The top Saudi clerics have found another person to execute for free speech. We have previously seen a number of people accused of blasphemy for brief tweets or Facebook entries or even reading a book or speaking insulting thoughts at prayer. There is now a campaign to execute 23-year-old journalist Hamza Kashgari for a tweet that he sent to Mohammad on his birthday about Kashgari’s faith. There is no evidence that Mohammad is actually one of his followers but Mohammad’s followers are pretty ticked and labelled Kashgari an “apostate” who must be killed for his offense to Islam.
You are probably thinking the tweet must be pretty darn bad to fit serious blasphemy into 140 characters or less. Yet, Kashgari is being charged over a fake conversation that he had with Mohammad, who is not even listed as one of his “followers” on Twitter. Kashgari (who has apologized) wrote “On your birthday I find you in front of me wherever I go. I love many things about you and hate others, and there are many things about you I don’t understand.” As also tweeted “No Saudi women will go to hell, because it’s impossible to go there twice.”
The faithful even created a festive Facebook page with nearly 10,000 members dedicated to executing the journalist — declaring “The Saudi people demand Hamza Kashgari’s execution” already has nearly 10,000 members.
The committee of top clerics confirmed that these people are only doing what is right and told Saudis that “Muslim scholars everywhere have agreed that those who insult Allah and his prophet or the (Muslim holy book) Koran or anything in religion are infidels and apostates.” They called on him to be “judge[d] based on sharia law,” which demands death for those who insult Mohammad or the religion.
Other clerics repeated prior warnings that good Muslims do not Tweet. Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah al-Sheikh announced that Twitter is “a great danger not suitable for Muslims… it is a platform for spreading lies and making accusations.”
Once again, these stories show the perils of the effort of the Obama Administration to establish standards for the criminalization of anti-religious speech with Muslim countries like Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.
Source: Washington Post
Go look at the CFR we have plenty of regulations, regulations on top of regulations.
It is ignorance or worse to say this is a deregulated economy.
And Glass Steagall? That caused banks to fail in the 30’s, it did not prevent them from failing. But you didnt know that banks which sold securities were 4-5 times less likely to fail than banks which did not. It was pure politics then and it is pure politics now.
Stupid people and people with a will to power always look to government to help. The stupid because the dont know any better, the ones who want power to rule the stupid.
Gene H:
Here is another economics lesson for you, this one on consumption and production. I hope you like it, I know I did.
“From John Stuart Mill, “Of the Influence of Consumption on Production” (1844):
Among the [economic] mistakes which were most pernicious in their direct consequences . . . was the immense importance attached to consumption. The great end of legislation in matters of national wealth, according to the prevalent opinion, was to create consumers. . . . It is not necessary, in the present state of the science, to contest this doctrine in the most flagrantly absurd of its forms or of its applications. The utility of a large government expenditure, for the purpose of encouraging industry, is no longer maintained.
Taxes are not now esteemed to be “like the dews of heaven, which return again in prolific showers.” It is no longer supposed that you benefit the producer by taking his money, provided you give it to him again in exchange for his goods. There is nothing which impresses a person of reflection with a stronger sense of the shallowness of the political reasonings of the last two centuries, than the general reception so long given to a doctrine which, if it proves anything, proves that the more you take from the pockets of the people to spend on your own pleasures, the richer they grow; that the man who steals money out of a shop, provided he expends it all again at the same shop, is a benefactor to the tradesman whom he robs, and that the same operation, repeated sufficiently often, would make the tradesman’s fortune. . . .
What a country wants to make it richer, is never consumption, but production.”
“Taxes are not now esteemed to be “like the dews of heaven, which return again in prolific showers.””
No they certainly are not, even 170 years later.
What I find amazing is that Keynes, Krugman, et al, think it [stimulus] works even in the face of historical evidence that it doesnt. Mill was speaking about the 200 years before him in which it was tried and didnt work.
