You are currently browsing the archives for the day Thursday, April 30th, 2009.
NaturalNews – Perhaps due to the genetic makeup of the fast-spreading H1N1 strain of influenza — which includes genetic elements from bird flu, swine flu and human flu spanning three continents — there is considerable speculation that the origins of this virus are man-made. It’s not an unreasonable question to ask: Could world governments, spooked by the prospect of radical climate change caused by over-population of the planet, have assembled a super-secret task force to engineer and distribute a super virulent strain of influenza designed to “correct” the human population (and institute global Martial Law)? Technically, it’s possible. The U.S. military, all by itself, has the know-how to engineer and unleash such a virus. That doesn’t mean they’ve done so, however. It would be an astonishing leap into crimes against humanity to intentionally unleash such a biological weapon into the wild. Read Article
Daily Mail – The head of a Government-owned firm set up to eliminate world poverty has been criticised after earning almost £1million in a year. MPs yesterday attacked the ‘extraordinary’ salary of Richard Laing, the chief executive of the former Commonwealth Development Corporation now known as CDC. He took £970,000 in pay and bonuses in 2007, while other senior executives earned an average of £435,000. Read Article
The Independent – Ministers want to farm out a Big Brother database of everyone’s emails, phone calls and internet use to private companies who will be given the job of storing the data on behalf of the state.The £2bn cost of the plans could add millions of pounds to phone and internet bills to help pay for new systems to collect and sort private information.Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, said the Government had rejected the idea of a centralised database because it would impinge on privacy. She favoured a “middle way” in which primary communication companies, such as BT or Virgin, and leading internet service providers would have the job of collating phone, email and web use. Read Article
The Historian – Big Brother might care but he certainly doesn’t come without a price tag
New Scientist – The official answer is no one, but it is a half-truth that few swallow. If all nations are equal online, the US is more equal than others.Not that it is an easy issue to define. The internet is, essentially, a group of protocols by which computers communicate, and innumerable servers and cables, most of which are in private hands. However, in terms of influence, the overwhelming balance of power lies with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, based in Marina Del Rey, California.ICANN is a not-for-profit organisation that regulates online addresses, known as domain names, and their suffixes, such as “.com” and “.org”. Since ICANN reports to the US government’s Department of Commerce, the domain name process is effectively overseen by the US government. China, Russia and Europe have all expressed concern at this situation because it means the US has leverage over the global coordination of the internet. “It has a role that is different from the role of all other governments,” says Massimiliano Minisci, a regional manager at ICANN. “That’s a concern around the world.” Read Article
The Guardian – We have gone demented. Two Britons are or were (not very) ill from flu. “This could really explode,” intones a reporter for BBC News. “London warned: it’s here,” cries the Evening Standard. Fear is said to be spreading “like a Mexican wave”. It “could affect” three-quarters of a million Britons. It “could cost” three trillion dollars. The “danger”, according to the radio, is that workers who are not ill will be “worried” (perhaps by the reporter) and fail to turn up at power stations and hospitals.Appropriately panicked, on Monday ministers plunged into their Cobra bunker beneath Whitehall to prepare for the worst. Had Tony Blair been about they would have worn germ warfare suits. British government is barking mad.What is swine flu? It is flu, a mutation of the H1N1 virus of the sort that often occurs. It is not a pandemic, despite the media prefix, not yet. Read Article
The Australian – BRITAIN appears to be evolving into the first modern soft totalitarian state. As a sometime teacher of political science and international law, I do not use the term totalitarian loosely.There are no concentration camps or gulags but there are thought police with unprecedented powers to dictate ways of thinking and sniff out heresy, and there can be harsh punishments for dissent. Nikolai Bukharin claimed one of the Bolshevik Revolution’s principal tasks was “to alter people’s actual psychology”. Britain is not Bolshevik, but a campaign to alter people’s psychology and create a new Homo britannicus is under way without even a fig leaf of disguise. The Government is pushing ahead with legislation that will criminalise politically incorrect jokes, with a maximum punishment of up to seven years’ prison. The House of Lords tried to insert a free-speech amendment, but Justice Secretary Jack Straw knocked it out. It was Straw who previously called for a redefinition of Englishness and suggested the “global baggage of empire” was linked to soccer violence by “racist and xenophobic white males”. He claimed the English “propensity for violence” was used to subjugate Ireland, Scotland and Wales, and that the English as a race were “potentially very aggressive”. Read Article
BBC – The UN’s World Health Organization has raised the alert over swine flu to level five – indicating human-to-human transmission in at least two countries. It is a “strong signal that a pandemic is imminent”, the WHO says. After Mexico, the US has recorded the next highest number of confirmed cases, with 91. A senior health official in Europe says it is not a question of whether people in Europe will die, but how many – perhaps hundreds or thousands. Read Article
The Historian – Whether or not this is in fact the case, and lets hope its not, however keep this thought at the back of your mind over the coming weeks and months. Those in positions have power or influence have always known that the easiest way for the populous to do their bidding, whether it be for good or evil, is through fear, and fear is exactly what is being generated currently.
