Friday - January 06, 2012

TooDaze Stoopid Newz, Part 2

Imagine coming back from an extended stay away from home only to find someone has set up shop in your house, claiming it now belongs to them. That’s just what’s happened in dozens of cases in Tarrant County, Texas, where the District Attorney says crooks are trying to use a decades old law to conduct a new scam.

Yup, sure sounds like the UK.

The problem first came to Shannon’s attention this year, when police agencies started calling about strange but similar cases. One of them involved Joe Brunner, the head of a homeowners association in Arlington, Texas.

His neighbor had been in Houston for months getting chemotherapy when the HOA’s security detail called Brunner saying someone else was in the home. When Brunner contacted the man living inside, the man claimed he now owned the home. But that wasn’t all.

“There was a large dumpster in the driveway,” says Brunner. “He filled it up with items from the house.”

Brunner called the police. When they arrived, the squatter showed them a document claiming something called “adverse possession.”

“Adverse possession is a concept that’s been around for a long time. It was created when Texas was a Republic to resolve land disputes,” Shannon explains. “So for example, if one man’s land had a river as a boundary, and the river changed course over the years, who’s entitled to that land? The adverse possession allowed a new owner to claim the land, but only after openly possessing it and using it for years.”

The law is still used to resolve rural land disputes today, but has created complications in the big city.

“There’s nothing in the statute that says you can’t, so conceivably you could set up camp for 10 years,” says Shannon, “but the chances are there’s some mortgage company or somebody that’s not getting the payments on it, so it’s not real practical in the cities.”

The Tarrant County Clerk’s office accepted about 60 of these adverse possession filings this year before it stopped taking them. Some of the more egregious cases include Brunner’s neighbor, the woman receiving chemotherapy, and a travelling nurse who had been gone for a few months because of work.

“I will say this is the most amazing situation we’ve ever dealt with,” says Tarrant County Constable Clint Burgess. “How anyone thinks they can take a home for $16 and live in it and then grief to a homeowner after that, it just amazes us.”

The squatters have even gone so far as to file mechanic’s liens against the homeowners to reclaim funds for supposed “improvements” to the house. Then they offer to settle with the homeowner, for a price.

["and then grief to a homeowner”?? WTH kind of writing is this? “grief” is a noun, not an objectless verb] Adverse possession is probably on the books just about everywhere. It’s the old “use it or lose it” law for land. The reality is that it’s use almost always comes into play after years and years. You can’t pull this one out of a hat after a couple of months. Or a couple of hours. “Yeah, I found this abandoned car in the supermarket parking lot. It had been left there a really long time; the engine was almost cool. So I’m claiming it as mine under the Adverse Possession laws. Oh, and I had to hire a locksmith to break into it, so you (the “former” owner) now owe me $200 for hiring the guy.” Oh yeah, that will fly. In Texas. Riiiight.

The part that blows me away is that the county clerk accepted any of these things at all. But to be fair, “accepted” can mean two different things here. One, the clerk received paperwork. Two, the clerk processed the claim and granted the adverse possession. If it was case two, I’d say there ought to be a nice shiny new Help Wanted ad in the local Texas paper; their clerk has a terminal case of the stoopids and needs to go.

But fear not: this is Texas after all, not the Midlands in England.

To District Attorney Shannon, these cases are criminal, pure and simple.

“A person who moves in without the consent of the owner with the intent to commit felony or theft or assault, then that’s a burglary of a habitation,” said Shannon.

So far, Shannon is prosecuting about five of these cases with more to come.

Yee ha!!

Posted by Drew458     on 01/06/2012 at 10:57 AM   
Filed Under: • Miscellaneous •  
• Comments (5) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

TooDaze Stoopid News, Part 3

A Charlton (MA) mom says her local library crossed the line when they sent police to collect her daughter’s overdue library books.

Her mom says the 5-year-old girl was so afraid that she burst into tears.

Charlton Police Sergeant Dan Dowd stopped by the home of Shannon Benoit to let her know that her daughter had two books several months overdue which needed to be returned or paid for.

They found and returned the books, but Hailey’s mom argues that sending a cop to their house was like pounding a ten penny nail with a sledge hammer.

Even Sgt. Dowd admits he wasn’t real keen on it.

“Nobody wanted to, on this end to get involved in it,” says Sgt. Dowd. “But the library contacted us, and the chief delegated, and apparently I was one of the low men on the totem pole.”

