COMMITTEE IN ITALY'S PARLIAMENT PASSES BURQA BAN

GOOD NEWS:

An Italian parliamentary commission has approved a draft law banning women from wearing veils that cover their faces in public. The draft, which was passed by the constitutional affairs commission on Tuesday, would prohibit women from wearing a burqa, naqib or any other garment that covers the face in such circumstances. It would expand a decades-old law that for security reasons prohibits people from wearing face-covering items such as masks in public places.

Women who violate the ban would face fines, while third parties who force women to cover their faces in public would be fined and face up to 12 months in jail.

THIS IS PART OF THE NON-KINETIC COUNTER-JIHAD. GOOD.

CHOCOLATE: IS THERE ANYTHING IT CAN'T DO?

CHOCOLATE: IS THERE ANYTHING IT CAN'T DO?

Researchers have known for some time that chocolate has healthful effects, and recent epidemiological studies have shown that people who regularly indulge in moderate amounts of dark chocolate are less likely to develop high blood pressure or heart disease or suffer strokes. But chocolate’s potential role in exercise performance had not been studied, or probably even much considered, until scientists at the University of California, San Diego, and other institutions gave middle-aged, sedentary male mice a purified form of cacao’s primary nutritional ingredient, known as epicatechin, and had the mice work out. Epicatechin is a flavonol, a class of molecules that are thought to have widespread effects on the body.

The mice were given small liquid doses of epicatechin twice a day. A separate control group of mice drank equal amounts of water.

... The fittest rodents, however, were those that had combined epicatechin and exercise. They covered about 50 percent more distance than the control animals.

The muscle biopsies offered some explanation for their dominance. The muscles of all of the animals that had been given epicatechin contained new capillaries, as well as biochemical markers indicating that their cells were making new mitochondria. Mitochondria are structures in cells that produce cellular energy. The more functioning mitochondria a muscle contains, the healthier and more fatigue-resistant it is.

WHAT CHOCOLATE CAN'T DO, RED WINE CAN! YEAH BABY!

YET ANOTHER CIVIL RIGHT?

The insanity just keeps on coming:

Pennsylvanians on public assistance now have a new 'civil right' -- free cell phones. Meanwhile, the rest of us get to pay higher cell bills as a result.

Recently, a federal government program called the Universal Service Fund came to the Keystone State and some residents are thrilled because it means they can enjoy 250 minutes a month and a handset for free, just because they don't have the money to pay for it....

And the idea of free telecommunication services for those who cannot afford to pay for those services doesn't end with cell phones. According to the article cited above:

Between 14 million and 24 million Americans lack access to broadband, "and immediate prospects for deployment to them are bleak," the FCC said in a report last year. "Many of these Americans are poor or live in rural areas that will remain unserved without reform of the universal service program and other changes," the report said.

But who says that cheap or free broadband is anything more than a luxury?

Well, another Obama flunkie, Rahm Emanuel, that's who. As we reported in June , the new mayor of Chicago was all excited to proclaim the wonderful news of free internet service to poor kids in Chicago's worst neighborhoods. And how could Mayor Emanuel pay for this new 'civil right'? Well, because the federal government extorted the money from Comcast when it wanted to buy NBC-Universal....And who is going to pay for this gift? Well, of course the rest of us poor saps who actually pay our bills.

America turned into one gigantic welfare state!

RED WINE: IS THERE ANYTHING IT CAN'T DO!?

Anyone who consumes grapes, including wine drinkers, could be slightly more immune to the effects of sunburn and cancer.

According to ABC15, flavonoids in the grapes can stop chemical reactions that causes cells to die, which would effectively avoid skin damage.

The new findings have cosmetic companies abuzz with the possibility of new sun creams or pills that mimic the process.

THE BEST THING TO DO IS DRINK A LOT OF IT!

