'We'll work to bring all Iranian Jews'

The Jewish Agency is working hard to bring bring all of Iran's remaining 25,000 Jews to Israel, an official told The Jerusalem Post as 40 immigrants landed at Ben-Gurion International Airport on Tuesday afternoon.

An Iranian immigrant hugs her relative after arriving in Ben Gurion Airport, Tuesday.
Photo: AP

Tuesday's arrival is the largest-ever single group of Iranian immigrants brought by the agency to start new lives in a country that their now-former president has vowed to wipe off the face of the earth.

The Jews of Iran were "starting to feel the earth burn beneath their feet" in a growing atmosphere of anti-Semitism, said Yossi Shraga, director of Middle East immigration at the Jewish Agency.

The media has not been allowed to publish the name of a third country from which the immigrants arrived at the airport, nor the delicate and complex process by which the group was gathered and processed for aliya.

Copyright

Egypt to copyright pyramids

8 hours ago

CAIRO (AFP) — In a potential blow to themed resorts from Vegas to Tokyo, Egypt is to pass a law requiring payment of royalties whenever its ancient monuments, from the pyramids to the sphinx, are reproduced.

Zahi Hawass, the charismatic and controversial head of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, told AFP on Tuesday that the move was necessary to pay for the upkeep of the country's thousands of pharaonic sites.

"The new law will completely prohibit the duplication of historic Egyptian monuments which the Supreme Council of Antiquities considers 100-percent copies," he said.

"If the law is passed then it will be applied in all countries of the world so that we can protect our interests," Hawass said.

He said that a ministerial committee had already agreed on the law which should be passed in the next parliamentary session, while insisting the move would not hurt Egyptian artisans.

"It is Egypt's right to be the only copyright owner for these monuments in order to benefit financially so we can restore, preserve and protect Egyptian monuments."

Israel Claims Copyright on Ten Commandments. May Sue Vatican

ATICAN CITY (CNS)-- The Vatican has issued a set of "Ten Commandments" for drivers, saying motor vehicles can be an "occasion of sin."

A document titled "Guidelines for the Pastoral Care of the Road" said driving can unleash road rage and other immoral behavior, including excess speed, reckless passing, cursing and just plain rudeness.

"Cars tend to bring out the 'primitive' side of human beings, thereby producing rather unpleasant results," the document said.

The warning about driving came in the first part of the 59-page instruction, released June 19 by the Pontifical Council for Migrants and Travelers.

The document said drivers need to remember that even when there is no one sitting next to them, they are never alone.

Santa and Xmas lights

NORAD Santa Tracker

Obama vs Sharpton

Jesse Jackson can still get a crowd going—when he can find one. He appeared at a Los Angeles restaurant this fall, primed to discuss school dropout rates and home foreclosures. But only eight people showed up, mostly reporters. It's no longer Reverend Jackson's day in the sun, or any other black leader's whose name isn't Barack Obama. So where does that leave the leaders to whom black America has long turned in times of crisis—Jackson, and the Revs. Andrew Young and Al Sharpton? At times they can seem like jealous, cranky old men, as in December when Young suggested Bill Clinton was "every bit as black as Barack." Or when Jackson said Obama was "acting white'' by skipping a giant rally for the Jena Six.

But it's not just jealousy. They are also frustrated by mainstream voters' eager embrace of an African-American raised without a traditional African-American experience—who's not, in other words, an "angry black man." Reared in Hawaii by white grandparents, Obama didn't have a family history of segregation and Jim Crow laws. And sources close to all three reverends say the men are hurt that Obama hasn't sought their advice, even privately. (Still, Jackson has endorsed Obama.) The leaders appreciate Obama's dilemma. They know he'd lose many white voters if he reached out to leaders known primarily for advocating black issues. Obama's refrain is that there is just one America. It may be what America wants to hear—but the three lions of the old school couldn't disagree more.

Oh? and it might also matter that Sharpton is a hood. Jackson has a so so record .. complicated by his posturing after Dr. King's death and huge profiteering he has done based on his civil rights record. Andy Young .. well it would be easier to comment on Andy if much of his loife for the last 30 years had been spent on Black rathyer than perosnal issues.

When I read this sort of thing I wonder how it is that the media have anointed Sharpton as a leader? Does it make them better to see the Black commujnity as led by a gangster?