The Guardian – Two car bombs exploded near a restaurant in Baghdad’s main Shia district of Sadr City today, killing at least 17 people, Iraqi police said. The blasts came less than a week after bombings claimed more than 150 lives over two days, raising fears that Sunni insurgents are regrouping as the US military begins to withdraw.The Sadr City blasts went off in quick succession from parked cars filled with explosives, police said. Officers said they found another car bomb at the scene but prevented it from detonating. Read Article
Daily Mail – The recession could tip Britain into riots and civil disorder amid ‘naked competition’ for jobs, a Cabinet minister will warn tonight.Communities Secretary Hazel Blears said the country could descend into chaos – with cars and buildings burning on the streets – without urgent action to tackle the effects of the downturn.Miss Blears said Britain had seen the power of a recession to ‘fracture community spirit’ in the 1980s and 1990s, with riots in Brixton and Birmingham. Read Article
AP — Terrorist attacks in Afghanistan and Pakistan have risen sharply as extremists have consolidated and expanded operations, according to the government and independent analysts.On Thursday, the State Department’s annual assessment of worldwide terrorism is expected to show that terrorist attacks in Pakistan alone more than quadrupled between 2006 and 2008, according to a U.S. official briefed on its findings. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because Congress is still being notified of the findings.Last year’s “Country Reports on Terrorism” from the State Department found that attacks in Pakistan had more than doubled from 375 to 887 between 2006 and 2007, and the number of fatalities jumped by almost 300 percent from 335 to 1,335. Read Article
ABC – Pope Benedict says he is sorry for the abuses suffered by native children at Canada’s residential schools.The statement was made to a delegation of Canadian natives who held a private audience with the Pope at the Vatican.The delegation included native leaders, elders and residential school survivors. The Pope expressed his personal sorrow and added that acts of abuse cannot be tolerated – but the word ‘apology’ was not used.  Read Article
New York Post – Federal officials knew a flyover in lower Manhattan could spark chaos and panic in the streets below – but they did it anyway.A memo clearly marked “FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY,” shows the Federal Aviation Administration was aware that sending a Boeing 747 and F-16 fighter jet over New York City at a low altitude raised “the possibility of public concern.” Yet, the agency demanded the information be shared on a “need to know” basis and the public and media be kept in the dark. Read Article
The Times – Parents fighting in the family courts for contact with their children are being denied access to their personal files by a corrupt system, a leading parental rights campaigner has said. Alison Stevens, head of Parents Against Injustice, has called for Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary, to force social services and individual courts to comply with the Data Protection Act. Read Article
Reuters – The U.S. economy shrank by a surprisingly steep 6.1 percent in the first quarter, hit by a record plunge in business inventories and sinking exports, but investors read signs of recovery in the report.The economy remained on track to emerge from recession in the second half of the year, analysts said, pointing to the run down in inventories that helped boost U.S. stock prices.The recession is in its 16th month and next month is on track to become the longest since the Great Depression. Read Article
Daily Telegraph – A 40-year study of almost 1,400 men found drinking a little alcohol regularly boosted longevity – with the biggest increase caused by wine. Light long-term consumption of all types – up to two glasses of beer or wine a day or two shots of spirits – extended life by around two extra years compared with abstention. Read Article
Reuters) – The World Health Organization said on Wednesday the world is at the brink of a pandemic, raising its threat level as the swine flu virus spread and killed the first person outside of Mexico, a toddler in Texas. “Influenza pandemics must be taken seriously precisely because of their capacity to spread rapidly to every country in the world,” WHO Director General Margaret Chan told a news conference in Geneva as she raised the official alert level to phase 5, the last step before a pandemic. Read Article
Herald Sun – IT’S snowing in April. Ice is spreading in Antarctica. The Great Barrier Reef is as healthy as ever. And that’s just the news of the past week. Truly, it never rains but it pours – and all over our global warming alarmists.
