zonelistener
ONE love, blood, life
Looks like close-mindedness could even be found at a Harvard commencement.
Great article!
Great article!
Please Bathe Yourself in My Douche-Tastic Poetry
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Lemonite
I'm a chauvinist leprechaun
To think.. They can't even predict the effects of El Nino.. just Six months from coming in at full force, YET these models can apparently predict the next three Hundred Years..
Thomas Sowell
Global lying
http://www.NewsAndOpinion.com | The campaign to stampede the federal government into drastic action to counter "global warming" has never let honesty cramp its style. The most recent ploy has been the release of a study from the Environmental Protection Agency which concluded that human actions were responsible for rising temperatures and that government restrictions on those actions were necessary to prevent various disastrous scenarios from unfolding.
The problem is that all this hysteria was based on a computer model which had been shown to be incompatible with factual data. Patrick Michaels, a professor of environmental sciences at the University of Virginia, had already exposed the inability of that computer model to account for existing temperature changes before its release to the public was allowed to suggest that it was able to predict future temperature changes.
This is by no means the first time that a supposedly "scientific" report turned out to be a political report wrapping itself in the mantle of science. Last year, the National Academy of Sciences issued a report, garnished with the names of numerous eminent scientists, which was widely hailed in the media as proving the dangers of global warming. The problem with that particular report was that the scientists whose names were put on display had not written the report nor even seen it before it was released.
One of those eminent scientists, MIT professor Richard S. Lindzen, publicly repudiated the conclusions of the study on which his name had been displayed. As Professor Lindzen, a meteorologist, pointed out, "the climate is always changing. Innumerable factors go into temperature changes and many of these factors, such as the changing amounts of heat put out by the sun during different eras, are beyond the control of human beings."
The same kind of ploy was used by a United Nations report on climate in 1996. After the scientists had reviewed the report, the following sentence was added, without their knowledge -- "the balance of evidence suggests a discernible human influence on global climate." But that is not what the scientists said.
What are all these ploys about? There are people in the environmental cult and in the media who are hell-bent to have the United States and other countries sign the Kyoto treaty that would drastically restrict how our economy works and what kind of lives the average American could lead.
Anything that allows them to impose their superior wisdom and virtue on the rest of us gets a sympathetic hearing. Moral melodrama also has great appeal to some. As Eric Hoffer said, "Intellectuals cannot operate at room temperature."
Every record hot day is trumpeted in the media as showing global warming. But record cold days are mentioned only as isolated curiosities, if they are mentioned at all. Environmental cults have already stampeded us into recycling programs that studies have shown to be counterproductive -- except for appeasing shrill zealots and allowing them to feel like they are saving the planet.
In the 1970s, the big scare was global cooling -- a "new ice age." And of course drastic government action was needed to head it off. There has to be moral melodrama.
The real question is not whether human beings have any effect on temperature. The question is: How much? And how much can we change the temperature -- and at what price? And what if we do nothing? What will happen? And how dire will it be?
Professor Michaels estimates that most of the global warming over the past century has been due to the sun's getting hotter. If we do everything the Kyoto treaty calls for, it would not lower the average temperature in the world by half a degree over the next 50 years. But it could wreck some economies.
And what if we do nothing? Actually there are benefits to global warming, such as a longer growing season, but we are not likely to see a lot of those benefits because there is not likely to be a lot of warming. Moreover, it is mostly the very cold places that are getting warmer. As Professor Michaels points out, "Siberia has warmed from minus 40 to minus 28 in January." Is anyone complaining -- other than professional complainers and professional doomsayers?
JWR contributor Thomas Sowell, a fellow at the Hoover Institution, is author of several books, including his latest, The Einstein Syndrome: Bright Children Who Talk Late.
Thomas Sowell
Global lying
http://www.NewsAndOpinion.com | The campaign to stampede the federal government into drastic action to counter "global warming" has never let honesty cramp its style. The most recent ploy has been the release of a study from the Environmental Protection Agency which concluded that human actions were responsible for rising temperatures and that government restrictions on those actions were necessary to prevent various disastrous scenarios from unfolding.
The problem is that all this hysteria was based on a computer model which had been shown to be incompatible with factual data. Patrick Michaels, a professor of environmental sciences at the University of Virginia, had already exposed the inability of that computer model to account for existing temperature changes before its release to the public was allowed to suggest that it was able to predict future temperature changes.
This is by no means the first time that a supposedly "scientific" report turned out to be a political report wrapping itself in the mantle of science. Last year, the National Academy of Sciences issued a report, garnished with the names of numerous eminent scientists, which was widely hailed in the media as proving the dangers of global warming. The problem with that particular report was that the scientists whose names were put on display had not written the report nor even seen it before it was released.
One of those eminent scientists, MIT professor Richard S. Lindzen, publicly repudiated the conclusions of the study on which his name had been displayed. As Professor Lindzen, a meteorologist, pointed out, "the climate is always changing. Innumerable factors go into temperature changes and many of these factors, such as the changing amounts of heat put out by the sun during different eras, are beyond the control of human beings."
The same kind of ploy was used by a United Nations report on climate in 1996. After the scientists had reviewed the report, the following sentence was added, without their knowledge -- "the balance of evidence suggests a discernible human influence on global climate." But that is not what the scientists said.
What are all these ploys about? There are people in the environmental cult and in the media who are hell-bent to have the United States and other countries sign the Kyoto treaty that would drastically restrict how our economy works and what kind of lives the average American could lead.
Anything that allows them to impose their superior wisdom and virtue on the rest of us gets a sympathetic hearing. Moral melodrama also has great appeal to some. As Eric Hoffer said, "Intellectuals cannot operate at room temperature."
Every record hot day is trumpeted in the media as showing global warming. But record cold days are mentioned only as isolated curiosities, if they are mentioned at all. Environmental cults have already stampeded us into recycling programs that studies have shown to be counterproductive -- except for appeasing shrill zealots and allowing them to feel like they are saving the planet.
In the 1970s, the big scare was global cooling -- a "new ice age." And of course drastic government action was needed to head it off. There has to be moral melodrama.
The real question is not whether human beings have any effect on temperature. The question is: How much? And how much can we change the temperature -- and at what price? And what if we do nothing? What will happen? And how dire will it be?
Professor Michaels estimates that most of the global warming over the past century has been due to the sun's getting hotter. If we do everything the Kyoto treaty calls for, it would not lower the average temperature in the world by half a degree over the next 50 years. But it could wreck some economies.
And what if we do nothing? Actually there are benefits to global warming, such as a longer growing season, but we are not likely to see a lot of those benefits because there is not likely to be a lot of warming. Moreover, it is mostly the very cold places that are getting warmer. As Professor Michaels points out, "Siberia has warmed from minus 40 to minus 28 in January." Is anyone complaining -- other than professional complainers and professional doomsayers?
JWR contributor Thomas Sowell, a fellow at the Hoover Institution, is author of several books, including his latest, The Einstein Syndrome: Bright Children Who Talk Late.
Lemonite
I'm a chauvinist leprechaun
Hahaha.. I love interference.. Is it that Idealistic tone?... or is it the MBH syndrome?.. Either way.. gotta love it..
Usually I just blow off MSN homepage as amateur writers just picking practically any topic they can find and make it into two hundred and fifty words, but I kinda like this one.. even though I'll never be in a position to be layed off.. I found it interesting..
L. Unplugged
Get Clued into Layoff Warning Signs
by Therese Droste
Maybe you love your job so much you brush off hints that the company's wheels are starting to come off. Or maybe you despise your job enough that you pay no attention to anything other than getting through a full day. Maybe you have no reason to watch for signs that you might be headed for a job loss.
But maybe you should. Even if you're doing well and things seem peachy in the workplace, it's never a bad idea to pay attention to hints that your job may be in jeopardy. Stay one step ahead of a layoff by heeding these warning signs.
Internal Problems: Things You Control
Sometimes we ignore obvious signs that the other shoe is going to drop, attributing the negative signals to a bad phase that will quickly pass. Unfortunately, ignoring these signs can threaten your job security. Watch out if:
You Got a Bad Review or a Warning
How was your last performance review? Did you get a decent raise? Were you given any warnings or put on probation for anything? It's a bad sign if nothing positive was said during your review.
Your Boss Looks over Your Shoulder
Has your boss recently put you on a short leash when he used to trust you to work independently? Maybe he's been giving you subtle warnings that your work is not up to snuff even though you think otherwise, and he finally got tired of you missing his signals.
You Get the Cold Shoulder
Do colleagues you used to eat lunch or talk with avoid you lately? Do they skirt discussions about future projects? Are you being left out of meetings you've usually been part of? Think there's a reason?
External Problems: Management Changes that Are Beyond Your Control
Keeping an eye on the company, its health and the ripple effects of high-level decisions can clue you into the true status of your job security. Be wary if:
You Get a New Boss
For five years, you worked in harmony with your boss, who was suddenly replaced by a rattlesnake. This is no time to be complacent; prep for a job search before you have to. Line up a reference from HR since the new boss probably won't give you a good one.
Management Makes Changes at the Top
The company's leader and figurehead suddenly disappears, and the entire mood of the company shifts. Long-time employees are heard grumbling and complaining about the new direction. This can actually help you. Ask yourself: How do I handle change? If you're averse to making a big move, you'll probably hate the new procedures that go along with the transition to a new leader. On the other hand, how will you handle the changes associated with getting a new job? Will you find those challenges any easier? Weigh the consequences of both scenarios.
There Are Rumors of Restructuring or Layoffs
Sometimes rumors carry a grain of truth. If there is talk about restructuring the office, be prepared. If you don't do a full-out job search, at least dust off your resume so if you're cut, you'll have that chore out of the way.
New Hires Don't Fit the Mold
Sometimes a new colleague is hired who can do no wrong with all of the managers but treats you and other employees like dirt. If you've complained and documented your gripes but management doesn't confront the bad apple, you must assess what this person is doing to your outlook on work. Sometimes morale can get so low that there's no choice but to leave.
Overall, it's important to know the difference between something that truly threatens your job security and something that may actually turn out to be a bad week or month.
Usually I just blow off MSN homepage as amateur writers just picking practically any topic they can find and make it into two hundred and fifty words, but I kinda like this one.. even though I'll never be in a position to be layed off.. I found it interesting..
L. Unplugged
Get Clued into Layoff Warning Signs
by Therese Droste
Maybe you love your job so much you brush off hints that the company's wheels are starting to come off. Or maybe you despise your job enough that you pay no attention to anything other than getting through a full day. Maybe you have no reason to watch for signs that you might be headed for a job loss.
But maybe you should. Even if you're doing well and things seem peachy in the workplace, it's never a bad idea to pay attention to hints that your job may be in jeopardy. Stay one step ahead of a layoff by heeding these warning signs.
Internal Problems: Things You Control
Sometimes we ignore obvious signs that the other shoe is going to drop, attributing the negative signals to a bad phase that will quickly pass. Unfortunately, ignoring these signs can threaten your job security. Watch out if:
You Got a Bad Review or a Warning
How was your last performance review? Did you get a decent raise? Were you given any warnings or put on probation for anything? It's a bad sign if nothing positive was said during your review.
Your Boss Looks over Your Shoulder
Has your boss recently put you on a short leash when he used to trust you to work independently? Maybe he's been giving you subtle warnings that your work is not up to snuff even though you think otherwise, and he finally got tired of you missing his signals.
You Get the Cold Shoulder
Do colleagues you used to eat lunch or talk with avoid you lately? Do they skirt discussions about future projects? Are you being left out of meetings you've usually been part of? Think there's a reason?
External Problems: Management Changes that Are Beyond Your Control
Keeping an eye on the company, its health and the ripple effects of high-level decisions can clue you into the true status of your job security. Be wary if:
You Get a New Boss
For five years, you worked in harmony with your boss, who was suddenly replaced by a rattlesnake. This is no time to be complacent; prep for a job search before you have to. Line up a reference from HR since the new boss probably won't give you a good one.
Management Makes Changes at the Top
The company's leader and figurehead suddenly disappears, and the entire mood of the company shifts. Long-time employees are heard grumbling and complaining about the new direction. This can actually help you. Ask yourself: How do I handle change? If you're averse to making a big move, you'll probably hate the new procedures that go along with the transition to a new leader. On the other hand, how will you handle the changes associated with getting a new job? Will you find those challenges any easier? Weigh the consequences of both scenarios.
There Are Rumors of Restructuring or Layoffs
Sometimes rumors carry a grain of truth. If there is talk about restructuring the office, be prepared. If you don't do a full-out job search, at least dust off your resume so if you're cut, you'll have that chore out of the way.
New Hires Don't Fit the Mold
Sometimes a new colleague is hired who can do no wrong with all of the managers but treats you and other employees like dirt. If you've complained and documented your gripes but management doesn't confront the bad apple, you must assess what this person is doing to your outlook on work. Sometimes morale can get so low that there's no choice but to leave.
Overall, it's important to know the difference between something that truly threatens your job security and something that may actually turn out to be a bad week or month.
Last edited:
Lemonite
I'm a chauvinist leprechaun
Ah.. Contradictory Bleeding Hearts Unite.. Hahahah..
L.Unplugged
L.Unplugged
Screaming Flower
ONE love, blood, life
- Joined
- Aug 29, 2001
- Messages
- 11,961
kobayashi said:
kobesan, you cannot possibly be surprised...
