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Archive for April, 2008

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George Bush a war criminal?

Posted by patriot on April 26th, 2008

Could it really happen?

Former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad has called for Western leaders including Australia’s former prime minister John Howard to be charged with war crimes over the war in Iraq.

In a speech at Imperial College in London, Mahathir called for an international tribunal to try US President George Bush plus former prime minister Tony Blair of Britain and Howard for their part in the conflict, said a spokesman for the Ramadhan Foundation, a Muslim group that organised the event.

Spokesman Mohammed Shafiq told AFP that Mahathir, who was in office from 1981 to 2003, wanted to see the trio tried “in absence for war crimes committed in Iraq”.

MSNBC: Legal questions follow polygamist raid

Posted by Charlie Kilo on April 26th, 2008

Broad sweep of FLDS children raises constitutional questions; critics cry foul.

Interesting to see questions about the legality of the FLDS raid finally hitting the mainstream media:

The state of Texas made a damning accusation when it rounded up 462 children at a polygamous sect’s ranch: The adults are forcing teenage girls into marriage and sex, creating a culture so poisonous that none should be allowed to keep their children.

But the broad sweep — from nursing infants to teenagers — is raising constitutional questions, even in a state where authorities have wide latitude for taking a family’s children.

The move has the appearance of “a class-action child removal,” said Jessica Dixon, director of the child advocacy center at Southern Methodist University’s law school in Dallas.

“I’ve never heard of anything like that,” she said.

Rod Parker, a spokesman for the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, contends that the state has essentially said, “If you’re a member of this religious group, then you’re not allowed to have children.”

Attorneys for the families and civil-liberties groups also are crying foul. They say the state should not have taken children away from all church members living at the Yearning For Zion Ranch in Eldorado.

Here’s some additional analysis from Joel Skousen of World Affairs Brief:

I waited a week to comment on the Texas case, separating 437 children from their FLDS parents, to see if any substantive evidence of abuse would emerge. It hasn’t. Even if it had, those could have been handled individually. But no, Texas plans instead to make every member of the group pay the supreme price: to strip away their beloved children. This case is about group punishment. In spite of a search warrant tainted by a false witness (the “Sarah” who doesn’t exist), no actual specific evidence of abuse, or any unwilling participants in this polygamous compound, a self-righteous Texas judge had decreed that all 400 + children will not be returned to the custody of their parents. Texas has gone too far to rid itself of this awkward religious sect that built the “Yearning for Zion” (YFZ) ranch in order to evade persecution in Utah and Arizona. As this tyrannical order clearly meant separating even nursing children from their mothers, a wave of outrage began to sweep the nation. The media-sensitive judge immediately changed her order (allowing children under 1 year of age to be nursed) in order to keep the tide of public relations on the side of the authorities. But this should not deter the nation from realizing the danger of the tenuous legal proposition that mere membership in a group (that may have isolated examples of marrying underage girls) makes all unworthy of possessing any children at all—ever. That is wrong, especially when legal remedies exist to prosecute specific wrongdoers.

Jim Rawles on Fox Business News

Posted by Charlie Kilo on April 26th, 2008

Jim Rawles made a phone appearance on Fox Business News to discuss “hording” of food. Frankly, I can’t stand the morons on Fox Business News but Jim makes some great points in this clip:

Elite Depopulation Agenda Gains Ground

Posted by Charlie Kilo on April 25th, 2008

Top Australian Science Journal calls for de-facto one child policy to “offset carbon emissions”:

Another prominent scientist has thrown his weight behind the long term agenda to implement measures to stem the population of the planet, a view that is gaining ground with increased pressure on governments to act over climate change as the justification.

The Medical Journal of Australia has published a report by a professor who suggests that couples with more than two children should be charged a lifelong tax to offset their extra offspring’s carbon dioxide emissions.

The report in an Australian medical journal called for parents to be charged $5000 a head for every child after their second, and an annual tax of up to $800, reports the AAP .

And couples who were sterilised would be eligible for carbon credits under the controversial proposal. 

Foreclosures and Food: Links to Various Stories

Posted by Charlie Kilo on April 25th, 2008

There’s a lot going on in the news this morning so I thought I would compile several links here rather than create separate posts for each story:

As Food Prices Soar, Some Shortages Appear

Rising prices threaten millions with starvation, despite bumper crops

How will we feed the world?

California foreclosure “surge”: Up 327% from ‘07 levels

Pain of foreclosures spreads to the affluent

Beck: Food vs. Fuel

Posted by Charlie Kilo on April 24th, 2008

Ethanol: You could feed an adult male for a year on the grain it takes to produce one tank of gas for an SUV:

U.S. deficit at record high and rising

Posted by Charlie Kilo on April 24th, 2008

Christian Science Monitor:

Deficit? What deficit? Three big intersecting events – war in Iraq, the economic downturn, and the presidential race – this year have combined to knock fiscal discipline far down the list of Washington’s policy priorities.

In fact, the federal deficit hit an all-time high of $311 billion for the first half of this budget year, reports the Treasury Department. And Congress is discussing further moves to help distressed homeowners and stimulate the economy. Iraq and Afghanistan will cost at least another $170 billion in supplemental funds through the end of next year.

Given the need, the current rush of spending might be understandable, say some deficit hawks. But they worry that Washington will use recession and war as excuses to stop caring about red ink altogether. They also warn that current deficits leave Washington ill-prepared to face an imminent explosion of spending on Social Security and Medicare caused by retiring baby boomers.

More

New-Home Sales Tumbled To a 16-Year Low in March

Posted by Charlie Kilo on April 24th, 2008

CNBC give stats on the obvious:

Sales of new homes plunged in March to the lowest level in 16 1/2 years as housing slumped further at the start of the spring sales season.

The median price of a new home in March compared to a year ago fell by the largest amount in nearly four decades.

The Commerce Department reported Thursday that sales of new homes dropped by 8.5 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 526,000 units, the slowest sales pace since October 1991.

The median price of a home sold in March dropped by 13.3 percent compared to March 2007, the biggest year-over-year price decline since a 14.6 percent plunge in July 1970.

The dismal news on new home sales followed earlier reports showing that sales of existing homes fell by 2 percent in March.

Packed prisons in the USA

Posted by patriot on April 23rd, 2008

Ah, the land of the free, home of the convicted:

The United States has less than 5 percent of the world’s population. But it has almost a quarter of the world’s prisoners.

Indeed, the United States leads the world in producing prisoners, a reflection of a relatively recent and now entirely distinctive American approach to crime and punishment. Americans are locked up for crimes — from writing bad checks to using drugs — that would rarely produce prison sentences in other countries. And in particular they are kept incarcerated far longer than prisoners in other nations.

Howard J. Ruff: Hyper-inflationary depression coming

Posted by Charlie Kilo on April 23rd, 2008

Famed author Howard J Ruff is predicting a hyper-inflationary depression:

Until now, I have given equal credence to two possible scenarios:

1) We could have several years of inflation as we do now, and the powers-that-be would have a sudden rush of brains to the head, like Paul Volcker and Ronald Reagan did in 1980, and stop the “printing press,” ending inflation and the gold and silver bull market, for at least a few years; or

2) It is too late to stop it. The political forces and the Unfunded Liabilities would prevent the powers-that-be from ending the money-printing process, and in fact, would grossly accelerate it. This would result in a hyper inflation (400 percent inflation or more), and the eventual total destruction of the dollar. Suddenly America would find its money totally useless. Store shelves would be empty, gas would go through the stratosphere, and Americans would suffer through the greatest threat since the Great Depression of the ’30s.

So what caused me to settle on number two?

Read his reasoning here.

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