HMMM: NYC STEPS UP ITS ANTI-RADIATION POLICE UNITS

REUTERS:

While more than 2,000 belt-mounted radiation detectors are already used by city police, this will be the first time in the United States they will be combined with GPS technology to allow central monitoring, said police spokesman Paul Browne.

... A squad of 210 officers was being assigned to the World Trade Center site and surrounding area, parts of which are still under construction. Many officers will have detectors that can send an alert to a central command center if a spike in radiation levels is detected.

... The NYPD also has upgraded its network of surveillance cameras, soon to number about 2,000, with software that can raise an alert if a camera detects suspicious activity or objects.

THE LAST DECADE OF GLOBAL ECONOMIC STAGNATION IS CAUSED BY LEFTISTS AND JIHADISTS

WIKI:

The Kyoto Protocol is a protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC or FCCC), aimed at fighting global warming. The UNFCCC is an international environmental treaty with the goal of achieving the "stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system."^[1]

The Protocol was initially adopted on 11 December 1997 in Kyoto, Japan, and entered into force on 16 February 2005.

As of April 2010, 191 states have signed and ratified the protocol.^[2]

BECAUSE CHINA IS USING MORE FOSSIL FUELS THAN EVER, GLOBAL MAN-MADE CO2 HASN'T DECLINED A BIT.

CHART OF THE PRICE OF OIL:

MAJOR SHIFTS UPWARD IN THE PRICE OF OIL DO NOT OCCUR IN THE ABSENCE OF JIHAD:

• THE MAJOR SHIFTS UPWARD OCCUR WITH THE YOM KIPPUR WAR; THE IRAN-IRAQ WAR, AND SINCE 9/11/01.

• AND THIS EFFECT DOESN'T BECOME EXPONENTIALLY GREATER UNTIL KYOTO WAS PASSED -
  

• KYOTO - THAT IDIOTIC AND INEFFECTIVE LEFTIST PROTOCOL WHICH HAS RETARDED CHEAP FOSSIL FUEL EXPLORATION AND EXPLOITATION AND MERELY SPURRED CORRUPT CARBON TRADINGS AND EXPENSIVE/EXOTIC/CHIC "ALTERNATIVE" ENERGY SOURCES.

• AT THE VERY FOUNDATION OF OUR DECADE-LONG GLOBAL STAGNATION ARE LEFTISTS AND JIHADISTS.

• LEFTIST ENERY POLICIES AND GLOBAL JIHAD ARE INCREASING HUMAN SUFFERING - AND THREATEN GLOBAL DEPRESSION.
  

IF WE WANT TO RESTORE GLOBAL ECONOMIC GROWTH, THEN WE NEED TO DEFEAT GLOBAL JIHAD AND CATEGORICALLY REJECT THE PHONY SCIENCE

BOMB-TERROR AS EXTORTION IN AUSTRALIA?

TELEGRAPH:

Police try to defuse bomb 'strapped to teenage girl' in Sydney

Bomb squad police officers are reportedly trying to defuse a bomb strapped to an 18-year-old girl at a house in a wealthy suburb of Sydney.

New South Wales state police said an 18-year-old woman called them to the house in Mosman. Officials evacuated surrounding homes and members of the bomb squad were carefully examining the device.

"The process demands a high level of skill and must be meticulous," police said in a statement.

Police would not comment on reports that the device had been strapped to the woman by someone she did not know, but said the incident was "not being treated as self-harm."

HMM: STAY TUNED...

"A New Zealand man has been decapitated by a propeller while demonstrating a home-made hovercraft to his family"

OY:

A New Zealand man has been decapitated by a propeller while demonstrating a home-made hovercraft to his family, local media reports say.

ANOTHER SIGN THAT PAKISTAN ("POCHKISTAHN" AS OBAMA SAYS IT) IS FAST BECOMING A FAILED STATE...

... AND IF THE STATE FAILS, IT WOULD ONLY BENEFIT THE ISLAMISTS:

BBC: At least 34 people have been killed since Monday in the latest bout of ethnically fuelled violence in Pakistan's southern city of Karachi.

