text:
Four steps to storm safety
Each year, we partner with the Atlantic Red Cross to spread the message of storm safety.Read More about Four steps to storm safety
Winter is coming; we can't stop it, but we can help prevent Old Man Winter from running up your heating bill.
As we adjust to the changes that come with the colder weather, we want to ensure that you know all the home energy solutions that are available to you. Heat pumps are an excellent choice, and there are other great solutions to consider. We want you to stay warm, so we offer on-bill financing for each of the following:
Pump up the heat.
Nova Scotians have saved up to 50% on their heating costs thanks to their heat pumps.
Do heat pumps work all year? They sure do – heat pumps are the perfect addition to your home by providing affordable, year-round comfort. In the winter, they steal heat energy from the air outside your home (even if it's cold out), and literally pump it inside. They move heat, instead of generating heat. And in the summer time it's the reverse! They keep you cool by by moving heat and humidity out of your house.
Installation is a breeze! Our qualified network of contractors will help install your heat pump, often in less than a day. If you are ready for a heat pump, ask us how our financing program can help you get started.
Affordable solutions that last.
Hot water for $1.30 per day? That's what most Nova Scotians pay with their electric hot water heaters.
They're a solution you can depend on because they usually last around a decade.
With manageable purchase and installation costs (usually between $500-$1,000), they're much cheaper than their oil, natural gas or propane counterparts.
It's an easy solution to implement and our financing program covers purchase and installation costs through our qualified network of contractors.
Automate your savings.
Did you know that power is cheaper at night when using our time-of-day rates? To qualify for these rates you need an electric thermal storage system (ETS for short). They store heat at night, when electricity is cheapest, then release it as needed during the day.
It's the closest thing to automated energy savings (it works around the clock to keep your costs down).
Once again, financing is available to help you keep your home cozy and efficient and we can connect you with a qualified network of contractors to make it simple for you.
The electricity landscape has never been more exciting with solutions like electric vehicles, battery storage, solar now available to customers. We stay on top of the latest technology in order to provide you with the most up-to-date information.
Share This Post:


text:
If you're anything like me, you're probably hoping not to see any more from Avengers: Infinity War before the hugely-hyped Marvel movie arrives in theaters. But we all know how the Marvel marketing machine works by now, so strap in for all the TV spots over the next two weeks. Today brings a new one, centered on the comedic sparring between Chris Hemsworth and Chris Pratt, easily two of the funniest actors in the MCU.
Of course, Hemsworth and Pratt are just two of the Marvel superstars packed into the cast of the superhero spectacular. Scripted by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, and directed by Anthony and Joe Russo, Avengers: Infinity War also stars Josh Brolin, Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Scarlett Johansson, Chadwick Boseman, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Bradley Cooper, Don Cheadle, Anthony Mackie, Sebastian Stan, Paul Bettany, Elizabeth Olsen, Tom Holland, Benedict Cumberbatch, Paul Rudd, Tom Hiddleston, and Jeremy Renner… supposedly… maybe.
Avengers: Infinity War arrives in theaters on April 27th. Check out the new teaser below. Or don't. I mean, we're so close guys.
- 'Infinity War', 'Jurassic World 2', and 'Under the Silver Lake' Get Intense MPAA Ratings
- New 'Infinity War' Footage Revealed in Behind-the-Scenes Featurette
- 'Avengers: Infinity War' on Pace to Make Infinity Dollars in Ticket Pre-Sales
- The Avengers Prepare for the End of the World in Extended 'Infinity War' TV Spot
Here's the official synopsis:
An unprecedented cinematic journey ten years in the making and spanning the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe, Marvel Studios' "Avengers: Infinity War" brings to the screen the ultimate, deadliest showdown of all time. The Avengers and their Super Hero allies must be willing to sacrifice all in an attempt to defeat the powerful Thanos before his blitz of devastation and ruin puts an end to the universe.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Accessibility Notes for Presenters
Preparing Your Presentation
Tara Wood covers preparing a script, designing audio/visual elements, and interacting with sign interpreters or transcriptionists in this 2-page handout, Preparing an Accessible Presentation.
For additional suggestions on presentation space, handout design, digital access, and scripts, see Composing Access's materials on Preparing Your Presentation.
During the Presentation
The more accessible your presentation, the more likely your ideas are to reach people. So give audience members alternative formats to access your materials and to engage with you during the talk. Some may not be at the conference, so providing digital materials increases the distribution of your ideas. Some in-person attendees may appreciate digital or paper text to augment your spoken delivery. Some may appreciate spoken translation of images. Some may prefer to write questions instead of voicing them.
- Provide both large print versions (18 point) and 12 point of handouts
- Provide both digital and paper versions as well as your in-person delivery.
- Bring the materials to the audience. Don't assume all can move easily to get them.
- Describe presentation visuals. Don't assume all can see them well.
- For Q&A, gather questions by index cards. Don't rely on voice only.
For more detailed suggestions, see Composing Access's materials on During the Presentation. Thanks to the Composing Access Project, co-sponsored by the Committee on Disability Issues in College Composition (CDICC) and the Computers & Composition Digital Press (CCDP) for developing the Composing Access resource.
Accessibility Guide
A PDF version Accessibility Guide for the conference, including information about traveling to Sacramento, the Hyatt Regency, and the CWPA Statement on Accessibility can be downloaded here.


text:
After going to two different tap rooms for a beer and bite, only to find both joints closed (this, despite websites that listed hours that extended beyond those on the doors), I wound up here by default, drowning my sorrows in a deep-dish pizza and a saison.
Can you guess where I'm eating?
If you like this story, consider signing up for our email newsletters.
You have successfully signed up for your selected newsletter(s) - please keep an eye on your mailbox, we're movin' in!
Special bonus: Anyone who gives the first correct answer to a Guess Where post is entered into a pool -- and every Monday, we select one lucky winner who'll receive an EatDenver dining deck, worth up to $520 in discounts at independent restaurants.


text:
Cheap tickets from Los Angeles to London
For cheap tickets from Los Angeles to London, WestJet has what you're looking for. We have flights that take off and land all across North America, Central America, the Caribbean and Europe, including London International Airport, which is the reason you can always turn to us to get to where you need to be. Our long-term commitment to great guest experiences and safe, affordable travel means our passengers pay less and get more. So start by checking out our cheap tickets today.
Low fare finder
Don't see what you're looking for? Find all of our great low fares in one place.
WestJet has your ticket to the Forest City
Airport Details: From LAX, Los Angeles International Airport To YXU, London International Airport
London's leafy streets are a great place to experience the changing seasons of southwestern Ontario. This is a major city with a hometown vibe; a place where longstanding heritage sites like Eldon House can sit side-by-side with legendary institutions like the Labatt Brewery. With a large student population, London is undoubtedly a university town; that means visitors can take advantage of lively nightspots and exciting outdoor festivals and events, including Sunfest, Rock the Park and the Western Fair.
If you need cheap tickets to one of the most fun and flavoursome destinations in Ontario, you know you can get there with WestJet. Whether for work or pleasure, WestJet will take you from Los Angeles to London and before you know it you'll be enjoying the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, Storybook Gardens and the Museum of Ontario Archaeology.


text:
We women all have stories to share. These tales are based on epic heartache and breath-taking redemption. Through the trials of abuse, abandonment, death, mental illness, and divorce (along with many others) we tend to think our stories don't matter because they are not what people want to hear. We begin to believe the person who hurt us when he or she says, "No one will listen to you. They don't care."
In our own shame and rejection we swallow the misunderstanding that the life experiences we gain through sorrow have no value. It's easy to fade into the background when others are leading the lives they always dreamed. The thought of throwing our hands up, letting go of expectations, and not wanting to live anymore becomes more real with each passing day as our hearts burn stronger with tormenting pain.
Can I share a hard truth with you? A truth that causes my hands to tremble as I type it out?
A year ago this coming October I had the overwhelming desire to leave my life.
Three years before this my three small children and I had been abandoned by my first husband. He allowed his own darkened past to take over and left us for drugs and a life in and out of prison. J never let me in to really help, he carried it all inside and finally the dysfunctional cycle became too much for him.
I never thought I would get divorced. The shame of his behavior carried over into my heart and I was so embarrassed of his failures. His choices became my identity and I wrestled with how to move on and live again knowing that my heart was bruised and battered by a man I had given it to freely.
I worked on my Master's degree and completed my schooling in December 2011. When my ex-husband left our children were ages 4, 18 months, and 11 weeks. As I pushed through school I raised them the best way I knew how along with the help of my mother.
We would not have made it without her. She housed us, fed us, and loved us like no one else did. She deserves a medal of honor or whatever we give women who put their children and grandchildren before themselves over and over.
I met Bryan in the Fall of 2011 and he changed my life. We married in June 2012 and at the end of July he lost his job. To say we were devastated would be an understatement. I began teaching that Fall and fell into a deep depression.
October brought my 32nd birthday and the realization that I was hurting deeply and looking for a way out. I shared this with my newlywed husband and just saying those words changed my world. God took my admission of not being able to hold it all together on my own as an invitation to work in my heart. And boy did he ever.
The next eight months became filled with hope, light, strength and a lot of work. God gave Bryan a new job, moved us to a new town and developed some amazing friendships for me online and in real life. He also brought me to this place, this blog, to share my story, to begin healing and more importantly to begin helping others.
Late this summer I found an email in my inbox from Jo Ann Fore. I had signed up for email updates from her blog Write Where it Hurts.
It was an application to be part of a book launch team for her first published work When a Woman Finds Her Voice. I read the words several times thinking,
"How in the world can I do this? Yes I've started a blog but to support someone else's writing when I've just begun to work on my own? Will I even be accepted? Can I make a difference?"
My heart was telling me to go for it so I filled out the application and told no one. I didn't want to share the rejection if I wasn't chosen.
But I was. I joined a team of 85 women who are just as broken as I am. We all have stories to share, hearts to be mended and others to encourage.
As a I read through Jo Ann's book I kept thinking of myself and how God has taken my unbelievable pain and weaved into a beautiful masterpiece of recovery and thankfulness.
Jo Ann speaks so eloquently about the shame of an abusive marriage, her cancer scare, and how she overcame the negative thoughts burned into her mind for so many years. Her words have been a refreshing spring of life to my sometimes saddened soul which still believes my story won't help anyone else.
Speak up for the people who have no voice, for the rights of all the down-and-outers.Proverbs 31:8
You can find details about the book coming in October 2013 HERE.
I'm linking up with the members of Jo Ann's amazing book launch team to share our stories of how we are each finding our voices. Please hop on over and visit!