Screaming Flower
ONE love, blood, life
- Joined
- Aug 29, 2001
- Messages
- 11,961
kobayashi said:
you're probably right. it's like those reality tv shows. they're insulting to humanity in general, yet occasionally good for mindless entertainment.
Lemonite
I'm a chauvinist leprechaun
I find it funny that you can make a comment without even knowing anything about Me.. I think that should be edited into 'Oh.. the Arrogance that I am supposing Lemonite to have but cannot be completely sure of because I have no idea who this Lemonite Character is?..'
hahaha.. However.. doesn't it follow in logic that if I am self Employed for my entire life I will never be layed off?.. Logic works here Right?..I mean.. this is Interference, and so many avenues of thought are closed off.. but but Logic still jangles your minds eh?
Go Irish,
L.Unplugged
hahaha.. However.. doesn't it follow in logic that if I am self Employed for my entire life I will never be layed off?.. Logic works here Right?..I mean.. this is Interference, and so many avenues of thought are closed off.. but but Logic still jangles your minds eh?
Go Irish,
L.Unplugged
Lemonite
I'm a chauvinist leprechaun
Ah.. Isn't this the Truth... People truly aren't the cause of Global Warming.. Read this if you care to have your mental premonitions about Global Warming and the Kyoto Treaty punted out of the Stadium (A Clean Description eh Bama?hahaha)..
From the EIB Network:
So here you go. You can read this discussion below, and educate yourself on an issue that has become dominated by emotionalism and doom-and-gloom. Remember: science isn't about emotion or politics. It's about facts and the search for truth.
[13:46:00 EST - June 6, 2002]
RUSH: To Portland, Oregon, next. Hello, Chuck.
Chuck: Hey, Rush. Mega dittos.
RUSH: Thank you, sir.
Chuck: Hey, I've been following the global warming thing, and I just wanted to weigh in on it for a minute if I could with you.
RUSH: By all means. Of course, sir.
Chuck: First of all, you liberals out there, we know who you are. We know about the Pew Foundation. We know about all the money that's being spent to brainwash the public on this issue of global warming. But I've been in the business for 30 years.
I study this stuff all the time, and in order for these people to make their claim about global warming correct, they have to be able to demonstrate that the radiation balance coming from the sun and what goes out from the earth is NOT in balance. And the satellites we had up there now for over ten years have shown and continue to show today that the radiation balance of the planet remains as it was years ago, when satellites were first put up.
RUSH: What does that mean?
Chuck: It means that carbon dioxide and the greenhouse gases that these people claim are warming the planet are having little-or-no effect in the heating or cooling of the planet whatsoever.
RUSH: Well, now, wait. This confuses me, because it's now the official policy of the EPA, the U.S. government and the United Nations that there is this warming and that human beings are responsible for it.
Chuck: Well, I don't know where they get the human beings responsible for it, because it's just not true.
RUSH: I'll tell you where they get it - and Karl Rove said this to me when I was on the phone with him a couple days ago. They tracked it from the Industrial Revolution, and they said that the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is obviously much higher now than it was in the pre-Industrial Revolution days.
Chuck: Well, what does much higher mean? It has very little significance on the total gas composition of the atmosphere, and everything I learned when I was in undergraduate school about the radiation balance and the effect of these gases [is] that they're insignificant unless they multiplied many, many hundreds of millions of times over. And, you know, we have this warmer winter this last year in the eastern United States and this is what these people have been hammering on -
RUSH: Chuck, I've got to ask you a question. You're speaking as a scientist, correct? You're a meteorologist?
Chuck: That's correct.
RUSH: Okay, you're looking at this data as a scientist. How in the world can there be such disagreement over this - this scientific data that you are so certain about? Where is the room for scientific disagreement? I can see political disagreement, but where is the room for scientific?
Chuck: There shouldn't be any disagreement scientifically on this. What's happening is, the models which these people use to project climate change are being used to make these assertions, and the models are just dead wrong. When I was going to undergraduate school in the 1970s we had a scientist then that was telling Congress - when this global warming thing started - that if we didn't do something according to his model, to control the greenhouse gas emissions that by the mid-1990s the mid-latitude food belt of the United States would become desert wasteland.
RUSH: Was his name Paul Ehrlich?
Chuck: No, it was not. It was not. That was not who he was.
RUSH: I just saw something in the paper this morning about El Ni?o. The National Weather Service and the National Oceanographic - whatever it is - is looking at El Ni?o, and it happens every five years, the warming of eastern Pacific Ocean waters. And they are saying that it's still too soon to say how serious an impact this latest round of El Ni?o is.
What happens is that every five years, it gets bad, and that for 18 months, weather is affected around the world, and in different regions of the United States it's either dryer and cooler or wetter and warmer, or a mixture of those things. But the thing that struck me about it was that here are a bunch of people on the one hand predicting global warming 20, 30, a hundred years out, and yet we know that El Ni?o is happening, but we can't now be sure, they say, how bad this El Ni?o is going to be, even though it's going to be at its full force, whenever that is, in the next six to nine months.
From the EIB Network:
So here you go. You can read this discussion below, and educate yourself on an issue that has become dominated by emotionalism and doom-and-gloom. Remember: science isn't about emotion or politics. It's about facts and the search for truth.
[13:46:00 EST - June 6, 2002]
RUSH: To Portland, Oregon, next. Hello, Chuck.
Chuck: Hey, Rush. Mega dittos.
RUSH: Thank you, sir.
Chuck: Hey, I've been following the global warming thing, and I just wanted to weigh in on it for a minute if I could with you.
RUSH: By all means. Of course, sir.
Chuck: First of all, you liberals out there, we know who you are. We know about the Pew Foundation. We know about all the money that's being spent to brainwash the public on this issue of global warming. But I've been in the business for 30 years.
I study this stuff all the time, and in order for these people to make their claim about global warming correct, they have to be able to demonstrate that the radiation balance coming from the sun and what goes out from the earth is NOT in balance. And the satellites we had up there now for over ten years have shown and continue to show today that the radiation balance of the planet remains as it was years ago, when satellites were first put up.
RUSH: What does that mean?
Chuck: It means that carbon dioxide and the greenhouse gases that these people claim are warming the planet are having little-or-no effect in the heating or cooling of the planet whatsoever.
RUSH: Well, now, wait. This confuses me, because it's now the official policy of the EPA, the U.S. government and the United Nations that there is this warming and that human beings are responsible for it.
Chuck: Well, I don't know where they get the human beings responsible for it, because it's just not true.
RUSH: I'll tell you where they get it - and Karl Rove said this to me when I was on the phone with him a couple days ago. They tracked it from the Industrial Revolution, and they said that the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is obviously much higher now than it was in the pre-Industrial Revolution days.
Chuck: Well, what does much higher mean? It has very little significance on the total gas composition of the atmosphere, and everything I learned when I was in undergraduate school about the radiation balance and the effect of these gases [is] that they're insignificant unless they multiplied many, many hundreds of millions of times over. And, you know, we have this warmer winter this last year in the eastern United States and this is what these people have been hammering on -
RUSH: Chuck, I've got to ask you a question. You're speaking as a scientist, correct? You're a meteorologist?
Chuck: That's correct.
RUSH: Okay, you're looking at this data as a scientist. How in the world can there be such disagreement over this - this scientific data that you are so certain about? Where is the room for scientific disagreement? I can see political disagreement, but where is the room for scientific?
Chuck: There shouldn't be any disagreement scientifically on this. What's happening is, the models which these people use to project climate change are being used to make these assertions, and the models are just dead wrong. When I was going to undergraduate school in the 1970s we had a scientist then that was telling Congress - when this global warming thing started - that if we didn't do something according to his model, to control the greenhouse gas emissions that by the mid-1990s the mid-latitude food belt of the United States would become desert wasteland.
RUSH: Was his name Paul Ehrlich?
Chuck: No, it was not. It was not. That was not who he was.
RUSH: I just saw something in the paper this morning about El Ni?o. The National Weather Service and the National Oceanographic - whatever it is - is looking at El Ni?o, and it happens every five years, the warming of eastern Pacific Ocean waters. And they are saying that it's still too soon to say how serious an impact this latest round of El Ni?o is.
What happens is that every five years, it gets bad, and that for 18 months, weather is affected around the world, and in different regions of the United States it's either dryer and cooler or wetter and warmer, or a mixture of those things. But the thing that struck me about it was that here are a bunch of people on the one hand predicting global warming 20, 30, a hundred years out, and yet we know that El Ni?o is happening, but we can't now be sure, they say, how bad this El Ni?o is going to be, even though it's going to be at its full force, whenever that is, in the next six to nine months.
sorry i didn't consider all that L. i could have. but given the importance of your comment and mine, i don't think it was really worth it in the first place. thus this response is quite worthless, but alas...
however, please consider that i did not state you were arrogant. i only posted your statement and said 'oh the arrogance', one can only logically presume this to mean that i think the statement itself is arrogant. you are making a similar leap in assumptions to the one which you are persecuting me for.
i am quite certain you are a very down to earth individual.
however, please consider that i did not state you were arrogant. i only posted your statement and said 'oh the arrogance', one can only logically presume this to mean that i think the statement itself is arrogant. you are making a similar leap in assumptions to the one which you are persecuting me for.
i am quite certain you are a very down to earth individual.
Lemonite
I'm a chauvinist leprechaun
A Little late, but still a Reminder:
White House Relased Transcript of bin Laden and Associates Discussing the September 11th Terrorist Attacks
[Source: Washington Post]
[NOTE: Transcript and annotations independently prepared by George Michael, translator, Diplomatic Language Services; and Dr. Kassem M. Wahba, Arabic language program coordinator, School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University. They collaborated on their translation and compared it with translations done by the U.S. government for consistency. There were no inconsistencies in the translations.)
In mid-November, Usama Bin Laden spoke to a room of supporters, possibly in Qandahar, Afghanistan. These comments were video taped with the knowledge of Bin Laden and all present.
The tape is approximately one hour long and contains three different segments: an original taping of a visit by some people to the site of the downed U.S. helicopter in Ghazni province (approximately 12 minutes long); and two segments documenting a courtesy visit by Bin Laden and his lieutenants to an unidentified Shaykh, who appears crippled from the waist down. The visit apparently takes place at a guesthouse in Qandahar.
The sequence of the events is reversed on the tape-the end of his visit is in the beginning of the tape with the helicopter site visit in the middle and the start of the Usama bin Laden visit beginning approximately 39 minutes into the tape. The tape is transcribed below according to the proper sequence of events.
Due to the quality of the original tape, it is NOT a verbatim transcript of every word spoken during the meeting, but does convey the messages and information flow.
EDITOR'S NOTE: 39 minutes into tape, first segment of the bin Laden meeting, begins after footage of helicopter site visit]
SHAYKH: (...inaudible...) You have given us weapons, you have given us hope and we thank Allah for you. We don't want to take much of your time, but this is the arrangement of the brothers. People now are supporting us more, even those ones who did not support us in the past, support us more now. I did not want to take that much of your time. We praise Allah, we praise Allah. We came from Kabul. We were very pleased to visit. May Allah bless you both at home and the camp. We asked the driver to take us, it was a night with a full moon, thanks be to Allah. Believe me it is not in the country side. The elderly...everybody praises what you did, the great action you did, which was first and foremost by the grace of Allah. This is the guidance of Allah and the blessed fruit of jihad.
BIN LADEN: Thanks to Allah. What is the stand of the Mosques there (in Saudi Arabia)?
SHAYKH: Honestly, they are very positive. Shaykh Al-Bahrani (phonetic) gave a good sermon in his class after the sunset prayers. It was videotaped and I was supposed to carry it with me, but unfortunately, I had to leave immediately.
BIN LADEN: The day of the events?
SHAYKH: At the exact time of the attack on America, precisely at the time. He (Bahrani) gave a very impressive sermon. Thanks be to Allah for his blessings. He (Bahrani) was the first one to write at war time. I visited him twice in Al-Qasim.
BIN LADEN: Thanks be to Allah.
SHAYKH: This is what I asked from Allah. He (Bahrani) told the youth: ``You are asking for martyrdom and wonder where you should go (for martyrdom)?'' Allah was inciting them to go. I asked Allah to grant me to witness the truth in front of the unjust ruler. We ask Allah to protect him and give him the martyrdom, after he issued the first fatwa. He was detained for interrogation, as you know. When he was called in and asked to sign, he told them, ``don't waste my time, I have another fatwa. If you want me, I can sign both at the same time.''
BIN LADEN: Thanks be to Allah.
SHAYKH: His position is really very encouraging. When I paid him the first visit about a year and half ago, he asked me, ``How is Shaykh Bin-Ladin?'' He sends you his special regards. As far as Shaykh Sulayman 'Ulwan is concerned, he gave a beautiful fatwa, may Allah bless him. Miraculously, I heard it on the Quran radio station. It was strange because he ('Ulwan) sacrificed his position, which is equivalent to a director. It was transcribed word-by-word. The brothers listened to it in detail. I briefly heard it before the noon prayers. He ('Ulwan) said this was jihad and those people were not innocent people (World Trade Center and Pentagon victims). He swore to Allah. This was transmitted to Shaykh Sulayman Al (('Umar)) Allah bless him.
BIN LADEN: What about Shaykh Al-((Rayan))?
SHAYKH: Honestly, I did not meet with him. My movements were truly limited.
BIN LADEN: Allah bless you. You are welcome.
