COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Sunday, December 08, 2013

Israeli Minister Taunts the US?


Israeli minister suggests annex of West Bank settlements
Published time: December 09, 2013 02:51

Israel’s Economy Minister believes the time has come to annex parts of the West Bank and install full economic and military control over Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territory, which are deemed illegal under international law.
“I favor implementation of Israeli sovereignty over the zone where 400,000 [Israeli settlers] live and only 70,000 Arabs,” minister Naftali Bennett said on Sunday as quoted by the AFP.

Bennett has also called the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations a “joke”, since Hamas movement controlling the Gaza Strip is not included in the talks.

“Imagine you’re negotiating over a car with someone who only owns half the car, and the owner of the other half says he won’t recognize any agreement you reach. You give him all the money but only get half the car,”
he told public radio.

“Maybe I missed the news and Hamas in Gaza recognized Israel and stopped firing rockets,”
Bennett said, quoted by the Times of Israel.

Bennett however promised that his Jewish Home religious party was “not going to be the problem despite his opposition to the current framework negotiations,” adding that peace can only be achieved “when the entire Palestinian people” are involved in the talks.

The minister refused to comment on the US mediation role in the negotiations, reminding that the result of previous peace talks was “thousands of rockets” and “1,500 dead. Not American dead, Israeli dead.”

Meanwhile the Israeli Prime Minister on Sunday indicated that the blockade of Gaza and its goods turnover with the West Bank will continue.

“We want to make sure that goods that go from Gaza do not contain weapons or explosives that can reach the Palestinian Authority areas that would undermine not just us, but the PA,” Netanyahu said as quoted by Jerusalem Post. “I do not want to give an open channel to Hamas and Islamic Jihad [to send weapons] into the Palestinian Authority.”

Israel has not shown any intention to put on hold the developments in the West Bank including highly sensitive land around Jerusalem. Last month the housing ministry had issued tenders and drawn up long-term plans to construct some 24,000 extra settler homes, fueling fears of peace process disruption.
‘Minimal requirement for peace’

In regards to the tough negotiations Netanyahu at a separate event on Sunday said that acceptance of the existence of a Jewish state is the “minimal requirement for peace” in negotiations with the Palestinians.

Final agreement with the Palestinians must contain “iron-clad security arrangements,” Netanyahu said via satellite to the Brookings Institute’s Saban Forum in Washington, as quoted by the Hill.

“It’s not too much to ask. It’s the minimal requirement for peace, but it’s not the only requirement,”
Netanyahu added.

The Israeli PM commended President Obama and US Secretary of State John Kerry for their “tireless efforts” to reach peace. “This man doesn’t sleep,” Netanyahu said of Kerry.

On Friday, Kerry, concluding his trip to Israel, said that the sides were “closer than they have been in years” to bringing peace to the region.

During two days of negotiations Kerry held three meetings with Netanyahu and one with the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.


“The fact that there is no information doesn't mean the talks are not productive,”
he said adding that both leaders have the “same endpoint in their sights: two nations for two peoples, living side by side in peace and prosperity.”

Israel’s foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman who addressed the Saban Forum on Friday warned that a deal would not be achieved in the next year.

On Saturday Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon made a similar forecast.

“On the other side, there isn’t, and hasn’t been since the dawn of Zionism, a leadership that’s willing to recognize our right to exist as the nation-state of the Jewish people, and to see in an agreement an end to the conflict and an end to all demands,” Yaalon said according to the Times of Israel.

“We won’t talk about an inch, a millimeter of land so long as we don’t see that we have a partner that’s talking about recognition, about the end of the conflict and the end of the right of return,”
Yaalon added.

In July, after nearly three years of deadlock, Israeli and Palestinian teams visited Washington to resume the Middle-East peace process brokered by the US.

Palestinians want a sovereign country of their own and insist on a two-state solution under the 1967 borders. They do agree that some Israeli settlements have the right to stay – on condition of certain land swaps.

Israel wants a final arrangement which will fix the current situation with occupied lands for its security needs. Tel-Aviv rejects the 1967 borders and refuses Palestinians “the right of return” to their former land. Israel considers all of Jerusalem as its capital – despite that status not being recognized internationally – and wants to keep its settlement blocs in the West Bank under any peace treaty.

Today, more than 100 Israeli settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank are home to some 560,000 Israelis living among 2.5 million Palestinians.

130 comments:

  1. Meanwhile, Israel's Economy Minister Naftali Bennett proposed Sunday that the Jewish state annex parts of the West Bank, AFP news reported.

    ...

    Bennett also commented on Israeli-Palestinian peace talks Sunday, calling the process nothing but a "joke" due to the fact that Gaza's leadership is not included within the Palestinian negotiation.

    ...

    On Friday, US Secretary of State John Kerry expressed his optimism over the on going talks. He said: "we are closer than we have been in years to bringing about the peace and the prosperity and the security that all of the people of this region deserve."

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      It's enough to make you

      Cry

      or laugh.

      .

      .

      Delete
    2. .

      What do you do with yourself these days, Sam.

      Do you get out to the clubs? Dance clubs?

