End of Issue #23


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Editorial and Rants

Next they'll ban certain words or even cartoons...

Council Bans Australian Flag

January 2, 2006 - From: www.news.com.au

By Amy Coopes

The New South Wales Government has urged a Sydney beachside council to rethink its decision not to fly the Australian flag over the iconic Bondi Pavilion amid suggestions the move was inspired by racial tensions.  But Waverley Council's deputy mayor said Premier Morris Iemma didn't understand the facts and accused Liberal councillors of hijacking the issue for political gain.

Mr. Iemma today urged the council to reconsider its 6-5 vote against flying the flag over the heritage-listed building.

"Our flag is a symbol of national unity and the council decision is just ridiculous, they want to reconsider it and reconsider immediately," he said.

"There's no excuse for anyone else to be saying 'Well, because of the incidents, the riots of two weeks ago we're not going to fly the Australian flag.'  That is just ridiculous."

Waverley deputy mayor George Newhouse, who was among councillors whorejected the flag proposal, said it had nothing to do with racial tensions.

"We already fly the flag at Bondi, we proudly fly the flag at Bondi and this decision has absolutely nothing to do with racism or Cronulla.  It has everything to do with practical common sense," Mr Newhouse said.

"The Pavilion is a heritage-listed building and it will cost thousands of dollars to perform a heritage study and then erect the poles, which don't exist."

"We already have the flag, we love the flag, there is no problem with the flag and as for council banning the flag, it's absolute nonsense."

Council had first voted against installing the flag in March 2005, Mr. Newhouse said.

"To raise it again in December was purely to manipulate the flag and the Cronulla racism issue," he said.

He accused Liberal councillors of taking advantage of the race riots to raise the issue of the flag again, adding: "That is truly offensive."

Greens state MP Lee Rhiannon said Waverley Council was far from shy of flying the national flag.

"I have lived in Waverley municipality all my life and have seen the Australian flag flying on the council chambers and at appropriate municipal events," Ms. Rhiannon said.

"Community tensions were running high at the time...the no-flag option is a sensible choice."


Oh shit...

Cartoon Case: EU and UN Call Denmark to Account

December 28, 2005 - From: www.brusselsjournal.com

By Paul Belien

The Danish cartoon case is becoming a never-ending story, which shows that freedom of speech no longer exists in Europe.  After the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, the United Nations and the Council of Europe, the European Union is now the fourth multinational organisation to lash out at the Danish government for not calling a Danish newspaper to account for publishing caricatures of the Muslim prophet Muhammad.

Franco Frattini, the vice-President of the European Commission, called the publication of the twelve cartoons "thoughtless and inappropriate" in a time when animosity towards Islam is on the rise.  According to Frattini, the EU Commissioner for Justice, Freedom, and Security, the cartoons foment hostility against Islam and foreigners:

"Honestly, these kinds of drawings can add to the growing Islamophobia in Europe.  I fully respect the freedom of speech, but, excuse me, one should avoid making any statement like this, which only arouses and incites to the growing radicalisation."

The twelve cartoons were not all disrespectul, but Islam prohibits making pictures of the prophet.  The Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten published the cartoons last September to test the limits of free speech in multicultural Denmark.

The ambassadors of eleven Muslim countries to Copenhagen, including Bosnia and Turkey, asked Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen to demand that the paper apologize to Muslims, but Rasmussen refused to interfere because the Danish government respects the freedom of speech and freedom of the press.

According to the author Robert Spencer the EU reaction shows that the EU recommends dhimmitude: "Instead of praising Rasmussen for his defense of Western values of free speech, the EU is demanding that he stand down and adopt their policy of appeasement."  What the whole affair has so far proved is that Denmark is one of the last Western countries where freedom of speech still exists.

"I am a Catholic myself, and if anyone had created a drawing of a holy Christian symbol with a bomb and a message about death, I would personally take it as an insult," Frattini said.  Does he really?  Frattini became European commissioner last year because the European Union vetoed the Catholic Rocco Buttiglione because as a Catholic the latter disapproved of homosexuality and abortion.

