SecularCafe - Politics & World Events: 2013

Friday, 3 May 2013

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Secular Café: Cristeros War 1926-1929

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Cristeros War 1926-1929

May 3rd 2013, 15:54

I just watched a movie on Netflix called "For Greater Glory". I am a movie buff but had never heard of this 2012 film or ever saw it advertised. It deals with the Atheistic government of Mexico's attack on the Catholic church. Good cast with Peter O' Toole as a priest and Andy Garcia as a general.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1566501/

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Secular Café: Is South Carolina nuts?

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Is South Carolina nuts?

May 3rd 2013, 12:09

http://live.huffingtonpost.com/r/arc...8c2a151a0003a4

Thursday, 2 May 2013

Secular Café: The Lib Dems in South Shields by-election.

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The Lib Dems in South Shields by-election.

May 3rd 2013, 00:40

Quote:

Emma Lewell-Buck (Lab) 12,493 (50.51%, -1.51%)
Richard Elvin (UKIP) 5,988 (24.21%)
Karen Allen (C) 2,857 (11.55%, -10.04%)
Ahmed Khan (Ind) 1,331 (5.38%)
Phil Brown (Ind Soc) 750 (3.03%)
Lady Dorothy MacBeth Brookes (BNP) 711 (2.87%, -3.65%)
Hugh Annand (LD) 352 (1.42%, -12.79%)
Howling Laud Hope (Loony) 197 (0.80%)
Thomas Darwood (Ind) 57 (0.23%)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/b...b01061b21ea21e

Lower than the BNP and only just beating the Monster Raving Loony Party, can they sink much lower? I doubt clegg would have ever lived it down if they'd been beaten by the MRLP.

Secular Café: Rifle boy used in sister's death made for kids

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Rifle boy used in sister's death made for kids

May 2nd 2013, 12:44

Quote:

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- A 5-year-old boy who shot and killed his 2-year-old sister Tuesday near Burkesville, Ky., used a special, child-sized rifle he got in November for his birthday.

The fatal shell was fired from a Crickett — "a rifle for a little kid," said Cumberland County Coroner Gary White.

--
snip
--

[Coroner calls shooting "just one of those crazy accidents," says parents are devastated.]

White described the Cumberland shooting as "just one of those crazy accidents" and said the parents had left the rifle in a corner next to the boy's BB gun and didn't realize that it still had a shell in it.

Cont.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/n...rifle/2128573/

Some pics from the Cricket Firearms website:

Guns for kids :bang:

Secular Café: Republicans and health care

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Republicans and health care

May 2nd 2013, 09:05

What do US members think of this?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michae...p_ref=politics

Wednesday, 1 May 2013

Secular Café: Reform of the libel laws in the UK

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Reform of the libel laws in the UK

May 2nd 2013, 03:33

An analysis here from Sense about Science, which is an organisation aiming for prevention of more cases like the Homeopaths against Simon Singh.

http://www.senseaboutscience.org/dat...mation_Act.pdf

Quote:

The Defamation Bill has been agreed by Parliament and is awaiting Royal Assent to become the Defamation Act 2013. We have campaigned for four years for a law that would be less expensive and complicated, up to date and less able to be used to chill free speech worldwide. The Libel Reform Campaign has focused on the most significant of the problems with the law, which were also the areas where change was most resisted. We campaigned for the conversion of the common law Reynolds defence into a clearer, stronger, more accessible statutory public interest defence; an end to the ability of claimants to censor criticism extra-judicially by threatening innocent web hosts with libel actions; restrictions on the ability of corporations to sue in libel, as applies to public bodies; easier 'strike out' of trivial or inappropriate claims by raising the threshold of harm before a libel action can proceed. We campaigned for reforms that would produce a law that anyone can read to understand their rights. Until now the laws were mainly in common law, the development of which proceeds slowly in libel as there are few cases. The Defamation Bill 2012 was the first time Parliament had debated wholesale libel
reform since 1843.

