Syria Bought Chemicals From British Firms

Via The D.C. Clothesline:

With the looming possibility of an American strike on Syria due to their government's alleged use of chemical weapons against al Qaida-aided rebels, the question arises as to where those weapons came from.  Could they possibly have come from Iraq, after being smuggled out in the run-up to the invasion of that country?  In any event, the Daily Record points to a very different possible source.

BRITAIN allowed firms to sell chemicals to Syria capable of being used to make nerve gas, the Sunday Mail can reveal today. 

Export licences for potassium fluoride and sodium fluoride were granted months after the bloody civil war in the Middle East began. 

The chemical is capable of being used to make weapons such as sarin, thought to be the nerve gas used in the attack on a rebel-held Damascus suburb which killed nearly 1500 people, including 426 children, 10 days ago.

Read the full story.

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Monday Links - Again

Once again, Monday appears to be a good time to round up some stories in the news.  So here we go:

From The Guardian, as tensions rise in the wake of an apparent chemical weapons attack in Syria, the United Kingdom moves military equipment to a base in Cyprus.

From the Boston Globe, the full text of Secretary of State John Kerry's statement in response to these attacks.

From the Jerusalem Post, according to Israeli International Relations Minister Yuval Steinitz it is "crystal clear" that Syrian President Bashir Assad's forces used chemical weapons in an attack five days ago.

From CBS News, worries about Syria are affecting Wall Street.

From the Washington Post, the prospect of American intervention in Syria is very unpopular.

From Town Hall, the story of Shin Dong-Hyuk, who escaped the North Korean GULAG.

From Mashable, Bloomberg beat Reuters in web traffic for this past July.

From WRAL(dot)com, a charitable group in Raleigh, North Carolina has been threatened with arrest for feeding the homeless without a permit.  (via Breitbart's The Conversation)

From Breitbart's Big Government, the media ignore the killing of Americans by illegal aliens.

From Forbes, Donald Trump is being sued for fraud.

From Fox News, two House Democrats propose a bill to increase taxes on guns and ammunition.

From the Mail Online, investigators have requested the school records of the Sandy Hook shooter.

From Talking Points Memo, according to Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, the federal government will reach the latest debt ceiling in mid-October.

And from the Times Union, the best and worst dressed at the MTV VMAs.

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Monday Links

Some things going on out there:

From the Sporting News, Major League Baseball hands out 50-games suspensions to 12 players, and a much longer one to Alex Rodriguez.

From the Washington Post, a 15 million-year-old whale skull has been found on the banks of the Potomac, near the birthplace of Robert E. Lee.

Speaking of the Washington Post, it will soon be sold to Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon.com.

From Bare Naked Islam, Egypt has banned Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan from entering Gaza.  (via Barracuda Brigade)

From Frontpage Mag, the Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir admits their belief that Sharia law is imposed on Christians.

From the Washington Free Beacon, the new Iranian president Hassan Rowhani has appointed a holocaust denier as his country's foreign minister.  This, of course, makes his no worse than Rowhani's predecessor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.  (via Pat Dollard)

From the Daily Caller, a conservative group has given their support to the Justice Safety Valve Act.

The American Thinker presents "The Dependably Unfaithful Colin Powell".

From Fox News, the U.S. military is spending $772 million on aircraft for Afghanistan, for which the Afghan military does not have the capacity "to operate or maintain".

From Reuters, a unit of the Drug Enforcement Agency is funneling information to authorities across the United States to help them start criminal investigations.

From the New York Post, the new owner of the Drake's Cakes brands has announced that Coffee Cakes, Devil Dogs, Ring Dings and Yodels will return next month.

And to finish with some humor, my blogosphere buddy Holger Awakens presents the Dem's poster boy.

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Thursday Links

A few stories and things going on:

From the Times Of Israel, an Arab member of the Knesset claims that Secretary of State John Kerry has promised that Israel will release all of its pre-Oslo prisoners so that peace talks resume.

From Natural News, the rover Curiosity is finding evidence that a "catastrophic event" stripped away the Martian atmosphere about 4 billion years ago.

From The College Fix, ten College Republicans were denied entry to President Obama's speech at Missouri Central University, even though they had bought tickets.  (via National Review Online)

From the Tampa Tribune, one of the jurors in the George Zimmerman trial says that he "got away with murder", but that there wasn't enough evidence under Florida law to convict him.

From the New York Post, there's a lake at the North Pole.

