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Mom sues police over arrest | News
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  Sun, 16 Sep 2012 13:09
  LA PORTE, Texas - A stay-at-home mom from La Porte has filed a lawsuit against the city's police department, an unknown officer and one of her neighbors.
  Tammy Cooper said she was wrongly accused of endangering her children and was even forced to spend the night in jail, all because she let her kids play outside.
  She said her children, ages 9 and 6, were riding their motorized scooters in the cul-de-sac where they live while she watched from a lawn chair in her front yard just a few feet away.
  "I was out there the entire time," Cooper said. "I never left that lawn chair the entire time."
  Cooper said a little while later, a La Porte police car pulled up in front of her home.
  "I went out there to see what he was here for and he said, 'Ma'am, we're here for you.' I said, 'Oh really? Why?' He proceeded to tell me he had received a call from one of my neighbors that my kids were riding their scooters unsupervised.
  Cooper said she was handcuffed, put in the back of a police car and forced to spend the night in jail.
  "Orange jumpsuit, in a cell, slammed the door, for 18 hours," Cooper said.
  The charges against her were eventually dropped but she still describes the ordeal as humiliating and said her children were even questioned by police and terrified.
  "My daughter had him (the police officer) around the leg saying, "Please, please don't take my mom to jail. Please, she didn't do anything wrong,'" said Cooper.
  The La Porte Police department issued a statement saying;
  "...we are confident in the known actions of the responding officers. In addition, officers did contact the Harris County District Attorney's Office while on the scene that evening, upon which their Office accepted charges of Abandoning a Child on Ms. Cooper."
  Cooper said the ordeal has been stressful, time consuming and costly. She said her family has already shelled out $7,000 in legal fees.
  "I hope that what I went through doesn't go unpunished - that there are consequences for a bad decision," Cooper said.
Society now criminalizing parents that allow children to play in the yard
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  Source: Infowars » Featured Stories
  Sun, 16 Sep 2012 13:04
  What is the world coming to?
  Ethan A. HuffNaturalNewsSunday, September 16, 2012
  A Virginia mother was recently interrogated four times by police, and visited twice by social services, after neighbors spotted the mother's children playing in their own yard unsupervised, and decided to report the non-incident to local authorities.
  According to Lenore Skenazy of Free-Range Kids, such hysteria and Stasi-style paranoia are becoming the norm in America, where children are being excessively coddled, overprotected, and treated as though they are always in grave danger of being kidnapped or harmed.
  During a recent interview with Alex Jones on The Alex Jones Show, Skenazy reflects on how the days when society's youth could simply ride their bicycles to school or into the woods, climb their neighbors' trees, or play at the local park by themselves without adult supervision are essentially gone. Today, it is practically considered abnormal in many areas for young children to even be outside at all, let alone to be exploring on their own or with their friends.
  ''What's happening '... is parents who let their children play outside, walk to school, or go to the grocery (store) for them often have neighbors who turn them in, supposedly out of concern '... and what happens is Child Protective Services (CPS) is obligated to come and check out whether or not these parents are being negligent, or worse abusive,'' says Skenazy, who receives calls all the time from parents that are being persecuted by law enforcement for allowing their kids to play outside.
  ''What has happened is that the parents are found wrong by the police or CPS for leaving their children in what CPS calls 'a dangerous situation,' which I would call a 'normal, nice situation.' In fact, less dangerous than just letting your kids sit inside all day getting fat and diabetic, you let your kids run outside or have some independent adventures, that's considered bad parenting now.''
  Texas woman forced to spend night in jail for supervising kids' outdoor playtime
  A d v e r t i s e m e n tJust a few days ago, for instance, Tammy Cooper of La Porte, Texas, was actually handcuffed and arrested for allowing her children to play outside on their motorized scooters in the family's cul-de-sac. Cooper was forced to spend the night in jail for this non-crime, despite the fact that she had been outside with her two children watching them the entire time.(http://thestir.cafemom.com/big_kid/143276/mom_arrested_sent_to_jail)
  ''It is so unusual for parents to let their children play outside, or climb a tree, that they are being turned in as negligent,'' adds Skenazy. ''The immediate assumption is that something's wrong, they escaped, maybe they've been kidnapped by somebody, or could be kidnapped, that's the big fear.''
  On her blog, Skenazy documents all sorts of wild cases involving the disturbing societal trend of people calling the police and CPS on neighbors that allow their children to play outside, as if letting kids be kids was some sort of crime (http://www.freerangekids.com/).
  Be sure to watch Skenazy's full interview with Alex Jones by visiting:http://www.prisonplanet.com
  Sources for this article include:
  http://www.prisonplanet.com
  Tags: police state
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Freedom of Speech In The West Is Constrained By The ''Conspiracy Theory'' Label
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  Source: Infowars » Featured Stories
  Sun, 16 Sep 2012 13:03
  Saman MohammadiInfowars.comSunday, September 16, 2012
  What would free speech icon Voltaire say about the political and social marginalization of the 9/11 truth movement?
  ''Have patience awhile; slanders are not long-lived. Truth is the child of time; erelong she shall appear to vindicate thee.'' - Immanuel Kant.
  ''A public can only arrive at enlightenment slowly. Through revolution, the abandonment of personal despotism may be engendered and the end of profit-seeking and domineering oppression may occur, but never a true reform of the state of mind. Instead, new prejudices, just like the old ones, will serve as the guiding reins of the great, unthinking mass.
  All that is required for this enlightenment is freedom; and particularly the least harmful of all that may be called freedom, namely, the freedom for man to make public use of his reason in all matters. But I hear people clamor on all sides: Don't argue! The officer says: Don't argue, drill! The tax collector: Don't argue, pay! The pastor: Don't argue, believe!'' - Immanuel Kant.
  The dethroning of sacred narratives and sacred myths in a culture is impossible without a free press. No such institution exists in the West, which explains why the official 9/11 story is still considered a sacred narrative in the Western mind eleven years after the traumatic events.
  There is censorship in the mainstream media, and most of it is self-censorship, as heroic British journalist Alan Hart said in this interview. What this proves is that America and the Western world is just as totalitarian as the Islamic Republic of Iran and the religion of Islam.
  The Muslim world's intense reaction to the anti-Islam film which originated from America is a reminder that blasphemous offenses to totalitarian cultures and religions are not tolerated. People want their beliefs to be validated and consider them sacrosanct. Both rational criticism and monstrous insults are forbidden.
  In Islam, Muhammad's image can't be criticized because it is sacred; in the West the official 9/11 story can't be criticized because it is sacred. The claim that there is freedom of speech in America and the West is a big lie. Sure, you can criticize Islam and foreign countries, but there are social and political restrictions upon speech when the 9/11 lie or the crimes of Israel are brought up for discussion.
  The vicious trick that is used to cover up this blatant double standard is the ''conspiracy theory'' label. This label is the peaceful way of cutting off a heretic's head in the West. It is less savage than the Islamic method of dealing with heretics and blasphemous disbelievers, but it is just as effective.
  People who use the label ''conspiracy theorist'' in a debate about the 9/11 events are intellectual savages who have the sword of error in their hand. They can't win the battle of ideas with rational arguments so they pull out their sword and tell you to submit to the official U.S. line on 9/11 or face the axe of ridicule. The individuals who refuse to kneel are branded as ''conspiracy theorists,'' and ''crazy truthers.''
  This has to be the dark ages because we're definitely not living in an enlightened civilization. We are going through another episode of collective madness in the history of mankind.
  There is so much censorship in the U.S. and the West that when one little fact about 9/11 penetrates through the fog of propaganda it is viewed as a big success. And censorship is not even the biggest barrier to truth. The religious nature of the 9/11 story makes it that much more difficult for the voices of reason in the 9/11 truth movement to get anywhere with people who are still in denial.
  It's not the fog of propaganda that blocks the penetration of the truth about 9/11, but the sky of religious thought that dominates how people think about 9/11. Millions of people are religiously wedded to the official account of 9/11. Saying 9/11 was an inside job in the West is like saying Muhammad was a pedophile in the Muslim world. The reaction to 9/11 truth statements is blind rage, hate, and contempt. And it is deeply religious.
  The Muslim extremists who are burning American flags in response to a stupid anti-Islam film (at least that's how it appears on the surface) are just as irrational as 9/11 truth deniers in the West who symbolically burn 9/11 truth documentaries and books by rejecting them as ''conspiracy theories.'' The difference is a matter of degrees.
  Preventing the circulation of ideas, facts, and opinions is the worst crime in society. The Stalinists and Goebbelites who hijacked the American government under the cover of terror are as bad as the torturers of the Inquisition. But there is at least some sort of civilized society left because the truthers haven't been burned yet.
  It speaks to the political development of America and Western civilization that Western governments have not used violence against the truthers to intimidate them into silence and crush dissent.
  But even if violence is used in the future, it cannot stop the truth about 9/11 from being known. The 9/11 truth movement will continue to expand because it is based on rational arguments, public evidence, and the use of reason.
  On September 11, 2012, Glenn Greenwald spoke about the current state of knowledge about the 9/11 events and the political handling of new 9/11 findings in a conversation with Sam Seder, host of The Majority Report. Greenwald said:
  ''Well, one of the things that is really kind of remarkable is that the idea of the 9/11 Commission was supposed to be that given the magnitude of this attack it was vital to have a comprehensive account of what took place that would be free of partisanship and that everyone could trust as the official version of the events.
  And even more than ten years later, we're on the 11th anniversary today as we're talking, large parts of the 9/11 Commission report itself remain classified. There have been very prominent politicians likeBob Graham, who was the Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman at the time, and others who have said that in particular the role of very influential Saudis in the attack and financing the groups and the terrorist circle responsible for these attacks have been very aggressively shielded by a U.S. government that continues to have this very close alliance with the Saudis.
  And so, never mind a sort of future investigation, even the one we have is still very much suppressed in lots of material ways. And I'm not sure that there really is an outcry or will be an outcry. I think you'll hear some Democrats, you know, trying to exploit this newest revelation to blame the Republicans for the 9/11 attack, and, as you say, exactly many of the same ones will be demanding that torture be not looked into on the grounds that we have to look forward and not backward.
  But I think that by and large the country was successfully persuaded that the attack was essentially an act of evil by foreign radicals who hate the United States and that the leadership of our country responded rather well. And I'm not sure there's really an opportunity, even given the large amounts of evidence, to change that narrative among large numbers of people.'' '' Glenn Greenwald, in a conversation with Sam Seder, host of The Majority Report, on September 11, 2012. [listen the quote from 25:44 - 27:48 in the video].
  Greenwald says that the reason why it is difficult to change collective perceptions of the U.S. government, the U.S. media, and American society in general is the power of the American mythology to blind the American people to the reality of present day America. He said:
  ''There is a mythology that Americans have embraced about their own country and about their own government. And it basically teaches that while our government might do things inefficiently, or even corruptly, that basically tyranny is only something that happens in other countries and propaganda is only something that happens in other countries.
  Americans believe that we have a free country, which means we have a free and vibrant press, that acts of our government are subjected to real scrutiny and accountability through our institutions designed to check power like courts and the media. And that this is an important thing for us to believe, that we are a beacon of freedom and press freedom, and that propaganda and tyranny and oppression only happens in these other countries like North Korea and Iran and whatever the U.S. enemy of the week is.
  And so to believe that the American people have been radically deceived about critical historical events, and that this truth has been hidden, really calls into question all of those mythological assumptions about how we like to think of ourselves. And to really start believing that those things are true we have to abandon those assumptions about how we think of ourselves and that's an unpleasant, difficult, and painful thing to do. And I think the desire to really embrace this exceptionalism by continuing to believe that basically the truth is being told to us by our government and by our media aids and abets the ability to deceive in a fairly fundamental way.'' [Listen the quote from 31:31 - 33:01 in the video].
  It is inevitable that the 9/11 mythology will collapse. No earthly political authority can suppress the truth and the cry of justice. The voice of reason will have the last say in the 9/11 debate, not totalitarian propaganda and political fantasy.
  Originally appeared at The Excavator.
