Friday - May 09, 2008
hard choices
I haven’t blogged about the disaster in Myanmar/Burma up until now. It’s a terrible tradgedy, even though it’s an expected one. That whole part of the world over there along the shores of the Indian Ocean is subject to terrible seasonal storms. Worse, it’s the arc of abject poverty; one of the poorest areas anywhere, from Bangledesh all the way around and down to Inodnesia. I even took a pass on AlGore’s all-too-expected hissy fit that blamed Global Worming for the storm. Myanmar itself is a hell hole. What could be, and used to be, a great little tropical country has fallen under tyranny and is now nearly a slave state. Google up “blood rubies” if you want more on that. The military junta that runs the country doesn’t like foreigners. We’re all spies ya know.
So while the news reports about this catastrophe have grown increasingly more dire - 10,000 dead, 30,000 dead, 100,000 dead - the other news stories have shown that a huge multinational relief effort has been given a hard time. Cuz they’re all spies too ya know.
Now it looks like a line has been drawn in the mud: the Myanmar government has seized the aid supplies and told the aid workers to take a hike. It’s not like this place is the USA, with endless assets and money, No, this is the place that helps make the Third World the Turd Wurld. They’ll take the stuff, but they don’t want any help, thank you very much. And being a despotism, they really don’t give a shit if more of their people die and lie around rotting.
UN halts aid to Myanmar after junta seizes supplies
YANGON, Myanmar - Myanmar’s junta seized U.N. aid shipments Friday meant for a multitude of hungry and homeless survivors of last week’s devastating cyclone, forcing the world body to suspend further help.
The aid included 38 tons of high-energy biscuits and arrived in Myanmar on Friday on two flights from Bangladesh and the United Arab Emirates.“All of the food aid and equipment that we managed to get in has been confiscated,” U.N. World Food Program spokesman Risley said.
“For the time being, we have no choice but to end further efforts to bring critical needed food aid into Myanmar at this time,” he said.
At least 62,000 people are dead or missing in Myanmar, entire villages are submerged in the Irrawaddy delta and aid groups warned that the area is on the verge of a medical disaster.
The U.N. has grown increasingly critical of Myanmar’s military rulers’ refusal to let foreign aid workers into the country while the junta appeared overwhelmed and more than 1 million homeless people waited for food, medicine and shelter.
“The frustration caused by what appears to be a paperwork delay is unprecedented in modern humanitarian relief efforts,” Risley said. “It’s astonishing.”
The junta said in a statement Friday it was grateful to the international community for its assistance — which has included 11 chartered planes loaded with aid supplies — but the best way to help was just to send in material rather than personnel.
Nearly a week after the storm, survivors are now having to contend with rotting corpses of people and animals as they wait for food, clean water and medicine.
“Many are not buried and lie in the water. They have started rotting and the stench is beyond words,” Anders Ladekarl, head of the Danish Red Cross.
So what is it that we have here? Is this merely politics, where a weak country is being trampled by pushy UN folks coming in and taking over? Or will the thugs who run Myanmar just steal the food for themselves or to sell, and leave the citizens to rot? Where does sovereignty draw the line when it comes to disasters far beyond the ability of a country to deal with? Should they be FORCED to open their borders to WorldMed Inc, for their own good? Having been rebuffed, should the world get uppity and say “Well fine. Screw you guys, I’m going home.” and just leave these people to die?
These are hard things to think about, and there are some hard choices to make here. Where do you think the moral line is? If you were the world, what would you do?
Posted by Drew458
on 05/09/2008 at 08:09 AM
Filed Under: • Border Security • Climate-Weather • Health-Medicine •
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Permalink • Thursday - May 08, 2008
TV Blogging: Survivor Fans vs Favorites
One man against four women. Four women who have openly bonded to vote off all the guys. And have done so. One man who wins every challenge, time after time. Because even a scrawny wiener of a guy is stronger and faster than most women. Four women who lay such an obvious guilt trip on him -"oh you hurt our feelings so much, I don’t know what you can do to make it up to us!” - that he gives up immunity when it’s a guarantee to be in the Final Four. Four women who vote him out in a flash and laugh in his face while the jury hides their faces in embarassment for him. As Parvati says “Erik, you are the dumbest Survivor in the history of Survivor”. And Erik is gone. The tribe has spoken.
Hey dumbshit, didn’t your “religiously studying” the show teach you anything from Dreamz a couple seasons back? ”I’m a keep it.” That’s how the game is played.
Truly, there has to be an intelligence test to be a contestant on this show. And you have to fail it by a wide margin to become a contestant.
Posted by Drew458
on 05/08/2008 at 08:00 PM
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Permalink • Not Your Usual Aarrggh Pirates, part 2
Well, duh, right? Ordinarily I wouldn’t give this article a second glance. Of course piracy is bad for you. But, unfortunately, this is LA we’re dealing with, so their idea has nothing to do with Jean LaFoote and his merry band of seaborne cutthroats. No, LA is talking about music and video piracy. See, by declaring such things a Public Nuisance, they can set the wheels of government turning to use Emminent Domain to steal your house. Legally. Hang on a minute, who is the pirate here?
