Living Clay: The Pathway to Elimination of Toxins
by Perry A~ (see all articles by this author)
(NaturalNews) The following bits of research and information were gathered by Perry A~, author of Living Clay: Nature's Own Miracle Cure (www.LivingClayBook.com), in an attempt to explain many of the mysteries about clay and why its workings are so hard to define and understand. The simple response is this: Clay is a living substance and is subject to constant change. Its primary functions are to adsorb, absorb and balance. As it goes about its primary functions, it opens the pathway for healing and the natural restoration of health. The references below apply to the Smectite/Montmorillonite family of clays commonly known as calcium Bentonite clays, that have the ability to both absorb and adsorb, and are often referred to as "Living Clay."
Disease happens when the body gets out of balance. Clay helps bring the body back into its natural state of balance.
Clay is formed from ash spewed from a volcanic eruption which landed in an inland sea or lake bed and evolved over millions of years. Every piece of clay retains a considerable amount of energy from the large and powerful magnetic entity of the Earth. Raymond Dextreit says on the subject, "Among the properties to which we can attribute the effect of clay is radioactivity." Not radioactivity as we know it. He says that clay is radioactive to a degree but this radioactivity is generally imperceptible to the testing apparatus used in laboratories at present. Scientists differ widely as to the significance of the radioactivity in clay. It seems that clay has, among other properties, the ability to either stimulate a deficiency or absorb an excess in the radioactivity of the body on which it is applied. On an organism which has suffered and still retains the radiations of radium or any other intensive radioactive source, the radioactivity is first enhanced and then absorbed. Clay could, in this way, ensure the protection of an organism overexposed to atomic radiations.
Through energetic action clay transmits an extraordinary strength to an organism and helps to rebuild vital potential through liberation of the latent energy. It is a catalyst more than an agent. As a catalyst, clay favors the transformations and operations of synthesis, thus allowing better use of the absorbed elements, i.e. vitamins and minerals we take or get from the food we eat. As a powerful agent of stimulation, transformation and transmission of energy, clay stimulates energy and revitalizes the body.
One can only marvel at what clay can do. "The same teaspoon of clay can cure an obstinate carbuncle and tenacious anemia equally well. Curing the carbuncle is explained by clay's absorbent power... but anemia?!" questioned Raymond Dextreit, author of Our Earth, Our Cure. Well, it seems that clay is particularly rich in certain diastases and enzymes. Some of these diastases, the oxidases, have the power of fixing free oxygen, thus making it a powerful antioxidant.
Clay's amazing abilities to adsorb and absorb make it one of the most powerful methods of cleansing the body by detoxing. Michel Abehsera, author of The Healing Clay, tells us that when used internally, whether taken orally, anally or vaginally, clay goes to the place where the harm is found. There it lodges, perhaps for several days, until finally it draws out the toxins or diseased tissue with its evacuation.
Clay has high alkaline pH. Acidity is the breeding ground for disease. Clay brings pH into balance.
Clay is a natural analgesic. It immediately reduces or eliminates pain when applied topically.
Clay stimulates lymphatic glands, blood flow and circulation. A natural chelator and detoxifier, clay pulls toxins and impurities. French homeopaths documented that a system-wide detoxification effect occurs within seconds of placing Montmorillonite-type clay in the mouth, which demonstrates that the clay acts as a catalyst.
A recent article on NaturalNews.com (www.naturalnews.com/022674.html) tells us that clay baths have become increasingly popular as a safe and effective means of detoxing heavy metals from the body through the pores of the skin.
One of clay's peculiarities is based on its physical-chemical domination. From a thermodynamic point of view, clay cannot be the sole source of the energy of the phenomena it produces. Clay's effect as a dynamic presence is far more significant than the mere consideration of the substances it contains. It is much more than its chemical analysis shows it to be. Jason Eaton (www.eytonsearth.org) said, "In fact, I do not believe it is possible for a clay bath to literally pull out toxins in the body; not to the extent that it does. I believe that the clay reaction enables the body itself to let go of the toxic waste accumulated, and the clay provides the path to elimination."
Louis Kervran, the French scientist, world-famous for his provocative work on Biological Transmutations, writes about a shrimp that lives in clay: "It has been known for a long time that living organisms inhabit clay without any organic supply of food from the outside. The Niphargus shrimp lives in the clay of caves. Experiments have shown that it grows normally in pure clay to which nothing has been added. Research workers therefore thought that the shrimp lived on clay and nothing but clay, an impossibility according to the laws of biochemistry. Actually, it cannot live thus in clay alone, but this clay contains microorganisms which work for the shrimp, making vitamins, various mineral products, nitrogen, phosphorous, and calcium, etc." Therefore clay is a live medium which helps generate and maintain life.
Raymond Dextreit wrote he was certain of the antiseptic and antibiotic powers of clay but it puzzled him. Clay does not act specifically on one or several bacteria varieties; rather it prevents their proliferation by reinforcing the defenses of the organism. Thus again we see how clay brings the body into balance.
In general, clay has remarkable resistance to chemical agents and only the most energetic ones can attack it. As a bacteria-absorbing agent it can render contaminated water innocuous. The nutritionist Linda Clark mentions in her recent book, The Best of Linda Clark, that a European doctor, Meyer-Camberg, recommends clay for neutralizing poisons. According to Dr. Meyer-Camberg, clay takes care of any bad poisoning such as arsenic. It suffices to take 1 teaspoonful of clay mixed in a glass of water every hour for six hours to be out of trouble.
According to information found at Shirley's Wellness Cafe (www.shirleys-wellness-cafe.com), myths about clay and the elements that make up a clay molecule are rampant. One deals with aluminum. Clay is a super stable compound. All of the elements that make up clay are bound together and act as a whole. Aluminosilicates are crystalline compounds, usually made up of silicon, aluminum and oxygen. They are tightly bound together. As long as the aluminum is bound in this form, it poses no health risk. The aluminum in clay is never in an isolated form, and is not adsorbed into the body. This refers to all metals in clay. They are in an oxide form tightly bound together.
Clay is interactive with each person's individual specific chemical makeup. It adapts to your needs. As the Native American Indians said of clay, "It has a wisdom of its own." From helping to prevent the proliferation of pathogenic germs and parasites to aiding with rebuilding of healthy tissues and cells, clay is a 'living' cure.
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
U.S. firm lays claim to 'potentially vast' Arctic oil resources
U.S. firm lays claim to 'potentially vast' Arctic oil resources
U.S. firm lays claim to nearly all of what it says will be 400 billion barrels
Randy Boswell
The Ottawa Citizen
Friday, March 21, 2008
A U.S.-based company that has controversially laid claim to nearly all of the Arctic Ocean's undersea oil said yesterday that new geological data suggest a "potentially vast" petroleum resource of 400 billion barrels.
That figure is backed by a respected Canadian researcher who recently signed on as the firm's chief scientific adviser.
Las Vegas-based Arctic Oil & Gas has raised eyebrows around the world with its roll-of-the-dice bid to lock up exclusive rights to extract oil and gas from rapidly melting areas of the central Arctic Ocean, currently beyond the territorial control of Canada, Russia and other polar nations.
The company, which counts retired B.C. senator Edward Lawson among its directors, has filed a claim with the United Nations to act as the sole "development agent" of Arctic seabed oil and gas.
The firm acknowledges that the Arctic's petroleum deposits are the "common heritage of mankind," but has argued that the polar region requires a private "lead manager" to organize a multinational consortium of oil companies to extract undersea resources responsibly and equitably.
The Canadian government has dismissed the company's "alleged claim" over Arctic oil as having "no force in law," but experts in polar issues have raised alarms about the firm's actions, saying they could disrupt efforts to create an orderly regime for exploiting resources and protecting the Arctic environment under international law rather than a marketplace model.
In its latest statement about the polar seabed's "enormous reserve potential" for petroleum deposits, Arctic Oil & Gas cites recent scientific evidence that huge, floating mats of azolla -- a prehistoric fern believed to have covered much of the Arctic Ocean during a planetary hothouse era about 55 million years ago -- decomposed soon after the age of the dinosaurs and exist today as "vast hydrocarbon resources" trapped in layers of rock below the polar ice cap.
Jonathan Bujak, a former geoscientist with the Geological Survey of Canada who now works as a private consultant in Canada and Britain, is described in the Arctic Oil & Gas statement as confirming the "highly probable validity" of recent research pointing to rock layers "extremely rich" in "hydrocarbon precursors" throughout the Arctic basin.
Mr. Bujak, who previously worked for PetroCanada as a petroleum geologist, co-authored a landmark 2006 study in the journal Nature that first detailed the ancient azolla explosion that shows up today in Arctic seabed core samples.
Neither Mr. Bujak nor Mr. Lawson could be reached for comment yesterday.
Scientists have predicted that global warming could leave the entire Arctic virtually ice-free for months at a time within 20 years. That prospect has hastened a scramble among nations with a polar coast -- namely Canada, Russia, the U.S., Norway and Denmark, which controls Greenland -- to try to strengthen their scientific claims under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea to extended territorial sovereignty over the Arctic Ocean floor.
A report issued last week by the European Union's top two foreign policy officials also highlighted the looming international struggle over Arctic oil deposits.
Authored by Javier Solana, the EU's foreign policy chief, and Benita Ferrero-Waldner, Europe's commissioner for external relations, the study pointed to "potential consequences for international stability and European security interests" as the retreat of Arctic ice makes shipping and oil and gas exploration a reality in the region.
Noting the "rapid melting of the polar ice caps," the report noted that "the increased accessibility of the enormous hydrocarbon resources in the Arctic region is changing the geo-strategic dynamics of the region."
U.S. firm lays claim to nearly all of what it says will be 400 billion barrels
Randy Boswell
The Ottawa Citizen
Friday, March 21, 2008
A U.S.-based company that has controversially laid claim to nearly all of the Arctic Ocean's undersea oil said yesterday that new geological data suggest a "potentially vast" petroleum resource of 400 billion barrels.
That figure is backed by a respected Canadian researcher who recently signed on as the firm's chief scientific adviser.
Las Vegas-based Arctic Oil & Gas has raised eyebrows around the world with its roll-of-the-dice bid to lock up exclusive rights to extract oil and gas from rapidly melting areas of the central Arctic Ocean, currently beyond the territorial control of Canada, Russia and other polar nations.
The company, which counts retired B.C. senator Edward Lawson among its directors, has filed a claim with the United Nations to act as the sole "development agent" of Arctic seabed oil and gas.
The firm acknowledges that the Arctic's petroleum deposits are the "common heritage of mankind," but has argued that the polar region requires a private "lead manager" to organize a multinational consortium of oil companies to extract undersea resources responsibly and equitably.
The Canadian government has dismissed the company's "alleged claim" over Arctic oil as having "no force in law," but experts in polar issues have raised alarms about the firm's actions, saying they could disrupt efforts to create an orderly regime for exploiting resources and protecting the Arctic environment under international law rather than a marketplace model.
In its latest statement about the polar seabed's "enormous reserve potential" for petroleum deposits, Arctic Oil & Gas cites recent scientific evidence that huge, floating mats of azolla -- a prehistoric fern believed to have covered much of the Arctic Ocean during a planetary hothouse era about 55 million years ago -- decomposed soon after the age of the dinosaurs and exist today as "vast hydrocarbon resources" trapped in layers of rock below the polar ice cap.
Jonathan Bujak, a former geoscientist with the Geological Survey of Canada who now works as a private consultant in Canada and Britain, is described in the Arctic Oil & Gas statement as confirming the "highly probable validity" of recent research pointing to rock layers "extremely rich" in "hydrocarbon precursors" throughout the Arctic basin.
Mr. Bujak, who previously worked for PetroCanada as a petroleum geologist, co-authored a landmark 2006 study in the journal Nature that first detailed the ancient azolla explosion that shows up today in Arctic seabed core samples.
Neither Mr. Bujak nor Mr. Lawson could be reached for comment yesterday.
Scientists have predicted that global warming could leave the entire Arctic virtually ice-free for months at a time within 20 years. That prospect has hastened a scramble among nations with a polar coast -- namely Canada, Russia, the U.S., Norway and Denmark, which controls Greenland -- to try to strengthen their scientific claims under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea to extended territorial sovereignty over the Arctic Ocean floor.
A report issued last week by the European Union's top two foreign policy officials also highlighted the looming international struggle over Arctic oil deposits.
