BMEWS
 
Sarah Palin's presence in the lower 48 means the Arctic ice cap can finally return.

calendar   Thursday - March 31, 2011

Just Buggin

Things That Make My Skin Crawl




What do these trees

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and this 11 foot by 4 foot cloth

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have in common?





Both are the results of spiders. Yikes!


Millions of Spiders in Pakistan Encase Entire Trees in Webs

The unprecedented flooding in Pakistan in the latter half of 2010 disrupted the lives of 20 million people, but it also affected the country’s arachnid population.

With more than a fifth of the country submerged, millions of spiders climbed into trees to escape the rising floodwaters. The water took so long to recede, the trees became covered in a cocoon of spiderwebs. The result is an eerie, alien panorama, with any vegetation covered in a thick mass of webbing.

However, the unusual phenomenon may be a blessing in disguise. Britain’s department for international development reports that areas where the spiders have scaled the trees have seen far fewer malaria-spreading mosquitos than might be expected, given the prevalence of stagnant, standing water.




A spectacular and extremely rare textile, woven from golden-colored silk thread produced by more than one million spiders in Madagascar, goes on display Wednesday, September 23 [2009] in the Museum’s Grand Gallery. This magnificent contemporary textile, measuring 11 feet by 4 feet, took four years to make using a painstaking technique developed more than 100 years ago.

This unique textile was created drawing on the legacy of a French missionary, Jacob Paul Camboué, who worked with spiders in Madagascar in the 1880s and 1890s. Camboué worked to collect and weave spider silk but with limited success, and no surviving textile is now known to exist. Previously, the only known spider-silk textile of note was exhibited at the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1900, and it was subsequently lost.

image“Spider silk is very elastic, and it has a tensile strength that is incredibly strong compared to steel or Kevlar,” said textile expert Simon Peers, who co-led the project.
... Peers came up with the idea of weaving spider silk after learning about the French missionary Jacob Paul Camboué, who worked with spiders in Madagascar during the 1880s and 1890s. Camboué built a small, hand-driven machine to extract silk from up to 24 spiders at once, without harming them.

Simon managed to build a replica of this 24-spider-silking machine that was used at the turn of the century,” said Nicholas Godley, who co-led the project with Peers. As an experiment, the pair collected an initial batch of about 20 spiders. “When we stuck them in the machine and started turning it, lo and behold, this beautiful gold-colored silk started coming out,” Godley said.
...
But to make a textile of any significant size, the silk experts had to drastically scale up their project. “Fourteen thousand spiders yields about an ounce of silk,” Godley said, “and the textile weighs about 2.6 pounds. The numbers are crazy.”

The bright flaxen color of the fabric is a natural product of the golden orb spider.  Norm Platnick, the Peter J. Sullivan Family Curator of Spiders at the Museum, explained that the color is unique to the golden orb species.  Different spiders can produce different hues of gold, depending on what they eat, but each strand is twisted from the silk of about 96 spiders, making the color appear uniform.  Over a million spiders were used for the project, producing the raw material at a rate of 14,000 spiders per ounce of silk.
...
The tapestry may be kept under glass, but it is far from fragile.  “Spider silk is incredibly strong,” said Platnick.  “Its tensile strength in many cases is greater than steel of the same diameter.” Scientists have been attempting for decades to recreate the lightweight strength of the web with synthetic materials, but so far have had little success.  Such a manmade fabric could be used in anything from parachutes to bulletproof vests.

Mark Mitchell, who worked on the project, points out that spider silk is sustainable, as opposed to traditional silk made from silkworms, mostly in China.  The production of “regular silk results in 100% death of the caterpillars,” said Mitchell, whereas their technique causes few spider deaths.

Gosh. Curator of Spiders. That’s a career path you don’t see on many resumes. I tried real hard to find a picture of an actual spider silk milking machine but no luck. I figured that would make the greatest WhatsIt post ever.

More info on the spider silk textile here. Another source for the tree spiders story is here.

h/t to Rich K


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Posted by Drew458   United States  on 03/31/2011 at 12:38 PM   
Filed Under: • Miscellaneous •  
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Your Pound Of Beans

Meanwhile In Africa

Ouattara forces take Ivorian port of San Pedro




image Forces loyal to Ivory Coast’s Alassane Ouattara have seized the major cocoa port of San Pedro, extending a nationwide offensive that has left incumbent Laurent Gbagbo isolated in the main city, Abidjan.

In a blow to Gbagbo, his army chief of staff, General Phillippe Mangou, sought refuge in the South African ambassador’s residence in Abidjan. A South African spokesman denied rumors that Gbagbo was on the way to South Africa.

Residents and combatants from both sides said the pro-Ouattara forces were in control of western port town of San Pedro, and that it was now largely calm apart from some sporadic shooting.

Reuters witnesses in the main city, Abidjan, Gbagbo’s last remaining stronghold, said the streets were virtually empty and gunfire could be heard overnight and on Thursday morning, but it was not clear who was involved.

Gbagbo has resisted pressure from the African Union and the West to step down since a presidential election last November, which U.N.-certified results showed he lost to Ouattara by an 8-point margin, sparking a deadly power struggle.

But forces loyal to Ouattara launched an offensive this week on three fronts, and towns across the country fell, mostly without resistance, one after another as they swept south.

Cocoa prices have fallen about 9 percent since on the push. The capture of San Pedro, which ships half of the top grower’s beans, could, in theory, mean a resumption in exports.

Diplomats said on Thursday that European Union sanctions, including an embargo on cocoa shipments from San Pedro, would remain in place and if any exemption were discussed it would take four or five days to come into force.