Secular Café: US Congress Declares War on Peer Review

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US Congress Declares War on Peer Review

May 1st 2013, 22:17

http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencein...criteri-1.html

Quote:

The new chair of the House of Representatives science committee has drafted a bill that, in effect, would replace peer review at the National Science Foundation (NSF) with a set of funding criteria chosen by Congress. For good measure, it would also set in motion a process to determine whether the same criteria should be adopted by every other federal science agency.

The legislation, being worked up by Representative Lamar Smith (R-TX), represents the latest—and bluntest—attack on NSF by congressional Republicans seeking to halt what they believe is frivolous and wasteful research being funded in the social sciences. Last month, Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) successfully attached language to a 2013 spending bill that prohibits NSF from funding any political science research for the rest of the fiscal year unless its director certifies that it pertains to economic development or national security. Smith's draft bill, called the "High Quality Research Act," would apply similar language to NSF's entire research portfolio across all the disciplines that it supports.

ScienceInsider has obtained a copy of the legislation, labeled "Discussion Draft" and dated 18 April, which has begun to circulate among members of Congress and science lobbyists. In effect, the proposed bill would force NSF to adopt three criteria in judging every grant. Specifically, the draft would require the NSF director to post on NSF's Web site, prior to any award, a declaration that certifies the research is:

1) "… in the interests of the United States to advance the national health, prosperity, or welfare, and to secure the national defense by promoting the progress of science;

2) "… the finest quality, is groundbreaking, and answers questions or solves problems that are of utmost importance to society at large; and

3) "… not duplicative of other research projects being funded by the Foundation or other Federal science agencies."

NSF's current guidelines ask reviewers to consider the "intellectual merit" of a proposed research project as well as its "broader impacts" on the scientific community and society.

In short, he wants politicians, not scientists, to decide what the NSF funds and what it doesn't. He has his sights especially set on the social sciences, which he has described as "useless" and "unpatriotic", but anyone who relies on NSF grants is going to be affected, and the proposed criteria are all atrocious and unscientific. Only the second is less so, but (a) the NSF already requires this and (b) peers in a scientific discipline are far more qualified to judge novelty and importance than a Congressional committee. It's extremely similar to the Trofim Lysenko-inspired legislation that nearly destroyed Soviet science research prior to Stalin's death. Lysenko similarly attempted to destroy peer review and replace it with government directives, though in his case it was due to alleged anti-Communist academic activity making peer review injurious to the interests of the state. Similar methodology here, though, and it would have the same effect if it succeeds. I'd like to think that the bill has no hope of succeeding, but the passage of the spending bill mentioned in the article, just a few months ago, proves that it isn't just Republicans who are anti-science. It's our leaders, period. Dark times.

Secular Café: Eurozone problems

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Eurozone problems

May 1st 2013, 16:35

No good news

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/f...ds-closer.html

Quote:

David Owen, from Jefferies Fixed Income, said the mix of falling inflation and an ageing population risks pulling the eurozone into a "liquidity trap" where the self-correcting mechanisms of the economy break down. "This looks strikingly similar to Japan 15 or so years ago," he said.

Mr Owen said the ECB cannot just "sit back and do nothing this week" at its meeting on Thursday, and may ultimately have to launch full-blown quantitative easing.

Most analysts expect the ECB to cut rates a quarter point to 0.5pc but there is broad consent that this will do little to alleviate the credit crunch for smaller firms in Spain, Italy and Portugal, where borrowing costs are two to three times higher than costs for North European rivals...

...Mr Christensen said the ECB may delay rate cuts this week to offset the retreat from fiscal austerity in Italy, Spain, France and the Netherlands, deeming their job to hold the feet of recalcitrant governments to the fire. "No doubt the Bundesbank is screaming about this," he said.

Italy became the latest country to rebel against EMU policy regime this week when the new premier Enrico Letta lashed out at "death by austerity" and vowed to revoke a string of tax rises.

Mr Letta flew to Berlin on Tuesday to explain the country's U-turn to German Chancellor Angela Merkel. She took a cautious line at the joint press conference, saying Italy had made "considerable" strides to reform its economy, but also said that "every country must play its part" in restoring order to the eurozone.

The greater rift is with Paris, after the French Socialist Party lashed out at the Chancellor in a vituperative attack, blaming the deep social and economic crisis in Europe on the "selfish intransigence of Mrs Merkel, who thinks of nothing but the deposits of German savers, the trade balance recorded by Berlin and her electoral future"...

