Vista On Current Events

Vista On Current Events Has Moved

2005-01-24T21:14:00.000-08:00

Now on a new server. Please update your "Favorites." Redirect disabled to make archives still available.

For all new posts since January 19, 2005 please click HERE.

UPDATE March 22: Due to the age of these archive files the comments and trackback have been turned off. Please visit the link above for my regular blog.

Nanotechnology-Produced Metal Rubber (citwire)

2005-01-18T03:30:00.000-08:00

Report via ScienCentral News by Karen Lurie.

Is this stuff awesome or what? Just like reading a superhero comic book. Metal Rubber bends and stretches like rubber yet conducts electricity the way metal does. Morphing aircraft, artificial muscles for robots and prosthetic replacements for lost limbs.

Enter Metal Rubber—a new patented material created by a team of researchers headed by Richard Claus, professor of materials sciences and engineering, and electrical and computer engineering at Virginia Tech. Claus’ team took six years to perfect Metal Rubber, collaborating with chemist Jennifer Lalli at NanoSonic, Inc., a Blacksburg, Virginia nanotechnology company of which Claus is president.

To make Metal Rubber, Claus and his team built it molecule by molecule, using a nanotechnology process they call "electrostatic molecular self-assembly," which means that Metal Rubber virtually assembles itself. "Molecular self-assembly is a process that's similar to the way that your bones grow," Claus explains. "Individual molecules are formed layer by layer on a surface."

The team starts with a plastic or glass substrate, or base, that they have given an electric charge, either positive or negative. Then they dip the base alternately into two water-based solutions, one containing plastic molecules that have been given a positive electrical charge, and the other containing plastic molecules with a negative charge. If the base has a positive charge, it goes into the negative molecules first, and they cling to the base, forming a layer only one molecule thick. After the next dipping, into positive molecules, a second ultra thin layer forms. Making Metal Rubber, Claus explains, is like “making a layer cake.”

Claus says that with Metal Rubber, nanotechnology has produced a material with many potential uses. One of the most exciting is to make what he calls "morphing aircraft structures. These are aircraft that dynamically change the shape of their wings and their control surfaces during flight," he explains. "Almost the way that a hawk might fly along, see prey, and change its shape to dive down. The hawk changes the shape of its body, and when it does that, it needs to be able to sense what the outside forces and pressures are so it knows how to fly. For a plane, you need a material that's mechanically flexible. But you also need a material with a surface that's controlled by sensors and electrical conductors that allow it to do that sensing and change shape accordingly. This material might allow sensors that can be flexed." Now NanoSonic is working in partnership with Lockheed Martin to explore Metal Rubber's potential in aerospace.

Scientists May Have Link That Explains SIDS

2005-01-18T03:13:00.000-08:00

Report via ScienCentral News by Stacey Young

Most pediatricians advise parents that babies should sleep on their backs. Beyonds that SIDS has remained a mystery.

SIDS is the number one cause of death in children under the age of one killing more than 3000 babies in the US a year, but scientists may have found a link.

Nino Ramirez, a neuroscientist at the University of Chicago, says that after nearly ten years spent unraveling the secrets of mouse nerve cells called pacemaker neurons he may have found the missing link that explains why some babies fall to SIDS. Ramirez and his team differentiated between two types of pacemaker cells active in the mouse brainstem that appear to control breathing—one group depends on calcium channels to operate and the other on sodium channels regulated by serotonin, a brain chemical known to influence mood.

The latter held particular interest for Ramirez since prior research showed that babies who died of SIDS had serotonin deficits in brain areas that controlled breathing. "The idea with the serotonin is as follows," he explains. "It's present within the nervous system and these nerve cells are sitting in a soup of this serotonin. They need this…in order to generate this intrinsic ability to burst." That bursting triggers the respiratory system to gasp, which resets breathing.

Two-Thirds of Voters in Baghdad to Cast Ballots

2005-01-18T02:50:00.000-08:00

More good news from Iraq via The Washington Times.

I believe that the Iraq election has a good chance to come out fairly well. If that happens I will be waiting anxiously for the response of the MSM nay-sayers that only see the elections doomed to failure. And if they do get a two thirds turnout what would the MSM say about that in light of our own.. what 60.1 percent?

The voter survey in the independent al-Mada newspaper, one of Iraq's most respected dailies, was conducted last week in eight main districts of Baghdad.

Based on a sample of 300 respondents, it found that 67 percent of Baghdad voters planned to participate. Twenty-five percent said they would not take part, and the rest were undecided.

A high turnout in the city of 5 million to 6 million could raise the credibility of the voting, which will take place under the threat of suicide bombings and other attacks on polling stations.

"These figures are positive and indicate that Iraqis are undeterred by the threats," a spokesman for Iraq's Independent Electoral Commission said.

Nevertheless, terrorists bent on sabotaging the election continued their grim work yesterday.

Witnesses said burned bodies were scattered in a police compound in Baiji after a car bomb killed at least seven policemen in the oil refining town north of Baghdad. At least 25 persons, mostly police, were wounded.

Gene Control Hits New Level

2005-01-18T02:43:00.000-08:00

Tiny RNA molecules prove more influential than imagined. "It'll have a profound effect on all areas of biology and medicine," says Debora Marks who studies the molecules at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts.

Wisconsin: A Red Sheep In Blue Wolfs Clothing? (citwire)

2005-01-18T01:27:00.000-08:00

Milwaukee's Election Commission has been criticized by Republican State Rep. Jeff Stone and others. The Wisconsin bloggers are abuzz with the unfolding story of more fraud in Milwaukee.

Report via the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Lawmaker criticizes voter verification process

At the center of the issue is a process by which those who register on election day are sent postcards to confirm the address before they are entered onto permanent voting rolls.

By law, Stone said, the process was to begin right after the election, though he says the cards were not sent until Jan. 6. Of the 83,000 or so same-day registrations, a number city officials acknowledge, Stone said he was told only 73,079 cards could be mailed.

That leaves a gap of about 10,000, which he argues is evidence of serious problems.

"The one fail-safe you have on these people is to the addresses on the cards," he said. "We have 10,000 of them that can't be verified."

It is unclear how many of the cards have been returned as undeliverable.

Badger Blog Alliance has the interview of Rep. Jeff Stone by WTMJ News Radio's Jeff Wagner. Excerpt follows:

Stone: There's 83,000 people who registered at the polls, and there's 10,000 we can't contact. That's just unbelievable.

Wagner: Now just to put it in perspective, that's, that 10,000 figure, these aren't cards that have been returned as undeliverable, right, these are cards they can't even send out because the information's so bad, right?

Stone: Exactly, and I, I think if, if the trend follows as we've seen before, we're going to see 10, 20, possibly even 30,000 of those cards that they did mail out that are going to be returned, and we're going to have just a tremendous number of votes that were cast that we can't account for the people that cast them. And I think that's just, uh, extremely detrimental to people's confidence in elections in this state overall.

Wagner: Now what's the reason you're being given for why they can't send out that, that 10,000, that they can't even mail them out to prove whether or not, ya know, somebody actually legitimately showed up to vote.

Stone: Well they said they're illegible, they said they, they used a term that some of them were duplicates. Now I don't know if that means the, and, and they haven't clarified that yet. Uh, which if you read the article you see that, uh, they're still trying to scrambling trying to come up with answers, but, umm, I don't know if that means they got two cards from the same person, or if they had cards filled out for people that were registered in other areas, but there is definitely a larger problem here that needs to be taken up, and I think it just points to a flaw in the way we cur-, that we have our elections structured currently, that there's no way to properly identify who's voting in our elections in this state right now.

Wagner: Well, and, as of, yeah, we still don't have an answer to all the, the phony addresses that were identified right before the election. Ya know, you had all these people who were registered to addresses that don't come back to valid addresses. We still don't have an answer as to how pervasive that problem is, either.

Stone: Well there were, you're exactly right. There were 37,000 of those addresses that were questionable, there's, um, and there was the agreement that was struck before the election that they were going to, uh, um, there were 5500 of those addresses that they were going to be checking at the polls, and ya know, all indications I have is that agreement was not lived up to on the part of Milwaukee Election Commission. So, ya know, there's just, it just is a problem that seems to be compounding the deeper you look into it

Patrick at My View of the World blog has a good roundup of recent stories on the Milwaukee regisgration fraud.

Brainpost has a history on it that goes back well before the election.

For anyone out of state is thinking the Wisconsin bloggers are just whining because our state is BLUE, we are not. The states voting system is beyond broken, and needs to be fixed before the next election. I would be equally as outraged had the state been RED.

Update: Captain's Quarters has dug up some interesting numbers.

Iraqi Expatriates Register For Election (citwire)

2005-01-17T23:41:00.000-08:00

Report via Internet Ottawa (AP News)

This is not absentee voting by mail, but polling places set up in 14 countries including American cities.

Al Taee, 37, of Phoenix, was among thousands of Iraqi expatriates who showed up at polling stations in 14 countries from Australia to the United States on Monday to register to vote in their homeland's first independent election in nearly 50 years.

Cities in four other states held registration for the Jan. 30 election, including Michigan, Tennessee, Maryland and Illinois. About 240,000 Iraqis are eligible to vote in the United States, according to Roger Bryant of the International Center for Migration, which is in charge of the overseas voting for the Iraqi government.

Eligible voters can be American citizens, but must be 18 or older, have been born in Iraq, hold citizenship or prove that their father was Iraqi.

Preparations for the election around the world mirrored those in Iraq itself, where the top U.S. general there predicted violence during the national election but pledged Monday to do "everything in our power" to ensure safety of voters.

Eligible Iraqis abroad - estimated to number 1.2 million - can vote in Britain, Australia, Sweden, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Iran, Jordan, the Netherlands, Syria, Turkey, United Arab Emirates and the United States.

A Tsunami Email Plea Is Really A Virus (citwire)

2005-01-17T22:25:00.000-08:00

Report via My Way News (Reuters)

Shortly after the tsunami disaster suspicious emails started cropping up asking for donations.

Well now we have another email that poses as a plea for helping the tsunami victims that is a vehicle for spreading a computer virus. Web security firm Sophos confirms the virus report.

The worm appears with the subject line: "Tsunami donation! Please help!" and invites recipients to open an attachment called "tsunami.exe" -- which, if opened, will forward the virus to other Internet users.

It could also initiate a denial-of-service attack against a German hacking Web Site, Sophos said, in which the site's server would be bombarded with messages, putting it out of action.

"Duping innocent users into believing that they may be helping the tsunami disaster aid efforts shows hackers stooping to a new low," Sophos senior technology consultant Graham Cluley said in a statement.

Even most criminals and thiefs have some scruples, but the lowlife like the people that develope crud like this are devoid of all feelings beyond their own.

Chinese Firms Punished For Aiding Iran (citwire)

2005-01-17T22:03:00.000-08:00

Report via The New York Times

Penalties have been imposed by the Bush administration on some of China's largest companies for aiding Iranian balllistic Mssile improvements.

The White House made no public announcement of the penalties, and the State Department placed a one-page notice on page 133 of The Federal Register early this month listing eight Chinese companies affected. The notice kept classified the nature of the technology they had exported.

[...]

China has repeatedly vowed to curb its sales of missile technology, starting with an agreement with the first Bush administration in 1992, and expanded with the Clinton administration in 2000.

But two of the largest companies cited in the State Department's list, China Great Wall Industry Corporation and China North Industry Corporation, known as Norinco, have been repeatedly penalized for more than a decade; each is closely linked to the Chinese military.

A third company on the penalties list, the China Aero-Technology Import and Export Corporation, or Catic, is one of the country's largest producers of military aircraft and was accused of diverting to military use sophisticated machine tools bought from McDonnell Douglas. Eighteen months ago, a senior State Department official, Paula A. DeSutter, referred to several of the companies as part of China's "serial proliferator problem," and told a Congressional commission on relations between the United States and China that although the Chinese government had often repeated its opposition to missile proliferation, "the reality has been quite different."

Iran is also suspected of having a Chinese bomb design that was aquired from Pakistan.

Pentagon Lashes Out At Iran Claim (citwire)

2005-01-17T14:52:00.000-08:00

Pentagon officials thrashed out at a New Yorker Magazine report by Seymour Hersh, that claims they were preparing for possible strikes in Iran. That the US was carrying out secret reconnaissance missions inside Iran, to drastically expand the war on terrorism. The Pentagon said the article contains "fantastic claims" that don't exist.

Hersh claims that President George W. Bush has plans to drastically expand the war on terrorism, and that he has already signed executive orders authorising secret commando operations against terrorist targets in up to ten middle eastern and south Asian countries, including Iran.

The Iranian operation, which the article claims has been underway since last summer, intends to identify as many three dozen Iranian military or nuclear sites for US missile attacks or commando raids.

Lawrence DiRita, the Pentagon's chief spokesman, said in a statement on Monday that many of the facts upon which the story is based are inaccurate. Neither he nor Dan Bartlett, the White House spokesman, commented directly on the commando operations claim, however.

"Mr Hirsch's sources feed him with rumour, innuendo, and assertions about meetings that never happened, programmes that do not exist, and statements by officials that were never made," the Mr DiRita said.

In the New Yorker Magazine Seymour Hersh started his story out with:

The President and his national-security advisers have consolidated control over the military and intelligence communities to a degree unmatched since the rise of the post-Second World War national-security state—and President Bush has an aggressive and ambitious agenda for using that control against Iran and against targets in the ongoing war on terrorism.

Consolildated control maybe, but apparently not so secure. Either the Pentagon or the White House has some terrible war time leaks, or Seymour Hersh has some pretty poor sources. My guess would be the latter.

Scalpers: Inaugural Ball Business Brisk (citwire)

2005-01-17T12:53:00.000-08:00

Fox News story

Tickets to an inaugural ball: About $150.
Cost of renting a tux: About $75.
Watching the inauguration in person: Priceless?

Tickets to the president's swearing-in, thousands of which were handed out free by congressional offices, are now commanding hundreds of dollars from scalpers who are hawking them on Web sites like eBay and in the classified section of local papers.

Entrepreneurs are also selling tickets to the inaugural balls, parade and other events at steeply marked-up prices. Ball tickets that were available for $150 through the Presidential Inauguration Committee are now selling for about $1,000, for example.

Take a look at some of these prices on Ebay!

Hat tip to John Cole at Balloon Juice.

Teacher Hits Emotional Wall After Attack (citwire)

2005-01-17T00:46:00.000-08:00

Story via The Virginian-Pilot.

SUFFOLK — On paper, Lisa W. Rath’s ordeal ends Tuesday. A juvenile court judge will sentence one of her students, a girl who savagely beat her in a King’s Fork Middle School hallway last year.

But not everything is in the court record.

Not the nightmares. Not the panic attacks. Not the answers to the Big Question: Will she be able to put this behind her and stand in front of a classroom again?

Read the rest of this heart wrenching story about a teacher who could not find closure with her fear in the classroom. Now at age 38 Lisa Rath is preparing for a change of careers.

The Depressed Press (citwire)

2005-01-17T00:13:00.000-08:00

Report via The New York Times Op-Ed Columnist William Safire.

William Safire has five points of comfort and thoughts for the depressed press. You can read them for yourself, but here are the first two.

1. On the challenge from bloggers: The "platform" - print, TV, Internet, telepathy, whatever - will change, but the public hunger for reliable information will grow. Blogs will compete with op-ed columns for "views you can use," and the best will morph out of the pajama game to deliver serious analysis and fresh information, someday prospering with ads and subscriptions. The prospect of profit will bring bloggers in from the meanstream to the mainstream center of comment and local news coverage.

On national or global events, however, the news consumer needs trained reporters on the scene to transmit facts and trustworthy editors to judge significance. In crises, large media gathering-places are needed to respond to a need for national community.

2. On resentment of media elitism by awakened cultural and religious voices: They're not crazies. Their opinions on stem cells and same-sex marriage are newsworthy and not an assault on church-state separation. Protests at "wardrobe malfunction" and campaigns against state-sponsored gambling are neither bluenosed nor repressive.

But there is no need for sensible seculars in mainstream media to feel an urgent call to get right with religion. It's O.K. to say "Merry Christmas" at the end of a newscast without worrying about equal greeting for Ramadan and Hanukkah and Kwanzaa and all the rest.

Read the last three [here]

Iraqi Vote 'Is on Track' (citwire)

2005-01-16T23:53:00.000-08:00

The voting lists have been checked, the ballots printed. Red stain is ready to mark the finger of each voter, and the poll locations and names of candidates -- until now secret -- soon will be published. Despite threats, a rushed timetable and the murder of eight election workers, preparations for Iraq's elections are almost finished

B'nai B'rith Canada Supports Gender Non-Equality (citwire)

2005-01-16T23:18:00.000-08:00

Report via HAARETZ.com

B'nai Brith Canada is an independent voice of the Jewish community. B'nai B'rith Canada is supporting conservative Muslims who are demanding to have the right to use private arbitration based on Islamic laws for the determination of marital, custody and inheritance disputes.

In a report sent to the Ontario Attorney General last month, it recommended that family arbitration based on Islamic law be permitted, though regulated under the provinces' Arbitration Act.

The move has rightfully angered both Muslim womens groups, and Jewish feminists.