So, who cares? Well, you do, even if you don’t know it. The Ivory Coast provides nearly half the world’s cocoa, and the unrest there has caused the commodity price to skyrocket. Neighboring Ghana and Nigeria Cocoa together produce a bit less than le Côte d’Ivoire; the 3 West African nations account for a touch more than 2/3 of world production. Ghana and Nigeria are having their own political instabilities.

Cocoa bean production is not a huge business; only about 3.4 million metric tons (1000 kilos = 2200lbs) a year of beans are grown worldwide. With more than 6 billion people in the world this amounts to just about 1 pound of cocoa beans per person annually.

Politics in the Ivory Coast are typically African, tribal crossed with religious, and too complicated for outsiders to understand, but when they had a civil war there 8 years ago cocoa prices took a huge jump from which they never fully recovered.  Laurent Gbagbo was president before, during, and after the war, so I guess his forces won. A few months ago they held an election and he lost, although his people obviously rigged the numbers and he claimed victory. Since then he has refused to step down, and this has plunged the country right back into civil war. Thanks a lot. At this point in time it looks like rebel leader and election winner Alassane Ouattara and his followers are winning, and with their troops seizing the one decent port in the country international market fears are easing.


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current commodity price link



This is some interesting economics, considering that there is a worldwide sanction on cocoa from the Ivory Coast right now. In theory they are not part of the current market, so how could the situation there impact global pricing? I guess the answer is that they are still growing the beans, and they have to be piled up in warehouses somewhere. World demand is fairly stable, so with only 1/3 of the product currently available from the other producer nations, this would cause a rather skittish market. But it is more complex than that, because cocoa is not created in a factory. The beans are grown on trees, and the pods ripen whenever they feel like it. This means the main harvest season lasts 7 months, and the minor secondary harvest season lasts another 3 months. Right now we are just into the no harvest at all period.

Cocoa farming is on the decline in several of the other producer nations. The trees take 5 or 6 years to mature and can produce for 50 years or more, but there just isn’t much money in it for the farmers. I find that interesting in itself, because the commodity price is more than half again as high now than it was when the Ivorian civil war started, and that price (around $2200/mt) was nearly 3 times as high as the price was just 2 years earlier in 2000 ($800/mt). Even if you ignore February’s record shattering price of over $3700/mt, a 32 year high and the current drop from there, cocoa beans are selling at more than 4 times the price they were a decade ago. Go figure. You’d think people would be planting left and right. I guess it’s just too much hard work, even though most of it is done by children.

Some analysts say that up to a quarter million of the pod pickers are small children, and there are very strong allegations that many of these children are kept as slaves. But given the typical abhorrent living conditions in Africa and their standard horrific inhumanity and barbarism, how could you tell? But before you feel all guilty and start searching for only Fair Trade chocolate to buy, you should know that the cocoa pods can usually only be harvested by children. The cocoa tree is fragile and the pods grow from the trunk, not from the branches. Adults climbing the trees damage them, and monkeys can’t be used because they don’t differentiate between the ripe pods and the unripe ones. So child labor is it. Don’t forget that the Turd World has a very different view on child labor than the spoiled and decadent west. What we see as child abuse they see as giving children the work opportunity to not starve to death.

Oh, and the root of all the problems in the Ivory Coast? You don’t even have to guess; you know what the answer is. Pisslam. Of course! When the French controlled the Ivory Coast it was a wonderland, with some of the highest per capita income and standard of living on the entire continent. This continued for several decades after independence in 1960, but at some point the Ivorians started importing foreign labor to do the scut work. And guess who showed up?

A former French colony and the world’s top cocoa producer, Ivory Coast was once regarded as a haven of peace and stability, until a 1999 coup that toppled president Henri Konan Bedie. Long considered a peaceful country, that welcomed millions of immigrant workers to sustain a booming economy after its independence from France in 1960, up to 40 percent of the 16 million population is now foreign. The immigrants inflamed political, religious and ethnic frictions between the largely Muslim north and the predominantly Christian south and west.

Until his death in 1993, these disputes were kept under control by the country’s post-independence president, Felix Houphouet-Boigny. But like Yugoslavia in the 1990s, the ancient ethnic and religious animosities were still there, and were exploited by rival politicians after Houphouet-Boigny was gone. Elections were held and Laurent Gbagbo, a southern nationalist, won. He tried to improve his control of the country by forcing northerners out of the security forces, and have millions of them declared foreigners, and ineligible to vote.

This led to the first round of fighting in 2002. The French sent in troops, to at least prevent escalation, and with UN help, a ceasefire was achieved in 2003. But in late 2004, the ceasefire was broken with government air raids on rebel bases in the north.

Until the push south this week, the worst of the violence had centered on Abidjan, where anti-Gbagbo insurgents, who do not necessarily support Ouattara, have seized parts of town.

In a sign violence could spin out of control, the army called on Gbagbo’s often violent youth wing to enlist in the military. They have been fired up with anti-French, anti-foreigner and anti-U.N. propaganda, and on Wednesday the army started openly handing out weapons to them.

Currently there are 11,000 UN Blue Helmets in the Ivory Coast, the vast majority of them being other Africans. So you know what that means ... it’s a mess. A chocolate mess.


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Posted by Drew458   United States  on 03/31/2011 at 09:33 AM   
Filed Under: • AfricaEconomicsFine-DiningPoliticsWar-Stories •  
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an example of police abuse …. take a look.

This is part of a column by Richard Littlejohn, in the aftermath of the London riots last Sat.

I’ve already said whatever I was gonna say, I posted my letter to one Daily Mail columnist and btw Macker, nope. No reply to that letter. Not that I ever expected one.

