Geert Wilders………..and bodyguards

Reuters

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – A politician making an anti-Koran film that has stirred Muslim outrage, brought him death threats and alarmed the Dutch government said on Wednesday the movie would be finished this week.

Geert Wilders has given few details about the content of his film “Fitna”, other than saying that in it he intends to present his views about the Koran. In the past he has called for the Koran to be banned and likened it to Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf.

He said talks with Dutch broadcasters would begin next week over the screening of “Fitna”, an Arabic term used in the Koran and sometimes translated as “strife”. At the same time as the film is televised it will also be made available on a special internet site www.fitnathemovie.com, intended to skirt any restrictions on access.

“It is very good news. The film will definitely be finished this week, that is to say before March 1,” Wilders told Reuters. The project has sparked street protests as far afield as Indonesia. Turkey has voiced concern about the film, and the Iranian government called it a “provocative and Satanic” act. Several films purporting to be Wilders’ 15-minute film have appeared on the YouTube Web site. Access to the site was disrupted around the world last weekend after Pakistani Internet service providers tried to prevent local users from seeing them. Wilders defended his film: “I am not endangering anybody or stirring trouble. I am a democratically elected parliamentarian who is exercising his right to free speech.”

This will just get ugly……time will tell.

Two masked and machete-wielding men who barged into a club in Sydney, Australia, couldn’t have picked a worse night for their robbery — a monthly meeting of bikers.

The robbers chose the wrong night to burst into the club where the Southern Cross Cruiser Club have their monthly meeting.

About 50 burly bikers fought back with tables and chairs — pretty much anything that wasn’t bolted down. One would-be robber was tied up; the other in the hospital…

“These guys were absolutely dumb as bricks,” Jerry Vancornewal, leader of the bikers. “I can’t believe they saw all the bikes parked up front and they were so stupid that they walked past in.”

The crooks are lucky they’re alive.

Accountant Found Dead in Brooklyn Hotel Room

NEW YORK (AP) — An accountant was found dead in a hotel bathtub with his face covered by duct tape in what authorities say was a suicide.

Paul Mento, 52, worked for The Associated Press for 26 years, including more than 15 as budget director. His body was discovered Monday afternoon at a Best Western in Brooklyn by a hotel maid, police said. He had checked in earlier that day, police said.

Mento apparently suffocated because of the duct tape. The medical examiner ruled the death a suicide and said it was caused by asphyxia due to obstruction of the nose and mouth, spokeswoman Ellen Borakove said.

Police are unsure of the circumstances that preceded Mento’s death, but investigators have information that he had a gambling problem, according to a law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation has not been completed.

Police said he left no suicide note.

Hmmm, Let see, gambling problem, New York City, suicide by duct tape……..I haven’t used this in a while..

Technical problems have forced the Bush administration to retool a high-tech “virtual fence” along the U.S.-Mexico border and will delay the first phase for at least three years…

Department of Homeland Security officials and congressional auditors told lawmakers on Wednesday that problems found in the 28-mile pilot project built near Nogales, Arizona, by Boeing Co. will require a change in plans, the Post reported…

While the Department of Homeland Security took over the high-tech project from Boeing last week, authorities confirmed the initial deployment did not work as planned or meet the needs of the U.S. Border Patrol, the Post said.

Homeland Insecurity admitted that, in fact, the system may not be ready until the end of the next president’s first term.

Up until two years ago, only 15 of Indiana’s 92 counties set their clocks an hour ahead in the spring and an hour back in the fall. The rest stayed on standard time all year, in part because farmers resisted the prospect of having to work an extra hour in the morning dark. But many residents came to hate falling in and out of sync with businesses and residents in neighboring states and prevailed upon the Indiana Legislature to put the entire state on daylight-saving time beginning in the spring of 2006…

Their finding: Having the entire state switch to daylight-saving time each year, rather than stay on standard time, costs Indiana households an additional $8.6 million in electricity bills. They conclude that the reduced cost of lighting in afternoons during daylight-saving time is more than offset by the higher air-conditioning costs on hot afternoons and increased heating costs on cool mornings…

The energy-savings numbers often cited by lawmakers and others come from research conducted in the 1970s. Yet a key difference between now and the ’70s — or, for that matter, Ben Franklin’s time — is the prevalence of air conditioning.

People as simple-minded as Congress will want to study the question for another couple of decades before giving up a magic bullet solution like Daylight Savings Time.

Thanks, Helen

Don’t like the smell of fish but love the smell of money? Then get off your couch, potato, and get to your computer and check out the Fantasy Fishing website.