"B'nai B'rith is supporting the more conservative elements in the Muslim community, and that's not good for women," said Ester Reiter, a secular Jewish feminist and a professor of women's studies at Toronto's York University. "I'm not sure what a smart idea that was. Tradition should not be used as an excuse for limiting gender equality."

The decision of B'nai B'rith Canada also is likely to surprise some observers, who have noted its tendency to oppose Muslim groups on foreign policy issues.

If the proposal is adopted, it would be the first recognition of Islamic law, or Sharia, in any Western society. Sharia is a centuries-old system of justice based on the Koran. While it includes general invocations of justice and equality, it has been used in some Muslim nations to justify stoning of adulteresses, flogging of rape victims and various types of mutilation.

While Ontario Muslims favoring Sharia are not seeking its application in criminal matters, they want it approved for arbitration of family and civil matters. Even this is controversial. Under Sharia, male heirs receive almost double the inheritance of females. Alimony is limited to a period ranging from three months to one year, unless a woman was pregnant before she was divorced. Only men can initiate divorce proceedings, and fathers virtually always are awarded custody of any children who have reached puberty.

The government report noted that religious-based arbitration can only bind parties who voluntarily submit their dispute to the process, and even then the arbitrator cannot impose settlements that are contrary to the gender equality guarantees contained in the Canadian Charter of Rights. Also, the federal Divorce Act would continue to require that "the best interests of the child" be the criterion in custody decisions.

B'nai B'rith Canada and pro-Sharia Muslims contended in submissions to the government inquiry that rabbinical courts have functioned successfully as arbitration forums in Canada for generations, and that Islamic courts must be given the same rights under Canadian constitutional guarantees of equality and freedom of religion.

The attitude of the Jewish B'nai Brith makes absolutely no sense. Apparently in the past, they have worked to to assist the community in eliminating antisemitism, and fostered goodwill. This is out of character for their organization.

If Canada condones this practice, it would be akin to letting a religious fringe in the US under self imposed laws bring back those years when women couldn't vote or work outside the home, are totally governed at the whim of their husbands. Bah!

Boldly Go Where No Man Has Gone Before (Citwire)

2005-01-16T04:40:00.000-08:00

Source: NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Source: ESA Cassini-Huygens

A boundary between high, lighter-coloured terrain and
darker lowland area on Titan.

Full story of Huygens Probe
Audio data (decent wind) collected by the Huygens - mp3
Decent radar echos converted to audio
Small Video JPL Clip (QuickTime) 0.9 MB
Large Video JPL Clip (QuickTime) 4.6 MB

Aid Corruption? - Spotlight On Indonesia (Citwire)

2005-01-16T03:12:00.000-08:00

Report via Yahoo News

With Indonesia one of Transparency International's worst top ten offenders, and an unrestrained reputation for kickbacks, collusion and bribery, the temptation is not small matter.

With 10 billion dollars of aid on the table, bookkeeping brushed aside by the urgency of the situation, how long can we trust such a large cash windfall passing through the hands of greedy bureaucrats.

Transparency International ranks Indonesia in its top 10 of worst offenders, with an ungovernable reputation for kickbacks, collusion and bribery that has scared away badly needed foreign investment.

Aceh's governor Abdullah Puteh is behind bars at the moment, accused in a helicopter purchase embezzlement scam worth 100,000 dollars -- a paltry sum compared to the 35 billion allegedly amassed by former dictator Suharto (news - web sites).

New President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who has described his country's lack of probity as the laughing stock of Asia, said after the disaster that the misappropriation of relief funds would not be tolerated.

"It's a very serious problem," according US ambassador to Jakarta B. Lynn Pascoe, who says Indonesia will receive a substantial part of 350 million dollars promised by the United States.

Despite the concerns, there are indications that the Indonesian government is taking steps to prevent corruption as it strives for credibility on an international stage upon which it is a relative newcomer.

Shorter Immigrant Waits Key To Immigration Reform

2005-01-16T02:45:00.000-08:00

Report via the Houston Chronicle

We have a need to legally allow immigrants to enter the US. There is a need for labor that is required for our economy which is not being met within our boarders. The problem is that with legal immigration the wait is just too unrealistic.

With the processing time for labor certification of workers presently is a astonishing three to five years. It is no small wonder that this is an insurmountable time to wait for potential foreign workers seeking jobs in the US. Also with many states making Department of Labor cuts the lines just get longer.

While President Bush has called for a guest worker program that has been decried by many in his own party, little attention has been focused on regulations published in recent weeks by the Department of Labor, which seeks to address this issue. In contrast to legislation proposed by Bush, which would only provide temporary working visas, these new regulations provide the basis for lawful permanent resident status that could lead to citizenship.

The stated goal of the new regulations is to reduce the processing time for certification to 45 to 60 days.

The Department of Labor has spent the past two years working with industry groups to develop regulations that would balance the needs of employers with safeguards against abuse. Currently, more than 315,000 potential foreign workers are awaiting a decision on their respective applications for positions in the United States.

In every case, these are jobs U.S. employers have been unable to find U.S. workers to fill.

With diminishing resources at the Department of Labor, the wait has grown increasingly longer. With such uncertainty, it is little wonder that companies have turned to outsourcing and that many of the most talented scientists, teachers and researchers have elected to seek immigration to other countries.

So it appears that at least the Department of Labor has been working on the problem for a couple of years at least. I have heard nothing from the administration or congress on this, and wonder why they are not working with the Department of Labor to shorten the wait. If they can really get the wait down to one and a half to two months instead of three to five years, it would reduce the long lines and probably go a long way towards diminishing the incentive for immigrants to enter illegally.

Couple that with tighter illegal imigration and more secure documention for drivers license and voting, and we would finally be making progress on the overall problem of illegal aliens.

North Dallas Thirty a worthy Texas blogger has been following related immigration stories here, here and here.

Justices Debate International Law: Update

2005-01-15T13:24:00.000-08:00

Update: on "Justices Debate International Law On TV," that I posted yesterday from an article in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

The Scalia v. Breyer transcript has been posted at the American University Washington College of Law.

Thanks to Power Line and Professor Anderson's Law of War and Just War Theory Blog for the link.

The Terry McAuliffe Syndrome

2005-01-15T01:15:00.000-08:00

Dan Gerstein was director of communications for Sen. Joe Lieberman and a strategist for Lieberman's presidential campaign. Gerstein's choice for the new DNC chair is Simon Rosenberg.

After reading this Gerstein article in the WSJ Opinion Journal, I think if I were a Democrat I would want Dan Gerstein to be the new DNC chairman. You'll want to read the whole thing, but here are a couple of the highlights.

We chose as our House and Senate leaders (and thus the public face of the party) Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid--two honorable, decent people who nevertheless have done little to inspire confidence that they could successfully fight a parking ticket, let alone the war against terrorism. We chose (by abdicating responsibility to two extreme-ish members of Congress) to mount a formal, indignation-filled challenge to the results in Ohio--despite the fact that George Bush won by 100,000 votes, as compared to the 537 he (ostensibly) won by in Florida.

[...]

Of course, upgrading the salesmen won't dramatically change the results if we don't also upgrade the product we're marketing. Right now the clear majority of voters--including large swaths of the country--don't trust us to keep them safe or share their values, and we have a long way to go to rethink our messages and policies and ultimately rehabilitate our credibility. But we have to remember that politics is the art of persuasion, and in this era of diminishing party identification, elections more and more are tough tests of individual leadership. This last presidential campaign proved that in spades. And our test now as Democrats is whether we can select and empower strong, savvy and compelling men and women to not only chart our course but change it.

[...]

The bottom line? We need more bottom-line thinking before we decamp to New Hampshire once again. Adapt or Die, I say.

Sri Lanka: 9 Women Claim Same Baby

2005-01-15T01:02:00.000-08:00

Story via The Jerusalem Post

This is really sad. All these mothers grieving for a child they lost. Maybe the baby doesn't belong to any of the nine, but in their depair they all want to (need to) believe.

The infant dubbed "Baby 81" nurses from a bottle of milk and kicks playfully at a pink blanket as nine desperate, heartbroken women quarrel over him, all claiming he was torn from them by last month's tsunami.

One man standing outside the nursery at Kalmunai Base Hospital threatened to kill himself and his wife if they are not given the baby. A woman at the hospital said she would kill the doctors if he is not returned to her.

The battle over the wide-eyed boy, who appears to be about three or four months old, symbolizes the enormous loss in the Dec. 26 tsunami disaster.
Children accounted for a staggering 40 percent, or 12,000, of Sri Lanka's death toll of nearly 31,000. In all, nearly 160,000 people have died across southern Asia.

The loss is especially keenly felt in the Ampara district, where the fight over "Baby 81" is taking place. There were 10,436 people killed in Ampara, the highest in Sri Lanka.

Gay Marriage Ban Passes Kansas Senate

2005-01-15T00:52:00.000-08:00

Report via The Wichita Eagle

The gay marriage backlash contines. The Kansas Senate voted 28-11 Thursday in favor of a bill that will block same sex marriage. The bill still has to pass the house which could vote on it before the end of the month.

If the bill also passes the Kansas house of representatives it will go on the April 5th ballot, along with city and school board races. It will only require a simple majority of voters to add the amendment to the Kansas Constitution.

"On an issue of this magnitude, it is the only right thing to do to allow the people to exercise their vote," said Sen. Les Donovan, R-Wichita, echoing statements of other senators who voted for the amendment.

Democrats Donald Betts of Wichita and Greta Goodwin of Winfield voted against it, saying it had discriminatory language and would open the state up to costly and needless lawsuits.

"I was not going to place anything in the constitution that would outright discriminate," Betts said. "It's just a sad day."

Sen. Jean Schodorf, R-Wichita, said she voted for the amendment to reflect the "huge number of constituents" who favored it. But she personally plans to vote against it if it is placed on a statewide ballot.

[...]

The proposed amendment approved by the Senate has two parts: a definition of marriage as being between a man and a woman, and a second part that says only couples fitting that definition can be granted the "rights or incidents" of marriage.

This has been a hot issue since activists started skirting the legal system and pushing for court rulings. Personally I do not care if gays, lesbians, or those that are transgendered marry whom ever they wish. It doesn't affect other marriages, nor diminish them. Nor do I oppose Civil Unions where they can be gained.

However I do oppose marriage benefits including survivor benefits, hosp visitation etc unless they are also granted equally to gay and straight couples in living together relationships. To do otherwise would be discriminatory.

TSA: Arsonists OK as Hazmat Haulers

2005-01-14T03:09:00.000-08:00

Hat tip to Michelle Malkin for this jaw dropping report.

WWTI News50 has a Scripps Howard News Service report that is almost unbelievable. Without further comment I'll just let you read this excerpt for yourself. (Warning swallow any coffee, pop or other sprayable liquids before you read.)

The federal government wants to change its current rules to permit convicted arsonists to get special licenses so they can drive gasoline tankers and trucks loaded with explosives and hazardous materials.

But murderers and convicted racketeers will no longer be permitted to drive hazardous materials on the nation's interstates.

"Arson is not always an act of terrorism," the Transportation Security Administration declared in proposing the new regulations that would permit the agency to review on a case-by-case basis whether convicted arsonists should get the special licenses allowing them to drive gasoline trucks, or other vehicles carrying hazardous materials.

Under the Patriot Act, the TSA - a branch of the new Department of Homeland Security - was directed to issue special federal certifications to the commercial licenses held by truck drivers who haul hazardous chemicals, gasoline tankers and explosives.

What next? Pedifiles driving school bus? Armed robbery convicts to drive Brinks trucks? And this is coming from the Transportation Security Administration, which under the Patriot Act, is now a branch of the new Department of Homeland Security.

So far I haven't located this story elsewhere but you can't make this crap up.

Unbelievable!

Iraqis Respond To Leaflets Distributed By "Militant Groups"

2005-01-14T02:39:00.000-08:00

This 'untranslated' ArabicBBC site put up a forum for the readers to discuss the subject of some of the "militant groups" that distributed leaflets threatening the Iraqis who decide to participate in the elections. The comments have been 'translated' and Omar has them posted on "Iraq The Model."

The ArabicBBC site put up a forum for the readers to discuss the subject of some of the "militant groups" that distributed leaflets threatening the Iraqis who decide to participate in the elections, whether voters or candidates.
The total number of commentators was 141; the Iraqis were 104 and 37 were Arabs from other countries till the post was prepared.
89 of the participating Iraqis were strongly with the elections and determined to go to the boxes on the elections day in spite of the threats.
15 were against the elections, for different reasons.

13 of the Arab participants were also against the elections while the rest of them (24) were supportive of the Iraqis in holding the elections on time.

I will not try to offer my optimistic comments and views about the situation in Iraq, instead I will shut up and let my fellow Iraqis speak for themselves and let you then decide what you think about it.

The comments list is quite lengthly, so please if you are interested in good news, go to "Iraq The Model" and read the 141 comments. You will enjoy the read.

Justices Debate International Law On TV

2005-01-14T01:45:00.000-08:00

Report via the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

In an event broadcast on C-SPAN US Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia and Justice Stephin Breyer exchanged barbs over citing international law in deciding US cases.

Scalia called it "arrogance" of U.S. judges who seek to decide politically charged questions involving gay rights and the death penalty by citing international law.

"What you're looking for are the standards of decency of American society," Scalia said. "What does an opinion of a wise Zimbabwe judge have to do with what Americans believe?

"Doesn't it seem arrogant to think I can decide moral views for penology, death penalty and abortion?" he said, arguing that elected legislatures should make those decisions.

Breyer responded that international opinion can be relevant in determining fundamental freedoms in a more global society.

More relevant in a global society your Honor, but I don't appreciate your willingness to decide my rights on the opinions of such countries as one finds in the United Nations.

"U.S. law is not handed down from on high even at the U.S. Supreme Court," he [Breyer] said. "The law emerges from a conversation with judges, lawyers, professors and law students. ... It's what I call opening your eyes as to what's going on elsewhere."

If "law emerges from a conversation with judges, lawyers, professors and law students," then why the heck do we elect legislators? And what purpose is left for our constitution? I would think even liberals would gasp at the statements Breyer is making there.

It would be a wonderful service to our way of life if everyone in the country could read that last statement by Justice Breyer. Lets hope he will be replaced soon.

But Scalia and Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and Clarence Thomas, both fellow conservatives, have derided the relevance. If justices believe foreign judgments are decisive on these moral cases, they should ban abortion since most other countries do so, Scalia said.

Update: Hindrocket at Power Line agrees with me on Justice Breyer's claim that: "The law emerges from a conversation with judges, lawyers, professors and law students." Hindrockets analysis is excelent.

Variety Of Protests Planned For Inauguration

2005-01-13T23:48:00.000-08:00

Report via The Washington Post

Wednesday portesters unveiled specifics about their plans to counter Bush's inauguration next week. One group has said it is considering a lawsuit to gain more access to the parade route.

Demonstrators said they would mount nearly a dozen rallies and marches in Washington along the Pennsylvania Avenue parade route and throughout downtown. The events, planned and sponsored separately, involve a mix of activists embracing causes that include opposition to the Iraq war, women's rights and the environment. A band of self-styled anarchists also plans to demonstrate.

"This is a people's uprising," said Shahid Buttar, 30, a Washington lawyer involved in the D.C. Cluster Spokescouncil, a coordinating body for about 50 local and out-of-town protest groups.

Wow! one lawyer (or firm) coordinating 50 protest groups. I wonder how much per group he is scaming them for?

Anti-Bush demonstrators said they plan a mix of tactics. Some said they hope to provide a left-leaning response to the celebratory pageantry; others said they wanted to disrupt the festivities.

Anarchist Resistance said it will stage a "festive and rowdy march" from Franklin Square. A message posted on its Web site says: "There's nothing left to salvage in this empire that is the U.S. government. It's time to bring it down."

Some less-radical protesters plan to turn their backs on the president as the motorcade passes as part of a Turn Your Back on Bush event. Critical Mass bicyclists are planning two rides, from Union Station and Dupont Circle.

Speaker To 8th Graders: Stripping Is A Lucrative Career

2005-01-13T23:17:00.000-08:00

Report via SFGate

Palo Alto school officials reconsider if it was wise to use a certain popular speaker. At an annual career day William Fried, president of Foster City's Precision Selling, a management consulting firm, advised middle school students that they could earn a good living as strip dancers.

William Fried told eighth-graders at Jane Lathrop Stanford Middle School that stripping and exotic dancing could be lucrative career moves for girls, offering as much as $250,000 or more per year, depending on their bust size.

[...]

But on Tuesday, some students asked Fried to expand on why he included "exotic dancing" on the list.

Fried spent about a minute answering questions, defining strippers and exotic dancers synonymously. He told students, "For every two inches up there, you should get another $50,000 on your salary," student Jason Garcia, 14, said.

Is it any wonder more parents are sending their kids to private shcools? This idiot shouldn't even be allowed in a middle school let alone lecture students. The schools are not there to teach exotic dancing, or how to increase their bust size.

Michelle Malkin has a couple more related links.

Jan 15 Update: Joe Gandelman writing for Dean's World knows how careers should be taught.

Moss Implies He Won't Stop At Pretend Moon

2005-01-13T22:09:00.000-08:00

Report via ESPN Sports

Though I am a Packer fan I have never had anything against Randy Moss of the Vikings—before now that is. What a pompas ass.

