(The disjointed identity. I have a feeling men are better off tuning into the reality Moore puts forward in that aggressive self identity is the pitfall of success on Earth.)
http://www.mensnewsdaily.com/
NO, there isn't any unemployment anywhere to speak of, right? Sure.
Great Lake Lunacy: Michigan Government Reveals Third World Aspirations
By Doug Powers
All governments, Federal, state and local, do dumb and irresponsible things — it’s the nature of the beast — but my home state of Michigan is cutting a trail through Idiot Jungle, overworked machete in hand, for other government boneheads to follow. If we’re not careful, we might run into California and accidentally hack each other to death — mercifully.
Michigan has an over $1 billion budget deficit and an unemployment rate so high that we’re a 7/11 closing away from overtaking Mississippi for the lead. If this keeps up, I fully expect the Upper Peninsula secede to Wisconsin.
Businesses in the state are fleeing the area like screaming waitresses with torn blouses running out of a Kennedy family reunion. One recent example is Comerica Bank, a 160 year Michigan staple, which recently announced they would be relocating their headquarters to Dallas, Texas. At least they left Comerica Park — for now, but I’m sure the movers will be back to pack that up too.
http://mensnewsdaily.com/2007/04/07/great-lake-lunacy-michigan-government-reveals-third-world-aspirations/
"First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win." - Mahatma Gandhi
April 5, 2007
International Response to Solomon Islands Tsunami Victims Gathers Momentum
By voanews
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies says the international response to tsunami victims in the Solomon Islands is gathering pace. At least 34 people have been killed and more than 5,000 others displaced by a powerful earthquake and tsunami that struck the South Pacific nation Monday. Lisa Schlein reports for VOA from Red Cross headquarters in Geneva.
The Red Cross Federation reports about 15,000 people are affected by the tsunami. Government health officials say the figure could be higher, with up to 50,000 people affected by the disaster.
Getting aid to the victims has been difficult. But, Red Cross Spokeswoman, Anna Nelson, says it should be easier now that direct air travel into Gizo, the hardest hit island, has resumed.
Over the past few days, she says relief items have had to be flown to an airstrip on the island of Mundo, which is not far from Gizo. From there, she says the supplies have been sent by boat to the more remote regions.
“In addition, planes from New Zealand, Australia and France have all been dispatched with relief items. So, the international response in terms of just getting the items there has definitely gathered pace,” she said. ”And, in terms of the Red Cross, Red Crescent response, the International Federation has sent a team of 10 disaster management experts who are now on the ground and are now active in that operation in the affected area. And, those include water and sanitation, health, relief experts who can really lend a hand and support to this response as well.”
http://mensnewsdaily.com/2007/04/05/international-response-to-solomon-islands-tsunami-victims-gathers-momentum/
Common Errors in Custody Cases: Losing Your Cool—Especially over the Phone
By Glenn Sacks
I’ve previously discussed how men can get set up during custody cases in visitation exchange traps, and I frequently caution men to be on guard during their legal battles.
Caution should be heeded not only during in-person exchanges with your ex-spouse, but in all types of interactions. Guy White, a private investigator/custody case advisor who seems to have seen everything when it comes to divorce and custody issues, has an interesting section on this in his book Child Custody A to Z. He discusses some of the common mistakes men make during their court proceedings that hurt their chances of gaining custody.
http://mensnewsdaily.com/2007/04/06/common-errors-in-custody-cases-losing-your-cool%e2%80%94especially-over-the-phone/
Podcast: The Woman’s Real Man (Parts 1 - 5)
By Bernard Chapin
The Woman’s Real Man
Written by Bernard Chapin
Read by Mike LaSalle
http://mensnewsdaily.com/2007/03/08/the-womans-real-man-pt-3/
Nancy Pelosi: Broken Left Speaker
http://blackandright.mensnewsdaily.com/2007/04/06/podcast-premium-pelosi/
Turning 21 in prison doing life without parole
By Denise Noe
A verse in one of my favorite Merle Haggard songs, “Mama Tried,” has the narrator sadly singing, “I turned twenty-one in prison doing life without parole.” While I expect people to think I’m making too much of what is “just a song,” I believe this particular song has an unusual depth and a relevancy to the all-too-common real life stories of young people, usually boys, who end up behind bars.
