Wednesday, June 1, 2011

英国‧女人越醜越健康‧胸小屁股大生痣腿粗最好

(英國‧倫敦1日訊)在美麗和健康之間,你會做甚麼樣的選擇?

多項研究結果顯示女人越醜越健康,例如屁股大心腦血管好,因為臀部大的人體內“壞膽固醇”水平更低,“好膽固醇”更多,所以出現心腦血管硬化、血管栓塞的機會率較低。

另外根據倫敦大學一項研究顯示,多痣的人老得較慢,一般比無痣者實際年齡年輕6至7歲,患心臟病及骨質疏鬆等衰老疾病的機率亦比較低。

也別要羨慕大胸的人,因為土耳其研究人員發現,乳房越大,尤其是D Cup以上的人,越容易出現上背痛及脊柱彎曲,乳房小的人則不會。

也不要窈窕幼腿,丹麥一項為期12年、涉及3千人的研究顯示,大腿粗心臟好。大腿圓周長60公分以上、腿部肌肉強壯者,早逝和患心臟病風險大大降低。

生物醫學專家拉爾夫霍爾姆博士指出,外耳越大獲得聲音就越清晰,所以大耳朵的人老了也很少失聰。

而根據美國最新研究發現,腳掌平足的人,腳和腿部受傷少,20%足弓高的人,受傷危險比平足者高達6倍。

不知從此以後,有多少女人樂意說自己是健康的人呢?

新加坡‧染紅2小時半全月蝕‧16日出現“血月”

(新加坡1日訊)6月16日凌晨,新加坡夜空將出現“血月”,只要是看得到月亮的地方,都能觀賞到這場10年來最長的全月蝕,但新加坡西部則是最佳地點。

根據資料,16日的月蝕將長達2小時33分鐘,從凌晨2時32分開始,一直到5時零5分才結束。

本月16日凌晨,新加坡夜空將出現“血月”


月蝕發生的時候,月亮也可能染紅,變成“血月”。這是因為當地球走進太陽和月亮之間,三者形成直線時,地球大氣層將反射陽光,從而發出紅色的光。月亮此時就會反射地球所發出的紅光,呈現紅色。

新加坡天文學會副會長洪本生今早受詢時說,到時不管在新加坡的哪裡,只要是看得到月亮的地方,肉眼就能觀賞到月蝕,但西部地區是觀賞月蝕景觀的最佳地點。

“月蝕的結束時間接近早晨,而月亮是從西邊下山,所以若要觀賞月蝕的整個過程,西部地區或許會比較理想,不過,無論在哪個地方都能夠看見月蝕,也不需要用到望遠鏡,所以公眾不應該錯失良機。”

洪本生說,月亮到時有多“紅”,全月蝕的景觀到底能看得多清楚,則得依當天的大氣層和天氣概況而定。

據知,新加坡下一次目睹全月蝕,將會是在2018年。

全月蝕當天,新加坡科學館將免費開放,讓公眾到那裡一同見證這一天文奇觀。

台灣‧馬新中美等15國家及地區‧台灣塑化劑產品出口5大洲

(台灣‧台北1日訊)台灣衛生署週三表示,島內製造的致癌塑化劑產品,總共出口到全球5大洲、15個國家地區,台灣已個別通知,包括馬來西亞、新加坡、中國,甚至美國等地。

發現746飲品食品有毒

台灣塑化劑風暴愈演愈烈,當局至今已發現有746飲品及食品含有有毒塑化劑,涉及216間公司,這波風暴不僅籠罩全台,也影響到海外。

對於境外的回收行動,衛生署表示,這是衛生署主動通知台灣含有塑化劑的產品已經銷到當地,這些國家地區才會進行下架。

目前,衛生署總共通知15個相關國家地區,遍及全球5大洲。

該署食品藥物管理局副局長許銘能說:“目前15個國家:美國、中國大陸、歐盟、香港、越南、菲律賓、澳洲、馬來西亞、南非、阿根廷、埃及、英國、加拿大、紐西蘭、澳門。”

中國國家質檢總局已公佈從週三起,暫停進口台灣已公佈的問題企業生產的運動飲品、果汁、茶飲、果醬果漿、膠囊和食品添加劑。

美國食品及藥物管理局亦表示,會篩檢台灣製的食品,一旦發現塑化劑含量異常,會禁止入口,同類貨品也會被海關扣查;至於已確定被塑化劑污染的產品,美國政府會特別加強查核。

美國華人大本營加州最大華人超市大華超市證實,目前已有至少2款台灣飲品下架,其他的還在全面瞭解中。

加拿大食品檢驗局則在網站上警告,要特別注意來自台灣的果汁、運動及增加體能飲料、果醬。

獅城停止進口一楊桃汁

新加坡已停止進口台灣一款含有塑化劑成份的楊桃汁;香港也將含有塑化劑的台灣相關產品下架;澳門政府檢驗後發現,由台灣入口的抗胃酸藥物“保胃懸乳液”含塑化劑,亦已下令回收有關產品。

飲品店生意大受影響
台灣多個夜市傳“淪陷”

繼士林之市捲入塑化劑風暴後,台灣島內多個旅遊熱點,包括淡水、永康街以及全台多個夜市也傳出“淪陷”,飲品店生意大受影響。

台灣媒體報導,使用有毒化的昱伸公司下游廠商“果山園”公司的濃縮果汁,銷往苗栗以南、雲林以北的五縣市各大小夜市,著名的逢甲、東海夜市均在其中。

台中市衛生局連夜組隊前往逢甲抽查,但彰化縣衛生局長出面澄清,目前沒有看到逢甲和東海夜市有問題。

不過,衛生署追查發現,昱伸公司另一家下游廠商“加川興業有限公司”產品也含有塑化劑,並供貨給多達117家公司和業者,其中一家生技公司產製的水果糖和口含錠,已流入各大夜市和雜貨店。

雖然這家生技公司表示,已經將有問題產品下架回收,五百公斤果汁分也遭到查扣,但回收量與帳冊內的出貨量不成正比,許多雜貨店仍然可以看到問題產品在架上販售,消費者健康難以確保。



你知道嗎?

