[traumer]

Participants and onlookers look up at Lahore's sky littered with hundreds of colorful kites during the kite flying festival, Basant, Sunday, Feb. 6, 2005, in Lahore, Pakistan. Pakistanis celebrate Basant festival by flying different kinds of kites, wearing colorful dresses, dancing and preparing special dishes for visitors to welcome spring, while tight security on the ground guarded against threats from hard-liners who condemn the revelry as un-Islamic. [AP]

[traumer]

Mohammad Asharf, front, who was seriously injured when specially reinforced kite string cut his throat while he was riding on a motorbike, is attended by his brother at a local hospital in Lahore, Pakistan on Sunday, Feb. 6, 2005.

[conservativecorner]

I know I shouldn't but ROFLMAO. Are these people completely insane? It's a freakin kite for God's sake.

[austinmark]

WHAT ? ................. These guy's cant even pull-off a Kite Flying contest WITHOUT loss of life OR limb ???

In the Name of all that is Good & Holy,- DON'T let them organize a City-wide, "neighborhood B.B.Q."

[SquirrelKing]

Good grief!

[laweeks]

And just how is this going to be linked to George W. Bush? Professor Churchill, call your office.

[festus]

Pakistan, where Monty Python gets its source material.

[festus]

I wonder if Mr. Murray could shed some light on this.....

[Guillermo]

No wonder why the Taliban outlawed kite-flying ;)

[sam_paine]

Scrappleface? Onion? Islam? Anyone? Bueller?

[Diddle E. Squat]

I guess it is a good thing they don't celebrate Easter, they'd probably use bombs for eggs...

[Husker24]

Seven persons were crushed to death while trying to catch stray kites

How damn big are these things?

[AmishDude]

Nothing can go right in the Islamic world. Nothing. It's astounding.

[agooga]

You see how the spread of democracy can lead to serious and unintended consequences? The people of Afghanistan were better off under the Taliban where kites and other implements of Satan were forbidden-- it's only a matter of time until they experience a similar tragedy. In other words, it's Bush's fault and will continue to be Bush's fault until the democrat's ultimate vision is realized: a world where everyone everywhere is strapped to a padded board with a feeding tube pumping happy juice into our veins whilst a robotic grabber continuously picks our pockets.

[Plutarch]

Seven persons were crushed to death while trying to catch stray kites...

Shouldn't construct kites of cement.

[river rat]

There is a reason it is called the Turd World.

Semper Fi

[UCANSEE2]

They have killer KITES,

We have killer SUVS.

[Cicero]

20 killed in kites flying festival in Pakistan

But a good time was had by everybody else.

[sagar]

Kite flying in the sub continent is not as pleasant as you imagine. The kites are sored high and very far with special string that are used to CUT nearby kites' string. The string can easily cut open throats or slice fingers if it gets to the people on the rooftops or on the roads.

I flew a lot of kites when I was young(spent hours on the rooftops, my parents had bars around the rooftop so that we wouldn't fall :> ), although it was not as crazy as in Pakistan or India. When we had our kites cut, we pull back the string that could be mile long. Then attach a new kite and fly again, trying to cut other kites' strings. The last standing kite was the winner.

[bad company]

I heard those pakistanis were tough, but turning kite flying into a bloodsport, wow!