Jihadpundit: Fanatically opposed to Islamic fanaticism: "Student activists actually protesting against anti-democratic forces? I know, it sounds too good to be true, but it is anyway: Student bodies demand ban on Jamaat-e-Bangladesh politics
[World News]: By Nazrul Islam Dhaka, Mar.15 : An alliance of six opposition-backed student organisations on Tuesday demanded the imposition of a ban on the kind of politics practiced by the right-wing Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh, which is a part of the Khaleda Zia-led ruling coalition.
'The armed men of the organisation [Jamaat] have been creating anarchy in the country exploiting the common pious people in the country in name of Islam,' Liakot Sikder, the president of Bangladesh Chhatra League, the student front of the main opposition Awami League, told a rally on the Dhaka University campus.
He accused the Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh of sheltering religious zealots, who wanted to turn Bangladesh into an Islamic state. The newly formed student alliance, comprising student wings of some left and social democratic parties, also blamed the Jamaat for the frequent incidents of violence taking place on college campuses.
Earlier, activists of the student alliance took out a procession and marched through the Dhaka University campus chanting slogans against radical forces. (ANI)
Heartening to see, so seldom reported. "
Wednesday, March 16, 2005
Babalu Blog: Cuban Mythology (Updated)
Babalu Blog: Cuban Mythology (Updated): "Cuban Mythology (Updated)
Every single time the island of Cuba and fidel castro's revolution are covered anywhere in the media one of the points always mentioned is Cuba's free healthcare. You can practically time it. If it's in print, you get the lead issue in the first and second paragraph, a mention of fidel castro or one of his cronies in the third paragraph and then the plug for the lauded free healthcare available to Cubans in the fourth. I dont think Ive ever read an article about castro or Cuba where the 'healthcare' isnt mentioned.
Every single castro supporter clings to this healthcare thing like it is some kind of holy grail. In a debate, the fact that Cuba has the most political prisoners in the world is ignored. The fact that Cubans on the island lack even the most basic of necessities is ignored. Tourism apartheid is ignored. Everything is ignored save for the free healthcare and 100% literacy.
Of course, none of these Free healthcare! cheerleaders have ever been to a Cuban hospital. They've never been to a Cuban clinic. Hospitals and clinics serving the average Cuban, that is.
Take a look at these pictures:" SEE LINK ABOVE FOR COMPLETE STORY AND DISCUSTING PICS!
Every single time the island of Cuba and fidel castro's revolution are covered anywhere in the media one of the points always mentioned is Cuba's free healthcare. You can practically time it. If it's in print, you get the lead issue in the first and second paragraph, a mention of fidel castro or one of his cronies in the third paragraph and then the plug for the lauded free healthcare available to Cubans in the fourth. I dont think Ive ever read an article about castro or Cuba where the 'healthcare' isnt mentioned.
Every single castro supporter clings to this healthcare thing like it is some kind of holy grail. In a debate, the fact that Cuba has the most political prisoners in the world is ignored. The fact that Cubans on the island lack even the most basic of necessities is ignored. Tourism apartheid is ignored. Everything is ignored save for the free healthcare and 100% literacy.
Of course, none of these Free healthcare! cheerleaders have ever been to a Cuban hospital. They've never been to a Cuban clinic. Hospitals and clinics serving the average Cuban, that is.
Take a look at these pictures:" SEE LINK ABOVE FOR COMPLETE STORY AND DISCUSTING PICS!
The MIRT & Stealth EVP preemptive traffic devices at SkyOptics.com - Authorized Dealer
The MIRT & Stealth EVP preemptive traffic devices at SkyOptics.com - Authorized Dealer: "The Mirt Traffic Control Preemptive Device for only $299.99!!"
KRT Wire | 03/16/2005 | U.S. officials worry about civilians obtaining traffic-light changers
KRT Wire | 03/16/2005 | U.S. officials worry about civilians obtaining traffic-light changers: "U.S. officials worry about civilians obtaining traffic-light changers
BY AMAN BATHEJA
Knight Ridder Newspapers
FORT WORTH, Texas - (KRT) - The tag lines on various Web sites make them seem too good to be true.
'CHANGE STOPLIGHTS FROM RED TO GREEN IN SECONDS!'
'NOW YOU CONTROL THE INTERSECTIONS!'
The devices, mobile infrared transmitters, allow a person to change an upcoming traffic light from red to green from as far as 1,500 feet.
They are intended for emergency personnel, but sales of the devices to civilians on the Internet are making authorities nervous.
While the devices can cost more than $1,000 each from official dealers such as 3M, various Web sites sell knockoffs for less than $200.
Most of the Internet sites selling the devices advertise them for emergency personnel, but some broaden the definition to include private investigators and funeral homes. Some sites also claim to target groups that have a right to the technology but could afford only the cheaper versions, like volunteer fire departments.
Due mostly to the availability of the cheaper versions online, police and fire officials have been hearing accounts of signal changers being used by civilians in other states, Aghamalian said.
'We can't have that type of technology in the wrong hands,' said Brandon Aghamalian, director of governmental relations for Fort Worth, Texas.
Four bills before the Texas Legislature this session propose to make it illegal for anyone but emergency personnel to possess a signal changer.
Using such a device is already against the law because it is illegal to tamper with a traffic control device, said Tela Mange, spokeswoman for the Department of Public Safety.
A bill by state Sen. Kim Brimer, R-Fort Worth, would make possessing a signal changer a Class B misdemeanor. A bill proposed by Sen. Bob Deuell, R-Greenville, would make possession a third-degree felony.
There have been no reported problems with unauthorized use of the devices locally, said Harry Jones, supervisor of the Fort Worth Police Department's traffic division.
---
Traffic Signal Changers
For emergency vehicles racing toward a crisis, signal changers can mean the difference between life and death. They allow emergency crews to respond to an emergency more quickly and reduce the chance of an accident when they are passing through intersections.
When a signal changer on a traffic light detects a properly equipped emergency vehicle approaching, the light responds accordingly. If the light is red, the signal changer will immediately give vehicles in other directions a yellow light, followed by a red light. Then the emergency vehicle will be given a green light.
If the light is already green, it will remain green until the vehicle has passed.
---
� 2005, Fort Worth Star-Telegram."
BY AMAN BATHEJA
Knight Ridder Newspapers
FORT WORTH, Texas - (KRT) - The tag lines on various Web sites make them seem too good to be true.
'CHANGE STOPLIGHTS FROM RED TO GREEN IN SECONDS!'
'NOW YOU CONTROL THE INTERSECTIONS!'
The devices, mobile infrared transmitters, allow a person to change an upcoming traffic light from red to green from as far as 1,500 feet.
They are intended for emergency personnel, but sales of the devices to civilians on the Internet are making authorities nervous.
While the devices can cost more than $1,000 each from official dealers such as 3M, various Web sites sell knockoffs for less than $200.
Most of the Internet sites selling the devices advertise them for emergency personnel, but some broaden the definition to include private investigators and funeral homes. Some sites also claim to target groups that have a right to the technology but could afford only the cheaper versions, like volunteer fire departments.
Due mostly to the availability of the cheaper versions online, police and fire officials have been hearing accounts of signal changers being used by civilians in other states, Aghamalian said.
