Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Problems and Liberty


 




 





Lawyers from the Bush administration are getting criticized. RAW STORY from Monday on February 16, 2009 had a story about how the Justice Department probe blasted Bush lawyers over torture memos. Some of these lawyers crafted the legal framework for waterboarding and other controversial interrogation tactics. These lawyers believe that these acts don't constitute torture. The pro-Bush lawyers may be on the verge of legal troubles themselves. At least of 3 fomer Bush lawyers face disciplinary action from fomer state bar associatons. The reason is that a former Justice Department official had called their rulings as "deeply flawed" and "sloppily reasoned" legal analysis. Jay Bybee and John Yoo wrote last month that Bush's torture programs were initially designed to outwit craftly defense attorneys. According to Newsweek, these attorneys have been criticized in an internal Justice Department report. A draft of the report was submitted during the last days of the Bush administration. Yet, former Attorney General Michael Mukasey objected to it according to the story. The report is from the Office of Professional Responsibility, which is the department's watchdog unit. Mukasey and his deputy wanted the report to contain responses from Bybee and Yoo, along with Steven Bradbury, chief of the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) at the time the report was submitted. The OPR is now working to include the ex-officials’ responses before presenting a final version to Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. The OPR is now working to put the ex-officials' responses after presenting a final version to Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. If Holder accepts the report's finding, it could be forwarded to state bar associations. Last year, House Judiciary Committe Chairman John Conyers threatened to subpoena several former officals of the Bush administration (like Yoo) if they refuse to testify on their roles in preparation of torture memos. Bush defended the use of waterboarding, yet even military leaders (even John McCain) have called such things as torture. Not to mention that John Yoo wanted children's testicles to be assaulted if that would help retrieve vital information in this "war on terror." So, these people have to answer for their extreme statements that are found in various torture memos.


Life related news are coming on strong. Steven Ertelt from LifeNews.com on February 16, 2009 reported on how adult stem cells in experiments are reversing the effects of Parkinson's disease in human trials. Scientists have published a paper in a medical journal. The paper describes about the results of the world's first clinical trial using autologous neural stem cells for the treatment of Parkinson's disease. A leading bioethics says the results show that more money should be put behind adult stem cells. UCLA researchers published their results in the February issue of the Bentham Open Stem Cell Journal. This journal outlined the long term result of the trials. The leading author named Dr. Michel Levesque said that: "...We have documented the first successful adult neural stem cell transplantation to reverse the effects of Parkinson's disease and demonstrated the long term safety and therapeutic effects of this approach...." The paper mentioned how Levesque's team was able to isolate a patient-derived neural stem cells, multiply them in vitro, and differentiate them into produce mature neurons (before they are reintroduced into the brian). The team was able to inject adult stem cells without then need for immunosuppressants. Adult stem cell injections don't cause a patient's immune system to reject the cells (unlike the largely ineffective embryonic stem cells). "Of particular note are the striking results this study yielded -- for the five years following the procedure the patient's motor scales improved by over 80% for at least 36 months," Levesque wrote. Levesque wants a larger clinical trial to replicate the findings. Dr. David Prentice, a former biology professor at Indiana State University who is now a fellow with the Family Research Council, tells LifeNews.com that the results of the study are wonderful news for patients. Prentice says the results continue to prove that adult stem cells outpace their embryonic counterparts. Levesque is a principal investigator for NeuroGeneration, a biotechnology company, and is affiliated with the UCLA School of Medicine (and the Brain Research Institute). Embryonic stem cells can cause tumors and rejection. Hence, adult stem cells ought to be promoted clearly above and beyond ESCs.




Jim Rogers wants to abolish the IMF and the World Bank. He is a veteran investor who believes that Barack Obama's stimulus package will only make the economic crisis worse. He said these words to Sir David Frost on Al Jazeera television. He blamed the economic crisis at the feet of the Federal Reserve. He believes that a recovery could happen if both the World Bank and the IMF would be abolished. The reason he wants that is because both groups left behind their original aspirations and goals. They have made bad projects over the decades. He feels that the Obama stimulus package will put good money thrown after bad and that the bailouts will make things worse. Jim Rogers concieves of the U.S. as following the same mistakes that Japan was doing when they propped up companies that should be allowed to fail (and that the same consequences would be reaped as much as 20 years into the future). “The way the system is supposed to work, when times like this come, the solid people, the competent people, take over the assets from the incompetent people and then you start over again from a sound base, this is what South Korea did, this is what Russia did, and they did fine. What they’re doing this time is they’re taking the assets away from the competent people and giving them to the incompetent people and saying now you compete with the competent people with their assets and their money - it’s terrible economics and it’s not going to work, it hasn’t worked before and it’s not going to work this time,” said Rogers. Rogers believes that this crisis could be over in 2 or 3 years if the bad companies and banks would be allowed to go to the wall. Rogers said that the Federal Reserve is refusing to let people fail. The stimulus package was rushed and paranoia was promoted that it will be the end of the world if the bill wasn't passed. The package had the government controlling all Americans' medical records, it institutes dracoanian power among the Federal Reserve, and there are many billions of dollars of unnecessary spending proposals in it. We need to do something of course, but that stimulus package isn't one of them.


