Tuesday - December 20, 2005

More Torture Photos from Iraq

The poor children.............

The poor, poor children.  The humanity of it all.  I can’t take it anymore.

Posted by Drew458     on 12/20/2005 at 06:10 PM   
Filed Under: • Iraq •  
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Back To The Salt Mines

Hi-Ho, Hi-Ho

Sorry for being absent today, gang! Frank has been good enough to fill in for me and I thank him for jumping in and carrying the water for me. The long and short of it is - I landed a job and have (regrettably) gone back to work. I got a call last night from a company I had interviewed with here in St. Louis a week or so ago. The extended an offer and I accepted. The only catch is they wanted me to start today, so I had to do some frantic last-minute preparations and head back to the salt mines this morning.

After being out of work the last two weeks, I had turned into a sorry, no-good specimen. It took an hour this morning to scrape the scratchy beard off my face and another hour to find out where I left the soap the last time I took a shower. Yes, that bad. So anyway, I am back in the database administration business full-time and will have to post when I can find time. I’ll make sure you have plenty to talk about when you wake up in the morning but I will be too busy during the day to do much here. Bill collectors just love me (they must ‘cause they use just any excuse to call me). So hang in there and get ready for a great Christmas. Like I told you a couple of weeks ago, everything works out in the end. I promise.

Posted by The Skipper     on 12/20/2005 at 03:44 PM   
Filed Under: • Personal •  
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This is some Christmas Fun!

Father, Son Tag-Team Armed Robbers

MILWAUKEE—A Milwaukee father and son said they thought it was a joke when two men with guns entered their home on Friday night.

Police said two armed men walked up the stairs, knocked on the door and planned to rob the home of Alfredo Hernandez and his son.

OK guys...joke’s over.  Come on now.  Put the gun down.  Guys?

“I saw the pistol ... to my son’s head,” Hernandez said. “If they were going to shoot anybody, they were going to shoot me.”

So dad springs into action

While one of the men attempted to make off with his son’s recording equipment, Hernandez said he wrestled the other man to get the gun away from his son’s head.

But what was the sone doing at the time, you ask?

“He clenched onto my arm and I just kept punching him till finally I ripped my arm out,” said the son, who didn’t want his name publicized. “Then we got him down, then I kicked him a couple times.”

Heh, heh, heh.  Good move, young man.

By the time police arrived on the scene, Hernandez told WISN-TV, they had injured the man so badly that an ambulance had to come to the home.

Hernandez said he stabbed the man three times in the leg with a cheese knife and his son hit the man in the head with a snow shovel, which authorities took for evidence.

According to Hernandez, the man was screaming for help, begging not be arrested by police.

Begging to not be arrested?  Hmmmm. Maybe he has something to fear from the police?

“Oh yeah, I messed him up,” Hernandez said. “He came in walking and left in a stretcher.”

Too bad he didn’t leave in a body bag.  But at least our hero(s) stood their ground and taught this painty-waisted, low life a thing or two about the consequences of one’s actions.

Posted by Drew458     on 12/20/2005 at 02:54 PM   
Filed Under: • Crime •  
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It’s Torture allright

LONDON - Barbie, beware. The iconic plastic doll is often mutilated at the hands of young girls, according to research published Monday by British academics. “The girls we spoke to see Barbie torture as a legitimate play activity, and see the torture as a ‘cool’ activity,” said Agnes Nairn, one of the University of Bath researchers. “The types of mutilation are varied and creative, and range from removing the hair to decapitation, burning, breaking and even microwaving.”

Researchers from the university’s marketing and psychology departments questioned 100 children about their attitudes to a range of products as part of a study on branding. They found Barbie provoked the strongest reaction, with youngsters reporting “rejection, hatred and violence,” Nairn said

“The meaning of ‘Barbie’ went beyond an expressed antipathy; actual physical violence and torture towards the doll was repeatedly reported, quite gleefully, across age, school and gender,” she said.

“The most readily expressed reason for rejecting Barbie was that she was babyish, and girls saw her as representing their younger childhood out of which they felt they had now grown,” she said.

