Remembering Massacre, Norway Embraces Inclusivity

by THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg (foreground left) and King Harald (foreground right) attend a memorial ceremony near a government building damaged by a bomb attack in Oslo, Norway, Sunday.

Norway on Sunday paused to commemorate the 77 victims of a bomb and gun massacre that shocked the peaceful nation one year ago, a tragedy that the prime minister said had brought Norwegians together in defense of democracy and tolerance.

Anders Behring Breivik, a 33-year-old far-right fanatic, has admitted to the July 22, 2011, attacks: a bombing of the government district in Oslo, killing eight, and a shooting rampage that left 69 dead at the left-wing Labor Party's youth camp on Utoya island.

In a wreath-laying ceremony at the bomb site, Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg said Breivik had failed in his declared goal of destroying Norway's commitment to being an inclusive, multicultural society.

"The bomb and the gun shots were meant to change Norway," Stoltenberg told a somber crowd of a few hundred people at the ceremony. "The Norwegian people answered by embracing our values. The perpetrator lost. The people won."

Super rich hold $32 trillion in offshore havens

LONDON (Reuters) - Rich individuals and their families have as much as $32 trillion of hidden financial assets in offshore tax havens, representing up to $280 billion in lost income tax revenues, according to research published on Sunday.


The study estimating the extent of global private financial wealth held in offshore accounts - excluding non-financial assets such as real estate, gold, yachts and racehorses - puts the sum at between $21 and $32 trillion.

The research was carried out for pressure group Tax Justice Network, which campaigns against tax havens, by James Henry, former chief economist at consultants McKinsey & Co.

He used data from the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, United Nations and central banks.

The report also highlights the impact on the balance sheets of 139 developing countries of money held in tax havens by private elites, putting wealth beyond the reach of local tax authorities.

The research estimates that since the 1970s, the richest citizens of these 139 countries had amassed $7.3 to $9.3 trillion of "unrecorded offshore wealth" by 2010.

Private wealth held offshore represents "a huge black hole in the world economy," Henry said in a statement.

A Collegiate Tragedy ...at Penn State

I must admit I am sick of hearing about this saga, but I think it reflects something about "people"  in that we have let "sports" become so necessary in our lives and our learning institutions. Sports have stepped over academics in importance. A statue was erected in honor of a coach, rather than someone in academics, or other endeavors. That says something right there. All  sports have their "Hall of Fame." There have been many achievements in science, medicine and other fields of greater importance, but they are not recognized. How and why, has athletics become so huge?

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) — The famed statue of Joe Paterno was taken down from outside the Penn State football stadium Sunday as the NCAA announced it would be issuing sanctions against the university whose top officials were accused in a scathing report of burying child sex abuse allegations against a now-convicted retired assistant. 

Workers lifted the 7-foot-tall statue off its base and used a forklift to move it into Beaver Stadium as the 100 to 150 students watching chanted, "We are Penn State."

The university announced earlier Sunday that it was taking down the monument in the wake of an investigative report that found the late coach and three other top Penn State administrators concealed sex abuse claims against retired assistant coach Jerry Sandusky.

Meanwhile, the NCAA said that that it would levy "corrective and punitive measures" against Penn State in the wake of the child sex-abuse scandal involving former football assistant coach Jerry Sandusky. The organization announced Sunday that it would spell out the sanctions on Monday but disclosed no details.

Walk?

Sole security

PITTSBURGH — High-tech security? Forget those irksome digital eye scans. Meet the biometric shoe.

A new lab is working to perfect special shoe insoles that can help monitor access to high-security areas, like nuclear power plants or special military bases.

The concept is based on research that shows each person has unique feet, and ways of walking. Sensors in the bio-soles check the pressure of feet, monitor gait, and use a microcomputer to compare the patterns to a master file for that person. If the patterns match the bio-soles go to sleep. If they don’t, a wireless alarm message can go out.

“It’s part of a shoe that you don’t have to think about,” said Marios Savvides, head of Carnegie Mellon University’s new Pedo-Biometrics Lab, in Pittsburgh.

The lab, which has $1.5 million in startup funding, is a partnership with Autonomous ID, a Canadian company that is relocating to several U.S. cities. Todd Gray, the company president, said he saw the potential when his daughter was in a maternity ward decorated with representations of different baby feet all along a wall.

The picture is Maxwell Smart's shoe phone, not the biometric shoe. Just to show how shoes have progressed.

Cause for concern ...............

I am not exactly sure of the origin f this article, so I am not going to mention any names. I have expressed these same concerns so I am offering this here for your consideration and thought.