Officials said 11 people were shot dead on Tuesday, while 23 had been killed the previous day.

Targeted killings and clashes claimed more than 200 lives in Karachi in July.

Armed groups supported by Pakistan's main political parties are said to be responsible. Police officials say the groups are controlled by criminals.

But critics say that Pakistan's ruling coalition appears unwilling to bring them to account.

MAYBE EVERYONE WOULD BE BETTER OFF IF MUSHARRAF WAS BACK?

WINTER SOLSTICE, TOTAL LUNAR ECLIPSE AND URSID METEOR SHOWER ALL AT THE SAME TIME

A total lunar eclipse will usher in the Christmas holiday in North America overnight Dec. 20 and Dec. 21.

Space.com says this is the first total lunar eclipse in nearly three years. Even more prominent is the lunar eclipse will occur on the same day as the winter solstice. The event is so rare NPR reports the last time a total lunar eclipse and the winter solstice coincided was Dec 21, 1638.

... The next time a lunar eclipse will happen on the winter solstice is in 2094 so if you want to see a rare event, tonight will be the night to do it. The lunar eclipse in 2010 will be spectacular to witness

MORE:

Getting the Ursid meteor shower, named Ursid because it emanates from the star Kochab in Ursa Minor, the Little Bear, is a special bonus. The Dec. 22 to 23 Ursid meteor shower is usually difficult to see because of the full moon around that time of month. The total lunar eclipse does double duty as is not only blots out the moonlight and makes the Ursids visible, an eclipse is pretty amazing to watch, too. A total lunar eclipse can be viewed safely with the naked eye, also. Unlike a solar eclipse which must be viewed with a pinhole camera or with special glasses, moonlight is not strong enough to harm the eyes.

When is the best time to view the winter solstice, total lunar eclipse and Ursid meteor shower? According to Space.com, it depends upon where you live. West Coast viewers will want to start watching about 9:30 p.m. while viewers on the East Coast will see the total lunar eclipse best at 12:30 a.m. (just after midnight).

The eclipse will reach full strength at 12:17 p.m. out west and 3:17 a.m. in the east.

IT'S AN OMEN.

UH-OHHHHHHH!: ASIAN STOCK MARKETS ALREADY DOWN 1-2%

THE CRASH CONTINUES... AS OF 8:40PM IN NYC: Markets »

Markets »

Japan
Nikkei
9,670.68
–173.91
–1.77%

HangSeng
22,421.46
–241.91
–1.07%

Shanghai
2,679.26
–24.52
–0.91%

OBAMAPITHECUS?

A team of Ugandan and French palaeontologists have announced they have found a 20-million-year-old ape skull in northeastern Uganda, saying it could shed light on the region's evolutionary history.

'This is the first time that the complete skull of an ape of this age has been found ... it is a highly important fossil and it will certainly put Uganda on the map in terms of the scientific world,' Martin Pickford, a palaeontologist from the College de France in Paris, told journalists in Kampala.

The fossilised skull belonged to a male Ugandapithecus Major, a remote cousin of today's great apes which roamed the region around 20 million years ago.

HERE'S A PHOTO OF THE UGANDAPITHECUS BONES...



HERE'S WHAT I THINK IT MIGHT LOOK LIKE WHEN IT'S PUT TOGETHER...



HERE'S A POSSIBLE RECONSTRUCTION...



OBAMAPITHECUS GIGANTUS PIECEOFCRAPICUS.

IT HAS A NICE RING TO IT.

THANKS OBAMA: USA LIKELY TO GET FIRST EVER DOWNGRADE AS DOLLAR PLUMMETS

The U.S., rated Aaa since 1917, was placed on negative outlook, New York-based Moody’s said in a statement today as it confirmed the rating.

VIA HOT AIR:

On Tuesday, Fitch Ratings said the agreement to raise the debt ceiling and make spending cuts was an important first step but “not the end of the process.” The rating agency said it wants to see a credible plan to reduce the budget deficit “to a level that would secure the United States’ `AAA’ status.”

