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Gini's Online Newsletter
Rants, Raves, and Reviews
Remote front line in the war on bird flu In a small laboratory in a Budapest suburb, scientists are developing a vaccine which could prevent a global pandemic Daniel McLaughlin in PilisborosjenoSunday October 30, 2005The Observer
The road from Budapest meanders through forested hills and quiet villages, before reaching a neat yellow building guarded by an old man in a boiler suit and a barking alsatian. This is the unlikely front line in the global war against bird flu.
At this laboratory, Hungary is leading the fight against the H5N1 virus, which has arrived in Europe after killing dozens of people in Asia, and preparing for deadly future forms of an ever-changing disease that could cause a flu pandemic.
Read the rest
here.
Quake horror: Stolen kidneysGang arrested for removing organs from corpses, others sell own parts
Posted: October 30, 2005
2:25 p.m. Eastern
© 2005 WorldNetDaily.com As relief efforts continue in earthquake-stricken Pakistan and Afghanistan, police have arrested a gang of Afghans allegedly caught stealing kidneys from the corpses of quake victims.
Four men were reportedly carrying a freezer box containing 15 organs from bodies trapped in the rubble in the Kashmir region.
Read the rest of the article here.
Three Schoolgirls Beheaded in IndonesiaSaturday, October 29, 2005
www.foxnews.comJAKARTA, Indonesia — Unidentified assailants attacked a group of high school girls on Saturday in Indonesia's tense province of Central Sulawesi, (search) beheading three and seriously wounding a fourth, police said.
The students from a private Christian high school were ambushed while walking through a cocoa plantation in Poso Kota (search) subdistrict on their way to class, police Maj. Riky Naldo said. The rural area is close to the provincial capital of Poso, about 1,000 miles northeast of the Indonesian capital Jakarta.
He said the heads of the three dead girls were found several miles from their bodies.
Indonesia is the world's most populous Muslim nation. But Central Sulawesi has a roughly equal number of Muslims and Christians. The province on Sulawesi island was the scene of a bloody sectarian war in 2001-2002 that killed around 1,000 people from both communities.
At the time, beheadings, burnings and other atrocities were common.
A government-mediated truce ended the conflict in early 2002 but since then, there have been a series of bomb attacks and assassinations targeting Christians. A market attack in the predominantly Christian town of Poso killed 22 people in May.
Christian leaders have repeatedly criticized the authorities in Jakarta for allegedly not doing enough to find the perpetrators and bring them to justice.
Read the rest of the article
here.
These are from an, as now, unknown source. Will credit when I find out where it's from. ;)
**********
UPDATE! Found it here at this link: http://tinyurl.com/8eou5
1. Which liberal says that labor unions are essential for worker rights and accepted the Cesar Chavez Award for their contributions to the labor movement, but uses non-union labor in the hotels, restaurants, and Napa Valley Vineyard that they own?
a. Susan Sarandon
b. Paul Newman
c. Nancy Pelosi
Answer: C. Nancy Pelosi, who is part owner of the Piatti restaurant chain, La Auberge Hotel, and a Napa Valley Vineyard—all of which are strictly non-union.
2. Who says that conservatives are racist because they don’t support affirmative action but has an abysmal record of hiring blacks?
a. Barbra Streisand
b. Michael Moore
c. Al Franken
d. All of the above
Answer D. All of the above. Of the 112 people Franken has hired to work on his books, television projects and radio program, only one was black. Of the 135 individuals Michael Moore hired, only three were black. Barbra Streisand has hired 53 senior people t o work on her film projects and only one was black.
3. Who says that corporations are “terrorists” and has said “I don’t own a single share of stock” but secretly owns shares in Pentagon contractors like Boeing, pharmaceutical companies like Pfizer, and even Halliburton?
a. Barney Frank
b. Gloria Steinem
c. Michael Moore
Answer: C. Michael Moore. According to IRS records, Moore owns at least several hundred
thousands of dollars in stock and has a broker, even though he has repeatedly claimed he doesn’t “own a single share of stock.”
