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I think our “boss” JCD uses a variation of this method.
TIJUANA, Mexico – Relatives of 100 missing people want to show photos of their loved ones to a man arrested in Tijuana for allegedly helping a druglord dispose of his slain enemies by dissolving their bodies in acid, a victims’ group said Saturday. Santiago Meza Lopez, known as the “Pozole Maker” after a local stew, is accused by Mexico’s military of disposing of 300 bodies for Teodoro Garcia Simental, a suspected former lieutenant of the Tijuana-based Arellano Felix drug cartel. The relatives have asked authorities for permission to meet face-to-face with the 45-year-old Meza, said Cristina Palacios, president of Citizens United Against Impunity, a group that represents families of missing people in Tijuana.
Meza was arrested Thursday and paraded by soldiers and federal police in front of reporters on Friday at a cement-block shack where he allegedly got rid of many of the bodies over several years. The security officers had Meza tell reporters how he did it: first dumping the corpses in large plastic bins filled with acid, then burying any remains. Surrounded by soldiers, Meza told reporters he helped get rid of 300 bodies. Meza has not been charged. Investigators have not identified any of Meza’s alleged victims or provided evidence to back up the 300 victims claim. “We are here because this arrest has given us a ray of hope,” Palacios said after meeting with Baja California state authorities.
Hmmm, As much as I like pozole, I think I’ll skip the Pozole Stew next time I cross the border.
A new study bolsters the claim that an ancient fossil discovered several years ago belongs to an entirely different species of tiny humanlike creatures. An analysis of an 18,000-year-old Homo floresiensis skull has proven that they were not the same species as modern humans, according to a study led by Dr. Karen Baab, Ph.D., a researcher in the Department of Anatomical Sciences at New York’s Stony Brook University, and Kieran McNulty, professor of anthropology at the University of Minnesota, published in the Journal of Human Evolution.
Some believe that the “hobbit” skeleton belonged to humans that had dwarfism or the disease microcephaly, which causes the brain to be smaller than normal. But Baab and McNulty say their analysis of the skull’s shape, which they then compared to samples from other extinct hominins and modern humans and apes, proves the microcephaly theory wrong.
“The overall shape of the LB1 skull, particularly the part that surrounds the brain (neurocranium) looks similar to fossils more than 1.5 million years older from Africa and Eurasia, rather than modern humans, even though Homo floresiensis is documented from 17,000 to 95,000 years ago,” said Baab in a Stony Brook University news release.
I knew it! One look at those feet and you just know that ain’t human.
Whatever happened to tradition?
Scots medics urgently need donations, but in this case they’re not talking about cash, blood or even organs. From students of medicine to the most experienced surgeons, they need whole, dead bodies.
The number of people donating their mortal remains to medical science needs to double “with immediate effect”, according to the man with the imposing title Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Anatomy for Scotland. Professor Bertie Wood needs 300 bodies a year to keep pace with developments in training that offer new hope to the living.
One of the key new demands is from surgeons who specialise in operating on the joints to help arthritis sufferers and other patients with debilitating conditions related to their limbs. These already highly-trained doctors need a steady supply of bodies on which to hone their skills.
Around a dozen body parts recently had to be imported from the United States because there were not sufficient numbers available for use in training surgeons in complex shoulder surgery techniques.
Perish the thought that Scots medics-in-training should have to cut through those extra layers of fat.
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Daylife/Reuters Pictures
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The Vatican said the pope issued a decree lifting the excommunication of four traditionalist bishops who were thrown out of the Roman Catholic Church in 1988 for being ordained without Vatican permission.
The four bishops lead the ultra-conservative Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX), which has about 600,000 members and rejected modernizations of Roman Catholic worship and doctrine…
One of the four bishops, the British-born Richard Williamson, has made a number of statements denying the full extent of the Nazi Holocaust of European Jews, as accepted by mainstream historians.
In comments to Swedish television broadcast Wednesday, he said “I believe there were no gas chambers” and only up to 300,000 Jews perished in Nazi concentration camps, instead of 6 million…
Pope Benedict has already made several gestures of reconciliation to the schismatic group, including allowing the unconditional return of the old-style Latin Mass.
That move also angered Jews because the ceremony includes a Good Friday prayer for their conversion.
Anyone surprised over the lengths religious institutions will go – to keep up the number of dues-paying members.
Two men released from the US “war on terror” prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba have appeared in a video posted on a jihadist website, the SITE monitoring service reported.