Local governments in California and the United States have long had the power to declare property a public nuisance when their owners allow their land to become denizens of drugs, gangs, prostitution and gambling.
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, following New York’s lead, is adding a new category: music and video piracy.
In an ordinance just adopted, the five-member board is declaring that piracy “substantially interferes with the interest of the public in the quality of life and community peace, lawful commerce in the county, property values, and is detrimental to the public health, safety, and welfare of the county’s citizens, its businesses and its visitors.”
The regulation was crafted at the urging of the Motion Picture Association of America and the Recording Industry Association of America.
Oh hell, you wouldn’t think LA would be in bed with the MPAA now would you? Not a chance. It’s not like they own Hollywood or anything. Um, hang on ...
The county retains the right to shutter a property for up to a year for violating ordinance 13.90.010 and also gives local authorities the right to bring a civil action to “temporarily restrain, preliminarily enjoin, and/or permanently enjoin the person or persons intentionally conducting, or knowingly maintaining or permitting the public nuisance from further conducting, maintaining, or permitting such a public nuisance.”
Property owners who knowingly permit such activity can also be dinged $1,000 for each counterfeited work produced on the property.
Permanently enjoin the person conducting the nuisance from maintaining the nuisance. Yup, I’m pretty much sure that means We Get To Seize Your Property.
Fuck ‘em. Another punishment that’s waaay overboard for the crime committed. Avast there LA, else it be fair time for the oak plank two step, and a long dance with Davey Jones.
Posted by Drew458
on 05/08/2008 at 06:00 PM
Filed Under: • Government • Pirates, aarrgh! •
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Permalink • Not Your Usual Aarrgh, Pirates
A suburban London man said he will not take down a pirate flag he erected for his daughter’s birthday party, despite threats of legal action.
David Waterman, 41, a firefighter from the London suburb of Ashtead, said he purchased a $10 Jolly Roger and put it up outside his house for his daughter’s pirate-themed eighth birthday party, The Daily Mail reported Tuesday.
However, he said he left the flag flying after the party, and seven weeks later, on April 21, he received a letter from a Mole Valley council official warning him that he had seven days to remove the flag before he would face legal action.
“I find it ridiculous that the council are fighting me over this,” Waterman said. “It’s a 5 pound ($10) flag, not hurting anyone, and they’re probably spending hundreds of pounds of our cash getting me to take it down. That could be spent on improving the local area it’s disgraceful.”
Local laws only give homeowners the right to fly the country’s flag or a flag advertising a business.
A Mole Valley council spokesman said officials have not yet decided whether to pursue legal actions against Waterman. However, the firefighter said he will not back down from the issue.
“This is a point of principle and I’m standing firm,” he said.
When governments set rules that manage even the smallest aspects of your life, like this case, then you’ve got too damn much government. That they then go and enforce such pissant laws shows that they are focused on the wrond set of priorities. Here in the Land of The (mostly) Free, an entire industry has sprung up in the last decade or so, selling all sorts of seasonal and thematic flags for people to fly, either from poles or from the front of their homes. Flags for all reasons, from your favorite sports team to your children’s birthday parties. It’s a basic form of expression. So sad that some anal retentive bunch of twits have got their knickers in a twist over something so innocuous. The local laws are wrong. Period. Stick to your guns Mr. Waterman; and stand by to repel boarders! Aargh.
Posted by Drew458
on 05/08/2008 at 05:40 PM
Filed Under: • Pirates, aarrgh! • Stoopid-People •
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Permalink • Texas Guns up over politics
Texas caught off guard as more seek handgun permits
Some point to anti-gun politics as applications rise 39 percent and swamp the state
AUSTIN — Demand for concealed handgun licenses has risen nearly 40 percent in Texas in a year, an increase being attributed to many factors, even presidential politics.
Though the exact cause may be unclear, what’s certain is that the spike in applications has caught the Department of Public Safety unprepared.
The state is taking a month longer than the 60 days allowed by law to process original applications and 80 days longer on renewals, which are supposed to be handled within 45 days.
“We’re trying really hard, but there have been delays because of the tremendous increase in applications,” said Tela Mange, a DPS spokeswoman.
She said the department is paying overtime and hiring temporary workers to reduce the backlog. Mange said she doesn’t know why applications last month were 39 percent higher than they were in April 2007.
But Ross Bransford, who trains 1,000 Texans a year to qualify for a concealed handgun license, said he believes the looming 2008 election is a big factor.
”People are not sure what’s going to happen after the election,” said Bransford, who owns Austin-based CHL-Texas.com. ”Both Democratic candidates are anti-gun in one fashion or another.”
He said Sen. Barack Obama, who is leading the race for the nomination, is a “friend of (Democratic Senator) Ted Kennedy, and that scares everybody to death.”
Other instructors mentioned an increased interest from young adults after last year’s Virginia Tech massacre and recent changes in Texas law about carrying concealed weapons.
In 2007, lawmakers granted privacy to the 258,000 license holders by closing records that had been public since the concealed handgun law passed in 1995. They also extended the so-called “castle doctrine” defense to persons who use a gun to protect their vehicles, in addition to their homes.