Could 2012 be America 's Last Presidential Election?

This questions has been asked to a number of people and most of them respond as if I were crazy. They tell me that this is America , land of the free, and that there will always be elections. I tell them that we are no longer the land of the free and that if Obama gets re-elected in 2012 that this just may be America 's last election.

In the past three years, the Obama administration has been very carefully crafting the nation for a political take over by his Marxist regime and this isn't just my opinion.

Popular radio talk show host (of the Savage Nation on the Talk Radio Network), Michael Savage, is the son of Russian immigrants and is very familiar with Soviet and European history. Savage warned his listeners this week saying, "I have to tell you that if this man, God forbid, is the next president of the United States, we're going to be living in something along the lines of - people say - Europe. I don't believe it's going to be like Europe - I think it will be closer to Chavez's South American dictatorship.

"This is the most corrupt, incompetent, dangerous tyrannical administration in American history. It's not politics as usual. It's not just Democrats versus Republicans. Obama has a long history of being at odds with American values and with America itself and the core principles of this country. They don't want government-sponsored opinions. They only want government-sponsored 'Pravda.' That's exactly what the government-media complex tells you on a daily basis - nothing but the government-media complex party line. Pay attention! Your freedom may be at stake!

Former Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum told a small group of people in an Iowa coffee house that "Barack Obama is not incompetent, ladies and gentleman. He knows exactly what he's doing and why he's doing it. He sees America differently than you see America ."

[Obama] has gone out of his way to divide this country in a way I haven't seen since the Great Depression when Franklin Roosevelt went around to divide his country. That's his hero. What makes America great [in Obama's mind] is that the government takes money from somebody and gives it to somebody else. No, that's what makes America , France .

"With his control over the Executive and Judicial branches of the government, the stage is set for a complete takeover of the government. Think about it! Since taking office, instead of helping the economy, Obama has purposely escalated the economic crisis by plunging the country into unprecedented debt. He has a number of programs that are designed to go into effect in January 2013, just in time for his second term of office. The economic burden and increased taxes on everyone will be enough to cause the final economic collapse of the country. As soon as that happens, Obama declares Martial Law and assumes dictatorial control of the nation.

The Department of Justice has already been subverting federal laws to strip us of a number of freedoms. The Supreme Court and many of the other federal courts have been seeded with socialistic liberal judges that will rule in Obama's favor on virtually anything, thus ending constitutional rule and law.

He's already changing the face of America 's military. Allowing homosexuals to openly serve along with changing the retirement program is causing many conservative military leaders to resign commissions and leave the military. Some Pentagon officials are also noting that an increase in the enlistment of radical Muslims into the US military where they get all the training they need on weapons and defense systems. We have no idea how many of them there are in the armed forces or in what positions they may hold.

Obama has been wielding executive powers this past year as if he were already a dictator. When Congress is not doing his bidding, he simply bypasses them and uses an executive order to accomplish it anyway. This has set the stage for his disbandment of Congress. He would not be the first world leader to take control of a nation and disband the legislative branch of government.

He has been effectively using the media to anesthetize the public to the dangers he poses. Like a patient being prepped for surgery, people are numb to the changes and won't have a clue what took place until they wake up in recovery and realize that free America has been removed and replaced with a regime that may parallel those of Stalin, Lenin, Mussolini, Hitler, Chavez and Castro.

For the sake of our children and grandchildren, I earnestly pray that we are spared from what seems a certain future and that Obama is overwhelmingly defeated in 2012.

If you agree with me and whoever authored this article, or even consider this a possibility, please pass this blog along to those on your list. I personally think it is something that we should all consider with an open mind, Historically, this has happened in other countries, we don't want it to happen here.

What Next?

I must admit I have done very little today, the events of this morning took all the wind out of my sails. I have been walking around all day, not in a state of shock, but similar to that. I think some of that can be attributed too all I have lived through, and each shock seems to be worse than the last.

I vividly remember December 7, 1941, and the shock of that day, it was senseless and cowardly, I was only nine then, but I remember the emotions and the faces of the young college men, who I am sure were aware of the impact that would have on their lives.

The Kennedy and King assassinations. I remember the start of Desert Storm, watching it live on TV, almost to the point where, "the war will start in five minutes." Korea, Viet Nam, 9/11 and all the other events that have entered into our lives. Each a shock.

Those moments cause me to pause and reflect, wonder and speculate, primarily pause, and wonder what is happening in this world, where we have gone wrong, what is causing these incidents, and wondering if there actually is a cause.

