A tail dragging romp through the swamps of the world
America spends more on its military than the next 35-40 biggest military spenders on the planet combinedAhem! NOT!
The bizarre-looking creature, dubbed Rhynochocyon udzungwensis, is a type of giant elephant shrew, or sengi.The Udzungwa Mountains have been declared one of 34 World Biodiversity Hotspots. Often called the Galapagos Islands of Africa, the Udzungwa Mountains contain tropical rainforests which stand out from the savannahs of the lower plains. Most of the life in the Udzungwa region has been isolated for millions of years.The cat-sized animal, which is reported in the Journal of Zoology, looks like a cross between a miniature antelope and a small ant eater.
It has a grey face, a long, flexible snout, a bulky, amber body, a jet-black rump and it stands on spindly legs.
"This is one of the most exciting discoveries of my career," said Galen Rathbun, from the California Academy of Sciences, who helped to confirm the animal was new to science along with an international team of colleagues.
A young man, a student of journalism, is sentenced to death by an Islamic court for downloading a report from the internet. The sentence is then upheld by the country's rulers. This is Afghanistan – not in Taliban times but six years after "liberation" and under the democratic rule of the West's ally Hamid Karzai.And if you are taken to believe that this is the unsanctioned act of an independent religious court you would be wrong.The fate of Sayed Pervez Kambaksh has led to domestic and international protests, and deepening concern about erosion of civil liberties in Afghanistan. He was accused of blasphemy after he downloaded a report from a Farsi website which stated that Muslim fundamentalists who claimed the Koran justified the oppression of women had misrepresented the views of the prophet Mohamed.
Mr Kambaksh, 23, distributed the tract to fellow students and teachers at Balkh University with the aim, he said, of provoking a debate on the matter. But a complaint was made against him and he was arrested, tried by religious judges without – say his friends and family – being allowed legal representation and sentenced to death.
The Independent is launching a campaign today to secure justice for Mr Kambaksh. The UN, human rights groups, journalists' organisations and Western diplomats have urged Mr Karzai's government to intervene and free him. But the Afghan Senate passed a motion yesterday confirming the death sentence.This is the new crowd, same as the old crowd. If the non-Taliban is behaving the same as the Taliban did, what is it exactly we're supposed to accomplish?The MP who proposed the ruling condemning Mr Kambaksh was Sibghatullah Mojaddedi, a key ally of Mr Karzai. The Senate also attacked the international community for putting pressure on the Afghan government and urged Mr Karzai not to be influenced by outside un-Islamic views.
The case of Mr Kambaksh, who also worked a s reporter for the Jahan-i-Naw (New World) newspaper, is seen in Afghanistan as yet another chapter in the escalation in the confrontation between Afghanistan and the West.
It comes in the wake of Mr Karzai accusing the British of actually worsening the situation in Helmand province by their actions and his subsequent blocking of the appointment of Lord Ashdown as the UN envoy and expelling a British and an Irish diplomat.
Canada has a position of leverage here. Very simply Karzai needs to be told a few facts of life. If Karzai, as he has so often repeated, insists that Canadian troops remain in Kandahar then he needs to accept that the cost of our presence is acquiescence to demands for a much more just and civil system of government and law. Killing people for what they read doesn't pass muster.
If Karzai can't accept that then the solution is simple. We leave and Afghanistan can defend itself.Sayed Pervez Kambaksh's imminent execution is an affront to civilised values. It is not, however, a foregone conclusion. If enough international pressure is brought to bear on President Karzai's government, his sentence may yet be overturned. Add your weight to the campaign by urging the Foreign Office to demand that his life be spared. Sign our e-petition at www.independent.co.uk/petitionThere is no reason for Canadian troops to be dying for a country which is unable to embrace basic human rights and the most simple principles of civilization.
Environment Canada has "muzzled" its scientists, ordering them to refer all media queries to Ottawa where communications officers will help them respond with "approved lines."Whatever an "approved line" is.
