So I can see myself think. News, politics, Minnesota, Twin Cities, Minneapolis... write to me: bob
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Posted
3/31/2002 05:31:00 PM
by Bob
Fighting them with...porn:
AFP -- Porn movies and programs in Hebrew are being broadcast by Israeli troops who have taken over three Palestinian television stations of Ramallah, irate residents of the besieged West Bank town have told AFP.
The offices of three local television and radio stations were occupied by soldiers yesterday morning, a few hours after tanks and hundreds of troops stormed the town in Israel's biggest offensive against the Palestinian Authority and its leader Yasser Arafat.
The soldiers started broadcasting the porn clips -- considered extremely offensive by most Muslims -- intermittently this afternoon from the Al-Watan, Ammwaj, and Al-Sharaq channels, the residents said.
Posted
3/31/2002 05:19:00 PM
by Bob
Tolerant French.
France warns Israel against harming Arafat, praises U.N. resolution: PARIS (AP) - French President Jacques Chirac on Saturday warned Israel not to kill Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat (news - web sites), and praised the U.N. Security Council resolution calling on Israel to withdraw its troops from Palestinian cities.Meanwhile, protests were held in Paris and several other French cities, as thousands gathered to show support for the Palestinian people and to denounce Israel's invasion of Arafat's compound.
Vandals Attack French Synagogue: LYON, France (AP) - Hooded vandals crashed two cars through the main gate of a synagogue in southeastern France early Saturday, then rammed one of the vehicles into the temple's prayer hall and set it on fire, police said.A book published this month by a leading French anti-racism group and Jewish students chronicled about 400 recent attacks against Jews and their religious sites around the country.
Posted
3/31/2002 04:57:00 PM
by Bob
Enron is number five on the Fortune 500.
Carol Loomis, a member of Fortune's board of editors, said Enron made the list because the magazine used Enron's restated earnings from Jan. 1 to Sept. 30, which gave it revenue of $139 billion. Despite filing for bankruptcy Dec. 2, the company wasn't ineligible for consideration.This is just weird.
Posted
3/31/2002 09:43:00 AM
by Bob
I signed up for the blogger peer review. I'm supposed to review angelstear.blogspot. Someone I don't know will critique my blog. Part of the instructions says that I'm supposed to put my review on my blog. I will do that sometime this week. For my family and friends, if you have a few minutes and check out that blog, let me know what you think. I'll warn you now, it has a lot of poetry.
Posted
3/31/2002 09:29:00 AM
by Bob
The father-son hockey game last night was a blast. The dads routed the kids, 25 - 0.
Posted
3/30/2002 12:29:00 PM
by Bob
Instapundit has this post about butt implants today:
OKAY, THERE ARE A LOT OF DEPRESSING, or at least upsetting posts about the Middle East today. So here's something completely different -- no, not a man with three buttocks, at least not exactly. It's a FoxNews story about the growing popularity of butt implants.I'd like to add another reason why this doesn't mean we are decadent and weak: The fact that in our culture we even have time to think about such things.
But as proof of my one-track mind today, I have to add: This is why we're gonna win. Arabs, etc. look at stuff like this and think that it means we're decadent and weak. But actually it's the opposite: these are women who starve and exercise themselves into such whipcord shape that they have no butts. Only they want butts. So do they relax, and have a decadent slice of pie? Hell, no -- they go under the knife for a painful and expensive procedure. Weakness? Ha. This is as much an emblem of societal toughness as a sun-dance. Decadent my, er, ass!
Other cultures spend an inordinate amount of time hating other people for their religious beliefs. Sure, some in the U.S. have time for that horrible pursuit, but most of us have better things to do. If a legion of people channel their energy into worrying about the shapes of their butts that's fine with me. It's much more useful than if they were working on ways to blow up those who don't worship the same way they do.
(And doesn't that make you wonder: if the world's entire population were of a single religion, what other reason would Arabs have to come up with to hate successful Westerners?)
Posted
3/30/2002 11:54:00 AM
by Bob
A woman has a mental breakdown. The Minneapolis police are called. The woman flees, followed by police. She loses control of her vehicle and kills a pedestrian. Local mental health advocates again call for mental health "professionals" to respond with police to incidents like this. The following are excerpts from a Minneapolis StarTribune article today:
While [Duane] Mumm [the pedestrian who was killed] was about a half-hour into his run, Geralyn Mornson was having a crisis. A mental health worker called police because the 38-year-old registered nurse from Chaska was having a psychotic episode in a parking lot outside an office building in southeast Minneapolis about 4:45 p.m., said Minneapolis police Inspector Rich Stanek. She was out of control and potentially suicidal, police said.The police were called by a mental health professional. The Friends of Barbara Schneider Foundation can be critical of how police deal with the mentally ill. But when a mental health worker, facing a psychotic person, blinks and calls the police the response is that the mental health system isn't foolproof.
"You will need more than one officer," the caller said.
The Friends of Barbara Schneider Foundation, which was named for a mentally ill woman who was killed by police, has suggested that mental health professionals should respond to mental health crises along with police in order to better control the situations.
John Trepp, of the Schneider Foundation, said Friday that he didn't know for sure that the woman who made the call [to police] was a registered mental health professional. But if she was, he said, "We've never said that the system would be foolproof."
Do real mental health workers really echo the foundation's (the "friends") beliefs?
Posted
3/30/2002 09:36:00 AM
by Bob
Tonight is the father-son hockey game for my older son's team.
A short time ago his mites team shared ice time with a pee wee team. They didn't practice, they played a "game." Pee wees are about five years older than the seven- and eight-year olds on my son's team. The mites skated hard and soundly "defeated" the more experienced pee wees, 10 - 2.
My son asked if the dads will be playing with the sons against some other team. I told him the dads might just play against the sons. Without looking up from the book he was reading he replied to me, "That's too bad for you. You saw what we did to that pee wee team." He was completely serious. Goodness, if he can just keep that same confidence throughout life he'll be in great shape for anything.
Posted
3/30/2002 09:22:00 AM
by Bob
Sgt. Stryker had this interesting post yesterday. Here's an excerpt:
This brings me to another thought. If abject poverty and powerlessness logically leads to suicide bombings and terrorist attacks, then why haven't the natives of North America started doing it? I mean, if you want to get into a pissing contest over who's gotten the worst deal, then the Native Americans would win hands down. Foreigners settled their land and they were forcibly resettled to little shithole areas of the country. They live in such poverty that you would think the reservations would be breeding grounds of Native Militancy. Yet, that is not the case. Instead of bombing shopping malls across the country, they've decided to build casinos. Instead of taking life, they're taking the white man's money. They've used ingenuity and creative thought to turn a bad situation into a relatively good one and are making money off of it to boot.
Posted
3/30/2002 09:10:00 AM
by Bob
RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement on Saturday vowed an "unimaginable" response if Israel harms its besieged leader.If they're supposedly capable of some horrific response, what have all the suicide attacks been for? Are they or are they not at war with Israel?
Fatah said in a statement it had ordered a "general mobilization" of its followers and warned that Palestinians would respond to any attempt to harm Arafat in a way that Israel's "government of killers" could not imagine.
Their "military" action in this debacle has been mostly by civilians, sanctioned by their government. They are the de facto army. This makes the entire population a legitmate military target of the Israelis.
Posted
3/29/2002 01:55:00 PM
by Bob
Big, bad soda. Tax cigarettes to try to reduce smoking and smokers pay. Tax soft drinks to reduce obesity and everyone who's thirsty pays. Beautiful.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Reuters) - A California lawmaker has proposed slapping a tax on popular soft drinks to help reduce rocketing rates of childhood obesity.Thank heavens for Sen. Ortiz. If Californians can't take care of themselves, they have her to do it for them.
The bill proposed by state Sen. Deborah Ortiz -- one of the first in the nation to target sugary sodas as a root cause of kids putting on too many pounds -- would offer schools incentives to drop lucrative contracts to sell certain soda brands on their campuses.
"It is not my intention to demonize soda," Ortiz, a Democrat from Sacramento, said in a statement sent on Wednesday, adding that moderate soda pop consumption was not harmful.
"The problem is that Americans have lost sight of moderation, and fail to recognize how many additional calories soda adds to their diets."
Posted
3/29/2002 10:57:00 AM
by Bob
AP -- Israeli troops moved closer and closer to Arafat, punching holes through walls of adjacent buildings in his compound until they reached the three-story building with his offices, where the Palestinian leader was huddling with his closest advisers in a ground-floor room.Step ouside, you'll get your wish.
With a submachine gun placed next to him on a table, a defiant Arafat spoke by phone to world leaders and demanded immediate international intervention. "They want me under arrest or in exile or dead, but I am telling them, I prefer to be martyred,"
Posted
3/29/2002 10:54:00 AM
by Bob
I just received my notice of annual meeting and proxy card from a company that I own some stock in. On this proxy form, and on others I've received, one of the proposals is always ratification of the independent auditors. None of the companies of which I own stock use Arthur Andersen. But I started to wonder how many stockholders/voters this year will decide not to automatically select Andersen if that's what their company has proposed for auditors.
