Monday - February 06, 2012
Damascus? Don’t Ask Us!
Will the last one out please turn off the lights and lock the door?
Not a good sign boys and girls.
The United States has whisked its remaining diplomats out of Syria and suspended operations at its embassy in Damascus as violence there continues to increase, U.S. officials told ABC News. The skeletal staff, including Ambassador Robert Ford, departed quietly despite in some cases being denied exit visas by Syrian authorities, the officials said.
“The recent surge in violence, including bombings in Damascus on Dec. 23 and Jan. 6, has raised serious concerns that our Embassy is not sufficiently protected from armed attack,” State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said today. “We, along with several other diplomatic missions, conveyed our security concerns to the Syrian government but the regime failed to respond adequately.”
Today’s move comes after the Obama administration says its requests to Syrian authorities for increased security around the American embassy and its diplomats fell on deaf ears. The embassy is situated on a busy intersection in Damascus and officials say they feared al Qaeda elements, which are believed to be behind a string of car bombs in the Syrian capital, could target the Americans next. They had requested that the street the embassy is on be closed, but nothing was done.
The embassy had already been targeted by a pro-Assad mob last July after Ambassador Ford defied restrictions on his travel outside the capital and visited the restive city of Hama. Some in the crowd scaled the outer walls of the embassy and defaced the exterior, including the American flag, before being chased away by embassy guards.
The U.S. embassy, like other diplomatic facilities there, is guarded by Syrian security forces. U.S. officials say they were slow to respond and accused the government of sponsoring the protest.
The Syrian government’s crackdown on the movement to oust President Assad has become increasingly bloody in recent months. The United Nations stopped counting the dead late last month, saying it was too hard to keep up with and verify the body counts. At the time it placed the death toll at more than 5,400. Since then there have been reports of hundreds more killed.
Opposition elements have also stepped up efforts to fight back, raising fears that the once peaceful movement could evolve into a civil war.
“could evolve into a civil war”?? If you make a bit of effort to look just a little beneath the headlines it is pretty obvious that it already is a civil war. Or at least a religious one.
Against Syrian anger, Assad’s Alawite Muslim sect feels fear
Opposition leaders, some of whom have taken up arms in an increasingly violent confrontation that has killed more than 5,000 people in 11 months, mostly dismiss suggestions the revolt is destined to divide Syrians along ethnic and religious lines.But millions are incensed by the killing, arrests and torture unleashed last year by the Alawite-led authorities against demonstrators, including women and children, who confronted them in mainly Sunni cities like Deraa.
In a country which has seen refugees stream in from the sectarian blood-letting in Iraq in recent years, and where Assad and his late father are widely perceived by much of the 75-percent Sunni majority to have heavily favoured the once scorned Alawites, the language of religious hatred is growing louder. Stories of reciprocal atrocity are gaining currency.
For the Alawites, who identify their faith as a variant of the Shi’ite Islam practised in Iran, long a close ally of Assad, the rise in the ranks of the opposition of the Sunni Islamist movement the Muslim Brotherhood and other conservative Sunnis who accuse Alawites of heresy is a particular cause of anxiety.
And we all know just how tolerant and forgiving Islam can be, right? As in, Not One Jot. Not Ever.
If you’re having trouble keeping the players straight without a scorecard, just know that the mad mullahs in Iran are supporting Assad and his sect, while Al Qaeda is supporting the Sunni sect. Isn’t that great? Two terrorist groups at odds with other in somebody else’s country. I’m certain that will have a peaceful resolution, right? Once again it looks like the seeds planted in the Arab Spring are only growing a crop of thistles.
Communal support for Assad invokes not only the fear of reprisal, but the historic marginalisation of Alawites from the centuries of Sunni Ottoman rule down to the emergence of Assad’s father, Hafez al-Assad. He took power in 1970 and died in 2000.
Before the Assads, Alawites say, they were treated routinely as second-class citizens, discriminated against and deprived of holding senior posts in the government.
Looks to me like they hate each other just as much as they hate us. Jizzlam comes in several distasteful varieties, and it seems that each of those has a few variations within it. And nobody gets along, and they all hate each other, and will all jump at the chance to kill each other off.
“So before I was nine I had learned the basic canon of Arab life.” says Ishmael, “It was me against my brother; me and my brother against our father; my family against my cousins and the clan; the clan against the tribe; and the tribe against the world. And all of us against the infidel. “
Leon Uris, The Haj
PS - at first I thought it was a bit odd to name a religious sect after a fish. Just a little mental dyslexia there. “Alawhite” not ”Alewife”. Guess that one was a red herring.
