Click on the picture above to see a photo slideshow done by the New York Times about a female circumcision ceremony. The picture above shows female circumcisers and their attendants waiting in an elementary-school classroom, where they do their work.
Title says it all. SFW.
WWJWDD (what would Jesus’ wiener dog do)?
Holding Jesus Hostage
Anonymous residents on Lindy Lane claim Jean Mansel isn’t picking up after her dogs, so to entice her to do so, they took something close to her heart.Those residents say their Mansel’s wiener dogs leave their leavings in their yard.
So, they stole her 80 pound statue of Jesus.
– Canada’s foreign ministry, responding to pressure from close allies, said on Saturday it would remove the United States and Israel from a watch list of countries where prisoners risk being tortured. Both nations expressed unhappiness after it emerged they had been listed in a document that formed part of a training course manual on torture awareness given to Canadian diplomats. Foreign Minister Maxime Bernier said he regretted the embarrassment caused by the public disclosure of the manual, which also classified some U.S. interrogation techniques as torture. “It contains a list that wrongly includes some of our closest allies. I have directed that the manual be reviewed and rewritten,” Bernier said in a statement.
The document — made available to Reuters and other media outlets — embarrassed the minority Conservative government, which is a staunch ally of both the United States and Israel. U.S. ambassador David Wilkins said the listing was absurd, while the Israeli envoy said he wanted his country removed. Asked why the two countries had been put on the list, a spokesman for Bernier said: “The training manual purposely raised public issues to stimulate discussion and debate in the classroom.” “When it comes to an issue like torture, the government’s main concern should not be embarrassing allies,” Alex Neve, the group’s secretary-general, told Reuters. Under “definition of torture,” the document lists U.S. interrogation techniques such as forced nudity, isolation, sleep deprivation and blindfolding prisoners.
Uncle Dave’s earlier post here.
London taxi drivers have never been shy about sharing their views. George W. Bush? The royals? Cabbies are sure to have an opinion. But what if they start talking about Texas hold ’em or a royal flush?
In a promotional campaign for 888.com, an online gambling business, 375 London taxis have been decked out with advertisements for the company’s Web site. Most of the cabs are simply moving billboards for 888, which provides online poker and other kinds of gaming.
But in 10 of the cabs, the marketing pitch goes further. The drivers may seek to engage passengers in conversation about poker. If customers take the bait, the drivers try to steer the chat gently toward 888.com. Those who show particular interest may be given coupons offering free hands of virtual cards – worth as much as $10 – on the poker site.
A captive audience at its worst. What are you going to do? Jump out of the cab?
Taxi Promotions UK, the agency that set up the 888.com campaign, calls its roving pitchmen “ambassador drivers…”
Now Taxi Promotions is trying to expand the ambassador program, creating a new unit called Womad Taxis, short for “word of mouth.” It aims to capitalize on the growing interest in word of mouth advertising, a form of marketing based on the notion that consumers place more trust in something they hear directly from another person, than something they learn through the media.
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This is a relatively old story based on a paper posted by the Federal Reserve of St. Louis. But it’s certainly something to read and mull over on a slow Sunday afternoon. |
The only thing keeping the U.S. afloat right now is the temporary willingness of Asian countries to keep buying U.S. debt, thereby pumping up the U.S. economy with dollars earned on the backs of Chinese laborers.
But even the Chinese — known for their tolerance of hard times and manual labor — may eventually tire of lending money to a posh, arrogant Western nation that has all but abandoned the concept of saving money. Says Kotlikoff, “China is saving so much that it’s running a current account surplus. Not only is China supplying capital to the rest of the world, it’s increasingly doing so via direct investment. The question for the United States is whether China will tire of investing only indirectly in our country and begin to sell its dollar-denominated reserves. Doing so could have spectacularly bad implications for the value of the dollar and the level of U.S. interest rates.”
The American people, as usual, remain oblivious to the financial future that awaits them. Even as the housing bubble is now beginning to burst in the nation’s most overpriced real estate markets, most people don’t have a clue what “hard times” really means. To today’s debt-ridden yuppie spenders, “hard times” means shuffling six different credit card accounts to cover the payments on an overpriced house, two new SUVs in the driveway and a vacation to Paris, none of which the yuppie couple can afford.
The idea of ever having to pay back their debt and live within their means is as foreign to most Americans as it is their own government.
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The vehicle appears over a banner with the caption, “Built for life in Manitoba.”
Manitobans take auto theft seriously. About 20 vehicles are stolen each day in the province, and Winnipeg has gained infamy as the country’s car-theft capital for several years.
How’s that for appealing to your target audience?
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A congressional investigation has uncovered new allegations of questionable spending practices at two veterans charities, including one that paid retired Army Gen. Tommy Franks $100,000 to appear in its solicitation letters using money the nonprofit raised to help soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.
