We often discuss the work of Jeremy Bentham in torts as one of the leading figures in the utilitarian movement — the scholar who coined the phrase “the greatest good for the greatest number.” Many students, however, remember him primarily for his preservation in a wooden cabinet called his auto-icon from which he would be removed annually to preside over meetings of his society of friends and even given a glass of sherry. The University College of London removed Jeremy last week to give him, or at least his auto-icon, an extreme makeover. The good guy looked pretty good for a 160 year old mummy.
Category: International
There is a bizarre case out of China were a man, Jian Feng, was awarded $120,000 (£75,000) in a court settlement after alleging that his wife did not reveal that she had had cosmetic surgery — a fact that he said he discovered when she had an ‘incredibly ugly’ child.
Submitted by: Mike Spindell, Guest Blogger
Normally, when I work on a guest blog it takes me some hours of research and writing since I type slowly and try to be as accurate as I can be. This one will be a little different because it is written mainly to refer you to the transcript and/or podcast of a fantastic interview with the investigative journalists Donald L.Bartlett and James B. Steele. The interview was conducted by Rob Kall, whose OpEdNews website http://www.opednews.com/ is one that I look to for interesting insight into the political issues of the day. The interview deals with these authors’s current book which is called: The Betrayal of the American Dream”.
Rob Kall’s interview with the author’s is lengthy and so rather than my usual effort to provide a synopsis and relevant quotes of a position that I endorse, I’m going to give you a hint of what this interview contains and the provide you the links so that you can make your decision on the author’s thesis and hopefully be informed on some very important issues for all of us. Readers here know I supported President Obama for re-election, but have been critical of many of his policies. This interview and the book that it is about, demonstrate that the forces at play in the rapid decline of the American Middle Class seem beyond the power of our government to control, simply because they are backed by an elite that not only finances election campaigns, but that has also dominated the discussion with so much false propaganda, that today’s politicians who were born later than 1960 are not even familiar with the reality of how much our economic landscape has changed. Because of this unfamiliarity many don’t even have the conceptualization that things used to be different and why they’ve changed so drastically. In that sense this is less about conspiracy and more about the effect poor education, corporate media and propaganda can accomplish. When I say that the problem is beyond government’s power to fix, it is with the caveat that if the issues presented here were first understood, then maybe we could combat them. In some sense we are all blind men, hypothesizing the nature of an elephant by touching different parts. This interview and the book it is about can miraculously cure the blindness and start the discussion on how we can deal with this 3,000 pound elephant in the room we call America.
I will mention two, among many, of the major factors in the decline of the American Middle Class laid out by the authors. The first is that until the 1970’s our Income Tax was really graduated to the point that government had ample revenue to do its job. The second is that one of the major revenue sources for the Federal Government was tariffs. It was the dismantling of the graduated Income Tax and the proliferation of trade agreements reducing tariffs (and tariff revenue) that have been major pieces in the shipping of jobs overseas, increasing our national debt and destroying what was the greatest industrial economy in the World. For me, a child born to politically aware parents, before the end of World War II, I’ve lived through this history and watched in dismay as these changes took effect. Most Americans though, except for those most prescient, have no idea of what was done, simply because these changes took effect before they were born, or in their early youth. This election past and the polling of attitudes that went with it, show that the majority of Americans perceive that they are being cheated, but often their perception of how, has been skewed by the disinformation that is rampant to the extent that they blame it on the wrong source. If you read either the transcript of this article: “The Selling Out of the Middle Class is No Accident” at this link: http://www.opednews.com/articles/1/The-Selling-Out-of-the-Mid-by-Rob-Kall-121017-79.html or listen to the interview at this podcast: http://www.opednews.com/Podcast/Applying-Investigative-Jou-by-Rob-Kall-120915-680.html
I deeply believe that it will be time well spent.
President Barack Obama is reportedly considering a tax on carbon emissions to help cut the U.S. budget deficit. As many know, I am leery of the use of higher taxes in this country and countries like France in the midst of this economic crisis. However, this is one tax that I have long favored — not as a method of deficit reduction but as an effort to force companies to internalize some of the costs of pollution. The key, however, is to allow companies to reduce such taxes by reducing their emissions, creating an incentive to decrease pollution.
Continue reading “Report: Carbon Tax Being Considered By Obama Administration”
Yesterday, we saw how a Chinese newspaper was irate about the lines faced by U.S. voters — lines entirely avoided in a country that denies its citizens any right to select its leaders. Now, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has objected to the cost of the election — citing the runaway spending on the campaigns as a “battleground for capitalists” at a democracy forum. It is unclear why Ahmadinejad was even speaking at a democracy forum except as the balance against those who like democracy. Nevertheless, Ahmadinejad has certainly been able to suppress both democracy and its costs through the use of thug squads and widespread arrests.