      If so, what kind of music are they playing there.

      .

      Delete
    3. When, and why, and what did you do when you resided in Hawaii, Quirko?

      Delete
    4. .

      Actually, I was wondering what the predominant music was in Australia. They are kind of on the cusp. Obviously western. But being so close to the Orient just wondered what the influence was. While I was visiting China for work, the clubs we would hit all had techno music and I guess what they now call 'dance music'.

      I never resided in Hawaii, Doug. My mother-in-law worked there for a number of years in Waikiki so we visited a few times.

      Didn't do much clubbing there.

      :)

      .

      Delete
    5. You carried a club?

      Was your mother-in-law a Hula Dancer?

      Delete
    6. "While I was visiting China for work..."

      Do tell.
      Curious people want to know.

      Delete
    7. If Australia was smart, they'd import millions of uneducated, unskilled aliens to add diversity to the place.

      Our strength is our diversity, they always say.
      Could become true for Australia, too.

      Delete
    8. .

      Sorry, winked out for a minute.

      Where were we?

      Clubbing? No, no, not after all the seals were gone.

      Mother-in-lay? She worked in one of the fancy shops there. Spent all day being insulted by the Japanese shoppers.

      .

      Delete
    9. .

      If Australia was smart, they'd import millions of uneducated, unskilled aliens to add diversity to the place.,

      What? Americans?

      .

      Delete
    10. They were feeling their oats here for a while.

      Now, not so much.

      Even back then, though, Japanese women would go nuts over our cute little 3 year old.

      Kinda like we think little Japs are adorable.

      ...but you didn't tell us what you were up to with the Chi-Coms.

      Delete
    11. Yeah, we should task the Military with airlifting all Obama voters into Aussieland.

      Yes we can!

      Delete
    12. .

      In the 90's, I was the purchasing lead on one of the JV teams our company sent to China to negotiate joint ventures with the Chinese. I'd go over with the stateside team for three to four weeks at a time until we had the joint venture wrapped up.

      It was fun and interesting the first couple times I went but it grew old pretty quickly. After I had built up enough time, I was able to take my wife over with me and she enjoyed it.

      .

      Delete
    13. .

      And by the way, that was mother-in-law. Nothing Freudian here.

      .

      Delete
    14. Importing lead from China sounds like coal to Newcastle.

      I didn't know that this country doesn't have enough lead.

      Or maybe it's the price w/no EPA to worry about there?

      Delete
    15. .

      I'm out, Dougo.

      The day shift should be in soon.

      .

      Delete
    16. .

      In the future, I will spell things out for you phonetically, Doug.

      leeeed

      Do you know how hard it is to spell phonetically at 3:00 am?

      .

      Delete
    17. But you did spell phonetically correctly.

      ...and Blogger's always here if you slip up.

      Delete
  2. Sounds like a good proposal to me.

    When the Jews are welcomed back into Saudi Arabia with open arms and full rights, with women's right as well, only at that time should Israel be considering some right of return.

    For a laugh see:

    The Twelve Days of ObamaCare

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPyqZZ-4JPc

    Tis the season to be jolly, after all.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. When I can build a church in Saudi Arabia.......

      Until then I won't like the idea of moslems settling here.....

      The very best practitioners of APARTHEID in the mideast are the moslems.....

      They are so good at it that there are hardly any Jews or Christians in those countries....

      That is why a few FOOLS do not notice it.

      I always favor an amicable divorce but that doesn't mean you live in the same house afterwards......

      Delete
    2. If you like your religion, you can keep your religion.
      Somewhere else.
      Otherwise, the only good Christians or Jews will be dead Christians and Jews.

      Delete
    3. “Arabs and other Muslims generally agreed that Saddam Hussein might be a bloody tyrant, but, paralleling FDR's thinking, "he is our bloody tyrant." In their view, the invasion was a family affair to be settled within the family and those who intervened in the name of some grand theory of international justice were doing so to protect their own selfish interests and to maintain Arab subordination to the west.”
      ― Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order

      Delete
  3. 70% Of Calfornia's Doctors Expected To Boycott Obamacare

    “We need some recognition that we’re doing a service to the community.

    But we can’t do it for free.

    And we can’t do it at a loss.

    No other business would do that
    ,”

    exclaims the president of the California Medical Association.

    ---

    Time for us libertarians to contribute a few bucks for additional tinting of Comrade Rufie's Rose Colored Glasses.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Some Physicians have been put in the network and they were included basically without their permission,” Lisa Folberg said. She is a CMA’s vice president of medical and regulatory Policy.

      “They may be listed as actually participating, but not of their own volition,”

      ...

      “This is a dirty little secret that is not really talked about as they promote Covered California,” Waters said. He called the exchange's doctors list a “shell game” because “the vast majority” of his doctors are not participating.

      Delete
    2. Plenty of dirty little secrets yet to be revealed.

      Delete
  4. On 'The Kelly File' on Fox they are talking boredom

    One ravenously beautiful young black lady, who is a writer, is arguing that she is favor of boredom.....

    "I was just sitting in my room doing nothing, and finally began to write out of boredom, and here I am."

