to do jobs that Americans refuse to do.
Posted by at September 25, 2007 02:53 PM
Illegal Immigrants in Illinois Seceed From Union!
The latest from Judicial Watch (http://www.corruptionchronicles.com/2007/09/us_sues_illinois_for_defying_i.html)
U.S. Sues Illinois For Defying Immigration Law
Indicating that perhaps it’s finally cracking down on states that defy federal immigration laws, the U.S. government is suing Illinois for banning use of a federal system to check the legal status of workers.
The Department of Homeland Security announced recently that it would begin fining employers who hire illegal immigrants as well as those who don’t fire workers caught using fake Social Security numbers. Reluctant to abide by the new rules, Illinois passed legislation prohibiting the use of a federal database utilized to verify identities and therefore detect illegal workers.
Signed into law by Governor Rod Blagojevich last month, the measure actually prevents the state’s 750 employers that currently participate in the federal program from continuing to do so. The Illinois law is scheduled to take effect in January 2008 and would clearly protect the state’s large illegal immigrant population which is estimated to be around 500,000.
In an effort to block its implementation, the Department of Justice filed a lawsuit (United States of America vs. the State of Illinois) in federal court this week. The suit seeks to invalidate the state law because it hampers the government’s ability to assist employers in making sure their workforce is legal. More importantly, as Justice Department attorneys point out, the Illinois measure conflicts with federal law.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff called the Illinois measure a “direct assault on federal law” and the boldest “anti-enforcement” measure he has seen. Perhaps the federal government will start going after the nation’s illegal immigrant sanctuary cities and the nine states that offer driver’s licenses to illegal aliens since they too are defying federal law.
U.S. Sues Illinois For Defying Immigration Law
Indicating that perhaps it’s finally cracking down on states that defy federal immigration laws, the U.S. government is suing Illinois for banning use of a federal system to check the legal status of workers.
The Department of Homeland Security announced recently that it would begin fining employers who hire illegal immigrants as well as those who don’t fire workers caught using fake Social Security numbers. Reluctant to abide by the new rules, Illinois passed legislation prohibiting the use of a federal database utilized to verify identities and therefore detect illegal workers.
Signed into law by Governor Rod Blagojevich last month, the measure actually prevents the state’s 750 employers that currently participate in the federal program from continuing to do so. The Illinois law is scheduled to take effect in January 2008 and would clearly protect the state’s large illegal immigrant population which is estimated to be around 500,000.
In an effort to block its implementation, the Department of Justice filed a lawsuit (United States of America vs. the State of Illinois) in federal court this week. The suit seeks to invalidate the state law because it hampers the government’s ability to assist employers in making sure their workforce is legal. More importantly, as Justice Department attorneys point out, the Illinois measure conflicts with federal law.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff called the Illinois measure a “direct assault on federal law” and the boldest “anti-enforcement” measure he has seen. Perhaps the federal government will start going after the nation’s illegal immigrant sanctuary cities and the nine states that offer driver’s licenses to illegal aliens since they too are defying federal law.
Monday, September 24, 2007
Last Week @ NOAA
Last week with my current company begins today. The hunt for a new contract continues. Maybe Blackwater is hiring?
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Headlines
The thing I love about firefox (web browser) is that you can set multiple tabs as home pages. When I start up firefox it loads the following websites:
Google Mail
My Blog
Google News
Wonkette.com
CNN.com
BBC News
Al Jazeera
Alarabiya
ITAR-TASS
Xinhua
France 24
Basically, I like to get my world news from multiple viewpoints.
It's also interesting to see what articles are running on the various outlets as the top story.
Here's the same list with the top stories:
Google Mail - "Loading... TenTonHammer's Daily MMOG Newsletter" (First e-mail in Inbox)
My Blog - (you're reading it)
Google News - "Lebanon Explosion Hits Beirut Suburb, Killing Deputy (Update1)Bloomberg - 49 minutes ago"
Wonkette.com - "dept. of hilarious parodies of our national anthems America-Hating Religious Extremists Release New Video Threatening Americans"
CNN.com - "Simpson bail set at $125,000"
BBC News - "Lebanese MP 'killed in bombing'"
Al Jazeera - "Politician killed in Beirut blast"
Alarabiya - "Anti-Syrian MP killed in Lebanon car bomb"
ITAR-TASS - "19.09.2007, 18.29 Ministry transfers Rbl 800 mln to Sakhalin for Nevelsk"
Xinhua - "Lebanese lawmaker killed in explosion in east Beirut"
France 24 - "Car bomb kills Christian lawmaker"
Google Mail
My Blog
Google News
Wonkette.com
CNN.com
BBC News
Al Jazeera
Alarabiya
ITAR-TASS
Xinhua
France 24
Basically, I like to get my world news from multiple viewpoints.
It's also interesting to see what articles are running on the various outlets as the top story.
Here's the same list with the top stories:
Google Mail - "Loading... TenTonHammer's Daily MMOG Newsletter" (First e-mail in Inbox)
My Blog - (you're reading it)
Google News - "Lebanon Explosion Hits Beirut Suburb, Killing Deputy (Update1)Bloomberg - 49 minutes ago"
Wonkette.com - "dept. of hilarious parodies of our national anthems America-Hating Religious Extremists Release New Video Threatening Americans"
CNN.com - "Simpson bail set at $125,000"
BBC News - "Lebanese MP 'killed in bombing'"
Al Jazeera - "Politician killed in Beirut blast"
Alarabiya - "Anti-Syrian MP killed in Lebanon car bomb"
ITAR-TASS - "19.09.2007, 18.29 Ministry transfers Rbl 800 mln to Sakhalin for Nevelsk"
Xinhua - "Lebanese lawmaker killed in explosion in east Beirut"
France 24 - "Car bomb kills Christian lawmaker"
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Monday, September 17, 2007
French Hawks?
Apparently the French Foreign Minister has been telling Europe to get ready for war should Iran deploy nuclear weapons. FRANCE? Yes, as hard as it is to believe, the French appear to be sabre rattling... of course, it should be noted that the French Foreign Minister (Bernard Kouchner) has a Germanic name...
Kind of like France's Italian emperor...
Kind of like France's Italian emperor...
Tuesday, September 04, 2007
Quality Comment from Wonkette.com
BY DAVID FLORES AT 04:13 PM
The Gay, Republican Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech.
Would go something like this.
I have a DREAM... that one day gay Republicans and straight Republicans will cast aside the barriers that separate them and unite to weaken workplace safety regulations. I have a dream.
I have a DREAM... that one day a Republican will be judged not by the orifice into which he inserts his member, but by his fealty to business interests. I have a dream!
I have a DREAM... that in this great nation one day gay Republicans and straight Republicans will join hands and work to convince middle-class Americans and red-neck shit shovellers alike that Estate Taxes place a greater burden on them than on any other group in the country. I have a dream.
I have a DREAM... that gay Republicans and straight Republicans might one day cast aside their differences and find common cause in demonizing Hispanic immigrants for electoral advantage, even as they secretly assure corporate interests that it's all for show and their cheap labor will still be there, waiting at the curbside, tomorrow morning, just as they were yesterday morning and the morning before that. I have a dream.
I have a DREAM that multi-retroviral-coctail imbibing gay Republicans (like Andrew Sullivan) will one day join hands with expensive, experimental, hi-tech pacemaker wearing Republicans (like Dick Cheney) and fight back the scourge of universal access to medical care and a single-payer insurance system that delivers medical care to all regardless of their financial means. I have a dream.
Oh where, oh where are you, gay Republican Martin Luther King? America needs you now more than ever, sir!
The Gay, Republican Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech.
Would go something like this.
I have a DREAM... that one day gay Republicans and straight Republicans will cast aside the barriers that separate them and unite to weaken workplace safety regulations. I have a dream.
I have a DREAM... that one day a Republican will be judged not by the orifice into which he inserts his member, but by his fealty to business interests. I have a dream!
I have a DREAM... that in this great nation one day gay Republicans and straight Republicans will join hands and work to convince middle-class Americans and red-neck shit shovellers alike that Estate Taxes place a greater burden on them than on any other group in the country. I have a dream.
I have a DREAM... that gay Republicans and straight Republicans might one day cast aside their differences and find common cause in demonizing Hispanic immigrants for electoral advantage, even as they secretly assure corporate interests that it's all for show and their cheap labor will still be there, waiting at the curbside, tomorrow morning, just as they were yesterday morning and the morning before that. I have a dream.
I have a DREAM that multi-retroviral-coctail imbibing gay Republicans (like Andrew Sullivan) will one day join hands with expensive, experimental, hi-tech pacemaker wearing Republicans (like Dick Cheney) and fight back the scourge of universal access to medical care and a single-payer insurance system that delivers medical care to all regardless of their financial means. I have a dream.
Oh where, oh where are you, gay Republican Martin Luther King? America needs you now more than ever, sir!
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
I Am The Winner!
Bored at work... I took the AlertNet Challenge over at the Reuters website... and scored a 6 out of 6 correct!
Here are the results:
Here are the results:
The AlertNet Challenge
You scored 6 out of 6
QUESTION 1 - CORRECT!
The city of Pisco, which was hit hard by the recent earthquake in Peru, is well-known for a product also called pisco. What is it?
Answer: A famous grape liquor distilled there since 1540
Pisco, today a place of despair, is best known as a jumping-off point for tourists going to view wildlife at the Paracas Nature Reserve, as well as for the famous grape liquor that takes its name from this town of around 120,000 people. Local winemakers say they've been making the brandy since 1540. They say the place name comes from an Inca word meaning bird, and it became one of the main regions where Spanish colonialists grew grapes and made wine.
QUESTION 2 - CORRECT!
Why did U.S. aid agency CARE decide to wean itself off large donations of U.S.-produced food, which it used to sell in developing countries to fund projects like bolstering local farming practices or improving nutrition?
Answer: It decided it's not the best way to help people, since the system ties aid to the purchase of high-priced U.S. crops and requires shipping commodities halfway around the world
Aid groups are divided over a leading charity's steps to wean itself from U.S. government funding for food aid programs that critics charge can harm the nations they aim to help. The U.S. system has come under wide attack as wasteful, largely because it ties aid to purchase of high-priced U.S. crops and requires shipping commodities halfway around the world on U.S. vessels, which eats up a huge share of funding. "We came to the realisation that if we wanted to do what was in the best interest of poor people and efficiency in aid, that this wasn't it," said Helene Gayle, president of CARE, a leading U.S. aid group.
QUESTION 3 - CORRECT!
What is the United Revolutionary Force Front (URFF)?
Answer: A little-known Arab-led Darfur rebel group which is opposed to the Khartoum government
The United Revolutionary Force Front (URFF), a little-known Arab-led group opposed to Sudan's government, says government troops have increased attacks on its positions in Darfur in recent weeks. The URFF accuses Khartoum of fomenting ethnic tensions in the war-torn region as a "divide and rule" tactic and insists the portrayal of Arabs all being linked to the feared Janjaweed militia is wrong.
QUESTION 4 - CORRECT!
Why is there controversy around cans of tuna distributed to Peru earthquake survivors?
Answer: They were labelled with photos of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and the Peruvian opposition candidate
Thousands of cans of tuna reportedly distributed in the quake zone south of Lima had labels sporting photos of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Peruvian opposition politician Ollanta Humala, who lost to Alan Garcia in last year's presidential election. A message on the label reads: "The Peruvian government acts in an inefficient, slow and heartless manner, notwithstanding the pain of the victims, leaving them to the mercy of hunger, thirst and delinquency." Not surprisingly, the offending cans have stirred up a political storm.
QUESTION 5 - CORRECT!
While overall the rate of HIV infection is increasing in the Asia Pacific region, what countries there are experiencing a decline in the rate of infection?
Answer: Thailand and Cambodia
HIV infections are increasing at a worrying 10 percent a year in the Asia Pacific region, a top U.N. AIDS official says, putting the rise down to intravenous drug use, sex workers and conflicts. "If you take out southern India and Thailand and Cambodia, where you have a declining rate, in the remaining Asia Pacific region it is still an increasing epidemic," the official states.
QUESTION 6 - CORRECT!
How does 86-year-old Dorian Paskowitz hope to promote peace between Israel and Palestine?