...The Free Democrat Party (FDP) in Mrs Merkel's coalition has fanned the flames with a counter-attack, deriding France as a basket case with an economy in deep decline. It accused Paris of clinging to a coddled welfare model with a state sector near 56pc of GDP that is unfit for the rising challenge from China, India and the emerging world.

Secular Café: The town being run by UKIP

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The town being run by UKIP

May 1st 2013, 17:17

I didn't know this had happened. As the article says, after the imminent elections they may be a lot more UKIP running local government.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk...n-8599144.html

Secular Café: A Religion of Peace?

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A Religion of Peace?

May 1st 2013, 09:13

What is it with these people? Islamic moderates declare Islam to be a religion of peace and tolerance and yet:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-22248500

It is so, so tempting to slip into "rant" mode but what good would that do?

Tuesday, 30 April 2013

Secular Café: CNN Pretends Tent on Sidewalk is a Prison

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CNN Pretends Tent on Sidewalk is a Prison

Apr 30th 2013, 19:25

CNN pretends tent on sidewalk is bombing suspect's prison cell

Sometimes you read the paper, and you think, "This would be funny... if it were in the Onion." And then you weep for humanity

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Secular Café: Swiss banks under fire

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Swiss banks under fire

Apr 30th 2013, 12:23

Everyone in Switzerland is aware of the power of the banks.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/...-a-896689.html

Mind you, this is what is currently firing up German interest in Swiss banks:

http://www.economist.com/news/europe...ce-uli-uli-uli

Quote:

ULRICH HOENESS is one of Germany’s football greats, up there with Franz Beckenbauer, with whom he won a World Cup in 1974 and many titles for Bayern Munich, their club. A Swabian butcher’s son with blond curls, “Uli” was lean, clever and fast. And he was good at life. When a knee injury ended his career in 1979, he became Bayern’s manager, leading the team where he is still president to decades of success. He has survived a plane crash and run a thriving sausage business. Growing paunchier over the years, he remained earthy and became a moral voice in German sport and society. Politicians couldn’t be photographed enough with him.

And now he may face prison. For over a decade, it has emerged, Mr Hoeness had a bank account in Switzerland that he hid from the German tax authorities. He seems to have counted on a German-Swiss agreement that would have kept such account holders anonymous while settling their back taxes through transfers between the governments. But when the leftist parties in Germany’s upper house killed that deal last year, he came clean. In January, he turned himself in, paying more than €3m ($3.9m) in back taxes.

Secular Café: Dutch Queen abdicates

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Dutch Queen abdicates

Apr 30th 2013, 11:36

As did her mother and grandmother before her. Now the Netherlands has a king -- the first for over 100 years.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-22348160

Monday, 29 April 2013

Secular Café: Islamists forced out of Mali start operations in Libya

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Islamists forced out of Mali start operations in Libya

Apr 29th 2013, 14:01

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013...olence-tripoli

Quote:

Diplomats are warning of growing Islamist violence against western targets in Libya as blowback from the war in Mali, following last week's attack on the French embassy in Tripoli.

The bomb blast that wrecked much of the embassy is seen as a reprisal by Libyan militants for the decision by Paris the day before to extend its military mission against fellow jihadists in Mali.

The Guardian has learned that jihadist groups ejected from their Timbuktu stronghold have moved north, crossing the Sahara through Algeria and Niger to Libya, fuelling a growing Islamist insurgency.

"There are established links between groups in both Mali and Libya – we know there are established routes," said a western diplomat in Tripoli. "There is an anxiety among the political class here that Mali is blowing back on them."...

...France sent troops to Mali in January after an uprising in the north started by the ethnic Tuareg National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (NMLA), named for the independent state it hopes to create.

The impetus for this uprising came from ethnic Tuareg soldiers who had fought alongside Muammar Gaddafi and fled south when his regime fell. They were later augmented by jihadists from Libya and across north Africa, who triggered international condemnation for their destruction of ancient Sufi Muslim shrines in Timbuktu. The fear across the Maghreb is that the French operation that has pushed them out of the northern cities has inadvertently compounded problems elsewhere in north Africa as jihadist units disperse.

