Author: Sporkmaster

  • Haiti Police “It’s every man for himself!”

    The police of Hatai are now telling the population that they are better off at it themselves then rely on the police. Not only that but actively encouraging them to shot and kill criminals.

    “If you don’t kill the criminals, they will all come back,” a Haitian police officer shouts over a loudspeaker in the country’s most notorious slum, imploring citizens to take justice into their own hands.

    Yep you read that right, how often do you hear something like that today?

    The call for vigilantes comes as influential gang leaders who escaped from a heavily damaged prison during the country’s killer earthquake are taking advantage of a void left by police and peacekeepers focused on disaster relief.

    “Even as we are digging bodies out of buildings, they are trying to attack our officers,” Cite Soleil police inspector Aristide Rosemond said, surrounded by officers wielding automatic weapons.

    I know we have not had anything on this scale, but what where to happen if there was a major disaster that really causes things to get blown wide open.

    But don’t worry the the UN is on it, sorta.

    The Brazilian peacekeeping unit assigned to Cite Soleil lost 18 of its 145 soldiers in the earthquake. Ten perished when the “Blue House” — a landmark concrete tower converted into a U.N. post near the slum’s entrance — collapsed, leaving weapons and equipment readily available to fast-acting looters.

    The U.N. peacekeeping mission also lost its chief, deputy chief and acting police commander.

    The police lost an uncounted number of personnel and equipment, leaving a group of officers who in large part are just recently recruited and trained.

    So I would really like to see a reply on what would happen able to hand a situation like this if full gun control would be in place? I mean this is not just a hypothetical one, this is happening today, now as we speak.

  • What the hell is this Crap.

    Post Traumatic Stress is an Order of Conscience that can save humanity

    This is something that I expected on the Onion rather then on a website that is trying to be serious. BUt see of yourself.

    If you can’t watch the video the money shot is this;

    If we didn’t suffer such stresses on our conscience, we would be the disordered ones, unlike the war veterans ?who respond humanely with a pain they carry for the rest of their lives some of whom eventually take their own ?lives in hope of a kinder world beyond.?

    The United States Veteran Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki noted that of the more than 30,000 suicides each year ?in America, about 20 percent are committed by veterans. Why do we know so much about suicides but still know ?so little about how to prevent them?” Shinseki said. “Simple question, but we continue to be challenged.”?

    Post-traumatic stress should be cared for optimally and with love, because it is an order of our conscience that ?can save humanity.?

    But I have to ask anyone who is dealing with PTSD is enjoying their enlighten state of conscience? No?

    I have talked to this guy before that runs the website, and he is a good guy. But this is utter crap that is being played off like sage wisdom from a old man on top of a mountain.

    What why they think of next.

  • Tale of two Baghdads?

    For those that have not heard yet there was a large attack planned on the Iraqi Government in Baghdad. The Iraqi police and local law enforcement where able to prevent the attack in several raids across the city.

    During raids on houses and warehouses in Baghdad that lasted throughout the day, the authorities arrested 25 people and recovered more than 440 pounds each of TNT and C4, about 66 gallons of ammonium nitrate solution and 60 mortar shells, according to a statement from Maj. Gen. Qassim Atta, a spokesman for Baghdad Operations Command, which is responsible for security in Baghdad, the capital.

    To me this is a example that Iraq can function on it’s own given the chance, training and time. but the
    stories from theNew York Times against the Los Angles Times differ to the point where I wonder if there are talking about the same place. For example.

    NY Times

    A wide-ranging plot to bomb government ministries and other public places, to be followed by a wave of political assassinations, was uncovered by Iraqi officials, who responded Tuesday by bringing much of Baghdad to a virtual standstill while security forces conducted raids that netted large quantities of explosives, officials said.

    LA Times

    When Baghdadis awoke this morning to find their streets sealed off and the city under virtual lockdown, the rumors began to fly.

    Army officers had staged a coup in the Green Zone, one version said. No, it was Baathists loyal to the former regime who had taken over, according to another.

    Mostly, the rumors concerned the Sunni lawmaker Saleh Mutlak, who has been recommended for disbarment from the upcoming March elections by the former De-Baathification Committee, now known as the Accountability and Justice Committee.

    It may be just me, but one seems to try to keep the rumors down while the other is all about spreading them.

    Speaking of rumors, there seem to be plenty coming out of Afghanistan from destroying Korans to killing protesters by US/NATO forces.

    Haji Abdul Manan, one of the protesters, told the German Press Agency, DPA: “The people came out of their homes today to protest this action of foreign forces in a peaceful way, but the Afghan and international forces opened fire on us.”

    Covered by none other then al jazeera, but I am sure that there is not shock there.

  • Reason number 1472 why Hamas cannot be trusted.

    Well originally this story that came out that three Hamas members were killed in a missile strike while about to launch a rocker attack from Gaza. I pictured that they would be seen and heroic martyrs. Yet this story changes things.

    Hamas said overnight Monday that a Hamas militant was killed and three others injured in an explosion in a northern Gaza Strip bomb workshop, Army Radio reported.

    So I wonder what is the view on the afterlife reward if you take out your own guys and not one enemy?

    But don’t worry, they will always be heroes to these guys who will be making a graphic novels about the heroics and struggle of the Palestine people.

    This is not a story about recent events in Gaza, not the “Cast Lead” offensive which so shocked the world. No, it is a book about two mass killings of Palestinians, by the Israeli military in 1956 — so long ago they have been forgotten.

    Yes because how would they write about events like this.

    Also Sunday, four mortar shells were fired from the Gaza Strip, but all landed on the Palestinian side of the border.