Answer: By sending surf boards to Gaza and holding a joint surf event with Israel
Dorian Paskowitz, an 86-year-old physician, hopes to get Israelis and Palestinians on the same wave by sending surf boards to the Gaza Strip. The Californian, who has been surfing for over half a century, donated a dozen boards to Palestinians and says he hopes to be able to bring Israeli and Gazan surfers to a joint event in Israel in October.
Monday, August 27, 2007
You Know You're A Redneck When...
When your hero is convicted of a Federal felony... And that doesn't bother you.
But Shawn Dodson, 33, of Lynchburg said he remains a loyal fan. Dodson and his wife, Sheila, sat in lawn chairs as they waited outside the courthouse. "I'll support him until the end," said Dodson, a cook who sported a white Michael Vick jersey. "I'm not going to turn my back on him just because he's convicted of a crime. We all make mistakes."
Friday, August 24, 2007
The Mod Squad - Tehran
Apparently the Mighty juggernaut that is Islam has an Achilles heel... Haircuts.
The BBC is reporting that the Iranian government has closed some 20 Barbershops in Tehran for encouraging un-Islamic behavior by giving Western style haircuts, plucking eyebrows and tattooing. Doesn't President Ahmed have a western style haircut? Apparently the Iranian leadership isn't TOTALLY insane though, they do also discourage use of neckties...
I guess this also rules out bikini (burqini) waxes for the ladies...
The BBC is reporting that the Iranian government has closed some 20 Barbershops in Tehran for encouraging un-Islamic behavior by giving Western style haircuts, plucking eyebrows and tattooing. Doesn't President Ahmed have a western style haircut? Apparently the Iranian leadership isn't TOTALLY insane though, they do also discourage use of neckties...
I guess this also rules out bikini (burqini) waxes for the ladies...
Iran shuts 'Western' barber shops
Iranian police have closed more than 20 barbers' shops in the capital Tehran.
The authorities say the barbers were encouraging un-Islamic behaviour by offering Western hairstyles, tattooing and also eyebrow-plucking for men.
Police say they have inspected more than 700 shops during a two-week crackdown in the city.
The move is part of an annual campaign against what is known locally as bad hijab, or un-Islamic clothing, that this year is also targeting men.
Hundreds of women and men have already been cautioned.
Police say that as well as avoiding Western hairstyles and make up, barbers should not pluck customers' eyebrows.
The closure of the shops comes several months after barbers were warned that they could lose their licences if they did not comply.
However, police have denied a report that they have ordered barbers not to serve customers wearing ties.
Some young boys in Iran sport very wild hair styles, using gel to make their long hair stand on end in a fashion not seen in other countries, correspondents say.
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Snoop Doggy Vick - POTHEAD
And let's not forget that there is probable cause to believe that M. Vick is also a drug user. Follow link for the police report.
Vick In Airport Water Bottle Incident
Container held for further review after possible pot residue found
JANUARY 18--Miami police are investigating NFL star Michael Vick after airport screeners yesterday seized a water bottle from him at a security checkpoint and later discovered that the bottle included a "concealed compartment" that appeared to contain a small amount of marijuana. According to a Miami-Dade Police Department report, a copy of which you'll find below, the Atlanta Falcons quarterback was "reluctant to turn over his water bottle during the screening process" at Miami International Airport (the athlete was booked on an AirTran flight to Atlanta). Vick subsequently relinquished the 20-ounce Aquafina bottle, which was placed in a recycling bin by a Transportation Security Administration screener. Suspicious as to why Vick hesitated in handing over the bottle, TSA screener Gertrude Joseph retrieved the bottle, notified her supervisor, and brought the item to the TSA operations center. There, officials discovered that the bottle's label "contained a seam which separated the top and the bottom of the bottle. Both ends were sealed by clear partitions and what appeared to be a silicone sealant." The concealed compartment, the report notes, contained "a small amount of dark particulate and a pungent aroma closely associated with Marijuana." It appears that Vick had departed to Atlanta before the screeners had finished analyzing his water bottle, which was transported to the Miami-Dade Police Department lab for analysis. Following the 2002 arrests of members of a Miami-based Ketamine ring, Drug Enforcement Administration agents pointed out a "new smuggling trick" being used by traffickers: Aquafina water bottles outfitted with "a hidden compartment for drugs." Click here to view a DEA evidence photo showing three of the seized Aquafina bottles. The retrofitted $15 bottle can now be found for sale online, where it is advertised as a "diversion safe."
Vick Indictment
Since I'm on a roll for beating a dead horse (not Dog, that's Vick's m.o.), I thought I'd post a link for y'all to read the actual indictment... Thanks again to our citizen watchdogs over at TheSmokingGun.com
Michael Vick Indicted
Feds: Falcons QB, cohorts executed pit bulls that failed fight tests
JULY 17--NFL star Michael Vick was indicted today on a federal conspiracy charge for his alleged role in a dog fighting venture that operated from a Virginia property owned by the Atlanta Falcons quarterback. A copy of the indictment, filed today in U.S. District Court in Richmond, can be found below. The 27-year-old Vick, whose nickname is listed as "Ookie" in the indictment, allegedly established the Bad Newz Kennels in early-2001 in Smithfield, Virginia. It was this property, for which Vick paid $34,000, that the star athlete and his codefendants used as the "main staging area for housing and training the pit bulls involved in the dog fighting venture and hosting dog fights." According to prosecutors, Vick and his cohorts began purchasing pit bull puppies in late-2001 and would eventually "sponsor" individual dog fights with purses as high as $26,000. In the indictment's most harrowing parts, federal investigators describe what happened to some Bad Newz Kennels dogs that either lost matches or did not perform well in test fights. After a March 2003 loss by a female pit bull, codefendant Purnell Peace, "after consulting with Vick," electrocuted the animal. In April, prosecutors allege, Vick, Peace, and Quanis Phillips, "executed approximately 8 dogs that did not perform well in 'testing' sessions." These animals, the indictment claims, were killed "by various methods, including hanging, drowning, and slamming at least one dog's body to the ground."
is it true that MIKE VICK HAS HERPES?
While we're on the subject, here's a little gem from The Smoking Gun website. If you follow the link to the article you can read the actual criminal complaint:
Michael Vick Hit With Sex Suit
Woman claims star NFL quarterback passed along herpes in 2003
APRIL 5--Claiming that Michael Vick gave her herpes, a Georgia woman is suing the star NFL quarterback for negligence and battery. According to the below lawsuit, Sonya Elliot, a 26-year-old health care worker, was infected with the sexually transmitted disease in April 2003 after an unprotected encounter with Vick at the athlete's Duluth, Georgia home. Elliott alleges that after testing positive for Herpes Simplex 2, she confronted the Atlanta Falcons star, 24, about her condition. "I've got something to tell you. I've got it," Vick admitted to her, according to Elliott's State Court complaint, which alleges that Vick then told her that "he had not known how to tell her about his condition, and that it was not something that he liked to talk about." Elliott's complaint also contends that Vick "apologized profusely" for not telling her he was infected with the STD. Elliot's lawsuit alleges that Vick has used the name "Ron Mexico" and, in a related court filing, her lawyers are seeking Vick's admission that he used the "Mexico" alias--and perhaps other fake names--"for the purpose of herpes testing and/or treatment." In her lawsuit, which does not specify monetary damages, Elliott states that she met Vick at a Virginia Beach nightclub in May 2001 and, shortly thereafter, began a close personal relationship with the football star (though the couple did not have sex until late-2002). Last December, Vick, the top overall pick in the 2001 National Football League draft, signed a ten-year, $130 million contract with the Falcons, the richest deal in league history.
Michael Vick's Neighborhood - Where doggies go to die
Apparently Mike Vick's old neighborhood in Hampton, VA is a haven for illegal activity and animal cruelty:
http://www.wtkr.com/Global/story.asp?S=6963466&nav=ZolHbyvj
http://www.wtkr.com/Global/story.asp?S=6963466&nav=ZolHbyvj
Bob Matthews Reporting
East End Still Supports Michael Vick
Aug 22, 2007 08:52 AM
Ridley Circle homes is one of the poorest housing projects in Newport News. Laundry is hung out on clothes lines and children play in the sparse grass between the buildings.
Here, Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick is still a folk hero. Vick, who graduated from high school in Newport News, starred as a collegian at Virgina Tech, then rocketed to fame in the NFL, is now facing prison time if he pleads guilty to federal gambling and dog fighting charges.
Even if he takes a deal federal prosecutors have offered, his standing in this neighborhood won't change.
"He's Vick, what else can I say," said Antwan Parson.
Parson grew up in this housing project, just a few yards away from Vick's house. Like many here, he does not understand why Vick is on the verge of prison time.
"People out here fight dogs all the time," Parson said.
Parson, like many residents here, think Vick has done little if anything wrong. Vick and three co-defendants are charged with runnign and interstate gambling and dog fighting ring.
Vick's three co-defendants have already plead guilty and Vick's attorney's announced this week he will do the same next Monday in federal court in Richmond. Even if that happens, East Enders say they will not abandon Vick. The man who once ruled the NFL will always have supporters in this poor section of Newport News.
Michael Vick - DOG KILLER
I found this article via google news, I believe it's from the Yahoo News website, I've linked it through the title of this post.
A Deal For The Dog Killer
Wed Aug 22, 3:00 AM ET
"Michael wishes to apologize again to everyone who has been hurt by this matter," Billy Martin said this week, referring to his celebrity client, dog killer Michael Vick.
Does that include the eight dogs he killed and the countless others he abused? Does it include the ones placed on treadmills, whose jaws were pried open with sticks or those that were fastened to the "rape stand," a device found on Vick's property to hold down female dogs so they could be forced to breed?
Vick is hoping to spend less than a year in prison as a result of his agreement to plead guilty. He had been charged with two counts of conspiracy by a federal grand jury — one to travel in interstate commerce to engage in unlawful activity and another to engage in dogfighting — that could have cost him up to five years in prison. By pleading guilty, he avoided not only the ugly details that would have come out at trial, but also a possible superceding indictment with additional charges, as well as the longer sentence that is the rule in criminal cases when you lose after trial rather than plead guilty beforehand. Possible state charges are still pending.
According to news reports, prosecutors initially demanded a sentence of 18 to 36 months, while Vick's defense attorneys pushed for something under a year. In the end, it will be up to the federal judge who accepts the plea on August 27 to decide the sentence, and up to the NFL to decide whether he will ever play again.
I hope the judge throws the book at him. I hope the NFL bans him forever.
Technically, the big problem for Vick in returning to professional sports is not that he killed and abused dogs, but that he participated in betting on them. It reminds me of when, after I was raped with an ice pick to my throat, the attacker went ahead and also stole my wallet. Armed robbery, the police told me afterward, was a much cleaner charge than rape. I was stunned. It might be "cleaner," but it doesn't begin to measure the true evil betrayed by the predator.
The reason I cannot abide Michael Vick is not that he gambled; it's that only an evil sub-human would treat helpless dogs the way he did, hanging and drowning the ones that didn't test well, and abusing the ones that did.
It is what this says about the man that troubles me.
Whenever a pit bull comes into the local park where I take my two much-loved beauties, Judy Jarvis Estrich and Molly Emily Estrich, the other dog owners and I carefully scrutinize its owners. American Staffordshire terriers, as some call them, can be wonderful pets if properly trained. Or not. It only takes a minute or two to tell the difference, and it totally depends on how the owner has raised them. It's not the dog's fault; it's the owners'. Michael Vick is the worst of the worst.
He doesn't understand what sport is, which is why he should never be allowed to play in the pros again.
I understand personal weaknesses of players and appreciate the pressures of competitive sports. When an athlete resorts to steroids or uses drugs, he obviously brings shame to the team and the league. But in such cases, he is hurting himself, not innocent animals that depend on him. Vick's crime is of a far more vicious sort, revealing a character for which there can be no excuse and no forgiveness.
Vick was one of the highest paid players in professional football. Kids bought his jersey in droves. His latest contract extension, a 10-year deal for $130 million, included record-breaking bonuses of $37 million. He was making more money than he could ever spend.
And this was how he spent it? This was his idea of fun?