Authored by Javier Solana, the EU's foreign policy chief, and Benita Ferrero-Waldner, Europe's commissioner for external relations, the study pointed to "potential consequences for international stability and European security interests" as the retreat of Arctic ice makes shipping and oil and gas exploration a reality in the region.
Noting the "rapid melting of the polar ice caps," the report noted that "the increased accessibility of the enormous hydrocarbon resources in the Arctic region is changing the geo-strategic dynamics of the region."
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Bear Stearns
With the interest rate cuts Tuesday the FED has now done 5 actions in ONE week!! UNPRECEDENTED in my memory (which unfortunately is longer than I wish it was)
Tues 3/11: Helicopter drop of $200 Billion Dollars into the banking system Fri 3/14: Helicopter drop of unknown amount of $$ into Bears Stearns via Chase Bank Sun 3/16: Helicopter drop of additional $30 Billion Dollars into Bears Stearns via Chase Bank Sun 3/16: 1/4 point rate cut Tues 3/18: 3/4 point rate cut
Now if this isn't a "Central Bank Panic" I do not think one exists. Obviously serious "Systemic Problems" in the US Financial System are driving the FED to do these multiple interventions so close together, and with all this liquidity and Government BAILOUTS being injected into the system everything financial in normal times would now be screaming towards the moon (FED rocket fuel money - direct liquidity injections, 3 in the last week alone all of which were of HUGE size, - usually finds it's way into the easiest investments to make first, bonds and stocks, and only later into the real economy). Enough said on that.
Next point: Bear Stearns paid out BILLIONS of dollars in Bonuses in January. If they had filed for bankruptcy then those Bonuses would have to been paid back to Bear Stearns under Bankruptcy Law.
VOILA ... since they did not file bankruptcy, but were instead "sold" for a mere $250 million (1/4 the value of their NYC office building) , the TAXPAYER, via the FED, ends up footing the MULTI BILLIONS DOLLARS in costs and expenses that would otherwise have been paid out of those returned Bonuses!!
In other words ... and I am somewhat LIVID on this one: The Taxpayers GAVE those high paid INDIVIDUAL Wall Street Bankers at Bear Stearns a departing PERSONAL GIFT OF SEVERAL BILLION DOLLARS by allowing this deal to be structured as it was!!
When was it the US Government wrote YOU a check for the MILLIONS of Dollars that some of those people (who caused their own problem in the first place) just got? (oh and this does NOT even include the "going away" money that JP Morgan will be paying many of those same people out of the $30 Billion Dollar Government payment they are receiving. There are various estimates I have read on how much more TAXPAYER money will be going to those people, ranging from $1 Billion Dollars to $3 Billion Dollars!!)
Wall Street Bankster Types FIRMLY believe in the COMMUNIST system, as first perverted in the ex USSR: From the "Lesser types" ALL that you can afford to pay, To the "Anointed types" ALL that you can get your arms around and carry away as you leave the premises.
Where do I sign up to get paid Millions if I succeed ... and Millions if I fail?
... now if I was a Wall Street Bankster what SMALL percentage of that am I expected to give to each of the two major political parties for this "FED insurance"? I will write that check right now...
This is CRONY CAPITALISM written in HUGE block bolded letters!!
If you didn't see or hear about Jimmy Rogers rant on this you owe it to yourself!!
My old Republican Party has definitely descended into a worse morass of special interest groups than the Democrats ... only this one is not based upon any "idealism" driving the special interests, just RAW BRIBERY via MONEY.
Looks Like Bear Stearns Execs Will Lose Some Bonus Money.
"Not only that, but these people are losing their life’s savings (employees own 30% of the company) and likely their jobs.
I am irate over the deal because the Federal Reserve didn’t step up to the plate and loan them the money to fight off the run on the bank they experienced, and then forced them to give away their business at a fire sale price to fat cat JPM. It looks like they wanted to make an example of Bear, or perhaps it was revenge for Bear not participating the Long Term Capital Management bailout a while back."
Tues 3/11: Helicopter drop of $200 Billion Dollars into the banking system Fri 3/14: Helicopter drop of unknown amount of $$ into Bears Stearns via Chase Bank Sun 3/16: Helicopter drop of additional $30 Billion Dollars into Bears Stearns via Chase Bank Sun 3/16: 1/4 point rate cut Tues 3/18: 3/4 point rate cut
Now if this isn't a "Central Bank Panic" I do not think one exists. Obviously serious "Systemic Problems" in the US Financial System are driving the FED to do these multiple interventions so close together, and with all this liquidity and Government BAILOUTS being injected into the system everything financial in normal times would now be screaming towards the moon (FED rocket fuel money - direct liquidity injections, 3 in the last week alone all of which were of HUGE size, - usually finds it's way into the easiest investments to make first, bonds and stocks, and only later into the real economy). Enough said on that.
Next point: Bear Stearns paid out BILLIONS of dollars in Bonuses in January. If they had filed for bankruptcy then those Bonuses would have to been paid back to Bear Stearns under Bankruptcy Law.
VOILA ... since they did not file bankruptcy, but were instead "sold" for a mere $250 million (1/4 the value of their NYC office building) , the TAXPAYER, via the FED, ends up footing the MULTI BILLIONS DOLLARS in costs and expenses that would otherwise have been paid out of those returned Bonuses!!
In other words ... and I am somewhat LIVID on this one: The Taxpayers GAVE those high paid INDIVIDUAL Wall Street Bankers at Bear Stearns a departing PERSONAL GIFT OF SEVERAL BILLION DOLLARS by allowing this deal to be structured as it was!!
When was it the US Government wrote YOU a check for the MILLIONS of Dollars that some of those people (who caused their own problem in the first place) just got? (oh and this does NOT even include the "going away" money that JP Morgan will be paying many of those same people out of the $30 Billion Dollar Government payment they are receiving. There are various estimates I have read on how much more TAXPAYER money will be going to those people, ranging from $1 Billion Dollars to $3 Billion Dollars!!)
Wall Street Bankster Types FIRMLY believe in the COMMUNIST system, as first perverted in the ex USSR: From the "Lesser types" ALL that you can afford to pay, To the "Anointed types" ALL that you can get your arms around and carry away as you leave the premises.
Where do I sign up to get paid Millions if I succeed ... and Millions if I fail?
... now if I was a Wall Street Bankster what SMALL percentage of that am I expected to give to each of the two major political parties for this "FED insurance"? I will write that check right now...
This is CRONY CAPITALISM written in HUGE block bolded letters!!
If you didn't see or hear about Jimmy Rogers rant on this you owe it to yourself!!
My old Republican Party has definitely descended into a worse morass of special interest groups than the Democrats ... only this one is not based upon any "idealism" driving the special interests, just RAW BRIBERY via MONEY.
Looks Like Bear Stearns Execs Will Lose Some Bonus Money.
"Not only that, but these people are losing their life’s savings (employees own 30% of the company) and likely their jobs.
I am irate over the deal because the Federal Reserve didn’t step up to the plate and loan them the money to fight off the run on the bank they experienced, and then forced them to give away their business at a fire sale price to fat cat JPM. It looks like they wanted to make an example of Bear, or perhaps it was revenge for Bear not participating the Long Term Capital Management bailout a while back."
Friday, March 14, 2008
Toronto:Safer Than You Think
TheStar.com - GTA - Toronto: Safer than you think
DAVID COOPER/TORONTO STAR FILE PHOTO
How the cities were ranked
To assemble the rankings of the most dangerous and safest cities, Maclean's magazine used 2006 crime data from the Canadian Centre of Justice Statistics. The magazine then calculated the percentage difference from the national rate for six crimes – homicide, sexual assault, aggravated assault, vehicle theft, robbery plus breaking and entering – to determine the overall scores. Read the complete rankings here.
City's crime rate is ranked 26th in Canada, lower than most other urban centres, survey finds
March 14, 2008
Noor Javed
Staff Reporter
Watch your shadow. Lock your doors. Program 9-1-1 into your speed dial because this is, after all, a dangerous city.
Or so we thought.
On a list of the country's 100 most dangerous cities, Toronto doesn't even make it into the top 20, according to this week's cover story in Maclean's magazine.
Toronto was ranked 26th on the list, lower than most other urban centres including Montreal, Vancouver, Calgary and Regina, which was the most dangerous city.
"These results show what we've been saying for a long time," said Mark Pugash, a Toronto police spokesperson. "Toronto is, was and remains one of the safest cities in the country."
And many of the GTA's suburbs are even more crime-proof, with Halton, Peel and York regions in the top 20 safest places to live. The town of Caledon, north of Brampton, was named safest community.
The rankings were tabulated using 2006 Statistics Canada crime data – including homicides, sexual assaults, vehicle thefts, robberies and break-ins – for municipal police services in the most populous 100 cities or regions.
The numbers may say one thing, but fly in the face of a deteriorating public perception of Toronto, seen as a hub of urban violence where guns and gangs run rampant.
"Most people in Toronto think crime is going up and we are much more dangerous than we were 10 to 15 years ago," said Scot Wortley, a criminology professor at the University of Toronto. "Our homicide rate in Toronto was higher in the '70s than it is now."
Wortley blames the "fear-filled" perception of our neighbourhoods squarely on the media, which tend to focus on crime. "The fact is there is a big difference between perception and reality – and a lot of what people know about crime, they know from the media," he said.
An increased coverage of crime in mainstream media and the national interest in Toronto's sensational crimes play a part in tarnishing the city's image.
"If there is a crime like the Jane Creba shooting in Toronto, it is going to be national news ... People in Toronto very rarely hear about or care about murders that take place in Regina."
According to the list, Regina, Saskatoon and Winnipeg were the three most dangerous cities.
"In 2006, the GTA, including Mississauga and Peel, had a population of about 5,418,000 and there were 99 homicide victims," said Wortley. "In Regina, there were nine homicides but a population of only 200,000. If you looked at just the numbers, you would say Regina must be a much safer place."
But that doesn't take population size into account, he said. The homicide rate in Regina is 4.5 per 100,000 people. In Toronto, it's 1.8 homicides for 100,000 people.
The other influence is the rhetoric of law enforcement officials or politicians who focus on crime to garner public sympathy to boost budgets or foster their image as tough-on-crime crusaders, said Wortley.
But it is an increased presence of police on city streets that has helped keep crime rates down, said Pugash. "We have more officers on the streets patrolling than we have had in many, many years. One thing is clear – the public likes more police officers, and feel safer as a result."
DAVID COOPER/TORONTO STAR FILE PHOTO
How the cities were ranked
To assemble the rankings of the most dangerous and safest cities, Maclean's magazine used 2006 crime data from the Canadian Centre of Justice Statistics. The magazine then calculated the percentage difference from the national rate for six crimes – homicide, sexual assault, aggravated assault, vehicle theft, robbery plus breaking and entering – to determine the overall scores. Read the complete rankings here.
City's crime rate is ranked 26th in Canada, lower than most other urban centres, survey finds
March 14, 2008
Noor Javed
Staff Reporter
Watch your shadow. Lock your doors. Program 9-1-1 into your speed dial because this is, after all, a dangerous city.
Or so we thought.
On a list of the country's 100 most dangerous cities, Toronto doesn't even make it into the top 20, according to this week's cover story in Maclean's magazine.
Toronto was ranked 26th on the list, lower than most other urban centres including Montreal, Vancouver, Calgary and Regina, which was the most dangerous city.
"These results show what we've been saying for a long time," said Mark Pugash, a Toronto police spokesperson. "Toronto is, was and remains one of the safest cities in the country."
And many of the GTA's suburbs are even more crime-proof, with Halton, Peel and York regions in the top 20 safest places to live. The town of Caledon, north of Brampton, was named safest community.
The rankings were tabulated using 2006 Statistics Canada crime data – including homicides, sexual assaults, vehicle thefts, robberies and break-ins – for municipal police services in the most populous 100 cities or regions.
The numbers may say one thing, but fly in the face of a deteriorating public perception of Toronto, seen as a hub of urban violence where guns and gangs run rampant.
"Most people in Toronto think crime is going up and we are much more dangerous than we were 10 to 15 years ago," said Scot Wortley, a criminology professor at the University of Toronto. "Our homicide rate in Toronto was higher in the '70s than it is now."
Wortley blames the "fear-filled" perception of our neighbourhoods squarely on the media, which tend to focus on crime. "The fact is there is a big difference between perception and reality – and a lot of what people know about crime, they know from the media," he said.
An increased coverage of crime in mainstream media and the national interest in Toronto's sensational crimes play a part in tarnishing the city's image.
