The Party That Must Not Be Named

The Associated Press has been doing this sort of thing for a long time, but it helps to point out the obvious. A public official, widely criticized for being, frankly, inept at his job; a man who lost a major lawsuit that proved that his office had engaged in racial discrimination; a man who harbored a wanted, violent, criminal in his own house; resigns from office. What political party does that man belong to?

Well, you can bet that if the man belonged the Republican party that the headlines and about every third word in the story would have pointed that out. You can also bet that if the party is never mentioned - at all, in any way - that it is a Democrat. So it is with New Orleans District Attorney Eddie Jordan, who is resigning because of all the things mentioned - and who is, despite the complete blackout in the story, a Democrat.

Anger over Jordan's performance, fed in part by his decisions to abandon two high-profile prosecutions and his apparently inadvertent sheltering of an armed robbery suspect, rose again this week when a federal judge refused to delay payment in the discrimination case. That opened the door to the possible seizure of assets of his office.

"I'm hoping my departure will end the threat of the seizure of the district attorney's office's assets," Jordan said.

Baty Landis, co-founder of the anti-violence group Silence is Violence, said the move was best for New Orleans.

"Mr. Jordan always struck me as an intelligent man, but for some reason he was unable to operate as the district attorney," Landis said. "This has got to be good for the office. The morale there has been so low. There has been so much criticism and a total lack of leadership. This is a new start for them."

Jordan lost the discrimination lawsuit against dozens of his former employees in 2005. The white former employees said they were fired by Jordan, who is black, because of their race.

Mayor Ray Nagin on Tuesday reiterated that the city would not pay the judgment, saying that it could not afford it and that it would set a bad precedent.

Richard Leefe, an attorney for the fired employees, said Jordan's resignation will not end the threat of seizing the office's assets.

"It sounds as if we are being used as an excuse, but it was never about him. The judgment is against his office, and we still want to be paid," Leefe said.

Wikipedia entry on Jordan here. The man who fled to and took shelter in Jordan's house committed an armed robbery and is the primes suspect in a home invasion and shooting of a New Orleans police officer and his wife a day later. Jordan refused to meet with police for three days after the incident.

That is at least one less problem Bobby Jindal will have to deal with, isn't it?

Welcome To Metropolis

This is pretty shocking. The University of Delaware is actually indoctrinating students who live in campus housing. It is nothing less than that, in fact, the  university’s own "teaching" materials refers to it as a “treatment” for students’ "incorrect attitudes and beliefs".

The university’s views are forced on students through a comprehensive manipulation of the residence hall environment, from mandatory training sessions to “sustainability” door decorations. Students living in the university’s eight housing complexes are required to attend training sessions, floor meetings, and one-on-one meetings with their Resident Assistants (RAs). The RAs who facilitate these meetings have received their own intensive training from the university, including a “diversity facilitation training” session at which RAs were taught, among other things, that “[a] racist is one who is both privileged and socialized on the basis of race by a white supremacist (racist) system. The term applies to all white people (i.e., people of European descent) living in the United States, regardless of class, gender, religion, culture or sexuality.”

The university suggests that at one-on-one sessions with students, RAs should ask intrusive personal questions such as “When did you discover your sexual identity?” Students who express discomfort with this type of questioning often meet with disapproval from their RAs, who write reports on these one-on-one sessions and deliver these reports to their superiors. One student identified in a write-up as an RA’s “worst” one-on-one session was a young woman who stated that she was tired of having “diversity shoved down her throat.”

According to the program’s materials, the goal of the residence life education program is for students in the university’s residence halls to achieve certain “competencies” that the university has decreed its students must develop in order to achieve the overall educational goal of “citizenship.” These competencies include: “Students will recognize that systemic oppression exists in our society,” “Students will recognize the benefits of dismantling systems of oppression,” and “Students will be able to utilize their knowledge of sustainability to change their daily habits and consumer mentality.”

At various points in the program, students are also pressured or even required to take actions that outwardly indicate their agreement with the university’s ideology, regardless of their personal beliefs. Such actions include displaying specific door decorations, committing to reduce their ecological footprint by at least 20%, taking action by advocating for an “oppressed” social group, and taking action by advocating for a “sustainable world.”

This is one of the most appalling examples of authoritarian totalitarian brainwashing I have ever heard of in the United States. Read this again:

“[a] racist is one who is both privileged and socialized on the basis of race by a white supremacist (racist) system. The term applies to all white people (i.e., people of European descent) living in the United States, regardless of class, gender, religion, culture or sexuality.”

