Minarets (Turkish: minare,[1] from Arabic manāra (lighthouse) منارة, usually مئذنة) are distinctive architectural features of Islamic mosques. Minarets are generally tall spires with onion-shaped or conical crowns, usually either free-standing or taller than any associated support structure, states a source from Wikipedia …http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minaret
The main function of the minaret is to provide a vantage point from which the call to prayer (adhan) is made. Call to prayer in Islam happens five times each day, and is a very important ritual required of all who practice Islam.
Voters in Switzerland chose to take a step in the direction of Nazi Germany, and collectively decided to restrict and to persecute Islam and the religious practices required by those who are Islamic.
The BBC is reporting from Geneva,Switzerland that in a vote that displayed a widespread anxiety about Islam and undermined the country’s reputation for religious tolerance, the Swiss on Sunday overwhelmingly imposed a national ban on the construction of minarets, the prayer towers of mosques, in a referendum drawn up by the far right and opposed by the government.
Swiss voters’ clear decision on Sunday to ban the construction of minarets has generated a wide range of emotions,supporters of the initiative said the Swiss electorate wanted to put a brake on the Islamization of their country, whereas opponents were concerned about the violation of rights, not to mention an international backlash and possible boycott of Swiss products.
Forced marriages and other things like cemeteries separating the pure and impure – we don’t have that in Switzerland and we don’t want to introduce it,” said Ulrich Schlüer, co-president of the Initiative Committee to ban minarets.
Amnesty International has expressed deep regret over the Swiss voters’ approval of a ban on minarets, calling it a violation of religious freedom for Muslims.
“The ‘yes’ vote comes as a surprise and a great disappointment,” David Diaz-Jogeix, Amnesty International’s deputy program director for Europe and Central Asia, said on Monday.
The Swiss Constitution guarantees freedom of religion, but the rightist Swiss People’s Party, or S.V.P., and a small religious party had proposed inserting a single sentence banning the construction of minarets, leading to the referendum.
The Swiss government said it would respect the vote and sought to reassure the Muslim population — mostly immigrants from other parts of Europe, like Kosovo and Turkey — that the minaret ban was “not a rejection of the Muslim community, religion or culture.”
The president of the People’s Party, Toni Brunner, said voters had clearly rejected the idea of parallel societies and the further expansion of Islam – including radical, political Islam – in Switzerland.
Saida Keller-Messahli, president of the Forum for an Advanced Islam, said the public’s fears had been too great and “hatred had won over reason”.
She said there would now be legal consequences, since the ban violated the freedom of religion.
The Federation of Islamic Organisations in Switzerland also regretted the result, saying the propaganda of the campaign supporters had succeeded in frightening the majority of voters.
The federation said it was too soon to judge the negative social and legal consequences – what was important now was to strengthen their public relations and clear up any misunderstandings or prejudices concerning Islam.
“Switzerland has lost,” said Rifa’at Lenzin from the European Project for Interreligious Learning in Zürich, adding that the country was “leading the way” for Islamophobia.
“Switzerland is heading straight for a battle with Islam,” he said, adding that he feared a boycott of Swiss products.
The ban on minarets’ violates the right of Muslims to manifest their religion in Switzerland, and is incompatible with the international conventions signed by the European country.
It is to note that this is similar to the way that Nazi Germany, under the rule of Hitler, was able to gradually assert their main agenda, which was to exterminate the Jewish religion and all those who practice it.
It appears as though the Islamic citizens of Switzerland need to prepare for similar treatment, and mounting restrictions on the practice of their religion.
Swiss Ban Minarets,and restrict the practice of Islam
Let’s never have this disgrace ever happen in the United States of America….Shame on Switzerland.
Iraq Inquiry: 4th day of public hearings with Greenstock
By Julie
This post, like the – 1st Day and the 2nd Day and the 3rd Day comes with my grateful thanks to Julie here
Also see Iraq Inquiry timetable of hearings, who and when
These are the most significant quotes from the fourth session of the Iraq Inquiry
You can read the full transcript of the morning session here
————————————-
4th day of public hearings
27th November 2009: Morning session: Evidence by
Sir Jeremy Greenstock (from 1998 until July 2003)
Greenstock:
“By the beginning of 2001, which, of course, was also the moment when the new American administration came on the scene, the containment of Iraq was flawed and was regarded by everybody as flawed, by those who thought the sanctions regime should be maintained and by those who thought that the sanctions regime should not be maintained.”
“I don’t think there was a single member of the Security Council who believed that Iraq was trying honestly and honourably to meet Security Council conditions. I don’t think there was a single member of Security Council, throughout my period there, who supported Saddam Hussein or Iraq. I don’t think there was a single member of the Security Council who believed that Iraq was innocent, was not plotting to develop military capability, was not defying United Nations, was not cheating on sanctions.”
“The United Kingdom had a different approach from the United States, to the extent that we believed that action on or against Iraq should be unequivocally collective, that it had to be based on Security Council Resolutions, that it had, if at all possible, to avoid the use of force, but also that it had to be effective, that it had to remove nationally any threat which Saddam Hussein and his regime might pose to the vital interests of the United Kingdom, and collectively would remove the defiance by Iraq of the United Nations Resolutions.”
“It wasn’t until the Crawford meeting in April 2002 that I realised that the United Kingdom was being drawn into quite a different sort of discussion”
“The Secretary General, Kofi Annan, took it upon himself to have his own bilateral discussions with the Iraqis, which happened, I think, first of all in March and extended through to about July, because, as I understand it, he, himself, was worried that unless the UN effort on maintaining the sanctions regime and the other UN measures on Iraq was more successful, the United States might have a valid reason, in politics at least, if not in Security Council Resolution terms, to take another route, and so he took his own initiative as a mission of good offices, which the Secretary General can perform, to see whether there was more room to persuade the Iraqis that the inspectors should return. So he went through those discussions, which the US looked upon as a side issue, not likely to produce any good results, up until July, when I think Secretary General Annan decided not least on the basis of his past experience in dealing with the Iraqis, that he was being led down a track and he gave up those discussions in July.”
“After the resolution was adopted, things began to drift in two directions; that the US and the UK took the terms of 1441 absolutely literally, which is the fair and just thing to do with a resolution that takes on the force of a legal declaration, whereas the French and others interpreted the resolution as meaning that there was scope for the Security Council to meet, and, if the Security Council met, under normal Security Council practice, since the Security Council was responsible for international peace and security, only the Security Council should take a decision on whether or not force should be used.”
“It was the point of view of the United Kingdom that the use of force could not be justified unless every other avenue had been tried to bring Iraq into compliance.”
“There was, as part of the lead up to the negotiation of 1441, the idea that there should be a pair of resolutions, not a single one in 1441 that should have the inspectors’ conditions in one part and in the second resolution the consequences for Iraq on what would happen if they didn’t comply with the first one. There was the possibility of passing those resolutions either together and simultaneously or sequentially in time. As it happened, in 1441 we built those two elements into a single text and it was successfully negotiated and passed unanimously on 8 November as a single text.”
“We felt that with 1441 that was sufficient legal cover so long as it was made clear that Saddam Hussein was not cooperating under the operative paragraph number 2 of 1441 that give him a final chance to show that he was cooperating. That was our criterion.”
“It was actually quite surprising to me that only the Mexican delegation said unequivocally that they expected that, if it came to the use of force, it would be solely the Security Council that had the authority to take that decision.”
“President Chirac said at some point, I think in the summer of 2002 to President Bush, as I saw in other papers, that France believed that Saddam Hussein was developing biological and chemical materials.”
(Referring to WMDs) “I don’t believe that even Moscow could say, “We are sure there are none.”
(On whether there is a smoking gun or not) “That wasn’t where I came from. I thought there was something there. I actually still believe there is something there, but it is a question of what that something is now.”
“Before the war actually started, the Iraqi Air Force buried a number of Russian jets in the sand, which overhead telemetry didn’t notice them doing. It was only when the wind blew the sand away from those jets that the tails stuck out of the sand and we discovered that they had buried some aircraft. If they can get away with burying aircraft in the sand, they are going to be quite good at burying much smaller things in the sand.”