SHAYKH: (Describing the trip to the meeting) They smuggled us and then I thought that we would be in different caves inside the mountains so I was surprised at the guest house and that it is very clean and comfortable. Thanks be to Allah, we also learned that this location is safe, by Allah's blessings. The place is clean and we are very comfortable.
BIN LADEN: (...Inaudible...) when people see a strong horse and a weak horse, by nature, they will like the strong horse. This is only one goal; those who want people to worship the lord of the people, without following that doctrine, will be following the doctrine of Muhammad, peace be upon him.
(UBL quotes several short and incomplete Hadith verses, as follows): ``I was ordered to fight the people until they say there is no god but Allah, and his prophet Muhammad.''
``Some people may ask: why do you want to fight us?'' ``There is an association between those who say: I believe in one god and Muhammad is his prophet, and those who don't (...inaudible...) ``Those who do not follow the true fiqh. The fiqh of Muhammad, the real fiqh. They are just accepting what is being said at face value.''
Those youth who conducted the operations did not accept any fiqh in the popular terms, but they accepted the fiqh that the prophet Muhammad brought. Those young men (...inaudible...) said in deeds, in New York and Washington, speeches that overshadowed all other speeches made everywhere else in the world. The speeches are understood by both Arabs and non-Arabs-even by Chinese.
It is above all the media said. Some of them said that in Holland, at one of the centers, the number of people who accepted Islam during the days that followed the operations were more than the people who accepted Islam in the last eleven years. I heard someone on Islamic radio who owns a school in America say: ``We don't have time to keep up with the demands of those who are asking about Islamic books to learn about Islam.'' This event made people think (about true Islam) which benefited Islam greatly.
SHAYKH: Hundreds of people used to doubt you and few only would follow you until this huge event happened. Now hundreds of people are coming out to join you. I remember a vision by Shaykh Salih Al-((Shuaybi)). He said: ``There will be a great hit and people will go out by hundreds to Afghanistan.'' I asked him (Salih): ``To Afghanistan?'' He replied, ``Yes.'' According to him, the only ones who stay behind will be the mentally impotent and the liars (hypocrites). I remembered his saying that hundreds of people will go out to Afghanistan. He had this vision a year ago. This event discriminated between the different types of followers.
BIN LADEN: (...Inaudible...) we calculated in advance the number of casualties from the enemy, who would be killed based on the position of the tower. We calculated that the floors that would be hit would be three or four floors. I was the most optimistic of them all. (...Inaudible...) due to my experience in this field, I was thinking that the fire from the gas in the plane would melt the iron structure of the building and collapse the area where the plane hit and all the floors above it only. This is all that we had hoped for.
SHAYKH: Allah be praised.
BIN LADEN: We were at (...inaudible...) when the event took place. We had notification since the previous Thursday that the event would take place that day. We had finished our work that day and had the radio on. It was 5:30 p.m. our time. I was sitting with Dr. Ahmad Abu-al-((Khair)). Immediately, we heard the news that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. We turned the radio station to the news from Washington. The news continued and no mention of the attack until the end. At the end of the newscast, they reported that a plane just hit the World Trade Center.
SHAYKH: Allah be praised.
BIN LADEN: After a little while, they announced that another plane had hit the World Trade Center. The brothers who heard the news were overjoyed by it.
SHAYKH: I listened to the news and I was sitting. We didn't...we were not thinking about anything, and all of a sudden, Allah willing, we were talking about how come we didn't have anything, and all of a sudden the news came and everyone was overjoyed and everyone until the next day, in the morning, was talking about what was happening and we stayed until four o'clock, listening to the news every time a little bit different, everyone was very joyous and saying ``Allah is great,'' ``Allah is great,'' ``We are thankful to Allah,'' ``Praise Allah.'' And I was happy for the happiness of my brothers. That day the congratulations were coming on the phone non-stop. The mother was receiving phone calls continuously. Thank Allah. Allah is great, praise be to Allah.
(Quoting the verse from the Quran)
SHAYKH: ``Fight them, Allah will torture them, with your hands, he will torture them. He will deceive them and he will give you victory. Allah will forgive the believers, he is knowledgeable about everything.''
No doubt it is a clear victory. Allah has bestowed on us...honor on us...and he will give us blessing and more victory during this holy month of Ramadan. And this is what everyone is hoping for. Thank Allah America came out of its caves. We hit her the first hit and the next one will hit her with the hands of the believers, the good believers, the strong believers. By Allah it is a great work. Allah prepares for you a great reward for this work. I'm sorry to speak in your presence, but it is just thoughts, just thoughts. By Allah, who there is no god but him. I live in happiness, happiness...I have not experienced, or felt, in a long time.
I remember, the words of Al-Rabbani, he said they made a coalition against us in the winter with the infidels like the Turks, and others, and some other Arabs. And they surrounded us like the days...in the days of the prophet Muhammad. Exactly like what's happening right now. But he comforted his followers and said, ``This is going to turn and hit them back.'' And it is a mercy for us. And a blessing to us. And it will bring people back. Look how wise he was.
And Allah will give him blessing. And the day will come when the symbols of Islam will rise up and it will be similar to the early days of Al-Mujahedeen and Al-Ansar (similar to the early years of Islam). And victory to those who follow Allah. Finally said, if it is the same, like the old days, such as Abu Bakr and Othman and Ali and others. In these days, in our times, that it will be the greatest jihad in the history of Islam and the resistance of the wicked people.
SHAYKH: By Allah my Shaykh. We congratulate you for the great work. Thank Allah.
1/8Tape ends here 3/8
Second segment of Bin Laden's visit, shows up at the front of the tape
BIN LADEN: Abdallah Azzam, Allah bless his soul, told me not to record anything (...inaudible...) so I thought that was a good omen, and Allah will bless us (...inaudible...). Abu-Al-Hasan Al-((Masri)), who appeared on Al-Jazeera TV a couple of days ago and addressed the Americans saying: ``If you are true men, come down here and face us.''
(...inaudible...) He told me a year ago: ``I saw in a dream, we were playing a soccer game against the Americans. When our team showed up in the field, they were all pilots!'' He said: ``So I wondered if that was a soccer game or a pilot game? Our players were pilots.'' He (Abu-Al-Hasan) didn't know anything about the operation until he heard it on the radio. He said the game went on and we defeated them. That was a good omen for us.
SHAYKH: May Allah be blessed.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN OFF CAMERA: Abd Al Rahman Al-(Ghamri) said he saw a vision, before the operation, a plane crashed into a tall building. He knew nothing about it.
SHAYKH: May Allah be blessed!
SULAYMAN (ABU GUAITH): I was sitting with the Shaykh in a room, then I left to go to another room where there was a TV set. The TV broadcasted the big event. The scene was showing an Egyptian family sitting in their living room, they exploded with joy. Do you know when there is a soccer game and your team wins, it was the same expression of joy. There was a subtitle that read: ``In revenge for the children of Al Aqsa', Usama Bin Ladin executes an operation against America.'' So I went back to the Shaykh (meaning Usama Bin Laden) who was sitting in a room with 50 to 60 people. I tried to tell him about what I saw, but he made gesture with his hands, meaning: ``I know, I know...''
BIN LADEN: He did not know about the operation. Not everybody knew (...inaudible...). Muhammad ((Atta)) from the Egyptian family (meaning the Al Qa'ida Egyptian group), was in charge of the group.
SHAYKH: A plane crashing into a tall building was out of anyone's imagination. This was a great job. He was one of the pious men in the organization. He became a martyr. Allah bless his soul.
SHAYKH (Referring to dreams and visions): The plane that he saw crashing into the building was seen before by more than one person. One of the good religious people has left everything and come here. He told me, ``I saw a vision, I was in a huge plane, long and wide. I was carrying it on my shoulders and I walked from the road to the desert for half a kilometer. I was dragging the plane.'' I listened to him and I prayed to Allah to help him.
Another person told me that last year he saw, but I didn't understand and I told him I don't understand. He said, ``I saw people who left for jihad...and they found themselves in New York...in Washington and New York.'' I said, ``What is this?'' He told me the plane hit the building. That was last year. We haven't thought much about it. But, when the incidents happened he came to me and said, ``Did you see...this is strange.''
I have another man...my god...he said and swore by Allah that his wife had seen the incident a week earlier. She saw the plane crashing into a building...that was unbelievable, my god.
BIN LADEN: The brothers, who conducted the operation, all they knew was that they have a martyrdom operation and we asked each of them to go to America but they didn't know anything about the operation, not even one letter. But they were trained and we did not reveal the operation to them until they are there and just before they boarded the planes.
(...inaudible...) then he said: Those who were trained to fly didn't know the others. One group of people did not know the other group. (...inaudible...)
(Someone in the crowd asks Usama Bin Laden to tell the Shaykh about the dream of ((Abu-Da'ud)).
BIN LADEN: We were at a camp of one of the brother's guards in Qandahar. This brother belonged to the majority of the group. He came close and told me that he saw, in a dream, a tall building in America, and in the same dream he saw Mukhtar teaching them how to play karate.
At that point, I was worried that maybe the secret would be revealed if everyone starts seeing it in their dream. So I closed the subject. I told him if he sees another dream, not to tell anybody, because people will be upset with him.
(Another person's voice can be heard recounting his dream about two planes hitting a big building).
BIN LADEN: They were overjoyed when the first plane hit the building, so I said to them: be patient.
BIN LADEN: The difference between the first and the second plane hitting the towers was twenty minutes. And the difference between the first plane and the plane that hit the Pentagon was one hour.
SHAYKH: They (the Americans) were terrified thinking there was a coup.
1/8Note: Ayman Al-Zawahri says first he commended Usama Bin Laden's awareness of what the media is saying. Then he says it was the first time for them (Americans) to feel danger coming at them. 3/8
Usama Bin Laden (reciting a poem):
I witness that against the sharp blade
They always faced difficulties and stood together...
When the darkness comes upon us and we are bit by a
Sharp tooth, I say...
``Our homes are flooded with blood and the tyrant
Is freely wandering in our homes''...
And from the battlefield vanished
The brightness of swords and the horses...
And over weeping sounds now
We hear the beats of drums and rhythm...
They are storming his forts
And shouting: ``We will not stop our raids
Until you free our lands''...
White House Relased Transcript of bin Laden and Associates Discussing the September 11th Terrorist Attacks
[Source: Washington Post]
[NOTE: Transcript and annotations independently prepared by George Michael, translator, Diplomatic Language Services; and Dr. Kassem M. Wahba, Arabic language program coordinator, School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University. They collaborated on their translation and compared it with translations done by the U.S. government for consistency. There were no inconsistencies in the translations.)
In mid-November, Usama Bin Laden spoke to a room of supporters, possibly in Qandahar, Afghanistan. These comments were video taped with the knowledge of Bin Laden and all present.
The tape is approximately one hour long and contains three different segments: an original taping of a visit by some people to the site of the downed U.S. helicopter in Ghazni province (approximately 12 minutes long); and two segments documenting a courtesy visit by Bin Laden and his lieutenants to an unidentified Shaykh, who appears crippled from the waist down. The visit apparently takes place at a guesthouse in Qandahar.
The sequence of the events is reversed on the tape-the end of his visit is in the beginning of the tape with the helicopter site visit in the middle and the start of the Usama bin Laden visit beginning approximately 39 minutes into the tape. The tape is transcribed below according to the proper sequence of events.
Due to the quality of the original tape, it is NOT a verbatim transcript of every word spoken during the meeting, but does convey the messages and information flow.
EDITOR'S NOTE: 39 minutes into tape, first segment of the bin Laden meeting, begins after footage of helicopter site visit]
SHAYKH: (...inaudible...) You have given us weapons, you have given us hope and we thank Allah for you. We don't want to take much of your time, but this is the arrangement of the brothers. People now are supporting us more, even those ones who did not support us in the past, support us more now. I did not want to take that much of your time. We praise Allah, we praise Allah. We came from Kabul. We were very pleased to visit. May Allah bless you both at home and the camp. We asked the driver to take us, it was a night with a full moon, thanks be to Allah. Believe me it is not in the country side. The elderly...everybody praises what you did, the great action you did, which was first and foremost by the grace of Allah. This is the guidance of Allah and the blessed fruit of jihad.
BIN LADEN: Thanks to Allah. What is the stand of the Mosques there (in Saudi Arabia)?
SHAYKH: Honestly, they are very positive. Shaykh Al-Bahrani (phonetic) gave a good sermon in his class after the sunset prayers. It was videotaped and I was supposed to carry it with me, but unfortunately, I had to leave immediately.
BIN LADEN: The day of the events?
SHAYKH: At the exact time of the attack on America, precisely at the time. He (Bahrani) gave a very impressive sermon. Thanks be to Allah for his blessings. He (Bahrani) was the first one to write at war time. I visited him twice in Al-Qasim.
BIN LADEN: Thanks be to Allah.
SHAYKH: This is what I asked from Allah. He (Bahrani) told the youth: ``You are asking for martyrdom and wonder where you should go (for martyrdom)?'' Allah was inciting them to go. I asked Allah to grant me to witness the truth in front of the unjust ruler. We ask Allah to protect him and give him the martyrdom, after he issued the first fatwa. He was detained for interrogation, as you know. When he was called in and asked to sign, he told them, ``don't waste my time, I have another fatwa. If you want me, I can sign both at the same time.''
BIN LADEN: Thanks be to Allah.
