British MS Patient Loses Assisted Suicide Case

British MS Patient Loses Assisted Suicide Case: "British MS Patient Loses Assisted Suicide Case


45-year-old Debbie Purdy from Bradford has been crippled by the multiple sclerosis she was diagnosed with 14 years ago. Purdy recently announced she wishes to undergo assisted suicide in Switzerland, and asked the courts to clarify the law.

Purdy is looking to protect her husband from prosecution should he come to the clinic in Switzerland and help her commit suicide. However, she found out that her husband could be sentenced to 14 years in prison for fulfilling her wish to die.

There have been 101 known UK citizens who have died at the Dignitas clinic, and no prosecutions have come from those cases. Purdy's husband could be persecuted by doing so much as purchasing train tickets or even just going with her."

This is a far more serious issue than WASTATE's new Deathe with Dignity bill. A humane society needs an rderly mechansoms for those whose suffering is no longer bearable.

A Challenge to Puddy

TAXES and Puddy ... a challenge!

Put up or shut up my furry friend. You remind me of another elegant feline, that Hilton broad, you know Paris? A vain woman with no real idea of where her wealth comes from.

I am all to willing to agree that our government should be more efficient, yet somehow when Repricans are in power we spend more and do it by borrowing.

Whenever the right goes on one of these petulant tirades, they come up with truly silly ways to save money ... no one on the right ever says .. lets give up on our military (about 2/3 of what we really spend) or default on our debt (a good part of what is left).

Here is a great example. I listened to one of the Reprican no sayers discuss the stimulus bill (I think he called it porkulus). His target? COBRA. The trouble is that leaving folks uninsured MEANS a vast decrease in US productivity and a vast increase in our healthcare costs because we have a stupid healthcare system. Look at it this way. A visit to take a kid to a doc for an earache may cost $50. Leave that ear ache alone and meningitis will cost you a lot more!

Anyone who WANTS to live in AynRandland are, well .. less restrictive on the wealthy. Brazil, before its crash looked like that. If you really do not want to pay taxes, then tell us WHAT you do not want to pay for that will allow a significant decrease in MY taxes.

There is an Obamist, rational alternative. Hidden in the stimulus bill there is an impressive effort by Peter Orszag to force down the costs of health care. This is not an accident or a last minute bright idea. During campaign 08, the Obama side's health care plan presented exactly this option. The option is to use the governments power over Medicare to force down health care costs. This makes a vast amount of sense unless you believe, as I guess some Repricans still do, that we know have a free market in healthcare that will self regulate.

Back at my point .... this Obamist idea is pragmatic, not liberal or conservative. Patriots on the right and the left ought to be able to leave labels aside instead of waving magic anti-tax wands.

Fakemodo: Control-A-Cat Remote Only Makes Cats More Frustrating

Fakemodo: Control-A-Cat Remote Only Makes Cats More Frustrating

Latest news headlines - CNET News

Latest news headlines - CNET News: "For Paul Allen, tech investment isn't easy

February 19, 2009 4:00 AM PST

When Charter Communications announced plans to file for Chapter 11, it was just the latest in a series of blows to the Microsoft co-founder's plan to sink money into a wired world.

By Dawn Kawamoto in News - Microsoft"

Budget to kick off health care rewrite - Ben Smith - Politico.com

Budget to kick off health care rewrite - Ben Smith - Politico.com: "Orszag*, at 40 the youngest member of the Obama cabinet, left a profound mark on the stimulus, which focused heavily on healthcare technology, a major focus of his research. He and his deputy, Rob Nabors brokered a key, late deal on spending on school construction, a Democratic aide said.

And the bill spends more than $1 billion on Orszag’s pet cause, research on the effectiveness of medical practices, which he sees as an opening to reforming American health care through sheer analytical will. ....The push to use changes to Medicare and Medicad reimbursement rates won’t come without a fight. Critics see the call for efficiency as easier said than done, and largely a smokescreen for simply saving money for cutting federal payments to doctors and hospitals.

“Some of it will look kind of reformish,” said James Capretta, an associate director of OMB in President George W. Bush’s first term, “but they’re going to go after the provider community in a big way."

* New head of OMB, previous director of the Congressional Budget Office

Afghnaistan .. A Russian Problem?

Danger Room - Wired Blogs: "Bakiyev caught the Pentagon by surprise earlier this month when he announced plans to close Manas, which the U.S. military has operated since late 2001. The announcement came after Russia offered over $2 billion in aid and credits to the Central Asian nation, but it also follows years of simmering resentment over U.S. management of the base. The Pentagon signed off on a fuel services contract that allegedly helped line the pockets of the family of former Kyrgyz President Askar Akayev; the 2006 shooting of a Kyrgyz truck driver by a base guard also stoked local anger."

Air Force Unplugs Blogs

Air Force Unplugs Bases' Internet Connections | Danger Room from Wired.com: "Network administrators at Air Force bases already put strict limitations on what sites their troops can and cannot visit. Many airmen can't access Danger Room, for example — or any site with the word 'blog' in the URL. That's in addition to Defense Department-wide bans on YouTube, MySpace and other social networking sites."

Haaretz Daily Newspaper Israel, Israeli News Source

Haaretz Daily Newspaper Israel, Israeli News Source: "Livni to Kadima: We're going to the opposition
Lieberman backs Netanyahu for PM; Labor, Meretz don't endorse anyone; Shas backs Netanyahu. 17:10 Haaretz.com TV
Tags: Israel News, Israel Elections"

This is very worrisome. The ruling alliance will be unstable in bad ways ... Shas and Liberman make very poor allies ... rather like the alliance the Repricans in the US made between bankers and radical religionists.

Where will this lead? It offers an opening to Hamas, the WRONG kind of opening. The people who manufacture suicide vests are quite capable of playing the holocaust card ... that is confronting Israel to force actions against Palestine. The tactic in some ways is like that of pacifists. Ghandi understood that there were real limits to the terror the Brits could endure .. not terror on the Brits but terror on the Indians. He provoked the Brits until they backed down. Hamas's take on Gandhi may be disgusting but it could work.

International - SPIEGEL ONLINE - Nachrichten

International - SPIEGEL ONLINE - Nachrichten: "THE PATH TO EXTREMISM
The Islamist Mindset 'Is Very Comfortable'

Ghaffar Hussain was once a radical Islamist with the group Hizb ut-Tahrir. Now he is part of the Quilliam Foundation, a British think tank seeking to combat extremism. He spoke with SPIEGEL ONLINE about the Islamist world view and the pleasant feeling of omniscience. more..."