"If you squeeze a balloon in one part, it bulges out in another," said Bill Lawrence, of International Crisis Group, a political consultancy. "There's no question that the French actions in Mali had the effect of squeezing that balloon towards Algeria and Libya."...

...Diplomats say jihadists cross the Sahara to join cadres in Libya's eastern coastal cities of Benghazi and Derna. Police stations in both cities have been hit by bombings in the past few days, part of an insurgency that threatens to undermine the country's fragile new democracy. Chad's president, Idriss Déby, claimed at the weekend that Benghazi was now home to training camps for Chadian rebel fighters...

...Eastern Libya has long been a base for Islamists, who launched an unsuccessful uprising against Gaddafi in the 1990s. Their units reappeared in the uprising two years ago, and while many have integrated with government forces, others are campaigning for a state ruled by clerics rather than secular politicians. Benghazi has become a virtual no-go area for foreigners following attacks on the British, Italian and Tunisian consulates, the fire-bombing of an Egyptian Coptic church and the killing of US ambassador Chris Stevens in September when militants overran the American consulate. The bombing in Tripoli indicates that terrorism has now spread to the capital...

...Libya's efforts to tackle the militants are restricted by the distrust felt by much of the population for government security units, many of them drawn from former Gaddafi-era formations. Twin rocket attacks on oil and gas pipelines earlier this month south of Benghazi have meanwhile sent a shudder through Libya's oil industry, almost its only export earner.

Libya has already piled resources into cutting the jihadist flow of men and weapons over its southern border, declaring its entire desert region a "free fire zone" for patrolling jets. In the south-west, work has now finished on a 108-mile trench cut through the desert to deter smugglers crossing into Libya.

But experts say the Libyans face a herculean task. "To ensure that these borders are completely sealed off is impossible – we are talking about desert areas with mountains and very narrow valleys," said Sèbe.

Secular Café: Neo-Apartheid Malaysia poised to be overthrown

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Neo-Apartheid Malaysia poised to be overthrown

Apr 29th 2013, 12:32

Malaysia has an election next week and it looks like ,after 40 years, that the neo-Aprtheid regime that has governed Malaysia will be out.

Malaysia is a racist state that makes certain citizens 2nd class citizens based on their racial origins (such as Chinese or Indian Malaysians)

Sunday, 28 April 2013

Secular Café: Thatcher’s Funeral Cost £3.6 million / $5.6 million – Much Less Than Reported

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Thatcher's Funeral Cost £3.6 million / $5.6 million – Much Less Than Reported

Apr 28th 2013, 21:21

http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/04/28/...than-reported/

Good grief: £3.6 million totally wasted....they should have wrapped her body in a black bin-bag, and dropped it down one of the many mine-shafts she closed. Much cheaper, and much more appropriate. And they're saying it was good value because it cost less than anticipated......

Quote:

The funeral of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher cost £3.6 million ($5.6 million) – a fraction of its previously estimated price tag, according to the BBC.

The procession through central London and ceremony at St Paul's Cathedral on April 17 — together with a huge security operation involving some 4,000 police officers — was initially estimated in some media reports to cost around £10 million ($15 million), a tab that would be largely picked up by the British taxpayer.

That led to an outcry among those who felt that such a sum (and for a Prime Minister whose economic reforms and battles with trade unions continue to divide Britain) was excessive at a time of austerity. As thousands of people lined the streets of central London to pay their respects to Lady Thatcher, who died on April 8 at age 87, a number of protestors vented their anger over the funeral's perceived cost.

When the true cost of the funeral was announced on Friday by the Prime Minister's office, Lord Bell, a spokesman for the Thatcher family, told the Daily Telegraph that those protests had been unjustified. "It is a remarkably low cost for this most extraordinary event. It increased the standing of Britain in the world and was extremely good value," he said.

:mad:

Secular Café: Tanks, but no tanks

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Tanks, but no tanks

Apr 28th 2013, 12:11

The Army's saying they don't want or need these tanks, please don't make them. Congresspeople are insisting, primarily to protect jobs in their districts. This makes for an interesting dilemma . . .

