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Banned: Swedish Airport Refuses to Allow Israeli Security Inspections


Ma'an News Agency
Fri, 20 Apr 2012 20:07 UTC
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© Reuters
Stockholm's international airport has refused to allow Israeli security inspections to take place, forcing an Israeli airline to stop its service, daily Haaretz reported Thursday.

Israeli security procedures, which often involve ethnic and personal profiling, were prohibited from taking place at Denmark's Copenhagen airport last summer.

The measures, which are formulated by Shin Bet security services, are now also prohibited at Sweden's Malmo and Stockholm airports, Haaretz said.

Israeli airline Arkia has stopped flying to Stockholm's airport in light of the restrictions.

"We are talking with security authorities in Sweden and other countries where problems have surfaced, to understand the meaning of the new restrictions imposed on Israeli flights," Haaretz quoted Israel's Transport Ministry as saying.
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Cowboy Hat

Hypocrisy of the Elites: Santorum Says Affordable Education Snobbish

David Sirota
In These Times
Sat, 03 Mar 2012 00:00 UTC
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© Scott Olson/Getty ImagesRick Santorum speaks at a campaign rally in Lansing, Mich., on February 27.
Rick Santorum thinks making college affordable for all is elitist. How else are Americans going to find good-paying jobs?

Say what you will about this era's Republican presidential candidates, they at least have chutzpah.

Millionaire blue-blood George W. Bush pretended to be a down-home cowboy. Two-time divorcee and longtime Washington influence peddler Newt Gingrich struts around preaching about traditional family values and insisting he's a D.C. outsider. Now, topping them all is Rick Santorum, who last week declared that only "snobs" support efforts to make a college education more accessible to all Americans.

Santorum, of course, has not one, not two, but a whopping three separate degrees, two of which come from public universities - that is, two that were taxpayer-subsidized, courtesy of the "Big Government" Santorum now claims to loathe.

Hypocritical - and dare I say, snobbish - as it is for someone with such a pedigree to attack President Obama's college affordability initiatives, Santorum did inadvertently stumble into a significant question: Is higher education for everyone? The answer today is not necessarily, but that's precisely because of the affordability problem Obama aims to solve.
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Crusader

Bishop Compares Obama's Health Care Policies to Hitler's Actions


The Guardian
Thu, 19 Apr 2012 00:00 UTC
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© 2012.talkingpointsmemo.com
An Illinois Roman Catholic diocese whose bishop compared President Barack Obama's health care policies to actions taken by Adolf Hitler said Thursday that the comments, which prompted outside demands for an apology and investigation, were "historical context" in an ongoing debate over religious liberty.

Peoria Bishop Daniel Jenky said during a Sunday homily at St. Mary's Cathedral in Peoria that Obama is following previous governments that "tried to force Christians to huddle and hide only within the confines of their churches."

"Hitler and Stalin, at their better moments, would just barely tolerate some churches remaining open, but would not tolerate any competition with the state in education, social services and health care," the (Peoria) Journal Star and Chicago Tribune quoted Jenky as saying during the homily. "In clear violation of our First Amendment rights, Barack Obama - with his radical, pro-abortion and extreme secularist agenda - now seems intent on following a similar path."
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Chart Pie

'Shrink Ray' at the Supermarket: Shoppers are Paying the Same for Ever Smaller Products

Emily Allen
Mail Online
Thu, 19 Apr 2012 03:44 UTC
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Shoppers are paying more for their goods without realising - as manufacturers shrink the pack sizes
  • Two ice cream brands and detergent join the 'shopping list of shame'
  • Manufacturers say they're responding to rising commodity prices
    • Supermarket shoppers are increasingly getting less for their money as big brands continue to reduce the size of their products, a consumer watchdog has revealed.

    The smaller groceries still cost the same at the checkout, leaving customers with already squeezed household budgets due to the rising cost of living - out of pocket.

    This week Which? identified more everyday products subjected to the 'grocery shrink-ray' - a practice first highlighted by the Mail in 2001.
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    Bulb

    Rationality and the Ability to Properly Weigh Evidence


    Increasebrainpower.com
    Sat, 21 Apr 2012 00:00 UTC
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    © sumanthkapoor.blogspot.com
    Among the signs of rationality in one's thinking, the ability to properly weigh evidence is perhaps one of the most important. But how good are we at deciding what constitutes evidence and how do we determine how convincing each piece of it should be? We may not be as rational as we like to think we are at assessing evidence.

    To begin with, there are those who are too easily led to believe what they want and who take almost anything as valid evidence for that belief. On the other hand, some research shows that most people are too conservative in assigning weight to a piece of evidence. In general it is found that we remain less convinced than the evidence warrants. Or, to put it another way, humans may be more skeptical than they should be.
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    Brick Wall

    Zimmerman to Trayvon's parents: 'I am sorry for the loss of your son'

    Mike Schneider and Curt Anderson
    The Associated Press
    Fri, 20 Apr 2012 17:15 UTC
    trayvon mother
    © Associated Press/John RaouxSybrina Fulton, left, mother of Trayvon Martin and attorney Benjamin Crump, arrive at the Seminole County Criminal Justice Center for a bond hearing for George Zimmerman, the neighborhood watch volunteer charged with murdering Trayvon Martin, Friday, April 20, 2012, in Sanford, Fla. Zimmerman's attorney is asking the Seminole County judge to let Zimmerman post bail at the hearing Friday
    As George Zimmerman has bail set at $150K, he speaks to parents of Trayvon Martin, the unarmed teen he shot Feb. 26.

