TeakDoor.com - The Thailand Forum - Issues http://teakdoor.com There is much going on in the world and the opportunity to discuss these issues and how they affect your world is always relevant. Your opinion is important and though we might not solve the problems confronting society, we just might open someones eyes. What is your opinion? en Fri, 20 Nov 2009 22:55:47 GMT vBulletin 60 http://teakdoor.com/images/td_default/misc/rss.jpg TeakDoor.com - The Thailand Forum - Issues http://teakdoor.com <![CDATA[Britain's New Draconian "Internet Law"]]> http://teakdoor.com/issues/60477-britains-new-draconian-internet-law.html Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:45:05 GMT Way to go ya limeys:

"The British government has brought down its long-awaited Digital Economy Bill, and it's perfectly useless and terrible.

-the "three-strikes" rule that allows your entire family to be cut off from the net if anyone who lives in your house is accused of copyright infringement, without proof or evidence or trial

-£50,000 fines if someone in your house is accused of filesharing.

- A duty on ISPs to spy on all their customers in case they find something that would help the record or film industry sue them (ISPs who refuse to cooperate can be fined £250,000"

Britain's new Internet law -- as bad as everyone's been saying, and worse. Much, much worse. ]]> Issues Bexar County Stud http://teakdoor.com/issues/60477-britains-new-draconian-internet-law.html The abortion debate http://teakdoor.com/issues/60381-the-abortion-debate.html Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:33:22 GMT
Quote:
Originally Posted by sabang (Post 1235018)
You don't know anyone that agrees with a womans 'right to choose'- well that amazes me, really. I hardly know anyone that doesn't, including amongst my American friends.
What about the unborn child's "right to choose" to live?

Can the father decide if the mother of his child has an abortion or not?

Seems the woman has the right to choose for the man and the unborn child, and I think that is truly sad.

I have yet to meet a women that has had an abortion that is not crazier than a retired Patpong bar girl. ]]> Issues chitown http://teakdoor.com/issues/60381-the-abortion-debate.html Rothschild and the Climate http://teakdoor.com/issues/59929-rothschild-and-the-climate.html Tue, 10 Nov 2009 09:00:05 GMT On July 6th, 2007, Alex Jones interviewed David Mayer de Rothschild — heir of the global banking crime syndicate, British adventurer, environmentalist and head of Adventure Ecology. During the interview, Rothschild said the radical climate change agenda will not be a tax on humanity.
In fact, the U.S. version of this agenda — H.R. 2454, the “American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009,” also known as the Waxman-Markey climate change bill — will amount to not only an astronomical tax on the American people, but a government control mechanism over nearly every aspect of their lives.
“[u]nder my plan of a cap and trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket,” Obama has admitted.

This is the guy that thinks Mars is closer to the Sun than the Earth.



YouTube - Alex Jones Interviews David Mayer de Rothschild Part 1 of 5
YouTube - Alex Jones Interviews David Mayer de Rothschild Part 2 of 5
YouTube - Alex Jones Interviews David Mayer de Rothschild Part 2 of 5
YouTube - Alex Jones Interviews David Mayer de Rothschild Part 4 of 5
YouTube - Alex Jones Interviews David Mayer de Rothschild Part 5 of 5 ]]> Issues Jesus Jones http://teakdoor.com/issues/59929-rothschild-and-the-climate.html Berlin Wall - 20 years gone http://teakdoor.com/issues/59903-berlin-wall-20-years-gone.html Mon, 09 Nov 2009 16:34:26 GMT I don't think much of this, but here is an original news report:

YouTube - Nov. 9, 1989: The Berlin Wall Falls ]]> Issues Milkman http://teakdoor.com/issues/59903-berlin-wall-20-years-gone.html Russia http://teakdoor.com/issues/59816-russia.html Sun, 08 Nov 2009 05:06:21 GMT This can be a Russia thread. All things Russian. Mostly, post 1991 Russia, but anything before then, including Soviet issue in regards to... This can be a Russia thread. All things Russian. Mostly, post 1991 Russia, but anything before then, including Soviet issue in regards to Russia.