Change the race to any other one and see how utterly offensive - and how blatantly racist - that statement is. They're preparing student alright. For a specific place in society. Welcome to Metropolis, workers.

UPDATE: Regular readers had to see this one coming:

Others understandably unhappy with the commisars of the UofD: Joanne Jacobs (aka my Blogmother): "Students weren’t asked if they found the “treatment” intrusive, annoying, a waste of time and/or a violation of their rights."

Right Voices: "You have the right to free speech as long as the liberals approve of the message. You can have free thought, just as long as you think what the liberals want you to think."

Hot Air: "FIRE is calling for the program to be dismantled. That would be a good start."

SCSU Scholars: "I've written years ago about our own student orientations and those given to others and their parents, but this one appears to jump the shark."

Jason Steck (At MVDG Gazette): "1984, it would appear, was not avoided so much as delayed until 2007."

Mac's Mind: "Nevertheless, it’s not so amazing that this type of thought policing happens at our colleges, but it is amazing that the dumbasses at this school are blatant about it."

Colossus Of Rhodey: "For all those aghast at George Bush's America supposedly "leading us down the road to fascism," the sad fact is that all you have to do to really find it is just take a trip to Delaware's own Newark (that's pronounced "new ark" for non-Delawareans) campus."

Sister Toldjah: "Put another nail in the coffin on the liberal lie about supporting “free thought.” "

David Thompson: "Presumably, Professor Stanley Fish has no objection to “bridges” being built in this way, or to the term ‘racist’ being applied to “all white people… living in the United States.” And presumably he still believes that students “don’t have to worry” about the spread of campus speech codes and other neurotic sensitivities. Again, I beg to differ. "

Protein Wisdom (Dan Collins): (No words, just a picture or two.)

Mahablog: "….eventually you get to an article about a program at the University of Delaware that really does sound creepy and objectionable. But I’m not seeing a connection to Glenn." (Hint - it's because of the obscenely racist phrase used in the training materials - that are officially sanctioned by UofD. And it is more than objectionable and creepy.)

Fausta: "And it'll cost you $16,098 if you're a Delaware resident, $27,348 if you're from out of state. I guess that part of their "consumer mentality" should not be affected."

Flopping Aces: "This is it.  This is the liberals wet dream.  A perfect world of Socialism/Communism gripping the throats of all who enter their domain.  You must submit and believe what we believe." NOTE: Curt also has the contact information for the UofD president.

Weasel Zippers: "Reminds me of the re-education gulags the Soviets put dissidents in and I'm sure that's where they're drawing their inspiration from."

Sigmund, Carl and Alfred: "The Educational Gulag."

Leaning Straight Up: "Ah yes, white privilege.  That would be the the privilege that keeps me in my apartment, driving my used 1999 car."

Neocon News: "With some of the tripe in their training guides, it’s no wonder that people at the University are comparing it to the North Korean government…."

Oxford Medievalist: "Those far-left nuts who claim that the Bush Administration has us down the path to fascism really ought to take a look at what's going on at our college campuses."

Hold The Ketchup!

Earlier, I posted about two holdup men in Greece who robbed a store employee using ketchup. Call it the great condiment caper. I closed the post with these words: "They only managed to get about 400 Euros. No word on pickles." Bless the wire services, folks. We have an assault with a deadly pickle.

NILES, Mich. - Talk about being in a pickle: A judge gave a 35-year-old man probation in a case that police said involved an assault with pickles. According to police reports, the pickle problems began when Bobby Lee Bolen of Buchanan was hanging out at his then-friend Jody Lee's home in Buchanan on Aug. 20.

Bolen went to the refrigerator and helped himself to some pickles. According to the report, Lee told Bolen he couldn't afford to feed everyone and not to eat his pickles. Bolen then began yelling and swearing and stormed out, according to the report.

Later, Bolen barged back into the house and got into an argument with Lee. Lee told police Bolen slammed him down on the couch and threw two large pickles at him and said, "Here's your damn pickles."

Bolen proceeded to beat up another former friend, then commenced to beating on Lee again with a telephone receiver. I think we can safely assume Bolen has some anger management issues. As well as a taste for exotic weaponry. If we can just get a story with mustard or onion, we'll have hit the Big Mac of news today!

