Thursday - March 17, 2011

Almost Forgot

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!



Sure and somehow it almost slipped me wee mind. I usually rely on Google to run some sort of theme to remind me of the various holidays and special days, but I guess since at it’s heart St. Patrick’s Day is a Christian event, they choose to ignore it. And about the only Irish in my family is that all my ancestors sailed past the old Emerald Isle on their way here. But I personally don’t want to miss out on an excuse to eat tasty corned beef, eat heavy bread, and drink equally heavy sweet beer, so I make the attempt. Needless to say, my Italian wife just gives me the eye roll, but she likes the corned beef too.

For the past few years the corned beef we’ve found in the grocery store hasn’t been that good. Nice meat, not too fatty, good texture ... but the corning flavor was just somehow lacking. So this year I made my own. Well, actually I re-made my own. I took a store bought corned beef and rebrined it. I’ve done a little brining; every once in a blue moon I brine up a whole chicken with jerk seasoning, which really gets the flavor in, right down to the bone. Good! But I was not sure how this attempt would work out on beef.

Mrs. 458 brought home a 2 1/2 pounder, which is what I’d call corned beef for one. I got out the Jaquard tenderizer, stabbed it full of holes, and made up a brine:
1/2 gallon water
1 cup of salt
1/4 cup sugar
3 gloves minced garlic

and set it to boil. Then I made the spice mix, which was very easy because of all the spices I’d purchased to make Indian curry. Surprise: a pickling spice mix pretty much IS a curry mix, just minus the fenugreek, the tumeric, and most of the hot pepper, with the addition of a little dried dill. You could add a teaspoon of Chinese 5 spice powder if you wanted.

2 tsp whole black peppercorns
2 tsp mustard seed
2 tsp coriander
2 tsp hot red pepper flakes ( I crushed up 8 Indian Sanaam peppers )
2 tsp allspice berries ( I used 2 tsp powdered allspice )
1 tsp ground mace
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cinnamon
8 bay leaves
1 tsp dried dill
2 tsp whole cloves ( about 3 dozen )
1 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp ground ginger
1 clove of garlic

Tenderize the meat and firmly rub it with the garlic clove. Throw the spices in the boiling water, stir it until the salt and sugar are dissolved, turn off the heat and let it cool. Put the beef brisket in a turkey size Boil’n Bag, pour in the seasoned brine, get all the air out of the bag and tie it off. Put this in the fridge for a week. Massage the meat through the bag once a day.

On cooking day, cut open the bag, get the meat out, rinse it off under the faucet and put it in a big pot of boiling water. Throw in that joke of a half-teaspoonful of “flavoring spices” that comes with the corned beef. Boil it for about 1 hours, then add 2 cans of Guinness ( and any potatoes if you’re doing them) and boil it for another 2 hours. Take the meat and taters out, chunk up a big head of cabbage and throw that in. Let that boil until the cabbage is nice and tender. Serve. I like mine with sharp mustard and hot horseradish.

I turned out that once I made up the seasoning, I found that I had a nice 8oz bag of pickling spice from Penzey’s anyway. So I threw a couple spoonfuls into the brining bag, and today I thew a couple more into the pot. The Penzey’s mix is almost exactly the same as what I wrote above. Double corned beef, with 6 times as much spice as what the commercial corned beef people used. It has to have a stronger taste, right? We’ll find out tonight.

I’m not sure of the chemistry, but I find it interesting that the corned beef I buy in the store floats, whereas the chunk of meat I brined sinks like a rock. And now the whole house smells like corned beef, which is driving out the curry aroma from the Vindaloo I made Monday. Have to remember to cut the Cayenne pepper on that recipe down by 3/4 as it’s still too hot for the wife. I thought it would be enough to substitute those Italian “hot” peppers for the jalapenos and serranos I used last time, but no.

First Time In 190 Years

US Court Sentences Pirates To Life + 80 Years
First Piracy Conviction In US Since 1820





rope would have been cheaper

Five Somali men, convicted of attacking a US Navy ship [ USS Nicholas ], have been sentenced to life in prison by a Virginia court. Tuesday’s sentencing is the harshest yet for accused pirates as the US tries to halt piracy off Africa’s coast.

The federal prosecution relied upon rarely-used 19th century maritime laws, and was the first piracy case to go to trial since the Civil War, when a New York jury deadlocked on charges against 13 Southern privateers.

The five Somali men were convicted on federal piracy charges on November 24 last year.

Prosecutors argued during trial that the five had confessed to attacking the USS Nicholas on April 1 after mistaking it for a merchant ship.

Presiding judge Mark Davis also sentenced them to an additional 80 years in prison for firearms charges in connection with the hijack attempt. The trial held at Norfolk, home port to USS Nicholas and one of the largest naval bases in the world, also witnessed the first-ever conviction by a U.S. jury in a piracy case since 1820.

Attorney Neil MacBride told reporters that the sentence pronounced by the trial court was the longest ever in a piracy case. The buccaneer convicted in 1820 was executed.

The hijacking of ships near the coast of Somalia has cost the shipping industry millions of dollars. Pirates have continued to attack foreign ships in the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean, defying an armada of warships trying to protect the key maritime route. The fight against piracy has been hampered by legal ambiguities over the appropriate venue to prosecute captured suspects.

an appropriate venue?

The UN’s special adviser of piracy has called for $25 million to be spent on setting up special courts for suspected pirates in Somalia’s semi-autonomous enclaves of Puntland and Somaliland, as well as in Tanzania.

Jack Lang, a former French culture minister, on Tuesday recommended that the specialised courts be set up over the next eight months to begin to try some of the 90 per cent of suspected pirates who are released because nowhere can be found to try them. The courts would operate under Somali laws.