4. Who proclaims themself an environmentalist but is part-owner of a golf course that failed to comply with state environmental regulations to protect the California Tiger Salamander and the Western Pond Turtle?
a. Leonardo DiCaprio
b. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
c. Nancy Pelosi
Answer: C. Nancy Pelosi. Pelosi and her husband are part owners of the CordeValle Golf Club in
California. In 1996 they we re granted a permit to build the course if they created natural habitats for these endangered species. To date, these habitats still have not been built. The golf course has also been cited for polluting groundwater. They have hired lobbyists to fight the regulations.
5. Who says that Americans need to consume less to stave off ecological disaster, but spends $22,000 a year to water their lawn?
a. Hillary Clinton
b. Barbra Streisand
c. Rob Reiner
Answer: B. Barbra Streisand. The singer, who says that cutting back is the only way to protect the environment, lives alone with her husband on a compound with five homes and a 12,000 square foot air conditioned barn.
6. Who says that Americans who live in white neighborhoods are racist, but lives in a town of with no blacks?
a. Al Gore
b. Rosie O’Donnell
c. Michael Moore
Answer: C. Michael Moore. According to the 2000 Census, Central Lake, Michigan, where Michael Moore has lived th e past seven years, has 2600 residents. Zero are black.
7. Who says the rich need to pay their fair share and favors the estate tax, but hides his own assets in numerous trusts, including one in the faraway Pacific island of Fiji?
a. George Soros
b. John Edwards
c. Ted Kennedy
Answer: C. Ted Kennedy. The Kennedys have transferred more than half a billion in money from generation to generation but according to their own records paid only $134,000 in estate taxes. Their largest asset, the Merchandise Mart real estate company, was in a trust domiciled in Fiji.
8. Who says that oil companies cause pollution and global warming but quietly owns an oil company that drills for crude in five states?
a. Tom Daschle
b. Dan Rather
c. The Kennedys
Answer: C. The Kennedys. The Kennedys own Arctic Royalty Trust, which leases out land for oil drilling in five states. Much of the land was accumulated by convincing poor rural black farmers to giv e away their “mineral rights,” not knowing what it meant. The Kennedys set the operation up as a Royalty Trust to avoid paying income and corporate taxes on the profits. Family members including Ted Kennedy, environmentalist Robert Kennedy, Jr., and Joe Kennedy, Jr. receive checks every year.
9. Who used a private jet on his last book tour – stays at the Ritz Carlton when in London … yet conducts press interviews in a cheap hotel nearby to give reporters the impression he is staying there instead?
a. Michael Moore
b. Bill Clinton
c. James Carville
Answer: A. Michael Moore, who calls himself an Average Joe from Flint, MI. He says, “Once you’re working class, you’re always working class” - that’s what he wants us to believe; in reality, Moore lives a luxury-class lifestyle out of reach of most Flint residents.
10 . Who has proclaimed themselves a corporate activist but has made money by investing in companies they were protesting against?
a. R EM’s Michael Stipe
b. Ralph Nader
c. Alec Baldwin
Answer: B. Ralph Nader. When Nader went after Firestone in the 1970s, he made stock investments in Goodyear, their main competitor. When he campaigned for the breakup of Microsoft in 2000, he invested hundreds of thousands in other high-tech companies that stood to benefit.
11. Who says that the rich have avoided paying taxes by setting up “trusts” but set up their own trust to do the very same thing?
a. Arianna Huffington
b. Madonna
c. Noam Chomsky
Answer: C. Noam Chomsky. The self-described “radical socialist” hired a tax attorney a few years ago and poured considerable assets into an irrevocable trust for his children in an effort to avoid taxes.
12. Name the individual who has denounced black capitalism and criticized blacks for aspiring to live in white neighborhoods while engaging in these very acts themselves.
a. Danny Glover
b. Jesse Jackson
c. Cornel West
Answer: C. Cornel West. The self-professed “Marxist” runs several business ventures and lives in a neighborhood where the black population is 1%.
13. Who has called the Pentagon “the most hideous institution on the face of the earth” while enriching themselves with millions of dollars in Pentagon contracts?
a. Noam Chomsky
b. Ward Churchill
c. Howard Dean
Answer: A. Noam Chomsky. The self-proclaimed “dissident” and his wife have made millions in military contracts over the years.
The Rules of Sarcasm
Hilarious!
