Tuesday, January 15, 2013

The Infection Deception



– APRIL 1, 2009

POSTED IN: ARTICLES

 PDF

Len Saputo, MD

April 1, 2009

On October 23, 2009, President Barack Obama declared the swine flu outbreak a national emergency, plunging the H1N1 controversy ever more deeply into an Orwellian world of disinformation, fear, and confusion. The government’s program of swine flu vaccination was already the most ambitious of its kind since the anti-polio campaign of the 1950s. And now, this surprise declaration from the president raised anxiety levels by giving federal health officials much greater powers in the face of a supposed pandemic. The ostensible reason for Obama’s heavy-handed act – at least according to the official explanation – was merely to authorize hospitals to set up emergency health-care operations in nonstandard ways and locations. Yet this explanation was odd in the extreme, given that a national emergency declaration is just not necessary in order to simply waive something as simple as hospital-tent rules; Obama could have easily accomplished the same thing with an executive order.1



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... sacrifice every principle which enters into its Constitution



A time is coming when the law of God is, in a special sense, to be made void in our land. The rulers of our nation will, by legislative enactments, enforce the Sunday law, and thus God's people be brought into great peril. When our nation, in its legislative councils, shall enact laws to bind the consciences of men in regard to their religious privileges, enforcing Sunday observance, and bringing oppressive power to bear against those who keep the seventh-day Sabbath, the law of God will, to all intents and purposes, be made void in our land; and national apostasy will be followed by national ruin. We see that those who are now keeping the commandments of God need to bestir themselves, that they may obtain the special help which God alone can give them. They should work more earnestly to delay as long as possible the threatened calamity. If, in our land of boasted freedom, a Protestant government should sacrifice every principle which enters into its Constitution, and propagate papal falsehood and delusion, well may we plead, "It is time for thee, Lord, to work, for they have made void thy law." Some may think that because it has been revealed in prophecy that our nation shall restrict the consciences of men, it must surely come; and that if we make an effort to preserve our liberty, we shall be acting the part of unfaithful servants, and thus come under the condemnation of God. {RH, December 18, 1888 par. 6}


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Zero Dark Thirty Protested By Religious Group For Depictions Of Torture


Jaweed Kaleem
Jaweed.Kaleem@huffingtonpost.com


Posted: 01/14/2013 6:54 pm EST | Updated: 01/15/2013 10:48 am EST



As the controversy continues over torture scenes in Zero Dark Thirty, the film about the hunt to capture Osama bin Laden, a group called the National Religious Campaign Against Torture has joined to protest the gruesome depictions of torture in the movie by leafletting showings of it nationwide.

"Hundreds of thousands of people will see Zero Dark Thirty, and many of them will walk out of the theater believing they saw the truth," said the Rev. Richard Killmer, Executive Director of NRCAT. "But the film is not based on the facts about torture. It is a work of fiction that depicts graphic acts of torture; it is neither investigative journalism nor congressional oversight. The movie’s inappropriate -– and dangerous –- implication that the use of torture by U.S. authorities produced critical intelligence, including finding Osama bin Laden, is inaccurate."

The campaign is happening at movie theaters in New York City; Los Angeles; Chicago; Pittsburgh; Portland, Ore.; Buffalo, N.Y.; West Hartford, Conn.; New Haven, Conn.; and Austin, Texas. The group also organized an interfaith prayer service on Friday afternoon during which Catholic, Protestant, Muslim and Jewish leaders described why their traditions oppose torture and called for President Barack Obama to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay. (Friday was the 11th anniversary of the day the first detainees were imprisoned at the detention center).

The organization is also targeting current efforts in the Senate Intelligence Committee, which late last year released a 6,000-page report on its three-year investigation into the U.S. government’s use of torture during interrogations. The purpose of NRCAT's campaign is "to publicize the torture report’s findings so Americans know the truth about torture committed by their government in their name," organizers said in a statement.

The film has found criticism not only among activists, but in the government itself. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), members of the Intelligence Committee, have come out against the film's depiction that torture netted important information in the hunt for bin Laden. McCain said filmmakers fell "hook, line and sinker" about the use of torture in catching bin Laden.


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Obama Plans to Circumvent Congress?

Obama

Pete Souza / The White House

The president will unveil his plan to address gun violence Wednesday -- and critics are already accusing him of 'overstepping.'


19 executive actions he could take



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Smog or smoke? Zhejiang factory fire burns for three hours before residents notice

Amy Li



Tourists take photos amid heavy fog in Shanghai on Monday. Photo: Xinhua

A furniture factory in China’s Zhejiang province became the latest victim to the heavy smog that has blanketed Beijing and several provinces and municipalities in northern and eastern China in the last few days.

The fire that engulfed the 1,000 sq m factory around midnight on Monday went unnoticed for three hours. It was hard for residents to tell the smoke from the smog, reported Xinhua state agency on Monday.

When the residents finally reported the fire three hours later, it was already out of control.

It took firefighters 10 hours to put out the blaze, which had destroyed a large number of ready-made furniture, said Xinhua.