text:
Remember me
Forgot password?
Log in with Facebook
Log in with Twitter
Log In
tech & science
social media
Op-Ed: Darts pundit resigns over 'Paki' joke — Drone murders continue
Alexander Baron
Apr 11, 2013 in
Which is worse, telling a joke about Pakistanis or murdering them indiscriminately? In politically correct Britain, there is only one answer to that question.
Martin Fitzmaurice may not be a household name, but if you live in the UK and follow the
of darts, you will probably have heard it. Mr Fitzmaurice is now over seventy, which may have been what resulted in his career ending indiscretion. Or maybe he'd had a pint or seven. Whatever, he told a
joke at a
recent darts event
, and unfortunately or otherwise, cameras were present.
Okay, he may have told more than one such joke, and rather than wait to be was sacked, like the more deserving
Paul Elliott
he has done the honourable thing and fallen on his sword. It remains to be seen if there will a police investigation or even a prosecution, but don't be surprised if there is.
The offending video, which was unearthed by or given to, the
Daily Mail
, can now be found on YouTube, with the offending parts bleeped out, something that is so typical of that newspaper.
In fact the joke he told is hardly new, and on a scale of 1 to 100, would certainly not make double digits. Needless to say, not everyone sees it that way, writing in
Asian Image
, Aleia Lister whines about
a similar outrage
: "there is never an excuse to use the term 'Paki'; it is a racially offensive term that should never be used by someone who does not have Pakistani heritage".
Okay, we get the message, it's all right for
to use it, but not us honkies, or whatever politically incorrect Pakistanis call whites. Here's a suggestion dear, instead of penning absurd polemics, find yourself a husband and learn how to cook curry, like a good Pakistani wife. Or if that is too much to ask, on the 27th of this month, there is a Stop-the-War protest at
RAF Waddington
. Be there, because while dumb belles like you are whining about
jokes and
language, people of your heritage are being murdered by the American Government with the complicity of the British Government, an issue on which the British Parliament has so far
refused to act
. Furthermore, at the time of writing there are still over 30 Pakistani nationals detained at Guantánamo Bay where they have been held for years without being charged with any crime, and - in the past anyway - some have been subjected to torture.
If you and the rest of the politically correct left want to express outrage and righteous indignation over something, get your priorities right.
This opinion article was written by an independent writer. The opinions and views expressed herein are those of the author and are not necessarily intended to reflect those of DigitalJournal.com
More about
Martin Fitzmaurice
US drone program
drone war
stop the war coalition
More news from
Martin Fitzmaurice
US drone program
drone war
stop the war coaliti...
Latest News
Top News
2020 security predictions: Redesign of the cyber industry
Essential Science: Self-repair 'smart' satellites in development
Brad Maule talks 'General Hospital,' 'yA' and longevity in acting
Britain's Johnson sets off on post-election Brexit mission
Op-Ed: US withholds key evidence against Assange in extradition hearing
Double burden of obesity, undernourishment stalks world: report
Saudis resist 'throwaway' culture of food waste
Mexico fuming after being 'blindsided' by added language in USMCA
Op-Ed: Military AI — Hitting the targets, but missing the point
New Fox News poll on impeachment contradicts what Trump is saying
Contact Us
About Us
Investors & Partners
Help & Support
Editorial Guidelines
Terms of Use
Privacy Policy
News Links
Latest News
Live Events
News Alerts
GlobeNewswire News
Global Press Releases
DX Journal
DX Institute
copyright © 2019
| powered by
dell servers


text: March 2019 1 Athlete Travel Award Scheme 2018-19 Awards Friday, 29 March 2019, 09:32 Eight elite athletes from the Outer Hebrides are set to benefit from a scheme designed to support travel costs for island competitors. More (Athlete Travel Award Scheme 2018-19 Awards) » 2 Trading Standards Warning Over Dangerous Goods Thursday, 28 March 2019, 15:38 CNES Trading Standards have destroyed dangerous goods which were seized from doorstep sellers visiting the islands over the last year. More (Trading Standards Warning Over Dangerous Goods) » 3 Comhairle Announces Leisure Link Partnership Tuesday, 26 March 2019, 12:30 Comhairle nan Eilean Siar today announced a new leisure link partnership with four other areas of Scotland that will see 'Slàinte Mhath' members able to access leisure facilities out with the Western … More (Comhairle Announces Leisure Link Partnership) » 4 Lewis and Harris Youth Concert Band Brings Home Gold! Tuesday, 26 March 2019, 10:50 Last November the Lewis and Harris Youth Concert Band, conducted by Gavin Woods and Callum Watt, qualified for the finals of the Scottish Concert Band Festival. More (Lewis and Harris Youth Concert Band Brings Home Gold!) » 5 Trading Standards Warning Monday, 25 March 2019, 15:31 Trading Standards are asking residents in the islands to be wary of any telephone calls purporting to be from their bank. More (Trading Standards Warning) » 6 £1.9M Laxdale School Extension Officially Opened Thursday, 21 March 2019, 15:14 The official opening of the £1.9M Laxdale Primary School extension and alteration took place this morning, Wednesday 21st March 2019. More (£1.9M Laxdale School Extension Officially Opened) » 7 Transfer of Our Power Customers to Utilita Wednesday, 20 March 2019, 10:15 Hebrides Energy is continuing to seek to ensure that customers are on the best possible deal for them following the transfer of Our Power customers, including those who had signed up to Hebrides Energy… More (Transfer of Our Power Customers to Utilita ) » 8 Extension to Care Units Consultation Wednesday, 20 March 2019, 09:52 Over the last month, the Integration Joint Board has been consulting on how best to make use of three care units in Point, Uig and Carloway. More (Extension to Care Units Consultation) » 9 Comhairle Calls for a 600MW Capacity Inter-Connector Wednesday, 20 March 2019, 09:47 Comhairle nan Eilean Siar has noted the position of Energy Regulator, OFGEM, to approve a resubmitted proposal for a 450MW transmission link to the Western Isles based on the two LWP projects being successfully… More (Comhairle Calls for a 600MW Capacity Inter-Connector) » 10 Congratulations For Pipe Band Tuesday, 12 March 2019, 14:24 Sgoil Lionacleit Pipe Band took second place in the 'Freestyle' competition at the Scottish Schools Championships, at Inveralmond High School in Livingston. More (Congratulations For Pipe Band) » 11 Comhairle Secures Government Funding for Major Investments Thursday, 07 March 2019, 14:41 Comhairle nan Eilean Siar has been successful in attracting over £2.1m from the Scottish Government's Regeneration Capital Grant Fund (RCGF) for a major investments in both Phase 1 of Ceolas' Cnoc Soilleir… More (Comhairle Secures Government Funding for Major Investments ) » 12 Comhairle Welcomes Arnish Announcement Wednesday, 06 March 2019, 15:25 Comhairle nan Eilean Siar has welcomed the announcement of new work coming to Arnish. More (Comhairle Welcomes Arnish Announcement) » 1 2 Next Page Last Page


text:
tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-54756556718501539512019-11-15T15:11:19.708+08:00Notes From A Small IslandReports from Siargao Island, Philippines, plus posts about Israel when they do something outrageously criminal.Richard Parkerhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475655671850153951.post-64610789023812136372010-11-06T08:57:00.001+08:002010-11-06T09:31:36.133+08:00Big Tough America - The Railroading of Omar Khadr

The Railroading of Omar Khadr

By Becky Akers – Campaign for Liberty – 11/03/10

This time, it's not just liberty's lovers excoriating Our Rulers: their persecution of so-called "child-soldier" Omar Khadr has infuriated many international elites, albeit for the wrong reasons.
Omar Khadr is a Canadian citizen whose family travelled back and forth between there, Afghanistan and Pakistan throughout his boyhood. Omar's late father may actually be among the world's very few genuine terrorists, as opposed to those the Feds manufacture to substantiate their silly war: he was a friend and financier to Osama himself.