(On national interests) “I do not have firsthand evidence of that, but I was very well aware of, from reading other people’s reports, that this might well be a factor because the Russian and French debt from Iraq, the Iraqi debt to those two nations, was in many billions of dollars resulting from the Iran/Iraq war purchases and they wanted sanctions to be lifted so they could get some of their money back.”
“In my personal contact with my colleagues at the United Nations, I understood that the UK had been given a good deal of credit for trying diplomacy up to the last minute, in spite of the noises off, and there is something bigger than all of that: in the fact that the United Kingdom was part of this military operation, that the United States was not completely alone, we ensured whether it was intentional or not, but this was the effect that the international community, the Security Council, the members of the United Nations, remained able to talk to each other after this had all blown up in our faces, when, if the United States had gone about this operation unilaterally, solely, there would have been a huge division between the United States and the rest of the international community.”
“It was certainly my view at the time, whether it remains my view now, that the containment of Iraq through United Nations’ measures would progressively have continued to erode and the smuggling capabilities and the smuggling results in terms of Iraq’s wish to increase its military and economic capacity, would have been disadvantageous for UK national interests in the Middle East and internationally.”
“The United Nations is a forum of its member states, it is not a separate agency to deal with something, and there is no doubt that the United Nations, over 12 years, failed to deal with the fact that they were being defied by Saddam Hussein. That aspect of the formation of UK policy, I think, has to be remembered, that we were trying to defend the United Nations from being eroded by successful noncompliance by a member state just as much as we were trying to deal with the threat posed by the Iraqi possession of dangerous weapons, and that is a consideration that should come into your discussions.”
Important exchanges:
PRASHAR: “You referred earlier the use of the word “legitimate”, can you unpack that for me a little as to what you mean by the word “legitimate” in terms of justifying war? It is really that I would like some explanation of that. “
GREENSTOCK: In international law there is no Supreme Court. It is up to a nation state to make its own national decision as to whether to adhere to the judgments of the International Court of Justice or not. Iraq was not a treaty based member of the International Court of Justice, so that didn’t come into it, probably, in our consideration of what we were doing with Iraq. But short of that, it is possible to have a firm legal opinion on the legality of action under the UN charter for a particular operation. But it is also possible for there to be many different legal opinions as to what is actually legal without having an apex arbiter of what is legal or what is not. So we are still in the position, even now in 2009, of having legal opinions out there that say that what we did in March 2003 was legal and what we did in March 2003 was illegal, and except as a matter of opinion, you can’t establish in law which of those two opinions are right finally and conclusively. When you get to legitimacy, it is a very fair way of describing that if you have got broad opinion behind you, broad, reasonable opinion behind you, you are doing something that is defensible in a democratic environment. To some extent, the United Nations is a democratic environment. It is a forum of equal states equally signed up by treaty to the United Nations Charter, and each of those states have an opinion. If you do something internationally that the majority of UN member states think is wrong or illegitimate or politically unjustifiable, you are taking a risk in my view, and increasingly and I think one of the lessons you may want to look at as an Inquiry is on the importance of legitimacy in geopolitical affairs nowadays. I regarded our invasion of Iraq our participation in the military action against Iraq in March 2003 as legal but of questionable legitimacy, in that it didn’t have the democratically observable backing of a great majority of member states or even perhaps of a majority of people inside the United Kingdom. So there was a failure to establish legitimacy, although I think we successfully established legality in the Security Council in the United Nations for both our actions in December 1998 and our actions in March 2003 to the degree at least that we were never challenged in the Security Council or in the International Court of Justice, for those actions.”
PRASHAR: “Just one question before we break up, on the weapons of mass destruction and the question of disarmament, were there differing views within the Security Council? I mean, did anybody challenge the fact that the Saddam had weapons of mass destruction during this period that we have been discussing?”
GREENSTOCK: “No colleague on the Security Council ever came up to me at any point and said, “You are barking up the wrong tree. You are hopelessly on the wrong track here, because we know that Iraq has no weapons of mass destruction”. No member of the Security Council, not Hans Blix, not Mohammed ElBaradei, nobody, said to the United Kingdom, and I don’t believe they said to the United States, “We know that the Iraqi Government has no weapons of mass destruction.”
GREENSTOCK: “Actually, if you look at the wording of 1441, it comes very close to being a report of a material breach.”
CHAIRMAN: “Both before and after the “and”.
GREENSTOCK: “Because the declaration was clearly inadequate. Even with hindsight, that declaration is inadequate, and they were not cooperating fully, completely, finally: material breach.”
Esta pequena entrada é só para dizer que toda esta imensa preocupação em fazer passar a mensagem que o aumento de CO2 é mau e negativo para a vida na terra (o que é FALSO), tem tudo a ver com dois simples pormenores que se encontram em todos os projectos da Nova (Des)Ordem Mundial.
“Control oil and you control nations; control food and you control people.”
Henry Kissinger
1º Controlo dos povos e controlo do número de seres humanos na terra, por isso o combate ao CO2 é tão importante para estes senhores, é que como se sabe o aumento de CO2 melhora e muito a produção de alimentos o que vai frontalmente contra o Controlo Populacional defendido há muito tempo e sobre o qual o assassino Kissinger escreveu no famoso memorando, NSSM 200.
The bogus arguments that Kissinger advanced were not original. One of his major sources was the Royal Commission on Population, which King George VI had created in 1944 “to consider what measures should be taken in the national interest to influence the future trend of population.” The commission found that Britain was gravely threatened by population growth in its colonies, since “a populous country has decided advantages over a sparsely-populated one for industrial production.” The combined effects of increasing population and industrialization in its colonies, it warned, “might be decisive in its effects on the prestige and influence of the West,” especially effecting “military strength and security.”
NSSM 200 similarly concluded that the United States was threatened by population growth in the former colonial sector. It paid special attention to 13 “key countries” in which the United States had a “special political and strategic interest”: India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, Turkey, Nigeria, Egypt, Ethiopia, Mexico, Brazil, and Colombia. It claimed that population growth in those states was especially worrisome, since it would quickly increase their relative political, economic, and military strength.
(…)
There were several measures that Kissinger advocated to deal with this alleged threat, most prominently, birth control and related population-reduction programs. He also warned that “population growth rates are likely to increase appreciably before they begin to decline,” even if such measures were adopted.
A second measure was curtailing food supplies to targetted states, in part to force compliance with birth control policies: “There is also some established precedent for taking account of family planning performance in appraisal of assistance requirements by AID [U.S. Agency for International Development] and consultative groups. Since population growth is a major determinant of increases in food demand, allocation of scarce PL 480 resources should take account of what steps a country is taking in population control as well as food production. In these sensitive relations, however, it is important in style as well as substance to avoid the appearance of coercion.”
Mais uma vez se demonstra que o problema deste planeta, continua a ser o Império Britânico que na realidade nunca terminou, apenas se expandiu, tornando-se no Império Anglo-Americano, mas com sede em Londres, contráriamente ao que se poderia pensar.
Uma pequena dica sobre este último parágrafo, porque razão acham que em Londres existe um Obelisco, com duas Esfinges de cada lado?
Londres
Egipto
2º Em todos estes projectos da elite oligarca, do poder/Governo sombra, para além de de nos quererem destruir, matar e escravizar os restantes, existe algo que lhes é comum, os OBSCENOS LUCROS que esta corja realiza com eles.
Dois exemplos paradigmáticos são a actual histeria à volta da gripe AH1N1 e os LUCROS avultadissimos que a oligarquia tem realizado com todo este esquema de medo.
E claro o chamado ‘Aquecimento Global’ e o tal combate ao CO2, onde mais uma vez já começam a aparecer os milionários, como é o caso do mentiroso patológico Al Gore, bem como George Soros entre outros, inclusive o vencedor do Prémio Nobel da Paz deste ano, o fantoche mor Obama.
No artigo de hoje do Mitos Climáticos têm lá uma tabela dos patrocínios aos ‘cientistas’ que defendem estas teses do ‘Aquecimento Global’.
E claro por cá também temos os defensores, os esbirros, destes senhores e destas políticas.