Meanwhile, the UN has taken its action against Denmark a step further by asking the Danish Prime Minister for "an official explanation."  Doudou Diene, a Senegalese investigator appointed by the UN Human Rights High Commissioner Louise Arbour, has asked the Rasmussen government to respond to the question: "Do the caricatures insult or discredit?"  Copenhagen is expected to present the UN its "official view" on January 24.

Diene emphasized that the UN are taking the matter very seriously because, he says, "Islamophobia is the greatest component of discrimination within Europe."  Earlier on, the Canadian Arbour had stated in a letter to the Organisation of the Islamic Conference that the cartoons were "an unacceptable disrespect."


More proof things like the Kyoto Treaty are just scams to steal jobs from the U.S.

Global Warming: Blame the Forests

January 12, 2006 - From: www.guardian.co.uk

By Alok Jha

They have long been thought of as the antidote to harmful greenhouse gases, sufferers of, rather than contributors to, the effects of global warming. But in a startling discovery, scientists have realised that plants are part of the problem.

According to a study published today, living plants may emit almost a third of the methane entering the Earth's atmosphere.

The result has come as a shock to climate scientists. "This is a genuinely remarkable result," said Richard Betts of the climate change monitoring organisation the Hadley Centre. "It adds an important new piece of understanding of how plants interact with the climate."

Methane is second only to carbon dioxide in contributing to the greenhouse effect. "For a given mass of methane, it is a stronger greenhouse gas, but the reason it is of less concern is that there's less of it in the atmosphere," said Dr. Betts.

But the concentration of methane in the atmosphere has almost tripled in the last 150 years, mainly through human-influenced so-called biogenic sources such as the rise in rice cultivation or numbers of flatulent ruminating animals. According to previous estimates, these sources make up two-thirds of the 600m tonnes worldwide annual methane production.

Frank Keppler, of the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics, who led the team behind the new research, estimated that living plants release between 60m and 240m tonnes of methane per year, based on experiments he carried out, with the largest part coming from tropical areas.

David Lowe, of the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research in New Zealand, said the new work, published in Nature, is important for two reasons. "First, because the methane emissions they document occur under normal physiological conditions, in the presence of oxygen, rather than through bacterial action in anoxic environments," he wrote in an accompanying article. "Second, because the estimated emissions are large, constituting 10-30% of the annual total of methane entering Earth's atmosphere."

Yadvinder Malhi, a specialist in the relationship between vegetation and climate at Oxford University, said the plant source of methane had probably been missed in the past because scientists have a poor understanding of the way methane circulates in the atmosphere. "There are a variety of sources and sinks of methane and there are huge error bars on those terms," he said. "What's been uncertain is where the methane is coming from and where it's going. Unlike carbon dioxide, methane is much more dynamic; it lasts about 10 years in the atmosphere."

Biogenic methane has traditionally been assumed to come from organic materials as they decompose in oxygen-free environments. But Dr Keppler found plants emit the gas even in normal, oxygen-rich surroundings: between 10 and 1,000 times more methane than dead plant material. When the plants were exposed to the sun, the rate of methane production increased. "Until now all the textbooks have said that biogenic methane can only be produced in the absence of oxygen," Dr Keppler said. "For that simple reason, nobody looked closely at this."

The discovery sheds further light on the complex relationship between greenhouse gases and the environment. "If you're after predictions of global average temperature, it won't make a huge amount of difference," said Dr Betts. "But it shows how complicated it is to exactly quantify reforesting or deforesting in comparison with current fossil fuel emissions."

It will also intensify debates on whether targets in climate change treaties such as the Kyoto Protocol should be based entirely on carbon emissions, which are easily measured, or also take sinks into account, which remove carbon from the atmosphere but are more difficult to measure.

For climate scientists, the new work clears up a few unexplained features in the environment.

