Morning Posting.
- Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world seismic activity Japan 5.4 ! More info here.
- Japan : For the most accurate info on the nuclear disaster go to : Paul Langley's Nuclear History Blog.Here.
- Dems Try To Destroy Bank Of America, Tell Customers To Flee.(PatDollard).Related Video: SWAT Teams In St. Louis Preventing Customers From Withdrawing Their Money From Bank Of America.
ABC News:
“Bank of America customers, vote with your feet, get the heck out of that bank,” Durbin said on the Senate floor. “Find yourself a bank or credit union that won’t gouge you for $5 a month and still will give you a debit card that you can use every single day. What Bank of America has done is an outrage.”Durbin said consumers are rightfully outraged about last week’s announcement.“It is hard to believe that a bank would impose such a fee on loyal customers who simply are trying to access their own money on deposit at Bank of America,” he said. “Especially when Bank of America for years has been encouraging their customers to use debit cards as much as possible.”Most basic checking accounts at Bank of America will see a 40 percent jump in monthly costs and the bank says the debit fee will be waived for customers who upgrade to “premium” accounts that require higher minimum balances.The Dodd-Frank financial law this month lowers “interchange fees” that banks can charge retailers for debit transactions. Fees for retailers will shrink from 44 cents to a cap of 24 cents, which has led some debit card issuers to seek other ways to make up that lost revenue. Some people have blamed Durbin for his amendment, which capped the so-called swipe fees that banks can charge retailers.“I am honored to be connected with this effort,” Durbin said today. “What we are doing is fair to try to strike some balance in an industry that has shown little or no balance. And one of the worst offenders in this is Bank of America, the largest bank in the United States.”Meanwhile, the Bank of America homepage was down today for the second consecutive business day, which bank officials attributed to traffic and not hackers or malware.read the full story here.
- Muslim Buddyhood: Mahmoud, Malik, Louis, and Barack, BFFs?(GulagBound).By Janet Smiles and Arlen Williams.
Now Public gives us a little memory jolt of the depth of collaboration between Messrs. Farrakhan and Obama, from an April 2nd, 2008 entry (emphasis, theirs).
Democrat presidential front-runner Barack Obama not only marched with Nation of Islam Founder Louis Farrakhan in the first Million Man March on Washington, D.C., but he helped organize the 1995 event!
The “he marched” claim was reported in a 1995 Chicago Reader article and brought back to the attention of the blogosphere March 29 by Hugh Hewitt. The new revelation, however, was unearthed today by Gateway Pundit.
Buried 13 years deep inside the archives at Biography.com, the biography of Farrakhan includes this statement:
In 1995, along with other prominent black leaders such as Al Sharpton and Barack Obama, Farrakhan helped lead the Million Man March on Washington. A second march, called the Millions More Movement, took place in 2005.
[Oops, not quite a million: the rest of the article may be found at NP.]
To make this exercise in Muslim Buddyhood even more intriguing, Malik Shabazz’s name appeared in the release of the White House visitor’s list (in the name of transparency) but staff said it was a “different” Malik Shabazz. Hmmmm, I wonder why Different Malik was taken to the private residence during his visit? Just looking for Abe Lincoln’s ghost?
Mr. Farrakhan has also visited with the “I Won” who lives in the White House. Is there anything that these radically antisemitic, free-market blaming, Sharia Law promoting, America hating, conspiracy theory spouting radicals have to contribute to an official who promised to unite America? Well, they do have their own agendas so…
Some liberalism. Ahmadinejad, Shabazz, Farrakhan, and Obama.
And this, as we know, is just one extension of the Friends of Barack. Oh, the circles that BHO-II and his anti-American fellow travelers form, behind the scenes. Be afraid, “Land of the Free and Home of the Brave.” Be very afraid. Our acting, Citizen of the World president doesn’t have a clue what our country is really for. What he can grasp of America, he shows himself pulling down to the lowest levels — and let his friends fight over the spoils.Hmmmm........"By their fruits you will know them!"Read the full story here.
- U.K. Islamist Group 'Muslims Against Crusades': Asks, 'Is Assassination Of Obama Legal?'(Memri).According to today's official White House schedule for President Barack Obama, he will be holding events in Dallas, Texas and St. Louis, Missouri.On its website, the U.K. Islamist group Muslims Against Crusades posted a notice titled "Is the Assassination of Obama Legal?" The notice, which is dated October 3, 2011, features a photo montage of Osama bin Laden, Anwar Al-Awlaki, a masked gunman, and President Obama with what appears to be a bullet wound on his forehead, and includes U.K. phone numbers for "media enquiries" and "general enquiries."Read and see the full story here.
- Following $3Billion Embezzlement Affair, Iranian Majlis Members Call For Ahmadinejad's Removal.(Video).(Memri).Following the publicity about the affair of the $3 billion embezzlement from Iranian banks, 11 senior Majlis members signed a call to remove Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad due to suspicion that he was involved in the affair. Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei yesterday asked that there be no media coverage of the affair, and said, "We will cut off the hands of the traitors."Read and see the full story here.
- House GOP Calls for Special Counsel to Investigate Holder on ‘Fast and Furious’.(Fox).House Republicans are calling for a special counsel to determine whether Attorney General Holder perjured himself during his testimony to the House Judiciary Committee on Operation Fast and Furious, Fox News has learned.House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith, R-Texas, was sending a letter to President Obama on Tuesday arguing that Holder cannot investigate himself, and requesting the president instruct the Department of Justice to appoint a special counsel.The question is whether Holder committed perjury during a Judiciary Committee hearing on May 3. At the time, Holder indicated he was not familiar with with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives program known as Fast and Furious until about April 2011.Read the full story here.“I’m not sure of the exact date, but I probably heard about Fast and Furious for the first time over the last few weeks,” Holder testified.However, a newly discovered memo dated July 2010 shows Michael Walther, director of the National Drug Intelligence Center, told Holder that straw buyers in the Fast and Furious operation “are responsible for the purchase of 1,500 firearms that were then supplied to the Mexican drug trafficking cartels.”Other documents also indicate that Holder began receiving weekly briefings on the program from the National Drug Intelligence Center “beginning, at the latest, on July 5, 2010,” Smith wrote.These updates mentioned, not only the name of the operation, but also specific details about guns being trafficked to Mexico," Smith wrote in the letter to Obama."Allegations that senior Justice Department officials may have intentionally misled members of Congress are extremely troubling and must be addressed by an independent and objective special counsel. I urge you to appoint a special counsel who will investigate these allegations as soon as possible," Smith wrote.Read the full story here.
- Europe Fires Back On Economy: Obama Like ‘A Doctor Caught Prescribing Performance-Enhancing Drugs’.(BigPeace).In a brilliant lead editorial in Germany’s left-leaning Der Spiegel, Michael Sauga takes direct aim at President Obama’s economic message of spending more and more money. As he puts it, “the Obama administration is borrowing money at the same rate as near-bankrupt Greece.” Sauga is devastating:
US President Barack Obama has recently suggested that Europe must take on more debt to stimulate the economy. Such reliance on cheap money, though, is what got us into the current crisis in the first place — both in Europe and in the US. America’s problem isn’t too little money. It’s a lack of competitive products. By pushing for hyper-Keynesian stimulus, Obama is not only putting America further into debt, he is laying the seeds for the next financial crisis, he writes.American economists, central bankers and fiscal policy makers have reinterpreted British economist John Maynard Keynes’s clever idea that government spending is the best way to counteract a serious economic downturn — and have turned it into a permanent prescription. In their version of the Keynesian theory, declining growth or tumbling stock prices should prompt central banks to lower interest rates and governments to come to the rescue with economic stimulus programs. US economists call this “kick-starting” the economy.The only problem is that this method of encouraging growth has not stimulated the US economy in recent years, but in fact has put in on a crash course. From the Asian economic crisis to the Internet and subprime mortgage bubbles, economic stimulus programs by monetary and fiscal policy makers have regularly laid the groundwork for the next crash instead of encouraging sustainable growth. In the last decade, the volume of lending in the United States grew five times as fast as the real economy.Fortunately, argues Sauga, Europe is largely ignoring Obama’s advice. That may in the end be what saves us.It is all the more disconcerting that Obama is now recommending that the Europeans emulate his failed strategy. To save the euro, the president has proposed that Europe take on more debt to augment their bailout funds and stimulate their economies. Like a doctor caught prescribing performance-enhancing drugs, Obama has not chosen to cease his activities. Rather he is trying to ensure that as many people as possible have access to his wares.The fact that Europeans are unwilling to comply with Obama’s strange logic gives reason for hope. It makes no sense to pile up more and more debt on already unstable piles of debt. The world doesn’t have too little debt, but too much.Read the full story here.
- Over our dead bodies.(JPost).By BenCaspit.Honorable Vice President of the United States of America, Mr. Joseph Biden:
Shalom and a happy Jewish New Year!
Up until several days ago, you, Mr. Biden, were considered "Israel's closest and truest friend in the White House."
Israelis are wondering what went through your mind, Mr. Biden, when you said Jonathan Pollard would be given clemency over your "dead body."As such, we here in Israel are wondering what exactly was going through your mind when you declared that Jonathan Pollard would be given clemency over your "dead body."
It's important to us, here in Israel, to understand. To all of us: to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's supporters and detractors, to the far right and the far left, to the rich and the poor, the Ashkenazi and the Sephardic.