Environment Canada scientists, many of them world leaders in their fields, have long been encouraged to discuss their work on everything from migratory birds to melting Arctic ice with the media and public. Several of them were co-authors of the United Nations report on climate change that won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.Well, yes. Open and accessible government is on helluva problem, dontcha know. Why, if someone doesn't bring an end to it, it'll make everyone think the government of Canada is transparent and accountable."It's insulting," says one senior staff member, who asked not to be named. She says researchers can no longer even discuss or confirm science facts without approval from the "highest level."
Until now, Environment Canada has been one of most open and accessible departments in the federal government, which the executive committee says is a problem that needs to be remedied.
The scientists need not worry. The fat little men in blue ties will be around directly... selling memberships in "the party".
The nazification of the civil service has begun.
Defence Minister Peter MacKay expressed Canada's outrage and dismay directly to Kandahar's governor within hours of diplomats discovering a clear case of prisoner abuse last fall.Well now, that would be a good thing. It's the proper way to deal with the issue. He might have even scored a few brownie-points if he'd come back to Canada and given Parliament the details.
[...]Mr. MacKay was in Kandahar on Nov. 6 visiting troops when the Canadian army decided to halt the handover of captured Taliban fighters to Afghan authorities.
The fact that the government kept the decision secret has infuriated opposition MPs.
"He was there, he knew something," said Liberal defence critic Denis Coderre.
"Why didn't he tell us? Is it because he was told not to say anything by a Prime Minister's Office that is controlling everything?"
The news that a prisoner had been allegedly beaten unconscious using an electrical cable and a hose in the custody of Afghanistan's notorious intelligence service angered Mr. MacKay, said a senior Conservative, who spoke on background.
Mr. MacKay immediately demanded to speak to Governor Assadullah Khalid, whose responsibility includes all provincial detention facilities.
The Defence Minister told the governor, a former Northern Alliance commander whose hatred of the Taliban is legend on the streets of Kandahar, that the abuse was "absolutely unacceptable."
But he didn't do that, did he?
Instead, MacKay lied to Parliament.
That's all three of them: Harper, MacKay and Buckler.
Liars.
President Bush this week declared that he has the power to bypass four laws, including a prohibition against using federal funds to establish permanent US military bases in Iraq, that Congress passed as part of a new defense bill.And that's it? Is impeachment still off the table?Bush made the assertion in a signing statement that he issued late Monday after signing the National Defense Authorization Act for 2008. In the signing statement, Bush asserted that four sections of the bill unconstitutionally infringe on his powers, and so the executive branch is not bound to obey them.
[...]
One section Bush targeted created a statute that forbids spending taxpayer money "to establish any military installation or base for the purpose of providing for the permanent stationing of United States Armed Forces in Iraq" or "to exercise United States control of the oil resources of Iraq."
The Bush administration is negotiating a long-term agreement with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. The agreement is to include the basing of US troops in Iraq after 2008, as well as security guarantees and other economic and political ties between the United States and Iraq.
The negotiations have drawn fire in part because the administration has said it does not intend to designate the compact as a "treaty," and so will not submit it to Congress for approval. Critics are also concerned Bush might lock the United States into a deal that would make it difficult for the next president to withdraw US troops from Iraq.
"Every time a senior administration official is asked about permanent US military bases in Iraq, they contend that it is not their intention to construct such facilities," said Senator Robert P. Casey Jr., Democrat of Pennsylvania, in a Senate speech yesterday. "Yet this signing statement issued by the president yesterday is the clearest signal yet that the administration wants to hold this option in reserve."
Perhaps the congressional Democrats could rent out the US constitution to a country that can make use of it.
Harper pledged to lead a diplomatic "full-court press" with allies to ensure Canadian soldiers get the help that will allow them to stay in Afghanistan indefinitely.I seem to recall hearing sometime ago that Canadian troops would not be required to do any more than one tour in Afghanistan. With a limited number of battalions, that makes "indefinite" a finite number.
