A military jury sentenced a soldier to death Thursday for a deadly grenade and rifle attack on his own comrades during the opening days of the Iraq invasion, a barrage that prosecutors said was triggered by religious extremism.Jury; well done.
Sgt. Hasan Akbar, who gave a brief, barely audible apology hours earlier, stood at attention between his lawyers as the verdict was delivered. He showed no emotion.
Damn those sexy Marines! A curse upon their macho swagger and fascinating scars and rugged boot-camp-sculpted physiques and manly ill-fitting uniforms! How dare these vulpine volcanoes of voluptuous virility vend their voluminous values to vexed valedictorians? Who will keep our young adults from succumbing to the siren call of patriotism and public service?Ponytail boy the High School administrator, perhaps? Or is it crunchy Village Voice readers that, though they cannot stand anything testosteroney-like, they find…something…attractive…
"In promoting this type of recruiting effort," Bamburger writes, "our government apparently realizes what advertisers and marketers have known for years -- teens are fertile ground for influence because they still are at a point in life where impulse can overrule rational thought. So it's not a leap to worry that our children also might be unduly and dangerously swayed in these times by a call to patriotism. It's not a stretch to imagine that when they sign on the dotted line for boot camp, our children have focused more on the well-cut uniforms and group camaraderie and not on the long-term, and possibly deadly, consequences of even a short stint in the military."
If you're an adult at eighteen, then you should be a bona-fide adult, not a juvenile on stealth double-secret adult probation. At 18, the law says you're old enough to vote; old enough to have sex; old enough to have an abortion; old enough to enter a legally binding contract -- heck, you're even old enough to incur the death penalty, assuming recent case law from Suriname doesn't persuade the Supreme Court to the contrary. So you're old enough to vote on questions of when and how the military will be used around the world -- yet not old enough to make your own decision about joining the military. Say what?Boom. That’s in the 10 ring. Don’t
Whether it's jacking up the drinking age, subsidizing Romper Room party colleges with taxpayer dollars, or ejecting those luscious Marine recruiters from our public schools, the theme is the same: we are creating an extended adolescence for American young people that reaches well beyond their eighteenth birthday. The years between eighteen and twenty-one are a limbo in which responsible behavior is little demanded and even less expected.
At what point do decisions entail grown-up consequences? At what point do the training wheels come off our citizenship? Precisely what favor do we think we're doing teens by prolonging their goofy years?
So don't hate those Marines because they're beautiful. Don't hate them for their smokin'-hot stubbly haircuts and their surprisingly generous college tuition deals and their slick sales pitch. Fight them on their own terms. Present the case to your kid for the advantages of a nice drunken college education on someone else's dime over patriotism and making your own way in the world. Sell them on the joys of sedentary pursuits over high adventure. Make your own wicked cool berets. If your precious little adult isn't buying it, don't blame those sexy Marines. Blame yourself.Marketplace of ideas ponytail patchouli boy. Don’t be such a puss an perhaps your young men and women will want to join you at
There is a great deal of talk about loyalty from the bottom to the top. Loyalty from the top down is even more necessary and is much less prevalent. One of the most frequently noted characteristics of great men who have remained great is loyalty to their subordinates.
Personally, I am of the opinion that older men of experience, who have smelled powder and have been wounded, are of more value than mere youthful exuberance, which has not yet been disciplined. However, I seem to be in the minority in this belief.
Members of the Surete de l'Etat were ordered to disarm after news emerged that an agent only narrowly escaped injury when another opened fire.You can’t make this stuff up. I added the phone tap thing just for added fun.
Weapons will be issued only if specifically needed, the justice ministry told the BBC News website.
Separately, the work of the state security body may change if a ban on phone tapping is lifted.
…the Libre Belgique newspaper reported that an agent who was "without a doubt under the influence of antidepressants" had discharged his weapon.Very nice. Needless to say,
agents prefer to be armed while out on missions as they often find themselves in hostile environments when investigating, for example, organised crime, and like to think they can defend themselves.Ummmm, yea. Might need that. Criminals, terrorists and all.
A report in the UK's Daily Telegraph newspaper notes that the Belgian security apparatus has been a source of frustration for other Western agencies.Working national security issues with unarmed bi-polar agents. I wonder why.
Now, the warbloggers, who are fuzzy on the details of the actual war, like to believe that we're winning in Iraq. They're about the only ones who do.I would love to see what the folks at
At a hustings meeting on Wednesday Mr Galloway and his Labour opponent Oona King stood together to plead for less negative campaigning.Yikes, that’s about as negative as you can get.