More Bad Space News

Astronauts successfully bolted a new solar power tower to the International Space Station today. Everything went well until the started to unfurl the second solar panel. A rip was spotted in the panel when it was about 3/4 extended.

The solar panels on the 17 1/2-ton girder that was installed at its new location Tuesday were folded up like an accordion for the move, and the first one slowly was unfurled as the seven-hour spacewalk wrapped up, gleaming like gold in the sun.

The crew kept spacewalker Scott Parazynski and Douglas Wheelock apprised of the first solar wing's unfurling as they floated back inside. Their reaction: "Wow, that's great," and "Awesome!"

"It's a good day's work right there," Parazynski said.

The astronauts abruptly stopped the unfurling of the second panel, however, as soon as they saw the rip right next to the edge. By then, the panel was about three-quarters of the way out. The astronauts beamed down photos of the torn and crumpled section so Mission Control could analyze them and determine the extent of the damage.

At Mission Control's request, the astronauts retracted the wing just a bit to ease the tension on it.

On the bright side, the inspection of the other rotary joint did not show any metal flakes or wear. Still, this hasn't been a great mission so far.

Chicago Hospital Begins Universal MRSA Testing

The Loyola University Medical Center will be testing every incoming patient for Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA) in an effort to control the spread of the superbug.

CHICAGO - Loyola University Medical Center on Monday announced plans to start testing all incoming patients for a drug-resistant staph germ and isolating those who carry the dangerous bacteria.

The 589-bed hospital in Maywood, just west of Chicago, is among the first in Illinois to start universal screening for the superbug.

The germ in question is called MRSA, or methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.

A new Illinois law requires hospitals to test high-risk and intensive-care patients for MRSA.

The nation's Veterans Affairs hospitals began universal MRSA testing this year. And Evanston Northwestern Healthcare has reported a substantial drop in MRSA cases at its three suburban Chicago hospitals since it began universal testing in 2005.

I suspect we'll see this become common. LiveScience has a feature up on MRSA today:

MSRA spreads via surface-to-surface contact, developing into a staph infection if conditions are right. The first symptoms can include pimple-like sores on the skin where the bacteria launch their attack, while rarer but more advanced infections can enter the bloodstream, attack organs and lead to death.

But need the masses live in fear of stubborn yet deadly microbes such as MRSA as their numbers rise worldwide, or are we overreacting?

Most medical experts think superbug diseases are here to stay but offer a major caveat: Only a fraction of the population need worry a little, if at all.

I'm always a bit leery when I hear things like that. I rather suspect the testing is a better idea than just trusting the odds.

Site Problems

I'm still experiencing some glitches with the site. I've changed a few things around with the help of one of the techs at the hosting company. If you happen to find any problems, either leave a comment or shoot me an email, if you would. I'm hoping things will load faster now with the changes.

Everything That’s Wrong In Washington

Perfectly illustrated by the dealings of one, very corrupt, Congressman. John "Unindicted ABSCAM Co-conspirator" Murtha has diverted billions of dollars of taxpayer money to his district. Defense contractors shower him with funds in return.

The powerful U.S. congressman has used his clout on Capitol Hill to create thousands of jobs and steer billions of dollars in federal spending to help his hometown in western Pennsylvania recover from devastating floods and the flight of its steelmakers.

More is on the way. In the massive 2008 military-spending bill now before Congress — which could go to a House-Senate conference as soon as Thursday — Mr. Murtha has steered more taxpayer funds to his congressional district than any other member. The Democratic lawmaker is chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, which will oversee more than $459 billion in military spending this year.

Johnstown's good fortune has come at the expense of taxpayers everywhere else. Defense contractors have found that if they open an office here and hire the right lobbyist, they can get lucrative, no-bid contracts. Over the past decade, Concurrent Technologies Corp., a defense-research firm that employs 800 here, got hundreds of millions of dollars thanks to Rep. Murtha despite poor reviews by Pentagon auditors. The National Drug Intelligence Center, with 300 workers, got $509 million, though the White House has tried for years to shut it down as wasteful and unnecessary. Another beneficiary: MTS Technologies, run by a man who got his start some 40 years ago shining shoes at Mr. Murtha's Johnstown Minute Car Wash.

A review by The Wall Street Journal of dozens of such contracts funded by Mr. Murtha's committee shows that many weren't sought by the military or federal agencies they were intended to benefit. Some were inefficient or mismanaged, according to interviews, public records and previously unpublished Pentagon audits. One Murtha-backed firm, ProLogic Inc., is under federal investigation for allegedly diverting public funds to develop commercial software, people close to the case say. The company denies wrongdoing and is in line to get millions of dollars more in the pending defense bill.

