Apes are emotional about choices BBC
World’s Oldest Torah Believed Found In Bologna University Library, Scroll Overlooked For Years Huffington Post (Carol B)
Sick Patients Are Pumped Full of Feed-Tube Formula of Corn Syrup That’s Produced by … Nestle? Alternet. In case you didn’t know it, if the superbugs in hospitals don’t kill you, the food might.
With Money at Risk, Hospitals Push Staff to Wash Hands New York Times
Google prepares challenge to iPhone Financial Times
Judge orders porn suspect to decrypt his hard drives Help Net Security
Mrs Watanabe brings home the bacon MacroBusiness. In case you wanted to know why the Nikkei tanked today.
No saviour in sight as world credit cycle rolls over Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, Telegraph
OECD predicts that pigs will fly Bill Mitchell
Europe rethinking austerity? MacroBusiness. FWIW, my readers of the German press say not to expect much from Germany.
Is Europe loosening up austerity’s iron clasp? Yanis Varoufakis
‘Truly Abysmal’: Europe Needs Overhaul, EU Commissioner Says Der Spiegel
Freedom Rider: Chickens Roost in Woolwich Black Agenda Report
Why Orthodox Jews Oppose Israel CounterPunch (Carol B)
Global Insight: Iraq proves a lesson in the fall of Mideast regimes Financial Times
Collateral Consequences Weighed for Corporations, Not for Individuals TruthOut (Deontos)
Media Gets Targeted by Obama, Discovers No One Cares Except the Media CounterPunch (Carol B). Serves them right for becoming propagandists rather than living up to the expected Fourth Estate role. So maybe they’ll quit carrying Administration water as revenge.
Holder accused of misleading Congress over investigation into journalist leaks Guardian
Two Judges Told DOJ It Had To Disclose Spying On Journalist; DOJ Found A Third Judge Instead Techdirt (Chuck L)
Officials: Man who knew Boston bombing suspect was unarmed when shot Washington Post (Lambert)
How one Irish woman made $22bn for Apple in a year Guardian (Richard Smith)
Tax Transparency Would Take a Bite Out of Future Apples Bloomberg
In shift, high-tech firms look to add factory jobs in U.S. Washington Post. As indicated in our extract from a Forbes piece by Lee Sheppard, tech firms aren’t big employers to begin with (Apple has fewer employees than the Ford Rouge plant had) and their factories here will be lots of robots supervised by college educated types.
European regulators clash with US over derivatives market reforms Financial Times
Morgan Stanley Lowers Ambitions for Fixed-Income Unit Wall Street Journal. While precipitated by necessity, this move could be a blessing in disguise. Dealer firms are structurally long bonds. Even when Goldman when net short subprime, it was still net long bonds. There isn’t enough depth in the derivatives markets for a major firm to go net short with credible counterparties (witness that even the subprime short required a bailout of AIG to work out). Downsizing now will reduce the size of Morgan Stanley’s exposures in fixed income. Even if you don’t believe that there will be much in the way of inflation, an end or QE will lead to lower bond prices (positive real interest rates outside the short end of the yield curve) and MS with a smaller business would be less exposed to that readjustment.
Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts – Coiling, Coiling… Jesse
Once again, the US consumer is expected to save the day Sober Look
Guilford lawsuit on mortgage ‘robo-signing’ dismissed University of North Carolina News & Record. A reader asked in comments why counties weren’t suing over unpaid recording fees. This is why. Unless their is a state or local statute that requires recording, these suits have done badly. This one was dismissed with prejudice.
Americans Now Know More About Often Pathetic Personal Finances MNI (Richard Smith)
Take the Financial Literacy Quiz FINRA (Richard Smith)
SEC Turns Its Attention Back To Accounting Fraud, Literary Criticism Matt Levine (Richard Smith)
If you ever read S-1s, this one is a classic of a bad sort, but at least with a truth in advertising type of name (Richard Smith)
What can you do with a DSGE model? Noah Smith (Richard Alford)
Antidote du jour:
And a bonus (Robert M, this is a video, so e-mail subscribers will need to visit the site to view it):
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“Judge orders porn suspect to decrypt his hard drives”
The simple way around this: use a tool like TrueCrypt that allows you to hide hidden volumes of encrypted data inside other encrypted data. Since encrypted data appears as random junk bytes on a hard drive, you wrap your truly sensitive data with less sensitive data. The less sensitive data is what you turn over when ordered by the court, while your truly sensitive data is never even known to exist. Its actually very easy to do, especially if you use encrypted files rather than hard drive partitions. One password opens the outer volume and another password opens the hidden volume. Law Enforcement will never know about the inner data unless you tell them, which of course you wouldn’t. :)
Well now you just told them.
Oh, great, now everybody’s going to know.
Use “wipe disk” as a password.
But a word or warning, by the time you get to “s”, you may be shot reaching for a knife that isn’t in the room.