'We can't have that type of technology in the wrong hands,' said Brandon Aghamalian, director of governmental relations for Fort Worth, Texas.
Four bills before the Texas Legislature this session propose to make it illegal for anyone but emergency personnel to possess a signal changer.
Using such a device is already against the law because it is illegal to tamper with a traffic control device, said Tela Mange, spokeswoman for the Department of Public Safety.
A bill by state Sen. Kim Brimer, R-Fort Worth, would make possessing a signal changer a Class B misdemeanor. A bill proposed by Sen. Bob Deuell, R-Greenville, would make possession a third-degree felony.
There have been no reported problems with unauthorized use of the devices locally, said Harry Jones, supervisor of the Fort Worth Police Department's traffic division.
---
Traffic Signal Changers
For emergency vehicles racing toward a crisis, signal changers can mean the difference between life and death. They allow emergency crews to respond to an emergency more quickly and reduce the chance of an accident when they are passing through intersections.
When a signal changer on a traffic light detects a properly equipped emergency vehicle approaching, the light responds accordingly. If the light is red, the signal changer will immediately give vehicles in other directions a yellow light, followed by a red light. Then the emergency vehicle will be given a green light.
If the light is already green, it will remain green until the vehicle has passed.
---
� 2005, Fort Worth Star-Telegram."
Monday, March 14, 2005
ChrenkoffYou know they are serious, when...
Chrenkoff
You know they are serious, when...
First off, we've had the Hizbollah, pro-Syrian, pro-government rally, which according to various estimates attracted somewhere between 500,000 and 1 million people to the center of Beirut.
Now, we have an opposition, anti-Syrian, anti-Government rally, with anywhere between 800,000 and 1.3 million people in the streets.
Lebanon's total population is 3.7 million.
To get your head around the magnitude of these events, think the United States. Think the Presidential campaign 2004. Think a Kerry rally, somewhere outside Boston, attracting somewhere between 40 and 80 million people. Then think a Bush rally, on the outsikirts of Dallas, with a field crowded with between 63 and 103 million Americans.
That's somewhere between one third and two thirds of the US population coming out into the street, and the lower overall estimate of just over 100 million people protesting is not significantly lower than the total number of people who have voted at the 2004 presidential election (over 120 million).
And everyone thinks that the Americans are passionate about politics!
But speaking of knowing when they are not serious... Amir Taheri has another good opinion piece about the reluctance of the Western anti-war crowd to support democracy throughout the Middle East. "There are, as yet, no signs that the 'Western street' may, at some point, come out in support of the new 'Arab street'," he writes.
Indeed, over the last three years, millions marched around the world to get the US troops out of Iraq. Over the last 15 or even 30 years - and much more importantly, over the last few weeks - how many in the West marched to get the Syrian troops out of Lebanon?
Taheri wonders: "Is it because many of those who will be marching in support of Saddam Hussein this month are the remnants of totalitarian groups in the West plus a variety of misinformed idealists and others blinded by anti-Americanism? Or is it because they secretly believe that the Arabs do not deserve anything better than Saddam Hussein?"
No - it's because the Western left is now isolationist. It has been following, with a significant time lapse, the transition from Trotskyism-Leninism to Stalinism. Just like the Soviet communists had once raged with revolutionary fervor and dreamed of spreading dictatorship of the proletariat across Europe and then the rest of the world, only to eventually settle for "socialism in one country", so had the Western left-of-centrists once dreamed of spreading democracy, freedom and human rights around the world, only to champion today the doctrine of "democracy in one country" - ours.
So if the critics of the Bush Administration like to point out to the Trotyskite roots of neo-conservatism, that's fair enough as far as it goes, but they should accept that by the same token today's left is Stalinis
You know they are serious, when...
First off, we've had the Hizbollah, pro-Syrian, pro-government rally, which according to various estimates attracted somewhere between 500,000 and 1 million people to the center of Beirut.
Now, we have an opposition, anti-Syrian, anti-Government rally, with anywhere between 800,000 and 1.3 million people in the streets.
Lebanon's total population is 3.7 million.
To get your head around the magnitude of these events, think the United States. Think the Presidential campaign 2004. Think a Kerry rally, somewhere outside Boston, attracting somewhere between 40 and 80 million people. Then think a Bush rally, on the outsikirts of Dallas, with a field crowded with between 63 and 103 million Americans.
That's somewhere between one third and two thirds of the US population coming out into the street, and the lower overall estimate of just over 100 million people protesting is not significantly lower than the total number of people who have voted at the 2004 presidential election (over 120 million).
And everyone thinks that the Americans are passionate about politics!
But speaking of knowing when they are not serious... Amir Taheri has another good opinion piece about the reluctance of the Western anti-war crowd to support democracy throughout the Middle East. "There are, as yet, no signs that the 'Western street' may, at some point, come out in support of the new 'Arab street'," he writes.
Indeed, over the last three years, millions marched around the world to get the US troops out of Iraq. Over the last 15 or even 30 years - and much more importantly, over the last few weeks - how many in the West marched to get the Syrian troops out of Lebanon?
Taheri wonders: "Is it because many of those who will be marching in support of Saddam Hussein this month are the remnants of totalitarian groups in the West plus a variety of misinformed idealists and others blinded by anti-Americanism? Or is it because they secretly believe that the Arabs do not deserve anything better than Saddam Hussein?"
No - it's because the Western left is now isolationist. It has been following, with a significant time lapse, the transition from Trotskyism-Leninism to Stalinism. Just like the Soviet communists had once raged with revolutionary fervor and dreamed of spreading dictatorship of the proletariat across Europe and then the rest of the world, only to eventually settle for "socialism in one country", so had the Western left-of-centrists once dreamed of spreading democracy, freedom and human rights around the world, only to champion today the doctrine of "democracy in one country" - ours.
So if the critics of the Bush Administration like to point out to the Trotyskite roots of neo-conservatism, that's fair enough as far as it goes, but they should accept that by the same token today's left is Stalinis
Sunday, March 13, 2005
Jack Kelly: The hubris of Giuliana Sgrena
Jack Kelly: The hubris of Giuliana Sgrena: "k Kelly: The hubris of Giuliana Sgrena
A naive Italian communist journalist got herself into big trouble in Baghdad
Sunday, March 13, 2005
Giuliana Sgrena does not lack a sense of self-importance. The 56-year-old journalist for the Italian communist newspaper Il Manifesto thinks she knows so many deep dark secrets the U.S. military tried to shut her up permanently.
Jack Kelly is national security writer for the Post-Gazette and The Blade of Toledo, Ohio (jkelly@post-gazette.com, 412-263-1476).
Sgrena went to Iraq to report on the heroic resistance to the American imperialists. Dutch journalist Harald Doornbos rode in the airplane to Baghdad with her.
'Be careful not to get kidnapped,' Doornbos warned Sgrena.
'You don't understand the situation,' she responded, according to Doornbos' account last week in Nederlands Dagblad. (Excerpts were translated into English and posted on a Dutch writer's Web blog.) 'The Iraqis only kidnap American sympathizers. The enemies of the Americans have nothing to fear.'
Sgrena left her hotel the morning of Feb. 4 to interview refugees from Fallujah, the resistance stronghold captured by U.S. Marines in November. The interviews didn't go well.