Here's an article on attitudes of the youth. I don't see why Russians, particularly the youth should "admire" or clamour for the west or western values. Why should they? They aren't western, in the first place.

Quote:
Young Russians’

About-Face From the West

When the Berlin Wall fell, young Russians clamored for all things Western. Now they rail against anything that is.


By Owen Matthews and Anna Nemtsova | Newsweek Web Exclusive
Nov 5, 2009

When the Berlin Wall collapsed, most young, educated Russians aspired to what could broadly be described as Western values: democracy, free speech, anti-imperialism. Teenagers were infatuated with Western music and clothes (all the more attractive because they were forbidden), while older Russian intellectuals echoed their Eastern European dissident colleagues in calling for a reckoning with the past, the turning of a new leaf and building an open society. Everything about Soviet society, from its clothes to its ideas, seemed drab and clunky compared with the vibrant, thriving West.
What a difference a few years make. Central and Eastern Europe have slipped largely into Europe's cultural and political fold. But in Russia, thanks to a decade of anti-Western fervor propagated by the Kremlin, a new generation is growing up strikingly out of sync with the West. "Back in the perestroika years, young intellectuals sincerely believed in certain things, like freedom of speech and transparency of the state," says Maria Lipman, a fellow at the Carnegie Moscow Center. "The generation who grew up in the Putin era have a completely different mentality. Modern pro-Kremlin youth groups are so well fed by the state that they've grown faithful as tame dogs." The result is a generation that not only buys into the Kremlin's world view, but is also deeply distrustful of anybody who thinks differently.

Denis Volkov, of the Moscow Levada Center, has studied the attitudes of Russia's youth toward the West and its values and uncovered a scary picture. Over the past decade, numbers have been falling. A poll last month showed that 40 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds have a "negative" attitude towards the U.S., not far behind those over 55, a Soviet-era generation that has long been steeped in anti-Western propaganda. And in a kind of demented historical throwback, Stalin is once again in favor. More than half the older crowd said they felt "positively" about the Soviet leader, while more than a quarter of young people agreed, up from just over 15 percent at the turn of the millennium. A generation after their forebears hankered after blue jeans and tapes of Western music, young Russians now wear the same clothes and listen to much of the same music as their Western counterparts. But while they may look more Western, there is a deep and widening divide in their attitudes, according to the Levada Center's statistics.


The rollback of pro-Western attitudes is largely a direct result of a concerted state policy aimed at shaping the hearts and minds of Russian youth, led by Putin and executed by his chief ideologist, Vladislav Surkov. Across Russia, state-created youth groups are stepping up efforts to shape the hearts and minds of Russian youth by organizing camps, congresses, and talent competitions, just like the Komsomol, the youth branch of the Soviet Communist Party, did once upon a time. By no means are all of them sinister, but they are all political. The youth-led Orange Revolution in Ukraine and the Rose Revolution in Georgia in 2003 and 2004 came as a deep shock to the Kremlin, which suddenly feared that a similar grassroots revolution could destabilize Russia. In response, Putin's regime unleashed the mind-warping assault, says Stanislav Belkovsky of the Moscow-based National Strategy Institute, who worked with the Kremlin on promoting pro-Russian candidates in the 2004 Ukrainian election.


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Surkov and other top Kremlin ideologues quickly ordered a slew of anti-Western television propaganda casting George W. Bush's campaign to spread democracy in the Middle East as an attack on Russia. Surkov characterized Ukrainian democracy as chaotic and the Georgian leadership as corrupt. He also created several state-funded youth groups, such as Nashi ("Ours") and the Young Guards. At the height of the regime's paranoia about the possibility of an Orange Revolution in Russia, circa 2005 to 2006, these youth groups numbered up to half a million members and dominated campuses with a strongly nationalistic, anti-Western philosophy. "Putin's television anti-Western propaganda has done its dirty business," says Lipman. "Young Russians are cynical people who believe that Russia is surrounded with enemies, that the West does not want Russia to grow stronger."

