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In 1% tricks and traps, better judgments, Catholic, Catholic Church, communism, electronic weapons, Equitable Distribution, equitable political power distribution, Ethics, food, food prohibition, Freedom of Expression, Law, media traps, media tricks, mob mentality, Neurotech, Non-Aligned Movement, non-Muslim Rights in a Muslim country, non-Xian rights, spirit of the law, synchronicity, vested interest, War, Wealth distribution, word of the law, Zoroastrianism on October 11, 2012 at 7:20 pm
Red Scar on America – August 24, 2011 — Dean Henderson
The budding genre of left-wing conspiracy research, intuitively attractive as a unifying force to many, attempts to break imposed philosophical paradigms and to deprogram minds in a world traumatized and confused by the Illuminati's biggest psyops program ever – the Cold War. This delicate task requires a historically-grounded progressive political framework which, while taking a backseat to realpolitik, remains pertinent.
While the mainstream left refuses to acknowledge any hint of conspiracy, no matter the number of footnotes; the Alex Jones "right/left paradigm is dead" crowd, while open to deep politics, leans right ideologically, enabling the banker cabal in its quest for global hegemony via 18th century mercantilism – the purest form of capitalism ever practiced.
It is incredibly naïve to believe that the Illuminati bankers wish to usher in communism as their economic model. The real world tells us that wealth is not being redistributed. It is being concentrated in the hands of the few at historic levels.
The left's problem lies in naiveté and cowardice, and in its inability to deconstruct the brutal state capitalism imposed via the Soviet Union. The libertarian conspiracy crowd lacks a background in political theory – their Cato Institute is funded by the same corporations that fund the two major political parties. They too have been brainwashed since birth by the mysterious events that culminated in the Soviet Union.
An analysis of these events is key to understanding the Red Scare, which haunts an increasingly extreme right-wing American political landscape and hinders our ability to formulate practical economic solutions that incorporate both capitalistic and socialistic economic tenants. It also goes a long way in explaining the incredible naiveté of the American mainstream "left".
In 1822 Russia's Czar Alexander banned Freemasonry from his country. When Czar Nicholas took the throne he renewed the ban, but the secret society went underground and survived. Karl Marx was a member of the League of the Just which later became the Communist League. The group was an off-shoot of the Society of Seasons, which had close ties to the Grand Orient Freemason Lodge of Paris. Frederick Engel was a wealthy German industrialist. [714]
Marx and Engel were driven by the philosophies of Freidrich Hegel, whose now infamous Hegelian dialectic put forth a process whereby opposites thesis and antithesis are reconciled into synthesis.
Though Hegel's philosophy was adopted by Marx, it was equally attractive to Adolf Hitler and the Rothschild Business Roundtable that sponsored him. The Roundtable saw in the dialectic a boon to their monopolies by presenting phony communism (antithesis) as bogeyman to capitalism (thesis). The ensuing conflict – the Cold War – produced a huge market for arms and oil which their trusts manufactured.
Genuine revolutionary struggle in the Third World could be labeled as a "Soviet communist conspiracy" and more arms could then be sent to depopulate the undesirable poor, dispensing of agitators who threatened Roundtable interests. The pure application of communism, which indigenous peoples practiced for thousands of years prior to the arrival of Annunaki invaders in Sumeria, was the real threat to the "special bloodline" international bankers.
By upholding Soviet state capitalism to all the world as an example of "failed Communism", the bankers could discredit this dangerous idea while producing their desired synthesis – a New World Order ruled by the Illuminati banking families and Black Nobility monarchs, with laissez-faire monopoly capitalism as their economic paradigm.
The Russian Hohenzollern family monarchy to which the czars belonged wasn't playing ball. They grew suspicious of the Freemasons, who they knew to be agents of the international bankers. In 1915 the American International Corporation (AIC) was formed to finance a Russian revolution aimed at deposing the Hohenzollerns and launching the banker's grand Hegelian experiment. AIC directors included Frank Vanderlip, who two years prior had attended the secret Jekyll Island meetings that formulated the private Federal Reserve; and George Herbert Walker, grandfather of George Bush Sr. The families of Rockefeller, Rothschild, Du Pont, Kuhn, Loeb, Schiff and Harriman were represented on AIC's board. [715]
WWI was looming and the Allied powers needed to open a diversionary front against the Germans. Russian Bolshevik leader Leon Trotsky left New York by ship on March 27, 1917, just days before the US entered WWI. He had with him a US passport, 300 revolutionaries and a wad of cash supplied by the Wall Street banker crowd. Twelve days earlier Czar Nicholas II had stepped down amidst an uprising launched by genuine anarchist revolutionaries, inspired by the writings of the Russian philosopher Kropotkin, who preached revolution followed by immediate decentralization of power, a sharp contrast to the iron-fisted state capitalist control under which Russia was about to fall. The anarchists struck fear into the heart of Wall Street, so they dispatched Trotsky to derail their Menshevik plans.
As Trotsky and his Reds sailed east, Vladimir Lenin left Switzerland in a sealed train with 150 more "revolutionaries" and $5 million in cash. The train passed through Germany without inspection thanks to banker Max Warburg's intervention. Meanwhile, fifteen international bankers under Red Cross cover traveled to Petrograd to provide additional financing to the Bolsheviks and to make off with Russia's gold reserves, just as they would later make off with German gold reserves following WWII and Chinese gold reserves after the 1949 Revolution.[716] Prince Lvov, who replaced the deposed Czar Nicholas II, and his successor Alexander Kerensky both publicly denounced Trotsky and Lenin as German intelligence agents.
The war between Mensheviks and Bolsheviks lasted until 1922. Some 28 million Russians died. The unruly anarchists were eventually disposed of and the Roundtable crowd launched its "antithesis" in Moscow. Trotsky and Lenin were likely unaware they were being used by the bankers. Trotsky fled to Mexico City, where he was murdered by Stalin's agents in 1940. Lenin died in 1924. He had by then identified the powerful forces behind his ascent as "monopoly finance capitalists". Towards the end of his life he wrote, "The state does not function as we desired. A man is at the wheel and seems to lead it, but the car does not drive in the desired direction. It moves as another force wishes."[717]
John D. Rockefeller, Nathan Rothschild, Max Warburg, Jacob Schiff and J. Pierpont Morgan seized the new Soviet opportunity. Their Four Horsemen always had interests in Russia. The Rothschild and Nobel families discovered oil in Baku in 1898 with their Far East Trading Company, but anarchist oilfield revolutionaries burned their newly renamed Royal Dutch/Shell installations to the ground.
By 1922 Rockefeller's Chase National Bank launched the American-Russian Chamber of Commerce. In 1925 Chase negotiated a deal with Soviet Prombank to market Russia's raw materials to the West, while helping the Bolsheviks import cotton and machinery. Chase and its sister insurance conglomerate Equitable Trust led the way in providing credit to the Soviets, selling Bolshevik bonds in the US by 1928 with help from Morgan Guaranty.
Rep. Louis McFadden (D-NY), chair of the House Banking Committee, remarked, "The Soviet government has been given US Treasury funds by the Federal Reserve Banks acting through Chase Bank and Guaranty Trust Company…Find out what business has been transacted for the State Bank of the Soviet Union by its correspondent bank, Chase Bank of New York."[718]
The chaos caused by the Bolshevik Revolution had been a boon to Rockefeller oil interests by eliminating much of Standard Oil's competition in Russia. In 1926 Standard Oil of New York (Mobil) loaned $75 million to the Bolsheviks in exchange for exclusive rights to market Soviet oil in Europe. Mobil built a refinery in Russia.
In 1969 Rockefeller's International Basic Economy Corporation (IBEC) – which later gave birth to the draconian Caribbean Basin Initiative – formed a partnership with N.M. Rothschild & Sons of London. Rockefeller's partner in IBEC was Cleveland financier and industrialist Cyrus Eaton. The Rockefellers, Rothschilds and Eatons made huge profits facilitating Soviet trade with the West. In 1976 they signed an exclusive licensing and patent deal with Licensintorg, giving them a monopoly on technology transfer to the Soviets.
President Nixon forged detente with the Soviets and Chinese following the Vietnam War in 1973. That year also brought the Arab oil embargo, the pegging of oil to the US dollar, the launch of oil futures markets and the advent of a burgeoning Eurodollar market in London. Soon after Nixon held the detente summits with his counterparts Leonid Brezhnev and Zhou En-lai, Chase Manhattan opened a branch in Moscow and started a correspondent banking relationship with the Bank of China. [719]
Nixon appointed William Casey to head the Export-Import Bank. Casey was a CFR insider and leading Knight of Malta. He later managed Ronald Reagan's 1980 October Surprise Presidential Campaign and was appointed CIA Director. At ExIm Bank Casey financed one of the grandest industrial schemes in history, the world's largest truck factory at the Kama River in the Soviet Union. The factory was built by Pullman Corporation and was financed 10% by the Soviets, 45% by ExIm Bank and 45% by Chase Manhattan, where David Rockefeller was now chairman.
Chase risked nothing since its money was guaranteed by the Overseas Private Investment Corporation and Foreign Credit Insurance Association. If the Russians failed to pay the loans back, US taxpayers were on the hook for 90% of the Kama money. George Schultz – CFR, Bechtel and Chevron Texaco director who was Reagan's Secretary of State – was key to the Kama River deal. Casey provided an ExIm Bank loan for Schultz' Bechtel to build a Permindex-affiliated International Trade Center in Moscow in a deal arranged by Occidental Petroleum scion and Tennessee Gore political dynasty sponsor Armand Hammer. Other Casey ExIm Bank loans funded oil and gas pipelines and petrochemical and fertilizer plants. [720]
The US detente with the Soviets and China had more to do with a thirst for new energy supplies by the Four Horsemen than it did with grandiose statements of "promoting world peace". China has huge oil deposits off its Senkaka Island in the East China Sea. Just northeast of Senkaka lie the Soviet Sakhalin Islands, an area that contains massive oil and gas deposits. The Soviet regions of Siberia and the Caspian Sea were even bigger oil prizes. As Chase Manhattan Senior Vice-President Albert Wentworth put it, "The Soviet Union is the last great undeveloped market for the US."
Columnist Paul Scott hit the nail more squarely on the head when he wrote in 1976, "It is Kissinger's belief that by controlling food one can control people, and by controlling energy – especially oil – one can control nations and their financial systems. By placing food and oil under international control along with the world's monetary system, Kissinger is convinced a loosely knit world government can become a reality by 1980."
Nixon Agriculture Secretary Earl Butz once bragged that through USAID's P.L. 480 program the US employed "food as a weapon", doling out food to nations who agree to follow IMF mandates, while withholding food from those who don't. Just as Kissinger's IAE benefits the Four Horsemen of Oil – Exxon Mobil, Chevron Texaco, BP Amoco and Royal Dutch/Shell; P. L. 480 enriches the Four Horsemen of Grain – Cargill Continental, Louis Dreyfus, Bunge and Andre. As Chilean Minister of Agriculture Jacques Chonchol said, "Whoever controls food exports controls the world."[721]
The Soviet Union was an artificial construct cooked up by the Illuminati bankers to create profitable conflict and, more importantly, to confuse the world's population in the arena of political economy. The Red Scare they manufactured has become a Red Scar on the American psyche.
[1] The Robot's Rebellion: The Story of the Spiritual Renaissance. David Icke. Gateway Books. Bath, UK. 1994. p.160
[2] Rule by Secrecy: The Hidden History that Connects the Trilateral Commission, the Freemasons and the Great Pyramids. Jim Marrs. HarperCollins Publishers. New York. 2000. p.195
[3] Icke. p.163
[4] Marrs. p.196
[5] The Rockefeller File. Gary Allen. '76 Press. Seal Beach, CA. 1973. p.101
[6] The World's Money: International Banking from Bretton Woods to the Brink of Insolvency. Michael Moffitt. Simon & Schuster. New York. 1983 p65
[7] Allen. p.114
[8] Merchants of Grain. Dan Morgan. Viking Press. New York. 1979. p.398
http://deanhenderson.wordpress.com/2011/08/24/red-scar-on-america/#comment-4284
Selected Commentator Comments :
@Freeborn Says: September 13, 2011 at 3:41 am
You say Lenin and Trotsky weren't cognizant of how they were instruments of finance capitalists until it was too late.
Surely Trotsky had played chess with Baron Rothschild in Viennae, been cultivated by Schiff in NY-he even joined B'nai B'rith there-and finally married into these circles.
How could he not have known.
Lenin had conspired with Parvus in Zurich. Parvus pioneered the permanent revolution tactic during the Young Turk Revolution in 1908. According to Solzhenitsyn Parvus had "fathered a an anonymous resolution in the Soviet, its Financial Manifesto. What looked like a set of uncouth and primitive demands from the illiterate masses was really a programme of a clever and experienced financier striking at the foundations of the hated Russian state, to bring it down in ruins at a single blow."
It was Parvus who'd persuaded the Germans to send the Sealed Train into Russia with Lenin and co. on it!
How could Lenin not have known of the plans of the Warburg financiers?
Isn't there also evidence that Stalin was a Tavistock-trained instrument of the Rockefeller/Fabian nexus. He was at the Russian S.D. conference in London in 1907.
Who paid for Tavistock?
Interested in your thoughts on this………
Subsistence food farming AFTER land distribution, AND growing and processing of fuel at the micro level (every family grows their own biofuel crop). The wealth distribution issue can be easily handled by 'Counter-Agents'. So imagine every family with stockpiles of food and biofuel perhaps dating generations back enough to last decades while solar power further prevents grid overload as well as prevent oligarch contractor crony progfiteering off electicity via fat cat bonuses for executives.
But this needs the people to vote in a manner that distributes unused state land, preferably under ALLODIAL TITLE and after abolishing EMINENT DOMAIN POWERS, as well as removal of the Army (see José Figueres Ferrer), through selection of candidates that will ratify the above.
If there are no candidates, the people must offer themselves or if rich enough (the regular rich worth a handful of millions is quite grassroots still unlike the billionaire types), at least fund proxies to run on the above issues. Kissinger's plan will fail entirely. Food and fuel security will be guaranteed and independent of all middlemen, there will be no militaries to order around.
mini-ARTICLE 1.5
US 'is running a two-party, fascist regime'
Mon Oct 8, 2012 5:19AM
The United States "is running a two-party, fascist regime" where "corporations and the bankers run the country", says the chief investment strategist of AVA Investment Analytics.
In an interview with the U.S. Desk on Sunday, Mike Stathis said, "It doesn't matter who wins the elections. First of all, all U.S. presidents are puppets. They're puppets of the establishment. The guys that make the decisions are in the shadows".
According to a study by Gallup, a growing number of Americans believe there is an urgent need for a third major party in the country.
The desire for a third party is fairly similar across ideological groups, with 61% of liberals, 60% of moderates, and 54% of conservatives believing a third major party is needed. The mainstream Democratic and Republican parties agree on most crucial issues that affect American lives most directly.
"They are going to send jobs to countries that have cheap labor… in order to boost the profits of corporate America. When it comes to health care, both parties– Democrats and Republicans– are going to continue to allow the health care system to be run by Wall Street," Stathis said.
ISH/HJ
Quite easy to find out if a real Third Force man, or a liferaft party in formation if any term limitless types or GLC types or plutocrats are included in the party.
The unholy Quran ADMITS JESUS is GOD
Nanny state or smart tourism? Rome bans public snacking – Put that pizza away. A new law prohibits tourists from munching, camping near some of the city's most famous monuments – by CNNGo staff 4 October, 2012
Contrary to popular belief, this fountain in front of the Pantheon wasn't built for tourists in need of a place to wash their greasy pizza fingers.
Rome might be one of the world's best destinations for foodies, but thanks to a new city council ordinance tourists will have to keep their delicious slices of pizza away from certain historical monuments.
According to Italian newspaper La Repubblica, anyone caught snacking around key locations in the city's historic center will face fines of up to €500 (US$645).
The move follows similar bans in Venice and Florence.
Rome mayor Gianni Alemanno said the order was issued as part of urgent measures to ensure the protection of the historic center. Because we all know the harmful impact panini crumbs can have on ancient architecture.
Snack-free zones include the marble fountains of Piazza Navona, the stone walls around the Pantheon and Via dei Fori Imperiali near the Colosseum.
More on CNN: Insider Guide — Best of Rome
And just in case you were planning to spend the night, bear in mind that camping for the night at any of these sites is now forbidden too.
Leave your padlocks in the bedroom, lovebirds
Last month authorities took bolt cutters to Rome's famed Ponte Milvio on the river Tiber to slice off thousands of padlocks placed there by couples inspired by novelist Federico Moccia's "Ho voglia di te" (I Want You), in which two lovers place a bicycle lock around a lamppost and throw the key into the Tiber, symbolizing the eternal locking of their hearts.
The city council, which officially banned the practice in 2007, said the rusting locks were damaging the ancient bridge.
Maybe smart preservation. Or maybe the Eternal City is fast becoming the kiljoy city.
Do you think such bans are justified? Leave your thoughts in the comments box below.
While the Vatican is already a materialist enmired failure, these moves are quite appropriate. Eating and drinking (gluttony) are as unspiritual or plebian ( . . . sh1t happens . . . ) as anyone can get. And a place like the Vatican should be focused on fasting and discipline (also sexual discipline especially more so for paedophile priests) and not earthly issues.
Or maybe the Christian Eternal City is fast becoming the killjoy city?
Joy is not about food for foodies. Eternity far less so. Sleeping allows 'travel' and camping means one's spirit 'wanders' at night (presumably some priests get to enjoy their 'purity carnale' from travellers as well too much. Good rules! How about the Pope address 3rd world Malaysia about BUMIPUTRA APARTHEID with the Ayatollah as well? So much theft of consultation at least deserves this much in payment, bring civilisation to the Oompa-loompas of 3rd world nations . . .
POLITICS-U.S.: Wolfowitz Defenders Double Their Standards – Analysis by Jim Lobe
Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz – At a glance IMHO . . . a 'Biffier' version of 'used-car salesman' Blair (that 'unilateralist Iraq war criminal') on steroids . . .
WASHINGTON, Apr 17 2007 (IPS) – Some of the same neoconservative institutions that are defending World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz against charges that he unethically promoted the career and compensation of his romantic partner were among the most aggressive in attacking former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan for alleged nepotism on behalf of his son.
The editorial writers of the Wall Street Journal, contributors to the National Review, and a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defence of Democracies (FDD), a neoconservative group whose journalist-in-residence, Claudia Rosett, led the campaign against Annan and his son, Kojo, have all rallied behind the beleaguered Bank president, blaming his problems on an entrenched officialdom determined to resist his corruption-fighting reforms.
"The only way this fiasco could get any worse would be for Mr. Wolfowitz to resign in the teeth of so much dishonesty and cravenness," according to the lead editorial in Monday's Wall Street Journal, which offered a detailed justification for the former deputy defence secretary under U.S. President George W. Bush.
"We're glad the Bush administration isn't falling for this Euro-bureaucracy-media putsch," it added in what was the second of two consecutive columns on Wolfowitz's plight.
"Paul Wolfowitz is my friend, and one of the most decent, upright people it has ever been my privilege to know," wrote FDD senior fellow and anti-terrorism specialist Andrew McCarthy in the National Review Online (NRO).
"If it were up to me, there would be no World Bank. But if we're going to have one, we should be grateful that Paul Wolfowitz is running it, rooting out corruption and trying to change the culture so that helping the poor, rather than pushing loans out the door, is the criterion by which it is judged," McCarthy concluded.
POLITICS: Wolfowitz's Allies Regroup but Leave Questions Unanswered POLITICS: Top Wolfowitz Postings Went to Iraq War Backers
The approach toward Wolfowitz's current difficulties by both the Journal and the FDD, as well as by NRO and Fox News, contrasts strongly with their attacks on the former UN chief and his son, who was first accused in an article by FDD's Rosett in the National Review three years ago of having working for a Swiss company, Cotecna, that was awarded a 10-million-dollar UN contract in 1998 to inspect "Oil-for-Food" imports into Iraq.
That was the first story of more than 30 published over the next two and a half years by the Review and the NRO on Kojo Annan's business deals and what it considered a case of blatant nepotism and conflict of interest on the UN chief's part – emblematic in the neoconservatives' view of the corruption of the world body itself.
The Review-FDD campaign was bolstered by Fox News and the Wall Street Journal, which itself published more than a dozen editorials and columns, including several by Rosett, citing Kojo in connection with alleged UN corruption and the multi-billion-dollar oil-for-food scandal between 2004 and the end of Kofi Annan's term in office Dec. 31, 2006.
Indeed, when Rosett reported in another neoconservative publication, the New York Sun, in late November 2004, that Cotecna had continued paying Kojo Annan 2,500 dollars a month for four years after he left the company in early 2000 – which Cotecna described as a standard non-compete deal – neo-conservatives stepped up their calls for the UN chief to resign.
"Annan should either resign, if he is honourable, or be removed, if he is not," wrote the National Review at the time, while the Journal featured an editorial page column entitled "Kofi Annan Must Go" by Republican Senator Norm Coleman who, noting Rosett's latest revelation, as well as other allegations of corruption in the oil-for-food scandal, declared that "(I)f this widespread corruption had occurred in any legitimate organisation around the world, its CEO would have been ousted long ago, in disgrace."
In the event, the independent commission headed by former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker determined in its final report published in September 2005 that, while Annan should have been more aggressive about looking into his son's relationship with Cotecna once his ties were disclosed, he had not influenced the awarding of the contract to the company or known how Kojo had traded on his name to further his business interests.
The neoconservative role in vigorously pressing the campaign to discredit Annan for his presumed nepotism and force his resignation stands in sharp contrast to its efforts to protect Wolfowitz from similar charges in connection with his role in personally arranging an exceptional promotion and salary increase for his girlfriend, Shaha Riza, a senior World Bank communications officer when Wolfowitz took over in June 2005, as part of a package by which she was seconded to the State Department.
According to the New York Times on Tuesday, Wolfowitz may also have played a role in getting her a short-term consultancy with a major defence contractor, Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), in 2003, when he was serving at the Pentagon.
In its two editorials, the Journal has argued at length that Wolfowitz had tried to recuse himself from any decision regarding her career when he was first hired, but that he was subsequently forced to make the secondment arrangements himself after the Bank's executive board and ethics committee allegedly instructed him to do so.
Consistent with a Fox News investigative report published online and aired over the weekend, the Journal wrote Monday that the ethics committee chairman, Ad Melkert, had effectively approved the secondment package and went on to suggest that Wolfowitz may have fallen into a trap set by the board to manoeuvre him into a conflict of interest.
Documents released Friday by the Bank make "us wonder if some bank officials weren't trying to ambush Mr. Wolfowitz from the start," it said, adding that "it's clear that his enemies – especially Europeans who want the bank presidency to go to one of their own – are now using this to force him out of the bank."
Michael Rubin, a Middle East specialist at the American Enterprise Institute who worked for Wolfowitz's former Pentagon boss, Donald Rumsfeld, in the run-up to the war in Iraq, informed NRO readers that the Wall Street Journal editorial was a "must-read".
The Journal and other supporters also tried to downplay the significance of what Wolfowitz had done. The Journal called it a "mini-flap" involving "ethical minutiae", while Jonah Goldberg, a regular contributor to the NRO, referred favourably to a Los Angeles Times column by neo-conservative legal scholar Ruth Wedgwood, entitled "The Wolfowitz Non-Story".
Wolfowitz and Shaha, she argued, are victims of a "mob mentality", echoing charges by Victor Davis Hanson, yet another neoconservative at NRO, that Wolfowitz is "facing a lynch mob over perhaps a… one-time lapse of judgment in regard to compensation of a companion – nothing, however, ranking with the various scandals surrounding Kofi Annan, whose son profited by United Nations exemptions given through his family ties."
What the scandal is really about is "payback for Iraq", according to Hanson, whose views often reflect those of Vice President Dick Cheney, reportedly Wolfowitz's main supporter within the Bush administration.
Ironically, the same was said by Annan's supporters during the Kojo scandal. "The reality is that the current calls for Annan's head are provoked by his opposition to America's pre-emptive war in Iraq," noted Ian Williams, the UN correspondent for The Nation weekly in late 2004 after Coleman called for Annan's resignation.
Indeed, as the neoconservative campaign against the secretary-general gathered steam in the fall of 2004, James Traub, in a Los Angeles Times article entitled "Lynch Mob's Real Target is the U.N., Not Annan," wrote: "(W)hat conservatives cannot accept, at bottom, is the premise that an international body, even one over which the United States exercises enormous sway, should be allowed to pass on the legitimacy or legality of American actions."
(NOTE: The reference to Michael Rubin of American Enterprise Institute has been corrected.)
http://www.ipsnews.net/2007/04/politics-us-wolfowitz-defenders-double-their-standards/
That tears the UN, making UN all about nepotism. And such a pity that NAM is all about Muslims who obviously do not understand that secular people exist and have rights too. BRICS ready to take over where UN and NAM appear to be failing? Russia and China are too sharp witted for this to do them in are they? Socialism would expect at least this much – to prohibit the plague of nepotism as in Russia's and China's Iron Curtain style Laws against nepotism! The world is counting on BRICS and any Red Coats left in USA now! Live up to the name Wolfowictz, to the level where Wolves are, this is not about 'WW3 Preppers' or cool couples that live with actual Wolves, this is about Remus and Romulus, the Kittim Throne of the Archonic Planetary Intelligences that non-monotheistic Zoroaster knew well!
Nuclear operators must act now on safety: EU – by Barbara Lewis – Posted 2012/10/04 at 1:32 pm EDT
BRUSSELS, Oct. 4, 2012 (Reuters) — Regulators and operators should act now to improve safety at nuclear power plants, the EU energy commissioner said on Thursday, following inspections across the European Union.
European Energy Commissioner Gunther Oettinger speaks at a news conference on the EU Nuclear Stress Tests in Brussels October 4, 2012. REUTERS/Yves Herman
The stress tests, carried out in the aftermath of the Fukushima disaster, found safety improvements costing between 10 billion ($12.90 billion) and 25 billion euros were necessary in European plants, a draft seen by Reuters showed this week.
"Nearly everywhere there is major potential for improvement," Energy Commission Guenther Oettinger told reporters.
"We therefore think that we should talk together with operators and regulatory authorities to act rapidly so that the highest possible standards can be guaranteed very soon."
One of the lessons of Fukushima was that two natural disasters could strike at the same time and knock out the electrical supply system of a plant completely, so it could not be cooled down.
The stress tests sought to avert any repeat of that series of events by establishing whether nuclear plants can withstand natural disasters, aircraft crashes and management failures, as well as whether adequate systems are in place to deal with power disruptions.
Among the findings were that on-site seismic instruments should be installed or improved in 121 reactors.
In addition, 24 reactors did not have a back-up emergency room in case the main control room became uninhabitable.
LIMITS OF EU POWER
Because EU authorities do not have power to determine the energy mix of member states, the stress tests were voluntary, but Oettinger said they would not just be "put in a drawer".
"We are at the beginning of a new European safety dynamic," he said.
He confirmed the Commission would follow up with legislative proposals early next year to enhance safety.
The proposals would include insurance and liability, but Oettinger said it was not yet clear what that might mean for electricity bills.
Austria, which banned nuclear plants in 1974, said the stress tests were "good, but not good enough".
"Our demand is very clear: retrofit nuclear plants or shut them down," Austrian Environment Minister Niki Berlakovich told reporters in Vienna, referring to the possibility of adding safety measures.
Rebecca Harms, a Green member of the European Parliament, told Reuters Television the stress tests report had dodged the tough questions, but said they had still served to highlight the problems.
"Mr Oettinger has done the debate on lacking security standards a great favor," she said.
She added that the tests had "produced a handsome list of deficiencies, showing that there is a large deficit of security standards in every country that runs nuclear power plants".
ASN, the nuclear regulator in France, which relies on atomic energy for about 75 percent of its power, was highly critical of the report, saying "some important recommendations had been ignored".
It has already said France needs to invest billions of euros.
The chief inspector of Britain's nuclear plants, Mike Weightman, who also made recommendations for improvements after Fukushima, said: The stress test process was a valuable exercise, reinforcing the conclusions we had reached here in the UK".
(Additional reporting by Oliver Denzer; Michael Shields in Vienna; Marion Douet in Paris; editing by William Hardy and Jason Neely)
EU no power? Rubbish. Charlemagne would turn in his grave, though EU has been particularly parsimonious for a power that wants to control Europe. If a nuclear plant in some 3rd world trash heap or corrupted 1st world colluding cut corner type nation is going to irradiate the world, destroying ecosystems and humanity eventually, the UN should send peacekeepers to dismantle the nuclear plant and bury all nuclear parts and place bans on that nation. Hear that peacekeepers? When that nuke plant blows, nothing on the planet will be left unirradiated, INCLUDING the UN peacekeepers' families. Nuclear is too messy and likely spiritually wrong. Switch to solar or fusion instead.
Duma council to be manned with popular bloggers – MP – Published: 09 October, 2012, 15:58 (RIA Novosti / Ramil Sitdikov)
The newly formed parliament committee for the mass media will include a public council of expert bloggers with audiences of several thousand users, the head of the new body has said.
The committee made the creation of the expert council of bloggers a separate issue in its program, LDPR MP Aleksei Mitrofanov said in an interview, promising to disclose the details of the plan in the near future.
So far, the politician announced that he wanted to include "popular bloggers of the Runet (a colloquial name for the Russian-language segment of the Internet)" in this group. He added that the bloggers' sex or age will not matter only the popularity of the candidates. The consultative council will comprise those who have tens of thousands of regular readers, Mitrofanov promised.
Another author of the project, LDPR MP Vadim Dengin disclosed more details. He said the bloggers will take part in the discussion of all bills that concern the internet so that no one could accuse the MPs that they adopt bills without prior discussion with experts.
Dengin added that it was possible the council will include not only bloggers but also professional systems administrators and owners of social networks, both from Russia and from abroad.
The MP also said that he had personal ambitions connected with the plans – "I want to fight crime in social networks. I want punishment for the creeps who use social networks to corrupt our children, who fill the internet with pornography, who write mean things about people or publish unverified reports," the politician noted.
The initiative caused little enthusiasm among bloggers. Dmitry Ternovsky, who was among the first candidates Dengin proposed for the council, told reporters that "he had other things to do". Web guru and a top executive in the blogging platform Livejournal, Anton Nosik, said that he could not figure out the objectives of even the mass media committee within the parliament, to say nothing about the consultative body within the committee.
The news came as Russian authorities are struggling to introduce more regulations on the internet. In late August the leading parliamentary party United Russia suggested to amend the new law that reintroduced criminal responsibility for libel with an article that would prosecute anonymous internet users.
In November a new law will come into force in Russia that will allow government agencies to block access to sites with hazardous or dangerous information. Providers can contest this decision in court. Previously, a court had to agree the text or other material was extremist so a ban could be put in place.
These bloggers will end up as proxy oligarchs on VVIP payrolls via manufactured hits. This problem could scuttle the logic behind this without a ready platform of access to telecoms records which again can be manufactured even if expertise of this panel is not bribed or threatened or of such companies will asset to or even be required by colluding MPs who would not ratify such requirements/vetting councils. Who watches the watchers watching the MPs?
Then see below Article 6.
Rights Council members to be selected via internet voting – Published: 22 June, 2012, 16:51
Head of the Moscow Helsinki Group Lyudmila Alekseyeva (RIA Novosti/Alexander Utkin)
A new mechanism for forming the residential Council for the Development of Civil Society and Human Rights has been suggested after over a dozen of members quit the body. Now candidates will be selected through internet voting.
"A conference was called at the presidential administration yesterday, at which a new practice was proposed, and we will turn to the public, since the Council deals with civil society development," said the head of the institution, Mikhail Fedotov.
A discussion of new candidates for council members will be opened on the organization's website from July 1 till August 1. Within that month, any public organizations will be able to propose their nominees for the 13 now vacant positions.
Following that, internet voting will be launched, Fedotov said, adding that any citizen will have a chance to participate in it. A list of 39 candidates will be formed as a result of the internet poll and the president will pick 13 out of them.
"As for my personal attitude towards this new order: why not try that? Let's do that. But to me it seems questionable, because in this situation the entire team of the Council should be changed," Fedotov observed.
According to the rights activist, there is a danger that the organization might become unworkable.
Meanwhile, one more Rights Council member has announced their decision to quit:the head of Russia's oldest human rights organization, the Moscow Helsinki Group, Lyudmila Alekseeva. However, she said she could reconsider her position in case the new mechanism is not approved.
"I'm ready to work in the Council if there won't be this new supposedly democratic [formation] method, which in fact is sly and is aimed at the elimination of the Council," Alekseeva told Interfax.
The Council – the presidential advisory body on human rights – originally consisted of 40 members. Its current team was formed back in 2009. However, over a dozen quit it after the December State Duma poll and then Vladimir Putin's return to the Kremlin.
'Putin illegitimate president' – rights activist – Published: 02 May, 2012, 14:59
Presidential Council for Civil Society and Human Rights. Gorki residence. (RIA Novosti / Ekaterina Shtukina)
Several members of the Russian Presidential Council for Human Rights are planning to quit the body after Vladimir Putin's return to the Kremlin.
Political analyst Dmitry Oreshkin made the decision to leave the council after his report on election violations was removed from the agenda of the body's final meeting with the outgoing President Dmitry Medvedev on Saturday. The official pretext for the move was Medvedev's tight schedule, Oreshkin told Vedomosti daily.
The rights activist, citing data provided by vote observers, stated that Putin got 50-52 per cent of votes as opposed to the official 63 per cent.
"I consider Putin an illegitimate president and I won't be able to work in his council," Oreshkin told the paper.
The head of Transparency International Russia, Elena Panfilova announced her decision to quit during the Saturday meeting with the president. She said she remained the council member only because she promised the mother of Sergey Magnitsky – Hermitage Capital lawyer who died in a Moscow detention centre in 2009 – to investigate his death.
"Now I think I'll do a lot more with my civil activity in my current job," Panfilova told Kommersant daily on Wednesday.
Another Council member, Svetlana Gannushkina – the chairwoman of the Civic Assistance organization that helps refugees – also said earlier she would leave her post in the body.
In December last year, rights activist Irina Yasina and journalist Svetlana Sorokina left the HR Council in protest against alleged violations during the State Duma poll.
Under the law, after the new head of state takes office, he is entitled to form all his councils from a scratch.
The chairman of the Kremlin council, Mikhail Fedotov said he was ready to continue his work with Putin if he is invited to. He stressed though that if "outstanding people" – current members of the organization – "are replaced with some kind of ceremonial bystanders or those who attack human rights, it would be a completely different council."
"And I wouldn't want to be its chairman," Fedotov told a media conference on Wednesday, cites RIA Novosti.
Head of the Moscow Helsinki Group Lyudmila Alekseeva underlined that human rights activists' work involves close cooperation with the state authorities. For that reason the veteran rights activist in Russia intends to remain the member of the council.
Current members of the body who will not be included in the newly formed one will form a public organization for the development of civil society, Alekseeva told journalists.
Quitting (much like refusing to vote) is for cowards or pro-establishment creeps. File suit or legal action. I'd expect Putin to prefer to stay out of the limelight after the 2nd term so as to better 're-KGB-tise' Russia. One does not have to be President to control a place like Russia! Not very Iron Curtain-like . . . who are the real men in the shadows then if Putin is the frontman? Much like Ai Weiwei the Nudist in China, Russia need not even fear silly kids like these, but does need to have more venues for this sort of 'steam letting' behaviour . . .
Student midwife turned away from breastfeed class – because he's male – by Martyn Halle – PUBLISHED: 00:51 GMT, 7 October 2012 | UPDATED: 00:51 GMT, 7 October 2012
Chris Butt, 30, has been refused entry to sessions because women are 'sensitive to men being present
He is one of only 132 male midwives out of 20,000 in the UK
A student training to be one of the country's few male midwives has been prevented from attending breastfeeding classes – because he is a man.
Chris Butt, 30, who is in the second year of a three-year training course, tried to attend breastfeeding classes run by the National Childbirth Trust (NCT) near his university.
But since last summer he has been rebuffed several times by local branches that have refused to allow him to attend certain sessions after claiming some women are 'sensitive' to men being present.
Rebuffed: Chris Butt has been turned away from breastfeeding classes
Mr Butt, who is studying at Bournemouth University, has had the backing of his course tutor and the head of midwifery at the Royal Hampshire County Hospital in Winchester, where he is doing his on-the-job training and has delivered five babies on his own.
The Department of Health encourages women to breastfeed because of the health benefits, and midwives play a key role in educating new mothers.
Britain has one of the lowest breastfeeding rates in the world.
Even so, members of the NCT in Southampton objected to Mr Butt's presence at the women-only class despite the fact he is a health professional – but said they would have no problem with a female midwife.
The NCT said he was invited to attend more open classes in which the male partners of new mothers also attend.
But Mr Butt – one of only 132 male midwives out of 20,000 in the UK – has criticised the situation in an article for Midwives, the magazine of the Royal College of Midwives.
'I didn't believe for one minute that I would be turned away from breastfeeding groups,' he wrote.
'Do the facilitators of such clinics think I practise midwifery in some magical way where I don't see intimate parts of women's bodies?
Do they think I stand behind a screen as a baby's head is crowning, shouting out advice on when to breathe?'
Training: The Royal Hampshire County Hospital, Winchester, Hampshire, where the student is training
Mr Butt originally agreed to expand on his comments in Midwives but said he had come 'under pressure' not to say anything further.
The NCT denied it was against men attending breastfeeding groups.
A spokesman said: 'He wanted to attend a women-only session, where there were no break-out rooms available if the women attending felt uncomfortable with a male presence.
'We also offered him the opportunity to attend an antenatal breastfeeding workshop.'
One breastfeeding counsellor in Southampton said: 'Chris has to understand that some women are sensitive to a man's presence.'
There are men everywhere and men also have nipples that can actually produce milk for breast feeding as well (though not naturally). While many men might want to learn at a breastfeeding class, almost all men do not want to breast feed from their own nipples, though likely a small number do enjoy and engage in obviously male (though not male looking at all) 'sexual oriented breast augmentation culture as 'shemales', while a fair sized number do enjoy shemale subculture (males with augmented breasts) in private clubs etc..
This sensitivity must not be turned into disenfranchisement by EDUCATING women who have these psychological problems. Political Correctness swings both ways. The same way women want to breast feed in public places without issue, nudists want to use parks or 'doggers' want to have sex in the open (preferably in designated areas or at least booths much like milk-nursing booths) have a right as well – while wearing kibbutz or hijab. To merely attend a breast feeding class in a non-sexualised class should not be an issue ESPECIALLY if the man in question is not being covertly (or overtly in the obviously disenfranchisable cases) sexual or participating for titillation purposes rather than educational. This is a HUMAN lesson, not a male or female lesson.
Prison nurse who had sex with rapist in his cell while colleagues stood guard outside is jailed for three years – by Emma Clark – PUBLISHED: 20:36 GMT, 8 October 2012 | UPDATED: 06:48 GMT, 9 October 2012
Karen Cosford, 47, told violent rapist Brian McBride she loved him and couldn't wait for their future together
Three of her colleagues knew about the relationship but kept quiet in return for promised money
All four were jailed for misconduct while at Wakefield Prison in West Yorkshire
Cosford's prison negotiator husband Derrie Cosford found out about the affair when he was called to investigate McBride
Karen Cosford, 47, arriving at Bradford Crown Court, was jailed for three years over the sexual relationship
A prison nurse who had sex with a violent rapist in his cell while her colleagues stood guard has been jailed for three years.
A team of Karen Cosford's colleagues were also jailed for misconduct after keeping her relationship with 'evil' lifer Brian McBride a secret – believing their discretion would be financially rewarded.
Married Cosford, 47, whose husband also worked in the prison service, sent the serial rapist a catalogue of texts telling him 'you are my world', 'miss you so much' and 'can't wait for you to get out'.
