President Barack Obama and other leaders have stressed that the greatest victims of Islamic extremism are not Christians and Jews but Muslims. This week produced another tragic example. Yemen’s top Salafi cleric Samahan Abdel-Aziz, also known as Sheikh Rawi, was found in the southern port city of Aden, Sudan after he gave a sermon denouncing the Islamic State and Islamic extremism. He had been tortured before he was killed.
Aden was liberated by government forces in July but the city remains volatile and dangerous. Affiliates of extremist groups like al-Qaida and the Islamic State groups are active in the city.
Abdel-Aziz was kidnapped by gunmen outside his mosque late Saturday after he gave a sermon denouncing al qaeda and the Islamic state. He appears to have died for his effort to protect his faith from the extremism of these terrorist organizations. I do not know much about the views of this cleric, but the fact that he was murdered after a sermon shows the grotesque view of these extremists. They are unwilling to tolerate even clerics who hold opposing views. The murderers appear to believe that Allah will reward them to not just torture but the murdering of people who hold opposing views on the meaning of Islam.
Po,
The Livescience comments are a good read, too.
L’Observer,
The NPR article sounds reasonable. Taxing every $113,000 made would be reasonable. I hope Clinton supports taxing 7 and 8 and greater figure salaries (have not yet read the article).
They have gotten a break via Fed actions, so it is only fair.
L’Observer,
At risk of taking the conversation into a totally different direction, the article does not talk about “growing the longevity” of the poor with SS, it talks about how SS is disseminated disproportionately to higher income seniors because they are around longer and collect more.
Policy changes in SS and Medicare will not address the problem because they are not the problem. Policy changes towards the subsidization of corn might help in the long term, as would changes to the “food stamps” program to perhaps require people learn about the connection between the foods we eat and the health we have.
From the article you linked:
“The growing longevity gap means that benefits like Social Security are paid out even more disproportionately to the better-off because they are around for more years to collect them.”…”It concluded that disparate life expectancies are making the country’s biggest entitlement programs, like Social Security and Medicare, increasingly unfair to the poor and suggested officials consider policy changes to address the problem.”
The decreased longevity of the poor is primarily due to a poor diet and the resulting obesity. Fifty years ago, the diet of the rich and poor was more similar: both ate real food, the rich bought theirs and the poor grew theirs. Back to gardens. 😉
Most people today get micro nutrients from processed food, but for the poor that is an even greater source. Fifty percent of kids at or below the poverty line are overweight/obese. These are the kids who are getting type two diabetes and high blood pressure and whose livers will fail due to non-alcholic fatty liver disease.
Lower income kids and their families eat a much worse, more fatty acid and micro nutrient deficient, diet today than their counterparts 60 years ago.
These poor folks have complicated medications to keep on top of. If lifestyle factors interfere with that regimen, longevity is going to be decreased (not to mention just having a multitude of obesity-related diseases is going to shorten lifespans).
I get my news from the New York Times, the Washington Post, NPR, the BBC, the Guardian, the LA Times, The Boston Globe, Bloomberg News, WSJ, the New Yorker – organizations that vet their journalists (journalists, po, not propagandists) and are accountable to their readers and the country at large.
I do not watch MSNBC, Democracy Now, Fox, read Drudge or Breitbart. I read a little piece by Finnian Cunningham since you noted him. That man is not a journalist. He is a propagandist and is as irresponsible, maybe worse, than Breitbart or Drudge.
Your comment on Rockwell that you never read anything he wrote so you haven’t any idea of what he is or isn’t goes a long way in explaining your incredibly low standards in forming your world view. You are reading junk.
PR, I’ll read the comments. I love reading comments from articles, often they are more enlightening than the articles themselves.
As for your points about nutrition, I couldn’t agree more. All of our health issues, and the corollaries of immorality and anti-humanism are directly to our being detached from nature and its cycles. We have people growing up today who have never grown anything, or contributed one single plant tot he circle of life. They are detached from their food, and with it, they are detached from their self and their communities.
There are some health insights that only come to those who are familiar with the earth and what it produces, and too many of us aren’t.
And this brings me back to L and propaganda. The same government and affiliated media who told you that smoking was good for you is the same one who told you butter is bad for you, and formula is better than breast milk, and that GMO is inoffensive to your health.
If you don’t believe that mainstream media, including the NYT and most of the sources you listed are not part of the problem, you have not been paying attention. It is well documented that the media has been corralled by the CIA for decades, and is currently mere mouthpiece for the government and its propaganda, especially the NYT.