  Tags: constitution, police state
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Redactie Telegraaf bevraagt Paradijs
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  Source: Een andere kijk op nieuws @infomagnl » Nieuws items
  Sun, 16 Sep 2012 13:01
  gecureerd van www.villamedia.nl op 16 september 2012De redactieraad van De Telegraaf heeft hoofdredacteur Sjuul Paradijs vragen gesteld over de nauwe relatie met het machtige Haagse pr-bureau Sparrow & Partners. De raad schrok van de suggestie dat de integriteit van de krant wederom op het spel stond, na de affaires met Martijn Koolhoven en voormalig adjunct Paul Rijpkema. De affaires leidden - mede - tot invoering van nieuwe integriteitsregels bij de krant.De Telegraafredactie is inzetbaar voor de belangen van pr bureau Sparrow & partners in Den Haag, zo schreef NRC Handelsblad. Hoofdredacteur Sjuul Paradijs werd aan de verdachte ex-rechter Pieter Kalbfleisch 'aangeboden' om De Telegraaf voor zijn zaak in te zetten, bij een priv paasontbijt bij Jeroen Sparrow thuis.
  Redactieraadsvoorzitter Johan van den Dongen bevestigt de vragen: 'In dit geval wilden we weten wat er precies is gebeurd. Daar is even overleg over geweest met Sjuul Paradijs. Dat is overigens geen bijzonderheid. Redactieraad en hoofdredactie spreken dagelijks met elkaar.'
  Het blijft bij deze vragen, zegt Van den Dongen: 'Uit zijn antwoorden maken we op dat we toch twijfels moeten stellen bij wat er in NRC heeft gestaan. Ik vind het verder niet juist om nog meer naar buiten te brengen.'
  Baren de permanent goede banden tussen Paradijs en Sparrow & Partners de redactieraad zorgen? Van den Dongen: 'Ik ga niet op de stoel zitten van verslaggevers van ons, ook niet op die van de hoofdredacteur. We maken onze keuzes op basis van gezond verstand en we weten, zo goed en zo kwaad als het is, hoever we kunnen gaan. Die verantwoordelijkheid laat ik over aan Sjuul Paradijs.'
  Bekijk orgineel item op www.villamedia.nl
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Lehman Brothers, We Heard You Were Dead
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  Source: Een andere kijk op nieuws @infomagnl » Nieuws items
  Sun, 16 Sep 2012 13:00
  gecureerd van nytimes.com op 16 september 2012Lehman Brothers is having a great year. The bank, which almost destroyed the global economy four years ago this week, recently emerged from bankruptcy, resolved a third of its debts and executed the largest U.S. real estate deal of the year. Today, the company appears an awful lot like a normal investment bank. Its trading floor '-- on one of the two floors Lehman occupies in the Time & Life Building in Midtown Manhattan '-- is filled with dozens of young people who stare at financial graphs on Bloomberg terminals and talk in the hallways about the deals they're working on.Except that Lehman's sole objective is to sell everything it owns so it can repay its lenders and disappear. The reason it has taken so long (and will take many more years) is that selling off the pieces of a big investment bank is almost ineffably complicated. Banks have few physical assets, and they go fast. (Lehman sold its headquarters the day after its bankruptcy.) A bank's main value is really just a huge pile of promises. Banks borrow money (often from other banks) and promise to pay it back; then they lend that money (again, often to other banks) on the promise that they'll return it, too. Every bank could collapse if more than a small percentage of people ask for their money at once.
  Bekijk orgineel item op nytimes.com
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VIDEO: Weinstein wants talks on movie violence
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  Source: BBC News - Home
  Sun, 16 Sep 2012 12:58
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230 arrested in Antwerp riot (video)
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  Source: WT news feed
  Sun, 16 Sep 2012 12:55
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  An unauthorised demonstration in protest against the anti Islam video 'Innocence of Muslims' made in the US resulted in rioting in the Borgerhout district of Antwerp on Saturday night.
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Six U.S. fighter jets destroyed in fortified Afghan base: NATO.
  Link to Article
  Source: WT news feed
  Sun, 16 Sep 2012 12:54
  Six U.S. fighter jets were destroyed and two significantly damaged when insurgents stormed a heavily fortified Afghan base where Britain's Prince Harry is deployed on Friday, a NATO spokesman said.
  Lieutenant Colonel Hagen Messer conceded that the scale of damage, carried out by more than a dozen attackers dressed in U.S. Army uniforms and armed with guns, rockets and suicide vests who managed to storm the airfield, was unprecedented.
  Three coalition refueling stations were also destroyed and six aircraft hangars damaged in the assault at Camp Bastion in southern Helmand province, one of the toughest battlegrounds of the war, the U.S.-led NATO force said.
  In a statement, it said the attack was ''well-coordinated'' and carried out by around 15 insurgents, who were organized into three teams and who penetrated the perimeter fence.
  ''The insurgents appeared to be well equipped, trained and rehearsed,'' targeting fighter jets and helicopters parked next to the runway, the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said in the statement released nearly 36 hours after the assault began.
  Meanwhile, four soldiers fighting with the NATO-led alliance were killed in an attack believed to involve members of the Afghan police in southern Afghanistan on Sunday, the coalition said.
  The attack came a day after two British soldiers were shot dead by an Afghan policeman while returning from a patrol in southern Helmand province, one of the strongholds of the Taliban-led insurgency.
  The shooting took place in Zabol, a southern province where U.S. forces are based, according to a local official, who said all four soldiers killed were American.
  One attacker who was wearing an Afghan National Police uniform (ANP) was also killed in the fighting, the source said.
  At least 51 foreign military personnel have been killed in ''insider'' attacks this year, attacks which have put a heavy strain on trust between the coalition and Afghanistan as they move towards handing security responsibility to Afghan forces by the end of 2014.
  The rise in such attacks has led to the training of new recruits to the Afghan army and police being suspended.
  With foreign combat troops withdrawing from the increasingly unpopular and expensive war, the enormous cultural divide that still separates Afghans and their allies after 11 years of conflict has become more of a concern than ever.
  The NATO-led coalition and its Afghan counterparts have created a special Joint Casualties Assessment Team to investigate every attack, which number at least 37 this year.
  In more than half of cases, attackers are either killed or escape and the motive never emerges, making it more difficult for the coalition to stem the surge.
Marijuana Compound Found Superior To Drugs For Alzheimer's.
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  Source: DaDenMan news feed
  Sun, 16 Sep 2012 12:52
  Could the active ingredient in marijuana, responsible for its characteristic "high," help turn the tide against the accelerating Alzheimer's epidemic?
  A remarkable study published in the journal Molecular Pharmacology in 2006, found that this long vilified plant contains a compound with not one, but two therapeutic properties ideal for addressing both the surface symptom (memory problems) and root cause (brain plaque) of Alzheimer's disease.[i] This is an ironic finding, considering that the prevailing stereotype is that using marijuana "fries" the brain, leading to debilitating memory issues.
  Researchers discovered that the psychoactive component of marijuana, Î--9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), both "competitively inhibits the enzyme acetylcholinesterase (AChE) as well as prevents AChE-induced amyloid Î²-peptide (AÎ²) aggregation."
  On the first account, THC's ability to inhibit the AChE enzyme, is not unlike the mechanism of action behind most Alzheimer's drugs on the market today. Drugs like donepezil (trade name Aricept), for instance, by targeting and inhibiting the brain enzyme acetylcholinesterase (AChE), result in an increase in brain levels of this neurotransmitter, which in turn, results in symptom reduction, i.e. improved memory. Donepezil, however, is riddled with controversy due its well-known association with seizures, which likely reflects its intrinsic neurotoxicity. It is, in fact, a chemical in the same general chemical class as venom, insecticides and chemical war agents, such as nerve gas.
  On the second account, THC's ability to prevent the acetylcholinesterase-associated amyloid Î²-peptide (AÎ²) aggregation, i.e. brain plaque, indicates that it may, as the researchers noted, "directly impact Alzheimer's disease pathology." In fact, they found "Compared to currently approved drugs prescribed for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease, THC is a considerably superior inhibitor of AÎ² aggregation, and this study provides a previously unrecognized molecular mechanism through which cannabinoid molecules may directly impact the progression of this debilitating disease."
  What is so encouraging about this research, and which the researchers described as "noteworthy," is the following:
  THC is a considerably more effective inhibitor of AChE-induced AÎ² deposition than the approved drugs for Alzheimer's disease treatment, donepezil and tacrine, which reduced AÎ² aggregation by only 22% and 7%, respectively, at twice the concentration used in our studies.7 Therefore, AChE inhibitors such as THC and its analogues may provide an improved therapeutic for Alzheimer's disease, augmenting acetylcholine levels by preventing neurotransmitter degradation and reducing AÎ² aggregation, thereby simultaneously treating both the symptoms and progression of Alzheimer's disease.
  THC, of course, is only one of a wide range of cannabinoids in the plant marijuana. Not only is there already plentiful information on the neuroprotective properties of marijuana compounds, but there is also a sizeable body of clinical and/or biomedical research indicating the medicinal value of this plant in over 150 health conditions. To view this research visit our Medical Marijuana Research page.
  [i] Lisa M Eubanks, Claude J Rogers, Albert E Beuscher, George F Koob, Arthur J Olson, Tobin J Dickerson, Kim D Janda . A molecular link between the active component of marijuana and Alzheimer's disease pathology. Mol Pharm. 2006 Nov-Dec;3(6):773-7. PMID: 17140265
  Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of GreenMedInfo or its staff.
Anouk toch niet naar Songfestival?
  Link to Article
  Source: Telegraaf.nl - prive
  Sun, 16 Sep 2012 12:47
  zo 16 sep 2012, 13:32
  van onze redactieAMSTERDAM - Anouk weet helemaal niets van de geprekken die ze zou hebben gevoerd over haar deelname aan het Eurovisie Songfestival.
  "Goh, ik lees nu overal dat ik nu toch mee ga doen aan het Songfestival? Ik zit hier lekker in het zonnetje in LA en weet van niets. Succes ermee," schrijft de Haagse zangeres op Facebook.
  TROS-gezicht Danil Dekker meldde zaterdag nog in het AD een aantal keer te hebben gepraat met Anouk:"In die bijeenkomsten is veel energie gestoken, we werken ergens naartoe".
  Of Anouk daadwerkelijk Nederland vertegenwoordigt in Zweden volgend jaar is dus nog steeds onzeker.
  Proefabonnement, 10 weken '‚¬ 30,-!(C) 1996-2012 Telegraaf Media Nederland | Landelijke Media B.V., Amsterdam.Alle rechten voorbehouden.e-mail: redactie-i@telegraaf.nlPrivacy | Cookies | Disclaimer
Sunday Morning Bobblehead Thread
  Link to Article
  Source: Crooks and Liars
  Sun, 16 Sep 2012 12:45
  Political Scientist Ivan Krastev: Can democracy exist without trust? TED Talks, August 2012
  I've been doing a lot of reading this week about the evolution of political institutions. We live in a unique situation where we have very little trust in our political institutions--and Chris Hayes, in his book The Twilight of the Elites, argues that we have very little trust in almost any of our institutional pillars--yet we have done little to remedy that. I'd argue that our distrust comes directly from the fact that there is little to no accountability to those of us who put them in office. As I type this, it occurs to me that the same could be said of the media as well. We hear these media and political figures talking about ways to hold teachers accountable for doing their jobs and yet these exact same people have worked in concert to perpetrate something as inhumane as a war of opportunity and have never, ever been held to account for it.
  Like Krastev, I'm dubious that democracy can survive without trust. I'm not sure how we get back to a point in which we can trust our politicians (and the media that cover them), but I suspect it will require some sort of accounting and dismissing of anyone who did their jobs so poorly. You know, kind of like the same way they think they can talk about our poor teachers, who make so much less and get so little respect.
  ABC's "This Week" '' Guest host: Jake Tapper. Susan Rice, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. ABC News global affairs anchor Christiane Amanpour, ABC News senior foreign affairs correspondent Martha Raddatz, and ABC News chief investigative correspondent Brian Ross. Panel: ABC News' George Will; Fox News contributor and former State Department official Liz Cheney, co-founder of Keep America Safe; Ret. General Wesley Clark, former NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe; PBS' "Washington Week" moderator and managing editor Gwen Ifill; and ABC News senior political correspondent Jonathan Karl.
  NBC's "Meet the Press" '' Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu; Rice; Panel: Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN ); Chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, Rep Peter King (R-NY); author of the new book "The Price of Politics," The Washington Post's, Bob Woodward; the Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg; and NBC's Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent, Andrea Mitchell.
  NBC's "The Chris Matthews Show" - Panel: Michael Duffy, TIME Magazine Assistant Managing Editor; Trish Regan, Bloomberg News; Kasie Hunt, Associated Press; John Harris, Politico Editor-in-Chief.