One little surprise though in this Littlejohn piece.  He suggested the use of flame throwers on the thugs you see below.
Of course, he is nowhere as serious as I am in the use of that very efficient weapon. When he says it I suspect it’s tongue in cheek. Not so your truly.

Take a look at what the cops here have to put up with.  And btw, the thugs came with those sticks you see. They came prepared to hurt and assault and vandalize.

image

By Richard Littlejohn
excerpt from the Daily Mail

Saturday morning’s papers carried accounts of the Left-wing hooligans’ plans to smash up central London under the cover of the TUC march.
On the internet, you could find every one of the assembly points, north, south and east. From the Tufnell Park Spartists to Southwark SWP, all advertised their intentions.

If Fleet Street’s finest could work all this out, so could Scotland Yard. So why were these maniacs allowed out of Cable Street in one direction and across the river in the other?

Never mind kettling them, this was a case for dropping a giant tea urn on their heads. We should have been talking flame-throwers and attack dogs as a basis for negotiation.

So what did the Old Bill do? Under the command of some high-flying WPC tipped as the first female Commissioner they stood back and let them get on with smashing up Fortnum & Mason.

I’m told the chaps on the front-line were absolutely livid. Meanwhile, Juliet Bravo invited ‘human rights observers’ to monitor the touchy-feely policing operation on CCTV at headquarters.

Presumably, these days they’re using it as a training video at the Yard.

LITTLEJOHN

there’s a shot somewhere of one of these punks with an arm around a cop’s neck. I’d love to see the bastards try that on one of ours. cops here really are tied and mostly unarmed. hell, they didn’t even use spray that I’m aware of.


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Posted by peiper   United Kingdom  on 03/31/2011 at 09:31 AM   
Filed Under: • Jack Booted Thugs •  
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pssst. hey. anyone spotted england’s sovereignty lately? seems to be missing.

No other possible reason for posting this except as yet another in the long line of examples, of how to dump a nation’s sovereignty.

Not so much a ‘how to’ as an already done.  They just simply signed it away.

Take a look.


Euro court rulings ARE the law, says our top judge

By STEVE DOUGHTY


Rulings by the European human rights court are the law of the land in Britain, England’s most senior judge declared yesterday.

Lord Chief Justice Lord Judge said that the Human Rights Act meant British judges must follow the decisions set down in Strasbourg, ‘no more and no less’.

His intervention came at a time of high tension between Westminster and the court in Strasbourg over the right of prisoners to vote.

Last month MPs voted overwhelmingly to reject the demand by European human rights judges that prisoners should have the vote, insisting that it is a matter for Parliament.

But Lord Judge’s opinion will pile pressure on David Cameron to find a compromise.

Lord Judge said in a lecture in Jerusalem yesterday that people were free to attack human rights law in print.

But he said judges have no choice but to follow the instructions of European courts because Labour’s 1998 Human Rights Act made European human rights rules part of British law.

‘The words “human rights” are sometimes described in language which might suggest they stand not for the noblest ideals, but, using polite language, as woolly nonsense,’ he said. But he added that the European human rights convention and decisions by the EU’s Luxembourg-based Court of Justice ‘must be applied whether we judges in the United Kingdom agree with them or not’.

He said: ‘Judges are obliged to apply the legislation enacted by our sovereign Parliament, and the European Communities Act 1972 and the Human Rights Act 1998 are two such Acts. No more and no less.’

Many Tory MPs see the prisoner votes debate as symbolic of the domination of Westminster by undemocratic European institutions.

Advice to the Government from its legal officers suggested that they are free to ignore Strasbourg’s instructions on prisoner voting.

But justice secretary Kenneth Clarke has said that although the human rights court needs reform, Britain must be bound by its decisions.

The Strasbourg judges have given Britain until August to obey their ruling that prisoners should have the vote.

Lord Judge also called in his lecture for newspapers to stop making personal criticism of judges.

He said it was ‘corrosive’ and could undermine public confidence in the judiciary.

Oh, I think it’s a pretty safe bet don’t you, that the public has looooong ago lost confidence in the judiciary.

I got a pretty good idea on that score this morning.  Got a hair cut and my pretty barber with so soft hands, was telling me about the increased problems in that village. Cops have been around warning ppl etc.  She told us one morning when she came in to open the shop, she found spent matches that had been dropped through the letter box. Lots of them.  Probably just luck that nothing caught fire.  But she also spoke of her total lack of faith in either the police, the prisons or the judiciary.


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Posted by peiper   United Kingdom  on 03/31/2011 at 08:20 AM   
Filed Under: • UK •  
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calendar   Wednesday - March 30, 2011

a do run,run,run a do run, run.  a kind of update and a ship named Barry?

Just for fun and it’s less then an hour old .....

btw ... The USS Barry?  Oh please.  A war ship named Barry?  How about Brucie?  ok ... not too funny but I just can’t see a man of war named Barry. Can you?

Anyway, there are some very good photos HERE.

Mad Max-style rebel army runs for their lives down the same road they gleefully advanced up two days ago

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 7:01 PM on 30th March 2011

Days ago they gleefully streamed up Libya’s coastal road wearing massive grins as international air strikes flattened anyone who stood in their way.

image

But today Libya’s rag tag rebel army of enthusiastic amateurs was speeding down exactly the same road in the opposite direction - as they ran for their lives after coming face-to-face with what remains of Colonel Gaddafi’s army.

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The increasingly shambolic rebels - who at times resemble characters from Mad Max - gained as much as 200 kilometres of territory in a two-day lighting advance from their stronghold of Benghazi earlier this week.