Time’s up for this absurd scaremongering. The fears are being contradicted by the facts, and more so by the week.
Doubt it? Then here’s a test. Name just three clear signs the planet is warming as the alarmists claim it should. Just three. Chances are your “proofs” are in fact on my list of 10 Top Myths about global warming. And if your “proofs” indeed turn out to be false, don’t get angry with me. Just ask yourself: Why do you still believe that man is heating the planet to hell? What evidence do you have? Read Article
Press TV – As Israel and the US continue on a collision course over Iran, Tel Aviv says it hopes to put an end to Iran’s nuclear activities with a “heroic operation”.In an interview with Haaretz, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak drew a parallel between Iran’s nuclear program and that of Iraq in the Saddam Hussein era and hoped for a similar end to the Iranian program. In 1981, Israel bombed a French-built nuclear plant near Iraq’s capital, Baghdad, in an operation that became the world’s first air strike against a nuclear plant. Read Article
Daily Telegraph – The world is running out of capital. We cannot take it for granted that the global bond markets will prove deep enough to fund the $6 trillion or so needed for the Obama fiscal package, US-European bank bail-outs, and ballooning deficits almost everywhere. Unless this capital is forthcoming, a clutch of countries will prove unable to roll over their debts at a bearable cost. Those that cannot print money to tide them through, either because they no longer have a national currency (Ireland, Club Med), or because they borrowed abroad (East Europe), run the biggest risk of default. Read Article
The Historian – The only way out. Print money. Just like the USA, UK and Zimbabwe are already doing.
New York Times – With municipal bond investigations spreading to Europe from the United States, Italian authorities have seized about $300 million in assets of four global banks “” JPMorgan Chase, Deutsche Bank, UBS and Depfa “” whose officials have been accused of fraud. Read Article
The Historian – As if banks would ever commit fraud – preposterous!
Daily Telegraph – The drugs, called statins, could potentially make it harder for doctors to diagnose the disease, one of the most common forms of cancer, according to a new study. Researchers found that patients with the cancer who were prescribed statins had “significantly” lower levels of a chemical used to tested for the disease than those not being tested for cholesterol problems. Read Article
Mercola.Com – American health officials declared a public health emergency as cases of swine flu were confirmed in the U.S. Health officials across the world fear this could be the leading edge of a global pandemic emerging from Mexico, where seven people are confirmed dead as a result of the new virus. On Monday April 27th, the World Health Organization (WHO) raised its pandemic alert level to four on its six-level threat scale,1 which means they’ve determined that the virus is capable of human-to-human transmission. The initial outbreaks across North America reveal an infection already travelling at higher velocity than did the last official pandemic strain, the 1968 Hong Kong flu. Read Article
Daily Telegraph – The three men, all from Beeston in Leeds, who have been acquitted by a jury, were the only people ever to be charged in relation to the bombings of July 2005. They had been accused of conducting a “hostile reconnaissance” mission for the bombers seven months before the attacks. Read Article
Daily Telegraph – Sir David Attenborough has called for greater protection for the wild habitat of orang-utans amid fears “emotional” television programmes about rescued apes have failed to raise awareness of the need to protect the rainforests where the animals live. Read Article
