Final (? :) Update, Sun. May 27: see Way Below.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *
With the official tally just underway on the customary & commendable Irishtime schedule :) following yesterday’s Poblacht na hÉireann general election, the results are in for the punters:

The race to be the next Taoiseach is all over according to Paddy Power bookies, which has announced it is paying out on Bertie Ahern to fill the post.

The bookmaker’s Call is of course based on the Latest blight to arrive in Ireland from abroad: the Exit Poll ;> ~

Political parties are studying the results of an RTÉ exit poll which suggests that Fianna Fáil will win almost exactly the same share of the vote as in 2002, but that Fine Gael will increase its vote by around 4%.

The poll, carried out by Lansdowne Market Research, shows decreases in support for Labour and the PDs, while the Greens and Sinn Féin will be disappointed not to have made a major breakthrough.

The process of counting votes in the General Election is under way at 43 constituencies. Early tallies which are a strong indication of trends will be available by mid-morning.

First results are expected by mid-afternoon.

Whole thing. The polling is re First Preference votes only. Under Ireland’s very excellent :) Single Transferable Vote system, the “transfer votes” ~ occurring when your 1st Choice is eliminated and your Lesser ballot ranking(s) are added to a Survivor’s total in subsequent count(s) ~ can have a big impact on the final results.

Here’s a BBC take; and a couple of other BBC pieces, on life astride the Celtic Tiger in the little land that has become the Envy of all Europe :).

PM Ahern, by the way, despite his major role in Prodding & Cajoling them into making Peace & joining Government in the Six Counties, says his Fianna Fáil will not Coalesce with Sinn Féin in governance of the Republic.

For those who wish to join me in breathlessly following the returns as they creep in :) here’s the Radio Telefís Éireann election 2007 main page.

UPDATE 3:45 p.m. EDT: Taoiseach Bertie Ahern looks on pace for a 3rd term, though the identity of Fianna Fáil’s prospective coalition partner(s) is less clear. Here’s an auto-updating summary of the declared national results.

Also quite significantly, the Toilets are open again at the vote-counting centre for the Wicklow district:

…However due to a scare over water contamination, there is no drinking water available…

It was understood a tanker was en route to provide drinking water…

Drinking? Water? Shudder… :)

UPDATE 2, 1:00 a.m. EDT: With counting complete in 34 of the 43 constituencies, for 145 out of the 166 Dáil seats, Bertie Ahern’s Fianna Fáil (translation, Soldiers of Destiny :) has taken 72, to a combined total of 73 for all other parties and independents. / The Transfer votes in the 21 seats remaining Undeclared will tell the Tale.

UPDATE 3, Sun. May 27 4:30 a.m. EDT:

With all 166 seats Declared, Fianna Fáil wins 78 to an aggregate 88 for all others. Breakdown:

Fianna Fáil 78
Fine Gael 51
Labour 20
Progressive Democrats 2
Green Party 6
Sinn Féin 4
Others 5

Bertie Ahern is now Cogitating over with Whom to coalesce for to Get to Eighty-Four and a Government. / Evidently it can’t be #2 Fine Gael (which made a Big comeback in this election), since they are the core of the present-day center-left Opposition and (oddly) also the political descendant of the ancestral Pro-Partition Foe in the unCivil-War Troubles of the 1920’s. / And apparently, as well as somewhat Paradoxically, the hard-socialist Sinn Féin (whose showing was distinctly Disappointing) can’t be a Partner either, since Bertie has ruled that option Out despite his Coaxing & Bullying of SF into Participation in Peaceful nonParamilitary Politics in the North. / But, it seems, all Other options are on the Table in The Repooblich. :>

49 to 46, with 34 Abstentions:

Alex Salmond has made political history after becoming the first Nationalist to be elected first minister of Scotland.

The SNP leader was voted into office in parliament by 49 votes to 46, after he was supported by the Greens. The Lib Dems and the Conservatives abstained.

Mr Salmond will head the first minority administration since devolution, saying he would seek parliament’s approval “policy by policy”.

…The Scottish Parliament election almost two weeks ago saw the SNP win 47 seats, just one ahead of Scottish Labour, while the Scots Liberal Democrats were left with 16.

The Scottish Conservatives have 17 MSPs, although one of their number, Alex Fergusson, has taken up the politically neutral job of presiding officer.

The Scottish Greens have two MSPs and the colourful Independent Margo MacDonald, who abstained from the first minister vote altogether, was also re-elected.