The NFL says it will continue to investigate Vick's conduct in relation to its own code of conduct. The Atlanta Falcons, the team paying him all that money, is withholding judgment, waiting to see if the plea, in the words of Falcons owner Arthur Blank, will allow Vick "to get this behind him as quickly as he can."
As far as many of us who are pet owners and animal lovers are concerned, he will never get this behind him. Nor should he.
To find out more about Susan Estrich and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.
Nike Take Note
"At least one charity was served by Vick's predicament this week. The Atlanta Humane Society said it is receiving scores of donated Vick football jerseys (often accompanied by financial contributions), which are being used to clean kennels and as bedding for mistreated and abandoned canines."
Clearly the lesson here is that Nike can now branch off into Pet apparel/supplies.
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
A Letter to Young Black Men
I found this today on ESPN.com's page2 and thought it merited repeating to my wide and diverse audience.
By Jemele Hill
Page 2 (http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=hill/070821)
Dear young, black men:
Today, many of you are angry. You are angry at a society that has swiftly and vigilantly punished a superstar quarterback for dogfighting, but often looks the other way as a grotesque number of black men die in the streets. You are angry at the NFL, which has punishments some of you feel unfairly targets those who look like you. You are angry at Michael Vick's buddies and criminal cohorts for "snitching" on Vick, noting that trainer Greg Anderson, a white man, sits in federal prison with his lips sealed, protecting Barry Bonds and refusing to cooperate with authorities.
You are feeling a lot of things -- some possessing merit -- but I caution you not to make Vick a martyr. Do not applaud him for taking his comeuppance like some modern-day gangster. Do not blame others for Vick's predicament when he alone should be held accountable for his actions.
Let this historic unraveling be a wake-up call for the young, black men caught up in the same lifestyle that claimed Vick. Let his prison sentence send the message that a continued allegiance to street culture successfully keeps young, black men frighteningly behind in American society.
As the Vick case shows, millions of dollars are little protection if a certain mentality remains. Until now, Vick was considered one of the lucky ones. He rose out of poverty to become one of the most mesmerizing athletes of our time. He went from nothing to millions. He wasn't the American dream, but the American reality. He had the support of a city, of a people and he struck a chord with many young, black men because they saw themselves in him -- rebellious, strong and heroic.
But Vick let you down. He betrayed you. He heightened the stereotypes of black men instead of eroding them. Racists certainly will feast on Vick, but he was the one who made himself an entrée.
You can say Vick was persecuted unfairly by the white media, say we should be more concerned with the war in Iraq than an illegal dogfighting ring or say his downfall wouldn't be a 24-hour news event if he were the highest-paid white quarterback.
But it's impossible to stand on moral high ground while trying to defend something so low. Vick did something wrong, something against the law, something disgusting and vile. Even worse, he appears to be the financial backer and mastermind behind the dogfighting ring.
I understand Vick's guilt is a tough, humbling thing to swallow because the one thing black men in this society understand is the feeling of being piled upon, discounted and discarded. Last year, several studies showed that American black men are failing at an alarming and heartbreaking rate. More than half of black men in the inner cities don't have a high school diploma. There are more black men in prison than in college. Everyone else in society -- whites, Latinos, women -- is gaining ground, but black men are falling further and further behind in virtually every category.
Black men have a history of being marginalized and demonized in the mainstream, so although your rush to defend Vick was misguided, it also was understandable.
But now that we know of his guilt and complicity, let's be honest and not use racism as an excuse. Let's not point to Rae Carruth, Ray Lewis and Leonard Little and cite their crimes -- as if wrongs can exonerate other wrongs. Racism isn't putting Vick in jail. Awful decisions did that.
Instead, let's attack this poisonous idea in the black community that equates only negatives with success. Surely, one reason Vick kept his circle of friends is because successful black people are pressured into keeping their toxic buddies around for the sake of "keeping it real" -- even though they've spent most of their lives trying to escape the street lifestyle in which many of those friends remain.
Of course, what's forgotten is that if Vick's "friends" truly cared about him, they never would have allowed him to jeopardize his freedom, NFL career and family for an illegal enterprise. A $100 million man involved in dogfighting isn't keeping it real. That's keeping it stupid.
I wanted to address this letter to young, black men because they fall victim to this mentality more so than any other group. It's not just black athletes facing a crisis but black men, period.
Vick was in a position to show that young, black men are not something to be feared. But instead of leading the Falcons to the playoffs this fall, Vick will be among the nearly 800,000 black men in prison -- which sadly constitutes half of the nation's prison population. Instead of wrapping himself in the support he received from millions of fans -- many of whom look like you -- Vick aligned himself with a destructive culture that is being indirectly endorsed as long as some African-Americans continue to make pathetic excuses for an immature millionaire.
You may not believe this, but I hope Michael Vick recovers. I hope he plays in the NFL again. I hope his comeback is just as good, if not better, than Ray Lewis'.
But mostly, I hope that, through Vick, other black men learn that society is quite capable of gobbling them up. No extra help is needed.
Page 2 columnist Jemele Hill can be reached at jemeleespn@gmail.com.
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Music stirs the soul... among other things...
Blaster Beam
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Blaster Beam is a concept electronic musical instrument consisting of a 15 to 18 foot long metal beam strung with numerous tensed wires under which are mounted electric guitar pickups which can be moved to alter the sound produced. The instrument is played by striking or plucking the strings with fingers, sticks, pipes or even large objects such as artillery shell casings. The instrument produces a very distinctive bass tone, the sound of which is often described as 'dark' or 'sinister'.
The creation of American child actor come musician, Craig Huxley, it was brought to 'fame' in the soundtrack for Star Trek: The Motion Picture in which composer Jerry Goldsmith used the instrument to create the signature V'ger sound.
The instrument has since been used to create dark unnatural sounds in other movie soundtracks and has come to be used by new age artists including Kitaro and Craig Huxley himself.
Some more unexpected attention came in the early nineties when several women attending a music concert in New York's Central Park claimed to have been sexually stimulated by the sound created by a Blaster Beam being used in the performance. This prompted Australian radio station 2SER-FM to conduct an experiment in which they played a continuous loop of a Blaster Beam performance and asked their female listeners to report any stimulation they experienced. On this occasion none of the show's listeners reported any arousal whatsoever.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Blaster Beam is a concept electronic musical instrument consisting of a 15 to 18 foot long metal beam strung with numerous tensed wires under which are mounted electric guitar pickups which can be moved to alter the sound produced. The instrument is played by striking or plucking the strings with fingers, sticks, pipes or even large objects such as artillery shell casings. The instrument produces a very distinctive bass tone, the sound of which is often described as 'dark' or 'sinister'.
The creation of American child actor come musician, Craig Huxley, it was brought to 'fame' in the soundtrack for Star Trek: The Motion Picture in which composer Jerry Goldsmith used the instrument to create the signature V'ger sound.
The instrument has since been used to create dark unnatural sounds in other movie soundtracks and has come to be used by new age artists including Kitaro and Craig Huxley himself.
Some more unexpected attention came in the early nineties when several women attending a music concert in New York's Central Park claimed to have been sexually stimulated by the sound created by a Blaster Beam being used in the performance. This prompted Australian radio station 2SER-FM to conduct an experiment in which they played a continuous loop of a Blaster Beam performance and asked their female listeners to report any stimulation they experienced. On this occasion none of the show's listeners reported any arousal whatsoever.
News From the China Desk: Update
BeliefWatch: Reincarnate
By Matthew Philips
Newsweek
Aug. 20-27, 2007 issue - In one of history's more absurd acts of totalitarianism, China has banned Buddhist monks in Tibet from reincarnating without government permission. According to a statement issued by the State Administration for Religious Affairs, the law, which goes into effect next month and strictly stipulates the procedures by which one is to reincarnate, is "an important move to institutionalize management of reincarnation." But beyond the irony lies China's true motive: to cut off the influence of the Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled spiritual and political leader, and to quell the region's Buddhist religious establishment more than 50 years after China invaded the small Himalayan country. By barring any Buddhist monk living outside China from seeking reincarnation, the law effectively gives Chinese authorities the power to choose the next Dalai Lama, whose soul, by tradition, is reborn as a new human to continue the work of relieving suffering.
At 72, the Dalai Lama, who has lived in India since 1959, is beginning to plan his succession, saying that he refuses to be reborn in Tibet so long as it's under Chinese control. Assuming he's able to master the feat of controlling his rebirth, as Dalai Lamas supposedly have for the last 600 years, the situation is shaping up in which there could be two Dalai Lamas: one picked by the Chinese government, the other by Buddhist monks. "It will be a very hot issue," says Paul Harrison, a Buddhism scholar at Stanford. "The Dalai Lama has been the prime symbol of unity and national identity in Tibet, and so it's quite likely the battle for his incarnation will be a lot more important than the others."
So where in the world will the next Dalai Lama be born? Harrison and other Buddhism scholars agree that it will likely be from within the 130,000 Tibetan exiles spread throughout India, Europe and North America. With an estimated 8,000 Tibetans living in the United States, could the next Dalai Lama be American-born? "You'll have to ask him," says Harrison. If so, he'll likely be welcomed into a culture that has increasingly embraced reincarnation over the years. According to a 2005 Gallup poll, 20 percent of all U.S. adults believe in reincarnation. Recent surveys by the Barna Group, a Christian research nonprofit, have found that a quarter of U.S. Christians, including 10 percent of all born-again Christians, embrace it as their favored end-of-life view. A non-Tibetan Dalai Lama, experts say, is probably out of the question.
© 2007 Newsweek, Inc.
By Matthew Philips
Newsweek
Aug. 20-27, 2007 issue - In one of history's more absurd acts of totalitarianism, China has banned Buddhist monks in Tibet from reincarnating without government permission. According to a statement issued by the State Administration for Religious Affairs, the law, which goes into effect next month and strictly stipulates the procedures by which one is to reincarnate, is "an important move to institutionalize management of reincarnation." But beyond the irony lies China's true motive: to cut off the influence of the Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled spiritual and political leader, and to quell the region's Buddhist religious establishment more than 50 years after China invaded the small Himalayan country. By barring any Buddhist monk living outside China from seeking reincarnation, the law effectively gives Chinese authorities the power to choose the next Dalai Lama, whose soul, by tradition, is reborn as a new human to continue the work of relieving suffering.
At 72, the Dalai Lama, who has lived in India since 1959, is beginning to plan his succession, saying that he refuses to be reborn in Tibet so long as it's under Chinese control. Assuming he's able to master the feat of controlling his rebirth, as Dalai Lamas supposedly have for the last 600 years, the situation is shaping up in which there could be two Dalai Lamas: one picked by the Chinese government, the other by Buddhist monks. "It will be a very hot issue," says Paul Harrison, a Buddhism scholar at Stanford. "The Dalai Lama has been the prime symbol of unity and national identity in Tibet, and so it's quite likely the battle for his incarnation will be a lot more important than the others."
So where in the world will the next Dalai Lama be born? Harrison and other Buddhism scholars agree that it will likely be from within the 130,000 Tibetan exiles spread throughout India, Europe and North America. With an estimated 8,000 Tibetans living in the United States, could the next Dalai Lama be American-born? "You'll have to ask him," says Harrison. If so, he'll likely be welcomed into a culture that has increasingly embraced reincarnation over the years. According to a 2005 Gallup poll, 20 percent of all U.S. adults believe in reincarnation. Recent surveys by the Barna Group, a Christian research nonprofit, have found that a quarter of U.S. Christians, including 10 percent of all born-again Christians, embrace it as their favored end-of-life view. A non-Tibetan Dalai Lama, experts say, is probably out of the question.
© 2007 Newsweek, Inc.
News From the China Desk
Perils of a new Pacific arms race
By Paul Burnell and Andy Denwood
BBC Radio 4
Sailors at celebrations marking the 80th anniversary of the People's Liberation Army
From the Emperor Ming to Mao Zedong, China's military prowess has been based on large land armies.
This year China is celebrating the 80th anniversary of the Peoples' Liberation Army.
But its traditional strategic thinking is undergoing a huge shift, prompting fears in the United States that China might pose a threat to American diplomatic and military power with a naval arms race in the Pacific.