By chance her unwitting husband Derrie Cosford, a prison negotiator, became part of the investigation into McBride – who hinted of his wife's lies and deceit.
The shamed nurse's claims that she had been forced into the relationship were dismissed by a jury at Bradford Crown Court, who found her guilty of misconduct in a public office for the sexual relationship, failing to notify authorities that McBride had a phone and purchasing top-ups for him.
Carolyn Falloon, 50, and Jacqueline Flynn, 46, who both worked with Cosford on the healthcare wing at the high-security Wakefield Prison, West Yorkshire, were also convicted of failing to notify authorities about the affair and mobile phone.
A third colleague Kevin Wilson, 57, admitted misconduct in a public office at a previous hearing.
Prosecutors said the guilty officers were motivated by 'greed' and were duped by McBride's claims of wealth on the outside.
Sentencing the group today Judge David Hatton QC said: 'It's a sad business indeed when four people with previous good character, public servants who have devoted years of their lives to their vocation, should find themselves being sentenced for having abused their
positions of trust.'
Speaking to Cosford, the judge said: 'You believed him to be a man of means and planned on continuing your relationship with him on the outside until you reached the conclusion that you had been strung along.'
During the four-week trial the court was told how Flynn admitted during police interviews that she stood guard outside McBride's cell while the pair were inside and had heard them having sex.
The court heard that McBride, who was serving a life sentence for multiple offences of rape and violence, was in the healthcare centre as an in-patient and worked as a cleaner while he was there.
The affair came to light when a search of McBride on September 25, 2009 uncovered a mobile phone charger.
McBride was put in his cell while a thorough search of the wing was carried out and four mobile phones were subsequently discovered.
In the prison kitchen investigators found a photograph of a nurse, who was identified as Cosford, and an unsigned love letter hidden inside a bag of sugar.
The jury heard that McBride became agitated during the search, prompting a number of negotiators working in the Prison Service to visit him – one of whom was Mr Cosford.
High-security Wakefield Prison, West Yorkshire, pictured, where Brian McBride was serving a life sentence for rape
One of the wings in the prison which holds 570 inmates, 70 per cent of which are serving life
During a negotiation McBride hinted to Mr Cosford that he had been having a relationship with his wife.
Mrs Cosford, of Altofts, West Yorkshire, later reported to prison authorities that McBride had raped and threatened to kill her family if she reported him.
She said she was forced to text the convict and write the love letter which read: 'I didn't realise how much I do miss you until I went on holiday.
'You understand me more than anyone, we can have a wonderful future together, everything we talked about will happen, just give it time…
'I can't wait for us to continue our relationship outside of the confines of this place…'
Referring to him as her 'knight in shining armour', she added: 'You are the most understanding, patient, manly, kind man that I have ever known.'
Wilson and Flynn were sentenced to 15 months in jail. Falloon was given a 21-month prison sentence.
Prison officer David Sunderland, 49, of Wakefield, was cleared of failing to notify the authorities about McBride's phone.
Suspend the prison nurse for unprofessional behaviour for 3 years or fire the prison nurse. Not jail at tax payer's expense! The nurse had sex with the prisoner which is not criminal though the nurse was unprofessional and needed to be at most suspended! As for commentary on the sex issue, this is a private issue except for the during working hours issue.
THRONGS of men pack court house to catch glimpse of IT exec in sex-for-business case – Tuesday, 09 October 2012 16:08
SINGAPORE – 'Star witness' in sex-for-contracts case has throngs of men waiting outside court building hoping to catch a glimpse of her.
Each time she steps out of the car or out of the Subordinate Court building, you'd definitely hear the word "pretty".
Inevitably, there'd be someone among the hordes of male gawkers asking another: "So how ah? Is she
The men, who were generally in their mid-40s or 50s, admitted that they turned up at Havelock Road for one reason: Ms Cecilia Sue Siew
Ms Sue, 36, was the prosecution's "star witness" in the corruption trial of former Central Narcotics Bureau chief Ng Boon
The first part of the trial ended on Tuesday and it will resume on Oct 31. Ng, 46, faces four charges of corruptly obtaining oral sex from Ms Sue between June and December last year.
But it isn't just the case itself that attracted the men who turn up at court during the trial.
Mr Lau Huat Chai, 55, confessed that he was there mainly to gawk at the star witness. He was waiting outside the court at around noon on Monday.
The part-time security guard said in Mandarin: "I've been following the case since the woman witness (Ms Sue) took the stand.
"She looks quite pretty in the newspaper reports and I was just curious. I wanted to see her in person."
He had just ended his night shift at an industrial building in Lower Delta Road and decided to head over to the court.
Mr Lau added: "Once I see her, I'd go home to sleep. The court case? I can read about it in the newspapers later."
Across the building, salesman Ivan Koh was waiting inside his Honda Civic.
He was stealing time off from work "since I happened to be in the area" to see if he can catch a glimpse of Ms Sue.
Mr Koh, 48, wanted to know if she was making an appearance soon.
He said: "I've been driving in and out of this carpark so I don't have to put a parking coupon."
Pointing to different groups of waiting men just like him, Mr Koh laughed and added: "Aiyah, you must think I am a 'lao ti ko' (old lusty man)… but eh, what about all the other men there?"
Mr Dickson Tan, who was there on Tuesday, was offended at the suggestion.
The 46-year-old tutor said in a mix of English and Mandarin: "Look, I'm here only because my wife told me it's Cecilia Sue's last day in court.
"And seriously, I don't see what's wrong in wanting to catch sight of a pretty face."
Mr Tan added: "It's like going to a publicity event and waiting to see a star, maybe like (MediaCorp artistes) Zoe Tay or Fann Wong."
But others in the heartland that this columnist spoke to on Thursday and Friday were amused by the pictures of male gawkers and "kaypohs" (Hokkien for busybodies).
Madam Wong Siew Fen, 67, who sells eggs at a wet market in Tampines, said in Cantonese: "Terrible lah. If my husband did that (waiting outside the court), I'd be really angry."
Her husband, Mr Au Teck Keong, 69, was amused. He said in Cantonese: "I can't be bothered to go all the way there… but eh, is she really very pretty in person?
"I wish she'd taken off her shades, then we can see her eyes."
And Ms Sue's eyes were "so bewitching", declared a man in his early 40s outside Court 5 on Tuesday morning.
Neatly dressed in a red polo shirt and jeans, he said: "A woman's eyes are the windows to her soul." He was upset that he came too late to be let into the packed courtroom.
Peering through the doors into the courtroom, he added: "All I want is to see my Cecilia."
He refused to give his full name, but tried to get the media to talk to him. He finally gave up, saying: "Never mind. I just came here for my Cecilia."
Businessman Joe Quek, 60, who was happily snapping pictures with his iPhone outside the building, summed it up: "The case is interesting. The details are so juicy.
"But it'd probably be less exciting if the witness is nothing to look at."
He added: "Ms Cecilia Sue is different. She's well-dressed, carries herself with style and struts like a model.
"She's just like a star."
-The New Paper
Plenty of escorts prettier that can be hired and actually be accessible after being trained to strut or learning to dress, and who might even be loyal enough. Why even bother with this already attached woman? Make your own star of an escort much younger and 'durable' of your choice silly gawkers. This is media b.s. only beneficial to the ones who get to f— this woman, everyone else gets their energy sucked in by merely being there. Open your own IT business and get your own exec to have sex with, not be a hanger-on excited over people that have nothing to do with your business much less contracts that harm society. BTW those who mix work with pleasure are idiots and those who post false articles more so for selfish and undeserving reasons, will be the rubbish of society.
NO JOKE! Taiwan showgirls strip for the DEAD – Tuesday, 09 October 2012 16:07
TAOYUAN, Taiwan: Dressed in mini skirts barely covering their hips, the two girls took to the neon-lit stage and moved vigorously to the loud pumping pop music. Their job: to appease the wandering spirits.
As the temple facade in the background changed colour from the fireworks lighting up the Taiwanese night sky, the show climaxed with pole-dancing and striptease in front of an audience consisting of men, women and children.
"This is hard work but I need to make a living," said 18 year-old En En, out of breath after stripping for the crowd during the recent religious festival.
En En had just earned NT$3,000 ($100) for her act, which began on stage, but ended as she mingled with the audience, letting men touch her for tips.
Folk religion in Taiwan is a unique mixture of the spiritual and the earthly, and one of its most remarkable manifestations is the practice of hiring showgirls to perform at festivals, weddings, and even funerals.
The girls work on "electronic flower cars" — specially designed trucks equipped with light and sound equipment that can become a stage, allowing them to travel to performances often held in smaller cities and rural areas.
"The groups attract crowds to our events and they perform for the gods and the spirits to seek blessings," said Chen Chung-hsien, an official at Wu Fu Temple, a Taoist landmark in north Taiwan's Taoyuan county.
"They have become part of our religion and folk culture."
At 26, Chiang Pei-ying is already a veteran performer with nearly 20 years of experience, travelling across Taiwan with her father and two sisters for their family business to entertain audiences — both alive and dead.
Chiang made her debut when she was in kindergarten because she liked singing and dancing on stage and has become a celebrity performer with her sisters, charging up to NT$80,000 for a 20-minute show.
She said she enjoys her line of work, even if she has to deal with some odd requests from customers such as walking around coffins and singing for the deceased at funerals.
"I've watched this since I was little so it's nothing peculiar for me. Performing for the dead is just like performing for the living people," she said.
"They liked to sing when they were alive and their relatives thought they would have liked to have somebody sing for them in the end. For me, I get good tips and I hope I am accumulating good karma too."
Other performers, however, make much less money and tend to be more discreet about their job, especially those who still do striptease despite risking arrest.
Stripping nude is rarely seen in public now because it is a criminal offence, but partial stripping is still performed at festivals, private parties and funerals, people in the business say.
"Some people like going to hostess clubs, so when they pass away their relatives arrange striptease to reflect their interests while they were alive," said Chiang Wan-yuan, Pei-ying's father and a 30-year veteran in the business.
It is difficult to imagine a similar show going on outside a European village church, and some local critics have dismissed the practice, which emerged in the 1970s, as shocking and vulgar.
Others, however, see it as a natural extension of a traditional folk culture lacking in the sharp separation of sex and religion often seen in other parts of the world.
Marc Moskowitz, an anthropologist at the University of South Carolina, said the practice evolved out of the special Chinese concept of "hot and noisy", which brims with positive connotations.
"In traditional Chinese and contemporary Taiwanese culture this signifies that for an event to be fun or noteworthy it must be full of noise and crowds," said Moskowitz, who shot a documentary "Dancing for the Dead" in 2011.
He added most people who watched his work appeared to enjoy it and recognise this practice as an "interesting and unique cultural phenomenon," which to his knowledge is only found in Taiwan.
"As I watched these performances, I came to appreciate the idea of celebrating someone's life to help assuage the feelings of grief," he said.
– AFP
But no such sexual rights for the LIVING in fundo countries!
mini-ARTICLE 11.5
Britain ends 10-year boycott of Indian politician – Thursday, October 11, 2012 – 20:22 – AHMEDABAD
BRITAIN said Thursday it would end a 10-year boycott of the leader of India's western Gujarat state imposed over deadly religious riots there in 2002 that left three Britons dead.
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, a right-wing Hindu nationalist, came to power shortly before the riots triggered by the deaths of nearly 60 Hindu pilgrims in a train fire that was initially blamed on a mob of Muslims.
He is accused of doing too little to prevent the blood-letting, which left more than 2,000 mainly Muslims dead in an orgy of violence and arson, according to rights groups. The government figures put the death toll at about 1,000.
Britain's junior foreign minister minister Hugo Swire has asked the ambassador to India to visit Gujarat and meet Modi to discuss a "wide range of issues of mutual interests", the British foreign office said in a statement.
"We want to secure justice for the families of the British nationals who were killed in 2002 (riots), we want to support human rights and good governance in the state," the statement quoted Swire as saying.
Three British nationals – Saeed Dawood, Mohammed Aswat Nallabhai and Shakil Dawood – were burnt to death in Sabarkantha district of Gujarat, a state that is governed by India's main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Previously, British officials were forbidden from dealing directly with Modi, but there were contacts with senior bureaucrats in Gujarat, where British companies have invested, an embassy source in New Delhi said.
Britain's effort to resume links with Modi's regime came less than two months after a Gujarat court sentenced a former member of his government to 28 years in jail for her role in instigating the 2002 riots.
The August 31 sentencing of Maya Kodnani, who served as minister from 2007-2009, was seen as a setback for Modi who is thought to have prime ministerial ambitions.
Despite the scars of the sectarian violence, Gujarat in recent years has lured foreign firms to its soil with reliable power supply, good infrastructure by Indian standards, and the availability of educated but cheap labour. -AFP
All Malaysian VIPs, MPs who fight for Bumiputra Apartheid (raison d'etre style), support Bumiputra Apartheid, tacitly approve via silence Bumiputra Apartheid, or allow Bumiputra Apartheid for financial gains, or discriminate against LGBT or practice Hudud or extreme religion, need a lifetime boycott immediately by England which should extend to UN as well. Can't have such pariahs running about polluting the 1st world with fundo mindedness or apartheid now can we?
Gay abandon: Orthodox activists want Moscow free of 'temptation' – Published: 08 October, 2012, 14:11 – RIA Novosti / Ilya Pitalev
Orthodox Christian activists demand Moscow lawmakers prohibit the propaganda of homosexuality and shut down gay clubs in the Russian capital. That is in addition to a recent hundred-year ban on gay pride marches in the city.
The Narodny Sobor (People's Council) movement has started collecting signatures under an appeal to the Moscow parliament asking legislators to work out a bill that outlaws the promotion of homosexuality. Similar bans have been introduced in St. Petersburg and several other Russian cities.
"We conducted a study earlier and found that such a law would not contradict international law. Homosexuality as well as its propaganda is a grave sin," Oleg Kassin, co-chairman of the group told Izvestia daily.
First of all, "it's necessary to close gay clubs" in Moscow since they "directly entice immature souls" into the LGBT community, he stated.
According to the paper, several city legislators vowed to support the move.
"We are ready to discuss the initiative with Narodny Sobor and to draft the legislation," Mikhail Antontsev, a United Russia MP, told the daily. The bill could help to protect minors from "unnecessary information," he believes. The deputy also insists that it is time to consider the adoption of a nationwide ban on the propaganda of "unhealthy relations."
Another City Duma member, Vera Stepanenko is confident that the gay propaganda ban would help to solve the demographic problem in Moscow.
The Russian Orthodox Church also favors the idea.
"We have every right to maintain the purity of the society and to protect our children from all sorts of sinful manifestations. Both the Church and the majority of the community agree that homosexuality is far from being a normal thing," says senior Church official Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin.
In February this year, St. Petersburg's city legislature approved a ban on spreading homosexual and pedophilia propaganda among minors. The law – which was initiated and promoted by United Russia Deputy Vitaly Milonov – provides for fines of up to about US$16,000 for individuals and $160,000 for organizations committing such offences.
The move triggered a wave of criticism from the LGBT community as well as from human rights organizations in Russia and abroad.
However, Russia's Supreme Court confirmed last week the legitimacy of the St. Petersburg gay propaganda bill and rejected a complaint filed by rights activists.
Earlier, the St. Petersburg City Court also refused to review gay activists' complaints over the law. The opponents of the ban stated that the text of the document uses the terms "propaganda", "bisexuality", "transgender", "traditional and non-traditional marriage," all of which have no legal definitions, reported Interfax.
Russian gay rights activists are set to continue fighting and filed complaints against the St. Petersburg ban as well as similar laws in several other cities to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.
This is not fair to the MATURED souls. Perhaps if the Church wants to, how about stationing a priest at the entrance of the Gay clubs to make sure that any immatured souls could be barred entry bouncer style.
Common sense dictates that this sort of blanket disenfranchisement is obviously unfair and that fundamentalism should be dropped for common sense methods of ensuring everyone wins.
Russia is not going to be a great or democratic power if 10%-30% of the world's LGBT population (approx?) is to be treated as criminals because the Church deemed some souls as immatured and decided to end all entertainment to all LGBTs including the matured.
Why is the Orthodox Church behaving like the Ayatollah? Next we know Russia will be in the Dark Ages and the KGB will be running every state enterprise and business. Want to see Russia never regain footing in the Soviet Union or become an Iran? Christian fundos should not be featured at all in media. Frightfully uncivilised and heartrending statements.
Not another naked rambler! Naturist vows to continue his walks after judge overturns conviction for causing distress to woman dog walker – By Emily Allen – PUBLISHED: 11:51 GMT, 9 October 2012 | UPDATED: 13:45 GMT, 9 October 2012
Nigel Keer was arrested by PC Mark Buxton who said he saw a woman appear 'distressed' when she saw Mr Keer rambling naked
A judge dismissed the charge because a panel considered it unlikely that he had caused any alarm
He said the rambling wasn't near a school or a street in a town centre but took place on moorland in broad daylight
Conviction is overturned just two days after The Naked Rambler was released from his latest prison sentence
A naked rambler has won a long battle to overturn his conviction for causing distress to a female dog walker who said she saw his genitals.
Naturist Nigel Keer, 42, will now be continuing his nude hiking – once the weather warms up – after a panel of judges gave a list of reasons to quash his conviction.
Mr Keer appealed after magistrates found him guilty of the public order offence of causing distress to the woman as she walked her dog at a beauty spot called Otley Chevin, West Yorkshire, last October.
Naked rambler Nigel Keer
Overturned: Naturist Nigel Keer, 42, will now be continuing his nude hiking – once the weather warms up – after a panel of judges gave a list of reasons to quash his conviction for causing distress to a female dog walker
The decision comes just two days after a man known as The Naked Rambler was released from serving his latest prison sentence.
Stephen Gough celebrated his freedom by taking a hike in his birthday suit through nearby Peebles.
He's out… and they're off. Naked Rambler freed from jail and back to his old tricks
The 53-year-old was jailed for five months after he was arrested in July for being naked near a play-park in Dunfermline.
Meanwhile, a judge at Leeds Crown Court told Mr Keer that his charge would be dismissed because the panel considered it unlikely that Mr Keer's naked walk had caused any alarm.
The court had heard that Mr Keer was arrested by off-duty police officer PC Mark Buxton, who said he saw a woman appear 'distressed' when she had noticed Mr Keer rambling in just his hiking boots on October 2 last year.
Relieved: Bus driver Mr Keer, of Leeds, West Yorkshire, had denied the distress claims, and said naturism 'is about body freedom'
Sitting with two justices on Monday, Judge Guy Kearl said PC Buxton, who said he had been shocked by the incident, would not have been able to determine if the woman was distressed.
Dismissing the charges, he added: 'This behaviour was not carried out in front of a school or in the street in a town centre. It took place on moorland in broad daylight.
'In view of the location of this incident, the time of day and the reaction of others as we have found it to be, we do not consider that anyone was likely to be harassed by this behaviour or intimidated or distressed.'
The judge said there were no sexual motives behind the incident, adding: 'He was not deliberately flaunting himself or seeking attention or jumping out and doing what is colloquially called flashing.'
He said that the police officer's reaction to seeing Mr Keer could also be considered 'extreme given his experience.'
Bus driver Mr Keer, of Leeds, West Yorkshire, had denied the claims, and said naturism 'is about body freedom and in a way it is a mild protest against the expected social norms of wearing clothes every day'.
Speaking after the case, Mr Keer said that he was delighted to have finally fought off the charge, which had kept him out of work for a number of months.
He added: 'I've kept up the naturism, but I've been a bit more careful now. It's a bit cold to be doing anything at the moment, but once the weather warms up, I'll be back out there.'
Mr Keer has previously taken part in three naked world bike rides alongside other naturists.
He had first become interested after being sent a letter from British Naturism in 2004.
He initially thought it was a prank but he went on a naked swim anyway, leading to his love affair. He has even put it on his CV as an interest.
Rambling again: Stephen Gough, known as the Naked Rambler, was back doing what he loves yesterday – hiking with nothing but a pair of boots and a hat on
Naked: Stephen Gough was jailed for five months after he was arrested in July for being naked near a play park
When the case first came to court last October, he said: 'I must admit that I was surprised when it came to court.
'I don't feel I have committed an offence or distressed anyone. People are a lot more accepting now than they were five or six years ago. On the whole, most people are quite happy with it.
'I love walking about naked. It's the feeling of being at one with nature and a feeling of liberation. If you are free of clothes you are free of worries.'
Artwork from Playboy. Way ahead of the narrow retards decades ago.
Suitable areas should be gazetted via maps which can be distributed to ramblers or ramblers on their 'first offence'. Note that there really aren't enough rambler friendly zones, especially in the central city areas. A nudist district in every international city seems about right . . .
Lady Gaga visits Julian Assange as celebrity backers who acted as bail sureties for WikiLeaks founder are ordered by court to pay almost £100,000 – by Daily Mail Reporter – PUBLISHED: 19:29 GMT, 8 October 2012 | UPDATED: 07:42 GMT, 9 October 2012
Pop diva spent five hours with Assange and had dinner with 41-year-old
Chief Magistrate Howard Riddle said they had to pay cash by November 6
Assange has been staying in Ecuadorean Embassy in London since June
Wants to avoid extradition to Sweden for questioning over rape allegations
Pop star Lady Gaga visited WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in the Ecuadorean Embassy as nine people who acted as his bail sureties were ordered to hand over a total of £93,500.
The singer emerged yesterday morning after spending five hours in Assange's refuge in west London. She had arrived at 7pm and it's believed she had dinner with the 41-year-old.
Assange, 41, has been staying in the embassy in Knightsbridge since June after going there to avoid extradition to Sweden to face questioning over allegations of rape and sexual assault made by two women.
Meeting: The world's biggest pop star Lady Gaga met with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in London last night
Lady Gaga leaves the Ecuadorian Embassy at midnight, having spent five hours inside visiting WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange
He fears that if he is extradited to Sweden, he will be sent to the US to face interrogation over the whistle-blowing website, which has published secret military files and diplomatic cables.
Assange has been granted political asylum by Ecuador but faces arrest if he leaves the embassy after breaking bail conditions.
Chief Magistrate Howard Riddle has ruled his nine backers have to pay the cash by November 6.
Vaughan Smith, a friend who is one of the sureties, addressed Westminster Magistrates' Court last week on behalf of the nine, who put up £140,000 between them.
HOW MUCH ASSANGE HAS COST HIS CELEBRITY BACKERS
Scientist: Nobel prize-winning biologist Sir John Sulston was ordered to pay £15,000
Sir John Sulston (Nobel prize-winning biologist, pictured) – £15,000
Lady Evans (the literary agent Caroline Michel) – £15,000
Phillip Knightley (journalist) – £15,000
Vaughan Smith (journalist) – £12,000
Sarah Saunders – £12,000
Tricia David (retired professor) – £10,000
The Marchioness of Worcester (the former actress Tracy Ward) – £7,500
Joseph Farrell – £3,500
Sarah Harrison – £3,500
He said all those who offered sureties of varying amounts are 'convinced that they have done and are doing the right thing'.
At the court yesterday, the Chief Magistrate said he accepted that they had all acted in good faith.
'I accept that they trusted Mr Assange to surrender himself as required,' he said. 'However, they failed in their basic duty, to ensure his surrender. They must have understood the risk and the concerns of the courts.'
He ruled that each of the sureties had to pay part of the sum originally pledged, as follows: retired professor Tricia David £10,000, Lady Evans (the literary agent Caroline Michel) £15,000, Joseph Farrell £3,500, Sarah Harrison £3,500 and journalist Phillip Knightley £15,000.
Also having to pay money were Sarah Saunders £12,000, journalist Vaughan Smith £12,000, Nobel prize-winning biologist Sir John Sulston £15,000, and the Marchioness of Worcester (the former actress Tracy Ward) £7,500.
It was revealed last week that the police bill for staking out the Ecuadorian embassy has reached more than £1million.
Scotland Yard confirmed it is costing £11,000 every day to ensure the Australian does not flee his bolthole at the Ecuadorean Embassy.
The final bill could be much more as the 41-year-old continues to defy extradition to Sweden.
Officers have been watching the property in Knightsbridge, west London, since Mr Assange breached his bail and claimed asylum in June. They have been told to arrest him if he puts 'one toe' outside.
Ecuadorean foreign minister Ricardo Pinto has warned Mr Assange he could be in the embassy for a decade if he is not allowed to leave Britain.
Lady Gaga arrived at 7pm and had dinner with Assange before leaving just after midnight
Lady Gaga seen at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London visiting the Wikileaks founder Julian Assange
Lady Gaga arrived at the embassy at 7pm and had dinner with Assange before leaving just after midnight
WikiLeaks founder: Julian Assange has been in Ecuador's London embassy since June as part of his bid to avoid extradition to Sweden
Critics have called on the Metropolitan Police to end the costly stakeout.
Last week, Foreign Secretary William Hague admitted there is 'no sign of any breakthrough' after meeting Mr Pinto at the United Nations in New York.
The comments came after the hacking activist accused the U.S. of persecuting WikiLeaks and torturing Bradley Manning, the soldier accused of leaking classified documents.
At least four Met officers guard the embassy, on the second floor of a block of flats behind Harrods in Knightsbridge, West London, around the clock.
They have set up a £250,000 mobile command station on the doorstep of the building and occupy positions outside and in surrounding properties.
Officers from every London borough, specialist police units and undercover squads have been brought in to join the open-ended stake out.
One colleague said: 'The officers are being moved around every three or four days to stop the boredom setting in.
'There are certainly plenty of other things these officers could be doing than standing there around the clock.'
Holed up: The Ecuadorian Embassy in London where WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been staying at the embassy since June 19
Interviews: Vaughan Smith, a friend who is one of the sureties, addressed Westminster Magistrates' Court last week on behalf of the nine, who put up £140,000 between them
The Marchioness of Worcester, formerly actress Tracy Ward
Involved: Vaughan Smith (left), a friend who is one of the sureties, addressed a court last week on behalf of the nine. The Marchioness of Worcester (right), the former actress Tracy Ward, was also a backer
London Mayor Boris Johnson confirmed the policing bill between June 20 and September 10 was £905,000.
If the costs continued at the average of £11,000 a day the total would now be over £1.1million.
Critics called on the Met to end the stand-off but sources said the force cannot step back from its responsibilities to arrest Mr Assange for breaching his bail.
Jenny Jones, a Green politician in the capital who sits on a committee that oversees the Met's work, called for the officers to go back on the beat.
She said: 'It is ridiculous at a time when the Met is stretched as never before that so many officers are waiting around the Ecuadorian Embassy for Assange to attempt an escape.'
Lib Dem Caroline Pidgeon, who also sits on the London Assembly, added: 'For 100 days Assange has been evading an arrest warrant for the alleged offence of rape and trying to escape the fair judicial process of Sweden.
'At a time when police counters are closing across London his actions are a gross waste of valuable resources.'
Good show but as always more media frenzy oriented than concrete action. In a nasty scenario, the po-po could intentionally storm in AFTER Gaga visits, then we'd have an 'Unidentified Woman Arrested along with Assange, Both Taken Under Rendition Laws To Timbuktu For Interrogation" (one can imagine the about of fun the FBI would have . . . ahem . . . ) headline while the US media will be going on about how Gaga disappeared or cynically black out on news on Gaga posting some fake news and manufactured articles that make it seem Gaga pulled a MJ . . . maybe they will feature a 7 foot + tall male entertainer/rapper wearing glittery 9 inch heels featuring similar cosplay/fetish/art-deco clothing called Gargarensis instead . . . maybe someone in Asia will throw a dice that will determine if either make out of there in one piece, or pieces of mind . . . or if that dice is not thrown, yet more people may yet become 'unstuck in time', courtesy and expense of you-know-who, so pay up as appropos or Apophis will propose against the posers poseuring . . . as someone else would say – Mr. Apocalypse goes into overdrive even as Apophis is not finished with the woody hollows . . . 'pumpkin' . . .
Dutch architect dreams of future floating cities – October 09, 2012
A street scene in Amsterdam is seen in this file photo. When Koen Olthuis landed his first job in Amsterdam after graduating as an architect, his new firm wouldn't let him work on the most historic or prestigious accounts. He only got houseboats. Today, Olthuis, who along with building partner Dutch Docklands, designed a section of floating islands for Dubai's man-made Palm Islands development project, has also created a patent which scales up the technology used for a houseboat to floating structures big enough to hold cars, roads and houses. – Reuters pic
AMSTERDAM, Oct 9 – When Koen Olthuis finally landed his first job after graduating as an architect, his new firm wouldn't let him work on the most historic or prestigious accounts in Amsterdam's 17th century centre. He got houseboats. Floating boxes.
But the young Dutchman, who stems from boat building and architecture stock, dove right into his new job, and it wasn't long before he started making connections between the principles of a floating house, and the battle the Dutch have been waging against the sea to reclaim land and stay dry for 500 years.
He thought, if a house can float, why not an office complex or a structure big enough to hold a whole city?
Olthuis, who along with building partner Dutch Docklands, designed a section of floating islands for Dubai's man-made Palm Islands development project, has also created a patent which scales up the technology used for a houseboat to floating structures big enough to hold cars, roads and houses.
"Water is a workable building layer or a floating foundation and if you turn water into space, which is a dramatic change of mindset, there's a whole new world of possibilities," Olthuis said.
He said the basis for his design isn't any different than the normal Dutch floating technology used for houseboats.
"It is just a floating foundation, mostly made of concrete and foam which is quite stable, heavy, and goes up and down with waves and up and down with the sea level," he said.
The floating city of the future is still a dream, but Olthuis's firm, WaterStudio, which he started a decade ago, designs buildings and floating structures which try to combat the challenges posed by rising sea levels.
"Because of urbanisation and climate change, all the big cities have space limitations. We can create space with water, space that others have never even seen," he said.
He said he wants to create space where land is under threat from rising sea levels and compares the methods for building floating structures to the invention of the elevator.
"If the elevator were never invented, then cities wouldn't have buildings with more than three or four levels, because nobody wants to walk up more than that. But with elevators, we can climb 20, 30 even 40 flights."
Olthuis's firm has designed plenty of floating homes in The Netherlands and is laying plans to start building an entirely new floating neighbourhood with 1,200 homes.
It has projects in India and China and has begun preparing the lagoons for a holiday resort project in the Maldives, a chain of islands in the Indian Ocean that is one of the world's most endangered nations due to flooding from climate change.
"We started thinking seriously about designing a whole floating island when we got a request from the Maldives, which are threatened in the long-term by rising sea levels, and they are looking for new development opportunities."
In response, Olthuis's team and building partner Dutch Docklands designed an estate of 185 luxury floating villas, called The Ocean Flower, part of a larger development across five lagoons, including a conference centre and a golf course.
The islands are designed to move with the waves and sea levels but because they are so stable, Olthuis said being on one of his artificial islands is like being on normal land.
"You do not feel any waves."
The islands will be connected to the seabed with the same sort of cables used in offshore technology, for oil rigs, which lets them stay in one location and not drift away.
"The development in the Maldives is for a happy few who can afford to buy their own floating holiday home," Olthuis said.
But he said that building luxury resorts for the rich helps to refine a technology that can in turn be used to benefit the poor in places such as Bangladesh, where flooding regularly destroys lives and livelihoods.
"So we let the rich pay for the innovation for the poor," he said.
Olthuis said future designs could see floating structures detached and moved to new locations, or new cities, put together like a puzzle, responding to particular urban needs.
For a man who was told as a young trainee to "forget about houseboats," Olthius's focus on water has had a resounding impact on the way he looks at space and the environment.
"I am a Dutchman, and for me, Holland is an artificial country. It is all fake. We live below sea level and it takes too much effort and money to keep the pumps working 24 hours a day," he said.
Olthuis said that within 50 years, it won't even be possible to pump all the water back to the sea and reckons it is time for the Dutch to forge a new relationship with water.
"We need to learn to live with it rather than fight it. We should let the water come back, and then build on it." – Reuters
Require that all buildings be built on foundations 30 feet high (with consideration for settling of buildings in waterlogged conditions) or more in anticipation of rising sea levels. Valuable or historical buildings can be raised as of now. Hi-rises can be modified starting from the lowest lying buildings. When all buildings are raised or modified, the pumps can be turned off. When the sea levels finally rise, Holland would become a canal city rather than a road city and instead of cars they could have boats and gondollas! Very charming! Time and the tide always winning . . .
Is the afterlife full of fluffy clouds and angels? – What does the neuroscientist Colin Blakemore make of an American neurosurgeon's account of the afterlife? – By Colin Blakemore – 8:47PM BST 10 Oct 2012
Dr Eben Alexander's conscious self journeyed into another world. There was wonderful music and light. There were clouds, "big, puffy, pink-white ones that showed up sharply against the deep blue-black sky". Photo: ALAMY
Have you ever noticed that more people come back from Heaven than from Hell? We have all read those astonishing reports of near-death experiences (NDEs, as the aficionados call them) – the things that people say have happened to them when they almost, but don't quite, shuffle off the coil.
They are nearly always pleasant and deeply reassuring in a saccharin-soaked way. Lots of spinning down warm, dark tunnels to the sound of celestial music; lots of trips along country lanes lined with hedges, towards the light of a welcoming cottage at the end of the road; lots of tumbling down Alice-in-Wonderland rabbit holes, but without the damaging effects of gravity.
True, Dr Maurice S Rawlings Jr, MD, heart surgeon in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and author of To Hell and Back, did have patients who reported very nasty NDEs after they came back on his operating table. Booming noises; licking flames and all that Mephistophelian stuff. But perhaps that tells us more about the challenges of living in Chattanooga, Tennessee, than about the metaphysics of life after death.
Predictably, the amazingly consistent, remarkably heaven-like experiences recounted by the majority of NDE-ers (yes, that really is what the experts call them) have been summarily dismissed by materialist sceptics – like me. Of course the brain does funny things when it's running out of oxygen. The odd perceptions are just the consequences of confused activity in the temporal lobes.
But NDEs have taken on a new cloak of respectability with a book by a Harvard doctor. Proof of Heaven, by Eben Alexander, will make your toes wiggle or curl, depending on your prejudices. What's special about his account of being dead is that he's a neurosurgeon. At least that's what the publicity is telling us. It's a cover story in Newsweek magazine, with a screaming headline: "Heaven is Real: a doctor's account of the afterlife".
Just as you'd expect from a doctor, his account is precise and detailed. In the autumn of 2008, he contracted a very rare bacterial meningitis that he says made his brain "shut down" and put his "higher-order brain functions totally offline". The soup-like state of Dr Alexander's brain was, he writes, "documented by CT scans" (although CT scans don't say anything about the activity of the brain) and "neurological examinations".
Although the neurons of his cortex were "stunned to complete inactivity by the bacteria", his conscious self journeyed into another world. There was wonderful music and light. There were clouds, "big, puffy, pink-white ones that showed up sharply against the deep blue-black sky". And there were angels (well, perhaps birds): "flocks of transparent, shimmering beings".
But then it gets really weird. It turns out that he wasn't alone. "For most of my journey, someone was with me. A woman." She had a lovely face and golden brown tresses, and she was dressed appropriately for a Cecil B DeMille movie, in peasant costume, in subtle shades of "powder blue, indigo, and pastel orange-peach". She was quite a stunner. She looked at Dr Alexander "with a look that, if you saw it for five seconds, would make your whole life up to that point worth living, no matter what had happened in it so far". It was a look "beyond all the different compartments of love we have down here on earth".
Well, many of us, after a couple of pints in the pub with our chums, might say that we've had that kind of experience; but not with a woman flying on a butterfly wing, as Dr Alexander's companion was. Although he "still had little language function" he was able to chat with the peasant lady, asking (understandably) where he was and why he was there. He was overwhelmed by the answers, which "came instantly in an explosion of light, colour, love, and beauty that blew through me like a crashing wave".
After the clouds and the angels and the peasant lady, Dr Alexander went on to a "pitch-black" void, "brimming with light" from a "brilliant orb" that acted as an interpreter, explaining that the "universe itself was like a giant cosmic womb".
You might have sensed a subtle hint of scepticism in my account. As Eben Alexander says, he considers himself a faithful Christian, and it's therefore not surprising that he interpreted the chaos in his brain when he was almost dying in terms of his model of the afterlife.
His, and the multitude of other memories reported by people who have been close to death, have to be seen first through the prism of hard science. The crucial question is not whether such astounding experiences should lead us to abandon materialist accounts of brain function, but whether materialist accounts can possibly explain them.
Dr Peter Fenwick, senior lecturer at King's College, London, consultant at the Institute of Psychiatry, and president of the British branch of The International Association for Near Death Studies, acknowledges that there are deep problems in interpreting first-person memories of experiences that are supposed to have happened when the brain was out of action. Since the lucky survivor can only tell you about them after the event, how can we be sure that these things were perceived and felt at the time that their brains were messed up, rather than being invented afterwards?
The same problem applies to dreams, indeed to any memory. Memory is notoriously fallible, and is treacherously easily misled by expectation. The cognitive psychologist Elizabeth Loftus has done brilliant experiments showing how the recall of real experiences can be transformed by what people think should have happened, and by what they are told might have happened.
In 150 years the science of perception has taught us that the way we appreciate the world around us is as much dependent on our expectations, our experiences, our inferences, as it is on the hard evidence of images on our retinas or vibrations in our ears. Remember the occasions when you have seen a face in the flickering flames of a fire, or been certain that you saw a person in the distance as you walked along at night – only to discover that the face in the fire disappears with the next burst of flame and the person in the dark is just a letterbox.
Is it not significant that the NDEs of Christians are full of Biblical metaphor? Either this confirms the correctness of their particular faith or it says that NDEs, like normal perception and memory, are redolent of culture, personal prejudice and past experience. Perhaps if Eben Alexander were a Muslim, there would have been the mythical 72 virgins on the butterfly wing, rather than the bucolic one. If he were a Buddhist he would be called a de-lok, a person who has seemingly died, but who travels into bardo – an afterlife state – guided by a Buddhist deity.
What Dr Alexander and his PR people claim is that his description of the afterlife is more authentic because he is a neurosurgeon. But when there is no evidence except the word of the beholder, a scientist's accounts are no more reliable than those of anyone else. Would we literally believe the contents of a scientist's dream because he or she has a PhD? If a scientist sees the lines of a visual illusion as wonky, should we believe that they really are wonky?
Science has progressed by challenge and disagreement. But what is needed to consider seriously the kinds of claims made by Dr Alexander is not flowery prose and hyperbolic headlines. It's hard evidence.
But I am trying (not very convincingly, I know) to keep an open mind. I remember the story of the nobleman who asked the Zen Master Hakuin, "What happens to the enlightened man at death?"
"Why ask me?" said Hakuin.
"Because you're a Zen master."
"Yes, but not a dead one."
Colin Blakemore is Professor of Neuroscience and Philosophy, School of Advanced Study, University of London
Theory on Spirit and Eternal Soul
Inculpated imagery and studies will reflect in what a person experiences during a NDE. Speed of memory and recall also probably changes during NDE, allowing a person to experience LIFETIMES in the process. Actual death is of the body and the mind which allow perception. the SOUL however remains as so many philisophers say eternal and likely based on the EARTH's magnetic and ionospheric field. All life and consciousness stems from the Earth though on the non-physical levels we may also exist but not in awareness of ourselves. Perhaps we ALL have a mirror image in Ethereal, Astral, Infernal and Celestial regions as well. When the body dies after experiencing the 'visions of afterlife', these portions of ourselves will instruct some living human-or animal bodies to have sex, and hence the immortal soul is reborn again . . . refutes or arguments welcome.