Texas DPS has been processing about 1000 applications a week, but has been receiving more than 1800 applications per week. Some are new and some are renewals.
Go Texas, get ‘em while you can. Yee. Ha.
Posted by Drew458
on 05/08/2008 at 02:33 PM
Filed Under: • Guns and Gun Control •
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Permalink • AN UPDATE ON EARLIER STORY RE. GUNMAN SHOT BY AWFUL POWEECE. SOB (tears)
Gunman ‘had multiple bullet wounds’
A barrister killed in a five-hour shootout with police died of multiple bullet wounds, sources have said.
Mark Saunders, 32, was found dead after armed police ended the siege by storming his luxury Chelsea flat. Investigators declined to give details of a post-mortem examination carried out by pathologists in Westminster on Wednesday night.
An inquest into Mr Saunders’ death will be opened on Friday morning at Westminster Coroner’s Court. Representatives from the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) and Metropolitan Police will give further details of the shooting at the hearing
Posted by Drew458
on 05/08/2008 at 12:48 PM
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Permalink • More Mil Blogging - Next Generation of Munitions?
The Pentagon has quietly been working on a new arsenal of advanced weaponry that replaces metal casings with “reactive materials,” ("RM") normally harmless matter that combines to release explosive amounts of energy on impact, tearing targets apart with violent fury.
In development for more than 30 years, the research is beginning to bear fruit, and may soon spawn more powerful bombs, warheads that tear apart stone and concrete, mines that can be set to stun or kill, and grenades that can swat rockets or mortar rounds out of the sky like flies.
A very long time ago, there was this English guy who invented the exploding cannon ball. His name was Shrapnel. Since that time, almost all military explosive devices have followed his basic concept: shoot something made out of iron at your enemy, and have it blow up when it gets close. The flying fragments - the shrapnel - will inflict the damage, much more than the blast will. But that was back in the day, when the best blast that could be made was provided by black powder. Modern explosives are orders of magnitude more powerful. And we have learned how to focus the explosions themselves. So while a typical standard artillery shell or aerial bomb might be half explosive and half fragmentable iron casing, more modern weapons don’t use much casing at all. Bombs like the MOAB and the Daisy Cutter do their damage based on massive shockwaves, not flying fragments. Focused explosives, otherwise known as shaped charges, came out in WWII (eg the bazooka, an early RPG), and were found able to defeat significant amounts of armor by creating a high velocity plasma jet that burned through everything. Shaped charge weapons are still used today, and we’ve even learned how changing the shape of the Shape makes them even more potent. A simple shaped charge IED with a couple pounds of explosive can defeat a full size tank with ease. So do we really even need shrapnel any more? Well, what if the shrapnel itself was another kind of explosive? How about a plasma jet that cuts through armor and then blows up? Or a shaped charge shell of a given size that’s suddenly 3 times as potent?
Shaped charges are another application where RMs can increase the effectiveness of existing designs. In a shaped charge, a hollow metal cone is surrounded by explosive material, which is then detonated, forcing the blast through the small end of the cone.
“The action is analogous to stamping on an open toothpaste tube, ejecting the liquid contents,” says Douglas Millard of British defense contractors QinetiQ.
Replace the metal liner with RM, and the explosive power of that jet will increase dramatically.
“Such reactions are highly exothermic and therefore lead to the release of large amounts of energy, which is in addition to the kinetic energy within the jet,” Millard says. “An increase in the energy coupled into the target occurs and this results in the creation of greater damage to the target.”
Reactive materials are combinations of materials that are normally stable, but, when subjected to sudden shock—such as striking a target—release a large amount of energy. Depending on the composition and warhead design, the energy can be released as heat, a blast or a combination of the two. Unlike conventional explosives, RMs cannot be set off by fuses. Technically, they are classified as flammable solids, and they are less hazardous to transport and store than explosives.
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The material can dramatically magnify the yield of conventional bombs, and do away with the waste embodied by a bomb’s inert metal skin.
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a new bomb could be half the size of existing weapons but twice as powerful.
Pretty damned amazing. But along with the “smaller but more potent” meme comes the “minimal force” meme. Eliminating flying shrapnel cuts down the kill radius of a bomb, which would lessen the chance for collateral damage.
The BattleAxe warhead program is funded by the Air Force Research Laboratory at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla. The goal of this program is to develop a multi-role, miniature warhead. BattleAxe uses material which allows a smaller warhead to destroy targets completely without causing major collateral damage to the surrounding areas.
Potential targets for the BattleAxe include, unarmored and armored vehicles, buildings in urban environments, and other potential threats. Applications for this warhead include low-cost mini-cruise-missiles and weaponized unmanned aerial vehicles, allowing greater protection for deployed troops in hostile environments.
There are huge advantages to smaller more efficient projectiles. They can be fired faster and further with the same amount of propellent. The guns or missiles that propel them can be smaller and lighter. Possibley they cost less, and since they’re smaller and lighter, more of them can be carried along for a given weight. That the little ones can be as effective, or even more effective, than the older bigger ones is sweet icing on the cake.