BTW, Jackson's son has endorsed Obama and unlike these three wise men, BO has worked on the streets for Black needs for many years. When dio Al Sharpton last get dirt under his pedicured nails?


Jews for Obama: "We are offering the yarmulkes for $5 each plus a flat fee of $5 per order to pay for shipping. This will cover the costs of our custom order. If you order 15 or more yarmulkes (orders of $75 or more), we will provide free shipping. (UPDATE: If your order is to be shipped outside the United States, total cost will vary based on the price of international postage.)"

One way that BO differs from these "leaders" is that he .. like Dr. King, is a leader recognized by all Americans. Sharpton made it pretty clear that non Blacks weren't his porblem. Andy Young's anti Israel stands hardly helped Jews respect him. Jesse ,,, Jesse has grwon and he desrves credit for that trip. BUT .. Obama appears to be the real thing. A BLACK man who can lead ALL America.

Who woulda thunk? Dr. King woulda thunk!

Alternative Holiday Decorations

Jasmina Tešanović: Christmas in Serbia

Posted by Xeni Jardin, December 24, 2007 8:32 AM | permalink

(Essay by Jasmina Tešanović, photoshop by Oibibio)

Since December 20th, 2007, ever-smaller Serbia is surrounded by the ever-larger European Union. Nine countries have joined - bringing to 24 the number of nations to have abolished internal passport controls.

The latest wave of members includes eight former communist states, and Malta.

Switzerland will become the 25th Schengen country when it joins next year.

The enlarged free-travel area encompasses some 400 million people - 30 percent more than the population of the U.S.

This wall is called Schengen, imposed against the Others in the region who will not comply with the standards emanating from Brussels. Every state around Serbia has come to make its peace, more or less, with the huge fact of European soft-power. Serbs do not comply.

Spain's Holiday Cry: Down With Santa!

Monday, Dec. 24, 2007 By LISA ABEND AND GEOFF PINGREE/MADRID

A stencil spotted on the streets of Madrid suggests a more sinister Santa Claus.

The latest battle in the war on globalization came Friday morning in Madrid, when a handful of demonstrators staged a protest outside the Finnish embassy. Their target was a particular northern Scandinavian toy factory, which they see as an example of the dark side of globalization. Brandishing placards, the protesters' made their message clear: "We're with the Kings!" they chanted. "Down with Santa!"

Meanwhile, nearer to home ...

BREMERTON, Wash. (AP) — Art Conrad has an issue with the commercialism of Christmas, and his protest has gone way beyond just shunning the malls or turning off his television.

The Bremerton resident nailed Santa Claus to a 15-foot crucifix in front of his house.

"Santa has been perverted from who he started out to be," Conrad said. "Now he's the person being used by corporations to get us to buy more stuff."

Happy friggin' holidays from Clarence Thomas

Deck the halls with clinical depression

This week, Associate Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas told an audience at Chapman University in California that he often wishes he could quit the bench, but is so inspired by injured soldiers returning from Iraq that he stays. He added that he doesn't really "like" his job, saying, "There's no money in it, no privacy, no big houses, and from an ego standpoint, it does nothing for me."

As you might expect, Justice Thomas bring that sort of delightful cheer to his own holiday newsletter. Are you on the mailing list?

posted by insider at 2:48 PM 0 comments links to this post
Save the Whales

It's a scene that brings laughter and cheers from visitors to a Japanese aquarium - two white beluga whales wearing Santa hats.


But environmentalists are saddened by the sight of what they say is the final humiliation for the whale in a country that hunts them down with harpoons.


The beluga whales have been fitted out with the cute Santa hats to entertain the crowds at the Hakkeijima Sea Paradise on Yokohama Island.


"While whales are being used for entertainment in Japan, the Japanese fleet is subjecting whales to a cruel death in the Southern Ocean," said Mr Darren Kindleysides, a Sydney-based campaigner for the International Fund for Wildlife.

UNICEF photo of the year

The American photographer Stephanie Sinclair is the winner of the international photo competition “UNICEF Photo of the Year”. Her photo shows a wedding couple in Afghanistan who could not be more opposite.

The groom, Mohammed, looks much older than his 40 years. The bride, Ghulam, is still a child; she just turned 11.

Republicans Seek Serial Apologies

Rush responds to Huck peace offering

Rush Limbaugh — responding to Mike Huckabee's peace offering — said today that he doesn't need to talk with the former Arkansas governor.