Beijing authorities on Tuesday have closed 100 chemical plants, construction sites and factories temporarily or cut back production to curb the worst air pollution in years.

While Beijing’s municipal government said it was the worst smog in many years, provinces including Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui and Hebei have also reported worsening air quality in the past few days.



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Saturday, January 12, 2013

World War III or? by James Arrabito




TheTruthProductions1


Published on Jul 10, 2012


World War III or? John the Revelator, by James Arrabito An Investigation into earth's final destiny. 15 fascinating presentations on the book of Revelation. This is part 14) World War III - or? An Investigation into earth's final destiny. 15 fascinating presentations on the book of Revelation. 1) Visions of Patmos. 2) Fall of the Dragon. 3) Mysterious Symbols - of What? 4) Foundation of the World. 5)The Throne of God. 6) The Day Time Ended. 7) World Revolution. 8) The Lost Years of Christianity. 9) The Beast from the Sea. 10) The Mark of the Beast. 11) The Whore Rides Again. 12) Origin of the Aquarian Age. 13) The Return of the Dragon. 14) World War III - or? 15) Home from the Heavens. To order this Video
go to LLT Productions: http://lltproductions.org/index.shtml

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Joe Maniscalco - Gods Holy Day




TheMedien

Uploaded on Jan 9, 2011


No description available.

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Jim Arrabito - Maybe on Sunday




TheMedien

Uploaded on Jan 9, 2011


No description available.

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Wednesday, January 09, 2013

Washington National Cathedral to Hold Same-Sex Weddings


By LAURIE GOODSTEIN
Published: January 9, 2013




The Washington National Cathedral, the nation’s traditional host of prayer services for presidents and memorial services to mark national tragedies, announced on Wednesday that it will now also hold weddings for same-sex couples.



Evan Vucci/Associated Press

Rev. Gary Hall is dean of the Washington National Cathedral, where same-sex marriages will be held soon.


Related

Times Topic: Same-Sex Marriage, Civil Unions, and Domestic Partnerships

Illinois Clergy Members Support Same-Sex Marriage in Letter Signed by 260 (December 24, 2012)


The cathedral, a neogothic landmark in northwest Washington, is the seat of the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church and the Washington diocese. Episcopalians voted at their convention last summer to authorize an official liturgy for blessing same-sex unions, bringing the church in line with other liberal Christian and Jewish denominations that sanction gay marriage.

The cathedral’s decision is not surprising for a denomination that has paid a price for its stance, shedding members and setting off an uproar in the international Anglican Communion to which it belongs by consecrating its first openly gay bishop in 2003.

But the cathedral’s step carries weight because of its historic role as the nation’s unofficial capitol of worship, where Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan were eulogized, where the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his last Sunday sermon and where the nation mourned the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Later this month, the cathedral will host the second inaugural prayer service for President Obama.

The cathedral’s dean, the Very Rev. Gary Hall, said, “We have a lot of gay and lesbian Christians. What the National Cathedral is saying by doing this is we want to give faithful lesbian, bisexual, gay and transgender people the same tools for living their lives faithfully that straight people have always had, and marriage is one of those tools. This comes out of even more of a theological understanding, for me, than it does out of a political agenda.”

Nine states and the District of Columbia have legalized marriage for gay couples. Not all Episcopal bishops have allowed priests to bless same-sex unions, but the Bishop of Washington, Mariann Edgar Budde, who oversees parishes in the district and parts of Maryland, recently allowed such unions after Maryland’s voters approved gay marriage in November.

Bishops in five dioceses, and priests in at least 100 parishes, have broken from the Episcopal Church since it consecrated its first openly gay bishop, Gene Robinson, in New Hampshire in 2004. Bishop Robinson recently retired. The church’s headquarters in New York says membership has held steady at 2.2 million, though others say membership has declined.

The Washington National Cathedral has about one thousand regular congregants and many more visitors who attend Sunday services. Dean Hall said the cathedral marries only couples who are congregants, volunteers, donors or graduates of the cathedral’s schools, but there are no gay couples yet “in the pipeline.”

Three years ago, before there was an officially sanctioned rite, the cathedral held a private wedding ceremony for a gay couple on its staff that was presided over by John Chane, the previous Bishop of Washington, a cathedral spokesman said. Dean Hall said members of the selection committee that interviewed him last year made it clear that they wanted the cathedral to bless same-sex marriages.


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The Real Gangnam Style



No, not the PSY inspired Gitty-up Horsey Dance




"Gangnam Style" first video to hit 1B YouTube views - CBS News


The Real Gangnam Style is the way that so much of what is consumed in America proceeds out of South Korea.

Android, iOS nab 82 percent of smartphone market in Q1 | Apple ...

IDC: Android grabbed 75 percent of smartphone market in Q3


75-82 percent of smartphone market is Android, and ,,,,


Samsung's Android success story | ZDNet
by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes - in 1,687 Google+ circles -More by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes
Nov 15, 2012 – Samsung has managed to take Google's Android mobileplatform and create ... capturing more than 50 percent of the smartphone market in less than three years. ..

And, 50% of Android Phones are made by Samsung, a South Korean Company.