Mr Salmond was voted first minister after seeing off a final challenge from Scottish Labour leader Jack McConnell.

He became the first Nationalist to win power in the party’s 73-year history.

His election was greeted with applause and cheering in the Scottish Parliament chamber.

…”I believe Scotland is ready for change, ready for reform,” he told MSPs

Mr McConnell, the former first minister, congratulated Mr Salmond on his victory and said he would be proud to lead the largest opposition party the Scottish Parliament has ever had.

…”Voltaire once said that governments need both shepherds and butchers and I think Alex may need to be more of a shepherd than a butcher in his new role, looking around this flock here and trying to secure majorities for his policies,” said Mr McConnell.

Read the whole bloody lot :). Oddly enough, though the Paper-thin-Plurality ScotNats now Lead their devolved government whilst the plainly second-Place Northern Ireland republicans play [appropriately] 2nd Fiddle :) in Theirs, it seems that the Northeast Ulster rebels may be Chronologically closer to their goal of a united Ireland than the Highlands & Islands folk are to theirs of an independent Scotland. / Go figure, Angus. :)

* * * * * * * * * *
In Other UK news, looks like GordonBrown has a Labour Lock on 10 Downing come 27 June; and seems Prince Harry will not be deployed to Iraq after all. Now why couldn’t they have just Announced that in the First place? Bloody ‘ell. Get ye the Sons your Fathers got, and God will save the Queen. (Apologies to A.E. Housman :)

And what sweet Doves, their hour come ’round at last,
Flutter toward Belfast to be born?

{ ~ with Deepest apologies to W.B. Yeats :}

It being the day some swore they would never See, the Democratic Unionist Party-Sinn Fein coalition government has quietly & politely taken office :

Northern Ireland’s major Protestant and Catholic parties joined together Tuesday to form a power-sharing government, marking a “new era of politics” and an end to three decades of sectarian conflict in the province.

Protestant Democratic Unionist Party leader Ian Paisley was sworn in as the Northern Ireland assembly’s first minister and key player Martin McGuinness of Sinn Fein will take on the role of deputy first minister.

…Paisley, 80, and McGuinness, 56, arrived within minutes of each other Tuesday morning and both set an optimistic tone.

“It is a special day because we’re making a new beginning,” Paisley said. “I believe we’re starting on a road which will bring us back to peace and to prosperity.”

Paisley’s deputy McGuinness, said he was “increasingly confident” that the new government would work, saying it was a “good day.”

“The happenings here today are surely going to represent a fundamental change of approach with parties moving forward together to build a better future for the people that we represent,” he said.

(Tony Blair & Bertie Ahern, proud parents of born-again Fraternal twins Ian & Martin, looked on, beaming. :)

…Dr. Brendan O’Duffy, a senior lecturer with Queen Mary University in London, told CNN there was still a threat of political gridlock and a lot of work to do looking forward. But goodwill between the players and the “delicate power sharing” would allow people to “clash constitutionally instead of violently,” he said.

Read the whole miraculous thing. And here’s to the grand Orange & Green Coalition. May all Good luck and Wisdom attend* their deliberations.

(*Also may I occasionally, disguised as the proverbial Fly on the Wall. Ohhh the backroom Meetings are goin’ to be Fierce. ;)

A.P. ~

PARIS — Nicolas Sarkozy, a blunt and uncompromising pro-American conservative, was elected president of France Sunday with a mandate to chart a new course for an economically sluggish nation struggling to incorporate immigrants and their children.

Sarkozy defeated Socialist Ségolène Royal by 53-47 percent with 85 percent turnout, according to near-total results. It was a decisive victory for Sarkozy’s vision of freer markets and toughness on crime and immigration, over Royal’s gentler plan for preserving cherished welfare protections, including a 35-hour work week that Sarkozy called “absurd.”

“The people of France have chosen change,” Sarkozy told cheering supporters in a victory speech that sketched out a stronger global role for France and renewed partnership with the United States.

…Royal’s program seemed more in line with the policies pursued under the outgoing Jacques Chirac — who is from Sarkozy’s own party, the Union for a Popular Movement. Chirac, 74, held the presidency for 12 years but failed repeatedly to push through reforms.

…Royal, an unmarried mother of four, would have been France’s first female president. Her defeat could throw her party into disarray, with splits between those who say it must remain firm to its leftist traditions and others who want a shift to the political center like socialist parties elsewhere in Europe.

Il faut tout lire (Translatory hat-tip: Leanna Loomer :).