The American Enterprise Institute, the think tank that came up with the “surge” strategy for Iraq, has just completed a re-evaluation of U.S. strategy in Afghanistan and Pakistan and concluded that another surge of U.S. forces is required, this time into southern Afghanistan.Fred Kagan? Yes, this Fred Kagan. But, I digress... ever so slightly.AEI gathered at least “two dozen” experts for three days of discussions that finished Sunday, according to a Washington source familiar with the proposal. The AEI team was headed up by resident scholar Fred Kagan and included “many of the previous participants” from the discussions that preceded AEI’s Iraq surge proposal, including retired Army Gen. John M. “Jack” Keane, the source added.
In a telephone interview, Kagan said AEI did not conduct the study at the administration’s request. While a “core group” of AEI employees worked on both studies, along with a small number of retired Army officers, “otherwise the personnel were [experts on] Afghanistan instead of Iraq,” Kagan said.Well, there's a novel concept! Kagan might have thought of that very simple idea six years ago.
Does anybody have any questions?
I have one.
"The Task Force's central recommendation is establishment by 2010 of a North American economic and security community, the boundaries of which would be defined by a common external tariff and an outer security perimeter."In fact, right now at Amazon, you can get Manley's first best-seller pictured above, plus his co-author Robert Pastor's Toward A North American Community, both for the low, low price of $33.48.
I'd have a lot more respect for him if he made a concerted effort to make this point—and endeavored to either galvanize a vibrant third party or progressivize the Democratic party—in between elections, instead of popping up once every four years to indulge a vanity campaign.Why can't he just be happy with having taken on one of the largest corporations on earth, at the time, and beating them.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper twice said yesterday that crucial new helicopters and drones for the troops in Afghanistan are "on order."Yes, Harper did say that. And he's a fucking liar.However, government officials later said the Prime Minister jumped the gun and that they are still trying to find the best way to obtain the equipment quickly.
One only has to go to this site to see what the state of materiel acquisition is in the Canadian Forces. ADM Mat is the "shopping authority" for the Canadian Forces. Everything "new" goes through them.
Let's take a look at the Medium-to-Heavy-Lift Helicopter Project. Do you see what I see?
At best there has been a no-bid contract offered to Boeing for 16 Chinook helicopters. They have not been ordered; no milestones have been established; and, no production schedule has been laid down.
Let's look at the surveillance drones.
Oh no.
Harper is lying through is teeth and he's hoping you are too dumb to know it. The earliest a CH-47F Chinook heavy-lift helicopter could be delivered, if we placed a firm order tomorrow, would be in 2012.
Drones? Forget about them. The air force hasn't even decided who might be the best supplier.
Would you like a little juice with that toast?
The Netherlands has seven CH-47D Chinook heavy-lift helicopters. They had eight until one crashed. Where did they get them?
From us. Canada sold them to the Dutch.
Go back. Go back to the Mulroney Conservative government. They eliminated the Canadian Ch-47 Chinook heavy-lift helicopter fleet, for the money.
Now, if I may, allow me to show you how passionate Harper is about getting heavy-lift helicopters for the Canadian Forces. If the only barrier to saving the lives of our troops is the "worldwide demand" as Harper is stating, the problem is solved... in a heartbeat.
Boeing did an upgrade on the Chinook to make them last past 2030. In the process of upgrading, and building new ones, they ended up with a surfeit of the CH-47D (the same variant we used to own). Boeing has a program known as Cargo Helicopter Procurement and Support or CHAPS. Essentially it is a means of selling off used US Army CH-47D Chinooks and using the income to further upgrade other Chinooks. Upgrades to that model (the one we used to own) would come with it. Oh yeah, they're cheap to buy.