The capitulation of Sadam Hussein's army in the face of a hi-tech American onslaught in Desert Storm, with land, air and sea forces enabling a rapid US advance across large areas of land, gave a fresh impetus to military modernisation, according to Christian Lemiere, China expert at Jane's Country Risk.
"China had always relied upon the idea that if attacked it had large areas of land. It could fall back with these areas but if one power is able to take that and very quickly, it rapidly negates any advantage."
The Peoples' Liberation Army
China has been looking to match US military technology and launched an anti-satellite missile as part of this process.
Joseph Lin, a military affairs analyst with the Jamestown Foundation in Washington said this development has unnerved the Pentagon.
"The United States is heavily dependent upon satellites for all matters of communications, especially the military, which would be crippled and completely ineffectual without any sort of satellite coverage either for imaging, navigation or for communications."
At the same time, China's naval build-up has alerted American military officials to the previously unthinkable possibility that they might face competition in the Pacific Ocean, where the US has enjoyed naval dominance since the World War Two.
Richard Lawless, Deputy Undersecretary of Defence for Asia and Pacific Security Affairs, believes it is the biggest shift in the region's power balance for more than 60 years.
A country that depends on sea-trading faces the greatest threat to its survival in areas outside its own borders. Because of this, we need to have a stronger navy to protect our trading interests
Prof Ne Lex Yong, of Shanghai Normal University
And he is especially concerned with the development of new classes of submarine, including two of them nuclear: one an attack submarine class, the other a ballistic missile submarine. Since 2000 China's official military budget has leaped from $15bn to $45bn.
Some US estimates say these figures exclude a range of defence-related outlays such as arms purchases from abroad and put the true figure for China's annual military spending at up to $122bn.
Deterrence tactic
"Every major power when they increase the military budget will bring about this kind of suspicion," he added.
China's official pronouncements stress a commitment to "peaceful development".
Prof Ne Lex Yong, of Shanghai Normal University is an influential advocate of building up China's navy for economic security.
"A country that depends on sea-trading faces the greatest threat to its survival in areas outside its own borders. Because of this, we need to have a stronger navy to protect our trading interests."
Some Chinese observers feel their vulnerability is most clearly demonstrated by "the Malacca Dilemma."
More than 80% of the imported oil which fuels China's expanding economy has to pass through the narrow Straits of Malacca which link the Indian and Pacific oceans.
One school of thought in Beijing worries that if relations with the US were to break down, Washington might block the Straits and cut off its oil.
Others warn that developing a much more powerful Chinese navy capable of keeping the oil flowing might unnecessarily provoke America.
Professor Zha Daojiong, director of the Centre for International Energy Security at Renmin University, concedes that opinion is divided.
But he is not convinced by the blockade threat, pointing out that this would also hit supplies to American regional allies like Japan and Korea.
Nonetheless, China's navy is growing, with the acquisition of new missile destroyers and submarines.
This process is sparking a new arms race in the Pacific, according to naval expert Paul Kennedy, Professor of History at Yale University.
"When I was in South Korea recently I quizzed the Naval Ministry about the construction of some very large, 7000 ton missile guided destroyers. They said: 'Well look at how many destroyers Japan is building', and if you ask the Japanese Navy they would say: 'Well look how many destroyers China is building.'"
Dr John Chipman, director of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said Japan - China's historic enemy - is also quietly strengthening its navy, which will soon be larger than Britain's Royal Navy.
This naval build-up is fuelling the debate in Washington about how the US should respond to China.
One side, seizing on Pentagon warnings, argues that the United States needs to act decisively to halt the rise of the "China threat."
Rick Fisher of the International Assessment and Strategy Centre, said: "The United States has a period in which it can expand upon its current military technical superiority and form a kind of hard basis for deterring conflict, but that requires that the United States understands that we're now in an arms race.
"The United States must invest especially in the technologies and in the science that will allow us to maintain the superiority that will impress the communist leadership in Beijing that wars are futile."
But others, like Congressman Adam Smith from Washington state, argue the danger is that the United States will create an enemy and talk itself into another Cold War. "I see no reason that we need to view them as a military threat and to get involved in an arms race build up."
A concerned Pentagon, however, made its anxieties clear to the US Congress this spring in its latest report on China's military capabilities.
No official Chinese government spokesman accepted the BBC's invitation for an interview.
However, earlier this summer, Lieutenant General Zhang Qinsheng, a senior general in the Peoples' Liberation Army responded to American anxieties at an international conference in Singapore.
He said the Pentagon report was unreliable, a product of "the Cold War mindset" and detrimental to China-US relations.
IISS director John Chipman, who chaired the conference said: "I think the majority of people in the conference were reassured by his attempt to demonstrate that Chinese defence expenditure was uniquely for self-defence, but the same majority were also certain that increased Chinese force projection capabilities ... would help China to confront - if it ever came to that - larger navies around the region which would include the United States."
You can find out more by listening to The Shadow Of The Dragon - China And The New Arms Race: Tuesday 14 August 2007 2000 BST, BBC Radio 4, repeated Sunday 19 August 2007 1700 BST.
By Paul Burnell and Andy Denwood
BBC Radio 4
Sailors at celebrations marking the 80th anniversary of the People's Liberation Army
From the Emperor Ming to Mao Zedong, China's military prowess has been based on large land armies.
This year China is celebrating the 80th anniversary of the Peoples' Liberation Army.
But its traditional strategic thinking is undergoing a huge shift, prompting fears in the United States that China might pose a threat to American diplomatic and military power with a naval arms race in the Pacific.
The capitulation of Sadam Hussein's army in the face of a hi-tech American onslaught in Desert Storm, with land, air and sea forces enabling a rapid US advance across large areas of land, gave a fresh impetus to military modernisation, according to Christian Lemiere, China expert at Jane's Country Risk.
"China had always relied upon the idea that if attacked it had large areas of land. It could fall back with these areas but if one power is able to take that and very quickly, it rapidly negates any advantage."
The Peoples' Liberation Army
China has been looking to match US military technology and launched an anti-satellite missile as part of this process.
Joseph Lin, a military affairs analyst with the Jamestown Foundation in Washington said this development has unnerved the Pentagon.
"The United States is heavily dependent upon satellites for all matters of communications, especially the military, which would be crippled and completely ineffectual without any sort of satellite coverage either for imaging, navigation or for communications."
At the same time, China's naval build-up has alerted American military officials to the previously unthinkable possibility that they might face competition in the Pacific Ocean, where the US has enjoyed naval dominance since the World War Two.
Richard Lawless, Deputy Undersecretary of Defence for Asia and Pacific Security Affairs, believes it is the biggest shift in the region's power balance for more than 60 years.
A country that depends on sea-trading faces the greatest threat to its survival in areas outside its own borders. Because of this, we need to have a stronger navy to protect our trading interests
Prof Ne Lex Yong, of Shanghai Normal University
And he is especially concerned with the development of new classes of submarine, including two of them nuclear: one an attack submarine class, the other a ballistic missile submarine. Since 2000 China's official military budget has leaped from $15bn to $45bn.
Some US estimates say these figures exclude a range of defence-related outlays such as arms purchases from abroad and put the true figure for China's annual military spending at up to $122bn.
Deterrence tactic
"Every major power when they increase the military budget will bring about this kind of suspicion," he added.
China's official pronouncements stress a commitment to "peaceful development".
Prof Ne Lex Yong, of Shanghai Normal University is an influential advocate of building up China's navy for economic security.
"A country that depends on sea-trading faces the greatest threat to its survival in areas outside its own borders. Because of this, we need to have a stronger navy to protect our trading interests."
Some Chinese observers feel their vulnerability is most clearly demonstrated by "the Malacca Dilemma."
More than 80% of the imported oil which fuels China's expanding economy has to pass through the narrow Straits of Malacca which link the Indian and Pacific oceans.
One school of thought in Beijing worries that if relations with the US were to break down, Washington might block the Straits and cut off its oil.
Others warn that developing a much more powerful Chinese navy capable of keeping the oil flowing might unnecessarily provoke America.
Professor Zha Daojiong, director of the Centre for International Energy Security at Renmin University, concedes that opinion is divided.
But he is not convinced by the blockade threat, pointing out that this would also hit supplies to American regional allies like Japan and Korea.
Nonetheless, China's navy is growing, with the acquisition of new missile destroyers and submarines.
This process is sparking a new arms race in the Pacific, according to naval expert Paul Kennedy, Professor of History at Yale University.
"When I was in South Korea recently I quizzed the Naval Ministry about the construction of some very large, 7000 ton missile guided destroyers. They said: 'Well look at how many destroyers Japan is building', and if you ask the Japanese Navy they would say: 'Well look how many destroyers China is building.'"
Dr John Chipman, director of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said Japan - China's historic enemy - is also quietly strengthening its navy, which will soon be larger than Britain's Royal Navy.
This naval build-up is fuelling the debate in Washington about how the US should respond to China.
One side, seizing on Pentagon warnings, argues that the United States needs to act decisively to halt the rise of the "China threat."
Rick Fisher of the International Assessment and Strategy Centre, said: "The United States has a period in which it can expand upon its current military technical superiority and form a kind of hard basis for deterring conflict, but that requires that the United States understands that we're now in an arms race.
"The United States must invest especially in the technologies and in the science that will allow us to maintain the superiority that will impress the communist leadership in Beijing that wars are futile."
But others, like Congressman Adam Smith from Washington state, argue the danger is that the United States will create an enemy and talk itself into another Cold War. "I see no reason that we need to view them as a military threat and to get involved in an arms race build up."
A concerned Pentagon, however, made its anxieties clear to the US Congress this spring in its latest report on China's military capabilities.
No official Chinese government spokesman accepted the BBC's invitation for an interview.
However, earlier this summer, Lieutenant General Zhang Qinsheng, a senior general in the Peoples' Liberation Army responded to American anxieties at an international conference in Singapore.
He said the Pentagon report was unreliable, a product of "the Cold War mindset" and detrimental to China-US relations.
IISS director John Chipman, who chaired the conference said: "I think the majority of people in the conference were reassured by his attempt to demonstrate that Chinese defence expenditure was uniquely for self-defence, but the same majority were also certain that increased Chinese force projection capabilities ... would help China to confront - if it ever came to that - larger navies around the region which would include the United States."
You can find out more by listening to The Shadow Of The Dragon - China And The New Arms Race: Tuesday 14 August 2007 2000 BST, BBC Radio 4, repeated Sunday 19 August 2007 1700 BST.
Monday, August 13, 2007
Mike Vick Beware...
A fitting punishment I think...
Pet saver defends his actions
Aug 12, 2007 04:30 AM
Simona Siad
Staff Reporter
Source: http://www.thestar.com/News/article/245529
A pet detective who is temporarily suspended after rescuing a dog from a locked and overheated car says he was just doing what his mandate asks him to do – save animals' lives.
Tre Smith, an animal cruelty investigator for the Toronto Humane Society and former mall security guard, is not allowed to investigate animal cruelty complaints pending an investigation in which he handcuffed the owner of the dog to a car.
But the highly publicized pet saving incident has ignited emotion and feedback from hundreds of pet owners and swamped the Toronto Humane Society with letters and emails calling for his reinstatement.
On July 31, Smith responded to a call that Cyrus, a 50-kg Rottweiler, was locked in an overheated car. The Toronto Humane Society investigator smashed through the car window, rescued the dying dog, who was slumped and foaming at the mouth, and handcuffed the irate owner to the car. He then rushed the dog to a hospital, leaving the man there handcuffed until police arrived on the scene.
"I was trying to perform my job to the best of my abilities given a very difficult, threatening and abusive situation," said Smith.
But reports soon followed that the handcuffed dog owner was beaten by the crowd and was bleeding when police arrived, so the Ontario SPCA has hired a retired Ontario Provincial Police officer to probe the incident and determine whether Smith had followed proper protocol or overstepped his limits.
It seems public sentiment for Smith in cyberspace is growing. There are more than 10 Facebook groups calling for his reinstatement.
Pet saver defends his actions
Aug 12, 2007 04:30 AM
Simona Siad
Staff Reporter
Source: http://www.thestar.com/News/article/245529
A pet detective who is temporarily suspended after rescuing a dog from a locked and overheated car says he was just doing what his mandate asks him to do – save animals' lives.