PS (Dept. of Fair Warnings :) ~ Next up: Eire, May 24. / Seems there’s somesort of a McKerfuffle :> over Bertie’s personal Finances. Picky, picky :). Ohhh it’s goin’ to be Fierce ;].

But, Mousie, thou art no thy lane,
In proving foresight may be vain;
The best-laid schemes o’ mice an ‘men
Gang aft agley,
An’lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain,
For promis’d joy!
~ Robert Burns, “To A Mouse”

The Electoral Commission said it had begun “with immediate effect” an investigation into the Holyrood election voting chaos.

The polls have been hit by major problems with seven counts suspended and up to 100,000 ballot papers spoilt.

The Scotland Office said “serious technical failures” had delayed the announcement of some results.

Confusion about how to fill in ballot papers and problems with postal votes have also been blamed for the problems.

…Concerns have been raised about the decision to stage the Scottish Parliament and the local authority elections on the same day.

Voters were presented with two ballot papers and different voting systems.

The local authority ballot used the new Single Transferable Vote system.

…During his acceptance speech as the new MSP for the Gordon constituency, SNP leader Alex Salmond criticised the voting arrangements and also earlier problems with postal voting.

He said: “The postal voting arrangements for this election across Scotland were totally inadequate.

“It is also the case that the decision to conduct an STV election at the same time as a first-past-the-post ballot for the Scottish Parliament was deeply mistaken.

“As a direct result, tens of thousands of votes across Scotland have been discounted. That is totally unacceptable in a democratic society.”

Of course what we Have here (primarily) is: Voter Error. Exacerbated by an unfamiliar, and bifurcated, new balloting system. I.e., forget Birnam wood: ’tis Palm Beach County come to Dunsinane :}. Naturally the always-heroic election officials :> tried to Warn the Politicoes ahead of time, telling them ‘You know, there are ways you can Mitigate some of these predictable problems.’ But No. ;]

In a Presumably unrelated (??? :) election glitch, a disgruntled voter in Edinburgh bashed the ballot boxes with a Golf club and Ripped up the Voting Papers, causing “absolute bedlam” amid “scenes of terror”. (Actually, it occurs to me that if a few Palm Beach County oldsters had Protested at the Polls that way early on Election Day 2000, Al Gore might be President today. :)

More after the jump…

(more…)

In these Troubled Times, a little Nerding Out on Elections stuff always cheers me up :).

Accordingly, in sharply Ascending order of Significance :} ~

1. FRANCE will have a May 6 presidential Runoff, between a Rightie law-and-order champion nicknamed “Sarko”, and a Leftie lady named Ségolène who, in the Unlikely event that she wins, would be the nation’s first female president. / Ol’ Jacques Whatsisname is retiring. :)

2. THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA will see an electionprocess Meltdown starting next February, if State Election Officials fail in their heroic effort to halt HAVA Act II ~ aka, Congress’s pell-mell rush to mandate Paper Trails To You (well, at least until they Meet Again :), because now they don’t trust the Computers which they had mandated in HAVA I so that the paper-punchcard-plagued 2000 could Never Happen Again.

3. NIGERIA’s April 21 election was a shameful Farce, both reflecting & exacerbating a continent-wide popular disillusionment with the functioning of African “democracy”.

AND, Lastly & most Importantly :) ~ even as Northern Ireland’s Brits-Out party, Sinn Fein, prepares to share power with the Unionists beginning May 8 ~

4. SCOTLAND holds an election May 3 for its devolved Parliament at Holyrood and the pro-independence Scottish National Party looks a good bet to Win!

From “The Scotsman”:

…With the election result expected to be extremely close and with only a tiny number of seats likely to separate Labour and the SNP, party managers know that their efforts in key swing seats between now and polling day could make the difference between victory and disaster.

…The Nationalists…used an interview with their most famous supporter, Sir Sean Connery, to launch an internet television station, SNPtv. Mr Salmond [the party leader] said: “These endorsements give us real momentum as we enter the final stages of this campaign. The SNP is moving forward, while Labour are stuck in a disastrous, negative campaign.”

…It is understood Labour’s internal polling shows its vote is hardening up in its traditional strongholds of west Scotland but there are potentially serious problems in parts of central Scotland and Fife.

The aim of the new phase of the Labour campaign is to shore up the Labour vote in these marginal areas, where all the main parties now agree the election will be won and lost…

I know you’ll all join me in watching the outcome with keen excitement a week from Thursday :).

