Breaking News…....

Normandy Invasion was in first, but in the end could only muster fourth place at the Kentucky Derby.  The owners of said horse had feelings very similar to those of us who ever dare to play Allies in G40.  We, too, always feel like we could have won but instead finish in fourth place.  Just sayin.  ;)

The 26th April 1937 saw Hitler’s Condor Legion bomb the Northern Spanish Basque town of Guernica. It was seen as a proving ground for the Nazi party’s new Luftwaffe and much experience was to be garnered from the Spanish Civil War. The Condor Legion was led by Oberstleutnant Wolfram Freiherr Von Richthofen(The Red Baron’s cousin) and under Nationalist control. Guernica was behind the front lines and was a town of about 7000 population. The bombing was in waves and exact casualty reports are unknown, but probably numbered around 1000. The Legion was a mix of Fighters and Medium Bombers, all names we know: 109s(B not Es), HE 51s (biplanes), DO 17s, JU52s and HE111s. There were also some Italian Fiat Fighters and the versatile SM79.
The outcome of the bombing was to demoralise the townsfolk and lead to its falling to Franco’s Nationalists on the 29th April.
This bombing raid was to be a preview of what was to happen between 39-45 to larger cities like Warsaw, London,Berlin, Dresden and finally Tokyo.

“Garg”,

––Well, I guess you’re rubbing off on me(bad influence?) :-o. But seriously, please remember to send all us, your fans(victims?) :roll:, an autographed photo of you in your royal attire attaining your reign.(proof of departure?) :-D

----Happy New Year, “G”

“Tall Paul”

Have fun CC!

Take the period off the end of the link, works just fine then.

Also, reading the story, it sounds a lot like 1998, before the Tech Bubble burst.  Super economy, wage and job creation growth, high investment yields…

If past trends are any indication, 2006 will see a serious “bust” in the economy.  I am betting on a collapse of specific areas for the real estate bubble that will trickle into other areas of the economy, combined with a repeat rise in liquid fuels prices after a winter of extremely elevated consumer expense on heating fuels that will slow consumer spending in 2006.

Increasing instability in the Middle East will further strain fuel prices and guarantees of supplies, further slowing the economy.

Anyone care to lay odds?

I watch Fox, CNN, BBC and ABC when I can. I figure between the four of them, I get the vast majority of the actual facts and they’ll contradict each other on their spin. Kinda like white noise filtering out the spin while the facts slip through.

Agencies I avoid like the plague:

CBS (can we say Dan Rather? Can we say 3 instances of falsified reports either purposly or because of ineptitude in their reporting ability during the elections? Can we say spin???)

I also tend to avoid NBC/MSNBC mainly because it’s owned by Microsoft and I don’t trust corporations that sell products or services to protray the news correctly.

While I have tons of reasons to distrust Spanish, French, German and Canadian news agencies, from their actual papers, I’ll refrain from specifics because I don’t have enough time to sit around scanning articles into PDF form and posting them right now. Suffice it to say, the fiction they print in their daily periodicals is humorous at best, evil at worst.

As long as FOX News doesn’t get “liberalized” it’s all kosher… :wink:

The results of the study seem to be a mixed bag. See the BJM editorial…

http://bmj.com/cgi/content/full/326/7398/1048

The fact that the study was authorized and sponsored by proponents of California Proposition 99(Anti-Smoking group)and then dropped because of the apparent survey outcome seems to balance the equation for me.

That’s akin to a district attorney gathering evidence that contradicts the outcome s/he wishes in a case. Then not turning the results of the investigation over to the defense attorney. The facts are hiden from the jury…

For a BJM overview and acces to a BJM abridged version of the survey, see…

http://bmj.com/cgi/content/abstract/326/7398/1057?ijkey=b97477b07669c0f43c8888f729d87cbc49a54ab2&keytype2=tf_ipsecsha