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Apr. 9th, 2003 09:13 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ebonlockI am bereft of a theme for today's post I'm afraid. It may come off as a series of random thoughts, so I apologize in advance.
Got home from my errands last night in time to water the plants, also noted that the mostly dead strawberry plant is producing what look to be huge fruits. Thank the gods I'm an optimist when it comes to my little green babies, and that my composting skillz rule. I'm quite convinced the combination of good soil, compost, and some moisture retaining moss is going to lead to a kick ass strawberry patch this year. That is if I can keep the snails at bay. A trip to OSH should take care of that problem. Yay copper!
Aelf and I settled in for some crocheting and "Stargate" last night, got my sister L-'s afghan finished and started on my own. Woo! Love the navy-grape color and I've got enough purple homespun to create a kickass border on it. Of course I'll be finishing it up just as the weather gets warm 'cause that's how my life works. At least I've got the veil to work on too, a lapfull of veil is a lot less heavy and warm to work with. Must get more trim for that.
Must...practice...dance...tonight. I have too many choreography ideas and not enough time to actually work on them or even jot them down. I've got my own choreography pretty well worked out in my head, it's just a matter of trying to emulate it physically, that's the tricky bit.
Also, for anyone interested in learning to drum or who'd like to practice with their zills![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
aelfsciene picked up some fantastic practice mixes from Alyne on Monday. Most of one CD is drumming stuff and the rhythms start with a fairly simply beladi and then escalate into complexity later on. I have this vision of a bunch of us sitting around on my deck with the music playing in the background while some play drums and others keep time on their zills. Sound like fun to anyone else?
And for those of you who haven't done so yet, take at least one of Alyne's classes. Seriously, do it. I don't often go over the top praising a teacher, but even my kindest words for her are not nearly enough to describe my respect and admiration of the lady's talent and generosity of spirit. Anyone even considering it please check out her site bellydance.com, or ask me for more details. She will be holding a double veil workshop this Sunday, and the beginners class is just that, no experience necessary! If you've ever had any desire at all to give veils a try this is the perfect chance to do so. She even has loaner veils, so no excuse not to go, got it?
Exclusive: The Evil of Cluster Bombs
On that particular street, many Iraqi military vehicles were abandoned, burned out after being targeted by US planes. A resident of the street, who said his uncle and sister were killed in the bombings, told Arab News: “I think the Americans wanted to destroy these military trucks, but in order to do that they had to destroy our neighborhood three streets deep.”
In an adjacent ward lay a 15-year-old boy, his left arm missing from below the elbow and his face and stomach severely burned. No one Arab News spoke to was celebrating the reported news of Saddam Hussein’s death. “I don’t believe what we are hearing,” said a 42-year-old hotel receptionist.
“Even if he is dead, it’s not worth the price our children and families have paid,” he added.
Saddam Hussein General Hospital alone has seen 307 deaths and treated 920 injuries. Of those, only 20 of the dead and 50 of the injured were soldiers.
The people of Najaf need water, electricity and munitions clearing teams more urgently than they need a new government.
Aid that comes too little, too late
"We have had no food for a month," said Mr Hussain. An English teacher by profession, he now drives a taxi for a living, ferrying people from Basra to the nearby market town of Zubayr. As he walked around his living room, he pointed to empty tables. The family's other belongings, he said, including a TV set and hi-fi, had been sold years before to pay for basic essentials. "First, the government kills us," he said. "Then, the Americans and the British bomb our houses. We cannot do anything. We have nothing."
Full list of casualties
Wednesday April 9, 2003
Casualties so far
US - 91 killed (27 non-combat);172 injured; 16 missing; 7 PoWs
UK - 30 killed (22 non-combat); 74 injured
Iraqi military - about 4,000 (coalition estimate); 9000 PoWs
Iraqi civilians - (Iraqi estimate) 1,252 killed; 5,103 injured
Journalists - 9 killed; 2 injured; 2 missing
British military casualties. Source: MoD
British personnel officially confirmed as dead: 30
British personnel officially confirmed as missing in action: none
British personnel officially confirmed as prisoners of war: none
Somehow I can't think of a single thing to say...
Got home from my errands last night in time to water the plants, also noted that the mostly dead strawberry plant is producing what look to be huge fruits. Thank the gods I'm an optimist when it comes to my little green babies, and that my composting skillz rule. I'm quite convinced the combination of good soil, compost, and some moisture retaining moss is going to lead to a kick ass strawberry patch this year. That is if I can keep the snails at bay. A trip to OSH should take care of that problem. Yay copper!
Aelf and I settled in for some crocheting and "Stargate" last night, got my sister L-'s afghan finished and started on my own. Woo! Love the navy-grape color and I've got enough purple homespun to create a kickass border on it. Of course I'll be finishing it up just as the weather gets warm 'cause that's how my life works. At least I've got the veil to work on too, a lapfull of veil is a lot less heavy and warm to work with. Must get more trim for that.
