Monday, December 22, 2008
Michigan City Bans Being "Annoying" In Public
Ticking someone off could get you a ticket in one Michigan city. The Brighton City Council on Thursday approved an ordinance allowing police in the Livingston County community to ticket and fine anyone who is annoying in public "by word of mouth, sign or motions."The Livingston County Daily Press & Argus of Howell reports the measure is modeled on a similar ordinance in the Detroit suburb of Royal Oak.A city attorney says there could be situations where the measure would violate freedom of speech, but that those cases will be reviewed by the city.The ban takes effect Jan. 2.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/12/19/ap/strange/main4678936.shtml?tag=main_home_storiesBySection
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/12/19/ap/strange/main4678936.shtml?tag=main_home_storiesBySection
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Marines at DUI roadblocks
The U.S. Marines have landed…and are apparently manning "sobriety checkpoints" in San Bernardino County in California. Yes, Marines. Yes, civilian DUI roadblocks.
From an official December 10th California Highway Patrol public relations release:
CHP to Conduct Sobriety/Driver’s License Checkpoint
The Morongo office of the California Highway Patrol (CHP) in conjunction with the San Bernardino Sheriff’s Department and the USMC military police will conduct a joint sobriety/driver license checkpoint on Friday, December 12, 2008, somewhere in the unincorporated/incorporated area of San Bernardino County.
The Posse Comitatus Act is a United States federal law (18 U.S.C. § 1385) passed on June 16, 1878, after the end of Reconstruction. The Act prohibits most members of the federal uniformed services (the Army, Air Force and State national Guard forces (when such are called into federal service) from exercising nominally state law enforcement, police or peace officer powers that maintain "law and order" on non-federal property (states and their counties and municipal divisions) in the former Confederate states.
The statute generally prohibits federal military personnel and units of the National Guard under federal authority from acting in a law enforcement capacity within the United States, except where expressly authorized by the Constitution or Congress. The Coast Guard is exempt from the Act.
http://www.duiblog.com/2008/12/16/here-come-the-feds-contd-marines-at-dui-roadblocks/
From an official December 10th California Highway Patrol public relations release:
CHP to Conduct Sobriety/Driver’s License Checkpoint
The Morongo office of the California Highway Patrol (CHP) in conjunction with the San Bernardino Sheriff’s Department and the USMC military police will conduct a joint sobriety/driver license checkpoint on Friday, December 12, 2008, somewhere in the unincorporated/incorporated area of San Bernardino County.
The Posse Comitatus Act is a United States federal law (18 U.S.C. § 1385) passed on June 16, 1878, after the end of Reconstruction. The Act prohibits most members of the federal uniformed services (the Army, Air Force and State national Guard forces (when such are called into federal service) from exercising nominally state law enforcement, police or peace officer powers that maintain "law and order" on non-federal property (states and their counties and municipal divisions) in the former Confederate states.
The statute generally prohibits federal military personnel and units of the National Guard under federal authority from acting in a law enforcement capacity within the United States, except where expressly authorized by the Constitution or Congress. The Coast Guard is exempt from the Act.
http://www.duiblog.com/2008/12/16/here-come-the-feds-contd-marines-at-dui-roadblocks/
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Sugar May Be Addictive and Effect Behavior
Science is verifying what many overeaters have suspected for a long time: sugar can be addictive.
In fact, the sweetener seems to prompt the same chemical changes in the brain seen in people who abuse drugs such as cocaine and heroin.
The findings were to be presented Wednesday at the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology's annual meeting, in Nashville.
"Our evidence from an animal model suggests that bingeing on sugar can act in the brain in ways very similar to drugs of abuse," lead researcher Bart Hoebel, a professor of psychology at Princeton University, said during a Dec. 4 teleconference.
"Drinking large amounts of sugar water when hungry can cause behavioral changes and even neurochemical changes in the brain which resemble changes that are produced when animals or people take substances of abuse. These animals show signs of withdrawal and even long-lasting effects that might resemble craving," he said.
http://health.msn.com/health-topics/articlepage.aspx?cp-documentid=100228625>1=31036
In fact, the sweetener seems to prompt the same chemical changes in the brain seen in people who abuse drugs such as cocaine and heroin.
The findings were to be presented Wednesday at the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology's annual meeting, in Nashville.
"Our evidence from an animal model suggests that bingeing on sugar can act in the brain in ways very similar to drugs of abuse," lead researcher Bart Hoebel, a professor of psychology at Princeton University, said during a Dec. 4 teleconference.
"Drinking large amounts of sugar water when hungry can cause behavioral changes and even neurochemical changes in the brain which resemble changes that are produced when animals or people take substances of abuse. These animals show signs of withdrawal and even long-lasting effects that might resemble craving," he said.
http://health.msn.com/health-topics/articlepage.aspx?cp-documentid=100228625>1=31036
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Supreme Court says legal cannabis is not pre-empted by federal law
The U.S. Supreme Court refused to review a landmark decision yesterday in which California state courts found that its medical cannabis law is not preempted by federal law.
The Supreme Court’s decision in Garden Grove v. Superior Court means that federal law does not prevent state and local governments from implementing medical cannabis laws adopted by voters or state legislatures. In short: the group Americans for Safe Access, says federal law does not override state law on medical cannabis.
Yesterday’s decision follows three years of strategic legal work by Americans for Safe Access in a California case involving the return of wrongfully confiscated medicine, says Steph Sherer, the Executive Director of ASA.
"The Court’s decision has broad implications for medical cannabis patients in the 13 states where medical cannabis is legal, and signals a sea change in the impasse between state and federal laws. Better adherence to state medical cannabis laws by local police will result in fewer needless arrests and other problems for patients, allowing for better implementation of medical cannabis laws in all states that have adopted them."
Sherer says medical cannabis advocates should be encouraged by opportunities for change in federal policy with a new Presidential Administration and shift in Congress. But until now, federal pre-emption has haunted patients whose state laws allow for medical cannabis use.
This decision further clears the way for state implementation and Sherer says it also adds new urgency to ASA’s work in the nation’s capitol, where they have been working full-time to change federal policy since 2006.
A clear example of a California law enforcement agency wasting large amounts of time and money trying to bring down a lawful medical marijuana dispensary owner, is found in the story of San Luis Obispo County Sheriff Pat Hedges. (see Tim King's Salem-News.com article: Meet California's Lawless Sheriff)
http://www.pyrabang.com/contenteditor.php?ps=7999&pd=4652&org=4198&target=http://www.salem-news.com/articles/december022008/asa_clarifies_law_12-2-08.php
The Supreme Court’s decision in Garden Grove v. Superior Court means that federal law does not prevent state and local governments from implementing medical cannabis laws adopted by voters or state legislatures. In short: the group Americans for Safe Access, says federal law does not override state law on medical cannabis.
Yesterday’s decision follows three years of strategic legal work by Americans for Safe Access in a California case involving the return of wrongfully confiscated medicine, says Steph Sherer, the Executive Director of ASA.
"The Court’s decision has broad implications for medical cannabis patients in the 13 states where medical cannabis is legal, and signals a sea change in the impasse between state and federal laws. Better adherence to state medical cannabis laws by local police will result in fewer needless arrests and other problems for patients, allowing for better implementation of medical cannabis laws in all states that have adopted them."
Sherer says medical cannabis advocates should be encouraged by opportunities for change in federal policy with a new Presidential Administration and shift in Congress. But until now, federal pre-emption has haunted patients whose state laws allow for medical cannabis use.
This decision further clears the way for state implementation and Sherer says it also adds new urgency to ASA’s work in the nation’s capitol, where they have been working full-time to change federal policy since 2006.
A clear example of a California law enforcement agency wasting large amounts of time and money trying to bring down a lawful medical marijuana dispensary owner, is found in the story of San Luis Obispo County Sheriff Pat Hedges. (see Tim King's Salem-News.com article: Meet California's Lawless Sheriff)
http://www.pyrabang.com/contenteditor.php?ps=7999&pd=4652&org=4198&target=http://www.salem-news.com/articles/december022008/asa_clarifies_law_12-2-08.php
I thought this was actually a quote by the government... guess I was wrong
"I sit on a man's back, choking him and making him carry me, and yet assure myself and others that I am very sorry for him and wish to ease his lot by all possible means—except by getting off his back."
Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910)
Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910)
Ill. governor arrested on corruption charges
Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich was arrested Tuesday on federal charges that he brazenly conspired to sell or trade the Senate seat left vacant by President-elect Barack Obama to the highest bidder.
A 76-page FBI affidavit says the 51-year-old Democrat was intercepted on court-authorized wiretaps over the last month conspiring to use the vacant Senate seat to obtain personal benefits for himself and his wife, Patti.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28139155/?GT1=43001
If Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich was arrested for government corruption, than there are 49 other U.S. governor’s who should be arrested today. David Mildenberg and Brian Louis in this Bloomberg.com article point out it was his threat against U.S. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s favored Bank of America to halt business that did him in.
A 76-page FBI affidavit says the 51-year-old Democrat was intercepted on court-authorized wiretaps over the last month conspiring to use the vacant Senate seat to obtain personal benefits for himself and his wife, Patti.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28139155/?GT1=43001
If Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich was arrested for government corruption, than there are 49 other U.S. governor’s who should be arrested today. David Mildenberg and Brian Louis in this Bloomberg.com article point out it was his threat against U.S. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s favored Bank of America to halt business that did him in.
Saturday, December 6, 2008
Clinton - Ineligible for SOS position
Ineligibility Clause of Constitution Prohibits Clinton Appointment
Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, announced today that Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton is constitutionally ineligible to serve as Secretary of State in the Obama administration.
According to the Ineligibility Clause of the United States Constitution, no member of Congress can be appointed to an office that has benefited from a salary increase during the time that Senator or Representative served in Congress. A January 2008 Executive Order signed by President Bush during Hillary Clinton's current Senate term increased the salary for Secretary of State, thereby rendering Senator Clinton ineligible for the position.
Specifically, Article I, section 6 of the U.S. Constitution provides "No Senator or Representative shall, during the Time for which he was elected, be appointed to any civil Office under the Authority of the United States, which shall have been created, or the Emoluments whereof shall have been encreased during such time." The provision is seen by most as designed by our Founding Fathers to protect against corruption.
Former President Richard Nixon circumvented this constitutional provision after appointing former Ohio Senator William Saxbe to the position of Attorney General. The Nixon administration managed to force legislation through Congress to reduce the salary for the position of Attorney General to the level that existed prior to Senator Saxbe's appointment. This scheme, known thereafter as "The Saxbe Fix," was also used to allow Senator Lloyd Bentsen to assume the position of Treasury Secretary under President Clinton.
"The Saxbe Fix" may reduce the salary of Secretary of State to previous levels, but it does not affect what is a clear constitutional prohibition. It cannot change the fact that the salary had been increased while Senator Clinton served in Congress. (President Ronald Reagan reportedly did not appoint Senator Orrin Hatch to the Supreme Court because of this provision.) Simply put, the Constitution does not provide for a legislative remedy for the Ineligibility Clause.
http://www.judicialwatch.org/news/2008/dec/judicial-watch-announces-hillary-clinton-constitutionally-ineligible-serve-secretary-s
Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, announced today that Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton is constitutionally ineligible to serve as Secretary of State in the Obama administration.
According to the Ineligibility Clause of the United States Constitution, no member of Congress can be appointed to an office that has benefited from a salary increase during the time that Senator or Representative served in Congress. A January 2008 Executive Order signed by President Bush during Hillary Clinton's current Senate term increased the salary for Secretary of State, thereby rendering Senator Clinton ineligible for the position.
Specifically, Article I, section 6 of the U.S. Constitution provides "No Senator or Representative shall, during the Time for which he was elected, be appointed to any civil Office under the Authority of the United States, which shall have been created, or the Emoluments whereof shall have been encreased during such time." The provision is seen by most as designed by our Founding Fathers to protect against corruption.
Former President Richard Nixon circumvented this constitutional provision after appointing former Ohio Senator William Saxbe to the position of Attorney General. The Nixon administration managed to force legislation through Congress to reduce the salary for the position of Attorney General to the level that existed prior to Senator Saxbe's appointment. This scheme, known thereafter as "The Saxbe Fix," was also used to allow Senator Lloyd Bentsen to assume the position of Treasury Secretary under President Clinton.
"The Saxbe Fix" may reduce the salary of Secretary of State to previous levels, but it does not affect what is a clear constitutional prohibition. It cannot change the fact that the salary had been increased while Senator Clinton served in Congress. (President Ronald Reagan reportedly did not appoint Senator Orrin Hatch to the Supreme Court because of this provision.) Simply put, the Constitution does not provide for a legislative remedy for the Ineligibility Clause.
http://www.judicialwatch.org/news/2008/dec/judicial-watch-announces-hillary-clinton-constitutionally-ineligible-serve-secretary-s
Wonderful Idea! One way to rid of fiat money...
Milwaukee neighborhoods could print own money
2 neighborhoods consider printing own currency for exclusive use in local stores
They may be talking funny money, but it's not funny business.Residents from the Milwaukee neighborhoods of Riverwest and East Side are scheduled to meet Wednesday to discuss printing their own money. The idea is that the local cash could be used at neighborhood stores and businesses, thus encouraging local spending. The result, supporters hope, would be a bustling local economy, even as the rest of the nation deals with a recession.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-talk_moneydec03,0,2902061.story
2 neighborhoods consider printing own currency for exclusive use in local stores
They may be talking funny money, but it's not funny business.Residents from the Milwaukee neighborhoods of Riverwest and East Side are scheduled to meet Wednesday to discuss printing their own money. The idea is that the local cash could be used at neighborhood stores and businesses, thus encouraging local spending. The result, supporters hope, would be a bustling local economy, even as the rest of the nation deals with a recession.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-talk_moneydec03,0,2902061.story
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Is it a crime?
The following was a written opinion by Johnny Kramer and can be located at http://www.lewrockwell.com/kramer/kramer22.html
The "crime"...
According to The New York Times, "Burress arrived at the Latin Quarter nightclub in Manhattan at 1:20 a.m. Saturday morning, with four others, including two teammates.