The CHAPS program provides for the sale of flight-ready CH-47D Chinooks under "Exchange and Sales" regulations. Under this program, select D-Model Chinooks from the U.S. Army fleet are available to military users and service organizations worldwide providing them affordable aircraft fully capable and easily up-gradable to include any future system provided in the CH-47D. CHAPS provides countries affordable alternatives to more advanced aircraft and enables users to support military operations, medical and disaster relief, search and rescue, fire fighting and civil support with reliable, cost-efficient helicopters.You want heavy-lift helicopters? There they are. And what is Harper telling you? They're on order.
If Mulroney hadn't sold the Chinooks we had, this whole point would be moot. But we have to move past that and look at today.
Harper is not only lying, he is quite prepared to watch Canadian troops roll back and forth on roads over land-mines and IEDs rather than buy used helicopters to prevent them being killed - right now.
Can you feel the passion? Can you feel the fucking support?
Opposition parties are accusing the Harper government of manufacturing last month's medical isotope crisis.Yeah, right. Given the number of times we've been hearing the word "misspoke" from this lot, Clements is fairly easy to ignore.The parties levelled the accusation Monday based on a report that the government did not speak to alternative European suppliers of isotopes until Dec. 10 - 19 days after the research reactor at Chalk River, Ont., was shut down.
Even then, according to a Montreal newspaper, the government advised officials at three European reactors that they didn't need to increase their isotope production because the shutdown at Chalk River would be remedied shortly.
The following day, the government introduced emergency legislation to override the safety objections of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission.
Health Minister Tony Clement insists the report is "completely untrue."
Then today, Linda Keen had a chance to say her piece, and she wasn't flinching. We can be pretty sure that this isn't quite what Harper wanted to hear.
The woman who was fired by the federal Conservatives as president of Canada's nuclear safety watchdog said Tuesday the safety risk of resuming the Chalk River, Ont., reactor was 1,000 times higher than accepted international standards.Hmmm... that would be the "World Stage" Steve thumbed his nose at when he told everyone that there was no chance of a nuclear accident at Chalk River.Linda Keen, former president of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC), said there was a one in 1,000 chance of an accident occurring and she did not believe the medical isotope-producing nuclear reactor in Chalk River should have resumed operation.
In the case of a nuclear fuel failure, the international standard for acceptable risk is one in a million, Keen said.
"Some have suggested that the chance of a nuclear accident was low and that the reactor was safe enough. Well, with respect, safe enough is simply not good enough," said Keen, who spoke before a House of Commons natural resources committee.
"When it comes to nuclear facilities, ignoring safety requirements is simply not an option, not now, not ever."
And before Linda Keen testified today, Auditor General Sheila Fraser had something to say.
Before Keen's appearance, Auditor General Sheila Fraser testified that Keen's firing clearly raised questions about the independence of regulatory bodies and how they are dealt with.This has hardly even started from the look of it.She said that at a minimum, there appears to be "a lack of clarity" around the issue.
During testimony, Ontario Liberal MP Lloyd St. Amand accused Lunn of interfering in an independent commission, and asked Keen about a call she received from the minister in early December about the incident.
"You were being told by the minister of natural resources what to do and how to do it," Armand said.
"There's absolutely no doubt in our mind that we were being told when to do it and what to do on that date, and that was my impression," Keen said.
The Canadian Forces are holding insurgent detainees at their Kandahar Air Force base rather than turning them over to Afghan authorities, are taking fewer prisoners and are quickly releasing some of them.Hmmm... I honestly don't know if I would have provided quite that amount of information, but I probably don't have to paint to much of a picture to give you an idea of what's happening here. Steve's "operational security" caveat doesn't have the stranglehold on information that he might have originally thought.The information, provided to The Globe and Mail by sources, answers questions about Canada's new policy for handling detainees that Prime Minister Stephen Harper and other ministers repeatedly refused to provide Monday, citing the need for combat operational secrecy.
