FROM THE INTERNATIONAL DESK

A kids’ book written by a 34-year-old Tokyo housewife about the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in Miyazaki Prefecture has become an internet hit, being downloaded approximately 2,600 times since late September. Sounds positively uplifting.

Kenya’s Daily Nation reported that a former ambassador to Japan was questioned by the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission (KACC) over dubious dealings regarding the purchase of land in Tokyo. Not a terribly interesting story, but we just had to get that acronym in there.

Virgin Atlantic Airways and Mori Building City Air Services have started free helicopter shuttles from Ark Hills in Akasaka to Narita Airport for high-end travelers from Tokyo to London.

A few weeks after getting busted in Chiba with cocaine in his pocket, Aussie pro golfer Wayne Perske was banned for the rest of the season by the Japan Golf Tour Organization.

Perske’s problems came on the heels of Kiwi golf pro David Smail’s sex scandal, when his former Japanese girlfriend sent compromising photos and videos to the media after the married Smail tried to break up with her. Man, talk about putting it in the wrong hole!

A female desk clerk at a hotel in Aichi held a press conference to draw light to her situation after a male guest called her to his room to “apologize” over some issue with an escort service. The horny old dude then tried to jump her, “unbuttoning her clothing and touching her lower body.”

STATS

11

Japan’s ranking in the United Nations’ 2010 quality of life survey

10

Japan’s ranking in last year’s survey

44

Penalty kicks needed to decide a soccer game between Kyushu International University High School and Higashi Fukuoka High School earlier this month

696,000

Total number of hikikomori in Japan, according to the Cabinet Office

Just For A Laugh  

A manga cafe in Kobe became the center of an international uproar when a Coast Guard worker uploaded video of September’s run-in with a Chinese fishing boat. The 43-year-old officer responsible for “the leak heard around the world” said he felt “no sense of guilt at all” because the public had a right to know. So there.

Someone sent a letter to the Chinese consulate in Sapporo that “emitted smoke with what sounded like an exploding firecracker.” No injuries or damage were reported.

A buxom bronze statuette of a policewoman from the popular manga Kochira Katsushika-ku Kameari Koen-mae Hashutsu-jo has been restored after being damaged by vandals, and is once again titillating passersby at Kameari station on the Joban line.

A stoner who misplaced a bag containing some weed and a few of his meishi went to claim the lost articles from a local police box in Fukuoka. Needless to say, when cops asked him about the joint inside, he took off… but since they had his name cards, they soon tracked him down. D’oh!

Ichiro Ozawa  

Pulls A Palin

Fighting Kabuki

The Latest “Rage”

Selling Pianos To North Korea

It’s A Crime  

Experts urge Japan for bolder steps to welcome refugees, immigrants



 TOKYO  

When five ethnic Karen families arrived recently from the Mera refugee camp in northwestern Thailand, Japan became the first Asian nation to accept refugees under the third-country resettlement program promoted by the United Nations.

Yet critics remain skeptical of Tokyo, often criticized for its restrictive refugee policy, and some experts said a much more comprehensive approach is necessary to make any significant difference.

”Japan’s refugee policy lags way behind the rest of the world,” said Shogo Watanabe, a lawyer actively involved in human rights issues concerning refugees and other foreign residents in Japan. ”From the very beginning when Japan ratified in 1981 the Convention and Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees, it has never had a consistent policy.”

Merchants reeling with drop in Chinese visitors



2010/11/26

Japanese merchants are starting to feel the pinch amid a sharp drop in Chinese visitor numbers following the fallout from a prolonged row with Beijing over sovereignty of the Senkaku Islands.

Sales in many sectors have fallen sharply.

Department stores, electronics retailers and souvenir shops are now pinning their hopes on a rebound in February when many Chinese travel abroad and splurge during the Lunar New Year holidays.

Welcome to The Stars Hollow Health and Fitness weekly diary. It will publish on Saturday afternoon and be open for discussion about health related issues including diet, exercise, health and health care issues, as well as, tips on what you can do when there is a medical emergency. Also an opportunity to share and exchange your favorite healthy recipes.

Questions are encouraged and I will answer to the best of my ability. If I can’t, I will try to steer you in the right direction. Naturally, I cannot give individual medical advice for personal health issues. I can give you information about medical conditions and the current treatments available.

You can now find past Health and Fitness News diaries here and on the right hand side of the Front Page.

Thanksgiving may be over but these recipes for pumpkin can be used throughout the winter. Like all winter squash, pumpkin is an excellent source of vitamin A, in the form of beta carotene, and a very good source of vitamin C, potassium, dietary fiber and manganese.

Long-time statin users have lower gallstone risk

(Reuters Health) – People who take cholesterol-lowering statins for at least one to two years appear to be less likely to develop gallstones, a study of nearly two million Danish residents shows.

Among those receiving at least five prescriptions for the drugs, the risk of developing gallstones fell by 11 to 24 percent — and the more prescriptions, the larger the decrease.

No family link seen between Parkinson’s, melanoma

Reuters Health) – Research has suggested that families affected by melanoma skin cancer may also have a higher-than-average rate of Parkinson’s disease — but a large new study found no evidence of such a link.

This doesn’t mean no genetic link exists, the authors of the new study say. But it does suggest that such a link might not have very important effects.

Forgotten patients hold key to heart device safety

Reuters Health) – A little-known and unregulated practice by companies developing new medical devices could be making the products look better and safer than they really are, U.S. researchers said Tuesday.

Companies testing new high-risk devices such as pacemakers, defibrillators or stents often have doctors practice on ‘training patients’ first.

But the outcomes for such patients rarely make it into the premarket approval applications sent to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, according to a new report in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

Researchers say uncover HIV, insulin resistance link

(Reuters) – Researchers at the Washington of Medicine say they have uncovered why so many people with the HIV virus develop a dangerous insulin resistance that leads to diabetes and heart disease.

The culprit lies in the powerful drugs that prevent the development of AIDS and have extended the lives of many HIV patients, the researchers say. They hope the discovery will allow development of safer antiviral drugs.

Half of Americans facing diabetes by 2020: report

Reuters) – More than half of Americans will have diabetes or be prediabetic by 2020 at a cost to the U.S. health care system of $3.35 trillion if current trends go on unabated, according to analysis of a new report released on Tuesday by health insurer UnitedHealth Group Inc.

Diabetes and prediabetes will account for an estimated 10 percent of total health care spending by the end of the decade at an annual cost of almost $500 billion — up from an estimated $194 billion this year, according to the report titled “The United States of Diabetes: Challenges and Opportunities in the Decade Ahead.”

Stem cell trial offers hope for vision patients

(Reuters) – Christopher Goodrich of Portland, Oregon, can’t wait to stick a needle in his eye.

Goodrich hopes to be one of the first patients enrolled in clinical trial that just got a go-ahead from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, only the second trial approved anywhere in the world to test human embryonic stem cells in people.

Advanced Cell Technology, a small Massachusetts-based biotechnology company that has struggled to bring human embryonic stem cells from the lab to the clinic, will begin recruiting 12 patients in Oregon and Massachusetts with a rare eye condition called Stargardt’s macular dystrophy.

Pomegranate juice could help kidney patients

(Reuters Health) – There may be a seed of truth amidst the many health claims for pomegranate juice, researchers from Israel said Thursday, at least for kidney patients on dialysis.

They found that such patients who gulped a few cups of the tart liquid every week lowered their chances of infections, the second-leading killer of the more than 350,000 Americans on dialysis.

J&J recalls more Tylenol

(Reuters) – Johnson & Johnson said on Wednesday it is recalling 9 million more bottles of its Tylenol painkiller because they do not adequately warn customers about the presence of trace amounts of alcohol used in the product flavorings.

The latest in a seemingly incessant string of J&J recalls involves three brands of Tylenol Cold Multi-Symptom Liquid. The Tylenol formulations include Daytime 8-ounce Citrus Burst, Severe 8-Ounce Cool Burst, and Nighttime 8-Ounce Cool Burst.