問:鄰苯二甲酸二(DEHP)是甚麼,哪些用品會含此物質?
答:DEHP是塑化劑,液體,無色無味。可令塑膠物料更柔軟,廣泛用於PVC塑料,如兒童玩具、食物包裝物料、仿皮用品、雨衣、鞋履、傢私布、地板、電線及電纜、桌布、浴簾、醫療器材等。

問:DEHP與食品用的“起雲劑”有何關係?
答:“起雲劑”通常是用阿拉伯膠、乳化劑、棕櫚油及多種食品添加物混合而成,幫助食品的乳化,可合法使用,常見添加在運動飲料、果汁及果凍、乳酪或檸檬果汁粉末等食品。廠商非法使用DEHP等塑化劑製造起雲劑,應是為了降低成本或增加產品的品質穩定。

問:台灣目前認定哪些食品或會遭塑化劑污染?
答:製造過程有添加起雲劑的“運動飲料”、“果汁飲料”、“茶飲料”、“果醬、果漿或果凍”及“膠囊錠狀粉狀之形態”等五大類食品。當局已規定此等食品製造商要在5月31日前提出安全證明,否則將禁止販售。

問:DEHP有何毒性?
答:其急性口服性低,但攝取大劑量DEHP證實會影響實驗動物的肝、腎及生殖和發育情況,現有足夠證據證明顯示它可令實驗動物患癌,國際癌症研究機構將之列為“或可能令人患癌”。

加拿大‧全球水危機迫在眉睫‧20國前領導人擬設小組解救

(魁北克1日訊)20位卸任國家領導人,包括美國前總統克林頓,週三警告“水危機”已迫在眉睫,並同意成立小組,以應付全球水資源危機領導階層斷層的問題。

20位世界前元首表示,這個小組將努力提昇有關水資源危機議題的政治能見度,以避免全球水資源的供應在未來發生問題。

國際行動委員會的成員今年齊聚加拿大魁北克市,參加為期3天的年度會議,成員除了克林頓,還有日本前首相福田康夫、挪威前總理布倫特蘭德女士、墨西哥前總統福克斯和塞迪略。

國際行動委員會成員呼吁建立新的國際水資源倫理,並對全球水資源的管理提出21點建議,當務之急就是“將水資源議題置於全球政治議程的優先地位”。

另外,美國科學家分析2枚人造衛星從太空觀測到的重力變化資料,發現北非、印度北部、中國東北、美國加州沙加緬度-聖華昆山谷等地區,已有地下水耗竭的問題。

根據加州大學水文模式研究中心進行的重力恢復與氣候實驗,2003年10月到2010年3月期間,加州農業重鎮中央山谷的地下水減少2千500萬英畝呎,約胡佛水壩攔阻科羅拉多河形成的米德湖水量。

意大利‧雛妓案開審‧總理或逃牢劫

(意大利‧羅馬31日訊)意大利總理貝盧斯科尼嫖宿雛妓案週二再次開庭審理,貝盧斯科尼本人沒有出庭,但其律師團準備了一系列辯護,準備向法院方面審問該起案件的權威發起挑戰。

這是米蘭法院第二次就這樁雛妓案進行聽審。今年4月,法院對該案展開初審,貝盧斯科尼否認所有指控罪名。

報導指,如果罪名成立,貝盧斯科尼將面臨最高12年監禁的刑事處罰,不過,根據意大利法律對超過70歲公民判罰的規定,貝盧斯科尼可能逃脫坐牢的處罰。

此前,貝氏領導的中間偏右聯盟在剛剛結束的地方選舉遭受重挫。

新加坡‧農糧局驗出含塑化劑‧“太陽為記”楊桃汁下架

(新加坡31日訊)新加坡農糧與獸醫局在檢測了第一批進口自台灣的13種品牌的飲料後,發現其中“太陽為記”(Sunlight Brand)品牌的楊桃汁受塑化劑污染,並已下令商家立即把市面上的該產品下架。

農糧局昨晚發表文告說,該局抽樣檢測本地售賣的13種台灣品牌的26個飲料的樣本後,唯有“太陽為記”的楊桃汁不過關,被檢測出受塑化劑污染。農糧局已停止該飲料的進口,也下令進口商馬上停止售賣和回收市面上的產品。

農糧局也提醒已購買台灣製造的“太陽為記”楊桃汁的消費者,丟棄產品,不要飲用。

其他12品牌通過檢測

農糧局檢測的其他12種台灣飲料品牌包括全好、愛之味、亞洲物語、Sagiko、十全等,都通過檢測,消費者可放心飲用。

“太陽為記”產品進口商昨天接受《聯合早報》詢問時說,在新加坡市面上售賣的“太陽為記”楊桃汁有兩種包裝,分別是360毫升的小瓶裝和750毫升的大瓶裝。

他說,公司在接到農糧局的通知後,立刻通知客戶下架產品,截至昨天晚上,已回收90%以上的產品。

他說,在新加坡售賣的“太陽為記”品牌飲料共有三種口味,即是楊桃汁、梅子汁和馬蹄水,只有楊桃汁因為調製飲料色澤,而添加塑化劑,其他兩種口味的飲料沒有問題,公司也會繼續進口和售賣。

中國‧粽子“女體盛”搞噱頭‧商家被轟侮辱屈原

(中國‧北京31日訊)下週一是端午節,中國商家紛紛大搞噱頭,長沙一家餐館近日就上演一場“粽子女體盛”騷,一名穿著性感的女子平躺在桌上,雙手護胸,腹部盛著一隻巨型粽子,廚師在旁小心用刀切割粽葉,吸引大批食客圍觀。有民眾炮轟這種表演不但侮辱女性,也侮辱了屈原。

日本“女體盛”另類飲食文化近年傳到中國,在女性身體擺放食物奉客,之前有過刺身女體盛。近日長沙舉行了一場“粽子”女體盛,一名年輕女子躺在桌上,身穿輕紗裙露出腿部,腹部位置放著粽葉和粽子。

報導指出,在眾目睽睽下,充當盛體的美女抿著嘴看著上方,明顯有些不自然,但有圍觀者卻說:“怎麼不是光著身子,穿得太多了。”不少人舉起相機拍照,圍觀者中更有小孩。

美女穿粽衣走天橋

現場介紹的職員說,這個稱為“香女粽”,說粽子帶著美女的體溫,是最適合入口的溫度。除了女體盛,還舉行了“粽衣騷”,有美女穿粽衣,舉著粽子走天橋。

粽子女體盛曝光後,惹來網民抨擊,認為這種商業噱頭做法太過份,指摘女體盛首先是對女性人格的侮辱,不應有這樣變態的吃飯方式,“看了已吃不下去,覺得惡心,這對她本人是一種極大的侮辱”。

