In Protest | Collected here is a view of protests and demonstrations around the world over the past two weeks

Amplify’d from www.boston.com

In Protest

Taking their desires to be heard to the streets, thousands of protesters and demonstrators around the world have recently been marching, shouting, praying, and engaging in both theater and violence to make their points. From quiet, prayerful requests for peace in Mexico to the violent takeover of an office building in London to student demonstrators in Chile and gay rights activists making a statement to the Pope in Spain, the past two weeks has been full of protest. Their reasons are many - anger with austerity measures, frustration with incumbent governments and globalization, frustration with policies in other countries - even protests against other protesters. Collected here is a view of protests and demonstrations around the world over the past two weeks. (50 photos total)

An activist from the women rights organization "Femen" shouts at an Interior Ministry officer as she takes part in a rally to support Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, by the Iranian embassy in Kiev, November 3, 2010. Ashtiani, whose sentence of execution by stoning for adultery provoked a worldwide outcry, will instead be hanged for the murder of her husband, a human rights group said. (REUTERS/Konstantin Chernichkin) 2 Students demonstrate on November 17, 2010 in the center of Rome against reforming universities and budget cuts decided by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's center-right government. Altogether more than 100 rallies took place in Italy. Over the last two years, the Berlusconi government adopted several new bills, which cut the education budget by 9 billion euros and remove 130,000 jobs over the 2009-2013 period. (FILIPPO MONTEFORTE/AFP/Getty Images) # 3 Devotees pray during a multi-religious demonstration to ask for peace and stop to violence in downtown Monterrey, Mexico, Saturday Nov. 13, 2010. (AP Photo/Carlos Jasso) # 4 Polish anti-fascists, dressed as Nazi death camp prisoners, sit on a street to block far-right demonstrators during rallies held to mark the country's independence day in Warsaw, November 11, 2010. Fighting broke out when several thousand far-right demonstrators found their path blocked by a much larger gathering of anti-fascist organizations in the Polish capital. (WOJTEK RADWANSKI/AFP/Getty Images) # 5 Indian police use a water cannon to try to disperse supporters of India's ruling Congress party as they protest outside the office of Hindu Nationalist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in New Delhi, India on Friday, Nov. 12, 2010. The protest was against former RSS chief K. Sudershan who recently alleged that Congress party President Sonia Gandhi is a Central Intelligence Agency agent and is behind the murders of her husband Rajiv Gandhi and mother-in-law Indira Gandhi. (AP Photo/Saurabh Das) # 6 Members of the U.S. Park Police arrest a veteran and gay rights activist who had handcuffed himself to the fence of the White House during a protest November 15, 2010 in Washington, D.C. Activists staged the protest to call on the Obama Administration and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to keep their promises on repealing the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, which prevented gay people from serving openly, during the lame-duck session of the Congress. (Alex Wong/Getty Images) # 7 Protesters supporting Western Sahara are pushed by Spanish police while they shout slogans during a protest against the Moroccan government, outside of Madrid's Interior Ministry, Tuesday, Nov. 16, 2010. Moroccan authorities had earlier forcibly removed thousands of Saharawis from a protest camp, resulting in a number of deaths of both protesters and security forces. (AP Photo/Daniel Ochoa de Olza) # 8 A protester wears a Barack Obama mask while holding a mask of Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan during an anti-APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) demonstration near the APEC summit venue in Yokohama, Japan, Saturday, Nov. 13, 2010. The sign reads "Yes we can WAR". (AP Photo/Greg Baker) # 9 Several Chilean women are seen in a mine called "El Chiflon del Diablo" (The Devil's Draft) in Lola, some 500kms south of Santiago, Chile on November 16, 2010. Thirty-three women descended 500 m into the El Chiflon del Diablo mine - an unused carbon mine which now operates as a tourist attraction - in protest of the elimination of a labor program of which they belonged and have threatened starting a hunger-strike. (Camila Lasalle Ramirez/AFP/Getty Images) # 10 In Stockholm on November 14, 2010, Iraqi Christians hold pictures of some of the 53 people who were killed on October 31 in attack at the main Syriac Catholic cathedral in Baghdad, Iraq, as they demonstrate against attacks on churches. An estimated 