I have cancelled my subscription to the NYT because I realized that the only valuable part of it is the letter to the editor section, where dissent sometimes occurs. Other than that, the opinion pages, along with much of the international reporting is biased and deceptive.
What do you expect actually, when most of the media, across all plateforms is owned by just a few companies? The same companies that own our tv and audio platforms, AND, are investors into industry and energy? Just look up GE and its reach across the globe!
http://www.buzzfeed.com/regajha/these-mind-blowing-infographics-will-change-the-way-you-see#.xhNy4rJ49
By the way, though I don’t subscribe to those sources you listed, I read them too, and listen to NPR throughout the day. The difference between us is that I round up my news with alternate sources, including Democracy Now, which is a better news source than all the ones you mentioned combined. Research Amy Goodman’s reporting on East Timor to see my point.
II do not watch MSNBC (other than In with Chris, which hosts both sides), Fox, read Drudge or Breitbart either. As for for Finnian Cunningham, he is a more vetted, reliable source than anyone you can point to from the mainstream media. His knowledge is borne by the simple fact that his reporting on the ME has rarely been belied by the subsequent events. Are you of those who think Seymour Hersh is a liar and a propagandist too? 🙂
po
Lew Rockwell again! Lew Rockwell – Alex Jones…”I have no idea who is behind Washingtons blog but…”
Sorry, po. You are hopeless.
L, just forget about Lew, just brought him out as part of the explanation of my sourcing for information.
Again, never read anything he wrote, so have no idea what he is/isn’t.
Perhaps you ought to meet me a little out of your comfort zone.
Where do you get your news?
PR
Here is a link on the disparity of longevity between rich and poor and the impact on SS of growing longevity. The information is based on a study from the Brookings Institute that was just published.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/13/health/disparity-in-life-spans-of-the-rich-and-the-poor-is-growing.html
Excerpt:
‘The growing longevity gap means that benefits like Social Security are paid out even more disproportionately to the better-off because they are around for more years to collect them. Last summer, the National Academy of Sciences convened a panel of experts to study the implications. It concluded that disparate life expectancies are making the country’s biggest entitlement programs, like Social Security and Medicare, increasingly unfair to the poor and suggested officials consider policy changes to address the problem.’
By the way, L, I have never watched anything by Alex Jones. He is as much of a misinformer as the mainstream media.
PR
Here are two links that will offer some insight into the issue of raising the cap on SS that has been supported by Democrats for some time – not all – but many Democrats.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/08/12/clinton-is-open-to-raising-social-security-taxes-on-six-figure-earners/
Here is one from NPR
http://www.npr.org/2013/12/05/249068448/to-fix-social-security-some-democrats-want-to-lift-wage-cap
po
Information Clearinghouse is a site that is recommended by Alex Jones of info wars – spreader of much crazy talk.
washingtons blog is completely unknown. For all I know they reside in a looney bin.
Are you aware that ANYONE can set up a blog and publish anything they want? You are very foolish to rely on these sources.
L, I read a lot, from every source that makes sense to me, and I am knowledgeable enough to be able to distinguish between the sources. I am a fan of history and of geopolitical affairs, so this is something I have always done.
I can tell when someone is feeding me BS…
I don’t claim that every claim made is true, but the truth is always somewhere in that no man’s land between the claim and the rebuttal. I have yet to read a conclusion I agree with 100%, but hey, if I cannot agree with my own self 100%, and if I don’t agree with my religious leaders 100%, it is likely I would disagree with many of these writers.
I understand shooting the messenger, but only when we find out the message is deceptive. The same blogs and articles featured on ICH are very often featured on Lew Rockwell (which, again, I now very little about, other than his emails include insightful articles sometimes), but also on Truthdig and consortium news, because all of those are aggregators, and the latter ones are not known kook sites.
Additionally, some of the same writers (such as Finnian Cunningham http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article44277.htm , who is very informed on the ME, and the Intercept writers )are featured on Democracy now, a program I watch religiously.
I have no idea who is behind Washington Blog, but I have looked up some of the info, and it does indeed check out.
By the way, L, here is a better link regarding the false flag operations. http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2015/02/41-admitted-false-flag-attacks.html
And the one for the abc news story about the dancing israelis.
http://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=123885
The debt to Americans to which I thought you were referring was Americans purchased Treasury bills.
L’Observer,
“However, with respect to the entitlement debt, you will find that Democrats have asked that the cap be raised. I don’t think a single Republican has suggested such an increase and, in fact, all of them always vigorously protest any such ‘increase in taxes’.”