Por último apenas uma indicação para um livro interessante, “A Century of War” de F. William Engdahl que habitualmente escreve para o site Global Research, aconselho sem dúvida a leitura deste artigo sobre o Cofre das Sementes de Svalbard.[em protuguês]
The Three Pillars of the British Empire
Geopolitical history for the last 100 years was shaped around the quest for what Big Oil acolyte Daniel Yergin called “The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money and Power” with two countries at its epicenter – first Britain and now America with its UK junior partner that built its rule on three essential pillars:
– controlling the seas and setting the terms of trade;
– dominating world banking and manipulating the world’s largest gold supply; and
– controlling world raw materials with oil the key one at the turn of the century; with these working, it devised an “informal empire” to loot world wealth and maintain a balance of power on the continent.
Britain’s “genius” was being able to shift alliances without letting sentiment interfere with its interests. Post-Waterloo, it operated “on an extremely sophisticated marriage between top (London) bankers and financiers, government cabinet ministers,” key industrialists and espionage chiefs. By keeping everything secret, it “wielded immense power over credulous and unsuspecting foreign economies.” By the late 19th century, however, things began to change, and a new strategy was needed. Key to it was oil geopolitics as a vital naval supremacy ingredient.
So, despite my suspicions about how the Iraq war inquiry will eventually end, I will admit watching the proceedings is fairly interesting, even if it mostly reaffirms what we have heard from other quarters. There have been some surprises, but not many. Anyway, an overview:
The USA was making noises about invasion as far back as 2001, though it varied as to how seriously these claims were made and taken by various officials.
9/11 sounded a death knell for the policy of containment and the ascendency of Iraq war hawks in the Bush administration.
The British foreign policy establishment were initially wary of such attitudes, because of the legal status of such a war (in the words of Sir William Patey “we dismissed it at the time because it had no basis in law”).
Blair’s attitude began to shift in early 2002, though there is no agreement over whether this was due to the Crawford ranch meeting or not. Sir Peter Ricketts, chairmain of JIC, claims that up until March 2002 there was “no increased appetite” among ministers for regime change via invasion.
MI6 dismissed the claim of links between Saddam Hussein and Al-Qaeda. There was no evidence of any serious cooperation.
Iran, Libya, North Korea and the continuing war in Afghanistan were considered to be more serious concerns to British security.
Intelligence concerning WMD wasn’t as coherent on the likelihood of a threat as was claimed to be. In the words of Sir William Ehrman, earlier intelligence about Hussein’s WMDs and missiles was “sporadic and patchy”. This contrasts with Blair’s claims that intelligence assessments had established “beyond a doubt” that Saddam had such programs underway.
Tim Dowse, head of counter-proliferation at the FCO was certain WMD would be found.
The 45 minutes claim, as well as that of “mass evidence of a huge system of clandestine laboratories” were not supported by the evidence.
UNSC Resolution 1441 was designed as a trip-wire to justify a war.
Weapons inspections were not given time to work
There are a couple of things I’d like to discuss in detail, but that will have to wait for another post. In the meantime, there is always the Iraq Inquiry Digest, if you want more.
(WASHINGTON, D.C., 7/4/06) – The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) today called for stepped up outreach efforts by the Muslim community in Maine after a severed pig’s head was thrown into one of that state’s mosques during prayers. CAIR said the frozen pig’s head was rolled into the Lewiston Auburn Islamic Center late Monday as worshipers bowed in prayer. The Washington-based Islamic civil rights and advocacy group said the use of pigs or pork products is a favorite theme of Islamophobic bigots who wish to attack or insult Muslims. Muslims are prohibited from eating pork. LINK
LEWISTON — A national Muslim civil rights organization TERRORIST FRONT GROUP has filed a formal request with the Lewiston School Department to allow a middle school student to pray on school property. The group also wants Lewiston to modify existing policy and provide “constitutionally protected religious accommodation,” such as a designated prayer room.
El gran error de los islamístas es que son racístas. Ellos se creen que Europa y América fueron poderosas solamente por la gente (étnia) que las poblaron. Entonces razonan: si les implantamos el Islam, éste será poderoso y dominará al mundo. Ésto es equivocado, Europa y América fueron grandes por la doctrina que impulsó a la gente, por sus ideales, por su filosofía.
Si se reprimen estas raíces y se reemplazan por el Islam, las etnias europeas no seran muy diferentes que las árabes y ambos continentes se transformaran en páramos, salvajes , rebeldes violentos, sometidos a la explosión demografica y al analfabetísmo y con ciudadanos destinados a trabajar como0 esclavos y no llegar a la ancianidad.
Si a los europeos se les asesinan sus raíces ideologicas, entonces Europa y America habrán muerto, el Islam no se puede injertar en ellos, no puede convivir con otra filosofía, no es asimilable y sus resultados en las sociedades estan a la vista, basta con recorrer los países islamicos y ver como viven, producen, crean, investigan,progresan. Si no fuera por el petroleo y los intereses economicos de Occidente no tendrían ni siquiera ciudades sino tiendas y poblados.
Figured I’d post about my paying job for a minute. I’m sure you’ve all seen these markings on either sidewalks or raodways and wondered WTF are these? They are often seen in different colors but the more prominant ones are; Red, Yellow, Blue, Green and often inside a marked area in White. The paint itself is not permanent and will eventually fade.
Each color identifies a utility; Electrical, Gas, Potable Water, Sewer/Storm line respectively. Most people who mark are minimalists and some get real technical using industry abbrev. that identify material, size and even depth. Pretty straight forward stuff for excavation work. So that “Joe Dirt” doesn’t sever your power, water and poop water leaving you a caveman/woman/family for several hours eating cold Ligo sardines and rice, which is pretty damn tasty.
The industry mantra is “Call before you dig” meaning all proposed excavations must be called into USA North, a third party that sends out notifications to agencies and operators of a proposed project. Each operator/agency is required to locate and mark their particular utility within the proposed work area marked in white with the words USA. Mark’em if you gottem!
Obviously roadways and sidewalks can get pretty colorful if it’s a large project, which can really piss off some of the residents in my municipality. Often times they don’t care to know what they are for, despite every attempt to explain their importance so their services won’t be affected by “Joe Dirt” wanking on the heavy equipment joystick. “I don’t like how it looks”, “can’t you use a more subdued color that matches the roadway?”, how long will I have to look at it?”, I have visitors coming from out of town and this is not acceptable”, “can’t you write smaller?” “I’m calling the police as I consider this graffiti, what is your name?”…Donald “effen” Duck ma’m. O_o
Graffiti you say!? I may just have to keep practicing my handstyle. Montana paint, anyone?
Even as U.S. troops surge to new highs in Afghanistan they are outnumbered by military contractors working alongside them, according to a Defense Department census due to be distributed to Congress — illustrating how hard it is for the U.S. to wean itself from the large numbers of war-zone contractors that proved controversial in Iraq.
The number of military contractors in Afghanistan rose to almost 74,000 by June 30, far outnumbering the roughly 58,000 U.S. soldiers on the ground at that point. As the military force in Afghanistan grows further, to a planned 68,000 by the end of the year, the Defense Department expects the ranks of contractors to increase more.
The guys from The Hill-Side, who make some incredible ties, handkerchiefs, and many more accessories, have started Hickoree’s Hard Goods. A mercantile of sorts with everything you could ever want…besides the dream girl, porsche, and stretch of land.
I’ll be posting some great articles from the vault up here as they come along, also check out the lads at The Pop Up Flea this weekend for all you New Yorkers, the stock is going fast. Support some home grown companies!
A tragedy has occurred today in the Hannah Montana’s camp, and it is a terrible accident. Miley Cyrus is admired worldwide by her legions of pre-teen admirers, including my little baby cousins who love her show, so this is very disturbing news for them to hear.
The AP is reporting that one person was killed Friday when a tour bus belonging to entertainer Miley Cyrus overturned, but the 16-year-old “Hannah Montana” star wasn’t on board, Virginia State Police said.
The tour bus was part of a 4-vehicle caravan which included the bus that crashed. The tour manager reported that…”It was one of our buses that transported our lighting crew.”