FAITH UNDER FIRE
Muslims trash Egyptian churchCoptic leaders ask U.N., U.S. to help protect endangered Christians
Posted: October 28, 2005
1:00 a.m. Eastern
By Michael Ireland
© 2005 Assist News Service
Fearing a repeat of the recent riots against the Coptic Church in Alexandria, Egypt, which left four dead, more than 80 wounded and seven churches defaced, leaders of the Coptic church in the United States are calling on the U.S. government and the United Nations to take immediate action to stop the bloodshed and destruction of churches.
Exclusive video footage released by the International Christian Union and American Coptic Association, or ICU/ACA, yesterday reveals the destruction of the Assemblies of God Church for Evangelical Copts in Moharam Bek on Friday, Oct. 21.
An e-mail report from Dr. Monir Dawoud, president of the ICU/ACA, obtained by ANS says: "We are receiving numerous reports that extremist Muslim groups are planning to surround the Alexandria churches again on Friday, Oct.28, and at the end of Ramadan on the following Tuesday, promising the death of Christians and the continued destruction of churches throughout Egypt."
Dawoud faults the security forces for encouraging violence by first "giving the green light to the mob," and then failing to control the resulting riots.
"If the momentum of the riots is allowed to continue, the crowds will be impossible to contain," Dawoud said.
More than 5,000 Muslims demonstrated outside of the Alexandria Coptic Orthodox Church last Friday to protest the production of a drama staged at the church two years ago. The protesters said the play blasphemes Islam. According to recent statements by the Coptic Church, however, the play does not defame Islam.
"Copts and other minorities in Egypt are continually subjected to physical and verbal harassment by extremist Muslim groups. Yet we do not destroy their houses of worship or call for bloodshed," said Amgad Zakhari, one of the youth leaders with the ICU/ACA.
In addition to the protests, the Egyptian newspaper El Fagr published threats made by Muslim radicals against the Coptic Pope Shenouda III.
According to the report, Muslim radicals publicly announced their threats through mosques in the outskirts of the city of Alexandria and were calling for the death of Pope Shenouda in revenge for an alleged insult to Islam's prophet.
The ICU and the ACA are planning a demonstration in front of the U.N. next week to protest the persecution of Christians in Egypt.
from www.worldnetdaily.com
Iran leader's words 'sicken' UK from www.BBC.com
M. Ahmadinejad
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called for Israel to be 'wiped off the map' The UK Foreign Office is to summon a senior Iranian diplomat to protest against his president's comments about destroying Israel.
Hardliner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has called for the Jewish state to be "wiped off the map".
The Foreign Office will call in Iran's London chargé d'affaires on Thursday. It said the comments were "deeply disturbing and sickening".
The remarks have heightened concerns over Iran's nuclear intentions.
Read the rest of the article here.
Do Americans Want a Government Run by Spooks?Wednesday, October 26, 2005
By John Gibson
www.foxnews.com 
John GibsonI actually read Joe Wilson's book, which is more than I can say for all those so-called reviewers that are reviewing my book on Amazon without ever having seen the thing.
Ok, I digress.
I did read Wilson's book.
I think I'm reporting this right when I say that Joe Wilson (search) is anti-war, in the sense that he's a diplomat and he says in his book he always believed diplomacy could solve disputes and wars weren't wise or always necessary.
He even said he was against going into Baghdad in '93 to get Saddam.
And the reasons he cites will give you reason to think he would also have been against any war talk leading up to the invasion in '03.
He talked about how it would hurt us in Arab countries, that people would think the worst of us, etc.
So Wilson is married to the secret CIA lady. Think she knows his innermost thoughts on war and Saddam? Yeah, I think she might.
So how come she sends him — uses her influence to have him sent, if you like — to investigate a charge that if true will lead directly to a war he opposes?
And if one thinks she might have had her own political agenda at work in picking her anti-war husband to investigate a key element in the case for war, should she be allowed to remain a secret player in this very important political drama?
Read the entire article here.
A Palestinian
blew himself up next to a falafel stand in an open market in Hadera, Israel, this morning.
Horrifying, yet, for some reason, not surprising...
Here and
here are two sites about Hadera. The second has a map of Israel- scroll down.