Talk about a creeping culture of cowardice. i guess the librarians were “too uncomfortable” with the situation to just pick up the darn phone and call these folks? Because, you know, prodding the public about overdue books is above the pay grade for librarians, and they don’t need that kind of workplace stress. Plus, somebody could get offended and come shoot them or something. Better to play it safe and send the police. No, better to send the SWAT team. A good tazering would teach that nascent little criminal what’s what, what what?

Ok, the cop got stuck with the tsk, and he’s gonna get a month of grief from his buds at the donut shop. But the library? If they had half a lick of sense, there would be a bright and shiny Help Wanted ad in the paper today.

Posted by Drew458     on 01/06/2012 at 10:43 AM   
Filed Under: • News-Briefs • Stoopid-People •  
• Comments (7) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

a mosque for athens.

Except for their money troubles and the euro, we don’t seem to hear much from the Greeks.  In fact, I don’t think they ever make the news in any big way.
But .... this caught my eye today and so I guess they have problems other then finance.
In other words, many of them don’t want this but govts. keep pushing. And if it wasn’t a misprint, some have been pushing since 1939.

Greek group appeals against plans to build mosque in Athens

A group of Greeks that includes bishops, academics and military officers have appealed against a parliamentary bill that will allow the construction of a mosque in the Greek capital.
According to the Greek press, a petition submitted to the Council of State in December was signed by Greek Orthodox Metropolitan Seraphim of Piraeus, as well as a university professor, naval officers and five residents of the area in which the mosque is planned to be built. The appeal argues that the construction of a mosque would be in violation of the constitution and harmful for national unity. It also cites the high cost of the building project in the face of Greece’s financial crisis.

Known for his far-right views, Seraphim said the bill constituted an anti-Christian action and described it as disrespectful to Christian martyrs. He went on to condemn the Greek parliament for approving such a bill.

The controversial bill was passed in 2006 under the New Democracy party government. Renewed debate over the construction of the mosque began in November after the former Papandreou government made a commitment to complete the project by spring 2012, according to the Greek press.

Although the municipal government of Athens gave the permission required for the mosque to be constructed in 2006, the project remains unfinished due to ongoing resistance. Navy officers have refused to vacate a disused naval base in Athens’ Votanikos district, where the mosque is planned to be built.

Athens is unique among the capital cities of the original 15 member states of the EU in that it does not have a dedicated mosque. Until now, Muslims in Greece have been worshipping in makeshift mosques in basement apartments, coffee shops, garages and old warehouses.

Debate over the construction of a mosque in Athens is not unprecedented. Several resolutions on this issue have been discussed by the Greek parliament since 1939 and a further, draft bill was approved in 2000. However, Muslims in Athens have not enjoyed access to a dedicated mosque due to opposition by the church and previous governments.

source

Posted by peiper     on 01/06/2012 at 09:31 AM   
Filed Under: • muslims •  
• Comments (3) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

china threatens eu with trade war ….. sock it to em China.

Europe faces the possible threat of a trade war with the USA after the high court in the EU, threw out an American claim for our airlines to avoid new emissions-trade rules.

As of Jan. 1st, the EU says all airlines who land in EU member states will need carbon permits and naturally, costs are going up.
All airlines flying to and within Europe will be affected.

Now enter the Chinese who are hot under the collar over this and are saying F***You to the EU.
OK, they didn’t go that far and aren’t as crude as I am. But you get the idea.  And I hope the Chinese stick to their guns on this issue.  Lets see if the EU can take those folks on and at what cost.

Give em hell China.

The “environmental squeeze” that helped prompt British Airways owner IAG’s takeover of BMI is set to ignite a trade war between China and Europe after the EU’s top court upheld a move to charge airlines using the Continent’s airspace for their greenhouse gas emissions.

Beijing yesterday threatened disruptions to trade with the EU after the European Court of Justice ruled on Wednesday that the emissions tax would go ahead as planned on 1 January. The move added China’s voice to that of America, which last week warned that it would take “appropriate action” if the proposed charges were not amended or delayed.

The state-run Xinhua News Agency, which acts as the Chinese government’s mouthpiece, said: “This is a trade barrier in the name of environmental protection and will strike a blow to passenger benefits and the international airline industry. It will be difficult to avoid a trade war focused on an aviation ‘carbon tax’.” The European Commission has calculated that costs per passenger could rise by about £21 on a return transatlantic flight as a result of the emissions charge.