TMZ.com reports that… apparently the driver lost control and the bus started drifting to off the road. The driver was the only fatality in the accident as others were rushed to the hospital. It’s not clear yet how or why the driver lost control or whether he died before or after the crash. It could also have been caused by the extremely wet roads in the area earlier this morning.
Sgt. Thomas Molnar said the passengers exited the bus through the front windshield.
The 16-year-old’s website said the Hannah Montana star is expected to perform Sunday in Greensboro, North Carolina. The Disney star is scheduled to play two dates in London next month on her upcoming European tour.
Cyrus, who is the daughter of country singer Billy Ray, began her solo singing career in 2007 with her debut album, Meet Miley Cyrus.
Any investigation is currently underway to determine why the bus drifted and was overturned.
I wish Disney’s brightest young star better days, and we send our condolences to the family of the deceased bus driver who lost his life in this terrible accident.
I always liked her energy, and she comes off as a fun kid to hang with in her interviews.I am never mad to buy her merchandise for my little baby cousins, and they love to dress up and act like her, so I can’t be mad that.
I liked her little rap video she made when she closed down he Twitter account, so she got jokes as well!!!
Cheers Miley Cyrus,you got a lot of love out here in the world….
There is no such a festival in Poland like Thanksgiving Day, known for us only from American movies and series. It is however quite a nice festival and I regret we do not have one regarding thanksgiving for anything in Poland.
Prayers before meals, saying “thank you God for the Oscar Prize”, eating turkey on Thanksgiving we, Polish, call very American gestures and laugh at it as we find it extravagant and funny.
Anything that somebody did for us, we could have done better by ourselves, so there is no need to say thank you. It is obvious. I suppose, saying thank you is at variance with Polish national pride. If you saw Polish saying that, he or she for certain had lived abroad for some time.
The 4th Amendment in our constitution guarantees that: No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation. This being said why is it that we are having such a hard time accepting that The Guantanamo detainees deserve fair trials?
Yes, a heinous crime has been committed on American soil we all remember the tragic day. Where we were, what we were doing, what was going on around us? We sought retribution by invading Afghanistan who had been a training ground for Terrorism and the home of Osama Bin Laden’s terrorist network. As of March 2009 there have been 800 men detained 244 detainees remain in Guantanamo today many of them being innocent. Robert Wilkinson a former Bush Administration official claimed, “It did not matter if a detainee were innocent. Indeed, because he lived in Afghanistan and was captured on or near the battle area, he must know something of importance,” He later adds that Rumsfeld and Cheney knew of the misconduct, “to have admitted this reality would have been a black mark on their leadership.”
How much longer do the innocent have to wait? Many have not seen their families in six years. We need to conduct Fair trials and admirably charge life to those who have plotted against the United States. Supposing that the terrorists do hate our freedoms nothing would strike a bigger blow to them than to put them through our judicial system’s practices. If we are going to remain the model of freedom for the rest of the Globe it is time we practice what we preach and do what is morally right by returning Habeas Corpus along with Due Process of law back to the people not only of this country but to those around the World! In the words of Voltaire, “It is better to risk saving a guilty man than to condemn an innocent one.”
View This Poll polls
Additional Sources:
Ex-Bush Official: Many Gitmo Detainee’s Innocent: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/03/19/MNFH16JM02.DTL#ixzz0XBSmyJNj
Fourth Amendment of the Constitution
Politicians Rip decision on Terrorism Trials: http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/11/13/mohammed.critics/index.html
“Ay Pilipino pala kayo!” (Oh you’re Filipinos!). A reaction we’d get all the time when A and I would start conversing in Filipino. You see, A can pass for a Latino and I any Asian origin (Koreans, Japanese or Chinese), thus the reaction. Always excited to meet “kababayans” (fellow Filipinos or countrymen) I would gather owing to homesickness. They have been away from their country for 6 months at the least to up to 2 years, depending on their contract. They are called Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs), our country’s new heroes.
A photo with our servers in Banff
OFWs are Filipinos who are employed in foreign countries to seek better opportunities out of a desire to earn better wages. The National Statistic Office estimates that the number of Filipinos working abroad has increased by 15% from same period last year. About 3/4 of OFWs are land based laborers and unskilled workers, which includes domestic helpers, cleaners and manufacturing laborers. Seafarers (or sea based workers) on the other hand, make up 24% of total OFW deployment and they account for some 20-25% of the world’s seafarers.
“Filipinos are in demand to man ships from luxury cruise ships to giant tankers and container ships. They are known to exhibit a great ability to learn, to be hardworking and loyal”, according to Pier Luigi Foschi, President and Chief Executive of Costa Crociere Cruises. “They set a good example for other employees and crew. They sign up for months at a time and have very little free time”.
Filipino cooks grilling salmon at the poolside
One feels at home right away at the Ryndam. From the boiler to the front desk, the poolside to the pantry and the bar to fine dining are Filipinos always ready to serve with a smile.
That’s Roger, one of the bartenders with his shaker
Hanging out at Crow’s Nest almost every single day of our 7 day stay was made unforgettable due to the many stories told.
Always the happy bunch at the Crow’s Nest Bar
The Filipinos comprise perhaps about 30% of the crew at The Ryndam. They being so much an entertainer at heart were given the privilege to entertain the passengers by way of a Filipino Night.
Head Chef of the Lido Restaurat by day, singer by night
No longer the cooks, waiters and boiler men, here on stage, they transform into entertainers, well known for their singing prowess and their knack for humor.
Our National Dance (I think), the Tinikling
Doing the “planting rice” dance
Yes… look again… they’re all guys!
Filipino snacks were served right after the show, because I think all the cooks are Filipinos. Tee hee! In my opinion, Filipino Night is the ship’s way of honoring the well-loved Filipinos as employee, crew and servers. And they make me so proud to be a one of perhaps 6 Filipino passengers aboard The Ryndam at the time. Mabuhay!
And the finale… a demonstration of ice carving… again a Pinoy!
To join in the fun and get to know more worlds, click here.
Aangezien het de komende dagen sowieso mooi weer wordt, hebben we voor vandaag besloten te gaan zwemmen. Omdat Typhoon Lagoon voor “refurbishment” gesloten is, gingen we vandaag naar Blizzard Beach. Een Disney waterpark in het thema van wintersport.
Het park opent om 10 uur en om 10:30 uur stappen we het park binnen. Eerst even een sleutel voor een kluisje gaan halen, daarna omkleden en een plekje op het “strand” zoeken. Het eerste wat we gaan doen is de Cross Country Creek. Een soort van Lazy River waar je lekker in een opblaasband rond het park kunt dobberen. Aangezien de temperatuur voor Florida-begrippen “fris” is (23°C-27°C), is het niet zo druk in het park en kunnen we alles op ons gemakje doen.
Hierna gaan we kijken wat voor glijbanen er allemaal zijn. Sander gaat als eerste van de Snow Stormers. Een glijbaan in het thema van de slalom waar je op een matje op je buik vanaf moet. Vervolgens gaan we samen van de Toboggan Racers. Hetzelfde principe, maar dan een glijbaan recht naar beneden (zonder bochten).
Hierna gaan we naar een ander gedeelte van het park waar zich onder andere de Summit Plummet, Slush Gusher en de Teamboat Springs te vinden zijn. Om hier te komen beklimmen we eerst de Mount Gushmore. Wij kiezen voor de Teamboat Springs, een glijbaan waar je met 4-6 mensen in een rubberboot stapt om vervolgens naar beneden te glijden.
Beneden vervolgen we onze weg in de richting van de kluisjes waar we eerst een Refillable Mug kopen. Dit is een grote beker die je voor $ 10,25 de gehele dag bij de verschillende refill stations kunt vullen. Je mag de beker zelfs op andere dagen gebruiken maar dan koop je eerst een sticker van met de juiste streepjescode voor slechts $ 6,25. We gaan even rustig wat drinken en springen dan opnieuw de Cross Country Creek in voor een rondje in een opblaasband.