Anyone with eyes in their head and hearts thumping in their chests would like to know what led you to issue that unhinged statement. Are there things that you know that the rest of the world does not? What has changed since 2007, when you declared that Jonathan Pollard’s bid for clemency was justified? I’ll tell you what has changed: Pollard has spent five more years in prison, in solitary confinement. His health has worsened (I recommend you use your influence to verify to what extent), his chances of starting a family have been decimated, his father died and he was barred from accompanying him on his final journey. In the meanwhile, more and more respectable people have stepped forward and declared that the time has come for his release.
That’s what has changed.
IS IT possible, Mr. Biden, that you know something that James Woolsey, former director of the CIA, and Dennis DeConcini, former chairman of the US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, do not? Because both of them are both in favor of releasing him. Do you know something that Henry Kissinger, George Shultz or John McCain don’t? All of them, esteemed American patriots, are in favor of clemency. How about former US Attorney-General Michael Mukasey? Do you know something he doesn’t? Have you got intelligence that Lawrence Korb, assistant defense secretary under Casper Weinberger, was not privy to? Korb was there, in real time, but Korb, an honest and decent man, felt his conscience claw at him, and today he leads the call to free Pollard, who next month will mark his twenty-sixth year in American prison.
On Wednesday, you, Mr. Biden, will host a Rosh Hashana party at your residence for American Jewish leaders. As I said, you are considered to be our closest friend among President Barack Obama’s inner circle. Now, as the race toward the presidential elections picks up pace, you have taken upon yourself to serve as the president’s ambassador to the Jewish community.
I suggest that during the festive celebration at your residence, you ask Abe Foxman, a man whose integrity cannot be called into question, or Malcolm Hoenlein, one of the most astute watchers of American politics and a man whose finger is always on the pulse of the American Jewish community, why they support Pollard’s urgent release.
Foremost, though, I ask that you examine your own conscience. Ask yourself, Mr. Biden, why Pollard has been in prison for 26 years for a crime that generally receives a two-to-four year sentence in America.
Ask yourself why spies who have committed far graver sins, betrayals that led to the killing of American agents on foreign soil, received far lesser sentences? Ask yourself why it is that the blood libel of attributing those murders to Pollard was circulated so widely. Ask yourself why, once those allegations were proven to be false, his sentence was not commuted.
Ask yourself why the United States of America, a society governed by law and order, did not honor its plea bargain with Pollard. Ask yourself where the limits of human suffering lie. Ask yourself about the nature of compassion.
What, in your eyes, are its dimensions? Mr. Biden, look at the list of honorable names, the American leaders and officials who are calling for Pollard’s release.
All of them believe that his continued incarceration is an outrage that flies in the face of American justice.
America, Mr. Biden, is regarded as the world’s preeminent superpower not only on account of your weapons and military might. You are the leaders of the free world also on account of your values: liberty, equality, human rights, justice and compassion. Where have those morals gone, Mr. Biden, when assessing Pollard’s case? Are 26 years behind bars, many of which have been served in solitary confinement, an insufficient punishment for what remains a relatively minor crime? Does a man who has expressed remorse and already paid a terrible price not deserve to live out his days in freedom? Until now, Mr. Vice President, you have made a name for yourself as someone with a quick tongue and a short fuse. No responsible parties have charged you with being cruel, evil, or bloodthirsty. Henceforth, Mr. Biden, the notorious slips of your tongue are the least of your problems. The message you conveyed to those rabbis in Florida, that if it were up to you, Pollard would “stay in jail for life,” put you in a whole different league. A league that you don’t want to be playing in and one I don’t believe you belong in.
We Jews, Mr. Vice President, have begun the Ten Days of Repentance leading up to the Day of Atonement. If what was said in Florida was merely a slip of the tongue, this is the time, Mr. Biden, to take it back. We will forgive and we will forget. All of us make mistakes. It can happen to the vice president, too.
But if you really stand by the statement that “over my dead body” will he be released, then it’s important to understand that the dead body is likely to be his. Jonathan Pollard’s release, after 26 years, is not a matter of politics, diplomacy or national security. It should not be linked to current events. We Israelis, along with many American Jews and other honorable Americans, believe that Jonathan Pollard’s release, in late 2011, is a matter of morality, justice and compassion.
Those values are at the heart of President Obama’s beliefs; they are also the very lifeblood of the great American democracy and of humanity at large.
And so, if justice is to be done, Joe Biden, help us make it happen now!Source.
- Iranian Pastor Increasingly Likely to Face Death Penalty Under New Charges.(Fox).Imprisoned Iranian pastor Youcef Nadarkhani, originally sentenced to death for apostasy and refusing to renounce Christianity, is now in even greater danger of being put to death in light of reports in state-run media of other charges, including being a Zionist and a threat to national security."The charge of being a Zionist and thus a traitor is among the most serious accusations that can be made in Iran," said Jordan Sekulow, executive director of the American Center for Law and Justice, or ACLJ. "Unfortunately, we know that this is the charge Iran levies to justify executing people who were actually arrested, imprisoned and tried on completely different charges."In a ruling from the Iranian Supreme Court obtained by FoxNews.com, Nadarkhani was sentenced to execution by hanging for breaking Islamic law by conducting Christian worship and baptizing himself and others.Nowhere in the ruling is there a mention of these new charges, which were first reported by Iranian news agency FARS.Nadarkhani’s lawyer, Mohammed Ali Dadkhah, says he has not received any of these new charges from the Supreme Court, according to the ACLJ.“The opinions of these new charges come from the political branch. Not a single judicial figure, a prosecutor or member of the court has spoken to these new charges,” Dadkhah said through a translator.Fox News reported last week that the pastor, who also held house church services in Iran, was facing execution after being convicted of apostasy last November.He appealed his conviction all the way to the Iranian Supreme Court.His appeals trial began last month in Gilan Province and he refused to renounce his religion, according to rights groups monitoring the trial.The European Center for Law and Justice, an affiliate of the ACLJ and an non-governmental organization with consultative status at the U.N., is looking at taking action at the United Nations this week."We have not seen any new charges from the court," an official for the U.S. State Department said. "We continue to seek additional information."Read the full story here.
- Turkey - Kurdish BDP: we will not bend, should you arrest 10 thousands of us.(Firat).Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) Co-Chair Gültan Kışanak remarked that Prime Minister Erdoğan has a list of political execution which consists of thousands of people and said; “We will not kneel before you even if you take 10 thousand people into custody”. Speaking at the group meeting, BDP Co-Chair Kışanak stated that “the boycott they continued till October 1st was made to show everyone that Turkey has gone off the rails. Kışanak called attention to the operations carried out under the name of KCK devoted to eliminate the Kurdish politics and said; “We once again faced a political slaughter when we woke up this morning. Most of the former and current executives of our party are in custody now. The AKP police is hunting Kurds.”Kışanak pointed out that a civil and democratic constitution can’t be worked on while the clash is continuing and said that deciding on war as soon as the parliament opens means to sabotage the process of the new constitution. Kışanak added that the march to Gemlik on October 8th will be an important step to open the way for negotiations. BDP Co-Chair Selahattin Demirtaş also reacted to the detention of more than a hundred people with house raids and detentions carried out in many provinces against the BDP last night. Demirtaş remarked that they are concerned about the Prime Minister's political attitude that intends to make things more difficult and to destroy grounds of compromise rather than to strengthen constitutional discussions and seeks for negotiation. Demirtaş stated that the Prime Minister targets the BDP by ordering instructions around every day and added; “Our colleagues, PM members, mayors and party members are arrested every day under the name of KCK operations. If this is the KCK, I am the President of the KCK because all detainees are members of the BDP. We discuss among each other whether we can hold mature, conciliatory and solution-oriented discussions in such an environment. I hope Turkey will manage to create an environment where its constitution can be discussed intrepidly without living big political crisis but the discourse and practices of the Prime Minister don’t contribute to this process.”Hmmmm....As i said before the way of the Armenians.Read the full story here.
- Al-Shabab claims deadly Mogadishu blast, at least 70 people killed.(Al-Jazeera).A bomb blast outside a government compound in Mogadishu has killed at least 70 people and left many others wounded, in one of Somalia's deadliest ever suicide attacks, officials and witnesses said.Tuesday's attack was claimed by al-Shabab, the armed anti-government group, and came as the rebels launched attacks in the country's west and south.A Shabab official who spoke to the AFP news agency on condition of anonymity said one of the group's fighters had carried out the attack."One of our Mujahideen made the sacrifice to kill TFG [Transitional Federal Government] officials, the African Union troops and other informers who were in the compound," said the Shabab official.Mohamud Abdullahi, a taxi driver, said a car had driven into the compound and exploded. He had spoken of an initial toll of 10 dead and more than 20 wounded.African Union and government troops deployed heavily to the area and cordoned it off.The explosion is thought to have gone off as students were queueing for scholarships offered by Turkey, which recently stepped up its involvement in Somalia and pledged to re-open an embassy in Mogadishu."Some ministers were coming out of the building just seconds after the explosion ... It was the worst attack I have ever witnessed," Mohamed Sheikh Nor, a Somali journalist, told Al Jazeera.Read the full story here.