"The criminal complaint, released by prosecutors Monday, said that an onlooker then saw Burress near the V.I.P. area of the club holding a drink in his left hand and fidgeting his right hand in the area of the waistline of his pants. The witness then heard a single 'pop' sound before hearing Burress say, 'Take me to the hospital.'
"Burress was on the ground, with his legs shaking, when a bloody gun – a .40-caliber Glock pistol – fell out of his pant leg and onto the floor, the onlooker said. The bullet, which broke through the skin of Burress's right thigh and pierced muscle tissue, traveled through the leg before lodging itself somewhere in the club.
"Burress left the club by 1:50 a.m., the police said, and arrived at the hospital at 2:04 a.m., according to surveillance cameras at the hospital."
Who's the victim?
To summarize, Burress is being prosecuted not for damaging another person's body or property, for which that person has filed a complaint, seeking restitution and/or damages; he's being prosecuted for not having a permission slip from the State to carry his own property. And the people who helped him get medical treatment are being threatened for not turning Burress in to the State for not having a permission slip and because the piece of his property, for which he didn't have a permission slip, involved in the victimless incident happened to be a gun; and for not cooperating with the State, once the non-crime came to its attention, in helping it gather evidence to prosecute Burress for the non-crime, and possibly to prosecute them for their involvement in the non-crime too.
The despicable treatment by the State of Burress, and the equally despicable threatening of those who went out of their way to help him with his accidental injury, is another example of the State's hegemonic relationship with the people it "serves," as Butler Shaffer has quipped, "the way a cannibal 'serves' his neighbor."
In a free society, Burress would be responsible for paying his hospital bill and for any damage to the nightclub, after which he could put the whole unpleasant accident behind him and get on with his life.
Instead, the State is going to ruin Burress' career and life, and cause unspeakable anguish for his loved ones, by locking him in a cage inside a socialist hellhole for a "crime" that hurt no one except for himself – and even that, just barely. The only victim in this "crime" is Burress.
State "justice"
The State is not what keeps the amorphous, ill-defined entity it calls "society" from descending into "chaos."
And its criminal "justice" system does not exist to make victims whole again; rather, it's a giant make-work scam for parasitical "law enforcement" officials, politicians, and court employees. As the sickening Burress case shows, much of the State's "law enforcement" consists of work that wouldn't exist in a free society, prosecuting victimless crimes and trying to outlaw peaceful, voluntary behavior.
And much of the real crime that occurs (like murders and robberies) wouldn't happen if the State weren't creating black markets in commodities like narcotics; forcibly preventing people from defending themselves and their property through things like gun control laws; and socializing property like streets so that there's no owner who has to be concerned about the safety of his paying customers.
And when one of those real crimes occurs, thanks to the wonders of socialism, the victim not only has to pay with his taxes for the police force that failed to protect him or his property (and may also fail to catch a suspect), but if someone is charged, the victim will suffer the further indignity of paying for the trial, and further still of paying for the perpetrator's incarceration if he's convicted.
The "crime"...
According to The New York Times, "Burress arrived at the Latin Quarter nightclub in Manhattan at 1:20 a.m. Saturday morning, with four others, including two teammates.
"The criminal complaint, released by prosecutors Monday, said that an onlooker then saw Burress near the V.I.P. area of the club holding a drink in his left hand and fidgeting his right hand in the area of the waistline of his pants. The witness then heard a single 'pop' sound before hearing Burress say, 'Take me to the hospital.'
"Burress was on the ground, with his legs shaking, when a bloody gun – a .40-caliber Glock pistol – fell out of his pant leg and onto the floor, the onlooker said. The bullet, which broke through the skin of Burress's right thigh and pierced muscle tissue, traveled through the leg before lodging itself somewhere in the club.
"Burress left the club by 1:50 a.m., the police said, and arrived at the hospital at 2:04 a.m., according to surveillance cameras at the hospital."
Who's the victim?
To summarize, Burress is being prosecuted not for damaging another person's body or property, for which that person has filed a complaint, seeking restitution and/or damages; he's being prosecuted for not having a permission slip from the State to carry his own property. And the people who helped him get medical treatment are being threatened for not turning Burress in to the State for not having a permission slip and because the piece of his property, for which he didn't have a permission slip, involved in the victimless incident happened to be a gun; and for not cooperating with the State, once the non-crime came to its attention, in helping it gather evidence to prosecute Burress for the non-crime, and possibly to prosecute them for their involvement in the non-crime too.
The despicable treatment by the State of Burress, and the equally despicable threatening of those who went out of their way to help him with his accidental injury, is another example of the State's hegemonic relationship with the people it "serves," as Butler Shaffer has quipped, "the way a cannibal 'serves' his neighbor."
In a free society, Burress would be responsible for paying his hospital bill and for any damage to the nightclub, after which he could put the whole unpleasant accident behind him and get on with his life.
Instead, the State is going to ruin Burress' career and life, and cause unspeakable anguish for his loved ones, by locking him in a cage inside a socialist hellhole for a "crime" that hurt no one except for himself – and even that, just barely. The only victim in this "crime" is Burress.
State "justice"
The State is not what keeps the amorphous, ill-defined entity it calls "society" from descending into "chaos."
And its criminal "justice" system does not exist to make victims whole again; rather, it's a giant make-work scam for parasitical "law enforcement" officials, politicians, and court employees. As the sickening Burress case shows, much of the State's "law enforcement" consists of work that wouldn't exist in a free society, prosecuting victimless crimes and trying to outlaw peaceful, voluntary behavior.
And much of the real crime that occurs (like murders and robberies) wouldn't happen if the State weren't creating black markets in commodities like narcotics; forcibly preventing people from defending themselves and their property through things like gun control laws; and socializing property like streets so that there's no owner who has to be concerned about the safety of his paying customers.
And when one of those real crimes occurs, thanks to the wonders of socialism, the victim not only has to pay with his taxes for the police force that failed to protect him or his property (and may also fail to catch a suspect), but if someone is charged, the victim will suffer the further indignity of paying for the trial, and further still of paying for the perpetrator's incarceration if he's convicted.
The real reason for cheap oil is surfacing some more
Ahmadinejad: Iranian economy in danger
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was quoted Wednesday as saying that Iran will be forced to trim spending and generous subsidies and raise taxes. It's a sensitive admission for the Iranian president, who is seeking re-election in June.
Oil prices have plunged from $147 a barrel in July to under $50, adding to the pain of Iran's rising inflation and unemployment.
Wednesday's IRNA report quoted Ahmadinejad as saying the government budget would have to be readjusted to base it on an oil price of around $30 a barrel.
Last month, Ahmadinejad defended his unpopular economic policies, rejecting a letter signed by 60 Iranian economists that blamed him for skyrocketing inflation, state-run media reported.
Several newspapers had published the letter from the independent economists that said Ahmadinejad's "tension-making interaction with the outside world" has deprived the country of foreign investments and his policies have caused Iran's inflation rate to reach 30 percent.
In response, Ahmadinejad had criticized those in Iran who he said are trying to push for American economic polices in the Islamic republic. He was not specific.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1227702413546&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was quoted Wednesday as saying that Iran will be forced to trim spending and generous subsidies and raise taxes. It's a sensitive admission for the Iranian president, who is seeking re-election in June.
Oil prices have plunged from $147 a barrel in July to under $50, adding to the pain of Iran's rising inflation and unemployment.
Wednesday's IRNA report quoted Ahmadinejad as saying the government budget would have to be readjusted to base it on an oil price of around $30 a barrel.
Last month, Ahmadinejad defended his unpopular economic policies, rejecting a letter signed by 60 Iranian economists that blamed him for skyrocketing inflation, state-run media reported.
Several newspapers had published the letter from the independent economists that said Ahmadinejad's "tension-making interaction with the outside world" has deprived the country of foreign investments and his policies have caused Iran's inflation rate to reach 30 percent.
In response, Ahmadinejad had criticized those in Iran who he said are trying to push for American economic polices in the Islamic republic. He was not specific.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1227702413546&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
A neatness ordinance? What is that about?
KENNETH CITY — Council members caved in to demands from an angry crowd and delayed approving a neatness ordinance until officials explain every word of the 26-page document to Kenneth City residents.
In what was estimated to be the largest crowd to ever attend a Kenneth City Council meeting, an outraged group of residents railed at the proposal that would regulate the upkeep of both the exterior and interior of all property in the town.
The proposal basically sets standards for upkeep and appearance and gives town officials the right to enter homes. If the owner refuses to allow the official to enter, the town can go to a judge for an "administrative search warrant" to allow access to the interior of buildings. Violations would cost up to $250 a day.
http://www.tampabay.com/news/localgovernment/article919476.ece
In what was estimated to be the largest crowd to ever attend a Kenneth City Council meeting, an outraged group of residents railed at the proposal that would regulate the upkeep of both the exterior and interior of all property in the town.
The proposal basically sets standards for upkeep and appearance and gives town officials the right to enter homes. If the owner refuses to allow the official to enter, the town can go to a judge for an "administrative search warrant" to allow access to the interior of buildings. Violations would cost up to $250 a day.
http://www.tampabay.com/news/localgovernment/article919476.ece
Friday, November 28, 2008
The failed drug war
Drug War and Empire
Lew Rockwell interviews Dr. Mark Thornton
Great interview: http://www.lewrockwell.com/podcast/?p=episode&name=2008-11-27_075_drug_war_and_empire.mp3
Lew Rockwell interviews Dr. Mark Thornton
Great interview: http://www.lewrockwell.com/podcast/?p=episode&name=2008-11-27_075_drug_war_and_empire.mp3
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Obese People ("Functionally Disabled") Win; Private Property Loses
Obese people have the right to two seats for the price of one on flights within Canada, the country's Supreme Court ruled yesterday.
The court declined to hear an appeal by Canadian airlines of a decision by the Canadian Transportation Agency that people who are "functionally disabled by obesity" deserve to have two seats for one fare.
The airlines had lost an appeal at the Federal Court of Appeal in May and had sought to launch a fresh appeal at the Supreme Court.
The court's decision not to hear a new appeal means the one-person-one-fare policy stands.The appeal had been launched by Air Canada, Air Canada Jazz and WestJet.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,455834,00.html
The court declined to hear an appeal by Canadian airlines of a decision by the Canadian Transportation Agency that people who are "functionally disabled by obesity" deserve to have two seats for one fare.
The airlines had lost an appeal at the Federal Court of Appeal in May and had sought to launch a fresh appeal at the Supreme Court.
The court's decision not to hear a new appeal means the one-person-one-fare policy stands.The appeal had been launched by Air Canada, Air Canada Jazz and WestJet.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,455834,00.html
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
A defender of liberty to lead European Union?
In the 1980s, a Communist secret police agent infiltrated clandestine economics seminars hosted by Vaclav Klaus, a fiery future leader of the Czech Republic, who had come under suspicion for extolling free market virtues. Rather than reporting on Marxist heresy, the agent was most struck by Mr. Klaus’s now famous arrogance.
“His behavior and attitudes reveal that he feels like a rejected genius,” the agent noted in his report, which has since been made public. “He shows that whoever does not agree with his views is stupid and incompetent.”
Decades later, Mr. Klaus, the 67-year-old president of the Czech Republic — an iconoclast with a perfectly clipped mustache — continues to provoke strong reactions. He has blamed what he calls the misguided fight against global warming for contributing to the international financial crisis, branded Al Gore an “apostle of arrogance” for his role in that fight, and accused the European Union of acting like a Communist state.
Now the Czech Republic is about to assume the rotating presidency of the European Union and there is palpable fear that Mr. Klaus will embarrass the world’s biggest trading bloc and complicate its efforts to address the economic crisis and expand its powers. His role in the Czech Republic is largely ceremonial, but he remains a powerful force here, has devotees throughout Europe and delights in basking in the spotlight.
“Oh God, Vaclav Klaus will come next,” read a recent headline in the Austrian daily Die Presse, in an article anticipating the havoc he could wreak in a union of 470 million people already divided over its future direction.
An economist by training and a free marketeer by ideology, Mr. Klaus has criticized the course set by the union’s departing leader, President Nicolas Sarkozy of France. The ambitious Mr. Sarkozy has used France’s European Union presidency to push an agenda that includes broader and more coordinated regulation by the largest economies to tame the worst of the market’s excesses.
Even those who worry about Mr. Klaus’s potential role as a spoiler concede that his influence over policy in the European Union will be circumscribed, given his largely symbolic functions as president in the Czech Republic.
But Mr. Klaus’s sheer will and inflammatory talk — the eminent British historian Timothy Garton Ash once called him “one of the rudest men I have ever met” — are likely to have some impact.
“Klaus is a provocateur who will twist his arguments to get attention,” said Jiri Pehe, a former adviser to Vaclav Havel, Mr. Klaus’s rival and predecessor as president.
To supporters, Mr. Klaus is a brave, lone crusader, a defender of liberty, the only European leader in the mold of the formidable Margaret Thatcher. (Aides say Mr. Klaus has a photo of the former British prime minister in his office near his desk.)
To his many critics, he is a cynical populist, a hardheaded pragmatist long known as a foil to Mr. Havel, the philosopher-dreamer, and a troublemaker.
Mr. Klaus declined to be interviewed for this article. His office called a list of proposed questions “peculiar.”
As a former finance minister and prime minister, he is credited with presiding over the peaceful 1993 split of Czechoslovakia into two states and helping to transform the Czech Republic into one of the former Soviet bloc’s most successful economies.
But his ideas about governance are out of step with many of the European Union nations that his country will lead starting Jan. 1.
While even many of the world’s most ardent free marketeers acknowledged the need for the recent coordinated bailout of European banks, Mr. Klaus lambasted it as irresponsible protectionism. He blamed too much — rather than too little — regulation for the crisis.
A fervent critic of the environmental movement, he has called global warming a dangerous “myth,” arguing that the fight against climate change threatens economic growth.
Perhaps his greatest ire has been reserved for the European Union. In 2005, he called for it to be “scrapped.” Now, he is a vocal opponent of the Lisbon Treaty, which aims to help Europe become more of an international player, but which he argues will strip countries of sovereignty.