SHAYKH: His position is really very encouraging. When I paid him the first visit about a year and half ago, he asked me, ``How is Shaykh Bin-Ladin?'' He sends you his special regards. As far as Shaykh Sulayman 'Ulwan is concerned, he gave a beautiful fatwa, may Allah bless him. Miraculously, I heard it on the Quran radio station. It was strange because he ('Ulwan) sacrificed his position, which is equivalent to a director. It was transcribed word-by-word. The brothers listened to it in detail. I briefly heard it before the noon prayers. He ('Ulwan) said this was jihad and those people were not innocent people (World Trade Center and Pentagon victims). He swore to Allah. This was transmitted to Shaykh Sulayman Al (('Umar)) Allah bless him.
BIN LADEN: What about Shaykh Al-((Rayan))?
SHAYKH: Honestly, I did not meet with him. My movements were truly limited.
BIN LADEN: Allah bless you. You are welcome.
SHAYKH: (Describing the trip to the meeting) They smuggled us and then I thought that we would be in different caves inside the mountains so I was surprised at the guest house and that it is very clean and comfortable. Thanks be to Allah, we also learned that this location is safe, by Allah's blessings. The place is clean and we are very comfortable.
BIN LADEN: (...Inaudible...) when people see a strong horse and a weak horse, by nature, they will like the strong horse. This is only one goal; those who want people to worship the lord of the people, without following that doctrine, will be following the doctrine of Muhammad, peace be upon him.
(UBL quotes several short and incomplete Hadith verses, as follows): ``I was ordered to fight the people until they say there is no god but Allah, and his prophet Muhammad.''
``Some people may ask: why do you want to fight us?'' ``There is an association between those who say: I believe in one god and Muhammad is his prophet, and those who don't (...inaudible...) ``Those who do not follow the true fiqh. The fiqh of Muhammad, the real fiqh. They are just accepting what is being said at face value.''
Those youth who conducted the operations did not accept any fiqh in the popular terms, but they accepted the fiqh that the prophet Muhammad brought. Those young men (...inaudible...) said in deeds, in New York and Washington, speeches that overshadowed all other speeches made everywhere else in the world. The speeches are understood by both Arabs and non-Arabs-even by Chinese.
It is above all the media said. Some of them said that in Holland, at one of the centers, the number of people who accepted Islam during the days that followed the operations were more than the people who accepted Islam in the last eleven years. I heard someone on Islamic radio who owns a school in America say: ``We don't have time to keep up with the demands of those who are asking about Islamic books to learn about Islam.'' This event made people think (about true Islam) which benefited Islam greatly.
SHAYKH: Hundreds of people used to doubt you and few only would follow you until this huge event happened. Now hundreds of people are coming out to join you. I remember a vision by Shaykh Salih Al-((Shuaybi)). He said: ``There will be a great hit and people will go out by hundreds to Afghanistan.'' I asked him (Salih): ``To Afghanistan?'' He replied, ``Yes.'' According to him, the only ones who stay behind will be the mentally impotent and the liars (hypocrites). I remembered his saying that hundreds of people will go out to Afghanistan. He had this vision a year ago. This event discriminated between the different types of followers.
BIN LADEN: (...Inaudible...) we calculated in advance the number of casualties from the enemy, who would be killed based on the position of the tower. We calculated that the floors that would be hit would be three or four floors. I was the most optimistic of them all. (...Inaudible...) due to my experience in this field, I was thinking that the fire from the gas in the plane would melt the iron structure of the building and collapse the area where the plane hit and all the floors above it only. This is all that we had hoped for.
SHAYKH: Allah be praised.
BIN LADEN: We were at (...inaudible...) when the event took place. We had notification since the previous Thursday that the event would take place that day. We had finished our work that day and had the radio on. It was 5:30 p.m. our time. I was sitting with Dr. Ahmad Abu-al-((Khair)). Immediately, we heard the news that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. We turned the radio station to the news from Washington. The news continued and no mention of the attack until the end. At the end of the newscast, they reported that a plane just hit the World Trade Center.
SHAYKH: Allah be praised.
BIN LADEN: After a little while, they announced that another plane had hit the World Trade Center. The brothers who heard the news were overjoyed by it.
SHAYKH: I listened to the news and I was sitting. We didn't...we were not thinking about anything, and all of a sudden, Allah willing, we were talking about how come we didn't have anything, and all of a sudden the news came and everyone was overjoyed and everyone until the next day, in the morning, was talking about what was happening and we stayed until four o'clock, listening to the news every time a little bit different, everyone was very joyous and saying ``Allah is great,'' ``Allah is great,'' ``We are thankful to Allah,'' ``Praise Allah.'' And I was happy for the happiness of my brothers. That day the congratulations were coming on the phone non-stop. The mother was receiving phone calls continuously. Thank Allah. Allah is great, praise be to Allah.
(Quoting the verse from the Quran)
SHAYKH: ``Fight them, Allah will torture them, with your hands, he will torture them. He will deceive them and he will give you victory. Allah will forgive the believers, he is knowledgeable about everything.''
No doubt it is a clear victory. Allah has bestowed on us...honor on us...and he will give us blessing and more victory during this holy month of Ramadan. And this is what everyone is hoping for. Thank Allah America came out of its caves. We hit her the first hit and the next one will hit her with the hands of the believers, the good believers, the strong believers. By Allah it is a great work. Allah prepares for you a great reward for this work. I'm sorry to speak in your presence, but it is just thoughts, just thoughts. By Allah, who there is no god but him. I live in happiness, happiness...I have not experienced, or felt, in a long time.
I remember, the words of Al-Rabbani, he said they made a coalition against us in the winter with the infidels like the Turks, and others, and some other Arabs. And they surrounded us like the days...in the days of the prophet Muhammad. Exactly like what's happening right now. But he comforted his followers and said, ``This is going to turn and hit them back.'' And it is a mercy for us. And a blessing to us. And it will bring people back. Look how wise he was.
And Allah will give him blessing. And the day will come when the symbols of Islam will rise up and it will be similar to the early days of Al-Mujahedeen and Al-Ansar (similar to the early years of Islam). And victory to those who follow Allah. Finally said, if it is the same, like the old days, such as Abu Bakr and Othman and Ali and others. In these days, in our times, that it will be the greatest jihad in the history of Islam and the resistance of the wicked people.
SHAYKH: By Allah my Shaykh. We congratulate you for the great work. Thank Allah.
1/8Tape ends here 3/8
Second segment of Bin Laden's visit, shows up at the front of the tape
BIN LADEN: Abdallah Azzam, Allah bless his soul, told me not to record anything (...inaudible...) so I thought that was a good omen, and Allah will bless us (...inaudible...). Abu-Al-Hasan Al-((Masri)), who appeared on Al-Jazeera TV a couple of days ago and addressed the Americans saying: ``If you are true men, come down here and face us.''
(...inaudible...) He told me a year ago: ``I saw in a dream, we were playing a soccer game against the Americans. When our team showed up in the field, they were all pilots!'' He said: ``So I wondered if that was a soccer game or a pilot game? Our players were pilots.'' He (Abu-Al-Hasan) didn't know anything about the operation until he heard it on the radio. He said the game went on and we defeated them. That was a good omen for us.
SHAYKH: May Allah be blessed.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN OFF CAMERA: Abd Al Rahman Al-(Ghamri) said he saw a vision, before the operation, a plane crashed into a tall building. He knew nothing about it.
SHAYKH: May Allah be blessed!
SULAYMAN (ABU GUAITH): I was sitting with the Shaykh in a room, then I left to go to another room where there was a TV set. The TV broadcasted the big event. The scene was showing an Egyptian family sitting in their living room, they exploded with joy. Do you know when there is a soccer game and your team wins, it was the same expression of joy. There was a subtitle that read: ``In revenge for the children of Al Aqsa', Usama Bin Ladin executes an operation against America.'' So I went back to the Shaykh (meaning Usama Bin Laden) who was sitting in a room with 50 to 60 people. I tried to tell him about what I saw, but he made gesture with his hands, meaning: ``I know, I know...''
BIN LADEN: He did not know about the operation. Not everybody knew (...inaudible...). Muhammad ((Atta)) from the Egyptian family (meaning the Al Qa'ida Egyptian group), was in charge of the group.
SHAYKH: A plane crashing into a tall building was out of anyone's imagination. This was a great job. He was one of the pious men in the organization. He became a martyr. Allah bless his soul.
SHAYKH (Referring to dreams and visions): The plane that he saw crashing into the building was seen before by more than one person. One of the good religious people has left everything and come here. He told me, ``I saw a vision, I was in a huge plane, long and wide. I was carrying it on my shoulders and I walked from the road to the desert for half a kilometer. I was dragging the plane.'' I listened to him and I prayed to Allah to help him.
Another person told me that last year he saw, but I didn't understand and I told him I don't understand. He said, ``I saw people who left for jihad...and they found themselves in New York...in Washington and New York.'' I said, ``What is this?'' He told me the plane hit the building. That was last year. We haven't thought much about it. But, when the incidents happened he came to me and said, ``Did you see...this is strange.''
I have another man...my god...he said and swore by Allah that his wife had seen the incident a week earlier. She saw the plane crashing into a building...that was unbelievable, my god.
BIN LADEN: The brothers, who conducted the operation, all they knew was that they have a martyrdom operation and we asked each of them to go to America but they didn't know anything about the operation, not even one letter. But they were trained and we did not reveal the operation to them until they are there and just before they boarded the planes.
(...inaudible...) then he said: Those who were trained to fly didn't know the others. One group of people did not know the other group. (...inaudible...)
(Someone in the crowd asks Usama Bin Laden to tell the Shaykh about the dream of ((Abu-Da'ud)).
BIN LADEN: We were at a camp of one of the brother's guards in Qandahar. This brother belonged to the majority of the group. He came close and told me that he saw, in a dream, a tall building in America, and in the same dream he saw Mukhtar teaching them how to play karate.
At that point, I was worried that maybe the secret would be revealed if everyone starts seeing it in their dream. So I closed the subject. I told him if he sees another dream, not to tell anybody, because people will be upset with him.
(Another person's voice can be heard recounting his dream about two planes hitting a big building).
BIN LADEN: They were overjoyed when the first plane hit the building, so I said to them: be patient.
BIN LADEN: The difference between the first and the second plane hitting the towers was twenty minutes. And the difference between the first plane and the plane that hit the Pentagon was one hour.
SHAYKH: They (the Americans) were terrified thinking there was a coup.
1/8Note: Ayman Al-Zawahri says first he commended Usama Bin Laden's awareness of what the media is saying. Then he says it was the first time for them (Americans) to feel danger coming at them. 3/8
Usama Bin Laden (reciting a poem):
I witness that against the sharp blade
They always faced difficulties and stood together...
When the darkness comes upon us and we are bit by a
Sharp tooth, I say...
``Our homes are flooded with blood and the tyrant
Is freely wandering in our homes''...
And from the battlefield vanished
The brightness of swords and the horses...
And over weeping sounds now
We hear the beats of drums and rhythm...
They are storming his forts
And shouting: ``We will not stop our raids
Until you free our lands''...
Lemonite
I'm a chauvinist leprechaun
Screaming Flower said:
You've summed up Interference... Hell and 99% of all other institutions on this planet.. Hahaha..
You know what South Bend needs.. one of those Japanese Steakhouses.. They're pretty sweet.. That is if he catches all of those shrimp floating in front of your face.. Oh.. the Good Ol Days of High School Prom.. Hahahah
Go Irish,
L.Unplugged
Last edited:
Lemonite
I'm a chauvinist leprechaun
kobayashi said:
Good point, Bad Jump on my part.. however, Regardless of the assumption.. It was an uninformed criticism.. But Let us not be dumber for typing these arguments.. I can read it now.. (Oh Ho Lemonite.. We're already dumber for Entering this Thread.. Hahaha.. Jackasses).... I think Melon owes you a Medal of Congratulation, in your dismissal of Chuck.. without anything else, you have 'Argued like Limbaugh' as he loves to point out and reference us to.
L.Unplugged
Last edited:
Lemonite
I'm a chauvinist leprechaun
Hahaha.. After the debacles that recently went down I post up this 'Racist Dog' thread to illustrate the Absurdity and Nonsensicalness of some of the things that people complain about.. however my view on this will probably not be that of the populous where the majority of people will actually say.. 'OMG This dog MUST DIE'.. Hahahaha.. Either way, I hope that you will see some of yourselves in this article.. i don't expect you to see what I'm going up against in this forum... But Hopefully at least you'll laugh and think at the same time..
The Antibiotic for Interference,
L.Unplugged
Police Dog Accused of Racial Profiling
FOX NEWS:
Tuesday, June 11, 2002
McKEES ROCKS, Pa. ? A Pennsylvania councilwoman has accused her borough's lone police dog of racial profiling, leading to calls that the canine be killed.
Dolpho, a 5-year-old German shepherd, can sniff out the difference between marijuana, heroin and cocaine. The dog came from Europe two years ago and is trained in drug detection and patrol.
But councilwoman Wanda Jones Dixon said Dolpho can also tell the difference between blacks and whites, and should be put to sleep.
On Friday, while K-9 officer Schawn Barger wrestled with a drug suspect, he said a quick-release button on his belt was activated, accidentally opening a door to the K-9 wagon.
The dog lunged from the vehicle and bit a 9-year-old boy on the leg instead of the suspect, dragging him for about 20 feet, family members said. The boy is black.