Since I had not heard about this suggestion at all, I think I should be cranky with the media. I do try to be decently informed on a wide variety of subjects, and I missed that news topic entirely.
L’Observer,
“But to suggest that Social Security is money spent unwisely is quite surprising.”
You mistake me–I meant in general my tax dollars are not always spent wisely (e.g., endless wars, tarp, auto bailout, millions to Karzai or other such black budget money, etc).
PR
Yes, I had assumed you were uncomfortable with the debt. But to suggest that Social Security is money spent unwisely is quite surprising.
To avoid ‘crankiness’, I was careful to say ‘congress’ rather than Republicans. However, with respect to the entitlement debt, you will find that Democrats have asked that the cap be raised. I don’t think a single Republican has suggested such an increase and, in fact, all of them always vigorously protest any such ‘increase in taxes’.
L’Observer,
I had not heard about the SS cap at all. Thank you for the tip. I shall have to look into this argument. I must admit, though, that I am not at all comfortable with the degree of debt, even if most of it is to the American people. My faith in the government using my money wisely is very low.
“But it is odd, isn’t it, that congress does nothing? Maybe odd isn’t the right word…maybe irresponsible is a better one.”
I am glad you pointed to congress as a whole and not just Republicans. Democrats are complicit, too. I am an Independent and disgusted with both parties.
Po,
Here is an interesting new theory for the collapse of the Twin Towers in Livescience:
http://m.livescience.com/16179-twin-tower-collapse-model-squash-9-11-conspiracies.html
“a materials scientist has come up with a more scientific explanation for the mystery booms, and says his model of the Twin Towers collapse leaves no room for conspiracies.”
The comments are also interesting.
Thanks for the link, PR, interesting theory, and seems to make sense at first glimpse. I’ll have to research it better.
As for the petrollar yes, I agree with your comments and wanted to wait to comment further about that thought until I tracked back my sources. Still working on that.
Regarding Mossad, I admit that their involvement is very likely anecdotal. I suspect the most salient “”evidence”” we have is the 5 Mossad linked Israelis who were caught recording and cheering the falling towers. They were detained then deported. h t t p://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=123885&page=1
Still, still, to deny the ability and interest of the Mossad in creating false flag operations to benefit Israel’s aims is very naive. Their track record is long and well documented.
http://www.veteranstoday.com/2014/02/21/zim-shipping-evidence-they-knew-911-was-coming/
AS I said before, there are enough coincidences to make one give it more than just a quick pondering.
This is also another very interesting article, and easily verifiable article linking much of the above.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article44068.htm
And another one that digs deeper into the issue.
PR
I just don’t see it, but I’m not informed enough to present any kind of an argument. Perhaps my sangfroid is because I am also not so fearful of our debt, which is owed primarily to ourselves. A debt ,that in my view, could be so easily relieved if Republicans would allow the Social Security cap to be increased to $200K. There is good support for this move, since the wealthy are living so much longer and collecting more benefits over time.
I also don’t understand the role of the IMF in this and the creation of the NDB. And is the $100B capitalization of NDB an under-funding as I suggest judging from their planned projects that each country will be demanding?
But it is odd, isn’t it, that congress does nothing? Maybe odd isn’t the right word…maybe irresponsible is a better one.
L’Observer,
Yes, my info is somewhat dated. Keep in mind that I was trying to clarify a point of po’s. (I assume I was correct since po has not chimed in saying otherwise.)
I admit that I have also not stayed on top of this topic like I should. You are correct; many of the countries I noted are having economic trouble. China’s trouble could mirror own, however, since we are so intertwined. Are Americans buying fewer Made in China products out of moral indignation towards their human rights violations or are Americans buying fewer Made in China products out of necessity? (Though, to be honest, I am speculating that China’s economic issues stem from lower US demand).
Regarding any of these other currencies unseating the dollar as the reserve currency, I do not think it matters. If enough countries decide to bypass, then that is a problem for us (if other countries buy fewer Treasury bills to use in their international transactions, then a source of government funding for us will dip significantly).
po
Sorry. I was should have said, and will say in the future, Islam.
Mossad cr*p is hooey.
Your worldview is much too crazy for me and you are too easily convinced by two-bit anti-government conspiracy nuts who specialize in war porn. And Rumsfield can write as many top-secret memos with plans to conquer the world as he wants, but it did not come to pass. Yes, they wanted Iraq on 1/21/01. I’ll give you that. I’ll wait for the historians (good ones) before I begin to consider your ideas.
po
The anti-Muslim bigotry you suffer on this site is appalling and I think Americans should oppose such bigotry.