Hyunday and Kia





10 year warranty or 100,00 Miles?




"Gangnam Style"



UN Secretary-General Ban ki Moon



Kamsahamnida


How do they do it?



"Gangnam Style"


Laughing all the way to the bank (ban-ki).


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Supreme Court to decide whether police can take your blood without your permission


Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

The Supreme Court is back in session, with several big cases and decisions yet to come on issues of civil rights including the voting rights act, same sex marriage and affirmative action in school admissions. NBC's

Pete Williams reports from Washington.


By M. Alex Johnson, NBC News

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments Wednesday in a landmark Fourth Amendment case that could clear up almost 50 years of uncertainty over the constitutionality of blood tests that are taken without a suspect's consent.

The case involves a traffic stop in Missouri, but its ramifications could range far wider, potentially rewriting drunk-driving laws in all 50 states.

"It comes down, basically, to are you going to see blood draws every single time someone gets pulled over for a DUI," said Michael A. Correll, a litigator with the international law firm Alston & Bird, who examined the legality of blood draws in the West Virginia Law Review last year.

Because drunk-driving stops are such an everyday occurrence, "it's going to affect a broad area of society," he told NBC News, adding: "This may be the most widespread Fourth Amendment situation that you and I are going to face" for the foreseeable future.

Writing last month in the journal of the Texas District and County Attorneys Association, Lauren Owens, a research attorney for the organization, said, "The outcome of the case could lead to a dramatic increase in the number of DWI cases supported by blood evidence."

The case began in October 2010, when Tyler McNeely of Cape Girardeau, Mo., about 100 miles south of St. Louis, was pulled over for speeding. According to court documents, McNeely was unsteady and failed field sobriety tests, so state Highway Patrol Cpl. Mark Winder asked him to take a breath test.

Even before Supreme Court rules, gay marriage battles rage in the states

When McNeely refused, Winder took him to a hospital, where McNeely refused to take a blood test. Winder told the lab technician to take a sample anyway. The record shows that at no time did Winder seek a warrant compelling the test, which indicated that McNeely's blood-alcohol level was almost double the legal limit.

But McNeely's lawyers persuaded the trial judge to exclude the evidence as a warrantless search in violation of the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Here's where it gets complicated. Earlier in 2010, the Missouri Legislature changed the state's "implied consent" law, which says that if you drive on Missouri's roads, you've automatically consented to take a sobriety test.

The previous language said explicitly that if you refused to take a test, then "none shall be given" and the refusal itself could be used as evidence against you.

The new language left out the four words "none shall be given," re-emphasizing that the driver had consented simply by having gotten behind the wheel in the first place. Winder testified that he had read a journal article about the change and said he made a "conscious decision" not to seek a warrant "due to the law changes."

On appeal, the state argued that no warrant was needed because of a 1966 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in a California DUI case that laid out circumstances under which law enforcement could order a blood test without a warrant.

Supreme Court lets embryonic stem cell research go forward

In general, a person's blood is protected under the Fourth Amendment, Chief Justice William Brennan wrote in Schmerber v. California (.pdf): "Search warrants are ordinarily required for searches of dwellings, and, absent an emergency, no less could be required where intrusions into the human body are concerned."

But Brennan noted that Armando Schmerber, the driver in the California case, had been in an accident. Because the officer had to investigate the scene and make sure Schmerber was taken to a hospital for treatment, "there was no time to seek out a magistrate and secure a warrant" before the driver's body metabolized the alcohol in his system, Brennan wrote.

So Brennan carved out what he called a "stringently limited" exception to the Fourth Amendment's warrant requirement because of the likelihood that evidence — the alcohol in the driver's blood — would be destroyed during the delay. That clause has come to be known as the "exigent circumstances" or "special facts" exception.

Missouri argued that delaying McNeely's blood test while the officer sought a warrant amounted to an exigent circumstance because the alcohol in his blood would be destroyed. McNeely argued that because his case involved a straightforward DUI stop — he wasn't in an accident, unlike Schmerber in 1966 — Winder had plenty of time to seek a warrant.

Missouri's Supreme Court agreed with McNeely in January 2012, writing (.pdf):

The patrolman here, however, was not faced with the "special facts" of Schmerber. Because there was no accident to investigate and there was no need to arrange for the medical treatment of any occupants, there was no delay that would threaten the destruction of evidence before a warrant could be obtained. ... The sole special fact present in this case, that blood-alcohol levels dissipate after drinking ceases, is not a per se exigency pursuant to Schmerber justifying an officer to order a blood test without obtaining a warrant from a neutral judge.

As the court itself noted, Brennan stressed 47 years ago that his analysis was expressly limited to the facts of the Schmerber case, but that hasn't stopped various state and federal courts from referring to it over the years, not all of them reading it the same way.

So in May, the state of Missouri asked the U.S. Supreme Court (.pdf) to step in because "this emerging conflict on a fundamental Fourth Amendment issue will likely continue to divide courts throughout the United States."