Councilwoman Dixon told the city council she has received six complaints about Dolpho in the past year. Three of the people who complained were involved with drugs. Three others were blacks who believe the dog jumped at or attacked them because of their race.
"I had received complaints from African-Americans saying they believe the dog only attacks African-Americans," councilwoman Dixon said Monday. "I think the dog makes the distinction."
Officer Barger, who has worked with Dolpho for more than two years and takes the dog home with him at night, said the dog has never gone after the wrong person before. He said Dolpho became confused during a tense situation.
"The dog saw movement. There was a lot of noise ? a lot of screaming," Barger said. "It was basically just complete chaos and the dog, he just could not tell who the bad guy was and who the good people were."
The boy was treated for a dog bite and released Friday. He limped into the council meeting Monday with his mother, Lorraine Livingston.
"This is something that will take him a while to get over," Livingston said. "The officer had no control over that animal. That dog should be put to sleep."
Experts differ on whether dogs can discern race.
The owner of the Tom Brenneman School for Canines near Lawrence, Kan., has trained more than 600 dogs for police departments nationwide. He said dogs determine targets by scent alone and see only gray and white.
Tom Brenneman said the dogs can be trained to recognize the scent of drugs, explosives and also that dogs can smell fear.
"As far as it being black or white or Hispanic, that doesn't have anything to do with it," he said.
A national expert on animal behavior at Tuft's University School of Veterinary Medicine said dogs not only can determine race, but can develop prejudices similar to humans. Dr. Nick Dodman said that prejudice can be based on a lack of exposure to different people or because of a bad experience.
Dolpho has since been taken off active duty, but the department is standing behind him.
Chief Robert Martineau said the dog is good around children and even visits area schools and day care centers.
"To say the dog is racial ... that's ludicrous. That doesn't make sense," Martineau said.
No decision was made on Dolpho's future Monday.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The Antibiotic for Interference,
L.Unplugged
Police Dog Accused of Racial Profiling
FOX NEWS:
Tuesday, June 11, 2002
McKEES ROCKS, Pa. ? A Pennsylvania councilwoman has accused her borough's lone police dog of racial profiling, leading to calls that the canine be killed.
Dolpho, a 5-year-old German shepherd, can sniff out the difference between marijuana, heroin and cocaine. The dog came from Europe two years ago and is trained in drug detection and patrol.
But councilwoman Wanda Jones Dixon said Dolpho can also tell the difference between blacks and whites, and should be put to sleep.
On Friday, while K-9 officer Schawn Barger wrestled with a drug suspect, he said a quick-release button on his belt was activated, accidentally opening a door to the K-9 wagon.
The dog lunged from the vehicle and bit a 9-year-old boy on the leg instead of the suspect, dragging him for about 20 feet, family members said. The boy is black.
Councilwoman Dixon told the city council she has received six complaints about Dolpho in the past year. Three of the people who complained were involved with drugs. Three others were blacks who believe the dog jumped at or attacked them because of their race.
"I had received complaints from African-Americans saying they believe the dog only attacks African-Americans," councilwoman Dixon said Monday. "I think the dog makes the distinction."
Officer Barger, who has worked with Dolpho for more than two years and takes the dog home with him at night, said the dog has never gone after the wrong person before. He said Dolpho became confused during a tense situation.
"The dog saw movement. There was a lot of noise ? a lot of screaming," Barger said. "It was basically just complete chaos and the dog, he just could not tell who the bad guy was and who the good people were."
The boy was treated for a dog bite and released Friday. He limped into the council meeting Monday with his mother, Lorraine Livingston.
"This is something that will take him a while to get over," Livingston said. "The officer had no control over that animal. That dog should be put to sleep."
Experts differ on whether dogs can discern race.
The owner of the Tom Brenneman School for Canines near Lawrence, Kan., has trained more than 600 dogs for police departments nationwide. He said dogs determine targets by scent alone and see only gray and white.
Tom Brenneman said the dogs can be trained to recognize the scent of drugs, explosives and also that dogs can smell fear.
"As far as it being black or white or Hispanic, that doesn't have anything to do with it," he said.
A national expert on animal behavior at Tuft's University School of Veterinary Medicine said dogs not only can determine race, but can develop prejudices similar to humans. Dr. Nick Dodman said that prejudice can be based on a lack of exposure to different people or because of a bad experience.
Dolpho has since been taken off active duty, but the department is standing behind him.
Chief Robert Martineau said the dog is good around children and even visits area schools and day care centers.
"To say the dog is racial ... that's ludicrous. That doesn't make sense," Martineau said.
No decision was made on Dolpho's future Monday.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Lemonite
I'm a chauvinist leprechaun
No extra words necesary.. Many of you will tout this as the Garbage that you think it is, but others.. Will recognize this and the man for the integrity that he posesses as what we all should aim for.. Holding true to our ideals, and what is right.. MBH.. I'm sure you'll appreciate this.
This above all
Balint Vazsonyi
The Shakespeare passage that begins with the words "This above all" comes from Hamlet. Polonius, that "most secret" councillor, gives advice to his son, about to depart for a longer stay abroad. The three words entered my consciousness around the age of 12 ? courtesy of Eric Knight (of "Lassie" fame), whose novel bearing that title makes for a special kind of acquaintance with England.
Readers familiar with Shakespeare's "Richard II" or Baroness Orczy's "The Scarlet Pimpernel" would find it a worthy complement. But I digress. Here is the entire passage:
This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.
The person eliciting these thoughts is not readily associated with Shakespeare quotes. Yet, especially these days, Rush Limbaugh brings those lines to mind in every one of the 15 hours he spends on the air each week.
For more than a decade, Rush Limbaugh has been a national institution. In that time, America's primary enemy has ceased to exist, the presidency has been trashed and restored, and once-noble Ted Koppel became a caricature of himself. Meanwhile, no effort has been spared to demolish Rush. His enemies are legion. They include everyone who, as Rush would put it, has no stomach for the truth. And, sadly, the number of those is steadily rising.
But, thank goodness, so is the number of opening minds. Nonetheless, as we speak, Rush finds himself under daily attack by some of his own constituency. Why? Because he remains true to himself.
In many ways, to understand Rush is to understand America. And if one understands America, it is easy to understand Rush. America, too, finds itself under daily attack by some of its own constituency.
Europeans greatly enjoy pointing out America's lack of "culture" in the sense that, in this country, literature and music and the fine arts do not occupy the central role they do over there. Being sufficiently familiar with high culture is not a social requirement here and, having come from Europe, I, too, found that something of a shock way back when.
But what really irks Europeans is that this "undercultured" society not only commands incomparable economic and military power, but that it has succeeded as a society like none other. How dare they? More importantly, how could they, spending so little time on debating political philosophy and all those cultural ingredients that generate intellectual excitement?
Well ? for almost two centuries, the debate here was only about the implementation of basic tenets, laid down by the Founding Fathers and agreed to by all who lived or came to live here. There seemed to be neither need nor appetite for meddling with them. They worked. Americans like things that work. And Americans like to work. Perhaps they like to work because, for a long time, the fruits of their labor were theirs to keep.
Then, about 30 to 35 years ago, the basic tenets started to be questioned. But many continued to believe in them, and those millions developed a very uneasy stomach as they watched the news or current affairs programs on television, and listened to National Public Radio.
Amazing as this may be, one person was able to change all that and restore sanity. Rush Limbaugh had to be, and is, as American as anyone might hope to be: straight-forward, practical, realistic, task-oriented, independent, enterprising, hard-working, good-natured, good-humored, and someone for whom defeat is not an option.
In fact, his radio show easily divides the population of this country into those who are staying with America's Founding principles, and those who advocate ? or unwittingly accept ? the idea of trying everything under the sun that has already failed many times, in many places. (No, this time I won't call it socialism.)
In recent days and weeks, Rush's consistency has been getting him some harsh admonishment from callers and correspondents ? the reason for this article. People are upset when he agrees with the president (he mustn't), and when he disagrees with the president (again, he mustn't).
The likely reason is that people have lost their footing. With every passing day, it becomes more difficult to countenance the president's wholesale abandonment of Founding principles in the name of election strategy. Should conservatives advocate that the administration do the right thing for America now, or obey Ronald Reagan's 11th commandment? And it is easier to vent one's frustration on a radio talk show host, than on the . Perish the thought.
Those who are true to themselves tend to fare poorly in confusing times. My former teacher Erno Dohnanyi, possibly the greatest Hungarian musician after Franz Liszt, paid for his immutable stance amidst ever-changing political loyalties by having his name purged from history books under the communist regime. All Rush is doing now is standing firm as the winds blow from every direction. No doubt, for this reason, and for others, there are many in this country who would stop Rush ? if they could.
That they cannot ? not now, and not for a long time yet ? has everything to do with those American principles that Europeans cannot quite comprehend, and that Rush Limbaugh embodies and advocates. Strange: He was not required to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, he just does it.
Our nation's capital is packed with folks who have furnished such an oath. Would that they implemented it half as well.
Balint Vazsonyi, concert pianist and director of the Center for the American Founding, is a columnist for The Washington Times and is nationally syndicated.
This above all
Balint Vazsonyi
The Shakespeare passage that begins with the words "This above all" comes from Hamlet. Polonius, that "most secret" councillor, gives advice to his son, about to depart for a longer stay abroad. The three words entered my consciousness around the age of 12 ? courtesy of Eric Knight (of "Lassie" fame), whose novel bearing that title makes for a special kind of acquaintance with England.
Readers familiar with Shakespeare's "Richard II" or Baroness Orczy's "The Scarlet Pimpernel" would find it a worthy complement. But I digress. Here is the entire passage:
This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.
The person eliciting these thoughts is not readily associated with Shakespeare quotes. Yet, especially these days, Rush Limbaugh brings those lines to mind in every one of the 15 hours he spends on the air each week.
For more than a decade, Rush Limbaugh has been a national institution. In that time, America's primary enemy has ceased to exist, the presidency has been trashed and restored, and once-noble Ted Koppel became a caricature of himself. Meanwhile, no effort has been spared to demolish Rush. His enemies are legion. They include everyone who, as Rush would put it, has no stomach for the truth. And, sadly, the number of those is steadily rising.
But, thank goodness, so is the number of opening minds. Nonetheless, as we speak, Rush finds himself under daily attack by some of his own constituency. Why? Because he remains true to himself.
In many ways, to understand Rush is to understand America. And if one understands America, it is easy to understand Rush. America, too, finds itself under daily attack by some of its own constituency.
Europeans greatly enjoy pointing out America's lack of "culture" in the sense that, in this country, literature and music and the fine arts do not occupy the central role they do over there. Being sufficiently familiar with high culture is not a social requirement here and, having come from Europe, I, too, found that something of a shock way back when.
But what really irks Europeans is that this "undercultured" society not only commands incomparable economic and military power, but that it has succeeded as a society like none other. How dare they? More importantly, how could they, spending so little time on debating political philosophy and all those cultural ingredients that generate intellectual excitement?
Well ? for almost two centuries, the debate here was only about the implementation of basic tenets, laid down by the Founding Fathers and agreed to by all who lived or came to live here. There seemed to be neither need nor appetite for meddling with them. They worked. Americans like things that work. And Americans like to work. Perhaps they like to work because, for a long time, the fruits of their labor were theirs to keep.
Then, about 30 to 35 years ago, the basic tenets started to be questioned. But many continued to believe in them, and those millions developed a very uneasy stomach as they watched the news or current affairs programs on television, and listened to National Public Radio.
Amazing as this may be, one person was able to change all that and restore sanity. Rush Limbaugh had to be, and is, as American as anyone might hope to be: straight-forward, practical, realistic, task-oriented, independent, enterprising, hard-working, good-natured, good-humored, and someone for whom defeat is not an option.
In fact, his radio show easily divides the population of this country into those who are staying with America's Founding principles, and those who advocate ? or unwittingly accept ? the idea of trying everything under the sun that has already failed many times, in many places. (No, this time I won't call it socialism.)
In recent days and weeks, Rush's consistency has been getting him some harsh admonishment from callers and correspondents ? the reason for this article. People are upset when he agrees with the president (he mustn't), and when he disagrees with the president (again, he mustn't).
The likely reason is that people have lost their footing. With every passing day, it becomes more difficult to countenance the president's wholesale abandonment of Founding principles in the name of election strategy. Should conservatives advocate that the administration do the right thing for America now, or obey Ronald Reagan's 11th commandment? And it is easier to vent one's frustration on a radio talk show host, than on the . Perish the thought.
Those who are true to themselves tend to fare poorly in confusing times. My former teacher Erno Dohnanyi, possibly the greatest Hungarian musician after Franz Liszt, paid for his immutable stance amidst ever-changing political loyalties by having his name purged from history books under the communist regime. All Rush is doing now is standing firm as the winds blow from every direction. No doubt, for this reason, and for others, there are many in this country who would stop Rush ? if they could.
That they cannot ? not now, and not for a long time yet ? has everything to do with those American principles that Europeans cannot quite comprehend, and that Rush Limbaugh embodies and advocates. Strange: He was not required to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, he just does it.
Our nation's capital is packed with folks who have furnished such an oath. Would that they implemented it half as well.
Balint Vazsonyi, concert pianist and director of the Center for the American Founding, is a columnist for The Washington Times and is nationally syndicated.
Screaming Flower
ONE love, blood, life
- Joined
- Aug 29, 2001
- Messages
- 11,961
Lemonite said:
try laying off the crack before posting next time, dear.