The song evokes an extreme sense of melancholy as it tells the tale of a young man who went profoundly wrong. The main message of the song is not to blame the narrator’s mother: “that leaves only me to blame because mama tried/She tried to raise me right but I refused.” He talks of a mother who “worked hours without rest/wanted me to have the best.” Yet, “despite all my Sunday learning/to the bad I kept on turning/that leaves only me to blame because mama tried.”
http://mensnewsdaily.com/2007/04/07/turning-21-in-prison-doing-life-without-parole/
What leads 'the call' of the bigotry of the Religious Right? According to these folks, not the oppression of taxation without representation. The idea/philosophy that the USA was 'saved' for the preservation of religion by the migration of the pilgrams and others that left England to practice their faith as they wished rather than as dictated by the British Monarchy through the Church of England.
http://www.cofe.anglican.org/
The Anglicans.
The Act of Uniformity 1559 (citation 1 Eliz c. 2) set the order of prayer to be used in the English Book of Common Prayer. Every man had to go to church once a week or be fined 12 pence, which was a lot for the poor. With this act Elizabeth made it a legal obligation to go to church every Sunday. The 'Act of Uniformity' reinforced the Book of Common Prayer.
The Seventh Day is a day of rest, not necessarily worship. As you'll have it, I suppose.
The Providential Call of the United States and its Constitution
By Steve Farrell
Sir, God raised up the United States and influenced her constitutional institutions for the very purpose of shielding and protecting the Church in the wilderness, and all men in their liberties, and of throwing a guard around His embryo kingdom till He should come, whose right it is to reign and subdue all enemies under his feet. - Parley P. Pratt, Quorum of the Twelve, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
http://mensnewsdaily.com/2007/04/06/the-providential-call-of-the-united-states-and-its-constitution/
MICHAEL MOORE HAS IT RIGHT.
Bush is a flash in the pan, not a trend of the USA.
It's completely obvious.
The claims the Republicans like to make about 2006 is that it was to teach them a lesson about fiscal responsiblity. That is not the reality I am seeing. The Republican constituency is coming away from it's 'hard line' politics. The Conservative Christians are finding their agenda as unrealistic as a political agenda and doesn't want to be a focus of ridicule. They feel Jesus got lost in their lives to political dogma that has cost the USA dearly in it's Surplus Treasury, soldiers, their families and the deaths of many innocent people that once lived in Iraq.
They are moving in a direction of participation of their democracy shared with others just as moral as they are. They are measuring themselves differently and inclusively.
So long as Republicans seem to believe there is a benefit politically to feel they need to apologize for the change in direction of the legislature in 2006, that nonsense will continue to present itself in the media. Won't last forever. Bush's house of cards is not only falling but being scattered to the winds.
Where all this comes to men? Their self identity? One aspect of feminism I absolutely loved was the fact it set free men as well as women.
Peace. The real place for the USA military is as Global Peacekeepers and not aggressors for profiteers.
Michael Moore Today
An Administration's Epic Collapse
By Joe Klein / Time
The first three months of the new Democratic Congress have been neither terrible nor transcendent. A Pew poll had it about right: a substantial majority of the public remains happy the Democrats won in 2006, but neither Nancy Pelosi nor Harry Reid has dominated the public consciousness as Newt Gingrich did when the Republicans came to power in 1995. There is a reason for that. A much bigger story is unfolding: the epic collapse of the Bush Administration.
The three big Bush stories of 2007--the decision to "surge" in Iraq, the scandalous treatment of wounded veterans at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center and the firing of eight U.S. Attorneys for tawdry political reasons--precisely illuminate the three qualities that make this Administration one of the worst in American history: arrogance (the surge), incompetence (Walter Reed) and cynicism (the U.S. Attorneys).