'The refugees ... would not listen to me,' she said. 'I had in front of me the accurate confirmation of the analysis of what the Iraqi society had become as a result of the war and they would throw their truth in my face.'
Sgrena's feelings were hurt that the refugees could be so curt to her: 'I who had risked everything, challenging the Italian government who didn't want journalists to reach Iraq and the Americans who don't want our work to be witnessed of what really became of that country with the war and notwithstanding that which they call elections.' (Maybe it reads better in Italian, or maybe she just can't write worth a damn.)
She got nabbed on her way back to her hotel. Sgrena told her captors she was on their side, and suggested they kidnap an American soldier instead. But the U.S. government doesn't pay ransoms.
The Italian government did pay a ransom estimated by various sources at between $1 million and $10 million, and Sgrena was released into the custody of Italian intelligence officers. On the night of March 4, their vehicle approached a checkpoint near Baghdad International Airport. The car did not stop. U.S. troops opened fire. Nicola Calipari was killed, Sgrena was slightly wounded.
Sgrena said the soldiers deliberately tried to kill her, but didn't hazard a guess as to how the soldiers knew she was in that vehicle. According to the U.S. embassy and the Third Infantry Division, the Italians did not inform the Americans she'd been released. And Calipari had rented a nondescript sedan to pick up Sgrena, rather than utilize one of the Italian embassy's armored SUVs, which the soldiers might have recognized.
Sgrena and the driver said they approached the checkpoint slowly. But 'slowly' seems to be a relative term for Italian drivers, and for communists. An Army officer told ABC News the car may have been going 100 mph when it was fired upon.
Sgrena claims the Americans shot without warning. 'A tank started to shoot at us without any sign or any light,' she told reporters March 7.
The soldiers say they used lights, and hand signals, and fired warning shots before shooting into the engine block to stop the vehicle. The car's driver said the soldiers did shine a spotlight, but opened up almost immediately afterwards.
Sgrena said 'the tank' fired 300-400 shots at her car. But photographs of it published March 8 by the Italian newspaper La Repubblica indicate the vehicle suffered remarkably little damage for such a fusillade. There is a single bullet hole in the windshield, but the window glass and the fenders are otherwise intact, as is the hood.
Perhaps the soldiers were remarkably lousy shots. But if they were trying to kill Sgrena, why did they take her to the hospital instead of finishing her off?
There are questions that need answers. The Italians say they notified the Americans of Sgrena's release, but the Americans deny it. Was the car going 'slowly,' as the Italians claim, or was it trying to run through the checkpoint, as the Americans say?
But there is no doubt about the credibility of Giuliana Sgrena. She entitled her story 'My Truth,' perhaps to distinguish it from the bourgeois concept of truth that depends on adherence to fact.
Many on the left in America embraced Sgrena's 'truth,' while refusing to give their countrymen the benefit of the doubt. But hey, liberals support our troops. They say so all the time.
"
A naive Italian communist journalist got herself into big trouble in Baghdad
Sunday, March 13, 2005
Giuliana Sgrena does not lack a sense of self-importance. The 56-year-old journalist for the Italian communist newspaper Il Manifesto thinks she knows so many deep dark secrets the U.S. military tried to shut her up permanently.
Jack Kelly is national security writer for the Post-Gazette and The Blade of Toledo, Ohio (jkelly@post-gazette.com, 412-263-1476).
Sgrena went to Iraq to report on the heroic resistance to the American imperialists. Dutch journalist Harald Doornbos rode in the airplane to Baghdad with her.
'Be careful not to get kidnapped,' Doornbos warned Sgrena.
'You don't understand the situation,' she responded, according to Doornbos' account last week in Nederlands Dagblad. (Excerpts were translated into English and posted on a Dutch writer's Web blog.) 'The Iraqis only kidnap American sympathizers. The enemies of the Americans have nothing to fear.'
Sgrena left her hotel the morning of Feb. 4 to interview refugees from Fallujah, the resistance stronghold captured by U.S. Marines in November. The interviews didn't go well.
'The refugees ... would not listen to me,' she said. 'I had in front of me the accurate confirmation of the analysis of what the Iraqi society had become as a result of the war and they would throw their truth in my face.'
Sgrena's feelings were hurt that the refugees could be so curt to her: 'I who had risked everything, challenging the Italian government who didn't want journalists to reach Iraq and the Americans who don't want our work to be witnessed of what really became of that country with the war and notwithstanding that which they call elections.' (Maybe it reads better in Italian, or maybe she just can't write worth a damn.)
She got nabbed on her way back to her hotel. Sgrena told her captors she was on their side, and suggested they kidnap an American soldier instead. But the U.S. government doesn't pay ransoms.
The Italian government did pay a ransom estimated by various sources at between $1 million and $10 million, and Sgrena was released into the custody of Italian intelligence officers. On the night of March 4, their vehicle approached a checkpoint near Baghdad International Airport. The car did not stop. U.S. troops opened fire. Nicola Calipari was killed, Sgrena was slightly wounded.
Sgrena said the soldiers deliberately tried to kill her, but didn't hazard a guess as to how the soldiers knew she was in that vehicle. According to the U.S. embassy and the Third Infantry Division, the Italians did not inform the Americans she'd been released. And Calipari had rented a nondescript sedan to pick up Sgrena, rather than utilize one of the Italian embassy's armored SUVs, which the soldiers might have recognized.
Sgrena and the driver said they approached the checkpoint slowly. But 'slowly' seems to be a relative term for Italian drivers, and for communists. An Army officer told ABC News the car may have been going 100 mph when it was fired upon.
Sgrena claims the Americans shot without warning. 'A tank started to shoot at us without any sign or any light,' she told reporters March 7.
The soldiers say they used lights, and hand signals, and fired warning shots before shooting into the engine block to stop the vehicle. The car's driver said the soldiers did shine a spotlight, but opened up almost immediately afterwards.
Sgrena said 'the tank' fired 300-400 shots at her car. But photographs of it published March 8 by the Italian newspaper La Repubblica indicate the vehicle suffered remarkably little damage for such a fusillade. There is a single bullet hole in the windshield, but the window glass and the fenders are otherwise intact, as is the hood.
Perhaps the soldiers were remarkably lousy shots. But if they were trying to kill Sgrena, why did they take her to the hospital instead of finishing her off?
There are questions that need answers. The Italians say they notified the Americans of Sgrena's release, but the Americans deny it. Was the car going 'slowly,' as the Italians claim, or was it trying to run through the checkpoint, as the Americans say?
But there is no doubt about the credibility of Giuliana Sgrena. She entitled her story 'My Truth,' perhaps to distinguish it from the bourgeois concept of truth that depends on adherence to fact.
Many on the left in America embraced Sgrena's 'truth,' while refusing to give their countrymen the benefit of the doubt. But hey, liberals support our troops. They say so all the time.
"
Saturday, March 12, 2005
Friday, March 11, 2005
Anatomy of Credit Card Numbers
Anatomy of Credit Card Numbers
by Michael Gilleland, Merriam Park Software
Introduction
Major Industry Identifier
Issuer Identifier
Account Number
Check Digit
Examples
Java Source Code
Introduction
This is not an essay on credit cards per se. If that's what you're looking for, I recommend Joe Ziegler's excellent series Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Credit Cards. This essay has a narrower focus -- to explore the anatomy of your credit card number, and to provide Java source code which determines if a given credit card number might be valid.
