When I read this piece of news I was stunned by the intolerant stance taken by Beijing. Apparently "security reasons" is the cause of this ban. To me this is absolutely unacceptable as it borders on the ridiculous and shows how extreme the officially God forsaken country is. Athletes are also prohibited from bearing any kind of religious symbol at Olympic facilities.
Well if Bibles are banned, are Korans banned too? Well I would think Muslim athletes will surely be denied their sacred book too. As far as I know devout Muslims will not accept such nonsense. This seems like an insult on Islam itself. To take it further are Muslim headscarves banned to? They certainly are a religious symbols and they will be banned unless Chinese are hypocrites.
Furthermore, what will happen to Jews and their skullcaps? How about the Sikhs and their turbans? Well it can go on forever but the whole message Beijing is giving that they are bigoted Mao Tse Tung butt kissers money worshipers. Good job Hu Jintao your men have insulted the whole wide world.
Of course this can only culminate in one thing - the mass boycott of the Beijing Olympics. To me this would surely make my day as I have already decided that the Chinese government has absolutely no ethics and is one hundred percent morally bankrupt. All because of oil and money China ganged up with Russia to support the rape of Darfur. Genocide takes place there because they block all international efforts to stop the Sudanese. Remember the Burmese who died in their struggle for freedom! China and the Asean especially despicable Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore gave the finger to the democracy movement.
May you burn evil China!
~multum in parvo~
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;;Buddhism and Islam: A Crisis Emerges
3 mad rant(s) » Add your own! RANDTed: stmaverick at 4:39:00 AM
From the BBC News website:
Attack on giant Pakistan Buddha
Suspected pro-Taleban militants have tried to blow up an ancient carving of Buddha in north-west Pakistan. The statue, thought to date from the second century BC, sustained only minimal damage in the attack near Manglore in remote Swat district. The area has seen a rise in attacks on "un-Islamic" targets in recent months. This is the first such attack in Pakistan and is reminiscent of the Taleban's 2001 destruction of the giant Buddhas at Bamiyan in Afghanistan.
[ Read article ]
The last time this happened was at Bamiyan, Afghanistan [ read article ], where the world's largest Buddhist statues were destroyed by the then-ruling Taliban regime for being "un-Islamic". Although the Taliban are now no longer in power, and on the run from US-NATO forces pursuing them in the mountainous regions of Afghanistan bordering Pakistan, already new extremists have stepped forward in Pakistan to continue their heinous crimes.
..the Bamiyan Buddhas survived for sixteen centuries in the remote fastness of the Afghan Hindu Kush. Neither the ravages of time, nor the conquering armies of Islam--not even the scourge of Genghis Khan--had laid them low.. - Andrew Forbes, CPAmedia.com
Supposedly following the destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas, an international organization was established to protect and conserve religious sites worldwide [ read article ]. Granted, their jurisdiction probably accounts for nothing in the tribal-controlled border regions of Pakistan. Still, this startling lack of action on their part (aside from the expected cries of outrage and condemnation) is worrisome, as it demonstrates the terrorists' capability to continue their activities unimpeded, despite the world's opposition and horror.
It is obvious enough that the terrorists possess an agenda against all those who are not Muslims. Even better, considering events in Iraq (and the Middle East in general), they're more than willing to wage war against Muslims as well who do not see their side of the coin. Isn't it any wonder Islamophobia is at its height, and the United States is taking an increasingly hardline stance against nations suspected of harboring Muslim terrorists?
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;;This is a pretty short post, just a picture that made me ROFLMAO when I was surfing around in an anime forum the other day. No comments required.
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;;The Soviet Union apparently considered the Aral to be "nature's error", and a Soviet engineer said in 1968 that "it is obvious to everyone that the evaporation of the Aral Sea is inevitable"
Humans are the most destructive living creatures on Earth. We invade every corner of the Earth and sometimes horribly destroy our environments. In the worst of cases every living creature including fellow people are affected by our actions. War is not the worst case as we only slaughter each other for utterly stupid and evil reasons. Let me tell you about the biggest man made ecological disaster ever.
When I was still in primary school I was fascinated with the Caspian Sea, Aral Sea and Lake Baikal. They had the charm of an oasis in a desert. Sadly the Aral Sea is now a utter catastrophe. The worst thing is stupid communist Soviets are to be blamed.
The problem started when the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers feeding the Aral Sea had their water diverted for cotton production in 1918. There were no real problem until the 1960s when cotton production and water usage of the rivers doubled. Thus, with most of the sea's water supply had been diverted, and in the 1960s the Aral Sea began to shrink. From 1961 to 1970, the Aral's sea level fell at an average of 20 cm a year; in the 1970s, the average rate nearly tripled to 50–60 cm per year, and by the 1980s it continued to drop, now with a mean of 80–90 cm each year.
