Baby’s Named a Bad, Bad Thing
A Primer on Parent Cruelty
http://notwithoutmyhandbag.com/babynames/index.html
From HomerTheBrave
Month: May 2004
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Report Urges Tighter Nuclear Controls
By Peter Slevin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, May 24, 2004; Page A02
Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. wondered aloud one day in 2002 whether someone could build an atomic weapon from parts available on the open market.
A few months later, leaders of the government’s nuclear laboratories returned to the soundproof Senate meeting room with a workable nuclear weapon, missing only the fissile material.
The relative ease with which U.S. scientists built an explosive nuclear weapon illustrates the need to secure plutonium and highly enriched uranium scattered in armories and research sites around the world.
Plans were announced six years ago to destroy 68 metric tons of plutonium stripped from bombs and warheads in the United States and Russia, but the project remains stalled.
Despite improvements in Russia, visitors continue to see broken detectors, decaying fences, vulnerable seals and paper records never designed for careful monitoring. Fissile material exists in “hundreds of buildings in more than 40 countries.”
Evaluating an extreme case, they point to Pakistan, which has perfected nuclear weapons, as a potential target of terrorists with potent weapons and political connections.
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772 YEARS AGO TODAY
May 26 1232
Gregory IX issues the bull Declinante jam mundi, bringing the Papal Inquisition to Spain.
Dominican monks began staging trials, with the support of the local government. Any accusation of heresy was enough to start a trial going, and the names of the accusers were kept secret. The trials themselves were held in secret. After a brief flirtation with the concept of a “right to an attorney,” all due process was dispensed with. The only appeal of a guilty verdict was to the pope.
The monks decided that the only way you could really be sure if someone was a heretic was to torture them extensively. The Dominicans were only subject to the papally decreed limit of citra membri diminutionem et mortis periculum, which meant “don’t kill ‘em” and “no amputations.”
Anyone could hand over their friends, families, enemies and business rivals to the Inquisitors, who were anxious to meet their quotas. The punishment for a guilty verdict in an Inquisitorial trial could range from loss of property to prison to burning at the stake. And the verdict was almost always guilty.
In the late 15th century, a new branch of the Inquisition was formed in Spain, founded on the notion that Jews and Muslims were pretending to convert to Catholicism in order to undermine the church.
The Spanish Inquisition quickly became notorious for a) extremely creative use of torture and b) its tendency to be unleashed on just about anyone at any time, for any reason, or for no reason at all.
It went on for THREE HUNDRED YEARS, lasting well into the 1800s.
Thousands of “heretics” were burned at the stakes. There was no such thing as an “alleged” heretic under the Inquisitions reign of terror; there were only “repentant” and “unrepentant” heretics.
“Repentant” heretics were those who confessed their heresy and agreed to shell over big bucks to the Church. Poor people accused of heresy (who were relatively fewer) could only save themselves with full confessions and by naming the names of other heretics.
To assist people in repenting, the Inquisitors used any torture method they could think of, with the theoretical restriction that they couldn’t break the skin. They included:
The Judas Chair: This was a large pyramid-shaped “seat.” Accused heretics were placed on top of it, with the point inserted into their anuses or genitalia, then very, very slowly lowered onto the point with ropes. The effect was to gradually stretch out the opening of choice.
- The Head Vise: They put your head into a specially fitted vice, and tighten it until your teeth are crushed, your bones crack and eventually your eyes pop out of their sockets.
- The Pear: A large bulbous gadget is inserted in the orifice of choice, whether mouth, anus or vagina. A lever on the device then causes it to slowly expand whilst inserted. Eventually points emerge from the tips.
- The Wheel: Heretics are strapped to a big ol’ wheel, and their bones are clubbed into shards.
Methods of execution weren’t much better. While burning at the stake was the most widely used method, there were other approaches used in special cases:
- Sawing: Heretics were hung upside-down and sawed apart down the middle, starting at the crotch.
- Disembowelment: A small hole is cut in the gut, then the intestines are drawn out slowly and carefully, keeping the victim alive for as much of the process as possible.
- The Stake: A fairly repentant heretic might be strangled, then burned. An entirely unrepentant heretic could be burned over the course of hours, using green wood or simply by placing them on top of hot coals and leaving them there until well done.
The last burning was in 1834, but the Inquisition lives on.
Based in Vatican City, the Holy Office of the Inquisition is still one of the most powerful branches of the Church hierarchy. In 1965, Pope Paul VI rebranded the Inquisition as the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith.
The modern church lacked the political power to institute wide-ranging reigns of terror and torture around the world, so the Congregation had to settle for making theological pronouncements in Latin. In 1966, Paul VI even revoked its ability to ban books.
The Congregation did have a few moments of glory in recent years, such as the pronouncement that yoga was a tool of the devil and revealing the Third Secret of Fatima, as well as endless commentaries on why homosexuality is evil.
http://www.rotten.com/library/history/inquisition/
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The Third Annual Grump Out™
May 26, 2004
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Great American Grump Out™ Frequently Asked Questions:
Q: What if I gave up grumpiness but began to experience grump withdrawals?
A: No need to panic. Several remedies are currently available to help prevent grump withdrawals.
Q: What can help me, a coworker, a friend or a loved one get through those 24 hours on May 26, 2004?