"...it is increasingly difficult to imagine yet another two years of slow bleed with a leader so clearly unfit to lead." -- Joe Klein, Time Magazine
We've seen this before leading to the Iraq Invasion.
"If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it."-- Joseph Goebbels
Cheney reasserts al-Qaida-Saddam connection
Vice president’s words come as latest Pentagon report again dismisses link
Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Vice President Dick Cheney repeated his assertions of al-Qaida links to Saddam Hussein’s Iraq on Thursday as the Defense Department released a report citing more evidence that the prewar government did not cooperate with the terrorist group.
Cheney contended that al-Qaida was operating in Iraq before the March 2003 invasion led by U.S. forces and that terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was leading the Iraqi branch of al-Qaida. Others in al-Qaida planned the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
“He took up residence there before we ever launched into Iraq, organized the al-Qaida operations inside Iraq before we even arrived on the scene and then, of course, led the charge for Iraq until we killed him last June,” Cheney told radio host Rush Limbaugh during an interview. “As I say, they were present before we invaded Iraq.”
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=9543
"Thomas Jefferson gave states the authority to do this, so we'd be remiss to pass up on that opportunity."
-- Wisconsin State Rep. Frank Boyle
April 5th, 2007 6:32 pm
Boyle introduces impeachment bill
By Ron Brochu / Superior Daily Telegram
MADISON, Wis. - State Rep. Frank Boyle has introduced a resolution in the Wisconsin Assembly calling for the impeachment of President George W. Bush.
The rural Douglas County Democrat admits his bill has little chance of passage, but said it’s justified.
“Will it go anywhere? No. Does it need to be done? Absolutely,” Boyle said Wednesday afternoon in a telephone interview.
Wisconsin is among six states in which similar bills have been introduced. Boyle’s resolution is fashioned after measures in Illinois and New Jersey. The other states are Maine, New Mexico, Washington and Vermont, he said, conceding none of those legislatures so far have approved the measure.
The state lawmaker alleges President Bush authorized torture in violation of the Geneva Conventions, held suspects in prison without charge or trial, and manipulated intelligence reports to launch war against Iraq, resulting in Iraqi civilian and U.S. military deaths. He accuses President Bush of leaking classified national secrets as part of a political agenda that exposed covert agents to harm and retribution.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=9536
'Making Our Own Way' ...by Dan DeWalt
At the very moment that citizens' calls for impeachment are growing in number and in volume, our elected representatives are shrinking into their holes, plugging their ears and repeating out loud "I will not listen I will not listen."
The latest entrant into this hall of shame is Vermont Senate President pro-temp, Peter Shumlin. He grabbed the headlines last week by declaring himself to be in favor of impeachment as an obvious remedy to a lying and dangerous administration. However, he left himself an easy out by declaring that he would not interfere with the Vermont Democratic Speaker of the House, Gaye Symington who has squarely thrown herself in the protect Bush camp by denying Vermonters the right to have a debate on an impeachment resolution that is now in the House Judiciary committee. Now a Senate impeachment resolution has been introduced but Shumlin won't let it move forward, saying that there is not enough support for it in the statehouse and it wouldn't have any impact on the Congress. Here is a politician who shows every sign of thinking himself gubernatorial material, but he doesn't even have a fundamental sense of history.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/index.php?id=854
Impeachment Declaration from Texas
http://www.legis.state.tx.us/tlodocs/80R/billtext/html/HC00154I.htm
RESOLVED, That George W. Bush, if found guilty of the charges contained herein, should be removed from office and disqualified to hold any other office in the United States.
Be It Resolved: You Can Impeach the President
Official State Impeachment Text
Impeachment Text for Cities & Towns
Impeachment Text for County Democratic Committees
Impeachment Text for State Assemblies and/or Legislatures
Jefferson's Manual, Section LIII, 603
You Can Impeach the President
http://www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/index.php?id=622
Camp Casey Easter Update
Hey you Camp Casey folks:
Get your mudboots and come on to Camp Casey!!!! They can't Rain Out a Revolution!
