Fiona McCann
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american redneck
Regional humor The minimum drinking age in West Virginia was raised to age 32 in an attempt to keep alcohol out of high schools. A South Carolina redneck passed away and left a sizable estate to his beloved widow. However, she can't touch it until she turns fourteen. Folks in Georgia now go to the movies in groups of 18 or more since they were told that in some theaters "17 and under are not admitted." Reruns of "Hee Haw" in Mississippi are considered documentaries. You know you are in Kentucky when you call the front desk from your motel room and tell the clerk "I've gotta leak in my sink," and he says, "Go ahead. You paid for the room." You can tell if a West Virginia redneck is married. There is tobacco spit on both sides of his pickup. The governor's mansion in Little Rock was almost destroyed by fire. In fact, the entire trailer park was almost lost. The best thing to ever come out of Arkansas is Interstate 40. An Alabama State trooper stopped a redneck in a pickup truck for weaving on the roadway. He asked the driver, "Got any ID?" The redneck said, "Bout what?" |
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2.12.04 05:34 |
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I am amused
Got this from J-Walk (see link under the Tricolour over there <---) It kept me mindlessly busy and amused for many minutes. webfx      |
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2.12.04 06:55 |
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An Phoblacht **As a victim of this myself, I find this article interesting. Combating violence against women Violence against women has many faces. From birth to death, in times of peace and conflict, women face aggression at the hands of state, community and family. In some countries, the life of a woman is considered so worthless that baby girls get discarded, abandoned and even killed. Every year millions of women are raped by partners, relatives, friends and sometimes strangers, by employers and colleagues, security officials and soldiers. The overwhelming majority of those affected by violence at home are also women and girls. In recent conflicts in Kosovo, Bosnia, Sudan and Congo, we have seen how violence has been used as a weapon to dehumanise women themselves or to prosecute the community to which they belong. All around the world, different actions took place on Thursday 25 November, International Day Against Violence Against Women, to highlight that violence against women is a problem that affects everybody in society. It's in our hands: Stop violence against women, a report published by Amnesty International, investigates causes, forms and remedies, and highlights the responsibility of the state, the community and individuals for taking action to end violence against women. This report finds that violence against women is not confined to any particular political or economic system, but is prevalent in every society in the world. It cuts across boundaries of wealth, race and culture. The power structures within society which perpetuate violence against women are deep-rooted. The experience or threat of violence inhibits women everywhere from fully exercising and enjoying their human rights. Women throughout the world have organised to expose and counter violence against women. They have forced changes in laws, policies and practices through their work to bring those responsible to account. They have brought the violations against their human rights out of the shadows and into the spotlight. They have established that this violence demands a response from those who, in many cases, are responsible for that violence: governments, communities and individuals. The women's movement has, above all, challenged the view of women as passive victims, as despite the many obstacles and threats, women are leading the struggle to prevent further violence. The struggle to establish women's rights as human rights has not been easy. Despite its prevalence, it was not until the 1990s that violence against women emerged as a focus of international attention and concern. In 1993, the UN General Assembly passed the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women, UN Resolution 48/104. In the next two years, at both the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo and the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, women's organisations from around the world advocated ending gender violence as a high priority. The Cairo Programme of Action recognised that gender violence is an obstacle to women's reproductive and sexual health and rights, and the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action devoted an entire section to the issue of violence against women. In March 1994, the Commission on Human Rights appointed the first Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women and empowered her to investigate abuses of women's human rights. In the same year, the Organisation of American States (OAS) negotiated the Inter-American Convention to Prevent, Punish and Eradicate Violence Against Women. As of 1998, 27 Latin American countries had ratified the convention. In May 1996 the 49th World Health Assembly adopted a resolution (WHA49.25) declaring violence a public health priority. WHO is sponsoring, together with the Centre for Health and Gender Equity (CHANGE) and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, a multi-country study on women's health and domestic violence. More recently, in September 1998 the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) brought together 400 experts from 37 countries to discuss the causes and costs of domestic violence, and policies and programs to address it. The IDB currently funds research and demonstration projects on violence against women in six Latin American countries. That same year, UNIFEM launched regional campaigns in Africa, Asia/Pacific, and Latin America designed to draw attention to the issue of violence against women globally. UNIFEM also manages The Trust Fund in Support of Actions to Eliminate Violence Against Women, an initiative that has disbursed US$3.3 million to 71 projects around the world since 1996. Then, in 1999, the United Nations Population Fund declared violence against women "a public health priority". An enormous range of anti-violence initiatives now operate in all parts of the world. Some are run by small grass-roots women's groups, others by large international agencies, and still others by governments. Moreover, growing research efforts have resulted in an increasingly detailed and sophisticated understanding of the causes and consequences of violence against women. Yet the violence continues. Case studies One of the cases highlighted by Amnesty is that of Grace Patrick Akpan, who was stopped by police officers for an identity check in Catanzaro, Italy, in February 1996.When she told them that she was an Italian citizen, they answered that "a black woman cannot be an Italian citizen". She was physically assaulted by the officers and required two weeks' hospital treatment. In October 1999, almost three years later, the officers responsible were found guilty of abusing their powers and causing Grace Patrick Akpan's injuries. They were sentenced to just two months' probation. In Chihuahua, Mexico, the lack of political will to investigate the reasons behind the disappearance of more than 400 young women and to put in place resources to save other women from suffering a similar fate have forced families and friend of the victims to organise themselves. The organisation, Justice for our Daughters, counts on the support of barristers and lawyers that are acting for the families of the victims and works to force the authorities to act on what is happening to young women in Mexico. They have already denounced how they have received threats themselves. These cases, and many others around the world, show how violence against women -which is never normal, legal or acceptable and should never be tolerated or justified - is sometimes if not allowed, then accepted. This attitude should change and everyone - individuals, communities, governments, and international bodies - has a responsibility to put a stop to it and to redress the suffering it causes. Change must come at international, national and local levels. It must be brought about by governments as well as private actors, by institutions as well as individuals. Taking action In Spain, violence against women has become one of the main items of public and political discussion. Incidents of domestic violence are now widely reported in the press and the government is prepared to enact new legislation so those responsible for this kind of violence serve longer prison sentences. However, there is a very long way to go, as this year more than 52 Spanish women died as a consequence of violence inflicted by their current or former partners. In Colombia, thousands of women took to the streets on Thursday 25 November to protest the impact of the civil conflict in their lives. The massive fumigations against huge areas under the excuse of eradicating coca plantations, carried out by the Colombian army and financed by the US administration, the forced displacement of populations escaping the conflict areas and the