“Owning land” is relative.
Nina Paley has put this together
I envisioned This Land Is Mine as the last scene of my potential-possible-maybe- feature film, Seder-Masochism, but it’s the first (and so far only) scene I’ve animated. As the Bible says, ”So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”
And the same story is evident all over the globe and not just in the Middle East.
I am amazed.
I would not have thought it possible that for whatever the ends a government agency could justify such means.
JunkScience carries a report today:
EPA admits to Court: Human subjects ‘may die’ from air pollution experiments
EPA has admitted to a federal court that it asks human guinea pigs to sacrifice their lives for regulatory purposes — and $12 per hour.
EPA has responded to our emergency motion for a temporary restraining order (TRO) against its ongoing human experiment (called “CAPTAIN”) involving the air pollutant known as PM2.5.
In the declaration of Martin W. Case, the EPA clinical research studies coordinator for CAPTAIN, Case claims he verbally warns study subjects before the experiment as follows:
… My first approach after being introduced to the subject by the medical station staff is to ask the subject if they have read the consent form. The subjects for CAPTAIN have been given the informed study consent form on a previous visit, and, they are also given the same consent to read again if they have not read the consent the day of the training…
I provide participants with information about fine particles (PM2.s). I say that PM2.s are particles so small that they are able past through your airways and go deep into your lungs, these particles are so small that your usual lining and cilia of your airways are not able to prevent these particles from passing into your lungs, Therefore, if you are a person that for example lives in a large city like Los Angeles or New York, and it’s been a very hot day, and you can see the haze in the air, and you happen to be someone that works outside, and if you have an underlying unknown health condition, or, you may be older in age; the chances are that you could end up in the emergency room later on that night, wondering what’s wrong, possibly having cardiac changes that could lead to a heart attack; there is the possibility you may die from this…
………..
I have used Ryanair from time to time – but only when I have had no other reasonable options. They are not customer friendly at all and not my airline of choice. Siemens has decided to boycott Ryanair. Clearly Ryanair is not pleased but I think Siemens are perfectly within their rights, are quite justified in their actions and even ought to be commended. Cutting costs while adventuring safety must – even for Ryanair – be unacceptable.
It occurs to me that since Ryanair seems to thrive on negative publicity perhaps they secretly welcome this?
Strangely this story is not widely reported in the MSM.
(UPDATE! Airliners.net had something on this story but the page seems to have been deleted. Perhaps legal action is being threatened.
UPDATE 2! Airliners.net has a new forum page where Ryanair is considered in a rather favourable light by commenters. The original page remains deleted. In my suspicious mind I suspect there has been some pressure from Ryanair on the website.)
The Swedish Svenska Dagbladet reports:
The German industrial group Siemens, with 400,000 employees worldwide, has decided for a global boycott of Ryanair. But Ryanair has threatened legal action.
Siemens Group Management took the decision after Ryanair suffered a number of accidents and incidents in recent times and is a signal to the entire aviation industry.
See update below:
I have little patience with the “do-gooders” who always know best what is good for others. But impatience turns to an active dislike when an arrogant young man (a certain Behrang Meri) presumes that his world-view shall prevail and takes it upon himself to be a censor by removing all copies of Tintin from the shelves of the 10-13 year old library of Stockholm’s Culture Centre. Of course he claims he is doing this “for their own good”. Arrogance and coercion are the stock-in-trade of the “do-gooders” and is wide-spread in Sweden. Banning things for the “good of others” is the order of the day. Some of the coercive tactics employed – even if now coming from the left of the political spectrum – are indistinguishable from those employed by the fascists in Europe almost 100 years ago.
Dagens Nyheter reports (my free translation):
Tintin has been ejected from the Culture Centre in Stockholm. DN can report that the beloved cartoon character has been cleaned out from the library shelves. Now the staff have been instructed to look for any more books which have racist or homophobic values.
The 10-13 year old library of Stockholm’s Culture Centre has removed Tintin books from the shelves. In consultation with their staff, the artistic director with responsibility for children and activities for the young made the decision.
