Archive for December, 2008

Record 64 women make it to Bangladesh Parliament

Dhaka (PTI): A record 64 women, a majority of them from the Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League, will sit in Bangladesh’s ninth Parliament, elections for which were held on December 29.

While 45 of the 64 women have been nominated to the Parliament, the election also saw electorate sending an unprecedented 19 women candidates to the National Assembly.

The nomination come as per a provision in the country’s constitution for boosting majority of the fairer sex in the Parliament.

The 19 victorious women contested from 23 constituencies as Hasina, whose Awami League-led grand alliance registered a landslide win in the polls, and chairperson of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) Khaleda Zia secured victory in 3 constituencies each.

Among the female victors, Awami League got the lion share of 16. A total of 82 intending female candidates filed nomination papers for 88 seats to the 9th Parliament which also exceeded previous records of women contenders in terms of numbers.

Awami League fielded the highest 21 women candidates followed by 18 by BNP but its crucial election ally Jamaat-i-Islami did not nominate any woman candidate though they had two women MPs in the past from reserve seats.
In the 2001 poll, 13 women won out of 41 women contestants while in 1996 Parliament polls only five women candidates won in 11 seats which included Hasina and Zia. Of the total 81 million voters of Bangladesh, 41 million are women.

TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) — Iranian raids on the offices of dissident attorney Shirin Ebadi may have put her and her clients in “grave danger,” Ebadi’s fellow Nobel laureates say.
Shirin Ebadi won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003 for her human rights work.

Shirin Ebadi won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003 for her human rights work.

Her Tehran law office was raided by government authorities on Monday, with agents seizing two computers and dozens of files and documents on her clients, who are mostly political activists, Ebadi told CNN on Wednesday.

The authorities said they were from the tax office, Ebadi said.

The raid came a week after two organizations Ebadi also runs were raided.

Ebadi, a former judge and veteran human rights activist, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003. Other peace prize winners have launched a letter writing campaign to the United Nations and Iranian embassies in an effort to raise concerns about her safety.

“It is our great fear that Dr. Ebadi may be arrested in the next 24 to 48 hours as part of a systematic campaign by the government of Iran to bring an end to her work, and to the work of all human rights activists in the country of Iran,” 1997 Nobel Peace Prize winner Jody Williams wrote in a letter to Navanethem Pillay, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights.

Ebadi said the agents told her they would return the items after reading them. “I am sure they are going to copy them all, which is illegal,” she said.
Don’t Miss

* Iran raids, closes office, Nobel winner says
* CNN Arabic

“My clients, who are mostly political activists, may have said many things that had not been deemed proper to use in their court sessions,” she said. “But now those people have access to everything my clients have told me in confidence.”

“The confiscation of those files are against the law because they are contrary to the law that protects the sanctity of lawyer-client conversations.”

She said her clients had filed a complaint with Judiciary Chief Ayatollah Hashemi-Shahroudi.

However, an informed source in Tehran said the country’s judiciary was not involved in the most recent raid. The Iranian mission to the United Nations told CNN that it was unaware of any campaign to silence Ebadi’s work.

Ebadi has led several high-profile campaigns on behalf of women and children in the Islamic republic and successfully campaigned to reveal those responsible for a 1999 attack on Tehran University students that left several dead. She has been imprisoned by Iranian authorities on numerous occasions.

Last week’s raids shut Ebadi’s Center for the Defense of Human Rights and another charity that aids land mine victims. A spokesman for Iran’s Foreign Ministry told the state news agency IRNA that the organizations did not have legal work permits.

“There is now grave danger to both Dr. Ebadi, who fears an imminent arrest, and to her many human rights clients, whose basic human rights and lawyer/client privileges have been compromised by this seizure of their confidential files,” Williams wrote. “Dr. Ebadi is deeply concerned that the lives of many dozens of people are now in jeopardy as a result of yesterday’s illegal raid.”

Ebadi told CNN last week that she had the proper licenses to practice law and had stamps showing she was up to date on her taxes.

CNN’s Talia Kayali and Terence Burke and journalist Shirzad Bozorgmehr contributed to this report.

(CNN) — A Catholic aid organization operating in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the country’s government have accused Uganda-based rebels of massacring 400 civilians during Christmas celebrations last week.
The Lord’s Resistance Army, led by Joseph Kony, has been accused of many atrocities.

The Lord’s Resistance Army, led by Joseph Kony, has been accused of many atrocities.

The United Nations peacekeeping force in Congo put the death toll at 189 and said the Lord’s Resistance Army rebels also abducted 20 children.

Caritas International expressed its “shock” at the killing spree in northeastern Congo, blaming the rebels for attacking a Christmas day concert sponsored by the Catholic church in the town of Faradje. LRA rebels also burned down a church in another village, it said.

“The areas have been plundered, leaving the people in desperate need of aid,” the organization said in a news release issued on Monday. “Caritas says that the number of dead bodies risk spreading disease.”

Several Congolese officials and two Catholic priests were among those killed in Faradje, according to the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Congo, known by its French acronym MONUC.

The rebels torched 120 homes in Faradje, and looted the rest of the village — forcing its 30,000 residents to flee to neighboring towns — according to the U.N., citing humanitarian workers in the region.
Don’t Miss

* Commentary: No one is safe in Congo strife
* Scores dying from disease in Congo conflict

Congo’s Communications Minister Lambert Mende Omalanga told CNN that the attacks happened as the rebels were fleeing Congolese army forces and victims were “mostly women, children and old men — those who could not run and escape.”

Congo’s army, along with Ugandan and Sudanese forces, launched a raid against LRA rebels earlier this month. It came amid stalled peace negotiations intended to disarm LRA leader Joseph Kony and end a rebellion that began in Uganda over two decades ago when President Yoweri Museveni came to power.

The LRA, led by Kony, who claims to have spiritual powers, sought to overthrow Uganda’s government, demanding the constitution be replaced with a version of the Ten Commandments.

The Ugandan government and the rebels agreed to a cessation of hostilities in August 2006, but there have been outbursts of fighting since.

The LRA, which the U.S. State Department describes as “vicious and cult-like,” is known for its unpredictable behavior.

Local villagers and international human rights groups have accused the rebels of committing widespread abuses, including recruiting young boys and girls as soldiers and sex slaves.

In October 2005, the International Criminal Court unsealed arrest warrants for five LRA commanders, including Kony, who is alleged to have “ordered LRA forces to begin a campaign of attacks against civilians in Uganda” in 2002, according to the court.

OPINION COLUMN BY CAROLINE GLICK
December 30,2008
Both Iran and its Hamas proxy in Gaza have been busy this Christmas week showing Christendom just what they think of it. But no one seems to have noticed.

On Tuesday, Hamas legislators marked the Christmas season by passing a Shari’a criminal code for the Palestinian Authority. Among other things, it legalizes crucifixion.

Hamas’s endorsement of nailing enemies of Islam to crosses came at the same time it renewed its jihad. Here, too, Hamas wanted to make sure that Christians didn’t feel neglected as its fighters launched missiles at Jewish day care centers and schools. So on Wednesday, Hamas lobbed a mortar shell at the Erez crossing point into Israel just as a group of Gazan Christians were standing on line waiting to travel to Bethlehem for Christmas.

While Hamas joyously renewed its jihad against Jews and Christians, its overlords in Iran also basked in jihadist triumphalism. The source of Teheran’s sense of ascendancy this week was Britain’s Channel 4 network’s decision to request that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad give a special Christmas Day address to the British people. Ahmadinejad’s speech was supposed to be a response to Queen Elizabeth II’s traditional Christmas Day address to her subjects. That is, Channel 4 presented his message as a reasonable counterpoint to the Christmas greetings of the head of the Church of England.

Channel 4 justified its move by proclaiming that it was providing a public service. As a spokesman told The Jerusalem Post, “We’re offering [Ahmadinejad] the chance to speak for himself, which people in the West don’t often get the chance to see.”

While that sounds reasonable, the fact is that Westerners see Ahmadinejad speaking for himself all the time. They saw him at the UN two years in a row as he called for the countries of the world to submit to Islam; claimed that Iran’s nuclear weapons program is divinely inspired; and castigated Jews as subhuman menaces to humanity.

They saw him gather leading anti-Semites from all over the world at his Holocaust denial conference.

They heard him speak in his own words when he called for Israel to be “wiped off the map.”

And of course, over the years Ahmadinejad has often communicated directly to the British people. For instance, in 2007 he received unlimited airtime on UK television as he paraded kidnapped British sailors and marines in front of television cameras; forced them to make videotaped “confessions” of their “crime” of entering Iranian territorial waters; and compelled them to grovel at his knee and thank him for “forgiving” them.

