Grope-Free Buses

We were in Mexico City 26 years ago.

These buses were needed then. I’m sure they’re even more needed now.

Mexico City starts grope-free buses for women

Mexico City has started a women-only bus service to protect female passengers from groping and verbal abuse common on the city’s packed public transportation system.

Millions of people cram into subway trains and buses in the Mexican capital, one of the world’s largest cities, and women have long complained of abuse from men taking advantage of overcrowding to sneak in an inappropriate grab.

Pakistani Christian Murdered

I just read this via WordlMagBlog:

Pakistani Christian Murdered in Peshawar

A Pakistani Christian working for the relief and development agency Shelter Now has been murdered in Peshawar.

29-year old Sajeed Williams was on his way home January 17, when a masked man opened fire and killed him. The gunman is at large ; his motives are unknown, as the director of the German Shelter Now branch, Udo Stolte, told the evangelical news agency “idea”.

Williams was married ; the couple has an 18-month old daughter. He was office manager for Shelter Now in Peshawar.

The organization runs two projects in the country – a fish farm and a building project for 105 schools, which were ruined during the earthquake that shook Pakistan in 2005.

He has his reward. May God bless and comfort and shield and hold near his wife and daughter.

Uh…Mr. Bush?

I guess I should no longer be amazed at this:

President Bush, summing up meetings with both sides in the Israeli-Palestinian dispute, said Thursday that a peace accord will require “painful political concessions” by each. Resolving the status of Jerusalem will be hard, he said, and he called for the end of the “occupation” of Arab land by the Israeli military.

Israel has made lots of concessions.

What have the Palestinians done?

And that “occupation” business is not good either.

Here’s more from the AP news piece:

He made a point of using a loaded term “occupation” to describe Israeli control over land that would eventually form the bulk of an independent Palestinian state. That he did so in Jerusalem underscored that he is trying not to seem partial to Israel.

[…]

“The point of departure for permanent status negotiations to realize this vision seems clear,” he said. “There should be an end to the occupation that began in 1967. The agreement must establish a Palestine as a homeland for the Palestinian people just as Israel is a homeland for the Jewish people.”

Is the US still “occupying” any territory taken in war?

I think I need a head-shaking, eye-rolling emoticon here.

I have no idea whose side the book below takes.

Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East

I Am Not Paranoid!

Believing the Web and email are both secure and private requires a willing suspension of disbelief.

So read this story and take a lesson for living:

The Softer Side of Spyware from Sears, Kmart

Googins noted on his company’s blog that the spyware installed by Sears transmitted everything from banking logins, email, and all other forms of Internet usage to comScore for analysis all in the name of ‘community’ participation. This was done without notice, an act contrary to documentation about the community from Sears saying that any data collected would stay within Sears’ hands at all times.

I’ve been trying to tell people that they shouldn’t assume privacy and security online. Not even in “private” and “personal” email.

But I think most of them think I’m being old-fashioned. Or hypersensitive. Or paranoid.

No. I’m. Not.

🙂

Now, say it with me…all together now…

Mark is not paranoid!

Thank you.

New Hampshire Speaks

Well, folks, according to what Drudge is headlining at this moment (and it keeps changing every few minutes), Obama and Edwards failed to knock Clinton into third place…and Thompson got knocked into sixth place:

OBAMA 36; CLINTON 37; EDWARDS 17; RICHARDSON 4; KUCINICH 2...
MCCAIN 38; ROMNEY 29; HUCKABEE 11; PAUL 8; GIULIANI 9; THOMPSON 1.

That may signal the end of Thompson, branded by some pundits (many, perhaps?) as the only true conservative among all of the above.

In which case, maybe it’s time to make my move.

😀

Above all, love God!

since November 9, 2005