Watch US News videos on NBCNews.com

The federal government has sided with Missouri, writing in a friend-of-the-court brief (.pdf) that "the fact that the evidence of intoxication is necessarily leaving the suspect's system provides the required exigency." Prosecutors from across the country joined to file a similar brief (.pdf).

But the American Civil Liberties Union, which is representing McNeely, argued that there were no special circumstances trumping the Fourth Amendment.

In any event, it told the Supreme Court (.pdf), the issue is groundless, because — as he testified himself — the arresting officer ordered the blood test because he thought he could, not because of any "special facts." That means it's "a strange case in which to construe the exigency exception to the Fourth Amendment," the ACLU argued.

The court's decision is likely to come down to one simple question, Correll said: "Did Schmerber create a blanket exception to the Fourth Amendment or didn't it?"

"What does the court indicate the emergency is?" he asked. "Is the emergency the inability to get a warrant in a set period of time, or is the emergency that the blood alcohol is dissipating?"

As for McNeely, he's not off the hook even if he wins. Under a separate law that isn't at issue, his driver's license was revoked because he refused to take the breath and blood tests. And both sides agree that the blood test wasn't the only evidence against him, meaning he could still be convicted of felony drunk driving.


Source
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More Than a Dozen Injured in Ferry Accident in Lower Manhattan




By MARC SANTORA

Published: January 9, 2013


A ferry crashed as it was docking in Lower Manhattan on Wednesday morning, injuring at least 17 people, according to fire officials.

The cause of the accident, which occurred around 8:45 a.m. at Pier 11, at South Street and Gouverneur Lane, was not immediately clear, according to a spokesman for the New York Fire Department.

A massive gash in the ferry could be seen, and passengers, speaking on local television stations, described a huge jolt as the ferry pulled into the dock.

The ferry, operated by Sea Streak Ferry, provides daily service from Atlantic Highlands and Conners Highlands in New Jersey to Lower Manhattan, and can accommodate several hundred passengers.

The president of the ferry company, James R. Barker, told NBC News that there were 300 people on the ferry and that many of those who were injured were thrown from their seats.

Chris Avore, speaking to ABC News, said the impact was similar to what one might feel in a car crash.

“Almost no one knew what was going on,” he said.



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Judge rules San Antonio school district can transfer student with religious objections to tracking IDs




Bob Owen/San Antonio Express-News

The family of a student in the San Antonio area views an ID badge with a locator chip as "a mark of the beast." Her family lost a ruling to prevent Northside ISD from transferring her.


The Associated Press

Published: 08 January 2013 09:51 PM



SAN ANTONIO — A school district can transfer a student who is citing religious reasons for her refusal to wear an identification card that is part of an electronic tracking system, a federal judge ruled Tuesday.

The parents of 15-year-old Andrea Hernandez had requested a preliminary injunction that would have prevented the school district from transferring their daughter from her San Antonio high school while the lawsuit on whether she should be forced to wear the tracking badge went through federal court.

Last fall, the Northside Independent School District began experimenting with locator chips in student ID badges on two campuses. Hernandez’s lawsuit argues that the ID rule violates her religious beliefs. Her family says the badge is a “mark of the beast.”

But U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia denied a request Tuesday to stop her from being transferred, saying the badge requirement “has an incidental effect, if any, on [Hernandez’s] religious beliefs.”

Garcia also wrote in his ruling that because Hernandez has worn a previous ID badge for several years, her refusal to wear the new badge “is clearly a secular choice rather than a religious concern.”

He said if Hernandez refuses the school district’s accommodation of wearing a badge without the tracking chip, the district can transfer her to another campus. In a prepared statement, the district said Hernandez, a sophomore, has until Jan. 22, the start of the second semester, to decide whether she will accept the compromise and stay at the magnet school or be transferred.

John Whitehead of the Virginia-based civil rights group the Rutherford Institute, said his organization will appeal. He said he expects Hernandez will not accept the compromise.


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Poet’s Kinship With the President



Craig Dilger for The New York Times

Richard Blanco has been chosen as the 2013 inaugural poet.
By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG
Published: January 8, 2013


WASHINGTON — From the moment Barack Obama burst onto the political scene, the poet Richard Blanco, a son of Cuban exiles, says he felt “a spiritual connection” with the man who would become the nation’s 44th president.

Like Mr. Obama, who chronicled his multicultural upbringing in a best-selling autobiography, “Dreams From My Father,” Mr. Blanco has been on a quest for personal identity through the written word. He said his affinity for Mr. Obama springs from his own feeling of straddling different worlds; he is Latino and gay (and worked as a civil engineer while pursuing poetry). His poems are laden with longing for the sights and smells of the land his parents left behind.

Now Mr. Obama is about to pluck Mr. Blanco out of the relatively obscure and quiet world of poetry and put him on display before the entire world. On Wednesday the president’s inaugural planners will announce that Mr. Blanco is to be the 2013 inaugural poet, joining the ranks of notables like Robert Frost and Maya Angelou.

...



A version of this article appeared in print on January 9, 2013, on page C1 of the New York edition with the headline: Poet’s Kinship With the President.