From the New York Daily News, former Congressman and current mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner (D-NY) has admitted to more online relationships.  This comes via Gateway Pundit, with some video of comedians giving Weiner some well-deserved ribbing.

From Fox News, Mrs. Weiner, a.k.a. Huma Abedin is facing questions about working part-time for the government while also working as a consultant for Teneo.

Also from Fox News, a majority of voters now doubts that immigration reform will ever happen.  This, of course, is good or bad, depending on how you define "immigration reform".

From Russia Today, Great Britain is putting up ads telling illegal immigrants to go home or be arrested.  Now there's a bit of immigration reform I could get behind.

From Creeping Sharia, Crayola(dot)com celebrates Ramadan.

From Business Insider, Halliburton will plead guilty to destroying evidence relating to the Deepwater Horizon disaster.

And from The Guardian, the newest heir to the British throne has been named George Alexander Louis.  The announcement of his name was relatively quick compared to other royal babies, such as his father and grandfather after their respective births.  Britain has had six kings ruling under the name George, the most recent being Queen Elizabeth's father.  Louis was the name of Prince Philip's uncle, Lord Mountbatten.

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Wednesday Links

Some stories from today's news:

From CBS News, a search for art stolen from the Netherlands appears to have turned up ashes in the oven of a woman in Romania.

Also from CBS News, a new "intelligent knife" can distinguish between healthy tissue and cancerous tissue.

From BBC News, the Greek parliament has approved budget cuts amid an atmosphere of protest.

From the Irish Times, a well-known defender of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad has been gunned down in Lebanon.

From Boston(dot)com, Democrats pursuing an immigration bill are pinning their hopes on congressman and former vice-presidential candidate Paul Ryan (R-WI).

From Breitbart's Big Government, congressman Steve Stockman (R-TX) thinks that if Speaker John Boehner tries to salvage the "gang of eight" immigration bill, "it will blow up in his face".

From the Washington Post, the federal government's collection of phone records does not sit well with, believe it or not, the man who authored the Patriot Act.

From Yahoo News, state and local police have been using license plate scanners, thus tracking the movements of your vehicle.

From Time, the Rolling Stone's cover depicting accused Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokar Tsarnaev has not sat well with some retail stores.

From USA Today, the jury in the trial of George Zimmerman was correct, according to former president Jimmy Carter.

From Breitbart's Big Hollywood, Bill Maher tells some jokes about Zimmerman on the Late Show with David Letterman, and gets booed.

From CNS News, as the Pentagon furloughs civilian workers, the Army spends $81,000 on TVs for Gitmo.

From the Washington Free Beacon, Samantha Power, nominated to be the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, promises to fight against anti-Israel sentiment if confirmed.

And from the New York Post, British researchers say that they have developed a cell phone that can be recharged by using a very convenient fuel.

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Twinkies To Return

Having sold off many of its brands, and now under new ownership, Hostess plans to bring Twinkies and other cakes back onto the market this coming July 15th.  Hostess Brands LLC has undergone a restructuring that included reducing their number of bakery plants from 11 to four, moving their headquarters from Texas to Kansas City, Mo., and limiting their deliveries to warehouses that supply retail stores, instead of to the stores themselves.  They have hired back some of their old workers, but they are not unionized.  Boxes of Twinkies will have the tag line "The Sweetest Comeback In The History Of Ever".

Read more at Yahoo News, CBS DFW, Bloomberg, the Daily Mail and NBC News.

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Monday News And Links

Some things going on out there:

From Life News, the IRS is caught on tape telling a pro-life organization, "Keep your faith to yourself." (via Weasel Zippers)

From CBS DC, according to recently uncovered documents, the State Department "may have covered up allegations of illegal behavior ranging from sexual assaults to an underground drug ring".

From the Washington Examiner, sales of George Orwell's book 1984 have gone up 69%.  Hmmm, it does kinda seem like Big Brother is watching us these days.

From the Guardian, an interview with Edward Snowden, the NSA leaker/whistleblower.

From Fox News, a flight from Los Angeles to Austin was diverted to Phoenix after a bomb threat.

Fox News asks, "Can the US arm the 'right' Syrians?"  I would first ask if there are any "right" Syrians.

From the American Spectator, a possible reason to refrain from arming the rebels in Syria.

From ENCA, 10 people in Kenya are wounded in two attacks, one coming against a church.