還有網民認為,商家在端午節前借粽子炒作,是對屈原和粽子的褻瀆,有人覺得,商家促銷講究新意沒錯,但若一味拿“女體”做噱頭,未免低俗了點。

荷蘭‧3地Ikea家居商場肇爆炸案

(荷蘭1日訊)比利時、法國及荷蘭的宜家(Ikea)家居商場週二幾乎同時發生連環小型爆炸案,所幸沒有釀成傷亡。

發生爆炸的宜家商場分別坐落在比利時根特、法國北部的里爾及荷蘭艾恩德霍芬。根特檢察單位發言人透露,初步資料顯示,3宗爆炸案手法相似,均通過隱藏在鬧鐘內的爆炸物引爆。

台灣‧蕭萬長不參選副總統‧馬英九表示尊重

(台灣‧台北31日訊)台灣副總統蕭萬長週二表示,基於世代交替,他依4年前“只輔贊一任”的君子協議,不再搭配參選2012年連任大選。總統馬英九表示尊重,副手人選會於6月25日18全會之前定案。

蕭萬長下午發表聲明指出,他在4月杪已與馬英九商訂,表明不再2012大選尋求連任。明年5月任滿,歸隱林泉。

蕭萬長指出,古人有“世代交替”的明訓,所以他有“只輔贊一任”的思考。他表示,未來1年任期,除一本初衷,盡心盡力輔贊之外,也將參與輔選工作。

Is Greece the future of America ?

Greece has a sovereign debt problem. The bonds of the Greek government have been downgraded by a major rating service. Their prices have fallen sharply in the market. This means that the risk is high that the government will default on its sovereign debt.

The interest rates that the Greek government must pay in order to borrow have risen sharply. This is worsening the government’s solvency and budget problems.

The government faces default. The government’s various spending cutbacks haven’t solved the problem.

They cannot solve the problem. It’s apparently too late. The government would have to restructure its debt by renegotiating with its multiple lenders. That’s a difficult and time-consuming process. It would have to work out repayment while simultaneously altering government policies so that the country’s private market economy could expand. This involves knotty political and economic issues that take years to resolve. The government doesn’t have this time.

The problem traces back to the earlier fact that for some years the government was able to borrow heavily at low interest rates. This means that it was able to sell its bonds at high prices. The problem arose because these market prices were too high.

The sovereign debt of Greece became overvalued due to central bank/banking system money inflation. This inflation, it should be strongly emphasized, originated in the fiat dollar system of the United States and the Federal Reserve.

The central banks of the world and the world money supply are heavily influenced by what the Federal Reserve does through a kind of multiplier effect, because foreign central banks respond to Fed inflation with inflation of their own. Ronald I. McKinnon explained this important process in his June 1982 article in the American Economic Review. We see it happening today when foreign banks have to inflate in reaction to QE2 in order to prevent their currencies from strengthening too much against the depreciating dollar.

The high bond prices encouraged the Greek government to borrow too heavily and to raise government spending. But since its spending was not productive, it didn’t produce high enough tax revenues to service the debt. In time the government faced the problem it now has, which is not enough tax cash flows or income to service the debt.

Monetary inflation, in other words, causes overvalued sovereign debt. This sets in motion larger government spending, higher debt loads, and an eventual fiscal crisis when tax revenues fall short of what is required to maintain government spending and service the debt.

This process goes on in addition to the business cycle effects, well-known in Austrian economics, that inflation produces. In keeping with the analogous finance literature on overvalued equity, I identify this process as one that involves agency costs of overvalued sovereign debt.

This process is only made worse when major lenders, such as large banks, have reason to believe that they occupy a privileged position and that their bond positions will be paid off by political means if necessary. These lenders then all the more become willing to buy overvalued sovereign debt.

This effect of inflation is important because of its broad applicability in an age of inflation. In particular, a number of other countries including the U.S. have followed the Greek path.

Michael C. Jensen was the first to analyze the agency costs of overvalued equity. Everything that he says about the dire effects on a company’s behavior from having an overpriced stock find a parallel when a government issues overpriced debt. The parallels are not perfect, of course. In fact, every bit of analysis suggests that the problem will be worse for overvalued sovereign debt.

Intuition can be a misleading guide in these matters. We are taught that a high stock price is a good thing, and it is a good thing when it accurately reflects value creation in the enterprise. But not all high stock prices arise from value creation. Central bank money inflation fosters speculation. Speculation leads to asset price bubbles. Rising prices attract naive investors.

We have twice seen in recent memory how government/central bank inflation-produced speculation leads to a breakdown in critically important internal market practices and institutions. First we had overvalued stocks break down in 2000 amid hundreds of cases of overstated earnings. Accompanying this were accounting and auditing scandals as well as law firm and investment banking misbehavior. Second, starting in 2006 and continuing to the present, we have the real estate bubble. We have seen similar scandalous behavior pervading the mortgage and real estate businesses. This has included all the major banks, all major investment bankers, the government agencies like Fannie Mae, legislatures, law firms, bond rating agencies, insurance companies, and auditors. The scandal went even more deeply into the U.S. government and the Federal Reserve through their multiple bailout activities.

This breakdown in institutions that are supposed to act as professional agents finds its root cause in government that goes way beyond its appropriate bounds.

In the case of overvalued equity, Jensen points to "earnings management" that becomes lying about earnings as one means by which management becomes corrupted in order to come through with earnings numbers that justify its overvalued equity. The analogue is for governments to lie about the beneficial effects of the programs and activities that they are promoting and funding with their excessive debts. We hear politicians today justify huge sales of overpriced government debt as worthwhile because they are fighting recession, producing jobs and green shoots, kick-starting the economy, and providing national security. Like phony accounting numbers for earnings, these are all myths and lies. We hear Federal Reserve officials peddling similar misinformation to justify their bond purchases that are helping to keep sovereign debt overpriced.

Jensen suggests that "manning the helm of an overvalued company feels great at first." Among other things, the management bonuses rise steeply. Politicians likewise score among voters and secure campaign contributions when inflation stimulates some economic activity initially. They can point to housing projects going up or a falling unemployment rate or the numbers of people who are first-time homeowners. The financial and housing industries shower money on them. The Federal Reserve can build up its image by broadcasting how it prevented the financial system from collapsing.