  CBS' "Face the Nation" '' Rice; Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.; Libyan President Mohammed el-Megarif, the Council on Foreign Relations President Richard Haass and former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk. Panel: The New York Times' David Sanger, TIME's Bobby Ghosh, and CBS News' Margaret Brennan and John Dickerson
  MSNBC's "Up with Chris Hayes" - Guest host: Sam Seder. Panel: Tanya Wells, Steven Gates, Program Director, Youth Advocacy Programs- Illinois, Melissa Boteach, Director of Half in Ten/Poverty and Prosperity Program at the Center for American Progress, Gary Younge, Guardian columnist; John Reel, assistant to the director at Senior Service America, Inc.; Matt Farmer; Stephen Pimpare, associate professor at Columbia University School of Social Work, author of "The People's History in America."; Elise DeBroad.
  MSNBC's "Melissa Harris-Perry" - Jim Frederick, Time Magazine; Wade Henderson, President and CEO, The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights; Allison Kilkenny, Co-Host, Citizen Radio; Peter Goodman, Exec. Business Editor, Huffington Post; David Levine, Founder and President, Mr. Beams; Harrison Schultz; Hanna Rosin, Author, "The End of Men"; Jamie Kilstein, Co-Host, Citizen Radio; Dr. Maya Angelou.
  CNN's "State of the Union" '' Rice; Netanyahu; Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.
  CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS" - former National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski, former World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz, author and professor of Islamic studies Tariq Ramadan and author Bernard-Henri L(C)vy, author Michael Lewis.
  CNN's "Reliable Sources with Howard Kurtz" - Clarence Page, of The Chicago Tribune, Ryan Lizza, of The New Yorker, and Amy Holmes, of Glenn Beck TV, Paul Farhi of the Washington Post, media critics Gail Shister and Adam Buckman.
  "Fox News Sunday" '' Rice; Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich. Panel: Brit Hume, Fox News Senior Political Analyst, Liz Marlantes, The Christian Science Monitor, Bill Kristol, The Weekly Standard/Fox News Contributor, Jeff Zeleny, The New York Times.
@adamcurry http://t.co/GrsOybhC
  Link to Article
  Source: @adamcurry - Twitter Search
  Sun, 16 Sep 2012 12:44
  '; var fr = document.getElementById(adID); setHash(fr, hash); fr.body = body; var doc = getFrameDocument(fr); doc.open(); doc.write(body); setTimeout(function() {closeDoc(getFrameDocument(document.getElementById(adID)))}, 2000); } function renderJAd(holderID, adID, srcUrl, hash) { document.dcdAdsAA.push(holderID); setHash(document.getElementById(holderID), hash); document.dcdAdsH.push(holderID); document.dcdAdsI.push(adID); document.dcdAdsU.push(srcUrl); } function er_showAd() { var regex = new RegExp("externalReferrer=(.*?)(; |&|$)", "gi"); var value = regex.exec(document.cookie); if (value && value.length == 3) { var externalReferrer = value[1]; return (!FD.isInternalReferrer() || ((externalReferrer) && (externalReferrer > 0))); } return false; } function isHome() { var loc = "" + window.location; loc = loc.replace("//", ""); var tokens = loc.split("/"); if (tokens.length == 1) { return true; } else if (tokens.length == 2) { if (tokens[1].trim().length == 0) { return true; } } return false; } function checkAds(checkStrings) { var cs = checkStrings.split(","); for (var i=0;i 0 && cAd.innerHTML.indexOf(c)>0) { document.dcdAdsAI.push(cAd.hash); cAd.style.display ='none'; } } } if (!ie) { for (var i=0;i 0 && doc.body.innerHTML.indexOf(c)>0) { document.dcdAdsAI.push(fr.hash); fr.style.display ='none'; } } } } } if (document.dcdAdsAI.length > 0 || document.dcdAdsAG.length > 0) { var pingServerParams = "i="; var sep = ""; for (var i=0;i 0) { var pingServerUrl = "/action/pingServerAction?" + document.pingServerAdParams; var xmlHttp = null; try { xmlHttp = new XMLHttpRequest(); } catch(e) { try { xmlHttp = new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHttp"); } catch(e) { xmlHttp = null; } } if (xmlHttp != null) { xmlHttp.open( "GET", pingServerUrl, true); xmlHttp.send( null ); } } } function initAds(log) { for (var i=0;i 0) { doc.removeChild(doc.childNodes[0]); } doc.open(); var newBody = fr.body; newBody = newBody.replace(";ord=", ";ord=" + Math.floor(100000000*Math.random())); doc.write(newBody); document.dcdsAdsToClose.push(fr.id); } } else { var newSrc = fr.src; newSrc = newSrc.replace(";ord=", ";ord=" + Math.floor(100000000*Math.random())); fr.src = newSrc; } } } if (document.dcdsAdsToClose.length > 0) { setTimeout(function() {closeOpenDocuments(document.dcdsAdsToClose)}, 500); } } }; var ie = isIE(); if(ie && typeof String.prototype.trim !== 'function') { String.prototype.trim = function() { return this.replace(/^\s+|\s+$/g, ''); }; } document.dcdAdsH = new Array(); document.dcdAdsI = new Array(); document.dcdAdsU = new Array(); document.dcdAdsR = new Array(); document.dcdAdsEH = new Array(); document.dcdAdsE = new Array(); document.dcdAdsEC = new Array(); document.dcdAdsAA = new Array(); document.dcdAdsAI = new Array(); document.dcdAdsAG = new Array(); document.dcdAdsToClose = new Array(); document.igCount = 0; document.tCount = 0; var dcOrd = Math.floor(100000000*Math.random()); document.dcAdsCParams = ""; var savValue = getAdCookie("sav"); if (savValue != null && savValue.length > 2) { document.dcAdsCParams = savValue + ";"; } Advertisement
  ALEISHA ORRSeptember 15, 2012
  Aircraft better known as spy equipment could eventually fly over Perth beaches to monitor sharks.
  A company that builds and operates drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles, has made a proposal to the Department of Fisheries to operate aerial shark patrols.
  Managing director of Perth based company Cyber Technology Chris Mounkley said UAVs could cover more area than helicopters, would be safer and could be done cheaper.
  The number of aerial shark patrols along Perth beaches leading up to this summer has been increased since last year and the state government has been trying to find ways of reducing the risk of shark attacks following a spate af fatal attacks off Perth beaches.
  The company's UAVs are already used by police, the military and in the resources sector for surveying but Mr Mounkley said their capabilities would be well suited to shark patrols.
  "The aircraft would be launched carrying a fully stabilised high definition camera system which would be fed into a digital transmitter on the aircraft which sends a signal to the base station at Rottnest so we could see exactly what the aircraft is seeing and we can see what is in the water," he said.
  Mr Mounkley said the footage, which would include GPS coordinates accurate to within a metre, could also be sent straight to surf lifesaving clubs to view.
  He said UAV patrols could save the state government hundreds of thousands of dollars.
  Mr Mounkley said the cost of operating aerial patrols with helicopters cost about $2400 to $3000 an hour whereas the UAVs would cost less than $2000 and hour.
  He said the cameras could film the same area of water that would be viewed by people in helicopters doing visual searches and a polarising lens could allow the camera to allow some sharks 6 to 8 metres below the surface of the water to be visible which would not be seen with the human eye.
  Mr Mounkley said it was far safer to send an unmanned aircraft out over water than a helicopter with two people inside it.
  He has proposed the idea for UAV shark patrols to the Department of Fisheries a year ago but it was not taken up.
  Mr Mounkley said a year on; there was a greater perceived need for shark patrols following the five fatal shark attacks since September last year.
  Fisheries Minister Norman Moore did not comment on the matter or the cost of the current patrols but Shark Response Unit manager Michael Burgess said the unit had been contacted by a range of companies offering a multitude of shark mitigation ideas.
  "The unit continues to engage and liaise with the proponents, with a view to assessing the range of options that may be available to complement existing strategies," he said.
  "As you would appreciate, these are complex matters and need to be properly considered."
  Follow WAtoday on Twitter
Was het een kruisraket dat op 9/11 op het Pentagon insloeg?
  Link to Article
  Source: Een andere kijk op nieuws @infomagnl » Nieuws items
  Sun, 16 Sep 2012 12:43
  op 16 september 2012
  Met uitgestreken gezichten stonden ze daar. Alsof w(C)rkelijk een aantal mannen vanuit een grot in Afghanistan dit hadden veroorzaakt.
  En naast het verhaaltje over de Twin Towers slikt ook nog iedereen het fantstische verhaal over een vliegtuig dat het Pentagon doorboord zou hebben.
  Daarom deze alternatieve herdenking. En dan in het bijzonder van het feit dat het bijna zeker is dat een kruisraket het Pentagon raakte; in (C)lk geval met zekerheid geen vliegtuig.
  Zoals je op de onderstaande foto kunt zien, is het gat wat ontstaan is in het Pentagon na de aanslag in overeenstemming met (C)(C)n die het gevolg kan zijn van een kruisraket of'...
CLASH OF CULTURES AND THE TSUNAMI OF MUSLIM FREAKS
  Link to Article
  Source: VENITISM
  Sun, 16 Sep 2012 12:40
  A tsunami of freakish anti-Occidental protests against the Innocence of Muslimsfilm baring the real Muhammad shows the incivility of Islam. Eggheads sayterrorism originates in the clash of cultures and foreign meddling. Ein volk,ein ummah, ein Muhammad! Promised with 72 virgins in heaven, martyrs havebecome the worst victims of Islam. Obama ordered family members and non-essential staff to leave the U.S. Embassyin Khartoum. In addition, Obama pulled nonessential personnel out of the embassyin Tunis, and urged American citizens to leave the city. Marine platoons havebeen sent to American missions in Yemen and Libya since the unrest erupted.
  International networks are used by terrorist groups to finance terroristactivity worldwide. Terrorists are supported by kleptocrats, rich Muslims,various charities, banks, drug trafficking networks, money-laundering schemesand bribed officials. The involvement of Hezbollah and al Qaeda in the drugtrade is well known. It was bin Laden who managed the drug profits for theTaliban and arranged money-laundering operations with Russian mafias, such asBratva and Brigada. Countries that fund or foster terrorism, include SaudiArabia, Iran, Syria, Sudan, Indonesia, Libya, North Korea, and Malaysia. Manyinternational aid organizations inadvertently support terror.
  Police stormed into Cairo's Tahrir Square and rounded up hundreds of freaksafter four days of clashes and demands from freaks for the American ambassadorto be expelled. Al Qaeda applauded the killings of American diplomats in Libyaand urged Muslim freaks to kill more, calling the video posted on the Internetanother chapter in the crusader wars against Islam.
  Christoph Luxenberg has proven the Koran was first written in Aramaic, not inArabic. There is also a difference between the tolerant verses of the earlyperiod, when Muhammad was still powerless and under threat, and the hostileverses of the later period. The Koran was made up by Muhammad as it suited hisopportunistic goals for power, money, and sex.
  Islam appeared one century after Muhammad's death. The first century of theArab conquest shows the conquerors holding not to Islam but to Hagarism. Hagarenes claimed descent from Abraham through his slave wife Hagar, similarlyto the Jews who claimed descent from Abraham through Sarah. The Muhammad ofIslamic tradition did not exist!
  It was only in the eighth century, when the rulers of a now-vast Arabian empirefelt the need for a unifying political theology, that they cobbled together theIslamic religion. The key figure in this enterprise was the brutal governor ofIraq, Hajjaj ibn Yusuf. That's why Islam is such a profoundly politicalreligion with uniquely prominent incivil qualities.
  Taliban freaks claimed responsibility for an attack on a base that killed twoAmerican Marines, saying it was a response to the insults to the founder ofIslam. Geert Wilders declares Islam is primarily a dangerous ideology ratherthan a religion. Islam fails four major tests that religions should fulfill:Adherence to a religion must be a personal choice; no religion should demandthat those who leave it be killed; a religion must never mandate the subjugationof those who do not belong to it; a religion must be in accord with basic humanrights.
