BLOG OF THE WEEK OF JANUARY 16, 2012

~Chop.  Chop. ~

“Story at-a-glance

“The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has reneged on its plan to withdrawal approval of penicillin and tetracycline antibiotics intended for use in food-producing animal feed – a measure it has been planning since 1977

“The FDA’s quiet withdrawal of their intent to ban low-dose antibiotics in animal feed means that the spread of antibiotic-resistant ‘super-germs’ linked to this practice will continue unabated

“In other parts of the world, such as the European Union, the use of antibiotics as growth promoters in animal feed has been banned for years

“The FDA has once again bowed to industry pressure and allowed an unsafe practice to continue at the expense of human health; you can help protect yourself and your family -- and prompt change in the consumer realm -- by purchasing only antibiotic-free meats that were raised on high-quality organic farms”

“No Matter What the FDA Says - Clear This Out of Your Fridge,” Posted By Dr. Mercola, mercola.com, January 18 2012 http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/01/18/fda-wont-act-against-agricultural-antibiotic-use.aspx?e_cid=20120118_DNL_art_1

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~ Of masters and the mastered ~

“ ‘Utopianism is not new,’ Levin writes in Ameritopia. ‘It has been repackaged countless times—since Plato and before. It is as old as tyranny itself.  In democracies, its practitioners legislate without end.  In America, law is piled upon law in contravention and contradiction of the governing law—the Constitution.’ ”

Ed.: Dear Reader, The hyperlink below will deliver you to an article that has in its middle yet another hyperlink to a long interview of greatest interest along with inclusive text.

“EXCLUSIVE—Mark Levin on ‘Ameritopia:’ ‘We Now Live in a Post-Constitutional Country’ ” By Terence P. Jeffrey, cnsnews.com, January 16, 2012

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/exclusive-mark-levin-ameritopia-we-now-live-post-constitutional-country

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~ Rats relocated?  But what’s a Washington, D.C. for? ~

“VA AG Fears DC Law May Relocate Rat 'Families' to Virginia” By Christopher Goins, cnsnews.com, January 13, 2012

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/va-ag-fears-dc-law-may-relocate-rat-families-virginia

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 ~ Somebody’s shorts getting’ way too tight.  Ya think? ~

“Iran has criticized Saudi Arabia for saying it could increase its oil output if Western sanctions cut oil exports from Iran.

“Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said Tuesday in an interview with Iran’s Arabic language al-Alam television channel that such signals are ‘not friendly.’

“Iran Criticizes Saudi Comments on Boosting Oil Exports” by Voice of America, January 17th, 2012

http://blogs.voanews.com/breaking-news/2012/01/17/iran-criticizes-saudi-comments-on-boosting-oil-exports/

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~ Coming to a pension fund near you? ~

“The Treasury on Tuesday started dipping into federal pension funds in order to give the Obama administration more credit to pay government bills.”

“Treasury dips into pension funds to avoid debt” by Reuters, January 18, 2012

http://news.yahoo.com/treasury-dips-pension-funds-avoid-debt-limit-202850021.html

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~ Trashing America:  Garbage Can 224 ~

“The controversial Keystone Pipeline will reportedly be denied by President Obama, according to Fox News.

“The State Department is expected to vote against the pipeline this afternoon. Transcanada will however be allowed to reapply with an alternate route going through Nebraska.”

“REPORT: State Department To Reject The Keystone Pipeline” by Mamta Badkar, businessinsider.com, Jan. 18, 2012

http://www.businessinsider.com/obama-to-deny-keystone-pipeline-2012-1
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~ That boy weren’t but nevah right. ~

“Jimmy Carter: Gingrich Has ‘That Subtlety Of Racism’ " by realclearpolitics.com, January 19, 2012

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2012/01/18/jimmy_carter_gingrich_has_that_subtlety_of_racism.html

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~ Right:  Both cracked pots.  Wrong:  Gingrich can rip The Other Big O new holes at will and Romney cannot.  Right:  Either would be better for everyone except Sorosians and Sorosianistas.  Wrong:  Only one of ‘em makes nice-nice about for Romneycare. ~

“Bill Clinton, the original "comeback kid" doesn't see much hope for a resurgence by Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich, dissing him in a new interview as a Romney clone because of issues the former speaker has flip-flopped on.

“Clinton Says Gingrich 'Just Like Romney' ” by Paul Bedard, usnews.com, January 18, 2012

http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/washington-whispers/2012/01/18/clinton-says-gingrich-just-like-romney

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~ Who’s your daddy? ~

~ Song title winner, January, 2012:  ‘Doin’ The Other Big O’ ~

~ Of masters minding masses ~

• “Just this past week, a judge ruled that a 23-year-old British college student can be extradited to the US for a 10-year prison sentence, all for linking to other servers that illicitly host copyrighted content;

• “Late last year, US officials shut down 150 domains without hearings or trials on grounds that they were suspected of selling goods that violate trademark law. It was done on "Cyber Monday" for a reason: It was an announcement to the digital world that government is in charge;

• “In the spring of last year, the FBI arbitrarily shut down every online poker domain they could find and seized the bank accounts of some of the largest and smartest people who play online poker - and all of this happened before the recent announcement that online poker is being re-legalised;

• “Earlier in the year, the Department of Homeland Security seized 84,000 domains and put up an announcement that each was trafficking in child porn. Problem: It was all a mistake. Not one was actually guilty. To date, there has been no explanation of how this could have happened;

• “In 2010, the feds seized some 73,000 domains for the crime of linking to content that was said to be distributed illegally in violation of copyright.