Tre Smith, an animal cruelty investigator for the Toronto Humane Society and former mall security guard, is not allowed to investigate animal cruelty complaints pending an investigation in which he handcuffed the owner of the dog to a car.
But the highly publicized pet saving incident has ignited emotion and feedback from hundreds of pet owners and swamped the Toronto Humane Society with letters and emails calling for his reinstatement.
On July 31, Smith responded to a call that Cyrus, a 50-kg Rottweiler, was locked in an overheated car. The Toronto Humane Society investigator smashed through the car window, rescued the dying dog, who was slumped and foaming at the mouth, and handcuffed the irate owner to the car. He then rushed the dog to a hospital, leaving the man there handcuffed until police arrived on the scene.
"I was trying to perform my job to the best of my abilities given a very difficult, threatening and abusive situation," said Smith.
But reports soon followed that the handcuffed dog owner was beaten by the crowd and was bleeding when police arrived, so the Ontario SPCA has hired a retired Ontario Provincial Police officer to probe the incident and determine whether Smith had followed proper protocol or overstepped his limits.
It seems public sentiment for Smith in cyberspace is growing. There are more than 10 Facebook groups calling for his reinstatement.
Friday, August 10, 2007
Moonlighting
Tell me these two aren't one in the same?
and
I believe we have discovered Cheney's infamous, "Safe, undisclosed location"
and
I believe we have discovered Cheney's infamous, "Safe, undisclosed location"
QOTD
Quote of the day, thus far:
China's space exploration program has come far since late leader Mao Zedong lamented that China could not even launch a potato into space.
Thursday, August 09, 2007
Footloose in Iran
In yet another example of evil, decadent behavior some 20 somethings decided to have a party with rock music and alcohol... How truly evil. I bet they were also dancing...
Iranian police arrest partygoers
Police in Iran say they have arrested 20 young people at a party in the city of Karaj, north-west of the capital Tehran, on Wednesday night.
More than 200 people were arrested a week ago in the same city for attending an illegal rock concert.
Parties, attended by members of both sexes, and where alcohol is consumed, are illegal in Iran.
The Iranian authorities have in recent months increased their enforcement of what is deemed to be moral behaviour.
Dress codes for women have been a particular target.
Police Col Majid Bazmun told the state Irna news agency that police surrounded the building in Karaj where the "decadent gathering" was taking place after acting on a tip-off from a member of the public.
Iran's chief of police, Esmaeel Ahmadi Moghaddam, said that the crackdown of recent months, described officially as the drive to "elevate security in society", would continue as it had proved popular with the public.
Iranian police arrest partygoers
Police in Iran say they have arrested 20 young people at a party in the city of Karaj, north-west of the capital Tehran, on Wednesday night.
More than 200 people were arrested a week ago in the same city for attending an illegal rock concert.
Parties, attended by members of both sexes, and where alcohol is consumed, are illegal in Iran.
The Iranian authorities have in recent months increased their enforcement of what is deemed to be moral behaviour.
Dress codes for women have been a particular target.
Police Col Majid Bazmun told the state Irna news agency that police surrounded the building in Karaj where the "decadent gathering" was taking place after acting on a tip-off from a member of the public.
Iran's chief of police, Esmaeel Ahmadi Moghaddam, said that the crackdown of recent months, described officially as the drive to "elevate security in society", would continue as it had proved popular with the public.
Muslims Behaving Badly... Again.
Yet another example, this time reported by the BBC, of our dear friends and neighbors from the East behaving badly; in this case assaulting a woman.
It really says alot about a particular cause when a bunch of overweight, old men gang up to intimidate a female author.
Real mature.
And to think, these people have nukes!!! Excuse me, I have to go hide under my desk now.
Protesters attack author Nasreen
Ms Nasreen had to back into a corner at the book launch
Muslim protesters have attacked controversial Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen during a book launch in Andhra Pradesh state in southern India.
Lawmakers and members of a political party assaulted the exiled feminist author as she presented a translation of one of her novels in Hyderabad.
Ms Nasreen, who backed into a corner, said the attack was barbaric but pledged she would not be cowed.
Many Muslims have accused Ms Nasreen of ridiculing Islam.
Protected
Ms Nasreen was launching a Telugu language version of a novel at the press club in Hyderabad.
About 100 protesters, including three lawmakers, from the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen party burst in, shouting that the author was "anti-Islam".
Ms Nasreen backed into a corner as objects rained down and she was threatened with a chair, witnesses said. One witness said Ms Nasreen was slapped.
She was protected by others at the meeting and was later taken to safety by police.
Officers detained the three lawmakers and a number of other protesters.
Ahmad Pasha Quadri, one of the lawmakers, said: "Our protest is against Taslima Nasreen because of her writings ridiculing Islam. We want the Indian government to send her back to Bangladesh."
The writer left Bangladesh for Sweden in 1994 after her controversial writing there led to calls for her execution.
She has lived in Calcutta for the past two years and has applied for Indian citizenship.
Critics say she called for the Koran to be changed to give women greater rights, but she vehemently denied making the comments.
Bangladesh banned one of her books in 2004 for what it called objectionable comments about Islam.
Ms Nasreen has spoken out against religion as an oppressive force and was awarded the Sakharov Prize for freedom of expression in 1994 in Europe.
It really says alot about a particular cause when a bunch of overweight, old men gang up to intimidate a female author.
Real mature.
And to think, these people have nukes!!! Excuse me, I have to go hide under my desk now.
Protesters attack author Nasreen
Ms Nasreen had to back into a corner at the book launch
Muslim protesters have attacked controversial Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen during a book launch in Andhra Pradesh state in southern India.
Lawmakers and members of a political party assaulted the exiled feminist author as she presented a translation of one of her novels in Hyderabad.
Ms Nasreen, who backed into a corner, said the attack was barbaric but pledged she would not be cowed.
Many Muslims have accused Ms Nasreen of ridiculing Islam.
Protected
Ms Nasreen was launching a Telugu language version of a novel at the press club in Hyderabad.
About 100 protesters, including three lawmakers, from the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen party burst in, shouting that the author was "anti-Islam".
Ms Nasreen backed into a corner as objects rained down and she was threatened with a chair, witnesses said. One witness said Ms Nasreen was slapped.
She was protected by others at the meeting and was later taken to safety by police.
Officers detained the three lawmakers and a number of other protesters.
Ahmad Pasha Quadri, one of the lawmakers, said: "Our protest is against Taslima Nasreen because of her writings ridiculing Islam. We want the Indian government to send her back to Bangladesh."
The writer left Bangladesh for Sweden in 1994 after her controversial writing there led to calls for her execution.
She has lived in Calcutta for the past two years and has applied for Indian citizenship.
Critics say she called for the Koran to be changed to give women greater rights, but she vehemently denied making the comments.
Bangladesh banned one of her books in 2004 for what it called objectionable comments about Islam.
Ms Nasreen has spoken out against religion as an oppressive force and was awarded the Sakharov Prize for freedom of expression in 1994 in Europe.
Yeserday's Excitement
August 8, 2007
Red Line Stations Closed (Updated)
dupont metro stationUPDATE #2
WMATA reports that all three stations have re-opened, though some delays may linger in order to get everything back on schedule. Enjoy your evening, Washington.
According to an alert from Metro, the Dupont Circle, Woodley Park, and Cleveland Park stations have been closed due to a suspicious package aboard a train. Metro will be running shuttle buses between Van Ness and Farragut North to connect to the stations.
We hope the package turns out to be a forgotten backpack or parcel, and that Metro resolves the issue soon; otherwise you Red Liners will be in for a tortuous, hot, and uncomfortable commute tonight. Our advice? Belly up to a local bar and wait it out.
UPDATE:
According to WTOP, the suspicious package is a cardboard box wrapped in dark brown paper, which Metro X-rayed and decided to detonated on the train. The Woodley Park and Cleveland Park stations are being used to turn trains around for that portion of the line, but aren't in any danger. Metro is asking people to avoid the Red Line altogether.
19 buses are providing connecting service. At 50 people or so for a sardine-canned bus, the Red Line commute has all but ground to a standstill. Those of you with no other options, enjoy the walk home; the heat index is only 104º right now.
Photo from Eye Captain.
By Adam Bailey in Transportation (DCist.com)
Red Line Stations Closed (Updated)
dupont metro stationUPDATE #2
WMATA reports that all three stations have re-opened, though some delays may linger in order to get everything back on schedule. Enjoy your evening, Washington.
According to an alert from Metro, the Dupont Circle, Woodley Park, and Cleveland Park stations have been closed due to a suspicious package aboard a train. Metro will be running shuttle buses between Van Ness and Farragut North to connect to the stations.
We hope the package turns out to be a forgotten backpack or parcel, and that Metro resolves the issue soon; otherwise you Red Liners will be in for a tortuous, hot, and uncomfortable commute tonight. Our advice? Belly up to a local bar and wait it out.
UPDATE:
According to WTOP, the suspicious package is a cardboard box wrapped in dark brown paper, which Metro X-rayed and decided to detonated on the train. The Woodley Park and Cleveland Park stations are being used to turn trains around for that portion of the line, but aren't in any danger. Metro is asking people to avoid the Red Line altogether.
19 buses are providing connecting service. At 50 people or so for a sardine-canned bus, the Red Line commute has all but ground to a standstill. Those of you with no other options, enjoy the walk home; the heat index is only 104º right now.
Photo from Eye Captain.
By Adam Bailey in Transportation (DCist.com)
Thursday, August 02, 2007
An interesting editorial from today's Washington Post
"The goal of education given to girls under Islam is the achievement of control over female sexuality. The result of this indoctrination is that Muslim girls believe legitimate and often vocally defend their position of subordination. The lengths a Muslim society will go to in the pursuit of sexual control often cross into the territory of the absurd and, by western standards, criminal. In Islam the minimum age of marriage for a girl is after her first menstruation. Muhammad was engaged to his wife Aisha when she was six years old, and he married her (had intercourse with her) when she turned nine. Millions of Muslim men across the world follow Muhammad in this deed, one of the most prominent examples being the late Ayatollah Khomeini."
My View of Islam
On holy war, apostasy and the rights of women in Islam.
The undisputed definition of Islam by all her adherents is “submission to the will of Allah.” This divine will is outlined in the Koran and in the teachings and deeds of Muhammad, as recorded in the Hadith or Sunna.
While the Koran is considered to be the true, undiluted word of God revealed to Muhammad through the angel Gabriel, the Sunna carry less weight and have always been a cause for disagreement amongst Muslim scholars. Theologians of Islam have, however, reached consensus on the authority of a set of six volumes from the Sunna called the Sahih Sita, or authentic six.
On the issues of holy war (jihad), apostasy and the treatment of women, the Koran and Sunna are clear. It is the obligation of every Muslim to spread Islam to unbelievers first through dawa, or proselytizing, then through jihad, if the unbelievers refuse to convert. It is the obligation of the unbelievers to accept Islam. Exempted from this edict of conversion are the people of the book: Christians and Jews. Both peoples have a choice. They may adopt Islam and enjoy the same rights as other Muslims, or they may stick to their book and lead the life of a dhimmi (lower citizen). Legally, the rights of the dhimmi are not equal to those of a Muslim. For instance, a Muslim man may take a Jewish or Christian wife, but Jews and Christians are not allowed to marry Muslim women. If a Christian or a Jew kills a Muslim man, they should be killed immediately. In contrast, the blood of a Muslim should never be shed in recompense for the blood of Christians or Jews.
It is also the obligation of every Muslim to command virtue and forbid vice. Apostasy, the worst possible vice a Muslim can commit, should be punished by death. The punishment need not be carried out by a state, but can easily be enforced by civilians. When it is a question of Islamic law, justice is in the hands of every Muslim.
As for the treatment of women, in the Koran and more elaborately in the Sunna, Islam assigns to girls a position in the family that requires them to be docile, makes them dependent on their male relatives for money and gives dominion over their bodies to these same male kin.
In Islam there is a strict hierarchy of subservience. First and foremost, all humans are required to be the slaves of Allah. In Muslim societies, all children must obey their parents. Beyond this, women and girls must obey and serve without question their male guardians and especially their husbands. This decree of marital obedience is not in any way reciprocal.