    !!!!

    Boredom can be
    The Spark Plug
    To Creativity
    Said She

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Maybe inescapable grief will too.

      Or not

      Delete
    2. It might. Give it a try.

      Start will a short story or two, a poem......

      It might truly help.....

      Just let your own self speak......

      Delete
    3. Boo hoo, hoo.

      Will that do?

      Delete
    4. Two hoo hoos for me,

      one Boo for you.

      Delete
    5. I can also whistle, hiss, jeer, and taunt.

      Delete
    6. Misery loves company, so I try.

      Delete
    7. I guess it should be "Two hoos for me,"

      ...rather than Two hoo hoos.

      That would be four hoos, which would be more than I could bear.

      Delete
    8. .

      Sure that wasn't two Yoo Hoos?

      .

      Delete
    9. Ya got me Quirk-O

      ...always looking for attention.

      Even if it's derisive.
      I'm one cheap attention ho.

      Delete
    10. Carl Reiner was married for 65 years.

      Then he and their 3 kids said goodbye.

      Wish I could get a redo of the time I and others, including doctors, talked as if there was no chance of her hearing us.

      The Reiner's did it right.

      Delete
    11. Carl asked George Burns what he could expect sex-wise in his eighties.

      George said: "Never try to put an Oyster in a slot machine."

      Delete
    12. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    13. Oops, Correction:

      Burns asked Carl: "Ever try to put an Oyster in a slot machine?""

      Delete
  5. Grace Murray Hopper (December 9, 1906 – January 1, 1992) was an American computer scientist and United States Navy Rear Admiral. A pioneer in the field, she was one of the first programmers of the Harvard Mark I computer, and developed the first compiler for a computer programming language.

    She conceptualized the idea of machine-independent programming languages, which led to the development of COBOL, one of the first modern programming languages. She is credited with popularizing the term "debugging" for fixing computer glitches (inspired by an actual moth removed from the computer).

    Owing to the breadth of her accomplishments and her naval rank, she is sometimes referred to as "Amazing Grace".[6][7] The U.S. Navy destroyer USS Hopper (DDG-70) is named for her, as was the Cray XE6 "Hopper" supercomputer at NERSC.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Replies
    1. "The bullet-riddled automobile in which bandits Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker were trapped, shot and killed on a Louisiana road is seen on May 24, 1934. Officers waited for the desperados near Arcadia, La., and pumped 167 bullets into the car."

      In the picture before that, Bonnie still looked pretty hot after she was shot.

      ...on her good side.

      Delete
    2. Hot or not she certainly was shot.

      Delete
    3. Greg Martin, director of the Arms & Armor Dept. at Butterfields auction house, holds up the bullet-riddled death shirt of Clyde Barrow. It was auctioned for $75,000 in San Francisco in 1997.

      Wish I coulda bought that.

      My life would be complete.

      Delete
  7. Nelson Mandela quotes you usually don't read -

    http://www.wnd.com/2013/12/the-real-mandela-in-his-own-words/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Let me guess:

      "GD those damned white racist honkies."

      Delete
    2. Christopher HitchensMon Dec 09, 09:27:00 AM EST


      It's often a bad sign when people defend themselves against charges which haven't been made.”

      Delete
  8. "December 8, 2013
    Christmas has come early to Philadelphia, where the amount of snow during Sunday's Lions-Eagles game made it look like the contest was happening in Antarctica."

    Shows 6 inches on the ground, and it's still snowing!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Snow in Australia......but, but.....isn't it summer there?

      http://www.news.com.au/technology/environment/snow-falling-in-australia-in-summer-that-is-all/story-e6frflp0-1226775945701

      Delete
  9. Got to love this from the Bwabwahahahahha Department -

    http://news.yahoo.com/dalai-lama-not-attend-mandela-funeral-220948377.html

    Heh

    Some infighting between the Tutu and Mandela branches of the new regime or something.

    Last I read the old boy was not on any terrorist list anyway.......

    For a good read on the horrors of Chinese intervention in Tibet see:

    Joseph Campbell

    The communist Chinese put the peaceful meditation folk into plow harnesses and made them plow fields........just for beginners........I don't wish to describe the rest.......

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. any terrorist list anywhere.....

      Campbell was attempting to put on graphic display the difference between the peaceful and violent outlooks......in politics and society.......and in religions......the Buddhists would not have been in Tibet in the first place except for that 'religion of peace' of our moslem brothers and sisters, having fled from India of to escape the violence of the moslem invasions there.......the Hindus,,,,,the trunk of this Hindu/Buddhist tree of understanding, turned and fought.......that is the main difference between Hindus and Buddhists in most things political....

      All this of course, in some minds, could well be assigned to the influence of Israel's apartheid policy, or something., where Moslems sit in the Knesset, it is really tough to tell.....

      Delete

    2. “Religious people claim that it's just the fundamentalists of each religion that cause problems.
      But there's got to be something wrong with the religion itself if those who strictly adhere to its most fundamental principles are violent bigots and sexists.”