[New J&J recalls hit Benadryl, Motrin, Rolaids

(Reuters) – Johnson & Johnson, which has been beset with recalls of Tylenol and other consumer products over the past year, has recalled almost 5 million additional packages of Benadryl, Motrin and Rolaids because of manufacturing “insufficiencies.”

J&J said the recalls, like many of the earlier ones, involved products made at its plant in Fort Washington, Pennsylvania. The facility was closed earlier this year to fix quality-control lapses, including unsanitary conditions.

Second-hand smoke kills 600,000 a year: WHO study

(Reuters) – Around one in a hundred deaths worldwide is due to passive smoking, which kills an estimated 600,000 people a year, World Health Organization (WHO) researchers said on Friday.

In the first study to assess the global impact of second-hand smoke, WHO experts found that children are more heavily exposed to second-hand smoke than any other age-group, and around 165,000 of them a year die because of it.

Harm in hospitals still common for patients

(Reuters Health) – Despite a decade of efforts to improve patient safety in hospitals — initially inspired by a seminal report on the problem from the U.S. Institute of Medicine in 2000 — harmful errors and accidents are still common, new research suggests.

The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, showed that between 2002 and 2007, the number of patients experiencing infections acquired in the hospital, medication errors, complications from diagnostic techniques or treatments, and other such “harms” did not change.

EU to ban Bisphenol A in baby bottles in 2011

(Reuters) – The European Union will ban the use of organic compound Bisphenol A (BPA) in plastic baby bottles from 2011 with the backing of a majority of EU governments, the EU’s executive Commission said Thursday.

UK watchdog adviser: Cloned cattle meat likely safe

(Reuters) – Meat and milk from cloned cattle show no difference in composition from that of traditionally bred cows and so are unlikely to pose a food safety risk, an advisory committee to Britain’s food safety regulator said.

The Advisory Committee on Novel Foods and Processes, following an open meeting on Thursday, said that consumers still may want to see effective labeling of products from clones and their offspring partly due to animal welfare concerns.

Many preventable cancers caught at late stage: CDC

(Reuters) – Nearly half of colorectal and cervical cancers and a third of breast cancers in the United States are diagnosed in the late stages, even though screening tests are available to detect them early on, a report by U.S. health officials said on Wednesday.

They said more work is needed to ensure people get screened for these cancers, which could lead to early detection and more lives saved.

“This report causes concern because so many preventable cancers are not being diagnosed when treatment is most effective,” Dr. Marcus Plescia of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a statement.

Social medical sites need disclosures: U.S. complaint

(Reuters) – Web sites offering a sense of community to people with diseases or ailments often are created by marketers who fail to disclose that they are sharing data about site users, a complaint filed with U.S. regulators charged on Tuesday.

Four pro-privacy groups filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission, detailing a number of techniques that marketers use to identify people who are potential purchasers of particular medications.

Haiti cholera spreading faster than predicted: U.N.

(Reuters) – Haiti’s deadly cholera epidemic is spreading faster than originally estimated and is likely to result in hundreds of thousands of cases and last up to a year, a senior U.N. official said on Tuesday.

Since the disease first appeared in mid-October it has killed 1,344 people as of Friday in the poverty-stricken and earthquake-ravaged Caribbean nation.

But U.N. humanitarian coordinator in Haiti Nigel Fisher said the real death toll might be “closer to two thousand than one” because of lack of data from remote areas, and the number of cases 60,000-70,000 instead of the official figure of around 50,000.

Cholera-hit Haiti needs nurses, doctors: U.N.

(Reuters) – Haiti needs a surge of foreign nurses and doctors to stem deaths from a raging cholera epidemic that an international aid operation is struggling to control, the United Nations’ top humanitarian official said.

About 1,000 trained nurses and at least 100 more doctors were urgently needed to control the epidemic, which has struck the impoverished Caribbean nation months after a destructive earthquake.

The outbreak has killed more than 1,400 Haitians in five weeks and the death toll is climbing by dozens each day.

Vatican broadens case for condoms to fight AIDS

(Reuters) – Pope Benedict’s landmark acknowledgement that condoms are sometimes morally justifiable to stop AIDS can apply to anyone — gays, heterosexuals and transsexuals — if that is the only option to avoid transmitting the HIV virus to others, the Vatican said Tuesday.

The clarification, which some moral theologians called “groundbreaking,” was the latest step in what is already seen as a significant shift in Catholic Church policy.

It came at a news conference to launch the pope’s new book, “Light of the World: The Pope, the Church, and the Sign of the Times.”

New drug shows promise against Asian liver fluke

Reuters) – An experimental drug called tribendimidine could help cure millions of people infected with a parasitic worm known as the Southeast Asian liver fluke, which can cause cancer, Swiss scientists said on Thursday.

In a study in The Lancet medical journal, researchers found that tribendimidine, developed by the Chinese National Institute of Parasitic Diseases, is as safe and effective as the standard treatment for this fluke — a generic drug called praziquantel — and has a cure rate of 70 percent

WHO to launch cheap meningitis vaccine in Africa

(Reuters) – More than 12 million people in Burkino Faso will be the first to receive a new meningitis vaccine as part of an Africa-wide immunization plan, the World Health Organization said on Monday.

The vaccine, called MenAfriVac and made by Serum Institute of India, will be used to inoculate 450 million people throughout the continent by 2015.

U.N. sees global AIDS epidemic starting to turn

(Reuters) – An estimated 33.3 million people worldwide have the HIV virus that causes AIDS, but the global health community is starting to slow down and even turn the epidemic around, a United Nations report said on Tuesday.

The total number of HIV-infected people in 2009 was down slightly from the previous year’s 33.4 million and at least 56 countries have either stabilized or achieved significant declines in rates of new HIV infections.

Donor eggs may be linked to pregnancy complication

(Reuters Health) – Women who use donated eggs to get pregnant by in vitro fertilization (IVF) might be more at risk for a common but potentially dangerous pregnancy complication than women using traditional IVF, a small study suggests.

Women who get pregnant using IVF — in which an egg is fertilized outside the body, then implanted into a woman’s uterus — are already thought to be at an increased risk for preeclampsia. The condition occurs when a woman’s blood pressure rises during her second or third trimester and her kidneys stop being able to retain protein.

New spermicide may be as good as nonoxynol-9

(Reuters Health) – A new spermicide compound, not yet available in drugstores, may be as good a contraceptive as the drug now in existing gels, films, and foams, hints a new study.

All currently available gel, film and foam spermicides, such as Encare contraceptive inserts and VCF dissolving vaginal films, contain the compound nonoxynol-9. But researchers testing a new mixture of spermicidal compounds called C31G found it to be just as effective at preventing pregnancy, and perhaps even a bit safer to use.

“Spermicides are one of the least utilized contraceptive methods,” lead researcher Dr. Anne E. Burke of The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, in Baltimore, told Reuters Health.

Mom’s heartburn meds not tied to birth defects

Reuters Health) – A nationwide study from Denmark finds pregnant women have little reason to be concerned about birth defects when taking omeprazole and similar heartburn drugs.

Researchers say there is little reason to suspect such drugs – called proton-pump inhibitors, or PPIs – would harm the fetus. But with an estimated two percent of pregnant women taking them, good safety data are important.

“Medications that are most commonly used in pregnancy are among the ones that require careful study,” said Dr. Allen A. Mitchell of Boston University, who wrote an editorial about the Danish findings in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Breastfeeding on epilepsy drugs no harm to kids’ IQ

(Reuters Health) – Despite concerns that breastfeeding while Mom is on epilepsy medication could hinder infants’ cognitive development, a small study out Wednesday finds no evidence of harm to early-childhood IQ.

Most infants born to women with epilepsy will have been exposed to anti-epilepsy medication in the womb, as most pregnant women with the disorder need to stay on medication to adequately control their seizures.

Many young women may misjudge their weight

(Reuters Health) – Many young women may not realize whether their weight is healthy or not, which could have consequences for their diet and lifestyle habits, a new study finds.