On a state visit to Ireland this month, Mr. Klaus incensed the government and annoyed many in his own country by publicly praising Declan Ganley, a businessman and political activist who was influential in persuading a majority of Irish voters in June to reject the treaty.
And while other European leaders have criticized a newly assertive Russia, Mr. Klaus has forged close ties with Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin and recently distanced himself from the Czech government’s criticism of Russia over the war with Georgia in August.
Those who know Mr. Klaus say his economic liberalism is an outgrowth of his upbringing. Born in 1941, he obtained an economics degree in 1963 and was deeply influenced by free market economists like Milton Friedman.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/25/world/europe/25klaus.html?_r=2&hp
“His behavior and attitudes reveal that he feels like a rejected genius,” the agent noted in his report, which has since been made public. “He shows that whoever does not agree with his views is stupid and incompetent.”
Decades later, Mr. Klaus, the 67-year-old president of the Czech Republic — an iconoclast with a perfectly clipped mustache — continues to provoke strong reactions. He has blamed what he calls the misguided fight against global warming for contributing to the international financial crisis, branded Al Gore an “apostle of arrogance” for his role in that fight, and accused the European Union of acting like a Communist state.
Now the Czech Republic is about to assume the rotating presidency of the European Union and there is palpable fear that Mr. Klaus will embarrass the world’s biggest trading bloc and complicate its efforts to address the economic crisis and expand its powers. His role in the Czech Republic is largely ceremonial, but he remains a powerful force here, has devotees throughout Europe and delights in basking in the spotlight.
“Oh God, Vaclav Klaus will come next,” read a recent headline in the Austrian daily Die Presse, in an article anticipating the havoc he could wreak in a union of 470 million people already divided over its future direction.
An economist by training and a free marketeer by ideology, Mr. Klaus has criticized the course set by the union’s departing leader, President Nicolas Sarkozy of France. The ambitious Mr. Sarkozy has used France’s European Union presidency to push an agenda that includes broader and more coordinated regulation by the largest economies to tame the worst of the market’s excesses.
Even those who worry about Mr. Klaus’s potential role as a spoiler concede that his influence over policy in the European Union will be circumscribed, given his largely symbolic functions as president in the Czech Republic.
But Mr. Klaus’s sheer will and inflammatory talk — the eminent British historian Timothy Garton Ash once called him “one of the rudest men I have ever met” — are likely to have some impact.
“Klaus is a provocateur who will twist his arguments to get attention,” said Jiri Pehe, a former adviser to Vaclav Havel, Mr. Klaus’s rival and predecessor as president.
To supporters, Mr. Klaus is a brave, lone crusader, a defender of liberty, the only European leader in the mold of the formidable Margaret Thatcher. (Aides say Mr. Klaus has a photo of the former British prime minister in his office near his desk.)
To his many critics, he is a cynical populist, a hardheaded pragmatist long known as a foil to Mr. Havel, the philosopher-dreamer, and a troublemaker.
Mr. Klaus declined to be interviewed for this article. His office called a list of proposed questions “peculiar.”
As a former finance minister and prime minister, he is credited with presiding over the peaceful 1993 split of Czechoslovakia into two states and helping to transform the Czech Republic into one of the former Soviet bloc’s most successful economies.
But his ideas about governance are out of step with many of the European Union nations that his country will lead starting Jan. 1.
While even many of the world’s most ardent free marketeers acknowledged the need for the recent coordinated bailout of European banks, Mr. Klaus lambasted it as irresponsible protectionism. He blamed too much — rather than too little — regulation for the crisis.
A fervent critic of the environmental movement, he has called global warming a dangerous “myth,” arguing that the fight against climate change threatens economic growth.
Perhaps his greatest ire has been reserved for the European Union. In 2005, he called for it to be “scrapped.” Now, he is a vocal opponent of the Lisbon Treaty, which aims to help Europe become more of an international player, but which he argues will strip countries of sovereignty.
On a state visit to Ireland this month, Mr. Klaus incensed the government and annoyed many in his own country by publicly praising Declan Ganley, a businessman and political activist who was influential in persuading a majority of Irish voters in June to reject the treaty.
And while other European leaders have criticized a newly assertive Russia, Mr. Klaus has forged close ties with Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin and recently distanced himself from the Czech government’s criticism of Russia over the war with Georgia in August.
Those who know Mr. Klaus say his economic liberalism is an outgrowth of his upbringing. Born in 1941, he obtained an economics degree in 1963 and was deeply influenced by free market economists like Milton Friedman.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/25/world/europe/25klaus.html?_r=2&hp
FDA crimes - as reported by its scientists
A group of scientists working in the FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health division has revolted against the corrupt managers of its own department, accusing them of committing crimes by claiming, "There is extensive documentary evidence that managers at CDRH have corrupted and interfered with the scientific review of medical devices."Read the letter yourself here (PDF):http://energycommerce.house.gov/Press_1...The letter from the FDA's own scientists goes on to say, "It is evident that managers at CDRH have deviated from FDA's mission to identify and address underlying problems with medical devices before they cause irreparable harm, and this deviation has placed the American people at risk."Congressman John, Dingell, chair of the committee which received the letter, went on to charge that these FDA bureaucrats "approved or cleared medical device applications in gross violation of laws and regulations..." (http://energycommerce.house.gov/Press_1...)
Note, too, that the mainstream media has virtually ignored this story? You might think that a revolt of FDA scientists against their criminal bosses would be a huge story worthy of front-page treatment at USA Today or the Washington Post, right? Only the NY Times bothered to report this story, as far as I can tell. (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/18/healt...)
The FDA: A gang of unindicted criminalsThe FDA, you see, is a criminal organization engaged in tactics of intimidation, censorship and oppression that can only be properly called "terrorism." Don't take my word for it, though: The FDA's own top scientists are now on the record saying much the same thing! Their complaint to Congress alleges top FDA managers "ordered, intimidated and coerced FDA experts to modify their scientific reviews, conclusions and recommendations in violation of the law.”Keep in mind this is from the FDA's own scientists! This isn't some outsider (like me) ranting about the FDA being a criminal organization; these are the words of the very people who work there!Even the FDA director is like an evil character out of a Marvel comic. His name is actually Dr. von Doom... er, I mean Dr. von Eschenbach, and he has routinely ignored the multiple letters sent to him by these scientists complaining of the same criminal behavior taking place at the agency.The FDA, of course, believes it is above the law and subject to no rules whatsoever. It is a political organization, and a criminal one at that.
http://www.naturalnews.com/024910.html
Note, too, that the mainstream media has virtually ignored this story? You might think that a revolt of FDA scientists against their criminal bosses would be a huge story worthy of front-page treatment at USA Today or the Washington Post, right? Only the NY Times bothered to report this story, as far as I can tell. (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/18/healt...)
The FDA: A gang of unindicted criminalsThe FDA, you see, is a criminal organization engaged in tactics of intimidation, censorship and oppression that can only be properly called "terrorism." Don't take my word for it, though: The FDA's own top scientists are now on the record saying much the same thing! Their complaint to Congress alleges top FDA managers "ordered, intimidated and coerced FDA experts to modify their scientific reviews, conclusions and recommendations in violation of the law.”Keep in mind this is from the FDA's own scientists! This isn't some outsider (like me) ranting about the FDA being a criminal organization; these are the words of the very people who work there!Even the FDA director is like an evil character out of a Marvel comic. His name is actually Dr. von Doom... er, I mean Dr. von Eschenbach, and he has routinely ignored the multiple letters sent to him by these scientists complaining of the same criminal behavior taking place at the agency.The FDA, of course, believes it is above the law and subject to no rules whatsoever. It is a political organization, and a criminal one at that.
http://www.naturalnews.com/024910.html
Monday, November 24, 2008
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Dick Cheney indicted by Texas grand jury
Yesterday a grand jury in Texas indicted Vice President Dick Cheney and former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Watch the news video: http://therealnews.com/t/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=2825
Global Banking Revolution
There is a quiet revolution going on. It's not a political revolution or a social revolution. It is being carried out without guns, bullets or physical violence, but this aspect makes it none the less real. The world is in the midst of a financial revolution led by the banking system whose representative in the U.S. is the Federal Reserve, a private bank that is not part of our current government system and does not hold reserves. The goal is the complete dominance, ownership and control of all assets by the government. What Americans are now witnessing may be the finest coup d'etat ever perpetrated.
http://www.naturalnews.com/024863.html
http://www.naturalnews.com/024863.html
Private Prisons? A product of large incarceration rates and no money
Prison companies are preparing for a wave of new business as the economic downturn makes it increasingly difficult for federal and state government officials to build and operate their own jails.
The Federal Bureau of Prisons and several state governments have sent thousands of inmates in recent months to prisons and detention centers run by Corrections Corp. of America, Geo Group Inc. and other private operators, as a crackdown on illegal immigration, a lengthening of mandatory sentences for certain crimes and other factors have overcrowded many government facilities.
Prison-policy experts expect inmate populations in 10 states to have increased by 25% or more between 2006 and 2011, according to a report by the nonprofit Pew Charitable Trusts.
Private prisons housed 7.4% of the country's 1.59 million incarcerated adults in federal and state prisons as of the middle of 2007, up from 1.57 million in 2006, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, a crime-data-gathering arm of the U.S. Department of Justice.
Corrections Corp., the largest private-prison operator in the U.S., with 64 facilities, has built two prisons this year and expanded nine facilities, and it plans to finish two more in 2009. The Nashville, Tenn., company put 1,680 new prison beds into service in its third quarter, helping boost net income 14% to $37.9 million. "There is going to be a larger opportunity for us in the future," said Damon Hininger, Corrections Corp.'s president and chief operations officer, in a recent interview.
California has shipped more than 5,100 inmates to private prisons run by Corrections Corp. in Arizona, Mississippi and other states since late 2006, when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger ordered emergency measures to control a ballooning state-prison population. Prisons were so overcrowded that hundreds of inmates were sleeping in gyms, according to one report. An additional 2,900 prisoners are scheduled to be transferred to private prisons outside the state by the end of next year, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122705334657739263.html
The Federal Bureau of Prisons and several state governments have sent thousands of inmates in recent months to prisons and detention centers run by Corrections Corp. of America, Geo Group Inc. and other private operators, as a crackdown on illegal immigration, a lengthening of mandatory sentences for certain crimes and other factors have overcrowded many government facilities.
Prison-policy experts expect inmate populations in 10 states to have increased by 25% or more between 2006 and 2011, according to a report by the nonprofit Pew Charitable Trusts.
Private prisons housed 7.4% of the country's 1.59 million incarcerated adults in federal and state prisons as of the middle of 2007, up from 1.57 million in 2006, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, a crime-data-gathering arm of the U.S. Department of Justice.
Corrections Corp., the largest private-prison operator in the U.S., with 64 facilities, has built two prisons this year and expanded nine facilities, and it plans to finish two more in 2009. The Nashville, Tenn., company put 1,680 new prison beds into service in its third quarter, helping boost net income 14% to $37.9 million. "There is going to be a larger opportunity for us in the future," said Damon Hininger, Corrections Corp.'s president and chief operations officer, in a recent interview.
California has shipped more than 5,100 inmates to private prisons run by Corrections Corp. in Arizona, Mississippi and other states since late 2006, when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger ordered emergency measures to control a ballooning state-prison population. Prisons were so overcrowded that hundreds of inmates were sleeping in gyms, according to one report. An additional 2,900 prisoners are scheduled to be transferred to private prisons outside the state by the end of next year, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122705334657739263.html
More Cameras
To make good on his offer to help Chicago combat violence, Gov. Blagojevich envisions putting speed cameras on interstates across Illinois -- and using the revenue to form an "elite tactical team" that would operate in Chicago and other cities.
The idea is in its infancy, with no budget and no timetable.
But the governor also is providing Chicago with immediate assistance, said Lucio Guerrero, a spokesman for the governor.
The help comes a month after the governor offered to lend state troopers to fight what he labeled "out-of-control" crime. Chicago Police Supt. Jody Weis welcomed the help, but insisted crime in the city remains at decades-low levels.
According to Trent, new State Police teams will stop motorists for traffic violations on Chicago expressways near high-crime areas. The troopers will also look for gun and drug violations. They can communicate with Chicago Police officers on radios and come to their aid when needed.
http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/blagojevich/1095739,CST-NWS-blago07.article
The idea is in its infancy, with no budget and no timetable.
But the governor also is providing Chicago with immediate assistance, said Lucio Guerrero, a spokesman for the governor.
The help comes a month after the governor offered to lend state troopers to fight what he labeled "out-of-control" crime. Chicago Police Supt. Jody Weis welcomed the help, but insisted crime in the city remains at decades-low levels.
According to Trent, new State Police teams will stop motorists for traffic violations on Chicago expressways near high-crime areas. The troopers will also look for gun and drug violations. They can communicate with Chicago Police officers on radios and come to their aid when needed.
http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/blagojevich/1095739,CST-NWS-blago07.article
Monday, November 17, 2008
Unsolved Crime. Having the wrong focus.
The detection rate for offences of violence stood at 49 per cent last year, according to official figures issued in a parliamentary answer.
When Labour came to power, almost three quarters of violent crimes were solved.
The figures, which mean that every year hundreds of thousands of victims do not see justice done, caused a fresh dispute last night over policing priorities.
Rank-and-file police leaders and opposition politicians said too much time was taken with red tape or chasing lesser crimes to attain government targets.
Dominic Grieve, the shadow home secretary, said: "It is bad enough that so much violent crime is being committed. It is a real insult to victims that over half of perpetrators are getting away with it.
"This is a direct result of Labour's target culture, which has incentivised the police to pursue minor crimes over serious violent ones, and the reams of red tape that tie officers to their desks when the public wants them out on the street."
It emerged last month that levels of some of the most serious forms of violent crime were higher than previously claimed because of the way police now recorded offences. In a leaked document at the weekend, the Home Office's leading civil servant admitted that the Government had failed to reduce serious violence because of a focus on targets.
The latest figures for England and Wales will renew the pressure on police chiefs to send officers to visit the victim of every crime after Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, backed such an approach in The Daily Telegraph on Saturday.