The Silver Screen Predictions

FiveThirtyEight.com: Politics Done Right: "Best Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight (86% chance of victory)
Best Supporting Actress: Taraji P. Henson, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (51% chance of victory)
Best Actor: Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler (71% chance of victory)
Best Actress: Kate Winslet, The Reader (68% chance of victory)
Best Director: Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire (99.7% chance of victory)
Best Picture: Slumdog Millionaire (99.0% chance of victory)"

Pharyngula

Pharyngula: "Arkansas might let atheists run for office, at last

Category: Godlessness

It's an ugly little open secret that Arkansas, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas have constitutions that explicitly forbid atheists from holding state office. These laws are archaic and unenforceable in principle — they were all ruled unconstitutional in 1961 — but of course they're still in effect across all 50 states in practice, since public opinion makes it almost impossible for an atheist to get elected to high office."

Body scanners replace metal detectors in tryout at Tulsa airport - USATODAY.com

Body scanners replace metal detectors in tryout at Tulsa airport - USATODAY.com: "Body scanners replace metal detectors in tryout at Tulsa airport"

Goldy should run!

Politics Northwest | The Seattle Times: "Seattle Councilmember McIver to retire

Posted by Emily Heffter

Longtime Seattle City Councilmember Richard McIver said he doesn't plan to run for another term in office. He plans to retire, he said.

After serving on the council since 1997, he said, 'I want to go home and sit down.'"

Jews from Nigeria?

About The Film: "For generations, elders have told the story of the Igbos originating from the foreign land of Israel and descending from a forefather named Eri. With the recent introduction of the Internet, young curious Igbos have begun researching this possibility further, attempting to determine what this truly means. On slow, outdated computers in dark cybercafes, people like Shmuel Tikvah have started signing on and comparing Igbo traditions with Jewish traditions, and began finding a multitude of similarities between culture, ritual, language, worship and history."

Dining with terrorists ... DL for the Jihadi?

Al Jazeera English - GENERAL - Dining with terrorists: "Dining with terrorists

In a new six part series the author and journalist Phil Rees travelled to South Asia, the Middle East and the Americas to explore the debate and meaning of the word 'terrorism'."

BBC NEWS | Middle East | Syria urges better ties with US

Syria urges better ties with US

Mr Assad says his country is a "player" in the Middle East

President Bashar al-Assad of Syria has urged the US in a newspaper interview to engage in talks with Damascus and restore full diplomatic ties.

He told the UK's Guardian newspaper the signs coming from the Obama administration had been "positive".

But he said there had not yet been a definite change of policy from the US.

Why We KNow No Relevant Gid Exists

Pharyngula: "This is where the 'Science has no opinion on religion' argument leads us: ...there are no activities by a god that matter, where at best people can claim that their god is aloof and unknowable, admitting in their own premises that they have no knowledge at all of him."

Bipartisanship based on Swwediish Model!

DRUDGE REPORT 2009®: "OBAMA MOVES TOWARD 'SWEDISH MODEL' FOR BANKS"

“You should not get caught up on a word [nationalisation],” he told the Financial Times in an interview. “I would argue that we cannot be ideologically a little bit pregnant. It doesn’t matter what you call it, but we can’t keep on funding these zombie banks [without gaining public control]. That’s what the Japanese did.”

Barack Obama, the president, who has tried to avoid panicking lawmakers and markets by entertaining the idea, has moved more towards what he calls the “Swedish model” – an approach backed strongly by Mr Graham. In the early 1990s Sweden nationalised its banking sector then auctioned banks having cleaned up balance sheets. “In limited circumstances the Swedish model makes sense for the US,” says Mr Graham.

Dow nears 10-year low - International Herald Tribune

Dow nears 10-year low - International Herald Tribune: "Dow nears 10-year low"

Can someone tell me what this really means?

Back during the glory days of Clinton-Bush, I wrote about inflation in the stock market, what I might have called "investment inflation."

Ordinary inflation happens when there are too many dollars chasing too few goods. These goods, however, are tangibles. If a government prints money, then all prices will and should go up.

Investment inflation is the same thing, except for two differences. The first is that there may not be any tangible goods. Many of the "vehicles" developed by the stock market are intentionally insulated from tangible goods because, supposedly, this minimizes risk. However, minimizing apparent risk results in its own kind of inflation. If I can "safely invest" my money at some reasonable return rate, then it makes sense to leverage that investment. In effect, I would argue that the entire structure of our credit market .. world wide .. was at best an unsecured risk that encouraged an inflationary increase in investment capital.

The second difference between investment inflation and ordinary inflation, is that investment inflation has little effect on day to day purchases. Investment capital can grow hugely and may even decrease the cost of living by encouraging use of capital that makes money more efficient .. eg offshoring labor even when actual labor costs at home may be less. The result is the faux good times where costs remain constant but folks seem to have more money.

So what? If I am correct, then we have seen an implosion in investments but not a decrease in the underlying value of the economy. People still need cars and food, LCD TVs and cell phones.

As we burn of the inflationary investment capital, the value of invested money should come closer to the value of capital measured by its real productivity, if we can manage this descent without harming our underlying ability to produce and consume. In other words, the market will continue to fall until it reaches a level where the direct income from stocks .. that is the combination of dividends and increase in productivity of the investment, comes closer to its unleveraged values.

For most of us this may not be a bad thing. If we avoid ordinary inflation, our wealth will simply come closer to its real value without speculation. What happens if the purchasing power of real dollars starts to fail? We have seen this before, it was called stagflation.

We have achieved a kilosteve

Pharyngula:

"The Steve project has reached a landmark: 1000 scientists named Steve have signed a testimonial to evolution. Best of all, the latest Steve is also a Darwin!"

Holocaust: France responsible for deporting Jews, says court | World news | guardian.co.uk

Holocaust: France responsible for deporting Jews, says court | World news | guardian.co.uk: "France responsible for sending Jews to concentration camps, says court

First legal admission of country's collaboration in Nazi atrocities

Jews arriving at Pithiviers, one of the French camps from which they were deported, in 1941. Photograph: STR/AFP/Getty Images

Gee .. it has only taken sixty years!

"

Will the EU survive Bush's Recession?

EU Lacks Ideas and Direction in Economic Crisis

As the economy in the European Union sinks deeper into recession, Brussels has proven itself to be devoid of ideas and solutions. Member states are going it alone -- and often getting in each other's way. By SPIEGEL Staff more...

Why Do We Blockade Cuba?

Granma International, English Edition: "The blockade is unjust and anachronistic; it needs to end
ÁLVARO Colom Caballeros, president of the Republic of Guatemala, condemned the economic blockade imposed by the United States on Cuba for almost 50 years, after he arrived in Havana on Sunday night in response to an invitation by President Raúl Castro. 'The blockade continues to be unjust; it is anachronistic and it needs to end. The whole of Latin America supports that,' Colom said."