What next?

Friday, 20 July, 2012

How irrational is it to attempt to blame the "Tea Party" for the Colorado theater incident. News persons and politicians will grasp any straw, with or without "facts" to mislead the public. To politicize such a horrendous chain of events is  beyond comprehension.

I think those who implied these thoughts should be made to account for their actions.

Perhaps we would be more accurate if we blamed those who perpetrate these incidents rather than wildly blaming others, for whatever reason.

Hillary Clinton Close to Paying Off 2008 Campaign Debt

By Elizabeth Hartfield 

Hillary Clinton, who has steadily chipped away at the more than $25 million in debt her campaign amassed during her run for president, owes only $100,000, according to Federal Election Commission disclosures for the second quarter of 2012.

Running for president is expensive, and although the subject of campaign debt has usually been synonymous with Newt Gingrich in the past several months, Clinton is among the many former presidential candidates who've departed the trail in debt.

She suspended her campaign in June 2008 owing the $25 million but had paid off enough by the end of that year to owe $5.9 million.

Almost four years later, the campaign owes $100,000 to one entity, the firm of Penn, Schoen & Berland for consulting and polling fees. Penn, Schoen & Berland is a market research firm headed up by a trio of longtime advisers to both Bill and Hillary Clinton: Mark Penn, Doug Schoen and Michael Berland.

Obama Calls for $12.7 Trillion in New Welfare Spending

Last Thursday, the Obama Administration quietly issued new bureaucratic rules that overturned the popular welfare reform law of 1996. This was an illegal move, and it completely undoes years of progress that helped millions of Americans.

What Welfare Reform Accomplished

The 1996 reform replaced the old Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program with a new program called Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF). At the core of the TANF program were new federal work standards that required able-bodied welfare recipients to work, prepare for work, or at least look for work as a condition for receiving aid. Welfare reform turned “welfare” into “workfare.”

Under the old, pre-reform AFDC program, welfare was a one-way handout: Government mailed checks to recipients who did nothing in return. Reform changed that. The new TANF program was based on fairness and reciprocal responsibility: Taxpayers continued to provide aid, but beneficiaries were required, in exchange, to engage in constructive behavior to increase self-sufficiency and reduce dependence.

Payday Loans?

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Americans tempted by the promise of fast cash are paying an average of $520 a year in fees for short-term credit lines known as payday loans.

An estimated 12 million Americans take out payday loans each year, according to the Pew Charitable Trusts' Safe Small-Dollar Loans Research Project.

On average, these borrowers take out eight loans per year, averaging $375 each, the survey based on focus groups and telephone interviews found. Over the course of two weeks -- when payday loans typically come due -- fees averaged $15 per $100 borrowed, amounting to a 391% annual percentage rate. Most lenders display costs as fees, but they can also be reflected as interest rates.

Because of the small-dollar amounts extended and the relatively easy access -- no credit check is required -- payday loans are often marketed as "fast cash" to cover emergency expenses that arise before a borrower's next paycheck arrives, which is typically two weeks, Pew said.

But Pew's study reveals that most borrowers actually use payday loans for regular living expenses -- not for emergencies, as many payday lenders advertise. Plus, the average borrower takes out eight loans and is indebted about five months of the year because they continue to renew the original loan.

Physical inactivity causes 1 in 10 deaths worldwide

(CNN) -- Physical inactivity causes 1 in 10 deaths worldwide, according to a series of studies released in British medical journal The Lancet, putting it on par with the dangers of smoking and obesity. The results also suggest that public health officials treat this situation as a pandemic.

Specifically, Harvard researchers say, inactivity caused an increase in deaths from coronary heart disease, type 2 diabetes, breast and colon cancers and caused more than 5.3 million deaths in 2008 worldwide.

If physical inactivity rates were to go down by even 10% to 20% worldwide, they say, it could save between a half-million and 1.3 million lives each year. This could also raise global life expectancy by almost a year.

Symptoms of Heat Exhaustion:

• Thirst
• Decrease in urine output or dark-colored urine
• Headache
• Dry mouth
• Muscle cramps
• Fatigue
• Lightheadedness or feeling faint
• Low blood pressure when standing
• Heavy sweating or an inability to sweat despite the heat
• Nausea and/or vomiting
• Weakness
• Confusion
• Heart palpitations or a rapid but weak pulse
• Pale, clammy skin, sometimes with goose bumps

Christie to give Keynote

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie will give the keynote address at the Republican National Convention in Tampa next month, NBC News confirmed.