Somalia, which is in the midst of a conflict between a largely powerless government and armed groups seeking its overthrow, lacks the legal infrastructure to try pirates.

Kenya and the Seychelles have prosecuted dozens of suspects handed over by foreign navies, who patrol of the Gulf of Aden in an attempt to protect some of the world’s busiest shipping lanes. However, both have said they would have difficulties coping if all the seized pirates were sent to them.

‘Pirate economy’

Lang was briefing members of the UN Security Council on the increasing threat of piracy, which costs the global economy an estimated $7 billion to $12 billion a year.

“Pirates are becoming the masters of the Indian Ocean,” he said. “The pirate economy ... is having a destabilising effect on Somalia and the entire region owing to rising prices, insecurity of energy supplies and loss of revenue.”

About 30 ships, ranging from fishing boats to bulk carriers, are currently held by Somali pirates. Around 1,900 people have been taken hostage since the end of 2008.

Lang also recommended that two special prisons be built, one in Somaliland and one in Puntland, with capacity of 500 prisoners each, with a third to be built in Puntland soon afterward. Any such project will have to be authorised by the Security Council, which took no immediate decision after listening to Lang’s oral presentation. Lang also proposed all countries should make piracy a criminal offense and impose universal jurisdiction for it, meaning they could prosecute pirates whatever their nationality and wherever the offense took place.

Phooey. Wimp solution. All nations should acknowledge that piracy at sea is a capital offense, even if it’s the one and only capital offense in the country, even if the country doesn’t have any seashore. All surviving captured pirates should be sent to a tribunal in the Seychelles, tried and then executed. The Seychelles has hundreds of tiny uninhabited islands. Rename one Gallows Island and start building gibbets. The UN pays the Seychelles government $150,000 for every pirate tried and hung and left to rot in the tropical sun.

And they’d better get a move on ...

same old, same old, but with half a happy ending

At approximately 0730Z on 16 March, the Bulk Cargo Carrier MV SINAR KUDUS was pirated approximately 320 nautical miles North East of the island of Socotra in the Somali Basin. Within 24 hours of being taken, she was used to launch an unsuccessful attack on the MV EMPEROR.

The MV SINAR KUDUS, which is Indonesian flagged and owned, was on its way to Suez (Egypt) from Singapore when it was attacked.  Details of the attack are not known at this time but initial reports from the crew stated that 30 to 50 pirates had boarded and taken control of the vessel.  The MV SINAR KUDUS has a crew of 20, all Indonesian.

Within 24 hours of the attack, the MV SINAR KUDUS was used to launch a further attack on the Liberian flagged Bulk Carrier MV EMPEROR.  A skiff with 5 pirates on board was launched from the SINAR KUDUS and attacked the EMPEROR but was repelled by the armed force from the merchant vessel.  The EMPEROR was subsequently reported to be safe.

MV POLAR, MV IRENE SL, and several smaller hijacked vessels are currently being used as motherships. We’re barely halfway through March, and there have been at least 20 incidents so far. At least half a dozen pirate groups are operating in the western Indian Ocean. Large groups of pirates swarming the ships seems like an escalation to me.

Oh, and one hijacked ship was released, after paying ransom; the mid sized tanker MV Hannibal II and her crew was set free after more than 4 months in captivity.

The Collapse of Internationalism?  well, not quite.

We used to get the WSJ when living at home in the US.  Also watched this fellow on TV and read his columns.
We like him BUT ... and I think Drew and others here might not agree with me, I really don’t want us to be the world’s cop.

If our national security is the reason, fine. Then lets come right out and say so.  I am not at all concerned how some tin pot dictator in a turd world country treats his own ppl.  What they do in their own back yard isn’t my concern.
Libya as I see it, is involved in a civil war. It’s a muslim country.  Oh great. Daniel wants us to do something, as I understand this video.

Now, coming over the news on BBC Radio, I hear we’re getting involved there. Fine. Now how about going after every single bad guy leader in every country in the world?  People on the radio right now are saying that it might come to putting troops on the ground.

If we get involved in one country, why not another?  Just what rules are we gonna bend?  If our security is at stake I’m all for anything to secure us.
But good gosh.  Stop telling me about the poor oppressed innocent rebels who are seeking democracy.  Frankly, I don’t trust them either.

The next few days are gonna be very interesting. 

a nursery rhyme as a quickie post, i’m off now looking for puppies and kittys

NURSERY RHYMES FOR OUR TIMES

Sweet little Miss Muffet

Fell right off her tuffet

As drunk as a skunk, you might say.

The spider beside her

Said she’d been using cider

To spice up her curds

and Whey!

Len Wells,
Hartwell, Northants.
England

Quickie Post

Is it just me, or does this squirrel look just like Don King?

HEALTH AND SAFETY MEETS CHARITY SHOP … SHOP TO CLOSE …

On the face of it, when I first read this I thought oh no. The idiots at the HSE (Health & Safety Exec.) are at it again. And so it seems.
I’ve never worked in a charity shop and so have no experience there. But I have helped out on some charity events from time to time since, well, I guess since forever. Never occurred to me that I had to be mindful of H&S issues outside the ordinary things.  The wife currently helps out some aged ladies, it isn’t in a closed environment like a store. She does some grocery shopping for them and as needed when able to, takes them to doctors or gives them a lift if they need one.  It’s not every day though.  So I was surprised to read this about a charity shop, and I guess someone - somewhere has to cover eventualities.

Wasn’t always this way though. Was it?  And btw ... this salary works out to more then $50,000 a year. Yikes.