Na dit ontspannen ronddobberen is het weer tijd voor actie en ik wil graag nog een keertje in de Teamboat Springs. Dit keer lopen we niet omhoog maar gaan we met de stoeltjeslift omhoog. Na even wachten zijn we met 6 personen en kunnen we weer omlaag. Deze glijbaan is mijn favoriet.
Na dit rondje gaan we op zoek naar de Runoff Rapids, 3 glijbanen waar je met een band vanaf gaat. Sander probeert eerst de dichte uit met een éénpersoonsband en de andere twee zijn enkel voor tweepersoonsbanden dus ga ik mee op de tweepersoonsband. Sander heeft het wel gehad na voor de vierde keer Mount Gushmore op te lopen en we besluiten om na opgedroogd te zijn het waterpark te verlaten. Het is heel jammer dat Typhoon Lagoon niet open is, maar zo hebben we weer een reden om een keertje terug te gaan.
Na even opgefrist te hebben in het hotel vertrekken we naar de Pr1me outlets aan de International Drive. Onderweg tanken we nog even bijna 15 Gallon (~55 Liter) voor $ 40,20. Omgerekend komen we dan op een literprijs van $ 0,75 wat in Euro’s momenteel overeenkomt met iets meer dan € 0,50. Sander rijdt dan ook met piepende banden weg.
Vorige keer waren de Pr1me Outlets nog gedeeltelijk in aanbouw maar nu was het helemaal af. Deze outlets zijn echt enorm groot geworden en ik weet niet waar we als eerste heen moeten. Ik kies voor Guest Relations om een gratis voucher boek op te halen met speciale kortingscoupons. Dit boekje kost normaal $ 7 maar ik heb het gratis. Van bijna alle merken zitten er kortingscoupons in bijvoorbeeld bij Tommy Hilfiger 10% extra korting op het totale aankoopbedrag bij een totaal van meer dan $ 100.
We lopen bij Lacoste binnen waar ze enorm veel keuze hebben maar het is er ook druk dus hier komen we later nog terug. Bij Ralph Lauren is het minder druk en daar vind ik een mooi zwart huispak. Dit wordt de eerste aankoop. We lopen nog bij Sunglass Hut, de Sunglass Club en de Oakley Vault langs om te kijken voor een nieuwe zonnebril. Ik denk dat ik er al uit ben maar heb hem nog niet gekocht. Sander twijfelt ook nog.
Dan gaan we eerst wat eten en het wordt een 100% beef hamburger bij de Five Guys. En weer net zo lekker als in 2008. Na rustig gegeten te hebben besluiten we naar de Tommy Hilfiger te lopen om te kijken voor een paar polo’s voor Sander, hij heeft er namelijk niet zoveel meegenomen op vakantie. Hier is momenteel echt veel keuze en veel valt bij ons in de smaak. Bij Tommy slaan we dan ook onze eerste grote slag en we komen bij de kassa aan met een shopping bag met:
Witte polo (Sander)
Rode Polo (Sander)
Geruite korte broek Rood/Wit/Blauw (Sander)
Spijkerbroek (Sander)
2 Spijkerbroeken (Danielle)
Alles voor schitterende prijzen en dan hebben we nog de Vouchers. Bij de Guest Relations lag echter nog een coupon voor Tommy en daar stond iets onduidelijks op maar de kassa slikte het en we kregen op de toch al goede prijzen nog een 20% korting. De spijkerbroeken kostte slechts $ 24 (excl. 6% tax). Dat noem ik nog een outlet prijzen.
Na de Pr1me rijden we via een Wal-Mart Supercenter terug naar het hotel. We gaan vandaag op tijd naar bed om morgen weer fris te kunnen beginnen aan een dagje Disney. We hebben dus besloten om niet naar Cape Canaveral te rijden omdat het weleens voor niets zou kunnen zijn en we dan de diner reservation voor het Fantasmic! Dinner Package niet zouden kunnen meemaken. Het is dus duimen dat de lancering wordt uitgesteld.
Andy Xie thinks the Fed is on an inflationary path. Last month, he wrote an article in Caijing which says that ‘stagflation lite’ is the Federal Reserve’s preferred outcome. What’s interesting is his recent article about the need for China and Japan to join forces under an ASEAN umbrella, rejecting the APEC umbrella shared with the U.S.
In last month’s article, Xie said:
The bottom line is that, regardless what central banks say and do, the world will be awash in a lot more money after the crisis than before — money that will lead to inflation. Even though all central banks talk about being tough on inflation now, they are unlikely to act tough. After a debt bubble bursts, there are two effective options for deleveraging: bankruptcy or inflation. Government actions over the past year show they cannot accept the first option. The second is likely.
Hyperinflation was used in Germany in the 1920s and Russia in late 1990s to wipe slates clean. The technique was essentially mass default by debtors. But robbing savers en masse has serious political consequences. Existing governments, at least, will fall. Most governments would rather find another way out. Mild stagflation is probably the best one can hope for after a debt bubble. A benefit is that stagflation can spread the pain over many years. A downside is that the pain lingers.
If a central bank can keep real interest rates at zero, and real growth rates at 2.5 percent, leverage could be decreased 22 percent in a decade. If real interest rates can be kept at minus 1 percent, leverage could drop 30 percent in a decade. The cost is probably a 5 percent inflation rate. It works, but slowly.
If stagflation is the goal, why might central banks such as the Fed talk tough about inflation now? The purpose is to persuade bondholders to accept low bond yields. The Fed is effectively influencing mortgage interest rates by buying Fannie Mae bonds. This is the most important aspect of the Fed’s stimulus policy. It effectively limits Treasury yields, too. The Fed would be in no position to buy if all Treasury holders decide to sell, and high Treasury yields would push down the property market once again.
I certainly agree with him. You don’t have to be in the hyperinflation camp like Marc Faber to think the Fed takes Ken Rogoff’s suggestions about 6% inflation seriously. In a May post, I said:
Basically, the Fed wants to inflate our way out of this depression – that’s the dirty little secret. There is really no other policy choice because the mountain of debt in the United States is immense. And I think Bernanke, Geithner and Summers have proven they are willing to do anything to reflate this economy and avoid debt deflation dynamics.
And when I say anything, I mean create asset bubbles that are being given intellectual cover by the likes of Frederic Mishkin. This is a policy of economic weakness.
So what should the Asians do? China is desperate to employ its tens of millions of countryside transplants cruising its cities in search of urban employment. That’s a major reason it keeps its exchange rate fixed to a plummeting dollar, making not just Americans but Europeans irate? Japan has been in a modern day depression for twenty years. Its sovereign debt-to GDP is now over 200%, risking a downgrade.
Xie says the two should join forces – in part as a rejection of the U.S., which he basically calls a fading power (although the paragraph above points to serious weaknesses in China and Japan as well).
Here is an excerpt of Xie’s article:
Yet the fundamental case for Japan to increase integration with the rest of Asia and away from the United States grows stronger every day. Despite high per capita income, Japan remains an export-oriented economy, having missed an opportunity to develop a consumption-led economy in the 1980s and ’90s. In the foolish belief that rising property prices would spread wealth beyond the industrial heartland in the Tokyo-Osaka corridor, the government of former Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka pursued a high-price land policy, discouraging the middle class from pursuing a consumer lifestyle as they saved for property purchases…
The point is that Japan has a strong and genuine case that favors more integration with East Asia. The United States is unlikely to recover soon and with enough strength to feed Japan’s export machine again. There is no more room for fiscal stimulus. Devaluing the yen to gain market share is not an option as long as Washington pursues a weak dollar policy. Without a new source of trade, Japan’s economy is doomed. Closer integration with East Asia is the only way out…
Five years ago, I wrote an op-ed piece for the Financial Times entitled China and Japan: Natural Partners. At the time, a prevailing sentiment was that China and Japan were antithetical: Both were still manufacturing export-led economies and could only gain at the other’s expense. I saw complementary demographics and capital: Japan had a declining labor force and China needed to employ tens of millions of youths migrating to cities from the countryside. China needed capital and Japan had surplus capital. And their trade relations indeed tightened, as Japan had increased the Chinese share of its overall trade to 17.4 percent in 2008 from 10.4 percent in ‘04.