The last generation of liberals now tend to be older, people who are now between 25 and 35. Everybody younger, says Lipman, "is a proud patriot who dislikes the West."

Ella Panfilova, an adviser to President Dmitry Medvedev on human-rights issues, underscores the problem. "The state should not participate in youth movements at all," she says. "Most young people in Kremlin-organized youth movements still have a Cold War mindset. It is not right for Russian authorities to divide young people into those who are members of Nashi and the rest."
Link & Entire: Young Russians Turn Away From the West | Newsweek International | Newsweek.com ]]> Issues Milkman http://teakdoor.com/issues/59816-russia.html Guy Fawkes Day, 2009 http://teakdoor.com/issues/59708-guy-fawkes-day-2009-a.html Thu, 05 Nov 2009 15:06:11 GMT A British historical event on November 5th, and that was and is celebrated, is noted by the non-British now as well.

I'd like to hear any British opinions on Guy Fawkes and the holiday. ]]> Issues Milkman http://teakdoor.com/issues/59708-guy-fawkes-day-2009-a.html Tamiflu http://teakdoor.com/issues/59600-tamiflu.html Tue, 03 Nov 2009 07:20:00 GMT Dose anyone know if the drug Tamiflu can be mixed in a bottle of juice or squash to give to a small infant, my boy can't take the pill and hates the taste so much he vomits if I open the capsule and put it on yogurt or chocolate cream.
The Doctors receptionist said it cant be taken mixed in a bottle but what dose she know?
Doctors don't open for another 2 hours. ]]> Issues Sdigit http://teakdoor.com/issues/59600-tamiflu.html Fox News: Fair and Balanced? You decide! http://teakdoor.com/issues/59568-fox-news-fair-balanced-you-decide.html Mon, 02 Nov 2009 15:26:51 GMT Here is a thread for news stories from Fox News. You can debate whether the stories are "fair and balanced"!!
Here is our first story which seems pretty fair and balanced to me!! :chitown:

FBI Report: Cheney Uncertain During 72 Questions Over CIA Leak - FOXNews.com

On 72 occasions, according to the 28-page FBI summary, Cheney equivocated to the FBI during his lengthy May 2004 interview, saying he could not be certain in his answers to questions about matters large and small in the Plame controversy.