But today they had given up almost all of those gains following a day-and-a half of hasty retreat as they were shelled by government forces that had not been eliminated from the air. image


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Posted by peiper   United Kingdom  on 03/30/2011 at 01:44 PM   
Filed Under: • War-Stories •  
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wilders to stand trial for discrimination against Muslims and inciting hate

Last week Mr. Wilders gave a speech in Rome, now this week he learns that he must stand trial on old charges of ....

GASP!

Insulting Muslims ....

Damn good thing those folks don’t have the death penalty, or I’m sure the politically correct, multicultural, diversified ass wipes would hang him.

Like muslims don’t invite hate. Right? Wrong?  I guess being critical of the grizzly bearded mad as a hatter bastards is all it takes.  And to think, he was critical of the so called religion speaking out and saying what many already believe.  I doubt anyone was incited to hatred as it was already there. All Wilders has done was confirm what we already know. 

Geert Wilders to face trial

Geert Wilders, the far-Right Dutch MP will face trial on charges of incited hatred and discriminations against Muslims, after a judge rejected a request to dismiss the case.

By Our Foreign Staff 4:46PM BST 30 Mar 2011
Mr Wilders was charged with insulting Muslims by comparing Islam to Nazism. The case has attracted considerable attention, not just because of Mr Wilders’ controversial comments, but also because of the increasing influence of his Freedom Party, which provides support for the Dutch minority government on key issues.

Mr Wilders has argued that he is exercising his freedom of speech when he criticises Islam and had won the right last month to seek a dismissal of the case.
But reading out the ruling on Wednesday, presiding judge Marcel van Oosten said the case would go ahead. He rejected most of the defence’s objections such as its questioning of the court’s authority to hear the case in the first place and of the way that the prosecutors had pursued the trial.

However, judges did agree with the defence that part of the indictment against Mr Wilders should be dropped. In it he allegedly refers to the Koran as “fascist” and said it should be banned.
The judges said that in including the quotes in the indictment prosecutors were going beyond the brief set out by the Amsterdam appeals court.

Following a brief adjournment, judges, prosecutors and the defence agreed for the trial to resume on April 13 with key witness testimony. If found guilty, he could face up to a year in jail of a 7,600 euro (£6,700) fine.

TELEGRAPH


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Posted by peiper   United Kingdom  on 03/30/2011 at 11:04 AM   
Filed Under: • CULTURE IN DECLINEJack Booted ThugsJudges-Courts-Lawyers •  
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Well No Kidding

Trained Army vs. Ragged Mob: Army Wins Every Time

Libyan rebels getting their asses whupped




Hey, maybe we should arm them! Sanctions? What sanctions?
Hey, maybe we should send in our troops to help them out? No troops on the ground promise? What’s that?

This can’t qualify as an iteration of the law of unintended consequences because nobody can possibly be that stupid and oblivious. Can they. Is he? Geez. Obama, The Quicker Fucker-Upper.




Libyan rebels fled in headlong retreat from the superior firepower and tactics of Muammar Gaddafi’s troops on Wednesday, highlighting their weakness without Western air strikes to tip the scales in their favor.  The rapid reverse comes just two days after the rebels raced westwards along the all-important coastal road in hot pursuit of the government army whose tanks and artillery were demolished in five days of aerial bombardment in the town of Ajdabiyah.

Gaddafi’s army first ambushed the insurgents’ convoy of pick-up trucks outside the “brother leader’s” hometown of Sirte, then outflanked them through the desert, a maneuver requiring the sort of discipline entirely lacking in the rag-tag rebel force. The towns of Nawfaliyah, Bin Jawad and Ras Lanuf fell in quick succession to the lightning government counter-strike.

“They are coming from the desert,” yelled one fighter among a group of a dozen rebels 10-15 km (6-8 miles) west of Brega training their guns south into the Sahara. Wisps of dust could be seen rising in the distance.

Scores of rebel pick-ups and cars streamed past them in a chaotic caravan east toward Brega. In town after town, Gaddafi force’s have unleashed a fierce bombardment from tanks, artillery and truck-launched Grad rockets which has usually forced rebels to swiftly flee.

“These are our weapons,” said rebel fighter Mohammed, pointing to his assault rifle. “We can’t fight Grads with them,” he said before joining the rush toward Brega.

Without Western air strikes, the rebels seem unable to make advances or even hold their positions against Gaddafi’s armor.

Rebel forces lack training, discipline and leadership. There are many different groups of volunteers and decisions are often made only after heated arguments.

image

Grad launch truck fires 40 122mm rockets in 20 seconds

Each rocket can fly 13 miles and carries a 41lb warhead

It can reload and fire again in <5 minutes. You can't fight this thing with a rifle


So I guess the US is about to take the blame for the rebel’s loss. To “make things fair”, in addition to all their planes and radars, we would have to blow up every tank, truck, radio, ammo dump, fuel dump, and piece of artillery the Libyan Army has. Thousands of them, I’m sure. Tens of thousands. Which would change the very nature of the “kinetic military endeavor” from “no-fly” to “shock and awe”. Which would cost us billions. It would be Gulf War I all over again. And even then their army would still have major advantages: numbers, training, communication, common ammunition, chain of command. All of which these rebels lack. If even 2/3 of Gadaffhi’s army stay loyal, there is simply no way that the rebels can win. No. Possible. Way. And that doesn’t even take Momo’s crazy Tuareg mercenaries into consideration. The only way for the rebels to win is for us to knock off Gaddafhi and send in the Marines. At least they’ve been there before.

Thanks Obama. WTF have you gotten us into?


