12. mai 2003

All for breasts Now that is a name that is bound to raise a few eyebrows: The Militant Breastfeeding Cult. It doesn't seem to be about a lactation fetish either. From the website, the group seems to be far less militant than the name suggests. No, we do not think mothers who are truly unable to breastfeed should feel guilty and we do not intend to make them feel guilty. I rather expected something along the lines of "if you don't breastfeed your children, you should be boiled slowly in milk." Doesn't sound at all militant to me. And, ladies, I've been in a cult and you aren't one. But kudos for catchy name for a good cause. 1:31:56 PM    comment []

Deep agent in the IRA demasked British and Irish newspapers Sunday revealed the identity of 'Stakeknife,' the agent the Royal Army's intelligence had succeeded in placing in the heart of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA). The agent, Alfredo Scappaticci, has been deputy head of the IRA's internal security unit, the notorious nNutting Squad, and himself responsible for eliminated what he perceived as traitors in the midsts of the militants. He has been a British agent for 25 years. The revelation will be a massive shock to the IRA, and no doubt will serve as an explanation of how the militants were badly bruised by the army in many cases. A number of IRA operatives were assassinated after being branded army informers by Scappaticci's unit. He was also a personal friend of Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams. For British intelligence, it is hard to overestimate what a scoop this was. Just before the cover was blown, British agents persuaded him to escape to a safe house somewhere in England. Not only the IRA have reasons to worry, however. Scappaticci is accused of being involved in close to 40 murders, and a number of innocents were supposedly killed — sacrificed — to protect this important agent. Sir John Stevens, who runs an investigation of collusion between the security forces' collution with militants, will be very interested in talking to Stakeknife. And what he has to say about how Britain conducted its longtime war on terror may not look good in the light of day. 12:40:41 PM    comment []

Truck bomb kills 16 in Chechnya A truck filled with explosives rammed into a regional administrative and security building in northern Chechnya today, killing at least 16 people. Far away, on Bali, the trial against a terrorist charged with the deadly October bombing begins. The war on terror is not over. 10:12:21 AM    comment []

Sweden shut down It's not good being a Swede today. Not only did Sweden lose the world hockey championship final against Canada on golden goal, from midnight to Monday the country is locked down in a strike. 46,370 employees in the municipal sector stay home today, which will mean that schools are closed, garbage collection will not take place, many health institutions will suffer from lack of cleaning, and sports facilities will also be closed. The conflict is mainly about salaries. Sweden has, like Norway, large central negotiations between unions and employers' organisations. (From a Swedish article in Aftonbladet) 8:47:55 AM    comment []

Students interrogated by Secret Service over classroom remarks Two Oakland High students were subjected to a scary interrogation by Secret Service agents over remarks they made in a classroom discussion. During a heated debate over the Iraq war, the two students made remarks that the school teacher interpreted as threatening to President Bush, and she contacted the Secret Service. A number of other teachers criticise the decison. One teacher, Cassie Lopez, says: "I tell you the looks on those childrens faces. I don't know if they'll say anything about anything ever again. Is that what we want? I don't think we want that." That, I assume, depends on who you ask. 6:19:04 AM    comment []

Times corrections The New York Times has a lot of eggs on its face after the disclosure that one of its journalists committed wholesale fraud and plagiarism while pretending to do investigative work. The well-renowed newspaper works to set the record straight in a comprehensive article outlining the trail of deception. The reporter, Jayson Blair, 27, misled readers and Times colleagues with dispatches that purported to be from Maryland, Texas and other states, when often he was far away, in New York. He fabricated comments. He concocted scenes. He lifted material from other newspapers and wire services. He selected details from photographs to create the impression he had been somewhere or seen someone, when he had not. I don't suspect he'll get a new job anywhere anytime soon. Update: I see that Mickey Kaus, as I expected, is not charitable to NYT, but he's been a long time critic of the newspaper on ideological grounds. He sees the failure as a result of NYT's policy to promote based on race, not performance. The NYT story's party line -- that the underlying problem "appears to have been communications" -- is a defensive euphemism worthy of Nixon. Everyone at the paper seems to have communicated quite clearly in January, 2001. Rather, the Blair disaster appears (in large part) to be a fairly direct consequence of the Times's misguided race preference policy. Plenty of other factors were involved, but without "diversity" it wouldn't have happened. Pretty dangerous territory to step into, at any rate. 5:21:00 AM    comment []

Mental hospital seeks Klingon interpreter Klingon, the language created for Star Trek, is one of a number of languages needed to communicate with some mental health patients in Multnomah County, Oregon. Quoting the county's purchasing administrator, Franna Hathaway: "There are some cases where we've had mental health patients where this was all they would speak." For future carreers, I recommend learning Elvish or Orcish. 1:31:30 AM    comment []

Arafat not down and out The US and Israel has been trying to make Arafat irrelevant, but he possesses a credibility among Palestinians that Abu Mazen so far does not. Arafat loyalists still dominate the Palestinian Authority. It is very hard to see how prime minister Abu Mazen can make good on his promise to curb militants. 1:15:26 AM    comment []

© Copyright 2003 Jan Haugland. Last update: 01.06.2003; 03:29:48.