Posted
3/29/2002 08:28:00 AM
by Bob
Great article in NRO today. Here's a part of it:
Multicultural distortion also appears in a variety of strange ways. Palestinian spokesmen harangue Americans about their tilt toward Israel. Yet they also speak in grandiose terms of an "Arab summit" and a global Islamic brotherhood. Apparently, fellow Muslims, Arabs — and kindred autocracies — are supposed to support Palestinians unquestioningly because of religious, cultural, and political affinities. Yet we multicultural Americans are not entitled to exhibit similar sympathy for Israel, which like us and unlike Mr. Arafat's regime, is a Western, democratic, open, and free society.
Why do such bankrupt arguments find resonance? I think the causes have now permeated well beyond a few coffeehouse theorists blabbering away in Cambridge or Palo Alto. Rather it is because we live in a society in which playground fights in our schools are now often adjudicated by concepts such as "zero tolerance" and "equal culpability." Rather than exercising moral judgment — and investing time and energy in such investigation — our school principals simply expel any student caught fighting, as if the bully and his victim occupy the same moral ground.
Posted
3/29/2002 07:41:00 AM
by Bob
These guys have balls.
BEIRUT, Lebanon (CNN) -- Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri has been urged to bring international pressure to bear on Israel in an attempt to stop its military offensive against Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's headquarters in Ramallah.What kind of action...reigning in Arafat and suicide bombers? Or just more suicide bombers.
Lebanese government sources said Hariri expressed anger at the Israeli operation and vowed to take action.
Arafat also told the station: "They either want to kill me, or capture me, or expel me.It's coming:
Israeli tanks and bulldozers have surrounded Arafat's Ramallah compound and have knocked down parts of the fences and walls that ring it.
Posted
3/29/2002 06:06:00 AM
by Bob
New! Doritos Extreme fiery Ranch extra thick & crunchy chips are awful. My older son won't be selecting snacks at the next trip to the store.
Posted
3/29/2002 06:03:00 AM
by Bob
Sgt. Stryker asks, "Why did they let it happen." He's referring to Europe in the 1930s and 40s but with an eye towards today's events.
A lot of excuses are made for those who want to kill us. There's a lot of the "understanding their point of view" mindset, and there's a lot of weight given to the idea of buying peace now with those who have no interest in it.
Posted
3/29/2002 05:58:00 AM
by Bob
Yesterday Yasser Arafat declared his "readiness to implement an immediate cease-fire" which Israel dismissed. Now there's been a blast at a Jerusalem shopping center with dozens injured. Think Arafat's days are numbered? I do.
Posted
3/28/2002 06:47:00 AM
by Bob
The French can't take care of their prisoners, either.
Good thing the Minneapolis police weren't at the scene. The suspect, who killed eight people and wounded 19 more, could have been shot himself!
[Suspect Richard] Durn was known to have had a history of mental problems. Four years ago he was reported to social services after threatening a psychologist.Imagine that - he threatened a mental health professional. And the Mayor of Minneapolis thinks that's the way to approach situations like this.
Council members threw chairs in an attempt to stop the attack, which came at the end of a late-night meeting.
Posted
3/28/2002 05:26:00 AM
by Bob
(Seattle P-I) During a visit to Atlanta, President Bush responded with now-familiar calls for Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to quell the attacks on Israelis. Only hours earlier at a stop in Greenville, S.C., Bush had said his peace envoy in the region was making progress.Nothing speaks as loudly as a daisy cutter. This war of words, punctuated by suicide bombings, doesn't seem to be on the highway to success.
"This callous, this cold-blooded killing, it must stop," Bush said. "I condemn it in the most strongest of terms."
"I call upon Mr. Arafat and the Palestinian Authority to do everything in their power to stop the terrorist killing, because there are people in the Middle East who would rather kill than have peace," he said.Call upon Arafat all you want but it just isn't working.
Posted
3/27/2002 10:08:00 PM
by Bob
Common sense: Coffee is hot and you all should know that.
LONDON (AP) - McDonald's customers should know that coffee and tea are served hot and can burn them if spilled, a British judge said Wednesday in a ruling against 36 people who claimed they were scalded by drinks bought at the fast food chain.Some people have to go to court to learn this fact of life that most of us figured out as children.
Posted
3/27/2002 09:15:00 PM
by Bob
Islamic terrorists would use a nuclear weapon against Israel as soon as they could get their hands on one. Islamic terrorists attack Israel with what they have. (Action)
Israel is known to possess nuclear weapons and hasn't used them. Israel responds to terrorist attacks. (Reaction)
Nearly 20 dead and about 140 wounded in today's suicide bombing by Hamas. During a Passover feast.
And the left fretted over whether the U.S. would bomb during Ramadan.
It's time for Ned Flanders kick the crap out of Homer Simpson. And he damn well better not apologize when the job is done.
Posted
3/27/2002 06:03:00 PM
by Bob
Dudley Moore (1935 - 2002).
Milton Berle (1908 - 2002).
Who will be the third?
Posted
3/27/2002 06:01:00 PM
by Bob
Unfortunately, this isn't a case of life imitating the Onion. It's a real story in the Minneapolis Star Tribune. And that newspaper is reporting it like it's legitimate news.
University of Minnesota Press book challenges anxiety about pedophilia
Sex between adults and children has been a societal taboo so strong that it's considered one of our few unquestioned moral principles. But arguments have emerged in academic journals, books and online that at least some such sex should be acceptable, especially when children consent to it.
When children consent? I'd feel better if we worked on letting them vote and drive first.
Those making the case aren't just fringe groups, such as the North American Man-Boy Love Association, but a handful of academics at mainstream universities.
What separates fringe groups from academics? Apparently very little. Suddenly NAMBLA has a lot more legitimacy. Can you hear it now: "Well, professors like the idea, too."
Members of this school of thought stress that they don't condone coercing children into sex, and that they are not pro-pedophilia, as the term is commonly understood. But several contend that minors are capable of agreeing to and even initiating sex with adults.
NAMBLA is a bunch of dirty old men but professors contribute to our base of knowledge.
These academics seek to change the language, moving away from "pedophilia," which often evokes a charged negative response, particularly in light of the priest-pedophile cases challenging the Roman Catholic Church. In its place would be more neutral terms such as "intergenerational sex" or "adult-child sex."
Man-boy love is sick. But intergenerational sex is so, so, so... God, help me here. How could anyone put a positive spin on this?
"Children are the last bastion of the old sexual morality," wrote one of the trailblazers for this view, Harris Mirkin, an associate professor of political science at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
Trailblazers! Brave souls, indeed. Yes, someone is taking this seriously.
Social conservatives aware of efforts to legitimize adult-child sex have publicly expressed horror. On his radio show broadcast to hundreds of Christian stations, psychologist and author James Dobson said the intent is to "make boys accessible" to men.
Social CONSERVITIVES have expressed horror? Good grief, if only conservatives are sickened by this, liberals are a much worse bunch that I ever imagined.
How far have we sunk? Folks, it is okay to say something is wrong. Adults having sex with kids is wrong. Suicide bombers in hotel lobbies are wrong. Some things have no degree of correctness. They're just plain wrong. Coming up next: Professor says domestic abuse is a lifestyle choice.
Posted
3/27/2002 02:50:00 PM
by Bob
After slavery reparations, what group could be next? Women? They couldn't vote before 1920 and the passage of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution.
Posted
3/27/2002 01:53:00 PM
by Bob
The first lawsuit seeking slavery reparations has been filed. OpinionJournal has an interesting comment:
Plaintiff Deadria Farmer-Paellmann, "claiming to represent all of the United States' 35 million African-Americans," filed the country's first lawsuit seeking reparations for slavery, against Aetna Inc., CSX Corp. and FleetBoston Financial Corp., among others.If it's "not about the money," it's definitely about the money.
Putting aside the obvious point that neither Farmer-Paellmann nor anyone else now alive has ever been enslaved in the U.S., it's hard to see how there could be any legal case against slavery as practiced in the pre-Civil War era. After all, slavery, evil though it was, was not only legal but specifically authorized by the Constitution until the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865.
Fox News quotes Manning Marable, a Columbia scholar who helped put together the list of targeted corporations: "To me it's not fundamentally about the money, it is about the truth of history and bringing the truth to light, which will promote a frank and honest discussion across the racial divide." If it's not about money, then there's an obvious way to resolve the case. The judge or jury should follow the precedent of the United States Football League's antitrust suit against the NFL: Find as a matter of law that slavery was wrong, but limit the damages to a symbolic $1.