Red tape forces volunteer shop to close

Volunteers at a successful charity shop were forced out of business when the charity owners insisted on hiring a paid manager to look afetr them.

The volunteers had been running the Cancer Research UK charity shop in Cullompton, Devon since 2006 without any paid staff support and had been successul in raising over £40k of funds for the charity every year.

Howevever a recent health and safety inspection identified what it called ‘significant gaps in regulatory compliance’ and Cancer Research UK were told they needed to install a paid manager or cease trading with immediate effect. The charity is unable to afford the £25k salary needed and so the shop has been closed down.

The ‘gaps’ identified by the health and safety executive included ‘inproper use of cleaning materials’ and storing heavy objects too high up on shelves.

The shop’s 30 plus volunteers, who between them have hundreds of years of life experience, are devastated by the decision. As well as raising funds for the charity the shop had become a hub for older people in the community and many of the volunteers had contributed their own funds to cover set up costs when they took over the shop in 2006.

A spokesperson for the volunteers told the Daily Mail, ‘This has become a real hub of the community and, quite apart from turning a tidy profit, has become a focal point for pensioners and widows to come and meet and browse through items.’

VOLUNTEER SOURCE

everything working well with no problems for some yrs now so let fix it.

   Wednesday - March 16, 2011

the eu is already in america. and i told you long ago it was coming

How long have I been ranting and fussing and swearing about the freekin EU and possible left wing BS from outside the USA?  Like we don’t have enough inside already.

I’m not an overly brilliant person. Hell, I’m barely smart. This ain’t rocket science we’re talkin’ folks.  It’s simply that being so much closer to things and reading and seeing the way things fall, well hell. You’d have to be asleep or blind to miss it. And I’m not blind and I have insomnia so I’m awake. Well, most of the time anyway.

So there I was looking for some information on the subject, and as usual having a hard time, when I found this maddening thing and it pisses me off.
We do not need this very unattractive, chinless wonder of the left, lecturing the USA on “rights” or for that matter, on anything else.

What?  She hasn’t enough to do with her cushy un-elected job at the hated EU?
Actually, she probably doesn’t.  But they make jobs for ppl and they in turn make pots of cash and get cars and drivers and are treated like potentates from another age.
That’s fine as long as they keep their God damned jobs worth, do-goodisms and egos on the side of the pond farthest from the United States.  But no … they don’t really have enough to do over here, so the fuck heads have to get involved in MY country.
And that does piss me off to a very great degree. How much pissed off? Let me put it this way.  If I were home and armed and met one of these pissants, I might be in jail but one of those shits would be graveyard dead! Their death rattle would be music to my ears. Like a symphony in fact.  That’s a lot of hate, but it isn’t misdirected or false because damn it, I have worried about these pin heads peddling their influence and their left wing doctrines in USA and am always banging on about “SOVEREIGNTY.”

Aren’t there any patriots left anywhere that will tell these bastards to fuck off or die?
Can’t we find a way to make it so dangerous for them that they will just shut the hell up and stay the hell out of our internal affairs?  There is one way ya know.  Get their families. That’d work.  Extreme?  Why?  Nothing in defense of our country is extreme these days. It isn’t just militant islam that’s our enemy. It’s these twerps as well. In their own way, they are just as much a threat as muslims.

Read this and tell me if the M****rF****rs are not interfering in our affairs. 

fewer and fewer Americans take Europe seriously.

Well Americans better wake the fuck up and take those shit-heads VERY seriously.

American sovereignty can not be taken for granted.  Unless what you want for the USA, is what folks have here.  If that’s the case, then simply paste “What? Me worry?” stickers on your forehead and EU commissars will be most thrilled to oblige. Sure thing. Go ahead. Kiss sovereignty goodbye and you too can become peons of Europe.  Meanwhile BMEWS readers in America, this is how it starts.
This is just the beginning. A toe in you might say.  Stay Tuned. There will be more. Count on it.

Unelected EU apparatchik Baroness Ashton lectures America on ‘human rights’
By Nile Gardiner World

A couple of weeks back I wrote a post revealing that the EU has been giving millions of euros to anti-death penalty groups in the United States. As The Wall Street Journal subsequently commented in an editorial on my Telegraph piece:
European countries may need bailing out, but you’ll be pleased to know that the European Union has enough money to promote human rights and democracy—in America. Don’t laugh.

American states are free to decide their own penal codes, which vary widely and change as facts and public values evolve. Europe won’t allow such a debate at home but feels the moral afflatus to tax its own citizens to promote one side of the argument in America. Europe can’t find the money to pay for its fair share of NATO but it can spare a dime to hector its main defense benefactor on criminal law. This is why fewer and fewer Americans take Europe seriously.
One of those US groups that receives EU funding is the Illinois branch of the Death Penalty Information Center, which was given €193,443 in 2009 for a grant “changing the course of the death penalty debate” (hat tip: Sally McNamara). Illinois abolished the death penalty last week, making it one of 16 states in America that ban the practice, in contrast to 34 states that retain it. Needless to say, the EU’s foreign policy chief Baroness Ashton immediately used the occasion to lecture the United States on “the progressive development of human rights”, declaring in a March 11 statement:
The European Union congratulates the Governor and the Illinois State Legislature on this historic decision, making Illinois the 16th state in the United States to end the death penalty.

The European Union strongly hopes that this decision will encourage other US States to follow suit in joining the growing national and worldwide movement towards the abolition of the use of capital punishment.

The European Union considers that the abolition of the death penalty contributes to the enhancement of human dignity and the progressive development of human rights. The European Union reaffirms its objective of working towards the universal abolition of the death penalty.