And late on Tuesday, Moody’s Investors Service assigned a negative outlook to U.S. debt, but confirmed its AAA rating — for now. A negative outlook means the rating agency could lower the rating in the next 12 to 18 months. Moody’s said that continued slow economic growth, higher interest rates could lead to a downgrade. Moody’s also said weak fiscal discipline in the coming year could do the same…

“Growth healed all wounds in 1995,” [Federated Investors' Joe] Balestrino said. “However, now the U.S. doesn’t have enough vitality to grow its way out.”…

Because of that, many analysts believe that U.S. debt will eventually be downgraded to AA. And if that happens, it could be tough to regain the AAA rating.

BY DESTROYING OUR ECONOMY AND CURRENCY OBAMA IS EFFECTUATING EVERY POSTMODERN LEFTIST'S WET-DREAM:

CASTRATING THE DEFENDER OF THE WEST, AND THEREBY BRINGING THE WEST DOWN ON ITS KNEES.

(MAYBE OBAMA THINKS ITS EASIER TO LEAD FROM BEHIND IF YOU'RE DOWN ON YOUR KNEES?)

IF OBAMA ISN'T DOING IT ON PURPOSE, THEN HE'S THE MOST INCOMPETENT PERSON EVER TO HOLD THE OFFICE.

BUT WE KNEW THAT IN 2008 - BEFORE HE WAS SWORN IN!)

HITCHENS: TURKEY IS FULLY POST-KEMALIST

HITCH FINALLY SEES THE LIGHT VISAVIS TURKEY.

WE'VE BEEN SAYING THIS FOR YEARS.(SCROLL DOWN AND USE THE LINKS.)

IF HITCH WASN'T STILL A PINKO AT HEART, AND AN ANTI-ZIONIST, THEN HE MIGHT HAVE SEEN IT AS RECENTLY AS LAST YEAR - DURING THE MARAMARA AFFAIR.

BUT HITCH IS STILL TRAPPED BY HIS DEEP LEFTISM, AND STILL SEES ISRAEL AS A COLONY OF THE WEST AND JEWS AS INTERLOPERS.

I PRAY HIS EYES FULLY OPEN BEFORE HE DIES.

Global outlook gloomier and gloomier:

Global outlook gloomier and gloomier:

Spanish, Italian markets slammed by investor fears

Investors dealt Italy and Spain a battering Tuesday as the yields on their bonds struck euro-era highs amid mounting fears that an economic slowdown will hurt their chances of dodging Europe's spreading debt crisis.

The yield for the Spanish 10-year bond rose as far as 6.45 percent, the highest since the euro was created.

Dollar Sinks to Low Against Swiss Franc

The dollar hit a record low against the Swiss franc on concerns about a slowdown in economic growth.

The Swiss franc is considered a safe-haven currency and tends to gain in times of turmoil.

UPDATE: MORE HERE.

MEDICAID PLUNDERED BY RIP-OFF ARTISTS

Medicaid money created quite a nice life for the Levy brothers from Flatbush, Brooklyn.

The brothers, Philip and Joel, earned close to $1 million a year each as the two top executives running a Medicaid-financed nonprofit organization serving the developmentally disabled.

They each had luxury cars paid for with public money. And when their children went to college, they could pass on the tuition bills to their nonprofit group.

Philip H. Levy went as far as charging the organization $50,400 for his daughter’s living expenses one year when she attended graduate school at New York University. That money paid not for a dorm room, but rather it helped her buy a co-op apartment in Greenwich Village.

The rise of the Levy brothers, from scruffy bearded social workers in the 1970s to millionaires with homes in the Hamptons, Sutton Place and Palm Beach Gardens, reveals much about New York’s system for caring for the developmentally disabled — those with conditions like cerebral palsy, Down syndrome and autism.

