http://www.sott.net/signs/list_by_category/18-Society-s-Child Signs of the Times: The World for People who Think. Featuring news and commentary on world events. en-us Original content Copyright 2012 by Signs of the Times/Sott.net. For other content, see our Fair Use Policy at www.sott.net. Wed, 22 Feb 2012 13:53:24 -0600 http://www.sott.net/images/sottlogo_rss.jpg SOTT.net http://www.sott.net http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241919-49-killed-hundreds-hurt-as-Argentine-train-crashes-into-station More than 600 people are injured, officials say, with reports of some passengers still trapped in carnage at Buenos Aires station Buenos Aires - A packed train slammed into the end of the line in Buenos Aires' busy Once station, killing 49 people and injuring hundreds of morning commuters in Argentina's worst train accident in decades. Federal Police Commissioner Nestor Rodriguez said Wednesday's dead included 48 adults and one child. Officials said more than 600 people were injured out of more than 800 people who were reportedly on the train. The death toll was Argentina's highest from a train accident since 1970, when 200 were killed. Officials said the train was unable to stop and it slammed into the buffers inside the centrally located station. "The train entered the Once station at 26 kilometers per hour (16 mph)... we suppose there was some flaw in the brakes," Transport Secretary Juan Pablo Schiavi told state news agency Telam. "The train was full and the impact was tremendous," a passenger named Ezequiel told local television, AFP reported. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241919-49-killed-hundreds-hurt-as-Argentine-train-crashes-into-station Wed, 22 Feb 2012 13:52:10 -0600 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241918-US-Marine-makes-last-stand-in-foreclosed-home Arturo de los Santos lost his home to foreclosure more than a year ago and was evicted. But because he felt he was treated unfairly, he moved back into his home of 10 years in an effort to force the lender, Freddie Mac, to back down. "I'm just a regular guy who gets up each day, takes the kids to school and goes to work," said de los Santos, a retired Marine who is hunkered down in the modest three-bedroom house in Riverside, Calif., surrounded by an encampment of Occupy Riverside protesters and housing activists. "We've done everything the way we were supposed to. We're not going to just sit back and let Freddie Mac steal our home." A new eviction order aimed at forcing de los Santos, a 46-year-old metal worker, and his family out of the house took effect Tuesday, meaning that sheriff's deputies could arrive at any time. Arturo de los Santos also has been served a court summons threaten[ing] him with arrest if he doesn't leave his house. De los Santos' story is similar to thousands of other American homeowners who claim that banks mishandled mortgage modifications. When the economic crisis hit in 2008, the factory where he worked cut his hours, so de los Santos pursued a modification based on his lower income with JP Morgan Chase, servicer of the loan. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241918-US-Marine-makes-last-stand-in-foreclosed-home Wed, 22 Feb 2012 13:35:17 -0600 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241906-UK-25-of-Kids-Aged-10-12-Can-t-Do-Basic-Addition Young children are leaving primary school unable to spell, add up or do their times tables because their parents are too busy to help them practise, a survey revealed today. Half of children aged between 10 and 12 do not know what a noun is or cannot identify an adverb - while almost a third, 31 per cent, cannot use apostrophes correctly. More than one in five - 22 per cent - could not use the correct version of 'they're', 'there' and 'their' in a sentence and more than four in 10 couldn't spell the word 'secretaries' correctly. Maths didn't fare much better in the survey by online tutor, mytutor, with more than a quarter of children being unable to add two small sums of money without using a calculator as they can't do division and basic algebra. Twenty-seven per cent of children surveyed could not add £2.36 and £1.49 to get £3.85. In addition, more than a third, 36 per cent, could not divide 415 by five and a quarter did not know the answer to seven multiplied by six. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241906-UK-25-of-Kids-Aged-10-12-Can-t-Do-Basic-Addition Wed, 22 Feb 2012 01:22:01 -0600 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241900-Spying-on-Campus-New-York-Police-Caught-Monitoring-Muslim-Student-Groups-Throughout-Northeast The Associated Press has revealed the New York City Police Department monitored Muslim college students at schools throughout the Northeast, including Yale University and the University of Pennsylvania. In one case, the NYPD sent an undercover agent on a whitewater rafting trip in upstate New York, where he recorded students' names and noted in police intelligence files how many times they prayed. We speak to one of the students on the trip, Jawad Rasul. He is the only student who was under surveillance to now publicly speak out about his experience. "[This is] hurting NYPD's try and attempt at finding homegrown terrorism, because these kind of tactics actually create more hatred towards them and the other law-enforcement agencies and really destroys the trust that any youth might have developed with the government," Rasul said. We're also joined by Mongi Dhaouadi, executive director of the Connecticut chapter of Council on American-Islamic Relations, which is calling for a state probe into the spying on Muslims. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241900-Spying-on-Campus-New-York-Police-Caught-Monitoring-Muslim-Student-Groups-Throughout-Northeast Tue, 21 Feb 2012 21:33:04 -0600 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241899-US-New-Hampshire-man-arrested-for-firing-gun-into-ground-while-catching-suspected-burglar A New Hampshire man who fired his handgun into the ground to scare an alleged burglar he caught crawling out of a neighbor's window is now facing a felony charge -- and the same potential prison sentence as the man he stopped. Dennis Fleming, 61, of Farmington, was arrested for reckless conduct after the Saturday incident at his 19th century farmhouse. The single grandfather had returned home to find that his home had been burglarized and spotted Joseph Hebert, 27, climbing out of a window at a neighbor's home. Fleming said he yelled "Freeze!" before firing his gun into the ground, then held Hebert at gunpoint until police arrived. "I didn't think I could handle this guy physically, so I fired into the ground," Fleming told FoxNews.com. "He stopped. He knew I was serious. I was angry ... and I was worried that this guy was going to come after me." No one was injured in the incident, but when the police arrived, they made two arrests. Hebert was charged with two counts of burglary and drug possession. He faces up to seven years in prison if convicted. Fleming, meanwhile, is scheduled to be arraigned March 20 on a charge of reckless conduct, which could potentially land him a sentence similar to the one Hebert faces. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241899-US-New-Hampshire-man-arrested-for-firing-gun-into-ground-while-catching-suspected-burglar Tue, 21 Feb 2012 21:31:00 -0600 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241892-Will-Spain-s-Lotto-Town-Avoid-Bankruptcy- It's like something out of a fairy tale. A tiny town in a country with nearly 23% unemployment receives a huge, sudden windfall and every resident becomes a near millionaire overnight. Of course, if fairy tales have taught us anything, it's that stories like this rarely end well. Sodeto, a village of 250 people in an inhospitable region of northern Spain has won the lottery -- or part of it anyway. According to Der Spiegel, the town won 17% of the country's annual Christmas lottery's biggest prize, "El Gordo," totaling 700 million euros ($910 million). The village itself took 120 million euros ($158 million). The rest of the prize money was paid out in other towns in Sodeto's province of Huesca but Sodeto was the only village where every family won. Its luck can be primarily traced back to the local housewives' club, which spent weeks convincing residents to buy lotto tickets. Since their win, many around Spain have viewed the village as a potential cash cow. Salesmen sit in the local bar all day, hoping to sell new cars, homes or investments. On their end, many residents claim that they want to use the money to improve the town and draw people back to it -- it's been shrinking for years. Some see the money as a way to improve the area's agricultural infrastructure. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241892-Will-Spain-s-Lotto-Town-Avoid-Bankruptcy- Tue, 21 Feb 2012 20:16:51 -0600 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241889-U-S-Pakistan-Relations-Reach-Point-of-No-Return Tens of thousands of Pakistanis protest continued assassinations and airstrikes on Pakistan soil that have left thousands of innocent bystanders dead. Massive rallies were held today in Pakistan in response to over 2,000 soldiers being killed by NATO forces and constant drone strikes that leave innocent woman and children dead. The protests also denounced the U.S. assassination attacks by U.S. military forces on Pakistani soil. The sparking point for the rallies began when a U.S airstrike killed 24 Pakistani soldiers in November. Since the U.S. has repeatedly ignored requests to end or coordinate them with Pakistani intelligence in order to prevent so-called collateral damage. While it may be hard to imagine the anger of Pakistani citizens given all of the one-sided reporting and anti-terrorism propaganda reported in the corporate media, anyone who objectively questions the morality situation can clearly understand there anger. As reported some time ago, 1 in 7 U.S. drone strikes worldwide kills a child. In Pakistan those statistics are worse, were in 1 in 3 drone strikes kills a child. See this- Report: "1 in 3 Pakistan Drone Strikes and 1in 7 of all CIA Drone Strikes Kills a Child." Furthermore, just imagine Russia or Iranian special forces conducting raids every day to assassinate people here inside the U.S. Also imagine, when every a target is assassinated any innocent bystander, be they a man, women or child, who is unfortunate to be in the surrounding area is also killed as part of collateral damage. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241889-U-S-Pakistan-Relations-Reach-Point-of-No-Return Tue, 21 Feb 2012 19:50:24 -0600 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241887-US-For-Boomers-It-s-a-New-Era-of-Work-Til-You-Drop- When Paula Symons joined the U.S. workforce in 1972, typewriters in her office clacked nonstop, people answered the telephones and the hot new technology revolutionizing communication was the fax machine. Symons, fresh out of college, entered this brave new world thinking she'd do pretty much what her parents' generation did: Work for just one or two companies over about 45 years before bidding farewell to co-workers at a retirement party and heading off into her sunset years with a pension. Forty years into that run, the 60-year-old communications specialist for a Wisconsin-based insurance company has worked more than a half-dozen jobs. She's been laid off, downsized and seen the pension disappear with only a few thousand dollars accrued when it was frozen. So, five years from the age when people once retired, she laughs when she describes her future plans. "I'll probably just work until I drop," she says, a sentiment expressed, with varying degrees of humor, by numerous members of her age group. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241887-US-For-Boomers-It-s-a-New-Era-of-Work-Til-You-Drop- Tue, 21 Feb 2012 19:17:13 -0600 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241880-Icelandic-Anger-Brings-Debt-Forgiveness-in-Best-Recovery-Story Icelanders who pelted parliament with rocks in 2009 demanding their leaders and bankers answer for the country's economic and financial collapse are reaping the benefits of their anger. Since the end of 2008, the island's banks have forgiven loans equivalent to 13 percent of gross domestic product, easing the debt burdens of more than a quarter of the population, according to a report published this month by the Icelandic Financial Services Association. "You could safely say that Iceland holds the world record in household debt relief," said Lars Christensen, chief emerging markets economist at Danske Bank A/S in Copenhagen. "Iceland followed the textbook example of what is required in a crisis. Any economist would agree with that." http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241880-Icelandic-Anger-Brings-Debt-Forgiveness-in-Best-Recovery-Story Tue, 21 Feb 2012 16:18:39 -0600 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241877-Olympic-VIPs-take-fast-lane-leaving-patients-at-risk-as-non-emergency-ambulances-banned Games organisers accused of risking health of Londoners by banning ambulances without blue lights on from 'Games lanes' Sick and vulnerable NHS patients will be left stranded in ambulances in traffic jams while dignitaries and sponsors race past in a fleet of expensive cars on specially designated lanes during the Olympics, healthcare providers fear. Games organisers have been accused of risking people's health by banning the routine use by ambulances of the "Games lanes" introduced to ensure that VIPs can travel quickly to events. The decision to reject a request for access from NHS London, the capital's strategic health authority, has led to a storm of anger. Medical Services, an independent business that transports patients for the health service, and whose clients include the hospitals closest to the Olympic stadium, says it fears that the ill, including those on dialysis, will be trapped in vehicles as London suffers unprecedented congestion, with traffic on key routes expected to slow to a crawl. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241877-Olympic-VIPs-take-fast-lane-leaving-patients-at-risk-as-non-emergency-ambulances-banned Tue, 21 Feb 2012 16:07:35 -0600 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241875-Huh-Indiana-US-Lawmaker-accuses-Girl-Scouts-of-promoting-sex-says-group-is-a-tactical-arm-of-Planned-Parenthood Rep. Bob Morris is accusing Girl Scouts of being "radicalized organization" that supports abortion and promotes homosexuality. A lawmaker has sent a letter to fellow Republican members of the Indiana House saying he will not support a resolution celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Girl Scouts because he believes it is a "radicalized organization" that supports abortion and promotes homosexuality. In a letter obtained by The Journal-Gazette of Fort Wayne on Monday, Rep. Bob Morris of Fort Wayne said he did some research on the Internet and found allegations that the Girl Scouts are a tactical arm of Planned Parenthood, allow transgender females to join and encourage sex. "After talking to some well-informed constituents, I did a small amount of web-based research, and what I found is disturbing," Morris wrote in his letter, which also accused the group of promoting "homosexual lifestyles." Morris sent the letter to House Republicans on Saturday. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241875-Huh-Indiana-US-Lawmaker-accuses-Girl-Scouts-of-promoting-sex-says-group-is-a-tactical-arm-of-Planned-Parenthood Tue, 21 Feb 2012 15:57:35 -0600 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241871-Long-Island-US-murder-mystery-New-body-parts-found-now-11-victims A murder mystery that is haunting Long Island has taken a new twist with the discovery of more human remains, bringing to at least 11 the number of possible slaying victims found since a woman's disappearance in May 2010 indicated a serial killer was on the loose. The remains of the missing woman, Shannan Gilbert, a prostitute who advertised on Craigslist, were discovered in December in a marshy area of Long Island near Oak Beach, where she was last seen alive. Police eventually concluded she probably was not murdered but drowned after falling into a swamp, perhaps while fleeing in the dark from her last customer. The months of searching for her remains, however, uncovered several other bodies or parts of bodies, and police speculate that one or more serial killers-- have for years used the woods, dunes and other isolated areas of eastern Long Island to dump victims. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241871-Long-Island-US-murder-mystery-New-body-parts-found-now-11-victims Tue, 21 Feb 2012 13:46:45 -0600 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241869-Swedish-man-says-he-survived-two-months-in-snow-buried-car Driver stuck since December hibernated 'a bit like a bear', doctors say Stockholm - A Swedish man was being treated in hospital Sunday after being dug out alive from his snow-buried car in which he had survived for two months with no food, according to police and local media. The 45-year-old from southern Sweden was found on Friday, emaciated and too weak to utter more than a few words. The BBC reported the temperature in the area had recently dropped to -22F (-30C). He was found not far from the city of Umea in the north of Sweden by snowmobilers who thought they had come across a car wreck until they dug their way to a window and saw movement inside. The man, who was laying in the back seat in a sleeping bag, said he had been in the car since December 19. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241869-Swedish-man-says-he-survived-two-months-in-snow-buried-car Tue, 21 Feb 2012 12:30:44 -0600 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241864-Riot-Police-Beat-Students-in-Spain-Protest-Witnesses Baton-wielding riot police charged, beat and arrested several demonstrators at a student protest against spending cuts in the Spanish city of Valencia on Monday, reporters at the scene said. The clashes broke out in the mid-afternoon after students protesting against education budget cuts, which they say have left classrooms without heating, demonstrated outside a school and came up against police barricades. Photographs and videos from the scene showed youths with bleeding faces and baton-wielding police in helmets and body armour chasing, beating and dragging people along the ground as the clashes continued after nightfall. El Pais newspaper said on its website that police fired rubber bullets, and media reported numerous injuries. Valencia regional police chief Antonio Moreno said police used "proportionate physical force" in comments to reporters broadcast on Spanish radio. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241864-Riot-Police-Beat-Students-in-Spain-Protest-Witnesses Tue, 21 Feb 2012 11:32:23 -0600 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241852-A-good-week-for-the-smiting-of-the-ungodly The anger last week against the smug anti-religion brigade was quite startling. Atheism has had a bad week. First there was the contest between the Church and the unbelievers' Vicar on Earth which ended with a score of God 1, Richard Dawkins 0. Then the equality commissar, Trevor Phillips, came along with a stunningly inept analogy between Christian observance and sharia law - and got so resoundingly pilloried that he had to be carried off the field. Make no mistake: it was atheism that was on manoeuvres here. It may have marched under the banner of "secularism" but that was a deliberately misleading and, as it turned out, not very successful tactic. As Professor Dawkins himself said in one of his broadcasting appearances, secularism and atheism are different things. You bet they are. Secularism as understood, for example, in the United States - the most famously successful secular society in history - is no enemy of religious belief. The separation of church and state enshrined in the American Constitution is designed to guarantee the freedom of worship: to protect the observance of all faiths from oppression or interference by the state. It is the ultimate acknowledgement of the importance - in effect, of the sacrosanct nature - of religious belief and practice, regarding it as one of the "unalienable" human rights. This principle has been revisited just recently in a spectacular clash between President Obama and the Roman Catholic Church over the matter of whether Church institutions should be obliged by federal statute to provide free contraception. There can be no question of where the Constitution stands on this issue: if a case should ever come to the Supreme Court, it is the Church that will win. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241852-A-good-week-for-the-smiting-of-the-ungodly Tue, 21 Feb 2012 06:54:28 -0600 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241850-Chinese-newspaper-accuses-west-of-provoking-civil-war-in-Syria People's Daily says demands for Bashar al-Assad to step down could start war that would require foreign intervention A leading Chinese newspaper has accused western countries of stirring up civil war in Syria, where police and militia patrols have clamped down on a district of the capital to prevent further demonstrations against the president, Bashar al-Assad. After almost a year of protests against Assad's 11-year rule, the uprising has moved to his centre of power in Damascus, where the security police surrounded a funeral of a young protester on Sunday to ensure there was no repeat of some of biggest demonstrations in the capital. China's Communist party mouthpiece, the People's Daily, said in a front page commentary that the west's support of the opposition and its demands for Assad to step down could provoke a "large-scale civil war" that might demand foreign intervention. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241850-Chinese-newspaper-accuses-west-of-provoking-civil-war-in-Syria Tue, 21 Feb 2012 06:00:31 -0600 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241848-Blaming-the-Victims-Miramonte-Scandal-Prompts-Rosewood-Elementary-Principal-To-Send-Letter-Home One LAUSD father is crying foul against the district after his daughters were sent home with a memo about the Miramonte School sex abuse scandal. The letter to parents, which includes details about how Miramonte students were blindfolded and had cockroaches placed on them, was written by Rosewood Avenue Elementary Principal Linda Crowder and sent home with all her students on Monday for parents to read. From the letter, which appears in full below: As I reflect on the disturbing occurrences at Miramonte, I am more confused over the fact that the children did not report. How is it that the children did not believe that what the teacher was doing to them was wrong? How could being blindfolded, placed in a closet, and having cockroaches placed on them not be wrong? I believe that the teachers involved in these heinous acts preyed on the most vulnerable of the children; children of poverty, children of abuse, children with uninvolved parents, and children of undocumented parents. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241848-Blaming-the-Victims-Miramonte-Scandal-Prompts-Rosewood-Elementary-Principal-To-Send-Letter-Home Tue, 21 Feb 2012 02:17:41 -0600 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241837-6-Trillion-in-Allegedly-Fake-U-S-Bonds-Seized Several news outlets are reporting that Italian prosecutors claimed to have seized a record $6 trillion in allegedly fake U.S. Treasury bonds from 1934 with a nominal value of $1 billion each. The bonds were reportedly hidden in makeshift compartments of three safety deposit boxes in Zurich according to an emailed statement from Potenza-based Italian prosecutors. Eight people were reportedly arrested due to the inquiry, which was codenamed "Operation Vulcanica" and the American embassy in Rome has already examined the bonds although embassy officials have yet to comment. It gets really strange when we find out that, "The individuals involved were planning to buy plutonium from Nigerian sources, according to phone conversations monitored by the police." Even more strange is that the bonds were reportedly held in crates marked as property of the Chicago Federal Reserve System, in fact the picture of the crate released by the BBC reveals that the boxes were Treaty of Versailles Mother Boxes. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241837-6-Trillion-in-Allegedly-Fake-U-S-Bonds-Seized Mon, 20 Feb 2012 17:14:36 -0600 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241830-Thailand-Bomb-Suspects-Were-Anti-Iran-Exiles- Four Iranians suspected of involvement in a botched bomb plot targeting Israeli diplomats in Bangkok were members of an exiled Iranian opposition group which wanted the incident to reflect badly on Teheran, Syedsulaiman Husaini, Shia leader of Thailand, said on Sunday. He claimed the four belonged to the Mujahedin-e Khalq Organisation (also known as MEK, MKO and the People's Mujahedeen Organisation of Iran, or PMOI) which aims to overthrow the current Iranian government. The MEK has been on the US Department of State's list of foreign terrorist organisations since 1977. Thai authorities and security agencies were not familiar with the group, said Mr Syedsulaima, who is also director of the Islamic studies centre at Al Mahdi Institute and former president of the Iran University Alumni Association. The Islamic scholar said the bomb incident was unlikely to be the work of the Iranian government as speculated because Bangkok and Teheran have good bilateral relations. A secret report by Iran's security agency also indicated that the Iran nationals linked with Bangkok's latest bomb plot were members of the MEK, reports said. Formed in the 1960s, the organisation participated in Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution that replaced the country's pro-Western ruler, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, with a Shi'ite Islamist regime led by the Ayatollah Khomeini. The MEK, whose ideology mixes Marxism and Islam, was expelled from Iran two years later after trying to stage an armed uprising against Khomeini. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241830-Thailand-Bomb-Suspects-Were-Anti-Iran-Exiles- Mon, 20 Feb 2012 16:16:59 -0600 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241827-Hundreds-gather-in-China-after-monk-s-self-immolation Hundreds of Tibetans gathered in China's southwest to hold a vigil for a young Buddhist monk who set himself on fire, a rights group said, in the latest self-immolation to hit the country. The 18-year-old monk, identified as Nangdrol, set himself alight Sunday in Sichuan province's Rangtang county, where one Tibetan was reportedly shot dead by security forces last month, the International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) said on Monday. Citing exiled Tibetan sources with contacts in the area, ICT said Nangdrol had died and his body was taken back to a local monastery. The information was confirmed by the London-based Free Tibet. Monks did not comply with police orders to hand over the body and more than 1,000 people gathered to hold a vigil on Sunday evening, ICT said. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241827-Hundreds-gather-in-China-after-monk-s-self-immolation Mon, 20 Feb 2012 15:53:56 -0600 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241826-US-In-labored-clarification-Fox-contributor-castigates-military-s-fake-heroism- Appearing on the Fox News show America's News HQ, contributor Liz Trotta attempted to clarify remarks she made earlier this month that became fodder for The Daily Show, during which host Jon Stewart summarized that she did not want the military helping women who've been "raped too much." Unfortunately for the former Washington Times editor, what she actually said isn't going to make the controversy go away - but then, that may have been the point. After suggesting that the issue of women in military roles has "never gotten a fair and open hearing," Trotta went on to say: "The political correctness infecting the Pentagon has resulted in silly and dishonest fairy tales about female heroism," she said. "Has anyone forgotten the Jessica Lynch story?" "There are countless other stories of fake heroism or exaggerated prowess in which women are the stars, many of them tailored for The New York Times and its agenda to promote militant feminism, no matter what the truth," Trotta added. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241826-US-In-labored-clarification-Fox-contributor-castigates-military-s-fake-heroism- Mon, 20 Feb 2012 15:49:40 -0600 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241822-US-Employers-discriminate-against-long-term-unemployed-reports A number of long-term, unemployed people in Stamford, Connecticut revealed to CBS' 60 Minutes how they have been discriminated by the job market for being out of work, resulting in questions as to whether they would be employed ever again. "There's no doubt," worker Frank O'Neil told reporter Scott Pelley. "I mean, I've seen it in print, whether it's some newspaper ads or online during those types of advertisements, I've actually seen, 'If you are unemployed, you need not apply.'" O'Neil added: "Just look at the web. You see the phrase everywhere: 'Must be currently employed.' Businesses can't legally discriminate by age, race or sex, but there's a new minority group now, the long term unemployed." http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241822-US-Employers-discriminate-against-long-term-unemployed-reports Mon, 20 Feb 2012 15:17:42 -0600 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241817-US-Texas-Hill-County-town-fears-police-influence-is-out-of-control Unless you turn at the blinking light at State Highway 171 and FM 67, you might not notice Covington, Texas, which is the way most in this tiny town want it. Now, out of fear and frustration, they want the public to know. "They are scared to death now," said Covington City Council member Marty Smith. "They lock their doors, they lock the car doors because they are scared of the police." Smith said she also fears the man running the Hill County town, Police Chief Wade Laurence. "Wade Lawrence asked me what it was going to take to shut me up, and them to arrest me and handcuff me at a council meeting," Smith said. "I'm 69 years old and I don't need the hassle of it." http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241817-US-Texas-Hill-County-town-fears-police-influence-is-out-of-control Mon, 20 Feb 2012 14:31:57 -0600 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241810-How-is-the-World-Going-to-End-in-2012- I read in the news this morning that some video game developers started a $400,000 pledge drive to fund their new video game. In just 24 hours, they had collected more than they needed: They got 1.4 MILLION! For a video game. To pay them just to hang out and write code. QFG/SOTT's fund raising drive is, to say the least, underwhelming. Truth isn't wanted anymore: only fun fiction that keeps people from having to deal with the real world. So, let me end your suspense: The answer to the question in the title is "yes". The world is ending in 2012. That is, the final implementation of the fascist, totalitarian New World Order will be accomplished this year and you will be in that "New World" that the global elite have designed for you, and planned to implement for a very long time now. Oh, indeed, similar New World Order's have been staged in the past on smaller scales, but this time it's global because they are all in on it together! Former New World Order's didn't really fail, even if they ostensibly fell; they just passed the torch around for millennia, spreading the disease, growing the sickness in society, until finally, now, with global communication and incredible weapons of destruction in their hands, they are ready to finalize the Faustian bargain that you, the people, signed with your blood. That's what 2012 is all about. It's not about some grand and glorious transformation or ascension to another existence! It's not about being 'raptured' to heaven at the right hand of Jesus because you helped to 'initiate the Eschaton'! It's not about 'Starseeds' being taken aboard spacecraft and getting airlifted to some other planet of the '5th dimension'. Pure and simple, prophecy is coming true, just not the way you all thought. It is the end of your world as human beings, your reduction to pure slave-hood, your children turned over to be sex toys or cannon fodder for psychopaths, and there's nothing you can do about it now. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241810-How-is-the-World-Going-to-End-in-2012- Mon, 20 Feb 2012 09:24:47 -0600 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241807-US-Economy-strains-neighborly-feelings-in-North-Carolina The town clerk of Roper, population 617, knows the community has suffered from layoffs and foreclosures. When they don't pay utility bills, she has to cut off their services - a job she hates. Every time Bishop Robert Mallory walks into Town Hall to pay his overdue water bill and get his water turned back on, Town Clerk Dorenda Gatling asks, "House or church?" She lives just up the street from Mallory's house and across the street from his church. But that doesn't keep Gatling from cutting off town water to either one when he can't afford to pay the bills. "Ask me how that feels - a woman of faith cutting off water to the church," Gatling says, putting her head in her hands inside the cramped town clerk's office at the one-story Roper Town Hall. Several times a month, Gatling is forced to cut off water to a friend or neighbor. In Roper, population 617, she knows just about every one of them personally, and she feels a pang of guilt and regret each time. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241807-US-Economy-strains-neighborly-feelings-in-North-Carolina Mon, 20 Feb 2012 07:12:18 -0600 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241804-The-Occupying-Wall-Street-Bible-Is-Out-and-It-s-Good It's probably no accident that the minimalist brown cover of Occupying Wall Street, the new title from OR Books about the now world-famous Manhattan movement, resembles the posters that, for a few months in 2011, came to define Zuccotti Park's skyline. The title and subtitle - "The Inside Story of an Action that Changed America" - are written in black scrawl, adding extra authenticity to the stylization. It's not just a book you're holding, a reader soon realizes, it's also a mini-protest sign. Fair warning up front: A little rectangular box on the back cover reads, "All profits from this book will be donated to Occupy Wall Street." If you're certain you disagree with OWS and don't want to support their cause, then this book is probably not for you. But if you're at all interested in how the now-global movement began, there's probably no better resource than this. Though Occupying's author is a collective of roughly 60 unnamed people calling themselves "Writers for the 99%," the book is not a disjointed assortment of individual essays. Rather, and perhaps surprisingly, it acts as a concise historical account that sheds light on the varied and interesting minutia of OWS, covering everything from the guidelines of the General Assembly to the infamous Brooklyn Bridge protest to the drama created by class and racial tensions within the movement. So thorough is Occupying that even the thousands of people who lived in Zuccotti's tent city themselves last year could probably learn something about the inner workings of the mass they once helped compose, or reinvigorate the fire that brought them there in the first place. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241804-The-Occupying-Wall-Street-Bible-Is-Out-and-It-s-Good Mon, 20 Feb 2012 06:47:47 -0600 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241803-US-California-Speed-Freak-Killer-reveals-there-are-even-MORE-secret-burial-sites-of-murder-victims-in-bizarre-letter-sent-to-TV-station-which-ends-Have-a-nice-day- Location of bones was revealed by Westley Shermantine after a bounty hunter promised to pay him $33,000 Officials already identified two female victims buried on Calaveras County property Serial killer Wesley Shermantine has claimed that he knows of even more sites where the bodies of murder victims were buried in an extraordinary letter to a California television station. Shermantine, one of the so-called Speed Freak Killers, told CBS-13 that two burial sites used by his accomplice Loren Herzog have not yet been discovered. The letter, sent from Death Row, also contained a lengthy complaint about Shermantine's media portrayal and about the behaviour of his sister - and it ends, 'Have a nice day.' http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241803-US-California-Speed-Freak-Killer-reveals-there-are-even-MORE-secret-burial-sites-of-murder-victims-in-bizarre-letter-sent-to-TV-station-which-ends-Have-a-nice-day- Mon, 20 Feb 2012 01:41:40 -0600 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241802-US-TSA-Watch-Who-s-More-Dangerous-Terrorists-or-the-TSA- For an agency that claims to have "zero tolerance" for criminal behavior, TSA agents sure spend a lot of time declaring their guilt. I was reminded of that unfortunate fact a few days ago after a screener reportedly faced accusations of stealing $5,000 from a passenger's jacket as he was going through security at John F. Kennedy International Airport. The agent, Alexandra Schmid, hasn't confessed yet even though officials have it all on videotape. But a closer look at the TSA's rap sheet reveals that often, employees accused of crimes simply roll over and play dead when someone points a finger at them. Take Coumar Persad and Davon Webb, accused of swiping $40,000 from a piece of luggage in January 2011. They were charged with grand larceny, obstructing governmental administration and official misconduct. Last month, they pleaded guilty and were sentenced to six months in jail and five years' probation. Speaking of theft, how about the TSA supervisor and screener accused of taking between $10,000 and $30,000 from luggage at Newark Liberty International Airport. A federal judge sentenced the supervisor, Michael Arato, to 2 1/2 years in prison and his subordinate, Al Raimi, to six months of home confinement, after both pleaded guilty. Or Randy Pepper, the TSA supervisor who worked at Seattle-Tacoma, an airport with what many passengers would argue has the worst TSA workforce in the country? http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241802-US-TSA-Watch-Who-s-More-Dangerous-Terrorists-or-the-TSA- Mon, 20 Feb 2012 01:24:58 -0600 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241800-US-TSA-Has-Several-Unusual-Incidents Some people seem to leave their common sense at home when they head to the airport. Just use this past week as a perfect example. The Transportation Safety Administration has had several unusual incidents at security checkpoints across the country. According to the agency's blog , a man tried to take a spear gun onto a plane at Newark Liberty International Airport this week, thinking it was just fine since it wasn't a bullet-firing gun. Another guy thought humor would help him get through security faster at Long Island MacArthur Airport in Islip. A passenger referring to his bag reportedly told the TSA officer: "Yeah, I got a bomb in it." It was not the best way for him to try to make his flight on-time. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241800-US-TSA-Has-Several-Unusual-Incidents Mon, 20 Feb 2012 01:07:30 -0600 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241796-US-NYPD-Monitored-Muslim-Students-Across-Northeast A spokesman defends the action, but a Muslim student chaplain sees 'a violation of civil rights.' The New York Police Department monitored Muslim college students more broadly than previously known and at schools far beyond the city limits, including Ivy League colleges Yale University and the University of Pennsylvania, the Associated Press has learned. Police talked with local authorities about professors 300 miles away in Buffalo and sent an undercover agent on a whitewater rafting trip, where he recorded students' names and noted in police intelligence files how many times they prayed. Detectives trawled Muslim student websites every day and, although professors and students had not been accused of wrongdoing, their names were recorded in reports prepared for Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly. Asked about the monitoring, police spokesman Paul Browne provided a list of 12 people arrested or convicted on terrorism charges in the U.S. and abroad who had once been members of Muslim student associations, which the New York Police Department referred to as "MSAs." Jesse Morton, who this month pleaded guilty to posting online threats against the creators of the animated TV show South Park, had once tried to recruit followers at Stony Brook University on Long Island, Browne said. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241796-US-NYPD-Monitored-Muslim-Students-Across-Northeast Mon, 20 Feb 2012 00:37:47 -0600 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241791-The-Criminalization-Of-The-Localized-Economy Richard Heinberg's recent Museletter 237, "The Fight of the Century," includes a curious point about criminalization: ". . . It will increasingly be up to households and communities to provide the basics. . . This is a strategy that will . . . in many cases be discouraged and even criminalized by national authorities." The question is whether such localization can survive our political leadership. Yet the localized economy is probably one of the few self-evident proposals for a future that seems to have a rather slim number of options. The illegalities of the "localized" life begin with the fact that many of the changes that need to be made to house design, in our post-nearly-all-materials world, are in fact illegal, if not strictly criminal. Here in Canada, one cannot legally build or inhabit a house that does not have conventional plumbing and electricity, for example. And the insurance companies have their say: a house will not be insured if it is heated mainly by wood. To be respectable, one must use our declining fossil fuels, it seems. In fact, insurance companies now look for all sorts of certification, most of which cannot be considered related to alternative approaches, but all of which are expensive. The same problem of illegality applies to many other activities, even if these are just common sense. Localized agriculture, as I learned first-hand a few years ago in Ontario, is increasingly plagued by pointless rules related to processing, packaging, labeling, and similar issues, to the extent that small-scale farmers are simply forced out of business. Much of this is done in the name of "health," but such farmers do not have the ability to set up the required laboratories and other equipment that would make their businesses compliant with these ever-expanding regulations. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241791-The-Criminalization-Of-The-Localized-Economy Sun, 19 Feb 2012 19:50:32 -0600 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241790-US-California-Arrests-in-Oakland-Protests-Rise-to-More-than-400 Crews cleaned up Oakland's historic City Hall on Sunday from damage inflicted overnight during violent anti-Wall Street protests that resulted in about 400 arrests, marking one of the largest mass arrests since nationwide protests began last year. At a press conference on Sunday, Oakland police and city officials said they did not have a final tally of arrests. Earlier in the day, the city's emergency operations office put the figure at around 400. The skirmishes injured three officers and at least one demonstrator. Police said a group of protesters burned an American flag in front of City Hall, then entered the building and destroyed a vending machine, light fixtures and a historic scale model of the edifice. The city's 911 emergency system was overwhelmed during the disturbances. "While City Hall sustained damage, we anticipate that all city offices will be open for regular business tomorrow," said Deanna Santana, Oakland city administrator. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241790-US-California-Arrests-in-Oakland-Protests-Rise-to-More-than-400 Sun, 19 Feb 2012 16:58:47 -0600 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241786-The-Takeover-of-Asfouriyeh-How-Solidere-Went-Nuts Asfouriyeh was the first mental asylum in Lebanon. Today, the historic property is being converted into a residential development site by Hariri-founded Solidere. There are no people in Asfouriyeh today. It has become a sanctuary for birds who find refuge among the pine trees and ruins of the old buildings. Asfouriyeh was built by American missionaries in 1890 with permission from the Ottoman Sultanate. It stretches over 130,000m2 of green space and includes 46 buildings in the area of Hazmieh, east of Beirut. At the beginning of the 20th century, it was the largest mental hospital in the Middle East. It may be the size of the asylum that made the word stick in the collective memory of the Lebanese, for whom Asfouriyeh became synonymous with any mental hospital. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241786-The-Takeover-of-Asfouriyeh-How-Solidere-Went-Nuts Sun, 19 Feb 2012 15:38:36 -0600 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241784-The-Right-Wing-Racism-Conservatives-Hate-Poor-People-White-and-Black The Right-Wing Propagandist Charles Murray Exposes the Truth About Conservatives -- They Hate Poor People, White and Black. As usual, Charles Murray twists and invents economic arguments to demonize poor people. But this time, his targets are white. Charles Murray, a leading right-wing polemicist, has spent three decades beating up on poor black people. His new book, however, is an act of more equal opportunity opprobrium, arguing that white working class America is in crisis because it has a fucked up and backward culture. And his main example is Philadelphia's Fishtown. Murray published summaries of Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960 - 2010 in the Wall Street Journal and another in the right-wing New Criterion. His argument is a mean and vicious slander against the people of Fishtown and working class people everywhere, detailing the decline of what he calls the "Founding virtues" of industriousness, honesty, marriage, and religion amongst the rabble. It's based on the Philadelphia neighborhood, but Murray uses "Fishtown" as an exemplar to generalize about white Americans with "no academic degree higher than a high school diploma...[and unemployed or working in] a blue-collar, service, or low-level white-collar occupation." Murray complains that Fishtown residents are increasingly less moral than people in Belmont, based on the wealthy white Boston suburb full of "successful people in managerial and professional occupations―the elites who are in positions of influence over the nation's economy, media, intellectual life, and politics." Which is where Mitt Romney lives―so I suppose he offers a lesson in hypocrisy, avarice and greed, huh? But beyond Murray's poisonous politics, the biggest problem is that his argument is wrong. He says that the real Fishtown went from "a tightly knit, family oriented, hard-drinking, hard-working, hard-fighting blue-collar neighborhood" in the 1950s to a "a neighborhood that had experienced the decline of industriousness among males, the drop in marriage, rise in nonmarital births, rise in crime, and falling away from religion" today. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241784-The-Right-Wing-Racism-Conservatives-Hate-Poor-People-White-and-Black Sun, 19 Feb 2012 15:21:24 -0600 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241782-How-Iran-Changed-The-World Imagine this scenario: A developing nation decides to selectively share its precious natural resource, selling only to "friendly" countries and not "hostile" ones. Now imagine this is oil we're talking about and the nation in question is the Islamic Republic of Iran... Early news reports on Wednesday claimed that Iran pre-empted European Union sanctions by turning off the oil spigot to six member-states: the Netherlands, Spain, Italy, France, Greece and Portugal. The reports were premature. According to a highly-placed source in the country, Iran will only stop its oil supply to these nations if they fail to adopt new trading conditions: 1) signing 3 to 5-year contracts to import Iranian oil, with all agreements concluded prior to March 21, and 2) payment for the oil will no longer be accepted within 60-day cycles, as in the past, and must instead be honored immediately. Negotiations are currently underway with all six nations. Iran, says the source, expects to cut oil supplies to at least two nations based on their current positions. These are likely to be Holland and France. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241782-How-Iran-Changed-The-World Sun, 19 Feb 2012 14:55:51 -0600 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241777-Japan-s-Nuclear-Evacuees-Denied-Canadian-Refuge A Japanese woman who claimed exposure to radiation from damaged nuclear reactors has been denied refugee status in Canada almost one year after that nation was rocked by an earthquake and tsunami that left more than 100,000 people homeless. The woman's identity has not been released by an Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) since she's seeking asylum in this country. She is among several dozen Japanese nationals who filed refugee claims to stay in Canada following the disaster and is one of the first decisions to be reached by the IRB. "The claimant feared risks of exposure to radiation," an IRB member said in a ruling. "She was not convinced by the Japanese government's assurances of safety from radiation." The woman was one of hundreds of Japanese citizens who sought refuge in other countries following the March 11, 2011 catastrophe caused by a magnitude 9.0 quake and tsunami that left more than 15,000 dead and nearly 3300 missing. The acts of nature crippled the Fukushima nuclear plant, leading to core meltdowns at three of its six reactors, and ongoing leaks of radioactive material. A board member ruled the claimant "feared being a victim of hazards that emanated from a combined natural and man-made disaster." http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241777-Japan-s-Nuclear-Evacuees-Denied-Canadian-Refuge Sun, 19 Feb 2012 14:32:34 -0600 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241776-Egypt-trial-on-U-S-democracy-activists-set-for-February-26 An Egyptian court will start the trial on February 26 of activists from mostly American civil society groups accused of working illegally in Egypt, in a case which has strained U.S.-Egyptian ties. A judicial source told Reuters that the 43 accused, including around 20 Americans, would go on trial next Sunday, charged with working in the country without proper legal registration. The state new agency MENA said the hearing would take place at North Cairo Criminal Court. Investigators swooped down on the offices of civil society groups on December 29, confiscating computers and other equipment and seizing cash and documents. The American defendants have been banned from leaving Egypt and some have taken refuge in the U.S. embassy. Among those accused is Sam LaHood, Egypt director of the International Republican Institute and the son of the U.S. transportation secretary. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241776-Egypt-trial-on-U-S-democracy-activists-set-for-February-26 Sun, 19 Feb 2012 14:25:57 -0600 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241775-LAUSD-Supt-John-Deasy-addresses-Miramonte-sex-abuse-allegations In the wake of teachers being charged with lewd acts with students, Los Angeles Unified School District Supt. John Deasy has sought to reassure teachers and staff in a video address. The two accused teachers at Miramonte Elementary School have been removed and face criminal charges. In his four-minute address, Deasy said the rest of the staff at Miramonte, which had been temporarily relocated to the unopened Augustus Hawkins High School nearby, will have the opportunity to eventually return. "The reason that I wanted to address you is because I know that the actions of the arrested teachers at Miramonte, and the other schools, do not reflect on you or your professionalism," Deasy said. "I want to say that again. Just because a few members have [allegedly] done terrible things, that are being dealt with appropriately by law enforcement officials, that does not reflect on the amazing teaching, leadership and classified staff that I see every day in LAUSD." http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241775-LAUSD-Supt-John-Deasy-addresses-Miramonte-sex-abuse-allegations Sun, 19 Feb 2012 14:23:45 -0600 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241774-US-Washington-DC-Protesters-in-capital-pledge-to-stay-despite-ban Defiant anti-Wall Street protesters in Washington vowed to remain peacefully entrenched in two parks near the White House on Monday despite a police order to stop camping on federal land, raising the specter of possible confrontation. The U.S. National Park Service, in its first challenge to the demonstrators, said last week it would start enforcing a ban at noon on Monday against camping in McPherson Square and Freedom Plaza, where protesters have camped out since October. It ordered bedding and cooking equipment removed but said tents could remain as a protest symbol if flaps stayed open. While many protesters told Reuters they would comply with the order, blankets were still visible in some tents. After a cursory inspection of the McPherson Square camp, police remained on the outskirts and no arrests had been reported by late afternoon. Protesters said police appeared hesitant to move in while television crews thronged the area. While similar "Occupy" protests against social and economic inequality in other U.S. cities have been shut down by police, the demonstrations in the capital have survived an unusually warm winter and a permissive approach by federal authorities reluctant to provoke confrontation. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241774-US-Washington-DC-Protesters-in-capital-pledge-to-stay-despite-ban Sun, 19 Feb 2012 14:16:42 -0600 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241773-Random-Thoughts-at-the-Dawn-of-the-Year-2012 I thought I'd begin this rant by sharing some of my thoughts on the historical figure known as Jesus of Nazareth. I think we can all agree that, unlike some of the other subjects I have weighed in on in the past, this is one on which people do not tend to have strongly held points-of-view, so there is little chance that I will offend and alienate readers right off the bat. So let's jump right into it then with observation #1: When the likely outcome of an unwed pregnancy is death by stoning, people can be really creative liars. Nothing in the least bit controversial about that ... right? Let's move on then to observation #2: It is fully understandable why the lie was told, and even why many people in that era might have believed it; what is more difficult to understand is why tens of millions of people around the world still believe it 2,000 years later. I doubt that I've lost anyone yet, so let's quickly move on to observation #3: Jesus was initially described as coming from a line of men who worked with their hands, which was later interpreted to mean that he was a carpenter. Given though that the primary building materials in the land of his birth were sand and rock, it is far more likely that Joseph and his sons were stone masons. Just saying ... Observation #4: Jesus of Nazareth's real father was undoubtedly a Roman citizen. Some have speculated that he was the product of rape by one of the notoriously ruthless Roman storm-troopers, but his later actions suggest to this completely impartial observer that it was more likely a consensual coupling and that the father was someone of considerably more importance than a mere soldier. Observation #5: Jesus was very likely a controlled Roman asset. Just as, nearly two thousand years later, the obviously controlled asset known as Jesse Jackson replaced the slain Martin Luther King, and the equally controlled asset known as Louis Farrakhan replaced the eliminated Malcolm X, so it was that Jesus was maneuvered into position to replace the executed John the Baptist, who had, I'm guessing, become a bit of a problem for the Roman overseers. The message that the emergent messiah delivered to those living under the brutal hand of those Roman occupiers was, by any rational analysis, exactly the wrong one. It was a message brimming with advice about loving neighbors and turning cheeks ... a message that constantly reinforced the notion that it was better to be poor and oppressed than wealthy and powerful, for the poor, you see, were going to spend all eternity in the glorious 'Kingdom of Heaven,' while the rich were going to burn in the fires of Hell (unless they were somehow able to steer their camels through the eye of a needle, or something like that). It was, in other words, a belief system seemingly designed specifically to suppress any thoughts of rebellion amongst the unwashed masses. And the beauty of it was that no one would find out if the fabled Kingdom of Heaven actually existed until it was too late for them to get a refund. I know what you're thinking here: "But Dave, didn't the Romans execute Jesus, and do so in a horrifically brutal and sadistic manner - you know, like in that Mel Gibson torture-porn flick?" Maybe they did and maybe they didn't. Even if they did, that would not necessarily prove that Jesus was not a covert Roman operative. Most all assets are expendable if they become more valuable dead than alive. And it's pretty clear that for the last couple thousand years, Jesus has proven his value as a dead martyr. But was he crucified? I tend to doubt that he was. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241773-Random-Thoughts-at-the-Dawn-of-the-Year-2012 Sun, 19 Feb 2012 14:07:49 -0600 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241772-NBC-s-Pathological-Game-Fear-Factory-Donkey-Semen-Controversy Though Fear Factor has seen its fair share of controversy, NBC finally deemed a stunt un-airable. TMZ reported that what would have been the Jan. 30 episode, entitled "Hee Haw! Hee Haw!," featured contestants being asked to drink a glass of donkey semen and a glass of donkey urine. The stunt was allegedly so extreme that NBC executives decided to pull it from the schedule just the day before it was scheduled to hit living rooms nationwide, according to TMZ. Fear Factor host Joe Rogan hinted at the stunt months ago in an interview with The Huffington Post when asked why he said the reality show was going to be "bigger and crazier" this season: http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241772-NBC-s-Pathological-Game-Fear-Factory-Donkey-Semen-Controversy Sun, 19 Feb 2012 14:06:43 -0600 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241762-Mexican-Prison-Riot-Leaves-At-Least-38-Dead At least 38 inmates have been killed in a riot at a prison near the northern Mexican city of Monterrey, officials said Sunday. The clashes broke out overnight between rival gangs at Apodoca prison, some 30 kilometers (18 miles) from Monterrey. Families were gathering outside the institution, awaiting news of their loved ones. "So far we have counted 38 dead," Jorge Domene, a spokesman for the state corrections' system, told AFP, adding that the situation inside the prison was now calm and that forensic teams were working to identify the bodies. Riots are common in Mexico's notoriously overcrowded prisons. It was the second deadly such brawl in recent months near Monterrey after seven inmates died and 12 were injured in a clash in October at Cadereyta prison. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241762-Mexican-Prison-Riot-Leaves-At-Least-38-Dead Sun, 19 Feb 2012 12:08:00 -0600 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241751-Important-Information-about-the-Sott-net-Fundraiser Since we launched our fundraiser several days ago, we've received generally positive responses from most of our readers. There are, however, a significant number of people who appear not to have grasped precisely WHAT it is that SOTT.net is and does, what goes on behind the scenes, and what the main point to our research is. While SOTT.net is, on the face of it, a news and commentary website, readers need to be aware that it this is merely the public face of our research organization: Quantum Future Group, Inc. The true role that Sott.net plays is as the vehicle via which the results of our main projects research are distilled down and presented to our readers in the form of a daily picture of the world as it is and where it, and we as a species, are headed. This takes the form of the arrangement of articles, editorials and commentary that we publish every day, 365 days a year. There is also our forum where all the topics you see on SOTT.net are discussed and researched in much greater detail. In short, when you read an article or editorial or commentary on SOTT.net, you can be sure that the viewpoint or angle put forward is the result of rigorous research by highly qualified individuals and groups who hold the Truth above all other considerations. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241751-Important-Information-about-the-Sott-net-Fundraiser Sun, 19 Feb 2012 09:22:29 -0600 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241747-Nepal-Mob-Burns-Witch-Alive-in-Horrifying-Attack A mob burned alive a 40-year-old woman on Friday after accusing her of casting black magic spells in a remote village in southern Nepal, police said. Dengani Mahato died after she was severely beaten, doused in kerosene and set alight for allegedly practising witchcraft, Gopal Bhandari, a superintendent of police in Chitwan district, said. "Nine people started to beat her after a local shaman pointed the finger at her over the death of a boy a year ago," the officer said. "They accused her of having hands in the death of the boy, who had drowned in a river." Bhandari said the shaman and the nine locals suspected of taking part in the crime had been arrested on suspicion of murder. "They poured kerosene and threw straw over her and then set fire to her. No one came to her rescue. By the time we heard about it, she had already died," he said. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241747-Nepal-Mob-Burns-Witch-Alive-in-Horrifying-Attack Sun, 19 Feb 2012 07:42:08 -0600 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241740-Thousands-Rally-in-Gaza-West-Bank-for-Hunger-Striker Several thousand Palestinians rallied in Gaza and the West Bank Friday in support of jailed Islamic Jihad leader Khader Adnan, who is on the 62nd day of a hunger strike to protest against his detention by Israel. "We are all Khader Adnan," chanted crowds gathered in the Gaza Strip, with activists from the main political parties joining forces in a rare display of Palestinian unity. Adnan, 33, has been refusing to eat since mid-December following his arrest in the occupied West Bank. He is being held under so-called "administrative detention," which means Israel can detain him indefinitely without trial or charge. The Islamic Jihad group, which advocates the destruction of the state of Israel, has said it will escalate violence if Adnan dies, following reports that his health was deteriorating. "We will pursue our Jihad and resistance. We will sail in the sea of blood and martyrdom until we land on the shore of pride and dignity," top Islamic Jihad leader Nafez Azzam said during a Friday sermon at Gaza's oldest al-Omari mosque. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241740-Thousands-Rally-in-Gaza-West-Bank-for-Hunger-Striker Sun, 19 Feb 2012 03:10:54 -0600 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241738-US-Police-Say-More-Human-Remains-Found-on-New-York-s-Long-Island Police said Saturday that more human remains have been found on New York's Long Island, in the same area where authorities are hunting for a possible serial killer. In a statement obtained by FoxNews.com, the Suffolk County Police Department said the remains -- confirmed to be human -- were discovered by a man walking his dog in Manorville, N.Y., at around 6:30 p.m. Friday. The skeletal remains were found in a heavily wooded area about 300 feet off a road., police said. They are being brought to the Office of the Suffolk County Medical Examiner. The site in Manorville is close to where a woman's torso was found in 2000. The victim's head, hands and foot were later found at Gilgo Beach, where the remains of seven women, a man and a toddler were also discovered. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241738-US-Police-Say-More-Human-Remains-Found-on-New-York-s-Long-Island Sun, 19 Feb 2012 02:48:19 -0600 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241735-New-Report-Highlights-Which-Airlines-Had-the-Most-Pet-Deaths-in-2011 A shocking new report shows that more pets died flying on Delta Airlines than on any other airline in 2011. Delta spokesman Anthony Black told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that it carries more pets than any other airline and has a broad route network. Other airlines, such as AirTran and JetBlue allow pets to accompany their owners into the fuselage, and not in the cargo hold. Mr Black noted that the 19 deaths accounted for only 0.2 per cent of animals transported do not survive, mostly because of pets' pre-existing health issues. While the cargo holds are climate-controlled, delays and other unforeseen circumstances can cause stress on a pet Last February, a hairless kitten froze to death after being shipped in the cargo hold of a flight. Owner Heather Lombardi paid $300 to fly the 11-week-old Snickers from a breeder in Utah to her home in Connecticut in climate-controlled air cargo. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241735-New-Report-Highlights-Which-Airlines-Had-the-Most-Pet-Deaths-in-2011 Sun, 19 Feb 2012 02:30:00 -0600 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241733-Thousands-Rally-for-Putin-Before-Russian-Election Tens of thousands of people demonstrated in cities across Russia in support of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Saturday in a show of force two weeks before a March 4 presidential election that is expected to return him to the Kremlin. The rallies began in the Pacific coast port of Vladivostok and culminated with a late-night demonstration on wheels in Moscow, where motorists took to the streets with slogans such as "Putin rules" on their cars. "One wish unites us: we want to be sure of tomorrow," said a declaration read out at the rally in St. Petersburg, which like many others was organized by trade unions that have close government ties. The declaration urged Russians to vote on March 4 and "defend the right to the stable future." In central Moscow, about 10 people staging a street protest against Putin were detained, Ekho Moskvy radio reported. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241733-Thousands-Rally-for-Putin-Before-Russian-Election Sun, 19 Feb 2012 02:17:26 -0600 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241724-A-Conservative-Explains-Why-Right-Wingers-Have-No-Compassion A former Republican Senate Congressional staffer on why right-wingers think people without insurance deserve to die. Although Mitt Romney used the word "conservative" 19 times in a short speech at the February 10, 2012, Conservative Political Action Conference, the audience he used this word to appeal to was not conservative by any traditional definition. It was right wing. Despite the common American practice of using "conservative" and "right wing" interchangeably, right wing is not a synonym for conservative and not even a true variant of conservatism - although the right wing will opportunistically borrow conservative themes as required. Right-wingers have occasioned much recent comment. Their behavior in the Republican debates has caused even jaded observers to react like an Oxford don stumbling upon a tribe of headhunting cannibals. In those debates where the moderators did not enforce decorum, these right-wingers, the Republican base, behaved with a single lack of dignity. For a group that displays its supposed pro-life credentials like a neon sign, the biggest applause lines resulted from their hearing about executions or the prospect of someone dying without health insurance. Who are these people and what motivates them? To answer, one must leave the field of conventional political theory and enter the realm of psychopathology. Three books may serve as field guides to the farther shores of American politics and the netherworld of the true believer. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241724-A-Conservative-Explains-Why-Right-Wingers-Have-No-Compassion Sat, 18 Feb 2012 17:46:58 -0600 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241718-US-Arizona-Man-Shot-to-Death-While-Holding-Baby Scottsdale - An Arizona man was shot to death by police Tuesday while holding his grandson. Police say 50-year-old John Loxas was holding his grandchild in his arms as he walked around his Scottsdale neighborhood Tuesday night threatening neighbors and police. "There were at least three officers in position to engage the suspect. At least one of the officers thought he saw something in the suspect's hands," said Sgt. Mark Clark. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241718-US-Arizona-Man-Shot-to-Death-While-Holding-Baby Sat, 18 Feb 2012 12:13:38 -0600