  • Rupert Hamer, RIP

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    I know that many people here have a dislike of the media when it comes to reporting conflicts, but I thought that deserves a post.

    A British journalist has been killed in an explosion while covering the war in Afghanistan. Rupert Hamer, 39, the defense correspondent of the Sunday Mirror newspaper, was with the US Marines in Helmand province when he was killed by a roadside bomb.

    Because sometimes we forget that some of the reporters go through the same risks and hardships many of our troops see every day. But sometimes to do not get seen in the same light as our service-members.

    Tina Weaver, Editor of the Sunday Mirror, said: “Rupert believed that the only place to report a war was from the front line and, as our defense correspondent, he wanted to be embedded with the US Marines at the start of their vital surge into southern Afghanistan. He left on New Year’s Eve with photographer Phil Coburn, determined to be there from the start. It was his fifth trip to Afghanistan.”

    So in closing leave you with this;

    David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, said: “Rupert Hamer died in the course of important work informing the world about the situation in Afghanistan. I pay tribute to his efforts, and those of Philip Coburn, undertaken in the most dangerous of circumstances.” Jim McLean, a Times journalist and friend of Hamer since childhood, said: “Rupert was a born reporter. There was never another job he would have wanted to do.”

    He leaves a wife and three children aged 6, 5 and 19 months.

    Video added.

  • It’s Saturday Night Links

    Just a few quick links since there is nothing too big for it’s own post. So lets begin;

    To start off, there has been a fourth Church that has been burned down Malaysia that is suspected of being linked to the law that allowed Christians to use Allah to refer to God.

    The violence comes as Muslims protest a recent court ruling that allowed a Catholic newspaper to use the word “Allah” for God. Muslims believe Allah, an Arabic word, should only be used by Muslims.

    Next is that the suicide bomber that killed at least 6 CIA personal set off his bomb before he was searched.

    Those at the scene on Dec. 30 had been trying to strike a balance between respect for their informant — best demonstrated, in the regional tradition, by direct personal contact — and caution, illustrated by the attentiveness of the security guards, according to CIA officials.

    Also in Dallas a guy eager to see his girlfriend caused the Airport to be shut down for seven hours when he wanted a hug before she left.

    “He just wanted to say goodbye to his girlfriend, I don’t think he realized what he [was] doing,” said another pal, Ning Huang, 33, who plays soccer with Jiang.

    Separately

    TSA guard Ruben Hernandez had temporarily left his post unguarded, highlighting porous security at the airport despite recent terror alerts.

    Lastly seems that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has publicly apologized for his comment back in 2008.

    “I deeply regret using such a poor choice of words,” Reid said in a statement. “I sincerely apologize for offending any and all Americans, especially African Americans, for my improper comments.”

    We shall see what happens with that. Now if he would appoligize about his comment that the Iraq War was Lost. I know, not going to happen.

    To end it off I figured something funny. Remember when Cindy Sheehan made her “Under the Death Star” speech? Well seemed that this cartoon came out tow years before it and looked like it was made for it.

  • Eye for a Toenail?

    Lets see in the last day or so there has been three Churches burned down in Malaysia. The reasons for the attack you ask? For a law allowing Christians to use Allah as God.

    “Allah is only for us,” said a poster waved at one of at least two protests outside mosques in Kuala Lumpur on Friday, the Muslim holy day.

    “We will not allow the word Allah to be inscribed in your churches,” a speaker shouted over a loudspeaker at the Kampung Bahru mosque.

    Oh the Horror. I mean also seems that this view was the general one of the group.

    Leading Muslim scholars, activists and opposition politicians have supported the Christians’ right to call God Allah, and Friday’s protests were relatively small, with most of the congregation ignoring them.

    We read a lot about how other groups also do, but how often do you hear something like this happening?

    So overseas we have people burning down Churches over the use of the word Allah and back in the States sending a song on how the writer wants to kill you is freedom of speech?

  • Is it any wonder that Egypt wants to keep Hamas sealed up?

    This seems like the weirdest continuing thing going yet. After the split between the Fatah and Hamas, the Fatah is all but forgotten compared to Hamas. Not only that but the continued stories in the Gaza and all the support for the Hamas at home and overseas.

    Yet the Egypt has closed off border again after a firefight with Hamas that left one Egyptian solider dead. The reason for the shooting was interesting to say the least.

    At some point, Hamas police fired shots to disperse the crowd and shots were also heard from the Egyptian side of the border. It was not clear who fired first.

    But that did not stop the attempt to open the border.

    Hamas is trying to rally Arab and Muslim public opinion against the barrier it has dubbed the “death wall.” Hamas-allied Muslim clerics have denounced the wall as “haram,” or forbidden by Islam, and protesters picketed Egyptian embassies in Lebanon and Jordan this week.

    Really? We are now getting lectures about how Muslims should act from a group that has regularly used suicide bombers and attacks civilian targets?

    Also there was a protest in Cairo over not having a open border with Gaza where some of the protesters got roughed up. But considering the shootings today that this quote seemed very ironic.

    The Gaza Freedom March represents people from 43 countries with a diversity of backgrounds. They include peoples of all faiths, community leaders, peace activists, doctors, artists, students, politicians, authors and many others. They share a commitment to nonviolence and a determination to break the siege of Gaza.

    Yep and we have seen just how well that worked today. I still believe that Hamas is causing the majority of all the problems that people face in the Gaza strip. With several groups willing to all but bend backwards to support Hamas, this terror group will have no reason not to continue their activities at the expense of the local population in and outside of Gaza.