Good morning to you,how are you doing hope you fine and in perfect order.My names are Lewis Lamptey i am 11 yrs old and i am from DR Congo,i came to Ghana after the murder of my parents 2 mouths ago by hired assasin by someone i don't know,before they got to him in the house he revealed to me that i should come to Ghana with the documents in a small box,if i get a trust worth foreign partner to help me make claim to the fund he deposited in an Escrow account in Unique Trust Bank Ghana.The woman whom i am with now cannot read she is not correct and people around call her crazy woman,and she cannot help me in this matter,i am contacting you to help me as my foreign partner so i can get my life back,go to school and have a family that will care for me,i do know what to do that is why i am contacting you to assist me.
08 June 2011
US Representative Walter Jones, of North Carolina's Camp Lejeune/US Marine district says: STOP THE DAMNED AFGHANISTAN WAR / To Republicans, he was a pariah; now he's a prophet and leader
Click photo to enlarge.
The New York Times
(daily broadsheet USA)
on-line: Monday 6 June 2011
print: Tuesday 7 June 2011
Antiwar Republican Is
(daily broadsheet USA)
on-line: Monday 6 June 2011
print: Tuesday 7 June 2011
Antiwar Republican Is
No Longer Party’s Pariah
by James Dao
GREENVILLE, N.C. -- On matters like abortion, military spending and religion, Representative Walter B. Jones seems thoroughly in tune with this conservative, staunchly Republican district in eastern North Carolina, home to the Marine Corps’ Camp Lejeune and thousands of military retirees.
========================
Walter B. Jones
AGE: 68
EDUCATION: Atlantic Christian College, B.A.
FAMILY: Wife, Joe Anne Jones, and one daughter.
POLITICAL EXPERIENCE: After losing his first race for Congress as a Democrat in 1992, seeking to fill his late father’s seat, he switched parties and won election in a different district in 1994.
FAMILY HISTORY: Eighty-four years after he died, Mr. Jones’s grandfather was awarded a Purple Heart in 2010 for injuries caused by poison gas in World War I.
DOWN TIME: Tennis and grocery shopping for his family.
========================
On the issue of war, however, Mr. Jones has defied typecasting. An early critic of the American invasion of Iraq, he has been ostracized by the Republican leadership in Congress. And now he is emerging as a leading advocate for swiftly withdrawing American forces from Afghanistan, a position that has made him, of all things, a liberal hero.
“When you talk about war, political parties don’t matter,” he said in an interview.
But Mr. Jones may no longer be the outlier he was six years ago. Late last month, an amendment intended to accelerate the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan sponsored by Mr. Jones and Representative Jim McGovern, Democrat of Massachusetts, nearly passed — in part because 26 Republicans broke with their leadership to support it, triple the number who voted for a similar measure last year. Their ranks included at least three freshmen elected with Tea Party support.
Some foreign policy analysts now see Mr. Jones, 68; Representative Ron Paul, Republican of Texas; and a small coterie of Tea Party stalwarts as the leading edge of a conservative movement to rein in American military power — a break from the muscular foreign policy of President George W. Bush.
“They reflect a growing discontent within the Republican Party about the wars and a growing feeling that they don’t want to spend money on them anymore,” said John Isaacs, executive director of the Council for a Livable World, an advocacy group that promotes arms control. “They are military noninterventionists.”
Mr. Jones agreed, saying: “We can’t police the world anymore. We’re not the world power. It’s China. Our economy is in chaos.”
Conversations with voters in Mr. Jones’s district, which embraces much of North Carolina’s Atlantic coastline, suggest that many who were baffled or infuriated by his opposition to the Iraq war in 2005 are liking his views on Afghanistan in 2011.
At a Memorial Day event in Beaufort on May 28, August Braddy, 68, declared that Mr. Jones — who over eight terms has voted with the American Conservative Union more than 80 percent of the time — was too liberal. But on Afghanistan, Mr. Braddy, who was wearing a red Tea Party shirt, said he thought Mr. Jones was right.
“We’re broke; we can’t afford it,” he said. “We did what we went there to do: get Bin Laden.”
Polls suggest that Republican voters are moving in Mr. Jones’s direction. In a New York Times/CBS News poll last month, 43 percent of Republicans said the United States should reduce troop strength in Afghanistan, double the number who said that in November 2009. Some prominent Republicans, including Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi and Grover Norquist, the antitax champion, have also begun questioning the American mission in Afghanistan.
Still, the vast majority of Republicans in Congress remain supportive of the war. On Mr. Jones’s amendment, 207 Republicans voted no, while 178 Democrats voted in favor. But the amendment failed by just 11 votes, and Mr. Jones believes that by fall, it will pass.
For many of the Republicans who are questioning the war, cost is clearly the driving factor. Mr. Jones makes that case in his district, telling voters that spending $8,000,000,000 a month to prop up what he calls a corrupt government is a waste of money.
“If we’re going to cut programs for children who need milk in the morning, if we’re going to cut programs for seniors who need a sandwich at lunch, if we’re going to cut veterans benefits, then, for God’s sake, let’s bring back our troops from Afghanistan,” he said in Beaufort, to loud applause.
But Mr. Jones’s wrenching odyssey from disciple of Speaker Newt Gingrich to war opponent was far more about personal guilt than budget deficits.
The son of a Democratic congressman, Mr. Jones was elected in the Republican tide of 1994 with the support of a conservative icon, Senator Jesse Helms of North Carolina. He came to be a steadfast supporter of Mr. Gingrich’s small-government agenda.
In 2002, Mr. Jones voted for the resolution authorizing the invasion of Iraq. He also persuaded House cafeterias to rename their French fries “freedom fries,” tweaking the French government for opposing the invasion.
But Mr. Jones now says he had misgivings about the vote almost immediately. After he attended his first funeral at Camp Lejeune for a Marine killed just weeks into the invasion, those misgivings grew into pangs of doubt.
He started writing letters to the relatives of every American killed in Iraq or Afghanistan. (He has signed more than 10,370 at last count.) And he began consulting with critics of the invasion, including Gen. Anthony C. Zinni, a retired Marine.
“I came to believe we were misled, we were lied to,” Mr. Jones said recently. “The people around Bush manipulated the intelligence.”
In June 2005, he stunned his party establishment by appearing at a news conference with Mr. Paul and Representative Dennis Kucinich, a liberal Ohio Democrat, to call on Mr. Bush to start reducing troop levels in Iraq.
Mr. Jones’s offices were immediately flooded with calls from angry constituents who branded him a traitor and demanded his resignation. He made the cover of Mother Jones magazine in 2006 and drew a tough primary challenge in 2008 from an opponent who called him “a poster boy for the left.” Mr. Jones won handily.
A convert to Roman Catholicism, Mr. Jones says he has not missed a Sunday Mass in nearly 40 years. His faith, he says, caused him to question the war.
“I did not vote my conscience and I sent kids to die, and they didn’t have to go,” he said. “I thank God that he made me feel guilty about my vote on Iraq.”
Afghanistan is different from Iraq, he says, because he believes that the latter invasion was justified. But he has come to believe that the strategy of trying to strengthen the government of President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan and build that country’s security forces is doomed.
In Beaufort, about 50 miles from Camp Lejeune, several former Marines at the Memorial Day event agreed.
“We’re losing a lot of people there and not seeing anything in return,” said Gregory Barnett, who spent 22 years in the Marine Corps. “Now that we’ve gotten Bin Laden, we’ve been there long enough.”
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: June 6, 2011
An earlier version of this article misstated the timing of the vote on Mr. Jones's troop withdrawal amendment as "last week."
A version of this article appeared in print on June 7, 2011, on page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: Republican Who Broke Ranks On War Is an Outcast No More.
by James Dao
GREENVILLE, N.C. -- On matters like abortion, military spending and religion, Representative Walter B. Jones seems thoroughly in tune with this conservative, staunchly Republican district in eastern North Carolina, home to the Marine Corps’ Camp Lejeune and thousands of military retirees.
========================
Walter B. Jones
AGE: 68
EDUCATION: Atlantic Christian College, B.A.
FAMILY: Wife, Joe Anne Jones, and one daughter.
POLITICAL EXPERIENCE: After losing his first race for Congress as a Democrat in 1992, seeking to fill his late father’s seat, he switched parties and won election in a different district in 1994.
FAMILY HISTORY: Eighty-four years after he died, Mr. Jones’s grandfather was awarded a Purple Heart in 2010 for injuries caused by poison gas in World War I.
DOWN TIME: Tennis and grocery shopping for his family.
========================
On the issue of war, however, Mr. Jones has defied typecasting. An early critic of the American invasion of Iraq, he has been ostracized by the Republican leadership in Congress. And now he is emerging as a leading advocate for swiftly withdrawing American forces from Afghanistan, a position that has made him, of all things, a liberal hero.
“When you talk about war, political parties don’t matter,” he said in an interview.
But Mr. Jones may no longer be the outlier he was six years ago. Late last month, an amendment intended to accelerate the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan sponsored by Mr. Jones and Representative Jim McGovern, Democrat of Massachusetts, nearly passed — in part because 26 Republicans broke with their leadership to support it, triple the number who voted for a similar measure last year. Their ranks included at least three freshmen elected with Tea Party support.
Some foreign policy analysts now see Mr. Jones, 68; Representative Ron Paul, Republican of Texas; and a small coterie of Tea Party stalwarts as the leading edge of a conservative movement to rein in American military power — a break from the muscular foreign policy of President George W. Bush.
“They reflect a growing discontent within the Republican Party about the wars and a growing feeling that they don’t want to spend money on them anymore,” said John Isaacs, executive director of the Council for a Livable World, an advocacy group that promotes arms control. “They are military noninterventionists.”
Mr. Jones agreed, saying: “We can’t police the world anymore. We’re not the world power. It’s China. Our economy is in chaos.”
Conversations with voters in Mr. Jones’s district, which embraces much of North Carolina’s Atlantic coastline, suggest that many who were baffled or infuriated by his opposition to the Iraq war in 2005 are liking his views on Afghanistan in 2011.
At a Memorial Day event in Beaufort on May 28, August Braddy, 68, declared that Mr. Jones — who over eight terms has voted with the American Conservative Union more than 80 percent of the time — was too liberal. But on Afghanistan, Mr. Braddy, who was wearing a red Tea Party shirt, said he thought Mr. Jones was right.
“We’re broke; we can’t afford it,” he said. “We did what we went there to do: get Bin Laden.”
Polls suggest that Republican voters are moving in Mr. Jones’s direction. In a New York Times/CBS News poll last month, 43 percent of Republicans said the United States should reduce troop strength in Afghanistan, double the number who said that in November 2009. Some prominent Republicans, including Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi and Grover Norquist, the antitax champion, have also begun questioning the American mission in Afghanistan.
