Tuesday - June 12, 2012
Bowling…
Have you ever done this: Taken your new wife and her youngest son bowling? I did. I hadn’t bowled in over a decade. So, of course, while showing them how to bowl, what did I do? Bowled a strike on the first ball. Needless to say, neither believed anything I said about being an idiot at bowling. I did win: my new wife picked it pretty quickly and I only won by two pins.
Posted by Christopher
on 06/12/2012 at 10:28 PM
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Permalink • TALENT SHOW WITH NO SINGING AND NO DANCING. RELIGIOUS CHANTS OKAY
End of another extremely tiring and frustrating day. And an exhausting one as well. Glad it’s over. shut puter and leave much undone but just haven’t the energy.
However, I did see this in the paper today and thinks it’s a hoot.
Should you have the stomach for it, there is an embarrassingly bad and barf inducing video at the link. It’s so bad, imho, I just can’t post it here.
This will hand you a laff tho. Maybe.
Saudi Arabia’s Got Talent… so long as you’re NOT a woman and don’t sing or dance (but religious chanting is allowed)
By DAILY MAIL REPORTERA Saudi Arabian city’s talent show contest is unlikely to produce the Middle East’s answer to Susan Boyle - seeing as women and children have been banned from entering.
Contestants in Buraydah’s Got Talent, based in the oasis conservative hub for the austere Wahhabism branch of Islam, are also prohibited from singing or dancing.Millions across the region already follow Arabs Got Talent, the official spin-off of Simon Cowell’s popular format, which airs on Dubai-based satellite channel MBC4.
It has seen 18-year-old Emirati singer Shamma Hamdan, who sparked outrage by appearing without a headscarf, rise to stardom.
But she would not even be handed an audition in the Saudi version.
Posted by peiper
on 06/12/2012 at 10:38 AM
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Permalink • Take Back Your Nation, 3
Now there’s a misleading headline if ever there was.
Police officers in Indiana are upset over a new law allowing residents to use deadly force against public servants, including law enforcement officers, who unlawfully enter their homes. It was signed by Republican Governor Mitch Daniels in March.
The first of its kind in the United States, the law was adopted after the state Supreme Court went too far in one of its rulings last year, according to supporters.
The case in question involved a man who assaulted an officer during a domestic violence call. The court ruled that there was “no right to reasonably resist unlawful entry by police officers.”
“no right to reasonably resist unlawful entry by police officers”? I think the proper American response to that is FUCK YOU. In more eloquent and diplomatic terms, that thought is better expressed by
and I hope that Indiana has purged itself of these black robed morons in it’s high court. Tar, feathers, rail. Some assembly required.
Tim Downs, president of the Indiana State Fraternal Order of Police, which opposed the legislation, said the law could open the way for people who are under the influence or emotionally distressed to attack officers in their homes.
“It’s just a recipe for disaster,” Downs told Bloomberg. “It just puts a bounty on our heads.”
Not at all you sniveling leftist. What it just did was stop the Police State dead in it’s tracks. Oh, sorry, was that too intimidating an expression? My bad. Let’s say then that such a law will require the police to act within the law at all times and to treat the citizenry with all due respect. After all, the police are servants of the public, not their overlords. Cops who have a problem with that can join the force in Colorado and other places where the 4th Amendment no longer applies.
Reactions from beyond the leftern horizon:
Indiana is the first U.S. state to specifically allow force against officers, according to the Association of Prosecuting Attorneys in Washington, which represents and supports prosecutors. The National Rifle Association pushed for the law, saying an unfavorable court decision made the need clear and that it would allow homeowners to defend themselves during a violent, unjustified attack. Police lobbied against it. Bloomberg
The NRA has systematically manipulated Congress and many State Legislatures into adopting dangerous gun policies, allowing virtually unrestricted and undetectable access to powerful firearms by criminals including gang members, convicted felons and terrorists. Huffington Post
The NRA successfully lobbied for Florida’s stand-your-ground law in 2005, the same shoot-first provision that was invoked by Trayvon Martin’s killer, George Zimmerman. Working with Alec, the NRA has encouraged the passage of similar legislation in 24 other states. Guardian
The measure was approved by the Republican-controlled Legislature and signed by Republican Governor Mitch Daniels in March. It amended a 2006 so-called Castle Doctrine bill that allows deadly force to stop illegal entry into a home or car. Bloomberg
The law describes the ability to use force to “protect the person or a third person from what the person reasonably believes to be the imminent use of unlawful force.” Bloomberg
Wow, they’ve got the Bullshit Dial turned up to 11.
What’s your opinion? You can’t NOT have one on this. Mine is that warrantless entry is always illegal, and no different than breaking and entering. No-knock warrants ride the line, but I think they’re over the edge into the dark side. Corrupt police action - breaking in to homes to enforce their protection rackets, etc - is far beyond the pale. In all of these situations instant use of deadly force by the homeowner is justified.
But let’s be reasonable. This doesn’t mean it’s open season on cops. Far from it. The police surround some home and yell out on a bullhorn repeatedly that they are present and have a warrant. That warrant is served at the door, or is attempted to be served. That’s legal, and the homeowner has no recourse to anything other than cooperation. If he fails to answer and cops kick down the door, they should announce themselves and that they’ve done that because of his lack of response ... all while still standing on the front steps. Failing a response to that, then they should enter ... all nice and legal, and probably with a video camera running in this day and age. Having made a reasonable and significant effort to comply with the law, judgment would be on their side should shooting break out.
