Monday - March 07, 2011

Interesting Military Reading

My brother emailed me a link to StrategyPage.com, and there are any number of interesting reads there. Here are links to just a few of them.

• Egypt invades Libya on the sly?

  Egypt has apparently sent some of its commandos in to help out the largely amateur rebel force. Wearing civilian clothes, the hundred or so Egyptian commandos are officially not there, but are providing crucial skills and experience to help the rebels cope with the largely irregular, and mercenary, force still controlled by the Kadaffi clan.

  With large parts of his army changing sides and going over to the rebels, Gadaffi has taken to hiring Taureg tribesmen as mercanaries.

  This is nothing new for the Tuareg, who have been serving as mercenaries for Kadaffi since the 1970s. But now thousands of them are being hired.
  ...
  In Libya, most of the 45,000 man army has either joined the rebels or deserted. The security services (80,000 men of the Revolutionary Guard, Peoples’ Militia and secret police) have also suffered desertions. Worse, but these guys are trained to bully and terrorize civilians, not fight a war. Kadaffi desperately needs some kickass fighters who don’t mind killing Libyan civilians.

  The Tuareg have a lot of experience in the violence department.

• Somali islamofascist forces taking a beating

  March 6, 2011: In Mogadishu, the 8,000 AU (African Union) peacekeepers have pushed back al Shabaab, and seized several compounds the Islamic radicals were using as bases. The peacekeepers have about half their troops in action, and have suffered some 200 casualties in the last two weeks. Al Shabaab suffered over five times as many, including at least 500 dead. The Islamic radicals have been calling in reinforcements since the AU/TNG (Transitional National Government) offensive began in late February, but most of the new gunmen arriving were inexperienced, and took heavy casualties during their first encounters with the AU troops. Total casualties, including civilians, are closer to 2,000 dead and wounded. Al Shabaab is suffering heavy losses as it tries to counterattack and retake lost positions.

• 3rd generation thermal sites reaching troops

  Compared to TWS I, the new versions are about a third lighter, and use standard AA batteries.
  ...
  Even during combat, troops have found local Iraqi or Afghan shops selling AAs, and were able to keep their electronic gear going as a result.
  ...
  Thermal sights are particularly popular because they also identify any warm machinery, at long distance, by detecting heat, and they can be used in caves ... as well as in situations like sandstorms and fog.

• NorKs forming special squads to fight corruption, because nobody will give them food knowing that it either gets sold or co-opted.

  In the midst of all the violence bluster from the north, comes more discreet pleas from diplomats for food. The North Koreans quietly imply that renewed food aid could be monitored, to insure that it got to those who needed it, and not diverted to the military, or sold (in North Korea or China), to provide the government with needed cash. Most donors have stopped supplying food to North Korea because of these diversions, while North Korea explains the lack of free food with loud announcements that it would no longer accept such donations, because they were not needed. But malnutrition is widespread this Winter, the coldest in decades. A lack of fuel makes the suffering worse.

  Meanwhile the NorKs are also stockpiling food while people starve so that they can have a big party when ‘lil Kim takes over from daddy.

  It is believed that the government wants lots of food available for when young Kim Jong Un succeeds his sickly father, Kim Jong Il. It is customary for such occasions to be accompanied by distributions of free food, to put people in a good mood about the change of rulers.

Posted by Drew458     on 03/07/2011 at 10:22 AM   
Filed Under: • International • Military •  
• Comments (0) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

Can’t Be Fixed

WELLINGTON, New Zealand – Some 10,000 houses in Christchurch will have to be demolished because of damage from last month’s earthquake and parts of the city will have to be abandoned altogether, the country’s leader said Monday.

The magnitude 6.3 temblor hit within three miles (five kilometers) of Christchurch and close to the surface on Feb. 22. It shattered homes, heritage buildings and office blocks, and caused 166 confirmed deaths. Officials say the toll is expected to rise to more than 200 as rescuers continue to search for bodies trapped in the rubble.

Earthquakes can cause sections of earth to liquefy and push up to the surface as watery silt, a process called liquefaction. In Christchurch, 260,000 tons of silt have already been scraped away.

“There are some parts of Christchurch that can’t be rebuilt on,” Prime Minister John Key told reporters. “The liquefaction damage from the ... earthquake is so great and the land damage ... is so significant we can’t remediate it.”

Key said some 10,000 houses will have to be demolished in the city, including 3,300 that were damaged by an earlier magnitude 7.1 quake on Sept. 4. That quake was deeper and further away than the Feb. 22 event, and did not cause any deaths or as much damage.

As well, several hundred central city commercial buildings will have to be bulldozed, Key said.

“Potentially there are some ... areas of Christchurch which will need to be abandoned and we will have to provide other alternatives for people to live in because the land has been so badly damaged, we can’t fix it — certainly not in a reasonable time frame,” he said.