"If there is a crime like the Jane Creba shooting in Toronto, it is going to be national news ... People in Toronto very rarely hear about or care about murders that take place in Regina."
According to the list, Regina, Saskatoon and Winnipeg were the three most dangerous cities.
"In 2006, the GTA, including Mississauga and Peel, had a population of about 5,418,000 and there were 99 homicide victims," said Wortley. "In Regina, there were nine homicides but a population of only 200,000. If you looked at just the numbers, you would say Regina must be a much safer place."
But that doesn't take population size into account, he said. The homicide rate in Regina is 4.5 per 100,000 people. In Toronto, it's 1.8 homicides for 100,000 people.
The other influence is the rhetoric of law enforcement officials or politicians who focus on crime to garner public sympathy to boost budgets or foster their image as tough-on-crime crusaders, said Wortley.
But it is an increased presence of police on city streets that has helped keep crime rates down, said Pugash. "We have more officers on the streets patrolling than we have had in many, many years. One thing is clear – the public likes more police officers, and feel safer as a result."
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Fuzzy Logic:Miller Time in the Center of the Universe.
NOTICE OF MOTION
M16.1
Request Federal Government to Completely Ban Handguns in Canada
Moved by: Councillor Walker
Seconded by: Councillor Cho
SUMMARY:
In the last two years, Torontonians have experienced two outrageous, tragic acts of handgun violence on Yonge Street in the heart of Toronto’s downtown. In late 2005, Ms. Jane Creba, 15, was shot while shopping on Boxing Day, near the Eaton Centre and, last weekend, Mr. John O’Keefe, 42, was shot while walking past a bar just south of Bloor Street. These random victims were innocent bystanders, minding their own business, perhaps chatting to a friend when they were cut down by a stray bullet from a handgun, having their life ended before they knew it, without understanding why. Mr. O’Keefe was shot with a registered, legal handgun by the owner of the handgun.
These two incidents are only the most outrageous examples of the many murders that occur in our City.
Violent crime is increasing and the general populous feels less safe on the streets of Toronto than they did in the past. To date, governments have been reticent to follow through on an outright ban of handguns. Making all handguns illegal would reduce their prevalence in our society by providing a clear cut, zero-tolerance law that would both deter criminals before they pick up a handgun and deal with those criminals who act using a handgun. Simply, if there are less handguns available because of prohibition, then less of them will be used. The handguns that are used in crimes or found on persons can be easily ruled as illegal and the source of these
illegal guns can be focused upon. There just is not a good enough reason to continue to legally allow handguns in our City, our Province and our Country.
Making all handguns illegal would help make our communities safer. Knowing what we know, we cannot stand on guard to the best of our ability against tragedies on our streets, such as the murders of Ms. Creba and Mr. O’Keefe, without prohibiting handguns across Canada.
RECOMMENDATIONS:
1. That City Council request the Parliament of Canada to prohibit all handguns in Canada, including the sale or purchase and/or possession of any handgun by any Canadian citizen or any person within Canada (excluding police officers
and military personnel).
2. That City Council request the Parliament of Canada to institute mandatory sentencing (5 years minimum) of any person found guilty of possession of any handgun(s) or involvement in the sale or purchase of any handgun.
3. That City Council direct the Mayor to deliver this Resolution to the Prime Minister of Canada and to all the leaders of the Federal Opposition.
4. That City Council request the Premier of Ontario to support this Resolution and, working with the Mayor of Toronto, convey that support to the Prime Minister of Canada and to all the leaders of the Federal Opposition.
January 29, 2008
http://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2008/cc/bgrd/m16.1.pdf
M16.1
Request Federal Government to Completely Ban Handguns in Canada
Moved by: Councillor Walker
Seconded by: Councillor Cho
SUMMARY:
In the last two years, Torontonians have experienced two outrageous, tragic acts of handgun violence on Yonge Street in the heart of Toronto’s downtown. In late 2005, Ms. Jane Creba, 15, was shot while shopping on Boxing Day, near the Eaton Centre and, last weekend, Mr. John O’Keefe, 42, was shot while walking past a bar just south of Bloor Street. These random victims were innocent bystanders, minding their own business, perhaps chatting to a friend when they were cut down by a stray bullet from a handgun, having their life ended before they knew it, without understanding why. Mr. O’Keefe was shot with a registered, legal handgun by the owner of the handgun.
These two incidents are only the most outrageous examples of the many murders that occur in our City.
Violent crime is increasing and the general populous feels less safe on the streets of Toronto than they did in the past. To date, governments have been reticent to follow through on an outright ban of handguns. Making all handguns illegal would reduce their prevalence in our society by providing a clear cut, zero-tolerance law that would both deter criminals before they pick up a handgun and deal with those criminals who act using a handgun. Simply, if there are less handguns available because of prohibition, then less of them will be used. The handguns that are used in crimes or found on persons can be easily ruled as illegal and the source of these
illegal guns can be focused upon. There just is not a good enough reason to continue to legally allow handguns in our City, our Province and our Country.
Making all handguns illegal would help make our communities safer. Knowing what we know, we cannot stand on guard to the best of our ability against tragedies on our streets, such as the murders of Ms. Creba and Mr. O’Keefe, without prohibiting handguns across Canada.
RECOMMENDATIONS:
1. That City Council request the Parliament of Canada to prohibit all handguns in Canada, including the sale or purchase and/or possession of any handgun by any Canadian citizen or any person within Canada (excluding police officers
and military personnel).
2. That City Council request the Parliament of Canada to institute mandatory sentencing (5 years minimum) of any person found guilty of possession of any handgun(s) or involvement in the sale or purchase of any handgun.
3. That City Council direct the Mayor to deliver this Resolution to the Prime Minister of Canada and to all the leaders of the Federal Opposition.
4. That City Council request the Premier of Ontario to support this Resolution and, working with the Mayor of Toronto, convey that support to the Prime Minister of Canada and to all the leaders of the Federal Opposition.
January 29, 2008
http://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2008/cc/bgrd/m16.1.pdf
Nanotech Exposed in Grocery Store Aisles
Nanotech Exposed in Grocery Store Aisles
March 11, 2008
Report finds Miller Light, Cadbury and other brands have toxic risks
WASHINGTON, D.C.—Untested nanotechnology is being used in more than 100 food products, food packaging and contact materials currently on the shelf, without warning or new FDA testing, according to a report released today by Friends of the Earth.
The report, Out of the Laboratory and onto Our Plates: Nanotechnology in Food and Agriculture, found nanomaterials in popular products and packaging including Miller Light beer, Cadbury Chocolate packaging and ToddlerHealth, a nutritional drink powder for infants sold extensively at health food stores including WholeFoods.
"Nanotech food was put on our plates without FDA testing for consumer safety," said Ian Illuminato, Friends of the Earth Health and Environment Campaigner. "Consumers have a right to know if they are taste-testing a dangerous new technology."
Existing regulations require no new testing or labeling for nanomaterials when they are created from existing approved chemicals, despite major differences in potential toxicity. The report reveals toxicity risks of nanomaterials such as organ damage and decreased immune system response.
"Nanotechnology can be very dangerous when used in food," said report co-author Dr Rye Senjen. "Early scientific evidence indicates that some nanomaterials produce free radicals which destroy or mutate DNA and can cause damage to the liver and kidneys."
Report co-author Georgia Miller, Friends of the Earth Australia Nanotechnology Project Coordinator, said many of the world's largest food companies, including Heinz, Nestle, Unilever and Kraft are currently using and testing nanotechnology for food processing and packaging. Without increased federal oversight, these companies could begin sale of these products whenever they choose.
"There is no legal requirement for manufacturers to label their products that contain nanomaterials, or to conduct new safety tests," said Miller. "This gives manufacturers the ability to force-feed untested technology to consumers without their consent."
Nanotechnology, the manipulation of matter at the scale of atoms and molecules, is now used to manufacture nutritional supplements, flavor and colors additives, food packaging, cling wrap and containers, and chemicals used in agriculture.
"Friends of the Earth calls on the FDA to stop the sale of all nano food, packaging, and agricultural chemicals until strong scientific regulations are enacted to ensure consumer safety and until ingredients are labeled," said Illuminato.
The report, released internationally today in the U.S., Europe and Australia details more than a hundred nano food, food packaging and food contact products now on sale internationally. The Australian government has already welcomed the report and announced that it will begin exploring regulation of nano food and nano agriculture as a result of the report. The full report can be found at www.foe.org.
March 11, 2008
Report finds Miller Light, Cadbury and other brands have toxic risks
WASHINGTON, D.C.—Untested nanotechnology is being used in more than 100 food products, food packaging and contact materials currently on the shelf, without warning or new FDA testing, according to a report released today by Friends of the Earth.
The report, Out of the Laboratory and onto Our Plates: Nanotechnology in Food and Agriculture, found nanomaterials in popular products and packaging including Miller Light beer, Cadbury Chocolate packaging and ToddlerHealth, a nutritional drink powder for infants sold extensively at health food stores including WholeFoods.
"Nanotech food was put on our plates without FDA testing for consumer safety," said Ian Illuminato, Friends of the Earth Health and Environment Campaigner. "Consumers have a right to know if they are taste-testing a dangerous new technology."
Existing regulations require no new testing or labeling for nanomaterials when they are created from existing approved chemicals, despite major differences in potential toxicity. The report reveals toxicity risks of nanomaterials such as organ damage and decreased immune system response.
"Nanotechnology can be very dangerous when used in food," said report co-author Dr Rye Senjen. "Early scientific evidence indicates that some nanomaterials produce free radicals which destroy or mutate DNA and can cause damage to the liver and kidneys."
Report co-author Georgia Miller, Friends of the Earth Australia Nanotechnology Project Coordinator, said many of the world's largest food companies, including Heinz, Nestle, Unilever and Kraft are currently using and testing nanotechnology for food processing and packaging. Without increased federal oversight, these companies could begin sale of these products whenever they choose.
"There is no legal requirement for manufacturers to label their products that contain nanomaterials, or to conduct new safety tests," said Miller. "This gives manufacturers the ability to force-feed untested technology to consumers without their consent."
Nanotechnology, the manipulation of matter at the scale of atoms and molecules, is now used to manufacture nutritional supplements, flavor and colors additives, food packaging, cling wrap and containers, and chemicals used in agriculture.
"Friends of the Earth calls on the FDA to stop the sale of all nano food, packaging, and agricultural chemicals until strong scientific regulations are enacted to ensure consumer safety and until ingredients are labeled," said Illuminato.
The report, released internationally today in the U.S., Europe and Australia details more than a hundred nano food, food packaging and food contact products now on sale internationally. The Australian government has already welcomed the report and announced that it will begin exploring regulation of nano food and nano agriculture as a result of the report. The full report can be found at www.foe.org.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Henry Ford's Soybean Car
A Car for the Great Multitude
DID YOU KNOW THAT IN 1941 HENRY FORD DEVELOPED a car that was made out of soybeans? And did you know that this car ran on ethanol? He did.
“I will build a car for the great multitude,” proclaimed Henry Ford in October 1908, as he announced the release of his first mass-produced automobile called the Model T. Indeed, Ford’s introduction of the Model T revolutionized both personal transportation and much else in American industry. Ford was a prolific inventor who received 161 U.S. patents in his own name. And as owner of the Ford Motor Company he became one of the wealthiest and best-known people in the world.
Henry Ford used mass production to turn out large numbers of inexpensive automobiles. In order for his workers to be able to afford to buy the product that they built, Ford was among the first large employers to pay the then-astonishing wage of $5.00 per day to line production workers (today’s equivalent is $225 per day, adjusted for inflation). Ford was committed to lowering costs, which led to many of his business innovations. Initially, Ford’s Michigan factories turned out parts and shipped automobiles in kit-form to regional assembly sites in large cities.
There, workers put the kits together into complete automobiles. Later, as the costs of nationwide transportation declined, Ford put together automobiles on giant assembly lines and shipped the completed cars. To sell the cars, Ford created a franchise system. This system established a dealership in virtually every city and town of any size in North America, and in many major cities on six continents. And if the customer could not afford the entire price of a car, Ford even created a finance arm to loan the necessary funds.
Ford believed in controlling both costs and access to resources. Over time his company acquired resources ranging from iron ore mines to rubber plantations. To assure supplies of automobile-grade metal, the Ford Company even established its own steel mill at River Rouge, Michigan. Thus Ford was one of the pioneers in building an integrated industrial business. Ford and his company made money at every stage, from digging ore out of the ground, to fabricating parts and assembling a product, to shipping a finished automobile to the final customer.