Trump Entertainment may file bankruptcy: report | Reuters

Trump Entertainment may file bankruptcy: report | Reuters: "PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - Trump Entertainment Resorts Inc, Donald Trump's casino group, is expected to file Tuesday for bankruptcy, The Wall Street Journal reported.
......

Such a filing would mark the third appearance in bankruptcy court for Trump Entertainment, which most recently emerged from bankruptcy proceedings in 2005, the newspaper said."

California lawmakers fail to pass budget deal - Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News | Sacramento Bee

California lawmakers fail to pass budget deal - Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News | Sacramento Bee: "California lawmakers fail to pass budget deal
ShareThis
By Steve Wiegand and Dan Smith
swiegand@sacbee.com
Published: Monday, Feb. 16, 2009 | Page 1A

California legislators tried and failed for a second day Sunday to close a $40 billion hole in the state's budget, still one Republican vote short of approving a package that contains $14.3 billion in tax increases."

The Republicans seem determined to lead us all into bankruptcy.

Conyers Wants to Conceal Federal Research?

Bill Banning NIH-Like Public Access Is Reintroduced in Congress - 2/4/2009 - Library Journal:

* Conyers is apparent ally of measure

As library observers expected, the Fair Copyright in Research Works bill, a controversial measure that would ban public access policies similar to those of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), was reintroduced in Congress last night, after being shelved at the end of 2008.

The bill resurfaces as proponents in the Association of American Publishers’ (AAP) Professional and Scholarly Publishing Division ..............................

The only rational for this bad legislation is the "need" of publishers .. from Elsevier (a near monopoly in academic publishing, owns Nature, Cell, etc) to make money reselling government federal work in the form of journal subscriptions or reprint rights. Elsevier aside, many professional societies, like newspapers, are having a hard time making money because of the ability of the web to replace their services. This has a political effect as well, since a major function of organizations like the American Society for Cell Biology or the American Heart Association is to lobby.

The problem is that this use of copyright stifles communication amongst scientists and, perhaps worse, availability of scientific research to the general public. The system even hurts research tools used by molecular biologists to search the literature since not all publishers are willing to put their content on line.

Support Open Access: Contact House Judiciary Committee Members to Save the NIH Public Access Policy

China Allows Research Bodies to Own State-funded Patents

See previous post with letter of text suggested by the public library of science.

Obamism in Russia

20:02 | Politics

Hope, change and reset

By Anna Arutunyan
Talks between Moscow and Barack Obama’s administration may yield a deal on nuclear weapons, Afghanistan and Iran

Historic German Stimulus Package Sails Through Bundestag

International - SPIEGEL ONLINE - Nachrichten: "Historic German Stimulus Package Sails Through Bundestag

Germany's lower house of parliament passed the largest stimulus package in the country's post-war history on Friday. Passage through the upper house, however, is far from a sure thing. more..."

Higher and higher

Heeb: home

Chewbacca: The Heeb Interview

Skeptical Brotha .. Obama as a TRUE conservative

Skeptical Brotha: "After listening to Barack Obama hold forth yesterday and today, it becomes evident that it is he who is the real compassionate conservative in American Politics ..... I am not encouraged and it does not sound to me like “Change We Can believe in.” Only time will tell. What did you think about all of this?"
it.

BBC NEWS | News Front Page

BBC NEWS | News Front Page: "Barack Obama Unlucky or naive?
Awkward times for Obama as cabinet choices fall like flies"

BBC NEWS | News Front Page

BBC NEWS | News Front Page: "Keyboard Microsoft bounty for worm creator
The software giant is offering $250,000 to help capture the person behind a nasty computer worm known as Conficker."

Can Microsoft retail succeed where others have failed? | Coop's Corner - CNET News

Can Microsoft retail succeed where others have failed? | Coop's Corner - CNET News: "Can Microsoft retail succeed where others have failed?"

Is it just me or is MS marketing becoming a shadow of Apple? Looks at these:

itunes begat zune
Apple store begat MStore
Apple adds begat (failed) MS ads

Jobs and co. are masterful marketers. MS seems better at IBM style corporate organization but does a terrible job of retail.

The issue is not just ads. The issues is products. For the non Apple infested, very few of the claims Apple makes to innovation are true. MS has pioneered many more new products. Look here:

pen computing ... Palm, HP, Compac
direct user to computer interface .. MS with Radio Shack
Powerpoint MS
notebooks .. anybody but apple

Even the iPOD was not invented at Cupertino, just packaged awfully well.

So here is my question ...

Exactly what will these MS stores sell? I do not mean product, I mean image. The Apple Stores sell an experience. They are as clubby as Playboy Clubs .."Hello, I am your Apple Guru" vs, :"Hello, I am Bunnie Judy." same old, same old.

I find it hard to imagine that the MS image is as marketable as the turtle necks Jobs wears. Who wants to be Steve Balmer?

beginning of my post. And here is the rest of it.

Leonardos bikini heeb babe ... Neander the White Guy

Sports Illustrated Swimsuit unveiled on Tuesday 23-year-old Refaeli as a first-time cover girl, wearing a string bikini by Missoni - and the strings on the bikini bottom are being tugged south. -- PHOTO: REUTERS

NEW YORK - THE world knows a lot more about Israeli-born Bar Refaeli today than it did yesterday, including where her tiny tan line falls.

In the meantime there is another miracle .. the Neanderthaler genome! Isn't this wonderful? A BOOK with the records of who we were 300,000 years ago is at least as wonderful as the Dead Sea Scrolls. One thing worries me? Few apes are "white" and it is likely that our common ancestors were black. Howsit that the artists here chose to make the Neanderthal guy look like a Russian peasant?

Oh well back to Israel's first babe ....

Sports Illustrated Swimsuit unveiled on Tuesday 23-year-old Refaeli as a first-time cover girl, wearing a string bikini by Missoni - and the strings on the bikini bottom are being tugged south.

see the video

Cubasoft

Cuba Declares Windows an Oppressive Security Threat, Develops Their Own Version of Linux

Cuban officials this week announced they've launched their own variant of Linux. Dubbed Nova, it's an attempt to rid their computers of U.S. hegemony, a.k.a. Microsoft. Viva la (open source) revolucion, siempre! More »

Dems Acting to Repress Public Information

HR 801 is federal legislation that would take tax payer funded research OUT of the public domain!  This is truly Bush-like andf would overturn an important effort in the Clinton years to increase access of all to research taxpayers fund. 
The scientific community is completely committed to public access because we live off of knowing what others are doing.  In contrast, megalopolistic publishers, eg Elsevier, claim to be able to copyright what we publish and then restrict who can read it based on subscriptions or sale of copy to the drug companies.