It should of course come as no surprise that the European Union, which has zero respect for the sovereignty of its own member states, seeks to meddle in the affairs of a great democracy such as the United States. Baroness Ashton clearly has a greater interest in hectoring the American people than she does in condemning the brutal rule of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi.

The EU chief’s condescending statement is a reflection of a warped world view in Brussels that treats the United States as though it were a third world tyranny in need of enlightened guidance from Europe. After all, the EU’s Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights, which gave nearly a million dollars to the American Bar Association for its anti-death penalty campaign, is dedicated to “enhancing respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms in countries and regions where they are most at risk.”

One of many glaring differences between the European Union and the United States is that US officials are accountable to the American people, whose laws are drafted by elected representatives in line with a Constitution that actually protects individual liberty rather than usurps it. The EU’s sneering at America’s stance on the death penalty is merely the latest reflection of Brussels’ contempt for democracy, national sovereignty, and political accountability.

If unelected apparatchiks such as Baroness Ashton really care about human rights perhaps they should spend a bit more time examining the lack of political freedom that exists within the European Union itself.
-30-

THE EU IN AMERICA, IT’S ALREADY THERE

Cut Spending Or Else

Upset At Tax Increase And Gov. Worker’s Raises,
Miami Gives Mayor The Boot

Mayor Carlos Alvarez [ Republican ] was ousted Tuesday by voters angry over a property tax rate increase and salary raise for county employees in a county struggling to recover from the recession.

With 100 percent of precinct votes counted, 88 percent voted to oust the mayor, making Miami-Dade the most populous area, with more than 2.5 million people, ever to recall a local official. Just 12 percent of the 204,500 who cast ballots were in favor of allowing Alvarez to finish his second term, which ends in 2012.

The county commission will most likely schedule a special election to fill the remainder of his term. The effort to remove Alvarez was led by billionaire car dealer Norman Braman.

“County voters have demonstrated by their ballots that they are tired of unaccountable officials, of being ignored and of being overtaxed in this very difficult recessionary time,” Braman said at a news conference.

Alvarez maintained throughout the recall effort that raising taxes was necessary to fill a $444 million gap and avoid cuts to critical social services. He said those affected by the property tax increase had enjoyed an artificially low 3 percent annual cap on tax increases during the real estate boom, and that the last round of contract negotiations had authorized most of the employee raises.

“The defining issue really is the type of government that the citizens of this community are looking for,” Braman said. “It’s about empowering the people of this community to take it back from the politicians who have been running it, and running it in a way that I think endangers the fiscal future of our community.”
...
County Commissioner Natacha Seijas was also on the recall ballot and removed from office.

I have no idea where Miami sits in the political spectrum, so I can’t say whether this is a witch hunt or not. I know it is a high unemployment area. But on the surface it does look like the voters have had enough. Alvarez was mayor for 35 years, and while a property tax hike on “the evil rich” to close a budget shortfall is one thing, a poorly negotiated contract that gives their government workers another fat raise is another, even if that contract was negotiated a couple years ago ( and I don’t know if it was or not ).

People are really getting fed up with the heavy overburden of government and all it’s fattened pigs feeding at the endless revenue trough. Don’t just cut the fat. Don’t just balance the budget. Cut the government from one end to the other to the point where you can start paying down your debt on the tax money you have coming in right now. I hope people realize the scope of what that actually mean. For starters, you have to cut the government staff of paper pushers by a third, just to begin with. So the remaining people are going to have to work a lot harder. Or learn how to work in the first place. To make that happen it’s going to require thinning out their rules, regulations, and work processes, and doing that at no extra cost to the taxpayer. WTF, this is what every worker in the corporate world has gone through for the past two decades, time after time, and a similar thing has been done with the hands-on workforce. Do more with less. Work smarter AND harder. This is why you see those news reports on increased worker productivity. We’re all working harder; it’s long past high time that the tax leeches do the same. But that is merely a first step. After that come the real cuts, as branch after branch of the government has to be eliminated, and program after program has to be canceled. And that is the ONLY way to reign in the dragon, back it into a corner, and eventually slay it. Throw out the PACS and the special interest groups so you can eliminate their influence. Then you can cull the waste, so much of which got there by outright bribery, knee-jerk reactionism, and just plain stupidity. Every person reading this post can name half a dozen idiotic ways that government wastes money. The ethanol subsidy is just one; there are thousands of others at the federal level, and thousands of others at the state level, and hundreds more at the county and town level. They have to go. Period. Fix the roads, plow the snow, defend the borders and care for the really poor so that they don’t actually die. And that’s about it.

Exodus from a nuclear nightmare: Thousands flee.  See links.

Some interesting links from Christopher yesterday, as well as a bit of insight re. figures etc.  I was so overwhelmed with photos in papers, full page after page that it never dawned on me to wonder about the subject Chris brought up.  For sure though it’s pretty scary for the only people with a history of an atomic disaster in their past.

Now, in addition to one place with a volcano, the aftermath of the quake and tsunami, now they have snow on top of everything else.

I don’t guess it will mean much but ..... I wish the people of Japan well and a quick recovery from this disaster. I know they will rise again, as they have since their beginnings.

There’s a subhead somewhere in today’s paper that claims the authorities were warned two years ago about safety features at the nuke plants. I haven’t read the attending article yet, but plan to.

No doubt you’re all watching news and live shots from the scene and your papers are running the same thing.
So here’s some of what we are seeing and of course there’s lots more at the links.

Have to feel very sorry for the victims and their families in Japan.  I really like those ppl and loved Japan when I was there for a very short (too short) time.