Reports have also emerged that General Rick Hillier, Chief of the Defence Staff, was furious with the Prime Minister's Office's handling of the military's new policy and angrily telephoned Mr. Harper Friday night after letting it be known he was “tired of being used” in political controversy.It looks like Steve's book of secrets is coming apart at the binding.
Might I add, that this is just the start?
I guess since Steve has established his entire hold on power on the premise that he's the only one who actually knows what's going on and everyone else is too stupid to actually understand, there's little chance he'll see what's approaching from behind.
Fly naked on Germany's first nudist holiday flight
Reuters - January 29, 2008 at 5:49 AM EST
FRANKFURT — German nudists will be able to start their holidays early by stripping off on the plane if they take up a new offer from an eastern German travel firm.
_______________
The 55 passengers will have to remain clothed until they board, and dress before disembarking, said Mr. Hess. The crew will remain clothed throughout the flight for safety reasons.
Because with the globe in genuine peril, Dubya's six-week Cakewalk War about to enter its sixth year, the nation plunging into the shitter, our Constitution begging for help and the Supreme Court one bad cold or slippery patch of pavement away from a bulletproof wingnut majority for the next 20 years, I for one am all finished with losing nobly and consoling myself that at least I kept my political hymen pure and intact.
When you hear the word "Canadian," what's the first thing that comes to mind? Someone who is hockey-crazed? Someone who says "eh" at the end of every sentence? Someone who is, dare I say it, nice?Shocked?
How about someone who is black?
Earlier this month, an e-mail that had been circulating since 2003, written by a Houston assistant district attorney Mike Trent, resurfaced. The e-mail was short, only about 100 words, and was sent to the entire office. It started out by praising a junior prosecutor for a job well done. Then the message continued:The problem however, (and this raised concerns with Trent's superiors), is that Canadians are not permitted to serve on US juries. So Trent had to mean something else.He overcame a subversively good defense by Matt Hennessey that had some Canadians on the jury feeling sorry for the defendant and forced them to do the right thing."
Trent claims that he was unaware of the meaning, overheard someone saying that there were Canadians on the jury, took that literally, and just repeated it in his e-mail.Really? One would think Trent might have discovered the odd "Canadian" during the Voir Dire phase. You know, jury selection. It was, after all, a criminal case. In a place like Houston, Canadians have funny accents. And we say, "eh" a lot.
Last August, a blogger in Cincinnati going by the name CincyBlurg reported that a black friend from the southeastern U.S. had recently discovered that she was being called a Canadian. "She told me a story of when she was working in a shop in the South and she overheard some of her customers complaining that they were always waited on by a Canadian at that place. She didn't understand what they were talking about and assumed they must be talking about someone else," the blogger wrote.In other words, when used by a white racist, "Not one of us. Not a real American.""After this happened several times with different patrons, she mentioned it to one of her co-workers. He told her that ‘Canadian' was the new derogatory term that racist Southerners were using to describe persons they would have previously referred to [with the N-word.]"
A similar case in Kansas City was reported last year on a Listserv, or electronic mailing list, used by linguistics experts. A University of Kansas linguist said that a waitress friend reported that "fellow workers used to use a name for inner-city families that were known to not leave a tip: Canadians. ‘Hey, we have a table of Canadians.... They're all yours.' "
Stefan Dollinger, a postdoctoral fellow in linguistics at University of British Columbia and director of the university's Canadian English lab, speculated that the slur reflects a sense of Canadians as the other.
Disgusted?
Thought so.
