The News Thread

[hectorberlioz]

This thread is exclusively for discussion of the news...from around the world. If you have an interesting news links, this is the place for it.

[I plan on posting a nice 'news bundle' every day I can, emphasis on unique news.]

[Mari]

Can I also just tell the story I read, but can't seem to find online?
If so: in Italia a rich business man was sueing the parents of the boy he killed when he hit the boy, because the boys body damaged the car... He eventually gave up on the lawsuit...
Perhaps you should also start a thread on slimebags.

[sisterandcousinandaunt]

My contribution.

A picture of me. I'm in the top picture.
http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/dehome

[Rían]

Originally Posted by sisterandcousinandaunt

My contribution.

A picture of me. I'm in the top picture.
http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/dehome

The one with only the hands?

You sneeky!

[sisterandcousinandaunt]

More important news.
http://www.philly.com/philly/hp/news...gh_school.html

[hectorberlioz]

Abe Lincoln: Atheist, agnostic, freethinker, levitating spiritualist, Baptist, Presbyterian, and Catholic?...read Andrew Ferguson's piece.

In the early 1900s, the California guru Paramahansa Yogananda announced that Lincoln had once been a yogi in the Himalayas.

Yikes

[Insidious Rex]

Well this thread seems to have devolved into The News of The Weird.

Officials of Hyde Park Baptist Church in Austin, Texas, initially agreed to host the annual multi-denominational Austin Area Interreligious Ministries Thanksgiving celebration last year, but abruptly canceled when they came to realize that Muslims might actually pray there. Under criticism, the church said that it "hopes" the religious community "will ... be tolerant of our church's beliefs" that necessitated the decision.

[Mari]

You look, err... lovely! You are pro-Obama then?

[sisterandcousinandaunt]

Originally Posted by Mari

You look, err... lovely! You are pro-Obama then?

No. I'm undecided, which is a new experience for me. But he was a very charismatic and powerful speaker.

[Mari]

"I have a dream!"... oh, wait, that was someone else...

[sisterandcousinandaunt]

Originally Posted by Mari

"I have a dream!"... oh, wait, that was someone else...

Not by much.

There were probably more than 20,000 people there. The entire population of the state is about 853,500 with about 600,000 registered voters. The black youth turnout runs about 8%. If half the people in that square vote in the primary for Obama, it'll mark a COMPLETE change in the electoral math for every race in the state. That's what he said. They have the power. If he can convince people to actually take their power back (from the few dozen, no lie, of us who right now make all the decisions) he could completely transform the political landscape.

That's the exciting possibility he raises.

[Mari]

I don't understand math, but that sounds convincing.
I wish our politicians were more sensible and actually had goals that they didn't steal from each other because the public liked it. They are all the same.
I'm really looking forward to seeing who America will choose and what it will mean for the rest of the world. I also wonder if the whole "axis of evil" thing will be revoked.
I believe that in many democratic countries the whole political system could change IF more people would vote and IF there were more people coming forward with sensible ideas.

[hectorberlioz]

American Politics

The Candidates

Romney
All the Republican nominees(Ana Marie Cox, Time), with the exception of Tancredo, seem to intensely dislike Mitt Romney. And now, George W. Bush (Robert Novak, Chicago Sun Times orginally) has expressed his chagrin at the prospect of Romney as the GOP nominee.

Mitt Romney, the candidate who seems to be uniting his Republican rivals almost as much as Hillary Clinton. "The degree to which campaigns' personal dislike for Mitt Romney has played a part in this campaign cannot be underestimated," says an adviser to one of those rival campaigns.

• Romney's "turnaround" challenged...

McCain
Romney is the "economy" conservative, but McCain is getting all the juice...James Pethokoukis, U.S. News.

Huckabee
Is Huck keeping Romney down or McCain down?...Michael Medved,Townhall.com

Clinton
Opinion of why Hillary Haters hate Hillary so much...Stanley Fish, NY Times
(where do we start? where do we stop?!)

Obama
An analysis of what tomorrow ("Tsunami Tuesday") holds for Barack Obama...John Nichols, The Nation

Other News...

NY Philharmonic plays in North Korea...music critic David Hurwitz opines.

Kidney stealing in India...BBC NEWS (yikes)

(sorry for the shortage on world news...my eyes are getting too droopy to read any more stories...)

[The Gaffer]

Some local news for you:

The media frenzy around political donations and sleaze:
- Labour leader gets reported to the public prosecutor for not declaring a £900 donation, in spite of receiving written advice that she didn't need to:
http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/poli...39-.3742525.jp

- Meanwhile, MPs continue to employ their wives, children, etc with taxpayers' money, and there isn't a damn thing we can do about it, even when they clearly don't even do any work:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7212990.stm:

[hectorberlioz]

This is just plain dumb: Heather Mills is going to represent herself in court and crossexamine Paul McCartney? http://business.timesonline.co.uk/to...cle3345963.ece

Celebrities are weird...

[brownjenkins]

That's insane!

They really should have a cap on divorce settlements. I'm all for people getting their due, but when it comes down to arguments of how many tens of millions one should get, it's just plain ubsurd.

[hectorberlioz]

You really have to wonder where Heather Mills' heart is...and her brain as well. Seriously, how can you make someone you were married to go through this kindof madness? It wasn't a particularly horrible breakup, after all...

[The Gaffer]

Originally Posted by hectorberlioz

It wasn't a particularly horrible breakup, after all...

Apart from the accusations of substance abuse, verbal and physical assaults, no it wasn't.

Never marry a Beatle.

It's one of my maxims in life.

Archbishop of Canterbury gets himself into hot water; Gaffer gets hot under the collar at the avalanche of knee-jerk hogwash that pours out of all media outlets:

The story:
Sharia law "unavoidable" in UK

The backlash:
"Astoundingly, he does not seem to understand that this country is being targeted by a pincer movement of terrorism and cultural takeover"
Never mind, they are all mutants (though it doesn't seem to matter that this was standard practice amongst our upper classes for a long time)

What he actually said was that we are ALREADY DOING THIS (e.g. in the area of mortgages: apparently there are rules under Sharia about lending of money which the banks have accommodated so that people can get a mortgage) and that we should have a REASONED DEBATE about where it's appropriate etc.

Clearly, a vain hope. Poor bloke.

"The prevailing attitude...was one of heavy disagreement with a number of things which the [speaker] had not said"

[sisterandcousinandaunt]

Allow the president to invade a neighboring nation, whenever he shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion, and you allow him to do so whenever he may choose to say he deems it necessary for such a purpose - and you allow him to make war at pleasure.
Abraham Lincoln

America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.
Abraham Lincoln

There's a man who got it.

[Mari]

We had our very first divorce convention last weekend here in the Netherlands. Apparently it was well attended. There were also workshops on how to keep a divorce as clean and nice as possible. Perhaps Mrs. Mills should have attended. At least she can afford the entrance fee with what she already owns...