Attorneys for Muzzammil S. "Mo" Hassan Friday said the media and public have misconstrued Hassan's actions in the beheading of his estranged wife, Aasiya Zubair Hassan. How could I have been so wrong? If I'd just taken a moment to think, then... umm...
Many have wrongly come to regard Hassan as an Islamic terrorist, and the general public is suffering from "Islamophobia," defense attorneys Julie Atti Rogers and Frank M. Bogulski said after a court appearance Friday. Hassan is "a nonpracticing Muslim," Rogers said, while Bogulski stressed that Hassan "doesn't pray five times a day" as an obedient Muslim would. He does, however, behead people ...
Hassan, 44, is accused of killing and beheading his 37-year-old wife on Feb. 12, 2009, soon after she began divorce proceedings against him. But that wasn't a religious thing. It was a cultural thing.
Erie County Judge Thomas P. Franczyk has scheduled a May 4 hearing to consider defense challenges to an alleged confession Hassan made to Orchard Park police about an hour after his wife was killed in the office of their Bridges cable television station. During a brief court session Friday, Franczyk kept in place his order barring a psychiatric defense for Hassan, but he agreed to reconsider if Hassan's attorneys file motions in coming months.
Bogulski recently claimed that the victim drove her husband into an uncontrollable homicidal rage, and he and Rogers said Friday they are confident they can convince the judge of the propriety of their defense strategy. They acknowledged they need the court-approved release of some of Hassan's funds to finance their effort. The defense attorneys said they will go to Erie County Surrogate's Court on Tuesday to fight for the release of money from Hassan's bank accounts to pay for his proposed psychiatric defense. Cha-ching!
The two attorneys also said they will begin court action to try to get Hassan's two children returned from Pakistan, where they were taken by Aasiya Zubair Hassan's relatives. Hassan fears the children "will be radicalized" in Pakistan, Bogulski said. YJCMTSU
#2
He probably prays four times a day, like most Muslims. Five times a day includes once in the middle of the night, that only particularly devout Muslims observe. Not being devout does *not* equate to "nonpracticing", and doesn't even imply moderation.
#3
Could we just say that anyone that beheads a family member is a little off it?
Of course given how his brethren in the faith of Mohammed are want to collect heads, I think we could rationally say there is some quid pro quo between going to the mosque and wanting to make a video.
Posted by: Karl Rove ||
03/07/2010 21:37 Comments ||
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#4
As I recall, the wife was going to divorce him, take the children, and destroy the cable television company that was his life's dream -- a Muslim cable television station that was to spread across the U.S., making him and his investors pots of money.... or not, quite possibly it was already in trouble.
#5
Fine. He's nuts. Here's your new accomodations to keep society safe from you. Very similar to the accomodations you'd receive if you were guilty of murder. No, you can't have the kids because you're a crackpot. Your job will be to clean up under the beds and behind the toilets of all the alpha males in the the facility. Hope you brought your kneepads or your knees are going to get rug-burn with them pushing you around their cells. Yeah, shoulda just pled guilty, but at least this way it keeps the money out of terrorist hands.
[Straits Times] A 6.5-MAGNITUDE quake struck late on Friday off the coast of Sumatra in Indonesia, seismologists said, but no tsunami alert was issued and there were no reports of damage or injuries.
The quake's epicentre was at a depth of 22km, the US Geological Survey said, and was 165km west of Bengkulu on Sumatra island.
The earthquake hit at 11.06pm (1606 GMT, 12.06pm Singapore time), waking people up, an AFP reporter said, but otherwise the effects were minimal. The Hawaii-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Center did not issue an alert and said there was only a very small possibility of a local tsunami.
Indonesia sits on the Pacific 'Ring of Fire,' where the meeting of continental plates causes high volcanic and seismic activity.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/07/2010 00:00 ||
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An Egyptian blogger on trial before a military tribunal for slandering the nation's premier army academy will be released and proceedings suspended after he agreed to apologize, his lawyer said Sunday.
Mohammed Mahmoud, lawyer of 20-year old Ahmed Mostafa, said his client has a week to issue an official apology on his blog for blatant honesty falsely claiming there was corruption in the army's military academy in a post titled "The Military Academy's Scandal."
The tribunal agreed to suspend proceedings in return for the apology. This means the case is not written off, and could be revived. "If he doesn't apologize, the case can be revived," Mahmoud said.
Egypt has arrested a string of prominent bloggers in the past who criticized security repression or were accused of insulting Islam and the president. But military tribunals are normally reserved for those the government perceives as a threat to its existence, such as terror suspects or members of the Muslim Brotherhood.
The engineering student was detained on Feb. 25 and charged with publishing false news and "tarnishing the military's image" after blogging about a student forced to leave the academy to make room for a candidate from a wealthier family. Criticizing the armed forces is illegal in Egypt and considered a threat to state security.
The lawyer said the academy investigated Mostafa's claims, which it said were "incomplete."
[Al Arabiya Latest] The Open Net Initiative (ONI) on Friday said Microsoft's search engine Bing is more prudish than government censors when it comes to sex-related online queries.
A January test of a Bing version tailored for users in Arab countries showed that it filtered Arabic and English words for sexually explicit content along with queries related to gay, lesbian, bi-sexual or transgender material.
Attempts to use filtered keywords prompted a message reading "Your country or region requires a strict Bing SafeSearch setting, which filters out results that might return adult content," according to ONI.
The message seemed at odds with the fact that while political censorship is widespread in the Middle East, not all countries there mandate filtering of sex, nudity, homosexuality and other such "social content," ONI reported.
"A more targeted approach, either country-based or preferably, defined by the user, is more generally consistent with minimizing the impact on freedom of speech," ONI study authors concluded.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/07/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
OK Boys, thats it no more entertainment for you, its too racey.....