      Delete
  10. Lots of good stuff came in from Jihad Watch just now.......same old same old great stuff......moslems killing everyone else across the globe......

    Article about Netanyahu who wishes Iran to change its genocidal policy intentions....would post some of it but am trouble swiping and posting....

    ah....here.....

    http://www.jihadwatch.org/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Iranians have every right to porcess and enrich uranium.
      They are part of the Community of Nations, signatory to the NPT.

      Unlike Israel, India, North Korea and Pakistan, the Real Rouge Regimes of the world..

      Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty

      ARTICLE IV
      1. Nothing in this Treaty shall be interpreted as affecting the inalienable right of all the
      Parties to the Treaty to develop research, production and use of nuclear energy for peaceful
      purposes without discrimination and in conformity with Articles I and II of this Treaty.


      2. All the Parties to the Treaty undertake to facilitate, and have the right to participate in. the fullest possible exchange of equipment, materials and scientific and technological information for the peaceful uses of nuclear energy. Parties to the Treaty in a position to do so shall also cooperate in contributing alone or together with other States or international organizations to the further development of the applications of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, especially in the territories of nonnuclear weapon States Party to the Treaty, with due consideration for the needs of the developing areas of the world.

      Delete
  11. Today is Ada Lovelace Day, a day dedicated to celebrating the world's first computer programmer and to share inspiring stories about women working in science, technology and math. Surely some of the most significant technical work done by women since this day last year includes the creation of what is said to be the fastest-growing social network in history, Google Plus.

    Launched on June 28th and just opened to the public at large late last month, Google Plus is a feature-rich social network with variable privacy and sharing settings at the core of its experience. Who were the women involved in building such a big, important technology? We asked, on Google Plus, and were told about twenty two of them profiled below.

    They are an incredibly accomplished group of people and a great source of inspiration for young women interested in science and technology - or for anyone else who could use some powerful role models. You should share this list of women with the girls in your life, though, that's what Ada Lovelace Day is all about.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Google says "Grace Hopper" not Lovelace.

      Anybody here tweet, or Google +, or Facebook?

      I leave it to the kids.

      Wonder if Ash does...

      Delete
    2. Quirk ran off with a girl named Leggy Loveless.

      Any relationship?

      Delete

    3. “You painted a naked woman because you enjoyed looking at her,
      put a mirror in her hand and you called the painting “Vanity,”
      thus morally condemning the woman whose nakedness you had depicted for you own pleasure.”

      Delete
    4. I keep woth most of them doug but I don't "do" them as it were. i.e. I've got a twitter account and I sometimes watch the tweets flow but I don't spend anytime tweeting. Similarly I have a facebook account but I don't chat with folk on it much. I forget whether I've set up a google + or not...

      The modern communications shift a lot these days. My daughter is spending a lot of time on 'instagram'. My Space is dead.

      Delete
  12. yawn.

    As long as the fake nationalistic self named people called "palestine" cannot even be united as one "people" they have no popular authority to make peace in any way.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Home Demolitions: By the Numbers

      Since 1967, Israel has destroyed approximately 27,000 Palestinian structures in the occupied territories
      (the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza Strip), including more than 24,000 homes, according to ICAHD.

      Since the renewal of negotiations in August 2013, Israel has destroyed approximately 25 Palestinian homes,
      in addition to dozens of other structures, leaving approximately 200 people homeless.

      According to the UN, between January and September 2013, 862 Palestinians were displaced by Israeli demolitions,
      compared to 886 (including 468 children) in all of 2012.

      In 2012, a total of 600 Palestinian structures were demolished by Israel in the occupied territories,
      including at least 189 homes, according to ICAHD.
      This figure doesn’t include “self-demolitions” whereby Palestinians destroy their own homes ...
      rather than have Israel do it and charge them an additional fine.


      One Bedouin village, Al-Araqib, in the Negev desert in the south of Israel, has been destroyed more than 50 times by Israel since July 2010.

      Between 2005 and 2012, Israel demolished approximately 1500 Palestinian homes due to owners lacking hard-to-obtain construction permits.

      Between 1993 and 2000, when the Oslo Accords were being negotiated between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization,
      Israel destroyed almost 1700 Palestinian homes in the occupied territories.

      Immediately following Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza in 1967,
      approximately 6000 Palestinian homes were demolished, including four entire villages in the Latrun area,
      along with dozens of homes in the Mughrabi Quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City,
      which were destroyed to make way for a plaza for the Western Wall.

      In 1971, between 2000 and 6000 Palestinian homes were destroyed in Gaza in an effort to pacify the newly occupied territory.

      During Israel’s creation (1948-49),
      Zionist and then Israeli forces expelled approximately 750,000 Palestinian Arabs from their ancestral lands
      in order to create a Jewish majority state of Israel.

      In the process, more than 400 Palestinian population centers were systematically destroyed, including thousands of homes, businesses, and houses of worship.


      bob

      Delete
    2. LOL Cut and Paster is up and pasting...

      the best line...

      "One Bedouin village, Al-Araqib, in the Negev desert in the south of Israel, has been destroyed more than 50 times by Israel since July 2010"

      It's hard to build a stable camel shit cabin these days,.....