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Posted by Drew458   United States  on 03/30/2011 at 10:57 AM   
Filed Under: • Miscellaneous •  
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This law makes no sense

New Arizona Law: No Race Based Abortions



I’m confused. Has this been a problem in Arizona before? Are girls out having some ethnic adventure and then dumping the “side effects” if “they get caught”? Is there some kind of “racial purity” movement going on there that I haven’t heard about, that castigates any infants who are browner, redder, or whiter than they “ought” to be? Or is this just the Far Right taking a page from the Far Left’s playbook and creating a law to solve a problem where none exists that erodes a little bit of women’s freedom, because to enact such a law there would have to be a new rule that says abortions are only performed based on a strict set of reasons, thus limiting a woman’s freedom to do with her own body whatever she choose? A “camel’s nose under the tent” kind of situation?

And I think that the opportunity for willful misunderstanding is rife. A new law that mentions race and abortion? You know what the reactions will be and from whom. And that’s without even reading the law.

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer on Tuesday signed into law a controversial bill that makes the state the first in the nation to outlaw abortions performed on the basis of the race or gender of the fetus.

The move comes as anti-abortion groups across the nation try to seize on gains made by political conservatives during the November elections, seeking enactment of new state laws to further restrict abortions.

Under the new Arizona statute, doctors and other medical professionals would face felony charges if they could be shown to have performed abortions for the purposes of helping parents select their offspring on the basis of gender or race.

The women having such abortions would not be penalized.

State legislators have said no such law exists anywhere else in the nation.

Backers of the measure said the ban is needed to put an end to sex- and race-related discrimination that exists in Arizona and throughout the nation. They insist the issue is about bias rather than any broader stance on abortion.

“Governor Brewer believes society has a responsibility to protect its most vulnerable—the unborn—and this legislation is consistent with her strong pro-life track record,” a spokesman said.

But opponents have maintained that while such abortions may be happening in other countries like China, no clear evidence can found of it occurring in Arizona.

Planned Parenthood Federation of America also said the measure may erode a woman’s rights, fearing that doctors for the first time would feel compelled to ask their patients the reasons for seeking an abortion.

Or was the original intent actually the other way around; the law is an effort to limit D&C happy doctors like that Kermit Gosnell in Philly back in January? (looks like he’s up for the death penalty). That’s pretty murky: women went to Dr. Gosnell specifically to get late term abortions by any means. That the vast majority of them happened to be minorities had nothing to do with what went on in his office of horrors; they came to him by their own free will.

And if you have a situation going on in AZ where women voluntarily choose to terminate a pregnancy based on gender, which happens to be the unintended consequence in China with their One Child Only law and a culture that demands couples have at least one son, how is that aspect of the decision any of the state’s or the doctor’s business? And there certainly isn’t any One Child policy going on in the USA.

So yeah, I’m confused on this one. And whatever else it is, it’s another reminder that Conservatives simply can not get past the abortion issue. 38 years on, and they’re still trying to stick in limits. No, I don’t personally believe in it except for actual life threatening medical situations, rape, or incest. But you know what? I’m not a woman. So my opinion is that it’s none of my damn business. But with a significant part of society using directly and indirectly government funded abortion as a means of birth control, Conservatives are NEVER going to get that 13-25% of the population under their tent no matter what else they do if they keep harping on this issue. It’s over, we lost, it’s never going away even if you call a constitutional convention, draw up an amendment and put it to a vote. You will lose the vote. Period. So shut up, and move on. This law looks like another iteration of foot in mouth disease for the Right.


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Posted by Drew458   United States  on 03/30/2011 at 10:24 AM   
Filed Under: • Abortion •  
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welcome to parliament and shut up!

Quite a departure for BMEWS but I thought Americans might enjoy this bit of English byplay in Parliament. Actually, there wasn’t so much by play as David Cameron, the Brit PM, told Ed Balls to “Shut Up.”

We don’t have too much of that back home. Do we?  I rather like the change. I get tired of the usual phony “my honorable friend” BS. Don’t you?


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Posted by peiper   United Kingdom  on 03/30/2011 at 10:16 AM   
Filed Under: • Politics •  
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police mistake leaves gorilla in the mist free to rape for 20 years

I’ve held off this one for a number of days and I think unless something else on the same order happens, I may quit the crime thing for a few days.  This guy might not have been frightened even if there were a death penalty. But there damn well should be.

Here ... take a look at one of his victims. She’s the one on the left in red.

image

This guy has been on the loose due to police error for 25 years. 

This nigger actually assaulted old men as well as old women. Hey, no discrimination with this slug.

image

Now here’s a really funny gag to go with this horrible story.
The police ask him to what?

“use his “conscience” and “come forward”

No, I guess that isn’t funny at all. Conscience? Sub humans have none but authorities seem to be unaware of that.

He would leave his victims – some of whom were as old as 93 – without electricity or a telephone line.  Right, and the cops are looking for a conscience.

Night Stalker Delroy Grant has been convicted of being one of the most prolific and depraved sex attackers in British history. The 53-year-old rapist was found guilty of preying on the elderly in a campaign of perverted terror lasting 17 years. Former minicab driver Grant was responsible for some of the most “awful and disturbing crimes” ever investigated at Scotland Yard, senior detectives said. A jury at Woolwich Crown Court convicted him of claiming at least 18 victims - but it is feared the total may be more than 500.

The family of a 93-year-old woman, who died just weeks after being attacked in her home by Delroy Grant, have called for him to be charged with manslaughter.


Night Stalker: timeline of offences and investigation

Here is a timeline highlighting how it took more than 25 years for Delroy Grant, the Night Stalker, to be brought to justice.