- Following Al-Awlaki's Killing – Part I: His Legacy Lives On – In San-Francisco-Based 'Internet Archive' Library.(Memri).Following the killing of Anwar Al-Awlaki, Shumoukh Al-Islam, the main Al-Qaeda-affiliated forum, posted a complete archive of his lectures, and provided links to view clips, listen to audio tapes and more, on the San-Francisco-based Internet Archive library (archive.org). As of this writing, the archives have been downloaded 11,204 times. A note on the archives by Shumoukh Al-Islam provides a link to its forum for more on Awlaki.Read the full story here.
- Surprising things and places in science, engineering and geography named “niggerhead”.(WattsUpWithThat).By now we are all probably aware of the media flash-mob that has erupted over presidential candidate Rick Perry’s badly named hunting ranch leased plot near Haskell, Texas. There’s quite a story in the New York Times about it here.http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/04/us/politics/in-west-texas-wagons-circle-around-perry-over-racially-charged-controversy.html
Seeing the word used today, it reminded me of an odd experience in west Texas earlier this year where I heard the term used before. I had forgotten all about it until today. I hadn’t intended to write a story on this at all, but curiosity about that event led me down an interesting set of rabbit holes, so I thought I’d share what I learned about this ugly and offensive term and how surprising the wide and varied use of it is.
In the spring, I was at a conference/tradeshow in Oklahoma and Dallas where I showed some of our weather equipment. Reader may recall I blogged about the Japan earthquake and Tsunami while in a hotel room in Oklahoma City. The next week I was in Dallas. Shortly after the conference closed, I had the misfortune of driving along a stretch of lonely highway 82 between Dallas and Lubbock. I had to go through Lubbock because I needed to go to Muleshoe, TX, where there was an unsurveyed USHCN station I wanted to add to the surfacestations.org station database, and Muleshoe (only to discover later that Juan Slayton had added it already) was so that had to be my route so I could connect to Highway 388 which goes NW from Lubbock to Muleshoe, and then on to Fort Sumner NM where I wanted to verify a Google street view on an MMTS. My GPS, as GPS’s sometimes do had me going on some backroads, including Munday, TX which I thought had an odd name and I got turned around for a bit and found myself headed south on 277 to Haskell. Got that solved and headed west on 222 to connect to 82.
I found myself in a pickle when I reached Guthrie, TX because I was getting low on gas, and I hadn’t seen any gas stations. From the 82 bypass around Guthrie I spotted what looked to be a gas station, so I double back, took the exit and went into town. It was a gas station alright, long since closed and there was nothing else in town. I was afraid I’d find myself stranded in Guthrie. I was struck by the fact that I was in the middle of one of the biggest oil producing states, and there was not a drop of gasoline to be found. There was no cell service that would support web browsing on my phone either, so I couldn’t search for one.
So I drove around just a bit in Guthrie, until I spotted somebody I could ask. It was like a ghost town, but I finally found someone (actually they found me because parked and waited and he rode by on a bike) and I flagged the guy down and asked where I might find some gas. He thought a moment and said “There’s no gas here, nearest is either Ralls or Crosbyton”. I asked where those towns were and he said: “on 82 (pointing west) out past the niggerheads, and then past Dickens”. I said “What? Niggerhead? Is that a town? and he looked at me like I was from another planet (I didn’t tell him I was from California) and he said “no that’s the hills, you’ll see em, and then ya go through Dickens, and Crosbyton, and then Ralls. One of ‘em should have gas.”
I did find gas in Crosbyton, after driving west on 82 through the hills the man described which you can see here in Google maps.
The term “niggerheads” was puzzling and odd, but I figured it was just some local colloquialism, and I didn’t give it another thought…until today.
So after being bombarded with all the news stories about how offensive this term is, and noting that some of the same people doing reporting lambasting Perry over the name of a ranch called “niggerhead” have absolutely no trouble at all calling people like me and the readers of WUWT “deniers” (Think Progress, Rachel Maddow on MSNBC, among others) which is also an ugly and offensive term due to the connection to “holocaust deniers”.
So, I thought I’d see what I could find on it. I figured if it was some sort of local colloquial term when I heard it in Texas last spring, I’d find it in older books and maps.
So in my first Google search, amongst all the news stories about Perry, I found my first clue as to why I heard the term, in Wikipedia:
The term was once widely used for all sorts of things, including products such as soap and chewing tobacco, but most often for geographic features such as hills and rocks.[citation needed] In the U.S., more than hundred “Niggerheads” and other place names now considered racially offensive were changed in 1962 by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names, but many local names remained unchanged.[1]
So that explained why the fellow I asked directions from used the term for the hills I’d drive through. The NYT article I cited above also mentions this.
I can understand how it is offensive, and I can certainly see removing it. But I think removing it is going to be a much bigger job than the bloodhounds in the mainstream media thinks. Just look at all the references to the word in science and engineering and geography:
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Nigger Head, an island in North Queensland, Australia
United States. Bureau of Fisheries – 1921 – Free Google eBook – Read
NIGGERHEAD GROUP. The shells of the niggerhead group distinguish themselves from all others of the Quadrula class by combining a … In buying mussels for button manufacture the price is often based upon the percentage of niggerheads.
Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen – 1911 – Free Google eBook – Read
One chamber casting (acting as a nigger head), is bolted centrally to the dry pipe in such a manner as to have the fingers … As the throttle is opened, steam is admitted through the dry pipe to the header which acts as a nigger head.
books.google.com Leonard Cockayne – 1921 – 456 pages – Free Google eBook – Read
3- Niggerhead (Carex secta)-association. Here shock-headed masses of C. secta are dominant raised above the water on … Niggerhead -swamp contains many of the ordinary swamp-plants and many transitions occur between it and Phormium-
books.google.comJuanita Tobin – 2000 – 57 pages – Preview
NIGGERHEAD ROAD The squeaky, old doors have closed forever on a school, a drug store and train station with a telegraph office where matrimonial ads and baseball games were transmitted as well as business on the stock exchange and a …
International Association of Bridge, Structural, and Ornamental Iron Workers – 1905 – Free Google eBook – Read
THE MAN ON THE NIGGER HEAD. His legs are poor, he can’t go aloft, In the “bull” gang he is dead; But should the boss throw a line across He is first to the ” nigger head.” He keeps the line coiled neat and trim, But I have often heard it…
books.google.com/books?id=BHUtAAAAYAAJ…George Byron Gordon – 1917 – Alaska – 247 pages
This is what is called nigger- head and muskeg in the language of the North. … on any map of Alaska), and prepared to do all the portaging ourselves. …
books.google.com Herbert Charles Lanks – 1944 – 200 pages – Snippet view
16 Niggerhead and Horse Camp Lakes The next day I decided to explore ahead on foot, for there was no one in camp who seemed to know the condition of the road. They said that the last vehicle had got through way back in April, …
books.google.com Robert F. Ensminger – 2003 – 348 pages – Preview
The development of the nigger head in central Pennsylvania was examined under ” Tying Joints and Bent Raisings” (see … The emergence of the nigger head may also result from a simplification of the double tie beam, which is commonly …
books.google.com Conchological Society of Great Britain and Ireland – 1906 – Free Google eBook – Read
Moreover the growth of the shells is very slow, the time required for a “nigger- head” to reach a size of three … The standard is the “niggerhead.” In 1897 the market value of this species in Muscatine ranged from 40 to 62 cents per …
books.google.com Geological Survey of New South Wales, Edward Fisher Pittman – 1901 – 487 pages – Free Google eBook – Read
There is another peculiar form common on the field, known as a nigger head. These nigger heads are usually oval or spherical masses of more or less opal- impregnated, fine grained silica ; they are of all sizes from 1 lb. to 1 cwt.,
California Place Names: The Origin and Etymology of Current … – Page 258
books.google.com Erwin G. Gudde, William Bright – 2004 – 460 pages – Preview
and Niggerhead Mountain [Los Angeles Co. ] (which probably reflect the now obsolete term “niggerhead” in the sense of … Note that the term “Niggerhead” in place names may refer not to the head of a Negro, but rather to a flanged drum …
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So clearly, the offensive term is well established in literature and placenames. It will take time and effort to remove it.Now go and read up on the rest of places and things given this 'name' here.
Morning Posting.
- Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world seismic activity Japan 5.1 ! More info here.
- Japan : For the most accurate info on the nuclear disaster go to : Paul Langley's Nuclear History Blog.Here.
- Live Video From New York's "March on Wallstreet" events : Here.
- Breaking story - Germany four Islamists arrested before German reunification festivities.(DWWorld).By David Levitz.German authorities have arrested four suspected Islamists believed to have plotted a "state-endangering act" ahead of festivities to celebrate German reunification.Police announced Sunday that three men were arrested near the western German city of Bonn, where around 100,000 were expected to take part in German Unity Day celebrations attended by both Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Christian Wulff. A further suspect was taken in custody and later released in the state of Hesse.Authorities had received information that the men, whom they described as being "from the Islamist scene," had illegally obtained weapons ahead of the events. But police found "no weapons or other dangerous objects" during their searches."There is neither evidence that the accused had links to terrorist groups nor that there were concrete preparations for an attack," said a spokesman for the Federal Prosecutions Office.The agency, which handles domestic terrorist threats and has said it is tracking some 200 potential Islamist terrorists in Germany, did not see sufficient grounds for it to take over the investigation from the local police force.Authorities also said they did not know of any concrete threats to the festivities, which are are set to continue through Monday October 3, the 21st anniversary of German reunification.Prior to the 10th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, police in Berlin arrested two suspected terrorists, who are still being held for questioning.Read the full story here.