Posted
3/27/2002 11:55:00 AM
by Bob
Here's the lead editorial in the Minneapolis StarTribune today:
Beanbags, not bullets / When machetes show up on the street
More than two weeks after Abu Jeilani was shot to death by Minneapolis police, this much is plain: If many heads had been wiser, the man might have lived. Certainly, two weeks later everything is clear. There's that wonderful 20/20 hindsight. And, of course, the editorial writer wasn't facing a machete wielding man while thinking of a better way. Who is best suited to work this out: the cops who had moments to react or a staff of editorial writers who have had weeks to contemplate it all?And he deserved to live, for his worst crime was mental illness -- which is no crime at all. On March 10, Jeilani's delusions led him to lurch along E. Franklin Avenue with machete and crowbar in hand. Yet his machete-waving was no more inevitable than his death. No, mental illness isn't a crime. Threatening the police and public with a machete is a crime.It might have been avoided if his illness had been taken more seriously. Though Jeilani recently spent three weeks in Regions Hospital and was released on psychiatric medication, no one knows whether he was taking it. If an aftercare system had been in place to assure that he was, his psychosis might have remained in check. If he'd been discharged to a residential program in the community after his hospitalization, he might have found help managing his illness. If his family's pleas for assistance had been heard by an alert mental-health system, his deepening illness might have been noticed before it turned dangerous. Is the writer suggesting that Jeilani should have been under lock and key or constant watch? We can't do that these days. Don't forget about his rights. Remember, mental illness isn't a crime.But turn dangerous it did, which raises the crucial question: Did Minneapolis police really have to shoot Jeilani to bring him under control? Did they have to shoot him several times -- and shoot to kill rather than to disable? After their attempt to stun him with a Taser gun failed, couldn't they have taken a step back and tried something else? After all, averting deadly outcomes during calamities like these is precisely why the Police Department created its crisis intervention team last year. Its purpose was to prevent a recurrence of three police shootings of mentally ill people in 1999 and 2000. The Taser failed. Is it fair to say a beanbag round would necessarily have been successful? What if beanbag rounds had been used without success? What if they made Jeilani even angrier? Like kids do when playing games, someone could have screamed, "time out' while some other form of force was summoned. Mr. Jeilani, please stand still while we wait for the fire truck to arrive.Yet now a fourth mentally ill person has died from police bullets, and the death seems needless. All sorts of nonlethal equipment might have been used to stop Jeilani -- from rubber nets and fire hoses to retractable batons and pepper spray. In fact, this is a case in which mere talk might have worked -- yet no Somali was summoned from the crowd of onlookers to try to calm the non-English-speaking Jeilani. To anyone who thinks a retractable baton or pepper spray are worthy tools against a machete, I say here is your pepper spray and baton. I'll pick up this machete, stand with in the 10-12 foot range of aerosol pepper spray, or how about within the 3-5 foot range of a baton and ask you to state your case again.The community response to such situations must improve, as even Mayor R.T. Rybak acknowledges. After a flurry of meetings, he's expressed openness to enlisting on-call mental-health professionals to help deal with troubled people who attract police attention. And just this Tuesday the Police Department announced plans to equip officers with shotguns that fire beanbags, which knock people down without killing them. When summoned, where will these mental health professionals be standing? Right behind the cops. They won't be in front of them. Will every cop have these beanbag firing shotguns? Bike cops? Foot patrol? What happens in the next similar situation if a pair of cops on bikes are the only ones there? Time out...wait for a squad car with the "special" shotgun, please.Why does it take a fourth death to spur such sensible moves? Who else will have to die before Minnesotans realize that acknowledging the suffering of mental illness isn't just a matter of decency, but of public safety? Whose safety are you writing about?By the way, beanbag rounds are not "non-lethal" force. They are "less-lethal" force. This is an important distinction. Saying non-lethal leads the public to believe that, when properly used, a type of force will never kill the target. It is entirely possible, though not likely, for a suspect to be killed with a beanbag round. It's being fired out of a twelve-gauge shotgun, for crying out loud.
Posted
3/26/2002 03:41:00 PM
by Bob
Has NPR raised the possibility yet that today's Afghan earthquake is somehow linked to U.S. bombing earlier this year?
Posted
3/26/2002 03:38:00 PM
by Bob
Googlers looking for Andersen + shred on my blog: it's here.
Posted
3/26/2002 11:27:00 AM
by Bob
After this post, you probably don’t need to come back again today. So, with apologies to Paul Henning, see you tomorrow.
Come 'n listen to a story 'bout a man named Bob
A small-time blogger, always kept up on the job
And then one night, he was sleepin’ peacefully
And up through his throat come a bubblin' tea
Vomit, that is, yucky stuff, just awful
Well, the first thing you know, old Bob’s really sick
His wife said, Bob, move away from me
Said, the bathroom is the place you oughta be
So she picked out some stuff and gave it all to me
Pills, that is, Pepto Bismol, Tylenol
Well, now it's time to say goodbye to Bob and his blog
He would like to thank you folks for reading this log
You're all invited back again to this locality
To have a heapin' helpin' of his hospitality
Blogspot, that is, set a spell, take your shoes off
Y'all come back now, hear?
Posted
3/25/2002 09:48:00 PM
by Bob
Life imitates the Onion: Playboy is putting together a "Women of Enron" pictorial.
The backdrop could be a hampster cage with all that shredded paper.
Posted
3/25/2002 09:43:00 PM
by Bob
Holy crap! A $54,000,000,000.00 accounting charge.
NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - AOL Time Warner Inc. plans to take a $54 billion first-quarter charge mostly to reflect declines in the value of AOL's purchase of Time Warner Inc., the media conglomerate said in its annual report released Monday.Imagine writing New Zealand off the books. Goodbye.
The $54 billion charge, which nearly equals the gross national income of such countries as New Zealand and Hungary, beat the record set by JDS Uniphase which posted a $50.1 billion last summer.
Posted
3/25/2002 01:10:00 PM
by Bob
Compassionate Islam. A second Nigerian woman has been sentenced to death for having a baby out of wedlock:
Guardian -- A second woman in Nigeria has been sentenced to be stoned to death by a Muslim sharia court.The other woman recently sentenced to death by stoning had her sentence overturned:
The news emerged just as the death sentence on a mother of five was overturned in a separate case that had provoked international outrage from human rights and women's rights groups.
A court in the remote village of Bakori in the Nigerian state of Katsina today sentenced Amina Lawal Kurami to death after finding her guilty of having a baby out of wedlock.
The Reuters news agency quoted an official as saying that the sentence was based "on her own confession and the evidence of the baby she had".
Ms Kurami was found guilty after she was unable to produce four witnesses, as required under Islamic law, to support her claim that she had been "lured" into having sex with the man involved. The judge ordered the death sentence to be delayed for eight months to allow Ms Kurami to breastfeed her baby.
Earlier, human rights organisations had welcomed the decision to release Safiya Huseini, a 35-year-old mother of five, after a Muslim sharia court in the north west of the country overturned the original ruling.Seven year pregnancy?
Ms Huseini was sentenced last October by a court to be buried up to her neck and stoned to death. The court, based in Sokoto state, in the north-west of the country, found her guilty of having sex with a married neighbour.
She was released today on procedural grounds. The Sokoto sharia court of appeal ruled that the alleged crime would have been committed before sharia criminal law was imposed and that the punishment could not be applied retrospectively. The court also ruled that the lower court that sentenced Ms Huseini had insufficient power to impose the death penalty.
The sentence was set to be carried out as soon as the daughter, who was said to have been born a result of the liaison, had been weaned. But Mr Imam told the court today that the child's father was in fact Ms Huseini's former husband, arguing that in accordance with Islamic teaching pregnancy can last for up to seven years.
Posted
3/25/2002 12:29:00 PM
by Bob
Airport security screeners are failing often to detect weapons. Aren't we supposed to be safer now, post 9/11? This shows us that the extra cost buys us nothing more than the appearance of heightened security. And some women will get groped by male security screeners.
Why don't we just give them magic wands or some x-ray goggles ordered from an ad in the back of a comic book. We'd be just as safe. Decide for yourself:
AP and USA Today -- The Transportation Department inspector general found airport security screeners on several dozen occasions failed to catch guns and simulated explosives, even after the September terrorist attacks, a person familiar with the report said today.
Inspector General Kenneth Mead's report found that screeners missed knives 70 percent of the time and guns 30 percent of the time and also concluded that the screeners failed to detect simulated explosives 60 percent of the time, said the source, speaking on condition of anonymity. The source said Mead's report also said that banned items got through screeners almost half of the time.
Tests of the security system were conducted at 32 airports while the screening checkpoints were still primarily under the supervision of the airline industry, with some oversight by the Federal Aviation Administration. The new Transportation Security Administration took over responsibility for airline security Feb. 17.
Posted
3/25/2002 07:46:00 AM
by Bob
It’s seven degrees above zero outside this morning. I like cold weather. In winter. Spring began five days ago.