800,000 Christians lived in Iraq before the US-led invasion of 2003, but that number has since shrunk to around 500,000 in the face of repeated attacks against their community and churches. (JONATHAN NACKSTRAND/AFP/Getty Images) # 11 Gymnasium owners, employees and sympathizers dance in front of the Portuguese parliament Friday, Nov. 12 2010, protesting the government's plan to increase taxes on sports activities. The tax hike is part of the government's package of measures to deal with the country's current financial crisis. (AP Photo/Armando Franca) # 12 Activists of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) argue with police outside the Dhaka cantonment in Dhaka, Bangladesh on November 13, 2010. Bangladeshi police battled with opposition activists who went on the rampage in the capital Dhaka protesting the alleged eviction of a former prime minister from her home. Officials said Khaleda Zia, leader of the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party and a two-time ex-prime minister, left her sprawling house in a military district of Dhaka "willingly" after a court deadline to vacate the home expired on Friday. (MUNIR UZ ZAMAN/AFP/Getty Images) # 13 In this image released by Spectral Q, people form the phrase "THE END?" on an island at the barrier reef off the coast of Belize City, Belize, Saturday Nov. 13, 2010. The demonstration was held on the final day of the Belize Reef Summit which urged global leaders to take strong action for the environment at the upcoming U.N. Climate Change Conference in Cancun, Mexico. (AP Photo/Spectral Q, Lou Dematteis) # 14 A supporter of Myanmar democracy champion Aung San Suu Kyi demonstrates in Trafalgar Square, London November 13, 2010. Aung San Suu Kyi walked out of her home to cheers from thousands of supporters on Saturday after Myanmar's military rulers released her from seven years of house arrest. (REUTERS/Paul Hackett) # 15 A demonstrator is arrested by South Korean police during an anti-G20 protest on November 12, 2010 in Seoul, South Korea. World leaders converged on Seoul for the fifth meeting of the G20 group of nations to discuss the global financial system and world economy. South Korea is the first non G-8 country to host the G20 summit. (Lee Myung-Ik/Getty Images) # 16 Pakistani tribesmen gather next to burning oil tankers carrying fuel for NATO forces, in Chaman, southwest Pakistan on Saturday, Nov. 13, 2010. Thousands of people protesting the killing of a tribal elder by unknown gunmen in Chaman district of southwest Pakistan attacked a NATO supply convoy, setting four oil tankers on fire, a police official said. (AP Photo/Shah Khalid) # 17 Protesters shout slogans at an anti-APEC rally in Yokohama, south of Tokyo November 14, 2010. (REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon) # 18 Vittoria Risi, a Venetian porn star, and members of "Venessia.com", a group of campaigners for the defense of the city of Venice, parade in gondolas during a protest called "Welcome to Veniceland" to ask local authorities to provide affordable housing for locals and to diversify Venice's economy away from tourism on November 14, 2010 in Venice, Italy. With 25 million tourists visiting each year compared to only 59,000 local residents, they claim that Venice is becoming "Veniceland", an amusement theme park. (ANDREA PATTARO/AFP/Getty Images) # 19 Bulgarian scientists hold candles during a silent rally in central Sofia, Tuesday Nov. 16. 2010. Hundreds of scientists from the Bulgarian Sciences Academy gathered to continue their protest against the severe budget cuts and the neglectful policy on science and education. (AP Photo/Valentina Petrova) # 20 Demonstrators wave Saharawi flags and shout slogans during a pro-Saharawi protest in Madrid, Spain on November 13, 2010. Clashes between security forces and protesters in Western Sahara killed several people on Monday after Moroccan authorities stormed the site of the disputed territory's biggest anti-government protest in decades. (REUTERS/Andrea Comas) # 21 An image taken on November 8, 2010 and released by the Moroccan gendarmerie on November 15 shows an apparent vehicle of the Moroccan gendarmerie spraying water from a watergun towards alleged protesters near Laayoune. Moroccan forces dismantled a camp on November 8, housing thousands of refugees in the Western Sahara leaving four dead and scores injured, according to the rival sides. The security forces were ordered to empty a camp housing some 12,000 people set up four weeks ago outside Laayoune, the main town in the Western Sahara, in a protest against the deterioration of living standards. (HO/AFP/Getty Images) # 22 Activists of the transsexual, gay and lesbian community participate in a protest demanding for the right to choose a name according to their gender along a street in San Salvador on November 15, 2010. The slogans on the T-shirts read, "I choose to be