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BS: Female Suicide Bombers
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Subject: BS: Female Suicide Bombers From: robomatic Date: 02 Aug 08 - 04:56 PM Interesting op-ed article in the New York Times as to the growing occurrence and motivations of Female Suicide Bombers |
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Subject: RE: BS: Female Suicide Bombers From: CarolC Date: 02 Aug 08 - 05:26 PM I can't get into the page because I don't have a login, and I'm not particularly interested in getting one. But did I mention that I sold the 'dinette set from hell' yesterday? It was a bitch of a project and I was wondering if I would ever be able to sell it (almost everything that could go wrong with it did), but it sold yesterday and I was told by the owner of the gallery that has been representing my work that it's so perfect for the room it's being used in, it looks like it was custom made just for it. I'm feeling very good about that. Here's the dinette set from hell (photographed in the gallery)... http://www.alcdv.com/ArtFurniture/DinetteGallery.html http://www.alcdv.com/ArtFurniture/DinetteCorner.html |
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Subject: RE: BS: Female Suicide Bombers From: GUEST,CCleveland Date: 02 Aug 08 - 08:22 PM Nevermind, Carol dear, here it is straight from the webbie: Stinging Tentacles Offer Hint of Oceans' Decline Dani Cardona/Reuters A jellyfish in the Mediterranean off the coast of the Spanish island of Mallorca. Sign In to E-Mail or Save This Print Single Page Reprints Share LinkedinDiggFacebookMixxYahoo! BuzzPermalink By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL Published: August 3, 2008 BARCELONA, Spain — Blue patrol boats crisscross the swimming areas of beaches here with their huge nets skimming the water's surface. The yellow flags that urge caution and the red flags that prohibit swimming because of risky currents are sometimes topped now with blue ones warning of a new danger: swarms of jellyfish. In a period of hours during a day a couple of weeks ago, 300 people on Barcelona's bustling beaches were treated for stings, and 11 were taken to hospitals. From Spain to New York, to Australia, Japan and Hawaii, jellyfish are becoming more numerous and more widespread, and they are showing up in places where they have rarely been seen before, scientists say. The faceless marauders are stinging children blithely bathing on summer vacations, forcing beaches to close and clogging fishing nets. But while jellyfish invasions are a nuisance to tourists and a hardship to fishermen, for scientists they are a source of more profound alarm, a signal of the declining health of the world's oceans. "These jellyfish near shore are a message the sea is sending us saying, 'Look how badly you are treating me,' " said Dr. Josep-María Gili, a leading jellyfish expert, who has studied them at the Institute of Marine Sciences of the Spanish National Research Council in Barcelona for more than 20 years. The explosion of jellyfish populations, scientists say, reflects a combination of severe overfishing of natural predators, like tuna, sharks and swordfish; rising sea temperatures caused in part by global warming; and pollution that has depleted oxygen levels in coastal shallows. These problems are pronounced in the Mediterranean, a sea bounded by more than a dozen countries that rely on it for business and pleasure. Left unchecked in the Mediterranean and elsewhere, these problems could make the swarms of jellyfish menacing coastlines a grim vision of seas to come. "The problem on the beach is a social problem," said Dr. Gili, who talks with admiration of the "beauty" of the globular jellyfish. "We need to take care of it for our tourism industry. But the big problem is not on the beach. It's what's happening in the seas." Jellyfish, relatives of the sea anemone and coral that for the most part are relatively harmless, in fact are the cockroaches of the open waters, the