In Minnesota this year, we’ve had springtime weather in January and February and winter weather in March. Mother Nature has a sick sense of humor.
I’ll laugh when she tries to have autumn before summer. Let’s just see her try to make leaves fall from trees when there aren’t any on the trees. Shhh...don't piss her off. We might see snow in May.
Posted
3/25/2002 07:41:00 AM
by Bob
An obituary in the paper today:
CHICAGO (AP) — Margaret J. Gamper, a Chicago nurse who became a pioneer of modern natural childbirth, died March 18. She was 94.These people pioneered natural childbirth in the first half of the 20th century? What kind of childbirth happend before that?
A native of Janesville, Wis., Gamper ran away from home at the age of 19 to go to nursing school in Chicago. After receiving her nursing degree, she went to work in Chicago hospitals as a maternity surgical assistant.
The turning point in Gamper's career came when she noticed a woman giving birth who had not been anesthetized first. The common practice at the time was to anesthetize pregnant women before they gave birth.
Gamper started studying the work of Grantley Dick-Read [(1890-1959)], a British physician considered the founder of natural childbirth. She then started teaching the process to pregnant women.
Posted
3/24/2002 09:45:00 PM
by Bob
Has Arafat or Iran ever done anything that has been useful (in the eyes of the civilized world)?
NY Times -- American and Israeli intelligence officials have concluded that Yasir Arafat has forged a new alliance with Iran that involves Iranian shipments of heavy weapons and millions of dollars to Palestinian groups that are waging guerrilla war against Israel.
Israeli officials say they are alarmed by Mr. Arafat's alliance with Iran because they say it gives the Palestinians a powerful and well-armed patron in the increasingly violent conflict with Israel. American officials echoed that concern and said they were also worried by intelligence reports that say Tehran is harboring Al Qaeda members, including one leader who recently tried to mount an attack against Israel from his sanctuary in Iran.Yep. Axis of Evil.
Posted
3/24/2002 08:00:00 PM
by Bob
The Warthogs are coming!
BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan (Reuters) - The United States flew ground support A-10 Warthog warplanes into Afghanistan over the weekend in apparent preparation for further attacks on defiant al Qaeda and Taliban forces.Not pretty? These aircraft are very cool looking. On a few rare occasions, when travelling I-94 through Wisconsin in my college days, I caught glimpses of A-10s of the Wisconsin Air National Guard flying overhead. What a beautiful sight.
The aircraft is nicknamed the Warthog because of its compact, squat design. It is the only U.S. Air Force aircraft with a fierce set of teeth and beady eyes painted on its nose -- above a 30-mm cannon, used for strafing.
"It's not the prettiest thing as far as fighters go, but it gets the job done," said Baldwin.
Posted
3/24/2002 07:41:00 PM
by Bob
All the interest I have in the 74th Annual Academy Awards ceremony tonight fits inside the tip of my little finger. Now I see who the hostess is: just the most annoying person to ever step in front of a camera.
Even the dullest knife won't stop me from lopping the tip of my finger off now.
Posted
3/24/2002 10:48:00 AM
by Bob
Wow. Mind control.
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - US researchers have developed a technology that allows monkeys to move a computer cursor with their minds alone--raising the possibility that a similar system could one day help people with severe paralysis communicate and function more independently.
This stranger-than-fiction science, in which implanted electrodes helped the monkeys' brain activity control the computer-cursor movement, could "potentially be applicable to humans," the study's lead author told Reuters Health.
However, these findings only suggest such mind-controlled machines are feasible, and any actual use of this technology is a long way off, according to Mijail D. Serruya, a medical student at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.
Posted
3/23/2002 10:33:00 PM
by Bob
It's an Saturday Night Live re-run tonight. The opening is one of the best ever: a Donald Rumsfeld press conference. Quagmire...wasn't that last week's question...oh, a rapid campaign, too rapid...what kind of question is that...thought provoking? No. Idiotic. Embarrassment to myself and my newspaper... You had a question? Um, no, no I didn't. Why not? I'm scared.
Should be a good episode.
Well, maybe not. Chris Kattan is in this one and I can't go back in time and do anything to get him fired.
Posted
3/23/2002 07:36:00 PM
by Bob
You can take the man out of Enron but apparently you can't take the Enron out of the man:
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Army Secretary Thomas White and his wife took a military jet to a Colorado ski resort where they wrapped up a $6.5 million house sale, a newspaper reported Saturday.He should be fired and brought up on criminal charges for stealing from the government. This does wonders for the public's trust in government.
The stop in Colorado earlier this month came during an official trip to Seattle, The Washington Post reported.
The Army Gulfstream jet carrying the Whites landed in Grand Junction, Colo., on March 1, Army spokesman Maj. Gen. Larry Gottardi told the newspaper. On March 4, White and his wife, Susan, signed papers related to the sale of their house in the nearby ski resort town of Aspen, Bill Sterling, the Whites' real estate agent, told the newspaper.
The Whites bought the house in October 2000, while White was an executive at Enron Corp., for $7.7 million, the newspaper said.
Posted
3/23/2002 05:06:00 PM
by Bob
We're number one! Now say this thirteen times and you'll hear what residents of thirteen different cities in the U.S. can claim (according to Maxim magazine).
On Tuesday, Maxim, a men's lifestyle magazine with a circulation of 2.5 million, named Detroit the Greatest City on Earth.
Just one problem, though. The magazine's editors also named Miami the Greatest City on the Earth. And Philadelphia. And San Francisco and Dallas. By the time Maxim's serial city-lovers got done, they had named 13 North American cities the greatest on the globe.
To make their game complete, they printed 13 versions of the magazine, each touting a different city as the greatest. About 75,000 magazines named Detroit No. 1 and were distributed throughout Michigan, Ohio and Indiana.
Posted
3/23/2002 07:38:00 AM
by Bob
You can't buy publicity like this.
NEW YORK (AP) -- Flummoxed by rampant glitches, the various corporate arms of AOL Time Warner have been given license to stop using America Online's e-mail software.
The embarrassing directive, agreed upon by AOL Time Warner's nine co-chief executives this week, reverses a previous order that forced employees of the media conglomerate to use its own software — an error-prone version of AOL's e-mail program.
"They decided this product wasn't working as we'd hoped, so let's just give them the choice of what e-mail system they want to use," said AOL Time Warner spokeswoman Tricia Primrose. "If you have issues that impede your ability to do your job, then we have to make a change. That is what we're going to do."
Posted
3/23/2002 07:33:00 AM
by Bob
Afghan children are going back to school. On the agenda this time: modern knowledge.
KABUL (Reuters) - Afghan children ran, skipped -- and dawdled -- to school on Saturday at the start of a new year with women teachers back in class and everyday subjects like math replacing the Islamic dogma of the ousted Taliban.
In a symbolic break with Afghanistan's war-scarred past, primary and secondary school children opened new textbooks rushed to the country in recent days after they were written by Afghan scholars at U.S. universities.
There are even pictures of people -- images banned by the Taliban who ruled Afghanistan from 1996 until blasted out of power in December by U.S.-led forces for harboring Osama bin Laden, blamed for the September 11 attacks on the United States.
"The Taliban were fanatics and had a serious problem with science and technology. They paid less attention to math and sciences because they saw no need for doctors, engineers or economists," Abdulnabi Wahedi, a senior education ministry official, said earlier this week. "They had their own agenda and tried to replace modern knowledge with their vision of Islamic learning."
"We also teach about Islam, but with a view to modernism and progress," he told Reuters.
Posted
3/22/2002 01:34:00 PM
by Bob
Pedestrian safety expert killed by bus while crossing street:
St. Louis Post Dispatch -- One of the country's top experts on bicycle and pedestrian safety was killed Tuesday morning when she was struck by a tour bus while crossing a downtown intersection.
Susie Stephens, 36, of Winthrop, Wash., was fatally struck shortly after 8:30 a.m. as she tried to cross eastbound at Fourth and Chestnut streets. The driver of the Vandalia Bus Lines vehicle told police he did not see Stephens as he made a left turn from eastbound Chestnut Street onto northbound Fourth Street.
Stephens, a consultant, was in St. Louis to help stage a conference on innovative approaches to transportation sponsored by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Forest Service, said William "Bill" Wilkinson.
Wilkinson is head of the National Center for Bicycling and Walking in Washington. He said in a telephone interview Thursday night that he had hired Stephens to help his staff at the two-day training conference for forest rangers at the Adam's Mark Hotel. The conference ended Thursday.
Wilkinson wants a thorough police investigation. "I refuse to call it an accident," he said, "because an accident suggests it was out of someone's control."
Posted
3/22/2002 12:22:00 PM
by Bob
You started it! No, you started it! Did not! Did too! Dad said stop it right now. You're not the boss of me.