Lemonite
I'm a chauvinist leprechaun
Argh.. SF.. I am sooo envious of your central Time Zone.. it's like having an extra hour!
L.Unplugged
L.Unplugged
Screaming Flower
ONE love, blood, life
- Joined
- Aug 29, 2001
- Messages
- 11,961
Lemonite said:
you are a very weird boy. go to bed.
U2Bama
Rock n' Roll Doggie
Have you thought about releasing a "best of" thread, goober?
CannibalisticArtist
War Child
can i contribute?
Kim Jong Il to Leave 'Axis of Evil', Pursue Career In Fashion Industry
--------------------------------------------------------------------
It's been a long strange trip this year for Axis of Evil, the trio of terrorist-harboring leaders that rose to instant fame following Bush's State of the Union Address last January. Suddenly placed on the world's stage, Kim Jong Il of North Korea, President Hojjatoleslam Seyed Mohammad Khatami of Iran, and Iraq's Saddam Hussein became one of the hottest acts on the international rock circuit. But with last week's announcement of the departure of temperamental bass player Jong, the future of the Axis of Evil is in serious jeopardy.
Happier, Evilier Days - Axis of Evil jams out chart-topper "Die, Profit-Whoring Imperialists!", from their debut LP "Americans Running Amok" at the Evildoerpalooza festival, held last March at the ChevronTexaco Pavilion outside Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Pictured left to right are lead vocalist President Hojjatoleslam Seyed Mohammad Khatami of Iran, drummer and band manager Saddam Hussein, and Kim Jong II of North Korea on bass guitar. Last week Kim Jong II announced his sudden departure from the band, leaving a vacancy in the band's trademark bottom-end sound, and sending the Pentagon's war strategists in a scramble to elevate another country to the status of 'evil'. Rumors are abound that Venezuelan President Victor Chavez is the favored replacement, pending the failure of another Bush administration sponsored overthrow.
Forming in early 2001, and achieving quasi-cult status following the Attack on America in September, the overnight starlets recorded their first CD Americans Running Amok last October, featuring anti-American anthems like "Fall of 21st Century Empire", "There'll Be Turmoil If You Toil With The Oil On Our Soil", "Die, Profit-Whoring Imperialists!", and purportedly one hidden track recorded with Osama bin Laden, which is rumored to exist but has not yet been found.
The tour that followed took the Axis of Evil's signature brand of defiant, groundbreaking death metal to sellout crowds of evil ones across the world unfamiliar to most Americans, catering to countries that harbor regimes or factions that operate inconsistently with western requirements. From Cuba to Venezuela, Somalia to the Philippines, the legions of fans seemed to multiply with every show, as hatred grew with each far-from-over day that passed in the U.S. led War on Terrorism.
But life on the road and the daily rigors of attention from the U.S. media proved to be far too taxing for the isolationist Kim Jong Il, as the bass playing Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army was widely known to suffer paralyzing panic attacks after many show dates.
"The Americans should be well advised not to continue calling me evil!", said Jong Il during one such episode. "The U.S. Imperialists have nuclear weapons and harbor terrorists, THEY are evil!"
"Clearly, with half the world calling the other half evil, and vice versa, and most in the name of the same supreme being, the insanity of the situation drove the l'il commie videophile batty", said longtime thorn-in-the-Bush war drummer and band manager Saddam Hussein. "OK, so everyone's evil. I suppose the only thing left to do is determine who is the greater evil ... hey, you wanna see pictures of my kids?"
Yassar Arafat could not be reached for comment, per order of Ariel Sharon, who incidentally commented, "No Comment".
President Khatami of Iran was recently asked for his take on the future of the band.
"We are the identifiable faces of 'evil' as defined by American foreign policy, and for many teenage kids across the globe, that's 'cool' and 'hip'", said Khatami, who has in the past explained his being chosen over supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei for the band as "simply, a matter of stage presence". "Hussien and I will surely continue to be the Axis of Evil so long as America says we are, and there's plenty of room in the Axis of Evil for many more musicians. Soon, the whole world will be singing harmoniously against America."
While the two original member nations continue to wait for appointment of a new evil nation to join the band, Kim Jong Il has returned to his homeland, where his already enormous popularity has reached an all new euphoric level with the introduction of his DPRK clothing line at the Kuum-ni Fashion Show. Featuring his famous green "robotic military pajamas" emblazoned with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea's logo, the advertisements have been plastered all over the streets of Pyongyang, creating a fashion craze not seen since the 'shoe' was introduced here over 20 years ago.
"In a show of solidarity, all citizens of the DPRK have the right to choose to wear this outfit or die", Jong said during the premiere of the ad campaign.
Foreign governments and designers alike have heralded the new age of "far east / far right" fashion, promoting a single uniform for an entire country for easy identification by space lasers. But while the Federal Dress Codes Amendment to the USA Patriot Act seems to be swiftly moving through Congress, a few Capitol Hill critics have cried foul to the notion that Kim Jong Il has the right to call his country 'Democratic'.
"And I suppose America is a Democracy because the majority of its' citizens voted for Gore in 'an election'", Jong said of his critics, prompting America to wake up from this horrible nightmare?
copyright 2002, Humor is dead.
Kim Jong Il to Leave 'Axis of Evil', Pursue Career In Fashion Industry
--------------------------------------------------------------------
It's been a long strange trip this year for Axis of Evil, the trio of terrorist-harboring leaders that rose to instant fame following Bush's State of the Union Address last January. Suddenly placed on the world's stage, Kim Jong Il of North Korea, President Hojjatoleslam Seyed Mohammad Khatami of Iran, and Iraq's Saddam Hussein became one of the hottest acts on the international rock circuit. But with last week's announcement of the departure of temperamental bass player Jong, the future of the Axis of Evil is in serious jeopardy.
Happier, Evilier Days - Axis of Evil jams out chart-topper "Die, Profit-Whoring Imperialists!", from their debut LP "Americans Running Amok" at the Evildoerpalooza festival, held last March at the ChevronTexaco Pavilion outside Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Pictured left to right are lead vocalist President Hojjatoleslam Seyed Mohammad Khatami of Iran, drummer and band manager Saddam Hussein, and Kim Jong II of North Korea on bass guitar. Last week Kim Jong II announced his sudden departure from the band, leaving a vacancy in the band's trademark bottom-end sound, and sending the Pentagon's war strategists in a scramble to elevate another country to the status of 'evil'. Rumors are abound that Venezuelan President Victor Chavez is the favored replacement, pending the failure of another Bush administration sponsored overthrow.
Forming in early 2001, and achieving quasi-cult status following the Attack on America in September, the overnight starlets recorded their first CD Americans Running Amok last October, featuring anti-American anthems like "Fall of 21st Century Empire", "There'll Be Turmoil If You Toil With The Oil On Our Soil", "Die, Profit-Whoring Imperialists!", and purportedly one hidden track recorded with Osama bin Laden, which is rumored to exist but has not yet been found.
The tour that followed took the Axis of Evil's signature brand of defiant, groundbreaking death metal to sellout crowds of evil ones across the world unfamiliar to most Americans, catering to countries that harbor regimes or factions that operate inconsistently with western requirements. From Cuba to Venezuela, Somalia to the Philippines, the legions of fans seemed to multiply with every show, as hatred grew with each far-from-over day that passed in the U.S. led War on Terrorism.
But life on the road and the daily rigors of attention from the U.S. media proved to be far too taxing for the isolationist Kim Jong Il, as the bass playing Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army was widely known to suffer paralyzing panic attacks after many show dates.
"The Americans should be well advised not to continue calling me evil!", said Jong Il during one such episode. "The U.S. Imperialists have nuclear weapons and harbor terrorists, THEY are evil!"
"Clearly, with half the world calling the other half evil, and vice versa, and most in the name of the same supreme being, the insanity of the situation drove the l'il commie videophile batty", said longtime thorn-in-the-Bush war drummer and band manager Saddam Hussein. "OK, so everyone's evil. I suppose the only thing left to do is determine who is the greater evil ... hey, you wanna see pictures of my kids?"
Yassar Arafat could not be reached for comment, per order of Ariel Sharon, who incidentally commented, "No Comment".
President Khatami of Iran was recently asked for his take on the future of the band.
"We are the identifiable faces of 'evil' as defined by American foreign policy, and for many teenage kids across the globe, that's 'cool' and 'hip'", said Khatami, who has in the past explained his being chosen over supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei for the band as "simply, a matter of stage presence". "Hussien and I will surely continue to be the Axis of Evil so long as America says we are, and there's plenty of room in the Axis of Evil for many more musicians. Soon, the whole world will be singing harmoniously against America."
While the two original member nations continue to wait for appointment of a new evil nation to join the band, Kim Jong Il has returned to his homeland, where his already enormous popularity has reached an all new euphoric level with the introduction of his DPRK clothing line at the Kuum-ni Fashion Show. Featuring his famous green "robotic military pajamas" emblazoned with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea's logo, the advertisements have been plastered all over the streets of Pyongyang, creating a fashion craze not seen since the 'shoe' was introduced here over 20 years ago.
"In a show of solidarity, all citizens of the DPRK have the right to choose to wear this outfit or die", Jong said during the premiere of the ad campaign.
Foreign governments and designers alike have heralded the new age of "far east / far right" fashion, promoting a single uniform for an entire country for easy identification by space lasers. But while the Federal Dress Codes Amendment to the USA Patriot Act seems to be swiftly moving through Congress, a few Capitol Hill critics have cried foul to the notion that Kim Jong Il has the right to call his country 'Democratic'.
"And I suppose America is a Democracy because the majority of its' citizens voted for Gore in 'an election'", Jong said of his critics, prompting America to wake up from this horrible nightmare?
copyright 2002, Humor is dead.
Lemonite
I'm a chauvinist leprechaun
Re: can i contribute?
I wish the Pres. would have used the word 'chic'.. That's one we need to spread to the third world..
L.Unplugged
CannibalisticArtist said:
I wish the Pres. would have used the word 'chic'.. That's one we need to spread to the third world..
L.Unplugged
Lemonite
I'm a chauvinist leprechaun
WHO CARES?!
hahah.. these people are "One Step Away from Slicing Meat at a Deli'... Truly.. Does Anyone Care?..
I think we should.. Interference should set up a protest to keep the WNBA.. Hahaha.. I mean.. that Lisa Leslie's got a mean cross over.. Too bad My brother can perform better in Birkenstocks.
Players want higher pay, better marketing rights
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Associated Press
NEW YORK -- WNBA players are threatening to strike next season if a new deal isn't worked out by the start of training camp.
Seattle Storm guard Sonja Henning, the president of the WNBA players association, said Tuesday that 100 players discussed the possibility of a work stoppage. The four-year collective bargaining agreement expires Sept. 15, during the offseason.
"We discussed the idea of getting comfortable with a strike," Henning, also a lawyer, said in a conference call. "Of course we love the game, but understand it's a business. We hope it won't get to that."
WNBA training camps open in April, and the season runs through August.
Players' salaries make up less than 15 percent of the league's revenue, compared to more than 55 percent of revenue for professional basketball, baseball, football and hockey, WNBPA director Pam Wheeler said.
A nine-player negotiating committee was formed to increase salaries and marketing rights for players. The WNBA rookie minimum salary is $30,000 for the three-month season and the veteran minimum is $40,000.
"The players have been extremely reasonable in their demands," Wheeler said. "They've made sacrifices to help make the league grow. Even if (the WNBA) doubles salaries, proportionately it is significantly less (than other pro leagues)."
The WNBA will not release financial figures, but league president Val Ackerman has said the 16 teams playing in NBA arenas during the summer do not make a profit. The union argues that salaries should increase because the league is no longer a startup with competition from the ABL, which folded in 1998.
"We'd be willing to meet at any mutually agreeable time, but to date we have not been contacted by the union," WNBA spokesperson Maureen Coyle said.
Ackerman was not available for comment Tuesday.
hahah.. these people are "One Step Away from Slicing Meat at a Deli'... Truly.. Does Anyone Care?..
I think we should.. Interference should set up a protest to keep the WNBA.. Hahaha.. I mean.. that Lisa Leslie's got a mean cross over.. Too bad My brother can perform better in Birkenstocks.
Players want higher pay, better marketing rights
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Associated Press
NEW YORK -- WNBA players are threatening to strike next season if a new deal isn't worked out by the start of training camp.
Seattle Storm guard Sonja Henning, the president of the WNBA players association, said Tuesday that 100 players discussed the possibility of a work stoppage. The four-year collective bargaining agreement expires Sept. 15, during the offseason.
"We discussed the idea of getting comfortable with a strike," Henning, also a lawyer, said in a conference call. "Of course we love the game, but understand it's a business. We hope it won't get to that."
WNBA training camps open in April, and the season runs through August.
Players' salaries make up less than 15 percent of the league's revenue, compared to more than 55 percent of revenue for professional basketball, baseball, football and hockey, WNBPA director Pam Wheeler said.
A nine-player negotiating committee was formed to increase salaries and marketing rights for players. The WNBA rookie minimum salary is $30,000 for the three-month season and the veteran minimum is $40,000.
"The players have been extremely reasonable in their demands," Wheeler said. "They've made sacrifices to help make the league grow. Even if (the WNBA) doubles salaries, proportionately it is significantly less (than other pro leagues)."