But things get a bit murky when you notice that Indiana’s Castle Doctrine extends to people’s vehicles ... and to their persons as well? It ought to, as that is what the 4th Amendment states. So there will need to be a bit of fine tuning and some strong effort at public education. Ignorance of the law being no excuse, there is also no excuse for a clear and bilateral understanding of it.
And the jackbooted thuggery of the militarized police state comes to a screeching halt. Way to go, Indiana. I hope those 24 other states follow quickly in your footsteps.
Posted by Drew458
on 06/12/2012 at 08:40 AM
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Permalink • Take Back Your Nation, 2
Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) said he will sue the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to move forward with his controversial attempt to purge the voter rolls in his state of ineligible voters.
“I have a job to do to defend the right of legitimate voters,” Scott told Fox News on Monday. “We’ve been asking for the Department of Homeland Security’s database, SAVE, for months, and they haven’t given it to us. So this afternoon, we will be filing a lawsuit, the secretary of State of Florida, against the Department of Homeland Security to give us that database. We want to have fair, honest elections in our state and we have been put in a position that we have to sue the federal government to get this information.”
Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner produced the lawsuit, filed in Washington, D.C. district court on Monday, shortly after, along with a statement.
“For nearly a year, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has failed to meet its legal obligation to provide us the information necessary to identify and remove ineligible voters from Florida’s voter rolls,” Detzner said. “We can’t let the federal government delay our efforts to uphold the integrity of Florida elections any longer. We’ve filed a lawsuit to ensure the law is carried out and we are able to meet our obligation to keep the voter rolls accurate and current.”
Last week, the Department of Justice demanded Florida stop the voter-roll purge, saying it violated the federal Voting Rights Act (VRA) and the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) and was reliant on faulty Department of Motor Vehicle records to determine who is eligible to vote.
The Scott administration responded with a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder saying it would continue the voter-roll purge, and is now seeking the DHS federal database as a part of that push.
Shortly after Scott’s announcement, the DOJ responded with a letter to Detzner saying it was launching a suit of its own against the state.
Why is it that I’ve never noticed the federal government suing states before this President, nor have I ever noticed states suing the federal government in return? Now we have 27 states suing over Obamacare, the feds suing Arizona and Alabama left and right over illegal immigration, and so on. You’d think there was some kind of Socialist usurper in the White House enabling completely un-American activities all the time. And you’d be right.
Should Florida not be allowed access to the DHS database, whatever it may contain, then they will have to forge ahead using whatever information that they can access and rely on. And if some people get improperly disenfranchised, so be it. The onus will be upon them to prove that they are legal citizens and residents of Florida and get themselves re-registered. While the right to vote is national, the control of the rolls is at the state level. Isn’t it? Oughtn’t it? I’ve never heard of a national voter registration or a national voter ID card.
IIRC, the feds are claiming that a disproportionate number of darker people - blacks and latinos - are the ones getting purged. You know, exactly the same groups that were the focus of ACORN and the other phony voter registration groups for years and years. So it’s no surprise that a larger number of their numbers are improperly registered. That isn’t racism, that’s a plain truth.
I don’t know what the registration process in Florida is, but if they had the smarts, the time, and the money, I’d say now would be the best time to put a photo ID system in place. Maybe they should “force equality” and just dump the voter rolls entirely, and then make everyone re-register. Every single citizen. In person. And (after significant validation of course) give them all nice shiny new voter ID cards with their pictures on them, which would be required to be presented to vote.
It’s about damn time. Would that Florida only be the First of Fifty.
Posted by Drew458
on 06/12/2012 at 08:17 AM
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Permalink • Take Back Your Nation, 1
Part 1
North Dakota to eliminate property tax?
Since Californians shrank their property taxes more than three decades ago by passing Proposition 13, people around the nation have echoed their dismay over such levies, putting forth plans to even them, simplify them, cap them, slash them. In an election here on Tuesday, residents of North Dakota will consider a measure that reaches far beyond any of that — one that abolishes the property tax entirely.“I would like to be able to know that my home, no matter what happens to my income or my life, is not going to be taken away from me because I can’t pay a tax,” said Susan Beehler, one in a group of North Dakotans who have pressed for an amendment to the state’s Constitution to end the property tax. They argue that the tax is unpredictable, inconsistent, counter to the concept of property ownership and needless in a state that, thanks in part to wildly successful oil drilling, finds itself in the rare circumstance of carrying budget reserves.
“When,” Ms. Beehler asked, “did we come to believe that government should get rich and we should get poor?”
Polls conducted last month and last week suggest that voters here overwhelmingly oppose the ballot measure to ban the property tax.
Still, even if the measure here fails on Tuesday, the notion is picking up steam in some Republican circles in other states, including North Carolina, Texas and Pennsylvania.
“No tax should have the power to leave you homeless,” said Jim Cox, a state representative in Pennsylvania who has proposed legislation to eliminate the school property tax in the state where, he said, such taxes have led to residents’ losing homes to sheriff’s sales, entering into reverse mortgages or simply moving away.
In a way, North Dakota, though 48th in population among the states, was a logical place for such a movement to brew. While the state’s property tax collections per capita generally fall near the middle among states, the surge in oil production over the past five years, mainly in the western portion of the state, has seen its effects ripple through other parts of life here. The state’s coffers are full, overflowing even. Assessments of home values, especially in some areas, have risen drastically too.
… the [no property tax] efforts here were largely organic, the result of unhappy property taxpayers getting fed up.