Still, the vast majority of Republicans in Congress remain supportive of the war. On Mr. Jones’s amendment, 207 Republicans voted no, while 178 Democrats voted in favor. But the amendment failed by just 11 votes, and Mr. Jones believes that by fall, it will pass.
For many of the Republicans who are questioning the war, cost is clearly the driving factor. Mr. Jones makes that case in his district, telling voters that spending $8,000,000,000 a month to prop up what he calls a corrupt government is a waste of money.
“If we’re going to cut programs for children who need milk in the morning, if we’re going to cut programs for seniors who need a sandwich at lunch, if we’re going to cut veterans benefits, then, for God’s sake, let’s bring back our troops from Afghanistan,” he said in Beaufort, to loud applause.
But Mr. Jones’s wrenching odyssey from disciple of Speaker Newt Gingrich to war opponent was far more about personal guilt than budget deficits.
The son of a Democratic congressman, Mr. Jones was elected in the Republican tide of 1994 with the support of a conservative icon, Senator Jesse Helms of North Carolina. He came to be a steadfast supporter of Mr. Gingrich’s small-government agenda.
In 2002, Mr. Jones voted for the resolution authorizing the invasion of Iraq. He also persuaded House cafeterias to rename their French fries “freedom fries,” tweaking the French government for opposing the invasion.
But Mr. Jones now says he had misgivings about the vote almost immediately. After he attended his first funeral at Camp Lejeune for a Marine killed just weeks into the invasion, those misgivings grew into pangs of doubt.
He started writing letters to the relatives of every American killed in Iraq or Afghanistan. (He has signed more than 10,370 at last count.) And he began consulting with critics of the invasion, including Gen. Anthony C. Zinni, a retired Marine.
“I came to believe we were misled, we were lied to,” Mr. Jones said recently. “The people around Bush manipulated the intelligence.”
In June 2005, he stunned his party establishment by appearing at a news conference with Mr. Paul and Representative Dennis Kucinich, a liberal Ohio Democrat, to call on Mr. Bush to start reducing troop levels in Iraq.
Mr. Jones’s offices were immediately flooded with calls from angry constituents who branded him a traitor and demanded his resignation. He made the cover of Mother Jones magazine in 2006 and drew a tough primary challenge in 2008 from an opponent who called him “a poster boy for the left.” Mr. Jones won handily.
A convert to Roman Catholicism, Mr. Jones says he has not missed a Sunday Mass in nearly 40 years. His faith, he says, caused him to question the war.
“I did not vote my conscience and I sent kids to die, and they didn’t have to go,” he said. “I thank God that he made me feel guilty about my vote on Iraq.”
Afghanistan is different from Iraq, he says, because he believes that the latter invasion was justified. But he has come to believe that the strategy of trying to strengthen the government of President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan and build that country’s security forces is doomed.
In Beaufort, about 50 miles from Camp Lejeune, several former Marines at the Memorial Day event agreed.
“We’re losing a lot of people there and not seeing anything in return,” said Gregory Barnett, who spent 22 years in the Marine Corps. “Now that we’ve gotten Bin Laden, we’ve been there long enough.”
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: June 6, 2011
An earlier version of this article misstated the timing of the vote on Mr. Jones's troop withdrawal amendment as "last week."
A version of this article appeared in print on June 7, 2011, on page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: Republican Who Broke Ranks On War Is an Outcast No More.
- 30 -
04 June 2011
Don't eat the salad in Mitteleuropa! / Escherichia coli epidemic in Germany and Austria mystifies investigators
Click image to enlarge.
Der Spiegel ("The Mirror," news magazine, Germany)
Tuesday 31 May 2011
The Epidemic Detectives
The Hunt for the Source
Tuesday 31 May 2011
The Epidemic Detectives
The Hunt for the Source
of Germany's E. Coli Outbreak
by Veronika Hackenbroch, Samiha Shafy and Frank Thadeusz
Germany's E. coli epidemic, which has killed as many as 15 people so far, has alarmed doctors, who have never seen such an aggressive intestinal bacteria before. Epidemiologists are desperately searching for the origin of the deadly bacteria.
by Veronika Hackenbroch, Samiha Shafy and Frank Thadeusz
Germany's E. coli epidemic, which has killed as many as 15 people so far, has alarmed doctors, who have never seen such an aggressive intestinal bacteria before. Epidemiologists are desperately searching for the origin of the deadly bacteria.
The eeriest thing of all, according to Rolf Stahl, is the way patients change. "Their awareness becomes blurred, they have problems finding words and they don't quite know where they are," says Stahl. And then there is this surprising aggressiveness. "We are dealing with a completely new clinical picture," he notes.
Stahl, a 62-year-old kidney specialist, has been the head of the Third Medical Clinic and Polyclinic at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE) for almost 18 years. "But none of us doctors has ever experienced anything quite like this," he says. His staff has been working around the clock for the last week or so. "We decide at short notice who can go and get some sleep."
The bacterium that is currently terrifying the country is an enterohemorrhagic strain of the bacterium Escherichia coli (EHEC), a close relative of harmless intestinal bacteria, but one that produces the dangerous Shiga toxin. All it takes is about 100 bacteria -- which isn't much in the world of bacteria, which are normally counted by the millions -- to become infected. After an incubation period of two to 10 days, patients experience watery or bloody diarrhea.
'The Situation Is Deteriorating Dramatically'
But Stahl only sees the most severe cases, those in which EHEC also attacks the blood, kidneys and brain. These patients suffer from a life-threatening complication known as hemolytic-uremic syndrome (HUS). About 10 days after the diarrhea begins, the red blood cells suddenly disintegrate, blood clotting stops working and the kidneys fail. In many cases patients need dialysis to stay alive.
"The situation is deteriorating dramatically for our patients," says Stahl. "And the worst thing is that we don't know what's causing it."
In Germany, about 60 people a year contract hemolytic-uremic syndrome after being infected with EHEC. Last week, there were as many cases in a single day. According to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), the national German institution responsible for disease control and prevention, there were 276 HUS patients in German hospitals by Friday.
By Tuesday there were 373 confirmed cases of HUS across Germany. As many as 15 people may have died from EHEC in Germany so far in the current outbreak. Cases have also been reported in Sweden, Denmark, Britain, Austria and the Netherlands. Meanwhile Russia has banned imports of cucumbers, tomatoes and fresh salad from Spain and Germany.
Impressive Detective Work
The story of the outbreak began in Stahl's clinic. When the first patient suspected of having contracted HUS was admitted there on a Wednesday evening two weeks ago, none of the doctors had any idea what they were facing. "We weren't even thinking of EHEC at first," says Stahl, "because it normally only affects children." In adults, on the other hand, HUS can also be caused by genetic defects and autoimmune diseases, or as a side effect of cancer treatment.
By the next day, however, there were suddenly seven or eight cases in the ward, and the laboratory reported that they were all infected with EHEC. Hamburg promptly notified the Robert Koch Institute.
The process that began at that point and reached its preliminary climax at the end of last week with the closing of two vegetable production operations in Spain is an example of impressive epidemiological detective work. It involves close cooperation among vigilant doctors, epidemiologists thinking practically and detail-oriented laboratory scientists.
For the disease control experts at the RKI, it was primarily a matter of addressing two tasks simultaneously and as quickly as possible: to find the contaminated food products and to determine the type of bacterium involved.
Extremely Rare
Helge Karch, the director of the RKI's EHEC consulting laboratory at the Münster University Hospital in western Germany, has devoted almost his entire life as a researcher to EHEC bacteria. "But I've never encountered something like this," he says.
The first stool sample arrived in his lab on Monday. The first cases had already appeared in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia by then.
Karch's staff members began their analysis right away. The result was clear by Wednesday evening: It was the extremely rare serotype O104:H4.
Karch spent a sleepless night in front of his computer. The serotype he had identified was so rare that he had only encountered it once in three decades. But had this bacterium ever triggered an epidemic before?
After searching through a database for medical journals, Karch found only one article under the search term "O104:H4": a case study from Korea. In the Korean case, as in most of the German cases, an adult woman had contracted EHEC, which is completely atypical for EHEC.
Plague DNA
Karch kept himself awake with coffee, and to relax he went for walks with his German shepherd. "Can you imagine what I'm going through?" he wrote in an email to Phillip Tarr at Washington University in St. Louis. His response came at 4:27 a.m.: "Epidemics are for younger men." Tarr, the second major EHEC expert next to Karch, had also never heard of an O104:H4 outbreak.
In the email, Karch speculated over why the disease wasn't happening in children, as is normally the case, but only in adults. And why was the infection striking more people that ever before in Germany -- so many, in fact, that dialysis stations in several hospitals were almost full?
Karch and others speculate that the problem could lie in the pathogen itself. Perhaps the genetic material of this rare bacterium has mutated again, so that its toxin or its bond to the intestinal cells it damages has become stronger. Doctors hope that a complete sequencing of the genome, which is now being performed in Münster, will offer some answers.
On Tuesday, the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung reported that Karch had discovered that the O104:H4 bacteria responsible for the current outbreak is a so-called chimera that contains genetic materia from various E. coli bacteria. It also contains DNA sequences from plague bacteria, which makes it particularly pathogenic. There is no risk, however, that it could cause a form of plague, Karch emphasized in remarks to the newspaper.
01 June 2011
Herbert C. Brown / William Lipscomb's modified periodic table of the elements which puts boron in its proper perspective.
Click periodic table of elements to enlarge.
Herbert C. Brown (1912-2004, born Herbert Brovarnik in London, emigrated to USA at age 2, naturalized citizen 1936) won the 1979 Nobel Chemistry Prize for his lifetime of investigation of the chemical element boron.
When he was graduated from the University of Chicago in 1936, he and his fiancee Sarah Baylen were so broke that a used book on boron was all she could afford as a graduation gift. Brown credited that primitive book with his lifetime obsession.
William N. Lipscomb (Nobel Chemistry 1976) also obsessed on the chemical bonds of boron and produced this periodic table to reflect boron's paramount importance among all the elements. It hung above the blackboard in Brown's Purdue classroom.
31 May 2011
Now for sale on eBay! Heavy water! 10 grams of deuterium oxide!
Now for sale on eBay:
10 grams pure deuterium oxide (D2O, heavy water) in glass vial
Deuterium is a rare isotope of hydrogen (making up 0.015% of all hydrogen) that, unlike regular hydrogen, has a neutron. This neutron doubles its mass and gives it slightly different chemical properties. Full D2O molecules (as opposed to DHO molecules) make up about 0.0000023% of all water molecules.