PPS - Oh, and should [when] the long knives come out and Assad topple and the ethnic cleansing begin, guess who will be taking in the wretched refuse refugees, even though they are their mortal enemies with whom a state of war still exists? Israel of course!
Israel is making preparations to house refugees from Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s minority Alawite sect should his government fall, Israel’s military chief told a parliamentary committee today.
“On the day that the regime falls, it is expected to result in a blow to the Alawite sect. We are preparing to take in Alawite refugees on the Golan Heights,” a committee spokesman quoted Lieutenant-General Benny Gantz as saying.
Assad has faced 10 months of popular revolt in which more than 5,000 people have been killed, according to United Nations figures. Israeli officials have said they do not expect his government to last more than a few months.
How do you say “brain fart” in Hebrew??
Posted by Drew458
on 02/06/2012 at 05:19 PM
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Permalink • some vermin, their history and their human (?) rights
The links are provided should anyone want to read the full stories. You’d think we’d all be tired of this kind of thing by now. Well, yes. It is about the same old same old. But ..... it’s happening right here and it’s on going. Emotions run the gamut from concern to fright to downright anger. And of course frustration.
Lots and lots of that. Seem Europa and it’s union and too many Brit lawyers and civil rights types, are very concerned about the rights of the vermin shown here and less about the right to life of the many victims these bastards would enjoy taking away. And in the most horrific manner they could arrange.
Terrorists may be mad dogs, they may want to return to the dark ages, they are filthy, grubby and unwashed looking creeps.
But they most certainly are not stupid. Well not all of them are. But even the dumbest among them doesn’t require a degree to turn himself into a flaming bomb at the behest of these scum. They know how the west works (and doesn’t work) and how to use the western system against itself. They are smart enough for that. And those who aren’t have smart lawyers clearing a path for them. And not only that. How’s this strike you?
Here’s a story regarding a group of MPs (Members of Parliament).
MPs visit Abu Hamza at Belmarsh to canvass his views for a report. He is referred to respectfully throughout as ‘Mr Abu Hamza’ Here’s a guy who says that it’s perfectly okay to kill anyone for no other reason then they aren’t muslims.
These animals shouldn’t be given refuge anywhere and when caught should be deleted with extreme prejudice. And fuck the ass-wipes at the Euro-pee-on court of human rights. Deleting them might not be a bad idea either.
Here’s some quick snaps for you to look at and think about. You should you know. After all, you are all on their murder list. And these vermin are only three.
SubHuman Vermin #1 for your consideration.
Abu Hamza
It took years to jail him, but now MPs visit Abu Hamza at Belmarsh to canvass his views· Al Qaeda is trying to recruit female suicide bombers in Britain, MPs warn
· Internet often to blame for radicalising extremists, report warns
· Select committee blasted by family of 7/7 victim for interviewing hate preacher Abu Hamza
By JACK DOYLE
A group of MPs who visited hate-preacher Abu Hamza in his jail cell have published his views in an official report.
Members of the home affairs select committee went to high-security Belmarsh prison to interview the cleric who was jailed after telling his followers that the murder of non-Muslims was justified ‘even if there is no reason’.
Their report on violent radicalism is published today and includes an uncritical summary of Hamza’s comments. He is referred to respectfully throughout as ‘Mr Abu Hamza’.Families of terror attack victims condemned the committee and its chairman, Labour MP Keith Vaz. Graham Foulkes, whose 22-year-old son David was murdered in the Edgware Road bombing on July 7, 2005, said the visit was ‘deeply inappropriate’.
He said: ‘I think what they are doing by visiting him in jail is legitimising his claims and his beliefs, which are to kill and maim men and women and to destroy our society.
‘The worrying thing is that as a result Hamza will tell his followers, “Look, they are taking me seriously”.’‘A substantial number of terrorist attacks at home and abroad have happened because of Abu Hamza.
Vermin #2
Saajid Badat
‘Shoe-bomb’ terrorist to be released from jail on opening day of the Olympic GamesBy EMMA REYNOLDS
The notorious terrorist who plotted a shoe-bomb attack on a plane is to be freed from jail just hours before the Olympic Games begin.
Saajid Badat’s release will only add to security fears at the high-profile event in London, which opens on July 27.
The 32-year-old was jailed for 13 years in 2005 after conspiring with two other radical Muslims to blow up a passenger jet - but he will be released after serving just eight years and eight months.
The religious teacher from Gloucester admitted to conspiring with Brit Richard Reid and Belgian terrorist Nizar Trabelsi to blow up flights to the U.S. in 2001.
But now he is due to be freed two-thirds of the way through his sentenceon the official opening day of the biggest sporting event in the world, according to the Daily Mirror.