The British people listened to Ahmadinejad as he condemned Britain as a warmongering nation after its leaders had surrendered Basra to Iranian proxies. They heard him – speaking in his own voice – when he announced that in a gesture of Islamic mercy, he was freeing their humiliated sailors and marines in honor of Muhammad’s birthday and Easter, and then called on all Britons to convert to Islam.

Yet as far as Channel 4 is concerned, Ahmadinejad is still an unknown quantity for most Britons. So they asked him to address the nation on Christmas. And not surprisingly, in his address, he attacked their way of life and co-opted their Jewish savior, Jesus, saying, “If Christ was on earth today, undoubtedly he would stand with the people in opposition to bullying, ill-tempered and expansionist powers.”

He then reiterated his call for non-Muslims to convert to Islam saying, “The solution to today’s problems can be found in a return to the call of the divine prophets.”

THE FACT of the matter is that Channel 4 is right. There is a great deal of ignorance in the West about what the likes of Ahmadinejad and his colleagues in Iran, Syria, Hizbullah and Hamas stand for. But this isn’t their fault. They tell us every day that they seek the destruction of the Jews and the domination of the West in the name of Islam. And every day they take actions that they believe advance their goals.

The reason that the West remains ignorant of the views and goals of the likes of Hamas and Iran is not that the latter have hidden their views and goals. It is because the leading political leaders and foreign policy practitioners in the West refuse to listen to them and deny the significance of their actions.

As far as the West’s leaders are concerned, Iran and its allies are unimportant. They are not actors, but objects. As far as the West’s leading foreign policy “experts” and decision-makers are concerned, the only true actors on the global stage are Western powers. They alone have the power to shape reality and the world. Oddly enough, this dominant political philosophy, which is based on denying the existence of non-Western actors on the world stage, is referred to as political “realism.”

The “realist” view was given clear expression this week by one of the “realist” clique’s most prominent members. In an op-ed published Tuesday in Canada’s Globe and Mail titled, “We must talk Iran out of the bomb,” Richard Haass, the president of the Council on Foreign Relations, argued that given the dangers of a nuclear-armed Iran and the dangers of a US or Israeli strike against Iran’s nuclear installations, the incoming Obama administration must hold direct negotiations with the mullahs to convince them to end their nuclear weapons program.

In making this argument, Haass ignores the fact that this has been the Bush administration’s policy for the past five years. He also ignores the fact that President George W. Bush adopted this policy at the urging of Haass’s “realist” colleagues and at the urging of Haass himself.

Moreover, Haass bizarrely contends that in negotiating with the mullahs, the Obama administration should offer Iran the same package of economic and political payoffs that the Bush administration and the EU have been offering, and Teheran has been rejecting, since 2003.

Even more disturbingly, Haass ignores the fact that Teheran made its greatest leaps forward in its uranium enrichment capabilities while it was engaged in these talks.

So in making his recommendation to the Obama administration – which has already announced its intention to negotiate with the mullahs – Haass has chosen to ignore Iran’s statements, its actions, and known facts about the West’s inability to steer it from its course of war by showering it with pay-offs.

Haass and his colleagues in the US, Europe and on the Israeli Left are similarly unwilling to pay attention to Hamas. In an article in the current edition of Foreign Affairs, Haass and his colleague Martin Indyk from the Brookings Institute call on the Obama administration to either ignore Hamas, or, if it abides by a cease-fire with Israel, they suggest that the Obama administration should support a joint Hamas-Fatah government and “authorize low-level contact between US officials and Hamas.” The fact that Hamas itself is wholly dedicated to Israel’s destruction and Islamic global domination is irrelevant.

Similarly, Haass and Indyk assume that Damascus can be appeased into abandoning its support for Hizbullah and Hamas, and its strategic alliance with Iran. Syrian President Bashar Assad’s views of how his interests are best served are unimportant. Both Assad’s statements of eternal friendship with Iran and his active involvement in Iran’s war effort against the US and its allies in Israel, Iraq and Lebanon are meaningless. The “realists” know what he really wants.

MUSLIMS AREN’T the only ones whose views and actions are dismissed as irrelevant by these foreign policy wise men. The “realists” ignore just about every non-Western actor. Take Iran’s principal Asian ally, North Korea, for example.

This week North Korea’s official news agency threatened to destroy South Korea in a “sea of fire,” and “reduce everything treacherous and anti-reunification to debris and build an independent, reunified country on it,” if any country dares to attack its nuclear installations.

North Korea made its threat two weeks after Kim Jung Il’s regime disengaged from its fraudulent disarmament talks with the Bush administration. Those talks – the brainchild of foreign policy “realists” Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Assistant Secretary Christopher Hill – were based on the “realist” belief that the US can appease North Korea into giving up its nuclear arsenal. (That would be the same nuclear arsenal that the North Koreans built while engaged in fraudulent disarmament talks with the Clinton administration.)

After Pyongyang agreed in February 2007 to eventually come clean on its plutonium installations (but not its uranium enrichment programs), and to account for its nuclear arsenal (but not for its proliferation activities), Rice convinced President Bush to remove North Korea from the State Department’s list of state sponsors of terror and to end its subjection to the US’s Trading with the Enemy Act this past October. And then, after securing those massive US concessions, on December 11 Pyongyang renounced its commitments, walked away from the table and now threatens to destroy South Korea if anyone takes any action against it.

North Korea’s behavior is of no interest to the “realists,” however. As far as they are concerned, the US has no option other than to continue the failed appeasement policy that has enabled North Korea to develop and proliferate nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles. As the Council on Foreign Relations’ Gary Samore said, “I think we’re sort of condemned to that process, because we don’t really have any alternative.”

Samore and his colleagues believe there are no other options because all other options involve placing responsibility for contending with North Korea on non-Western powers like China, South Korea and Japan. More radically, they involve holding North Korea accountable for its actions and making it pay a price for its poor behavior.

As the “realists” claim that the US has no option other than their failed appeasement policies, back in the real world, this week military officials from the US’s Pacific Command warned that North Korea may supply Iran with intercontinental ballistic missiles. These warnings are credible given that North Korea has been the primary supplier of ballistic missiles and missile technology to Iran and Syria and has played a major role in both countries’ nuclear weapons programs.

Defending Channel 4′s invitation to Ahmadinejad, Dorothy Byrne, the network’s head of news and current affairs, said, “As the leader of one of the most powerful states in the Middle East, President Ahmadinejad’s views are enormously influential. As we approach a critical time in international relations, we are offering our viewers an insight into an alternative world view.”

When you think about it, broadcasting Ahmadinejad really would have been a public service if Byrne or any of the delusional “realists” calling the shots were remotely interested in listening to what he has to say. But they aren’t. So far from a public service for Britain, it was a service for those who, unbeknownst to most Britons, are dedicated to destroying their country.

caroline@carolineglick.com

Continued

A pro-family advocate is calling the University of Chicago’s decision to allow coed dorm rooms troubling.

coed boy girlThe university announced the decision to parents in a letter that was sent in mid-December. The change in boarding rules will allow students of the opposite sex to reside in the same room, and the school says the decision was born from a student-led initiative. Students who wish to have a coed roommate will not need parental consent.

Laurie Higgins, the director of the division of school advocacy with the Illinois Family Institute, calls the decision troubling, but not surprising. “I think it reflects a number of troubling assumptions: One is that sex differences are irrelevant, that modesty is irrelevant — and modesty is not equivalent to prudery — that parental values and beliefs are irrelevant,” she notes.

The living arrangements will not be available to freshman, and the University of Chicago states that it is not aiming for “romantic couples,” but couples will not be banned from rooming together. Higgins believes the living arrangements could lead to an increase in sexual assault and that the university is sending a message that it does not care about promiscuity.

“In addition, it’s not going to stop here,” she contends. “[At] some colleges they actually have coed bathrooms, which of course further emphasizes the idea that sex differences are irrelevant and modesty is irrelevant to administrations.”

Higgins notes that one college student argued in favor of the rule change, citing that 18-year-olds are allowed to smoke cigarettes and own guns so they should be allowed to live together. In response to that argument, Higgins points out that most students are not allowed to smoke or have guns in dorm rooms.

Since there is little chance that the Uber Liberal, excuse me, “Progressive,” governor of the Empire State aka New York will appoint a Libertarian, Conservative or even moderate replacement for Senator Hillary Clinton when she moves off to Foggy Bottom I am supporting the candidacy of Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg.
Although I disagree with her on just about everything she posseses some attributes that speak well of her candidacy.
Here they are.

1. She’s loaded. Estimated worth 100 million PLUS.With all the crooks running through the hall of Congress it would be nice to have someone who could not be bought off by a lobbyist and she could finance her own campaigns.

2. She is not surrounded by scandal – no “love” children; one husband; no spare boyfriends or girl friends; no trips to D.C. to the Mayflower Hotel with an assigned client number;no toe tapping in the Ladies’ Room;no selling of senate seats.