Exodus from a nuclear nightmare: Thousands flee as they question whether Japan’s government is telling them truth about reactors
BY RICHARD SHEARS

Hundreds of vehicles sped out of the shadow of the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant yesterday.
Those inside the cars and trucks were fleeing for their lives, terrified about what might happen next and reluctant to believe anything their government was telling them.

‘We knew it was close by, but they told us over and over again that it was safe, safe, safe,’ said 70-year-old evacuee Fumiko Watanabe.
‘People are worried that we aren’t being told how dangerous this stuff is and what really happened.’
Thousands of terrified residents emptied the shelves in last-minute panic-buying sprees. Many of the evacuees filled their pockets and bags with all the food they could carry as they piled into temporary shelters.

Japan

JAPAN, ANOTHER LINK

There’s no point in posting a lot of article which is mostly photos anyway. Read the links for more if interested. Meanwhile, here’s a few edited pix.

Damaged reactor

Don’t understand how a house can float like this. But it did. Two miles out to sea.

And finally for this post .... JAPAN .... Survivor ... 1945

2011

Shinto shrines represent the spiritual connection between the people and the land. The traditional Torii entrance gates to these shrines were among the few structures to survive in Hiroshima 66 years ago and in the village of Otsuchi last Friday

   Tuesday - March 15, 2011

Reporters and radiation

I’m reading with semi-professional interest the accounts of the Japan nuclear problems. I’m really appalled at the lack of decent info on the amounts of radiation being released.

I should inform you that I spent six years as a Navy Nuclear Operator, or ‘nuke’ ET. I’ve some knowledge of the subject.

Most of these articles don’t tell you anything meaningful. When an article tells you that radiation levels are 10x, 100x, etc over background, that’s meaningless unless they tell you what background levels are.

Here’s an Reuters article which at least gives some info:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/15/us-japan-radiation-leaking-directly-into-idUSTRE72E7B220110315

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), citing information it had received from Japanese authorities at 0350 GMT, said on Tuesday dose rates of up to 400 millisievert per hour have been reported at the Fukushima power plant site.

Okay, dose rates that high are reported AT the Fukushima plant. Doesn’t tell me a thing about the surrounding countryside radiation levels. I’m also unfamiliar with the ‘sievert’ as a unit of radiation measurement. Rads, Rems, Roentgens, even Curies, I can deal with. What’s a ‘sievert’?

Next article is even worse:

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/03/15/navy-detects-radiation-200-miles-japan-nuclear-plant/#ixzz1GitcrzFB

The U.S. Navy said Tuesday that very low levels of airborne radiation were detected at Yokosuka and Atsugi bases, about 200 miles to the north of the Fukushima nuclear power plant.

This is worse than useless. Trust me, I can detect ‘low levels of radiation’ from your spouse, your TV, cellphone, etc. Meaningless without actual measurements. Report the levels your instruments are reading! Is that so hard to do? I might agree with you, but sans actual readings, you’re hiding something.

Another Reuters article: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/16/us-japan-quake-idUSTRE72A0SS20110316?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&rpc=22&sp=true

Officials in Tokyo said radiation in the capital was 10 times normal at one point but not a threat to human health in the sprawling high-tech city of 13 million people.

No info on ‘normal’ levels, much less the 10x levels recorded.

Depending on where I am, my ‘normal’ radiation level could be 10x just based on location. Denver, CO, has much higher background than my home in Ohio. Denver is surrounded by exposed rocks that exude radon, for instance. It is also the ‘Mile High City’, which means there is less atmosphere to attenuate the sun’s radiation

That was fast!

Last Saturday night I placed an order. Today I received the order.

I ordered two BMEWS mugs. One for home, one for work.

Sadly, like almost everything else, including my iMac and iPad, the BMEWS mugs are made in China.

UPDATE:

I thought I’d ordered one for home and one for work. My wife appropriated one when she discovered they were 20 oz. size.

kids young as five trained to steal.

They are not saying it loudly, not in big bold black and white headlines but .... mostly these are gypsies. Yes .. crime doesn’t have any one nationality. But certain kinds of crime have a DNA, if you’ll allow me the loan of that term.

When Sarkozy deported thousands of the scum, he took a lot of heat from the liberal press. Even some Conservative (lite) politicians joined the chorus.

I need say nothing more. Read is all for yourself.  This is just one of the serious cancers eating away at Europe.  What a shame so damn many survived the war to breed more of their kind.

Caught on camera: The Fagin-style gangs forcing children as young as five to pick pockets and shoplift
By DAILY MAIL REPORTER

Gang leaders making £120,000 a year

Fagin-style gangs have started recruiting child thieves as young as five to pick pockets and shoplift for them.

Earning £120,000 a year, they have been targeting shops across the country by recruiting the youngsters because they are too young to face prosecution.

Many of the children have been smuggled into the UK from Eastern Europe, Africa and Asia, but some are English and travel from the capital to other parts of the UK to carry out the crime.

They are then taken on ‘daytrips’ to towns and cities where they are shown what to steal.

Because they are under ten, the age of criminal responsibility in England and Wales (12 in Scotland), they cannot be prosecuted even if they are caught red-handed.

Police in Peterborough have become so fed up with the practice that they have released video footage that shows a gang in operation.

Nick Constanti, a PCSO who has been looking into the crime, said: ‘They go along to the shops, take the goods, take them back to the person and then go out again.

‘We have some CCTV of a child standing next to his mother and her pointing at which fragrance she wanted and she then walks away, he picks it up and puts it in her handbag.

‘There are some innocent parents and children do pick things up they shouldn’t in shops, but we could see her telling him what to do on the CCTV.

The two women would point out items they want to steal and the boy would then grab them, concealing them in a backpack

‘Footage will show them pointing out the products to the children and that is enough to prosecute the person.’

