Pathologising Dissent? Now That's Orwellian 'The idea that 'climate change denial' is a psychological disorder - the product of a spiteful, wilful or simply in-built neural inability to face up to the catastrophe of global warming - is becoming more and more popular amongst green-leaning activists and academics. And nothing better sums up the elitism and authoritarianism of the environmentalist lobby than its psychologisation of dissent. The labelling of any criticism of the politics of global warming, first as 'denial', and now as evidence of mass psychological instability, is an attempt to write off all critics and sceptics as deranged, and to lay the ground for inevitable authoritarian solutions to the problem of climate change. Historically, only the most illiberal and misanthropic regimes have treated disagreement and debate as signs of mental ill-health.' The Lost Von Braun This Film explores the Nazi's role in NASA, and the crimes of Von Braun. Obama and the Triumph of the Fabians 'In 1945, the United Kingdom implemented a program of change at the hands of a new left wing government. The structure of support built up in previous decades, the way change was sold to the public, outcomes themselves have much to teach us about America's future.' Let AIG Go Bankrupt, Not America 'American International Group should be allowed to go bankrupt because keeping it and other sick financials alive on government support risks ruining the US economy, legendary investor Jim Rogers told CNBC Tuesday. "Suppose AIG goes bankrupt, it is better that AIG goes bankrupt and we have a horrible two or three years than that the whole US goes bankrupt," Rogers said. "AIG has trillions of dollars of obligations, let them fail, let the courts sort it out and start over. Otherwise we'll never start over".' UK Hotels on High Terror Alert 'Britain is on high alert for a Mumbai-style terrorist attack on a top hotel, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith revealed yesterday. She told MPs that security chiefs have been training staff at major hotels on how to cope with a terror hit. Ministers, police and security services are urgently reviewing the UK's counter-terrorism plans to beef up protection around hotels and other public buildings.' Labour 'Double Standards' as Smoking Ban is Lifted For G20 World Leaders 'Labour has been accused of double standards for amending legislation to allow world leaders to use smoking rooms during the G20 economic conference. Dozens of heads of state, politicians and diplomats will be meeting at the Excel Exhibition Centre in Docklands, London, next month. It is believed that laws have been changed to get around the smoking ban and provide specialist rooms that the visiting dignitaries can use. Smoking in all enclosed public spaces and places of work was banned under the Health Act 2006, and came into force in England in 2007.' Obama Signs Spending Bill, Breaks Yet Another Promise 'In a not-so-surprising move today, President Obama signed into a law a "an imperfect spending bill" worth 410 billion USD. According to an article released by the Associated Press, the bill was signed in private and Obama took no questions from the press regarding the bill or its signing. President Obama did, however, release a "signing statement", citing constitutional concerns within certain elements of the bill. But in a show of hypocracy this week, Obama criticized President Bush for frequently releasing such statements upon signing such bills into law.' Madoff Goes to Jail After Guilty Pleas to All Charges 'When Bernard L. Madoff entered a federal courtroom in Manhattan on Thursday to admit that he had run a vast Ponzi Scheme that robbed thousands of investors of their life savings, he was as elegantly dressed as ever. But, preparing for jail, he wore no wedding ring - only the shadowy imprint remained of one he has worn for nearly 50 years.' Jak - A Very Peculiar Bank US Warships Head for South China Sea After Standoff 'A potential conflict was brewing last night in the South China Sea after President Obama dispatched heavily armed American destroyers to the scene of a naval standoff betwen the US and China at the weekend. Mr Obama's decision to send an armed escort for US surveillance ships in the area follows the aggressive and co-ordinated manoeuvres of five Chinese boats on Sunday. They harassed and nearly collided with an unarmed American vessel. Its military chiefs accused the unarmed US Navy ship of being on a spying mission.' Senators Push For War With Iran 'National Intelligence Director Blair, had his first meeting with The Senate Armed Services Committee - where he was much more reasonable than most of the Senators. Both NID Blair and Defense Intelligence Agency head Lt. Gen. Michael Maples presented clear thinking and rational goals regarding Iran. The senators were the ones out for blood.' Hersh: Cheney Ran SS-Style Political Assassination Unit 'Hersh told a University of Minnesota audience on Tuesday, "After 9/11, I haven't written about this yet, but the Central Intelligence Agency was very deeply involved in domestic activities against people they thought to be enemies of the state. Without any legal authority for it. They haven't been called on it yet." Hersh then went on to describe how the Joint Special Operations Command was an executive assassination unit that carried out political assassinations abroad. . "It is a special wing of our special operations community that is set up independently," he explained. "They do not report to anybody, except in the Bush-Cheney days, they reported directly to the Cheney office...Congress has no oversight of it".' Psychiatric Drug Use of German School Shooter Confirmed 'From the facts that were known yesterday, it was already apparent that the shooter, Tim Kretschmer, was either on psychiatric medications or withdrawing from them. His