From ESPN, it appears that rumors of the end of Tim Tebow's career might just be a bit exaggerated.

From Campus Reform, the University of Chicago has removed pews from a chapel to accommodate Islamic prayers.

From the Florida Times-Union, a homeowner in Brunswick, Georgia uses a gun to defend himself from a knife-wielding masked man.  (via Guns Save Lives)

From KSAT(dot)com, a gunman is in custody after a shooting at Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston.

From Popular Science, there may be an underground ocean on Dione, one of the moons of Saturn.

And from PJ Media, some congressmen are looking into claims that the EPA is favoring liberal groups in regard to Freedom of Information Act requests.

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The Wheel Reinvented

I would certainly like to get my grubby hands - and my big feet - on one of these, just to try it out.  British inventor Sam Pearce has replaced the spokes of a normal bicycle wheel with large springs, which give the wheel its own internal suspension.  The "Loopwheel", as he calls it, can be used on existing bikes.

Read more at the Mail Online, and watch their video:

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"Master Suite" Being Phased Out

When staff reporter Michael Neibauer of the Washington Business Journal surveyed ten major homebuilders in the area of Washington, DC, he found that six of them would no longer refer to a house's largest bedroom as the "master".  These builders will no longer indicate a "master bedroom" or a "master suite", but instead will replace "master" with "owner's", because the former term "has connotation problems, in gender (it skews toward male) and race (the slave master)", as Neibauer puts it.

This begs several questions.  Since slaves were considered to be property, why wouldn't the term "owner" likewise have "connotation problems"?  Will Master's degrees have to be re-titled?  Will sound amplifiers no longer have a "master volume" control?  Will automotive braking systems no longer have a "master cylinder"?  In craft guilds, after spending time as an apprentice and then a journeyman, will a full-fledged craftsman no longer be called a "master"?  Will PBS be willing to change the name of Masterpiece Theater?  And what about that major PGA golf tournament held every spring in Augusta, Georgia?

Read Neibauer's article at the topmost link.

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NYC Pay Phones Take You Back

In an attempt to promote an art exhibit, the ad agency Droga5 (whose name resembles "droga", the Polish word for "road") has enabled 5,000 pay phones in Manhattan to connect the caller with someone reminiscing about the way things were in 1993, the year which saw the first attack on the World Trade Center and the first election of Mayor Rudy Giuliani.  Among those recounting the past is former NY Yankees pitcher Jim Abbott, who threw a no-hitter that year.

Read the story at SF Gate and CBS New York.

It's notable that there still are pay phones in New York City.  For those of you too young to remember them, read about them here.

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Thursday Links

A few stories in the news:

From CNN, the Chinese solar energy company Soltech Power's Wuxi subsidiary has gone into bankruptcy.

From the Washington Times, Colorado movie theater shooter James Holmes has converted to Islam.

From The Blaze, while in Israel discussing Israeli-Palestinian relations, President Obama evokes the relationship between the United States and Canada.  That's funny, I don't recall any Canadians launching rockets at American towns full of civilians, or any Canadian suicide bombers.

From Time, the Palestinians aren't all that pleased with Obama.

From World Net Daily, in a speech to young Israelis, the president quotes Saul Alinsky.

From Fox News, in southern Idaho, nearly 40 dogs have mysteriously disappeared, with some of them eventually turning up dead.

From CBS Bay Area, CVS pharmacy is ordering its employees to reveal their health information.

From Liberty News, congressman Charles Rangel claims that "millions of kids" have been shot down by "assault weapons", a number that is actually way off the mark.

From MSN News, Chicago school officials announce plans to close 54 schools, due to a billion-dollar deficit.

From the Military Times, the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry has found no proof that the Navy's use of bombing ranges on the island of Vieques has caused its inhabitants to get sick.

From the New York Post, Saudi Arabia, despite being the homeland of most of the 9/11 hijackers, will become just the fifth nation to receive "trusted traveller" status.

And from Phillyburbs, the up-for-reelection Bucks County Sheriff has been petitioned to remove his nickname from the upcoming ballot.

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Fresh Air Now Comes In A Can

Yes, you can now buy a can of fresh air.  However, there is a catch.  You have to travel a few thousand miles to get your hands on one.  Canned fresh air is available only in China, where it's being sold by entrepreneur Chen Guangbiao.  His product comes in several flavors, including Tibet, Taiwan and Yan'an, which was an early home of the Communist Party.  Each can costs 5 yuan, equivalent to about 80 American cents.