Many of the firms receiving the largess are not exactly upstanding corporate citizens. Yet Murtha keeps getting elected because of the vast amount of money he steers back home - essentially buying his votes. This is exactly what is wrong with government right now. Unless you live in Murtha's district, your tax money is being taken to ensure Murtha's continued reelection.

‘The Waking Pill’

The Daily Mail reports on a new BBC documentary that is due to air tomorrow about the stunning success of Zolpidem (Ambien) in treating people who are in a persistent vegetative state. (I first posted about this here.) People who have not responded to anything in years are waking up out of comas after being given Zolpidem, a sleeping pill.

A woman who has been in a coma for the past six years is slowly coming back to life after being given sleeping pills.

Amy Pickard, from Hastings in East Sussex, was only 17 when she slipped into a coma in 2001.

However now, after being given over-the-counter miracle pill Zolpidem, her devoted mum Thelma says the "old sparkle" has returned to her daughter's eyes.

Amy, who is the subject of BBC One documentary 'The Waking Pill' tomorrow night, has been in a persistent vegetative state for the past six years after suffering severe brain damage after experimenting with heroin.

Until last month she remained lifeless in bed.

But now, barely four weeks after taking her first pill Amy, now 23, from Hastings in East Sussex, is slowly starting to come back to life.

Speaking today, Thelma, 54, said: "She is changing and it is amazing.

"When she takes the pill, I see her face relax and the old sparkle return to her eyes. It's incredible."

Amy is one of 360 people taking part in a worldwide revolutionary drugs trial which could see coma patients "miraculously" come back to life.

Zolpidem has been tried on about 360 people worldwide so far. 60% respond to the drug, to varying degrees. But that is still a miracle for these people. I'd only caution that L-DOPA made patients suffering from Encephalitis lethargica wake briefly before they fell back into their comas. It is still an amazing discovery and has huge potential.

When Ketchup Is Outlawed……

….Only outlaws will have ketchup. Two armed robbers in Greece managed to pull off a stickup earlier today. Well, maybe 'armed' is the wrong term. Let's just say condimented to the teeth. They used two big bags of ketchup to pull off the robbery.

ATHENS (Reuters) - Two thieves armed only with ketchup ambushed a supermarket employee as he was taking cash to the bank, Greek police said on Tuesday.

"The thieves jumped out of the bushes and threw two big bags of ketchup on the front window to stop the car," said a police official who requested anonymity.

They only managed to get about 400 Euros. No word on pickles.

What’s Wrong With George Washington University?

After a scandal earlier this month where a "progressive" student group posted anti-Muslim fliers around campus in an attempt to damage a conservative group you'd think people would tone things down. Not so. Campus authorities are now investigating the appearance of swastikas drawn in various places around the campus, included repeated incident targeting one Jewish student's dorm room.

George Washington University police are trying to determine who is responsible for drawing swastikas on two dormitory doors and at an outdoor site near its hospital during the past week, a university spokeswoman said yesterday.

Four swastikas were drawn on the dorm door dry-erase board of a Jewish freshman over several days; the most recent, and largest, was discovered Sunday morning, said spokeswoman Michelle Sherrard. Another swastika was discovered yesterday on the dry-erase board of a student in a different dorm.

GWU President Steven Knapp denounced the incidents, saying the placement of the swastikas "raises the possibility that this is an expression of hatred toward Jewish students."

University police investigating the incidents yesterday also discovered a few swastikas near George Washington University Hospital. Officials said the swastikas near the hospital were different from those found on campus, but they are continuing to investigate. The swastikas near the hospital were accompanied by political graffiti.

Catch them and expel them. Or will whoever did it claim it was "satirical" as the first group did (and apparently escape punishment)?

Throw The Bums Out?

Interesting column today from Stuart Rothenberg. He says that hopes for an anti-incumbent wave in the Congressional elections may not work out. He analyzes past elections to prove that point.

Of those, the worst year for incumbents was in 1992, when a total of 24 House incumbents — 16 Democrats and eight Republicans — lost to challengers. Cole, who served as NRCC executive director back then, has cited the '92 elections as an example of a year when voters directed their anger at incumbents of both parties (and ousted a sitting president).