One of the two former inmates, a Saudi man identified as Abu Sufyan al-Azdi al-Shahri, or prisoner number 372, has been elevated to the senior ranks of Al-Qaeda in Yemen, a US counter-terrorism official told AFP.
Three other men appear in the video, including Abu al-Hareth Muhammad al-Oufi, identified as an Al-Qaeda field commander. SITE later said he was prisoner No. 333.
A Pentagon spokesman, Commander Jeffrey Gordon, on Saturday declined to confirm the SITE information.
“We remain concerned about ex-Guantanamo detainees who have re-affiliated with terrorist organizations after their departure,” said Gordon.
[…]
“By Allah, imprisonment only increased our persistence in our principles for which we went out, did jihad for, and were imprisoned for,” al-Shihri was quoted as saying.
[…]
The latest case highlights the risk the new US administration faces as it moves to empty Guantanamo of its remaining 245 prisoners and close the controversial detention camp within a year.
09.01.24 Saturday – Episode #67
Click image to go to No Agenda.
This Episode’s Show Notes by KD “Bubba” Martin:
- From Gitmo Nation East and West, where you may ask “What your government can do to you”, it’s time for No Agenda!
- We’ll start with public television, where the British “PBS” shows commercials and loses 100M pounds per year.
- Without your TV license, the coppers can break, enter and seize your TV. This for the privelege of watching commercials.
- Will the press eat Obama alive? So far, he’s attempting to orchestrate his press conferences. The secrecy has begun.
- What? No Lincoln Bible during the 2nd Obama swearing into office? Which is the real Obama?
- Adam brings up the “UFO” photographed during the inauguration ceremony.
- Oh, Good Grief! ‘Tis the Obama jingle mess.
- Chocolate is at an all time high. Some of these new flavors are just weird. And don’t forget the kids.
- Seems that Obama is spending $100,000 to make over the private quarters in the White House. Change you can believe in.
- More conspiracy theories, starting with Flight 1549 and the Kennedys.
- Goodbye, Hillary Clinton.
- Hello, Tom Swift.
- One world government, and Obama. Oh, joy, one world big bad*ss bank. The Bank Of England to back it up? Har!
- We discuss India vs. Pakistan, and what the American involvement might be.
- Let’s see, Obama says, “Our goal is to capture Bin Laden.” Now, it’s “Well, he’s in a cave somewhere, so we win.” What??
- Off we go into discussions of left vs. right hand drive in the UK and other countries.
- How about some old Top 40 radio? Let’s remember those days and how some have morphed into today’s netcasts.
- Here’s Dave Winer’s review of JCD’s thoughtful acting and crankiness. There are two types of journalists…
Queue / cue / Q the closing credits — We hope you enjoy the show!
No Agenda
Running time: approx. 106 mins.
If you’re indignant that your boss just shut the smoking room and outraged that you have to leave the bar to light up, take heart. Life could be worse. You could be Bhutanese. The tiny, trendy Himalayan kingdom recently became the world’s first nonsmoking nation. Since Dec. 17, it has been illegal to smoke in public or sell tobacco. Violators are fined the equivalent of $232—more than two months’ salary in Bhutan. Authorities heralded the ban by igniting a bonfire of cigarette cartons in the capital, Thimphu, and stringing banners across the main thoroughfare, exhorting people to kick the habit. As if they have a choice.
Meddling with an issue as personal as smoking is always tricky, and politicians err at their own peril. Yet Bhutan’s ban appears to be sticking and with little public outcry. Even the country’s smokers seem resigned to a smoke-free future. “If you can’t get it, you can’t smoke it,” concludes Tshewang Dendup, who works for Bhutan’s only broadcaster. He picked up his smoking habit while studying at Berkeley, but says he is now rapidly “downsizing” his consumption. So, how has Bhutan managed to pull off a nationwide smoking ban while other nations dither? Bhutan is a Buddhist nation, and many Buddhists believe smoking is bad for their karma. Then again, Sri Lanka and Thailand are also predominantly Buddhist, and plenty of people smoke there. Bhutanese officials say that, by banning tobacco, they hope to set an example for the rest of the world. Ireland recently banned smoking in public places, though the sale of tobacco remains legal. Other European countries, such as Norway, are enacting less-stringent smoking bans.
As an ex-smoker I know how difficult it is to quit. Yet there is something to be said for quitting on your own, cold turkey. This however, sets a slippery precedent, and it doesn’t take much imagination to see where it can lead.