"I saw his comments and accept them as honest, sincere and genuine," Limbaugh wrote in an e-mail.

Still, the conservative talk show host indicated his continued displeasure at the anonymous remarks Thursday from a Huckabee backer suggesting he takes his cues from the "D.C./Manhattan chattering class" that sparked this conflagration.

"What was somewhat stunning about all this is that NO ONE in the GOP field, including advisers and staff, could possibly misread my 19-plus-year career the way Gov. Huckabee's D.C. supporter did," Limbaugh said. "Whoever said those things was essentially repeating the Democrat mantra of all these years: that I am just an entertainer, not an independent thinker, part of the Wall Street/D.C. axis. If it was someone on Gov. Huckabee's staff or support team, it was just silly, uninformed and thus curious."

Limbaugh, the most listened-to talk show host in America and an influential voice in the conservative constellation, devoted part of his show Friday to defending himself against the charges.

"I'm part of the Cape Girardeau-Middle America axis," Limbaugh said on the program, alluding to his Missouri hometown.

He also struck back, calling the attacks "Clintonian" and accused Huckabee's campaign of "trying to dumb down conservatism in order to get it to conform with his record."

In his e-mail, Limbaugh kept it up.

"Gov. Huckabee's campaign is engaged in identity politics at this moment, so I understand his adviser's/supporter's intent to put the focus on me rather than the substance of my commentary," he tweaked.

And as for Huckabee's plea for Limbaugh to get in touch, the man behind the golden EIB microphone said this: [T]here are people on his Arkansas staff who know full well how to reach me and they have not. But that is not necessary to me. We're not playing in a kindergarten sandbox here. We are all presumably adults."

After watching Mitt Romney accuse Mike Huckabee of inviting questions about his evangelical Christian faith on the Fox News Channel yesterday, God-o-Meter wondered whether the Romney camp really had accepted Huckabee's apology for asking whether Mormons believe that Jesus and the devil are brothers. The Romney campaign issued a statement saying it did accept the apology on Wednesday. But a senior Romney advisor tells God-o-Meter that he doesn't "believe Huck is innocent in bringing it up."

"He has a life-long reputation of being thin-skinned when attacked and vindictive in his retribution," the advisor tells GOM via email. "He has no $ to respond to our contrast ads so he uses the one weapon he has.... a theology degree. If he doesn’t know about the tenets of Mormonism then his degree isn’t worth much."

Having established that they both worship something that supports radical religion, these two are moving on to ask whether God will help them run the country. At least one assume that is the issue since nether has much foreign poiklcy experience.

On Friday, Huckabee attempted to address concerns that he lacked knowledge and gravitas in international affairs by penning a lengthy article detailing his world views for the journal Foreign Affairs. In the piece, the former Arkansas Governor offered relatively non-specific takes on Iraq, Iran, and other foreign policy hotspots. But the most noteworthy takes were criticisms of President Bush.

"American foreign policy needs to change its tone and attitude, open up, and reach out," Huckabee said. "The Bush administration's arrogant bunker mentality has been counterproductive at home and abroad. My administration will recognize that the United States' main fight today does not pit us against the world but pits the world against the terrorists."

During an appearance on Meet the Press today, Mitt Romney took another swipe at his chief primary opponent,

"That's an insult to the president and Mike Huckabee should apologize to the president," Romney said when read Huckabee's statement by moderator Tim Russert. "To say that the president is arrogant and has a bunker mentality, that's when he went over the line."

The attack underscores a two-prong approach for the former Massachusetts Governor. While appealing to more hawkish, neoconservative Republican voters, Romney is also seeking to reinforce that Huckabee is inexperienced and weak on foreign policy.

Odd, bu it seems to me that Mr. Romney's major foreign experience was as a Mormon missionary. Is God on his side?

Here is the beginning of my post. And here is the rest of it.