Deuterium oxide, or heavy water, is about 11% heavier than regular water. It also has a higher melting point and higher boiling point. It is nontoxic, though it cannot be taken as a replacement for regular water. Studies have shown that a body water mass of about 50% deuterium oxide is fatal. Deuterium oxide is used in some nuclear reactors as a neutron moderator. Regular water and some other materials can also be used for this purpose.
24 May 2011
The Hampshire-Franklin Variola Protective Collective / Smallpox lives! / Pick on something your own size
Click image to enlarge.
Comments from previous
EuroVision Song Contest Post
================
patfromch said...
Oh, it was TermiteFunFest again ? Apparently the Swiss came in last, no surprise there. I still shudder to think that the last time we won this nonsense bloody flaming Celine Dion had to help us. Who would have thought that this foghorn would have a world career with the same godawful kwatsch ? And who would have thought she is still around, doing that very same kwatsch ?
Panem et circenses for the dumbed down masses, a freak show for people with more enthusiasm than talent and bigger egos than brains for 15 minutes of fame. And how come I write almost the same rant every year ?
Monday, 23 May, 2011
================
patfromch said...
Oh, it was TermiteFunFest again ? Apparently the Swiss came in last, no surprise there. I still shudder to think that the last time we won this nonsense bloody flaming Celine Dion had to help us. Who would have thought that this foghorn would have a world career with the same godawful kwatsch ? And who would have thought she is still around, doing that very same kwatsch ?
Panem et circenses for the dumbed down masses, a freak show for people with more enthusiasm than talent and bigger egos than brains for 15 minutes of fame. And how come I write almost the same rant every year ?
Monday, 23 May, 2011
Blogger Vleeptron Dude said...
First time I visited Yerp, I was stumbling around Amsterdam and a huge crowd of tourists encircled Leidseplein. A family of street performers ... one fellow, about 20, took a huge swig from a bottle that said LAMPFUIL, then put a match to his lips, and began blowing a huge fireball of flame out of his mouth.
Two young American women were standing within earshot of me. One was mesmerized. The other was disgusted, both at the Fire Eater (a real minimalist mega-tattooed punk), and at her friend for wasting 0.002 seconds of her life watching this primitive special.
"Well, that's Show Biz," she said, grabbed her friend's arm, and dragged her away.
Jeez -- if I want to catch next year's TermiteFest, and I fall asleep on the train, I could wake up in IRAN!!!
Surprise Surprise! Did you read the lyrics to "Running Scared"? The winning song was about .................. LOVE!!!
(Bring back Lordi!)
Tuesday, 24 May, 2011
First time I visited Yerp, I was stumbling around Amsterdam and a huge crowd of tourists encircled Leidseplein. A family of street performers ... one fellow, about 20, took a huge swig from a bottle that said LAMPFUIL, then put a match to his lips, and began blowing a huge fireball of flame out of his mouth.
Two young American women were standing within earshot of me. One was mesmerized. The other was disgusted, both at the Fire Eater (a real minimalist mega-tattooed punk), and at her friend for wasting 0.002 seconds of her life watching this primitive special.
"Well, that's Show Biz," she said, grabbed her friend's arm, and dragged her away.
Jeez -- if I want to catch next year's TermiteFest, and I fall asleep on the train, I could wake up in IRAN!!!
Surprise Surprise! Did you read the lyrics to "Running Scared"? The winning song was about .................. LOVE!!!
(Bring back Lordi!)
Tuesday, 24 May, 2011
Blogger Vleeptron Dude said...
CORRECTION
(just wake up, not enough coffee yet ...)
...for wasting 0.002 seconds of her life watching this primitive ***spectacle***.
Tuesday, 24 May, 2011
CORRECTION
(just wake up, not enough coffee yet ...)
...for wasting 0.002 seconds of her life watching this primitive ***spectacle***.
Tuesday, 24 May, 2011
Anonymous patfromch said...
I too have walked down the Leitseplein, lots of good restaurants, cheep beer, good coffee shops with extra menue.
Now just for laughs what if one country would send something avant garde and radical, like Einstürzende Neubauten in their prime, Diamanda Galas, John Zorn with Torture Garden or something as loud and drastic as The Ramones to this event ? Something so alien, strange and shocking to the termites it would provoke a massive scandal. Now that would be fun ! Maybe we Swiss could to that, we always end up last so there would be nothing to loose anyway.
Tuesday, 24 May, 2011
I too have walked down the Leitseplein, lots of good restaurants, cheep beer, good coffee shops with extra menue.
Now just for laughs what if one country would send something avant garde and radical, like Einstürzende Neubauten in their prime, Diamanda Galas, John Zorn with Torture Garden or something as loud and drastic as The Ramones to this event ? Something so alien, strange and shocking to the termites it would provoke a massive scandal. Now that would be fun ! Maybe we Swiss could to that, we always end up last so there would be nothing to loose anyway.
Tuesday, 24 May, 2011
Anonymous Anonymous said...
something your own size - smallpox virus lives on!
Tuesday, 24 May, 2011
Blogger Vleeptron Dude said...
Well, Anonymous Anonymous' comment about smallpox is certainly very strange.
A week before April Fool's Day sometime around 1980, me and a bunch of pals decided to crank out a press release to all the local media from the
Well, Anonymous Anonymous' comment about smallpox is certainly very strange.
A week before April Fool's Day sometime around 1980, me and a bunch of pals decided to crank out a press release to all the local media from the
Hampshire-Franklin
Variola Protective Collective
Variola Protective Collective
to protest the plans of the World Health Organization to destroy the last samples of smallbox virus (variola) on Earth -- in 2 refrigerators, one in the USA, the other in the Soviet Union.
We announced a meeting at the University of Massachusetts. We had a biology professor from NYU who was going to talk about the proposed National MicroZoo, after which we were going to show a documentary film, "Something Your Own Size," narrated by Robert Redford. The meeting was scheduled for the evening of 1 April.
2 local newspapers ran our press release -- but both editors smelled something very fishy about it, made some phone calls, and wrote that as far as they were concerned, the Hampshire-Franklin Variola Protective Collective was a big April Fool's fraud.
So who the hell is this Anonymous? Were you part of the H-FVPC???
Tuesday, 24 May, 2011
We announced a meeting at the University of Massachusetts. We had a biology professor from NYU who was going to talk about the proposed National MicroZoo, after which we were going to show a documentary film, "Something Your Own Size," narrated by Robert Redford. The meeting was scheduled for the evening of 1 April.
2 local newspapers ran our press release -- but both editors smelled something very fishy about it, made some phone calls, and wrote that as far as they were concerned, the Hampshire-Franklin Variola Protective Collective was a big April Fool's fraud.
So who the hell is this Anonymous? Were you part of the H-FVPC???
Tuesday, 24 May, 2011
23 May 2011
Ell and Nikki win Eurovision Song Contest in Düsseldorf!!! / Next year it's in Baku, Ajerbaijan!!! Make your reservations NOW!
Click images to enlarge.
BBC News
Saturday 14 May 2011
Azerbaijan wins
Eurovision Song Contest
Next year's contest will be held
Saturday 14 May 2011
Azerbaijan wins
Eurovision Song Contest
Next year's contest will be held
in the winner's capital city of Baku
Azerbaijan has been crowned the winner of this year's Eurovision Song Contest in Germany, while the UK came 11th.
Eldar Gasimov and Nigar Jamal of Ell/Nikki were voted Europe's favourites, after scoring 221 points with their love song, Running Scared.
Newly reformed band Blue notched up 100 points, whilst Ireland's entry, X Factor twins Jedward, finished eighth.
Italy's Raphael Gualazzi took second place, followed by Eric Saade from Sweden.
'Happiest man'
It is the first time that Azerbaijan has won the contest in the incredibly schlocky kitschy contest's 56-year history, having only joined Eurovision in 2008.
Although Jamal was born in Azerbaijan, she currently lives in north London with her husband and two daughters.
On receiving the trophy, Gasimov said he was the "the happiest man in the world".
It was another disappointing year for the UK, which has not won the competition since 1997, when Katrina and the Waves triumphed with Love Shine a Light.
However, Blue managed to notch up a respectable score compared with last year's entry, who came last with only 10 points.
At one early stage during the voting process Bulgaria and Italy both awarded the UK high scores, making it briefly top of the results table.
Host Graham Norton joked: "Quick, someone take a picture."
Last year's winner Lena Mayer-Landrut, who represented Germany again, beat the UK by seven points to finish 10th.
Viewers at home in all 43 competing nations voted for their favourite song by phone or text message, which accounted for half of each country's vote.
The other 50% was determined by five-member expert juries in each participating country.
Two rounds of semi-finals held earlier in the week whittled the competitors down to 25 finalists.
The event, which was hosted by Anke Engelke, Judith Rakers and Stefan Raab, attracted 35,000 to the Fortuna Düsseldorf Arena.
Azerbaijan has been crowned the winner of this year's Eurovision Song Contest in Germany, while the UK came 11th.
Eldar Gasimov and Nigar Jamal of Ell/Nikki were voted Europe's favourites, after scoring 221 points with their love song, Running Scared.
Newly reformed band Blue notched up 100 points, whilst Ireland's entry, X Factor twins Jedward, finished eighth.
Italy's Raphael Gualazzi took second place, followed by Eric Saade from Sweden.
'Happiest man'
It is the first time that Azerbaijan has won the contest in the incredibly schlocky kitschy contest's 56-year history, having only joined Eurovision in 2008.
Although Jamal was born in Azerbaijan, she currently lives in north London with her husband and two daughters.
On receiving the trophy, Gasimov said he was the "the happiest man in the world".
It was another disappointing year for the UK, which has not won the competition since 1997, when Katrina and the Waves triumphed with Love Shine a Light.
However, Blue managed to notch up a respectable score compared with last year's entry, who came last with only 10 points.
At one early stage during the voting process Bulgaria and Italy both awarded the UK high scores, making it briefly top of the results table.
Host Graham Norton joked: "Quick, someone take a picture."
Last year's winner Lena Mayer-Landrut, who represented Germany again, beat the UK by seven points to finish 10th.
Viewers at home in all 43 competing nations voted for their favourite song by phone or text message, which accounted for half of each country's vote.
The other 50% was determined by five-member expert juries in each participating country.
Two rounds of semi-finals held earlier in the week whittled the competitors down to 25 finalists.
The event, which was hosted by Anke Engelke, Judith Rakers and Stefan Raab, attracted 35,000 to the Fortuna Düsseldorf Arena.
- 30 -
COMMENTS:
ztoical
15th May 2011 - 15:35
I love Eurovision and watch every year and am happy for my tv licence money to go towards it....I don't watch Dr. Who or Football or Eastenders, there will always be stuff on tv you don't watch but someone else does so stop moaning about it. It's 3 odd hours one saturday a year not the end of the world, just enjoy the event and stop reading to much into everything.
origami Penguin
15th May 2011 - 14:07
It's just a bit of fun. Personally, I don't care who wins. People ought to lighten up instead of treating it like a modern media version of the Hundred Years War.
