Soxy

Link Scary stuff, since this has been all but wiped out in the U.S. in the last 50 years. Report: Scarlet fever spreads in N.Korea Wed Nov 15, 6:43 AM ET SEOUL, South Korea - Scarlet fever has been spreading in North Korea and threatens to become a full-blown epidemic despite efforts by authorities to contain the disease, a news report said Wednesday. The disease, which broke out in the North's northern Ryanggang Province last month, is rapidly spreading to other parts of the communist state, including the capital, Pyongyang, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported, citing unnamed sources. South Korea's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Unification Ministry, which handles inter-Korean affairs, said they didn't have information to confirm the media report. Lack of medicine coupled with poor sanitary conditions are to blame for the rapid spread of the fever in the impoverished communist country, leading to the deaths among the aged and infants, Yonhap said. Kwon Joon-wook, a South Korean CDC official, said scarlet fever "could be easily treated with antibiotics but it could become a problem" in a country like North Korea, which suffers from a lack of medicine. Scarlet fever is a rash typically seen in children younger than 18, caused by the same bacteria related to strep throat, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The germs carrying scarlet fever are found in the mouth and nasal fluid, and it is spread by people sharing drinks or by someone with the infection touching another's mouth, eyes or nose.

So, we've got a serious discussion about your views on big issues. But if you had only one (slightly silly) platform on which to run, what would it be? Inspiration taken from the Rent Is Too Damn High Party, who, if elected will make rent go down, "because they say so." So, what's your one issue?

According to The Trib's Watcher (their tv person), on November 30th there will be an episode that was written by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant. I'm very excited about that. I've been re-watching the british series, and am really looking forward to their spin on the American series. Hurray!

6/10. That was really hard.

QUOTE(Tony82087 @ Nov 14, 2006 -> 04:57 PM) Im right in the same boat. Last year I got a Spring Training Trip, which was awesome, but now this year it's sort of just a given that were going again, so it's not really a gift. I could go the 360 route, but Im really pretty happy with my old X-Box right now. I really have no ideas, and the questions for the 'rents have already started. Right now my list consists of 1 pewter bangle bracelet and a $25 sewing class.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Nov 14, 2006 -> 02:35 PM) This story is pretty graphic and gut-wrenching. its not for the faint of heart. I am not going to put up any exerpts on purpose, because I don't want people to see it, who aren't ready to read it. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15704030/site/newsweek I had heard about this from AI (Amnesty International) a couple of years ago. Really awful, actually beyond awful, some things are just too awful for words and I think so much of the violence in Africa (more so than anywhere else in the world) falls in that category.

So, all my Christmas shopping is done (and has been for about two weeks). But I still haven't made my christmas list for the family. I have no idea what I want. I will say, though, that the presents I'm giving this year are possibly the coolest ones I've ever given. So, I'm very excited about that. Is that part of being an adult? More excited to see people open the gifts you give than to open your own?

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Nov 14, 2006 -> 09:51 AM) Its a good idea, but, I would like to see everyone take their shot individually in this case. That will get more people involved in the discussions. Otherwise the Veeps can just hang around. But I have to say, a Tex/Nuke ticket would definitely be... interesting. Yes, interesting. . . What if we just want a sweet pork barrel job? Like Secretary of Fashion and Shoes? Or Education? Do we have to run for that?

Happy Birthday Queenie! You're easily one of the nicest people on here and I hope you have a great day!