Lyn Costello, of Mothers Against Murder and Aggression, said: "It is frightening. Police are tied up in so much paperwork. We have to put more officers on the streets."
The detection rate, where a perpetrator is identified and dealt with, for all violent offences was 49 per cent in 2007-08. That means that of 961,188 recorded offences, 490,000 went unsolved.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/lawandorder/3474582/Million-violent-crimes-a-year-but-fewer-than-half-are-solved.html
When Labour came to power, almost three quarters of violent crimes were solved.
The figures, which mean that every year hundreds of thousands of victims do not see justice done, caused a fresh dispute last night over policing priorities.
Rank-and-file police leaders and opposition politicians said too much time was taken with red tape or chasing lesser crimes to attain government targets.
Dominic Grieve, the shadow home secretary, said: "It is bad enough that so much violent crime is being committed. It is a real insult to victims that over half of perpetrators are getting away with it.
"This is a direct result of Labour's target culture, which has incentivised the police to pursue minor crimes over serious violent ones, and the reams of red tape that tie officers to their desks when the public wants them out on the street."
It emerged last month that levels of some of the most serious forms of violent crime were higher than previously claimed because of the way police now recorded offences. In a leaked document at the weekend, the Home Office's leading civil servant admitted that the Government had failed to reduce serious violence because of a focus on targets.
The latest figures for England and Wales will renew the pressure on police chiefs to send officers to visit the victim of every crime after Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, backed such an approach in The Daily Telegraph on Saturday.
Lyn Costello, of Mothers Against Murder and Aggression, said: "It is frightening. Police are tied up in so much paperwork. We have to put more officers on the streets."
The detection rate, where a perpetrator is identified and dealt with, for all violent offences was 49 per cent in 2007-08. That means that of 961,188 recorded offences, 490,000 went unsolved.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/lawandorder/3474582/Million-violent-crimes-a-year-but-fewer-than-half-are-solved.html
Global Cooling
A surreal scientific blunder last week raised a huge question mark about the temperature records that underpin the worldwide alarm over global warming. On Monday, Nasa's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), which is run by Al Gore's chief scientific ally, Dr James Hansen, and is one of four bodies responsible for monitoring global temperatures, announced that last month was the hottest October on record.
This was startling. Across the world there were reports of unseasonal snow and plummeting temperatures last month, from the American Great Plains to China, and from the Alps to New Zealand. China's official news agency reported that Tibet had suffered its "worst snowstorm ever". In the US, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration registered 63 local snowfall records and 115 lowest-ever temperatures for the month, and ranked it as only the 70th-warmest October in 114 years.
So what explained the anomaly? GISS's computerised temperature maps seemed to show readings across a large part of Russia had been up to 10 degrees higher than normal. But when expert readers of the two leading warming-sceptic blogs, Watts Up With That and Climate Audit, began detailed analysis of the GISS data they made an astonishing discovery. The reason for the freak figures was that scores of temperature records from Russia and elsewhere were not based on October readings at all. Figures from the previous month had simply been carried over and repeated two months running.
The error was so glaring that when it was reported on the two blogs - run by the US meteorologist Anthony Watts and Steve McIntyre, the Canadian computer analyst who won fame for his expert debunking of the notorious "hockey stick" graph - GISS began hastily revising its figures. This only made the confusion worse because, to compensate for the lowered temperatures in Russia, GISS claimed to have discovered a new "hotspot" in the Arctic - in a month when satellite images were showing Arctic sea-ice recovering so fast from its summer melt that three weeks ago it was 30 per cent more extensive than at the same time last year.
A GISS spokesman lamely explained that the reason for the error in the Russian figures was that they were obtained from another body, and that GISS did not have resources to exercise proper quality control over the data it was supplied with. This is an astonishing admission: the figures published by Dr Hansen's institute are not only one of the four data sets that the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) relies on to promote its case for global warming, but they are the most widely quoted, since they consistently show higher temperatures than the others.
If there is one scientist more responsible than any other for the alarm over global warming it is Dr Hansen, who set the whole scare in train back in 1988 with his testimony to a US Senate committee chaired by Al Gore. Again and again, Dr Hansen has been to the fore in making extreme claims over the dangers of climate change. (He was recently in the news here for supporting the Greenpeace activists acquitted of criminally damaging a coal-fired power station in Kent, on the grounds that the harm done to the planet by a new power station would far outweigh any damage they had done themselves.)
Yet last week's latest episode is far from the first time Dr Hansen's methodology has been called in question. In 2007 he was forced by Mr Watts and Mr McIntyre to revise his published figures for US surface temperatures, to show that the hottest decade of the 20th century was not the 1990s, as he had claimed, but the 1930s.
Another of his close allies is Dr Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the IPCC, who recently startled a university audience in Australia by claiming that global temperatures have recently been rising "very much faster" than ever, in front of a graph showing them rising sharply in the past decade. In fact, as many of his audience were aware, they have not been rising in recent years and since 2007 have dropped.
Dr Pachauri, a former railway engineer with no qualifications in climate science, may believe what Dr Hansen tells him. But whether, on the basis of such evidence, it is wise for the world's governments to embark on some of the most costly economic measures ever proposed, to remedy a problem which may actually not exist, is a question which should give us all pause for thought.
This was startling. Across the world there were reports of unseasonal snow and plummeting temperatures last month, from the American Great Plains to China, and from the Alps to New Zealand. China's official news agency reported that Tibet had suffered its "worst snowstorm ever". In the US, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration registered 63 local snowfall records and 115 lowest-ever temperatures for the month, and ranked it as only the 70th-warmest October in 114 years.
So what explained the anomaly? GISS's computerised temperature maps seemed to show readings across a large part of Russia had been up to 10 degrees higher than normal. But when expert readers of the two leading warming-sceptic blogs, Watts Up With That and Climate Audit, began detailed analysis of the GISS data they made an astonishing discovery. The reason for the freak figures was that scores of temperature records from Russia and elsewhere were not based on October readings at all. Figures from the previous month had simply been carried over and repeated two months running.
The error was so glaring that when it was reported on the two blogs - run by the US meteorologist Anthony Watts and Steve McIntyre, the Canadian computer analyst who won fame for his expert debunking of the notorious "hockey stick" graph - GISS began hastily revising its figures. This only made the confusion worse because, to compensate for the lowered temperatures in Russia, GISS claimed to have discovered a new "hotspot" in the Arctic - in a month when satellite images were showing Arctic sea-ice recovering so fast from its summer melt that three weeks ago it was 30 per cent more extensive than at the same time last year.
A GISS spokesman lamely explained that the reason for the error in the Russian figures was that they were obtained from another body, and that GISS did not have resources to exercise proper quality control over the data it was supplied with. This is an astonishing admission: the figures published by Dr Hansen's institute are not only one of the four data sets that the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) relies on to promote its case for global warming, but they are the most widely quoted, since they consistently show higher temperatures than the others.
If there is one scientist more responsible than any other for the alarm over global warming it is Dr Hansen, who set the whole scare in train back in 1988 with his testimony to a US Senate committee chaired by Al Gore. Again and again, Dr Hansen has been to the fore in making extreme claims over the dangers of climate change. (He was recently in the news here for supporting the Greenpeace activists acquitted of criminally damaging a coal-fired power station in Kent, on the grounds that the harm done to the planet by a new power station would far outweigh any damage they had done themselves.)
Yet last week's latest episode is far from the first time Dr Hansen's methodology has been called in question. In 2007 he was forced by Mr Watts and Mr McIntyre to revise his published figures for US surface temperatures, to show that the hottest decade of the 20th century was not the 1990s, as he had claimed, but the 1930s.
Another of his close allies is Dr Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the IPCC, who recently startled a university audience in Australia by claiming that global temperatures have recently been rising "very much faster" than ever, in front of a graph showing them rising sharply in the past decade. In fact, as many of his audience were aware, they have not been rising in recent years and since 2007 have dropped.
Dr Pachauri, a former railway engineer with no qualifications in climate science, may believe what Dr Hansen tells him. But whether, on the basis of such evidence, it is wise for the world's governments to embark on some of the most costly economic measures ever proposed, to remedy a problem which may actually not exist, is a question which should give us all pause for thought.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2008/11/16/do1610.xml
Friday, November 14, 2008
Can cell phone use effect a child's behavior?
Of graver concern is the effect of cell phone use on children. Many of our young ones are using cellphones today, sometimes for hours at a stretch. Some households do not even have a landline anymore, and cellphones are the main mode of teleconversation.Earlier this year, market research and consulting firm Harris Interactive conducted a survey of more than 2,000 American teens. It found that 79% of teens, or 17 million of them, use cellphones, compared with only 36% in 2005. That is more than double.And children are more susceptible to any potential dangers because their nervous systems are still in development. It is thus possible that the radio frequency emissions from the phones could cause other health issues in other parts of the body – for example, the central nervous system could be affected, thereby having a negative impact on learning or behavior, or cancers could result in organs other than the brain. These are points put forth by Dr Leeka Kheifets, a professor of epidemiology at UCLA's School of Public Health.Then there is also the matter of head size. As described by Ronald Herberman, director of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, while radiation from a cell phone only travels about 2 inches into the brain of an adult, it goes beyond the center of a child's brain. That's deep impact.
Dr Kheifets and researchers in Denmark looked at over 13,000 Danish children born in 1997 and 1998. The children were part of a study called the Danish National Birth Cohort.The study discovered that those children who used cell phones and whose mothers had used cellphones during their pregnancy had 80% higher incidence of behavioral issues. These include emotional issues, hyperactivity, inattention and having problems with their peers. Even those children who themselves did not have cellphone exposure except during their mothers' pregnancies had 54% higher incidence of such problems.
http://www.naturalnews.com/024807.html
Dr Kheifets and researchers in Denmark looked at over 13,000 Danish children born in 1997 and 1998. The children were part of a study called the Danish National Birth Cohort.The study discovered that those children who used cell phones and whose mothers had used cellphones during their pregnancy had 80% higher incidence of behavioral issues. These include emotional issues, hyperactivity, inattention and having problems with their peers. Even those children who themselves did not have cellphone exposure except during their mothers' pregnancies had 54% higher incidence of such problems.
http://www.naturalnews.com/024807.html
Thursday, November 13, 2008
High crime rates by air marshals
Shawn Nguyen bragged that he could sneak anything past airport security using his top-secret clearance as a federal air marshal. And for months, he smuggled cocaine and drug money onto flights across the country, boasting to an FBI informant that he was "the man with the golden badge."
Michael McGowan used his position as an air marshal to lure a young boy to his hotel room, where he showed him child porn, took pictures of him naked and sexually abused him.
And when Brian "Cooter" Phelps wanted his ex-wife to disappear, he called a fellow air marshal and tried to hire a hit man nicknamed "the Crucifixer."
Since 9/11, more than three dozen federal air marshals have been charged with crimes, and hundreds more have been accused of misconduct, an investigation by ProPublica, a non-profit journalism organization, has found. Cases range from drunken driving and domestic violence to aiding a human-trafficking ring and trying to smuggle explosives from Afghanistan.
Before 9/11, the Air Marshal Service was a nearly forgotten force of 33 agents with a $4.4 million annual budget. Now housed in the Transportation Security Administration, the agency has a $786 million budget and an estimated 3,000 to 4,000 air marshals, although the official number is classified.
Since 9/11, air marshals have taken bribes, committed bank fraud, hired an escort while on layover and doctored hotel receipts to pad expenses, records show. They've been found sleeping on planes and lost the travel documents of U.S. diplomats while on a whiskey-tasting trip in Scotland.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2008-11-12-air-marshals_N.htm
Michael McGowan used his position as an air marshal to lure a young boy to his hotel room, where he showed him child porn, took pictures of him naked and sexually abused him.
And when Brian "Cooter" Phelps wanted his ex-wife to disappear, he called a fellow air marshal and tried to hire a hit man nicknamed "the Crucifixer."
Since 9/11, more than three dozen federal air marshals have been charged with crimes, and hundreds more have been accused of misconduct, an investigation by ProPublica, a non-profit journalism organization, has found. Cases range from drunken driving and domestic violence to aiding a human-trafficking ring and trying to smuggle explosives from Afghanistan.
Before 9/11, the Air Marshal Service was a nearly forgotten force of 33 agents with a $4.4 million annual budget. Now housed in the Transportation Security Administration, the agency has a $786 million budget and an estimated 3,000 to 4,000 air marshals, although the official number is classified.
Since 9/11, air marshals have taken bribes, committed bank fraud, hired an escort while on layover and doctored hotel receipts to pad expenses, records show. They've been found sleeping on planes and lost the travel documents of U.S. diplomats while on a whiskey-tasting trip in Scotland.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2008-11-12-air-marshals_N.htm
Cheap oil - updated...
With crude oil prices currently around $55/barrel it is clear this is a manipulation and not supply and demand. The ultimate goal of "cheap oil" is to bring the oil nations to their knees. Crude oil topped out at $147/barrel and then suddenly began a decline. It continued to decline even after AIPAC decided to scale back production. I don't think the "cheap oil" will remain around too much longer. We may just see $200/barrel in 2009.
"Alarm bells are ringing," said Tom Fallon, head of emerging-market research at La Francaise des Placements in Paris, which manages $11 billion. "Weaker oil raises a number of issues for deterioration in terms of trade and budget assumptions which are now being seriously called into question."Oil, Russia's chief export, has fallen 63 percent since the July-high of $147. The ruble has plunged 19 percent against the dollar in the past four months, even as the central bank sold 16 percent of its currency reserves in an attempt to arrest declines.
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2008/11/alarm-bells-ring-in-russia-over-ruble.html
update:
NOVEMBER 15, 2008 -
Iranian newspapers are quoting Mojtaba Hashemi Samareh, a top advisor to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, as saying the country has converted its financial reserves into gold.The papers did not specify how much of Iran's estimated $120 billion in reserves would actually be converted into gold.
