RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — A Saudi court sentenced a woman who had been gang raped to six months in jail and 200 lashes — more than doubling her initial penalty for being in the car of a man who was not a relative, a newspaper reported Thursday. The decision by the Qatif General Court came in a case that had sparked rare debate about the kingdom’s justice system when it surfaced more than a year ago. In its decision Wednesday, the court also roughly doubled prison sentences for the seven men convicted of raping the 19-year-old woman, the Arab News […]
IMAGINE: What $611 Billion Could Buy, Besides Bullets
BOSTON GLOBE: If the Bush administration succeeds in its latest request for funding for the war in Iraq, the total cost would rise to $611.5 billion, according to the National Priorities Project, a nonprofit research group. The amount got us wondering: What would $611 billion buy? 18 MONTHS OF FREE GAS FOR ALL U.S. drivers consume approximately 384.7 million gallons of gasoline a day. Retail prices averaged $3.00 a gallon in early November. Breaking it down, $611 billion could buy gasoline for everybody in the United States, for about 530 days. * CONVERT ALL THE CARS IN AMERICA TO ETHANOL […]
DIA DE LOS MUERTOS: Day Of The Dead
…is today. So cheer up! On the 31st of October, families create an ofrenda in their homes. Essentially an altar, the ofrenda is anoffering of love and respect for the souls of loved ones. Various traditions include placement of photos of the deceased, bread known as Pan de Muerte (Bread of the Dead), water, and other food items they might have enjoyed in life. Ofrenda have also been known to include clothing, and personal grooming items for the souls to freshen up with following their journey from the afterlife. There is always an abundance of flowers, known as cempasúchil, valued […]
CONFETTI BETTY: Getting Into Hillary’s Pants
BY AMY Z. QUINN I have this Hillary Clinton fantasy. It’s something I’ve been, until now, reticent to share. Go figure. No, it’s not just about her being elected president, especially since that seems less and less a fantasy as Obama continues to plateau while Hillary’s air of inevitability continues to gain altitude, but about her inauguration. OK, OK, it’s really about the outfit she’d be wearing at her inauguration. My daydream ensemble looks nothing like that ill-advised number she sported at Bill’s first swearing-in — you remember, the one that made her look like Tinky-Winky? And my fantasy President […]
CLOSED ENCOUNTERS: Judge Tells NASA To Come Clean On 1965 Kecksburg, Pa. UFO Crash
WASHINGTON (AP) — NASA has agreed to search its archives once again for documents on a 1965 UFO incident in Pennsylvania, a step the space agency fought in federal court. The government has refused to open its files about what, if anything, moved across the sky and crashed in the woods near Kecksburg, Pa., 40 miles southeast of Pittsburgh. Traffic was tied up in the area as curiosity seekers drove to the area, only to be kept away from the crash site by soldiers. The Air Force’s explanation for the unidentified flying object: a meteor or meteors. Eyewitnesses said a […]
THE WAY WE WERE: When We Were Kings
During the Centennial year of 1876, Philadelphia was host to a celebration of 100 years of American cultural and industrial progress. Officially known as the “International Exhibition of Arts, Manufactures and Products of the Soil and Mine,” the Centennial Exhibition, the first major World’s Fair to be held in the United States, opened on May 10, 1876 on a 285-acre tract of Fairmount Park overlooking the Schuylkill River. The fairgrounds, designed almost exclusively by 27-year-old German immigrant Hermann J. Schwarzmann, were host to 37 nations and countless industrial exhibits occupying over 250 individual pavilions. The Exhibition was immensely popular, drawing […]
NEWS CLUES: It’s Like Adderall For Your Eyeballs
FROM ‘BLOHAN’ TO ‘BROKEHAN’: Lindsay Has Literally Blown Through $7 Million Lohan quickly earned millions from films like Mean Girls and Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen — but she has spent it even quicker. She lived for most of last year in Hollywood’s opulent Chateau Marmont hotel, spending $450,000 on her $1,200-a-night suite, as well as another £500,000 having chauffeurs on 24-hour standby. “And the amount she has wasted putting cocaine up her nose is disgusting. Even she has lost count.” Added to that were endless bottles of Cristal champagne at $550 a pop — until the unpaid bills […]
BREAKING: Former Vice President Al Gore Wins Nobel
WASHINGTON POST: Former Vice President Al Gore Jr. was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize today along with a United Nations panel that monitors climate change for their work educating the world about global warming and advocating for political action to stop it.The Norwegian Nobel Committee characterized Gore as “the single individual” responsible for convincing world governments that climate change was real, caused by human activity, and posed a threat to society. MORE
CONFETTI BETTY: The Week That Was
BY AMY Z. QUINN The logic which binds these events together is as twisted as a pretzel — I mean yo, this is Philly — but it’s a kind of Six Degrees of Election ’08: South Philly Edition. Follow me: 1. Bono, in town to receive the Liberty Medal at the National Constitution Center, declares himself an American, says “this is my country, too.” Uses platform to deliver an elegantly worded tongue-lashing to his adopted country on subjects including: fair trade, our responsibility to the poor, free speech, our responsibility toward Africa’s AIDS victims, and torture. That last one was […]
MY MOTORCYCLE DIARY: Jesus, The Leper & St. Kurt
BY JONATHAN VALANIA For the record, I am home safe and sound from my journey through the high plains of the Andes. For some that will be good news, for others, less so (you fall into this latter category if you have ever uttered the words ‘If he writes one more word about being in that mother#$%& Wilco movie, I’ll murdelize him’ — you know who you are.) Anyway, it’s good to be back in the USA — you don’t realize how good we have it until you leave it. I am of course, referring to America’s superior Wi-Fi and […]
WTF: Why The South Won’t Rise Again
MAIDEN, N.C. — Authorities say a South Carolina man who mistakenly lost his amputated leg when it was sold in a barbecue smoker at a public auction will get the appendage back. John Wood had been battling to regain custody of the leg from Shannon Whisnant. Whisnant found the leg in a barbecue smoker he purchased at an auction of Wood’s belongings last week. Whisnant first turned the leg over to police but later claimed ownership of it, saying he wanted to charge admission for people to see it. Wood’s leg was amputated three years ago after an airplane crash. […]
Pot-Bellied Cops To Crack Down On Saggy-Assed Pants
EDITOR’S NOTE: Parts of this post first appeared on Phawker on August 14th, 2007 MANSFIELD, LA — “Pull ’em up or pay up.” That’s Police Chief Don English’s interpretation of a new law that took effect in Mansfield on Sept. 15. Anyone caught wearing sagging pants who exposes his or her underwear will be subject to a fine of up to $150 plus court costs, or face up to 15 days in jail. Mansfield aldermen voted unanimously at today’s 4:30 p.m. meeting to enact the new law. The law makes it illegal to found in a “state of nudity, or […]