His flippant egotistical remarks to a reporter were recorded by KARE-TV of Minneapolis after he was fined $10,000 for pretending to pull down his pants and moon the Green Bay crowd during a playoff win last weekend.

Reporter: "Write the check yet, Randy?"

Moss: "When you're rich you don't write checks."

Reporter: "If you don't write checks, how do you pay these guys?"

Moss: "Straight cash, homey."

Reporter: "Randy, are you upset about the fine?"

Moss: "No, cause it ain't [expletive]. Ain't nothing but 10 grand. What's 10 grand to me? Ain't [expletive] … Next time I might shake my [expletive]."

Peter Hadhazy, league director of game operations, penalized Moss $10,000 for unsportsmanlike conduct for his antics. Hmm—If he shakes his [expletive] I wonder what kind of fine that would produce.

US Military Concidered 'Sex Bomb'

2005-01-13T22:03:00.000-08:00

I suppose in practice this wouldn't be very funny, but I sure got a chuckle out of reading it.

A "SEX bomb" that would make enemy soldiers irresistible to each other was considered by the US military.

Photo Blogging The Strange

2005-01-13T01:45:00.000-08:00

Some more photo blogging from WFTV Slideshow. Some of these are so good I should start a weekly or monthly caption contest.

This first one of the bear is my favorite. Officers planned to sedate the bear, but they were worried what might happen if the bear got loose in the hospital. So an officer shot and killed the bear.

Oh! oh! - If you think STAT gets them moving...

A 300-pound, male, black bear walks through the halls of Carilion Franklin Memorial Hospital. People in the background have not seen the bear at the time of this picture.

Are you sure this is harbor road?

British entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson, with Neil Jenkins, left, managing director of Gibbs Aquada, nears the French coast at Calais after regaining the record for crossing the English Channel in an amphibious vehicle.

I'm so hungry I could eat a horse—but this will do.

A man takes a piece of the world's biggest sandwich. The cheese, ham, mayonnaise and lettuce sandwich which measures 3.50 x 3.50 meters (11.5 x 11.5 feet) holds a Guinness Record.

Not exactly your everyday slow speed chase is it?

Taiwan Police on motorscooters attempt to pull over an ostrich who escaped from a children's petting zoo. The ostrich eluded capture.

Science And Technology News

2005-01-13T00:41:00.000-08:00

Reuters London: Martini Galaxy Has a Bar That Lures Astronomers

Reuters San Diego: 'Ultrasound for Stars' Reveals Stellar Embryos

ABC News: NASA Launches Comet-Smashing Spacecraft

MSNBC: How the human genome is transforming medicine

British Journal of Medicine: Migraine may be a risk factor for stroke

The Washington Post: Drugmakers Launch Discounts for Uninsured

US Warns Russia On Selling Missiles To Syria

2005-01-12T23:58:00.000-08:00

News report via Yahoo News

The US has warned Russia not to sell missiles to Syria. Reports indicate that Moscow is ready to provide Syria with weapons that could hit targets in Israel. Russia denies it has any plans to sell weapons to Syria.

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Washington could consider sanctions against Moscow if it went through with reported plans to sell Syria its SS-26 Iskander missile.

Secretary of State Colin Powell also raised the reported sale in talks here Wednesday with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov, according to a State Department official speaking on condition of anonymity.

"The US policy on this is very clear," Boucher said. "We're against the sale of weaponry to Syria, against the sale of lethal military equipment to Syria, which is a state sponsor of terrorism."

He said the United States was aware of reports a deal was brewing and "we think those kinds of sales are not appropriate. ... The Russians know about this policy. They know about our views."

The Russian media carried reports of the planned sale as Syrian President Bashar al-Assad prepared to visit Russia on January 24 for talks with President Vladimir Putin.

Update: Reuters International News: Israel Opposes 'Russia-Syria Missile Deal'

Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom did not confirm details but told Reuters: "We held discussions on this here among ourselves a few days ago. We hope to reach the necessary understandings with the Russian government."

A spokesman for the Foreign Ministry in Moscow said he had no knowledge of a Russian-Syrian arms deal in the works.

Fossil Fuel Curbs May Speed Global Warming

2005-01-12T23:41:00.000-08:00

Global warming is a strong possibility, and the scientific research has produced a lot of interesting data. However the data is so incomplete and spoty that there is nothing useful for computer modeling beyond hazarding an educated guess. As we know that isn't science. Nor is a strong concensus among a group of scientists. As Michael Crichton says concensus is politics, and if it's concensus it isn't science.

A science news article in London Reuters says cutting back on fossil fuel pollution could accelerate global warming. Also that it could turn parts of Europe into a desert by 2100. A BBC Horizon documentary to be aired on British television Thursday called, "Global Dimming," will describe the research suggesting fossil fuel by-products canceling out the greenhouse effect.

The researchers say cutting down on the burning of coal and oil, one of the main goals of international environmental agreements, will drastically heat rather than cool climate.

"When the cooling affect goes away -- and it must do because particles like sulfur dioxide are damaging to humans -- global warming will be much stronger," climate change scientist Dr Peter Cox told Reuters on Wednesday.

Take away fossil fuel by-products like sulfur dioxide without tackling greenhouse gas emissions, and the extra heat will speed warming, irreversibly melting ice sheets and rendering rain forests unsustainable within decades, Dr Cox said.

Western Aid Winning Hearts

2005-01-12T23:14:00.000-08:00

Report via NEWS.com.au

A spokesman for Abu Bakar Bashir (who is on trial for terrorism), the spiritual head of Jemaah Islamiah said he is losing the battle for the hearts and minds of Aceh's tsunami survivors because of US and Australian humanitarian assistance.

"We are suspicious of the presence of foreign soldiers and their show of force and the minimum publicity given to assistance from Arab states," said Fauzan Al Anshari, a spokesman for Bashir's militant Majelis Mujahidin Indonesia group.

"It's dangerous, this idea by Acehnese that US and Australian forces are their guardian angels - more popular than the TNI [Indonesian Armed Forces]."

Mr Anshari quoted Bashir as warning against any long-term hidden agenda in the deployment of Australian and US troops, saying he feared their presence in Aceh was like that of colonial invaders.

"If they establish a permanent base there, it will lead to trouble," he said.

Downplaying the mercy role of troops working to rebuild where more than a 100,000 people were lost when the tsunami struck on Boxing Day, Mr Anshari warned that they would promote prostitution and the consumption of alcohol in the devoutly Muslim region.

AIDS Problem Growing In Russia

2005-01-12T23:08:00.000-08:00

AP news story via Yahoo News

A new study in Russia is showing HIV/AIDS is spreading at a devastating pace. An estimated 1 million people are infected, three times the official number reported.

A recently released 90-page report by Murray Feshbach and Cristina Galvin of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars urged Russian authorities to take aggressive steps to fight the epidemic. The study was sponsored by U.S. Agency for International Development.

According to official statistics, Russia has some 300,000 HIV-positive people. But Feshbach, as well as Russian experts, said the true number is closer to 1 million. The study estimated the number of AIDS deaths in Russia at 13,000, almost three times the official figure of 4,800.

If officials ignore the problem, "the consequences will be devastating to the society, family formation, to the military, labor productivity" within two to three years, Feshbach said by telephone from Washington.

Local experts say authorities are not getting the message.

Dino Rossi's Statement On The Inauguration

2005-01-12T22:33:00.000-08:00

Sound Politics has Dino Rossi's statement on yesterday's inauguration.

I agree with the current governor that every vote should be counted, but with an important distinction: Every legal vote should be counted, and every vote should have a voter. I don’t think that’s too high of a standard to ask for

Read the rest [here].

Tell a lawyer joke, go to jail?

2005-01-12T13:46:00.000-08:00

Did you hear the one about the two guys arrested for telling lawyer jokes?

Pair arrested outside Long Island courthouse.

Does HIV cause AIDS?

2005-01-12T12:58:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow at Dean's World the discussion will continue on the subject of HIV not causing the AIDS epidemic. Dr Harvey Baily will show why.

Pertinent previous Dean's World links.

HIV Discussion: Supplemental Materials
Six Questions On The HIV-AIDS Hypothesis
Has The Status Quo Changed?
Those "Safe" AIDS Drugs
Forcing AIDS Medication On HIV+ Children
A Conversation
HIV Skepticism
Scientific Dissenters

New Error Found In Vote Tally

2005-01-12T11:37:00.000-08:00

This report via The Seattle Times. Thanks to Deans World for the heads-up.

From the Washington state election debacle comes more admissions of more mistakes. This comes three days after election officials had explained most of the controversial discrepancy.

The number of votes now unaccounted for is "somewhere around 1,800," county Elections Superintendent Bill Huennekens said yesterday.

It's impossible to come up with a precise number, Huennekens said, because workers are adding and deleting names of registered voters as they update the list in preparation for a Feb. 8 special election.

Huennekens said the numbers released Friday were wrong because the names of 1,003 voters appeared twice on the voter list. Not all of them voted in the November election. Computer experts are trying to figure out why some names were on the list twice.

Um... instead of blaming the computers, wouldn't a better place to look be the data being fed to the computers, or questioning the people that handled the data? From my experience computers don't make that kind of mistakes without outside help.

Huennekens' boss, county Elections Director Dean Logan, said Friday many of the unexplained ballots probably were cast by registered voters who failed to sign in when they went to polling places.

Probably? And if not?... Just count them anyway I guess.

In addition to the approximately 1,800 votes county officials can't account for, Logan said up to 348 voters improperly put provisional ballots into counting machines at polling places before their signatures or eligibility had been verified.

Provisional ballots, which are identical to regular poll ballots, can't be separated from poll ballots after they are inserted into a tabulator. Provisional ballots are used when a voter goes to the wrong polling place or there is a question about his or her eligibility.

Oops! Those weren't supposed to go in there, "My bad."

State Republican Party Chairman Chris Vance yesterday called the unexplained votes and improperly cast provisional ballots "unconscionable. ... When the election is decided by 129 votes and in King County you've got 2,000 more votes than voters, this election is invalid on its face."

Democratic Party spokeswoman Lisa Cohen said the results of the hand recount were valid and should stand, despite King County's difficulty in accounting for all votes.

Yes, well I guess it isn't a matter of fairness, but boils down to whose ox if gored.

From VariFrank: Today, I was "Unprofessional"

2005-01-11T15:19:00.000-08:00

This is a few days old, but it is a good rant if you haven't already seen it.

A dose of reality via Verifrank

How often in life we can inadvertently hurt other people with knee jerk reactions, or our bias' and lack of understanding.

Bush Pushes Social Security, Warns Opponents

2005-01-11T09:52:00.000-08:00

President Bush today pushes his plan to overhaul Social Security expressing confidence in his ability to convince skeptics that his private investment plan is the right way to do it. Bush pledged to provide political cover for nervous lawmakers.

The problem he has to overcome is fear being touted that seniors would have benefits cut, and that benefits would be less under the new plan. The latter being less of a problem as most younger americans already don't think they'll see a dime.

Yahoo News reports:

"My attitude is once we assure the seniors who receive Social Security today that everything is fine I think we've got a shot to get something done," Bush said.

Social Security is projected to start paying out more in benefits than it collects in taxes in 2018, according to Social Security trustees, and can pay full promised benefits only until 2042. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has projected that the program will be solvent until 2052.

My question is why is congress really so unwilling to deal with the problem, knowing that the longer we wait to fix it the harder, and more expensive it is going to be to get it done.

In another interview with The Wall Street Journal for todays's edition Yahoo News reports that Bush said:

"I think two of the things that are going to be important for the members to understand, once they've come to the realization there is a problem, is that no longer can they frighten seniors by saying, if we do this, seniors aren't going to get their checks," he said. "I think it's become pretty clear in people's minds that the issue ... does not revolve around those who have retired or those who are near retirement.

"The issue, really, is about younger workers and most younger workers believe that they're not going to see a dime unless something is done. And most younger workers, as far as I can tell, like the idea of being able to take some of their own money and managing for their own retirement, in order to more likely have the promise of Social Security fulfilled."

In my opinion everyone in congress knows that the Social Security system is broke. Could it be that the ones that oppose Bush's partial privatization are more worried about the loss of fast cash from the six percent or so that would go into private accounts? Cash that congress spends now at their whim, and doesn't save for Social Security.

Yes, it is going to be expensive to fix with any form of the privatization plan, but it will be a whole lot more expensive to fix it later when it is bankrupt.

The Case For Home-schooling

2005-01-08T23:21:00.000-08:00

Post via Kim Du Toit at A Nation of Riflemen. Thanks for the heads-up to Ravenwood's Universe reader Steve Scudder.

If you are thinking about home-schooling Kim Du Toit's post is a "must read." Not only because the home-schooled scholarly performance's are better than public school's, but as Mr Du Toit says, "more well-balanced and mature emotionally than the average high school graduate."

The Du Toits home-school thier own children and make the best case I have seen for doing so. It is a long post but it is well worth the read.

Enviros Rejoice Over Tsunami Devastation

2005-01-08T22:30:00.000-08:00

AP story via the Philadelphia Daily News by Alisa Tang.

Most of the world sees the Asian tsunami one of the biggest devastations and tragedy in years. However there are some enviromental wackos that are actually happy about it. Even celebrating the tidal wave that took over 150,000 lives. Why? Because they say it cleared the coastal areas of human developement and other contamination.

"This whole area was littered with commercialism," said the 43-year-old [Greg Ferrando] from Maui, Hawaii. "There were hundreds of beach chairs out here. I prefer the sand."

The beauty of Thai beaches is the stuff of folklore: pristine, clean and untouched. That was 10 or 20 years ago. More recently, they have been swamped by development.

"Everyone is talking about it. It looks much better now," he said. "This looks a lot more like Hawaii now, where vendors aren't allowed on the beach."

Phanomphon Thammachartniyom, president of the Phuket Professional Guide Association, said when tourists return to Thailand for their second or third visits, he has to recommend new beaches.

"They will complain, 'Why has this place changed so much? I don't like it anymore. I want it to be like it once was,'" Phanomphon said.

Phanomphon fears politicians and organized crime will steer development in the wrong direction and hopes care will be taken when the area is rebuilt. "Nature has returned nature to us. I want it to be this way forever," he said.

It is appauling to me that anyone would be happy about beaches being returned to their natural state at the expense of so many lives.

Another puzzling tidbit I found while searching to see if Ferrando was a member of any enviromentalist groups. He (or another Greg Ferrando also from Maui Hawaii) comes up on a CNN list of e-mails from people seeking news of friends and relatives in areas affected by the tsunamis.

Ferrando, Greg
Greg Ferrando, travelling abroad to many countries. Blue eyes, around 45, from Maui, driving instructor. surfkrl@netscape.net

Hunting Or Boating, Which Is Safer?

2005-01-07T22:22:00.000-08:00

Report via the Longview Daily News.

Which is more dangerous, boating or hunting? That is the question Mik Mikitik likes to ask people who oppose hunting for safety reason.

"You talk to anyone in the general public and ask them: Which is more dangerous in their opinion, boating or hunting -- and 99 percent of them will say hunting because of the firearms."

And they'd be wrong.

"When you're looking at how dangerous is hunting ... well, a lot safer than boating," says Madonna Luers, an information specialist with the WDFW. "A good measure is 2001."

That year, the state had virtually the same number of hunters (250,000) as recreational boaters (260,000).

According to U.S. Coast Guard statistics, Washington had 33 fatalities and 99 non-fatal injury accidents involving recreational boaters in Washington's inland or coastal waters.

The hunters? One fatal hunting accident and 10 non-fatal injuries.

Granted, 2001 was a worse-than-usual year for boating fatalities in Washington; the previous four years, the state's average number of boating deaths had been just about 26.

Which is two more fatal hunting incidents than Washington has had -- total -- since 1987.

"These guys always come up to me and say, 'I quit hunting a few years ago, it's too dangerous.' Ah, baloney," says Chuck Kohls, a captain with the WDFW's enforcement division.

Gosh by golly, maybe we need to do something about all these lethal boats, especially the big fast sleek looking pleasure boats. Never know when they will fall into the wrong hands.

A Big Coup For Kofi's Crew?

2005-01-07T22:15:00.000-08:00

Story via The New York Post online opinion.

Since I saw this request from the Kofi last night I had been thinking: How can the world trust the UN with $1 Billion after the "Oil For Food" scandle. Apparently this NY Post opinion editor is thinking along the same lines.

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan says he needs $1 billion in cash — now! — to cover the first six months of relief efforts for survivors of the South Asia tsunami.
Does he, now?

But does he really expect the nations of the world to fork over that much hard cash to the UN?

The same UN whose cash-based relief efforts in Iraq may have resulted in the largest embezzlement in history?

Good luck, Kofi.

And the disclosure by the U.N.'s hand-picked "investigator" into the Iraq Oil-for-Food scandal, former Federal Reserve Board Chairman Paul Volcker, that he won't be producing any "smoking guns" won't help matters, that's for sure.

It was never clear that Volcker would be able to deliver an honest product on the scandal. His report was meant from the start to be submitted directly to Annan personally — to be made public only "in a form that will take into account the rights of staff members" and protect their confidentiality.

It was a prescription for a cover-up, in other words.

Which no doubt is why Annan has instructed his staff not to cooperate with U.S. congressional investigators, at least until Volcker releases his preliminary report — which Volcker himself now admits may be seen as a "whitewash" by the U.N.'s critics.

