Incorrect: "Born In The USA", by Bruce Springsteen

Poor old Bruce. This has to be one of the most consistently misunderstood and misused songs in history. A blistering anti-Vietnam war screed and not the uber-patriotic anthem that many - including clueless presidential candidates - think it is.

It's also the perfect song to sing along to loudly, and without shame. That is until you get to the second verse, where Bruce bellows:

"Got in a little hometown jam, so they put a rifle in my hand / Sent me off to a foreign land, to go and kill the Yellow Man."

Oh dear. Unlike the 'n' word, the term 'yellow' has never been widely reclaimed by those it disparages. While Springsteen clearly did not intend to offend, it is nonetheless a jarring line and a glaring reminder that no matter how progressive our politics, we can't really escape the time in which we live.

SOURCE

Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).

NJ Therapist Accused of Sex with Minor

Radha Singh
(Paterson, New Jersey) A 27-year-old local woman, Radha Singh, has been accused of sexually assaulting a teenager.

Singh has been charged with sexual assault and endangering the welfare of a child.

Preparing for "The Big One"

Hype about a potentially devastating tsunami/earthquake may concern Pacific Northwesterners. If so, the Washington Military Department says those in affected areas should prepare by making emergency supply kits consisting of the following:

• Water, one gallon of water per person per day for at least three days, for drinking and sanitation
• Food, at least a three-day supply of non-perishable food
• Battery-powered or hand crank radio and a NOAA Weather Radio with tone alert and extra batteries for both (link weather radio http://mil.wa.gov/other-links/weather-information)
• Flashlight and extra batteries
• First aid kit
• Whistle to signal for help
• Dust mask to help filter contaminated air and plastic sheeting and duct tape to shelter-in-place
• Moist towelettes, garbage bags and plastic ties for personal sanitation
• Wrench or pliers to turn off utilities
• Manual can opener for food
• Local maps
• Cell phone with chargers, inverter or solar charger

Good luck.

Posted by Note Taker

Are the diet dictators worse than the Greenies?

They are at least just as bad. They do start out with a lot in common psychologically. Both think they are wiser than the "herd" but have such a lot of trouble proving it that they have to resort to wild and unproven claims in an attempt to substantiate that. And they need to impose their crazy ideas on the rest of us as some sort of validation for those ideas. So the Greenies want to make electricity increasingly unavailable to us and the diet police want to make sugar increasingly unavailable to us. It's Fascistic extremism in both cases and totally unwarranted by the evidence in both cases. The latest pontification below, showing just how extreme these guys can get. If you have a single can of fizzy drink, you are allowed no more sugar in any form that day:

Britons need to halve the amount of sugar they eat to prevent an obesity epidemic, a report will warn today.

In a bleak assessment, a government advisory body will tell ministers that the country is facing a health crisis that could cripple the NHS unless people slash their sugar intake. The report will raise questions about whether ministers should heed calls to impose a tax on sugary foods and drinks.

The new guidelines, from the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition, mean that men and women should consume no more than seven teaspoons of added sugar a day – equal to less than a single can of Coca-Cola.

Research by the food industry-backed British Nutrition Foundation suggests that hitting the new target will mean cutting out almost all fizzy drinks and making crisps and chocolate bars a ‘once or twice a week’ luxury, rather than an everyday snack.

Ministers are divided on a sugar tax, with some urging David Cameron to drop his opposition to it before the Government publishes its obesity strategy in the autumn.

A Cabinet source said previous attempts to persuade the food industry to reduce sugar levels had produced only limited success.

‘The truth is that these deals with industry can only take us so far,’ the source said. ‘Most people already eat more than the recommended amount. If we are going to halve that, we are going to have to do something dramatic.’

The British Medical Association this week called for a swingeing 20 per cent tax on sugary drinks. The move would raise the price of a one-litre bottle of Coke from £1.50 to £1.80. The BMA said poor diet was killing 70,000 people a year and costing the NHS £6billion.

A similar tax has been introduced in Mexico, but the jury is still out on its impact.

Today’s report, drawn up by a committee of experts, is designed to shock the Government, the food industry and individual shoppers into action. Following a review of 600 scientific studies, it will warn that sugar plays a critical role in the obesity crisis. It will link sugar intake with the rising number of cases of type 2 diabetes, and will say there is a direct link between sugary drinks and childhood obesity.