In 2002, Mr. Khadr agreed when an associate asked if Omar could travel with him as a translator. Tragically, this adventure put Omar in the wrong place — a "compound with . . . a mud wall surrounding a homestead with buildings and animal pens" outside a small Afghan village — at the wrong time: just as American troops attacked. Their excuse? The handful of men — sorry, militants — the Americans had spied inside with their AK-47s in view refused "our boys'" order to surrender.
The ensuing battle turned Omar the Translator into Omar the Terrorist whom the Feds allege to have murdered — not simply killed — an American sergeant. Reports disagree about exactly what happened during that skirmish eight years ago, but no one disputes that "our boys" initiated things.
What are we doing in Afghanistan? Why are we invading this sovereign country, let alone its citizens' farms? What gives Americans wearing funny hats and bulky clothes the right to pester villagers on their own turf, let alone disarm them? Oh, of course: might makes right. Well, guys, listen up: you're already in the wrong here. You were wrong the day you headed to the recruiter's office and signed up to kill people; you're still wrong no matter how many Afghanis shoot back when you trespass.
Eventually, at least 100 American troops surrounded the farm while F-18 Hornets flew to their rescue and "dropped two 500-pound bombs" on the place. Yet "our" butchers still failed to massacre everyone inside: 15-year-old Omar and a badly wounded man survived the lop-sided battle.
Some of the hundred troops secured the farm after this glorious victory, while others covered them by tossing grenades. Those reconnoitering the devastation discovered the wounded man "moving" — writhing? — near an AK-47, so one of them finished him off.
Shrapnel had hit Omar's eyes during the fight and permanently blinded the left one. The troops found him "sitting up facing away from [them] leaning against brush." One shot him twice in the back.
That's according to the shooter himself. The Pentagon suppressed this admission until 2008, when it "inadvertently released" it. No wonder Our Rulers "covered [the report] up": it contradicts the less-damning "official" account in which Omar "pack[s] a pistol in the rubble of a suspected al Qaeda compound" and hurls a grenade despite the shrapnel in his eyes. That's why they shot him — in the chest, mind you, not the back.
Despite the "friendly" grenades falling around the troops, the Feds insist the one that killed Sgt. Christopher Speer at this point came from Omar. If so, he's a boy of remarkable resources, as wearers of contact lenses can attest. When an errant speck finds it way between plastic and eye, the excruciating pain pretty much disables the victim: you can think of nothing else, not even self-defense or survival. Imagine the agony should shrapnel sharp enough to blind you embed itself. Now imagine you're also 15 and have just survived Armageddon. Are you up for lobbing grenades?
But even if Omar did throw it, since when is self-defense a crime? OK, let's rephrase that since the anti-Second Amendment wackos have indeed made it so. Since when is firing back at attacking armies a crime? As the New York Times notes, "Usually in war, battlefield killing is not prosecuted. But the United States contended that Mr. Khadr lacked battlefield immunity because he wore no uniform, among other requirements of the laws of war." Yo, kiddies: if you're ever caught in the Amerikan Empire's crossfire, cadge a uniform before defending yourselves.
And so the same sociopaths who dismiss waterboarding as a "dunk in water," who contend that torture is perfectly Constitutional if the intent is to elicit information rather than to punish, who pretend that 9/11 resulted because Moslems "hate our freedoms" rather than as predictable payback for a century of meddling in other countries' business — these same sociopaths accused Omar of murder. Then they imprisoned him at Guantanamo Bay.
Meanwhile, they withheld medical treatment (after initial triage and surgery) as well as sunglasses to protect his injured eyes, refused him all contact with his family except for a couple of phone calls, "locked [him] in solitary confinement for more than two years with no relief from the overhead fluorescent lights," short-shackled his hands and feet to the floor for hours, beat him, ridiculed him, threatened him with dogs, with gang-rape, and with transfer to nations where torture is a blood-sport.
Like Gitmo's other inmates, Omar endured years there before the Feds bothered charging him. That directly violates the Constitution: its Sixth Amendment orders government to give "the accused" — all accused, without regard to their politically invented and convenient status of "enemy combatant" — a "speedy and public trial." Ah, the Feds might protest with a crafty smile, but the phrase "the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed" indicates that the Sixth pertains solely to citizens. If so, then the amendment also implies that the government may arrest and imprison only on American soil.
Beginning in 2004, Our Rulers embarked on a series of military tribunals, legal memos, and motions to convict Omar, to justify their abuse of him without the hassles of that "speedy and public trial." Ever notice that the more illegal, unconscionable, and inhumane police states become, the greater their appetite for legality, rules, and procedures? But our poor, prevaricating politicians hit snag after snag, including the universal outcry against the military tribunals as patent charades.
Then, in 2010, "after working for a year to redeem the international reputation of military commissions, Obama administration officials [were] alarmed by the first case to go to trial under revamped rules: the prosecution of a former child soldier whom an American interrogator implicitly threatened with gang rape." Yeah, that does tend to undermine a kangaroo court's credibility. And so Our Rulers indulged in "a complex flurry of negotiations" to save face, not justice. Last week, we saw the fruits of their corruption when Omar, who has steadfastly maintained his innocence, agreed to the Feds' lies against him.
The government suborned him as it has so many other defendants with a plea deal: "Look, we both know we're lying, that you're innocent of what we allege, but save us the trouble of 'proving' you guilty, and we'll steal fewer years from your life." In this case, no more than an additional 8 years beyond the 8 Omar has already languished in Gitmo, rather than the rest of his life.
Thus did the Feds finally succeed in coercing Omar to lie. He pled guilty "to committing murder in violation of the law of war, attempted murder in violation of the law of war, providing material support to terrorism, conspiracy, and spying." (Spying? When he's been incarcerated since he was 15? What exactly are they smoking over there at the Pentagon?) Dennis Edney is a Canadian lawyer representing Omar; he said his client has "'not much choice' but to plead guilty to avoid a trial because, he claimed, the proceeding at [Gitmo] would be 'unfair.' 'That's not my comment; it's the comment of former military prosecutors,' he said in reference to two who resigned from the military commission prosecution office in recent years." Not surprisingly, Mr. Edney added, "There is no justice here."
Instead, there's a boy horrifically wounded while defending himself from invaders whom the Feds have imprisoned sans a conviction for eight years despite the Constitution's insistence on habeas corpus. They've tortured him the while, again despite the Constitution. He finally caves to the government's bribery and confesses to "crimes" that aren't and that he almost surely didn't commit. Can the Feds possibly add to their mockery here of all that's just and decent?
Yes! No evil is too difficult for our subhuman Feds! After Omar's "confession," they wasted more of our taxes on the travesty of a "sentencing hearing": "in all military commissions" the Department of Unlimited War to Extend the Amerikan Empire—sorry, Defense explained, "a panel of military officers known as 'members" determines the sentence," — now there's a model of objectivity– "regardless of whether the plea was guilty or not guilty." . . .the defense and prosecution will each . . . present evidence and argument to the members to aid them in determining a sentence."
As if to prove the world's suspicions of this sham, Our Rulers' "evidence" included the widow of the sergeant Omar supposedly slew and a "forensic psychiatrist" (sic for "witch doctor") who read Omar's mind and assured the "members" that Omar must remain in prison because he seethes with plots against the West. Ahem: can we blame him?
The Widow Speer provided the heart-wrenching spectacle Americans now accept in lieu of justice from courts dispensing "fairness." She described the "harrowing" horror of telling her daughter, then not even four years old, of her father's death. She read letters from the girl and her 8-year-old brother that discuss growing up without their dad. The lady herself praised her husband as a "good man." And she regurgitated the "official" story on Omar despite the conflicting testimony a notoriously deceitful Pentagon stifled and the likelihood of "friendly fire" as her husband's killer: she denounced Omar as a "murderer" and someone "so unworthy" to have ended Sgt. Speer's life.
Some will say she's entitled because she's lost her husband. But the widow also has $102 million at stake: several years ago, she and the American soldier who claims he shot Omar in the chest filed a lawsuit against Omar's father, the late financier (apparently, the American genius for making money never sleeps, even among the grieving). Need I add they won? And so "the [Khadr] family's assets, which are of unknown value, have been frozen by the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control [yes, our taxes actually fund such a monstrosity as part of the Treasury Department]." While awaiting the thaw, those hoping to get rich quick toe the line though an innocent man rots in prison.
Mrs. Speer also made much of Omar's "choice," by which she meant he could have left the farm at the beginning of the skirmish, as did several women and children. But can't we say the same of her husband? Sgt. Speer enlisted 9 years before his death, when he was 19; he had plenty of time to reconsider his utterly immoral, inherently dangerous career. Ditto for Mrs. Speer, who could have pleaded against his re-enlisting. And if she "supported" his wickedness, well, widowhood is part of what she's advocating, not only for herself but for all the women whose husbands died that day.
Just as tainted a witness is the "forensic psychiatrist." Dr. Michael Welner despises Moslems, according to an article he published in 2005: he compared them to a drug addict "living next door" while condemning their "Islamo-chaos." As if his own bias weren't sufficiently rabid, Welner's statement against Omar relied heavily on the opinions of a Danish psychologist. Nicolai Sennels believes that being "raised in a Muslim environment — with Muslim parents and traditions — includes the risk of developing certain antisocial patterns" and that "the Muslim concept of honor transforms especially their men into fragile glass-like personalities that need to protect themselves by scaring their surroundings with their aggressive attitude." For the Feds to pay this bigot to babble about Omar is akin to soliciting Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's assessment of Anne Frank.
Yet Welner apparently convinced Omar's jury of military officers that he's "highly dangerous." On November 1, they sentenced him to 40 more years in prison (his plea-deal reduces that to 8).
Look closely, and alongside Omar as a victim of the Feds' atrocities you'll see our battered, bloodied, dying Constitution.

This essay is taken from Aletho News (the photo is from Google of the triage of Omar Khadr after the 'battle'.Richard Parkerhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475655671850153951.post-51788234193308321122010-11-01T17:23:00.001+08:002010-11-01T17:23:00.043+08:00CIA Not Very IntelligentThe suicide bomber who killed eight people inside a CIA base in eastern Afghanistan a few weeksago was a Jordanian doctor recruited by Jordanian intelligence, a former senior U.S. intelligence official and a foreign government official confirmed Monday.

The bombing killed seven CIA employees - four officers and three contracted security guards - and a Jordanian intelligence officer, Ali bin Zaid, according to a second former U.S. intelligence official. Ali bin Ziad introduced the good doctor to the gulled CIA officers, and that was that. He wasn't even frisked as he entered FOB Chapman.

They said the bomber was Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, a 36-year old doctor from Zarqa, Jordan.

(If you remember, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Al Qaeda scourge of Iraq, came from the same town and country). It is an Army barracks town, with some grim industry, and the usual industrial blight.

For more information see: The Black Iris of Jordan /Richard Parkerhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475655671850153951.post-63428567539514082282010-10-31T08:12:00.002+08:002010-10-31T08:40:31.703+08:00The Prez is Coming to Town!Obama is going to India. With 40 aircraft and 6 armoured cars. Mrs Obama also insisted their two kids should come along as well.

Prepare for a holiday snap of Mr and Mrs Prez standing in front of the Taj Mahal with their entire White House and 'security' staff around them.

