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They look so happy to be going off to fight the Marxist weenie terrorist PKK, huh? (And pretty er, cute, meaning the one on the left, but that's beside the point.) That is, until they see what that cross-border incursion entails...
Damn! I guess that's why you don't invade Kurdistan in the winter. They look like a party out hunting the Yeti. Heck, with the snow camo they look like the Yeti. That's some determined Turks...
OK,
so they don't have temblors very often. But this is L.A., baby, so don't talk to us about Earth shakage. And they have a bunch of stuff
made of brick. And "retrofit" likely isn't the first thing on their
minds. But there was no serious damage reported and one injury from the
U.K. quake that was reportedly felt for 300 miles.
But The Sun tabloid is all over the hot story:
"Stunned Mark Young said he looked out of his window and saw an EIGHT FOOT crack in his neighbour’s garden at LEICESTER.
He said: 'There was a big crack through the ground and there was smoke and flames coming out. It was spitting things out.
'It is eight foot long and two foot wide.'
John Burton feared his house, in WAKEFIELD, West Yorkshire, was going to fall down as he watched television.
He said: 'It shook the whole house.'
Metal worker Simon Smith, 38, from CHATTERIS, Cambs, said: 'It felt like a juggernaut was going down my road.
'I turned to my wife Heather and shouted, "S***, it’s an earthquake."'"
Wimps.
And yes, that's the worst damage picture to be found.
Is the fact that, during an election year, so little preachiness was heard from the Oscar podium a good sign? Have they decided to get back to the business of making movies? Or is it just that so few Americans won that the winners just don't give a rip about American politics?
I write about this in my Los Angeles Daily News column today:
"Out here in Los Angeles we've known for a long time that there are fewer degrees of separation between Hollywood and politics than there are between Kevin Bacon and, well, anyone.
People running on a platform of change? Yeah, they're called independent filmmakers. The entrenched liberal establishment? It's called Babs and the Weinstein brothers. A town frozen by endless gridlock? It's Capitol Hill 24-7, but L.A. during the writers strike.
And though ostensibly home to more fiction than The New York Times, Hollywood actually has lobbyists who behave inappropriately: We call it the casting couch.
When it came to politics as usual, Sunday's 80th Academy Awards resembled the United Nations General Assembly. And the Best Supporting Actor is... Spain! Best Supporting Actress goes to Britain! Best Actor, Ireland! Best Actress, France! And the Best Picture Oscar goes to the country of ... Texas? Well, thank heavens Russia didn't veto Austria's Best Foreign-Language Film win.
The Oscars also have a storied history of turning the film canister on its side, stepping on top and turning it into a political soapbox.
Michael Moore - who lost this year for his 'socialism rocks!' docudramedy 'Sicko' - has always provided ample reason for the orchestra to crank it up.
Moore wanted Comrade Fidel - who has a freer schedule these days, save for his duties as the wizard behind the curtain - to be his Oscar date: 'If I could talk to (Oscar Producer) Gil Cates and maybe get Castro in a dance number at the beginning of the show?' Moore mused to AP Television. At least if Fidel tripped again and broke his knee, he'd actually get some good medical care at Cedars-Sinai.
But in this, an election year, it was particularly fascinating to see what proclamations would come from the podium, who would try to 'Barack the Vote' from the red carpet or denounce George W. Bush (which was sooo three years ago). ..."
Well, besides not stealing drug dealers' hard-earned cash, of course.
I write at Pajamas Media today about the unambiguous, black-and-white good and evil seen in Javier Bardem's infamous character Anton Chigurh, and how important it is to see that unfold onscreen when we face similar enemies -- maybe not armed with cattle guns and page-boy hair -- in real life.
"...In one of my favorite films, Pulp Fiction, the hitman duo of John Travolta as Vincent Vega and Samuel L. Jackson as Jules Winnfield are arguably the film’s most likable characters — and characters whose fates are molded by the concept of redemption. After believing that God stopped a hail of short-range bullets from striking either he or Vincent while out on a job, Jules decides to give up the hitman life and go straight. He then puts this talk into action by deciding to spare a pair of restaurant robbers in his 'transitional period.' Vincent mocks Jules’ conviction about divine intervention and his decision to give up contract killing. The moral of the story? Vincent is killed in a most inglorious way. Jules lives.
But Chigurh is a character who would have unceremoniously killed Pulp’s Pumpkin and Honeybunny robbers, along with the blustering restaurant manager and maybe the waitstaff, then would have enjoyed the rest of Vincent’s bacon before hitting the road. (Just nobody ask him where he’s headed, friendo.)
You leave the theater after No Country realizing the central message, intended or not: We may spend so much time trying to figure why people are bad that we fail to accept that some people are just bad — and should be dealt with accordingly. Like Ed Tom Bell wakes up from his dream, we, too, can wake from a false sense of security, difficult as it may be to understand the changing world around us..."