Today, the situation has changed. China has a capital surplus rather than a shortage. Demographic complementarity is still good and could last another decade. As China shifts its development model from resource intensive to environmentally friendly, a new complementarity is emerging. Japan has already made the transition, and its technologies that supported the transition need a new market such as China’s. So even without a new trade agreement, bilateral trade will continue growing.
An FTA between China and Japan would significantly accelerate their trade, resulting in an efficiency gain of more than US$ 1 trillion. Japan’s aging population lends urgency to increasing the investment returns. On the other hand, as China prepares to make a numerical commitment to limiting greenhouse gas emissions at the upcoming Copenhagen summit on global warming, heavy investment and rapid restructuring are needed for its economy. Japanese technology could come in quite handy.
An FTA involving Japan and China would be a serious threat to American economic power. You can imagine that policy makers in Washington are opposed to this idea. Let’s watch to see what kind of rhetoric comes out of Barack Obama’s China trip to see if this issue is discussed.
It seems like there’s no intention — on any side — of settling things in the thirty-year civil war in Afghanistan: it’s simply too profitable. Ostensibly the US has “changed sides” since the 80’s and now backs the same urban/secular factions which the Russians “supported” in their occupation. But the degree to which long-standing relationships have been severed remains in doubt due to the incentives that exist — arms, drugs, security, construction, logistics, etc — to prolong or escalate the conflict.
HAMED WARDAK – NCL HOLDINGS, AACP, ETC.
National Construction & Logistics (NCL Holdings) was set up in Virginia in 2007 by then 31 year-old Hamed Wardak – son of the current “hard-drinking, under-achieving” Afghan defense minister. The CIA has a seat at NCL’s table through a high-profile 30-year covert-op veteran, Milton Bearden.
Wardak, “one of the Afghan American community’s most avaricious scoundrels” is a Pashtun who graduated Georgetown in ‘97 under the watch of late neocon Jeane Kirkpatrick. As a post-grad, Wardak was sent to Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. In later years, he would become involved with the neocon American Enterprise Institute think-tank.
After 9/11, Wardak — through the Karzai bros Qayyum and Mahmoud — and Don Ritter founded the deeply suspicious AACP.
Wardak also joined and briefly managed (‘04-05) Technologists Inc, an Afghan security firm founded by Aziz Azimi, which received funding from USAID, US DOD and the Afghan Defense Ministry.
In ‘02/03 Wardak — who worked for Merrill Lynch — was Karzai’s Finance Minister’s envoy to the US.
In ‘07 Wardak also set up “Sacrificers For Peace” (Fedayeen-e-Sol) which claims to be a “non-violent multi-ethnic reform movement” opposed to the Taliban, and is also a founding member of CUSAP – Campaign for US – Afghanistan Partnership — see their 2009 policy paper (pdf)
NCL are one of six Afghan contractors awarded “host nation trucking” contracts worth $2.2b over two years — i.e. 10% of [non-drug] Afghan GDP. Another security/logistics contractor paid to protect US convoys is Watan Risk Management, run by convicted narco-trafficker Rateb Popal and his brother Rashid — cousins of President Karzai… I wonder what cargo the “empty” trucks carry on their return trips?
Other transporters include Afghan American Army Services and US-based Four Horsemen International (who are also in Iraq), Afghan International Trucking (AIT) and Afghan Trade Transportation (ATT). James Clifton, a former US Army contracting official has just been sentenced to 40 months in prison for accepting bribes from AIT and ATT.
Sibel Edmond’s Nov-9 article ‘In the Name of a General, his Son, a Spook & the Godmother of Neocon‘ is essential reading.
THE PECULIAR ECONOMICS OF INFINITE WAR
Just how does the US plan to marginalize the Taliban when Afghan subcontractors pay them to protect US supply convoys? Bruce Wilson comments on the recent article by Aram Roston in ‘The Nation’ (not the Pakistani newspaper) which discusses the logistics/bribery side of the US mission in narco-state Afghanistan:
In some cases, as Roston describes, Afghan contracting firms simply pay the Taliban directly, and Taliban vehicles escort the supply convoys. [...] The Afghan government intelligence service suggested to the Americans that they should take the money they’re paying to the Afghan trucking supply contractors and instead spend it to set up a single, heavily armed, professional service. As Roston drily puts it, “the suggestion went nowhere.”
In essence, the US is doling out cash to Taliban and saying, “don’t attack us there, attack us over here“: The Taliban take that money, buy their own weapons and supplies, and attack the Americans at the newly resupplied forward command posts. Lots of bullets and RPG rounds fly about, Americans die, Taliban die, maybe a helicopter gunship gets called in, maybe it gets shot down, maybe it kills some Taliban, maybe they run away first and go back to extorting some more money from the supply convoy that will come to resupply the munitions-depleted American forward command post.
WHO CONTROLS THE AFGHAN NARCO-TRADE? FOLLOW THE MONEY…
An article published by RAWA – the Revolutionary Association of Women in Afghanistan — analyses the recent UNODC figures (June ‘09 pdf) on the Afghan drugs trade — showing that 75% of narco-income goes to government factions and “power brokers” enjoying US/NATO support:
UNODC states that a decade ago the Taliban earned $85 million per year from drugs, but that since 2005 this figure has jumped to $125 million. Although this is pitched as a significant increase, the Taliban play a more minor role in the opium economy than UNODC would have us believe and drug money is probably a secondary source of funding for them. Indeed, the report estimates that only 10-15% of Taliban funding is drawn from drugs and 85% comes from “nonopium sources.”
The total revenue generated by opiates within Afghanistan is about $3.4 billion per year. Of this figure, according to UNODC, the Taliban get only 4% of the sum. Farmers, meanwhile, get 21%. And the remaining 75%? Al-Qaeda? No [...] Instead, the remaining 75% is captured by government officials, the police, local and regional power brokers and traffickers — in short, many of the groups now supported (or tolerated) by the United States and NATO are important actors in the drug trade.
MORE LINKS:
Sibel Edmonds’ blog provides a link to an excellent, densely-packed commentary from late-07 by veteran foreign-correspondent, Arthur Kent — “Cashing in on Karzai & Co.” (Watch Kent’s June ‘07 video report “Kabul’s Fat Cats” — or a mid-08 interview with him.)
James Risen’s March ‘09 NY Times article about former Boston restauranteur Mahmoud Karzai — also worth reading.
90min audio (streaming/ram) from a ‘06 John Hopkins/CACI talk by Hamed Wardak.
May ‘09 article by Hamed Wardak, with advice on how the US can fix things in Afghanistan.
Hamed Wardak’s token blog and facebook page.
April ‘09 article by Milton Bearden in CFR publication ‘Foreign Affairs’.
The Campaign for a U.S. – Afghanistan Partnership (CUSAP)
Interessert i nyanserte og kvalifiserte synspunkter på krigen i Afghanistan? Professor William R. Polk, en av president Kennedys rådgivere under Cuba-krisen, har skrevet et åpent brev til president Barack Obama:
In recent events I see an opportunity to accomplish American objectives while avoiding a course of action that could derail plans for your presidency, just as the Vietnam War ruined the presidency of Lyndon Johnson.
Sovjetimperiet gikk til grunne i Afghanistan. Og etterlot en arv;
The brutal Soviet occupation shattered the Afghan social structure. Nearly one in ten Afghans was killed or died, and more than 5 million fled the country. Living wretchedly in refugee camps, mainly in Pakistan, hundreds of thousands of young Afghan men were “reshaped.” Like the biblical Children of Israel after forty years in the wilderness, these Afghans emerged very different from their fathers. The new generation kept their stern code of belief, but they lost touch with the humanizing aspects of growing up in families. Living apart from mothers and sisters, many of the young men, mostly Pashtuns, were incorporated into male-only madrassas in which they were housed, fed, armed and radicalized. They emerged as the foot soldiers of the Taliban.
William R. Polks brev gir bra bakgrunn for egne meninger. Men aner at den beslutningen president Obama nå er i ferd med å ta om amerikansk politikk i Afghanistan, trolig er en av de mest skjebnetunge i hans presidentperiode.