A woman in Islam is not competent and must always have a guardian. The responsibility of guardianship may pass from father to brother to uncle before a girl is married off, at which point she must answer to her husband. Marriage is typically arranged, with no choice given to the girl, and there is often an exchange of money in the process. Thus, under the religious rule of Islam, it is still common today that a woman’s rights are essentially sold to a man she may not know, and most likely does not love.
As for education of girls under Islam, there is a clear program of indoctrination of inequality. Under Islam, education is the passing on of the rules of submission to the will of Allah. Intrinsic in this “education” is the dictation of gender roles. Girls are instructed in subservience first to God, then to the family and finally to the husband. There is strict emphasis on modesty, defined by virginity. A Muslim girl is taught to guard fiercely her virginity as an expression of loyalty to her creator and to her family and husband.
This form of education hampers her chances of ever becoming self-reliant or financially independent. A woman’s lack of social equality and freedom is a direct consequence of the teachings of Islam. Under Islam, a wife must always ask her husband for permission and she must obey indefinitely. This stricture is lifted in the unique event that he asks her to forsake God, wherein she is allowed the right of disobedience. While it is true that in Islam, technically speaking, women have the right to trade and own property, the condition of total obedience to guardians makes this “freedom” hypothetical, at best.
The goal of education given to girls under Islam is the achievement of control over female sexuality. The result of this indoctrination is that Muslim girls believe legitimate and often vocally defend their position of subordination. The lengths a Muslim society will go to in the pursuit of sexual control often cross into the territory of the absurd and, by western standards, criminal. In Islam the minimum age of marriage for a girl is after her first menstruation. Muhammad was engaged to his wife Aisha when she was six years old, and he married her (had intercourse with her) when she turned nine. Millions of Muslim men across the world follow Muhammad in this deed, one of the most prominent examples being the late Ayatollah Khomeini.
Under sharia law (Islamic law), such as governs in Saudi Arabia, Iran and parts of Nigeria, the civil rights of women are dramatically reduced. Threat of violent punishment in the form of whipping and stoning makes the prospect of financial independence and sexual freedom for women all but impossible. Miraculously, even in such harsh circumstances you will find women who are relatively well educated, have some say in choosing a husband and manage to earn a living. Let us be clear that these exceptions are due to the compassion and progressiveness of families who have been influenced by the West, and not to rules derived from Islam.
In the quest for reconciliation between Muslim and western societies, it is important to recognize that Muslims are as diverse as Islam is monolithic. Islam attempts to unify more than a billion people of different geographical origins, languages, ethnicities, and cultural and educational backgrounds into one religious tribe. And while I acknowledge that generally stereotyping believers is difficult since belief is subjective, for the sake of discussion I would like to distinguish between five types of Muslims.
The first group includes those Muslims who leave the faith because they cannot reconcile it with their conscience or with modernity. This group is important for the evolution of the Islamic world because they ask the urgent and critical questions believers usually avoid. Ex-Muslims living in the west are just beginning to find their voice and to take advantage of the spiritual and social freedoms available to them.
The second group is comprised of genuine Muslim reformers, such as Irshad Manji, who acknowledge the theological out-datedness of the Koranic commands and the immorality of the prophet. They tend to emphasize the early chapters in the Koran urging goodness, generosity and spirituality. They argue that the latter chapters wherein Islam is politicized and the concepts of sharia, jihad and martyrdom are introduced should be read in the context in which they were written, some 1,400 years ago.
The third group is made up of those Muslims who support the gradual perpetuation and domination of Islam throughout the world. They use the freedoms offered in democracy to undermine social modernity and, though initially opposed to the use of violence, foresee that once the number of believers reaches a critical mass the last remnants of unbelievers may then be dealt with in violence, and sharia law may be universally implemented. Ayatollah Khomeini used this method successfully in Iran. Erdogan of Turkey is following in his footsteps. Tariq Ramadan, deeply rooted in his Muslim Brotherhood heritage, is devoted to such a program among European Muslims.
The fourth group is the most obvious and immediately threatening. In this group we find a growing number of hard-line Muslims who have defined martyrdom as their only goal. This is an army of young men whipped into a frenzy of suicidal violence by power hungry clergy. These clergy have public platforms and work with impunity from institutions untouched and often funded by national authorities.
The fifth group is largely ineffective and only threatening in their refusal to acknowledge the truth. Here we find the elite clergy who make a show of trying to reconcile Islam with modernity. They are motivated by self-preservation and have no interest in true reform. They take selective passages from the holy books to make a case for a peaceful Islam, ignoring the many passages inciting violence, such as those verses which command the death of apostates.
It is through the first two of these five groups that progress and reform will come. As for the rest, the western world would be wise to recognize the realities of Islam, a religion laid down in writing over a millennium ago with violence and oppression at its heart.
Born in Somalia and raised a devout Muslim, Ayaan Hirsi Ali is an active critic of Islam, an advocate for women’s rights and a leader in the campaign to reform Islam. Her willingness to speak out and her abandonment of the Muslim faith have made her a target for violence and threat of death by Islamic extremists. She is currently a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, in Washington D.C., and is the author of the bestselling memoir "Infidel."
Posted by Ayaan Hirsi Ali on August 2, 2007 9:39 AM
Link: http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/guestvoices/2007/08/my_view_of_islam.html?hpid=opinionsbox1
Wednesday, August 01, 2007
Update - Moscow (aka Asheville), North Carolina
Duncan regrets flag-desecration incident, is investigating
by David Forbes on 07/30/2007
link: http://www.mountainx.com/news/2007/duncan_regrets_flag_desecration_incident_is_investigating
Buncombe County Sheriff Van Duncan told the Xpress this afternoon that he regrets the turn of events surrounding the July 25 arrests of activists Mark and Deborah Kuhn on flag-desecration charges. Meanwhile, Xpress has learned the flag law was declared unconstitutional in a 1971 N.C. district court ruling.
“I regret that it happened this way — we’re not trying to enforce that statute,” Duncan said. “We had internal affairs investigators in the neighborhood today. I’ve met with the Kuhns personally. We’re talking to the District Attorney, we’re talking to their attorney and we’re trying to get this resolved.”
The Kuhns (who are pictured, post-arrest, at right) had hung an American flag upside down on the porch of their West Asheville home, and attached to it a picture of President Bush with the words “out now” and several messages explaining the meaning of their statement.
Sheriff’s Deputy Brian Scarborough received a complaint from fellow National Guardsman Staff Sgt. Mark Radford that morning. He proceeded to assert that the couple had violated a rarely enforced 1917 statute banning desecration of the U.S. flag. The Kuhns took the flag down and refused Scarborough’s request to present their IDs, closing and locking their door.
The Kuhns, along with witnesses and neighbors, assert that Scarborough then broke into the house and assaulted them. The sheriff’s office reports state that Mark Kuhn slammed the door on Scarborough’s hand, injuring him.
The couple was then arrested and charged with desecrating the flag, assaulting an officer and resisting arrest.
Duncan confirmed that the sheriff’s office usually passes nonemergency calls within the city to the Asheville Police Department, which had already visited the couple on July 18 and decided not to try to enforce the statute.
“We would normally not have handled the situation that way,” Duncan said. “We’re looking into it right now and trying to see how we can proceed to make sure an incident like this doesn’t happen again.”
Meanwhile, today Xpress learned that, in addition to U.S. Supreme Court decisions ruling that political uses of the flag are protected speech, North Carolina’s statute was declared unconstitutional in a 1971 ruling by the District Court of Western North Carolina. “Enacted during a period of national chauvinistic fervor, it [the flag-desecration law] is an uncommonly bad statute,” Circuit Judge James Craven Jr. wrote in the ruling. “Despite our respect, and indeed love, for these symbols of state and nation, we are compelled to hold the statute unconstitutional.”
For an in-depth report on the incident, which has sparked controversy in Western North Carolina and attracted national attention, see the Wednesday, Aug. 1, issue of Mountain Xpress. Visit http://www.mountainx.com for breaking news on the story.
— David Forbes, staff writer
by David Forbes on 07/30/2007
link: http://www.mountainx.com/news/2007/duncan_regrets_flag_desecration_incident_is_investigating
Buncombe County Sheriff Van Duncan told the Xpress this afternoon that he regrets the turn of events surrounding the July 25 arrests of activists Mark and Deborah Kuhn on flag-desecration charges. Meanwhile, Xpress has learned the flag law was declared unconstitutional in a 1971 N.C. district court ruling.
“I regret that it happened this way — we’re not trying to enforce that statute,” Duncan said. “We had internal affairs investigators in the neighborhood today. I’ve met with the Kuhns personally. We’re talking to the District Attorney, we’re talking to their attorney and we’re trying to get this resolved.”
The Kuhns (who are pictured, post-arrest, at right) had hung an American flag upside down on the porch of their West Asheville home, and attached to it a picture of President Bush with the words “out now” and several messages explaining the meaning of their statement.
Sheriff’s Deputy Brian Scarborough received a complaint from fellow National Guardsman Staff Sgt. Mark Radford that morning. He proceeded to assert that the couple had violated a rarely enforced 1917 statute banning desecration of the U.S. flag. The Kuhns took the flag down and refused Scarborough’s request to present their IDs, closing and locking their door.
The Kuhns, along with witnesses and neighbors, assert that Scarborough then broke into the house and assaulted them. The sheriff’s office reports state that Mark Kuhn slammed the door on Scarborough’s hand, injuring him.
The couple was then arrested and charged with desecrating the flag, assaulting an officer and resisting arrest.
Duncan confirmed that the sheriff’s office usually passes nonemergency calls within the city to the Asheville Police Department, which had already visited the couple on July 18 and decided not to try to enforce the statute.
“We would normally not have handled the situation that way,” Duncan said. “We’re looking into it right now and trying to see how we can proceed to make sure an incident like this doesn’t happen again.”
Meanwhile, today Xpress learned that, in addition to U.S. Supreme Court decisions ruling that political uses of the flag are protected speech, North Carolina’s statute was declared unconstitutional in a 1971 ruling by the District Court of Western North Carolina. “Enacted during a period of national chauvinistic fervor, it [the flag-desecration law] is an uncommonly bad statute,” Circuit Judge James Craven Jr. wrote in the ruling. “Despite our respect, and indeed love, for these symbols of state and nation, we are compelled to hold the statute unconstitutional.”
For an in-depth report on the incident, which has sparked controversy in Western North Carolina and attracted national attention, see the Wednesday, Aug. 1, issue of Mountain Xpress. Visit http://www.mountainx.com for breaking news on the story.
— David Forbes, staff writer
Welcome to Moscow
Article from Mountain XPress... Link: http://www.mountainx.com/news/2007/flagged_down_activists_arrested_in_row_over_protest_flag_allege_abuse_by_bu
Flagged down: Activists arrested in row over protest flag, allege abuse by Buncombe deputy
by David Forbes on 07/26/2007
The Buncombe County Sheriff’s Office arrested activists Mark and Deborah Kuhn in West Asheville Wednesday morning after a complaint that the couple was desecrating an American flag. They say a deputy invaded their home and used excessive force. [The photo at right, taken by a neighbor, shows Mark on the ground, with Deborah standing by, during the arrest.]
The flag was hung upside down as an act of protest and had several statements pinned to it, including a picture of President Bush with the words “Out Now” upon it and one explaining the meaning of the upside down flag, a sign of distress.
The Kuhns, along with several neighbors and witnesses, assert that a sheriff’s deputy violently invaded their home at 68 Brevard Road. The sheriff’s office claims that the couple assaulted deputy Brian Scarborough and resisted arrest.
According to the report from the sheriff’s office, Scarborough arrived at the home at 8:45 a.m. in response to a complaint about the desecration of a flag.
Lt. Randy Sorrell says that while the address was in the city of Asheville, “when we receive a complaint that the law is being broken, we have to respond.”
Under a rarely enforced state statute, it is a misdemeanor to desecrate or trample a U.S. or North Carolina flag. The Kuhns said the flag was taken as evidence, though the sheriff’s department has no record of it.
After knocking on the door, the couple answered it and, after being shown the statute, said they complied and took the flag down. Scarborough then asked for their identification.