Both candidates, contesting the Bethnal Green and Bow constituency, have required police protection.
Mr Galloway was allegedly "threatened with death" by Islamist extremists at a meeting on Tuesday evening.
The 40-strong mob apparently locked the door and denounced him as a "false prophet" and declared the sentence for this was "death".Nice to see that multiculturalism and assimilation of immigrants to the political and social norms of their new country is going swimmingly in the UK.
Mr Galloway said: "It was a veryfrightening incident caused by a tiny, unrepresentative group of very extreme fundamentalists who believe that elections are a crime against Islam."
Miss King said: "I utterly condemn any attacks on George Galloway, or any other politician, and indeed just the general atmosphere of intimidation.Of course. “It is our fault the Brownshirt Islamofascist hate us.” Spoken like a nice little Dhimmi Miss King. Now go get fitted for your
"I have to say it has not been helped by some of the language used by Respect. Extremism breeds extremism."
Mr Galloway and Miss King appeared together amid tight security at a meeting at the University of London on Wednesday evening.
Miss King told the audience that Mr Galloway had agreed to a meeting with election organisers and other candidates to try to "take some of the heat and vitriol out of this campaign".
Mr Galloway said: "Can I take this opportunity to express to Oona King how sorry I am for what has happened to her in this campaign and to welcome her call this evening for all the parties to talk with the police about how we can take some of the negative atmosphere out of this campaign and how we can see democracy prevail."
Respect is a coalition that grew out of socialist and trade union opposition to the Iraq war.
On his proudest achievement in parliament since 2001: "Having been a leader of the anti-war movement which built the biggest demonstrations in British history; having been right about Iraq; having made enemies like Tony Blair, Rupert Murdoch and Conrad Black; having defeated the Daily Telegraph in court; and having helped build Respect - the Unity Coalition."Bookworm
The legacy of the former was embodied by the global spread of the English languages; the dynamism of America, Australia, Canada and New Zealand; Indian democracy; and the notion of the rule of English-based law applied on a worldwide scale. The latter was superseded—but not defeated—by the U.S. Navy. And the naval power of the United States in many respects was a result of greater material resources applied on a massive scale to a similar system of naval organization adapted from the British.From the way the U.S. Navy runs our ships (minus the booze – sniffle) to many of our goofy traditions; we owe our past to the Royal Navy. We also took from the British an attitude that led us to follow our Mother to master the sea.
Sailors came to believe through their training and equipment that their ships were better, their commanders smarter and their mates more skilled than was true of any enemy firing back at them.That tradition is why the most heated discussions you can have is if we are trained/ing or equiped/ing our forces correctly. Sure, I'll argue liberty today in Thailand vs. early 1980's Philippines, but that's not fair......
At first glance, the British maritime empire made little sense. Unlike Spain or France, England had no Mediterranean ports and was without a venerable seafaring heritage of the old galley states. It was distant from the ancestral Roman locus of power, and its population was religiously divided, torn by ethnic strife, smaller than France's and without the natural resources of larger European continental states. Indeed, there was not much of any British naval history before the 15th century. Far earlier, Viking longboats had freely raided the English coast and gone on to discover the New World; Portuguese and Spanish, not British, galleons would first chart the sea routes to Asia and the Americas.Just reading a review by VDH is worth the time. But to pass up a look at a couple of books he likes is just foolish. I have a shelf of unread books laughing at me right now, but these two are going on my amazon.com "wish list" anyway.
Yet by the late 16th century, England had launched the most technologically advanced, nautically skilled and professionally led fleet in the world. And by 1630 no combination of French or Spanish ships could stop its 100-ship mastery of the seas, which by the mid-18th century had resulted in a worldwide empire protected by 300 capital ships. How did it all come to pass, and what effect did the nearly 500-year reign of British naval mastery have on the world at large?
President Bush nominate(d) Gen. Peter Pace of the Marines as the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, .... The White House ... name(d) Adm. Edmund P. Giambastiani Jr. of the Navy to replace General Pace as vice chairman,..General Pace's father emigrated from Italy. Giambastiani, well, that ain't an Irish last name.
While training a seaman on the guided-missile destroyer's flight deck, a mechanical failure caused a helicopter to crash onto the ship's flight deck during landing.Here is where you find that unique character in the best of today’s Sailors.
