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Homeless Iraq vets showing up at shelters
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U.S. veterans from the war in Iraq are beginning to show up at homeless shelters around the country, and advocates fear they are the leading edge of a new generation of homeless vets not seen since the Vietnam era.
“When we already have people from Iraq on the streets, my God,” said Linda Boone, executive director of the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans. “I have talked to enough (shelters) to know we are getting them. It is happening and this nation is not prepared for that.”
“I drove off in my truck. I packed my stuff. I lived out of my truck for a while,” Seabees Petty Officer Luis Arellano, 34, said in a telephone interview from a homeless shelter near March Air Force Base in California run by U.S.VETS, the largest organization in the country dedicated to helping homeless veterans.
Long-lost soldiers emerge from jungle
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When Vietnamese troops overran his village in 1979, Romam Chhung Loeung, a Khmer Rouge guerrilla, had no option but to flee with friends and family into the dense jungle of northeast Cambodia.
Twenty-five years later, the group emerged from the forest in clothes made of bark and leaves, unaware that the war was over, the Vietnamese had gone and Pol Pot was dead.
In an extraordinary tale of human survival, the refugees lived on whatever scraps they could find in the jungle, fearful of any contact with humans, who they believed were the enemy, slugging out the final chapter of the Cold War in Indochina.
“Whenever we heard gun-shots or people chopping trees, we would move to another site,” Romam Chhung Loeung said after a tearful reunion with relatives in Ratanakiri province, around 250 miles northeast of the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh.
Get that A grade you paid for!
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Personally, I have come to the conclusion that the University system makes absolutely no sense. Students pay teachers to educate us, yet they are then allowed to tell us how much we’re learning. The whole situation seems akin to a boss paying her employee to clean toilets and the employee turning around and telling the employer how much she is or isn’t happy with the cleaning job. If I’m paying someone to do my housekeeping, I’ll be the one to tell the receiver of my hard-earned money exactly how well they did. Shouldn’t it be the same with education?
Next up: educational warning labels, to prevent lawsuits from those who hurt themselves by misusing the information they obtained.
Whitewashing torture?
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On June 15, 2003, Sgt. Frank “Greg” Ford, a counterintelligence agent in the California National Guard’s 223rd Military Intelligence (M.I.) Battalion stationed in Samarra, Iraq, told his commanding officer, Capt. Victor Artiga, that he had witnessed five incidents of torture and abuse of Iraqi detainees at his base, and requested a formal investigation. Thirty-six hours later, Ford, a 49-year-old with over 30 years of military service in the Coast Guard, Army and Navy, was ordered by U.S. Army medical personnel to lie down on a gurney, was then strapped down, loaded onto a military plane and medevac’d to a military medical center outside the country.
Although no “medevac” order appears to have been written, in violation of Army policy, Ford was clearly shipped out because of a diagnosis that he was suffering from combat stress. After Ford raised the torture allegations, Artiga immediately said Ford was “delusional” and ordered a psychiatric examination, according to Ford. But that examination, carried out by an Army psychiatrist, diagnosed him as “completely normal.”
A witness, Sgt. 1st Class Michael Marciello, claims that Artiga became enraged when he read the initial medical report finding nothing wrong with Ford and intimidated the psychiatrist into changing it. According to Marciello, Artiga angrily told the psychiatrist that it was a “C.I. [counterintelligence] or M.I. matter” and insisted that she had to change her report and get Ford out of Iraq.
Documents show that all subsequent examinations of Ford by Army mental-health professionals, over many months, confirmed his initial diagnosis as normal.
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God is cut from film of Dark Materials
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THE Hollywood adaptation of Philip Pullmans trilogy His Dark Materials, in which two children do battle with an evil, all-powerful church, is being rewritten to remove anti-religious overtones.
Chris Weitz, the director, has horrified fans by announcing that references to the church are likely to be banished in his film. Meanwhile the Authority, the weak God figure, will become any arbitrary establishment that curtails the freedom of the individual.
The studio wants alterations because of fears of a backlash from the Christian Right in the United States. The changes are being made with the support of Pullman, who told The Times last year that he received a large amount for the rights.