Must...practice...dance...tonight. I have too many choreography ideas and not enough time to actually work on them or even jot them down. I've got my own choreography pretty well worked out in my head, it's just a matter of trying to emulate it physically, that's the tricky bit.
Also, for anyone interested in learning to drum or who'd like to practice with their zills
aelfsciene picked up some fantastic practice mixes from Alyne on Monday. Most of one CD is drumming stuff and the rhythms start with a fairly simply beladi and then escalate into complexity later on. I have this vision of a bunch of us sitting around on my deck with the music playing in the background while some play drums and others keep time on their zills. Sound like fun to anyone else?And for those of you who haven't done so yet, take at least one of Alyne's classes. Seriously, do it. I don't often go over the top praising a teacher, but even my kindest words for her are not nearly enough to describe my respect and admiration of the lady's talent and generosity of spirit. Anyone even considering it please check out her site bellydance.com, or ask me for more details. She will be holding a double veil workshop this Sunday, and the beginners class is just that, no experience necessary! If you've ever had any desire at all to give veils a try this is the perfect chance to do so. She even has loaner veils, so no excuse not to go, got it?
Exclusive: The Evil of Cluster Bombs
On that particular street, many Iraqi military vehicles were abandoned, burned out after being targeted by US planes. A resident of the street, who said his uncle and sister were killed in the bombings, told Arab News: “I think the Americans wanted to destroy these military trucks, but in order to do that they had to destroy our neighborhood three streets deep.”
In an adjacent ward lay a 15-year-old boy, his left arm missing from below the elbow and his face and stomach severely burned. No one Arab News spoke to was celebrating the reported news of Saddam Hussein’s death. “I don’t believe what we are hearing,” said a 42-year-old hotel receptionist.
“Even if he is dead, it’s not worth the price our children and families have paid,” he added.
Saddam Hussein General Hospital alone has seen 307 deaths and treated 920 injuries. Of those, only 20 of the dead and 50 of the injured were soldiers.
The people of Najaf need water, electricity and munitions clearing teams more urgently than they need a new government.
Aid that comes too little, too late
"We have had no food for a month," said Mr Hussain. An English teacher by profession, he now drives a taxi for a living, ferrying people from Basra to the nearby market town of Zubayr. As he walked around his living room, he pointed to empty tables. The family's other belongings, he said, including a TV set and hi-fi, had been sold years before to pay for basic essentials. "First, the government kills us," he said. "Then, the Americans and the British bomb our houses. We cannot do anything. We have nothing."
Full list of casualties
Wednesday April 9, 2003
Casualties so far
US - 91 killed (27 non-combat);172 injured; 16 missing; 7 PoWs
UK - 30 killed (22 non-combat); 74 injured
Iraqi military - about 4,000 (coalition estimate); 9000 PoWs
Iraqi civilians - (Iraqi estimate) 1,252 killed; 5,103 injured
Journalists - 9 killed; 2 injured; 2 missing
British military casualties. Source: MoD
British personnel officially confirmed as dead: 30
British personnel officially confirmed as missing in action: none
British personnel officially confirmed as prisoners of war: none
Somehow I can't think of a single thing to say...
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2003-04-09 10:59 am (UTC)Well. We have been dealing with a few Iraq-friendly terrorist groups up in the northern part of the country, and at least a couple of them have links to al Qaeda. There've been traces of botulinum and ricin found at some of these sites.
It's not exactly a Polaroid of Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden sharing a beer at a bomb-making party, but if nothing else it's yet more evidence that Iraq harbors terrorists, including al Qaeda linked groups, within its borders. The question also occurs: where would these guys get their hands on botulinum and ricin?
Re:
Date: 2003-04-09 11:27 am (UTC)I'll hold my comment on that until we're absolutely sure about those particular facts.
It's not exactly a Polaroid of Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden sharing a beer at a bomb-making party, but if nothing else it's yet more evidence that Iraq harbors terrorists, including al Qaeda linked groups, within its borders. The question also occurs: where would these guys get their hands on botulinum and ricin?
Not quite so sure that this indicates that they harbor them, again I haven't seen any evidence that Saddam's regime has been anything but antagonistic to fundamentalist terrorist organizations. And vice versa.
Do I think he shed any tears over actions like 9/11? Hell, he probably threw a party, but I don't believe this was a case of "the enemy of my enemy is my friend". The only thing Ossama and Saddam have in common is a hatred for the US and its policies in the Middle East. Aside from that they're polar opposites, and quite probably, bitter enemies.
no subject
Date: 2003-04-09 12:20 pm (UTC)The bacteria that produces botulinum is found in the wild. I think that culturing enough is a matter of space rather than resources. Ricin is a product of castor beans... I'm not sure how hard it is to get said beans, but once you have them, extracting it would be pretty easy.
Also, although not a WMD, speed can be made from over-the-counter Sudofed. How many speed labs are in the US? A number of WMD syntheses are about as complicated; some are downright trivial.
So, not so much a smoking gun linking them to Iraq unless the impurities in the batches match up as well.