The ruling from the European Court of Justice will intensify the pressure on airlines exerted by environmental concerns, adding to the woes of an industry already reeling from high fuel costs and the weak US and European economies.  China threatens trade war over EU jet emissions tax

Chinese airlines warn they will refuse to pay EU carbon tax

China’s biggest airlines warned on Thursday they will refuse to pay a new EU tax aimed at cutting carbon emissions.

By Peter Simpson, Beijing

Beijing said it has deep concerns over the EU’s Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), which came into force on New year’s Day and demands all airlines pay a green duty to offset carbon emissions.
“China opposes the European Union’s unilateral legislation. China has expressed to the EU our deep concern and opposition many times on a bilateral level,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said.
Mr Hong urged Brussels to hold urgent talks with Beijing over the controversial carbon allowance scheme, which has also met strong opposition from other countries.
The China Air Transport Association was more militant in its response – declaring its members would not co-operate with the ETS and refuse to pay the added tax.
It also said it would seek legal action and try and attempt to form an international alliance to scrap the scheme.

“The CATA, on behalf of Chinese airlines, is strongly against the EU’s improper practice of unilaterally forcing international airlines into its ETS,” CATA spokesman Cai Haibo said.
“If governments like the US, China and Russia can launch strong and forceful retaliatory measures, this will form enormous pressure and we hope could make the EU to change its mind.”
China’s four major airlines – national flag-carrier Air China, China Eastern Airlines, China southern Airlines and Hainan Airlines – are represented by the CATA.
China is likely to be able to pull unusually heavy punches in the dispute as its air carriers ferry hundreds of thousand of passenger from Asia into Europe’s troubled markets, including the tourist sector.

CHINA

Posted by peiper     on 01/06/2012 at 07:57 AM   
Filed Under: • CHINA in the news •  
• Comments (3) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

found in mud, roman coin 2,000 yrs old and made for brothels

This article will speak for itself.  Besides which, I’m not up to much in the way of words at the moment.  Washer button on the fritz and I can’t seem to dislodge the damn thing so one feature doesn’t work.  The feature being a shorter wash cycle by 40 minutes.  Otherwise the damn thing runs for two and a half hours.
Called someone yesterday but repair ppl here have this really shitty habit of not returning calls. So have to find someone else.
Anyway, this is quite a story. 

The coin would be about the size of an American quarter.

Roman brothel token discovered in Thames

A Roman coin that was probably used by soldiers to pay for sex in brothels has been discovered on the banks of the River Thames.

Made from bronze and smaller than a ten pence piece, the coin depicts a man and a woman engaged in an intimate act.

Experts believe it is the first example of its kind to be found in Britain. It lay preserved in mud for almost 2,000 years until it was unearthed by an amateur archaeologist with a metal detector.

On the reverse of the token is the numeral XIIII, which historians say could indicate that the holder handed over 14 small Roman coins called asses to buy it. This would have been the equivalent of one day’s pay for a labourer in the first century AD.

The holder would then have taken the token to one of the many Londinium brothels and handed it to a sex slave in exchange for the act depicted on the coin.
The token was found by pastry chef Regis Cursan, 37, who made the discovery near Putney Bridge in West London.

He told the Daily Mail yesterday: “The day I made the find it was a very low, early tide and raining heavily. At first I thought it was a Roman coin, because of the thickness and diameter.

“When I rubbed the sand off the artefact the first thing I saw was the number on one side and what I thought was a goddess on the other. Little did I know at the time it was actually a rare Roman brothel token. To find something like that is a truly exciting find.”

The token has been donated to the Museum of London, where it will be on display for the next three months. Curator Caroline McDonald said: “This is the only one of its kind ever to be found in Great Britain.

“When we realised it was a saucy picture, we had a bit of a giggle but there’s also a sad story behind it because these prostitutes were slaves.
“It has resonance with modern-day London because people are still being sold into the sex trade.”

The object, dated to around the first century AD, was protected from corrosion by the mud. Similar tokens have been found elsewhere in the Roman Empire, but this is the first time one has been unearthed in the UK.

Some historians believe the Romans invented prostitution in the modern sense.
It played a significant part in the empire’s economy – with sex workers required to register with the local authorities and even pay tax.