USA, Oregon, Fusillade, 2 morts – Deux morts dans une fusillade près de Portland, dans l’Oregon – Reuters – Bill Rigby et Teresa Carson, version française Jean-Philippe Lefief – Deux personnes ont été tuées par balles à Tualatin, petite ville des Etats-Unis au sud de Portland, rapporte mardi la police américaine. L’auteur présumé des tirs a été arrêté. Deux blessés ont en outre été hospitalisés après la fusillade, qui s’est déroulée dans un centre antidrogue.
Jeudi dernier, une autre fusillade imputée à un psychiatre de l’armée a fait 13 morts sur la base militaire de Fort Hood, au Texas.
USA, Oregon, Shooting, 2 Dead – Two dead in shooting near Portland, Oregon – Reuters – Bill Rigby and Teresa Carson, French version Jean-Philippe Lefief – Two people were shot dead in Tualatin, a small town United States south of Portland, reported Tuesday the U.S. police. The alleged shooting was arrested. Two wounded were also hospitalized after the shooting, which took place in a drug center.
Last Thursday, another shooting blamed on an army psychiatrist left 13 dead on the military base of Fort Hood, Texas.
USA, Oregon, Shooting, 2 Dead – Zwei Tote im Schießen in der Nähe von Portland, Oregon – AFP – Bill Rigby und Teresa Carson, Französisch Version Jean-Philippe Lefief – Zwei Menschen wurden erschossen in Tualatin, einer kleinen Stadt Vereinigte Staaten südlich von Portland, berichtete am Dienstag die US-Polizei. Die angebliche Schießerei verhaftet. Zwei Verletzte wurden auch nach der Schießerei im Krankenhaus, die in einem Drogen-Zentrum stattfand.
Am vergangenen Donnerstag, eine weitere Aufnahme auf eine Armee Psychiater Schuld bleibt 13 Toten auf der Militärbasis in Fort Hood, Texas.
EE.UU., Oregon, filmación, 2 muertos – Dos muertos en tiroteo cerca de Portland, Oregon – Reuters – Bill Rigby y Teresa Carson, versión francesa, Jean-Philippe Lefief – Dos personas murieron en Tualatin, un pequeño pueblo al sur de los Estados Unidos Portland, informó el martes la policía de EE.UU.. El presunto tiroteo fue detenido. Dos heridos fueron hospitalizados después del tiroteo, que tuvo lugar en un centro de drogas.
El jueves pasado, otro tiroteo atribuido a un psiquiatra del ejército dejó 13 muertos en la base militar de Fort Hood, Texas.
Von ehemals 700 Waldenbooks-Fillialen sollen nur 130 übrig bleiben – 1.500 Mitarbeiter sind davon betroffen…
Gefunden bei boersenblatt.net:
06.11.2009
USA
Borders schließt 200 Waldenbooks-Läden
Der US-Buchhändler Borders will seine Billigkette Waldenbooks ordentlich ausdünnen: 200 Läden sollen bereits im Januar 2010 geschlossen werden.
Am Ende sollen von einst 700 Filialen gerade mal 130 übrig bleiben. Von der Schließung betroffen sind neben Waldenbooks-Läden auch Geschäfte die unter der Flagge Borders Express segeln.
Nach einem Bericht des Branchenblatts “Publishers Weekly” sind 1.500 Borders-Mitarbeiter von der Schließungswelle betroffen, in der Mehrzahl soll es sich um Teilzeitarbeitsplätze handeln.
Wie auf boersenblatt.net berichtet, hat der US-Buchhandelsriese Borders auch im zweiten Quartal des laufenden Geschäftsjahres wieder schlecht abgeschnitten: Der Konzernumsatz fiel um 17,7 Prozent auf 624,7 Millionen US-Dollar (ca. 437,3 Mio. Euro). Der Quartalsverlust wurde im Vergleich zum Vorjahreszeitraum mehr als vervierfacht und betrug 45,6 Millionen US-Dollar (ca. 32 Mio. Euro).
Für das erste Halbjahr steht für Borders nun ein Umsatzrückgang um 17,7 Prozent auf 1,28 Milliarden US-Dollar (ca. 895 Mio. Euro) zu Buche, und ein Konzernverlust von 131,6 Millionen US-Dollar (ca. 92 Mio. Euro).
so I put my hands up, they’re playin’ my song – the butterflies fly away. noddin’ my head like yeah, movin’ my hips like yeah
Det er faktisk ikke særlig lenge til jeg drar nå! Og det slo meg i stad ; at nå må jeg begynne å blogge igjen – slik at jeg husker å blogge når jeg endelig er over there. Tiden går så fort, og nå gruer jeg meg egentlig mest til å dra. Sure, det blir awesome og incredible – men jeg kommer til å være all alone. Ser dere jeg øver for fullt på engelsken min eller? Det er 48 dager og alt for få timer til jeg drar, og mens vår alles kjære Miley Cyrus’ sang “party in the USA” spiller på repeat fra mine fantastiske pc-speakers prøver jeg å overbevise meg selv om at det kommer til å bra. “Du kommer jo selvfølgelig til å møte noen å henge med, Sara”, “tenk på alt du kommer til å oppleve” og “Sara – ærlig talt, dette har du jo hatt lyst til lenge” er de faste argumentene mine for tiden. Tror du de funker eller? Nei, jeg er jo nervøs uansett. Men det er igrunn naturlig. Nå skjønner jeg så langt har dette vært et innlegg for å berolige meg selv. Haha, jaja .. det funket sånn halvveis!
Men – er det noe du lurer på når det gjelder min lille USA-roadtrip?
Jeg kan jo bruke dette som en mulighet for å få forklart litt for folk som lurer. Det er jo meningen at venner og bekjente skal kunne følge med på hva som skjer i mulighetens land, og da kan det jo hende noen ikke har helt skjønt hva det er jeg egentlig skal. Så nå kan du spørre om du lurer på!
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The days are moving fast, and in about 48 days and very few hours I’ll be arriving in NYC. And it’s about time I start with my bloging again, so I don’t forget when I’m over there. The whole point is that people I know and meet can follow me and see what I’m doing on my trip. So, if you have any questions regarding my trip, now is the time to ask!
A US army psychiatrist has gone on a shooting spree at America’s largest military installation.
As many as 12 people have been killed with 31 injured.
The suspected gunman, named as Major Nidal Malik Hasan was armed with two hand guns and burst into a readiness centre at Fort Hood in Texas. He then opened fire on soldiers undergoing final medical checks before their deployment to Afghanistan.
He was shot by security personnel and is undergoing treatment in hospital.
President Obama spoke about the carnage, saying:
“My immediate thoughts and prayers are with the wounded and with the families of the fallen and with those who live and serve at Fort Hood. These are men and women who have made the selfless and courageous decision to risk and at times give their lives to protect the rest of us on a daily basis. It’s difficult enough when we lose these brave Americans in battles overseas. It is horrifying that they should come under fire at an Army base on American soil.”
The alleged gunman worked at the Walter Reed Army Medical Centre before being transferred to Fort Hood in July.
He was trained in Disaster and Preventative Psychiatry and recently expressed deep concerns about being shipped out to Iraq or Afghanistan.
Ford Hood is home to some 60,000 military and civilian personnel.
Anyone who spends any time with me knows that putting or keeping my neighbor working is important to me. The outsourcing of America has left us with little more than a bunch of service industries. We need to make things, put pride back into the made in America brand. As I find companies that work hard to put America to work I will share them with you. I will share companies that are working to change the footprint we leave on the planet. I hope you will all take the time to support these companies and in turn put your neighbor and mine back to work!
When you reach for your next roll of aluminum foil grab the Reynolds!
My family was a supporter of Reynolds for years. This foil literally saved our familie’s mobile home when the kids were all little. I had left some cupcakes on the stove and went off to work. Late that morning the call came to work saying the house was on fire. I raced home expecting to find little more than a shell. To my surprise when I turned the corner our home was still there.