poverty that these situations create, affect the lives of million of women in Colombia. This year, women marched to El Chocσ, where a high percentage of the population suffer discrimination not only because of their poverty, but also because of their Afro-Colombian origin, and where the violence of the armed conflict is a daily occurrence. In Pakistan, it is estimated that around 1,000 women are killed every year due to the so-called honour-crime. To ask for a divorce, to have relationships outside wedlock or to offend the family honour are enough reasons for those women to be murdered, mutilated or burned alive. The Feminist Association of Legal Assistance for Women opened a women's refuge in the area of Punjab in 1990, where they provide assistance and a home to women who have been threatened with - or have already suffered - this kind of violence. In Morocco, since 1993, the organisation Centre for Listening and Legal and Psychological Assistance for women victims of violence has been working to improve the situation of women in the North African country. International Day Against Violence Against Women has come and gone. Since then, more women have died due to incidents of violence. Only when women gain their place as equal members of society will violence against women no longer be an invisible norm but, instead, a shocking aberration. DEFINITION Violence against Women is defined as: "Any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life." UN Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women Violence against women includes: Violence in the family. This includes: Battering by intimate partners, Sexual abuse of female children in the household, Dowry-related violence, Marital rape and female genital mutilation and other traditional practices harmful to women. It also covers abuse of domestic workers such as: Involuntary confinement, physical brutality, Slavery-like conditions and sexual assault. Violence in the community. This includes: Rape, Sexual abuse, Sexual harassment and assault at work, in educational institutions and elsewhere. Trafficking, forced prostitution and forced labour fall into this category, which also covers rape and other abuses by armed groups. Violence by the state. This includes Acts of violence committed or condoned by police, prison guards, soldiers, border guards, immigration officials and so on, such as rape by government forces during armed conflict, torture in custody and violence by officials against refugee women. In any of these categories, violence may be physical, psychological, and sexual. STATISTICS The statistics on violence against women reveal a worldwide human rights catastrophe. However, these figures represent the tip of the iceberg. Violence against women is generally under-reported because women are ashamed or fear disbelief, hostility or further violence. At least one out of every three women has been beaten, coerced into sex, or otherwise abused in her lifetime. Usually, the abuser is a member of her own family or someone known to her. The Council of Europe has stated that domestic violence is the major cause of death and disability for women aged 16 to 44 and accounts for more death and ill-health than cancer or traffic accidents. More than 60 million women are "missing" from the world today as a result of sex-selective abortions and female infanticide. China's last census in the year 2000 revealed that the ratio of newborn girls to boys was 100:119.The biological norm is 100:103. In the USA, women accounted for 85% of the victims of domestic violence in 1999, according to the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women. The Russian government estimates that 14,000 women were killed by their partners or relatives in 1999,yet the country still has no law specifically addressing domestic violence. The World Health Organisation has reported that up to 70% of female murder victims are killed by their male partners. PREVENTION Preventing violence against women requires us to: Speak out against violence against women, listen to women and believe them; Condemn violence against women as the major human rights scandal of our times; Confront those in authority if they fail to prevent, punish and redress violence against women; Challenge religious, social, and cultural attitudes and stereotypes which diminish women's humanity; Promote women's equal access to political power, decision-making and resources; Support women to organise themselves to stop the violence. |
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2.12.04 18:59 |
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ARMY - YEAH BABY!
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2.12.04 22:03 |
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Finally, competition for Loco's Irish Squirrel...
THE VIKING BUNNY OF DOOM! 
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3.12.04 07:46 |
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It beats the old 'blow your brains out' routine
The Guardian A little sightseeing, a glass of schnapps, then a peaceful death in a suburban flat In his first British interview, the founder of the Swiss suicide clinic explains how he helps people take their lives Luke Harding in Zόrich Saturday December 4, 2004 |
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4.12.04 08:54 |
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Where do you fit in? Or DO you?
Got this from J-Walk--good thing he doesn't know me :p WHAT SOCIAL STATUS ARE YOU? This is what I got: You scored as alternative. You're partially respected for being an individual in a conformist world yet others take you as a radical. You have no place in society because you choose not to belong there - you're the luckiest of them all, even if your parents are completely ashamed of you. Just don't take drugs ok? Too late 
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4.12.04 19:20 |
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FIONA'S QUIZ
 I received this hilarious quiz in my email about 2 years ago, and I laughed and laughed over it! I finally figured out how to make a web page out of it so you all can take the quiz too. Type in each response in order so it will work correctly. **Warning: strong language--but it's all in fun.  When the Yahoo ad comes up, click on its little x to get rid of it first before starting. FIONA'S QUIZ |
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4.12.04 21:07 |
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Who Is Osama Bin Laden?
globalresearch.ca  by by Michel Chossudovsky Professor of Economics, University of Ottawa **An older article, but still interesting. Endnotes and other sources on site. A few hours after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon, the Bush administration concluded without supporting evidence, that "Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda organisation were prime suspects". CIA Director George Tenet stated that bin Laden has the capacity to plan ``multiple attacks with little or no warning.'' Secretary of State Colin Powell called the attacks "an act of war" and President Bush confirmed in an evening televised address to the Nation that he would "make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbor them". Former CIA Director James Woolsey pointed his finger at "state sponsorship," implying the complicity of one or more foreign governments. In the words of former National Security Adviser, Lawrence Eagleburger, "I think we will show when we get attacked like this, we are terrible in our strength and in our retribution." Meanwhile, parroting official statements, the Western media mantra has approved the launching of "punitive actions" directed against civilian targets in the Middle East. In the words of William Saffire writing in the New York Times: "When we reasonably determine our attackers' bases and camps, we must pulverize them -- minimizing but accepting the risk of collateral damage" -- and act overtly or covertly to destabilize terror's national hosts". The following text outlines the history of Osama Bin Laden and the links of the Islamic "Jihad" to the formulation of US foreign policy during the Cold War and its aftermath. Prime suspect in the New York and Washington terrorists attacks, branded by the FBI as an "international terrorist" for his role in the African US embassy bombings, Saudi born Osama bin Laden was recruited during the Soviet-Afghan war "ironically under the auspices of the CIA, to fight Soviet invaders". 1 In 1979 "the largest covert operation in the history of the CIA" was launched in response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in support of the pro-Communist government of Babrak Kamal.2: With the active encouragement of the CIA and Pakistan's ISI [Inter Services Intelligence], who wanted to turn the Afghan jihad into a global war waged by all Muslim states against the Soviet Union, some 35,000 Muslim radicals from 40 Islamic countries joined Afghanistan's fight between 1982 and 1992. Tens of thousands more came to study in Pakistani madrasahs. Eventually more than 100,000 foreign Muslim radicals were directly influenced by the Afghan jihad.3 The Islamic "jihad" was supported by the United States and Saudi Arabia with a significant part of the funding generated from the Golden Crescent drug trade: In March 1985, President Reagan signed National Security Decision Directive 166,...