ultimate maritime survivors who thrive in damaged environments, and that is what they are doing. Within the past year, there have been beach closings because of jellyfish swarms on the Côte d'Azur in France, the Great Barrier Reef of Australia, and at Waikiki and Virginia Beach in the United States. In Australia, more than 30,000 people were treated for stings last year, double the number in 2005. The rare but deadly Irukandji jellyfish is expanding its range in Australia's warming waters, marine scientists say. While no good global database exists on jellyfish populations, the increasing reports from around the world have convinced scientists that the trend is real, serious and climate-related, although they caution that jellyfish populations in any one place undergo year-to-year variation. "Human-caused stresses, including global warming and overfishing, are encouraging jellyfish surpluses in many tourist destinations and productive fisheries," according to the National Science Foundation, which is issuing a report on the phenomenon this fall and lists as problem areas Australia, the Gulf of Mexico, Hawaii, the Black Sea, Namibia, Britain, the Mediterranean, the Sea of Japan and the Yangtze estuary. In Barcelona, one of Spain's most vibrant tourist destinations, city officials and the Catalan Water Agency have started fighting back, trying desperately to ensure that it is safe for swimmers to go back in the water. Each morning, with the help of Dr. Gili's team, boats monitor offshore jellyfish swarms, winds and currents to see if beaches are threatened and if closings are needed. They also check if jellyfish collection in the waters near the beaches is needed. Nearly 100 boats stand ready to help in an emergency, said Xavier Duran of the water agency. The constant squeal of Dr. Gili's cellphone reflected his de facto role as Spain's jellyfish control and command center. Calls came from all over. Officials in Santander and the Basque country were concerned about frequent sightings this year on the Atlantic coast of the Portuguese man-of-war, a sometimes lethal warm-water species not previously seen regularly in those regions. Farther south, a fishing boat from the Murcia region called to report an off-shore swarm of Pelagia noctiluca — an iridescent purplish jellyfish that issues a nasty sting — more than a mile long. A chef, presumably trying to find some advantage in the declining oceans, wanted to know if the local species were safe to eat if cooked. Much is unknown about the jellyfish, and Dr. Gili was unsure. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Female Suicide Bombers From: Lox Date: 02 Aug 08 - 08:27 PM The original post is quite interesting if you can get the link to work. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Female Suicide Bombers From: GUEST,CCleveland Date: 02 Aug 08 - 08:31 PM I messed it up! I'll try to find the right article. I was sure I was copying it in but it seems I had some other article that I'd bene reading. Hang on... |
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Subject: RE: BS: Female Suicide Bombers From: GUEST,CCleveland Date: 02 Aug 08 - 08:34 PM Behind the Woman Behind the Bomb By LINDSEY O'ROURKE Chicago FOUR more Iraqi women carried out suicide bombings in Iraq this week, bringing to at least 27 the number of such attacks this year in that country involving female terrorists. Anyone reading the newspapers or watching television has been treated to a flurry of popular misconceptions about the root causes of female suicide terrorism. Women, we are told, become suicide bombers out of despair, mental illness, religiously mandated subordination to men, frustration with sexual inequality and a host of other factors related specifically to their gender. Indeed, the only thing everyone can agree on is that there is something fundamentally different motivating men and women to become suicide attackers. The only problem: There is precious little evidence of uniquely feminine motivations driving women's attacks.