SOURCE

Posted by peiper     on 01/06/2012 at 07:02 AM   
Filed Under: • Archeology / Anthropology • UK •  
• Comments (2) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

   Thursday - January 05, 2012

Pickaxes Instead of Banjos

Mayan Ruins in Georgia? Archeologist Objects

The textbooks will tell you that the Mayan people thrived in Central America from about 250 to 900 A.D., building magnificent temples in Guatemala, Honduras, Belize and southern Mexico.

But could they possibly have left stone ruins in the mountains of North Georgia? Richard Thornton thinks so. He says he’s an architect by training, but has been researching the history of native people in and around Georgia for years. On Examiner.com, he wrote about an 1,100-year-old archeological site near Georgia’s highest mountain, Brasstown Bald, that he said “is possibly the site of the fabled city of Yupaha, which Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto failed to find in 1540.”

This might all be fairly arcane stuff, except that an archeologist he cited, Mark Williams of the University of Georgia, took exception. In the comments section after Thornton’s piece, he wrote, “I am the archaeologist Mark Williams mentioned in this article. This is total and complete bunk. There is no evidence of Maya in Georgia. Move along now.”

And thus were the comment flames ignited. Facebook wars. Twitter ambushes. This little tale went viral. Is it true? Is it possible? Is this all just a La Raza plot to now try to demand the East Coast as well?

Ruins in Georgia mountains show evidence of Maya connection

In 1839, English architect, Frederick Catherwood, and writer, John Stephens “rediscovered’ the Maya civilization on a two-year journey through southern Mexico.  When their book on the journey was published in 1841, readers in Europe and North America were astounded that the indigenous peoples of the Americas could produce such an advanced culture.  Architects in both continents immediately recognized the strong similarity in the architectural forms and town plans between southern Mexico and the Southeastern United States. Most agronomists were convinced that corn, beans and tobacco came to the natives of the United States and Canada from Mexico. 

In the decades since Catherwood’s and Stephens’ book, archaeologists have not identified any ruins in the United States which they considered to be built by a people who had originated in Mexico.  This was primarily due to their unfamiliarity with the descendants of the Southeastern mound-builders—tribes such as the Creeks, Alabamas, Natchez, Chitimachas and Choctaws.  In particular, the languages of the Creek Indians contain many Mesoamerican words.

Historians, architects and archaeologists have speculated for 170 years what happened to the Maya people. 

Follow the last link above to read Thorton’s thesis. But he isn’t just pointing a flint bladed heart removing knife at Georgia; he thinks the Mayans set up shop in Florida and North Carolina too!



This is how actual science works. Some old idea gets entrenched, and then some day somebody comes along with a new idea. Then they fight like cats for several generations, and if the new idea has actual merit and can take on all comers and still stand tall, when the dust settles everyone pretends that that’s what they all believed the whole time anyway, and everyone gets back to the serious business of drinking beer, chasing co-ed tail, and securing their next government grant.

Posted by Drew458     on 01/05/2012 at 03:44 PM   
Filed Under: • Archeology / Anthropology •  
• Comments (2) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

Digging Beyond The Headlines

About a zillion blogs and news sites are running this story:

Kenyan Parents Attack Teachers After Widespread Exams Failure

The chairman of the Kenyan teachers’ union says angry parents are attacking teachers nationwide after their children’s dismal performance in a national exam.

Wilson Sossion of the Kenya National Union of Teachers said Thursday that rioting parents have forcefully closed at least 10 primary schools. They are angry that their children failed national exams that determine if the children get into high school.

Sossion says the union is investigating the death of a head teacher from a school in Narok, a town in central Kenya. The man is believed to have committed suicide after the results of all 38 students from his school were canceled over allegations of cheating.

Government statistics show that more than half the 760,000 children who sat the examination last year may not go to high school.

And, given just that bit of info, the comments are flying all over. Blame the teachers! The schools need more money! Tax the rich! Blame Bush! Sounds a bit familiar, right?

The first thing you need to know: in Kenya, if you don’t pass the grade school exit exam you don’t get to go to high school. An 8th grade education is deemed sufficient for many jobs, and that’s all you get. Further down the road, you have to pass the high school exit exam to both graduate and to earn a chance at a spot at university. Nothing I have read has made me aware that Kenya has any kind of vocational education program, as many counties here in the USA do for students who may want to head straight into the workforce in lieu of further schooling. But in the US, even those kids graduate high school right? I think so, but we have lots of schools here. It’s not like that in Kenya.

But is there any more to this story?

Well, yes.