Soil liquefaction is a geological phenomena that occurs when soil in a very high water table condition is subject to vibration. And it has been raining like mad this winter in the lands down under. The ground vibrations knock apart the cohesiveness of the soil, the water table drains in or gets squeezed up, and the soil almost instantly turns into quicksand. Christchurch had been hit by the Darfield earthquake back in September, and that 7.1 magnitude 40 second event started the process. Then came the rains.  The latest earthquake came on February 22 with a magnitude of 6.3. Because it had nearly the same epicenter as the quake back in September (24 miles apart is a geologic nada), it is considered to actually be an aftershock ( a reprise ) of the earlier quake. Other geologists argue that this one was it’s own earthquake, since it happened along a different fault line that they didn’t even know existed until the quake. I gather there are layers of those under the city. The February 22nd event was a very fast quake, more of a “pop” than a “slide”; described as a “strike-slip event with oblique motion”, some areas of land which moved vertically only 50cm did that moving at more than 2.2g, which was fast enough to throw people right off the ground and up into the air. 

Whether more of the city will have to be abandoned remains to be seen.

Posted by Drew458     on 03/07/2011 at 09:39 AM   
Filed Under: • International •  
• Comments (2) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

   Saturday - March 05, 2011

How America Works?

This is a question I came across on Ricochet.com.

Ricochet, please permit me to introduce you to my dear friend Mert, a new member of Ricochet and a student of constitutional law here in Istanbul. He’s about to embark on the writing of his dissertation. He wants to write about the American presidential system. He’s particularly interested in the idea of checks and balances in the US political system and the limits placed by our Constitution on the president’s power.

There’s an important reason for his interest. In Turkey, the ruling AKP is considering the introduction of a presidential system to replace Turkey’s traditional parliamentary mode of governance.

There were several comments. Here’s the one I posted:

I hate to say it, but our Federal Presidential system was a result of 13 separate States, or Countries, forming a Federation. And previously a Confederation. My guess is that Turkey cannot successfully implement our Presidential system. They are not a union of separate, sovereign, states. There’d be no separation of powers, no multiple chambers in the legislature, no Electoral College, etc.

The result? A dictatorship. An Islamic dictatorship.

Was denken Sie? (I hope I remember my freshman college German)

Posted by Christopher     on 03/05/2011 at 11:12 PM   
Filed Under: • Government • International • Middle-East •  
• Comments (2) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

   Monday - February 21, 2011

On the run: Gaddafi flees Tripoli ! Up to 400 feared dead after dozens killed in overnight clashes

Personally, I hope they hang the bemedaled bastard.  I hope it’s true he’s out of power although who knows who could take his place.
I don’t know if we get this news before you do or not, due to time diff.

On the run: Gaddafi flees Tripoli as protesters set the Libyan parliament building alight and crowds celebrate victory in Benghazi

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
Last updated at 4:35 PM on 21st February 2011

Protesters appear to have taken control of second city Benghazi

Up to 400 feared dead after dozens killed in overnight clashes

Justice minister resigns over ‘excessive use of violence’

Mystery as two Libyan fighter jets land in Malta

David Cameron declares regime response is ‘appalling and unacceptable’

Gaddafi’s son says: ‘We will fight to the last minute, until the last bullet’

UN warns that British Government could be guilty of ‘complicity’ in killings (WTF?) huh? Are they nuts? Question is of course rhetorical.

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi is believed to have fled the capital Tripoli after anti-government demonstrators breached the state television building and set government property alight.

Protesters appear to have gained a foothold in Tripoli as banks and government buildings were looted while demonstrators have claimed they have taken control of the second city Benghazi.

It is thought up to 400 people may have died in the unrest with dozens more reported killed in Tripoli overnight as protests reached the capital for the first time and army units were said to have defected to the opposition.

Scroll down for video report plus tons of late photos.

DAILY MAIL, LATE REPORT, LIBYA

Posted by peiper     on 02/21/2011 at 11:53 AM   
Filed Under: • FREEDOM • International •  
• Comments (2) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

   Sunday - January 30, 2011

Pun For Everyone

Obama has a really tough decision to make about Egypt and the nascent revolutions all across northern Africa. But in Egypt, what makes it the “wurst” is that this really is a “chickens coming home to roost” situation. Because Obama is Carter II. But this time it’s like he’s possessed. And what was Carter I most famous for? Why, golly gosh and y’all, for brokering the Camp David Accords, which developed some kind of peace and mutual recognition between Egypt and Israel, and lead directly to the Eqypt - Israel Peace Treaty shortly thereafter. It was a pretty monumental bit of diplomacy, getting former freedom fighter Menachim Begin to make an agreement with former freedom fighter Anwar El Sadat, when just a few years before their two countries had been at war with each other. For a few memorable days at any rate. I seem to recall that a whole boxful of Nobel Peace Prizes got handed out over that agreement. But all was not roses. When Sadat signed the Accord and the Treaty, Egypt got kicked out of the Arab League. Your average fellah in Egypt was not too happy either; just two years later Sadat was dead, gunned down on live international television by “radical fundamentalists”. ie, the Muslim Brotherhood. And then Hosni Mubarak stepped in and took over as Rais; President for life of Egypt.