Cars, Food and Ideas Ahead of Their Time
Indeed, some of Henry Ford’s ideas were way ahead of their time. In fact a few ideas were so far out that they went nowhere, but not for lack of merit. For example, Ford was always looking for ways to save money on the costs of materials but without sacrificing quality, design integrity or safety. From his childhood background on a farm, and because many of his customers were farmers, Ford was deeply interested in agriculture. Ford often commented that crops could grow quickly, “as compared with lumber or especially iron ore.” So Ford funded a laboratory to assist farmers to find a way to use crops in industrial applications. Ford hired a highly regarded chemist named Robert Boyer to run the lab, where dozens of workers researched industrial uses for farm crops such as cantaloupes, carrots and beets.
Among other crops, Henry Ford was a great promoter of soybeans. In one marketing effort that Ford intended to impress his farmer-customers, every vehicle that Ford sold came with a bushel of soybeans on the front seat. And during the Great Depression, Ford entertained visitors at luncheons in which every course contained locally grown soybeans. The Ford menu included tomato juice with soybean sauce, soybean cookies and soybean candy for dessert.
But Ford used soybeans to do more than just amuse visitors at lunch. Ford was looking for projects that combined industry with the output of agriculture. Among other things, Ford had an abiding interest in developing soybean-based plastics. Throughout the 1930s Ford pioneered the use of soybeans in plastics that he used in his automobiles. The soybean components included plastic parts (even body panels), seat covers and paint. Ford’s soybean-automobile project culminated in August 1941, when he patented an automobile made almost entirely of soybean plastic, attached to a tubular welded frame.
Ford’s soybean-car weighed 30% less than a car made of steel. Even better, the plastic panels did not rust. And an array of experiments concluded that they were ten times as durable as steel. Ford claimed that plastic panels made the car safer than traditional steel cars because the car could roll over without being crushed. Ford hoped that the new soybean plastic would replace metal, which was in short supply in the years just before World War II as the U.S. government was building up the country’s navy. Furthermore, Ford’s soybean-car ran on grain alcohol — yes, ethanol — instead of gasoline.
Ford’s engineers were building a second soybean-based car when the U.S. entered World War II in December 1941. Because of the war, the federal government suspended all U.S. automobile production for the duration of the conflict. Thus Ford’s soybean-based car experiment languished. Almost all of the Ford Company’s resources were directed towards war-related production. Indeed, in one gigantic undertaking Ford converted the massive facility at Willow Run, Michigan to building B-24 bombers. At one point during the war, the Willow Run plant rolled a brand-new B-24 — made of over 140,000 separate parts — off the assembly line every hour. This was a far cry from building automobiles — made of soybeans or otherwise. By the end of the war in September 1945 the idea of a soybean car had simply fallen through the cracks.
Henry Ford died in 1947, aged 84. And we can only speculate about what might have happened if Henry Ford and his company had continued to pursue the idea of a car made out of soybeans, and powered by ethanol. But even six decades later — with or without the soybean car — much of the automobile business of the world reflects the image of Henry Ford. We certainly owe an immense debt to the man.
Until we meet again…
Byron W. King
DID YOU KNOW THAT IN 1941 HENRY FORD DEVELOPED a car that was made out of soybeans? And did you know that this car ran on ethanol? He did.
“I will build a car for the great multitude,” proclaimed Henry Ford in October 1908, as he announced the release of his first mass-produced automobile called the Model T. Indeed, Ford’s introduction of the Model T revolutionized both personal transportation and much else in American industry. Ford was a prolific inventor who received 161 U.S. patents in his own name. And as owner of the Ford Motor Company he became one of the wealthiest and best-known people in the world.
Henry Ford used mass production to turn out large numbers of inexpensive automobiles. In order for his workers to be able to afford to buy the product that they built, Ford was among the first large employers to pay the then-astonishing wage of $5.00 per day to line production workers (today’s equivalent is $225 per day, adjusted for inflation). Ford was committed to lowering costs, which led to many of his business innovations. Initially, Ford’s Michigan factories turned out parts and shipped automobiles in kit-form to regional assembly sites in large cities.
There, workers put the kits together into complete automobiles. Later, as the costs of nationwide transportation declined, Ford put together automobiles on giant assembly lines and shipped the completed cars. To sell the cars, Ford created a franchise system. This system established a dealership in virtually every city and town of any size in North America, and in many major cities on six continents. And if the customer could not afford the entire price of a car, Ford even created a finance arm to loan the necessary funds.
Ford believed in controlling both costs and access to resources. Over time his company acquired resources ranging from iron ore mines to rubber plantations. To assure supplies of automobile-grade metal, the Ford Company even established its own steel mill at River Rouge, Michigan. Thus Ford was one of the pioneers in building an integrated industrial business. Ford and his company made money at every stage, from digging ore out of the ground, to fabricating parts and assembling a product, to shipping a finished automobile to the final customer.
Cars, Food and Ideas Ahead of Their Time
Indeed, some of Henry Ford’s ideas were way ahead of their time. In fact a few ideas were so far out that they went nowhere, but not for lack of merit. For example, Ford was always looking for ways to save money on the costs of materials but without sacrificing quality, design integrity or safety. From his childhood background on a farm, and because many of his customers were farmers, Ford was deeply interested in agriculture. Ford often commented that crops could grow quickly, “as compared with lumber or especially iron ore.” So Ford funded a laboratory to assist farmers to find a way to use crops in industrial applications. Ford hired a highly regarded chemist named Robert Boyer to run the lab, where dozens of workers researched industrial uses for farm crops such as cantaloupes, carrots and beets.
Among other crops, Henry Ford was a great promoter of soybeans. In one marketing effort that Ford intended to impress his farmer-customers, every vehicle that Ford sold came with a bushel of soybeans on the front seat. And during the Great Depression, Ford entertained visitors at luncheons in which every course contained locally grown soybeans. The Ford menu included tomato juice with soybean sauce, soybean cookies and soybean candy for dessert.
But Ford used soybeans to do more than just amuse visitors at lunch. Ford was looking for projects that combined industry with the output of agriculture. Among other things, Ford had an abiding interest in developing soybean-based plastics. Throughout the 1930s Ford pioneered the use of soybeans in plastics that he used in his automobiles. The soybean components included plastic parts (even body panels), seat covers and paint. Ford’s soybean-automobile project culminated in August 1941, when he patented an automobile made almost entirely of soybean plastic, attached to a tubular welded frame.
Ford’s soybean-car weighed 30% less than a car made of steel. Even better, the plastic panels did not rust. And an array of experiments concluded that they were ten times as durable as steel. Ford claimed that plastic panels made the car safer than traditional steel cars because the car could roll over without being crushed. Ford hoped that the new soybean plastic would replace metal, which was in short supply in the years just before World War II as the U.S. government was building up the country’s navy. Furthermore, Ford’s soybean-car ran on grain alcohol — yes, ethanol — instead of gasoline.
Ford’s engineers were building a second soybean-based car when the U.S. entered World War II in December 1941. Because of the war, the federal government suspended all U.S. automobile production for the duration of the conflict. Thus Ford’s soybean-based car experiment languished. Almost all of the Ford Company’s resources were directed towards war-related production. Indeed, in one gigantic undertaking Ford converted the massive facility at Willow Run, Michigan to building B-24 bombers. At one point during the war, the Willow Run plant rolled a brand-new B-24 — made of over 140,000 separate parts — off the assembly line every hour. This was a far cry from building automobiles — made of soybeans or otherwise. By the end of the war in September 1945 the idea of a soybean car had simply fallen through the cracks.
Henry Ford died in 1947, aged 84. And we can only speculate about what might have happened if Henry Ford and his company had continued to pursue the idea of a car made out of soybeans, and powered by ethanol. But even six decades later — with or without the soybean car — much of the automobile business of the world reflects the image of Henry Ford. We certainly owe an immense debt to the man.
Until we meet again…
Byron W. King
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Support Our Troops
This is how troops treat Iraqis who are accused of stealing wood.
Iraq Citizen Weeps After U.S. Soldier Shoots Dog
And this is what British mercenaries do for fun when
they're not torturing defenseless animals - taking potshots and killing
Iraqi civilians for fun while driving down the highway.
Iraq Citizen Weeps After U.S. Soldier Shoots Dog
U.S. Soldiers Torture A Disabled Dog
U.S. Soldiers Shoot Stray Dog
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
C2C Gerald Celente
Live Chat with Gerald Celente
Transcript from February 26, 2008
Lex
Hi everyone-- and thanks for joining us for our live chat with our special guest, Gerald Celente. Welcome Gerald and all of our participants.
Lex
As the founder of the Trends Research Institute, Gerald Celente is well respected for his track record of picking business, consumer, political, and economic trends before they come to pass. It is his job to see the future and understand how the issues and events of today will determine the trends of tomorrow.
Singularity6
Gerald, I am interested in trends that can help me make wise investment choices generally or specifically. Is your newsletter appropriate for this purpose? If not, can you recommend sources?
Gerald Celente
We don't give specific investment advice but do show what trends are developing to prepare you for the future. We provide trendposts to profit.
maverick
Greetings from Cincinnati. Gerald, your thoughts on our current inflationary mess?
Gerald Celente
Look at prices of oil and the basket of commodities ... record levels. It's a simple formula...the more the $ is devalued, the more everything costs. This is just the beginning. We... and most of the world will experience an inflationary cycle as never before.
Rocky
Mr. Celente, which event or trend in 2008 will have a significant impact or change on America - for better or worse over the next few years?
Gerald Celente
The Panic of '08. We forecast that the economic future will be worse than the Great Depression...failing banks, brokerages, cities default...
indigo
I'd like to ask what types of businesses or jobs will withstand the economic times ahead and also how much higher do you see gold going?
Gerald Celente
We've been spot on with our gold forecasts beginning in 2001 when we called the bottom...as for the top...we're forecasting Gold $2000.
kayoglass
Can you give us insight as to whether or not we will remain a free market or will we be facing martial law?
Gerald Celente
Anything is possible... If there is a terrorist attack or massive riots from an economic downturn ... as there were during the Depression, there could well be martial law. Also, we could see, as they did with the 1933 Emergency Banking Act, citizens forced to return their gold to the gov't.
Guest
Gerald, since you look into political trends, what's your impression of where the 2008 US election is headed?
Gerald Celente
We don't have a great track record when it comes to elections because they are personality driven, etc. There is still an outside chance for a wild card candidate ... third party ...not Nader. Also, whomever of the dems or reps is elected...we forecast that the people will lose.
Guest
What trends are we looking at worldwide for organized religion?
Gerald Celente
A decline in organized religion and a rise in the "spirituality" movement ... look for gurus coming out of the woodwork as desperate people look for salvation...
Stark Raving
Gerald, thank you for this opportunity to chat. How do things look to you now vs. at the beginning of the year when your dire forecasts gained attention?
Gerald Celente
Current events form future trends. Look at the data between yesterday and today. The $ is at record lows against the euro. Oil $101, consumer confidence at five year lows, wholesale inflation up 7.4 percent. Home prices fell in Jan to the lowest level since records began nine years ago...it will all get much worse.
Mufaso
What countries are doing better than the U.S. overall?
Gerald Celente
Check out the OECD data and pick a field. Quality of life, Denmark, Ireland, Norway. The US doesn't win, place, or show on health, longevity, education ... we used to be #1 on all OECD fields relative to socioeconomic issues.
David
Government growth on all 3 levels seems to be growing at an unabated pace; how can this top heavy extortion of national wealth and liberty continue? Do you see major domestic unrest ahead?
Gerald Celente
You're correct...gov't jobs are among the fastest growing field. There will be a retrenchment. Yes, we'll see tax protests, riots and unrest. Also, violent crime will be on the rise as well.
Green Tara
Mr. Celente, my question for you is, how do you see the Green or Eco movement going in America? It's starting to become more and more discussed, do you think it will ever become mainstream?
Gerald Celente
We call it the smart movement ... not green. This is going to one of the largest growth oppt'ys for decades..."Conservation Engineers" ... Yankee frugality.