Nairn said many girls saw Barbie as an inanimate object rather than a treasured toy.

I don’t know about other kids, but my girls loved their Barbies to the point of worship.  If their brothers even thought of touching the dolls, screams of anguish were heard throughout the house. 

Posted by Drew458     on 12/20/2005 at 10:13 AM   
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Merry Christmas from the Union

(via boortz)

If you live in New York City, then congratulations....you have now been seriously inconvenienced. Why is that? Over 30,000 transit workers...upset with the city’s latest proposal on wages and benefits...walked off the job today. Merry Christmas, right? Gridlock won’t even begin to describe how much of a mess New York will be with all of the subways and buses shut down.  Oh, and the cost to the New York City economy?  Somewhere between $400 and $700 million.

According to union boss Roger Toussaint, “transit workers are tired of being under-appreciated and disrespected.” And just what does this government workers union find so “disrespectful?” Annual raises of between 3 and 4 percent. The city wants to raise the age transit workers become eligible for their pension from 55 to 62. And just how much do the striking workers earn? Between $47,000 and $55,000 a year. Not bad work if you can get it. But as always with government unions, it’s never enough.

So now they’re on strike. According to the governor and the mayor, it’s an illegal strike. If you know anything about unions and the union mentality, the law doesn’t matter; the employer doesn’t matter.  All that matters is the union.  Mayor Bloomberg is threatening to dock the union workers two days pay for every day they stay out on strike.  That would be absolutely beautiful, if he could make it stick.  Fat chance.  Not only do unions like to ignore the law, but politicians like to enable them in that endeavor. You can expect a judge to order them back on the job. We’ll see if that works.  If it doesn’t, perhaps the city might look into firing them all...and hiring replacements. That should get their attention and would teach them not to bite the hand that feeds them.

Merry Chirstmas New York!

Posted by Drew458     on 12/20/2005 at 10:06 AM   
Filed Under: • Unions-Labor •  
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Inhumane Treatment

This is too much. Torture is one thing but forcing someone to listen to Eminem is way out of bounds. Amnesty International needs to be notified immediately. If they’re not stopped, they may even carry this inhumane treatment to the next step .... Barry Manilow music. ARGHHHH ....

Eminem Music Allegedly
Used As U.S. Torture Device
December 19, 2005
KABUL, Afghanistan (KCRA)

A human rights group is alleging the United States operated a secret prison near Afghanistan’s capital as recently as last year. The group claims that music by Eminem and Dr. Dre were used as instruments of torture.

New York-based Human Rights Watch has issued a report saying the United States operated a secret prison in Afghanistan and tortured detainees. The report quoted an Ethiopian-born detainee as saying he was kept in a pitch-black prison and forced to listen to Eminem and Dr. Dre’s rap music for 20 days before the music was replaced by “horrible ghost laughter and Halloween sounds.”

The report said detainees at the facility—known as “Dark Prison”—were deprived of sleep, chained to walls and forced to listen to loud music in total darkness for days.

The group said its report is based on the accounts of several detainees at the U.S. prison for suspected terrorists at Guantanamo Bay. Human Rights Watch hasn’t been allowed to speak with the detainees directly, but said it obtained the detainees’ accounts from their lawyers.

The group said the allegations are credible enough to warrant an official investigation. American officials say the United States doesn’t engage in torture. CIA officials have no commented on the allegations.

Posted by The Skipper     on 12/20/2005 at 07:29 AM   
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Altered States

_{Mike Thompson - The Detroit Free Press}

Posted by The Skipper     on 12/20/2005 at 07:24 AM   
Filed Under: • Humor •  
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   Monday - December 19, 2005

NY Times: Foul Play

I am hereby throwing the yellow flag out on the NY Times and calling “BULLS**T”. Fifteen-yard penalty and loss of down. Coach to be ejected from the game. In all seriousness, this news disturbs me, not just because I missed the 60 Minutes report but because Clinton was getting away with it and was given a free pass by the media. Now the NY Times claims in its treasonous report last week that President Bush was doing something “unprecedented” when Clinton was doing it for eight years and even when it was reported, the MSM kept silent about it? I am outraged! Not just at the NY Times but at the Clintons as well ... and Clinton did it without any provocation or attacks by foreign terrorists. I call for a Congressional investigation! Appoint an independent prosecutor! Cry Havoc! Loose the hounds of grand jury ... !