How did Carter get these two to the table? How did he make Egypt our nominal ally forevermore? Mad skills I suppose. Or you could consider that Egypt has pretty much nothing in the way of resources. Seriously. What they have is mud, which is what they’ve had since the days of Nemer, who was Pharoah 1. Mud grows food much better than sand, but at best they can do little more than feed themselves. While Israel does have some resources, and I count the ingenuity of her people as a viable resource, they aren’t exactly Finland, which has a nickel mine under every other reindeer. So, how? Well, hmm ... could it be that Israel is the country that receives the largest amount of foreign aid from the USA, and Egypt is the second largest country? When did that start, or when did it really ramp up? Could it be that ol Jimmah just bought them both off? I hear that Egypt gets $1.5 Billion a year from us. So that’s the chicken.

The roosting part is that Mubarak is pretty much a dictator. Stifling dissent, jailing the opposition, gagging the press, those jackboots kicking in doors in the middle of the night. Somewhere there are electrodes making sparks in the darkest nights. I wouldn’t call him Mr. Popular. But he’s been our dictator, always. Bought and paid for, and we’ll just turn a blind eye as long as he keeps the islamaloonies under his thumb, keeps the Suez Canal open, and manages to not shoot any missiles into Israel. But the typical Egyptian in his galabeya and rope sandals does not see us as any kind of buddy. Not much of the 1.5 Bil seems to filter down to his level.

Weevil #1: If Obama throws his hat in the ring and comes out swinging for old Hosni, then the USA is once again a total hypocrite. The land of freedom supporting a harsh dictator? Not cool. What’s next, hiring their government torturers to restaff Abu Graib and bring it back to it’s “glory days”? Huge win for radical pisslam.

Weevil #2: If Obama turns his back on Mubarak, he’s abandoning a key ally due to his rough treatment of his own citizens. Which is EXACTLY the same reason why Carter twisted the jambiya in the Shah of Iran’s back, and will have exactly the same consequnce: the only real opposition in Egypt is the Muslim Brotherhood. Oh sure, they’re not an Official Terrorist Group. Shades of difference. Can you say “intifada” boys and girls? How about “hamas”? I knew that you could. At the very best, the Muslim Brotherhood are enablers of violent fundamentalists. Jihad Joe with Kung Fu grip and his turbo camel of doom. Suicide belt sold separately. Sure, Obama could try and bend the world press to making it look like he was backing freedom, but that backing would give the people the freedom to become another rabid national mullah run mob like Iran. Bad scene. It’s taken 30 years for the regular folks in Iran to figure out that we aren’t the Great Satan after all; we’re not the real enemy, their own government is. And that crazy squad is nowhere even close to stepping down from power. They’re too busy stoning women and hanging homosexuals and making laws about men getting whipped for having too tidy a beard. Huge win for radical pisslam.

Yes, I could do a Princess Bride segue here, because the whole situation reminds me of Vizzini’s battle of wits with the Man In Black to figure out which wine goblet has the iocaine powder in it. And the truth is the same: they both do. There is no win in this for us.

Instead, I’ll take the obvious path: As you can see in the above images, both weevils are the same size, so Obama can’t even choose the lesser of two weevils. And to push that metaphor further along, it really bolls me over that Obama is probably going to do what he’s best at, which is to Vote Present and let the chips fall where they may. And that really galls me.

Alas, the upside will be that, no matter which way he does turn, the media will be 1000.37% sympathetic and supportive. Had Bush been in this no-win position, the press would be building crosses and heating the branding irons white hot even before he made a single statement.

Stay tuned.

Posted by Drew458     on 01/30/2011 at 09:55 PM   
Filed Under: • International • Middle-East • Obama, The One • Politics •  
• Comments (5) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

   Monday - January 17, 2011

Unrest Continues In Tunisia

Tunisia, Northern Africa: Hundreds of people rallied in central Tunis on Monday to demand the abolition of ousted president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali’s ruling RDC party as police fired volleys of tear gas to break up the protest.

“We don’t want anyone from the old party in the new government. That includes the prime minister,” one protester told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Prime Minister Mohammed Ghannouchi was a close ally of Ben Ali and held talks with opposition parties on Sunday to form a national unity government that is due to be unveiled on Monday.

The opposition said members of the previous government are set to stay on.