“The flag covered our whole front porch; he comes up with this printout about the law and tells us that we can’t attach things to the flag, that we’re desecrating it,” Deborah Kuhn said. “We tell him we’re not meaning to desecrate it — all we had was a picture of [President] Bush with ‘out now’ on it and a note saying this was not a sign of distress or disrespect. We did this because the country is in distress and we don’t know what to do.”
Then, she said, Scarborough “started talking arrest, so we took the flag down. He kept wanting to see our ID. We refused. We said, ‘Why should we show you our ID — are you arresting us?’; so we walked back into the house and closed the door.”
There, the accounts diverge. According to Deborah Kuhn, Scarborough “tried to force the door, but we got it closed and locked it with the deadbolt. He then kicked it, punched the glass out, unlocked our door and came after us.”
The sheriff’s office report states that “the man [Mark Kuhn] refused to identify himself and slammed the door on the officer’s hand, breaking the glass pane out of the door and cutting the officer’s hand.”
However, the Kuhns’ account is backed up by Jimmy Stevenson, who was working with Ace Hardwood Floors nearby and asserts that he saw Scarborough break down the door.
“I saw that one cop [Scarborough] pull up and I saw those people come out on the porch and start talking to him,” Stevenson said. “They took their flag down, asked the officer to leave and closed the door. Then he started kicking the door, he kicked it about five or six good times, then he laid right into it. After he got done kicking it, he broke the window out – I saw him hit the window.”
Deborah Kuhn says that Scarborough then “pursued my husband into the kitchen, they were scuffling, [and] Mark was trying to get away from him. He pulls out his billy club and I call 911 and say that an officer has broken into our house and is assaulting us.”
Scarborough sustained a cut to his arm when the window broke and Mark Kuhn had several cuts on his face from the scuffle with Scarborough.
“I was just trying to defend myself and back away from him,” Kuhn said. “They never, ever told us why we were being arrested until we were in jail.”
Deborah Kuhn asserted that no warrant was displayed or permission asked to enter the house. After calling 911, she says, she ran outside and began screaming for help.
Sam York, who lives nearby the couple, was awakened by the struggle, as the Kuhns and Scarborough both came out into the yard. “I woke up to Debbie screaming,” he said. “Mark and Debbie were saying ‘you assaulted us’ and the officer [Scarborough], was demanding their identification. Then another officer threatened them with a taser. He told Debbie to back away or he’d taser her and demanded that Mark get on the ground.”
Sorrell confirms this part of the account: “When they were outside, one of the other officers produced a taser and he [Mark Kuhn] surrendered and submitted.”
Deborah Kuhn’s screams also drew the attention of Shawn Brady and several of his roommates, who live next door to the couple. “I run outside and ask them what’s going on and there’s cops chasing Mark around his car,” Brady said. “They threaten to taser him and demand that he get on the ground. He gets on the ground and we ask them what they’re being charged with. They tell us it’s none of our concern. I tell them they’re our neighbors and it is our concern.”
Neal Wilson, who lives with Brady, also saw the deputy produce the taser, he says. After repeated questions, Brady and roommate Tony Plichta said that the deputies replied that “they didn’t know yet” what the couple would be charged with.
“This is an outrage,” Brady said. “The 1st, 4th and 5th Amendments were clearly broken today.”
Plichta expressed similar anger. “They actually wanted to know why we cared — these are our neighbors,” he said.
Following the arrest, the Kuhns were taken to the Buncombe County Detention Facility, where they were charged with two counts of assaulting a government official, and one count each of resisting arrest and desecrating an American flag. Their son posted their bail shortly afterwards.
This was not the first time that the flag had attracted attention. On July 18, with just the upside-down flag hanging, an Asheville police officer stopped by to inquire about the situation.
“He was very polite and just said that because it was a sign of distress, he wanted to make sure everything was OK,” Deborah Kuhn said. “We said we had it out as a show of desperation — our country is in distress and we just don’t know what to do. We asked if we had violated any ordinance. He said, ‘No, you have every right.’”
After that, Deborah Kuhn said that she posted up the picture of Bush and the explanation of their reasons for displaying the flag in protest.
A couple of days later, Mark Kuhn said that a man in military fatigues came to their door, and was driving a car with a federal license plate. “He stood here telling me that I needed to take the flag down or fly it right,” he said.
Kuhn adds that he assumed the man was with the National Guard, due to the nearby armory.
Wilson, Plichta and Brady said that after the man stopped by, they also saw him drive by several times during the following days, and one night, witnessed several other men in fatigues taking pictures of the flag.
Furthermore, Wilson said that as the Kuhns were being arrested and taken off, he saw a man in fatigues drive by and shout “Go to jail, baby!”
After his experience, Mark Kuhn said he is convinced this is not an isolated occurrence. “If Americans don’t wake up to the martial state we’re in, the cops, the police, the sheriffs, the state police will all come to our door and take us away if we allow this to happen – it’s time for America to wake up.”
— David Forbes, staff writer
Flagged down: Activists arrested in row over protest flag, allege abuse by Buncombe deputy
by David Forbes on 07/26/2007
The Buncombe County Sheriff’s Office arrested activists Mark and Deborah Kuhn in West Asheville Wednesday morning after a complaint that the couple was desecrating an American flag. They say a deputy invaded their home and used excessive force. [The photo at right, taken by a neighbor, shows Mark on the ground, with Deborah standing by, during the arrest.]
The flag was hung upside down as an act of protest and had several statements pinned to it, including a picture of President Bush with the words “Out Now” upon it and one explaining the meaning of the upside down flag, a sign of distress.
The Kuhns, along with several neighbors and witnesses, assert that a sheriff’s deputy violently invaded their home at 68 Brevard Road. The sheriff’s office claims that the couple assaulted deputy Brian Scarborough and resisted arrest.
According to the report from the sheriff’s office, Scarborough arrived at the home at 8:45 a.m. in response to a complaint about the desecration of a flag.
Lt. Randy Sorrell says that while the address was in the city of Asheville, “when we receive a complaint that the law is being broken, we have to respond.”
Under a rarely enforced state statute, it is a misdemeanor to desecrate or trample a U.S. or North Carolina flag. The Kuhns said the flag was taken as evidence, though the sheriff’s department has no record of it.
After knocking on the door, the couple answered it and, after being shown the statute, said they complied and took the flag down. Scarborough then asked for their identification.
“The flag covered our whole front porch; he comes up with this printout about the law and tells us that we can’t attach things to the flag, that we’re desecrating it,” Deborah Kuhn said. “We tell him we’re not meaning to desecrate it — all we had was a picture of [President] Bush with ‘out now’ on it and a note saying this was not a sign of distress or disrespect. We did this because the country is in distress and we don’t know what to do.”
Then, she said, Scarborough “started talking arrest, so we took the flag down. He kept wanting to see our ID. We refused. We said, ‘Why should we show you our ID — are you arresting us?’; so we walked back into the house and closed the door.”
There, the accounts diverge. According to Deborah Kuhn, Scarborough “tried to force the door, but we got it closed and locked it with the deadbolt. He then kicked it, punched the glass out, unlocked our door and came after us.”
The sheriff’s office report states that “the man [Mark Kuhn] refused to identify himself and slammed the door on the officer’s hand, breaking the glass pane out of the door and cutting the officer’s hand.”
However, the Kuhns’ account is backed up by Jimmy Stevenson, who was working with Ace Hardwood Floors nearby and asserts that he saw Scarborough break down the door.
“I saw that one cop [Scarborough] pull up and I saw those people come out on the porch and start talking to him,” Stevenson said. “They took their flag down, asked the officer to leave and closed the door. Then he started kicking the door, he kicked it about five or six good times, then he laid right into it. After he got done kicking it, he broke the window out – I saw him hit the window.”
Deborah Kuhn says that Scarborough then “pursued my husband into the kitchen, they were scuffling, [and] Mark was trying to get away from him. He pulls out his billy club and I call 911 and say that an officer has broken into our house and is assaulting us.”
Scarborough sustained a cut to his arm when the window broke and Mark Kuhn had several cuts on his face from the scuffle with Scarborough.
“I was just trying to defend myself and back away from him,” Kuhn said. “They never, ever told us why we were being arrested until we were in jail.”
Deborah Kuhn asserted that no warrant was displayed or permission asked to enter the house. After calling 911, she says, she ran outside and began screaming for help.
Sam York, who lives nearby the couple, was awakened by the struggle, as the Kuhns and Scarborough both came out into the yard. “I woke up to Debbie screaming,” he said. “Mark and Debbie were saying ‘you assaulted us’ and the officer [Scarborough], was demanding their identification. Then another officer threatened them with a taser. He told Debbie to back away or he’d taser her and demanded that Mark get on the ground.”
Sorrell confirms this part of the account: “When they were outside, one of the other officers produced a taser and he [Mark Kuhn] surrendered and submitted.”
Deborah Kuhn’s screams also drew the attention of Shawn Brady and several of his roommates, who live next door to the couple. “I run outside and ask them what’s going on and there’s cops chasing Mark around his car,” Brady said. “They threaten to taser him and demand that he get on the ground. He gets on the ground and we ask them what they’re being charged with. They tell us it’s none of our concern. I tell them they’re our neighbors and it is our concern.”
Neal Wilson, who lives with Brady, also saw the deputy produce the taser, he says. After repeated questions, Brady and roommate Tony Plichta said that the deputies replied that “they didn’t know yet” what the couple would be charged with.
“This is an outrage,” Brady said. “The 1st, 4th and 5th Amendments were clearly broken today.”
Plichta expressed similar anger. “They actually wanted to know why we cared — these are our neighbors,” he said.
Following the arrest, the Kuhns were taken to the Buncombe County Detention Facility, where they were charged with two counts of assaulting a government official, and one count each of resisting arrest and desecrating an American flag. Their son posted their bail shortly afterwards.
This was not the first time that the flag had attracted attention. On July 18, with just the upside-down flag hanging, an Asheville police officer stopped by to inquire about the situation.
“He was very polite and just said that because it was a sign of distress, he wanted to make sure everything was OK,” Deborah Kuhn said. “We said we had it out as a show of desperation — our country is in distress and we just don’t know what to do. We asked if we had violated any ordinance. He said, ‘No, you have every right.’”
After that, Deborah Kuhn said that she posted up the picture of Bush and the explanation of their reasons for displaying the flag in protest.
A couple of days later, Mark Kuhn said that a man in military fatigues came to their door, and was driving a car with a federal license plate. “He stood here telling me that I needed to take the flag down or fly it right,” he said.
Kuhn adds that he assumed the man was with the National Guard, due to the nearby armory.
Wilson, Plichta and Brady said that after the man stopped by, they also saw him drive by several times during the following days, and one night, witnessed several other men in fatigues taking pictures of the flag.
Furthermore, Wilson said that as the Kuhns were being arrested and taken off, he saw a man in fatigues drive by and shout “Go to jail, baby!”
After his experience, Mark Kuhn said he is convinced this is not an isolated occurrence. “If Americans don’t wake up to the martial state we’re in, the cops, the police, the sheriffs, the state police will all come to our door and take us away if we allow this to happen – it’s time for America to wake up.”
— David Forbes, staff writer
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
People Are Idiots
Sheep, maybe the title should have been "People are sheep"...
So yesterday I was getting off the Metro at Suitland station, ready to trudge on over to the US Census Bureau and as usual the teeming throng of humanity that had just disembarked was caught at the bottle neck of the turnstiles.
Here in fancyshmancy DC we've got these electronic card passes for the metro, think EZPass for the subway... ANyway you can waive you card at the turnstile and it'll let you through... only the turnstile I was in line for wasn't working apparently... Undaunted, wave after wave of commuter washed up against the turnstile and met with the same fate as the sheep before them... only to turn away in shock and horror that their little convenience does not work. Today I was using an old fashioned ticket and thus got through.
I was mesmerized as person after person went right up and tried their card after seeing the person immediately infront of them fail. It really makes you wonder about humanity sometimes... Not just humanity, it makes you wonder about God.
So yesterday I was getting off the Metro at Suitland station, ready to trudge on over to the US Census Bureau and as usual the teeming throng of humanity that had just disembarked was caught at the bottle neck of the turnstiles.