WASHINGTON -- Federal prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald famously declared in the Valerie Plame affair that "there is a cloud over the vice president." Last week's release of an FBI interview summary of Dick Cheney's answers in the criminal investigation underscores why Fitzgerald felt that way.
On 72 occasions, according to the 28-page FBI summary, Cheney equivocated to the FBI during his lengthy May 2004 interview, saying he could not be certain in his answers to questions about matters large and small in the Plame controversy.
The Cheney interview reflects a team of prosecutors and FBI agents trying to find out whether the leaks of Plame's CIA identity were orchestrated at the highest level of the White House and carried out by, among others, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Cheney's chief of staff.
Among the most basic questions for Cheney in the Plame probe: How did Libby find out that the wife of Bush administration war critic Joseph Wilson worked at the CIA?
Libby's own handwritten notes suggest Libby found out from Cheney. When Libby discovered Cheney's reference to Plame and the CIA in his notes -- notes that Libby knew he would soon have to turn over to the FBI -- the chief of staff went to the vice president, probably in late September or early October 2003.
Sharing the information with Cheney was in itself an unusual step at the outset of a criminal investigation in which potential White House witnesses were being ordered by their superiors not to talk to each other about the Plame matter.
"It turns out that I have a note that I had heard about" Plame's CIA identity "from you," Libby says he told the vice president.
And what did Cheney say in response? Fitzgerald asked Libby in front of a federal grand jury six months later.
"He didn't say much," Libby replied. "You know, he said something about 'From me?' something like that, and tilted his head, something he does commonly, and that was that."
Cheney's version of the conversation, as related in the FBI interview summary?
Cheney "cannot recall Scooter Libby telling him how he first heard of Valerie Wilson. It is possible Libby may have learned about Valerie Wilson's employment from the vice president... but the vice president has no specific recollection of such a conversation."
On another basic point, Cheney simply refused to answer.
Fitzgerald had gathered evidence that Cheney apparently persuaded President George W. Bush to hurriedly declassify portions of a prewar National Intelligence Estimate on weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. The declassification was followed by Libby providing the information to a New York Times reporter while simultaneously talking to reporters about Plame's CIA identity.
As Fitzgerald pressed the issue in the FBI interview, Cheney refused to confirm any discussion with Bush, saying that he must refrain from commenting about any private or privileged conversations he may have had with the president.
It was an instance of Libby, who had testified two months earlier to a federal grand jury, being more forthcoming than Cheney.
Prosecutors obtained information about the leaking of the declassified NIE from Cheney's chief of staff, who testified that he had talked to New York Times reporter Judith Miller about the National Intelligence Estimate following the "president's approval relayed to me through the vice president."
Cheney's FBI interview is a study in contrasts.
Expressing uncertainty on many areas he was being questioned about and refusing to discuss another area altogether, Cheney was emphatic on at least one basic point.
According to the FBI summary, Cheney said there was no discussion of using Plame's employment with the CIA to counter her husband's criticism that the Bush administration had manipulated prewar intelligence to exaggerate the Iraqi threat. There was no discussion, Cheney insisted, of "pushing back" on Joseph Wilson's credibility by raising the issue of nepotism, the fact that Wilson's wife worked for the CIA, the same agency that dispatched him to the African nation of Niger to run down the report of an agreement to supply uranium "yellowcake" to Iraq.
It was one example of Cheney being categorical and Libby seeming uncertain.
"In a prior FBI interview, you indicated it was possible that you may have talked to the Vice President on Air Force Two ... about whether you should share the information with the press about Wilson's wife?" the prosecutor asked Libby in his grand jury testimony.
"It's possible that would have been one of the times I could have talked to him about what I had learned," Libby replied.
"As you sit here today, do you recall whether you had such a conversation with the vice president on Air Force Two?" the prosecutor asked.
"No, sir. My, my best recollection of that conversation was what I had on my note card which we have produced which doesn't reflect anything about that," Libby replied.
Libby was indicted, tried and convicted for perjury, obstruction and lying to the FBI. The president commuted his 30-month prison sentence, but rejected Cheney's pleas in the last days of the administration to pardon the vice president's former chief of staff.
The Cheney interview summary was released Friday to the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, which sued to get the material under the Freedom of Information Act. ]]> Issues chitown http://teakdoor.com/issues/59568-fox-news-fair-balanced-you-decide.html the drudge report http://teakdoor.com/issues/59440-the-drudge-report.html Sat, 31 Oct 2009 02:02:04 GMT i think most people who post on this part forum are familiar with the drudge report. its owner provides very little of his own content, and instead... i think most people who post on this part forum are familiar with the drudge report.

its owner provides very little of his own content, and instead links to anti-democrat news stories, and others issues that will get the conservative base riled up. drudge shot to fame in 1998 when he 'broke' the monica lewinsky scandal.

he gets around 3 million unique visitors a day, but wields considerable power in political and media circles.

the thing is, however, that so many of his stories are either misleading or just flat out wrong. if he were a 'old' media company, he would have been out of business a long time ago.

for example, his screaming headline today says that bill ayers and jeremiah wright are on the white house visitors list.

and it's true, they are.

but they're not the same bill ayers and jeremiah wright that caused trouble for obama during last year's campaign.