B3
Love your work Gerald. American economists say that without bad employment numbers, the US isn't in a recession. I contend that India and China are our employment pools (since out-sourcing everything you can imagine away from US soil). Both India and China are experiencing layoffs due to our declining business activity. Therefore (de facto by linear logic and real deductive reasoning that should prevail), the US IS experiencing layoffs. I have worked for power companies since the 1970's. In the last 3 years, my raises haven’t covered my power bill increases (alone). That has to tell you something. We’re in a recession and, to use a popular phrase that I believe I’ve heard you use before, "we’re all freakin’ doomed!" Comment?
Gerald Celente
Thanks, we are in recession! Median household income is below 1999 levels. We call it a "Plantation Economy." Wages and benefits are lagging way behind inflation. And inflation will get much worse.
aaaa
What would be the best career choice for college students?
Gerald Celente
Anything having to do with health care ... still oppty's in tech ... "green" is going to be really big...
Guest
What can one person do to try and keep their neck above water in these kinds of times?
Gerald Celente
Don't buy a damn thing you don't need. look for new opportunities by looking beyond the mainstream think. Local goods produced..."clean foods", micro farming ... herbal remedies ... etc
Jayhawk
Gerald, the banking system seems to very fragile due to the sub-prime mess. Do you expect the government to intervene as in England?
Gerald Celente
Yes ... get ready for some big crashes ... the more they bail them out, the more it costs us. There is a defacto devaluation of the $. The more they print, the cheaper it becomes. And they will print hundreds of billions to bail out banks.
Eddie
Mr. Celente, honored to speak with you here. How fast will things decline to crisis conditions...hyperinflation...elements of market chaos? Do you think interruption of transport...supply...food crises...etc. are possible? How soon?
Gerald Celente
Thank you...it's happening now...look at commodity prices. I just paid $500 for 3/4 tank of heating oil!!!
plasticpaddy
Gerald, do you have a forecast for silver?
Gerald Celente
We don't do silver...gold is our specialty...but silver appears to be very strong and should stay high as gold goes up.
Newfie
What's the next commodity to move now that gold is so high?
Gerald Celente
It appears to be grains... but gold has a long way to go. Accounting for inflation, it's $875 per ounce price in 1980 = over $2000 today. and today is much worse than 1980...I was trading gold back then as well and the conditions are much, much worse now for many reasons that I don't have the time to illustrate now...i.e. back then there was no China, India or Russia in the markets competing for the metal on the exchanges.
David
Like Cassius Clay I'll throw my gold into the river before I give it to the government.
Gerald Celente
Or get it out of the country
TN TRAV
Gerald, what kind of tech trends are on the way....what is going to be the next iPod?
Gerald Celente
Oh ... easy...when everything you see on the PC can be as easily seen on the TV ... about 4 years away ... maybe 3. As long as there is net neutrality.
Guest
Please don't forget that if Martial Law is declared, not only our gold will be taken, so will our guns, food, medicine, supplies… pretty much anything that could help us survive on our own without the help of the government.
Gerald Celente
You could be right...but there are also counter movements, such as secessionist movements in Vermont etc... As the man said, "Now is the time for all good men (and women) to come to the aid of their country." When people understand they have power, they won't bend to political forces.
Guest
Gerald, how do you see the weakening economy in the US impacting Canada's economy?
Gerald Celente
We see it affecting the globe. Put yourself in 1930...that's about where we are. The stage will also be set for WWIII ...
Lydia in Nashville
Gerald, do you see a trend toward people having more home gardens? I live in an urban area, but I have built raised garden beds for summer vegetables. I just wonder if you see more people going in this direction.
Gerald Celente
We call it "Edible Landscaping" and have been writing about it since the mid '90's. Look at the massive recalls...I do my best to avoid corporate food...and use to grow most of our own.
Guest
Following up. What kind of defensive position should we take personally and financially? Gold is a no brainer...but what about food storage...retiring to rural areas...gaining self-sufficiency to the degree we can. Are these things we need to attend to now...this year ? I'm trying to get your deeply researched 'sense' of how fast things can get chaotic.
Gerald Celente
Plan now for the worst. I like small towns that have a self sufficient environment. That's why I live where I do (Upstate NY). Local farms and producers of just about everything I need. Also, think about an escape plan i.e. terrorism. When 9/11 happened I was prepared...since I'd been writing about it happening for years ("2001 won't be our year, trend seer says," USA Today 14 Dec. 2000.) It costs nothing to be prepared. We don't provide financial advice, but we forecast that the Swiss franc will continue to strengthen against the $.
kayoglass
Will this hurt rich people at all, or just kill the middle class?
Gerald Celente
The very rich won't feel it...
Meyac
Gerald I read that house prices were on the rise, is this true?
Gerald Celente
Home prices in 20 US cities fell in December by the most on record. Sales of existing home in the US fell in January to the lowest level since records began and prices slid for the sixth time in seven months.
stargate
Gerald how about our transportation system for all those truck drivers ???
Gerald Celente
There will be a retrenchment...the corporate structure is built upon shipping large quantities far distances...with $4 a gallon gas, more movement toward local.
Guest
I am in my mid twenties, will I have social security when I retire?
Gerald Celente
Probably...but the question is, what will it be worth...probably not much.
Stark Raving
Do you have any thoughts on whether the internet bullion banks, BullionVault and GoldMoney, are safe? Are they the nucleus of a new trend?
Gerald Celente
They are the nucleus of a new trend ... can't vouch for their safety.
Jayhawk
Would you recommend that people move out of the big cities and into a rural environment?
Gerald Celente
I'm originally a Bronx guy and have lived in cities for many years ... Now I live in a small town and have made investments in Kingston, NY ... the first capital of NY...to me, it's the ideal model of what use to be great ... walking distance to much of what you need...neighborhoods etc...There will be a big move to small towns...especially as crime increases.
Guest
Do you see an end to America's meddling in the Middle East?
Gerald Celente
Yes, when there is an alternative energy...and we believe there will be...beyond nuclear., wind, solar, bio. check out Infinite-Energy.com.
Guest
Are the same factors affecting Europe, Australia, the Far East?
Gerald Celente
Very much so...When the world econ. slows down, watch out for China...a billion and half people and a million problems...riots abound.
Oxcart
Gerald, do you see this as a opportunity for OPEC to drop the dollar as the primary currency?
Gerald Celente
We believe there is an unwinding of the $ now as both a petro and reserve currency and the players are trying to do it in an orderly way so as not to get stuck with cheap bucks. Also, the cheaper the dollar goes and the more of them that they have, they'll be buying up more of the USA ... i.e. Citigroup, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Bear Sterns, etc.
minalien
With the problems that China has had with producing unhealthy products and with high unemployment rate, do you believe that the United States will end outsourcing and return industrialism to the United States to help stimulate the economy?
Gerald Celente
Not as long as the Republicans and Dems are in power...they've outsourced jobs and as you saw in the ans. to the last questions, they're buying up our banks. They call them "Sovereign Wealth Funds." We call the foreign countries. And whomever owns the banks owns the country ... It's the golden rule...the one that has the gold rules.
Curious
Do you foresee "them" declaring a "bankers' holiday" and officially devaluing the currency?
Gerald Celente
That's the way we've been forecasting it. A lovely word, "holiday." Orwell would be proud of them.
butterbat
I am constantly amazed at the continued growth of new discretionary (and expensive) products that continue to be popular. While I suppose it helps the economy, it seems diametrically opposed to the green movement, by unnecessarily using resources.
Gerald Celente
We estimate about 30-35 percent of US will still have discretionary purchasing power ... and let's face it...people buy junk until they are forced out of it when their income dries up.
Vegasric
Gerald.. my questions is about the declined of society and the arts. In a book called The Decline of the West, by Oswald Spengler, he talks about how when art mocks society, that society is at a point where there is no repairing it. Do you think we are at this point in the Arts and Media-- that our society is on a decline and there is no hope of repairing it? Or do you feel it is just a temporary lack of social morals in terms of the arts and society?
Gerald Celente
I believe we are at the end of a Dark Age and the beginning of a Renaissance. Art is the way of finding the true meaning of the human spirit...just look back and you can see it. I'm a believer of a second Renaissance and do my best to support and encourage it...it, to me is one of our only salvations. We must raise the quality bar and stop stooping to the media and pol's lowest common denominators...We have, more than any other nation, the freedom to think and create.
Guest
"Clean Foods!" Do you think the American public will reject the use of GMO's? Not many know about them and those who do don't like what's going on.
Gerald Celente
We est. about 30% plus will put their money where their minds are and the rest will eat corporate food and keep eating junk. America is a first, second and third world nation in one.
Rocky
My economics book states that during inflationary times, gov't should raise taxes. Why are they doing just the opposite and giving us rebates?
Gerald Celente
These rebates are a con. The US should do what it tells other nations facing similar problems. Raise interest rates to protect the currency and cut gov't spending.
Curious
I haven't heard anything about a seccessionary movement. Please talk more about it.
Gerald Celente
Check out the Second Vermont Republic...We've been writing about it in our Trends Journal...click on our site and look for the top trends of 2007.
peanut
Will we need another FDR to help us out of the coming crisis?
Gerald Celente
FDR kept the country from revolution. If my memory serves me correctly (college days) the GDP in 1939 was a bad as it was during the worst days of the Depression...the only thing that got the US and world out of the Depression was WWII...that I know as a fact.
Paul
Hi Gerald, do you subscribe to the theory about the super elites planning to create the North American Union via the downfall of America and the dollar?
Gerald Celente
No, I believe they're scrambling as well...no one has ever seen anything like what's going on today in the global econ.
starlight22
Gerald in the 80's on 60 minutes a man invented a car that ran on water. He said the government would not allow the car to be produced and put on the market. Do you feel the government or people in high places, are stopping good ideas of new sources of energy which we could have had long ago?
Gerald Celente
Maybe people in oil as well...
Lex
We are out of time. Thanks Gerald-- fascinating stuff. And thanks to all of you for joining us tonight.
Transcript from February 26, 2008
Lex
Hi everyone-- and thanks for joining us for our live chat with our special guest, Gerald Celente. Welcome Gerald and all of our participants.
Lex
As the founder of the Trends Research Institute, Gerald Celente is well respected for his track record of picking business, consumer, political, and economic trends before they come to pass. It is his job to see the future and understand how the issues and events of today will determine the trends of tomorrow.
Singularity6
Gerald, I am interested in trends that can help me make wise investment choices generally or specifically. Is your newsletter appropriate for this purpose? If not, can you recommend sources?
Gerald Celente
We don't give specific investment advice but do show what trends are developing to prepare you for the future. We provide trendposts to profit.
maverick
Greetings from Cincinnati. Gerald, your thoughts on our current inflationary mess?
Gerald Celente
Look at prices of oil and the basket of commodities ... record levels. It's a simple formula...the more the $ is devalued, the more everything costs. This is just the beginning. We... and most of the world will experience an inflationary cycle as never before.
Rocky
Mr. Celente, which event or trend in 2008 will have a significant impact or change on America - for better or worse over the next few years?
Gerald Celente
The Panic of '08. We forecast that the economic future will be worse than the Great Depression...failing banks, brokerages, cities default...
indigo
I'd like to ask what types of businesses or jobs will withstand the economic times ahead and also how much higher do you see gold going?
Gerald Celente
We've been spot on with our gold forecasts beginning in 2001 when we called the bottom...as for the top...we're forecasting Gold $2000.
kayoglass
Can you give us insight as to whether or not we will remain a free market or will we be facing martial law?
Gerald Celente
Anything is possible... If there is a terrorist attack or massive riots from an economic downturn ... as there were during the Depression, there could well be martial law. Also, we could see, as they did with the 1933 Emergency Banking Act, citizens forced to return their gold to the gov't.
Guest
Gerald, since you look into political trends, what's your impression of where the 2008 US election is headed?
Gerald Celente
We don't have a great track record when it comes to elections because they are personality driven, etc. There is still an outside chance for a wild card candidate ... third party ...not Nader. Also, whomever of the dems or reps is elected...we forecast that the people will lose.
Guest
What trends are we looking at worldwide for organized religion?
Gerald Celente
A decline in organized religion and a rise in the "spirituality" movement ... look for gurus coming out of the woodwork as desperate people look for salvation...
Stark Raving
Gerald, thank you for this opportunity to chat. How do things look to you now vs. at the beginning of the year when your dire forecasts gained attention?
Gerald Celente
Current events form future trends. Look at the data between yesterday and today. The $ is at record lows against the euro. Oil $101, consumer confidence at five year lows, wholesale inflation up 7.4 percent. Home prices fell in Jan to the lowest level since records began nine years ago...it will all get much worse.