JohnnyBoyinParis
15th May 2011 - 13:49
Isn't it rather strange that most of these groups sing in English? Shouldn't there be a rule that you must sing in your mother tongue i.e. in the language (or one of the several languages) of the participating country? I thought that Europe meant cultural and linguistic diversity. All these songs sound like Mid-Atlantic goo, without any connection to the culture of the country concerned.
deanarabin
15th May 2011 - 12:48
No, I didn't watch it, because I don't like either that kind of music or that kind of show. But a lot of people do, and anything which brings so many countries together in an informal and (I suppose) mainly friendly way can't be bad. So long live the thing until too many people get fed up with it .
Apochrypha
15th May 2011 - 9:30
Eurovision is absolutely abysmal but it is something to be treasured. Fetish tv at it's worst. Today will be full of people asking "Did you see it?" and you'll be hard put to find somebody who says 'yes' even though they sat glued to every minute.
Of course, I didn't see it myself, never watched it... never have watched it either..... 11th place? Really? Better luck next year then ;-)
==============
"Running Scared"
winner Eurovision Song Contest 2011
Performer: Ell/Nikki
Song writer(s): Stefan Örn (Razor Boy Music Publishing Sweden), Sandra Bjurman
Song composer(s): Stefan Örn (Razor Boy Music Publishing Sweden), Sandra Bjurman, Iain James Farquharson (Sony / ATV UK)
Come to me, come to me tonight
Oh god I need you, anyway... baby
I just wanna be, be around you all the time
Oh god I need you.. oh...
I'm running I'm scared tonight
I'm running I'm scared of life
I'm running I'm scared of breathing
Coz I adore you
I'm running I'm scared tonight
I'm running I'm scared of breathing
Coz I adore you
Come to me, come to me a bit more
Oh god I need you, there's nothing left for me to say
So rest on me darling, stay forever more
Oh god I need you, I need you
I'm running I'm scared tonight
I'm running I'm scared of life
I'm running I'm scared of breathing
Coz I adore you
I'm running I'm scared tonight
I'm running I'm scared of breathing
Coz I adore you
Oh, what I wouldn't give away
To be you're shelter and keep you safe… oh… oh..
I'm running I'm scared tonight
I'm running I'm scared of life
I'm running I'm scared of breathing
Coz I adore you
I'm running I'm scared tonight
I'm running I'm scared of breathing
Coz I adore you
21 May 2011
Okay 70 minutes until The End of The World hereabouts! / hot white babes go to the head of the Rapture line!
Click image to enlarge.
The website from which I filched these two images of The Rapture pointed out that the artists seem to suggest that all the lucky Christians who will be wafted directly to Heaven are white, Caucasian.
I grew up in the racially segregated USA South, and now find it particularly dismaying to discover that Heaven may also have a WHITES ONLY sign on it.
The bottom image has the characteristic art style of Archie Comics. If that's correct, it's because (Wikipedia:)
============
In 1973, [Archie Comics founder and CEO John L.] Goldwater "licens[ed] Archie for evangelical Christian messages," despite his personal Jewish faith, feeling that the "sentiments were in line with his wholesome family message." The comics were written and illustrated by one of the Archie regulars, Al Hartley, and were published by Spire Christian Comics.
============
Besides being white, the bottom image suggests that being a hot young babe is a definite advantage for being chosen for the Rapture.
The bottom image has the characteristic art style of Archie Comics. If that's correct, it's because (Wikipedia:)
============
In 1973, [Archie Comics founder and CEO John L.] Goldwater "licens[ed] Archie for evangelical Christian messages," despite his personal Jewish faith, feeling that the "sentiments were in line with his wholesome family message." The comics were written and illustrated by one of the Archie regulars, Al Hartley, and were published by Spire Christian Comics.
============
Besides being white, the bottom image suggests that being a hot young babe is a definite advantage for being chosen for the Rapture.
And why not? You have a problem with that?
20 May 2011
Okay! It's Saturday here now! End of World commences at 6 pm!
Click comic strip to enlarge.
Times staff writer Mike Anton contributed to this report.
Copyright © 2011, Los Angeles Times
COMMENTS:
BoscoBob at 10:30 PM May 20, 2011
I just checked the USGS latest earthquakes. Not only is New Zealand not having massive earthquakes, but the world is at the lowest level of earthquakes in the last week.
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/
How sad that people are so desperate to believe in anything. I was thinking that the people who believed and are still here on May 22nd...are they going to believe that they weren't righteous enough and they are going to Hell? And, will that include Harold Camping...?
ticklemeoj at 10:25 PM May 20, 2011
Run to the church and confess your sins to the priest (just don't bring the kids). The end of the world is upon us. Save yourself!
ntnglmnt at 10:22 PM May 20, 2011
It is now 6:05 pm on Chatham Island off the coast of New Zealand. Can we expect an announcement from Camping? Or just a reset of the dates for a new batch of the foolish and gullible.
syehuss at 10:17 PM May 20, 2011
HAROLD CAMPING IS RAGING HOMOSEXUAL HE LIKES SHIRMP DICKS.
eeejay at 10:16 PM May 20, 2011
nutcase!!!
syehuss at 10:15 PM May 20, 2011
JESUS IS COMING HE JUST CALLED HE WILL BE HERE IN FIVE MINUTES!!!!!!!!!!!!!
syehuss at 10:15 PM May 20, 2011
poop
AndrewMikeKeith at 10:13 PM May 20, 2011
There should be specialized shrinks who deal with 89 year old wing nuts and their crazy ideas.
wdw123 at 10:06 PM May 20, 2011
Here's another fact-check:
Quoting from the above article, "He calculates that God gave humanity 7,000 years to prepare for its destiny, just as Noah had seven days to prepare for the flood,..."
"Seven days to prepare for the flood" is nonsensical. The ark/ship was at least 450 feet long, based on dimensions given in Genesis 6:15 (a "cubit" is the distance between an adult's elbow and the tip of the longest finger). How could Noah have built such a large ship in seven days??? Undoubtedly, it took Noah years (probably decades) to build the ark - i.e., to "prepare for the flood."
The "seven days" reference perhaps comes from Genesis 7:4 where God said to Noah, "For after seven more days I will cause it to rain on the earth forty days and forty nights, and I will destroy from the face of the earth all living things that I have made." But here God is speaking AFTER Noah had finished building the ark (in Genesis 6); God was telling Noah it was time to take his family and the animals into the ark because **the flooding would begin in seven days**. But Noah had been **preparing** for the flood (building the ark) for years.
It's a complete misstatement to say "Noah had seven days to prepare for the flood."
daniel molitor at 10:17 PM May 20, 2011
And Paul Bunyon dug the Grand Canyon in a fortnight.
Oh, wait. No, he didn't. He wasn't real.
wdw123 at 10:06 PM May 20, 2011
Camping's claims are completely baseless. The Bible expressly says that we do not know the timing of Jesus' Second Coming (i.e., the day of judgment, the end of the world). For example, I Thessalonians 5 says the day of the Lord comes "as a thief in the night"; in other words, a thief doesn't tell you what time he's going to break in - there's no advance warning, so to speak.
wgalison at 10:03 PM May 20, 2011
A little song about the end of the world:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWmHQNwCrfU
evilrob at 10:03 PM May 20, 2011
Even better, is that when Christ was asked when the end of times would come, he pretty much said that he does not know his father's mind, and neither shall we. So, for Camping to decide that he can know the mind of the Lord Almighty, pretty much secures him a non-participation status in the Rapture. Way to go Harry! Not only do you claim to know something God wouldn't tell Jesus to spread to the people, but you *ALSO* ignore the requirements that must come to pass before the rapture occurs. Good job.
ticklemeoj at 9:52 PM May 20, 2011
Run for your lives. The sky is failing! The sky is falling!
The Los Angeles Times
Friday 20 May 2011 / 22:38 PDT
Harold Camping is
Friday 20 May 2011 / 22:38 PDT
Harold Camping is
at the heart of a
mediapocalypse
Doomsday predictor Harold Camping is less than rapturous over the focus on him as a result of his prediction that the world will end Saturday.
by Christopher Goffard, Los Angeles Times
Reporting from Oakland, California -- Harold Camping's promised final show Thursday night was much like his others. For an hour and a half, before a backdrop of wood paneling and fake plants in an Oakland studio, the self-styled scriptural scholar fielded calls from the devout, the derisive and the curious. He is 89 and bone-thin, making the leather-bound Bible on his lap seem enormous, and his voice was slow and unflappable.
Near the show's end, Camping cut short a caller to announce that this would be his last appearance on the "Open Forum" TV and radio show he's hosted for decades. After all, he explained with a warm smile, the world would be ending Saturday night.
Then he shook hands with a couple of crewmen. "I probably won't see you again," he announced. "I won't be here again."
The former engineer has long predicted the apocalypse, most famously in 1994, but his new date — May 21, 2011 — has received unprecedented publicity. That is thanks to a worldwide $100-million campaign of caravans and billboards, financed by the sale and swap of TV and radio stations.
It is impossible to say how many people take Camping seriously, though his message reaches millions of listeners and viewers on 66 stations across the country, and on many more worldwide. His prophecies have been mocked on late-night television and debated with derision on CNN. This weekend, atheist groups and other skeptics are planning doomsday parties across the country.
As for believers, many will be gathered quietly with their families, waiting for Jesus' return. Among them is Tom Evans, 55, who has served as Camping's public relations aide in the lead-up to this weekend. He has been counting down in his 2011 "At-A-Glance" calendar: Day 100, Day 99, Day 98….
In the book, Evans has noted his appointments over his expected last weeks on Earth, and a reminder of his daughter's 3rd birthday. On May 21, he has written the words, "Have mercy Lord!" The rest of the book is blank.
The apocalypse will strike, Camping teaches, on May 21, wherever it happens to be 6 p.m. That means it will be Friday night in America when what Camping calls "super terrible" earthquakes will hit the New Zealand region.
The earthquakes will then roll on, time zone by time zone. The saved, perhaps 2% to 3% of the world population, will be whisked to God, while the rest will be obliterated in what he calls "a super horror story."
Camping reads neither Hebrew nor Greek, the two main languages of the Bible, but insists his arithmetic is ironclad. He calculates that God gave humanity 7,000 years to prepare for its destiny, just as Noah had seven days to prepare for the flood, and that May 21 is the terminus of human history if one counts time by the Jewish calendar. There are other signs of the end, he teaches. Gay rights. The rebirth of Israel, and the Jewish state's rejection of Jesus.