This is going to be a quiet, unassuming visit.Richard Parkerhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475655671850153951.post-48378273059240149572010-10-29T18:57:00.003+08:002010-10-29T19:08:03.698+08:00More Silly HatsThese guys are not only wearing Al Capone fedoras, and a ridiculous kippah, but the man in the middle is wearing a daft turban (and an over-frogged jacket).

The man in question, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, was recently quoted:
"Goyim were born only to serve us. Without that, they have no place in the world – only to serve the People of Israel...In Israel, death has no dominion over them... With gentiles, it will be like any person – they need to die, but [God] will give them longevity. Why? Imagine that one's donkey would die, they'd lose their money... Why are gentiles needed? They will work, they will plow, they will reap. We will sit like an effendi and eat."

What could be more offencively Israeli-exclusive than this raving lunatic?

I'd bet 100:1 that you, dear reader, are a goy (not Jewish). In which case this nonsense applies to you. Richard Parkerhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475655671850153951.post-81469926540063396862010-10-29T11:14:00.012+08:002010-10-30T17:25:23.091+08:00POTUS Afraid of a HatThe President of the United States of America, probably the most powerful nation-state on earth, has cancelled a visit to the Sikh Golden Temple at Amritsar, for fear that photos taken of him wearing an obligatory simple head covering are construed by ignorant Americans as proving he really is a Muslim

He had no problem wearing a ridiculous kippah when he visited the Western Wall in Jerusalem, in deference to Israeli religious customs.

Who are this man's advisors?

Note: He is standing right next to the low wall that separates male from female worshippers at the wall. This is, presumably, to show that he is a liberal anti-sexist.Richard Parkerhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475655671850153951.post-76227911787434105052010-10-07T10:46:00.015+08:002010-10-16T18:09:14.302+08:00Chicken Ham - Sensation!
I don't know if you've ever eaten petto d'oca, smoked goose breast; it is seriously delicious and good, and puts mere pork ham in the shade. I used to make a trip to a special shop to buy it every time I visited Italy.

So I decided to try a different version; smoked chicken. I bought a plump one, de-boned and quartered it, (see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzmjtTUQS6g & http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFjFtMA-TJE&feature=related) then soaked it in a strong brine for 4 hours.
Don't worry too much about the strength of the brine; but make sure it's strong; throw in a lot of salt (and I mean a lot; handfuls) then add a bit more. The salt will, by osmosis, suck out the chicken fluids (and the little nasties that live in them, and kill them(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFjFtMA-TJE&feature=related off).

The next process is a 'dry rub'. You can make the recommended mixture of:

2 tablespoons onion powder
1 tablespoon white sugar
1 tablespoon paprika
2 teaspoons dried parsley
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon crushed oregano
1 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon powdered cayenne pepper

Or else you can do a marinade of the whole lot in whatever herbs you have to hand, throwing in a few wild cards (star anise, soy sauce, etc) as you go along. Marinate overnight.

Get the smoker smoking, and lay the chicken pieces on the smoking tray. You might want to give the chicken thighs a good smack (or a slash to the bone) with a meat cleaver first, to flatten them out and make sure they cook in the middle joint. (It wouldn't do any harm to do the same to the chicken breasts).

When they've finished smoking, after about a minimum of 4 hours, they'll be sensational. Still warm, they're good; re-heated they're good, and cold, they are fresh and juicy, and make the best CLT (chicken, lettuce and tomato) sandwich you've ever tasted, and way better than a BLT.

Update: 06/10/10 For the next lot, I marinated (dry-rubbed) the pieces in whatever I could find, but I made the mistake of putting olive oil into the mix, making the final result very shiny and oily. But I also put all of the chicken bits into the smoker, and enjoyed nibbling those extra bits (neck, backbone, rib cage, cast-off fat and skin) as much as the main course.Richard Parkerhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475655671850153951.post-46041537051234252652010-09-27T14:48:00.006+08:002010-10-07T11:45:37.190+08:00Crabs That Made It Out Of Water - Osong; Mud Lobster
This weird inhabitant of our mangroves and creeksides is an Osong or Mud Lobster; Thalassina anomala.

It builds large mounds of mud around its burrows, and this is all I've ever seen of it, so I've stolen the rest of the information from Wikipedia.

T. anomala is a lobster-like animal which grows up to 30 centimetres (12 in) long, but is more typically 6–20 cm (2.4–7.9 in) long. Its colour ranges from pale to dark brown and brownish green. The carapace is tall and ovoid, extends over less than one third of the animal's length, and projects forward into a short rostrum. The tail is long and thin, and, like many burrowing decapods, the uropods are reduced in form, and do not form a functional tail fan with the telson.[4] Various rows of setae on the legs and gills are used to prevent sediment from reaching the gills and for expelling any which does reach them. T. anomala also makes use of "respiratory reversal" to keep the gills free of dirt.

T. anomala lives in burrows up to 2 m (6.6 ft) deep, and is active at night. Its burrowing fulfils an important rôle in the mangrove ecosystem bringing organic matter up from deep sediments. The animal's output forms large volcano-like mounds which can reach heights of 3 m (10 ft) and are vital to many other species such as Odontomachus malignus (an ant), Episesarma singaporense (a crab), Wolffogebia phuketensis (another mud shrimp), Idioctis littoralis (a spider), Acrochordus granulatus (a snake), Excoecaria agallocha (a mangrove) and termites. The burrowing activity can cause T. anomala to be seen as a pest where it weakens the bunding that surrounds prawn farms or fish farms.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thalassina - please refer to for links.

This is obviously a fascinating creature, supporting a cast of other animals and plants, so it deserves study. I suffer from insomnia (but I'm not sure I could rouse myself after waking at 4am to set off tramping through mangroves). Still, I always wanted to be a nature observer like Fabre so maybe this is my chance, and I should accept the challenge.

Richard Parkerhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475655671850153951.post-14803277095870292972010-09-27T08:47:00.011+08:002010-10-07T20:11:59.832+08:00Crabs That Made It Out Of WaterBesides Birgus latro, we have several quite different land crabs around here. They're true crabs that have taken to living on land, or at least halfway between land and sea.

They have all managed the transition between water and air breathing, although often in quite different ways. These are fairly momentous evolutionary steps for mere crustaceans.

Kayabang (Cardisoma hirtipes) live back in the coastal coconut groves, digging large holes, that, like earthworm casts, help circulate and aerate the soil.

Once a month, at full moon, hundreds of kayabang come out of the coconuts, and head straight to the beach to have a mass sexual orgy, mate and lay their eggs. They march purposefully in an almost straight line, often through the town, or any houses in their path.

At one full moon, a kayabang came straight through a group of us drinking outside Lourdes' Food House, only to be trapped by Big Marty's foot. He told me it made a good part of his breakfast.

The local people go to the beach at full moon with flaming torches made from dried coconut leaves, and pick them up by the dozen.

Their claws are roughly equal size, but still just as vicious, and they are fiercely defencive.

This is one who came through the house, and finally ended up stoutly defending my dish rack.

Kayangjan (Cardisoma carnifex) live near creeks and mangroves, and don't have the same mass mating system.

One claw is much bigger than the other. The right hand claw is usually the bigger. This is similar to humans, whose right hand is usually the stronger.

Because of their bright colours, they are known as rainbow or harlequin crabs in other areas, and are very common all over the Pacific.Richard Parkerhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475655671850153951.post-72124706398100496172010-09-23T13:52:00.002+08:002010-09-24T16:50:20.231+08:00Andreas the Asshole - AgainMy wonderful next door neighbour has done it again - first he stole the copy from my website and pretended he'd written it himself. Now he's copied a map that I spent a lot of time making (from naval charts, etc). So I'm going to sue him. Not that it will do much good - his wife (Elizabeth) is closely related to the Surigao City legal mafia.

I try to get people to avoid Patrick's On The Beach, because they will certainly be screwed. Firstly, he charges extra VAT (that is not paid to anybody), and the Service Charges go to him; not to his staff.

If I attempt to swim from the public beach in front of his place, he harasses me; I cannot use the public right of way which leads from my place to the beach, since he fenced it off.

He is still running his orphanage scam, but he is now into direct pimping:
'Many Visitors have come to Siargao and to Patrick's on Cloud9 and found their life time partner. One of the greatest positive points of filipina-pinay, is the fact that in the Philippines, your age difference is usually NOT a problem! In fact, to most ladies in the Philippines, and to their families, the belief and hope is that if you are an older gentleman, that you are much less likely to be a "playboy", and also that you will take much better care of your fiancée. The oldest guest we had was 75 years old and he found his 21 year old sweet heart on Siargao Island.

The Filipina girls or Filipina women are world known for there stunning beauty. Filipinas are not only beautiful women but a delight to be around because of the famous Filipina disposition and personality. Many of our visitors who have married these Filipina beauties, swear they make the best wives in the world, not only beautiful, but loyal, loving and faithful past death. Andreas the owner of Patrick's on Cloud9 is married to Elizabeth one of those beautiful Siargao Ladies. You will sense their wonderful and harmonious marriage when you visit Patrick's on Cloud9.Richard Parkerhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475655671850153951.post-20303307689531771492010-09-23T07:32:00.002+08:002010-09-24T16:51:35.141+08:00Smoked Eel
You might not think that this is a very appetising looking fish. I can assure you it is, and very much sought after.

This English site sells roughly 100gm portions of vacuum packed smoked eel for £6.45 (that's P450/$10/100gm, or P4500/$100 per kilo)

Viktor (phone (+63 920 287 2450) sells exactly the same self-smoked stuff without all the fancy packaging for P401/$7/kilo. It's the same species as American or European eels (or at least one of the two - you have to count their vertebrae to tell the difference, so good luck to you).

The eels come from the small river that leads up from the mangrove swamps at Pilar, to Maasin in the middle of the island, and they are caught there when they migrate upstream to breed; with fish baskets, and then thumped on the head with a bolo, as you can see.