Clinton NSA Eavesdropped on U.S. Calls
Sunday, December 18, 2005
(NEWSMAX)

During the 1990’s under President Clinton, the National Security Agency monitored millions of private phone calls placed by U.S. citizens and citizens of other countries under a super secret program code-named Echelon. On Friday, the New York Times suggested that the Bush administration has instituted “a major shift in American intelligence-gathering practices” when it “secretly authorized the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on Americans and others inside the United States to search for evidence of terrorist activity without [obtaining] court-approved warrants.”

But in fact, the NSA had been monitoring private domestic telephone conversations on a much larger scale throughout the 1990s - all of it done without a court order, let alone a catalyst like the 9/11 attacks. In February 2000, for instance, CBS “60 Minutes” correspondent Steve Kroft introduced a report on the Clinton-era spy program by noting:

“If you made a phone call today or sent an e-mail to a friend, there’s a good chance what you said or wrote was captured and screened by the country’s largest intelligence agency. The top-secret Global Surveillance Network is called Echelon, and it’s run by the National Security Agency.” NSA computers, said Kroft, “capture virtually every electronic conversation around the world.”

Echelon expert Mike Frost, who spent 20 years as a spy for the Canadian equivalent of the National Security Agency, told “60 Minutes” that the agency was monitoring “everything from data transfers to cell phones to portable phones to baby monitors to ATMs.” Mr. Frost detailed activities at one unidentified NSA installation, telling “60 Minutes” that agency operators “can listen in to just about anything” - while Echelon computers screen phone calls for key words that might indicate a terrorist threat.

The “60 Minutes” report also spotlighted Echelon critic, then-Rep. Bob Barr, who complained that the project as it was being implemented under Clinton “engages in the interception of literally millions of communications involving United States citizens.” One Echelon operator working in Britain told “60 Minutes” that the NSA had even monitored and tape recorded the conversations of the late Sen. Strom Thurmond.

Still, the Times repeatedly insisted on Friday that NSA surveillance under Bush had been unprecedented, at one point citing anonymously an alleged former national security official who claimed: “This is really a sea change. It’s almost a mainstay of this country that the NSA only does foreign searches.”

Posted by The Skipper     on 12/19/2005 at 02:00 PM   
Filed Under: • Media-Bias • Outrageous •  
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Congress Loves Christmas

The US House Of Representatives just passed, by a vote of 410-22, the following resolution (H.Res.579). You will probably be shocked to find out that all 22 votes against the resolution were ... (gasp!) ... Democrats. The jig is up, OldCatMan! If you won’t say MERRY CHRISTMAS now, be warned that Congress disapproves of you!

H. Res. 579
In the House of Representatives, U.S.
December 15, 2005.

Whereas Christmas is a national holiday celebrated on December 25; and

Whereas the Framers intended that the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States would prohibit the establishment of religion, not prohibit any mention of religion or reference to God in civic dialog:

Now, therefore, be it Resolved, That the House of Representatives—

(1) recognizes the importance of the symbols and traditions of Christmas;

(2) strongly disapproves of attempts to ban references to Christmas; and

(3) expresses support for the use of these symbols and traditions, for those who celebrate Christmas.

Attest:
Clerk

Posted by The Skipper     on 12/19/2005 at 01:42 PM   
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OldCatMan Christmas, T Minus 6

He’s teasing me. I know it. OldCatman (OCM) knows I am concerned about his immortal soul but his tiny, liberal brain refuses to cooperate. I received the “Christmas card” below this morning. I am still gnashing my teeth. The old porcu-critter is just like all the other liberals who would kill Chirstmas. They won’t be happy until we’re all bowing down at Ramadama-ding-dong. PLEASE, OCM! It won’t hurt you to say MERRY CHRISTMAS! I promise! Every day you postpone your redemption brings you one day closer to that old Devil. He’s a-waiting fer you, dont’cha know. He’s chuckling into the fires below, knowing you’re making the Baby Jesus cry. All the good people who come here are concerned that you are condemning yourself to hellfire forever after. Repeat after me ... M-E-R-R-Y-C-H-R-I-S-T-M-A-S!!

