Sunday - April 06, 2008

Arrgh, The French!!

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP)—France has made contact with pirates who hijacked a French luxury yacht off Africa’s eastern coast with 30 crew members on board, the French foreign minister said Sunday.
...
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner told France-Inter radio that France was in contact with the pirates.
...
“We have established contact, and the case may take a long time,” he said, without providing more details. Asked whether France would consider paying a ransom, he responded, “We’ll see.”
...
”We have to do everything to avoid bloodshed,” Kouchner said.
...
Abdirahman Mohamed Bangah, information minister for the semiautonomous northern region of Puntland, said he hoped international forces will “rescue this ship” at Eyl, confirming its location.
France’s prime minister said Saturday that he hoped to avoid force in freeing the crew but that no options had been ruled out. There are 22 French citizens, including six women, on board, as well as Ukrainian citizens, authorities said.
...
A French diplomat working on the case said the hostages were being treated well, and that they have been provided food and given the opportunity to wash. The diplomat spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to media.

So fwance will take the nuanced way out, and negotiate and negotiate and negotiate, eventually paying a much smaller ransnom than what was asked for. And the pirates will likely go free. Meanwhile the ship’s crew can bloody well rot.

Even the fly crusted locals expect a stronger reaction from fwance:

Abdirahman Mohamed Bangah, information minister for the semiautonomous northern region of Puntland, said he hoped international forces will “rescue this ship” at Eyl, confirming its location.

Eyl, Somalia is about 3 miles up the river from the coast. It is the smallest of towns, perhaps 3/4 of a mile by 1/2, and seems to have perhaps a hundred simple trailer-like homes, each with a fenced in yard. Google Earth it up:

Posted by Drew458     on 04/06/2008 at 08:33 PM   
Filed Under: • Crime • International •  
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   Friday - April 04, 2008

Arrgh, Pirates!!

PARIS - Pirates seized control of a French luxury yacht carrying 30 crew members Friday off the coast of Somalia, the French government and the ship’s owner said.  Attackers stormed the 288-foot “Le Ponant” as it returned without passengers from the Seychelles, in the Indian Ocean, toward the Mediterranean Sea, said officials with French maritime transport company CMA-CGM.  The corporate officials said they were in close contact with the French Foreign Ministry, which said in a statement that the boat and its crew had been attacked by pirates.  The ship was in the high seas in the Gulf of Aden, off the coast of Somalia in the Indian Ocean, the ministry said. At least some of the crew members are French, it said.  According to the company’s Web site, the three-mast boat features four decks, two restaurants, and indoor and outdoor luxury lounges. It can hold up to 64 passengers.

Pirates seized more than two dozen ships off the Somali coast last year.

The U.S. Navy has led international patrols to try to combat piracy in the region. Last year, the guided missile destroyer USS Porter opened fire to destroy pirate skiffs tied to a Japanese tanker.  Wracked by more than a decade of violence and anarchy, Somalia does not have its own navy, and a transitional government formed in 2004 with U.N. help has struggled to assert control.  The International Maritime Bureau, which tracks piracy, said in its annual report earlier this year that global pirate attacks rose 10 percent in 2007, marking the first increase in three years.

I expect the US and French Navies to effect rescue ASAP. Probably by sometime tomorrow at the latest. Unfortunately, modern ships don’t come with yardarms to hang the bastards from, though I hope the sailors can improvise something. Don’t even take the scum back to land. Sometimes the old ways are the best, and piracy is one of the original capital offenses.

Posted by Drew458     on 04/04/2008 at 01:41 PM   
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   Wednesday - April 02, 2008

Congress to Bush: $30 Billion? Ha! Make it $50 Billion

Proving that money really does grow on trees, and that largesse grows best during an election season, Congress has renewed Bush’s 2003 PEPFAR (President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) plan, this time agreeing to spend $50 billion in 5 years instead of the measly $15 billion in 5 years the first iteration of the plan had. This time around the plan will also allocate funds to fight malaria and tuberculosis. The Senate version of the bill is ready to vote on. President Bush had only requested $30 Billion.

Most of the money is expected to be spent in Africa.

