News Stories

[AnimeFan188]

Israel, Gulf in 'strange alliance' against Iran:

"In one of the region's oddest pairings, Israel and the Gulf Arab states led by
Saudi Arabia increasingly are finding common ground — and a common
political language — on their mutual dismay over Iran's history-making
overtures to Washington and the prospect of a nuclear deal in Geneva that
could curb Tehran's atomic program but leave the main elements intact, such
as uranium enrichment.

"The adage about 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend' is playing out over
Iran," said Theodore Karasik, a security and political affairs analyst at the
Dubai-based Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis. "This situation
opens up some interesting possibilities as it all shakes out."

There seems little chance of major diplomatic breakthroughs between Israel
and the Gulf's array of ruling monarchs and sheiks. But their shared worries
over Iran's influence and ambitions already has brought back-channel contacts
and "intimate relationships" on defense and other strategic interests through
forums such as the U.N., said Dan Gillerman, a former Israeli ambassador to
the world body."

See:

http://news.yahoo.com/israel-gulf-st...182926144.html

[MrTerrorist]

'Slave' women rescued: Three held in 'horrific conditions'

Seriously? WTH!? Why are there more people trapping other people in their homes as their slaves/sex slaves? If this continues, people are gonna get paranoid that their neighbors might be one.

[Eragon]

http://www.salon.com/2013/09/13/noto...astor_partner/

And I thought 3rd world countries were bad. How the fuck is the judge getting away with this, nevermind the abomination of a pastor ?

[ganbaru]

United States gives Afghanistan year-end deadline for crucial security deal
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/...9AJ0B620131121

Investors wary of U.S. stock surge, even as money piles in
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/...9AK1BH20131121

[Vallen Chaos Valiant]

Originally Posted by MrTerrorist

'Slave' women rescued: Three held in 'horrific conditions'

Seriously? WTH!? Why are there more people trapping other people in their homes as their slaves/sex slaves? If this continues, people are gonna get paranoid that their neighbors might be one.

Slavery is still going on. We know this for decades, it's just that the modern term is "people trafficking". One common tactic is to trick people from poor countries by promising them jobs. Then once they arrive at the destination take away all their papers and IDs so they can't escape. This is commonly done for sex slaves, but also for servants for rich people.

This is a major industry for organised crime, just behind Drugs and Guns in profitability. We outlawed slavery; it doesn't mean slavery disappeared. We are talking about slaves sent to all major advanced nations of the world. Some things don't change.

[SeijiSensei]

Continuing my "this day in history" series this week, today is the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas by Lee Harvey Oswald. Here is the fateful moment caught forever on film by amateur photographer Abraham Zapruder.

The first shot is fired while the car emerges from behind the sign. The second shot, the infamous "magic bullet," happens seconds later. This bullet went through Kennedy's skull, exited the front, then hit Texas Governor John Connolly sitting in the jump seat just ahead of the President. For an excellent forensic analysis of the killing, I recommend this recent program on PBS's NOVA. They generally conclude that the unusual metal-jacketed bullets Oswald used could have followed such a path and largely endorse the single-assassin theory.

I was fourteen when Kennedy was shot and remember the sorrowful scene in my 9th grade classroom. I was attending Catholic school at the time, and for most American Catholics, particularly those of us with Irish heritage, there was strong bond of identity with the President. All the nuns, and many of the students, were in tears as we watched the events in Dallas unfold that afternoon.

For those of you looking to learn a bit of history about Kennedy and the Cold War period during which he governed, I strongly recommend the two-part, four-hour documentary produced by another PBS series, the American Experience. I found it even-handed and not idolatrous. While I didn't learn much new about the politics of the period, what was an eye-opener was how ill Kennedy was, dating back to his teen-aged years. By the time he was in office, he was taking powerful "cocktails" of painkillers, steroids, and amphetamines to cope with the enormous pain he lived with every day. That he could think straight in the circumstances was remarkable itself.

