Bishop Williamson wins appeal against conviction in Germany

On Ash Wednesday, 22nd February 2012, the courageous British Bishop Richard Williamson won the latest round in the struggle for free source-critical opinion in Europe, when the German appeal court quashed his conviction for “holocaust denial”.

Bishop Williamson had been under tremendous pressure from within his church, including the leadership of his traditional Catholic Society of St Pius X (SSPX), to abandon his defence and meekly accept criminalisation, following a prosecution which originated in an interview he gave to a Swedish television journalist in November 2008.

Fifty-five minutes into this interview, which had focused on religious matters as the Bishop had expected, the journalist suddenly sprang the question: “Bishop Williamson, are these your words?” and quoted comments made by the Bishop several years earlier in Canada.
Article published here

Western shock: Libyans destroy NATO ally war cemetery

Gravestone is seen damaged by an Islamist group in protest at burning of Koran by US soldiers in Afghanistan in Benghazi Military Cemetery (Reuters / Esam Al-Fetori) (Video from YouTube, uploaded by user CanoPinto 29 Feb 2012 )
Article, photos here

Welcome to Italy - and Modern Money Theory

The economic theory of The Modern Money Theory, brought to Italy (in Rimini) by Paolo Barnard and five leading economists. The understanding, ideas, expectations and doubts of the ordinary people during the summit filmed by the director Thomas Wild Turolo, who follows during the event Renato Valusso, an italian blogger (Qui Libera Italia). The voices recorded on the tape are a sort of collective narration, with the special presence of Paolo Barnard. This report is the mirror of a country that maybe starts to move, to save itself, through the MMT or other ideas.

Oh brother!

Sit up and take note!

Cool interview

Eurozone unemployment hits record high of 10.7pc

Spain’s jobless rate for people ages 16 to 24 is approaching 50pc, Greece’s is 48pc, and Portugal’s and Italy’s, 30pc. Photo: EPA

By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard 7:30PM GMT 01 Mar 2012



The eurozone's unemployment rate rose to a record high of 10.7pc in January, reaching levels of extreme social distress across large parts of Southern Europe.


Data from Eurostat showed that the region lost 185,000 jobs in one month, with the vast gap between North and South growing ever wider. The figures for the previous four months were also revised upwards sharply. There are now more than 450,000 more people without jobs than assumed a month ago.

Klaus Baader from Societe Generale said the outlook was "deteriorating drastically" in the region. "Economic slowdown and fiscal austerity has hit the labour market much harder than previously thought."

Eurozone inflation nudged up to 2.7pc, while the latest PMI data for February confirmed that Euroland's manufacturing is still contracting, though the index rose slighty to 49. The "misery mix" of rising unemployment and inflation is a nasty headache for policymakers, threatening incipient stagflation.

Spain's jobless rate continued its relentless climb to 23.2pc, rising to 49.9pc for youths. Long-term unemployment has increased sixfold since the start of the crisis and now makes up half the total. "This is the terrible cancer of our society," said Rafael Zornoza, the bishop of Cadiz.

The pain is certain to mount as premier Mariano Rajoy slashes spending. The International Monetary Fund said the economy would contract by 1.7pc this year. Government advisers fear that unemployment could rise above 6m by the end of the year unless Brussels agrees to relax its deficit target of 4.4pc of GDP.
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Wakeup call

Read about it here

A path not traveled - yet

A different kind of nuclear energy: Molten salt Thorium based reactors

Dirk Bezemer - Growth and Crisis: The Two Faces of Credit

At least since Joseph Schumpeter we know that credit is good for economic growth.
At least since 2007 we know that too much credit foreshadows financial turmoil. Inspired by Keynes and Minsky, Dirk Bezemer pieces together a cross-country data set of credit and debt, investigating whether the two faces of credit are different for different forms of credit. And using agent-based modeling, he strives to capture the interaction between the financial and the real -- this is new economic thinking.