After pushing the seaman out of harm's way, into the hangar bay and securing the door to protect those inside, Garrett ran back onto the flight deck to provide first aid to an air crewman who was thrown from the helicopter. Only after the situation stabilized, and when ordered, did Garrett depart the scene to receive medical attention for his own injury.
"The helicopter crash we experienced that day was a terrifying experience," said Preble's supervisor, Senior Chief Gas Turbine System Technician (Electrical) (SW) Kane Valek. "Seaman Garrett did not freeze, he did not act on his own self-preservation instinct. Instead, he immediately went to protect his shipmates. He went to the aid of others. That is not something you can teach or coach. That is heroism."For his actions, Seaman Garrett was awarded the
The Navy/Marine Corps Medal is awarded to Sailors and Marines who distinguish themselves by heroism not involving actual conflict with the enemy. For acts of life-saving, or attempted lifesaving, it is required that the action be performed at the risk of one's own life.Reason 4,567,943 why I get my skivvies in a wad whenever someone ignorantly states, “The Sailors today aren’t the quality that they were when I was in the Navy…….bla…bla…bla.” Harumph.
Denmark's Queen Margrethe II warned against the rise of Islamic fundamentalism in Denmark and the world in a new book out, saying people must on occasion "show their opposition to Islam".Where do I buy this woman a beer, and does she have any grandchildren I can introduce my daughters to.
"It is a challenge we have to take seriously. We have let this issue float about for too long because we are tolerant and very lazy,"
"We have to show our opposition to Islam and we have to, at times, run the risk of having unflattering labels placed on us because there are some things for which we should display no tolerance," she said.
"And when we are tolerant, we must know whether it is because of convenience or conviction,"
Queen Margrethe, who professes a knowledge of Islam due to her interest in archeology, said it was "natural that young Muslims would be attracted" to the faith's absolute values and seek refuge in religion "as they are cut off from our community because of their lack of (Danish) language skills."If people want to immigrate, they have to assimilate. Kind of like
"It's not just a matter of speaking and understanding" Danish, she said, but also "understanding the language's codes, and we have to help them."
The queen, who is hugely popular among Danes, is the head of the Lutheran-Evangelical Church, of which 85 percent of Denmark's 5.4 million inhabitants are members. Muslims make up about three percent of the population.
…DiscoverTheNetwork. This site is a "Guide to the Political Left." It identifies the individuals and organizations that make up the left and also the institutions that fund and sustain it; it maps the paths through which the left exerts its influence on the larger body politic; it defines the left's (often hidden) programmatic agendas and it provides an understanding of its history and ideas.Get ye to the coffee mess. Get a fresh cup, and block off at least 10 minutes. Think of an organization of the Left that drives you nuts the most and follow the connections. Visit
Demon and Idol
Protesters blast Coulter at the G.O.P. Convention in New York City last year
This Jesus is rather more challenging than comforting. This is a Christ with standards ... his eyes directly engage even as his hands remain crossed quietly on his breast. He is interested in us, yet reticent and pensive, it seems. Those steady, dark brown eyes fix the viewer, while his head tilts to the side, giving the impression that he is scrutinizing you, studying you.
... A Christ who sized you up, maybe the way he sized up the chatty Samaritan woman at Jacob's well or the rich young man who thought so well of himself. Where are you now, viewer, he might be saying, what's going on in you, are you ready for me? What are you holding onto, what worthless baggage are you carrying so that you can't come my narrow way? You couldn't think of anything petty while in the purview of that calm, knowing, intelligent, and potentially redemptive gaze.
Labour -14  | |
 Conservative 66 | |
| Liberal Democrat -71 | |
| UK Independence Party 35 | |
| Green -17 |
The Conservative Party is strongly against joining the Euro and against greater use of taxation to fund public services. The party broadly supported the Iraq war and backs greater policing and ID cards. The Tories are against increasing the minimum wage above the rate of inflation, and have committed to abolishing university tuition fees. They support 'virtual vouchers' for private education.
Take the test at Who Should You Vote For
No sex, no drugs, no wine, no womenThere are a lot of reasons for the demographic problems we find in the West (slightly reviewed
No fun, no sin, no you, no wonder it's dark
Everyone around me is a total stranger
Everyone avoids me like a cyclone ranger
Everyone
-The Vapors, Turning Japanese, 1979.
In 2003 Japan's birthrate hit a record low of 1.29 - the average number of times a woman gives birth during her lifetime - one of the lowest rates in the world, according to the cabinet office. The population will peak next year at about 128 million, then decline to just over 100 million by 2050.You cannot create the next generation if you are not doing the activity that makes it possible.