What may have been the most fascinating part of the afternoon was my time in the Government Lobby. Behind the curtains that run along the last row of benches on both sides of the House, are doors to long skinny living room areas. One is called the Opposition Lobby; the other the Government Lobby. In my pre-Green Party leader life, I have spent a lot of time in both. The Government Lobby was a frequent work space when I was Senior Policy Advisor to the federal Minister of Environment back in the mid-1980s. And I frequented both lobbies when I was with Sierra Club of Canada from 1987-2006. It did not strike me until I walked into the Government Lobby to await my turn as Speaker that I had not been in there since Stephen Harper became Prime Minister.And if you think Ms. May is exaggerating, I give you Kady O'Malley:It used to have some paintings on the wall. Past prime ministers, certainly a formal portrait of the Queen. Landscapes. I know there was the occasional photo of current Prime Ministers, but when I walked in this time, I felt chilled to the bone. Every available wall space had a large colour photo of Stephen Harper. Stephen Harper at Alert. Stephen Harper in fire fighter gear. Stephen Harper at his desk. Stephen Harper meeting the Dalai Lama. Even the photo of the Queen showed her in the company of Stephen Harper. None were great photos. None were more than enlarged snapshots in colour. They didn’t feel like art.
The student with me said it was the same in Langevin Block, the Prime ministers Office. Photos of Stephen Harper everywhere.
I didn't mention the Wall of Harper in my original post, but not because I didn't think it was worth noting. The government and opposition lobbies have been off limits for the press gallery for years, and I didn't want to get anyone at QMP in trouble for bringing a journalist into the House, even during the parliamentary off-season. But now that someone else has spilled the beans on the Conservative decorating scheme, I'm lifting my self-imposed non-disclosure agreement long enough to confirm her report. And yes, it is a little disconcerting, although I did like the picture of the Prime Minister gazing thoughtfully at a polar bear. Make of that what you will.Remember when we used to call it The Stephen Harper Party and mean it as a joke?
Be afraid. Be very afraid. This kind of behaviour doesn't belong in a parliamentary democracy... anywhere.
Oh yeah. I'm guessing the picture of Harper in the Festus get-up isn't included in the self-admiration display.
Zorpheous and Holly Stick in comments provide this reminder. And I am pleased to prove to you that Harper admiring an array of photos of himself is something of a habit.
Forcing a woman, by threat of criminal sanction, to carry a foetus to term unless she meets certain criteria unrelated to her own priorities and aspirations, is a profound interference with a woman's body and thus an infringement of security of the person. A second breach of the right to security of the person occurs independently as a result of the delay in obtaining therapeutic abortions caused by the mandatory procedures of s. 251 which results in a higher probability of complications and greater risk. The harm to the psychological integrity of women seeking abortions was also clearly established.And women, after over a century long struggle, had won another small measure of freedom.
"The decision whether to terminate a pregnancy is essentially a moral decision, a matter of conscience. I do not think there is or can be any dispute about that. The question is: whose conscience? Is the conscience of the woman to be paramount or the conscience of the state? I believe, for the reasons I gave in discussing the right to liberty, that in a free and democratic society it must be the conscience of the individual."
"Nine months… the length of time an abortion is allowed in Canada. Abortion.Yes, fetus fetishists, I'm afraid you have gone too far this time.
Have we gone too far?"
" .007...the percentage of abortions performed at 20 weeks for medical reasons in Canada."
That's just American casualties. It doesn't even touch on the countless thousands who have died while the Bush administration laid waste to their country.The US has suffered more than 72,000 battlefield casualties since the start of the war on terror in 2001, a Freedom of Information request has revealed.
The query by the campaigning Veterans for Common Sense organisation shows that 4372 American soldiers have died and another 67,671 have been wounded in action, injured in accidents or succumbed to illness in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The veterans' group had to force the US Defence Department to release the figures by persuading judges to uphold their FoI rights.
A second request to the Veterans' Administration, the government-funded body responsible for taking care of ex-servicemen and women, showed 263,909 soldiers with experience of the two 21st-century wars have so far received treatment for everything from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) to the aftermath of amputated limbs.
It also showed 52,375 veterans had been diagnosed with PTSD and 34,138 have received approval for disability claims for the psychological disorder. As of October 31 last year, 1.6 million Americans have been deployed overseas since 2001.