“That’s right. The picture Tintin books give for example of Africans is afrofobisk. Africans are shown to be a bit silly while Arabs are sitting on flying carpets and Turks smoke water pipes. The image of the “forest Turk” is still there. It’s about exoticism and Orientalism”, says Behrang Miri, who leads efforts to develop Child and Youth Culture activities in the sections for children, “Tiotretton” and “Lava”. …….
Behrang Meri, the self-appointed censor in this case, was appointed to his position in February this year.
He was on the radio this morning and tried to babble his way through by insisting that he was removing the books so that children could actually go deeper into the questions of racism!! He seemed to be avoiding all questions and merely spouting a practised defence. I would have thought that deepening children’s understanding would only be possible by exposure to the books and not by his over-bearing, over-protectiveness denying exposure to the books. In any case the Tintin serials – which I greatly enjoyed through my childhood – were written in a colonial time and had no racist intentions. It depicted the world-view that existed at the time. Censorship will not change history or cause those times to disappear.
He failed to impress and I cannot help feeling that his ego has got the better of him and his objective is mere self-promotion rather than the cultural enrichment of 10-13 year old children.
Following a storm of media criticism, officials at the Kulturhuset library in Stockholm have reversed their decision to remove Tintin comic books from its shelves, saying the move happened “too fast”.
I note that it was the head of the Culture Centre who reversed the censorship and Bahrang Meri has accepted being overruled. In spite of his vehement defence of his decision on the radio this morning this was clearly not a resigning issue. Some damage control is ongoing but damage there certainly is:
“I wanted to highlight an opinion piece about issues of discrimination, but realize now that it’s wrong to ban books,” Meri said in a statement. However, Kulturhuset head Sjöström applauded Meri for prompting a discussion about discrimination.
“The issues of discrimination, equality and norms continue to be debated and discussed,” Sjöström said in a statement.
The latest Mitt Romney “gaffe” is getting much attention. But I was a little surprised to find that while what he said may well be a gaffe in electoral terms – and he may even have lost the Presidential election here – his statement was actually quite correct. I had not appreciated that almost half of all US households paid no federal income tax at all. In the US, federal income tax is a major source of tax revenues and contributes about half of all tax revenues (tax revenues about 15.4% of gdp in 2011 with federal income tax providing 7.3% of gdp). Romney in his leaked video said:
I am always irritated when the regulations regarding in-flight electronics are announced at the start of a flight. I dutifully switch my phone off not because I have any perception of causing danger but only because I don’t want to be denied travel.
There is no evidence whatsoever that using electronic devices on flights – whether during take-off and landing or while cruising – has any deleterious effects on aircraft navigation or any other technical operations during the flight. But this regulation – like so many others – was based originally on fears. Getting rid of an existing regulation even when there is no evidence that the fear is justified is extremely difficult. Once any irrational – but fear-based – regulation is in place the onus of proof shifts from showing something to be unsafe to proving instead that it is not unsafe. And proving a negative is not very easy.
An FAA regulator is walking down the street snapping his fingers continuously. A guy stops him and asks, “Why are you snapping your fingers all the time?” “To keep wild elephants away.” “That’s ridiculous!“, says the guy. The regulator replies, “Oh, yeah? You don’t see any wild elephants around do you?”
The Wall Street Journal writes:
Do Our Gadgets Really Threaten Planes?
The ban on electronic devices rests on anecdotes, not on hard evidence—because there isn’t any.
Belgium allows euthanasia under very stringent conditions and now permits prisoners also to choose euthanasia.
If you agree with the concept of euthanasia then the idea of allowing prisoners to opt for euthanasia would seem perfectly rational. There are ethical questions here which I am still thinking my way through but I think there are some dilemmas to be faced. However I cannot help feeling that a prisoner – almost by definition – is inevitably subject to some level of coercion. Within an isolated and vulnerable prison population where individuals are probably subject to the additional pressures of group phobias and pressure, I am not sure that an apparently voluntary choice can ever be a completely free choice.
