RoguePlanet

The severe repression and brutality against women in Afghanistan is not a matter of legitimate religious practice. Muslims around the world have condemned the brutal degradation of women and children by the Taliban regime. - Laura Bush, November 17, 2001

"I believe that President Bush has done and is doing more to empower women all across this world and here in our very own country than other American president has," said the vice president's daughter, Liz Cheney. "Today there are 50 million people in Iraq and Afghanistan who live in freedom who used to live in tyranny and half of these people are women."

Women in Saudi Arabia who walk unaccompanied, or are in the company of a man who is neither their husband nor a close relative, are at risk of arrest on suspicion of prostitution or other "moral" offences.

Nieves, a Filipina who was working as a maid in Riyadh in 1992, was invited by a married couple to celebrate the wife's birthday at a restaurant. She and a female friend decided to go. At the restaurant they were joined by a male friend of the couple. A group of mutawa'een (religious police) entered the restaurant, saw the group and arrested them. They suspected Nieves of being there for an introduction to the male friend of the couple. Nieves denied the accusation, but was deceived into signing a confession written in Arabic which she understood was a release order. That confession was the sole basis of her conviction and sentence - 25 days' imprisonment and 60 lashes which were carried out. -Amnesty International - Saudi Arabia Campaign Website

The Saudi interior minister has said women will not be allowed to vote in the country's municipal elections starting in February 2005.

In response to a question about women's getting the vote, Prince Nayef bin Sultan said simply: "I don't think that women's participation is possible." -
BBC News, October 11, 2004

Dr. Saleh al-Sheikh, the minister for Islamic affairs in Saudi Arabia, says a combination of factors determines a Saudi woman’s obligations -- the most important of which is raising a family. "The circumstance of women here in Saudi Arabia is a mix of tribal, social, and historical circumstances. And there is religion, too," says al-Sheikh.

Does he believe in equal rights for women?

"I believe in equal right for everyone according to their circumstances," says al-Sheikh. "Women do have rights, but they are based on our view of their obligations in life." -CBS News Website, March 28, 2005

On several of these visits, Guckert either entered or exited by a different entry/exit point than his usual one.

Movie, music groups to sue Internet2 users
By Ted Bridis
The Associated Press

WASHINGTON - The super-fast "Internet2" network that connects universities researching the next-generation Internet is also apparently popular among college students who download pirated music and movies.

Entertainment groups said Tuesday they intend to sue hundreds of students accused of illegally distributing copyrighted songs and films across college campuses using the private research network, which boasts speeds hundreds of times faster than the Internet.

How much faster?

Internet2 researchers once demonstrated they can download a DVD-quality copy of the popular movie "The Matrix" in 30 seconds over their network, a feat they said would take roughly 25 hours over the Internet.

The Recording Industry Association of America, the trade group for the largest labels, said it will file federal lawsuits today against 405 students at 18 colleges with access to the Internet2 network. The Motion Picture Association of America said it will file an unspecified number of lawsuits against Internet2 users.

The recording industry said it found evidence of more illegal activity at 140 more schools in 41 states and sent warning letters to university presidents.

Internet2 is used by several million university students, researchers and professionals around the world but is generally inaccessible to the public.

By ROBERT WELLER Associated Press Writer
The Associated Press

AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. Apr 19, 2005 — Less than two years after it was plunged into a rape scandal, the Air Force Academy is scrambling to address complaints that evangelical Christians wield so much influence at the school that anti-Semitism and other forms of religious harassment have become pervasive.

There have been 55 complaints of religious discrimination at the academy in the past four years, including cases in which a Jewish cadet was told the Holocaust was revenge for the death of Jesus and another was called a Christ killer by a fellow cadet.

The 4,300-student school recently started requiring staff members and cadets to take a 50-minute religious-tolerance class.

"There are things that have happened that have been inappropriate. And they have been addressed and resolved," said Col. Michael Whittington, the academy's chief chaplain.

More than 90 percent of the cadets identify themselves as Christian. A cadet survey in 2003 found that half had heard religious slurs and jokes, and that many non-Christians believed Christians get special treatment.

"There were people walking up to someone and basically they would get in a conversation and it would end with, `If you don't believe what I believe you are going to hell,'" Vice Commandant Col. Debra Gray said.

Critics of the academy say the sometimes-public endorsement of Christianity by high-ranking staff has contributed to a climate of fear and violates the constitutional separation of church and state at a taxpayer-supported school whose mission is to produce Air Force leaders.

They also say academy leaders are desperate to avoid the sort of uproar that came with the 2003 scandal in which dozens of women said their complaints of sexual assault were ignored.

"They are deliberately trivializing the problem so that we don't have another situation the magnitude of the sex assault scandal. It is inextricably intertwined in every aspect of the academy," said Mikey Weinstein of Albuquerque, N.M., a 1977 graduate who has sent two sons to the school. He said the younger, Curtis, has been called a "filthy Jew" many times.