Camp Casey may be under water, but George has some barns in Crawford that he just might invite his neighbors into!!! It will be a lean Camp Casey if the rains continue-but 10 to a hotel room ain't bad!
Camp Casey is all about flexibility. In August 2005, 12,000showed up in the ditches! For Easter 2007, we can handle a little water and mud to end the war!
Come on to Crawford!!! (But be Flexible!!!)
- Ann Wright, Camp Casey Commander
http://www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/index.php?id=851
Camp Casey Easter 2007
http://www.gsfp.org/article.php?id=320
Military: 8 U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq
By Kim Gamel / Associated Press
BAGHDAD - The U.S. military reported Thursday that eight U.S. soldiers were killed in the Baghdad area over the past three days as militants fought back against a security plan in its eighth week. An Army helicopter went down south of the capital, wounding four, after an Iraqi official said insurgents fired on it.
Four British soldiers — including two women — died Thursday in an ambush that Prime Minister Tony Blair called an "act of terrorism," suggesting it may have been carried out by elements linked to Iran but stopping short of blaming Tehran.
One U.S. soldier died and two were wounded in a roadside bombing Thursday in restive Diyala province north of Baghdad, the military said. Four others died Wednesday in two roadside bombs explosions in southern Baghdad and north of the capital, while another was killed by small-arms fire in the eastern part of the city. Two other soldiers were killed by small-arms fire on Tuesday — one in eastern Baghdad and another on foot patrol in the southern outskirts of the capital.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=9538
April 6th, 2007 3:07 am
Kucinich: Bush's approach to Iran raises questions about impeachment
By Holly Ramer / Associated Press
AMHERST, N.H. --Democratic presidential hopeful Dennis Kucinich said President Bush may be setting himself up for impeachment by setting the stage for war with Iran.
"The administration's preparations for war in and of itself have raised questions relating to impeachment," Kucinich told The Associated Press between campaign stops in New Hampshire.
The Ohio congressman said he has met with diplomats, ambassadors and other national leaders around the world in recent months to discuss Iran.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=9539
Chesapeake 'Impeach Bush Cheney' sign may be illegal
By Janette Rodrigues / Virginian-Pilot
CHESAPEAKE — Note to the political pundit or prankster who put “Impeach Bush Cheney” signs in trees around Chesapeake: Political speech is protected, but not in print on a road right of way.
Under state law, it’s illegal to place signs in the area between the road and the property line or in the medians.
The city sent out an inspector today to see if the eye-catching, cloth sign off Interstate 64, just east of the High Rise Bridge, is on state, municipal or private land. If it’s not on private property, it’s coming down.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=9537
Public Punditry Contest!
http://freewayblogger.blogspot.com/2007/03/public-punditry-contest.html
Swift Boat donor's appointment sidesteps Congress
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush named Republican fundraiser Sam Fox as U.S. ambassador to Belgium on Wednesday, using a maneuver that allowed him to bypass Congress where Democrats had derailed Fox's nomination.
Democrats had denounced Fox for his 2004 donation to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. The group's TV ads, which claimed that Sen. John Kerry exaggerated his military record in Vietnam, were viewed as a major factor in the Massachusetts Democrat's losing the election.
Recognizing Fox did not have the votes to obtain Senate confirmation, Bush withdrew the nomination last month. On Wednesday, with Congress out of town for a spring break, the president used his power to make recess appointments to put Fox in the job without Senate confirmation.
This means Fox can remain ambassador until the end of the next session of Congress, effectively through the end of the Bush presidency.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=9531
April 5th, 2007 3:52 am
Location finally set for Anderson-Hannity debate
Sean Hannity likes to 'seek' statements/moments of political significance to support his 'idea' of reality. Sean Hannity could never present the entire political picture of the Middle East and survive two minutes of any program he does. His most recent statement was "The liberals side with extremists, like Assad, in the Middle East." That has absolutely no basis in fact and he knows it. He just doesn't care about fact unless he can manipulate it into his own reality trying to 'steer' enough of the electorate in the 'fiscal' direction of Republicans.
FOX IS TOXIC !
