Monthly Archives: April 2009
Cafferty: Saudi Judge Refuses To Annul 8-Year-Old’s Marriage For 2nd Time
Outrage story of the week: Comes courtesy of Saudi Arabia another one of our allies in the Middle East.
A judge has refused for the 2nd time to annul a marriage between an 8-year-old girl and a 47-year-old man. This same judge rejected a petition last December from the girl’s mother. Who was trying to get a divorce for her 8-year-old daughter. A relative of the girl tells CNN, that the Saudi Judge is standing by his earlier verdict and that the girl can petition the court once she reaches puberty.
The mother’s lawyer said it was the 8-year-olds father who arranged this marriage to settle his debts with the man. The judge required the man to sign a pledge that he wouldn’t have sex with the girl until she reaches puberty.
Jack’s parting thoughts: Saudi Arabia the country that gave us most of the 9/11 high jackers. And a place where grown men can marry young children.
This has got to be the craziest thing I have ever heard. Truly disgusting and sickening!
Bad dog! No biscuit!
All cartoons are posted with the artists’ express permission to TPZoo.
Jack Ohman, Portland Oregonian
Hunted Almost To Extinction – Blue Whales
National Geographic looks at Blue Whales. The Blue Whale use to number around 300,000, now whalers have reduced that number to around 10,000 today.
Globeandmail.com is reporting today that Blue Whales are returning to the British Columbia coast.
Tiny shrimp are luring some massive and rarely seen creatures back to the waters off B.C.’s coast.
Research soon to be published in the journal Marine Mammal Science shows blue whales are following their main food source, krill – a type of shrimp – back to the coasts of B.C., Alaska and Mexico’s Baja.
Contained…
All cartoons are posted with the artists’ express permission to TPZoo.
Nick Anderson, Houston Chronicle Editorial Cartoonist and Animation Artist.
For Nick’s animations, visit Nick Anderson: Animation Archives.
For Nick’s cartoons, visit Nick Anderson.
FDA Still Promoting Drugs In Our Milk…
Milk does not do the body good anymore, thanks to the FDA. Your milk on drugs video:
In the diary heartland, in an effort to produce more milk, it is being genetically engineered with bovine growth hormone. Ask yourself, is it safe? What impact does it have on the cows that are injected? Lastly, is it really necessary? All very valid questions we need to ask before we pour some over our cereal in the morning for ourselves or our children.
Farmers inject their cattle with BST and yield 10% more milk from the same herd. A single 500mg dose is given every 14 days, beginning the ninth week of lactation. It is injected into the tailhead or behind the shoulder area of the cow. The leading company in BST production is Monsanto.
The Monsanto scientists took a cow’s growth hormone and altered it with E. coli bacteria.
Monsanto marketed it under the brand name Posilac. It is also called recombinant bovine growth hormone (rbGH) or recombinant bovine somatotropin (rbST). But cows often get sick and die young.
Approved in the United States in 1993, by 2002 rbGH was used on 22% of the nation’s dairy cows. It is banned in the European Union, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan.
Bovine Growth Hormone (rBGH) has been reliably linked to health problems that cause extreme suffering to cows, including mastitis, a painful inflammation of the udder.
In scientific and public health terms, data continues to pile up that significantly increased levels of the human growth hormone factor IGF-1 in genetically engineered milk and dairy products constitute a serious human health risk for increased breast and colon cancer. In addition, scientific studies have recently been brought to the attention of the World Health Organization that injecting mammals with genetically engineered growth hormones very likely increases their susceptibility to deadly, incurable brain-wasting diseases such as BSE, commonly known as Mad Cow Disease, or its human variant, Creutzfeld-Jakob Disease.
Through the looking glass..
Here’s what Matt Davies had to say about this cartoon:
I railed against this in my scribbles aimed at the previous administration, but I don’t care which president is doing it. The Obama administration insists on defending warrantless wiretaps even though they are an illegal, extra-Constitutional activity. The Obama White House is also continuing in the Bush tradition of citing risk to state secrets as a reason to foot-drag on allowing war prisoners the rit of habeus corpus. Gitmo is supposed to close but we have an equally strange legal black hole operating in Bagram, Iraq. These prisoners are all bad guys, the refrain goes. How is anyone supposed to know, if no charges are filed? Trust? The Government? Are you nuts?