Fantasy fishing

Thursday, Feb. 28, marks the start of a surprising new fantasy league — in an even more surprising sport — that will blow away all previous fantasy cash prizes and make the WCOFF look like a quaint little office pool.

Sports fans, fantasy nuts, people who love winning giant piles of money for sitting at a computer — meet FLW Outdoors Fantasy Fishing. It’s the first-ever fantasy sports league to guarantee that somebody will become an actual, totally legit in the eyes of God and the IRS, millionaire. Or even a multimillionaire. FLW is blowing away all previous fantasy leagues by giving away more than $7 million in cash and prizes. Yes, folks, we’ve officially reached the point in sports history where people can win millions of dollars for watching other people watch out for fish.

A couple filmed at the Sicilian resort of Taormina last year have been identified as innocent Germans and not a top FBI fugitive and his girlfriend.

The holidaymakers had been thought to be alleged crime boss James J Bulger, on the run since 1994, and his girlfriend Catherine Grieg.

FBI agents had travelled to Europe to publicise the video after facial recognition experts raised the alert…

The suspect’s face appears on the FBI’s website beneath that of Osama Bin Laden.

So, we’re dealing with the same level of crimefighters who are tracking Osama Bin Laden. Right?

Here’s a newspaper article “revealing” the discovery of Bulger in Taormina. Apparently, it only took five months to get round to checking it out.

In a landmark judgement with far-reaching social implications, Italy’s highest appeals court has ruled it is a criminal offence for Italian men to touch their genitals in public.

The judges of the court of cassation stressed that the ban did not just apply to brazen crotch-scratching, but also to what might be termed superstitious pre-emption. Anyone who has seen a hearse go past in Italy, or been part of a discussion in which some terrible illness or disaster is mentioned, will know it is traditional for men to ward off bad luck with a quick grab at what are delicately called their “attributi”.

The practice has become increasingly frowned on, but “io mi tocco i … “, which translates as “I touch my … ” is still a common phrase, roughly equivalent to “fingers crossed”. The judges helpfully suggested that those seeking reassurance should wait till they had returned to the privacy of their own homes before letting their hands stray trouser-wards…

The third penal division of the Rome court was having none of it. It said that public genital-patting “has to be regarded as an act contrary to public decency, a concept including that nexus of socio-ethical behavioural rules requiring everyone to abstain from conduct potentially offensive to collectively-held feelings of decorum”.

Oh, brother.

BBC NEWS | Europe | Sicily Mafia restoring US links

The Italian anti-mafia commission says Old Bridge was a remarkable success but it shows the Sicilian Cosa Nostra is “re-establishing its links with the American cousins”.

A suspect is led away by FBI agents during an operation in Italy and the US, New York 7 February 2008
US authorities detained more than 80 suspects

The commission says it has evidence Cosa Nostra is sending its top members to New York while allowing those expelled by the mob during the clan wars of the 1980s to return home to Sicily.

Their report says that many US food distribution and construction firms are now controlled by the US Cosa Nostra, whose bosses are of Sicilian origin and have direct links.

And while Cosa Nostra still maintains its control over the lucrative drugs trade and its traditional activities of extortion and racketeering, it is now diversifying into new industries like online gambling.

Meanwhile, you can get these fakes all over the Internet

NYPD snags $1M in Chinatown fakes – Crain’s New York Business — Every so often they do this bust and I’m never sure how they value the bust. Is a $12 fake Rolex valued at $12 or $1200? But what got my attention was the rationale: “Quality of Life Violations.” How is buying a $14 Cartier rip-off a quality of life issue and why is it negative? It seems the opposite to me since it makes people feel better to wear big brands knowing they got them cheap. Nobody thinks they were real. Seems like “newspeak” if you ask me. I’m getting a little concerned.

More than $1 million of counterfeit Gucci, Prada, Fendi, Rolex and Coach goods have been seized in an early morning Chinatown raid by the mayor’s Office of Special Enforcement.

The raid Tuesday came after a two-month investigation by city officials in the special unit, which was created in 2006 to crack down on trademark counterfeiting and other quality of life violations.

The special enforcement unit includes police, building inspectors and finance inspectors. According to a spokesman for Mayor Michael Bloomberg, investigators made dozens of undercover purchases of illegal goods, including handbags, perfume, clothing and jewelry, in an area known as the “Counterfeit Triangle.”

The area is bounded by Canal, Walker and Centre streets, and consists of 32 stalls and storefront shops.

Click pic for better view

I think there was talk of the war in the debates last night. Hard to tell with all the fighting going on between the candidates.

Click pic for better view

No idea where this is or anything else about it, but it does make me glad I live where it will be in the low 70’s today.