Social training? Yikes. . . Police in Congo arrest homeless children By MICHELLE FAUL, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 32 minutes ago KINSHASA, Congo - Scores of homeless children and others living on the streets of Congo's capital have been rounded up and accused of starting a protest that led to violence as an increasingly tense nation awaits presidential election results. Advocates for street children said those arrested were scapegoats, but Interior Minister Denis Kalume was quoted on state radio Monday as saying the 337 homeless people, including 87 children and 15 mothers, had "provoked this (violence) by disturbing the peace." Kalume said they were being taken outside the capital for "social training." Violence erupted Saturday between supporters of President Joseph Kabila and Vice President Jean-Pierre Bemba, the contenders in a presidential runoff late last month. The governor of the Congolese capital said gun and mortar fire killed three civilians and a soldier in front of Bemba's home — the scene of the weekend fighting. By Monday, Congolese soldiers had taken up positions in a nearby cemetery, some sleeping on bullet-scarred gravestones that used to serve as beds for street children. None of the children, usually a ubiquitous reminder of Congo's devastation, were in sight Monday morning. "Those who weren't arrested are hiding from the police," said Mado Langalanga, who lived in the cemetery for nine years until she got a job educating street people about the dangers of HIV and AIDS. Kinshasa, a sprawling city of about 5 million people on the banks of the Congo River, has an estimated 50,000 homeless people and children can be hired for just a few cents to march in a demonstration or burn tires, said Guy Milongo, who works for the private Association for the Development of Young Street People. Radio stations described the protesters as "shege," a word Milongo said is derived from Che Guevara, the Latin American revolutionary who came to fight for Congo's independence, and whose name is invoked to mean a revolutionary spirit. He said the homeless refer to themselves as "Yankees," using the American expression to describe a person who overcomes all odds to survive. The government has a conflicted attitude toward the homeless, Milongo said, noting Kabila invited about 50 street kids to his wedding this year and bought them clothes for the celebration. The very next day, police launched a roundup of the homeless. On Sunday, there was supposed to be a soccer championship among street children's soccer teams, whose uniforms were donated by the government. It never happened because the children feared arrest. Langalanga said the homeless are often used as scapegoats by politicians and government officials seeking to deflect blame for the violence and poverty endemic to Congo. The latest eruption came as the Independent Electoral Commission posted results from 99.37 percent of the vote counting centers that had Kabila with 59 percent to 41 percent for Bemba. Peacekeepers, the biggest U.N. force in the world with some 17,500 troops, have brought reinforcements into the capital, stepped up patrols and reinforced positions in a show of force since the weekend confrontation. Riot police guarded strategic buildings. The elections could set Congo on the road to democracy and peace after decades of dictatorship and war, but the violence underlines the transition's fragility in this poor but mineral-rich nation of 50 million. Supporters of Bemba, a former rebel leader, have alleged vote fraud. In a televised address Monday night, Bemba said: "There's no double-dealing in democracy. All that we want is that the truth of the ballot come out of these elections which we have worked to make free, democratic and transparent." Election officials and Kabila's representatives could not immediately be reached for comment. The allegations of fraud led to the protest in front of Bemba's residence Saturday, where young people set up a barricade of flaming tires that blocked the capital's main boulevard. Police fired into the air and dispersed the protesters. Armed men in civilian clothes then fired at the police, according to several accounts. Soon after, shootouts erupted between Bemba fighters who deployed in the cemetery across the boulevard from his home, and forces loyal to Kabila who took up position in a golf course beyond the cemetery. The fighting continued until U.N. officials organized talks between the two sides and persuaded them to withdraw their fighters. Many of Kinshasa's 50,000 homeless come from rural outlying areas of Congo, because the capital was largely spared when the rest of the Central African country suffered back-to-back tribal conflicts from 1997 to 2002. The fighting ballooned into a regional war that attracted marauding armies from six African nations. Kabila inherited power from his father, Laurent Kabila, a former rebel leader who emerged as the main power after the war and was assassinated by his bodyguards in 2001. A complicated peace process eventually took hold, foreign troops withdrew, and the most powerful warlords, including Bemba, joined a transitional government that helped organize elections that have cost the international community some $422 million.

QUOTE(Rowand44 @ Nov 13, 2006 -> 04:19 PM) lol, ZING I didn't mean it like that! I just have no tact.

QUOTE(Chisoxfn @ Nov 13, 2006 -> 04:10 PM) Smarties. I didn't even know what a hanging modifier was let alone how to look for it. 74% for me. I think I screwed up the emaculate conception (isn't it Mary???), the hanging modifier and I honestly don't know what the other one I missed was. Mary wasn't immaculately conceived according to traditional Christian beliefs, Jesus was. Although Mary DID immaculately conceive. How do you think you did on the its/it's one?

Awww, I was hoping it was the senior BB.

Just a question: how would you define "socially moderate"

QUOTE(Rowand44 @ Nov 12, 2006 -> 11:08 PM) Oh crap man, what if this interferes with Laguna Beach? Then What? Suicide. It's the only option if that conflict arises.