The House of Representatives yesterday passed a five-year reauthorization of the Bush administration’s global AIDS program, adding $20 billion to the $30 billion the president requested.

Although it contained controversial features, including a heavy emphasis on abstinence-oriented prevention strategies, the global AIDS program has been popular with lawmakers in both parties and has been praised around the world.
...
Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (Fla.), the ranking Republican on the committee, said on the House floor that the bill “strengthens our national security” because AIDS is “destabilizing governments and societies” in entire regions around the world.

About $9 billion would go to fight tuberculosis and malaria, which are huge burdens in many countries where the AIDS epidemic is severe. Money would be used to buy food for AIDS patients and their families, provide clean water to communities, train health-care workers and provide “micro-credit” loans to women widowed by the disease or ostracized because they are infected.

If this mountain of money is spent wisely, I expect these diseases to be wiped out. After all, when you gold plate all the mosquitos on the continent they can’t fly around and bite people. Now, what you’d have to gold plate to stop AIDS is another story in itself.

Posted by Drew458     on 04/02/2008 at 09:29 PM   
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Meanwhile, In India

Hey college kids, need a summer job? The Times of India has a great idea - go to America and earn up to Rs 3L! Sure, it’s doubtful that you’ll be doing anything really career oriented, but you can come over here and earn $8-$12 an hour bussing tables or driving a cash register. And you’ll go home with nearly Rs 2L, because The Times breaks down the expenses for you. Rs 3L means 3 Lakh Rupees. Lakh is a term that means 100,000. Right now 300,000 rupees is a bit over $7500, and that’s a decent amount of money in India.

The Times also points out that this isn’t a crazy scheme, but a program run by the US Government. I guess we don’t have enough kids of our own who want summer jobs, so we have to troll for them offshore. Hey, as long as you can speak English, Uncle Sugar will help you get a job. Amazingly, the program is dragging so badly that our government had to hire promoters to put the word out in India.

NEW DELHI: If you are a college student, here is something that could make your summer vacation memorable. There is a US government programme under which you can travel to USA and fund your trip by working there.

The work & travel’ programme is a US government initiative under which regular college students across the world can visit the country on temporary jobs during summer vacations—that is, from May to August. The scheme aims to enable students to “understand and experience American culture and life”.

Now, the US department of state’s Council on International Educational Exchange (CIEE) has hired two agencies in India—Kareer Krafters and Taurus International—as partners to administer the J1 visa programme meant for this purpose.

Any graduate or PG student can apply under the scheme. The applicant will be screened by the designated companies for suitability to visit the US alone. Vipul Mehta, MD of Kareer Krafter, said one of the prerequisites is a working knowledge of English.

Mehta said there is huge demand for students for doing summer jobs under the programme. “There are enough opportunities to absorb 40,000-50,000 students,” he said. However, as the scheme is virtually unknown in the country, only around 500 students were sent from India in 2007. So far, almost everyone who has applied got the visa, he added.

Students are normally offered unskilled jobs in retail outlets, tourist camps, entertainment park and restaurants, said Col Kulvinder Singh, MD of Taurus International. Students are paid $8 to 12 per hour. Wages for semi-skilled students from vocational courses like hotel management are higher.

So I guess your kid should have no problem finding employment this summer.

Posted by Drew458     on 04/02/2008 at 08:47 PM   
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   Tuesday - April 01, 2008

Border Troubles

Drug hitmen tortured and killed four men, wrapping their heads in black garbage bags, as thousands of soldiers and federal police arrived to bolster security in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez.
The bodies were badly burned, handcuffed and half-naked, shot between Sunday night and Monday morning and dumped on the street in different parts of the city, said the attorney general’s office for northern Chihuahua state.

The murders came as heavily armed soldiers and police set up roadblocks and raided houses over the weekend in the rundown city across the US border from El Paso, Texas, the start of a 2500-troop deployment aimed at crushing drug gangs.

Ciudad Juarez, which has drawn worldwide attention because of a rash of brutal murders of women, has had 200 people killed in drug-related violence this year - 10 times as many as a year ago.

City Hall said soldiers also arrested six local police officers in possession of large quantities of marijuana and blamed police corruption for drug cartels’ hold on Ciudad Juarez, a major narcotics smuggling point into the US.