- Wall Street protests spread to other cities.(AlJazeera). Protests inspired by "Occupy Wall Street" movement have emerged in Boston, San Francisco and Los Angeles.Members of the "Occupy Wall Street" movement have vowed to stay through winter in a park near New York's iconic financial district, where they are protesting issues including the 2008 bank bailouts, foreclosures and high unemployment in the United States.Protests inspired by New York's have emerged in other US cities in recent days, including Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles.A group in Boston has taken on the tactics of New York's protesters and on Friday night set itself up in the city's Dewey Square. Activists remained camped out at what they called "the heart of the financial district" on Saturday."We are establishing our subsection of a national dialogue on finance reform and governance reform," Nadeem Mazen, an organiser with Occupy Boston, told Al Jazeera.Mazen said that the Boston protest quickly drew a thousand people. "It shows that we're experienced and that we've all been independently thinking about what change we want to see. .. I think we're all very hungry for change."The New York campaign is based in Zuccotti Park - formerly Liberty Plaza Park - just across from the World Trade Center site.The movement has gained the support of five New York labour unions, as well as celebrities and academics such as Susan Sarandon, Michael Moore, Noam Chomsky, Cornel West, rapper Lupe Fiasco and the musical group Radiohead.More than 1,000 demonstrators, who have camped out in New York's financial centre for over two weeks, marched on Friday to New York's police headquarters to protest to what they viewed as a heavy-handed police response earlier on in their demonstration.Some held banners criticising police, while others chanted: "We are the 99 per cent" and "The banks got bailed out, we got sold out".Police observed Friday's march and kept protesters on the sidewalk, but no clashes were reported. They said no arrests were made before protesters dispersed from the police headquarters after the march by 8pm."No to the NYPD crackdown on Wall Street protesters," organisers had said on their website, promoting the march.Other online flyers for the march critiqued local police policies: "No to Stop-and-Frisk in Black and Latino neighborhoods" and "No to Spying and Harassment of Muslim Communities".The protest came less than a week after police arrested 80 Occupy Wall Street members during a march toward a main shopping district - the most arrests by New York police at a demonstration since hundreds were detained outside the Republican National Convention (RNC) in 2004.A city police commander used pepper spray on four women at last weekend's march and a video of the incident subsequently went viral on the internet, angering many protesters who vowed to continue their protests indefinitely.Hmmm......'Obama's Army' on the march?Read the full story here.
- Who’s Behind The ‘Occupy Everywhere’ Faux-tests?(BigGovernment).With the ‘Occupy Wall Street’ protests starting the catch on in the media after the arrests at the Brooklyn Bridge and protests in Los Angeles and San Francisco, the Occupy Whatever meme is coming to a city near you. Occupy Dallas! is coming to my town October 6th and I’ll head down there to interview people because that’s what I do. While I was looking up info about the event, I came across a Facebook page that really sums up what is really going on here.
This isn’t a protest against the government
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Not really. The is the guise that it’s under. It’s using the iconography of protest to actually SUPPORT the government status quo – specifically public employees. See, they can’t get a lot of support if they come out and say “Protest to keep out cushy pensions!” because who is going to show up for THAT, right?Look who is holding the event on civil disobedience.. it’s the North Texas Association of Public Employees – -a group connected to the Steelworkers.Public Employees are going to be showing people how to protest effectively against other public employees, like the police? This is a puppet show Play a little Rage Against The Machine for a soundtrack and the kids won’t notice that they are actually protesting to support the government bureaucrats.Hmmmm.......Anyone starting to see a 'command structure' behind it?Read the full story here.
- The states hardest hit by the economic crisis are also the ones that President Obama may need the most to win reelection.(NationalJournal).The nine states that switched from voting for George W. Bush in 2004 to Barack Obama in 2008 experienced a greater decline in their median family income than did the nation overall.It’s the same story in the partially overlapping list of 14 states in which Obama attracted between 45 and 55 percent of the vote last time. Both groups, according to separate employment figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, have also lost a higher percentage of their jobs since 2008 than the nation overall.That’s because the economic crisis did much of its deepest damage in the Rust Belt, which includes many of American politics’ traditional battlegrounds, and in the Sun Belt, which contains many of the newly emerging swing states. This concentration compounds President Obama’s political challenge as he works to assemble a 270-vote Electoral College majority. “It will force him to play defense and put into play states that he didn’t expect to have to defend,” Republican pollster Glen Bolger says.The president still has some time for the economy to show more signs of life—and a potential case to make even if it doesn’t. Across the country, the pain under Obama’s watch is a continuation of the crisis that began late in George W. Bush’s presidency. But, even so, the census results suggest that in essentially no state could the president feel safe asking voters the question that Ronald Reagan made famous: Are you better off than you were four years ago?No state avoided losses on at least one of the three major census measures that NJ analyzed: median family income, poverty, and access to health insurance. The pictures on income and poverty are especially sobering. From 2008 through 2010, the median family income, measured in inflation-adjusted dollars, declined in every state except North Dakota, which enjoyed a 5 percent increase thanks to an oil and natural-gas boom.Twenty states saw their median family incomes plummet at least a dizzying 5 percent over those two years. The largest losses were clustered in the twin poles of Sun Belt and Rust Belt states: on the one hand, Arizona, Georgia, Florida, Nevada, Alabama, North Carolina, California, and South Carolina; on the other, Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio. (Oregon was the only state among the dozen largest losers that is not in either the Sun Belt or the Rust Belt.) A more diverse list of 17 other states lost between 3 and 5 percent of median family income.On poverty, the damage was equally dispersed, although the patterns of distress were less uniform. From 2008 to 2010, the share of people living in poverty increased in every state except Montana (whose small improvement in its poverty rate was within the survey’s margin of error). In a dozen states, the proportion of residents living in poverty increased by at least 20 percent over just those two years; in another 25 states, the poverty rate increased by at least 10 percent. After this rapid deterioration, at least one in 10 residents are now living in poverty in every state except Alaska, Maryland (both registered a hardly comforting 9.9 percent), and New Hampshire (at 8.3 percent).The picture is more mixed on access to health insurance. From 2008 to 2010, the share of residents without insurance rose in 35 states, with Hawaii, Rhode Island, Kansas, Virginia, and Kentucky experiencing the largest increases. In another 15 states, the percentage of uninsured people declined. But in each direction, most of the changes were quite small and in many cases within the survey’s margin of error (which varies by state). In no state did the pool of people without insurance increase or decrease by more than 1.8 percentage points. On health care, then, the overall picture is one of stagnation over the past two years.At least 10 percent of residents are uninsured in all but nine states. Massachusetts—with just 4.4 percent, the lowest rate in the union—is the bookend to the unequaled 23.7 percent who are uninsured in Texas.The trends in employment complete the picture of a continent-sized storm. From December 2008 through August 2011, the latest month for which BLS figures are available, the number of people with jobs declined in every state except three big energy producers: Texas (where employment increased a slim 0.4 percent), Alaska (up 1.9 percent), and North Dakota (up 7.2 percent). Nevada was the biggest loser: It has shed a stunning 8 percent of its jobs since 2008. Georgia and Arizona also suffered losses greater than 5 percent, followed by Alabama, North Carolina, Kansas, Delaware, California, and Indiana.Measured in absolute rather than percentage terms, 10 states have lost at least 100,000 jobs since December 2008. Once again, the big losers cluster around the Sun Belt and the Rust Belt. In the former, they include California (by far the most affected with nearly 600,000 jobs gone), Florida (276,000 lost), Georgia (211,000), North Carolina, and Arizona. The big Rust Belt losers were Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, and Indiana. (Among the biggest losers, New Jersey is the only state to break that regional pattern.)In parallel fashion, the unemployment rate increased over that same period in every state except North Dakota. As of August, nine states reported double-digit unemployment, most of them along the Sun Belt: from North Carolina, South Carolina, Mississippi, Georgia, and Florida in the East to California and Nevada in the West. (Michigan and Rhode Island are the other two.)Across all these fronts, only a few factors appeared to provide even partial shelter from the storm. On many measures, as noted above, the energy-rich states of Texas, North Dakota, Oklahoma, and Alaska performed somewhat better than other states. Likewise, the 10 states with the highest proportion of college graduates suffered proportionally smaller losses in income and jobs than the other 40. But even that defense wasn’t impregnable: The states ranked 11 through 20 in college graduates experienced even greater income and job losses than those below them on the educational ladder.Read the full story here.
- 'Muslims Against Crusades' Hold Memorial Prayers for Anwar Al-Awlaki in London - Led by Anjem Choudhary.(Memri).On October 1, 2011, at a demonstration it held outside the Syrian Embassy in London, the radical Islamist group Muslims Against Crusades condemned the killing of Anwar Al-Awlaki. Addressing the protesters, group leader Anjem Choudhary condemned Awlaki's killing, calling it a "murder." He said that Awlaki died as a martyr, and that the jihad will continue despite his death. After he finished speaking, Choudhary led the protesters in a memorial prayer for Al-Awlaki.Choudhary's address and the prayer are seen in a clip uploaded to YouTube channel of the Muslims Against Crusades group.Read and see the full story here.