Columbia classmate: Obama using IRS to punish me – Outspoken 2008 VP candidate claims president trying to 'silence critics'
Art Moore entered the media world as a public relations assistant for the Seattle Mariners and a correspondent covering pro and college sports for Associated Press Radio. After graduating from Seattle Pacific University, he served with a Christian ministry during the "Iron Curtain" era in Eastern Europe for 10 years. His return to media included two years as senior news writer for Christianity Today before joining WND shortly after 9/11. He met his wife of more than 20 years at Wheaton College Graduate School, where he earned a Master's Degree in communications. They have three children and a new son-in-law.More ?
The former Libertarian Party vice presidential candidate who has claimed Barack Obama was unknown to him and his fellow Columbia University classmates charges the president is using the Internal Revenue Service to punish and silence him.
Wayne Allyn Root – a pre-law and political science major in the class of 1983, like the president – told WND that despite a spotless tax record, he became the target of an audit in January 2011 when he received an "unsettling" call from an IRS agent who called himself a fan of his and considered it "an honor" to audit him.
Root won a complete victory three months ago in tax court, which found no taxes owed in his 2007 and 2008 filings. But then, he said, something shocking happened – something his tax attorney has never heard of in his entire career. Root was hit with a new audit just five days later, for 2009 and 2010.
"That order had to come from the highest levels of government," he asserted.
"Obama is using the power of the IRS and other government agencies to punish his political opposition and intimidate and silence his critics," Root charged.
Root has been a relentless critic of Obama in more than 4,000 appearances on political talk shows on TV and radio over the past four years, focusing on what he calls the president's anti-business and anti-capitalist policies. He also writes columns and commentaries for many of the most popular conservative websites.
Root is now calling for congressional hearings "to determine if the Obama administration is misusing its power to damage or ruin the lives, drain the finances, or just distract Obama's critics and political opposition."
"It is time to demand an end to government witch hunts ordered by powerful politicians," he told WND. "It is time to shine the light of day on government attempts to intimidate and silence political opponents. This just isn't right, but especially to a small businessman who happens to have a media megaphone. I have a wife and four young children. This is just so wrong on so many levels."
The IRS national media office told WND that Section 6103 of the tax code prohibits the agency from discussing matters relating to any taxpayer. An IRS media officer said she also would not be able to comment, in general terms, on accusations that the agency is being used by the administration to punish political enemies.
Purchase a copy of "Fool Me Twice" by Aaron Klein and Brenda Elliott and receive a FREE copy of their New York Times bestseller "The Manchurian President."
Root began his career as network oddsmaker for CNBC, then called Financial News Network. He's one of only 60 people to have a star on the Las Vegas Walk of Stars.
He believes he's not alone, contending there is a pattern of abuse by Obama, targeting foes with IRS audits and government investigations.
He's had numerous conversations with high-profile friends who contribute to the Republican Party or are GOP bundlers and also have been audited by the IRS.
Root cited, as an example, billionaire Frank VanderSloot, who became the target of investigations by both the IRS and the Labor Department after he gave $1 million to a super PAC that supports Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney.
VanderSloot, 63, told the Wall Street Journal in July that he has been working since his teens, and neither he nor his accountants recall his being previously subject to a federal tax audit.
The GOP's biggest donor, Las Vegas casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, believes a federal criminal investigation into his company's business practices is politically motivated. Another casino giant, Steve Wynn, also is being investigated.
The D.C. watchdog Judicial Watch obtained IRS documents in 1999 that showed an audit of the non-profit Western Journalism Center – the parent of WND, which now has no affiliation – originated with a complaint forwarded to the IRS by the Bill Clinton White House.
The complaint had been faxed by a California resident directly to Clinton, Judicial Watch found. Once the audit began, an IRS agent told representatives of the Western Journalism Center that the audit was "political" and that decisions on the audit were being made out of the "national office."
The Wall Street Journal and National Public Radio reported in the 1990s that under the Clinton IRS, an unusually large number of organizations critical of the Clinton administration had been audited, while no liberal organizations had been examined. A White House document, created by then-White House lawyer Jane Sherburne, showed that the Western Journalism Center was a concern as far back as 1994.
No sign of Obama at Columbia
Root noted he drew wide attention as the Libertarian Party vice presidential candidate in 2008 when he contended that although he and Obama were both pre-law and political science majors in Columbia's class of 1983, he never even heard of Obama during his time at the university. None of the classmates with whom he's spoken, knew of him either, he claimed. A 2008 Wall Street Journal article cited a Fox News survey of 400 people who were Columbia students from 1981 to 1983 and found no one who remembered him.
On the campaign trail, Root predicted Obama would follow the radical, collectivist strategy of former Columbia professors Richard Cloward and Frances Fox Piven to overwhelm the welfare system for the purpose of collapsing it and replacing it with a system of guaranteed annual income.
Columbia University in New York City
Root declared in 2008 that Obama "is going to try to badly damage the economy and bankrupt the business community," sowing doubts about capitalism, by "overwhelming the system with spending, addicting a record number of Americans to entitlements, exploding the debt, demonizing business owners, and then trying to convince the masses to redistribute wealth (with massive tax increases)."
After the election, he published more predictions that Obama would carry out a purposeful plan to overwhelm the system, including a commentary, "The Real Obama Economic Plan: Overwhelming the System to Destroy Capitalism," that ranked No. two for many months in 2010 on Snopes.com's list of the most popular stories circulating the Internet. Another Root commentary, "Obama The Great Jobs Killer," was quoted by Time magazine.
He has made frequent appearances on the Fox News Channel and Fox Business Network, debated a former Clinton White House press secretary on CNBC and appeared on left-leaning media outlets, such as MSNBC and CNN, including "Larry King Live."
On an NBC special, "Inside the Obama White House," he pointed out, NBC's cameras showed the entire Obama staff in crisis mode over political pundits criticizing the controversial comments of Obama Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayer. The scene in the special happened to feature a shot of Root criticizing Sotomayer in an appearance on the Fox News Channel.
In a commentary just two months ago, Root repeated his charge that Obama was unknown at Columbia, issuing a call for the president to release his college records. Calling himself "one of the most accurate Las Vegas oddsmakers and prognosticators," Root wrote that it's his "gut instinct" that "Obama has a secret hidden at Columbia." He discussed the column on Fox News, dozens of national radio shows and in numerous commentaries on the Web. Talk host Rush Limbaugh read Root's column on the air.
Last month, Root announced that he was stepping down from his positions in the Libertarian Party to focus on helping elect Republicans to office who share his small-government values. He reasoned that it's not enough to have a "philosophical foundation rooted in liberty" if you can't win as a third-party candidate. He made the formal announcement on the Fox News morning show "Fox & Friends."
'Zero odds'
Root told WND he believes the audits were a direct attack from Obama, because "the odds are zero" that the IRS "would be hounding and harassing a small businessman … not a jet setter, not a Fortune 500 CEO, not a billionaire … just a small-businessman who happens to be an outspoken critic of Obama."
"I have a perfect tax history," he emphasized. "Not a single blemish. Thirty years of filing taxes without a problem."
Prior to the January 2011 audit, he said he had been chosen at random for an audit only twice in his life and came away both times owing "not a single dollar."
"I've never been late with a tax bill in my life," he argued. "I've never owed money on a payment plan to the IRS. Nothing. I'm a model citizen and taxpayer for 30 years. And now this?"
His ordeal began in January 2011, he said, with an "unsettling" call from an IRS agent that became "a highly unusual and intimidating situation."
The IRS agent called his home and left a message, Root said, then, without waiting for a response, immediately called his accountant.
"We were both shocked at how eager and excited he sounded to get started," Root said.
The accountant told the agent to never call Root again, because the accountant had power of attorney. Nevertheless, according to Root, the agent called Root minutes later at his home to tell him he was a big fan, had requested to do the audit and was "honored" to be auditing him.
"He said he read my political columns in the Las Vegas newspaper, listened to me often on the radio, often went to my website," Root said.
The agent said he loved Root's libertarian-conservative politics and agreed with most everything he said.
"I found that very strange, actually chilling," Root told WND. "It did not feel right. I got a sick feeling in pit of my stomach. Why would an IRS agent say such personal things? Why would he disclose that he's a fan of mine and agrees with my politics? Isn't that a conflict of interest?"
Root said his accountant remarked that in 30 years of dealing with IRS audits, he had never heard of an IRS agent starting an investigation with a phone call to the taxpayer. All audits begin with a letter from the IRS through the mail. The next steps, Root said, were even stranger, as the agent immediately called the accountant then called Root again to tell him he liked his politics and was "honored" to be auditing him? Root's accountant said he found the agent's actions highly unusual.
"That was the tipoff something was out of the ordinary, something just wasn't right," said Root.
Root said the only conclusion he could draw was that the agent was imitating "Columbo," the famous TV detective from the 1970s, "and trying to throw me off the truth.
The agent, he said may have been "ordered to make my life very difficult, distract me or destroy me, and he decided to play 'Columbo' to try, first, to befriend me and get my guard down."
"I knew then this was no ordinary audit," Root said.
Root's accountant called back a few weeks later, after dealing with the IRS agent, to inform him that it was unlike any audit he had ever experienced. The accountant advised Root to immediately get a tax lawyer to protect himself.
"I knew at that moment that all my gut instincts were correct," Root said.
"This agent clearly had an agenda," Root continued. "He was acting unreasonably. He disregarded facts. He simply disallowed virtually all of my legal deductions. There was even a debate over my mortgage deduction. Something was very wrong here. This was a classic case of government persecution. Soon the agent was auditing a second year. It got worse with each conversation."
Just weeks later, Root said, his accountant, himself, received his own IRS audit notice.
Root researched and interviewed the top tax attorneys in the country, emphasizing he hired "the best." His tax attorney reviewed the audit and concluded that the IRS agent was "taking an unusually aggressive stance," and Root owed no taxes.
The attorney appealed the case to the IRS tax court in California. Root said that after nearly 18 months of "sleepless nights, lawyer bills I could not afford, accounting bills I could not afford, and damage to my marriage," he won "a full and complete victory."
He added: "Who knows how many years off my life I lost due to stress?"
The tax court, he said, ruled that I did not owe one cent."
"All of the IRS agent's unreasonable assertions were thrown out," he said. "Case closed. One-hundred-percent vindication. Complete victory."
But five days later, the tax attorney called with bad news.
"Are you sitting down?" Root recalled the attorney saying. "I don't know what to say, but the IRS just contacted me. You're being audited again."
Root noted that just five days before he had won a complete victory for the years 2007 and 2008 and now was being audited for the 2009 and 2010 tax years.
His tax attorney said that he had never heard of such a case in all his years practicing law.
Root said the new IRS agent handling the new audit treated his attorney with disdain and, like the previous agent, simply ignored the facts and denied every legal deduction on Root's tax return.
"It was the same treatment all over again," Root said. "Even though we had just won a complete, 100-percent victory only five days before."
Root said that "as a man who makes his living making predictions and beating the odds," he is betting 1-million-to-1 that the audits were ordered "by Obama or his henchmen."
'Chicago style'
Root insists he is not angry with the IRS but blames Obama and "his Chicago style of politics – to persecute, intimidate and destroy the opposition."
"The IRS is filled with good people," he said. "They are just like you and me. They are just trying to do their jobs, as best they can."
However, he said, when "they get a call from high above, perhaps from the office of the president of the United States, then they are fearful for their job."
"My outrage is towards President Obama and his henchmen," Root said.
"This is so wrong on so many levels. Whoever ordered this against me and against many other Obama critics across this country – and against GOP donors across this country and against so many tea parties – should be held accountable."
He said it's "time for congressional hearings."
"The president of the United States has no right to target his political opposition, or to try to freeze free speech," he said. "Our Founding Fathers would be rolling over in their graves."
Spiritual Theory Based Around Synchronicity
Someone 'that was' Root cheated elsewhere, so Obama knowing the esoterica on synchronicity (for certain all greek alphabet society illuminati types do), had to act. The game company was to be blamed. The only way for evil to end is for EQUALITY to rule and those who follow rules to win. Any attempt to cheat in the system results in 'Unfortunate Series of Events", with any protagonists in the right, even if their actions were wrong. This is the start of wisdom and this is the only evil tolerable, without which Good cannot exist. Obama does system based spiritual housekeeping. Root is not directly to blame, being affected by the players of the "game".
A lowest caste 'labourer' becomes VP of a political party, little wonder Heavens fall and Lands break when the ethereal characters at the top of simple hierarchies intended for fun are depicted act . . . a serious study of spiritual effects and links to online games must be carried out and INCLUDED IN EDUCATIONAL SYLLABUS, so that people can enjoy games and yet not destroy themselves and the world or the natural system and order of reality as we know it. Meanwhile though note that 'games' will have as much effect as the uncorrected Crony-Prison Supplier-Contractor Complex, Financier Student Debt Complex and those who neglected to amend laws or abolosh abusive laws liek Forced Military Conscriptions, Road Tolls ending freedom of movement and laws that impinge on the sovereignty of all individuals like Eminent Domain or lack of Allodial titles . . . refutes or arguments welcome.
New speech-jamming gun hints at dystopian Big Brother future | ExtremeTech – Mar. 07, 2012
A speech-jamming gun by Japanese researchers. They say the gun can be useful for "facilitate discussion" or "mobile speech-jamming".
New speech-jamming gun hints at dystopian Big Brother future – by Sebastian Anthony on March 1, 2012 at 6:37 am
Japanese researchers have created a hand-held gun (pictured above) that can jam the words of speakers who are more than 30 meters (100ft) away. The gun has two purposes, according to the researchers: At its most basic, this gun could be used in libraries and other quiet spaces to stop people from speaking — but its second application is a lot more chilling.
The researchers were looking for a way to stop "louder, stronger" voices from saying more than their fair share in conversation. The paper reads: "We have to establish and obey rules for proper turn-taking when speaking. However, some people tend to lengthen their turns or deliberately interrupt other people when it is their turn in order to establish their presence rather than achieve more fruitful discussions. Furthermore, some people tend to jeer at speakers to invalidate their speech." In other words, this speech-jamming gun was built to enforce "proper" conversations.
The gun works by listening in with a directional microphone, and then, after a short delay of around 0.2 seconds, playing it back with a directional speaker. This triggers an effect that psychologists call Delayed Auditory Feedback (DAF), which has long been known to interrupt your speech (you might've experienced the same effect if you've ever heard your own voice echoing through Skype or another voice comms program). According to the researchers, DAF doesn't cause physical discomfort, but the fact that you're unable to talk is obviously quite stressful.
Speech jammer, in a library. Suffice it to say, if you're a firm believer in free speech, you should now be experiencing a deafening cacophony of alarm bells. Let me illustrate a few examples of how this speech-jamming gun could be used.
At a political rally, an audience member could completely lock down Santorum, Romney, Paul, or Obama from speaking. On the flip side, a totalitarian state could point the speech jammers at the audience to shut them up. Likewise, when a celebrity or public figure appears on a live TV show, his contract could read "the audience must be silenced with speech jammers."
Then there's Harrison Bergeron, one of my favorite short stories by Kurt Vonnegut. In the story's dystopian universe, everyone wears "handicaps" to ensure perfect social equality. Strong people must lug around heavy weights, beautiful people must wear masks, and intelligent people must wear headphones that play a huge blast of sound every few seconds, interrupting your thoughts. The more intelligent you are, the more regular the blasts.
Back here in our universe, it's not hard to imagine a future where we are outfitted with a variety of implanted electronics or full-blown bionic organs. Just last week we wrote about Google's upcoming augmented-reality glasses, which will obviously have built-in earbuds. Late last year we covered bionic eyes that can communicate directly with the brain, and bionic ears and noses can't be far off.
In short, imagine if a runaway mega-corporation or government gains control of these earbuds. Not only could the intelligence-destroying blasts from Harrison Bergeron come to pass, but with Delayed Auditory Feedback it would be possible to render the entire population mute. Well, actually, that's a lie: Apparently DAF doesn't work with utterances like "ahhh!" or "boooo!" or other non-wordy constructs. So, basically, we'd all be reduced to communicating with grunts and gestures.
http://www.extremetech.com/computing/120583-new-speech-jamming-gun-hints-at-dystopian-big-brother-future
This is how incriminating thoughts can even be inserted into unsuspecting mind. Remember that the mind's signals etc. are all probably replicable via neurotech. So when a brain is repeatedly inculpated with certain patterns of thought, we end up with no autonomy at all. While the bottom 70% are busy working, the top 30% no-working classes are busy 'molding' those working class minds into the form they want. To accept bad laws, to ignore nepotism, to ignore oligarchy, to be bribable, corrupt etc. and the top 1% will print all the fiat and bribe, while destroying the finance system and controlling those bought with wealth as well as poisoning the food via food manufactuers putting all kinds of colourings and flavourings and GMOs in food that destroy critical thought by weakening the blood brain barrier, flouridating the pineal etc..
Causing 'grunts and gestures' by the 'Speech Gun' will then be used by the colluding psychiatric establishment to label potential challengers of the insane system 'insane', even getting political party members whop happen to be neighbours or to move into the neighbourhood to harrass, and disturb, provoke into retaliating (preferably with enforcement actionable actions – the foul minded creeps know who they are) . . . then justify drugging the dissenters with dangerous mind destroying psychiatric drugs etc. if killing such persons is too obvious to further render them incapable of being a viable challenge. I know I have been there and that was for promoting things as responded to in this blog. And this is not even the spiritual dimension of the matter as well which goes deep into the nature of society, the caste system, and those of 'dirty spirituality' which is not the same as physical dirt or even jobs considered disresepectable.
Meanwhile though, the financial system will indeed collapse, then riots and war can break out etc.. and when every last clear thinking or critical thinking person is bought up or killed, destroyed, rendered politically non-viable, the oligarchs will place their sons and daughters in political positions while fawning political members in the respective political parties fearfull do not speak up due to 'Supremos' and Oligarchs, use neurotech against all dissentors, use NLP articles in news/radio, use neurotech to identify dissenting minds which are critical to democracy etc..
DO NOT VOTE FOR FIAT PROTECTING, GLC PROXY LINKED, MORE THAN 2 TERM, PLUTOCRAT, ALLODIAL REFUSING, FORCED CONSCRIPTION PURVEYING, STATE LAND/NATIONAL WEALTH SEQUESTERING MPs or candidates. They only care about themselves and will never protect the people will end the people's free will with technology the instance such technolgies are sufficiently proliferated! Vote carefully and don't care about who's likable but who will protect democracy and diversity than anything else!
TV Reporters Speaking Gibberish on Live TV…Why Is it Happening …
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1372538/Are-government-microwave-mind-control-tests-causing-TV-presenters-brains-melt-down.html
ARTICLE 18.5
A bionic prosthetic eye that speaks the language of your brain – by Sebastian Anthony on December 21, 2011 at 3:44 pm
They probably can tap into what one is seeing as well . . . so the end of privacy is here and unless voters vote properly, there will be a new form of dictator – the Technofascist who will decide even what you think.
In the grand scale of things, we know so very little about the brain. Our thick-headedness isn't quite cosmological in scale — we really do know almost nothing about the universe beyond Earth — but, when it comes down to it, the brain is virtually a black box. We know that stimuli goes in, usually through one of our senses, and motor neurons come out, but that's about it. One thing you can do with a black box, however, is derive some semblance of a working model through brute force testing.
Take prosthetic arms, for example: We don't have a clue about the calculations that occur in the brain to trigger arm muscle motor neurons, but that doesn't stop us from slapping some electrodes onto a subject's bicep muscles and measuring the electric pulses that occur when you tell him to "think about moving your arm." By the same logic, a brain-computer interface can measure what our general cranial activity looks like when we're thinking something and react accordingly, but it can only do this through training; it can't actually understand our thoughts. Taking this one step further, though, Sheila Nirenberg of Cornell University has been trying to work out how the retina in your eye communicates with your brain — and judging by a recent talk at TEDMED (embedded below), it seems like she's actually cracked it.
Now, reading the brain's output (as in a prosthetic arm) is one thing, but feeding data into the brain is something else entirely — and understanding the signals that travel from the retina, through the optic nerve, to the brain is really about as bleeding edge as it gets. Nirenberg still used a brute force technique, though: By taking a complete animal eye and attaching electrodes to the optic nerve, she measured the electric pulses — the coded signal — that a viewed image makes. You might not know what the code means, but if a retina always generates the same electric code when looking at a lion, and a different code when looking at a bookcase, you can then work backwards to derive the retina's actual encoding technique.
Nirenberg did this until she produced mathematical equations that, with startling accuracy, encode images into neuron pulses that can be understood by an animal brain. In the image below, the far left picture represents the pre-Nirenberg state of the art prosthetic eye, and the mid two images are what her prosthetic are capable of. Not quite as good as the real thing, but when you imagine that this is a silicon chip being implanted into the eye of a blind animal and then wired into the optic nerve, you really ought to be awestruck. In case you're wondering, the "transducer" that the image references is a piece of hardware that converts the output from the silicon chip into signals that are ready to travel along the optic nerve to the brain.
Comparison of various prosthetic eye/retina technologies
You'll note that we've used the word "animal" throughout, and not "human." So far, Nirenberg seems to have carried out most of her experiments on mice — but as far as we know, the eye, optic nerve, and visual cortex in mice and humans are fairly similar. The next step must surely be working out the mathematical equations that simulate the human retina, and then full-blown human trials. Personally, as someone who is short-sighted but not blind, I would rather go down the wireless contact lens display route — but imagine, just for a second, if one day a prosthetic retina with a higher resolution than its flesh-and-blood counterpart is made. Imagine if you could hit a button to digitally zoom in with your eyes — or, more likely, just think about zooming in.
Perhaps even cooler, though, Nirenberg insists that this same technique — wiring up electrodes to our sense organs and brute forcing the encoding technique — could also be used to produce prosthetic ears, or noses, or limbs that can actually feel. Presumably, at some point, with enough data points under our belt, we might begin to unravel the human brain's overarching communication codecs, too. The age of bionics is almost here!
Citizens, vote properly, the next thing we know, voting 'suggestion bombardments' will be subtly broadcast via Wiifi directly into your brains. When that happens, dictators and oligarchs will end all freedom and all democracy. There must be white zones which are gazetted in ALL public places including private residences. This could be allowed in certain 'Techno-pubs' or whatever districts, but nowhere else.
Technofascism and mind control are already here, and with the advances state of cell phone satellite technology, not inconceivable that voting patterns and ignorance of term limitless dictators' abusive policies will end up ending democracy or even creating the Suicidal rich people, Columbines and Suicide Bombers that can be enhanced under exstacy or chemical druggings of psychiatric drugs that the bottom 70% civilians in a democracy will not want, but the 1% types, a Dictator or Ayatollah led theocracy would love. Bring on the Luddites. Demand white zones, or laws against use of such technologies or begin seeking only candidates for politics aware of and willing to ratify such laws or start tearing down telecoms structures.
adult industry, beef, car modding oppression, dinner meat, Economy, education, Education-Financial-Student Debt Complex, employment, Interest Rates, not so green land rover, nudism, orwellian society, orwellian technology, poop, rape is less criminal than murder, RLD, sexuality, shcool of prostitution, taco bell, USA, vampires, violent Muslims
In better laws, demogoguery, DMV, food, freedom of choice, Freedom of Expression, freedom of speech, Germany, GMO, Justice, media, media tricks, mod mentality, Muslims, nudism, Orwellian, privacy, red light district legalisation, sex positivism, Sexuality, technofascism, Technology on September 16, 2012 at 9:30 pm
Thailand set to break massage world record – Todd Pitman, The Associated Press, Bangkok, Thailand | Body and Soul | Thu, August 30 2012, 9:08 AM – (AP/Richard Drew)
Thailand has long been known as the massage capital of the world. Now it's going to prove it.
Some 800 masseuses in Bangkok were vying to make it into the Guinness World Records book on Thursday by mass-massaging 800 people simultaneously for 12 minutes, according to the Health Ministry, which was organizing the event to promote the Southeast Asian nation's massage and spa industry to the world.
Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra was to preside over the spectacle at an arena in the capital, and a representative from Guinness World Records was also expected to attend.
If successful, the masseuses would more than triple the previous record — attained in Australia in 2010 — of 263 people being massaged at the same time for five minutes.
Although many of country's massage parlors notoriously double as fronts for prostitution, many more are legitimate spas offering all kinds of treatments, from aromatherapy to foot rubs to Thai "traditional massage" — an ancient art offered at shops across Bangkok that is still practiced and taught at the city's revered Wat Pho temple.
The Health Ministry estimated last week that the industry generated up to 30 billion Thai baht (nearly $1 billion) in revenue, state media reported.
Health Minister Wittaya Buranasiri has said he wants to see the industry bring in even more revenue. The National News Bureau of Thailand reported that the government "is aiming to make Thailand the world's ultimate destination for massage, with plans to improve the quality of the workers, offer more massage classes to the public and set up a massage center in every hospital."
Sex is a form of massage. Except that an organ is being massaged by another organ. If muscles need massage, not inconceivable that ORGANS can and do need to be massaged. In fact the vaginal surface could be the superior 'finger tip' and the penis a 'muscle' (smooth). Western/Victorian ideas about sexuality have polluted esoteric massage and made what is natural (just an organ) into something bad or to be exploited by or where abuse is expected and normal outside of procreational use. Professional sex is NOT sex for love and should not be mixed up with morality or infidelity issues. If spouses have no skill and can only procreate, then they cannot fairly expect to satisfy or be expected to satisfy partners.
Also people have sex as much for health as for entertainment, the lasviciousness 'problem' being the 'illness' (actually spirituak energic 'hunger') that massage (of the penis by the vagina) releases. Stop feeling guilty guys, and underdstand that sex is normal, and that society's 'matrochial' aspects of socialised mental illness or sexual manipulation by far less friendlier femi-nazis, is what typifies wives who withold or refuse to have sex. Just don't pay more than minimum wage or what is reasonable for a fair (middle class) retirement to your sex worker/prostitute. Enough with the sexual politics, these so-called 'sex workers' and 'prostitutes' are HEALTH PROFESSIONALS that handle another sort of muscle (muscles when massaged give off chemicals, same with this 'external' organ . . . of which a certain distinguished friend of mine claimjed could lifet 50kg with proper taichi training . . . ), who have been needlessly stigmatized, and immatured/narrow society's socio-political-manipulation 'kissing in a tree' attack mentality about sex is for unaware/unthinking citizens, children, uncivilised barbarians, and not even monkeys – adult monkeys at least which are frightfully human and surly as any adult human to boot.
The issue is most of society and even these HEALTH PROFESSIONALS (the simplified but stigmatized yet valid descriptor being "prostitutes") have been infected by femi-nazi ideology or those intent on harming men by witholding sex (that is retaliated in by the less controlled in rapes, not that rapes are justifiable or better than witholding of sex which is why the 'sexually able women' can actually make a living off what is a leisurely activity . . . procreational sex.). Granted that the upper classes would prefer not to do this sort of work (and much like the love of 'docking tails' and 'pricking ears' or 'neutering' – did puss or pup give permission to so-called owners to REMOVE their nethers? . . . in animals which has been branded as cruel, the upper classes would expect a form of sanitised sexuality or expression of sexuality to be 'the norm', unfortunately, too much influence and too little emphasis on PRIVACY is the problem with virtually all 'modern societies) , but this is a health related field/issue that cannot be ignored or only ignored at risk to the astral and ethereal and if too proud to have sex for health with others, then at very least do not attack the rights of sex workers and johns or those seeking health via sex (massage or external organs) in red light districts which need to, and have not yet been set up in all major international capitals at least.
Every sexual liason refused or missed is a disaster waiting to happen on the other side of the world in the form of earthquakes and tornadoes IF there is a similarly frustrated 'person' ('person' as in lowest chakra/spinal node spirit, not the day to day person – humans are much like 'Portuguese-Men-O-War' . . . colonies of SPIRITS attached to a single physical body specifically to ORGANS including the external one the retards in society are so woo-woo about . . . ) mirroring. If compounded by viciousness of intent, attempts to manipulate, steal spirit or what not, AND by spouses (which is why people get married, though society often creates conditions that prevent marriage the most evident being refusal to distribute land or distribute wealth in extreme wealth or land sequestration by a handful of individuals), spiritual sins akin to rape occur. So have fun figuring out why man has had a history of war . . . that all for Sexual Occult Theory 101 for today. The Atlanteans used sexual magick (apparently with the dead) and destroyed themselves by Mother Nature's wrath, now mankind if not ready to create better conditions around them and suppress or harness what should be wild free libidos of free citizens, will get to enjoy nature's need to remove the offending individuals, because phenotypical links are a spiritual firmament or spiritual bedrock of sorts that cannot be touched or tampered with without free willed assent (which is why rapes are so bad though killing in turn for raping is worse than raping alone and is no equitable punishment/vengeance).
How Live Sex Will Save The Porn Industry – Michael Stabile – 5 Sep 2012
DVDs are dead, pay sites are struggling and porn is free and unlimited. Why live cams, Twitter and Skype may be the porn industry's last hope.
Ruby Knox moved to Los Angeles six years ago to become a porn star. The free-spirited Native American, now 27 (though her online profile at SquirtNetwork.com gives her age as 25), says she was in it as much for the self-exploration as the money — and for a while, she found both. For much of the last decade, the San Fernando Valley — porn's longtime hub — was flush with cash from DVD sales and an online streaming boom. Knox shot for studios like Hustler and Vivid, picking up a few AVN Award nominations in the process.
But this past April, she packed up her computer and and left the Valley. Now, from her home in Baja California, Knox does private webcam sessions for up to $15 per minute.
Knox is not alone. Webcams — or "cams" as they're more commonly referred in the industry — were once an online backwater populated by Eastern Europeans and low-quality, stop-and-go videos. In the past few years, they've emerged as the driving force of a new internet porn boom.
For those at the top, the rewards are incredible. A popular model on a large cam site can generate over $40,000 in a single month. There are multiple revenue streams for a cam star, including group chats, but for many the goal is to find a "whale," an online sugar daddy who might spend $20,000 a month on you or, even better, a member of "the platinum club" — the high-net worth fans who spend more than $100,000 a year.
Webcams have been around for almost as long as the commercial internet, but the days of watching a monitor-lit star hunched over a keyboard are long gone. In the past few years, prosumer electronics, HD video-streams and hands-free operation have turned the cams from an also-ran to the porn industry's financial front-runner. And thanks to programs like Skype, cams have become much more of an interactive experience. If the appeal of those first webcams was voyeurism, the appeal of today's cams is their intimacy.
The cam industry owes as much to phone sex as it does to porn. After all, the goal with cams isn't to get the customers off, but to seduce them into staying online — at $15 a minute, the sizzle is worth much more than the steak.
Alec Helmy, publisher of the porn industry trade magazine Xbiz, calls cams "one of the industry's few bright spots." While the rest of piracy-plagued porn is struggling to survive, he says top cam companies have been growing by as much as 20 percent annually. Douglas Richter, a rep for Adult Webmaster Empire (AWE), one of the industry's largest cam companies, estimates industry revenues at between $1.5 and $2 billion a year.
And where the money goes, the stars have followed. Cams are drawing increasingly high-profile stars, who are attracted to both the money and the adulation. A recent cam show by Jenna Haze* on AWE's LiveJasmin.com attracted 10,000 paying followers. That's a lot of cash, even in an industry used to quick fortune.
It's one reason a site like Live Jasmin can now operate in the same cultural space once reserved for luxury brands like Chandon or Bentley: Flo Rida name checked the site in his recent single, "Hey Jasmin."
Live Jasmin may not yet have the name recognition of Playboy, but that won't last for long. The site currently holds an Alexa ranking of 46, making it one of the 50 most popular sites in the entire world. On an average day, LiveJasmin.com attracts more online viewers than the New York Times, Netflix or ESPN. By traffic — and possibly revenue — it's the largest adult company in the world.
The key to cams' success is the interaction with the star — so unlike traditional porn, there's little incentive to pirate. A taped cam show is like a taxidermied pet: It might look the same, but it's a little lifeless. So while the rest of the porn industry fights to keep its content off torrent sites, cams are exploding. They may share a lineage with filmed porn, but it's a Darwinian offshoot that has suddenly found itself immune to the virus that's killing off its competitors.
It's also changing the nature of the entire business.
GIVING PORN AWAY
In the traditional system, a porn producer would shoot a movie and try to move as many copies as it could. With cams, the goal isn't so much to go wide as it is to find a few "whales" willing to spend big. It's porn for the 1%.
"It's a different kind of profit. It's a different kind of customer," says Randy Blue. Blue launched his eponymous gay porn site nearly a decade ago and quickly became one of the biggest players in the industry — a streaming video success story. At one point, he considered using his success to buy up traditional brick-and-mortar porn studios, but he couldn't see the long-term value. Two years ago, he decided to invest heavily in cams.
"If anybody works in the industry and they see their profit shrinking monthly and they haven't caught the clue they might be obsolete in two years, I don't know what to tell them. We're going through the biggest technological change that this industry has ever gone through, much more than reel-to-reel to VHS to DVD — that was nothing," he says.
The porn industry, he says, is on the same trajectory as all media: content itself no longer holds value. "When you look at the money that's made by most recording artists, they make their money in concerts. What used to be a $30 ticket is now $125 ticket. Sometimes they do a smaller venue with fans who are willing to pay more."
If you're an artist who wants to remain independent — whether as a filmmaker, a rock band or a porn star — your success is your direct connection, and the only commodity worth selling is the live event.
Take Clerks director Kevin Smith, who abandoned traditional distribution for his film Red State in favor of a traveling roadshow. Or a comedian like Louis C.K, who self-distributed his concert album Live at the Beacon to his fans at a steep discount — and now uses that direct connection to sell concert tickets without a middleman. Acts like Radiohead essentially give away their albums — and make it up in live performance.
Filmed porn may continue to exist, but many in the industry say it's likely to become a loss leader, a way to make ancillary revenue. Faced with thousands of tube sites giving away their content, companies from Pink Visual to Kink.com have even looked into giving away their movies for free in order to sell advertising for things like sex toys, dating sites — and cams.
Blue says he's not sure that free is the answer, but he hasn't ruled it out. "There is a whole generation of guys who aren't going to pay for music, porn or anything. So if there are 10,000 people who won't pay, you have to find a thousand who will."
And, he says, the 10 percent that is still willing to pay for porn is willing to pay a lot more for a live event.
Ruby Knox's profile on SquirtNetwork.com
THE GIRLFRIEND EXPERIENCE 2.0
That same 10 percent is also changing what defines a star in this new universe. It's no longer enough to have a pretty face and a tight body. A cam star needs to be able to connect — and to sell.
The connection is what originally drew Ruby Knox to cams, and one reason why she thrives here. "With porn you can't really relate to your audience, really. You're just a figment of their imagination," Knox says. Her fans are as likely to talk with her about items on Reddit as they are about sex.
Knox is a geek, and most of her audience is people like her: gamers, hackers, young professionals who work from home. The very people you wouldn't expect to pay for porn are spending plenty on her.
A good cam star is part Scheherazade, part carnival barker. Shows always start out free, of course, and often include a countdown clock. The star will tease and flirt; she might talk about her day or how horny she is or what she's got planned for the show. She could bring out a sex toy or introduce a special guest. Through it all, she's the consummate hostess, greeting old fans as they log on and batting her eyes at the new ones. But there's only so much she'll give away for free.
When the show begins the screen goes blank for anyone who hasn't ponied up. A show can be anything from lower-priced group chat — sometimes called a circle jerk, where anyone who pays can log in and talk to her — to a personal cam-to-cam show with a single dedicated fan. Sometimes it's explicit sex, and sometimes it's just company. (AWE's Richter says some of the highest paid stars barely get naked.)
For the performer, the cam business model is more akin to dancing — the exotic kind — than it is to traditional porn work. And like a strip club, the house — in this case the cam site — takes a substantial cut, sometimes as much as 40 percent.
Some individual stars do run their own cams, but it's nothing compared to the money that can be made on a heavily trafficked site like Live Jasmin. While every star has dedicated fans, it's access to new ones that makes it financially sustainable in the long term. If you want to land a whale, you have to sail in deeper waters.
But even on a site with a lot of traffic, the hustle is still up to the star. A good cam star recognizes your name, remembers what you like, feeds you compliments, and sends you personal messages in the off-hours. This is the Girlfriend Experience 2.0.
The cam section of Samantha Ryan's site. (It's loading, perpetually.)
"I talk to them," says Samantha Ryan, who shot for studios like Pink Visual and Vivid, but now cams almost daily from her home in Los Angeles. "I bring them into the show. You're trying to eliminate the space between you."
The era of the untouchable porn diva is over, Ryan says. Cams require an entirely different skill set. "The girls that are just into themselves? "It can be fun for awhile…"
She trails off, as if not wanting to offend. Many cam stars still look for traditional scene work, both because it pays better on an hourly basis and because it acts as an advertisement for their cams. And many top porn stars still regard the cam business as unglamorous. If you're doing well in traditional porn, cam work can be risky.
"A webcam show can kill the fantasy," says Knox, carefully choosing her words. "What if someone shows up on cam and is crazy, or taking shots and passing out with a dildo? It's not for everyone."
It's also harder on the psyche. Cam stars have to interact with fans for three or four hours a day, and when they're not on camera, they have to keep it bubbly on Facebook and Twitter. If download speeds defined the streaming porn boom, the omnipresent grind of social networking defines the cam boom.
While most porn stars have online profiles, cam stars have made social media an art. In their off-hours, stars use it to monitor and interact with fans, to increase familiarity and to get them excited about upcoming shows. When they go online, they send out tweets and emails to their fans; regulars and big spenders might get text messages as well. And they've learned to steel themselves against mob mentality and trolls.
"You really have to be on 'on'," says Ryan. "Not just on your personal game, but in knowing how to talk to everybody, how to deal with the haters."
Cams, like comment boards and Facebook threads, are magnets for malcontents and trolls.
"I'd rather get herpes than watch you," one told her during a recent show. Ryan says she laughed it off publicly because she didn't want to appear difficult. But the attacks can be vicious. "I understand the psychology. It's the opportunity for a live one-on-one with us, which they haven't gotten before."
For new stars like Jessie Andrews, Best Actress at this year's AVN Awards, the trouble isn't worth the trade off. Studio work can pay several thousand dollars for a few hours' work, and if you're young and live in Los Angeles, that may be enough.
"Cams are great," she wrote over email, but says she rarely does them. "I think that girls should make a higher percentage."
Some cam companies do attempt to lure models with better percentages, especially as performers from Eastern Europe, India and Colombia drive down rates. Ryan used to make more than $1000 per show, but estimates that her profits have dropped by half in the past year because customers are becoming used to getting more for less.
Still, for performers Ryan and Knox, the opportunity to control their own destiny is worth it. Hard work, not just looks, determines how much money you make. It's not a lucrative on an hour-by-hour basis, but it offers something for the performer that porn never did: predictability.
For Ryan, that means allowing her to go back to school for computer engineering. She has a regular income, and more importantly, a regular schedule. When she was dependent on film shoots, she could hardly schedule yoga, let alone a school semester. Now, sets her own hours and can make a budget.
Knox agrees. She still looks for scene work — she calls filmed porn a "lucrative hobby," and still shoots when in LA — but cams gave her a life.
"I love that freedom. It's the American dream. It's so cool," And then she excuses herself to have a late lunch, poolside in Mexico.
Michael Stabile is a writer and filmmaker based in Los Angeles.
Top illustration by BuzzFeed's Chris Ritter
Update: Flo Rida lyrics and SquirtNetwork.com screencap corrected.
*Douglas Richter says he misspoke when he said Jenna Jameson recently had a show on Live Jasmine — he meant Jenna Haze.
RLDs in major world capitals please. One fundo's vice is another man's recreation. All men being equal, then all spaces/laws should be granted.
Claim: Obama hid 'gay life' to become president – Chicago homosexual community shocked he could keep it secret – by Jerome R. CorsiEmail
Leave Comacho alone!
A prominent member of Chicago's homosexual community claims Barack Obama's participation in the "gay" bar and bathhouse scene was so well known that many who were aware of his lifestyle were shocked when he ran for president and finally won the White House.