“People have lost confidence in the police because they know the local forces have been infiltrated and act outside the law,” said Mayor Jose Reyes Ferriz.

Already about 25,000 soldiers and federal police have deployed in hotspots across Mexico, especially along the US border.

The overall death toll associated with drug gangs in Mexico has rise to more than 720 this year, well above the count this time last year.

Mexico’s drug wars killed more than 2500 people in 2007.

What’s wrong with the USA? This is front page news - in Tasmania!!! But we only hear about this once in a great while. Fox ran a little report this morning, and I think they had another piece a month or two ago.

There is a war going on just south of the border, sometimes north of the border too. Mexico has called out it’s army to fight the drug gangs, and it’s a real war. Automatic weapons, grenades, rocket launchers, machine guns. Actual battles. Ok, large skirmishes. But it’s been going on for months. I’d think this would be in the news nearly every day.

I’d dream that the US was deploying thousands of troops to our side of the line, vigorously prosecuting any incursions, stopping the banditos in their tracks. Sort of pre-desert training. All while building a stronger, better fence as fast as possible, with a workforce of 50,000 or so unemployed people on workfare. Hell, I need a job, and if Uncle wants to pay me $20/hr to run a shovel for a couple months, I’d go. Yeah, I know no fence is going to stop it all. But a good one will stop some, and stopping some beats stopping none by a long shot.

Posted by Drew458     on 04/01/2008 at 11:24 AM   
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   Friday - March 28, 2008

Time magazine features Britain’s violent youth

Must ask Drew how he got the wrap thing on his posts. ???
Anyway .... caught this in todays paper.  I’ve been posting on this subject and related for awhile, much surprised Time magazine has it covered like this.  The problem here ppl can not be overstated.  It is very,very serious.  However, I’d no idea that it was enuff so to catch the eye of a major American magazine.

Gonna have to get a hard copy to see what and how it’s covered.  The one thing I have a problem with is the “Unloved” aspect.  So what’s ta love?
And frankly I think it overlooks the fact that, as some of you here have stated, there just simply are those who are evil. And many do not come from broken
or damaged homes. Many are not “abused children.” They enjoy the beating and the killing.

By Richard Edwards, Crime Correspondent
Last Updated: 2:56am GMT 28/03/2008
The front cover of its international edition

pictures a “hoodie” and mugshots of other young men over a Union flag.

Its headline reads: “Unhappy, Unloved, and Out of Control - An epidemic of violence, crime and drunkenness has made Britain scared of its young.”

The weekly magazine, which goes on newsstands today across Europe, Africa and the Middle East, cites a survey by the children’s charity TS Rebel which found last year that more than a fifth of Britons avoided going out at night rather than risk encounters with groups of intimidating youths.

A 3,200-word article, spread over several pages, comments: “It’s easy to see why. The boys and girls who casually pick fights, have sex and keep the emergency services fully occupied are often fuelled by cheap booze.”

It reports that British youngsters drink far more than their European counterparts, are more frequently involved in violence, are more likely to try drugs and that English girls are the most sexually active in Europe.

“Small wonder, then, that a 2007 Unicef study of child well-being in 21 industrialized countries placed Britain firmly at the bottom of the table,” the article states.

The magazine, which has a circulation of four million, will also feature the article in its US editions, providing further embarrassment to the Government.
for more:
http://tinyurl.com/2l82yt

heehee, sneaky Drew
But I’ve taught him, so from now on we can expect really cool layouts from Peiper. If he ever gets over the p-na-monia or tuberculosis or whatever horrible chest ailment he’s got that’s keeping him in hospital. C’mon Peiper, heal. Heal!!

Posted by Drew458     on 03/28/2008 at 04:42 AM   
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   Thursday - March 06, 2008

No, George, No! Bad Monkey!!

File this one under “WTF is going on?”.

(IsraelNN.com) US President George W. Bush announced Tuesday that he would override a congressional ban and transfer $150 million to the Palestinian Authority.

The United States has committed more than $500 million in aid money to the PA for 2008, but concerns about terrorism and corruption have caused Congress to ban direct money transfers to the Authority. Bush spokesmen said it is “crucial” to shore up PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and to prevent the financial collapse of the PA.