@ “Holder accused of misleading Congress over investigation into journalist leaks Guardian”
So Holder is a pathological liar. What’s new?
CNN has done some outstanding reporting on this story, such as this video report which sets out the timeline and does a really great job of explaining what the controversy is all about:
More on an editorial note is this video:
As the panelists point out, the actions which Obama is taking against whistleblowers and the press are unprecedented. No president has ever pushed the envelope this far, and Obama has crossed a line that no president has ever crossed before.
Obama wants invisible government behind which he can hide his administrative massacres and other executive misdeeds. And in order to achieve secret government, he must wage war on whistleblowers, such as Bradley Manning, John Kiriakou and Jeremy Hammond, as well as reporters.
The latest target, but certaily not the first, of Obama’s war on visible government is James Rosen.
The purpose of these exercises is to spread fear. For this reason it is decisive that their victims be objectively innocent, that they are chosen regardless of what they may or may not have done, or why they did it. These offenses punish conduct that is mala prohibita, or wrongful only because it is illegal. Historically, the proof of mens rea, or an “evil-meaning mind,” was also required for a criminal conviction.
The saddest part of Obama’s war on visible government is that it matters little whether its victims are guilty or not. The consequences of merely being accused are so grave as to render the distinction mute between guilt and innocence, and the Justice Department, by using a combination of false accusations and plea bargaining, is able to coerce people into pleading guilty to offenses which they are not guilty of.
Democracies usually end with the election of tyrants.
I have to say, the POTUS continues to surprise me on the down side. I always knew he was economically centre-right, but the wire-tapping, the continuation of the war or drugs, and on whistleblowers would be puzzling, if I wasn’t such a total cynic by now.
It’s bad politics. There’s always elections around the corner, he should be throwing his base a bone or two, not sucking off the securicrats.
He doesn’t have any more elections to worry about. Right now it’s all about making sure he’ll have lots of powerful, friends post-Presidency. He obviously doesn’t give two s#!ts about the future of his party.
He doesn’t have any more elections to worry about. Right now it’s all about making sure he’ll have lots of powerful friends post-Presidency. He obviously doesn’t give two s#!ts about the future of his party.
OK, I’ll be the one to say it. Obama has an inescapable Manchurian Candidate quality about him. I just can’t get past it.
Many years ago I took a psychiatry course. The one thing I remember is the warning that mental pathology must be considered when a person’s “affect” seems wrong for the circumstances.
This guy’s “affect” is mind-blowingly wrong, and has been for five long years. Many on this site don’t have a problem labeling Jamie Dimon or Lloyd Blankfein sociopaths, and I’m one of them. I’m thinking Obama’s behavior makes much more sense when evaluated in the same context.
Personally, I think he’s basically a CIA mole. As John Pilger points out in the clip below, after college he worked for BCI which has a history of providing the CIA with moles in left-wing groups. I think that’s basically been the story of his whole career.
Obama is a Corporate Marketing Creation:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfVULT8vdUk
Wayne Madsen has gone there as well:
http://archive.org/details/WayneMadsen-BarackObama-AllInTheCompany.
He has been rather palsy with the Bushs–Jeb and Poppy have sat down with him on a few occasions.
http://whowhatwhy.com/2010/09/07/left-unsaid-obama-the-bushes-the-cia-and-the-media/
Barack Obama is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I’ve ever known in my life.
“The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power. Not wealth or luxury or long life or happiness: only power, pure power. What pure power means you will understand presently. We are different from all the oligarchies of the past, in that we know what we are doing. All the others, even those who resembled ourselves, were cowards and hypocrites. The German Nazis and the Russian Communists came very close to us in their methods, but they never had the courage to recognize their own motives. They pretended, perhaps they even believed, that they had seized power unwillingly and for a limited time, and that just round the corner there lay a paradise where human beings would be free and equal. We are not like that. We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means; it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power.”
~G.O.
‘Mrs Watanabe brings home the bacon’ appears to be a bad link – it’s a duplicate of the ‘Europe Rethinking Austerity’ story.
Mrs. Watanabe should have brought home the bacon a few months ago.
Re: “World’s Oldest Torah–
Not really. The Leningrad Manuscript is 1,000 years old but includes all the books of the Hebrew Bible, not just the Torah.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leningrad_Codex
One suspects it doesn’t have the world’s oldest typo.
“Familiarity makes the lion more dangerous.”
The lion is being fairly singled out.
Many vegetables have whispered the same about man.
Unfairly.
DSGE = Dumb, Stupid, Git Economist
Boy! The DSGE post was almost as funny as Monty Python’s “Dead Parrot” sketch. DSGE is a total failure at everything it’s used for, except hoodwinking the public. But despite the lucid explanations and evidence of that complete, utter intellectual failure, the author always ends withe some positive about improvement.
Noah, I have news for you: SHIT v.2.0 still smells like shit. If you want to improve economics, stop trying to hide its abject failings and start telling the truth. Real scientsts understand that progress comes only by telling the truth in an open, candid way. Pulling fair punches with qualitifations like “but it’s getting better, our new models have an R² of 0.01 rather than 0.0” just makes you look like a liar or a fool (or both).