3.She is not a Kennedy MAN, which means -
a. she has not drowned any young women in the back of her car after a drunken orgy.
b. she has not gone through the ordeal of a trial for RAPE.
c. she did not make her fortune the old fashion way – CRIME. Her Granddad was a great rum runner after all.
d. she has not had any heads of state assassinated.
e. she is not a drunk.
f. she is not a drug addict.
g. she is not a sex degenerate who has had sex with the underage baby sitter.
h. she has not publicly given “scandal” to the Catholic Church by acting against almost all its basic doctrines and moral teachings and still keeping the charade that she is a practicing member of the Church.

4. She is predictable. We will know exactly how she will vote as a liberal Kennedy Democrat.

5. Tina Fey could do ravaging skits about her on SNL, ala Sarah Palin especially the “You know” thing. Well you know that ain’t happenin’ after all she ‘s still a darling of the mass media.

6. She is a woman which is probably her most positive aspect.

7. She’s better than what is sitting there now- think Lautenberg, Craig, Boxer,Schumer, Byrd – good grief.

So to quote a great English Bard, sort of “You can’t always get what you want, but if you try real hard you get “what you can bear.”
SWEET CAROLINE.

Man being prosecuted in NM under federal fetus law
AP – 12/30/2008 5:05:00 PMBookmark and Share

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Federal prosecutors in New Mexico believe they may be the first to use a 2004 law to charge someone with killing a fetus while causing the death or injury of the mother.

Charges against Frederick Beach, accused of beating his pregnant girlfriend to death, include one under the Unborn Victims of Violence Act. U.S. Attorney Greg Fouratt said his office’s research found “no other case in the country in which that section (of law) has been charged,” the Albuquerque Journal reported Tuesday.

Attorneys for Beach, 37, said they expect to pursue any available legal challenges.

“We may be breaking ground on a new area of law,” said defense attorney Amy Sirignano. “We’re not sure where that will lead us.”

Beach pleaded not guilty last week to killing a fetus and to first-degree murder and child abuse charges.

He is accused of beating to death Verlinda Kinsel, 29, in September and killing the fetus she had said was his. Authorities say the victim’s 9-year-old son witnessed the assault.

If convicted, Beach faces life in prison.

The case is being prosecuted in federal court because Kinsel was killed on the Navajo reservation.

The Unborn Victims of Violence Act stemmed from the abduction and murder of a pregnant woman, Laci Peterson, in California in 2003. The law makes it a crime to kill a fetus in utero at any stage of development while committing another federal crime; it does not require the perpetrator to know the woman was pregnant.

Child Trafficking on the Rise in the U.S.?

There’s a sad story in the AP today by Rukmini Callimachi about child maid trafficking in the U.S.

Shyima was 10 when a wealthy Egyptian couple brought her from a poor village in northern Egypt to work in their California home. She awoke before dawn and often worked past midnight to iron their clothes, mop the marble floors and dust the family’s crystal. She earned $45 a month working up to 20 hours a day. She had no breaks during the day and no days off.

The trafficking of children for domestic labor in the U.S. is an extension of an illegal but common practice in Africa. Families in remote villages send their daughters to work in cities for extra money and the opportunity to escape a dead-end life. Some girls work for free on the understanding that they will at least be better fed in the home of their employer.

This practice is apparently a growing problem in the U.S., because well-to-do Africans immigrating to the U.S. who engage in this child-maid slavery are bringing this practice with them. An estimated 10,000 forced laborers in the U.S. right now are servants who are trapped in suburban homes, according to a National Human Rights Center survey, conducted with Free the Slaves, a nonprofit group. No one is certain how many are children, since the work can be couched as chores.

Research by the U.S. State Department reveals that just over the past year, children have been trafficked to work as servants in 33 of Africa’s 53 countries, and children from 10 African countries were sent as maids to Europe and the U.S. However, the problem is so well-disguised that nobody is sure how many child maids are in the U.S. today.

The saddest part is that the parents of these children often send the children willingly, believing that their children will have a better life as a maid than with their own families.

Shyima’s mother, Salwa Mahmoud, said her father believed she would have better opportunities in America.

“I didn’t want her to travel but our family’s condition dictated that she had to go,” explained Mahmoud, a squat, round-faced woman with calloused hands and feet. She is missing two front teeth because she couldn’t afford a dentist.

“If she had stayed here in Egypt, she would have been ordinary,” said Awatef, Shyima’s older sister. “Just like us.”

Shyima’s story has a somewhat happy ending, after several rocky years since leaving the servitude of the Egyptian. She was adopted last year by a couple in California, and graduated from high school this summer after passing her exit exam the second time around. Now 19, Shyima hopes to become a police officer and has a boyfriend. She keeps photos of her parents, brothers and sisters in a box in her closet. She says she doesn’t look at them because it makes her cry. “How could they? They’re my parents” she said.

The Minimum Wage, Discrimination, and Inequality

Daily Article by Art Carden | Posted on 12/29/2008

One of the things that first attracted me to economics is that its logic leads us to sometimes counterintuitive conclusions. A perfect example of this is the regulated workplace. The minimum wage raises incomes for some workers and lowers incomes for others. Workplace safety regulations advantage those who are very risk averse at the expense of those who are willing to accept higher risks in exchange for higher incomes. Laws against “child labor” benefit the relatively well off at the expense of the needy.

The tragic irony of the regulated workplace is that it most adversely affects those on the margins of society. Beyond their disemployment effects on those whose labor is rendered submarginal by regulations on wages and working conditions, regulations in the workplace also exacerbate and perpetuate inequities that would otherwise be mitigated by the market process.

Racism and sexism have been ugly facts about the human social environment since time immemorial. Commentators and critics hypothesize that members of the dominant cultural and ethnic group have advantages stemming from their membership in the dominant ethnic group or socioeconomic class.

I’ll use myself as an example. As much as I would like to pride myself on having worked hard to get where I am, my skin color, cultural/religious background, and relatively stable upbringing made for a much less bumpy road to travel than that traveled by those who are less fortunate than I.

It does not follow from this that well-intentioned government intervention that aims to raise wages by legislative fiat is an appropriate corrective. Tragically, a higher minimum wage and workplace-safety regulations are likely to exacerbate rather than mitigate social inequalities by removing the penalties that discriminatory employers would have to pay in a competitive market and by eliminating an important margin on which disadvantaged groups could compete.

When people aren’t allowed to compete on the basis of price, quantity, and quality, firms can discriminate on the basis of something other than productivity.

A racist employer would suffer a penalty (lower profits than his competitors) if he insisted on indulging a “taste for discrimination” in a competitive market. When prices are fixed and labor conditions are set by law, that same employer can indulge his racist preferences without receiving his capitalist comeuppance.

We can highlight this with a thought experiment that I use in economics 101. Imagine that two people apply for a job at a fast-food restaurant. The first is Crackhead Carl, a middle-aged African-American male who was just released from jail, where he had spent the last few years after stealing from a former employer. Carl has seen the light, or so he claims. He has gotten off the drugs, has seen the error of his ways, and sincerely wishes to better his position in spite of having made a gigantic mess of things.
“Many valuable skills that are learned in the workplace cannot be learned in a classroom.”

The second applicant is Tad Vanderbilt Rockefeller, a flaxen-haired white teenager from an affluent suburb who parks his BMW, breezes through the door in an Armani suit, and flashes a perfect smile as he fills out a job application with his monogrammed fountain pen. His references are impeccable. So who gets the job?

The answer is, “it depends.”

Carl knows that he needs some way to convey his sincerity and fidelity to a prospective employer, and having shredded his credibility through a life of riotous living, people who want to give him the benefit of the doubt nonetheless remain skeptical even though he promises that this time, things will be different. In an unregulated market, Carl could accept lower wages or relatively riskier working conditions in order to compete with Tad.

When wages and working conditions are heavily regulated, however, the law cuts off Carl’s ability to compete. In all likelihood, Tad would get the job and Carl would again be shoved out onto society’s fringes. One of the unintended consequences of the minimum wage and workplace regulations is that they perpetuate inequality.

One might respond that what Carl needs is education, not a dead-end job mopping floors at McDonald’s. This may be true, but many valuable skills that are learned in the workplace cannot be learned in a classroom. It is the development of this tacit knowledge and these valuable skills that Carl misses out on by being regulated out of the workplace.

In this case, the choice was pretty clear. Tad appears to have been a less risky choice than Carl whether the employer is a racist or not. But racism is an entrepreneurial error, and one that should be quickly punished in the marketplace. With restrictions on the way the labor market functions, the entrepreneurial error (and moral abomination) that is racism can go uncorrected.
When prices are fixed and labor conditions are set by law, an employer can indulge his racist preferences without receiving his capitalist comeuppance.