"It was preposterous to the people I knew then to think Obama was going to keep his gay life secret," said Kevin DuJan, who was a gossip columnist in Chicago for various blogs when Obama was living in the city as a community organizer and later a state senator.
"Nobody who knew Obama in the gay bar scene thought he could possibly be president," said DuJan.
DuJan, founder and editor of the Hillary Clinton-supporting website HillBuzz.org, told WND he has first-hand information from two different sources that "Obama was personally involved in the gay bar scene."
"If you just hang out at these bars, the older guys who have been frequenting these gay bars for 25 years will tell you these stories," DuJan said. "Obama used to go to the gay bars during the week, most often on Wednesday, and they said he was very much into older white guys."
Obama, DuJan said, is "not heterosexual and he's not bisexual. He's homosexual."
Investigative journalist Wayne Madsen, who worked with the National Security Agency from 1984 to 1988 as a Navy intelligence analyst, confirmed DuJan's claims.
"It is common knowledge in the Chicago gay community that Obama actively visited the gay bars and bathhouses in Chicago while he was an Illinois state senator," Madsen told WND.
WND also spoke with a member of the East Bank Club in Chicago, who confirmed Obama was a member there and was known to be a homosexual. The upscale fitness club says it has some 10,000 members, but it's one of a number of places identified by the Chicago homosexual community as a "gay gym."
In April, WND reported a federal judge dismissed a libel case against Larry Sinclair, a homosexual who claimed Obama's 2008 presidential campaign had paid to rig a polygraph test regarding Sinclair's sensational charge that he had sex and used cocaine twice with Obama while Obama was an Illinois state senator. Sinclair tells his story in "Barack Obama & Larry Sinclair: Cocaine, Sex, Lies & Murder."
WND also reported former radical activist John Drew has said that when he met Obama when Obama was a student at Occidental College, he thought Obama and his then-Pakistani roommate were "gay" lovers.
In addition, rumors have swirled around Obama's relationship with his personal aide and former "body man," Reggie Love, who resurfaced on the eve of the Republican National Convention to support his old boss. Love resigned from the White House in November 2011 after compromising photographs of him as a college student received wide circulation.
WND also has documented in two separate articles, here and here, that Obama wore a gold band on his wedding ring finger from the time he attended Occidental College through his student days at Harvard Law School.
DuJan said that during Obama's first presidential campaign, "there was fear in the gay community" about talking openly about Obama being homosexual, particularly after the murder in December 2007 of Donald Young, the openly gay choir director at Jeremiah Wright's Trinity United Church of Christ, who was known to be a close friend of Obama.
"People did not want to talk openly about Obama being gay," he said.
"Then, when we saw how Larry Sinclair was demonized, anybody who would expose Obama worried they would be silenced if they dared to speak the truth about Obama's gay life," DuJan said.
'Obama's secrets'
DuJan said he has been told "Obama's secrets would have to come out just like John Edwards' secrets came out."
He said Obama stopped going to gay bars and bathhouses in Chicago when he began running for the U.S. Senate in 2004.
"Back then, Obama could walk around Chicago and people generally wouldn't recognize him, even though he was a state senator in the Illinois assembly at the time," DuJan said.
DuJan insisted that while he's a supporter of Hillary Clinton, he holds no personal animus toward Obama. He said he campaigned for Clinton in 2008 "because I had waited for years for her to be able to run."
"I opposed Obama not because I'm a racist, or that I hate Obama, I just knew the type of person Obama associated with in Chicago," he said.
He pointed to Obama's association with convicted Chicago real estate magnate Tony Rezko, Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan and Rev. Wright.
"Obama was a dirty politician that the media never wanted to vet – that's what concerned me about Obama," Du Jan said.
DuJan spoke further of his claims about Obama in an interview Monday night on Andrea Shea King's show on BlogTalkRadio.com, which included questions from WND during the last half of the show.
Man's Country
Madsen published an article in his Wayne Madsen Report in May 2010 claiming Obama and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel were members of the same bathhouse in Chicago.
"President Obama and his chief of staff Rahm Emanuel are lifetime members of the same gay bathhouse in uptown Chicago, according to informed sources in Chicago's gay community, as well as veteran political sources in the city," Madsen wrote.
He said the bathhouse, "Man's Country," catered "to older men," noting "it has been in business for some 30 years and is known as one of uptown Chicago's 'grand old bathhouses.'"
Madsen wrote his 2010 report after traveling to Chicago to interview bartenders and customers at several "gay" bars.
DuJan gave WND a list of "gay" bars in Chicago where older customers hang out and tell stories about how Obama, prior to 2004, frequented visited to pick up men for sex, including several on Halstead Street, widely known as an "uber-gay Chicago street.
Writing in HillBuzz.com Tuesday, DuJan said rooms at Man's Country bathhouse are still referred to as the "presidential suite," or the "Oral Office," because "the current President used to haunt the place when he was a just another Illinois state senator that no one had ever heard of or cared about."
DuJan said he believes that, someday, "all of this is going to be as public knowledge as JFK's affair with Marilyn Monroe and the other women he cavorted with while married to Jackie."
"Someday," he said, "in the next 10-20 years, everyone will know all about Man's Country, and the place will no doubt get a plaque of sometime commemorating that place as a gay hangout for the future leader of the free world."
Jerome R. Corsi, a Harvard Ph.D., is a WND senior staff reporter. He has authored many books, including No. 1 N.Y. Times best-sellers "The Obama Nation" and "Unfit for Command." Corsi's latest book is "Where's the REAL Birth Certificate?"
Obama will be President for 2 terms after which we do not care if Obama got into porn and owned a string of brothels across USA – Uber-pimp style. Obama may have spent too many terms as Senator and is the President of USA but deserves a private life as much as anyone else. As long as official and non-official lives are separate, who can fairly begrude anyone that freedom of choice which is what USA is all about? Freedom of sexuality cannot be denied the President if everyone else has that right. Good policy writing (which admittedly Obama hasn't exactly proven yet) is more important than a incumbent or candidate's sexuality.
Would USA prefer a straight alpha male policy writer or President that destroys the country with bad policy, unneeded wars . . . or a limp wristed, campy gay club visiting President that raises/re-raises the country to the status of a superpower where all are housed and fed and clothed with bright futures? This is politics, not private narrow communalism or fundo bias, doesn't the writer have the maturity or intelligence to tell the difference?
US debt collectors cash in on $1 trillion in student loans – published: 09 September, 2012, 17:56
Vote only for politicians that will ratify "Free Tertiary Education" for all citizens!
A student walks near Royce Hall on the campus of UCLA.(AFP Photo / Kevork Djansezian)
Most US college students hope to land a good job with a high salary after graduation. But for some the reality is very different. Many find themselves faced with insurmountable debt – and a loan industry that's happy to cash in on their misfortune.
As the number of people taking out government-backed student loans has soared, so has the number of borrowers who have fallen behind in making payments.
Around 5.9 million people nationwide have fallen at least 12 months behind in their payments. This number has grown by a third in the last five years, according to a State Higher Education Finance survey.
Many who can't repay their loans feel they have no choice but to default. It's a decision that can be disastrous – ruining a borrower's credit and increasing the amount they owe. It can also result in penalties of up to 25 per cent of the balance.
Despite the scary consequences, young adults across America have chosen to default on their loans. And that decision has resulted in a cat-and-mouse game with the government.
"I keep changing my phone number. In a year, this is probably my fourth phone number," former student Amanda Cordeiro told the New York Times.
Cordeiro receives up to seven calls a day from debt collectors attempting to recover her $55,000 in overdue student loans. But phone calls are just the beginning.
Since the federal government imposes no statute of limitations for collecting loan repayments, escaping the debt is nearly impossible.
"You are going to pay it, or you are going to die with it," said John Ulzheimer, president of consumer education at SmartCredit.com.
As America's poor economy causes companies and small businesses to close their doors, the debt collection industry is booming.
Conserve, a debt collection agency in New York, expects to double its payroll in the next three years.
"There is great opportunity," the company's president and founder Mark E. Davitt, told the New York Times.
It's easy to see where that opportunity comes from.
The nationwide student loan balance is more than $1 trillion. It's a number that makes borrowers cringe.
However, debt collectors are more than grateful for the astronomically high amount of debt among college graduates.
Debt collectors used to receive a steady and reliable income from credit card debt, but the slowing economy has made collection a challenge.
Now, student loans are filling that hole. In fact, many are calling students the "new oil well" for the debt collection industry.
"While the Department of Education debt collection contract has been one of the most highly sought-after contracts within the ARM industry for years, I believe it is now THE most sought-after contract within this industry, centered within the most sought-after market – student loans," mergers and acquisitions specialist Mark Russell wrote on Insidearm.com.
It's a win-win situation for both the government and collection agencies. Government officials estimate they will collect 76 to 82 cents on every dollar of loans made in fiscal 2013 that end up in default. Borrowers then have to pay collection costs, which go straight to the debt agencies.
In addition to the balance, borrowers are charged for collection costs, which go straight to the debt agencies.
The rewards trickle down to other areas, too.
Educational Credit Management Corp. (ECMC), a Minnesota based agency, benefits from its 18-year-old agreement with the US government, according to Bloomberg News.
The company charges fees to borrowers and earns commissions from taxpayers when it collects on defaulted student loans. And the rewards are lucrative.
ECMC's debt collectors earn financial perks as a reward from extracting money from defaulted borrowers. In 2010, the company's top performers received bonuses equivalent to as much as 10 times their base salaries, which range from $33,000 to $46,000.
It's a never-ending cycle between borrower and lender – and the winner is almost always the lender. After all, it's nearly impossible to hide from the government.
"It's the closest thing to debtor prison that there is on this Earth," former student Patrick Writer said of his federal loan.
@africaboy (unregistered) September 10, 2012, 00:39
They problem is not that they love educated people. No the society of profit makers do not want people to get educated. They want to take away from you any aspiration and self confident. Politicians like Obama and his wife will come to the microphone to talk about Student loans situation. They make you feel like they are one of those students. End story they will talk about their own success. But how many people will have the chance to become a good House negro? Romney asked freshman students to start their own business. He told them to go ask money to their parent!!. Can you see how this man is not touch? A parent who has no real income how that parent can finance a business. The American illusion is a reality. Obama's wife told us how her father did everything to help her and her brother pay for their student loans. I was extremely surprised to see that Woman lying live from the television screen. Her dad as she told us was very sick man. They did not have enough. How much her dad was paying back then? She said her and her husband students loans combined where higher than their mortgage. In year 2008 Obama told us he just finished paying his student loans before declaring his candidacy. As you can see people of America has no support for any of the politicians. The two parties system is made of fabrication and liars. Today the government can take a decision cut every graduate student with 98% of their loan. That mean erase the loan at the level of 98%.
Require Schools to provide a real job assistance to graduate students or they need to close their doors. A commission between the department of labor and department of education should be established to oversee the job placement they said they will help provide. All those school boutique must close their doors. More than 70% of America schools are schools boutique. They are not in business to educate people but to make money and profit. The money you pay for a year schooling can help you finish a whole degree program is most country. Three courses at the Master or Doctorate level will cost easily $12000 to $18000 Us Dollars. The Arabs ( Saudi, Koweit, United Emirate Arabs) are the few who will pay off their students fees in one payment and some very few America students from the top 1%.
@kuplungmaster September 10, 2012, 00:37
Perhaps all those young and educated people should pack their bags and move elsewhere. I am sure someone will appreciate their knowledge and expertise. The morbid joy of collection agencies over misfortune of many was expected.
Don't waste money on education. Buy some land and kick back and relax, even rent out some of that land for the starving to cultivate. Being a landlord beats being a debt slave for a overrated piece of paper that only allows one to be a work slave to end that debt, by which time most are already in their 30s only ro begin saving from scratch what they had when they were just entering college which would take another 10 years at least, after which a young upstart with tghe same debt would need the job more than the same faded 'paper chaser' who might still be in debt because of marriage and kids needing an education! We die our children follow indeed – especially for conventional degree types . . .
Who Are These People! – Posted on September 8, 2012 by Kirwan
These two kids were six or seven years old when this was drawn, back in 1966. They represented 'Children of the Empty Promise' which would put them in their early fifties by now, if they had survived.
I find it virtually impossible to believe that Americans are putting up with stuff like "Extrodinary Events Management-Rules" as these are to be applied tomorrow with the start of the Democratic Convention
In Charlotte, N. Carolina.
"CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Starting Saturday, someone walking through Charlotte's central business district could run afoul of the law by carrying water bottles, hair spray, socks or magic markers under sweeping security rules enacted ahead of the Democratic National Convention.
It would take a particularly strict reading of the rules for someone to be arrested simply for possessing one of those items, but the possibility exists — which worries protesters and free speech advocates. They fear authorities could trample on people's constitutional rights in the name of protecting public safety.
On what planet do people exist that need to be protected from magic markers, water-bottles or women's purses as weapons against over 5,000 heavily armed troops?
"Extrodinary Event" there's new law coming out in Charlotte that explains that you lose your rights in this country if it is during an extrodinary event. If you go to the Democratic Convention in Charlotte you will be subject to the Extrodinary Event laws (up to one mile from the Convention site). To enforce this new events law they've got 1,750 storm troopers down there, but that wasn't quite enough; so they brought in 3,400 other storm-troopers on-loan-officers from around the country.
Now put this in military terms because truly this is what our police forces come down to – that is over ten battalions of military soldiers that will be enforcing "Extrodinary Events laws from people carrying magic-markers or handbags or soda cans. It isn't about making a statement that there will be no violence in Charlotte, because in these Extrodinary Event Laws they didn't take away your right to open-carry a gun: It's all about making everything illegal! Make it illegal so that if you need to be stopped and detained and black-bagged and 'got rid of' there are laws on the books that makes that "POSSIBLE." You are nothing more than cattle, in this country at this point!
You will not see anyone in the mainstream Media covering this, you will not see any of the protestors being beat-down or arrested or detained. You will not see any experts up there telling you that the Constitution has been totally destroyed—what you will see is a charade. A democratic committee telling us how we rescued an economy, how we're going to go after Wall Street, how we're going to stay on the path of bringing jobs back to the country and NOTHING could be further from the truth…" (1)
Yesterday the following data was mentioned.
"(CNSNews.com) – The number of Americans whom the U.S. Department of Labor counted as "not in the civilian labor force" in August hit a record high of 88,921,000.
The Labor Department counts a person as not in the civilian labor force if they are at least 16 years old, are not in the military or an institution such as a prison, mental hospital or nursing home, and have not actively looked for a job in the last four weeks. The department counts a person as in "the civilian labor force" if they are at least 16, are not in the military or an institution such as a prison, mental hospital or nursing home, and either do have a job or have actively looked for one in the last four weeks.
In July, there were 155,013,000 in the U.S. civilian labor force. In August that dropped to 154,645,000—meaning that on net 368,000 people simply dropped out of the labor force last month and did not even look for a job.
There were also 119,000 fewer Americans employed in August than there were in July. In July, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were 142,220,000 Americans working. But, in August, there were only 142,101,000 Americans working.
Despite the fact that fewer Americans were employed in August than July, the unemployment rate ticked down from 8.3 in July to 8.1. That is because so many people dropped out of the labor force and stopped looking for work. The unemployment rate is the percentage of people in the labor force (meaning they had a job or were actively looking for one) who did not have a job.
The Bureau of Labor Statistic also reported that in August the labor force participation rate (the percentage of the people in the civilian non-institutionalized population who either had a job or were actively looking for one) dropped to a 30-year low of 63.5 percent, down from 63.7 percent in July. The last time the labor force participation rate was as low as 63.5 percent was in September 1981." (3).
However to get to reality the public would need to know:
How many people in this country are over 16 years old, and are not in any of the excluded categories? What the figures above seem to indicate is that almost half of the potential work force remains unemployed. Whatever the case the FEDS have to de-cloak the real numbers and level with the public about jobs and unemployment in plain English.
"… The changes to city ordinances adopted earlier this year for "extraordinary events" ban a long list of actions and items that would otherwise be legal from a more than 100-square-block zone. The area includes spots as much as a mile from the sports venues where the Democratic Party events are to be held.
The new rules have already been used for events before the convention and will remain on the books after it's over.
The special rules that went into effect at 12:01 a.m. Saturday could also bar anyone other than government employees from carrying handbags and backpacks or possessing soda cans, drink coolers, scarves, bike helmets, baby strollers or pets not specifically permitted as service animals.
A section banning "a container or object of sufficient weight to be used as a projectile" could be interpreted to include almost anything, from an apple to an iPhone.
Those caught violating any of these prohibitions could be subject to arrest and jail.
Similar prohibitions have been in place at past conventions; especially those following the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Outside the Republican National Convention in 2004, New York City police carried out mass arrests, detaining hundreds of people for days in miserable conditions on a Hudson River pier. Most of those charges were later dropped or thrown out, triggering dozens of lawsuits against the city.
At the rain-soaked Republican Convention in Tampa earlier this week, officials banned umbrellas, baseballs and puppet-making materials. There, the rules went largely untested after only a fraction of the expected protesters showed up due to worries about Hurricane Isaac.
Charlotte's Uptown business district is home to the headquarters of Bank of America and substantial operations for Wells Fargo, two of the nation's largest financial institutions. The "March on Wall Street South" scheduled for Sunday is expected to draw thousands of protesters.
Members of Occupy Charlotte, who are helping to organize the march, said turnout for that and other protests could get a boost from demonstrators deterred from Tampa by the weather. At the other end of the political spectrum, tea party activists and other right wing groups are also planning protests.
City and police officials stressed that it's their responsibility to maintain law and order. There has been street violence at some recent high-profile events, such as the 2008 GOP convention in Minneapolis and the NATO Summit in Chicago this year.
"History has shown, unfortunately, that while the vast majority are law-abiding and peaceful, expressing their First Amendment rights, a number of folks use the opportunity of large crowds and a platform to cause harm and violence," said Charlotte City Attorney Robert Hagemann, who helped draft the extraordinary event ordinance." (2)
The people of this nation deserve better from every area of the government with all those EMPTY-PROMISES they've been trying to sell us on since 1966.
In the meanwhile just who are these fat lazy white men, and a few women, who haven't seen their genitals in over twenty years because of all the fat that continues to swell their hideous forms. What kind of a country is afraid of "magic-markers" at a political convention, or anywhere else for that matter? What has happened to this place that we cannot live without the government's permission to do anything at all—ever!
If no one attended this fake convention—that would end the charade, and we could easily take back what's left of this dump. Or we might actually reject the FERAL-Federal-Government and withdraw the permission which the states lent to the FEDS to create the central government in the first place. ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE, BUT FIRST YOU'VE GOT TO GET MAD ENOUGH TO BEGIN TO ACT. (4)
We have to stop taking pictures and start taking action—before this Rogue Government begins to launch wave after wave of military riot-squads against us. It's time for the public to ACT on their own behalf, or just forgets about anything to do with this place as somewhere fit for human habitation!
The Children of the Empty Promise still haunt this place, and their lives ought to have counted for a hell of lot more than they obviously did, when most of these LIES were first uncovered…
Jim Kirwan
1) Extrodinary Events – 5 min video
2) DNC Security Rules Trigger Free Speech worries
3) Record 88,921,000 Americans Not in Labor Force
4) Judge Napolitano on Nullification and the Constitutional Powers of States – 2 min video
So long as day to day tolerances are as low as currently are, no tolerance should be given to extraordinary event 'arrests' or 'charges' without proof.
Nanotechnology, Terra-Forming, Transhumanism, and You – Friday, September 7th 2012 at 5:00 am – by Anne Gordon, RN
Many things are being altered right before our eyes, mostly without our consent, or knowledge. These changes are coming from well-funded and classified experiments, accidents, and new science, often with creepy 'modern' agendas driving them. This sort of broad scale change is unfolding in nearly every facet of our lives. But the signs and symptoms already indicate that our health may suffer as a result.
Lets start with food for example. The bio-availability of the nutrients in our food seems to be getting interrupted. Could it be the irradiation or modification of foods? Some believe that the reason for the obesity problems could actually be a lack of nutrition, a slow starvation, because the nutrition cannot get into the cells.
Weather modification is nothing new, and researchers claim that the residues from spraying create toxic effects on our health, plants, and animals. We seem to be ingesting experimental aerosolized air, tainted water (with fluoride, pharmaceuticals, etc.), faked food, and untested medicines. Asthma cases are soaring, as are mysterious flu-like symptoms. But that is only the tip of a very chilling future according to many thinkers.
Hollywood is helping us to be de-sensitized to words, through popular movies. For example, many science fiction movies feature flesh eating zombies (mutated humans), and terra-forming earth. Academic futurists are talking about Transhumanism, and popular magazines illustrates how a future man might physically appear.
Transhumanism, a new and growing movement, is asserting claims to augment ' natural humans', replacing them with a technological 'advanced' artificial intelligence, fueled by nanotechnology and bio-engineering. As change accelerates, we are hearing the term, die off's, and shrug it off to natural 'extinctions'. The skies are often white, not blue, as the weather experiments, (race to control the weather, or other motives), become extreme. Sadly, as we get desensitized, we accept a new normal.
Yet, Terra-Forming the environment (geo-engineering) and changing the nature of man needs some forethought. If the skies are sprayed with aerosols, as many documents note, (to reflect the sunlight preventing warming), serious consequences seem obvious. Ultimately, are we hurting ourselves, and, future generations?
We have already created plastic antibodies. We have smart pills, smart chicken, smart water, smart washers, and smart grid. Smart is a marketing word, like, the new modern, but often with an altered brew. Today, we get artificial (plastic) body parts, and create new life in vitro, (cellular engineering). In short, we're already ingesting new chemicals, plastics, nano particles, while being bombarded 24/7 by invisible electromagnetic frequencies (ELF's). We are told everything is safe, but is it? How do you feel?
Transhumanism looks into the future for man decades, based on today's technologies. We already have cryonics (preservation of cells). Virtual reality already mimics reality, and soon will include our sense of touch, (haptics). It is suggested that people might prefer the virtual reality of the future, to reality.
Sophisticated biotechnology combined with nano technology will become so convenient and tiny, that the everyday person will want to implant them (for convenience or prestige). New vaccines are on the horizon for countless ailments, with needle -less creative ways to ingest them. Yum.
Before embracing all new technologies sold to us to improve our lives, it might be wise to take a very close look at the non-monetary price you will pay especially when linked to potential harmful side effects. Start with what you can do for you,or your loved ones and learn what you are putting into your bodies willingly.
Neurotech.
Stretchable electronic skin being developed to monitor vital signs – by Tecca | Today in Tech – 7th September 2012
Advances in polymer technology allow circuits to stretch just like human skin
Just when you thought tattoos couldn't get any cooler, scientists at Cambridge, Massachussetts startup MC10 are working on stretchable electronics that can be applied to a person's skin. The ultimate goal with these polymer patches is to allow them to be used to monitor a patient's vital signs, both externally and internally.
Thanks to advances in polymer substrate, microchips, LEDs, wireless technology, and even solar cells, this stretchable electronic skin may be the key to revolutionizing the medical diagnostic field. Or they could just allow you to have really cool light-up tattoos.
Previously, electronic-embedded polymer was only able to bend, but not stretch. MC10 aims to change this with the release of its first product, in partnership with Reebok, this fall. Although details are being kept secret, the company's skin patch products are meant to wirelessly transmit medical information such as heart rate, respiration, hydration, temperature, and more from the patient to a nearby smartphone. Stretchable balloon catheters are also being developed to allow high-resolution mapping of the heart to detect problematic cardiac tissue.
This coupled with neutrotech will be the end of humanity's free will. Will the appropriate watchdogs act now to ensure that this sort of technology does not become rampant and uncontrolled? Think 'White Zones' and consumer rights and access to non-GMO or traditional medical/herbal treatments. Do not deny anyone this right of choice even if all this tech becomes mainstream.
EU funding 'Orwellian' artificial intelligence plan to monitor public for "abnormal behaviour" – by Ian Johnston – 9:08PM BST 19 Sep 2009
The European Union is spending millions of pounds developing "Orwellian" technologies designed to scour the internet and CCTV images for "abnormal behaviour".
A five-year research programme, called Project Indect, aims to develop computer programmes which act as "agents" to monitor and process information from web sites, discussion forums, file servers, peer-to-peer networks and even individual computers.
Its main objectives include the "automatic detection of threats and abnormal behaviour or violence".
Project Indect, which received nearly £10 million in funding from the European Union, involves the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) and computer scientists at York University, in addition to colleagues in nine other European countries.
Shami Chakrabarti, the director of human rights group Liberty, described the introduction of such mass surveillance techniques as a "sinister step" for any country, adding that it was "positively chilling" on a European scale.
The Indect research, which began this year, comes as the EU is pressing ahead with an expansion of its role in fighting crime, terrorism and managing migration, increasing its budget in these areas by 13.5% to nearly £900 million.
The European Commission is calling for a "common culture" of law enforcement to be developed across the EU and for a third of police officers – more than 50,000 in the UK alone – to be given training in European affairs within the next five years.
According to the Open Europe think tank, the increased emphasis on co-operation and sharing intelligence means that European police forces are likely to gain access to sensitive information held by UK police, including the British DNA database. It also expects the number of UK citizens extradited under the controversial European Arrest Warrant to triple.
Stephen Booth, an Open Europe analyst who has helped compile a dossier on the European justice agenda, said these developments and projects such as Indect sounded "Orwellian" and raised serious questions about individual liberty.
"This is all pretty scary stuff in my book. These projects would involve a huge invasion of privacy and citizens need to ask themselves whether the EU should be spending their taxes on them," he said.
"The EU lacks sufficient checks and balances and there is no evidence that anyone has ever asked 'is this actually in the best interests of our citizens?'"
Miss Chakrabarti said: "Profiling whole populations instead of monitoring individual suspects is a sinister step in any society.
"It's dangerous enough at national level, but on a Europe-wide scale the idea becomes positively chilling."
According to the official website for Project Indect, which began this year, its main objectives include "to develop a platform for the registration and exchange of operational data, acquisition of multimedia content, intelligent processing of all information and automatic detection of threats and recognition of abnormal behaviour or violence".
It talks of the "construction of agents assigned to continuous and automatic monitoring of public resources such as: web sites, discussion forums, usenet groups, file servers, p2p [peer-to-peer] networks as well as individual computer systems, building an internet-based intelligence gathering system, both active and passive".
York University's computer science department website details how its task is to develop "computational linguistic techniques for information gathering and learning from the web".
"Our focus is on novel techniques for word sense induction, entity resolution, relationship mining, social network analysis [and] sentiment analysis," it says.
A separate EU-funded research project, called Adabts – the Automatic Detection of Abnormal Behaviour and Threats in crowded Spaces – has received nearly £3 million. Its is based in Sweden but partners include the UK Home Office and BAE Systems.
It is seeking to develop models of "suspicious behaviour" so these can be automatically detected using CCTV and other surveillance methods. The system would analyse the pitch of people's voices, the way their bodies move and track individuals within crowds.
Project coordinator Dr Jorgen Ahlberg, of the Swedish Defence Research Agency, said this would simply help CCTV operators notice when trouble was starting.
"People usually don't start to fight from one second to another," he said. "They start by arguing and pushing each other. It's not that 'oh you are pushing each other, you should be arrested', it's to alert an operator that something is going on.
"If it's a shopping mall, you could send a security guard into the vicinity and things [a fight] maybe wouldn't happen."
Open Europe believes intelligence gathered by Indect and other such systems could be used by a little-known body, the EU Joint Situation Centre (SitCen), which it claims is "effectively the beginning of an EU secret service". Critics have said it could develop into "Europe's CIA".
The dossier says: "The EU's Joint Situation Centre (SitCen) was originally established in order to monitor and assess worldwide events and situations on a 24-hour basis with a focus on potential crisis regions, terrorism and WMD-proliferation.
"However, since 2005, SitCen has been used to share counter-terrorism information.
"An increased role for SitCen should be of concern since the body is shrouded in so much secrecy.
"The expansion of what is effectively the beginning of an EU 'secret service' raises fundamental questions of political oversight in the member states."
Superintendent Gerry Murray, of the PSNI, said the force's main role would be to test whether the system, which he said could be operated on a countrywide or European level, was a worthwhile tool for the police.
"A lot of it is very academic and very science-driven [at the moment]. Our budgets are shrinking, our human resources are shrinking and we are looking for IT technology that will help us five years down the line in reducing crime and combating criminal gangs," he said.
"Within this Project Indect there is an ethical board which will be looked at: is it permissible within the legislation of the country who may use it, who oversees it and is it human rights compliant."
Neurotech applications applied to Satellite cellphone tech and Wiifi will destroy all mental autonomy. If these things cover the brains of individuals, there will be no freedom anymore.
That's embarrassing! Bar Refaeli passes a woman in the street who is wearing the exact same leopard print trousers as her – by Kirsty Mccormack – PUBLISHED: 08:27 GMT, 6 September 2012 | UPDATED: 11:19 GMT, 6 September 2012
Government mocking citizen freedoms indirectly? Or simple synchronicity?
She's used to be being made up to model in front of the cameras but when it comes to everyday life, Bar Refaeli is just like any other ordinary woman.
The 27-year-old Israeli star was spotted shopping with friends in Barcelona, Spain, on Tuesday wearing a pair of leopard-print trousers – but she wasn't the only one.
As she strolled down the street, Refaeli walked past a woman who appeared to be wearing the exact same trousers as her, and a matching top.
That's embarrassing! Bar Refaeli passes a woman in the street in Barcelona who is wearing the same pair of leopard-print trousers as her
However, as the the blonde passed the woman in the street she either didn't notice her or wasn't bothered about the fact that they were dressed almost identically.
Refaeli went from store to store with the group, she looked happy and relaxed and was no doubt grateful that she had decided to wear flats.
She teamed the animal print garment with a black loose vest and diamante sandals while shielding her eyes with a pair of sunglasses.
Not alone: The model was joined by friends as she perused the shops
Effortlessly cool: The blonde teamed her animal print trousers with a black vest and a trilby hat
She completed her look with a large tasseled bag, which she wore across her body, and a brown trilby hat.
As she wandered around in the Spanish sunshine, Refaeli visited shops such as Zara, Caroline Herrera, El Corte and several lingerie shops.
Perhaps the model was feeling ready to pose in underwear again after a nasty rash left her feeling not so flawless at the weekend.
Shady lady: The Israeli star accessorised with black sunglasses and a large tasseled bag
Refaeli shared a photo with her 301,692 followers on Twitter that showed the top of her thighs looking rather red.
The photo was accompanied by the caption: 'The price of surfing with out a wetsuit :('
Having fun: The model admitted via her Twitter page that she loves Barcelona
The Israeli model is often spotted on the beach in her free time, and is obviously having a great time in Barcelona after also tweeting: 'I LUV it here!'
It seems she and her friends may have also done some sightseeing as well as some shopping on Tuesday as she also posted a photo of herself in front of a glass window with an amazing view of the city behind her.
Not so flawless: Refaeli tweeted this photo of a rash on her legs after she went surfing without wearing a wetsuit
The government flexes muscles subtly. They are saying they know everything and can replace everyone potentially. The issue is how many voters are part of the Orwellian abusers and how many are not who can vote out all offending MPs who allow the SS/Cold War Era KGB alphabet bureaus to behave like this. Not mere coincidence but worse . . .
Motorists who modify their cars could fail their MoT test under EU proposals. Motorists face EU ban from modifying cars – by David Millward, Transport Editor – 8:18PM BST 06 Sep 2012
The European Commission is drawing up plans for a "roadworthiness test" which would mean that all components had to conform with those which were on the car when it was first registered.
Motoring organisations have been warned by the Department for Transport that this "may prevent most modifications" and would apply to "many components and to all types of vehicle."
It remained unclear last night whether this could extend to routine modifications such as fitting alloy wheels, for example, or bringing cars up to 21st century standards.
The move comes within months of the Government in Britain drawing up its own plans to exempt classic cars – those built before 1960 – from the MoT test altogether.
According to the latest official figures there are 162,000 cars on the road which are more than 50 years old, equivalent to 0.6 per cent of the total.
The Department for Transport believed that exempting them from the MoT was justified because classic cars were normally lovingly maintained and had a lower accident rate than newer models.
However according to the EU document "Vehicles of historic interest are supposed to conserve heritage of the époque they have been built".
At the same time, the EU appears to believe that member states should be given the power to set their own standards for "specialised" vehicles, which is understood to include classic cars.
It is understood the DfT is seeking clarification of the EU plans which appear to make it impossible for owners of older cars to modify their vehicles to bring them up to modern safety standards.
Critics of the proposals described the EU plans as "unworkable".
A DfT spokesman added: "We will challenge provisions that imply costs for Government, people or industry and seek to minimise these.
Again oppression of freedom to modify one's own property. What is wrong with the EU? A car's modification reflects personality of the owner and helps prevent crime by making vehicles easily distinguishable. what oppress something so useful? Which 'Hitler' is sitting on that law making body for vehicles? Vehicular modification should be a free-for-all if anything.
Vampire Skeletons Are Rising from Their Graves – by Sylvia Cochran | Butterfinger Barmageddon News Network – Wed, Sep 5, 2012 7:55 PM EDT
Sozopol, a small town on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast, has become a Mecca for travelers with an interest in the supernatural, particularly vampire skeletons, Reuters reports.
Unearthing Vampire Remains
When archaeologists examined the ruins of a monastery in the area, they stumbled over two skeletons. The manner of burial suggests survivors of the deceased feared their return as vampires. The corpses were subsequently buried with rods through the chest — fastening them to the earth — in an effort to avoid the undead's rising later. Vampire burials were not uncommon in Bulgaria or during the Middle Ages.
New Scientist reported in 2009 on the exhumation of an Italian skeleton purported to have belonged to a vampire. Falling victim to the plague during the Middle Ages, a woman was buried with a brick inserted in her mouth on Lazzaretto Nuovo Island. Authorities at the time believed that burying suspected vampires in this manner would prevent them from spreading the plague. Discovery News notes that medieval Ireland had a similar practice that nevertheless predated the plague's advent. Unearthed remains there included two eighth-century skeletons that had large rocks forcibly inserted into their mouths prior to burial. It is unclear why the dead received this treatment. Scientists suggest that the corpses could have belonged to outcasts, individuals perceived as evil or local residents who died from an unknown illness.
Insurance against Vampirism
Researchers at New York's SUNY Oneonta detail burial practices in Drawsko, Poland, where corpses of some children were buried with small coins placed on their bodies. These coins were thought to ward off evil spirits that would otherwise enter the bodies and reanimate the corpses. Risk factors for possession and reanimation included conception during a time consecrated by the church as holy, a relapse to nursing after complete weaning, the youngster's rank in the birth order, and the presence of bodily deformities.
Could there be something to the Vampire Lore?
Is it possible that folks from the Middle Ages knew something we claim is not possible in modern society? Cornell University mathematicians took on the challenge to statistically prove or disprove the likelihood of vampires existing as a separate species. Considering the ease with which vampirism was thought to spread — hence the need for insurance or prevention — it makes sense that simple numbers would affirm or debunk the possibility of their existence. The researches arbitrarily assumed that the first vampire came to be in 1600 AD, fed once a month and turned its victim into another undead with the same characteristics. Taking into account census data for January 1, 1600, the number crunchers concluded that humankind would have been wiped out by June 1602.
Therefore, vampires cannot exist — if they follow the statistical model.
Wrong. If a vampire feeds once a month, another undead would not be necessarily as smart as, or in a position to feed safely, will get caught, may starve to death, may be a good 'faither' and commit suicide, may simply dislike blood and unknowingly starve to death even while eating normally and die of organ failure . . . all of these reasons and a myriad of others (perhaps not having a heartbeat causes insanity and running amok to get killed) keeping numbers down even though immortal. That would mean that only 1% types could indulge a vampire lifestyle unaccounted for. That is why they have jails and death sentences. Everytime a death row inmate bites the dust, a meal is ready, blood collected, perhaps organs eaten etc.. Therefore, vampires can exist — nothing to do with the statistical model. This is of course a theory, but who knows that this is the case and that vampires are real?
Jaguar Land Rover unveils new 'super-green' hybrid at star-studded gala – as car maker announces £370m investment in British factory – By Ray Massey, Transport Editor – PUBLISHED: 12:32 GMT, 6 September 2012 | UPDATED: 21:44 GMT, 6 September 2012
Firm announces multi-million pound plan to launch new motor
Cash will upgrade the luxury car maker's Midlands factory
Stars like David and Victoria Beckham expected to snap up new model
Minister calls investment 'vote of confidence in British manufacturing'
Once derided by environmental groups as the ultimate gas-guzzling 'Chelsea tractor' Range Rover has cleaned up its act with its first ever super-green diesel-electric hybrid.
It aims to make the upmarket off-roader one of the cleanest and most fuel-efficient 4x4s on the road and is part of a major new £370million investment announced by Jaguar Land Rover, and marked with a star-studded gala tonight attended by Olympic gold medalists Victoria Pendleton and Greg Rutherford, Zara Philips, comedian Jimmy Carr and more.
The car-maker says it is the first time such technology has been used on a 'true' all-terrain off-roader.
Rugged: The new Range Rover was put through its paces in the desert ahead of its gala launch
All-terrain: The car maker says it is the first time such technology has been used on a 'true' all-terrain off-roader
Plush: The interior of the new Range Rover
And bosses say it will offer drivers 'a better Business Class experience than British Airways.'
Thanks to an integral electric motor which boosts an already frugal new 3.0 litre V6 turbo-charged diesel engine, the luxury 4X4 will do 45 miles to the gallon and give out CO2 emissions as low as a family saloon. But it will still sprint rapidly from rest to 60mph in under seven seconds.
A serious weight-loss diet helped by an all-aluminium body and chassis has enabled it to shed 420kg – the equivalent of five adult occupants – boosting fuel economy and reducing pollution levels.
Zara Phillips at the Range Rover event
Victoria Pendleton at the Range Rover event
Star-studded event: Zara Philips, left, attended the Range Rover gala in Richmond Park, as did her Team GB colleague and Olympic gold medalist Victoria Pendleton, right
Chemmy Alcott at Range Rover
Kelly Hoppen at Range Rover
Glamorous guests: Skier Chemmy Alcott, left, and interior designer Kelly Hoppen turned out in their finery
But its 'green' credentials don't stop there. Half the lightweight but super-strong aluminium used in the car is recycled from nearly 29,000 drinks cans. And materials from 6,500 recycled plastic bottles are used in every vehicle to create components. It also has the latest 'stop-start' technology which cuts out the engine when it is idling to reduce fuel consumption and pollution.
And when it reaches the end of its life, some 85 per cent of the new Range Rover's parts can be recycled.
Land Rover's first ever 'hybrid' is part of the new fourth generation Range Rover line-up which was given a celebrity rock-star reception tonight at a special gala launch in London's Richmond Park on a day which saw Jaguar Land Rover and Honda announce new investments totalling nearly £700million in their British factories.
Dire Straits pop musician and Range Rover owner Mark Knopfler was leading the celebrations with a concert to 500 guests including model Jodie Kidd and TV presenter Ferne Cotton.
The launch also coincided with a slight rise in UK car sales during August as the export-led motor industry again bucked the dismal economic trend.
Zara Philips and Mike Tindall at Land Rover event
Kirstie Allsopp at Range Rover gala
High profile fans: Zara Philips is pictured left with her husband, rugby star Mike Tindall, at the event, which was also attended by TV presenter Kirstie Allsopp, right
The Range Rover hybrid features a new 3.0litre V6 turbo-charged diesel engine linked to an electric motor and battery. The system captures motion energy generated when the car brakes and decelerates, stores it I the battery, and the release it to power the electric motor. This will either boost the diesel engine, or allow the car to travel under electric power only, to reduce fuel consumption and pollution.