President Bush has proposed a sixfold increase in aid to the Palestinians, including $150 million in direct cash transfers to the Palestinian Authority, in an effort to bolster the government in advance of a Middle East peace conference planned for later this month in Annapolis.

The $435 million in additional aid, on top of $77 million requested earlier this year, has attracted little notice in the president’s $45.9 billion supplemental request last week to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. But, if approved, it would constitute the administration’s largest amount of direct aid to the Palestinian Authority. Previously, the administration had limited cash transfers to $50 million at a time.

Since Hamas seized Gaza, the Bush administration has sought to demonstrate support for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and new Prime Minister Salam Fayyad. The Annapolis conference is designed to show that the Fayyad government is on track to create a Palestinian state, with the backing of Arab leaders, and State Department officials said the money sought by Bush is designed to signal that substantial aid will flow to leaders who reject terrorism.

The aid request “supports a critical and immediate need to support a new Palestinian Authority (PA) government that both the U.S. and Israel view as a true ally for peace,” the State Department said in its detailed justification for the aid request, which was sent to Congress yesterday. The “funds would provide immediate, demonstrable improvements in the lives of Palestinians by supporting the PA’s efforts to extend the rule of law, achieve economic revival, improve governance, and avoid a fiscal crisis.”

The budget justification said the $150 million cash transfer would help the Palestinian government avert “an immediate fiscal crisis,” while $130 million more in project assistance would help create “immediate employment opportunities” that would demonstrate “moderates can deliver jobs and provide hope for a better economic future.”

An additional $40 million would be devoted to improving the administration of Palestinian ministries, $10 million would be used to provide security for experts overseeing the project assistance, $25 million is aimed at narcotics enforcement, and $25 million would be devoted to training Palestinian forces loyal to Abbas. Also, $20 million would be used to make “immediate improvements” in delivering health care at government clinics. The remaining $35 million would help refugees.

“An immediate fiscal crisis”. What the hell does that mean? Nobody over there has a job. They don’t do anything, they don’t make anything. They run the place on donated money. So where’s the crisis? Are they behind on Kasaam payments to Syria? Are the terrorist martyrs brigades itching for a paycheck? Crap. 

Look at some of the breakdown and decipher it:

• $40 million for “improving ... the ministries.” Translation: outright bribes


• $10 million for “security for experts overseaing the project”: strongarm “protection” money - to keep safe the people who are over there giving the ministers money. WTFF??


• $25 million for “narcotics enforcement”: say what? This is to buy off the drug dealers, or to buy up all their stash


• $25 million for “training”: a ton of cash to rebuild a terrorist army. Oh sure, we can trust Abbas; he’s the good terrorist.


• $35 million actually gets to the “refugees”: sure, but it gets to them as rations and ammo

This is disgusting. Why oh why is the US government doing this? Why does Israel keep turning the water and electricity back on and then handing over millions in taxes to these animals?

Posted by Drew458     on 03/06/2008 at 04:02 PM   
Filed Under: • Insanity • International • Stoopid-People • Terrorists •  
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   Monday - February 25, 2008

NAUGHTY CIA MUST ANSWER TO amnasty intl. and civil rights groups.

Renditions row after CIA plane lands in UK

By Duncan Gardham Security Correspondent
Last Updated: 2:04am GMT 25/02/2008

A fresh row erupted over the use of British air bases by US authorities as it emerged a plane used by the CIA has landed at an RAF airstrip in the past week.

A Gulfstream IV jet, identified by Amnesty International as a plane linked to the US intelligence agency, landed at RAF Northolt in west London.

The jet, registration N134BR, which flew from Morristown, New Jersey, to Britain, landed on Wednesday and returned on Friday. It was also seen at Luton airport in January.

See now here’s just one of the places I come unglued.  The SOBs publish the plane ID and a big deal gets made.  But we don’t even know for certain, and we shouldn’t, why the plane landed here.  But okay let that go for a minute.
Here’s where I get a bit miffed.  Alright, homicidal re. amnasty intl. and yes I would given a chance.  Here’s another totally unrelated story that has to do with planes.