As it happens, at least two of Camping's studio staff are Jewish – including his cameraman – and are among the many non-believers in his employ. The most outspoken in-house critic happens to be his longtime producer, Matt Tuter, 53, who believes Jesus will return some day but that it is a sin to presume to pinpoint a date.
"He leaves out numbers he doesn't like," Tuter said of Camping's numerological analysis of the Bible. Tuter said he can no longer keep track of all the times Camping has predicted the end of the world.
Tuter thinks $100 million is a conservative figure for the money Camping has spent publicizing May 21. On Friday, employees at Family Radio headquarters in Oakland were given a paid day off, though some of them chuckled at the irony that the money would not appear in the paychecks until June.
Across the country, nonbelievers are throwing parties.
Among many other gatherings, the group American Atheists is hosting rapture parties in Wichita, Kan., and Houston and at a tiki bar in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. But its biggest event will be not far from Camping's church — a two-day conference at the Oakland Masonic Center.
"We're going to poke fun at these people, but in the end we need to keep in mind that there are people being hurt here," said David Silverman, president of the New Jersey-based group. "We're hoping people look at this and learn to use their brains … so we don't have an occurrence of this in 2012" — when some believe the Mayas predicted the Earth's demise.
On Facebook someone has created a page publicizing a "Pre-Rapture Orgy." The location: "Streets of America, Baby." As of mid-ay Friday, more than 6,300 people had messaged that they were "attending."
Camping has announced that he will spend Saturday with his family in Oakland.
But he has acknowledged that his preoccupation with the apocalypse has alienated him from many of the people he loves. "It's so bad, most of my family I can't even talk about it with," Camping said.
Of his six living children, only one believes his message. "The grandkids aren't around that much," Tuter said. "I think Harold has a very sad life. I've been around him every day for 23 years. I do not envy his life."
Tuter is bracing himself for the reaction among Family Radio listeners when next week materializes. "I think it's going to absolutely devastate a lot of these people," Tuter said. "You have people who have given up their jobs, sold their homes, maxed out their credit cards."
For months, dozens of volunteers have been crossing the country in caravan fleets, enduring middle fingers and other forms of ridicule as they distribute brochures. Tuter said he doesn't know how many actually believe the message they're preaching. "They've had a divorce or some other major trauma in their life, and they're grabbing onto this as something to go and do," he said.
Camping rarely leaves Oakland, and his life is a circuit between the station and his home a few miles away. Though his organization has large financial holdings, he drives a 1993 Camry and lives in a modest house. In an otherwise immaculate living room, the white drapes are unkempt, frayed and torn at the edges. Were the end of the world not approaching, Camping said, his wife of 68 years, Shirley, would have done something about them. "She would never permit the drapes to look like that," he said.
On Thursday night, just before Camping's promised final appearance on "Open Forum," he entered the studio agitated. He kept getting interview requests, and some reporters were turning to atheists to rebut his views. He was tired of it.
"Since they got rid of Bin Laden, they don't have anybody to focus on, so they focus on me," Camping said. "I really am besieged. I'm public enemy No. 1 right now in the whole world."
But he seemed to catch his stride as the show progressed. Some callers yelled at him. He seemed to grow calm amid their attacks. After his farewell to his listeners and viewers, after his quick goodbyes to his staff, he made his way to his car with his Bible under his arm.
It was so late, and so many people wanted his time. "I want to sneak out," Camping said. "They'll say, 'Where is he? He disappeared in thin air.'"
Doomsday predictor Harold Camping is less than rapturous over the focus on him as a result of his prediction that the world will end Saturday.
by Christopher Goffard, Los Angeles Times
Reporting from Oakland, California -- Harold Camping's promised final show Thursday night was much like his others. For an hour and a half, before a backdrop of wood paneling and fake plants in an Oakland studio, the self-styled scriptural scholar fielded calls from the devout, the derisive and the curious. He is 89 and bone-thin, making the leather-bound Bible on his lap seem enormous, and his voice was slow and unflappable.
Near the show's end, Camping cut short a caller to announce that this would be his last appearance on the "Open Forum" TV and radio show he's hosted for decades. After all, he explained with a warm smile, the world would be ending Saturday night.
Then he shook hands with a couple of crewmen. "I probably won't see you again," he announced. "I won't be here again."
The former engineer has long predicted the apocalypse, most famously in 1994, but his new date — May 21, 2011 — has received unprecedented publicity. That is thanks to a worldwide $100-million campaign of caravans and billboards, financed by the sale and swap of TV and radio stations.
It is impossible to say how many people take Camping seriously, though his message reaches millions of listeners and viewers on 66 stations across the country, and on many more worldwide. His prophecies have been mocked on late-night television and debated with derision on CNN. This weekend, atheist groups and other skeptics are planning doomsday parties across the country.
As for believers, many will be gathered quietly with their families, waiting for Jesus' return. Among them is Tom Evans, 55, who has served as Camping's public relations aide in the lead-up to this weekend. He has been counting down in his 2011 "At-A-Glance" calendar: Day 100, Day 99, Day 98….
In the book, Evans has noted his appointments over his expected last weeks on Earth, and a reminder of his daughter's 3rd birthday. On May 21, he has written the words, "Have mercy Lord!" The rest of the book is blank.
The apocalypse will strike, Camping teaches, on May 21, wherever it happens to be 6 p.m. That means it will be Friday night in America when what Camping calls "super terrible" earthquakes will hit the New Zealand region.
The earthquakes will then roll on, time zone by time zone. The saved, perhaps 2% to 3% of the world population, will be whisked to God, while the rest will be obliterated in what he calls "a super horror story."
Camping reads neither Hebrew nor Greek, the two main languages of the Bible, but insists his arithmetic is ironclad. He calculates that God gave humanity 7,000 years to prepare for its destiny, just as Noah had seven days to prepare for the flood, and that May 21 is the terminus of human history if one counts time by the Jewish calendar. There are other signs of the end, he teaches. Gay rights. The rebirth of Israel, and the Jewish state's rejection of Jesus.
As it happens, at least two of Camping's studio staff are Jewish – including his cameraman – and are among the many non-believers in his employ. The most outspoken in-house critic happens to be his longtime producer, Matt Tuter, 53, who believes Jesus will return some day but that it is a sin to presume to pinpoint a date.
"He leaves out numbers he doesn't like," Tuter said of Camping's numerological analysis of the Bible. Tuter said he can no longer keep track of all the times Camping has predicted the end of the world.
Tuter thinks $100 million is a conservative figure for the money Camping has spent publicizing May 21. On Friday, employees at Family Radio headquarters in Oakland were given a paid day off, though some of them chuckled at the irony that the money would not appear in the paychecks until June.
Across the country, nonbelievers are throwing parties.
Among many other gatherings, the group American Atheists is hosting rapture parties in Wichita, Kan., and Houston and at a tiki bar in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. But its biggest event will be not far from Camping's church — a two-day conference at the Oakland Masonic Center.
"We're going to poke fun at these people, but in the end we need to keep in mind that there are people being hurt here," said David Silverman, president of the New Jersey-based group. "We're hoping people look at this and learn to use their brains … so we don't have an occurrence of this in 2012" — when some believe the Mayas predicted the Earth's demise.
On Facebook someone has created a page publicizing a "Pre-Rapture Orgy." The location: "Streets of America, Baby." As of mid-ay Friday, more than 6,300 people had messaged that they were "attending."
Camping has announced that he will spend Saturday with his family in Oakland.
But he has acknowledged that his preoccupation with the apocalypse has alienated him from many of the people he loves. "It's so bad, most of my family I can't even talk about it with," Camping said.
Of his six living children, only one believes his message. "The grandkids aren't around that much," Tuter said. "I think Harold has a very sad life. I've been around him every day for 23 years. I do not envy his life."
Tuter is bracing himself for the reaction among Family Radio listeners when next week materializes. "I think it's going to absolutely devastate a lot of these people," Tuter said. "You have people who have given up their jobs, sold their homes, maxed out their credit cards."
For months, dozens of volunteers have been crossing the country in caravan fleets, enduring middle fingers and other forms of ridicule as they distribute brochures. Tuter said he doesn't know how many actually believe the message they're preaching. "They've had a divorce or some other major trauma in their life, and they're grabbing onto this as something to go and do," he said.
Camping rarely leaves Oakland, and his life is a circuit between the station and his home a few miles away. Though his organization has large financial holdings, he drives a 1993 Camry and lives in a modest house. In an otherwise immaculate living room, the white drapes are unkempt, frayed and torn at the edges. Were the end of the world not approaching, Camping said, his wife of 68 years, Shirley, would have done something about them. "She would never permit the drapes to look like that," he said.
On Thursday night, just before Camping's promised final appearance on "Open Forum," he entered the studio agitated. He kept getting interview requests, and some reporters were turning to atheists to rebut his views. He was tired of it.
"Since they got rid of Bin Laden, they don't have anybody to focus on, so they focus on me," Camping said. "I really am besieged. I'm public enemy No. 1 right now in the whole world."
But he seemed to catch his stride as the show progressed. Some callers yelled at him. He seemed to grow calm amid their attacks. After his farewell to his listeners and viewers, after his quick goodbyes to his staff, he made his way to his car with his Bible under his arm.
It was so late, and so many people wanted his time. "I want to sneak out," Camping said. "They'll say, 'Where is he? He disappeared in thin air.'"
- 30 -
Times staff writer Mike Anton contributed to this report.
Copyright © 2011, Los Angeles Times
COMMENTS:
BoscoBob at 10:30 PM May 20, 2011
I just checked the USGS latest earthquakes. Not only is New Zealand not having massive earthquakes, but the world is at the lowest level of earthquakes in the last week.
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/
How sad that people are so desperate to believe in anything. I was thinking that the people who believed and are still here on May 22nd...are they going to believe that they weren't righteous enough and they are going to Hell? And, will that include Harold Camping...?
ticklemeoj at 10:25 PM May 20, 2011
Run to the church and confess your sins to the priest (just don't bring the kids). The end of the world is upon us. Save yourself!
ntnglmnt at 10:22 PM May 20, 2011
It is now 6:05 pm on Chatham Island off the coast of New Zealand. Can we expect an announcement from Camping? Or just a reset of the dates for a new batch of the foolish and gullible.
syehuss at 10:17 PM May 20, 2011
HAROLD CAMPING IS RAGING HOMOSEXUAL HE LIKES SHIRMP DICKS.
eeejay at 10:16 PM May 20, 2011
nutcase!!!
syehuss at 10:15 PM May 20, 2011
JESUS IS COMING HE JUST CALLED HE WILL BE HERE IN FIVE MINUTES!!!!!!!!!!!!!
syehuss at 10:15 PM May 20, 2011
poop
AndrewMikeKeith at 10:13 PM May 20, 2011
There should be specialized shrinks who deal with 89 year old wing nuts and their crazy ideas.
wdw123 at 10:06 PM May 20, 2011
Here's another fact-check:
Quoting from the above article, "He calculates that God gave humanity 7,000 years to prepare for its destiny, just as Noah had seven days to prepare for the flood,..."
