THE TENSION: The Decline and Fall of Western Civ for 11 Nov.

After reading: wash, rinse and repeat.

Sixteen people were arrested after neo-Nazis, some shouting "Sieg Heil", rampaged through a Germany city and destroyed wreaths placed to mark the anniversary of the 1938 Nazi pogrom against the Jews, according to the Times Online.

Police in the eastern city of Frankfurt on Oder said the group had launched an attack last night, shortly after a memorial service by community and Jewish leaders at a monument where a synagogue once stood.
The neo-Nazis trampled floral wreaths placed at a memorial stone to the synagogue in the city on the Polish border. The synagogue was destroyed 68 years ago in the Nazis’ Kristallnacht, or "Night of Broken Glass."
I noted yesterday that Time reported a lawsuit in Germany will seek a criminal prosecution of former Defense Secretary Rumsfeld and other U.S. officials for their alleged role in abuses at Abu Ghraib and Gitmo. It seems German law provides "universal jurisdiction" allowing for the prosecution of war crimes and related offenses that take place anywhere in the world. It's unclear if German neo-Nazis will receive the same treatment under the law as American neo-Cons.

Reuters reports a colossal, swirling storm with a well-developed eye is churning at Saturn's south pole, the first time a truly hurricane-like storm has been detected on a planet other than Earth, NASA images showed on Thursday.

The report may have sparked outrage among the newly elected Democrat Congress, who would be expected to immediately blame President Bush for being a human racist because he failed to order school buses to evaluate victims to Uranus. Mayor Ray Nagin unavailable for comment.

The Associated Press today ran a number of strangely focused stories. Perhaps life is somehow less brutal in the koom-by-ya world ruled by liberals:

Warm and fuzzy Cold War icon Ortega trades Marx for God. Daniel Ortega returns to Nicaragua's presidency a shadow of the fiery revolutionary who in Cold War times vowed an endless fight against a U.S. government determined to overthrow him.

Where would Danny be now without Groucho?

Post-Taliban Kabul blossoms for the rich! Eight-year-old Sajjad's kite struggles upward. It's nothing grand - a plastic bag salvaged from a heap of garbage and fashioned into a diamond shape. But it's a symbol of change in Kabul, five years after the Afghan capital was freed from a Taliban regime that believed activities such as kite-flying would distract youngsters from studying the Islamic holy book, the Quran.

"We are praying for the poor people to have houses like us," he said. "But everything belongs to God. God knows better who should be given property and who shouldn't. God gave us this property and we built our houses. We are praying that God will look more favorably on the poor."

Christian Population Falls in Holy Land.

"Most of the Christians here are either in the process of leaving, planning to leave or thinking of leaving," said Sami Awad, executive director of the Holy Land Trust, a Bethlehem-based peace group. "Insecurity is deep and getting worse."

1918 Inverted Jenny Stamps

A Florida voter may have unwittingly lost hundreds of thousands of dollars by using an extremely rare stamp to mail an absentee ballot in Tuesday's congressional election, a government official said on Friday, according to Reuters, AP. The envelope is in a box that by law can't be opened.

The 1918 Inverted Jenny stamp, which takes its name from an image of a biplane accidentally printed upside-down, turned up on Tuesday night in Fort Lauderdale, where election officials were inspecting ballots from parts of south Florida. Only 100 of the stamps have ever been found, making them one of the top prizes of all philately.

The USS Anzio provided assistance to a vessel in distress in the Arabian Sea, approximately 140 miles off the coast of Pakistan on Nov. 10, while conducting Maritime Security Operations (MSO) in the area, reports the public affairs office of the Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Central Command (CUSNC).

The 24 person crew of motor vessel SINAA, a 35 meter Iranian-flagged dhow from Kubala, Iran, contacted the Anzio on bridge-to-bridge radio asking for assistance. The motor vessel’s crew said they needed water and fuel.

As part of MSO, coalition forces have a long standing tradition of helping mariners in distress by providing medical assistance, engineering assistance and search and rescue efforts.

AFP reports Iran's Arabic language television station broadcast footage it claimed showed a US aircraft carrier cruising in Gulf waters it said was taken by an unmanned Iranian drone.

"A source in the Revolutionary Guard said the drone carried out its mission without US fighter pilots reaching it," the television said.
It is unclear if Iranian television reported U.S. Navy rescue efforts.