Here we can see the dramatic shrinking of the sea.
Here how parts of the former Aral Sea looks like now. It's very, very sad. The higher ground use to be Aral's shore.
Even before the sea started to dry up the Soviets were starting to pollute Aral with their cotton fertiliser and industrial complexes. The Soviet Union apparently considered the Aral to be "nature's error", and a Soviet engineer said in 1968 that "it is obvious to everyone that the evaporation of the Aral Sea is inevitable". Therefore, nobody in the Soviet Union gave two hoots about the Aral. Into the height of the Cold War weapons testing further poisoned the sea. By 1987 commercial fisheries also collapsed when the submerged part of Aral became to salty because of the shrinking sea.
Today the toxic legacy continues. Desert winds continually blow clay and salt (polluted) from the dry Aral seabed unto surrounding areas. Respiratory disease and cancer are all too common in those areas. The people have to suffer from the mistakes from the Soviet's past wrongs. Children paying for the mistakes of their ancestors.
What hope do you o'great Aral? From the fourth biggest inland body of water into sad puddles as remnants of your former glory.
~multum in parvo~
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;;
The tragic image of 13-year-old Omayra Sanchez trapped in debris caused by a mudslide following the eruption of a volcano in Colombia in 1985. Red Cross rescue workers had apparently repeatedly appealed to the government for a pump to lower the water level and for other help to free the girl. Finally rescuers gave up and spent their remaining time with her, comforting her and praying with her. She died of exposure after about 60 hours.
Photo credits: Frank Fournier (pictured below)
Click here to read about Frank's story of Omayra. May you rest in peace Omayra.
~multum in parvo~
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;;
This picture really captures the tragedy of Beslan. An innocent child's life snatched away by evil humans that show contempt to the sanctity of life. May you all rest in peace, victims of a tragedy. Photo credits: Yuri Kozyrev, Time Magazine.
I dedicate this picture to our Bohemian who loves this kind of pictures. May you be cured of writer's block and be prevented from losing your passion.
~multum in parvo~
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;;Courtesy of StampAndShout.com:
From The Star Online "Attacks kill 112 Shi'ite Pilgrims in Iraq" and Iraq Body Count (as of 1200 hours; 7th March, 2007):
Civilians reported killed by military intervention in Iraq: 60,689 on average
...for our children's sake, say NO to war!
~verus rara avis~
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;;Comfort Women - Denial by The Arrogant Japs
3 mad rant(s) » Add your own! RANDTed: Albert at 8:39:00 AMThe recent denialof evidence that women were forced to become sex slaves by the Japanese army during World War II by the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is truly sickening. His statements proves the ultra-nationalistic arrogance of the majority of Japanese. Shinzo is a big disgrace as are most Japanese.
Now let us go into the issue of comfort women itself. Who were the comfort women? They are simply the sex slaves who served in the Imperial Japanese army during their wars (mostly World War II). The majority of the women were from Korea and China. Others came from the Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, Dutch East Indies, and other Japanese-occupied countries and regions. I hate all wretched Japanese who deny their war crimes. Those who deny those horrendous crime must suffer painful death and burn in the fires of hell for eternity with all those bastard soldiers, generals, minister and the cursed dead bloody emperor.
At the beginning of the Imperial Japanese wars prostitutes were sought to service Japanese soldiers in order to increase the morale and ultimately the military effectiveness of Japanese soldiers. These prostitutes were found through middlemen who put advertisements all over the Japanese empire. However, these sources of sex workers started to dry up after some time. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs also resisted further issuance of travel visas for Japanese prostitutes, feeling it tarnished the image of the Japanese Empire.
The military then started acquiring common women especially from Korea and occupied China through kidnapping, trickery and fraud. These girls were to endure serial rapes and gang-rapes by up to 40 men a day while the Japanese prostitutes managed them. As the war progressed the situation worsened as locals leaders (especially in China) were forced to acquire sex slaves for the Japanese. Imagine sending your neighbourhood girls to a hell of rape. Japanese soldiers also carried out the "Three Alls Policy", which included indiscriminately kidnapping and raping local civilians as another source of their sex slaves. I call upon the PLA to inflict this acts upon you. You bloody yellow monkeys will be crushed by we yellow dragons. Yellow hairless gorilla gang-rapist really deserved to be bombed by the Marines.
Comfort women lived in a world of sexual hell. Japanese soldiers routinely beat and tortured these girls. Being raped by countless men a day many girls sustained genital injuries.You bloody damn sub-human bastards even deny the Nanjing Massacre. See what happens if the PLA perpetrate the Rape of Tokyo in the Third Sino-Japanese War. Death to the yellow devils from Japan. May you be damned for eternity.
Yasuji Kaneko. He's gonna burn in hell.Yasuji Kaneko's words.