[which] authorize[d] stepped-up covert military aid to the mujahideen, and it made clear that the secret Afghan war had a new goal: to defeat Soviet troops in Afghanistan through covert action and encourage a Soviet withdrawal. The new covert U.S. assistance began with a dramatic increase in arms supplies -- a steady rise to 65,000 tons annually by 1987, ... as well as a "ceaseless stream" of CIA and Pentagon specialists who traveled to the secret headquarters of Pakistan's ISI on the main road near Rawalpindi, Pakistan. There the CIA specialists met with Pakistani intelligence officers to help plan operations for the Afghan rebels.4 The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) using Pakistan's military Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) played a key role in training the Mujahideen. In turn, the CIA sponsored guerrilla training was integrated with the teachings of Islam: Predominant themes were that Islam was a complete socio-political ideology, that holy Islam was being violated by the atheistic Soviet troops, and that the Islamic people of Afghanistan should reassert their independence by overthrowing the leftist Afghan regime propped up by Moscow.5 Pakistan's Intelligence Apparatus Pakistan's ISI was used as a "go-between". The CIA covert support to the "jihad" operated indirectly through the Pakistani ISI, --i.e. the CIA did not channel its support directly to the Mujahideen. In other words, for these covert operations to be "successful", Washington was careful not to reveal the ultimate objective of the "jihad", which consisted in destroying the Soviet Union. In the words of CIA's Milton Beardman "We didn't train Arabs". Yet according to Abdel Monam Saidali, of the Al-aram Center for Strategic Studies in Cairo, bin Laden and the "Afghan Arabs" had been imparted "with very sophisticated types of training that was allowed to them by the CIA" 6 CIA's Beardman confirmed, in this regard, that Osama bin Laden was not aware of the role he was playing on behalf of Washington. In the words of bin Laden (quoted by Beardman): "neither I, nor my brothers saw evidence of American help". 7 Motivated by nationalism and religious fervor, the Islamic warriors were unaware that they were fighting the Soviet Army on behalf of Uncle Sam. While there were contacts at the upper levels of the intelligence hierarchy, Islamic rebel leaders in theatre had no contacts with Washington or the CIA. With CIA backing and the funneling of massive amounts of US military aid, the Pakistani ISI had developed into a "parallel structure wielding enormous power over all aspects of government". 8 The ISI had a staff composed of military and intelligence officers, bureaucrats, undercover agents and informers, estimated at 150,000. 9 Meanwhile, CIA operations had also reinforced the Pakistani military regime led by General Zia Ul Haq: 'Relations between the CIA and the ISI [Pakistan's military intelligence] had grown increasingly warm following [General] Zia's ouster of Bhutto and the advent of the military regime,'... During most of the Afghan war, Pakistan was more aggressively anti-Soviet than even the United States. Soon after the Soviet military invaded Afghanistan in 1980, Zia [ul Haq] sent his ISI chief to destabilize the Soviet Central Asian states. The CIA only agreed to this plan in October 1984.... `the CIA was more cautious than the Pakistanis.' Both Pakistan and the United States took the line of deception on Afghanistan with a public posture of negotiating a settlement while privately agreeing that military escalation was the best course.10 The Golden Crescent Drug Triangle The history of the drug trade in Central Asia is intimately related to the CIA's covert operations. Prior to the Soviet-Afghan war, opium production in Afghanistan and Pakistan was directed to small regional markets. There was no local production of heroin. 11 In this regard, Alfred McCoy's study confirms that within two years of the onslaught of the CIA operation in Afghanistan, "the Pakistan-Afghanistan borderlands became the world's top heroin producer, supplying 60 percent of U.S. demand. In Pakistan, the heroin-addict population went from near zero in 1979... to 1.2 million by 1985 -- a much steeper rise than in any other nation":12 CIA assets again controlled this heroin trade. As the Mujahideen guerrillas seized territory inside Afghanistan, they ordered peasants to plant opium as a revolutionary tax. Across the border in Pakistan, Afghan leaders and local syndicates under the protection of Pakistan Intelligence operated hundreds of heroin laboratories. During this decade of wide-open drug-dealing, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency in Islamabad failed to instigate major seizures or arrests ... U.S. officials had refused to investigate charges of heroin dealing by its Afghan allies `because U.S. narcotics policy in Afghanistan has been subordinated to the war against Soviet influence there.' In 1995, the former CIA director of the Afghan operation, Charles Cogan, admitted the CIA had indeed sacrificed the drug war to fight the Cold War. `Our main mission was to do as much damage as possible to the Soviets. We didn't really have the resources or the time to devote to an investigation of the drug trade,'... `I don't think that we need to apologize for this. Every situation has its fallout.... There was fallout in terms of drugs, yes. But the main objective was accomplished. The Soviets left Afghanistan.'13 In the Wake of the Cold War In the wake of the Cold War, the Central Asian region is not only strategic for its extensive oil reserves, it also produces three quarters of the World's opium representing multibillion dollar revenues to business syndicates, financial institutions, intelligence agencies and organized crime. The annual proceeds of the Golden Crescent drug trade (between 100 and 200 billion dollars) represents approximately one third of the Worldwide annual turnover of narcotics, estimated by the United Nations to be of the order of $500 billion.14 With the disintegration of the Soviet Union, a new surge in opium production has unfolded. (According to UN estimates, the production of opium in Afghanistan in 1998-99 -- coinciding with the build up of armed insurgencies in the former Soviet republics-- reached a record high of 4600 metric tons.15 Powerful business syndicates in the former Soviet Union allied with organized crime are competing for the strategic control over the heroin routes. The ISI's extensive intelligence military-network was not dismantled in the wake of the Cold War. The CIA continued to support the Islamic "jihad" out of Pakistan. New undercover initiatives were set in motion in Central Asia, the Caucasus and the Balkans. Pakistan's military and intelligence apparatus essentially "served as a catalyst for the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the emergence of six new Muslim republics in Central Asia." 16. Meanwhile, Islamic missionaries of the Wahhabi sect from Saudi Arabia had established themselves in the Muslim republics as well as within the Russian federation encroaching upon the institutions of the secular State. Despite its anti-American ideology, Islamic fundamentalism was largely serving Washington's strategic interests in the former Soviet Union. Following the withdrawal of Soviet troops in 1989, the civil war in Afghanistan continued unabated. The Taliban were being supported by the Pakistani Deobandis and their political party the Jamiat-ul-Ulema-e-Islam (JUI). In 1993, JUI entered the government coalition of Prime Minister Benazzir Bhutto. Ties between JUI, the Army and ISI were established. In 1995, with the downfall of the Hezb-I-Islami Hektmatyar government in Kabul, the Taliban not only instated a hardline Islamic government, they also "handed control of training camps in Afghanistan over to JUI factions..." 17 And the JUI with the support of the Saudi Wahhabi movements played a key role in recruiting volunteers to fight in the Balkans and the former Soviet Union. Jane Defense Weekly confirms in this regard that "half of Taliban manpower and equipment originate[d] in Pakistan under the ISI" 18 In fact, it would appear that following the Soviet withdrawal both sides in the Afghan civil war continued to receive covert support through Pakistan's ISI. 19 In other words, backed by Pakistan's military intelligence (ISI) which in turn was controlled by the CIA, the Taliban Islamic State was largely serving American geopolitical interests. The Golden Crescent drug trade was also being used to finance and equip the Bosnian Muslim Army (starting in the early 1990s) and the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). In last few months there is evidence that Mujahideen mercenaries are fighting in the ranks of KLA-NLA terrorists in their assaults into Macedonia. No doubt, this explains why Washington has closed its eyes on the reign of terror imposed by the Taliban including the blatant derogation of women's rights, the closing down of schools for girls, the dismissal of women employees from government offices and the enforcement of "the Sharia laws of punishment".20 The War in Chechnya With regard to Chechnya, the main rebel leaders Shamil Basayev and Al Khattab were trained and indoctrinated in CIA sponsored camps in Afghanistan and Pakistan. According to Yossef Bodansky, director of the U.S. Congress's Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare, the war in Chechnya had been planned during a secret summit of HizbAllah International held in 1996 in Mogadishu, Somalia. 