Milton Friedman openly argued that minimum-wage laws are racist in effect if not intent; in the early 1960s, he pointed out that, as a result of higher minimum wages, black teenage unemployment was much higher than it would otherwise be. Denied the opportunity to earn incomes and to acquire valuable skills, those adversely affected by the minimum wage were not allowed to share in the general prosperity that a market economy produces. Empirical evidence reported by economists David Neumark and William Wascher suggests that among the long-run effects of minimum wages are lower degrees of educational attainment, less on-the-job training, and lower lifetime earnings.

In The Fatal Conceit, F.A. Hayek said that “[t]he curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design.”

In an imperfect world, we suffer from a “fatal conceit” when we imagine that we can make justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream just by passing laws that say “make it so.” Indeed, laws like this will more often than not make justice and righteousness roll more slowly by perpetuating the inequalities that have historically worked against disadvantaged groups.

________________________________

Art Carden is assistant professor of economics and business at Rhodes College and an adjunct fellow of the Independent Institute. He has been a visiting research fellow at the American Institute for Economic Research, and a summer research fellow at the Ludwig von Mises Institute. Comment on the blog.

Walpole coach surrenders to police in Ariz.
Accused of raping student
By Erin Ailworth and Benjamin Paulin
Globe Staff And Globe Correspondent / December 28, 2008

* Email|
* Print|
* Single Page|
* Yahoo! Buzz|
* ShareThis

Text size – +

The former coach of the Walpole High football team that won a state football championship this month turned himself in to police in Tucson last night after he was charged with raping a student at the school.
Discuss
COMMENTS (16)

Daniel Villa, an Arizona native, turned himself in just before 9 p.m., one day after a warrant for his arrest was issued in Wrentham District Court.

Villa, who played six years for the New England Patriots, faces three counts of rape of a child over 14, and three counts of enticing a minor, police said.

Police believe the only victim was a female Walpole High student-athlete. The crimes occurred in the past several months, said Walpole Police Chief Richard Stillman. He would not elaborate on the details of the case.

However, a source close to the investigation said Villa came to police attention after learning of text messages between Villa and the alleged victim that contained “inappropriate stuff.”

Adam Riegel, a senior at the school and one of the captains of the football team, said the news about his former coach came as a shock.

“It’s awful, knowing him the way I know him, just how close we were to him. It’s unfathomable,” Riegel said.

“He’s innocent until proven guilty,” Riegel added. “Having known the man the way I did, I felt it was important that I stepped up and say that he was a fantastic coach and a fantastic man who always wanted to help us.”

Yesterday afternoon, Walpole High School principal Alan Bernstein sent a note to parents, saying the school administration “will do everything that we can to support our students, protect any and all alleged victims, and keep the orderly operation of the high school as our highest priorities,” according to a copy of the message provided to the Globe by a former student.

He added that guidance and counseling staff will be available at the high school tomorrow for students. The school is closed for the holidays until Jan. 5.

Police thought Villa, 44, a Walpole resident, was going to turn himself in late Friday, said Stillman, but he did not show up. Then, just before 9 p.m. yesterday, Tucson police informed Walpole investigators that Villa was in custody. According to the Pima County jail, Villa is being held without bond on a fugitive warrant.

“To be that far away from here was not a good place to be and it definitely gave us reason to believe he might not come back,” Stillman said. “We’re gratified he’s now in custody.”

Villa’s lawyer, Heather V. Baer, said in a statement last night that Walpole police were told Friday that Villa would surrender tomorrow after returning from Arizona.

“On learning this afternoon that Arizona police were nevertheless seeking to arrest him on the Massachusetts charges, Mr. Villa turned himself in to local authorities,” the statement said. “Mr. Villa intends to plead not guilty at his arraignment in Massachusetts.”

The investigation began when Walpole school superintendent Lincoln Lynch notified police after learning of an “allegation of criminal misconduct” by Villa, police said. Lynch placed Villa on paid administrative leave Tuesday morning, and he resigned later that morning from his posts as coach and athletic director.

There was no answer at the phone number listed to Villa in Walpole last night, nor at relatives’ home in Arizona.

Villa led his team to the Eastern Massachusetts Division II Championship against Mansfield at Gillette Stadium on Dec. 6. He played offensive guard, tackle, and center during his 11-year professional career, which spanned from 1987 to 1998.

Villa played for the Patriots, Phoenix Cardinals, Kansas City Chiefs, and Carolina Panthers. He started 77 games in his 157-game career.

Globe correspondents John M. Guilfoil and Padraig Shea contributed to this report. Erin Ailworth can be reached at eailworth@globe.com.

Walpole coach surrenders to police in Ariz.
Accused of raping student
By Erin Ailworth and Benjamin Paulin
Globe Staff And Globe Correspondent / December 28,

The former coach of the Walpole High football team that won a state football championship this month turned himself in to police in Tucson last night after he was charged with raping a student at the school.
Daniel Villa, an Arizona native, turned himself in just before 9 p.m., one day after a warrant for his arrest was issued in Wrentham District Court.

Villa, who played six years for the New England Patriots, faces three counts of rape of a child over 14, and three counts of enticing a minor, police said.

Police believe the only victim was a female Walpole High student-athlete. The crimes occurred in the past several months, said Walpole Police Chief Richard Stillman. He would not elaborate on the details of the case.

However, a source close to the investigation said Villa came to police attention after learning of text messages between Villa and the alleged victim that contained “inappropriate stuff.”

Adam Riegel, a senior at the school and one of the captains of the football team, said the news about his former coach came as a shock.

“It’s awful, knowing him the way I know him, just how close we were to him. It’s unfathomable,” Riegel said.

“He’s innocent until proven guilty,” Riegel added. “Having known the man the way I did, I felt it was important that I stepped up and say that he was a fantastic coach and a fantastic man who always wanted to help us.”

Yesterday afternoon, Walpole High School principal Alan Bernstein sent a note to parents, saying the school administration “will do everything that we can to support our students, protect any and all alleged victims, and keep the orderly operation of the high school as our highest priorities,” according to a copy of the message provided to the Globe by a former student.

He added that guidance and counseling staff will be available at the high school tomorrow for students. The school is closed for the holidays until Jan. 5.

Police thought Villa, 44, a Walpole resident, was going to turn himself in late Friday, said Stillman, but he did not show up. Then, just before 9 p.m. yesterday, Tucson police informed Walpole investigators that Villa was in custody. According to the Pima County jail, Villa is being held without bond on a fugitive warrant.

“To be that far away from here was not a good place to be and it definitely gave us reason to believe he might not come back,” Stillman said. “We’re gratified he’s now in custody.”

Villa’s lawyer, Heather V. Baer, said in a statement last night that Walpole police were told Friday that Villa would surrender tomorrow after returning from Arizona.

“On learning this afternoon that Arizona police were nevertheless seeking to arrest him on the Massachusetts charges, Mr. Villa turned himself in to local authorities,” the statement said. “Mr. Villa intends to plead not guilty at his arraignment in Massachusetts.”

The investigation began when Walpole school superintendent Lincoln Lynch notified police after learning of an “allegation of criminal misconduct” by Villa, police said. Lynch placed Villa on paid administrative leave Tuesday morning, and he resigned later that morning from his posts as coach and athletic director.

There was no answer at the phone number listed to Villa in Walpole last night, nor at relatives’ home in Arizona.

Villa led his team to the Eastern Massachusetts Division II Championship against Mansfield at Gillette Stadium on Dec. 6. He played offensive guard, tackle, and center during his 11-year professional career, which spanned from 1987 to 1998.

Villa played for the Patriots, Phoenix Cardinals, Kansas City Chiefs, and Carolina Panthers. He started 77 games in his 157-game career.

Globe correspondents John M. Guilfoil and Padraig Shea contributed to this report. Erin Ailworth can be reached at eailworth@globe.com.

Father offers daughter to shoe-thrower
Future Television / Reuters
A handout video grab shows Iraqi TV journalist Muntazer al-Zaidi during a talk show presented by Zaven Kouyoumjian that was taped November 26, 2008. Zaidi admitted hurling his shoes at U.S. President George W. Bush before a judge on December 16, 2008.
Reuters
December 17, 2008
CAIRO — An Egyptian man said on Wednesday he was offering his 20-year-old daughter in marriage to Iraqi journalist Muntazer al-Zaidi, who threw his shoes at U.S. President George W. Bush in Baghdad on Sunday,

The daughter, Amal Saad Gumaa, said she agreed with the idea. “This is something that would honor me. I would like to live in Iraq, especially if I were attached to this hero,” she told Reuters by phone.
Her father, Saad Gumaa, said he had called Dergham, Zaidi’s brother, to tell him of the offer. “I find nothing more valuable than my daughter to offer to him, and I am prepared to provide her with everything needed for marriage,” he added.

Zaidi’s gesture has struck a chord across the Arab world, where President Bush is widely despised for invading Iraq in 2003 and for his support for Israel.

Amal is a student in the media faculty at Minya University in central Egypt.