For those here who worry about drug companies, HR801 would protect them from the open scrutiny that has led to so many reforms in recent years.  For those who do n to trust folks like me, this bill encourages scientists to keep their work OUT of the public domain. 

I have no idea who authored this bad legislation.

The current NIH policy was hard won by Harold Varmus, the former head of the NIH. If ANYTHING we, the folks who spend your money to do research, would all like MORE free access than the current law provides.  This si a bad step in the other direction. 

Below is a draft of a letter the Public Library of Science (also founded by Varmus) is asking folks to send to their representatives.  I recommend also sending this directly to our new President.

Steve Schwartz
UW Professor of Pathology, Bioengineering, and Cardiology
aka Seattle Jew.


 

Dear Representative,
On behalf of *YOUR ORGANIZATION*, I strongly urge you to OPPOSE H.R. 801, "the Fair Copyright in Research Works Act," introduced to the House Judiciary Committee on February 3, 2009. This bill would amend the U.S. Copyright Code, prohibiting federal agencies from requiring as a condition of funding agreements public access to the products of the research they fund. This will significantly inhibit our ability to advance scientific discovery and to stimulate innovation in all scientific disciplines.
Most critically, H.R. 801 would reverse the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Public Access Policy, prohibit American taxpayers from accessing the results of the crucial biomedical research funded by their taxpayer dollars, and stifle critical advancements in life-saving research and scientific discovery.
Because of the NIH Public Access Policy, millions of Americans now have access to vital health care information from the NIH's PubMed Central database. Under the current policy, nearly 3,000 new biomedical manuscripts are deposited for public accessibility each month. H.R. 801 would prohibit the deposit of these manuscripts, seriously impeding the ability of researchers, physicians, health care professionals, and families to access and use this critical health-related information in a timely manner.
H.R. 801 affects not only the results of biomedical research produced by the NIH, but also scientific research coming from all other federal agencies. Access to critical information on energy, the environment, climate change, and hundreds of other areas that directly impact the lives and well-being of the public would be unfairly limited by this proposed legislation.
***INSERT WHY YOU SUPPORT THE NIH PUBLIC ACCESS POLICY***
The NIH and other agencies must be allowed to ensure timely, public access to the results of research funded with taxpayer dollars. Please OPPOSE H.R. 801.
Sincerely,

--
Stephen M. Schwartz
Pathology

China and Efficiency

China's Death Buses Deliver Executions, Organ Harvesting On the Go

By Adam Frucci, 11:10 AM on Wed Feb 11 2009, 40,837 views

If you're a criminal in China, you'll want to avoid its new death buses, vehicles that carry out executions while streaming live video of them, then provide some privacy for organ harvesting.

The buses, of which over 40 are currently in use, are replacing firing squads as China's preferred method of execution. The buses provide a setup for lethal injections, and the acts are carried out on streaming video so local authorities can observe and ensure that everything is done legally.

Critics say that the buses help the government secretly harvest organs to sell to the west, as there's already a doctor on hand to administer the injection and they never show the bodies between execution and cremation.

Hoo boy. China! Always good for a lighthearted story in the morning. You're welcome. [USA Today via Jalopnik]

HorsesAss.Org » Blog Archive » Stupid? Or just plain greedy?

"Individual greed vs a culture of greed?

Where is the line between the ordinary American with his two cars, a boat, 2500 sq ft house in Issaquah, 42 inch plasma, and $5 a cup lattes and this greed the media see at Wall street?

How many ordinary folks are upset that the UW almost spent $6mil/ year on a football coach or that we all spent $1,000,000,000 TEAR down a usable stadium and build a two palaces that cater to them what can afford luxury boxes?

Is it greed when the prexy of the Udub clears a mil? How about when an assembly line worker in Detroit needs $60k to lve a normal life?

I fear that the greed at the top is only a symptom of a society where vastly more students choose Law or Business than choose Engineering, Writing, or Agricultural Science?

All you non Udub types out there, are you happy about the erosion of the UW as an intellectual/cultural center? Is it a good idea to replace a place where WA kids can talk with historians and economists with watered down teaching enterprises like UW Tacoma or the proposed Bellevue State CC?

Does anyone actually think the driving force behind Reaganism was altruism?

Greed and unreasonable expectation of what we can all have is as American as … Corvettes."

Here is the beginning of my post. And here is the rest of it.

Crosscut - News of Seattle and the Pacific Northwest

Crosscut - News of Seattle and the Pacific Northwest: "Suburbs: cul-de-sac communes or apocalypse?

Posted Fri, Feb 6, 6 a.m.

By Knute Berger

As Puget Sound sprawls, the debate continues over how to reclaim, redeem, or raze the suburbs. To rethink the burbs, you first need to recognize their virtues."

Haaretz Daily Newspaper Israel, Israeli News Source

Haaretz Daily Newspaper Israel, Israeli News Source: "Wooed by Kadima and Likud, Lieberman agrees to more talks with Livni
Kadima head: Now is the time for unity; sources: Lieberman won't rule out sitting in coalition with Shas."

from Wiki

leader of the Yisrael Beiteinu party. A broad spectrum of mainstream media sources within and without Israel label Lieberman and his party, Yisrael Beiteinu, as extreme right^[2][3], far right^[4][5], hard right^[6], or radical right^[7]. They also characterize Lieberman and his party as hardline^[8][9], populist^[10][11], or ultra nationalist^[12][13][14].

In late May 2004, Lieberman proposed a plan in which the populations and territories of Israeli Jews and Arabs, including some Israeli Arabs, would be "separated". According to the plan, Israeli Arab towns adjacent to Palestinian Authority areas would be transferred to Palestinian Authority, and only those Arabs who felt a connection with the State of Israel and were loyal to it would be allowed to remain. On 30 May Prime Minister Ariel Sharon condemned Lieberman's statements, stating "We regard Israeli Arabs as part of the State of Israel."^[19] On 4 June 2004, as the disputes over the up-coming disengagement plan grew more intense, Sharon dismissed Lieberman from the cabinet.^[20][21]

Though Lieberman's plan would not uproot Arab residents from their homes, it would revoke their Israeli citizenship and transfer their sovereignty to the Palestinian Authority. The plan has drawn sharp criticism from both Left and Right of Israeli politics; by the former for its discriminatory overtones, and by the latter for the idea of ceding parts of the Land of Israel.^{[citation needed]}

According to Lieberman, "The peace process is based on three false basic assumptions; that Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the main cause of instability in the Middle East, that the conflict is territorial and not ideological, and that the establishment of a Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders will end the conflict."^[22]

In November 2006, Lieberman has called for the execution of any Arab Knesset member who meets with the majority elected and terrorist organization Islamist party Hamas, which advocates Israel's destruction, saying, "World War II ended with the Nuremberg trials. The heads of the Nazi regime, along with their collaborators, were executed. I hope this will be the fate of the collaborators in [the Knesset]."^[28]

As usual, the media do not help much. The idea of seeking peace based on folks, on both sides, choosing the people they wish to live with is not all that bad. Would those of us with deep roots in ancestral soil, not choose to live in a non-Jewish state of Palestine? In reverse, why wouldn't some Arabs choose to live in Israel while accepting the cultural identity of its majority?