The RM project has been going on for 30 years now. There have been many obstacles to overcome. Are we close to seeing these things actually fielded, or is this article just a puff piece for a defense contractor who is up for grant renewal?
Normally new weapons are fielded rapidly if there is a military demand—assuming they work. So far, RMs have not made it into the field, and the technology may not be as mature as developers suggest. But Pike also notes that there has been an unprecedented surge in munitions development over the last few years, with “all kinds of weird stuff” being developed. So after decades of being kept very quiet, reactive materials may soon be making a lot of noise.
Posted by Drew458
on 05/08/2008 at 09:48 AM
Filed Under: • Amazing Science and Discoveries • Military •
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Permalink • Is the end near for Sadr City fighters?
Iraqi soldiers for the first time warned residents in the embattled Sadr City district to leave their houses Thursday, signaling a new push by the U.S.-backed forces against Shiite extremist who have been waging street battles for seven weeks.
Iraqi soldiers, using loudspeakers, told residents in some areas of southeastern Sadr City, which were virtually abandoned, to go to nearby soccer stadiums, residents said. UNICEF says about 6,000 people have been forced to flee their homes in Sadr City, most of them from the southeastern section.
U.S. forces have increased air power and armored patrols in an attempt to cripple Shiite militia influence in Sadr City, a slum of 2.5 million people that serves as the Baghdad base for the Mahdi Army led by anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
The U.S. military is trying to weaken the militia grip in the slum and disrupt rocket and mortar strikes from Sadr City on the U.S.-protected Green Zone, which includes the U.S. Embassy and key Iraqi government offices.
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Iraqi soldiers on Thursday shut down a local radio station, al-Aahad, run by the Sadrists after raiding offices of the station in a neighborhood near Sadr City, police said.
Fighting continues to be hot in this area of Baghdad, and the wall around it continues to be built. Divide, then conquer. Looks like the divisioning aspect is really progressing, so maybe the conquer part is soon to come. Fighting around the Qod Street part of the wall is still intense:
The Mahdi Army continues to attack US and Iraqi forces as they erect the barrier on Qods Street, which divides the southern third from the northern portion of Sadr City. US and Iraqi troops responded, killing 18 Mahdi Army fighters and capturing 11 throughout Baghdad.
US and Iraqi troops and US air weapons teams killed 11 Mahdi Army fighters as they attacked barrier emplacement teams and planted roadside bombs in Sadr City on the night of May 5 and the morning of May 6. Iraqi soldiers and police also uncovered numerous weapons caches in northern and eastern Baghdad. In one raid, Iraqi police discovered a weapons cache in the courtyard of the Imam Ali Mosque in the Al Ghadeer neighborhood in New Baghdad (number 31 on map). “The [National Police] found five explosively formed projectiles, two improvised explosive devices, five rocket rails, three grenades and numerous rounds of various ammunitions,” Multinational Forces Iraq reported.
The US military conducted a guided rocket attack on a Special Groups headquarters adjacent to a hospital in Sadr City, while 14 Mahdi Army fighters have been killed during clashes over the past 24 hours.
The US Army targeted and destroyed a Special Groups command and control center in a Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System strike in Sadr City at 10 AM local time Saturday morning, Multinational Forces Iraq reported. “There were six GMLRS rocket strikes on these Special Groups criminal command and control nodes,” (said Public Relations Officer) Lieutenant Colonel Steven Stover
I’m posting this because you probably haven’t heard much about it on your TV news. There has been a pretty heavy battle going on there in Sadr City for over a month now, and al Sadr’s gangs are getting creamed. Gee, too friggin bad. These rocket attacks - I mentioned the GMLRS system the other day - are proving to be a very effective weapons system for the Army. Good.
With their vertical trajectory, ability to cover 70 kilometers (43 miles) in 82 seconds and close-combat precision, GMLRS rockets are becoming the rockets of choice, even when other more traditional missiles or other bombs are available. Army officials say many requests for the rockets to be used instead of aircraft-launched missiles are coming from the Air Force. Of the estimated 273 missions in which GMLRS rockets have been used in theater, about 83 percent were accomplished in urban environments and 69 percent were done with troops in close proximity.
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U.S. Army commanders and troops have come to view the Army’s Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System (GMLRS) as their “70-kilometer sniper rifle,” but enemy forces in Iraq see the weapon in a starker light.“The enemy is calling it the ’Hand of Allah,’”
Got that one right Achmed. The Hand of Allah. And stop and think, if you live long enough that is, just who is controlling that hand.
Posted by Drew458
on 05/08/2008 at 09:22 AM
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Permalink • Mil Blogging - Special Forces Soldier Awarded Distinguished Service Cross
FORT BRAGG, N.C. - A Special Forces Soldier who crawled 200 feet while being fired upon to save a wounded colleague, then led a group of besieged Soldiers to safety, received the Army’s second-highest award for valor April 30. Master Sgt. Brendan O’Connor received the Distinguished Service Cross in a ceremony April 30 at Fort Bragg for his actions in Afghanistan. The award is second in achievement only to the Medal of Honor.
“He made a conscious decision to do whatever it took to get to our wounded Soldiers,” said Maj. Sheffield Ford, the team’s commander during the June 2006 battle in southern Afghanistan.