I think one of the reasons why the belief in a conspiracy is so strong was the killing of Oswald by Dallas nighclub owner Jack Ruby in plain view of the Dallas police and millions of people watching on television around the country. I didn't see that event live; like many Americans that Sunday morning we were in church. Oswald's death removed any chance for interrogation, while Ruby's act itself raised questions about whether Oswald was being silenced to protect a deeper conspiracy. I'm generally willing to accept the overall conclusion that Oswald acted alone, but we'll obviously never really know the full story.

[Lord of Fire]

I'm sure there will always be conspiracies regarding JFK's murder, no matter how hard evidence is found for the 'single assassin' theory. After all, people still don't believe the moon landing happened, despite overwhelming evidence that we did go there. Yes, different scenario and all that, but the idea is the same.

People will believe what they want to believe, even if that belief holds no water.

[KiraYamatoFan]

If there has to be more behind the JFK assassination, I hope heads will roll when the truth will come out no matter how damaging the truth might be for whoever was involved at the time from afar or from up close.

One thing for sure is that a number of things in US politics, foreign and domestic, went downhill since that day.

[Roger Rambo]

Originally Posted by Lord of Fire

I'm sure there will always be conspiracies regarding JFK's murder, no matter how hard evidence is found for the 'single assassin' theory. After all, people still don't believe the moon landing happened, despite overwhelming evidence that we did go there. Yes, different scenario and all that, but the idea is the same.

People will believe what they want to believe, even if that belief holds no water.

What I don't get is why the conspiratorially minded has to get all hung up over the lone gunman debate. Cause personally Oswald's personal history (having at one point defected to the Soviet Union) in and of itself seems pretty suspicious. Wanking about bullet trajectories seems to distract from this fact (course it arguably also plays into the idea that maybe Oswald was just a lone wackjob who decided to shoot up a president for Stalin).



Hell. A huge amount if the Kennedy assassination discourse is dominated by the narrative that Oswald was some kinda victim. Defending/propping up this idea seems to have taken precedence over actual examination over what realistically happened. This of course colors everyone's view of things, such as the Tippit shooting. Nearly all the eyewitnesses/evidence attest to it probably being Oswald who shot Tippit, so the conspiratorially minded person must imagine that Tippit was either part of the elaborate conspiracy, or that the conspiracy whacked Tippit off as part of their evil convoluted plan.

...which totally misses out on the fact that even if there WAS a conspiracy, it's perfectly possible to have a conspiracy where Oswald is a willing participant, and shot a police officer while trying to escape capture.

[ganbaru]

Analysis: Why hedge funds still manage to seduce
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/...9AL14020131122

EU loses out on Ukraine, but may have dodged a bullet
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/...9AL0ER20131122

[AnimeFan188]

Originally Posted by Roger Rambo

What I don't get is why the conspiratorially minded has to get all hung up over the lone gunman debate. Cause personally Oswald's personal history (having at one point defected to the Soviet Union) in and of itself seems pretty suspicious. Wanking about bullet trajectories seems to distract from this fact (course it arguably also plays into the idea that maybe Oswald was just a lone wackjob who decided to shoot up a president for Stalin).



Hell. A huge amount if the Kennedy assassination discourse is dominated by the narrative that Oswald was some kinda victim. Defending/propping up this idea seems to have taken precedence over actual examination over what realistically happened. This of course colors everyone's view of things, such as the Tippit shooting. Nearly all the eyewitnesses/evidence attest to it probably being Oswald who shot Tippit, so the conspiratorially minded person must imagine that Tippit was either part of the elaborate conspiracy, or that the conspiracy whacked Tippit off as part of their evil convoluted plan.

...which totally misses out on the fact that even if there WAS a conspiracy, it's perfectly possible to have a conspiracy where Oswald is a willing participant, and shot a police officer while trying to escape capture.

"Lee Harvey wanted to shoot JFK. Whether he did so unaided or with accomplices
remains unsettled. Fifty years after that Day in Dallas not everyone remembers
that Lee Harvey Oswald was an avowed Communist and that the main issue
surrounding the assassination was whether Oswald was acting under the
direction of a foreign power. He is viewed rather as the despoiler of paradise.