There is a “scandal”; the kids who went to very small, expensive, private schools all did extremely well (Kenyan TV news video report). Is this really a scandal though, when in most of these schools you need to already be a very good student to get in to begin with? Or was there cheating?

Hmm, it seems there was plenty of cheating going on, but I can’t find out if it was only at the fancy schools or not. I only found that nearly 8,000 students in 335 schools had their exams nullified ...

Pupils from 335 schools countrywide had their results cancelled due to cheating, Education minister Sam Ongeri said on Wednesday.

Prof Ongeri noted that senior teachers, supervisors and even parents were involved in abetting the vice.

In one instance, a teacher conned parents and candidates of Sh810,000 in the pretext that he would supply them with Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) exam papers in advance. In another case, a pupil had answers written on a sandal he was wearing in the exam room.

Prof Ongeri on Wednesday displayed the sandal as he released the KCPE results. He also showed a shirt with exam answers written on it.

Naturally, when accused of being complicit in the cheating, the teacher’s union immediately announced plans to sue the government for leaking the answers ahead of time ...

Teachers plan to sue Knec over tests

Teachers have demanded naming of those behind the Standard Eight examination leakages that led to the cancellation of results for 7,900 pupils.
Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers assistant secretary-general Lewis Nyakweba and Kenya National Union of Teachers’ Nyamira branch executive secretary Julius Matwere threatened to take legal action against the Kenya National Examinations Council (Knec) over the leakages.
“We are going to stage demonstrations against Knec for cancelling results of many children in the country without explaining who was responsible and how examination question papers leaked from its custody,” Mr Nyakweba said.

... and it looks like at least some of it was going on in the tony private schools ...

Knec cancelled Standard Eight results for 22 schools, mainly private academies in Nyamira County that were allegedly involved in examination irregularities.

Ok, that accounts for 8K out of 380K; two percent. What about the rest? What really is going on here? Probably less than 1% of the students go to private academies, yet half the kids in the country failed the test. That’s 50 times more than those who failed just because they cheated. Was the test too hard? Was it the wrong test? Is government run public education in Kenya just about worthless? Or are Kenyan students just not capable or willing?

Of course, there will always be voices calling for lowering the bar ...

[from before the exam was given] The 2011 KCPE results were released earlier this week on Wednesday 28 December. According to the KNEC, out of the total 776,214 candidates who sat for the KCPE this year, just under half (48.26%) attained 250 marks and above (the cut-off pass mark out of a possible 500 marks) and only 5,806 (0.75%) scored over 400 marks. Two candidates — a boy and a girl — tied to take the top positions with 442 marks each.

When one considers that an average of 30% of KCPE candidates each year fail to secure a place in secondary school, and the proportion seems to be increasing year on year, it becomes clear that the competition to excel in KCPE is pretty high, so much so that cases of exam cheating have become increasingly rampant with each passing year. This year, some 8000 candidates (about 1.5%) had their results cancelled as a result of cheating and other irregularities.

...

it becomes clear that the time is nigh for us as Kenyans to rethink our attitudes towards the meaning of success when it comes to academics. Students are under too much pressure, not just to pass exams but to excel. The all-or-nothing attitude is part of the reason why exam cheating and leaking of exam questions is turning slowly into a cartel involving not just pupils but their parents, teachers and exam invigilators!

It’s high time for our primary school pupils to be appropriately counselled to know that there is more to life than passing exams, and failing KCPE should not mark the end of the road.

But it just may be that the bar was already set quite low ... and in truth it is the students who are the problem ...

A mathematics teaacher from a school in Nairobi says that his students have such a negative attitude that when asked to worked out the change from a hundred shillings after buying bread worth sh 40, 30% of the students did not attempt while 25% of those who attempted did not get it correct. Not that these students are not able to answer the question but the attitude they approach the test makes them blind to such a problem.

KCSE 2011 mathematics paper 1 and paper 2 on a scale is the most favourable in many years. Paper 1 is such a aper that the current form two student may score 80% which an A. The current form three student can easily schore an A in paper 2.

We loud the KNEC for attempting to demystify the examination by encouraging the student with problems that they are able to attempt.  It may be be what the teachers have been waiting for to motivate students to like mathematics. However it will not be strange to find that most students will not perform well in the subject.