I had put the cupcakes on a Corel plate with Reynolds wrap over the top and placed them on the stove. Our dog had tried to get a treat and turned on the burner under the plate. The strength of the plate and wrap was enough to hold the fire inside. The cupcakes burned to ash, the smoke setting off our fire alarm that got our neighbors attention, who in turn called 911. Yes it was a string of events that saved the home, but we were so thankful to Reynolds for the durability of their product we wrote them and have remained faithful customers. The foil from that day is framed and hung in the kitchen of each home to remind us just how lucky we got.
When I started to look in my cupboards and drawers to see what was made here and what was imported I found those great words on my Reynolds wrap, Made in America! The best news of all came from Reynolds this past year. 100% recycled aluminum foil!
So next time you need some aluminum foil please grab the Reynolds, you will get a quality product. It may cost a penny or two more, but it is worth it for the strength of the product alone. Plus the people who will have jobs this Christmas in Richmond, VA will be thankful and so will our economy. We can’t spend if we don’t work. Think about it…
Aux Etats-Unis, un juge fédéral vient de déclarer illégale l’autorisation de culture d’une variété de betterave génétiquement modifiée, le gouvernement n’en ayant pas préalablement évalué l’impact environnemental. Cette décision pourrait conduire à l’interdiction de sa commercialisation. Et à toute une série de nouveaux procès…
Ces betteraves OGM, fruits des recherches biotechnologiques de Monsanto, sont imperméables au Roundup, ce qui permet aux agriculteurs d’épandre le maximum d’herbicides en prenant le minimum de risques. Elles ont été agréées en 2005 par le gouvernement, qui avait décrété que l’impact environnemental ne serait pas significatif, sans autre étude. Ces betteraves sont cultivées à grande échelle depuis 2008. Selon certaines études, elles représentent 95% des cultures de betterave sucrière plantées cette année.
La suite de l’article : http://www.lesmotsontunsens.com/betterave-ogm-interdits-par-justice-americaine-etats-unis-5603
Harold Hirsch ist der Name eines US-amerikanischen Anwaltes. Er war ab 1909 bei der Coca Cola Company verantwortlich für Rechtsangelegenheiten. Um die Marke für eine braune, zuckrige Brause durchzusetzen — das Wort “Coca Cola” war in der Umgangssprache der einfachen Menschen längst ein Gattungsbegriff für diese Art von alkoholfreier, mit Koffein und teils auch noch Kokain versetzter, anregender Limonade geworden — beauftragte und bezahlte er etliche Detektive, die in den damals populären Soda-Bars als Kunden auftraten und auf diese Weise Proben der dort unter der Bezeichnung “Coca Cola” ausgeschenkten Limonaden nahmen. Auf diese Weise ermittelte er, ob dort auch wirklich das Produkt der Coca Cola Company ausgeschenkt wurde, und jeden Verstoß ließ er gerichtlich verfolgen. Später optimierte er die Vorgehensweise, indem er im Jahre 1915 eine firmeneigene Abteilung für derartige Ermittlungen aufbaute. Die “Spione” waren Angestellte mit einem richtigen Vollzeit-Job geworden, externe Dienstleister wurden nicht mehr benötigt und nicht mehr beauftragt. Ferner strengte Hirsch Prozesse gegen jede Getränkefirma an, deren Produktnamen auch nur eine entfernte klangliche Ähnlichkeit zu “Coca-Cola” hatten, oder die ebenfalls rote Fässer verwendeten oder auch nur das rautenförmige Etikett der damaligen Flaschen mit Coca-Cola. Ferner versuchte er — in diesem einen Punkt erfolglos — die braune Farbe der Limonade als Bestandteil der Marke schützen zu lassen. Nach nicht einmal zwanzig Jahren hatte der Rechtsanwalt gut siebentausend Mitbewerber auf juristischem Wege “erledigt” und strengte weiterhin jede Woche eine Klage an, und zwar mit einem für die meisten Gegner existenzbedrohenden Streitwert.
So entstand eine Weltmarke, die heute so gern mit allerlei lustvollen Attributen wirbt und für viel zu viele Menschen, in deren Hirne leider jeden Tag die Allgegenwart der Reklame prasselt, zu einer künstlichen Ikone der Lust und der Freiheit geworden ist. Der “american dream” ist vor allem traumhaft für Besitzende mit einem Hang zur rücksichtslosen Durchsetzung ihrer Ansprüche. Alle anderen. Dürfen kaufen und trinken, was ihnen vorgesetzt wird, wenn sie das noch können.
In letzter Zeit, in der ich immer wieder über Abmahnungen gegen kleine, private Internetsites in der BRD lesen musste, musste ich oft an dieses kaum bekannte Detail der Geschichte der US-amerikanischen Popkultur denken.
Kvinnor med “manliga” namn har lättare för att göra karriär än kvinnor med “kvinnliga” namn, har en amerikansk forskare kommit fram till. Man har räknat ut “manlighetskvoten” i olika förnamn genom att titta på hur måna män respektive kvinnor som har det, och sedan jämfört med de namn som kvinnliga jurister har. Ju manligare förnamn desto större chans har en kvinnlig jurist att utses till domare och att tjäna mer pengar. Det sistnämnda är justerat med hänsyn till klassbakgrund, eftersom det finns en möjlighet att överklassföräldrar i större utsträckning än andra väljer manliga förnamn åt sina döttrar.
Det verkar som om en kvinna i en mansdominerad bransch har lättare för att smälta in som en av grabbarna och därmed att avancera om hon har ett androgynt namn. Att ändra sitt kvinnliga namn till ett mer androgynt är en strategi; att bara använda sina initialer istället för förnamn ett annat. Det sägs att J.K. Rowling inte skrev ut sitt förnamn Joan när Harry Potter publicerades, eftersom hon var rädd att killar inte skulle vilja läsa en bok skriven av en kvinna.
Det är som om folk tror att en kvinnlig person – oavsett kön – inte kan vara professionell. “Manlighet” är status och kompetens, medan “kvinnlighet” är mindre värt. Det handlar om sexism, javisst, men inte så mycket om förakt för kvinnor som förakt för det som uppfattas som “kvinnligt”.
Jag har alltid varit lite obekväm med klyschan “Vill du ha högre lön? Byt kön!”. Kanske borde man istället säga “Byt namn!”. Sorgligt är det, vilket som.
Relaterat: Aftonbladetforskning visar att män som behandlas med testosterongel blir snåla. Själv brukar jag skylla på mina småländska gener; det är förmodligen lika relevant. Läs även andra bloggares intressanta åsikter om kön, genus, sexism, jämställdhet, könsroller, kvinnlighet, manlighet, könsneutralitet, androgynitet, namn, fördomar, USA, politik, status, kompetens, jobb, manligt, kvinnligt
En effet, Robert Gibbs, le porte parole de la Maison Blanche à fait savoir que les filles d’ Obama (Sasha & Malia ) ne se feront pas vaccinés car d’après leur profil médical, il ne leur était pas nécessaire. Ce qui est étonnant car, on sait que Malia est atteinte d’asthme, les enfants aux problèmes respiratoires chroniques ne sont – ils pas plus sensibles en cas de grippe ou de tout autre virus pouvant touché le système respiratoire ?
En tout cas, cela ajoute encore du crédit à la thèse de la conspiration.
De plus, voici un spot publicitaire qui tourne sur les écrans de télévision américains. Créé par HHS ce spot pour les enfants promotionne la prise du vaccin à l’aide de “Sid “, du véritable conditionnement !!!
Forced marriages and other things like cemeteries separating the pure and impure – we don’t have that in Switzerland and we don’t want to introduce it,” said Ulrich Schlüer, co-president of the Initiative Committee to ban minarets.
“Switzerland has lost,” said Rifa’at Lenzin from the European Project for Interreligious Learning in Zürich, adding that the country was “leading the way” for Islamophobia.
By Julie
LEWISTON — A national Muslim civil rights organization TERRORIST FRONT GROUP has filed a formal request with the Lewiston School Department to allow a middle school student to pray on school property. The group also wants Lewiston to modify existing policy and provide “constitutionally protected religious accommodation,” such as a designated prayer room.