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/army-...ngress-insists

Rob

Secular Café: Church and State in Malta

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Church and State in Malta

Apr 28th 2013, 10:23

The RCC has a highly privileged position within Malta. How long will it take to fully secularise the constitution and totally untangle church and state?

http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/en/news...ts-MP-20130422

http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/en/news...-2012-20130420

Secular Café: What's up with Baroness Warsi?

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What's up with Baroness Warsi?

Apr 28th 2013, 11:53

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/poli...s-of-hate.html

Quote:

Baroness Warsi, the minister for faith and communities, addressed an event staged by the Federation of Student Islamic Societies (FOSIS) last month to attack the "demonisation" of Muslim students by the media.

FOSIS has hosted numerous extremist and terrorist speakers at its annual conference and other events, including Azzam Tamimi, who supports suicide bombing, Haitham al-Haddad, who believes that music is a "prohibited and fake message of love and peace", and Anwar al-Awlaki, an al-Qaeda recruiter described as a key inspiration for three of the 9/11 hijackers and numerous later attacks.

Several convicted terrorists have been officers of university Islamic societies affiliated to FOSIS and have attended its events.

FOSIS has been condemned by Baroness Warsi's colleagues, Theresa May, the Home Secretary, and Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister, for its failure to "fully challenge terrorist and extremist ideology".

Mrs May ordered that the Civil Service withdraw from a graduate recruitment fair held by FOSIS and has refused to meet the organisation's leaders...

...Khobaib Hussain, one of the Birmingham men sentenced last week for his part in a terrorist plot, described by police as the "biggest since 7/7", was a student at Wolverhampton University at the time of his arrest.

Before he was detained, members of the university's Islamic society, which is affiliated to FOSIS, posted online comments stating that "nothing is more honourable than dying for the cause of Islam" and that "America's time will come", though it is not known whether Hussain was a member of the society or was radicalised at the university...

...On March 24, the day before the meeting with Baroness Warsi, FOSIS organised an event at Imperial College for sixth-formers with Hamza Tzortzis, an extremist who has called for the killing of apostates and rejected freedom of speech.
The organisation he runs, iERA, was banned from University College London last month after it attempted to enforce gender segregation. Separate telephone numbers for registration were given for men and women at the Imperial College event, suggesting that it, too, had forced segregation...

...FOSIS's president, Omar Ali, aims to control all Muslim students in British universities. In a blogpost at the time of his appointment, he says the organisation should "turn the cogs" of university Islamic societies, which should in "turn the larger cog of Muslim students on their campuses".

Baroness Warsi was joined at the event by Nicola Dandridge, the head of Universities UK, which represents all British universities.

She too claimed that extremism was no greater a problem in universities than anywhere else and praised FOSIS for its work on "community cohesion".

Saturday, 27 April 2013

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Secular Café: Nuclear Fusion on the way!!!

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Nuclear Fusion on the way!!!

Apr 27th 2013, 22:54

Doctor Octopus was ahead of his time :D

Quote:

An idyllic hilltop setting in the Cadarache forest of Provence in the south of France has become the site of an ambitious attempt to harness the nuclear power of the sun and stars.

It is the place where 34 nations representing more than half the world's population have joined forces in the biggest scientific collaboration on the planet – only the International Space Station is bigger.

The international nuclear fusion project – known as Iter, meaning "the way" in Latin – is designed to demonstrate a new kind of nuclear reactor capable of producing unlimited supplies of cheap, clean, safe and sustainable electricity from atomic fusion.

If Iter demonstrates that it is possible to build commercially-viable fusion reactors then it could become the experiment that saved the world in a century threatened by climate change and an expected three-fold increase in global energy demand.

This week the project gained final approval for the design of the most technically challenging component – the fusion reactor's "blanket" that will handle the super-heated nuclear fuel.

[...]

Nuclear fusion has been a dream since the start of the atomic age. Unlike conventional nuclear-fission power plants, fusion reactors do not produce high-level radioactive waste, cannot be used for military purposes and essentially burn non-toxic fuel derived from water.