Zaidi’s response to the proposal was not immediately clear.

Father offers daughter to shoe-thrower
Future Television / Reuters
A handout video grab shows Iraqi TV journalist Muntazer al-Zaidi during a talk show presented by Zaven Kouyoumjian that was taped November 26, 2008. Zaidi admitted hurling his shoes at U.S. President George W. Bush before a judge on December 16, 2008.
Reuters
December 17, 2008
CAIRO — An Egyptian man said on Wednesday he was offering his 20-year-old daughter in marriage to Iraqi journalist Muntazer al-Zaidi, who threw his shoes at U.S. President George W. Bush in Baghdad on Sunday,

The daughter, Amal Saad Gumaa, said she agreed with the idea. “This is something that would honor me. I would like to live in Iraq, especially if I were attached to this hero,” she told Reuters by telephone.
Her father, Saad Gumaa, said he had called Dergham, Zaidi’s brother, to tell him of the offer. “I find nothing more valuable than my daughter to offer to him, and I am prepared to provide her with everything needed for marriage,” he added.

Zaidi’s gesture has struck a chord across the Arab world, where President Bush is widely despised for invading Iraq in 2003 and for his support for Israel.

Amal is a student in the media faculty at Minya University in central Egypt.

Zaidi’s response to the proposal was not immediately clear.

Parents sue Galveston police over 12-year-old’s 2006 arrest, beating

11:58 AM CST on Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Associated Press

GALVESTON, Texas – A Galveston couple has filed a federal lawsuit against three police officers who they say arrested and beat their 12-year-old daughter after mistaking her for a prostitute, according to a newspaper report.

Wilfred and Emily Milburn, the parents of Dymond Larae Milburn, are asking for unspecified damages for physical injuries and emotional problems, which they say have included nightmares.

Sgt. Gilbert Gomez and Officers David Roark and Sean Stewart have filed documents saying their conduct was reasonable in light of the facts they had at the time, the Houston Chronicle reported Tuesday in its online story.

According to a lawsuit filed in federal court in Galveston, Dymond Larae Milburn went outside her home to flip a circuit breaker at about 7:45 p.m. on Aug. 22, 2006.

Responding to a call that three white prostitutes were soliciting in the neighborhood, the plainclothes officers jumped out of an unmarked van on Gomez’s orders and one of them grabbed the girl, who is black, the lawsuit states.

The girl contends that the officers did not identify themselves as police and that the officer who grabbed her, later identified as Roark, told her, “You’re a prostitute. You’re coming with me.”

Her parents heard her cries for help and came outside to see the hysterical girl hanging on to a tree and screaming “Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!” while two officers hit her about the head, face and throat, the family alleges.

Two hours later, she was examined at the University of Texas Medical Branch emergency room and doctors found she had a sprained wrist, two black eyes, a bloody nose and blood in an ear, according to the lawsuit.

Weeks later, she was arrested during classes at Austin Middle School, where she was an honors student, the lawsuit states. She was tried a year later on a charge of resisting arrest, but the judge declared a mistrial on the first day, according to the lawsuit.

The reason for the mistrial was not immediately available Tuesday.

The case could go to trial in late 2009 or 2010

Editor’s Note: Jesus once said “A prophet is not without honor , except in His own country.”
That seems to sum the following news story up.Nazareth, Israel (CNSNews.com) – As Nazareth’s Christians prepare to celebrate Christmas, they are playing down the appearance of a confrontational Islamic banner that challenges an elemental Christian belief.

Journalists visiting the city saw two large banners–one in English, one in Arabic–hanging in the plaza in front of the Basilica of the Annunciation, with a verse from the Koran (112:1-4) contradicting the New Testament proclamation that Jesus is the “only begotten” of God.

“In the name of Allah, the most beneficent, the most merciful, Say (O Muhammad): He is Allah, (the) One and Only. Allah, the Eternal, the Absolute. He begetteth not, nor was begotten, and there is none like unto him,” the banner reads.

Nazareth Mayor Ramiz Jaraisy played down concerns that a banner effectively denying Jesus’ deity was provocative to Christians, although he did question its position, in front of Nazareth’s most prominent landmark.

“I don’t think that it’s provocative against anyone,” he said. “My point of view [is] that it’s not the right place to put it and it’s not the right way to do that.”

But Jaraisy said he would not remove the banner because some Islamic fundamentalist groups were looking to provoke a confrontation in order to promote their cause. He did not want to provide them with that opportunity.

Situated in northern Israel, Nazareth is the largest Arab city in Israel. It also has one of the highest concentrations of Christians here.

Although Jesus was born in Bethlehem, Christian residents of Nazareth are proud to point out Christianity’s roots in their town.

Mary, a Jewish virgin, lived in Nazareth when the angel Gabriel appeared and told her she would give birth to the promised Jewish Messiah and call his name Jesus. He would be God-incarnate, the Bible says. After Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem, he grew up in Nazareth.

The Basilica was built over a small grotto which, according to Catholic tradition, marks the remains of Mary’s house.

(Another Koranic verse, 4:171, declares in part: “Allah is only one God; far be it from his glory that he should have a son.”)

Jaraisy said there were good relations and respect between Christian and Muslim inhabitants of Nazareth, and offered himself as proof. Born into a Christian family, Jaraisy has been elected mayor of the city three times, despite the fact that 70 percent of the city’s 60,000 residents are Muslim.

A decade ago there was trouble in the city after the municipality decided to demolish a school in front of the Basilica and build a large plaza to accommodate Christian pilgrims visiting Nazareth. But Muslims, inspired by fundamentalists, erected a large protest tent, saying that an Islamic sage had once been buried there.

The Israeli government eventually granted the Muslims the right to build a mosque at the site – upsetting the Vatican and Christians around the world.

According to Wadi Abunassar, an Arab Catholic and political scientist, the issue was resolved only after President Bush telephoned then Prime Minister Ariel Sharon urging a solution. The mosque was never built at the location and tensions eased.

Abunassar said the fact that Islamists were defeated in recent municipal elections although Nazareth has a Muslim majority indicates that “a large portion” of the Muslims are not necessarily anti-Christian.

Removing the banner would would present a “serious political problem,” he said. Legally, the municipality should take it down but would not dare do so because it could provoke clashes between adherents of the two faiths. The state could order its removal for security reasons, however, he said. He wondered why the authorities had not done so.

Abunassar said the best way to deal with the situation would be to simply ignore the provocations of the extremists and build relations with moderate Muslims.

The Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth (Photo: Julie Stahl)
’Complicated’

Abunassar said the 110,000 Arab Christians living in Israel – excluding those who live in Jerusalem, which remains disputed – exist in a “complicated reality.” While ethnic Arabs they are not Muslims and they live in a predominantly Jewish state.

During the Israel-Hezbollah war in 2006, he recalled, Christian Arabs were among those killed in Hezbollah rocket attacks on Israel. Abunasser said he lost students who were Israeli soldiers fighting in the war, and had also lost relatives living in Lebanon.

Internally, the Christian community is made up of some 20 different churches and sects, as well as different political streams. There is no real unity in terms of church leadership, Abunassar said.

Despite its Muslim majority, Christmas is an official holiday in Nazareth with offices and schools closed, although Jaraisy said some shops remain open. Santas, Christmas trees and other decorations adorned some of the shop windows in town this week.

A Muslim worker at the municipality said she would be celebrating Christmas alongside the Christians in the city, as other Muslim residents do.

Israel’s Tourism Ministry and the Nazareth Municipality will host a reception for the heads of the churches and mayors of Jewish, Christian and Muslim towns and villages in the area.

The Tourism Ministry said the reception would be held at the Basilica of the Annunciation on Christmas Eve, followed by a traditional Christmas mass.

Some girls rescued from international sex-trafficking are celebrating their first Christmas safe and free from harm.
Children not for sale The International Crisis Aid project is in two countries so far, providing housing, education, training in a trade, and the gospel. Founder Pat Bradley talks about Ethiopia.

“We work in an area of Addis Ababa, the capital. We’ve dubbed it the ‘red-light district’ because we don’t know what else to call it,” he notes. “It’s an area where the Ethiopians tell me there’s somewhere around 40,000 girls who are working as prostitutes.”

Four safe homes have been established for 35 girls there. “Our youngest is eight,” he says. “The oldest girl we’ve got is probably 21 [or] 22 years old right now in Ethiopia, and most of them are there because they have no other way to survive.”

Bradley is trusting the Lord for provision to establish homes in about 18 countries. “In Cambodia we have a home now that’s got 30 girls who are ages four to 12 years old,” he points out.

As the girls celebrate their first Christmas and the knowledge that Jesus loves them, Bradley asks for continued prayer for them, for the other girls who have not been reached, and for the ministry as a whole.

editor’s note: Please remind your friends and relatives this year that when they visit or buy products from PORN sites or hard copy of the same, they are supporting HUMAN SLAVERY. Most sex workers or pornography objects are victims of HUMAN TRAFFICKING.
Tell them -do not be a part of the Slave Trade.

