What's in the News

Odd. How are they going to maintain the Colonel Schultz approach to the whole Tianneman Square business when they let people who participated in it out of jail? A course in common sense, logic and the search for truth? I mean, there are some places and people in China who could benefit from such a course but I don't think he'll have much chance in setting it up.
A dissident is running around dizzing China...geez, the Chairman would be rolling in his mausoleum if he knew how much his Party is slipping.

The 10-month-old male -- weighing about 330 pounds -- had knocked her to the ground then lay on top of her in what police suspect was mating behavior, Gregory said.

WA HAHAHA HAHA HA HA HA!!!!!!!

Hell, I never met her.  Figure she was wearing a fur coat at the time?  Little camel tease.

Arm Wrestling Machine Breaks Arms
TOKYO, Aug. 22, 2007

(AP) Lose a game of chess to a computer, and you could bruise your ego. Lose an arm-wrestling match to a Japanese arcade machine, and you could break your arm.

Distributor Atlus Co. said it will remove all 150 "Arm Spirit" arm wrestling machines from Japanese arcades after three players broke their arms grappling with the machine's mechanized appendage.

"The machine isn't that strong, much less so than a muscular man. Even women should be able to beat it," said Atlus spokeswoman Ayano Sakiyama, calling the recall "a precaution."

"We think that maybe some players get overexcited and twist their arms in an unnatural way," she said. The company was investigating the incidents and checking the machines for any signs of malfunction.

Players of "Arm Spirit" advance through 10 levels, battling a French maid, drunken martial arts master and a Chihuahua before reaching the final showdown with a professional wrestler.

The arcade machine is not distributed overseas.

"Even women should be able to beat it" Any comments on that, dear ladies, whom I know would not only beat me in armwrestling but would do it with the left hand, blind drunk while re-organizing your closet.

China Regulates Buddhist Reincarnation
By Matthew Philips
Newsweek

Aug. 20-27, 2007 issue - In one of history's more absurd acts of totalitarianism, China has banned Buddhist monks in T from reincarnating without government permission. According to a statement issued by the State Administration for Religious Affairs, the law, which goes into effect next month and strictly stipulates the procedures by which one is to reincarnate, is "an important move to institutionalize management of reincarnation." But beyond the irony lies China's true motive: to cut off the influence of the Dalai Lama, T's exiled spiritual and political leader, and to quell the region's Buddhist religious establishment more than 50 years after China invaded the small Himalayan country. By barring any Buddhist monk living outside China from seeking reincarnation, the law effectively gives Chinese authorities the power to choose the next Dalai Lama, whose soul, by tradition, is reborn as a new human to continue the work of relieving suffering.

At 72, the Dalai Lama, who has lived in India since 1959, is beginning to plan his succession, saying that he refuses to be reborn in T so long as it's under Chinese control. Assuming he's able to master the feat of controlling his rebirth, as Dalai Lamas supposedly have for the last 600 years, the situation is shaping up in which there could be two Dalai Lamas: one picked by the Chinese government, the other by Buddhist monks. "It will be a very hot issue," says Paul Harrison, a Buddhism scholar at Stanford. "The Dalai Lama has been the prime symbol of unity and national identity in T, and so it's quite likely the battle for his incarnation will be a lot more important than the others."

So where in the world will the next Dalai Lama be born? Harrison and other Buddhism scholars agree that it will likely be from within the 130,000 Tan exiles spread throughout India, Europe and North America. With an estimated 8,000 Tans living in the United States, could the next Dalai Lama be American-born? "You'll have to ask him," says Harrison. If so, he'll likely be welcomed into a culture that has increasingly embraced reincarnation over the years. According to a 2005 Gallup poll, 20 percent of all U.S. adults believe in reincarnation. Recent surveys by the Barna Group, a Christian research nonprofit, have found that a quarter of U.S. Christians, including 10 percent of all born-again Christians, embrace it as their favored end-of-life view. A non-Tan Dalai Lama, experts say, is probably out of the question.

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20227400/site/newsweek/

Reincarnating without a license, eh?  You're getting a ticket, mister.

What will be the punishment for reincarnation without a license? Send to hell immediately?

Eternal limbo? 

You'll come back as a politician and have to work your way up to dungbeetle?

Koala sex machine thrills zoo

August 24, 2007 - 6:31AM


A sex-mad koala recruited from Scotland to teach his counterpart in an Austrian zoo about the birds and the bees is finding himself very much in demand.

When romantic music, erotic movies and aphrodisiac food failed to entice their male koala, Bilyarra, to mate with female Mirali, staff at Vienna's Schoenbrunn Zoo sought the help of Edinburgh Zoo's resident stud, Chumbee.