Any public gatherings are banned under a state of emergency declared by Ben Ali on Friday just before he resigned and fled to Saudi Arabia.

Riot police fired tear gas and water cannons in an attempt to disperse the rally and prevent protesters from marching on the headquarters of the RDC, the Constitutional Democratic Rally.

“With our blood and our soul we are ready to sacrifice ourselves for the martyrs,” they chanted, referring to the dozens reported killed in a wave of protests that led to Ben Ali’s downfall after 23 years in power.

There was another rally in Sidi Bouzid, a city in central Tunisia that was at the heart of the protests that erupted against Ben Ali’s regime mid-December. Demonstrators there chanted: “Bread and water and no RDC!”

A rally was also held in Regueb, a town near Sidi Bouzid.

Tunisia’s ‘Jasmine Revolution’ is still under way, with fighting in the capital today. The enraged Tunisians who took to the streets in December in revulsion at their corrupt, autocratic regime achieved their primary goal: The removal from power of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. But what sort of new order will emerge in the North African country, or whether it will be much different from the old one, has not yet been determined.

For a look at the power players there, click here.

Go on, take the money and run: Meanwhile, Mrs. Dictator seems to have skedaddled with the loot, big time!

Ben Ali’s wife picked up 1.5 tons of gold before fleeing

The wife of ousted Tunisian president Zine el- Abidine ben Ali collected 1.5 tons of gold from the central bank before fleeing the country, the French newspaper Le Monde reported Monday.

Leila Trabelsi visited the bank in Tunis and is thought to have taken the gold bars worth some 60 million dollars along when departing onboard a plane bound for Dubai, according to the report. The head of the bank had reportedly not wanted to hand over the gold at first, but after the 53-year-old contacted her husband telephonically, she was given the gold bars.

The 74-year-old longtime president had initially also resisted instructing the bank to do so, Le Monde said. Ben Ali’s second wife and her relatives have a reputation for being money and power hungry. The Trabelsi clan is regarded as corrupt and widely believed to be involved in racketeering.

After Ben Ali’s was ousted Friday, angry Tunisians looted the couple’s villa in a posh suburb of the capital Tunis. Imed Trabelsi, a businessman and nephew of the president’s wife who for many was a symbol of corruption, was stabbed to death.

Given today’s gold price of roughly $1360/Toz, and 1.5 Troy tons of gold being 3675 Troys pounds, each made up of 12 Troy ounces ... that’s $59,976,000 in bullion; nearly 59 cubic feet of gold; a block 46.6” inches on a side, nearly 2.2 cubic yards worth that weighs 1371.663 kilograms, about as much mass as a small car. That’s a lot of gold!

It’s always fun playing with Troy and Avoirdupois weights, just to remind myself that a pound of feathers weighs 1240 grains more than a pound of gold. But until today I did not know the common factor of these two measurement systems: one is wheat, the other is water. One cubic foot of pure cold water weighs 62.5 avoirdupois pounds; one cubic foot of wheat weighs 62.5 troy pounds. Which means that 1000 avoirdupois ounces weighs the same as 750 Troy ounces. So there ya go. The French came up with this in the year 732, so they didn’t really factor in the varying moisture level that wheat can have. Half an eon later the English adopted it, so now we’re stuck with it. Don’t go looking at how 8 gallons - 64lb - of sea water can be both a cubic foot and a bushel, since a bushel is about 1.24 cubic feet. But hey, back in 732 a bushel was a round basket a cubit across by a handslength deep. Which is irrational, and thus perfectly fwench.

So here’s Stephanie Abrams from the Weather Channel, looking good in pics and being inadvertently naughty in a short video clip. Hope you were watching this morning; she had that tight red cashmere sweater on again. Yum!

Posted by Drew458     on 01/17/2011 at 09:51 AM   
Filed Under: • Africa • International • News-Briefs •  
• Comments (2) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

   Friday - January 14, 2011

crickey!

Pity the poor land down under. Australia and Tasmania have been inundated by heavy rains for weeks now. Flooding across huge parts of the nation, especially in Queensland. And the rains aren’t over yet.

In several places the flood waters have been 25 - 30 feet deep. It’s going to cost them billions to clean up when this is all over. Still, no worries. The Aussies will pitch in and get the job done. No whinging.

But here’s a wild little bit of flood news that sounds like one of their famous tall tales ...

Two bull sharks have been spotted swimming past the McDonald’s restaurant in Goodna. Goodna butcher Steve Bateman saw one of the sharks swimming through the flooded waters of Williams Street near his bucher’s shop in the St Ives shopping centre yesterday. There were several reports of another shark spotted in Queen Street, the main street through Goodna.

Bull sharks have been spotted in the Goodna sections of the Bremer BRISBANE River previously, with fishermen regularly catching them from the Goodna boat ramp.