Specifications for credit card numbering have been drawn up by the International Standards Organization (ISO/IEC 7812-1:1993) and the American National Standards Institute (ANSI X4.13). These eminent organizations refuse to make their publications freely available on-line, and so the following information on the format of credit card numbers comes largely from an Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) draft by Donald E. Eastlake 3rd, "ISO 7812/7816 Numbers and the Domain Name System (DNS)" (draft-eastlake-card-map-08, expires August 2001), available at the time of this writing at http://www.globecom.net/ietf/draft/draft-eastlake-card-map-08.html. I have not linked to this URL, because individual versions of IETF drafts are notoriously ephemeral.
Digit numbering in this essay is left to right. The "first" digit, therefore, means the leftmost digit.
Major Industry Identifier
The first digit of your credit card number is the Major Industry Identifier (MII), which represents the category of entity which issued your credit card. Different MII digits represent the following issuer categories:
MII Digit Value Issuer Category
0 ISO/TC 68 and other industry assignments
1 Airlines
2 Airlines and other industry assignments
3 Travel and entertainment
4 Banking and financial
5 Banking and financial
6 Merchandizing and banking
7 Petroleum
8 Telecommunications and other industry assignments
9 National assignment
For example, American Express, Diner's Club, and Carte Blanche are in the travel and entertainment category, VISA, MasterCard, and Discover are in the banking and financial category, and SUN Oil and Exxon are in the petroleum category.
Issuer Identifier
The first 6 digits of your credit card number (including the initial MII digit) form the issuer identifier. This means that the total number of possible issuers is a million (10 raised to the sixth power, or 1,000,000).
Some of the better known issuer identifiers are listed in the following table:
Issuer Identifier Card Number Length
Diner's Club/Carte Blanche 300xxx-305xxx,
36xxxx, 38xxxx 14
American Express 34xxxx, 37xxxx 15
VISA 4xxxxx 13, 16
MasterCard 51xxxx-55xxxx 16
Discover 6011xx 16
If the MII digit is 9, then the next three digits of the issuer identifier are the 3-digit country codes defined in ISO 3166, and the remaining final two digits of the issuer identifier can be defined by the national standards body of the specified country in whatever way it wishes.
Account Number
Digits 7 to (n - 1) of your credit card number are your individual account identifier. The maximum length of a credit card number is 19 digits. Since the initial 6 digits of a credit card number are the issuer identifier, and the final digit is the check digit, this means that the maximum length of the account number field is 19 - 7, or 12 digits. Each issuer therefore has a trillion (10 raised to the 12th power, or 1,000,000,000,000) possible account numbers.
If we consider the large number of potential customers and usurious interest rates charged by issuers, there is obviously a lot of money to be made in the credit card industry. In more civilized ages, people believed that usury was a grievous offense contrary to nature or a mortal sin, not an acceptable business practice (Aristotle, Politics 1.10; St. Thomas Aquinas, De Malo 13.4; Dante, Inferno 11.94-111; etc.).
Check Digit
The final digit of your credit card number is a check digit, akin to a checksum. The algorithm used to arrive at the proper check digit is called the Luhn algorithm, after IBM scientist Hans Peter Luhn (1896-1964), who was awarded US Patent 2950048 ("Computer for Verifying Numbers") for the technique in 1960. For details about Luhn's life, see
* Biography on the American Society for Information Science and Technology's Web site, at http://www.asis.org/Features/Pioneers/luhn.htm.
* Notes compiled by Susan K. Soy on "H.P. Luhn and Automatic Indexing" at http://www.gslis.utexas.edu/~ssoy/organizing/l391d2c.htm
Thanks to Aleksandar Janicijevic for directing me to information about H.P. Luhn.
The most succint description of the Luhn algorithm I have found comes from the hacker publication phrack 47-8: "For a card with an even number of digits, double every odd numbered digit and subtract 9 if the product is greater than 9. Add up all the even digits as well as the doubled-odd digits, and the result must be a multiple of 10 or it's not a valid card. If the card has an odd number of digits, perform the same addition doubling the even numbered digits instead."
The bit about even and odd is a little confusing. The main point is that you don't want to double the check digit, and this can easily be done by starting with the check digit, going backwards, and doubling every other digit. See the source code below for details.
Examples
These examples are drawn from junk mail I received from credit card issuers in August 2001. Some of this junk mail contained glossy pictures of credit cards, and the sample numbers come directly from two of these pictures.
4408 0412 3456 7890
The first credit card offer showed a picture of a card with the number 4408 0412 3456 7890.
The Major Industry Identifier (MII) is 4 (banking and financial), the issuer identifier is 440804 (a VISA partner), the account number is 123456789, and the check digit is 0.
Let's apply the Luhn check to 4408 0412 3456 7890. In the following table,
* The top row is the original number.
* In the second row, we multiply alternate digits by 2. Don't multiply the check digit by 2.
* In the third row, we force all digits to be less than 10, by subtracting 9 where necessary.
* The bottom row contains the digits to be added together.
4 4 0 8 0 4 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0
4 x 2 = 8 4 0 x 2 = 0 8 0 x 2 = 0 4 1 x 2 = 2 2 3 x 2 = 6 4 5 x 2 = 10 6 7 x 2 = 14 8 9 x 2 = 18 0
8 4 0 8 0 4 2 2 6 4 10 - 9 = 1 6 14 - 9 = 5 8 18 - 9 = 9 0
8 4 0 8 0 4 2 2 6 4 1 6 5 8 9 0
If we add all of the digits in the bottom row together, we get 67, which is not a multiple of 10, and therefore we conclude that the number 4408 0412 3456 7890 is an invalid credit card number.
By changing the check digit from 0 to 3, we arrive at the number 4408 0412 3456 7893, which does pass the Luhn check, since the sum of the digits in the bottom row would be 70, which is divisible by 10. 4408 0412 3456 7893 is, on the face of it, a valid credit card number.
4417 1234 5678 9112
The second credit card offer showed a picture of a card with the number 4417 1234 5678 9112.
The Major Industry Identifier (MII) is 4 (banking and financial), the issuer identifier is 441712 (a VISA partner), the account number is 345678911, and the check digit is 2.
Let's apply the Luhn check to 4417 1234 5678 9112, as we did in the previous example.
4 4 1 7 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 1 2
4 x 2 = 8 4 1 x 2 = 2 7 1 x 2 = 2 2 3 x 2 = 6 4 5 x 2 = 10 6 7 x 2 = 14 8 9 x 2 = 18 1 1 x 2 = 2 2
8 4 2 7 2 2 6 4 10 - 9 = 1 6 14 - 9 = 5 8 18 - 9 = 9 1 2 2
8 4 2 7 2 2 6 4 1 6 5 8 9 1 2 2
If we add all of the digits in the bottom row together, we get 69, which is not a multiple of 10, and therefore we conclude that the number 4417 1234 5678 9112 is an invalid credit card number.
By changing the check digit from 2 to 3, we arrive at the number 4417 1234 5678 9113, which does pass the Luhn check, since the sum of the digits in the bottom row would be 70, which is divisible by 10. 4417 1234 5678 9113 is, on the face of it, a valid credit card number.