Twenty-four House incumbents going down to defeat may well qualify as an anti- incumbent election in the abstract, but, alas, it's more complicated than that. The devil is in the details.

Large numbers of incumbents lost that year because of scandals and redistricting, not because voters across the country were so angry with Capitol Hill or with politicians in general that they simply voted against incumbents, regardless of party. The 1992 CQ Almanac did a wonderful job documenting this in its end-of-the-year rehashing of the election results.

"Voter discontent and redistricting did take a toll on members who sought re-election, but the much-discussed possibility of an Election Day cyclone of anti-incumbent sentiment failed to materialize Nov. 3," the almanac's authors wrote.

Some incumbents lost because their districts had been redrawn to include more opposition partisans who voted primarily because of party. Others lost because they bounced checks on the House bank or were under indictment. Some lost because of the top of the ticket. Few, if any, lost merely because they were incumbent officeholders.

So classifying1992 as an "anti-incumbent" election is committing a classic mistake: focusing only on the aggregate numbers and ignoring the individual results.

All of that may well be true. But as Rothenberg himself pointed out just last week, the Democrats pulled a truly dumb stunt with their Armenian genocide bill, a move that could damage them badly at the polls.

The problem for the Democrats is that the controversy over Congress' steps to assert that Turkey was guilty of a policy of genocide isn't a laughing matter — at least it isn't to the Turks. Instead, it is the first truly dumb thing that Democrats may have done since the party won both chambers of Congress last year.

If the Democrats continue to pull stunts like that one and a candidate for President has extremely high negative poll numbers that will not budge, a scenario presents itself where coattails could make all the difference. The problem with reasoning by historical analogy is that sometimes the history that counts hasn't been written yet.

Dangerous Poll Numbers

Rasmussen Reports has some bad polling news - for Hillary Clinton and the Democratic party. She polls at about 48%. What's bad about that, you ask? Well, she polls at 48% even if nobody has heard of who she is matched against.

But, in the general election, Clinton’s role becomes even more significant. Election 2008 is the first time in more than half a century that a U.S. Presidential election has not included an incumbent or a Vice President seeking the top job. Clinton’s candidacy may be filling that void and has assumed many dynamics typically associated with an incumbent. If this continues, the election could come down to a referendum on Hillary Clinton.

Most polling on general election match-ups involving Clinton look like a referendum rather than a choice between Clinton and a particular candidate. Using a three-poll rolling average to quiet any statistical noise, the Clinton effect becomes clear. The former First Lady earns between 46%and 49% of the vote against each of the top five Republican hopefuls. It doesn’t matter if it’s Rudy Giuliani or Mike Huckabee, John McCain or Fred Thompson.

If you average the results of the top five candidates, you find Clinton’s support at 48%. She also attracts 48% support when matched up with the little known Ron Paul. Adding further support to the notion that it’s all about Clinton is this tidbit– among the voters who have never heard of Ron Paul or don’t know enough to have an opinion, Clinton attracts the exact same total–48%. So, whether the candidate is a frontrunner or an also ran—or even if voters have never heard of the candidate, Clinton earns about 48% of the vote. These numbers make sense when you consider that Clinton is by far the best known of all the candidates and that opinions of her are split roughly down the middle.

I suspect these results are directly tied to the highly negative opinions that many people have of Hillary Clinton. The Influence Peddler is asking if Hillary is a sure loser:

These are [ie, look like -- the Editor] the polls of an unpopular incumbent, destined to be defeated for re-election: name ID is huge, voters' opinions are set. When these are the last few polls that you see before election day, you recall that undecideds break against the incumbent by a huge margin. You conclude that it will take a miracle to pull through on election day.

You don't quite draw such a conclusion this far out of course; election day is simply too far off and too much can change. The Republican opponent could be savaged in advertising, so much that he is unelectable. There might be a 3rd party candidate who reduces the threshold for victory. It's even conceivable that you might be able to 'reintroduce' the candidate, and move some of the voters who seem so firmly against you. But a candidate forced to resort to one of these strategies is someone already in trouble.

I agree that it is too far out from the election for this to be anything conclusive. But these numbers are very bad indeed. They literally mean that Clinton cannot make one, single mistake that costs even a few votes. That is a nasty tightrope to be on for a whole year.