Did you notice the photograph of the plane’s wing?  The paper BLOCKED OUT the plane ID number. Least that’s the way it looks. But they just HAD to publish the ID of the CIA plane?  That bothers me.
Maybe I’ve gone off the rail again but I see red every time I see the amnasty name.  I don’t think I’d be allowed to post what I’d like to do to that thorn.

Back to the main story:

The plane was listed in a 2006 report by Amnesty, which said it believed the aircraft was being used for the transfer of prisoners by the US. At the time, the Government admitted aircraft chartered by the CIA had landed 14 times at RAF Northolt and RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire between October 2003 and May 2004, but denied they had been used in the practice of rendition.

There is no suggestion there were prisoners on board on this occasion but a new review of the so-called “torture flights” is taking place after David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, last week admitted to Parliament two flights had stopped at the British base of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean.

A Foreign Office spokesman refused to comment on individual flights but said: “The two flights from the US already identified are the only ones we are aware of.”

The practice of “rendition” involves the legal transfer of prisoners from country to country but “extraordinary rendition” involves by-passing the legal process to move prisoners, allegedly in order to facilitate torture.

Mr Miliband told the Commons last Thursday Diego Garcia had been used to refuel two “rendition’’ flights. One flight stopped at Diego Garcia on the way to the US detention centre at Guantanamo Bay, while the other was bound for an unspecified country, possibly Morocco.

Mr Miliband said he was “very sorry indeed’’ to have to correct previous statements made by Tony Blair and Jack Straw in 2005, 2006 and 2007 denying rendition flights had stopped on British soil.

The cases involving Diego Garcia had not been disclosed before due to an “error’’ in an earlier US records search.

In each of the two cases, the aircraft involved had been carrying a single detainee - neither of them British - who did not leave the plane while it was at Diego Garcia.

Shami Chakrabarti, the director of the civil rights group Liberty, said: “It should not be down to plane spotters and citizen activists to keep track of these activities.”

“There should be a full and independent inquiry into this country’s role in state-sponsored terrorism.”

source article

Posted by Drew458     on 02/25/2008 at 09:03 AM   
Filed Under: • International • Liberals • News-Briefs •  
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   Wednesday - December 19, 2007

News Bits for the Day

A ton of things to write about today.

First off, the congress and, apparently, President Bush, thinks its just fine and dandy that they tell us which lightbulbs we will be able to buy, what vehicles we should drive and what kinds of fuels will be produced.

WASHINGTON (AP)—Congress by a wide margin approved the first increase in automobile fuel economy in 32 years Tuesday, and President Bush plans to quickly sign the legislation, accepting the mandates on the auto industry.

The energy bill, boosting mileage by 40 percent to 35 miles per gallon, passed the House 314-100 and now goes to the White House, following the Senate’s approved last week.

In a statement, the White House said Bush will sign the legislation at the Energy Department on Wednesday.

In a dramatic shift to spur increased demand for nonfossil fuels, the bill also requires a six-fold increase in ethanol use to 36 billion gallons a year by 2022, a boon to farmers. And it requires new energy efficiency standards for an array of appliances, lighting and commercial and government buildings.

“This legislation is a historic turning point in energy policy,” said Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland because it will cut demand for foreign oil and promote nonfossil fuels that will cut greenhouse gases linked to global warming.

Nevermind that I want to be able to decide what kind of lightbulbs to buy.  Nevermind that the food industry is suffering from so much corn being diverted to fuel.  nevermind that biofuel will reduce imports by four million barrels per day.  Those same folks are the ones who are rejecting as “very very bad”, the drilling in ANWR to bring us a million barrels per day.

Lastly, they always tote out the line of “...fuels that will cut greenhouse gases linked to global warming” Linked by who, precicely?  Jerks.

Iraqis Include Christmas As Religious Holiday!

The following is a translation from Iraq’s news paper Alamashriq on December 18, 2007 by Iraqi-American Haider Ajina:

Iraqi Government extends Religious Holidays to Include Christmas.