Warning
These two credit card offers contained pictures with numbers which the Luhn check proved to be invalid. A change to their check digits made them ostensibly valid. But if I were you, I wouldn't try to charge anything with them.
Java Source Code
The following simple Java class is free for you to use as you wish, without any restrictions or guarantees.
//---------------------------------------------------------
// Checks for valid credit card number using Luhn algorithm
//---------------------------------------------------------
public abstract class LuhnCheck {
//--------------------------------
// Filter out non-digit characters
//--------------------------------
private static String getDigitsOnly (String s) {
StringBuffer digitsOnly = new StringBuffer ();
char c;
for (int i = 0; i < s.length (); i++) {
c = s.charAt (i);
if (Character.isDigit (c)) {
digitsOnly.append (c);
}
}
return digitsOnly.toString ();
}
//-------------------
// Perform Luhn check
//-------------------
public static boolean isValid (String cardNumber) {
String digitsOnly = getDigitsOnly (cardNumber);
int sum = 0;
int digit = 0;
int addend = 0;
boolean timesTwo = false;
for (int i = digitsOnly.length () - 1; i >= 0; i--) {
digit = Integer.parseInt (digitsOnly.substring (i, i + 1));
if (timesTwo) {
addend = digit * 2;
if (addend > 9) {
addend -= 9;
}
}
else {
addend = digit;
}
sum += addend;
timesTwo = !timesTwo;
}
int modulus = sum % 10;
return modulus == 0;
}
//-----
// Test
//-----
public static void main (String[] args) {
String cardNumber = "4408 0412 3456 7890";
boolean valid = LuhnCheck.isValid (cardNumber);
System.out.println (cardNumber + ": " + valid);
cardNumber = "4408 0412 3456 7893";
valid = LuhnCheck.isValid (cardNumber);
System.out.println (cardNumber + ": " + valid);
cardNumber = "4417 1234 5678 9112";
valid = LuhnCheck.isValid (cardNumber);
System.out.println (cardNumber + ": " + valid);
cardNumber = "4417 1234 5678 9113";
valid = LuhnCheck.isValid (cardNumber);
System.out.println (cardNumber + ": " + valid);
}
}
by Michael Gilleland, Merriam Park Software
Introduction
Major Industry Identifier
Issuer Identifier
Account Number
Check Digit
Examples
Java Source Code
Introduction
This is not an essay on credit cards per se. If that's what you're looking for, I recommend Joe Ziegler's excellent series Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Credit Cards. This essay has a narrower focus -- to explore the anatomy of your credit card number, and to provide Java source code which determines if a given credit card number might be valid.
Specifications for credit card numbering have been drawn up by the International Standards Organization (ISO/IEC 7812-1:1993) and the American National Standards Institute (ANSI X4.13). These eminent organizations refuse to make their publications freely available on-line, and so the following information on the format of credit card numbers comes largely from an Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) draft by Donald E. Eastlake 3rd, "ISO 7812/7816 Numbers and the Domain Name System (DNS)" (draft-eastlake-card-map-08, expires August 2001), available at the time of this writing at http://www.globecom.net/ietf/draft/draft-eastlake-card-map-08.html. I have not linked to this URL, because individual versions of IETF drafts are notoriously ephemeral.
Digit numbering in this essay is left to right. The "first" digit, therefore, means the leftmost digit.
Major Industry Identifier
The first digit of your credit card number is the Major Industry Identifier (MII), which represents the category of entity which issued your credit card. Different MII digits represent the following issuer categories:
MII Digit Value Issuer Category
0 ISO/TC 68 and other industry assignments
1 Airlines
2 Airlines and other industry assignments
3 Travel and entertainment
4 Banking and financial
5 Banking and financial
6 Merchandizing and banking
7 Petroleum
8 Telecommunications and other industry assignments
9 National assignment
For example, American Express, Diner's Club, and Carte Blanche are in the travel and entertainment category, VISA, MasterCard, and Discover are in the banking and financial category, and SUN Oil and Exxon are in the petroleum category.
Issuer Identifier
The first 6 digits of your credit card number (including the initial MII digit) form the issuer identifier. This means that the total number of possible issuers is a million (10 raised to the sixth power, or 1,000,000).
Some of the better known issuer identifiers are listed in the following table:
Issuer Identifier Card Number Length
Diner's Club/Carte Blanche 300xxx-305xxx,
36xxxx, 38xxxx 14
American Express 34xxxx, 37xxxx 15
VISA 4xxxxx 13, 16
MasterCard 51xxxx-55xxxx 16
Discover 6011xx 16
If the MII digit is 9, then the next three digits of the issuer identifier are the 3-digit country codes defined in ISO 3166, and the remaining final two digits of the issuer identifier can be defined by the national standards body of the specified country in whatever way it wishes.
Account Number
Digits 7 to (n - 1) of your credit card number are your individual account identifier. The maximum length of a credit card number is 19 digits. Since the initial 6 digits of a credit card number are the issuer identifier, and the final digit is the check digit, this means that the maximum length of the account number field is 19 - 7, or 12 digits. Each issuer therefore has a trillion (10 raised to the 12th power, or 1,000,000,000,000) possible account numbers.
If we consider the large number of potential customers and usurious interest rates charged by issuers, there is obviously a lot of money to be made in the credit card industry. In more civilized ages, people believed that usury was a grievous offense contrary to nature or a mortal sin, not an acceptable business practice (Aristotle, Politics 1.10; St. Thomas Aquinas, De Malo 13.4; Dante, Inferno 11.94-111; etc.).
Check Digit
The final digit of your credit card number is a check digit, akin to a checksum. The algorithm used to arrive at the proper check digit is called the Luhn algorithm, after IBM scientist Hans Peter Luhn (1896-1964), who was awarded US Patent 2950048 ("Computer for Verifying Numbers") for the technique in 1960. For details about Luhn's life, see
* Biography on the American Society for Information Science and Technology's Web site, at http://www.asis.org/Features/Pioneers/luhn.htm.
* Notes compiled by Susan K. Soy on "H.P. Luhn and Automatic Indexing" at http://www.gslis.utexas.edu/~ssoy/organizing/l391d2c.htm
Thanks to Aleksandar Janicijevic for directing me to information about H.P. Luhn.
The most succint description of the Luhn algorithm I have found comes from the hacker publication phrack 47-8: "For a card with an even number of digits, double every odd numbered digit and subtract 9 if the product is greater than 9. Add up all the even digits as well as the doubled-odd digits, and the result must be a multiple of 10 or it's not a valid card. If the card has an odd number of digits, perform the same addition doubling the even numbered digits instead."
The bit about even and odd is a little confusing. The main point is that you don't want to double the check digit, and this can easily be done by starting with the check digit, going backwards, and doubling every other digit. See the source code below for details.
Examples
These examples are drawn from junk mail I received from credit card issuers in August 2001. Some of this junk mail contained glossy pictures of credit cards, and the sample numbers come directly from two of these pictures.
4408 0412 3456 7890
The first credit card offer showed a picture of a card with the number 4408 0412 3456 7890.