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With his Special Forces team surrounded by Taliban fighters, O’Connor volunteered to lead a relief force to rescue two wounded colleagues. He got to the edge of a field, but intense Taliban machine-gun fire made him turn back. After shedding his body armor so he could press himself flat in a ditch, he crawled the last 200 feet to the wounded Soldiers. Taliban fire was so close that it sheared off the blades of tall grass around the ditch as he crawled. Finally reaching the two wounded Soldiers, he stabilized them and led the relief force back to safety.
Olson, who recounted the battle in his speech, described O’Connor’s actions as legendary.
“Master Sgt. O’Connor exemplifies the spirit and ethos of these warriors,” Olson said. “We stand in quiet awe and in the deepest admiration.”
The ceremony marked only the second time the award has been presented to a Soldier for actions in Afghanistan.
O’Connor, 47, doesn’t believe he is a hero. He said that police officers and firefighters are courageous every day and that he was only completing his mission.
Outstanding. Completely selfless actions under the most dire conditions. That’s true heroism to me. Thank you M SGT O’Connor, and congratulations on your award.
Posted by Drew458
on 05/08/2008 at 09:02 AM
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Permalink • gunman’s family question ‘shoot to kill’
Just how fuckin stupid are ppl getting? Gunman? Duh .... Man with gun shooting at ppl ...
This dickhead was taking shots at random including shooting at a woman in her back garden. So the police (after some hours) put a STOP TO UN-NECESSARY BREATHING. But the family questions if they had to shoot the bastard. The family need to be taken out too. Too many stupid genes there. Geez I get so sick of this crap ...
By Gordon Rayner and Nick Allen
Last Updated: 1:25PM BST 08/05/2008
The family of the barrister shot dead during an armed siege have questioned the police’s decision to use lethal force.Rodney Saunders suggested the five-hour stand-off in Chelsea, West London, could have been resolved peacefully without the need for marksmen to shoot his son Mark, who was holed up with a shotgun in his £2.2million flat.
( a five hour stand off? I wouldn’t have given the bastard more then five minutes! GOOD for the cops here. One less Gerbil in the world. )
But police sources insisted yesterday that former Territorial Army reservist Mr Saunders, 32, left the Metropolitan Police with no choice after he repeatedly shot at neighbours and armed officers in Markham Square on Tuesday afternoon.Rodney Saunders, of Alderley Edge, Cheshire, said: “Put it this way, he didn’t endanger anyone at all to my knowledge and we can only surmise what might have happened before the whole thing started.
(no, of course not. Taking pot shots here and there isn’t a danger. No, it was his civil and human right if we can believe his dad.)”I just don’t know. You would imagine that it will come out in the fullness of time. We will want answers as to why police shot him.”
Oxford-educated Mr Saunders, who had two legally-owned shotguns, began firing at neighbours from the window of his flat following a row with his wife Elizabeth, 40, who is a barrister working at the same chambers as her husband.
Police negotiators tried for several hours to persuade him to surrender himself, firing warning shots during three separate exchanges of fire. But witnesses said Mr Saunders’s only responses were to shout “I can’t hear you” and “I’m ex-Army”.
At one point he threw a cardboard box from his window with the message “I love my wife dearly. xxx” written on it, which has been interpreted as a possible “goodbye” note to his wife and prompted speculation over whether he may have been trying to provoke police into killing him in what has become known in previous cases as “suicide by cop”.
One police source was adamant that officers had no choice but to shoot Mr Saunders, who had been drinking heavily and was clearly well supplied with ammunition.
“He was firing directly at people and police officers and into houses which had not been evacuated,” said the source. “He was a direct threat. There were attempts to engage him by negotiators but these were not successful.
“This man was out of control and we could not predict what he would have done next.”
Like other forces, the Metropolitan Police has a shoot to kill policy when dealing with an armed offender. Marksmen never try to merely wound a suspect, as the danger of them firing back when approached by police and medics could lead to others losing their lives.
A post-mortem examination today is expected to confirm that Mr Saunders was shot by one of none officers who discharged their weapons during the siege.
His mother Rosemary said she had not been aware of her son having any marital problems, but admitted he did have “issues with alcohol”.
Mrs Saunders said: “Liz and Mark’s marriage was stable. The family had a get together a couple of months ago and everything was normal.
“We are devastated and very confused by what has happened.
“Mark and Liz were a golden couple. There had been no row on Tuesday. She was at work when the seige began.
“She tried to get back into her flat to see what was going on but could’t get past the police cordon.
“"Liz was his life but his work also meant everything to him. Everything he touched he was successful in. He had a stressful job but never spoke about any undue pressures or stresses.
“Mark did have drinking issues but we are at a loss as to explain what happened.
“All we know is we’ve lost our son. What went wrong I just don’t know. I don’t know if we’ll ever know.”
Mr Saunders, who studied law at Christ Church College, Oxford, before joining the QEB chambers in 1998, spent three years with the Honourable Artillery Company regiment of the Territorial Army between 1999 and 2002.