People are furious this guy is being released on that day but it’s just a quirk of fate,’ said a security source.He had even booked a ticket for a flight from Amsterdam to the U.S., but he had a last-minute change of heart and never boarded the plane.
His fellow plotter Reid was overpowered by fellow passengers on a flight from Paris to Miami while trying to detonate the bomb in his shoes, and is now serving a life sentence in America.
and our last subhuman of this group.
Vermin #3
Abu Qatada
Osama Bin Laden’s ‘right-hand man in Europe’ Abu Qatada could walk from prison today despite being ‘extraordinarily dangerous’
Lawyers are arguing he should be released on bail after being held for six and a half years
By CHARLES WALFORD
Hate preacher Abu Qatada could today walk free from prison to a life on benefits with his wife and five children.
Qatada, who has cost the UK taxpayer more than £1million in benefits, prison and legal fees, is currently being held at Long Lartin high security prison in Worcestershire after breaching previous bail terms.
British diplomats continue to seek assurances from the Jordanian authorities that evidence gained through torture would not be used against him.
The issue was the key reason why Qatada won an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights last month.
The judges ruled that sending Qatada back to face terror charges without such assurances would deny him his right to a fair trial and be a ‘flagrant denial of justice’.
Mrs May vowed that Qatada, who has been held for six and a half years, would be kept behind bars while she considered all legal options to send him back and the Home Office said he ‘poses a real risk to national security’.
But Qatada’s defence team convinced an immigration judge to release him at a hearing in central London.
Abu Qatada read all of it here
Posted by peiper
on 02/06/2012 at 10:23 AM
Filed Under: • DIVERSITY BS • EUro-peons • muslims • Terrorists • UK •
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Permalink • doggy eye candy and some great pix. have fun.
I’d call it eye candy of sorts. But, if you will please click on this adorable image, you will get an eyeful.
Enjoy.
Posted by peiper
on 02/06/2012 at 03:24 AM
Filed Under: • Art-Photography • Climate-Weather • UK •
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Permalink • Sunday - February 05, 2012
Superbowl
Woo hoo!!!!! This was not your daddy’s boring old Stupor Bowl.
Guess I’m not the only one looking up intentional grounding. The ever-helpful Google brings it up as choice #4 as soon as you type “inten”; by “intent” it’s #2. The rule makes sense - duffing the ball isn’t going to save you in a pinch - although the various exceptions are a little hard to follow. Football has so darn many rules and they change every year. Makes it difficult sometimes for all but the most dedicated fans.
Dirty tricks as strategy? In a possibly brilliant move, with just seconds on the clock, the Giants “accidentally” had an extra guy on the field. The penalty forces the failed play to get a do-over, but doesn’t reset the game clock, and thus the Patriots got screwed out of nearly a dozen valuable seconds. Naughty! Look for that one to change next year perhaps? The time should be put back on.
This was my first Superbowl with an HD TV. Lots more to see than what they show on regular TV, but I came away with the feeling that the viewing experience was being intensely managed. This was a very rough game, a grudge match. You noticed how many injuries there were? But with HD I saw the eye pokes, the punches, the kicks, the extra knee kick to the head on the tackle, and all the other nasty details you can’t see on plain TV. I noticed at least 3 times a bit of a fight start up after a tackle, and the camera cuts away just as the refs start to run in to break it up. Late in the 4th Q there was a quarter second shot of one of the linesmen sucking down oxygen for all he was worth. Oops, shouldn’t show that either. Instant cutaway. And never a single cheerleader. Phooey.
On the advertisement front, my wife sees the Adriana Lima Kia spot and goes “H*** S***!! I want that outfit!!” I kinda just sat there drooling, but told her to get the shoes too. I think that’s my pick for best ad. It was such an over the top guy fantasy it could’ve been an Old Spice commercial. On second thought though, watching the extended Lima only version above, I’d choose better shoes.
Sorry, I had to pull the video. It was making the page load too slow. Google up “Kia Adrian Lima” and you’ll find it everywhere else.
Overall? Probably one of the best football games I’ve seen in a decade, from the opening sacks right through to the last chance win-or-die Hail Mary pass as the clock ran out.
Posted by Drew458
on 02/05/2012 at 09:59 PM
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Permalink • Something New Under The Sun
Silly me, I thought this had something to do with new muzzie converts going all Sudden Jihad Syndrome. Nope, that’s another psychotic ailment entirely.
It seems that a dozen or more girls at Le Roy High School out in western New York (Genesee County) all developed some kind of neurological tic this fall. CDC looked into it, and found no disease vector, allergen, toxic, drug, insect, or pollutant cause. And thus we have a new ailment. Can’t wait until it gets used as an excuse for murder or mayhem in a court of law. Oh come on, that was just me being sarcas-tic.