Mufaso
What countries are doing better than the U.S. overall?
Gerald Celente
Check out the OECD data and pick a field. Quality of life, Denmark, Ireland, Norway. The US doesn't win, place, or show on health, longevity, education ... we used to be #1 on all OECD fields relative to socioeconomic issues.
David
Government growth on all 3 levels seems to be growing at an unabated pace; how can this top heavy extortion of national wealth and liberty continue? Do you see major domestic unrest ahead?
Gerald Celente
You're correct...gov't jobs are among the fastest growing field. There will be a retrenchment. Yes, we'll see tax protests, riots and unrest. Also, violent crime will be on the rise as well.
Green Tara
Mr. Celente, my question for you is, how do you see the Green or Eco movement going in America? It's starting to become more and more discussed, do you think it will ever become mainstream?
Gerald Celente
We call it the smart movement ... not green. This is going to one of the largest growth oppt'ys for decades..."Conservation Engineers" ... Yankee frugality.
B3
Love your work Gerald. American economists say that without bad employment numbers, the US isn't in a recession. I contend that India and China are our employment pools (since out-sourcing everything you can imagine away from US soil). Both India and China are experiencing layoffs due to our declining business activity. Therefore (de facto by linear logic and real deductive reasoning that should prevail), the US IS experiencing layoffs. I have worked for power companies since the 1970's. In the last 3 years, my raises haven’t covered my power bill increases (alone). That has to tell you something. We’re in a recession and, to use a popular phrase that I believe I’ve heard you use before, "we’re all freakin’ doomed!" Comment?
Gerald Celente
Thanks, we are in recession! Median household income is below 1999 levels. We call it a "Plantation Economy." Wages and benefits are lagging way behind inflation. And inflation will get much worse.
aaaa
What would be the best career choice for college students?
Gerald Celente
Anything having to do with health care ... still oppty's in tech ... "green" is going to be really big...
Guest
What can one person do to try and keep their neck above water in these kinds of times?
Gerald Celente
Don't buy a damn thing you don't need. look for new opportunities by looking beyond the mainstream think. Local goods produced..."clean foods", micro farming ... herbal remedies ... etc
Jayhawk
Gerald, the banking system seems to very fragile due to the sub-prime mess. Do you expect the government to intervene as in England?
Gerald Celente
Yes ... get ready for some big crashes ... the more they bail them out, the more it costs us. There is a defacto devaluation of the $. The more they print, the cheaper it becomes. And they will print hundreds of billions to bail out banks.
Eddie
Mr. Celente, honored to speak with you here. How fast will things decline to crisis conditions...hyperinflation...elements of market chaos? Do you think interruption of transport...supply...food crises...etc. are possible? How soon?
Gerald Celente
Thank you...it's happening now...look at commodity prices. I just paid $500 for 3/4 tank of heating oil!!!
plasticpaddy
Gerald, do you have a forecast for silver?
Gerald Celente
We don't do silver...gold is our specialty...but silver appears to be very strong and should stay high as gold goes up.
Newfie
What's the next commodity to move now that gold is so high?
Gerald Celente
It appears to be grains... but gold has a long way to go. Accounting for inflation, it's $875 per ounce price in 1980 = over $2000 today. and today is much worse than 1980...I was trading gold back then as well and the conditions are much, much worse now for many reasons that I don't have the time to illustrate now...i.e. back then there was no China, India or Russia in the markets competing for the metal on the exchanges.
David
Like Cassius Clay I'll throw my gold into the river before I give it to the government.
Gerald Celente
Or get it out of the country
TN TRAV
Gerald, what kind of tech trends are on the way....what is going to be the next iPod?
Gerald Celente
Oh ... easy...when everything you see on the PC can be as easily seen on the TV ... about 4 years away ... maybe 3. As long as there is net neutrality.
Guest
Please don't forget that if Martial Law is declared, not only our gold will be taken, so will our guns, food, medicine, supplies… pretty much anything that could help us survive on our own without the help of the government.
Gerald Celente
You could be right...but there are also counter movements, such as secessionist movements in Vermont etc... As the man said, "Now is the time for all good men (and women) to come to the aid of their country." When people understand they have power, they won't bend to political forces.
Guest
Gerald, how do you see the weakening economy in the US impacting Canada's economy?
Gerald Celente
We see it affecting the globe. Put yourself in 1930...that's about where we are. The stage will also be set for WWIII ...
Lydia in Nashville
Gerald, do you see a trend toward people having more home gardens? I live in an urban area, but I have built raised garden beds for summer vegetables. I just wonder if you see more people going in this direction.
Gerald Celente
We call it "Edible Landscaping" and have been writing about it since the mid '90's. Look at the massive recalls...I do my best to avoid corporate food...and use to grow most of our own.
Guest
Following up. What kind of defensive position should we take personally and financially? Gold is a no brainer...but what about food storage...retiring to rural areas...gaining self-sufficiency to the degree we can. Are these things we need to attend to now...this year ? I'm trying to get your deeply researched 'sense' of how fast things can get chaotic.
Gerald Celente
Plan now for the worst. I like small towns that have a self sufficient environment. That's why I live where I do (Upstate NY). Local farms and producers of just about everything I need. Also, think about an escape plan i.e. terrorism. When 9/11 happened I was prepared...since I'd been writing about it happening for years ("2001 won't be our year, trend seer says," USA Today 14 Dec. 2000.) It costs nothing to be prepared. We don't provide financial advice, but we forecast that the Swiss franc will continue to strengthen against the $.
kayoglass
Will this hurt rich people at all, or just kill the middle class?
Gerald Celente
The very rich won't feel it...
Meyac
Gerald I read that house prices were on the rise, is this true?
Gerald Celente
Home prices in 20 US cities fell in December by the most on record. Sales of existing home in the US fell in January to the lowest level since records began and prices slid for the sixth time in seven months.
stargate
Gerald how about our transportation system for all those truck drivers ???
Gerald Celente
There will be a retrenchment...the corporate structure is built upon shipping large quantities far distances...with $4 a gallon gas, more movement toward local.
Guest
I am in my mid twenties, will I have social security when I retire?
Gerald Celente
Probably...but the question is, what will it be worth...probably not much.
Stark Raving
Do you have any thoughts on whether the internet bullion banks, BullionVault and GoldMoney, are safe? Are they the nucleus of a new trend?
Gerald Celente
They are the nucleus of a new trend ... can't vouch for their safety.
Jayhawk
Would you recommend that people move out of the big cities and into a rural environment?
Gerald Celente
I'm originally a Bronx guy and have lived in cities for many years ... Now I live in a small town and have made investments in Kingston, NY ... the first capital of NY...to me, it's the ideal model of what use to be great ... walking distance to much of what you need...neighborhoods etc...There will be a big move to small towns...especially as crime increases.
Guest
Do you see an end to America's meddling in the Middle East?
Gerald Celente
Yes, when there is an alternative energy...and we believe there will be...beyond nuclear., wind, solar, bio. check out Infinite-Energy.com.
Guest
Are the same factors affecting Europe, Australia, the Far East?
Gerald Celente
Very much so...When the world econ. slows down, watch out for China...a billion and half people and a million problems...riots abound.
Oxcart
Gerald, do you see this as a opportunity for OPEC to drop the dollar as the primary currency?
Gerald Celente
We believe there is an unwinding of the $ now as both a petro and reserve currency and the players are trying to do it in an orderly way so as not to get stuck with cheap bucks. Also, the cheaper the dollar goes and the more of them that they have, they'll be buying up more of the USA ... i.e. Citigroup, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Bear Sterns, etc.
minalien
With the problems that China has had with producing unhealthy products and with high unemployment rate, do you believe that the United States will end outsourcing and return industrialism to the United States to help stimulate the economy?
Gerald Celente
Not as long as the Republicans and Dems are in power...they've outsourced jobs and as you saw in the ans. to the last questions, they're buying up our banks. They call them "Sovereign Wealth Funds." We call the foreign countries. And whomever owns the banks owns the country ... It's the golden rule...the one that has the gold rules.
Curious
Do you foresee "them" declaring a "bankers' holiday" and officially devaluing the currency?
Gerald Celente
That's the way we've been forecasting it. A lovely word, "holiday." Orwell would be proud of them.
butterbat
I am constantly amazed at the continued growth of new discretionary (and expensive) products that continue to be popular. While I suppose it helps the economy, it seems diametrically opposed to the green movement, by unnecessarily using resources.
Gerald Celente
We estimate about 30-35 percent of US will still have discretionary purchasing power ... and let's face it...people buy junk until they are forced out of it when their income dries up.
Vegasric
Gerald.. my questions is about the declined of society and the arts. In a book called The Decline of the West, by Oswald Spengler, he talks about how when art mocks society, that society is at a point where there is no repairing it. Do you think we are at this point in the Arts and Media-- that our society is on a decline and there is no hope of repairing it? Or do you feel it is just a temporary lack of social morals in terms of the arts and society?
Gerald Celente
I believe we are at the end of a Dark Age and the beginning of a Renaissance. Art is the way of finding the true meaning of the human spirit...just look back and you can see it. I'm a believer of a second Renaissance and do my best to support and encourage it...it, to me is one of our only salvations. We must raise the quality bar and stop stooping to the media and pol's lowest common denominators...We have, more than any other nation, the freedom to think and create.
Guest
"Clean Foods!" Do you think the American public will reject the use of GMO's? Not many know about them and those who do don't like what's going on.
Gerald Celente
We est. about 30% plus will put their money where their minds are and the rest will eat corporate food and keep eating junk. America is a first, second and third world nation in one.
Rocky
My economics book states that during inflationary times, gov't should raise taxes. Why are they doing just the opposite and giving us rebates?
Gerald Celente
These rebates are a con. The US should do what it tells other nations facing similar problems. Raise interest rates to protect the currency and cut gov't spending.
Curious
I haven't heard anything about a seccessionary movement. Please talk more about it.
Gerald Celente
Check out the Second Vermont Republic...We've been writing about it in our Trends Journal...click on our site and look for the top trends of 2007.
peanut
Will we need another FDR to help us out of the coming crisis?
Gerald Celente
FDR kept the country from revolution. If my memory serves me correctly (college days) the GDP in 1939 was a bad as it was during the worst days of the Depression...the only thing that got the US and world out of the Depression was WWII...that I know as a fact.
Paul
Hi Gerald, do you subscribe to the theory about the super elites planning to create the North American Union via the downfall of America and the dollar?
Gerald Celente
No, I believe they're scrambling as well...no one has ever seen anything like what's going on today in the global econ.
starlight22
Gerald in the 80's on 60 minutes a man invented a car that ran on water. He said the government would not allow the car to be produced and put on the market. Do you feel the government or people in high places, are stopping good ideas of new sources of energy which we could have had long ago?
Gerald Celente
Maybe people in oil as well...
Lex
We are out of time. Thanks Gerald-- fascinating stuff. And thanks to all of you for joining us tonight.
Sunday, March 2, 2008
Stalin's Jews
Sever Plocker
Stalin's Jews
We mustn't forget that some of greatest murderers of modern times were Jewish
Published: 12.21.06, 23:35 / Israel Opinion
Here's a particularly forlorn historical date: Almost 90 years ago, between the 19th and 20th of December 1917, in the midst of the Bolshevik revolution and civil war, Lenin signed a decree calling for the establishment of The All-Russian Extraordinary Commission for Combating Counter-Revolution and Sabotage, also known as Cheka.
Within a short period of time, Cheka became the largest and cruelest state security organization. Its organizational structure was changed every few years, as were its names: From Cheka to GPU, later to NKVD, and later to KGB.
We cannot know with certainty the number of deaths Cheka was responsible for in its various manifestations, but the number is surely at least 20 million, including victims of the forced collectivization, the hunger, large purges, expulsions, banishments, executions, and mass death at Gulags.
Whole population strata were eliminated: Independent farmers, ethnic minorities, members of the bourgeoisie, senior officers, intellectuals, artists, labor movement activists, "opposition members" who were defined completely randomly, and countless members of the Communist party itself.
In his new, highly praised book "The War of the World, "Historian Niall Ferguson writes that no revolution in the history of mankind devoured its children with the same unrestrained appetite as did the Soviet revolution. In his book on the Stalinist purges, Tel Aviv University's Dr. Igal Halfin writes that Stalinist violence was unique in that it was directed internally.