21 The summit, was attended by Osama bin Laden and high-ranking Iranian and Pakistani intelligence officers. In this regard, the involvement of Pakistan's ISI in Chechnya "goes far beyond supplying the Chechens with weapons and expertise: the ISI and its radical Islamic proxies are actually calling the shots in this war". 22 Russia's main pipeline route transits through Chechnya and Dagestan. Despite Washington's perfunctory condemnation of Islamic terrorism, the indirect beneficiaries of the Chechen war are the Anglo-American oil conglomerates which are vying for control over oil resources and pipeline corridors out of the Caspian Sea basin. The two main Chechen rebel armies (respectively led by Commander Shamil Basayev and Emir Khattab) estimated at 35,000 strong were supported by Pakistan's ISI, which also played a key role in organizing and training the Chechen rebel army: [In 1994] the Pakistani Inter Services Intelligence arranged for Basayev and his trusted lieutenants to undergo intensive Islamic indoctrination and training in guerrilla warfare in the Khost province of Afghanistan at Amir Muawia camp, set up in the early 1980s by the CIA and ISI and run by famous Afghani warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. In July 1994, upon graduating from Amir Muawia, Basayev was transferred to Markaz-i-Dawar camp in Pakistan to undergo training in advanced guerrilla tactics. In Pakistan, Basayev met the highest ranking Pakistani military and intelligence officers: Minister of Defense General Aftab Shahban Mirani, Minister of Interior General Naserullah Babar, and the head of the ISI branch in charge of supporting Islamic causes, General Javed Ashraf, (all now retired). High-level connections soon proved very useful to Basayev.23 Following his training and indoctrination stint, Basayev was assigned to lead the assault against Russian federal troops in the first Chechen war in 1995. His organization had also developed extensive links to criminal syndicates in Moscow as well as ties to Albanian organized crime and the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). In 1997-98, according to Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) "Chechen warlords started buying up real estate in Kosovo... through several real estate firms registered as a cover in Yugoslavia" 24 Basayev's organisation has also been involved in a number of rackets including narcotics, illegal tapping and sabotage of Russia's oil pipelines, kidnapping, prostitution, trade in counterfeit dollars and the smuggling of nuclear materials (See Mafia linked to Albania's collapsed pyramids, 25 Alongside the extensive laundering of drug money, the proceeds of various illicit activities have been funneled towards the recruitment of mercenaries and the purchase of weapons. During his training in Afghanistan, Shamil Basayev linked up with Saudi born veteran Mujahideen Commander "Al Khattab" who had fought as a volunteer in Afghanistan. Barely a few months after Basayev's return to Grozny, Khattab was invited (early 1995) to set up an army base in Chechnya for the training of Mujahideen fighters. According to the BBC, Khattab's posting to Chechnya had been "arranged through the Saudi-Arabian based [International] Islamic Relief Organisation, a militant religious organisation, funded by mosques and rich individuals which channeled funds into Chechnya".26 Concluding Remarks Since the Cold War era, Washington has consciously supported Osama bin Laden, while at same time placing him on the FBI's "most wanted list" as the World's foremost terrorist. While the Mujahideen are busy fighting America's war in the Balkans and the former Soviet Union, the FBI --operating as a US based Police Force- is waging a domestic war against terrorism, operating in some respects independently of the CIA which has --since the Soviet-Afghan war-- supported international terrorism through its covert operations. In a cruel irony, while the Islamic jihad --featured by the Bush Adminstration as "a threat to America"-- is blamed for the terrorist assaults on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon, these same Islamic organisations constitute a key instrument of US military-intelligence operations in the Balkans and the former Soviet Union. In the wake of the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, the truth must prevail to prevent the Bush Adminstration together with its NATO partners from embarking upon a military adventure which threatens the future of humanity. |
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5.12.04 06:10 |
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Tel Mond is an Israeli prison notorious for imprisoning and abusing Palestinian children
Seven Stars Republican Socialist News **Received via email from above group Defence for Children International - Palestine Section December 01, 2004 Female prisoners in Telmond start hunger strike protest On 30 November 2004, a DCI/PS lawyer visited the women's section of Telmond prison where he was able to talk to one Palestinian detainee, Samah Abdallah. Samah informed him that on Sunday 28 November, the female Palestinian prisoners in Telmond went out to the exercise yard as normal. However, before the end of their allotted time outdoors, the prison administration ordered the Palestinian women and girls to return to their cells. The representative of the Palestinian female detainees, Amna Mouna, complained to the guards that it was too soon for the women to go back inside. As she did so, she was severely beaten by a group of prison guards after which she was taken to the punishment cells, which are cold bare rooms with no bedding, no heating and no natural light. To protest against the manner in which the prison administration deals with female Palestinian prisoners and in particular against the beating of their spokeswoman and her subsequent isolation, the remaining Palestinian female detainees began screaming and shouting. The guards responded by bringing in other troops, armed with batons, water hoses and tear gas, who began to beat the women and spray them with water and gas. As a result of the brutal attack, one prisoner, Sana Amer, suffered probable fractures to an arm and a leg, while two other Palestinian prisoners, Suad Ghazal and Asma' Hussain both sustained probable arm fractures. Many other prisoners were also injured by the guards. The prison administration did not provide medical or first aid treatment to the injured detainees. Instead, they placed a further 13 prisoners in the punishment cells. There were further reprisals awaiting those who returned to their normal cells. The administration confiscated all electrical appliances in the rooms, and the personal supplies of food and cigarettes which the women had bought with their own money from the canteena. In a deliberate effort to make the miserable living conditions even worse, guards sprayed cold water all over the prisoners' belongings, soaking their mattresses and clothes. Given that it is winter, the women were not able to dry the bedding, so were forced to sleep in cold damp beds. The prison administration cut the prisoners' electricity and water supplies, and the smell of the tear gas continues to cling to the walls of the cells. The person who has suffered the most is Nor, the 1-year old son of Manal Ghanem. He was born in prison on 10 October 2003 and has never been outside the Telmond compound. After being sprayed by water and gas, Nor developed a serious cold. He was not provided with any medication. Samah also informed the DCI/PS lawyer that during the last week of November 2004, 30 female Palestinian prisoners were transferred from Ramle (Neve-Tertze) women's prison to the female section of the Telmond Compound. Lack of space was already a problem in Telmond when there were only 56 women prisoners there. Now the number has risen to 86, overcrowding has become a serious issue |
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6.12.04 06:28 |
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Holiday Lights 4 U
 Here is a screenshot of my desktop with a string of e-lights along the top which blink and twinkle. That is the programme I have which I remembered because I forgot Chintzy's birthday and I wanted to send her something. Then it occurred to me to show the rest of you in case you too wanted it. It's really sweet, only 535 kb's and you can put midis in the folder and play them along with the lights. The lights can be changed from holiday to holiday--for example, there are shamrocks for St. Paddy's day and hearts for Valentine's day, etc. and there are also some optional screensavers you can put with the lights. This one here is 'falling snow'. I can send it to you via DropLoad.com. Shhhhh, though. Don't tell anyone cuz they sell it online :p |
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7.12.04 05:52 |
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Posh as the Virgin Mary...