Conversion disorder made the headlines Friday as the New York State Health Department released its preliminary findings regarding 12 girls in LeRoy who have been diagnosed with the disorder beginning late last year. It was also announced the doctor treating the 12 cases had potentially identified at least four more in the last two days.
What is conversion disorder?
According to the Mayo Clinic, the diagnosis of “conversion disorder” was originally conceived as a term to describe a physical health problem that has its roots in a mental or emotional crisis. A person who is diagnosed with a conversion disorder typically cannot control the physical manifestation of the mental or emotional crisis in question, and cannot control the physical symptoms that result.
Conversion disorders are usually fairly temporary, although while the person is suffering from one it can cause severe difficulties and distress. Symptoms typically include sudden limitations or changes in either a person’s physical movement or one or more of their senses.
How is it treated?
CNN reports there are a range of treatments available. Because the root causes are stress-related, treatments often center on counseling of some kind. Anti-stress or anti-anxiety medications might also be temporarily given. In cases where the physical manifestations of the disorder are particularly troublesome or limiting, physical therapy may also be prescribed, and hypnosis and even magnetic stimulation of the brain may be attempted as therapy to aid an afflicted person.
Significant life stressors were identified in 11 of the cases. Eight of the cases were diagnosed as conversion disorder by the primary treating physicians and pediatric neurologist; three cases had preceding medical illness associated with tics, and one case did not seek medical attention.
Which is really saying that being a high school girl can be stressful. Yeah, and?
Maybe we should call this Mean Girls Syndrome, and find out if the 12 in question had been subject to bullying or excessive social pressures. But it’s good to know the government sprang into action, tested anything and everything, ruled out all sorts of toxins, bad food, local superfund sites, drug abuse, and so on. A+ for effort; they gave it a big Dr. House try. And came up with nothing.
Western NY is an unusual place. Lots of odd and unique things have happened there in the past. Mountains and lakes that used to be the seashore, long ages ago. Salt mines. Deep beds of natural gas and frakking. This is the land of Joeseph Smith and the Second Great Awakening (19th century Religious Revival). It’s the land where Free Love and Communes were first tried 150 years ago. It’s where the Women’s Suffrage movement started out, and where the Underground Railroad had its terminus. It’s where modern camera film was invented, and the propane torch. And Genesee Cream Ale, one of the thinnest beers going, that keeps on selling decade after decade. I’m not at all surprised that something new and mysterious has come up there. I’d like to say it’s something in the water, but CDC has ruled that out.
Posted by Drew458
on 02/05/2012 at 05:37 PM
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Permalink • A familiar meme
Today’s Day By Day cartoon over on the side bar is really great. Pretty subtle (aka like a brick upside the head) but things become clear once you see the bumper stick at the end.
But for all you old guys, or you students of comic strip history, the 2nd panel looks awfully familiar.
Some memes are just too good to let go of. Nice work Muir.
Posted by Drew458
on 02/05/2012 at 03:47 PM
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Permalink • a personal thought
Some of you may not keep track of things of this nature and normally I don’t either.
It just so happens however, that for some odd reason I remembered Hitler’s birthday.
Not mind you that I celebrate the date.
The other birthday (my wife aside) that I have always remembered is the birthday of a woman who I had the longest crush on and used to call her Your Highness whenever we met. That would be Loretta Lynn, April 14th. I used to celebrate that date.
When I was a DJ, I hosted a large party at a local restaurant in Paducah, Ky., even though Loretta wasn’t in attendance. But her record company gave me lots of help with free give aways etc. So anyway …. this post isn’t about her and I don’t mean to use her noble self on the same page as AH and hope is does her no harm.
I’m only saying those are the dates I remember with no prompting
The Hitler date has a bit of a story and while I suppose I can understand the folks who questioned having a concert to celebrate Wagner on the same date as the birthday of AH, I think to cancel a concert just because he liked Wagner and a concert was scheduled on that date, is just plain silly. And pc I think.
I am not a fan of opera. I don’t understand it and had to put up with a lot of it as a kid, as my mother was a huge fan. So I heard it a lot and never much liked what I heard.
I belonged heart and sole to Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw and Bix and the Firehouse Five etc.
But who am I? If even Hitler loved Wagner …. ???
Well, as it happens, Berlin’s biggest opera house, the Deutsche Oper, has been forced to backtrack on plans to stage a re-launched version of Adolf Hitler’s favourite Wagner opera on the Nazi leader’s birthday. April 20. I honestly think we can be sure, in light of present day German laws, that the director of the opera house had no intention of celebrating that date. He’d have risked jail were it intentional. The date was pencilled in far in advance, the director says. With no thought to the date as anything other then just that. A date on a calendar. But because AH was a very large fan of Wagner and especially of the one scheduled to be performed on the 100th anniversary of the opera house, it was decided to change the date least the wrong people see it as something else. And of course, in case anyone might become offended.