Eels are becoming very rare in Europe, because of pollution of the major rivers, which is why they are expensive. These local ones are a lot cheaper, but still as delicious.Richard Parkerhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475655671850153951.post-20378533544381303242010-09-22T13:18:00.001+08:002010-09-24T09:32:41.099+08:00RIP HerbertHerbert died last night, just before his scheduled release into the wild (well, my garden). I don't know why he expired so suddenly; I fed him on coconuts, and he seemed very active. There are plenty enough coconuts in my garden to have sustained him.

These crabs never go through a seafood stage; they graduate to a wholly terrestrial lifestyle after only a month's infancy in the sea. The young ones are very common indeed; they are virtually every terrestrial hermit crab you might come across here, and they all have a characteristic large left claw, which closes off their shelter shell..Richard Parkerhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475655671850153951.post-61343077069823786622010-09-22T11:04:00.001+08:002010-09-24T09:32:41.126+08:00Piglet FeastMy piglets are now 6 weeks old, so I am going to sacrifice 2 of them as lechon de leche - genuine suckling pigs, and invite a few friends to try them.

Filipinos call anything grill/roasted a Lechon (even a chicken - Litson Manok) so this is just a personal gesture against misunderstood Spanish words.

We're having smoked chicken and various strange pickles as well. Will tell you how they go.

I will be making a stunning pork pate with the heads and feet, plus the livers and hearts. It will be sealed with a mixture of butter and pork fat, and will probably last me a couple of years lke the last one.Richard Parkerhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475655671850153951.post-73835681983228386822010-09-21T10:58:00.001+08:002010-09-24T09:32:41.192+08:00Crowd 9 Cloud 9 - The best surf break in the Philippines is not doing very much in this photo, which is why there are so many aspiring surfers trying their stuff.

Too many.

When the break is really pumping, and the rollers are coming in huge from some passing typhoon, none but the brave and foolhardy will even try to surf it.Richard Parkerhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475655671850153951.post-20303602367446968902010-09-21T02:23:00.002+08:002010-09-26T04:22:33.206+08:00Very Junior Coconut Crab
This is a fairly junior Coconut Crab (Birgus latro), a crab almost completely land-adapted, except for about a month in the sea in its extreme youth.

This particular one has been visiting my house regularly over the past few years, but I didn't recognise its species.

This very crab has woken me up at night by scrabbling up my book-cases, and falling off.

It has been using the very same Fox Shell (Pleuroploca trapezium) for all this time, but it's getting a bit battered, mainly because I got fed up with it, and used to kick it into the middle distance every time it turned up on my front doorstep.

These, to the right, are part of a harvest of shell-bearing crabs from my garden, collected by my neighbour's little boy. You can probably recognise the fox shell shown above at the top centre. I can't be sure, because I didn't recognise them at the time, but I would bet that most of them are Birgus latro wannabes.

In which case, most of them have very little chance of ever making it to monster size. There are simply not enough large shells on land, or washed up to the top of the beach, to give them ways to grow.

Probably many of these shells will be used over and over again, in a crab's vain hopes of growing up. There is a lot of competition for new houses. Many are called but few are chosen.

Some may well turn into monster terror crabs, if they get a lot more chances, but I think most will have run out of large shells to inhabit in the meantime.

Because of the offshore reef in GL we get very few wavy storms within the lagoon, so very few larger shells get washed up. Most that do end up on land have been harvested by local fishermen. Certain of those, like baler shells, helmet shells, and conchs, are plenty large enough, but have strangely shaped apertures that can't accomodate a crab comfortably. They like a circular aperture that they can easily plug with their major claw and one leg.

About the only local shell that a large Birgus latro can use is a Triton, but these are becoming very rare. If one is seen walking around, the crab is casually sacrificed so the shell can be sold.Richard Parkerhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475655671850153951.post-47115663326171305152010-09-05T13:58:00.000+08:002010-09-25T06:09:12.243+08:00Tatos the Terror Crab<object height="385" width="480"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/4DZ0VEjJZs4?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/4DZ0VEjJZs4?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>

Tatos is the local name, but we know it better as Coconut or Robber Crab (Birgus latro). It is reputed to be able to rip apart a whole coconut with its formidable claws; (they are very strong indeed, and the only way to get them to let go, is to tickle its belly, I'm told).

Its only real enemy here is human; this one was the first I've seen in 12 years on this island, and my first thought was to eat it.
This was brought to me a few days ago, and the next day, another smaller one.

This is a juvenile; its tail has not yet acquired its armour, and its two claws are not yet 'straight'. It betrays its youth, which was spent as a hermit crab, in a shell.

<object height="344" style="background-image: url(http://i1.ytimg.com/vi/dC0TcVpHdfk/hqdefault.jpg);" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/dC0TcVpHdfk?fs=1&hl=en_US"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/dC0TcVpHdfk?fs=1&hl=en_US" width="425" height="344" allowscriptaccess="never" allowfullscreen="true" wmode="transparent" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"></embed></object>

At first I kept them in an improvised cage made from two thicknessess of coiled chicken wire with a closure of a single thickness over each end. Hearing a noise later in the evening, I found the big crab halfway out of a hole it had cut in one end of the cage, so I up-ended the cage, and put a pastry board and a couple of heavy books on top of the hole.

That night at about 1:30am, hearing a scraping noise in one corner of the bedroom, I saw the big crab trying to climb the bedroom wall. I got it off the wall with the help of my large cooking spoon, and it faced me off about a foot away, so I whacked it on the head with my spoon. It ran, with astonishing speed, backwards under my bed. No way was I going to crawl under there in the dark, so it stayed there until 7:30 the next morning, when I'd accumulated enough courage to tackle it. (Or rather, I'd told Ron to pick it up).

And here's Uncle Dick breathlessly explaining the Coconut Crab.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2_YYQrYTAg&NR=1Richard Parkerhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475655671850153951.post-6682952725104053072010-09-04T02:44:00.000+08:002010-09-04T02:44:00.595+08:00Checkpoint: 6<object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/i8Kr0HSEqMc?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/i8Kr0HSEqMc?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>Richard Parkerhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475655671850153951.post-12018399484291813492010-09-03T02:33:00.000+08:002010-09-03T02:33:00.373+08:00Checkpoint 5<object height="385" width="480"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/CwBlKn0YwkA?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/CwBlKn0YwkA?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>Richard Parkerhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475655671850153951.post-48963699785282875532010-09-02T02:21:00.001+08:002010-09-02T02:21:01.049+08:00Checkpoint: 4<object height="385" width="480"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/VDMkaNH9Amg?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/VDMkaNH9Amg?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>Richard Parkerhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475655671850153951.post-23016179664205933132010-09-01T01:12:00.001+08:002010-09-01T01:12:00.580+08:00Checkpoint 3<object height="385" width="480"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/L7HFAk0ywdY?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/L7HFAk0ywdY?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>Richard Parkerhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475655671850153951.post-53318749918343830762010-08-31T01:09:00.001+08:002010-08-31T01:09:00.149+08:00Checkpoint 2Here is Part 2:

<object height="385" width="480"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/ge8YOUtTScg?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/ge8YOUtTScg?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>Richard Parkerhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475655671850153951.post-74493479001296401182010-08-30T02:57:00.000+08:002010-08-30T02:24:26.733+08:00Checkpoint: 1This week, I'm going to be featuring the reality of life in Occupied Palestine, beyond the 'Green Line':
<object height="385" width="480"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/EuOKRTDb9TM?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/EuOKRTDb9TM?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>Richard Parkerhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475655671850153951.post-65776885109643924682010-08-30T01:28:00.001+08:002010-08-30T02:26:18.566+08:00Punishment for performance in front of "mixed audience."By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
27/08/2010

A singer who performed in front of a "mixed audience" of men and women was lashed 39 times to make him "repent," after a ruling by a self-described rabbinic court on Wednesday.

Rabbi Amnon Yitzhak, founder of the Shofar organization aimed at bringing Jews "back to religion" (hazara betshuva), has made it his recent mission to fight against musical performances for both men and women.

His "judicial panel," with Rabbi Ben Zion Mutsafi and another member, sentenced Erez Yechiel to 39 lashes in order to "rid him of his sins."

In a video clip of the court posted on the Shofar Web site, Ben Zion said that those who make others sin (mahtiei rabim), such as artists who make men and women attend performances or dance together, have no place in the world to come.

He displayed a leather strip he said was made by his father from ass and bull skin, with which Yechiel was to have been whipped.

Yechiel, who said, "I accept upon myself the lashing for my sins," was ordered to stand by a wooden poll {sic} with his head facing north ("from whence the evil inclination comes"), his hands tied with a azure-colored rope ("a symbol of mercy"), and served his "sentence."Richard Parkerhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475655671850153951.post-70948846816211574172010-08-27T02:49:00.000+08:002010-08-27T02:49:13.220+08:00Reconciliation With Taliban is 'Ultimate Goal' - Petraeus:This is very nearly the 'Saigon moment' in Afghanistan

by Jason Ditz, August 25, 2010

Speaking today to Fox News, US Commander in Afghanistan Gen. David Petraeus insisted that the "ultimate goal" of the nearly nine year long war is to enable the "reconciliation"of the Karzai government with the Taliban.

And while such talks have actually taken place (mostly with official US ambivalence), Gen. Petraeus says the war must continue until it "creates conditions" for a more favorable reconciliation.

According to Petraeus, Afghan President Hamid Karzai has laid out a number of "redline" demands, including that they accept the constitution and disarm, and that the war will have to continue until the insurgency meets those demands.

The Taliban has demands of their own, of course, and has repeatedly said that they would only accept a reconciliation deal if the international troops were to leave Afghanistan. In both cases the demands appear unlikely to be met.