A: Wearing any type of smile, especially on your face, is one. Secondly, carry a banana around with you. (a B-A-N-A-N-A? Are you crazy?) Yes and Yes. Not only is the banana the Grump Out’s™ official fruit, but the banana provides a nutritional, uplifting smile. (Should you begin to experience any grump withdrawal discomfort, simply turn that smiley banana upside down so it becomes a frown. Stare at the frown for a moment when no one is looking.)
http://www.smilemania.com/pages/517558/index.htm
From drowning_not_waving
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Some U.S. prison contractors may avoid charges
Sun National Staff
Originally published May 24, 2004
The U.S. civilian interrogators questioning prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq work not under a military contract but on one from the Department of the Interior, a bureaucratic twist that could complicate any effort to hold them criminally responsible for abuse of detainees or other offenses.
Contractors for nonmilitary agencies such as the Department of the Interior may be able to escape prosecution for crimes they commit overseas because of an apparent loophole in the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act. The law, passed in 2000, applies only to contractors with the Department of Defense.
“You’re placing a military interrogation task under Smokey the Bear,”
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Snail extract cream selling well
A Chilean doctor who developed a skin cream from snail extract, is exporting 20,000 bottles to the US every month.
Dr Fernando Bascunan claims the Elicina Cream he’s developed does miracles for the skin.
“This lotion has regenerative properties. The snail has a natural cell regenerator ingredient in its slime.”
“It is perfect for after shaving.”
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Documents released last week by the ACLU reveal that the Pentagon refused to expedite a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, filed seven months ago, for documents related to the abuse and possible torture of U.S.-held detainees.
The FOIA request was filed in October 2003 by the ACLU and four other organizations: the Center for Constitutional Rights, Physicians for Human Rights, Veterans for Common Sense, and Veterans for Peace. Full compliance with the request would have required the Defense Department to release records related to the emerging scandal at Abu Ghraib. The petitioners are currently considering litigation to force compliance with the request.
The Pentagon has twice rejected the ACLU’s call for “expedited processing” claiming that the subject matter of the request was not “breaking news” and that there was no “compelling need” for the immediate release of information about the mistreatment of detainees. The Defense Department also claimed that expediting the request was unnecessary because failure to expedite would not “endanger the life or safety of any individual.”
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STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) - Bjoern and Monica Helamb were ready for the moose, which has visited their yard in Vuoggatjalme in northern Sweden annually since 1995 to snack on their roses. This year, though, they put their bicycle in front of the flowers in a bid to protect them.
It didn’t help.
The moose, dubbed Droopy Ear because of her deformed ears, slid her head through the bike’s frame and munched on the roses last week, sating her appetite with a flowery feast.
“Then she disappeared, with the bike hanging around her neck.”
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Davidson County Sheriff Gerald Hege prefers a hi-tech machine gun and a souped-up Chevy Impala as his crime fighting weapons.
Deputies: Image ruled Hege
5-23-04
By Eric Collins & Ed Williams, Staff Writers
News & Record
LEXINGTON – In Davidson County Superior Court last Monday, gone were the aviator shades, the paramilitary garb and the Dirty Harry swagger that defined the embattled sheriff for nearly a decade. Gerald Hege – Davidson County’s top cop – copped a plea: guilty to obstructing justice.
Sheriff Hege tapes his cable show for Court TV.
Despite every embarrassing news story about reckless chases, officers shooting at people or vehicles, Hege drawing a gun on another cop, jailers having sex with inmates, deputies harassing minorities and Democratic rivals, Hege rolled along with a well-oiled PR machine.
Hege painted jail cells pink to humiliate prisoners, put inmates to work, and retrofitted the department with uniforms and weaponry that made it appear he was going to war. Even his office looked like a military-style bunker.
To hear Hege tell it — and he was on a regular soapbox to voters through his local radio and national cable-television shows — he was at war.
The Davidson County Sheriff’s Office K.A.T.N. spider patch stands for “Kicking Ass and Taking Names.”
15 indictments against Gerald Hege were unsealed, along with hundreds of pages of sworn affidavits from 28 of Hege’s officers. The breadth of alleged wrongdoing was staggering and painted a picture of a lawman who:
• encouraged officers to engage in illegal activity;
• harassed political opponents;
• encouraged his staff to manipulate crime data to make the department look good;
• encouraged officers to engage in racial profiling; and
• used public money for personal use.
The most damning allegations involved money missing from drug funds and the falsifying of records to hide that fact.
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TOP TEN IRAQ MISTAKES….General Anthony Zinni lists the ten biggest mistakes we made in Iraq:
The first mistake [was] the belief that containment as a policy doesn’t work….
The second mistake I think history will record is that the strategy was flawed….
The third mistake, I think was one we repeated from Vietnam, we had to create a false rationale for going in to get public support….
We failed in number four, to internationalize the effort….
I think the fifth mistake was that we underestimated the task….
The sixth mistake, and maybe the biggest one, was propping up and trusting the exiles….
The seventh problem has been the lack of planning….
The eighth problem was the insufficiency of military forces on the ground….
The ninth problem has been the ad hoc organization we threw in there….
The tenth mistake [has been] a series of bad decisions on the ground….
He talks about each one of these in greater detail in the text of his speech and also presents some ideas for how to move forward from here. Click the link for more.
From Kevin Drum via el_viajero