Researchers found that among more than 2,200 women ages 18 to 25 seen at several Texas reproductive-health clinics, “weight misperception” was common among both normal-weight and overweight women.

Women seeking birth control get unneeded pelvic exams

(Reuters Health) – Many doctors require that women have a pelvic exam before they can get a prescription for birth control pills, despite guidelines saying that the step is unnecessary, a new study finds.

In a survey of 1,200 U.S. doctors and advanced practice nurses, researchers found that one-third said they always required women to have a pelvic exam before they would write a prescription for birth control pills.

An even higher percentage – 44 percent – said they “usually” required one, according to findings published in the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology.

Treating testes trouble early may save fertility

(Reuters Health) – Infertility is probably the last thing on teenage boys’ minds. However, a new study out of Brazil suggests that early treatment of a common testicular condition could preserve future fatherhood potential for some adolescents.

A varicocele is a widening of the veins in the scrotum, which house the testicles. While frequently harmless, varicoceles can cause pain, testicular shrinkage and, over time, can potentially lead to lower sperm counts and quality.

Silent thyroid problems linked to fractures in men

(Reuters Health) – Elderly men with mild thyroid dysfunction – most of whom are unaware of it – are significantly more likely to develop hip fractures, a new study reports.

Researchers found that men 65 years and older with mild thyroid dysfunction, known as subclinical hyperthyroidism or subclinical hypothyroidism, had at least a two-fold higher risk of hip fracture, which comes with potentially life-threatening complications.

“This certainly raises legitimate concern that we ought to be doing more” to mitigate the potential effects of silent thyroid dysfunction on bone, study author Dr. Jennifer Lee of the University of California, Davis, told Reuters Health. “This is an under-recognized risk factor for hip fracture.”

Once-daily pill helps prevent HIV infection in men

(Reuters) – A once-a-day pill combining two Gilead Sciences Inc AIDS drugs reduced the HIV infection rate by nearly 44 percent in high-risk gay and bisexual men, researchers reported on Tuesday.

Men who took the pill the most consistently had more than a 70 percent lower risk over two years, the U.S. government study in Peru, Thailand, South Africa and elsewhere found.

It is the first study to show that taking drugs before infection can reduce the risk of HIV transmission and has the potential to be a weapon in the fight against the fatal and incurable virus, the researchers said.

Typical acetaminophen dose no threat to kids’ livers

(Reuters Health) – Concerns about liver injuries in kids who take the common painkiller acetaminophen — sold as Tylenol in the U.S. — are unfounded, researchers said on Monday.

“None of the 32,000 children in this study were reported to have symptoms of obvious liver disease,” said Dr. Eric Lavonas of the Rocky Mountain Poison and Drug Center in Denver. “The only hint of harm we found was some lab abnormalities.”

I would still use this drug cautiously in children until there are further studies and the “lab abnormalities” are investigated.

Cough and cold meds withdrawal is working: study

(Reuters Health) – The number of young children going to the emergency room after taking too much cough and cold medicine was cut in half after drug companies took medications for their age group off the market, according to a new study.

Doctors say the research, published today in the journal Pediatrics, shows that taking the medications off the shelves did what it was intended to do – but that there is still more that both drug makers and parents can do to protect kids from ending up in the emergency room.

Eat more protein, fewer refined carbs to stay slim

Reuters Health) – A team of European researchers confirms what many weight-loss gurus have claimed: eating more protein and fewer refined carbohydrates helps to keep the pounds off.

Among men and women who had lost at least eight percent of their body weight on a low-calorie diet, those who spent the next six months following a maintenance diet high in protein and low in refined carbs were the least likely to regain any weight, and were also the least likely to drop out of the study.

Fish health benefits may outweigh mercury concerns

(Reuters Health) – It may be a red herring to worry over whether people who eat lots of fish may lose whatever heart benefits they might have gained because of an increased exposure to mercury, a new study shows.

Rich in omega-3 fatty acids, fish is thought to rank high on the list of heart-healthy foods. But it has a potential dark side: many fish species that wind up on the plate have high levels of mercury, a known neurotoxin.

Eating orange and dark green vegetables linked to longer life

(Reuters Health) – Eating lots of orange and dark green veggies such as carrots, sweet potatoes and green beans may be tied to less disease and longer life, suggests a new study.

This time it is not the beta-carotene in vegetables that has the spotlight, but rather its cousin: alpha-carotene. Both are members of the carotenoid antioxidant family. Scientists believe carotenoid antioxidants promote health by counteracting oxygen-related damage to DNA.

Consumption of fruits and vegetables has long been associated with lower risks of health problems such as cancer and heart disease, said Dr. Chaoyang Li of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in Atlanta, in e-mail to Reuters Health.

“Punting the Pundits” is an Open Thread. It is a selection of editorials and opinions from around the news medium and the internet blogs. The intent is to provide a forum for your reactions and opinions, not just to the opinions presented, but to what ever you find important.

Thanks to ek hornbeck, click on the link and you can access all the past “Punting the Pundits”.

Glenn Greenwald: The US of A breaks the Soviet Record

Even for the humble among us who try to avoid jingoistic outbursts, some national achievements are so grand that they merit a moment of pride and celebration:

US presence in Afghanistan as long as Soviet slog

   The Soviet Union couldn’t win in Afghanistan, and now the United States is about to have something in common with that futile campaign: nine years, 50 days.

   On Friday, the U.S.-led coalition will have been fighting in this South Asian country for as long as the Soviets did in their humbling attempt to build up a socialist state.

It seems clear that a similar — or even grander — prize awaits us as the one with which the Soviets were rewarded.  I hope nobody thinks that just because we can’t identify who the Taliban leaders are after almost a decade over there that this somehow calls into doubt our ability to magically re-make that nation.  Even if it did, it’s vital that we stop the threat of Terrorism, and nothing helps to do that like spending a full decade — and counting — invading, occupying, and bombing Muslim countries.

Johann Hari: There Won’t Be a Bailout for the Earth

Why are the world’s governments bothering? Why are they jetting to Cancun next week to discuss what to do now about global warming? The vogue has passed. The fad has faded. Global warming is yesterday’s apocalypse. Didn’t somebody leak an email that showed it was all made up? Doesn’t it sometimes snow in the winter? Didn’t Al Gore get fat, or something?

Alas, the biosphere doesn’t read Vogue. Nobody thought to tell it that global warming is so 2007. All it knows is three facts. 2010 is globally the hottest year since records began. 2010 is the year humanity’s emissions of planet-warming gases reached its highest level ever. And exactly as the climate scientists predicted, we are seeing a rapid increase in catastrophic weather events, from the choking of Moscow by gigantic unprecedented forest fires to the drowning of one quarter of Pakistan.

Before the Great Crash of 2008, the people who warned about the injection of huge destabilizing risk into our financial system seemed like arcane, anal bores. Now we all sit in the rubble and wish we had listened. The great ecological crash will be worse, because nature doesn’t do bailouts.

Bruce Fein: Congresswoman Harman’s Afghan Delusions

To paraphrase British sage Samuel Johnson, Congresswoman Jane Harman’s generalship over the Afghanistan war is like a dog walking on its hind legs. It is not done well; but you are surprised to find it done at all.

Harman’s November 17, 2010, column for Politico (“Take the Lisbon deal, Mr. President”) is exemplary, but not exhaustive. There, the Congresswoman applauds a NATO timetable to exit Afghanistan militarily by 2014, a wretched idea which she egotistically attributes to herself. But why claim an authorship no more promising than General George C. Custer’s strategy at the Battle of the Little Bighorn? The deadline guarantees victory by the Taliban and Al Qaeda. They will temporarily scale back their attacks and then return in full force in 2014 to overrun the incorrigibly inept, corrupt, and popularly reviled Karzai administration.

Bob Herbert: Winning the Class War

The class war that no one wants to talk about continues unabated.

Even as millions of out-of-work and otherwise struggling Americans are tightening their belts for the holidays, the nation’s elite are lacing up their dancing shoes and partying like royalty as the millions and billions keep rolling in.