Saddam's Yacht 4 Sale

Saddam's yacht: the perfect holiday gift

Posted Dec 22nd 2007 3:23PM by Joshua Topolsky
Filed under: Transportation

Want to get something really special for someone this holiday season? Something that can't be picked up in your local Sharper Image or Hot Topic? How about the late Saddam Hussein's 269-foot mega-yacht: the "Qaddisat Saddam?" For the low entry fee of $34 million, you'll get you a massive gold, silver, and marble adorned ship replete with Arabesque arches, fountains, dining and silverware for 200, a clinic with a surgical suite, a helipad, 14 cabins, plus bunk space for 35 crew members (or servants, if you will), and a secret passageway to an escape boat and sub-pod (in case you too are paralyzed by fear of assassination attempts). The sellers have thoughtfully renamed the craft the "Ocean Breeze," but we're fairly confident that no matter what you call it, the overwhelming vibe of mustachioed dictator will be impossible to obscure. Check the read link for a thorough tour of the entire ship -- and make sure you have your credit card handy.

The Papacy Speaks Out on Judaism

'There is discrimination linked to the nature of the state. Israel says simply 'I am a Jewish state' and that creates discrimination with regard to non-Jews."

....devoted servant of the pope - Latin Patriarch and Catholic Archbishop of Jerusalem Michel Sabbah, since 1987 the highest Catholic prelate for Israel, Jordan, Cyprus and the West Bank and Gaza.

More on the pope's representive here.

Barbi in Diamonds

The world’s most expensive Barbie doll, designed by De Beers, is dressed in an evening gown decorated with 160 diamonds and she has complimentary gold jewelry and accessories.

“This Barbie was produced to mark the 40th anniversary in 1999 comes and was retailed at $85,000. Whilst if you think it is a too expensive deal to be done then you can eye 1959 Barbie No. 1 carrying a price tag of $8000,” according to Elite Choice.

This is one doll you may not want your kids to play with!

McCain

The Comeback Kid

McCain?

This would change everything. He is so ... un Bush! Imagine a remade Republican Party with the nutfringe back in its closet running against Obama or Billary?

This is a hard to imagine race. My guess it that Bush would be a non issue. The Dems would try to make an issue but I do not think it would stick Instead we would end up wiht a real debate between rational liberalism vs rational connservatism!

If McC does come back, is he electable? At 73??? That seems to me to be an issue in and of itself and the GOP isn;t exactly replete with credible VPs.

Does he have the dollars to campaign in the long run?

This would utterly change my scenario of Obama running as the true Christian. OTOH, an Obama/Clark ticket or Obama/Webb might turn McCain's cnadidacy to its own advnatge.

Another issue her emight be McC himself. While I admire the man, I am not sure he can govern. He does not have a natural coalition in the Reps.

Dawkins on the Road to Damascus

Dawkins to preach atheism to US

Maurice Chittenden and Roger Waite

RICHARD DAWKINS, the British scientist who has become the high priest of atheism, is launching a crusade in America to win new recruits to the church of nonbelievers.

He is to embark on a lecture tour of 2,000-seater halls in the Bible Belt and the Midwest in the wake of the presidential primary season, which reaches its climax in early February.

Dawkins, whose book The God Delusion has sold 1.5m copies in the English language, has teamed up with Robin Wight, the man behind some of Britain’s most memorable advertising campaigns, to make it respectable to admit to being an atheist.

No presidential candidate could hope to survive in the polls in America if he or she admitted to doubts about the existence of God.

Wight, who was behind the slogan “The future’s bright, the future’s Orange”, is helping to rebrand atheists in a less negative light.

Wight, 63, chairman and co-founder of the WCRS advertising agency said: “We need a different name.” Alternatives that have been considered on Dawkins’ internet forum include “brights”, “fact fighters”, “realists” and “the faithless”.

The American tour is being organised by a charitable foundation set up by Dawkins in the United States to push his agenda after a year-long struggle with the tax authorities. The campaign will go global in 2009 to mark the bicentenary of the birth of Charles Darwin and the 150th anniversary of his book, On the Origin of Species.

Dawkins, 66, the professor for public understanding of science at Oxford University, will release the paperback version of The God Delusion in the US early next year.

The scientist, who is married to his third wife, Lalla Ward, the actress who once played Dr Who’s sidekick Romana, expects a hostile reception in some places but claims there are as many atheists (20m) as any one religion in the US.

“They are not burning my books yet. It would be rather fun if they did,” he said last week.

Dawkins, who sometimes lectures in T-shirts bearing the slogan “Evolution � the greatest show on earth”, said: “America has a problem with evolution. There is an astonishing level of sheer ignorance fomented by religious prejudices.

“The Bible Belt is a lot less monolithic than it portrays itself. I have a feeling that there is rather a large groundswell of people who agree with me. I may be preaching to the choir but I think the choir is larger than many people realise.