  Thousands of Muslim freaks took to the streets of Australia, throwing rocks andbottles in clashes with police. Some carried placards reading Behead all thosewho insult the Prophet. Franklin Roosevelt observed that wherever the Muslimshave had a complete sway, wherever citizens have been unable to resist them bythe sword, civility has ultimately disappeared. Roosevelt rejected as naive thenotion that all religions are the same. Some religions give a higher value toeach human life, and some religions and belief systems give a lower value. Oursocial values, including equality before the law, exist only because theChristians of Europe did what the Christians of Asia and Africa had failed to do'' that is, to beat back the Moslem invader.
  A hundred Muslim freaks were arrested in Paris while trying to demonstrateoutside the American Embassy near the Champs Elysees. John Quincy Adams pointedout that Muhammad poisoned the sources of human felicity at the fountain, bydegrading the condition of the female sex, and the allowance of polygamy; and hedeclared undistinguishing and exterminating war as part of his religion, againstall the rest of mankind. The essence of Muhammad's doctrine was violence andlust; to exalt the brutal over the spiritual part of human nature.
  The U.S. State Department urges American citizens to avoid Muslim countries,especially Darfur, Blue Nile, and Southern Kordofan regions. Libyan authoritiessaid they had identified fifty freaks who were involved in the attack in whichambassador Christopher Stevens died. Libyan President Mohammed Magarief saysforeigners along with Libyans were involved in the attack on the consulate inBenghazi. There are twenty freaks in custody.
  In 2004, on a street in Amsterdam, Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh was brutallymurdered by a Muslim of Moroccan descent. Van Gogh had collaborated with aSomali emigrant, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, to produce the film Submission, about theabuse of women in Islam. Van Gogh's killer had impaled on his victim's chest anopen letter threatening death to Geert Wilders and Ali, whose politics had putthem on extremists' kill-lists. Two days after the murder, both were whiskedinto hiding by police because of imminent threats of assassination.
  Saudi Arabia's Grand Mufti, Sheikh Abdulaziz bin Abdullah Al al-Sheikh, urgesgovernments and international bodies to criminalize insults against prophets. Hedescribes the short film as miserable and criminal. Wilders draws effectively onthe history of Islam to illuminate current events. Thus, he recounts thehijra,or migration, of Muhammad and his followers to Yathrib in the year 622.
  Taking advantage of its welcome and tolerance, Muhammad proceeded to overthrowthe city from within. What was Yathrib became Medina, and there Islam's firstmosque was Muhammad's propaganda center, the headquarters of his state and thebarracks of his jihad.
  Yathrib is the model for the offensive via immigration that Islam has undertakenagainst the West almost 1,400 years later. Wilders also points to Medina's firstmosque as the prototype for mosques throughout the West, primarily a politicalinstitution, not a place of worship.
  Wilders produced Fitna to illustrate that the Koran advocates violence. He wasprosecuted under Dutch hate-speech laws for group insult and incitement ofhatred and discrimination. Although he was acquitted ultimately, Wilders' taleon this topic is sobering, for it shows how lawfare can be used to chillunwelcome speech.
  In large part because of the courage of Wilders, the Netherlands has begun toconfront the damage wrought by Muslim migration and the politics of appeasementthat for so long have characterized the West's reaction to the claims of allegedvictims of all stripes. The Islamic tide is strong, but the West has repulsed itbefore, and we can do it again. You may not be interested in Islam, but Islam isinterested in you. So pay attention.
Smoking gun '' Russia's plan to dominate energy markets
  Link to Article
  Source: Atomic Insights
  Sun, 16 Sep 2012 12:37
  I came across an article on RosBusinessConsulting titled Russia floods global markets with O&G that supports my theory that at least some of more crafty segments of the world's oil and gas providers recognize the return on investment (ROI) available to them from steady efforts to stoke irrational fears about the use of nuclear energy.
  For example, this paragraph appears near the top of the article.
  Experts warn that Russia's reliance on mineral resource exports may backfire on the country, when the prices drop one day thus wreaking havoc on budget revenue. Thus far, luck has been on the country's side as global developments have been pushing fuel prices up. The average price of Urals blend oil was $109.3 per barrel in 2011, up 39.8% from 2010. Oil prices rose sharply on the back of uprisings in the Arab world, the war in Libya as well as an earthquake in Japan, which destroyed the Fukushima nuclear power plant causing an environmental disaster and giving rise to serious misgivings about the safety of nuclear power, the most promising alternative to hydrocarbons nowadays.
  (Emphasis added.)
  I don't believe in luck or in the use of the passive voice; it is clear that knowledgeable people can run the numbers and choose to use their influence to ensure that press coverage reinforces those ''serious misgivings''. How many times has Apocalyptic Arnie (Gundersen) and his fear mongering associates appeared on Russia Today, aka RT, as well as on other ad supported media channels?
  Russia is also smart enough about the dependence its export customers have on Gazprom's pipeline gas to ensure that it is profitably priced with a contracted link to the market price of oil.
  High oil prices have driven gas prices higher. The price of Russian gas reached $436 per 1,000 cubic meters ($12.35 per MMBTU) as of December 31, 2011, up 38.7% year-on-year, the Economic Development Ministry estimated. The average contract prices for Russian gas at the German border went up 28.9% to $381.50 per 1,000 cubic meters ($10.80 per MMBTU), according to IMF.
  Geopolitical factors have been keeping oil price high in early 2012. The eventuality of sanctions on Iran and Syria enable analysts to forecast that oil prices will spike to $150 or even $200 per barrel. Gas prices pegged to oil prices are also set to soar.
  (Conversion to US standard trading units for natural gas prices added.)
  Please note the prices in the above quote; Europeans are paying 3-4 times as much per unit of heat for natural gas as North American customers. That makes the German, Swiss, and Italian move away from nuclear energy even more questionably; they do not have the same ''low carbon'' alternative power supply option that we do here. No wonder the German environment minister proudly spoke about the opening of a new lignite (brown coal) fired power plant.
  Perhaps there is a good reason why so many European industrial firms are relocating production facilities to lower power cost regions like Alabama and South Carolina where there are new nuclear plants under construction.
  The energy strategy from the world's chess playing capital is not a single dimensional focus on hobbling nuclear energy's ability to compete for its customer base, but also includes efforts to stimulate and sustain conflicts in the political areas that are important to the oil and gas industry. Not all of those important areas are hydrocarbon supply basins; some, like Syria, Georgia, Pakistan, Afganistan and Ukraine host key segments of transportation pipelines. (For an entertaining, but scary, analysis of world pipeline politics, I highly recommend listening to NoAgenda show episode 426.
  Here is the final quote that leads me to believe that the current government in Russia is skillfully playing the board in the ''The Great Game'' and hoping that no one notices its strategic efforts.
  Meanwhile, Natural Resources Minister Yury Trutnev predicts that oil and gas resources will last for 100-150 years, after which the mankind (sic) will have to search for alternative resources.
  (Emphasis added.)
  Anyone who makes that prediction is trying to fool others into a false sense of complacency that includes ignoring other obvious issues with continuing to depend on hydrocarbon suppliers to fuel our modern society. If anyone disagrees with this being labeled as a smoking gun, please explain your logic.
@adamcurry RT @truthoutCarbon Trading Scheme Close to Collapse http://t.co/FNiFNmhn '...
  Link to Article
  Source: @adamcurry - Twitter Search
  Sun, 16 Sep 2012 02:46
  By 2020, countries that are signatory to the Kyoto protocol will have accumulated more than 17 billion tonnes of surplus emission reduction permits, a new study shows. This enormous surplus not only drives the carbon price close to zero, but also jeapordises the chances of reaching a new global climate deal.
  All eyes are now on the upcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP18) in Doha which will start Nov. 26. World leaders are expected to come up with ways to save the coal market and to uphold the Kyoto protocol's environmental integrity.
  Under the Kyoto protocol, signatory countries are allowed to emit a certain amount of greenhouse gases. If a country does not reach its emission limit, it is permitted to sell its surplus capacity under the form of Assigned Amount Units (AAUs). The AAU is an allowance to emit greenhouse gases comprising one metric tonne of carbon dioxide equivalents and can be bought and sold on the carbon market.
  A new study by Thomson Reuters Point Carbon published Thursday showed that signatory countries will have accumulated more than 17 billion tonnes of surplus reduction permits by 2020. According to the report, the total surplus from the first Kyoto commitment period (2008-2012) already consists of 13.1 billion tonnes.
  Russia, Ukraine and Poland are the largest surplus holders, followed by Romania, the UK and Germany.
  The study also estimates that under the current rules, signatory countries will accumulate a surplus of 3.6 billion tonnes by 2020. If Australia and New Zealand then decide not to join the second Kyoto commitment period (2012-2016), the combined surplus would be as high as 17.2 billion tonnes.
  "That is more than Europe would emit over the course of five years and more than double what China annually emits. The number is astronomically high," says Tomas Wyns, director of the Centre for Clean Air Policy Europe (CCAP Europe).
  "This is partly because Kyoto uses 1990 as the reference year to which the level of emissions must be reduced. But just after 1990, economies in Central and Eastern Europe collapsed, which led to a downfall in industrial activity and emissions. This allowed these countries to stay under their emission limits and build up a surplus.
  "At this moment the same thing is happening: we are in the midst of an economic crisis which again leads to lower emissions all around the world."
  According to the report by the European Environmental Agency that was published a week ago, EU emissions in 2011 fell to 17.5 percent below the 1990 level. "That is only 2.5 percent away from our final 2020 Kyoto goal," Tomas Wyns tells IPS. "And given the economic projections we will probably reach the same percentage this year."
  Although emissions are dropping worldwide, the build-up of surpluses is an enormous threat to the environmental integrity of the Kyoto protocol. "Of course dropping emissions is good news, but not in this case," says Wyns.
  "The current development shows the Kyoto objectives for 2020 have not been ambitious enough. We need a structural reduction of emissions, based on climate policy. An economic crisis is not a policy measure."
  According to the study by Thomson Reuters Point Carbon, the 3.6 billion surplus projection by 2020 would be realised under business-as-usual conditions without the government taking any measures to reduce emissions. But most importantly, the enormous amount of surpluses causes the price of allowances to drop close to zero. At this moment, the price has already dropped to less than one euro per tonne.
  "The supply is three magnitudes bigger than the demand," Anja Kollmuss, carbon market expert at the Brussels-based CDM Watch tells IPS. "When prices go that close to zero it could lead to a collapse of the market. The allowances are useless to the countries that own them because there is no one willing to buy them. The trade will come to a halt. It's hard to see how there could possibly be a market under these conditions."
  During the preparatory climate negotiations in Bangkok last week, it became clear that the surplus owned by developed countries is one of the key issues to be resolved before countries can agree on a second commitment period for the Kyoto protocol.
  At the meeting, the coalition of developing nations, the G-77 and China presented a proposal on how to restrict the gigantic surplus and save the market. They aligned themselves with the African Group, stating that this proposal reflected the view of 100 countries and over a billion people most vulnerable to climate change.
  "The G-77 proposal states all countries can hold on to their emission allowances in the second period, but under the condition that they only be used to fulfill their own commitments," Anja Kollmuss tells IPS. "Countries with a surplus would not be able to sell them on the market any more, that would effectively stabilise the market."
  The G-77 proposal goes further. "The developing nations asked all developing nations whose total emissions in 2012 will be lower than their 2020 goal to commit to stricter emission objectives in the second period," Tomas Wyns says. "They also proposed to delete all surplus allowances after 2020. That's the only way to safeguard the Kyoto protocol and the market."
  At the final plenary in Bangkok on Sep. 5, only Russia remained in opposition to the proposal. The EU reacted with no position due to internal disagreement.
  "Poland is disagreeing because they hold the largest surplus in the EU," Anja Kollmuss tells IPS. "The country thinks all allowances should be carried over, they are still hoping to sell them on the market. But most countries are realising that something needs to be done not just to save the market, but also to maintain a meaningful climate commitment."
  The EU is expected to work out a common position next month. Negotiations between countries are now ongoing.
European Bank Overhaul Meets Opposition From Finance Ministers
  Link to Article
  Source: NYT > Home Page
  Sun, 16 Sep 2012 02:45
  NICOSIA, Cyprus '-- A plan by the European Union to overhaul bank supervision and help troubled lenders directly ran into a wall of opposition on Saturday as finance ministers from major nations like Germany, Poland and Sweden raised objections.
  The stalemate was a reminder that pushing 27 member states to cooperate remains a challenge, even when they have already pledged reforms aimed at ending their three-year debt crisis. The scale of the opposition could be a blow to Spain, which is in most immediate need of the banking aid that the program could provide.