Here in fancyshmancy DC we've got these electronic card passes for the metro, think EZPass for the subway... ANyway you can waive you card at the turnstile and it'll let you through... only the turnstile I was in line for wasn't working apparently... Undaunted, wave after wave of commuter washed up against the turnstile and met with the same fate as the sheep before them... only to turn away in shock and horror that their little convenience does not work. Today I was using an old fashioned ticket and thus got through.
I was mesmerized as person after person went right up and tried their card after seeing the person immediately infront of them fail. It really makes you wonder about humanity sometimes... Not just humanity, it makes you wonder about God.
Friday, July 06, 2007
Merritt Aldrich Russell October 3, 1936 - July 5, 2007
Beloved Father
Dedicated Husband
Loyal Brother
Loving Uncle
Rest In Peace
On a more somber note, a dear friend passed early yesterday evening following a rather sudden bout with cancer, heart and respiratory problems. While death was expected - as it is for us all - the suddenness and rapidity of his passing is a shock to us all. He is deeply loved and his loss will be felt for years to come.
Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers. He is survived by his wife, three grown children and his brother and his brother's family.
Dedicated Husband
Loyal Brother
Loving Uncle
Rest In Peace
On a more somber note, a dear friend passed early yesterday evening following a rather sudden bout with cancer, heart and respiratory problems. While death was expected - as it is for us all - the suddenness and rapidity of his passing is a shock to us all. He is deeply loved and his loss will be felt for years to come.
Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers. He is survived by his wife, three grown children and his brother and his brother's family.
Thursday, July 05, 2007
A few Notes
THE 'STARBUCKS' EFFECT
I was on my way to the Metro station this morning, walking through the US Census Bureau when I happened upon a 30 something male having a temper-tantrum... He was in line in a small cafe apparently ordering breakfast. He was gesticulating at a sign that advertised a 'sale' on coffee - 16 oz 'Satrbucks' coffee for $2.50. Well, as it turns out they didn't have 'Starbucks' coffee there... this guy was having a shitfit and harrassing the attendant because he couldn't have his 'Starbucks'... boo... hoo... TOOL. It's theses 30somethings, stuck in dead-end yet profitable careers, doing thankless work that in the greater scheme of things is largely meaningless who want everything their way all the time that really tick me off... It's even more frustrating that I am almost 30 and most definitely subject to the characterization mentioned above. I WANT MY STARBUCKS (Venti No Whip, Peppermint Java Chip frappucino)!!! Hop to it coffee jerk!
______________________________________________________
HUMAN TESTING
Also, just when you thought it was safe to go to the pool, at the country club no less:
StarTribune.com
Pool-drain victim undergoes surgery
Abigail Taylor, 6, was seriously injured in the wading pool of a St. Louis Park club after a drain sucked out several feet of her intestine.
By Jeff Strickler and Susan Feyder, Star Tribune
Last update: July 04, 2007 – 10:29 PM
A 6-year-old Edina girl remained hospitalized in serious condition Wednesday after an unusual accident in which several feet of her intestine were pulled out by the suction of a swimming pool drain.
Abigail Taylor was injured Friday in the wading pool at the Minneapolis Golf Club in St. Louis Park and taken to Children's Hospital for surgery.
"It's a horrible, life-altering injury," said Robert Bennett, the attorney for Abigail's parents, Scott and Kathryn Taylor.
Bennett said doctors had to perform surgery to remove the part of Abigail's intestine that remained following the accident. He said it is likely that she will have to be fed intravenously for the rest of her life.
Bennett said doctors now are concentrating on preventing infection and managing pain, and are also deciding what course to take on further potential medical procedures to treat the injury.
Bennett said Abigail does not yet know the full extent of her injuries. "She knows she's been hurt," he said. "She's a strong little girl. How she extricated herself from that drain I'll never know."
Although some details of the accident are still fuzzy, it is known that Abigail was able to free herself from the drain and get out of the pool on her own without calling for help. As a result, the extent of her injuries wasn't immediately evident to the people near her.
In a message posted on the Caring Bridge, a nonprofit Internet site that offers free Web pages to families of people recovering from illness or injuries, the Taylors said the protective cover on the pool's drain had come off.
If so, the scenario of the injury fits a pattern that the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission warned about in a 2005 report, "Guidelines for Entrapment Hazards: Making Pools and Spas Safer."
According to the report, if a child sits on an open drain, the suction, which can reach several hundred pounds per square inch, can rupture the rectum and eviscerate the child in a matter of seconds.
There have been three such incidents since 1990. The most recent was two years ago when a 3-year-old was disemboweled by a hot tub drain.
None of those accidents was fatal, although in the same time span 13 people, most of them children, drowned after being caught in underwater drains.
Abigail's injury comes as Congress is considering new pool-safety regulations. Instead of having one main drain, both public and private pools would be required to have multiple drains with reduced suction. Owners of existing pools would be able to install safety release sensors that will turn off the suction if it the system is blocked.
The Minneapolis Golf Club referred calls to its insurance company, which wasn't open Wednesday because of the holiday.
Bennett described the Taylors, who have three other daughters, "as brave and optimistic." He said they are focused on Abigail's immediate recovery, her long-term future care and steps that can be taken "to make sure this kind of thing never happens to anyone else again."
jstrickler@startribune.com • 612-673-7392
sfeyder@startribune.com • 612-673-1723
© 2007 Star Tribune. All rights reserved.
----------------------------------------------
Looks like the Department of Homeland Insecurity has been field testing new interrogation techniques on children again...
Guantanamo Guard: "Hey Ahmed, it sure is hot here in Cuba eh? To reward your cooperation in recent interviews and to appease our Red Cross monitors, we've decided to allow you to cool off in this nice, shallow kiddie pool..."
_______________________________________________________________________________
IMMIGRATION
I enjoy riding the Metro to work every day, it allows me to escape the every day routine by making me feel like I'm visiting Spain; all the foreign language signage "Cuidad, PELIGROSO, Piso Mojado!", all the announcements over the PA in Spanish and not to mention the diminutive Spanish speakers coming and going and conversing in their native tounge... It's great, it reminds me of when I was in Santiago de Compostela or in the verdant hills of Galicia in northern Spain... Nevermind the fact that I'm still in Maryland, just outside our nation's capital...
Also, have you ever noticed just how diminutive the migrant laborers are? It's like they are mini people, people from the Middle Ages when food quality was so poor people didn't grow beyong about 5 feet tall and only lived to be about 35... Oddly reminiscient of modern day Latin America... Nevermind the political similarities...
I was on my way to the Metro station this morning, walking through the US Census Bureau when I happened upon a 30 something male having a temper-tantrum... He was in line in a small cafe apparently ordering breakfast. He was gesticulating at a sign that advertised a 'sale' on coffee - 16 oz 'Satrbucks' coffee for $2.50. Well, as it turns out they didn't have 'Starbucks' coffee there... this guy was having a shitfit and harrassing the attendant because he couldn't have his 'Starbucks'... boo... hoo... TOOL. It's theses 30somethings, stuck in dead-end yet profitable careers, doing thankless work that in the greater scheme of things is largely meaningless who want everything their way all the time that really tick me off... It's even more frustrating that I am almost 30 and most definitely subject to the characterization mentioned above. I WANT MY STARBUCKS (Venti No Whip, Peppermint Java Chip frappucino)!!! Hop to it coffee jerk!
______________________________________________________
HUMAN TESTING
Also, just when you thought it was safe to go to the pool, at the country club no less:
StarTribune.com
Pool-drain victim undergoes surgery
Abigail Taylor, 6, was seriously injured in the wading pool of a St. Louis Park club after a drain sucked out several feet of her intestine.
By Jeff Strickler and Susan Feyder, Star Tribune
Last update: July 04, 2007 – 10:29 PM
A 6-year-old Edina girl remained hospitalized in serious condition Wednesday after an unusual accident in which several feet of her intestine were pulled out by the suction of a swimming pool drain.
Abigail Taylor was injured Friday in the wading pool at the Minneapolis Golf Club in St. Louis Park and taken to Children's Hospital for surgery.
"It's a horrible, life-altering injury," said Robert Bennett, the attorney for Abigail's parents, Scott and Kathryn Taylor.
Bennett said doctors had to perform surgery to remove the part of Abigail's intestine that remained following the accident. He said it is likely that she will have to be fed intravenously for the rest of her life.
Bennett said doctors now are concentrating on preventing infection and managing pain, and are also deciding what course to take on further potential medical procedures to treat the injury.
Bennett said Abigail does not yet know the full extent of her injuries. "She knows she's been hurt," he said. "She's a strong little girl. How she extricated herself from that drain I'll never know."
Although some details of the accident are still fuzzy, it is known that Abigail was able to free herself from the drain and get out of the pool on her own without calling for help. As a result, the extent of her injuries wasn't immediately evident to the people near her.
In a message posted on the Caring Bridge, a nonprofit Internet site that offers free Web pages to families of people recovering from illness or injuries, the Taylors said the protective cover on the pool's drain had come off.
If so, the scenario of the injury fits a pattern that the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission warned about in a 2005 report, "Guidelines for Entrapment Hazards: Making Pools and Spas Safer."
According to the report, if a child sits on an open drain, the suction, which can reach several hundred pounds per square inch, can rupture the rectum and eviscerate the child in a matter of seconds.
There have been three such incidents since 1990. The most recent was two years ago when a 3-year-old was disemboweled by a hot tub drain.
None of those accidents was fatal, although in the same time span 13 people, most of them children, drowned after being caught in underwater drains.
Abigail's injury comes as Congress is considering new pool-safety regulations. Instead of having one main drain, both public and private pools would be required to have multiple drains with reduced suction. Owners of existing pools would be able to install safety release sensors that will turn off the suction if it the system is blocked.
The Minneapolis Golf Club referred calls to its insurance company, which wasn't open Wednesday because of the holiday.
Bennett described the Taylors, who have three other daughters, "as brave and optimistic." He said they are focused on Abigail's immediate recovery, her long-term future care and steps that can be taken "to make sure this kind of thing never happens to anyone else again."
jstrickler@startribune.com • 612-673-7392
sfeyder@startribune.com • 612-673-1723
© 2007 Star Tribune. All rights reserved.
----------------------------------------------
Looks like the Department of Homeland Insecurity has been field testing new interrogation techniques on children again...
Guantanamo Guard: "Hey Ahmed, it sure is hot here in Cuba eh? To reward your cooperation in recent interviews and to appease our Red Cross monitors, we've decided to allow you to cool off in this nice, shallow kiddie pool..."
_______________________________________________________________________________
IMMIGRATION
I enjoy riding the Metro to work every day, it allows me to escape the every day routine by making me feel like I'm visiting Spain; all the foreign language signage "Cuidad, PELIGROSO, Piso Mojado!", all the announcements over the PA in Spanish and not to mention the diminutive Spanish speakers coming and going and conversing in their native tounge... It's great, it reminds me of when I was in Santiago de Compostela or in the verdant hills of Galicia in northern Spain... Nevermind the fact that I'm still in Maryland, just outside our nation's capital...
Also, have you ever noticed just how diminutive the migrant laborers are? It's like they are mini people, people from the Middle Ages when food quality was so poor people didn't grow beyong about 5 feet tall and only lived to be about 35... Oddly reminiscient of modern day Latin America... Nevermind the political similarities...
Monday, July 02, 2007
UK Under Siege
Well, as we all know by now Great Britain is under attack. Beseiged from within by burgeois jihadists. Is nothing sacred anymore? Gone are the days when bombs and molotov cocktails were hurled by the improvished masses at the ruling aristocracy and their enabling middle class professionals. Now we have doctors, the highly educated strapping themselves with explosives and raging with bloodlust. What would Marx/Lenin say? They'd be appalled! Where the ideals of Marxist-Leninist Communism once failed to win the hearts and minds of the intelligensia (hence the need for their extermination), Islamo-Fascism/Jihadism/Wahabbiism/ShiiteSunni-cutoffmynosetospitemyfaceism is succeeding! Fanaticism and ideological zealotry has finally been successfully introduced to the burgeoning proffessional middle class... Next we can expect a wave of attacks by suicide-lawyer-bombers... ahh, Western society should only be so lucky...
Friday, June 29, 2007
Travel
I've taken this from my "Together We Served" page over at http://navy.togetherweserved.com/usn/index.jsp
Enjoy!
Enjoy!
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