Ipswich councillor for the Goodna region Paul Tully said while it may sound almost too bizarre to be real, the shark sighting was valid.

“It would have swam several kilometres in from the river, across Evan Marginson Park and the motorway,” Cr Tully said.

“It’s definitely a first for Goodna, to have a shark in the main street.

Goodna was awash with water eight metres deep during the past 48 hours. The water receded dramatically overnight.

Goodna is about 20 miles southwest of Brisbane, though about 40 miles up the meandering river from that city. Brisbane is on the east coast of Australia, right above the middle of the eastward bulge of the continent.

BRISBANE, Australia, Jan 13 (Reuters) - Floods left parts of Australia’s third-biggest city on Thursday looking like a war zone in need of years of reconstruction, the state premier said, while fresh threats loomed with a cyclone forecast offshore.

The floods across the state of Queensland have killed at least 19 people, 12 of whom died in the Toowoomba area inland, and 61 were missing, the state government said.

Toowoomba and the Lockyer Valley region, west of state capital Brisbane, were devastated by tsunami-like flash flooding on Monday.

Large parts of Brisbane have become muddy lakes, with an entire waterfront cafe among the debris washing down the Brisbane River, a torrent that has flooded 12,000 homes in the city of 2 million and left 118,000 buildings without power.

Aerial views of Brisbane showed a sea of brown water with rooftops poking through the surface.

“What I’m seeing looks more like a war zone in some places,” Queensland Premier Anna Bligh told reporters after surveying the disaster from the air. “All I could see was their rooftops ... underneath every single one of those rooftops is a horror story.”

Floodwaters in 35 suburbs, which on Thursday peaked below disastrous levels predicted a day earlier, forced residents to take to boats to move about the streets, where traffic signs peeped above the water.

Rescue teams and victims of the flooding have already had to deal with crocodiles and snakes, with Australia’s northeast [Queensland]-- which has been battered by weeks of flooding—home to some of the world’s most dangerous species.

A series of recent ultra-high resolution photographs, in scalable map format, are available here.

And, just because, here’s a picture of Charisma Carpenter from a few years ago. And one of Karina Lombard, who still brings that exotic ferocity, even though she’s positively “ancient” (41) by Hollywood standards. I think she’s just getting warmed up.

Posted by Drew458     on 01/14/2011 at 11:58 PM   
Filed Under: • Climate-Weather • Eye-Candy • International •  
• Comments (0) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

   Wednesday - January 05, 2011

Catch a fish, buy a house

Wow, I think I need to get a bigger fishing rod!

Tokyo - A huge bluefin tuna fetched the highest price ever at 32.5 million yen (396,000 dollars) at the year’s first auction at Tokyo’s Tsukiji fish market, amid mounting criticism of Japan’s overfishing of the threatened species.

The tuna weighed 342 kilograms, more than twice as much as the average Japanese sumo wrestler. It was caught off Hokkaido, Japan’s northern island.

The fish valued at 95,000 yen per kilogram will be sold to upscale sushi restaurants in Tokyo and Hong Kong through a wholesaler, news reports said.

Maguro (mah-goo-roh) is the Japanese term for bluefin tuna, perhaps the best known and most commonly eaten fish in all of sushi dining. Used in many rolls, but often seen by itself, what is now the old stand-by was not always the most popular item on the menu. While currently suffering from incredible demand, tuna was, until the 1970’s, a sport fish commonly known as “horse mackerel” and sold to companies for cat food or thrown away. Now, its fatty belly meat, known as ‘toro’ is one of the more expensive items on the menu, prized for its taste, texture, and scarcity. Tuna has come a long way from being a fish the samurai considered unclean and would not eat, to one of the most popular fish in Japan, and the world around.

Tuna served in restaurants is generally one of two different species, the bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus), traditionally known as ‘maguro,’ which is usually fairly lean, and the yellowfin tuna (Thunnus albacares), known as ‘ahi’ (ah-hee), which is a fattier species. Yellowfin tuna may also be labeled ‘maguro’ but more often than not, if you see maguro it will be bluefin tuna. Tuna sushi is further broken up into subtypes, based on the fat content.

For more about sushi, see here, which might confuse you a bit: do I ride my Suzuki, or eat it?

Posted by Drew458     on 01/05/2011 at 01:57 PM   
Filed Under: • Economics • Fine-Dining • International •  
• Comments (3) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

   Tuesday - December 21, 2010

It Must Suck So Much

To be Vlad Putin


While nobody can really be sure if he’s still married to the Mrs at this point, it’s rock solid truth that the most macho leader in Europe has this little cookie on the side.






Must be true love. Or fanatic lust. Not only is Alina Kabaeva half his age, the beauty queen/fashion model is a rhythmic gymnast. An Olympic level rhythmic gymnast. Horry clap. Talk about your flexible relationship!