OK, so what other events in any other part of the world might be considered a no show day in case the date should fall on the birth date of some infamous historical and criminal character?
Jeesh.
Cheers and enjoy what’s left of your wkend. I’m off but decided to leave you with this bit of unrelated to anything except the appeal. And nope. Don’t know her b. day. Does it matter? Didn’t think so.
Posted by peiper
on 02/05/2012 at 07:20 AM
Filed Under: • Eye-Candy • Personal •
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Permalink • Pimping for Paul – Nevada brothels back the libertarian contender
Snow last night and almost gone this morning. Cold but no freeze so far. Lucky in this part of the country.
I found this in a paper yesterday and thought it was funny. In a way. Just not certain what way but hey, it is interesting. When was the last time a candidate had the backing of this potentially large group. lol. Sorry guys but it is amusing. I just haven’t figured out exactly why that’s so. One does find if one looks, some interesting things in liberal papers. Not always the maddening stuff. Anyway, I forgive myself for this on the grounds that at least it isn’t The Guardian. Which for Americans reading here I should explain. Guardian .... Karl Marx .... Trotsky ..... the same family by blood ties.
Pimping for Paul – Nevada brothels back the libertarian contenderIn a state built on rugged individualism, Ron Paul is a major Republican player
Forget Newt Gingrich’s “Winning our Future” or Mitt Romney’s “Believe in America”. The snappiest campaign slogan so far this Republican election season greets visitors who step across the threshold of an establishment called the Moonlite Bunny Ranch a few miles outside Carson City, Nevada.
There, in a dimly-lit world of red satin and inexpensive perfume, a cigar-chomping entrepreneur with a bald head and a smile as wide as the desert sky politely informs visitors that he and his employees intend to spend the coming months: “Pimpin’ for Paul”.
The entrepreneur is Dennis Hof, a reality TV star who achieved fame in Cathouse, an HBO fly-on-the-wall series which for the past decade has followed proceedings at the Bunny Ranch, one of five legal brothels that he owns in Nevada. The Paul he is pimping for is of course Ron Paul, the ultra-libertarian Congressman from Texas currently seeking the Republican nomination.
In Nevada, which holds caucuses this morning, Mr Paul is a major player. And Mr Hof is one of his best-known donors and most prolific advocates. Sitting at his desk, with a noisy Pomeranian called Gucci at his feet and a blonde who calls him “Daddy” rubbing moisturising lotion into his head, Mr Hof noted that he’d recently endorsed the Congressman on all three of America’s major news networks: MSNBC, Fox News and CNN.
“Ron Paul fits perfectly with the ethos of the Bunny Ranch,” he said. “He doesn’t want to tell you how to live, who to sleep with, and what to do. He might not approve of prostitution, but he believes individual states have the right to choose whether to accept it. That makes him my kind of guy.”
Mr Hof argues, with some justification, that legalisation prevents abuse and disease within the sex industry. He also says it provides valuable revenue to communities. All 500 of the prostitutes at the Bunny Ranch declare their earnings to the taxman. The licence fee provides $500,000 a year to the local authority. “It’s legal. It’s sex for sale, and it works,” he says. “It eliminates the problems with prostitution. And we put millions and millions of dollars back into society.”
Inside the Bunny Ranch’s front door, in the reception area is a glass Perspex box, stuffed with banknotes destined for Mr Paul’s coffers. Next to it is a pile of “Ron Paul 2012” leaflets. In the car park sit limousines which will provide free lifts to the caucus this morning.
Members of Mr Hof’s harem work as independent contractors, setting their own fees and paying the house a 50 per cent commission. Several are currently putting all of the tips they receive from clients into the Perspex kitty.
“He is the only candidate who supports our right to do what we want with our bodies in our own lives,” said Cami Parker, a Hustler magazine centrefold. She also likes Mr Paul’s non-interventionist foreign policy platform. “We should bring our troops home. I’m about making love, not war.”
Other colleagues offered eloquent endorsements of Mr Paul’s policy. The venue’s general manager, who gave her name as “Madam Suzette,” waxed lyrical about his support for the rights of states over the federal government: “because that’s what keeps us in business”.
Jayla Conrad, 21, said she was backing Paul as “an animal lover”. He is the only Republican candidate to oppose a recent federal law legalising the slaughter of horses for human consumption.