Lenin, Stalin, and their successors could not have carried out their deeds without wide-scale cooperation of disciplined "terror officials," cruel interrogators, snitches, executioners, guards, judges, perverts, and many bleeding hearts who were members of the progressive Western Left and were deceived by the Soviet regime of horror and even provided it with a kosher certificate.
All these things are well-known to some extent or another, even though the former Soviet Union's archives have not yet been fully opened
Advertisement
to the public. But who knows about this? Within Russia itself, very few people have been brought to justice for their crimes in the NKVD's and KGB's service. The Russian public discourse today completely ignores the question of "How could it have happened to us?" As opposed to Eastern European nations, the Russians did not settle the score with their Stalinist past.
And us, the Jews? An Israeli student finishes high school without ever hearing the name "Genrikh Yagoda," the greatest Jewish murderer of the 20th Century, the GPU's deputy commander and the founder and commander of the NKVD. Yagoda diligently implemented Stalin's collectivization orders and is responsible for the deaths of at least 10 million people. His Jewish deputies established and managed the Gulag system. After Stalin no longer viewed him favorably, Yagoda was demoted and executed, and was replaced as chief hangman in 1936 by Yezhov, the "bloodthirsty dwarf."
Yezhov was not Jewish but was blessed with an active Jewish wife. In his Book "Stalin: Court of the Red Star", Jewish historian Sebag Montefiore writes that during the darkest period of terror, when the Communist killing machine worked in full force, Stalin was surrounded by beautiful, young Jewish women.
Stalin's close associates and loyalists included member of the Central Committee and Politburo Lazar Kaganovich. Montefiore characterizes him as the "first Stalinist" and adds that those starving to death in Ukraine, an unparalleled tragedy in the history of human kind aside from the Nazi horrors and Mao's terror in China, did not move Kaganovich.
Many Jews sold their soul to the devil of the Communist revolution and have blood on their hands for eternity. We'll mention just one more: Leonid Reichman, head of the NKVD's special department and the organization's chief interrogator, who was a particularly cruel sadist.
In 1934, according to published statistics, 38.5 percent of those holding the most senior posts in the Soviet security apparatuses were of Jewish origin. They too, of course, were gradually eliminated in the next purges. In a fascinating lecture at a Tel Aviv University convention this week, Dr. Halfin described the waves of soviet terror as a "carnival of mass murder," "fantasy of purges", and "essianism of evil." Turns out that Jews too, when they become captivated by messianic ideology, can become great murderers, among the greatest known by modern history.
The Jews active in official communist terror apparatuses (In the Soviet Union and abroad) and who at times led them, did not do this, obviously, as Jews, but rather, as Stalinists, communists, and "Soviet people." Therefore, we find it easy to ignore their origin and "play dumb": What do we have to do with them? But let's not forget them. My own view is different. I find it unacceptable that a person will be considered a member of the Jewish people when he does great things, but not considered part of our people when he does amazingly despicable things.
Even if we deny it, we cannot escape the Jewishness of "our hangmen," who served the Red Terror with loyalty and dedication from its establishment. After all, others will always remind us of their origin.
Stalin's Jews
We mustn't forget that some of greatest murderers of modern times were Jewish
Published: 12.21.06, 23:35 / Israel Opinion
Here's a particularly forlorn historical date: Almost 90 years ago, between the 19th and 20th of December 1917, in the midst of the Bolshevik revolution and civil war, Lenin signed a decree calling for the establishment of The All-Russian Extraordinary Commission for Combating Counter-Revolution and Sabotage, also known as Cheka.
Within a short period of time, Cheka became the largest and cruelest state security organization. Its organizational structure was changed every few years, as were its names: From Cheka to GPU, later to NKVD, and later to KGB.
We cannot know with certainty the number of deaths Cheka was responsible for in its various manifestations, but the number is surely at least 20 million, including victims of the forced collectivization, the hunger, large purges, expulsions, banishments, executions, and mass death at Gulags.
Whole population strata were eliminated: Independent farmers, ethnic minorities, members of the bourgeoisie, senior officers, intellectuals, artists, labor movement activists, "opposition members" who were defined completely randomly, and countless members of the Communist party itself.
In his new, highly praised book "The War of the World, "Historian Niall Ferguson writes that no revolution in the history of mankind devoured its children with the same unrestrained appetite as did the Soviet revolution. In his book on the Stalinist purges, Tel Aviv University's Dr. Igal Halfin writes that Stalinist violence was unique in that it was directed internally.
Lenin, Stalin, and their successors could not have carried out their deeds without wide-scale cooperation of disciplined "terror officials," cruel interrogators, snitches, executioners, guards, judges, perverts, and many bleeding hearts who were members of the progressive Western Left and were deceived by the Soviet regime of horror and even provided it with a kosher certificate.
All these things are well-known to some extent or another, even though the former Soviet Union's archives have not yet been fully opened
Advertisement
to the public. But who knows about this? Within Russia itself, very few people have been brought to justice for their crimes in the NKVD's and KGB's service. The Russian public discourse today completely ignores the question of "How could it have happened to us?" As opposed to Eastern European nations, the Russians did not settle the score with their Stalinist past.
And us, the Jews? An Israeli student finishes high school without ever hearing the name "Genrikh Yagoda," the greatest Jewish murderer of the 20th Century, the GPU's deputy commander and the founder and commander of the NKVD. Yagoda diligently implemented Stalin's collectivization orders and is responsible for the deaths of at least 10 million people. His Jewish deputies established and managed the Gulag system. After Stalin no longer viewed him favorably, Yagoda was demoted and executed, and was replaced as chief hangman in 1936 by Yezhov, the "bloodthirsty dwarf."
Yezhov was not Jewish but was blessed with an active Jewish wife. In his Book "Stalin: Court of the Red Star", Jewish historian Sebag Montefiore writes that during the darkest period of terror, when the Communist killing machine worked in full force, Stalin was surrounded by beautiful, young Jewish women.
Stalin's close associates and loyalists included member of the Central Committee and Politburo Lazar Kaganovich. Montefiore characterizes him as the "first Stalinist" and adds that those starving to death in Ukraine, an unparalleled tragedy in the history of human kind aside from the Nazi horrors and Mao's terror in China, did not move Kaganovich.
Many Jews sold their soul to the devil of the Communist revolution and have blood on their hands for eternity. We'll mention just one more: Leonid Reichman, head of the NKVD's special department and the organization's chief interrogator, who was a particularly cruel sadist.
In 1934, according to published statistics, 38.5 percent of those holding the most senior posts in the Soviet security apparatuses were of Jewish origin. They too, of course, were gradually eliminated in the next purges. In a fascinating lecture at a Tel Aviv University convention this week, Dr. Halfin described the waves of soviet terror as a "carnival of mass murder," "fantasy of purges", and "essianism of evil." Turns out that Jews too, when they become captivated by messianic ideology, can become great murderers, among the greatest known by modern history.
The Jews active in official communist terror apparatuses (In the Soviet Union and abroad) and who at times led them, did not do this, obviously, as Jews, but rather, as Stalinists, communists, and "Soviet people." Therefore, we find it easy to ignore their origin and "play dumb": What do we have to do with them? But let's not forget them. My own view is different. I find it unacceptable that a person will be considered a member of the Jewish people when he does great things, but not considered part of our people when he does amazingly despicable things.
Even if we deny it, we cannot escape the Jewishness of "our hangmen," who served the Red Terror with loyalty and dedication from its establishment. After all, others will always remind us of their origin.
The Unintended Consequences Of Gun Control
Fact Sheet: The Unintended Consequences of Gun Control
A. Waiting periods threaten the safety of people in imminent danger
* Bonnie Elmasri -- She inquired about getting a gun to protect herself from a husband who had repeatedly threatened to kill her. She was told there was a 48 hour waiting period to buy a handgun. But unfortunately, Bonnie was never able to pick up a gun. She and her two sons were killed the next day by an abusive husband of whom the police were well aware.1
* Marine Cpl. Rayna Ross -- She bought a gun (in a non-waiting period state) and used it to kill an attacker in self-defense two days later.2 Had a 5-day waiting period been in effect, Ms. Ross would have been defenseless against the man who was stalking her.
* Los Angeles riots -- USA Today reported that many of the people rushing to gun stores during the 1992 riots were "lifelong gun-control advocates, running to buy an item they thought they'd never need." Ironically, they were outraged to discover they had to wait 15 days to buy a gun for self-defense.3
B. Trigger Locks can delay one's ability to use a firearm for self-defense
* Trigger locks are dangerous and cumbersome for self-defense. The Wall Street Journal noted how when Beretta tested a "Saf T Lok," it cause 18 of 27 rounds to "totally malfunction." And when Handgun Control's chief attorney attempted to demonstrate the same trigger lock at an HCI-sponsored event, he found, to his embarrassment, that he was unable to disengage the lock.4
* A trigger lock can be very difficult to remove from a firearm in an emergency. Maryland Governor Parris Glendening struggled for at least two whole minutes to remove a trigger lock at a training session in March 2000.5 If it can take that long to remove such a lock -- when there's only the pressure of being embarrassed in front of the cameras -- what will a trigger lock mean for a homeowner who needs to use his or her self-defense gun during an emergency, in the bedroom, in the dark?
* The Mafia favors trigger locks -- for their victims. Mafia turncoat, Sammy "the Bull" Gravano, expressed his love for gun control in an interview with Vanity Fair: "Gun control? It's the best thing you can do for crooks and gangsters. I want you to have nothing. If I'm a bad guy, I'm always gonna have a gun. Safety locks? You pull the trigger with a lock on, and I'll pull the trigger. We'll see who wins."6
C. Real life examples of how "locking up one's safety" can result in death
* Canada: Ian Dunbar of Green Lake, B.C. was four years old and home from kindergarten in 1994. While playing in his back yard, a bear attacked him. His mother jumped on the bear and hit him. A neighbor went to get a rifle, but was unable to find the key. They finally snatched Ian away and rushed him to the hospital, but he died in his mother's arms on the way.7
* United States: Every month, the American Rifleman magazine publishes a column entitled the "Armed Citizen" -- a column which highlights recent press stories from around the nation where private citizens have used guns in self-defense. Virtually any self-defense story one reads out of the "Armed Citizen" would NOT have occurred if a trigger-lock had been in place on the firearm.
* Colorado: "If I'd had a trigger lock, I'd be dead." After being repeatedly stabbed by three young men in his Colorado home, Chuck Harris managed to grab the .44-Magnum pistol he kept in a desk drawer. Thankfully, Harris didn't have to remember a combination or fiddle with a trigger lock -- he just pointed the gun and fired.
That quick thinking saved his life, and has caused Harris to later reflect upon what was, perhaps, the obvious. "If I'd had a trigger lock, I'd be dead," he said. "If my pistol had been in a gun safe, I'd be dead. If the bullets were stored separate, I'd be dead. They were going to kill me."8
D. California: A Case Study in Contrasts
* Merced. On the morning of August 23, 2000, Jonathon David Bruce attacked a houseful of kids. Armed with a pitchfork -- and without a stitch of clothing on his body -- Bruce proceeded to stab the children. Two of them died.
The oldest of the children, Jessica Carpenter (14), was quite proficient with firearms. She had been trained by her father and knew how to use them. There was just one problem: the guns were locked up in compliance with California state law. Unable to use the firearms, Jessica was forced to flee the house to get help. Mr. Bruce's murderous rampage was finally cut short when officers -- carrying guns -- arrived on the scene.9
* San Francisco. Contrast the Carpenter's tragic situation to that of A.D. Parker. In February 2000, he was awakened by strange noises outside his bedroom in the middle of the night. The 83-year-old Parker grabbed a handgun he had not even used in several decades, went to his bedroom door, and found himself face-to-face with a thug holding a crowbar.
Thankfully, because Mr. Parker had not obeyed California law, he didn't have to fiddle with a trigger lock, remember a combination, or look for a key in the dark room. He simply pointed the gun and pulled the trigger -- which is why he survived the attack.10
A. Waiting periods threaten the safety of people in imminent danger
* Bonnie Elmasri -- She inquired about getting a gun to protect herself from a husband who had repeatedly threatened to kill her. She was told there was a 48 hour waiting period to buy a handgun. But unfortunately, Bonnie was never able to pick up a gun. She and her two sons were killed the next day by an abusive husband of whom the police were well aware.1
* Marine Cpl. Rayna Ross -- She bought a gun (in a non-waiting period state) and used it to kill an attacker in self-defense two days later.2 Had a 5-day waiting period been in effect, Ms. Ross would have been defenseless against the man who was stalking her.