"Seven days to prepare for the flood" is nonsensical. The ark/ship was at least 450 feet long, based on dimensions given in Genesis 6:15 (a "cubit" is the distance between an adult's elbow and the tip of the longest finger). How could Noah have built such a large ship in seven days??? Undoubtedly, it took Noah years (probably decades) to build the ark - i.e., to "prepare for the flood."
The "seven days" reference perhaps comes from Genesis 7:4 where God said to Noah, "For after seven more days I will cause it to rain on the earth forty days and forty nights, and I will destroy from the face of the earth all living things that I have made." But here God is speaking AFTER Noah had finished building the ark (in Genesis 6); God was telling Noah it was time to take his family and the animals into the ark because **the flooding would begin in seven days**. But Noah had been **preparing** for the flood (building the ark) for years.
It's a complete misstatement to say "Noah had seven days to prepare for the flood."
daniel molitor at 10:17 PM May 20, 2011
And Paul Bunyon dug the Grand Canyon in a fortnight.
Oh, wait. No, he didn't. He wasn't real.
wdw123 at 10:06 PM May 20, 2011
Camping's claims are completely baseless. The Bible expressly says that we do not know the timing of Jesus' Second Coming (i.e., the day of judgment, the end of the world). For example, I Thessalonians 5 says the day of the Lord comes "as a thief in the night"; in other words, a thief doesn't tell you what time he's going to break in - there's no advance warning, so to speak.
wgalison at 10:03 PM May 20, 2011
A little song about the end of the world:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWmHQNwCrfU
evilrob at 10:03 PM May 20, 2011
Even better, is that when Christ was asked when the end of times would come, he pretty much said that he does not know his father's mind, and neither shall we. So, for Camping to decide that he can know the mind of the Lord Almighty, pretty much secures him a non-participation status in the Rapture. Way to go Harry! Not only do you claim to know something God wouldn't tell Jesus to spread to the people, but you *ALSO* ignore the requirements that must come to pass before the rapture occurs. Good job.
ticklemeoj at 9:52 PM May 20, 2011
Run for your lives. The sky is failing! The sky is falling!
19 May 2011
how to meet strangers in East Asia / the beautiful game of Go /
Click images to enlarge.
圍棋 围棋
碁, 囲碁
바둑
མིག་མངས
碁, 囲碁
바둑
མིག་མངས
Just learn the rules to this amazing, beautiful, hypnotic game. The rules are incredibly simple, far simpler than the rules of chess.
Of course learning to play well ... not so simple.
But like chess in Europe and Cuba (and of course in Little Havana in Miami), this game will get you in solid with strangers in Japan, China, Tibet, Korea, Vietnam. (I recommend starting in South Korea first.)
The very cool thing about this ancient game is that although computer chess now regularly destroys human grandmasters, the world's best computer Go programs are STILL incompetent losers, and talented children beat the crap out of them all the time. And trust me, a LOT of brilliant programmers have spent their lives trying to create a champion computer Go program. It's a central challenge in the field of Artificial Intelligence -- just as computer chess used to be before Deep Thought and Deep Blue.
SATURDAY 21 MAY 2011 -- IT'S THE RAPTURE! THE END OF THE WORLD IS NIGH!
Click on images to enlarge.
The Washington Post (USA daily broadsheet)
Wednesday 18 May 2011
Under God:
May 21, 2011:
Harold Camping’s
calculations for the
calculations for the
end of the world
by Elizabeth Flock
Harold Camping explains his calculations for the end date in an interview in April. (Screengrab from youtube.com) Family Radio evangelist Harold Camping is certain “Judgment Day” is coming this
by Elizabeth Flock
Harold Camping explains his calculations for the end date in an interview in April. (Screengrab from youtube.com) Family Radio evangelist Harold Camping is certain “Judgment Day” is coming this
Saturday 21 May
On that day, Jesus will return to earth and set into motion a five-month countdown to the end of the world.
Camping arrived at the date of May 21 through some complex calculations he says are drawn from the Bible. In case you’re perplexed, as many biblical scholars are, we’ve drawn out the calculations for you:
Get it now? If not, Camping will further explain it to you: “Five times 10 times 17 is telling you a story. It’s the story from the time Christ made payment for your sins until you’re completely saved.”
“I tell ya, I just about fell off my chair when I realized that,” he said.
Camping arrived at the date of May 21 through some complex calculations he says are drawn from the Bible. In case you’re perplexed, as many biblical scholars are, we’ve drawn out the calculations for you:
Get it now? If not, Camping will further explain it to you: “Five times 10 times 17 is telling you a story. It’s the story from the time Christ made payment for your sins until you’re completely saved.”
“I tell ya, I just about fell off my chair when I realized that,” he said.
- 30 -
===========
2011 end times prediction
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The 2011 end times prediction made by Christian radio host Harold Camping states that the Rapture (in premillennial theology, the taking up into heaven of God's elect people) will take place on
Saturday 21 May 2011
[1][2] at 6 P.M. local time (the rapture will sweep the globe time zone by time zone) [3] and that the end of the world as we know it will take place five months later on October 21, 2011.[4] Camping, president of the Family Radio Christian network, claims the Bible as his source and says May 21 will be the date of the Rapture and the day of judgment "beyond the shadow of a doubt".[5] His followers claim that around 200 million people (approximately 3% of the world's population) will be raptured.[6]
Camping's predictions have not been embraced by most other Christian groups;[7] some have explicitly rejected them.[8][9][10][11] An interview with a group of church leaders noted that all of them have scheduled services as usual for Sunday, May 22.[12] Camping previously claimed that the world would end in September 1994.
Rationale
"I know it's absolutely true, because the Bible is always absolutely true."[13]
— Harold Camping, president, Family Radio
Camping has presented several numerological[14] arguments, or biblical "proofs", in favor of the May 21st end time. A civil engineer by training, Camping states he has attempted to work out mathematically-based prophecies in the Bible for decades. In an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle he explained "...I was an engineer, I was very interested in the numbers. I'd wonder, 'Why did God put this number in, or that number in?' It was not a question of unbelief, it was a question of, 'There must be a reason for it.' "[15]
Harold Camping being interviewed about his prediction in early 2011.
As early as 1970, Camping dated the Great Flood to 4990 BC.[16] Taking the prediction in Genesis 7:4 ("Seven days from now I will send rain on the earth") to be a prediction of the end of the world, and combining it with 2 Peter 3:8 ("With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day"), Camping concludes that the end of the world will occur in 2011, 7000 years from 4990 BC.[6] Camping takes the 17th day of the second month mentioned in Genesis 7:11 to be the 21st May, and hence predicts the rapture to occur on this date.[6]
Another argument[17] that Camping uses in favor of the May 21st date is as follows:
According to Camping, the number five equals "atonement", the number ten equals "completeness", and the number seventeen equals "heaven".
Camping's predictions have not been embraced by most other Christian groups;[7] some have explicitly rejected them.[8][9][10][11] An interview with a group of church leaders noted that all of them have scheduled services as usual for Sunday, May 22.[12] Camping previously claimed that the world would end in September 1994.
Rationale
"I know it's absolutely true, because the Bible is always absolutely true."[13]
— Harold Camping, president, Family Radio
Camping has presented several numerological[14] arguments, or biblical "proofs", in favor of the May 21st end time. A civil engineer by training, Camping states he has attempted to work out mathematically-based prophecies in the Bible for decades. In an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle he explained "...I was an engineer, I was very interested in the numbers. I'd wonder, 'Why did God put this number in, or that number in?' It was not a question of unbelief, it was a question of, 'There must be a reason for it.' "[15]
Harold Camping being interviewed about his prediction in early 2011.
As early as 1970, Camping dated the Great Flood to 4990 BC.[16] Taking the prediction in Genesis 7:4 ("Seven days from now I will send rain on the earth") to be a prediction of the end of the world, and combining it with 2 Peter 3:8 ("With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day"), Camping concludes that the end of the world will occur in 2011, 7000 years from 4990 BC.[6] Camping takes the 17th day of the second month mentioned in Genesis 7:11 to be the 21st May, and hence predicts the rapture to occur on this date.[6]
Another argument[17] that Camping uses in favor of the May 21st date is as follows:
According to Camping, the number five equals "atonement", the number ten equals "completeness", and the number seventeen equals "heaven".
Christ is said to have hung on the cross on April 1, 33 AD. The time between April 1, 33 AD and April 1, 2011 is 1,978 years.
If 1,978 is multiplied by 365.2422 days (the number of days in a solar year, not to be confused with the lunar year), the result is 722,449.
The time between April 1 and May 21 is 51 days.
51 added to 722,449 is 722,500.
(5 × 10 × 17)^2
or
(atonement × completeness × heaven)^2 also equals 722,500.
Thus, Camping concludes that 5 × 10 × 17 is telling us a "story from the time Christ made payment for our sins until we're completely saved."[15]
Camping has not been precise about the exact timing of the event, saying that "maybe" we can know the hour.[18] He has suggested that "days" in the Bible refer to daylight hours particularly.[18] Another account says the "great earthquake" which signals the start of the Rapture will "start in the Pacific Rim at around the 6 p.m. local time hour, in each time zone."[19]
In Camping's book 1994?, self-published in 1992, he predicted that the End Times would come in September 1994 (variously reported as September 4[13] or September 6[20]). When the Rapture failed to occur on the appointed day, Camping said he had made a mathematical error.[21]
Thus, Camping concludes that 5 × 10 × 17 is telling us a "story from the time Christ made payment for our sins until we're completely saved."[15]
Camping has not been precise about the exact timing of the event, saying that "maybe" we can know the hour.[18] He has suggested that "days" in the Bible refer to daylight hours particularly.[18] Another account says the "great earthquake" which signals the start of the Rapture will "start in the Pacific Rim at around the 6 p.m. local time hour, in each time zone."[19]
In Camping's book 1994?, self-published in 1992, he predicted that the End Times would come in September 1994 (variously reported as September 4[13] or September 6[20]). When the Rapture failed to occur on the appointed day, Camping said he had made a mathematical error.[21]
Criticism
Camping's rapture prediction, along with some of his other teachings and beliefs, have sparked some controversy in the Christian world. His critics often quote Bible verses (such as Matthew 24:36) which they claim imply the date of the end will never be known by anyone but God until it actually happens. James Kreuger, author of the book Secrets of the Apocalypse - Revealed, has stated that while he believes the rapture is coming, Camping is incorrect in attempting to nail down a date. "For all his learning, Camping makes a classic beginner's mistake when he sets a date for Christ's return," writes Kreuger. "Jesus himself said in Matthew 24:36, 'Of that day and hour knows no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my father only.'"[15] However, Camping and his followers respond that this principle only applied to the "church age" or "pre-tribulation period" and does not apply to the present day, citing other verses (such as 1 Thessalonians 5:1-5:5) in their rebuttal.[22]
In a 2001 pamphlet, Camping asserted that believers should "flee the church," resigning from any church they belong to, because the "Church Age" is over and the "Great Tribulation" has begun.[23] This assertion was controversial[24] and drew "a flurry of attacks".[23]
Edwin M. Yamauchi critiqued Camping's dating of the Flood when Camping first published his ideas in 1970.[16]
Criticism of the May 21 prediction has ranged from serious critique to ridicule. Theology professor Matthew L. Skinner, writing at the Huffington Post, noted the "long history of failed speculation" about the End Times and cautioned that end-of-the-world talk can lead Christians to social passivity instead of "working for the world's redemption".[25] Some columnists have mocked the prediction with humorous columns from a skeptical viewpoint.[26][27]
Evolutionary biologist and atheist Richard Dawkins dismissed Camping's prediction, writing that "he will inevitably explain, on May 22nd, that there must have been some error in the calculation, the rapture is postponed to ... and please send more money to pay for updated billboards."[28] California Director of American Atheists Larry Hicock said that "Camping's well-intentioned rapture campaign is indicative of the problems with religion".[29]
Impact
Camping's prediction and his promotion of it via his radio network and other promotional means have spread the prediction globally,[14] which has led believers and non-believers to a variety of actions.