Beyond the pink brothel walls, the existence of “Pimpin’ for Paul” highlights an important factor playing into today’s caucus: Ron Paul’s libertarian platform speaks directly to the ethos of Nevada, a quirky desert state which from the days of the Gold Rush was built on rugged individualism. Nevada has no income tax, no state income tax, and no laws to prevent you losing your shirt at the casino, while smoking. It’s the only state in the US where brothels are legal. Ron Paul came second here in 2008, picking up 14 per cent of the vote to Mitt Romney’s 51 per cent, and has been doggedly courting local voters ever since. He launched his economic policy in Nevada several months ago, and was in Las Vegas this week speaking to the large Latino community.
Supporters, who note that Mr Paul tends to over-perform in caucuses admit they face an uphill struggle to achieve an upset victory: Mr Romney enjoys huge support from Nevada’s Mormon community, who are expected to make up around 30 per cent of voters and last time backed him by a majority of more than nine to one.
But after a string of disappointing performances, including a hammering in Florida this week, Nevada provides Ron Paul with a valuable chance to reinsert himself into the conversation.
Posted by peiper
on 02/05/2012 at 05:05 AM
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Permalink • Saturday - February 04, 2012
Cooking Up A Party
I’m getting ready for tomorrow, doing all the cooking today. A gin & tonic or two, a couple of razor sharp knives, and away I go.
First you find a good selection of tunes and crank up the stereo. Then you wash your hands and get to work.
I’ve got two mushroom/ham/swiss quiches cooling, the beef and okra Vindaloo is simmering away, the chicken wings are tipped and marinating in jerk sauce. Hey, the oven is still hot, so maybe I’ll smack together a nice water bath cheesecake. And I have a clean pan left and some nice bread, so maybe I’ll make a couple of Cuban style pressed Reubans for tonight and tomorrow. Must remember to mix up the dip tonight tomorrow. Chips, beer, wine: ready to go.
Here’s some Elvis Costello to get you cranking through the rest of your day ... music that will get you a speeding ticket if you’re driving.
You guys have anything special to eat tomorrow while the Giants crush the Patriots?
Posted by Drew458
on 02/04/2012 at 06:58 PM
Filed Under: • Daily Life •
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Permalink • muslim prayers
Some of our regulars may recall the stories and photos of muslims taking over streets in Paris to pray.
Last year I posted photos like this one taken in France.
It was one of several areas in Paris where streets are often blocked.
Since then, it is my understanding that the French passed a law last year making it illegal to do this. Folks who aren’t muslims but who may for circumstances out of their control and who live in these areas, find it impossible to get around or into their own homes at times. That is what they claim but then it’s probably just islamophobia. Anyway, the muzzies said that they would just ignore the ban and continue as usual. I haven’t checked for any updates to that original story.
But this photo is current.
And it isn’t Paris, France.
The Mecca of the city: In a London street, the faithful find a way to pray as their mosque overflowsBy DAILY MAIL REPORTER
In the shadow of the glass and steel skyscrapers of London’s Square Mile, hundreds of Muslims kneel in the street for Friday prayers.
Yesterday’s hour-long service a stone’s throw from the heart of the financial district proved so popular that worshippers filled the streets around the tiny community mosque.
City workers in pinstripe suits mixed with Muslims from the local Bangladeshi community, cramming into the streets beside a Bentley and other parked cars.
The Brune Street mosque, in Spitalfields, East London, is the nearest mosque for Friday prayers for many City workers and others from Brick Lane and Whitechapel.
It is a one-room community mosque with a maximum capacity of 100, so when some 300 turn up for Friday midday prayers locals have become accustomed to seeing worshippers kneeling in the surrounding streets, all facing Mecca.
One worshipper said: ‘It’s grown and grown in recent years. It started off as just one room in the mosque, but now people come from all over the City and there just isn’t the room for them in the building.
That’s how it starts okay. You see one insect inside your house and you hafta know there’s millions more just waiting to come out.
Posted by peiper
on 02/04/2012 at 12:46 PM
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Permalink • Italy … coldest in 26 years. Not gorbal warming. It’s climate change.
There are some spectacular photos at the link.
It’s pretty cold here and we are expecting some snow. Haven’t seen any sign of it yet but London, which is 70 miles away, has it.
Not too worried because every other time we’ve had snow here in the southern part of the country, it doesn’t last.
Have the radio on now and all they’re talking about is this new weather front and all the snow reported falling.
Colosseum closes and drivers abandon cars as snow falls on Rome for the first time in 26 YEARS
Italian capital grinds to halt as severe weather halts traffic
Locals shiver in tiled homes thanks to city’s heating restrictions
-36C temperatures across eastern Europe send death toll to 176
Military on alert in the UK as temperatures drop and snowfall is predicted
Over 11,000 villagers in Serbia trapped by snowdrifts and blizzards
Death toll in Ukraine now 122, with 38 people killed by cold last night
By EMMA REYNOLDS
The Colosseum and other ancient tourist sights closed to tourists as Rome saw snow for the first time in 26 years.
