Balloon Boy's parents said they will voluntarily surrender to authorities as soon as charges are filed, most likely on Wednesday. (Full Story)
Just kidding! It's just a hoax. They're really going to flee via a white Ford Bronco and then run off to France where they're going to live for the next 30 years and make an Oscar-winning movie (and avoid Switzerland at all costs). Then they will drive off into the Grand Canyon as Harvey Keitel tries to stop them. And they will have picked that fateful date carefully so that it falls on the same week of other celebrity deaths. So everyone will talk about how tragic it is that all these people died in the same month. They will not go gently into that good night.
Great story on a community garden in Flint, Michigan that was planted on the lots of demolished houses. The article also touches on other efforts to rebuild the community. (Full Story)
This just in: U.K. diplomats are like catty 14 year old girls. Until 2006, when British diplomats were retiring or leaving their post to go to some other country, they would write a letter to Britain's Foreign Office giving their personal assessment of the country in which they had served. Under Freedom of Information laws, the BBC got access to these letters. The letters detailed the boredom of tedious cocktail parties with the host country and offered frank, "oh snap!" assessments:
In 1967, the ambassador to Nicaragua wrote: "There is, I fear, no question that the average Nicaraguan is one of the most dishonest, unreliable, violent and alcoholic of the Latin Americans."
In 1969, the high commissioner to Nigeria assessed the country's leaders: "[They have] a maddening habit of always choosing the course of action which will do the maximum damage to their own interests...Africans as a whole are not only not averse to cutting off their nose despite their face; they regard such an operation as a triumph of cosmetic surgery."
The high commissioner to Canada between 1981 and 1984 claimed that Canadians had limited talents and wrote: "Anyone who is even moderately good at what they do - in literature, the theatre, skiing or whatever - tends to become a national figure. And anyone who stands out at all from the crowd tends to be praised to the skies and given the Order of Canada at once."
The ambassador to Thailand from 1965 to 1967 wrote: "They have no literature, no painting and only a very old kind of music; their sculpture, ceramics and dancing are borrowed from others, and their architecture is monotonous and interior decoration hideous." He added, "Nobody can deny that gambling and golf are the chief pleasures of the rich, and that licentiousness is the main pleasure of them all."
One British diplomat to India actually (kind of) insulted the British: "One of the great failures of the [British] diplomatic service has been its inability to cast off its image as bowler-hatted, pinstriped and chinless with a fondness for Champagne."
The British Foreign Office discontinued this practice of letters in 2006, after one was leaked to the press. (Full Story)
Interesting article on the problems of phone stalking in Egypt. A growing number of women in Egypt complain that they are being relentlessly harassed and sexually harassed on the phone by people they don't often know. Most of the harassment is from young men who call the numbers at random; once they find a woman that answers "in a soft way", they continuously call her. In a survey last year by the Egyptian Centre for Women's Rights, 83% of respondents said they experienced some form of sexual harassment; 23% said they were receiving obscene phone calls. A sociologist at the American University of Cairo, Said Sadek, feels this phone stalking is part of a larger issue: "The only outlet for legitimate sex in Arab society is marriage, which is very difficult to afford these days. Repressed sex in in Egyptian society manifests itself in many forms: crank calls, Arabic porn channels, harassing women in the street, secret marriages - it is a real problem." (Full Story)
The European Union is giving financial aid to dairy farmers after weeks of protests by thousands of farmers. They have been demanding aid after the global economic downtown has reduced demand and decreased the price of milk. Milk is more expensive to produce than they can sell it for. The farmers also wanted the EU to halt planned increases in milk production quotas, because boosting the supply on the market can result in even lower prices. The EU now plans to phase out milk quotas by 2015. In addition, the commission plans to extend EU special purchases of milk products to help farmers. (Full Story)
It's refreshing to see an organized effort for change and the results that follow. Thousands of farmers protested. Farmers in Belgium, France, and Germany dumped milk. Farmers have blocked deliveries of milk products. Europe definitely has a different culture of protest than the U.S. does. But things used to be so different here, we used to have that culture. It's unfortunate how things have changed and how apathetic people can be.
It's being reported that in Afghanistan Hamid Karzai's vote share has fallen below the 50% plus one vote threshold, as result of votes being thrown out due to fraud. This should then result in a run-off election with Karzai's rival Abdullah Abullah. The U.N.-backed Electoral Complaints Commission ordered ballots from 210 polling stations be discontinued due to clear evidence of fraud. This has resulted in hundreds of thousands of votes for Karzai being thrown out -- resulting in Karzai's share falling from over 54% to around 48%. It's unclear however whether the Afghan-led Independent Election Commission (which is widely regarded as pro-Karzai) will accept the findings from the U.N. commission and announce a run-off. Undoubtedly, sources say Karzai is furious, and he is allegedly threatening to block attempts for a run-off.
There is also concern that a run-off election won't happen because winter is approaching. With snow falling in these high mountain passes, it would be too difficult to conduct and organize an election. It would have to be postponed until spring. There's also fear of Taliban attacks on voters, just like those that occurred with the first vote. As a result of these concerns, Western diplomats are urging the two sides to reach a power-sharing agreement. Though, at this point, they seem far away from any sort of agreement. (Full Story) (Full Story)
Iran's Revolutionary Guard is now blaming Britain and the U.S. for a suicide bombing that killed six of its commanders and 37 people. The attack happened in the unstable area of Sistan-Baluchistan. A Sunni group, Jundallah, claimed responsibility. They say the Sunni population in the area suffer discrimination from Iran's Shia rulers. The Revolutionary Guards said the bomb was the work of terrorists who are supported by "the great Satan American and its ally Britain." State television said Britain was to blame by "organizing, supplying equipment, and employing professional terrorists." But this is nothing new: "Over the last five years it has become a standard Iranian position that the US-British alliance is a source of unrest in Sistan-Baluchistan and other provinces." (Full Story)
Iranian officials have previously linked Jundallah to al-Qaeda, though other sources say they are linked to the Pakistani Taliban. So does that make any sense then that the U.S. and Britain would employ, organize, and give equipment to these people? U.S. and Britain aren't that dumb. And I don't know how a bomb belt that could easily by made is somehow an indicator of U.S-British involvement. As if they needed U.S. and British help to make that. I think Britain and the U.S. have more effective weapons, last I checked.
Update: And now Iran is blaming Pakistan, too. (Full Story)
This weekend was the annual meeting for the Women's Forum for the Economy and Society. In attendance were high-powered women from across the globe that came to discuss gender equality, the economic crisis, and other global women issues. So then how exactly did this make it into the article: "The 880 or so high-powered women gathered for the fifth year in this chic beach resort -- 'The Davos for Women' -- spurned talk of taking over the world (although, impatient with the eternal queues for the female facilities, they did appropriate the men's toilets)." (Full Story)
Seriously?! Of all the things that happened at the forum, that seemed like something that needed to be mentioned in the article (and in a cheesy way)? 'Because you know how women are in those bathrooms!!!' I doubt the person covering the World Economic Forum mentions the line-up outside the men's bathroom, or anything other than the meetings for that matter.
I don't want this blog to come off as Pot News Central, but...the Obama administration has said they will not seek to arrest medical marijuana users and suppliers as long as they follow state laws. This is a departure from the Bush administration which was committed to enforcing federal anti-marijuana laws regardless of state laws. (Full Story)
I love how conservatives conveniently forget how encroaching Bush made the federal government during his administration. Where were their homemade posters with comparisons to Hitler or Stalin then? Where were Glenn Beck's tears then?
No comments:
Post a Comment