The five-year-old male and his super-active libido arrived on loan in the Austrian capital in March and zoo managers are confident they will soon be hearing the patter of tiny koala paws after Bilyarra started to get in on the action.

"Chumbee hasn't stopped since he got here," said Schoenbrunn Zoo manager Helmut Pechlaner.

"It has been almost non-stop sex in the koala enclosure ever since, and now even our own male is joining in."

Canadian cops tried to instigate violence at a protest so they could then step in and bash some heads!

Quebec police admit they went undercover at Montebello protest[/b]
Last Updated: Thursday, August 23, 2007 | 7:52 PM ET CBC News

Quebec provincial police admitted Thursday that three of their officers disguised themselves as demonstrators during the protest at the North American leaders summit in Montebello, Que.

A YouTube video shows Dave Coles, president of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union, ordering three masked men back from a line of riot police.

However, the police force denied allegations its undercover officers were there on Monday to provoke the crowd and instigate violence.

"At no time did the police of the Sûreté du Québec act as instigators or commit criminal acts," the police force said in French in a news release. "It is not in the police force's policies, nor in its strategies, to act in that manner.

"At all times, they responded within their mandate to keep order and security."

Police said the three undercover officers were only at the protest to locate and identify non-peaceful protesters in order to prevent any incidents.

Police came under fire Tuesday, when a video surfaced on YouTube that appeared to show three plainclothes police officers at the protest with bandanas across their faces. One of the men was carrying a rock.

In the video, protest organizers in suits order the men to put the rock down, call them police instigators and try unsuccessfully to unmask them.

Police-issued boots identified fake protesters
Protest organizers on Wednesday played the video for the media at a news conference in Ottawa. One of the organizers, union leader Dave Coles, explained that one reason protesters knew the men's true identities was because they were wearing the same boots as other police officers.

Coles said on Wednesday that the only thing he didn't know was whether the men were Quebec police, RCMP or hired security officers.

"[Our union] believes that the security force at Montebello were ordered to infiltrate our peaceful assembly and provoke incidents," said Coles, president of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union.

Police said the three were told to monitor protesters who were not peacefully demonstrating to prevent any violent incidents, but they were called out as undercover agents when they refused to throw objects.

Concern Canada losing control of its energy
The protest at Montebello occurred outside the Fairmont Le Château Montebello hotel, near Ottawa, where Prime Minister Stephen Harper was meeting with U.S. President George W. Bush and Mexican President Felipe Calderon. The summit about border security, free trade and other issues began Monday and finished Tuesday.

Protesters said they gathered to voice their concern about Canada losing control of its energy and water resources and borders. Others decried what they called a high level of secrecy at the summit.

The Quebec provincial police will not comment any further on the affair, a spokeswoman in Montreal said.

Quebec Justice Minister Jacques Dupuis was made aware of the news, but a spokesman from his office said he will not comment on the matter either.

Bob Brown is a good guy - calls it right! I figure, even coming up to elections, there should be a couple more important things for the Oz Federal Gov't to be worried about.

Rudd strip club visit sparks rash of confessions

August 20, 2007 05:06pm
Article from: NEWS.com.au

   
OPPOSITION Leader Kevin Rudd says he's never claimed to be "Captain Perfect", and his decision to visit a New York strip club is the kind of mistake blokes make.

He may be right, because today a number of his blokey colleagues, and one woman, admitted they had seen strippers.

It was revealed yesterday that Mr Rudd visited Scores gentlemen's club in Manhattan in 2003 with fellow Labor MP Warren Snowdon and New York Post editor Col Allan during a taxpayer-funded trip when he was opposition foreign affairs spokesman.

Mr Rudd has apologised but said he has little recollection of what happened in the strip club, because he had had too much to drink.

"I think any bloke who's honest about their lives can point to times in their lives when they've got it wrong," Mr Rudd said today.

"I've done that, but can I say the attitude of the Australian community, their evaluation of me, that's a matter for them and I accept their judgment.

"I have never tried to present myself as Captain Perfect - I'm not, never have been. Captain Morality or anything like that - I'm not, never have been and we all make mistakes and I've made one here."

Mr Rudd said he had been embarrassed by the revelation but he and Mr Snowdon had no recollection of any inappropriate behaviour and he had apologised to his wife after the incident.

When asked whether wife Terese Rein had given him a "verbal bollocking", a jovial Mr Rudd said: "Therese is a firm woman, we've been married a long time."

The confessions came thick and fast from other politicians after Mr Rudd's revelations.

First, Defence Minister Brendan Nelson admitted he visited a strip club almost 30 years ago.

"I remember being at one when I was 20, in Adelaide," he said on ABC radio in Adelaide.

"I suspect that there are many Australian men and an increasing number of women who have done so as well."

