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Performers take part in a show called Kingdom Of The Dwarves at Kunming World Butterflies Garden, Yunnan province, China

Everyone in the mountain commune in Kunming, southern China, must be under 4ft 3ins tall - and they run their own police force and fire brigade from their 120 residents. Now the group has turned itself into a tourist attraction by building mushroom houses and living and dressing like fairy tale characters.

Little person ... a dwarf    Cops hunt dwarf thieves     By PETE BELL Published: Today         A GANG of crooks is robbing long-distance coaches by smuggling dwarves into their holds inside sports bags. Once inside the buses the tiny thieves slip out from their hiding place to rifle through the belongings of travellers above them. They then take their loot back to their hiding place and wait to be collected by another gang member when the coach reaches its destination. The gang has stolen thousands of pounds in cash, gems and other valuables over...

GALLUP, N.M. -- Gallup police reported a bizarre set of circumstances following a recent emergency call to the home of Roman Catholic Bishop Donald Pelotte. The most recent event happened Thursday when Gallup police reported receiving an emergency call from Pelotte, 62. An incident report from the McKinley Metropolitan Dispatch Authority reported that Pelotte told operators "...gentle little people, about 3 to 4 feet tall, and wearing Halloween masks" were in the hall. The dispatch log reported that Pelotte said he hid in a closet while the people were in his home. The report said Pelotte offered conflicting information about...

CARSON CITY, Nev. — A sorta kinda presidential debate in February 2007? At least this beats covering Anna Nicole Smith and undergoing a root canal. Or after 20 months, will the 2008 campaign season feel like a root canal? Before the event, I thought Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, D-swim trunks, was smart not to show up at the Nevada AFSCME-sponsored Democratic presidential forum here Wednesday. Play a little hard to get and voters may not get so tired of you — and with that long of a campaign season, people will tire of anyone. Obama should have shown up. If...

February 12, 2004 Vietnam-Era Kerry Saw a Military Led by U.N.By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG ASHINGTON, Feb. 11 ? The student newspaper at Harvard University has unearthed a 34-year-old interview with Senator John Kerry, in which Mr. Kerry, then fresh out of Vietnam and an underdog candidate for Congress, suggested that he would cede authority over the military to the United Nations and rein in, or perhaps eliminate, the C.I.A. "I'm an internationalist," Mr. Kerry told the newspaper, The Harvard Crimson, on Feb. 18, 1970. "I'd like to see our troops dispersed through the world only at the directive of...

Kerried Away The myth and math of Kerry's electability. By William Saletan Posted Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2004, at 9:41 PM PT By media consensus, the race for the Democratic presidential nomination is over. Why? Because John Kerry has won 12 of the 14 primaries and caucuses held so far. And why has Kerry won these contests? Not because voters agree with him on the issues. The reason, according to exit polls, is that voters think he's the candidate most likely to beat President Bush. There's just one problem: The same polls suggest this may not be true. Two weeks ago,...

A Democratic Rush to the Polls? Well . . . By Paul Farhi Sunday, February 8, 2004; Page A05 Democratic Party officials have been crowing about heavy voter turnout in the first nine primaries and caucuses. In a theme picked up widely by the news media, party types have said the voting totals indicate that Democratic voters are fired up, which bodes well for the eventual nominee's chances against President Bush in the general election. [snip] Besides which, it takes a bit of glass-half-full thinking to describe voter turnout this year as "high" or even a "record," as Democratic officials...

Tennessee Likely Democratic primary voters Feb 6 Wesley Clark 20% Howard Dean 8% John Edwards 21% John Kerry 32% Dennis Kucinich 1% Al Sharpton 1% Undecided 17 4% MoE http://www.americanresearchgroup.com/tn Likely Democratic primary voters Feb 6 Wesley Clark 17% Howard Dean 9% John Edwards 22% John Kerry 35% Dennis Kucinich 1% Al Sharpton 1% Undecided 17% 4 % MoE http://www.americanresearchgroup.com/va Likely Democratic primary voters Feb 6 Wesley Clark 15% Howard Dean 9% John Edwards 10% John Kerry 41% Dennis Kucinich 2% Al Sharpton 2% Undecided 21% 4% MoE http://www.americanresearchgroup.com/wi

Kerry disses Guard John Kerry slipped in a shiv Tuesday night when asked about President Bush's service record. He seemed to lump those who joined the National Guard with those who didn't serve - and that could backfire with Guard vets. "I would defend the President's choice with respect to going into the Guard," said Kerry, a decorated Vietnam veteran. "I've never made any judgments about any choice somebody made about avoiding the draft, about going to Canada, going to jail, being a conscientious objector, going into the National Guard. Those are choices people make."