Unfortunately, the media do not provide the insight needed to tell us whiter Lieberman is a creative rationalist or a corrupt demagogue.

Turkey Daily News

Turkey Daily News: "Seaside Properties Turkey"

Buying up in Turkey

ISTANBUL - Financial Times is recommending its readers buy residential or holiday homes next year, selecting the 10 top locations, it has included Turkey’s Belek, Altınkum and Bodrum’s coasts, with an emphasis on the ’substantial and beautiful coastline’

The Hindu : Front Page : ‘Hindutva Talibanisation’ decried

The Hindu : Front Page : ‘Hindutva Talibanisation’ decried: "HYDERABAD: Communist Party of India (Marxist) Polit Bureau member Sitaram Yechury has mooted a ‘third political alternative’ to the Congress and the communal parties in the country.

“In the present scenario of recession, rise in Hindutva Talibanisation and increasing joblessness, the only way out to save the country is the creation of third political alternative,” .......

“Is assaulting the hapless girls in Mangalore pub upholding country’s culture?” ........"

More from Fidel

granma.cu -The immediate response: "Thus, sooner rather than later, Obama’s politics are losing their virginity"

Whole theses could be drawn about this cartoon and about Castro's self serving criticisms of the USA.

First and funniest ... this Uncle Sam ... you now the white guy? Funny, he doesn't look very American anymore. (Does Cuba have its own "Sam?).

Then some odd details .. the music staff sans clef. Why do music staffs have a clef? For that matter why is a 747 shown dropping bombs while its landing gear are extended.

But, funniest of all, the self righteousness of Fidel! I am hardly a detractor, but this guy has been chums with some pretty dreadful regimes himself. Why play this game? Why not help shape the clay of the new President in a better way?

.

Hey Fidel .. who gave you that name?

Granma International, English Edition: "Rahm Emanuel
WHAT a strange surname! It appears Spanish, easy to pronounce, but it’s not. Never in my life have I heard or read about any student or compatriot with that name, among tens of thousands. Where does it come from? I wondered. Over and over, the name came to mind of the brilliant German thinker, Immanuel Kant, who together with Aristotle and Plato, formed a trio of philosophers that have most influenced human thinking. Doubtless he was not very far, as I discovered later, from the philosophy of the man closest to the current president of the United States, Barack Obama."

Strange, rambling essay by Fidel. By the way, he uses it to falsely claim that Rahm once joined the Israeli army. Has the old rebel entered dotage?

Moscow News

03:13 | News

Stalled car industry waits for a bailout

By Ed Bentley and Daria Chernyshova
As car factories resume production after extended New Year’s holidays, workers fear that firms may begin mass layoffs and salary cuts

Clearly the Bush heritage is anything but an American problem. Hasn't the time come for a new Breton Woods?

Any stimulus package that is limited to the US will fail for the same reason that Smoot Hawley failed. Self stimulation, economasturbation, IS a form o9f protectionism and will only result in a race to the bottom among economies.

International - SPIEGEL ONLINE - Nachrichten

Popular Rage Grows as Global Crisis Worsens

As the global economic crisis deepens, tempers around the world are getting shorter. French and British trade unions are organizing strikes, Putin is sending troops on to the streets and Beijing is trying to buy itself calm. By SPIEGEL Staff more...

Politics, Political News - Politico.com

Politics, Political News - Politico.com: "The 100-day sprint
Obama warns GOP he's no pushover
By JONATHAN MARTIN | 2/10/09 4:19 AM"

Is Netanhahu Bush?

As for yesterday's comic interlude, we had Netanyahu's joint appearance with the national orphan, Yitzhak Rabin's son Yuval. In a stumbling speech, Rabin announced that Netanyahu had "promised" to form a unity government. He then muttered under his breath that he himself intended to vote Labor. But that did not matter: Netanyahu had already gotten the picture he wanted.

What Rabin's parents would have thought of their son's performance is better left to the imagination

Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef voting in Jerusalem on election day Tuesday. (Jini)

My Way News - Huge study boosts disappointment on multivitamins

My Way News - Huge study boosts disappointment on multivitamins: "CHICAGO (AP) - The largest study ever of multivitamin use in older women found the pills did nothing to prevent common cancers or heart disease. The eight-year study in 161,808 postmenopausal women echoes recent disappointing vitamin studies in men.

Millions of Americans spend billions of dollars on vitamins to boost their health. Research has focused on cancer and heart disease in particular because of evidence that diets full of vitamin-rich foods may protect against those illnesses. But that evidence doesn't necessarily mean pills are a good substitute.

The study's lead author, researcher Marian Neuhouser of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, offered this advice: 'Get nutrients from food. Whole foods are better than dietary supplements,' Neuhouser said."

Stimulus bill narrowly survives Senate test vote

My Way News - Stimulus bill narrowly survives Senate test vote: "The Senate proposed $450 million for NASA for exploration, for example, $50 million less than the House. It also eliminated the House's call for money to combat a potential flu pandemic.

On the other hand, the Senate bill calls for several billion more in spending for research at the National Institutes of Health, the result of an amendment backed last week by Specter."

Why is NASA part of this other than pork? Does NASA increase US competitiveness?

NIH clearly does and the CDC is badly underfunded in case of a flu epidemic.

This thing is chaotic. Instead of stimulus bill, it is turning into an omnibus. Barney Frank said it best .. " the people elected "us" because they want this sort of spending." BULLSHIT. Worse, the Demicans may lose big time in 2010 because of this sort of inanity.

The bill ought to be clearly designated for immediate needs ..

..unemployment benefits, COBRE
..funds to be sure States do not lay off teachers and cops.

..long term investments that can be spent now AND benefit productivity are also wise ..NIH is great because it does get spent quickly and does have long term bennies too. Other examples ... Mass Transit, highway repairs, scholarships, ....