MERRY CHRISTMAS, HAPPY HANNUCHAH, HAPPY HOLIDAYS

AND A NEW YEAR WITHOUT HUMAN SLAVERY

Comedy Central Perpetuates War on Christmas
12/24/2008

Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights (www.catholicleague.org/)
For those who doubt there is a War on Christmas, they need look no further than Comedy Central.

NEW YORK, N.Y. (Catholic League) – Comedy Central has recently re-broadcast a 2005 Denis Leary special called, “Merry F#%$in’ Christmas.” It also plans to air this program on Christmas Day. We complained to Comedy Central about this show in 2005 and we were rewarded with “Sacrilicious Sunday” in 2006 in which anti-Christian programs were aired all day on Christmas Eve.

Leary’s special features a skit about lesbian nuns, and a song by “Our Lady of Perpetual Suffering Church Choir” about a hooker. But by far the most offensive part of the show is the monologue by Denis Leary on the origins of Christmas. Here is part of what he says:

“Merry Christmas. Tonight we celebrate the birth of the Baby Jesus, whose mom, Mary, just happens to be a virgin—even after she apparently gave birth to Jesus. At least that is what the Catholic Church would have you believe.

“Tom Cruise is taking a lot of s— for belonging to a religion, Scientology, that believes aliens came to this planet 75 million years ago. That is nothing. I was raised Catholic. We believe Mary was a virgin and Jesus ended up walking on water, creating a bottomless jug of wine and rising from the dead. Oh, yeah, and Tom Cruise is crazy.

“Listen, Christmas is built on a line of bulls—. Do I believe there was a Baby Jesus? You bet your ass I do. But I believe that nine months before he was born someone sure as s— banged the hell out of his mom.”

Catholic League president Bill Donohue responds as follows:

“For those who doubt there is a War on Christmas, they need look no further than Comedy Central. They are well aware that this special is offensive—indeed, mocking Catholicism is the goal—and they repeatedly re-air it, particularly on Christmas, to maximize the offense.

“I am asking Catholic League members, and friends of the Catholic League, to e-mail Doug Herzog, the president of Comedy Central, requesting that he nix the Christmas showing of this vile special, and any future showings that might be planned.”

Contact Comedy Central president Doug Herzog at doug.herzog@comedycentral.com.

EDITOR’S NOTE: ONE OF THE WEST’S FUNDAMENTAL VALUES IS FREE SPEECH I.E. FREE OF GOVERNMENT INTERFERENCE. BUT ANOTHER WESTERN VALUE , ALL OF WHICH COME FROM THE GREEKS AND THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH, IS FREEDOM OF COMMERCE. WE CAN GIVE OUR BUSINESS TO PEOPLE WHO SUPPORT OUR VALUES. KEEP THAT IN MIND WHEN PATRONIZING COMPANIES THAT SUPPORT THOSE WHO ATTACK YOUR VALUES.

The Hokey Cokey is an old novelty song that has been sung in music halls, at children’s parties and at sherry-fuelled family gatherings for many years.

By Auslan Cramb, Scottish Correspondent
Last Updated: 3:58PM GMT 23 Dec 2008

Comments 95 | Comment on this article
Rangers FC – Doing the Hokey Cokey ‘could be hate crime’
Supporters of Rangers FC have been banned from singing anti-Catholic songs at Ibrox stadium to taunt their rivals Celtic Photo: PA

But according to the Catholic Church and some Scottish politicians, singing the popular tune that begins with the words “You put your right hand in, your right hand out,” may constitute an act of religious hatred.

A spokesman for the leader of the church in Scotland said the song had disturbing origins.

Critics claim that Puritans composed the song in the 18th century in an attempt to mock the actions and language of priests leading the Latin mass.

Now politicians have urged police to arrest anyone using the song to “taunt” Catholics under legislation designed to prevent incitement to religious hatred.

Supporters of Rangers FC have been banned from singing anti-Catholic songs at Ibrox stadium to taunt their rivals Celtic, a club with Catholic roots.

But fans of the club are said to be discussing on internet forums the possibility of getting round the ban by singing the Hokey Cokey at next week’s Old Firm derby between the clubs.

Peter Kearney, a spokesman for Cardinal Keith O’Brien, said:

“This song does have quite disturbing origins. Although apparently innocuous, it was devised as an attack on and a parody of the Catholic mass.

“If there are moves to restore its more malevolent meaning then consideration should perhaps be given to its wider use.”

According to the church, the song’s title derives from the words “hocus pocus”.

The phrase is said to be a Puritan parody of the Latin “hoc est enim corpus meum” or “this is my body” used by Catholic priests to accompany the transubstantiation during mass.

Several years ago, a canon from Wakefield Cathedral said the dance came from the days when priests celebrated mass with their backs to the congregation and whispered the Latin words of consecration with many hand movements.

Michael Matheson, the SNP MSP, said it was important that the police and football clubs were aware of the sinister background of the song and took action against groups who used it in matches.

But opposition politicians and football fans ridiculed the critics of the ditty. Murdo Fraser, deputy leader of the Scottish Tories, said: “I can’t believe Scottish children performing the Hokey Cokey are doing so in pursuit of any sort of anti-Catholic agenda.”

Barry McFarland, 26, a Rangers fan from Stirling, pointed out that Scotland fans sang a version of the song praising Diego Maradona’s so-called “hand of God” goal against England.

He said: “The Tartan Army sing ‘Diego put the English out, out out’. Does that make them sectarian? It is an absurd claim and a lot of utter nonsense that anyone would sing this in a bigoted way.”

Criticism of the Hokey Cokey follows a long-running row over the singing by some Rangers fans of the Famine Song, which refers to the famine that left one million dead in Ireland and led to mass migration in the mid-19th century.
porters of Rangers FC have been banned from singing anti-Catholic songs at Ibrox stadium to taunt their rivals Celtic Photo: PA

But according to the Catholic Church and some Scottish politicians, singing the popular tune that begins with the words “You put your right hand in, your right hand out,” may constitute an act of religious hatred.

A spokesman for the leader of the church in Scotland said the song had disturbing origins.

Critics claim that Puritans composed the song in the 18th century in an attempt to mock the actions and language of priests leading the Latin mass.

Now politicians have urged police to arrest anyone using the song to “taunt” Catholics under legislation designed to prevent incitement to religious hatred.

Supporters of Rangers FC have been banned from singing anti-Catholic songs at Ibrox stadium to taunt their rivals Celtic, a club with Catholic roots.

But fans of the club are said to be discussing on internet forums the possibility of getting round the ban by singing the Hokey Cokey at next week’s Old Firm derby between the clubs.

Peter Kearney, a spokesman for Cardinal Keith O’Brien, said:

“This song does have quite disturbing origins. Although apparently innocuous, it was devised as an attack on and a parody of the Catholic mass.

“If there are moves to restore its more malevolent meaning then consideration should perhaps be given to its wider use.”

According to the church, the song’s title derives from the words “hocus pocus”.

The phrase is said to be a Puritan parody of the Latin “hoc est enim corpus meum” or “this is my body” used by Catholic priests to accompany the transubstantiation during mass.

Several years ago, a canon from Wakefield Cathedral said the dance came from the days when priests celebrated mass with their backs to the congregation and whispered the Latin words of consecration with many hand movements.

Michael Matheson, the SNP MSP, said it was important that the police and football clubs were aware of the sinister background of the song and took action against groups who used it in matches.

But opposition politicians and football fans ridiculed the critics of the ditty. Murdo Fraser, deputy leader of the Scottish Tories, said: “I can’t believe Scottish children performing the Hokey Cokey are doing so in pursuit of any sort of anti-Catholic agenda.”

Barry McFarland, 26, a Rangers fan from Stirling, pointed out that Scotland fans sang a version of the song praising Diego Maradona’s so-called “hand of God” goal against England.

He said: “The Tartan Army sing ‘Diego put the English out, out out’. Does that make them sectarian? It is an absurd claim and a lot of utter nonsense that anyone would sing this in a bigoted way.”

Criticism of the Hokey Cokey follows a long-running row over the singing by some Rangers fans of the Famine Song, which refers to the famine that left one million dead in Ireland and led to mass migration in the mid-19th century.

EDITOR’S NOTE: WE AT WIMINSWATCH.ORG. get some goofy and bizarre comments and blogs. Most of the goofy ones we don’t publish but because the following was so bizarre that it is downright laughable we decided to publish it.
On the other hand if we are wrong in our assessment of the following blog maybe some enterprising investigative reporter would want to look into it instead of the Blogojevic scandal.
Thanks Phantom for a good laugh and get some help.