The Major Industry Identifier (MII) is 4 (banking and financial), the issuer identifier is 440804 (a VISA partner), the account number is 123456789, and the check digit is 0.
Let's apply the Luhn check to 4408 0412 3456 7890. In the following table,
* The top row is the original number.
* In the second row, we multiply alternate digits by 2. Don't multiply the check digit by 2.
* In the third row, we force all digits to be less than 10, by subtracting 9 where necessary.
* The bottom row contains the digits to be added together.
4 4 0 8 0 4 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0
4 x 2 = 8 4 0 x 2 = 0 8 0 x 2 = 0 4 1 x 2 = 2 2 3 x 2 = 6 4 5 x 2 = 10 6 7 x 2 = 14 8 9 x 2 = 18 0
8 4 0 8 0 4 2 2 6 4 10 - 9 = 1 6 14 - 9 = 5 8 18 - 9 = 9 0
8 4 0 8 0 4 2 2 6 4 1 6 5 8 9 0
If we add all of the digits in the bottom row together, we get 67, which is not a multiple of 10, and therefore we conclude that the number 4408 0412 3456 7890 is an invalid credit card number.
By changing the check digit from 0 to 3, we arrive at the number 4408 0412 3456 7893, which does pass the Luhn check, since the sum of the digits in the bottom row would be 70, which is divisible by 10. 4408 0412 3456 7893 is, on the face of it, a valid credit card number.
4417 1234 5678 9112
The second credit card offer showed a picture of a card with the number 4417 1234 5678 9112.
The Major Industry Identifier (MII) is 4 (banking and financial), the issuer identifier is 441712 (a VISA partner), the account number is 345678911, and the check digit is 2.
Let's apply the Luhn check to 4417 1234 5678 9112, as we did in the previous example.
4 4 1 7 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 1 2
4 x 2 = 8 4 1 x 2 = 2 7 1 x 2 = 2 2 3 x 2 = 6 4 5 x 2 = 10 6 7 x 2 = 14 8 9 x 2 = 18 1 1 x 2 = 2 2
8 4 2 7 2 2 6 4 10 - 9 = 1 6 14 - 9 = 5 8 18 - 9 = 9 1 2 2
8 4 2 7 2 2 6 4 1 6 5 8 9 1 2 2
If we add all of the digits in the bottom row together, we get 69, which is not a multiple of 10, and therefore we conclude that the number 4417 1234 5678 9112 is an invalid credit card number.
By changing the check digit from 2 to 3, we arrive at the number 4417 1234 5678 9113, which does pass the Luhn check, since the sum of the digits in the bottom row would be 70, which is divisible by 10. 4417 1234 5678 9113 is, on the face of it, a valid credit card number.
Warning
These two credit card offers contained pictures with numbers which the Luhn check proved to be invalid. A change to their check digits made them ostensibly valid. But if I were you, I wouldn't try to charge anything with them.
Java Source Code
The following simple Java class is free for you to use as you wish, without any restrictions or guarantees.
//---------------------------------------------------------
// Checks for valid credit card number using Luhn algorithm
//---------------------------------------------------------
public abstract class LuhnCheck {
//--------------------------------
// Filter out non-digit characters
//--------------------------------
private static String getDigitsOnly (String s) {
StringBuffer digitsOnly = new StringBuffer ();
char c;
for (int i = 0; i < s.length (); i++) {
c = s.charAt (i);
if (Character.isDigit (c)) {
digitsOnly.append (c);
}
}
return digitsOnly.toString ();
}
//-------------------
// Perform Luhn check
//-------------------
public static boolean isValid (String cardNumber) {
String digitsOnly = getDigitsOnly (cardNumber);
int sum = 0;
int digit = 0;
int addend = 0;
boolean timesTwo = false;
for (int i = digitsOnly.length () - 1; i >= 0; i--) {
digit = Integer.parseInt (digitsOnly.substring (i, i + 1));
if (timesTwo) {
addend = digit * 2;
if (addend > 9) {
addend -= 9;
}
}
else {
addend = digit;
}
sum += addend;
timesTwo = !timesTwo;
}
int modulus = sum % 10;
return modulus == 0;
}
//-----
// Test
//-----
public static void main (String[] args) {
String cardNumber = "4408 0412 3456 7890";
boolean valid = LuhnCheck.isValid (cardNumber);
System.out.println (cardNumber + ": " + valid);
cardNumber = "4408 0412 3456 7893";
valid = LuhnCheck.isValid (cardNumber);
System.out.println (cardNumber + ": " + valid);
cardNumber = "4417 1234 5678 9112";
valid = LuhnCheck.isValid (cardNumber);
System.out.println (cardNumber + ": " + valid);
cardNumber = "4417 1234 5678 9113";
valid = LuhnCheck.isValid (cardNumber);
System.out.println (cardNumber + ": " + valid);
}
}
Wednesday, March 09, 2005
From Proverbial Wife
Fresh from the Mind of God
When I look at her and touch her and smell her, I breathe His presence, so sweet and subtle. She began as His thought, conceived in perfect love and painstakingly let go into a fallen world. In her purity, I find traces of Eden, of humanity as God intended, but her fragility reminds me of how easily we were, are, broken.
Yet the Creator goes on creating, knowing some will seek Him out to find wholeness, while most will be in eternal bondage to the original sin of pride, bandaging themselves and hobbling along until their days are finally, mercifully, ended. They will have exchanged the intangible truth for the material lie, transcendance for mere existence, and a relationship with the One who thought them into being for the meaningless companionship of self.
Oh, little one, so fresh from the mind of God, the most untainted of His creation, yet already flawed by your very nature, you are a precious glimpse into the divine. To have carried you inside my body, to nourish you now from my flesh--such is the design of the nurturing Father who made you--I am blessed beyond my own understanding. May you always see Him as clearly as I see Him in you.
When I look at her and touch her and smell her, I breathe His presence, so sweet and subtle. She began as His thought, conceived in perfect love and painstakingly let go into a fallen world. In her purity, I find traces of Eden, of humanity as God intended, but her fragility reminds me of how easily we were, are, broken.
Yet the Creator goes on creating, knowing some will seek Him out to find wholeness, while most will be in eternal bondage to the original sin of pride, bandaging themselves and hobbling along until their days are finally, mercifully, ended. They will have exchanged the intangible truth for the material lie, transcendance for mere existence, and a relationship with the One who thought them into being for the meaningless companionship of self.
Oh, little one, so fresh from the mind of God, the most untainted of His creation, yet already flawed by your very nature, you are a precious glimpse into the divine. To have carried you inside my body, to nourish you now from my flesh--such is the design of the nurturing Father who made you--I am blessed beyond my own understanding. May you always see Him as clearly as I see Him in you.
From Proverbial Wife
Fresh from the Mind of God
When I look at her and touch her and smell her, I breathe His presence, so sweet and subtle. She began as His thought, conceived in perfect love and painstakingly let go into a fallen world. In her purity, I find traces of Eden, of humanity as God intended, but her fragility reminds me of how easily we were, are, broken.
Yet the Creator goes on creating, knowing some will seek Him out to find wholeness, while most will be in eternal bondage to the original sin of pride, bandaging themselves and hobbling along until their days are finally, mercifully, ended. They will have exchanged the intangible truth for the material lie, transcendance for mere existence, and a relationship with the One who thought them into being for the meaningless companionship of self.