- Scantily-clad 'slutwalk' women march on New York after police tell them to 'cover up' to avoid rape.(DailyMail).Protesters dressed in their underwear have taken to the streets of New York today after it emerged the NYPD were warning women in Brooklyn to cover up in the face of sex attacks.The latest 'slutwalk' protest comes a day after women in Park Slope were warned short skirts should not be worn and shorts that show too much leg have been deemed inappropriate.On today's march the protesters chanted 'No means no - however we dress, wherever we go.Speaking to the New York Post, organiser Sammy Lifson, 21, said: 'The cops in Park Slope have really stepped up their presence and they're trying to be helpful.'But to focus on women isn't going to help catch the perpetrator.'The international series of protests known as SlutWalks, sparked by a Toronto police officer's flippant comment that women should avoid dressing like 'sluts' to avoid being raped or victimised, is taking root in the United States.Some women and men who protest dress in nothing more remarkable than jeans and T-shirts, while others wear provocative or revealing outfits to bring attention to 'slut-shaming,' or shaming women for being sexual, and the treatment of sexual assault victims.The police officer made his comments in January to a group of York University students at a safety forum.He later apologised, but his comments were publicised widely on Facebook and Twitter.They inspired a march in Toronto that drew more than 3,000 people, as well as SlutWalks since then in Dallas, Asheville, North Carolina, and Ottawa, Ontario.The movement has since spread around the world, with slut walks organised in several countries.Yesterday's ‘advice’ was given out in response to at least 10 unsolved sexual attacks that have taken place in the area since March.But in Park Slope, which is famous for being liberal and feminist, the campaign has provoked fury.Jessica Silk, founder of neighbourhood watch group Safe Slope, told the Wall St Journal that such a measure was 'completely inappropriate'.One of the women who had been spoken to, who identified herself only as Lauren, told how she was three block from her home when she was stopped for wearing shorts and a T-shirt.The 25-year-old claimed a cop asked to speak to her then did the same to two other women wearing dresses.Lauren claimed he asked if she knew about the sex attacks and when they all replied yes he 'pointed at my outfit and said, "Don't you think your shorts are a little short?"'He pointed at their dresses and said they were showing a lot of skin,' she said.Lauren claimed the cop said such clothes could make the rapist think he could get 'easy access'.The officer then said that they were 'exactly the kind of girl this guy is targeting'.Read the full story here.
- Israel formally accepts Quartet formula for resuming talks.(JPost).Israel on Sunday formally accepted the Quartet's proposal for re-starting negotiations with the Palestinians, following a meeting between Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his senior ministers."Israel welcomes the Quartet's call for direct negotiations without pre-conditions with the Palestinian Authority, which was already suggested by US president Barack Obama and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, even though Israel has a number of reservations which it will bring up in the negotiations."The statement called on the PA to enter negotiations without delay.Asked about Netanyahu's acceptance of the Quartet's initiative, Nabil Abu Rdainah, a spokesman for PA President Mahmoud Abbas, said "returning to negotiations requires Israel to commit to stopping settlement."Abu Rdainah said that Israel also must recognize the "1967 borders" lines that existed before its occupation of the West Bank in a Middle East war that year.Following Netanyahu and Abbas's speeches to the UN last month, during which Abbas said he was filing a request to the Security Council for full UN membership for "Palestine," the Quartet issued a formula for renewing talks.The statement urged the parties "to overcome the current obstacles and resume direct bilateral Israeli-Palestinian negotiations without delay or preconditions." It proposed a "preparatory meeting" between the parties within a month to agree to an agenda and "method of proceeding in the negotiation," and suggested that the two sides commit to the objective of reaching an agreement "within a timeframe agreed to by the parties but not longer than the end of 2012."The statement also said the expectation is that the parties will come up with a comprehensive proposal on territory and security within three months, and to have made "substantial progress" within six months. To facilitate this, an international conference will be held in Moscow "at the appropriate time."Netanyahu has in the past objected to the idea – as presented in the Quartet proposal – of isolating security and territories from the other core issues of Jerusalem and refugees, saying that if an agreement on the territorial issue was reached, the Palestinians would have no incentive to compromise later on the issues of refugees and Jerusalem. Rather, his position in the past was that all issues should be discussed simultaneously.Read the full story here.
- Report: Biden torpedoed Pollard's pardon.(YNet). Did US Vice President Joseph Biden stop President Barack Obama from pardoning convicted spy Jonathan Pollard? According to the New York Times, the answer is yes. The NYT reported Saturday that in a recent meeting between Biden and 15 rabbis in Florida – meant to bolster the Jewish community's support of the Obama's 2012 presidential campaign – the vice president was asked about the Obama administration's reluctance to release Pollard, who was imprisoned in 1986 after he was convicted of spying for Israel. “President Obama was considering clemency, but I told him, 'Over my dead body are we going to let him out before his time is up,'" Biden reportedly told the group. “If it were up to me, he would stay in jail for life.” The issue of Pollard's pardon has been the proverbial thorn in all recent US administrations' side: Jerusalem and a seemingly ever-growing group of Pollard supporters say that after serving 25 years in prison, Washington can afford to release Pollard without losing face. Washington, however, has so far refused.Obama is said to be relying on Biden for help with one particular core group of voters – American Jews. The US Jewish community tends to vote Democratic, but given their disapproval of the Obama Administration's policies towards Israel, those votes can no longer be considered "a sure thing."Biden has been tasked with fund-raising among Jewish Democrats, while reassuring the party’s base that the Obama administration remains a loyal friend to Israel.According to the NYT, Biden admitted to the rabbis that "the administration had made a few missteps in its handling of the Israel relationship," but made no further reference to the Pollard issue.The NYT believed that Washington's adamant refusal to pardon Pollard is unlikely to cost Obama the support of US Jews, especially after his pro-Israel speech at the United Nations last week.Read the full story here.
- I was blindfolded, then tortured and sexually attacked until I 'confessed': Doctor facing jail after treating Bahrain riot victims tells of her terrifying ordeal.(DailyMail).She says her only crime was treating the injured as they were brought to hospital during the riots that engulfed the kingdom of Bahrain.For this offence, Dr Fatima Haji was dragged out of her house at midnight by 30 plain-clothes police officers brandishing guns. She says she was then taken blindfolded to a secret interrogation centre, before being tortured and repeatedly sexually assaulted until she signed documents confessing her ‘crimes’.And she was kept in solitary confinement for another 22 days, before being released on bail. Now the 33-year-old doctor has been sentenced to five years in jail. Though not yet imprisoned, she waits anxiously for government forces to drag her away at any moment.Dr Haji, who has a three-year-old son, Yusuf, said: ‘Every time I hug my boy, it could be my last. Every time I call him to me, I know it could be the last time I hold him.’Dr Haji was one of 20 doctors and nurses who were sentenced to jail terms of between five and 15 years at a special military tribunal on Friday.They were accused of conspiring to overthrow the monarchy by supporting the anti-government protests that broke out earlier this year.The medics were accused of using ambulances to transport protesters and ammunition. Dr Haji herself was accused of stealing blood bags to give to the protesters who used them to fake injuries. She claims the court refused to send for witnesses the defendants had requested, so some turned up of their own free will and demanded to be heard. Even then, the judge directed the lawyers to ask certain questions only.Dr Haji is on bail as she appeals, but the authorities can put her in jail any time and insist that she challenges her sentence from prison. The Arab Spring that had swept through Tunisia and Egypt arrived at the tiny island kingdom in the Persian Gulf in February. Hundreds of protesters gathered in the capital, Manama, demanding more democratic freedoms from the ruling Al-Khalifa family. At least 35 people have since been killed in a government crackdown. Friday’s sentencing was condemned by Western governments and human rights groups. Foreign Secretary William Hague said: ‘I am deeply concerned. These are worrying developments.’Dr Haji was among 3,000 staff working at the Salmaniya Medical Complex hospital in Manama when the protests erupted. Speaking to The Mail on Sunday by telephone, she said that the majority of the casualties were taken there for treatment, and the hospital became a focus for the world’s media.‘We were filmed treating patients. This meant we appeared on the Al-Jazeera TV news channel and the government did not like that,’ she said. At midnight one night in April, about 30 plain-clothes police officers barged into her house and dragged her out. Her 34-year-old husband, Jalal Al-Marzook, a doctor at the same hos¬pital, was not at home. But they were not looking for him. Dr Haji says she was taken to an interrogation centre and punched and kicked while blindfolded. Then she was kept standing for several days without food and water, and sexually molested.‘I don’t know how many men there were as I was blindfolded, but I heard many voices. They said they would rape me,’ she said. ‘They told me they knew which nursery Yusuf was in, and would get him. That’s when I broke and said I’d do anything they wanted.’She then signed a number of documents which she later learned were confessions. She was kept in detention for another three weeks, then released on bail. Dr Haji still can’t believe how the year has changed so drastically for her – at the start of 2011 she was on holiday in London with her family. Now, though, she is in despair. ‘I am innocent. I was just doing my job. Now I feel scared for my life and my son.’The Bahraini government said it has firm evidence against the 20 people sentenced on Friday. An official at the country’s embassy in London said suspects in custody in Bahrain were not tortured. And a spokesman added: ‘They [the medical staff] were convicted of very serious offences. ‘But this is just the first stage in the judicial process and they have the right of appeal in a civilian court.‘We have appointed an independent commission to investigate the other allegations.’Read the full story here.