      LOL

      Too funny...

      Delete
    3. In the process, more than 400 Palestinian population centers were systematically destroyed, including thousands of homes, businesses, and houses of worship.


      Now we all KNOW that a "palestinian population center" is a 56 chevy on blocks...

      LOL

      Delete
    4. "along with dozens of homes in the Mughrabi Quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City,
      which were destroyed to make way for a plaza for the Western Wall. "

      The crime!!! Clearing out squatters on the PLAZA of the Western Wall...

      LOL

      Maybe one should ask why the arabs are squatting on Jewish Historic religious sites???

      Oh the answer? Cause it's there....

      that's what arabs do...

      they squat...

      Delete
    5. Wayne Gerard TrotmanMon Dec 09, 10:00:00 AM EST


      “The sad truth about bigotry is that most bigots either don't realize that they are bigots,
      or they convince themselves that their bigotry is perfectly justified.”

      Delete

    6. Three key features characterize Israeli apartheid:

      • Four million Palestinians in the Occupied Territories lack the right to vote for the government that controls their lives through a military occupation.

      In addition to controlling the borders, air space, water, tax revenues, and other vital matters pertaining to the Occupied Territories,
      Israel alone issues the identity cards that determine the ability of Palestinians to work and their freedom of movement.


      • About 1.2 million Palestinian Israelis, who make up 20 percent, or one-fifth, of Israel’s population, have second-class citizenship within Israel, ...
      ... which defines itself as a Jewish state rather than a state for all its citizens.

      More than 20 provisions of Israel’s principal laws discriminate, either directly or indirectly, against non-Jews, according to Adalah: The Legal Center for Minority Rights in Israel.

      Millions of Palestinians remain refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and elsewhere, unable to return to their former homes ...
      ... and land in present-day Israel.

      Even though the right of return for refugees is enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.



      bob

      Delete

    7. “So great moreover is the regard of the law for private property, that it will not authorize the least violation of it; no, not even for the general good of the whole community. “

      William Blackstone

      bob

      Delete
    8. Newsflash...

      Palestine, the nation, the people are stillborn once again.

      The palestinians have claimed statehood 3 times in 20 years.

      And yet cannot control 1/2 of their undisputed lands from themselves...

      Enter Hamas, stage left...

      LOL

      Fucking losers.

      Delete
  13. Just noticed The Front Bench -

    Thank you for including me. It is an honor.

    To make an even eleven member foot ball team can we get in there a couple of female wide receivers, Coach?

    I assume Quirk is playing setback.

    Certainly not Quarter back

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H-back



    :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I continue my endeavor to recover my google moniker of Bob.

      Delete
    2. I want the position of offensive right guard. I have been called offensive many times and I try to guard the right as best I can.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_football_positions

      I use Right Guard Deodorant too.....

      Delete
    3. “To those who abuse:
      the sin is yours, the crime is yours, and the shame is yours.

      To those who protect the perpetrators:
      blaming the victims only masks the evil within, making you as guilty as those who abuse.

      Stand up for the innocent or go down with the rest.”

      bob

      Delete
  14. Too little too late

    Google, Microsoft other tech giants team up in anti-snooping ban
    December 9, 2013, 5:27 AM
    SHARE:MORE EmailPrint
    It’s high noon on government snooping, according to Google GOOG , Microsoft MSFT and six other big names in technology.

    The companies reportedly took out full-page ads on Monday in newspapers such as The New York Times in which they laid out demands for a curb to online spying and asked the U.S. government to lead the efforts. According to media reports, the companies said spying revelations that spilled out last summer via leaks of NSA materials by Edward J. Snowden show “the balance in many countries has tipped too far in favor of the state and away from the rights of the individual.

    “The undersigned believe that it is time for the world’s governments to address the practices and laws regulating government surveillance of individuals and access to their information. We strongly believe that current laws and practices need to be reformed.”

    That above statement could be found on the website set up by the big tech companies — Reformgovernmentsurveillance.com. The website itself, though, may have had a few hiccups, as earlier efforts to reach it via Google’s Chrome browser and Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser were problematic.

    Apple AAPL , Yahoo YHOO , Facebook FB , Twitter TWTR , AOL AOL and LinkedIn LNKD are the other members of the band of eight technology companies.

    The New York Times quoted Brad Smith, Microsoft’s general counsel, who had this to say about the efforts:

    “People won’t use technology they don’t trust. Governments have put this trust at risk and governments need to help restore it.”

    At the heart of their demands, the tech companies want the process of “bulk data collection of Internet communications” to stop.

    The Guardian wrote that it’s even more telling who isn’t on that list. Absent were Amazon AMZN and Cisco CSCO eBay EBAY , Visa V and American Express AXP . Or how about the big telecom companies like Verizon VZ and AT&T T ?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. All those companies just want to keep the data for their own use.

      Delete
  15. Some of nation's top hospitals off limits to ObamaCare buyers --

    http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/994951f8-5e71-11e3-8621-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2myyA2OjH

    It must be 8:00am back in Mississippi......where is Rufus to explain.......