He's delivering the prescription, in other words.

Meanwhile, upwards of $20 billion disappeared down all manner of rat-holes — even Annan's son seems to have gotten a cut — while very little of the food, hospital supplies and other goods meant to be purchased for suffering Iraqis ever were.

Universities Students Indoctrinated And Silenced

2005-01-06T22:35:00.000-08:00

Story via Front Page Magazine

Ahmad Al-Qloushi, a 17 year old college freshman is a Kuwaiti Arab Muslim. He is studying in the US at Foothill College in Los Altos Hills, California.

Ahmad is very fond of the America for the help Kuwait got from the US, liberating them when Saddam invaded his country. After arriving here last summer with tremendous enthusiasm to study the political institutions and history of this extraordinary country, he signed up for "Introduction to American Government and Politics" at Foothill College.

Ahmad Al-Qloushi was stunned when his professor called him deranged for thinking that the USA was a great country.

A week before thanksgiving Professor Woolcock assigned us a take home final exam. The final exam consisted solely of one required essay: “Dye and Zeigler contend that the Constitution of the United States was not ‘ordained and established’ by ‘the people’ as we have so often been led to believe. They contend instead that it was written by a small educated and wealthy elite in America who were representative of powerful economic and political interests. Analyze the US constitution (original document), and show how its formulation excluded the majority of the people living in America at that time, and how it was dominated by America's elite interest.”

When I read the assignment I remembered back to my high school in Kuwait. Many of my teachers were Palestinian; they hated America, they hated my worldview, and they did their best to brainwash me. I did not leave my country and my family to come to the United States to receive further brainwashing. I disagreed completely with Dye and Zeigler’s thesis. I wrote an essay defending America’s Founding Fathers and upholding the US constitution as a pioneering document, which has contributed to extraordinary freedoms in America and other corners of the world - including my corner, the Middle East.

Professor Woolcock didn’t grade my essay. Instead he told me to come to see him in his office the following morning. I was surprised the next morning when instead of giving me a grade, Professor Woolcock verbally attacked me and my essay. He told me, “Your views are irrational.” He called me naïve for believing in the greatness of this country, and told me "America is not God's gift to the world." Then he upped the stakes and said "You need regular psychotherapy." Apparently, if you are an Arab Muslim who loves America you must be deranged. Professor Woolcock went as far as to threaten me by stating that he would visit the Dean of International Admissions (who has the power to take away student visas) to make sure I received regular psychological treatment.

This scared me. I didn’t want to be deported for having written a pro-American essay, so as soon as I left his office I made an appointment with the school psychologist. She let me go with a comment that I don’t need regular therapy. As I left her office, I couldn’t help thinking that even my Palestinian high school teachers had never tried to silence me or put me in therapy.

Stories like this are becoming more and more common at universities across America, and it isn't just from the left. Another former student in different Front Page article but linked to this one has a similar story about his treatment from professors at Foothill College.

My name is Michael Wiesner and I am a former student at Foothill College in Los Altos Hills, California. I am writing this article in the wake of an incident in which a teacher at the college recommended psychological therapy to an Arab student who had praised the U.S. Constitution.

In the Winter of 2002 I took an Ethics course taught by Professor Dave Peterson. Throughout the course, Professor Peterson was not only biased in his presentation of ethics, but also indoctrinated us with his conservative agenda, and was purposefully offensive toward liberal views and beliefs.

I recall the first time Professor Peterson discussed the 'ethical' position of being pro-life. Professor Peterson equated abortion with the then-popular Andrea Yates case, and stated there was no difference between “a mother who orders a doctor to murder her babies and a mother who drowns her children in a bathtub.” I, along with a number of students, challenged his analogy, and we were told that we were simply wrong and did not understand ethics. He then continued his tirade against abortion, singling out and ridiculing some women in the class, and using them as characters in his examples. On this occasion and many others, several people were so sickened by his explicit examples they had to leave the room. He reduced one woman to tears in the middle of class. (The day of the final, he told this student that it didn't matter what grade she received on the exam, she would receive an F.) His anti-abortion examples were repeated over and over. As students began to feel personally targeted, enrollment dropped to a fraction of the original enlistment. Those who remained realized that to disagree was to be targeted, and remained silent. He once deducted significants points on an essay from a female student because her essay discussed a film from the perspective of feminism. Despite him having suggested that film in writing, he wrote on her paper that she was “not qualified to discuss the matter.”

Iron Robo Men? - Or Geek Wannabe's?

2005-01-06T22:20:00.000-08:00

Story via Wired News (Wired Magazine) by Brad Stone

Motors whine, barbells groan, and gearheads sweat in the battle to become the robo-powerlifting champion of the world.

Dan Danknick, is the managing editor of Servo - a spinoff of the amateur engineering mag Nuts & Volts. While watching a "Worlds Strongest Man" contest on TV he was struck with an inspiration. That exoskeleton weight lifting would make great television, plus help advance the field.

His problem was, no one wanted to compete. Homayoon Kazerooni, the head of the Bleex project told Danknick that he though there would never be a need for full-body exoskeletons to do the work of a forklift. We have forklifts for that. When most balked at the deadline and the difficulty, Danknick relaxed his rules.

In Santa Clara, California, convention center the competition finally came off, but not without problems, setbacks and dissapointments. Certainly it would be a reach to call them "Iron Men," but maybe in light the the dismal performace, in spite of the impressive look of their projects, we should just call them "geek wannabes."

Click to enlarge

Rupert stoops and grasps the bar. He begins to straighten, the screw drive hissing. Man and machine together hoist the weight. But something's wrong. Rupert feels it almost immediately: a slight imbalance, a tiny wobble that his partner, engineer Don Engh, can see from the wings. As Rupert lifts the bar higher, Technotrousers starts to tilt forward. Halfway through the lift, just about every spectator lets out a gasp … and man and machine together tumble forward into a heap at the foot of the stage. "Even as I was toppling over, I had my hands on the triggers," Rupert says later, nursing a minor cut on his arm. "We were lifting right up until the end."

At the start of competition, the crowd-pleaser was a 1,000-pound behemoth built by Scott and Jascha Little, a father and son from Austin, Texas. The Littles - both over 6'5" - rolled out a classic exoskeleton design. Team Mechanicus, as they called themselves, spent more than $10,000 and took four months to build their machine. Its hydraulically actuated hips, ankles, arms, and knees all moved independently, giving the suit the flexibility of a person - in theory, at least. The Littles hadn't actually finished the control system in time to test it. "If that thing falls on me, it would almost certainly be fatal," Jascha mused. It took nine guys a full hour just to lug the contraption onto the stage. After a series of limited trial lifts that hinted at scary coordination problems, the Littles decided not to push their luck. The armor was barely more than a museum piece.

That left room for Alex Sulkowski, a credit card consultant from New Canaan, Connecticut, to jump into the lead. He had a more pragmatic strategy. Tetsujin's scoring formula rewarded not just weight but also the speed and height of the lift, and the mass of the suit and its operator. So Sulkowski bought some steel at Home Depot and built Xela, a fast, tall, and light pneumatic lifter. You could argue that Xela was really more of a homebuilt frontend loader than a posthuman augmentation of muscle power. But that didn't matter in the glow of the spotlight. In his best lift, Sulkowski hoisted 250 pounds 3 feet off the floor in less than half a second.

Skiping to the end, the last lift was almost as embarassing as the first.

The cheering audience didn't seem to care. Pitzer's scribbled notes suggested a new approach: He'd sacrifice speed and score points with one massive amount of weight. In his final lift of the contest, Raptor attempted to heave 1,050 pounds for first place. With the Olympic-rated weight-lifting bar sagging under its load, Pitzer flicked the switches on his remote control to move the suit's arms - but the barbell rose only a couple of inches. Raptor froze with an electromechanical groan. Unruffled, Pitzer turned to face his suit and lifted its arms with his own, nudging Raptor's limbs to full extension. The suit was actually enhancing Pitzer's strength - or vice versa. Pitzer turned to face the roaring crowd and pumped his fists in triumph - forgetting to turn off Raptor's hydraulic valves. Behind him, oil flashed off the motors and smoke billowed out.

Light Blogging Day

2005-01-06T09:35:00.000-08:00

We got another foot (or close to it) of snow overnight, so I am sorry to say it will be another light bloging day. If I am not too tired later I will try to get a couple posts up.

Some Quick Links

2005-01-04T23:31:00.000-08:00

Lots of snow to shovel soon, so I may not be blogging later today. Here are some quick links if I don't find the energy to make it back.

Relief helicopter attacked with bows and arrows.

Hi, I'm Richard Gere, and I'm speaking for the entire world.

Patriot Act used to charge pointing a laser beam at an airplane.

Judge orders addict to stop having kids.

Bosses keep sharp eye on mobile workers via GPS.

The Diplomad has several good UNreality posts on the UN.

CARE Package Mistake Saves Marines Life

2005-01-04T11:26:00.000-08:00

Marine Corp Mom's sent CARE packages Iraq. Well Marine X got a female CARE package by mistake, but all was not lost. Hat tip to Michelle Malkin, Blackfive has the story here.

An excerpt from the post at Blackfive.

Then of course, they had the tampons. When he brought this up my imagination was just running wild, but I let him continue. My son said they had to go on a mission and Marine X wanted the chapstick and lotion for the trip. He grabbed a bunch of the items out of his care package and got in the humvee. As luck would have it he grabbed the tampons, and My son said everyone was teasing him about "not forgetting his feminine hygiene products". My son said things were going well, and then the convoy was ambushed. He said a Marine in the convoy was shot. He said the wound was pretty clean, but it was deep. He said they were administering first aid but couldn't get the bleeding to slow down, and someone said, "Hey use Marine X’s tampons". My son said they put the tampon in the wound. At this point my son profoundly told me, "Mom did you know that tampons expand?" ) "Well, yeah!". They successfully slowed the bleeding and got the guy medical attention. When they went to check on him later the surgeon told them, "You guys saved his life". If you hadn't stopped that bleeding he would have bled to death. My son said, "Mom, the tampons sent by the Marine Moms by mistake saved a Marines life." At this point I asked him, "Well what did you do with the rest of the tampons?" He said, "Oh, we divided them up and we all have them in our flak jackets, and I kept two for our first aid kit".

As good as any Macguyver ingenuity. :)

One commenter said "...The use of hygiene tampons for deep wounds is actually a fairly common paramedic trick, that only became popular after (surprise!) we started having female paramedics."

Marine Corp Moms website.

When The World Dials 911 - a poem

2005-01-04T08:31:00.000-08:00

A poem by Russ Vaughn via The American Thinker

When the World Dials 911

Disaster strikes a world away
We get the call, what do we say?
We move at once, to ease their plight,
To aid them through their darkest night.
But come shrill cries from carping press,
"That’s not enough to fix this mess."
We know that, fools, but give us room,
To counter Mother Nature’s doom.

America gives to those in need,
With no regard to faith or creed.
We’re there for all when need is great
A helping hand to any state,
That’s fallen under Nature’s wrath
And needs a lift back to the path.
So what they may have mocked our ways?
We’ll turn our cheek ‘til better days.

But there are those who hate us so,
They’ll carp and snipe and hit us low,
Who’ll bend disaster to their needs,
And try to choke us on our deeds.
They’ll play their dirty liberal tricks,
For them it’s only politics.
In the face of massive human pain,
They only think of their own gain.

But the world knows sure whom it must call,
When disaster strikes, when nations fall.
America is the beaming light
That fades, dispels, disaster’s night,
And standing firm provides relief
To salve the pain, allay the grief.
So to Hell with what our critics say,
America’s fine, still leads the way.

Russ Vaughn is the Poet Laureate of The American Thinker

Russ Vaughn

Stop Sending Money, French Aid Group Says

2005-01-04T07:42:00.000-08:00

Reuters - via Yahoo News and Drudge

Medecins Sans Frontiers yesterday said that it has collected enough donations and urged donors to stop sending money for tsunami victims. MSF is also known as Doctors without Borders. French and German branches said they had enough to finance the aid projects they were supporting in Sri Lanka and Indonesia.

Maybe they should expand their responsibility and projects list a bit. There are other groups that still need more money. There is going to be plenty of schools and other building projects to do that I am sure use the money.

Their decision surprised other aid groups and drew criticism that it could undercut an unprecedented wave of private giving to provide relief to the region devastated by the Dec. 26 tsunami which has killed at least 150,000 people.

[...]

"What shocks me is that you are taking the risk of pulling the carpet under the feet of other aid organizations. Many groups still need more money," said Jean-Christope Rufin, head of the French aid group Action Contre la Faim (Action against Hunger).

"It's a bit irresponsible. We're all in the same boat in humanitarian aid," Rufin told France 2 television.

Some German agencies said they had no plans to follow suit and privately several said they were shocked by MSF's decision.

[...]

"If a person calls us to make a donation, we will tell them that these programs are already financed and that they can make a donation for a different crisis," a MSF spokeswoman said.

Islamic Army In Iraq Threatens Attacks In US

2005-01-04T01:20:00.000-08:00

Report via The News International, Pakistan (unverified)

DUBAI: The Islamic Army in Iraq, one of the main armed groups fighting US forces in the war-torn country, has threatened to carry out attacks inside the United States, according to a statement posted on a website on Monday.

This year "will bring woes on America. The Mujahideen have prepared big surprises for your sons outside America and a big surprise for you inside America," said the statement, whose authenticity could not be confirmed.

A battle, Not A War, In Iraq

2005-01-04T01:06:00.000-08:00

A battle, not a war, in Iraq:

A letter to deseretnews.com (Opinion) from Sgt. Jake Thomas.

I am writing this letter partly in frustration. I have been deployed in Iraq since February. I will be there at least another five months. Right now I am home on a two-week R&R.

I am bothered by the feeling I am getting from the general public about Operation Iraqi Freedom. What news I have heard has been slanted in a derogatory way. I will be the first to say that being in Iraq is frustrating, but it is time well-spent. I have witnessed firsthand the way of life that the Iraqi people were forced to live and the wonderful improvements that have been made for them.

There is not a war in Iraq, there is a battle in Iraq. We are not fighting the Iraqi people, we are protecting them and lifting them up.

I publicly thank the leadership of this country and of the military, also my brothers and sisters in arms, for their open-mindedness and their willing sacrifice.

We will always be there for you and for anybody who is in need, wherever they live.

Sgt. Jake Thomas
Payson

U.S. Choppers Find Remote Survivors

2005-01-04T00:42:00.000-08:00

Report via The Washington Times

Delivering more supplies than any other nation, the US is now spearheading relief efforts. Thousands of Marines aboard a strike group is on the way to help. Yesterday as the relief operations reach out to remote areas with food and water, US helicopters rescued dozens of desperate and weak survivors.

"Look at that, look at that. It's so big," shouted a 6-year-old girl, Khairunisa, as a U.S. Hercules cargo plane roared over Banda Aceh, the capital of Sumatra island's devastated Aceh province and the base of the aid operation in Indonesia.

Many of the 60 victims picked up in more than two dozen missions yesterday were too weak from eight days with little food or water to speak or move. The victims included children, the elderly and two pregnant women.

Doctors said they suffered from pneumonia, broken bones, infected wounds and tetanus. Many appeared deeply traumatized. At least 25 were in critical condition.

The American pilots ferried the survivors to a medical field station in Banda Aceh. The ones not rushed on stretchers were placed on a blue plastic sheet, among them a young girl holding a stuffed Snoopy. Some cried, and aid workers stroked their arms and backs to comfort them. They were given chocolate wafers, water, sweaters and T-shirts.

Two helicopters dropped off 1,800 pounds of soup and biscuits donated by schools in Singapore. At one point, the copters flew low over what appeared to be a fishing flotilla off the coast. There were no signs of life.

The U.S. pilots said the damage was stunning. The five-vessel U.S. carrier group and much of the crew, which moved into position on Saturday, served in the Persian Gulf during the Iraq conflict.

"In my 17 years of service, I have never seen such devastation, and I hope that I'll never see such again in my life," said Senior Chief Jesse Cash of Albuquerque, N.M., who has served in Somalia and Liberia.

[more]

Also relief update at Powerline

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi Arrested

2005-01-04T00:30:00.000-08:00

Report via ITAR-TASS News

DUBAI, January 4 (Itar-Tass) - Abu Mus'ab al-Zarqawi, whom the US occupation authorities declared to be the "target number one" in Iraq, has been arrested in the city of Baakuba, the Emirate newspaper al-Bayane reported on Tuesday referring to Kurdish sources. Al-Zarqawi, leader of the terrorist group Al-Tawhid Wa'al-Jihad, was recently appointed the director of the Al-Qaeda organisation in Iraq.

The newspaper's correspondent in Baghdad points out that a report on the seizure of the terrorist, on whom the US put a bounty of 10 million dollars, was also reported by Iraqi Kurdistan radio, which at one time had been the first to announce the arrest of Saddam Hussein.

Governor Of Bagdad Shot And Killed

2005-01-04T00:27:00.000-08:00

A developing report via SFGate.

Gunmen assassinated the governor of the Iraqi province that includes Baghdad, Ali al-Haidari, on Tuesday, police officials said.

Al-Haidari was shot dead while in his car in Baghdad's northern neighborhood of Hurriyah, said the police officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity. He was a target of another assassination attempt last year.