About Dirk Bezemer:

Dirk works on the economics of growth and development. He conducted research on the economics of transition at Imperial College, University of London, and on agricultural and rural development at the Overseas Development Institute in London. He was employed by the UK Department for International Development as an Advisor before accepting a position at the University of Groningen
Information source here

POLICE STATE CANADA: Cops Arrest Father After His Daughter Draws A Picture of Him With A Gun

A Kitchener father is angry at police after he was arrested at his child's school and later strip-searched at the police station, all because his 4-year-old daughter drew a picture of a gun in class.

Study says Mayan civilization was wiped out by drought

A recent study has suggested that the conditions caused by a mild drought might have been the reason for the collapse of the Mayan civilization.


The research published in the journal Nature says a continuous 25 to 40 percent drop in rainfall reduced water supplies in the homeland of the ancient Maya civilization located in what is now southern Mexico and Guatemala.

Researchers at the Yucatan Centre for Scientific Research in southern Mexico and the University of Southampton used modeling techniques in order to estimate the rates of rainfall and evaporation between 800 and 950 CE, the decline period of Maya civilization.

"These reductions amount to only 25 to 40% in annual rainfall, but they were large enough for evaporation to become dominant over rainfall, and open water was rapidly reduced," said Professor Eelco Rohling of Southampton University.

"Societal disruptions and abandonment of cities are likely consequences of critical water shortages, especially because there seems to have been a rapid repetition of multi-year droughts," he added.

Scientists have been analyzing different factors that could have been involved in the collapse of the classic Maya civilization for years offering theories such as social unrest, disease and deforestation.
Article source here

Iran refuses to deliver 500k-barrel oil shipment to Greece

Iran has refused to deliver a 500,000-barrel shipment of oil to Greece in response to EU oil sanctions imposed against the country.


According to a report by Fars News Agency on Sunday, oil tankers that had come to transfer 500,000 barrels of Iranian crude oil to Hellenic refining complex in Greece were forced to return empty-handed after the Islamic Republic refused to deliver the shipment.

European Union foreign ministers agreed on January 23 to ban oil imports from Iran and to freeze the assets of the Iranian Central Bank across the EU. The sanctions will become fully effective on July 1, 2012, to give EU member states enough time to adjust to the new conditions and find alternative crude oil supplies.

The EU decision followed the imposition of similar sanctions by Washington on Iranian energy and financial sectors on New Year’s Eve which seek to punish other countries for buying Iran oil or dealing with the its central bank.
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The marvels of editing

The 2-minute video is a public meeting of former US Ambassador to the UN John Bolton responding to a US war veteran's question. The video shows that FOX then edits-out the audience response to replace it with applause from a different person's question. The proof is that the applause-segment shows a different person walking away from the microphone than the person who asked the question. The veteran testified that the audience booed Mr. Bolton's answer.
Video source here

This is MY yard!

First Man of Finland caught gawping at Danish princess's breasts

The husband of Finland's president was caught on camera casting an admiring glance at the cleavage of Princess Mary of Denmark.

Argentine advice for Greece: ‘Default Now!’

By Adrian Salbuchi for RT

Here in Argentina, when we watch the terrible things that are happening today in Greece, we can only exclaim, “Hey!! That’s exactly what happened in Argentina in 2001 and 2002…!”

­A decade ago, Argentina too went through a systemic Sovereign Public Debt collapse resulting in social turmoil, worker hardship, rioting and street fights with the police.

Some months before Argentina exploded, then-President Fernando de la Rúa – forced to resign at the height of the 2001 crisis – had called back as finance minister the notorious pro-banker, Trilateral Commission member and Rockefeller/Soros/Rhodes protégée Domingo Cavallo.

Cavallo was the gruesome architect of Argentina’s political and economic capitulation to the US and UK when he was President Carlos Menem’s foreign minister and economy minister in the ’90s.