By Martin Evans 11:44AM GMT 24 Mar 2011
October 1992: An 84-year-old woman is attacked in her home in Shirley, Croydon becoming the first recorded victim of the Night Stalker.

1997: After a five year gap, a series of similar attacks on elderly women are reported across south London, Surrey and Kent.

July 1997: An 88-year-old woman is brutally raped twice in her bungalow in Orpington. The attack was so savage she almost died from loss of blood and spent three months in hospital.

July 1997: The following day Night Stalker attacks again

1998: Operation Minstead is launched.

May 1999: Witness sees Night Stalker’s car at the scene of burglary and give the registration to police. A police blunder means detectives investigate the wrong Delroy Grant and eliminate him from the inquiry.

August 1999: Savage attack leaves victim fighting for her life.

2001: Police given the name Delroy Grant for a second time by a Crimewatch viewer, but having previously discounted the name they ignore the tip off.

October 2002: After a three-year break Night Stalker strikes again attacking a 75-year-
old woman in Shirley. This time he leaves a significant clue. Detectives find a footprint from a distinctive size 10 Nike Air Terra Contego training show.

Summer 2003: 10 further attacks in a short period lead the Met’s Specialist Crime Directorate to issue an appeal to all police officers across London for assistance to catch the Minstead Rapist.

March 2004: Police carry out DNA testing of possible suspects in South London.

July 2004: Detectives announce they have narrowed the initial list of 21,000 potential suspects to 1,000.

September 2004: The first break-in for 18 months sees Night Stalker steal £1,000 for an 84-year-old woman, but he is talked out of assaulting her.

October 2004: An 81-year-old woman is sexually assaulted in her home in Welling.

January 2005: An 82-year-old living on her own in Sanderstead, near Croydon, comes face to face with an intruder who steals cash and valuables but does not harm her.

October 2006: Police issue a direct appeal to the rapist to give himself up, encouraging him to use his “conscience” and “come forward” to seek help for his behaviour.

November 2007: A 93-year-old woman is attacked in her home in South Norwood.

November 2008: Frequency of attacks increases.

June 2009: Night stalker attacks and sexually assaults a 93-year-old woman in her home in Shirley. Traumatised by the assault she dies three months later.

October 2009: Operation Minstead is given a new impetus after recently appointed Met Commissioner, Sir Paul Stephenson, demands results. Major surveillance operation is launched across south London.

November 2009: Grant’s car is spotted at the scene of a break-in and finally after 19-years the Night Stalker is arrested and charged with multiple breaks-ins, rapes and sexual assaults.

Grant preyed on pensioners for nearly two decades, breaking into their homes in the middle of the night and sexually assaulting them. He attacked 203 victims from 1992, but detectives believe the real number is at least 500, with many victims too ashamed to come forward.
But in 1999 the Metropolitan Police had an opportunity to catch Grant, yet a basic error meant he was allowed to go free. In the following ten years he attacked at least 143 pensioners.

The error followed a burglary at a house in Bromley in May 1999. A car seen leaving the scene was found to belong to Delroy Grant, but officers focussed on a man with a similar name and so Grant was eliminated from the enquiry.
Today Scotland Yard apologised for the embarrassing blunder.

STALKER

please read this link


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Posted by peiper   United Kingdom  on 03/30/2011 at 08:47 AM   
Filed Under: • CrimeOutrageous •  
Comments (3) Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

calendar   Tuesday - March 29, 2011

one of the sickest posts I’ve done, and one I want ppl to see.

How many more times, how many more crimes like this will be allowed, before the liberally correct ass wipes understand that ONCE is enough to earn the death penalty.  The very thought that this miserable excuse for a human could ever be free again is disgusting and frightening. WTF is it with ppl who think that criminals of this sort can ever be redeemed?  Never mind that. Even if one could, what about the lives they alter forever?

This is one of worst and sickest posts I’ve done since joining BMEWS. 
It’s an example though of the state of what is supposed to be a justice system.  What justice exactly?  What kind of justice is there for a 7 yr old boy who was assaulted and a four yr old brother who had to watch and was then assaulted also?  People will no doubt ask what could possibly be going through the mind of the rapist.  Who gives a shit?  What’s really of concern is what’s happening to the development of two young kids and what they think.
Why oh why does the criminal system allow a low life worthless rotten SOB to be on parole, when he has a record of crime?  Why can’t liberals get it through their fuckin thick heads that there are actually people who shouldn’t be allowed to breathe.  That actually deserve the final penalty of death. And NOT by injection. It should hurt! And especially in a crime like this.

Take a look.  If it doesn’t piss you off big time, you’re reading the wrong blog site.


Convicted paedophile freed to attack brothers aged 7 and 4 in McDonald’s toilet is jailed

By TAMARA COHEN
Last updated at 12:03 PM on 29th March 2011

Boys were out on a family lunch after attending church
At the time of attack, Simon Archer, 23, was on licence for sexual offences involving children

A paedophile freed on licence attacked two young brothers after their father had allowed them to go to the lavatory in McDonald’s by themselves.

Simon Archer lay in wait as the boys, aged just seven and four, went in together, just yards from where their family were sitting in the restaurant.

In a horrifying attack, Archer, 23, raped the elder boy and sexually assaulted his younger brother.

Their terror only ended when the younger boy collapsed crying on the floor but the ordeal continues to have a devastating effect on their lives.

Only weeks earlier Archer had been released midway through a jail sentence for previous child sex offences and was on strict licence conditions prohibiting him from being alone with children. 

Yesterday Judge Michael Carroll jailed Archer for an indeterminate period, and said he was a ‘dangerous sexual predator’ who may never be released.

The boys, from a religious family who had spent the morning together at church, were so traumatised they said nothing to their father at the time, Woolwich Crown Court in London was told.