The case against adultery
Posted: October 26, 2005
1:00 a.m. Eastern © 2005 WorldNetDaily.com Not being religious, I don't feel comfortable discussing other people's sins. Even where the Ten Commandments are concerned, I'm probably only batting about .650. However, one of the thou-shalt-nots I seem to take more seriously than a lot of other people – including those in the churchgoing crowd – is No. 7 on the hit parade, the one dealing with adultery.
Having been divorced twice, I recognize that all marriages are not made in heaven. Some, in fact, seem to have been cobbled together in Dr. Frankenstein's basement. Speaking from experience, there are perfectly good reasons for certain unions to be dissolved. But, for the life of me, I can not come up with a single decent excuse for adultery. Frankly, I regard adulterers as lying, contemptible, sleazebags. I can't begin to imagine how they live with themselves, let alone their mates. Even the terminology is distasteful, unless, unlike most of us, you don't mind being a cheater.
I recall hearing that Chicago's mayor, the late Richard Daley, who was one of the last of the big city bosses, when once asked why, with all the women available to him, he remained faithful to his wife, replied, "If I can't keep my word to my wife, why should anybody else trust me?"
Now the story may be apocryphal, and, for all I know, Mayor Daley may have been a worse hound than Bill Clinton, but the point is still a good one. If before man and God, you pledge your troth, and, first chance you get, you hop into the sack with someone you're not married to, you're nothing but a four-flusher.
What truly confounds me are cheating couples who eventually wind up married to each other, and are then astonished that their partner is now cheating with somebody new. Anybody who believes they are so special, so beautiful, so fascinating, so charismatic, that they can trust their adulterous spouse to remain faithful is not only terminally narcissistic, but more gullible than the hayseed who pays good money for the deed to Brooklyn Bridge.
After giving it some thought, I am convinced that there are motives for adultery that have little or nothing to do with sex. I believe the first of these is based on resentment. Either the husband or the wife feels neglected because kids, work, hobbies or booze, seem to have supplanted them in importance. The adultery not only provides them with a temporary ego-boost, but it gives them the feeling that they're extracting a measure of well-deserved revenge.
That is why after the initial excitement of the illicit affair wears off, the adulterer begins to resent the fact that his or her mate doesn't even suspect anything. Their attitude often changes from one of "Oh, aren't I the clever one to be pulling the wool over the fool's eyes!" to "The damn fool doesn't notice because he/she doesn't think I'm sexy enough to attract anybody." Ultimately, it's vanity, rather than a guilty conscience, that leads them to confess all.
Another reason that people risk destroying their marriages, hurting their children and damaging their reputations is because their lives are so darn boring, and I'm not even referring to their sex lives. The truth is that most people live lives, not necessarily of quiet desperation, but filled with tedious activities spent with boring, mind-numbing dullards.
What makes it even worse is that every time they turn on the television or pick up a magazine, they're confronted by gorgeous celebrities, male and female, living the way they'd like to – a mad whirl of parties and premieres, vacations in exotic locales, private jets, limousines, servants and, yes, tacky affairs. Well, chum, with your income, your humdrum job and your ordinary looks, you can forget about everything on the list except that last item. But even you can meet George or Helen the second and fourth Tuesdays of every month at the Bide-a-While Motel.
And aren't you, for about an hour or so, every bit as sexy and glamorous as Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie? Sure, if you say so.
But when you drive home afterward, saddled down with a load of guilt and self-contempt, can you honestly say the lay was worth the lie?
************************
Burt Prelutsky has been a humor columnist for the L.A. Times, a movie critic for Los Angeles magazine and a freelance writer for TV Guide, Modern Maturity, the N.Y. Times and Sports Illustrated. He has also written TV scripts for shows such as "Dragnet," "MASH," "Mary Tyler Moore" and "Diagnosis Murder." His most recent book is "Conservatives Are From Mars, Liberals Are From San Francisco."
RELATED OFFER:
Get the book that made Joseph Farah laugh for six straight hours. Burt Prelutsky is America's favorite humorist – the man who invented political incorrectness.
"Conservatives Are From Mars, Liberals Are From San Francisco," is available now in WND's online store,
ShopNetDaily.