Recessions are for the little people, not for the corporate chiefs and the titans of Wall Street who are at the heart of the American aristocracy. They have waged economic warfare against everybody else and are winning big time.

Roger Cohen; The Real Threat to America

LONDON – The full-body scanners and intrusive pat-downs that are fast becoming the norm at U.S. airports – just in time for Thanksgiving! – do at least provide the answer to what should be done with Osama bin Laden if he’s ever captured: Rotate him in perpetuity through this security hell, “groin checks” and all.

So I give thanks this week for the Fourth Amendment: “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”

I give thanks for Benjamin Franklin’s words after the 1787 Constitutional Convention describing the results of its deliberations: “A Republic, if you can keep it.”

To keep it, push back against enhanced patting, Chertoff’s naked-screening and the sinister drumbeat of fear.

(10 am. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

I started writing this diary on July 20, put it in draft. It was based on Richard Haass’ cover story in Newsweek on July 18 of this year. It is still very relevant in that the war in Afghanistan has taken on a different aspect than when it start over nine tears ago. As pointed out by Glenn Greenwald at Salon, the US of A Breaks the Soviet Record this past week and still has not recognized waste and the futility of the effort.

It seems clear that a similar — or even grander — prize awaits us as the one with which the Soviets were rewarded.  I hope nobody thinks that just because we can’t identify who the Taliban leaders are after almost a decade over there that this somehow calls into doubt our ability to magically re-make that nation.  Even if it did, it’s vital that we stop the threat of Terrorism, and nothing helps to do that like spending a full decade — and counting — invading, occupying, and bombing Muslim countries.

This is Mr. Haass’s appearance on “Morning Joe” on July 19, 2010. It is still very pertinent

While I strongly disagree with Mr.Haass on the use of drone and missile attacks, as well as air strikes, what he says about the ground troops is very true. There are far better ways to make the US safe from terrorist attacks than invading a country, destroying property and infrastructure as the US did in Iraq and killing innocent civilians. The actions of the US and her allies  steeled the resolve of the terrorists and given them recruits and support. It is fairly obvious that the Obama administration is not thinking and has learned nothing from the 20th century Russian adventures or from the English in the 19th century.

Krugman’s piece yesterday was widely quoted and most people chose to focus on this section of it-

Before the bank bust, Ireland had little public debt. But with taxpayers suddenly on the hook for gigantic bank losses, even as revenues plunged, the nation’s creditworthiness was put in doubt. So Ireland tried to reassure the markets with a harsh program of spending cuts.

Step back for a minute and think about that. These debts were incurred, not to pay for public programs, but by private wheeler-dealers seeking nothing but their own profit. Yet ordinary Irish citizens are now bearing the burden of those debts.

Which is kind of appalling from a morality standpoint, but it’s also not working on a practical level.

Thanks to Atrios I was able to give you the rest of the story yesterday, but I think it’s instructive to reflect on Krugman’s reporting of the actual factual results-

Strange to say, … confidence is not improving. On the contrary: investors have noticed that all those austerity measures are depressing the Irish economy – and are fleeing Irish debt because of that economic weakness.

…

Last weekend Ireland and its neighbors put together what has been widely described as a “bailout.” But what really happened was that the Irish government promised to impose even more pain, in return for a credit line – a credit line that would presumably give Ireland more time to, um, restore confidence. Markets, understandably, were not impressed: interest rates on Irish bonds have risen even further.

…

(A)t this point Iceland seems, if anything, to be doing better than its near-namesake. Its economic slump was no deeper than Ireland’s, its job losses were less severe and it seems better positioned for recovery. In fact, investors now appear to consider Iceland’s debt safer than Ireland’s. How is that possible?

Part of the answer is that Iceland let foreign lenders to its runaway banks pay the price of their poor judgment, rather than putting its own taxpayers on the line to guarantee bad private debts. As the International Monetary Fund notes – approvingly! – “private sector bankruptcies have led to a marked decline in external debt.” Meanwhile, Iceland helped avoid a financial panic in part by imposing temporary capital controls – that is, by limiting the ability of residents to pull funds out of the country.

And Iceland has also benefited from the fact that, unlike Ireland, it still has its own currency; devaluation of the krona, which has made Iceland’s exports more competitive, has been an important factor in limiting the depth of Iceland’s slump.

…

Ireland is now in its third year of austerity, and confidence just keeps draining away. And you have to wonder what it will take for serious people to realize that punishing the populace for the bankers’ sins is worse than a crime; it’s a mistake.

He did win a Nobel Prize in Economics and stuff.

This is your morning Open Thread. Pour your favorite beverage and review the past and comment on the future

Find the past “On This Day in History” here.

November 27 is the 331st day of the year (332nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 34 days remaining until the end of the year.

On this day in 1703, a freak storm over England, that had begun around November 14, peaks.

The unusual weather began on November 14 as strong winds from the Atlantic Ocean battered the south of Britain and Wales. Many homes and other buildings were damaged by the pounding winds, but the hurricane-like storm only began doing serious damage on November 26. With winds estimated at over 80 miles per hour, bricks were blown from some buildings and embedded in others. Wood beams, separated from buildings, flew through the air and killed hundreds across the south of the country. Towns such as Plymouth, Hull, Cowes, Portsmouth and Bristol were devastated.

However, the death toll really mounted when 300 Royal Navy ships anchored off the country’s southern coast-with 8,000 sailors on board-were lost. The Eddystone Lighthouse, built on a rock outcropping 14 miles from Plymouth, was felled by the storm. All of its residents, including its designer, Henry Winstanley, were killed. Huge waves on the Thames River sent water six feet higher than ever before recorded near London. More than 5,000 homes along the river were destroyed.

Eddystone Lighthouse is on the treacherous Eddystone Rocks, 9 statute miles (14 kilometres) south west of Rame Head, United Kingdom. While Rame Head is in Cornwall, the rocks are in Devon.

The current structure is the fourth lighthouse to be built on the site. The first and second were destroyed. The third, also known as Smeaton’s Tower, is the best known because of its influence on lighthouse design and its importance in the development of concrete for building. Its upper portions have been re-erected in Plymouth as a monument.

The first lighthouse on Eddystone Rocks (first picture above) was an octagonal wooden structure built by Henry Winstanley. Construction started in 1696 and the light was lit on 14 November 1698. During construction, a French privateer took Winstanley prisoner, causing Louis XIV to order his release with the words “France is at war with England, not with humanity”.

The lighthouse survived its first winter but was in need of repair, and was subsequently changed to a dodecagonal (12 sided) stone clad exterior on a timber framed construction with an Octagonal top section as can be clearly seen in the later drawings or paintings, one of which is to the left. This gives rise to the claims that there have been five lighthouses on Eddystone Rock. Winstanley’s tower lasted until the Great Storm of 1703 erased almost all trace on 27 November. Winstanley was on the lighthouse, completing additions to the structure. No trace was found of him.

 176 – Emperor Marcus Aurelius grant his son Commodus the rank of Imperator and makes him Supreme Commander of the Roman legions.

1095 – Pope Urban II declares the First Crusade at the Council of Clermont.

1295 – The first elected representatives from Lancashire are called to Westminster by King Edward I to attend what later became known as “The Model Parliament”.

1703 – The first Eddystone Lighthouse is destroyed in the Great Storm of 1703.

1815 – Adoption of Constitution of the Kingdom of Poland.

1830 – St. Catherine Laboure experienced a vision of the Blessed Virgin standing on a globe, crushing a serpent with her feet, and emanating rays of light from her hands.

1839 – In Boston, Massachusetts, the American Statistical Association is founded.

1856 – The Coup of 1856 leads to Luxembourg’s unilateral adoption of a new, reactionary constitution.

1863 – American Civil War: Confederate cavalry leader John Hunt Morgan and several of his men escape the Ohio Penitentiary and return safely to the South.

1868 – Indian Wars: Battle of Washita River – United States Army Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer leads an attack on Cheyenne living on reservation land.