so, what do you think of drudge and his website? is he a journalist or a muckraker? ]]> Issues raycarey http://teakdoor.com/issues/59440-the-drudge-report.html Graphic Pic: Pilot Whale Slaughter in Denmark http://teakdoor.com/issues/59399-graphic-pic-pilot-whale-slaughter-denmark.html Fri, 30 Oct 2009 04:23:13 GMT Pilot Whale Slaughter in Denmark Sorry, no link for photo *Whale Killing Countries:* *Danish Faeroe Islands* *High Commissioner of the Faeroe... Pilot Whale Slaughter in Denmark
Sorry, no link for photo

Whale Killing Countries:

Danish Faeroe Islands
High Commissioner of the Faeroe Islands
Ms. Birgit Kleis
Amtmansbrekkan 6
FO-110 Tórshavn
PO Box 12
Faeroe Islands
Tel: +298-351200
E-mail: riomfr[at]fo.stm.dk
Prime Minister of Denmark
Kaj Leo Johanneseen
Christiansborg
Prins Jørgens Gård 11
1218 Copenhagen K
Denmark
Tel: +45 33 92 33 00
Fax +45 33 11 16 65
E-mail: stm[at]stm.dk


Warning; Graphic Photo :









These are whales they killed.
]]> Issues ChristySweet http://teakdoor.com/issues/59399-graphic-pic-pilot-whale-slaughter-denmark.html Should the A-bomb Have Been Dropped http://teakdoor.com/issues/59373-should-the-bomb-have-been-dropped.html Thu, 29 Oct 2009 15:31:22 GMT 64 years after the 2 atomic bombs were dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima the historical debate continues, and will continue. Was the dropping of the... 64 years after the 2 atomic bombs were dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima the historical debate continues, and will continue.

Was the dropping of the atomic bombs, necessary?

Here are the first of a series of articles I'll be posting.

But most importantly, it's over to the members.

What's your opinion?

Quote:
Debate over the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

The Fat Man mushroom cloud resulting from the nuclear explosion over Nagasaki rises 18 km (11 mi, 60,000 ft) into the air from the hypocenter.




The debate over the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki concerns the United States’ atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 August and 9 August 1945, thus ending the Second World War (1939–45). The role of the bombings in achieving the Surrender of Japan (2 September 1945) and the United States’ ethical justification for them remains the subject of scholarly and popular debate. In April 2005, in an overview of recent historiography about this matter, J. Samuel Walker wrote that “the controversy over the use of the bomb seems certain to continue”, noting that “the fundamental issue that has divided scholars over a period of nearly four decades is whether the use of the bomb was necessary to achieve victory in the war in the Pacific on terms satisfactory to the United States”.[1]

Link: Debate over the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ]]> Issues Milkman http://teakdoor.com/issues/59373-should-the-bomb-have-been-dropped.html Global Warming and User Friendly Wepons http://teakdoor.com/issues/59168-global-warming-and-user-friendly-wepons.html Tue, 27 Oct 2009 02:39:38 GMT Something I put together last year. I Just Had To Share This With You. On Saturday November 18th I purchased, as I do every weekend, the... Something I put together last year.




I Just Had To Share This With You.

On Saturday November 18th I purchased, as I do every weekend, the Sydney Morning Herald. Upon opening the Good Weekend Magazine my attention was drawn to an article written by Dr Karl S. Kruszelnicki. It was in the column entitled Myth Conceptions on page 17, with the sub heading “Is man making the Earth hotter”


In this article Karl makes the point that if you were to believe the popular press you might make the assumption that scientists cannot agree on the outcomes of Global Warming. He then points out that a French scientist Joseph Fourier wrote one of the first papers on greenhouse gases in 1824. That’s right, over 180 years ago!


Joseph reasoned that the sun throws its light/heat upon Earth, which warms and in turn radiates some of this heat back into space. If earth had no atmosphere the average surface temperature would be minus 15ºC (same as the moon). But the natural greenhouse gases in the Earth’s atmosphere block some of this heat and radiate it back to Earth, lifting the Earth’s temperature by some 30ºC to a more pleasant 15ºC.


He then states that since modern industrialization carbon dioxide levels in our atmosphere have risen by 30% from about 280ppm to around 368ppm. Which has raised the average global temperature by 0.6ºC and the sea level by about 20cm.