"The rate of methane increase in the atmosphere has slowed down in the last 10 years and there was no really convincing explanation of why that's been going on," said Dr Mahli. "This paper argues that tropical deforestation may be a factor there."

In addition, the new research could help to explain the source of plumes of methane observed by satellites over tropical forests. "The sheer biomass of the forest may be a factor there," said Dr Mahli.

The fact that plants produce methane does not mean that planting forests is a bad idea, however. "Putting a tree where there was no tree before locks up a lot of carbon and this [new research] perhaps reduces the overall benefit of that by a fraction," said Dr Mahli.

Some mysteries remain: how and why plants produce methane is unclear. Dr Keppler's team said the search for an answer is likely open up a new area of research into plant biochemistry.

Other surprise results:

Tree Planting

Researchers in North Carolina found that planting trees to soak up carbon dioxide can suck water and nutrients from the ground, dry up streams and change the soil's mineral balance.

Aerosols

A recent study in Nature found cutting air pollution could trigger a surge in global warming. Aerosols cool the Earth by reflecting radiation back into space. Scrapping them would have adverse consequences.

Global Dimming

In 2003 scientists noticed levels of sunlight reaching the Earth's surface had dropped by 20% in recent years because of air pollution and bigger, longer-lasting clouds.


Remember: These people are heros to Eric Corley.

Student Killed "For Refusing to Convert to Islam"

January 4, 2006 - From: www.lse.co.uk

LIFE STYLE EXTRA (UK) - A heartbroken mother today described how her son was executed after he refused to convert to Islam.

Accountancy student Adrian Marriott was shot by a rival gang five times in the head at close range in June 2004, a few weeks before his 21st birthday.

Three members of the gang, known as the 'Muslim Boys', were accused of plotting the murder after trying to convert Adrian, a member of south London's 'Peel Den Crew', to Islam.

But Marcus Archer, Aaron Irving-Simpson and Marlon Stubbs, all 24, were found not guilty of conspiracy to murder at the Old Bailey after the prosecution offered no evidence.

Speaking at an inquest at Southwark Coroner's Court, the victim's mother, Ruth Marriott, said she heard her son being gunned down in the park where he walked his dog.

She said: "We heard the shooting. We heard gun fire. The thought did strike me that Adrian could be involved, but it was a fleeting thought. Then we heard from police the following evening what had happened.

"Adrian was told on the Sunday prior to his death that he would be killed if he did not become a Muslim by the Wednesday, which was the day he died."

Asked by Coroner John Sampson whether Adrian had taken the threat seriously she added: "I do not think he did."

Struggling to hold back tears she said the last time she had seen her son was in the afternoon on the day before he was killed.

She said: "He was happy. He was pestering me to order something for him out of my catalogue."

She added that Adrian loved his family very much.

She said: "He liked music and football, but Adrian was very much a family man. He also loved his dog. They would go out together regularly to the park that he died in."

Adrian was found in Barrington Road, Brixton. A post mortem revealed he had died from multiple firearms wounds to the head. The coroner today recorded a verdict of unlawful killing.

He said: "He was found dead having clearly been subjected to an attack with a firearm. I'm going to conclude that he was unlawfully killed."

Detective Sergeant John Stafford, of Operation Trident, who led the murder hunt, told the inquest that Adrian's murder was still under investigation.

He said: "It does indeed remain a live matter. We are effectively reviewing what happened at court and still keen to talk to witnesses."

During the trial in September 2005, the jury were told that Stubbs and Archer had professed to have a 'missionary zeal' for converting people to Islam and had targeted Adrian, his sister Tara and her friend Jade Okai.

The two women had agreed to become Muslims, had made a declaration of faith and had been given hijabs, or headscarfs, the court was told.

But Adrian, of Swinford Gardens on the Angel Town Estate in Brixton, had fallen out with the men, claiming he was threatened and had had a £500 'tax' demanded from him.

After the three were formally acquitted of conspiracy to murder, Archer was jailed for eight years for firearms offences he had admitted earlier.

It was also revealed to the jury that Stubbs is currently serving a four year prison sentence for rape.