Global Warming that's man made is being opposed by folks of many quarters. AP from Monday at February 16, 2009 described a fomer astronaunt speaking out on global warming. The astronaut's name is Harrison Schmitt. Schmitt walked on the moon and was once an U.S. Senator in New Mexico. “I don’t think the human effect is significant compared to the natural effect,” said Schmitt, who is among 70 skeptics scheduled to speak next month at the International Conference on Climate Change in New York. Schmitt believes that scientists are intimidated if they disagree with the idea that burning fossil fuels are increasing carbon dioxide levels, temperatures, and sea levels. “They’ve seen too many of their colleagues lose grant funding when they haven’t gone along with the so-called political consensus that we’re in a human-caused global warming,” Schmitt said. Dan Williams is a publisher of the Chicago based Heartland Institute. This institute is hosting the climate change conference. He invited Schmitt after reading about his resignation from the Planetary Society, which is a non-profit group that is dedicated to space exploration. Schmitt resigned after the group blamed global warming on human activity. In his resignation letter, the 74-year-old geologist argued that the "global warming scare is being used as a political tool to increase government control over American lives, incomes and decision making." Schmitt said that the planet has warmed, but not in epidemic levels. He said that historical documents indicate that average temperatures have risen by 1 degree per century since around 1400 A.D. (and the rise in CO2 is because of temperature rise not CO2 causing it). Not to mention that there has been record winter temperatures in 2007 and 2008. Schmitt wants to eliminate the politics out of environmental issues. I reject using paranoia as an excuse to promote faulty science in the climate change debate. The same hypocrites bashing paranoia about terrorism promote paranoia about climate change issues. Hypocrispy is very real in the world.



A Christain author is challenging the Vatican about evolution. This story is found in World Net Daily. This person is Comfort. He is accusing the Vatican of believing in Charles Darwin over Jesus in accepting Evolution. A report made by Archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi (who is the head of the Pontifical Council for Culture) said that Darwin's theory is compatible with Christianity. That's silly since Christianity is about believing that God created the Universe. Darwinian Evolution believes that natural forces over the course of billions of years formed life out of chances. The Vatican for years believe that God created evolution to create life. Evolution has been accepted by atheists. In recent years, scientists have questioned and refuted certain aspects of Darwinian Evolution. One example is the law of biogenesis that states that life can only exist by other forms of life. The Bible says that God created man in his own image. Evolution isn't new at all. Ancient Egyptians, ancient Hindus, Plato, and others accepted a form of Evolution. Evolution is related to the mystery religions, because the mysteries teach that life is getting better via natural forces (or mysticism. This is precisely like the definition of Evolution). The cell structure, the precise mathematical laws that govern the Universe, and the others variety of life isn't just come by chance. Much of the Universe's design is based on the symmetrical helix of DNA and certain fractals in geometry. I believe that a Divine Creator created the Universe with purpose and it's bounded under certain principles to exist. Comfort works with Kirk Cameron on his "The Way of the Master" series. I disagree with Kirk Cameron that you have to work with Hollywood in other to change it. It's better to be independent and follow God than suck up to Hollywood in a compromising fashion. "You Can Lead an Atheist to Evidence but You Can't Make Him Think," rocketed up the Amazon.com rankings on its first day of release, moving from No. 69,572 to No. 38 in 24 hours. The book was also the No. 1 book in the categories of religion and atheism on "Darwin Day" – the 150th anniversary of the release of "On the Origin of the Species." Therefore, Confort's literature is popular.




A Democrat is proposing a law requiring firearm owners to have a $1,000,000 insurance policy. This is occuring in Illinois, so gun ownership will be so expensive that only the rich can have them. Kenneth Dunkin is a former social worker and a Democrat member of the Illinois House of Representatives. He introduced HB0687 called the "Firearm Owners ID-Insurance" bill. It's in the Rules Committee now. This bill will amend the Firearms Owners Identification Card Act, which is another previous bill aimed at chipping away at the Second Amendment. Dunkin's amendment says that: “that any person who owns a firearm in this State shall maintain a policy of liability insurance in the amount of at least $1,000,000 specifically covering any damages resulting from negligent or willful acts involving the use of such firearm while it is owned by such person.” This is wrong because not only is this expensive. Also, it deprives once again the citizen's right to own and bear arms. That's mentioned in the Second Amendment. This premium will not reach most of the people in Illinois at all. If the firearm owner can't afford the insurance or decides that it's wrong plus refuses to participate, something will happen. The Department of State Police will revok and seize a firearm owner's identification card. This will make the firearm illegal and the owner a criminal. This is totally fascistic since the government has no right to steal a gun from an innocent citizen at all just because they can't fulfill an insurance requirement. If Dunkin’s bill makes it out of committee and is passed by the Illinois General Assembly, a whole lot of people will have their firearms confiscated by the State Police. I don't get get why hypocrites like Dunkin want such laws to exist when these proposed laws contradict the principles of individual liberty completely.



Photography is stil under threat in the UK. Victoria Bone from BBC News on February 16, 2009 outlined that anyone talking a photograph of a police officer could be deemed to have committed a criminal offence. The reason for this is a new law of Section 76 of the Counter Terrorism Act. It has comes into force. The law permits the arrest of anyone found, “eliciting, publishing or communicating information” relating to members of the armed forces, intelligence services and police officers, which is “likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism." That means that anyone talking a picture of a military person or things related to it can face a fine (or a prison sentence up to 10 years if a "terrorist" link is proved). This law have legitimately angered photographers (among professionals and amateurs) who fear that it could exacerbate the harassment they already sometimes face. On Monday, a group is gathering outside New Scotland Yard for a “mass picture-taking session” in protest. The event was organized by the National Union of Journalists in the UK. They believe that the right to take pictures in public places is a precious freedom that must be safeguarded. Taking pictures of various events isn't about performing criminal activity at all. The British Journal of Photography recently reported an incident involving a photographer in Cleveland who was stopped by a police officer while taking pictures of ships. He was asked if he was a terorist and he said no. Still, the photographer was kept in a file. So, the rights of photographers ought to be perserved indeed.



By Timothy

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