“Already, the damage of this sort of thing is enormous. Ten years ago, the Internet represented liberation, a new frontier of innovation, commerce, opinion sharing and spontaneous organising. Today, more and more people are consumed by fear. Bloggers are unclear about what existing law does or does not allow. No one knows for sure how to define ‘fair use.’ The deepest pockets are winning case after case. Faced with this uncertainty, many are choosing less over more content - which is exactly what the government and private monopolists want.

. . .

“The two dominant trends of our time are, on the one hand, the darkening of the physical world ruled by governments and, on the other hand, the re-enlightening of the world thanks to the spontaneous order of digital media controlled by everyone else. Governments are seeking to drag it down and shut off the lights. The protests against these proposed controls constitute a mighty statement that we will not let the raiders, the barbarians, the vandals, have their way.”

“Blackout Wednesday: The Time Has Come” By Jeffrey Tucker, The Daily Reckoning, 19 January 2012.

http://dailyreckoning.com/blackout-wednesday-the-time-has-come/ 

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~ Feel the love? ~

“During an interview that aired on Egyptian Dream2 TV January 10, Saudi journalist Nadin Al-Badir relayed horrific instances of abuse and murder — including forcing over a dozen school girls to perish in a fire because they were not wearing traditional Islamic head coverings — carried out by the country’s religious police or, the ‘Authority for the Promotion of Virtue.’ The journalist also revealed that most of these police are ‘ex-cons who used to be drug users or drug dealers.’ ”

. . .

“At the opening of the segment, Al-Badir told the story of 28-year-old Hassan Nabil Hmeid, who was ultimately beaten to death for growing his hair long.

. . .

“ ‘Their mission is to save you from the Hellfire, not from death,’ Al-Badir responded. ‘They believe that you are martyred in such a case. I don’t know what was going through their minds at that moment.’ ”

“Faith Saudi Journalist: Religious Police Made 15 School Girls Burn to Death Because They Were Not Wearing Hijabs” by Tiffany Gabbay, theblaze.com, January 18, 2012
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/saudi-journalist-religious-police-made-15-school-girls-burn-to-death-because-they-were-not-wearing-hijabs/ 

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~ In the Land of Ilk & Money ~

" ‘To take an ex-wife and make it two days before the primary a significant question in a presidential campaign is as close to despicable as anything I can imagine,’ Gingrich told King, the moderator of the debate.

“Gingrich's response elicited loud applause from the audience.”

“Gingrich delivers show-stopper at beginning of South Carolina debate”

By Rachel Streitfeld and Paul Steinhauser, CNN.com, January 20, 2012

http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/19/politics/gop-debate/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

Ed.:  Please play the embedded audio/video.

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~ See, mommy, see the Texas legislating judge smack-down. Oh, boy. ~

“Supreme Court rejects judge-drawn Texas election maps” By James Vicini, reuters.com, Jan 20, 2012

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/20/us-usa-politics-texas-idUSTRE80J16A20120120

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~ Don’t want anymore necks . . . already short on boots ~

~ The less to trash, the better, ya think The Other Big O says? ~

~ It’s for the chil’runs.  You know, the dead ones what had to be aborted.  For the chil’runs what didn’t make it .  . . no, no, not that they couldn’t.  They didn’t.

“Most healthcare plans will be required to cover birth control without charging co-pays or deductibles starting Aug. 1, the Obama administration announced Friday.”

“Health plans ordered to cover birth control without co-pays” By Julian Pecquet, thehill.com, 01/20/12

http://thehill.com/blogs/healthwatch/health-reform-implementation/205413-obama-administration-orders-health-plans-to-cover-birth-control-without-co-pays  

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~ Really.  Who needs another liberty-losing law like Sorosians Lamar Seeligson Smith’s SOPA or Patrick Joseph Leahy’s PIPA?  Gubmint goons can gitrdun good without ’em.  The Moral:  Fascist entertainment can keep their pol-buying pimp bucks to even worse freedom-trashing ends.  Be cool. ~

“The FBI and Justice Department on their own initiative shut down megaupload.com, the biggest of thousands of file-sharing sites online, and arrested four of its top officials. The FBI is hunting down three others who seem to be on the lam. They all face extradition and twenty years in prison. As part of the sweep, the feds issued 20 search warrants and arrived at individual houses in helicopters. They cut their way into houses, threatened with guns, confiscated $50 million in assets, and outright stole 18 domain names and many servers.

. . .

“And contrary to what many people believe, the already-existing law permits the government to do pretty much whatever it wants, as this case shows. The government relied on a 2008 law to make criminal instead of civil charges. A newly created IP taskforce is the one that worked with the foreign governments to seal the deal.

“In the end, it was a presentation of exactly the nightmare scenario that anti-SOPA protesters said would happen if SOPA had passed. It turns out, as the deeper realms of the state already knew, that all of this was possible with no Congressional action at all. Congress doesn’t need to do anything. We can watch the debates, go to the polls, elect people to represent us, and perform all the rest of the rituals of the civic religion but none of it matters. Power is here, active, oppressive, in charge, permanent, regardless of what you might believe.

. . .

“What’s this all about? It is some powerful corporate lobbyists trying to prevent the emergence of an alternative system of art and music delivery, one powered by people rather than merely the well- connected.”

“Power vs. People in the Digital Age” by Jeffrey Tucker, thedailyreckoning.com, January 21, 2012

http://dailyreckoning.com/power-vs-people-in-the-digital-age/