The officials said al-Haidari left his house in the western al-Jama'a neighborhood and when he arrived in al-Hurriyah gunmen riddled his car with bullets. He died instantly, they said.

Update: Reuters reports that an al Qaeda group led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has claimed credit for the assassination of Baghdad governor Ali al-Haidri Tuesday.

Hat tip to PoliBlog

Iraq: Rise Of Interest in Elections

2005-01-02T23:34:00.000-08:00

The Washington Post has good news from Iraq. Voter registration and enthusiasm for the January 30 elections is up dramatically.

BAGHDAD, Jan. 1 -- The number of Iraqis making sure they are properly registered to vote has surged dramatically, officials said Saturday, calling the rise evidence of enthusiasm for the Jan. 30 elections despite continuing security concerns that have blocked the process in two provinces.

After a slow start to the six-week registration process that began Nov. 1, the number of voters making corrections to official voter lists more than doubled in the final week, according to a final tally quoted by election officials Saturday.

Officials said more than 2.1 million people went to local election offices to assure that eligible members of their households could vote. About 1.2 million forms were submitted to add names to the voter lists, an involved process that requires providing proof of identification and residence.

"That's a definite marker of voter interest," said an expert with the Independent Election Commission of Iraq who was not authorized to speak publicly.

Dean's World has more good news from Iraq.

The Look In Iraqi Kids' Eyes

2005-01-02T22:55:00.000-08:00

Report via The Tennessean by columnist Tim Chavez.

Chavez writes about Marine officer Lt. Col Mark A. Smith's latest e-mail to families. In the most dangerous part of Iraq, the Col leads a battalion of Marines. It is further evidence that our presence there is honorable, humanitarian and most worthy of this nation.

Chavez offers the Marines officers story because of the approaching Iraqi Elections, encouraging us: "Do not lose heart over the latest bombings. While they may grab the headlines and top of the newscasts, terrorism cannot speak to the human spirit and good that will prevail, as described in this Christmas e-mail from Smith."

Smith was making the rounds a couple days before Christmas knowing that the time of year was a hefty blow to his Marines as they were thinking of home.

In his rounds, he recognized three Marines from Fox Co. As he wrote: ''They had layers of dust on them, layers of clothes on them for protection from the cold, and the look of fatigue that is easily recognizable by warriors, the one that displays a need to sleep, but a greater need to finish the task at hand.''

Smith asked, '''How are things at Fox?'

''I got a few seconds of uncomfortable silence, and then one of them, a young handsome Devil Dog with broad shoulders and the kind of look that should be used as a recruiting poster, looked at me, took a deep breath that instantly let you know what he was about to say warranted undivided attention, and said:

'''You know, sir, it's amazing.'

'''I mean, when we seized that town (Yusufiyah) and it was a running gun battle day in and day out, that place was abandoned. Nobody came out of their houses.

'' 'But now,' the Marine continued, 'when we are out on patrol, and all the schools are back open, and people are living their lives, it feels good. But what really gets you, sir ... those little kids ... those little kids ... they come up to you, and in their broken English say, ''Look, we go to school'' with a wide smile and a thumbs up.

'''It gets to you, sir, it feels good. We are doing really good out there, aren't we, sir?' ''

Smith wrote that the Marine's answer put every hair on the back of his neck at the position of attention.

''And after the chills stopped going down my spine, I simply said, 'You have no idea, Devil Dog. You have no idea. You have done amazing. And one day, I will tell the world just how amazing.'''

Mexico Publishes Guide To Assist Border Crossers

2005-01-02T22:43:00.000-08:00

Report via The Arizona Republic

Well this should be a real poke in the eye to Bush's for draging his feet and holding back on illegal immigrant legislation. Somehow though I don't think it will matter.

MEXICO CITY - The Mexican government is giving out a colorful new comic book with advice for migrants, but immigration-control advocates worry that some of the tips may encourage illegal border crossers.

The 32-page book, The Guide for the Mexican Migrant, was published in December by Mexico's Foreign Ministry. Using simple language, the book offers safety information for border crossers, a primer on their legal rights and advice on living unobtrusively in the United States.

Dramatic drawings show undocumented immigrants wading into a river, running from the U.S. Border Patrol and crouching near a hole in a border fence. On other pages, they hike through a desert with rock formations reminiscent of Arizona and are caught by a stern-faced Border Patrol agent.

"This guide is intended to give you some practical advice that could be of use if you have made the difficult decision to seek new work opportunities outside your country," the book says.

San Francisco Considers Handgun Ban

2005-01-02T22:25:00.000-08:00

Report via Fox News

San Francisco has a problem with the constitutional right to bear arms, and is proposing a ban in San Francisco on private ownership of all handguns.

"When you get guns out of people's homes and off the streets, it means that that gun is not going to be used in a shooting that kills someone, whether a murder or an accidental shooting," said Chris Daly, supervisor of San Francisco.

San Francisco officials are pushing a ballot measure to prohibit just about everyone who isn't a cop, security guard or member of the military from having a handgun in their home or office.

There is no way I could agree less with Chris Daly. But I totally agree with opponents.

Opponents are already planning lawsuits, but argue that even if it does pass, this ban won't stop crime as law-abiding citizens give up their guns while the criminals flock to a city that ensures they won't be shot at by the people they're robbing.

Chris Daly ends with one of the dumest lame brained statement about what he would do if threatened.

"I don't feel like I need to own a gun to protect myself. Certainly, I am a high-profile elected official and now a lot of gun owners don't like me individually, but if I'm in a situation where I feel threatened, I'll call the police," Daly said.

Right, and a robber on a dark street, or a burgler breaking into your home is going to just stand there, and roll their eyes or tap their foot while you dial.

UN takes Credit: Others Doing The Dirty Work

2005-01-01T11:56:00.000-08:00

In northern Sumatra and Aceh, Yanks and Aussies doing the hard dirty work a week into the tsunami aid. Meanwhile the UN, who is yet to arrive and dirty their hands, sits tallying the arriving goods, critiqing whats needed and taking credit for the whole of the relief.

Powerline has the goods here exposing the UN-helpful story.

I wish we would just get out of the UN.

Fly-Eating Robot Powers Itself

2005-01-01T03:03:00.000-08:00

(CNN) -- Scientists at the University of the West of England (UWE) have designed a robot that does not require batteries or electricity to power itself.

Instead, it generates energy by catching and eating houseflies.

'Working Wounded': Gender Divide

2005-01-01T02:36:00.000-08:00

Would you rather work for a man or a woman?

Here are the results from a recent workingwounded.com/ABCNEWS.com online ballot:

• I'd rather work for a woman, 8.7 percent
• I'd rather work for a man, 34.9 percent
• It honestly doesn't make a difference to me, 56.3 percent

And from Lawyers.com and Glamour. Do you harass the harasser?…What did you do after you were harassed at work?

• Nothing, 48 percent
• Reported it to someone in the company, 25 percent
• Confronted the harasser, 24 percent
• Resigned, 14 percent
• Filed a complaint with a government agency, 6 percent
• Consulted an attorney, 5 percent

Photo Blogging The Strange

2005-01-01T01:38:00.000-08:00

Samples from a slideshow available at WFTV.com, click on "Strange News Photos," on the top right of the page. New photos are added frequently.

New concept vehicles - Expo 2005 Aichi Japan

Do you think that this fits in the carpool lane?

Well this one definately speaks for it'self.

Garry Turner, England - has the world's stretchiest skin

The Incredible Shrinking Dems

2004-12-31T23:42:00.000-08:00

Report via Opinion Journal, By Fred Barnes.

In the last November 2nd Election George Bush increased his share in of voters in just about every catagory. Women, white males, African Americans, Latinos, Cathollics and Jews. The only possible exception is among young metropolitan sophisticates.

The Republican tent is growing, including social liberals, while at the same time the Democrats tent is shrinks. The Democrats have firmly embraced too many hot button issued that put many voters off. Some states flipped from blue to red, while some stayed blue by decreasing margins from 2000.

There's another measure of Republican (and Bush) success in 2004. For the first time in more than a century, a Republican president won re-election as his party improved its hold on the House and Senate while increasing its majority of governorships (28 now) and maintaining control of a plurality of state legislatures (20). At the same time, Republicans held a majority of state legislators--a feat they initially achieved in 2002 after a half-century in the minority.

And don't forget what Democrats insisted for decades was their path to sure victory. If Democrats could match Republican campaign spending, energize their base, dramatically increase voter turnout, and provoke a robust debate on big issues, they'd win the White House and probably a whole lot more. Well, they managed all of that in 2004. The result: A Republican won with the first presidential majority since 1988. Mr. Bush touted an agenda of bold conservative reform. The last time a Democrat won as an unalloyed liberal was 1964.

The Republican has advantages it has not enjoyed for many years. Millions are being pleged for an ad campaign as Bush prepares his proposal to partially privatize Social Security. Later Bush will seek other high order legislation like tort reform, tax code reform and filling Supreme Court vacancies.

Where are Democrats? They're desperately seeking to preserve every government program and benefit enacted since the days of the New Deal. The problem for them is that the New Deal paradigm--the belief that Washington could endlessly improve people's lives--has lost its appeal. Mr. Bush discovered this the hard way. He pushed a Medicare prescription drug benefit through Congress in 2003, expecting it to boost his popularity. It didn't. The program drew disapproving poll numbers. His newer idea of an "ownership society" hasn't quite replaced the New Deal paradigm, but it has a chance.

Meanwhile, Republicans and Democrats are experiencing an extraordinary reversal of roles. Democrats were once the inclusive party of the "big tent." Republicans now have a bigger tent. Social liberals like Rudy Giuliani and Arnold Schwarzenegger were prominent speakers at the GOP convention. Social conservatives were virtually nonexistent at the Democratic convention. Democrats have embraced a series of ideological litmus tests on abortion, gay rights, and embryonic stem-cell research. Republicans haven't.

Big Push On Social Security

2004-12-31T23:24:00.000-08:00

Report via The Washington Post By Jim VandeHei

Millions of dollars are being pledged by conservative groups and corporate trade associations to run an ad campaign, promoting private Social Security reform. A campaign that is said will be the most expensive policy debate in years.

This should be and interesting public debate, and with the Democrats social security plan to date being; that it is good for a few more years, or to just raise payroll taxes.

Progress for America, an independent conservative group that backed Bush in the campaign, has set aside about $9 million to support the president's Social Security plan as well as other White House domestic priorities in the new year, said spokesman Brian McCabe. The group is asking its donors for much more, he said.

Stephen Moore, head of the conservative Club for Growth, has raised $1.5 million and hopes to hit a $15 million target when his fundraising drive ends.

But their contributions are likely to be dwarfed by those from corporate trade associations, spearheaded by the National Association of Manufacturers. Other likely contributors include the financial services and securities industries and other Fortune 500 companies, GOP officials say. White House officials, led by Karl Rove and Charles P. Blahous III, the president's policy point man on Social Security, are helping to shape the public relations campaign, said the officials, who talked about private discussions with the White House on the condition of anonymity.

"It could easily be a $50 million to $100 million cost to convince people this is legislation that needs to be enacted," Moore said. "It's going to be expensive" because "it's the most important public policy fight in 25 years," he said.

But the Democrat are not about to sit still on the Social Security issue. Democratic groups like the AARP, AFL-CIO, NOW and NAACP are coordinating with congressional leaders to oppose the Republican legislation. About the only point of agreement is that Social Security faces a financial problem in the long run.

"As an issue, Social Security has not really been out there in front of the public," said David Certner, director of federal affairs at AARP. "It was less of an issue in this past election than it has been in any election in the past two decades."

Consequently, both sides are rushing to define the problem and potential solutions just as most Americans start tuning in to the debate over overhauling the 65-year-old program.

Montana Universities Must Offer Health Insurance to Gay Employees' Partners

2004-12-31T05:06:00.000-08:00

Report via the New York Times

Montana's public universities must provide their gay employees with insurance coverage for their domestic partners, the state's Supreme Court ruled yesterday.

The majority in the 4-to-3 decision said the decision had nothing to do with the rights of gay couples to marry. But a dissenting judge criticized his colleagues as "radically altering common law marriage in Montana."

[snip]

The court's majority focused on this option, saying that making it available only to heterosexual couples violated the equal protection clause of the state's Constitution.

Although the decision turned on a definition of marriage, the majority emphasized that gay marriage was not at issue.

"We have not been asked nor will we address the question of whether Montana's marriage statutes discriminate against same-sex couples by denying them the right to marry," Justice Jim Regnier wrote for the majority.

While I have no problems with gay marriage, or these benefits for gay/lesbian couples, I do have just one problem with the decision. This decision would also have to necessarily cover non-gay/lesbian couples that are not married and living in a similar relationship. Especially so with the courts emphasis that "gay marrage was not at isssue."

The arguement cannot be made that—"well they can get married if they want to." No, the court already said marriage wasn't at issue here. So if the same benefits are not given to hetrosexual couples, the decision would violated the very equal protection clause cited in this case.

Smell From The NY Times Rivals Tsunami Beaches

2004-12-31T04:47:00.000-08:00

Report via The Washington Times

The New York Times shows their lack of sensitivity, and respect for the dead in order to take cheap shots at President Bush.

"What they're actually doing is using dead people to make cheap points." That's how the Wall Street Journal's Peggy Noonan described some partisans' use of this week's deadly Indian Ocean tsunami to promote various and sundry political agendas. We think it about describes the exploitation of the tragedy by the United Nations' Jan Egeland with his "stingy" remark and the New York Times' criticism of the United States.

It being Christmastime, most world leaders were on vacation when the tsunami hit. Kofi Annan was just arriving back in New York late Wednesday. By Thursday morning he still hadn't met with U.N. humanitarian relief point man Jan Egeland —the man in charge of tsunami relief. President Bush was in Crawford, Texas, until yesterday. British Prime Minister Tony Blair was vacationing in Egypt. German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder was away, too. That's to be expected. World leaders should be judged by the job they do — not by how fast they can turn to a camera.

But that didn't much matter to the New York Times, where selective outrage is the rule. In an editorial entitled "Are We Stingy? Yes," the Times singled out President Bush for a gratuitous snarl. "President Bush finally roused himself yesterday from his vacation in Crawford, Tex., to telephone his sympathy to the leaders of India, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Indonesia, and to speak publicly about the devastation of Sunday's tsunamis in Asia," the piece read.

Update: John Podhoretz at the New York Post has a more searing commentary of the New York Times.

Don't we owe the dead, dying and injured the minimal grace not to convert their suffering into a chat-show segment — the latest left-right clash over the Bush presidency?

And couldn't the editorialists at The New York Times have forborne — even just for a week — making use of the tsunami to complain about U.S. government spending on "development aid"?

Stingy Americans?

2004-12-31T04:03:00.001-08:00

Report via townhall.com

We are not a "stingy" people in the U.S. We give more than any other country through our government alone. And the aid being coughed up by individuals and corporations is presently far more than the government.

The other day, a United Nations official accused the United States of being “stingy” in terms of aid to tsunami victims in South Asia. After criticism from the State Department, the official clarified his position. Americans are not being stingy in helping tsunami victims, only stingy in terms of overall foreign aid as compared to other countries.

This is a familiar attack, which comes up annually when the foreign aid appropriations bill is before Congress. But let’s look at the facts. According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris, in 2003, the world’s major countries gave $108.5 billion in combined foreign aid. Of this, the U.S. contributed $37.8 billion or 35 percent of the total. The next largest foreign aid contributor was The Netherlands, which gave $12.2 billion, following two years in which it was actually a net recipient of foreign aid.

The claim of stinginess, however, comes from a different calculation—foreign aid as a share of national income. In 2003, U.S. foreign aid came to just 0.34 percent, well below the world leading Dutch at 2.44 percent. Other big contributors are Ireland (1.83 percent), Norway (1.49 percent), and Switzerland (1.09 percent). The U.S. would have to triple foreign aid just to reach the lowest of these contributors.

The first thing one notices when looking at the big foreign aid contributors is that they all spend very little on national defense. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, in 2002, The Netherlands spent just 1.6 percent of its gross domestic product on defense. Norway spent 2.1 percent, Switzerland spent 1.1 percent, and Ireland spent a piddling 0.7 percent. By contrast, the U.S. spent 3.4 percent—and this was before the Iraq war. It’s easy to be generous with foreign aid when another country is essentially providing your defense for free.

Another thing one notices is that the foreign aid data are only for “official” (i.e., government) aid. The data are sketchy, but by all accounts Americans are far more generous in terms of charitable contributions than the citizens of any other country. A 1991 study found the United Kingdom to have the second largest percentage of private charitable giving. But in 2003, charitable giving amounted to 8.6 billion pounds or 0.8 percent of GDP in the U.K., according to the Charities Aid Foundation, compared to $241 billion or 2.2 percent of GDP in the U.S., according to the American Association of Fundraising Counsel.

But even this estimate of charitable giving by Americans is low because it counts only cash contributions and omits volunteer work. According to Independent Sector, in 2003, they contributed an additional $266 billion worth of their time to charitable enterprises. This is based on a value of $17.12 per hour of time. But even if one assigns a value equal to the minimum wage, this noncash contribution still comes to about $100 billion.

Chuck Simmins Agrees we are most generous.

Andrew Quinn does also.

John Cole at Balloon Juice has found another source of disgust.