Oh, little one, so fresh from the mind of God, the most untainted of His creation, yet already flawed by your very nature, you are a precious glimpse into the divine. To have carried you inside my body, to nourish you now from my flesh--such is the design of the nurturing Father who made you--I am blessed beyond my own understanding. May you always see Him as clearly as I see Him in you.
When I look at her and touch her and smell her, I breathe His presence, so sweet and subtle. She began as His thought, conceived in perfect love and painstakingly let go into a fallen world. In her purity, I find traces of Eden, of humanity as God intended, but her fragility reminds me of how easily we were, are, broken.
Yet the Creator goes on creating, knowing some will seek Him out to find wholeness, while most will be in eternal bondage to the original sin of pride, bandaging themselves and hobbling along until their days are finally, mercifully, ended. They will have exchanged the intangible truth for the material lie, transcendance for mere existence, and a relationship with the One who thought them into being for the meaningless companionship of self.
Oh, little one, so fresh from the mind of God, the most untainted of His creation, yet already flawed by your very nature, you are a precious glimpse into the divine. To have carried you inside my body, to nourish you now from my flesh--such is the design of the nurturing Father who made you--I am blessed beyond my own understanding. May you always see Him as clearly as I see Him in you.
Monday, March 07, 2005
Tuesday, March 01, 2005
Everything I Know Is Wrong: Solar Flare Blamed for Arctic Ozone Loss
Everything I Know Is Wrong: Solar Flare Blamed for Arctic Ozone Loss: "March 01, 2005
Solar Flare Blamed for Arctic Ozone Loss
'Scientists,' as the press almost universally labels anonymous theoreticians, have discovered that the 60% reduction in Arctic ozone was mostly due to the largest solar flares ever recorded.
Sun's Temper Blamed for Arctic Ozone Loss
Charged particles from the storms triggered chemical reactions that increased the formation of extra nitrogen in the upper stratosphere, some 20 miles up. Nitrogen levels climbed to their highest in at least two decades.
A massive low-pressure system that confines air over the Arctic then conspired to deplete ozone.
Upper-atmosphere winds associated with the system, called the polar stratospheric vortex, sped up in February and March of 2004 to the fastest speeds ever recorded, the new study found. The spinning vortex allowed nitrogen gas to sink from the high stratosphere, some 20 miles up, to lower altitudes.
The nitrogen gas is known to destroy ozone.
'This decline was completely unexpected,' said Cora Randall, a physicist at the University of Colorado, Boulder who led the study. 'The findings point out a critical need to better understand the processes occurring in the ozone layer.'
Aaaugh! Even though they admit to complete surprise over the results of these completely natural phenomena in the Northern Hemisphere, they purport to know the exact cause of a similar thinning of the ozone layer in the Southern Hemisphere.
The upper-level ozone layer has thinned dramatically in the Southern Hemisphere in recent decades, creating a dangerous hole through which UV rays stream. The decline is due largely to man-made chlorofluorocarbons released into the atmosphere.
If the reader is not confused enough by one flip in logic, fear not--they flop right back again.
The new study suggests a better understanding is needed of how the Sun itself alters the ozone layer.
'No one predicted the dramatic loss of ozone in the upper stratosphere of the Northern Hemisphere in the spring of 2004,' Randall said. 'That we can still be surprised illustrates the difficulties in separating atmospheric effects due to natural and human-induced causes.'
Advice to scientists: When you don't know say, 'I don't know.'"
Solar Flare Blamed for Arctic Ozone Loss
'Scientists,' as the press almost universally labels anonymous theoreticians, have discovered that the 60% reduction in Arctic ozone was mostly due to the largest solar flares ever recorded.
Sun's Temper Blamed for Arctic Ozone Loss
Charged particles from the storms triggered chemical reactions that increased the formation of extra nitrogen in the upper stratosphere, some 20 miles up. Nitrogen levels climbed to their highest in at least two decades.
A massive low-pressure system that confines air over the Arctic then conspired to deplete ozone.
Upper-atmosphere winds associated with the system, called the polar stratospheric vortex, sped up in February and March of 2004 to the fastest speeds ever recorded, the new study found. The spinning vortex allowed nitrogen gas to sink from the high stratosphere, some 20 miles up, to lower altitudes.
The nitrogen gas is known to destroy ozone.
'This decline was completely unexpected,' said Cora Randall, a physicist at the University of Colorado, Boulder who led the study. 'The findings point out a critical need to better understand the processes occurring in the ozone layer.'
Aaaugh! Even though they admit to complete surprise over the results of these completely natural phenomena in the Northern Hemisphere, they purport to know the exact cause of a similar thinning of the ozone layer in the Southern Hemisphere.
The upper-level ozone layer has thinned dramatically in the Southern Hemisphere in recent decades, creating a dangerous hole through which UV rays stream. The decline is due largely to man-made chlorofluorocarbons released into the atmosphere.
If the reader is not confused enough by one flip in logic, fear not--they flop right back again.
The new study suggests a better understanding is needed of how the Sun itself alters the ozone layer.
'No one predicted the dramatic loss of ozone in the upper stratosphere of the Northern Hemisphere in the spring of 2004,' Randall said. 'That we can still be surprised illustrates the difficulties in separating atmospheric effects due to natural and human-induced causes.'
Advice to scientists: When you don't know say, 'I don't know.'"
Saturday, February 26, 2005
Airborne Combat Engineer: The Freshour Pauza Semi-Auto .50 BMG
Airborne Combat Engineer: The Freshour Pauza Semi-Auto .50 BMG: "Saturday, 26 February 2005
The Freshour Pauza Semi-Auto .50 BMG
This 'P-50' semi-auto .50 BMG was designed by Robert Pauza and is sold (with rifle or carbine length barrel) by Freshour Manufacturing (Ron Freshour, CEO) in Texas City, Texas.
You'll find a couple of short video clips of it being fired from the prone position and off the hip at the Freshour site."
The Freshour Pauza Semi-Auto .50 BMG
This 'P-50' semi-auto .50 BMG was designed by Robert Pauza and is sold (with rifle or carbine length barrel) by Freshour Manufacturing (Ron Freshour, CEO) in Texas City, Texas.
You'll find a couple of short video clips of it being fired from the prone position and off the hip at the Freshour site."
Belmont Club More on W Churchill
Belmont ClubThe Cancer Ward
Hat tip to Michelle Malkin for linking to an Inside Denver article on Ward Churchill which catalogues the lengthy history of his denunciation by bona-fide Indians before Colorado University. His accusers include his ex-inlaws. Some excerpts:
David Bradley, a Santa Fe-area American Indian artist whose feud with Churchill has endured more than a decade, says he told CU a long time ago that Churchill should be fired. ...
Vernon Bellecourt, an American Indian Movement activist, says he first approached the university with questions about the veracity of Churchill's claim to American Indian heritage in 1986. "We went out there with a stack of documents to tell them about him," Bellecourt said. "I made a special trip to Colorado and went to the university.