Meg Whitman To Run for Governor of California at BettyConfidential.com

Meg Whitman To Run for Governor of California at BettyConfidential.com: "Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is barred from running for a third term in 2010 by term limits. He served more than half of former Governor Gray Davis' term after Davis was recalled in 2003, which counts as a full term under the term-limit law. There has been some recent discussion by California legislators about changing the law.

Whitman, a moderate, who could fund her own campaign, is considered potentially a strong candidate. But she has rivals. Another anticipated GOP gubernatorial candidate, Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, is also a billionaire from Silicon Valley. But Whitman, like Poizner, could face a difficult Republican primary against a conservative candidate, such as State Senator Tom McClintock."

BBC NEWS | Middle East | Israel set for final campaign day

Israel set for final campaign day

Analysts are predicting a close race between Mr Netanyahu and Ms Livni

’Turkey pushed into international isolation’

’Turkey pushed into international isolation’: "Criticizing Israel and projecting a pro-Hamas stance is pushing Turkey into isolation in the international arena, Turkey’s former ambassador to Washington said in an interview with daily Milliyet published yesterday.

Stating that defending the Palestinian people and defending Hamas was not the same thing, Loğoğlu said being closer to Hamas would mean losing the role of mediator between Hamas and Fatah. 'If Turkey was able to preserve its previous distance to Hamas and El Fetih it would be better for everyone. But right now Turkey is situated right next to Hamas and against Israel and Fatah,' he noted."

MJ in Seattle .. Cancer of Testicles?

Marijuana use may increase the risk of developing testicular cancer, in particular a more aggressive form of the disease, according to a U.S. study published on Monday.

............

The risk appeared to be highest among men who had reported smoking marijuana for at least 10 years, used it more than once a week or started using it before age 18, the researchers wrote in the journal Cancer.

Stephen Schwartz* of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, one of the researchers, said the study was the first to explore marijuana's possible association with testicular cancer.

*Lee .. this is not SJ.

Large hadron Collider Soon to Staart Up

End of the Earth Soon?

Popular Science

Popular Science: "With all due respect to Snackwells, not all chocolate cookies taste the same. The human tongue, the stomach and the soul can tell the difference between a fat-free and a fat-filled snack. Sadly, so can the human waistline. But what if instead of eating less fatty food that taste so dang yummy, your body just absorbed less of the freaking fat? That’s the claim being made by Satisfit, a nutritional additive being developed not for a 3 am infomercial, but by the food and nutrition department of Dow. Hungry for more?"

.

Microsoft's Jordanian Policy

Jordan Keen on Cooperation With Microsoft: King: "AMMAN, May 20 (Xinhuanet) -- Jordanian King Abdullah Bin Hussein on
Monday said his kingdom was keen on cooperation with Microsoft, the
leading computer software company from the United States, to
develop the information technology (IT), e-government and
computerization of education.
He made the pledge in a meeting with Emrie Berkin, visiting
deputy director for Middle East, Europe and Africa of Microsoft,
Jordan's official Petra news agency reported."
.

U.S. Senator Warns of Terror Attacks by Groups Other Than Al Qaeda

U.S. Senator Warns of Terror Attacks by Groups Other Than Al Qaeda: "'Our enemy is not al Qaeda alone,' Senator Bob Graham, the U.S.
Senate Intelligence Committee chairman, told NBC's 'Today' show. '
We don't want to just be focused on al Qaeda in Afghanistan.'
'There are several international terrorist groups which have
abilities, in some cases greater abilities than al Qaeda, and a
similar desire to attack the United States,' he said.
Graham particularly mentioned Lebanon's Hizbollah and Egypt's
Islamic Jihad, saying the two groups have the capability and
desire to attack the United States.
The Democrat from Florida also said another terrorist attack on
the U.S. was almost certain."

A Better Tax System

HA Seattle: "FWIW … my dream system:

1. We should have two taxes .. one income and one of wealth.

2. Everyone should pay some tax, but the percentage should increase as income rises above levels needed to maintain basic needs, a middle class existance, and different levels above that. Set asides for savinf should exist but should be flat.

3. Social security, basic medical care, basic education should be paid by the government and should come out of the general tax. (No FICA)

2. Wealth should be taxed in a manner that reflects its productivity.

3. Universal needs for healthcare and education should be borne by the government. This includes k-12. Above that, the government should have scholarships based on need and ability. Univeral education should nto incur debt.

4. Bonding should be replaced by a current investment accounts, supported from the general fund. It idiotic to use binds for highway maintenance. BTW, the current misuse of the social security trust is an example of how this cold be done if the funds were from the general tax.

5. The dollar should cease being the world currency and we should have a national bank that directly controls the money supply.

…all said in ignorance of economics but out of a lack of conviction that economists know what the fuck they are doing."

Here is the beginning of my post. And here is the rest of it.

Why Blame the Right for the Controversy over the $1,000,000,000,000?

HorsesAss.Org » Blog Archive » Bankuporking: "I would not blame just the Repricans and the Fauxies.

Pelosi, Frank et al. seem not to understand the need to show discipline.

While BHO come on the tube and talks about tough decisions and hard times, the proclaimed liberals utterly fail to offer a consistent argument for their hodge podge of offerings. … or they say, the miscellany reflects political reality. The latter might work IF the Repricans and not shown a unified front. Instead it appears that in order to do good, Demos had to acquiesce to a smorgasbord.

Can Democrats show discipline?"

Senate Stimulus Bill (Full Text)

News: United States of Africa

NigerianNews::Nigerian News Portal; Unbridled and UnAfraid: "From Yusuf Alli, ManagingEditor, Northern Operation

Fresh facts emerged yesterday that President Yar’Adua decision to go on a two-week leave was partly to avoid being part of the election of Libyan President, Col. Muammar Ghadafi, as the Chairman of the African Union, AU.

Ghadafi was elected as the 53rd AU chairman on Monday. Some African leaders are uncomfortable with his choice.

It was learnt that President Yar’Adua was one of those opposed to the choice of Ghadafi because of the radical profile of the Libyan President and his ambitious United States of Africa project.

Highly-placed sources confided in our correspondent yesterday that Yar’Adua decided to go on vacation 'as a clever way of avoiding the African Union summit having learnt that Ghadafi was going to be elected chairman.

According to one of the sources, the Ethiopian Visa for the President and that of his aides had been processed before the change of mind by Yar’Adua."

http://www.nigeriannews.com/

Robo Porn

I don't know about you, but this image-which apparently was uploaded to Facebook-scares me. Maybe it is because I always thought that I was a robot when I was a kid, in the early 80s. More ».

Gizmodo, the Gadget Guide

Gizmodo, the Gadget Guide: "Broadband Cut Entirely From Stimulus Bill: Republicans Hate the Internets
Those jokers down in Washington finally compromised on the economic stimulus bill, with the Republican minority succeeding in cutting out huge swathes of spending. Among the casualties is the $2 billion for universal broadband. More »"

Here is the beginning of my post. And here is the rest of it.