called... Lucero/Pamela". (Jose CABEZAS/AFP/Getty Images) # 23 Thousands of Communist Party supporters wave flags during the protest rally in central Athens on November 15, 2010 against the IMF-EU troika visit in Athens and the expected new austerity package. Greece acknowledged it would breach conditions for a new installment of a 110-billion-euro bailout as the IMF and European Union began an audit of the country's austerity measures. (LOUISA GOULIAMAKI/AFP/Getty Images) # 24 A Bulgarian girl with a gas mask attends a rally against the upcoming visit of Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in Sofia on November 13, 2010. Bulgaria's state energy holding BEH and Russian gas giant Gazprom will set up on Saturday a joint venture to build and operate the Bulgarian stretch of the South Stream gas pipeline from Russia to southern Europe. (DIMITAR DILKOFF/AFP/Getty Images) # 25 Students carry books on their heads during a protest in front of Sofia University in Bulgaria on November 16, 2010. Hundreds of university students and lecturers rallied in central Sofia on Tuesday to protest against the cuts in funding for universities and the lack of clear strategy for reforms of the Balkan country's education system. (REUTERS/Stoyan Nenov) # 26 A Palestinian protester holding his national flag confronts an Israeli soldier during a demonstration against Israel's separation barrier in the West Bank village of Maasarah near Bethlehem on November 12, 2010. (MUSA AL-SHAER/AFP/Getty Images) # 27 Protesters hold signs as they march to Southern Methodist University where a ground- breaking ceremony was being held for the George W. Bush Presidential Library in Dallas on Tuesday, Nov. 16, 2010. (AP Photo/Mike Fuentes) # 28 A high school student is detained by riot police during a protest outside the Chilean congress in Valparaiso city, about 121 km (75 miles) northwest of Santiago, Chile on November 16, 2010. Over 60 students protested on Tuesday at the parliament against changes to the public state education and are demanding the government to increase their budget to fund universities. (REUTERS/Eliseo Fernandez) # 29 Iranian security guards drag partially-dressed female protesters away from a hall during an Iranian cultural event in Kiev November 11, 2010. Activists from the women's rights organization "Femen" staged the protest in support of Iranian citizen Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, accused both of adultery and of being complicit in her husband's murder. (REUTERS/Gleb Garanich) # 30 Demonstrators struggle with riot police as they try to march during an anti-G20 protest in downtown Seoul, South Korea on November 11, 2010. (REUTERS/Jo Yong-Hak) # 31 A body of a man killed by police lies on the ground in the Cosa neighborhood of Conakry, Guinea amid a violent protest against the electoral victory of opposition leader Alpha Conde on November 16, 2010. The post-election violence has left at least four dead since Monday, three of whom were killed by security forces, according to various sources. No official death toll has been released. (Cellou Diallo/AFP/Getty Images) # 32 Italian Policemen walk ahead of students demonstrating against government's education reforms in Rome, Wednesday, Nov. 17, 2010. Students demonstrated Wednesday in many cities all over Italy against Education minister Mariastella Gelmini's policy on high school and higher education. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia) # 33 An Indian police vehicle burns after protesters set on fire after Eid prayers at Anantnag, some 55 kilometers (34 miles) south of Srinagar, India, Wednesday, Nov. 17, 2010. Security forces fired warning shots and tear gas to quell protests in restive Indian-controlled Kashmir on Wednesday, after prayers marking a Muslim festival led to street demonstrations against Indian rule. (AP Photo) # 34 Vietnam War veterans form a line to block an anti-gay protest held by members of the Westboro Baptist Church (rear, hidden) at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia on Veterans Day, November 11, 2010. (REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque) # 35 Police detain a student protester inside the besieged Millbank Tower home of the Conservative Party headquarters on November 10, 2010 in London, England. Student groups were protesting against the government's proposed funding cuts to education and an increase in tuition fees (Matthew Lloyd/Getty Images) # 36 Demonstrators protest on the roof of the Conservative Party headquarters building in central London November 10, 2010. A group of protesters against higher university tuition fees broke into the headquarters of Britain's governing Conservative party on Wednesday, smashing the glass reception area and streaming up onto the roof. (REUTERS/Paul Hackett) # 37 Police officers stand outside the Conservative Party headquarters building during a protest in central London November 10, 2010. (REUTERS/Paul Hackett) # 38 Farmers shout slogans at a rally against Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) talks in Tokyo November 10, 2010. Thousands of Japanese farmers rallied on Wednesday to demand their government steer clear of a U.S.