Of course the failure of the peace talks so far has not happened in a vacuum, and earlier this week officials with the Pakistani government confirmed that they had sabotaged a previous peace deal involving Taliban moderates by arresting them en masse. Pakistani officials say they were worried that the deal was happening "behind their backs" and that the deal would hand Afghanistan over to pro-India interestsRichard Parkerhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475655671850153951.post-48885081968306840912010-08-26T13:56:00.001+08:002010-08-26T14:08:53.391+08:00A People That Shall Dwell Alone - Israel-Palestine: A Condensed ViewA People That Shall Dwell Alone – Israel's Attack On The Gaza Flotilla

August 25, 2010 posted by Niall Bradley · 14 Comments

By Joe Quinn, Editor of SOTT.nethttp://www.sott.net/
Originally published in the July-August 2010 issue of The Dot Connector Magazine.
Spyros Fragias/SOTT.net

At approximately 4am on May 31st 2010, a group of vessels attempting to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza were attacked by the Israeli navy in international waters off the coast of the occupied Palestinian territories. Nine civilians aboard the largest vessel, the Mavi Marmara, were shot dead by Israeli soldiers and dozens more were wounded. The Israeli government claimed it was exercising its right to self defence. Flotilla members, and much of the international community, saw it as an act of piracy and murder on the high seas that has exposed deep flaws in the Israeli mentality and further alienated it from the rest of the world.

The group of eight ships, known as the Gaza Freedom Flotilla, was a project of the Free Gaza Movement, a group of human rights activists from 37 countries. The ships carried over 700 people including journalists and dignitaries from the US to Malaysia and from Norway to South Africa. The stated goal of the Free Gaza Movement is to raise international awareness about "the prison-like closure of the Gaza Strip" and pressure the international community to "review its sanctions policy and end its support for continued Israeli occupation." The movement's board of advisors includes former and serving British, Irish and American politicians and distinguished academics, among others.

To fully understand the motivation of Gaza aid groups such as the Free Gaza movement, we must first take a brief look at the history of the occupied Palestinian territories and the state of Israel. Bear with me then as I try to condense, as objectively as possible, ninety years of history in a few short paragraphs.Since the late 1800′s the idea of a Jewish homeland in the area of Palestine had been put forward by Zionist pioneers such as Theodor Herzl and Chaim Weizman. The Zionist claim to a Jewish homeland in Palestine is based on passages within the Torah where the land of Israel is promised to the Jews by God – the legalities of basing a claim on a religious text of dubious origin notwithstanding. In 1896 Herzl visited then ruler of the Ottoman Empire Sultan Abdulhamid II to ask for Palestine as a Jewish homeland. The Sultan refused. Not to be outdone, Weizman and Herzl continued to lobby for the creation of Jewish state in Palestine in the following years, rejecting all other offers (such as land in Uganda or Madagascar).

In 1917, perhaps foreseeing the imminent demise of the Ottoman Empire (in 1918) a protracted period of political pressure from the immensely wealthy Jewish/English banker (and close friend of Weizman Walter Rothschild (the 2nd Baron Rothschild) saw the British government issue a formal statement of policy supporting the creation of a Jewish homeland in the area of modern-day Palestine. The famous Balfour declaration was signed by British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour and declared that the British government "views with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people"

With the break-up of the Ottoman Empire (as a result of the first World War) in 1922, control of the area of Palestine fell to the British who were tasked with dividing up the area, supposedly in accordance with the rights and claims of the local population but taking into consideration their aforementioned promise to the Zionists. The Zionist leadership encouraged successive waves of Jewish immigration to Palestine over the following 25 years, (the biggest of which was during the period before and after WWII). Throughout this period, Jewish settlers had formed themselves into paramilitary (and decidedly terrorist) groups to fight against both the native Arab population of Palestine, who were attempting to defend their rights and homeland and against the British military who the settlers increasingly saw as an obstacle to the creation of an official Jewish state. In 1947, 250,000 indigenous Palestinians were expelled by force from their homes and one year later the state of Israel was declared. The following day, the armies of five Arab countries – Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq – attacked Israel, launching the 1948 Arab – Israeli War. After a year of fighting, a ceasefire was declared and temporary borders, known as the Green Line, were established. Jordan annexed what became known as the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and Egypt took control of the Gaza Strip. According to UN estimates, 711,000 Arabs, or about 80% of the initial Arab population of the area that became Israel, were expelled or fled the country due to Israeli aggression.

Palestinians are prisoners in their own land

In 1967, Egypt announced a partial blockade of Israel's access to the Red Sea. Israel saw these actions as a casus belli for a pre-emptive strike that launched the Six-Day War, in which Israel captured the West Bank and Gaza Strip. In 1993, the Oslo Accords, which gave the Palestinian National Authority the right to self-govern parts of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, were signed in Washington DC in the presence of Palestinian Liberation Organisation Chairman Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin with US President Bill Clinton playing the part of match maker.

Since 1948, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians had been forced to flee their homes with many still living in exile in Lebanon and Jordan. The majority however have been forced to live either as second class citizens in Israel or under an increasingly oppressive occupation in the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and Gaza. Since 1993 the Israeli government has progressively built hundreds of illegal Jewish settlements in the West bank and Gaza. Israeli settlers regularly attack Palestinians and set fire to their fields and crops. To protect these settlements the Israeli government has built and almost completed a wall around the entire West Bank. Due to the route of the wall, many Palestinian villages are completely surrounded.

In 2005 the Israeli government withdrew from Gaza in what at the time was touted as a peace initiative. The reality however is that Gaza is still entirely controlled by Israel and has been turned into the world's largest open-air prison for its 1.5 million civilian population. An Israeli security fence completely surrounds Gaza on three sides (with the sea on the fourth) with Israel controlling the two civilian entry and exit gates. Palestinians are routinely forced to wait for hours at these gates and run a high risk of being abused by Israeli soldiers and/or turned away. In addition there is a one kilometre buffer zone (called a 'kill zone') along the fence which is guarded by remote-controlled machine gun turrets at regular intervals.

Connected via fibre optics to a remote operator station and a command-and-control center, each machine gun-mounted station serves as a type of robotic sniper, capable of enforcing a nearly 1,500-meter-deep no-go zone.

According to the Israeli military the turrets "empower the observers with precision attack lethality and dramatically increase their ability to close kill chains, engaging targets immediately as they are exposed. In addition to the use of direct fire machine guns, observers can also employ precision guided missiles, such as optically and laser guided missiles and weapons."

The operators of these 'robo-guns' are mostly young female Israeli conscripts sitting in front of a screen in a room miles away in Israel watching the Gaza border through the turret's high-tech camera lens. If they see anyone moving through the "kill zone" towards the fence with Israel, they are authorised to shoot. Many unwary Palestinian civilians have been summarily executed in this way.

The Siege Of Gaza

An Israeli 'robo-machine gun' on the Gaza security fence

For the past four years, the Israeli government has maintained an economic blockade by land sea and air of the Gaza strip. The blockade is illegal under international law because Israel is not officially at war with Palestine. Indeed, as the occupying power, Israel has a duty under international law to ensure the welfare of Gaza's inhabitants, including their rights to health, education, food and adequate housing. Since its indiscriminate bombing of Gaza in January 2009, which constituted collective punishment of the civilian population and left 1,400 Palestinian civilians dead (including 400 children) and over 5,000 wounded, Israel has prevented all building supplies from entering the strip and has intentionally reduced the population to a state of abject destitution as a matter of state policy.

Six thousand Gazan homes were destroyed in the 2009 bombing and thousands of Gaza families now live a cave-man-like existence in the rubble of their former homes and are forced to scavenge for wood to build fires to cook food in the most rudimentary metal pots. Many basic food stuffs are also prohibited by Israel. The decision over which foods to allow and which to prohibit is apparently made arbitrarily with items like coriander, canned fruit, fresh meat and seeds and nuts denied, while aniseed, cinnamon, frozen fruit and chickpeas are allowed. Permitted items however arrive in tiny quantities that fall far below the amount needed to feed the entire population. The policy behind the blockade was summed up by Dov Weisglass, an adviser to former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, in 2006when he said: "It's like an appointment with a dietician. The Palestinians will get a lot thinner, but won't die".

Medical supplies are seriously restricted to Gaza's hospitals. Many patients suffering from kidney failure for example are routinely told they will die because the necessary equipment and medicines are on the forbidden list. Since the Israeli air forced bombed Gaza's power plants in 2006, Israel has prevented fuel to run the plants from entering Gaza. As a result, hospitals must deal with power black-outs for 8-12 hours per day. Palestinians suffering from severe life-threatening illnesses that cannot be treated in Gaza hospitals are regularly denied entry into Israel. In his report into the 2009 'Operation Cast Lead' bombing of Gaza, distinguished South African Jewish judge Richard Goldstone exposed the Israeli claim that it was acting in self-defence: "while the Israeli government has sought to portray its operations as essentially a response to rocket attacks in the exercises of its right to self-defence, the [UN] mission considers the plan to have been directed, at least in part, at a different target: the people of Gaza as a whole."

Many areas of the 25 mile-long coast are no longer usable by Gazans because authorities are forced to pump tens of thousands of cubic meters of raw sewage into the sea every day because Israel forbids the entry of water sanitation equipment. Fisherrmen are routinely shot at by the Israeli navy for the merest infraction of the three mile maritime boundary limit.

90% of Gaza's water contains high levels of nitrates and chlorides and is officially undrinkable, many however are forced to drink it or die of thirst. 85% of the 1.5 million people in Gaza are dependent on handouts of food from the UN. Rice, sugar oil, lentils and flour in meagre emergency rations are handed out by the UN and are designed to keep a person healthy for at most 2 months in an emergency humanitarian crisis scenario. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees or 'UNWRA' has been struggling to feed 800,000 Palestinian refugees in this way for 4 years.

Between the end of the Israeli bombardment of Gaza in January 2009 until June 2010 the IDF killed 47 Palestinians, including 26 civilians, seven of them children; 12 civilians were killed by Israeli snipers in the Gaza 'kill zones', gunned down in cold blood; five others died when tunnels between Gaza and Egypt (which are used to smuggle food) were bombed.