Public Health England is studying the potential effectiveness of a sugar tax. The body may also recommend a clampdown on advertising and in-store promotions of fizzy drinks and other sugary products.

Existing guidelines say added sugar should make up no more than 10 per cent of people’s diets. This is equal to 70 grams a day for men (about 17 teaspoons) or 50g for women (about 12 teaspoons).

Four to eight-year-olds can have 12g (three teaspoons) per day, while older children and teenagers should consume no more than 20 to 32 grams (five to eight teaspoons).

Today’s report will call for this target to be slashed to just 30g for all adults, equal to about seven teaspoons of added sugar, or a single can of Red Bull. The figures for children and teenagers are expected to be cut proportionately.

The term covers sugar added during preparation or cooking as well as sugar in honey. Sugar in milk and in whole pieces of fruit and in fruit juice is excluded at present.

Experts believe that getting anywhere near the target will require a revolution in eating habits.

A Government source said Mr Cameron was committed to tackling obesity, and is taking personal oversight of the new obesity strategy. ‘But the Prime Minister does not believe a new tax is the answer,’ the source added. ‘We will not solve this problem by slapping new taxes on the shopping baskets of working people.’

SOURCE

So what about all that research evidence that lies behind the condemnation of sugar? There is essentially no such evidence. It is in fact virtually impossible to reach sound scientific conclusions on the matter. Most of the "evidence" is epidemiological and I can see no epidemiological way of disentangling total sugar consumption from total calorie consumption. People who eat and drink a lot of sugary stuff probably eat and drink a lot of everything. And it could be the total calorie consumption rather than the total sugar consumption that gives rise to any effect. But researchers go on gaily ignoring that problem. The big bugaboo for the sugar crusaders is sugar-sweetened soft drinks (SSD). So let us look at that:

As a 2008 survey of the research findings concluded: "Most studies suggest that the effect of SSD is small except in susceptible individuals or at high levels of intake. Methodological weaknesses mean that many studies cannot detect whether soft drinks or other aspects of diet and lifestyle have contributed to excess body weight.

So the following conclusion from a 2006 survey of the evidence is no surprise either: "The equivocal evidence on this topic makes it difficult to draw firm conclusions regarding the role of SSB in the etiology of obesity. Many of the prospective and experimental studies are of unsatisfactory methodological rigor." [SBS stands for sugar-sweetened beverages].

I could go on (See also here, here, here and here for example) but you get the idea. The whole claim that sugar is particularly likely to cause obesity is an act of faith. The data is against it. And, fortunately, reality does not change. It is only the opinions of self-inflated intellectuals that change. The only way to reduce obesity is to reduce total calorie consumption and, if that's too hard, so be it.

But what about other bad effects that are often claimed for sugar? Does it, for instance cause heart disease? We are told that it does but let's look carefully at one of the most recent studies saying so. It will give us a good up-close look at what the summarizers are talking about when they speak of the inconclusiveness of existing sugar research

Added Sugar Intake and Cardiovascular Diseases Mortality Among US Adults

Quanhe Yang et al

Importance: Epidemiologic studies have suggested that higher intake of added sugar is associated with cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors. Few prospective studies have examined the association of added sugar intake with CVD mortality.

Objective: To examine time trends of added sugar consumption as percentage of daily calories in the United States and investigate the association of this consumption with CVD mortality.

Design, Setting, and Participants: National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES, 1988-1994 [III], 1999-2004, and 2005-2010 [n = 31 147]) for the time trend analysis and NHANES III Linked Mortality cohort (1988-2006 [n = 11 733]), a prospective cohort of a nationally representative sample of US adults for the association study.

Main Outcomes and Measures Cardiovascular disease mortality.