Camping's prediction and his promotion of it via his radio network and other promotional means have spread the prediction globally,[14] which has led believers and non-believers to a variety of actions.
Promotion
In 2010, Marie Exley of Colorado Springs made news by purchasing advertising space in her locality, promoting the alleged Rapture date on a number of park benches.[30] Since then, 'Judgment Day' billboards have been erected at locations across the world.[31] Some people have adorned their vehicles with the information.[32]
On October 27, 2010, Family Radio launched "Project Caravan". Five RVs arrayed with reflector lettering that declare that Judgment Day begins on May 21, 2011 were sent out from their headquarters in Oakland, California, to Seattle, Washington. Upon arrival, teams are sent out to distribute tracts.[33] The caravan has made stops in Oregon,[34] California, South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, Texas, Florida, Utah, Maryland,[35] and other states, as well as Canada and Mexico.[citation needed]
In 2010, Marie Exley of Colorado Springs made news by purchasing advertising space in her locality, promoting the alleged Rapture date on a number of park benches.[30] Since then, 'Judgment Day' billboards have been erected at locations across the world.[31] Some people have adorned their vehicles with the information.[32]
On October 27, 2010, Family Radio launched "Project Caravan". Five RVs arrayed with reflector lettering that declare that Judgment Day begins on May 21, 2011 were sent out from their headquarters in Oakland, California, to Seattle, Washington. Upon arrival, teams are sent out to distribute tracts.[33] The caravan has made stops in Oregon,[34] California, South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, Texas, Florida, Utah, Maryland,[35] and other states, as well as Canada and Mexico.[citation needed]
Hmong gathering
About 5000[14] ethnic Hmong gathered at a remote town in Viet Nam's Muong Nhe province in early May, where they planned to await the arrival of Christ. The Vietnamese government broke up the gathering and arrested some people, describing them as "extremists".[36] Pastor Doan Trung Tin indicated that a translated version of Camping's prediction had influenced about 300 of his parishioners to go to the assembly point, selling their belongings to be able to afford the journey via bus.[37]
Skeptical responses
The group Seattle Atheists formed the Rapture Relief Fund which they will use "to help survivors of any Armageddon-sized disaster in the Puget Sound area";[38] if the rapture fails to come as predicted, the money will fund a camp that teaches children about critical thinking.[39] The group American Atheists has sponsored billboards in several American cities declaring the Rapture to be "nonsense", and are holding a party during the period of the predicted rapture.[29]
Publications
Camping's writings that detail the timing of the end include:
Book
1994? (1992 - predicts the End Times for September, 1994)
Time Has An End (2005 - discusses Camping's belief that 2011 is in all likelihood the end of the world)
Booklet
Has the Era of the Church Come to an End? (2001 - advises that the Great Tribulation has begun and that Christians should "flee their churches")
We Are Almost There! (2008 - contains all the information on how May 21, 2011 was arrived at)
Tracts
The End of the World is Almost Here! Holy God Will Bring Judgment on May 21, 2011 (2009)
God Gives Another Infallible Proof That Assures the Rapture Will Occur May 21, 2011 (2009)
No Man Knows the Day or the Hour? (2009)
See also:
End time
Last Judgment
Great Disappointment
List of dates of the end of the world
2012 phenomenon - Another prediction about the end of the world.
References
^ "Jesus Returning to Earth On May 21, 2011". Flashnews.com. 2010-07-30. Retrieved 2010-11-29.
^ "May 21, 2011: Judgment Day believers descend on Joburg". The Daily Maverick. Retrieved 2010-11-29.
^ http://www.slate.com/blogs/blogs/scocca/archive/2011/05/16/countdown-to-armageddon-maybe-the-world-will-end-friday-night-or-sunday-morning.aspx
^ "May 21, 2011 - Judgment Day!; October 21, 2011 - The End of the World". Ebiblefellowship.com. 1988-05-21. Retrieved 2010-11-29.
^ "End of Days in May? Believers enter final stretch". Associated Press, cited at MSNBC. January 23, 2011. Retrieved May 9, 2011.
^ a b c "Judgment Day". Family Radio. Retrieved 16 May 2011.
^ "May 21st, The New Christian Doomsday". ReliJournal. May 6, 2011. Retrieved May 11, 2011.
^ "A Response to Harold Camping's Erroneous Teaching". Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. Retrieved May 9, 2011.
^ "Letter to Harold Camping (Family Radio) True Prophet or False?". Retrieved May 10, 2011.
^ "Billboards Marking Jesus' Return in May 'Misguided,' Says NT Scholar". Retrieved May 10, 2011.
^ "End times theology: an insider’s guide". Retrieved May 10, 2011.
^ Church Leaders Across Denominations Reflect on Camping's Prediction NBC29, May 17, 2011. Retrieved May 18, 2011.
^ a b "Doomsday campers Project Caravan say the world will end May 21". dailymail.co.uk. 8 March 2011. Retrieved 11 March 2011.
^ a b c End of the world? How about a party instead?, Associated Press, quoted at MSNBC, May 18, 2011. Retrieved May 19, 2011
^ a b c Berton, Justin (1 January 2010). "Biblical scholar's date for rapture: May 21, 2011". sfgate.com. Retrieved 12 March 2011.
^ a b Camping, Harold (1970). "The Biblical Calendar of History". Journal of the American Scientific Affiliation 22. Retrieved 16 May 2011.
^ Camping, Harold (August 2010). "We Are Almost There!". Family Stations, Inc. pp. 44-63.
^ a b Countdown to Armageddon: Maybe the World Will End Friday Night (or Sunday Morning), Slate, May 7, 2011. Retrieved May 17, 2011
^ Is The End Nigh? We'll Know Soon Enough, NPR, May 7, 2011. Retrieved May 17, 2011
^ David S. Reynolds. "The end of the world is here ... again". Salon.com. Retrieved 2011-05-19.
^ "Apocalypse Soon: Christian Movement Says 5/21/11". CBS News. 2011-01-03. Retrieved 2011-05-19.
^ "No Man Knows The Day Or The Hour?". Familyradio.com. Retrieved 2010-11-29.
^ a b Kellner, Mark (May 21, 2002). "New Dispensation? Camping: 'Leave Church'". Christianity Today. Retrieved April 6, 2011.
^ Jackson, Wayne. "Harold Camping’s New Revelation: “Leave the Church!”". Christian Courier. Retrieved 2011-05-19.
^ Skinner, Matthew L. (2011-03-27). "Apocalypse Now? A Christian Understanding of the End Times'". Huffington Post. Retrieved 2011-05-19.
^ "Sinners, you have four days until Judgment Day. Are you prepared?". Vancouver Sun. 17 May 2011.
^ 10 unhealthy things to do before Armageddon Orange County Register, May 17, 2011. Retrieved May 18, 2011.
^ "Science explains the end of the world". On Faith, Washington Post. May 10, 2011. Retrieved May 11, 2011.
^ a b Middleton, RJ (2011-05-12). "Atheists Offer Doomsdayers a Party". NBC Bay Area. Retrieved 2011-05-19.
^ "Bus bench ads on Christ's return funded by unemployed Springs woman". 38.833882;-104.821363: Colorado Springs Gazette. 2010-07-26. Retrieved 2010-11-29.
^ "May 21, 2011 Judgment Day and Rapture Billboards". Ebiblefellowship.com. Retrieved 2010-11-29.
^ "Examples of "Moving Billboards"". Ebiblefellowship.com. Retrieved 2010-11-29.
^ "Project Caravan". Familyradio.com. Retrieved 2010-12-02.
^ "Entourage brings message of doom". Oroville Mercury-Register. 2010-11-30. Retrieved 2010-12-02.
^ Gross, Daniel (28 March 2011). "Judgment Day caravan spreads message on campus". The Towerlight. Retrieved 28 March 2011.
^ "Vietnam says ‘extremists’ detained after Hmong gathering; area still off limits to media". The Washington Post. 2011-05-13. Retrieved 2011-05-19.
^ "Vietnam protesters lured by doomsday cult". The Straits Times. Retrieved 2011-05-19.
^ "Atheists Offer Post-Rapture Services". Christianpost.com. 2011-05-07. Retrieved 2011-05-19.
^ "Seattle Atheists collect for "Rapture Relief Fund'". Seattle Post-Intelligencer. 2011-05-13. Retrieved 2011-05-19.
External links
Official website
We Can Know
EBibleFellowship
The Latter Rain
Family Radio Discussion Forum
Categories: Eschatology | Prophecy
This page was last modified on 19 May 2011 at 18:53.
17 May 2011
la leçon française / the French lesson / most recent post from Anne Sinclair's blog "Deux ou trois choses vues d'Amérique"
Cliquez sur l'image pour agrandir.
From the political blog of the USA-born Anne Sinclair, third and current wife of Dominique Strauss-Kahn. Sinclair is one of France's most respected and popular journalists -- chiefly television. When Strauss-Kahn is not in New York City on International Monetary Fund business, the couple lives in Washington DC.