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This whole thing is starting to sound suspiciously like the old Soviet Medical Care System where the Party apparats got the whole hog, while the masses they were 'defending' got the hog shit, to put it in ol' Miss terms......

      Delete
    2. William ShakespeareMon Dec 09, 09:29:00 AM EST


      “O, beware, my lord, of jealousy;
      It is the green-ey'd monster, which doth mock
      The meat it feeds on.”

      Delete
  16. I don't read non-clickable links.

    However, if you want to be treated at a specific hospital, find out what insurance plans that hospital takes, and go buy that policy directly from the insurance company.

    ReplyDelete
  17. If Bobby Zero could make a link clickable, his own name would be clickable.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Absent were Amazon AMZN

    Big CIA contract. Follow the money.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Anybody here tweet, or Google +, or Facebook?

    Tweet @Linuxgal, but I clean up after myself, there's only ten tweets, even though I've been tweeting for years. Facebook too, but I don't want anyone from here getting on there, too many "Gooks" as allen puts it, or "Flips" as his BFF puts it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies

    1. “It’s often said that those who are unduly bothered by gays are latent homosexuals.
      Isn’t it possible that people obsessed with racism are themselves racist.”


      Delete
    2. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

      Delete

    3. In an especially perceptive passage, the authors write:

      “Israel’s version of apartheid is more sophisticated than the South African version.
      South African apartheid was rudimentary, petty, primitive — literally black and white, clear separation, no rights.

      Israel’s apartheid is more hidden with the deceptive image of ‘democracy.’
      Palestinian citizens of Israel have the right to vote. However, in every other area they are discriminated against by law and policy.”


      bob

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  20. WAA FUCKING WAA

    "Ellen Nakashima reports at the Washington Post that morale has taken a hit at the National Security Agency in the wake of controversy over the agency's surveillance activities and officials are dismayed that President Obama has not visited the agency to show his support. 'It is not clear whether or when Obama might travel the 23 miles up the Baltimore-Washington Parkway to visit Fort Meade, the NSA's headquarters in Maryland,' writes Nakashima, 'but agency employees are privately voicing frustration at what they perceive as White House ambivalence amid the pounding the agency has taken from critics.'


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  21. Waiter, I'll have a 1787 White Ugarite. That's 1787 BC.

    Scientists have uncovered a 3,700-year-old wine cellar in the ruins of a Canaanite palace in Israel, chemical analysis from the samples from the ceramic jars suggest they held a luxurious beverage that was evidently reserved for banquets. The good stuff contains a blend of ingredients that may have included honey, mint, cedar, tree resins and cinnamon bark. The discovery confirms how sophisticated wines were at that time, something suggested only by ancient texts.


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    1. Now, how was That called for?

      Fucking asshole.

      Delete

    2. The key question is the identification of a regime that practices systematic oppression and domination by one group over another.


      How then does it apply to Israel?
      To answer that, we need to clarify another concept: Israel.

      Although usually seen as residing within its pre-1967 boundaries, the Israeli regime exercises control over Palestinians in the occupied territories of the West Bank and Gaza.
      For the past 46 years, all residents within greater Israel have lived under the same regime, which claims to be the sole legitimate political and military authority.

      The state controls the territory between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, ruling over eight million rights-bearing citizens (75% of whom are Jews) and four million Palestinian subjects denied civil and political rights.

      Millions of Palestinian refugees (who were born in the territory or whose direct ancestors were) cannot set foot in their homeland, let alone determine its political future as citizens.

      bobbo

      Delete
    3. Rufus IIMon Dec 09, 09:49:00 AM EST
      Now, how was That called for?
      Fucking asshol

      ah the fake Marine stirs...

      Fuck you too...

      notice i used the "too" not the "to" my handlers got me an upgrade in my English for dummies software.

      fucking inbred loser you are....

      Delete
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  22. No you stupid bitch that 1787 BCE.

    Traditionally, when putting another person down for their perceived lack of intelligence, one pays close attention to grammar and punctuation before clicking "Publish".

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  23. I love the way you start a pissing contest then get angry that you got wet...

    I don't care what anyone calls me, honestly. And I don't care if someone brags about getting to first base with their neice or brags about being in a Marine company he was never in, But when they fabricate a quote, attributed to me, to the effect that I used the N word, outside of a quotation of Mark Twain or somesuch, then I'm through with that person.

    ReplyDelete
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    2. Hey, T, had a senior moment....I thought I was out of your life forever, doomed to eternal damnation in the recesses of that thing you call a Christian brain. By the way, "cretin" was applied to Christians early on. I will let you and WiO argue over AD or CE.

      You are a card, Kiddo.

      Delete
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    4. You are worse than my three ex-wives. At least they provide benefits to make the season brighter. But like you, they never go away. I will admit the trips to Florida are enjoyable.
      So, go away little girl, before you ask me to stay

      Delete
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    6. teresita said,
      "brags about being in a Marine company he was never in"

      1/9 (USMC) is NOT a rifle company or otherwise. You will discover that facts are your friends, if you have the integrity to pursue them objectively.