The daily Jahan-e-Eghtesad, or Economy World, quoted Samareh on Saturday as saying the decision to buy gold was carried out on Ahmadinejad's order.The decision comes after a dramatic fall in oil prices. About 80 percent of Iran's foreign revenue comes from oil exports.
http://www.busrep.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=4714854
"Alarm bells are ringing," said Tom Fallon, head of emerging-market research at La Francaise des Placements in Paris, which manages $11 billion. "Weaker oil raises a number of issues for deterioration in terms of trade and budget assumptions which are now being seriously called into question."Oil, Russia's chief export, has fallen 63 percent since the July-high of $147. The ruble has plunged 19 percent against the dollar in the past four months, even as the central bank sold 16 percent of its currency reserves in an attempt to arrest declines.
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2008/11/alarm-bells-ring-in-russia-over-ruble.html
update:
NOVEMBER 15, 2008 -
Iranian newspapers are quoting Mojtaba Hashemi Samareh, a top advisor to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, as saying the country has converted its financial reserves into gold.The papers did not specify how much of Iran's estimated $120 billion in reserves would actually be converted into gold.
The daily Jahan-e-Eghtesad, or Economy World, quoted Samareh on Saturday as saying the decision to buy gold was carried out on Ahmadinejad's order.The decision comes after a dramatic fall in oil prices. About 80 percent of Iran's foreign revenue comes from oil exports.
http://www.busrep.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=4714854
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Mandatory Vaccinations.
What happened to individual health choice and freedom?
Despite growing reports of serious and even fatal reactions to the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced today that people from other countries who want to become legal permanent residents of the U.S. are required to have the HPV vaccination to protect against cervical cancer.The new rule, outlined in the Centers for Disease Control's (CDC) revised Technical Instructions to Civil Surgeons for Vaccination Requirements, stipulates "age-appropriate" groups, which means girls and young adult women, have to show proof of the vaccinations or they will not be granted legal permanent resident status in the U.S.This marks another enormous marketing success for the drug giant Merck & Co., maker of the HPV vaccine, Gardasil. Merck has lobbied for virtual universal vaccination of females with the vaccine. Gardasil is currently licensed for use in girls and women ages 9 to 26 and many health and school officials are pushing to make the vaccine mandatory for all girls by the age of 11 or 12. Some doctors are also offering Gardasil "off label" to women in their 20s to "catch-up" on their vaccinations. Merck, whose profits from the vaccine are expected to be in the billions, also wants to market it to women ages 27 to 45. So far the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has denied that request.The rationale for the current push in this country as well as in Europe to immunize against the HPV virus is the claim it protects women from developing HPV-caused genital warts and, most importantly, cervical cancer (and other even more rare malignancies of the female reproductive tract). However, a look at the statistics -- and risks associated with taking the vaccine -- raise some common sense questions about both the safety and efficacy of Gardasil.For example, the American Cancer Society estimates that in 2008, 11,070 women will be diagnosed with cervical cancer in this country. With early detection, cervical cancer is highly treatable and curable. But the HPV vaccine, Gardasil, has only been on the market since 2006 and has already been responsible for thousands of documented severe side effects, including numerous deaths.Judicial Watch, a public interest group, says the most recent reports show the vaccine has caused 21 deaths and 9,749 adverse reactions, including 78 outbreaks of the genital warts it is supposed to protect against, as well as 10 miscarriages.
http://www.naturalnews.com/024779.html
Despite growing reports of serious and even fatal reactions to the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced today that people from other countries who want to become legal permanent residents of the U.S. are required to have the HPV vaccination to protect against cervical cancer.The new rule, outlined in the Centers for Disease Control's (CDC) revised Technical Instructions to Civil Surgeons for Vaccination Requirements, stipulates "age-appropriate" groups, which means girls and young adult women, have to show proof of the vaccinations or they will not be granted legal permanent resident status in the U.S.This marks another enormous marketing success for the drug giant Merck & Co., maker of the HPV vaccine, Gardasil. Merck has lobbied for virtual universal vaccination of females with the vaccine. Gardasil is currently licensed for use in girls and women ages 9 to 26 and many health and school officials are pushing to make the vaccine mandatory for all girls by the age of 11 or 12. Some doctors are also offering Gardasil "off label" to women in their 20s to "catch-up" on their vaccinations. Merck, whose profits from the vaccine are expected to be in the billions, also wants to market it to women ages 27 to 45. So far the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has denied that request.The rationale for the current push in this country as well as in Europe to immunize against the HPV virus is the claim it protects women from developing HPV-caused genital warts and, most importantly, cervical cancer (and other even more rare malignancies of the female reproductive tract). However, a look at the statistics -- and risks associated with taking the vaccine -- raise some common sense questions about both the safety and efficacy of Gardasil.For example, the American Cancer Society estimates that in 2008, 11,070 women will be diagnosed with cervical cancer in this country. With early detection, cervical cancer is highly treatable and curable. But the HPV vaccine, Gardasil, has only been on the market since 2006 and has already been responsible for thousands of documented severe side effects, including numerous deaths.Judicial Watch, a public interest group, says the most recent reports show the vaccine has caused 21 deaths and 9,749 adverse reactions, including 78 outbreaks of the genital warts it is supposed to protect against, as well as 10 miscarriages.
http://www.naturalnews.com/024779.html
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
We were warned in the past...
Congressman McFadden on the Federal Reserve Corporation Remarks in Congress, 1934 :
"The Fed Note is essentially unsound. It is the worst currency and the most dangerous that this Country has ever known. "
"Mr. Chairman, when the Fed was passed, the people of these United States did not perceive that a world system was being set up here which would make the savings of the American school teacher available to a narcotic-drug vendor in Acapulco. They did not perceive that these United States was to be lowered to the position of a coolie country which has nothing but raw material and heart, that Russia was destined to supply the man power and that this country was to supply the financial power to an "international superstate". A superstate controlled by international bankers, and international industrialists acting together to enslave the world for their own pleasure?
"The people of these United States are being greatly wronged. They have been driven from their employments. They have been dispossessed from their homes. They have been evicted from their rented quarters. They have lost their children. They have been left to suffer and die for lack of shelter, food, clothing and medicine.
"The wealth of these United States and the working capital have been taken away from them and has either been locked in the vaults of certain banks and the great corporations or exported to foreign countries for the benefit of the foreign customers of these banks and corporations. So far as the people of the United States are concerned, the cupboard is bare.
http://home.hiwaay.net/~becraft/mcfadden.html
President Andrew Jackson stated in reference to the bankers at the state of his administration:
"The Fed Note is essentially unsound. It is the worst currency and the most dangerous that this Country has ever known. "
"Mr. Chairman, when the Fed was passed, the people of these United States did not perceive that a world system was being set up here which would make the savings of the American school teacher available to a narcotic-drug vendor in Acapulco. They did not perceive that these United States was to be lowered to the position of a coolie country which has nothing but raw material and heart, that Russia was destined to supply the man power and that this country was to supply the financial power to an "international superstate". A superstate controlled by international bankers, and international industrialists acting together to enslave the world for their own pleasure?
"The people of these United States are being greatly wronged. They have been driven from their employments. They have been dispossessed from their homes. They have been evicted from their rented quarters. They have lost their children. They have been left to suffer and die for lack of shelter, food, clothing and medicine.
"The wealth of these United States and the working capital have been taken away from them and has either been locked in the vaults of certain banks and the great corporations or exported to foreign countries for the benefit of the foreign customers of these banks and corporations. So far as the people of the United States are concerned, the cupboard is bare.
http://home.hiwaay.net/~becraft/mcfadden.html
President Andrew Jackson stated in reference to the bankers at the state of his administration:
"You are a den of vipers and thieves. I intend to rout you out, and by the Eternal God, I will rout you out."
Monday, November 10, 2008
What's with all this talk?
Echoing Vice President-Elect Joe Biden’s promise of a generated crisis and Colin Powell’s revelation of a crisis that will happen on January 21 or 22, we now have the president of the Council on Foreign Relations Richard Haas’ similar predictions of doom and gloom scheduled for President-Elect Obama.
“While foreign leaders may or may not choose to test Obama, “the one thing I’m sure of is, events will test him,” Council on Foreign Relations president Richard Haass said. “There will be coups. … There will be genocide. … There will be terrorism.”
A former US national security adviser says President-elect Barack Obama may be tested by terrorists after he takes office on Jan. 20.
“It’s possible. There’s no way of predicting that. It’s a possibility, but it’s by no means a certainty,” former Carter administration national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski said in an interview with Deutsche Welle.
“While foreign leaders may or may not choose to test Obama, “the one thing I’m sure of is, events will test him,” Council on Foreign Relations president Richard Haass said. “There will be coups. … There will be genocide. … There will be terrorism.”
A former US national security adviser says President-elect Barack Obama may be tested by terrorists after he takes office on Jan. 20.
“It’s possible. There’s no way of predicting that. It’s a possibility, but it’s by no means a certainty,” former Carter administration national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski said in an interview with Deutsche Welle.
Quick thought on social supports
Government funded and controlled social support is very prevalent in the United States. Social supports should be formed and encouraged through families, churches, charities, and private foundations. Services and goods are best delivered through a free market. Taxation has been utilized as a means to provide social support and when this occurs, individuals feel less obligated to be charitable and formulate a rational thought that "the government will take care of the problem" and neglect any personal responsibility. The true laws of economics are beginning to show that many government social supports may not sustain. A family would be better able to provide social support to its members if the fruits of their labor were not seized without their consent. We will know that we are part of a community of people who love and care for each other when liberty is truly achieved. For it is freedom that brings people together - it does not divide. Through this achievement, the true strength of social supports will be abundant. Families must be strengthened and the good will and creativeness of individuals must be fostered.
Prescription Drugs Kill More Americans than Illegal Drugs
A report by the Florida Medical Examiners Commission has concluded that prescription drugs have outstripped illegal drugs as a cause of death.An analysis of 168,900 autopsies conducted in Florida in 2007 found that three times as many people were killed by legal drugs as by cocaine, heroin and all methamphetamines put together. According to state law enforcement officials, this is a sign of a burgeoning prescription drug abuse problem. "The abuse has reached epidemic proportions," said Lisa McElhaney, a sergeant in the pharmaceutical drug diversion unit of the Broward County Sheriff's Office. "It's just explosive." In 2007, cocaine was responsible for 843 deaths, heroin for 121, methamphetamines for 25 and marijuana for zero, for a total of 989 deaths. In contrast, 2,328 people were killed by opioid painkillers, including Vicodin and Oxycontin, and 743 were killed by drugs containing benzodiazepine, including the depressants Valium and Xanax.Alcohol directly caused 466 deaths, but was found in the bodies of 4,179 cadavers in all.
http://www.naturalnews.com/024765.html
http://www.naturalnews.com/024765.html
Where is your money going?
The Federal Reserve is refusing to identify the recipients of almost $2 trillion of emergency loans from American taxpayers or the troubled assets the central bank is accepting as collateral.
Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said in September they would comply with congressional demands for transparency in a $700 billion bailout of the banking system. Two months later, as the Fed lends far more than that in separate rescue programs that didn't require approval by Congress, Americans have no idea where their money is going or what securities the banks are pledging in return.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aatlky_cH.tY&refer=worldwide
Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said in September they would comply with congressional demands for transparency in a $700 billion bailout of the banking system. Two months later, as the Fed lends far more than that in separate rescue programs that didn't require approval by Congress, Americans have no idea where their money is going or what securities the banks are pledging in return.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aatlky_cH.tY&refer=worldwide
ACLU wants probe into police-staged protest
When a Jefferson County deputy unleashed pepper spray at unruly protesters on the first night of the Democratic National Convention, he did not know that his targets were undercover Denver police officers.
Now the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado is questioning whether that staged confrontation by police pretending to be violent inflamed other protesters or officers during the most intense night of the four-day event.
The protest occurred Aug. 25 at 15th Street and Court Place near Civic Center. Police ultimately arrested 106 people, the highest number of arrests in a single day during the convention.
According to a use-of-force police report obtained by the ACLU, undercover Denver detectives staged a struggle with a police commander to get pulled out of the crowd without blowing their cover. The commander knew they were working undercover, and the plan was to pull them out of the crowd and pretend they were under arrest so protesters would be none the wiser.
A Jefferson County deputy, unaware of the presence of undercover police, thought that the commander was being attacked and used pepper spray on the undercover officers.
The report says that the commander and an undercover detective were sprayed, but it does not indicate how many others were affected. The report also doesn't say whether the pepper spray used on the undercover police was the first deployment of chemicals that night or whether the riot was already underway.
On Thursday, the ACLU of Colorado sent a letter to Denver's Independent Monitor, Richard Rosenthal, asking for the Internal Affairs Bureau to conduct an investigation of the pepper-spraying incident.
"The actions of the undercover detectives on August 25, 2008, may have had the effect of exacerbating an already 'tense situation,' as their feigned struggle led nearby officers and the public to believe that a commanding officer was being attacked by protestors and that the situation necessitated the use of chemical agents," says the letter, written by ACLU staff attorney Taylor Pendergrass.
"Such actions may have escalated the overall situation by causing officers on the scene to fear that the protestors threatened their safety, when in fact the struggle was only between uniformed officers and undercover officers," he wrote.
http://www.denverpost.com/sports/ci_10920817
Now the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado is questioning whether that staged confrontation by police pretending to be violent inflamed other protesters or officers during the most intense night of the four-day event.
The protest occurred Aug. 25 at 15th Street and Court Place near Civic Center. Police ultimately arrested 106 people, the highest number of arrests in a single day during the convention.
According to a use-of-force police report obtained by the ACLU, undercover Denver detectives staged a struggle with a police commander to get pulled out of the crowd without blowing their cover. The commander knew they were working undercover, and the plan was to pull them out of the crowd and pretend they were under arrest so protesters would be none the wiser.
A Jefferson County deputy, unaware of the presence of undercover police, thought that the commander was being attacked and used pepper spray on the undercover officers.
The report says that the commander and an undercover detective were sprayed, but it does not indicate how many others were affected. The report also doesn't say whether the pepper spray used on the undercover police was the first deployment of chemicals that night or whether the riot was already underway.
On Thursday, the ACLU of Colorado sent a letter to Denver's Independent Monitor, Richard Rosenthal, asking for the Internal Affairs Bureau to conduct an investigation of the pepper-spraying incident.