Results: Among US adults, the adjusted mean percentage of daily calories from added sugar increased from 15.7% (95% CI, 15.0%-16.4%) in 1988-1994 to 16.8% (16.0%-17.7%; P = .02) in 1999-2004 and decreased to 14.9% (14.2%-15.5%; P < .001) in 2005-2010. Most adults consumed 10% or more of calories from added sugar (71.4%) and approximately 10% consumed 25% or more in 2005-2010. During a median follow-up period of 14.6 years, we documented 831 CVD deaths during 163 039 person-years. Age-, sex-, and race/ethnicity–adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) of CVD mortality across quintiles of the percentage of daily calories consumed from added sugar were 1.00 (reference), 1.09 (95% CI, 1.05-1.13), 1.23 (1.12-1.34), 1.49 (1.24-1.78), and 2.43 (1.63-3.62; P < .001), respectively. After additional adjustment for sociodemographic, behavioral, and clinical characteristics, HRs were 1.00 (reference), 1.07 (1.02-1.12), 1.18 (1.06-1.31), 1.38 (1.11-1.70), and 2.03 (1.26-3.27; P = .004), respectively. Adjusted HRs were 1.30 (95% CI, 1.09-1.55) and 2.75 (1.40-5.42; P = .004), respectively, comparing participants who consumed 10.0% to 24.9% or 25.0% or more calories from added sugar with those who consumed less than 10.0% of calories from added sugar. These findings were largely consistent across age group, sex, race/ethnicity (except among non-Hispanic blacks), educational attainment, physical activity, health eating index, and body mass index.

Conclusions and Relevance: Most US adults consume more added sugar than is recommended for a healthy diet. We observed a significant relationship between added sugar consumption and increased risk for CVD mortality.

JAMA Intern Med. 2014;174(4):516-524. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2013.13563.

The conclusion seems plain enough, does it not? It is not. It is a good example of weasel words. The key issue is HOW GREAT is the effect of consuming a lot of sugar. And the conclusions don't address that: For a good reason. The effects they found were TRIVIAL -- as trivial as the tiny degree of global warming over the 20th century.

To see how trivial the effect is, note first one thing: They divided people into quintiles (fifths) in their analysis. And the effects observed were negligible except for the most extreme quintile.

How do we judge negligibility? The Federal Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence, Second Edition says (p. 384): "the threshold for concluding that an agent was more likely than not the cause of an individual's disease is a relative risk greater than 2.0." It was only the highest quintile of sugar consumption that just squeaked in to meet that criterion. There was some interesting effect only for people who were huge sugar consumers but for most people sugar did no harm.

And who were the extreme sugar users? We are not told. Quite likely they were people at the lower end of the socio-economic status range. And such people are in general known to be less healthy anyway. So it may not have been sugar which did the harm. In short, there is NOTHING in this study which proves sugar is harmful. Even if we accept their incautious assumptions, their data shows that sugar is harmless for four fifths of the population. And examining 600 similar studies is not going to improve on that. The sugar scare is as big a fraud as global warming. It's just another way to give highly educated people a feeling of importance and wisdom.

Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).

Naked Tree Stunt in Norway

(Aukra, Norway) This report is odd.

A Norwegian contemporary artist has confessed to being left hanging naked in a tree for three and a half hours after an video art installation she filmed in a Norwegian forest went wrong.

Hilde Krohn Huse, who lives and works in London, ventured into the forest in her native Aukra in Norway to film a video featuring herself hanging naked from a rope in a tree.

However, when she reached the end of her filming, she realised that she was completely unable to free herself.

There is a video showing naked Huse trying to wriggle out of the tree.

Knife Crimes in the UK

Zombie-Killer Knife
(London, England)

Gangs are arming themselves with massive combat and “zombie killer” knives in a terrifying new trend in London, police warned today.

Teenage gangsters are brandishing the weapons in YouTube videos and carrying the knives ”almost as status symbols,” according to a senior gangs unit officer.

Det Insp Dan Brown, of the Trident Gang Crime Command, said there was a “new culture” among gangs of carrying long blades such as combat and so-called Zombie-killer knives.

Knife crimes are reportedly a big and growing problem in the UK.

Michigan Teacher Gets Prison for Sex with Female Student - Update

Lauren Hill
(St. Joseph, Michigan) Lauren Hill has been sentenced to a minimum of 48 months in prison.

* * * * *
Michigan Teacher Guilty of Sex with Female Student - Update
[Previous 5/22/15 post]
(St. Joseph, Michigan) A 26-year-old former teacher at St. Joseph High School, Lauren Hill, pleaded guilty to charges of second-degree criminal sexual conduct.

Officials say Hill had sex with a student under 16 years old.

As part of the plea deal, two third-degree criminal sexual conduct charges involving the same student were dismissed.

Sentencing is scheduled for July.

* * * * *
Michigan Teacher Inappropriate with Female Student
[Previous 5/7/15 post]
(St. Joseph, Michigan)

A St. Joseph, Michigan, high school teacher was arrested after allegations that she had an inappropriate relationship with a student.

Lauren Hill, 26, from St. Joseph, was charged with four counts of Criminal Sexual Conduct.