Yeah. Hell yeah. So when he’s not too busy fishing bare chested in icy streams, taking down opponents with his mad judo skillz, flying jets, or hunting whales from a rubber boat with a crossbow ...



I’m thinking Trey Parker should rewrite that South Park song What would Brian Boitano do? Those boys could have a real hero this time.



Nyet!



Da!

Posted by Drew458     on 12/21/2010 at 10:44 AM   
Filed Under: • Eye-Candy • International •  
• Comments (4) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

   Monday - December 13, 2010

cancun … where the elite meet ta eat and frolic while others pick up the tab.

DOWN, with global warming.

UP, with Climate Change.  All hail and long live the newer version of the old religion.  Tax donate till it hurts in order to help the poorer countries.

Hey, why not just let those poor countries tax the west and forget donations etc.  Hell, they’ve been taxing us for generations anyway.

Newspapers and charities insist on showing us pictures of baleful stares and pitiful poses (and mostly they are posed), of starving turd worlders. Like Somalia for one example. Haiti is another.  Oh yeah. Before I forget. 

What the sam hill is our lady Sarah doing in Haiti?  She is getting some bad input from advisors I think.  Come on, is anyone gonna believe it was her idea? Even if it were, it’s going to be seen as more political (which you know it has to be) then any warm feelings for a failed country that has been an open money pit for the west for generations.  Nothing is going to change in that blighted place for the next thousand years.  Those folks just are not up to it. Alright, maybe they’ll start to make progress in 500 years. Sarah Palin in Haiti my friends just does not appear natural.  Couldn’t her advisors find something a bit closer to home to focus on? 

Back to climate change and the horrid things man and woman kind are doing to our planet.  Leaving huge carbon footprints. One of the newest of the new deadly sins in this religion. So like 15,000 (or was it 1,500?) fat cats from around the globe, all gathered in comfy rooms at four or five star hotels in Cancun, with miles of rented limos and how many planes?  All to discuss the subject bequeathed by the prophet Gore, may he find a good piece to curl up with. 

So it now comes to this.  It’s suggested that another tax be levied on the Brit taxpayer in gween taxes, to help the poor blighted countries of the world.
As though this country hasn’t paid, and been paying for years and years and years and years and years ......  When is this BS gonna end? When exactly are people going to wake the hell up and say damn it. Enough!  Groan.

Here. Take a look.

Cancun climate change conference: Britain is urged to impose £15 billion in green taxes

British taxpayers could pay an extra £600 per year in green taxes to help poor countries cope with the floods and droughts caused by climate change, Lord Stern has suggested.

By Louise Gray, Environment Correspondent Cancun

The economist said the UK would have to contribute around £1.5 billion from 2020 to a new ‘green fund’, that is expected to be set up during global talks on climate change in Cancun this week.

The Treasury is unlikely to set up new mechanisms to raise such a small amount of cash.

Therefore it is better to raise ten times as much and use just ten per cent for the green fund. The rest can be used as the Government sees fit.

An extra £15 billion could be raised in taxes on polluting industry and power from coal, gas and petrol. Although the levies will be directly on factories or power stations, eventually it will come down to the consumers.

If every householder was to pay the same amount it would cost £600, although ultimately it is likely to be unevenly distributed as households with more cars or high energy use will pay more.

“People would see these tax rises through electricity, through cars,” said Lord Stern.

However he was keen to point out that the overall bill for households would not necessarily increase as taxes should reduce elsewhere. Also energy costs should come down as a result of improved efficiency and more renewables.

“This is a story of people paying for the damage they do, this is stopping subsidising pollution,” he said.

“This is a story of shifting the basis of taxation, it could be from VAT, it could be income tax, or they could fund schools. This is a change in the balance of taxation.”

The UK is already paying billions of pounds installing wind turbines and other green energy sources, as part of global efforts to cut carbon emissions.

more here

The hard copy version says the taxpayer SHOULD pay ... the on line version says COULD pay.

Why not just forget about it altogether?  Cos then all those fat cats would have no where to fly every year at someone else’s expense. They’d most likely have to stay home. Maybe even with their wives and or husbands.

Posted by peiper     on 12/13/2010 at 02:49 PM   
Filed Under: • Climate-Weather • Environment • International •  
• Comments (2) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

   Monday - December 06, 2010

watch this - watch this and share it.

H/T AMERICAN THINKER
and special H/T to TheRealNCal
who posted this extraordinary link. 

There are subtitles of course but listen to it as well because you get a true feeling of how very sick and damn tired some are of islam and multiculture.
More importantly ... I can’t think of one single politician in the USA or the UK, who would open up and say what voters are thinking and saying, and doing it with such honest passion. 

You’ll want to share this.