- Egypt’s tourism down 80 percent, says minister.(BikyaMasr).CAIRO: Egypt’s tourism industry was down 80 percent during the last period, the country Tourism Minister Munir Fakhry Abdel Nour said in an interview with al-Dostour newspaper.He said that Jordanians made up the largest number of visitors to the country in the last quarter, with the Red Sea becoming a popular destination for the country’s travelers.Abdel Nour said the problem of decreasing Arab tourists could “only be resolved with joint Arab cooperation.”In areas such as Sharm el-Sheikh and Hurghada, tourism has made a huge recovery. Moustafa al-Fayomee, a Hurghada resident and tour guide told Bikyamasr.com he believes tourism in the aforementioned areas are currently booming.“The nightclubs and bars are crowded,” he said. “Red Sea tourism is still very popular, but not many people want to stay in Cairo, they prefer to do small excursions there. Luxor and Aswan are still quite empty according to my friends in the industry there.”Official figures have shown that the decline in tourism is slowly receding. During the first quarter of the year, tourism fell by 45.7 percent compared to the previous year. In the second quarter that decrease was 35.4 percent and the figures for July have shown a decrease of 28 percent.The tourism industry is the main source of income for roughly 10 percent of the Egyptian workforce.While the leisure tourism industry in prominent party areas such as Hurghada are making a steady recovery, places like Aswan and Cairo have yet to see the conventional tourist return en masse.“Traditionally the volume of tourism is split around 80 percent on the Red Sea coast and 20 percent in the Nile valley for the archaeology there,” Abdel Nour said.“But in this period, tourists have avoided the valley because the political activity is centred in the capital and in the large cities, so people have preferred to head to the beaches, which are relatively far away,” he added.Egypt has launched an enormous promotional campaign to revitalize all sectors of tourism in the country. According to Abdel Nour, Egypt “is totally secure” and “does not present any danger to visitors.”Abdel Nour has also said he wishes to promote Egypt to the emerging markets of China, Brazil, India and Argentina. “We want to get off the beaten track. We must look at new economic forces, which have become important markets,” he said.The minister has also revealed their plan to expand on the types of tourism that are already present, and tapping in to markets such as ecological tourism and therapy tourism, both fairly recent types of tourism which have greatly expanded over the last decade.Eco-tourism is a growing market which focuses on maintaining a sustainable form of tourism, to minimise the carbon footprint in an area and to foster a greater respect and understanding for the local culture and environment. Eco-tourism itself is one of the fastest growing forms of tourism worldwide, and many environmentalists have been in favor of promoting a sustainable form of tourism.“When people arrive en masse anywhere they naturally cause damage to the environment,” Marie-Lou Meslin, a student who has lived in Indonesia most of her life, told Bikyamasr.com, “in Bali specifically, the tourism has been so emphasized that it has had a very negative impact on the environment as well as the culture. The ramifications for it are enormous.”Referring to tourism in general, Meslin spoke of the dramatic change she has seen in the last two decades in the ‘paradise’ island of Bali as a general view of mass tourism.“Without a sustainable system in place which limits the passive impact tourists have, many natural environments which were once considered pristine, or heritage sites themselves which slowly deteriorate over time, will be spoiled at an increased rate,” she added.There were more than 10 million tourists that had visited Egypt in 2008. With Egypt boasting the oldest structures in existence, the pyramids, mitigating the damage caused by tourists would in the long run allow them to maintain such a tourist attraction in better form.Hmmmm.....Perhaps covering up the Sphinx might help?Read the full story here.
- Christians dispossessed and silenced Muslim population in Mindanao.(AsiaNews). Manila - In Jolo, Marawi, Basilan and other areas of Mindanao, the Christian minority is suffering harassment and pressure from the Muslim population, AsiaNews' sources in Mindanao say. Government officials are forcing Christians to sell their land to make room for Chinese industries. According to sources, the climate of impunity, the abductions, the continuing clashes between the army and extremist Islamic groups and the economic crisis have created an unbearable atmosphere for the Christian population, who are afraid to express their faith in public."Jolo Cathedral", they explain, "is located at the center of the city, and has always been a symbol of unity and friendship between Muslims and Christians. Until a few years ago, the main door was open at all hours, but due to the continuous episodes of vandalism, the Cathedral can now be accessed only through the side entrance. The churchyard is guarded day and night by military and police." Sources say that the situation is the same in Basilan and Cotabato. Here in recent weeks both churches were hit with paper bombs that damaged the part of the walls and windows. These acts provide publicity for the young extremists, who learn intolerance against Christians from unscrupulous preachers, often funded by foreign countries, who aim to spread a restrictive and fundamentalist vision of Islam. "The situation is very difficult", AsiaNews sources explain, "Christians are not permitted to react. The only alternative to escape is to suffer these abuses in silence." For Fr. Sebastiano D'Ambra, PIME missionary in Zamboanga and founder of Silsilah ("chain"), a movement for interreligious dialogue, there are nevertheless some signs of hope that could change the future situation of these provinces, considered the most dangerous on the entire archipelago. "In Basilan", he says, "we have organized a series of meetings with Muslim and Christian leaders where we recounted our experience of interreligious dialogue made in other cities and listened to the problems experienced by the local population. This has sparked a relationship among the various local religious leaders, including the bishop and high Islamic authorities, who for several months have been collaborating to address the problems of the two communities." From this experience of dialogue was born the Interfaith Council of Leaders, which aims to get Christians and Muslims to meet to discuss concrete facts and not theoretical problems. For example, the priest explains that Basilan's population has no access to electricity. To solicit the government, representatives of the Christian and Muslim communities wrote a manifesto of protest, with some concrete proposals useful in addressing the problem. "What we propose", said Fr. D'Ambra, "is a spirit of dialogue that touches on all aspects, not only matters of religion. Our task is not simply to speak of dialogue, but to respond in a concrete way to the reality that surrounds us."Read the full story here.
Afternoon Posting.
- HT:DaledAmos.Letter From A Coptic Christian To Obama.Mike, a Coptic Christian who has immigrated to the United States, has asked Restrain the Blade to publish this letter to President Barack Obama. Out of concern for his safety, only the author's first name is made public.Dear President Obama,I am writing to you as Coptic Christian who immigrated to the United States in the late 1970s.I am an American citizen.I have grave concerns about what is going in Egypt regarding the Copts.To put it bluntly, I fear that something very bad is going to happen to this community in the very near future.[Note: this letter was written on Christmas Eve]Coptic Christians have been the victims of systematic abuse and oppression in Egypt for a long time. On November 17, 2010, the U.S. Department of State recently issued a report on religious freedom in Egypt that details the abuses they suffer on a daily basis. January of this year, six Coptic Christians were murdered outside their church after celebrating Christmas.Sadly, I fear another attack will happen again sometime in the near future.The tendency of blaming the State of Israel for every problem in Egypt, and linking it to the Copts, is on the rise, especially in the past a few months. By associating the Copts with the Jewish state, extremists and government officials are inciting hostility toward a beleaguered, defenseless minority.Mr. President, in light of numerous acts of incitement and previous acts of violence, I fear that Coptic Christians in Egypt are going to have a very tough Christmas season. I implore you to use your good offices to insist that the Egyptian government protect the rights of its Christian citizens.For reasons of my own safety, I can only sign my first name, but nevertheless, I offer wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.I ask that you use your influence to make sure Christians in Egypt can celebrate their holidays in safety.Michael . Dec. 24, 2010. Hmmmm.........Read the full story here.
- New Speaker Vows to Share Power—a Tricky Proposition.When John Boehner takes over one of the most powerful jobs in Washington this week, he says his first order of business is to make himself less powerful.On Wednesday the new speaker of the House of Representatives plans to offer a package of rule changes that, he says, will give minority-party members more of a say and decentralize power. In short, Ohio Republican Mr. Boehner is promising he'll be a different figure from many speakers throughout history—from Republican Joseph Cannon a century ago to his immediate predecessor, Democrat Nancy Pelosi—who kept a tighter leash.But there's a reason so many speakers try to keep close control: It works."New speakers always say they want to have a more open process," says Rep. Anthony Weiner, a New York Democrat. "Then the sheer demands of making the trains run on time and getting things passed requires that you change your mind."How this tension is resolved—between Mr. Boehner's promises and the need to get things done—will help determine the success of the new Republican majority. The GOP is in a hurry to show that it's different, not just from Democrats but from its old self. Mr. Boehner himself was catapulted into a GOP leadership role in 2006 after a fund-raising scandal deposed then-majority leader Tom DeLay.Mr. Boehner now finds himself master of a Republican majority created by a group of newcomers whose hallmark is a restless cry for action. On issues from cutting spending to raising the government's debt ceiling, Mr. Boehner's burden will be letting his freshmen members vent while keeping the House on track.One of Wednesday's first votes could be Mr. Boehner's package of rule changes. Among them:
- Lawmakers will be required to vote on whether or not to raise the federal debt ceiling, a move sought by tea-party representatives. Current rules let the House automatically raise the limit when they pass a budget.
- All legislation must be posted online 72 hours before going to the House floor to prevent party leaders from changing bills the night before House votes, as has been the practice over the years.Read the full story here.