A word of caution if you are thinking of donating via the internet. There have been several sites poping up like tsunamirelief.com or stunamireliefaid.com, and some items are being sold on eBay with the promise of proceeds going to victims of the disaster.

Some may be legitimate, but there is no good way of knowing if your money and the tsunami relief you intened are not being ripped off. To be sure I would suggest a well know organization like:

http://www.redcross.org
http://www.careusa.org
http://www.savethechildren.org

Loathsome Ghouls Rush In

2004-12-31T03:31:00.000-08:00

Report via the New York Daily News

On Patong Beach and Kata Beach volunteers are still collecting bodies washing up on the one-time pristine beaches. Amidst this massive slaughter by nature, determined tourists flock around them, playing in the surf or basking under umbrellas.

On top of it all complaining about such trivial things as the lack of a champagne reception. Good Lord, I hope none of these idiots are Americans. How can they be so insensitive to be there, let alone have no respect for the sadness of the greiving people that they are pestering.

An indignant Russian who arrived at the Novotel Phuket Resort on the day after the tsunami loudly complained that there was no champagne reception.

Other guests have pestered the hotel's grieving staff with complaints that their rooms lack good views.

Belgian tourist Desmet Romain, 42, questioned whether he should have stayed on despite all the death and misery.

But the prospect of missing the New Year's beach holiday he had been looking forward to all year was too much to bear.

Some Thais are amazed that the foreigners can be so insensitive to be sipping cocktails poolside while surrounded by death and grief.

"I think the people are good, but I don't know why they stay here now when we are so sad," a waiter at the Novotel said, asking that his name not be reported out of fear of losing his job.

The beaches of Patong and Kata were filling up with tourists and Thais when the tsunami hit Sunday. Nearly 300 are confirmed dead, including more than 100 tourists.

Another 1,600 people are still missing from Phuket beaches, and there is an army of grieving family members searching for them.

The Thai survivors on Phuket are preparing to mark the new year in a much more somber manner.

"I will go to the temple to make merit for all the dead people," said Supone Sengsahus, 43, who drives a converted pickup truck as a taxi.

Corporations Donate Millions for Quake Aid

2004-12-30T16:04:00.000-08:00

Victims of the tsunamis along the Indian Ocean are being helped with millions from U.S. Corporations, eclipsing the initial $35 million earmarked by the U.S. government. Besides cash, diapers, antibiotics, clothing, identification tags, and protective gear and more. So far more than 117,000 lives have been lost in Asia, India and Africa.

Report via eTruth

The final tally is yet to be known, but it's clear the Red Cross and other aid groups are experiencing perhaps the largest surge in donations since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks or the string of hurricanes that hit Florida and the Caribbean this summer.

"The volume (of donations) that they're seeing in the last few days is several times what they saw during the hurricanes, which was several times what they see on a normal day," said Charlie Cumbaa, a vice president at Blackbaud Inc., which makes software used by the Red Cross and many other aid agencies to process donations.

Among the biggest corporate givers are Pfizer Inc., which is donating $10 million in cash and $25 million worth of drugs to relief agencies; The Coca-Cola Co., which is donating $10 million; Exxon Mobil Corp., which is giving $5 million; and Citigroup Inc., which is contributing $3 million. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has pledged $3 million.

Pharmaceutical and health-care products companies were among the biggest givers.

Merck & Co. Inc. is giving $3 million in cash while Johnson & Johnson and Abbott Laboratories Inc. are each donating $2 million; each of the three are also sending drugs and other health care supplies to the region. Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. is donating $1 million in cash and $4 million in antibiotics and antifungal drugs. Roche Group and GlaxoSmithKline PLC were also planning to donate supplies and/or cash.

Nike Inc., American Express Co., General Electric Co. and First Data Corp. are each giving $1 million.

For some corporations with operations in the countries struggling with the disaster, their far-flung enterprises are serving as quick supply routes for aid.

Drug makers with offices or plants in the region sent employees out with antibiotics, nutritional supplements, infant formula, baby food and other supplies. Employees of companies like Coca-Cola, PepsiCo Inc. and Marriott International Inc. hotels in the region are delivering bottled water, food and other supplies.

"They're sending whatever they can, as fast as they can," said Elaine Palmer, spokeswoman for PepsiCo, which rushed out Aquafina bottled water from one of its Indian bottlers and plans to contribute a minimum of $1 million to the relief effort.

Fresh drinking water is one of the items most needed. Many sources of fresh water, like wells, have been contaminated by seawater, debris and sewage.

Lisa Montgomery Charged With Kidnapping

2004-12-29T23:54:00.000-08:00

Report via CNN

Sorry I just couldn't bring my self to use CNN's headline "Woman charged in fetus kidnapping in court": I am sorry, the baby 10 ten days old, healthy and the baby's name is Victoria Jo Stinnett. When is CNN going to get it? Three times in the article CNN refers to Victoria Jo Stinnett as 'the fetus'. How old does she have to be before she is a person? 18? 21?

Lisa Montgomery, 36, faces federal charges of kidnapping resulting in murder in the December 16 death of Bobbie Jo Stinnett, 23, in her home in Skidmore, Missouri.

[...]

Maughmer [U.S. Chief Magistrate John T. Maughmer] appointed public defenders Anita Burns and David Owen to represent her.

She is scheduled to be back in court on Thursday for a detention hearing.

Prosecutors allege that Montgomery strangled Stinnett, who was eight months pregnant, and then cut the fetus from her womb.

Update: Fox News - Thursday, December 30

Attorneys for Lisa Montgomery did not ask for bond during a brief hearing before U.S. Magistrate John T. Maughmer, who granted the prosecution's request to keep her in jail. Maughmer said there is no condition, or combination of conditions, he could impose that would ensure she would appear if he released her from custody.

Marine Shot Dead by Police After Chase

2004-12-29T15:13:00.000-08:00

Report via The Desert Sun, Palm Springs, California.

Patrick Edward Vallor, a 22 year old Marine was shot and killed after allegedly killing a transgender prostitute in Hollywood and leading police on a high-speed chase. Vallor was shot after he pointed a gun at pursuing officers in a Atwater Village McDonald's restaruant parking lot.

The Marine apparently picked up a prostitute he believed was a female, investigators said. When he discovered the prostitute was a man, the Marine allegedly killed the man and dumped the body near Melrose Avenue.

Craig Harvey, Operations Chief at the Los Angeles County Department of Coroner, said his office could not release the identity of the alleged prostitute pending notification of next of kin.

He was a 25-year-old male Hispanic with an unknown last address, Harvey said. His body, which indicated gunshot wounds, was found in the 4900 Melrose Hill, Los Angeles.

The coroner’s office will conduct a standard homicide autopsy on the 25-year-old and is conducting a standard LAPD officer-involved shooting autopsy on Vallor.

LAPD has declined to release further information about the incident, which is under investigation.

Officers first fired a beanbag round to subdue Vallor, but he pointed the weapon at officers and he was shot, Officer Jack Richter said Monday

It Not that it excuses the Marine for his actions, but it is a shame that the prostitute didn't have enough sense to level up front about being transgendered. The entire incident may have been prevented with a little common sense.

Coleman Gets New Hatchet For Power Line

2004-12-29T13:25:00.000-08:00

Source Minneapolis St Paul Star Tribune

Poor Nick Coleman at the Star Tribune is yet again is in a tizzy fit over Power Line. Apparently this time partly because Power Line received the "Blog of the Year!" in the 2004 Weblog Awards.

In a feigned offering of a truce Coleman says "The end of the year is a time to bury the hatchet, so congratulations to Powerline, the Twin Cities blog that last week was named Time magazine's 'Blog of the Year!'" But follows imediately with "Now let me get a new hatchet."

While naming names of The Big Trunk and Hind Rocket, he goes on to try insinuating conflicts of interest with their employment and other activities. Somehow Deacon is suspiciously missing. Probably because he is in Washington DC instead of the Twin Cities. A few excerpts.

These guys pretend to be family watchdogs but they are Rottweilers in sheep's clothing. They attack the Mainstream Media for not being fair while pursuing a right-wing agenda cooked up in conservative think tanks funded by millionaire power brokers.

They should call themselves "Powertool." They don't speak truth to power. They just speak for power.

I work for a dopey old newspaper committed to covering the news fairly while Powerline doesn't make boring commitments. They are not Mainstream Media. They are Extreme Media. Call them reliable partisan hacks.

That's what they call me: A reliable partisan hack, even though they sometimes like columns I write about dumb things Democrats do. I have criticized many dumb Democrats, but Democrats don't matter these days. All the power is in the hands of Republicans, and Powerline's job is to make life easier for them. Mine isn't.

It appears they are not making Nick's life any easier either as Nick tries to be (choke) fair and balanced.

Powerline is run by Ivy League lawyers, one of whom (Johnson) is a vice president at TCF Bank in Minneapolis and works for Bill Cooper, an ex-state Republican Party chairman. Johnson and Hinderaker are fellows at the Claremont Institute, a conservative think tank that seems to be obsessed with gays and guns and wants to return us to the principles of our founders, although I can't determine if that includes Ben Franklin's skirt chasing.

Mainstream or Extreme? We report, you decide: Last month, Claremont gave its Winston Churchill Award to that visionary statesman and recovering drug addict, Rush Limbaugh!

But Extreme bloggers don't tell truths. They tell talking points. Powerline is the biggest link in a daisy chain of right-wing blogs that is assaulting the Mainstream Media while they toot their horns in the service of ... what? The downtrodden? No, that was yesterday's idea of the purpose of journalism. Extreme bloggers are so hip and cool they can make fun of the poor and the disadvantaged while working out of paneled bank offices.

"We report, you decide" Now where have I heard that? Plagerizing fox are we! And Coleman tries so hard to draw conflict of interest lines that it is comical.

But enough. It's time for auld acquaintance to be forgot. So as a gift to Powerline, let me try my hand at some blogger-style "fact-checking."

1) "It's totally unexpected," Johnson, the banker, told the newspaper after Powerline won "Blog of the Year."

But the Aw Shucks Act doesn't fly. Powerline campaigned shamelessly for awards, winning an online "Best Blog of 2004" a week before the Time honor. That online award was a bloggers' poll, and Powerline linked its readers to the award site 10 times during the balloting, shilling for votes.

And so did every other blog in the running link to the Awards and shill for votes. It isn't exactly the same as running for president of the United States. There is a lot more and it is pretty amusing, so read the rest.

Also Power Line's reaction.

San Fran To Study Grocery Bag Tax

2004-12-28T11:16:00.000-08:00

Via The Oakland Tribune

The California elite are at it again. It is no wonder people are leaving the state in droves. San Francisco's environmental commission is to decide whether the city will be the first to support a 17 cent user fee on plastic and paper grocery bags.

The article doesn't make it clear whether it is a per bag, or a per check-out charge, but it gives impression it is per bag. The reasoning is to induce shoppers to bring their own bags. The tax would apply to non-grocery shopping as well.

The goal of the fee is to reduce some 50 million bags distributed by San Francisco supermarkets each year. Environmentalists say the bags pollute cities and wilderness areas, jam recycling machinery and often blow into the world's oceans and harm marine organisms. Environmental groups estimate there are

46,000 pieces of plastic in each square mile of ocean.

The 17-cent fee would cover current estimated recycling, collection, disposal and street cleaning costs. "If you want to use the bag, you pay a fee to use the bag," said Westlund. "If you don't want to use the bag, you bring your own. And ideally we'll be able to drop the number of bags in use." The fee would apply to shoppers at the city's larger grocery stores, specifically those earning more than $2 million per year in sales.

Paul Smith, vice president of government relations at the California Grocers Association, called the fee a tax on food and on consumers. "It's very punitive," he said, "primarily against grocery stores and large grocery stores." Smith said his members worry that a reduction of at-register bags might inadvertently lead to an increase in shoplifting. "You're opening the ability for customers to bring a rather large, discreet bag and go down the aisle with it," he said.

As a single person I still usually have 3 or 4 paper and a few more of plastic from grocery shopping. What more of a burden it would be for a family of 4-6 or more. Can't you just see it now? A black market on paper and plastic bags thriving in California.

Consumer Confidence Ends Year With Big Jump

2004-12-28T11:08:00.000-08:00

December consumer confidence reversed a four month decline, the hightest level since July. This report from USA Today has the monthly report on consumer confidence based on a survey of 5,000 U.S. households.

The survey found that consumers' outlook for the next six months was more upbeat than the month before. Respondents saying they expected business conditions to improve rose to 22.0% from 20.3%, while those saying they expected conditions to worsen fell to 7.7% from 11.4%.

Those saying they believed business conditions were good rose to 24.4% from 23.2%, while those saying they were bad fell to 17.8% from 20.2%.

The survey's reading of the labor market also improved. The percentage of respondents saying jobs are plentiful rose to 19.4% from 17.1%, while those saying jobs were hard to get fell to 26.4% from 28.0%.

The outlook for jobs also improved. Those saying they expected fewer jobs to become available in the coming months declined to 15.5% from 19.3%. However, those saying they expected more jobs to become available slipped to 16.2% from 17.6%.

Global Warming: The New Religion

2004-12-27T12:45:00.000-08:00

Via Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

Richard Lindzen, scientist and MIT professor has this insight into global warming.

History says the rise of reason and revulsion stopped religious witch-burning. Or maybe they just got all the witches.

Likewise, the global warming hysterics of today may run out of steam when reason prevails. Or when they get all the capitalists.

"Do you believe in global warming? That is a religious question," he said at the National Press Club this month. But it keeps a lot of preachers of the faith employed and the folks stirred up.

This puts me in mind of a lecture by Michael Crichton that I have linked before. Crichton calls it science by consensus.

Let's be clear: the work of science has nothing whatever to do with consensus. Consensus is the business of politics. Science, on the contrary, requires only one investigator who happens to be right, which means that he or she has results that are verifiable by reference to the real world. In science consensus is irrelevant. What is relevant is reproducible results. The greatest scientists in history are great precisely because they broke with the consensus.

There is no such thing as consensus science. If it's consensus, it isn't science. If it's science, it isn't consensus. Period.

As historical facts, global warming and cooling have occurred.

The Earth warmed in the Middle Ages, up to a peak around 1300 when it was perhaps 2 degrees warmer than now, whereupon the Little Ice Age ensued until about 1900.

We'd like to have that explained in the context of "man-made global warming."

The way I see it global warming may be coming. But if it is, then there probably isn't much we can do to prevent it, although we should continue to vigorously study it.

I don't know how much that man contributes, and science doesn't either. It's just another theory among many, and I suppose many of the theories have merit, and make up the big climate picture. Fitting human caused contributions into the bigger climate picture is not easy because "climate science" lacks any central theory to make sense of what's happening.

For my two cents I believe that our money would be much better spend studying and preparing for it than trying to prevent what we yet don't understand.

Tsunami toll worse than Bam quake

2004-12-27T12:09:00.000-08:00

Update on the tsunami resulting from the quake in the Indian ocean Christmas day.

Watch tsunami caught on camera video [here]

Report Via Interest!ALERT

UNITED NATIONS, Dec. 27 (UPI) -- The U.N. emergency relief coordinator says the Southeast Asia tsunami death toll should surpass last year's 26,000 dead in the Bam, Iran, earthquake.

Undersecretary-General Jan Egeland told reporters Monday at U.N. World Headquarters in New York an enormous relief effort was under way in the region struck Sunday by giant waves generated from an undersea earthquake in the Indian Ocean. The latest estimates run at about 22,000 killed.

[...]

...more casualties are feared from aftereffects, such as polluted drinking water, adding that "acute respiratory disease always comes in the wake of disasters."

Iraq Rejects U.S. Election Interference

2004-12-26T12:20:00.000-08:00

Report Via SwissInfo and The New Your Times.

According to an article in SwissInfo by Luke Baker, Washington has suggested that Iraq adjust the results of next months election to benefit the Sunni minority if poor turnout in the Sunni areas means Shi'ites win an exaggerated majority for the new assembly. Iraq's election body has rejected the suggestion.

Speaking of "unacceptable" interference, Electoral Commission spokesman Farid Ayar said on Sunday: "Who wins, wins. That is the way it is. That is the way it will be in the election."

Steven Weisman writes for the New York Times that the Bush administration has been trying to influence Iraqi leaders of guaranteeing Sunni Arabs a number of ministries or high-level jobs in the future government if Sunni candidates fail to do well in Iraq's elections.

An even more radical step, one that a Western diplomat said was raised already with an aide to Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's most revered Shiite cleric, is the possibility of adding some of the top vote-getters among the Sunni candidates to the 275-member legislature, even if they lose to non-Sunni candidates.

The diplomat said even some Shiite politicians who were followers of Ayatollah Sistani were concerned that a Pyrrhic victory by Shiites, effectively shutting Sunni Arabs out of power, could alienate Sunnis and lead to more internal strife. Shiites make up about 60 percent of Iraqis and were generally denied power under Saddam Hussein.

Strife was still the word in Baghdad, where the death toll from the explosion of a tanker truck on Christmas Eve rose to nine on Saturday, with 19 wounded, the Interior Ministry said. No group has taken responsibility for the attack, which apparently did not damage any obvious insurgent targets. [Page 20.]

The idea of adding Sunnis to the legislature after the election was acknowledged by officials as likely to be difficult to carry out, but they said it might be necessary to avoid Sunni estrangement.