The Iraqi Government announced, yesterday Monday, the extension of the religious holiday (for all Government offices) to celebrate Eid Al-Adha (Three day Muslim Religious Holiday at the end of the Pilgrimage to Mecca) one extra day to Include celebrating the Birth of Jesus Christ on Christmas day. The Iraqi national press office released this announcement which declared December 25th a national holiday in Iraq for all government offices (national and provincial). The government in its press release mentions that this allows our citizens to celebrate Eid Al-Adha and the birth of the messiah (peace be upon him).

Haider Ajina comments,

While I was growing up in Iraq, in the sixties and seventies, Christmas (or Celebration of Birth of the Messiah as it’s called by Arab Christians) was acknowledged and celebrated but it was never a national holiday. Christians had the day off with pay and Christian children did not have to come to school on Christmas. Even children from Mixed marriages (Christian and Muslim parents) could stay out of school if they wanted, it was an excused holiday.

I am pleased and surprised to see the government declaring it a national holiday. This way almost all Iraqis can celebrate their religious holidays together. This is another positive change and one of many steps towards national unity. Eid and Christmas celebrations will be held under substantially improved circumstances from last year.

Iraqis have plenty to celebrate as this year comes to an end. Thanks to our men and women who have served and are still serving in Iraq. The future of Iraq is looking very bright and hopeful, with much hard work to rebuild and ground this new democracy and rule of law, still ahead.

Regards,
Haider Ajina

Washington Times Columnist Lists Some Very Inconvenient Truths For The Global Warming Cultists
David Deming’s commentary on global warming in this morning’s edition of the Washington Times is one of the best I’ve ever read.

If he’s right - and I believe he is because he’s obviously done his homework - the global warming bunch will end up with a substantial amount of egg on their face by the end of this winter:

South America this year experienced one of its coldest winters in decades. In Buenos Aires, snow fell for the first time since the year 1918. Dozens of homeless people died from exposure. In Peru, 200 people died from the cold and thousands more became infected with respiratory diseases. Crops failed, livestock perished, and the Peruvian government declared a state of emergency.

Unexpected bitter cold swept the entire Southern Hemisphere in 2007. Johannesburg, South Africa, had the first significant snowfall in 26 years. Australia experienced the coldest June ever. In northeastern Australia, the city of Townsville underwent the longest period of continuously cold weather since 1941. In New Zealand, the weather turned so cold that vineyards were endangered.

Last January, $1.42 billion worth of California produce was lost to a devastating five-day freeze. Thousands of agricultural employees were thrown out of work. At the supermarket, citrus prices soared. In the wake of the freeze, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger asked President Bush to issue a disaster declaration for affected counties. A few months earlier, Mr. Schwarzenegger had enthusiastically signed the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, a law designed to cool the climate. California Sen. Barbara Boxer continues to push for similar legislation in the U.S. Senate.

In April, a killing freeze destroyed 95 percent of South Carolina’s peach crop, and 90 percent of North Carolina’s apple harvest. At Charlotte, N.C., a record low temperature of 21 degrees Fahrenheit on April 8 was the coldest ever recorded for April, breaking a record set in 1923. On June 8, Denver recorded a new low of 31 degrees Fahrenheit. Denver’s temperature records extend back to 1872.

Recent weeks have seen the return of unusually cold conditions to the Northern Hemisphere. On Dec. 7, St. Cloud, Minn., set a new record low of minus 15 degrees Fahrenheit. On the same date, record low temperatures were also recorded in Pennsylvania and Ohio.

Extreme cold weather is occurring worldwide. On Dec. 4, in Seoul, Korea, the temperature was a record minus 5 degrees Celsius. Nov. 24, in Meacham, Ore., the minimum temperature was 12 degrees Fahrenheit colder than the previous record low set in 1952. The Canadian government warns that this winter is likely to be the coldest in 15 years

Of course, the global warmers will answer with this type of psychobabble double-speak:

If you think any of the preceding facts can falsify global warming, you’re hopelessly naive. Nothing creates cognitive dissonance in the mind of a true believer. In 2005, a Canadian Greenpeace representative explained “global warming can mean colder, it can mean drier, it can mean wetter.” In other words, all weather variations are evidence for global warming. I can’t make this stuff up.

We’ll know in afew short months if Gore’s dire end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it predictions are an incovenient truth as he would have us believe, or just convenient for his bank account.