FOX has this news station called 'The Big Talker' whereby all they talk about are financial affairs of the individual. They chronically advertise ONE INVESTMENT FIRM. They allude to the others but for the most part advise against them while advertising a particular firm that matches their political affiliations. The 'Religious Right' really needs to join the real world and so do their news agencies. They don't live in a reality that the majority of this country lives and it's very sad. Very.
Speaker Pelosi would never hurt this country or any of it's citizens in a million years. No one can say the same of the Republicans that conduct illegal wars killing not only Americans, but, diverting it's treasury to profiteers without a second thought to the deaths of completely innocent people such as the Iraqis. We need to re-establish the No Fly Zones as we leave the Iraqi people to solve their own problems.
Kingsbury Hall site of May 4 face-off; still no moderator
By Doug Smeath /
One of the last remaining issues standing in the way of a Sean Hannity-Rocky Anderson debate has been resolved.
Brian Burton, programming adviser for the Associated Students of the University of Utah, said Wednesday that the school will host the May 4 debate on campus at Kingsbury Hall. Anderson and Hannity will discuss the war in Iraq and calls for impeachment of President Bush.
Earlier discussions surrounding plans for a face-off between the liberal Salt Lake City mayor and the conservative Fox News Channel talk-show pundit left uncertain the availability of any campus venues to host the event, because the university's commencement ceremonies are being held the same day.
Tuesday, March 27th, 2007'
Go See Air Guitar Nation!'
...by Björn Turöque
Air Guitar Nation has received rave reviews from nearly every media outlet! But we still need your love!
Tickets are available here
If you’ve seen the film, you know it rocks. Please forward this info to friends in NY and LA. If you haven’t seen it, please check it out. It’s a well made, hilarious movie that will make you laugh out loud and actually get sucked in to the story, as the New York Times notes:
“The movie's wild performances and droll humor are tough to resist. So are its obsessive yet self-mocking heroes: the Los Angeles-based actor David Jung, who performs as C-Diddy, who has a kung phooey stage persona and wears a Hello Kitty pouch like a warrior's breastplate; and the New York writer-musician Dan Crane, a k a Björn Turöque, whose parched wit and jackhammer performance style suggest Bill Murray trapped in the body of Sid Vicious. Mr. Crane also wrote and sang the closing credits theme, a garage band anthem that lodges in the brain like a fishhook.” -- Matt Zoller Seitz, The New York Times
http://michaelmoore.com/mustread/index.php?id=850
April 5th, 2007 4:21 am
Friendly fire may have killed 2 in Iraq
By Lolita C. Baldor / Associated Press
WASHINGTON - A week after acknowledging a litany of errors in the friendly fire death of former NFL star Pat Tillman, the Army said Wednesday two soldiers who died in Iraq in February may also have been killed by their own comrades.
The Army said it is investigating the deaths of Pvt. Matthew Zeimer, 18, of Glendive, Mont., and Spc. Alan E. McPeek, 20, of Tucson, Ariz., who were killed in Ramadi, in western Iraq, on Feb. 2. The families of the two soldiers were initially told they were killed by enemy fire.
According to Army Col. Daniel Baggio, unit commanders in Iraq did not at first suspect they were killed by U.S. forces, but an investigation by the unit concluded that may be the case.
Defund the war - Rebuild the Gulf Coast
In solidarity with the people of the Gulf Coast and understanding that every bomb dropped in Iraq explodes over the U.S. Gulf Coast, Veterans For Peace and partner organizations will return to the area devastated by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, to aid in reconstruction efforts. The project will raise money and volunteers to aid in rebuilding homes for survivors of the hurricanes. In addition, we will raise awareness of the continued plight of the gulf coast survivors and the persistent commitment to an illegal, immoral war fought at staggering costs, both financially and in human casualties.