8/12/2004 11:58:10 AM ( Source: Reuters) "Beckham nativity" tableau outrages churches By Paul Majendie  click to view LONDON (Reuters) - Church leaders have united to condemn a Christmas nativity tableau depicting soccer star David Beckham as Joseph and his pop singer wife Victoria as the Virgin Mary. Anglicans, Catholics and Presbyterians said on Wednesday that the exhibit at Madame Tussaud's waxwork museum in London was a new low in the cult of celebrity worship. In the tableau, Australian pop star Kylie Minogue hovers above the crib as an angel while "Posh Spice" Victoria lays her shawled head tenderly on Beckham's shoulder. Tony Blair, George W. Bush and the Duke of Edinburgh star as The Three Wise Men. The shepherds are played by Hollywood star Samuel L. Jackson, British actor Hugh Grant and camp Irish comedian Graham Norton. The Vatican was not amused. "This is worse than bad taste. It is cheap," an official Vatican source told Reuters in Rome. "You cannot use contemporary personalities as the central figures of the nativity ... And it becomes worse, if that were possible, if the people may be of questionable moral standing," he added. He said it was sometimes acceptable to use modern figures in the supporting roles because it can help make Christmas contemporary -- but not the central characters. In Naples, for example, famous figures like Argentine soccer star Diego Maradona have been depicted as shepherds in creche scenes. A spokesman for Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, spiritual leader of 70 million Anglicans worldwide, reacted with weary resignation to the "Posh and Becks" tableau. "There is a tradition of each generation trying to re-interpret the nativity but, Oh Dear..," he said. Paul Handley, editor of the Anglican Church Times, thought the tableau was "just pathetic." "It is yet another sign that people feel they can play around with sacred things," he told Reuters. "God is not going to worry. He is going to cope -- but it is a bit depressing." The Reverend Rod Thomas, spokesman for the conservative evangelical grouping Reform, told Reuters: "This is just an additional indication of the way people exploit the Christian message without any real understanding of its significance." "Would they do the same thing for a depiction of a major event in the Muslim faith?" he asked. A spokesman for the Presbyterian Church was equally forthright: "The waxwork will cause offence to many and it should be pulled down straight away." The Beckhams were not aware of the museum's plans to depict them in the nativity scene, a spokesman for the couple told Reuters. "We have nothing to say on this" he added. As the row rumbles over his unsuspecting head, the England captain may have trouble counting on divine inspiration: he is in Italy preparing for Real Madrid's European Champions League clash with AS Roma -- just a stone's throw from the Vatican. |
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8.12.04 20:55 |
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VIRUS WARNING!
If you receive an email entitled "Bedtimes," delete it IMMEDIATELY. Do not open it. Apparently this one is pretty nasty. It will not only erase everything on your hard drive, but it will also delete anything on disks within 20 feet of your computer. It demagnetizes the strips on ALL of your credit cards. It reprograms your ATM access code, screws up the tracking on your VCR and uses subspace field harmonics to scratch any CD's you attempt to play. It will program your phone auto dial to call only 1-800 numbers. This virus will mix antifreeze into your fish tank. IT WILL CAUSE YOUR TOILET TO FLUSH WHILE YOU ARE SHOWERING. It will drink ALL of your beer. FOR GOD'S SAKE, ARE YOU LISTENING??? It will leave dirty underwear on the coffee table when you are expecting company. It will replace your shampoo with Nair and your Nair with Rogaine. If the "Bedtimes" message opened in a Windows 95/98 environment, it will leave the toilet seat up and leave your hair dryer plugged in dangerously close to a full bathtub. It will not only remove the forbidden tags from your mattresses and pillows, it will also refill your Skim milk with whole milk. ******* WARN AS MANY PEOPLE AS YOU CAN. ******* And if you don't send this to 5000 people in 20 seconds, you'll fart so hard that your right leg will spasm and shoot straight out in front of you, sending sparks that will ignite the person nearest you. Send this warning to everyone. If you are a blonde, this is a joke. |
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10.12.04 02:12 |
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Good bye, girl...