Read more at the Brisbane Times and Yahoo News.

Canned air from various parts of China could eventually lead to the art of pairing food with air, similar to how food is paired with wine.  For example, which regional type of air should be inhaled while eating Szeshuan beef, pork Chungking or Hunan chicken?

The Brisbane Times report includes this video:

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Sunday News And Links

Some items recently in the news:

From Reuters, President Obama says that football needs to become "less violent", invoking the "if I had a son" clause. (via Weasel Zippers)

From Fox News, lawsuits over the Obamacare birth control mandate appear headed to the Supreme Court.

Also from Fox News, Iran sentences Christian pastor Saeed Abedini to eight years in prison.

From the Brenner Brief, an explosion has reportedly occurred at the Fordo nuclear facility in Iran.

From the Weekly Standard, Obama violates his own "Stimulus" law.

From Breitbart Sports, two Egyptian soccer players were shot dead in a riot, which broke out in response to a judge's sentence in a trial of people accused of rioting over a soccer game.  (Perhaps it's this type of football that needs to be less violent, Mr. President.)  In a related story from Middle East Online, 22 people have died in these riots in Port Said.  Al Arabiya News reports 27 people dead.

Back to the American variety of football, and more violence, the New York Post tells the tale of Ray Lewis' homicide case.

From Yahoo News, Obama expresses his respect for the "tradition of hunting".  (via Gateway Pundit)

From the Independent, January 27th is Holocaust Memorial Day.  (via Infidel Blogger's Alliance)

From Newsbusters, a woman explains to Pierce Morgan why she needs an AR-15.

From Dawn, an intense battle rages in the Khyber region of Pakistan between a faction of the Pakistani Taliban and the "pro-government" group Ansar ul Islam.  (via Holger Awakens)

From National Review, the transcript of Congressman Paul Ryan's (R-Wis) speech at the NRI summit.

From the Daily Caller, about 2/3 of polled gun owners said that they would defy a law requiring them to give up their guns.

And to finish, something to eat for breakfast:  Crapola.

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Pearl Harbor Day - And Today

December 7th is the anniversary of Japan's attack on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, bringing the United States into World War II.  Here are some facts about the attack on the "date which will live in infamy".

In today's news:

From WRAL, President Obama will attend a performance by South Korean rapper PSY, whose songs (I use the term loosely) include some anti-American lyrics.

From Yahoo News, a cache of gold dust bought for $700,000 last year has disappeared from the Chesterfield, MO laboratory or Pfizer, Inc.

From Citizen Link, the Supreme Court has decided to hear cases about the Defense of Marriage Act, and California's Proposition 8.

From Breitbart's Big Government, guns are being bought at record rates - in California.

From PJ Media, 73% of the jobs created in the last 5 months have been government jobs.

From the Washington Examiner, Michigan's new right-to-work legislation gets an angry reaction from one of the state's biggest residents.

From the Chicago Tribune, that large Michigan resident is not alone.

The Foundry asks why government should get "something for nothing".

And from NBC News, the LAPD has started to ask that age-old question, "What's up, Doc?"

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Maryland Goes To The Big Ten

The University of Maryland, a founding member of the Atlantic Coast Conference, has accepted an invitation of join the Big Ten in 2014.  Rutgers, a.k.a. the State University of New Jersey, is also expected to join, giving the Big Ten 14 teams.  Rutgers would be leaving the Big East.  Here's the story and some reaction:

From ESPN, Maryland accepts the Big Ten invite.

From the NY Daily News, Maryland leaves the ACC, Rutgers expected to follow.

In Yahoo Sports, Pat Forde writes that the two schools will "cash in on their incompetence".

In the Washington Post, Johnny Holliday calls Maryland's move a "no brainer".

In Forbes, Patrick Riche says it's "Win-win-win" as they all "cash in".

In the Baltimore Sun, Kevin Cowherd thinks that Maryland has been blinded by dollar signs, and former ACC Commissioner Gene Corrigan is "flabbergasted" about Maryland and the Big Ten.

From the Baltimore Business Journal, University of Maryland president Wallace D. Loh says that the move will boost the school's academics and athletics.

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Monday Links

A few things going on out there:

From The Telegraph, the British are not amused by President Obama's gaffes made during his trip to Thailand and Myanmar.  (Or is it Burma again?)

