- Things are turning ugly very quickly in Pakistan. Well, that’s not completely true. The situation on the ground there has been ugly for some time; now, it’s downright terrifying. With NATO troops in the country to help keep the peace, Pakistani militants are doing their best to make the task as difficult as possible. Their latest strike came Friday, when militants set fire to 35 tankers in Pakistan that were carrying fuel for NATO troops in Afghanistan. Local officials were quick to blame “extremists” for the attack on the tankers, which took place in the southern town of Shikarpur. A dozen people, all with faces covered, unleashed small arms fire into the air, scaring away the drivers so they could set fire to the tankers. Ten men were later arrested in conjunction with the attack, but plenty of damage was done to the tankers. The lone positive was that no one was injured or killed in the attack. “There is no loss of human life,” Shikarpur police chief Abdul Hameed Khoso stated. Tanker attacks were clearly the order of the day, as another NATO tanker traveling through a town in Baluchistan Province toward Afghanistan was fired upon by two unidentified men and two people burned to death after the vehicle caught fire. Needless to say, these attacks aren’t going to help after a week of strained relations between the United States and Pakistan. Pakistan is pissed over repeated incursions by NATO helicopters over the past week and has blocked a supply route for coalition troops in Afghanistan in retaliation. That’s a big problem for the United States, as it relies heavily on its partnership with Pakistan to stabilize Afghanistan. In addition to the tanker attacks, the day was also marred by another cross-border attack, this one taking place in the northwest, where three Pakistani soldiers were killed and three were wounded as NATO forces chased militants in the Kurram tribal region. There have been three such attacks over the past week, indicating that tensions are heightening instead of abating. NATO has maintained that its helicopters briefly crossed into Pakistani airspace after coming under fire from people there and as such, there is no reason for the sort of hostility the Pakistanis are sending its way. Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani disagreed during a speech in Parliament, saying Pakistan was a partner in the war against Islamist militancy but would allow no infringement of its sovereignty. “I want to assure the entire nation from this house that we will consider other options if there is interference in the sovereignty of our country,” Gilani said. Pakistan’s ambassador to Belgium lodged a protest with NATO’s deputy general secretary over the incursions, so it would seem that Pakistan isn’t going to calm down and forget all about this any time soon………
- When you invest nine-figures and then some of salary into a Major League Baseball roster and can't even sniff the playoffs season after season after season, someone is going to be fired. Actually, a lot of someone’s will be fired if that happens and it’s impossible to muster even a shred of disbelief that the ax has finally fallen on New York Mets general manager Omar Minaya and manager Jerry Manuel after a second straight losing season for New York’s other baseball team. After the Mets suffered another uninspired loss to Milwaukee on Thursday to clinch their second straight losing season, word leaked that both Minaya and Manuel will almost certainly be fired after Sunday’s season finale. The Mets have already begun discussing potential front-office candidates, but a Mets official said no permission has been requested to officially speak with successors and no replacement will be immediately installed. Minaya arrived in Queens in the final week of the 2004 season with plenty of buzz and made a big splash by signing high-priced stars Pedro Martinez and Carlos Beltran, but neither of those signings nor any of Minaya’s other moves were enough to turn the Mets into world champions and one postseason appearance was all the team tallied during Minaya’s six-year tenure despite annually having one of the highest payrolls in the National League. What makes his situation murky are the two remaining years on his contract at roughly $1.1 million annually, with contract confirmed language prohibiting Minaya from being reassigned from that role. No one is sure whether he will ultimately remain with the organization in another capacity. The same is not true for Manuel, who is owed no additional money by the franchise because the guaranteed portion of his contract expires at season's end. The Mets will now have a clean slate to work from as they go forward and whoever assumes the managerial and general manager roles will have both an immense amount of pressure and the prying eyes of New York to contend with as they look to turn the team around in a hurry………
- Better six decades late than never when it comes to a government apologizing for intentionally infecting you with sexually transmitted diseases in order to use you as a guinea pig for potential cures, I suppose. The offending party in this case would be the United States, which officially apologized Friday for a 1946-1948 research study in which people in Guatemala were intentionally infected with sexually transmitted diseases. And while the participants in that study are all dead, their descendents did receive a very heartfelt written statement from Secretary of State Hank Clinton and Secretary of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius calling the action "reprehensible" and apologizing for its occurrence. "We deeply regret that it happened, and we apologize to all the individuals who were affected by such abhorrent research practices," the joint statement said. "The conduct exhibited during the study does not represent the values of the United States, or our commitment to human dignity and great respect for the people of Guatemala." The statement was accompanied by a call from President Barack Obama to Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom “offering profound apologies and asking pardon for the deeds of the 1940s,” according to Colom. "Though it happened 64 years ago, it really is a profound violation