  The proposals, drafted over the summer by the European Commission and formally introduced last Wednesday, would give the European Central Bank the task of regulating all 6,000 banks in the euro area by Jan. 1, 2014. Ministers and European Union officials said negotiations on the proposals would continue in the coming months.
  The proposals would also give the central bank powers to take away banking licenses, to require lenders to increase their capital and to levy fines on lenders that break the rules.
  During the two-day meeting here, France, Italy and Spain strongly supported phasing in the plan on Jan. 1, 2013, as the commission recommended.
  But Wolfgang Sch¤uble, the German finance minister, said at a news conference on Saturday that meeting that deadline ''will not be possible.''
  German officials have warned that the proposals as currently drafted would strain the central bank's resources and could create regulatory black holes.
  Earlier on Saturday, Mr. Sch¤uble criticized the plan for creating expectations that such a big change in regulation could be implemented so rapidly, according to two European Union officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the discussion among ministers was private.
  Michel Barnier, the European commissioner for financial services who drafted the plan, said at a separate news conference on Saturday that it was both ''possible'' and ''necessary'' to implement the plan by the start of next year.
  Any delays might be felt most directly in Spain, which is already reeling from a wave of street protests this weekend against belt-tightening reforms.
  The government in Madrid needs the banking rules in place before it can apply to recapitalize its banks directly from a new European bailout fund to avoid piling on more debt, which would increase its borrowing costs still further.
  ''We need to stick to the timetable,'' Spain's economy minister, Luis de Guindos, told reporters on Saturday.
  The finance ministers were at loggerheads a day after top officials from the central bank and the International Monetary Fund warned European governments not to squander the current period of relative calm in markets by backsliding on promised reforms.
  Yet some ministers believe that a pledge by the central bank this month to buy short-term debt of vulnerable countries gave countries like Spain the relief they needed because borrowing costs had already fallen to more manageable levels.
  The Polish finance minister, Jacek Rostowski, said in an interview on Saturday that the European Union could now take more time to modify the banking proposals to preserve the interests of countries like Poland outside the euro area.
  ''We should be grateful to Mario Draghi not only for taking the catastrophic risk off the table, but also giving us the time to get the banking union right,'' Mr. Rostowski said, referring the president of the central bank.
Newspaper Advertising Collapse - Business Insider
  Link to Article
  Source: Dave Winer's linkblog feed
  Sun, 16 Sep 2012 02:42
  Over the past decade, lots of big newspaper companies have gone bust.
  But when you take a look at what's happened to newspaper advertising over that period, it's a wonder they all haven't.
  Below, via Mark J. Perry and Bill Gross, is a chart we've run before. It shows inflation-adjusted newspaper advertising revenue over the past 60 years.
  Thanks to the precipitous decline in the last ~7 years, the industry now back to where we it was in 1950. And it's only slightly better off when you factor in online revenue.
  Journalism professor Jay Rosen of NYU observes that the peak year was the one in which blogging software first appeared.
  Newspaper Association Of America
Pastrami food truck at this baptism rreveption. | Flickr
  Link to Article
  Source: Dave Winer's linkblog feed
  Sun, 16 Sep 2012 02:42
  keyboard shortcuts:'† previous photo'†' next photoL view in light boxF favorite< scroll film strip left> scroll film strip right? show all shortcuts
  Grab the link
  Grab the HTML/BBCode
  Copy and paste the code below:
  <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/corikesler/7965573576/" title="Pastrami food truck at this baptism rreveption. by CoriKesler, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8172/7965573576_3e16517d3f.jpg" width="500" height="500" alt="Pastrami food truck at this baptism rreveption."></a>
  Photo license: All Rights Reserved
Networking rebellion in Arab uprisings
  Link to Article
  Source: Richard Stallman's Political Notes
  Sun, 16 Sep 2012 02:38
  in the name of jobs, as long as it's military spending.Strange that he wants to cut the other government spending,that creates more jobs per dollar and does some real goodfor society in the process.
  09 September 2012 (Romney wants Internet filtering)Romney wants Internet filtering software installed in all computers.
  Note how he uses works that some find disgusting asan excuse for something even more disgusting.
  09 September 2012 (Koch brothers endorse tax breaks for oil companies)The Koch brothers' political front endorses tax breaks for oil companies,but opposes them for wind power.
  09 September 2012 (Unemployment benefits)Half of America's unemployed people are not getting unemployment benefits.
  09 September 2012 (Insurance companies want car tracking)Car insurance companies want to install computer systems in cars to track where and how they drive.
  The whole idea of insurance is that you pay based on an estimate ofwhat your accidents are likely to cost. With more information,they can make a better prediction. This is not inherently bad,but there are some kinds of information that companies shouldnot be able to use for this.
  I think it is legitimate to charge based on a person's style ofdriving, and to collect data to determine what that style is. Forinstance, how you typically brake is not sensitive for other reasons,so there's no reason to stop that from being measured.
  However, the insurance company must not be able to collect anyinformation about where or when you drive, because nobody shouldbe allowed to collect that sort of information about you.It is too sensitive and amounts to a surveillance society.
  09 September 2012 (Cutting social security benefits)"Raising the retirement age" is the euphemism for cutting socialsecurity benefits.
  With longer life spans, it makes sense to ask people to retire later'-- if there is work that we need them to do. However, in asociety with high unemployment, it is absurd to claim that peopleshould be required to keep working longer even though they can't finda job.
  09 September 2012 (Torture by US gov't)The New York Times won't dare to call torture torture, when the USgovernment does it.
  This is a double standard. After World War II, the US executedJapanese soldiers who applied this kind of torture to US prisoners of war.
  I oppose capital punishment, but anyone who commits torturedeserves to be punished, and the US has the duty to punishits torturers.
  09 September 2012 (Romney unafraid of fact-checkers)Why Romney is not afraid of fact-checkers.
  Paul Ryan's lies are mere "overreaching" which calls for a "course correction".
  09 September 2012 (Sharing copies of published work)One author sells his ebooks to libraries without DRM or EULA. And also permits a certain amount of copying.
  This doesn't go as far as it should '-- readers should be free toshare copies of any published work '-- but it is at least no worsethan a printed book.
  08 September 2012 (Man's phone memory stolen by DC thugs)The ACLU is suing the Washington DC thug department for stealinga man's phone memory.
  08 September 2012 (US repression of mass protest)The political conventions demonstrate the US success in repressingmass protest.
  What's left of US democracy is an election between two right-wingparties in which businesses can spend as much as they wish to makelies appear true.
  Can we do anything with this shred of democracy? Only if we canthwart the attempt by the rich to buy victory for their flunkies.Who is not their flunky? If they are buying lots of attack ads againstsomeone, that's a hint. If the target is progressive, vote for him.
  08 September 2012 (CNN response in re Bahrain documentary)Glenn Greenwald dissects CNN's response to his article about buryingAmber Lyon's documentary.
  08 September 2012 (Computerized ordering systems)Restaurants are starting to replace waiters with computerized ordering systems.
  How million poor Americans work as waiters? Will the US governmentdo anything for them when half of them are out of work?
  08 September 2012 (Urgent: Obama's assassination policy)US citizens: tell Obama to stop his assassination policy.
  08 September 2012 (Personalized marketing)Americans, unless they resist, will be the subjects in an experiment inmassive personalized marketing.
  Not me, though. I almost never use the systems that give companiespersonal information about customers.
  08 September 2012 (Urgent: Oppose fracking in Yellowstone)US citizens: oppose fracking in Yellowstone National Park.
  08 September 2012 (Urgent: Negotiate clean energy policy with China)Everyone: call on the EU to negotiate with China over clean energy policy.
  08 September 2012 (Obama's guidelines for assassinations)Obama stated his own guidelines for drone assassinations.
  Given the US practice of claiming that any adult male that gets killedwas an enemy combatant, point 4 seems to be mere window dressing.However, in the absence of any legal procedure, they could all beempty words.
  08 September 2012 (TPP threatens free speech and health care)Amnesty International warns that the TPP threatens free speech and health care.
  08 September 2012 (Sanctions against Iran affect medicine)US sanctions against Iran supposedly do not affect medicine,but here is how they do so in practice.
  08 September 2012 (Bradley Manning supporters protest)Supporters of Bradley Manning protested at Obama campaign headquarters in 34 US cities.
  08 September 2012 (US students forced to carry RFIDs)Some schools in the US are forcing students to carry RFIDs all the timeso as to track them around the school.
  They are being trained to live in subjection in prison.
  08 September 2012 (Rimsha Masih granted bail)Rimsha Masih was granted bail but her lawyer says Muslim fanatics will try to murder her.
  08 September 2012 (The sex-toy vibrator)The history of the sex-toy vibrator: it was invented for doctorsto give their patients orgasms.
  The idea that there is something wrong with a woman if she doesn'thave an orgasm in sex with a man seems so strange to me that I canhardly believe anyone thought that. If I can't give a woman pleasure,I might feel inadequate, or perhaps just disappointed, but it wouldnever occur to me to think that this was a flaw in her.
  08 September 2012 (Haqqani network)The US designated the Haqqani network as a "terrorist organization".
  That might be an accurate designation, but terrorism is a crime, andit is an injustice to declare an organization guilty of a crimewithout a fair trial to prove it.
  08 September 2012 (Evidence against Assad's men)Human Rights Watch says that evidence points to Assad's men as the perpetratorsof the massacre of Daraya.
  08 September 2012 (Hunger in America)18 million Americans can't get enough food.
  It will be even harder in a few years as global heating reduces agriculturalproductivity and drives up food prices.
  08 September 2012 (Defense Minister reportedly opposes attack on Iran)Israel's defense minister reportedly now opposes attacking Iran.
  If this is true, Israel will not attack unless Netanyahu pulls off areally clever trick. This is good, because such a war would be adisaster for everyone.
  08 September 2012 (Discrimination in Indian schools)Almost 2/3 of Indian school children from lower castes have been subjectto explicit discrimination in school.
  08 September 2012 (Urgent: Toughen rules on fracking)US citizens: tell the Bureau of Land Management that its proposedrules on fracking need to be tougher.
  07 September 2012 (Plans for new Honduran city)Honduras plans to create a city with separate laws to be written to suitforeign investors.
  Now it is clear what Obama hoped to gain by supporting the coup.
  07 September 2012 (Purveyor of global heating denial at DNC)An architect of multiple levels of front groups, designed to let oilcompanies spread denial of global heating while denying it's done withtheir funds, is now gettingclosely involved with the Democratic National Convention.
  07 September 2012 (Black Americans and gov't IDs)The NAACP President explains why Black Americans (and poor Americansgenerally) are likely not to have up-to-date government IDs with theircurrent addresses.
  07 September 2012 (Urgent: No extension on Arctic drilling)US citizens: Tell President Obama and Secretary Salazar: don't giveShell an extension on its Arctic drilling window.
  07 September 2012 (CNN suppresses Arab Spring documentary)Amber Lyon made an award-winning documentary in Bahrain for CNN, aspart of a larger program about the Arab Spring. CNN suppressed itafter one showing, fired her, and is now making threats to silence her.
  If you watch the video on YouTube, don't do it through the site itself:that requires running nonfree software (either Flash, or nonfree Javascriptfrom YouTube itself). You can download the videos from YouTube andwatch them using free software, such as youtube-dl.
  07 September 2012 (US torture of Libyan dissidents)Human Rights Watch announces its report about US torture of Libyandissidents for Gaddafi.
  Here's the report itself.
  07 September 2012 (Democrats plan to sell us out)Democrats have started talking as if they were defending Americansfrom Republicans and business-friendly plans, but they too plan to sell us out.
  The Democratic Party's claims to have resisted the banksters, defendedAmerican workers, and resisted global heating turn out to me morefalse than true.
  The overall strategy of the two-party system is to push the US ever further towards right-wing cruelty.
  Individual Democratic candidates may deserve support, especially if theyoppose such things as free exploitation treaties. But not the DemocraticParty in general, and not Obama.
  07 September 2012 (Affect of global heating on New England)Global heating is changing the forests in New England, and the seasaround New England. Industries have already been wiped out, and more will follow.
  07 September 2012 (Democrats endorse war against Internet)The Democratic Party supports "internet freedom", but it endorses the copyright lobby's war against the Internet at the same time.