- Netanyahu asks Obama to pardon Pollard.Prime minister addresses Knesset plenum, reads out letter sent to US President Obama asking him to pardon spy. White House says will review letter. The prime minister addressed the Knesset plenum Tuesday in a debate titled "The failure of the Netanyahu administration in the political, economic and social realms." A total of 40 Knesset members signed an appeal to hold the debate thus forcing Netanyahu to attend. In his speech, Netanyahu detailed efforts that have been made along the years to free Pollard. He noted that he received a letter from Pollard two weeks ago pleading him to publicly approach the US president and ask for his release."After 25 years that Jonathan has spent in jail and after 15 years of failed efforts to release him, I have decided to grant this request and I do this openly, here, from the Knesset podium in a step that represents and unites all the people of Israel," he said.Netanyahu read the letter he sent to Obama in which he noted that despite the fact that Israel had not directed any intelligence efforts against the US, it was wrong in doing what it did and had acted in an unacceptable manner. The letter further noted that both Pollard and Israel's governments have regretted these acts and that Israel continues to pledge never to repeat such acts in the future. Netanyahu wrote to Obama that he had raised the matter of Pollard's release many times in meetings with US officials, past and present. He noted that many former senior US officials as well as congressmen who are familiar with the issue share his view and support releasing the spy.The prime minister closed his letter by saying that as far as Israel is aware Pollard has served more time in jail than any other person convicted of similar charges. He noted that Pollard's health has deteriorated considerably and stressed that the Jewish people will forever be thankful to Obama should he choose to free the spy. Meanwhile, the French news agency reported Tuesday that a senior official with the US administration announced the letter will be reviewed by the White House.Hmmmm.....Most killers serving life would have been paroled by now after serving this long.Read the full story here
- Obama and Air Force One: It's good to have a 747.President Obama will spend Monday night flying across the Pacific and United States after his latest vacation, 11 days in Hawaii. It will be his first trip of 2011 aboard Air Force One.Last year Obama flew in Air Force One 172 times, almost every other day.White House officials have been telling reporters in recent days that the Democrat doesn't intend to hang around the White House quite so much in 2011.They explain he wants to get out more around the country because, as everyone knows, that midterm election shellacking on Nov. 2 had nothing to do with his healthcare bill, over-spending or other policies, and everything to do with Obama's not adequately explaining himself to his countrymen and women.And with only 673 days remaining in the neverending presidential campaign, the incumbent's travel pace will not likely slacken.At an Air Force-estimated cost of $181,757 per flight hour (not to mention the additional travel costs of Marine One, Secret Service, logistics and local police overtime), that's a lot of frequent flier dollars going into the president's carbon footprint. According to Knoller's copious notes, during the last year Obama made 65 domestic trips over 104 days and six trips to eight countries over 22 days. Not counting six vacation trips over 32 days.He took 196 helicopter trips, signed 203 pieces of legislation and squeezed in 29 rounds of left-handed golf.Hmmmm....."The Democrat doesn't intend to hang around the White House quite so much in 2011" 172 Airforce One TRIPS in 2010!Read the full
travelodge brochure story here.
- HT:Aim.Imam Rauf's Extremist Speaking Engagement.Feisal Abdul Rauf, the imam behind the Ground Zero mosque, is kicking off his nationwide speaking tour at the Islamic Society of North America's Diversity Forum Banquet in Detroit on January 15. He will be speaking alongside extremists like Siraj Wahhaj and Zaid Shakir, contradicting the moderate image he's trying to put forth on his tour.The Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) denies being an extremist organization, saying it "rejects all acts of terrorism, including those perpetrated by Hamas, Hizbullah and any other group that claims Islam as their inspiration." This statement, however, does not necessarily mean they oppose the Islamist political agenda. In fact, ISNA has been listed by the federal government as an "unindicted co-conspirator" in the Holy Land Foundation trial that found the charity to be guilty of financing Hamas. ISNA has tried to have this designation removed, but a judge ruled on July 1, 2009 that the government "produced ample evidence" to justify it.Also speaking at ISNA's Diversity Forum Banquet is Zaid Shakir, one of the founders of Zaytuna University in California. Shakir opposes attacks on civilians, such as the hijacking of airliners, but then says, "If you hijack an airplane filled with the 82nd Airborne, that's something else." The New York Times wrote in June 2006 that "he said he still hoped that one day the United States would be a Muslim country ruled by Islamic law" and he voices 9/11 conspiracy theories.Shakir has also condemned the United States's "demonization" of people like Saddam Hussein, Hugo Chavez, Manuel Noriega, Muammar Qaddafi and most shockingly, the Taliban and Osama Bin Laden. He also depicts terrorist groups as nationalists fighting against Western imperialism."Hamas calls for the liberation of Palestinian lands, not the physical elimination of the Jews. Al-Qaeda calls for the end of America's strategic presence in the Middle East and not the destruction of America. The Iraqi resistance calls for the end of the American occupation of Iraq and not the end of America," he wrote.If Imam Rauf is as moderate as he says he is, he should be speaking out against people like Shakir and Wahhaj and groups like the Muslim Brotherhood. Instead, he's launching his speaking tour at a conference that exalts them. With friends like these, Imam Rauf's tour may end up hurting Park51's prospects instead of helping.Hmmmm...."We do not want to take over your country"?Read the full story here.
- HT:BigGoverment.Rep. Darrell Issa: We’ll Investigate Pigford.Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), who will become chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee when the 112th Congress is sworn in this week, announced tonight that the Pigford Scandal will be investigated though not by his committee.Representative Issa also said that there are 600 investigations perhaps he could hold on the previous Congress and administration but he does not have the time or resources.Here’s the transcript:Rep. Issa: “We’ve been asked for quite a while to begin to talk about the order to which we will take on important hearings so we released the first six. We could have released sixty. We could have released 600 perhaps. At the end of the day there is so much in government that in the next two years even if we did a hearing every single day on every single sub committee, we couldn’t do all the areas of waste, fraud and abuse…”Jim Hoft: Another item that I don’t think is getting a lot of attention but has been out on the internet some and that is the Pigford Scandal. That is not one of the items you have listed. Is it because it is so, it’s a billion dollars. Is it just chump change compared to some of these other items?Rep Issa: As you know the Pigford Scandal is really one that falls under two other committees. One of the things that I have to know in my committee is I have to leverage my resources.I have to use every asset I can get including all the other committees to do what they can. So, Pigford, we’ll participate but we’ll make sure other committees do their work. Just like the New Black Panthers Party. That’s a civil rights violation in addition to being a voting violation. We’re going to make sure judiciary does most of the work on that and Chairman Lamar Smith intends to.Read the full story here.
- Here's what one second of national debt looks like.If you're like most people not involved with drug trafficking, you don't often actually see U.S. money with more than one or two zeroes on it, as in $50 or $100.Thus, Monday's news that the national debt was approaching the legal limit of $14.294 trillion creates a Clint Eastwood-style political showdown in the soggy streets of Washington.On one side is Obama and his Democratic gang, who'd like the limit raised so their government can keep operating. On the other end of Main Street is the newly enlarged posse of Republicans, who are feeling their enhanced leverage and want spending-cut commitments before going along with the usually pro forma limit-raising.The national debt flew past $14 trillion last Friday. That's a galactic sum that's difficult for any average American to imagine or even grasp. But let's try:Fourteen trillion is 14-thousand billions. A billion is a thousand millions. A million is a thousand thousands.A trillion has so many zeroes it won't fit in your checkbook -- 12 zeros, to be exact.Last June 1 doesn't really seem all that long ago. The Gulf oil disaster was barely half-spilled. President Obama and Pancho Biden were still promising....Read the full story here.
- Aircraft Carrier Commander Relieved of Duty After Airing Explicit Videos.Capt. Owen Honors was to be relieved of duty Tuesday as commander of the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise after he broadcast sexually charged videos taken aboard the ship, a senior U.S. defense official told Fox News.The videos, distributed on closed-circuit television during 2006 and 2007 deployments of the USS Enterprise, the Navy's oldest nuclear-powered Aircraft carrier, showed simulated masturbation, suggestive shower scenes with multiple women and gay slurs. The Virginia-Pilot newspaper first broke the story, publishing edited versions the lewd videos on its website."Contrary to assurances that standards of conduct will remain high, and that 'leadership' and sensitivity training can 'mitigate' the consequences of human failings, this embarrassing episode demonstrates how discipline can be incrementally redefined downward, lowering standards for all," Donnelly said. "Adm. Mullen and like-minded allies in the White House, Pentagon and Congress are inviting trouble that cannot be 'mitigated' by wishful thinking alone."It was a bad year for commanding officers in 2010. The Navy Times reported that 17 COs were fired last year for conduct unbecoming of an officer -- the second highest number of firings in a decade.Read the full story here.More here.
- HT:AmericanSolutions.Top Five Things Obama Has Done to Raise Gasoline Prices.With gasoline currently above $3 per gallon nationwide and economists expecting that price to rise even further in 2011, America should be getting serious about producing more of its own resources. But instead of focusing on how to bring more relief to American motorists, President Obama has imposed massive new regulations, restrictions, and even threatened higher taxes on American energy, all of which negatively impact domestic production.What follows is a list of the five most egregious actions on the part of the Obama administration that have contributed to higher gasoline prices and greater dependence on foreign dictators for our energy.Hmmmm....If he really wanted to destroy America would he do anything different?Read the full story here.