==============
Deux ou trois choses vues d'Amérique
(Two or three things from America)
12 mai 2011
Immigration, décidément,
==============
Deux ou trois choses vues d'Amérique
(Two or three things from America)
12 mai 2011
Immigration, décidément,
là bas comme ailleurs
Profitant d’un taux de popularité résolument à la hausse (avec un nouveau sondage le créditant à plus de 60% - son meilleur score depuis l’état de grâce post-élections), Barack Obama s’est envolé hier pour El Paso (Texas), décidé à s’attaquer de front à la question de l’immigration, un dossier toujours très sensible et polémique, en Amérique comme ailleurs.
Opération communication oblige, c’est dans un arrière-plan de miradors et de barbelés que le président a plaidé pour une réforme nationale de l’immigration – ou plutôt reparlé de son projet de réforme, car il n’est venu que répéter hier des mesures qu’il avait déjà présentées l’été dernier, en plein débat sur le durcissement des contrôles en Arizona.
Profitant d’un taux de popularité résolument à la hausse (avec un nouveau sondage le créditant à plus de 60% - son meilleur score depuis l’état de grâce post-élections), Barack Obama s’est envolé hier pour El Paso (Texas), décidé à s’attaquer de front à la question de l’immigration, un dossier toujours très sensible et polémique, en Amérique comme ailleurs.
Opération communication oblige, c’est dans un arrière-plan de miradors et de barbelés que le président a plaidé pour une réforme nationale de l’immigration – ou plutôt reparlé de son projet de réforme, car il n’est venu que répéter hier des mesures qu’il avait déjà présentées l’été dernier, en plein débat sur le durcissement des contrôles en Arizona.
Car au-delà des enjeux démographiques et migratoires, l’objectif de ce déplacement organisé à la dernière minute était d’abord fondamentalement politique. En effet, la mort de Ben Laden est devenu un prétexte parfait pour les Républicains, qui pressent l’administration Obama de renforcer les effectifs et contrôles aux frontières, agitant les menaces de représailles, et qui mettent la pression aux élus démocrates pour redéfinir la politique de sécurité nationale ou exigent un retrait anticipé en Afghanistan.
Ainsi BO s’est évertué, pendant près de 40 minutes, à renvoyer l’opposition à ses responsabilités, non sans une certaine ironie: "Voici le coeur du problème et je veux que vous prêtiez tous une oreille attentive à ce que je vais vous dire. Nous avons fait tout ce qui était demandé, et même plus, par les Républicains qui se disaient prêts à soutenir une remise à plat de la loi sur l’immigration, si on l’accompagnait d’un renfort aux frontières. Nous avons répondu à toutes leurs demandes (…) mais [maintenant], ils nous disent que nous devons tripler le nombre des gardes-frontières, [demain}, ils diront qu’il faudra le quadrupler. Ou ils diront qu'ils veulent une barrière plus élevée. Ou peut-être vont-ils réclamer des douves, voire même des alligators dans les douves (Rires)!
Ils ne seront jamais satisfaits. Et je comprends bien [ce qu’ils font]. C’est ca, faire de la politique."
("So, here’s the point. I want everybody to listen carefully to this. We have gone above and beyond what was requested by the very Republicans who said they supported broader reform as long as we got serious about enforcement. All the stuff they asked for, we’ve done. But (…) they said we needed to triple the Border Patrol. Or now they’re going to say we need to quadruple the Border Patrol. Or they’ll want a higher fence. Maybe they’ll need a moat. (Laughter.) Maybe they want alligators in the moat. (Laughter.) They’ll never be satisfied. And I understand that. That’s politics.")
Mais Barack Obama ne s’est pas arrêté aux manœuvres d’obstruction multipliées par les élus républicains depuis un an, il a aussi dénoncé les argumentaires aux relents de racisme utilisés par l’opposition qui profite du contexte économique difficile pour sordidement mêler la peur du chômage et de l’étranger: à cause de l’enlisement au Congres, "Regardez Intel, Google, Yahoo et eBay. [Regardez de plus près] ces grandes entreprises américaines, le nombre incalculable d'emplois qu’elles ont créées, le leadership qu’elles nous ont permis de prendre en matière de haute-technologie : chacune [de ces entreprises] a été fondée par un immigré".
Oui, il y a les actes et ceux qui les dénoncent. Il y a la volonté de gouverner pour le mieux de son pays et celle de marquer des points en détruisant toute initiative et en jouant de la surenchère. Oui, il y a bien "faire de la politique" et "avoir une politique". Rarement compatible. Obama en a fait hier la démonstration.
There's not a woman in this town-row / will look at the blackleg miner / USA's Astroturf political movement busts our unions / I'm a Dickhead
Then run over a scab with your truck.
One of the most vile aspects of recent American politics -- the Tea Party, an Astroturf (a synthetic, purchased imitation of grassroot) movement bought and paid for by the creepy gazillionaire Koch Brothers -- is its attempt, in states where it has enjoyed election success, to bust and destroy unions.
In the UK, labor unions enjoy more of a history and more broad public support, often passionate, occasionally violent.
In the UK, "blackleg" is the word for "scab" -- a scumbag who goes to work for a company whose union workers have gone out on strike.
Just singing this anti-scab pro-union song, which seems to date from early or mid-19th century Northumberland, stirs up such passions and starts such violence that many folk music clubs have banned its performance as recently as the late 1980s -- an era of a protracted, bitter coal-miner strike in the north of England.
Steeleye Span said fuck that (or perhaps sod that) and sang this spirited folk-rock version in Nottingham in 1986 right in the thick of the strike. Read the Comments below. People are passionate on both sides, some spit and curse Steeleye Span, others just embrace them more belovedly.
Another remarkable cover is by Richard Thompson. I love Richard Thompson. (Which makes me, I'm embarrassed to say, a Dickhead.)
I come from a very anti-union family and neighborhood. I started working on newspapers when I was 18, and joined the American Newspaper Guild (AFL/CIO). I've been in other journalist unions since then.
In the UK, labor unions enjoy more of a history and more broad public support, often passionate, occasionally violent.
In the UK, "blackleg" is the word for "scab" -- a scumbag who goes to work for a company whose union workers have gone out on strike.
Just singing this anti-scab pro-union song, which seems to date from early or mid-19th century Northumberland, stirs up such passions and starts such violence that many folk music clubs have banned its performance as recently as the late 1980s -- an era of a protracted, bitter coal-miner strike in the north of England.
Steeleye Span said fuck that (or perhaps sod that) and sang this spirited folk-rock version in Nottingham in 1986 right in the thick of the strike. Read the Comments below. People are passionate on both sides, some spit and curse Steeleye Span, others just embrace them more belovedly.
Another remarkable cover is by Richard Thompson. I love Richard Thompson. (Which makes me, I'm embarrassed to say, a Dickhead.)
I come from a very anti-union family and neighborhood. I started working on newspapers when I was 18, and joined the American Newspaper Guild (AFL/CIO). I've been in other journalist unions since then.
You want to know what's wrong with unions? Just ask me, I have tons of complaints about how labor unions have degenerated and soiled their ideals and promise in modern times.
Want to know what life will be like if the Koch Brothers get their way and buy enough politicians to get rid of unions in America? Here's a sample of the American workplace when there weren't any unions.
Want to know what life will be like if the Koch Brothers get their way and buy enough politicians to get rid of unions in America? Here's a sample of the American workplace when there weren't any unions.
These could have been your sisters or your daughters or your mother. Their crime -- for which they earned a uniquely ghastly variety of the Death Penalty -- was in needing to work to feed their families.
Crap like that made Americans demand unions. Unions keep crap like that from happening. (Do you think bosses give a rat's ass about workplace safety?)
I've never crossed a picket line in my life.
Crap like that made Americans demand unions. Unions keep crap like that from happening. (Do you think bosses give a rat's ass about workplace safety?)
I've never crossed a picket line in my life.
I guess people who microwave and eat babies are worse than scabs.
But not by much. Dirty fucking scab, dirty fucking blackleg miner.
==============
But not by much. Dirty fucking scab, dirty fucking blackleg miner.
==============
Blackleg Miner
(author/composer unknown, 19th century)
It's in the evening after dark
When the blackleg miner creeps to work
With his moleskin pants and dirty shirt
There goes the blackleg miner!
Well he takes his tools and doon he goes
To hew the coal that lies below
There's not a woman in this town-row
Will look at the blackleg miner
Oh Seghill is a terrible place
They rub wet clay in the blackleg's face
And around the heaps they run a foot race
To catch the blackleg miner!
So, dinna gan near the Delaval mine
Across the way they stretch a line
To catch the throat and break the spine
Of the dirty blackleg miner
They grab his duds and his pick as well
And they hoy them down the pit of hell
Doon ye go, and fare ye well,
You dirty blackleg miner!
So join the union while you may
Don't wait till your dying day
For that may not be far away
You dirty blackleg miner!
There goes the blackleg miner!
Well he takes his tools and doon he goes
To hew the coal that lies below
There's not a woman in this town-row
Will look at the blackleg miner
Oh Seghill is a terrible place
They rub wet clay in the blackleg's face
And around the heaps they run a foot race
To catch the blackleg miner!
So, dinna gan near the Delaval mine
Across the way they stretch a line
To catch the throat and break the spine
Of the dirty blackleg miner
They grab his duds and his pick as well
And they hoy them down the pit of hell
Doon ye go, and fare ye well,
You dirty blackleg miner!
So join the union while you may
Don't wait till your dying day
For that may not be far away
You dirty blackleg miner!
16 May 2011
Radium Girls by Eleanor Swanson / Now, even our crumbling bones / will glow forever in the black earth
by Eleanor Swanson
We sat at long tables side by side in a big
dusty room where we laughed and carried
on until they told us to pipe down and paint.
The running joke was how we glowed,
the handkerchiefs we sneezed into lighting
up our purses when we opened them at night,
our lips and nails, painted for our boyfriends
as a lark, simmering white as ash in a dark room.
"Would you die for science?" the reporter asked us,
Edna and me, the main ones in the papers.
Science? We mixed up glue, water and radium
powder into a glowing greenish white paint
and painted watch dials with a little
brush, one number after another, taking
one dial after another, all day long,
from the racks sitting next to our chairs.
After a few strokes, the brush lost its shape,
and our bosses told us to point it with
our lips. Was that science?
I quit the watch factory to work in a bank
and thought I'd gotten class, more money,
a better life, until I lost a tooth in back
and two in front and my jaw filled up with sores.
We sued: Edna, Katherine, Quinta, Larice and me,
but when we got to court, not one of us
could raise our arms to take the oath.
My teeth were gone by then. "Pretty Grace
Fryer," they called me in the papers.
All of us were dying.
We heard the scientist in France, Marie
Curie, could not believe "the manner
in which we worked" and how we tasted
that pretty paint a hundred times a day.
Now, even our crumbling bones
will glow forever in the black earth.
Copyright © 2002 by Eleanor Swanson
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