Shepard Fairey Arrested In Boston

Shepard Fairey Arrested In Boston: "BOSTON — A street artist famous for his red, white and blue 'Hope' posters of President Obama has been arrested on warrants accusing him of tagging property with graffiti, police said Saturday.

Shepard Fairey, 38, was arrested Friday night on his way to the Institute of Contemporary Art for a kickoff event for his first solo exhibition, called 'Supply and Demand.'

Two warrants were issued for Fairey on Jan. 24 after police determined he'd tagged property in two locations with graffiti based on the Andre the Giant street art campaign from his early career, police Officer James Kenneally said Saturday."

Ecstasy? It's horse play, says drug adviser - Times Online

Ecstasy? It's horse play, says drug adviser - Times Online: "The professor said equasy - short for equine addiction syndrome - caused more than 100 deaths a year. ...........He writes: “The point was to get people to understand that drug harm can be equal to harms in other parts of life. There is not much difference between horse rising and ecstasy.”"

Public Schools

Times Online | News and Views from The Times and Sunday Times: "Cameron to send his children to state school
Conservative leader David Cameron

The Conservative Party leader said: 'It's crazy that we should pay lots of money for private schools. We all pay our taxes'"

Cuts ground Flight Simulator

BBC NEWS | Technology | Job cuts ground Flight Simulator: "The future of Microsoft's long running Flight Simulator series has been cast into doubt, after the software maker US laid-off the entire development team."

The Hindu : Front Page News : Saturday, February 07, 2009

The Hindu : Front Page News : Saturday, February 07, 2009: "Bar sought on bailed out firms hiring H-1B visa holders
Washington: An amendment seeking to bar U.S. companies, which receive federal bailout money, from hiring H-1B visa holders has been introduced in the Senate, a move likely to impact Indian IT professionals if it is approved. The ..."

International - SPIEGEL ONLINE - Nachrichten

ISRAELI ELECTIONS

Netanyahu Poised to Return to Power

Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's prime minister 10 years ago, is preparing to celebrate a comeback when Israelis go to the polls on Feb. 10. His personality is as polarizing as ever but his right-wing Likud party represents the new consensus following the recent Gaza war. By Christoph Schult more...

लूसी'स jaw

NigerianNews::Nigerian News Portal; Unbridled and UnAfraid

NigerianNews::Nigerian News Portal; Unbridled and UnAfraid: "Epidemic Corruption in our Educational Systems and the Future of Nigeria (IV)
by Dr. Yushau Balarabe
I have narrated in the last three articles some corrupt practices in our educational system. With these practices so rampant, it is noted that our educational system is now playing a negative role. Rather than training our children to become good citizen of this country, the training is now towards inculcating bad behaviors to them. The main message I am trying to pass on to all is that these bad behaviors that our students are learning in our schools will certainly have a very serious ramification to their behavior after school. NigerianNews Guest Column | (I) (II) (III)"

Popegate?

International - SPIEGEL ONLINE - Nachrichten: "THE WORLD FROM BERLIN
'Merkel Had to React'

Chancellor Angela Merkel's unprecedented demand that Pope Benedict XVI clarify the church's position on the Holocaust is still reverberating on Thursday, more...

* Losing Touch: A German Pope Disgraces the Catholic Church
* German Jewish Leader: 'What Benedict Did Is Unforgivable'

German authorities have come under renewed pressure to track down surviving Nazi war criminals after the discovery this week that a notorious concentration camp doctor lived out his days in Cairo and died a free man.

Aribert Heim, known as "Doctor Death" for the appalling experiments he performed on concentration camp prisoners, was revealed this week to have spent his last decades living as a convert to Islam under the name Tarek Hussein Farid in a run-down Cairo hotel.

According to his son Ruediger, Heim died of cancer in August 1992.

Former Chief of Staff to Obama: Put Your Jacket On - The Caucus Blog - NYTimes.com

Former Chief of Staff to Obama: Put Your Jacket On - The Caucus Blog - NYTimes.com: "“The Oval Office symbolizes…the Constitution, the hopes and dreams, and I’m going to say democracy. And when you have a dress code in the Supreme Court and a dress code on the floor of the Senate, floor of the House, I think it’s appropriate to have an expectation that there will be a dress code that respects the office of the President.”

Mr. Card went on to add that, while he would not criticize Mr. Obama for his appearance, “I do expect him to send the message that people who are going to be in the Oval Office should treat the office with the respect that it has earned over history.”

As the Times’ Sheryl Gay Stolberg reported last week, Mr. Obama and Mr. Bush have, among other distinctions, drastically different views on White House dress codes."

Do Democrats have Special Underwear?

on Goldy ...

Do devout democrats have special underwear?

Goldy knows a lot more about politics than I do, but he is wrong an one issue. We Goldyites who diss McD do not do so just becaue McD does a poor job of serving pork on the District platter. Our opposition comes from a lack of belief that McD is effective in Congress.

Pork is a tricky term. Pork can include support for interest groups that have nothing special to do with this District. Support for teachers salaries, immigrants' rights, the interstate highway system, environment, Pell grants ... are these pork? This District has large communities with such "specia" interests ... education, research, intellectual property, fishing, US:Canada ties, etc etc. If McD even knows about these issues he is hardly visible.

Goldy has his own "pork" commitments. He cares deeply about mass transit and public education. Good issues that include real needs for funding. Where is McD on these issues?

As our Congressman McD should show leadership on local matters as well. Where is he on the Mayor's urbanization issues or the systematic disassembly of our schools or the Viaduct .. or anything where his opinion matters? For that matter, where is McD on the impending death of the PI? Our Congressman reminds me mor of the talking head Ted Baxter from the Mary Tyler Moore show than a he does of own of the partisans in the West Wing.

I think I understand the sources for Goldy's support for McD. Goldy is an old world politician. Do devout democrats like Mormons have special underwear? If so, I suspect Goldy's is verwell worn. This guy loves caucuses, party politics, the show on TV, and the drama of the political scene. That drama also appeals to Goldy, the writer and dramatist.

What I would like to know is whether Goldy's accolades to McD for SCHIP are at all deserved. How much of the final passage is owed to McD's leadership?


Maybe the key to understanding Goldy's support for Jim McD is Goldy's love of drama. We may all be actors in a Goldy run reality show, sort of a Seattle Cheers. Has anyone looked to see if there are hidden cameras recording the action at DL? Am I character in Goldy's drama too?