LOVE CHILD

Started thinking about something the other night. You may consider this bizarre, but hear me out on this.
Of all vice presidential candidates why did Obama select Joe Biden? Here’s my theory.Joe Biden has
always kow-towed to certain constituencies in the state of Delaware.In fact he has always been the great supporter
or may I say their ‘pimp’ on capital hill. Now it has long been rumored and in the most recent past surfaces again the allegations of Joe Biden’s ……
“LOVE CHILD” . You heard right Biden’s alleged to have a LOVE CHILD.
You still with me? Now it’s common knowledge that Mr.”B” has spent much of his time “cajoling”
in downtown Wilmington DE. This is where he has gained his following,certainly not in the southern part of
Delaware.
Now if he had an lets say “engagement”with a mixed race woman would not the product of said engagement
resemble Obama? The age differential would add credence to what I am suggesting. Why all of a sudden did Joe “B”
become Obama’s pick for VP? I think I know why.”MY DADDY MY DADDY”! Now does Obama speak like a southern person?And who paid for the fancy schools ?
Does Obama say anything of any significance? The apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree! Hey I’m just saying.

The Phantom

Eliot Spitzer is having one hell of a bad year.

The shamed love gov revealed that his family’s mega-rich real-estate firm took a hit from accused Wall Street scammer Bernard Madoff.

Spitzer, whose family is one of the richest in the city, simply shrugged his shoulders when discussing the lost loot at the holiday party for the online magazine Slate, where he writes a government regulation column, according to a report on National Public Radio.

MORE: Madoff In Con Games

MORE: ‘All Is Gone’ At Wiesel Charity

The infamous client No. 9, who was caught patronizing a prostitute and forced to resign from office in March, jokingly defended the universally loathed Madoff.

NPR radio host Brooke Gladstone, who is Jewish, joked to Spitzer that “Bernie Madoff was worse for the Jews than anyone since ['Son of Sam'] David Berkowitz.”

To which Spitzer quipped, “Well, I was New York’s second Jewish governor, and look what I did.”

Spitzer’s company is just one of a growing number of organizations – which include Yeshiva University and Steven Spielberg’s Wunderkind Foundation – to have fallen victim to Madoff’s greed.

Investigators now believe Madoff’s fraud stretches back to the 1970s, two sources familiar with the inquiry told Bloomberg News.

The wire service also is reporting that Madoff’s shady investment advisory business includes some 4,000 customers – far more than the 25 clients he registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

In the wake of the scandal, Ezra Merkin, who guided Yeshiva’s ill-fated $110 million investments in Madoff-related funds, quietly stepped down from his role as chairman of the UJA-Federation’s investment committee.

The UJA did not lose money on any Madoff investments in part because of their strict oversight policies, said a foundation spokeswoman.

Meanwhile, the feds slapped Madoff with a slew of new, tighter, restrictions on his relatively comfortable house arrest.

The alleged mastermind of the $50 billion Ponzi scheme must remain in his home 24 hours a day seven days a week unless he is due in court, Manhattan federal Judge Gabriel Gorenstein ordered yesterday.

Previously, he only had to be in his tony East 64th Street penthouse from 7 p.m. to 9 a.m.

Gorenstein’s latest order also requires Madoff’s wife, Ruth, to hire a government-approved security firm to provide services “to prevent harm or flight.”

The firm will keep Madoff under round-the-clock watch and monitor all of his apartment doors on video.

In addition, Ruth Madoff, 67, will have to install an observation post that will send a direct signal to the FBI “in the event or the appearance of harm or flight.”

Meanwhile, a separate order from a different federal judge is forcing the fallen financier to make a list of his ill-gotten goodies.

Judge Louis Stanton yesterday froze Madoff’s assets and ordered him to itemize the vehicles, jewelry, artwork, property and cash in his possession.

bruce.golding@nypost.com

Here is the story.

The historic promotion this week of Army Gen. Ann Dunwoody to the rank of
four-star general marked the latest in a series of feel-good firsts for
American women in the past two years. In the same race that culminated in
the election of our first African-American president, America witnessed a
historic presidential bid by Democratic Sen. Hillary Clinton and the
nomination of Republican Gov. Sarah Palin as her party’s first woman
vice-presidential candidate. Although neither woman won, America’s women
and girls came to see a female president as a plausible possibility.

Yet even as headlines about shattered ceilings have become ubiquitous, so
have reports about the dangerous and self-destructive tendencies of the
next generation of women. It seems that while American women are making
great strides in public life, our daughters are enduring agonizing
struggles in private.

Those struggles center mainly on sex and self-image. The Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention announced last spring that one in four
American girls aged 14 to 19 has a sexually transmitted disease. That
estimate arrived on the heels of a groundbreaking American Psychological
Association report that chronicled in devastating detail how our
porn-saturated, hyper-sexualized society pressures girls to market
themselves as sexual objects and engage in behavior that leaves them
feeling ugly, worthless and depressed.

The despair of many girls today exceeds the bounds of the typical teenage
blues. A 2007 CDC report found that the suicide rate among pre-teen and
teenage girls has risen to its highest level in 15 years, with a 76 percent
jump in the suicide rate for girls ages 10 to 14. Although the vast
majority of teenage girls do not attempt suicide, many struggle with eating
disorders, self-mutilation, substance abuse, anxiety and depression.

In its report, the APA blamed these problems largely on a media culture
that assaults girls with sexually explicit TV shows, movies, music videos,
ads and magazines. That diagnosis drew fire from defenders of our oversexed
entertainment industry who reject causal links between teen entertainment
and teen behavior.

But a new study published this month in the journal of the American Academy
of Pediatrics reports more evidence of connections between the two.
Researchers from the RAND Corporation studied some 2,000 teenagers over
three years and found that teens who watched the most sexual content on TV
— defined as flirting, kissing, sexual innuendo and sex scenes — were twice
as likely to become pregnant or cause a pregnancy as those who watched the
least sexual-themed TV, even after accounting for other factors that
influence teen behavior.

As even the most casual channel surfer knows, sexual content — particularly
depictions of fetishistic, violent and extra-marital sex — is plentiful in
prime time. A recent Parents Television Council report found that during
what used to be considered TV’s family hour (the first hour of prime time
each night) references on the five major broadcast networks to
extra-marital sex outnumbered references to marital sex by a ratio of
nearly four to one. Not surprisingly, many shows that teenage girls watch
faithfully depict women as little more than sexual playthings who neither
demand nor deserve respect beyond the bedroom.

A bizarre disconnect exists today between the smart, ambitious women who
dominate our public life and the sex-kitten know-nothings who dominate our
TV screens. It’s true that Hollywood is not the only culprit in teen girls’
troubles. But an entertainment industry that constantly churns out
Lolita-like tween idols and celebrates sex appeal as the ultimate measure
of a woman’s worth surely does little to prepare today’s struggling girls
to become tomorrow’s leading women.

Colleen Carroll Campbell is an author, television and radio host and St.
Louis-based fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. Her website is
www.colleen-campbell.com.

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________
All content copyright (c) 2007, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, L.L.C. All rights
reserved.
900 N. Tucker Blvd, St. Louis MO 63101

Bernie Madoff’s Hollywood Heist

Some of Hollywood’s biggest names have had the misfortune of finding out that money they had invested with Bernie Madoff has vanished.

Steven Spielberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg of DreamWorks fame may have lost millions in Madoff’s alleged Ponzi scheme, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Spielberg and Katzenberg’s Wunderkinder Foundation had investments with Madoff that were made on the two celebrities’ behalf by their business manager.

Eric Roth, who wrote the screenplay for “Forrest Gump” and recently received a Golden Globe nomination as screenwriter of “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” lost all of his retirement money.

Madoff, who was once the chairman of Nasdaq, helped the upstart stock trading facility rise to become a respected alternative to the New York Stock Exchange.

When it came to the methods that his now defunct investment firm used to achieve unusually consistent returns, Madoff was quite secretive. Reports sent to investors by him only disclosed general strategies, such as using stock options to take advantage of market volatility.

Now the mystery is beginning to be revealed. Madoff was paying existing investors with money from new investors. When the credit crunch hit, things swiftly fell apart.

At the time, if Madoff were managing your money, you had bragging rights. That’s how hot he was. Sources indicate that plenty of other entertainment industry figures have lost big-time in the alleged scam.

Hollywood is unique, even in the financial sense. This is partly because there’s a fame meter that operates, and residents are all tuned in. A continuous internal read is taking place, and externals are used to project one’s measure. How much fame does one possess? Stars consciously and subconsciously assess each other’s scores and respond accordingly.

Madoff’s score was super high, the result of his own eventual level of investment celebrity.

Like a Ponzi scheme, though, fame had been artificially multiplied for Madoff, which he used to gain more Hollywood clients, and so on. When the bottom fell out, the fame itself changed character.

As circumstances unfold, Madoff’s score on the fame meter may still remain high, but it won’t be a measure he’ll feel proud of.