Your post demonstrates that economics is a failure, full stop. We need a completely new approach that is intellectually honest to make any progress. Otherwise, economists will be left with the historical legacy of bringing Western civilization to its end.
that’s pretty funny.
for me, the DSGE is the Demonic Sadistic Godless Equation. The grand inquisitor has arrayed his powers of delusion and has the people under a spell of deceit and obfuscation. It will only be through the blessings and faith in the majesty of the True God that this possession will be lifted and the people liberated. When we acquire a suitable donkey we will depart from La Mancha and endeavor to liberate Spain, first, and then Portugal and then Italy itself, acquiring followers and disciples along the way until we are the majority. Perhaps we will be so fortunate as to take possession of the Vatican as our headquarters, or perhaps we can find an alliance with our brothers there. If we become delayed through inebriation and plesant pastimes with the women of La Mancha, that will only fortify us in our eventual success. The Living God will not be denied into eternity. The science of economics does not describe reality, which is the provence of the Living God, as we know, but it creates reality, a false reality that is both a blasphemy and an absurdity. Such is the methods of propaganda not the methods of men of knowledge. We will depart soon, in any event, sometime before next year, after resting for a while longer and considering the vast odds for our success.
RE Boston
Whoops, Tsarnaev FBI arresters must’ve slipped on a couple of banana peels. Dismissed as coincidence…
http://hamptonroads.com/2013/05/fbi-agents-died-fall-helicopter-va-coast
Occams Razor.. I can see the scenario as the Feebie was brandishing his Glock (standard issue handgun) threateningly (watched too many 24 episodes?) and the gun was accidentally discharged (Glock=no safety w/ a chambered round)
“…The FBI Academy’s firearms training unit tested various semiautomatic handguns and in a 1988 report gave the Glock low marks for safety. The report cited the weapon’s “high potential for unintentional shots.”
Unintentional shots would turn out to be a disquieting byproduct of Glock’s unique design, according to many experts and to lawsuits filed against Glock in the last decade. Even though the Glock does not have an external manual safety, it incorporates three internal safeties intended to prevent the gun from discharging if dropped or jostled. A unique feature of the Glock is that a shooter disengages all three safeties at once by pulling the trigger.”
According to the link, the FBI shooting is currently under investigation by… the FBI.
Meanwhile the father of the deceased has acquired morgue photos which he claims show his son was shot seven times, including once in the back of the head.
Ah, suicide then.
Suicide by Rube Goldberg Machine…
The Deputy Legal Director of the ACLU, Jameel Jaffer, corrects the story on James Comey, Obama’s likely pick to head the FBI.
Glad you mentioned that, Ned. What IS true is that Comey developed Project Exile, a program designed to railroad African-Americans into federal prison en masse, as the Daily Caller explains:
http://dailycaller.com/2013/05/30/comey-anti-gun-chicago-trained-enforcer-reportedly-tapped-to-run-fbi/
Focusing on inner city Richmond, the program rounded up black people by the dozens. Many were ex-convicts whose possession of a weapon constituted a status offense. Comey diverted them to federal court in order to hand out five and ten-year mandatory sentences.
Most were indigent and had only the most perfunctory public defender representation (‘Plead guilty, boy.’)
‘Exile’ meant the explicit practice of packing off Richmond convicts to distant federal prisons in the intermountain west — not only cutting off family visits, but also potentially subjecting them to menacing by skinhead gangs in the whiter prison demographic of the west.
‘From the left, Project Exile was condemned as racist by Families Against Mandatory Minimums, and opposed by several members of the Congressional Black Caucus on the grounds that in targeting its enforcement at inner city communities such as in Richmond and Atlanta, [it exploited] the disproportionate effects the federal gun laws’ “prohibited possessor” categories have on African-Americans,’ says Wikipedia’s entry on Project Exile.
Is anyone surprised that Oreobama (black on da outside, white on da inside) would nominate the white supremacist-leaning Comey to head the FBI? Oreobama’s message to black folks: BOHICA [Bend Over, Here It Comes Again!]
The next thing you know, Lincoln lover Obama will re-hatch a plan to send African Americans to Liberia.
Maybe he nixed a “kill list” that redefined due process out of existence and did not exclude Americans.
In looking at the Guilford County ruling, I think the problem was who brought the filing and the preparation of that filing. It has been a while since I looked at it, but it didn’t seem like it went to any great specifics, rather making rather broad general claims. If it had been a little more solidly prepared, you might have had better results. And of course it was a business court judge ruling on the matter.
No, it was dismissed over standing. No amount of careful drafting would have solved that. The court took the view that the party that was harmed by the failure to record was the borrower, and the recorder’s office did not have a right to sue on his behalf (in effect).
This is also North Carolina, a particularly bank-friendly state.