But, when there is overvalued equity, Jensen says "massive pain lies ahead". A company cannot produce real earnings to justify its overpriced stock. It turns to earnings manipulation and fraud. It turns to wasteful acquisitions. Nortel acquired 19 companies between 1997 and 2001.When Nortel stock fell by 95 percent, not only was its value destroyed but also that of these acquisitions. Companies seek out unworkable products and build up unusable capacity.

The same massive pain goes for governments that overextend themselves with excessive borrowing at then-low rates of interest. This is evident in Greece. It threatens to become evident elsewhere, including the U.S. When the nation does not produce enough income to service the government debt, some manner of default is bound to occur.

The U.S. is finding it extremely difficult to find a way out of the looming pain that its overvalued sovereign debt has caused. The U.S. has over-issued debt. Its "acquisitions" lie in every area of government spending, in particular, popular social spending programs and a huge military establishment. Huge numbers of Americans have been "acquired" and linked into programs like food stamps.

Huge numbers of Americans expect a future retirement safety net courtesy of Uncle Sam. This is looking less and less likely as time passes. As in the case of overvalued equity that eventually crashes and burns up phantom value, U.S. sovereign debt will crash and burn as the private market economy increasingly cannot produce sufficient revenues to pay the taxes required to service the debts.

The proximate cause of this likelihood is agency costs of overvalued sovereign debt.

That itself traces back to a faulty political system that has destroyed proper constraints on the funding of government and therefore on government size. This has three main aspects. (1) The central bank is able to enter the sovereign debt market at will and keep the price overvalued. (2) The government is able to impose a wide range of taxes in order to fund its programs and debts.(3) There are no limits to government spending and the demand for such spending is infinite.

Let’s look at each of these briefly.

The constraint on money creation has disappeared Government no longer competes with markets for privately-produced and costly money in the form of gold and silver. When government debt promised and paid gold, government had no recourse but to tax its citizens in gold. Without that constraint, government can pay off debt by issuing more debt and more promises to pay off in paper.

The debt is supported in price by government’s powers to tax. As long as the people are able to produce enough income to pay these taxes and are willing to pay them, the system of debt expansion goes on because debts are serviced. The system is dynamically unstable, however. The larger that government becomes, the lower the ability of the private sector to produce real income becomes because government spending is unproductive and prevents capital formation This undermines the ability of people to pay the required taxes. Debt grows but economic growth falls short of debt growth due to low growth in capital formation. Taxes then fall short of spending and deficits rise. The government and the country’s economy then get into an untenable position.

The third aspect is that the U.S. Constitution, as interpreted by the Supreme Court, does not limit government spending or government activities and size, and this lack of limitation is combined with an infinite demand for receipt of government funds among the population. In other words, almost everyone stands ready to rob his neighbor via government taxes and get the proceeds for himself through redistribution in government spending; and there are no limits on how large this thievery can become.

This system is dynamically unstable too. It eventually must run into a wall or limit because the parasitic activities will overwhelm the productive activities. This limit is now in view. The government’s unfunded liabilities ($200 trillion by some estimates) vastly exceed its capacity to tax at current levels. Only by outright expropriation of wealth in the form of saved assets (seizing pensions) or by high levels of taxation that sap human wealth can the promises be kept. Those routes spell massive pain.

If a society does not impose limits on its own parasitic activities, it will eventually destroy itself. If it crushes its productive activities, it will destroy itself. If the society’s people do not impose the proper limits on their own behavior, individually and collectively, then they are setting a course for massive pain.

At this time, Greece does look like the future of America. Is it too late for America? Just about. When I see this society impose some limits on its parasitic behavior and encourage productive behavior, I will become more optimistic. However, I’ve been waiting for that for 40 years and I’ve yet to see it.

Michael S. Rozeff

'Double-Dip' in Housing Prices Even Worse Than Expected

U.S. single-family home prices dropped in March, dipping below their 2009 low, as the housing market remained bogged down by inventory and weak demand, a closely watched survey said Tuesday.

AP

The S&P/Case Shiller composite index of 20 metropolitan areas declined 0.2 percent in March from February on a seasonally adjusted basis, in line with economists' expectations.

The price index was below the low seen in April 2009 during the financial crisis. The glut of houses for sale, foreclosures, tight credit and weak demand have kept the housing market on the ropes even as other areas of the economy start to recover.

The 20-city composite index was at 138.16, falling below the 2009 low of 139.26.

"This month's report is marked by the confirmation of a double-dip in home prices across much of the nation," David Blitzer, chairman of the index committee at S&P Indices, said in a statement. "Home prices continue on their downward spiral with no relief in sight."

Eight cities fell 1 percent or more in March, while Washington was the only city where prices increased on both a monthly and yearly basis. Prices in the 20 cities fell 3.6 percent year over year, topping expectations for a decline of 3.3 percent.

"The declines sustained in the last 12 months have almost erased the gains of the previous 12 months. The housing market is treading backward, but not drowning," said Cary Leahey, economist and managing director at Decision Economics in New York.

In the first quarter, the national index fell 1.9 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis, compared to a decline of 1.8 percent in the previous quarter. On a non-adjusted basis, they fell by 4.2 percent in the quarter. Nationally, home prices are back to their mid-2002 levels, the report said.

Blitzer told CNBC that the decline in prices, though fairly widespread, has become more prevalent in geographic pockets—the Southwest and Southeast as well as the Michigan and Ohio manufacturing regions.

"What we've seen over the last few months despite the decline in prices is we've gone back to the old 'location, location, location' story instead of everything going down at once," he said. "California has clearly broken out of the pattern it was in, which is a big plus."

Though there had been hopes in the industry that prices were troughing and ready to turn higher, the latest trends show little hope in sight until later this year or early in 2012, he added.

"Everybody's now keeping their fingers crossed for 2012 and wondering whether people just don't want to own homes anymore," he said.

On a non-adjusted basis, they fell by 4.2 percent in the quarter.

Can America afford endless wars and foreign aid? Pics to ponder...

Area around the entrance to National Park
Here's a view from I-64 scenic overlook

Dennis Kucinich "Why Are We In Debt!"

How Goldman Sachs Turned A $1.3 Billion Investment From Libya Into $25 Million In Less Than A Year (A 98% LOSS)

Col. Gadhafi's son, Saif al-Islam Gadhafi, on left, with Mustafa Zarti, a former executive at Libya's sovereign-wealth fund.