Obama has been knocking Clinton for supporting NAFTA. "A million jobs lost, and 50,000 jobs lost here in Ohio." Obama claims. I’m positive Obama did a great amount of research to come up with such nice round numbers. You might think that since NAFTA cost a million jobs Obama would want to do something like repeal NAFTA, but you would be wrong. You see, Obama also maintains repealing NAFTA "would actually result in more job loss ... than job gains." because too much time has passed. So does that mean that NAFTA is no longer costing us jobs, or does NAFTA just get better with time?
After taking a quick course in Obamanomics, I figured out that every time Obama speaks to a union group, jobs immediately start fleeing overseas. When Obama speaks to, let’s say, a business group, jobs quit moving overseas. We may have finally found the source of Perot’s giant sucking sound.
Why, she's lobbying for members of the Muslim Brotherhood who face trial in Egypt. Why?
"I decided I wanted to do human rights work on behalf of people around the world who have been harmed by US imperialism.
Part of why I am here, also, is to draw attention to the parallels between the military courts here and the same kinds of courts that are being used to try detainees at Guantanamo Bay by the US.
...If we [America] really want to promote democracy in this region then we cannot silence the voices of the Muslim Brotherhood because they're the moderate voice here and they are the ones who are actually working for democracy."
Al-Jazeera also asked Sheehan, who waxed even more about her commitment to telling Egypt what to do, how a recent visit to the National Council of Women in Cairo went. Her response was absolutely classic:
"I didn't really understand a lot of what was going on. There was a lot of yelling in Arabic."
Bwahaahahaa!!!
But for Cindy's reference, the Muslim Brotherhood is not a moderate democratization savior. Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohammed Mahdi Akef has called the Holocaust a "myth," the Brotherhood has advocated taxing Christians extra, is linked to violent acts and nefarious terrorists over the decades, promotes strict Islamic dress code for women and segregated schools (as well as separate female curriculum), promotes the Caliphate, allows democracy only up to what is deemed allowed by Islam, and lives by the motto: "Allah is our objective. The Prophet is our leader. Qur'an is our law. Jihad is our way. Dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope."
On the other hand, they just might be Cindy's cup of tea...
The disputed island has elected a proud Marxist as its next president, making Communist Party leader Demetris Christofias the only (confessed) communist leader in the EU. The Communist party on Cyprus, the AKEL, features a bust of Lenin in its HQ, and Christofias loves him some classic Che T-shirts. It would probably be difficult enough to tell his rabid supporters that in their Che worship they're bowing to a murderer, but even check out the sleeve on the guy pictured: it says "CCCP." What heroes they have!! Hand over your computer and get in line for toilet paper now!!
That's George with President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf in Liberia, getting in touch with his inner white boy and just one step away from a full striptease...
I was watching the local news in which an 18 or 19 year old was asked who he was going to vote for in the upcoming presidential election. The young man replied, "Obama". When asked, why Obama, the kid replied, "Because he gives me hope." I was saying to myself oh please, oh please, OH PLEASE, ask the kid, HOPE FOR WHAT!?? A new Xbox? Getting to second base with that hot checker at Wal-Mart? Hope that Obama will blow his nose again? I don’t think Democrats have been this suckered since they believed Bill did not have sex with that woman, Ms. Lewinsky.
Texas is the make or break state for Clinton and it’s starting to get ridiculous. Clinton is asking if people "believe health care is America’s moral obligation." I think Hillary is pretty shrewd but Canada, Mexico, and Central and South America are sure gonna be pissed when they find out she included them in her health care plan.
Obama is telling folks we can stop climate change. ....maybe he said he "hopes" we can stop climate change... wait, maybe he said we can stop climate change if we just believe. Oh, it really doesn’t matter, all he has to do is blow his nose and democrats will follow him anywhere.
A great idea, and one that will put many democracies on the hot seat (where as well they should be): If you don't have the guts to take a stand for human rights and boycott the Summer Games, do you at least have the balls to skip the party beforehand?
"...Joel Voordewind, a member of the Christian Union that is a junior member of the ruling Dutch coalition government, said he wants governments around the world to support the boycott and lean on sponsors to use their financial clout with Beijing on the human rights issue.
'It is possible to take part in the games but skip the party before hand,' he said.
'Such a ceremony is only intended to glorify the host, China.'
Voordewind also suggested setting up a venue in Beijing during the games where visitors can discuss human rights."
Er, good luck with that one. That'd quickly meet with a Red Army tank.
"He expected opposition from organisers, but said, 'If the Chinese are against the plan, that means they are against human rights.'''
Yeah, no shit.
"Voordewind has only just begun enlisting world support. Neither the Dutch government nor the Olympic Committee have backed him.
Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen said the government regularly brings up human rights issues at meetings with Chinese officials and has no plans to support a boycott of the games or the opening ceremony."
That's because nobody intends to grow a pair before Beijing's gross spectacle.
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Change is good
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