In 2004 Dr Naomi Oreskes from the University of California analysed 928 scientific papers discussing “climate change” that had been published in peer-reviewed journals between 1993 and 2003. She found that not one disagreed with the consensus position, even though they may have disagreed in some of the minor details.


DR Karl then questioned why almost half of the articles published in the non-scientific press put forward the idea that scientists are deeply divided over the fundamental concepts of the greenhouse effect?
The answer, according to the world’s most prestigious and deeply conservative society, the UK’s Royal Society, is that huge company’s that make their profits from the burning of fossil fuels, put forward deliberate misinformation.


In September 2006 Bob Ward the Royal Society’s manager for policy communication wrote to Nick Thomas, the director of corporate affairs for ExxonMobil in the UK. In this letter Ward asked why ExxonMobil paid millions of dollars to groups that “misrepresented the science of climate change by outright denial of the evidence” Dr Karl states that such a strongly worded letter is very unusual from such a conservative group, but it does reflect that consensus has been reached: things are hotting up.



Another news bite that almost brought tears to my eyes was published in “G” magazine. G-Online, the best of green. This was the first edition of an environmentally aware magazine published for the Australian “green” market. It was in a column entitled “Enviro-explosives” In this column, it makes the claim that; British arms manufacturer BAE Systems is designing “environmentally friendly” weapons!


These include “reduced lead” bullets, “reduced smoke” grenades and rockets with fewer toxins. At first I thought this was a bit of a joke and to be honest a part of me still wants to believe it is. But according to Debbie Allen BAE Systems’ Director of social responsibility (it still sounds like a joke) told the UK’s Sunday Times “Weapons are still going to be used and when they are, we try to make them as safe for the user as possible, to limit the collateral damage and to impact as little as possible on the environment”



Symon Hill from “Campaign Against Arms Trade” described the policy as laughable.
He told the Sunday Times “BAE Systems is determined to try to make itself look ethical but they make weapons to kill people and it’s utterly ridiculous to suggest they are environmentally friendly”


BAE Systems policy is reportedly endorsed by Britain’s Ministry of Defence, which “Backed the concept of green munitions”
The US army already has its own sustainability web site. U.S. Army Sustainability - Home
Source AFP. ]]> Issues Lantern http://teakdoor.com/issues/59168-global-warming-and-user-friendly-wepons.html the H1N1 vaccine - more dangerous than the illness? http://teakdoor.com/issues/59164-h1n1-vaccine-more-dangerous-than-illness.html Tue, 27 Oct 2009 00:08:47 GMT Are the new H1N1 vaccines more dangerous than the illness itself? The main concern may be the so-called 'adjuvants', additives that increase immune response and stretch out the vaccine supply. Adjuvants such as squalene are nasty substances, suspected in a host of autoimmune and neurological diseases such as lupus, ALS and Gulf War Syndrome. Non-adjuvanted H1N1 vaccines (weaker but probably safer) may only be available in some countries and only for infants and pregnant women. Surprisingly, Europe seems to be more inclined than the USA to use adjuvants in the upcoming vaccine offerings.

I'm not a tin foil hat guy who believes that vaccines are a genocidal plot by the Illuminati, but rather a concerned parent who feels that Western governments are too close to the medical industry for their opinions to be fully trusted. Do you feel as uneasy about the H1N1 vaccines as I do? Do you plan to have your family vaccinated? If so, will you insist on non-adjuvanted vaccines when making that decision?

an extract from a rather troubling article:

New H1N1 Swine Flu Vaccine Contains Adjuvants,European Medicines Agency | H1N1 Flu | Swine Flu | Bioweapon | Mass Vaccination | Cure

"Squalene in vaccines has been strongly linked to the Gulf War Syndrome. On August 1991, Anthony Principi, Secretary of Veterans Affairs admitted that soldiers vaccinated with the anthrax vaccine from 1990 to 1991 had an increased risk of 200 percent in developing the deadly disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also called Lou Gehrig's disease. The soldiers also suffered from a number of debilitating and life-shortening diseases, such as polyarteritis nodosa, multiple sclerosis (MS), lupus, transverse myelitis (a neurological disorder caused by inflammation of the spinal cord), endocarditis (inflammation of the heart's inner lining), optic neuritis with blindness and glomerulonephritis (a type of kidney disease).