--

Source - WSJ

In early 2008, Libya's sovereign-wealth fund controlled by Col. Moammar Gadhafi gave $1.3 billion to Goldman Sachs Group to sink into a currency bet and other complicated trades. The investments lost 98% of their value, internal Goldman documents show.

What happened next may be one of the most peculiar footnotes to the global financial crisis. In an effort to make up for the losses, Goldman offered Libya the chance to become one of its biggest shareholders, according to documents and people familiar with the matter.

Libya was furious at Goldman over the nearly total loss of the $1.3 billion it invested in nine equity trades and one currency transaction, people involved in the matter say. A confrontation in Tripoli between a top fund executive and two Goldman officials left the bankers so rattled that they made a panicked phone call to their bosses, these people say. Goldman arranged for a security guard to protect them before they left Libya the next day, they say.

Discussions inside Goldman about how to salvage the fractured relationship included Lloyd C. Blankfein, the company's chairman and chief executive, David A. Viniar, its finance chief, and Michael Sherwood, Goldman's top executive in Europe, according to documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal and people involved in the negotiations. All three executives declined to comment.

Youssef Kabbaj, the Goldman executive in charge of North Africa, became a frequent presence at the Libyan Investment Authority as the investment bank worked to expand the relationship. He worked with the fund's management on investment ideas and encouraged younger employees to deepen their financial knowledge by attending Goldman training sessions, these people said.

Goldman soon carved out a new business with the Libyans, in options—investments that give buyers the right to purchase stocks, currencies or other assets on a future date at stipulated prices. Between January and June 2008, the Libyan fund paid $1.3 billion for options on a basket of currencies and on six stocks: Citigroup Inc., Italian bank UniCredit SpA, Spanish bank Banco Santander, German insurance giant Allianz, French energy company Électricité de France and Italian energy company Eni SpA. The fund stood to reap gains if prices of the underlying stocks or currencies rose above the stipulated levels.

But that fall, the credit crisis hit with a vengeance as Lehman Brothers failed and banks all over the world faced financial crises. The $1.3 billion of option investments were hit especially hard. The underlying securities plunged in value and all of the trades lost money, according to an internal Goldman memo reviewed by the Journal. The memo said the investments were worth just $25.1 million as of February 2010—a decline of 98%.

Read the whole thing at the WSJ (link is thru Google)...

Tensions Worsen In ECB War Over Bailouts, Bank Runs Begin In Greece, TSA Thugs Abuse Wounded Vet (LINKS)

MARTYRS’ MEMORIAL DAY IN PHOTOS

In Honour of The Martyrs
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The Mavi Marmara Massacre
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The Shuhada of the Mavi Marmara Massacre – in pictures

SPECIAL TOPIC

This page is a tribute and memorial for the Shuhada (Martyrs) of The Freedom Flotilla I who were savagely massacred in International Waters by Israeli Occupation Forces one year ago today and sacrificed their lives while on a peaceful mission to Gaza. To support and show solidarity for their brothers and sisters in Gaza and Palestine.


We won’t forget the shuhada of the The Mavi Marmara Massacre


Shaheed Ibrahim Bilgen - Shaheed Ali HaydarBengi – Shaheed Cevdet Kiliçlar - Shaheed Çetin Topçuoglu - Shaheed Necdet Yildirim - Shaheed Fahri Yaldiz - Shaheed Cengiz Songür - Shaheed Cengiz Akyüz - Shaheed Furkan Dogan


انّا للہ و انّا الیه راجعون

‘Inna Lillahi wa ‘Inna ‘Ilayhi Raji’un, Allahu Akbar

May Allah Subhana wa Ta’ ala grant the Shuhada a High Rank in Jannatul Firdaus,
and ease it for their families, loved ones and anyone around them. Allahumma Ameen ya Rabbil ‘Alameen.

The Shuhada

Ibrahim Bilgen

Ibrahim Bilgen

Ibrahim Bilgen | A 61 year-old Turkish politician, engineer and activist who was married with six children
Shot once in the right temple, once in the right side of his chest, once in the back and once in the hip.
Of interest during the autopsy was the discovery of a tiny bag containing pellets, still intact in his brain, which the report said was fired from a hunting rifle



Ali Heyder Bengi

Ali Heyder Bengi

Ali Heyder Bengi | 29 years old from Diyarbakir – Graduate of Al-Azhar University (Cairo) – Department of Arabic literature – Married and father of four children.
Shot six times, including once in the abdomen



Kovdit Kililar

Kovdit Kililar | 38 years old, the web editor of the charity IHH, married and father of two children.
Killed by a single bullet that hit him between the eyebrows as he raised his camera to photograph the commandos landing on the Mavi Marmara



Cetin Topkoogelo

Cetin Topkoogelo

Cetin Topkoogelo | 54 years old former Taekwondo champion who worked as a coach for the Turkish national team
Shot three times – once in the back of his head, once in his hip and once in his belly, died as his wife tried to save him.



Necdet Yildirim

Necdet Yildirim | An aid worker in the humanitarian relief organization (IHH) of the city of Malatya – Married and father of a girl aged three years.
Two gunshot wounds: right shoulder, left back



Vahri Yildiz

Vahri Yildiz | 43 year old Fireman working in the town of Adiyaman – Married and father of four children.
Hit by five bullets, among them a fatal one in the chest.



Cengiz Sunqur

Cengiz Sunqur | 47 years old – from the city of Izmir – Married and father of seven children
One gunshot wound: front of neck



Cengiz Okez

Cengiz Okez | 41 years old from Iskenderun – Married and father of three children (14,12,9 years). Pictured here with his youngest daughter.
Four gunshot wounds: back of head, right side of face, back, left leg



photo Furkan Dogan

Farrakhan Dogan – American


Farrakhan Dogan | American 19 year-old student in secondary School- had hoped and planned to become a doctor. The son of Dr. Ahmed Dogan (Assistant Professor at the University of Irkiis). Farrakhan holds dual citizenship, both Turkish and American and has two brothers.
Shot five times – from close range in the right side of his nose, in the back of the head, in the back and twice in the left leg




Please share the word, their stories in their honour so their sacrifices won’t be forgotten. Nor the memories, their deaths, nor the crimes that killed them.
Do not forget them and the mourning families in your prayers…

We ask you: How many more dead corpses of Palestinians, peace-activists or humanitarian convoy members does the international community need to see in order to act? How many more cruelties and violations of Human Rights, Regulations and International Law will be needed to intervene so this ongoing warcrime and massacres are being stopped once and for all.