Like many Japanese women, Junko waited until her early 30s to get married. When she and her fiance, an employee of a well-known firm, decided to tie the knot, she set her sights on making a home, putting away some money and starting a family.….and some people get mad when you leave the seat up….
Fifteen years later, Junko and her husband are childless. It is not that they cannot have children; it is just that they have never had sex.
The 200 women a year who seek help at a clinic in the Tokyo suburbs have not had sex with their husbands in up to 20 years, and some never, according to Kim Myong-gan, who runs the clinic.Perhaps Japanese women need to be a bit more aggressive. I have had a couple of coworkers with Japanese wives, and they become quite “native” real fast. Great women all, and not pushovers and mommy substitutes. Perhaps with their personality they wanted an American man. I know one guy’s mother-in-law that apologizes that her daughter does not “treat him properly” (usually said while he is cleaning the dishes or has a wrinkled shirt); his wife gives sigh and an eye roll and life goes on.
"The women who come to see me love their husbands and aren't looking for a divorce," he told the Guardian. "The problem is that their husbands lose interest in sex or don't want sex from the start. Many men think of their wives as substitute mothers, not as women with emotional and sexual needs."
Mr Kim's short-term solution is unconventional. After an initial 20,000 yen (£100) counselling session, he produces photographs of 45 men, mostly professionals in their 40s, with whom the women are invited to go on dates and then, in almost all cases, arrange regular assignations in hotel rooms.
Mr Kim dismissed charges that his service was little more than a male prostitution ring. "The men volunteer and pay half the hotel and restaurant bills, so legally there is absolutely nothing wrong with it," he said.
The number of married couples is in rapid decline. In 2000 almost 70% of men and 54% of women between 25 and 29 were unmarried. That bodes ill for the birthrate, as conservative Japanese society frowns upon having children outside marriage.Wow. Just wow. I’m a big fan of marriage (13+ years with #1 thank you), but there is a major malfunction going on in Japan, if those stats are correct.
A survey of 600 women found that 26% had not had sex with their husbands in the past year.
The divorce rate has nearly doubled in the past 10 years, with more women blaming their sexually inactive, as opposed to sexually errant, husbands for break-ups.I could make lots of jokes like “Mama-san, I can get the 7th Fleet port call schedule for you..” but this is just too sad of a story to make fun of. You really have to feel sorry for these ladies, and to a lesser extent these men who have created this self-inflicted cancer on their life. You only get one shot at this, to expend your life with porn and prostitutes to the point the woman that married you has to go to a service to meet someone who will give them some attention, is just waste. Maybe
"The men love their companies; they live for work," Mr Kim said. "Men don't even think it is a problem if they don't have sex with their wives. They have pornography and the sex industry to take care of their needs, but their wives have nowhere to go. They just suffer in silence."
The trio submitted two of the randomly assembled papers to the World Multi-Conference on Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics (WMSCI), scheduled to be held July 10-13 in Orlando, Florida.BAAWAAAHAAAHHAAA!!! Go read "Rooter"
To their surprise, one of the papers -- "Rooter: A Methodology for the Typical Unification of Access Points and Redundancy" -- was accepted for presentation.
"the model for our heuristic consists of four independent components: simulated annealing, active networks, flexible modalities, and the study of reinforcement learning" and "We implemented our scatter/gather I/O server in Simula-67, augmented with opportunistically pipelined extensions."
We now compare our approach to previous wearable algorithms methods. Further, Niklaus Wirth et al. [7] and Garcia [8,9] introduced the first known instance of autonomous symmetries. Furthermore, the original approach to this grand challenge [3] was considered intuitive; on the other hand, it did not completely achieve this aim. Our method to B-trees differs from that of Erwin Schroedinger as well. However, the complexity of their method grows quadratically as symbiotic information grows.This is just too rich.
President Lee Bollinger (who's also under fire over alleged anti-Semitism in his Mideast Studies Department) has said he allows ROTC recruiters at the Law School only "with regret," and ROTC itself is banned on the Columbia campus.Many use the “don’t ask - don’t tell” policy as an excuse, but this dates long before the Ivory Tower decided that their perspective on sexuality was more important than the defense of freedom.