The second ingredient, and one that greatly concerns me, is called gp120, a glycoprotein. Researchers found when it was mixed with squalene, the glycoprotein became strongly antigenic - that is, it produced a powerful and prolonged immune response to the vaccination. In fact, their studies show that with each dose, the intense immune reaction lasts over a year.

Now for the shocker-the glycoprotein-gp120, a major component of MF-59 vaccine adjuvant, is the same protein fragment isolated from HIV - the virus that is responsible for the rapid dementia seen in AIDS patients." ]]> Issues GooMaiRoo http://teakdoor.com/issues/59164-h1n1-vaccine-more-dangerous-than-illness.html Moamer Kadhafi: Fucked up brain spotted ! http://teakdoor.com/issues/59136-moamer-kadhafi-fucked-up-brain-spotted.html Mon, 26 Oct 2009 10:38:50 GMT Kadhafi says Palestinians should have nuclear weapons

Quote:
LONDON (AFP) — Arab nations and "even the Palestinians" should be allowed nuclear weapons as long as Israel's nuclear ambitions are tolerated, Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi said in an interview out Monday.
Israel is widely considered to be the Middle East's sole if undeclared nuclear state, and Kadhafi told Britain's Sky News television that the international community should also allow its Arab neighbours to develop nuclear weapons.
"If the Israelis have the nuclear weapons and the nuclear capabilities, then it is the right of the Egyptians, the Syrians, the Saudis to have the same -- even the Palestinians should have the same because their counterparts, or their opponents, have nuclear capabilities," Kadhafi said.
He added: "And, if we don't want this situation, so we'll have to disarm the Israelis from their nuclear weapons and capabilities."
The Libyan leader said he would oppose Iran acquiring nuclear weapons if it acknowledges such a goal, but noted Tehran's insistence that its nuclear programme is peaceful -- something that Western powers dispute.
"Iran, up to now, hasn't said it is manufacturing a nuclear weapon: Iran says it is enriching uranium," Kadhafi said.
"If Iran were to manufacture nuclear weapons, nuclear arms, then all of us, including us, will be against them. But Iran has not said so."
He added: "Our position is clear and it should be clear and evident... that we are against anyone who manufactures, possesses a nuclear weapon, whether it is Iran, America, Libya, or the Israelis."
Meanwhile he said US President Barack Obama merited winning the Nobel Peace Prize, but had been given it too soon.
"I do believe he deserves it, but to be given right now I think it is some sort of hypocrisy, sycophancy, and I think it is premature. It is not due yet," he said.
© 2009 AFP
Kadhafi says Palestinians should have nuclear weapons | AFP | MyWire