 "If I don’t meet you no more in this world then uh I’ll meet ya on the next one And don’t be late Don’t be late" Never did like Sundays as they were slow days, end-of-the-weekend days, get- back-into-the-rut days, haven't-finished-what-I-should-have days (did I say finished? I meant started.) This has been a rough week. I didn't want to write about it, but we lost one of our former students to cancer this week. Sweetest little doll you could imagine. Not a mean bone in her body. Smart as a whip and so in love with the world, her studies and her sweetheart. Came from a totally dysfunctional family but rose above it without malice. Didn't get to graduate with her class as she was in hospital. But she never ever complained. She was such a little trooper. Always positive. Always fighting it to the max and keeping her chin up through all the pain and loss. We thought she had beat it at first, and she married her guy and went to live with his mother. Then it struck again and took her down, but she was still fighting, still loving the world and still hoping right up to the very end. I don't know how she did it. I hope that she is safe now and whole again and out of pain. I miss her. The world has lost a good one. |
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12.12.04 19:34 |
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Belfast Telegraph Buddy, can you spare a dollar?  American tourists arriving in Europe will find they are paying five times more for a coffee or a hotel room than they would at home. But in the US, the currency crisis is passing almost unnoticed. Rupert Cornwell reports 10 December 2004 It may not be easy in this Bush-hating era, but a little sympathy nonetheless is surely in order for American visitors to Europe. This Christmas British shoppers by the tens of thousands are flocking to New York as naturally as they once stormed Oxford Street, saving a small fortune in the process. Not so Americans who this holiday season find themselves in London, Paris or Berlin. Once upon a time, their currency was king. Now a trip across the Atlantic is like a visit to the financial dentist, in which small fortunes are extracted from their pockets without even the benefit of an anaesthetic. The reason of course is the accelerating decline of the dollar, now about to breach the $2 to the pound barrier for the first time in a dozen years. But their discomfort hides a paradox. This December, the American visitor to Europe finds himself paying $4 for a cup of coffee or metro fare that would cost $1 at home. His familiar $40 meal will cost $100, and the hotel room that runs at $60 in the typical Midwestern city of Edwardsville, Illinois, say, costs five times as much in London or Manchester. If only he had stayed at home. The United States itself remains a land of eminently affordable plenty. Go into a dollar store, as I did the other day in Edwardsville, and you will be amazed at what can still be purchased for a humble $1 bill. Thus this modern crisis is barely noticed back home. Despite the trauma of 9/11, the US remains in many respects oblivious to the world beyond its borders. Only 20 per cent of the population have passports. There is of course nothing intrinsically wrong with that. America is a continent in itself - and what distinction attaches to a British passport, when its sole function is to get the bearer to booze and sex binges in Prague or Majorca? Far more than European countries, the US is economically self-sufficient. True, Americans grumble over rising petrol prices (all of 30p a litre right now). But most of what they consume comes from home. Foreign trade accounts for only a quarter of gross domestic product, compared with up to half in the case of France or Germany. Many big American regional papers do not bother to quote exchange rates; across swaths of the US, foreign currencies (and foreign countries) might as well not exist. And ditto for dollar crises. In the early 1970s, the currency was devalued twice. The world might have trembled. But for the average American the upheaval had no more impact than a worthy piece in Foreign Affairs magazine. Today, a political drama to match Labour's agony in 1976 over the IMF loan, or John Major's humiliation when Britain crashed out of the European exchange rate mechanism in 1992, is inconceivable in the US. To history-scarred Britons of a certain age, nonetheless, today's events have a familiar ring. I would be the first to admit that the pound has had its moments: as a university student in the mid-1960s studying modern Greek, for instance, I would write to my mother from Greece asking her to send me a £5 note, from the drachma proceeds of which I could easily live for a week. But for most of my life, at least until the late 1980s, the pound seemed in almost permanent free-fall. Before the First World War, when Britain was indisputable top nation, it bought about $5. Sterling was devalued to $4.03 when we left the gold standard in 1931. In 1949, it was devalued to $2.80, and then again in 1967 to $2.41. At one point in 1985 the pound withered to virtual parity with the dollar. The passing of the baton of world power from the Old World to the New was mirrored in the currency markets. "If the English pound is not to be the standard which everyone knows and can trust," Winston Churchill mused in 1925, "the business not only of the British Empire but of Europe as well might have to be transacted in dollars". For Depression-battered and imperially over-stretched Britain, the Second World War was the last straw. When the US and Britain negotiated the IMF, the Bretton Woods agreement and other financial arrangements for the post-war world, our clever diplomats whiled away dull moments by composing condescending doggerel: "In Washington Lord Halifax [the British Ambassador] once whispered to J M Keynes, 'It's true they have all the money bags, but we have all the brains.'" The reality however was that by 1945, Britain had been reduced to beggar at America's abundant table. The pound - before 1914 our proudest global brand, when a letter of credit issued by a London bank was as good as gold - was so diminished that acquiring foreign currency for an overseas trip was a bureaucratic nightmare. The greatest financial brand on earth was now the dollar, a more potent ambassador for America than even Coca-Cola, Disney, or McDonald's. The greenback was prized the world over, as means of exchange, store of value and symbol of the freedom, wealth and promise of the US. Even physically, it never seemed to change. Several efforts have been made to get rid of the $1 bill, but every one has failed - despite studies showing many millions of dollars would be saved by a switch to more durable dollar coins, and irrespective of the fact that in Europe and Britain, the lowest denomination bank notes are now worth almost $7 and $10 respectively. Innovations like the $2 bill and, more recently, the copper/zinc dollar coin introduced in 2000, have flopped. Scorn and amazement were etched on the face of the man in front of us at St Louis airport in the heartland last month when he received one of the latter in change at a vending machine selling Metrorail tickets into town. "What the hell is this?" he asked, peering at the offending object in his palm as if it were a hand grenade. Until some mid-1990s tweaks with design to deter counterfeiters, dollar bills had looked exactly the same for some 70 years. The marked $10 bill that cracked the Lindbergh baby kidnapping case and sent Bruno Hauptmann to the electric chair in 1936 would have been as familiar in 1996. Fickle francs, perfidious pounds and lightweight lire might change their shape and colour every few years. Not so the trusty dollar bill, black and white on the front, dull green on the back, a visibly unchanging store of value cherished by a deeply conservative country. But for how much longer? Just possibly, the dollar as global brand is now going the same way as our pound half a century earlier. The parallels should not be exaggerated, for the relative clout of the US is far greater than that of Britain, even in its imperial heyday. But the implications for America's global dominance are ominous nonetheless. In weighty turn-of-the-millennium pieces in 1999 and 2000, commentators to a man saw US dominance, underpinned by its swelling population, its vast resources and its unparalleled military might, stretching as far as the eye could see. But throughout history great powers - be they ancient Rome, Spain, Britain or the Soviet Union - have been brought down not on the battlefield, but by economic weakness. And now perhaps, the US. Right now the world's greatest power is the world's greatest debtor. If and when American power crumbles, the reasons will be found within. As threats to the American way of life, Osama bin Laden, Iranian ayatollahs and North Korean crackpots with their nuclear bombs are nothing compared to the stockpiles of dollar-denominated assets held by the central banks of China and Japan. The US is like a shopper on a credit card binge, living beyond his or her means. In this case the cards are issued by the foreign central banks, mostly in Asia, who use the dollars generated by their huge bilateral trade surpluses to buy US government securities. In effect, they are lending the money to keep the binge going. But what if the lenders tire of the depreciating dollar, and switch into more rewarding currencies? The stakes are enormously high. To finance its deficits, the US needs to attract around $2bn a day of investment from abroad. The federal budget deficit exceeds $400bn annually, while the current account is in the red to the tune of $650bn (almost 6 per cent of America's $11 trillion GDP). Just last week, Congress quietly raised the national debt ceiling from $7.4 trillion to $8.2 trillion, to accommodate the budget deficit. Few economists doubt that the dollar has further to fall. If we are lucky, the decline will continue on its present steady, relatively undisruptive course (though that will be of scant comfort to American visitors to Oxford Street). Financial market adjustments, however, tend to overshoot. And if matters should get out of hand, US interest rates would have to rise sharply to protect the dollar. Both Wall Street and house prices would tumble, and the result would be a recession, probably a deep one. Now America is in a special position. Not only does it account for a quarter of the entire world economy. For all its problems, the dollar remains the unchallenged reserve currency, meaning that the US can simply print its own currency to pay international debts. For years too, the US consumer has been the world's buyer of last resort, whose profligacy has kept the factories humming in Asia, and to a lesser extent Europe. Their trade surpluses will be no protection if the dollar goes through the floor. A sharp recession in the US would damage everyone - West End store-owners, European car-makers and Chinese textile mills alike. But these momentous matters are barely examined on television newscasts and talk shows. When they are, the tone is usually accusatory, against foreigners who bite the hand that feeds them. The deficits, it is argued, are a sign of American strength, a favour by a generous power that permits the rest of the world to buy a little slice of economic heaven. Occasionally, with greater justification, blame is laid at the door of China and the other countries which keep their currencies artificially cheap. President Bush meanwhile recites his usual mantra about seeking "a strong dollar", while pursuing policies that achieve the opposite. Nor is the US deterred from lecturing other countries about fiscal irresponsibility. Hypocrisy is not a sentiment that occurs to its policymakers. In reality, Mr Bush is determined to go on cutting taxes. He also wants to part-privatise social security, allowing Americans to invest part of their contributions in special investment accounts - a change that could add trillions to the budget deficit, just as the great wave of baby-boomer retirement is about to break over the system. Barring serious spending cuts or tax increases, the public finances of the US will be a mess for decades. Maybe the worst won't happen. Maybe Mr Bush will finally choose between guns and butter, maybe Americans will discover the virtues of saving. Maybe China will revalue its currency, maybe Europe's sclerotic economies will reform their over-padded welfare systems. Maybe pigs will fly. Only one thing is sure. To borrow the immortal line of the late Herbert Stein, chairman of President Nixon's council of economic advisers, the last time the dollar was officially devalued: "If something cannot go on forever, it won't." |
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12.12.04 21:36 |
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Bright sun shiney day!!!