In July 2008 a 23-strong human-rights team of prominent South Africans, which included former government ministers supreme court justices, academics and trade union leaders visited the occupied Palestinian territories. Their findings were unequivocal:

"The daily indignity to which the Palestinian population is subjected far outstrips the apartheid regime [of South Africa]. And the effectiveness with which the bureaucracy implements the repressive measures far exceed that of the apartheid regime."

It was in this context that the Freedom Flotilla set sail in late May 2010 to deliver tons of humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza.

The Mavi Marmara, a 300ft Turkish-built merchant vessel, carried by far the largest number of human rights activists – almost 600 in all. The ship's cargo comprised hundreds of tons of aid including building materials, wheel chairs and medical supplies. The crew and passengers of all the flotilla vessels were fully aware of the danger they faced. In late 2008 a smaller 67ft pleasure boat, the Dignity, was rammed in international waters and almost sunk by the Israeli navy as it attempted to make its way to Gaza to deliver aid. Onboard were Nobel Peace Prize winner Mairead Maguire and Green Party US Presidential Candidate Cynthia McKinney, along with several members of the European Parliament.

Before the flotilla set sail from Greece, the Israeli government declared that none of the ships would be allowed to enter Gazan waters because of concerns that there may be weapons on board. Flotilla organizers however went to great lengths to ensure that the cargo of the Mavi Marmara (and all flotilla boats) were thoroughly checked and vetted by customs officials in Greece and Turkey prior to their departure. The coalition also hired an independent security firm to search the ships and certify that no weapons were on board. The Turkish government, a member-state of the NATO alliance, confirmed that no passengers had ties to extremist groups. These precautionary steps were deliberately taken to prevent Israeli officials from claiming that the Freedom Flotilla posed a 'security risk'. Israel however, ignored these details and continued to insist that its military would "use all means" to prevent the Flotilla from reaching Gaza's shore, and that it had a "right to defend itself".

What happened when the Mavi Marmara and the other vessels arrived within 65 miles of the Gaza coast has been well-documented.

Well-aware that Israel refuses to allow most aid into Gaza, the captain of the Mavi Marmara rejected the suggestion by the Israeli navy that he proceed to the Israeli port of Ashdod and insisted that his destination was Gaza. At this point, the Israeli navy implemented their plan to commandeer the vessel by force. Realising that the Israeli navy was intent on illegally boarding and commandeering the ships in international waters under cover of darkness, some passengers on board the Mavi Marmara sought to arm themselves as best they could in order to defend themselves against the expected and well-known excesses of Israeli soldiers. Using angle grinders that were on board they cut up pieces of the ship's railing to use as make-shift weapons. Many eyewitness, including Israeli-Arab member of the Israeli parliament Haneen Zoubi who was on board, testified that before a single soldier had set foot on deck, live rounds were fired at the ship and at least two passengers were shot in the head. Zoubi also said that IDF soldiers refused her request that they offer medical aid to several wounded activists who died shortly afterwards. A few passengers appear to have had sling shots and it is possible that others armed themselves with knives from the ship's kitchen in response to live fire from Israeli boats and Helicopters.

Espen Goffen, a 38-year-old activist from Norway who sailed aboard the Mavi Marmara, said the Israeli commandos on board "started off with some kind of paintball bullets with glass in them that left terrible soft tissue wounds. Then rubber-coated steel bullets were used and then live ammunition. Unable to gain access to the ship via speed boats that had pulled along side, Israeli soldiers began to descend on ropes from two helicopters that appeared overhead. Some passengers, enraged by the murder of at least two passengers and assuming the Israeli intent was to kill, attempted to repel the descending commandos. Video evidence testifies to this fact.

Two hours after the beginning of the attack, 9 passengers lay dead. Provisional post mortems on the dead revealed that they were all shot at close range, 5 had bullet wounds to the head, at least one was shot in the back of the head and two others were shot in the back. Dr Haluk Ince, chair of Turkey's council of forensic medicine, said: "Approximately 20cm away was the closest. In only one case was there only one entrance wound. The other eight have multiple entrance wounds. [The man killed by a single shot] was shot just in the middle of the forehead with a distant shot." The oldest victim was 60-year-old Ibrahim Bilgen, a Turkish politician, engineer and activist who was married with six children. He had been shot once in the right temple, once in the right side of his chest, once in the back and once in the hip. The youngest was 19-year-old Furkan Dogan, an American citizen, was shot five times from less that 45cm, in the face, in the back of the head, twice in the leg and once in the back.

More detailed post-mortems released on the 29th June 2010 revealed that all but one of the dead had been shot from above and at close range. In the case of Turkish victim Cetin Topcuoglu, the first bullet entered his head and exited his neck and the second passed through his right shoulder, through his torso and destroyed his liver. The post-mortem evidence adds considerable weight to the claim that not only did the Israeli attack on the Mavi Marmara involve a pre-planned use of lethal force, but that soldiers summarily executed passengers and several people were shot from helicopters. Bizarrely, the autopsy of 61-year-old victim Ibrahim Bilgen revealed a tiny bag containing pellets that was found still intact in his brain. The final official Turkish forensic report stated that all bodies had been washed with alcohol [by Israelis] before being brought to Turkey making it impossible to reach a definite conclusion on the ranges of most shots.

There were no deaths on the other Flotilla boats, however Israeli soldiers used stun grenades, tasers and tear gas and severely beat several passengers.

In the days after the attack, Israel was widely condemned for the murders. The Turkish government recalled its ambassador to Israel and cancelled planned joint military Israeli exercises and called for an independent UN inquiry. The Israeli government however continued to claim its soldiers were acting in self-defence and rejected an independent inquiry. Large sections of Israeli society displayed righteous indignation at any criticism of the Israeli action. Official parades celebrating the heroism of the commandos who stormed the ship were held along with demonstrations by schoolchildren giving their unequivocal support for the government against "the new wave of anti-Semitism". Israeli defence minister Ehud Barak claimed that the intent of the flotilla was not to deliver aid to Gaza but to "humiliate Israel". However, given the illegal nature of Israel's blockade of Gaza, there is no way for anyone to independently deliver aid to Gaza without at the same time humiliating Israel and exposing its inhuman treatment of Palestinians.

The Israeli government has worked hard to delegitimise any Palestinian right to their own nation and identity. It is clear that the Israeli blockade of Gaza has little to do with security concerns and everything to do with preventing the emergence of a viable Palestinian state Central to this goal is the continued portrayal of any Palestinian resistance to Israeli occupation as 'terrorism' when, in reality, resistance (including armed) to an occupying power is a fundamental right laid down in the article four of the third Geneva Convention. According to humanitarian law however, in order to lawfully use force in a conflict, a person must first be designated a lawful 'combatant'. To be a lawful combatant, a person must belong to an 'armed resistance group' and that group must belong to a 'party' to the conflict. It is in this fact that we find one of the chief reasons why Israel will never willingly allow the creation of a Palestinian state. As long as Palestine does not have official state status, any Palestinian resistance group cannot claim to be a party in the conflict and must remain a simple independent resistance group, or a 'terrorist group' in modern Orwellian parlance.

All Israeli leaders have known that the day that Palestine is officially recognised as an independent state, is the day that Israel will no longer be able to bulldoze Palestinian homes or bomb Palestinian neighbourhoods in the name of fighting terrorism.

The continued deligitimisation of Palestine as a nation then was the main motivation behind the Israeli attack on the Gaza Flotilla. If the Flotilla had succeeded in reaching Gaza, it would not only have established a precedent for future flotillas, but would have sent a clear message to the world that Gaza and Palestine is a sovereign entity, independent of Israeli rule.

By continuing to behave illegally and immorally towards the Palestinian people, and by continuing to thumb its nose at international law and public opinion, Israel places itself and its people in a very precarious position within the international community. Jews have been programmed for centuries by their religious leaders to believe that they are a chosen people. In response to international condemnation following the flotilla attack, the Rabbinical Council of Judea and Samaria issued a statement asserting that the legitimacy of the Jewish people "is not derived from the nations of the world and their poisonous traditions, but rather from the Torah, which teaches us that [Israel] 'is a people that shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations'". The flotilla attack "places us at the beginning of the Gog and Magog process where the world is against us, but which ends with the third and final redemption" the statement said.

It would be easy to dismiss this as the archaic rhetoric of a few Rabbis that have no influence on Israeli government or military policy if it were not for the fact that religion clearly plays a central role in the life of Jews from all segments of Israeli society and among the Jewish diaspora. In December 2009 for example, the Israel Defense Force's chief rabbi told recruits that soldiers who "show mercy" toward the enemy in wartime will be "damned." Brig. Gen. Avichai Rontzki also told the students that religious individuals made better combat troops. Rontzki referred to Maimonides' discourse on the laws of war which quotes a passage from the Book of Jeremiah stating: "Cursed be he that doeth the work of the Lord with a slack hand, and cursed be he that keepeth back his sword from blood."

As a result of centuries of religious indoctrination and decades of government propaganda, Jews in Israel (and elsewhere) appear unable to accept or understand a fundamental truth – that the land that is now Israel was forcibly taken from Palestinians and that a promise by a mythical deity cannot over-rule the basic human rights of millions. As a result of this cognitive dissonance, many Jews react with indignation when Palestinians reject what Jews believe to be very generous offers to donate perhaps one tenth of the former land of Palestine for a Palestinian homeland, a 'homeland' which would amount to small prison enclaves surrounded by the Israeli military. It is for this reason that neither Hamas nor a single Palestinian will recognise Israel's right to exist in it's current configuration. Nelson Mandela and most Western democracies also refused to recognise the South African apartheid regime's right to exist.

Israel today is a nation and society marked by a paranoid personality disorder writ large. For most Jews, Israel must always 'walk alone' because Jews are specially chosen by god. In a supreme act of personal disempowerment, they have given up any say in their own future or the future of their nation by submitting to the dictates of a religious text of dubious origin that simultaneously glorifies and condemns them. The cry of 'anti-Semitism' serves to buffer Israel and the Jews from all criticism because criticism of Israel or the Jews is understood as simply the fulfilment of biblical prophecy that the world will turn against the Jews and Israel. It is hard to think of a better example of pathological thinking or a self-fulfilling prophecy.