Canadians are savages.  I hope they don't export their brand of terror to the U.S.  I'll bet you 100 dead baby seals that this was part of some "honor killing" bullshit.

Husband Who Paid for Arson Attack That Killed 2 Calgary Children Convicted

January 19, 2006 - From: www.cbc.ca

Abdulazziz Ellahib, the man who ordered an arson attack that killed two young Calgary children has been found guilty of manslaughter, but a judge has found his wife not guilty.

The case involved an affair between the father of the children and the wife of the man convicted of the crime. Two crack addicts who carried out the firebombing testified during the trial that they were each paid $60 to set fire to the house.

Ellahib was also found guilty of arson causing bodily harm in the case. His wife, Manar Hussein, was found not guilty on charges of manslaughter and arson causing bodily harm.

Six-year-old Ali al-Mayahi and his four-year-old sister Saja died on Nov. 18, 2004 when a fire started by a Molotov cocktail tore through their Calgary condominium.

Their mother Salima Barih jumped from the second-storey of the home after not being able to reach her children; their father Tahsin al-Mayahi wasn't home at the time.

Michael Sheets and Fernum Kezar both pleaded guilty to manslaughter and arson charges, and have been sentenced to 15 and 16 years in prison.

Crown Attorney Gordon Haight argued that Ellahib hired Sheets and Kezar to set fire to the home, because Tahsin al-Mayahi had an affair with his wife, Manar Hussein, and was speaking badly of her within the Iraqi community.

Al-Mayahi testified that Hussein became angry when he broke off their relationship. Barih testified that Hussein had threatened her family.

Ellahib's lawyer Alain Hepner argued his client only hired Sheets and Kezar to assault al-Mayahi, and had no knowledge of the fire. Both Hussein and Ellahib denied there had been an affair.

Hussein, at the request of Ellahib, took Sheets and Fernum money after the incident, but says she didn't know what it was for.

Sheets and Kezar testified they called Ellahib for confirmation that no one would be home before they set the fire. Testimony showed calls to Ellahib's cell that night went to voice mail.

A third man, Tony DeWitt who the Crown said gave the two men the money to buy gas to make the Molotov cocktail, was found not guilty on a charge of arson.

Ellahib will be sentenced March 3.


Bill Gates making money off other peoples ideas: Bad
Kevin Rose making money off other peoples ideas: Good

Geeks Are Jerks

January 10, 2006 - From: damagedintransit.com

Recently Digg.com has been attacking Steve Mallette.  They thought that Steve Mallette copied code from digg into his ipod website projects.  But in fact he had used an open source digg clone called Pligg.  But no one even checked on this.  But in fact Pligg is not to blame either!  Why?  Because Pligg is based on another open source project in Spanish called Meneame.

So digg users decided to attack him with many blog posts and attacks on his personal character.

Digg is out of control.  Giving this much power to greedy 12 year olds won't work.  The whole "web 2.0 - Ajax - ruby on rails" crap is just that, crap.  Digg won't revolutionize the Internet.  I use slash dot for all my geeky news because I know it's trustworthy.  If they run an article on Steve Mallett they will say they don't know if it's true or not.  They won't attack his personal character.

True geeks won't use digg.  Why?  Because not only is digg full of crappy blog posts and links to sites with no relation to technology but because it is moderated wrong.  Removing posts related to Godaddy's hosting package because diggnation has them as a sponsor is stupid.  It only protects their podcast.  If they want money why don't they make diggnation part of the digg.com company and use some of the 2.8 million they got from VC's to support the show.  Deleting a post which was freespeech against Godaddy is like deleting a post that supports George Bush off of cnn.com.

Digg.com is owned by Kevin Rose an ex member of The Screensavers on the old TechTV.  He has made IPTV shows like The Broken and systm but recently it looks like his "hacker ethic" has turned into I want money and I will step on all of you.


More Democrat voter fraud.  Don't count on Manny Golddigger mentioning this!