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Tuesday, January 08, 2013

Obama Picks Non-Clergy Member To Deliver Inauguration Prayer For First Time In History…




But don’t worry, according to the MSM he’s totally a “devout Christian” or something.

Via WaPo:


President Obama has picked Myrlie Evers-Williams, widow of slain civil rights icon Medgar Evers, to deliver the invocation at his public swearing-in later this month. It is believed to be the first time a woman, and a layperson rather than a clergy member, has been chosen to deliver what may be America’s most prominent public prayer.

The inaugural committee Tuesday plans to announce that the benediction will be given by conservative evangelical pastor Louie Giglio, founder of the student-focused Passion Conferences, which draw tens of thousands of people to events around the world.

The contrasting choice of speakers are typical of a president who has walked a sometimes complicated path when it comes to religion — working to be inclusive to the point that critics at times have questioned his faith.


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The four business gangs that run the US


December 31, 2012


Ross Gittins
The Sydney Morning Herald's Economics Editor





Illustration: Michael Mucci.

IF YOU'VE ever suspected politics is increasingly being run in the interests of big business, I have news: Jeffrey Sachs, a highly respected economist from Columbia University, agrees with you - at least in respect of the United States.

In his book, The Price of Civilisation, he says the US economy is caught in a feedback loop. ''Corporate wealth translates into political power through campaign financing, corporate lobbying and the revolving door of jobs between government and industry; and political power translates into further wealth through tax cuts, deregulation and sweetheart contracts between government and industry. Wealth begets power, and power begets wealth,'' he says.

Sachs says four key sectors of US business exemplify this feedback loop and the takeover of political power in America by the ''corporatocracy''.

First is the well-known military-industrial complex. ''As [President] Eisenhower famously warned in his farewell address in January 1961, the linkage of the military and private industry created a political power so pervasive that America has been condemned to militarisation, useless wars and fiscal waste on a scale of many tens of trillions of dollars since then,'' he says.

Second is the Wall Street-Washington complex, which has steered the financial system towards control by a few politically powerful Wall Street firms, notably Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley and a handful of other financial firms.

These days, almost every US Treasury secretary - Republican or Democrat - comes from Wall Street and goes back there when his term ends. The close ties between Wall Street and Washington ''paved the way for the 2008 financial crisis and the mega-bailouts that followed, through reckless deregulation followed by an almost complete lack of oversight by government''.

Third is the Big Oil-transport-military complex, which has put the US on the trajectory of heavy oil-imports dependence and a deepening military trap in the Middle East, he says.

''Since the days of John D. Rockefeller and the Standard Oil Trust a century ago, Big Oil has loomed large in American politics and foreign policy. Big Oil teamed up with the automobile industry to steer America away from mass transit and towards gas-guzzling vehicles driving on a nationally financed highway system.''

Big Oil has consistently and successfully fought the intrusion of competition from non-oil energy sources, including nuclear, wind and solar power.

It has been at the side of the Pentagon in making sure that America defends the sea-lanes to the Persian Gulf, in effect ensuring a $US100 billion-plus annual subsidy for a fuel that is otherwise dangerous for national security, Sachs says.

''And Big Oil has played a notorious role in the fight to keep climate change off the US agenda. Exxon-Mobil, Koch Industries and others in the sector have underwritten a generation of anti-scientific propaganda to confuse the American people.''

Fourth is the healthcare industry, America's largest industry, absorbing no less than 17 per cent of US gross domestic product.

''The key to understanding this sector is to note that the government partners with industry to reimburse costs with little systematic oversight and control,'' Sachs says. ''Pharmaceutical firms set sky-high prices protected by patent rights; Medicare [for the aged] and Medicaid [for the poor] and private insurers reimburse doctors and hospitals on a cost-plus basis; and the American Medical Association restricts the supply of new doctors through the control of placements at medical schools.

''The result of this pseudo-market system is sky-high costs, large profits for the private healthcare sector, and no political will to reform.''

Now do you see why the industry put so much effort into persuading America's punters that Obamacare was rank socialism? They didn't succeed in blocking it, but the compromised program doesn't do enough to stop the US being the last rich country in the world without universal healthcare.

It's worth noting that, despite its front-running cost, America's healthcare system doesn't leave Americans with particularly good health - not as good as ours, for instance. This conundrum is easily explained: America has the highest-paid doctors.

Sachs says the main thing to remember about the corporatocracy is that it looks after its own. ''There is absolutely no economic crisis in corporate America.

''Consider the pulse of the corporate sector as opposed to the pulse of the employees working in it: corporate profits in 2010 were at an all-time high, chief executive salaries in 2010 rebounded strongly from the financial crisis, Wall Street compensation in 2010 was at an all-time high, several Wall Street firms paid civil penalties for financial abuses, but no senior banker faced any criminal charges, and there were no adverse regulatory measures that would lead to a loss of profits in finance, health care, military supplies and energy,'' he says.

The 30-year achievement of the corporatocracy has been the creation of America's rich and super-rich classes, he says. And we can now see their tools of trade.

''It began with globalisation, which pushed up capital income while pushing down wages. These changes were magnified by the tax cuts at the top, which left more take-home pay and the ability to accumulate greater wealth through higher net-of-tax returns to saving.''