Editor’s Note: God forgive me, I am suffering from serious ‘shadenfreude’ about the Made-Off rip off scandal.. I am struggling to get better.

A British man convicted of having sex on a Dubai beach was re-arrested late Monday as he prepared to board a flight back home, his London-based lawyer said.

Vince Acors, 34, was due to land at Heathrow airport early Tuesday after being deported from the Gulf city-state, lawyer Andrew Crossley said.

But Crossley said his client was detained at Dubai airport and returned to jail as his flight confirmation was allegedly “not in order”.

“He has been returned to jail, his precise return is now unknown,” Crossley said late Monday.

Acors’ return had already been held up once. He was due to return on Friday but there was a delay in the deportation process.

Acors and Michelle Palmer, 36, were found guilty in October of having sex on the beach in Dubai, which despite its pro-Western outlook still adheres to certain strict Islamic rules and bans sex out of wedlock.

An appeals court last month suspended a three-month jail term but the two were ordered to pay a 1,000 dirham (270-dollar) fine for drinking alcohol and ordered expelled from the country.

Santa Monica teacher pleads guilty in molestation cases
12:01 PM, December 22, 2008
A Santa Monica middle school teacher pleaded guilty today to multiple counts of illegal sex acts with young girls and is scheduled to be sentenced to 14 years in state prison, prosecutors said.
Thomas Arthur Beltran, 61, taught at Lincoln Middle School for 20 years and admitted to sexually molesting nine girls. Beltran also admitted to molesting two others but was not charged in those cases because the statute of limitations had expired.
The plea deal was reached as a preliminary hearing in the case was set to begin.
The counts against Beltran include continuous sexual abuse, lewd act on a child and sexual penetration with a foreign object of a child younger than age 14.
Judge William Hollingsworth sentenced Beltran to 14 years in state prison and required that he register as a sex offender when he is released.
Beltran, who taught English as a second language to seventh graders at Lincoln Middle School, was arrested in May when a 12-year-old student reported incidents of alleged abuse to her parents, launching an investigation by Santa Monica police.
– Andrew Blankstein

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the conclusion of the article pointed out by member Christy Zito. It is disturbing.

JOINING THE DOTS
A major inquiry was set up after the 1992 attacks. Officers were hunting a perpetrator who showed extreme violence towards his victims, using a knife and on more than one occasion attacking a woman with her children present.
Throughout the inquiry, 106 crimes were identified involving 86 women. And it was in the middle of this inquiry that Rachel Nickell was attacked.
Despite similarities between the cases, no one appeared to be joining up the dots. Britton, a leading influence on the Nickell murder inquiry, was also working on the Green Chain rapes case.
Professor Laurence Alison, the chair of forensic psychology at Liverpool University and the author of a new book on Napper, told the Guardian: “Frenzied random motiveless knife attacks on women are rare. Even more unusual are frenzied, random knife attacks on women with their young children present. Here was Britton with two of them under his nose and no one noticed.”
If the police were not drawing the threads together, others were attempting to point them in the right direction and bring Napper out of the darkness.
In August 1992, one of his neighbours in Plumstead rang the police to say he looked like the photofit of the Green Chain rapist. Detectives went to his house, questioned him and asked him to give a blood sample at the local police station. He failed to turn up.
A few days later, another member of the public called police to say “Bob Napper” looked like the rapist. Officers returned to his flat and asked him again to go to a police station and give a blood sample. Napper failed to turn up and within a few weeks he was eliminated from the investigation because at 6ft 2in tall he did not fit the 5ft 7in description, of the rapist.
Two months later in October 1992, he was flagged up to the police again when he was arrested over suggestions that he had been stalking a civilian employee at Plumstead police station. Officers searched his bedsit and found a .22 pistol, 244 rounds of ammunition, two knives, a crossbow and six crossbow bolts. Police files from the inquiry show they also found pocket diaries, hand-drawn maps, notes written on the borders of newspapers, and a London A-Z.
In the notes were references to methods of restraining someone, including the phrase “clingfilm on the legs”. Another note named particular streets and gave map references for them on the A-Z. Pages had been marked with black dots highlighting certain areas; other locations were marked with dashes. They were concentrated in the Plumstead, Eltham and Woolwich areas of south-east London.
In one diary Napper referred to several women, calling one a “sodden filthy bitch”. In one of the A-Zs was a fitness card for a young blonde woman from Eltham. It was placed in the page corresponding to her home address.
Napper pleaded guilty to possessing a firearm and ammunition. In court, references were made to his disturbed mental state and a psychiatric report was produced saying he was “without doubt an immediate threat to himself and the public”.
Napper was given an eight-week custodial sentence and no further inquiries were carried out into the disturbing evidence found at his flat.
‘Strange, abnormal’
In April 1993, Napper’s fingerprints were found on a tin box discovered buried on Winns Common, neighbouring Plumstead Common. Inside the box was a Mauser handgun. Despite the fingerprint link, Napper was never questioned about the find.
In July of the same year, according to police files, Napper’s name was logged on an intelligence report after a couple phoned the police to say they had seen a man spying on their neighbour, a young blonde woman who often walked in her flat semi-naked. The husband followed the man, and when police arrived they spoke to Napper, who gave his name and address. The officers’ notes read: “Subject strange, abnormal, should be considered as a possible rapist, indecency type suspect.”
By this time, across London in Wimbledon the Nickell inquiry team were closing in on their suspect, Colin Stagg, with very much less evidence than was emerging apparently unnoticed on Robert Napper. Stagg was arrested in August 1993 and charged with Nickell’s murder.
At that point, a connection was finally made. Jim Sturman, Stagg’s barrister, told the Guardian his client was told he had to travel to south-east London for an identity parade for a series of rapes.
“As he was about to go, the police came in and said he didn’t have to any more because his DNA didn’t match,” Sturman said.
Despite ruling him out of the rapes – which police were by now linking to the Nickell murder – officers pursued their case against Stagg. Detectives wound down the Green Chain inquiry despite available evidence and intelligence that could have led them to Napper.
While Stagg was on remand, Napper struck again, targeting another mother in front of her child. This time, Napper displayed the depths of his depraved mind. Police believe he had been regularly watching 27-year-old Samantha Bissett when she made love to her boyfriend, Conrad Ellam, in the living room of her flat in Plumstead.
On November 3 1993, when Ellam was at work, Napper knocked on Bissett’s door. As she opened it, he struck the first blow of the knife with such ferocity that her spinal chord was almost severed. Napper thrust the blade in 70 times more before turning to her four-year-old daughter. He raped and suffocated Jazmine upstairs, leaving her lying on the bed as if she was asleep.
Returning to Samantha, he propped her body against the sofa in the position in which he had seen her making love. With his seven-inch knife, he sliced her torso open, pulling her rib cage apart as if to display her. Before he left, Napper removed part of her womb as a trophy.
Out from the shadows
It was to take six months before police matched Napper’s fingerprints and a trainer footprint to Samantha’s flat.
During that time, the Nickel inquiry team travelled to Plumstead to examine any links between the killings. Detective Inspector Keith Pedder took Britton with him but, according to Pedder, the psychologist dismissed any connection.
“It was a completely different scenario,” Britton said in his book, The Jigsaw Man.
By May 1994, Napper was no longer the unseen psychopath in the shadows. After initial forensic delays, he was arrested and charged with the Bissett murders. DNA tests linked him immediately and conclusively to the Green Chain rapes.
For four months, both Napper and Stagg were on remand for murders 12 miles apart, both involving frenzied knife attacks on young blonde women, both in the presence of children.
The police protest today that they did look at Napper after his arrest but there was no forensic evidence linking him to the Nickell scene at the time.
Police admitted today that the senior investigating officer in the Nickell case was aware of the similarities in the killings. With Stagg awaiting trial, he preferred to await the outcome of the legal proceedings before investigating Napper.
One legal source said: “What we see now is how far they were prepared to go. They would have seen Stagg go down for life for a crime he didn’t commit.”
In October 1995, Napper admitted killing Samantha Bissett and her daughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility. In 1995 he also admitted one rape and two attempted rapes of women he had stalked on the Green Chain Walk in south-east London.
Detectives who investigated a series of attacks over a period of four years in south-east London in the early to mid-1990s say officers identified 86 victims and 106 crimes, but Napper refuses to admit any offences for which there is no forensic evidence.
To the credit of the Metropolitan police, the failure to prosecute Stagg was not the end of their inquiry. Under the lead of Detective Chief Inspector Tony Nash, they re-examined the forensics and doggedly continued the investigation.
Today, 13 years after he was identified as Bissett’s killer, Robert Napper emerged from the shadows once more to appear at the Old Bailey and admit he had attacked and killed Rachel Nickell, bringing to a belated conclusion one of the most high-profile British murder inquiries of modern times.