“The same problem kept coming up,” said Charlene Nelson, a homemaker who became a leader of the effort to amend the Constitution, pointing to what she deems the underlying problem with the property tax. “It means all of us are renters — none of us are homeowners.”
In recent years, state officials sent more money to localities to pay for schools in an effort to lower property tax bills. But opponents of the property tax said those efforts did not go nearly far enough, and collected nearly 30,000 signatures on petitions to bring the matter to the ballot.
Those who want to keep the property tax have vastly outraised the opponents, gathering more than $500,000, campaign finance reports show. Though the question is among four on ballots here on Tuesday — including the highly contentious question of whether the University of North Dakota should give up its Fighting Sioux nickname — residents here said they had been deluged with information about the property tax measure, on signs, in radio talk shows and through months of debates in school gymnasiums and recreation halls in small towns like Edgeley and Bowman.
For his part, Gov. Jack Dalrymple, a Republican, said he opposed the property tax ban. “It’s mind-boggling, really,” he said, in an interview, of the effects of such a ban. “We’d be changing everything, frankly.”
The notion, he said, that the state has enough surplus to replace property taxes for localities around the state without raising other taxes is false. For starters, he said, much of the state’s benefits from the oil boom are already dedicated legally to particular funds and cannot simply be transferred to support schools, counties, towns, park districts and the like.
Even if the ban fails, North Dakota lawmakers now seem all but certain to tackle broader solutions to the property tax question as early as next year.
Posted by Drew458
on 06/12/2012 at 07:50 AM
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Permalink • Monday - June 11, 2012
Read Me First
Two new books today. One brand new, and the other a find from 1958.
In the mail today author Stephen Martino sends me a free copy of his latest, The Final Reality. It looks to be a medical mystery novel, set in the present day, steeped in current politics and the world-wide economic crisis. Some kind of Andromeda Strain story? An ancient virus awakens and starts to modify human kind for the better. Stronger. Faster. Smarter. Is this another Flowers For Algernon? Or is the virus merely a backdrop for an Obama warning: what will a powerful fascist dictator do to control the new people? What won’t he do? Oh, and we’ve got secret Old Testament bible codes to find and unravel to save the human race. Probably terrorists and Code Pinkos as well.
Sounds interesting. Sounds like a great summer read. I may have to put aside my third trip through George R.R. Martin’s Dance With Dragons, the 5th and so far last book in his Game of Thrones series (actually called A Song of Ice and Fire) to give this one a read.
Thanks Stephen! It’s only 461 pages in a mid-size format, so it shouldn’t take me more than a week or two, and I’ll give you an honest review as promised.
Sometimes it’s great to run a blog.
Good buddy Peiper will get a kick out of the next one.
I had a little business with the condo association folks today, so I had to go down to their office in the village clubhouse. On the way out I stopped by the door to peruse the “don’t care” library - a few shelves of old books donated by the folks that live here. Take one, read it, and return it if you want, or donate an old book of your own. We don’t care.
And sitting there in amongst the Danielle Steeles and the Dean Koontzs and the other recent works, was a little old paperback, hardly a half inch thick. Pitcairn’s Island, by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall. First published by Little, Brown in 1934, Pitcairn’s Island is the book from which the movie Mutiny on the Bounty was made. The one with Marlon Brando, Trevor Howard, and Richard Harris in 1962, and the earlier one with Clark Gable and Charles Loughton in 1935. Yeah, the same Mr. Christian that our Mr. Christian used as an avatar. As part of their campaign to enhance literacy, Cardinal came out with an inexpensive paperback edition in 1954, one title among hundreds. Among thousands. It sold well, so they kept right on printing them. This copy is from the 4th printing so it has no collector value. Heck, the book only cost 35¢ when new; the price is printed right on the cover. But it’s not the low cost, or the long life of so inexpensive a book that’s enjoyable.
No, what’s giving Peiper a smile right now is the authors. Because he has their other earlier semi-autobiographical book, Falcons of France. A true-life adventure story. Both Nordhoff and Hall were fighter pilots in World War I. In the Lafayette Escadrille. The Western Front. Aeroplanes of spruce and linen. Petrol and castor oil. Dawn Patrol. Look for the Hun in the Sun.
It all started one day when I mentioned in a post that ...
Raoul Is Not Amused
... and he had no idea who Raoul was.
He does now. I did a bit of online digging at several old book shops in England, and sent him a Boy’s Holiday worth of books on the men and the airplanes of WWI, purchased for mere pennies, and then mailed him my well chewed copy of Falcons. Woke up all his boyhood dreams and gave them a good workout.
So now he knows. Raoul Lufberry, legendary flier and fighter ace from the days when you could hear the wind in the wires. The immortal knight of the sky who died on a fencepost.
Having survived the Great War, Nordhoff and Hall had had their fill, and moved off to the South Seas to run a copra plantation. But they had the writing bug, and turned out quite a large number of books over the next few decades. Pitcairn’s Island is a rather brutal book about rough men in a rough age; by the time the Bounty mutineers were found by the outside world in 1808 almost all of them were dead, and almost all of them were dead by violence by their own hands. Pitcairn Island is still one of the remotest spots on the globe, and the great-great-great-grandchildren of Mr. Christian still live there.
So I’ve got a “new” paperback that’s older than I am to read, an honest to gosh “true adventure” from long ago and far away.
Posted by Drew458
on 06/11/2012 at 01:59 PM
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Permalink • must not sing god bless the usa as it could offend other cultures.
It’s been raining hard and steady all day and in fact since last night. Had early start today, wife to doctor and I have a test very early tomorrow morning.