-led free trade initiative which would open the heavily protected agricultural sector to fierce competition. (REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon) # 39 A man holds placards during a protest against U.S. President Barack Obama's visit to Indonesia, in Jakarta November 9, 2010. (REUTERS/Dadang Tri) # 40 A general view of the Saharawi protest camp on the outskirts of Western Sahara's main city, Laayoune, November 6, 2010. Before it was recently leveled by Moroccan authorities, the thousands in this camp amounted to be the biggest protest in three decades in Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony annexed by Morocco in 1975 and now the subject of Africa's longest-running territorial dispute. Picture taken November 6, 2010. (REUTERS/Youssef Boudlal) # 41 Anti-nuclear protesters block train tracks near Harlingen, Germany in the early hours of the morning on November 8, 2010. After a weekend of heavy protests, which at times turned violent as police with truncheons charging demonstrators, protesters aimed to block a train carrying a cargo of nuclear waste from France to Germany to the underground storage facility in Gorleben in northern Germany. (JOCHEN LUEBKE/AFP/Getty Images) # 42 An anti-nuclear protester places a firecracker under a police vehicle near Leitstade, northern Germany, on Sunday, Nov. 7, 2010. The activists are protesting against a castor train transporting nuclear waste that is underway from French La Hague to the nuclear interim storage plant in nearby Gorleben. (AP Photo/dapd, Axel Heimken) # 43 An anti-nuclear activist with a radiation symbol embroidered on his hat, during a demonstration on a field near the embarking station in Dannenberg, Germany on November 6, 2010. German police and anti-nuclear groups expected about thirty thousand demonstrators to try to block the transportation of CASTOR rail containers of reprocessed German nuclear waste from the La Hague reprocessing plant in France to the Gorleben interim storage facility in Germany. (REUTERS/Christian Charisius) # 44 A woman holds a poster reading "Journalist Oleg Kashin has been beaten. I demand to find the persons who attacked him" during a picket at the headquarters of Moscow police department in Moscow on November 7, 2010. A leading Russian reporter was put into an induced coma after an attack in central Moscow, and remained in a serious condition in hospital, reports said. Kashin, who covers the sensitive issues of opposition protests and youth groups for the respected Kommersant daily, suffered fractures to his jaw, concussion and broken fingers in the attack early Saturday. (Alexey SAZONOV/AFP/Getty Images) # 45 A gay couple kisses in protest as Pope Benedict XVI arrives in Santiago de Compostela, Spain on November 6, 2010. (PEDRO ARMESTRE/AFP/Getty Images) # 46 Egyptian Muslim activist Mahitab Al Gilani lights a candle and holds flowers during a protest against Last week's al-Qaida militant attack in a Baghdad church that left 58 people dead, in front of the Iraqi embassy in Cairo Egypt on Monday, Nov. 8, 2010. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has assured the country's Coptic Christians the government will protect them in the face of al-Qaida threats. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil) # 47 A girl holds a sign reading "Obama's Bad" as U.S. Representative Mike Pence (R-IN) (left) and Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) (2nd left) address the group "Americans for Prosperity" as they hold a rally on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, November 15, 2010. (REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst) # 48 A Tibetan exile shouts slogans during a rally in New Delhi, India on November 15, 2010 to protest against the ongoing 16th Asian Games taking place in Guangzhou, China. (MANAN VATSYAYANA/AFP/Getty Images) # 49 Members of the media surround policewomen as they detain two members (obscured in middle of group) of the group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) after they staged a "naked" protest outside the venue of the upcoming G20 summit in Seoul, South Korea on November 9, 2010. The naked "Mother Earth" protesters wanted to warn G20 members about hazards of meat production ahead of the November 11-12 summit. (HOANG DINH NAM/AFP/Getty Images) # 50 A policeman detains a man during a protest rally to defend article 31 of the Russian constitution in Moscow October 31, 2010. Opposition activists have been holding demonstrations on the 31st day of each month to mark the article, which guarantees the right of assembly. (REUTERS/Nikolay Korchekov) # Read more at www.boston.com

 

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Doesn't this show that they are fallible?

Amplify’d from www.guardian.co.uk

Pope Benedict's condom U-turn

Pope Benedict XVI has cautiously but decisively removed the single most stupid and wicked policy of the Catholic church

Pope Benedicts XVI's change of heart on condoms marks a significant break with the damage done by one of his predecessors' most romantic, wicked and wrong-headed policies. The idea of an absolute ban on condoms makes no sense even within the framework of Catholic teaching. Since the purpose of the ban on artificial birth control is to make conception possible, it makes no sense at all in situations in which conception is utterly impossible. That is why Benedict chose a male prostitute as his example of someone who might use a condom to fight disease.

The really interesting question is whether his remarks are supposed to apply even in cases where conception would be possible: may a female prostitute demand that her customers use condoms (assuming for the moment that either party takes much notice of the pope's opinions)? May a wife whose husband is infected? May a husband who has married an HIV positive woman?

It is with questions such as these that the balance lies between regarding the Catholic ban on artificial contraception as merely the romantic wrong-headedness of celibate men, or something actively misogynistic and anti-human. The matter would be simpler, of course, if the Catholic church banned all birth control. But it doesn't. It is only opposed to the effective forms.

But once it has admitted that it is sometimes all right to have sex for reasons other than procreation – and this is conceded, indeed claimed, by everyone who defends "Natural family planning", then the case for condoms as harm reduction becomes unanswerable. Indeed, until today, the question was the easiest way to make any English catholic bishop squirm. They know that their own flock uses artificial birth control. They did not enjoy pretending to believe that poor Africans should risk dying horribly rather than enjoying the liberties of rich Westerners. I say "pretending to believe" – there must be Catholic priests who believed in that aspect of their church's teaching but I have never knowingly met one.

Much will depend on how this decision is interpreted. The first signs are that it will be liberally interpreted where it matters and makes a difference.

According to Reuters,

"The original German text and the French and English versions of the book refer to a male prostitute but an excerpt in Italian in the Vatican newspaper uses female prostitute."

If this is a reliable sign that the concession will be interpreted more generously and celebrated on an official level, there is also some tiny chance that the good and pro-human bits of Catholic sexual teaching will sound less absurd and hypocritical. Most of the reasons for the 1968 ban on artificial contraception are discreditable: a desire to preserve the bella figura of the bureaucracy which had originally banned it; a wish not to admit a mistake; the romantic, idealised and wholly unrealistic vision of Karol Wojtyla, the future Pope John Paul II, when he was a member of the commission; a pervasive belief that Father knows best and Reverend Fathers best of all, even without any admissible experience.

There is, however, one point to the credit of the Christian view. One of the underlying impulses was to maintain that sex is not just an exchange of bodily fluids. It is something that people do, body and soul. The difference between good and bad sex is not a question of sensation. Nor is it wise or sensible to approach sex as a quest for more and more interesting sensations. Just possibly it will be easier for Catholics to talk in those terms in public when they are no longer yoked to a particularly cruel and stupid form of dogma. Read more at www.guardian.co.uk

 

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Amplify’d from www.americanthinker.com

Brave Old World

By Robert Ferguson

The effort to discredit global warming skeptics is warming up globally. Australian blogger Graham Readfearn reports on Naomi Oreskes' speaking tour of Australia:

As a celebrated historian, Professor Naomi Oreskes is interested in the origin of things - where ideas start from, what drives them and ultimately who propagates them.

Oreskes, Professor of History and Science Studies at the University of California San Diego, has just arrived in Australia on a whistle-stop speaking tour promoting her new book, co-authored with Erik Conway, titled Merchants of Doubt - How a handful of scientists obscured the truth on issues from tobacco smoke to global warming.

The book, five years in the writing, ultimately concludes that much of the world's scepticism on climate change - whether that be over the validity or certainty of the science of climate change, its causes or the need to act - is chiefly driven by a paranoid ideological fear of socialism and an unbending faith and belief in free-markets.

Put simply, free-market think-tanks such as the George C Marshall Institute, the Heartland Institute, The Science and Public Policy Institute and the Why-Can't-You-Just-Leave-us-Alone-While-We-Make-Oodles-of-Cash Institute (not a real institute) don't like industry to have to be held accountable.

Oreskes spoke to the ABC's Lateline program on this brand of scepticism which also drove shoulder-shrugs over acid rain, tobacco smoke and ozone depletion.

Says Oreskes, "It's part of this whole ideological program of challenging any science that could lead to government regulation, because it's part of an ideological conviction that all regulation is bad, that any time the government steps in to ‘protect' us from harm, that we're on the slippery slope to socialism, and this the ideology that you see underlying a kind of almost paranoid anti-communism. So even after the Cold War is over, these people are seeing reds under the bed."

Has Oreskes' snarky book indulged what Freud called "projection"? It is certainly demonstrable that her book's "carbon footprint" and "greed" slams on skeptics are so filled with hypocrisy they "stink on ice."

But this has to be the topper:

The book, five years in the writing, ultimately concludes that much of the world's scepticism on climate change - whether that be over the validity or certainty of the science of climate change, its causes or the need to act - is chiefly driven by a paranoid ideological fear of socialism[.]

As an average six-year-old might ask, "Gee, ya think?" (See an in-depth response to Oreskes

Does this sneering sentiment represent a strident admission by Oreskes -- and by extension, her comrades in the real "denial" camp -- that she has no fear of -- nay, embraces socialism? Is she saying, along with Newsweek Magazine, "We are all socialists now!"? Does she believe (and hold in disdain the fact) that the American Founders also gained -- after one of the most thorough, brilliant, and inspired studies in comparative governments and their flaws in "the course of human events" -- a "paranoid ideological fear" of the Leviathan State?

Here are just a few more "paranoid" anti-socialists:

"Today's debate about global warming is essentially a debate about freedom. The environmentalists would like to mastermind each and every possible (and impossible) aspect of our lives." - Vaclav Klaus, President of the Czech Republic

"If you love wealth more than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, depart from us in peace. We ask not your counsel nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains rest lightly upon you and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen."- Samuel Adams

"When plunder has become a way of life for a group of men living together in society, they create for themselves in the course of time a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it." - Frederic Bastiat

"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men." - Lord Action

Is Oreskes is a Progressive leftist? Does she have no problem with the EU's and the U.N.'s drive for "climate justice," massive wealth destruction -- smiley-faced "wealth redistribution" -- Malthusian-driven population control (reduction), and the turning of every human on the planet into a conscripted, interchangeable brick for the "ruling class's" construction of their utopian tower to heaven?

In SPPI's recent paper, "Dr Rajendra Pachauri and the IPCC - No Fossil Fool," Dennis Ambler reveals:

The UN narrative says that developed countries of the Northern Hemisphere must atone for their "climate sins" of generating wealth and comfortable lifestyles using fossil fuels, by scaling back their economies through a process of "Contraction" and then transferring much of that wealth to developing nations, to bring them up to the new lowered expectations of the developed nations, described as "Convergence. "

Thus will there ensue a just and equitable Global Community of Nations, all having equal shares of the so-called Global Commons of the atmosphere and the oceans and living sustainable low-tech life styles in a state of Climate Justice, guaranteed by the UN World Government. It has been aptly described by Professor Fred Singer as "taking money from the poor in rich countries and giving it to the rich in poor countries."

Under this UN vision, consumption of everything will be controlled and rationed, globally, even to the point of individual allowances for energy use and carbon dioxide emissions.

So, what's really bothering Oreskes?

Like those of Babylon's tyrants before her, are Oreskes' dreams troubled? Is she alarmed that, like Nebuchadnezzar's three Hebrew civil servants, Americans and their elected representatives are turning a deaf ear to the "consensus" heralds' daily shouting of "Fall down before the golden image! Everybody is doing it!"? As with Belshazzar, has her self-indulgent banquet been hushed by the sudden appearance of wall writings she cannot decipher?

That is to say, is she tormented seeing that the public is wakening to the real-world reality that since its inception, progressive, Radical Environmentalism has been a smooth skin stuffed with a filthy lie -- that the left's concerns are centered not on man's place in or relationship to the modern natural world, but rather on his relationship to the ancient Totalitarian State?

That is to say, Environmentalism's serially contrived alarms, calamities, and apocalyptic soothsaying are not scientific, but political; its Leviathan-feeding prescriptions are not foundational upon science or data-driven policy, but rather upon policy-driven data: unidirectional fabrications advanced by self-interested propaganda, intense intimidation, and "thirty pieces of silver."

The fog is clearing, and more are seeing that when confronted with choices between Truth and Falsehood, reality and deception, liberty and captivity, light and darkness, Oreskes' "green" rabble of adherents, agents, and dupes never fail to shout in unison, "Give us Barabbas!" As Chesterton might phrase it, when it comes to individual liberty and personal accountability, the Oreskes crowd reflexively employ a special sieve forged in the fires of Hell that catches and holds fast all the dross and allows the gold to wash away.

Welcome to Oreskes' brave old world.

Robert Ferguson is President of the Science and Public Policy Institute. Read more at www.americanthinker.com

 

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American Child support laws come from Soviet family law

Amplify’d from pr-usa.net

American Child support laws come from Soviet family law

Communism is alive and well and it runs the United States.  It is known child support and its enforcement.  For our own legislators and judges to embrace such laws violates their own constitutional and fidelity oaths that they took as public officials.  Passage and enforcement of such foreign laws constitutes treason and sedition. In Irwin Garfinkle's paper, "Sweden's Child Support System" (1982) is the current model for the state of Wisconsin which has been emulated by a large number of states in the U.S.   However, economics experts found that the child support system came from the former Soviet Union. The "Wisconsin Model" is based on Soviet Family Law, Article 81 of the The Russian Family Code, incorporated in 1964 and adopted in 1995.  This model invokes the income shares approach--how much each parent makes determines how much child support is paid, rather than the true cost of raising children. As the Communist Manifesto says: "Each according to ability; each according to his needs".  The "percentage of income" formula comes directly from the Russian lawbooks. The Russians used 25% for one child, 30% for two, and 35% for 3 or more. Sound familiar? This made sense in a country where most everyone was poor, prices were controlled, and the transfer of "wealth" was the most important fundamental ideal of the oppressive regime's entire economic system.  We have our own Constitution and a different relationship between government and private economy. It is anti-American to transplant social programs outside the political and economic context in which they develop because this inevitably leads to treason and sedition and the overthrow of our government by internal forces. The New Jersey "income shares model", rammed through without any public debate, was developed by Robert Williams of Policy Institute, Inc.  Williams makes his fortune off this child support formula.  It created his nationwide private child support collection agency empire.  Russian fathers (as do American fathers) pay the amount prescribed by the formula. There is no excuse for non-payment.  There are no deviations, exceptions, or consideration of individual circumstances (involuntary unemployment, disability, illness, etc).   Most payments in the Russian system (and American system) are taken directly by government. They are all processed by the central bureaucracy. The bureaucracy doesn't care about "special circumstances". There was no "individual" in Soviet society--only compliance. Those who found, or even look for, a way to avoid compliance in the Russian, as well as the American child support system, get jail (debtor's prison, prohibited by US and NJ Constitutions), credit problems (constitutes defamation as well as violating federal debt anti-discrimination laws), exclusion from work, loss of rights, and loss of government benefits. Sound strikingly familiar?  Government created child support hysteria, (notice that the public isn't falling for this hysteria) causes many to be jailed, causing loss of employment due to no fault of their own, thus, leaving people unable to fend for themselves. Russian Communists humiliated, condemned and ostracized fathers and called them "deadbeats" when they were unable to pay.  They put up posters with names and pictures of people who interfered with communist "efficiency".   The American child support enforcement tyranny uses identical tactics in this country.  Why then, are the biggest, most important U.S. social policy changes of the last 15-20 years based on the Soviet-Communist model? Why are the centralized computer systems purchased for the child support system powerful enough to keep track of intimate details of every person on the planet? Why have there been so many court decisions undermining the guarantees in the Bill of Rights?  It involves a completely foreign vision of the basic fundamental relationship between individuals and the state; something that is indeed, anti-American?  Those who say we won the Cold War are sadly mistaken. Judges, child support workers, law enforcement, politicians, and others involved in this communistic redistribution of wealth scam are in direct violation of the United States Constitution.  Why?  Because these public officials took an Oath of Office to uphold, defend and support the U.S. Constitution and respective state constitution.  By adopting and embracing Soviet child support laws in the United States is a direct attack upon the United States Constitution and constitutes felony Official Misconduct--an impeachable offense.  It also constitutes a declaration of war against the United States.  That would constitute treason.  The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) has stated that:   "No state legislator or executive or judicial officer can war against the Constitution without violating his undertaking to support it.".   Cooper v. Aaron, 358 U.S. 1, 78 S.Ct. 1401 (1958).    Any judge who does not comply with his oath to the Constitution of the United States wars against that Constitution and engages in acts in violation of the Supreme Law of the Land.  The judge is engaged in acts of treason.   Having taken at least two, if not three, oaths of office to support the Constitution of the United States, and respective state constitution,  any judge who has acted in violation of the Constitution is engaged in an act or acts of treason. If a judge does not fully comply with the Constitution, then his orders are void, In re Sawyer, 124 U.S. 200 (1888), he is without jurisdiction, and he has engaged in an act or acts of treason. Whenever a judge acts where he does not have jurisdiction to act, the judge is engaged in an act or acts of  treason. U.S. v. Will, 449 U.S. 200, 216, 101 S.Ct. 471, 66 L.Ed.2d 392, 406 (1980); Cohens v. Virginia, 19 U.S. (6 Wheat) 264, 404, 5 L.Ed 257 (1821). Pursuant to the legal encyclopedia used by the legal community for research, the Corpus Juris Secundum, Officers, Section 60, states:  "A requirement that public employees take an oath that they will not only uphold and defend the state and federal constitutions, but also that they will oppose the overthrow of the government by force, violence, or any illegal or unconstitutional method, is valid".  Citing the U.S. Supreme Court case of Cole v. Richardson, 405 U.S. 676, 92 S.Ct. 1332 (1972). We are headed in the wrong direction for this country. Government is passing more and more draconian child support enforcement laws and related domestic violence laws every day. Government oppression is at its highest pinnacle since the British ruled this country over 225 years ago.  For what? Because some bureaucracy wants to remain employed by violating and depriving the people of their fundamentally secured rights? It has become big government-big business. Just like in the Soviet Union. Bruce Eden, Civil Rights Director DADS (Dads Against Discrimination)--New Jersey b_eden@verizon.net www.dadsamerica.org Read more at pr-usa.net

 

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'Economy barely has a pulse' yet Dems don't get tax-cut message

Amplify’d from thehill.com

McConnell: 'Economy barely has a pulse' yet Dems don't get tax-cut message

By Gautham Nagesh

Despite their drubbing at the hands of the Republicans in the midterm elections, Democrats have still not acknowledged the public's message by focusing on policies that create jobs, according to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). In Saturday's weekly GOP address, McConnell accused Democrats of using the final days of the lame-duck session to focus on a number of controversial issues at the expense of extending the Bush tax cuts for all Americans, including immigration, environmental regulations and a reorganization of the Food and Drug Administration. The tax cuts expire at the end of the year; Democrats have vowed not to extend them for the highest income tax bracket.

“Democrats put off all these things until after the election, along with the most basic task of funding the government. By focusing on them now, and not on legislation to promote job creation and reduce spending, they’re showing where their priorities lie," McConnell said. McConnell argued Congress' No. 1 job must be passing bills that focus on job creation, which means preventing tax hikes. He pledged the GOP would work with anyone from either party supportive of that goal. “Time is running out. But it’s not too late for both parties to work together and prevent this massive tax hike from going into effect. It’s not too late to focus on the priorities of the American people," McConnell said. “Americans spoke loudly and clearly on Election Day. We owe it to them to show we heard them — to work together to get this done."

Earlier in his address McConnell poked at the administration over the Recovery Act in the face of an unemployment rate that remains nearly 10 percent. “Here was a bill that was supposed to create millions of jobs and keep unemployment from rising above eight percent," McConnell said. "Yet, since Democrats passed it nearly two years ago, more than three million people have lost jobs and the economy barely has a pulse."Read more at thehill.com

 

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Amplify’d from www.naplesnews.com

Gingrich: Ave Maria to help Catholic-based legal system replace left, secular judicial branch

By KELLY FARRELL

Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich spoke of the importance Ave Maria School of Law will have in replacing the current liberal, secular legal system during the law school’s 10th Anniversary celebration held at the Naples Ritz Carlton Beach Resort on Friday night.

The potential 2012 presidential hopeful converted to Roman Catholicism in 2009, which is the same year the law school relocated from Ann Arbor, Mich., to Naples.

The law school’s students would be prepared to write the laws, defend the laws and defeat the left, Gingrich said. The modern, secular law, he said, can be seen every few minutes on TV.

“Ads on television, basically say ‘do you know somebody with money we could mug together?’ …Call…’” Gringrich said.

This school matters, he said, by replacing the “neutral technology for the redistribution of wealth” with a morally-based legal system.

“There is no such thing as a Supreme Court… Between the Executive and Legislative branches, the Judicial Branch is the weakest of the three branches,” Gingrich said. He described the Supreme Court, current Judicial Branch and U.S. legal system as an “arrogant, secular and elitist force.”

Gingrich was chosen as the keynote speaker for the school’s anniversary due to his continued support, said Ave Maria spokesman John Knowles.

“We like Newt because he’s a globally recognized person. He’s known around the world as an ideas person,” Knowles said.

The anniversary event was the largest fundraiser for the Ave Maria scholarship fund to date, Knowles said, estimating that the net amount of money raised will amount to six figures.

“It’s a great sense of accomplishment,” Knowles said of the 10-year milestone. “There were some who doubted we’d make it this far, but here we are.” Read more at www.naplesnews.com

 

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