Posted by The Skipper     on 12/19/2005 at 10:17 AM   
Filed Under: • Religion •  
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Get A Life!

Today’s ”Get A Life” award goes to the two Greenpeace idjits below. I don’t know about you but I’m concerned that people like this have no life, no real jobs, no shame, no dignity and obviously no brains ... unless they’ve got them tucked in under the reindeer horns somewhere ...

Greenpeace activists dressed as reindeers stand in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin December 19, 2005. Greenpeace activists arrived after a 474 kilometres (294 miles) march through Germany to the German capital to promote the protection of the Finnish primeval forest.

Vor dem Botschaftsgebäude errichteten die Greenpeacer ein traditionelles finnisches Zelt: der passende Rahmen, um mit dem Botschafter René Nyberg zu sprechen. Dieser ließ sich jedoch durch einen Attaché vertreten. Das Tipi stand noch im Frühjahr als Teil der Greenpeace-Urwaldschutzstation in Finnland. Zusätzlich zu Unterschriften, die von den Rentieren während der Durchquerung Deutschlands gesammelt worden waren, wurden der finnischen Botschaft vier europäische Schutzgebietszwerge übergeben. Sie stammen aus dem nordhessischen Nationalpark Kellerwald-Edersee.

Posted by The Skipper     on 12/19/2005 at 09:55 AM   
Filed Under: • Stoopid-People •  
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Smackdown!

Today’s “Kick Butt And Take Names” trophy goes to Alfredo Hernandez and his son in Milwaukee. Alfredo also gets a special award for an outstanding quote (see last paragraph below). It’s too bad they didn’t have a firearm or three handy in the house to take these dirtbags out permanently. However, I feel under the circumstances they did a remarkable job of defending the family. Congratulations!

Father, Son Tag-Team Armed Robbers
Ambulance Called To Take Suspect Away
2:11 pm EST December 18, 2005
MILWAUKEE (WEWS - NEWSNET5)

A Milwaukee father and son said they thought it was a joke when two men with guns entered their home on Friday night. But once guns were at their heads, they fought back, reported WISN-TV. Police said two armed men walked up the stairs, knocked on the door and planned to rob the home of Alfredo Hernandez and his son.

“I saw the pistol ... to my son’s head,” Hernandez said. “If they were going to shoot anybody, they were going to shoot me.” While one of the men attempted to make off with his son’s recording equipment, Hernandez said he wrestled the other man to get the gun away from his son’s head. Hernandez’s son also didn’t give into the robbery.

“He clenched onto my arm and I just kept punching him till finally I ripped my arm out,” said the son, who didn’t want his name publicized. “Then we got him down, then I kicked him a couple times.” The man who nabbed the valuables was able to get away, while Hernandez sat on the other robber, trapping him. By the time police arrived on the scene, Hernandez told WISN-TV, they had injured the man so badly that an ambulance had to come to the home.

Hernandez said he stabbed the man three times in the leg with a cheese knife and his son hit the man in the head with a snow shovel, which authorities took for evidence. According to Hernandez, the man was screaming for help, begging not be arrested by police. Hernandez also said the crooks pointed the loaded guns at his daughter and his 3-year-old granddaughter.

With his family in peril, Hernandez said he did what he had to do. “Oh yeah, I messed him up,” Hernandez said. ”He came in walking and left in a stretcher.” Hernandez said his favorite movie is “Scarface.”

Posted by The Skipper     on 12/19/2005 at 09:30 AM   
Filed Under: • Crime •  
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No Pig Down Under

First the Muzzies on Australia’s east coast stirred things up with recent riots and now the west coast is getting a dose. Needless to day, the Aussies aren’t too happy with the Muzzies at this point, particularly when it means some of them won’t be able to have a traditional Christmas meal. Allow me to make an interesting point here. The Jews also have prohibitions against eating pork and they have lived among Western civilizations for thousands of years yet the Jews, to my knowledge, have never tried to make the rest of us follow their beliefs. What does that say about intolerance and Muslims ... ?