Traffic in the Italian capital ground to a halt as buses struggled to climb icy hills and authorities accustomed to a warm climate fought to cope.
Visitors were stopped from entering the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill, the former home of Rome’s ancient emperors, over fears they could slip on ice.
Snow began falling on Friday morning, leaving a light dusting on trees and cars and forming slush on the roads.
After easing for a few hours, wind-driven snow started falling again heavily in the city before midnight and continued into this morning.
The authorities ordered cars without tyre chains off the road till at least noon as vehicles were trapped for hours on the ring road after many cars skidded and frustrated drivers abandoned their vehicles having waited hours for accidents to be cleared.
Big freeze Britain: Forecasters warn 15cm of snow on the way as icy weather settles in across country
Temperatures as low as Himalayas overnight, plunging to nearly -11C in Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire
Heavy snow expected in Cumbria, Lincolnshire, East Anglia, North Yorkshire and the Peak District
Third of flights out of Heathrow tomorrow cancelled
15cm? That’s only 5.9 inches.
Posted by peiper
on 02/04/2012 at 12:08 PM
Filed Under: • Environment •
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Permalink • Ewww Ewww Ewe!
Animal sex abuse is on the rise in Germany, with bestiality brothels being set up across the country, according to a state animal protection officer demanding stronger laws to protect mankind’s furry and feathered friends.
Madeleine Martin, the animal protection official for Hessian state government, said the law needed to be changed to make sex abuse of animals – known as zoophilia – a crime.
“It is punishable to distribute animal pornography, but the act itself is not,” she told the Frankfurter Rundschau daily paper on Friday.
“There are even animal brothels in Germany,” she said. Sex with animals was being increasingly seen as a lifestyle choice, and thus more acceptable.
“Zoophilia must be completely banned in the reformed animal protection law,” said Martin, referring to the governments plan to rework that section of the law.Sex with animals was banned until 1969, when the animal protection law was introduced, but failed to include a specific ban on zoophilia, the Frankfurter Rundschau said.
What gives with the Germans? They have the sickest porn this side of Japan, and now this. Whattsa matta, German girls aren’t good enough anymore?
Posted by Drew458
on 02/04/2012 at 10:48 AM
Filed Under: • CULTURE IN DECLINE • Eye-Candy • Humor •
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Permalink • Friday - February 03, 2012
Truck U
A House committee passed a measure Thursday maintaining current tractor-trailer sizes and weights for three years until a study can be completed on the potential costs incurred by allowing longer and heavier trucks on U.S. roads.
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The original legislation, which includes authorizing about $260 billion over five years for federal highway programs,contained a controversial provision allowing heavier tractor-trailer trucks on highways by increasing the federal weight limit from 80,000 pounds to 97,000 pounds. In some cases, it would have allowed 126,000-pound trucks onto highways.
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The legislation also would allow the largest rigs, which comprise two and sometimes three trailers, to be as much as 10 feet longer—a total length of more than 100 feet.
“All trips begin and end on local roads. The cost of fixing these roads is in the hands of local taxpayers. Heavier trucks will damage local roads, which are not built to handle the extra weight,” said Rep. Lou Barletta, R-Pennsylvania, who offered the amendment with Rep. Jerry Costello, D-Illinois.
“Local roads will become potholed, buckled, and broken much more quickly. They will need to be repaired and replaced sooner, and the cost for that will fall squarely on local governments and local taxpayers,” Barletta said in a statement.
But the Coalition for Transportation Productivity said this is a matter that has already been studied and it’s time to put heavier trucks on the road.
“It really is ‘Groundhog Day’ today because this very committee asked the Transportation Research Board to study this same issue back in 1998, and the Board strongly endorsed truck weight reform,” said CTP Executive Director John Runyan in a statement.
“There is no need to commit further study to this truck weight proposal. Voluminous academic research and practical on-the-ground experience has proven that states should have the option to put more productive, six-axle trucks on interstates.
The plain truth is that we have become a nation of trucks. We don’t use the railroads for anywhere near as much hauling as we once did. Trucks have the advantage of carrying your goods right to your door, instead of having to take another truck and go down to the RR depot to get your stuff. But today’s trucks are hard pressed to carry as much as it does. There is a strong need for more trucks and for bigger trucks. Another 15-60% load won’t change their mpg all that much; in the long run it is less expensive to carry more on fewer trips than it is to carry the current amount on more trips. And the government just put a stop to that idea. One more way this administration is (pardon the trucking pun) putting the brakes on any economic recovery.