Every piece of evidence from every century from every place on earth leads to the same conclusion – socialism does not work. And the degree to which it does work is predicated on the degree of market freedom available in a country. Such as your Scandinavian countries which have hampered markets but still employ some level of economic incentive. If they are doing well now, how much better could they do with more market freedom? It isnt socialism which is working, it is capitalism carrying socialism on its back. Without capitalism, socialism is nothing and you recognize that fact by evidence of your third way.
You want justice? Then write an amendment to have a separation of economics and state. And severe penalties for anyone who violates that law.
Oh yeah, Milton’s ideals of deregulation have worked out so well for us. 🙄
We don’t have a blended economy like they do in the Scandinavian countries. We used to be closer to that than we are now for certain. What did deregulation and removing state monopolies from the power industry get us? Enron. What did deregulation of the airline industry get us? Shitty airline service, price wars and pricing practices that are arcane and exploitative of consumers. What did deregulation of the banking and financial services get us? The CDS debacle and a wrecked national and global economy.
The way that isn’t working is yours, Bron. Your personal stance on bailouts notwithstanding. Even a broken clock is right twice a day but that still doesn’t change that it was your policy darling deregulation that created the problem in the first place.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hrg1CArkuNc&feature=related
another lesson for you Gene. This one uses logic as well, you will like this one.
I wasnt for bail-outs and none of “my guys” were either.
Just fess up and admit you dont know what you are talking about.
Talk about making stuff up, wow.
“I follow a system that hasn’t been tried here: a blended economy.”
we have a blended economy, it isnt working. We have had a blended economy for years.
I don’t blame capitalism for the failures and inequities we see now, Bron. See, unlike you, I look for actual causation rather than picking an -ism from some apologist propaganda that I don’t really understand to demonize. I look at actions traceable to actors and outcomes. No. I don’t blame capitalism for our current situation. I blame laissez-faire capitalism and a culture of greed for the failures we see now. You know. Your people. The worshipers of Money and Ego.
I follow a system that hasn’t been tried here: a blended economy. It works just fine for the Scandinavian countries. Those countries that consistently score higher than the U.S. on quality of life and happiness of citizens surveys and have weathered the global economic crisis better than everyone else because their critical infrastructure wasn’t left to the whims of the market and left prey to the desires of venal men. A global economic crisis brought on by disciples of your heroes Rand and von Mises. People who think you should have absolute freedom to do as you please and not suffer consequences as long as you make money. People who pushed for the deregulation that made the CDS debacle possible. People who want the FDA and EPA out of the way so they can sell us contaminated food and rape the environment. People who think that fraud, abusive labor practices, destroying people’s lives and the environment are just good business. It’s all good with a wink and a nudge as long as people are making money, eh Bron?
There is someone here following a failed system, Bron. That much is for certain. It just isn’t me. The system I advocate works just fine. It has simply never been tried here.
you ought to be asking why you follow a system that doesnt work.
Just remember that the function of higher prices is to ration goods, benevolence does nothing to supply people with their daily bread. Most people are anti-market, so you cant help yourself.
Keep defending the indefensible, you do it so well for people who already have an anti-market mentality.
Speaking of history, were you aware of a depression during Warren G. Harding’s administration? It was bad, you know what he did? He cut government spending and fired some government workers but nothing else and it ended very quickly. No stimulus, no printing of money, no bailouts not nutin. Whoops, you guys extended the depression of 1929 to 1946 and are doing the same thing today. You never learn because of your blinders.
I think I’ll take the advice of a crazy women and a non-scientific apologist for greed. Seems like they cause a good deal less human misery.
Quit blaming capitalism for socialism’s failures.
Keep telling myself the truth about history, using words properly and not following the advice of crazy women and facile non-scientific apologists for greed posing as economists?
Don’t mind if I do.
Gene:
keep telling yourself that if it makes you feel better.
He lays out a good case as to why socialism leads to tyranny. You ought to watch. It is very logical.