  07 September 2012 (Striking miners in South Africa)Striking miners in South Africa are demanding a big raise, and heartlessly resisting when the bosses beg them to be reasonable and go back to work. Management would like us to believe that a raise for these low-paid and dangerous jobs would be a "dangerous precedent".
  I think the company can afford to pay these workers decently.
  07 September 2012 (Republicans' "small government")Republicans want "small government" except, mysteriously, for the military.
  07 September 2012 (US tax exceptions for stadiums)The US gives billions in tax exemptions for construction of stadiums.
  07 September 2012 (Lies about Keystone XL pipeline)Supporters of the Keystone XL planet-roaster pipeline continueto lie about how many jobs it would create.
  Of course, the bigger and deeper error would be to judge the pipelineby a secondary issue such as jobs working on it, and ignore thetremendous boost it would give to global heating. The articles thatclaim the pipeline is good because of the imaginary jobs are not onlyfalse, they are also distraction.
  07 September 2012 (Torture of Libyan dissidents)Human Rights Watch says that the CIA tortured Libyan dissidents bywaterboarding before handing them over to Gaddafi's men.
  I think Obama will protect these torturers too.
  07 September 2012 (American mobile phone users' privacy)American mobile phone users are demonstrating they are starting to care about privacy.
  If they had the option of mobile phones that wouldn't track themeverywhere, they might choose those. But no such phones exist, and itis simply impossible to prevent the localization done by cell towers.
  The way not to be tracked is to reject portable phones.
  07 September 2012 (Urgent: Stop support of US Chamber of Commerce)US citizens: call on IBM, Google, Pepsico and Microsoft tostop supporting the US Chamber of Commerce
  07 September 2012 (Urgent: Don't allow fracking in New York)US citizens: tell New York Governor Cuomo that he won't get publicsupport if he allows fracking in New York State.
  07 September 2012 (Very Urgent: Oppose plans for "clean" Internet)EU citizens: comment to oppose plans for a "clean" Internet,where "clean" means "no sharing".
  Here's the consultation itself.
  Here's where to submit a comment.
  Rather than only opposing unjust proposals, how about demanding aright not to be disconnected from the Internet without a trial, and aban on Digital Restrictions Management? I don't know if this ispossible '-- because of the short time available, I have asked topost this without waiting to get a copy of those pages.
  07 September 2012 (Urgent: Remind Obama about GMO labeling)US citizens: Ask Michelle Obama to remind the presidentto carry out his promise and support labeling requirements for GMOs.
  07 September 2012 (Excuse to extend Heathrow)The UK government, throwing the Earth's climate to the winds, is looking for an excuse to support extending Heathrow airport.
  07 September 2012 (Life sentences for activists in Bahrain)Bahrain Court Upholds Life Sentences for Activists.
  07 September 2012 (US drone strike in Yemen)It appears a US drone killed 13 civilians in Yemen. The victims' families are rather angry at the US government.
  07 September 2012 (Iran's breakout capacity reduced)IAEA Report Shows Iran Reduced Its Breakout Capacity.
  07 September 2012 (Sanctions against Iran)In Iran, sanctions take toll on the sick.
  07 September 2012 (TPP could make medicines unaffordable)How the TPP could make life-saving medicines prohibitively expensive in some countries.
  The US already has these bad policies, and it needs to change them.Therefore, the Big Pharma lobby wants to give sellout politicianssuch as Obama and Romney an excuse in the form of a treaty.
  07 September 2012 (Affect of bottom-trawling sea floor)Bottom-trawling affects the sea floor as much as plowing affects the land.
  07 September 2012 (Melting of glaciers in Patagonia)Glaciers in Patagonia are melting faster since 2000.
  07 September 2012 (Deforestation in tropical regions)Deforestation in tropical regions reduces rain there.
  07 September 2012 (Warrant required for text messages)A court in Rhode Island ruled that a thug should have had a warrantto look at someone's text messages in her phone.
  But this will probably be appealed.
  07 September 2012 (ACLU calls on Apple to get rid of UDID)The ACLU calls on Apple to get rid of the UDID unique identifying number.
  I agree. However, every mobile phone has another unique ID numberthat it transmits to the phone system every time. Which is one of thereasons I don't have a mobile phone.
  07 September 2012 (Pakistan punishes Save the Children)Pakistan has punished Save the Children, claiming that the CIA used that organization to find Osama bin Laden.
  It is valid to criticize Afridi (and his US employers) on the groundsthat, by setting up a phony vaccination scheme, they put thevaccination mission in peril. Eliminating polio forever was (and is)far more important than finding bin Laden. If the US wanted toprosecute someone with lots of blood on his hands, Dubya is easy tofind.
  However, it is clear that Pakistan did not put Afridi in prison forendangering the elimination of polio '-- because Pakistan is nowgoing the US one worse by attacking that project outright.
  Through these actions, Pakistan in effect declares bin Laden anational hero, which implies endorsement of what he did. Even if hewas a lesser criminal than Dubya, he was still very bad.
  06 September 2012 (Pakistan's blasphemy law)Thousands of people have faced prosecution under Pakistan's blasphemylaw. Some due to ludicrous reasons, and others for exercising theirfreedom of expression.
  The article asserts that the words these people are accused of sayingcannot be published because it would be blasphemy. That may be truein Pakistan, but The Guardian is published in the UK. I therefore begthe Guardian to publish this information.
  If someone emails me this information, I will post it here.
  06 September 2012 (Samsung joins Apple)Samsung joins Apple in being accused of mistreating workers in China.
  06 September 2012 (Gambling addiction)Addicted gamblers are not hoping to win, just to prolong the sensation of playing.
  If they could manage to get the same sensation from playing a game thatdoesn't cost money, they might be home free.
  06 September 2012 (Speculation on food)Deregulation has encouraged speculation on food, which cancause price rises that can drive millions around the worldinto hunger.
  "Free trade" treaties also do this; they subject peasants inmany countries to very efficient mechanized competition,resulting in reduced production and increased poverty.
  06 September 2012 (Who really owns an Apple phone?)An Apple patent suggests a plan to restrict users of phones based on where they are located.
  The article says that this poses the question of who really owns thephone. I'm glad they are starting to ask it. In fact, with nonfreesoftware, you never really own it.
  06 September 2012 (Urgent: Colorado's voter-suppression plan)US citizens: call on the Attorney General to take action against Colorado'svoter-suppression plan.
  05 September 2012 (On-line music "sales")On-line music "sales" are in many cases not sales at all.
  05 September 2012 (More fraud in Barclay's Bank)More fraud in Barclay's Bank.
  05 September 2012 ("Organic" food)A study finds that "organic" food is no better than any other food, interms of nutrition, but it reduces exposure to pesticides andantibiotic-resistant bacteria.
  This is what common sense would have suggested, and it shows what societyought to aim for in regard to farming.
  05 September 2012 (List identifying owners of iThings)A group called AntiSec claims to have found and leaked an FBI listidentifying the owners of 12 million iThings based on a unique ID codein each device.
  The FBI says that it never had the list.
  Neither source is guaranteed reliable, but I think that on this pointit is more plausible that the FBI is lying. If AntiSec had got theinfo somewhere else, it would have had no evident motivation to claimit came from the FBI. By contrast, the FBI would have a clearmotivation to deny the facts. Another point is that the FBI (likemunicipal thugs) is habituated to lying, since it expects people toassume its statements are honest.
  05 September 2012 ("Felonious" spying by NY Thug Department)In a leaked Stratfor email, an FBI agent speaks of "felonious" spyingby the New York Thug Department.
  05 September 2012 (Destroying land for gas)Destroying precious land (and poisoning precious water) for gas.
  05 September 2012 (Psychological manipulation at Apple Stores)Apple store staff are taught twisted psychological manipulation.
  The mere practice of referring to service staff as "geniuses"is dishonest already.
  05 September 2012 (Seashore parking lots becoming ocean)As global heating makes the oceans rise, the parking lots atAssateague National Seashore's beach keep turning into ocean.
  05 September 2012 (Ustream censorship robots)Censorship robots in Ustream cut off the live stream of the Hugo awards ceremony.
  This is ironic because an activity concerned with future technologywas the occasion to show how evil technology can be.
  Ustream does harm to society even when it doesn't censor, because itrequires viewers to run nonfree software. It is fundamentally bad.Once I found out there was a plan to stream my speech through Ustream,and I insisted they not do it.
  If you are connected with an event that is going to do streaming, Ican put you in touch with people that can teach you how to do it usingOgg Theora, with free software. Then nobody can censor it.
  05 September 2012 (Smuggling of endangered wildlife)Smugglers of endangered wildlife are using the Internet in sneaky ways.
  I strongly support cracking down on this trade, but that does notrequire abolishing privacy on the Internet. The merchandise has to bedelivered physically, so the sellers are vulnerable to stings.
  04 September 2012 (Urgent: Petition the Democratic Convention)US citizens: callon the Democratic Convention to support clean energyand peace, and cut military funding.
  04 September 2012 (Former Mooney recalls brainwashing)A former Moonie tells how he was recruited and brainwashed.
  04 September 2012 (Pakistani Muslim clerics defend girl)Leading Pakistani Muslim clerics came to the defense of the girlwho was falsely accused of burning pages from a Qur'an.
  This demonstrates a commitment to truth and rejection of lies.However, honesty of application does not justify censorship, such asthe prohibition of blasphemy. Even people who really do burn Qur'ansmust not be imprisoned, let alone killed, for that. If you don't liketheir doing so, buy a copy of some book they admire and burn that inresponse.
  04 September 2012 (Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike)Three Palestinian prisoners, imprisoned without trial, have been onhunger strike for months to protest Israel's breaking the agreement that settled the previous massive hunger strike.
  03 September 2012 (Israel's Dead Sea mining)Israel's mining of minerals from the Dead Sea is a crime under international law.
  03 September 2012 (Urgent: Scrutinize substance of what Paul Ryan says)US citizens: sign this petition for media attention to the substanceof what Paul Ryan says.
  03 September 2012 (Workers in Colombia end hunger strike)Workers in Colombia ended their hunger strike after gaining an agreementto submit their dispute with General Motors to arbitration.
  03 September 2012 (US offenses against human rights)Many Americans let the replacement of Dubya by Obama silencetheir criticism of the same offenses against human rights.
  03 September 2012 (Republicans change position on secret money)The Republicans are getting so much secret money that they have changedtheir position to oppose requirements to disclose donations.
  03 September 2012 (Massachusetts Right to Know Act passes)Massachusetts has passed a law to make it harder to cheat temporary employees.
  03 September 2012 (Excuse to drive Christians out)Extremist Muslim cleric accused of framing the retarded Christian girlto create an excuse to scare all the Christians out of the neighborhood.
  03 September 2012 (Tony Blair's war crimes)Attempting a citizen's arrest of Tony B'liar for his war crimes.
  The UK has the responsibility to prosecute B'liar,just as the US has the responsibility to prosecute Dubya.They launched a war based on lies which killed uncountedhundreds of thousands of Iraqis, as well as around 4500 Americans.
  03 September 2012 (Murders of South African miners)South Africa has temporarily dropped murder charges against striking miners,who were charged with the deaths of their fellow protesters actually killedby the thugs.
  03 September 2012 (Afghan torturers unpunished)The Afghan government fails to punish its torturers.
  With the US as an example, why would it?
  03 September 2012 (Israeli settlers in the West Bank)The Israeli state forced settlers to leave one "outpost", but they movedto another (state-supported) colony in the West Bank.
  03 September 2012 (Mexican iris scan database)Mexico is creating a database with iris scans and fingerprints of all citizens.
  03 September 2012 (US recession)By cutting military spending instead of civilian aid programs, the USwould save 300,000 jobs.
  However, this is a choice between bad and worse. The US should notcut spending at all now, because the way to get out of arecession is through deficit spending. The time to reduce thenational debt is when things are going well.
  03 September 2012 (Demolition of Palestinian homes)Israel has driven around 160,000 Palestinians from their homes, mostlyby demolishing their homes.
  2011 was the worst year ever for this.
  03 September 2012 (UK law criminalizes the homeless)The UK law that makes squatting a crime "criminalizes the homeless".
  The government which passed this law showed it is the enemy of the 99%.
  03 September 2012 (Shell now permitted to drill Arctic)Shell was given permission to start drilling in the Arctic Ocean.
  03 September 2012 (Tutu calls for prosecution of Bush and Blair)Desmond Tutu called for prosecution of Dubya and Bl'iar for the crimeof starting a war based on lies.