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Quzzle by Jim Lewis
Move piece A to the upper-right corner
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Justice Department distributes tutorials on head coverings
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The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) recently released a pair of posters aimed at assisting authorities with properly identifying and searching Muslims and Sikhs.
The posters come from the DOJs Initiative to Combat Post-9/11 Discriminatory Backlash, and offer detailed explanations of each religions different head coverings. The posters also include seemingly obvious instructions such as show respect, and searches should be done by members of the same sex. (Can one request searches from the opposite sex, or does that cost extra?)
For the most part, the photos on the Sikh poster are effective in demonstrating a pagri, patka and chunni. But on the Muslim poster, one of the images is sure to generate confusion in the field. We can only pray that former Attorney General John Ashcroft doesnt completely lose it when graduation ceremonies commence in May.
Common Muslim American Head Coverings (PDF, 1.5 MB)
Common Sikh American Head Coverings (PDF, 1 MB)My good friend Super Jagjit was so impressed by the posters that he created one for the DOJ to offer South Asian shopkeepers in rural areas:
Common Redneck Head Coverings (PDF, 255 KB)
Kaya
Kaya is a super realistic digital girl created in 2002 using the 3D modeling program MAYA. Her video clip “screen test” is spooky.
Wilders blijft weg uit Tweede Kamer
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Voormalig VVD-Kamerlid Wilders blijft deze week weg uit de Tweede Kamer. De onafhankelijke politicus kreeg van de Nationaal Cordinator Bewaking en Beveiliging (NCBB) het advies dat het voor zijn veiligheid op korte termijn beter zou zijn als hij het land zou verlaten, zegt Wilders dinsdag in een interview in het NRC Handelsblad.
Volgens Wilders kreeg hij echter ook het advies om juist niet weg te gaan. Op de lange termijn zou dat juist slechter zijn. “Mijn terugkeer zou leiden tot zoveel nieuwe publicitaire commotie dat de bedreigingen dan volgens hun analyse in verhevigde mate zou terugkomen.”
Volgens Wilders had de NCBB bovendien van minister Donner van Justitie de instructie gekregen om hem niet te laten vertrekken. Als Wilders zelf toch weg zou willen, moest hij een verklaring tekenen dat dit vrijwillig was, stelde het Kamerlid.
Goh, en ik maar denken dat ik in een vrij democratisch land woonde.
Grenzen aan vrijheid van vereniging?
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De invloed van de politieke islam reikt ver. In Nederland is na de vrijheid van meningsuiting ook de vrijheid van vereniging in het geding.
Burgers die zich aanmelden voor een plaats op de kieslijst van de op te richten partij van Geert Wilders krijgen van de AIVD te horen dat ze als islam-critici een groot deel van hun leven rekening moeten houden met bescherming door lijfwachten.
Dat schrikt veel burgers af. De fascistische praktijken van islamisten in dit land vormen al langer een bedreiging voor de democratie. De laatste tijd wordt duidelijker hoe dit soort ontwikkelingen in hun werk gaan.
Helaas is onze regering niet bij machte zich pal op te stellen achter de vrijheden. Het moraliserende gepraat over grenzen en signalen is niet van de lucht. De burgers moeten zich matigen is het credo, opdat het probleem door de terreur binnen te managen proporties blijft.
Bedilzucht rijk werkt verstikkend
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De kwaliteit van publieke diensten als gezondheidszorg, onderwijs en volkshuisvesting lijdt onder een verstikkende controlezucht van de overheid. Dat kost onverantwoord veel geld en leidt niet of nauwelijks tot betere zorg en dienstverlening.
Tot die conclusie komt de Wetenschappelijke Raad voor het Regeringsbeleid (WRR) in het advies Bewijzen van goede dienstverlening, dat vandaag wordt gepubliceerd. Nieuwe toezichthouders en strenge verantwoordingsprocedures werden ingesteld na een reeks bezuinigingen, reorganisaties en bestuurlijke operaties. Ze moesten garanderen dat het geld doelmatig werd besteed.
