We live in a strange world. Check out just the recent news: putative European "democrats" support Nazis and don't seem to notice that the latter are using weapons of war, including chemical munitions, multiple-rocket launchers and ballistic missiles, against cities. We live in a world were it is apparently quite normal for the IMF/ECB/etc. to continue to send money to a bankrupt country in the midst of the civil war in total violation of their own statutes, but where an EU/NATO member like Greece cannot even get a few days worth of credit extension. In the USA homosexuals will now be "playing marriage" and continue to adopt children to pretend to be viable couples. In the Middle-East the Israelis are happily continuing to commit acts of piracy on the high seas while Canada wants to pass a law making criticizing Israel a punishable form of "hate speech". Besides being revolting, is all this not just plain crazy?!

"Democratic" countries are ruled by the 1% but "authoritarian regimes" like Russia, Iran or Syria all undeniably have the support of the masses (and the eternal hatred of the local wannabe 1%ers!).

And it is not just politics - this insanity reaches much deeper into our society. Men are not supposed to be manly any more, while women are now told that femininity is being stupid and submissive. Honor is now passé, as is obedience, kindness, faithfulness and humility.

We are supposed to be sexually free, yet there is a huge multi-billion dollar industry fully dedicated to cater to sexually dysfunctional people (sexually happy people need neither porn nor Viagra!). We are supposed to be politically free, but somehow the policies of our rulers seem to never change. We are supposed to be intellectually free (freedom of speech!!) and yet with each new generation the already disgraceful level of crass ignorance of the average citizen is getting worse and worse.

Euphoric reaction to superstar tech businesses is rampant — so much so that the tech industry is in denial about looming threats. The tech industry is in a bubble, and there are sufficient indicators for those willing to open their eyes. Rearing unicorns, however, is a distracting fascination.

The Perfect Storm

Raising funding for tech startups has never been so easy. Some of this flood of money has been because of mutual funds and hedge funds, including Fidelity, T. Rowe Price and Tiger Global Management. This is altering not only the funding landscape for tech startups, but also valuation expectations.

There are many concerns that valuations for businesses are confounding rationale. Entrepreneurs and their investors are deviating from more traditional valuation and performance metrics to more unconventional ones. Another cause cited for increasing valuations is the trend of protections for late investors that cause valuations to inflate further. The combination of a number of these factors has put the sector into a state of artificial valuations.

Meanwhile, the companies themselves are burning through cash like there is no tomorrow. Throwing money at marketing, overheads and, in particular, remuneration has become the accepted investment strategy for startup growth. All this does is perpetuate the vicious cycle of raising more money and spending more money. For the amounts that some of these businesses have raised, the jury is still out on actual profitability.

New regulations aimed at rolling back Brazil's obsession with Cesarean sections took effect Monday, with the government hoping it can steer the country from its status as a world leader in C-section births.

The rules and a campaign called "Childbirth is normal!" address what Health Minister Arthur Chioro has dubbed an "epidemic" of Cesareans, currently accounting for more than half of births in this nation of 200 million.

About 84 percent of Brazilian mothers on private health care undergo the operation, in which the baby is delivered through a small incision in the mother's abdomen -- often for no other reason than the convenience of being able to choose the date.

In public hospitals, that figure is approximately 40 percent.

This still tops the 32 percent rate in the United States and is massively higher than World Health Organisation recommendations of 10 to 15 percent.

Brazil's new rules require doctors and hospitals to share information with patients, notably the number of Cesareans they have already carried out.

When they fail to give requested information, the health insurance companies face fines of up to about $8,000.

Making patients better informed will help diminish the rush for C-sections, health officials say.

"Childbirth is one of the most important moments in the life of a woman and her family," said Jose Carlos de Souza Abrahao, director of ANS, a specialized health ministry agency.

"By informing her of the risks that could come with an unnecessary surgical procedure, she will be more sure in her decision regarding the delivery, choosing what's best for her health and for her baby's health."

A western Michigan woman heads to court Tuesday after being arrested for failing to renew her dog's license.

Becky Rehr says she drove to the Kalamazoo County sheriff's office June 23 to prove that she's recently renewed the license for the family's 11-year-old dog, Dexter. Rehr's 14-year-old daughter waited in the car as her mother was arrested, fingerprinted and held for three hours, The Kalamazoo Gazette said.

"They frisked me and put me in this intake cell with all these inmates in orange jumpsuits," Rehr said. "I was pretty nervous."

Failure to license a dog is punishable by up to 90 days in jail and $100 fine.

County animal control Director Steve Lawrence said his office gave the 47-year-old Cooper Township woman numerous phone, mail and in-person notices of the need to renew the license. The last was a phone warning that a warrant would be requested unless she got a license by May 28.

A hearing on the misdemeanor case is scheduled Tuesday before District Judge Christopher Haenicke.

"We prefer not for this stuff to go to court," Lawrence told The Associated Press. "It's just a $10 license. For some reason, some people like to make it hard for themselves."