No Ham For Christmas:
Muslim Menu For WA Hospital
(AUSTRALIA SUNDAY TIMES)

A Western Australia hospital has scrubbed baked ham from its Christmas menu, fearing Muslim patients could be offended. It has also overhauled its entire menu so that all meals are now halal – containing only meat and other food prepared according to Muslim customs. But Port Hedland Regional Hospital staff and many non-Muslim patients are outraged, saying it is a case of political correctness gone mad.

Kitchen staff are so angry that they have organised a petition demanding ham be put back on the Christmas menu. Other WA hospitals are also introducing halal dining, though the Health Department says Port Hedland is the only one to convert its entire menu to suit Muslims. Hospital directors decided to axe the traditional festive season baked ham because of the high percentage of Muslim patients.

Eating pork or ham is forbidden under Muslim custom. Until now, Muslims were asked to supply their own food if they did not want to eat hospital fare. The hospital’s nursing director, Judy Davis, said though ham was not on the menu, Christian patients would not miss out on festive cheer. “We’ll still make Christmas special – we’ve got prawns and all sorts of other special treats,” she said.

But one long-time Port Hedland hospital worker told The Sunday Times the menu change was “unAustralian”. “It’s going to be a boring old Christmas lunch for the patients,” he said. “After all, what’s Christmas without a ham, or Sunday morning without bacon and eggs?

“The management of the hospital are unable to stand up to a minority and keep our Australian way of life intact. They are bowing to the pressure of a select few.” He warned that the only politically correct fare would soon be “a bowl of rice and a cup of tea”. “No wonder the true-blue Australians are getting angry,” he said. “Now all we need is for someone of the Hindu faith to jump up and down and we’ll have no beef. “Before we know it, if you’re sick in Port Hedland, you will have to be happy with a diet of boiled rice and a cup of tea.”

- More politically correct pork available here ...

Posted by The Skipper     on 12/19/2005 at 09:04 AM   
Filed Under: • Politically-Incorrect • RoPMA •  
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Quote Of The Day

“Some look at the challenges in Iraq, and conclude that the war is lost, and not worth another dime or another day. I don’t believe that. Our military commanders do not believe that. Our troops in the field, who bear the burden and make the sacrifice, do not believe that America has lost. And not even the terrorists believe it. We know from their own communications that they feel a tightening noose and fear the rise of a democratic Iraq.”
-- President Bush, December 18, 2005

If it’s any consolation to President Bush, most Americans don’t believe it either. The Democratic Party is sliding down a greased path to oblivion with their constant hate-Bush propaganda. I see nothing wrong with people disagreeing with the war, nor do I believe the current strategy is 100% perfect. By the same token though, I am incensed at Democrats who pontificate and declare that “we’re losing” and “we can’t win”. Opposition is one thing but this attitude in the Democratic Party leadership is another thing entirely. It borders on treason.

The Democrats did this once before and almost managed to self-destruct. That was 1968, and I believe was the beginning of the party’s decline into historical irrelevance. In the thirty-seven years since then, they have managed to elect only two Democratic Presidents and have lost control of both the House and the Senate. Now, they are on the verge of losing it all and appear to have no desire to stop the mad scramble to commit suicide. The main problem that creates for the rest of us is that, like a suicide bomber in the Middle East, they seem intent on taking out the rest of us with them.

Whether you believe in the war or not, the simple fact is that we’re in it and we stand to lose too much if the constant harassment and negativity doesn’t stop. The time to argue over the justification for the war against terror or the war in Iraq is when everything has settled down. Second-guessing the President and publicly espousing defeatism is destructive in nature and only places our troops in jeopardy by encouraging the enemy. The time to stick together is now. We can argue over the details later ... when our troops have come home and, because of their sacrifices, we can debate the whole matter in comfort and safety. Until that day, none of us are safe ... Republicans or Democrats.

Posted by The Skipper     on 12/19/2005 at 08:16 AM   
Filed Under: • Editorials •  
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Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:

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It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.

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