The WNBA will not release financial figures, but league president Val Ackerman has said the 16 teams playing in NBA arenas during the summer do not make a profit. The union argues that salaries should increase because the league is no longer a startup with competition from the ABL, which folded in 1998.
"We'd be willing to meet at any mutually agreeable time, but to date we have not been contacted by the union," WNBA spokesperson Maureen Coyle said.
Ackerman was not available for comment Tuesday.
Lemonite
I'm a chauvinist leprechaun
Ah Yes.. a topic that people do not wish to talk about, because then at the end of the day 'They Just won't feel good about themselves..'... Ultimately it has nothing to do with me.. I'm the farthest from bitter, and I advocate advancement based on virtue and accompolishments. I'm just tired of seeing people talk like complete morons, and idiots as they patronize everything so they can sleep at night.. hahah.. I should be embraced, because I am trying to set you free.. Here's a link that I think provides something better to our society than the globalaid one a bit ago...
http://www.ceousa.org/
I do post here now.. An Article from a Black Conservative...
L.Unplugged
I don't believe white liberals are racists in the sense that Klansmen and neo-Nazis are, but their paternalistic vision, preconception and attitudes are far more debilitating to black Americans than today's Klansmen and neo-Nazis.
Racial Double Standards
By Walter Williams (July 30, 2001)
[CAPITALISM MAGAZINE.COM] A measure of accommodation is accorded children because they are not adults and thus not to be held to the same accountability standards. But should that same accommodation be accorded to a race of people?
In the March 2001 edition of The American Enterprise magazine, there's an article titled "The Soft Bigotry of Double Standards." Author Jonah Goldberg's first observation is: "Here's one thing we learned from the post-election Florida folderol: Black 'leaders' can say anything, and the mainstream press will take it seriously."
Jesse Jackson said, "This is a replay of Selma all over again." He yelled that "Holocaust survivors have been disenfranchised." Jackson spoke of the "blood of blacks and Jews." Not one mainstream news media outfit challenged Jackson to substantiate his claims either at the time of the Florida recount or since. In the midst of the Florida folderol, despite Jackson's ranting, New York Times correspondent Lynette Holloway wrote, "Mr. Jackson has been careful not to be inflammatory."
Goldberg says that not one of Jackson's allegations -- about blocked polling places, "targeted" blacks and Jews, harassed immigrants -- was ever brought before an actual judge. Why? Because they're all lies.
Ask yourself whether it is in any way conceivable that a prominent white conservative could invent lies about blacks and stir up white anger without a major investigation and attack launched by the mainstream press?
Some years ago, Al Sharpton tried to frame innocent men for a non-existent crime (the Tawana Brawley affair), ruining the lives of the accused. Goldberg says that, despite this, Sharpton is "treated like Gandhi with a Jerri-curl by many reporters because he's the 'authentic voice' of a 'disenfranchised' constituency."
During the presidential campaign, the NAACP ran despicable ads suggesting that then-Gov. George Bush favored the racist murder of James Byrd Jr., a Texas black man. The ad ignored the fact that Byrd's murderers had been sentenced to death. Only Fox News questioned the propriety of NAACP ads.
Peter Jennings of ABC News, suggesting that maybe Gen. Colin Powell was a GOP Uncle Tom, asked, "Do you ever feel that maybe this is the professional wing of the party trying to use you?" For white liberals, and unfortunately too many blacks, black people such as Secretary of State Colin Powell and National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice -- two eminently qualified Bush appointees -- not to mention senior Bush Supreme Court appointee Justice Clarence Thomas, aren't sufficiently black.
What might really bother white liberals is that Bush hasn't followed the tradition of appointing blacks to "black jobs."
"Unfortunately," Goldberg says, "it's almost impossible to exaggerate the degree to which the media have adopted the left-wing propaganda that (a) being black means being left-wing and (b) opposing left-wing blacks is racist." Much more racially insulting is the media elite's demeaning attitude toward black people by their failure to hold them accountable to the standards to which they hold whites.
I don't believe white liberals are racists in the sense that Klansmen and neo-Nazis are, but their paternalistic vision, preconception and attitudes are far more debilitating to black Americans than today's Klansmen and neo-Nazis. Black people know Klansmen and neo-Nazis are enemies, but liberals masquerade as trustworthy friends whose counsel is to be believed.
Since many white liberals are driven by guilt about slavery and discrimination, I've written a certificate of amnesty and pardon (available under gifts at: www.gmu.edu/departments/economics). My hope is that if white liberals can stop feeling guilty, they might stop behaving as fools in their relationship with black people.
COPYRIGHT 2001 CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC.
And His AMNESTY CERTIFICATE issued to the White Europeans so we all stop acting like Fools with our 'Sensitivity Dilemma'
Proclamation of Amnesty and Pardon Granted to
All Persons of European Descent
Whereas, Europeans kept my forebears in bondage some three centuries toiling without pay,
Whereas, Europeans ignored the human rights pledges of the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution,
Whereas, the Emancipation Proclamation, the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments meant little more than empty words,
Therefore, Americans of European ancestry are guilty of great crimes against my ancestors and their progeny.
But, in the recognition Europeans themselves have been victims of various and sundry human rights violations to wit: the Norman Conquest, the Irish Potato Famine, Decline of the Hapsburg Dynasty, Napoleonic and Czarist adventurism, and gratuitous insults and speculations about the intelligence of Europeans of Polish descent,
I, Walter E. Williams, do declare full and general amnesty and pardon to all persons of European ancestry, for both their own grievances, and those of their forebears, against my people.
Therefore, from this day forward Americans of European ancestry can stand straight and proud knowing they are without guilt and thus obliged not to act like damn fools in their relationships with Americans of African ancestry.
Walter E. Williams, Gracious and Generous Grantor
http://www.ceousa.org/
I do post here now.. An Article from a Black Conservative...
L.Unplugged
I don't believe white liberals are racists in the sense that Klansmen and neo-Nazis are, but their paternalistic vision, preconception and attitudes are far more debilitating to black Americans than today's Klansmen and neo-Nazis.
Racial Double Standards
By Walter Williams (July 30, 2001)
[CAPITALISM MAGAZINE.COM] A measure of accommodation is accorded children because they are not adults and thus not to be held to the same accountability standards. But should that same accommodation be accorded to a race of people?
In the March 2001 edition of The American Enterprise magazine, there's an article titled "The Soft Bigotry of Double Standards." Author Jonah Goldberg's first observation is: "Here's one thing we learned from the post-election Florida folderol: Black 'leaders' can say anything, and the mainstream press will take it seriously."
Jesse Jackson said, "This is a replay of Selma all over again." He yelled that "Holocaust survivors have been disenfranchised." Jackson spoke of the "blood of blacks and Jews." Not one mainstream news media outfit challenged Jackson to substantiate his claims either at the time of the Florida recount or since. In the midst of the Florida folderol, despite Jackson's ranting, New York Times correspondent Lynette Holloway wrote, "Mr. Jackson has been careful not to be inflammatory."
Goldberg says that not one of Jackson's allegations -- about blocked polling places, "targeted" blacks and Jews, harassed immigrants -- was ever brought before an actual judge. Why? Because they're all lies.
Ask yourself whether it is in any way conceivable that a prominent white conservative could invent lies about blacks and stir up white anger without a major investigation and attack launched by the mainstream press?
Some years ago, Al Sharpton tried to frame innocent men for a non-existent crime (the Tawana Brawley affair), ruining the lives of the accused. Goldberg says that, despite this, Sharpton is "treated like Gandhi with a Jerri-curl by many reporters because he's the 'authentic voice' of a 'disenfranchised' constituency."
During the presidential campaign, the NAACP ran despicable ads suggesting that then-Gov. George Bush favored the racist murder of James Byrd Jr., a Texas black man. The ad ignored the fact that Byrd's murderers had been sentenced to death. Only Fox News questioned the propriety of NAACP ads.
Peter Jennings of ABC News, suggesting that maybe Gen. Colin Powell was a GOP Uncle Tom, asked, "Do you ever feel that maybe this is the professional wing of the party trying to use you?" For white liberals, and unfortunately too many blacks, black people such as Secretary of State Colin Powell and National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice -- two eminently qualified Bush appointees -- not to mention senior Bush Supreme Court appointee Justice Clarence Thomas, aren't sufficiently black.
What might really bother white liberals is that Bush hasn't followed the tradition of appointing blacks to "black jobs."
"Unfortunately," Goldberg says, "it's almost impossible to exaggerate the degree to which the media have adopted the left-wing propaganda that (a) being black means being left-wing and (b) opposing left-wing blacks is racist." Much more racially insulting is the media elite's demeaning attitude toward black people by their failure to hold them accountable to the standards to which they hold whites.
I don't believe white liberals are racists in the sense that Klansmen and neo-Nazis are, but their paternalistic vision, preconception and attitudes are far more debilitating to black Americans than today's Klansmen and neo-Nazis. Black people know Klansmen and neo-Nazis are enemies, but liberals masquerade as trustworthy friends whose counsel is to be believed.
Since many white liberals are driven by guilt about slavery and discrimination, I've written a certificate of amnesty and pardon (available under gifts at: www.gmu.edu/departments/economics). My hope is that if white liberals can stop feeling guilty, they might stop behaving as fools in their relationship with black people.
COPYRIGHT 2001 CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC.
And His AMNESTY CERTIFICATE issued to the White Europeans so we all stop acting like Fools with our 'Sensitivity Dilemma'
Proclamation of Amnesty and Pardon Granted to
All Persons of European Descent
Whereas, Europeans kept my forebears in bondage some three centuries toiling without pay,
Whereas, Europeans ignored the human rights pledges of the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution,
Whereas, the Emancipation Proclamation, the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments meant little more than empty words,
Therefore, Americans of European ancestry are guilty of great crimes against my ancestors and their progeny.
But, in the recognition Europeans themselves have been victims of various and sundry human rights violations to wit: the Norman Conquest, the Irish Potato Famine, Decline of the Hapsburg Dynasty, Napoleonic and Czarist adventurism, and gratuitous insults and speculations about the intelligence of Europeans of Polish descent,
I, Walter E. Williams, do declare full and general amnesty and pardon to all persons of European ancestry, for both their own grievances, and those of their forebears, against my people.
Therefore, from this day forward Americans of European ancestry can stand straight and proud knowing they are without guilt and thus obliged not to act like damn fools in their relationships with Americans of African ancestry.
Walter E. Williams, Gracious and Generous Grantor
fly on the wall
The Fly
- Joined
- May 22, 2002
- Messages
- 110
U2Bama said:
Lemonite
I'm a chauvinist leprechaun
Politician, heal thyself
By Jim Caple
Page 2 columnist
Ralph Nader
News item: Consumer advocate and 2000 Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader sent David Stern a letter demanding that the NBA commissioner review the controversial calls made by referees in Game 6 of the Western Conference finals. "At a time when the public's confidence is shaken by headlines reporting the breach of trust by corporate executives," Nader awkwardly began the letter, "it is important, during the public's relaxation time, for there to be maintained a sense of impartiality and professionalism in commercial sports performances."
___________________
Charles D. Strang
NASCAR National Commissioner
Daytona Beach, FL
Commissioner Strang,
It has come to my attention that nearly four decades after the publication of my book exposing the dangers in the American auto industry, the sport of racing still remains "unsafe at any speed," but especially those in excess of 200 mph.
Sadly, despite the considerable documentation of the many risks involved, drivers continue racing their cars at speeds far exceeding those recommended by even the auto manufacturers. Further, drivers and their "pit crews'' also are known to modify the vehicles for speed purposes, thereby voiding the cars' already insufficient warranties and the manufacturers' liability.
Nor are the obvious physical risks the only unsettling aspect. Fuel economy also diminishes markedly at such speeds, to as low as an appalling four miles per gallon (compare that to the fuel-efficient hybrid models that average 60-70 mph) while the harmful carbon dioxide emissions are in gross violation of those limits set down at the Kyoto Summit.
At a time when the public's confidence is already shaken by the turmoil in the oil-rich Middle East countries and the administration's breach of the Kyoto Agreements, it is important during the public's relaxation time for there to be maintained a sense of environmental protection on our nation's enclosed road circuits.
I urge you as strenuously as possible to immediately pass the needed reforms that would set safer, more fuel-efficient and environmentally-friendly standards for all NASCAR races, beginning with a conversion to ethanol by 2004 and a 55-mph speed limit.
Sincerely,
Ralph Nader
_______________________
________________________
Paul Tagliabue
National Football League commissioner
New York, NY
Commissioner Tagliabue,
It has come to my attention that despite the development of suitable alternative materials, the NFL still insists upon the disturbing and indefensible use of genuine leather in its footballs. At least 3,000 cows are slaughtered annually just to supply the league with a season's worth of these so-called "pigskins'' -- and that is a conservative estimate. The actual number may be even higher, depending on whether you count mini-camps.
The dangers and horrendous abuses in the American meat-packing industry have been well-documented for nearly a century. The incidents of work-related injuries and dismemberments are the highest of any industry. It is even more hazardous for the cows.
At a time when the public's confidence is already shaken by the E Coli outbreaks in the fast-food industry and the threat of food contamination by terrorists -- not to mention the new Taco Bell grilled stuffed burrito -- it is important during the public's relaxation time for there to be maintained a sense of public health and worker safety on the football field. (Except for the actual players, of course.)