In the meantime, my hat’s off to David Deming for this incovenient article.

Posted by Mr. Christian     on 12/19/2007 at 01:17 PM   
Filed Under: • Climate-Weather • International • Iraq • Politics •  
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   Monday - October 15, 2007

Why Now?

Back from a weekend in Knoxville with my brother, which explains why I feel totally out of touch with world events of the last few days.

I see Her Highness is still pushing this resolution about the genocide in Turkey 90 years ago.  I don’t get it.  Well, I do get it actually.  This is the only thing she thinks she can do to thwart the war effort and poke a stick in GWB’s eye.  I see it every day, but it still amazes me that they are willing to put party and personal politics above national security and national interests.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Top US Democrats Sunday brushed off Turkish fury and vowed to press ahead bill condemning the mass killing of Armenians decades ago as “genocide,” insisting that bloodshed today demanded a righting of past wrongs.

House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said possible reprisals affecting Turkey’s cooperation with the US military were “hypothetical” and would not derail the resolution.

Holding a vote on condemning the massacre, even many years after the fact, is “about who we are as a country,” Pelosi told ABC television.

Of course, that’s not how Turkey sees it.

Turkey has repeatedly said that if the Congress passes the Armenian resolution U.S.-Turkey relations would suffer. It is now understood that Turkey will tell the U.S. that it might cut or restrict the logistical support that Turkey provides the U.S. military in Iraq through Incirlik airbase – also affecting the future withdrawal of U.S. from Iraq, via Turkey.

The other dimension is Turkish military’s disappointment with the U.S for its inaction against the PKK and tolerating the terrorists based in northern Iraq that launch attacks inside Turkey - a long time ally of the U.S. and a partner in the war against terrorism

Another bumbling fool of a Donk that we’ll have to clean up after.

Posted by Mr. Christian     on 10/15/2007 at 09:13 AM   
Filed Under: • Democrats • International •  
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   Thursday - July 05, 2007

TED - Hans Rosling

If you are not familiar with the TED conference, it is a gathering of real thinkers (and some loons) to give short, 18 minute talks about what is important in their worlds.  It started as a conference about Technology, Entertainment and Design (TED), but has expanded to cover much more.  To be sure, there is a plethora of liberal thought spread thickly throughout this community, but amongst the chaff, there is some good wheat.

This talk is by Dr. Hans Rosen.  He makes some claims about CO2 emissions and climate change that you will most likely take issue with, but don’t let that keep you from missing some very interesting points he is making.  Also, the software he is using is absolutely amazing in terms of statistical Visualization (my pet project for the past couple of years).  Finally, his conclusions about the means and goals of helping the developing countries is fascinating to me.

What do you think?

Posted by Mr. Christian     on 07/05/2007 at 10:54 AM   
Filed Under: • Africa • Climate-Weather • Colleges-Professors • Computers • Health-Medicine • International •  
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   Monday - July 02, 2007

Some Good Frenchmen

Reader Matt714 sends us a link to this site.

In the spirit of our mission statement, “The French Will Never Forget” (a not for profit organization) is launching a new project scheduled for Independence Day 2007.

Our goal is, once again, to demonstrate the deep respect and gratitude of the people of France for America’s sacrifices during the Second World War.

Given the very large size of this massive endeavor, we have decided to team up with “Collectif Respect,” a French association which shares our values and which will help make our new event an even larger success.

Below you will find a detailed outline of our latest project. We believe this will be one of the most successful demonstrations of our stated desire to enhance the friendship and communication between the French and American people.  We are expecting a large participation in this event.  .

On June 30, 2007, we will join together with thousands of French people on the famous Omaha Beach, in Normandy, France to pay our respect to the fallen American war heroes who came to our rescue. 

The participants assembled on the beach will form a human chain of letters and spell out the following words as a huge message from the French people on one side of the Atlantic Ocean to the American people on the other side.  The message will say:

FRANCE WILL NEVER FORGET THANK YOU AMERICA

Posted by Mr. Christian     on 07/02/2007 at 07:13 AM   
Filed Under: • International •  
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   Sunday - June 10, 2007

Once upon a time

I remember, vividly, the evening of October 4, 1957.  It wasn’t a school night so I was able to stay up later than usual.