"The actions of the undercover detectives on August 25, 2008, may have had the effect of exacerbating an already 'tense situation,' as their feigned struggle led nearby officers and the public to believe that a commanding officer was being attacked by protestors and that the situation necessitated the use of chemical agents," says the letter, written by ACLU staff attorney Taylor Pendergrass.
"Such actions may have escalated the overall situation by causing officers on the scene to fear that the protestors threatened their safety, when in fact the struggle was only between uniformed officers and undercover officers," he wrote.
http://www.denverpost.com/sports/ci_10920817
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Thought
"I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the governement from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them."
- Thomas Jefferson
- Thomas Jefferson
Lets hope this is a goodbye to fluoride...
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Grand Rapids, Mich. has become the most recent city to question the practice of fluoridating public water, as part of a growing tendency for local governments to question the use of many chemicals that formerly been taken for granted."I think this pattern has been growing because there is better environmental health research that draws connections between low levels of chemical exposure and changes in our bodies," said Dr. Howard Hu of the University of Michigan. "As the research has become more sophisticated, it shows that environmental toxicants can do other things beyond just kill you: they can stunt your growth, change behavior and increase the risk of cardiovascular disease."Grand Rapids was the first city in the world to fluoride its public water supply, based on assurances from the government that the chemical reduces the risk of tooth decay while posing no serious risks. But based on a number of studies linking fluoride to problems with the thyroid, kidneys, central nervous system and skeletal system - including cancers - the city's director of environmental sustainability, Corky Overmyer, has ordered a new review of the scientific evidence concerning the risks and benefits of the chemical."This has been on my radar screen for a while," Overmyer said.Overmyer says that while he has not drawn any conclusions about the safety fluoride, the scientific evidence gave him reason enough for concern. Having already gotten chlorine removed from the city's water supply several years ago, Overmyer did not expect the vicious backlash that developed to his questioning of fluoride. From large medical associations to the mayor and even his own dentist, Overmyer's decision has drawn fierce criticism."I had no idea [fluoride] was that sensitive an issue," Overymyer said.Fluoridation opponents have cheered the news, however, confident that the scientific evidence will speak for itself."If Grand Rapids falls, that could be the beginning of the end of fluoride," said Paul Connett, director of the Fluoride Action Network.
Saturday, November 8, 2008
Thoughts
Government policy is a major contributor to crime, the level of which has risen a full third since 1970. Government has discouraged personal defense, upset community stability, and failed to provide a police and criminal justice system which effectively deters criminal activity. Victimless crime laws have stimulated crime.
We must stop subsidizing crime, by repealing victimless crime statutes. They will restore the natural right of personal defense, and allow neighborhoods to develop in a stable fashion. We must emphasize that justice is a matter between the criminal and victim - that the convicted criminal owes restitution to the victim, not to society or State. Thus we must urge local police and courts to focus upon restitution as a sentencing measure, increasing the deterrence and humaneness of criminal justice. W must halt punitive regulation of private security protection, and give greater recognition for the use of private arbitration. Those who initiate force and fraud against fellow human beings have always been with us, and probably always will be. What makes a society civilized, though, is the determination to reduce such vicious acts to a minimum.
We must stop subsidizing crime, by repealing victimless crime statutes. They will restore the natural right of personal defense, and allow neighborhoods to develop in a stable fashion. We must emphasize that justice is a matter between the criminal and victim - that the convicted criminal owes restitution to the victim, not to society or State. Thus we must urge local police and courts to focus upon restitution as a sentencing measure, increasing the deterrence and humaneness of criminal justice. W must halt punitive regulation of private security protection, and give greater recognition for the use of private arbitration. Those who initiate force and fraud against fellow human beings have always been with us, and probably always will be. What makes a society civilized, though, is the determination to reduce such vicious acts to a minimum.
Student stops robber
PHOENIX -- ASU student Alex Botsios said he had no problem giving a nighttime intruder his wallet and guitars.
When the man asked for Botsios' laptop, however, the first-year law student drew the line.
"I was like, 'Dude, no -- please, no!" Botsios said. "I have all my case notes…that's four months of work!"
Police said Gabriel Saucedo entered Botsios' apartment through an open window early Thursday morning. When Botsios woke up, Saucedo threatened him with a baseball bat, police said
"He was just like, 'I'm going to smash your head in,'" Botsios said.
At that point, the law student wrestled the bat away and began punching Saucedo, Botsios said.
"I basically grabbed him and threw him this way, and he held onto the bat so it threw him to the ground," he said.
Police said they took Saucedo to the hospital for stitches before they arrested him on charges of armed robbery and kidnapping. Other than a bruised knuckle and a few scratches, Botsios was unharmed.
http://www.kpho.com/news/17931454/detail.html
When the man asked for Botsios' laptop, however, the first-year law student drew the line.
"I was like, 'Dude, no -- please, no!" Botsios said. "I have all my case notes…that's four months of work!"
Police said Gabriel Saucedo entered Botsios' apartment through an open window early Thursday morning. When Botsios woke up, Saucedo threatened him with a baseball bat, police said
"He was just like, 'I'm going to smash your head in,'" Botsios said.
At that point, the law student wrestled the bat away and began punching Saucedo, Botsios said.
"I basically grabbed him and threw him this way, and he held onto the bat so it threw him to the ground," he said.
Police said they took Saucedo to the hospital for stitches before they arrested him on charges of armed robbery and kidnapping. Other than a bruised knuckle and a few scratches, Botsios was unharmed.
http://www.kpho.com/news/17931454/detail.html
Unemployment rate: 6.5%
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - The U.S. labor market has collapsed in the past three months, shedding 651,000 jobs and driving the unemployment rate to its highest point in more than 14 years, the Labor Department reported Friday.
U.S. nonfarm payrolls fell by 240,000 in October, worse than expected. Payrolls losses in September were revised down sharply to 284,000, the largest job loss in seven years.
Unemployment surged by 603,000 in October to 10.1 million, the highest level in 25 years, according to a survey of households. In the past six months, unemployment has leaped by 2.45 million, the largest increase since 1975.
"A stumbling economy seems to have been kicked down the stairs," said Lawrence Mishel, president of the Economic Policy Institute. "This is what a deep recession looks like."
So far in 2008, a total of 1.18 million jobs have been lost, according to the survey of work sites. Payrolls have fallen for 10 straight months. Read the full government report.
The last time the unemployment rate was as high as 6.5% was in March 1994. Most economists believe the jobless rate will probably rise to nearly 8% next year, territory last seen in the early 1980s.
U.S. nonfarm payrolls fell by 240,000 in October, worse than expected. Payrolls losses in September were revised down sharply to 284,000, the largest job loss in seven years.
Unemployment surged by 603,000 in October to 10.1 million, the highest level in 25 years, according to a survey of households. In the past six months, unemployment has leaped by 2.45 million, the largest increase since 1975.
"A stumbling economy seems to have been kicked down the stairs," said Lawrence Mishel, president of the Economic Policy Institute. "This is what a deep recession looks like."
So far in 2008, a total of 1.18 million jobs have been lost, according to the survey of work sites. Payrolls have fallen for 10 straight months. Read the full government report.
The last time the unemployment rate was as high as 6.5% was in March 1994. Most economists believe the jobless rate will probably rise to nearly 8% next year, territory last seen in the early 1980s.
Imperialism continued
Imperialism will continue with an Obama administration. Instead of imperialism with right wing slogans you have imperialism with left wing slogans. It is like the Carter administration again. We will hear that its about "human rights." NAFTA will be injected with steroids, Pakistan will be attacked and Sudan will be attacked. The goal will be to weaken Russia and China.
Obama is a new look for imperialism - one that will be supported.
http://www.wholetruthcoalition.org/2008/11/06/the-men-behind-obama/
Obama is a new look for imperialism - one that will be supported.
http://www.wholetruthcoalition.org/2008/11/06/the-men-behind-obama/
Friday, November 7, 2008
How to spend taxpayer money... how about an arrest?
DALLAS (CBS 11 News) ― The Cowboys Golf Course in Grapevine is an exceptional place to play. Hitting driver there is a dream for many local golfers. The plush rolling fairways and smooth greens can command one of the highest fees for a public course in all of North Texas. But it seems cost was no barrier for some high ranking executives from the Fannie Mae office in Dallas, which is located just off the North Dallas Tollway. Documents obtained by CBS 11 (Dallas) show at least 14 people in a recent Fannie Mae outing teed off at Cowboys at 1:30 p.m. on September 29 -- 22 days after the federal government took over Fannie to save the massive mortgage company from failure. The taxpayers tab for the golf outing was $6,279.26. According to this receipt, Fannie paid for 20 golfers. The 14 listed on the tee sheet included three Fannie executives from Dallas, two Fannie execs from Chicago and one from Washington, DC. The cost for golf alone was $3,316. According to the contract, golfing included a mango towel service. The contract also shows additional guests joined the golfers for dinner where they dined on over $1,700 worth of buffet food. Then came the bar tab. According to this receipt, they drank 49 bottles or cans of domestic beer, five Grey Goose vodkas, six Absolute vodkas, some Tanqueray, and 31 glasses of the house red wine. The total bar tab was $555.
Does this not scare you?
"Just because you have an individual right does not mean that the state or local government can't constrain the exercise of that right"
- Sen. Obama, April 16, 2008 (2008 Philadelphia primary debate)
- Sen. Obama, April 16, 2008 (2008 Philadelphia primary debate)
The future of your health?
The Supreme Court's decision that essentially turned over the future of your health to corporations:
Here's what happened. It's a case called Reigel vs. Medtronic. Now Medtronic is a manufacturer of medical devices. They make the angioplasty balloons among other things, and in this case Reigel died following a surgical procedure in which one of these angioplasty balloons exploded when it was in his artery.This medical device killed him; what a stupid situation this is. Now the FDA said that this device was approved, and then the Supreme Court ruled that because the FDA said this device was approved, the family of Reigel (again who died) could not sue the device manufacturer. Do you follow this? Your health has just been turned over to corporations and to a highly corrupt FDA. The Supreme Court has said in an 8:1 decision no less that you cannot sue a device manufacturer for any kind of harm caused by that medical device if the FDA put its stamp of approval on it.
Blanket immunity puts profit above public safetyNow that is astounding. It means that there is now blanket immunity for these corporations. They can never be held responsible any more for producing harmful devices that actually kill people. This will not stop with medical devices by the way. This is going to go on to pharmaceuticals. That is what's next. That's what the drug companies really want. In fact, they tried to have laws passed on this before. They tried to say that if the FDA approves a drug, it can therefore never possibly harm anyone. It cannot be harmful, and the drug companies should be immune to lawsuits from the families of people who died after taking the drugs. That is what the drug companies have said.Now the Supreme Court has given support to that argument on the medical device side. Once again, the Supreme Court has ruled in an 8:1 decision in Reigel vs. Medtronic. Any medical device that is FDA approved at a certain level, which means it has a certain classification of approval by the FDA, cannot possibly harm anyone, and no one can possibly sue the device manufacturer -- blanket immunity. It would be like granting immunity to Ford for making defective vehicles. Let's say they made a batch of defective trucks that killed people. What if the Supreme Court came in and ruled that since some government regulatory body approved the truck as safe, consumers could not sue Ford for defective materials, defective workmanship, poor design choices or cost cutting that compromised safety in order to create more profits?I just use Ford as an example. I do not mean to imply that Ford is involved in such a lawsuit, but car companies have historically been involved in these kinds of lawsuits because in many cases in the past -- such as the Ford Pinto -- these companies really did cut corners, and they made terrible design choices that, in fact, made their vehicles more dangerous. It is a basic premise of common law that a consumer can sue the manufacturer of a product if that product is defective and if it then harms the consumer.The Supreme Court has made this traitorous decision -- a decision that surrenders the rights of the people and enforces blanket immunity for corporations. Corporations that we know are making dangerous products, corporations that we know influence the FDA. Here is the real problem with this. If the FDA could actually be trusted, if the FDA was an agency that was actually engaged in real science and not just political decision-making in order to appease its clients, which include drug companies and medical device manufacturers.If we could trust the FDA, in other words, then you could perhaps argue with some amount of reason that device manufacturers should be immune if they had passed these super rigorous scientifically valid testing conducted by the FDA. However, that is not the case. The FDA is not an objective scientifically based organization that puts the health of consumers first. It is nothing like that. In fact, the FDA is operating as the de facto marketing branch of drug companies and medical device manufacturers. It promotes their interests solely at the expense of pubic health.
http://www.naturalnews.com/024727.html
Here's what happened. It's a case called Reigel vs. Medtronic. Now Medtronic is a manufacturer of medical devices. They make the angioplasty balloons among other things, and in this case Reigel died following a surgical procedure in which one of these angioplasty balloons exploded when it was in his artery.This medical device killed him; what a stupid situation this is. Now the FDA said that this device was approved, and then the Supreme Court ruled that because the FDA said this device was approved, the family of Reigel (again who died) could not sue the device manufacturer. Do you follow this? Your health has just been turned over to corporations and to a highly corrupt FDA. The Supreme Court has said in an 8:1 decision no less that you cannot sue a device manufacturer for any kind of harm caused by that medical device if the FDA put its stamp of approval on it.