The state spends, by far, more than any other caring for this population: $10 billion this year, and roughly 20 cents of every dollar spent nationally.

More than half of that money goes to private providers like the Levys, with little oversight of their spending.

SICKENING.

THIS IS WHY GOVERNMENT SPENDING IS BAD: IT'S PRONE TO CORRUPTION AND ABUSE JUST LIKE THIS.

NYTIMES: "Consumer spending unexpectedly fell in June "

WE ARE IN DOUBLE DIP: "Consumer spending unexpectedly fell in June "

PRO-JIHAD/SHARIA MARCH IN LONDON: THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS SCOOPS JIHAD WATCH BY 2 DAYS

JIHAD WATCH TODAY.

TAB 2 DAYS AGO.

REGULAR READERS KNOW WE DO THIS ALL THE TIME. PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD. BLOGROLL US. FOLLOW US.

BBC: "THE UNREST" IN WESTERN CHINA IS MERELY "ETHNIC"...

... AND NOT JIHAD:

Chinese police have shot dead two men suspected of mounting a fatal attack in Xinjiang region on Sunday, the state-run Xinhua news agency reports.

The two ethnic Uighur men, Memtieli Tiliwaldi and Turson Hasan, were found hiding in a corn field on the outskirts of the city of Kashgar, Xinhua said.

Six people were killed in an attack at a restaurant in Kashgar. Police shot dead five suspects at the scene.

... Xinjiang has been the scene of recent ethnic unrest involving native Muslim Turkic-speaking Uighurs, who are angered by what they see as heavy-handed rule from Beijing, and the increasing influx of majority Han Chinese.

THE BBC - LIKE MOST LEFTIST GROUPS - IS STILL IN DENIAL.

BTW: THESE MUSLIM UIGHURS WERE TRAINED IN PAKISTAN BY THE ISI -THE FOLKS WHO PRETETED BIN LADEN AND WHO PROTECT AND TRAIN THE TALIBAN.

THE ROAD TO PEACE GOES THROUGH ISLAMABAD AND TEHRAN.

WITHOUT DEFEATING THE ENEMY REGIMES IN THESE TWO NATIONS, WE CANNOT DEFEAT GLOBAL JIHAD.

THE LIBERAL VERSUS THE CONSERVATIVE VISION OF BIG GOVERNMENT

IT ALL BOILS DOWN TO THIS:

ONLY ONE OF THESE TWO VISIONS IS CLOSE TO REALITY.

POLICIES THAT ARE DERIVED FROM FAULTY VISIONS ALMOST NEVER EVER PRODUCE GOOD RESULTS.

THE IDEA THAT A GOVERNMENT RUN BY POLITICIANS CAN BE A GOOD PARENT, FAIRLY DIVIDING PROPERTY AND EFFICIENTLY PROVING SERVICES AND GOODS IS A FAIRY TALE.

A SEEMINGLY BENIGN ONE.

EXCEPT ON CLOSER INSPECTION.

IT'S ACTUALLY ONE THAT KILLED MORE THAN A HUNDRED MILLION PEOPLE IN THE LAST CENTURY.

JUST ASK THE RUSSIANS OR THE CHINESE OR THE CAMBODIANS OR THE GERMANS.

THE LIBERAL VISION IS THE ROAD TO SERVITUDE TO BIG BROTHER AND POVERTY - ER, UM... IOW: THE ROAD TO SERFDOM.

OBAMA HAS TAKEN US DOWN THAT ROAD FOR NEARLY THREE YEARS.

WE HAVEN'T MADE A U-TURN YET, BUT WE'VE STOPPED THE CAR AND PULLED OVER.

WE CAN BEGIN TO MAKE THE U-TURN ON THE NEXT 16 MONTHS.

AND IF WE ELECT A CONSERVATIVE PRESIDENT, THEN WE CAN GO UP THE RAID TO PROSPERITY. TO THAT CITY ON THE HILL ONCE AGAIN.