Posted by: Jack Ebberert6731 ||
03/07/2010 8:38 Comments ||
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Regulators on Friday shuttered banks in Florida, Illinois, Maryland and Utah, boosting to 26 the number of bank failures in the U.S. so far this year following the 140 brought down in 2009 by mounting loan defaults and the recession.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. took over Sun American Bank, based in Boca Raton, Fla., with $535.7 million in assets and $443.5 million in deposits. Also seized were Bank of Illinois of Normal, Ill., with $211.7 million in assets and $198.5 million in deposits; Waterfield Bank in Germantown, Md., with $155.6 million in assets and $156.4 million in deposits; and Centennial Bank in Ogden, Utah, with $215.2 million in assets and $205.1 million in deposits.
First-Citizens Bank & Trust Co., based in Raleigh, N.C., agreed to assume the assets and deposits of Sun American Bank and to share losses with the FDIC on $433 million of the failed bank's loans and other assets. It was First-Citizens' fourth acquisition of assets of a failed bank since last July; the others were First Regional Bank of Los Angeles, Venture Bank of Lacey, Wash., and Temecula Valley Bank of Temecula, Calif.
Heartland Bank and Trust Co., based in Bloomington, Ill., is buying the assets and deposits of Bank of Illinois, and is sharing losses with the FDIC on $166.6 million in loans and other assets.
For Waterfield Bank, because no buyer was found, the FDIC set up a new savings institution that will operate until April 5 to allow customers access to their deposits and give them time to open accounts at other banks.
The FDIC was also unable to find a buyer for Centennial Bank, and it approved the payout of the institution's insured deposits. As a result, checks to the retail depositors for their insured funds will be mailed on Monday. Zions First National Bank in Salt Lake City agreed to accept the failed bank's direct deposits from the federal government, including Social Security and Veterans' payments.
The failure of Sun American Bank is expected to cost the federal deposit insurance fund $103.8 million. The cost of resolving Bank of Illinois is estimated at $53.7 million; that of Waterfield Bank is $51 million; and Centennial Bank is $96.3 million.
The pace of bank seizures this year is likely to accelerate in coming months, FDIC officials have said.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/07/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Karl Denninger pointed out a bit of math on these bank failures that the media otherwise missed: * Waterford Bank, Germantown MD: $155.6 million in assets, $156.4 in insured deposits. They were "underwater" by $800,000, right? Wrong: Estimated loss, $51 million. That is, the assets of $155.6 million were overvalued by approximately 30% at the time of seizure.
* Bank of Illinois, Normal IL: $211.7 million in assets, $198.5 million in deposits. They were "underwater" by $13.2 million (which is why they were seized), right? Wrong: Estimated loss $53.7 million. That is, the the assets of $211.7 million were overvalued by more than 25% at the time of seizure.
* Sun American Bank, Boca Raton FL: $535.7 million in assets (so they claimed anyway), $443.5 million in total deposits. Heh, why did you seize them - they have more assets than liabilities? Oh wait: Estimated loss: $103.8 million, so the actual assets are worth $443.5 - $103.8, or $339.7 million. That is, the assets of $535.7 million were overvalued by a whopping 37% at the time of seizure.
Denninger speculates that if this pattern of overvaluing extends to the biggest banks, not only will the economy and lending environment not recover -- it can't
#2
AH, I think it's been you who has pointed out that we are soon going to be in an environment where it will be like things werer before Wilson's administration, IOW, you can't borrow money unless you really don't need it. Maybe we are at that tipping point.
Many will howl but I think it's a good thing. The whole house of cards of money valued at less than the free market would price it combined with government (tax) subsidized real estate in order to achieve the outcome egalitarian dream of every single person owning a home regardless of their ability to pay has been teetering for decades and now it has begun to fall.
Borrowing money will be an option available to those who are secure and frugal who want to expand. It will no longer be for the wasteful and undisciplined to maintain a lifestyle beyond their means.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
03/07/2010 6:47 Comments ||
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#3
My son works in real estate and was telling me yesterday that there are some mortgage lenders that are trying to branch out into something called "social lending".
Basically this is facilitating owner financed sales. However, the gov't paperwork and requirements pretty much stifle the attempt.
He also told me that mortgage loan requirements of the feds have been tightened to the point that lending has slowed to a trickle. Not sure I believe this one cause they're still lending on 3% down.
If the feds raise requirements high enough, then even good banks, small and medium size, can't loan. If they can't loan, they can only sustain themselves on existing loans. Basically eating their seed grain. Its only time before they are eating returns just to run operations.
It looks like the feds are using regulation to push corporatism, putting the small and medium banks in a position for a take over by their buds in the big banks. The big banks can play volume by borrowing from the Fed at 1 percent and buying Treasuries at 2 or 3 percent and make money. The small banks can't and are out of the game. Meanwhile the assets of the smaller entities are being absorbed by the Fed-Wall Street team though the FDIC route. They're killing the potential that some small and medium size banks in good condition can play the game and position themselves when the dust clears to be real competition to the good old boys.
#5
I've read that the small community banks by and large haven't been hurt by the economic struggles of the past two years. In banks of this size, many were prudently managed in the first place, didn't get into exotic financial instruments, and for the most part didn't join the rush into sub-prime and marginal real estate loans.
For those banks, there's money to be made working with local business, making prime home loans which they keep rather than sell to Fannie/Freddie, and doing auto loans to qualified customers.
The owners and managers of those banks are angry because the FDIC wants them to carry the burden of the larger banks: for example, making them pre-pay 3 or 4 years worth of deposit insurance (which FDIC uses to bail out other banks), etc.
The Obama administration apparently views the community banks as both a problem for them (no control) and as a piggy-bank for other ventures. We can expect various moves to get the small banks to cooperate or to drive them into the control of large banks, which Bambi's people can manipulate.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/07/2010 10:25 Comments ||
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#6
The other shoe will drop this year for the small community banks. They couldn't compete in the residential origination market and they weren't located in markets where residential was skyrocketing. So they went into commercial real estate big time.