Well, in order for me to feel at home, I'd have to have a Bible in my student hall. We have several in my home here. *****************
BRAVE NEW SCHOOLS
University to ban BiblesWants 'students of all faiths feel at home'
Posted: October 21, 2005
5:00 p.m. Eastern
© 2005 WorldNetDaily.com
Edinburgh University in Scotland will begin banning Holy Bibles from its student halls of residence due to concern they are the source of discrimination against students of other faiths.
The ban was a response to student association protests as well as an agenda to equally support all faiths, a university spokesman told the Times of London.
Read the rest of the article
here.
background help? :)
I'd really appreciate some advice on how to get a different background on my blog here. For some reason, although I can usually figure out the html pretty easily, I can't on blogger and it's driving me bats. I have some tiles that I'd like to, well, tile for a background.
:::pulls hair out:::
Any ideas? :/
Btw, a GREAT couple of sites for background tiles are:
Squidfingers and
Citrus Moon.
Somehow I knew that the first reports were "exaggerated".
Excerpt from Time Magazine:
Friday, Oct. 21, 2005
Stench Prompted U.S. Troops to Burn Corpses
The desecration of Taliban dead prompts outrage in Afghanistan
There simply wasn't enough room on the rocky hilltop above Gonbaz village in southern Afghanistan for the U.S. platoon and the corpses of the two Taliban fighters.
The Taliban men had been killed in a firefight 24 hours earlier, and in the 90 degree heat, their bodies had become an unbearable presence, soldiers who were present have told TIME. Nor was the U.S. Army unit about to leave — the hilltop commanded a strategic view of the village below where other Taliban were suspected to be hiding.
Earlier, Lt. Eric Nelson, the leader of B Company, I-508 platoon leader had sent word down to Gonbaz asking the villagers to pick up the bodies and bury them according to Muslim ritual. But the villagers refused — probably because the dead fighters weren't locals but Pakistanis, surmised one U.S. army officer.for the entire article, click the title above.
A bunch of "protesters" attacked police and businesses today in Toledo, Ohio... it turned into a riot. The crowd of rioters were mad that the neo nazi idiots were allowed to have a parade and demonstration (hey we all hate those guys, but folks, this is a FREE COUNTRY with the right to assemble. But I digress.)
I don't know that any of the facists were even hurt. Just local businesses.
photo from Foxnews.com:
A local black man is quoted at Foxnews.com as saying,
"They let them come here and expect this not to happen?" said White, 29.
Hmm.
In other words, if something happens that we don't like, we can't control ourselves...? I don't think so. The choice was there; anyone can choose how to react or behave. If some low-life neo nazis show up somewhere, IGNORE THEM, PROTEST THEM, YELL AT THEM. Don't attack the police, a gas station, and a bar. That's just stupid.
More...
ISLAMIST TERRORISM IN RUSSIA
By Michelle Malkin · October 13, 2005 04:06 PM
Yesterday, I wrote about the MSM whitewashing Islam out of news reports. Today's coverage of the violent Muslim terrorist outbreak in Russia underscores my point:
*(the following were links on Michelle's site)
60 killed as Chechen gunmen attack city
Chechen rebel attack fuels growing unrest
Chechens attack Caucasus town
Police battle militants in Russia
for more- http://michellemalkin.com/mt/mt-MALKIN-tb.cgi/3053
Gore: I Won't Run Again
Wednesday, October 12, 2005
STOCKHOLM, Sweden — Former Vice President Al Gore (search) said Wednesday he had no intention of ever running for president again.
"I have absolutely no plans and no expectations of ever being a candidate again," said Gore, who lost the 2000 election to President Bush (search).
However, Gore did not completely shut the door to political endeavors.
"I don't completely rule out some future interest, but I don't expect to have that," he said during a visit to Sweden.
Tuesday, October 11, 2005
NEW YORK — Mayor Michael Bloomberg and police officials questioned reports on Tuesday that an alleged subway bomb plot that spread fear through the city was a hoax.... http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,171953,00.html
INVASION USA
Highway sound barriers as border fences?