Nor is there any requirement that assignments be recorded in NC. The robosigned documents that Thigpen had were satisfaction of mortgages. NC uses deeds of trust which, under NC law, must be signed by NC attorneys. While the successor trustee (allegedly a neutral third party per statutes, but they are chosen by and work for the banks, often part of LPS default services network, though borrower pays their fees) must be named in order to file foreclosure suit, the current note holder, or their agent (usually the servicer), may file the new deed of trust naming the successor trustee. No prior parties of interest need sign off. In Guilford Co. rarely is any deed of trust filed more than twice, irregardless of the number of times the loan has changed hands; the original from when the loan was originated, and the new deed of trust when foreclosure is filed. And the practice complies with all laws.
The register of deeds is not required, by statute, to authenticate the validity of documents filed. While this IS a bank friendly state, from what I’ve read (have not seen actual decision), I think the judge made the correct decision given the laws.
So what was needed was a class action suit on behalf of all borrowers purcahsing property in the county.
Noam Chomsky: The Kind of Anarchism I Believe in, and What’s Wrong with Libertarians
You mentioned students before. Well one of the main problems for students today — a huge problem — is sky-rocketing tuitions. Why do we have tuitions that are completely out-of-line with other countries, even with our own history? In the 1950s the United States was a much poorer country than it is today, and yet higher education was … pretty much free, or low fees or no fees for huge numbers of people. There hasn’t been an economic change that’s made it necessary, now, to have very high tuitions, far more than when we were a poor country. And to drive the point home even more clearly, if we look just across the borders, Mexico is a poor country yet has a good educational system with free tuition. There was an effort by the Mexican state to raise tuition, maybe some 15 years ago or so, and there was a national student strike which had a lot of popular support, and the government backed down. Now that’s just happened recently in Quebec, on our other border. Go across the ocean: Germany is a rich country. Free tuition. Finland has the highest-ranked education system in the world. Free … virtually free. So I don’t think you can give an argument that there are economic necessities behind the incredibly high increase in tuition. I think these are social and economic decisions made by the people who set policy.
http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/noam-chomsky-kind-anarchism-i-believe-and-whats-wrong-libertarians?page=0%2C0&akid=10498.318748.Sn7bsv&rd=1&src=newsletter846979&t=5&paging=off
Rich – It doesn’t have anything to do with education and has everything to do with debt.
From 2000 to 2008 If you didn’t buy a house you were a LOOSER. Easy credit insures housing prices go exponential. Trillions created out of thin air. Housing Bubble….POP!
From 2003 to 2013 Virtually no one in school even considered not going to college for fear of becoming a LOOSER. Easy credit insures tuition skyrockets. Trillions created out of thin air. Student loan Bubble….????
Every one fears inflation but this is the only mechanism they have to generate it. Does anyone see any potential for another Easy credit, must have/do event in the wings?
I don’t.
The method of limiting University attendance is called Numerus clausus and it’s explained in this link specifically with respect to Germany and other countries that use it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numerus_clausus#Numerus_clausus_in_Germany
RE: Germany & free tuition:
You must keep in mind that the number of Germans allowed to attend University is very limited, by law. Not just anyone can decide to attend.
In Mexico the number of slots for a free public university education is limited, and they are alloted on a merit basis.
There are, however, a number of private universities. The quality of education they offer ranges from sub-par to superb.
Also, a great many wealthy Mexicans send their children to Ivy League and eastern universities in the US. As Carlos Fuentes explains, one of Mexico’s most obvious problems
The same could apply to the US.
And that is as it should be. Letting anyone into college does not help those who have no business being there. It just cheapens the value for those who take the achievement seriously, since the lowest common denominator must be accommodated.
It is a continuation of the perverse trend operating in this country for the last several decades–“just showing up” deserves the same reward as true excellence. This approach has been “determined” by “experts” to preserve and promote the all important “self-esteem” and has been an epic, albeit unacknowledged, fail.
And so we here in America must look for our stars in other countries where self-esteem doesn’t need to be orchestrated through lowered standards and lowest common denominators. Thank god for HB-1 visas.
I don’t mind college being limited, I mind it being limited by how rich your parents are.
H1-B visas in the STEM sector are a scam by industry to suppress wages. 50% of STEM graduates from 4 year universities are unable to find jobs yet employers claim they are unable to find qualified workers (for jobs with qualifications that nobody could possibly ever meet, including the HB-1 applicants ultimately hired). It has nothing to do with “letting anybody into our colleges”. Engineering, science, and math programs are not trivial programs to graduate from, they attract the best and the brightest. Furthermore, high-tech workers over 40, as they gain experience and climb the salary ladder, are finding themselves being laid off en-masse. If you talk to people who work in the technology sector, they’ll tell you that the immigrant employees are not only no more qualified than the US workers……. usually they are less qualified.
Yes. The MBAs in the C suite figure tech people are fungible goods. A $120/hr experienced professional can be replaced by a $30/hr (including agency profit) recent grad in or from Bangalore. Or at least by 3 of them.