They lent the money to developers to build all the empty shopping centers and offices that appear to be owned by the conglomerate FOR LEASE. Now the construction loans have to be rolled into mortgages and guess what? Rents have nose dived and properties are worth nowhere near the balance of the outstanding construction loan.
It's that simple, aside from the ones run by the usual small town crooked mini-madoffs. No fed-big-bank conspiracies. Just incompetence, primarily at the Fed. In fact the FDIC is making all banks, regardless of size, accelerate premiums, in order to avoid borrowing from the treasury, and it is going to introduce a progressive premium scale so that big banks pay for their TBTF status.
If this is a topic you want to watch, be here every Friday night for the recap of closures and unofficial problem banks.
#8
"The Obama administration apparently views the community banks as both a problem for them (no control) and as a piggy-bank for other ventures."
Bambi views everything he doesn't control as a piggy-bank for his policies now that he's got the gummint that can make regulations so he does control them :-(
Change!
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/07/2010 12:23 Comments ||
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#9
Yes, commercial RE is the next shoe to fall. Get ready for an even bigger crash than the one in residential RE.
#10
More weird stuff is happening:Nevada Federal Credit Union has a deal for big savers: Withdraw your money and you'll get a bonus.
The credit union, one of the largest in Nevada, figures that deposits from members who don't have a checking account, mortgage loan or any other products are expensive... the credit union expects the National Credit Union Administration to boost deposit insurance premiums by 0.15 percent to 0.4 percent this year.
For each $100 million in deposits, that premium increase will increase Nevada Federal's costs up to $400,000 yearly, Beal said.
While Nevada Federal is well capitalized, reducing deposits also will increase its net worth as a percent of assets.
#11
"The credit union . . . figures that deposits from members who don't have a checking account, mortgage loan or any other products are expensive..."
They charge a fee for checking accounts? At my credit union, they're free (but I do have to pay for the checkbooks).
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/07/2010 20:21 Comments ||
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I have personally run into what happens when poorly trained nurses are left to their own devices. It ain't good. Not in the US, and even worse under socialized medicine. Hospital administrations think that RNs aren't worth their pay and cut costs by employing Medical Assistants or those that aren't appropriate but take lower pay. People die or are further injured. The more vulnerable ones. And then the thin white line comes into play and everyone clams up. Then the storm blows over and things go right back to where they were until the next storm. And the cycle repeats itself. The example listed below is in the UK as a result of the vaunted NHS:
A man of 22 died in agony of dehydration after three days in a leading teaching hospital.
Kane Gorny was so desperate for a drink that he rang police to beg for their help. They arrived on the ward only to be told by doctors that everything was under control.
The next day his mother Rita Cronin found him delirious and he died within hours. She said nurses had failed to give him vital drugs which controlled fluid levels in his body. 'He was totally dependent on the nurses to help him and they totally betrayed him.'
A coroner has such grave concerns about the case that it has been referred to police. Sources say they are investigating the possibility of a corporate manslaughter charge against St George's Hospital in Tooting, South London.
Mr Gorny, from Balham, worked for Waitrose and had been a keen footballer and runner until he was diagnosed with a brain tumour the year before his death.
The medication he took caused his bones to weaken and he was admitted to St George's for a hip replacement in May last year. The operation left him immobile and unable to get out of bed. His 50-year-old mother says that he needed to take drugs three times a day to regulate his hormones. Doctors had told him that without the drugs he would die.
Although he had stressed to staff how important his medication was, she said, no one gave him the drugs. Better check into the qualifications of every nurse in the hospital. And find out where their duty stations are and when they are on duty. I'll bet there aren't even a quarter of the number of RNs you really need to provide adequate decision-making and care.
She said that two days after his hip operation, while Miss Cronin was at work, he became severely dehydrated but his requests for water were refused.
He became aggressive and nurses called in security guards to restrain him. After they had left, he rang the police from his bed to demand their help.
Miss Cronin, who is divorced from her son's father Peter, said: 'The police told me he'd said, "Please help me. All I want is a drink and no one is helping me".
'By this time my son was confused due to his lack of medication and I think the nurses just ignored him because they thought he was just being badly behaved. Ah, "badly behaved". People tend to do that when they are dying. I guess the "nurses" decided to take that as the permission they needed to aggressively ignore his every request.
'They were lazy, careless and hadn't bothered to check his charts and see his medication was essential.' More likely they were never trained to deal with these things, and they were put there by the administration to "save on costs". I'd look there, too.
That evening, Miss Cronin visited him. She said: 'I told Kane to behave himself because I thought he had been causing trouble - and I feel so bad about that now. I thought maybe he was having a bad reaction to the morphine he was on but in fact it was because he had not had his medication.'
The next morning she visited him before going to work. 'He was delirious and his mouth was open,' she said. 'I gave him a drink of Ribena.
'I told three nurses there was something wrong with my son and they said, "He's fine" and walked off. I started to cry and a locum doctor who was there told me not to worry. Eventually the ward doctor came round, took one look at Kane and started shouting for help.'
Miss Cronin was asked to leave her son's bedside. 'He died an hour later,' she said. 'I didn't even realise he was dying. I didn't even have a chance to say goodbye.' This is why Europe has banned guns.
The death certificate said Mr Gorny had died because of a 'water deficit' and 'hypernatraemia' - a medical term for dehydration.
His mother added: 'When I went back to the hospital I was told that all the nurses had been offered counselling as they were so traumatised, but nothing was offered to me. Counselling, or counsel?
'The whole thing is a disgrace. This hospital has a brilliant reputation and boasts of its excellent standards and safety record. Is that what they say about themselves? I know other hospitals that do that, too.
'But as soon as my son walked into that ward, his death warrant was signed. Of the 32 people who were involved in my son's care, every one made a mistake that ultimately led to his death, from the consultant to the care assistant.
'There has been an internal investigation but St George's never made it public and it was a whitewash-After his death the hospital never phoned me or wrote to me to apologise. How could this happen in the 21st century?' It's a legal thing. CAn't admit you were wrong because you might have to pay the penalty, you know.