Europol says each child can earn the gangs up to £120,000 a year and there were at least four operating in Peterbroough alone between December 2009 and August last year.

While most of the time the thieves take small items that can be easily concealed in a backpack, some have become brazen.

PC Grahame Robinson, from Cambridgeshire Police, said: ‘We have seen footage where a child is pushing a trolley out of a supermarket with a flat screen TV in it.

‘This kid cannot have lifted the TV never mind get it into the trolley.’

The Child Exploitation and Online Protection admitted foreign gangs using children as pick-pockets and thieves are well established within the UK.

A spokesman said: ‘Using a child for criminal purposes is exploitation and is a form of child abuse.

‘Law enforcement agencies, social workers and local councils are working together not only to make awareness and highlight the issue but work together to safeguard these children and put in place measures necessary to protect them.

‘Exploitation by gangs trafficking children is well-established but these kind of child gangs are a relatively new phenomenon.’

The CCTV footage handed to Cambridgeshire Constabulary shows two young girls using their younger brother to steal clothes from Asda supermarket.

Police linked the case to eight other thefts in Peterborough and two sisters have been caught and given community punishment.

Oh right. There’s the ticket ok. Community punishment. That’ll put the fear of God in em.

Photographs released by police show members of a 15-strong gang of Romanian children who repeatedly targeted the city between December 2009 and August 2010.

In one shocking case security footage captured two kids, aged eight and six-years-old, piling stolen produce into their mum’s backpack in Boots.

Other footage shows an adult pointing out to a child which items she wanted him to steal for her.

Police have also identified a gang of English children travelling from London who target Peterborough once every few months.

Detectives believe the gang send young children shoplifting in pharmacies and clothes shops across Britain.

Last October police smashed an alleged child trafficking ring thought to be forcing dozens of Romanian children to beg and steal on London’s streets.

In raids in officers found more than 100 children living at 16 addresses in east London, including a three-year-old, who gangs used for pick-pocketing, shoplifting sprees and prostitution.

It is believed the proceeds fund lavish lifestyles in Romania.

The operation was part of a joint British and Romanian investigation into Fagin-type child gangs operating in the UK. Operation Golf was launched after a surge in petty street crime in the West End in 2006

Children as young as six were found to be engaged in distraction muggings stealing handbags and phones in coffee shops and bars as well as cash machine thefts.

At the time, Chief Inspector Colin Carswell, of Operation Golf, said: ‘These children are exploited by gangs and in some cases their own parents. Many parents are told by the gang they can earn money if they give up their child to be taken abroad.

‘The gangs loan them money. This is at an extremely high interest rate, and it can take many years to pay off gangs, with increasing numbers of the children and even entire families becoming entrapped as debt slaves.’

POLICE PHOTOS AT THE SOURCE

Some friends in the village here travel quite a bit every year. They took a trip to a several European capitols. The menace created in some places by beggars and gypsy thugs was they said, a blight.  Not everywhere to be sure. But they say there is a very big increase from several yrs ago on their previous trips. Some of the beauty spots are infested with them (gypos), and they’re quite bold.  There are warnings in many places by authorities, alerting tourists to the threats and in some cases what to look out for.  Authorities could solve the problem in short order.  Trouble is, nobody has the balls anymore.
So the cancer continues to eat away at them.

A volcano has erupted in Japan.

Found only a few minutes ago ....

As if an earthquake, tsunami and potential nuclear meltdown weren’t enough… now disaster-ravaged Japan suffers a volcanic eruption
By JOHN MCDONNELL

* Hundreds flee as ash and rock shoots two miles into air

* Not yet known if eruption is result of Friday’s earthquake

* Explosion shattered windows four miles away

A volcano has erupted in Japan, compounding the problems in the disaster-ravaged country.

Following Friday’s megaquake and resulting tsunami which took the lives of thousands along the east coast, the Shinmoedake volcano in south-western Japan erupted yesterday, sending ash and rock over two miles into the air.

The explosion shattered windows as far as four miles away, adding to the terror the country has suffered over the past few days.

An area of over a mile around the volcano, located in the Kirishima range on the southern Kyushu island, was evacuated and hundreds fled as roasting hot ash rained down from the mountain.

A volcano warning at level three out of five is currently in place, but that could be increased since it is believed a dome if lava is now forming in the crater.

SEE VIDEO HERE

non skinny eye candy

I can hardly believe it.  I posted pix of a fairly sexy redhead and Drew and Christopher said she was, “too skinny.” With those legs?  But yeah, I looked again and sure enough, she was on the thin side.  But I didn’t think skinny applied.  Soooooo .... I am gonna make up for that.

Here we go.

And ain’t she sweet?

However, the one piece is fine but who told her to wear the bikini? Well, at least the girl isn’t skinny. lol

Don’t know who she is but I think I like her.

And I could not resist this.  Could you?

Or this .......

---

---

DISCLAIMER

THE SERVICES AND MATERIALS ON THIS WEBSITE ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE HOSTS OF THIS SITE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ANY AND ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF SATISFACTORY QUALITY, MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, WITH RESPECT TO THE SERVICE OR ANY MATERIALS.

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

1. Keep a firm grasp of Right and Wrong
2. Stay involved with government on every level and don't let those bastards get away with a thing
3. Use every legal means to defend yourself in the event of real internal trouble, and, most importantly:
4. Keep talking to each other, whether here or elsewhere

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.