Chief executives then helped themselves to their own slice of the corporate sector ownership through outlandish awards of stock options by friendly and often handpicked compensation committees, while the Securities and Exchange Commission looked the other way. It's not all that hard to do when both political parties are standing in line to do your bidding, Sachs concludes.

Fortunately, things aren't nearly so bad in Australia. But it will require vigilance to stop them sliding further in that direction.

Twitter: @1Ross Gittins


Source 

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Blessings for Obedience



1 And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the Lord thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth:

2 And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God.

3 Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed shalt thou be in the field.

4 Blessed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy ground, and the fruit of thy cattle, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep.

5 Blessed shall be thy basket and thy store.

6 Blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and blessed shalt thou be when thou goest out.

7 The Lord shall cause thine enemies that rise up against thee to be smitten before thy face: they shall come out against thee one way, and flee before thee seven ways.

8 The Lord shall command the blessing upon thee in thy storehouses, and in all that thou settest thine hand unto; and he shall bless thee in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.

9 The Lord shall establish thee an holy people unto himself, as he hath sworn unto thee, if thou shalt keep the commandments of the Lord thy God, and walk in his ways.

10 And all people of the earth shall see that thou art called by the name of the Lord; and they shall be afraid of thee.

11 And the Lord shall make thee plenteous in goods, in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy ground, in the land which the Lord sware unto thy fathers to give thee.

12 The Lord shall open unto thee his good treasure, the heaven to give the rain unto thy land in his season, and to bless all the work of thine hand: and thou shalt lend unto many nations, and thou shalt not borrow.

13 And the Lord shall make thee the head, and not the tail; and thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath; if that thou hearken unto the commandments of the Lord thy God, which I command thee this day, to observe and to do them:

14 And thou shalt not go aside from any of the words which I command thee this day, to the right hand, or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.

Deuteronomy 28:1-14.
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Monday, January 07, 2013

Newark NJ Mayor: $1,000 to turn in your illegal gun owning neighbors



Turn in your neighbor for owning a gun get $1000 REWARD in Newark, NJ



PoliceState Rants

Published on Oct 12, 2012


No description available.

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Representative reintroduces bill to abolish presidential term limit


Posted on: 11:47 am, January 6, 2013, by Web Staff, updated on: 11:56am, January 6, 2013


Congressman José E. Serrano (Facebook)

U.S. Rep. Josè Serrano, D-N.Y., once again quietly introduced a resolution that would allow President Obama or any president to serve an unlimited number of terms, according to a report.

According to GovTrack.US, Rep. Serrano introduced House Joint Resolution 15 on Friday. The resolution is described as:

“Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States to repeal the twenty-second article of amendment, thereby removing the limitation on the number of terms an individual may serve as President.”

This resolution was assigned to a congressional committee on January 4, 2013, which would have to consider it before it would be sent to the House or Senate.

The bill was a reintroduction of House Joint Resolution 17 presented by Rep. Serrano in 2011. That resolution was never sent to committee.

According to the report, the resolution has a “0% chance of passing committee or ever being enacted or passed.”

Only 15% of House joint resolutions made it past committee and only 10% are passed or enacted, according to statistics from 2009-2010, according to GovTrack.US.


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Related:

Serrano hopes to repeal the 22nd Amendment, ratified in 1947, before which no limit had been set. This had allowed Franklin D. Roosevelt, albeit in the exceptional circumstances caused by World War II, to serve four terms; a feat which few of his predecessors had attempted. . .


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Hillary Clinton returns to work at State Department


January 6th, 2013
09:47 PM ET


50 minutes ago


Posted by CNN Political Unit


Washington (CNN) – U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton returned to work Monday morning for the first time since she was sidelined by illness, a concussion and a blood clot, according to a schedule released by the State Department.

According to the department's weekly schedule, Clinton held a meeting with assistant secretaries of state at 9:15 a.m. ET Monday. On Tuesday she'll meet with outgoing Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and National Security Adviser Tom Donilon at the White House before attending meetings with ambassadors at the State Department. On Friday Clinton will participate in events surrounding Afghan President Hamid Karzai's visit to Washington.




Clinton chaired her weekly meeting with assistant secretaries of state Monday morning.

The secretary was discharged from a New York hospital Wednesday, three days after she was admitted for the treatment of a blood clot in a vein between her skull and brain. Doctors found the clot during a medical test related to a concussion she suffered in December, which she sustained after fainting from dehydration caused by the flu.

Clinton was treated with blood thinners to dissolve the clot, which did not cause a stroke or any neurological damage.

On Friday, department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland described Clinton's condition after her release as "upbeat" and "raring to go" and said Clinton was planning to return to work at the State Department this week.

Nuland was asked earlier in the week how Clinton's illness might affect her plans to testify on Capitol Hill about the deadly September terror attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya. Nuland did not directly say whether Clinton would appear.

"She has said that she is open to going up to the Hill. We are working with them now on their schedule because there's also a question of when they are going to be in, and we will let you know when we have something to share," Nuland said.

