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22. mars 2005
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Three US carrier groups are on their way to the Eastern Mediterranean and the Persian Gulf. If it is to "send a message" to Syria (and Iran?) it is a formidable one.
I remember it was pointed out in the documentation coming with the Harpoon Mediterranean battle set that you'd not have access to the sexiest hardware in these scenarios to keep a playable balance. One EAGIS equipped Ticonderoga class cruiser would alone be able to wipe out the entire Syrian air force (assuming, I guess, it'd be stupid enough to even take wing). Now this is three carrier groups, each having enough firepower to take on almost any nation's armed forces.
6:50:12 PM 
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Sarah Left in the Guardian has been using google aggressively after the name of Jeff Wiese, the 'alleged' Red Lake High School shooter, was revealed, and have found that he posted on a neo-nazi website a year prior to the atrocity.
Over a five-month period between March and August 2004, someone identifying himself as Weise posted numerous messages on a talkboard hosted by Nazi.org, the website of the Libertarian National Socialist Green party. The party promotes a Nazi philosophy of racial purity.
In March 2004, a chatroom participant tagged Todesengel ("angel of death") began a thread titled "Native American Nationalist?" and introduced himself as "Jeff Weise, a Native American from the Red Lake 'Indian' reservation in Minnesota". Todesengel expressed interest in joining the party and said he had done a great deal of research on Hitler, a man he much admired. Later in the thread, Todesengel changed his tag to NativeNazi.
"When I was growing up, I was taught (like others) that Nazi's were (are) evil and that Hitler was a very evil man, ect," wrote Todesengel, in a quote not corrected for spelling and grammar. "Of course, not for a second did I believe this. Upon reading up on his actions, the ideals and issues the German Third Reich adressed, I began to see how much of a lie had been painted about them. They truly were doing it for the better."
On April 19 2004, he posted to the talkboard: "By the way, I'm being blamed for a threat on the school I attend because someone said they were going to shoot up the school on 4/20, Hitlers birthday, and just because I claim being a National Socialist, guess whom they've pinned?"
By May 26 the incident seemed to have blown over, with Todesengel posting: "But the school threat passed and I was cleared as a suspect, I'm glad for that. I don't much care for jail, I've never been there and I don't plan on it."
It is interesting to note that major US-based media has so far been rather low-key about naming the suspected shooter, while European media has aggressively posted information, hopefully accurate, that may shed light on the horrible crime.
Nazi nut Steve Martinez on nazi.org has posted a statement on the school shooting that defies any resemblence to human decency and rational thought:
The Libertarian National Socialist Green Party, on whose messageboard Jeff Weise posted one year before shooting people at his Minnesota high school, today refused to wring hands over a "tragedy," instead pointing out that such events are to be expected when thinking people are crammed into an unthinking, irrational modern society. According to the LNSG, the school shooting itself is not our failure; society is our failure, and the school shooting is a symptom.
Libertarian green nazis. Sheesh!
3:45:49 PM
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Major oops in headline from WKYC:
"Judge orders woman’s feeding tube to be reinserted"
First sentence in story:
A federal judge has refused to order Terri Schiavo’s feeding tube reinserted.
I guess I should use the opportunity to become the last blogger in the world to state my opinion on this divisive case. I have never met anyone who, when such an issue comes up, say that they would personally like to be held alive indefinitely in a persistent vegetative state.
1:11:31 PM
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This statement from Kofi Annen, explaining why the proposed UN reforms are necessary, is possibly more revealing than intended:
"You may call what is happening now our perestroika and glasnost," Mr. Annan told reporters. "We're trying to bring the organization into line with the realities of the 21st century."
As you will probably remember, these Russian terms refer to restructuring and openness respectively, the last Soviet leader Michail Gorbachev's futile attempts to save the communist system from collapse.
9:24:29 AM
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The EU backs down over arms sale to China:
Yielding to pressure from President Bush and threats of retaliation from Congress, the European Union has put off plans to lift its arms embargo on China this spring and may not press the issue until next year, American and European officials said Monday.
The officials said that in addition to American pressure, European nations have been shaken by the recent adoption of legislation by the Chinese National People's Congress authorizing the use of force to stop Taiwan from seceding. The Chinese action, they said, jolted France and undercut its moves to end the embargo before June.
The question will obviously resurface pretty soon, but this is a good move.
8:16:09 AM
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A killing frenzy ending in a school shooting at Red Lake High School, Minnesota, has left ten dead, including the student gunman. This is the worst such incident since the Columbine killings.
"Apparently, he walked down the hallway shooting and then he entered a classroom, he shot several students and a teacher, then himself," said Roman Stately, with the Red Lake Fire Department, who arrived at the high school moments after the shootings.
Authorities discovered about an hour later that the boy had shot and killed his grandmother and grandfather, a veteran of the police force, Stately told KARE-TV.
Stately said the boy used his grandfather's police-issued weapon in the school rampage.
Witness Sondra Hegstrom described the gunman grinning and waving, according to The Pioneer of nearby Bemidji, Minnesota.
What happens in the head of such a kid?
PS: More cruel details:
The suspect apparently killed himself after exchanging gunfire with police. [...]
One student said her classmates pleaded with the gunman to stop shooting.
"You could hear a girl saying, 'No, Jeff, quit, quit. Leave me alone. What are you doing?" student Sondra Hegstrom told The Pioneer of Bemidji, using the name of the suspected shooter.
Before the shootings at Red Lake High School, the suspect's grandparents were shot in their home and died later. There was no immediate indication of the gunman's motive.
In addition to the shooter, the death toll at the school included five students, a teacher and a security guard, FBI spokesman Paul McCabe said in Minneapolis.
PS 2: Killer is identified as 15-year-old Jeff Wiese. Another name that will live in infamy. This article also says the female killed along with his grandfather was "a woman," maybe indicating it wasn't his grandmother as otherwise reported.
7:13:48 AM
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How to make a wallet from duct tape. Yes, it's from an official 3M site.
Is it cheap or is it trendy? At any rate, file link under weird.
7:05:28 AM
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© Copyright 2005 Jan Haugland.
Last update: 01.04.2005; 01:57:57.
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