Construction would be economically, physically feasible, say experts
Posted: October 10, 2005
10:10 p.m. Eastern
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=46729
By Jon Dougherty
© 2005 WorldNetDaily.com
As discussion of erecting a security fence along U.S. borders with Mexico and Canada heats up, some analysts say it's possible Washington could economically erect thousands of miles of barrier to keep out illegal aliens, smugglers and terrorists, for about half of what the Pentagon is spending a month to fight the war on terror.
The idea, they say, is to erect a structure similar to barrier walls built along highways to reduce sound. They are sturdy, tall, not easily scaled and, most attractively, affordable.
Highway sound barrier at intersection of I-10 and I-12 in Baton Rouge, La. (courtesy soundfighter.com)
Plus, analysts say, a wall would dramatically reduce outside threats.
The Federal Highway Administration says most highway sound barriers are constructed of concrete or masonry block, range from 3-5 meters [9-16 feet] in height, and cost between $175 and $200 a square meter.
According to the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, there are "more than 2,630 linear miles of sound barriers" along U.S. highways, constructed at a cost of some $1.4 billion.
By comparison, the Pentagon is spending about $3.9 billion a month in Iraq and Afghanistan, not counting rebuilding costs, the Associated Press has reported.
One group, WeNeedAFence.com, is advocating the construction of a "state-of-the-art fence" along the entire U.S.-Mexico border, a plan it says would dramatically reduce illegal immigration.
The group points to the fact that similar security fences in Israel have reduced terrorist attacks there by as much as 95 percent in some regions.
Lee Plank, executive vice president and chief operating officer of Diamond Manufacturing Company in Wyoming, Pa., says his company has not been approached about border security fences, but, he said, they would be a good idea.
"I think they'd have to be about 10 feet high," he told WND, and would cost "about $636,000 a mile" to build. That's about $1.27 billion for 2,000 miles of border fence, similar to the government's figures.
Plank, who says his company specializes in sound-absorbing corrugated metal walls, said a border security fence "would save a lot on manpower."
"It would be interesting to see them on the borders," he added.
Mike Flick of Oldcastle Precast Group, a nationwide leader in both highway and security fencing, told WND the idea of border fencing is certainly doable, but the design, depth and other particulars would need to be worked out.
Some have criticized the idea of a border fence.
"The United States needs a better immigration policy, not a fence along the border with Mexico that won't do anything to protect us anyway," says an editorial in the Modesto Bee. "The proposed fence is simply a sign of frustration with illegal immigration. Our politicians need to come up with workable solutions to the problems of illegal immigration and national security."
WeNeedAFence.com officials say a border fence makes sense in this day and age.
"The problem is not merely the number of illegal immigrants. In addition to the hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants from Central and South America, there are several hundreds, perhaps thousands, of illegal aliens from countries that sponsor terrorism or harbor terrorists entering the United States each year across our border with Mexico. Thus, it is a national security issue as well as an immigration issue," the group says on its website.
Officials at the Department of Homeland Security also believe in erecting new fences or strengthening existing ones as a way to bolster security. Last month DHS quietly implemented a pair of measures aimed to bring regions of the southwestern border under control
One measure "makes it easier for officials to remove non-Mexican illegal immigrants, popularly called 'other than Mexicans' or OTMs," U.S. News & World Report said, "while another adds yet one more level of fortification to a metal wall stretching along parts of the border."
"They clearly did this when no one was looking," complained Tim Edgar, an immigration specialist with the American Civil Liberties Union. "And I'm worried DHS is trying to set new norms for how we treat immigrants in the United States."
Border Patrol agents have praised fences as a means to deter border-jumping. One San Diego-area agent, speaking on anonymity, told WND fences constructed there have "dramatically" reduced the incidents of illegal immigration, though, the agent conceded, many immigrants have merely moved inland, east of the area where the San Diego fence line ended, to sneak into the country.
US' Rice to meet Karzai in Kabul
By Jonathan Beale
BBC State Department correspondent
Ms Rice said Afghanistan had made enormous progress
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, is due to arrive in Kabul - the second stop of her tour of Central Asia.
Her visit comes almost exactly four years after the US and its allies began their military campaign to oust the Taleban after the 11 September attacks.
Ms Rice wants to highlight progress following Afghanistan's parliamentary elections on 18 September.
http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,171565,00.html