Keep in mind, the Pentagon made an effort to withhold those figures. But there's another one.
Harvard University estimates the cost of caring for Iraq and Afghan veterans over the next 40 years will amount to between £125bn and £350bn [$250bn and $700bn], depending on the long-term effects of trauma.Cathie pulls up another cost which the neo-cons never figured into their grand adventure: gross unpopularity and a country so weakened that recovery may involve decades of reconstruction... and pain. And there's no guarantee that Americans will be willing to endure what it takes to find a place in the world again. Right now they are the object of universal scorn for giving the world one of the worst presidents ever.
My wife and I have dual nationality, but we are from Quebec. The British ask us, “Why do you speak French, if you are Canadian?” Any suggestions as to a reply?And how does Mrs. Mills deal with this cultural problem?
I should have thought it was obvious why you speak French: there’s less chance of being thought Canadian and you might even be mistaken for an interesting person.Well... that's a bit off-putting, isn't it? Doesn't Mrs. Mills know that Canada is now on the world stage? I mean, Canada has Le Grande Chien Chaud for a prime minister.
When it came time to sentence James Allen Gregg for his conviction on murder charges, the judge in South Dakota took a moment to reflect on the defendant as an Iraq combat veteran who suffered from severe post-traumatic stress disorder. “This is a terrible case, as all here have observed,” said Judge Charles B. Kornmann of United States District Court. “Obviously not all the casualties coming home from Iraq or Afghanistan come home in body bags.”This was supposed to have been long past. It was to have died with the veterans of the Viet Nam war. Remember, Iraq was only supposed to last a few weeks.Judge Kornmann noted that Mr. Gregg, a fresh-faced young man who grew up on a cattle ranch, led “an exemplary life until that day, that terrible morning.” With no criminal record or psychiatric history, Mr. Gregg had started unraveling in Iraq, growing disillusioned with the war and volunteering for dangerous missions in the hope of getting killed, he testified.
Born during the Vietnam War era, the combat version of what became known as the PTSD defense is being dusted off for a new generation of war veterans.California has updated a law, written five years after the end of US involvement in Viet Nam, which permits judges to divert offenders with Iraq or Afghanistan service to treatment instead of jail. Although only for lesser offences, it is an acknowledgment that combat stress is real and has a lasting effect on many individuals.“I’m seeing it all the time now,” said David P. Sheldon, a civilian lawyer in Washington who represents military personnel. “And I will not be surprised to see this resonate as a consistent theme over the next few decades when people will be committing crimes after suffering repeated traumas in Iraq.”
“I see these stickers that people have on their vehicles saying, ‘Support the troops,’ ” Judge Kornmann said. “I don’t see much support for the troops as years go on when these people come back injured and maimed.”A millenniums old problem. Douglas MacArthur did no favours to returning combatants when he said, "Old soldiers fade away."
Maybe they do, but there is likely to be a horribly disturbed life between the date of discharge and the final fading away.
Sylvester Stallone insisted he would only do another "Rambo" flick if it was about the human condition.Now, stroll on over to Canadian Cynic, scroll to the bottom of the post and, (if you dare), click the link.He stuck to his guns. Chapter 4, simply titled "Rambo," is about the condition of humans - after they've been blown apart by bombs, land mines and projectiles fired from the biggest, loudest firearms you may ever encounter on screen.
A box-office and critical joke for years with a string of absurd movies, Stallone regained a lot of good will with fans on 2006's "Rocky Balboa," a resurrection of his most-famous character that proved an unlikely commercial success and also earned the respect of many reviewers.
"Rocky Balboa" got back to the core of the lovable goof known as the Italian Stallion, evoking a lot of the charm of the original "Rocky" and rinsing out some of the bad taste left by the increasingly caricatured sequels.