As an aside, if I recall my high school days, I’d say that at least a quarter of the students weren’t really ready for it, and just kind of cruised through in neutral. And that was back in the good old days. Maybe Kenya ought to be proud that a mere 30% couldn’t cut it. And it may also be that not going to high school is not that big a deal in Kenya, I don’t know. In the USA it is. Heck, since we long ago dumbed down our schools to the drooling level, now every menial job demands a college degree, because most college degrees are no better than what a high school diploma used to be. So if Kenya has not yet dropped the bar onto the ground and then dug a deep ditch for it, more power to them. And thus an 8th grade education there may not be so bad at all, really. But what if they have, and even a slow student over here could ace the KNEC primary school tests? What would that say?

So I still don’t have the answer to the big problem. But I do know it isn’t wise to take some of the news at headline value: 11 Kenya exam officials killed in line of duty is misleading in the extreme. Almost all of them had died in car accidents at early points in the year, or from terrorists. Not a single one died at the hands of those outraged parents who are attacking the teachers and education bigwigs. Meanwhile Kenyan parents are locking teachers into their classrooms, and in parts of Africa that is one really bad precursor. Machetes and fires often follow on.

Posted by Drew458     on 01/05/2012 at 02:19 PM   
Filed Under: • Education •  
• Comments (0) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

Under the boardwalk

Posted by Drew458     on 01/05/2012 at 01:34 PM   
Filed Under: • Eye-Candy •  
• Comments (1) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

boy killed by sister and friend cos he was a witch.  the stone age ppl among us.

About to shut this thing down when this flew across my screen.
They’re among us.  Vermin.

Just another normal day in the lives of these stone age Negroes who settle in civilized western countries.
They come from the bush and should be returned there.  It’s their natural habitat.

This is pretty gruesome but it’s just another example of the sorts being allowed into the UK and France. And for that matter, all over Europe.
But I guess that’s raaaaaacist. Yeah. So? 

Mr Altman told jurors that the couple were believers in ‘kindoki’ - a form of witchcraft that pervades almost all sections of their native Congolese society.
He said: ‘Kindoki usually denotes a negative, malicious force, by which people in conjunction with the spirits, or by spirits alone, deliberately inflict harm.
‘Kindoki pervades Congolese life, from high to low, rich to poor, and a believe in kindoki is not inconsistent with Christianity, because in the Congo it is practised in the churches with active support of the pastors.

Boy, 15, ‘tortured to death with hammer and chisels on Christmas Day because relative thought he was a witch’

· Kristy Bamu was killed by his sister and her boyfriend, Old Bailey is told
· Boy eventually drowned in bath, in such pain he couldn’t keep his head above water, court hears
· Police recovered bloodstained pliers, a hammer chisel and several knives from the flat
By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
A teenager accused of witchcraft was tortured to death by his sister and her partner in ‘a tale of horror’ on Christmas Day, the Old Bailey heard.
Eric Bikubi, 27, and Magalie Bamu, 28, attacked Kristy Bamu, 15, and his two sisters with pliers, knives and a hammer after accusing them of being ‘sorcerers’, it is claimed.
Kristy was in such pain after days of being attacked with sticks, a metal bar, hammer and chisel that he begged to die, jurors heard.
The teenage boy had suffered 101 injuries - his face and head were covered in cuts and some of his teeth were missing when he was found in the blood-soaked flat.

See the source, read it, and you’ll see why the illustration below the fold.

SOURCE AND MORE

Posted by peiper     on 01/05/2012 at 11:13 AM   
Filed Under: • Africa • Crime •  
• Comments (2) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

Muslim immigrants will find it more difficult to obtain French citizenship

Seems to me to be a bit late in the game. But maybe better late then never. It will really be interesting to see how this pans out.  For the sake of France, I hope it works well and to their benefit. But I tend towards pessimism in today’s world.  I don’t think much of politicians anywhere, I tend to not even trust the ones I think I like.

According to the media here, French president Sarkozy has dropped a lot in popularity and some are saying he might not survive the next election.

I don’t follow much in French politics and I’ll be honest.  All I do know which isn’t a lot, I have learned only from Brit newspapers and radio news.  Which is hardly serious research.  So it’s really more superficial info.
However, every now and then I do run across other sources, like this one from Stonegate. I haven’t posted the entire article but it’s worth a read.

I still have a raging cough and cold bug, back on antibiotics so this is my only post today.

I wish the French much good luck but …… once they opened those pc gates to hell, I think it could be all over except the jihad, which happened by stealth.

France’s Tottery Effort to Reverse Creeping Islamization
by Soeren Kern

Muslim immigrants will find it more difficult to obtain French citizenship from now on.