Continue reading “Ahmadinejad Denounces U.S. Elections As Too Expensive”
Mark Basseley Youssef (aka Nakoula Basseley Nakoula), the filmmaker connected to the controversial film “The Innocence of Muslims,” has been sentenced to a year in prison for violations of his probation for his 2010 bank fraud conviction. The arrest of Youssef raised immediate objections that, while the Obama Administration insisted that it would not punish such acts of free speech, it set out to arrest him on any possible grounds to satisfy the “Arab Street.”
My colleague and well-known China expert Donald Clarke sent me another ironic nugget from our friends in China. China’s Global Times has run a story entitled “Seven-Hour Wait to Vote; This Election Is Shameful.” Since I blogged on this disgrace myself, I would normally be heartened by the outcry, but coming from China, where citizens are denied the ability to choose their government, it is nothing short of absurd. It is right up there with the Iranian government calling for the investigation of the mistreatment of protesters in England.
Continue reading “Chinese Newspaper Denounces Long Lines For Americans In Choosing Their Leader”
We have yet another tragedy of a gay student bullied to the point that he committed suicide. Tim Ribberink, 20, left a note saying that he simply could not take the teasing and isolation anymore despite his love for his parents. His image puts another face on the costs of homophobia and intolerance. Ribberlink was studying to be a history teacher.
Continue reading “Dutch Suicide Highlights Homophobia In Netherlands”
We have yet another horrific rape case in India. In this case, a 13-year-old girl who is part of low Dalit caste was abducted and gang raped by men from the higher Jats caste. They took pictures of the rape and threatened to release them if she told anyone. Eventually her mother discovered the truth and told her father, a gardener. The father’s shame under the cultural and religious norms of the area was so great that he drank pesticide and killed himself. In response to the outrage, local leader, Jitender Chhatar blamed fast foods for the rape while the state’s former chief minister, Om Prakash Chautala, called for the lowering of the age of consent to marriage to 15 to combat rapes in the country.
The plight of homosexuals in Russia is getting worse under Vladimir Putin. Gays and lesbians had their own Spring movement after the fall of the Soviet Union — coming out of the closet after decades of repression. Then came Putin and his alliance with the Russian Orthodox Church. Putin’s government quickly used gays and lesbians as targets of political attacks. Those political attacks have now turned to actual attacks as thugs raid gay bars and clubs — beating down both men and women while the police do nothing. The recent legislation banning “gay propaganda” (and a ban on parades for 100 years in Moscow) has triggered the increase in attacks as homophobes see official support for their violent campaigns.
Recently we discussed how Syrians were taking credit for sending Hurricane Sandy to devastate the United States as punishment for our opposition to the Assad regime. According to these sources, the hurricane was the creation of Iranian scientists and we noted that Christian ministers like Pat Robertson have long treated hurricanes as simple divine punishment — not some manufactured Sharia storm. Now, some Muslim clerics have shifted the account to a more traditional “God’s vengeance” theory. Clerics are telling the faithful that the hurricane was punishment for the recent YouTube video, “Innocence of Muslims.” Thank God it was only a trailer. It is frightening to imagine what would have been sent for the full-length movie.
State officials in Texas and Iowa have succeeded in putting the United States in the company of countries like Iran and North Korea this week after pledging to block access of international observers with the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) to polling places — even going as far as threatening to arrest the monitors. The actions are in direct violation with our long-standing position vis-a-vis other nations. It is a shameful position that, again, makes our country look like a hypocrites in demanding such monitoring in other countries but not allowing it in our own.
There has been a major breakthrough in the diagnosis of schizophrenia. Scientists at Aberdeen University have reportedly developed a way with near 100 percent accuracy to detect whether a person has schizophrenia — an eye test.
Continue reading “Scottish Scientists Develop Eye Test That Detects Schizophrenia”
Sweden has come up with a novel way of dealing with unemployment. It is paying people between the ages of 18 and 28 to go to Norway to find a job. This “Job Journey” is being offered young people in Soderhamn, who can receive a ticket to Oslo and a month’s rent at a youth’s hostel (for £20 a night).
Continue reading “Sweden Paying For Young People To Go To Norway To Find Work”
Having finally made it home and reunited with my children after being stranded in New Orleans, it was a shock to learn that Sandy was not a natural disaster but, according to various Syrians, a vehicle of Islamic justice sent by their special forces with the help of the Iranians. Getting stuck in the blizzard in the mountains with Leslie in our rented jeep, I should have seen the hand of the Bashar al-Assad given the wanton destruction caused by the storm. Yet, somehow I like this better than Hurricane Katrina being sent by God to punish us for homosexuality or earthquakes sent to punish “pacts with the Devil,” according to Pat Robertson.