Posted by peiper     on 12/06/2010 at 03:24 PM   
Filed Under: • International • muslims •  
• Comments (3) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

   Thursday - December 02, 2010

Is the U.S. set to be dragged into Europe’s financial troubles? Euro soars on rumor.

We no longer live in a world where we can isolate ourselves and pretend we aren’t affected by outside influences.  I wish that were not so.  I wish we could actually build a wall around ourselves and tell the rest of the world to buzz off. Being me of course I’d use cruder terminology. And I very definitely do not want to be the world’s policeman.  I do not care how China treats its people in its own back yard. I don’t care what Putin and Russia do so long as it doesn’t cause problems for the USA.  If I get PO’d when outsiders stick their nose in our internal affairs, I can hardly be surprised when others get a nose out of joint when we do the same.  But okay .. the world is connected as it has never been before.  We have enemies the likes of which we have not known in the past. At least not to the degree we now face.  So we are indeed connected, like it or not.

Which leads me to .....

Don’t be coy and don’t misrepresent this story. The US has already contributed to the fund and even more than that, it stopped the slide of the Euro during the Greek crisis through Currency Swaps. The ECB needed US Dollars to buy up the bonds the PIIGS were issuing, that the capital markets were rejecting. Without the Swaps the Euro would have fallen to who knows where, leading to much higher costs for Europeans to bail out the PIIGS. The reason the US Fed did this was to protect the Trillion dollar investments US banks have in the PIIGS alone. When Trichet spoke of the possibility of buying bonds from the PIIGS today he was signaling a further round of Currency Swaps between the ECB, the BoE and other foreign Central Banks. If all you great Brits are ignorant of what Currency Swaps are, look it up on Wikipedia, they explain it simply enough for you to understand.

- Jeff, Boulder, CO USA, 02/12/2010 00:53

We can’t save ourselves. We are headed the same way. If we aren’t working we aren’t paying taxes, and if we aren’t paying taxes our government has to print money that isn’t worth what people expect of it--so if we write Europe a hot check for aid, what will come of it for all of us?

- Sheri, OKC, Oklahoma, USA, 02/12/2010 02:52

The title of this story is very misleading - it should be the opposite way around. Europe was dragged into the US’s financial troubles when our greedy bankers invested in the US sub-prime mortgage market. The sub-prime mortgage fiasco was essentially that US financial institutions were pressured into lending mortgages to people with low credit ratings. Many then went on to default and the rest is history. Those who set this in motion were of course on the Democrat-Left and included the ‘Clintonistas’ and the soon to be President Mr Obama himself.
All part of the ongoing destruction of the West by the Liberal-Left. By the way the US National Debt is nearly $14 Trillion - and they’re going to bail us out via the IMF? Don’t make me laugh.

- A Richards, London, England, 02/12/2010 01:37

So just what are these people commenting on?  Well, the morning news here at 7am UK time.  See what you think of all this. And is the USA going in deeper? 

Is the U.S. set to be dragged into Europe’s financial troubles? Euro soars amid claims America will support IMF bailout

By Daily Mail Reporter

Last updated at 4:05 AM on 2nd December 2010

The euro soared today after a report that the U.S. would support a larger aid package for Europe through the International Monetary Fund.
In midday trading in New York, the euro traded at $1.3140 from $1.3011 late Tuesday. It popped by more than one cent immediately after the report came out.
Reuters reported at midday that an unnamed U.S. official said the U.S. would be willing to have the International Monetary Fund give more money to the European Financial Stability Facility.

The U.S. is the IMF’s biggest stakeholder.
The EFSF is a 440billion euro fund the Europeans put together as part of a broader 750billion euro rescue package in May during the Greek debt crisis.
The IMF has already pledged up to 250billion euro.  The Obama administration would not comment on the report.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner did dispatch Treasury Undersecretary Lael Brainerd, Treasury’s top official on international matters, for talks with European officials. Mr Brainerd had meetings in Madrid with economic officials on Wednesday and was scheduled to be in Berlin on Thursday and Paris on Friday.

The U.S. ‘can’t afford to let Europe implode,’ said David Gilmore of Foreign Exchange Analytics.
But the statement might not mean that the U.S. has already agreed to a deal allowing the IMF to contribute more money or ponying up more money for Europe itself.

One possibility is that the Americans are ‘flying a kite to the Europeans to push them in the direction of increasing the stability fund,’ Mr Gilmore said.
The euro has fallen 10 per cent since early November as Ireland, after Greece, accepted billions in emergency financing. Investors now worry Portugal may be next, or even Spain.

Spain, due to the size of its economy, would be a much greater financial burden that the other countries should it require a bailout.
A spokesman for the EU’s monetary affairs chief Olli Rehn said he had not heard of talks about extending the EFSF fund.