On Wednesday, April 29, the St. Joseph Department of Public Safety was contacted by the St. Joseph Public Schools regarding allegations of an inappropriate relationship between a teacher and one of her students.

Hill resigned her teaching position.

Seattle's New Composting Law in Full Effect

Seattle's Composting Law, as displayed all around town by the poster above, is confusing to visitors and residents alike. The law, which started on its slippery slope in 1988 with just grass clippings, now includes a strict ban on food and paper waste. As of July 1, 2015, Seattleites no longer can put food, compostable items, or recyclable items into the garbage without being fined.

Seattle sends approximately 100,000 tons of food waste 300 miles to a landfill in Eastern Oregon each year, resulting in higher costs and greenhouse gas emissions.

Based on the success of Seattle’s existing recycling and yard waste ordinances, Seattle Public Utilities (SPU) projects that the food waste law will divert 38,000 tons of food scraps from the landfill via composting, thus helping the city achieve its goal of recycling and composting 60 percent of its waste by 2015.

I experienced the confusion visitors feel when trying to comply with the new program. Even the business proprietors stated they spend time moving items from receptacle to receptacle. Ha!

Posted by Note Taker

Fun! Is organic farming making climate change worse?

Both Greenies and food freaks are "wiser than thou" types. They have a desperate need to feel superior, even though they have just about zero originality.  So it's neat to set one sort of false wisdom against another

It has a reputation for being better for us and the environment, but new research suggests organic food may actually be harming the planet.

Scientists have found that rather than reducing the amount of greenhouse gas emissions released, organic farming may actually be increasing them.

They found the shift to large scale organic farming in order to meet growing demand for organic products in shops has led to an increase in emissions for each acre of land.

They also argue that these changes have moved organic farming away from its original attempts to produce a sustainable form of agriculture.

Julius McGee, a sociologist at the Univeristy of Oregon who conducted the research, said: 'My analysis finds that the rise of certified organic production in the United States is not correlated with declines in greenhouse gas emissions derived specifically from agricultural production, and on the contrary is associated positively overall agricultural greenhouse gas emissions.

'The big questions are what are we are doing when we shift from conventional to organic production and what are the environmental consequences.

'This study says that the organic farming industry is in the early stages. So far we don't see any mitigating effect on greenhouse gasses.

'We need to pay close attention to what processes in organic farming operations make them the sustainable alternative that we want them to be, and we are going to need to more strictly follow those.'

The study, which is published in the journal Agriculture and Human Values, analysed data in the US between 2000 and 2008 on organic and conventional agricultural greenhouse gas emissions.

Mr McGee also collected data on socioeconomic and agricultural indicators that may have been influencing industry growth trends.

Organic farming first emerged in the US in the 1940s and now makes up three per cent of agricultural land in the US.

He found that rather than causing greenhouse gas emissions to fall, organic farming was actually producing more intense levels of emissions.

He claims the move to large corporate organic farming operations has led to many organic practices being watered down and ignored.

He found many organic farms now use single rather than rotated crops, use more organic pesticides and herbicides and import manure based fertilisers from other locations.

This all contributes to the growing carbon footprint of organic farming.

Mr McGee says the organic farming sector must now take action to change its approach.  He said: 'We're not going to solve all these problems with technology.

'The issue of agriculture and climate change doesn't derive only from technology.  'Sure, that's part of it, but a lot of the issue is the social context in which we relate to food — the idea that overproducing food at a level exceeding what we need — for both forms of agricultural production.'

SOURCE

Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).

Minnesota Coach and Boy, 13

Rebecca Noonan
(Anoka, Minnesota) A 31-year-old girls soccer coach at Champlin Park High School, Rebecca Lee Noonan, has been accused of engaging in sexual relations with a 13-year-old boy.

The victim told investigators that Noonan came into his room and climbed into his bed while nude, then proceeded to have sex with him. The boy's mother, described as a friend of Noonan's, was away from the home at the time.

According to the criminal complaint, Noonan told the boy to keep their encounter secret "because she could go to jail for a long period of time."

Investigators say the boy's mother confirmed that Noonan was in the family home alone with her son during the time frame given by the victim.

Noonan faces counts of criminal sexual conduct.