      Verdict: factually false, score: F

      The Company was Alpha. That translates into "A" for civilians.

      Delete
  24. “Do you know, Mother, that Haj Salem was buried alive in his home?

    Does he tell you stories in heaven now?

    I wish I had had a chance to meet him. To see his toothless grin and touch his leathery skin.
    To beg him, as you did in your youth, for a story from our Palestine.

    He was over one hundred years old, Mother.

    To have lived so long, only to be crushed to death by a bulldozer.

    Is this what it means to be Palestinian?”


    ― Susan Abulhawa, Mornings in Jenin

    ReplyDelete
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    1. “But in our camp, his story was everyone’s story, a single tale of dispossession,
      of being stripped to the bones of one’s humanity,

      of being dumped like rubbish into refugee camps unfit for rats.

      Of being left without rights, home, or nation
      while the world turned its back to watch or cheer the
      jubilation of the usurpers proclaiming a new state they called Israel.”

      ― Susan Abulhawa, Mornings in Jenin

      Delete

  25. Florida cop arrested for wearing ‘Anonymous’ mask warns ‘there’s a war coming’

    The police officer arrested for refusing to remove his “Anonymous” mask at an anti-Obamacare rally gave an interview to Red Pill Philosophy and WeAreChange in which he said that “there’s a war coming” and “it’s time to fight.”

    Ericson Harrell wore the Guy Fawkes mask, he said, because it’s a “symbol of protest.”

    “I always keep my mask in my truck, my cape in the truck, the flag in truck and everything,” he said. “So I put on the mask and the cape, grabbed the flag, and I stood on the corner.”

    Eventually a female police officer confronted him, at which point he asserted “my right to free speech,” and tried to convince the officer that the anti-masking statute didn’t apply to him, because that statute “was not put into place for peaceful protests, not for figures just standing on the side of the road trying to express their first amendment rights.”

    After her supervisor showed up, he was arrested for refusing to remove his mask or identify himself.

    He stated that the officer and her supervisor thought he was part of a larger anti-Obamacare protest, but “in actual reality, I was alone at the time. I was a soldier of one.”

    http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/12/06/florida-cop-arrested-for-wearing-anonymous-mask-warns-theres-a-war-coming/

    Bye the by, the policeman is not a 'White., but, from the photo supplied ...

    Looks like he is one of them 'Coloreds'


    bob

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    Replies

    1. Seems that boy, he is a little bit 'uppity'

      The fellas need to put him in his place.


      bob

      Delete

  26. Life under apartheid: demeaning, often brutal

    By Michael Pearson and Tom Cohen, CNN
    http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/06/world/africa/mandela-life-under-apartheid/

    Life under apartheid: demeaning, often brutal

    bob

    ReplyDelete
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    1. Life under arabs: demeaning, often deadly.

      Delete
    2. "The so-called “Palestinian autonomous areas” are Bantustans.
      These are restricted entities within the power structure of the Israeli Apartheid system."
      - N. Mandela

      The Palestinians are in their "Ghettos", on their "Reserves"

      Palestinian lackeys rule over the fractured and factionalized Palestinians, $100 million a month the Israeli pay their house boy Arabs in baksheesh.

      Just as the Germans used Ashkenazi guards in the Warsaw Ghetto.

      The first commander of the Warsaw ghetto was Józef Szeryński, a Polish-Jewish police colonel.

      Warsaw Ghetto archivist Emanuel Ringelblum has described the cruelty of the ghetto police as ...
      "at times greater than that of the Germans, the Ukrainians and the Latvians."

      bob

      Delete

  27. An artist is someone who produces things that people don't need to have but that he - for some reason - thinks it would be a good idea to give them.

    Warhol, who died in 1987, coined the notion that everyone gets 15 minutes of fame.
    His celebrity portraits -- Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor, Marlon Brando, Elvis Presley and others --
    sell for an average of $7.8 million apiece.

    In all, his artwork has fetched $1.7 billion at auction, second only to Pablo Picasso, according to testimony.


    http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/08/showbiz/fawcett-oneal-warhol-trial/

    ReplyDelete
  28. Annie Dookhan’s Falsified Lab Data: Symptom of a Corrupted System
    http://townhall.com/columnists/ginaluttrell/2013/12/09/annie-dookhans-falsified-lab-data-symptom-of-a-corrupted-system-n1759588

    She falsified at least 40,000 drug tests, sending innocent human beings to prison - thousands apparently.

    She was sentenced from 4 to 5 years, with probation!

    No word on what the state will do about the poor folk rotting in jail.



    The Palestinians can have a state when they lay down their arms and state, in Arabic, that Israel is a state with the right to exist in peace perpetually. That won't happen because the first Palestinian leader to utter those words will be dead before sundown. Hypocrite

    ReplyDelete
  29. Israel, Jordan, Palestinians to sign Red Sea-Dead Sea deal
    http://news.yahoo.com/israel-jordan-palestinians-sign-red-sea-dead-sea-080752370.html

    This agreement has Israel recognizing the Palestinians as having sovereign standing. Now, onward to borders that can be defended and the right to perpetuity.