Sunnis Arabs make up about 20 percent of the population and formed the core of Mr. Hussein's power structure.

Much of the violent insurgency is taking place in Sunni-dominated areas in the central part of the country, and some Sunni leaders have called for a boycott of the election. This has led to fears that large numbers of Sunnis will obey the call or be afraid to vote.

Farid Ayar is right when he says "Who wins, wins. That is the way it is." We are supposed to help them build a government of democratic ideas, not socialistic. If the Sunni boycott the elections it is at thier peril. Fear of insurgents is another story and we need to insure that all possible measures are taken to make the voting places as safe as possible to prevent that.

Also according to a poll of 5000 Iraqi's in and around Bagdad reported at Power Line, when asked: "What will you base your vote on?"

Political agenda----------------------------65%
Factional origin----------------------------14%
Party Affiliation---------------------------- 4%
National Background----------------------12%
Other reasons--------------------------------5%

And an Iraqi blogger and Sunni at "Diary from Baghdad" had this to say recetly:

For me I don’t care whether Sunni, shiat, Kurdish or any religion/ethnic group win the elections if they are qualified, but I don’t want an Islamic government (I want a secular government). What I really hate about this election is that it’s made as ethnic and religious groups only, without giving concern about who is qualified and who is not. I heard that in the next days those parties will start their campaigns on TV and newspapers.

Till now I don’t know any of those parties, I don’t want to vote based on religion. I want to choose what I think is right and best for my country.

Since the governing council was established a year ago, everything in our live is dividing according to religious/sect origin, they even distributed the ministries according to that not the qualification!.

In the eighties and the years before it, nobody cared about whether you are sunni or shii, or even asked what your religious is. Saddam created this problem by his bloody policy and increased largely in the nineties. now after the war the gap increased very much, every religion sect thinks that they should vote to their group to win and nobody thinks which are the best for them. For me I think a religion is something you inherited, you might believe in it or not, it is something between you and God. It had nothing to do with politics.

I always wonder Why the sunni should listen to their clerics not to vote in the elections, I wonder if those clerics asked themselves who will lose if they did not participate. They are of course.

If there are a lot more Iraqi people with that attitude the elections should go well.

Ex-Packer Reggie White dies at 43

2004-12-26T11:39:00.000-08:00

Via the Milwaukee State Journal/Sentenel Online

Defensive lineman Reggie White, who terrorized quarterbacks for the Green Bay Packers and Philadelphia Eagles, has died of a massive heart attack at age 43, according to ESPN.

Reggie White, the soon-to-be Hall of Fame defensive end who came to the Green Bay Packers in 1993 and helped the organization regain the glory of its past, died Sunday at the age of 43.

Former Packers safety LeRoy Butler told the Journal Sentinel he spoke with Sara White, Reggie's wife, Sunday morning and was informed that White had passed away earlier in the day. He had turned 43 on Dec. 19. ESPN reported that he died of a massive heart attack at his home near Huntersville, N.C.

Sara White released a statement through a family pastor that said, "Today our beloved husband, father and friend passed away. His family appreciates your thoughts and prayers as we mourn the loss of Reggie White. We want to thank you in advance for honoring our privacy."

White joined the Packers in 1993 as the most heralded free agent in NFL history and within four years the Packers were Super Bowl champions. White played six seasons with the Packers and held the all-time NFL record for sacks when he retired as a member of the Carolina Panthers after the 2000 season.

MORE ON REGGIE WHITE
Forum: Post your Reggie White tribute

Islamic Web Site: Footage of Attack on Base in Mosul

2004-12-26T11:15:00.000-08:00

Via Drudge Report

BAGHDAD, Iraq_The radical Islamic group that claimed responsibility for the deadliest attack on a U.S. base in Iraq, released on Sunday dramatic footage of what appeared to be the explosion that killed 22 people.

The video sequence _ which carried Monday's date on the footage _ shows three Ansar al-Sunna Army guerrillas clad in black, wearing face masks and carrying AK-47 automatic rifles, describing the plan to blow up the mess hall at Marez base on the outskirts of the city of Mosul in northern Iraq.

One of the men read a statement saying a member of the group _ identified as Abu Omar al-Musali _ would carry the attack by breaking into the base through the perimeter fence.

"He will take advantage of the change of guards. We have been observing their schedule for a long time. This lion will then proceed to his target and we will take advantage of lunch time. He will storm the dining room where the crusaders and their (Iraqi) allies are gathered," said the unidentified man.

The man reading the statement indicated with a rifle bayonet to a hand drawn map of the base.

"Let Bush, Blair and (interim Iraqi leader Ayad) Allawi know that we are coming and that we will chase them all away, God willing," the masked man said before embracing the suicide bomber who was wearing an explosives-laden vest.

A later outdoor video image _ shot on Tuesday, when the attack occurred _ shows a fireball rising from the distance with the accompanying sound of the explosion. A final image _ shot from a vehicle driving past the base _ shows the torn white tent that served as the base mess hall.

Asia Quakes' Tsunamis Kill More Than 8,000

2004-12-26T11:03:00.000-08:00

Via the New York Post Online

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) -- The world's most powerful earthquake in 40 years struck deep under the Indian Ocean off the west coast of Sumatra on Sunday, triggering tidal waves up to 20 feet high that obliterated villages and seaside resorts in six countries across southern and southeast Asia. At least 8,000 people were killed in the devastation.

Tourists, fishermen, homes and cars were swept away by walls of water that rolled across the Bay of Bengal, unleashed by the 8.9-magnitude earthquake. The tsunami waves barreled nearly 3,000 miles across the ocean to Africa, where at least nine people were killed in Somalia.

In Sri Lanka, 1,000 miles west of the epicenter, more than 3,000 people were killed, the country's top police official said; that number, however, does not include the 1,500 deaths reported by rebels who control part of the country.

Nearly 2,500 were reported dead in Indonesia, and about 2,300 along the southern coasts of India. At least 289 were confirmed dead in Thailand, 42 in Malaysia and 2 in Bangladesh.

But officials expected the death toll to continue to rise, with hundreds reported missing and all communications cut off to towns in the Indonesian island of Sumatra that were closest to the epicenter. Hundreds of bodies were found on various beaches along India's southern state of Tamil Nadu, and more were expected to be washed in by the sea, officials said.

The rush of tsunami waves brought sudden disaster to people carrying out their daily activities on the ocean's edge. Sunbathers on the beaches of the Thai resort of Phuket were washed away. A group of 32 Indians - including 15 children - were killed while taking a ritual Hindu bath to mark the full moon day. Fishing boats, with their owners clinging to their sides, were picked up by the waves and discarded.

"All the planet is vibrating" from the quake, said Enzo Boschi, the head of Italy's National Geophysics Institute. Speaking on SKY TG24 TV, Boschi said the quake even disturbed the Earth's rotation.

The U.S. Geological Survey measured the quake at a magnitude of 8.9. Geophysicist Julie Martinez said it was the world's fifth-largest since 1900 and the largest since a 9.2 temblor hit Prince William Sound Alaska in 1964.

Jesus Was Homeless? Jesse Jackson Says So

2004-12-26T09:50:00.000-08:00

Via NewsMax

President Bush has implemented economic policies that resemble those of the Roman Empire, which forced the baby Jesus into homelessness on the night of his birth, former civil rights leader Rev. Jesse Jackson said in a pre-Christmas rant late Thursday.

"In the last [Bush] budget, we cut housing again, and that was Jesus' dilemma. In Bethlehem, his family ended up homeless," Jackson told MSNBC's Campbell Brown.

I won't even address Bush's economic policies, we already know that the economy has rebounded, and that unemployment is way down.

What really shocked me is that the Reverend Jesse Jackson apparently knows very little about the biblical Christmas story. Never have I heard anyone, in or formerly in the clergy, assert that Jesus was homeless. Indeed he was not.

He was born away from home, but we know for certain he had a home: "And when they had performed all things according to the law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee, to their own city Nazareth." (Luke 2:39)

Jesus was born away from Nazareth where Joseph and Mary lived. The reason was becaue the Roman government ruled that everyone must go to the place of their birth (Bethlehem in this case) to register for a census to impliment a tax increase. (Luke 2:1-4) When they got there, the city was crowded with other travelers who were probably there for the same reason, and the inn (probably the only inn in the small town) was booked. (Luke 2:7)

It's not as though they hadn't already slept outdoors. It was a journey of several days, and it was customary to camp nightly on long journeys in those days. Joseph was a skilled worker, they most likely had no problem finding lodging. Obviously Joseph had the money to stay at the inn.

Another point if Mary hadn't been in labor, they may have been able to find lodging as a guest in someones house. Hospitality was also a very important social custom then. Because birth was imminent, and the inn was full, likely forced Joseph to make due with what they could find imediately as the nearest shelter.

Tis The Season

2004-12-24T12:09:00.000-08:00

My wish is for a very very
Merry Christmas for everyone.

Ban Santa? - Here's Coal In Your Stocking

2004-12-22T11:52:00.000-08:00

Do we not have enough wall between Church and State? This report in the USA Today makes one wonder if their is an end to this "not-to-offend" Grinch elite.

The politically correct police are thoroughly and completely out of control in their attempts to ban everything from Nativity scenes to Christmas trees. First place stupidity should go to school administrators in South Orange/Maplewood, NJ, who decided that a school's brass band couldn't even play "Santa Claus is Coming to Town."

I can understand why some folks may not want a picture of Jesus in a public school classroom, as many Catholic schools have. But Santa Claus? Santa is so thoroughly secularized and commercialized today, many people don't even know he is based on the patron saint of children, St. Nicholas, who died more than 1,600 years ago. Besides, it would be hard to find a more politically correct saint.

Born to wealth, St. Nicholas was one big social worker, giving his money away to the poor and doing benevolent deeds for the most downtrodden in society. His generosity was always pure — of an anonymous nature with no expectation of reciprocation or acknowledgment. The tradition of Santa coming down the chimney started when the real St. Nicholas dropped money down a poor man's chimney — which fell into stockings hung there to dry — so his daughters would have dowries to get married.

And it wasn't just about money. St. Nicholas also rescued kidnapped children, saved sailors and stood up for the unjustly accused. When he died, he became the patron saint of seafarers, scholars, bankers, jurists, brewers, travelers, perfumers, unmarried girls, brides and especially — children. If he ran for office today, that would be one mighty constituency.

Throughout the 1900s, St. Nicholas was transformed into the thoroughly secular figure of Santa Claus — pasted onto every sort of advertising junk, soft drink and food carton in the free world.

Perhaps, some public officials in America no longer see the season for what it is. Possibly, they haven't gone door to door in their election efforts, to witness firsthand who the poor are in their towns — how many kids are from broken homes, how many destitute people could use a little hope this season. And if they ban Santa Claus from schools and public places, they also ban not only hope but also the miraculous reward anonymous, unreciprocated generosity can bring: a joy that has no words, a pleasure whose origins are in the heart and soul, not the mind and body.

When city officials of Kensington, Md., tried to ban Santa Claus in 2001, citizens took to the streets — literally. Dozens of white-bearded, red-suited Santas roared into town in pickup trucks and motorcycles, defying this stunningly stupid ban in a wonderful act of Christmas civil disobedience. The townspeople cheered.

Maybe it's time for us all to engage in some Christmas civil disobedience: Don a red suit, grab a knapsack of toys and charge full-tilt into the poorest sections of our towns, hoping that our belly laughs will be heard in every dark corner of City Hall, in every dingy school administration building.

And, as politically incorrect as it may be, we might do this in the name and memory of the original Santa Claus: old St. Nicholas who held the love of children and charity to the poor high like a blazing beacon, against the dark forces that try to erase reverent charity and generosity from public society — perhaps even from the human heart.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Study Shows Gun Laws Have Little Effect

2004-12-22T11:27:00.000-08:00

Source: The Monitor Online

The hype and never-ending debate goes on in this country over gun control laws and their effects. Advocates of gun control cite the easy means in which a person can buy a firearms, and worry that retail outlets are arming criminals in large numbers.

Gun control advocates continually file lawsuits against wholesalers and retailers, and push for more restrictions on firearm purchases with the vain hopes that their attempt will keep guns from the hands of criminals and others that are less than deserving to have them. But it is the law abiding citizens who have the right to own firearms that pay the price for these laws.

For example, in the wake of the 1999 Columbine shootings, Colorado voters passed a law requiring background checks for all firearm sales at gun shows. The argument in favor of the law was that criminals were taking advantage of the fact that such checks had been required only if a licensed firearms dealer was selling a gun. But if a recent report from the Justice Department is any indicator, this law and others like it are likely not very effective.

The study noted that the number of criminals who obtained guns from retail outlets was dwarfed by the number of those who picked up their arms through means other than legal purchases. The report was the result of interviews with more than 18,000 state and federal inmates conducted nationwide. It found that nearly 80 percent of those interviewed got their guns from friends or family members, or on the street through illegal purchases. Less than 9 percent were bought at retail outlets — and only seven-tenths of 1 percent came from gun shows. So much for the much-ballyhooed closing of the “gun-show loophole.”

The Justice Department’s interviews also gave lie to the notion that so-called assault weapons in private hands decrease the safety of police officers and citizens. Only about 8 percent of the inmates used one of the models covered in the now-expired assault weapons ban, passed under Bill Clinton in 1994. If the supposed increased firepower of these firearms truly made them attractive to lawbreakers the percentage would have been much higher.

And so another gun-control myth ends up on the ash heap of history.

Value Words, a Linguist Advises Democrats

2004-12-22T11:00:00.000-08:00

Source: The Sacramento Bee

A University of California Berkeley professor since 1972, George Lakoff, the author of several influential books has risen in popularity in the wake of the presidential election. His recent book, "Don't Think of an Elephant: Know Your Values and Frame the Debate."

His book which has sold 150,000 copies since the launch in September, and has been selling well because many liberals thing Lakoff has the answers. Lakeoff was already sounding the alarm long before the post election polls and handwringing over the reasons why the Democrats were not getting through to red state voters.

Writing in his new book, Lakoff states: "Democrats are shocked or puzzled when voters do not vote their self-interest. 'How,' Democrats keep asking me, 'can any poor person vote for Bush when he hurts them so badly?' "

Republicans might dispute the "hurt," but no one is arguing that their party's base stretches well beyond the rich and powerful these days. Lakoff argues that Republicans are succeeding because they have been carefully choosing words to frame issues around values. The strategy has left Democrats on the defensive in many areas.

"Partial-birth abortion." "Tax relief." "Healthy Forests Initiative." "No Child Left Behind." Lakoff says the words are no accident.

What's more, when Democrats argue against the issues and employ the same words and phrases, they are unwittingly reinforcing the conservative frame.

That was the inspiration for the title of Lakoff's book: If you are told not to think of an elephant, you can't help but think of one.

Lakoff says conservatives have been perfecting this strategy for 30 years, investing millions in think tanks and framing issue after issue in conservative terms.

"In the 2000 election (Al) Gore kept saying that Bush's tax cuts would go only to the top 1 percent," Lakoff writes, "and he thought that everyone else would follow their self-interest and support him. But poor conservatives still opposed him ... they believed that those who had the most money - the "good" people - deserved to keep it as their reward for being disciplined. The bottom 99 percent of conservatives voted their conservative values, against their self-interest."

Toward the end of "Don't Think of an Elephant," which is essentially a speech and some writings hastily pieced together, Lakoff offers advice on framing. For example, he suggests countering the conservatives' "strong defense" with "stronger America," "free markets" with "broad prosperity," and "smaller government" with "effective government."

"You don't communicate your vision through programs," Lakoff says. "You communicate your values."

While I agree with Lakoff to an extent, I can't see how the left would apply this principle to all of the Democratic positions. For example the anit-war position taken by many would be hard to frame and package even by Lakoff.

Pablo Paredes Reports For Duty

2004-12-22T09:32:00.000-08:00

Source San Diego Union-Tribune Online

Pablo Paredes is reporting for duty at San Diego Naval Station while the Navy decides whether to charge him for refusing to board his Iraq-bound ship.

Paredes, a petty officer third class, turned himself in to naval authorities Saturday. He had refused to board the Bonhomme Richard on Dec. 6, when it left for the Middle East carrying thousands of Camp Pendleton Marines.

Navy spokesman N. Scott Sutherland said Paredes, 23, has assigned duties and responsibilities but isn't restricted to the base. The Navy considers Paredes a deserter, Sutherland said.

Paredes had called the news media to say he intended to become a conscientious objector. Several journalists were pier side when the Bonhomme Richard, an amphibious assault ship, sailed without Paredes.

The Navy didn't arrest Paredes at the time, saying that technically he couldn't be considered missing until a roll call was taken aboard ship.

"While there is no legal prohibition against charging someone with desertion right off the bat, customarily the military waits 30 days," said Rehkopf, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel in Rochester, N.Y. He said the maximum penalty for desertion is five years' imprisonment.

Citizen Smash the Indepundit has a report plus details of a rally put on by some of Pablo's supporters.

The 3rd Annual Twenty Most Annoying Liberals

2004-12-20T15:04:00.000-08:00

The 3rd Annual Twenty Most Annoying Liberals In The United States: The 2004 Edition is up on Right Wing News by John Hawkins. His excelent reasoning for the choices he made and defining quotes make good reading, along with a good sprinkling of supporting links.