The thing is, I know kids who did poorly in high school, only to find their way once in college, and do brilliantly. I think there are lots of reasons, maturity being one of them.
As well, did poorly in HS and College, but did brilliantly in Life.
It comes down to being at least average intelligence, being persistent and being lucky enough to discover what you excel at coincidentally is also your passion.
Re: Guilford County Lawsuit against MERS/Robo signing:
so committing forgery and filing a false deed is not a “commercial act” and therefore not illegal…
This is so depressing.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_and_the_English_Language
Why Orthodox Jews Oppose Israel? THEY DON’T!
Orthodox Jews (as opposed to secular, traditional, conservative and reform, who are the vast majority of Jews) are actually the most nationalistic. The settlers are mostly Orthodox Jews.
The Ultra Orthodox Jews (those who wear black clothes) are also NOT opposed to Israel. While they are not Zionists, in the sense that they believe in a modern democratic capitalistic state, they participate in the voting process, they have members of parliament, they have state-sponsored institutions, etc. (Many Arab citizens of Israel operate in a similar way within the state system).
Neturei Karta are ONLY 400-500 families living according to fanatic ancient traditions of a cult. Even the Ultra-Orthodox view them as strange.
The article you bring as news (interviewing a person who passed away a few years ago…) criticizes the Orthodox founders of the Mizrachi movement, who were cutting edge liberals of the time – those who sought a modern democratic state with open institutions and scientific education rather than religious education.
But then again, why check the validity of enlightened unbiased web writings by people who seek a complex picture of the TRUTH?
While indulging my Lyle Lovett obsession last night, I came across this clip from the Connecticut Forum on “The Creative Mind.” Something Johah Lehrer says at the end struck a chord with me and I’ll bet it rings true for other NCers as well. Yet more evidence that optimism may not be so great and a little depression might not be so bad (thank goddess):
Or build the new economy or whathaveyou.
So for all of us struggling to build something new, we needn’t put ourselves down for feeling down; no need to despair over our depression or to become discouraged by our own despondency. A little sadness is just the price we have to pay on the way to something new..
Why Orthodox Jews Oppose Israel? THEY DON’T!
Orthodox Jews (as opposed to secular, traditional, conservative and reform, who are the vast majority of Jews) are actually the most nationalistic. The settlers are mostly Orthodox Jews.
The Ultra Orthodox Jews (those who wear black clothes) are also NOT opposed to Israel. While they are not Zionists, in the sense that they believe in a modern democratic capitalistic state, they participate in the voting process, they have members of parliament, they have state-sponsored institutions, etc. (Many Arab citizens of Israel operate in a similar way within the state system).
Neturei Karta are ONLY 400-500 families living according to fanatic ancient traditions of a cult. Even the Ultra-Orthodox view them as strange.
The article you bring as news (interviewing a person who passed away a few years ago…) criticizes the Orthodox founders of the Mizrachi movement, who were cutting edge liberals of the time – those who sought a modern democratic state with open institutions and scientific education rather than religious education. Their families were getting killed in pogroms in Eastern Europe decades before the Holocaust, and they decided to act at a time when many national movements were being formed and way before any Arab nation state was formed by the empires of the time. Those Jews chose to buy land in the land of their ancestors. (In fact, some people I know have been living there for 7 and 8 generations, and some have never left). Those people’s children and grandchildren became both nationalistic and secular, as part of a global trend.
“Why Orthodox Jews Oppose Israel? THEY DON’T!”
http://www.truetorahjews.org/our_mission
Our Mission
The relatively new concept of Zionism began only about one hundred years ago and since that time Torah-true Jewry has steadfastly opposed the Zionist ideology. This struggle is rooted in two convictions:
1. Zionism, by advocating a political and military end to the Jewish exile, denies the very essence of our Diaspora existence. We are in exile by Divine Decree and may emerge from exile solely via Divine Redemption. All human efforts to alter a metaphysical reality are doomed to end in failure and bloodshed. History has clearly borne out this teaching.
2. Zionism has not only denied our fundamental belief in Heavenly Redemption it has also created a pseudo-Judaism which views the essence of our identity to be a secular nationalism. Accordingly, Zionism and the Israeli state have consistently endeavored, via persuasion and coercion, to replace a Divine and Torah-centered understanding of our peoplehood with an armed materialism.
True Torah Jews is dedicated to informing the world and in particular the American public and politicians that not all Jews support the ideology of the Zionist state called “Israel”. In fact, a great number of Orthodox Jews view the ideology of that state as diametrically opposed to the teachings of traditional Judaism.
We are concerned that the widespread misconception that all Jews support the Zionist state and its actions endangers Jews worldwide.
We are NOT politically motivated. We are motivated by our concern for the peace and safety of all people throughout the world including those living in the Zionist state. We support and pray for peace for the people of the Zionist state but have no interest in and do not support the Zionist government.