Another stupid prophecy of doom

Now we're running out of carbon! You can't win, can you?  It reminds me of a Greenie scare in the '70s that said we are running out of phosphorus -- and we need phosphorus for our bones.  Then there was a huge phosphate discovery in North Africa!  So that one died.  The lesson:  Greenie estimates of available resources are self-important crap

Researchers have issued a chilling warning that life on Earth is unsustainable for humans unless there are major changes.

Unless we slow the destruction of Earth's declining supply of plant life, civilization like it is now may become completely unsustainable, according to a new paper.

It claims that humans have 'depleted the Earth's battery'.

'You can think of the Earth like a battery that has been charged very slowly over billions of years,' said the study's lead author, John Schramski, an associate professor in UGA's College of Engineering.

'The sun's energy is stored in plants and fossil fuels, but humans are draining energy much faster than it can be replenished.'

Earth was once a barren landscape devoid of life, he explained, and it was only after billions of years that simple organisms evolved the ability to transform the sun's light into energy.

This eventually led to an explosion of plant and animal life that bathed the planet with lush forests and extraordinarily diverse ecosystems.

The study's calculations, published by University of Georgia researchers in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, are grounded in the fundamental principles of thermodynamics, a branch of physics concerned with the relationship between heat and mechanical energy.

Chemical energy is stored in plants, or biomass, which is used for food and fuel, but which is also destroyed to make room for agriculture and expanding cities.

Scientists estimate that the Earth contained approximately 1,000 billion tons of carbon in living biomass 2,000 years ago.

Since that time, humans have reduced that amount by almost half. It is estimated that just over 10 percent of that biomass was destroyed in just the last century.

'If we don't reverse this trend, we'll eventually reach a point where the biomass battery discharges to a level at which Earth can no longer sustain us,' Schramski said.

Working with James H. Brown from the University of New Mexico, Schramski and UGA's David Gattie, an associate professor in the College of Engineering, show that the vast majority of losses come from deforestation, hastened by the advent of large-scale mechanized farming and the need to feed a rapidly growing population.

As more biomass is destroyed, the planet has less stored energy, which it needs to maintain Earth's complex food webs and biogeochemical balances.

SOURCE

Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).

Why Lesbians Are Fat

(Washington, D.C.)

A U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) study to understand why lesbians are fat has now cost taxpayers over $3.5 million to-date.

According to the study, “It is now well-established that women of minority sexual orientation are disproportionately affected by the obesity epidemic, with nearly three-quarters of adult lesbians overweight or obese, compared to half of heterosexual women.

Hubba-bubba!

Feminist "hero" who publicly shamed a Tinder date for voicing his body-type preference is a hypocrite. Women are just as vocal

The man criticized below was  condemned simply  for being honest.  A sad thing.  He was even honest in a polite sort of way.  And if she can swingeingly condemn the man surely that leaves her open to criticism too:  I think she is a bitch with an inflated ego.  She is also fat. So I agree with the comments below by Peter Lloyd.  Some further comments, however:

Chubby is not sexy to either men or women and chubbies of both sexes need to get over that.  If you don't like your limited chances with the opposite sex you have to reduce your food intake; it's as simple as that.  Not easy but simple.

 And just as many men ignore flat chested women as potential partners, so many women ignore short men. Ask any short man! Short men often report feeling quite invisible.  And, perhaps sadly, no amount of complaint will alter that.  (To forestall "ad hominem" comments, I am 5'10")

If you are in a disadvantaged category, you just have to deal with it.  Short men and fat women work harder at relationships and that usually gets them someone, even if that someone also falls short of some ideal.  A combination I have sometimes seen is a very rotund woman with a skinny but very scrubby man  -- JR


Michelle Thomas was hailed a feminist hero for criticising a Tinder date who rejected her because of her size.

The 30-year-old, from Crystal Palace, London, went public when her online suitor discontinued their courtship because, physically speaking, she wasn't his type.

In a Dear John letter which has since stormed the internet, the unnamed man wrote:

'I really enjoyed your company and actually adore you. 'You're cheeky and funny and just the sort of girl I would love to go out with if only my body and mind would let me. But I fear it won't. 'I'm not going to bull***t you... I think you're the prettiest looking girl I've ever met. But my mind gets turned on by someone slimmer.'

But her response reinforced the odd, unwritten rule that women can say whatever they want about sexual desire and attraction, but men can't.

Venting through her blog, she claimed his behaviour was somehow 'body shaming' and 'objectifying' the female form, but, sorry sisters, I disagree.