Clinton, a former first lady, New York senator and presidential candidate, does not plan to stay on for President Barack Obama's second term but prefers to remain until her replacement is in place.

Some senators have said they would delay confirmation hearings for her proposed successor, Sen. John Kerry, until Clinton has testified on the Libya attack that killed Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans.

The House and Senate have both adjourned until mid-January, and no Congressional hearings were listed on the State Department schedule released Sunday.

CNN's Jill Dougherty and Kevin Liptak contributed to this report.


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Competitive Advantage Could Force French Labor Changes


by ELEANOR BEARDSLEY

January 07, 2013 4:00 AM



4 min 29 sec


French President Francois Hollande has vowed to improve his country's competitiveness. But to better compete, France has to overhaul its labor market, and some hard-earned workers' rights and privileges could be lost.


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Lovers of their own selves


This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.

For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,

 Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,

Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;

Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.

2 Timothy 3:1-5

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Sunday, January 06, 2013

"Agnosticism is intolerant toward those who question it"

01/ 6/2013



Angelus

The Pope consecrates four new bishops including Father Georg and says: "Even now the successors of the apostles must expect to be mocked and beaten"



Andrea Tornielli
Vatican City

"The humility of faith, of sharing the faith of the Church of every age, will constantly be in conflict with the prevailing wisdom of those who cling to what seems certain". The Pope said this in the homily of the Mass in St. Peter, during which he consecrated as archbishop his private secretary Georg Gänswein, the new Prefect of the Pontifical Household, together with Vincenzo Zani, Secretary of the Congregation for Catholic Education; Fortunatus Nwachukwu, Apostolic Nuncio to Nicaragua; Nicolas Marie Thevenin, Apostolic Nuncio to Guatemala.

On the day on which the Church celebrates the epiphany of Jesus to the Three Wise Men, who represent all the nations, Pope Benedict XVI has proposed a parallel between the bishops and the Three Wise Men by describing the latter as men "filled with expectation, not satisfied with their secure income and their respectable place in society. They were looking for something greater". The Pope then drew a portrait of a bishop, who "must above all be a man concerned for God, for only then will he also be truly concerned about men...a Bishop must be a man concerned for others, one who is concerned about what happens to them. But he can only truly be so if he is a man seized by God", and therefore, "above all a man of prayer".

Resuming the comparison to the Three Wise Men, Benedict XVI emphasized the "the courage and humility born of faith". We can imagine that their decision to leave for the unknown, he explained, "was met with derision" but for them "seeking the truth meant more than the taunts of the world, so apparently clever". This can be a guideline for the bishops of today because, added Ratzinger, "the humility of faith, of sharing the faith of the Church of every age, will constantly be in conflict with the prevailing wisdom of those who cling to what seems certain". For the Pope, "anyone who lives and proclaims the faith of the Church is on many points out of step with the prevalent way of thinking, even in our own day. Today’s regnant agnosticism has its own dogmas and is extremely intolerant regarding anything that would question it and the criteria it employs. Therefore the courage to contradict the prevailing mindset is particularly urgent for a Bishop today".

A bishop, the Pope said in his homily, "must be courageous. And this courage or forcefulness does not consist in striking out or in acting aggressively, but rather in allowing oneself to be struck and to be steadfast before the principles of the prevalent way of thinking. The courage to stand firm in the truth is unavoidably demanded of those whom the Lord sends like sheep among wolves". Finally, remembering an episode of the early days of Christianity when the Sanhedrin summoned the Apostles and had them flogged, prohibiting them from preaching in the name of Jesus before setting them free, Benedict XVI added: "The successors of the Apostles must also expect to be repeatedly beaten, by contemporary methods, if they continue to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ in a way that can be heard and understood. Like the Apostles, we naturally want to convince people and in this sense to obtain their approval. Naturally, we are not provocative; on the contrary we invite all to enter into the joy of that truth which shows us the way. The approval of the prevailing wisdom, however, is not the criterion to which we submit. Our criterion is the Lord himself".

At the end of the Angelus, Benedict XVI reminded us that tomorrow the Churches of the East, which follow the Julian calendar, will celebrate Christmas. "In the joy of the common faith", he said, "I extend to them my most cordial good wishes for peace, and I will keep them in my prayers".


Source
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What Do Your Clothes Have to Do With Your Heart?





An important message to help you in your walk with Jesus.




This is written for Seventh-day Adventist Christians who love the Lord Jesus Christ, and have made a

covenant with Him through baptism to follow Him wherever He may lead.


We invite you to prayerfully consider if you hear the voice of God speaking to your heart through these

messages. If you are weak in your faith, or hesitant in your commitment to God, it is an urgent matter

that you seek the inward adorning before considering your outward attire. 