FOX Sports on MSN – Women’s NCAA – Texas girls hoops team seeks forfeit of 100-0 win — While I suppose the one bad team should not have even been playing the good team. But now to forfeit a lopsided win? AND KLOSE! They could have amended the score to 2-0. Or just forgotten about it.
A high school girls basketball team that beat an opponent 100-0 has a case of blowout remorse.
The winning school now says it wants to do the right thing by seeking a forfeit and apologizing for the margin of victory.
“It is shameful and an embarrassment that this happened,” the head of the school said Thursday on The Covenant School’s Web site. He added that Covenant has made “a formal request to forfeit the game recognizing that a victory without honor is a great loss.”
Covenant, a private Christian school in Dallas, defeated Dallas Academy 100-0 last week. Covenant was up 59-0 at halftime.
A parent who attended the game told The Associated Press that Covenant continued to make 3-pointers — even in the fourth quarter. She praised the Covenant players but said spectators and an assistant coach were cheering wildly as their team edged closer to 100 points.
Found by Chris Clark.
What an odd concept: allowing the people who elected you to know what you’re doing. But then how do you conduct secret wars, torture, funnel huge sums of money to your friends and so on when you do that? I don’t get it.
It has received the least attention of his first-day decisions, but President Barack Obama’s memorandum on reviving the Freedom of Information Act stands as the clearest signal yet that his campaign talk about “a new era of open government” wasn’t just rhetoric; it’s for real.
The key phrase comes right at the top: “The Freedom of Information Act should be administered with a clear presumption: In the face of doubt, openness prevails.”
Later in the memo: “All agencies should adopt a presumption of disclosure. … The presumption of disclosure should be applied to all decisions involving FOIA.”
Furthermore, “In responding to requests under the FOIA, executive branch agencies should act properly and in a spirit of cooperation, recognizing that such agencies are servants of the public.” In fact, “All agencies should take affirmative steps to make information public. They should not wait for specific requests from the public.”
This could not be clearer. The new president was calling for a complete reversal of the Bush administration’s directives on this matter—and a restoration of the Freedom of Information Act’s original purpose.
In other redefining government news from the Obamanation…
President Barack Obama is staffing his Justice Department with some of his predecessor’s fiercest critics, among them lawyers who were fired by President Bush or who quit jobs working for his administration.
Now, the opposition is in charge, and lawyers who spent years defining the limits of executive power will be helping wield it.
[…]
“I think they will be an irritant for Obama in the best possible way — they’re very honest lawyers,” said Rosa Brooks, a professor at Georgetown University Law School, where Lederman also taught. “When Dawn and Marty and David think that he is asking if he can do something that in their view pushes the envelope and goes beyond the bounds of what is legal, they’re going to say, ‘Sorry Mr. Obama, we think that would be illegal.’”
Honest lawyers at the Justice Dept. What will they think of next?
A 24-year-old Brit woman has pleaded guilty for allowing her three-year-old son to smoke.
Kelly Pocock was arrested and charged with cruelty to a child under 16.
Natasha Dudley, 25, a family friend, was astonished to see the child puffing away while his mum was on the phone in the same room.
She said it looked like the youngster had been smoking for “years”.
Worried Dudley used her mobile to film him and showed the video to social workers who alerted cops.
Shocked Judge John Curron said that the case was “appalling”.
“This is one of the most extraordinary I have ever come across,” The Sun quoted Judge Curron as saying.
Prosecutor Jonathan Rees said: “She found him under a bed with cigarettes. He was smoking one and Miss Dudley said it looked like he had been smoking for many years.
“When the boy was taken downstairs he went into the living room where he picked up a cigarette butt from an ashtray and smoked it.”
Here’s another, longer article on this story.
This one works the other side of the fence
Police in Nigeria are holding a goat on suspicion of attempted armed robbery.
Vigilantes took the black and white beast to the police saying it was an armed robber who had used black magic to transform himself into a goat to escape arrest after trying to steal a Mazda 323.
“The group of vigilante men came to report that while they were on patrol they saw some hoodlums attempting to rob a car. They pursued them. However one of them escaped while the other turned into a goat,” Kwara state police spokesman Tunde Mohammed told Reuters by telephone.
“We cannot confirm the story, but the goat is in our custody. We cannot base our information on something mystical. It is something that has to be proved scientifically, that a human being turned into a goat,” he said.
Should be no problem. You see people become asses all the time. Barump bump. Thank you ladies and gentlemen. I’m here all week!
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