A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: 'Detectives from the Homicide and Serious Crime Command are investigating the death of Kane Gorny at St George's Hospital after this was referred to us by Westminster Coroner's Court.'
A spokesman for St George's Hospital said: 'We are extremely sorry about the death of Kane Gorny and understand the distress that this has caused to his family. Then apologize.
'A full investigation was carried out and new procedures introduced to ensure that such a case cannot happen in future. We have written to the family to explain the actions that have been taken and to answer their concerns about Mr Gorny's care. The family has also been invited to meet with trust staff to discuss the case in detail.' No they weren't.
The tragedy emerged a week after a report into hundreds of deaths at Stafford Hospital revealed the appalling quality of care given by many of the nurses. It's not only socialist hospitals that have these problems, but I'll bet the socialist system exacerbates it. There will be people going to hell for this one.
This week a task force called on nurses to sign a public pledge that they will treat everyone with compassion and dignity. Make sure that pledge comes with an RN degree.
[Iran Press TV Latest] Icelanders are voting on whether to pay the UK and the Netherlands $5.2 billion they paid to their citizens after the Icesave bank went bankrupt in 2008.
Iceland voters likely will reject a plan to use taxpayer money to cover the losses of British and Dutch depositors in a failed online bank, observers say.
The British and Dutch governments want reimbursement of $5.2 billion they paid in compensation to customers after the failure of Icesave bank, which folded in 2008.
Voters in Iceland headed to the polls on Saturday, one day after talks between the three countries broke down before an agreement could be reached.
Opinion polls suggest the majority of voters will reject the referendum. 96% of them did, according to the vote.
But a no vote is expected to deal another blow to Iceland's troubled economy as it could block billions of dollars of loans from international organizations.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/07/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Setting aside the fact that the poll was moot (the proposed reimbursement package being voted on had been shelved and a new one is in the process of being drafted - that's my understanding), this is an example of democracy at its worst. These turkeys felt as though they were being asked to vote in an early Christmas, for the benefit of faceless strangers in countries with 'much bigger economies'. The fact is that Iceland prospered for years from a banking industry taking the sharp practices we're familiar with to the max. They do bear a collective responsibility: their bankers took the hard earned savings of others and lost the lot. They will pay the consequences, one way or another, but this vote shows that, sadly, they really don't deserve much sympathy.
#5
A more equivalent question would be if random citizens of Houston should have to pay the debts of Enron... or if random citizens of New York should have to pay the debts of Lehman Bros.' derivatives unit.
President Obama's proposed budget would add more than $9.7 trillion to the national debt over the next decade, congressional budget analysts said Friday. Proposed tax cuts for the middle class account for nearly a third of that shortfall.
The 10-year outlook released by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office is somewhat gloomier than White House projections, which found that Obama's budget request would produce deficits that would add about $8.5 trillion to the national debt by 2020.
The CBO and the White House are in relative agreement about the short-term budget picture, with both predicting a deficit of about $1.5 trillion this year -- a post-World War II record at 10.3 percent of the overall economy -- and $1.3 trillion in 2011. But the CBO is considerably less optimistic about future years, predicting that deficits would never fall below 4 percent of the economy under Obama's policies and would begin to grow rapidly after 2015.
Deficits of that magnitude would force the Treasury to continue borrowing at prodigious rates, sending the national debt soaring to 90 percent of the economy by 2020, the CBO said. Interest payments on the debt would also skyrocket by $800 billion over the same period.
Obama's tax-cutting agenda is by far the biggest contributor to those budget gaps, the CBO said. As part of his campaign pledge to protect families making less than $250,000 a year from new taxes, the president is proposing to prevent the alternative minimum tax from expanding to ensnare millions of additional taxpayers. He also wants to make permanent a series of tax cuts enacted during the Bush administration, which are scheduled to expire at the end of this year.
"Over the next 10 years, those policies would reduce revenues and boost outlays for refundable tax credits by a total of $3.0 trillion," wrote Douglas W. Elmendorf, the CBO director. Combined with interest payments on that shortfall, the tax cuts account for the entire increase in deficits that would result from Obama's proposals.
Obama is convening a special commission to bring deficits down to 3 percent of the economy, but the CBO report shows that Obama could accomplish that goal simply by letting the Bush tax cuts expire and paying for changes to the alternative minimum tax.
Other policy changes, such as Obama's signature health-care initiative and a plan to dramatically expand the federal student loan program, would have significant effects on the budget, Elmendorf wrote, but they generally would be paid for and therefore would not drive deficits higher.
#1
I am so shocked! How can that be? But the WH told us differently. Just another reason not to trust any health care reform coming out of this administration.
Health care reform is like rape. Just as rape is about power and control, health care reform in Washington is too.
#2
"unexpected" but not "unprecedented". Theme of this loser admin
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/07/2010 10:30 Comments ||
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#3
Even this vastly understates the problem. The Federal budget deficit does not equal Federal debt. For instance the Fed deficit for 2009 and 2010 is projected at $3.0 trillion, but the national debt increases by $4.5 trillion to $14.456 trillion. The difference is made up by stealing borrowing from the Social Security trust funds which guarantees it won't be there when the baby boomers retire. All that's happening, at best, is the heroin addict is delaying the day of reckoning another 10 years. In 20 years old (and young) folks are going to think Alpo is a luxury.
Posted by: ed ||
03/07/2010 19:18 Comments ||
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#4
Did the Social Security trust funds ever really have money in them? Because from the beginning they paid out funds collected from workers that (or the previous) year.
#5
That's a debatable question since government accounting would land people in prison if a civilian company ever tried it. However, SS is still collecting more money than it pays out. The gov "borrows" from the balance (the SS Trust Fund) to run continuing operations. But worse news, just last year Medicare started paying out more than it took in and the Medicate Trust Fund will soon be broke.