Yes, fair enough, he wasn't being diplomatic or sensitive, which, as Prince would say, is sadly a sign o' the times, but in an age of over-opinionated people who constantly over-share, this is the new normal.

In fact, the only thing he's truly guilty of is having an honest opinion about women - one that isn't deemed 'on message' by the sisterhood - and actually voicing it.

Even former Deputy PM, John Prescott - a man who was battling bulimia at the time - was publicly humiliated by mistress Tracey Temple when their affair surfaced. She said his penis was like 'a cocktail sausage'. Classy!

Sadly, this isn't rare. Turn on any TV or film, listen to any song lyric, and you'll soon hear something similar.

Then there's website TubeCrush which pervs, and rates, unwitting men on the London Underground, while new dating app Lulu has caused controversy for encouraging women to shame men who give them 'bad dates'. Complete with pictures.

Even on a day-to-day basis I hear women say how they've dumped their latest man because he wasn’t tall, handsome or fit enough. The same women who, while asserting that a woman's size and shape doesn't matter, judge their boyfriends on the bulge in both their wallet and trousers.

The big difference, however, is that most men are too polite to ever go into detail. Especially directly. 'Does my bum look big in this?' 'Of course not,' we say.

Ironically, talking to Femail about the furore, Michelle said how pleased she was that many of her blog respondents were men who'd shared her letter with their sons – presumably to teach them about sensitivity and politeness with women. And that's great.

My point, however, is that perhaps they should refer their daughters to this article, too. After all, it was women who started this pathological honesty about men's bodies, so - as long as it continues - the yin to their yang will always be considered fair game. And, although it's sad, it's the world we live in.

More HERE

Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).

Pennsylvania Teacher Faces Sex Charges

Katie Cross
(West Chester, Pennsylvania) A 31-year-old language arts teacher at Collegium High School, Katie Cross, faces sex crime charges for allegedly straddling a 17-year-old male student in a parked car.

Cross, 31, was jailed after her arrest and was later released on $150,000 unsecured bail, according to local reports.

Cross has been suspended from her teaching position.

Canada No Longer A Haven for US Deserters

Sgt. Patrick Hart
(Buffalo, New York) A US Army soldier, Sgt. Patrick Hart, deserted the US military and went to Canada as a war resister.

But after five years of wrangling with the Canadian immigration system, he came back to the U.S. - and ended up in a military prison.

The country that once welcomed war resisters has developed a much different reputation during the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan: Supporters say no U.S. soldier who has sought legal residence in Canada, either as a refugee or on humanitarian grounds, has been successful.

"Nobody's won," said Hart, a Buffalo native who exhausted his legal options then turned himself in to the Army, was court-martialed for desertion and sentenced to two years in prison.

OK

Is it wrong for Western firms to make agricultural investments in Third world countries?

Antony Loewenstein  (Tony is a self-hating Jew. Loewenstein is Yiddish  for Lion Stone) below roundly criticizes a host of existing  such investments but his words are a classic example of selective Leftist attention.

His wail is based on a false premise:  That the developed world needs land from elsewhere to feed itself.  Hitler thought the same.  His Drang nach Osten was driven by the simplistic assumption that Germany's growing population needed more land for farms so that the increased population could be fed.  So Germany had to take land off Russia and Poland.  Any economist could have explained to him how and why he was wrong but socialists like Mr. Hitler think they know it all so don't listen to economists.

In the case of Mr Lion Stone below he has even less excuse than Hitler.  Surely he knows that under capitalism even CHINA exports food!  Under Communism they had to import food -- Australian wheat for instance.  But under private ownership the flow has now reversed.

Despite giving their own people ever higher standards of living,  the clever and hard-working farmers of China still have enough food left over to fill the cans of most of the "Home brand" foods on our supermarket shelves.  Check where your next can of cheap tomato soup comes from if you doubt it.  And most of the world's garlic now comes from China.  And European truffle suppliers are greatly outraged by the competition from Chinese truffles!  It goes on...

And it is not only China. Both the USA and Europe use various mechanisms to stop their farmers from producing too much.  Farmers are paid not to farm part of their land etc.  And Europe's butter mountains and wine lakes are a byword.  The characteristic Western food problem is GLUT:  Too much food.

In short, Mt Lion Stone reveals himself below as what Australians call a drongo:  So stupid it is a wonder he can feed himself.  He knows not even the basics of what he writes about.  So how accurate his reporting below is, is anyone's guess.  It could be nothing more than bile.