Three arrested in Grassley office occupation
Three Iowa peace activists participating in a national campaign of sustained civil disobedience Monday were arrested when they refused to leave the office of Republican Sen. Charles Grassley, Des Moines police said.Lindsay Ayling, 19, and Brian Perbix, 20, Grinnell College students, and Chris Gaunt of Grinnell had delivered a 350-signature petition that urged the senator to stop the funding for the war in Iraq. They hoped to elicit a pledge from Grassley that he would vote against President Bush's $93 billion war appropriation request.The three members of the Occupation Project, a national civil disobedience campaign, were charged with trespassing. They were held overnight in the Polk County Jail and will be arraigned today.
http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070306/NEWS/703060401/-1/SPORTS09
and
http://vcnv.org/arrests-made-at-senator-grassleys-iowa-office
New Zealand Herald
Flood waters sweep through Far North
The War Memorial Park in Kawakawa.
Photo / Barney Houston
7:05PM Thursday March 29, 2007
Flood waters have drenched the top of the North Island, sweeping away buildings, closing roads and cutting power in areas from the Far North to the Bay of Plenty.
Police said there had been "no confirmed reports" of loss of life but that several people had been rescued after being swept away.
Two children and two adults have been trapped by flood waters in a house at Punaruku, on the Whangaruru Harbour, Newstalk ZB reported in its 7pm bulletin.
Northland police are urging residents in the Bay of Islands' town of Opua to evacuate their homes and go to the Opua Cruising Club, due to cliff-top slips endangering several properties.
Several buildings - including the motel at Haruru Falls and a house at Waioimo - are reported to have been swept away by flood waters, police said.
Emergency Civil Defence Operating Centres have been set up in Kaikohe and Whangarei in response to the severe weather, which saw two months' of rain fall in the Far North over 24 hours.
Storm was a one-in-150-year event
5:00AM Saturday March 31, 2007
By Martin Johnston
A farmhouse at Hikurangi Swamp, northwest of Whangarei. Photo / Brett Phibbs
North Islanders should be able to don sports gear and stow their parkas for most of the weekend: the week's storms have moved on.
"The next time Northland gets rain would be just a few showers on Sunday," MetService weather ambassador Bob McDavitt said last night.
The weekend forecast is for lighter and drier northwesterlies, replacing the moist northeast air flow over the country that flooded parts of eastern Northland.
Mr McDavitt said a front predicted to move over the South Island today should bring Wellington some wind tonight.
"As that front moves onto the North Island on Sunday it fades; a few showers, that's it.
Cleanest cars get gold emissions tick
5:00AM Tuesday April 03, 2007
By Mathew Dearnaley
The certificate that shows a car has passed the test. Photo / Richard Robinson
Auckland Regional Council transport chairman Joel Cayford is promising his middle-aged Volkswagen new spark plugs, despite winning a "green" certificate yesterday from the country's first licensed vehicle emissions workshop.
Dr Cayford said that when he bought the 1996 Volkswagen Polo four months ago he felt confident it would be a relatively clean-burning machine and planned to postpone a tune-up until its warrant expired in June.
"But I didn't think it would be that good after 10 years," he admitted after receiving his certificate at Anzac Automotive in Browns Bay, one of two workshops used yesterday to launch a national network of testing stations under the umbrella of an organisation called Zero Emissions.
But Dr Cayford, a Green Party member, had to make do with a green rather than gold "badge of honour" after failing to reach the latest Euro 4 emissions standard on one of three measures.
Flash: Everest, beyond the limit launch
How fitting to launch the Discovery Channel's new documentary series, Everest: Beyond the Limit, with a photographic exhibition from the programme at the Viaduct's not-so-hot spot Minus 5. The temperature is a constant minus 5C and the bar is fitted out with ice sculptures, ice chandeliers and ice-molded glasses filled with blue vodka cocktails.
The new series, which premieres on Anzac Day, documents the 2006 climbing season on Mt Everest - the second deadliest on record and the first time a double amputee, New Zealander Mark Inglis, has reached the summit. The series follows climbers from around the world, led by New Zealander Russell Brice, through the gruelling two-month attempt to reach the top. The Kiwi contingent on the film crew included cameraman Mark Whetu.
Timor leader's plea to NZ
East Timor presidential candidate Jose Ramos Horta says he'll swallow his pride and ask New Zealand to keep its troops in the tiny nation for years if he wins Monday's election.
