| |
|
22. august 2006
|
|
Old cartoon movies will be edited to remove smoking:
Turner Broadcasting is scouring more than 1,500 classic Hanna-Barbera cartoons, including old favorites "Tom and Jerry," "The Flinstones" and "Scooby-Doo," to edit out scenes that glamorize smoking. [...]
The regulator's latest news bulletin stated that a viewer, who was not identified, had complained about two smoking scenes on "Tom and Jerry," saying they "were not appropriate in a cartoon aimed at children."
In the first, "Texas Tom," the hapless cat Tom tries to impress a feline female by rolling a cigarette, lighting it and smoking it with one hand. In the second, "Tennis Chumps," Tom's opponent in a match smokes a large cigar.
"The licensee has ... proposed editing any scenes or references in the series where smoking appeared to be condoned, acceptable, glamorized or where it might encourage imitation," Ofcom said, adding that "Texas Tom" was one such example.
This is vandalism in the name of political correctness.
5:57:21 PM 
|
|
Iran's official response to Security Council members on the nuclear enrichment is not a definite no as in the public speeches, but a definite attempt at stalling. Iran's negotiatior Ali Larijani talks about "serious negotiations," which as we know, takes a serious amount of time, allowing Iran's nuclear development to get seriously underway.
"Iran is prepared as of Aug. 23 to enter serious negotiations" with the countries that proposed the package, state-run television quoted Larijani as telling the envoys.
EU officials declined to offer any immediate reaction, saying they needed to study the Iranian offer.
Officials said Iran offered a "new formula" to resolve the dispute as part of its formal response to a package of Western incentives aimed at persuading it to suspend enrichment. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information.
"Iran has provided a comprehensive response to everything said in the Western package. In addition, Iran, in its formal response, has asked some questions to be answered," one official said, without elaborating.
The details of the counter-proposal are not yet known.
5:37:28 PM
|
|
Europeans are not exactly rushing in to provide peacekeepers for Lebanon, but there is real interest in the prestige related to commanding the forces. France is still commanding the near-non-existent forces on the ground, but will provide only a few hundred engineering troops. Italy is the only western country that has offered a substantial amount of soldiers, but insist it should then lead the UN force. Yet, there may be signs that the Italians, too, are chickening out.
Italy, which has offered to lead a United Nations peacekeeping force in Lebanon, will be unable to send troops if Israel "keeps shooting", Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema said Tuesday.
Later on Tuesday Italy asked current European Union president Finland to arrange an urgent meeting of foreign ministers to discuss Europe's contribution to the UN peackeeping mission for Lebanon, Rome's government said.
So, to send down a force to enforce the ceasefire, the ceasefire must first not need enforcement. Prodi, leading a center-left coalition, is no doubt aware that if the Italian forces in Lebanon comes under fire, he is in serious political trouble back home.
Hezbollah, meantime, is already demonstrating its self-confidence by bullying UN personnel in Lebanon.
The party had been told it would be allowed to bury three "martyrs" at the Naqoura town cemetery inside the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) compound, but only if there was no flag-waving or political sloganising.
When the chanting procession, several hundred strong, reached the gates, it found the way barred by cruci-form steel tank traps. Mourners argued with the French guards, but failed to gain entry.
A mob of young men then dragged the barriers away and the UN opened the gates. "They will eat us alive," said a middle-aged official as the throng surged in.
A column of black-shirted men carried the three coffins to the graveyard. They waved yellow Hizbollah banners and portraits of the movement's leader, Hassan Nasrallah, and yelled anti-Israeli and anti-American doggerel.
Among the mourners was Naqoura's mayor, Hussein Darwish, a 59-year-old former teacher. "Israel is allowed to carry on raiding our country without Unifil doing anything," he said, referring to an abortive raid by Israeli commandos in the Bekaa valley the previous day. "Why do they try to stop us burying our dead the way we wish?" The angry scenes were seen as a troubling portent of what may happen when a boosted UN force begins deploying to police the delicate, week-old ceasefire.
It doesn't help, unfortunately, that Europe has been effectively disarmed over the last decades. Even large western European countries only have small armies on the level of preparedness required for international operations.
1:20:16 PM
|
|
The calendar just flipped to August 22 here, and there is some speculation that this may be a day for a massive terrorist attack.
While no extra safeguards are in place, U.S. law enforcement are not ignoring the possible significance of tomorrow's date, August 22, a date that marks an important historic event on the Islamic calendar.
Internet websites have been full of speculation that it could be a target date for terrorists in commemoration of the return of the 12th imam, a supposed day of reckoning for Shiites.
August 22 was rumored by intelligence experts to be a possible date that the London plotters would blow-up passenger planes headed towards the United States, though it is not known if the suspects were Shiite extremists.
Shiite extremists have not been plotting large scale terrorist attacks against the west like al-Qaeda has, but with Iran being a prime sponsor of international terrorism, that might change. So far, terrorists haven't been big on magical days to begin with. A special day can be predicted (as this is), but a terrorist plan relies on surprise. It would not make tactically sense to go for a predictable date.
12:34:59 AM
|
|
|
© Copyright 2006 Jan Haugland.
Last update: 01.09.2006; 05:01:32.
|
|
|