Menem and Cavallo are primarily responsible for Argentina’s signing of a formal Treaty of Capitulation with the UK/US after the 1982 Falklands War, opening up our economy to unrestricted privatization, deregulation and grossly excessive US Dollar-indebtedness, almost tripling our sovereign debt in a few short years (see my February 11, 2012 article British Laughter in the Falklands).

The Plan? Prepare Argentina for planned weakening, bankster take-over and collapse, so that a new weakening-takeover-collapse cycle could begin. In 2001, Cavallo was back to finish his work…

During that very hot summer in December 2001, true to its Latin temperament, Argentina even had four (yes, 4!) presidents in just one week. One of them, Adolfo Rodriguez Sáa, who only lasted three days, at least did one thing right, even if he did it the wrong way: he declared Argentina’s default on its sovereign debt.

All hell broke loose! The international bankers and IMF did everything they could to break Argentina’s back; global media pundits predicted all kinds of impending catastrophes. Debt default meant Argentina would have to weather the pain and agony alone, being cast out by the “international financial community”.
Read article here

Americans Changing Attitude Toward Guns

By Michael Chester



While gun ownership continues to be a political hot button issue, one trend is clear. The number of Americans who own guns has continued to rise. 2011 saw a dramatic rise in gun sales and, so far, 2012 appears to be an even better year for the manufacturers.

In January 2012, the National Shooting Sports Foundation’s (NSSF) adjusted National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) numbers showed an increase of 17.3 percent in gun purchase related checks compared to the same time period the previous year. January marks 20 straight months of increased NICS report requests. While background checks don’t automatically turn into purchases, it is unlikely that many people would go through the trouble and expense of getting a background check and then not make a purchase.

The Shooting, Hunting, Outdoor Trade Show (SHOT Show) held in Las Vegas in January, reached a new record with more than 61,000 in attendance, including over 36,000 buyers and 1,600 exhibitors. Much inventory was ordered and sales are expected to remain strong.

With money currently tight, why are people increasingly choosing to purchase relatively expensive guns and ammunition?
Interesting article posted here

A headscratcher

The New Mediterranean Oil and Gas Bonanza

by F. William Engdahl

A recent major oil and gas find is bound to change dramatically the geopolitical equation in the Eastern Mediterranean region and beyond. To start with, it has sent Israel from rags to riches in terms of energy independence and security. However, Lebanon contends that part of the gas field lies within its territorial waters, and Washington happens to agree. Engdahl explores the implications of this key development, which have already rippled into the U.S. electoral scene, with Netanyahu betting on Republican race horses against Obama.
Read article here

Shipping indexes tell sobering tale

The Baltic Dry Index (BALDRY) is a number which indicates the cost of chartering ships for carrying dry raw materials across the world's oceans. Chart source here

The Harper Petersen shipping index (HARPEX) is a number indicating the cost of chartering ships to carry finished products across the world's oceans. Index source here

The two indexes above indicate a significant reduction in freight rates for goods, both raw materials and finished products. It has been argued that the reduced freight rates are a result of increased tonnage coming on stream, and while this may have some impact on the numbers, the correlation between the two indexes indicates that other forces are at play as well.

Slavery abolished 150 years ago? - Yeah, right.

9/11 Video fakery

by Jim Fetzer



Perhaps no question within the scope of 9/11 research generates as much heat and as little light as questions that have arisen over the role of the aircraft on 9/11, which has come to be known by the name of “planes/no planes” and of “video fakery”. While I had long since concluded that no plane had crashed in Shanksville and that, while a Boeing 757 appears to have flown toward and then over the Pentagon, I was personally unable to bring myself to take the idea that no real airplanes had hit the North or the South Tower until nearly two years of being verbally assailed by Morgan Reynolds, who understood these issues far better than I, where his studies can be found on his web site, nomoregames.net, especially a response to criticism he has received for raising the issue during a FOX News appearance.
In depth article posted here

Can a return to the drachma save Greece as unemployment soars?