(Footnote ~ not Altogether unrelatedly, in the Metaphorical sense at least, to a fiercely-fought Scottish election campaign: there’s a big Investigation of the recent unfortunate Spillover of more than 100 million litres of Effluent into the Firth of Forth. / Perhaps the probe will prove that the Party Platforms [colloquially called, Manifestoes ;] were just incapable of Containing it all. :)

PS: while I’m At It, here ~ gleefully anticipating the coming deconstruction of the United Kingdom via the Peaceful Politics of the Celts, that is :> ~ I might as well Throw in the Welsh branch of the operation for ye.

PPS: Hallooooo, Alasdair! :)

PPPS: Do understand, my apparent Britbashing is but a Pose. / Well. Mostly. :) Iow any Kingdom, however disunited ;}, whose national News service is still able to drily report, with nary a typographical Wink, that a chap who strolled into a London eatery and there proceeded to Detach his penis with a borrowed Kitchenknife, “was not thought to have any connection with the restaurant“, is Jolly Good by Me. No Connection with the restaurant, to be Sure. Thenkyewveddymuch, indeed. ;).

And speaking of Eastertide Offenses :} … stopped for running a red light, apparently the dude Forgot where he’d Put his Paperwork, maaan :> and this led, indirectly, to discovery of the Weed inside the Wabbit… ;>

In their first-time-ever official, nonaccidental Meeting,

…Ian Paisley and Gerry Adams, sitting side by side for their first news conference in Stormont, confirmed that power-sharing would begin on 8 May.

Mr Paisley said the DUP was committed to full participation in government and Mr Adams said it was a “new era”.

…The British and Irish governments had said they would shut the assembly if an executive was not agreed on Monday.

Emergency legislation will now be rushed through Parliament on Tuesday to give effect to the 8 May power-sharing deal.

Mr Adams - wearing his Easter lily to commemorate those who died in the 1916 rebellion - and Mr Paisley were sitting at one corner of a table at Stormont.

[Guestblogger’s note: at far right in that linked photo is First Minister-presumptive Paisley’s probable Deputy First Minister, Martin McGuinness, former member of the IRA Army Council high command. Oh wouldn’t I love to be a fly on the wall at the upcoming governmental Meetings :]

…Prime Minister Tony Blair said it was “a very important day for the people of Northern Ireland, but also for the people and the history of these islands”.

“Everything we have done over the last ten years has been a preparation for this moment.”

Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern said this had “the potential to transform the future of this island”.

…In the assembly election earlier this month, the DUP and Sinn Fein emerged as the two largest parties.

…The Northern Ireland Assembly has been suspended since October 2002, amid allegations of an IRA spy ring at Stormont.

A subsequent court case collapsed. Direct rule has been in place since that date.

Read the rest. Also, here are Paisley’s statement, and Adams’s. (Both remarkably sparing of the customary partisan/sectarian bombast.)

Good job, boys. / Now hold fast to that spirit.

UPDATE: Here’s a good BBC wrap-up re the Significance of the day’s events. Money quotes:

…Such was the symbolic power of it all that the image of Gerry Adams and Ian Paisley side by side at the conference table will surely come in future as the image that defines the peace process.

… Ian Paisley and Gerry Adams still represent two parties which will disagree about almost everything once power-sharing is restored but almost everyone in Northern Ireland understands the significance of this moment; in future, differences will be resolved inside a parliament, not in the streets beyond it.

I always Knew that he somehow Arranged for these things.

Now I have the Smoking Gun.

:)

Though little noted, thus far, in the US MSM, one Occurred last Wednesday ~ for the lately-Deadletter NI Assembly, last elected in 2003, last Dissolved not very long thereafter due to Failure to Coalesce as required by Law.

In due Irish Time :) the Results are now In, revealing that exactly As Expected, the two most diametrically-opposed parties ~ Ian Paisley’s ultra-loyalist Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and Gerry Adams’s hyper-republican Sinn Fein (SF) ~ now dominate the Norn Iron political landscape even More than they did Before, infused by the ongoing Hemorrhage of formerly-”moderate” votes from their pale-Orange & light-Green fellowtravellers, the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) and the Social Democratic & Labor Party (SDLP), respectively.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Interlude:

Some geneticists now Report that [emphases Added] ~

…both Britain and Ireland have been inhabited for thousands of years by a single people that have remained in the majority, with only minor additions from later invaders like Celts, Romans, Angles, Saxons, Vikings and Normans. The implication that the Irish, English, Scottish and Welsh have a great deal in common with each other, at least from the geneticist’s point of view, seems likely to please no one…

…Dr. [Stephen] Oppenheimer [a medical geneticist at the University of Oxford], said genes “have no bearing on cultural history.” There is no significant genetic difference between the people of Northern Ireland, yet they have been fighting with each other for 400 years, he said.