It really is as simple as doing some basic arithmetic. An 18 wheeler tractor trailer distributes the load amongst 16 wheels. A 3 axle trailer would have 12 wheels; connected to the same tractor you’d get a 22 wheeler with 20 wheels carrying the load. Heavy load tractors already exist that have a 4th axle on the tractor that can be lowered to put 2 more wheels down on the road. That’s a 24 wheeler, with 22 wheels doing the hauling. Each tire has a set of brakes I believe, so the more tires you use the more braking you can achieve.
Current 80,000lb maximum load ÷ 16 wheels = 5000lb per wheel.
Suggested 97,000lb maximum load ÷ 20 wheels = 4850lb per wheel. The 3 axle trailers put 3% less weight on the road per wheel, and it’s the load per wheel that matters.
Suggested 126,000lb jumbo maximum load ÷ 20 wheels = 63000lb per wheel, a 23% increase over what the 18 wheelers haul around right now. Terrible. Bad bad bad. Is there any way out? Maybe. Let’s try it with a 4 axle tractor:
Suggested 126,000lb jumbo maximum load ÷ 22 wheels = 5727lb per wheel, which is still 15% more weight per wheel than what we see on the highways every day. Maybe we should go with a bit less weight?
Alternate 110,000lb jumbo maximum load ÷ 22 wheels = 5000lb per wheel. This is a 37.5% load increase over today’s 18 wheelers, but it has the exact same wheel loading as they do. Solution 1!
Alternate 100,000lb maximum load ÷ 20 wheels = 5000lb per wheel. This is a 20% load increase over today’s 18 wheelers, using today’s regular tractors and a 3 axle trailer, but it has the exact same wheel loading as current 18 wheelers do. Solution 2!
I think I just saved the government 3 years and many millions of dollars. They can cut me a check for 5% of the projected study cost, thanks. In the meantime they can throw some money at Goodyear to come up with a recap truck tire that stays together better. We have “tire-gators” all up and down the highways. I’ve seen them blow and have had to dodge the flying 100lb chunks of smoking rubber. No fun there at all. There has to be a better way to build a truck tire.
Ok, I’m not a fan of the triple trailer concept. I’ve never actually seen one, but they have those “road train” things out in the outback of Australia. More power to them, and perhaps they could be Ok here in the USA in the farm belt, where there is almost no other highway traffic. We have tandem rigs here in NJ, and that’s already quite a lot of truck, even though both trailers are of the shorter variety (40 or 45 feet I think, whereas large single trailers are up to 53 feet). Two 45s is already 90 feet, plus rig. Would a 53 and a 45 for a total of 98 feet plus rig be all that much different? I don’t think so.
Of course, one solution would be to only use trucks for source to hub and hub to destination haulage, and use trains for hub to hub. They are far more efficient on a per pound basis. Pity we let most of our railroads go to wrack and ruin 50+ years ago, and then built suburbia where the tracks used to be. Railroad freight cars are rated to carry 263,000lb, which is more than the weight of two of the suggested 97,000lb capacity trailers AND at least one of their tractors.
Posted by Drew458
on 02/03/2012 at 01:31 PM
Filed Under: • planes, trains, tanks, ships, big machinery, and automobiles •
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Permalink • On a Roll
We won 5-2 Tuesday in Greed League, which keeps us in 3rd place by a small margin. Only one spectacular score; the wins came from good teamwork where we all rolled well. Next week is a position round so we’ll have to do our best then too.
We won 7-0 last night in Cheap League. Same as last week. This lifts us into 2nd place and closes us to 10 points behind the leading team. Nice. We were supposed to play a team of beginners, and we would have given them a handicap larger than their best bowler’s average, but they didn’t show and they didn’t pre-bowl. So we had a bye, and we had to “earn the points” by bowling close to our team average, which is how forfeits are handled in bowling. So of course my team threw excellent games and we finished the first two games more than 100 over each. Heck, in game 2 we were only 1 pin below our record high game, which is tops in that league. Duh. Strategery? Not. At least we managed to roll poorly in game 3, finishing just 6 pins higher than our minimum required score. I was 55 over with a 235 in game 2, and my wife fired off a 215 that was 65 over her average. She’s suddenly figured out how to put some muscle behind the ball and has taken to rolling 5, 6, or more strikes in a row to start the game. That tires her out though, so she can’t keep it going for long. We’ll have to figure out some strength training exercises for her, so we can unleash her as our secret weapon. I really want her to blast past the other ladies on the league and have high series, high game, and high average for the season.
Posted by Drew458
on 02/03/2012 at 09:58 AM
Filed Under: • Bowling Blogging •
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