<p>NEW YORK — Rep. Dick Gephardt, the former House minority leader whose presidential campaign collapsed in Iowa's caucuses, will endorse Democratic front-runner John Kerry, a Democratic official said.</p> <p>The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Missouri lawmaker will give Kerry his backing in Warren, Mich., a blue-collar suburb of Detroit, on Friday. The endorsement is a huge boost for Kerry who has been aggressively pursuing the backing of labor unions who had thrown their support to Gephardt.</p>

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Critics may roll their eyes at Fox television's upcoming dwarf-dating contest "The Littlest Groom," but the head of the advocacy group Little People of America says the show could end up giving his members a boost. While some audiences may snicker at the spectacle of a dozen dwarf women competing with average-sized females for the affections of a 4-foot-5-inch bachelor, LPA president Matt Roloff said the Fox show may benefit people of short stature by depicting them as regular folks "just being themselves." In other words, a person's size doesn't matter. "Yes, the radio jocks will...

Engaged in a continuous PR blitz, presidential campaign strategists always strive to portray their candidate as damn near perfect. Even obvious flaws are apt to be touted as signs of integrity and human depth. Such media spin encourages Americans to confuse being excellent with being preferable. Eager to dislodge George W. Bush from the White House, many voters lined up behind John Kerry in late January. It?s true that the junior senator from Massachusetts is probably the best bet to defeat Bush -- and, as president, Kerry would be a very significant improvement over the incumbent. But truth in labeling...

There'll be no debate among Democratic presidential candidates in Missouri after all. The Missouri Democratic Party today called off Monday night's planned debate, which would have been held at the University of Missouri at St. Louis on the eve of Tuesday's presidential primaries. Missouri Democratic Party chairwoman May Scheve says organizers couldn't get commitments from Senators John Kerry and John Edwards. She cited the demands of travel coupled with short preparation time and forecasts calling for a possible winter storm. Missouri is one of seven states holding primaries Tuesday.

Howard Dean: Saddam did not commit genocide in the last 10 years

Beginning shortly..

Were we are in Thumbsucker Central in Boston's Fleet Center, overlooking the Democratic convention as the unthinkable — an unpredictable roll call of the states — is about to begin. A brief recap for those of you who tuned out after the front-loaded Democratic primaries turned into a long, hard slog. After the New Hampshire results were in, John "Bring It On!" Kerry maintained his (professedly unwanted) front-runnership, but Howard "Yee-haw!" Dean recovered strongly from his Iowa waker-upper. John "Two Americas, Count 'Em!" Edwards and Wesley "Call Me General" Clark were nicely positioned for their South Carolina comebacks, and those...

Kerry 33% Dean 28% Edwards 14% Clark 12% Lieberman 7% Other 4% Undecided 2% Data Collected 1/25/04 Geography State of New Hampshire Sample Population 481 Certain Voters Margin of Error 4.6%

New Poll Shows Dean Making a Comeback... YEEEEAHH!!! [Kerry 23%, Dean 22%, Clark 18%]

Dems to Face Off in DebateThursday, January 22, 2004By Liza PorteusMANCHESTER, N.H.  — The seven Democratic contenders for the nomination to go head-to-head with President Bush in November will face off Thursday night in the last public debate before the New Hampshire primary.The debate could be a make-or-break event for former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean (search) and retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark (search), in particular, leading up to Tuesday's first-in-the-nation Democratic primary. Clark's campaign seems to have lost a little momentum to Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry (search) and North Carolina Sen. John Edwards (search), whom many politicos see as a potential up-and-comer."I think if you're looking for...

The Democratic presidential candidates participate in the only radio debate of the election season. The debate, sponsored by NPR and the WOI Radio Group, is being broadcast from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. ET from Des Moines, Iowa. NPR's Neal Conan hosts the event, which includes questions e-mailed by NPR listeners. The NPR DebateDemocrats Face Off in Radio Broadcast in Iowa Why a Radio-Only Debate? Neal Conan "Without the intrusion of cameras, a debate can focus on ideas instead of style and presentation." --Neal Conan, Talk of the Nation host and moderator of the NPR debate. Jan. 6, 2004 --...

C-SPAN LINK

Riot in Sierra Leone Over Midget No-Show Sat Dec 6, 2:32 PM ET By CLARENCE ROY-MACAULAY, Associated Press Writer FREETOWN, Sierra Leone - Thousands of fans rioted at Sierra Leone's national stadium Saturday when authorities substituted two local dwarf comedians for a widely anticipated out-of-town midget duo. Police arrested 30 people, amid damage and dozens of injuries. Daylong radio ads had whipped up excitement and ticket sales for Friday night's scheduled performance by the two Nigerian entertainers, Aki and Paw Paw. The Nigerian performers failed to show by early morning. Organizers put the two local dwarf comedians on the stage...