I urge you in the most strenuous manner possible to address this issue by immediately banning the use of leather and all animal byproducts from the league's equipment. As a substitute, may I suggest Nerf, which is synthetic and easy to grip for passing.
Sincerely,
Ralph Nader
_____________________
________________________
Allan H. Selig
Major League Baseball Commissioner
Milwaukee, WI
Commissioner Selig,
It has come to my attention that major league baseball is choosing its All-Star Game participants through an unregulated and wholly unrepresentative electoral system, vulnerable to the worst kind of voter fraud.
All-Star ballots are distributed randomly in frantic stadium settings by harried ushers who make no attempt to ascertain the fans' qualifications. Fans eager to vote are too often denied this sacred privilege, because they were standing in line for garlic fries or are at the end of a row where ushers tell them unconvincingly, "We ran out of ballots.'' Teams not only tacitly encourage other fans to cast multiple ballots, many specifically urge them to vote repeatedly for the home team's players. This not only is a flagrant violation of our country's "one man, one vote" principle, it handicaps the player on an unpopular small-market team as surely as if he were a presidential candidate barred from the League of Women Voters debates.
Worst of all, the ballots must be punched, resulting in the undercount of votes due to a preponderance of hanging chads.
At a time when the public's confidence is already shaken by the breaches in the most recent presidential election -- of which I was a personal victim -- it is important during the public's relaxation time for there to be maintained a sense of impartiality and professionalism in baseball. Or at least as much as possible outside Wrigley Field.
To return baseball's All-Star Game to its honored place as the Midsummer Classic, I urge you in the most strenuous manner possible to immediately pass the needed reforms, such as aggressively registering voters in remote areas not normally exposed to major league baseball, such as Tampa Bay.
Sincerely,
Ralph Nader
P.S. I see that Ivan Rodriguez has only three hits and yet leads American League backstops in votes. Meanwhile, Cincinnati's Adam Dunn is hitting .303 with 11 roundtrippers and isn't even on the ballot. This is exactly what I'm talking about.
________________________________________
By Jim Caple
Page 2 columnist
Ralph Nader
News item: Consumer advocate and 2000 Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader sent David Stern a letter demanding that the NBA commissioner review the controversial calls made by referees in Game 6 of the Western Conference finals. "At a time when the public's confidence is shaken by headlines reporting the breach of trust by corporate executives," Nader awkwardly began the letter, "it is important, during the public's relaxation time, for there to be maintained a sense of impartiality and professionalism in commercial sports performances."
___________________
Charles D. Strang
NASCAR National Commissioner
Daytona Beach, FL
Commissioner Strang,
It has come to my attention that nearly four decades after the publication of my book exposing the dangers in the American auto industry, the sport of racing still remains "unsafe at any speed," but especially those in excess of 200 mph.
Sadly, despite the considerable documentation of the many risks involved, drivers continue racing their cars at speeds far exceeding those recommended by even the auto manufacturers. Further, drivers and their "pit crews'' also are known to modify the vehicles for speed purposes, thereby voiding the cars' already insufficient warranties and the manufacturers' liability.
Nor are the obvious physical risks the only unsettling aspect. Fuel economy also diminishes markedly at such speeds, to as low as an appalling four miles per gallon (compare that to the fuel-efficient hybrid models that average 60-70 mph) while the harmful carbon dioxide emissions are in gross violation of those limits set down at the Kyoto Summit.
At a time when the public's confidence is already shaken by the turmoil in the oil-rich Middle East countries and the administration's breach of the Kyoto Agreements, it is important during the public's relaxation time for there to be maintained a sense of environmental protection on our nation's enclosed road circuits.
I urge you as strenuously as possible to immediately pass the needed reforms that would set safer, more fuel-efficient and environmentally-friendly standards for all NASCAR races, beginning with a conversion to ethanol by 2004 and a 55-mph speed limit.
Sincerely,
Ralph Nader
_______________________
________________________
Paul Tagliabue
National Football League commissioner
New York, NY
Commissioner Tagliabue,
It has come to my attention that despite the development of suitable alternative materials, the NFL still insists upon the disturbing and indefensible use of genuine leather in its footballs. At least 3,000 cows are slaughtered annually just to supply the league with a season's worth of these so-called "pigskins'' -- and that is a conservative estimate. The actual number may be even higher, depending on whether you count mini-camps.
The dangers and horrendous abuses in the American meat-packing industry have been well-documented for nearly a century. The incidents of work-related injuries and dismemberments are the highest of any industry. It is even more hazardous for the cows.
At a time when the public's confidence is already shaken by the E Coli outbreaks in the fast-food industry and the threat of food contamination by terrorists -- not to mention the new Taco Bell grilled stuffed burrito -- it is important during the public's relaxation time for there to be maintained a sense of public health and worker safety on the football field. (Except for the actual players, of course.)
I urge you in the most strenuous manner possible to address this issue by immediately banning the use of leather and all animal byproducts from the league's equipment. As a substitute, may I suggest Nerf, which is synthetic and easy to grip for passing.
Sincerely,
Ralph Nader
_____________________
________________________
Allan H. Selig
Major League Baseball Commissioner
Milwaukee, WI
Commissioner Selig,
It has come to my attention that major league baseball is choosing its All-Star Game participants through an unregulated and wholly unrepresentative electoral system, vulnerable to the worst kind of voter fraud.
All-Star ballots are distributed randomly in frantic stadium settings by harried ushers who make no attempt to ascertain the fans' qualifications. Fans eager to vote are too often denied this sacred privilege, because they were standing in line for garlic fries or are at the end of a row where ushers tell them unconvincingly, "We ran out of ballots.'' Teams not only tacitly encourage other fans to cast multiple ballots, many specifically urge them to vote repeatedly for the home team's players. This not only is a flagrant violation of our country's "one man, one vote" principle, it handicaps the player on an unpopular small-market team as surely as if he were a presidential candidate barred from the League of Women Voters debates.
Worst of all, the ballots must be punched, resulting in the undercount of votes due to a preponderance of hanging chads.
At a time when the public's confidence is already shaken by the breaches in the most recent presidential election -- of which I was a personal victim -- it is important during the public's relaxation time for there to be maintained a sense of impartiality and professionalism in baseball. Or at least as much as possible outside Wrigley Field.
To return baseball's All-Star Game to its honored place as the Midsummer Classic, I urge you in the most strenuous manner possible to immediately pass the needed reforms, such as aggressively registering voters in remote areas not normally exposed to major league baseball, such as Tampa Bay.
Sincerely,
Ralph Nader
P.S. I see that Ivan Rodriguez has only three hits and yet leads American League backstops in votes. Meanwhile, Cincinnati's Adam Dunn is hitting .303 with 11 roundtrippers and isn't even on the ballot. This is exactly what I'm talking about.
________________________________________
Lemonite
I'm a chauvinist leprechaun
Continuing to debunk the Environmentalist's Claims that Man is the cause of this 'Global Warming'.
L.Unplugged
Seasonal Ozone Update
Arctic ozone values similar to 1980's
Geneva, 24 April 2001 - Northern middle and high latitude ozone values during winter and spring appeared to be higher than in recent years, according to measurements released by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), issued today in Geneva. This weaker than usual ozone depletion reflects natural variations that affect the seasonal losses.
Total ozone values measured by the WMO's Global Atmosphere Watch network of ground based stations and satellites were about five per cent less than the average pre-1980 levels which are used as a 'normal' un-depleted reference. These higher ozone values are attributed to natural variations. The reduced loss is not related to the expected long-term recovery of the stratospheric ozone layer in the coming decades.
The near 'normal' Arctic ozone values in the spring of the Northern Hemisphere were a result of the Arctic stratosphere having been warmer than average for winter and spring. Warm temperatures in the lower Arctic stratosphere prevent the formation of polar stratospheric clouds that initiate and accelerate ozone destruction.
Additionally, solar activity, which is currently near the peak of its 11-year cycle, as well as the easterly phase of the stratospheric winds over the equator are contributing positively to ozone values. The observed five per cent average ozone depletion at Northern Hemisphere middle and high latitudes can be seen as a combination of these factors and a warmer than usual Arctic lower stratosphere.
Background briefing today at 14.00 hours in Pressroom 1 with
Michael Proffitt (WMO Senior Scientific Officer of the Environment Division)
John Miller (WMO Chief Environment Division)
For more information please contact:
Mo Lagarde - Information & Public Affairs (IPA)
World Meteorological Organization (WMO)
7 bis, avenue de la Paix, CH-1211 Gen?ve 2, Switzerland
Tel: +41 (22) 730 83 15 Fax: +41 (22) 730 80 27
Email: Lagarde_M@gateway.wmo.ch
Internet website: http://www.wmo.ch
L.Unplugged
Seasonal Ozone Update
Arctic ozone values similar to 1980's
Geneva, 24 April 2001 - Northern middle and high latitude ozone values during winter and spring appeared to be higher than in recent years, according to measurements released by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), issued today in Geneva. This weaker than usual ozone depletion reflects natural variations that affect the seasonal losses.
Total ozone values measured by the WMO's Global Atmosphere Watch network of ground based stations and satellites were about five per cent less than the average pre-1980 levels which are used as a 'normal' un-depleted reference. These higher ozone values are attributed to natural variations. The reduced loss is not related to the expected long-term recovery of the stratospheric ozone layer in the coming decades.
The near 'normal' Arctic ozone values in the spring of the Northern Hemisphere were a result of the Arctic stratosphere having been warmer than average for winter and spring. Warm temperatures in the lower Arctic stratosphere prevent the formation of polar stratospheric clouds that initiate and accelerate ozone destruction.
Additionally, solar activity, which is currently near the peak of its 11-year cycle, as well as the easterly phase of the stratospheric winds over the equator are contributing positively to ozone values. The observed five per cent average ozone depletion at Northern Hemisphere middle and high latitudes can be seen as a combination of these factors and a warmer than usual Arctic lower stratosphere.
Background briefing today at 14.00 hours in Pressroom 1 with
Michael Proffitt (WMO Senior Scientific Officer of the Environment Division)
John Miller (WMO Chief Environment Division)
For more information please contact:
Mo Lagarde - Information & Public Affairs (IPA)
World Meteorological Organization (WMO)
7 bis, avenue de la Paix, CH-1211 Gen?ve 2, Switzerland
Tel: +41 (22) 730 83 15 Fax: +41 (22) 730 80 27
Email: Lagarde_M@gateway.wmo.ch
Internet website: http://www.wmo.ch
Lemonite
I'm a chauvinist leprechaun
Source: Los Angeles Times
Headline: Commentary: Greens Don't See Forest for the Trees
Byline: Patrick Moore, co-founder of Greenpeace, president of Greenspirit
Dateline: Tuesday, March 26, 2002
"It has become a principle of the environmental movement to insist that wood and paper products be certified as originating from sustained, managed forests. ... Lord help those who don't fall in line, as big-box retailers and builders discovered when Greenpeace and the Rainforest Action Network became their judge and jury - hanging corporate reputations from the rafters with the TV cameras rolling."
"The environmental movement's campaign to force industry into accepting it as the only judge of sustainable forestry is pushing consumers away from renewable forest products and toward nonrenewable, energy-intensive materials such as steel, concrete and plastic."
"Wood is the most renewable and sustainable of the major building materials. On all measures comparing the environmental effects of common building materials, wood has the least impact on total energy use, greenhouse gases, air and water pollution and solid waste. So why isn't the environmental movement demanding that the steel and concrete industries submit to an audit for "sustainability"? ... Because emotive images of forests sell memberships."
"The environmental movement has unfortunately led the public into believing that when people use wood, they cause the loss of forests. This widespread guilt is misplaced. North America's forests are not disappearing. In fact, there is about the same amount of forest cover today as there was 100 years ago, even though we consume more wood per capita than any other region in the world. Isn't this proof positive that forests are renewable and sustainable?"
"When we buy wood, we are sending a signal to plant more trees to satisfy demand. If there were no demand for wood, landowners would clear away the forest and grow something else instead."
Headline: Commentary: Greens Don't See Forest for the Trees
Byline: Patrick Moore, co-founder of Greenpeace, president of Greenspirit
Dateline: Tuesday, March 26, 2002
"It has become a principle of the environmental movement to insist that wood and paper products be certified as originating from sustained, managed forests. ... Lord help those who don't fall in line, as big-box retailers and builders discovered when Greenpeace and the Rainforest Action Network became their judge and jury - hanging corporate reputations from the rafters with the TV cameras rolling."
"The environmental movement's campaign to force industry into accepting it as the only judge of sustainable forestry is pushing consumers away from renewable forest products and toward nonrenewable, energy-intensive materials such as steel, concrete and plastic."
"Wood is the most renewable and sustainable of the major building materials. On all measures comparing the environmental effects of common building materials, wood has the least impact on total energy use, greenhouse gases, air and water pollution and solid waste. So why isn't the environmental movement demanding that the steel and concrete industries submit to an audit for "sustainability"? ... Because emotive images of forests sell memberships."
"The environmental movement has unfortunately led the public into believing that when people use wood, they cause the loss of forests. This widespread guilt is misplaced. North America's forests are not disappearing. In fact, there is about the same amount of forest cover today as there was 100 years ago, even though we consume more wood per capita than any other region in the world. Isn't this proof positive that forests are renewable and sustainable?"
"When we buy wood, we are sending a signal to plant more trees to satisfy demand. If there were no demand for wood, landowners would clear away the forest and grow something else instead."
- Status