Door de ‘achterdochtige benadering’ van het rijk gaat veel menskracht en publiek opgebracht geld (uit belastingen en premies) zitten in ‘de perfectionering van toezicht, controle en verantwoording’, constateert de raad.
‘Controle is een doel op zich en de kwaliteit van de dienstverlening is er niet of nauwelijks mee gediend.’ Daarbij komt dat een achterdochtige bejegening leidt tot ‘strategisch uitvretersgedrag’ van professionals en ‘genstitutionaliseerd wantrouwen’.
Orders…
I have left orders to be awakened at any time in case of national emergency, even if I’m in a cabinet meeting.
Ronald Reagan (1911 – 2004)
The Merchant Of Venice Porno
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US distributors of the film Merchant of Venice, which premiered in London this week, have asked the director to cut out a background fresco by a Venetian old master so it is fit for American television viewers.
US networks have been embroiled in controversy over naked flesh since Janet Jackson exposed a breast during a half-time performance during the Superbowl. A lesser fuss has blown up about a trailer for the hit television series Desperate Housewives on Monday Night football, in which an actress with her back to the camera drops her towel in a locker room.
Distributors regularly ask for cuts in films so that they can be shown on US tele-vision and by airlines. The request to “paint-box the wallpaper” – cover over the fresco – was contained in a letter from the US distrib-utors, Sony, to Michael Radford.
The director had already anticipated one request by shooting extra scenes for television in which bare-breasted prostitutes are fully clothed.
He was also asked to remove scenes of male kissing, a brief female kissing scene – and simulated slaughtering of goats.
The fifth request was to cut out footage showing meat carcasses.
Finally, according to Mr Radford, there was “a very curious request which said ‘Could you please paint-box out the wallpaper?’. I said wallpaper, what wallpaper? This is the 16th century, people didn’t have wall-paper.”
When he examined the scenes, he realised the letter was referring to frescoes by Paolo Veronese, the acclaimed Venetian 16th-century artist, which, when examined closely, showed a naked cupid.
“A billion dollars worth of Veronese great master’s frescoes they want paint-boxed out because of this cupid’s willy. It is absolutely absurd,” he said.
Here is some more filthy trash by this 16th century pornographer:
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Follow Our Leader’s Example
Shut Up Already
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That’s right. We’re tired of having to listen to your loud, obnoxious conversations. We don’t care about yer new haircut or what “he” might have said to you the night before. (We couldn’t believe it either!) It doesn’t interest us in the least whether or not you are going to attend the company Christmas party or when you need to pick up yer ugly kids from soccer practice. Nope. Don’t want to hear it.
We’re fighting back.
Simply download this PDF, cut ‘em out, and “politely” hand them out to whoever is “spinning a yarn” next to you in the checkout line.
‘Murat. D. pleegde moord met politiewapen’
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Hans van Wieren werd doodgeschoten met een pistool dat de politie was kwijtgeraakt. Een vriend van Murat D., wiens zaak donderdag door het gerechtshof wordt behandeld, zegt het pistool op een Haags politiebureau te hebben ‘gevonden’ toen hij aangifte kwam doen. Dat meldt de Telegraaf.
Murat D. werd veroordeeld tot vijf jaar gevangenisstraf voor de moord op zijn leraar, afgelopen januari op het Haagse Terra College. Het pistool waarmee hij de moord op klaarlichte dag in een volle kantine pleegde kreeg hij van zijn vriend Huseyin S. Die is zelf inmiddels veroordeeld voor vuurwapenbezit.
S. ging enkele weken voor de moord op Van Wieringen aangifte doen van diefstal van gouden kettingen op het politiebureau. Hij moet lang wachten. In de wachtkamer zou hij een pistool hebben zien liggen op de grond. Hij stak dat in zijn zak en deed gewoon aangifte.
Multiple Browsers Window Injection Vulnerability Test
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Secunia Research has reported a vulnerability, which affects most browsers. The vulnerability can be exploited by a malicious web site to “hi-jack” a named browser window, regardless of which web site is the true “owner” of the window.