And Prime Minister Helen Clark indicated that New Zealand would be willing to stay.
"This year with the presidential and parliamentary elections, East Timor is particularly volatile," she said yesterday.
"So long as the East Timor Government and the United Nations continue their support, it's hard to see a withdrawal in the near future."
The commitment to East Timor, which began in 1999, had been reduced, but it was lifted again last year when violence flared in the fledgling state.
'I was Monroe's daughter' claimed Anna Nicole
Anna Nicole Smith so idolised Marilyn Monroe she convinced herself she was the screen siren's daughter, according to a biography of the former Playboy bunny.
As Howard K. Stern, Smith's lawyer and lover, fights in a United States court to prove he's the father of her baby daughter Dannielynn, Great Big Beautiful Doll provides an insight into the life, fame and ultimately death of Smith.
The book was written in 1996 but has been updated since her death in February.
It shows Smith might not have been smart - she thought Los Angeles was in New York when Playboy first flew her out there in 1991 - but she used her story of a "small-town girl made good" to charm many rich and famous men, including Hugh Hefner, Donald Trump and of course, 89-year-old J. Howard Marshall II.
Art warms to climate change
5:00AM Saturday April 07, 2007
A giant metal sunflower stands atop a wind-swept hill in the world's southernmost city, an artistic statement gauging and protesting climate change near the ends of the Earth.
As icebergs melt and sea levels rise at the north and south poles due to global warming, dozens of artists are installing and performing works in Ushuaia, a small Argentine city on the island of Tierra del Fuego, to highlight the damage being done.
Sunflower: Sentinel for Climate Change is just one of the pieces on display this month at the so-called End of the World Biennial. But with its solar-panelled petals, thermometers and cameras, it is probably the most functional.
"I think all of us should do something" about global warming, said Argentine artist Joaquin Fargas. "The idea of Sunflower is that it becomes an icon, an emblem of the need for all of us to be witnesses to what is happening."
NZ's water pollution record slammed in international report
12:25PM Thursday April 05, 2007
New Zealand's increasing water pollution has been criticised in an international report.
The OECD Environmental Performance Review of New Zealand said better protection of surface and ground waters was needed because pollution was affecting rivers, streams and lakes. Irrigation was also taking a toll.
It said regulations on water quality or economic measures would avoid problems.
Environment Minister David Benson-Pope said last month that the Government was very clear that water was a public resource which the Government and local authorities continued to manage on behalf of all New Zealanders.
The Government had no intention of privatising water, or establishing water markets for trading water rights.
Editorial: Emissions tests for cars should be compulsory
5:00AM Saturday April 07, 2007
Being eco-friendly carries a certain cachet these days, but enough to pay $33.75 to obtain a sticker proclaiming your car has passed an emissions standards test? Zero Emissions, an organisation that plans a national network of testing stations, hopes so. Where the Government fears to tread, private enterprise has spied an opportunity.
The Auckland Regional Council did its bit to publicise the first of the stations, at Browns Bay, this week. A council-owned 2006 hybrid petrol-electric car proved extremely environmentally friendly, winning a top-rating gold certificate. Compact Toyota models from the North Shore City Council's fleet did similarly well, showing most of their fuel was being used for its intended purpose rather than pollution.
Spectre of Harry as hostage
5:00AM Saturday April 07, 2007
By Dominic Lawson
Harry has decided to be a career soldier. Photo / Reuters
As 15 members of the Armed Forces arrived back in Britain from their captivity by Iran's Revolutionary Guards, the officer already named by leaders of the Iraqi insurgency prize as the man they most want to capture is preparing to leave for Basra.
That officer is Second Lieutenant Harry Wales of the Household Cavalry.
The third in line to the throne declared himself to be "over the moon" when the Chief of the General Staff, General Sir Richard Dannatt, agreed to his being sent as the officer in command of a troop of 12 men in four Scimitar light tanks.
Dannatt took this decision only after lengthy Army consultations with the Royal Household and Government ministers.