Linkage Bishops may alter language on gays Baptism urged for kids of same-sex parents By Manya A. Brachear Tribune staff reporter Published November 13, 2006, 5:59 AM CST While continuing to stress that same-sex relationships are immoral, America's Roman Catholic bishops may approve new guidelines this week that absolve gay Catholics of any obligation to try to alter their sexual orientation. The guidelines for ministering to homosexuals, to be reviewed when bishops convene Monday in Baltimore for their annual fall meeting, also will urge clergy to baptize the adopted children of gay couples who agree to raise them Catholic. "We are trying to find a language that does not betray the teaching of the church, but will perhaps express it in ways that are not so offensive," Chicago's Cardinal Francis George, vice president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said in an interview last week. "The conclusions are the same," George said. "The language will be less painful than sometimes the language has been in the past." The bishops also plan to remind parishioners how to prepare themselves for Communion, laying a foundation that would make it easier for clergy to deny the sacrament to Catholics at odds with the church, including politicians. The issue surfaced during the 2004 presidential campaign when some bishops threatened to deny Communion to Sen. John Kerry, a Catholic who supports abortion rights. "That started a conversation that wasn't resolved, but brought up this other thing--worthiness to receive Communion on everybody's part," George said. "It shouldn't be automatic. There's personal scrutiny and examination of conscience that should take place." Missing from the meeting's agenda is any mention of the war in Iraq, an absence that irks parishioners who believe the bishops should focus on that issue rather than homosexuality. "We hate to see our moral teachers squandering their moral teaching authority when there are important issues they should be dealing with--poverty and social justice and the war," said Sam Sinnett, president of Dignity USA, the nation's largest gay Catholic organization. "They're much more concerned with whether two homosexuals are going to get married or not," he said. "They've lost focus on the needs of the human race." Opposition expected The documents on ministering to gay people, drafted by conference committees, could encounter opposition from some conservative bishops. Recent Vatican directives bar most gay men from pursuing ordination and prohibit priests with "homosexual tendencies" from teaching or running seminaries. Since issuing those injunctions, Pope Benedict XVI has implied a connection between homosexuality and the clergy sex abuse scandal, declaring a need to "purify" the church. This won't be the first time bishops have addressed the issue of gay Catholics. A pastoral letter drafted in 1997 counseled parents to love their gay sons and daughters and encourage them to live a chaste life. Though the letter did not stray from church teaching, its advice stirred too much controversy and did not pass. The current guidelines try to balance doctrinal language that condemns homosexual relationships with inclusive pastoral language. "You can't have pastoral care without it being founded on theological moral principles," said Rev. Thomas Weinandy, executive director for the conference's doctrinal committee. "You have to have principles on which you base pastoral care." Sinnett said the document certainly does not sit well with gay Catholics who find its tone unwelcoming. He also said he was dismayed to learn that bishops had been working on it for four years without consulting the nation's largest gay Catholic group. On Sunday, Dignity USA issued its own update of pastoral guidelines the group had issued in 1987 in response to a condemnation of homosexual relationships issued by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who is now pope. Weinandy said bishops steered clear of input from advocacy groups to "avoid the appearance of taking sides." Guidelines praised Rev. Tom Reese, a Jesuit scholar who wrote a book on America's bishops, praised the new document for carefully distinguishing between homosexual activity and orientation, leaving the debates about origins to science and not insisting that gay Catholics take part in therapy. "No scientific consensus has been reached regarding the effectiveness of various therapies," the document says. "Thus, the church does not endorse one particular theory of the genesis of homosexuality or one particular therapy over another. ... Some have found therapy helpful. There is, however, no moral obligation to attempt it." The document on Communion does not directly address Catholic politicians or instruct bishops, but it does define what makes a person unworthy for communion. "Inevitably," George said, "that will be translated into a political framework." If someone "publicly known to have committed serious sin or to have rejected definitive Church teaching" takes Communion without reconciling, the document says, it would encourage others to follow their lead and engage in sinful behavior. That means a politician who violates church teaching by voting in support of abortion rights would lead to further violations, Weinandy said. Stephen Colecchi, director of the conference's office of international justice and peace, said bishops might take up the issue of withdrawal from Iraq even if it is not on the schedule. In January, bishops called for a responsible transition in Iraq and last month implored Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to protect Iraqi Christians and other religious minorities. "Although the bishops had raised grave moral questions about the decision to go to war, the U.S. has a new set of responsibilities ... to help Iraqis stabilize their country," Colecchi said. "The human and moral consequences of what is happening certainly mean the bishops will take that into account." Other business at the meeting includes the creation of a uniform hymnal for the American church. The bishops also are expected to channel funds toward a landmark study on the causes and context of the clergy sex-abuse crisis. The first phase of the study will explore whether clergy sex abuse corresponds with overall social patterns of deviant behavior during the last half-century. If the patterns differ, investigators will look into "ministry-specific factors." George said bishops expect to generate the most comprehensive data in the nation on the issue and hope to garner additional financial support from outside sources for the multimillion-dollar study.

Do you deserve your high school diploma? No cheating! I got a 97%, pretty good. But I also am a self-proclaimed nerd with a huge love of the history channel. . .

QUOTE(EvilMonkey @ Nov 12, 2006 -> 11:39 PM) I wonder, did Lieberman use a bible? Serious question. Well, he DOES read and follow about 2/3 of the Bible. . .

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Nov 12, 2006 -> 11:55 AM) I'd like to see some evidence that porn is a gateway to sex crimes. And not just someone saying "most sex offenders have viewed porn", because frankly, that's like saying "most bus drivers have viewed porn". Has anyone ever produced a compelling theory backed by evidence showing causality? I doubt it. But I'm willing to be shown otherwise. Nuke and I had a big debate about his in the old ACLU thread about porn. I cited a couple of scholarly studies about pornography. So, you could always look that "gem" back up.