The high-profile job is sometimes seen as a launching pad for politicians with ambitions of higher office, but could also suggest that Christie will not be named as presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney’s running mate, according to NBC News.

Vice Presidential nominees and keynote speakers typically speak on separate nights. Theconvention runs from Aug. 27 to 30.

Subject: The problem is us!

Read a few times and give some serious thought to what you are reading. I received this in an email this morning. Thanks Ernie .... 

Some people have the vocabulary to sum up things in a way that you can quickly understand them. This quote came from the Czech Republic . Someone over there has it figured out. It was translated into English from an article in the Prague newspaper Prager Zeitungon:

Perfect Quote

 

"The danger to America is not Barack Obama, but a citizenry capable of entrusting a man like him with the Presidency. It will be far easier to limit and undo the follies of an Obama presidency than to restore the necessary common sense and good judgment to a depraved electorate willing to have such a man for their president. The problem is much deeper and far more serious than Mr. Obama, who is a mere symptom of what ails America . Blaming the prince of the fools should not blind anyone to the vast confederacy of fools that made him their prince. The Republic can survive a Barack Obama, who is, after all, merely a fool. It is less likely to survive a multitude of fools, such as those who made him their president." 

Sepsis: Blood Poisoning Kills Thousands, But No Drugs to Help

By CARRIE GANN and DR. BRUCE GERYK


Rory Staunton's death started with a simple cut on his arm.

Rory, a 12-year-old New Yorker, cut himself when he dove for a basketball at his school gym in late March, according to the New York Times. Two days later, he was vomiting, feverish and had a pain in his leg. A few days later, on April 1, Rory died at NYU-Langone Medical Center of a kind of blood poisoning known as sepsis.

His death, and others, point to a major problem in treating sepsis -- there are currently no drugs approved to fight it. The only drug developed for it, called Xigris, was withdrawn from the market in 2011, when the drug failed rigorous testing required to maintain regulatory approval. The drug's fall from grace highlights just how difficult fighting sepsis is, and leaves doctors wondering whether developing a drug will ever be possible.

Statue in Poland

People look at a new statue of former President Ronald Reagan and Pope John Paul II that was unveiled in Gdansk, Poland, on Saturday, July 14, 2012. The statue honors the two men whom many Poles credit with helping to topple communism.

Gas, a map, and, Oh Yea, some mashed potatoes

Heading down to the local convenience store on a hot summer day and buying an icy beverage bigger than your head has been an American tradition for many years. But sometimes you just want something a little different — perhaps something warmer, and smothered in meaty gravy. At least that's what 7-Eleven appears to have in mind with these almost too-ridiculous-to-be-real mashed potato dispensers.

Is it the ultimate in convenience, or just another way to be lazy?

The machines were created by Maggi, a food and condiment company that is popular in Europe and parts of Asia. Maggi sells instant mash potato powder that can be purchased in stores and made at home, but that clearly wasn't convenient enough for 7-Eleven customers. When activated, the machine mixes the powder with water, squirts out the steaming-hot mashed potato mix, and even tops it with some creamy gravy.

The hearty treat costs just a dollar or two, and some 7-Eleven stores even pair their potato tubs with soft drinks, ensuring that you can eat an lunch that has been dispensed from a small tube. We of course can't vouch for the flavor of the powdered potato product, but at least it looks like mashed potatoes.

Greenland lost some more land

WASHINGTON (AP) — An iceberg twice the size of Manhattan tore off one of Greenland's largest glaciers, illustrating another dramatic change to the warming island.

For several years, scientists had been watching a long crack near the tip of the northerly Petermann Glacier. On Monday, NASA satellites showed it had broken completely, freeing an iceberg measuring 46 square miles.

A massive ice sheet covers about four-fifths of Greenland. Petermann Glacier is mostly on land, but a segment sticks out over water like a frozen tongue, and that's where the break occurred.

The same glacier spawned an iceberg twice that size two years ago. Together, the breaks made a large change that's got the attention of researchers.

"It's dramatic. It's disturbing," said University of Delaware professor Andreas Muenchow, who was one of the first researchers to notice the break. "We have data for 150 years and we see changes that we have not seen before."

"It's one of the manifestations that Greenland is changing very fast," he said.

The Dooley Observed Forum

I just started this, thought we might get a dialogue started on some different topics. Open for suggestions. Started  two, Politics and Gambling. Olympics might be a good one to get started. Check out THIS SITE  and add some topics we can discuss. I look forward to hearing from you.