GAZA (Reuters) - Palestinian militants vowed on Friday to keep hitting Israel "everywhere" despite a call by Palestinian President Yasser Arafat to end attacks against Israeli civilians in an uprising against occupation. Is Arafat getting a busy signal each time he calls?
They said they understood the pressure put on Arafat by Israel and the United States that prompted his appeal following a suicide bombing in downtown Jerusalem on Thursday that killed three Israelis and wounded over 40.
They argued that such attacks were responding to the Israeli army's killing of Palestinian civilians which had "never stopped," particularly in a recent offensive into areas already handed to Palestinian rule under interim peace deals since 1993.
"We aim only at their soldiers, but when they kill our civilians we can do nothing but respond," said a local leader in Gaza of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a group linked to Arafat's Fatah movement.
He spoke as masked (cowards) and armed members of the Brigades were staging a training exercise to hone ways of attacking Israeli army bases in the Gaza Strip.
They ran among trees with AK-47 assault rifles and an anti-tank grenade. Some climbed trees and jumped down to adopt ground assault positions. Others fired on practice targets. Too bad they don't practice blowing themselves up.
"Walk like a cat and attack like a tiger," the leader of the eight-men group told them. Tigers don't commit suicide.
After a Brigades member blew himself up in the heart of Jewish Jerusalem on Thursday, Arafat condemned the bombing and urged Palestinian groups to stop attacking Israeli civilians. He condemns it after the bombing.
"President Arafat himself cannot ask us to accept being slaughtered by Israel like sheep without defending ourselves," the local al-Aqsa commander said. "They are continuing their occupation and therefore, we will keep up the fight." Defending yourselves? If the suicide bombing stopped tomorrow, Israel wouldn't kill another one of you.
Israel says it only responds to attacks by Palestinian militants that have been going on since a revolt against almost 35 years of occupation in the West Bank and Gaza began in September 2000 after talks on a final peace accord froze.
The State Department announced after Thursday's bombing that it had added the Brigades to its list of "foreign terrorist organizations," a branding which the group termed an honor. So the Brigades are only "defending" themselves but are proud to be labeled terrorists? With this logic terrorist jokes could soon replace blonde jokes.
Posted
3/22/2002 07:55:00 AM
by Bob
I’m walking a little taller this morning. There’s a certain swagger in my step.
My in-laws flew to Las Vegas this week. I dropped them off at the airport in my father-in-law’s truck. It’s a full-sized Chevy Silverado. Extended cab. Four wheel drive. Loud exhaust. Big tires. Grill guard. That last item is in case a deer dares to jump in front of you. There is no gun rack in the rear window. We’re too far north of the Mason-Dixon line for that option.
After I dropped my in-laws off at the airport I drove the truck to work. I’m not a big fan of SUVs and trucks but I sure don’t care if anyone else drives them. I don’t think they are bringing about the end of the world. However, I like my German station wagon. It’s quick and nimble. It has as much cargo room as a small SUV but gets much better gas mileage. The truck gets lousy mileage but it can tow a boat. Even better, my father-in-law lets me use it to tow his boat to the lake.
Driving this truck is fun, though. It certainly lets you see over a lot of the other cars. Of course, with all the trucks and SUVs on the road already I still see eye-to-eye with a lot of drivers. But that’s better than inspecting their bumpers. The truck is a few years old. It’s in good condition, but not perfect condition, which actually is the perfect condition for a pickup truck. It tells other drivers: I like this truck but probably not as much as you like your expensive luxury car. I verified this axiom today. Someone driving an Infiniti zoomed up from behind and attempted to pass me as his lane merged into mine. I sipped my coffee and maintained my speed. At the last moment the Infiniti driver folded his cards and wisely decided to fall in behind me. I think that grill guard works on small luxury cars, too.
At my downtown parking ramp I won’t worry about door dings. Bang the door of a Honda into the side of a truck. I’d expect to see the Honda’s door in a pile of tin shavings the custodian will sweep it away after all the vehicles are gone for the evening. That’s what I like to think, anyway.
The truck is low on gas. On the way home from work today I’ll take out a home equity loan and fill it up. I think it will hold about $40 worth of gas at today’s price. I’ll probably wash it because that full-service wash at $8 doesn’t seem so ridiculously expensive in comparison to the gas. With my own car I just can’t pay $8 for a wash when I only spent $15 on fuel.
Posted
3/21/2002 07:50:00 PM
by Bob
Pioneer Press/AP -- A snowmobiler was rescued early today after spending a chilly 29 hours lost in the woods near Hoyt Lakes.Perhaps after they sobered up?
Andrew Wagner, 42, of St. Cloud, and several companions had left Hoyt Lakes late Tuesday evening, heading for Pequaywan Lake, about 75 miles away. Wagner became separated from the group and hit a tree, wrecking his snowmobile.
Wagner attempted to walk to safety but became lost, said Sgt. James McKenzie of the St. Louis County sheriff's office. Wagner's clothing was inadequate for the weather conditions, he said.
His friends looked for Wagner overnight and into the early morning hours Wednesday before reporting him missing at noon.
Posted
3/21/2002 12:42:00 PM
by Bob
This is creepy. And sad.
AP -- MOSCOW -- Twenty-three sailors in the Kursk nuclear submarine may have survived three days in freezing darkness, waiting for a rescue, a senior Russian admiral said Wednesday.
"I personally think that life in the ninth compartment came to an end on the third day," Vice Adm. Vladislav Ilyin, the first deputy chief of the Russian Navy's staff, said at a news conference.
Posted
3/21/2002 10:52:00 AM
by Bob
Every story has another side. And every study has someone who doesn't want you to hear about it if it doesn't fit their desired results.
AP -- TRENTON, N.J. -- The federal government has asked New Jersey not to release a state study - ordered as part of a government probe into racial profiling - that suggests black drivers speed more than other drivers.
The findings were due to be released in January, but the Justice Department asked they be withheld because of concerns about the methods used to gather the data.
The Public Service Research Institute used specially designed radar gun cameras to photograph tens of thousands of drivers on the New Jersey Turnpike last spring. The photos were shown to teams of three evaluators who tried to determine each driver's race without knowing whether the driver was speeding.
The study, which has not been formally released, found black drivers went 15 mph or more over the speed limit much more than other drivers, and the racial gap widened at higher speed limits. It found little difference in 55 mph zones.
Mark Posner, a Justice Department lawyer who asked that the findings be withheld, said he feared the results had been skewed by factors such as glare on windshields, weather and camera placement.
``Based on the questions we have identified, it may well be that the results reported in the report are wrong or unreliable,'' Posner wrote in a letter to state officials which was obtained by The New York Times.
Posted
3/21/2002 08:15:00 AM
by Bob
I'm running behind this morning. No time to make attempts to be witty, obervant or clever. Instead, a blogroll.
More on the amazing Michael Moore, by my favorite blogger. Here's a small sample:
There’s Moore in a nutshell. We have “the masses,” that big doughy heap of sodden proles, heads bent from their daily lashing by The Man, wondering if they’ll have enough left over after they’ve paid off Consolidated Coal and Gruel so they can pool pennies with the rest of the tenants of State Housing Block 432 and buy a copy of Moore’s book - they say a light shines from the pages when you open it! Brother Sam was reading it at the Borders before the police beat him with clubs for browsing, and now he can cure your chilblains just by describing the book’s typeface!Thank you James Lileks.
Discontent: the sign of a Serious Person. If you’re Deep and Real and Concerned with the way things are, you’re pissed off. Unless you’re angry about taxes, race-based government policies and the inefficiencies of the public education system, in which case you are an Angry White Male who has to pick gravel out of your knuckles every night. Remember: the Right is full of people who are Resentful and Angry, but the Left is Pissed and Discontented, which is ENTIRELY DIFFERENT.
Posted
3/20/2002 10:11:00 PM
by Bob
It's been ten years since I last saw a professional hockey game. Tonight my older son and I got to see the Minnesota Wild play the Columbus Blue Jackets. We had a great time. A friend of my sister-in-law gave us two tickets for seats right on the red line. Younger kids stay focused better when they're closer to the action. Early in the game, a short fight broke out. My son was very impressed. The fight was on the ice, not in the stands. We were very safe in the stands because ushers searched all purses as fans filed into the arena. Of course this wouldn't have stopped a Hamas terrorist with a dozen sticks of dynamite taped to his torso but no women were able to successfully smuggle in large bombs in their handbags.
Posted
3/20/2002 01:19:00 PM
by Bob
Minneapolis StarTribune -- U.S. analyst pleads guilty to spying for Cuba
Ana B. Montes, an intelligence analyst who was the Pentagon's leading expert on Cuba, pleaded guilty to espionage Tuesday, admitting that she spied for the Cuban government for 16 years because she opposed U.S. policy toward Havana.Wouldn't this also describe the behavior of the Cuban government against Cubans?
Montes, 45, acknowledged in U.S. District Court that she had revealed the identities of four U.S. undercover agents and provided the Cuban authorities with reams of other secret and top-secret military and intelligence information.