So, I was about to shut down early and pack it in but wanted to visit Vilmar’s site to see what sort of mayhem he was up to.
And darn if my blood pressure didn’t rise several notches. The story is a day old, it may not be brand new but in case even one of you missed this stupidity, well, here ya go. Bizarre. Unbelievable that someone could be this stupid and still remain in the school system. But then again, hey. This is what you get when you lower standards to meet quotas.
H/T Vilmar
‘WE DON’T WANT TO OFFEND OTHER CULTURES’: N.Y. PRINCIPAL REPORTEDLY SCRAPS ‘GOD BLESS THE USA’ FROM SCHOOL PROGRAM
by Madeleine Morgenstern
The principal of a Brooklyn, N.Y. elementary school, Greta Hawkins, has reportedly pulled the song “God Bless the USA” from a kindergarten graduation ceremony so as not to offend other cultures, according to the New York Post.
The kindergartners had spent several months learning the song, which was set to close out the program, until P.S. 90 principal Greta Hawkins came into a recent rehearsal and told teachers to scrap it.
“We don’t want to offend other cultures,” teachers quoted Hawkins as saying, according to the Post.
Teachers and parents were reportedly shocked by Hawkins’ decision, particularly because the Lee Greenwood song has been sung at school events in the past — and because a rendition of Justin Bieber’s song “Baby” was kept in the program.
Kindergarten mother Luz Lozada told the Post “God Bless the USA” got a standing ovation at last year’s fifth-grade graduation, and that the school’s immigrant parents, including those from Pakistan, Mexico and Ecuador, “love it.”
But New York’s Department of Education gave the Post a different reason for pulling the song: Hawkins thought the lyrics were “too grown up” for 5-year-olds to sing — though Bieber’s were apparently fine.
According to the Post, the Education Department is supporting Hawkins’ decision.
“The lyrics are not age-appropriate,” spokeswoman Jessica Scaperotti said.
It’s not the first time “God Bless the USA” has attracted controversy: In April, a Massachusetts elementary school made headlines after students were taught to sing “We love the U.S.A.“ instead of ”God bless” before ultimately backing down.
Posted by peiper
on 06/11/2012 at 08:39 AM
Filed Under: • CULTURE IN DECLINE • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists • DIVERSITY BS • Education • Outrageous • Stoopid-People • USA •
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Permalink • YOU NEED TO DIE SPORT BUT, IT ISN’T PERSONAL YA KNOW. JUST BUSINESS.
This is just a small portion of a news story today and if you want the rest of it, it’s at the link. Frankly, I don’t want to read the rest cos I don’t care about “those” ppl topping one another. Not my business. But I have to say, if you were listening to the news and reading the papers as I have on this side of the Atlantic, it sounds and looks like the phoney rhetoric we heard before the bit of action in Libya last year, where we and the Brits and the French all got together and played with ourselves, militarily speaking. Bang,bang. Oh btw and for the record, I am not sorry Gadiffi is history. Anyway, this Syria thing is sounding much the same.
SAAAAAVE THE POOOOOR CIVILIANS!!! OUTRAGE!!
Yeah right. Here we go again. Another Belgium babies fairy tale. Only this time, there has been at least one lonesome reporter who happens to be a senior foreign correspondent, has reported that he suspects the guys we’re (excluding myself of course) snuggling up to and whose cause everyone here is espousing, may have set he and his crew up for an ambush. Why? Well, he said that were he and his crew killed by Assad’s people, it would bolster the appeal of those opposed to the Assad government.
Never mind. My prediction is that again the west will get it’s new little war to test out new equipment and feel like they’ve won WW2 all over again. And how much more national treasure will that cost? Don’t ask. Besides, it’s not the kind of thing you pay up front for. No. It’ll be borrowed. From your grandkids and their kids. Easy.
I can’t rule out sending our troops to Syria, warns Hague as he says country could spiral into Bosnia-style civil war
By TIM SHIPMAN
The Foreign Secretary said Britain would have to ‘greatly increase our support for the opposition’ if the current United Nations plan for a ceasefire fails, as the Foreign Office now fears.
Mr Hague repeatedly refused to rule out military action yesterday if Syria descends into ‘terrible’ sectarian violence.
I read this in Peter Hitchens column yesterday. It will be a lone voice I am certain.
Should Assad fall and his tribe with him, I frankly shudder to think what will replace him.
So far in Libya, we are not seeing truth and light, I don’t think. But then, I’m just an old sceptic who has little trust or faith in our side and none at all for the other. I do have to wonder about this report because, I can not imagine an UNARMED policeman in that part of the world. Can You? So there could be less to this story then meets our eye. But ya never know.
The truth seeps out of Syria
by Peter HitchensI have been contacted by a group of Western women who live in Syria and who believe that most of what the world is being told about that country is false.
As far as I can discover, they are not stooges of what they agree to be a rather nasty government in Damascus, but exactly what they say they are: normal human beings caught up in a political tornado. For obvious reasons, I have promised to protect their identities.
I urge you to read what follows, because it is important, because our emotional interventions in other countries never do any good, and because it is vital that people resist attempts to drag us into Syria, too, by feeding us one-sided atrocity propaganda.
This sort of propaganda has a price. I hope you have noticed the continuing tally of deaths of selfless British soldiers in Afghanistan, in a cause long ago abandoned.
And I hope you have also noticed that Libya, ‘rescued’ by us a few months ago, is now a failed state whose main international airport was recently taken over by gangsters, and where unjustly arrested prisoners are starved and tortured in secret dungeons.