1886 – German judge Emil Hartwich sustains fatal injuries in a duel, which would become the background for “Effi Briest”, a classic work of German literature.

1895 – At the Swedish-Norwegian Club in Paris, Alfred Nobel signs his last will and testament, setting aside his estate to establish the Nobel Prize after he dies.

1901 – The U.S. Army War College is established.

1912 – Spain declares a protectorate over the north shore of Morocco.

1924 – In New York City, the first Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade is held.

1934 – Bank robber Baby Face Nelson dies in a shoot-out with the FBI.

1940 – In Romania, the ruling party Iron Guard arrests and executes over 60 of exiled King Carol II of Romania’s aides, including former minister Nicolae Iorga.

1940 – World War II: At the Battle of Cape Spartivento, the Royal Navy engages the Regia Marina in the Mediterranean Sea.

1942 – World War II: At Toulon, the French navy scuttles its ships and submarines to keep them out of Nazi hands.

1944 – World War II: An explosion at a Royal Air Force ammunition dump at Fauld, Staffordshire kills seventy people.

1954 – Alger Hiss is released from prison after serving 44 months for perjury.

1963 – The Convention on the Unification of Certain Points of Substantive Law on Patents for Invention is signed at Strasbourg.

1964 – Cold War: Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru appeals to the United States and the Soviet Union to end nuclear testing and to start nuclear disarmament, stating that such an action would “save humanity from the ultimate disaster”.

1965 – Vietnam War: The Pentagon tells U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson that if planned operations are to succeed, the number of American troops in Vietnam has to be increased from 120,000 to 400,000.

1971 – The Soviet space program’s Mars 2 orbiter releases a descent module. It malfunctions and crashes, but it is the first man-made object to reach the surface of Mars.

1973 – The Twenty-fifth Amendment: The United States Senate votes 92 to 3 to confirm Gerald Ford as Vice President of the United States (on December 6, the House confirmed him 387 to 35).

1975 – The Provisional IRA assassinates Ross McWhirter, after a press conference in which McWhirter had announced a reward for the capture of those responsible for multiple bombings and shootings across England.

1978 – In San Francisco, California, city mayor George Moscone and openly gay city supervisor Harvey Milk are assassinated by former supervisor Dan White.

1978 – The Kurdish party PKK was founded in the city of Riha (Urfa) in Turkey.

1983 – Avianca Flight 011, a Boeing 747 crashes near Madrid’s Barajas Airport, killing 181.

1984 – Under the Brussels Agreement signed between the governments of the United Kingdom and Spain, the former agreed to enter into discussions with Spain over Gibraltar, including sovereignty.

1989 – Avianca Flight 203, a Boeing 727, explodes in mid-air over Colombia, killing all 107 people on board and three people on the ground. The Medellín Cartel claimed responsibility for the attack.

1991 – The United Nations Security Council adopts Security Council Resolution 721, leading the way to the establishment of peacekeeping operations in Yugoslavia.

1992 – For the second time in a year, military forces try to overthrow president Carlos Andres Perez in Venezuela.

1997 – Twenty-five are killed in the second Souhane massacre in Algeria.

1999 – The left-wing Labour Party takes control of the New Zealand government with leader Helen Clark becoming the first elected female Prime Minister in New Zealand’s history.

2001 – A hydrogen atmosphere is discovered on the extrasolar planet Osiris by the Hubble Space Telescope, the first atmosphere detected on an extrasolar planet.

2004 – Pope John Paul II returns the relics of Saint John Chrysostom to the Eastern Orthodox Church.

2005 – The first partial human face transplant is completed in Amiens, France.

2006 – The Canadian House of Commons endorses Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s motion to declare Quebec a nation within a unified Canada.

Holidays and observances

   * Christian Feast Day

         o Barlaam and Josaphat, the Christianized version of Buddha

         o Facundus and Primitivus

         o Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal (Roman Catholic)

   * Earliest date on which Advent Sunday can fall, while December 3 is the latest; celebrated on the Sunday nearest to St. Andrew’s Day. (Western Christianity)

   * Publications Day (Church of Scientology)

   * Maaveerar Day

Well, it’s that holiday time of year again when all you want is some mindless entertainment to spare you from dealing with your relatives and TV programmers screw with you by replacing all your familiar favorites with sappy specials and marathons of your least liked shows made more inpenetrable by the one line crawl of uselessness that TV Guide channel has become.

Thank goodness kindly uncle ek is here to highlight a few moments of blessed distraction as well as some of the potential pitfalls to be avoided.

I look on it as a public service.

My job is made a little easier because of a neat little network ‘day at a glance’ feature of Zap2it TV Listings.  Click on the channel name.  I’m going from my last diary to Paid Programming.  I’m putting the main meat below the fold because the table is too long for the Front Page.  It’s arranged by time and marathons (4 half hour episodes, 3 hour episodes, double features, themes, and Instapeats) may be noted earlier than you expect, but they do also include the running time so you know when they end.

Nothing like watching A Christmas Story 25 times in a row.

I’m rolling publishing again because it’s much easier.  Right now this covers until 10 am and I’m missing 10 channels.  Expect an update.

Update: Now good to 7 am with all 41 channels and you didn’t miss anything.  Tomorrow is the last edition of extended Thanksgiving coverage.

7 am

• ABC Family– Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
• Speed– Gearz marathon until 2 pm
• Style– Supernanny marathon until 11 am (starts @ 6 am)

7:30 am

• TBS– Road to El Dorado

8 am

• FX– Black Knight
• History– Ice Road Truckers marathon until 7 pm
• Turner Classic– Limelight (Chaplin)

9 am

• Disney– Phineas and Ferb until 10:30 am
• Spike– Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace (triple feature, Anakin goes dark side)

9:30 am

• AMC– The Ballad of Josie (not Wales)
• TBS– First Kid

10 am

• ABC Family– Holly and Hal Moose: Our Uplifting Christmas Adventure
• FX– Are We There Yet?
• Sci Fi– Infestation
• USA– Hairspray (not the good 1988 version)

10:30 am

• Turner Classic– Paris Playboys

11 am

• ABC Family– Ice Age
• Lifetime– The Family Holiday
• Oxygen– America’s Next Top Model marathon until 10 pm
• Style– Doc Hollywood
• Toon– Pokémon: Arceus and the Jewel of Life

11:30 am

• A&E– Cocktail
• TBS– Two Weeks Notice
• VH1– Back to the Future Part II

Noon

• ABC– College Throwball, Michigan @ Ohio State (‘the’ game)
• AMC– The Culpepper Cattle Company
• Comedy– Barbershop 2: Back in Business
• Discovery– Deadliest Catch marathon until 3 am
• ESPN– College Throwball, Boston College @ Syracuse
• ESPN2– College Throwball, Michigan State @ Penn State
• FX– Alvin and the Chipmunks
• Nick– Victorious marathon until 3 pm
• Sci Fi– Swarmed
• Spike– Star Wars: Episode II: Attack of the Clones
• Vs.– UFL Throwball Championship, Tuskers v. Locomotives

12:30 pm

• USA– Over Her Dead Body

1 pm

• ABC Family– A Boy Named Charlie Brown
• Lifetime– Eve’s Christmas
• Style– Sweet November
• Turner Classic– Cry, the Beloved Country
• TNT– A Perfect Murder
• Toon– Open Season

1:30 pm

• A&E– Heat
• TBS– Bewitched
• TV Land– My Cousin Vinny

2 pm

• NBC– College Throwball, Grambling State v. Southern
• FX– 13 Going on 30
• National Geographic– Great Migrations marathon until 7 pm
• Sci Fi– Anacondas: Trail of Blood
• Speed– Dangerous Drives marathon until 5 am
• VH1– SNL marathon until 11 pm

2:30 pm

• AMC– Wild Wild West
• Comedy– School for Scoundrels
• Toon– Shrek
• USA– Juno

3 pm

• ABC Family– Snoopy Come Home
• Disney– Phineas and Ferb (half hour)
• Lifetime– Accidental Christmas
• Turner Classic– The Golden Voyage of Sinbad
• TNT– Out of Time