Performance Artist Pyro At It Again

The same "performance artist" who faces charges for one arson has been caught again in San Francisco - this time trying to burn down a cathedral in San Francisco. Paul Addis was caught after setting fire to the effigy that is normally burned at the Burning Man Festival - only he did it several days before it was supposed to be lit. This time he was caught on the steps of Grace Cathedral in San Francisco.

Paul Addis was taken into custody on the top steps of the cathedral around 11:40 p.m. Sunday with an ammunition belt of small explosives strapped around his waist, said San Francisco police spokesman Sgt. Steve Mannina.

Police were tipped by a caller who said they overheard Addis talking about a plan to set fire to the church, Mannina said.

No fire was set and there was no damage to the Episcopal church, a French Gothic structure that sits atop the city's Nob Hill.

Addis was booked on five felony charges — attempted arson, possession of arson materials, possession of a destructive device, arson of a church, violation of a court order — and a misdemeanor for altering a firearm, according to the sheriff's department.

He remained in jail late Monday in lieu of $488,000 bail. A jail spokeswoman said she did not have any information on whether Addis had a lawyer.

Mannina said Addis is the same person who's facing arson charges in Nevada for allegedly setting fire to the Burning Man effigy in Nevada's Black Rock Desert days ahead of its scheduled burn.

In his booking photo, Addis was still wearing his red and black face paint from the desert event and sporting a wide smile, making the mug shot an instant Internet hit.

This guy has a real problem. This isn't art, it is a mental illness. He's a pyromaniac.

Shuttle Mission Extended One Day

NASA has extended the current shuttle mission by one day to allow additional inspections of the malfunctioning rotary joint on the International Space Station.

The work will delay Discovery's departure from the station to Monday from Sunday, a postponement that NASA said could carve a day out of the already slim six-day launch window for the next mission, when the shuttle Atlantis will fly the long-awaited Columbus laboratory to the station. That mission is targeted for launch on December 6.

For nearly two months, NASA has been aware of a potential problem with one of the station's massive rotary joints that spin the outpost's solar wing panels so they can track the sun and generate power.

But when spacewalker Dan Tani was dispatched on Sunday to investigate the problem during a spacewalk, he found shards of metal scrapings prevalent throughout the joint.

"I was quite sure there was something anomalous with the mechanism," Tani said on Monday during an in-flight interview.

He collected samples to return to Earth for analysis, but space station commander Peggy Whitson, a biochemist, conducted a preliminary experiment on Monday and discovered that the metal bits contained iron.

That was not good news. NASA had hoped the debris was coming from outside the joint, such as from one of the device's aluminum-lined thermal covers. Now engineers will be looking at parts of the rotary joint itself.

Not a good thing. The NASA website elaborates:

After analyzing photos of debris found inside the station’s starboard Solar Alpha Rotary Joint, mission managers decided to devote the mission’s fourth spacewalk Thursday to further inspection of the joint.

As a precursor to the additional rotary joint inspection spacewalk, Tuesday’s spacewalk by Mission Specialists Scott Parazynski and Doug Wheelock will include a short task to inspect the port rotary joint to provide comparison data to station managers who will spend the night developing procedures for the fourth spacewalk. All other tasks for the third spacewalk remain as trained with the focus being on installation of the P6 truss and solar array pair to its permanent location outboard of the port truss.

The crews completed final preparations for the P6 truss installation and continued outfitting and activation of avionics and systems racks inside the Harmony Node. Despite the shutdown of the Carbon Dioxide Removal Assembly in the U.S. Destiny laboratory, work continues as normal with no interruption to operations with other means of carbon dioxide scrubbing equipment on board.

Something is grinding in that joint, obviously.

Ah-OOOOOOH! Werewolves Of Cardiff!

Apparently, the neighbors in Cathays, Cardiff over in Britain aren't used to some things. For example, a half-naked man sitting 15 feet up in a tree howling like a wolf at 6:30 in the morning.

A half-naked man sparked a major police operation this morning after climbing a tree and howling like a wolf at the top of his voice.

The man reportedly told angry neighbours "leave me alone, it's my tree'" when they confronted him about the noise at 6.30am.

As tempers frayed and local residents in Cathays, Cardiff shouted for him to be quiet, he retorted "that's a bit inappropriate", and refused to climb down.

A police van and ambulance were called and the surrounding road was closed off as trained negotiators attempted to talk him down.

But he remained seated - caked in mud and shoeless - on his branch 15 feet above the ground for nearly two hours.

Gee, like that's unusual or something. They ought to be around here when Uncle Guido gets into the moonshine.