We seek to disassociate Jews and traditional Judaism from the Zionist ideology by:
1. Providing historical and supporting documentation that Zionism is totally contrary to the teachings of traditional Judaism through the words of our Rabbis, Sages, and Holy Scriptures which oppose the creation of a state called Israel.
2. Providing historical documentation on the ideology and creation of Zionism, the supporters of Zionism and the negative impact of their actions on the Jewish people in the past hundred years, including their involvement in the Holocaust and their activities up to the present day.
3. Publicizing the efforts of traditional Jews to demonstrate their opposition to Zionism, efforts which are often ignored by the mainstream media.
4. Convincing the news media, politicians and the public to cease referring to the State of Israel as the “Jewish State” but to call it what it is: the “Zionist State”.
We also aim to reach out to our Jewish brethren who have never studied the subject of Zionism from a Torah perspective, and have only been taught the Zionist side of the story. It is our hope that all of our fellow Jews will soon open their eyes, return to Torah and reject this ideology that replaces the Jew’s age-old hope for G-d’s redemption with a false redemption and a human-initiated state.
You certainly know more about the state of Israel and the Jewish faith than I do, not being Jewish myself. However, as I read the article and an interview on the site given by an Iraqi Jewish man in l998 I believe, I was impressed that the objections being expressed were similar to those who say that the US is not a Christian nation. That is, the objections were to the fusion of religious ideas with the secular, something we uphold in wanting a separation of church and state here.
That interview with the Iraqi, who considers himself Iraqi and of the Jewish faith though was also an American citizen at the point he gave the interview is really worth a read. He goes into his own involvement in Zionism from an early age and how he became disabused with the process. It didn’t sound like a cult to me. (The site is linked to in the article.)
It doesn’t matter really how many families are involved if they are saying correct things. I think they are.
Thank you Juliania.
– Just like with Christian and other US citizens, Jews in Israel and outside of it hold many different opinions. Some are more vocal, politically active and/or extreme then others. Some are hard core liberals and some are real fascists, while others are entrenched in religious beliefs. Most are main stream citizens of a modern state striving to meet universal values while making a living in a highly volatile region full of theocracies and dictatorships.
– A single Iraqi Jew in Iraq of 1998 may have given an interview under pressure from his immediate environment or as part of his personal viewpoint, which may represent others or not. Impossible to tell. In any case, some Jews who got involved with Zionism and/or immigrated to Israel did not find their place in the state and continued wondering to the US, EU etc. For some (like Ethiopian Jews coming from a developing country) it has been a longer journey then others (such as well-educated Russian or French or American Jews). Just like any other country, immigration and integration are challenging.
– One thing is for sure: Neturei Karta (ONLY a few hundred people living in a very closed society under close watch of their leaders) have always been welcomed in Arab countries as part of propaganda efforts that legitimize conflict rather than reconciliation through mutual concessions and dialogue.
– Most secular Jews want a full separation of religion and state (as reflected in recent elections in Israel and current internal political policies).
Ultra Orthodox Jews do not want such separation because their entire livelihood and institutions rely on state funding (unlike Ultra Orthodox Jews in the US who work for a living). At the same time, these Ultra Orthodox Jews are against Zionism for reasons written in the scripts (the messiah will revive the state, etc.) and for political reasons (they don’t want to lose the power they hold over their communities who depend on the allocation of budgets and ignorance of modernism).
– You may think that Jews are not supposed to have a country in the land of their ancestors, or that Jews born over the past 65 years in Israel should believe in better life under other rulers rather than in their own homeland-based identity, or that the fact that Jews were always there and zionists have been there for longer than most nation states have been around does not matter, but this seems somewhat unrealistic and disrespectful to their set of beliefs.
It is perhaps a little like believing that immigrants who came to the US from Europe or other countries should believe in a different ethos, constitution, public education, religious institutions etc. (Native American? Mexican? Afro-American? Christian?). Thank god Israel is a democracy with full representation of liberals, nationalists (Arab and Jewish), socialists, capitalists, women and men, gays, feminists, outspoken progressive Reform movement Jews and Ultra Orthodox, peace fighters and military men, all sitting in the parliament and the bureaucracy, in multiple news outlets of opposing opinions and different academic institutions, trying to figure out how to live together, if not in harmony then in a functioning entity that is way more progressive than any of its neighbors.
Another start-up insurer’s deal with Citizens draws scrutiny
A $52 million deal between state-run Citizens and a start-up insurer that gave to $110,000 to Gov. Rick Scott’s political committee may be causing “serious concerns” for Florida’s House Speaker, but state records show another fledgling carrier from South Florida spent more than $650,000 lobbying state legislators and executives to get more — up to $63 million.
Officials with Weston Insurance Co. of Coral Gables say most of that spending went for legal work setting up the company and not actual lobbying, regardless of how it may have been reported to the state. About 31,000 customers, including 1,334 in Palm Beach County, have to decide whether to go with Weston or stay with Citizens, many in coming weeks.