The guy is sick and senile. ]]> Issues Wallalai http://teakdoor.com/issues/59136-moamer-kadhafi-fucked-up-brain-spotted.html If you thought Thailand was corrupt.... http://teakdoor.com/issues/59122-if-you-thought-thailand-was-corrupt.html Mon, 26 Oct 2009 07:37:50 GMT Hermitage and Russia's Vulture Capitalism | Newsweek International |...]]> Hermitage and Russia's Vulture Capitalism | Newsweek International | Newsweek.com
Quote:
Last month Dmitry Medvedev set out his bold new vision of a "more civilized" Russia, no longer prone to the "legal nihilism" that has rotted the fabric of Russian capitalism and turned the courts and police into tools for settling private business disputes. Many hoped that such a powerful signal from the president would set Russia on course to establish the rule of law. Now, a high-profile test case will show who runs Russia—crooks with official connections, or the state itself. This week a criminal suit filed in a Moscow court details a scam in which senior bureaucrats, judges, and police defrauded the Russian taxpayer of half a billion dollars—and then used the courts to persecute the scam's victims when they tried to blow the whistle.
Right now the nihilists appear to have the upper hand. The plaintiff, American money manager Bill Browder, who once defended Vladimir Putin for playing hardball with Russia's business oligarchs, now lives in London, barred from Russia in 2005 as "a threat to national security." His Hermitage Fund, once the biggest foreign investor in Russia, has closed its Moscow operations. Hermitage's new lawsuit does not attempt to recoup the fund's money: it charges that a shadowy group of corrupt bureaucrats and police stole companies from Browder and others and used them to claim fake tax rebates from the Russian state. It seeks no redress for Hermitage other than the release of one of its lawyers, arrested nine months ago in an apparent bid by criminals with police ties to silence the company. Yet as of last week, the alleged crooks sit in police and government offices, while one of the apparent victims is in jail and other Hermitage lawyers and managers have fled abroad. Since Hermitage began complaining about the theft of its companies, Russia officialdom has done little to investigate—but it has placed Browder on an international wanted list for alleged tax irregularities. "We're trying to expose half a billion dollars stolen by officials from the government," says Browder. "I cannot imagine any other country which would take no action except to attack those who exposed it."


In recent years, many big foreign investors felt they have been harassed by questionable law-enforcement actions in Russia. Russian courts and ministries have slapped Shell with crippling fines for alleged environmental violations, mysteriously revoked the work permits of British oil executives from BP, diluted the holdings of Norwegian telecom firm Telenor. The fear is that anyone who runs afoul of the state is fair game—which is one reason why an estimated $7 billion in foreign capital has left the country in the second half of 2008. Foreign investment is down 22.9 percent since last year, according to the Noviye Izvestia newspaper. The Hermitage complaint is the most detailed anatomy of the state of Russian corruption to appear in years. The story is so outrageous—even by Russian standards—that a video summary posted by the plaintiffs has become the most viewed YouTube clip in Russia.To understand why this case is so important to the future of Medvedev's Russia, we need to go into a little background. Browder, grandson of Earl Browder, one of the leaders of the Communist Party of America, started Hermitage Fund in 1997. His strategy: buy shares in big, inefficient Russian companies like Sberbank and Gazprom, and campaign for them to clean up their books and make their ownership structure and revenues more transparent. As they did so, their share prices went up.That strategy worked well until Hermitage began asking questions about the ownership stake of a senior Kremlin apparatchik (whom Browder prefers not to name) in an oil company in which Hermitage was a minority shareholder. With no warning, in December 2005, Browder found himself on the Federal Security Service visa blacklist, and the Hermitage operation started winding down. Soon, vultures began circling in the form of a group of criminals with apparent deep ties to the tax inspectorate, according to court documents.The basic idea of their scam was simple: acquire companies that had paid tax on their profits to the Russian government, then create fake losses, and use the adjusted balance sheet showing a zero profit to claim the taxes back as a rebate. "Fake tax refunds have become a popular scam," says Larisa Mave, a Moscow lawyer who has become an expert on Russian corporate raids. "Obviously, such a crime would not be possible without tax police getting a share."The scammers first targeted companies set up by Renaissance Capital, one of Russia's largest investment houses, in order to buy shares in Gazprom for various international clients. After the shares had been bought and sold and taxes paid on the profits, the companies were left empty of funds. At that point, Renaissance says, they sold off the companies to a group of investors and heard no more about them. The purchasers—using a convicted murderer as their front man—then faked losses in order to retroactively claim back the tax money paid by Renaissance. The only loser, on paper, was the Russian taxpayer. Renaissance made no complaint about the fraud, saying that the companies were no longer theirs and they had suffered no loss. Browder cites the silence as evidence that Renaissance colluded with the fraudsters, a claim that a Rencap spokesman describes as "unsubstantiated allegations based on speculation and hearsay.
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