"They cried out, but it didn't matter to us whether the women lived or died," Kaneko said in an interview at his Tokyo home. "We were the Emperor's soldiers. Whether in military brothels or in the villages, we raped without reluctance."
Women were divided into three or four categories, depending on their length of service. The "freshest" women were the least likely to suffer from STDs and were placed in the highest category. Virgins were usually given to officers to have their hymen penetrated violently. As time went on, the comfort women were downgraded as the likelihood of their acquiring STDs became more certain. Any girl suspected of being pregnant underwent extremely crude abortions. more often than not killing the women through over-bleeding during surgical removals. Girls deemed too used or diseased they were abandoned, disposed as they were treated like sex objects (toys) to be thrown away when spoilt. During their retreat from the American forces the Japanese sometimes tried to hide their comfort women. They would stash these women in secret caves and blast the entrance, causing landslides that sealed the cave. Many women reported having their uterus's rot from the diseases acquired from being raped by thousands of men over several years, at times requiring surgical removal. A handful of ex-comfort women survive till this day.
Despite that the world knows the truth of these horrendous war crimes most Japanese refuse to acknowledge them out of outright contempt toward the world. Germans acknowledge the evils of the Third Reich while Japanese deny the war crimes of Imperial Japan. How wicked can the Japanese be? As of now an ongoing campaign to obtain an official apology from Japanese takes place.
Here is an excerpt story of a story about former comfort woman, Par Kumjoo found here.
Whether it was morning or night, once one soldier left, the next soldier came. Twenty men would come in one day...
-- We would try to talk each other out of committing suicide, but even with that, women still did. There were women who stole opium and took it. If they took a lot of it, they would vomit blood and die. There were people who died after gulping medicine whose name they didn't even know. There were also people who hanged themselves with their clothing when inside the toilet. Because there were people who tried to kill themselves even if they only had some string, we tried to hide string from each other...
-- Then, about six months after I was made a "military comfort woman," I told a colonel in the army, "Do you think we are your maids and your prostitutes? How can you be a human being after making us do such things? We came because we were told we were going to a factory, and we didn't come knowing we would be prostituted." I spat in his face.
-- From there, that soldier said, "It is the command of the army. The country's order is the Emperor's order. If you have something to say, you can say it to the Emperor." Then he beat me. I was in a coma for three days. Even when I regained consciousness, I couldn't move. Even now I feel pain from that time, and scars remain.
That's all for now. There are easter eggs written in wretched language somewhere in this post.
~multum in parvo~
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;;Today is
I cannot quite remember what exactly it was that I felt when we drove out to the vast desolate plains of
I had named the test site Trinity. In retrospect, it was blasphemous of me to suggest a place of destruction to be named as such. Why I chose the name is not clear, but I know what thoughts were in my mind. There is a poem of John Donne, written just before his death. From it a quotation:
"As West and East
In all flat Maps—and I am one—are on,
So death doth touch the Resurrection."
That still does not make a Trinity, but in another, Donne opens,
"Batter my heart, three person'd God;—."
Beyond this, I have no clue whatever as to why I named it so.
The skies finally cleared at about
The passing of twenty minutes seemed like an eternity, a lifetime. I laugh now to think whose lifetime it was. Perhaps it was mine; that would explain my wasting away. The flash reached us first, illuminating our surroundings brighter than any sun can, swathing us with colors of purple, to green, and eventually to white before the roar of the shock wave hit us like a million-gun salute forty seconds later. The presence of the 12km-tall mushroom cloud was so immense, so loud, so bright, so hot – and it was so very hot, like being in an oven in that bunker ten miles away- that I felt like I was standing at the feet and mercy of a malevolent and omnipresent god.
If the radiance of a thousand suns
were to burst into the sky,
that would be like
the splendor of the Mighty One—
I am become Death, the shatterer of Worlds.
I am become death. I led this team, a team composed of the most brilliant physicists around that I had handpicked myself, into creating the most devastating weapon ever invented in the history of mankind, and in two weeks the world will witness the full extent of its powers. We will watch and shake and tremble at what we will do to this earth and at how we will change it.
At how I will change it.
The name on my badge says "J. R. Oppenheimer", but it will not mean a thing to those Japs. I am keeping this journal as proof that I once was famous, I once graduated Summa Cum Laude from Harvard in just three years, I once was the bright founder of modern theoretical physics; and I am keeping this journal as proof that as of today, July 16th 1945, I wish I never were any of the above.
They will know me as the man who made the A-bomb.
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;;I have to share this piece of news. Just today a giant sinkhole swallowed dozens of homes and killed two people in Guatemala City, Guatemala. The sinkhole is said to be 100m deep and 40m wide. Definitely a hole of monstrous proportions. Here are some pictures of the HOLE from this web page.
Try bungee jumping down this sinkhole.
Top view of the sinkhole.
Scary hole.
Bye for now
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