THE INFORMATION AND OTHER CONTENTS OF THIS WEBSITE ARE DESIGNED TO COMPLY WITH THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. THIS WEBSITE SHALL BE GOVERNED BY AND CONSTRUED IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND ALL PARTIES IRREVOCABLY SUBMIT TO THE JURISDICTION OF THE AMERICAN COURTS. IF ANYTHING ON THIS WEBSITE IS CONSTRUED AS BEING CONTRARY TO THE LAWS APPLICABLE IN ANY OTHER COUNTRY, THEN THIS WEBSITE IS NOT INTENDED TO BE ACCESSED BY PERSONS FROM THAT COUNTRY AND ANY PERSONS WHO ARE SUBJECT TO SUCH LAWS SHALL NOT BE ENTITLED TO USE OUR SERVICES UNLESS THEY CAN SATISFY US THAT SUCH USE WOULD BE LAWFUL.

Copyright © 2004-2015 Domain Owner

GNU Terry Pratchett

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.

---

Sponsor's Links

---

Newsfeeds

 RSS 2.0   Atom 

---

Other ways to BMEWS yourself

Most Recent Posts

• Once Again, The One And Only Post
• Gee, Oops
• The ‘Rona Song
• Follow Me !
• eye candy, high plains edition
• Flowers For Algernon?
• The Death Of NYC?
• Very Funny Officer
• Rhubarb !!!
• Fauci Gets One Right
• toldja so
• Of course she isn’t, but you’re uninformed and intellectually lazy so she’ll get away with it
• Walter White Moved To Holland?
• TLH? Typical Leftist Hypocrites
• Biden Picks Kamala Harris For VP
• Feral Child Killers
• Gohmert (R-TX) Much Improved
• Still Here
• A Dark Ending
• Ospreys are up, is Trump in town?

Humor

---

Donations & Stuff

Buy BMEWS High Quality Stuff!

---

Help Support BMEWS

---

PAYPAL donation button

---

Our Sponsors

Your Ad Here

---

Department Of Information

DAILY READS

• Broderland Beat
  
• Hot Air
  
• Gateway Pundit
  
• Michelle Malkin
  
• Right Wing NEws
  

CONSERVATIVE OPINION

• Neal Boortz
  
• Ann Coulter
  
• Hugh Hewitt
  
• Rush Limbaugh
  

NEWS

• Washington Times
  
• Best Of The Web Today
  
• Media Research Center
  
• Newsmax
  
• Townhall
  
• Weekly Standard
  
• WorldNetDaily
  

MILITARY & IRAQ

• US Central Command
  
• US Army
  
• US Air Force
  
• US Navy
  
• US Marine Corps
  
• US Coast Guard
  
• A Soldiers Blog
  
• Citizen Smash
  
• CPT Patti
  
• Front Line Voices
  
• Iraq 2.0
  
• Iraq The Model
  
• Sgt. Stryker
  

GOVERNMENT

• White House News
  
• White House Press
  
• Dept Of Defense
  
• Dept Of State
  
• Dept Of Homeland Security
  
• National Security Council
  
• CIA
  
• FBI
  
• NASA
  
• US Supreme Court
  
• US House
  
• US Senate
  
• US House Votes
  
• US Senate Votes
  
• RNC News
  
• DNC News
  
• On The Floor
  
• US Government Reference
  
• State Governments
  
• America's Job Bank
  

LINKS

• Inside Louisville

Search For It!

Web BMEWS

This Blog Is Rated

Required Reading

• FAQ For Barking Moonbats
• What Is A Moonbat?
• Why Do Moonbats Bark?
• Our Patron Saint