behavior and choice of targets (including a worker at a psychiatric medical school) pointed strongly towards his use of antidepressant drugs, which are known to cause violent thoughts and behavior. Behind the scenes, I already knew from an industry source that Kretschmer had undergone psychiatric "treatment," but I could not name that source and thus chose not to publish that fact until it could be further corroborated. But today, the Associated Press confirms it. In a story widely published across the 'net'.' Genetic Discrimination by Insurance Companies In Australia 'Australians have been refused insurance protection because of their genetic make-up, researchers have shown in the first study in the world to provide proof of genetic discrimination.Most cases were found to relate to life insurance. In one instance, a man with a faulty gene linked to a greater risk of breast and prostate cancer was denied income protection and trauma insurance that would have let him claim if he developed other forms of cancer.The findings have led to renewed calls by experts for policies to ensure the appropriate use of genetic test results by the insurance industry.' Chocolate Tax Call 'Chocolate should be taxed in a bid to control the obesity epidemic, a medical conference will hear.' Madagascar: Troops Defy Orders to Put Down Opposition Protests 'On Sunday the depth of the crisis and the level of social discontent in Madagascar directly affected a group of soldiers of the Army Corps of Personnel and Administrative and Technical Services who had been ordered to move against protestors on the streets. The soldiers refused to obey orders to fire on the people and repress anti-government demonstrators. Following this, they then declared they would not obey government orders either. As one rebel soldier stated, "We no longer take orders from our hierarchy, we are following our hearts. We were trained to protect property and citizens, not to fire at people. We are with the people".' By Debbie Morgan, www.TakeBackWashington.com With the $700 Billion Bush Bailout plan, the $787 Billion Obama Stimulus plan and the new possibly $1 trillion Obama bailout, it is high time people understand just what “a trillion” is. If they truly understood this, I think they would all be as livid as I! (Bear with me, because this does not make for great reading…but it is extremely enlightening!).
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Thursday, 12 March 2009
We can all agree that we would be sitting really pretty if we had a six-figure income, right? Let’s say we made a consistent $150,000 a year, starting at age 18 until we retired at age 75. I’ll do the math…We would have made $8,550,000 in our life. That is not bad, but lets say we stumbled upon something really crazy and made a consistent $250,000 per year for the same period. We would have made $14,250,000 for our life’s work. Now, keep in mind, that is with absolutely NO raise for the 57 years of work…Now, lets think about this, 100,000 people can work for $150,000, or 70,000 people for $250,000, for the 57 years and that would STILL not be $1 trillion.
The population of the United States is estimates at 305,982,756 at the time of this writing. The population of the world, at the same time, is 6,765,807,365. It would take more than 3,251 US populations, or 147 world populations, to get even close to 1 trillion people. Have you grasped what a trillion is yet?
Ok, lets look at something else. If we divided $1 trillion by the population of the United States, EACH person, that is each man, woman, and child, would receive $3,251. Now, THAT would stimulate the economy! Now let’s averaged by household, there are approximately 117,687,214 households in the US. That means that EACH household would receive more than $8497. What could you do with that?
Let’s get social, shall we?
As of 2007, there were an estimated 671,859 homeless people in the United States. With $1 trillion, we could give EACH homeless person approximately $1,488,407!
According to I Care About Orphans, there is an estimated 127,000 children awaiting homes in the United States. With $1 trillion, we could give EACH child more than $7,874,000.
In 2006, it was estimated that there were 36,500,000 people in the US living in poverty. With $1 trillion, you could give EACH person living in poverty more than $26,000.
Are you grasping what $1 trillion is yet?
Former Presidential Candidate Mike Huckabee had some interesting figures. According to him, with $1 trillion, we could buy 1000 boxes of Girl Scout Cookies for every for every single person in the United States or we could put 8,000,000-plus students through a four-year Private College. Huckabee came up with this, but I did some re-figuring for more current estimates and according to the market values which appeared on Forbes for early Feb, 2009, with $1 trillion, we could actually purchase Microsoft ($168B), Walmart ($188B), Google ($107B), Coca-Cola ($100B), Pepsi Co ($80B), Apple, Inc ($83B), and Time Warner ($35B) and still have $243 Billion left over to purchase even more businesses!
Astounding? Do you get it yet? $1 trillion is $1,000,000,000,000. Warren Buffett, the richest man in the world, according to Forbes, is worth $62 billion. That is not even CLOSE to $1 trillion! So, the next time our Elected Officials tell you they need any where near $1 trillion, please remember just what $1 trillion is really worth!
Friday, 13 March 2009
Ken Sweeney: 'journalism' personified
Last week a 'journalist' called me from the Irish Tribune called Ken Sweeney. He was far from the brightest candle in the box, but then he was a mainstream journalist after all. He wanted to know what I thought about the financial crisis and I spent some time explaining how it was engineered, by whom and to what end.
Grasping A Trillion Dollars
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