Land Rover design director Gerry McGovern said the luxurious interior would offer an executive 'business class' experience: 'When you think of Business Class you tend to think of British Airways. This is better than BA'
'Luxurious': The interior is designed to offer an executive 'business class' experience, according to design director Gerry McGovern
Icy conditions: The new model Range Rover is pictured tackling snow and ice
Conventional engines will also be offered on the range: the new and frugal 3.0 litre V6 diesel engine that will still manage 37 mpg on its own without the electric motor support; a 4.4 litre V8 diesel, and a powerful 5.0 litre supercharged V8 petrol engine that will propel it from rest to 60mph in just 5.4 seconds.
Jaguar land Rover bosses said the firm was 'firing on all cylinders' and pledged a big expansion of Land Rover models and sales as it embarks on 'ambitious plans' to 'broaden' its 4X4 footprint around the world.
The cash injection is to upgrade Land Rover's factory at Solihull in the West Midlands.
Order books for the fourth-generation Range Rover begin this month for deliveries in January of the up-market off-roader whose prices will start from £71,295 rising to around £100,000.
Such media promotion lies . . . this so-called 'super-green' car is just 'semi-green' :
1) quasi-green (75% to 50% non-recyclable AND *only* using fossil fuels) OR entirely non-recyclable and using solar or full green energy without fossil fuel (like those mostly plastic based solar cars)
2) semi-green 15% non-recyclable AND using fossil fuels only
3) 3/4 very-green (15% non-recyclable AND using DUAL fossil fuel/solar powered
4) full-green (100% recyclable AND without using fossil fuels using ONLY solar power – even if the vehicle is twice as long with 75% covered by solar panels . . . )
5) super-green 'THE REAL' *SUPER GREEN*, should be a vehicle that is : i) constructed from non-mine based materials (like wood for bodywork panels and even chassis, and 100% lacquer windows
ii) which ALSO uses clean energy to process the materials (i.e. no machines or electricity, all manpower based)
iii) is 100% recyclable (not 85%)
iv) 100% organic, and
v) *entirely fossil fuel free
vi) WITHOUT a single non-organic/chemical/artificial man-made component (i.e. no polymer infused rubbers etc..)
Rape victim gets 4 years for killing man – by Guo Kai (Global Times) – 13:45, September 12, 2012
A young woman, who was sentenced to four years in prison after she stabbed to death an older man who sexually assaulted her, has many netizens on her side while some experts suggest she went too far and got what she deserves.
The Guangzhou Intermediate People's Court, Guangdong Province, Monday sentenced Xuan Xiaoqi, 19, for intentional homicide for killing Yang Jinyuan, according to media reports.
On May 28 last year, Xuan went to the Guangzhou railway station, where she met Yang, who was over 50 and worked as a porter, the Guangzhou-based New Express reported.
Xuan bought a ticket for Xiamen, Fujian Province, for next day, but had little money for a hotel room that night. Yang invited her to stay at his apartment in the city's Yuexiu district.
Xuan told police that Yang sexually assaulted her and threatened to kill her if she tried to leave. Xuan grabbed a knife and planned to use it to "frighten Yang."
Yang persisted with his assault, and during their scuffle Xuan first stabbed the man on his clavicle. When Yang tried to wrestle the knife away, the woman received a leg wound. She was able to regain control of the knife and stabbed Yang's chest, neck and head. After Yang fell to the floor, Xuan continued to stab Yang until he stopped moving.
The court found that Xuan was justified in defending herself but committed intentional homicide by continuing to stab Yang after he fell to the ground.
Most online comments feel the sentence was too heavy and believe the woman had the right to defend herself. Some said her four-year sentence was incomprehensible.
A Chinese netizen "acesage" argued that people have to be law experts to know when they are protected by law and when they are breaking it.
Some law experts, who support the court, said that the woman was initially justified in defending herself but stabbing the man after he fell constituted an intention to kill him.
"When the man was unable to continue his attack, she attacked him," Qu Xinjiu, a criminal law professor with the China University of Political Science and Law, told the Global Times.
However, Chen Tao, a lawyer with the Criminal Law Committee of the Beijing Lawyers Association, said the sentence was too heavy as Xuan could not judge whether Yang could still attack her, adding that Xuan should have been given a suspended sentence.
A rape for a rape. A life for a life. To kill for rape is inequitable. The family members of the murder victim who raped have a right to take the life of the killer. The rapist could be raped back or done something equally unpleasant as rape at most. 4 years is extreme lenience, emotional losses notwithstanding though the final decision should lie with the family of the deceased.
BREAKING NEWS: What Taco Bell calls beef may not actually be beef – Posted by drocolate on January 25th, 2011
Taco Bell 'Beefiness' Lawsuit Dropped . . . http://www.newser.com/tag/20194/1/false-advertising.html . . . they WERE lying after all! So what kind of FDA or watchdog or DNA testers do we need to go around confirming if what we eat is real or non-GMO?
This is an exciting story so I'm going to launch right into it. I'm so proud of Alabama, and I don't feel that way very often.
A law firm in Montgomery, Alabama called Beasley Allen recently filed a lawsuit against fast food giant Taco Bell claiming that the beef in their products is not technically beef at all. The lawsuit claims that the beef in your fourth meal Chalupa is only 36% ground beef, which falls under the USDA beef requirement of 40%.
Now, before I move on, I want that to sink in. The USDA has created a standard for what qualifies as "real meat" in our country and that standard is a paltry (not poultry) 40%. And according to some brave litigators in Bama, Taco Bell is somehow missing this extremely low mark.
It's like Taco Bell is a nine-foot-tall dude who can't dunk. It's ridiculous.
Beasley Allen goes on in their lawsuit to say that the beef is not meat at all but should actually be called "taco meat filling" instead. The law firm is setting out to either force Taco Bell to increase their beefishness levels or stop dropping the B word when describing their offerings.
Obviously, Taco Bell is not cool with this because who wants to eat something called the "Seasoned Taco Meat Filling Grilled Stuft (their spelling, not mine) Burrito"? Well, actually I'm sure some people would still eat it.
We do live in a post-Double Down world after all.
My recent history with Taco Bell.
This is as good a time as any to recount my most recent Taco Bell visit, and the events that followed it.
Let me warn my readers that if you have a weak stomach you may want to close this window now. If you're not a little bitch, however, then read on.
A few months ago, on the day before my birthday, I decided to grab some Taco Bell for dinner. I was on my way to meet some friends and I wanted to get a quick meal in me before the night kicked off. I ordered a Mexican Pizza and two Taco Supremes (or would that be Tacos Supreme?). All three of these items contained a hearty amount of …uhhhh… beef. I ate them and felt satisfied.
But then the night moved forward.
And as it did I noticed some discomfort in my tummy. The Taco Bell didn't seem to be digesting. Instead it felt as though it were growing steadily. Imagine eating a football whole. That's what it felt like.
A few hours went by and my health continued to plummet. Finally, I said goodbye to my friends and switched my focus to getting home and sleeping off whatever Taco Bell demons I had absorbed. I got in my car and set a course for my humble abode.
Unfortunately, the taco meat filling in my stomach had other plans.
About five minutes after leaving my friends the pain in my gut became so great that I had to pull over for fear that I might pass out. As soon as I pulled the car over and turned it off my body took that as a cue to evacuate all of the contents of my stomach. Thankfully, the first burst was a dry heave. This gave me ample time to swing the door open and get out.
That's when I ruined my shoes.
I don't think I need to get into the details so I'll just say that I puked. A lot. And after puking I felt magically better. It was as though I had swallowed some poison and HAD to get it out of my body by any means necessary to continue living.
My personal opinion since then has been that Taco Bell equals poison. So today, when two friends sent me a link to this story I knew I had to report on it. It was my duty, as both a citizen journalist AND a fake beef consumption victim.
Oh, and one final fun note about this tale: When I got back into my car, sporting vomit soaked white Vans (Mmmmm…) and uber-halitosis I looked over at the clock and it read 12:04.
Vomiting on the side of the road was the first thing I had done on my birthday.
So, what now?
Beasley Allen is holding strong on their lawsuit, despite threats from Taco Bell of a countersuit. And since this story hit the Web today they are bound to get A LOT more attention now than they may have ever bargained for.
But I want to go beyond the lawsuit. I want to know what's actually in this taco meat filling.
Taco Bell claims that in addition to their seasoned beef they use food "extenders" like water, Isolated Oat Product, wheat oats, maltodrextrin, soy lecithin, anti-dusting agent, autolyzed yeast extract, modified corn starch, sodium phosphate and silicon dioxide.
Doesn't that just make your stomach growl?
But all of those extenders are in there in addition to a beef percentage Taco Bell claims is at 40%. But what if it's actually at 36%, as the lawsuit claims?
What the hell is that 4%?
Here are my official guesses:
Styrofoam BBs
Shredded pieces of marketing and/or creative briefs (cause there's no way the advertising agencies that put out shit like THIS ever used either)
Horse feces
Minced bits of unsold Gorditas from the previous week
Mexican cartel murder victims (where do you think they all disappear to? Think about it.)
I invite you to enter your own guesses in the comments below. And please don't eat at Taco Bell. Smoke a cigarette instead. You just might live longer, and you'll vomit less.
That should probably be the case for all other fast food franchise foods as well. Maybe the chicken is made from reconstituted bone and 60% filler meat as well, coated in 'edible' plastic 'crispy' 'chicken skin' . . .
Fifty Shades of Sears? Retail giant's nipple slip-up just months after American Family Association slams 'sexually-explicit products' – PUBLISHED: 15:20 GMT, 12 September 2012 | UPDATED: 15:43 GMT, 12 September 2012
Exposed: A racy image showing a woman in a purple lingerie slip with her nipple exposed on the Sears website has added to a growing backlash against the retail giant
Racy product: An woman in a lingerie slip with her nipple exposed on the Sears website has added to a backlash against the retail giant
A racy image showing a woman in a purple lingerie slip with her nipple exposed on the Sears website has been republished by amused internet forum users, adding to a growing backlash against the retail giant.
The embarrassed department store quickly removed the product, which was filed under its Exotic Apparel, and Lingerie and Sets sections for $25.99, however not fast enough for users to take screen grabs of the original link.
While reactions from users swayed from nostalgic amusement over old Sears catalogues, to outraged consumers who found the 'inappropriate' material offensive, the nudity slip-up comes just months after the American Family Association accused the retail giant of 'selling smut.'
While many family-oriented commenters have shown their outrage, several customers, both male and female, have said they find it 'refreshing' that the sheer lingerie product was shown accurately as being see-through.
One male user wrote: 'I hate it when they airbrush out the nipples. I accidentally bought something that was see-through for my girlfriend and she was less than amused and did not believe it was an accident.
'I didn't know "sheer" was, I thought it meant smooth or something to do with wind sheer,' he added.
Another female user wrote: 'I always have to wonder why we think nudity is such a big deal. It's a breast, half the world has them.
'It really just goes over my head as to why (specifically in the U.S.) we are cool with graphic depictions of death and torture (eg Saw) but a video with two people having sex is totally unacceptable. It boggles my mind every time.'
The offending lingerie slip is not actually a Sears product however, it came from a reseller named Fright Depot.
Sears, which uses the same concept as other e-commerce sites like Amazon, allows marketplace sellers to list their own stock through the department store's website.
One user explained: 'I seem to recall something inappropriate [from a reseller] with Dora the Explorer popping up a few months back.'
And according to the American Family Association, Sears has been selling 'giant posters of total nud**y' under its home section of Wall Decor and Art, as well as books on bestiality and pedophilia, from outside vendors.
The Association wrote: 'Generations of Americans have grown up with Sears, through the catalogs, retail stores and, of late, website. But a family organization now is raising a protest because alongside the appliance, electronics, jewelry and fitness categories… one line of items for sale features explicit nudity.'
Embarrassed: The department store quickly removed the product, which was filed under its Exotic Apparel, and Lingerie and Sets sections for $25.99, however not fast enough for users to take screen grabs of the original link
After a 'Sears Action Alert' from the AFA and One Million Moms (the group who loudly spoke out against recent gay marriage advocacy ads from JC Penney and Forever 21), Sears apparently assured it was updating filtering equipment and enforcing strict guidelines to prevent sexually explicit products being available on its website.
However Monica Cole, the director of One Million Moms, wrote in July this year: 'Less than two months after Sears' latest promise in May 2012, the pornography has returned. Sears continues to offend their customers with nudity in ads for the posters they sell and the naughty lingerie.'
After customers complained directly to Sears in July, they were told that the offending items were being removed. A customer service email response said, 'Our agreements with our vendors prohibit content that is pornographic or sexually explicit in nature.
That advert is so unsexual. Also everyone has nipples, whats so sexual about an obviously aesthetic female nipple (there are also less than aesthetic ones that can cause offense and should not be exposed) in this discrimination free, gender equality normalised day? Is the male or female version any different? How the person poses the organs and the expression is more important. THIS is a static picture of a healthy and sexually viable female adult in a demure mood. Whats happened to all the people in England? Fundo got them? One spanking by a school marm too many? Look at the nudists AND the smaller types of bikini. Only fundos or prudes would take offense at this advert. Either self control too weak, or just socialised into body negativism. Looking at healthy bodies of people posing alone AND clothed (skimpy is still clothed, not even nude!), Lingerie adverts are not the same as sexual acts, which should have their own allotted areas as well being so popular among the younger and more adventurous and sexual set. Actually strippers at pole clubs are not really even sexual, being a 'no touching' sort of entertainment.
Staff and crew of film that ridiculed Muslims say they were 'grossly misled' – by Moni Basu and Tom Watkins, CNN – September 13, 2012 — Updated 1504 GMT (2304 HKT)
US Embassy in Egypt
NEW: "This makes me sick to my stomach," actress says
Casting call advertisement describes the movie as an "adventure film"
A Florida pastor who burned a Quran says he was asked to distribute the film
(CNN) — The 80 cast and crew members involved in the making of the movie that has roiled much of the Islamic world said Wednesday they were "grossly misled" about its intent and expressed sorrow over the resulting violence.
"The entire cast and crew are extremely upset and feel taken advantage of by the producer," they said in a statement to CNN about the movie, "Innocence of Muslims."
"We are 100% not behind this film and were grossly misled about its intent and purpose," continued the statement, which was sent to CNN by a member of the production staff who asked not to be identified for security reasons. "We are shocked by the drastic rewrites of the script and lies that were told to all involved. We are deeply saddened by the tragedies that have occurred."
Mystery swirls around anti-Islam film
Four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens, were killed Tuesday in Libya amid a regional furor over the film, which mocks Islam's prophet.
A casting call published in July 2011 in Backstage magazine and in other publications for actors identifies the working title of the movie as "Desert Warrior" and describes it as a "historical Arabian Desert adventure film."
An actress in the film who asked not to be identified said the original script did not include a Prophet Muhammed character. She added that she and other actors complained that their lines had been changed.
The actress said she spoke Wednesday with the producer, who is identified in the advertisement as Sam Bassiel. "He said he wrote the script because he wants the Muslims to quit killing," she said. "I had no idea he was doing all this."
Attack on the U.S. Consulate in Libya Attack on the U.S. Consulate in Libya
Obama, Romney spar over Libya response
Questions surround incendiary Islam film
Feinstein: I think this is premeditated
"I would never be involved in a film to ever hurt or bring harm to anybody," she told CNN. "This makes me sick to my stomach to think that I was involved in that movie that brought death to somebody else."
The actress said the character of Muhammed in the movie was identified as George when it was shot, and that she returned afterward and read other lines that may have been dubbed into the piece.
YouTube restricts video access over Libyan violence
A member of the production staff who worked directly on the film and has a copy of the original script corroborated the actor's account, adding that it mentions neither Muhammed nor Islam.
The Wall Street Journal identified the filmmaker as Sam Bacile, an Israeli-American real estate developer. The Journal reported that, in its telephone interview with Bacile, he characterized his film as "a political effort to call attention to the hypocrisies of Islam."
"Islam is a cancer," he told the newspaper. "The movie is a political movie. It's not a religious movie."
CNN has not been able to contact Bacile and cannot verify that he made the movie. A CNN search of public records on Sam Bacile came up empty.
Israel's Foreign Ministry said it doesn't know who Bacile is.
Reaction: Libya, West condemn killing
"This guy is totally anonymous. At this point no one can confirm he holds Israeli citizenship and even if he did we are not involved," ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said. "No Israeli institution, government department or office has any involvement in this. This guy acted on his own behalf."
In Egypt and Libya, mobs targeted U.S. missions and blamed America for the film. In the end, Stevens and three other Americans in the Libyan city of Benghazi were dead, although it was not clear whether that attack was solely incited by the film.
Consultant Steve Klein told CNN he worked with Bacile on the movie and said the filmmaker had gone into hiding.
McCain: 'Their enemies are our enemies'
Wolf Blitzer reports on deaths in Libya
"He's very depressed, and he's upset," Klein said Wednesday. "I talked to him this morning, and he said that he was very concerned for what happened to the ambassador."
Klein, however, said it was not the film's fault that protests had turned bloody.
Casting further doubt on the filmmaker's identity, The Atlantic quoted Klein as saying Sam Bacile is a pseudonym and "he did not know Bacile's real name." CNN could not immediately reach Klein for his response to that report.
An online trailer for the film depicts Islam as a fraudulent religion bent on getting rid of nonbelievers.
Cartoonish scenes show Muhammed as a womanizer, child molester and ruthless killer. Other scenes show security forces ordered to do nothing as rampaging Muslims destroy Christian homes, and a donkey anointed the first Muslim animal.
Many Muslims find any depiction of Muhammed to be offensive — a Danish newspaper's publication in 2005 of Mohammed caricatures triggered riots — and derogatory depictions of the prophet are considered by some to be worse.
"The film is offensive to the prophet and immoral," said Egyptian Prime Minister Hashem Kandil. "We call on the great people of Egypt to exercise restraint when expressing their anger."
Muslim sensitivities around Prophet Mohammed
The prime minister called on the United States to take legal action against the makers of the film, though it was not clear that it violates any U.S. law.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Bacile said he raised $5 million from about 100 Jewish donors to make the two-hour movie in California last year. Based on the trailer, the movie appears to have been produced on a low budget.
The movie, which was posted in July on YouTube, got more notice after Egyptian television recently aired segments and anti-Islam activists, including Egyptian-born Coptic Christian Morris Sadek, promoted it online.
Terry Jones, the Florida pastor whose Quran-burning last year sparked deadly riots in Afghanistan, said he had been contacted to help distribute the film.
"The film is not intended to insult the Muslim community, but it is intended to reveal truths about Muhammed that are possibly not widely known," Jones said.
"It is very clear that God did not influence him (Muhammed) in the writings of the Quran," said Jones, who went on to blame Muslims' fear of criticism for the protests, rather than the film.
Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, called Jones on Wednesday to ask him to withdraw his support for the film, according to Col. David Lapan, Dempsey's spokesman.
"Jones' support of the film risks causing more violence and death," Lapan said.
Tensions mounted Wednesday as the United States deployed Marines to Libya.
Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood — the former party of Egyptian President Mohamed Morsy — has called for peaceful protests against the film on Friday, Islam's day of religious observance.
In Afghanistan, the Taliban charged that the movie was made with the permission of the U.S. government. The First Amendment prohibits the government from interfering with free expression.
President Hamid Karzai condemned the film as abhorrent and an act of desecration. "There could be many deaths once news of this video and Pastor Terry Jones' comments get out," said Karzai's deputy spokesman.
The issue is sensitive in Afghanistan, where throngs of people this year protested NATO's burning of Qurans at Bagram Airfield. U.S. President Barack Obama said the act was unintentional, but the uproar nonetheless was huge.
In America, a Muslim advocacy group called the movie "trashy" and said its producers represented neither the United States nor the Christian faith.
"We urge that this ignorant attempt to provoke the religious feelings of Muslims in the Arabic-speaking world be ignored and that its extremist producers not be given the cheap publicity they so desperately seek," said the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
Facebook sprouted several pages dedicated to condemning the film, including one called "Israelis, Jews & Americans Against Sam Bacile's 'Innocence of Muslims' Film."
A post on that page simply said: "IM-Bacile."
Witnessing protests in Libya or Egypt? Share your photos on CNN iReport.
The Muslims should have made an equally stinging documentary in response. This only gives the West an excuse to brand Muslims as violent uncivilised people instead of artful 'Film-Fighters'. What more the embassy which us internationally neutral and Christopher Stevens and three other Americans who died but were not responsible in any way though probably supportive, worsens the indictment. All involved should think about the family of the deceased, and try to make amends if that is even possible. Meanwhile the only retaliation here can only be in like kind – a film in response, not uncivilised mobs, violence and murder.
A life for a life, a film for a film, and now the Muslims owe 'the West' even more, ruined the reputation of Islam even more, if this is even spontaneous and not a CIA subversion plot where the members of the diplomatic corps were sacrificed to make Muslims look bad . . . Muslims should consider the spaces for non-Muslims and to practice some self control. If God and God's law means so much, then '4 lives of UN treaty protected people AND a burnt embassy (a undefilable bastion of civilisation) for a mere film.' is a sin and damning act for sure. Unjustifiable and inequitable! Don't Muslims think things through before acting? The West attacks with films, Muslims kill and burn embassies. Who's the barbarian? Who thinks Hudud amputations are civilised? Little wonder the rampant Islamophobia, is this what the Prophet wanted?
Naked Rambler jailed AGAIN as Scottish court brands him 'self-indulgent and arrogant' for refusing to get dressed and go back to England – By Larisa Brown and Sam Adams – PUBLISHED: 14:03 GMT, 13 September 2012 | UPDATED: 15:33 GMT, 13 September 2012
Stephen Gough found guilty of breaching the peace after strolling naked near swing park where children were playing
Arrest in July came just three days after he had been freed from prison in Perth, 30 miles to the north
Former marine remained naked throughout his trial at Kirkcaldy Sheriff's Court in Fife
He has been jailed for five months for breaching the peace
Naked Rambler Stephen Gough – who has spent years in solitary confinement in a Scottish jail – was branded arrogant and self-indulgent by a sheriff after refusing to get dressed and go home to England.
Gough, from Hampshire, was brought into a draughty courtroom naked but for a pair of handcuffs today to be quizzed on why he had refused social work and psychiatric help.
The ex-marine was jailed for five months at Kirkcaldy Sheriff's Court, Fife, for committing a breach of the peace.
Gough arrives at John O' Groats in 2004 after completing a 900-mile walk naked. Over the course of the journey Gough was arrested numerous times
He was found guilty of the offence last month after strolling naked near a swing park where children were playing in Dunfermline, also in Fife, and refusing to put on clothes.
Sentence had been deferred for social workers to assess whether he needed psychiatric intervention.
His arrest in July came just three days after he had been freed from prison in Perth, 30 miles to the north, after spending six years in solitary for previous offences involving nakedness.
Gough, 53, who insists he is not a naturist and claims his naked rambles are 'a protest,' was initially removed from the dock after only five minutes when he refused to sit down so his privates were hidden by the wooden dock.
He said: 'I just want to be treated like anybody else.'
After he was brought back in, and agreed to sit, the court heard he had refused to meet social workers and so no assessment was available.
Prosecutor Brian Robertson said the Crown was prepared to help him go back to England if he co-operated.
Mr Robertson said: 'The authorities are prepared to facilitate his return home if his behaviour doesn't cause alarm to the public.'
Pictured behind bars in the nude: Gough leaving Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court in July. He decided to represent himself rather than have a solicitor at his trial
Determined: Gough (pictured here with his girlfriend Melanie Roberts) has been jailed for five months for committing a breach of the peace
Sheriff James Williamson told Gough, who has refused legal representation, said that he was concerned that he had not met or co-operated with social workers drawing up the background report ordered.
The sheriff said: 'Will you meet with them and assist them?'
When Gough responded, 'No, not really', Sheriff Williamson said he had been left with no choice but to jail him for five months.
The sentence was backdated until July 20th, the date of his arrest, meaning Gough will be freed again before Christmas.
If he wins 50 percent time off for good behaviour – unlikely unless he drops his protest – he could be out in three weeks.
He is likely to serve his sentence in Edinburgh's tough Saughton Prison.
Sheriff Williamson told Gough he realised his motives for refusing to get dressed were not 'sinister,' but slammed him for his refusal to co-operate with the preparation of a social background report.
He said: 'I had hoped it [the report] would assist me in dealing with you without sending you back to prison – but you leave me no choice.
'The police officers who arrested you told you that if you carried on your journey you would pass a playground occupied by children.
Unshaven: Gough pictured in July as he arrived at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court after being arrested for walking around naked
'You were given three options – one, change direction, two, cover your private parts, or three, enter a police van which would take you around the playpark and release you on your way at the other side.
'Despite that, you refused, which showed disregard for other members of the public, in particular children who have the right not to see naked men.
'It shows arrogance.
'That self-indulgence carries on today.
'I have no other alternative option but to impose a custodial sentence.'
Gough, of Chamberlain Road, Eastleigh, Hampshire, now has 18 convictions for nakedness.
He first achieved notoriety during a naked walk from Land's End to John O'Groats in 2003.
He went on to be repeatedly arrested and jailed for walking naked, and refusing to get dressed.
He had tasted only minutes of freedom – usually being re-arrested at the prison gates for being naked – until his release from on July 17th.
Earlier this month Gough's former partner Alison Ward, the mother to his two children, Kiana, 16 and Yarin, 14, said she could not comprehend why he had given up family life, and knowing his children, simply to walk around naked.
She said: 'I don't think Steve is a bad person, but he's made bad decisions.
'I feel very sad for him, for what he's given up.
'He lost his relationship with me. He has two beautiful children who are a real joy, but he hasn't been a father to them.
'The price he's paid for his determination to go naked is too high.
'When I told Steve, 'You can't see the kids if you're going to go naked', he said, 'Right, I won't see them.
'He chose his cause over his children and he's continued to do so.'
A Crown Office spokesman said: 'The actions of the accused made his arrest and prosecution necessary.
'Mr Gough intentionally caused shock and alarm to children and their parents.
'The evidence in this case clearly established that despite repeated police requests not to do so, he was determined to deliberately walk naked past a busy children's play-park in Fife.
'He knew that in doing so he would provoke anger and upset.
The sheriff held that his conduct constituted the crime of breach of the peace.'
The spokesman said the police had gone to great lengths to to preven further offences being committed by Mr Gough.
'For example,' he said, 'on release from HMP Edinburgh in 2007, police officers offered to take Gough to an address of his choosing in Yorkshire.
'Although he originally agreed to go with them, he changed his mind and attempted to walk from the prison along the A71 when he was arrested again.
'The authorities are prepared to facilitate his return home providing his behaviour does not, as in the current case, cause public alarm and necessitate arrest to protect the public.
Zoning please, or at least exile/restrict-residence this Gough character to a nudist colony.
Okay. To prevent some far sweaty psycho, or sick rich kid from killing out of boredom, would any of the post millenial scene kids be willing to play the part of fetish victim for a 401K? This should be under clear contracts with legal protections, social awareness AND acceptance, etc.. Same for the would be pedos and their 'child impersonator' escorts and madams as detailed above. Wealth distribution buyr not at extreme levels yet preventive of psychosis at some level or other. A single fetish/porn personae is a lightning rod for negatuve energies to the power of many times.
The psychiatric establishment should look at organic methods, not drugging into oblivion which will instead discharge that energy into the astral/ethereal or ionosphere(quakes and tornadoes!), instead of some simple (albeit) 'not for everyone', acrivities like bdsm or RLD or what not. The universe is diverse, and man's activity is impossible to contain in a Victorian/fundo setting without offending the Universe and OTHER inhabitants across the dimensions of time and reality. Consent between 2 individuals OVERIDES ANY AND ALL *MANMADE* LAWS by others who do not know or will never understand the individuals involved. This is the spirit of law basis behind the LGBT Rights or BDSM Rights or even 'Consensual Cannibal/Consensual-Prey' Rights activity that must be understood or that energy will destroy the planet in time, if not attract very angry and powerful entities or who knows space faring races. Those who cannot reconcile ALL AND SUNDRY, much less make biased and narrow 3rd world communal value judgments on others sentients and sapients, have no business administering at any level in government much less write a single law, or be a judge in any court.
School offering 'professional instruction' in prostitution will stay open, prosecutors rule – By Jill Reilly – PUBLISHED: 12:39 GMT, 15 September 2012 | UPDATED: 12:41 GMT, 15 September 2012
Venture College of Prostitution
For €100, students are taught the history of the world's oldest profession and how to use erotic toys
Venture has attracted much criticism in the predominantly Catholic country
A Spanish firm offering a professional course in prostitution which it says 'guarantees a job offer on graduation,' has survived its first legal challenge to be closed down.
For €100, students are taught the history of the world's oldest profession, how to use erotic toys and the most popular positions contained within the Kama Sutra.
The school began advertising the course in May, but within weeks the Valencian regional government filed a case with prosecutors, alleging that the school promoted prostitution, which is illegal in Spain
Aspirational? The Spanish advertisement promoting courses in prostitution
'They know what they are getting into' says course instructor Brandon has been running the one-week course for eight years
But yesterday prosecutors said there was not any evidence that a criminal offence had been committed because advertisements for students did not promote prostitution, constitute fraud and were not aimed at minors, reported The Times.
The venture has attracted much criticism in the predominantly Catholic country, with many saying it is the wrong way to tempt cash-strapped Spaniards back into work.
But the Valencian firm, which flooded the city's university campus with promotional flyers, says it will make the trade safer.
It will also ensure budding sex-workers will not fall foul of the law, with in depth descriptions of the industry's laws and how to work around them.
Brandon, who has run the one-week course for eight years, said: 'They will know what they are getting in to.
C99K9H Prostitute in a car park close to the customer's car
World's oldest trade: The Valencian firm, which flooded the city's university campus with promotional flyers, says it will make the trade safer
'Prostitution is a career that many people live off from day to day, whether they are single or have a partner.'
He added that 95 people, from the age of 19 to 45, had signed up to the diploma – which takes up two hours each day.
And, once they graduate, they receive their first job offer – to become a teacher in the 'school' where they can help in practical classes.
What they learn in the series of theory and practical classes will enable them to 'earn a lot of money, very easily and quickly', according to the ABC newspaper.
Esther Lopez Barcelo, a United Left MP in Valencia, said the party was considering appealing the ruling.
Sex is a multibillion-pound industry in Spain, with colourfully lit brothels staffed mainly by poor immigrant women from Latin America, Africa and eastern Europe lining highways throughout the country.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2203666/School-offering-professional-instruction-prostitution-stay-open-prosecutors-rule.html
This school needs to set up franchises/branches in adult industry law friendly, RLD friendly countries which is any first world country. Instead of looking at these people as 'weird; or 'odd', an advocate of sex positivism and sexual diversity, one 'Mr Tashiro' said: 'People have different ways of gratifying themselves and enriching their lives. Having tolerance for diversity is a good thing.' 'In the U.S., we tend to culturally talk less openly about sexual activity, especially when it falls outside the normal range of sexual behavior,' he added.
While those who view themselves as different 'tend to keep it to themselves,' they are far more open when researchers ask anonymously. 'There really is a great range,' he said.
Sextember airs Sundays at 9 ET on Discovery Fit and Health
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/sexual-diversity-revealed-sextember-stories/story?id=17208021
cops, Doggers, Law, nudism, park, peaceful arrest, police, Politics, Protest, Russia, Thrills&Spills, under-cheek, Vanessa Paradiz
In amendments to law needed, best practices, better judgments, better laws, Maximum Wage, Muslims, neglectful functionaries, neurolinguistics, neutral spaces, NLP, non-Muslim rights, non-Muslim Rights in a Muslim country, non-Xian rights, opaque system, organic casting, organic psychedelics advocacy, out of context, Pharoahnate, Plutocracy, plutocrat politicians, Zarathustra, Zarathustrian High Priest, Zoroastrianism on August 13, 2012 at 7:42 pm
Romney says Obama favors 'culture of dependency' – by STEVE PEOPLES – National / World News 5:16 p.m. Tuesday, August 7, 2012 The Associated Press
ELK GROVE VILLAGE, Ill. — Republican Mitt Romney accused President Barack Obama on Tuesday of ditching a long-standing work requirement for welfare recipients, accusing him of fostering a "culture of dependency" and backing up the charge with a new television commercial.
White House press secretary Jay Carney said the allegations were "blatantly dishonest … hypocrisy knows no bounds." He added that Romney, while serving as Massachusetts governor, had once petitioned the White House to loosen employment rules for those on welfare.
Romney made his accusation in a relatively rare occurrence in the race for the White House — an appearance before voters outside the small group of battleground states likely to settle the Nov. 6 election.
Illinois and its 20 electoral votes are politically safe territory for Obama in the fall. Romney was there for a fundraiser as well as a stop at a manufacturing company, part of the intense competition between the two candidates to stockpile cash for the stretch run to Election Day.
The president had a pair of fundraisers on his campaign schedule for the day, both within a few blocks of the White House.
In a race as close as this one, the taunts were getting personal.
Romney, interviewed on Fox News, said Obama was "saying things that are not accurate" when it comes to taxes. He referred to a crack the president made on Monday night as "Obama-loney," rhyming it with baloney.
At a fundraiser, Obama called Romney's tax plan Robin Hood in reverse — "Romney Hood" — and repeated his accusation that it would mean tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans while forcing the middle class to pay the IRS as much as $2,000 more a year.
The president wants to extend tax breaks due to expire at all income levels, except above $200,000 for individuals and $250,000 for a couple. He has made his proposal central to a pitch to middle- and working-class voters as he seeks a second term with unemployment at 8.3 percent.
Romney wants to keep the tax cuts in place at all income levels, and has proposed an additional 20 percent reduction in rates.
Romney's decision to introduce the welfare issue into the campaign seemed aimed at blue-collar, white working-class voters in a weak economy, and suggested that Obama might be gaining ground politically with his position on taxes.
It also marked an attempt to take the gloss off the recent announcement that former President Bill Clinton will have a prime-time speaking slot at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C. early next month.
Appearing before hundreds of supporters at a manufacturing plant near Chicago, Obama's hometown, the Republican challenger said bipartisan legislation signed into law by Clinton in 1996 "reformed welfare to encourage people to work. They did not want a culture of dependency to continue to grow in our country," he said of the then-president and Congress, which was under Republican control at the time.
He said that, just recently, Obama "has tried to reverse that accomplishment by taking the work requirement out of welfare. That is wrong, and If I'm president, I'll put work back in welfare. …We will end a culture of dependency and restore a culture of good, hard work," he said.
Romney's new ad buttressed the point.
"Under Obama's plan you wouldn't have to work and wouldn't have to train for a job. They just send you a welfare check, and welfare to work goes back to being plan old welfare," the announcer says in the commercial.
"Mitt Romney will restore the work requirement."
Under the law signed by Clinton and amended a decade later, the federal government does not provide a guaranteed benefit to welfare recipients. Instead, the states receive federal funds and are permitted to establish a variety of programs to benefit the poor. The government imposes a limit on the length of time families can receive aid and requires recipients eventually to go to work.
The Romney campaign circulated material during the day that quoted Obama, then a state senator in Illinois, as saying he "probably would have voted against it" if he had been in Congress.
The Obama administration recently announced plans to issue waivers to states that wanted "to test alternative and innovative strategies, policies and procedures" to improve employment among needy families. It said it was acting after receiving requests from some of the nation's governors, including Republicans in Utah and Nevada. But senior GOP lawmakers attacked the move as an attempt to undermine the welfare-to-work requirements in effect for more than a decade.
Officials with access to detailed advertising information said it appeared the commercial was airing at heavy levels in Colorado, Florida, Iowa, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Nevada, Ohio and Virginia — states where the race is closest.
Romney was himself targeted with a new ad during the day, this one launched by Priorities USA Action, a super PAC that supports Obama.
It features a former Kansas City steelworker who says his company was taken over in 1993 by a group that included Bain Capital, the private equity firm co-founded by Romney.
"When Mitt Romney and Bain closed the plant, I lost my health care, and my family lost their health care," he said. His wife became ill, but "I think maybe she didn't say anything because she knew we couldn't afford the insurance," he says. By the time she went to the hospital, she was diagnosed with cancer and died quickly, he said.
"I do not think Mitt Romney realizes what he's done to anyone, and furthermore I do not think Mitt Romney is concerned."
In response, Ryan Williams, a spokesman for Romney, said Obama's allies "continue to use discredited and dishonest attacks in a contemptible effort to conceal the administration's deplorable economic record."
Both parties were fleshing out the speaking schedule for their conventions.
Republicans said Romney's most persistent primary rival, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, would have a turn at the speaker's podium. So, too, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, a tea party favorite.
Former President Jimmy Carter will tape a video message to be aired in prime time at the Democratic convention.
Thomas reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Julie Pace, Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Stephen Braun and Kasie Hunt in Washington contributed to this report.
August 07, 2012 05:16 PM EDT
Copyright 2012, The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
200K above tax cuts makes no sense and is plutocracy contrived punitive mindedness as hell. That should be REVERSED. 200K and *BELOW* get tax cuts. In fact if cost of living doubles from inflation those earing 200K will still be 10 times readier than those earning 20K a year! What nonsense is Romney spouting? 99% do you see this? Romney is either too stupid or HATES the 99%. The 'dependency' excuse is beyond Romney to understand . . . real people are being crushed by inflation and here Romney goes 'tax cuts ONLY for the rich'. WTH?
'Zionists Systematically Inflaming Islamophobia Across the Globe – Press TV – August 7, 2012
A mosque in the Midwestern US state of Missouri has been completely destroyed in a suspected arson attack, the second attack to hit the place of worship in a little more than a month.
Muslim Mosques in the US are filled with jubilance during the holy month of Ramadan.
The Monday incident came a day after a deadly shooting at a Sikh temple in the Milwaukee suburb of Oak Creek in Wisconsin, which took the lives of six people.
Sikh rights groups have reported a rise in bias attacks since the September 11, 2001 attacks. The Washington-based Sikh Coalition has reported more than 700 incidents in the US since 9/11.
Press TV has conducted an interview with Abdul Alim Musa, Imam at Masjid Al-Islam, to further discuss the issue. The following is a rough transcription of the interview.
Press TV: Thank you so much for being with us. There seems to be a rise in hate crimes in general. We have seen just a day ago dealing with the Sikhs, and now we have a mosque that has been attacked and basically burnt down. Why do you think that we are seeing this situation, it seems, on the rise?
Musa: [In the Name of God — the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate], it's clearly a provocation by the Zionist, Israeli press, to tell you the truth. They have raised the spectrum of Islamophobia so high that people feel like there's no restriction in their behavior and hatred towards Muslims.
This a new phenomenon that's growing higher and higher because the press has an unrelenting program of anti-Islamic hatred, day in and day out. It's not only Fox News but it's the whole Israeli news apparatus inside of the United States and around the world.
We believe that these so-called hate crimes are a result of this type of propaganda, anti-Islamic propaganda that's spread all over this country.
Press TV: As you've just said, Imam Musa, because you've talked about the anti-Islamic propaganda, and even with many of the Sikhs that are attacked is because the individuals don't realize that they are not Muslims.
It seems that Islam is the religion that is under attack the most. What do you think is the responsibility of Muslims? Is it there anything that Muslims can do in general and trying to, as you said, counter what you called the Zionist media's influence over there?
Musa: Those who have the resources must help us to have our own independent media presence inside of the United States. The only way we can counter falsehood is with truth. It has to be constant. It has to be regular, and it has to be high-profile.
The reason that the people respond to Islamophobia in the press is because they never hear the opposite side. We're dehumanized and made into inhuman pictures, so to speak, so we have to humanize our self. This is our, and I say Muslim, and people of conscious. It's our responsibility to educate the public.
You have to remember that the American people are generally a good and fair people. These are general American citizens. What happens is when they're not properly informed, trained or educated, then they use the news media as their sounding tool.