of human rights," said Colom. And in an action that most definitely is not a giant waste of both time and money because a) the involved parties have already agreed on what happened and b) an apology has been issued, an international, independent commission will carry out an investigation. "We reject these types of actions, obviously," said Guatemala presidential spokesman Ronaldo Robles. "We know that this took place some time ago, but this is unacceptable and we recognize the apology from Secretary Clinton." Why is this topic being dragged back into the spotlight some 60 years later? Because of overachieving Wellesley College researcher Susan Reverby, who recently found the archived but unpublished notes from the project and couldn’t keep her mouth shut. The study, officially known as the U.S. Public Health Service Sexually Transmitted Disease Inoculation Study of 1946-1948 (rolls right off the tongue), sought to measure the effectiveness of penicillin to treat syphilis, gonorrhea and chancres. At the time, penicillin was a new drug and its potential uses were not all known. In finding out those possible uses, female commercial sex workers, prisoners in the national penitentiary, patients in the national mental hospital and soldiers were subjected to indefensible and horrific tests. Some 1,600 people were infected: 696 with syphilis, 772 with gonorrhea and 142 with chancres. Subjects were not told they were ill with the disease and U.S. Public Health Service physician John C. Cutler presided over the debacle. There is no way this sort of thing would happen today because while the U.S. may torture prisoners in secret, foreign CIA prisons, we most definitely do not subject them to intentional infection with STDs……although I’m sure Paris Hilton could be of great assistance if we chose to do so………
- Have you been wanting to go see a Broadway show for some time but could never find a reason to justify spending a couple hundred dollars on tickets to a play or musical, on top of the high cost of a Manhattan hotel and all of the other expenses associated with traveling to one of the world’s coolest cities? If so, your prayers may have just been answered and if you still think you can’t afford a Broadway play, I would say to you that we’re not gonna take it…..no, we ain’t gonna take it….we’re not gonna take it…..any more. That’s right, freaking Dee Snider is going to be making his Broadway debut and not a moment too soon, I might add. The quasi-androgynous Twister Sister frontman will step onto Broadway in the musical "Rock of Ages," filling the role of Dennis in the show for an 11-week run starting Oct. 11. His inclusion in the musical is a perfect fit because he was the writer behind iconic '80s hair metal ballads like "I Wanna Rock" and "We're Not Gonna Take It" - both of which are featured in "Rock of Ages." Snider, who also hosts a syndicated radio show, has done plenty of acting post-music, appearing in the cult horror movie "StrangeLand" and a few TV reality shows, including "Gone Country" and "Growing Up Twisted," but has never been in a play or musical. That will all change in a week when he joins “Rock of Ages,” which tells the story of two rockers who fall in love and battle an evil developer who wants to tear down their local club. So get ready for greasy, permed hair, oversized sunglasses, a ginormous nose and a healthy dose of attitude, Broadway, because Dee Snider is on the way and he wants to rock……….
- Good call, Electronic Arts. Removing a feature in your forthcoming "Medal of Honor" video game that would have allowed players to control Taliban fighters is a wise move, especially in light of harsh criticism from military officials and others. EA said Friday that it has decided to remove the name "Taliban" from one of the forces in the multiplayer version of the game, which portrays modern-day fighting in Afghanistan. The revision comes just 11 days before the game is set to be released. “Medal of Honor” is expected to be one of the top video-game rollouts of the year and executive producer Greg Goodrich said the development team heard feedback from friends and families of fallen soldiers who expressed concern over the game's option to let players fight as the Taliban. "This is a voice that has earned the right to be listened to. It is a voice that we care deeply about," Goodrich said in a written statement. "Because of this, and because the heartbeat of 'Medal of Honor' has always resided in the reverence for American and Allied soldiers, we have decided to rename the opposing team." Instead of being identified as the Taliban, the enemy will simply be called "Opposing Force." Players will still be able to control the fighters, which comprise the enemy when a player is playing the game alone. The American military was not the only voice against the Taliban moniker being used in the game, as British Secretary of State for Defence Liam Fox recently called for retail stores to ban the game. "It is shocking that someone would think it acceptable to recreate the acts of the Taliban," Fox fumed. "At the hands of the Taliban, children have lost fathers and wives have lost husbands." His sentiments were echoed by the U.S. military's Army & Air Force Exchange Service, which had asked on-base stores not to stock the game. "Out of respect to those we serve, we will not be stocking this game," said Maj. Gen. Bruce Casella, the service's commanding officer. "We regret any inconvenience this may cause authorized shoppers, but are optimistic that they will understand the sensitivity to the life and death scenarios this product presents as entertainment." Amazingly, EA professed to be surprised by the controversy. "The misunderstanding starts with people who don't understand the dynamics of video games," company spokesman Jeff Brown said. "There are cops and robbers, good guys vs. bad guys, in nearly every game, and we were surprised to be reminded that not everyone gets that dynamic." Yeah…..cops and robbers are one thing, but a radical hate group that has murdered thousands of brave American and allied soldiers is quite another and people tend to take the loss of a loved one in combat rather personally…………
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