“There is a remedy for the sin-sick soul. That remedy is in Jesus. Precious Saviour! His grace is

sufficient for the weakest; and the strongest must also have His grace or perish. I saw how this

grace could be obtained. Go to your closet and there alone plead with God. "Create in me a clean

heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me" (Psalm 51:10). Be in earnest, be sincere. Fervent

prayer availeth much. Jacob-like, wrestle in prayer. Agonize. Jesus in the garden sweat great drops

of blood; you must make an effort. Do not leave your closet until you feel strong in God; then

watch, and just as long as you watch and pray, you can keep these evil besetments under, and the

grace of God can, and will, appear in you.”
{AG 87.6}



We also need to understand that what we wear affects our relationship with God. If we ignore God’s

principles of dress, we neglect the inward adorning as well.



“As we see our sisters departing from simplicity in dress and cultivating a love for the fashions of

the world, we feel troubled. By taking steps in this direction they are separating themselves from

God and neglecting the inward adorning.”
{CH 596.1} 



Although this is specifically addressed to women, it would be very appropriate for husbands, future

husbands, fathers, and especially church leaders to read this document as well.


"Christians should not neglect to search the Scriptures on these points. They need to understand

that which the Lord of heaven appreciates in even the dressing of the body. Those who are earnest

in seeking for the grace of Christ will heed the precious words of instruction inspired of God. Even

the style of the apparel will express the truth of the gospel. Their dress bears its testimony to their

own family, to the church and the world, that they are being purified from vanity and selfishness.

They demonstrate that they are not idolaters."
{6MR 161.1}


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Renowned French economist to join Obama’s team

LATEST UPDATE: 06/01/2013



France’s Esther Duflo, a star economist who was once named one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world, has been nominated by US President Barack Obama to help shape US global development policy.



By Aude MAZOUE


France’s Esther Duflo, a world renowned economist, has been nominated by US President Barack Obama to join a government body dedicated to advising the administration on global development policy.

Called the Global Development Council, the group was founded by Obama in 2010 to help shape US development efforts abroad.

While Duflo’s nomination will likely be viewed with a sense of pride in France, it comes as Obama’s leadership continues to be dogged by unflattering comparisons in the media to European-style socialism. Just Friday, the cover of financial news magazine The Economist depicted Obama wearing a beret, red neckerchief and a striped mariner shirt, under a headline that read “America turns European”. The article criticised the country’s recent fiscal-cliff deal as “lousy”, saying its mismanagement bore striking similarities to the “mess in the euro zone”.




ESTHER DUFLO’S CV

Esther Duflo earned a master’s degree from DELTA (now called the Paris School of Economics) in 1995 before heading to the United States to begin a PhD in Economics at the famed Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Upon completing her degree in 1999, Duflo continued on at MIT as an assistant professor of economics. She took leave from the school in 2001 to work at Princeton University for one year, before returning to MIT where she was granted tenure at the age of 29. After more than a decade in the US, Duflot was granted US citizenship in 2012.


A rising star


Duflo, who was raised in a “left-leaning Protestant” family, said she became aware of economic divides and social injustice at a very early age.

“I was always conscientious of the gap between my existence and that of the world’s poor,” she told weekly French magazine l’Express in a January, 2011 article. “As a child, I was extremely troubled by the complete randomness of chance that I was born in Paris to an intellectual, middle class family, when I could have just as easily been born in Chad. It’s a question of luck. It inspired in me a sense of responsibility.”

While Duflo may feel that her privilege in life is the result of chance, President Obama’s intention to appoint her to his Global Development Council is not. Ever since completing her undergraduate studies at Paris’s prestigious Ecole Normale Supérieure in 1994, Duflo has led a distinguished career, collecting numerous academic honours and awards along the way.

One of the world’s 100 most influential people

It is by no means an exaggeration to call the now 40 year-old Duflo one of the world’s star economists. French daily Le Monde once awarded her its “Best French Young Economist Prize”, and in 2009, she was granted a MacArthur Fellowship (which has also been dubbed ‘the genius grant’). Duflo’s work also earned her the John Bates Clark medal in 2010, which is considered second only to the Nobel.

The following year, Time magazine named Duflo one of 100 most influential people in the world. The magazine applauded her for relentlessly “questioning conventional wisdom”.

“She has broken out of the ivory tower to do something economists rarely do: gather real data to see what really works in alleviating poverty,” Time wrote.

A closer look at poverty

Duflo’s research has largely focused on microeconomic issues in developing countries and looks at areas such as education, access to finance as well as health and policy evaluation. As co-founder and director of MIT’s Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab, Duflo has singled herself out by championing the idea that it is impossible to successfully tackle the issue of poverty without a thorough understanding of the population at hand. In other words, the devil is in the detail.

While Duflo’s work has already helped contribute to changing the way governments and organisations deal with global poverty, her potential new role as a member of the Global Development Council will allow her to have a direct impact on how the US handles such issues.


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Related:

Esther Duflo (born October 25, 1972) is a French economist, Co-Founder and Director of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab, and Professor ofPoverty Alleviation and Development Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Duflo is an NBER Research Associate,[2] serves on the board of the Bureau for Research and Economic Analysis of Development (BREAD),[3] and is Director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research's development economics program.[4]

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Mohammed Abdul Latif Jameel
Net worth US $Billion 5
Finances several initiatives to improve standard of living around the world such as Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab and Bab Rizk Jameel. 

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