One of my informants from Syria writes of the ‘activists’ we hear so much about: ‘These protesters are not peaceful, flower-carrying people wanting freedom. No, they are weapon-toting killers who snipe, who ambush, who fire upon the army with the sole purpose of inciting riot and mayhem.’
She blames Salafis, ultra-puritan Muslims influenced by Saudi teachings, who loathe and threaten Syria’s minorities of Alawites and Christians. She says many of the ‘activists’ are foreigners, a view shared by all my informants. Many of the ‘activists’ are armed.
Armed intervention is in fact well under way, uncondemned by the UN, which readily attacks the Syrian government for defending itself. Another writes: ‘I have seen reports of opposition rallies which showed pictures of pro-government rallies, and reports purporting to be from the north Syrian countryside, where it has been an incredibly wet year, which appear to have been taken in some desert. The news being accepted as truth by BBC World News is so biased these days that I no longer believe what they say about anything any more, after more than 60 years of crediting them with the truth.’
She says she has spoken to a man who took part in a march at Hama last summer. He ‘was worried for his safety, but was given a red rose to carry and assured the whole thing would be calm and orderly, and seeing many other men from the mosque joining in with their small sons, he agreed. They walked for a very few minutes, the unarmed police watching them from the wayside, then a man next to him pulled out a gun and shot the nearest policeman dead.’
A riot followed, reported by foreign TV stations as a police attack on peaceful marchers.
I expect to have more to say on this in weeks to come.
And then there is this.
Just how stupid do our masters or at least the media, think everyone is?
Do any of you look at this photo and really believe these kids know what’s going on in their world? I mean outside of what they see. Like, do kids this young really hold “protests” or lets see. Ya think perhaps adults tell em what to do and they do as they’re told? The caption for this bit of propaganda meant to entice us read; Boys protest against the Syrian regime yesterday after Friday prayers
Here, have a look for yourself.
I think Assad, who I know is not our best friend in all the world, is being set up.
Channel 4 news reporter says he was ‘deliberately set up to be shot’
By DAVID WILLIAMS and RICHARD HARTLEY-PARKINSON
At least 17 people were killed overnight in Syria as the town where the uprisings began was shelled.
Activists said 10 women were among the dead in the town of Deraa, in the south of the country.
The latest killings happened as Channel 4 News chief correspondent Alex Thomson claimed Syrian rebels tried to lead him and his colleagues into a trap so they would be killed by government forces, to discredit the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.
Last night Channel 4 correspondent Alex Thomson said a group from the Free Syrian Army led his team into the line of fire because ‘dead journos are bad for Damascus’.
He said his vehicle was shot at before the team managed to ‘floor it back to the road we’d been led in on’.
He wrote: ‘Suddenly four men in a black car beckon us to follow. We move out behind. We are led another route. Led in fact, straight into a free-fire zone. Told by the Free Syrian Army to follow a road that was blocked off in the middle of no-man’s land.‘At that point there was the crack of a bullet and one of the slower three-point turns I’ve experienced. We screamed off into the nearest side-street for cover. Another dead-end. There was no option but to drive back out on to the sniping ground and floor it back to the road we’d been led in on.
‘Predictably the black car was there which had led us to the trap. They roared off as soon as we re-appeared.
‘I’m quite clear the rebels deliberately set us up to be shot by the Syrian army. Dead journos are bad for Damascus.’His comments on the Channel 4 website came as clashes were reported near the centre of the Syrian capital, while UN monitors finally reached the hamlet of Mazraat al-Qubeir where up to 78 people, including women and children, were reportedly killed by militia loyal to Assad two days earlier.
He said his suspicions over the rebels were strengthened when, half an hour later, ‘our four friends in the same beaten-up black car suddenly pulled out of a side-street, blocking us from the UN vehicles ahead’.
He wrote: ‘In a war where they slit the throats of toddlers, what’s the big deal in sending a van full of journalists into the killing zone? It was nothing personal.’
Yesterday peace envoy and former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan met US secretary of state Hillary Clinton to discuss his plan to end more than a year of violence in the country, as Syrian troops reportedly launched a blitz on a rebel-held neighbourhood in the central city of Homs.The developments came as a survey by YouGov showed substantial public support in Britain and the US for military action to secure a Libya-style ‘no-fly zone’ in Syria – but little backing for a ground assault.
Posted by peiper
on 06/11/2012 at 06:49 AM
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Permalink • Sunday - June 10, 2012
latest news, humpty dumpty saved in heroic effort by rescuers.
Another day of grey skies and some rain. Doesn’t bother at all. Keeps the damn dog next door inside.
Sunday is usually a day of doing near nothing but reading the massive pile of two Sunday papers and their magazines and the book reviews from Sat. as well.
So into the mix comes the wife’s ancient but still hardy and mobile 87 yr old auntie. Who we do love so don’t get me wrong. But having been caring for the wife for, I don’t know I lost track of time, anyway along comes Auntie Joan at her suggestion and the wife’s approval. Which means that the huge pile of winter cloths and coats that were in the sitting room had to be hauled out and placed in the wife’s bedroom next door. Then when dear auntie leaves it all goes back.
Oh right, must make tea 4 two soon. Not a difficult chore as not doing anything fancy. Those cloths I speak of should have been bagged and put away and suitcases or two in the attic with summer stuff hauled out and reused for winter wear. But things have not worked out that way for all sorts of honest reasons and being lazy is not one of those reasons. So here were are, and in a minute I’ll go into the sitting room and pretend to be happy to see our guest and bring them a cup of tea. My wife believes the old girl is lonely and needs some company and that’s why she gave the okay for the visit. I imagine that by the time auntie leaves, the wife will need a dose of liq. morphine as her back is hurting badly. She sees her doctor tomorrow morning. Glad for that and overdue.