At a raucous, three-hour hearing, House members questioned California entrepreneur Roger Chapin about his management of two charities. One charity, Help Hospitalized Veterans, spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations that were to help wounded soldiers on personal expenses for Chapin, executive director Mike Lynch and Richard A. Viguerie, to whom the charity has awarded millions of dollars in fundraising-consulting contracts, the hearing found.
The expenses included at least $340,000 in meals, hotels and entertainment; a $135,000 loan to Lynch for a divorce settlement with his former wife; a $17,000 country club membership; three airplane tickets to Hawaii; and a $1 million loan to Viguerie for a start-up initiative at his firm, several members of the committee said.
The second charity, the Coalition to Support America’s Heroes, used Franks in its solicitation letters, the House Committee on Government Oversight and Reform found…
“Most of the millions they receive never reach veterans or their families,” representative Henry Waxman said. “Instead, the groups waste those contributions on bloated overhead costs and self-enrichment.”
You have to love Chapin’s response to questions about the salaries for himself and his wife: “Throughout my life I have endeavored to do well for my family while I try to do good for the world,” said Chapin.
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Like a growing number of C.I.A. employees, Mr. Rodriguez, former head of the agency’s clandestine service, had bought professional liability insurance from Wright & Company. The firm, founded in 1965 by a former F.B.I. agent, is now paying his mounting legal bills.
The standard Wright policy costs a little less than $300 a year. The government pays half the premium for all supervisors and certain other high-risk employees, a group that includes hundreds of C.I.A. officers, including everyone at the agency involved in counterterrorism or counterproliferation.
The more scandal official Washington produces, the better for Wright’s niche business for federal employees. Every whiff of investigation or litigation drives additional nervous federal workers to the company’s door…
I’m not certain if this article is about a positive or negative symptom? Certainly our knee jerk reliance on lawsuits sucks. And anything that makes insurance companies happy – usually sucks double.
Are lawsuits all we have left to replace Congressional oversight?
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Ah, remember those heady days of olde when hacking was just for fun and education? Guess it’s grown up into the Mafia. John and Adam mentioned this trend on the latest No Agenda show. |
CIA: Hackers demanding cash disrupted power utilities overseas
Hackers literally turned out the lights in multiple cities after breaking into electrical utilities and demanding extortion payments before disrupting the power, a senior CIA analyst told utility engineers at a trade conference.
All the break-ins occurred outside the United States, said senior CIA analyst Tom Donahue. The U.S. government believes some of the hackers had inside knowledge to cause the outages. Donahue did not specify what countries were affected, when the outages occurred or how long the outages lasted. He said they happened in “several regions outside the United States.”
“In at least one case, the disruption caused a power outage affecting multiple cities,” Donahue said in a statement. “We do not know who executed these attacks or why, but all involved intrusions through the Internet.”
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It’s too simplistic and jaded and cynical to think Bush crashed the economy with his war and other profligate spending just so he can rescue it just in time for the election in November pushing the deficit ever higher which won’t have to be dealt with now. Right? |
Bush outlines $140bn stimulus package
President George W. Bush on Friday outlined a $140bn fiscal stimulus plan involving temporary tax relief for both consumers and companies in a bid to keep the US economy out of recession.
The administration said his plan would create or safeguard half a million jobs at risk from the economic downturn.
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The president said that the package must be “big enough to make a difference in an economy as large and dynamic as ours – which means it should be about one per cent of gross domestic product”.He said it should be “built on broad-based tax relief” and “not the kind of spending projects that would have little immediate impact on our economy”. Mr Bush insisted that it should include “tax incentives for American businesses” as well as “direct and rapid income tax relief for the American people”.
Here’s an editorial by a guy who says Wall Street “drew little comfort from President Bush’s stimulus plan.”
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Is Hillary a lying sack of shit who unleashes secret vendettas against those who oppose her? That’s the gist of The Case Against Hillary Clinton by Christopher Hitchens over at Slate.com: |
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A new feature from Dvorak.org
From the Manor in the UK and the Mansion in Northern California, the Podfather Adam Curry and Prognosticator John C. Dvorak bring you this weekly podcast with no music, no advertising and, most importantly, no agenda.
From the current news to rants and raves on new events and technology, John and Adam report on the hard stuff to the tech fluff.
Tune in every Sunday (just in case the funny papers didn’t arrive) for each new show, brought to you by Dvorak Uncensored Cage Match.
The latest is Episode #13 and features:
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Ananova
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It means people can keep their eye on their breakfast and eject the slice at the moment it turns the perfect colour. This would eradicate the need to put the bread back down and run the risk of having to scrape burnt toast. However, a traditional timer dial is still incorporated into the design, for people who are too busy to keep an eye on their bread. A downside to the current design is that it only fits one piece of bread at a time.
Now if only they can figure out a way to incorporate your favorite toasted deity. Until then, I think I’ll wait for the upgrade.
For Kindle and with free ePub version. Only $9.49 Great reading.
Here is what Gary Shapiro CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) said: Dvorak's writing sings with insight and clarity. Whether or not you agree with John's views, he will get you thinking and is never boring. These essays are worth the read!
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