This is our problem. We have to step up, number one, our unity and cooperation among each other; and number two, our entire media profile.
I would like to say one thing on this issue of mosque burning. There has been over the decades no mosque burning in the African-American community because the African-American community is more familiar with Islam and Muslims, and usually one member of a family in Africa-America will have some association with Islam.
Therefore, people know more about the improved behavior of someone when they become a Muslim.
But the general public only hears the terrorist bombings, uncivilized behavior planted in the media by the Israeli press.
As long as the Islamists among Muslims try to subjugate or consider themselves above every other faith much like Zionists among Jews do the same, Islam and to a lesser extent, Monotheism is the enemy of humanity.
Moody's Downgraded Nearly 300 US Municipals – Posted on August 10, 2012 – By PressTV AHT/HJ
Moody's downgraded nearly 300 U.S. municipal issuers in the second quarter, the most for any quarter in more than a decade and the latest sign of the potential pressure building in the market where states and local governments raise money.
Local areas across the U.S. have been struggling for several years after the recession sharply undercut revenues, with three cities in California recently filing for bankruptcy in an attempt to alleviate their financial burdens.
Tax receipts have rebounded but not enough to compensate for rising costs, which include healthcare spending, social welfare and labor.
About half of the downgrades in the quarter affected the debt of cities and school districts, such as that of Clark County in Nevada, one of the largest in the U.S., Moody's said. The school district serves five cities including Las Vegas.
In the quarter, Moody's also downgraded $6.9bn of rated debt associated with Detroit, Michigan's biggest city, and cut the ratings for Stockton, California ahead of the city's bankruptcy filing. The city filed for bankruptcy on June 28.
The number of incorporated town and cities is over 30,000 but defining the actual cities and towns from their metropolitan areas has a wide margin or error. In 2002, the National League of Cities put the total at 19,429 municipal governments in the US. So 300 municiples is NOTHING and represents less than 2%. Is this to say that 98% of Municipals are doing well? In that case USA should not be in debt anymore. Moody's still feels like Cheeries . . .
Syria: Potential to Kick Start World War III: Stand by for War, Syria is not in Control
Syria. The latest war front to open between the super powers of the North, East, West, and South. Fundamentalists, with an emphasis on the "mental" will be in a slavish, mouth hanging-open, drooling fervor, this could be the end of the world. The Bear in the North, Israel under threat, the dragon in the East…
The truth is that this nothing more than another pissing competition between the various super powers. A potential cold-war like flash-point of our age.
The United States cares nothing for democracy in the region, what they do care about is oil, and Israel. Anything else is ancillary. They do care to show up China, Russia, and anyone else who as an ideological stand against the Western ideal.
China and Russia are concerned for oil and couldn't give a flying one about Israel or much else. They certainly do seem to be having a great deal of fun vetoing the shit out of the UN and blocking the US and it's allies.
Iran sided this week with Syria as well, Israel continues to make more and more threatening noises about bombing them, or rather their nuclear programme, but it is unlikely to happen. In order to render Iran's nuclear programme inert, you'd pretty much have to kickoff world war III.
What of course is happening is that a gigantic amount of military hardware is gathering in the Mediterranean Sea. It is frankly, epic in its scale and of course has been missed by every mainstream (politically influenced) media outlet.
The Turkish navy is there in force, as are of course, the Syrians. The Americans have no less than three aircraft carriers there and the Russian and Chinese have a sizable force. Iran is there of course, as are the Bulgarians, the Romanians, the Ukrainians, and the Georgians. The French, British, and Germans are in the area as well.
We've got aircraft carriers, coastal patrol vessels, submarines, destroyers, cruisers, missile boats, anti-aircraft ships, gun boats, supply vessels, troop carriers, hospital ships, and so on.
This is possibly one of the largest naval build ups in history, and they are all squashed together into a small, tight space, waving their guns about and bristling with military testosterone.
All it will take to start the largest naval battle the world has seen, closely followed by World War III, is one idiot to push a button by accident. I guess future generations, once the ocean has stopped glowing, will have one of the most amazing dive experiences to visit.
There is only one thing that will prevent this from happening. The US, China, Europeans, and Russians must decide on how to divide up the spoils of the Syrian's war before someone accidentally pushes the wrong button. Look for a "no-fly zone" discussion, that usually means that all parties are nearing some kind of agreement.
No doubt this negotiation over the bones of Syria is going on behind closed doors, Syria has lost control, there is no way that they will be able to retain their own country with the four great vulture nations hanging around in a black cloud.
Someone is supplying the Syrians and someone is supplying the "rebels". It is unlikely that a bunch of rag-tag rebels can hold off what is a highly sophisticated Syrian Military machine. That means that both sides, the US & Europe vs the Russians & Chinese, have iron on the ground and most likely their own troops in logistical support.
One question remains. Will the four great vultures be able to figure out how to divide the spoils before World War III starts?
One thing is certain. Syria is dead.
This will not be WW3, but an unpleasant skirmish that holds Israel as the biggest threat because of potential suicidal retaliation with nukes. If everyone keeps their nukes unused, a regional war will that may involve all Islamist countries may occur.
Europe is no lover of Jews, and may remain neutral though the hawks among EUrope may join to no great effect. Africa does not care but could represent auxillery backup to SCO if BRICS gets involved. South America does not care. ASEAN has no viable military resources excepting Thailand's single aircraft carrier.
That may leave Russia and China (if not bribed with policy to not involve military – one wonders if China might want this opportunity to get Israel for allowing Israeli servers to host Falungong's website though . . . ) to struggle over control of Syria and perhaps an Iran overrun Israel (that could in panic use nukes to hit Iran and irradiate the entire Middle East including Israel – but by not doing so will definitely be overrun barring high tech methods, if Iran moves quickly).
USA if not ready to commit 100s of 1000s of troops to liberate Israel, will be forced out of the Middle East. If US does send troops, this will be a war of liberation that might take decades to resolve.
Syria will survive but it will be Assad who will benefit most from the above scenario with everyone busy with war, even then Assad has to go due to term limit issues, and eventually have to face tribunals though this could be decades ESPECIALLY if Syria provides the infrastructure for China and Russia to control Syria that looks to be happening now.
Under the Achaemenids, Aramaic continued to prosper, but Assyrian continued its decline. The language's final demise came about during the Hellenistic period when it was further marginalized by Koine Greek, even though Neo-Assyrian cuneiform remained in use in literary tradition well into Parthian times.
Neo-Assyrian Empire
The religion of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, 911 BCE-608 BCE, sometimes called Ashurism by Assyrians today, centered around the god Assur, patron deity of the city of Assur, besides Ishtar patroness of Nineveh. Gods such as Sin, Shamash, Nisroch, Adad (Hadad), Enlil, Shulman, Dagan, Tammuz and Ninurta were also important in the Assyrian pantheon. The Assyrians adopted Eastern Rite Christianity during the course of the 1st to the 4th centuries AD (which they still retain) and the religion died out, although there is some evidence to suggest that it survived in isolated pockets well into the late Middle Ages in northern Mesopotamia/Assyria, particularly around Ashur and Harran.
The people of Mesopotamia were polytheistic Sumerian and Akkadian religions. This was represented through the gradual takeover by Ashur of the roles of other gods, and this process runs parallel with the expansionist policies of the Assyrian Empire.[6] As the Assyrians extended their domain over other lands, they considered it important that the local peoples acknowledge the Assyrian king as the king of their lands as well. However, kingship at the time was linked very closely with the idea of divine mandate.[7] The Assyrian king, whilst not being a god himself, was acknowledged as the chief servant of the chief god, Ashur. In this manner, the king's authority was seen as absolute so long as the high priest reassured the peoples that the gods, or in the case of the henotheistic Assyrians, the God, was pleased with the current ruler.[7] For the Assyrians who lived in Assur and the surrounding lands, this system was the norm. For the conquered peoples, however, it was novel, particularly to the people of smaller city-states. In time, Assur was promoted from being the local deity of Assur to the overlord of the vast Assyrian domain,[7] with worship being conducted in his name throughout the lands of the Assyrians. With the worship of Assur across much of the Fertile Crescent, the Assyrian king could command the loyalty of his fellow servants of Assur.
Ashur (Syria), the patron deity of the city of Assur from the Late Bronze Age, was in constant rivalry with the patron deity of Babylon, Marduk (Israel). Therefore safe to say that Judaism is powered by the spirit of Marduk though not necessarily worshipped in the correct form.
The last king of Babylon, the Assyrian born Nabonidus, paid little attention to politics, preferring to obsess with worship of the moon god Sin, leaving day to day rule to his son Belshazzar. This and the fact that the Persians and Medes to the east were growing in power now that the might of Assyria that had held them in vassalage for centuries was gone, spelt the death knell for native Mesopotamian power. Considering this link, the best would be to revive the Mesopotamian Ugarit Pantheons or regional war will never end. The spirits of the Elder Gods will never abide being bound in Monotheist forms and will thus create and foment war for eternity until they are reformed around the city state Deity concept. Various Gnostic such as Sabianism and Mandeanism, also still exist.
Bring Back Assyrian Cuneiform
This "mixed" method of writing continued through the end of the Babylonian and Assyrian empires, although there were periods when "purism" was in fashion and there was a more marked tendency to spell out the words laboriously, in preference to using signs with a phonetic complement. After the Arab Islamic invasion and conquest in the 7th Century AD, both Assyria and Babylonia were dissolved. Do semitic Netanyahu and semitic Assad (speak and use Arabic at your own risk Assad, be thankful Syria is no more part of the OIC, the independence of Syria was aided by expulsion . . . ) also Lebanon, realise where they stand now? Unless Zoroaster rises faster, for now Sargon is more likely than Xerxes . . .
Finally – use DOT.AS or DOT.AY not DOT.SY . . .
The Dispossessed Majority – August 8, 2012
The bumper sticker on the beat-up pickup truck read: "Friends don't let friends vote Democrat."
The driver was obviously not affluent. Yet, despite all the news about mega-trillion dollar bankster bailouts, mega-million dollar bonuses for financial crooks, and unimaginable compensation packages for corporate CEOs who have moved middle class jobs out of America, something made the down-and-out pickup truck driver associate with the political party of the super-rich.
As I wondered at this strange alliance of the dirt poor with the mega-rich, I remembered that in 2004 Thomas Frank wondered about how the Republicans had managed to convince the poor to vote against their best interests. Frank's answer, or part of his answer, is that the Republicans use "social issues," such as gay marriage and Janet Jackson's exposed nipple to work up indignation over the threat to moral values posed by liberal Democrats.
The working poor have been convinced by Republican propaganda that voting Democrat means giving the working poor's tax dollars to the non-working poor, to providing medical care and schooling for illegal aliens, and being soft on terrorism.
To the pick-up truck driver, standing up for America means standing up for bankster bailouts and the military/security complex's multi-trillion dollar wars.
The Karl Rove Dirty Tricks Team has honed the Republican propaganda. Republicans send each other via email an endless number of nonsense stories about Obama being a Muslim, about Obama being a Marxist, about Obama being a Manchurian Candidate turning America over to the New World Order or the United Nations, or to some other dastardly plotting organization. But never is Obama accused of turning the US over to Wall Street, the military/security complex, or Israel.
There is never any citation or source for the accusations in the emails. None are needed, because the words are what the Republicans want to hear. Ask them why Obama would be killing Muslims in seven countries if he was a Muslim, or why Wall Street and the military/security complex would put a Marxist in the White House, and they turn purple with rage. Just by asking the obvious questions instead of joining in the denunciations, a person confirms the propaganda that America is threatened by Obama dupes who won't stand up for the country.
The non-affluent who rage about welfare, medicaid, Obamacare, and public schools can't seem to put two and two together. The $750 billion TARP bankster bailout, a small part of the total and ongoing bailout, would have sufficed to cover any holes in these budgets for a long time.. Instead, the money went to reward those who caused the financial crisis and threw millions of Americans out of their homes. As far as I know, the pickup truck driver is one of the dispossessed.
The same brainwashed Americans who rage against Obamacare and are lined up to vote for Romney are oblivious to the fact that Romney, while governor of the eastern liberal Democratic state of Massachusetts, had his version of Obamacare enacted at the state level.
The greatest irony about Obamacare is that it was written by the private insurance companies and diverts Medicaid and Medicare funds to their profits. It is socialized medicine alright, but it is socialism for the private insurance companies.
All it took to convince Red staters to go along with the military/security complex squandering $6 trillion on the Iraq and Afghan wars was yellow ribbon decals and a slogan, "support the troops."
Obama, Republicans claim, won't stand up to Syria, or against Iran, or for Israel. But Republicans are proud when Romney goes to Israel to slither on his belly pandering to the crazed, blood-thirsty Israeli prime minister Netanyahu, who called Israeli top generals "pussies" for warning against attacking Iran. Romney told Netanyahu, just tell me what to do, and I'll do it; I am loyal to Israel. Apparently, flag-waving Republican patriots are not bothered when their presidential candidate announces that as soon as he is in office he will turn over US foreign policy to Netanyahu and send more americans to death and bankruptcy for Netanyahu.
Karl Rove didn't have any trouble at all in brainwashing red staters to support their own demise. The pickup truck driver could just as well have sported a bumper sticker that read: "Don't support a Democrat. He might do something for you."
Yes, I know. It is almost as easy to beat up on Democrats. Bush and Cheney and their neocon hoodlums destroyed the Constitution and, thereby, America. But the Democrats let them. It was Nancy Pelosi, who as Speaker of the House stridently declared Bush's impeachment to be "off the table."
Bush and Cheney unquestionably violated both US and international laws and the Constitution. Nancy Pelosi's refusal to hold them accountable established the precedent that the executive branch is no longer accountable to law or to the Constitution. In effect, the executive branch now comprises a dictatorship. It acts outside of law and constitutional restraints. On some issues it still has to consult with Congress or the courts, but as the executive branch's power and audacity grows, consultation will become a formality and then drop away. Congress will have no more influence than the Roman senate under the empire, and courts will become stages for show trials.
Americans elected Obama president expecting that he would restore the rule of law. Instead, he codified the Bush regime's transgressions and added some of his own. No one of my generation could have imagined the president of the US sitting in the Oval Office signing off on lists of American citizens to be murdered without evidence or due process of law.
So which do you want? The Republican panderer to the rich and Israel whose foreign policy is war or the Democrat panderer to the rich and Israel whose foreign policy is war? As Gerald Celente wrote in the July issue of the Trends Journal, americans "argue among themselves why their freak is better than the other freak. They will get angry with you if you call their freak a freak. They will actually fight and die to defend their freaks."
It is extraordinary that millions of americans actually believe fervently that it matters whether Romney freak or Obama freak gets elected. If americans had any sense, they would stay home and not vote. The 1% control the country, and the 99% had just as well own up to it and stay at home. Nothing is going to change because of the ballot box.
What do you suppose the Ron Paul supporters will do? Will they see Romney as the less socialist of the two and vote for the Republicans who stole the nomination from Ron Paul? (Jaret Glenn, "How the GOP Establishment Stole the Nomination from Ron Paul," published on August 6 on the OpEdNews website. (http://www.opednews.com/populum/printer_friendly.php?content=a&id=154033)
The US is ruled by a private oligarchy. The government is merely their front. The country's resources are diverted to the pockets of Wall Street, the military/security complex, and to the service of greater Israel. The oil, mining, timber, and agribusiness companies control the Environmental Protection Agency and the Forestry Service, which is why regulation only pertains to the small individual, while fracking, mountaintop removal mining, and pollution of air, water, and soil run wild.
The oligarchs have succeeded in making americans a dispossessed majority in their own country. In November americans will again give their approval to one of the oligarchy's two candidates.
Right minded, intended to be sarcastic (meaning the less well read might take verbatim for truth!) and ends with an unpleasant NLP : "The oligarchs have succeeded in making Americans a dispossessed majority in their own country. In November americans will again give their approval to one of the oligarchy's two candidates." Inadvertent or intentional? In this day of subliminal TV, even the best can be affected and NGOs have been known to be 'taken over' . . . how democratic or freedom loving Paul Craig is we may never know.
So we must note . . . NO. The oligarchs have NOT succeeded and do not deserve to succeed EVER. Vote only for Joe Public types not worth more than a handful of millions! The poorer, the less GLC linked the better!
If Americans had any sense, they would stay home and not vote. The 1% control the country, and the 99% had just as well own up to it and stay at home. Nothing is going to change because of the ballot box. WRONG.
More negativist NLPs?If a Joe Public type runs for election in ALL states then voting will make a difference. Not voting is even more dangerous. The bad candidates on either side(s) want you to not vote. that way their en bloc voters will dominate, while those who did not vote and could have toppled the vote might have managed to put their votes together to prevent or counter balance the vote into someone better.
Those who don't vote are killing democracy but an independent candidate is also needed to make for a choice (actually Anna Hazare suggested a (None of The Above Box) on ballot papers as well, meanwhile run for candidacy if your candidate is GLC, plutocrat or more than 2 terms in office . . .
Jewry's 'Total' Control Of Amerika – Amerika In Decline Articles – By Brother Nathanael Kapner, Copyright 2012
Articles May Be Reproduced Only With Authorship of Br Nathanael Kapner & Link To Real Jew News (SM)
THE GOYIM IN AMERIKA have allowed Jewry to socially engineer them into fearing to criticize "the Jewish people."
The oft-heard response by the Gentile mass man to any criticism of the Jews is:
"I have a great love for the Jewish people" (although he only knows one or two Jews) and, "My neighbor is Jewish and he's a really nice guy."
Yet, this "really nice Jewish guy" is in corporate unity (owing to his identifying as a "Jew") with a highly organized race centered around a politically-charged religious bloc that has imposed its total control on Amerika:
Control of Amerika's Money
The Jewish-owned Federal Reserve Bank loans 'book-entried money' to the US at interest. Both Greenspan and Bernanke recently confessed that the Fed was "privately-held."
Control of Amerika's Industry
Jewish Wall Street donates huge sums to presidential campaigns, playing both sides of the Right-Left hoax.
Jewish Investment Banks like Goldman Sachs underwrite the stocks of US corporations and thus dictate the offshoring of America's blue and white collar manufacturing jobs to China and India for cheap labor and BIG profits.
Control of Amerika's Politicians
Both the Republican and Democrat Parties are manipulated by Jewish money.
The Jewish-controlled Republican Party decided to snub Ron Paul, forbidding him to speak at the upcoming Republican National Convention.
Control of Amerika's Media
Jews, NOT Gerald Celente's "Presstitutes" or Alex Jones' "Corporate Elites," own the entire Main Stream Media in Amerika. View Entire List Here.
Control of Amerika's Military
The Military brass depends on the Jewish-owned Fed for their paychecks and on the Armaments Industry, whose stocks are underwritten by Jewish Investment Banks like Goldman Sachs, for their post-military careers & perks.
High-powered Jews sit on the Boards of Military manufacturers such as Kenneth Duberstein, Media consultant, who serves on the Board of the Boeing Company. And Leon Panetta, Secretary of Defense, is a verified stooge of the Jews. Chuckie & Leon were former roommates.
Control of Amerika's Public Schools
The American Federation of Teachers is run by Jews and the ADL has infiltrated the Public Schools, brainwashing young children with homosexual and race-mixing/miscegenation books.
Control of Amerika's Academia
Jewry donates huge grants to the Ivy League Schools and apparently places Jewish personnel in high positions such as David Skorton, President of Cornell.
Jewish Wall Street mogul, Sanford Weil, Chairman Emeritus of Citigroup, is a major benefactor of Cornell University and also funds 500 Academies via his National Academy Foundation.
Control of Amerika's Supreme Court
Three Jews sit on the Supreme Court Bench: Elena Kagan, Stephen Breyer, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. While Jewry makes up less than 2% of the US population it maintains 33% representation on Amerika's highest bench.
Control of Amerika's Security, NGO's, & Think Tanks.
Three Jews oversee our Spy Apparatus: Senators Joseph Lieberman, Chair of the Senate Committee for Homeland Security; Carl Levin, Head of the Senate Armed Services Committee; and Diane Feinstein, Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Two of the largest "think tanks" are the American Enterprise Institute and the Foreign Policy Initiative – once the Project for a New American Century. Both brought us the LIE of Saddam's WMD and both are Jewish-Neocon dominated.
Non-Government Organizations, used by the CIA as covert operational entities, are Jewish-dominated. Billionaire Jew, George Soros, oversees a myriad of NGO's.
The National Endowment for Democracy — a CIA cover — is Jewish-run.
AMERICA WAS ONCE the 'home of the brave' and the 'land of the free.' Today, Amerika is the home of the Jews and the land of Gentile slaves.
But to aim one single criticism at just one single Jew is not only taboo it could get you a One Way Ticket to Guantanamo Bay…
Propaganda within propaganda? To ferret out 'Jew haters'?
Israel is many times smaller than USA. And understand that fiat currency has no value. Whatever the banks think banks have as wealth is actually DEBT on the promise of future labour of individuals who can retire, default, fall ill, get hurt or age and then be unable to pay back. Debt is not wealth. Debt is slavery. And if Zionists own slavery, all that takes is for the world's citizens to default on payments to Zion owned banks. There is no real wealth that Zionists have, all that takes is a rebellion/default against banks which results in bankruptcies that destroys so-called 'wealth'.
Israel has no real resources barring monopoly on Judaism which is not mainstream even in USA. USA HAS real solid commodity type resources. So USA has wealth. That is all anyone needs to know. Banks do not exist. Banks are a ponzi scheme. Fiat is a ponzi scheme. Among all alphabet departments and bureaus only the police (and in war torn regions, military) have real value which we pay for by unreasonably imposed taxes that keep rising. The police themselves get nothing but serve the 1% because they 'might' become the same oppressors of mankind. Excepting top brass, the military being low profile might end up on the streets homeless . . .
Real wealth is whatever REAL tangible property owned, and I do not mean tiny pigeon hole coop hi-rise apartments or rabbit hutch terraces or even those high density duplexes with barely 10 feet of space on each side. Commodities are wealth though severely infected by fiat and 'bank wealth' – could be affected by price corrections. Drop the fiat and stock and banks (with unreasonable and waaay beyond interest rate charges) and we will see real wealth. Other than convenience of conveyance and liquidation which can be done with precious metals, banks have no value at all and in fact entrap wealth into low earnings paradigms unlike land and real goods and real services and real skills and real labour. There is no money. So Israel has in effect no influence on the 99% who must learn to boycott and buy practical goods. That debt owned by banks is liable to defaulters or bank collapse. That leaves 'Shylock' with no real wealth. Run for election and vote only for Joe Public types.
And stop spouting here Bro Nat, prepare a political campaign, and stand for election in the district or state currently residing in, to remove the lovers of Zionists among USA's governors, USA's congressmen etc.. Zionists are no better than world conquest intent Nazis or greedy plutocrats.
Avian and Ruminent Meat – adopted from Philip Mansbridge's 'Dog and Cat Meat'
Whilst it is defended by some as "culture", the production of Chicken and Cowmeat results in the suffering of millions of cows, chickens, sheep and pigs (also called Pork) every year in several countries around the world, most notably in Western countries.
What is Meat?
Chicken meat and, to a lesser extent, pig also sheep meat is often eaten for its perceived health benefits, or as food to accompany wine and beer or hides tanned and made into clothing much like human skin can also be processed. Its production has evolved from small-scale businesses into billion-dollar industries. Many chickens and cows are taken from the farms (stolen pets or strays included) but in some countries millions of cows and sheep are intensively bred and farmed in terrible conditions. The tens of millions of animals used in this industry each year undergo prolonged suffering through transportation and handling, and face an agonising death.
What you should know?
The availability of Chicken and Cow or Sheep meat is most widespread in Asia, where conservative estimates suggest that over 180 million chickens and more than 400 million cows are humanely culled for human consumption each year. It is estimated that 100-200 million sheep are consumed annually in USA, 50 million in England, 200 million in English speaking countries, 5 million in the Antilles, and an unknown but large quantity in Europe; though some believe the true figures to be far greater. meat is also popular in some areas, notably in England's and USA's backwood's province where chicken and cow are part of famous traditional dishes: "Surf and Turf" or "Bangers and Mash" which are beef and pork meat dishes.
In USA a liquid or 'juice' made from beef and chicken is sometimes consumed as a 'tonic' for its perceived health properties, or made into 'blood pudding'. However, wherever Chicken and Cowmeat is popularly eaten, the industry either operates unregulated or illegally.
Chicken and Cowmeat production is inherently cruel. It is widely acknowledged that these animals cannot be raised and slaughtered humanely for commercial use. In USA, England and many European and western countries there are thousands of pig or sheep farms where pigs are intensively bred and reared for meat production. On these farms even their most basic needs are not met, such as the provision of adequate food and water and veterinary care, and physical and mental suffering is obvious. If they are not farmed, the chickens and cows used in the meat trade are either stolen pets or unowned strays taken from the street. In meat markets in some countries, the animals are slaughtered in full view of each other. Unhygienic and stressful conditions on farms and in markets result in high levels of mortality.
Many countries in the world have humane methods of slaughtering chickens and cows for human consumption but do not use the methods due to added yet tolerable cost. Common methods of slaughtering these animals include electrocution, hanging and beating with the worst cases involving eating the animals while ALIVE as if Americans and Europeans were animals with no humane method of culling (much less humanely) before consmption. There are also numerous reports of animals being dehaired and cooked whilst still alive. Unfortunately, in countries where Chicken, Sheepmeat ((also called mutton) and Cowmeat (also called beef) is consumed, it has either not yet been banned, or the existing legislation is not being sufficiently enforced, such as in the USA where chicken and cow meat has never been banned.
Whilst in some countries Chicken and Cowmeat is often consumed for its perceived health benefits, there is a growing body of evidence highlighting the significant risk its production and consumption can pose to human health. For example, the trade in pigs and cows for meat has been linked to outbreaks of H1N1, Mad Cow Disease and FMD, and there have been numerous reports from USA, England and many western countries of mad cow disease or H1n1 or FMD virus transmission to humans after preparing or consuming cow or chicken meat.
Whilst Chicken and Cowmeat is often fiercely defended as part of 'culture' or 'tradition', it is a highly contentious and emotive issue in most countries where it is popular, and it is therefore sometimes advertised as something else to avoid negative attention from passers-by or law enforcers where its consumption is illegal. For example, an investigation in London revealed through DNA testing that in several restaurants across the city, chicken and cow meat was being passed off as dog and cat meat.
Culture or tradition can never be an excuse for animal cruelty. If you care about animals, never be tempted to try chicken or cow meat – wherever it is available, it will always be the product of immense suffering. This means all fast food joints serving chicken and beef. Whilst in some countries Chicken and Cowmeat is not yet banned, if you do see the meat for sale in countries where the industry is illegal, such as religious countries, please report this to your travel agent or tour operator and to a local animal protection organisation.
Where does this occur?
Chicken (also called Fowl) and cowmeat, also pork (Pig) and mutton (Sheep) and Goat, are consumed in several areas of the world, including parts of USA, England, Europe and many western countries. However, cow and chicken, also pig and sheep consumption is most commonplace in America and Europe, and tourists are most likely to encounter meat from the inhumane battery condition farms in the countries.
Kill-less Meat – http://news.cnet.com/8301-11386_3-57493377-76/3d-printed-meat-its-whats-for-dinner/
The Sobering Reality Of What Life Is Like In Reno, Nevada
What do you do when the city where you live is dying? All over the United States formerly great cities are crumbling, but some are definitely in worse shape than others. One reader recently wrote to me about what she sees happening all around her in Reno, Nevada. The unemployment rate in Reno is now up to 11.7 percent, which is well above the national average of 8.3 percent. But that doesn't tell the whole story. The recent recession hit Nevada particularly hard and people have been moving out of the state in waves. In fact, the labor force in Nevada has shrunk by close to 20 percent over the past year as workers have moved elsewhere in search of work. But even though the labor force is now nearly 20 percent smaller, the unemployment rate is still well above 11 percent. There simply are not enough jobs in large Nevada cities such as Reno and Las Vegas. Unfortunately for Reno, it does not have the same kind of big corporate money pouring into it that Las Vegas does. The good news is that you can buy a house very, very cheaply in Reno because homes were foreclosed on in droves during the housing crash. Even today, some housing developments that were put up near the end of the boom times look like virtual ghost towns. The main industry in Reno is "entertainment", but many of Reno's strip clubs and gambling establishments have aged so badly at this point that they just look kind of depressing. I guess that is kind of fitting, because Nevada has the fifth highest suicide rate in the nation, and Reno has been ranked as one of the top 10 depressed cities in the entire country. As the city has declined, gangs have moved in and the drug trade is flourishing. Reno has been called the meth capital of America, and crime is on the rise. Despite being surrounded by tremendous natural beauty, Reno has become a very unpleasant place in which to live. But what is happening in Reno is also happening in hundreds of other communities across the United States. Our economy is collapsing and our cities are crumbling right in front of our eyes, and it is only going to get worse from here.
A reader of my site named Heather who has been unemployed since November of last year recently shared the following with me….
I am living in Reno/Sparks Nevada and I feel like it is ground zero for collapse. There are a lot of people who are in denial right now and cannot see the larger picture. I keep also saying we are the canary in the coal mine for the rest of the country. It is quite depressing driving around seeing empty office buildings with vacancies and retail areas just empty. Went to the stores and retail seems pretty slow also. I am volunteering at ProNet locally and it helps unemployed people finds jobs and skills. It has been depressing there too with very little jobs out there for many people who need one.
She said that I should share what is happening in Reno with my readers. She wanted people to know what those living in Reno are going through.
You might think that since Reno is so sunny, so warm and surrounded by such natural beauty that it would be one of the happiest places in America.
Unfortunately it turns out that the opposite is true.
Reno is actually a very sad place.
In fact, last year Men's Health ranked Reno as the ninth saddest city in the United States.
In response to this ranking, one resident of Reno wrote the following….
In light of this disheartening list-making, it is, of course, important for Nevadans to look on the bright side. Rather than allowing these statistics to depress us further, we can consider them a series of challenges that make living in places like Reno and Las Vegas all the more impressive. You don't just live in Reno. You survive Reno! To dwell in Reno, you must triumph over the odds that are stacked against you—one of the things we're supposed to do best here.
If we can withstand all of the emotional curveballs thrown at us because we have selected such a turbulent location in which to reside, we can probably survive anything.
As a lifelong Renoite, I am inclined to respond to these lists with defiance. Yeah, things can look pretty grim sometimes when no one can find a job, and there seems to be no way out.
And that is how many Americans are feeling these days. They are broke, unemployed, depressed and out of options.
How can you pick up and start a new life somewhere else when you have no job and no money?
Sadly, a lot of younger Americans are turning to drugs in an attempt to escape the pain of their daily lives.
One article that I found attempted to find humor in the raging meth epidemic that is happening in Reno….
Reno has been affectionately called the meth capital of the nation. Some foolishly think mass drug usage can ravage a city as swiftly as it can ruin a user's clear complexion. In all reality, drug addiction is no more than an endearing quirk, certainly not a cause for concern. Babies and adolescents with addiction-addled parents should stop being coddled and learn how to take care of themselves. I've been doing my own laundry since I was six months old — I'm sure they can do the same. If there is anything disturbing about the meth problem in Reno, it's that it shows the lack of variety in this town. Why don't you try some uppers like MDMA? Your teeth will thank me.
Unfortunately, Reno is far from alone. In the past I have written about how formerly great cities such as Detroit, Cleveland and Baltimore are completely falling apart as well. This kind of thing is literally happening from coast to coast.
There is a very serious lack of decent jobs in America right now. At this point only 24.6 percent of all jobs in the United States are good jobs.
This has made it increasingly difficult for Americans to be able to take care of themselves.
If you can believe it, more than 100 million Americans are on welfare at this point.
And that number does not even include the tens of millions of people that are on Social Security and Medicare.
What in the world has happened to us?
These days most Americans work really hard all of their lives but never end up reaching their dreams.
In fact, one recent study found that 46 percent of all Americans die with less than $10,000 worth of financial assets.
Talk about depressing.
But instead of having us focus on how bad the economic numbers are, the Federal Reserve wants to start measuring how "happy" everyone is. The following is from a recent ABC News article….
Ben Bernanke wants to know if you are happy.
The Federal Reserve chairman said Monday that gauging happiness can be as important for measuring economic progress as determining whether inflation is low or unemployment high. Economics isn't just about money and material benefits, Bernanke said. It is also about understanding and promoting "the enhancement of well-being."
So what would you say if the Federal Reserve contacted you and asked if you are happy?
Please feel free to post a comment with your thoughts below….
Nonsense. USA could simply distribute all unused land , and tell the people to grow their own crops and build their own houses, raise their own livestock, make their own leather or fur goods, knit their own cotton wear, compost their own sewage, collect their own rainwater or dig their own wells, brew their own beer, roast and grind their own coffee, and grow, ferment and cure their own tobacco leaves for cigars or cigarettes! End of problem, everyone gets a few acres and high-density living 'hellholes', will be quite empty without people who have their own land.
BTW there is no such thing as money. There is no such thing as economy or collapse. Too bad for the plutocracy or corporatocracy though! Even if education was free now, citizens will return to 1400s settler-era America not hang around pushing pens and shuffling papers at the 99% of citizens' expense! Citizens please elect ONLY a President or Governor with the above intent. Executive Order 0 (Zero) for land distribution will be that reset button America needs.
Executive Order 0? Distribute unused land to the homeless with some supplies, by next year when the harvest is in, no more food stamp bills or housing loans in banks for bailouts . . .
People have lived without electricity or petrol since man learnt to walk upright. BTW there is also no such thing as poor people, jobs, concept of money much less a petro-dollar or a Global Financial System or a recession or depression. Alright 'chicken little(s) if America can't think what to do or apply what I posted, then the American voters deserve what they get. Simply vote for non-GLC or millionaire Joe Public types who before being voted for, sign statuary declarations to do the above suggested!
Groups like Anonymous should start pushing this voting method/agenda via subliminal rootkits and what not. Lets remove the plutocrats and term limitless Oligarchs from the picture and ensure equitable wealth distribution and political power distribution (with 2 term limits) as well.
Jerry Boykin: Romney's new Muslim-bashing pal – Posted on 10. Aug, 2012 by Editor in US – Romney meets with Lt. Gen. Jerry Boykin, who has said Islam "should not be protected under the First Amendment" – BY ALEX SEITZ-WALD
He may be too extreme for West Point and George W. Bush, but apparently not for Mitt Romney. Politico reports today that the Republican presidential nominee met with retired Lt. Gen. Jerry Boykin, who is now a highly controversial anti-Islam activist, in a private conclave with four other social conservative leaders in Denver last week. The day after the meeting reportedly took place, Romney dodged a question on Rep. Michele Bachmann's witch hunt against Muslims in the U.S. government. "I'm not going to tell other people what things to talk about. Those are not things that are part of my campaign," he said at a press availability about Bachmann's allegations last Friday.
Boykin is best known for earning a public rebuke from President Bush himself in 2003 for his vitriolic anti-Islamic rhetoric. Boykin, in uniform at the time, gave a speech portraying the war against Islamist militants as a Christian struggle against Satan, and suggested that Muslims worship an "idol" and not "a real God." Some Republican lawmakers spoke out against him, as well as the president, who said, Boykin's opinions "didn't reflect" his or the government's views. A year later, a Department of Defense investigation determined that Boykin had violated three internal rules while delivering his controversial anti-Islamic speeches.
Since then, Boykin has taken up fighting the perceived threat of Shariah law full-time. As People for the American Way's Right Wing Watch blog notes, "his rhetoric is often bigoted, and he regularly traffics in wild-eyed conspiracy theories — like the one about Obama creating a Hitler-style militia to force Marxism on the American people." In 2010, he joined with Frank Gaffney, a key anti-Islamic activist, to lead an effort to produce a massive report on the threat of Sharia law.
For all this, he was forced to withdraw from a speaking invitation at West Point under intense pressure in January of this year. More recently, he was appointed to a senior position at the social conservative Family Research Council. And that's how he ended up meeting privately with Romney.
Two other members of the group that met with Romney, social conservative activists Gary Bauer and James Dobson, signed on to a letter to House Speaker John Boehner praising Bachmann's "good judgment, undeniable courage, and great patriotism" for "bravely demanding answers" about potential Muslim Brotherhood infiltration in the U.S. government. Boykin, Right Wing Watch notes, signed on to a separate letter expressing "strong support for congressional efforts to illuminate and address the danger posed by influence operations mounted by the Muslim Brotherhood against government agencies."
Boykin's rhetoric goes beyond the careful position most activists tend to stake out — condemn Islamists, but praise "peaceful, pro-America" Muslims. Boykin, on the other hand, goes right after the religion itself, saying Islam "should not be protected under the First Amendment." He's declared that there should be "no mosques in America" because "a mosque is an embassy for Islam and they recognize only a global caliphate."
Considering that Romney's own faith has repeatedly come under attack over the past century and half, one would think he would be more sympathetic to the plight of religious minorities in this country and not associate himself, whether publicly or privately, with such extremists.
Pay attention to whats going on . . .
Alex Seitz-Wald is Salon's political reporter. Email him at aseitz-wald@salon.com, and follow him on Twitter @aseitzwald.
Muslims must know their allowed spaces in the world. Romney looks capable of handling this, though appearing quite cynical at times and self serving to a fault (privilege has this effect, how does one obtain a lifetime supply of 'chezburgers' . . . distribute some to the bottom of the 99% starving on the streets Romney if not helping army veterans . . . ), excepting that USA looks to be quite inadequate financially as of now. Never though, be unreasonable or abusive to those Muslims who do not dhimmify, do not proselytize or do not attempt to convert (there are those who 'convert' secretly or refuse to let their children choose, so careful there children, non-Muslims and non-Monotheists!).
Let there be spaces for all faiths, not proselytize and destroy the faiths and cultures of others . . .
There are many new fronts that are non-military that USA must be able to counter. Obama might need to be ready to show hand in readying people like Boykin above to not appear soft, and the 'Muslim' tendency to mass mindedness and social-trade based mobbing to subvert with that mass mind is particularly uncivilised and has affected many. USA needs to have a stronger 'mind' not necessarily a (disgusting) hive mind, but indoctrination to counter precisely where Islam intends to 'colonise' and to set clear limits where areas of tolerance will be.
I suggest Egypt be off limits where Islam is concerned and worked on by all relevant parties immediately – A PHAROANATE as a West oriented barrier (Egypt before conquest by Bedouin Arabs was a Pharoanate with culture that has been largely copied by the Freemasons. Should a Pharoanate reform, instead of Islamists AGAIN (this is why the Egyptian Military are still influential) Free Masonry even English Free masonry would likely come under the Pharoah's purview.
The Pharoah (re-enactment), flanked by the Worshipful Master and Grand Hierophants . . . a true blood Egyptian without Arab blood (and a REAL Egyptian name), identified from DNA records should be re-installed as Pharoah with all Priests of non-Egyptian blood considered OUTER ORDER Freemasons (that means English Masons will be ranked below Egyptian Freemasons and if the King of England is a Freemason, the Pharoanate will be Master over England via the English Monarch . . . the glory days days of the Nile and Egyptian Pantheons will again grace the world . . . Got that you military guys in Egypt?
This is Egypt NOT Bedouin Arabia, don't let the Islamists push non-Muslims around in a secular country . . . let there be as many Egyptian Temples as there are Mosques! And who knows after the Pharoanate is reestablished, if enough Royal Egyptians overseas love the countries they migrated to and live in to be interred there in death, even Pyramids of VVIPs might be built and seen overseas around the world! Freedom of faith as per the UN Charter!