Then Victorian Premier John Brumby suggested strip clubs were the only reason people visited
Sydney.

"The last time I attended a strip place would have probably been in the 1970s, when I was a student, I think if my memory's correct it was probably in Sydney," he said.

"It was with a group of mates, male and female, I can't remember the name of the place."

Queensland Government ministers were falling over themselves to fess up and even Deputy Premier Anna Bligh owned up to a bit of mischief.

"I've seen a strip-o-gram in a Chinese restaurant once - does that count?" she said.

Local Government Minister Andrew Fraser said he hadn't been to a strip club - at least recently.

"Not as a married man. I suppose we're all young once."

Transport Minister Paul Lucas said he had seen strip shows "a couple of times" in his 20s.

"I also actually had a couple of ciggies behind the bike shed at school, I think I swore on the football field when I played football a couple of times, and I was almost late for Mass on Sunday," he said.

But Premier Peter Beattie said he had never been interested in strip clubs. and Federal Health Minister Tony Abbott wouldn't say.

Prime Minister John Howard today declined to comment on the scandal.

But Greens leader Bob Brown said the revelations should be kept in perspective.

"Four years ago Kevin Rudd got drunk and took himself into a strip club," Senator Brown said.
"Four years ago John Howard, sober, took Australia into the Iraq war.

"I think the electorate can judge which one did the more harm," he said.

The police infiltration of the Canadian Summit protestors is extremely disturbing, especially since they appeared to be trying to incite a riot.  This was the lead story on CBC radio this morning and it will likely stay at in the public eye for awhile. 

Errr...where is Matthew Hopkins when ya need him?

SALEM, Massachusetts (AP) -- A self-proclaimed high priestess of Salem witches and a second person were accused of tossing raccoon parts on the doorsteps of businesses, allegedly as part of a Wiccan community feud.

Sharon Graham, 46, and a fellow Wiccan, Frederick Purtz, 22, pleaded not guilty Wednesday to charges of littering and malicious destruction of property. Graham also was charged with intimidating a witness.

They were accused of putting a raccoon head and entrails on the doorsteps of Angelica of the Angels and the Goddess' Treasure Chest in May.

Salem, a historic seaport famous for holding witch trials in the 17th century, has an active Wiccan community and thriving witch-related tourism.

David Gavegnano, a lawyer for Graham, and Sean Wynne, a lawyer for Purtz, both denied that their clients had anything to do with the incident. They also argued that at any rate, the malicious destruction charge wasn't valid because the storefronts weren't permanently damaged.

A witness, Richard Watson, told police he accompanied Graham, Purtz and other people when they put the raccoon remains on the doorsteps. He said Graham hoped to frame a Wiccan businessman who had fired Graham from a psychic telephone business last spring.

Watson also said Graham had a disagreement with the owners of the two targeted businesses over proposed regulations that would limit the number of psychics who come to the city during the Halloween season. He said he was told the group had found the raccoon dead.

Gavegnano declined to comment on Watson's accusations Thursday. Wynne told The Boston Herald said there were probably "internal issues within the Wiccan community," but the tossing of raccoon entrails may be a "bastardization" of Wiccan practice because the religion doesn't condone harming others

This is a bit of a worry!!

Chinese police track missing uranium
 Mary-anne Toy
August 25, 2007

CHINESE police are attempting to trace eight kilograms of radioactive uranium ore that has gone missing.

The police arrested four men trying to sell the highly dangerous substance on the black market, state media have reported.

The men from Hunan province are on trial in Guangzhou, capital of the southern province of Guangdong, after they were arrested attempting to sell the the ore — comprising U-235 and U-238 uranium — for 1.6 million yuan ($A260,000) per kilogram.

A fifth accomplice, who allegedly has the bulk of the ore, has not been found.

Health authorities warned that the ore was highly dangerous. "The radioactive substance uranium does not explode when it is in its raw state, but it is very harmful to people's health," Jiang Chaoqiang, director of the Guangzhou No. 12 People's Hospital, told China Daily.

Mr Jiang said close contact with uranium for long periods could lead to leukaemia or other cancers.

Two of the defendants were arrested in Guangzhou in January trying to sell the uranium to Peng Shuang Jin. He offered to buy apparently on behalf of a customer in Hong Kong, but then informed police of the illegal activity, the New Express Daily newspaper reported.

Another two accomplices were arrested in Hunan six days later.

Police have recovered only 35 grams of uranium from the four men. They claimed a fifth partner, Zhang Xinfang, had disappeared with the bulk of the uranium and had since become seriously ill, presumably from exposure to the radioactivity.

"The men claimed it had been lost because it had been moved around so much between potential buyers," the paper said.