3:30 pm

• ABC– College Throwball, teams TBA
• CBS– College Throwball, LSU @ Arkansas
• Disney– Cars
• ESPN– College Throwball, Florida @ Florida State or Northwestern @ Wisconsin
• ESPN2– College Throwball, North Carolina State @ Maryland
• Spike– Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
• Style– Pretty in Pink

4 pm

• FX– Anger Management
• Nick– Spongebob marathon until 6 pm
• Sci Fi– Anaconda 3: Offspring
• Vs.– College Throwball, Texas Christian @ New Mexico

4:30 pm

• Comedy– National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation
• Toon– Firebreather

5 pm

• ABC Family– Home Alone 4
• AMC– A Few Good Men
• Lifetime– Home by Christmas
• Turner Classic– The Great Race
• USA– Along Came Polly

5:30 pm

• A&E– The Fugitive
• Style– Chicago
• TNT– Michael Clayton

6 pm

• Bravo– House marathon until 2 am
• Sci Fi– Jurassic Park
• Toon– Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams

7 pm

• ABC Family– Home Alone 3
• ESPN2– College Throwball, South Carolina @ Clemson
• Lifetime– Thomas Kinkade’s Christmas Cottage
• Spike– Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace
• USA– The Pacifier

7:30 pm

• ESPN– College Throwball, Georgia Tech @ Georgia
• Vs.– College Throwball, Oregon State @ Stanford

8 pm

• ABC– College Throwball, teams TBA
• PBS– Austin City Limits, R.E.M.
• A&E– Remember the Titans
• AMC– Something’s Gotta Give
• E!– Bruce Almighty
• MTV– 8 Mile
• TBS– The Wizard of Oz
• Turner Classic– A Star Is Born (Judy, Judy, Judy)
• TNT– Ocean’s Eleven (not the good 1960 version)
• Toon– Underdog
• Travel– Man v. Food marathon until 11 pm (thank goodness)

9 pm

• ABC Family– Home Alone 2: Lost in New York
• Lifetime– Undercover Christmas
• Sci Fi– Triassic Attack
• USA– Elf

9:30 pm

• Disney– Phineas and Ferb until 10:30 pm

10 pm

• Animal Planet– Pit Boss (premier)
• Food– Ace of Cakes (premier)
• Nick– George Lopez marathon until 6 am
• Oxygen– Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous
• Spike– Star Wars: Episode II: Attack of the Clones
• TBS– The Princess Diaries

10:30 pm

• ESPN2– College Hoopies, Arizona v. Kansas
• TNT– John Grisham’s The Rainmaker

11 pm

• AMC– [Something’s Gotta Give Something’s Gotta Give]
• FX– The League marathon until 1 am
• Lifetime– Accidental Christmas
• Sci Fi– Bone Eater
• Turner Classic– Funny Girl
• USA– Semi-Pro

Midnight 11/28

• A&E– Remember the Titans
• Travel– Man v. Food marathon until 2 am (thank goodness)

12:30 am

• Oxygen– Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous

1 am

• ESPN2– College Throwball, South Carolina at Clemson
• Sci Fi– Triassic Attack
• TBS– Austin Powers in Goldmember

1:30 am

• Spike– National Security
• TNT– The Devil’s Advocate

2 am

• AMC– A Few Good Men
• FX– The League marathon until 4 am
• Turner Classic– Gypsy

3 am

• ESPN2– College Throwball, Louisville at Rutgers
• Sci Fi– Raptor Island
• TBS– Bewitched
• Toon– GitS: SAC 2nd Gig Excavation (Episode 6)
• TV Land– Three’s Company marathon until 6 am

3:30 am

• ESPN– College Throwball, Georgia Tech @ Georgia (repeat)
• Toon– GitS: SAC 2nd Gig Pu239 (Episode 7)

4:30 am

• Turner Classic– Love Me or Leave Me

6:30 am

• Turner Classic– Fiesta

U.S. now in Afghanistan as long as Soviets were

The last Red Army troops left in 1989, driven out after nine years and 50 days by U.S.-backed fighters known as mujahedin. Despite contrasts, the U.S. and Soviet wars have common narrative elements.

By Laura King and Sergei L. Loiko, Los Angeles Times

November 27, 2010

Reporting from Kabul, Afghanistan, and Moscow – As wartime days go, Friday was a fairly quiet one in Afghanistan. Helicopters skittered across the sky; convoys rumbled along desert roads; soldiers in mountain outposts scanned the jagged peaks around them.

But one thing set the day apart: With its passing, the length of the U.S. military’s campaign in Afghanistan matched that of the Soviet Union’s long and demoralizing sojourn in the nation.ion.

‘The Fight Is Not Hopeless’

The Haitian Cholera Epidemic

Anja Wolz  

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Ms. Wolz, you already helped provide emergency aid after the earthquake in Haiti in January. Now cholera has brought you back to the country. How is this double catastrophe affecting the people?

Anja Wolz: Many patients are traumatized and they ask: Why us? What is going to happen next? Especially in Port-au-Prince and Leogane, where almost everything was destroyed. Here in the north, in Cap-Haitien, the people were among those most spared by the earthquake, but even they have realized how much suffering there is in their country and are in despair.

USA

U.S. strips intelligence analyst of security clearance and job but won’t say why



By Peter Finn

Washington Post Staff Writer

Saturday, November 27, 2010; 12:09 AM

Eighteen months ago, John Dullahan was an intelligence analyst with a long and varied career in both the military and the classified world. Today, he is jobless and blacklisted from the federal workforce, his loyalty to the United States, he says, brought into question.

On St. Patrick’s Day 2009, the government stripped the Irish-born Dullahan’s security clearance and fired him from his job at the Defense Intelligence Agency in a manner that has no precedent at the Pentagon – invoking a national security clause that states that it would harm the interests of the United States to inform him of the accusations against him.

Somali-born teen arrested in car bomb plot

Feds supplied dud in sting at downtown Portland, Ore., Christmas tree lighting ceremony

NBC, msnbc.com and news services  

PORTLAND, Ore. – A Somali-born teenager plotted to carry out a car bomb attack at a crowded Christmas tree lighting ceremony in downtown Portland on Friday, but the bomb turned out to be a dud supplied by undercover agents as part of a sting, federal prosecutors said.

Mohamed Osman Mohamud, 19, was arrested at 5:40 p.m. just after he dialed a cell phone that he thought would blow up a van laden with explosives but instead brought federal agents and Portland police swooping in to take him into custody.

The thwarted attack occurred at Portland’s Pioneer Courthouse Square before the annual Christmas tree lighting ceremony, The Oregonian reported.

Europe

Sinn Fein signals big trouble for Cowen



By David McKittrick, Ireland Correspondent Saturday, 27 November 2010

The woes of the Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen increased yesterday when his Fianna Fail party was trounced by Sinn Fein in a by-election in Co Donegal.

With early ballots counted, the vote for Fianna Fail, the largest party in Dublin’s governing coalition, appeared to have slumped from its winning 50 per cent in the last general election, to just 20 per cent; a collapse broadly in line with its position in nationwide opinion polls.

The result will be regarded as confirmation that the government can expect to be swept from office when Mr Cowen calls a general election, as he has promised to do, in the new year. The seats of many present ministers are now thought to be in jeopardy.

Polish politicians welcome admission on Katyn massacre  

The Irish Times – Saturday, November 27, 2010

TOM PARFITT in Moscow  

IN A symbolic admission of guilt, Russia’s parliament has declared that Joseph Stalin ordered his secret police to execute 22,000 Polish army officers and civilians in 1940, in one of the greatest mass murders of the 20th century.

Yesterday’s acknowledgment of Stalin’s personal culpability in the Katyn massacre comes amid a cautious thaw between Moscow and Warsaw, whose recent relations have been thorny at best. It was also seen as a sign that Russia may finally be ready for muted self-scrutiny over its totalitarian past.