As for his thesis that the British and Irish are genetically much alike, “It would be wonderful if it improved relations, but I somehow think it won’t.”

Well, maybe he’s right & maybe Not. Let us note that on Wednesday the Alliance Party, which bills itself as “the Alternative to the Tribal parties”, did make a net Gain of one (1) Assembly seat: up from 6, to 7. (The Tribal parties ~ Extremely tribalist & Moderately tribalist Combined ~ have a total of 99.)
* * * * * * * * * * *

BBC Best analysis:

…It’s best to think of the democratic process in Northern Ireland as consisting of two, separate elections conducted in parallel, one within the Protestant community, and one within the Catholic.

On the Protestant side, Ian Paisley’s DUP is by far the dominant force, increasing its share of the vote by 4.4%

And Sinn Fein easily won the battle within the Catholic community - with its vote up by 2.6%

It is the outcome that was expected, these are after all the two parties who were at the centre of multi-party talks in Scotland last year which the British and Irish governments believe brought us very close to a restoration of devolution.

But curiously, in a sense, the election has resolved nothing.

The big question going into the campaign was would Ian Paisley be ready to cut a political deal which would involve sharing power with Sinn Fein, and that remains the political question now.

He has a veto simply because none of the parties can go into government unless they all agree to - and while the DUP has plenty of smart, ambitious politicians in its ranks, it remains to some extent a personal vehicle for Ian Paisley.

Rarely in modern politics do important decisions depend so completely on what’s in the heart and mind of one man.

Ian Paisley has managed to campaign cleverly, conveying a general sense that he might be ready to share power with Sinn Fein, whilst still raising problems over specific issues like policing which could yet provide him with a smokescreen for pulling out at the last minute.

But this is not just about smart tactics. The truth is, that the DUP leader may not have made up his mind himself what to do.

Far be it from me ever to think of politically Annoying any denizens of this here blog (which surely would constitute Unsportsmanlike conduct on the Non Sports Page :) but it’s worth noting that the saintly Senator, a Democrat from Connecticut ;}, today delivers his Party’s response to the Republican President’s weekly radio broadcast. Here’s the text, the subject being the scandalous situation at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

A good speech ~ sufficiently so for me to grant Rebbe Joe absolution :> for his invocation of the Gnostic First Commandment, i.e., “…together, we must prevent this from ever happening again.” (Said standard Perfectionist locution being Obligatory in such circumstances nowadays, the sin may be deemed Venial & the rhetoric freely-translated as, “These are very crappy practices and conditions which we shall work to Discourage and Deter in the future.” ;)

Read the whole things. Go, Dem Joe! :]

Yes, these fools definitely blow:

Primitive as it is, a blowgun is now on the list of things people use in drive-by shootings.

In an incident that at first left police incredulous, two men were charged Thursday in Southington with shooting a man in the leg with a blowgun. Police said the man was shot as he walked out of a store on Queen Street.

The man was one of three people shot apparently at random in the space of half an hour Thursday in Plainville and Southington. In all three cases, the attackers drove past their victim as they fired, police said.

Police in Plainville said two people were shot with blowgun darts there shortly before the Southington incident. They believe the two men arrested in Southington are the culprits in the Plainville attacks also.

Arrested were Jason Plourde, 27, of Waterbury, and Edward Youle, 33, of Southington. Police said they found three blowguns and a box of darts in their sport-utility vehicle.

“They thought it was funny,” Southington Police spokesman Sgt. Lowell DePalma said.

No one was seriously hurt, but one of the victims in Plainville went to the hospital to get a tetanus shot, said Plainville police Lt. Brian Mullins.

…Although dating to the Stone Age and not commonly associated with 21st century culture, blowguns are readily available on the Internet. They are legal to own except in California and Massachusetts.

Read the whole thing.

In a bid to deprive Ian Paisley’s Democratic Unionist Party of yet another Excuse for refusing to join in a coalition government, Gerry Adams’s Sinn Fein has voted to Support its Local Peelers ;} ~

DUBLIN (Reuters) - London and Dublin will push this week to revive power-sharing between Northern Irish Catholics and Protestants after Irish nationalist party Sinn Fein reversed decades of opposition to the province’s law and order system.