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A CBS stringer has been arrested as a suspected insurgent, U.S. military officials said Friday.

The video cameraman was wounded during a firefight in northeastern Mosul between U.S. troops and insurgents Tuesday.

U.S. military officials said the man's camera held footage of a number of roadside bomb attacks against American troops, and they believe he was tipped off to those attacks.

A U.S. military statement said troops believe the man "poses an imperative threat to coalition forces" and that he "will be processed as any other security detainee."

CBS said the photographer was hired about three months ago, and it asked news organizations not to identify him.

>"Everywhere he went, the pope preached that the call of freedom is for every member of the human family because the author of life wrote it into our common human nature," the president said. "Many in the West underestimated the pope's influence. But those behind the Iron Curtain knew better, and ultimately even the Berlin Wall could not withstand the gale force of this Polish pope."

Wednesday, April 06, 2005

TALLAHASSEE — Gov. Jeb Bush said he will soon sign into law the so-called "Castle Doctrine" bill — giving Floridians more discretion to shoot would-be attackers in their homes, vehicles and public places — after the state House approved it overwhelmingly Tuesday.

The Senate had passed the bill unanimously.

Having moved through the legislature like a rifle shot, the NRA-backed bill, which some say will create a Wild West, shoot-first mentality in Florida, could end up being the first substantive bill signed into law this session.

That unchecked momentum stems in part, Democrats acknowledge, from their losses in the 2004 election and their perceptions about why they lost.

The measure (SB 436) not only garnered every Republican vote in both chambers but also had the support of all 14 Senate Democrats and 13 of 36 House Democrats. It passed 94-20 in the House, with three Republicans and three Democrats not voting.

"Even voters who are hurt by Republican economic policies vote Republican because they don't trust us on cultural wedge issues like gun control and religion," said Sen. Dave Aronberg, D-Greenacres. "The voters stop listening to us and they don't even get to our economic issues. So we're trying to show that, if you are a gun owner, you are a Democrat too."

The top priority of the National Rifle Association in Florida this year, the measure makes it clear in state law what courts have generally ruled in Florida: There's no duty to retreat before fighting back if you're in your home, workplace or car.

But it also extends the right outside the home, saying that "a person who is not engaged in an unlawful activity and who is attacked in any other place where he or she has a right to be, has no duty to retreat."

The bill says that person has "the right to stand his or her ground and meet force with force, including deadly force if he or she reasonably believes it is necessary to do so, to prevent death or great bodily harm to himself or herself or another."

The bill would make shooters in such situations immune from criminal prosecution and civil action.

The idea will legalize shootouts in the streets, opponents say.

The Post's story was picked up by the Reuters news service and by dozens of newspapers, and was, in large part, the basis for a widespread popular belief that the leadership of the Republican party had played politics with the Schiavo case.

I have got to talk about this. It aggravates me daily on why people do not tip well or even know how to tip at all. Waiting tables has its ups and downs like any other job or career, but when we're only making $2.13 an hour, we waiters and waitresses must rely on our goods and good services for a tip from our guests, its called a gratuity. It's called being gracious to the guest and in return the guest must pay us for services. Now, personally, I know I am a good server, key things here: attentiveness, knowledge, quickness, friendliness, etc. are what a make a good server, right? Then why do so many servers bust their asses to give good service and in return get nothing for it? . . . . If I'm busting my ass and in the end I get two bucks on your fifty-dollar check, you can guarantee that if I ever wait on you in the future, you will be waiting on me, because I can assure you that you will get your beverages when I feel like getting them to you and I couldn't care less if your food is screwed up or it's cold . . .

Have you ever looked at your bill and noticed that your server did not charge you for your soft drinks or maybe even a side of something or perhaps a dessert? A few times it may have been that they have forgotten, but generally, they want to give you the hook-up, so they also want a bigger tip. They want you to hook them up. Think about it, a dessert that would have cost you $5, you are getting for free, so why not put that $5 toward the tip for your server who so graciously gave it to you in the first place? You would have had to pay for it anyway! In addition, the server could lose their job over giving free things away, so why not throw a couple extra bucks down on the table?

I think that guests should start looking at their checks more carefully. It is my absolute favorite when I accidentally charge two bucks for an extra beverage, but then I didn't charge for a $4 bowl of soup. Then I get, "Excuse me, waitress, you charge me for an extra soda and we only had three." My reply, "I am sorry about that, let me fix that for you and I will be right back." I go fix the problem, I take off the two-dollar soda and add on a $4 bowl of soup that they ate, and then I bring the check back and it's $2 more than the previous check. By this time, the customer is dumbfounded and doesn't understand because they failed to notice the time that they were not charged for but notice the soda. So I apologize and tell them that I took the soda off but here is the bowl of soup. Well, sorry buddy but you're paying more now for not being paying attention and keeping your mouth shut.