The EU-ECB-IMF troika is imposing a further 150,000 public-sector job cuts in Greece over three years, without any offsetting Marshall Plan to rescue private industry. Photo: EPA



Greece’s unemployment bomb has detonated. After a deceptive calm, the surge in job losses since last summer is shocking even for those who never believed that combined fiscal and monetary contraction could possibly lead to any result other than ruin.


By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard

A variant of this lies in store for Portugal as its "internal devaluation" starts in earnest. The young Schumpeterians in charge of the Portuguese economy insist otherwise - cocksure that shock therapy will triumph without the cushion of debt relief and devaluation - but events have a habit of demolishing dreams.

In November alone 126,000 Greeks lost their jobs in a country of 11 million, equivalent to three and a half million Americans in a single month. The unemployment rate jumped from 18.2pc to 20.9pc.

This has not yet fed through into social breakdown. Greeks receive unemployment support for an average of thirty weeks, with a ceiling of €454 a month, according to Professor Manos Matsaganis from Athens University. Those with civil service tenure are placed on labour reserve for two years at half their basic pay, or a third of their actual pay.

Once these cushions are exhausted, Greeks are on their own. The monthly ratchet effect will then become painfully evident. It is why the Orthodox primate Hieronymos II warned in a letter to the prime minister that ever further doses of the same "deadly medicine" is becoming dangerous.

"The voices of the desperate, the voices of Greeks are being provocatively ignored. Fear is giving way to rage and the risk of a social explosion can no longer be ignored by those who give orders and those who execute their lethal recipes," he said.
Read story here

Middle East review with Stephen Lendman

Coming up - planetary convergence

U.S. Coast Guard Patrolling Persian Gulf

Socreds demonstrate for Bitumen Upgrading in Alberta

February 14, 2012



The Alberta Social Credit Party held its second Bitumen Upgrading Demonstration at the Alberta Legislature on February 13, 2012. Len Skowronski, Leader of the Alberta Social Credit Party was introduced to the Legislative Assembly by Harry Chase, MLA for Calgary-Varsity, “Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m pleased to introduce to you and through you to all members Len Skowronski, leader of the Alberta Social Credit Party. Len and the Socred picketers outside are here today because they are very concerned about the billions of dollars Albertans are losing in added value from our oil sands by exporting bitumen instead of synthetic crude oil. They hope to encourage the government to legislate a policy that would require all bitumen produced from our oil sands to be upgraded to synthetic crude oil in Alberta. Please stand, Len, and receive the greetings of the Assembly.”

Slogans on the pickets included: “OUR OILSANDS ARE WORTH $150 TRILLION. HOW MUCH OF THIS WEALTH WILL BENEFIT ALBERTANS”, “WE ARE LOSING $24,000,000/DAY OF ADDED VALUE”, “LET’S GET FULL VALUE FOR OUR OILSANDS. IT’S ABOUT OUR MONEY!”, “WHAT ALBERTA UPGRADES, UPGRADES ALBERTA”, “PROVIDE JOBS FOR ALBERTANS BY BUILDING AND OPERATING UPGRADER PLANTS”, “WITH KEYSTONE XL WE WILL LOSE $40,000,000/DAY OF ADDED-VALUE”, “EXPORT SYNTHETIC CRUDE OIL NOT BITUMEN”, “BUILD UPGRADERS NOT BITUMEN PIPELINES”, “STOP BITUMEN EXPORTS NOW”, “STOP THE KEYSTONE COPS! (CANADIAN OIL PROFITS going SOUTH)”.

When asked if he thought the demonstration’s objective was achieved, Leader Len Skowronski replied “Our goal is to get the government to stop bitumen exports and have all bitumen upgraded to synthetic crude oil in Alberta. Our objective for this demonstration is to prod the government to act on this issue. But knowing the complacency of the cabinet on this issue, probably nothing will be done. Hopefully, Albertans will take notice, embrace this cause and get their MLAs to demand the government move quickly to stop this huge leakage of our wealth.”


Len Skowronski

Leader
Alberta Social Credit Party
Calgary, AB
1-403-288-9695

Debt Crisis? Here's the Simple Solution