One must be thankful, and I certainly am, for small mercies.
The visit today just as easily could have been from Poor Brain Dead Cousin Jo.
OK, onward. This caught my ever roaming eye for the absurd this morning. Could anyone ever make this sort of thing up?
Sure. Not a problem for anyone on the loony left. Moonbats all.
Humpty dumpty didn’t get bumped… because he bungee jumped: How our nursery rhymes have been sanitised
New push to save traditional British rhymes and songs from dying out
Classics including Humpty Dumpty re-written with happier endingBy LAWRENCE CONWAY
A new campaign has been launched to save traditional British rhymes and songs amid fears they are dying out.
The push follows sanitised, more upbeat versions of classic nursery rhymes, including Humpty Dumpty, being taught to children.
In one updated version the hero didn’t get bumped or bruised at all, but instead ‘bungee jumped’.
In another instead of being unable to ‘put Humpty together again’, the new version claimed all the King’s horses and all the King’s men ‘made Humpty happy again’.
The English Folk and Dance Society is running the new National Lottery funded campaign to save traditional rhymes and songs.
Rachel Elliott, the society’s education director, told The Telegraph: ‘There can be a risk of people being oversensitive and sanitising these things.
‘They have to be contextualised – we don’t want to condone drunkenness by singing about the Drunken Sailor.
‘But there was a lot of drunkenness at that time. And I don’t think the song is going to encourage it now.’
Humpty Dumpty ‘bungee jumped’
The original children’s poem:Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the King’s horses, And all the King’s men
Couldn’t put Humpty together again!A new sanitised version:
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall.
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
He didn’t get bruised,
He didn’t get bumped,
Humpty Dumpty bungee jumped!The society has warned that in some schools children are more likely to learn eastern European or African songs than English ones.
Some songs have been dropped because they refer to death, disease or war in ways that have been judged as no longer be suitable for children.
The society’s new campaign, which has attracted a £585,400 grant, will eventually create the world’s biggest online collection of English folk music, song and dance manuscripts.
Malcolm Taylor, the society’s library director, told The Telegraph: ‘The other cultures that you find in schools have more of a sense of tradition than the indigenous white children.
‘So they will learn about folk songs from other cultures, from Poland, and Africa – as they should, to engage those people – but you need to correct it by increasing the resources for English songs.’
In 2009 a government funded song book changed the lyrics of What Shall We Do With the Drunken Sailor? to remove any reference to alcohol or punishment.
The BBC was accused of ‘outrageous’ political correctness in the same year after changing the words to a nursery rhyme on a children’s show.
Posted by peiper
on 06/10/2012 at 08:36 AM
Filed Under: • CULTURE IN DECLINE • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists • Education •
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Permalink • Saturday - June 09, 2012
Have you seen my Zombie?
In case you do see my zombie, here: follow the instructions.
I assume you all know how to use a 5-rd pump-action shotgun. Mine is actually 8-rds with no magazine.
Posted by Christopher
on 06/09/2012 at 01:07 PM
Filed Under: • Humor •
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Permalink • A Winning Formula
Leonardo Da Vinci spent a lifetime trying to paint one. Scientists and mathematicians have puzzled for centuries over what makes one, while cosmetic surgeons have amassed fortunes striving to create one.
And Florence Colgate? Well, she simply has one. The 18-year-old student is blessed with what is described as the perfect face. It matches an international blueprint for the optimum ratio between eyes, mouth, forehead and chin, endowing her with flawless proportions.
In theory, that needn’t necessarily cause her to appear anything more than symmetrical (in which department, incidentally, she is also faultless).
But the blue-eyed blonde’s mathematical dimensions have just added up to success in a competition to find Britain’s most naturally beautiful face.
Florence, who has a Saturday job in a seaside chip shop in between studying for her A-levels, beat 8,000 entrants to win the title. Contestants were judged without make-up and were barred entry if they had had plastic surgery or chemical enhancement.
...
But it is the scientific definition of beauty – not to mention a healthy portion of beauty genes from her mother – which gave Florence the crown.A woman’s face is said to be most attractive when the space between her pupils is just under half the width of her face from ear to ear. Florence scores a 44 per cent ratio. Experts also believe the relative distance between eyes and mouth should be just over a third of the measurement from hairline to chin. Florence’s ratio is 32.8 per cent.
So I guess that makes her the UK’s “closest fit” to the formula. If her eyes were a tiny bit further apart and her mouth a hair lower (or her head was a tad thinner and shorter) she would match the formula exactly.
Oh, don’t get me wrong. I think the girl is perfectly lovely just the way she is. Fresh, warm, wholesome. But, beauty being in the eye of the beholder, I think she lacks that certain little bit of edge, a touch of sharpness or a bit of planar angularity that turns a very pretty face into a classically beautiful one; one that could be carved in marble and thousands of years later be recognized as outstanding. But let’s give Ms. Colgate a tiny break; she’s just 18 and really hasn’t finished growing. We’ll come back to her when she’s 24 or 27 or 33 and see how she fares then.