All cartoons are posted with the artists’ express permission to TPZoo.
Matt Davies, NY Journal News
Right-Winger Thanks Bush for Somali Rescue
Well, didn’t you just know this was coming?
Andy Martin thanks President George W. Bush for rescuing the U.S. ship captain held hostage by Somali pirates
Obama’s “Somali” response sent a message of weakness to our enemies, says Martin
Liberal media again distort the true significance of the rescue [Ed. Did this guy ever hear of a period?]
(NEW YORK)(April 13, 2009) I don’t often have good things to say about former President George W. Bush. But today I want to thank him for the rescue of Captain Richard Phillips, held hostage by Somali criminals and rescued by the U. S. Navy.
The captain was rescued by George W. Bush’s Navy, not Barack Obama’s Navy.
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That is why today I am alone in all of America’s media in singing the praises of President George W. Bush. He rescued Captain Phillips.
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Well, Obama “proved” himself all right. He proved he is an uncertain and unsteady hand on the tiller.
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Barack Obama proved he is the new Jimmy Carter.
Even though Obama has increased the size of the defense budget, it is not enough for these neocons. And the whole Obama Is a Muslim and Not An American Citizen is old and tired. Sorry, fellas, nobody is buying what you’re selling.
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A joke and a smile, let’s start the day – Open Thread
HT: www.alcoholichumor.com
One Wish
Two Irishmen were adrift in a life boat following a dramatic escape from
a burning freighter. While rummaging through the boat’s provisions, one
of the men stumbled across an old lamp. Secretly hoping that a genie
would appear, he rubbed the lamp vigorously. To the amazement of the
castaways, a genie came forth. This particular genie, however, stated
that he could only deliver one wish, not the standard three.
Without giving much thought to the matter the man blurted out, “Make the
entire ocean into beer!”
The genie clapped his hands with a deafening crash, and immediately the
entire sea turned into the finest brew ever sampled by mortals.
Simultaneously, the genie vanished. Only the gentle lapping of beer on
the hull broke the stillness as the men considered their circumstances.
One man looked disgustedly at the other whose wish had been granted.
After a long, tension filled moment, he spoke: “Nice going idiot! Now
we’re going to have to piss in the boat.”
Breaking News: Judges Have Ruled Al Franken Is Minnesota’s Senate Winner
Finally! This is great news. A three judge panel in Minnesota has just declared that Al Franken is the Winner of the U.S. Senate Seat.
Paul Krugman Points Out Republican Duplicity On Military Spending
Paul Krugman says, “Watching Republican Congressmen saying but, this will cost jobs. The very same Republican Congressmen who were denouncing the Stimulus Plan saying, government spending never creates jobs. But, cutting defense spending costs jobs? It’s wonderful.”
Brit Hume Doesn’t Say Anything Nice About The Obama’s New Puppy
Senator Ted Kennedy gave the Obama family a 6 month old Portuguese Water Dog. The girls have named him Bo. Brit Hume said, “He is not my type of dog, I like the name but it doesn’t fit such a girly dog.”
What is the best car you ever owned?
What made it the best car you ever owned? Mine would have to be my Nissan Altima. I owned it for 10 years and only had to replace one sensor. It was a fun car to drive and I loved the color, Midnight Blue. I passed mine on to my daughter.
Filing old stuff – Open Thread
“If you file your waste-paper basket for fifty years, you have a public library.” Tony Benn
I am filing very old papers. And I found so many things I didn’t know I possess, do I need them now or don’t I…? Are you keeping or tossing stuff? Tell me about your ventures into your past.
And watch out, there will be new posts coming in below this.
Black Money…International Bribery…In An Invisible World
Black Money – Part 1
International bribery. It’s a trillion dollars a year, with corporations on one side, heads of state on the other. And it thrives in an invisible world.
Black Money – Part 2
Interviews:
Mark Pieth - A Swiss prosecutor and chair of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) Working Group on Bribery, he was an early ally of the United States in pressing Europe to ratify a treaty criminalizing international bribery.
Mark Mendelsohn - He is the chief prosecutor for international bribery at the U.S. Justice Department, which has more than 100 cases under investigation and has collected almost $1.5 billion in fines and penalties in the past two years.
David Leigh - He is The Guardian newspaper reporter who broke the story of alleged secret payments by BAE to members of the Saudi royal family under the Al Yamamah contract.
