Grateful Dead

There was a mass panick outbreak in a tunnel leading into this year's Love Parade in Duisburg. Police and security were unable to deal with the stampede, once it started, and 15 died. The number of injured is still unclear. How tragic that a fest of peace and love ended like that. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/7908522/15-dea… ********************************** By trying we can easily learn to endure adversity -- another man's I mean. Mark Twain

A kind wit and keen insight. He will be missed. Have a great weekend everybody!

brent: may you stay...forever young.

you don't bring in the Gurkhas and then complain when they do their job well. Sheesh. Dude deserves a medal, not harassment.

...over there it seems ridiculous to single out a Gurkha for this action. Gurkhas are the cream of the cream of Nepali warriors. They can basicaly run over mountains since that is their native territory. They are fiercely loyal also. That is an excellent description of a kukuri, Johnman. My Nepali wife has one in the kitchen drawer and whips it out to cut up whole chickens. She also brings them back as presents for people. I always caution people to put the thing on a high shelf if they have young kids.

it IS kind of hard to deny that when someone presents you a guy's head that he's most likely dead. It's also pretty obvious who he is. Irony alert I can barely imagine the horror one feels when being presented with someone's head, disconnected from their body. ********************************** By trying we can easily learn to endure adversity -- another man's I mean. Mark Twain

I have read of Gurkhas removing the head of an enemy as proof. The Kukri is a national Icon in Nepal and is used as an all around tool. It is 16 to 18 inchs in length and kept razor sharp.

In a recent post I mentioned the high rate of suicide among US soldiers. I alluded to the reality on the ground there as being different then the propaganda. Well, here is some of what they are seeing. A couple of days ago The Himalayan Times had a story about the Royal Gorkhas of the British Army. They are Nepali mercenaries. They have a small knife known as a kukuri. It looks like a very sharp boomerang. It is their national weapon. So, a week or so ago, a Taliban commander had been killing some NATO troops and the word was put out that they wanted the Taliban commander. If that person was killed in battle they wanted some proof. So a gorkha soldier killed him but couldn't drag his body off the battlefield. Heeding his commander's wish, he cut the Taliban commander's head off and brought it back to the British officer. Who was, of course, horrified at this violation of the Geneva Convention. The Gorkha was recalled to Britain to possibly face charges. Shit happens in a war zone. Stuff that is very hard to sleep with in a land faraway from home.

p 38 of the new Rolling Stone...Justin Timberlake wearing a SYF (THAT'S ok, but)...the blurb says "He hopes to collaborate with Umphrey's McGee on a new Dead-themed mash-up record: RippleSex/JerrySounds". Justin, Justin, Justin... It can't be that bad that you have to dump this on us. I hope Marye is right and this is just RS's lame attempt at humor after being had by Stanley McChrystal.

...What? Was soliciting a good job in exchange for the candidate of their choice in the US Senate from Illinois a crime? I guess this shows that you don't have to be smart to be elected the governor of Illinois. It also shows that Blago is the ultimate media whore.