Posted by: ed ||
03/07/2010 23:26 Comments ||
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#6
"90% of GDP" > Yep, 'twas all over CNN + CNBC + FOX this AM. The PRO-BAMMER BUDGET, ECONO PERTS tried hard to put on a HAPPY/STRAIGHT FACE at that particular bit of analysis from the CBO, but I doubt any of the Newsies were impressed, not even CNN.
Ay-Pee . . . .
BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) - Anger over increasing tuition and school budget cuts boiled over as students across the country staged rowdy demonstrations that led to clashes with police and the rush-hour shutdown of a major freeway in California.
Students, teachers, parents and school employees rallied and marched Thursday at college campuses, public parks and government buildings in many U.S. cities in what was called the March 4 Day of Action to Defend Public Education. One of these days, people in CA will figure out that money does not fall into state coffers like manna from heaven. People will have to make sure they are careful with everyone else's money, and everyone else will have to be careful with your money. And paying bribes for the hispanic vote doesn't pay.
#1
This is really an "The Emperor has no clothes" moment for higher education, that is long overdue.
It began in earnest with rotten federal court decisions that hiring policies could not be based solely on test results given by employers, as these were, or could at least easily be, "racist".
Instead, hiring policies could only be based on whether new hires had a college degree or not. Since colleges could *never* be racist, I guess.
This meant not only that colleges would have enormous expansion, yet provide minimum education in a paper chase for a diploma. Cranking out huge numbers of graduates who had to be retrained by employers. Paid for with higher and higher tuition rates and much larger government subsidies.
And this meant students would graduate deeply in debt, forcing them to hold off on marriage, children, home ownership, etc., until they had paid off their loans.
However, with tuition now skyrocketing all over the country because of cutbacks in government subsidies, and schools unwilling to delete grotesque amounts of fat or spending, the situation is being forced to a head.
And never one to not reinforce defeat, now Obama is nationalizing student loans, figuring that students will be beholden to the government for the rest of their lives.
However, the truth of the matter is that a heck of a lot of individuals are going to give up trying for a college degree. So what happens from there?
Either the federal courts relent, and allow them to hire high school graduates based on test results, or they have to contract with educational corporations to train and evaluate all prospective hires before they will even be considered for hiring.
In either case, the days of Enormous State University are rapidly drawing to a close. They will have to slash their spending and eliminate utterly useless degrees, and they are not going to like it one bit. But with losing half or more of their students, they will have no choice.
#2
When the wintry winds starts blowing
And the snow is starting in the fall
Then my eyes went southward knowing
That's the place that I love best of all
Argentina I've been blue
Since I've been away from you
I can't wait 'till I get blowing
Even now I'm starting in a call
Argentina, here we come,
worse than where we started from
weÂ’re students at Berkeley,
tuitionÂ’s cheap,
a living is owed us
the whole world revolves around us
Our suntanned profs say “we want more”
That is what inflationÂ’s for
Open up your rusted gate,
Argentina, Here we come.
Argentina, here we come,
right back where we started from
our parents in houses
equity free,
our unions have pensions
we know they will never see
A lying pol say spend it all
Bankers say letÂ’s just inflate
Open up your rusted gate
Argentina, Here we come.
Female Sailors will begin serving on submarines by the end of next year, with Naval Academy graduates leading the way, Navy leaders told a Senate committee.
Navy Secretary Ray Mabus told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the Navy is in a good position to move forward with integrating women onto submarines. "We think we learned a lot about integrating women in the services years ago, and those lessons are relevant today," Mabus said. Those lessons, he said, include having a "critical mass" of female candidates, having senior women to serve as mentors, and having submarines that don't require modifications: the SSBN ballistic missile and SSGN guided-missile subs.
Finally, Mabus said, "We have the lesson learned to make sure any questions are answered, ... and we're very open and transparent on how we'll do this. We think this is a great idea that will enhance our warfighting capabilities."
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates notified Congress on Feb. 19 of the intended change to Navy policy. Mabus had pushed for the change since taking office in May. Adm. Gary Roughead, chief of naval operations, endorsed the change, saying in a statement released in September that his experience commanding a mixed-gender surface-combatant ship makes him "very comfortable" integrating women into the submarine force. The Navy changed its policy to allow women to serve on combatant ships in 1993. "We have a great plan, and we're ready to go for the first women to come aboard in late 2011," Roughead told the Senate committee yesterday. In a prepared statement to the committee, he said the change would enable the submarine force "to leverage the tremendous talent and potential of our female officers and enlisted personnel."
Besides the incoming officers from the academy, the first women submariners will include female supply corps officers at the department head level, Roughead said. The change will be phased in over time to include enlisted female Sailors on the SSBN and SSGNs, he said. Women will be added to the Navy's SSN fast-attack submarines after necessary modifications can be determined, he said.
"This initiative has my personal attention, and I will continue to keep you informed as we integrate these highly motivated and capable officers into our submarine force," Roughead told the committee.
#3
one of my buddies is a sub/nuke officer - his contract is up this fall, he told me yesterday that when this came out on the heels on the debate abt removing DADT he was glad he was resigning his commission.
#4
When I was in the Naval Reserve, one of my unit COs was an ex bubblehead. He saw no problem with having women on board subs - even on the missile boats that went out for 2 months and stayed out there no matter what.
When I asked him what they would do about all the problems that occurred aboard surface ships with women on board (sexual harassment, rapes, jealousies, etc.) he said that those were just discipline problems that would be dealt with.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
03/07/2010 19:59 Comments ||
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#5
They never mentioned problems with co-ed space ships on Star Trek.
#6
On Star Trek they also used to send the CO, XO, Chief Engineer and the Medical Officer on an away team. And the red-shirted Ensign if it was dangerous.
Wouldn't happen on a real ship.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
03/07/2010 21:51 Comments ||
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#7
They never mentioned problems with co-ed space ships on Star Trek.
And the Federation was supposed to be a socialist paradise, too...