- Afghan women speak out on abuse from behind mask.Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) -- "I had so many dreams for my life, but when I saw him, they just disappeared." Saraya spoke softly, her hunched-over body and nervously twisting hands testimony to all she says she has had to endure."I told my father I didn't want to marry him: 'why are you doing this to me?'" She continued: "My father said 'you are of an age to be married and this is my decision, not yours.'"Saraya says it only took three days for her to realize she had been married off to a madman.Emotions and turmoil she never dared publicly speak of tumble out freely -- concealed, along with her face, behind a mask.Half the mask is pale blue, the color of the "chaudari" or burka, symbolizing the oppression of women; the other half white, representing innocence.This is Afghanistan's new revolutionary TV show called "Niqab," meaning "The Mask."Behind the concept is 28-year-old Sami Mahdi."I was always desiring to have something like the mask, like this show in our media," Mahdi said. "I was not very sure about the concept and the format, but I was very sure about the mask, you know. Because in Afghanistan, it's very difficult for women to talk about their difficulties and their problems, and the violence they are facing in their home."Her identity safely concealed behind the mask, Saraya said she was forcibly married off to a known rapist, a man with an existing criminal record when she was 15 years old. He was 58."When my youngest was just four years old, my husband brought women to the house and raped them."My child asked me: 'who are these women?' I could not say anything to my child -- my husband would just beat me."She said she eventually ran away, fearing that he would harm their daughter. She said she firmly believes that if her husband ever found her and their three children he would murder them all."During the second episode, the victim, the guest, was a lady who was 12 years old when she got married," Mahdi said, noting this was a "badal" marriage. Her brother had murdered a man. She was given to the family of the victim.As she spoke of the abuse and torture she endured, Mahdi says everyone in the control room broke down."They were crying ... they were crying," he recalled. "There are a lot of realities in Afghanistan, but when you talk about realities publicly, I am sure it will shock people. I was shocked."Hmmmm.....Welcome to A.D. 620?Read the full story here.
- Obama May Bypass Guantánamo Rules, Aides Say.WASHINGTON — President Obama’s legal advisers, confronting the prospect of new restrictions on the transfer of Guantánamo detainees, are debating whether to recommend that he issue a signing statement asserting that his executive powers would allow him to bypass the restrictions, according to several officials.If Mr. Obama were to issue such a statement, it could represent a more aggressive use of unilateral executive powers than what he exerted in his first two years in office. The issue has arisen as the Republican Party takes control of the House.But the administration is also considering whether he should go further by issuing a signing statement — a formal document recording a president’s interpretation of a new law for the rest of the executive branch to follow — asserting that he has the constitutional power to disregard the restrictions. Under the latter approach, the president would assert that as the head of the executive branch and commander in chief, his prosecutorial discretion and wartime powers would allow him to lawfully bring detainees into the United States for trial or to transfer them to other countries as he sees fit. It remained unclear whether the administration would actually carry out a detainee transfer despite the restrictions, or whether it would merely assert, as an abstract matter, that Mr. Obama had the authority to do so.Hmmmm....More totalitarian rule?Read the full story here.
- HT:TheWeeklyStandard.Obamacare Ends Construction of Doctor-Owned Hospitals.Under the headline, "Construction Stops at Physician Hospitals," Politico reports today that "Physician Hospitals of America says that construction had to stop at 45 hospitals nationwide or they would not be able to bill Medicare for treatments." Stopping construction at doctor-owned hospitals might not seem like the best way to boost the economy or to promote greater access and choice in health care, but that exactly what Obamacare is doing.Hmmmmm..."We have to pass the bill to know what's in it"?Read the full story here.
- HT:LogisticsMonster.UFC Champ Jacob Volkmann Calls Out Obama.The Year of the Awakening has started when UFC Champ (and doctor) Jacob Volkmann looks forward to a match with Barry and states that ‘someone has to knock some sense into that idiot‘.Read and see the full story here.
- HT:LogisticsMonster.Glenn Beck, 1.3.2011: America’s Crushing Debt.The Judge is filling in for Glenn as he stocks up on chalk for tomorrow’s show. The Judge interviews Sens. Rand Paul (Kentucky) and Mike Lee (Utah) about the $14.3 trillion dollar debt ceiling that is imminently facing our nation and congress. He also interviews our favorite economist, David Buckner, and Steve Moore about the debt that is crushing our nation and the planned co-opting of the tea party elects.Read and see the full story here.
- HT:TheAmericanDream.Is The New Madrid Fault Earthquake Zone Coming To Life?What in the world is happening in the middle of the United States right now? Thousands of birds are falling dead from the skies, tens of thousands of fish are washing up on shore dead, earthquakes are popping up in weird and unexpected places and people are starting to get really freaked out about all of this. Well, one theory is that the New Madrid fault zone is coming to life. The New Madrid fault zone is six times bigger than the San Andreas fault zone in California and it covers portions of Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Arkansas, Kentucky, Tennessee and Mississippi. The biggest earthquakes in the history of the United States were caused by the New Madrid fault. Now there are fears that the New Madrid fault zone could be coming to life again, and if a "killer earthquake" does strike it could change all of our lives forever.So exactly what events have happened recently that are causing people to take a close look at the New Madrid fault zone? According to the U.S. Geological Survey, more than 500 measurable earthquakes have been recorded in central Arkansas just since September.But the fact that they all happened in or around the New Madrid fault zone is starting to raise some eyebrows.About 200 years ago, in 1811 and 1812, there were four earthquakes that were so powerful in the area of the New Madrid fault zone that they are still talked about today. All four of the quakes were estimated to have been magnitude-7.0 or greater. It is said that those earthquakes opened deep fissures in the ground, caused the Mississippi River to run backwards and that they were felt as far away as Boston.The last major earthquake to hit the region was a 5.4-magnitude quake that struck the town of Dale, Illinois in 1968. Things have been strangely quiet in the region since then until recently.If a true "killer earthquake" struck along the New Madrid fault zone today, cities such as St. Louis, Missouri and Memphis, Tennessee could potentially be completely destroyed.Unfortunately, this is not an exaggeration.The following video describes just how incredibly powerful the earthquakes along the New Madrid fault in 1811 and 1812 actually were....Read and see the full story here.
- Iran Offer of Nuclear Site Tour Irks U.S.Iran has invited representatives of several nations to visit its nuclear installations this month, including Russia, China and the European Union, but has excluded the U.S. from the proposed trip, according to diplomats briefed on Tehran's correspondence.The Obama administration and a number of European and Arab governments quickly dismissed Tehran's overture, saying they viewed it as an attemptEuropean and Arab governments quickly dismissed Tehran's overture, saying they viewed it as an attempt by Iran to reduce mounting economic pressure aimed at curbing its nuclear program."A tour for some countries is not a substitute for sustained and transparent cooperation," State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said Monday. "Iran continues to be in violation of its international obligations and the international community won't be distracted by this ploy."Two diplomats from EU countries said Monday their governments were unlikely to accept Tehran's invitation specifically because it is seen as an attempt to divide the international community. Rather, they said Tehran should be prepared to engage in serious discussions with the West and allow greater access to international inspectors from the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency."Let's make sure nobody gives a hand to this…attempt at disguising opacity as transparency," said one of the European diplomats working on Iran.Hmmmm......Divide et impera.Read the full story here.
- Trump Says He'll Run for President.Billionaire Donald Trump is telling friends he has decided he will definitely run for president as a Republican.Trump will make the announcement when his NBC show "The Apprentice" finishes the season in the spring, he is confiding. He has been soliciting recommendations on political advisers, focusing initially on the Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary. Trump declined to comment.Hmmmm....Lets see...Palin as VP Looks and Money combined?They could go on "Dancing with the stars"?Read the full story here.
- Another Bird death this time L.A. puzzle investigators.LABARRE — Hundreds of dead and dying birds littered a quarter-mile stretch of highway in Pointe Coupee Parish on Monday as motorists drove over and around them.State biologists are trying to determine what led to the deaths of the estimated 500 red-winged blackbirds and starlings on La. 1 just down the road from Pointe Coupee Central High School.The discovery of the dead birds — some of which were lying face down, clumped in groups, while others were face up with their wings outstretched and rigid legs pointing upward — comes just three days after more than 3,000 blackbirds rained down from the sky in Beebe, Ark.Necropsies performed Monday on the birds in Arkansas showed the birds suffered internal injuries that formed blood clots leading to their deaths, The Associated Press reported.Hmmmm....."The Truth is out there"?Read the full story here. More here.
- Russians’ Large Stake in Facebook Grows Larger.MOSCOW — What do the Russians want from Facebook?And what, for that matter do they want from other hot, and currently private, American companies like Zynga, Groupon and Twitter?For people with money in the Russian investment company DST Global, the focus is social networking.The private company, which is generally known here as DST, may seem but a footnote in the move by Goldman Sachs to invest $450 million in Facebook.But DST’s additional $50 million now raises it and its sister company’s combined investment in Facebook to more than $500 million. As a result of their earlier investments, they now own about 10 percent of the company, making the DST siblings among Facebook’s biggest owners.Read the full story here.
- And now for something completely different.Introducing the crazy sport of 'noodling' which sees anglers use themselves as human bait to lure catfish from their lairs.A dangerous sport in which anglers use their arms as bait to lure enormous catfish has become an internet sensation.The bizarre pastime of noodling takes the gentle practice of trout tickling to new heights with the fish biting on the human flesh.The noodlers find catfish in the holes where they live and insert their arms, which the fish latch on to with their teeth.It is then an often violent battle to bring the fish, which can weigh up to 60lbs, to the surface.The fight often leaves noodlers with injuries when their arms are cut, and can be fatal if they take on a fish that is too big.It happens during the spawning season in the U.S. and other parts of the world and has been banned in some places.Pictures and videos of the spectacle are big hits on the internet and proud noodlers are keen to pose with their catches that are usually flathead catfish.Hmmmm.....Nothing new here ,every poacher knows this.Read and see the full story here.