Do not be consumed by faith systems not your own, you people of Egypt! With re-Persianisation if Iran, through Syria and in cooperation with Russia and China with the Eastern Khanates (North cultural barrier), India comfortably holding the (Eastern barrier) East and African Animists holding the South against Islam's overproliferation and destruction of all local non-Islamic cultures and non-Islamic faiths. Figurines or artwork depicting humans and living things in Islam are also illegal, so Africa and Egypt which have a thriving industry and tourism based around artworks, should think about the differences in culture and artistic natures of the original peoples, as well as conquests which displaced original faith systems etc..
Persia before conquest by Bedouin Arabs was Zoroastrianism with a Persian culture. Suggestion to re-Persianise or re-Zoroastrianise and build away from quake zones.
This is no joke, take a look at Cat Stevens or Hudud accepting CHINESE politicians in Malaysia. Subverted in a most troubling manner. Finally we need the UN Human Rights Charter to be applied in full 60+ years after establishment. No more apartheid, no more extreme religion must be tolerated. USA has lots of friends in Saudi Arabia? Make these mentioned things reality otherwise USA will be taken apart with Europe and even Russia next. Revitalise old faith traditions worldwide, reculturise and be firm USA!
This is Persia's Original Faith System. Will the High Priest of Zoroaster be restored to Persian society's rightful place? Way of the Vulture!
Duma to ban officials from marrying foreigners published: 10 August, 2012, 17:03
After announcing possible amendments banning Russian officials from owning real estate and other property abroad, the State Duma is planning a ban on public servants marrying foreigners.
The author of the bill, United Russia MP Evgeny Fyodorov has told the press that the document includes this restriction.
"Wives and underage children of civil servants must also declare their property and cannot own property or real estate outside the Russian Federation. If a civil servant's spouse is a foreigner, this person would not have the right to occupy the post. The officials will have to vacate their post if they wish to marry foreigners," the Lifenews website quoted Fyodorov as saying.
The MP added that foreign spouses were a major factor of foreign influence on state officials and the situation had to change.
The move will not be an absolutely new invention, but the tightening of the existing norms that state that the officials with clearance to work with state secrets cannot marry foreigners.
On the other hand, Fyodorov said that the group that is working on the bill decided to soften it by excluding the Commonwealth of Independent States from the list of countries where civil servants cannot have property.
"We were one country before and many people have relatives there, their roots are there and we will not list the territories of the CIS states or the Customs Union as foreign states where property ownership is banned. We will bring this issue up at the second reading," Fyodorov said.
The move was supported by Sergey Zheleznyak, the head of United Russia faction in the lower house.
Earlier this month all parliamentary factions in the State Duma backed the proposal to ban the civil servants from owning property abroad, including securities and bank deposits. The MPs suggested those violating this regulation should be held criminally responsible and punished with a three-year ban from holding public office, and between 5 and 10 million rubles (US$150,000 – $300,000) in fines, or up to five years in prison.
An initial draft of the bill also orders civil servants to disclose ownership of foreign property, and sell it off within six months. The law would apply to inherited property and even to individuals leaving state service, effective up to three years post-resignation for both ex-officials and their families.
There are exceptions in the bill for those who need foreign property and bank accounts for work, medical treatment or academic studies.
http://rt.com/politics/russian-parliament-ban-officials-344/
The Duma has got this one right. VERY Russian! But Russia which is a stabilizing force in the world by providing multipolar option needs to ensure their intelligence or influence in decision is not compromised. A NWO or even worse (though not so likely) Femi-nazi led world with women controlling Duma or Russian male officials through their wives is the worst case scenario possible. Then there is also the Muslim subversion tactics issue using Muslim women to manipulate non-Muslim women hence affecting non-Muslim men etc., which less ethical Muslims use to further Islam via NLPs, even cartoons and porn etc.. Russia needs as much as USA to ensure that Muslims know where their territories physical and mental, even EMOTIONAL and PSYCHIC are, instead of trying to control the world with Islam, and dhimmitise everyone who is not Muslim. Terrorists are not Muslims but there are Muslims proselytizing who are not respecting the rights of other faiths and peoples, this Russia must address equally firmly though not in an abusive manner.
'Shoot me! Shoot me!': Machete-wielding man killed by police in front of shocked tourists in Times Square after officers fired at least TEN times – By Emily Anne Epstein and Associated Press – PUBLISHED: 20:37 GMT, 11 August 2012 | UPDATED: 06:58 GMT, 13 August 2012
Man, 51, screamed at officers and waved 11-inch knife erratically
Shot twice in the stomach by officers and died in hospital
He refused repeated orders to drop weapon in one of New York's busiest tourist spots
Police shot and killed a man who lunged at them with a machete in Times Square as he screamed 'Shoot me, shoot me'.
The terrifying stand-off happened on Saturday afternoon at 3pm in Times Square and was witnessed by dozens of bystanders.
Officers had approached the 51-year-old man who appeared to be smoking marijuana near West 44th Street and Seventh Avenue, in the heart of Times Square, one of New York's busiest tourist destinations.
Terror on the streets: NYPD officers, with their weapons drawn, stalk a machete wielding man in the middle of Times Square
The unidentified 30-year-old male was corralled down seventh avenue by officers of the NYPD as they instructed him to drop his weapon
The man became agitated, pulled out an 11-inch knife and began to put a bandanna on his head, police said.
He refused repeated orders to drop the weapon and began backing down the avenue, continuing for a number of blocks and drawing many officers into a slow-speed pursuit that took them south of Times Square.
According to the police account, officers pepper sprayed the man six times but he held onto the knife throughout the seven-block pursuit.
At West 37th Street, he lunged at police and two officers shot him in the torso, police said. He was pronounced dead at Bellevue Hospital.
'They screamed, "Put it down, put it down,"' said newsstand worker Sunny Choi, 26, of police orders to the man.
Another witness said that tourists were screaming and running down the packed thoroughfare as the man was corralled down Seventh Avenue by police.
The incident was filmed by witnesses in Times Square as the man screamed obscenities at the police
On the move: Police chased down the 51-year-old waving a knife in the mid-town area of New York
'The tourists were running everywhere, screaming, panic,' said Henry Irby, a t-shirt vendor.
Witnesses recalled a chaotic scene in which some bystanders took cover, while others began following the procession down the avenue in an attempt to capture cellphone video of it.
On video, a number of officers, guns drawn, can be seen pursuing the man as he appears to skip down Seventh Avenue.
'He was swinging at people as he ran,' Jobby Nogver, a 17-year-old visiting from Boston, told The New York Times.
Nogver watched as police surrounded the man and fired. 'I can't tell you how many shots,' he said.
Video taken at the scene from witnesses' cell phone suggested that approximately ten rounds were fired.
Bewildered: Onlookers shouted at the man to do what the police were telling him but he did not seem to listen
Chaos: Times Square is one of New York's busiest tourist destinations
Busy streets: Witnesses following the unfolding scene down from New York's Times Square
The dreadlocked man has not been identified yet because he was carrying no identification on him, said police.
Priscilla Rocha, a tourist from Brazil, was visiting Times Square with her husband when they saw the confrontation.
'I almost had a heart attack," she told the Times. 'Everyone started running.'
NYPD Commissioner Paul Browne told MailOnline: 'A man armed with a knife was pepper sprayed by officers to no effect, advanced on officers, refused to drop his weapon and was shot by police on 7th Avenue between 37th and 38th streets'.
He was taken to Bellevue Hospital while suffering from cardiac arrest.
He was in serious condition for just over an hour before he died from his injuries, police said.
Horror: 'Omg! Time to go home!! Man in times square with a machete …like 20 cops came out of nowhere with guns drawn! I'm traumatized!!' said another
Scared: 'Just saw a guy with a knife, 30 cops and more than 5 police cars running by me at Times Square. What's up???' tweeted one woman
Mr Browne added that some officers were being treated for tinnitus, or ringing of the ears, at an area hospital.
A video of the event shows multiple police vehicles surrounding a man on Seventh Avenue before dozens of cops descend on him.
The sound of gunshots can be heard shortly thereafter.
Witnesses were in disbelief; reeling from the dramatic scene that unfolded in front of them.
'Just saw a dude with a butcher size knife get chased through times square by cops. Apparently, they chased him down and shot him,' one witness tweeted.
'Omg! Time to go home!! Man in times square with a machete …like 20 cops came out of nowhere with guns drawn! I'm traumatized!!' said another.
'20 police officers against 1 person…. Killed him right in the middle of the street,' said another.
Try the below link
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/08/13/13257048-family-cops-didnt-have-to-kill-knife-wielding-man-near-times-square?lite
Great fast track way to become instantly famous, or 'infamous' (remember to drop the weapon in time though book and film rights can be obtained if not shot to death . . . ). Try the wild west. Or kung fu. Obviously the police are not well trained enough or the appropriate units were not 'deployed'. Isn't there a special balaclava wearing unit with personnel on call 24-7 for disarming this sort of occasional agent provocateur? What are we training those commandos or special agents for? We see so many guns disarmed on TV that any knifewielder when met with 20 men does not need a shot fired. Or is this drama to hide the neurotech nano-particles possibly already installed in all NYers if not a statement that neurotech will not be used at least in obvious cases like these, only limited to controlling dissidents and activists instead?
Just 1 highly trained person who could appear in a 'CIA' or 'FBI' truck to disarm and capture alive (does not require an entire SWAT team). 20 men with guns being unable to capture alive (3 ordinary cops unarmed could do the job, 1 cop who is able to aim at the hand (think 6-shooter carrying country Westerns . . . the cops of the day are as unskilled as hell), how about a fully armoured American Football player . . . or a particularly determined granny with a heavy handbag . . .) feels like that joke about how many people are needed to replace a light bulb. If America not about life and liberty? Theres 1 more life lost and the odds are shameful. Who knows what crimes occured in the background with this guy being a DECOY . . . so if 2000 psychos appeared at various streets, would that mean New York which hires less than 38,000 police would be undefended entirely from all criminals who also can also time themselves to act at the same time?
Maybe criminals could use such decoys to draw the attention of the police while pulling off the crimes elsewhere . . . what about terrorists? If 20,000 terrorists acted all at once, would the whole USA collapse into anarchy? Watch Escape from New York (1981 John Carpenter) . . . hope that the Prez. (whenever if even possible)that sort of scenario happens, likes wearing 'Wayne's World' (1992 Penelope Spheeris) style wigs and getting BJs from Johnny English – oops was that Harry Dean Stanton instead (whats with the Dragonball Character in the background btw . . .) . . . 1997 didn't turn out quite like expected but hey, if USA picks a fight with enough countries to diminish local enforcement funding resources because wars and parasite defense contractors profiteer and cost too much, we could yet get to see a 'Wigger' or a 'Snakepiss' for real . . . up to another 'Escape From' film Jack Russel?
Is USA ready for a LGBT President? Or a hetero and straight male President who just likes wearing women's wigs?
Russian Easy Riders : Bare-it-all bikers guilty of violating…protest law? – Published: 08 August, 2012, 21:34
After bikers straddled by topless beauties hit the streets to draw attention to "safe driving" by taking everyone's eyes off the road, a judge has hit them with a fine. Not for indecent exposure, but for violating Russia's new protest law.
A video of the event of July 6 shows three women strip down to their g-strings before climbing onto the backs of three-wheelers and taking off. The girls, one of whom was not even wearing a helmet, unfurled yellow banners bearing the words "safe driving" as they made their way to the heart of St. Petersburg.
Once the video went viral and made its way to the press, scandalized local police immediately sought out the bikers for questioning, Fontaka.ru website reports.
Investigators scoured local bike dealerships looking to identify the culprits. A prominent dealer contacted Sergey, one of the bikers who took part in the demo, telling him the trio should stop by and have a talk with the city's traffic police. They did, expecting to hear something about missing helmets (never mind bras) or moving violations. What came next threw Sergey for a loop.
Following a report from the city police which claimed the bikers' behavior constituted a violation of public order, the easy riders involved in the topless run were all summoned to appear in Magistrates Court two weeks later (sans their exhibitionist companions). They were strangely charged with taking part in an unsanctioned rally, even though the ride was at best a racy public service announcement.
The judge presiding over the case apparently viewed the topless joyride as an unauthorized demonstration (of female beauty?), fining the trio 10,000 rubles (around $316 dollars) each. Under the amended law on protests, those taking parts in demonstrations where public order is violated but no damage to health or property are registered face fines of up to 20,000 rubles (approximately $632) and 40 hours community service.
After determining that the accused were all upstanding citizens, the judge decided to show leniency, strapping them with the minimum allowable fine.
Besides the fact that a similar topless "protest" went off last year without a hitch (or a charge), the ruling has served to confuse Russians, who are accustomed to biker rallies making bold statements that are rarely political.
And if there is any lesson to learn from this case it might be that it's okay to hit the streets of Russia without a helmet or even a top, but just be careful not to ask people to drive safely.
Russia's democracy acid test. Russia slides back into Soviet Era Cold War or rises into something that the USA might have difficulty catching up with. Thats for the judges to carefully decide . . .
Free American (unregistered) August 09, 2012, 03:09 quote
Does this mean that the people of Russia are not allowed to protest or hold demonstrations? I thought Russia was freed from communism? What happened to Glasnost? I cannot even imagine what it would be like to live in such a communist country that would pass laws against protesting or demonstrating anything they don't like. Wow! Reading this even Makes me more appreciative of my freedom. Thank God I live in the USA~
Fury as middle-class doggers in business suits and designer dresses turn beauty spot into a 'sleaze park' – By Amy Oliver – PUBLISHED: 11:49 GMT, 9 August 2012 | UPDATED: 13:19 GMT, 9 August 2012
Residents say up to 40 cars a day visit Stapleford Wood, near Lincoln to either have sex or watch
Condoms, pornography and even underwear has been left at beauty spot
North Kesteven District Council tried to tackle problem with 'day of action' at woods
'Doggers' who love being watched while having sex are turning a beauty spot into a 'sleaze park' say furious villagers.
Residents say up to 40 cars a day visit Stapleford Wood, near Lincoln, with occupants either having frantic sex sessions or gathering round to get thrills from watching.
It has been reported that many of the men who turn up for the sessions are wearing smart business suits and drive expensive cars, while the women are in designer dresses and top-of-the-range shoes.
Sleazy: Residents say up to 40 cars a day visit Stapleford Wood, near Lincoln, with occupants either having frantic sex sessions or gathering round to get thrills from watching
They then pick out a partner and either rush into the woods or simply strip off and start having sex in full view, residents say.
They leave behind condoms, pornography and even underwear, to the disgust of locals.
Parents are now worried the sex free-for-all will attract perverts to the area and put their children in danger.
North Kesteven District Council recently tried to tackle the problem with a 'day of action' at the woods.
'It's sordid. I used to take my granddaughter there but I wouldn't do that now. You don't know what you will find, or who you might find.'
Local resident who did not wish to be named
Boulders were placed in parking and turning areas to put off the so-called 'doggers' at the Forestry Commission-owned site.
Police patrols have also increased, but locals say the issue has got so bad they now don't bother to report incidents.
Ray Philips, county councillor for the area, said: 'Local residents now don't want to go there. It is really getting out of hand. There is a constant stream of cars.
'I think the concern is the Forestry Commission don't seem too concerned about it.'
Hot spot: Villagers say that as well as liaisons between men and women, the beauty spot is also attracting people wanting gay sex (file picture)
The problem has grown because many dogging websites name Stapleford Wood as a popular place to meet up. The lurid activity is not just at night-time. Drivers meet up even in daylight hours, residents said.
One, who asked not to be named, said: 'We used to make complaints to the police but there is no point any more. It's quite intimidating when there are a lot of them. They sit there staring at you.
Villagers say that as well as liaisons between men and women, the beauty spot is also attracting people wanting gay sex.
Insp Mike Jones, of Lincolnshire Police, said: 'We're having as much success as anyone else in the country in dealing with this problem.'
Meanwhile, Nigel Lowthrop, owner of nearby social enterprise Hill Holt Wood, wants to take over management of the forest.
He said: 'It's got worse. It's horrendous. It puts off a lot of parents and you wouldn't expect children to go there.'
Richard Darn, a spokesman for the Forestry Commission, said: 'I think it's a case of working hard at this but I don't think there is a magic bullet.
'No-one can be there 24/7 to patrol a woodland that size.'
The 750-acre wood was purchased from Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1945.
Simple. Old people areas, sexually active Adult areas and non-adult-activity child friendly areas. 250 acres each.
Nudist park holds bash to attract younger crowd – Associated Press
LOXAHATCHEE, Fla. (AP) — Nudist resorts have a reputation for attracting older adults, but one Florida park is trying to change that.
The South Florida Sun Sentinel (http://sunsent.nl/RAS2ZV) reports Sunsport Gardens will hold a weekend bash aimed at attracting nudists ages 18 to 30. The Florida Young Naturist's Fourth Annual End of Summer Naked Bash is slated to be a celebration of nudity and body acceptance.
Sunsport Gardens principal shareholder Morley Schloss tells the paper the park has been trying to bring in younger members with lower prices, 24-hour hot tubs and Friday night drum circles.
The gathering at the 40-acre Loxahatchee park is expected to gather several hundred young adults. Nudist resorts around the country have been working to attract a younger crowd.
Information from: South Florida Sun Sentinel, http://www.sun sentinel.com
These people may not look much now, but they were at the forefront of the 70s hippy and liberty anti-Vietnam war era and still are. Unfortunately they should be running for election to remove all the other old people who are 'hawks' or who hate LGBT or refuse to amend laws to leglise and control prices of organic psychedelics at least. This is where the previous generation fail to engage the youth. The laws are not even there to protect things like this.
Look at the number of people in prison for smoking abit of pot or whatever. Then the young people who are abused systematically with the psychiatric establishment etc. for having dissenting views or differing lifestyles. Address these and not be like 'Madonna' running off to Malawi but not even addressing the systemic abuses so long as Madonna can enjoy herself and look good while everyone else gets thrown into jail because the laws were not amended by candidates from the 'cool' set getting into politics specifically to amend laws! All that money is for nothing, serves no purpose or anyone. Think and act, not teach the young to take things for granted! Open nude zones in EVERY city commensurate with the size of the community.
Try the movie Blink (Michael Apted 1994), scene where an cop/customer strips on the dance floor without any issue (01:41 to 03:33). That may not be best all the time and not everyone can pull this off, but in proper context is tolerable, an arrest would be inappropriate . . . These days tolerance levels are low as hell . . .
Might need a longer jacket next time! Chelsee Healey's derriére hangs out of her disco shorts – by Fehintola Betiku – PUBLISHED: 07:53 GMT, 8 August 2012 | UPDATED: 09:18 GMT, 8 August 2012
You've got to hand it to Chelsee Healey because despite what her fashion critics have to say, she is keen to dress however makes her happy.
Celebrating her 24th birthday, last Saturday the former Strictly Come Dancing contestant flashed her bra in a sheer white spotty blouse complete with ruffles as she made her way to dinner.
And continuing to show off her unique style last night she was pictured heading into The Rose Club wearing a pair of revealing black disco shorts.
Showing off again: Chelsee Healey was pictured last night as she headed to The Rose Club in London
Too late now: The petite actress wore a pair of tight disco shorts but was seen trying to cover her bottom as she turned away from photographers
But this time around, Chelsee didn't appear to want to show off too much and tried to hide her derriere from photographers as she walked into the London hotspot.
She teamed the shorts with a patent pin striped jacket and a black top.
Wearing her hair up in one, the Waterloo Road star completed her look with a black sparkly clutch bag and donned a pair of spiked ankle boots.
Unique style: The 24-year-old teamed the shorts with a patent pin striped jacket
Taking to Twitter to share her excitement about heading to the Marylebone club to celebrate the success of UK rapper Wiley's first number one solo single Heatwave, she uploaded several posts.
She tweeted: 'London For @Wiley__ Party!! #number1 can't wait to see my @leylaloola'
And in another post she wrote: 'Rose Club… Sounding Kinda Deeeeeeeecent'
Party girl: Chelsee took to her Twitter account to tweet about how much she was looking forward to the night ahead
'Decent night': Chelsee uploaded a picture of herself and Wiley to her Twitter page
Known as the King of Grime, Wiley is practically royalty on the UK music scene, so it's no surprise that his single party was heaving with a guestlist full of big names.
And the young actress' night got better when she bumped into Wiley, and she wasted no time getting a picture with him which she quickly uploaded to her Twitter page.
Tilting her head to the side and giving her best post as her wrapped his arm around her neck, Chelsee looked delighted to have run into the Rolex rapper.
The caption on the picture read: 'Me and @Wiley__ deecent night! #HeatWave#number1'
Polka dot potty: On Saturday Chelsee opted for a sheer white spotted blouse with a pair of shorts for a night out in Manchester to celebrate her birthday
Chelsee Healey's 'undercrack' or 'cheek'
Dull but helpful demogoguery. Lower half decolletage is not being revealing as neither upper half decolletage is. This like the is the underboob version of standard 'boob' cleavage – 'undercheek' much like whale tail (butt crack) cleavage is 'lower half decolletage cleavage' (New meme! My invention! Undercheek . . . ). Besides the thong form bikini isn't exactly beaten in skimpiness or less skimpy than this. No big issue, especially for those who aren't fundo minded! Show abit of 'undercheek', and frankly wearing a thong form bikini is only one leotard less from being totally covered up.
THIS response is value added, not like bad law writing. So put people like us in power for 2 terms and see society bloom like society should, not be crippled and oppressed by bold-faced aged term limitless nepotists, fundos and plutocrats! Nudist Zones and risque Clothing Zones as well!
'Love is the strongest and most fragile thing in life:' Vanessa Paradis on Johnny Depp – By Daily Mail Reporter – PUBLISHED: 14:04 GMT, 13 August 2012 | UPDATED: 14:46 GMT, 13 August 2012
Vanessa Paradis has given an insight into her split from Johnny Depp, talking of the 'fragility' of love.
'Love is the strongest and most fragile thing we have in life,' she told Harper's Bazaar.
In an interview given just two days before announcing that her relationship was at an end, the French singer said love wasn't something that should be 'worked' at.
'Nothing is ever for sure, but when something in love doesn't work from the beginning, it's never going to work. Don't push it.'
Beauty: Vanessa Paradis told Harper's Bazaar that she believes love is 'strong yet fragile'
Vanessa and Johnny announced the end of their 14-year relationship earlier this year.
The 39-year-old gave a hint of what was to come in her interview, talking about being in love but finding it was making you 'unhappy'.
'When you meet the love of your life, it's just obvious and natural and easier,' she said.
'You keep learning all the time. Sometimes you could be in an unhappy relationship; you are very much in love with someone, but it's making you unhappy and you think things can change and you can work it out.'
Depp, 49, and Vanessa have two children, Lily-Rose, 13, and Jack, 9.
She and the American star, who never married, had not been seen at a public event together since 2010.
Vanessa did not attend any of the promotional events for recent film Dark Shadows or The Rum Diaries, in which he starred alongside blonde bisexual actress Amber Heard, 26, whom Depp has been romantically linked to.
Love of her life: But after 14 years together Johnny Depp and Vanessa announced their split earlier this year
Vanessa also talks about her rise to fame as a pretty 14-year-old, with her hit Joe le Taxi.
'I was for sure not prepared for fame when it happened,' she said. 'But nobody pushed me to do it. I wanted to sing, to dance, to work.'
Vanessa now divides her time between France and Los Angeles, where her children attend school.
But she says she does not plan on conforming to the American idea of beauty, and will not be having plastic surgery.
'I don't work in America, so I don't feel the pressure.'
And as to looking for a new partner, she says: 'Well, my type is obviously creative. Creative, with burning eyes and a pretty mouth.'
Like said before, one iconic movie is what any actor or actress needs. VP was lucky to have got started ahead of most people and should have left the 'movie' scene once she reached 20 million (or 5 for more comfort to protect that fragility with) and focused on quality of life, Not burning the candle on both ends to become burnt out at 38. At the ripe old age of 23 (9 years of 'career' is more than enough if fragility is to be preserved), retirement and seeking a worthy life partner would have been ideal. The rest of us had no choice, though VP did yet did not cash in the chips early enough and instead got into the 'jaded' crowd of overgrown plutocrat actors struggling to no useful end making so many films starring the same person imprinting on the masses the pathos and flaws, poisoning and stagnating rather than rejuvenating and moving society (instead of guarding fragility . . . ) . . . undemocratic!
Frankly casting people and directors represent a hegemony on popular film and culture, the best casting or selection system would be one where ALL or as many citizens worldwide would VOTE for the most suitable person for such and such a role, let the timeframe be a decade or population quorum based, around a number of countries or worldwide depending on the script, and let that single fat paycheck be the last and a limited one that the lucky selected people or person offering themselves selected will get BY the votes of as many would be movie goers as possible, not what one or a a handful of biased (or abusive?) 'international film house' producers, casting directors and funders that take advantage of the (poorer, younger and less cultivated set at their most vulnerable) decide. Therein lies the Sudra/caste damning/soul sacrificing dilemma.
So many are not the film or actor that the people wanted, but a handful of dictators taking advantage of the lack of a democratic system in the film industry to work for elite propaganda in too many cases. One does not need decades of film to be remembered, the one-off cult classic is more memorable or well loved than some actors or groupings that dominate the movie scene for decades on end hashing out so many films and homogenizing the film goers into zombies 'who watched out of having no choice' in the process, though especially unique films should be featured more than the conventional 'big budget' film.
Democracy and citizen involvement in script or cast selections make for good films! Not your handful of film dictators.
FEMEN, freudian slips, Greek Princes, Henry Kissinger, Joan Collins, Johns, mainstream media, MSM, News, nudism, Political, private airports, Red Light District Advocacy, TSA
In advice, advocacy, criticism, democratisation, feminist saboteurs, freedom of choice, Freedom of Expression, freedom of speech, government, if not contrived, intent, Invasive Laws, media collusion, media tricks, misplaced adoration, mob mentality, Prostitution, public spaces, red light district legalisation, Russia, social freedoms, Straw-women, sub-culture advocacy, subculture persecution, TSA, women, wrong priority on May 16, 2012 at 2:00 pm
TSA Agents Conduct 'Full Monty' Pat-Down On Henry Kissinger – May 14, 2012 2:46 PM
Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger speaks to introduce China's Vice President Xi Jinping to leaders from the private and public sectors at a luncheon co-hosted by the US-China Business Council and the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations with the support of several cooperating organizations in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 15, 2012. (credit: JEWEL SAMAD/AFP/Getty Images)
Henry Kissinger, pat down, TSA
NEW YORK (CBSDC) — Even a Nobel Peace Prize winner can't avoid a pat-down.
Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger got searched by a Transportation Security Administration employee while going through a security checkpoint at LaGuardia Airport in New York Friday, The Washington Post reports.
Kissinger, who was in a wheelchair, was told by a TSA agent that he needed to be searched.
"He stood with his suit jacket off, and he was wearing suspenders," freelance reporter Matthew Cole told the Post. "They gave him the full pat-down. None of the agents seemed to know who he was." Cole added that Kissinger was given "the full Monty" search.
Kissinger negotiated the Paris Peace Accords which helped bring an end to the Vietnam War.
Earlier this year, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., was detained at a Nashville airport after refusing to be searched by TSA officials.
'Even a Nobel Peace Prize winner can't avoid a pat-down.' Demogoguery? EVEN?!? Even a homeless bum has a right to refuse TSA pat downs either AND rather. We don't care if Kissinger submits to TSA, nor does this justify the existence of the TSA.
A supposed 'personality' submitting to a pat down by TSA in a highly publicised and high profile feature on MSM, cannot speak for 99% of people who do not want that. If 99% of the people do not want that, TSA will not exist.Vote properly moron Americans. And who cares if Congress enjoys submitting to the TSA? TSA cannot speak for anyone who does not want their privacy invaded.
"The Bold and the Beautiful" Princess Theodora of Greece- 07 December 2011 / 20:12:16 GRReporter
Theodora as Alison Montgomery in the series "The Bold and the Beautiful", Photo: nypost.com
The youngest daughter of the last King of Greece Constantine, Theodora has begun her career in show business.
The episodes of the soap "The Bold and the Beautiful", which is broadcasted in hundreds of countries,
started on Monday.
The 28-year-old blond princess who uses the name Theodora Greece appears as Alison Montgomery, secretary of Bill Spencer, whose role is played by Don Diamond.
The scene is as follows: Dressed completely in pink, she appears in Bill's office, bringing a press kit featuring an alluring photo of his daughter-in-law Steffy, for whom he still has romantic feelings.
"Mr. Spencer, I wanted to drop this off to you," says Alison. "This is the latest press kit for Forrester's 'Intimate' campaign… I know of your interest in the subject matter," she adds.
"Yes, my son's wife. You can just put it down here – and you can go," answers Bill Spencer.
The spokeswoman for the soap saga that has continued for decades now said that Theodora will appear in the role of Alison in other episodes and that she will have "meatier scenes".
Apart from "The Bold and the Beautiful", the Princess of Greece and Denmark appears as Peggy in the big screen remake of the popular, in the 60s, TV series "The Big Valley" with Jessica Lange and Richard Dreyfuss.
Theodora also plays in the film "Where Did You Sleep Last Night?" and will appear in "Little Boy", also starring Kevin James from King Queen and Emily Watson. The film is due out next year.
The princess dreaming of a career in Hollywood was born in 1983 and she is the next to the last child of the Greek royal family. She graduated in performing arts after two years at the Northeastern University in Boston and four years at Brown University, member of the so-called Ivy League. Now, Theodora is specializing at the Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design. In April 2010, her mother Anna Maria confirmed the information that Theodora left for Los Angeles to start a film career.
Given the right fertile Grecian virgins, King Constantinos looks like he could still father childen every night for the next 3 decades. How about a few consorts or a harem to ensure the Greek Royal line does not die out 'Conster'? This 'last' Greek King article is nonsense, father humanity a pantheon of Grecian princes Constantinos! Now THAT would be truly bold and beautiful. Any young Grecian ladies up for 'national service' as Royal Consorts? Greece needs a prince to continue the bloodline!
Joan tweets in fury at Theresa May over Heathrow hold-up… And look out Home Secretary, she has 68,000 followers – by James Slack – PUBLISHED: 18:05 GMT, 15 May 2012 | UPDATED: 06:57 GMT, 16 May 2012
Joan Collins yesterday joined the attack on Britain's shambolic border controls after getting stuck in a queue of 'thousands' of travellers at Heathrow.
The actress took to Twitter to complain about the delays to Home Secretary Theresa May.
Her intervention – read by her 68,000 followers – came as MPs were grilling the immigration minister about continuing chaos at Britain's ports and airports.
Globetrotter: Joan Collins at Heathrow
Joan Collins attends a private view for Ballgowns: British Glamour Since 1950
Globetrotter: Joan Collins at Heathrow, left, and, right, at an event at the V&A Museum in London last night
Tweeting mad: Joan Collins went online to complain as soon as she arrived back in London
Miss Collins, 78, who fronted an advertising campaign for BA in the 1980s, said: 'Arrived LHR after great trip on @British_Airways but 1000s waiting at passport control – listen up Ms. May – need more officers!'
Miss Collins flew in on a BA flight from Los Angeles that arrived at Heathrow Terminal 5 at lunchtime. Airport staff said queues yesterday were not as bad as on Monday but they could 'ebb and flow'.
Heathrow operator BAA said: 'The queues have been markedly reduced in recent days since the problems at immigration became more high profile.'
Under fire: Theresa May has been attacked for cutting Border staff at Heathrow
Under fire: Theresa May has been criticised for cutting Border staff at Heathrow
Miss Collins's comments overshadowed an attempt by ministers to get on the front foot over airport queues, which they sought to blame on a string of factors – including the wind.
Immigration minister Damian Green told the home affairs committee that even if all passport controls were fully manned, passengers could still face delays depending on the amount of time between arrivals.
He said: 'That will depend on the wind, over which . . . airlines and the Border Force don't have the control.'
Labour said: 'At every turn this Tory-led Government wants to blame the wind, the weather – anything but themselves.
'You don't have to be a mathematician to work out that if you cut the number of staff too far too fast, it will take longer to get people through immigration.' In his evidence session, Mr Green attached some of the blame for queues to the airlines, saying three times as many passengers arrived at Heathrow on Monday morning than were expected.
On Friday, the Border Force was told to expect 2,500 passengers between 6am and 9am on Monday. This rose to 5,000 at six hours' notice, but in reality 7,500 passengers turned up, said Mr Green.
'The better the information the Border Force can have from the airlines, the more likely it is the right numbers of people will be at the right desks at the right time,' he added.
But MPs criticised the way the borders are run. Committee chairman Keith Vaz said that, on a visit to Stansted Airport, he had seen passengers queuing from the passport desks to the plane.
Logjam: Passengers at Heathrow have faced long waits as the UK Border Agency struggles to process the numbers passing through passport control
Just half of the desks handling EU passengers, and a quarter of those for non-EU travellers, were staffed last Sunday.
Mr Vaz said: 'Most of these were British holidaymakers. I felt pretty ashamed as a British MP watching them . . . trying to get back into the country.'
He pointed out that special electronic gates that allow pre-screened passengers to pass through were switched off at midnight each night.
This means passengers arriving in the early hours must join the regular queue instead.
No cure-all: Immigration Minister Damian Green, pictured at Terminal 3 of Heathrow Airport, told MPs the scale of the problem would depend largely on landing times affected by wind
The runways at Heathrow will be used more flexibly for take-offs and landings in a trial aimed at cutting delays. Usually one runway is used only for take-offs, and the other for landings. But the trial, starting in July, will investigate if the runways can be used for both take-offs and landings.
Joan 'F—in' Collins can well afford a private jet and a private airstrip alongside so many Alec Baldwins and Gagas. Use that money to raise yourself above the 'masses' who need to use the TSA dominated airport entertainer plutocrats! Meanwhile the alternative to spare the locals the TSA abuses, is to have separate local airports which serve only local-to-foreign flights from 'international only' airports.
Topless Ukraine activists open anti-Euro soccer campaign – May 12, 2012
Security guards detain a demonstrating activist from women's rights organisation Femen near the Euro 2012 trophy during its unveiling to the public in central Kiev May 12, 2012. The activist was protesting against prostitution during the upcoming UEFA Euro 2012 soccer tournament. Kiev is set to host the final match of the Euro 2012 soccer tournament. – Reuters pic
KIEV, May 12 – A Ukrainian women's rights activist stripped to the waist and seized the Euro-2012 soccer trophy while it was on public display in Kiev today in a protest against the exploitation of women during the forthcoming championship.
The young woman, 23-year-old Yulia Kovpachik, strode up to the silver trophy, which was on display as a tourist attraction in central Kiev, ostensibly to be photographed alongside it like hundreds of other sightseers.
But she then pulled down her red T-shirt to reveal the words "Fuck Euro 2012" scrawled on her chest. As she grabbed hold of the cup with both hands, she was seized by security guards, who appeared to have had advanced warning of the protest.
They covered her with a sheet and took her off to a waiting police car.
The protest appeared to be the first action in a campaign against the championship by Femen, a Kiev-based women's rights groups which regularly stages bare-breast protests in Ukraine – and sometimes beyond – to highlight what it sees as political injustice, social abuse and the exploitation of women in Ukraine.
Femen says Euro-2012, which Ukraine is co-hosting with Poland next month with the final in Kiev on July 1, will be a magnet for sex tourists – one of the group's main targets.
Organisers expect Euro-2012 to attract about one million foreign tourists.
Conscious of Ukraine's growing reputation as a new destination for sex tourism, Euro-2012 organisers say they are taking steps to curb prostitution during the month-long tournament.
After Kovpachik's protest, Femen activist Olexandra Shevchenko told reporters: "We came here today to stop this Euro fan low-life from making a bordello out of Ukraine."
City authorities have mounted the Henri Delaunay trophy – which weighs 7.6kg and is 60 centimetres high – in a temporary display area on Kiev's Independence Square.
Hundreds of sightseers were queuing up under the blazing sun for souvenir photographs alongside it when Kovpachik staged her demonstration.
Independence Square itself will be the centre of a huge 'fan-zone' during Euro-2012, capable of holding tens of thousands of football supporters. – Reuters
I speak for the human rights conscious Johns who would never knowingly indulge in trafficked persons, and also for the consensual or lifestyle sex workers when I say to the Ukrainian 'topless' activists :
a) please leave mainstream adult services industry alone and do some real work by lobbying for legalising red light districts
b) help identify abusers by posing as prostitutes or getting your friends to pose a clients to ferret out trafficked and non-consensual persons in sex work
c) developing and funding quick and easy to use disease tests
; instead of running amok while naked against those poor football fans.
The Euro Soccer John influx is the equivalent of a 'bonus' for sex workers in any country. The state also should legalise prostitution and give insurance and pensions to those who have gone at regular levels for checkups and worked for a set period of years or have serviced a set number of clients – every 3000 should provide a single year of pension?
In many ways these women's contribution to society is incalculable as they give the lower earners who cannot afford marriage some form of relaxation and a who knows a geisha (temporary wife) type relationship-friendship. Something to look forward to at the end of the work shift and socialise about. This is a different form of caretaking profession, for what ails the soul of poverty, much like nurses take care of the ill. Think through on the issues properly if you want to make a difference you topless feminists! Persecuting Johns is wrong. Persecuting those identified as traffickers is right. Running around naked instead of advocating nudist zones to run around naked in is also wrong.
I'd say 'Femen' in appearing naked among massive crowds is expressing a hidden desire for either nudist legal zones, legalised public sex venues or sex orgy clubs. Start a legal sex club based around orgies or legalise dogging and sex booths in red light districts for Ukraine. Do some real work not foment meaningless chaos (some chaos can be meaningful, but maybe this was a cry for 'instructions' that I now give . . . )! Gotta love those Freudian slips! Create the spaces for everyone FEMEN, not take spaces away from society! John-space in the form of Red Light Districts for consensual sex workers and their clients is NOT trafficking and does not deserve to be lumped together via poorly thought protests like these!
Did Time's breastfeeding cover go too far? – May 12, 2012
Was it just a desperate attempt to sell magazines?
Time is overstepping into the territory of other magazines. That is the only offense. Losing focus Time? Breastfeeding is not exactly some Captain of Industry or Social or Religous figure. As for breastfeeding periods that is between mother and child to decide though if they do or do not, should not be something that is shared with the general public more so local community. TMI for some as Sandy Rios said, but no issue for others. To each their own. But Time?!? No. Time is NOT a maternity magazine.
In the realm of the senses – Toshio Saeki, Japan's master of erotic illustration, devours the world with his demented images of outre – by Stephen Lemons Thursday, Feb 8, 2001 8:33 PM UTC
Think of Toshio Saeki's work as a gaping, red maw consuming all women (and some men), salivating over their bodies and licking them into a sexual frenzy before swallowing them whole, like giant pieces of sashimi (look up the term : Vore). Japanese schoolgirls in uniforms, elderly matrons with wrinkled skin, attractive young women in kimonos and the occasional horny businessman or samurai — all are sucked into Saeki's imaginary, Jabba the Hut-like pie hole, forced down his rapacious gullet and chased back with copious quantities of sake.
Saeki, 66, is the godfather of Japanese erotica — the one illustrator in the frenetic, oversexed, comics-crazy nation whose imagination outpaces all others. For decades, the art cognoscenti of Japan and elsewhere have hailed him as a psychosexual dream weaver who traverses all taboos with oozing, bloody scenes of insatiable carnality. Now he's being rediscovered by young adults in America and Europe for whom Japanese illustration, anime (animated cartoons) and manga (comic books) are perpetual sources of fascination.
Sexual incontinence is Saeki's overriding theme. In collections of his drawings such as "Chimushi I & II" and "Toshio Saeki: The Early Works" (both published in Japan by Treville Co.), he has navigated the outer limits of sexual obsession with a monomaniacal intensity. In France, his monographs have sold more than 20,000 copies. And Last Gasp, Saeki's distributor in the United States, has difficulty keeping his books in stock. "Chimushi," a two-volume set issued in the mid-1990s, completely sold out its first run here and is now a collector's item.