NOT... Sitting here listening to that song with a big headache, which Oui is not helping as she is banging her wheel with a vengeance, hitting that 8 mile mark or however she measures her distance. She might be metric for all I know, but I do know that she makes a racket on that wheel.  She has also picked up the hamster habit of stuffing her face and now routinely 'disappears' the contents of her food bowl. When I clean out her container in the evening, she rears up and looks at me as if to say, "GET AWAY FROM MY STASH!!" She also likes to sit at the bottom of her wheel and drag up her hard seeds to crunch on. Then when she runs, whatever seeds she has left roll and rattle around with her. She is a joy for sure! Issy is still hanging in there through my persistence and God's will. She seems a bit better. She has eaten on her own some chicken bits I got at the deli, and she goes out into the livingroom to sit with the other cats. She does not appear to be losing weight to me. I keep making her eat with the dropper and giving her fluids once a day. Perhaps she is stuffed to the gills with baby food :p I have a question for those of you who have more experience dealing with trojans than I. No snickers from you as I mean the virus kind. (No, not that virus). I am talking about computer stuff here. I have a friend who keeps getting the trojan notifications but when he tries to delete them, the programme won't let him. The only time this ever happened to me was when I tested for heuristic viruses and found one in a CAB file. Any profound ideas from any digital experts out there. He has the evil XP OS. Well, this being a lazy Saturday for me, I think I will go have some tea and check for any fast-moving blinding-breakthroughs in the peace agreement of the north. hahahahahahahahahahaha I will leave you with the first couple stanzas of this song which I heard once and thought was kinda funny, cuz with me it's always the other way around. They get the sweater; I get the cat! YOU'LL THINK OF ME by Keith Urban I woke up early this morning around 4 am With the moon shining bright as headlights on the interstate. I pulled the covers over my head and tried to catch some sleep, But thoughts of us kept keeping me awake. Ever since you found yourself in someone else's arms I've been tryin' my best to get along But that's OK There's nothing left to say, but Take your records, take your freedom Take your memories I don't need 'em Take your space and take your reasons But you'll think of me And take your cat and leave my sweater 'Cause we have nothing left to weather In fact I'll feel a whole lot better But you'll think of me, you'll think of me |
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18.12.04 17:22 |
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Florida's a HOLE
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19.12.04 02:44 |
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Thank you, Irishman :)
I was reading Rambling Irishman's post about Random acts of kindess, and it set me to looking for the subject on the net. I found this motivational page in the process: KINDNESS QUOTES AND PROVERBS "Kindness in words creates confidence; kindness in thinking creates profoundness; kindness in feeling creates love." -- Lao Tzu "The everyday kindness of the back roads more than makes up for the acts of greed in the headlines." -- Charles Kuralt "Kindness can become its own motive. We are made kind by being kind." -- Eric Hoffer "If you were arrested for kindness, would there be enough evidence to convict you?" -- Unknown "Kindness is in our power, even when fondness is not." -- Samuel Johnson "The best portion of a good man's life is his little, nameless unremembered acts of kindness and of love." -- William Wadsworth "My religion is simple, my religion is kindness." -- Dalai Llama Kindness: A language the deaf can hear and the blind can see." -- Unknown "Remember there's no such thing as a small act of kindness. Every act creates a ripple with no logical end." -- Scott Adams "Let there be PEACE on Earth - and let it begin with me!" -- Unknown "Perhaps we're too embarrassed to change or too frightened of the consequences of showing that we actually care. But why not risk it anyway? BEGIN TODAY! Carry out an act of kindness, with no expectation of reward or punishment. Safe in the knowledge that one day, someone somewhere might do the same for you." -- Princess Diana "Kindness is always fashionable." -- Amelia E. Barr "Kindness is a language the dumb can speak and the deaf can hear and understand." -- Christian Nestell Bovee "You can get more with a kind word and a gun, than you can get with a kind word alone." -- Johnny Carson "When kindness has left people, even for a few moments, we become afraid of them, as if their reason had left them." -- Willa Cather "Forget injuries; never forget kindness." -- Confucius "You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late." -- Ralph Waldo Emerson "If you're naturally kind, you attract a lot of people you don't like." -- William Feather "He that has done you a kindness will be more ready to do you another, than he whom you yourself have obliged." -- Benjamin Franklin "Kindness begets kindness." -- Greek Proverb "Wise sayings of ten fall on barren ground, but a kind word is never thrown away." -- Kin Hubbard "A kind heart is a fountain of gladness, making everything in its vicinity freshen into smiles." -- Washington Irving "Human kindness is like a defective tap. The first gush may be impressive, but the stream soon dries up." -- P.D. James "To cultivate kindness is a valuable part of the business of life." -- Samuel Johnson "Kindness is loving people more than they deserve." -- Joseph Joubert "Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love." -- Lao-Tse "Not always actions show the man: We find, Who does a kindness is not therefore kind." -- Alexander Pope "Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel in order to be tough." -- Franklin Delano Roosevelt "I prefer you to make mistakes in kindness than work miracles in unkindness." -- Mother Teresa "We hate the kindness which we understand." -- Henry David Thoreau "Nobody likes having salt rubbed into their wounds, even if it is the salt of the earth." -- Rebecca West "So many gods, so many creeds, So many paths that wind and wind. While just the art of being kind Is all the sad world needs." -- Ella Wheeler Wilcox "One can always be kind to people one cares nothing about." -- Oscar Wilde "The best portion of a good man's life, His little, nameless, unremembered acts, Of kindness and of love." -- William Wadsworth "Beginning today, treat everyone you meet as if they were going to be dead by midnight. Extend to them all the care, kindness, and understanding you can muster, and do it with no thought of any reward. Your life will never be the same again." -- Og Mandino "Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless." -- Mother Teresa "We shall never know all the good that a simple smile can do." -- Mother Teresa "Have a heart that never hardens, and a temper that never tires, and a touch that never hurts." -- Charles Dickens "Remember not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult still, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment." -- Benjamin Franklin "The flower of kindness will grow. Maybe not now, but it will someday. And in kind that kindness will flow, For kindness grows in this way." -- Robert Alan "Spread love everywhere you go. First of all in your own house let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier. Be the living expression of God's kindness; kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile, kindness in your warm greeting." -- Mother Teresa "Kindness is more important than wisdom, and the recognition of this is the beginning of wisdom." -- Theodore Isaac Rubin, M.D. "Life is mostly froth and bubbles, Two things stand like stone; Kindness in another's