Ms. Montes engaged in the activity that resulted in this charge because of her moral belief that United States policy does not afford Cubans respect, tolerance and understanding," her lead lawyer, Plato Cacheris, said.
Posted
3/20/2002 07:12:00 AM
by Bob
Stepped up airport "security" makes us feel good, according to the people who get interviewed or call talk shows. "Anything that makes air travel safer for me" is a commonly heard comment. Joe Soucheray writes today about the new x-ray technology for airport security:
Unfortunately, too many people have become accustomed to turning their fates over to the government. I heard dozens of callers on talk radio the other day saying they wouldn't mind the X-ray machine if it just kept them safer. Well, if that's your attitude, why not a program that anesthetizes each passenger once they are seated? There you go. Bring a government doctor on board and he can push his cart up and down the aisle and give everybody a shot that knocks them out. We've got enough sheep out there who will go for that.I've seen bumber stickers that read: "You can have my gun when you pry it out of my cold, dead hands." Is this next: "You can peek through my clothes. Period."
X-ray vision isn't the answer, unless it also can examine the heart and mind. Here we are a large, -successful, freedom-loving country where the citizens are predisposed to survival, to life, and we are going to allow ourselves to be body-scanned because we are fighting an enemy who is predisposed to death. These wack jobs don't care if they die. It stands to reason that they also don't care if they are scanned. If you are predisposed to die, you will do anything, and a new piece of high-tech trickery isn't going to stop you.
Posted
3/19/2002 12:33:00 PM
by Bob
Same story, two versions. What's a million billion between friends? The first one is from Reuters.
An Antarctic ice shelf the size of a small country has disintegrated under the impact of global warming, scientists said Tuesday.Compare it to this one from the BBC:
Although scientists at the British Antarctic Survey predicted four years ago the eventual disintegration of the giant Larsen B ice shelf -- 1,255 square miles and 655 feet deep -- they were astounded by the speed of the break up.
"We knew what was left would collapse eventually, but the speed of it is staggering," BAS glaciologist David Vaughan said in a statement. "It is hard to believe that 500 million billion tons of ice sheet has disintegrated in less than a month."
The Antarctic Peninsular has warmed by 36 degrees Fahrenheit over the past half century, far faster than elsewhere on the ice-bound continent or the rest of the world.
Researchers from the British Antarctic Survey (Bas) predicted in 1998 that several ice shelves around the peninsula were doomed because of rising temperatures in the region - but the speed with which the Larsen B has gone has shocked them.By the way, on a thermometer 2.5 C is roughly the same as 36 F. But a rise of 2.5 C is roughly the same as a rise of 3.5 F.
"We knew what was left would collapse eventually, but the speed of it is staggering," said Dr David Vaughan, a glaciologist at the Bas in Cambridge, UK.
"[It is hard] to believe that 500 billion tonnes of ice sheet has disintegrated in less than a month."
The climate on the peninsula has changed rapidly in the last 50 years. The region has experienced a 2.5 degree Celsius rise in average temperatures - an increase greater than for any location in the Southern Hemisphere.
However, the picture generally in Antarctica is a complicated one with temperatures in the interior actually falling over the same period. There is also some evidence that the retreat of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, on the other side of the peninsula to the Larsen B shelf, has halted.
Check out News.Google.Com (technology section) and see the comparison of headlines for these and other articles.
Posted
3/19/2002 10:30:00 AM
by Bob
Some have said that the auto industry should be like the computer industry -- continually improving at an exponential rate. Computer power doubles every 12 to 18 months (Moore's Law). So, how about doubling automobile fuel economy? Are CAFE standards the answer or would they hurt the auto industry? Are cars and SUVs, with the inherent freedom they bring us, really such a bad thing? Can we really legislate huge leaps in technology? Brock Yates makes a comparison between the personal computer and the automobile:
But there is an odd dichotomy between the ownership of computers and automobiles on a variety of fronts. It is politically correct to own a computer, but within the salons of the elite automobiles are only marginally acceptable. To be sure, the lower orders can trundle around in the Heartland in their pickups and SUV's; but among the truly civilized, four-wheeled transport outside the occasional cab or limousine can represent an ugly descent into barbarism.Now if Congress could just repeal Newton's First Law (f = ma) those big heavy SUVs would be getting 37 MPG in no time.
PC divisions notwithstanding, these two machines, the computer and automobile, offer interesting contrasts both in terms of their function and their impact on the economy.
Moreover, it is not uncommon to sight 20 year-old automobiles rolling down the highway. But the notion of using a computer even one-tenth that age is doomed to the technological Dark Ages. There is a tendency in the computer industry to eat its young; to constantly obsolete and outdate products, forcing consumers to update both soft and hardware. This may be the simple manifestations of a young and vibrant industry, but compared to the reliability, predictability and stability inherent in the automobile, the computer is a vaporous, hi-tech will-o-the-wisp.
The automobile can be operated by all but the halt and blind, provided you are tall enough to reach the pedals. The expertise involved in guiding a two-ton machine down a public road is minimal compared to that required to operate a desktop computer anywhere near its maximum capacity.
Posted
3/19/2002 07:36:00 AM
by Bob
More proof that the Minnesota tobacco settlement was just a shakedown of tobacco companies (oops, I mean "Big Tobacco"). This settlement isn't about smoking. Ad agencies profit and television viewers have to see the annoying "Target Market" commercials that are a joke. State legislators will spend countless hours trying to use the settlement money for myriad things unrelated to smoking. If it's so awful, why not outlaw smoking? Because that cuts down on tax and tobacco settlement revenue.
Star Tribune -- House anti-terror bill would tap tobacco money --
In what was described as a conflict between public safety and public health, a $22 million anti-terrorism bill financed by a new withdrawal from the state endowment fund to combat youth smoking was sent to the House floor Monday.
In their latest budget-balancing plan, House Republicans had already proposed draining $325 million from the endowment fund, which was established in 1999 with one-time proceeds from Minnesota's $6 billion tobacco industry settlement. Taken together, the proposed reductions would reduce annual statewide anti-tobacco spending from a projected $18 million next year to less than $2 million.
Posted
3/19/2002 07:05:00 AM
by Bob
Lots of links to this one but it's good. Sort of one of those "Wish I'd thought of that because it's so obvious." Juan Gato compares U.S./Muslim relations to Ned Flanders/Homer Simpson. Very perceptive. Here's a portion:
So why do they hate us? They hate us for the same reason Homer Simpson hates Ned Flanders. Now, now, I know a lot of people would be upset to be told that the United States is Ned Flanders and not Homer, but just bear with me here. The individual American may be Homer Simpson, but the country's actions toward the Middle East have always had a bit more of a Ned Flanders feel to them.
Think about it. Ned Flanders, especially in the early episodes, was shown as a man who, because of his honesty and work ethic, always managed to have a nicer house, an easy to manage family, a wife with a higher butt, washboard abs, and generally a better overall life than Homer. Ned was always willing to help Homer at any instance, whether that be some cash, the loan of a power sander, or the invite to a BBQ.
Now consider how Homer reacts to all this. He resents the living hell out of Flanders. The nicer Flanders is to Homer, the more Homer hates him. After being invited to a great BBQ, Homer takes the first chance he can to wish Flanders' dreams of a Leftorium into oblivion. Homer constantly goes over and steals from the Flanders family from weather vanes to air conditioners. Yet Ned rarely loses his temper, always forgives, and always is ready to give more.
Posted
3/18/2002 10:13:00 AM
by Bob
My twelve-pound dog had a real workout last night. Late in the evening a rabbit, also about twelve pounds, hopped right up to the sliding glass door. The dog got down on her front knees and whined like a dentist's drill. All right - you can go outside. I opened the door and the chase was on. There are about six inches of snow left in the back yard. The rabbit runs on top of the snow. The dog plows right into it. Advantage: rabbit. As the dog struggles to run through the snow the rabbit is a speck in the distance, it's white tail waiving good-bye. The dog gives up and barks a few times. Sure, that'll teach that rabbit to mess with you.
A half hour later the three of us repeat the process. Rabbit - 2, Dog - 0. An hour later, the same thing happens. This time the dog stops at the end of the patio and looks back at me standing in the doorway. Yes, dear, I know you didn't really want to catch that rabbit. The one that weighs as much as you, exercises regularly and has a healthy diet (as opposed to your routine of nap, table scraps, nap, dog treats, nap, and belly rub followed by a nap).