Now that the Massachusetts Supreme Court has ruled it unconstitutional (in that state) to deny marriage to homosexual partners there is a lot of noise about how politicians are reacting. Most of the nine dwarves have declared that they oppose homosexual "marriage" but support "civil unions" that look exactly the same on paper. (President Bush has stated that he supports a maintaining our traditional understanding of marriage without giving us any specifics.) Does anybody remember the duck test? Civil unions are marriage. This is a semantic shell game. Now, don't get me wrong. I understand Democrats and their semantic shell...

The field of democrat pretenders for the 2004 Presidential Race is unaffectionately known as the 9 Dwarves. The number varies from day to day, but the concept survives. Now everyone knows the original seven dwarves: Doc, Dopey, Sleepy, Sneezy, Happy, Grumpy, and Bashful. The names come close, but don't quite fit. Here are my suggestions for naming this colorful band of misfits. Doc Whiney Wimpy Frenchie Happy Prissy Dazed Clueless Hopeless

Gephardt said that when he becomes president, he will talk to France. After the recent speech by the French Prime Minister at the United Nations, I am amazed that George Bush talked to France. But, Bush is famous for being courteous to people who don't deserve courtesy. Let us quickly turn to North Korea, which is both philosophically and politically quite similar to France. Little Dicky Gephardt said that President Bush screwed up that situation by criticizing the North Koreans for breaking The Treaty. This, Gephardt said, is why the North Koreans broke the treaty. No, you are not suffering...

A Tolkien Virgin: Of the Ruin of Doriath by Mark-Edmond The Journey ContinuesWell, you know, I actually really liked this chapter. I was expecting Morgoth's minions to do the destroying, so that it was Dwarves and then Elves that did it was a pleasant surprise. Tolkien is incredibly creative with how he ties the last however many chapters together as Doriath meets its end. The Nauglamir with the Silmaril set within it was pretty brilliant--how it was made possible is almost mind boggling when you trace the chain of events that led up to it. And, so incredibly fitting that...

"The Empty Lands Where No Men Are..."The People of Eriador, 2000 - 3017 Third AgeThis article discusses the desolate picture of settlement in Eriador at the time of the War of the Ring. In the early Third Age Eriador had been chiefly inhabited by the Elves of Lindon, the Dwarves of Khadzad-dum and the People of Arnor. Arnor was stricken by internal strife 861+, war with Angmar 1300+, and the Great Plague of 1636, in which "...many parts of Eriador become desolate." (LOTR Tale of Years 1636). In 1974 Arnor was conquered by Angmar and its remaining city (Fornost Erain)...

A Tolkien Virgin: Of the coming of Men into the Westby Mark-Edmond The Journey Continues And so the stage is set. We have Elves, whose story this has been primarily for the last 150 some odd pages. We have the Dwarves, who dwell primarily in the mountains in the East. And now, we have Men added to the mix. Let's not forget the common threat in the far North, Morgoth and his armies of Orcs, Balrogs, and fire-drakes. To be honest, this chapter didn't strike me as particularly interesting aside from the general introduction of Men to the story....

A Tolkien Virgin: Of the Sindarby Mark-Edmond The Journey Continues Wow, this chapter is chock full of stuff. Three major things: the Naugrim (Dwarves) and Sindar meet/Menegroth is constructed (we'll call that one). The Nandor are reintroduced and settle in Ossiriand (two). And, the first war with the Orcs takes place (number three for this chapter). Tolkien amazes me because he's able to say so much with so few words. In a few paragraphs he brings to life the nuances and idiosyncrasies of the Naugrim and their relationship with the Elves. The Naugrim are hesitant to teach foreigners their own...

A discussion of Bree's significance and probable history in the Third Age. [ Published prior to the first Lord Of The Rings movie ] Strange as news from Bree...Word has it that we won't see much of Bree in Peter Jackson's "Lord of the Rings" movies. Bree is the little village east of the Shire where Frodo and his companions meet up with Aragorn (who is known there as Strider). I expect most of the Bree scenes will deal with how the Hobbits come to travel with the Ranger, and the movie will just move on. Will we even see...

Part ILet's talk about Dwarves. I imagine John Rhys-Davies' portrayal of Gimli will result in quite a few Web site homages to both the actor and the character. Right now I can't find anything really useful for Dwarf research. Oh, there are dozens, perhaps hundreds of Web sites which mention the fact that Dwarves were one of the races of Middle-earth, and they may cite the Appendices in some fashion and rehash what anyone with a complete copy of The Lord of the Rings and maybe even The Silmarillion could easily find out by skimming a few pages.But does anyone...