Thanks. -Joe Offer, Forum Moderator- |
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Subject: RE: BS: Female Suicide Bombers From: CarolC Date: 02 Aug 08 - 09:13 PM That's a very good article. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Female Suicide Bombers From: Ebbie Date: 02 Aug 08 - 10:20 PM An interesting article indeed. It doesn't surprise me that the motivations of both sexes are similar. And it sees to me that blowing up oneself in the course of one's protest would be a whole lot less painful than self-immolation, a time-honored method in Asia. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Female Suicide Bombers From: Amos Date: 02 Aug 08 - 11:40 PM It is especially interesting that resistance against occupying forces seems to be the most common denominator of suicide bombings, followed by revenge for the loss of a loved one. This would seem to suggest that the best defense against them is not to invade or occupy foreign countries, and not to kill people. Wodda concept, eh? A |
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Subject: RE: BS: Female Suicide Bombers From: Conservative...YES!! Date: 02 Aug 08 - 11:49 PM Amos, Wasn't it you that stated earlier that we have to disarm 'em before we can be friends with 'em? Or am I just reading something totally different? YES!! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Female Suicide Bombers From: Amos Date: 03 Aug 08 - 12:46 AM Hub: Yeah, I said something about forgiving your enemies--after you have disarmed them. It's not smart to go into fire zone chanting mantras in the hopes it will save your butt, methinks. But invasions, as can be seen from the above paper, tend to produce a lot of resentment. I think of invasion as something of an extreme solution. The Bush Doctrine is a major change in our public policy, and it is highly dangerous because it opens the door to invading on opinions, rather than concrete facts. As indeed, was demonstrated in Iraq. IMHO, opening the door to governmental powers to wage war based on opinions only is highly risky and could cost the whole shooting match. A |
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Subject: RE: BS: Female Suicide Bombers From: GUEST,Guest from Sanity Date: 03 Aug 08 - 04:30 AM Hey, do female suicide bombers get lured into doing this, for the promise of getting 72 virgins??????..Perhaps 72 credit cards...(?) |
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Subject: RE: BS: Female Suicide Bombers From: CarolC Date: 03 Aug 08 - 02:55 PM Since, as the article states, Muslims are hardly the only people who commit suicide bombings, the idea of the 72 virgins is pretty irrelevant. Focusing on that distracts people from the real reasons people commit this kind of act. This is not by accident, because people who are waging military occupations in other peoples' countries don't want anyone to think that the people whose countries they are violating have any kind of legitimate complaint. They want everyone else to believe the people whose countries they occupy are simply bad people who deserve what they get. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Female Suicide Bombers From: GUEST,Guest from Sanity Date: 03 Aug 08 - 05:19 PM Carol: I was being facetious!(satire) |
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Subject: RE: BS: Female Suicide Bombers From: Teribus Date: 03 Aug 08 - 05:43 PM What armed conflict or insurrection has ever been won by terrorists using "suicide bombers" male, or female? The Tamil Tigers were I believe the first to use them and I think IIRC that the first was a woman. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Female Suicide Bombers From: CarolC Date: 03 Aug 08 - 05:55 PM I think it's misdirected satire if it helps to promote lies. Many people say that suicide bombing was a big factor in helping to end the Israeli occupation of Lebanon (the bombers, btw, being Christian as well as Muslim), and they also say this is why other groups have adopted it as a method, because they see it as having been successful in Lebanon. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Female Suicide Bombers From: McGrath of Harlow Date: 03 Aug 08 - 07:34 PM The big difference between blowing yourself up in a crowded place and self and self-immolation or a hunger strike to the death is that the latter two don't involve killing others along with the self-sacrifice. The roots of the myth of the suicide killer as hero go back a long way. Samson pulling down the pillars is perhaps the earliest example. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Female Suicide Bombers From: Sorcha Date: 03 Aug 08 - 11:05 PM Gack, It's back. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Female Suicide Bombers From: GUEST,Jack the Sailor Date: 03 Aug 08 - 11:11 PM >>>The roots of the myth of the suicide killer as hero go back a long way. Samson pulling down the pillars is perhaps the earliest example.<<< That's idiotic! The first suicide killer a Jew? Bite off your tongue sir!! Such blasphemy! Bite off your tongue! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Female Suicide Bombers From: Sorcha Date: 04 Aug 08 - 12:24 AM Jack...tell Carol just not to even try to talk to It. It is irrational at best. And if she fusses that I told you to tell her, it's just cause you are here now and she isn't. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Female Suicide Bombers From: CarolC Date: 04 Aug 08 - 01:10 AM It? |
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Subject: RE: BS: Female Suicide Bombers From: Joseph P Date: 04 Aug 08 - 08:51 AM I read the Jellyfish article with great interest ... |
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Subject: RE: BS: Female Suicide Bombers From: SharonA Date: 04 Aug 08 - 10:06 AM Oh! I misread the thread title as "Female Suicide Barbers" (like a masochistic Sweeney Todd in drag...). Time for new bifocals. |