Posted
3/18/2002 08:51:00 AM
by Bob
I don't think highly of Ted Rall and his brand of humor. But he has a decent op-ed piece today. I was surprised to see his name attached to it. Here's an excerpt:
Is It Too Much?In the weeks after September 11th, millions of dollars poured into the coffers of 9-11-related charities. The reaction of Americans to the first major terrorist attack on U.S. soil was very emotional-since the 9-11 victims were killed in an attack on the nation, the feeling seemed to be, their fellow citizens should make sure their families are well taken care of. It didn't take long for relatives of those killed in previous terror attacks, including those in Oklahoma City and the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, to complain that they had received little or no compensation for their suffering. One immediately wonders what the families of the U.S. servicemen killed fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan (news - web sites) will receive. It's unlikely their relatives won't get anything close to $1.85 million; nor will those whose loved ones succumbed to anthrax.Attaching a dollar value to the life of a parent or spouse makes many Americans uncomfortable. Why, some ask, should 9-11 survivors be compensated differently from those whose spouses die from cancer, car accidents or even suicide? Death is death. Why does the fact that terrorism was involved make the loss different for survivors?The crux of the trouble is the fund's raison d'être: discouraging lawsuits against the airlines. Although there's no evidence that the particular airlines involved in 9-11 were more negligent than their competitors, there were plenty of warnings before 2001 that the industry as a whole was woefully inadequate from a security standpoint. And it's entirely possible that jurors would issue multi-million-dollar awards to plaintiffs in hundreds of cases if they came to trial. In order to provide an adequate incentive not to sue, the fund had to offer multi-million-dollar payouts.Nevertheless, the fund won't completely prevent airline lawsuits. People who receive big life insurance payments, for example, won't qualify for the fund, and will receive enough money to pay for years of litigation. Others may qualify, yet choose to sue instead in the hope of a bigger payment from an airline than that offered by the fund.
Posted
3/17/2002 09:08:00 PM
by Bob
Maryland defeated Wisconsin, 87-57 Sunday in the second round of the NCAA East Regional.
Posted
3/17/2002 07:16:00 PM
by Bob
A letter to the editor of the Minneapolis Star Tribune I did like:
After last week's tragic shooting by police of a machete-waving, mentally ill man, City Council Member Dean Zimmermann suggested that the police are to be feared in the Phillips neighborhood. That's odd. When I lived in Phillips, I found the presence of the Minneapolis police very comforting -- especially the week when there were two separate murders within a half block of my apartment.Fun fact about Dean Zimmermann: He wanted his name to appear on the ballot as "Dean (Zimmerperson) Zimmermann."
I have a suggestion. The police should notify Zimmermann the next time there is a similar threat to the safety of citizens of Phillips. He can swing by and show them how to handle it -- perhaps with a hug.
-- Kip Peltoniemi, St. Paul.
And now, a letter to the editor that I did not like:
The Minnesota Poll finding 71 percent support for increasing the cigarette tax is similar to a poll commissioned by the Minnesota Smoke-Free Coalition last January. Our poll, conducted by bipartisan polling firms, found two-thirds of Minnesotans support increasing the cigarette tax $1 to reduce smoking.If that tax is so effective, why stop at getting 20 percent of the kids (and just six percent of the adults) to stop smoking? Go for 100 percent. Why not raise the cigarette tax to $55 a pack?
Such an increase would reduce smoking among kids by about 20 percent and raise between $300 million and $350 million in additional state revenue every year. Adult smoking would decrease by nearly 6 percent. Clearly, this is effective public health policy and wise fiscal policy.
In contrast, the House majority is proposing to slash the Tobacco Prevention Endowment, which funds programs to prevent kids from smoking. Cutting the endowment to cover the budget deficit will not reduce youth smoking, will not save lives and will not reduce health care costs. Most disturbing, because it would throw away one-time tobacco settlement money, it is not a long-term solution to the budget crisis.
-- Judy Knapp, executive director, Minnesota Smoke-Free Coalition, St. Paul.
Posted
3/17/2002 06:42:00 PM
by Bob
The "Fightin' Whites." Oh my goodness, this is just... not a big deal.
Posted
3/17/2002 06:12:00 PM
by Bob
Yea! Tipper Gore has decided not to run for public office.
Posted
3/17/2002 08:00:00 AM
by Bob
Some say the U.S. is a violent society because citizens can own guns. The attackers in this story didn't use guns.
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) -- Two attackers hurled grenades into a Protestant church filled with Sunday worshippers, killing five people - including two Americans - and wounding about 45, police and U.S. officials said.Here's a picture.
Senior Police Official Nasir Khan Durrani said five people were killed. Four bodies - three of them female - were brought to the Polyclinic Hospital. Witnesses said two of the dead were teen-age girls.
It was the second attack against Christians in Pakistan since the Sept. 11 terror attacks in the United States, which prompted Pakistan to abandon support for the Afghan Taliban and instead back the U.S.-led coalition against terrorism.
Witnesses said the attackers entered the back of the church during the sermon and began hurling grenades at the congregation of about 70.
Although no group claimed responsibility, suspicion fell on Islamic militants angered by Musharraf's crackdown on Islamic extremism begun in January.
Despite the increase in sectarian violence, Ranjha said officials believed the church was well-protected. Such attacks in the Pakistani capital, where security is higher than elsewhere in the country, are relatively infrequent. ("Relatively" infrequent? Relative to what?)
Posted
3/16/2002 11:02:00 PM
by Bob
I took the boys to the Mall of America where we visited Camp Snoopy, the indoor amusement park. They only went on two rides each. What a cheap date they are. I think they were tired after swimming for a few hours earlier in the day. After walking around for a bit we stopped for some Icees at the Holiday gas station that’s inside the mall. Holiday has real, but non-functional, gas pumps out in front. The kids think that's weird, wacky stuff, 'cause you can't drive a car in the mall. Other than the pumps not dispensing dinosaur juice, the Holiday is every bit a convenience-store gas station.
Posted
3/16/2002 10:35:00 PM
by Bob
Got beer. Kids in bed. Fire in the fireplace. Time for SNL.
The opening... Tom Ridge explaining the new color coded terrorist threat-levels. From low to high: off-white, cream, putty, bone and natural. Wow, just as meaningful as the real rainbow colors.
The host is Sir Ian McKellen (aka Gandalf the Grey).
The first skit, after a funny fake commercial, has Chris Kattan in it. How insulting. Note to self: have got to find out what I need to do to become president of NBC so that boil can be lanced.
Posted
3/16/2002 11:02:00 AM
by Bob
"Michael Moore: Stupid white man"
Here's an excerpt from the article by David Harsanyi -- Mr. Moore, deluded into believing his fan base “is made up of working stiffs,” is an advocate of a 70 percent tax rate, infinite governmental expansion and regulations, rivaling Ralph Nader -- whom he vigilantly campaigned for in 2000. From the privileged confines of the Upper West Side of Manhattan, this guilt-ridden progressive with a six-figure deal book deal proposes to double the tax burden on American working class without a hint of sarcasm.Blogrolling: Here are two other posts about Moore worth checking out:
Tim Blair - WHY DOES Michael Moore, millionaire film maker and television star, pretend to be poor?
Damian Penny (scroll down) - MORE CHUNKYBUTT BASHING I've been picking on Michael Moore quite a bit lately, but he makes it so damn easy.
Posted
3/16/2002 10:52:00 AM
by Bob
Glenn Reynolds mentions in his blog today this three month old article of his. I like it, one paragraph in particular:
Being contrary isn't the same as being insightful: As I said, academics want to look original. Actually being original, however, is hard work. The second-raters, therefore, tend to look for ways of seeming original without doing the heavy lifting required to actually come up with something new. One way of doing this is to set yourself against whatever the popular view is in the hopes that others will mistake this for incisiveness. (This frequently works, since other people are often not willing to put in the necessary effort to tell the difference). But knee-jerk contrariness isn't original — it's just conformity in the opposite direction. After a while, this becomes obvious even to casual observers.
Posted
3/16/2002 08:23:00 AM
by Bob
Will Jesse Ventura run again for governor? It is interesting having an outsider elected to lead the state of Minnesota. He shook up some things. He made the Democratic and Republican parties here shape up their acts, although it shouldn't be too difficult to not look petty and immature in the shadow of the king of petty and immature. However, it looks like Ventura is reaching his fourteenth minute of fame. A recent poll shows his popularity at an all-time low. Lower, in fact, than the state legislature’s rating. It's been a decade since a Minnesota governor did that.
Once a national media darling, Ventura has slipped. This latest is in Brian Lambert's column:
Pioneer Press -- In addition to offering consistently good reporting, the industry trade magazine Electronic Media has also built a minor franchise for itself in topical surveys of TV and radio professionals, opinion leaders, pundits and blowhards.Ventura put little effort and money into his first campaign. If he had lost no one would have thought twice about it, especially in the land of Harold Stassen, perennial presidential candidate. Ventura can't get away with such an effort next time. I predict he'll walk away, telling us he's sick of personal attacks or working around people who stand in the way of progress or something along those lines. He doesn't want to be a "politician" and fight for the job but his ego can't take losing.