    A routine bail hearing for George Zimmerman took a surprising turn into remorse and explanation Friday when the neighborhood watch volunteer got on the witness stand and told Trayvon Martin's parents: "I am sorry for the loss of your son."

    "I did not know how old he was. I thought he was a little bit younger than I am. I did not know if he was armed or not," Zimmerman said, marking the first time he has spoken publicly about the Feb. 26 shooting of the unarmed black 17-year-old.

    The hearing wrapped up with a judge ruling Zimmerman can be released from jail on $150,000 bail while he awaits trial on second-degree murder charges. Zimmerman, who has been in jail for more than a week, could be out within days and may be allowed to live outside Florida for his own safety once arrangements are made to monitor him electronically.
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    Cut

    Iran to cut oil to "whole Europe", claims to have alternative buyers


    trent.az
    Fri, 20 Apr 2012 17:17 UTC
    Rostam Ghasemi
    Iranian Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi
    Iran will cut oil export to all European countries if they do not lift sanctions on Tehran after the next round of talks in Baghdad, country's Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi said on Thursday, Mehr reported.

    After nuclear negotiations in Istanbul on April 14, which was described as positive, Iran and the 5+1 group (the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany) are scheduled to meet again in Baghdad on May 23.

    Qasemi said the Oil Ministry has "officially" cut crude exports to Britain and France, however, he added a stop of Iran's oil export to refiners in Greece, Spain, and Germany is not "official". He added that Greece is paying a large sum of its oil debts to Iran.

    The minister went on to say that the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) has signed new contracts with some customers so that if oil export to Europe is halted completely Iran will have alternative buyers.
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    HAL9000

    Freedom Attack! FBI Seizes Riseup Email Network Server


    Democracy Now!
    Fri, 20 Apr 2012 16:57 UTC
    The FBI has seized a computer server at a New York facility shared by the internet organizations Riseup Networks and May First/People Link. The server was operated by the European Counter Network and ran a program called Mixmaster, which routes emails through anonymous servers in a network. The server also ran a number of mailing lists and websites for political groups. Jamie McClelland of May First said: "The server seizure is not only an attack against us, but an attack against all users of the Internet who depend on anonymous communication." The server was seized as part of an FBI investigation into the bomb threats against the University of Pittsburgh.
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    Light Saber

    Tens of thousands protest military's rule in Egypt

    Aya Batrawy
    The Associated Press
    Fri, 20 Apr 2012 16:42 UTC
    Cairo rally
    © The Associated Press/Nasser NasserEgyptian protesters attend Friday prayers during a rally in Tahrir square, Cairo, Egypt, Friday, April 20, 2012. Tens of thousands of protesters packed Cairo's downtown Tahrir Square on Friday in the biggest demonstration in months against the ruling military, aimed at stepping up pressure on the generals to hand over power to civilians and bar ex-regime members from running in upcoming presidential elections
    Tens of thousands of protesters packed Cairo's downtown Tahrir Square on Friday in the biggest demonstration in months against the ruling military, aimed at stepping up pressure on the generals to hand over power to civilians and bar ex-regime members from running in upcoming presidential elections.

    Islamists and liberals turned out together in force for the protest to show the widespread anger at the military over the country's political chaos ahead of the first presidential elections since the fall of Hosni Mubarak more than a year ago. The confusion has raised suspicions the generals ruling since Mubarak's ouster are manipulating the process to preserve their power, ensure the victory of a pro-military candidate and prevent reform.

    "Down with military rule," protesters in Tahrir chanted, and banners draped around the sprawling plaza denounced candidates seen as "feloul," or "remnants" from Mubarak's regime.

    Liberals and youth groups called for all factions to agree on an antimilitary "revolution" candidate in the presidential vote, but the powerful Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamists - who have their own ambitions in the race - refused to sign on.
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    Bad Guys

    'Never Again' is an Empty Slogan

    Gilad Atzmon
    Gilad Atzmon
    Fri, 20 Apr 2012 16:13 UTC
    targetting iran
    The United States must resolve that 'never again' is not just an 'empty slogan', said U.S. President Barack Obama on Thursday, in a statement marking Holocaust Remembrance Day. Yet, I am left bewildered, what does president Obama refers to? Is 'never again' a universal message pointing at genocides in general or did he refer to Jewish suffering only? With 1,455,590 dead Iraqis due to an Anglo American criminal war, it seems as if the USA is actually complicit in an actual genocide.

    Obama's comments followed Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu's Holocaust Memorial Day address at Yad Vashem where he stated that Israel's "enemies tried to bury the Jewish future but our future was born again in the land of our forefathers, here we built a base, and a new beginning of freedom, and hope and action."

    Netanyahu, as usual, was almost correct. The 'Jewish future' was indeed born again after the holocaust just to introduce total misery, racism, expansionism, oppression, death and carnage to the entire Middle East. The so-called 'Jewish State' has managed, in just a few decades, to locate itself as the primary threat to world peace. With the Jewish State and its lobbies pushing for a war against Iran, there is little room for doubt- Israel is driven by a suicidal inclination in the spirit of Biblical Samson. Yet, being a nuclear super power, Israel's potential self-inflicted tragedy may as well put an end to the world, as we know it.
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