Their ordeal only came to light several days later when the boys’ mother suggested returning to the restaurant in Welling, Kent, as a treat and her sons became upset and refused to go in. 

Based on a description from the boys, police found CCTV footage showing bare-chested Archer going into the bathroom just after spotting the children enter at around 2.30pm on July 4 last year.

Judge Carroll said: ‘The father allows the children, as all fathers do, to go to the lavatory unattended except with a sibling, when this happens.

‘A complete stranger walks in, commits these offences and walks out as cool as a cucumber. That kind of behaviour is heinous.’

He told Archer he would serve a minimum term of seven years before he could apply for parole and it was likely to be ‘many years’ before he was released.

He added: ‘You entered the McDonald’s looking for prey in your undoubted role as an extremely dangerous sexual predator. 

‘It is relevant to remark upon the fact you appear to have travelled some distance from your home and carried out these offences in a manner which suggests to me, planning and determination. 

‘Your demeanour upon leaving the scene of your abhorrent crimes shows an air of calmness which is chilling.’

A jury took just two hours to convict Archer of one rape charge and two sexual assaults last month

At the time of the attack, he had just served half of a nine-month sentence imposed in February 2010 at Ipswich Crown Court for engaging in sexual activity in the presence of children and asking them to perform sex acts.

In August 2009 he served half of a 22-week sentence for exposing himself to children. The offences were in London and Suffolk.

This followed an incident in 2007 in which he exposed himself to an 11-year-old which resulted in him being placed on the Sex Offenders’ Register and he spent time in a youth offenders’ institution.

Michele Elliott, of the charity Kidscape, said: ‘This is a horrible case.

‘If this man had been properly assessed as a danger after his previous offences, these two little boys would not have had to go through this, which will stay with them for the rest of their lives.

‘It’s an outrage, he should have been in secure accommodation and monitored. 

‘The father was absolutely right to let the boys go to the toilet together and should not feel guilty. This man should never be let out of prison.’

Archer, of Belvedere, Kent, who wore a red tracksuit in court, showed no emotion during the hearing.

Acting Detective Inspector Jon Summers of the Metropolitan Police Sapphire sex crimes unit which caught him, said: ‘Simon Archer is every parent’s worst nightmare.

‘He is a predatory paedophile who is now where he belongs, safely behind bars.  ‘What the victims went through will never leave them.

‘We can only hope and pray that this sentence reassures them and in some way helps them to put this dreadful ordeal behind them.

‘We cannot rule out the possibility that he may have committed crimes against others and I would urge anyone who has been a victim of a sex crime to contact the police.’

source

Would someone who understands law please explain to me why judges feel it necessary to inform the criminal of what he did. He already knows and the vast majority do not care.  It just seems stupid to me.

And he doesn’t “belong safely behind bars,” he belongs at the end of a noose. After the castration without benefit of drugs.


avatar

Posted by peiper   United Kingdom  on 03/29/2011 at 02:30 PM   
Filed Under: • CrimeJustice - LACK OF •  
Comments (11) Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

wanted: police interns, whites need not apply

In spite of a promise BEFORE the election last May to drop some of this sort of crap introduced by the left wing Labour govt., it’s clear that some laws will remain.
That might not all be the fault of the consv. side of the present govt., but it doesn’t look like they fought it much.


Middle-class youngsters barred from applying for internships at Whitehall and in the police… because they are white

By PAUL BENTLEY

White middle-class students have been banned from applying for internships with Britain’s biggest police force and in Whitehall.

The temporary jobs, which offer thousands of pounds for work in the summer, are billed as the internships ‘that could change your life’.

They provide students with invaluable work experience at a time of soaring graduate unemployment.

But critics yesterday told of their anger at the decision by the Civil Service and the Metropolitan Police to exclude all but certain ethnic minorities from applying.

They say the schemes cause resentment among staff and are discriminating against white people ‘via the back door’.

The Metropolitan Police, which employs more than 50,000 people, publicly offers only one work experience programme. The 12-week Diversity Internship will pay six interns more than £3,000 to work in a range of departments. While there is no guarantee of a post at the end, it gives students a head start in the battle for police jobs.

But the application form says only students from specific ethnic groups – including black African, black Asian or Chinese – can apply. Applicants are also quizzed about religious beliefs and sexuality.

The only white candidates eligible to apply for the Fast Stream Summer Diversity Internship are those whose families are from ‘under-represented socio-economic backgrounds’.

image


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Posted by peiper   United Kingdom  on 03/29/2011 at 01:49 PM   
Filed Under: • DIVERSITY BSPolitically Correct B.S. •  
Comments (2) Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

teens to train as “equality” activists and votes for kids.

Drew posted on the EEOC and had a some comments that could well apply here.  Although I must say, the present govt. promises to make changes and I really think they might well do that. I don’t see how they could avoid it as it’s not just public awareness which is high, but the papers and the public making some loud noises on the subject.  In other words, there are to be some serious cuts due to the new budget, and many who get benefits now will find them reduced soon.
Also, these damn quangos will, the people are told, be abolished or more tightly controlled.  Yeah well ... time will tell but people do hope.
Meanwhile, if what Drew wrote about is conducive to ulcers, take a look at this.


Home Secretary vows to tame equality body branded a £60m flop

By Steve Doughty

The £60million-a-year state equality watchdog is a costly failure whose spending and powers must be drastically cut back, ministers declared yesterday.
A savagely critical report said the Equality and Human Rights Commission has ‘struggled’ to do its job, while providing low quality work and poor value for money.

