Fair Use Note

WARNING for European visitors: European Union laws require you to give European Union visitors information about cookies used on your blog. In many cases, these laws also require you to obtain consent. As a courtesy, we have added a notice on your blog to explain Google's use of certain Blogger and Google cookies, including use of Google Analytics and AdSense cookies. You are responsible for confirming this notice actually works for your blog, and that it displays. If you employ other cookies, for example by adding third party features, this notice may not work for you. Learn more about this notice and your responsibilities.

Thomas Paine

To argue with a person who has renounced the use of reason is like administering medicine to the dead.

Sunday, April 25, 2010

26 Apr - Night Links


What to Do About the Banks

 Banks were allowed to engage in both banking and broking, which seemed workable in the 1920s when times were booming, but the mingling of the two disciplines was found to be a serious problem when investigations in the 1930s revealed the banking industry to be rife with double-dealing and fraud. The primary characteristic of the Depression was the lack of money – “no one has any money” was a common complaint – which was not surprising considering over half the banks in the country failed, wiping out the savings of millions of Americans.
Bank failures are caused by depositors who don't deposit enough money to cover losses due to mismanagement. Vice President Dan Quayle

Inauguration of the Dauletabad-Sarakhs-Khangiran pipeline on Wednesday connecting Iran's northern Caspian region with Turkmenistan's vast gas field sends strong messages for regional security. Within the space of three weeks, Turkmenistan has committed its entire gas exports to China, Russia and Iran. It has no urgent need of the pipelines that the United States and the European Union have been advancing.
Its annual capacity is 20bcm, and that would meetthe energy requirements of Iran's Caspian region and enable Tehran to free its own gas production in the southern fields for export. The mutual interest is perfect:Ashgabat gets an assured market next door; northern Iran can consume without fear of winter shortages; Tehran can generate more surplus for exports; Turkmenistan can seektransportation routes to the world market via Iran; and Iran can aspire to take advantage of its excellent geographical location as a hub for the Turkmen exports. 
The Turkmen-Iranian pipeline mocks the US's Iran policy. 

Hundreds protest immigration law in Arizona

"In addition to this law being illegal, if this law goes into effect, we expect it to have a dramatic affect on the state with U.S. citizens, legal residents and others moving out of the state out of fear of being singled out," William Sanchez, an immigration attorney representing the coalition, said in a statement.

Parliament awaits privilege ruling on Afghan-detainee documents

The ruling is highly anticipated on Parliament Hill because it could, in theory, lead to a federal election, prompt a battle over government-parliamentary supremacy in the Supreme Court, or lead to rare, though mostly symbolic, contempt proceedings in the Commons against three ministers.
Those three ministers are Justice Minister Rob Nicholson, Defence Minister Peter MacKay and Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon.
They are all ministers involved in the raft of detainee-related documents that opposition MPs demanded to see in “their original and uncensored form” in a motion presented Dec. 10, 2009.
The government recently tabled more than 8,000 pages of documents after the questions of privilege were voiced. And it assigned former judge Frank Iacobucci to review “redactions” — passages blacked out on grounds they could be injurious to national security, defence or other grounds spelled out in law.
That is one of the main points of contention in the questions of privilege — whether parliament’s right to demand documents includes documents in their uncensored form.
The New Democratic Party says the House of Commons special committee on the Canadian mission in Afghanistan could set up a procedure to have MPs swear an oath of secrecy and seek access to uncensored documents that way.
The government wonders why the committee didn’t propose that before raising a question of privilege, but the government has not suggested it would agree to such a procedure after the ruling comes down.



Omar Khadr’s defender sees ‘no way’ for fair trial

 Imagine if you were charged with killing a police officer, and when you got to court you noticed that the judge, the jury, the prosecutor, and your own defence lawyer were all police officers wearing the same uniform as the deceased officer. Do you think you’d get a fair trial and an impartial verdict? And ask yourself: If this is a fair system, why is it illegal to subject American citizens to it? Aren't Canadian citizens entitled to an equal level of justice?
Damien Corsetti, one of the U.S. Army interrogators in Bagram, Afghanistan, when Omar was being mistreated, freely admits that egregiously abusive practices described by Omar were standard operating procedure.




Ontario's war on drug prices

If generous drug use corresponded to improved health outcomes, provinces would have to swallow hard and pay up. But OECD figures put Canada at No. 2 in per-capita drug spending (next to the U.S.). Yet we're trailing in life expectancy after Japan, Switzerland, Italy and Australia.

The Days the Earth Stood Still

With a huff and a puff, mother nature grounded the global economy—and pointed up the need to fix our fragile system.

Dinosaurs died from sudden temperature drop 'not comet strike', scientists claim

British researchers claim that a sudden plummeting in the sea temperature of 16F (9C) more than 137 million years ago was the first step towards their eventual road to extinction.
While studying fossils and minerals from the Arctic Svalbard, Norway, they concluded the sudden change in the Atlantic Gulf Stream during the Cretaceous period would almost certainly have wiped out the ''abundance'' of the world's dinosaurs.

An Electric Motorcycle Meets A Harley Woman

 "That was awesome," she says. "It has great turning radius, great acceleration."

Poll: Only Christians should be exposed to ethics?

 In Australia, school kids can opt-in to take scripture classes, and the kids who opt out get to sit in the school during those hours doing nothing, which seems a bit of a waste. So the schools have a new plan: while the religious kids are off memorizing bible verses, the secular kids will get classes in ethics which will "cover topics including respect, bullying, animal rights and questions about life and death."
That sounds reasonable to me, and a good use of time. Guess who doesn't like the idea, though? Church leaders!

“Racial Incitement a One-Way Street for the Media” by Bob Parks

1976 'Swine Flu' Shot Linked to Stronger Immune Response to 21st Century Pandemic Flu


Spread the net -anti malaria

Any wonder why Islam forbids alcohol?


Defiant Red Shirts gear up for military onslaught on their Bangkok camp


Director Cameron wants to see oilsands for himself

Canada Post warns about e-mail scam

disguised as a parcel-delivery notification

Why are US Analysts Surprised that Syria Arms Hizbullah?

US analysts are constantly astonished that Syria does not cut off Hizbullah in order to reward Washington and Israel. What do they think that Obama will do for Syria, I wonder?

No comments:

Post a Comment