“People thank me for speaking out. They are grateful that I articulate what they wish to say but can’t because they live there.”

The Dawkins Delusion

Here is a great YouTube video which pokes fun at the rhetoric around Dr. Richard Dawkins recent media blitz to promote his book, "The God Delusion" Dr. Dawkins is an evangelical atheist. Click on the image on the left to watch/listen.

He added: “We have the ‘Out’ campaign. We do see an analogy with gay rights. There are a lot of people in the closet in America.”

One convert is Dawkins’s daughter Juliet, who was sent by her mother to be, as Dawkins puts it, “indoctrinated” into the Catholic church. Friends of the family say she too is now an atheist.

Religious leaders in America dismissed Dawkins and his followers. The Rev David Cox, of the First Southern Methodist Church, Charleston, South Carolina said: “I would certainly like to protest. [Dawkins] is a tool of Satan, of the AntiChrist it sounds to me. All God-fearing people will be opposed to an atheist touring.”

From Huffington and Condi

Condi: 2007 A "Positive" Year For US Foreign Policy

Clinton says wife a 'world-class genius' - Yahoo! News

Clinton says wife a 'world-class genius' - Yahoo! News: "WOLFEBORO, N.H. - Former President Clinton says his wife is a 'world-class genius' when it comes to improving the lives of others.
ADVERTISEMENT

Clinton stuck mostly to familiar themes in two hour-long appearances Thursday, describing at length what he views as the nation's biggest challenges. Nearly 15 minutes into his first speech, he added almost as an afterthought that 'everything I'm saying here is my wife's position, not just mine.'

It was his third trip to New Hampshire in little more than a month, and the visit came the day before Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton was to return to the Granite State for two days of campaigning.

Calling the ability to help others the most important quality in a president, Clinton first compared the successes of his administration in creating jobs and other areas to the failures of the Bush administration before finally turning the focus to his wife, a New York senator.

'The reason she ought to be president, over and above her vision and her plans is that she has proven in every position she has ever had in life, whether it was in elected office or not, that she is a world-class genius in making positive changes in other people's lives,' he said.

Change vs. experience has been a theme of the Democratic presidential race, and"

Here is the beginning of my post. And here is the rest of it.

This is so sad. When Bill ran the first time, he/they tried to package HRC this way .. presenting her as the #1 candidate for the Supreme Court etc. In fact HRC may or may not be super bright but her career until Bill became Prexy was that of an Hiswife. She was a rainmaker, a deal broker with connections to the Gov.

I do NOT begrudge her this role. I believe in greece, graft and grismisch. If you do not lube the machine it will break down! Nor has anything I have seen smelled even faintly rotten about her time in that role and, as her Hubby says, she di use the position to make rain for the family group she worked with. Marian Wright Edelman is a very impressive leader and her association with HRC is a plus. STILL equating the rainmaker with a brilliant attorney is about as far out as her claiming BO is a muslim because he went to a "secular madrasah."

I did try to follow through and look into HRC's supposed legal talents. In fact the bulk of her work in the private domain was at best as a deal maker. She did not, as far as I can see, play a significant role in courtroom law or in legal reform. She might make a fine Justice of the Supreme Court but I sincerely doubt the ABA considered Ms. C as being on its short list.

The point is now Bill and Hill are back at painting themselves as superheroes. Vote for her and he will be back ..this time for free!!!!!!!!! Vote for her and one gets all of HIS connections and all of his baggage too I suppose. Bill and co. are trying to paint Mr. Obama with the faint bush of inexperience. Does rainmaker count as experience for HRC? If not she has her Senate record to hold up vs. his Senate record and record in Illinois as a senator and civil rights worker. Oh yeh, one of them was editor of the Harvard Law Review!

So some advice in the off chance Bill or Hill read SJ. Lay of the genous juice. I would be more impressed with Hillary's record without this hype.

Maureen Dowd's Comments:

Bill is staying up late strategizing and recasting her message and speeches. But he’s off his game on the trail, making clumsy mistakes like his remark — bound to be shot down by Poppy Bush — that Hillary would send 41 and 42 around the world to restore prestige lost by 43.

Hillary advisers noted that when Bill was asked by a supporter in South Carolina what his wife’s No. 1 priority would be, he replied: C’est moi! “The first thing she intends to do is to send me ...” he began.