New citizenship rules that entered into effect on January 1, 2012 will require all applicants to pass exams on French culture and history and also to prove that their French language skills are equivalent to those of a 15-year-old native speaker. Moreover, candidates seeking French citizenship will be required to pledge allegiance to “French values.”

The new measures—drawn up by Interior Minister Claude Guéant—are part of a concerted effort by the French government to push back against the Islamization of France.

Muslim applicants make up the majority of the 100,000 people who are naturalized as French citizens each year; there is also rising frustration that the country’s estimated 6.5 million Muslims are not integrating into French society.

Guéant has said that immigrants who refuse to assimilate should be denied French citizenship.

According to Guéant, a member of President Nicolas Sarkozy’s ruling UMP party, the citizenship process should be “a solemn occasion between the host nation and the applicant” and that immigrants should be integrated through language and “an adherence to the principals, values and symbols of our democracy.”

From now on, applicants for French citizenship will also be required to sign a new charter establishing their rights and responsibilities. Drafted by France’s High Council for Integration (HCI), the charter reads: “Becoming French is not a mere administrative step. It is a decision that requires a lot of thought … applicants will no longer be able to claim allegiance to another country while on French soil.” The new rules, however, will not affect dual nationality, which will still be allowed.

Separately, Guéant also announced a proposal to require non-French children born in France who would normally be automatically naturalized at the age of 18 to formally apply for citizenship.

In addition, Guéant announced plans to reduce the number of legal immigrants coming to France annually from 200,000 to 180,000 and has called for those convicted of a felony to be expelled from the country.

The new citizenship requirements form part of a larger government effort to reverse decades of multicultural policies that have encouraged the establishment of a parallel Muslim society in France.

In February 2011, Sarkozy denounced multiculturalism as a failure and said Muslims must assimilate into the French culture if they want to be welcomed in France. In a live-broadcast interview with French Channel One television, Sarkozy said: “I do not want a society where communities coexist side by side …

France will not welcome people who do not agree to melt into a single community.

We have been too busy with the identity of those who arrived and not enough with the identity of the country that accepted them.”

STONEGATE SOURCE

Question.  So will France be allowed to deport those who don’t want to be citizens?  Unlikely.

But the biggest threat to France that I see is many who will become citizens. And then vote. And that’s the point at which you can start the count down to the demise of what was once a great country. Whatever their faults they were once a great country. Whatever their supposed faults, they weren’t stone age.

Posted by peiper     on 01/05/2012 at 10:44 AM   
Filed Under: • FRANCE • muslims •  
• Comments (5) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

   Wednesday - January 04, 2012

Color Me Impressed

This young lovely can’t seem to make up her mind which hair color she likes best.

*
#
%

GET ME OUT OF HERE ...

Posted by Drew458     on 01/04/2012 at 11:39 AM   
Filed Under: • Eye-Candy •  
• Comments (3) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

But of course

It’s 15 degrees out. Damn.

So of course the muffler strap on my car chose today to break, popping open the exhaust system and making my car sound like some old motorboat.

I’m going to freeze my A off out there fixing it. Assuming I can find the part locally. Stupid muffler strap on Saturns is the one and only piss poor part on the cars; they rot out every 3 years. Everything else soldiers on forever.

Posted by Drew458     on 01/04/2012 at 10:18 AM   
Filed Under: • Daily Life • planes, trains, tanks, ships, machines, automobiles •  
• Comments (5) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

justice 18 yrs late

England ended 800 years of double jeopardy law with the new trial and convictions of two killers for a crime 18 years ago.

A white gang murdered a totally innocent 18 year old in a case that has troubled this island ever since.  Bad policing and racism among many things are all over all over the major papers today and on the radio.

The killing of Stephen Lawrence was truly a race attack and not a figment of the liberal media. The kid was doing no more then waiting for a bus with a friend. He wasn’t a gang member, wasn’t into drugs, and wasn’t looking for trouble.

The gang of low life thugs who ended his life had attacked others as well.  Stabbing a black was just an extension of similar attacks on whites.

Still free are three more of the gang who so far haven’t been been charged but who the cops know are guilty as sin. 

Since the killing was done while the now grown men were merely ‘youths’ of 16 and 17 and couldn’t possibly have known right from wrong, the two convicted today will most likely be out in 12 to 15 years.
They should have been locked away forever when their vicious and criminal behavior was apparent all those years ago. But the laws are so soft and so liberal that the end result as always means an innocent death at some point in time.