* Los Angeles riots -- USA Today reported that many of the people rushing to gun stores during the 1992 riots were "lifelong gun-control advocates, running to buy an item they thought they'd never need." Ironically, they were outraged to discover they had to wait 15 days to buy a gun for self-defense.3
B. Trigger Locks can delay one's ability to use a firearm for self-defense
* Trigger locks are dangerous and cumbersome for self-defense. The Wall Street Journal noted how when Beretta tested a "Saf T Lok," it cause 18 of 27 rounds to "totally malfunction." And when Handgun Control's chief attorney attempted to demonstrate the same trigger lock at an HCI-sponsored event, he found, to his embarrassment, that he was unable to disengage the lock.4
* A trigger lock can be very difficult to remove from a firearm in an emergency. Maryland Governor Parris Glendening struggled for at least two whole minutes to remove a trigger lock at a training session in March 2000.5 If it can take that long to remove such a lock -- when there's only the pressure of being embarrassed in front of the cameras -- what will a trigger lock mean for a homeowner who needs to use his or her self-defense gun during an emergency, in the bedroom, in the dark?
* The Mafia favors trigger locks -- for their victims. Mafia turncoat, Sammy "the Bull" Gravano, expressed his love for gun control in an interview with Vanity Fair: "Gun control? It's the best thing you can do for crooks and gangsters. I want you to have nothing. If I'm a bad guy, I'm always gonna have a gun. Safety locks? You pull the trigger with a lock on, and I'll pull the trigger. We'll see who wins."6
C. Real life examples of how "locking up one's safety" can result in death
* Canada: Ian Dunbar of Green Lake, B.C. was four years old and home from kindergarten in 1994. While playing in his back yard, a bear attacked him. His mother jumped on the bear and hit him. A neighbor went to get a rifle, but was unable to find the key. They finally snatched Ian away and rushed him to the hospital, but he died in his mother's arms on the way.7
* United States: Every month, the American Rifleman magazine publishes a column entitled the "Armed Citizen" -- a column which highlights recent press stories from around the nation where private citizens have used guns in self-defense. Virtually any self-defense story one reads out of the "Armed Citizen" would NOT have occurred if a trigger-lock had been in place on the firearm.
* Colorado: "If I'd had a trigger lock, I'd be dead." After being repeatedly stabbed by three young men in his Colorado home, Chuck Harris managed to grab the .44-Magnum pistol he kept in a desk drawer. Thankfully, Harris didn't have to remember a combination or fiddle with a trigger lock -- he just pointed the gun and fired.
That quick thinking saved his life, and has caused Harris to later reflect upon what was, perhaps, the obvious. "If I'd had a trigger lock, I'd be dead," he said. "If my pistol had been in a gun safe, I'd be dead. If the bullets were stored separate, I'd be dead. They were going to kill me."8
D. California: A Case Study in Contrasts
* Merced. On the morning of August 23, 2000, Jonathon David Bruce attacked a houseful of kids. Armed with a pitchfork -- and without a stitch of clothing on his body -- Bruce proceeded to stab the children. Two of them died.
The oldest of the children, Jessica Carpenter (14), was quite proficient with firearms. She had been trained by her father and knew how to use them. There was just one problem: the guns were locked up in compliance with California state law. Unable to use the firearms, Jessica was forced to flee the house to get help. Mr. Bruce's murderous rampage was finally cut short when officers -- carrying guns -- arrived on the scene.9
* San Francisco. Contrast the Carpenter's tragic situation to that of A.D. Parker. In February 2000, he was awakened by strange noises outside his bedroom in the middle of the night. The 83-year-old Parker grabbed a handgun he had not even used in several decades, went to his bedroom door, and found himself face-to-face with a thug holding a crowbar.
Thankfully, because Mr. Parker had not obeyed California law, he didn't have to fiddle with a trigger lock, remember a combination, or look for a key in the dark room. He simply pointed the gun and pulled the trigger -- which is why he survived the attack.10
The Hidden Costs Of Gun Control
The Hidden Costs Of Gun Control
By
Dr. John Lott
State legislatures across the country are debating the imposition of "childproof" locks on guns_. Unfortunately, despite the obvious feel-good appeal of these rules, they are more likely to cost lives than save them.
To understand why, consider first how many accidental gun deaths occur in the U.S. In 1995 there were 1,400 such deaths. Just 200 of those involved children under 15. In comparison, 2,900 children died in motor vehicle crashes, 950 children drowned, and more than 1,000 children died from fire and burns. Hundreds more children die in bicycle accidents every year than die from all types of firearms accidents. But which is more likely to make the "Eyewitness News"? And which is more likely to inspire legislators' attempts at a quick fix?
Of course, any child's death is tragic and it's hardly consoling that such common home fixtures as swimming pools and space heaters are potentially lethal. Yet it is true that the very rules that seek to save lives can result in more deaths. Banning swimming pools would help prevent drowning, for example; but if fewer people exercised, life spans would be shortened. Heaters may start fires, but they also keep people from getting sick, and from freezing to death. So whether we want to allow pools or space heaters depends not only on whether some people may be harmed by them, but also on whether more people are helped than hurt.
Similar trade-offs exist for gun locks. Mechanical locks that fit either into a gun's barrel or over its trigger require the gun to be unloaded, and may prevent a few children's deaths. But locked, unloaded guns offer far less protection from intruders, and so requiring locks would likely greatly increase deaths resulting from crime.
Futuristic guns like those necessitating wearing a wristband that emits a radio signal to activate the gun are far from reliable and will cost $900 when they are finally available. Under the new rules, such costs of gun ownership would fall far more heavily on law-abiding citizens than on criminals -- decreasing the numbers of innocent people who could use guns to protect themselves. So the debate over gun locks comes down to how many of the 200 accidental child deaths will be avoided vs. how such rules will reduce all people's ability to defend themselves.
Unfortunately, despite the best of intentions, safety rules do not always increase safety. President Clinton has argued many times that "we protect aspirin bottles in this country better than we protect guns from accidents by children." However, Harvard economist W. Kip Viscusi has shown that child-resistant bottle caps have resulted in "3,500 additional poisonings of children under age 5 annually from (aspirin-related drugs) ... (as) consumers have been lulled into a less-safety-conscious mode of behavior by the existence of safety caps." If Mr. Clinton were aware of such research, he surely wouldn't refer to aspirin bottles when telling us how to deal with guns.
Other research shows that guns clearly deter criminals. Polls by the Los Angeles Times, Gallup and Peter Hart Research show that there are at least 760,000, and possibly as many as 3.6 million, defensive uses of guns per year. In 98% of the cases, such polls show, people simply brandish the weapon to stop an attack.
The defensive nature of guns is further reflected in the different rates of so-called hot burglaries, in which a victim is at home when a burglar strikes. In Canada and Britain, which both have tough gun-control laws, almost half of all burglaries are "hot." In The U.S., where greater gun ownership is allowed, only 13% of burglaries are "hot."
Criminals are not behaving differently simply by accident. U.S. felons reveal in surveys that when committing crimes they are much more worried about armed victims than about the police.
In recent research into gun ownership rates across states over time, I have found that higher gun ownership rates are associated with dramatically lower crime rates. Further, it is the poorest people in the most crime-prone areas who benefit most from gun ownership. Safety rules that raise the costs of gun purchases will thus reduce gun ownership and hit these people the hardest. And the higher costs of gun ownership go well beyond the costs of buying guns with mechanical or electronic locks; they include civil and likely criminal liability if guns are involved in accidents.
So if gun lock laws are unlikely to save lives, indeed if they are likely to cost lives, then who would benefit from them? Answer: plaintiffs' lawyers. The General Accounting Office reported in 1991 that mechanical safety locks are unreliable in preventing children over six years of age from using a gun. Will manufacturers meet the proposed laws' requirements if their products carry disclaimers saying that the gun locks may not work? Without such a disclaimer, imagine the lawsuits manufacturers would face for supplying locks that they know would fail to guarantee protection. Research into similar situations involving children's vaccines suggests that such liability costs can account for 90% of the price of a product.
Laws frequently have unintended consequences. Fortunately, it's not too late to stop the new gun "safety" laws before they produce the same headaches -- and much worse -- that the aspirin-bottle rules have caused.
By
Dr. John Lott
State legislatures across the country are debating the imposition of "childproof" locks on guns_. Unfortunately, despite the obvious feel-good appeal of these rules, they are more likely to cost lives than save them.
To understand why, consider first how many accidental gun deaths occur in the U.S. In 1995 there were 1,400 such deaths. Just 200 of those involved children under 15. In comparison, 2,900 children died in motor vehicle crashes, 950 children drowned, and more than 1,000 children died from fire and burns. Hundreds more children die in bicycle accidents every year than die from all types of firearms accidents. But which is more likely to make the "Eyewitness News"? And which is more likely to inspire legislators' attempts at a quick fix?
Of course, any child's death is tragic and it's hardly consoling that such common home fixtures as swimming pools and space heaters are potentially lethal. Yet it is true that the very rules that seek to save lives can result in more deaths. Banning swimming pools would help prevent drowning, for example; but if fewer people exercised, life spans would be shortened. Heaters may start fires, but they also keep people from getting sick, and from freezing to death. So whether we want to allow pools or space heaters depends not only on whether some people may be harmed by them, but also on whether more people are helped than hurt.
Similar trade-offs exist for gun locks. Mechanical locks that fit either into a gun's barrel or over its trigger require the gun to be unloaded, and may prevent a few children's deaths. But locked, unloaded guns offer far less protection from intruders, and so requiring locks would likely greatly increase deaths resulting from crime.
Futuristic guns like those necessitating wearing a wristband that emits a radio signal to activate the gun are far from reliable and will cost $900 when they are finally available. Under the new rules, such costs of gun ownership would fall far more heavily on law-abiding citizens than on criminals -- decreasing the numbers of innocent people who could use guns to protect themselves. So the debate over gun locks comes down to how many of the 200 accidental child deaths will be avoided vs. how such rules will reduce all people's ability to defend themselves.
Unfortunately, despite the best of intentions, safety rules do not always increase safety. President Clinton has argued many times that "we protect aspirin bottles in this country better than we protect guns from accidents by children." However, Harvard economist W. Kip Viscusi has shown that child-resistant bottle caps have resulted in "3,500 additional poisonings of children under age 5 annually from (aspirin-related drugs) ... (as) consumers have been lulled into a less-safety-conscious mode of behavior by the existence of safety caps." If Mr. Clinton were aware of such research, he surely wouldn't refer to aspirin bottles when telling us how to deal with guns.
Other research shows that guns clearly deter criminals. Polls by the Los Angeles Times, Gallup and Peter Hart Research show that there are at least 760,000, and possibly as many as 3.6 million, defensive uses of guns per year. In 98% of the cases, such polls show, people simply brandish the weapon to stop an attack.
The defensive nature of guns is further reflected in the different rates of so-called hot burglaries, in which a victim is at home when a burglar strikes. In Canada and Britain, which both have tough gun-control laws, almost half of all burglaries are "hot." In The U.S., where greater gun ownership is allowed, only 13% of burglaries are "hot."
Criminals are not behaving differently simply by accident. U.S. felons reveal in surveys that when committing crimes they are much more worried about armed victims than about the police.
In recent research into gun ownership rates across states over time, I have found that higher gun ownership rates are associated with dramatically lower crime rates. Further, it is the poorest people in the most crime-prone areas who benefit most from gun ownership. Safety rules that raise the costs of gun purchases will thus reduce gun ownership and hit these people the hardest. And the higher costs of gun ownership go well beyond the costs of buying guns with mechanical or electronic locks; they include civil and likely criminal liability if guns are involved in accidents.
So if gun lock laws are unlikely to save lives, indeed if they are likely to cost lives, then who would benefit from them? Answer: plaintiffs' lawyers. The General Accounting Office reported in 1991 that mechanical safety locks are unreliable in preventing children over six years of age from using a gun. Will manufacturers meet the proposed laws' requirements if their products carry disclaimers saying that the gun locks may not work? Without such a disclaimer, imagine the lawsuits manufacturers would face for supplying locks that they know would fail to guarantee protection. Research into similar situations involving children's vaccines suggests that such liability costs can account for 90% of the price of a product.
Laws frequently have unintended consequences. Fortunately, it's not too late to stop the new gun "safety" laws before they produce the same headaches -- and much worse -- that the aspirin-bottle rules have caused.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)