    ReplyDelete
  30. Riyadh has called for an enhanced union with fellow Gulf Cooperation Council states Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, which together account for 40 percent of the world's oil reserves and a quarter of its natural gas.

    "All countries have realised that blind dependence on a foreign power is no longer acceptable. GCC countries must decide their own futures," said Madani


    With US ties frayed, Saudi calls for Gulf union
    http://news.yahoo.com/us-ties-frayed-saudi-calls-gulf-union-150349490.html

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    1. NSA spied on 'World of Warcraft,' other online games, leaked documents show

      The National Security Agency (NSA) and UK sister agency GCHQ sought to infiltrate the massive virtual worlds in online video games such as "World of Warcraft" and interactive environments like "Second Life," according to the latest secret documents stolen by Edward Snowden and jointly released by the Guardian, the New York Times and ProPublica.

      According to a document titled “Exploiting Terrorist Use of Games & Virtual Environments,” the secretive spy agencies were concerned by potential terrorist use of such games and felt an immediate need to begin analyzing in-game communications as early as 2007.


      Delete
    2. U.S. arms package worth $10.8B boosts links with Saudis, Emirates ...
      www.upi.com › Business News › Security Industry‎

      Oct 18, 2013 - RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, Oct. 18 (UPI) -- The Pentagon's formal notification to Congress this week of expected arms sales worth $10.8 billion to ...

      Delete

    3. It is unclear, however, how effective that plan will be considering it can be difficult for the six sometimes-combative nations of the GCC — Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Oman — to reach agreements.

      Delete
  31. What we're all looking for is someone who doesn't live there, just pays for it


    The portrait at the center of the dispute is a silkscreen on canvas, and Fawcett is shown in three-quarter profile. Her eyes are painted a bright turquoise, her lips a shiny red. Her hair is tucked behind one ear.

    "This painting makes your eyes pop," appraiser Lee Drexler told jurors on Friday as a copy of the Warhol in question was projected on a screen in the courtroom. "This is magnificent. It's a gorgeous painting." She set its value at $12 million.


    http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/08/showbiz/fawcett-oneal-warhol-trial/

    bob

    ReplyDelete
  32. Hagel outlines new weapons sale plan for Gulf

    MANAMA, Bahrain (AP) — U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel opened the door for the U.S. to sell missile defense and other weapons systems to U.S.-friendly Gulf nations, with an eye toward boosting their abilities to counter Iran's ballistic missiles, even as global powers ink a nuclear deal with Tehran.

    In a speech Saturday to Gulf leaders, Hagel made it clear that the emerging global agreement that would limit Iran's nuclear program doesn't mean the security threat from Iran is over.

    Instead, he laid out steps to beef up defense cooperation in the Gulf region, while at the same time insisting that America's military commitment to the Middle East will continue.

    "I am under no illusions, like all of you, about the daily threats facing this region, or the current anxieties that I know exist here in the Gulf," Hagel told a security conference. "These anxieties have emerged as the United States pursues diplomatic openings on some of the region's most difficult problems and most complex issues, including Iran's nuclear program and the conflict in Syria."

    Hagel spent a chunk of the speech detailing the strength of the U.S. military in the area, including more than 35,000 air, land and sea forces in and immediately around the Gulf. They include about 10,000 Army troops, advanced jet fighters, more than 40 ships, sophisticated surveillance and intelligence systems, and a broad missile defense umbrella made up of ships, Patriot missile batteries and radars.

    The most concrete proposal Hagel outlined is the Pentagon's plan to allow military sales to the Gulf Cooperation Council, so the six-member nations can have more coordinated radars, sensors and early warning missile defense systems. While the U.S. can sell to the individual nations, Hagel is arguing that selling the systems to the GCC will ensure that the countries will be able to communicate and coordinate better.

    It is unclear, however, how effective that plan will be considering it can be difficult for the six sometimes-combative nations of the GCC — Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Oman — to reach agreements.


    http://news.yahoo.com/hagel-outlines-weapons-sale-plan-gulf-032057802--politics.html

    ReplyDelete
  33. Someone is using my name again.

    desert rat or whomever it is why don't you grow up......

    ReplyDelete
    Replies

    1. synonyms: unnamed, of unknown name, nameless, incognito, unidentified, unknown, unsourced, secret

      bob

      Delete

    2. The ability of a person to atone has always been the most remarkable of human features.

      Delete

  34. To know what people really think, pay regard to what they do, rather than what they say.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. $10.8B U.S. arms sale reassures gulf allies at touchy time

      Read more: http://www.upi.com/Business_News/Security-Industry/2013/10/18/108B-US-arms-sale-reassures-gulf-allies-at-touchy-time/UPI-92581382116294/#ixzz2mzx6Ps5m

      bob

      Delete
  35. You can count on two things:

    Israel will do everything possible to maintain the gains made by encroachment. Nothing will change. That has been their MO from day one.

    Israel will do everything possible to wreck any agreement of normalization with Iran.

    Bottom Line: Israel is the single largest long term liability on the US balance sheet.

    ReplyDelete