Someone, perhaps it was Napoleon, perhaps it was Voltaire — remarked, “toutes
les histoires anciennes, comme le disait un de nos beaux esprits, ne sont que des
fables convenues“. ‘History is a fable agreed upon’. Some would prefer however
to know which is the fable and which is the fact. It’s comforting to believe that
JFK’s Washington was Camelot and Lee Harvey Oswald was the product of a
right wing hatred that despised the sight of youth, happiness and vigor. But it’s
not really true."

See:

http://pjmedia.com/richardfernandez/...-first-marine/

[SaintessHeart]

Pakistan militants kidnap 11 teachers in polio vaccination campaign

" We are planning massive attacks against Shi'ite community, because they are the enemies of Islam," Shahidullah said.

I think someone has been skipping his Friday prayers and religious classes.

[Fireminer]

No, I pity them. As we could see it, most of the fighting troops are uneducated people - excluding the one who came from Western countries. And yet there leaders are just filthy rich! Osama bin-Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri and other Islamic figurehead were and are having millions of Dollar at their disposal.

Fighting for Heaven? Yes, but not for them.

[Vallen Chaos Valiant]

Originally Posted by SaintessHeart

Pakistan militants kidnap 11 teachers in polio vaccination campaign



I think someone has been skipping his Friday prayers and religious classes.

It's really much like how most Crusaders in history probably never read the Bible. Religious fanaticism, ironically, does not require religious knowledge.

[Bri]

Originally Posted by Vallen Chaos Valiant

It's really much like how most Crusaders in history probably never read the Bible. Religious fanaticism, ironically, does not require religious knowledge.

nor faith.

[ganbaru]

Originally Posted by SaintessHeart

I think someone has been skipping his Friday prayers and religious classes.

That's kind of the same reason they want to kill Muslims than convert to another religion .

[AnimeFan188]

China creates air defence zone over Japan-controlled islands:

"Tokyo branded as "very dangerous" a move by Beijing Saturday to set up an "air
defence identification zone" over an area that includes disputed islands controlled
by Japan, but claimed by China.

In a move that raised the temperature of a bitter territorial row between the two
countries, China's defence ministry said that it was setting up the zone to "guard
against potential air threats".

It later scrambled air force jets, including fighter planes, to carry out a patrol mission
Saturday in the newly established zone."

See:

http://news.yahoo.com/china-creates-...063730010.html

[ganbaru]

Latvian president calls store collapse that killed 54 'murder'
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/...9AM0BO20131123

Cuban private entrepreneurs reeling over crackdown
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/...9AL0H020131122

The newspaper backed the government's measures on the grounds the would-be entrepreneurs were unlicensed, and it insisted that the "non-state" sector, authorized over the past few years, must abide by the law.

[Lightning_Wing]

Originally Posted by AnimeFan188

Why do the majority of caricatures barely break 5'0''?

[Roger Rambo]

Originally Posted by AnimeFan188

"Lee Harvey wanted to shoot JFK. Whether he did so unaided or with accomplices
remains unsettled. Fifty years after that Day in Dallas not everyone remembers
that Lee Harvey Oswald was an avowed Communist and that the main issue
surrounding the assassination was whether Oswald was acting under the
direction of a foreign power. He is viewed rather as the despoiler of paradise.

Someone, perhaps it was Napoleon, perhaps it was Voltaire — remarked, “toutes
les histoires anciennes, comme le disait un de nos beaux esprits, ne sont que des
fables convenues“. ‘History is a fable agreed upon’. Some would prefer however
to know which is the fable and which is the fact. It’s comforting to believe that
JFK’s Washington was Camelot and Lee Harvey Oswald was the product of a
right wing hatred that despised the sight of youth, happiness and vigor. But it’s
not really true."

See:

http://pjmedia.com/richardfernandez/...-first-marine/

Yeaaaaaah. There is something kinda weird about a left leaning guy like Oswald shooting the president, and it getting marked off as a right wing conspiracy to kill the president (as opposed to some angry commie trying to be a hero).