Blanket immunity puts profit above public safetyNow that is astounding. It means that there is now blanket immunity for these corporations. They can never be held responsible any more for producing harmful devices that actually kill people. This will not stop with medical devices by the way. This is going to go on to pharmaceuticals. That is what's next. That's what the drug companies really want. In fact, they tried to have laws passed on this before. They tried to say that if the FDA approves a drug, it can therefore never possibly harm anyone. It cannot be harmful, and the drug companies should be immune to lawsuits from the families of people who died after taking the drugs. That is what the drug companies have said.Now the Supreme Court has given support to that argument on the medical device side. Once again, the Supreme Court has ruled in an 8:1 decision in Reigel vs. Medtronic. Any medical device that is FDA approved at a certain level, which means it has a certain classification of approval by the FDA, cannot possibly harm anyone, and no one can possibly sue the device manufacturer -- blanket immunity. It would be like granting immunity to Ford for making defective vehicles. Let's say they made a batch of defective trucks that killed people. What if the Supreme Court came in and ruled that since some government regulatory body approved the truck as safe, consumers could not sue Ford for defective materials, defective workmanship, poor design choices or cost cutting that compromised safety in order to create more profits?I just use Ford as an example. I do not mean to imply that Ford is involved in such a lawsuit, but car companies have historically been involved in these kinds of lawsuits because in many cases in the past -- such as the Ford Pinto -- these companies really did cut corners, and they made terrible design choices that, in fact, made their vehicles more dangerous. It is a basic premise of common law that a consumer can sue the manufacturer of a product if that product is defective and if it then harms the consumer.The Supreme Court has made this traitorous decision -- a decision that surrenders the rights of the people and enforces blanket immunity for corporations. Corporations that we know are making dangerous products, corporations that we know influence the FDA. Here is the real problem with this. If the FDA could actually be trusted, if the FDA was an agency that was actually engaged in real science and not just political decision-making in order to appease its clients, which include drug companies and medical device manufacturers.If we could trust the FDA, in other words, then you could perhaps argue with some amount of reason that device manufacturers should be immune if they had passed these super rigorous scientifically valid testing conducted by the FDA. However, that is not the case. The FDA is not an objective scientifically based organization that puts the health of consumers first. It is nothing like that. In fact, the FDA is operating as the de facto marketing branch of drug companies and medical device manufacturers. It promotes their interests solely at the expense of pubic health.
http://www.naturalnews.com/024727.html
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
bye bye national sovereignty
November 15th - powers that be are meeting regarding a new monetary system. So long dollar and so long national sovereignty. World currency and world regulations are on their way.
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
It's a start...
Massachusetts voters today approved a ballot initiative to decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana, making getting caught with less than an ounce of pot punishable by a civil fine of $100. The change in the law means someone found carrying as many as dozens of marijuana cigarettes will no longer be reported to the state’s criminal history board.
“The people were ahead of the politicians on this issue; they recognize and want a more sensible approach to our marijuana policy,” said Whitney Taylor, chairwoman of the Committee for Sensible Marijuana Policy, which campaigned for the ballot initiative. “They want to focus our limited law enforcement resources on serious and violent crimes. They recognize under the new law that the punishment will fit the offense.”
http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2008/11/question_2_setu.html
“The people were ahead of the politicians on this issue; they recognize and want a more sensible approach to our marijuana policy,” said Whitney Taylor, chairwoman of the Committee for Sensible Marijuana Policy, which campaigned for the ballot initiative. “They want to focus our limited law enforcement resources on serious and violent crimes. They recognize under the new law that the punishment will fit the offense.”
http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2008/11/question_2_setu.html
Thanks, but no thanks.
While high numbers of individuals gather to listen to Mr. Obama tell them what he is going to give them and distribute around, he also talked about giving and being a democracy. Excuse me Mr. Obama, if I may, I don't want anything from you. I don't want any promises. I want a president to tell me that he/she will allow for freedom, not run my life, and not take my money. AND, the biggest of all, I most certainly do not want a democracy. I want a republic! What our Founding Fathers intended.
A sickening display
Once again the possibility of liberty was washed away in a titlewave effect. The sheep followed the wolf's orders and neglected their responsibility. The United States of America was created because individuals sought to eliminate the stronghold of King George. These individuals craved liberty and pathed the way, yet today and the days of our past, and probably of our future have crafted an even greater stronghold than King George had over these individuals. John Adams stated: "The Revolution was effected before the War commenced. The Revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people; a change in their religious sentiments of their duties and obligations ... This radical change in the principles, opinions, sentiments, and affections of the people, was the real American Revolution." A revolution is warranted to recapture liberty on the land of the United States. When I hear people talk of a free market, no more welfare / warfare state, and constitutional government, I cannot choose but laugh. No such thing exists now and it is faint in the minds of many. But, I hope it will exist. It may be hundreds of years before I laugh no longer and you and I reach our destiny of peace, liberty, and prosperity.
May all understand that freedom brings people together, it does not divide.
May all understand that freedom brings people together, it does not divide.
Birth continues to haunt senator
U.S. Supreme Court Justice David Souter has rejected an emergency appeal for the court to halt the tabulation of the 2008 presidential election results until Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama documents his eligibility to run for the office, according to an attorney who brought the action that challenges the Illinois senator's standing in the race.
However, the issue isn't going away, at least for now, since Souter set a schedule for a response from Obama to the challenge from attorney Philip J. Berg.
WND reported earlier when Berg brought his claims to the Supreme Court. That move came after a federal judge dismissed Berg's lawsuit alleging Obama is ineligible to be president because of a possible birth in Kenya.
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=80072
However, the issue isn't going away, at least for now, since Souter set a schedule for a response from Obama to the challenge from attorney Philip J. Berg.
WND reported earlier when Berg brought his claims to the Supreme Court. That move came after a federal judge dismissed Berg's lawsuit alleging Obama is ineligible to be president because of a possible birth in Kenya.
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=80072
Dont vote?
The following is from Lew Rockwell:
On the other hand, we do have the freedom not to vote. No one has yet drafted us into the voting booth. I suggest that we exercise this right not to participate. It is one of the few rights we have left. Nonparticipation sends a message that we no longer believe in the racket they have cooked up for us, and we want no part of it.
You might say that this is ineffective. But what effect does voting have? It gives them what they need most: a mandate. Nonparticipation helps deny that to them. It makes them, just on the margin, a bit more fearful that they are ruling us without our consent. This is all to the good. The government should fear the people. Not voting is a good beginning toward instilling that fear.
This year especially there is no lesser of two evils. There is socialism or fascism. The true American spirit should guide every voter to have no part of either.
http://www.amconmag.com/article/2008/nov/03/00013/
On the other hand, we do have the freedom not to vote. No one has yet drafted us into the voting booth. I suggest that we exercise this right not to participate. It is one of the few rights we have left. Nonparticipation sends a message that we no longer believe in the racket they have cooked up for us, and we want no part of it.
You might say that this is ineffective. But what effect does voting have? It gives them what they need most: a mandate. Nonparticipation helps deny that to them. It makes them, just on the margin, a bit more fearful that they are ruling us without our consent. This is all to the good. The government should fear the people. Not voting is a good beginning toward instilling that fear.
This year especially there is no lesser of two evils. There is socialism or fascism. The true American spirit should guide every voter to have no part of either.
http://www.amconmag.com/article/2008/nov/03/00013/
Election day vote
While the candidates talk about themselves as if they can play referee, as if they can heal the nation’s wounds and stop Americans from being at one another’s throats, the very opposite is true: So much of the division in our society is caused by the government itself, and especially the presidency that is celebrated and heralded constantly but especially every four years at election time.
It is society that brings out the best of everyone’s differences and harmonizes them toward mutually beneficial aims. The market, community, civic and religious organizations, non-profits, businesses, and individuals working for their own dreams create social peace. There is no reason why businessmen, workers, entrepreneurs, artists, writers, athletes, plumbers, community organizers, and people of all walks of life, all religions and ethnic backgrounds, cannot coexist in peace and social consonance. The market economy in particular fosters a tolerance and harmony that allow hundreds of millions, actually billions, of people, each with very different interests and hopes, to live together in a world of honest competition and cooperation. The very fact that we are all different brings us together in peace, and society needs no presidents, no rulers of any kind, to experience the wonders of true diversity in an atmosphere of commerce, cultural exchange and liberty.
Consider the hysteria we have witnessed over the last couple weeks. Despite the nearly identical programs of both Obama and McCain – the continuation of the empire, the police state, the corporatist regulatory machine and entitlements, with some superficial differences here and there – millions of Americans are convinced this is "the most important election" in decades, if not since the birth of the American republic.
Because their two agendas are so similar, every minor difference becomes amplified into a question of immense international importance. Obama prefers a slightly higher tax rate on the highest tax bracket – thus he is a "socialist" whereas McCain is "laissez-faire." Obama wants to be more conventionally diplomatic while still beefing up the military and sending more troops to Afghanistan and maybe Pakistan and elsewhere, and so he is the "peace candidate."
Those of us who have paid close attention to American politics for years, and not just around election time but every day, can only be amused by the hysteria gripping the nation. Tens of millions of Americans wait in line to vote, and for what? Even the genuine major differences between the two – for example, who will actually kill more people abroad – is a matter of conjecture.
The two choices presented, unlike the zillions of choices available in the marketplace, were picked by establishment handlers and have been vetted to ensure they will continue business as usual. Meanwhile, the illusion of democracy tricks the populace into thinking the state is an extension of themselves, only bolstering the state’s capacity to commit oppression. Far from being a check on despotism, elections provide democratic states the social legitimacy to conduct all manners of mayhem.
It is society that brings out the best of everyone’s differences and harmonizes them toward mutually beneficial aims. The market, community, civic and religious organizations, non-profits, businesses, and individuals working for their own dreams create social peace. There is no reason why businessmen, workers, entrepreneurs, artists, writers, athletes, plumbers, community organizers, and people of all walks of life, all religions and ethnic backgrounds, cannot coexist in peace and social consonance. The market economy in particular fosters a tolerance and harmony that allow hundreds of millions, actually billions, of people, each with very different interests and hopes, to live together in a world of honest competition and cooperation. The very fact that we are all different brings us together in peace, and society needs no presidents, no rulers of any kind, to experience the wonders of true diversity in an atmosphere of commerce, cultural exchange and liberty.
Consider the hysteria we have witnessed over the last couple weeks. Despite the nearly identical programs of both Obama and McCain – the continuation of the empire, the police state, the corporatist regulatory machine and entitlements, with some superficial differences here and there – millions of Americans are convinced this is "the most important election" in decades, if not since the birth of the American republic.
Because their two agendas are so similar, every minor difference becomes amplified into a question of immense international importance. Obama prefers a slightly higher tax rate on the highest tax bracket – thus he is a "socialist" whereas McCain is "laissez-faire." Obama wants to be more conventionally diplomatic while still beefing up the military and sending more troops to Afghanistan and maybe Pakistan and elsewhere, and so he is the "peace candidate."
Those of us who have paid close attention to American politics for years, and not just around election time but every day, can only be amused by the hysteria gripping the nation. Tens of millions of Americans wait in line to vote, and for what? Even the genuine major differences between the two – for example, who will actually kill more people abroad – is a matter of conjecture.
The two choices presented, unlike the zillions of choices available in the marketplace, were picked by establishment handlers and have been vetted to ensure they will continue business as usual. Meanwhile, the illusion of democracy tricks the populace into thinking the state is an extension of themselves, only bolstering the state’s capacity to commit oppression. Far from being a check on despotism, elections provide democratic states the social legitimacy to conduct all manners of mayhem.
If you have fundamental disagreements with American politics, reject the whole system. So long as most Americans are swindled by the promises of mass democracy and distracted by its insanities, we cannot be free. So long as national unity is seen as a goal to be pursued through nationalism and the coercive central state, we will be needlessly divided.
Monday, November 3, 2008
Thought
"Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it." (unfortunately)
- George Bernard Shaw
- George Bernard Shaw
Election Day 2008...
Will we crown a new dictator or will we restore the republic?
It is a good time for some past thoughts:
We live in a time no longer emotional to the freedom we once craved. The sweat of our labor is but exactly that and I ask, where is the sweat of our freedom? Have we been so manipulated and redirected from the most precious virtue mankind has been endowed with? Our lives have become too routine that we have neglected our most necessary duty of true patriotism. We arise with the sun to boost chemically created fragrances and mask the truth of our expressionist faces, all the while adhering to single-minded formulations thrusted upon our doorstep. The lies have become hidden in our routine and our duty has been neglected by the unmotivated false nature erected around us. Day after day and year after year we are influenced by the same megalamoniacal arrogance that dictated our past days and years. When do we wake from our slumber and rise above our deliriousness? The time is no greater than now! No longer can we suffer the fate which has been brought upon us and of which we have not ever envisioned. Our thoughts, feelings, and true beliefs must rise above the demented philosophies flashing catchy connotations before us. Take heart your every move and bring passion to your most desires. For it is within you where all truth and hope resurrects. Once we all acknowledge the reality and truth we can stand on mountain tops and pass away fear, hatred, pain, and lies. While the crowd looks appeasing, search for the direction of righteousness and end destruction. The environment in which we crave is near only when every individual finds the desire and knowledge within himself and around himself. For when it is found there is no holding back. Success of liberty occurred a supposed unattainable victory and its time has come again. Rise up!
It is a good time for some past thoughts:
But a Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be
restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever.
- John Adams, letter to Abigail Adams, July 17, 1775
We live in a time no longer emotional to the freedom we once craved. The sweat of our labor is but exactly that and I ask, where is the sweat of our freedom? Have we been so manipulated and redirected from the most precious virtue mankind has been endowed with? Our lives have become too routine that we have neglected our most necessary duty of true patriotism. We arise with the sun to boost chemically created fragrances and mask the truth of our expressionist faces, all the while adhering to single-minded formulations thrusted upon our doorstep. The lies have become hidden in our routine and our duty has been neglected by the unmotivated false nature erected around us. Day after day and year after year we are influenced by the same megalamoniacal arrogance that dictated our past days and years. When do we wake from our slumber and rise above our deliriousness? The time is no greater than now! No longer can we suffer the fate which has been brought upon us and of which we have not ever envisioned. Our thoughts, feelings, and true beliefs must rise above the demented philosophies flashing catchy connotations before us. Take heart your every move and bring passion to your most desires. For it is within you where all truth and hope resurrects. Once we all acknowledge the reality and truth we can stand on mountain tops and pass away fear, hatred, pain, and lies. While the crowd looks appeasing, search for the direction of righteousness and end destruction. The environment in which we crave is near only when every individual finds the desire and knowledge within himself and around himself. For when it is found there is no holding back. Success of liberty occurred a supposed unattainable victory and its time has come again. Rise up!
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Codex Alimentarius - a danger to be aware of
"Codex Alimentarius," which refers to a set of strict regulations covering all aspects of food, is Latin for "food code" or "food regulations."