Sinn Fein’s mostly Catholic membership voted on Sunday to back a policing and justice system in Northern Ireland that it has long viewed as biased in favour of the majority Protestants.

The landmark vote removed a key obstacle to the restoration of a Belfast-based regional power-sharing government by a March 26 deadline set by the British and Irish governments.

…The IRA killed nearly 300 police officers during the conflict and was responsible for nearly half the 3,600 deaths in its struggle to unite the northern province with Ireland.

While London and Dublin may yet achieve their goal of restoring a regional government in time for Blair’s departure from office and an Irish election, both later this year, the DUP is still far from being on board.

Party leader Ian Paisley has yet to overcome years of vociferous opposition to Irish nationalists on his own part* and signs of serious resistance from hardliners within his party.

“Dr. Paisley’s authority and political direction is under assault within the DUP,” the Irish Times said in an editorial.

However, it noted he had said repeatedly he would “not be found wanting” if Sinn Fein moved to support the police.

[*Let us pray that Dr. Paisley finds the strength to Overcome at least his Own vociferousness :>. ~ the guestblogger]

“Yesterday we did see a piece of history being made,” political analyst Harry McGee wrote in the Irish Examiner.

“With it came an acceptance that it was all over as far as the IRA was concerned, bar the shouting, of course. And be assured, with Ian Paisley and the DUP involved, there will be plenty of that over the next few months.”

Read the whole thing. Also here are two takes, Jan. 28 and Jan. 29, from Radio Telefís Éireann.

But no harm done:

December 20 2006 - A woman going through security at Los Angeles International Airport put her month-old grandson into a plastic bin intended for carry-on items and slid it into an X-ray machine.

…A screener watching the machine’s monitor immediately noticed the outline of a baby and pulled the bin backward on the conveyor belt.

The infant was taken to Centinela Hospital, where doctors determined that he had not received a dangerous dose of radiation.

Officials, who declined to release the 56-year-old woman’s name, said she spoke Spanish and apparently did not understand English.

…Nico Melendez, a spokesman for the Transportation Security Administration, which manages LAX screeners, said the agency doesn’t have enough workers to constantly stand at tables in front of the screeners to coach passengers on what should or should not be sent through X-ray machines.

…”There’s an obligation on the traveler to use some common sense,” said Larry Fetters, the TSA’s federal security director at LAX. “If they don’t understand, they should ask somebody. If they ask us, we are generally able to find someone who speaks that language and assist them.”

…”We’re trying to figure out what changes we can make, short of putting up signs saying, ‘Don’t put your baby through the X-ray machine,’ ” Melendez said. “We’re trying to determine how we can make this not happen again.”

[Comment: You can’t. The only real reason to stop “short of” posting those Signs is, they would Increase the incidence of Babyscanning pursuant to the No Peas Up The Nose principle. / But be Forward-leaning & Pro-active: focus on deterring people from checking their children through with the Non-carry-on baggage. :| ~the guestscreener :]

* * * * * * * * *
Radiation doses:

The baby that went through the airport luggage machine was exposed to less radiation than a passenger on a cross-country flight. Typical radiation exposures*:

Luggage screener: 1
Cross-country flight: 5
Chest X-ray: 10
Mammogram: 30

* Measured in millirems, which takes into account both the amount of exposure and the biological effect of the type of radiation in question.

Source: EPA

Scan the whole thing. :>

Consider the snooty Connecticut Yankee commentary implicit :) ~

WEST POINT, Miss. — … Kevin Pugh, 20, of Cedar Bluff, has been fined $279 for tossing a pig over the counter at the Holiday Inn Express in West Point on Nov. 12. Pugh pleaded guilty Tuesday in city court to a charge of disturbing the peace.

[Not to mention, disturbing the pig. :> ~ the guestblogger ;]

West Point Police Lt. Danny McCaskill has said Pugh didn’t know the employees of the hotel. There was no evidence intoxication was a factor.

No one was hurt, including the pig, officers said.

“This was the silliest thing I’ve ever seen,” McCaskill said. “Almost every officer we had was involved because the incidents kept happening at different hours.”

…”He said it was a prank,” McCaskill said. “It must be some redneck thing, because I haven’t ever heard of anything like it.”

[Speaking of Snooty :) ~ the guestblogger ;]

McCaskill said there have been four late-night incidents involving animal-tossing at West Point businesses. Twice a pig was tossed and two of the incidents involved possums…

Read the li’lbitty bit Ah left out, y’all :).