Is the formula correct? I used a graphics tool to narrow and shorten her face a little in the next pictures, which results in her eyes being relatively wider, and the eye to mouth distance being relatively just a bit longer. Is she more beautiful that way, or just a bit harder looking? Granted, this was a quick attempt: the graphics quality is lowered, and I didn’t run the numbers to find the exact pixel counts that matched the formula. I just took a little off the top and sides each time. What’s your reaction?
Posted by Drew458
on 06/09/2012 at 11:01 AM
Filed Under: • Amazing Science and Discoveries • Eye-Candy •
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Permalink • Friday - June 08, 2012
I’d call this REAL target marketing
It’s all fun and games until someone eats someone else’s face off.
Zombie Bullets In High Demand Following Flesh-Eating Attacks
Worried about a zombie attack? Buy zombie bullets.
Talk about zombies and a possible zombie apocalypse has increased due to recent gory accounts of drug-induced, flesh-eating attacks in the news.
Stores across the U.S., including in Metro Detroit, are getting in on the undead action by selling Zombie Bullets, made by Hornady Manufacturing.
In promoting the product on their website, Hornady suggests, “Be PREPARED – supply yourself for the Zombie Apocalypse with Zombie Max ammunition from Hornady! Loaded with PROVEN Z-Max bullets… MAKE DEAD PERMANENT!”
What started out as a joke at ammunition maker Hornady has become a semi-comical sales success. Even people who don’t own guns are buying their new colorfully packaged Zombie Ammo. Because you never know when the undead will rise.
And for those who DO know, know this: the Zombie Ammo sells for about 80¢ less per box than Hornday’s regular Critical Defense ammunition, although it’s the same stuff, but is not available in as many calibers.
It’s been on the market for about 8 months now, but is finally getting some coverage in the regular media. Get yours now. It’s a blast.
For those who would like to know a bit more:
Hornady has had their V-Max rifle bullet out for years now. It features an aerodynamic plastic tip, just like the Nosler Ballistic-Tip, that, on impact, drives backwards like a piston into a small void area in the lead core of the bullet, facilitating early expansion. This is EXACTLY how the old Remington Bronze Point bullet worked. That bullet, while nearly gone now, has been on the market since before I was born. Many decades. The harder bullet tip keeps them from getting banged up, the slight hollow point design gives them positive but not excessive expansion at just about any velocity, an their more pointed ogive shape gives them slightly better aerodynamics, which means higher retained velocity at longer ranges, and thus more kinetic energy.
A few years back Hornady came out with their semi-spitzer XTR bullets, a mostly pointed bullet designed to be used in lever action rifles with tubular magazines (eg a model 94 Winchester chambered in .30-30). Generally the cartridges in those rifles are less powerful and slower than the ones more commonly used in bolt action or military rifles, and in general have never been able to use pointed bullets (aka spitzers) because of the tubular magazine. You really don’t want a hard sharp point of one round resting right on the primer of the round in front of it, when recoil slaps the rifle backwards at 20mph. Chain reaction time, and that’s a BAD thing. So Hornady made a different version of the V-Max, which used an eraser-soft plastic tip instead of a hard one. No chain fires under recoil. Ta da, suddenly lever guns could use aerodynamic bullets and flatten their trajectories enough to make 300 yard shots feasible. And this ammo hit the market at the EXACT same time that Marlin came out with their new generation or lever action rifles, featuring all new exciting and powerful cartridges (made by Hornady naturally), with the rifles built to a level of precision that would shoot accurately to that range! Synchronicity at it’s finest! And sales (pardon the pun) shot up.
Another innovation in the ammunition market has been with handgun ammo. Hollowpoint bullets have long been known to be highly effective for personal defense. These pistol bullets have a great big scoop taken out of their noses, and this hollow cavity tends to cause the lead cored bullets to expand very rapidly, and at the same time not penetrate excessively. Which is exactly what you want for personal defense. Blow the effer to shreds, but don’t shoot through the wall behind him. The only problem with hollowpoints is that sometimes layers of cloth can fill up the cavity, which eliminates the expansion, and the bullets don’t do much. No stopping power. Some years back some smart fellow, probably a 9mm pistol shooter who was tired of the flat ended hollow points not feeding properly in his semi-automatic (another one of their sometimes problems) looked at some of that plastic tipped rifle ammo and had a small epiphany. And tried sticking a small plastic ball in the end of the hollowpoint. And it worked, no more feeding problems, and the bullets expanded every time, no matter what. Everybody in the industry jumped on the bandwagon, and they soon figured out that just casting a bit of hard plastic in the end was enough. Hornady calls that bullet design their FTX line. And now shooters, loading for personal defense, have one less thing to worry about. Two less things if they happen to live in New Jersey: hollow point ammunition is theoretically illegal in their state, but the kind that has the cavity filled with a bit of plastic is not considered to be hollow, even though it works exactly that way because it really is.
So I guess when one batch of plastic turned up Ghostly Glow-Stick Green instead of the usual deep red, the jokes started at Hornady, and some wise guy in marketing had a little fun with his graphics tools and a few of their product names. One thing lead to another, and now the company is selling their products to people who don’t even own firearms, just for the conversation starter value of having a box of genuine anti-Zombie ammo sitting around. ( which IS a crime in New Jersey, where you aren’t allowed to own ammo of any kind that you don’t own a gun for ).
[Hornady spokesman Everett] Deger said company president Steve Hornady came up with the idea for Zombie Max bullets because of his love for zombie movies and shows.
“After it gained some acceptance among some of us here in the company got on board with the idea we decided just to have some fun with a marketing plan that would allow us to create some ammunition designed for that … fictional world,” Deger said.
