The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either. – Benjamin Franklin
– Medical radioactive material truck ‘stolen in Mexico’ (BBC News, Dec 4, 2013):
A truck carrying medical radioactive material has been stolen in Mexico, the UN’s nuclear watchdog says.
Mexico told the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that the truck was carrying a “dangerous radioactive source” used for cancer treatments when it was stolen on Monday.
Read moreMedical Radioactive Material Truck ‘Stolen In Mexico’
– Video of the Day: Greenspan Calls Bitcoin a Bubble (Liberty Blitzkrieg, Dec 4, 2013)
– Ron Paul Says Bitcoin Could be the “Destroyer of the Dollar” (Liberty Blitzkrieg, Dec 4, 2013)
YouTube Added: Mar 10, 2013
– Reusable Grocery Bags Contain Toxic Levels of Lead (Healthy Debates, Dec 3, 2013)
YouTube
Description:
Dec 3, 2013
During a congressional committee hearing about the constitutional limits imposed on the presidency and the implications of President Barack Obama’s disregard for implementing the Affordable Care Act as written, one expert testified that the consequences of the president’s behavior were potentially grave. He said that the precedent set by Obama could eventually lead to an armed revolt against the federal government.
On Tuesday, Michael Cannon, Cato Institute’s Director of Health Policy Studies, testified before a congressional committee about the dangers of the president’s legal behavior.
“There is one last thing to which the people can resort if the government does not respect the restrains that the constitution places on the government,” Cannon said. “Abraham Lincoln talked about our right to alter our government or our revolutionary right to overthrow it.”
“That is certainly something that no one wants to contemplate,” he continued. “If the people come to believe that the government is no longer constrained by the laws then they will conclude that neither are they.””That is a very dangerous sort of thing for the president to do, to wantonly ignore the laws,” Cannon concluded, “to try to impose obligation upon people that the legislature did not approve.”
– Top 10 Highest Paid CEOs (TIME, Dec 4, 2013):
10. Gerald Rubin
Company: Helen of Troy
Compensation: $41.6 millionHelen of Troy, which distributes name brands like Brut and Pert Plus, posted record sales in its fiscal year ending in February 2013, helping its CEO Gerald Rubin take home nearly $29 million in performance-based stock options. Of the country’s most lavishly paid CEOs, according to data compiled by FindTheCompany.com, none are are women.
– Federal Government Sued Raisin Farmer For Selling His Own Product (Wealthy Debate, Dec 4, 2013):
Meet Marvin Horne, raisin farmer. Horne has been farming raisins on a vineyard in Kerman, Calif., for decades.But a couple of years ago, he did something that made a lot of the other raisin farmers out here in California really angry. So angry that they hired a private investigator to spy on Horne and his wife, Laura. Agents from a detective agency spent hours sitting outside the Hornes’ farm recording video of trucks entering and leaving the property.
What did the Hornes do to become the subject of a surveillance campaign? They sold raisins. More specifically, they sold all the raisins they produced.
Read moreFederal Government Sues Raisin Farmer For Selling His Own Product
FYI.
– Fukushima two years on: a dirty job with no end in sight (Guardian, Dec 3, 2013):
The tsunami that wrecked the Fukushima Daiichi power plant has led to the toughest nuclear cleanup ever. Radioactive water is still poisoning the sea – and it could take 40 years to fix the mess. Is Japan up to the challenge?
Carefully, gently, one-by-one. The removal of nuclear fuel rod assemblies from a badly damaged building at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant is finally under way. Months in the planning, the job is risky, complex, and crucial. Here begins the first major step in the toughest decommissioning project ever attempted.
Read moreFukushima Two Years On: A Dirty Job With No End In Sight
From the article:
“… Mumbai customs offers a reward of up to 50,000 rupees per kg of bullion seized for informers in gold smuggling cases. Cocaine and heroin informers get only up to 40,000 rupees and 20,000 rupees respectively.“
– Gold Smuggling Increases 7x in India and Surpasses Illegal Drug Trade (Liberty Blitzkrieg, Dec 4, 2013):
The absurd “War on Gold” that India has launched this year has been covered many times on this site. From the moment I read about it, it was obvious that if Indians want their gold, the Indians will have their gold. You can’t break thousands of years of tradition and culture because of the ignorant whims of a few bureaucrats.