So it's amusing that Hitler and the Leftist Jew below make the same mistake.  They are united by Leftist ignorance and unwillingless to listen.  Only their chronic anger matters to them.  Not the facts.

But, no doubt, powerless people in the Third world do get treated badly but that is not the fault of Western countries or Western companies.  It is the fault of their own revolting governments.  The companies investing in agricultural projects in Third world countries are there for only one reason:  Because the governments of the countries want them there.  The governments see that by encouraging investment they can skim some cream off the top.  That they make little use of such cream to compensate their own dispossessed people is their doing:  No-one else's

But criticizing the people actually responsible for a problem is of no interest to  Leftists.  And we certainly must not criticize those lovely brown people.  Criticising their own countries and societies is what gives Leftists erections and any illogic will do to enable that


Ethiopia’s Omo Valley is one of the most culturally diverse places on the planet. Industrial-size sugar plantations and a soon to open dam are strangling indigenous communities over more than 375,000 hectares. Ethiopia is experiencing economic growth (though it’s a brutal dictatorship) and yet millions of its citizens suffer from chronic food shortages.

The government has sold vast tracts of land to a Turkish agri-business firm and other foreign investors, all without consultation with the Kara people. Forced displacement is common though the Ethiopian government denies it. A Malaysian company stands accused of disenfranchising the Suri people with its plantation in South-western Ethiopia. India is at the forefront of taking land across Ethiopia.

American photographer Jane Baldwin has been visiting the Omo River for a decade, documenting the gradual erosion of local rights, and she tells me via email that foreign investors threaten “self-sustaining agro-pastoral communities.” A local woman from the Nyangatom tribe, who can’t be named due to threats against her life, says that, “They are taking this river to sell the hydroelectric power. We say to them, if this river is taken from us, we might as well kill ourselves so we won’t starve to death. If you decide to make a dam there, before you start the dam, you better come here and kill us all.”

Ethiopia is just one country affected by land grabs conducted by Wall Street bankers, business opportunists and countries hungry for fertile territory. In Africa, global hedge funds are purchasing vast areas of land in Mali, Sierra Leone and Tanzania. A recent investigation by the Huffington Post and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists found that the World Bank was complicit in the removal of the indigenous Sengwer people in Kenya.

American academic Michael Kugelman, from the Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars and co-editor of The Global Farms Race, says that the main problem with foreign land deals is the lack of benefit to local stakeholders.

“Impoverished and food-insecure countries are giving away not only their precious farmland but also the food that springs from it”, he tells me via email.

He explains that the key players buying up resources are China, the Gulf countries, East Asian states and the West – and they mostly target sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia and Latin America. The need for reliable sources of farmland across Africa and the globe in an age of deforestation and climate change means controlling food production – or the arable land on which food can be grown – can give immense leverage over developing states. TIAA-CREF is one firm, an American financial group, who has invested US$5 billion in farmland from Brazil to Australia despite the lack of quick returns.

More HERE

Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).

Utah Teacher Gets Prison for Rape of Boys - Update

(Farmington, Utah) A former high school English teacher, Brianne Altice, convicted of sex with three male students, has now been sentenced to anywhere between two and 30 years behind bars.

Tip: JR

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Utah Teacher Pleads Guilty to Rape of Boy - Update
[Previous 4/23/15 post]

Brianne Altice

A former Utah high school teacher accused of having sex with three of her male students took a plea deal Wednesday to avoid a trial, sobbing as she accepted the agreement in court.

One of the boys was 16 and two were 17 when they were having sex with Davis High School English teacher Brianne Altice, 35.

OK

Tip: JR

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Utah Teacher Pleads Not Guilty to Rape of Boy - Update
[Previous 3/2/14 post]
(Farmington, Utah)

A former Davis High School English teacher accused of having a sexual relationship with a then-16-year-old student pleaded not guilty to charges Thursday.

Brianne Land Altice, 34, is charged in 2nd District Court with three counts of first-degree felony rape and one count of first-degree felony forcible sodomy.

After the woman entered her pleas a two-day trial was set to begin May 12.

According to court documents, Altice is accused of having sexual intercourse with a male student, now 17, on several occasions between January and September of 2013.

Prosecutors say the teacher acknowledged to investigators that she had engaged in sex with the boy on two occasions.

