A federal judge said he will likely dismiss a lawsuit that attacks the state's ban on dwarf tossing. He didn't seem too sure why, though. He said the statute apparently doesn't really prohibit dwarf tossing, because there are no rules in place to enforce it. The law simply states that bar owners can be subject to fines and losing their liquor licenses. But that's only if they could enforce it, mind you, so there's nothin' to worry about.
An assistant state attorney general, George Lee Waas, who now has no career, said the state probably will enact rules quickly that regulate dwarf tossing so that way they can enforce it and take your money and your liquor license that you weren't worrying about losing. (Link via Heretical Ideas thru Protein Wisdom, which sounds like a really bad slogan for somebody's company, but still better'n "You can be sure if it's Westinghouse unless it's not.") Didja ever notice than when these goobers are legislating against silliness they look... they look... well.. silly? (Guess when they finally snatch your dough and your liquor license and run you out of the state you can always go to Kyrgyzstan.)
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
03/01/2002 ||
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A group of drunken hunters cut off electric power to a third of the population of Kyrgyzstan's capital when they used ceramic insulators on high-voltage lines for target practice. One building which suffered the 30-minute blackout was a hotel hosting a conference -- on alcohol abuse. Delegates, including Deputy Prime Minister Nikolai Tanayev, were obliged to take a coffee break. Or to step out and have a drink or two.
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Forces loyal to Abdul Rashid Dostum have captured Sholgera district in northern Balkh province. The district, about 60 kilometres (35 miles) south of Mazar-i-Sharif, has seen frequent clashes in recent weeks between Dostum's forces and fighters loyal to commander Atta Mohammad. Dostum's forces used tanks to capture Sholgera. There was no immediate estimate on the number of casualties.
Mohammad had tried unsuccessfully to capture the district through negotiations. Mohammad, whose Jamiat-i-Islami faction is aligned with former president Burhanuddin Rabbani, still has control over the Takhar, Kunduz and Baghlan provinces. Dostum's forces control the Samangan, Jozjan and Faryab provinces. This is either going to start shaking out the warlord balance of power, or it's going to lead to a new dog-eat-dog. If it's the former, it may be a good thing. If it's the latter, the US might as well just walk away and come back in 10 years to watch the last Afghan shoot the second-last Afghan.
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03/01/2002 ||
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Georgian security forces began to mobilize against al-Qaeda fighters in the remote and mountainous Pankisi Gorge, with US military instructors to start training elite counter-terrorism units this month. But despite stringent road checks manned by Georgian soldiers on the highway leading up to the gorge's main settlement, Duisi, local inhabitants said it was easy to avoid the security measures. "There are at the very least five checkpoints," said a Duisi resident, Murtaz. "The police and military are trying to control the access roads. But if you want to, it is not difficult to get around them."
At each checkpoint, marked off by two barriers, some 15 interior ministry troops and police check the documents of every car and people on foot. Another 40 soldiers are in reserve. It's a start. Not much of a start, but a start.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
03/01/2002 ||
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President Vladimir Putin abruptly softened Moscow's stance towards the planned dispatch of U.S. military experts to Georgia, saying it spelled ''no tragedy'' for Russia's interests. Putin's comment, made as he stood alongside Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze and other leaders of the Commonwealth of Independence States, ran counter to remarks made by his own foreign minister, Igor Ivanov. Ivanov, speaking earlier this week, said the planned dispatch of U.S. forces to the former Soviet Transcaucasian republic to help train Georgian troops to combat terrorism would only aggravate the security situation in the region.
Russia, which has thousands of troops stationed in Georgia from Soviet times, has frequently offered to help Georgia with anti-terrorist operations in its lawless Pankisi Gorge. But Georgia, which since independence from the Soviet Union in 1991 has accused the old imperial power of undermining its sovereignty and backing secessionist movements in the country, has consistently declined Russian offers of help. Putin, being smarter than Ivanov, can see the benefit that applies to Russia without getting bogged down in the national pride thing. The Georgians are - or at least feel - more vulnerable to Russian designs than they are to the Chechen gunnies.
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03/01/2002 ||
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Eyewitnesses said more than 2,000 people were involved in a pitched battle in an open area between two residential compounds in Ahmedabad's Babunagar area. "It's terrifying. Even the women are carrying weapons," said one witness. There was no sign of any police presence in the area.
Several thousand Hindus and Muslims, armed with guns, knives, iron bars, swords and even hockey sticks, fought a pitched battle in Dariyapur and Babunagar areas of Ahmedabad on Friday. One policeman had been pulled off his bike by a mob and burnt alive. Thursday an angry mob stormed the residence of former Congress MP Ehsan Jaffri in Ahmedabad and set it ablaze resulting in death of Jaffri and 19 other family members. Wonder who's making money or racking up political points - or both - out of this? Oh. Well, that's a reason. But if it's orchestrated, it's slick. And if it's not, it means the "colorful native costume" for Gujarat should include tasteful Nehru-style jackets with real, real long sleeves. ("Mukkerjee! You're not going out like that, are you? Where's your drooling bib?")