Israel's arms trade with India stands to expand dramatically following New Delhi's decision to increase its defense budget to $32 billion.
"India plans to rebuild substantial parts of its armed forces and we will be there, offering everything they need," a source within the Israeli Military Industries said.
Israel's various military industries have delegates in India and according to the source, several multimillion dollar deals have been discussed during two recent weapons and security trade fairs.
Since 1991, India has purchased $8.5 billions worth of Israeli weaponry, making Jerusalem its second-largest arms supplier, after Russia. According to foreign publications, India's most recent purchase is the Israeli Aerospace Industries' Harpy – an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) designed to attack radar systems.
Other recent acquisitions include the IAI's Searcher, which is a reconnaissance UAV, and the Heron-1, which is an UAV capable of Medium Altitude Long Endurance operations of up to 52 hours.
New Delhi has also signed a $1.1 billion deal with the IAI to convert Russian cargo planes into CAEW (conformal airborne early warning) aircrafts using the Falcon system.
Posted by: john frum ||
03/07/2010 11:58 ||
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[Iran Press TV Latest] Some of the hundreds of bacteria found in the digestive systems are believed to be responsible for obesity and a group of other health conditions, a new study finds.
"Previous research has suggested that bacteria can influence how well energy is absorbed from food, but these findings demonstrate that intestinal bacteria can actually influence appetite," said lead researcher Andrew Gewirtz.
According to the study published in Science, certain bacteria cause affected individuals overeat through stimulating inflammation in the body.
Baby mice born to mothers having these bacteria in their gut were reported to develop the very micro-organisms even if their embryos were transferred into surrogate mothers, the study found.
These mice were more vulnerable to developing metabolic syndrome -- a group of symptoms including high cholesterol levels, abdominal obesity, high blood pressure and insulin resistance -- later on in life.
Scientists concluded that intestinal inflammation caused by these bacteria alters insulin from working properly and subsequently causes insulin resistance and obesity.
They hope to identify the culprit bacteria in the near future in order to tackle the global epidemic of obesity affecting millions of individuals worldwide.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/07/2010 00:00 ||
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#2
I have heard this before from other studies but I believe they are going to discover the culprit is gluten. Humans did not evolve eating grains, we have only been eating them for about the past 6,000 years or so.
#4
Humans have been eating gluten for a very long time, just not as a staple. Prior to the advent of grain growing (approximately 10,000 years ago) humans would eat grass seeds when they came upon them. (Actually, they'd eat just about anything that was edible on that basis.)
I've seen new evidence that suggests the original use of grain grown in bulk was for brewing, not baking, as well. But certainly by six or eight thousand years ago civilizations were growing grain as their primary food source.
However, analysis of bones from the immediate post ice age era prior to plant agriculture suggest that over 85% of the diet was meat, with smaller amounts of fruit as the bulk of the rest.
A diet high in grain-based carbs is the problem. If you look at different ethnic types, you'll find that the ones which have been growing rice, wheat, barley, corn, etc. the longest have the lowest percentage of individuals with celiac disease (also known as "sprue"), a skeletal disorder, which is directly related to consumption of the protein gluten.
But the risks of a high-grain diet aren't limited to the gluten component. If you look at ethnic groups that did not eat large amounts of grain until recently (meaning a century or three) - blacks and American Indians in particular - you find that when they adopt a diet high in grain products they develop diabetes at rates that are off the charts. This is due to the carb content, not gluten.
This has been exacerbated in the past forty or so years by the federal government, which simultaneously uses our tax money to subsidize massive grain production while putting out propaganda like the "food pyramid" which tells people to eat fifteen servings of grass seed a day.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
03/07/2010 7:02 Comments ||
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#5
All scientific discoveries aside, the largest part of the obesitypriblem is and will always be the fact that certain people EAT (very) UNHEALTHY FOODS,are EATING PORTIONS THAT ARE WAY TO BIG or are refusing ANY FORM OF EXCERCISE.
As Dennis Leary said: "Dinosuars are big-boned, PUT DOWN THE FORK"
Posted by: Snaigum Oppressor of the Sith8920 ||
03/07/2010 7:30 Comments ||
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#6
What he said.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
03/07/2010 7:52 Comments ||
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#7
So all these fat people are "bug" carriers ?
I think not, some may be like this guy,
Posted by: Jack Ebberert6731 ||
03/07/2010 7:55 Comments ||
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#8
Remember those pictures from Somalia [when people cared]? See any fat people? Technically, they all were fat because they had the bodies to extract any last bit of nourishment from anything that was 'food'. Those who couldn't had already died. Now you alter the environment in which food is plentiful and readily accessible and they start to 'put it on'. Tens of thousands of years of evolutionary defensive breeding against lean and hungry seasons means that less than a hundred years of sustained abundance doesn't weed out that gene from the pool. I wouldn't bet my tribe's existence that we are now beyond the time when food can become scarce again by 'fixing' it.
Just take a look at photographs from a hundred years ago. The rich were fat and the workers were skinny [even the shop keeps and help, not just the farmers and laborers]. The social critics and nannies bitched about that. Now its the poor who are fat and the rich who are skinny. The social critics and nannies still bitch. The one consistency is the critics and nannies of any society, complain, complain, complain.
#9
The Pima Indians of Arizona are a very interesting case for this.
For many centuries, they lived on such a sparse diet that their livers are hyper efficient, as little as 800 calories a day would sustain them. Needless to say, in a McDonalds society, they are generally, if not universally, obese and have widespread diabetes.
They were smart, so that when casino money started rolling in, they built a world class diabetes research and treatment center as one of their first priorities.