ROTC opponents claim that they're not anti-military — that their opposition is solely related to the military's "Don't ask, don't tell" policy. … Columbia banned ROTC in 1969, a few months after the height of the famous campus demonstrations against the Vietnam war and all things military.There is a great quote here about the Left’s Orwellian intolerance to promote tolerance, all wraped up in an opaque logic that reality just can’t burn through,
Columbia anthropology Professor Rosalind Morris: "[W]e should not be inclusive or tolerant of an institution that structures violence as a war against homosexuality."Someone thinks that brain belongs at an “elite” institution. Hey, I have a
Once again, it is the cloistered Baby Boomer Leftists engorging their own self-importance on the backs of a younger generation trying to clean up the mess of their elders.Two years ago, a student referendum to bring ROTC back to campus passed with 65 percent of the vote.
The faculty is another matter. It took a year after the referendum before the faculty-dominated University Senate would even form a task force to study the issue. After a year of town halls, email exchanges and committee meetings, the committee is deadlocked, 5 to 5, over whether to change the existing policy. The full Senate is set to decide on May 6.
When you ask military officers who should get the job, the first thing many say is that the military needs someone who can stand up to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.If that desire by Ignatius does not concern you, it should. I don't know what "military officers" he is talking to, but they are dangerous and should leave active duty immediately. They have been too close to power and need to be put back on their leash.
... (they) should ... voice their opposition (to policies) ... they kn(ow) (will) fail, publicly if necessary, and then resign() rather than carry out the policy.You do not, "Stand up" to your civilian bosses. Offer your advice, opinion, concern, yes. "Stand up," no.
…stricter personal and professional standards and tighter overall discipline.Ummm. That will be a, uhhhhh, unusual, emmmm, departure for the surface community. (Right now, Brownshoes the world over are kissing their gold wings saying, “Thank Neptune I am not a Shoe, thank Neptune I am not a shoe…”)
Chief Petty Officers serving at Naval Surface Forces commands have new orders to get tougher on Sailors. … Asked why he aimed his message at Chiefs and not Officers, Entyre told Navy Times in an email reply that Chiefs are the “backbone of the Surface Force and the ones closest to the crew. They are very important role models. If Chiefs are actively engaged in knowing how Sailors in their divisions are doing and what they’re doing – that’s successful intrusive leadership. It means asking the right question, getting the right answer, ensuring standards are being met, nurturing and mentoring their Sailors.That is right on target, and I agree with everything he says. What comes out as an issue is, why does it take a 3-star to make this a priority? What are our Master Chiefs, Senior Chiefs, and Chiefs NOT doing in mentoring their 1st Classes and hard charging 2nd Classes that we need to have one of the top leaders in the Navy make this push. What are we NOT teaching at the
…he “noted an apparent decline in the traditionally high standards of professional and personal excellence” and that his assessment encompassed “a broad range of issues including safety, operations, military smartness, and personal behavior. … We are/may be trending in the wrong direction.”Later on he comments that things have improved (as of this MAR, after he left) I can’t comment on that. Just read it a couple of times. Just leav’n it right there. Not saying a word of commentary.
Since I have taken command here at the USS Neverdock, we have had a compete breakdown in personal behavior and professional conduct. Everyone is getting drunk, and my Chiefs are a bunch of lazy scupper trouts that only play golf and fraternize with the help. I look forward to the time after the Change of Command when these disturbing trends will be corrected; just remember that I had nothing to do with the decay that took place while I was in command, but the improvements afterwards are a direct result of the attention I gave them prior to my departure. Now, when in the WWR potluck? I have to get to a Navy Relief golf tournament.Hey, I'm just wondering.
”There are.” Theseus proclaims, “three classes of citizens. The rich are of no use and always lusting after more gain; the poor who lack a livelihood are dangerous folk, who invest too much in envy, trying to goad the rich, as they are hoodwinked by the tongues of wicked leaders. But of these three classes those in the middle save states, since they preserve the order which the city has established.”
“Freedom is simply this: Who has a good proposal and wishes to bring it before the citizenry? He who does so, enjoys repute, while he who does not merely keeps silent. What can be more just for a city than this?”Our founders knew the classics like your kids know
From Russia, Chavez is buying 50 advanced MiG-29 fighters, 40 helicopter gunships and 100,000 AK-47 assault rifles. He's also bought arms from Spain and Brazil.Our
During the first semester of 2004 Spain sold chemical warfare agents and radioactive materials to Venezuela worth €539.603 according to a report entitled "Spanish exports of defence materials and related products and technologies". The report, produced by Spain's Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Tourism, .....What the frack (as they say on Battlestar Gallatica) is Spain doing giving dual use technology to one of the few dictatorships left in our hemisphere? Sell all you want to Brazil, Argentina, Chile, whatever. But to Hugo?