If you want to follow the bug-fixing process, click here
Parents on Strike
Cat Barnard sits in her driveway in Enterprise, Fla. Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2004, near the tent where and she and her husband, Harlan slept. The Barnards moved out of the house and set up the tent in the driveway to go on strike because their children, Benjamin (pictured below), 17, and Kit, 12, refused to do household chores. The parents won’t cook, clean or drive their children until they shape up.(AP Photo/Peter Cosgrove)
U.S. GIs Hit Rumsfeld With Hard Questions
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In a rare public airing of grievances, disgruntled soldiers complained to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld on Wednesday about long deployments and a lack of armored vehicles and other equipment.
“You go to war with the Army you have,” Rumsfeld replied, “not the Army you might want or wish to have.”
Spc. Thomas Wilson had asked the defense secretary, “Why do we soldiers have to dig through local landfills for pieces of scrap metal and compromised ballistic glass to up-armor our vehicles?” Shouts of approval and applause arose from the estimated 2,300 soldiers who had assembled to see Rumsfeld.
Rumsfeld hesitated and asked Wilson to repeat his question.
Men Distort Religion to Justify ‘Honour’ Killings
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Men all over the world distort the teachings of Islam and Christianity to justify abusing their wives and daughters, leading to thousands of “honor” killings a year for which courts provide virtual impunity, experts say.
U.N. estimates show that more than 5,000 women are murdered every year in “honor”-related violence, but the real number could be much higher, said experts at an international conference near Stockholm, which ended Wednesday.
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But some experts believe any male-dominated religion, in which God and his prophets or apostles are male figures, creates conditions for the subordination and abuse of women.
Predominantly Catholic Poland, although free from “honor killings,” has a problem with violence against women, rooted in the strong influence of the Catholic church on public life, Polish minister for gender equality Magdalena Sroda said.
“Catholicism does not directly support or oppose violence against women. But there are indirect links through culture which is strongly based on religion,” Sroda told Reuters.
“It is a structure based on patriarchal domination of God the Father and the less important role of women can be seen for example in the letters of Saint Paul,” she said.
Woa!
Do people read this?
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Something terrible is happening in the land of wooden shoes, windmills, Rembrandt and wonderful breakfasts.
A Dutch hospital is euthanizing killing newborn babies who don’t measure up to an arbitrary standard set by the hospital. The hospital at first requested guidelines for so-called “mercy killings” of newborns. It then revealed it has been engaging in the practice without any guidelines at all. Three years after the Dutch parliament passed a law allowing doctors to actively kill patients they deemed terminally ill, in great pain and with no prospects for recovery, it has come to this. At least with the elderly sick, they had to be consulted about their wishes. Newborns receive no such privilege.
I’m not surprised.
Well I am. I live in this country. And I think I know what little piece of news grew into this pile of crap, but I haven’t seen a news story this far removed from an actual fact since… well, never actually. But I also think I know why this idiot is writing this. In his follow-up he says “Holland is a perfect example of what happens when there is no governing moral standard.” He’s just trying to push his own idea of what morals are, and yacking about dope has grown old.
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But perhaps those imaginary dead Dutch babies would like to suckle this 
Ik vind je reactie onredelijk. Die column is niet bijzonder goed beargumenteerd, en er staat hier en daar wat onzin in, maar de basiskwestie is een volledig redelijke afweging om over na te denken: waar leg je het beste de machtsbalans tussen leraar en leerling?
Het antwoord hangt natuurlijk af van allerlei factoren, maar ik ben ervan overtuigd dat je de beste resultaten krijgt wanneer de leerling zelf doelen heeft, daar motivatie uit trekt, en navenante keuzes kan maken.
Dat wil niet zeggen dat beoordeling van het werk nutteloos is, of dat de leerling zomaar de doelstelling van een cursus kan verleggen door te zeggen “oh, maar ik heb wat anders geleerd”. Maar het zou wel nuttig zijn als de leerling meer mogelijkheid had om te zeggen “ik leer hier geen reet en ik begrijp deze leraar niet”, en daar de leraar verantwoordelijkheid voor kon laten nemen.