No confirmation bias, I just have looked at this for a very long time. The only argument you make is that greed is bad so lets share the wealth. If that worked I would be all for it, but it doesnt work. People need to make money commensurate with their abilities, the greater good is not enough motivation although people dont mind helping others, eventually the good feeling of charity wears away and you are left hating your neighbor if you must always supply him with his daily bread. It is just human nature, why fight it, use it to move society ahead. You cant fight 3 million years of evolution.
It just doesnt work, it is the system of idealists and starry eyed young men.
Keep flailing though. Your desperation and obvious grasping is really funny.
Of course you think he makes a pretty good case. It appeals to your confirmation bias and is made by another Objectivist and former member of the Ayn Rand Institute who is also an economist (not a historian, lawyer or political scientist) and a von Mises disciple. Unfortunately for you, he’s just as ignorant of history and political science as you are. You can try to rewrite history all you like. The Night of the Long Knives happened. Socialism was what the Nazis sold, but they delivered Italian-style Fascism. Hitler killed or marginalized all the socialists in the Nazi Party and even then he enacted Italian Fascism over the objections of many in the Nazi Party who felt that Mussolini’s creation was an inappropriate non-Aryan influence on Germany and the Nazi Party. Those are simply the facts of history. Groups are defined by how they behave, not how they self-label. The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is neither democratic nor a republic, but rather a totalitarian dictatorship. Logic based on lies and historical misinformation is just as wrong as logic that is formally flawed.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHpXjm78Pjs&feature=related
Good video, the best part comes near the end where he says the Scandinavian countries are hampered market economies which still work on the basis of private gain.
I guess this guy doesnt agree with you either about Nazism and Socialism.
He makes a pretty good case.
God damn, Gene how many of us are there running around conflating Nazism and Socialism? Hundreds, thousands? Nah probably tens of millions.
I know, I know, if ten million people jumped off a bridge you wouldnt do it. But this guy makes a good, logical case for the hypothesis. Since you like logic, I figured you would love this.
Or maybe the adoption of new technology doesn’t happen instantaneously but rather behaves as a curve?
Any way you look at it, that’s math.
“The ReCell technology has been around for seven years but few surgeons in Britain perform it and Zed is believed to be one of the youngest to receive it.”
If it is so worthwhile how come it is rarely used?
Some rationing going on perhaps? Or maybe not enough money to purchase new technology? Maybe some care panels look at the cost benefits as to which patients receive the technology? Or maybe the government hasnt approved it for full scale use?
Any way you look at it, it doesnt look good.
Now thats rationing and not caring about individuals.
Nice cherry picking.
Try reading the whole article before quoting it, dingus.
“Mr Rawlins said: “The NHS Trust aren’t so interested in the big long-term savings. The automatic response is a reluctance to embrace new technology because they are afraid of the costs.
“The ReCell technology is an upfront investment but you have to look at the bigger picture. This technology saves on the number of hospital visits a patient needs, saves on the nursing requirements, saves on the pain killers needed, I really believe it is a revolution in care.
“You just can’t put a price on the quality of comfort and care a child receives in our hospitals.
“And when you get a good result like Zed’s it makes it all worthwhile.”
That’s good management and good economics.
“Jeremy Rawlins, the consultant plastic surgeon at Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust who treated Zed, said that one of the reasons the treatment is still rare in this country is because of the cost to NHS trusts.
Mr Rawlins estimates Zed’s operation cost £5000, but the figure varies between NHS trusts. The ReCell machine costs £800.
Mr Rawlins said: “The NHS Trust aren’t so interested in the big long-term savings. The automatic response is a reluctance to embrace new technology because they are afraid of the costs.”
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/features/4137266/Burns-tot-has-spray-on-skin-cure.html
Gene H and pete:
maybe this will teach you a few things about economics:
http://www.fee.org/library/books/economics-in-one-lesson/
http://www.fee.org/library/books/i-pencil-2/
canadians also buy supplemental insurance for when they cross the border in the u.s. for shopping or to vacation in florida. one trip to the emergency room could bankrupt them.
look at the first digit on your cars vin#. if it’s a 2 your american car was built in canada
why is it cheaper to build an american car in windsor canada.
healthcare