Wednesday, July 22, 2009

What About The News?

Washington
Hillary Clinton, The U.S. Secretary of State, said North Korea should not receive the attention it is seeking by launching missiles and likened Pyongyang's behaviour to that of unruly children. North Korea tested a nuclear device in May and fired seven ballistic missiles earlier this month in defiance of a UN resolution. "What we've seen is this constant demand for attention", Ms. Clinton, who is in India, said in an interview that aired yesterday on ABC's Good Morning America. "And maybe it's the mother in me or the experience that I've had with small children and unruly teenagers and people who are demanding attention - don't give it to them, they don't deserve it, they are acting out." Reuters.
Shades of Sonya Sotomayor...! Is it possible to recall this woman's appointment? Her experience as a mother and with unruly teenagers renders her capable of assessing the behaviour of an ideologically fascist, utterly power-deluded tyrant and his self-obsessed agenda for world recognition? Ignore the threat of nuclear armaments and long-range missiles tossed off like firecrackers? Ignore them, Ms. Clinton? And then? Back to the psychology-1 drawing board, Ms. Clinton.

London
A married Saudi princess who became pregnant during an affair with a British man has been given asylum after she claimed she could face the death penalty if she went home. A British court granted refugee status to the young woman, who is married to a member of the Saudi royal family, after she told the judge her adultery made her liable to death by stoning in Saudi Arabia, The Independent reported yesterday. A spokeswoman for the Home Office refused to confirm the report. According to the newspaper, the woman - who was granted anonymity by the court - is one of a few Saudi citizens who claim asylum in Britain but whose cases are not openly acknowledged by either government - Agence France-Presse.
Horrible instances of human-rights abuses, abysmal control of its citizens, refusal to acknowledge the legitimacy of other religions, viral and vicious customs practised by a society that victimizes its women. A country ruled by despots claiming primacy over Islam's most sacred religious sites, and which funds the operation of religious schools dedicated to teaching impressionable young Muslim men the nature of jihad. Britain quietly deals with these issues, unlike her outright condemnation of a democratic country and a nation dedicated to protecting Jews from the incendiary hatred of just those countries whose legendary misogyny and 'honour killings' still render them respectable.

Turkey
Two retired Turkish generals went on trial yesterday accused of planning to engineer an army coup in a case highlighting a power struggle over Islam's role in the EU-candidate country. They were among 56 arraigned on charges they plotted a campaign of bombings and assassinations to trigger a coup against Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, suspected of pursuing a secret Islamist agenda. Another 86 people, including army officers, lawyers and journalists, are already on trial accused of links to the shadowy right-wing group Ergenekon. The army, which has toppled four governments since 1960 but has seen its political influence reined in under EU-backed reforms, denies any link to the affair. - Reuters
The Turkish military has always aligned itself with secular politicians dedicated to ensuring that the country remained true to the vision of its modern founding father, Kemal Ataturk. The last fifteen years of Mustafa Kemal were dedicated to changing Turkey from a bastion of Islam into a secular nation state. He was determined to stop Islam's power to block the modernization of Turkey. From 1924 the Grand National Assembly passed legislation closing the Sufi orders and madrases, and replacing the Shariah with a modified version of the Swiss civil Code. Women were assured of equal rights with men in marriage, divorce and the inheritance of property, entered professions and offices. The real fear among progressives is that the Islamist party will turn modern Turkey back toward the Ottoman Empire at its decline. Those who conspire against their current Islamist government will suffer political imprisonment and psychic and ideological totalitarian-imposed impoverishment, if not death.

Berlin
Ten people are fighting for their lives and dozens more were injured after a 260-car pileup on a German autobahn caused by a thunderous downpour, police said. The accident, which happened late on Sunday on a 30-kilometre stretch of the A2 expressway near Braunschweig in northern Germany, was the worst in the road's history. More than 300 ambulances, fire engines and police cars rushed to the scene to tend to the 66 people injured in the crash, which was blamed on cars aquaplaning on puddles of water while a low sun dazzled drivers. Speed was also a factor. Traffic jams several kilometres long formed as cleanup crews worked to clear the mess. - Agence France-Presse.
Oh, speed was 'also a factor'. Who would've guessed that to be the case. Germany's famed autobahns which infamously, have no speed limits. Take it away boys! In the juvenile vernacular of North America, no word better describes this mess than 'duh!'

Rome
Audio excerpts from a purported exchange between Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian Prime Minister and a call girl aired yesterday on the website of the weekly L'Espresso. A male voice said to be Mr. Berlusconi says "I'm going to have a shower too ... So wait for me in the big bed if you finish first. A woman's voice, purportedly that of Patrizia D'Addario, replies, "Which big bed ... Putin's?" referring to Vladimir Putin, the Russian President. "Putin's", the male voice says. Mrs. D'Addario has said Mr. Berlusconi, 72, has a bed Mr. Putin slept in. She is at the centre of a probe concerning an entrepreneur who allegedly paid call girls to spend the night at Mr. Berlusconi's Rome residence and a villa in Sardinia. Agence France-Presse.
Well, if a third party pays the bill, and just brings the 'girls' along for entertainment value, there is left to the inestimable Mr. Berlusconi the rascally and titillating adventure of the chase, sweeping women off their feet in their fervent desire to have sex with that alluring, virile, 72-year-old-powerhouse. Fascinating that despite this 'call girl scandal' Berlusconi's approval rating, although descending, has not yet slumped to the extent that the earnestly redoubtable Barack Obama's approval rating has. What's the moral of this story?

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posted by Pieface @ Wednesday, July 22, 2009

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