Modern Codex regulations are prepared by the Codex Alimentarius Commission (herein referred to as "Codex"), which works with the EU and UN in an attempt to regulate every aspect of food production, packaging, preparation, preservation, and presentation of food "from farm to fork." Codex also attempts to regulate supplemental nutrients. It even goes so far as to eliminate "organic produce" standards (through dilution)!
Because the U.S. is a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO), and because the WTO and other treaty agreements require the United States to adhere to Codex standards, any changes approved in Europe, and implemented in the EU-dominated Codex meetings, could subject the United States to WTO-enforced trade sanctions.
The plan is to suppress all beneficial, high-potency nutrients, and to allow only those and a few other vitamins and minerals that will be high-priced, low-dosage, and synthetically-made by drug companies.
Codex regulations will become binding internationally. Any nation that has entered into trade agreements through the WTO and its adjunctive treaties will eventually be forced to adopt Codex standards.
The drug industry, recognizing the growing preference for natural remedies over pharmaceuticals, wants nutritional supplements and herbs either forbidden or priced out of reach. In Europe, the drug cartel has succeeded in enacting the European Food Supplements Directive, which will accomplish that objective on the European continent very soon. This Directive, which passed into European Union (EU) law in 2002 and was implemented throughout the EU on August 1, 2005, is the first of several EU Directives to impact natural healthcare and is one of the bases for the Vitamin and Mineral Food Supplements Guidelines adopted by Codex Alimentarius.
Research it!
Modern Codex regulations are prepared by the Codex Alimentarius Commission (herein referred to as "Codex"), which works with the EU and UN in an attempt to regulate every aspect of food production, packaging, preparation, preservation, and presentation of food "from farm to fork." Codex also attempts to regulate supplemental nutrients. It even goes so far as to eliminate "organic produce" standards (through dilution)!
Because the U.S. is a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO), and because the WTO and other treaty agreements require the United States to adhere to Codex standards, any changes approved in Europe, and implemented in the EU-dominated Codex meetings, could subject the United States to WTO-enforced trade sanctions.
The plan is to suppress all beneficial, high-potency nutrients, and to allow only those and a few other vitamins and minerals that will be high-priced, low-dosage, and synthetically-made by drug companies.
Codex regulations will become binding internationally. Any nation that has entered into trade agreements through the WTO and its adjunctive treaties will eventually be forced to adopt Codex standards.
The drug industry, recognizing the growing preference for natural remedies over pharmaceuticals, wants nutritional supplements and herbs either forbidden or priced out of reach. In Europe, the drug cartel has succeeded in enacting the European Food Supplements Directive, which will accomplish that objective on the European continent very soon. This Directive, which passed into European Union (EU) law in 2002 and was implemented throughout the EU on August 1, 2005, is the first of several EU Directives to impact natural healthcare and is one of the bases for the Vitamin and Mineral Food Supplements Guidelines adopted by Codex Alimentarius.
Research it!
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Those drugs are legal? Oh, wait, they're prescription.
Perhaps a real drug war is in order:
The 2008, first quarter report of deaths and serious injuries associated with drug therapy was recently released by The Institute for Safe Medication Practices, a nonprofit organization whose stated goal is to educate the healthcare community and consumers about safe medication practices. The findings of this report are astounding.According to the information gathered from data submitted to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration during the first quarter of 2008, there were 20,745 reported serious injuries associated with drug therapy, up 34% from the previous quarter, and up 38% from last year`s average. Even more eye-opening than the number of serious injuries is the number of reported deaths – 4,824 people were reported killed from pharmaceutical drugs in the first quarter of 2008, a 2.6 fold increase from the previous quarter. This figure represents the highest number of patient deaths ever reported in a single quarter as a result of drug therapy. It also accounts for more deaths than those due to homicide during the same period.
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, about 2.5 million people die every year in the United States. Assuming a 10% reporting rate of adverse events to drug therapy based on Q1, 2008 data, it can be concluded that about 8% of the deaths that occur every year in America are due to complications with pharmaceutical drugs. Assuming only a 1% reporting rate, that percentage increases to over 77%. Thus, it can be estimated that the number of people that die every year in the U.S. from adverse drug effects is anywhere from about 192,000 to almost 2,000,000.
It becomes abundantly clear from this report that no one knows for sure exactly how many people are negatively affected by pharmaceutical drugs, but that the number is quite large and is getting increasingly larger. Even on the low end of the estimate spectrum, the data elucidates the obviously prodigious danger of pharmaceutical drugs and the inadequate work being performed by the FDA in protecting the public from dangerous drugs.
http://www.naturalnews.com/024632.html
The 2008, first quarter report of deaths and serious injuries associated with drug therapy was recently released by The Institute for Safe Medication Practices, a nonprofit organization whose stated goal is to educate the healthcare community and consumers about safe medication practices. The findings of this report are astounding.According to the information gathered from data submitted to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration during the first quarter of 2008, there were 20,745 reported serious injuries associated with drug therapy, up 34% from the previous quarter, and up 38% from last year`s average. Even more eye-opening than the number of serious injuries is the number of reported deaths – 4,824 people were reported killed from pharmaceutical drugs in the first quarter of 2008, a 2.6 fold increase from the previous quarter. This figure represents the highest number of patient deaths ever reported in a single quarter as a result of drug therapy. It also accounts for more deaths than those due to homicide during the same period.
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, about 2.5 million people die every year in the United States. Assuming a 10% reporting rate of adverse events to drug therapy based on Q1, 2008 data, it can be concluded that about 8% of the deaths that occur every year in America are due to complications with pharmaceutical drugs. Assuming only a 1% reporting rate, that percentage increases to over 77%. Thus, it can be estimated that the number of people that die every year in the U.S. from adverse drug effects is anywhere from about 192,000 to almost 2,000,000.
It becomes abundantly clear from this report that no one knows for sure exactly how many people are negatively affected by pharmaceutical drugs, but that the number is quite large and is getting increasingly larger. Even on the low end of the estimate spectrum, the data elucidates the obviously prodigious danger of pharmaceutical drugs and the inadequate work being performed by the FDA in protecting the public from dangerous drugs.
http://www.naturalnews.com/024632.html
Joke - for a laugh
While walking down the street one day, a US senator is tragically hit by a truck and dies. His soul arrives in heaven and is met by St. Peter atthe entrance. 'Welcome to heaven,' says St. Pete. 'Before you settle in, it seems there is a problem. We seldom see a highofficial around these parts, you see, so we're not sure what to do withyou.' 'No problem, just let me in,' says the senator. 'Well, I'd like to, but I have orders from higher up. What we'll dois have you spend one day in hell and one day in heaven. Then you canchoose where to spend eternity.' Really, I've made up my mind. I want to be in heaven,' says thesenator. 'I'm sorry, but we have our rules.' And with that, St. Pete escorts him to the elevator and he goes down,down, down to hell. The doors open and he finds himself in the middle of agreen golf course. In the distance is a clubhouse and standing in front of it are all hisfriends and other politicians who had worked with him. Everyone is very happy and in evening dress. They run to greet him,shake his hand and reminisce about the good times they had while gettingrich at the expense of the common people. They play a friendly game of golf and then dine on lobster, caviarand champagne. Also present is the devil - really a very friendly guy who has a goodtime dancing and telling jokes. They are having such a good time thatbefore he realizes it, it is time to go. Everyone gives him a hearty farewell and waves while the elevatorrises.... The elevator goes up, up, up and the door reopens on heaven where St.Pete is waiting for him. 'Now it's time to visit heaven.' So, 24 hours pass with the senator joining a group of contented soulsfloating from cloud to cloud, playing the harp and singing. They have agood time, and, before he realizes it, the 24 hour have gone by and St.Peter returns. 'Well, then, you've spent a day in hell and another in heaven. Now choose your eternity.' The senator reflects for a minute, then answers: 'Well, I would neverhave said it before, I mean heaven has been delightful and all, but I thinkI would be happier in hell.' So St. Peter escorts him down to the elevator and he goes down, down,down to hell. Now the doors of the elevator open and he's in the middle of a barrenland covered with waste and garbage. He sees all his friends dressed in rags picking up the trash andputting it in black bags as more trash falls from above... The devil comes over to him and puts his arm around his shoulder. 'I don't understand,' stammers the senator. 'Yesterday I was hereand there was a golf course and clubhouse, and we ate lobster and caviar,drank champagne and danced and had a great time. Now there's nothing buta wasteland full of garbage and all of my friends look miserable. Whathappened?' The devil looks at him, smiles and says................
'Yesterday we were campaigning. Today you voted!!'
'Yesterday we were campaigning. Today you voted!!'
irrational overreaction?
Aspirin and other nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are about 80 times more deadly than terrorism if you live in North America.
According to this paper published in the Annals of Internal Medicine in 1997, NSAIDs are estimated to kill 7,965 people every year in the US and Canada. The statistics do not represent people overdosing on aspirin, rather, they're from people taking normal doses prescribed by doctors and dying from the side-effects. This is shocking when compared with the terrorism statistics published in the MIPT Terrorism Knowledge Base, which reveal that only 3,576 people have died in North America as a result of terrorism since 1968.
In fact, aspirin and related drugs kill far more people in the US and Canada every year than terrorism kills in the entire world.
According to this paper published in the Annals of Internal Medicine in 1997, NSAIDs are estimated to kill 7,965 people every year in the US and Canada. The statistics do not represent people overdosing on aspirin, rather, they're from people taking normal doses prescribed by doctors and dying from the side-effects. This is shocking when compared with the terrorism statistics published in the MIPT Terrorism Knowledge Base, which reveal that only 3,576 people have died in North America as a result of terrorism since 1968.
In fact, aspirin and related drugs kill far more people in the US and Canada every year than terrorism kills in the entire world.
Hate Criminals?
British researchers say they've identified a "hate circuit" in the brain.
This hate circuit shares part of the brain associated with aggression, but is distinct from areas related to emotions such as fear, threat, and danger, said researchers Professor Semir Zeki and John Romaya, of University College London's laboratory of neurobiology.
The study was published online Oct. 29 in the journal PLoS One.
"Hate is often considered to be an evil passion that should, in a better world, be tamed, controlled, and eradicated," Zeki said in a journal news release.
Activity in parts of the hate circuit matches the strength of the person's declared intensity of hate, "thus allowing the subjective state of hate to be objectively quantified. This finding may have legal implications in criminal cases. Wouldn't this be a shame!
http://news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20081029/hl_hsn/scientistsidentifybrainshatecircuit
This hate circuit shares part of the brain associated with aggression, but is distinct from areas related to emotions such as fear, threat, and danger, said researchers Professor Semir Zeki and John Romaya, of University College London's laboratory of neurobiology.
The study was published online Oct. 29 in the journal PLoS One.
"Hate is often considered to be an evil passion that should, in a better world, be tamed, controlled, and eradicated," Zeki said in a journal news release.
Activity in parts of the hate circuit matches the strength of the person's declared intensity of hate, "thus allowing the subjective state of hate to be objectively quantified. This finding may have legal implications in criminal cases. Wouldn't this be a shame!
http://news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20081029/hl_hsn/scientistsidentifybrainshatecircuit
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Pro Second Amendment? or just another business?
I once was a proud member of the National Rifle Association. Now, I am just a member and that may be just because I have a while before the expiration of my membership. The NRA has proven itself to be nothing more than the status-quo, lack of willpower business! The NRA had the opportunity to rally millions of members behind a pro-second Amendment candidate, but it chose not to. They believe that John McCain will protect their right. HA! Nothing more than a joke...
"The last thing we need is another liberal neocon in the White House. If the presidency of George W. Bush proved anything, it proved the hazard of electing phony Republican conservatives. At least one is able to clearly see a liberal for what he or she is when they have a "D" behind their name. But put an "R" behind the name and suddenly their liberal, Big-Government, anti-freedom agenda is barely recognized, which makes a liberal Republican much more dangerous than a liberal Democrat.
"Nowhere is McCain's chicanery and duplicity more jeopardous than in the area of the right to keep and bear arms. On issues relating to the Second Amendment, John McCain is a disaster! For example, the highly respected Gun Owners of America (GOA) rates McCain with a grade of F-. McCain's failing grade is well deserved.
"The GOA report of the 106th Congress reveals that out of 15 votes relating to the right to keep and bear arms, Senator John McCain voted favorably only 4 times. Put that into a percentage and McCain's pro-Second Amendment voting record is a pathetic 27%.
"If John McCain's proposed legislation were to become law, a gun owner who travels with a gun through a school zone or who uses one of the family handguns to go target shooting with a 15-year old could be sent to prison. And a person who uses a gun for self-defense could be sent to prison for a mandatory minimum of five years.
"I wonder how many gun owners and other professing pro-freedom Americans have already fallen victim to McCain's phony conservative campaign?"
http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/mccain_gungrabber_101308.html
"The last thing we need is another liberal neocon in the White House. If the presidency of George W. Bush proved anything, it proved the hazard of electing phony Republican conservatives. At least one is able to clearly see a liberal for what he or she is when they have a "D" behind their name. But put an "R" behind the name and suddenly their liberal, Big-Government, anti-freedom agenda is barely recognized, which makes a liberal Republican much more dangerous than a liberal Democrat.
"Nowhere is McCain's chicanery and duplicity more jeopardous than in the area of the right to keep and bear arms. On issues relating to the Second Amendment, John McCain is a disaster! For example, the highly respected Gun Owners of America (GOA) rates McCain with a grade of F-. McCain's failing grade is well deserved.
"The GOA report of the 106th Congress reveals that out of 15 votes relating to the right to keep and bear arms, Senator John McCain voted favorably only 4 times. Put that into a percentage and McCain's pro-Second Amendment voting record is a pathetic 27%.
"If John McCain's proposed legislation were to become law, a gun owner who travels with a gun through a school zone or who uses one of the family handguns to go target shooting with a 15-year old could be sent to prison. And a person who uses a gun for self-defense could be sent to prison for a mandatory minimum of five years.
"I wonder how many gun owners and other professing pro-freedom Americans have already fallen victim to McCain's phony conservative campaign?"
http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/mccain_gungrabber_101308.html
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