Many energy experts believe that nuclear fusion is the only serious, environmentally-friendly way of reliably producing "base-load" electricity 24/7. It is, they argue, the only way of generating industrial-scale quantities of electricity night and day without relying on carbon-intensive fossil fuels or dangerous and dirty conventional nuclear power.

[...]

Even if everything goes to plan, the first demonstration power plant using nuclear fusion will not be ready until at least the 2030s, meaning commercial reactors could not realistically be built until the second half of the century.

The long timescales mean nuclear fusion does not often get on the political agenda, unless superpower summitry is involve as it was at the height of the Cold War in 1985. But in the end, the long wait for nuclear fusion, and the experiment to save the world, may prove to be well worth the effort.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/sc...y-8590480.html

Friday, 26 April 2013

Secular Café: Aisha Khadafy throws some temper tantrums, gets kicked out of Algeria

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Aisha Khadafy throws some temper tantrums, gets kicked out of Algeria

Apr 27th 2013, 03:13

At least if we are to believe this article: Gaddafi's daughter thrown out of Algeria after she 'set fire to presidential residence' - Telegraph

Quote:

Algeria's ambassador to Libya confirmed last month that Col Gaddafi's widow and three of his children including Aisha, had left Algeria "a long time ago" without giving further details.

It has now emerged that Algerian authorities lost patience with Miss Gaddafi, a onetime UN Goodwill Ambassador, after she kept vandalising furniture and attacking guards out of rage over her father's fate.

"She ended up blaming Algeria for many of her problems, and also began starting fires in the house," said a government source in Algiers.

"Shelves in the library went up in flames, as she regularly attacked army personnel looking after her safety." The last straw was when the bleach blonde nicknamed the "Claudia Schiffer of North Africa" destroyed a portrait of Algerian president Abdul Aziz Bouteflika, local newspaper Ennahar reported.

Dated 2 April 2013.

That article stated that she left Algeria for Oman. So I looked for reports of her being there.

Gaddafi's wife and children secretly granted asylum by British ally Oman after fleeing Algerian hideout | Mail Online

Quote:

Wife Safia and children Aisha, Mohammad and Hannibal are in Gulf state
Fled to Algeria after dictator's overthrow but moved to Oman in October
Country is close ally of Britain and hosted Charles and Camilla last week

Dated 25 March 2013.

Quote:

Asked why the Omani government had only just admitted harbouring the family, a foreign ministry source said: 'There was no need for the world to know about this humanitarian gesture.'

Times of Oman | Breaking News, Features, Columns, Your Voice & Multimedia... -- Sultanate grants asylum to Gaddafi's family

Quote:

"The family has been given asylum since last October, purely on humanitarian grounds," the Foreign Ministry source told a correspondent of Al Shabiba, a sister publication of Times of Oman. ...

Quoting a well-informed Libyan source, a report had appeared in a regional daily that "an Arab country" had granted political asylum to Muammar Gaddafi's widow, Safia Farkash, his children — Aisha, Mohammed, and Hannibal — and their children.

Dated 26 March 2013.

Quote:

The source added that the Gaddafi family members have pledged not to get involved in any anti-government, political or media activity while they are present in the Sultanate.

Sort of like what they had pledged in Algeria. They are moving from one gilded cage to another one, it almost seems.

This move had supposedly taken place with the full knowledge of the Libyan and Algerian authorities, complete with the family being given diplomatic passports. Libyan ones?

Going to Oman was because these family members prefer going to an Arab country rather than to an African or European one.

Aline Skaff, Hannibal Khadafy's wife, has returned to Lebanon with her son, but the rest remain in Oman, living in a diplomatic enclave. Saadi Khadafy is reportedly planning to move from Niger to somewhere else to escape Libyan extradition attempts, either to Oman or to another African country.

I'm posting this because Aisha Khadafy seems to have the most ideological zeal of her father's children, and I find what's happened to her rather interesting. I'm thinking that if anyone is likely to lead a Khadafy comeback, it would be her.

Thursday, 25 April 2013

Secular Café: GWB Library Opens

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GWB Library Opens

Apr 26th 2013, 01:15

As new library opens, Bush hopes for a reassessment of his legacy | The Ticket - Yahoo! News
What will that library contain? Children's coloring books?