It is just this type of pathological thinking that has led Israel to justify it's inhuman treatment of the Palestinians as 'self-defence' and more recently to excuse it's murderous attack on the Gaza flotilla. The Jews of Israel would do well to wake up to the fact that, in continuing to show such distain and disregard for human life and world opinion, their political leaders are not only in flagrant violation of international law, but have forgotten the original reason for the creation of a Jewish homeland – to safeguard the future of the Jewish people. Israel's future as a viable state for Jews and others is intrinsically tied to the Palestinians and the defence of their rights to life and liberty. With each Palestinian that dies as a result of Israeli policy in Palestine, with each new Israeli settlement that is built on Palestinian land, the future of Israel as a viable state is further compromised and the security of the Jewish people jeopardized.Richard Parkerhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-5475655671850153951.post-32289656256005806152010-08-26T10:37:00.002+08:002010-08-26T10:59:29.090+08:00Albert Einstein: Plagiarist and Fraud ?Ian Moseley – Altermedia August 17, 2010

Albert Einstein is today revered as "the Father of Modern Science". His wrinkled face and wild hair has become a symbol for scientific genius and "his" famous E = mc^2 equation is repeatedly used as the symbol for something scientific and intellectual. And yet there has for years been mounting evidence that this "Father of Modern Science" was nothing but a con man, lying about his ideas and achievements, and stealing the work and the research of others.

The most glaring evidence against Einstein concerns "his" most famous equation. One website notes "The equation E=mc^2, which has been forever linked to Einstein & his Theory of Relativity was not originally published by Einstein. According to Umberto Bartocci, a professor at the University of Perugia and a historian of mathematics, this famous equation was first published by Olinto De Pretto …two years prior to Einstein's publishing of the equation. In 1903 De Pretto published his equation in the scientific magazine Atte and in 1904 it was republished by the Royal Science Institute of Veneto. Einstein's research was not published until 1905… Einstein was well versed in Italian and even lived in Northern Italy for a brief time."
It is unheard of to pass over the original inventor of an equation and to give credit to someone, who claims to have derived it AFTER the equation and its derivation have been published. The equation "E=mc^2″ should be called the "De Pretto Equation" not the "Einstein Equation."

This raises the question: "What sort of man was Einstein?" Is there evidence that he may have been prone to unethical behavior? One website reports "Einstein… was still far from the ideal husband. A year before they married, Maric gave birth to a daughter, Lieserl, while Einstein was away. The child's fate is unknown – she is presumed to have been given up for adoption, perhaps under pressure from Einstein, who is thought to have never seen his first born. After the marriage, Mileva bore two sons but the family was not to stay together. Einstein began an affair with his cousin Elsa Lowenthal while on a trip to Berlin in 1912, leaving Mileva and his family two years later. Einstein and Mileva finally divorced in 1919, but not until after Einstein sent his wife a list of 'conditions' under which he was willing to remain married. The list included such autocratic demands as 'You are neither to expect intimacy nor to reproach me in any way'. After the divorce, he saw little of his sons. The elder, Hans Albert, later reflected 'Probably the only project he ever gave up on was me.' The younger, Eduard, was diagnosed with schizophrenia and died in an asylum. Einstein married Elsa soon after the divorce, but a few years later began an affair with Betty Neumann, the niece of a friend… Accusations of plagiarism aren't limited to Mileva – it's also been claimed that Einstein stole the work of a host of other physicists. One question which may remain moot is quite how much Einstein drew from the work of Hendrik Lorentz and Henri Poincare in formulating the theory of special relativity. Elements of Einstein's 1905 paper paralleled parts of a 1904 paper by Lorentz and a contemporary paper by Poincare. Although Einstein read earlier papers by the two, he claimed not to have seen these later works before writing the 1905 paper. One apparently damning fact is that the 1905 paper on special relativity had no references, suggesting that Einstein was consciously hiding his tracks."

One source notes "David Hilbert submitted an article containing the correct field equations for general relativity five days before Einstein." Another source notes "Einstein presented his paper on November 25, 1915 in Berlin and Hilbert had presented his paper on November 20 in Göttingen. On November 18, Hilbert received a letter from Einstein thanking him for sending him a draft of the treatise Hilbert was to deliver on the 20th. So, in fact, Hilbert had sent a copy of his work at least two weeks in advance to Einstein before either of the two men delivered their lectures, but Einstein did not send Hilbert an advance copy of his." Apparently Hilbert's work was soon to become "Einstein's work."

The historic record is readily available and the truth is known to many scientists and historians, even if they are afraid to say anything. The idea that light had a finite speed was proven by Michelson and Morley decades before Einstein. Hendrik Lorentz determined the equations showing relativistic time and length contractions which become significant as the speed of light is approached. These gentlemen along with David Hilbert and Olinto De Pretto have been airbrushed out of the picture so that Einstein could be given the credit for what they had done.

Einstein appeared to latch onto his first wife, a much more talented student three years his senior, to compensate for his own limited abilities. Another website notes: "…in 1927, H. Thirring wrote, 'H. Poincare had already completely solved the problem of time several years before the appearance of Einstein's first work (1905). . . .' Sir Edmund Whittaker in his detailed survey, A History of the Theories of Aether and Electricity, Volume II, (1953), included a chapter entitled 'The Relativity Theory of Poincare and Lorentz'. Whittaker thoroughly documented the development of the theory, documenting the authentic history, and demonstrated through reference to primary sources that Einstein held no priority for the vast majority of the theory. Einstein offered no counter-argument to Whittaker's famous book. . ."

Einstein was a minor contributor at best and in any case an intellectual thief and pretentious braggart. Einstein was still alive when Whitaker's book was published and he said NOTHING about it. No libel suit, no refutation, no public comment at all.

Einstein was the first great fraudster and idea-thief in modern science. His theft of Olinto De Pretto's equation E = mc^2 gave him considerable scientific credibility which he built a career on. De Pretto was not a career physicist and spent his life as an industrialist, passing away in 1921. De Pretto had published his equation twice before Einstein and was no doubt amazed that someone could claim credit for his work. Einstein used and eventually discarded his first wife, Mileva, who was a much more brilliant student than Einstein and is suspected of writing much of Einstein's early work. (She may have been reluctant to expose Einstein since he was still the father of her children.) David Hilbert's work on the equations for Special Relativity was submitted for publication before Einstein and was sent to Einstein as correspondence. Einstein claimed credit for the equations which Hilbert derived. (David Hilbert passed away in 1943.)

Some university professors have stolen work from their graduate students and it would be interesting to see if any of Einstein's students complained of such thievery. A plagiarist seldom stops plagiarizing especially when he keeps getting away with it. Complaints against Einstein however seem to disappear down the Orwellian memory hole. Einstein is clearly a sacred cow to many. A few have even used the word "heresy" to describe serious well-documented criticism and charges of plagiarism against Einstein. The truth eventually wins out and Einstein will someday be best known as a great fraud instead of a great physicist

http://us.altermedia.info/news-of-interest-to-white-people/albert-einstein-plagiarist-and-fraud-2_7593.html#more-7593

Olinto De Pretto (1857–1921) was an Italian industrialist and physicist from Schio, Vicenza.Richard Parkerhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com


text:
Gourmet snack with healthy seasonal greens.
green salad — a bunch
rhubarb — 200 g
sugar — 2 tbsp. l.
Feta cheese — 150 g
walnuts — 50 g
raisins — a small handful
Balsamic vinegar — 1 tbsp. l.
olive oil — 1 tbsp. l.
freshly ground black pepper, salt — to taste
Cut the rhubarb into pieces 1.5 cm long, cover with sugar and leave for 10 minutes.
Preheat the frying pan with vegetable oil and roast the rhubarb
3 min. Cool it down.
Nuts clean and fry in a dry frying pan, make sure not to burn.
Toasted nuts. Chop the cheese.
Raisin with warm boiled water.
Prepare the sauce. In a cup, whip the oil, vinegar, salt and pepper.
Lay salad leaves with rhubarb, cheese, nuts and raisins. Pour the sauce. It is convenient to put the salad in a container for a picnic.
Hello! I — blogger, love of God and people. Food — it is certainly good and well, but we must remember that in front of us waiting for eternity and where we spend it, depends only on us!
Every man is a sinner, but the sin saved us JESUS CHRIST
And if we repent of our sins and call upon his heart and Christ, we shall be saved from hell, which is prepared for the devil, but the devil does not want to go there himself and tempts people to sin. But God loves us, because he gave for us on the death of the most precious thing he had — his Son Jesus.
Pray a prayer: Heavenly Father! I ask you — I'm sorry, I repent of my sins, because I lived without you. Jesus Christ, come into my heart and be my Lord and Savior, make me be what You want me to. I thank thee that in eternity I will be with you! Amen.
To learn more… http://goo.gl/mKRRhm ;


text:
The House of Initia Nova is a Benedictine community of prayer and work. We welcome others to join us and our Abbot on the path to God together with the Rule of St. Benedict as our guide to living a Christian life in community. Please consider a donation of whatever size to support us in this ministry. You can use the PayPal link below to make your contribution, or mail it to us using the address below. Please make any checks payable to House of Initia Nova OSB. We are a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, which means any contribution you make is tax-deductible. Thank you very much for your support.
The House of Initia Nova, OSB
Bromley View Inn
PO Box 420
Bondville, VT 05340-0420
Phone +1 802 297 3672
Abbot Michael-John Austin
Email: email@example.com


text:
Local Talent – Muy Local.
¡Hola! So, yes, we enjoy covering, highlighting or enabling local talent that the world needs to see / sea. In order for local talent to become National talent. Our media platform, along with the Mall of Champions, delivers the audience beyond our local community.
Muy Local on ION Campus: