Blog Smith is inspired by the myth of Hephaestus in the creation of blacksmith-like, forged materials: ideas. This blog analyzes topics that interest me: IT, politics, technology, history, education, music, and the history of religions.
"We find unity in our incredible diversity, drawing on the promise enshrined in our Constitution: the notion that we are all created equal..."
Oops! It is in the Declaration of Independence that states:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
Home Jane is a team of professional tradeswomen with the skills needed to solve home repair issues.
Another clip of the "Not True" mouthing:
Rep. Chris Smith (R.-N.J.), co-chairman of the House Pro-Life Caucus, stated at Friday’s 37th annual March for Life that Americans need to pray for Obama because he is “obsessed” with promoting abortion.
Smith remarked: “I think we need to pray. We need to fast. We need to pray for Obama. He is so obsessed with promoting abortion. All of his picks for secretary, under-secretary, assistant-secretary--all the gate-keepers in government--are now litmus-tested pro-abortionists, many of whom come right out of the abortion-rights movement. And these movement abortionists are trying to use everything when we know it, or sometimes when we don’t know it, behind the scenes, to promote this agenda. So this is an aggressive pro-abortion administration.”
“Clinton was awful," Smith continued. It’s even worse under President Obama. So the hard work, the re-doubling of our efforts, the educational efforts. Obviously, the 40 Days for Life, and all the other great ministries that are out on the front line saving women who are at great peril and risk. The post-abortive work that is done so magnificently by this movement needs to accelerate.”
“All of that combined, you know, this is the greatest human rights struggle on earth, and I think everyone needs to realize that we need to do even more,” Smith stated.
Smith (R-N.J.) also said that the Senate's including abortion funding in its version of the health care bill helped kill the legislation.
“Without a doubt,” said Smith. “Congressman Bart Stupak [D-Mich.] and the pro-life Democrats on the House side were absolutely resolute and courageous in saying they would not vote for any health care that did not have pro-life safeguards in it, and certainly something that wouldn’t have pro-abortion language in it, and the Senate bill was riddled with pro-abortion expansions, more funding -- and so, frankly, that is why it is now dead.”
The Stupak amendment, which is part of the House health care legislation, would prohibit the federal government from allocating taxpayer money to pay for any part of any health insurance plan that covers abortion except in cases of rape, incest, or when the life of the mother is in danger.
Smith cautioned pro-life Americans, however, to not ease up in the fight against federal funding of health plans that cover abortion.
“I am very concerned, though, that President Obama and the Democratic leadership will find some way to resurrect the abortion-funding push,” Smith said. “Right now, effective beginning of our fiscal year, the District of Columbia is now paying for abortions-on-demand because President Obama, the abortion president, forced that into the appropriations bill.”
“So they have not given up, nor have we,” he said. “But I think we should not have a false sense of security about where this administration is going.”
Smith went on to say that the Obama administration is implementing a sweeping pro-abortion agenda.
“They’re also empowering pro-abortion, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and giving them not millions, but billions of dollars at home and abroad to promote the abortion agenda,” Smith stated. “They have kind of deputized all of these NGOs in Africa, Latin America, and in the United States through Planned Parenthood and these other organizations to promote and expand abortions.”
Smith added, “Let’s not forget one group: Planned Parenthood alone does 305,000 abortions every year in the United States, well over a million globally. They’re getting money in massive amounts to promote this killing agenda. So we’ve had good news. But we’re still in this, and we have to be very sober about what lies ahead.”
Smith added “We want no complicity whatsoever,” Smith said. “(A)nd most Americans, according to the polls, want no complicity as well with killing babies and wounding mothers. We know beyond any reasonable doubt now that the women who procure abortions suffer emotionally, mentally, psychologically, spiritually. We know that subsequent children born to women who have aborted suffer anywhere from a third to almost plus-90 percent prematurity for their subsequent children.”
“The leading cause of mental and motor retardation in this country -- and anywhere else as well -- is prematurity and low birth weight,” said Smith. “Why do we want to expand disability when it is in that instance preventable?”
Smith added that the more the government subsidizes abortion, the more abortion increases.
“We need to realize that, when you pay for it, you get more of it,” said Smith. “Even the Guttmacher Institute has found that when we pay for abortions -- and they’ve done studies on this -- you get 25 percent or more abortions because the government is facilitating and providing the ways and means to enable that abortion. Money does play a factor.”
“So when you take out the money,” he said, “you’re in a much greater position to say, ‘Wait a minute, we not only will not subsidize it, but there’s a reason why: Because it destroys babies, and because it wounds mothers.’”
At the March for Life, Smith addressed tens of thousands of Americans, urging them to resist the Obama administration’s pro-abortion agenda.
“President Obama, is it really so hard to understand that abortion is violence against children, a pernicious form of child abuse, falsely marketed as choice, a human right, health care and safe?” Smith said. “Abortion isn’t health care. There is nothing whatsoever benign, healing or nurturing about abortion.”
The March for Life on Jan. 22 is an annual pro-life rally held in Washington, D.C., since 1974 to remember and protest the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision, which legalized elective abortion across the United States
A transcript of the exchange between CNSNews.com and Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) follows below:
CNSNews.com: "The Senate health care bill which allowed tax money to go to health care plans which cover abortion is essentially dead according to Democratic leaders. Do you think the abortion language played a factor in the bill’s demise?”
Smith: “Without a doubt. Congressman Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) and the pro-life Democrats on the House side were absolutely resolute and courageous in saying they would not vote for any health care that did not have pro-life safeguards in it, and certainly something that would not have pro-abortion language in it, and the Senate bill was riddled with pro-abortion expansions, more funding, and so frankly, that is why it is now dead.
"I'm very concerned, though, that President Obama and the Democratic leadership will find someway to resurrect the abortion funding. Right now, effective beginning of our fiscal year, the District of Columbia is now paying for abortions on demand because President Obama, the abortion president, forced that into the appropriations bill. So they have not given up, nor have we. But I think we should not have a false sense of security about where this administration is going.
“They’re also empowering pro-abortion, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and giving them not millions, but billions of dollars at home and abroad to promote the abortion agenda. They have kind of deputized all of these NGOs in Africa, Latin America , and in the United States through Planned Parenthood and these other organizations to promote and expand abortions.
“Let’s not forget one group: Planned Parenthood alone does 305,000 abortions every year in the United States, well over a million globally. They’re getting money in massive amounts to promote this killing agenda. So we’ve had good news, but we’re still in this, and we have to be very sober about what lies ahead.”
CNSNews.com: “All right. So you mentioned that pro-life Americans should not become complacent for the pro-life cause. What should pro-life Americans continue to do in order to keep the pro-life cause?”
Smith: “I think we need to pray. We need to fast. We need to pray for Obama. He is so obsessed with promoting abortion. All of his picks for secretary, under-secretary, assistant-secretary -- all the gate-keepers in government -- are now litmus-tested pro-abortionists, many of whom come right out of the abortion-rights movement. And these movement abortionists are trying to use everything when we know it, or sometimes when we don’t know it, behind the scenes, to promote this agenda. So this is a—an aggressive pro-abortion administration.
"Clinton was awful. It’s even worse under President Obama. So the hard work, the re-doubling of our efforts, the educational efforts. Obviously, the 40 Days for Life and all the other great ministries that are out on the front line saving women who are at great peril and risk. The post-abortive work that is done so magnificently by this movement needs to accelerate. All of that combined, you know, this is the greatest human rights struggle on earth, and I think everyone needs to realize that we need to do even more.”
CNSNews.com: “So you led the charge with other House members for the Stupak amendment in the House bill. Why do you feel that it is important that federal funding of abortion not be any part of a health care bill?”
Smith: “Well, first of all, we want no complicity whatsoever, and most Americans, according to the polls, want no complicity as well with killing babies and wounding mothers. We know beyond any reasonable doubt now that the women who procure abortions suffer emotionally, mentally, psychologically, spiritually. We know that subsequent children born to women who have aborted suffer anywhere from a third to almost plus-90 percent prematurity for their subsequent children. The leading cause of mental and motor retardation in this country, and anywhere else as well, is prematurity and low birth weight. Why do we want to expand disability when it is in that instance preventable?
“So we need to realize that when you pay for it you get more of it. Even the Guttmacher Institute has found that when we pay for abortions—and they’ve done studies on this—you get 25 percent or more abortions because the government is facilitating and providing the ways and means to enable that abortion. Money does play a factor. So when you take out the money, you’re in a much greater position to say, “Wait a minute, we not only will not subsidize it, but there’s a reason why: Because it destroys babies, and because it wounds mothers.”
15-year-old Egyptian girl Dina el-Gowhary, who converted from Islam to Christianity, has sent a plea to President Obama, complaining of mistreatment by the Egyptian Government and asking for his mediation. "Mr President Obama," she writes, "we are a minority in Egypt. We are treated very badly. You said that the Muslim minority in America are treated very well, so why are we not treated here likewise? We are imprisoned in our own home because Muslim clerics called for the murder of my father, and now the Government has set for us a new prison, we are imprisoned in our own country."
Econstories.tv is a place to learn about economics in a more contemporary manner.
In "Fear the Boom and Bust," John Maynard Keynes and F. A. Hayek, two of the great economists of the 20th century, come back to life to attend an economics conference on the economic crisis. Before the conference begins, and at the insistence of Lord Keynes, they go out for a night on the town and sing about why there's a "boom and bust" cycle in modern economies and good reason to fear it.
"Fear the Boom and Bust"
We’ve been going back and forth for a century
[Keynes] I want to steer markets,
[Hayek] I want them set free
There’s a boom and bust cycle and good reason to fear it
[Hayek] Blame low interest rates.
[Keynes] No… it’s the animal spirits
[Keynes Sings:]
John Maynard Keynes, wrote the book on modern macro
The man you need when the economy’s off track, [whoa]
Depression, recession now your question’s in session
Have a seat and I’ll school you in one simple lesson
BOOM, 1929 the big crash
We didn’t bounce back—economy’s in the trash
Persistent unemployment, the result of sticky wages
Waiting for recovery? Seriously? That’s outrageous!
I had a real plan any fool can understand
The advice, real simple—boost aggregate demand!
C, I, G, all together gets to Y
Make sure the total’s growing, watch the economy fly
We’ve been going back and forth for a century
[Keynes] I want to steer markets,
[Hayek] I want them set free
There’s a boom and bust cycle and good reason to fear it
[Hayek] Blame low interest rates.
[Keynes] No… it’s the animal spirits
You see it’s all about spending, hear the register cha-ching
Circular flow, the dough is everything
So if that flow is getting low, doesn’t matter the reason
We need more government spending, now it’s stimulus season
So forget about saving, get it straight out of your head
Like I said, in the long run—we’re all dead
Savings is destruction, that’s the paradox of thrift
Don’t keep money in your pocket, or that growth will never lift…
because…
Business is driven by the animal spirits
The bull and the bear, and there’s reason to fear its
Effects on capital investment, income and growth
That’s why the state should fill the gap with stimulus both…
The monetary and the fiscal, they’re equally correct
Public works, digging ditches, war has the same effect
Even a broken window helps the glass man have some wealth
The multiplier driving higher the economy’s health
And if the Central Bank’s interest rate policy tanks
A liquidity trap, that new money’s stuck in the banks!
Deficits could be the cure, you been looking for
Let the spending soar, now that you know the score
My General Theory’s made quite an impression
[a revolution] I transformed the econ profession
You know me, modesty, still I’m taking a bow
Say it loud, say it proud, we’re all Keynesians now
We’ve been goin’ back n forth for a century
[Keynes] I want to steer markets,
[Hayek] I want them set free
There’s a boom and bust cycle and good reason to fear it
[Keynes] I made my case, Freddie H
Listen up , Can you hear it?
Hayek sings:
I’ll begin in broad strokes, just like my friend Keynes
His theory conceals the mechanics of change,
That simple equation, too much aggregation
Ignores human action and motivation
And yet it continues as a justification
For bailouts and payoffs by pols with machinations
You provide them with cover to sell us a free lunch
Then all that we’re left with is debt, and a bunch
If you’re living high on that cheap credit hog
Don’t look for cure from the hair of the dog
Real savings come first if you want to invest
The market coordinates time with interest
Your focus on spending is pushing on thread
In the long run, my friend, it’s your theory that’s dead
So sorry there, buddy, if that sounds like invective
Prepared to get schooled in my Austrian perspective
We’ve been going back and forth for a century
[Keynes] I want to steer markets,
[Hayek] I want them set free
There’s a boom and bust cycle and good reason to fear it
[Hayek] Blame low interest rates.
[Keynes] No… it’s the animal spirits
The place you should study isn’t the bust
It’s the boom that should make you feel leery, that’s the thrust
Of my theory, the capital structure is key.
Malinvestments wreck the economy
The boom gets started with an expansion of credit
The Fed sets rates low, are you starting to get it?
That new money is confused for real loanable funds
But it’s just inflation that’s driving the ones
Who invest in new projects like housing construction
The boom plants the seeds for its future destruction
The savings aren’t real, consumption’s up too
And the grasping for resources reveals there’s too few
So the boom turns to bust as the interest rates rise
With the costs of production, price signals were lies
The boom was a binge that’s a matter of fact
Now its devalued capital that makes up the slack.
Whether it’s the late twenties or two thousand and five
Booming bad investments, seems like they’d thrive
You must save to invest, don’t use the printing press
Or a bust will surely follow, an economy depressed
Your so-called “stimulus” will make things even worse
It’s just more of the same, more incentives perversed
And that credit crunch ain’t a liquidity trap
Just a broke banking system, I’m done, that’s a wrap.
We’ve been goin’ back n forth for a century
[Keynes] I want to steer markets,
[Hayek] I want them set free
There’s a boom and bust cycle and good reason to fear it
[Hayek] Blame low interest rates.
[Keynes] No it’s the animal spirits
The lyrics are presented here for educational purposes alone; copyright remains in the hands of the lawful owners.
“The ideas of economists and political philosophers, both when they are right and when they are wrong, are more powerful than is commonly understood. Indeed the world is ruled by little else. Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influence, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist.”
John Maynard Keynes
The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money
“The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design.”
F. A. Hayek
The Fatal Conceit
Econstories.tv is a project of the Mercatus Center at George Mason University and the The Productioneers, LLC.
No less than four times during the presidential debates did President Obama actively campaign against an across the board spending freeze.
Gary D. Fielder is a constitutional and criminal lawyer of 20 years. Mr. Fielder has conducted over 350 jury trials, appeared in Federal District Court, and argued before the Colorado Court of Appeals and Supreme Court. After graduating from the University of Texas at Austin, Mr. Fielder earned his Juris Doctorate at the University of San Diego in 1990. Mr. Fielder grew up in Eagle River, Alaska, and now lives in Denver.
Gary was mandated by the court to represent his client in the courthouse but he refused to be scanned by a body scanner under constitutional grounds that since he was not leaving the city and traveling between jurisdictions and since he had not violated any laws he had a right to not be scanned.
Bill Whittle Investigates: In Washington, DC radical Islam's influence over our government is growing and access to our national security secrets is part of a much larger strategy. Two whistleblowers have the chilling details.
USPS 44-Cent Stamp Celebrates Muslim holidays Eid Al-Fitr and Eid Al-Adha.
Eid ul-Fitr (Arabic: عيد الفطر ‘Īdu l-Fiṭr), often abbreviated to Eid, is a Muslim holiday that marks the end of Ramadan, the Islamic holy month of fasting. Eid is an Arabic word meaning "festivity", while Fiṭr means "to break fast"; and so the holiday symbolizes the breaking of the fasting period. It is celebrated after the end of the Islamic month of Ramadan, on the first day of Shawwal.
Eid al-Adha (Arabic: عيد الأضحى ‘Īdu l-’Aḍḥā) "Festival of Sacrifice" or "Greater Eid" is an important religious holiday celebrated by Muslims worldwide to commemorate the willingness of Abraham (Ibrahim) to sacrifice his son as an act of obedience to God, but instead was able to sacrifice a ram (by God's command). Eid is also about spending time with family and friends, sacrifice, and thanksgiving for being able to afford food and housing. In traditional or agrarian settings, each family would sacrifice a domestic animal, such as a sheep, goat, cow, or camel, by slaughter (though many contemporary Muslims do not sacrifice an animal as part of their observance). The meat would then be divided into three equal parts to be distributed to others. The family eats one third, another third is given to other relatives, friends or neighbors, and the other third is given to the poor as a gift.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations' Oklahoma chapter is calling on Sen. James Inhofe, R.-Okla., to meet with Muslim leaders to discuss his statement during a congressional hearing in favor of using religion and ethnicity as factors in profiling airline passengers.
Even Timothy McVeigh, the so-called domestic bomber, had ties to Muslim extremists, which, according to a Congressional report and an investigative journalist's research, was repressed.
Inhofe told the Senate panel that when "you hear that not all Middle Easterners or Muslims between the age of 20 and 35 are terrorists, but all terrorists are Muslims or Middle Easterners between the age of 20 and 35, that's by and large true."
O'Reilly vs. CAIR
Brother Tariq The Doublespeak of Tariq Ramadan Caroline Fourest
Caroline Fourest analysed Tariq Ramadan's 15 books, 1,500 pages of interviews, and approximately 100 recordings, and concludes "Ramadan is a war leader," and the "political heir of his grandfather," Hassan al-Banna, stating that his discourse is, "often just a repetition of the discourse that Banna had at the beginning of the 20th century in Egypt," and that he "presents [al-Banna] as a model to be followed." She argues that "Tariq Ramadan is slippery. He says one thing to his faithful Muslim followers and something else entirely to his Western audience. His choice of words, the formulations he uses – even his tone of voice – vary, chameleon-like, according to his audience."
Olivier Guitta, writing in The Weekly Standard, welcomed the U.S. decision to refuse Ramadan a visa, because Ramadan "calls Arabs ‘my brothers and sisters’ while addressing all others as ‘madam,’ ‘sir,’ or without any honorific." He further claimed that the former head of the French antiracism organization SOS Racisme, "Malek Boutih (an Arab Muslim), told Ramadan after talking with him at length: ‘Mr. Ramadan, you are a fascist.’" In an interview with Europe 1 Boutih likened him to "a small Le Pen"; in another interview he accused him of having crossed the line of racism and anti-Semitism, thus not genuinely belonging to the alter-globalization movement. Bertrand Delanoë, Socialist mayor of Paris, declared Ramadan unfit to participate at the European Social Forum, as not even "a slight suspicion of anti-Semitism" would be tolerable. Talking to the Paris weekly Marianne, Fadela Amara, president of Ni Putes Ni Soumises (Neither Whores Nor Submissive, a French feminist movement), Aurélie Filippetti, municipal counsellor for the The Greens in Paris, Patrick Klugman, leading member of the Conseil Représentatif des Institutions juives de France and Dominique Sopo, head of SOS-Racisme accuse Ramadan of having misused the alter-globalization movement's ingenuousness to advance his "radicalism and anti-Semitism." Egyptian intellectual Tarek Heggy has also charged Ramadan with saying different things to different audiences.
Christopher Caldwell, American journalist and senior editor at The Weekly Standard, as well as a regular contributor to the Financial Times and Slate, describes Ramadan as being "the very embodiment of double language," which Caldwell defines as, "not saying two different things to two different audiences," but, rather, as "preaching a consistent message that will be understood in different ways by two different audiences." According to Caldwell, "When Ramadan speaks of 'resistance," and calls on Muslims everywhere to wage it.." "Europeans... have chosen to believe that... he really means 'reform.' He does not. He means jihad."
"The 21st century collaboration" moves us from its traditional definition towards a new one with the developing web technologies.
Here is the second part of my collaboration tools list for techie collaborators.
Voxopop is
a message board system which lets you create talk groups that you can
talk, discuss and collaborate using your own voice. Some of you may
remember Voxopop as Chinswing in the past. You can listen to public
discussions though you need to join to create yours.You can
easily send group invitations, keep your discussion private, open or
restricted.You can delete it whenever you want. You can explore public
talk groups on Education, Learning and Language here.
EtherPad is
a web based word processor that lets you work with others at the same
time. When multiple users work on the same documents , you can get
feedback immediately. You know who contributed to the text, also all
changes are saved on the server in case you need to undo.
Mindmeister is
an online collaborative mind mapping tool that you can brainstorm with
others real-time. You can create your own mind maps on an award winning
interface or share them with your friends or collaborate with others
to create a collaborative map.
Survs lets
you create your online surveys collaborating with others in multi user
accounts. You can collect responses and analyze the results in real
time with others.
I'm sure many of us are familiar with VoiceThread. It's
a tool to have conversation around different kinds of media. It's one
of the best ways to talk and share about your images,documents or
videos. You create your Voicethread and others can leave comments by
telephone, text, web cam, microphone or file upload. Learn more about
it by watching this Voicethread.
Tgether allows
you to communicate in small groups by emails. You can share files,
track conversation and manage your group. You can share codes or use
3rd party applications that Tgther provides.
StoryBirds are
short and simple stories that connect you with others. Two or more
people can create a Storybird story by writing their own texts and
inserting pictures by taking turns. You can create your story with the
person sitting next to you or someone who is far away from you.
WebCanvas is
a collaborative painting project. You can paint using different basic
tools, upload or post professionally drawn images or you can watch
others paint live. This is an interesting project for artists though we
can still give a try.
AwesomeHighlighter is
the easiest way to highlight texts on web pages. When you finish
highlighting, you get a link and share it with others. If you like
this, you should also try Markkit.
Protagonize is
a community that writes collaborative, interactive fiction. One person
starts the story, the others post chapters to your story that will lead
it to different directions. At the end, it becomes an evolving story
which everyone can participate.
Mixbook
is a site that lets you create picture books with others. You start
creating your own book with pictures, invite a few friends to build the
rest of the book together.
Thinkature places an instant message inside a visual workspace with voice chat. You can use it as a collaboration environment, a meeting room or a personal whiteboard.
TextFlow is
a way to review document versions instantly to produce a final draft.
It matches all the different versions of the text to show you all the
suggestion in one single view.
LucidChart
is another way to collaborate on a document simultaneously. Everyone
can see the changes that have been made on the document .The difference
between the other word processors is that it has an built-in group chat
that makes it easier for you to collaborate.
Wikispaces is the best way to create collaborative web pages that you can edit and share together. You can watch Wikis in Plain English by Common Craft or visit the world's largest collaborative online encyclopedia,Wikipedia! Wikispaces are my favourite wikis, you can have a look at my wikispace though I've been using it as an e-portfolio.
Senduit lets you upload your files and share them with private links with your team.
With Stintio,
you can create your own chat in seconds. You can invite people to join
by simply sending a link. You don't download or install anything. You
chat will be deleted if it is not active for a while.
Yuuguu is an instant screen sharing and video conferencing too that lets you work together quickly and easily.
Voxli
allows you to hold voice conferences online. You can have a voice chat
up to 200 people. You can invite your teammates by only sending a link,
and you don't have to upload anything. You can use push to talk to
control your speaking even you are out of your browser.
Wridea
is an online idea management service and a collection of brainstorming
tools. You store, manage,organize and share your ideas to improve them
with others. You use the web interface or you write an email to your
wridea address to keep your ideas organized. You have pages and
categories that lets you improve your ideas easily and collaboratively.
Enjoy collaboration!
If you like reading this, you may consider reading 100 Web Tools to Enhance Collaboration (Part 1).
Senate Homeland Security Hearing on Northwest Flight 253
The Senate Homeland Security Committee is one of several committees inquiring into the attempted December 25th bombing of Northwest flight 253. This hearing focused on intelligence gathering and the sharing of information. None of the top three intelligence officials in the U.S., Janet Napolitano, Dennis Blair, and Michael Leiter were consulted.
At the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing, Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair questioned the decision to charge Abdulmutallab in civilian court, rather than treat him as a terrorism suspect subject to detention as an enemy combatant. Blair, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, and National Counterterrorism Center director Michael Leiter said they weren't consulted about the decision, a theme that has been pressing by some in recent weeks.
At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, administration officials acknowledged that Abdulmutallab should have been stopped from getting on the plane but was not because of a series of mistakes by law enforcement and intelligence officials.
Hong Kong remains the world's freest place to do business while the United States has lost its claim to an unrestricted economy, according to an annual report published Wednesday.
Hong Kong, a former British colony which was returned to China in 1997, edged out rival Singapore to claim top spot for the sixteenth consecutive year in the 2010 Index of Economic Freedom.
Australia and New Zealand grabbed third and fourth spot respectively.
The report is compiled by The Heritage Foundation, a conservative Washington-based think tank, and The Wall Street Journal.
Ireland, Switzerland, Canada, the United States, Denmark and Chile rounded out the top ten list, which is based on criteria including economic openness, trade, the efficiency of domestic regulators, and the rule of law.
But Canada pushed the US from the top seven economies deemed to have an entirely free economy due to "notable decreases in financial freedom, monetary freedom, and property rights," the report said.
"The US government?s interventionist responses to the financial and economic crisis that began in 2008 have significantly undermined economic freedom and long-term prospects for economic growth," the report said.
Mainland China was ranked 140 in the list of 183 countries with Cuba, Zimbabwe and North Korea rounding out the bottom of the list.
Cf. http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.819c032ec56dfea2daa7f7b7b1448fb8.671&show_article=1
There were no network exits polls, only a limited sample by Rasmussen, but some of the polls taken beforehand bear out Obama’s role in Coakley’s defeat. In the final January 17 poll by Public Policy Polling, a Democratic-leaning North Carolina outfit that picked up Brown’s surge early in the month, 20 percent of the respondents who voted for Obama in 2008 said they’d vote for Brown. Among those voters, only 22 percent approved of Obama’s presidency, and only 13 percent backed his health care plan.
Earlier today, the Boston Globe posted online the results of the Massachusetts special election for U.S. Senate. A screen shot of the posting reveals a razor-thin 1% victory for Martha Coakley over Scott Brown with 100% of precincts reporting. The only problem with the post, however, is that it came at least seven hours before the polls in Massachusetts actually close at 8:00 p.m., leading some confused Massachusetts residents to wonder why the post, which was removed, ever went up in the first place.
These images were captured by Massachusetts listeners of the Wilkow Majority (www.wilkowmajority.com) on Sirius XM Radio alerted people to the story.
Another possible incident of voter fraud has been reported in Lawrence, Massachusetts by Anna Marie Balone from Citizens for Limited Government.
The folks at Election Journal caught up with Isabel Melendez handing out absentee ballots in Lawrence, Massachusetts. She also helpfully explains how she can mark the ballot for the voter:
“My candidate is Martha…[Coakley] so I can mark it.” Melendez is voting on behalf of other people.
A Boston Globe story reports that Isabel Melendez is a community activist in Lawrence.
Democrat Martha Coakley and Republican Scott Brown are crisscrossing Massachusetts in a last-minute scramble for votes in a race that has drawn national attention.
Brown has promised to be the 41st vote against Obama's health care rationing plan, while Coakley has pledged to be the 60th vote for it. The surge by Brown has been so alarming to Democrats that Obama put his political capital on the line to visit the state.
The seat opened up with the death last year of Edward M. Kennedy, the liberal lion of the Senate, who had served for 47 years. Democrats in Washington are already discussing how to pass the health care bill even if Brown is elected.
Indepdendent candidate Joseph L. Kennedy, who is no relation to the famous Kennedy clan, is also in the race, but has gained minimal support.
Loretta Napoleoni details her rare opportunity to talk to the secretive Italian Red Brigades -- an experience that sparked a lifelong interest in terrorism. She gives a behind-the-scenes look at its complex economics, revealing a surprising connection between money laundering and the US Patriot Act.
I'm going to show you how terrorism actually interacts with our daily life. 15 years ago I received a phone call from a friend. At the time he was looking after the rights of political prisoners in Italian jails. He asked me if I wanted to interview the Red Brigades. Now, as many of you may remember, the Red Brigades was a terrorist, Marxist organization which was very active in Italy from the 1960s until the mid-1980s. As part of their strategy the Red Brigades never spoke with anybody, not even with their lawyers. They sat in silence through their trails, waving occasionally at family and friends.
In 1993 they declared the end of the arms struggle. And they drew a list of people with whom they would talk, and tell their story. And I was one of those people. When I asked my friend why the Red Brigades want to talk to me, he said that the female members of the organization had actually supported my name. In particular, one person had put it forward. She was my childhood friend. She had joined the Red Brigades and became a leader of the organization.
Naturally, I didn't know that until the day she was arrested. In fact, I read it in the newspaper. At the time of the phone call I just had a baby, I successfully completed a management buyout to the company I was working with, and the last thing I wanted to do was to go back home and touring the high-security prisons. But this is exactly what I did because I wanted to know what had turned my best friend into a terrorist, and why she'd never tried to recruit me. (Laughter) (Applause)
So, this is exactly what I did. Now, I found the answer very quickly. I actually had failed the psychological profiling of a terrorist. The center committee of the Red Brigades had judged me too single-minded and too opinionated to become a good terrorist. My friend, on the other hand, she was a good terrorist because she was very good at following orders. She also embraced violence. Because she believed that the only way to unblock what, at the time, was known as a blocked democracy, Italy, a country run by the same party for 35 years was the arms struggle.
At the same time, while I was interviewing the Red Brigades, I also discovered that their life was not ruled by politics or ideology, but actually was ruled by economics. They were constantly short of cash. They were constantly searching for cash. Now, contrary to what many people believe, terrorism is actually a very expensive business. I'll give you an idea. In the 1970s, the turnover of the Red Brigades on a yearly basis was seven million dollars. This is roughly between 100 and 150 million, today.
Now, you know, if you live underground it's really hard to produce this amount of money. But this also explains why, when I was interviewing the Red Brigades, and then, later on, other arms organizations, including members of al-Zarqawi group in the Middle East, everybody was extremely reluctant to talk about ideology, or politics. Because they had no idea. The political vision of a terrorist organization is decided by the leadership, which, generally, is never more than five to seven people. All the others do, day in and day out, is search for money.
Once, for example, I was interviewing this part-timer from the Red Brigades. It was a psychiatrist. He loved sailing. He was a really keen sailor. And he had this beautiful boat. And he told me that the best time of his life was when he was a member of the Red Brigades and he went sailing, every summer, back and forth from Lebanon, where he would pick up Soviet weapons from the PLO, and then carry them all the way to Sardinia where the other arms organization from Europe would go and take their share of the arms. For that service the Red Brigades were actually paid a fee, which went to fund their organization.
So, because I am a trained economist and I think in economic terms, all of the sudden I thought, maybe there is something here. Maybe there is a link, a commercial link, between one organization and another one. But it was only when I interviewed Mario Moretti, the head of the Red Brigades, the man who kidnapped and killed Aldo Moro, Italian former prime minister, that I finally realized that terrorism is actually business. I was having lunch with him in a high-security prison in Italy. And as we were eating, I had the distinct feeling that I was back in the city of London, having lunch with a fellow banker or an economist. This guy thought in the same way I did.
So, I decided that I wanted to investigate the economics of terrorism. Naturally, nobody wanted to fund my research. In fact, I think many people thought that I was a bit crazy. You know, that woman that goes around to foundations asking for money, thinking about the economics of terrorism. So, in the end, I took a decision that, in retrospect, did change my life. I sold my company, and funded the research myself.
And what I discovered is this parallel reality, another international economic system, which runs parallel to our own, which has been created by arms organizations since the end of World War II. And what is even more shocking is that this system has followed, step by step, the evolution of our own system, of our Western capitalism. And there are three main stages. The first one is the state sponsor of terrorism.
The second one is the privatization of terrorism. And the third, of course, is the globalization of terrorism. So, state sponsor of terrorism, feature of the Cold War. This is when the two superpowers were fighting a war by proxy, along the periphery of the sphere of influence, fully funding arms organizations. A mix of legal and illegal activities is used. So, the link between crime and terror is established very early on.
And here is the best example, the Contras in Nicaragua, created by the CIA, legally funded by the U.S. congress, illegally funded by the Reagan administration via covert operation, for example, the Iran-Contra Affair. Then comes the late 1970s, early '80s, and some groups successfully carry out the privatization of terrorism. So, they gain independence from the sponsor, and start funding themselves.
Now, again we see a mix of legal and illegal activities. So, Arafat used to get a percentage of the smuggling of hashish from Bekáa Valley, which is the valley between Lebanon and Syria. And the IRA, which control the private transportation system in Northern Ireland, did exactly the same thing. So, every single time that somebody got into a taxi in Belfast without knowing, actually, was funding the IRA.
But the great change came, of course, with globalization and deregulation. This is when arms organization were able to link up, also financially, with each other. But above all, they started to do serious business with the world of crime. And together they money-laundered their dirty business through the same channel. This is when we see the birth of the transnational arms organization Al Qaeda. This is an organization that can raise money across border. But also that is able to carry out attacks in more than one country.
Now, deregulation also brought back rogue economics. So what is rogue economics? Rogue economics is a force which is constantly lurking in the background of history. It comes back at times of great transformation, globalization being one of those transformations. It is at this times in which politics actually loses control of the economy, and the economy becomes a rogue force working against us. It has happened before in history. It has happened with the fall of the Roman empire. It has happened with Industrial Revolution. And it actually happened again, with the fall of the Berlin wall.
Now, I calculated how big was this international economic system composed by crime, terror, and illegal economy, before 9-11. And it is a staggering 1.5 trillion dollars. It is trillions, it's not billions. This is about twice the GDP of the United Kingdom, soon will be more, considering where this country is going. (Laughter)
Now, untill 9-11, The bulk of all this money flew into the U.S. economy because the bulk of the money was denominated in U.S. dollars and the money laundering was taking place inside the United States. The entry point, of course, of most of this money, were the off-shore facilities. So, this was a vital injection of cash into the U.S. economy. Now, when I went to look at the figures of the U.S. money supply, the U.S. money supply is the amount of dollars that the Federal Reserves prints every year in order to satisfy the increase in the demand for dollars, which, of course, reflects the growth of the economy.
So, when I went to look at those figures, I noted that since the late 1960s a growing number of these dollars was actually leaving the United States, never to come back. These were money taken out in suitcases or in containers, in cash of course. These were money taken out by criminals and money launderers. These were money taken out to fund the growth of the terror, illegal and criminal economy. So, you see, what is the relationship?
The United States actually is a country that is the reserve currency of the world. What does it mean? That means that it has a privilege that other countries do not have. It can borrow against the total amount of dollars in circulation in the world. This privilege is called seniorage. No other country can do that. All the other countries, for example, the United Kingdom can borrow only against the amount of money in circulation inside its own borders.
So, here is the implication of the relationship between the worlds of crime, terror, and illegal economy, and our economy. The U.S. in the 1990s was borrowing against the growth of the terror, illegal and criminal economy. This is how close we are with this world. Now, this situation changed, of course, after 9-11, because George Bush launched the war on terror. Part of the war on terror was the introduction of the Patriot Act. Now, many of you know that the Patriot Act is a legislation that greatly reduces the liberties of Americans in order to protect them against terrorism.
But there is a section of the Patriot Act which refers specifically to finance. And it is, in fact, an anti-money-laundering legislation. What the Patriot Act did was to prohibit U.S. bank, and U.S.-registered foreign banks from doing any businesses with off-shore facilities. It closed that door between the money laundering in dollars, and the U.S. economy. It also gave the U.S. monetary authorities the right to monitor any dollar transaction taking place anywhere in the world.
Now, you can imagine what was the reaction of the international finance and banking. All the bankers said to their clients, "Get out of the dollars and go and invest somewhere else." Now, the Euro was a newly born currency of great opportunity for business, and, of course, for investment. And this is what people did. Nobody wants the U.S. monetary authority to check their relationship, to monitor their relationship with their clientele. The same thing happened, of course, in the world of crime and terror. People simply moved their money-laundering activities away from the United States into Europe.
Why did this happen? This happened because the Patriot Act was a unilateral legislation. It was introduced only in the United States. And it was introduced only for the U.S. dollars. In Europe, a similar legislation was not introduced. So, within six months Europe became the epicenter of the money-laundering activities of the world. So, this is how incredible are the relationship between the world of crime and the world of terror, and our own life.
So, why did I tell you this story? I told you this story because you must understand that there is a world that goes well beyond the headlines of the newspapers, including the personal relationship that you have with friends and family. You got to question everything that is told to you, including what I just told you today. (Laughter) This is the only way for you to step into the dark side, and have a look at it. And believe me, it's going to be scary. It's going to be frightful, but it's going to enlighten you. And, above all, it's not going to be boring. (Laughter) (Applause)
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