In Saeki's bestiary, immense turtles, octopuses and slugs ravish ecstatic Japanese maidens. Japanese goblins, known as tengu, poke their crimson, Pinocchio-like proboscises into the vaginas of willing teenage girls. Pockmarked dwarfs with misshapen, encephalitic heads gangbang young virgins. And hideous, hirsute trolls gnaw on umbilical cords that are still attached to mother and child.
Just when you believe Saeki has shown you his most outré image, you turn the page and find additional macabre hallucinations of murder and lust. In one, a Japanese schoolgirl flies down a road on her bike, her haunches lifted in the air and her skirt flapping in the wind. She looks behind her in horror to see that her bicycle seat has morphed into a man's groaning face. In another, a young woman sips green tea as she rubs the freshly decapitated head of a soldier against her genitals, his body still upright beside her. There are drawings of necrophiliacs humping corpses and of crazed onanists sawing limbs off others with which to masturbate.
Unusual sexual fantasies are certainly common in the world of Japanese manga and anime. And popular adult anime (sometimes referred to as hentai) such as "La Blue Girl," "Imma Youjo: Erotic Temptress" and "Twin Angels" can be found on the Web as well as in video stores in major American cities.
In addition, a number of photographers and artists in Japan are renowned for their explorations of fringe sexuality. There's Hajime Sorayama, whose cyberwomen appear regularly in Penthouse; Masaaki Toyoura, whose bondage photos can be viewed in various Larry Flynt publications; Yoshifumi Hayashi, the master of erotic pencil art, whose drawings delve into the nether regions of coprophilia; and Nobuyoshi Araki, the photographer whose book about the Tokyo sex trade, "Tokyo Lucky Hole," is truly a pervert's delight.
Still, Saeki is in a class all by himself. Erick Gilbert, an editor and Saeki expert at Last Gasp, points out that Saeki's art transcends that of his contemporaries.
"It's like the man has a direct link to his unconscious, and to the collective unconscious of the Japanese people," says Gilbert. "He can mix myth, that dream quality and pure libido. There are very few people who do that. I remember one image of a child standing outside of his parents' bedroom. His parents are sitting on the bed, and the man has his hands between the legs of the woman. But the woman, instead of having a vulva there, has a face, and the man's fingers are inside its mouth. That's a powerful image from the unconscious, the vagina dentata."
Saeki's work is quintessentially Japanese — from the ethnicity of his subjects to his portrayal of traditional housing with futons, tatami mats and sliding paper doors to his borrowing of various monsters from Japanese mythology. The theme of obsessive sexuality leading to madness and death is common in the film and literature of Japan, and there's a long tradition of Japanese shunga, or erotic prints and paintings, that has been traced back at least to the ukiyo-e (floating world paintings) of the Edo period (1603-1867) in books such as "Sex and the Floating World" by Timon Screech. Screech's book, for instance, contains shunga prints of vaginal inspections (with a cervix's-eye view), dogs humping women and men with colossal, spurting cocks.
"If you look at Saeki's art outside of its cultural sphere, you may be troubled by its violence. But once you go inside that cultural sphere, you know that this violence is well-understood, that 'it's only lines on paper,' to quote cartoonist Robert Crumb. This extreme imagery of Japanese artists, and their characteristic need to go as far as possible, can be traced several centuries back to the so-called bloody ukiyo-e of the 19th century. A number of examples from that era are very violent — with characters being tied up and swords put to them. That's part of this strain of art," asserts Gilbert.
However, even in Japan, Saeki's morbid aesthetic delicacies have earned him a reputation as an iconoclast. Speaking to me by phone from his isolated home in the mountains of Chiba prefecture, near Tokyo, Saeki explains that he has run afoul of Japanese censors in the past.
"My books have received cautions from the local government agency that monitors such things," says Saeki. "If you receive three cautions in a year, your book is prohibited from being sold in a bookstore. Of course, my publications have been unpopular with the police, but not enough to be banned. At one time, in the late '70s to early '80s, I couldn't draw the schoolgirl images that are so popular now. Publishers were afraid to publish them. The media had labeled me 'schoolgirl Saeki.'
"Today, such images are much more accepted. I've been lucky to have my work published in erotic publications as well as art publications. Not all artists who do this kind of work have been accepted in both circles. Not that I'm a household name or anything. It's interesting, when I have a new book come out, most of the fan mail my publisher receives is from doctors, lawyers and college professors. [Laughs] I find that very amusing."
Saeki perceives himself as connected to Japan's shunga tradition. He mentions an artist of the Meiji period, Yoshitoshi, who did the same kind of work. And he cites ukiyo-e artist Hokusai's famous image of a woman having sex with an octopus, which he did not copy directly, he says, though he was aware of the reference he was making. But Saeki was not always a maestro of shunga art. Rather, his evolution into the most important erotic Japanese artist of his generation occurred haphazardly.
Saeki grew up mostly in Osaka. He studied art in high school, and after graduating pursued graphic design. He worked briefly for an advertising company, but disliked the job. At 24, he took off for Tokyo to try his hand at freelance illustration. With money he had saved, he holed up in a small apartment to develop his portfolio. It was then that he seriously began to create erotica.
"I did some fantasy erotic drawings and put to paper some scary dreams I remembered from my childhood. The images just flowed. During my teenage years at the art high school, many of the boys had an interest in erotic art. I was good at copying shunga, and the other boys would ask me to draw dirty pictures. I became quite popular because of it. So these images were in the back of my mind. I think it's just my personality. When I was a teenager, there were boys who noticed when the wind blew girls' skirts up and those who didn't notice at all. Well, I was a boy who noticed," says Saeki.
During the 1960s and 1970s, Saeki did illustrations for a then popular Japanese youth magazine, Heibon Punch, and from there his career took off. Galleries started showing his work, and he published his first books. Underground writers and artists hailed his outlandish creations, and to this day he retains the fanatical devotion of erotic art aficionados.
Late LSD guru Timothy Leary penned an introduction to "Chimushi I and II," describing the artist as an "erotic engineer" who "weaves webs of designed dementia." Yet Saeki himself realizes that his audience is limited, especially in the relatively repressed United States. But this might be changing.
"There's a new generation interested in Japanese things now, especially Japanese animation. For instance, there's a writer in New York who plans to use one of my paintings on a book cover, and there was a rock festival recently in California that used one as a giant backdrop," he says. "I'm also getting more calls for gallery shows in America, so my work is receiving more exposure there now."
I wonder aloud if Saeki is a sex maniac. After all, why does he always paint and draw images filled with sex and death?
"Hmm, why do I?" he asks, pausing for a moment. "I've never really thought about it. I guess I'm just mischievous and like to surprise people. I don't really do art for self-expression. I'm more conscious of the people who see my work. I see it as a form of entertainment. It can't be boring; it must be entertaining. The more I produce the work, the more I want to top myself each time, to shock people even more. I'm not a violent person myself. I don't engage in the morbid acts I depict."
Stephen Lemons is a freelance journalist and regular contributor to Salon. He lives in Los Angeles.
Am not too much into guro or vore but heres a tame sampling (Japanese Rope Bondage) by Toshio Saeki (the artist not the Ju-on character) . . .
Scarirer stuff in : http://www.111minnagallery.com/2012/toshio-saeki-2/
A night at the vibrator museum : Early vibrators were hand-cranked, two-person jobs — and prescribed by doctors. How far we've come since then – by Tracy Clark-Flory – Sunday, May 20, 2012 12:00 AM UTC
[A night at the vibrator museum] (Credit: Antique Vibrator Museum)
I can now say that I've used a turn-of-the-century vibrator — on my hand, but still.
The silver, hand-cranked contraption is usually kept behind glass at Good Vibrations' Antique Vibrator Museum in San Francisco — but staff sexologist Carol Queen made a rare exception. "This is very special," she whispered, unlocking the case and carefully pulling out Dr. Johansen's Auto Vibrator, a relic from 1904. The "auto" part is not so much: It was a two-person job, with her having to crank the device's handle to get it thrumming. Pressing my finger tips to its inch-wide circular platform of pleasure, I was pleasantly surprised by its power.
As I was by the two other vintage vibrators that I got to try out — the White Cross Electric Vibrator from 1917, which has a pronged aperture that makes it seem like the ancestor of Jimmyjane's Form 2, and the Beautysafe Vibrator from the 1940s, which is reminiscent in look, feel and sound to a car waxer.
The U.S. release this week of "Hysteria," a Maggie Gyllenhaal flick about a Victorian-era doctor who invents an electric massager and uses it to bring about "paroxysms" of relief in female patients with "hysteria," seemed like a good excuse to get a private tour of the museum, which provided vibes that appear in the film, to learn about the history that's left out of the movie's fictionalized story line — and, of course, to try out antique pleasure devices while on the clock.
While the movie is set in the 19th century, doctors' "manual manipulation" as a treatment for female hysteria goes back as far as the second century. "That took too long," said Queen. "So doctors started training midwives to do it." In Rachel P. Maines' "The Technology of Orgasm: 'Hysteria,' the Vibrator, and Women's Sexual Satisfaction," she quotes a 1653 medical book that advises:
When these symptoms indicate, we think it necessary to ask a midwife to assist, so that she can massage the genitalia with one finger inside, using oil of lilies, musk root, crocus, or [something] similar. And in this way the afflicted woman can be aroused to the paroxysm.
Of course, this paroxysm was orgasm, but it was rarely acknowledged as such. Instead, it was said to be the exorcism of hysteria, a vague, catch-all diagnosis for female ailments thought to arise from a displaced uterus or, charmingly, a "wandering womb." "Some of these women probably had PTSD, some of them were overworked, some of them had extreme stress in their lives, some of them almost certainly had sexual issues going on," Queen explains. As Maines points out, "many of its classic symptoms are those of chronic arousal: Anxiety, sleeplessness, irritability, nervousness, erotic fantasy, sensations of heaviness in the abdomen, lower pelvic edema, and vaginal lubrication." Married women were often given the prescription of sex with their husbands.
Eventually, doctors turned to technology to speed up the laborious treatment. "It started with hydraulic devices, water jets, but that really only worked well at spas," said Queen. In 1869, an American physician patented the Manipulator, a padded table with a steam-powered vibrating mound that rested between the legs. A decade later, British physician Joseph Mortimer Granville – who's at the center of "Hysteria," albeit heavily fictionalized — patented a battery-operated vibrator for treatment of muscle pain. Interestingly, he was vehemently against the device being used for hysteria. He wrote, "I have avoided, and shall continue to avoid the treatment of women by percussion, simply because I do not wish to be hoodwinked, and help to mislead others, by the vagaries of the hysterical state."
Ads selling vibrators as home appliances began to appear in women's magazines, often showing "women in attractive nightclothes, using it on their chest," Queen said. "You see facial massage shown from time to time." These spots referred to them as "aids that every woman appreciates" and promised "all the pleasures of youth … will throb within you." But when vibrators started showing up in stag films in the 1920s, the ads started to disappear, Queen says.
"Within the next 10 years or so, the doctors close up shop," she said, perhaps in part because it became impossible to deny the sexual nature of these therapies. "In 1952, hysteria is taken out of medical books," Queen explained. "The medical associations voted to say, 'Nothing to see here, there's really not a disease – no, no, no, we haven't been treating this with clitoral and vulva massage.'"
Vibrators were still sold direct to consumers, but manufacturers made no mention of hysteria and instead "talked about body massage and vague promises of health, vigor and beauty." The '60s did away with the subtlety and euphemisms: Maines explains in her book, "When the vibrator reemerged during the 1960s, it was no longer a medical instrument; it had been democratized to consumers to such an extent that by the '70s it was openly marketed as a sex aid."
Asked whether doctors or patients saw the treatment as sexual, Queen said, "One of the schools of thought is, 'How could they not?' They're touching the genitals, she starts to sweat and flail around and vocalize and her breathing changes and she gets a flush." But others argue that "the definition of sex and sexual functioning for a woman was so associated with intercourse," it was so male-centric, that this treatment, which was most often external, wasn't seen as sexual. As Maines puts it, "Since no penetration was involved, believers in the hypothesis that only penetration was sexually gratifying to women could argue that nothing sexual could be occurring when their patients experienced the hysterical paroxysm during treatment."
Paradoxically, Queen explains that hysteria was overtly linked to sex "in that they said women without husbands who were spinsters or widows or whose husbands had become incapacitated were more likely to suffer from it," she said. "So there was a subtext of, 'What this lady needs is a good fuck and, sadly, she can't have one — but this is the next best thing.'" Maines attributes the demand for the treatment to two sources: "The proscription on female masturbation as unchaste and possibly unhealthful, and the failure of androcentrically defined sexuality to produce orgasm regularly in most women."
We haven't exactly escaped the expectation that women should be able to climax from penetration alone, but we're slowly improving on that front — and the mainstreaming of vibrators has played a big part. That point was only driven home as I left the museum, which is located in the back of a Good Vibrations store, and walked past scores of sleek and sexy toys in every color of the rainbow, all unabashedly advertised as what they are: Tools for sexual pleasure.
http://www.vibratormuseum.com
mike@vibratormuseum.com is going to be a very rich person if this concept is turned into a must have franchise in every RLD worldwide . . . how's that 'Legalisation of RLD drive for International Cities' world wide movement coming along? FEMEN wanna join in on this?
On the rack: A cultural history of breasts : Did breasts evolve for lactation or to enhance sex appeal? A new book explores why they matter – by Tracy Clark-Flory – Thursday, May 10, 2012 12:00 AM UTC
It's hard to be boobs. Sure, breasts are cherished as givers of milk and the pinnacle of sex appeal, but the modern world hasn't been good to mammaries.
As Florence Williams writes in "Breasts: A Natural and Unnatural History," they're the most tumor-prone organ in the human body. They "soak up pollution like a pair of soft sponges," and transmit environmental toxins to babies through breast milk. "Breasts are bellwethers for the changing health of people," she says. While we've "genetically modified our crops to be able to protect them from the ill effects of pesticides," Williams writes, "we haven't yet figured out how to modify our breasts." Aside from using saline and silicone, of course.
Speaking of, breast implants are more popular than ever: It's the most common form of plastic surgery, above even nose jobs and liposuction. Even cosmetic enhancement notwithstanding, breasts are bigger than ever, and girls are getting them at increasingly younger ages. These recent dramatic changes are the heft of Williams' book, although she also covers evolutionary basics, like why we have them, what they're made of and how they work. It's an interesting and engaging read peppered with factoids the kid from "Jerry Maguire" would no doubt appreciate (e.g., "the average breast weighs just over a pound"). Occasionally, it veers into technical territory that will put some readers to sleep, but overall it's a much-needed look at why breasts matter more than we realize, even in our boob-obsessed society.
I spoke with Williams by phone about the myth of the perfect pair, growing bra sizes and toxic breast milk.
One of the trickiest questions posed by the book is the simple one of why breasts exist. After all of your research, where do you stand on that question?
It's a pretty contentious debate and surprisingly so. I think both sides have some biases and also some logic behind them, but where I see it coming down is between natural selection — like, "Are these breasts for women and their babies?" — or sexual selection, as in, "Are they signals for men?" Ultimately, I really fall down on "Let's look at how breasts work and what they're made out of."
So, for me, it made sense that these are naturally selected organs, which is true for mammary glands in every other mammal that we know of. There are no other mammals in which breasts are sexually selected. It just makes sense that in our deep evolutionary past we really needed those extra few percentages of fat, and breasts gave us a place to put that, and really helped gestate and lactate the human infant, which has these unique fat requirements. The mammary gland in the breast in humans is filled with estrogen receptors and those actually make fat. There's this relationship between fat and estrogen, and where there's estrogen, that's going to tell cells to start storing fat, and as there's more fat, that's going to help make more estrogen.
So it's possible that breasts are the result of natural selection but they also play their part in sexual selection?
Yeah, absolutely. There's no doubt at all that a lot of men are really, really attracted to breasts! But it could be that that attraction came later or was secondary, and it's never really been satisfactorily proven that all men in all cultures across all times are obsessed with breasts.
It so totally goes against common wisdom, but it's common wisdom that hasn't been proven?
It hasn't been proven. In fact we have such strong cultural biases about breasts that it's easy to see how some of these anthropologists may just be projecting their own beliefs back into evolutionary times, and that's just a classic no-no. We don't really have fossil evidence of when breasts evolved because you can't dig up a fossil of an early human and know what her cup size was.
So, there's no "perfect" breast in terms of male sexual preference?
Well, certainly Hollywood and plastic surgeons would like us to believe that there's a universally preferred large breast, but the evidence just doesn't really bear that out. There are a lot of men out there who like small- or medium-size breasts, and there are some men out there who don't seem particularly interested in breasts. In fact, breasts are so varied in humans that if there really was this evolutionary or even sexually selected preference for large breasts, you'd think we'd see a lot more of them. Women with small breasts are just as capable of nursing infants and that's why those traits persisted.
Speaking of plastic surgeons: You actually had one evaluate your own breasts for the book. What was that like?
It was really bizarre and funny. I always thought my breasts were sort of perfectly fine. I kind of went in there thinking, "Oh, he's gonna tell me that, 'Congratulations, your breasts are fine,' because he's this great judge of breasts and presumably he's seen all these incredible deformities." I walk in there and take off my robe and he squeezes me and squishes me and pulls out a measuring tape and gives his final pronouncement, "Well, let me just say you would be a perfect candidate for augmentation." I had to just crack up. So much of that industry is about the soft sell — they're just so good at making women think that they're not good enough the way they are.
When did breast implant mania really begin?
The first silicon breast implant was performed in 1962, so 50 years ago. It was up and running pretty quickly after that. It was particularly popular among women who made their living onstage — the go-go dancers and the burlesque dancers and the topless dancers and then Hollywood. Eventually it leaked into the broader culture, and certainly by the '70s and '80s women were going for this. Then there was the implant scare of the '90s, in which a lot of women had problems with their implants, and the FDA actually banned them for 14 years. But now they're back; they've never really been proven to be linked to disease or cancer. In fact, more women are getting implants now than ever before — over 300,000 a year.
And breasts are getting bigger in general, not simply because of plastic surgery. What's going on there?
The main factor there is, of course, the American diet. Women's bodies are getting bigger and their breasts are getting bigger along with it. Men are getting bigger, too! In fact, men are getting breasts more often and male breast reduction surgery is becoming more and more popular.
There also may be other factors at play that have to do with hormones in food and birth control pills and in hormone replacement therapy, and of course we have all these estrogenic chemicals in our environment. All of those things appear to be interacting with our breasts on some level.
Somewhat related, why are girls experiencing puberty and getting breasts earlier and earlier?
I would say similar reasons. We don't know for sure, but it appears that diet is the major factor there. Girls are sort of undergoing what's sometimes called over-nutrition. A third of kids now are overweight or obese. You're also seeing skinny girls getting breasts earlier, so the obesity theory does not seem to fully explain the phenomenon. There are researchers out there that have tried to examine the role of chemicals and pharmaceuticals, but the jury is still out.
Turning to the function of breasts for feeding infants, one of the purposes of breasts that's not actually up for debate: How and why did lactation evolve?
Lactation evolved 200 million years ago, even before there were mammals as such. It evolved in the precursor to mammals, probably not as a food but as an anti-infection substance. It helped fight pathogens and helped the immune system, and many of those qualities have been conserved. Breast milk today is not just filled with nutritional substances but it's filled with these immune system-boosting substances that scientists are just beginning to understand. There are proteins and enzymes and complex sugars that are really quite amazing at inhibiting parasites and killing E.coli on contact. It also seems to be filled with bacteria too, and so it may be inoculating the infant's immune system or educating it as to which bacteria are good and which are bad.
It's an amazing, complex, highly evolved substance. It's the only food on the planet that's really meant to be eaten by humans.
It seems that nearly everything breast-related is controversial and lactation is no exception. What's your position on the breast-is-best debate?
Really, throughout human history there have been women who just didn't want to breast-feed, and I totally get it. Breast-feeding can be really hard. One of the earliest professions was not prostitution but actually being a wet nurse.
Certainly in Western societies it's really safe to be raised on formula. Where you see the more dramatic benefits from breast milk are with preemies; they do much, much better. When you go to developing countries where the water isn't safe, formula isn't a great option, and you can really use these extra immune-boosting benefits because of these pathogen rich environments. It makes sense from a public health standpoint to really advocate breast milk in developing countries. In our country, what would be great is to really support women who want to breast-feed through better workplace policies.
We see negative entities in breast milk as well. The weight of the book is devoted to ways that our breasts are, as you write, "the catchment for our environmental trespasses." Why are we seeing toxins show up in breasts and breast milk, of all places?
A lot of these substances, if they exist in the breast they also exist in the blood and in a lot of cells in our body. But many of them are attracted to fat and our breasts are among the fattiest organs we have next to our brains. So breasts are these soft sponges and they soak up a lot of things in our environment. They're incredibly good at converting these substances into breast milk. It's a little creepy.
What about the transmission to nursing babies?
It appears that the benefits of breast milk still by far outweigh the risks, and even though we have these unnatural substances in our breast milk it still exists for the most part in small quantities. Nonetheless, we don't really understand what the health effects of this are. It seems wise to look harder at these chemicals. If they're not proven safe, maybe we should try to use something else. It would be great to provide greater incentives for manufacturers to put safer chemicals on the marketplace.
I'm so curious what you think of sexualized attempts at raising awareness about breast cancer — ads like the "Save the Boobs" PSA, which pictured a pair of bouncing bikini-clad breasts, and the explosion of "I (heart) boobies" bracelets.
I guess the sexualization of breasts is a reality and we're not going to change that any time soon. I did like that those ads tried to reach a younger audience, so there you have it. Breasts are filled with contradictions and conflicting messages, but the more we can understand their complexity and appreciate that complexity, the (psychologically) healthier we'll be down the road.
Korean pornstar Minkaxxx poses size KKK polypropylene breast implants . . . in a few years the next generation of pornstars will be GROWING 100% natural flesh and blood implants from their own cells . . . somethings (breasts) never go out of vogue . . . (photo copyright belongs to respective owners) Minka has left an impressive body of work and at a stated age of 51 and probably has retired . . . how about setting up a Playboy mansion in Korea's RLD eh?
Russian protesters test Putin's police – May 14 2012 at 12:14am – by Nastassia Astrasheuskaya – Associated Press
Marchers make their way along a street in downtown Moscow during a demonstration led by opposition literary activists. Around 10 000 people took part, skirting the law by remaining silent and carrying no posters.
Moscow – Almost 10 000 people staged a mass "stroll" through central Moscow on Sunday to test the state's tolerance a week after police beat and scattered demonstrators upset over Vladimir Putin's return to the presidency.
With few police in evidence, demonstrators gathered at a statue of revered poet Alexander Pushkin and walked down Moscow's Boulevard Ring to the site of an Occupy-style, 24-hour protest two kilometres away. Police took no action.
"We are all here because we want justice in the country, we want an honest transition of power, we don't want a throne succession," said Nina, 45, a foreign language teacher who gave only her first name.
President from 2000-2008 and prime minister until his inauguration to a six-year Kremlin term on May 7, Putin has angered Russians who want change and fear the continuation of his rule will bring stagnation and repression.
Some 10 000 people turned out for the "test stroll", some wearing white ribbons reading "Russia without Putin".
It took place a week after police clashed with demonstrators on the eve of Putin's May 7 inauguration, beating some on the head with batons in the worst violence since a series of protests started in December.
Riot police detained more than 400 people at the May 6 protest and hundreds more on inauguration day, when they cleared streets near the path of Putin's convoy of peaceful protesters and bystanders, and grabbed people sitting at a sidewalk cafe.
Two opposition leaders detained last week, Alexei Navalny and Sergei Udaltsov, are serving 15-day jail terms.
Following the crackdown, Boris Akunin, a popular detective novelist who has become a Kremlin critic, called for the event on Sunday to test whether Muscovites would be allowed to peacefully walk in their city.
The unsanctioned mass walk snarled traffic – and a woman handing out white ribbons advertised them as "free tickets to a police van ride" – but police left demonstrators alone and there were no reports of detentions.
"There are no police vans here, no police, no helicopters. They really let us walk free in the city now," said Nina.
Demonstrators ended their walk at the site of a round-the-clock protest dubbed Occupy Abai, named after a monument to a Kazakh poet that is its focal point. Akunin was met with applause at the monument and declared the stroll a success.
"We can all congratulate each other, we have re-established a law. In Russia, there is a law protecting demonstrations," Gennady Gudkov, a lawmaker with the opposition Just Russia party, told the crowd. "It was forgotten and now it is revived."
The turnout on Sunday will please opposition leaders eager to maintain momentum, but the fate of the round-the-clock protest – where the crowd has numbered from dozens to 2 000 – is unclear.
Putin, 59, has largely ignored the unrest that greeted his inauguration, the latest since anger boiled over in December over allegations of fraud in a parliamentary election.
But his spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, has been quoted as saying that the police had acted too softly and has hinted the round-the-clock protest could be dispersed.
Gudkov's son, Dmitry, also a lawmaker, invited people to meet on Tuesday by a Karl Marx monument near the Kremlin and said the round-the-clock protest would continue until at least June 12, when the next big opposition rally is planned. – Reuters
The same 10,000 people should go round collecting voters to displace MPs who put Putin in power. What does this march achieve? Nothing on paper, nothing in black and white. Please use the legal and binding method. Marching peacefully or violently really does nothing legally! Civilisation and ousting of dictators is via laws, not migrations and cirumambulations.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/russian-protesters-led-by-prominent-writers-take-a-peaceful-stroll-in-moscow/2012/05/13/gIQAFkTpMU_story.html
Egypt, naturism, nudism
In Aliaa Magda Elmahdy, better laws, critical discourse, Freedom of Expression, Iran, Islam, Israel, non-Muslim rights, nudism, Pharoahnate, spirit of the law on March 8, 2012 at 9:33 pm
Happy International Women's Day
The Nude Photo Revolutionaries Calendar is being launched in homage to Egyptian atheist, student and blogger Aliaa Magda Elmahdy who posted a nude photo of herself, announcing the post on Twitter under the hashtag, #NudePhotoRevolutionary.
You can download and or purchase the calendar below.
The calendar is the idea of campaigner Maryam Namazie to support Aliaa Magda Elmahdy and join her 'screams against a society of violence, racism, sexism, sexual harassment and hypocrisy'.
Namazie says: 'What with Islamism and the religious right being obsessed with women's bodies and demanding that we be veiled, bound, and gagged, nudity breaks taboos and is an important form of resistance.'
The calendar is designed by SlutWalk Co-founder Toronto, Sonya JF Barnett who says: 'I felt that women needed to stand in solidarity with Aliaa. It takes a lot of guts to do what she did, and the backlash is always expected and can quite hurtful. She needed to know that there are others like her, willing to push the envelope to express outrage.'
Others who join the 'scream' include mother and daughter Anne Baker and Poppy Wilson St James, teacher Luisa Batista, We are Atheism Founder Amanda Brown, atheist bloggers Greta Christina and Emily Dietle, FEMEN activist Alena Magelat, photographer Mallorie Nasrallah, actress Cleo Powell, freethinker Nina Sankari , writer Saskia Vogel, and mother Maja Wolna. The women are photographed by Julian Baker, Adam Brown, Grzegorz Brzezicki, Lucy Fox-Bohan, Agnieszka Hodowana, Ben Hopper, N. Maxwell Lander, Mallorie Nasrallah, Mark Neurdenburg, Vitaliy Pavlenko, and Michael Rosen.
On nudity and the calendar, Mallorie Nasrallah says: 'When a tool of oppression can be turned in to an assertion of power, it is a beautiful thing. Nudity when celebrated harms no one, and when made shameful and barbaric harms everyone.' Nina Sankari says: 'In solidarity with Aliaa Magda Elmahdy, I would like to stress that our bodies (and thoughts) belong to us and to nobody else.' Anne Baker says 'Men in frocks constrain, control and intimidate women the world over in the name of God … it has to stop.' Greta Christina says: 'Sexual freedom is an important freedom — but it's one that commonly gets ignored or trivialized.' Maja Wolna says: 'Irrespective of sex, sexual orientation, religion or culture we are equal. Personal dignity is a foundation of human civilization.' Amanda Brown says: 'Dogma will never determine where I sit, what I wear, or how I live' and Poppy Wilson St. James says: 'I find it strange that it is more acceptable to seen on screen violence and guns than even a nipple. There is something wrong with our mindset if that is what we accept as the norm and shy away from nudity which is a completely natural state'.
Saskia Vogel says: 'This calendar hopefully will reach people who are uncomfortable with empowered female nudity, and encourage them to reconsider their feelings about the nude figure.' Luisa Batista says: 'I think the calendar is important, because it may help to open people's eyes and hearts. Women – and men – who are afraid, may find courage and feel supported by the quotes and faces and bodies of the people in the calendar.'
According to Emily Dietle, 'If it weren't for people who took a strong stand against misogyny and for free-expression, we'd still be in an age where showing your ankles was taboo.' Alena Magelat says: 'Our naked body is our challenge to patriarchy, dictatorship and violence. Smart people we inspire; dictators are horrified'.
The women in the calendar stand firm in solidarity with Aliaa Magda Elmahdy and the countless women across the world who are denied basic rights, freedoms and dignity.
WARNING : Some nudity here, if you are easily offended, please do not click.
Join the 'Scream' on Facebook and on Twitter under the hashtag #NudePhotoRevolutionary.
freethoughtblogs.com/maryamnamazie/2012/03/08/nude-photo-revolutionary-calendar-is-here/
I think Alia and her fellow models are more like a pre-Islam Egyptian type. There is a reason for the nudity in this case perhaps a yearning for old and more tolerant and pleasurable days, like Cleopatra down the Nile, and those dancers in ancient Egypt. Maybe her real calling is to help revive an Egyptian Pharoanate than pose nude. It's all that uncollected energy that has no where else to go so they pose nude.
In another day and age they might well have been fertility Priestesses of some sort. Maybe if the old Egyptian religion is revived, they would not feel so overtly sexual as their energy would be channeled in the calandaric Rites of Old Egypt, for fertility of crops, well being of the various totem animal Gods. They would have somewhere to place all that energy instead. How about starting a movement for a Pharoanate instead? Theres only so much one can do with nudity and free expression though you all are an inspiration to the sex negative or sexually oppressed !
cowboyboots, nudism, social freedoms
In Abuse of Power, better judgments, England, Law, overkill, profiteering off fines, spirit of the law, too damn high, unreasonable fines on February 15, 2012 at 2:27 pm
Taylor Burnham
Naked cowgirl: Taylor Burnham, 18, fled when she saw police
Taylor Burnham, 18, was arrested on drunk driving charges after she was spotted wearing only cowboy boots in Corpus Christie, Texas, and then led police on a low-speed chase in her Jeep Wrangler.
Police were called to an alley behind homes in one of the city's subdivisions about 3.30am Sunday.
When officers arrived and spotted Burnham, she was standing stark naked — except for a pair of cowboy boots — near her Jeep.
Instead of stopping, Burnham climbed into her vehicle and drove off.
She proceeded to lead police on a low-speed chase, never exceeding 30 miles per hour.
Burnham drove through a neighboring subdivision before stopping after she ran up on a sidewalk.
A police report says a female officer helped her dress herself before police administered a breathalyzer and a field sobriety test.
It's unclear why she was naked except for her cowboy boots.
She was charged with misdemeanor drunk driving, as well as evading arrest, a felony.
Burnham was released from jail after posting $3,500 bail.
Mystery: It's unknown why Burnham was wearing cowboy boots and nothing else
Naked Cowgirl for President! 3500 fine for nakedness? Are English now Taliban? They could ignore her as she was in her car – a private space obviously then people should not be looking into. Only if outside in the public space, they should issue a warning and only fine not more than $10-$50 on the second and subsequent offences. It's about public order, not profiteering off fines. Also there should be some nudist colonies or nudist districts she could be referred to.
Abuse of Power, by-laws, dogging, England, nudism, Pub, social freedoms
Student, 20, counts cost of cheap drink promotion after video of her dancing naked in nightclub paddling pool goes viral on internet – By Gavin Allen – Last updated at 5:20 PM on 27th January 2012
In Uncategorized on January 27, 2012 at 6:32 pm
The student – who MailOnline is not identifying – took part in a wet T-shirt contest at Oceana nightclub in Cardiff, a double vodka at the 'Missbehaviour' event cost just £1.75. Video of her stripping off attracts 1,000 hits in 10 minutes on YouTube. She didn't even receive the £50 prize for the wet T-shirt contest
A student is counting the cost of cheap drinks promotions today after video of her dancing naked in an inflatable paddling pool at a nightclub went viral on the internet.
The university student – who MailOnline has chosen not to identify – woke up this morning to find that a 10-minute video of the incident at Oceana nightclub in Cardiff had been circulated widely on Twitter.
A one-minute version was available on YouTube and attracted more than 1,000 hits in less than 10 minutes. It has now been removed.
A student – who is not being identified by MailOnline – has been left embarrassed after a video of her stripping off in a nightclub went viral
The 20-year-old took part in a wet T-shirt contest as part of the Missbehaviour event – billed as 'Cardiff's naughtiest night' – where vodka and other spirits cost just £1.75 for a double.
At the event, which boasts the cheapest drinks in Cardiff, bottles of lager and alcopops were on sale at £1.20.
While other girls thought it enough to remove their tops, the student stripped off entirely and frolicked in the inflatable paddling pool.
With another reveller filming the 'contest' on a mobile phone, she leans over the edge of the pool plays for the cameras.
The Rihanna song S&M plays loudly in the background as men cheer and chant 'Off, off, off.'
As the student is exposing herself herself, the MC uses his microphone to shout: 'Get em 'off'.
The shame-faced student, who had clearly been drinking, used her Twitter account to send a message a day later which read: 'Yes I got drunk and yes I got naked.
'We all do things we regret and there is nothing I can do about it now!'
The embarrassed student later Tweeted that she had also lost her underwear, her earrings and had not been given £50 prize money for the wet T-shirt competition.
She was too embarrassed to comment when contacted to comment.
Student Luke Brown, 23, said: 'There was a lot of cheering going on and I looked around to see a naked girl in the paddling pool.
'She seemed to be having a good time and everyone was reaching for their mobile phones to video her.
'I think the club staff stepped in to cover her up but I've seen one of the videos on twitter and it lasts for 10 minutes.
'Everyone had a lot to drink – I'll bet she's regretting it now.'
A spokesman for the Oceana club said: 'The night in question was a promoter event – this is where the event is put on and run by a third party.
'Oceana does not condone such behaviour.
'The Oceana door team dealt with the incident at the time and the clubs management has had the appropriate conversation with the promoter regarding this.'
The video of Amy in the paddling pool has now been removed from YouTube.
***Commentator comments :
Why should the price of drink be affected due to the actions of people like this? Silly little girl I hope you are ashamed.
– Craig D, Reading, 27/1/2012 17:32
Click to rate Rating (0)
I have a hot tub here, dear.
– Alistair Hillier Manser, Sandbanks UK, 27/1/2012 17:27
Let's hope this has taught her a lesson about drinking to excess!
– Andy, Manchester, 27/1/2012 17:19
Many years ago someone would've stepped in and stopped the girl before she took her clothes off, or at least tried to cover her up, now its entertainment and promotion for the club. Something has gone wrong with society and women like this shame our female liberal rights.
– lesley, eastbourne, 27/1/2012 17:14
Salute the discipline displayed by the clubbers! Goodly bunch who know the limits of decency, this is not a sex club after all. Nothing to be embarassed about nakedness actually though incidental is much preferred than contrived, nor did this degenerate into an open orgy rape scene (even the odd couple having sex on the pinball machines shouldn't bother too much) . . . to push the limits for a sense of 'pubbing' like that Tub Thumping (Chumbawamba 1997) song for drinking, try another song for 'dogging' – C0*kpum**** now . . . ), it's something which celebrates a truly open society that oozes sex positivity.
Also Amy looked quite eye candy worthy, so even less cause for offense again. This should happen at every ladie's night or to celebrate any stuff worth celebrating! Now which Muslim nation is ready to at least allow non-Muslims (Muslims not allowed to drink or expose aurat of course, so no entry) to have pubs like these operating in your country much less strip clubs being allowed in places of the First World?
The commentators in this case, MC, Club Staff and Oceana are a bunch of d*ckless stiffs for naysaying all the way (try one where the MC has live se on stage – then what? It's a PUB not a classroom), too afraid that they will scrap your pub licences? Amend those by-laws!
LGBT, Malaysia, nudism, Sex
Hisham: Seksual Merdeka will affect nation's stability – Malaysia Chronicle – 5th November 2011
In Uncategorized on January 17, 2012 at 8:16 am
KLUANG – Seksualiti Merdeka will affect the stability of the nation as most people are against it, Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein said. "Every religion and culture does not condone same-sex relationships," he said, adding that he would not be surprised if the event was politically motivated. He also said police had opened investigation papers and called up the Seksualiti Merdeka organisers, including former Bar Council president Datuk S. Ambiga. He added that the case was being investigated under Section 298A of the Penal Code and Section 27A(1)(c) of the Police Act. "I was informed that the police have called up Ambiga and the organisers to take their statements, but I have yet to receive the report," he said after donating 67 cows for Hari Raya Haji for his parliamentary constituency.
On Thursday, police banned Seksualiti Merdeka which had planned a series of activities to last until Nov 13 in Kuala Lumpur. With the theme "Queer Without Fear", the programme included workshops, book launches, an art exhibition and performances. In Kuala Lumpur, former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said there must be a limit to freedom. "We don't need this sexuality thing. We don't need men marrying men, women marrying women and blatant exhibitionists (here)," he said after delivering his speech at the Third World Chinese Economic Forum here yesterday.
"What will happen to us when people decide to walk naked on the streets? We can't stop them. If they (people) decide as seen in some countries to have sex in public, what will happen to us?" Meanwhile, scores of people from several non-governmental organisations including Perkasa, Suara Anak-Anak Malaysia and Penang's Body for Anti-Liberism of Religion (Badai), held peaceful demonstrations against Seksualiti Merdeka after Friday prayers at the National Mosque in Kuala Lumpur and the Kampung Rawa mosque and George Town. – The Star
1) "We don't need this sexuality thing. We don't need men marrying men, women marrying women and blatant exhibitionists (here)," he said after delivering his speech at the Third World Chinese Economic Forum here yesterday.
Oh yes we do. But in proper dedicated spaces and districts. They need the protection of the law as well. Definition of a human being should not be by their sexuality and some legal matters require the technicality of being married to function. As for the sexuality issue, it is their own business, not the government's business.
2) "What will happen to us when people decide to walk naked on the streets? We can't stop them. If they (people) decide as seen in some countries to have sex in public, what will happen to us?"
Nothing will happen. they are just walking. And if they had sex and made sure no mess was left behind after having sex, none should care or bother. Even if they took a dump in the open (and made sure they cleaned up, much like people walking dogs clean up the crap . . . ) that should not bother either. It's not like they were going to hump someone's leg with 'intent to annoy'. For someone who has rumours of being bisexual floating about, someone seems rather prudish do they not?
In fact, I'd advocate enclosed Nudist districts within portions of international cities. I'd advocate enclosed Sex-friendly districts within portions of international cities. Both are not neccessarily the same and not necessarily mutually exclusive either. Nothing will happen to if Nudists mingled freely with Burkha clad persons. Try it after legislating Nudist Colonies and Nudist Districts. Challenge your narrowmindedness Home Minister! These will be closed districts for the consenting and no Muslims or at worst only non-Muslim Malays will be involved.
Like pork or alcohol, praying to idols or disallowing the same, everyone should have their own spaces as they wish. Government's job is to ensure that space rather than disallow anything. The thinking is very authoritarian, we are taxpaying citizens, not children, our rights are protected by the UNHCR, Malaysia as a signatory of the UNHCR has no right to forbid anything but does have right to regulate appropriate spaces at most.