An earlier probable cause statement, filed with the Davis County jail after Altice was arrested at her South Weber home in late October, alleged that one of the trysts occurred in a Kaysville park.

She has been free on $10,000 bail since her arrest. She was on paid leave until she fired Feb. 3.

So, the case continues.

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Utah Teacher Charged with Rape - Update
[Previous 12/17/13 post]
(Farmington, Utah)

Brianne Land Altice, 34, has been officially charged with three counts of rape, all first-degree felonies.

The prosecution thickens.

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Utah Teacher Accused of Sex with Student
[Previous 10/29/13 post]
(Kaysville, Utah) A 34-year-old teacher at Davis High School, Brianne Altice, has been accused of engaging in sex with a 15-year-old male student.

Reportedly, Altice faces two counts of unlawful sexual activity with a minor.

The boy told the police about the sex, which allegedly occurred between the spring and August of 2012 when he was about 15 years old, said Kaysville Police Lt. Paul Thompson. Police then searched Altice’s home in South Weber.

"With the assistance of the Davis County Sheriff’s Office Ms. Altice was interviewed and evidence from the residence corroborated the victim’s statement," according to a Kaysville Police Department news release.

Altice was booked into custody at the Davis County Jail.

More failed prophecy.  BOM bombs out again

The BOM (Bureau of Meteorology) is Australia's great temple of the global warming faith

Climate is the sum of weather so big failures to predict the weather cast great doubt on predictions about the climate.  The forecast for Eastern Australia below issued last Friday is a case in point.  It was headed:

"Antarctic blast begins to bite: Heavy snow falls in southern states, 90km/h blizzards set to batter NSW and drivers urged to stay off the roads as temperatures plummet to lowest in 15 YEARS"

In fact: At mid-afternoon in Brisbane on Saturday it was 22 degrees Celsius (70F)! And late on Sunday afternoon it was 20 degrees Celsius.  Some people call 70F the ideal temperature.


And the "soaking" predicted for Brisbane did not happen either. There were a few light showers on Saturday and a fine day on Sunday

It appears that there was some unusual cold weather in some parts of the Southeast but if a comprehensive forecast can not be made for just the Southeast of Australia, how likely is a forecast for the whole planet to be accurate?

Emergency services are on high alert as the Antarctic blast is beginning to hit the southern and eastern coast of Australia and people have been warned to batten down the hatches ahead of the worst of the storms overnight and into Sunday.

Damaging 'blizzard intensity' winds of 90km/h in NSW are causing havoc across NSW, and snow is also falling in South Australia and Victoria as conditions worsen.

NSW Police has appealed for all drivers to take extra care on the roads, as thousands of families return home after the school holidays. The warning calls for people to avoid 'risky behaviour'.

A State Emergency Service spokeswoman told Daily Mail Australia people should avoid travel all together if possible, as roads become potentially deadly in 'icy conditions'.

It also advised people to move cars undercover, put away or secure loose items at home and be aware of falling trees and power lines.

The freezing front began to roll across the country on Friday afternoon, delivering conditions not seen in 15 years, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.

Temperatures are expected to fall to zero or below across large parts of Victoria, New South Wales and Tasmania, with bitterly cold winds and hail also forecast. Snow is predicted to reach as far north as Queensland, after already falling across Victoria, South Australia and NSW.

The snow spread is forecast to reach further north than it has since 2000.

Sydney and Melbourne can expect average low temperatures of 8 degrees for the weekend, while Canberra will be hit with a freezing 4 - but it could feel as cold as -1 due to the wind chill.

Brisbane will likely end the weekend soaked, with heavy rain predicted across most of the state, in addition to potential snow in areas of higher-elevation.

SOURCE

Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).

Utah Woman Guilty of Sex with Boy

Amber Telford
(Taylorsville, Utah) A 33-year-old dance studio owner and former Utah Jazz dancer, Amber Telford, has admitted to engaging in sex with a 17-year-old boy.

Telford, 33, pleaded guilty Tuesday to unlawful sexual activity with a minor, a third-degree felony.

In exchange for her plea, prosecutors agreed to dismiss six identical charges that had been filed against her.

Sentencing is scheduled for August.

A picture is worth 1,000 words

Receiving a hammer and sickle.  Note the small added crucifix. The media try to make out that he was embarrassed but he showed no sign of it.  It is in fact a symbol of Latin American "liberation theology", a belief system that Frank clearly shares



SOURCE

Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).