And I have an additional dimension of nagging concern when organs for transplantation are harvested from euthanasia subjects:
BioEdge reports:
For the first time, a Belgian prisoner has been euthanased. A man identified as Frank V.D.B, who had spent 20 years in prison for two murders and rapes, died recently. The date is not clear from media reports, but it took place outside the prison. The death only became known because it was revealed by a politician, Senator Louis Ide, who was complaining about the lack of social services in Belgian jails. He seems to have been tipped off by a prison official.
The case has provoked a controversy in the media –not over euthanasia but over the violation of the prisoner’s right to privacy. All of the conditions for euthanasia in Belgium were carefully fulfilled: the prisoner had a terminal illness, he had made repeated requests for death, and three doctors had independently ratified the request. …..
Last year Belgian surgeons revealed that they had been harvesting organs obtained from persons who had requested euthanasia.
I perceive Greenpeace to be an organisation which was once well-intentioned but which has degenerated to become an extremist, semi-religious group where advancing of its beliefs justifies the use of even unethical means. The fundamental error – as I see it – is that it sees “humans” as somehow being separate from “environment” and the development of humanity as a threat to environment. Greenpeace and other similar organisations have lost sight of the fact that humans and their works are part of the “environment” and that the environment needs to be subservient to the needs of human development. They have become part of the coercive and alarmist movement that is eco-fascism.
Greenpeace has been known to exaggerate, mislead, cherry-pick data and even fake data in pursuing its religious goals. They may have done some good in the past but lately they have become one of the forces against improvements of the human condition.
So when Patrick Moore – a co-founder of Greenpeace – accuses them of crimes against humanity I am inclined to listen. Patrick Moore has been disillusioned with Greenpeace for some time and writes this article in Climate Depot which I have reproduced in full.
Greenpeace’s Crime Against Humanity
By Patrick Moore, PhD
September 10, 2012
UPDATE 2! As I understand the sentence he has the maximum time in prison allowable by Norwegian law for 21 years and then – if he is deemed dangerous – he can (will) be kept incarcerated for extensions of 5 years at a time. In practical terms he has been given a life sentence – for life.
UPDATE! His sentence will be announced in court today. Paradoxically the prosecution wants him to be declared insane while he wants to be declared sane!
… Breivik, 33, who insists he is sane, has refused to plead guilty and has sought to justify his attacks by saying they were necessary to stop the “Islamisation” of Norway. Prosecutors have called for him to be considered insane. ….
Throughout the trial, Breivik showed no sign of remorse. He began several hearings by giving a right-wing clenched fist salute. If the judges conclude that Breivik was sane, he will be sent to prison. The maximum sentence in Norway is 21 years although that can be extended if he is viewed as a danger to society.
If the court finds him insane, Breivik will be ordered to undergo treatment at a closed psychiatric unit – most likely at the same high security prison where he is now. Breivik has said that psychiatric care would be “worse than death”. …..
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He killed 77 people and this is what his cell will look like.
Sentenced to “luxury for life”?
No further comment needed.
From Svenska Dagbladet
Living cell at Ilas Secure Department FOTO: ILA FENGSEL OG FORVARINGSANSTALT/GLEFS AS
And a special cell to keep fit in! He has access to 3 special cells.
FOTO: ILA FENGSEL OG FORVARINGSANSTALT/GLEFS AS
I have a theory that within a hundred years we will be bemoaning the lack of world population. The collapse of society will be forecast as an impending catastrophe as the total world population stabilises at less than 10 billion with the proportion of the young working population decreasing relative to the increasing numbers of the “leisured” population. And that apocalypse too shall not come to pass.
Matt Ridley has a new essay in Wired which needs to be read. Just some excerpts below:
Apocalypse Not: Here’s Why You Shouldn’t Worry About End Times
When the sun rises on December 22, as it surely will, do not expect apologies or even a rethink. No matter how often apocalyptic predictions fail to come true, another one soon arrives. And the prophets of apocalypse always draw a following—from the 100,000 Millerites who took to the hills in 1843, awaiting the end of the world, to the thousands who believed in Harold Camping, the Christian radio broadcaster who forecast the final rapture in both 1994 and 2011. ………