He said the Zombie Max and Z-Max bullets are Hornady’s most successful products.
“This is probably one of the only (product) launches that we’ve seen when people who are not in the hunting and shooting industry will go out and they will purchase this,” Deger said.
And as far as I can tell, the shotgun ammo is just plain old lead Double Ought Buck, with green printing on a cool black high brass hull. The pistol and rifle ammo is straight off the Critical Defense assembly line, which means it is low recoil ammo made with very fast burning, low flash gun powder, optimized for short barrels and low light shooting. Because you almost never see zombies in the day time. I never have, have you?
Visit Hornady’s web page for more info, a fun little video, and this absolutely atypical disclaimer:
Disclaimer: Hornady® Zombie Max™ ammunition is NOT a toy (IT IS LIVE AMMUNITION), but is intended only to be used on…ZOMBIES, also known as the living dead, undead, etc. No human being, plant, animal, vegetable or mineral should ever be shot with Hornady® Zombie Max™ ammunition. Again, we repeat, Hornady® Zombie Max™ ammunition is for use on ZOMBIES ONLY, and that’s not a nickname, phrase or cute way of referring to anybody, place or thing. When we say Zombies, we mean…ZOMBIES!
Now get to the range and practice your Mozambique drills in reverse ... because with Zombies, it’s One to the head FIRST then Two to the chest only if needed.
Posted by Drew458
on 06/08/2012 at 04:01 PM
Filed Under: • Fun-Stuff • Guns and Gun Control •
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Permalink • not exactly the rain in spain
Battened down the atches and watching the trees bend.
Rain and more rain but the darn wind is the worry.
Actually, we are a bit lucky in our location as we are in a dip of some kind. Not sure what they call it but we do not generally get the very worst of it.
But watching large trees outside your window bend as they have been, well. It gives one pause. Only real worry is possible loss of power if a line comes down.
Some very interesting photos and a short video of storm over lighthouse. Worth watching.
While our situation isn’t even close to these photos, not by a long shot, I must say it again.
I do MISS the desert of So. Calif. I really miss Palm Desert!
But then I come back to reality. There isn’t any Tesco there. Not even a Waitrose. And no market deliveries.
Midsummer monsoon: 80mph storm batters the whole of Britain...
The millionaire owner of this £5m luxury yacht won’t be taking it out on the water any time soon
Met Office issues weather warnings for Wales, south-west England, the Midlands, London and the South East
High winds expected to continue today
South West is battered by storms and power cables are brought down
Hazardous road conditions result in serious accidents
Maritime and Coastguard Agency has issued warning for people to be careful along the coast
Drier conditions expected on Saturday but storm will return by Sunday
New report says the country - particularly the South - will have a wet rather than a dry summer
Environment Agency says it is for water companies to make a decision on when to lift their hosepipe bansBy SEAN POULTER, CHRIS PARSONS and AMY OLIVER
A multimillionaire’s luxury yacht has been badly damaged after a roof came crashing down on it in high winds as stormy weather continued to batter the UK today.
Ironically, the unnamed buyer had been due to make the final installment on the £5million Sunseeker vessel today and take delivery of it on Monday.
But last night the wind ripped the roof off a cleaning shelter straight onto the 91-ft yacht that was moored at the firm’s headquarters in Poole, Dorset. It is not yet clear how much repairs will cost.
And just down the coast in Cornwall a 42ft Yacht Iona worth £200,000 was washed up onto the shingle at St Mawes after breaking her mooring last night in the heavy storm.
Meteorologists are calling the appalling weather a ‘European monsoon’ as 80mph winds and torrential rain sweep the country.
The Met Office has issued severe weather warnings for Wales, south-west England, the Midlands, London and the South East and eastern parts of the country.
Last night the weather front lashed the lower half of the country as an area of low pressure moved up through Southern England.Today winds could reach up to 80mph in some parts.
Waves of up to 40ft have been reported off the Cornish coast and many ferries have been cancelled. More than 50 fallen trees, many blocking roads and damaging property, were cleared overnight in Devon as winds of up to 70mph blasted seaside towns and rural villages.
Click on the pretty girl for all of the photos and story
Posted by peiper
on 06/08/2012 at 11:03 AM
Filed Under: • Climate-Weather • UK •
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Permalink • oh diversity,diversity,diversity. bsbsbsbsbsbs!
Quite sadly, I only discovered this site yesterday. Sadly because the fellow who ran the show has had to quite.
Zack Rawsthorne is a cartoonist and his site, http://diversitylane.com/samples.htm, can still be seen in parts.
This fellow is a heck of a gifted artist, I tried email with no luck in the hope of finding out what his plans are and if I could somehow arrange to buy or lease or do whatever within affordable reason, to get the years that I have missed and possible future stuff. No luck with email however. His idea was I think, excellent.
If you go to the link above, you’ll get the idea. Take a look some of his conservative cartoons.
Take a look.
Posted by peiper
on 06/08/2012 at 10:29 AM
Filed Under: • DIVERSITY BS • Humor •
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Permalink • Five Most Recent Trackbacks:
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Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:
It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.
- Keep a firm grasp of Right and Wrong
- Stay involved with government on every level and don't let those bastards get away with a thing
- Use every legal means to defend yourself in the event of real internal trouble, and, most importantly:
- Keep talking to each other, whether here or elsewhere
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Oh, and here's some kind of visitor flag counter thingy. Hey, all the cool blogs have one, so I should too. The Visitors Online thingy up at the top doesn't count anything, but it looks neat. It had better, since I paid actual money for it.
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