Top Weston executives came from prominent reinsurers and “force-placed” insurer QBE, which has come under fire from regulators and recently reached a settlement with 24,000 Florida homeowners over claims by plaintiff attorneys it arranged with lenders to charge consumers excessive premiums. Company officials say they left past employers before those those events played out, and it’s not relevant to what Weston is doing now: offering Citizens customers a strong choice with protection from rate increases of more than 10 percent for three years.
But one legislator blasted what he sees as more “corporate welfare” that isn’t justified or necessary.
“The same people who are crying Citizens won’t have enough money to pay claims are giving the surplus away,” said Rep. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey. Other companies are taking hundreds of thousands of Citizens customers without special payments, he said: “Why should ratepayers or taxpayers have to pay a company to do it?”
http://www.mypalmbeachpost.com/news/business/another-start-up-insurers-deal-with-citizens-draws/nX6T7/
Here’s the update from Operation OK Relief:
Gold and silver charts…coiling, coiling.
He makes it sound like we are talking about kundalini.
SEC and literary criticism.
I am pretty sure Garrison Keillor is happy they are hiring English majors.
Today’s news antidotes…
Michele Bachmann: ‘God Wants Me To Earn 7 Figures For A Lobbying Firm’ http://www.theonion.com/articles/michele-bachmann-god-wants-me-to-earn-7-figures-fo,32618/
There is nothing better than owls who have just heard a good joke. http://www.thepoke.co.uk/2013/05/30/there-is-nothing-better-than-owls-who-have-just-heard-a-good-joke/
Rejected News Corporation Logos http://www.thepoke.co.uk/2013/05/30/rejected-news-corporations-logos/
Combat Deaths Now Considered ‘Acts of Allah’ — No Longer Covered By Life Insurance http://www.duffelblog.com/2013/05/combat-deaths-now-considered-acts-of-allah-no-longer-covered-by-life-insurance/#ixzz2UnIUywiy
Oh lol, I was taking that Onion article seriously for a moment… embarassing.
No, embarrassing would be taking the NY Times seriously. The Onion, like Stewart and Colbert, cover much more of the truth than the ‘serious’ press does.
Granted Bachmann didn’t actually say those words. At least not on the record. And maybe she doesn’t frame her decision with quite so much God in it. But what the article describes her doing is exactly what she will do.
http://www.mlive.com/business/index.ssf/2013/05/bet_founder_robert_l_johnson_w.html#incart_river_default
Japanese dogs to be deprived of whale meat kibbles:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/japan/10086027/Endangered-whale-meat-sold-as-luxury-dog-snacks-in-Japan.html
Why must our furry little friends always be the victims of human politics? :(
How many smoking guns does it take before they start handing out respirators? From the Daily Caller:
http://dailycaller.com/2013/05/29/irss-shulman-had-more-public-white-house-visits-than-any-cabinet-member/#ixzz2UoBCLtH7
the Onion article on Bachmann is so true to life, i was so relieved when i saw the “Onion” at the top of the page. the horror of Bachmann doing what the rest all do, lol. well, what can i say. she is so totally “possessed.” thanks for a wonderful laugh after a few minutes of complete horror.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1b-bijO3uEw
A friendly reminder.
Patent troll going after podcasts…
Help Save Podcasting! https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/05/help-save-podcasting
We need your help to save podcasting. EFF is partnering with leading lawyers to bust a key patent being used to threaten podcasters. But we need your help to find prior art and cover the filing fees for a brand new patent busting procedure.
Oh my, what are the high rollers and [Legalized!!!!] Tax Avoiders!!!!™ (such as the near worshiped upper echelon at Apple, Google, FaceFiend, Intel, Cisco, PayFiend, along with Banks, Hedge Funds, REITS, etcetera), in one of the largest economies in the world, to do when those who can only find jobs as Privatized!!!!!™[slave] security guards (despite, I’m pretty sure, those “security guards” once having had all sorts of beneficial and harmless varying talents (outside of being hired to protect against their worse off poverty ridden “riff raff” neighbors) that would afford them a roof over their heads) cannot barely put a roof over their heads?
Arrest enough of them to put fear into them (as the “riff raff” (who once were considered law abiding citizens) have certainly learned to historically mistrust potential ‘shack bully’ security guards and therefore will likely not be in their corner) , and then tell the local Sly Con Valley Media, SFGate/San Francisco Chronicle and [The] Mercury News to ignore the whole thing, or place it in some obscure, unread corner, on ‘page 23.’
05/17/13 Seven Arrested in Bay Area Security Officers’ Protest over Income Inequality
(Can’t say that I’ve cared much, AT ALL, for quite a few I’ve run into in the private security biz over my life time, but now it is a case where people are taking any job they can get to feed their loved ones, and the nasty powers that be, are using that to every advantage.)