#10
The 'Eat Right 4 Your Type' tries to address the different diets according to ethnicity. Asians, with a rice-based diet, also gain weight when eating American style food. A real problem in determining a proper diet is our diversity and intermarriage. For instance, the Irish eat a lot of dairy but Native Americans are generally lactose-intolerant. Another problem in recent history, is food preservatives to ensure a long shelf-life and hormones to fatten beef up, increase dairy production, and hurry poultry through the food chain. These are xenoestrogens, not water-soluble and when ingested, convert the carbs into fat and are stored in the body without breaking down. Deprived of real nutrients, the body craves more food, making weight loss a vicious cycle. Estrogens also feed cancers, particularly breast and prostate tumors. Other symptoms exhibited are PMS, man-boobs, loss of libido, fibrocystic diseases, and metabolic syndrome. The new rule of thumb is fresh and raw, avoiding anything that didn't exist 1-200 years ago. Tougher to follow than you might think, too.
#11
Interestingly, that while type II diabetes is rampant in Australian Aboriginal populations, obesity isn't.
It's unusual to see even an overweight young Aboriginal. Most are rail thin to lean. Although their diet is the burger and fries fast food that is blamed for obesity.
#12
Interestingly, that while type II diabetes is rampant in Australian Aboriginal populations, obesity isn't.
It's unusual to see even an overweight young Aboriginal. Are you implying that Australian aborigines with Type II DM are not obese? That would be a very interesting condition indeed. I suspect your observation is off by separating thin young people from fat older people. The ones with Type II DM are most likely fat & not particularly young. The thin young ones (if anyone bothered to study them) would already have impaired glucose tolerance, and as they age, will put on weight & many will develop Type II DM. Studies on youthful, slim & apparently healthy adults using PET scanners to follow glucose metabolism at the cellular level have show that descendants of Type II diabetics have abnormalities in their glucose metabolism like those I mentioned, even though they have no outward or clinical sign of DM or even obesity.
Some influences on populations take time to show up. When I worked near the Navajo reservation in 1975, there were almost no overweight young Navajos. 35 years later that is not the case. In 1975 (to my best knowledge) there was only one Type I diabetic among the Navajos, an astoundingly small incidence of that disease. Virtually none had high blood pressure or ischemic strokes. It was extremely uncommon to find evidence of old heart attacks on EKG's, and it wasn't because we weren't looking for them. Very few kids were hyperactive & believe me, there was plenty of opportunity to observe that in the waiting rooms. I expect that tribe has done a lot of catching-up since then.
#13
The new rule of thumb is fresh and raw, avoiding anything that didn't exist 1-200 years ago. Tougher to follow than you might think, too.
There is nothing harder than to profoundly change one's diet and to stick to it for years. Nothing. Can anything be tougher to do than that?
#14
Gosh, Ive noticed something and it is not sugar coated because that is fattening:
People who are not wheelchair bound or otherwise physically incapacitated or exceptionally unable due to limitations physically are obese because they
A) eat too many sugar, alcohol, refined carbs and such.
B) their caloric intake exceeds their basal resting metabolic rates (ie: how many calories you use just staying alive )by large margins
and
C) they don't get out and exercise
"lost 20 pounds...How? I drank bear piss and took up fencing. How the f^&* you think, son? I exercised."
- popular social networking site quote "Sh&* my Dad says'
Absent a better and compelling truth to this study people are fat because they eat too much crap and sit around on their ass or never break a sweat.
#15
"The 'Eat Right 4 Your Type' tries to address the different diets according to ethnicity. Asians, with a rice-based diet, also gain weight when eating American style food. "
Ive read this book. Overall,IMHO its point is good but it hits a brick wall when dealing with what those among us who are an AB+ blood type. AB+ blood type is a rarer blood type that tends to emerge in Eur-Asian decent.
The book lays out what AB pluses like me are supposed to be able to eat with good results. However, in these 'catch all' categories, catch all should be coined "catch many, not nearly all" because what the book doesn't completely hash out is many AB + can eat a variety of everything! One of my AB+ friends name is nicknamed "garbage disposal" this guy eats everything and his body accepts it fine. Same with me. I eat a b-r-o-a-d span of every kind of food and have never had a picky constitution.
Books like this may be useful for some, but for some it just induces paranoia when whats best is eating a variety and not worrying is the way to go. I would bet if you polled a bunch of AB's the old wisdom of eat a variety and you're good would be common but not unnanimous. I'd be curious if any other hybrid types (admittedly unscientifically polled) are "garbage disposals" too.
#16
The new rule of thumb is fresh and raw, avoiding anything that didn't exist 1-200 years ago.
In other words, eat as farmers did in the summer two centuries ago? Because I guarantee that fresh and raw was how nobody ate during the winter back then, or even very much until the first fruits of summer were harvested, except inasmuch as was available from thinning the garden. Greenhouses became the hobby of moneyed Victorians, when glass production was finally industrialized and therefore affordable in quantity, and canning was a 19th century activity, to the best of my knowledge. Before that fruits were mostly dried or preserved in alcohol for winter use, hence the traditional candied fruit cake for Christmas. Until then scurvy, rickets, and osteoporosis were the order of the day, not to mention all sorts of other debilitating metabolic disorders due to lack of proper nutrition much of the year.
Oh, and the latest hypothesis I've seen posits we developed the ability to talk after we discovered the pleasures of cooked meat, resulting in the evolution of weaker jaw muscles and therefore finer motor control of the jaw, teeth and tongue to make communicative sounds. H. sapian sapian evolved to be nourished on cooked as well as raw foods.
Some of us have nastier caries-producing bacteria in our mouths, some have nastier obesity or infection-causing bacteria in our intestines. If this study is indeed correct, all the probiotic-containing foods and pills are likely the best first line of defence we have against obesity as well as intestinal discomfort, as we provide and encourage good bacteria to displace bad. I shall make a point of picking up some probiotic yoghurt and a box of Align tomorrow at the grocery store. On the other hand, like so many other things, obesity is known to have multiple causes, and even if one's bacteria make one crave large volumes of unhealthy food, one is perfectly capable of resisting the impulse or choosing to exercise more -- it is that ability of thoughtful choice that makes us different from the other animals on this planet.