Source and more photos (some very disturbing) can be seen HERE

Banks to Pay Tossed-Out Military Families

(CN) - Bank of America and Saxon Mortgage will pay more than $22 million to resolve claims that lenders illegally foreclosed on around 180 military service members, the Justice Department said Thursday.
BAC Home Loans Servicing, a Bank of America subsidiary, will pay $20 million to resolve a lawsuit claiming that lenders foreclosed on 160 service members without court orders, authorities said. The complaint, filed in California's Central District, claimed that BAC failed to check on the military status of borrowers before foreclosing.
In a related settlement, Saxon Mortgage, a Morgan Stanley subsidiary, agreed to pay $2.35 million to resolve claims that it illegally foreclosed on about 17 service members between 2006 and 2009.
Both companies agreed to pay any service member wrongfully foreclosed on between 2009 and 2010.
The settlement, which resolves claims filed under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, requires both lenders to repair negative credit reports related to the allegedly wrongful foreclosures, and they must not pursue any remaining amounts owed under mortgages.

The Enablers and their Psychopathic Masters.

Dog Poet Transmitting.......

‘May your noses always be cold and wet’.

For shame, ten thousand times for shame; the juggernaut of the murder machine of Death Incorporated, the Bush/Obama slice and dice, human meat processing, corporation of mulched woman and children rolls on. In Afghanistan a couple of days ago, they killed a group of women and children with video game drones. Karzai said that was the last straw and an hour later they killed a bunch more at the other end of the country. NATO, which is only a fraud of nations, masquerading as a coalition, under the rule of American and British bankers, kills with impunity. British SAS, probably with American corporate mercenaries, have been spotted as ground-troops in Libya, looking to kill Gadhafi because he doesn’t want a central Rothschild bank and wants a collective African currency.

I can only pray that raging djinns rise up from the Earth and rip their fucking hearts out and toss them into the flames of Hell. Fuck Memorial Day and all the stupid canon fodder that went to die for banks. They went to die for the banks, so that the domesticated cattle population could keep on being enslaved with usury from Neo-Pharisee banks. Fuck you, you frothing psychopaths! May the Hell you seek to raise upon the Earth, ascend from the bowels of darkness, open her gates and burn you where you stand but not allow you to die. May you be served white phosphorus cocktails with a cluster bomb back. May the cluster bomb be dropped into the cocktail in a burning shrapnel shot glass, like some demented working man’s boiler maker and turn you into one of Dick Chaney’s hunting partners.

You sleazy, stinking shit-heels and your partners in crime the duped and stupid Michelin Tire Man public that parades behind you, with a bloodthirsty Onward Christian Soldiers, blaring from dissonant horns, counterpointed with some John Philip Susa’s, “This Duck may be Somebody’s Mother”. Bring on the tornadoes and the tsunamis and the earthquakes and bury this stupid, pigged out culture like rat corpses in a landfill. Then raise a marker that says, “Here lie those we will not name, they deserve no remembrance. They are killers all, who killed and died for banks”.

I want screaming, flaming devas to come out of the sky and tear Goldman Sachs into pieces and stomp the bankers into the pavement; every trader, hedge fund weasel, derivative scamming and blood drinking last one of them. Hang them on crosses from Wall Street to Broadway and set them on fire so they might be street lamps, lighting up the dark, alcoholic night of the American nightmare.

You sleazy entertainers; actors, masturbating musicians that glorify the killings; that act in the propaganda flicks, that celebrate the killing of Muslims who had nothing to do with 9/11. A 9/11 and 7/7 and Madrid Train Station bombing that was done by Neo-Pharisee, Israelis and her bitches, America and Britain at the behest of AIPAC, which IS the American government; yeah, your BFF swine nation of Ashke-NAZI, land stealing, genociding pirates from Europe- non Semitic trolls, who changed the truth of history so that they could pretend to be the very people they are bent on eliminating; who all through history have been preying upon life wherever they find it, while pretending to be the victims of events they made happen, so that they would look like victims; they cry out in pain when they strike you... all of you, all of you can just take a seat and wait for the piper.

What punishment is enough for these blood drunk reavers and their ignorance infected enablers? They should be born as the victims of any and every hideous act, against any and every human being for the next million years. Then they should be turned into a rock to start all over again. They should be inoculated with a vaccine that kills evil and they must march the streets of the world loudly proclaiming their crimes with a sign on their back that says “kill me but take your time about it”.

Who is worse? The ones who do it or the one’s who help them out as accessories; the writers and smegma-journalists like Jonathan Kay, the actors and musicians, the politicians and religious leaders? From every walk of life they come, serving for money or out of fear. Performing felatio on the world stage; on their knees for the killers and rape artists of the millennium; you dirty rotten, stinking, fucking poseurs, whose only inspiration is, “what kind of lie can I tell today. What kind of Kabuki-masked drama can I perform in, that makes Muslims and anyone sitting on resources a danger to the trough gobbling pigs who support it all and soak it up, as if it were their mother’s milk from the polluted airwaves of a damned nation, that is one incarnation short of falling down on all fours and saying, “fuck two feet and hands, what I want is to really get into it. I want six stomachs and flies buzzing all around my face, until they turn me into hamburgers for the next generation coming.

You programmed imbeciles. How incredibly dumb do you have to be to keep swallowing impossible lies that their own press exposes to you every day. Take those dress hats from dirty wars and stick them up your asses. Suck them all the way in until they take shape on your skull, under your skin and then you can have some medal piercings, pinned into them. Get a t-shirt that says, “I kill on orders from neo-Pharisee banks and then I march in parades that honor my acts. I wipe tears from my eyes when I think of my fallen comrades who don’t get the meaning of “I sing of Olaf”. I want to be a Hobo with a Shotgun in Mecca.

“My country tis of thee, doomed land with no liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my father’s died for banker’s profits and pride. Cover us with a shit landslide, to the grave I ride”. Bono honks on Bush’s dick, jerking off under a Joshua tree, making the sun stand still for the wonder of his collecting money for terminal Africans, who never see a dime, while buying up all kinds of fancy real estate around LA with his buddy, The Edge of Nowhere and managing to piss everyone off at the same time; suing his hairdresser for the return of a pair of blue jeans. How did they come off in the first place; no comment; making Bob Dylan who forgot whatever it was he used to say, while he tours non stop all over the world, because he needs the money and attention so bad; Leonard Cohen playing for the neo-Pharisees of Israel; Sir Paul McCartney attending fashion shows; that’s his job now; hanging out with glamour freaks and wearing his title like a rhinestone tiara; no comment. No comment, no comment.