First honorable mentions not making the list:

The ACLU, Max Cleland, Chevy Chase, Susan Estrich, Al Franken, Whoopi Goldberg, Bev Harris, Jesse Jackson, Ted Kennedy, Terry McAuliffe, Bill Maher, The New York Times, Lawrence O'Donnell, Keith Olberman, Sean Penn, Charles Rangel, Ron Reagan Jr., Randi Rhodes, George Soros, Bruce Springstein, Jon Stewart, Barbra Streisand, Henry Waxman, Markos Moulitsas Zúniga

Last years winner Ted Rall took 2nd place:

Ted Rall is an admitted Marxist who would probably be better suited to writing press releases for Fidel Castro than writing for American newspapers, although Rall might even be a bit too anti-American even for the Cubans.

Last year, Rall won the Most Annoying Liberal For 2003 and if anything he was nauseatingly worse this year.

So far this year, Rall referred to Condi Rice as Bush's House N*gga, said that Reagan was "turning crispy brown right about now" soon after his death & also said that "If there is a hell, this guy is in it", recently wrote a column comparing Pat Tillman to a terrorist...I could go on and on and on with this...

Rall is like a living, breathing, caricature of everything that's wrong with the left. He's an America hating Marxist, who doesn't support the troops, roots for America to lose wars, and generally comes across as a slightly unhinged, hate filled, loon....oh, and did I mention that he's annoying?

Defining Quote: "(A)nyone who voluntarily goes to Afghanistan or Iraq (as a soldier) is fighting for an "an evil cause under an evil commander in chief." -- Ted Rall

Michael Moore deservedly took 1st place, but I will let you read the excellent reasoning and defining quote from John Hawkins at Right Wing News.

Bush Plans Tight Budget - Critical of Iraqi Forces

2004-12-20T12:05:00.000-08:00

Via MyWay News: Bush Plans Tight Budget to Slash Deficit.

President Bush pushing his second term budget said that the budget he will submit will maintain spending discipline, and cut the deficit in half in five years.

"We will provide every tool and resource for our military, we will protect the homeland," Bush said. He said he would "maintain strict discipline in spending tax dollars."

Via Yahoo News: Bush critical of Iraqi forces; stands by Rumsfeld.

During a hour long news confrence today Bush admitted that Iraqi forces were not yet ready to replace the US-let coalition, but said that Iraqi elections will go ahead on January 30, warning that it would not be the end of deadly violence. Bush also stood by Rumsfeld saying that the Secretary of Defence was "doing a really fine job."

Bush acknowledged that efforts to train Iraqis to take charge of the country's security had "mixed" results, and noted "there have been some cases where, when the heat got on, they left the battlefield."

"That's unacceptable. Iraq will never secure itself if they have troops that, when the heat gets on, they leave the battlefield," he said, adding that he was "confident" that training efforts would pay off in the long run.

On the home front, Bush shrugged off a question about news reports that the increasingly embattled Rumsfeld does not sign condolence letters to families of US soldiers killed in Iraq, using a machine instead.

"I know Secretary Rumsfeld's heart," said Bush. "Beneath that rough and gruff, no-nonsense demeanor is a good human being who cares deeply about the military and deeply about the grief that war causes."

Fighting Back On Christmas Tidings

2004-12-20T01:06:00.000-08:00

The Washington Post By Alan Cooperman.

Christmas and religious expression has buffered from years of legal assult. Christmas plays and observance in public schools, public display of Nativity scenes and Christmas trees have been attacted from the liberal and secular left until people are fighting back at a political corrrectness that is spiraling out of control, and not without success.

All over the country suits are either being filed, or threatened, to win acceptance of Nativity scenes, Christmas caroling, concerts and Christmas trees. A backlash is growing and battles are being won. The left has gone too far and is hostile to Christianity and religion.

Last year, a school administrator stopped Jonathan Morgan at the door to his classroom because the "goody bag" he had brought to a school party on the last day before Christmas vacation contained candy canes with a religious message attached. Titled "The Legend of the Candy Cane," it said the candy was shaped in a J for Jesus and bore a red stripe "to represent the blood Christ shed for the sins of the world."

This year, the 9-year-old and his evangelical Christian parents went straight to court. They were among four families who persuaded Judge Paul Brown, of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, to issue a temporary restraining order on Thursday securing their children's right to hand out "religious viewpoint gifts" at school-sponsored holiday parties.

Kelly Shackelford, the Liberty Legal lawyer who argued the case, said in a telephone interview that Supreme Court decisions since 1969 clearly have established that students do not give up free-speech rights when they walk through the school door. Expressions of religious faith that would be unconstitutional coming from a teacher in a classroom are acceptable among students as long as they do not "materially and substantially disrupt" school operations, he said.

Though much of the restrictions placed by public officials is due to hostility, a desire to avoid contgroversy and sometimes ignorance of acceptable policy causes undue contention. They treat it more like an enviromental issue as if to keep the air clear of religious polution.

On Friday, the ACLJ persuaded officials in Pasco County, Fla., to reverse their decision to remove Christmas trees from all public buildings. Daniel R. Johnson, an assistant county administrator, said the removal had been triggered by a request from a resident to put a Hanukah menorah next to the Christmas tree in the public library.

A federal judge in Florida on Wednesday ordered the town of Bay Harbor Islands to grant a resident's request to erect a creche next to a local synagogue's menorah on public property.

In Maplewood, N.J., Christian groups threatened to sue over the school district's policy of allowing secular songs, such as "Jingle Bell Rock," but not hymns, such as "Silent Night," at student concerts. In Mustang, Okla., voters angry over the school superintendent's decision to remove a Nativity scene from a student play helped defeat a $10.4 million bond issue to build a new elementary school.

Maybe there is at least some semblance of sanity breaking through the out of control polical correctness that has griped our country in the past several years. Not only has the first amendment freedom of speach been trampled, but the "prohibiting the free exercise" of religion as well.

A nine year old child giving a gift to another child with a religious message attached does not establish a state religion. Children singing Silent Night doesn't establish a state religion, especially when no one is forced to sing. Displaying a Nativity scene on public property does not establish a state religion, when a menorah or Islamic crescent is also allowed.

Michelle Malkin has posted some good news for the Bogota, N.J area.

Update: Power Line has a good take on the dimensions of the fight and refers to a strong debate going on from both sides at BuzzMachine.

Bush's Plans to See A More Agressive Congress

2004-12-20T01:04:00.000-08:00

Source The Washington Post By Jim VandeHei and Charles Babington.

After getting a rubber stamp for much of Bush's agenda, a more agressive Republican House and Senate have plans to be more forceful in the coming term.

Bush has plans in his second term to reform social security, grant guest-worker status to large numbers of undocumented immigrants, impose federal limits on medical lawsuits and postpone tax reform until 2006 or later.

Recent White House handling of the intelligence reform" bill and delaying tax reform have been criticized by Texas house Majority Leader Tom DeLay. Others house members are complaining about the hazards of the White House plan for overhauling Social Security reform. Some senators have plans to promote Social Security reform plans of their own.

But the president's most nettlesome intra-party issue in early 2005 may be immigration, lawmakers said. Bush's goal of granting guest-worker status to large numbers of undocumented immigrants is about to collide head-on with House Republicans' push to crack down on illegal immigrants, in part by denying them driver's licenses.

House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (Ill.) salvaged the intelligence legislation this month only by telling GOP colleagues that the White House has vowed to allow tough immigration restrictions, including the driver's license proposal, that were removed from the measure to accompany the first "must-pass" legislation of 2005.

"If the president wants to maintain credibility with House Republicans, he has to be engaged and willing to pass immigration reform that conservatives want," said Rep. Ray LaHood (Ill.), one of 57 House Republicans who voted against the intelligence bill Bush just signed into law. "If he does that, he will build a bridge" that could open the way to far-reaching changes to Social Security, the tax code and other policies, LaHood said. "If he's missing in action on that issue, he's going to have big problems."

Bush's ability to navigate these concerns will go a long way toward determining whether he can do what few previous presidents have done: enact broad domestic policy changes in a second term.

Some Republicans no longer feel tethered to the president politically, as they did in the 2002 midterm elections and this year. Other senators, including Majority Leader Bill Frist (Tenn.), Chuck Hagel (Neb.), John McCain (Ariz.) and George Allen (Va.), will be animated by White House ambitions of their own.

The Senate may be even more problematic. Graham is pushing a different Social Security plan and challenging Bush's refusal to tinker with the payroll tax to finance the changes.

Bush has ruled out raising taxes to fund the plan, while Graham says the amount of income subject to the payroll tax, which is capped at $87,900, should be lifted to $200,000.

Hagel plans to unveil his own plan early next year. It takes 60 votes to pass controversial measures in the 100-member Senate, so Bush can ill afford Republican defectors.

It seems Republicans are willing to bend, but expect White House support for measures that they strongly favor. Concessioins were made to the White House on the Bush backed intelligence bill with promises of support for drivers license reforms that would keep undocumented immigrants from recieving them. The drivers license issue and greater control of our borders both have broad backing from the US public, and could have implications on the mid-term elections.

While some Republicans support Social Security reform, they do not all back the Bush plan. Some want even bigger private accounts than Bush will likely go along with. Others want to increase the earning cap subject to payroll tax. Reguardless what Social Security plan in the end is passed, it must be repeated over and over to the seniors that they will not loose benefits.

The Bitter Reflections of an Undiscovered Genius

2004-12-18T15:51:00.000-08:00

As long as blogging is lite this weekend, here is something I have been meaning to put up for a long time about a blog I ran across late summer. The headline is the description on the blog "Irate Savant," which I have been keeping up on from time to time. It reads rather similar to a personal journal.

Basically it is a story about the Savants conquests of a certain single neighbor, who has also been showered with competing affection, via a vagabond from her small hometown. You may want to read back a bit in the archives to get a better feel of the story.

The first time I read it my reaction was; "Is this guy for real? Could anyone make this stuff up?" But upon further reading, especially the comments, it started to become more and more apparent that this is a story that is being spun.

There is an occasional news article injected between parts of the story, but not enough to interupt the flow of... for lack of a better description an old england flair in romantic writing style.

A word of caution: The comments are often very funny. Be very careful of drinking any beverages while reading these comments. You may find your monitor and keyboard sprayed with such refreshments.

Lite Blogging for the Weekend

2004-12-18T15:11:00.000-08:00

There was little but re-hash in the news today, so I am going to make it a lite blogging weekend. Maybe I'll get some housework caught up, and get my snow blower pre-checked for the winter.

Green Groups Ready Suits Against US On Global Warming

2004-12-17T13:01:00.000-08:00

Via CNSNews

*GROAN* Here we go again! These greenienuts have not a chance in hell of winning a court battle and they know it. I dare to say the attempt is for no more than to draw attention to their cause. The courts are not the place for a global warming ad campaign.

A number of legal filings and complaints are being readied as green groups turn to the courts to seek redress against countries -- chiefly the U.S. -- and companies that environmental activists believe are causing catastrophic global warming.

Environmental groups ranging from Greenpeace to EarthJustice held seminars this week at the United Nations climate conference touting new legal strategies to go after the countries and companies they believe contribute to climate change.

A joint press release from Friends of the Earth International, Greenpeace and WWF on Thursday warned "there will be more [legal actions against countries and businesses] unless deep cuts are made in emissions and victims are compensated."

Of course no campaign would be complete without politicians. Enter California state attorney general Ken Alex.

The California state attorney general, Ken Alex, made the trip to the Buenos Aires conference to promote his "first-ever climate change litigation against private companies."

Critics of the environmental movement see the shift in focus to the courts as evidence of the green groups' failure to convince the world of the righteousness of their cause.

Of course there is no scientific proof of global warming causes being man made, only scientific concensus, which is not science at all. In the words of Michael Crichton:

Let's be clear: the work of science has nothing whatever to do with consensus. Consensus is the business of politics. Science, on the contrary, requires only one investigator who happens to be right, which means that he or she has results that are verifiable by reference to the real world. In science consensus is irrelevant. What is relevant is reproducible results. The greatest scientists in history are great precisely because they broke with the consensus.

There is no such thing as consensus science. If it's consensus, it isn't science. If it's science, it isn't consensus. Period.

"The Kyoto Protocol is dead for all intents and purposes, so environmentalists now go to Plan B: What they couldn't obtain through the open democratic process, they are now desperately trying to seek through the courts," said Chris Horner of the free market environmental group Competitive Enterprise Institute who attended the U.N. conference here. The CEI does not believe that science supports alarmist claims of human-caused climate change.

The greenhouse gas-limiting Kyoto Protocol is set to go into effect in February despite the fact that the U.S. will not participate. Horner believes that the agreement is meaningless because there are no enforcement mechanisms and the treaty exempts developing nations that will soon be the biggest emitters of greenhouse gases.

Many environmental groups also concede that Kyoto is too weak to even begin to address their concerns about "global warming."

How Global Warming Can Chill the Planet

2004-12-17T12:46:00.000-08:00

From Live Science comes another theory to add to the pot of global warming. I have no problems with all of these theories about global warming, the debate needs a lot of discussion. But I do wish they would keep politics out of science, or as I like to call it "concensus sicence".

Scientists hope new evidence of an ancient rise in sea level from a fresh water flood will tell them how global warming can lead to global cooling.

A global cooling event was caused by global warming? Sounds strange. But that is exactly what scientists say happened.

The Earth was emerging from an ice age 8,200 years ago. Seas were warming and life was heating up. Then quite abruptly and for a relatively short period of time -- about 100 years -- the entire globe chilled down again, by almost 10.8 degrees Fahrenheit (6 Centigrade).

One widely held theory for the chill was the sudden release of a substantial amount of fresh water into the northern Atlantic.

A lake twice the size of the Caspian Sea broke through an ice sheet that contained it over current day Minnesota and Canada, the evidence shows. It poured its fresh water into the salty Atlantic and changed the density of the ocean water.

The oceans work on a sort of conveyor belt method to circulate cold and warm waters, thereby helping control cold, moderate, and warm areas of the globe. (Earth's climate is only partly affected by land temperatures and sunlight. Oceans, which store vast amounts of energy and are slow to warm up and cool down, contribute greatly to climate.)

But what happens if that conveyor belt stops or slows down?

Cold, fresh water sinks, and warm salty water rises. The influx of fresh water into the Hudson Bay from Lake Agassiz provided a barrier against the warm, salty water struggling to move north on the conveyor belt. This effectively shut down the circulation of warm water in the Northern Atlantic.

With warm waters unable to move as far north the world became cooler. The amount of water Lake Agassiz dumped into the ocean is equivalent to how much the seas rose. Knowing these amounts will tell scientists how much fresh water could create this type of climate change nowadays, were a bunch of it to suddenly find its way into the ocean.

The oceans were able to find their balance relatively quickly in that ancient event, and the effects wore off in about a century, but a century of that kind of change today would create widespread havoc.

Insurgents' Deadly Take on Editorial Interference

2004-12-17T12:38:00.000-08:00

The Australian

BAGHDAD: Sliding out of the insurgents' house in Fallujah, the Iraqi journalist headed out of town with the Arab fighters' threat echoing in his ears: "Interview us or we will kill you."

Before he had reached his car, masked Iraqi fighters sensitive about the presence of foreign guerillas in the city countermanded the order, presenting him with an impossible dilemma. "Broadcast that and we will kill you," they told 30-year-old television journalist Mohamed Abdul Razzaq.

Teaching Tolerance: Encourage kids to be open-minded

2004-12-17T12:10:00.000-08:00

TownOnline By Ursula Furi-Perry/Behavior.

What kind of "tolerance" example do we set for children? Are we tolerant to ethnicity or gender, but intolerant of political views? Tolerant of all of these but intolerant of religious views, or the lack thereof?

"Tolerance is the lowest starting point we must have in order to respect, live and deal with each other," says Mark Weitzman, director of the New York Tolerance Center. "It's the capacity for recognizing and respecting the beliefs of other people," adds Dana Williams, writer/editor for Tolerance.org, a project of the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Crista Martinez, director of Families First Parenting Programs in Cambridge, says, "I don't even like the word 'tolerance.' 'Embrace' is a better expression for the kind of respect and acceptance 'tolerance' implies."

Whatever definition you follow, one thing is certain: In today's world, children must embrace the concept of tolerance.

"We live in a diverse world," explains Jennifer Young, a teacher at the Lesley Ellis School in Andover and advocate of teaching tolerance. "We encounter people every day who are different from ourselves, in appearance, beliefs and opinions."

Thus, accepting differences in people helps kids adapt to diversity.

"Being tolerant enriches our lives and makes us more open-minded," says Williams. "It also prepares children for the real world. In fact, college and the workplace may come with serious shocks if tolerance is not taught [in the home]."

Karen Dill of Haverhill strives to teach her teenagers, ages 15 and 17, to be respectful and tolerant of others. "I truly try to set an example for them, but it is hard," Dill says. "There are so many external influences that say otherwise."

Allawi Front Runner to Lead Iraq After Election

2004-12-17T12:07:00.000-08:00

Reuters

Iraqi officials say it is too early to predict who will be the country's next prime minister, but privately suggest that Allawi, a secular Shi'ite heading a list that includes several ministers from the U.S.-backed government, is considered the front runner if he wins a seat in the new National Assembly.