#17
Girl Thursday, I'm O- and of pure Middle European Jewish descent (German, Russian, Latvian). Except for not eating forbidden foods (pork, shellfish, insects, birds and animals of prey or carrion-eaters), I eat most cuisines and many foods with gusto and without apparent harm. I haven't read the book, but as you can see from my post above, it's not likely the arguments contained within would persuade me, no matter how well presented.
#18
Im of some unknown origins. However, Russian is one Im certain of.
I Agree the book can't really convince me to limit my liberal (ooh I hate to use that term) eating habits.
When in Asia a group of us ate some meat parts considered strange or repugnant by American dietary norms that were standard local fare, which was followed by several of our American group landing in the ER with food poisoning and dehydration. We'd all eaten the same things from a central platter. I weathered it fine, and almost felt apologetic for doing well. Again, human garbage disposal, AB+.
I do take acidophilus chewables wafers every day--a banana strawberry flavor are yum!
#19
Ah yes, you would have had more adventurous gustatory adventures than I, Girl Thursday. ;-) Except for joining Mr. Wife on a business trip to the far side of Malaysia, I've never dined anywhere outside of civilization, so I don't really know what my system can handle.
#20
Are you implying that Australian aborigines with Type II DM are not obese? That would be a very interesting condition indeed.
I worked for a while at the local Aboriginal Medical Service and I have spent time at remote Aboriginal communities. I'm not a medical person but I do have a degree in genetics.
Obese or even overweight Aboriginal children are rare, certainly much rarer than the white population. You do see overweight adults, but probably no more than the white population. Although, many adults by middle age develop a pronounced extended 'fat' stomach.
Type II diabetes is about 40 times the white population. Diet is generally pretty bad - fat, sugar starch.
Perhaps the other factor is that young Aboriginals walk a great deal more due to their parents owning few cars. A sedentary lifestyle only sets in with adulthood.
[Straits Times] THE Sungai Batu archeological site in the Bujang Valley proves that civilisation in this country had started much earlier and was the oldest in South-east Asia.
Information Communication and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim said the site, which was believed to have existed in the year 110, showed the existence of religion, commerce and the economy.
'The Bujang Valley in Sungai Batu is a determination to estimate the new civilisation which is known to have existed much earlier than the one existing in neighbouring countries either in Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia or Thailand. It is hoped that no one will belittle this effort because when it is endorsed by the whole world, Malaysia will be on a high and old archeological, anthropological and sociological perspective,' he said to reporters after visiting the Sungai Batu archeological complex in the Bujang valley, on Saturday.
The archeological complex, measuring three square kilometres located in an oil palm area, has 97 study sites which are said to hold the key that will open the history of early civilisation in this country. Research on the Bujang Valley is among the projects under the Ninth Malaysia Plan (9MP) carried out with the cooperation of the National Heritage Department and researchers from Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) and Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM).
In addition, Rais plans to present a working paper on the conservation of the archeological complex so that the country would not be lagging behind in terms of heritage as well as to forge cooperation with foreign researchers.
'My ministry will discuss with Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak the funds for research studies at the archeological complex, because the existing funds had been used up,' he said. He said his ministry was also prepared to hold meetings and discussions with the Kedah state government to work together in conserving the historical artifacts which were important for national heritage.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/07/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Link to Sungai Batu archeological site in the Bujang Valley.
KUALA LUMPUR - A MALAYSIAN magazine apologised Saturday for upsetting Christians after it published an article researched by two Muslims who pretended to be Roman Catholics and took Communion in a church.
The apology is likely to soothe frustrations among religious minorities who feel that overzealous government authorities and clerics are trying too hard to champion the interests of Islam and ignoring the rights of non-Muslims.
The Al Islam monthly magazine, which focuses on issues affecting Malaysian Muslims, acknowledged in a statement on its publisher's website that its article had 'unintentionally hurt the feelings of Christians, especially Catholics'. Al Islam's article, published in May last year, was meant to investigate rumors that Muslim teenagers were being converted to Christianity in churches. The article said its two reporters had found no evidence of that.
The apology came after Archbishop Murphy Pakiam, who heads the Catholic Church in peninsular Malaysia, criticized government authorities earlier this week for not prosecuting the two men who researched the article. Pakiam, however, said that church leaders would be satisfied if the magazine issued a formal apology. Attorney General Abdul Gani Patail responded that no charges were filed because the two men committed only 'an act of sheer ignorance' without any malicious intention.
The magazine's statement Saturday said it 'never meant to insult the Christian faith, let alone to disturb or trespass into its house of worship'.
'The Al Islam magazine apologizes in connection with the publication of the article,' the statement said, adding that its two writers were also sorry and had been unaware that their actions would offend Christians. The men had spat out Communion wafers and took a photograph of a partially bitten one. Catholics believe the Communion wafer is transformed into the body of Christ by the priest during Mass.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/07/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
I would suggest that the writers of Al Islam do a little bit more reseach on the Quran and Jesus, because by their act the 2 Muslims transgressed against not only Christianity but Islam too.
Posted by: Jack Ebberert6731 ||
03/07/2010 9:36 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Attorneys for Muzzammil S. "Mo" Hassan Friday said the media and public have misconstrued Hassan's actions in the beheading of his estranged wife, 
An Egyptian blogger on trial before a military tribunal for slandering the nation's premier army academy will be released and proceedings suspended after he agreed to apologize, his lawyer said Sunday.
[Al Arabiya Latest] The Open Net Initiative (ONI) on Friday said Microsoft's search engine Bing is more prudish than government censors when it comes to sex-related online queries.
Regulators on Friday shuttered banks in Florida, Illinois, Maryland and Utah, boosting to 26 the number of bank failures in the U.S. so far this year following the 140 brought down in 2009 by mounting loan defaults and the recession.
President Obama's proposed budget would add more than $9.7 trillion to the national debt over the next decade, congressional budget analysts said Friday. Proposed tax cuts for the middle class account for nearly a third of that shortfall. 