It appears that these riots are cut from the same cloth as the sectarian riots that accompanied the partition of India in 1948. While the Moslem community in India was peaceful in the days after the 13 December attack on parliament, the combination of the Ayodhya mosque situation and the lack of resolution of the Kashmir and terrorism situation since 13 Dec has brought previously simmering tensions back to the surface. These riots have featured members of the ruling coalition virtually leading in some of these eruptions of violence. Whether Vajpayee can control his own followers, win the upcoming Parliamentary elections, and restore civilian peace is going to be very questionable indeed. To a large extent, he had in hand a willingness of the Indian Moslem community to acquiese in a mobilization against Pakistan provided that the BJP would preserve the internal status quo. Now radical elements of both the Hindu and Moslem communities have destroyed this delicate balance.
In the past, such crises have been resolved by ascribing the prime cause to perfidious foreigners, which then becomes a causus belli. Vajpayee may be regretting not adopting a more agressive stand in Kashmir prior to the riots, which would have deflected more of the recent criticism his government is rightfully receiving. Reading the Hindustan Times and ToI today gives the reader that the situation is truly out of control, with local Gujarat officials condoning anti Muslim and anti Christian riots. Posted by Tom Roberts 3/1/2002 4:41:15 PM
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03/01/2002 ||
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Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's decision to skip the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Australia deprives India of an opportunity to push its views on terrorism and the current border tension with Pakistan at the highest level to the largest gathering of its kind. Vajpayee, who was scheduled to leave for Australia on Thursday but decided to cancel the visit following the outbreak of communal violence in Gujarat, was to emphasise in his address the need for a collective response by the Commonwealth to the problem of international terrorism. Though External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh would represent India in the absence of the prime minister and convey India's sentiments, the presence of the prime minister at the meeting would have had a much bigger impact, diplomatic observers said. If I was a real conspiracy theorist, I'd opine that the Council of Boskone/Ernst Stavro Blofeld/Professor Moriarty had ordered the riots up this week just to keep the PM at home. Perhaps there should be references to a Grassy Knoll in here, but the rioting otherwise appears pointless. Even in the Mysterious East, people only do things for a reason, even if the reasons are sometimes skewed.
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03/01/2002 ||
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Major religious parties in the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal will contest the October elections jointly at a common platform. This was decided at a meeting held on under the Chairmanship of Maulana Shah Ahmad Noorani of Jamiat Ulema-e-Pakistan. Jama'at-i-Islami's acting duce Syed Munawar Hasan and Naib Amir Liaquat Baloch, JUI's Maulana Samiul Haq, Markazi Jamiat Ahl-e-Hadith's Prof. Sajid Mir, JUI's Hafiz Hussain Ahmad and Riaz Durrani, JUP's K.M. Azhar, Pir Ijaz Hashmi and others attended the meeting.
The meeting also condemned setting up offices of two American political parties in Pakistan. It was observed that these parties will work to bring forward secular forces in Pakistan and will work against the solidarity of the country. Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal appears to be the umbrella organization for all the major player religio-loons opposing Musharraf's policies.
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03/01/2002 ||
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Security forces have killed 11 Pakistan-backed Islamic snuffies, including two self-styled district commanders, in Kashmir. A policeman also died during one of the shoot outs. Six of the slain terrorists belonged to Hizbul Mujahedeen. Two were members of Lashkar-e-Taiba. Three other terror thugs and a police officer died in different shoot outs in Poonch and Udhampur districts. Oh, dear. Now they'll have to go out and recruit some more cannon fodder. Luckily, the supply's never exhausted.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
03/01/2002 ||
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At least 15 Maoists were shot dead in operations by Nepalese security forces in various parts of the country. In Burtiwang security forces retaliated when a group of armed gunnies tried to rob a bank and attack a police post. Security forces also arrested five thugs including a wounded rebel from Resunga.
Akhil Revolutionary, the "students'" wing of the Maoist party has called a two-day strike of schools and other educational institutions on March 4 and 5 in the Kathmandu valley. On the eve of the shut down, the outfit attacked various schools and campuses in the city. They burned computers at a boarding school in Maitidevi and destroyed furniture of a business school in Gaushala. Exams coming up, were they?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
03/01/2002 ||
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Militant Islamic groups in Pakistan have provided support to one another in the past, but an alliance that could include coordinated attacks would pose a new level of challenge to Pakistani authorities, who have been trying to head off a drift toward lawlessness. Along with Jaish-e-Muhammad, the groups believed by Pakistani intelligence officials to have formed the alliance are Sipah-e-Sahaba, Harkat ul-Mujahedeen, and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, all banned by President Musharraf as part of his promised crackdown.
The Pakistani police today arrested dozens of activists from the banned groups, all of which are listed by the United States as terrorist organizations. Officials said those picked up were on a new list of about 90 militants to be arrested, on top of some 2,000 arrested in the initial phase of the crackdown, which began after the Jan. 12 speech by General Musharraf pledging an all-out antiterrorist campaign. Lashkar-i-Jhangvi and Sipah-e-Sahaba concentrate more on bumping off Shiites and other infidels. Jaish's orginal cadres came from Harkat and the two seem to have overlapping directorates. Lashkar and Sipah probably do, too.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
03/01/2002 ||
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Yemen said Friday up to 100 U.S. military advisers were going to the Arab state to train Yemeni forces hunting remnants of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network. The Wall Street Journal reported earlier Friday that the White House had approved a mission to send hundreds of troops to train and advise Yemeni forces. The Yemeni official did not say when the U.S. troops would arrive. Ummm... Careful where you step. My jaw's someplace on the floor.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
03/01/2002 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