  Hooray, Tutu!
  03 September 2012 (Police spying)Police forces in Europe defy parliamentary oversight into their spyingon opposition groups.
  03 September 2012 (Paul Ryan on military spending)In 2011, Paul Ryan supported big military spending cuts.Now he wants military spending increases.
  03 September 2012 (Global heating deniers in the press)The press should stop giving global heating deniers the same respectthat it gives climate scientists.
  03 September 2012 (Japanese charges against Paul Watson)Paul Watson of Sea Shepard describes the bogus Japanese charges against him,and says that Sea Shepard will continue its activity whether he can get to the ships or not.
  03 September 2012 (Unjust killings in Pakistan)A Pakistani lawyers says, if the US can kill Pakistani civilians withdrone missiles, why shouldn't they execute a girl for blasphemy?What's the difference, he asks?
  Of course, we can see plenty of specific differences, but he's rightthat there is a great similarity between one unjust killing andanother. So what is his twisted point? To take revenge on the US bykilling this girl?
  03 September 2012 (Osama bin Laden's death)A member of the team that killed Osama bin Laden said, in his book,that the team had orders to arrest bin Laden if he was not armed,but shot him instead. This was followed by a public lie to justify the shooting.
  When I first heard about the raid, I was skeptical that the man shotwas really Osama bin Laden. After all, the US government is hardly anhonest and reliable source about such things. However, since nobodyis claiming that he wasn't Osama bin Laden, I suppose he was.
  Nonetheless, the really important point is that his death made noreal difference. It did not hurt al Qa'ida, for instance.
  03 September 2012 (Internet surveillance)Internet surveillance is getting so cheap that companies might start recording all their network traffic.
  03 September 2012 (Jordanian Internet censorship law)Jordanians protest a proposed law that would filter Internet access.
  03 September 2012 (Romney pioneered debt creation)Romney was a pioneer in creating debt and saddling companies with it.Now his hypocritical campaign pretends to be against debt, as an excusefor an economic revolution bringing poor-country suffering to most Americans.
  Here is Matt Taibi's description of Romney's career.
  03 September 2012 (Melting Arctic ice)Melting Arctic ice means even worse weather disasters are coming inEurope and the US.
  03 September 2012 (New campaign for corporate immunity)Obama's government launched a new campaign for corporate immunity.
  03 September 2012 (Iran's uranium enrichment program)Hidden in the IAEA report on Iran: evidence that its uranium enrichment programis not aimed at making bombs.
  03 September 2012 (Selective factchecking)Factchecking the Minnows and Letting the Whales Swim Away.
  03 September 2012 (Internet domains and addresses)Letting the US manage the Internet domains and addressesis bad, but the other options are worse.
  03 September 2012 (Urgent: ITU)US citizens: oppose a plan to make the ITU the primary standards committeefor the Internet.
  02 September 2012 (Repression of new Tunisian regime)Tunisian political cartoonist Z says that the new regime represses him like the old one.
  Furthermore, it has convinced Facebook to censor him, which shows that itwas a mistake using Facebook at all.
  02 September 2012 (Movement against license plate cameras)As license plate cameras spread around the US, a movement to resist isbeginning, and New Hampshire haslimited the use of them.
  02 September 2012 (Miners charged with killing)Miners in South Africa were charged with killing after some of them were shot by thugs.
  02 September 2012 (Imprisonment of dissidents in Eritrea)Eritrea has imprisoned dissidents since 2001, and several journalists have died in prison.
  02 September 2012 (Urgent: US environmental education)US citizens: support continuing the US environmental education program.
  02 September 2012 (Microrobots to repair coral reefs)Microrobots are being designed to repair coral reefs.
  This might deal with the effects of bottom trawling, but the worstlong-term threat to coral is from acidification of the ocean due toCO2 emissions from human activity. I don't think robotic repaircan do that. What we need is to stop the CO2 emissions.
  02 September 2012 (Epilogue to the World We Knew)We Are Writing the Epilogue to the World We Knew
  02 September 2012 (Most new US jobs are low wage)Most new US jobs are low-wage jobs.
  (I take issue with the article's assumption that the recession has ended.)
  02 September 2012 (Obama protects US torturers)Obama has quashed the last two possible criminal cases against US torturers.
  Persistently over 4 years he has acted to make sure that no USgovernment torturers will face justice, in the US or elsewhere, even those that tortured prisoners to death.
  Don't vote for torture. Jill Stein for president!
  02 September 2012 (Early voting in Ohio)A federal court restored early voting in Ohio.
  02 September 2012 (Urgent: Help state-authorized marijuana dispensaries)US citizens: phone your congresscritter to cosponsor three bills to help state-authorized medical marijuana dispensaries.
  The Capitol Switchboard numbers are 202-224-3121, 888-818-6641 and 888-355-3588.
  01 September 2012 (Angolan president's re-election)The Angolan president seems to have got himself re-elected by stoppinglots of people from voting, and making the rest feel it was useless.
  01 September 2012 (Large wildfire in Spain)Spain has a large wildfire due to heat and drought.
  Global heating is making Spain drier and hotter, meaning there willbe more of these and worse.
  01 September 2012 (Urgent: Stop commercial advertising by schools)US citizens: sign this petition against commercial advertising by schools.
  01 September 2012 (Urgent: Stop Arctic drilling exception for Shell)US citizens: call on Secretary of the Interior Salazar not togive Shell any special exception regarding Arctic drilling.
  01 September 2012 (Arctic sea ice reaches new record low)This week, Arctic sea ice reached a new record low, and it will keep melting for several weeks more. The Republican National Convention was partly shut down by a hurricane, but they still deny the problem.
  Decades from now, as the disaster unfolds, many of them will keepdenying what is happening.
  Meanwhile, Obama is no solution. He talks little about global heating, and as for actions, he "expedited" the planet-roaster pipeline.
  01 September 2012 (Kasparov's arrest)Kasparov describes how he was arrested while talking to journalists, and calls for the West to impose financial sanctions on Putin's government.
  01 September 2012 (Marijuana sales to adults)Some US states are on track to vote to legalize marijuana sales to adults.
  01 September 2012 (UN warns Gaza will not be livable)The siege of Gaza has relaxed somewhat, but the UN warns it will not be livable in 2020.
  Part of the action needed, however, is to reduce the birth rate.Having such a "young population" is the result of human activity, nota natural characteristic.
  01 September 2012 (Methane under Antarctic ice sheet)The Antarctic ice sheet may cover billions of tons of methane.
  01 September 2012 (Worlds wealthiest woman complains)Poor people should work harder and stop complaining, says the world'swealthiest woman.
  I think she should pay more taxes.
  01 September 2012 (Petition to pardon Peter Sunde)Over 100,000 signed the petition to pardon Peter Sunde, associatedwith The Pirate Bay.
  Here is Sunde's description of the charges against him.
  01 September 2012 (Worst Lies in Paul Ryan's Speech)6 Worst Lies In Paul Ryan's Speech.
  The corporate media mysteriously decline to pounce on Ryan's lies.
  01 September 2012 (Texas voter-ID law overturned)A voter-ID law in Texas has been overturned.
  01 September 2012 (US national debt's interest burden)The US national debt's interest burden is the lowest it has been since World War II.
  01 September 2012 (Ecuador protects another whistleblower)Ecuador has protected another political whistleblower, this one from Belarus.
  01 September 2012 (Colombia-US Labor Action Plan)Colombia-US Labor Action Plan led only to "cosmetic changes".
  Since the real purpose of "free trade" treaties is to help business atthe expense of everyone else, it is not a surprise that the provisionsabout improved rights for labor are mere window dressing, that meantto take arguments away from the opposition in order to gain votes, andnot intended truly to help workers in Colombia. Why then botherto implement them once the blow has fallen?
  01 September 2012 (Honduras torn apart by US War on Drugs)Militarizing the Police and Killing Natives: How the US Drug War Is Ripping Honduras Apart.
  01 September 2012 (Weak endorsement of Internet freedom)The Republican Party has endorsed Internet freedom, but it must be a ratherweak stand since the MPAA does not object to it.
  01 September 2012 (Suspension of Belo Monte Dam overturned)Brazilian Supreme Court Judge Overturns Suspension of Belo Monte Dam.01 September 2012 (Urgent: Limit NSA surveillance of Americans)US citizens: call on your congresscritter and senator to limit NSA surveillance of Americans.
  31 August 2012 (Urgent: EPA regulation of coal ash)US citizens: tell your senators to support EPA regulation of coal ashfrom coal-fired power plants.
  31 August 2012 (The "database of ruin")Big data and combining data means companies are developing the "database of ruin", which can find out enough secrets to ruin nearlyanyone.
  See also Cory Doctorow's story, Scroogled.
  31 August 2012 (Paper money with RFIDs)Work is being done on making paper money with RFIDs.
  It's dangerous because governments could track who gets and spends what money.Also dangerous because thieves could track who has money in his purse, or ina hidden pocket.
  31 August 2012 (Muslim fanatics threaten retarded child)Muslim fanatics out for blood threaten mob violence against the retarded child accused of burning pages of a Qur'an.
  Of course, it would be equally unacceptable to punish a mentallycompetent adult for this. The right to offend anyone about anythingis a central part of freedom of speech.
  31 August 2012 (Stuxnet-type viruses in Middle East)Reportedly every country in the Middle East now has Stuxnet-typeattack viruses.
  31 August 2012 (Reincorporating to duck taxes)Corporations that already duck the US income tax are nonethelessreincorporating in other countries that allow them to pay less.
  The US should make sure that proper taxes are paid on US businessactivity and prevent the accounting tricks used to attributethe profit to anywhere else.
  31 August 2012 (Urgent: Environmental education in US schools)US citizens: call on Obama to defend environmental education in US schools.
  31 August 2012 (Urgent: Free the members of Pussy Riot)Everyone: write to Putin demanding he free the members of Pussy Riot.
  31 August 2012 (Bank employees fired for minor crimes)US bank employees are being fired for minor crimes committed many years ago. However, the gross fraud committed by the banksters goes unprosecuted, so banks don't have to fire them.
  31 August 2012 (Criminal miners kill Yanomami people)Criminal miners from Brazil killed around 80 Yanomami who did not want theirland to be mined.
  The international mining companies operating in India, Peru, Canadaand other countries can kill more people, but they construct a legalexcuse so that they can claim not to be "criminal".
  31 August 2012 (Koch brothers switch loopholes)After a judge closed one loophole about identifying their donors,the Koch brothers switched to a slightly different loophole.
  31 August 2012 (Flaws in Obama's new fuel standards)Although Obama's new fuel efficiency standards are a step forward,they don't go far enough. Here are some flaws.
  31 August 2012 (US war profiteers)US military contractors have been cutting jobs even as their contracts increased.
  31 August 2012 (Florida's anti-voter-registration law)Florida's Republican anti-voter-registration law bites the dust.
  31 August 2012 (False claims about abstinence)The Republican Party platform advocates abstinence-only sex noneducation and falsely claims that it prevents pregnancy.
  31 August 2012 (Workers forced attend Romney rally)Murray Energy forced workers to take a day without pay and attend a Romneycampaign rally.
  31 August 2012 (Protesters block Keystone construction)Protesters blocked construction of the Keystone XL planet-roaster pipelinefor a day by chaining themselves to a truck.
  31 August 2012 ("Urban Infrastructure Bank" scheme)The "Urban Infrastructure Bank" is a desperate scheme to indirectlyprivatize parts of US cities' infrastructure.
  The attraction of these schemes is short-term: the cities are not gettingenough funds from the state and federal governments and can't maintaintheir infrastructure. However, as Chicago has already learned from itsprivatization of parking meters, the long-term effects are to make the problem worse.
  31 August 2012 (Chile's version of DMCA)Chile's version of the DMCA protects against false copyright claims by requiring a court to approve an order to take down material.
  31 August 2012 (Urgent: Stop support for ALEC)US citizens: call on Duke Energy to stop supporting ALEC.
  31 August 2012 (Urgent: Thank Obama)US citizens: thank Obama for increased car mileage standards.
  Obama doesn't do 10% of what's needed to prevent disaster, and seemsto be in favor of increased drilling which means increased emissions.However, that is more reason to express appreciation when he doessomething.
  31 August 2012 (Urgent: Medicaid)US citizens: tell Governor Perry and 11 other governorsto allow the expansion of Medicaid in their states.