We were living near Versailles, close to Paris in an American housing area called Petite Beauregard.  All the adults were standing in front of the building, looking up into the night sky.  I looked up and all around.  Seeing nothing unusual, I asked an old lady, the mother/mother-in-law that lived with the couple on the top floor, what they were all looking at.  She just pointed her finger at the sky and said, “The Russians are up there.” Her tone of voice was one of fear and uncertainty.  I didn’t know what a big deal it was.  A year later, in the Russian pavilion at the Brussels Worlds Fair I saw an exact replica of what they were looking for in that dark sky, suspended by fine wires from the ceiling.  When I think back on that day I am still awed by the import of that event.

Now we have someone else to keep track of.  We should heed Moseley’s warning

Posted by The Navigator     on 06/10/2007 at 11:49 PM   
Filed Under: • History • Homeland-Security • International • Military •  
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   Tuesday - May 22, 2007

Point Of No Return

I apologize for the paucity of posts today, gang. I’ve been at the doctor’s office all morning going over x-rays and scheduling surgery for this messed up lower back of mine. For the record, it’s bad. Real bad. L4 and L5 are compressed and twisted out of alignment. It will require a two hour surgery to “fuse” three vertebrae together with bone from my pelvis. I will be in the hospital three days afterward and then recuperating for 2-3 weeks afterward. This will happen some time in the next week or two. I’ll let you know before I leave to let the sawbones work on me. The really bad news is that, in the meantime, I have graduated from oxycontin to methadone to keep the pain down to a dull roar. This has temporarily brought my mental acuity down to the level of Michael Moore and Jimmy Carter - only one step above neural nihilism.

Anyway .... as I sat here reading Bill Whittle’s recent epic (thanks for the link, Mr. Christian) and contemplating the news from around the world which floods in here every day, I am really beginning to wonder if there is some kind of “Stoopid” epidemic afflicting mankind. I see the Senate backpedaling on the bullshit immigration bill, the candidates for an election that is eighteen months away are stabbing each other in the back, bombs are going off in Turkey, Palestinian gunmen are starting another civil war in Lebanon, Britain and Russia are going toe-to-toe over the Litvinenko radiation poisoning incident, and with hurricane season about to begin the Chicken Littles are screaming doom and gloom for the second year in a row.

Meanwhile, while you slept a few thousand more Mexicans crossed the border last night, Wal-Mart built six more stores somewhere, the trade deficit with China increased by a few billion dollars, the North Koreans and Iranians came up with seventeen more plans to prove they are barking mad and several thousand more non-Muslims were murdered in Darfur by followers of the Prophet For Profit.

Then again, you already know all this and just need a place to get together and figure out what we’re all going to do when the roof caves in - and make no mistake, the rafters are crumbling. Depressing? Sure, but what are we going to do?

We can start to fix our government eighteen months from now in the 2008 elections. The interim is going to be dicey as somebody out there decided in the last election to install a whole bunch of really crazy people in the Congress and Senate. That was not my fault, by the way - and neither was it George Bush’s fault.

As for the rest of the sitrep, we can wall ourselves off from the rest of the world and experiment with isolationism again or we can continue to muddle our way through the minefield of international relations - and that is where the problem comes in. We’re just no damn good at realpolitik. Not this administration, the whole country has never been real good at the devious games diplomats play. We haven’t been at this game long enough to understand all the rules.

All I can really tell you is (a) keep a firm grasp of right and wrong, (b) stay involved in government and watch the bastards in Washignton every minute, (c) use every legal means to make sure you can defend yourself in the event of real internal trouble, and (d) keep talking to each other, whether here or elsewhere.

Speaking of which, can someone help me come up with a logo and a motto for The Sheepdog Militia™. You know what I’m talking about ....

_{(I will try to post a little more in the coming days but it will probably be only one or two a day for a while. Hang in there. BTW, Midway USA is having a sale on .45 ACP shells - box of 50 for $30. Tell ‘em Skipper sent ya.)}

Posted by The Skipper     on 05/22/2007 at 03:17 PM   
Filed Under: • International • Personal • Politics • Stoopid-People •  
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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:

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.

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