Rehr said she had "every intention of taking care of it. But with the end of the school year and my job, it just totally got put on the back burner."

What you are watching unfold in Greece right now is eventually going to come to your own neighborhood. Someday, people living all around you will be storming the supermarkets in a desperate attempt to secure the food and supplies that they neglected to store up when they had the chance. Of course the Greeks never thought that it would happen to them either. Their civilization had endured for thousands of years, and they were a part of the most powerful economic alliance on the face of the planet. Most Greeks never imagined that they would be plunged into a multi-year economic depression that would ultimately lead to "bank holidays", long lines at ATM machines, and people diving into dumpsters in a frantic search for something to sell. And this is just the beginning of the chaos in Greece - things are going to get much, much worse for them. Hopefully, this will serve as a wake up call for millions upon millions of clueless Americans out there, because we are on the exact same path that Greece has gone down. The sad truth is that no amount of "American exceptionalism" is going to prevent us from suffering the consequences of decades of very foolish decisions. We are steamrolling toward our own version of economic collapse, and when that time arrives you don't want to be caught totally unprepared for it.

In some cities in the United States, it only takes an inch or two of snow during the winter to set off panic hoarding at local supermarkets and hardware stores.

Saudi warplanes have bombed a German hospital in the Yemeni city of Harad in the northwestern Hajjah Province. According to the al-Masirah news channel on Tuesday, a number of people were killed and injured in the attack. Saudi airstrikes also targeted the al-Deylami air base in the capital, Sana'a, with witnesses reporting huge explosions following the attacks.

A 16-year-old Florida girl was charged as an adult in connection with a shooting last month that left her boyfriend dead and a state trooper injured, WESH-TV reported.

The suspect, Morgan McNeil was denied bond on Monday. According to investigators, McNeil and her boyfriend, 15-year-old Zane Terryn, were parked in a truck outside a gas station in Cocoa when they were approached by state Highway Patrol Lt. Channing Taylor. The two teens were allegedly planning to drive to Ohio to commit suicide. McNeil, who was driving, had taken a handgun and money from a relative's house before they got on the road.

McNeil is charged with second-degree murder in connection with Terryn's death, in accordance with state law, since both were allegedly committing felonies at the time. She is also charged with attempted first-degree premeditated murder of a law enforcement officer and resisting an officer with violence following the incident on June 15.

Taylor testified on Monday that he saw Terryn pointing the gun at him as he was writing down the vehicle's license plate number.

"It scared me to death that someone would point a gun at me," he said. "My reaction was to get out of the way."

If you want to track a civilization as it collapses, watch what happens to the concept of the rebel.

On a profound level, mass shootings and assassinations (whether staged or not) are used to define the ever-present "lone assassin" as the REPRESENTATION AND THE SYMBOL OF WHAT THE INDEPENDENT INDIVIDUAL IS.

You're a separate and distinct individual? An outsider? Watch out. Overnight, you could turn into a raging killer.

You happen to know an outsider, a loner? He's dangerous. He doesn't live by the rules the rest of us accept. He's deranged. Stay away from him. Shun him. And if you see the slightest indication of (insert your own term here), report him to the authorities.

"See a rebel, say something," to paraphrase the DHS motto.

Any human being who has courage, intelligence, eyes to see, and a determination to express his power in uncompromising terms can now be redefined as a potential threat to the stability of society—if he criticizes the prevailing Authority.

The National Education Association has launched an attack on the practice of homeschooling, and one leading education expert is not taking it lying down.

"The National Education Association's radical attacks on constitutionally protected liberties and homeschooling families in particular are outrageous and should be vehemently denounced by every real educator and every real American," internationalist journalist and educator Alex Newman declared.

The NEA's 2014-2015 resolution on homeschooling begins like this: "The National Education Association believes that home schooling programs based on parental choice cannot provide the student with a comprehensive education experience."

Just a week out from trial, state prosecutors have reached a deal with the Tennessee mom at the center of a chaotic traffic stop where a state police officer shot at a minivan full of kids.

Prosecutors for the Taos District Attorney's Office and the attorney for Oriana Farrell announced a plea deal at a Monday afternoon hearing at the Taos County Courthouse.

Farrell is charged with child abuse, aggravated fleeing from a police office and drug paraphernalia possession after an October 2013 incident with New Mexico State Police.

After being stopped for speeding on a highway outside of Taos, dash-camera video from New Mexico State Police shows that Farrell got in a disagreement about the ticket with the office who pulled Farrell over. Video shows Farrell couldn't decide if she wanted to agree to pay the ticket or to go to court to fight it.

The dash-camera video shows Farrell drove away from the scene, but was pulled over a short time after. New Mexico State Police officer Tony DeTavis then tried to arrest Farrell and got in a scuffle with the mother of five. In the middle of the scuffle, Farrell's then 15-year old son tried to fight the officer. Initially, he too was charged in the case but those charges were later dropped.

Now former New Mexico State Police officer Elias Montoya then arrived at the scene and fired three shots at Farrell's van, which had her and her five children inside. Nobody was injured.