He got so agitated with Charlie Rose — ranting that reporters were “stenographers” for Obama — that his aides tried to stop the interview.

He also got in the way of her message with stretchers about opposing the Iraq war from the start, and — in a slap at Obama — deciding not to run in ’88 because he lacked experience. Truth is, he didn’t run for fear of bimbo eruptions.

While making a speech in Iowa, The Associated Press’s Ron Fournier reported, Bill used the word “I” 94 times in 10 minutes, while mentioning “Hillary” just seven times. At a London fund-raiser, one Hillaryite said, it took him nearly half an hour to mention her.

As the Arkansas journalist Max Brantley told the Billary biographer Sally Bedell Smith, “He’s always evangelizing for the church of Bill.”

It’s hard to feel sorry for Hillary because the very logic of her campaign leads right to Bill. When she speaks of her “experience,” she is referring not to the Senate but to the White House, thereby making her campaign a plebiscite on the ’90s.

Running this way, she is essentially asking people to like her if they liked him. Whether she knows it or not, this is a coattails strategy. It’s almost as if she’s offering herself to Clinton supporters as the solution to the problem of the 22nd Amendment.

U.S. Soldiers Staged Mutiny Fearing They Would Commit Massacre in Iraq

U.S. Soldiers Staged Mutiny Fearing They Would Commit Massacre in Iraq: "A reporter from the Army Times has gone public giving details of how an army unit refused to carry out orders in Iraq following an IED attack which killed 5 members of their unit.

The members of Charlie 1-26, held a meeting and concluded that following the attack they could no longer function professionally and some members voiced concerns that their anger could set loose a massacre.

The story is being touted as one of the most remarkable of the entire Iraq war and appears in a major four-part series called Blood Brothers published in the Army Times."

Here is the beginning of my post. And here is the rest of it.

Toshiba Builds 100x Smaller Micro Nuclear Reactor

Toshiba Builds 100x Smaller Micro Nuclear Reactor: "Toshiba Builds 100x Smaller Micro Nuclear Reactor

Toshiba has developed a new class of micro size Nuclear Reactors that is designed to power individual apartment buildings or city blocks. The new reactor, which is only 20 feet by 6 feet, could change everything for small remote communities, small businesses or even a group of neighbors who are fed up with the power companies and want more control over their energy needs.

The 200 kilowatt Toshiba designed reactor is engineered to be fail-safe and totally automatic and will not overheat. Unlike traditional nuclear reactors the new micro reactor uses no control rods to initiate the reaction. The new revolutionary technology uses reservoirs of liquid lithium-6, an isotope that is effective at absorbing neutrons. The Lithium-6 reservoirs are connected to a vertical tube that fits into the reactor core. The whole whole process is self sustaining and can last for up to 40 years, producing electricity for only 5 cents per kilowatt hour, about half the cost of grid energy.

Toshiba expects to install the first reactor in Japan in 2008 and to begin marketing the new system in Europe and America in 2009."

Here is the beginning of my post. And here is the rest of it.

This seems to good to be true? What is the capital cost?

Neo-stalinism?

I have tended to think of world politics as divided between the Socialists, the Totalitarians and the Liberals. Of course I have been aware of corrupt societies ... from Louisiana to Brazil and I am aware that the totalitarian "people's" state of China is corrupt.

What I had never considered is the possibility that a novel form of government my emerge from the fusion of a post totalitarian state with Mafiosa. That seems, according to the following article from the Guardian (click on title of post, to be happening in Russia.

Am I wrong or is this a new form of government? In some ways the Russian system resembles any of many societies that have become ridden by powerful warlords (pre Mao China), or businesses dominating a weak democracy (much of Latin America). Obvioulsy many African S=states have been governed for some time by criminal gangs. What seems to me to be different here is the institutional scope. If the Guardian is correct, Putin alone is arguably wealthier than Gates. BUT, where our local celebrity heads one of many world corporations, Putin heads a government and nation with resources that make Microsoft seem puny. Why does this matter? It may not matter of Bush's sole mate were simply corrupt. It does matter if he and the entity formerly known as the KGB, has invented a new for of oligarchy, enforced by private eownbershio of vast resources and the government of a World Power.

