Thursday, April 11, 2013

Fwd: Bird Flu


'Another person died from a new strain of bird flu in China on Thursday, state media said, bringing to 10 the number of deaths from the H7N9 virus, as a U.N. body said it was concerned the virus could spread across borders in poultry.

 

The latest victim was in the commercial hub of Shanghai, the official Xinhua news agency reported, where several of the 38 cases to date have been found. All of the cases so far have been found in eastern China.'

 

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/04/11/health-birthflu-china-idUSL3N0CYBMG20130411

 

 

'A Chinese military official has blamed the US government for the new strain of bird flu affecting China, calling it a secret biological attack.

 

People's Liberation Army Senior Colonel Dai Xu said America released the H7N0 bird flu virus into China, in an act of biological warfare, in a blog on Saturday.

 

Writing on Sina Weibo, a Chinese microblogging site similar to Twitter, Dai alleged the new bird flu strain had been designed as a weapon, similar to severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), that affected the country in 2003 and which he claims was also developed as a US bio-weapon.'

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2307170/China-bird-flu-outbreak-Officer-accuses-United-States-secret-biological-attack.html#ixzz2QAE5K69z

 

Monday, April 8, 2013

Fwd: Turkey

'Israeli officials expressed astonishment on Sunday that US Secretary of State John Kerry praised Turkey for responding "sensitively" and without triumphalism to Israel's apology for the Mavi Marmara incident.

 

"They have taken steps to try to prevent any sense of triumphalism," Kerry said at a press conference on Sunday with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu. "It has not come from the government. In fact, there has been limited response by the government itself and I think it's important for everybody to take note of that."

 

"What country is he talking about?" one Israeli official responded. "I'm afraid the State Department did not show the secretary of state the press reports from Turkey following the apology."

 

The official said those reports were full of interviews and statements by both Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Davutoglu and other government ministers gloating over the apology, which was for operational errors committed that may have led to a loss of life on the Mavi Marmara in May 2010. Nine Turks were killed when Israel Navy commandos, trying to keep the ship from breaking the blockade of the Gaza Strip, were attacked by those on board.

 

The Israeli perception that Erdogan was indeed rubbing Jerusalem's nose in the apology led Economy and Trade Minister Naftali Bennett, a member of the seven-person security cabinet, to write on his Facebook page five days after the apology that "it seems that since the apology, Erdogan is doing everything to make Israel regret it. He is running a personal and vitriolic campaign at the expense of Israeli- Turkish relations."

 

Soon after Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's apology to Erdogan in a phone call brokered by US President Barack Obama during his visit here, Erdogan, according to the Anadolu news agency, told supporters Israel may have mistakenly thought the Mavi Marmara incident would be forgotten.

 

But this time, he was quoted as saying, "the Israelis met with a different understanding and structure. The AK Party government did not remain silent against this illegality, aggressiveness and massacre."

 

He went on to add, "The Israeli apology was important in remembering the martyrs of Turkey and those of Palestine."

 

Billboards sponsored by the Ankara Municipality appeared within a day of the apology, reading, "Israel apologized to Turkey. Dear prime minister, we are grateful that you let our country experience this pride."'

 

http://www.jpost.com/Diplomacy-and-Politics/Kerrys-claim-of-Turkish-sensitivity-astonishes-Israelis-309038

 


Re: Poetic Justice

Is this not a straw man argument by saying "that many on the political left would like to erase and rewrite "   That may be true for some, but the proposed legislation isn't to abolish guns altogether. 

John Coffey


 

Because some creep is at the door, turning the knob. And she's alone and rightfully afraid. But she has a gun in her hand.

 

And thanks to the Second Amendment that many on the political left would like to erase and rewrite — by using horrific tragedies like Sandy Hook to wipe the Constitution of irritants — Maya Angelou was able to defend herself.

 

That's right. She defended herself with a firearm.

 

Maya Angelou got her gun. And now that she's talked about it, she teaches us a lesson about making assumptions.

 

Angelou, the literary icon and famed poet and "Star Trek" fan, told Time magazine in a recent interview that she likes having guns around. Her comments must have been the last thing that gun controllers wanted to see…

 

ANGELOU: Well, I do like to have guns around. I don't like to carry them. But if somebody is going to come into my house, and I have not put out the welcome mat, I want to stop them.'

 

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-04-07/news/ct-met-kass-0407-20130407_1_gun-control-debate-maya-angelou-knob

 




Statism is slavery. Moral arguments.

Anarchy is gaining some momentum.  The general argument is that the harm created by governments is much greater than the benefit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOGq_1710U4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDVNL0VyaEI

The problem that i have with these videos is that I think that anarchy is a completely unworkable system.  You cannot play any sport without some rules and referees to enforce these rules.

it is the nature of human beings to want and take what other people have.  This is why governments were formed in the first place.  Because we have swung to the other extreme, this is also one of the problems that we have now where government has become a license to steal.  However, if you take away government, you would create a huge power vacuum.  It is the nature of human beings to want to fill that power vacuum, and organized crime would be happy to step in.  (I could see large powerful corporations getting into a turf war with organized crime.)

Not everyone is independent enough and capable enough to function in a society without rules.

I think that I would prefer a semi-benign dictatorship to anarchy, because at least you would have rule of law.

An ideal government is one that limits its harm to society while performing its primary role, which is to protect people's rights.

John Coffey