I suspect that of those three groups, far and away the most reluctant was the Army itself. This is not a reflection on Harry Wales' soldiering qualities.
Self-satisfied President basks in his own glory
5:00AM Saturday April 07, 2007
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, shakes the hand of one of the 15 sailors after their surprise release. Photo / Reuters
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sat on the podium, a satisfied smile hovering around the corners of his mouth, clearly savouring the enormous surprise he was about to spring on the world.
One minute sermonising, the next pinning a medal on a grizzled revolutionary guard, this was, from the beginning, Ahmadinejad's day.
As he stepped forward for the last act, to meet the 15 captives at the centre of this extraordinary saga, the sky was lit up by a flash of lightning and a long rumble of thunder.
Editorial: A blow for Iran's hardliners
5:00AM Saturday April 07, 2007
The 15 British naval personnel taken captive by Iran have been released as a gesture, says Iran, to Easter. Christians everywhere will be happy to accept that excuse, even as they suspect that a more prosaic explanation lies in Iranian politics. The Easter reference is more apposite than possibly Iran knows.
This has been a story of commendable - dare we say Christian - restraint by Britain in the face of severe provocation and rank injustice.
When the 14 men and one woman were seized three weeks ago, on the pretext that they had entered Iranian waters, Britain's passive response might have been seen as a sign of weakness. Certainly, the United States might have reacted more aggressively if one of its ship inspection parties had been taken at gunpoint in the Shatt al Arab waterway between Iran and Iraq. But Britain's response has proved to be right.
Pope washes 12 men's feet in Holy Thursday service
12:23PM Friday April 06, 2007
ROME - Pope Benedict washed and dried the feet of 12 men at a traditional Holy Thursday service commemorating Christ's gesture of humility to his apostles on the night before he died.
The 79-year-old German Pope, approaching the second Easter of his pontificate, called on Catholics to pray for the "purification of the heart".
"We pray to help us not keep our lives to ourselves, but to devote them" to God, the Pope said.
At the midpoint of the service the Pontiff poured water over the right feet of 12 men sitting on raised platforms, and dried them.
Three charged over 2005 London bombings
2:21PM Friday April 06, 2007By Tim Castle
The first charges over the attacks in London in July, 2005 were laid today. File photo / Reuters
LONDON - Three men were charged today in connection with the July 7, 2005, suicide bomb attacks that killed 52 commuters on London's transport system, police said.
They are due to appear in court in London this weekend charged with conspiring with the bombers to cause explosions on the transport network or at tourist attractions in the capital.
"The allegation is that they were involved in reconnaissance and planning for a plot with those ultimately responsible for the bombings on July 7," said Sue Hemming, head of the Crown Prosecution Service's counter-terrorism division.
Arrests over 'Harry Potter train' attack
1:28PM Friday April 06, 2007
LONDON - Ten youths have been arrested after Harry Potter's train, the Hogwarts Express, was attacked by vandals, police said today.
More than 300 of the tourist train's windows -- famous for departing from imaginary platform 9 3/4 at King's Cross station in the Harry Potter books -- were smashed with hammers while it was in a depot in Lancashire.
The damage will cost at least 50,000 pounds to repair, according to train operator West Coast Railways (WCR).
Aborigines lose native title appeal over Darwin
6:00AM Friday April 06, 2007
DARWIN - Aborigines in Darwin have lost their appeal against a failed bid for native title recognition, in Australia's first case involving a large part of a capital city.
The Federal Court dismissed the landmark claim in April last year by nine Larrakia families over 575 sq km of crown land in Darwin and nearby Palmerston.
The court found the Larrakia had not maintained a continuous observance of traditional laws and customs since sovereignty, with "an interruption" occurring sometime between the late 1930s and early 1970s.
But the Northern Land Council (NLC), representing the traditional owners, immediately sought to appeal the ruling, despite the fact the claim was vigorously contested by the NT government and the Darwin City Council.
Their lawyer said the judgment had failed to deal with the concept of "a body of people united by a notion of custom".
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10432845
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