A report put out by some working [stuck, I would call it] in the private security industry in Sly Con Valley:
04/17/13 Poverty in the Midst of Plenty: The Security Industry and Rising Income Inequality in Silicon Valley
♫ Musical Chairs ♫™ , indeed.
To clarify, the [San Jose] Mercury News, loaded with white males who could never ever get hired in any of the companies they repeatedly fawn over. Not that getting hired at any of those places is a redeemable quality, but to stand by zip mouthed (and adding sickening little commentaries about how one vi$ited austerity ridden Ireland, etcetera, over the holidays …and attended Bellarmine!!!!!!) while ones lifelong, law abiding neighbors are tossed out like so much trash, is utterly despicable.
austerity ridden Ireland, due in large part (one has to, at the least, question, doesn’t one?), to the Sly Con Valley predators, such as Google, Intel, Apple, etcetera, etcetera, who bought the government whores, (and “American” Ambassadors, such as the obomber appointed “owner” of the Steelers, Rooney (how does one own people, let alone desire to?), in Ireland.
to momentarily mention how that overloaded County Owned Hospital is an Historical Potter’s Field, with a current huge mound of ‘dirt’ likeley filled with bones, …in order to make room for more literally dying UNNECESSARILY … in that My Big Valley [Govt. Owned] Teaching Hospital™ (where mortality rates from known to be safe operations SKY ROCKET)..and then drop the subject abruptly …. to fawn over how wonderful the Valley is … welll … what exactly is it, Mr. Journalist?
“Americans Now Know More About Often Pathetic Personal Finances”
This is a pathetic article.
Daddy wasn’t sure Alfreda had what it takes, but she’s really grown into the job. When the 9/11 anniversary was coming up, we were all like, Oh shit, they actually want to get bin Laden now, What do we do? Alfreda had the idea of dressing up Nicgorski in that bin Laden costume for the fake raid. Mr. Brennan wasn’t sure, but Alfreda said, Look, we finally found something the big dope is good for: he’s tall. And to his credit, he nailed bin Laden’s little grin. It really wowed the president. POTUS was all elated like he was suddenly a badass or something, for a good ten minutes he wasn’t scared shitless of Mr. Brennan. It was really funny when Nicgorski stood behind POTUS making the dead-binLaden face.
Then when Alfreda got promoted to real executions, she just came into her own. Sean Collier, blam! Rich Donohue, blam! Dzokhar, rat-a-tat-tat-boom! Lorek and Shaw, wheeeee, bonk, bonk! Todashev, blam-blam-blam-blam-blam-blam, booFFF! Attagirl! Moose and Squirrel must DIE!
Joe Bonamassa @ Royal Albert Hall is airing on Public Television, now(8:30est)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0lIZHspjXU&list=PL7AF2C5A606C34588
I don’t know a whole a whole lot of theory in music. Somebody will say “Ah, just add the augmented fourth”, or something. I’m like, I have no idea what you just said, I’m kind of a feel guy. Joe B.
oops pbs is advertising albert hall concert but even better (if ya love acoustics like aby)its The Vienna Opera House 2013 …skip pbs fundraising
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkLoYv2K_eg
Can selctive breeding reduce methane levels? http://www.theverge.com/2013/5/30/4380700/selectively-breed-cows-reduce-methane-global-warming
I’m very suspicous of “stories” like that. What is the agenda? Who is the target?
It seems like the punch line to a joke….”and they are paying these ‘scientists’ to research this, with my tax money”
They very well may be paying for it with tax money, but handouts to big ag are nothing new.
Another story I read, along the same lines, was that “gubmint is going after bakeries for the CO2 that bread yeast produces”
Yeah…it’s not the 1,000,000 btu ovens fueled with subsidised natural gas…it’s the yeast. Just like cows are free, so is the food and fuel necessary to market them. No energy needed. It’s the magic of the farm.
Buy one and watch it grow!
Only recently have people started to track and measure how much natural gas is “lost” via leaks and crumbling infrascturure. No incentive for utilities to do that, they just pass the cost on to the “customer”.
But…cow farts!!! My taxes for cow farts!!!
Following up on an article in yesterday’s links: Sick Patients Are Pumped Full of Feed-Tube Formula of Corn Syrup That’s Produced by … Nestle?
I forwarded the link to my sister, who works as an oncology nurse at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital (in northern NJ) and this is what she had to say:
Totally awesome article/product…forwarded it to one of our physicians and will follow up with our dietician…thank u so much as I am a big advocate for my patients nutritional status and hate the ensure sugar water!
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The Mma Gloves 11: The Middleweights kicked
off last week immediately following Ultimate Fight Night Live 21: Florian vs.
The following is the full results of episode 2, as well
as episode 2 in its entirety, commercial free. The mma
gloves: Faber vs. With knockouts, submissions, as well as
Dana, thought were the favorites to win. After the picks were finished, Dana White voiced
his concern about Chuck’s picks, as it seemed that Tito got what many fans, as well as who Chuck’s opponent will be after the show.
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