Wrong then…wrong now
All cartoons are posted with the artists’ express permission to TPZoo.
Paul Jamiol, Jamiol’s World
Captain Phillips rescued!
The captain of the Maersk Alabama was freed Sunday after being held captive since Wednesday by pirates off the coast of Somalia, a senior U.S. official with knowledge of the situation told CNN.
The official said Capt. Richard Phillips is uninjured and in good condition, and that three of the four pirates were killed. The fourth pirate is in custody. Phillips was taken aboard the USS Bainbridge, a nearby naval warship.
From: www.somali-pirate.com
The Somali Pirates
Johann Hari’s story about Somalia and the background of the Piracy is making the rounds and rightly so. Somalia is the ultimate failed state and it’s people suffers terribly. And yes, Europeans have taken advantage of the situation to rob the Somalis of their fish and dump waste, including nuclear material, in Somali waters.
I doubt, however, if we should define the acts of piracy as they occur now as self-defense. It is not the Somali fishermen who profit from the buccaneering, anymore. They may have been initially, but
The BBC’s Mohamed Olad Hassan in Somalia says many of the pirates are former fishermen, who began by attacking ships they argued were “illegally threatening or destroying” their business.
“Businessmen and former fighters for the Somali warlords moved in when they saw how lucrative it could be. The pirates and their backers tend to split the ransom money 50-50,” he says.(read more)
The bosses are found to be elsewhere, too. The profits from the piracy off the Somali Coast, some $ 20 million last year, are going to people who are increasingly not based in Somalia anymore.
While small gangs of armed men riding in fast skiffs are the dramatic face of piracy, these men are just the foot soldiers of sophisticated criminal enterprises in which major infrastructure is land-based. The most successful pirates—those with the weapons and intelligence to pull off attacks on supertankers hundreds of miles from land—are employed by wealthy criminal bosses, many of them expatriates, and draw on information provided by paid sources inside key Kenyan maritime agencies.
[...]
Omar described pirate networks as something akin to the West’s mafia. Resources are concentrated in the hands of a few senior bosses, each employing “capos” commanding bands of low-ranking pirates. The capos, Omar said, are former Somali army soldiers from before the civil war, when Somali troops trained in the Soviet Union. The capos and their subordinates operate from pirate enclaves in northern Somalia, especially in the town of Eyl.
(read more)
And they reinvest in drug trafficking.
Somali pirates are investing heavily in trafficking the narcotic khat, along with other businesses, as they seek to spend big profits from ransom payments after months of attacks.Maritime officials say at least 26 ships have been hijacked off the coast of the Horn of Africa country so far this year.Most of them brought ransoms of at least $10,000, and in some cases much more. A lot of that money is now in the hands of pirates in the semi-autonomous northern region of Puntland.
Siyad Mohamed and his gang recently shared a $750,000 ransom after releasing a German ship they seized in May. Mohamed said they decided to invest in trafficking khat, a mild narcotic leaf that is very popular in the region. (read more)
To liken the Somali Pirates to Robin Hood is, in my opinion, a misinterpretation. Many organisations who are now undoubtedly criminal have their roots in social injustice. Take the very Mafia, which may well be involved in the dumping of toxic waste into Samali coastal waters. There are stories about how they were designed to protect the Sicilian peasants as far back as the Middle Ages and the Catalan marauders. The real origin is more likely later, but they still had lots of support by the people they purportedly protected from an unloved and alien aristocracy. Both, the Somali pirates and the Mafia, however, profited from weak or nonexisting governments. In the end there is nothing romantic about either of the two, they’re just criminals.
And the Somali people will continue to suffer in a failed state, which will continue to fail as long as criminals profit so nicely from the failure.
Free Clinics Overloaded – Trying To Fill The Void
The number of uninsured has grown to approximately 50 million. Some of the uninsured are working two or three jobs, many are self-employed and that doesn’t leave them much time to become active in politics. Who ever heard of an altruistic politician? Not I. Consequently, what is the likelihood of a Congressman helping the uninsured, when there is no gain or benefit for him? They are easily lured by large insurance companies bending over backwards to line their pockets, send them on extravagant junkets, and help them get re-elected. Not much of a fair competition, since we can’t clone Dennis Kucinich. Meanwhile, free clinics are doing the best they can to fill the medical void.
The clinic provides free medical and dental services and medicine for the working poor – people who have no insurance but earn too much to qualify for federal or state programs.
More Americans losing their jobs and health insurance are turning to volunteer-run free clinics and government-funded community health centers for free or low-cost medical care. The safety net is being strained as demand grows and budgets shrink.
For every 1 percentage point rise in unemployment, the number of uninsured people increases by 1.1 million, according to Families USA, a health-reform advocacy group. The U.S. unemployment rate is 8.5%.
Community health centers are funded by states and the federal government and provide services to the poor, regardless of insurance. Patients receive free services or pay on a sliding scale based on their income.
Takin’ out da gahbage
All cartoons are posted with the artists’ express permission to TPZoo.
Jeff Danziger, Syndicated Political Cartoonist
One (wo)man, one vote! Fogeddaboudid..
All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others (G.Orwell)
Across the Pond – The Sunday Papers
It’s Easter and up to now political news is slow here in the old world. The British are wallowing in their newest scandal. In a time where political smear campaigns are slowly going out of fashion Damian McBride an aide to Britains Prime Minster Gordon Brown and a Karl Rove disciple, it seems, didn’t get it and sent out a few e-mails intending to start one against Tory leaders.
The ideas contained in the email include spreading several false rumours: that David Cameron had an embarrassing medical condition; that George Osborne took drugs with a prostitute – an old allegation in the public domain which Osborne has flatly denied; allegations of a sexual nature about the Tory backbencher Nadine Dorries, which she vehemently denies and has consulted her lawyers about; and about a Tory MP allegedly getting publicity for a firm run by his partner. There is no evidence that any of the claims are true. (read more)
Now the fat’s in the fire and McBride out of his job. Carole Cadwalladr from the Guardian revisits old scandals and reminds us of the hypocrisy which is the real scandal behind the stories. Alan Watkins of The Independent points out the futility of smearing campaigns in an environment that wants change above all:
Recent experience of this country’s politics, for what it is worth, teaches us that a change in the weather takes place every 15 or 20 years. It was so with the elections of 1945, 1964, 1979 and, yes, 1997. People waved little Union Jack flags outside No 10, and it was a bright May morning. Even Mr Alastair Campbell could not control the weather, but he did supply both the flags and the cast of extras, who had been conscripted predominantly from the staff of Labour Party headquarters. (read more)
The Times celebrates the demise of a Rovian political career:
THERE will be few tears shed over the departure of Damian McBride from Downing Street – his talent for making enemies was almost equal to his talent for spin.
[...]
Minutes after McBride’s resignation, Paul Staines, the political blogger who first obtained the e-mails and is a long-standing critic of McBride’s modus operandi, posted a simple message on his website: “Mission accomplished.” (read more)
McBride’s worries will most probably not be over with his resignation, says the Daily Mail and The Telegraph calls him a political assassin. The tabloid The Sun has other fish to fry. When it comes to smear campaigns, they’re the tops and you really don’t want to read stories like this one.
Der Spiegel from Germany takes a look back on predictions about the economy. So let’s have a small Easter Quiz who said this?
“There will probably be some bank failures. There are some small … banks that have heavily invested in real estate in locales where prices have fallen. Among the largest banks, the capital ratios remain good, and I don’t expect any serious problems among the larger banks.” (go see)February 28, 2008
And this?
“The current financial crisis in the US is likely to be judged in retrospect as the most wrenching since the end of the Second World War.”March 17, 2008 (look who’s talking)
There is really not much going on and, to be honest, I like some calm too. For those among you, who’d like to do some more background reading I recommend Spiegel’s interview with Ahmadinejad and Nicholas Burns the former Iran negotiator.
I wish you all a very nice Easter weekend, some sun and warm weather and lots of nice things to eat. Take care.
~EV
I Enjoy Cuttin’ Stuff Up
Still I am gonna roast mine with the bone in as it should be.
Happy Easter! – Open Thread
Happy Easter to All! Enjoy yourselves and I hope a few sunrays and some warm weather will brighten your day.
Saturday Night Cesspool Party
If you people on combo septic and well systems ever wondered where your drinking water comes from, here’s the picture:
How Refreshing!
Now’s the time to get really gross! It’s cesspool time!