All else that you espouse at 1:27 is baseless crazy talk and sickens me. You are destroying any possibility anyone here might decide you are a ‘reasonable’ man whose defense of his religion deserves consideration. You are the ONLY one here who defends 2 billion Muslims. You have just sh*t all over all of them.
And you ought to check out the two links you have posted to information clearing house. I have tried both and they don’t work.
L, the fact that I posit that there was more to 9/11 than meets the eye doesn’t necessarily have ANYTHING to do with my being a Muslim. Hell, many other non-Muslims here have raised the same questions.
A great many people here in this country have raised the same questions.
Let’s not make it about me being a Muslim. I have done my share of condemning the 9/11 attacks and Osama bin laden, until the last year or so when the nagging questions I kept having were answered better by people such as http://www.ae911truth.org/ than the official narrative, especially when the commission for 9/11 was obviously obfuscating, and the government refuses to release the redacted pages of the report, which was decried by congresspeople such as Bob Graham who stated that the american people would be horrified to see what’s in it.
Again, there is ENOUGH evidence for either pre-knowledge of 911 or Mossad involvement to push for the conclusion that there was more to it than 19 hijackers, among whom were pilots who could not even pass a cessna flying class, and it is also established that many of the accused hijackers were living elsewhere and were not actual participants in the events.
WE have enough then current and former government officials and military officers who are still asking for a more truthful inquiry into 911. Some of them suspect government involvement while others suspect mere government incompetency, but the fact remains that, at this point, anyone willing to trust the official story of 911 is blinding themselves to what the obvious holes in the story. As they say, none blinder but he who doesn’t want to see 🙂 http://www.wanttoknow.info/officialsquestion911commissionreport
As for defending Muslims, no, I am defending Islam, what Muslims do individually is not my issue. If I don’t demand you defending all Americans, or bambam defend all Jews, I sure won’t make me the defender of all Muslims.
As I said before, I was never a conspiracy theorist, but I can also tell when the numbers don’t add up or the logic is defective. I read enough and am informed enough to be able to trust my intuition and claim something smells fishy. And 9/11 was just the perfect event to create the surge of imperialism needed to take out the 7 ME countries in 5 years that General Wesley Clark talked about———————”
[AMY GOODMAN]
Do you see a replay in what happened in the lead-up to the war with Iraq — the allegations of the weapons of mass destruction, the media leaping onto the bandwagon?
[GEN. WESLEY CLARK]
Well, in a way. But, you know, history doesn’t repeat itself exactly twice. What I did warn about when I testified in front of Congress in 2002, I said if you want to worry about a state, it shouldn’t be Iraq, it should be Iran. But this government, our administration, wanted to worry about Iraq, not Iran.
I knew why, because I had been through the Pentagon right after 9/11. About ten days after 9/11, I went through the Pentagon and I saw Secretary Rumsfeld and Deputy Secretary Wolfowitz. I went downstairs just to say hello to some of the people on the Joint Staff who used to work for me, and one of the generals called me in. He said, “Sir, you’ve got to come in and talk to me a second.” I said, “Well, you’re too busy.” He said, “No, no.” He says, “We’ve made the decision we’re going to war with Iraq.” This was on or about the 20th of September. I said, “We’re going to war with Iraq? Why?” He said, “I don’t know.” He said, “I guess they don’t know what else to do.” So I said, “Well, did they find some information connecting Saddam to al-Qaeda?” He said, “No, no.” He says, “There’s nothing new that way. They just made the decision to go to war with Iraq.” He said, “I guess it’s like we don’t know what to do about terrorists, but we’ve got a good military and we can take down governments.” And he said, “I guess if the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem has to look like a nail.”
So I came back to see him a few weeks later, and by that time we were bombing in Afghanistan. I said, “Are we still going to war with Iraq?” And he said, “Oh, it’s worse than that.” He reached over on his desk. He picked up a piece of paper. And he said, “I just got this down from upstairs” — meaning the Secretary of Defense’s office — “today.” And he said, “This is a memo that describes how we’re going to take out seven countries in five years, starting with Iraq, and then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and, finishing off, Iran.” I said, “Is it classified?” He said, “Yes, sir.” I said, “Well, don’t show it to me.” And I saw him a year or so ago, and I said, “You remember that?” He said, “Sir, I didn’t show you that memo! I didn’t show it to you!”