First SJ criticism of Obama

Joanie

Sorry but I tend to side with the Polisi-flubbed-it crowd on this. Barack also deserves some blame for the porkish flavor of the house bill..

I see two problem with the house bill.

1. Obama made a critical, Clinton-like, argument that these dollars were to be investments rather than expenditures. Unfortunately, much of the House bill is spent on current needs ... assuring that teachers are not fired, extending COBRE, extending unemployment, and decreasing, for ashort time the social security tax. These all make sense but they are tradtitional safety net measures not investments.

A truly silly example was the effort by Peolosi to reform Bush era law on birth control. This actually cost little or nothing BUT it looked like special interest legislation and any argument that this was a high priority of insuring future productivity was contrived.

Bottom line, Pelosi hurt the effort by making the investment idea look like an excuse to do what had to be done anyway.

2. The bill provides very little finding that can be recognized as investments. Almost no money is set for R&D, reforms of the investment tax credit are missing, there is nothing identifiable as VC, etc.

In part this is the result of a concatenation of two incompatible ideas .. investment and emergency. Look here in the PNW. We can almost hear the creaping rust in our transportation system. Boeing may end up leaving simply because they can not move anything from Everett to the Columbia, the UW is teetering on a leveraged edge not appropriate for a state school, our college level facilities are shrinking, etc. BUT, very little of this can be fixed by spending any amount of money over the next 24 months.

What I believe BHO needs to do is to educate the public as to the need for investment and separate that need form the serious but short term needs of a failed Bush economy. The investment part should not be a teo year package. To work it needs to be a long term plan that actually does improve our infrastructure and doers give the private sector the long term vision to reinvest in US.

Moscow News - World - For the Obamas, going out just got tougher

Moscow News - World - For the Obamas, going out just got tougher: "As a state senator, Obama once taped an episode of a local restaurant review show in 2001. He praised the peach cobbler at Dixie Kitchen and Bait Shop, and warned against filling up on the corn cake appetizers.

'I've learned from past mistakes,' he said. 'I've got to be cautious.'

Obama's episode of 'Check, Please!' never aired at the time. Released just before the inauguration, it's now a YouTube sensation."

The Dynamic Duo

Mrs. Obama thanks Education Department - Yahoo! News: "Some observers had not expected Mrs. Obama to be so publicly active so soon in her husband's presidency.

'It really does surprise me because I had gotten the opposite impression from those statements about being first mom-in-chief,' said Myra Gutin, a first lady historian and professor at Rider University in New Jersey.

Mrs. Obama said Monday's visit to the Department of Education would be the first of many to government departments and agencies in the coming weeks and months 'to say 'hello,' to learn, to listen, to take info back where possible.'

A visit to the Department of Energy was planned for Wednesday."

Mrs. Obama thanks Education Department - Yahoo! News

Mrs. Obama thanks Education Department - Yahoo! News: "In thanking the workers, she told them: 'I am a product of your work.'

'I wouldn't be here if it weren't for the public schools that nurtured me and helped me along,' said Mrs. Obama, a Chicago native who attended its public schools as a child. Her two daughters attend private school in Washington, as they did in Chicago."

Call for pope to step down over Holocaust denier

Call for pope to step down over Holocaust denier: "Attacks on Pope Benedict XVI's decision to lift the excommunication of a Holocaust denier escalated Monday, with one theologian calling on him to step down as the head of the Roman Catholic Church.

Criticism following the pope's January 24 announcement has been particularly cutting in Germany, where denying the Holocaust is a crime punishable with a jail sentence.

'If the pope wants to do some good for the Church, he should leave his job,' eminent liberal Catholic theologian Hermann Haering told the German daily Tageszeitung."

Nigeria .. from the CIA

NigerianNews::Nigerian News Portal; Unbridled and UnAfraid: "Dr. Thomas Fingar, the Chairman of the National Intelligence Council (NIC), recently presented and discussed his report titled the “Global Trends 2025” and among many other things, has predicted a bleak future for Nigeria if certain identified indicators were not addressed before 2025. Although, Dr. Fingar was at pains to explain that the purpose of the 120-page report was not to make concrete predictions, but rather to “stimulate strategic thinking about how trends will evolve in the future… And the goal is to provide an opportunity, as people begin to settle into jobs, to think about their own areas of responsibility in a broader, global context.” , I have made extracts that relates to Nigeria, even when these have not been specifically addressed or mentioned. These have been done to highlight the fallacy or otherwise, of this report and to examine if any of the matters it raised should be of concern to our leaders, Nigerians and if these are even relevant to us as a nation."

Obama seen from Nigeria

NigerianNews::Nigerian News Portal; Unbridled and UnAfraid: "Obama’s bumpy ride to the White House
by Tunde Adenodi.
< font> November 20, 2008
Let us allow our imagination to run wild for only a fleeting moment: Suppose Barack Obama won the presidential election hands down like he just did and suppose the incumbent, the lame-duck US President George W. Bush announced with an unsigned statement that he was annulling the election because of fear of “judicial anarchy”, what reaction do you expect from Ibrahim Babangida, Abdulsalami Abubakar or Sani Abacha, were he to be alive? What would Obasanjo say? Or Buhari? Or all the anti-democracy leaders who have led us to the cul-de-sac we have found ourselves in since independence? Can you imagine the stress the US would have to go through? Can anyone imagine the stress the whole democratic world would have to go through? NigerianNews Special< font>"

Here is the beginning of my post. And here is the rest of it.

Castro on Obama

Granma International, English Edition: "Reflections of Fidel
Deciphering the thinking
of the new president
of the United States
IT isn’t too difficult. After his inauguration, Barack Obama stated that the return of the territory occupied by the Guantánamo Naval Base to its legitimate owner had to be carefully considered, in the first place, in terms of whether it would affect the defense capacity of the United States in the most minimal way

...It is the mode of sharing in the genocide of Palestinians into which our friend Obama has fallen. He is offering similar sweeteners to Russia, China, Europe, Latin America and the rest of the world, after the United States converted Israel into an important nuclear power that annually absorbs a significant part of the exports of the empire’s prosperous military industry, with which it is threatening, with extreme violence, the population of all countries of Muslim faith.."

Here is the beginning of my post. And here is the rest of it.

Jerusalem Post | Breaking News from Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish World

Jerusalem Post | Breaking News from Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish World: "Official: Aliya from Turkey to double
Jewish Agency says rates low despite antisemitism; Venezuela's chief rabbi questions local Jews' future."

Jerusalem Post | Breaking News from Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish World

Jerusalem Post | Breaking News from Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish World: "Chavez condemns attack on synagogue
In televised speech, Venezuelan president suggests his political foes are responsible for vandalism."


I am shocked, shocked.