  31 August 2012 (Carbon-trading markets)Carbon-trading markets in Europe and Australia will be linked.
  In theory, cap-and-trade systems like these should work efficientlyto reduce emissions. In practice, the systems can easily have flawsthat cause them not to achieve their goals at all.Thus I think we should institute a real tax on fossil fuels,rather than cap-and-trade.
  30 August 2012(Twitter)
  Twitter has appealed a court ruling that it must turn overa protester's personal info.
  I have some criticisms of Twitter in other areas, but no one could domore to protect its users' from government searches. However, what isneeded is better laws: laws that recognize that the user is entitledto challenge searches of her data stored in a company's server.
  30 August 2012(Massachusetts Senator Brown)
The Nazi Death Machine: Hitler's Drugged Soldiers - SPIEGEL ONLINE
  Link to Article
  Source: Instapaper: No Agenda News Network
  Sun, 16 Sep 2012 02:37
  By Andreas Ulrich
  The Nazis preached abstinence in the name of promoting national health. But when it came to fighting their Blitzkrieg, they had no qualms about pumping their soldiers full of drugs and alcohol. Speed was the drug of choice, but many others became addicted to morphine and alcohol.
  The stimulant Pervitin was delivered to the soldiers at the front.
  In a letter dated November 9, 1939, to his "dear parents and siblings" back home in Cologne, a young soldier stationed in occupied Poland wrote: "It's tough out here, and I hope you'll understand if I'm only able to write to you once every two to four days soon. Today I'm writing you mainly to ask for some Pervitin ...; Love, Hein."
  Pervitin, a stimulant commonly known as speed today, was the German army's -- the Wehrmacht's -- wonder drug.
  On May 20, 1940, the 22-year-old soldier wrote to his family again: "Perhaps you could get me some more Pervitin so that I can have a backup supply?" And, in a letter sent from Bromberg on July 19, 1940, he wrote: "If at all possible, please send me some more Pervitin." The man who wrote these letters became a famous writer later in life. He was Heinrich Boell, and in 1972 he was the first German to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in the post-war period.
  Many of the Wehrmacht's soldiers were high on Pervitin when they went into battle, especially against Poland and France -- in a Blitzkrieg fueled by speed. The German military was supplied with millions of methamphetamine tablets during the first half of 1940. The drugs were part of a plan to help pilots, sailors and infantry troops become capable of superhuman performance. The military leadership liberally dispensed such stimulants, but also alcohol and opiates, as long as it believed drugging and intoxicating troops could help it achieve victory over the Allies. But the Nazis were less than diligent in monitoring side-effects like drug addiction and a decline in moral standards.
  After it was first introduced into the market in 1938, Pervitin, a methamphetamine drug newly developed by the Berlin-based Temmler pharmaceutical company, quickly became a top seller among the German civilian population. According to a report in the Klinische Wochenschrift ("Clinical Weekly"), the supposed wonder drug was brought to the attention of Otto Ranke, a military doctor and director of the Institute for General and Defense Physiology at Berlin's Academy of Military Medicine. The effects of amphetamines are similar to those of the adrenaline produced by the body, triggering a heightened state of alert. In most people, the substance increases self-confidence, concentration and the willingness to take risks, while at the same time reducing sensitivity to pain, hunger and thirst, as well as reducing the need for sleep. In September 1939, Ranke tested the drug on 90 university students, and concluded that Pervitin could help the Wehrmacht win the war. At first Pervitin was tested on military drivers who participated in the invasion of Poland. Then, according to criminologist Wolf Kemper, it was "unscrupulously distributed to troops fighting at the front."
  Thirty-five million tablets
  During the short period between April and July of 1940, more than 35 million tablets of Pervitin and Isophan (a slightly modified version produced by the Knoll pharmaceutical company) were shipped to the German army and air force. Some of the tablets, each containing three milligrams of active substance, were sent to the Wehrmacht's medical divisions under the code name OBM, and then distributed directly to the troops. A rush order could even be placed by telephone if a shipment was urgently needed. The packages were labeled "Stimulant," and the instructions recommended a dose of one to two tablets "only as needed, to maintain sleeplessness."
  Even then, doctors were concerned about the fact that the regeneration phase after taking the drug was becoming increasingly long, and that the effect was gradually decreasing among frequent users. In isolated cases, users experienced health problems like excessive perspiration and circulatory disorders, and there were even a few deaths. Leonardo Conti, the German Reich's minister of health and an adherent of Adolf Hitler's belief in asceticism, attempted to restrict the use of the pill, but was only moderately successful, at least when it came to the Wehrmacht. Although Pervitin was classified as a restricted substance on July 1, 1941, under the Opium Law, ten million tablets were shipped to troops that same year.
  Pervitin was generally viewed as a proven drug to be used when soldiers were likely to be subjected to extreme stress. A memorandum for navy medical officers stated the following: "Every medical officer must be aware that Pervitin is a highly differentiated and powerful stimulant, a tool that enables him, at any time, to actively and effectively help certain individuals within his range of influence achieve above-average performance."
  "Their spirits suddenly improved"
  The effects were seductive. In January 1942, a group of 500 German soldiers stationed on the eastern front and surrounded by the Red Army were attempting to escape. The temperature was minus 30 degrees Celsius. A military doctor assigned to the unit wrote in his report that at around midnight, six hours into their escape through snow that was waist-deep in places, "more and more soldiers were so exhausted that they were beginning to simply lie down in the snow." The group's commanding officers decided to give Pervitin to their troops. "After half an hour," the doctor wrote, "the men began spontaneously reporting that they felt better. They began marching in orderly fashion again, their spirits improved, and they became more alert."
  DPA
  Towards the end of the war, Germany used younger and younger soldiers. More and more of them relied on drugs or alcohol for courage and endurance.
  It took almost six months for the report to reach the military's senior medical command. But its response was merely to issue new guidelines and instructions for using Pervitin, including information about risks that barely differed from earlier instructions. The "Guidelines for Detecting and Combating Fatigue," issued June 18, 1942, were the same as they had always been: "Two tablets taken once eliminate the need to sleep for three to eight hours, and two doses of two tablets each are normally effective for 24 hours."Toward the end of the war, the Nazis were even working on a miracle pill for their troops. In the northern German seaport of Kiel, on March 16, 1944, then Vice-Admiral Hellmuth Heye, who later became a member of parliament with the conservative Christian Democratic party and head of the German parliament's defense committee, requested a drug "that can keep soldiers ready for battle when they are asked to continue fighting beyond a period considered normal, while at the same time boosting their self-esteem."
  A short time later, Kiel pharmacologist Gerhard Orzechowski presented Heye with a pill code-named D-IX. It contained five milligrams of cocaine, three milligrams of Pervitin and five milligrams of Eukodal (a morphine-based painkiller). Nowadays, a drug dealer caught with this potent a drug would be sent to prison. At the time, however, the drug was tested on crew members working on the navy's smallest submarines, known as the "Seal" and the "Beaver."
  Alcohol consumption was encouraged
  Alcohol, the people's drug, was also popular in the Wehrmacht. Referring to alcohol, Walter Kittel, a general in the medical corps, wrote that "only a fanatic would refuse to give a soldier something that can help him relax and enjoy life after he has faced the horrors of battle, or would reprimand him for enjoying a friendly drink or two with his comrades." Officers would distribute alcohol to their troops as a reward, and schnapps was routinely sold in military commissaries, a policy that also had the happy side effect of returning soldiers' pay to the military.
  "The military command turned a blind eye to alcohol consumption, as long as it didn't lead to public drunkenness among the troops," says Freiburg historian Peter Steinkamp, an expert on drug abuse in the Wehrmacht.
  But in July 1940, after France was defeated, Hitler issued the following order: "I expect that members of the Wehrmacht who allow themselves to be tempted to engage in criminal acts as a result of alcohol abuse will be severely punished." Serious offenders could even expect "a humiliating death."
  DPA
  Drugs were also a problem on the home front, but the Nazis tried harder to control their abuse.
  But the temptations of liquor were apparently more powerful that the Fuehrer's threats. Only a year later, the commander-in-chief of the German military, General Walther von Brauchitsch, concluded that his troops were committing "the most serious infractions" of morality and discipline, and that the culprit was "alcohol abuse." Among the adverse effects of alcohol abuse he cited were fights, accidents, mistreatment of subordinates, violence against superior officers and "crimes involving unnatural sexual acts." The general believed that alcohol was jeopardizing "discipline within the military."According to an internal statistic compiled by the chief of the medical corps, 705 military deaths between September 1939 and April 1944 could be linked directly to alcohol. The unofficial figure was probably much higher, because traffic accidents, accidents involving weapons and suicides were frequently caused by alcohol use. Medical officers were instructed to admit alcoholics and drug addicts to treatment facilities. According to an order issued by the medical service, this solution had "the advantage that it could be extended indefinitely." Once incarcerated in these facilities, addicts were evaluated under the provisions of the "Law for Prevention of Offspring with Hereditary Diseases," and could even be subjected to forced sterilization and euthanasia.
  Executing a bootlegger
  The number of cases in which soldiers became blind or even died after consuming methyl alcohol began to increase. From 1939 on, the University of Berlin's Institute of Forensic Medicine consistently listed methyl alcohol as the leading factor in deaths resulting from the inadvertent ingestion of poisons.
  The execution of a 36-year-old officer in Norway in the fall of 1942 was intended to set an example. The officer, who was a driver, had sold five liters of methyl alcohol, which he claimed was 98 percent alcohol and could be used to produce liquor, to an infantry regiment's anti-tank defense unit. Several soldiers fell ill, and two died. The man, deemed an "enemy of the people," was executed by a firing squad. According to the daily order issued on October 2, 1942, "the punishment shall be announced to the troops and auxiliary units, and it shall be used as a tool for repeated and insistent admonishment."
  But soldiers apparently felt that anything that could help them escape the horrors of war was justifiable. Despite general knowledge of the risks involved, morphine addiction became widespread among the wounded and medical personnel during the course of the war. Four times as many military doctors were addicted to morphine by 1945 than at the beginning of the war.
  Franz Wertheim, a medical officer who was sent to a small village near the Western Wall on May 10, 1940, wrote the following account: "To help pass the time, we doctors experimented on ourselves. We would begin the day by drinking a water glass of cognac and taking two injections of morphine. We found cocaine to be useful at midday, and in the evening we would occasionally take Hyoskin," an alkaloid derived from some varieties of the nightshade plant that is used as a medication. Wertheim adds: "As a result, we were not always fully in command of our senses."
  German doctors experimented on themselves
  To prevent an "outbreak of morphinism, as occurred after the last war," Professor Otto Wuth, a master sergeant and consulting psychiatrist to the military's senior medical command, wrote a "Proposal to Combat Morphinism" in February 1941. Under Wuth's proposal, all wounded who became addicted as a result of treatment were to be centrally recorded and reported to the "District Medical Board," where they would be either legally provided with morphine or routinely examined and sent to drug rehabilitation treatment centers. "In this manner," Wuth concluded, "morphine addicts will be recorded and monitored, and the entire group will be prevented from becoming criminal."
  The Nazi leadership was more lenient with those who became drug-addicted as a result of the war than with alcoholics, probably because the Wehrmacht was concerned that it could be sued for damages, because it was in fact responsible for dispensing the drugs in the first place.
  Translated from the German by Christopher Sultan
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Wow! Gestapo much? @adamcurry @THErealDVORAK ''@EWErickson: The Film Maker Is Arrested http://t.co/ZD6VNXrq via @ewerickson''
  Link to Article
  Source: @adamcurry - Twitter Search
  Sun, 16 Sep 2012 02:35
  Glenn Reynolds has all the details on the arrest of the film maker who made the movie that Barack Obama says caused riots throughout the Middle East.
  I'm going to be charitable here and presume that the man was arrested on other issues that would not have come to light had such much light been pointed in his direction this past week. Note in the picture it is local authors, not federal authors putting him in a police car. That suggests to me there is more going on here.
  But, presuming that, if we really are dealing with people who really are rioting because of a badly produced movie that's been on the internet for a while and they weren't offended until subtitles were added a week or so ago, are we not now conveying a strong message to them that, in fact, the government can punish blasphemers? And if so, doesn't that now give them incentive to riot every time someone in the United States pisses them off?
  Or maybe it really wasn't about a movie and the movie is just the scapegoat.