Acknowledgements

Categories

• Abortion - (17)
• Adventure - (22)
• Advertising - (0)
• Advertising - (9)
• Africa - (102)
• Amazing Science and Discoveries - (121)
• Animals - (249)
  • Cat Blogging - (14)
• Archeology / Anthropology - (83)
• Architecture - (41)
• Art-Photography - (339)
• Awards - (77)
• Battling Brits - (23)
• Big Brother - (53)
• Big Business - (53)
• BIRTHDAY - (7)
• Blog Stuff - (270)
• Border Security - (27)
• Bowling Blogging - (187)
• Bread - (19)
• Bridges - (50)
• Canada - (14)
• Celebrities - (125)
• CHESS - (67)
• CHINA in the news - (45)
• Climate-Weather - (442)
• Colleges-Professors - (70)
• Commies - (212)
• Computers and Cyberspace - (80)
• Crime - (1093)
• CULTURE IN DECLINE - (416)
• Daily Life - (730)
• Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists - (1830)
• Passing on, Death and Disaster - (18)
• Disasters - (7)
• Economics - (362)
• DIVERSITY BS - (119)
• Editorials - (318)
• Education - (342)
• Egypt, Then and Now - (0)
• Environment - (209)
• EUro-peons - (310)
• Eye-Candy - (903)
• Fake News - (1)
• Finance and Investing - (36)
• Family - (38)
• Fine-Dining - (168)
• Food - (15)
• FRANCE - (116)
• Fun-Stuff - (838)
• FREEDOM - (121)
• gardening - (1)
• Gardens and plants - (3)
• Gay Gay Gay! - (56)
• Genocide - (12)
• Government - (395)
• Corruption and Greed - (144)
• Guns and Gun Control - (528)
• Health and Safety - (67)
• Health-Medicine - (320)
• Heroes - (72)
• High Tech - (33)
• Hildabeast - (77)
• History - (345)
• Holidays - (63)
  • Christmas - (15)
• Hollywood - (184)
• Homeland-Security - (41)
• Humor - (1876)
• Illegal-Aliens and Immigration - (502)
• Inflation and High Prices - (16)
• Insanity - (252)
• International - (396)
• Iran - (62)
• Iraq - (175)
• Israel - (81)
• Jack Booted Thugs - (124)
• Judges-Courts-Lawyers - (480)
• Justice - LACK OF - (123)
• Latin-America - (19)
• Literature - (32)
• Love-Marriage - (27)
• Media-Bias - (428)
• Medical - (48)
• Mexico - (11)
• Middle-East - (140)
• Military - (596)
• Miscellaneous - (2383)
• Moonbat Award to: - (15)
• Motorvators - (122)
• MOVIES - (29)
• Music - (117)
• muslims - (364)
• Nanny State - (149)
• Nature - (34)
• New Jersey - (3)
• Neat Inventions - (15)
• News-Briefs - (335)
• No Shit, Sherlock - (47)
• North-Korea - (20)
• NOSTALGIA - (10)
• Obama, The One - (431)
• OBITITUARIES - (48)
• Odd-Strange - (244)
• Oil, Alternative Energy, and Gas Prices - (126)
• Oppression - (34)
• Outrageous - (453)
• Outsourcing - (8)
• OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT - (39)
• pandemic and epidemic diseases - (61)
  • The New Normal - (4)
• Pandemic Pandemonium - (63)
• Paleswine - (74)
• PAT CONDELL - (43)
• Patriotism - (151)
• Personal - (436)
• Philosophy - (70)
• Pirates, aarrgh! - (158)
• planes, trains, tanks, ships, machines, automobiles - (179)
• Politically Correct B.S. - (147)
• Politically-Incorrect - (117)
• Politics - (860)
• Porkbusters - (11)
• Product Safety - (5)
• Racism and race relations - (283)
• REALLY WORTHLESS and PUTRID PEOPLE - (145)
• Religion - (187)
• Republicans - (132)
• RoPMA - (684)
• Russia - (5)
• Sarah Palin - (16)
• Satire - (64)
• Scary Stuff - (76)
• Science-Technology - (257)
• Self-Defense - (35)
• Sex - (106)
• Sharia law - (10)
• Social-Security - (41)
• Space - (41)
• SPOOKS - (9)
• Sports - (170)
• STFU - (0)
• Stoopid-People - (1015)
• Success Stories - (7)
• Super Seniors - (0)
• Talented Ppl. - (22)
• Taxes - (66)
• Television - (55)
• Terrorists - (715)
• The New Conservatives - (45)
• Travelers/Gypsies/Squatters - (130)
• TURD WORLD - (27)
• Typical White People: Stupid, Evil, Willfully Blind - (36)
• Tyrants and Dictators - (94)
• UK - (1715)
• Unions-Labor - (54)
• United-Nations - (136)
• USA - (277)
• War On Terror - (365)
• War-Stories - (218)
• weird stuff - (37)
• work and the workplace - (143)

Monthly Archives

• April 2024
• August 2020
• July 2020
• June 2020
• May 2020
• April 2020
• March 2020
• February 2020
• January 2020
• December 2019
• November 2019
• August 2016
• July 2016
• June 2016
• May 2016
• April 2016
• March 2016
• February 2016
• January 2016
• December 2015
• November 2015
• October 2015
• September 2015
• August 2015
• July 2015
• June 2015
• May 2015
• April 2015
• March 2015
• February 2015
• January 2015
• December 2014
• November 2014
• October 2014
• September 2014
• August 2014
• July 2014
• June 2014
• May 2014
• April 2014
• March 2014
• February 2014
• January 2014
• December 2013
• November 2013
• October 2013
• September 2013
• August 2013
• July 2013
• June 2013
• May 2013
• April 2013
• March 2013
• February 2013
• January 2013
• December 2012
• November 2012
• October 2012
• September 2012
• August 2012
• July 2012
• June 2012
• May 2012
• April 2012
• March 2012
• February 2012
• January 2012
• December 2011
• November 2011
• October 2011
• September 2011
• August 2011
• July 2011
• June 2011
• May 2011
• April 2011
• March 2011
• February 2011
• January 2011
• December 2010
• November 2010
• October 2010
• September 2010
• August 2010
• July 2010
• June 2010
• May 2010
• April 2010
• March 2010
• February 2010
• January 2010
• December 2009
• November 2009
• October 2009
• September 2009
• August 2009
• July 2009
• June 2009
• May 2009
• April 2009
• March 2009
• February 2009
• January 2009
• December 2008
• November 2008
• October 2008
• September 2008
• August 2008
• July 2008
• June 2008
• May 2008
• April 2008
• March 2008
• February 2008
• January 2008
• December 2007
• November 2007
• October 2007
• September 2007
• August 2007
• July 2007
• June 2007
• May 2007
• April 2007
• March 2007
• February 2007
• January 2007
• December 2006
• November 2006
• October 2006
• September 2006
• August 2006
• July 2006
• June 2006
• May 2006
• April 2006
• March 2006
• February 2006
• January 2006
• December 2005
• November 2005
• October 2005
• September 2005
• August 2005
• July 2005
• June 2005
• May 2005
• April 2005
• March 2005
• February 2005
• January 2005
• December 2004
• November 2004
• October 2004
• September 2004
• August 2004
• July 2004
• June 2004
• January 2004
• Complete Archives
• Category Archives

The Stat Monster

---

---

---

Copyright

All content on this website (including text, photographs, audio files, and any other original works), unless otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

You may freely use anything for non-commercial purposes as long as you attribute the source. All non-original content must be attributed to the original source. Play fair.

Fair Use

This site may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner or may be authorized or licensed for publication at this site only. Permission to copy, republish or reproduce such material must be obtained from the original copyright owner.

We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of political, human rights, economic, democracy, and social justice issues, etc.

We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law.

In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research, educational, or satirical purposes.

If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

GNU Terry Pratchett