Co-written and directed by Stallone, "Rambo" is sickening, almost degenerate, in its savagery. Any hope that it might redeem the franchise the way "Rocky Balboa" did vanishes about the time a Burmese soldier bayonets the belly of a child during one of the movie's early sequences of utter carnage.
[...]
The movie might satisfy bloodthirsty action fans, but for most people, this is one Stallone do-over we could have done without. One and a half stars out of four.
I almost feel the need to apologize.
But I won't.
If you go to RAMBO you'll probably be disgusted. If you rent this movie, you'll probably be disgusted, intrigued, angry, happy and amazed.
Not that I care, but I thought you should know.
The one scientist in this country who had direct access to the Prime Minister is being dismissed. Canada’s National Science Adviser, Dr. Arthur Carty, was appointed by former Prime Minister Paul Martin to provide expert advice on the government’s role in matters of science and science policy. Now, less than four years after the position was created, the Harper government feels that it’s no longer necessary.Clarity and perspective. Right.The National Science Adviser is a voice of reason to the government over actions it should take on issues such as climate change, genetically modified foods, managing fisheries, sustaining the environment - any time the politicians need to be educated on the basic science behind those often controversial issues. Of course, decisions are seldom made for purely scientific reasons; all too often, the interests of industry, special interest groups or a misinformed public will cloud the scientific truth. The Adviser’s job is to provide clarity and perspective.
Now I get it. That would be in the interest of knowledge and sound decision making. Unless it translates into votes and more power, it has no meaning in Harper's crowd.
None.
A Conservative MP said it's up to the prime minister to decide whether to fire his chief spokeswoman for making false statements about Canada's mission in Afghanistan.This is in place of the official line provided by Peter Van Loan as he met reporters and suggested that everybody in the Conservative Party "misspeaks".The government sent out two designated speakers Saturday - one English, one French - who defended Prime Minister Stephen Harper's communications director Sandra Buckler.
Other Conservatives grumbled privately that her misleading remarks are the latest example of how a potential good-news story about the Afghan mission has been plunged into the bowels of public-relations hell.
Alberta MP Art Hanger was not one of the officially designated spokespeople Saturday.
He offered a curt and unenthusiastic reply when asked whether the prime minister should fire his communications director.
"You ask the prime minister that question," Hanger replied outside a Conservative caucus meeting.
"I'm not about to answer it."
The truth is, the Conservatives are finding themselves in a bucket of shit of their own making. They work so hard at trying to present perfect optics that they can't see where they're going. If they had put as much effort into actually governing they might have turned into a fairly competent government. (That's not to suggest we would have liked much of it.)
In any case, there is a lot of pressure on Harper at the moment and the source of one demand for Buckler's head is not backing away.
But one telephone receiver was shaking with the sound of screaming as a livid Department of National Defence official vented his fury at the Prime Minister's Office.And they're not going to let it drop. The word on the jetty is that unless Buckler receives the appropriate discipline (fired), there will be information made public which will show that the Canadian Forces in Afghanistan did not make the immediate decision to stop prisoner transfers in isolation. They will demonstrate that the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, the government department actually responsible for administering the prisoner transfer agreement with the government of Afghanistan, made the initial decision on November 5th, 2007 and advised the CF to stop handing over prisoners to the Afghan government.The military official said his colleagues are incensed by the insinuation that they would be incompetent enough to withhold key details on a politically charged file from their civilian bosses.
He said the Canadian Forces should be receiving plaudits for having signed a detainee-transfer deal when Foreign Affairs failed to do so in 2005, and for having then immediately halted transfers when proof of torture was uncovered in November.
"Instead we've been wearing this," the military official said, shouting loudly enough to shake the phone receiver. He described the mood at DND as "outraged and frustrated."
Added thought: I don't believe for a minute Buckler will be fired, but if she is you can expect a soft-landing. If I were the ambassador to any developed country in the Canadian diplomatic chain, I'd be checking to see where I could get some packing boxes.