Middle East

WikiLeaks may show US has helped terrorist group  



Jason Koutsoukis HERALD CORRESPONDENT

November 27, 2010  

JERUSALEM: Several of the documents set to be published by WikiLeaks this weekend are believed to show the US has been helping Turkey’s Kurdish separatist movement the PKK, or Kurdistan Workers Party.

The PKK is listed as a terrorist group in Turkey, the US, the European Union and Australia.

The claim is reported in the London Arabic-language newspaper Al-Hayat.

Iraq’s Troubles Drive Out Refugees Who Came Back  



By JOHN LELAND Published: November 26, 2010  

BAGHDAD – A second exodus has begun here, of Iraqis who returned after fleeing the carnage of the height of the war, but now find that violence and the nation’s severe lack of jobs are pulling them away from home once again.

Since the American invasion in 2003, refugees have been a measure of the country’s precarious condition, flooding outward during periods of violence and trickling back as Iraq seemed to stabilize. This new migration shows how far the nation remains from being stable and secure.

Asia

As Seoul dithers and US ships circle, an island tries to live with its grief

Donald Kirk reports from a shell-shocked Yeonpyeong Island  

Saturday, 27 November 2010

The sight of a row of charred barstools in front of a scorched counter reminds visitors of the good times enjoyed here until just five days ago, on this once thriving island within easy sight of the North Korean coastline – and her gunners – eight miles away.

The narrow street of shattered shops and homes was strewn with shards of blasted glass windows, twisted walls and broken roofs. People who had lived here until last Tuesday hurriedly visited their homes to pick up a few belongings before returning again to the safety of the South Korean mainland.

Son of ex-Taiwanese vice-president shot during election rally

The Irish Times – Saturday, November 27, 2010

CLIFFORD COONAN in Beijing

SEAN LIEN, son of Taiwan’s former vice-president Lien Chan, was shot in the face and wounded at a rally yesterday on the eve of mayoral elections on the self-ruled island, but the shooting appeared not to be politically motivated.

Mr Lien (40), a member of the ruling KMT or Nationalist party’s central committee, was taken to hospital to undergo emergency surgery but his life was not in danger, according to local media.

The National Police Agency later said a 29-year-old man was also shot at the rally, but died on the way to a hospital. It identified the shooter as Lin Cheng-wei.

Africa

Egypt Facebook pages vanish before vote



MARWA AWAD | CAIRO, EGYPT – Nov 27 2010  

The activists said they suspected the Egyptian government had played a role in the disappearance of the pages, possibly by covertly bombarding Facebook with complaints about the pages that resulted in their removal, but offered no evidence to support the allegation.

Egyptian interior and information ministry officials were unavailable for comment on Friday, a holiday in Egypt.

Facebook said in an email message that its security systems, designed to protect users on the site, had led it to remove the pages.

Latin America

Rio de Janeiro gun battle sees toddler and photographer among casualties

Violence that has left at least 49 dead within a week is focused on headquarters of city’s oldest drug faction

Tom Phillips in Belo Horizonte

The Guardian, Saturday 27 November 2010

A two-year-old girl and a Reuters photographer were wounded and at least seven people killed yesterday during the third day of gunbattles in Rio de Janeiro.

The unprecedented violence, which has so far left at least 49 people dead, is focused on the Complexo do Alemão, a labyrinth of red-brick houses that is the headquarters of Rio’s oldest drug faction, the Red Command.

Last night local drug traffickers fired at police helicopters as hundreds of police and army operatives surrounded the giant favela, home to some 70,000 impoverished Brazilians.

Ignoring Asia A Blog

Most everyone who is aware of The Who as a major British band realize that the three instrumentalists were very good at their crafts, and some say that Keith Moon may have been the best rock and roll drummer who ever lived.  However, the bass player, John Entwistle, did much more than play bass.

John Alec Enwistle, born 19441009 and died 20029627, was one of the original members of the band.  He and Pete Townshend formed a band in the late 1950s, and he left to join Roger Daltrey’s band in the early 1906s.  He convinced Daltrey to have Townshend join, and with the admission of Keith Moon The Who were formed.

Before we start, I hope that everyone has an enjoyable and safe Thanksgiving Day.  Mine was fine, talked to two of the boys and visited with neighbors.  If you missed my Thanksgiving address Wednesday night, it is on this site.

The Who continued with this lineup from that point until Moon’s death in 1978, with only a handful of temporary substitutions during that time.  Whilst Townshend is remembered as the writer, Daltrey as the singer, Moon as the drummer, and Entwistle as the bass player, Entwistle’s contributions were far beyond just playing bass (better than any other rock an roll bassist, in the opinion of more than one critic).

As early as their first album, Entwistle was already writing material.  He contributed to the instrumental, The Ox, and was known by that name later himself.  This was a relatively minor contribution, however.

On their next album, A Quick One, he wrote and sang two songs, namely the famous Boris the Spider and Whiskey Man.  He also had vocal part on the title song as well.  If you listen carefully to Whiskey Man you can hear him play French horn, and he would play the horn on many other compositions by The Who, and most will recall the French horn part from Overture from Tommy.

Here is the original studio version of Boris

Here is a later live one

Here is the studio cut of Whiskey Man

I could not find a live version.

He also played trumpet on Cobwebs and Strange, purportedly written by Keith.

Here is an early music video of that tune.  Moon is playing tuba, badly.

We covered the song A Quick One a couple of weeks ago, so I shall not add any clips here.

On their next record, the seminal The Who Sell Out, Entwistle wrong and sang the very short Heinz Baked Beans (the visual of which finally appeared in the movie Tommy).  He also played what sounds to me to be trumpet here.

Another short one was Medac that he wrote.  Note that Clearasil was NOT picutured on the original album.

A much more serious song from that album written and sung by Entwistle was Silas Stingy.  You can here his French horn on it as well.

I could not find a live version.

On the compilation record Magic Bus, Enwistle wrote three songs and sang two of them.  He wrote and sang both Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Doctor, Doctor, whilst Daltrey sang Someone’s Coming.

He does play trumpet on Someone’s Coming.

I really the mad sounding French horn at about 1:30 on Pictures of Lily.

On Tommy, Enwistle only wrote two full songs, but did a lot of backing vocals and lots of horn.  The French horn in Overture is wonderful, and the song would just not be the same without it.

Here is Cousin Kevin, lead vocals by Townshend with backing by Entwistle.

Here is Fiddle About (often erroneously called Uncle Ernie), sung by Entwistle.  There is some horn in it which I believe is trombone, played by Enwistle.

And of course, Overture.

For Who’s Next, the only thing that made it to the album was the well known My Wife.  John wrote and sang it.  The last time that the family and I went to see The Who live, Daltrey sang it.  Entwistle was looking poor at the time, and actually leaned against amplifiers during a lot of the concert.  I knew that something was wrong with him.  In under three years he would be no longer with us.  Note the horns near the end of this studio version.

Entwistle did not write anything for Quadrophenia, but had a lot of horns to play.  Here is one example, 5:15.  While you listen for the horns, pay attention the almost bell like quality of the bass.

Entwistle wrote only one song for The Who by Numbers (Daltrey sang it), Success Story.  Note the cover art in the video clip.  Entwistle drew it.

The compilation album Odds and Sods had one Entwistle song, Postcard, on it.  He also sang it and horns are everywhere.  This actually quite a nice record and contains material never before available.

For the last record produced during Keith Moon’s lifetime, Who are You?, Entwistle wrote three songs and sang two of them.  The first, Had Enough, was sung by Daltrey.  As you watch the pictures go by, note the album called Who’s Zoo.  That is a bootleg, and I actually have one.

The other two were 905 and Trick of the Light.  Here is 905.

Here is Trick of the Light.  Note that most of what sounds like Pete on guitar is really Entwistle on his eight string Alembic bass.

That takes us through 1978.  Next time I shall discuss the post Moon influence that Entwistle had, along with some of his solo material.  I hope that this has made less fanatical Who fans realize that there was much more to the band than Townshend’s songwriting.  As always, I welcome comments and other video embeds or links.