Tire-Slashing Boasts Recalled

January 11, 2006 - From: www.jsonline.com

By Derrick Nunnally

The key state witness in the election day 2004 tire-slashing trial testified Wednesday that the five defendants had all come into his office "excited, kind of boisterous" that morning to brag about vandalism that stranded 25 vans Republicans had planned to use for taking voters to polls.

"I believe they were telling me they had gone to Bush-Cheney headquarters from the office and punctured the tires of the vans in the staging area," said Opel Simmons III, a Virginia consultant to the Democratic Party who was in Wisconsin for the last days of the campaign.

He was referring to the five local campaign workers - including the sons of two prominent Milwaukee Democratic politicians - now charged with felony property destruction.  Sowande Omokunde, son of U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Milwaukee); Michael Pratt, son of former Acting Mayor Marvin Pratt; and Lewis Caldwell, Lavelle Mohammad and Justin Howell face up to 3 1/2 years in prison and fines of up to $10,000 if convicted.

Opening statements by some of the defense attorneys had suggested that Simmons might have been more involved in the tire-slashings - either by planning or by participation - than he let on and blamed him and other out-of-state Democratic campaigners for inflaming election-season emotions.

Simmons didn't start out being so cooperative.  He was arrested by Milwaukee police later on Nov. 2, 2004, and held for two days before he was released and returned to Virginia.  He said Wednesday that he initially told police "a very vague variation of the truth" until he was confronted with evidence from the investigation.

"I didn't want to mention any of the guys," said Simmons, who later gave a complete, video-recorded statement to Assistant District Attorney David Feiss that has become a significant part of the case against Simmons' former campaign co-workers.

His testimony is important because there is no eyewitness, confession or direct evidence linking the five men to the tire-slashings.  Instead, Feiss has built a case that leans heavily on getting jurors to believe that Simmons and another operative who came to Milwaukee to work on the election, Levar Stoney, are truthfully repeating what they heard the defendants say around the time the tires were cut.

On direct examination by Feiss, things went by the numbers.  Simmons recounted many details close to verbatim from his earlier statements.

The defendants came into Simmons' office, he testified, swapping high-fives and making sounds like air spurting out of tires.  He quoted statements by Pratt, Mohammad and Caldwell the same way he had earlier.

"(Pratt) says, 'We've got 'em.  They're not going anywhere today,' " Simmons said.

Later on election day, he testified, he met again with Mohammad, who was pointing to an online news story about the tire-slashings.

"He said that he should print out a copy of the article and frame it," Simmons said.

Gaps in Testimony Noted

But cross-examination brought out several inconsistencies between Simmons' trial testimony and his earlier statements.  Pratt's attorney, Rodney Cubbie, quizzed Simmons about withholding information from initial statements to police, but changing the story as he remained longer in custody and was confronted with more evidence.

Cubbie pointed out that Simmons said Wednesday that the defendants had mud on their shoes from the van parking lot in the 7100 block of W. Capitol Drive, a detail he hadn't mentioned before.  He noted that Simmons had told investigators that another campaign worker, Lashaunda Joy Williams, had been asleep in the Democratic Party office since before the defendants left, yet a gas-station receipt found in a rental car she was later pulled over in - because its license number had been written down by the Republicans' security guard - said someone had bought gas in that car at 3:30 a.m., about the time of the tire-slashings or shortly afterward.

When testimony finished for the day Wednesday, Robin Shellow, who represents Omokunde, was beginning to quiz Simmons on how much his workers had been doing to incite extraordinary enthusiasm in the election.

Simmons had testified that he didn't go to the police as soon as the defendants admitted the tire-slashing to him because he feared Republicans would counterattack, and said Democratic campaigners had been subject to "harassing" behavior, including having their vans followed, a worker "nearly arrested" for either loitering or jaywalking near Democratic offices, and frequent ticketing of campaign vehicles.

"Unfortunately, in Milwaukee, we're all ticketed frequently," Shellow replied.

Simmons' testimony is scheduled to continue today.