The twisted neo-Pharisee media, whose supporters brag about being and doing what they do but if you mention, you’re a pariah. The truth is anti-Semitic. Thanks for men like Jim Kirwan and Jim Coors and all the few of the rest of them that put it on the line for what is so and cannot be denied. Thank you Patrick Willis for putting your career and your health on the line, because you are a real man and not some phony, no balls profiteer on the backs of those who die so you can make your money.

Thank every one of you who risk it all to tell the truth; you few. Thank you for those embedded in Palestine, being showered with rocks, tear gas and bullets, while the IDF looks on and applauds. Thank you Ken O’Keefe for riding on the flotillas, thank you Spain and all the other nations that are declaring Palestine a state, thank you Iceland for having the stones to give the banks the finger and then jail the bankers thank you Matt Taibbi. Thank you all. Thank every awakening soul who speaks out in their communities. Thank you every state who goes up against the TSA.

If you want this bullshit to stop, do not fly on an airplane, ruin the airline companies. Don’t go to work and when you do, do it wrong. Don’t shop in their stores. Don’t watch their news. Don’t cooperate. Sit down and wait them out. Don’t pay taxes. Stop funding the killers. They cannot put you all in jail. They cannot put you all in jail but they are going to put as many of you in jail as they possibly can anyway. They are going to commit a colossal false flag very soon and then blame it on Pakistan and Iran. They believe in the superiority of their weapons and they want to destroy China and Russia now, while they still have their imagined edge. They are not going to stop, so stop them. It’s simple, turn your backs on them and cut off their financing. Stop what you are doing or the cosmos will stop you. I apologize for understating my case and not being passionate enough. I’ll try harder. I really will.


End Transmission.......

Japan Shows How to Defuse the Debt Time-bomb

[T]hreatening to default should not be a partisan issue. In view of all the hazards it entails, one wonders why any responsible person would even flirt with the idea.

- Alan S. Blinder, Princeton professor of economics, former vice chairman of the Federal Reserve

A game of Russian roulette is being played with the national debt ceiling. Fire the wrong chamber of the gun, and the result could be the second Great Depression.

The first Great Depression led to totalitarian dictatorships, war to consolidate power, and concentrations of capital in the hands of a financial elite. The trigger was a default on the global reserve currency, in that case the pound sterling. The U.S. dollar is now the global reserve currency. The concern is that default could create the same sort of global panic today. Dark visions are evoked of the President declaring a national emergency, FEMA plans locking into place, camps being readied for protesters, and the secret government taking over . . . .

This may all just be political theater, but do we really want to get close enough to the economic precipice to find out? The conservative ideologues toying with the debt ceiling are doing it to force cuts in the budget, a budget that was already approved by Congress. Congress is being held hostage by a radical minority pushing a risky agenda, one that is based on an economic model that is obsolete.

High-stakes Gambling


On May 16, the Wall Street Journal published an opinion piece titled “The Armaggedon Lobby,” which claimed that a “technical default” on the federal debt was just “political melodrama” and not really a big deal:

markets can figure out the difference between a genuine default when a country can’t pay its bills and a technical default of a few days if it serves the purpose of fixing America’s fiscal mess

Not so, said Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal in a May 20 interview on CNBC. "That's gambling. This is the United States. You're leading the whole world. You cannot play games with that."

It is not just that the government could be brought to a standstill, with a third of its bills now being paid by borrowing; or that interest rates would shoot up, forcing thousands of homeowners into foreclosure. Failure to pay on the national debt could trigger a default on the global reserve currency. As one commentator described what could go wrong:
[T]he consequences of a US default could spark yet another global financial crisis. The US could lose its triple-A rating, which could cause a sell-off in Treasury notes by institutional and foreign investors. This sell-off could lead to higher interest rates, and banks’ balance sheets might be decimated by the decline in their bond portfolios. Thus, global banking and financial market liquidity could dry up. Lending between institutions and people or businesses could possibly cease altogether or become cost prohibitive.

The sort of chaos that could ensue was seen when Great Britain reneged on its deal to redeem pound sterling banknotes in gold in 1931. The result was the worst global depression in history.

When the pound went off the gold standard, markets panicked. People rushed to exchange their paper money for gold, in any currencies in which that was still possible. The gold wound up hidden under mattresses and in safety deposit boxes, unspent; and the banks from which it was pulled, having no reserves to back their loans, quit lending or closed their doors. Credit froze; business ground to a halt.

As other countries ran short of gold, they too were forced to take their currencies off the gold standard. The last holdouts suffered the most, including the United States, which kept its gold window open until 1933.

The 19th century had been plagued by bank runs, caused by banks having too little gold to back their outstanding loans. The Federal Reserve was instituted in 1913 ostensibly to prevent those runs, but its levee did not hold back the run of the 1930s. In 1933, the country suffered a massive banking collapse, forcing President Roosevelt to declare a banking holiday and take the U.S. dollar, too, off the gold standard.

Freed from the Bankers’ “Cross of Gold”

The transition off the gold standard was a painful one; but according to Beardsley Ruml, Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the country was the better for it. In a paper read before the American Bar Association in 1946, he said that going off the gold standard had finally allowed the country to be economically sovereign:

Final freedom from the domestic money market exists for every sovereign national state where there exists an institution which functions in the manner of a modern central bank, and whose currency is not convertible into gold or into some other commodity.

Freed from the strictures of gold, Roosevelt was able to jump-start the economy with deficit spending. As Marshall Auerback details, the next four years constituted the biggest cyclical boom in U.S. economic history. Real GDP grew at a 12% rate and nominal GDP grew at a 14% rate.

Then in 1937, Roosevelt listened to the deficit hawks of his day and slashed the deficit. The result was a surge in unemployment, and the economy slipped back into depression.

What lifted the country out of the doldrums was again deficit spending, liberally engaged in to fund World War II. In wartime, few people worry about the national debt. The debt grew to 120% of GDP – twice what it is today -- and wound up sustaining another very productive period in U.S. history, one that set the country up to lead the world in manufacturing for the next half century.