He had been a gun enthusiast since his school days, friends said, and is understood to have allowed police to inspect his shotguns after he and his wife bought their flat in Markham Square last September.
Mr Saunders specialised in divorce law and had worked on TV star Chris Tarrant’s divorce settlement.
Posted by Drew458
on 05/08/2008 at 08:53 AM
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Permalink • Mil Blogging: No more porn mags for troops?
Stars & Stripes, via Military.com: GRAFENWOHR, Germany—Legislation that would restrict the sale of certain men’s magazines on U.S. military bases around the world would be bad for morale, according to soldiers at Grafenwöhr.
U.S. Rep. Paul Broun, R-Ga., has introduced legislation that would close a loophole in the current law that allows the sale of some sexually explicit material on military bases by lowering the threshold required to deem material “sexually explicit.”
A Department of Defense committee that reviews materials sold on bases ruled last year that magazines such as Playboy and Penthouse are not pornographic. But Broun’s Military Honor and Decency Act includes language that could make those magazines eligible for the ban.
The prospect of missing out on men’s magazines was not welcomed by soldiers at Grafenwöhr.
Sgt. Simon Brown, 34, of Daytona Beach, Fla., said men’s magazines build morale. “It’s not all about the pictures, although 80 percent of it is,” he said.
Pfc. Greg Smith, 21, of Northboro, Mass., a regular Playboy reader, said soldiers should be allowed to buy nudie magazines at the exchange.
“Playboy is good entertainment while you are on the can. They have jokes and good stories,” he said.
On the one hand:
Broun, a Marine veteran, told Newsweek recently that the magazines sold in military exchanges are partly responsible for a rise in sexual assaults in the military and other problems.
“Allowing the sale of pornography on military bases has harmed military men and women by: escalating the number of violent, sexual crimes; feeding a base addiction; eroding the family as the primary building block of society; and denigrating the moral standing of our troops both here and abroad,” Broun says on his Web site.
On the other hand:
Some troops in the Pacific region said the proposed legislation would impinge upon their personal freedoms.
“They’re making it a point of undermining soldiers to almost make them feel like we’re back in elementary school,” Pfc. Nickolas Sears said Friday at Camp Red Cloud, South Korea. “We’re all adults here, and if it’s something we want to do, we should feel free to choose as we please.”
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I believe it’s a breach of freedom of speech,” said Senior Airman Garrett Deese, 25, of Elk Grove, Calif., who just completed a tour with the 8th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron at Kunsan Air Base, South Korea.He said he wonders whether such a ban would lead to barring other types of magazines lawmakers chose to challenge. He also questioned whether Broun’s link between magazines and sexual assaults within the military would stand close scrutiny.
Money talks the loudest?
Army and Air Force Exchange service public relations manager Judd Anstey said AAFES sold $231,000 worth of Penthouse, Playboy and Playgirl magazines in Europe last year.
“Sales of these three titles account for 2.7 percent of total European magazine sales ($8.5 million) at AAFES facilities,” he said.
The sales accounted for 0.5 percent of worldwide AAFES magazine sales of $46.4 million, he said.
You don’t exactly have full Freedom Of Speech in the military. Quite a few of our bases in other countries have followed the host nation’s laws and banned the sale of nudie mags and alcohol. While this is a little bit similar in effect, it’s completely different in nature. This is one of those “it’s for your own good” situations, and appears to be using the “porn = violence against women” meme as a base reason.
First up, what is pornography? Is my definition different from yours? Who gets to decide what is and what ain’t for the whole darn military?
Secondly, do you really think a lack of picture filled magazines is going to stop physically fit, hormone charged young men and women from thinking about sex? Let’s face it, when you’re in your late teens to mid-twenties that’s about all you think about. Period. Probably even when the Seargents are yelling at you or when the bullets are flying. Ok, maybe not then. But after it’s over. And it’s a very low level basic human trait - hard wired into our brains - that surviving a life threatening situation makes us want to breed. ( It’s true! Even when the threat isn’t real. I was a fencer in college. Fencing is rather like a knife fight disguised as a sporting event. Let me tell you, fencers are the ... um ... friskiest ... people you will ever meet! )
The magazines mentioned in the article are not what I call pornographic. Maxim, FHM, Playboy? A bit of tease, a lot of airbrushing, but nothing really trashy or explicit. Penthouse and Hustler? More direct, more “open”, but still fairly tame compared to what you can find on the internet with just a couple mouse clicks. Or in a real adult bookstore ( once in band camp back in college - which is the time and the place for everything, right? - I worked in such a bookstore for a couple weeks. It was an eye opening experience, no pun intended. Real porn, the hardcore stuff, is shocking at first and almost magnetic, but quickly becomes boring. And sleazy. And gross. And fake. I am so not into skanks either.)
So is this a good idea or a bad one? At this point I think it’s pretty stupid, and I don’t buy the “all girlie mags are porn, and porn causes violence to women” argument. But everyone has an opinion or three, so have at it in the comments. Maybe this is a great idea and we need to keep our soldiers morally pure in regards to their sexuality.
Posted by Drew458
on 05/08/2008 at 08:17 AM
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Permalink • Irrational ambition is Hillary Clinton’s flaw
Of interest from the comments section in this morning’s paper.