SOURCE

Posted by peiper     on 12/02/2010 at 02:15 AM   
Filed Under: • Economics • International • USA •  
• Comments (0) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

   Tuesday - November 30, 2010

brits worry about muslim reaction to wikileaks reports

No surprise this thing is spreading like the plague.  Here’s how some of it is being reported here. Interesting reading that the self important buffoon Nelson Mandela thought his opinions and insight were required or appreciated. His claim to fame was what?  Just another Bush/America basher.

Britain fears Islamic fury over WikiLeaks: Report

LONDON: The British government has warned that its citizens in Pakistan, Iraq, Iran and other parts of the Muslim world could be targeted in a violent backlash over “anti-Islamic” views expressed in diplomatic documents being leaked this week, media reports said on Sunday.

The whistle-blower website WikiLeaks is to release almost 3 million documents on the internet, including thousands of sensitive diplomatic cables sent to Washington from the American embassy in London, The Sunday Times reported.

It said the British government has warned that its citizens in Pakistan, Iraq, Iran and other parts of the Muslim world could be targeted in a violent backlash over “anti-Islamic” views expressed in diplomatic documents.

Some disclosures may put pressure on Britain’s “special relationship” with the US by revealing the private views of diplomats on former premier Gordon Brown, the present Prime Minister David Cameron and his deputy Nick Clegg.

Brown’s rocky relationship with US President Barack Obama that included a visit to New York in September 2009 during which the White House was accused of “snubbing” the former prime minister, is almost certain to be mentioned as is Britain’s troop withdrawal from Iraq, The Sunday Telegraph said.

But officials said the real damage could be done by the disclosure of cables in which American diplomats refer to candid British views of key figures in the Muslim world.

According to The Mail today, 92-year-old Nelson Mandela, former President of South Africa is among world leaders believed to have been criticised in a leak of US diplomatic files.

Other world leaders who have clashed with the US, including Afghanistan’s Hamid Karzai, Libya’s Colonel Gaddafi and Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe, also come off badly in the no-holds barred private cables to the White House from scores of US embassies.

About 800 messages are from the US Embassy in London and some reportedly feature negative and hostile comments about Brown and the Labour Government.

These are thought to relate to the Anglo-US dispute after Britain freed Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali Mohamed al Megrahi from a Scottish jail to a hero’s welcome in Libya last year.

The cables are believed to include withering US assessments of Brown’s personality and prospects of staying in power. Cameron also does not escape from criticism.

Mandela, who stepped down as President in 1999, condemned George Bush over the Iraq War, suggesting the US President had ignored the United Nations’ calls for restraint because the then UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan was black. He also called Tony Blair the “foreign minister of the United States “ for supporting Bush over Iraq.

FROM THE ECONOMIC TIMES

Oh right. The race card. How typical.

That’s not all re. Mandela.  Apparently he was quite upset with his advisors when they managed to talk him out of calling Mrs. Thatcher to give her a piece of his mind. Or what passes for a mind anyway. Imagine the nerve of the guy.  Even thinking he was on the same level as the Iron Lady. As tho he were an equal.
See?  That’s what you can expect when you allow some people to learn to read and write.  Here’s a man who insisted President Bush be tried for war crimes when Mandela himself spent time in prison for terrorism. What a bad joke he is.

Posted by peiper     on 11/30/2010 at 09:17 AM   
Filed Under: • International •  
• Comments (1) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

   Tuesday - November 23, 2010

South Korea May Seek Deployment Of US Tactical Nuclear Weapons .

They gotta be kidding. Don’t ya think?

I don’t see that happening although, not too sure I’d bet the house on it. This is after all, a topsy-turvy world.

South Korea’s defense minister says his country may consider having U.S. tactical nuclear weapons deployed on its soil for the first time in 19 years.
Defense Minister Kim Tae-young raised the possibility Monday during talks with a parliamentary committee about North Korea’s latest nuclear escalation.  He said the issue could be raised when a joint U.S.-South Korean military committee meets next month to discuss North Korea’s nuclear programs.

The United States removed its last tactical nuclear weapons from South Korea in December of 1991.  A Defense Ministry spokesman told VOA that until now, the country had not considered having them reintroduced.

The Associated Press quoted a ministry spokesman saying the effect of the weapons would be mainly psychological since South Korea is already protected by the American nuclear umbrella.

The Seoul government was prompted to consider the step by reports that North Korea has a sophisticated uranium enrichment program and claims to have 2,000 working centrifuges.  A U.S. scientist who visited the facility said it appears to be designed to produce fuel for electricity-making reactors but could be adapted to make fuel for nuclear weapons.

sourse, VOA

Posted by peiper     on 11/23/2010 at 12:41 PM   
Filed Under: • International • North-Korea •  
• Comments (1) • 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