Earlier today, Reuters published an article detailing the extent to which Indian smugglers will go in order to bring the money of kings into the country. This includes hiding it in underwear, swallowing it whole and even painting gold staples gray. What is most disturbing is the lengths authorities are willing to go to in order to stop a supposedly free people from buying a brick of metal.
From Reuters:
(Reuters) – Indian gold smugglers are adopting the methods of drug couriers to sidestep a government crackdown on imports of the precious metal, stashing gold in imported vehicles and even using mules who swallow nuggets to try to get them past airport security.
Read moreGold Smuggling Increases 7x In India And Surpasses Illegal Drug Trade
– Food poverty in UK has reached level of ‘public health emergency’, warn experts (Independent, Dec4, 2013):
Hunger in Britain has reached the level of a “public health emergency” and the Government may be covering up the extent to which austerity and welfare cuts are adding to the problem, leading experts have said.
In a letter to the British Medical Journal, a group of doctors and senior academics from the Medical Research Council and two leading universities said that the effect of Government policies on vulnerable people’s ability to afford food needed to be “urgently” monitored.
– Japan’s secrets bill turns journalists into terrorists (Japan Times, Dec 3, 2013):
Shinzo Abe owes Xi Jinping a debt of gratitude.The buzz in Japanese cyberspace is that Chinese President Xi is wagging the dog by declaring a controversial “air-defense identification zone” across the East China Sea. The move has drastically ramped up tensions with Japan and the United States, both of which have blatantly disregarded Beijing’s unilateral edict. According to one prevailing theory, Xi is whipping up an international storm to change the subject domestically away from income inequality, official corruption and China’s blackening skies.
The leader benefiting most from the controversy, though, may be Japan’s Abe. With his own populace furious over China’s unilateral decree, the prime minister is seizing the opportunity to rush a chilling official-secrets bill into law.
Read moreJapan’s Secrets Bill Turns Journalists Into Terrorists
– US Retailer Hell In One Chart (ZeroHedge, Dec 4, 2013):
The chart below from the WSJ, summarizes perfectly the hell that US retailers find themselves in. In brief: sales down and inventories soaring, means liquidation sales have to surge, while profits and cash flows crater.
From WSJ:
Simeon Siegel, an analyst with Nomura Equity Research, looked at the inventory carried by those and other specialty-apparel retailers at the end of the third quarter and compared it with his projections for the chains’ fourth quarter sales. He found that in most cases inventory growth far outpaced sales growth. Normally, the two should be growing about the same. “The ratios are the worst we have seen in quite a while,” Mr. Siegel said.
– President Unleashes The Obama Youth To Preach Obamacare Gospel (ZeroHedge, Dec 4, 2013):
Or, as they may also be known, die Obamagesundheitjugend.
- OBAMA SAYS HE NEEDS YOUNG PEOPLE TO SPREAD WORD ABOUT OBAMACARE
It gets better:
Obama: “Tweet using the hashtag #GetCovered. Do whatever you can to help make sure people have the information they need.” #WHYouthSummit
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) December 4, 2013
“I know people call this law #Obamacare, and that’s ok, because I do care. I care about you.” —President Obama
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) December 4, 2013
Pres Obama also urges young people to stand up on other issues: "Don't get discouraged. Be persistent."
— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) December 4, 2013
Pres Obama urges young people to spread the ObamaCare message on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter using #getcovered.
— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) December 4, 2013
Pres Obama urges Youth Summit: remind your friends to imagine what happens if you get sick and you don't have insurance.
— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) December 4, 2013
"This law is already helping millions of young people, and it's about to help millions more." —President Obama #Obamacare
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) December 4, 2013
EXSKF, Nov. 28, 2013: The 33rd Ministry of Justice human rights essay contest for junior high school students has been won by a student in Miyagi Prefecture who wrote not buying Fukushima’s peaches because of radiation fear was the same as him being “discriminated” against by his classmate for being a Chinese national. Refusing the Fukushima produce because of radiation fear is tantamount to racial discrimination, according to the student and the Ministry of Justice who selected his essay as the best of the best this year. […] Not buying Fukushima produce, as the government tells you to? You’re racist […]
Japan Times, Dec. 3, 2013: With the contentious state secrets bill slated to clear the Upper House this week, citizens have been holding daily protests in front of the Diet building, denouncing the law as emblematic of the “rise of fascism.” […] Atsuko Ikegami, 45, also decried what she viewed as the state tightening its grip on citizen access to critical information, including about nuclear crises. […] “When those (anti-nuclear) rallies happened, I thought, ‘Well, the Japanese people finally learned to stand up and make their voice heard,’ ” Ikegami said. “But the bill could subject these activists to constant spying by the state […]”
Related info:
– IAEA Official: “What we are trying to say is consider” putting toxic Fukushima water in Pacific — Impact on human health must be monitored — Nearby countries all oppose this release (PHOTO) (ENENews, Dec 4, 2013):
Juan Carlos Lentijo, head of IAEA’s mission to Fukushima Daiichi, Dec. 4, 2013: “Controlled discharge is a regular practice in all the nuclear facilities in the world. And what we are trying to say here is to consider this as one of the options to contribute to a good balance of risks and to stabilize the facility for the long term.”
Presentation by Lake Barrett, currently a Tepco adviser (2011) (PDF)Shunichi Tanaka, chairman of Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority, Dec. 4, 2013: “You cannot keep storing the water forever. We have to make choice comparing all risks involved.”
– Divers find man alive in sunken tugboat at bottom of Atlantic (The Globe And Mail/AP, Dec 3, 2013):
AP Video | Dec. 03 2013
Dramatic footage emerged on Tuesday showing the unlikely rescue of a member of the crew, who survived for almost three days trapped in an air bubble in his sunken ship. Entombed at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean in an upended tugboat and dressed only in boxer shorts, Harrison Odjegba Okene begged God for a miracle.
– Weight loss-obsessed girls eating GMO cotton balls soaked in lemon juice (Natural News, Dec 4, 2013):
A practice being promoted on YouTube as a fad diet is actually a form of disordered eating that can pose serious health risks, health professionals are warning.
In videos promoting “the cotton ball diet,” young girls soak cotton balls in lemonade or orange juice and then swallow them. The girls claim that the cotton balls expand in the stomach, producing a feeling of fullness and thereby making them eat less during the day. In this, the cotton ball diet may seem at first to resemble appetite-suppressing drugs such as Lipozene.
But everything about the diet is dangerous, experts warn, from the specifics of the practice to the attitude behind it.
“Like eating your t-shirt”
To start with, most cotton balls are not actually made from cotton, but rather from synthetic, bleached polyester fibers full of dangerous chemicals.
Read moreWeight Loss-Obsessed Girls Eating GMO Cotton Balls Soaked In Lemon Juice
– Afghanistan opium harvest at record high – UNODC (BBC News, Nov 12, 2013):
Afghan opium cultivation has reached a record level, with more than 200,000 hectares planted with the poppy for the first time, the United Nations says.
The UNODC report said the harvest was 36% up on last year, and if fully realised would outstrip global demand.
…
Related info:
– How Opium Greed Is Keeping US Troops in Afghanistan | Brainwash Update (Video)
– Afghanistan: $37 Million Aviation Facility May Have Been Used To Store OPIUM (Reuters)
Read moreAfghanistan Opium Harvest At Record High (BBC News)
– US govt caught using pirated software for military, settles for $50mn (RT, Nov 28, 2013):
The Obama administration has agreed to pay Apptricity US$50 million for pirating the company’s logistics software the US Army used beyond contracted parameters.
While the Obama administration’s has launched efforts against intellectual property theft – including the Joint Strategic Plan run by Vice President Joe Biden that aims to curb copyright infringement – the US Army was concurrently using pirated Apptricity enterprise software that manages troop and supply movements. The company sued the government, accusing the US military of willful copyright infringement.
Read moreUS Govt Caught Using Pirated Software For Military, Settles For $50 Million