"We told the university he wasn't Indian and was disruptive in the community," said Carole Standing Elk, a California Indian activist. "We said, 'He doesn't represent us, and how did you put him in the ethnic studies department?' "
"I sent a letter to the university in 1992 saying he's not a native person," said Suzan Shown Harjo, president of the Morning Star Institute. She says she received a response from a university official saying Churchill had not been hired because he was an American Indian.
Bradley, a Chippewa, said there are several reasons he and Churchill clashed. ... In 1994, Bradley contacted CU, lodging his complaint with Evelyn Hu-De-Hart, then director for CU's Center for Studies of Ethnicity and Race in America. ...
Rhonda Kelly, 41, of Winnipeg, the older sister of Churchill's deceased third wife, Leah Renae Kelly, also contacted CU. ... Churchill later published a book of Kelly's writings, In My Own Voice. In a lengthy preface, he contended that the American Indian woman's alcoholism and other personal troubles could be traced ... Rhonda Kelly, a second-year law student, has produced a 15-point brief of inaccuracies she said she has found in Churchill's preface. She has asked the book's publisher to remove it from circulation, and to ask a man writing a screenplay based on the book to desist. ... He said his wife was a victim of acute alcoholism and that he "fought a long and lonely battle to save her." ... Churchill, in the wake of Leah Kelly's death, established a fund at CU for Rhonda Kelly's two children and contributed $200. ... "My sister Leah Renae Kelly had so much promise, but ... she instead turned to alcohol to escape the torment and humiliation in her marital home."
Controversy, or perhaps more accurately, acrimony, has been on Churchill like a cheap suit from the git-go. At least some of the accusations leveled against him received official cognizance from the University, which used the equal opportunity argument as a justification for retaining him, whatever he was and whatever he claimed to be.
"However, given the fact that equal opportunity is the law of the land and that positions in the public sector are to be awarded to all persons regardless of race, color, religion, sex or national origin, and based only on their ability to do the job, the university does not believe that any attempt to remove Mr. Churchill because of his ethnicity or race would be appropriate. Even if Mr. Churchill is not an American Indian, as he claims, Title VII protects Caucasians as well as persons of color. Further, it has always been university policy that a person's race or ethnicity is self-proving. ... observation and self-identification are the most reliable indicators of one's racial grouping."
But allowing a person to adopt any race that he chooses makes a nonsense of racial preferences. There is an inner and inescapable logical contradiction between adopting a policy based on racial diversity and then making race, in turn, a dependent on some other variable. By transitivity, the policy based on 'racial diversity' would really be driven by this hidden variable, which is a function of 'consciousness'. In other words, 'racial diversity' becomes a dummy for ideological quotas. In plain English: "all your base are belong to us".
posted by wretchard at 2:03 AM
Hat tip to Michelle Malkin for linking to an Inside Denver article on Ward Churchill which catalogues the lengthy history of his denunciation by bona-fide Indians before Colorado University. His accusers include his ex-inlaws. Some excerpts:
David Bradley, a Santa Fe-area American Indian artist whose feud with Churchill has endured more than a decade, says he told CU a long time ago that Churchill should be fired. ...
Vernon Bellecourt, an American Indian Movement activist, says he first approached the university with questions about the veracity of Churchill's claim to American Indian heritage in 1986. "We went out there with a stack of documents to tell them about him," Bellecourt said. "I made a special trip to Colorado and went to the university.
"We told the university he wasn't Indian and was disruptive in the community," said Carole Standing Elk, a California Indian activist. "We said, 'He doesn't represent us, and how did you put him in the ethnic studies department?' "
"I sent a letter to the university in 1992 saying he's not a native person," said Suzan Shown Harjo, president of the Morning Star Institute. She says she received a response from a university official saying Churchill had not been hired because he was an American Indian.
Bradley, a Chippewa, said there are several reasons he and Churchill clashed. ... In 1994, Bradley contacted CU, lodging his complaint with Evelyn Hu-De-Hart, then director for CU's Center for Studies of Ethnicity and Race in America. ...
Rhonda Kelly, 41, of Winnipeg, the older sister of Churchill's deceased third wife, Leah Renae Kelly, also contacted CU. ... Churchill later published a book of Kelly's writings, In My Own Voice. In a lengthy preface, he contended that the American Indian woman's alcoholism and other personal troubles could be traced ... Rhonda Kelly, a second-year law student, has produced a 15-point brief of inaccuracies she said she has found in Churchill's preface. She has asked the book's publisher to remove it from circulation, and to ask a man writing a screenplay based on the book to desist. ... He said his wife was a victim of acute alcoholism and that he "fought a long and lonely battle to save her." ... Churchill, in the wake of Leah Kelly's death, established a fund at CU for Rhonda Kelly's two children and contributed $200. ... "My sister Leah Renae Kelly had so much promise, but ... she instead turned to alcohol to escape the torment and humiliation in her marital home."
Controversy, or perhaps more accurately, acrimony, has been on Churchill like a cheap suit from the git-go. At least some of the accusations leveled against him received official cognizance from the University, which used the equal opportunity argument as a justification for retaining him, whatever he was and whatever he claimed to be.
"However, given the fact that equal opportunity is the law of the land and that positions in the public sector are to be awarded to all persons regardless of race, color, religion, sex or national origin, and based only on their ability to do the job, the university does not believe that any attempt to remove Mr. Churchill because of his ethnicity or race would be appropriate. Even if Mr. Churchill is not an American Indian, as he claims, Title VII protects Caucasians as well as persons of color. Further, it has always been university policy that a person's race or ethnicity is self-proving. ... observation and self-identification are the most reliable indicators of one's racial grouping."
But allowing a person to adopt any race that he chooses makes a nonsense of racial preferences. There is an inner and inescapable logical contradiction between adopting a policy based on racial diversity and then making race, in turn, a dependent on some other variable. By transitivity, the policy based on 'racial diversity' would really be driven by this hidden variable, which is a function of 'consciousness'. In other words, 'racial diversity' becomes a dummy for ideological quotas. In plain English: "all your base are belong to us".
posted by wretchard at 2:03 AM
Friday, February 25, 2005
HOW-TO: Get videos and DVDs
HOW-TO: Get videos and DVDs onto your Sony PlayStation Portable (PSP) for free - Engadget - www.engadget.com: "HOW-TO: Get videos and DVDs onto your Sony PlayStation Portable (PSP) for free"
DeepBurner - Powerful CD and DVD burning package// Freeware
DeepBurner - Powerful CD and DVD burning package: "DeepBurner - Powerful CD and DVD Burning Packageorganizer
DeepBurner is an advanced and powerful CD and DVD burning package that utilizes power and efficiency. It takes away the hassle of making CDs, DVDs, autoruns, creating and printing labels and booklets. The program supports a very wide range of internal and external (USB 2.0 and FireWire) CD and DVD writers. Burn any data, copy discs, make backups, burn astonishing photo cd albums, make ISO CDs and Video DVDs with just one easy to handle software- DeepBurner."
DeepBurner is an advanced and powerful CD and DVD burning package that utilizes power and efficiency. It takes away the hassle of making CDs, DVDs, autoruns, creating and printing labels and booklets. The program supports a very wide range of internal and external (USB 2.0 and FireWire) CD and DVD writers. Burn any data, copy discs, make backups, burn astonishing photo cd albums, make ISO CDs and Video DVDs with just one easy to handle software- DeepBurner."
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