You might also be interested in the many comments by readers.
By Anne Applebaum
Last Updated: 12:01am BST 08/05/2008Read comments
Are you tired of the US election campaign? Not really sure what they’re arguing about any more? If you’re feeling as if you’ve lost the plot, don’t worry. It’s not because you’re British, or because you haven’t been paying close enough attention: we Americans feel exactly the same.
The malaise which the endless Democratic primary campaign has inspired across the political spectrum was summed up by the writer Nora Ephron, who described the ongoing contest between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama as an “unending last episode of Survivor. They’re eating rats and they’re frying bugs and they’re frying rats and they’re eating bugs; no one is ever going to get off the island and I can’t take it any more!”
Hillary Clinton wants so badly to win that she will try anything
But Ephron wrote that a month ago, and nothing has changed since. On Tuesday night, primary votes in North Carolina and Indiana once again confirmed everything we knew already.
Obama is still safely in the lead, both in the popular vote and in the delegate count. Clinton is still behind. And even if they keep going until the Democratic convention in August, Obama will still be safely in the lead, and Clinton will still be behind. For Clinton to win now, she has to get her party to change the rules of its primary, post hoc (apparently she is planning to try) or bring more states into the union.
Which is ridiculous - but so is this campaign. If you’ve found the election hard to follow of late, that’s because the only real issue at stake is Hillary Clinton’s extraordinary, irrational, overwhelming ambition.
As I write this, rumours that Clinton intends to drop out are in circulation. Allegedly, she cancelled her talk show appearances yesterday. Allegedly, her campaign is utterly broke. And yet no one can be certain that she won’t fight to the last delegate, using up every cent of her own money (she lent her campaign a further $6.4 million last week) and every last ounce of the Democratic Party’s credibility, because everything we have learnt about her in the past few months indicates this is possible.
Clearly, she wants so badly to win that she will try anything - and we know that “anything” includes adopting positions and methods of a kind she once claimed to abhor.
She is not above smear tactics, among them attempts to link Obama to Sixties radicals, people with whom he had only the slightest contact, if at all.
She is not above hints, verging on racist, that a black man can’t win the general election. She is not above exaggerating her achievements, claiming to have helped “bring peace” to Northern Ireland and to have dodged sniper fire in Bosnia.
Bizarre though this will sound to British ears, she has also spent much of the past two months trying to remake herself as a whiskey-drinking, gun-toting, blue-collar politician, the candidate of the working class.
Although she is a multi-millionaire whose best friends are multi-millionaires, although she spent most of her life among what can only be described at the elitest of the liberal elite, and although her opponent was raised by a single mother and went to university on scholarships, she has run around in circles trying to convince people that he is the elitist, and she is the populist.
The Chicago Tribune analysed her speeches and determined that she was using grammar and vocabulary several grade levels below that deployed by Obama, “the language of the least-educated, lowest-earning voters”.At one point, this long-time supporter of gun control described how her father taught her to shoot. It would take a psychologist, not a political analyst, to explain why she does this. To prove some feminist point? To show that she’s the equal of Bill? To take revenge for Monica?
Still, barring a deus ex machina or an Obama implosion of some unpredictable kind, sooner or later she’ll have to step down. When she does so, she’ll leave a divided party in her wake, as well as a candidate who has been seriously weakened by her prolonged campaign.
You may be bored by the election campaign, but the Democratic Party, when it wakes from this nightmare, will be very angry. And if John McCain beats Obama in November, it is not the Republican Party but Hillary Clinton who will be blamed.
Posted by Drew458
on 05/08/2008 at 08:14 AM
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Permalink • Wednesday - May 07, 2008
Gossip Blogging for an exhausted Steamboat
Amy Winehouse arrested again ... looking like a shit sandwich made with last month’s mayonaise (salad cream for you Brits), peanut butter-like nougat from the center of the earth, and a crunchy peanut coating with extra sleazy tattoos, Amy Winehouse has been busted yet again in England. This makes it her ... oh God, who can count the number of bubbles in a pot of boiling water, but that’s about how many times it’s been.
Singer Amy Winehouse has been released on bail after being arrested on suspicion of drug offences. The 24-year-old was held after police were handed a video which allegedly showed her taking drugs.
Wow, that’s got to be the world’s easiest job, busting celebrities like Amy, and that disgusting shoe wipage Pete Dougherty or whatever his name is who is always shagging drugged out anorexic skank-model Kate Moss and yet still manages to look like a bag of last November’s horse manure dropped in used MTA motor oil and left to ferment.
Between Winehouse’s drug busts, her crazy head butting violent behavior, the whole Blaaaaake!!! thing with her husband in jail while she goes on a shag fest with whatever zombies she can keep from running away in fright ... I mean, come on....
She’s some sort of mutant mental case duck billed platypus. Run away! Run away!!
A spokesman for the Met (what we foolish Yanks persist on calling Scotland Yard) said: “Around 1pm today a 24-year-old woman from the Camden area attended a London police station by arrangement and was arrested in connection with the alleged possession of a controlled drug.