On Inflation and Taxes
Ruml said federal taxes were no longer needed to fund the budget, which could be financed by issuing bonds. The principal purpose of taxes, he said, was the maintenance of a dollar which has stable purchasing power over the years. Sometimes this purpose is stated as ‘the avoidance of inflation.’"

The government could spend as needed to meet its budget, drawing on credit issued by its own central bank. It could do this until price inflation indicated a weakened purchasing power of the currency. Then, and only then, would the money supply need to be contracted with taxes.

“The dollars the government spends become purchasing power in the hands of the people who have received them,” Ruml said. “The dollars the government takes by taxes cannot be spent by the people,” so the money supply can be contracted with taxes as needed.

When the economy is in a recession, however – as it is now -- the government needs to spend in order to get purchasing power into the hands of the people. Businesses cannot hire more workers until they have more customers demanding their products, and the customers won’t come until they have money to spend. The money (“demand”) must come first. Adding money will not drive up prices until the economy is at full employment. Before that, increasing “demand” will drive up “supply” by setting the engines of production in motion. When supply and demand rise together, prices remain stable.

We now know that a government can go quite far into debt without a dangerous level of price inflation occurring – much farther than the U.S. has gone today. Besides World War II, when U.S. debt was 120% of GDP, there is the remarkable example of Japan. Japan has retained its status as the world’s third largest economy, although it has a debt to GDP ratio of 226% -- and it is still fighting deflation.

Critics of the deflationary theory point to commodity prices, which are soaring today. But if those prices were due to the economy being awash with “too much money chasing too few goods,” real estate prices would be soaring too. Instead, the real estate market has collapsed. What has actually happened is that the housing bubble has transmuted into the commodity bubble, as “hot money” has fled from one to the other. The overall money supply is still in

The deficit hawks have been predicting for years that the federal debt would sink the dollar and the economy, and it hasn’t happened yet. In fact the federal debt has not been paid off since 1835, and no disaster has resulted. The debt has not only been carried on the government’s books but has continued to grow, and the economy has grown and flourished along with it.

This is not an economic anomaly. The economy has flourished because of the national debt. Nothing backs the currency today but “the full faith and credit of the United States.” Money is no longer a metal; it is an inflow and outflow,
credits and debits. The liabilities of the government are the assets of the private economy. The national debt is what backs the money supply.

Dealing with the Rising Cost of Debt Service
There is a potential time bomb in a growing federal debt, but it is one that can be defused. The debt has risen from $10 trillion to $14 trillion just since the banking crisis of 2008, not from “entitlements” but due to the Wall Street collapse and bailout. Just the interest on this growing debt could cripple the tax base if interest rates were at normal levels, so they have had to be pushed almost to zero. The result has been to create a dollar carry trade. This has facilitated speculation in commodities, a major cause of today’s commodity bubbles.

There is, however, a solution to this problem, and it was discovered by Japan. The government can spend, not by issuing bonds at interest to the public, but simply by creating an overdraft at the central bank, as Beardsley Ruml recommended. The Bank of Japan now holds an amount of public debt equal to the country’s GDP! As noted by the Center for Economic and Policy Research:

Interest on [Japanese] debt held by the central bank is refunded back to the treasury, leaving no net cost to the government on this debt. . . . Japan continues to experience deflation, in spite of the fact that its central bank holds an amount of debt that is roughly equal to its GDP. This would be equivalent to the Fed holding $15 trillion in debt.

Like the Bank of Japan, the Federal Reserve now returns the interest it receives to the government. With a rising interest tab on the federal debt no longer a problem, private interest rates could be allowed to rise to normal levels.

Today the Fed is not permitted to buy bonds directly from the Treasury but must go through middleman bond dealers. But that problem too could be fixed. In a supporting statement in 1947, Federal Reserve Chairman Marriner Eccles discussed a bill to eliminate the unnecessary cost of these middlemen. He said the Federal Reserve had been allowed to purchase securities directly from the government from its inception in 1914 until the Banking Act of 1935. Then:

A provision was inserted in that act requiring all purchases of government securities by Federal Reserve banks to be made in the open market, which means purchased chiefly from dealers in Government bonds. Those who inserted this proviso were motivated by the mistaken theory that it would help to prevent deficit financing. . . .

Nothing constructive would be accomplished by the proviso that the Reserve System must purchase Government securities exclusively in the open market. About all such a ban means is that in making such purchases a commission has to be paid to Government bond dealers.

The interest cost and the bond dealers’ cut could both be eliminated by allowing the Treasury to borrow directly from its own central bank, interest free.

Nothing to Fear But Fear Itself

We have been frightened into believing that government debt is a bad thing, but nearly all money today originates as debt. As Marriner Eccles observed in the 1930s, “That is what our money system is. If there were no debts in our money system, there wouldn’t be any money.”

The public debt is the people’s money, and today the people are coming up short. Shrinking the public debt means shrinking more than just the services the government is expected to provide. It means shrinking the money supply itself, along with the ability to provide the jobs, wages and purchasing power necessary for a thriving economy.

Ellen Brown is an attorney and president of the Public Banking Institute, http://PublicBankingInstitute.org. In Web of Debt, her latest of eleven books, she shows how the power to create money has been usurped from the people, and how we can get it back. Her websites are http://webofdebt.com and http://ellenbrown.com.


Ellen Brown is a frequent contributor to Global Research.
Global Research Articles by Ellen Brown




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Today's 2 common fucking cents May 31

Today's 2 common fucking cents May 31

1 Mutilating unborn children with massive birth defects and heavy metal poisoning indiscriminately with depleted uranium is horrible, immoral and fucking psychotic. So stop using it, US, Israel, NATO.

2 There is no chosen race of god. Thus there is no chosen land for a race. Thus people saying otherwise are a "race" of bigots, liars, and idiots.

3 Senator Harry Reid should be impeached for Treason. (can I get an amen)

4 Dear congress, Netanyahu is not an American. And AIPAC is a FOREIGN agent with foreign interest and should be registered as such. Watching our government stand and clap for a terrorist is sickening.

5 Stuxnet was made in the USI with the purpose of causing a nuclear accident in Iran. As a result all plants with German made equipment for PLCs are in trouble including in Japan. Sure Japan's plants were not A-grade anyway but if the IAEA had been doing its actual job instead of re-inspecting Iran's non-nuclear plant they might have noticed this.

6 We did NOT go in to Libya for "Humanitarian" concerns.


by the way