trouble, Courage in your own." -- Adam Lindsay Gordon "Neither genius, fame, nor love show the greatness of the soul. Only kindness can do that." -- Jean Baptiste Henri Lacordaire "Three things in human life are important: The first is to be kind. The second is to be kind. And the third is to be kind." -- Henry James "Shall we make a new rule of life from tonight? Always to try to be a little kinder than is necessary?" -- Sir James Matthew Barrie "There's no use doing a kindness if you do it a day too late." -- Charles Kingsley "Wherever there is a human being, there is an opportunity for kindness." -- Seneca "You have not lived a perfect day, even though you have earned your money, unless you have done something for someone who will never be able to repay you." -- Ruth Smeltzer "No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted." -- Aesop "The kindness and affection from the public have carried me through some of the most difficult periods, and always your love and affection have eased the journey." -- Princess of Wales Diana "It is time I stepped aside for a less experienced and less able man." -- Scott Elledge "If you were busy being kind, Before you knew it you would find You'd soon forget to think 'twas true That someone was unkind to you. If you were busy being glad, And cheering people who are sad, Although your heart might ache a bit, You'd soon forget to notice it." -- R. Foreman "As perfume to the flower, so is kindness to speech." -- Katherine Francke "A kind heart is a fountain of gladness, making everything in its vicinity freshen into smiles." -- Washington Irving "If you have not often felt the joy of doing a kind act, you have neglected much, and most of all yourself." -- A. Nielen "If someone were to pay you $.10 for every kind word you ever spoke and collect $.05 for every unkind word, would you be rich or poor?" -- Nonpareil "Kind words do not cost much. Yet they accomplish much." -- English Proverb "Sometimes you must be cruel to be kind." -- English Proverb "Kindness consists in loving people more than they deserve." -- Jacqueline Schiff "If your words are soft and sweet, they won't be as hard to swallow if you have to eat them." -- Unknown "Kindness and honesty can be expected only from the strong." -- Unknown "Though it may seem that your kindness is not always appreciated, it does indeed have an impact every time. The less it seems to be appreciated, the more it is needed, and the more of a positive difference it can make. Kindness is not something that becomes depleted when it is used. The more true, unconditional kindness you offer, the more you will have to offer, and the more there will be for everyone. Genuine kindness is not an act of weakness or capitulation, but rather a powerful demonstration of confidence in your purpose. Not at all naοve or unrealistic, kindness is a sign of true strength and real sophistication. Kindness does not mean allowing others to take advantage of you or of anyone else. Kindness means doing what you know is right and creating real, substantial, lasting value for those around you. Live and act with kindness, and the value of each action is multiplied many, many times over. Live with kindness and you live with the power to make a difference in every life you touch." -- Ralph Marston "Those thoughts and deeds that become a permanent part of you are the ones that are repeated again and again. A single act of kindness is good, yet one kindness after another after another makes kindness a valuable and unceasing part of you. A single disciplined effort will bring its positive reward. And much more so will a habit of focus and discipline bring a lifetime of achievement after valuable achievement. If you hear, or read, or see something once you may very well forget it. When you are exposed to it over and over again, it finds a permanent place within you. It's a simple technique that's available to anyone, and used by those who are most consistently successful. When you want to instill something into you life, keep on repeating it until it is securely and enduringly there. If you can do it once, you can do it again. Keep doing it long enough, and it will become a part of you." -- Ralph Marston "For attractive lips, speak words of kindness. For lovely eyes, seek out the good in people. For a slim figure, share your food with the hungry. For poise, walk with the knowledge you'll never walk alone " "People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed and redeemed and redeemed and redeemed " "Never throw out anybody." "Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, you'll find one at the end of your arm." "As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands. One for helping yourself, the other for helping others." Though it may seem that your kindness is not always appreciated, it does indeed have an impact every time. The less it seems to be appreciated, the more it is needed, and the more of a positive difference it can make. Kindness is not something that becomes depleted when it is used. The more true, unconditional kindness you offer, the more you will have to offer, and the more there will be for everyone. Genuine kindness is not an act of weakness or capitulation, but rather a powerful demonstration of confidence in your purpose. Not at all naοve or unrealistic, kindness is a sign of true strength and real sophistication. Kindness does not mean allowing others to take advantage of you or of anyone else. Kindness means doing what you know is right and creating real, substantial, lasting value for those around you. Live and act with kindness, and the value of each action is multiplied many, many times over. Live with kindness and you live with the power to make a difference in every life you touch. |
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19.12.04 05:23 |
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Warning
Viewer discretion advised indymedia.ie Iraq: Conscientious Objector Witnessed Abuse, Killing of Iraqi Detainees at Abu Ghraib by 'h' Monday, Dec 20 2004, 12:40am international / anti-war / news report |
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20.12.04 05:10 |
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Pray without ceasing
I'm sitting here thinking about the following post after this that I just made, and also remembering the posts about the war I just read over at carnagevisors' blog, and then I remember that my cat Issy had a bad day today after having a good one yesterday, and I came to the conclusion that as soon as anything gets better, I have a tendency to quit praying for it, which seems to be a big mistake. Sometimes I think God allows people to suffer so that they will be forced to call out to him and try to get closer. Out of this thinking I decided that amidst all the ugliness, suffering and immorality of this war over in the middle East, the one thing I can do besides posting stories around here and there, which isn't much, is to just pray all the time for it to end. Now, I know that many of you are not religious and think that is a really stupid thing to say, and I am not going to debate articles of faith with you because that's your business what you believe. But i find that I have to believe in something, so I continue to pray, even if it seems like it doesn't get me anywhere. I often reflect that the prayers I have made on behalf of causes outside of my own personal needs have been a lot more effective than my own begging litanies. At any rate, when I was typing into Google, I came up with this remarkable page which is just crammed full of links to sites which encourage spirituality. I realize that it is mainly a Catholic site, but there are other links on it, and if you are open-minded, you might want to take a look at it. I'm going to explore it more right now. Awaken to Prayer |
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20.12.04 05:38 |
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