“This is in connection with an investigation connected to footage passed to the Metropolitan Police on 22 January.”
Earlier Ms Winehouse’s spokesman said in a statement: “Amy Winehouse voluntarily attended a London police station today by appointment.
“She was arrested in order to be interviewed and is co-operating fully with inquiries.
“The interview relates to a video handed to police earlier this year.”
Earlier photographers and television cameras gathered outside Limehouse police station in east London where Ms Winehouse was being questioned by police.
Winehouse in Limehouse? Is that anything like Lime disease? Lyme disease? That’s what ticks give you. Early symptoms include utterly disjointed blog posts, rambling, excessive tiredness, and a desire to inspect endless numbers of properties for sale. Get some rest Steamboat, get some rest.
Yes, I know this post makes very little sense at all, and that’s nearly a compliment. But sometimes you have to try to rise to a challenge, even an implied one. Pass, or Fail?
Oh, and no porn for you today. Instead, here’s Katie Holmes looking like a slightly happy prom-zombie.
Posted by Drew458
on 05/07/2008 at 08:21 PM
Filed Under: • Fun-Stuff • Stoopid-People •
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Permalink • Congrats to Jenna
I guess I’ve been living under a rock. Not only did I not know Jenna Bush was getting married, this Saturday!!, I didn’t even know she was engaged. Heck, I didn’t even know she was dating anybody. But you know what? I’m kind of glad I didn’t know, because it’s really none of my business. I’m glad that someone in the billion watt glare of the media spotlight has been able to actually live a bit of a normal life.
Aww, isn’t he just so squeaky clean looking? So young, so innocent. I haven’t the slightest idea who Jenna Bush is. I don’t know a thing about her. But she photographs well, and somehow I thought she’d go more for the bad boys. Guess I’m a dope, and her parents raised her better than that. Well done then, Ms. Bush. No Britney or Paris she be. Good.
Months ago, her fiance, Henry Hager, told Jenna’s twin sister that he wanted to propose. Then at the Camp David presidential retreat, Hager asked President Bush and first lady Laura Bush for their daughter’s hand in marriage.
For weeks, the president and Mrs. Bush kept their lips zipped.
Then on Aug. 15, 2007, Hager rousted Jenna at 4 a.m. to go hiking on Cadillac Mountain in Acadia National Park in Maine. “It was freezing,” Jenna recalled. “But we got up, and we hiked in the dark for an hour and a half, and then when we got towards the top - with the sunrise - he asked me.”
Officially, the wedding is a private, family affair. The White House has issued no press releases, but the president and first lady have gradually dribbled out details about the nuptials Saturday at their 1,600-acre ranch in Crawford, Texas.
Here’s the lowdown: Jenna, 26, will wear an Oscar de la Renta gown with a small train. More than 200 friends and relatives will attend the outdoor ceremony with dinner and dancing. A tent is being erected at the Western White House. The bride has 14 attendants, who are known not as bridesmaids, but members of the “house party.” Barbara Bush, Jenna’s twin, is the maid of honor. She helped Hager make decisions about the ring. The diamond, a Hager family heirloom, was reset in a ring that also features sapphires.
On Monday, the president disclosed that Jenna will say “I do” near a lake at the ranch - in front of a giant cross made of Texas limestone that will serve as an altar. The cross will be a landmark at the ranch for years to come. The president said that was his contribution to the wedding that the Bushes are trying to keep a low-key affair.
Jenna, the 22nd child of a president to marry while their fathers were in office, has come a ways from her dad’s first year in office when she had a run-in with the Texas law for underage drinking. It was her second offense. Then, during her father’s re-election campaign in 2004, she was photographed sticking her tongue out at the media at a campaign stop in Missouri. The widely circulated photo reinforced the playful side of her personality.
See, maybe I wasn’t wrong after all! But I guess she was just playing us.
The groom, son of the head of the Republican Party in Virginia, met Jenna during her father’s 2004 re-election campaign. Hager, who graduated from Wake Forest University, worked as an aide to Bush’s former top political adviser Karl Rove and Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez. Hager, who will turn 30 the day before the wedding, is set to receive a master’s degree in business administration later this month from the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business.
After the wedding, the couple plans to live in a two-bedroom, two-bath town house on the south side of Baltimore where she plans to return to teaching and he will work for Constellation Energy, a power supplier based in Maryland.
Jenna’s mother said Monday that she’s not nervous - and the president isn’t, either.
“I’m very, very excited,” the first lady told reporters. “It’s a very interesting passage of life when you get to that time in your life when your child - first child is getting married. And we’re getting, for us, our first son.”
Wow, a simple affair in Crawford, with a mere 14 attendants. Well I hope it’s a heckuva party, and the young couple get off to a perfect life together. Aide to Karl Rove ... yeah boy, I betcha Henry is a power player in the making. Cool.
Posted by Drew458
on 05/07/2008 at 07:35 PM
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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.
- Keep a firm grasp of Right and Wrong
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Oh, and here's some kind of visitor flag counter thingy. Hey, all the cool blogs have one, so I should too. The Visitors Online thingy up at the top doesn't count anything, but it looks neat. It had better, since I paid actual money for it.
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