QUOTE(Jimbo @ Nov 10, 2006 -> 11:36 AM) What else can you ruin for me??? Rosebud is a sled.

QUOTE(Jimbo @ Nov 10, 2006 -> 11:33 AM) Is there a need for a next season now......Damn you I like to ruin things for everyone else.

QUOTE(AbeFroman @ Nov 10, 2006 -> 11:08 AM) Karen v. Pam... its coming. If I had to guess, I suspect that Jim will wind up with Karen first... which will probably make Pam flip out. But this shows been pretty unpredictable the season... so we shall see. It will be interesting to see how closely they follow the UK's version plot. I think Jim and Karen will end up together. Roy and Pam will get back together, Roy will revert to his old self, and Pam and Jim will get together at the very end.

QUOTE(santo=dorf @ Nov 10, 2006 -> 01:04 AM) I gave up on my religion after too many scandals, houlier than thou jerks being hypocrites telling me how we're all going to hell, and one of our priests sneding us a letter begging for more money from us to get a new roof or something. This sentiment is something that I've really been meditating on for the past couple of years. As some of you may know, I used to volunteer at a violence shelter and I was talking with (ironically) my religion professor about what a struggle that was (and some other more personal issues) and he said, "after all that, how do you not just say f*** it?" And I remember that gave my 18 year old brain quite a turn. I'd known a couple of people who had been molested by a (lutheran) pastor, and I really wondered what kind of god would allow his "servants" to abuse their power so horribly. I think it's really easy to look at all the horrible things that happen in the name of religion (or by people "appointed" by god) and just say "f*** it." But, I think faith and a relationship with your Creator is really worth struggling for--even if your religion lets you down. The church's greatest success is making people believe that without them, there is no way to experience God. For some, the church may help that experience, but for others I think it is a stumbling block. Organized religion can, certainly, treat faith as if it were a "fire sale" (thanks Soren), and that all it takes to have faith is a checkbook and an hour in church/synagogue/mosque a week. Ultimately I think it's much more than that, I don't really know how to eloquently say, but I think it takes quite a bit of intelligence, faith, and courage to really examine your place in the universe (and, more importantly, your relation to your fellow travellors). That experience of searching for yourself and for a loving way to relate to your neighbors and your Creator is really what (I think) faith is about. I think an analogous situation is the culture of corruption that is embedded in political culture (on both sides of the aisle). Despite all the pork barrel politics and scandals I still believe in the system of government that we have. Both the priests/pastors/lay people and the politicians are really just beaurocracy. They may help us to experience the higher goal (democracy or a communion with the creator) or they can put significant stumbling blocks up to that experience.

QUOTE(kapkomet @ Nov 10, 2006 -> 09:52 AM) No, you're right, my post was much more direct and not as subtle as the others, but the little digs sometimes gets to me, and that was one of those times the other day. No harm, Soxy, in you stating your opinion of the post. That's one of the biggest reasons I respect you so much around here. Yeah, I feel that. Fortunately, I have no grasp or understanding of subtle nuances, so most of it goes right over my head.

QUOTE(kapkomet @ Nov 8, 2006 -> 11:43 PM) You know what? Normally, I'll let this go, but since I got "called out"... I think the little smug remarks and all that s*** that is dispersed throughout without being near as direct as I was about it was right about par for the course. It's the "hidden hyperbole", if you will, that didn't get addressed by you. Every f***ing post by a few of you in here (and not you Soxy, I understand your point, but I stepped it up from the little digs to what you call "mocking and hyperbole"). If you want to start slinging s***, sling some both ways, and that includes some of you who responded to Soxy's comments to me. I think it's amazing that we have an election, where change was inevitable, and when that change occurs and even leads to more change, we get nothing but snarky, rude, dickhead veiled comments about how our President is nothing but a lying jackass. It grows tiresome, and my "hyperbole" is in direct response to that. That's all I will say about it, but you know who you are, and the jackassery should stop. Maybe then I wouldn't have to be "mocking all the time". If you read 90% of my other posts in other threads on this whole situation, it's pretty neutral. I understand your point, but exactly what made you make that post in the first place? I don't see any rude mocking or hyperbole by anyone else (prior to your post) in the thread. Basically, it was that post that kind of set up a powder keg. I saw some speculation that Bush might nominate a Dem senator (which, okay, maybe cynical, but it was certainly a possibility). And yes, I know there are other mocking posts, but truth is, for Wednesday yours took the cake (and, not to sound like your mother but, you really are a better poster and "dialoguer" than that). And by posting in that style, how are you going to elicit anything but a negative, rude, and mocking response from people on the other side? Either you want a dialogue that can be conducted in a respectful tone, or you're contributing to the negative cycle of politics. I aplogize if my response sounded rude, but if you're going to complain about "the others" using a tactic you don't like, don't use that tactic.