THANKS OBAMA!: THE ECONOMY HAS HAD THE CRAP KNOCKED OUT OF IT AND IS HEADED FOR A DOUBLE-DIP

ACCORDING TO CNBC, WE MAY ALREADY BE IN THE MIDDLE OF A DOUBLE-DIP RECESSION.

I THINK WE ARE, BASED ON MY OWN CONTACTS IN THE BUSNESS COMMUNITY IN NYC.

OBAMACARE, THE PORKULUS, REGULATING CARBON AND CLOSING DOWN OFF-SHORE DRILLING - NOT TO MENTION A BASICALLY ANTI-BUSINESS/HIGH-TAX ATMOSPHERE - ALL CONTRIBUTED TO THIS DOUBLE DIP.

THESE MISGUIDED LIBERAL REDISTRIBUTIONIST POLICIES HAVE, FIGURATIVELY SPEAKING, KNOCKED THE CRAP OUT OF THE US ECONOMY.

THANKS OBAMA!


THE ECONOMY DESPERATELY NEEDS AN ANTIDOTE TO OBAMA-LAX.

AND IT HAD BETTER COME BEFORE 2012 OR WE ARE GOING TO DIE FROM DYSENTERY!

• WE NEED TO CUT SPENDING, TAXES AND RED-TAPE, AND REDUCE REGULATIONS.

AND...

BECAUSE MAN-MADE CLIMATE CHANGE OR MAN-MADE GLOBAL WARMING, (OR WHATEVER THE EFF YOU WANT TO CALL IT!) IS TOTAL 100% UNADULTERATED BULLSHIT...

WE NEED TO ERASE EVERY SINGLE SOLITARY ANTI-FOSSIL FUEL REGULATION ON THE BOOKS AND START DRILLING BABY DRILLING FOR OIL AND DIGGING BABY DIGGING FOR COAL.

REPEALING THE ANTI-FOSSIL FUELS REGS WOULD INSTANTLY SEND A MESSAGE TO THE GLOBAL ENERGY MARKETS AND WOULD IMMEDIATELY LOWER ENERGY COSTS.

THIS WOULD BE LIKE GIVING PEOPLE AND BUSINESSES AN IMMEDIATE BONUS, AND IT WOULD JUMP START THE GLOBAL ECONOMY.

IT MAY BE THE ONLY SILVER BULLET LEFT.

NEW DRUGS CAN MAKE BRAINS YOUNG AGAIN: THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS SCOOPS GLENN REYNOLDS - THE FAMOUS INSTAPUNDIT - BY 4 DAYS, JUST AS PREDICTED

THE MOST FAMOUS BLOGGER IN THE BLOGOSPHERE, FAMOUS FOR HIS LINKS, POSTED THIS TODAY:

FASTER, PLEASE:

Drug Could Make Aging Brains More Youthful. As I leave Late Youth and enter very early middle age, this stuff starts to seem important . . . .

[Er, "leave Late Youth"? You sure about that phrasing? -- ed. Hey, I'm the same age as Barack Obama, and he's dynamic and youthful by definition. Have you seen Barack lately? -- ed. Good point.]

Posted at 4:20 pm by Glenn Reynolds

I POSTED ON IT 4 DAYS AGO - EVEN USING THE WORDS "FASTER PLEASE!":

Thursday, July 28, 2011

NEWS DRUGS CAN MAKE OLD BRAINS YOUNG!

FASTER PLEASE!

(ANY GUESS AS TO HOW MANY DAYS IT WILL TAKE FOR GLENN REYNOLDS TO LINK TO THIS ITEM AT SOMEONE ELSE'S BLOG?)

Posted by Reliapundit at 6:00 PM

REGULAR READERS KNOW THAT WE SCOOP BIG FAMOUS BLOGGERS LIKE INSTAPUNDIT ALL THE TIME.

NOW YOU DO TOO.

PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD. BLOGROLL US. BECOME A FOLLOWER.