It has given away £10million a year in grants to equality groups without knowing where much of the money has gone.
The Commission has also run an advice helpline that helped just 73 people in a year – at a cost of £5,000 each.

Documents released yesterday spelled out the reason – ministers fear that EHRC chief Trevor Phillips will fight cutbacks in the courts at a cost to taxpayers of £70,000 for each legal challenge if they do not restrict the Commission’s powers with a new law.
The EHRC has been at the centre of constant controversy since it began operations in 2007.
Senior officials and commissioners have walked out in squabbles between different minority groups and rows over the way it is run.

Tough: Theresa May said the commission could face financial penalties if it failed to spend taxpayers’ money wisely
Whitehall has refused to endorse its accounts for three consecutive years, and Mr Phillips’ management methods have been criticised.

HELPLINE THAT COST £5,000 A CALL

These are some of the ways the Equality and Human Rights Commission spent money, funding ‘strategic grants’ and ‘promoting diversity’.

· Grant to the British Institute of Human Rights, a pressure group which has urged the use of human rights rules to fight state spending cuts: £258,319.

· Grant to Children’s Rights Alliance for England, a body pressing for votes for children, compulsory sex education and a ban on smacking: £200,000.

· Young Brits at Art. Awards for artists who illustrated equality concerns: cost unknown.

· Grant to Leeds Gypsy and Traveller Exchange. Organisation for gypsies and travellers ‘who live in Leeds: £150,000.

· Our Space. Camp in the Lake District for a hundred 14 and 15-year-olds, in which teenagers were trained to be equality activists: cost unknown.

· Grant to Runnymede Trust. A race equality pressure group, which was led by Trevor Phillips from 1993 to 1998: £210,000.

· Mediation advice helpline. It gave advice to 73 people at a cost of £5,000 each. A similar state-run operation, the National Mediation Helpline, has a price guide that sets the maximum cost of a single case at £850.

more

If this kind of crap isn’t done away with, Brits who haven’t yet kissed their country goodbye may well consider doing so. And things btw are getting much worse as a senior judge has determined that ... Euro court rulings ARE the law here as well.  Can anyone still spell, s o v e r i g n t y?


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Posted by peiper   United Kingdom  on 03/29/2011 at 11:16 AM   
Filed Under: • CULTURE IN DECLINEDIVERSITY BS •  
Comments (0) Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

Adolph is found living at the daily mail … and apparently on twitter as well.

Sometimes I think every single person in the UK is on line at the very same time cos damn, things are getting slow here. Maybe the browser? Irritating.

I ran across something so awesomely stupid, so totally vapid, that I have trouble understanding why a major paper would bother.

It seems as though every week, or at least every month, the Daily Mail publishes some story about Hitler for reasons only they understand. It is not as if they publish anything with new information to give us any insights.  Much of what they print under a headline that says newly discovered is old and tired.

There are a few ppl in the world, and I met one or two years ago, who actually believed AH was alive and in hiding.  Well, if he were still alive after all this time, I promise ya it would be in the Mail. That is, Hitler lives it seems, at the Mail.
Usually I ignore the tosh they report. Pretty tired and pretty damn boring. But today ....the Mail devoted space to the dumbest thing I’ve seen, and it isn’t even April 1 yet.

Janet Street-Porter of the Mail wrote a lengthy article about Twitter in today’s hard copy edition and here’s just a taste of what she said. Has nothing to do with AH but .... there might be a connection to what follows this.


Is Twitter anything more than a tidal wave of utter drivel, a tsunami of bilge?

Instead of considered comment or intelligent conversation, millions of us are happy to reduce social interaction to these brief, grammatically threadbare outbursts. At this rate Prime Minister’s Questions will soon consist of a series of texts.

Yes, you could look on Twitter as a force for good, a liberating easy-to-use shorthand that crosses national frontiers and social barriers. Or you could stop and think for a minute about what its runaway success reveals about our culture, and our modern values.

Humans are highly sophisticated beings, the product of years of evolution. We are capable of astonishing acts of intelligence, and yet, in the 21st century, we’ve decided to regress, to embrace a stunted form of communication that banishes grammar, context, considered evaluation, subtle innuendo… and adjectives.

Twitter is the bastard child of ‘textspeak’ — and we know what that has done to our ability to write in sentences, our spelling and our writing skills.

Now anyone who actually picks up a pen and sends a thank-you note is seen as a dinosaur, a product of a bygone age.

She has a lot more to say and you may have another opinion on the subject, but here’s the link for some interesting reading.

PORTER ON TWITTER

So as the sun disappears behind the clouds as it’s done all week, to be replaced by mist and damp, we return to the Mail and their love affair with Mr. Hitler.
This is a hoot guys.  If it was meant as a joke I guess it may be worth a grin and shake of the head. Not too certain ‘bout that.
Take a look.

The Hitler house:  looks eerily like Nazi dictator (complete with naff side parting)

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
Last updated at 3:42 PM on 29th March 2011

This unassuming semi in a sleepy part of Swansea is set to become a global internet sensation… for bearing a passing resemblance to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.

Its neat brown door brings to mind the fascist dictator’s trademark toothbrush moustache.

And the slanting tiled roof falls at a similar angle to the leader’s greased down, parted hairstyle.

Eagle-eyed tweeter Charli Dickenson spotted the curious similarity and posted the photos on her Twitter page where they have become a big hit.

Comedian Jimmy Carr re-Tweeted the image later as interest gathered on the micro-blog site.

Carr wrote: ‘Morning, here’s a house that looks like Hitler.’

It was sent on by hundreds of his followers and became a trending topic on Twitter.


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Posted by peiper   United Kingdom  on 03/29/2011 at 10:30 AM   
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