From Mediaiate via Weasel Zippers, Secretary of State Clinton falls asleep during Obama's speech.

From Breitbart's Big Journalism, a BBC reporter spreads around a photo of a child reportedly injured in an Israeli attack on Gaza.  The only problem is that the photo was actually taken in Syria.

From the Daily Caller, Senator Marco Rubio passes on answering a question about the age of the earth.  Lefties in the media go nuts.  Funny, they had no problem with then-Senator Obama decided that a question about when life begins was above his pay grade.

From Hispanic Business, GE Healthcare will eliminate 2% of its jobs in Wisconsin.

From the Phoenix Business Journal, the Mexican company Grupo Bimbo, despite rumors to the contrary, will not be acquiring Hostess Brands.

From My Fox Chicago, meanwhile back in the US, a judge has ordered Hostess to mediate with their second largest union.

From France24, noted musician and vegetarian Paul McCartney says, "Skip the turkey."  Yours truly, a much less-noted musician and alumnus of a college whose mascot is a highly evolved turkey, says, "Sir Paul, mind your own [bleep]ing business!"

From Tribble News, the real story of the first Thanksgiving.

From the Indy Star, Marion County, Indiana authorities are investigating the explosion of a house in the Richmond Hills subdivision as a homicide.  On November 10, the house blew up, killing two people and damaging dozens of neighboring homes.

And from SFGate, shoppers at a Kohl's store in Iowa got to experience a line from the Rodger & Hammerstein song Do Re Mi.  Doe, a deer, a female deer.

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Goodbye, Twinkies

Hostess Brands, Inc., after filing for bankruptcy for the second time and having a dispute with its unionized workers, has asked for permission to go out of business.  This would mean that its products, such as Twinkies, Ho Hos and Wonder Bread, will no longer be manufactured.  Its remaining inventory of breads and cakes will be sold to consumers, but unless or until the brands are bought by other businesses, they will soon cease to be on the market.  Hostess plans to sell their brands to the highest bidders.

Oh well, we still have Little Debbie and Tastykakes, don't we?

Read more at the New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, Bloomberg, CNN Money and the International Business Times.

Reacting to this development, Neil Steinberg, in the Chicago Sun-Times, asks "How can anyone go bankrupt selling junk food?"

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Virginia Tech To Retire Two Logos

My alma mater, often the subject of some name confusion, has decided to retire two of their logos.  One is the letter T sitting on top of and partially within a V, known as the "TV" logo, and the other is the Fighting Gobbler symbol, inspired by Virginia Tech's long association with turkeys.  The most recent manifestation of this is the Hokiebird mascot, whose evolution is explained in this video.

During my time at VT, a.k.a. VPI&SU, the football team was called the "Fighting Gobblers", with the name appearing in Lane Stadium, while all the other varsity teams were called the "Hokies".  During the 1980's, the football changed its name to the latter.

From the student newspaper, the Collegiate Times:

Over the years, the names of both the university and its mascot have gone through various changes.  Although the school’s official name is currently Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and is referred to as Virginia Tech, it was once referred to simply as VPI.  The HokieBird was once known as the Gobbler, then the Fighting Gobbler.

Come to think of it, I remember hearing about a pre-season NCAA basketball poll, possibly in Sports Illustrated, that mentioned Virginia Tech and VPI, not realizing that these were two names for the same school.  In  response to such name confusion, we had a tongue-in-cheek contest to rename the school.  The winner was Eastern Institute of Enlightenment and Intellectual Outgrowth, abbreviated as EIEIO, as recalled in some letters to the editor of the Virginia Tech Magazine.

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A Few News Items

A few items in the news as the east coast starts recovering from Sandy, and the nation prepares for the upcoming election:

From the New York Post, residents of Staten Island say that they've been forgotten by the post-Sandy relief efforts.

In the Wall Street Journal, Michael Tanner opines that for disaster relief, bigger government isn't necessarily the answer.

From Fox News, the states hit hard by Sandy have vowed to be ready for the election.

From HLNTV, Sandy has caused gas shortages in New York and New Jersey, but prices have increased only by about a cent per gallon.

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The Determinators Movie

Based on the book The Battle for America's Soul by C. L. Gray, MD, and posted on YouTube by Tea Party Patriots, The Determinators features health care experts who have read the law and try to explain how it will affect us.  Dr. Gray also gives some historical perspective on the matter, tracing two competing philosophies on the role of physicians from their origins in ancient Greece.

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