Warmest regards,

Doc

Crossposted at Docudharma.com and at Dailykos.com

Evening Edition is an Open Thread

Now with 57 Top Stories.

1 US rushes to contain new WikiLeaks damage

AFP

24 mins ago

2 Leading Haiti candidates are study in contrasts

by Clarens Renois, AFP

26 mins ago

3 Stark choice for Haiti as election battle heats up

by Stephane Jourdain, AFP

Wed Nov 24, 6:28 pm ET

4 Haiti voters face mounting fraud concerns

by Stephane Jourdain, AFP

Fri Nov 26, 7:46 am ET

5 Rio braces for more violence in drug crackdown

by Marcelo Lluberas, AFP

1 hr 1 min ago

6 Zapatero ‘absolutely’ rules out economic rescue for Spain

by Katell Abiven, AFP

Fri Nov 26, 1:31 pm ET

7 Irish bailout talks accelerate as PM faces new setback

by Loic Vennin and Andrew Bushe, AFP

Thu Nov 25, 5:19 pm ET

8 Merkel seeks to soothe markets on eurozone

by Simon Sturdee, AFP

Thu Nov 25, 1:11 pm ET

9 Ireland unveils 15-bln-euro austerity plan to secure bailout

by Loic Vennin and Andrew Bushe, AFP

Wed Nov 24, 5:34 pm ET

10 General strike cripples debt-hit Portugal

by Thomas Cabral, AFP

Wed Nov 24, 2:40 pm ET

11 Portugal fights eurozone contagion, adopts budget

AFP

Fri Nov 26, 10:55 am ET

12 Spain, Portugal fight fear of Irish contagion

by David Williams, AFP

Fri Nov 26, 7:45 am ET

13 EU says not pressing Portugal to take bail out

AFP

Fri Nov 26, 6:31 am ET

14 Japan consumer prices slide further

by Kyoko Hasegawa, AFP

Fri Nov 26, 7:51 am ET

15 Japanese parliament passes $58-bln stimulus budget

by Shingo Ito, AFP

Fri Nov 26, 11:26 am ET

16 Games best for China as Bangladesh win cricket

by Martin Parry, AFP

Fri Nov 26, 12:33 pm ET

17 Empty chair for Liu at Nobel ceremony: activist

by Shaun Tandon, AFP

1 hr 25 mins ago

18 Maliki named Iraq PM for second term, urges unity

by Ammar Karim, AFP

Thu Nov 25, 4:14 pm ET

19 Cambodia holds day of mourning for stampede dead

by Michelle Fitzpatrick, AFP

Thu Nov 25, 1:05 pm ET

20 Afghan prosecutor summons vote officials over fraud

by Sardar Ahmad, AFP

Thu Nov 25, 11:43 am ET

21 New Zealand PM demands answers as nation mourns miners

by Neil Sands, AFP

Wed Nov 24, 7:21 pm ET

22 Australian cricketers fight back in Ashes opener

by Robert Smith, AFP

Fri Nov 26, 3:13 am ET

23 Ireland nears rescue, Portugal denies it’s next

By Dave Graham and Sergio Goncalves, Reuters

2 hrs 19 mins ago

24 Portugal adopts budget, denies bailout pressure

By Axel Bugge and Shrikesh Laxmidas, Reuters

Fri Nov 26, 2:27 pm ET

25 Voters hammer Irish government

By Padraic Halpin, Reuters

Fri Nov 26, 12:56 pm ET

26 Spain pledges more bank health checks, debt updates

By Fiona Ortiz and Martin Roberts, Reuters

Fri Nov 26, 12:31 pm ET

27 Investors brace for painful Irish bank bond swaps

By Steve Slater, Reuters

Fri Nov 26, 11:07 am ET

28 Worst of times, best of times: tale of two Irelands

By Peter Graff, Reuters

Thu Nov 25, 8:12 pm ET

29 Collahuasi mine strikers set to shun latest offer

By Fabian Cambero, Reuters

Fri Nov 26, 12:06 pm ET

30 Second-hand smoke kills 600,000 a year: WHO study

By Kate Kelland, Reuters

Fri Nov 26, 10:54 am ET

31 WTO envoys ready for Doha trade deal push in 2011

By Jonathan Lynn, Reuters

Fri Nov 26, 7:21 am ET

32 U.N. envoy to meet Myanmar junta, meet Suu Kyi

Reuters

Fri Nov 26, 6:35 am ET

33 If it’s Thanksgiving, it must be time to shop

By Brad Dorfman, Reuters

Thu Nov 25, 2:24 pm ET

34 New corruption scandal deals blow to India’s image

By Paul de Bendern and Jui Chakravorty, Reuters

Thu Nov 25, 10:26 am ET

35 Canadians see Afghan army progress, support needed

By Ian Simpson, Reuters

Thu Nov 25, 5:07 am ET

36 Cholera-hit Haiti needs nurses, doctors: U.N.

By Pascal Fletcher, Reuters

Wed Nov 24, 7:15 pm ET

37 US briefs allies about next WikiLeaks release

By JILL LAWLESS, Associated Press

58 mins ago

38 Debt turmoil, contagion fears sweep Europe

By BARRY HATTON, Associated Press

Fri Nov 26, 2:46 pm ET

39 Backlash feared as some in GOP push social issues

By JOHN HANNA, Associated Press

Fri Nov 26, 3:06 pm ET

40 Rio police, backed by military, surround gang turf

By JULIANA BARBASSA, Associated Press

2 hrs 12 mins ago

41 Obama gets 12 stitches after errant elbow to mouth

By DARLENE SUPERVILLE, Associated Press

44 mins ago

42 Lesbian cadet who quit seeks return to West Point

By JOHN SEEWER, Associated Press

Fri Nov 26, 2:41 pm ET

43 Big New York insider trading probe spawns another

By LARRY NEUMEISTER, Associated Press

10 mins ago

44 Irish banks cut over rumored raid on bondholders

By SHAWN POGATCHNIK, Associated Press

Fri Nov 26, 2:39 pm ET

45 Asian carp create nagging fear in Lake Erie towns

By JOHN FLESHER, AP Environmental Writer

Fri Nov 26, 9:08 am ET

46 Japan election sure to show opposition to US base

By MARI YAMAGUCHI, Associated Press

Fri Nov 26, 4:23 am ET

47 Iraq Kurdish leader: A uniter in a divided nation

By HAMZA HENDAWI, Associated Press

Fri Nov 26, 1:22 am ET

48 Critics say Obama lagging on endangered species

By MATTHEW DALY, Associated Press

Fri Nov 26, 2:46 am ET

49 US presence in Afghanistan as long as Soviet slog

By PATRICK QUINN, Associated Press

Fri Nov 26, 2:29 am ET

50 Kanye West, Kung Fu Panda star at NYC parade

By KAREN MATTHEWS, Associated Press

Thu Nov 25, 10:32 pm ET

51 DeLay’s conviction starts lengthy appeals process

RAMIT PLUSHNICK-MASTI, Associated Press

1 hr 15 mins ago

52 Marine pushback to permitting openly gay military

By JULIE WATSON, Associated Press

Fri Nov 26, 1:39 pm ET

53 Indiana residents question Ohio manure imports

By RICK CALLAHAN, Associated Press

Fri Nov 26, 7:45 am ET

54 Close Ohio gay-rights vote mirrors national debate

By DAVID CRARY, AP National Writer

Fri Nov 26, 12:24 am ET

55 Years later, Miss. still lacks civil rights museum

By SHELIA BYRD, Associated Press

Thu Nov 25, 3:55 pm ET

56 Murkowski seeks voice in Alaska election lawsuit

By DAN JOLING, Associated Press

Thu Nov 25, 5:48 am ET

57 Chinese dissent crackdown shrinks Nobel turnout

By BJOERN H. AMLAND, Associated Press

Wed Nov 24, 7:33 pm ET