Each year, for example, television critics are flattered when the magazine solicits their opinions of the season’s best and worst programming. But now Electronic Media has debuted its first-ever survey of what TV “insiders” think of the small circle of talking heads populating “Nightline,” prime-time cable news, and all those Sunday morning “newsmaker” love fests.
EM says, “We spoke to more than a dozen TV news professionals who book, produce, host and follow the Washington-centric TV shows that do the most to define the country’s political talking points.”
While Jesse Jackson topped the list of “Most Irrelevant Since Sept. 11,” Minnesota made its mark on this poll from inside-the-Beltway. It seems our very own Esteemed Governor received enough “Irrelevant” votes to come in second to Jackson.
Posted
3/16/2002 07:30:00 AM
by Bob
Kill in the name of Islam (too many examples to list). Or get killed in the name if Islam (too many examples to list but here's a doozy). Fifteen girls died inside a burning school in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Reuters -- Saudi media and families of the victims have been incensed over the deaths of the girls in the fire that gutted a school on Monday in the Muslim holy city of Mecca. Most of the girls were crushed to death in a stampede as they tried to flee the blaze.Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice... sounds like something from a Monty Python skit.
The al-Eqtisadiah daily said firemen scuffled with members of the religious police, also known as "mutaween," after they tried to keep the girls inside the burning building because they did not wear head scarves and abayas (black robes) as required by the kingdom's strict interpretation of Islam.
The English-language Saudi Gazette, in a front-page report on Thursday, quoted witnesses as saying that members of the police, known as the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, had stopped men who tried to help the girls warning "it is a sinful to approach them."
One civil defence officer told al-Eqtisadiah he saw three members of the religious police "beating young girls to prevent them from leaving the school because they were not wearing the abaya."
The feared mutaween roam the streets of the conservative kingdom wielding sticks to enforce dress codes and sex segregation and to ensure prayers are performed on time.
Posted
3/15/2002 03:43:00 PM
by Bob
My snowblower just paid for itself today. After clearing away the nice fluffy snow this morning, the temperature rose to 32 degrees. The snow got wet and very heavy. Then the snowplow went down the street several times and left a three-foot tall pile of dense snow at the end of every driveway. Heart attack snow. I got my driveway unclogged, along with four others where the owners didn't have snow blowers. Sure I worked up a little sweat but my back is intact. Thanks again, dinosaurs, for becoming fossil fuel.
Posted
3/15/2002 03:26:00 PM
by Bob
Blue can mean one of two things: "Guarded - General Risk of Terrorist Attacks" or "Big BLU." The Washington Times reports on Big BLU:
Pentagon sources tell us the new bomb is being developed for the Air Force by Northrop Grumman Corp. in California and is called Big BLU — for bomb live unit. The new bomb will be bigger and more powerful than the new BLU-118 thermobaric warhead dropped on caves in Afghanistan recently.
Big BLU, we are told, will be six times bigger than the F-15E-carried thermobaric bomb and will be packed with some 30,000 pounds of high explosive. It will be guided to targets by satellite and will sport a cobalt-alloy penetrating warhead that allows the bomb to dive up to 100 feet below the surface before detonating.
The bombs are so big that it will take a B-2 bomber to carry one of them, we are told. Three Big BLUs have been ordered by the Air Force on an urgent basis.
Posted
3/15/2002 03:23:00 PM
by Bob
The Washington Times has another report on the missing U.S. F-18 pilot in Iraq in 1991.
A U.S. intelligence report on the case of Navy Lt. Cmdr. Michael Scott Speicher provides the most complete explanation by the U.S. government on why the pilot probably was captured alive by Iraqis after ejecting from his F-18 in 1991.
"We assess Lt. Cmdr. Speicher was either captured alive or his remains were recovered and brought to Baghdad," said the report, "Intelligence Community Assessment of Lieutenant Commander Speicher Case."
A six-page unclassified summary of the report — based on CIA and Defense Intelligence Agency data — states that Cmdr. Speicher "probably survived" the loss of his aircraft, and if he survived, he almost certainly was captured by the Iraqis.
Posted
3/15/2002 11:09:00 AM
by Bob
Final report on the EgyptAir crash: the co-pilot caused it. Excerpts from an AP story today:
AP -- WASHINGTON - The federal government's final report on the crash of EgyptAir Flight 990 says the co-pilot was responsible, but stops short of concluding what might have motivated him, according to government sources.
The sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the report blames co-pilot Gameel El-Batouty for the crash, which killed 217 people.
A former EgyptAir captain, Hanofy Taha Mahmoud Hamdy, said the crash was an act of revenge against an EgyptAir executive, the Los Angeles Times reported in its online edition Thursday night.
The report quoted Taha as saying Hatem Rushdy, chief of the Boeing 767 pilot group who was a passenger on the doomed New York-to-Cairo flight, had reprimanded the co-pilot for sexual misconduct that embarrassed the company. Taha said the EgyptAir chief pilot told El-Batouty that he would not be allowed to fly the U.S. route again, the newspaper said.
Unlike other investigations of major accidents, the EgyptAir report is not expected to include any major safety recommendations, sources said.
Posted
3/15/2002 10:41:00 AM
by Bob
Check out this x-ray. And this one, too. No wonder it's voluntary.
Posted
3/15/2002 10:39:00 AM
by Bob
I'm working at home; the boys don't have school. They're being very good and letting me get stuff done. We took a break to clear snow off a neighbor's driveway because he's out of town today.
I just informed them that I'll be calling them Drew Carey and Jerry Seinfeld today. As I explained this, they looked at each other with sly grins. I didn't ask what they were thinking. Sometimes just doing off-the-wall stuff like that just makes their day. They think about it for a while. It's a distraction that lasts for a few hours. If they start to argue about something I just say, "Hey, Drew - leave Jerry alone" and they'll start to giggle and forget why they were about to fight.
Posted
3/15/2002 08:18:00 AM
by Bob
Letters to the editor in the Minneapolis Star Tribune today.
The police need to be held to the same standard of justice as everyone else. They are.Laugh if you will at the next one, but there are people in Minneapolis who seriously think like this. I can't be certain if the writer is sarcastic or not.
If said "machete-and crowbar-wielding man" had raised his machete toward me from a distance of 25 feet, and I had shot him dead, I would be lucky to be out on bail. It would be up to my lawyer to prove that I had shot -- and killed -- in self-defense. A jury would decide the outcome. The six Minneapolis cops involved in the shooting of the machete wielding man will go before a grand jury which will decide whether they will be indicted or not.
There is no reason why the "necessity of lethal force" should be a foregone conclusion, simply because the shooters were police officers. It isn't a foregone conclusion. The cops are held up to scrutiny by the media, police department policies and state statutes. Even the mayor will second-guess them with 20/20 hindsight. You wouldn't face this much criticism.
-- Melis Arik, Minneapolis.
Everyone knows that music is often able to defuse a tense situation. Where was the police band? As a nurse, I also know that humor often helps to calm or distract otherwise confused and distraught patients. Why does a big city like Minneapolis not have a police clowning unit? Nothing like a clown to distract and to calm a volatile situation.And finally, this one.
If that didn't work, why not a police unit with long sticks and pillows on the end to apprehend the criminal who is out of control? The "stun gun" or more lethal weapons should be used as a last resort against armed criminals.
-- Richard Dischinger, Minneapolis.
Consider the constant innovation in the computer industry; it reinvents itself every one or two years, not shy to leave the old technology behind. With that in mind, the average citizen should be able to drive a Suburban, tow a boat and get 50 to 75 miles to the gallon. This will never happen if our politicians do not have the will, or the guts, to step up to the plate and make it happen. Obviously, Ford, GM, Daimler-Chrysler et al. will not. 50 to 75 miles to the gallon? If we can legislate efficiency, why shouldn't it be 200 to 300 MPG? Perhaps the comparison would be better if the computer industry were over a hundred years old. There were leaps and bounds of technological advances in the auto's early years. The computer doesn't face one problem the auto is: safety. Often, fuel economy and safety are inversely related. Safety features add extra weight and extra weight hurts gas mileage. Do you really think GM has this technology but won't use it? If GM could double the gas mileage of a Suburban it would likely take away every sale of Ford Expeditions and Dodge Durangos. What marketing manager would say no? Or are you going to tell us that the auto manufactures are in bed with the oil companies.
-- Draper Jaffray, Orono.
Posted
3/15/2002 07:15:00 AM
by Bob
Why we have lawyer jokes. This is in Walter Olson's Overlawyered.com today:
"Before you cheer ... 'Sign here'". There are few things that trial lawyers loathe with more passion than the liability waivers that schools have parents and students sign before going out for extracurricular activities such as field trips or cheerleading. They're carrying on a state-by-state campaign to get courts to strike down such waivers, voluntarily entered or not. (Mark Clayton, Christian Science Monitor, Mar. 12).
Posted
3/15/2002 07:01:00 AM
by Bob
Nearly a foot of snow fell here last night. The neighborhood looks wonderful.