I have no good name for this new thing, but given Stalin's origins as a thug I suggest neo-Stalinism. Unlike the original Stalinism, this is not a cult of the personality. Moreover, where Stalin built no institutional mechanisms for succession, the image here is of something akin t a corporate succession where the capital is controlled by very few. Combine this concept with modern State control of the media and classical use of secret police ... we may be seeing something new,

"According to Panfilova, the "randomised" corruption of the 1990s has given way to the "systemic and institutionalised corruption" of the Putin era. Members of Putin's cabinet personally control the most important sectors of the economy - oil, gas and defence. Medvedev is chairman of Gazprom; Sechin runs Rosneft; other ministers are chairmen of Russian railways, Aeroflot, a nuclear fuel giant and an energy transport enterprise.

Putin has created a new, more streamlined oligarchy, his critics say. "The crown jewels of the country's wealth have ended up in the hands of Putin's inner circle," Vladimir Rzyhkov - a former independent MP - wrote in Monday's Moscow Times.

Belkovsky - who published a book about Putin's finances last year, and who is the director of the National Strategic Institute, a Moscow thinktank - claims he is confident of his assessment of Putin's hidden wealth. "It's not a secret among the elites,' he said. "But please pay attention that Vladimir Vladimirovich [Putin] has never sued me."

Why is this posted here?

Scroll down for more...

Sting's Bedroom

Why is this posted here?

Sting, the rock star, and his wifey, have shown off their 18 room NY apartment. I guess this image is intended by the Daily Mail to show bad taste. I agree. I have no ssue with the velvet or with erotica. I am jealous of the locale and the 18 rooms. What does disturb ne is te two images/ These are works by Helmit Newton. This fellow works on a theme that I can only call flesh mongering. Don't get my intent wrong. I like the female body, I like erotic poses by women, hell even as a straight guy I even like gay photography. What turns me off ion Newton's work is the masochism.


Newton's work is simultaneously disgusting ad boring. Viewing his images is like leafing through a set of Buchenwald snaoshots without the engrained horror of reality. Like the snapshots of Hitler's gore, the only rationale for Newton is degradation. He has no creativity beyond some decision he muist f made at inbe time tio make a living by hyoinbg the near pornograophuc as art.. I can not bring a single Newton image to mind any more than I can the hundreds of poorly done porn shots I have seen leafing through the mags at Bulldog's News.

As for Sting, surely with his monry, he can find something better? Hmmm ... I wonder how erotic a Robert Mapplethorpe would be in (our) straight bedroom?

Actually, while writing tis piece I happened on a facinating site devoted to photography by gay photographers. Fascinating ideas!
Photography: Gay Male, Post-Stonewall

Man of the Yer

Am I the only person who sees the irony hyere?

Obesity

Slim Cher learns to live with daughter Chastity's growing weight problem

By CLEMMIE MOODIE - More by this author » Last updated at 08:03am on 20th December 2007

As the daughter of one of Hollywood's most surgically-enhanced stars, Chastity Bono long ago decided to take a very different approach to her own body.

Now, at last, it appears that Cher is learning to live with her daughter's more relaxed views about weight.

Chastity, who is thought to be around 18 stone, and her mother were spotted after enjoying lunch in the Hollywood sunshine.

"Cher and Chastity shared a really relaxed meal and both seemed on excellent form," said an onlooker.

"Mother and daughter are clearly very close as they spent mos

Marijuana ..Finally a Reason Not to

It has been very hard for anyone to find something really, really bad in hash. I guess this si porgress ..at elast of you know anyone who drags on enough joints every day t cf. with the obligate smokers.

Inhaled cannabis is more toxic than tobacco smoke

• 19 December 2007
• Jason Palmer
• Magazine issue 2635

Cannabis smokers beware: puff for puff, smoke from the plant contains significantly more chemicals and carcinogens than that from tobacco.

Cannabis smoke is well known to be more harmful to the lungs than tobacco, because smokers inhale cannabis one-third more deeply and hold it in their lungs for up to four times as long as cigarette smokers do. Yet while we have a list of more than 4000 chemicals and toxins present in tobacco smoke from dozens of studies, there is no comparable list for cannabis.

So David Moir of Health Canada and his colleagues set out to make a direct comparison, using machines that "smoke" the cigarettes and then collect and analyse the smoke. They found that directly inhaled cannabis smoke contained 20 times as much ammonia and five times as much hydrogen cyanide as tobacco smoke. Nitrogen oxides, known to affect the circulatory and immune systems, were ...