Having said all of that, and honestly believing the killers deserve the death penalty, I also find it interesting that there is hardly ever so much noise made or anger displayed and speeches made, when it’s a white girl beaten to a pulp by a black gang who are also muslim.  Or a public clamor for heads to roll when it’s announced that dark skinned muslim men have targeted white girls for the slave/sex trade.  Or when a white person is murdered in a race crime.

I suppose many blacks might say with some justification to us white ppl, well sorry about that but now you know how we felt over many years of being on that end of a dirty stick.  Cos it is true and I think we know it is. For many years, blacks beaten or robbed and killed by whites have not generally met with the same response from the white community.  Except of course from the liberal who I always suspect do so for political reasons in addition to any other feelings they may have on the subject.

Instead of leaving you with a link to one article, here’s a link to the Daily Mail that will tell you the whole story. As will all the other papers whose entire front pages are filled with the story.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/index.html

This might be only post for today. Back to sawbones in a half hour.

Posted by peiper     on 01/04/2012 at 09:50 AM   
Filed Under: • Crime • UK •  
• Comments (0) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

   Tuesday - January 03, 2012

More Than Just Another Fish Story

“This is evolution in action.” [Somebody call Ann Coulter, quick.]

World-first hybrid shark found off Australia

Scientists said on Tuesday that they had discovered the world’s first hybrid sharks in Australian waters, a potential sign the predators were adapting to cope with climate change.

The mating of the local Australian black-tip shark with its global counterpart, the common black-tip, was an unprecedented discovery with implications for the entire shark world, said lead researcher Jess Morgan.

“It’s very surprising because no one’s ever seen shark hybrids before, this is not a common occurrence by any stretch of the imagination,” Morgan, from the University of Queensland, told AFP.

“This is evolution in action.”

Colin Simpfendorfer, a partner in Morgan’s research from James Cook University, said initial studies suggested the hybrid species was relatively robust, with a number of generations discovered across 57 specimens.

The find was made during cataloguing work off Australia’s east coast when Morgan said genetic testing showed certain sharks to be one species when physically they looked to be another.

The Australian black-tip is slightly smaller than its common cousin and can only live in tropical waters, but its hybrid offspring have been found 2,000 kilometres down the coast, in cooler seas.

It means the Australian black-tip could be adapting to ensure its survival as sea temperatures change because of global warming.

Let’s see ... sharks have been around for how long? Oh right. Sharks have been around for HALF A BILLION YEARS, and the ones we see today have been in their current form for about 100 million years, give or take a millenium. And in all that time the oceans must have never warmed up or cooled down even a degree, how many ice ages be damned, because now, when one bunch of dorks in dinghies finds the results of an aquatic redneck family get-together, suddenly it’s emergency evolution driven by one and only one possible reason.    

Climate change and human fishing are some of the potential triggers being investigated by the team, with further genetic mapping also planned to examine whether it was an ancient process just discovered or a more recent phenomenon.

If the hybrid was found to be stronger than its parent species—a literal survival of the fittest—Simpfendorfer said it may eventually outlast its so-called pure-bred predecessors. [Drew: wouldn’t that be a littoral survival of the fittest? Or is that too shallow a jest?]

“We don’t know whether that’s the case here, but certainly we know that they are viable, they reproduce and that there are multiple generations of hybrids now that we can see from the genetic roadmap that we’ve generated from these animals,” he said.

“Certainly it appears that they are fairly fit individuals.”

The hybrids were extraordinarily abundant, accounting for up to 20 percent of black-tip populations in some areas, but Morgan said that didn’t appear to be at the expense of their single-breed parents, adding to the mystery.

In other words, this kind of shark, long considered to be several different species, has always interbred - that would cover the “multiple generations” part and the “extraordinarily abundant” part - but Science (cue Heavenly Trumpets) just never noticed it before. But WTF, let’s not admit that, and instead blame Global Warming. And probably George Bush, by next week.

Dorks in dinghies ... chum, but with pocket protectors.

PS - Simpfendorfer??? Sounds like some kind of 4 1/2 string electric guitar for that special musician in your life. Yeah, my sense of humor is that bass.

Posted by Drew458     on 01/03/2012 at 03:52 PM   
Filed Under: • Animals • Climate-Weather • Science-Technology •  
• Comments (5) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

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