Monthly Archives: March 2013

WATCH: A ‘Jews only’ street and a Palestinian dirt path in Hebron

open quoteI have posted in the past about the policy of ethnic separation around the Jewish houses in Hebron. Shuhada street – once the location of a central market – was first closed to Palestinian cars, and now even Palestinian pedestrians must walk along a tiny dirt road, while Jewish settlers and their guests get the rest of the street. The pretext might be security, but the policy (like in the rest of the West Bank) is ethnic segregation.

Watch this B’tzelem video to see what’s going on not far away, on the road near the Tomb of the Patriarchs:

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AIPAC Goes Public: It Intends To Exempt Israel From Sequester

open quoteThe great Congressional Quarterly reporter Jonathan Broder has gotten AIPAC to go on the record with its plans to exempt Israel from sequestration. (I can’t provide link as CQ is by subscription only.)

He writes of the “battalions” of AIPACers who descended on Congress today to demand “tighter sanctions against Iran, relief for Israel aid from automatic spending cuts, and a new designation of the Jewish state as a ‘major strategic ally,’ a status that would help insulate Israel from any further aid cuts.

At the top of their agenda is convincing lawmakers to support a new Iran bill (HR 850) from House Foreign Affairs Chairman Ed Royce, R-Calif., and supported by ranking Democrat Eliot L. Engel of New York, that would extend existing sanctions targeting Iran’s energy and financial transactions to include an even broader range of its commerce with the rest of the world. Several senators are working on a measure which is expected to be even more expansive.

The grassroots lobbyists also asked lawmakers to find some way to shield the $3.1 billion in annual U.S. aid to Israel from the automatic across-the-board spending cuts that took effect on March 1. Under the sequester, Israel stands to lose $155 million. Israel is the largest recipient of U.S. foreign aid.

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Separate bus lines for Jews and Arabs in Israel

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open quote Starting on Monday, certain buses running from the West Bank into central Israel will have separate lines for Jews and Arabs.

The Afikim bus company will begin operating Palestinian-only bus lines from the checkpoints to Gush Dan to prevent Palestinians from boarding buses with Jewish passengers. Palestinians are not allowed to enter settlements, and instead board buses from several bus stops on the Trans-Samaria highway.

Click here to subscribe to Haaretz for only $1 for the first month

Last November, Haaretz reported that the Transportation Ministry was looking into such a plan due to pressure from the late mayor of Ariel, Ron Nahman, and the head of the Karnei Shomron Local Council. They said residents had complained that Palestinians on their buses were a security risk.

The buses will begin operating Monday morning at the Eyal crossing to take the Palestinians to work in Israel. Transportation Ministry officials are not officially calling them segregated buses, but rather bus lines intended to relieve the distress of the Palestinian workers. close quote (Read more)

Is Gold or the Dollar Overvalued?

Great analysis by my former economics professor Patrick Barron:

open quoteThe problem with comparing the price of gold in dollar terms today and its price in the past is that it ignores dollar inflation. The price of gold today is around $1,600 per ounce. It peaked in dollar terms roughly a year ago at just under $2,000 per ounce. Prior to the recent run up, the peak price of gold at year end occurred in 1980 at $612 per ounce. So, let’s look at the price of gold today, taking into account dollar inflation since 1980.
First let’s look at the government’s own Consumer Price Index. In December 1980 the CPI stood at 86.3. In January 2013 it was 230.3. (This is hardly believable; i.e., that prices have gone up only 2.7 times since 1980.) Nevertheless, adjusting for the CPI increase since 1980, the price of gold today should be $1,633…about where it is right now.

But now let’s look at inflation of the money supply. In 1980 M1 was $.420 trillion and M2 was $1.605 trillion. As of January 2013, M1 is $2.470 trillion and M2 is $10.445 trillion. So, taking into account the great inflation in M1 and M2, the price of gold should be either $3,600 per ounce (M1 equivalence) or $3,983 per ounce (M2 equivalence) for the price of gold, IN DOLLAR TERMS, to match its price at year end 1980.

Another way to look at the relationship between the dollar price of gold and dollar inflation is to calculate gold’s dollar coverage price; i.e., for the Fed, which owns 262 million ounces of gold, to back the dollar in gold and make it truly redeemable, it would be forced to set the price at either $9,427 per ounce (M1) or $39,866 per ounce (M2). In other words, at any lower price the Fed would not be able to redeem all of its dollars.close quote (Read more)

Leaked: USDA ‘cultural sensitivity’ training is a brainwashing ritual for federal immigration ‘recalibration’

Some bombastic idiot got paid $200,000 to make USDA employees repeat mantras about diversity and multiculturalism. The videos are rapidly vanishing from the internet, but you can follow the links.

open quote– USDA sensitivity training video excerpt 1 – “If you take a look at all of you here and you think about your salaries and your benefits and what you have left undone – plus my fee – plus the expense of the team that putting the video together, this is a huge expense.”

– USDA sensitivity training video excerpt 2 – “I want you to say that American was founded by outsiders – say that – who are today’s insiders, who are very nervous about today’s outsiders. I want you to say, ‘The pilgrims were illegal aliens.’ Say, ‘The pilgrims never gave their passports to the Indians.’” Betances also asked the audience, “Give me a bam,” after these statements, to which the audience replied in unison.

– USDA sensitivity training video excerpt 3 – “By the way, I don’t like the word ‘minorities.’ How about ‘emerging majorities?’”close quote

www.prisonplanet.com/leaked-usda-cultural-sensitivity-training-is-a-brainwashing-ritual-for-federal-immigration-recalibration.html

www.wnd.com/2013/02/usda-preaches-pilgrims-were-illegal-aliens/#ooid=15ZGFlOToGeyFAgGU7-l4OBSnXxmCvBv

German homeschoolers fight for asylum in US

open quoteAsylum seekers: the term conjures up images of desperate families fleeing impoverished, war-torn countries.

But the Romeike family, who live in the US state of Tennessee, are not ordinary asylum seekers. Devout Christians from southwestern Germany, the Romeikes say they will be persecuted if they are made to return because their five children are homeschooled – which is forbidden in the European Union’s most populous country.

Next month, an American appeals court will hear oral arguments on whether they should be allowed to stay, in a case legal experts say will help clarify the scope of US asylum law.

Uwe and Hannelore Romeike, both music teachers, decided to take their children out of the public school system in 2006, claiming they were “bombarded with negative influences” and taught disrespect for authority.

As a result, the parents were slapped with thousands of euros in fines, and one day, Uwe alleged, police came to their home to take the crying children to school in a police van.

Worried the German government might eventually take custody of their children, the Romeikes moved to the United States in 2008, where an estimated 1.5 to 2 million children are legally homeschooled.close quote (Read more)

German imaptience with Southern European irresponsibility

Open Europe news summary:

German tabloid Bild asks “Will Italy’s political clowns destroy the euro?”, while in an op-ed, Ernst Elitz argues that “After these elections it is clear that the future of our continent will not be decided in Brussels or Berlin but in individual member states that have almost been declared dead already. If the voters there do not vote with understanding but rather on a whim then no bailout fund can help”. Writing in FAZ, Anton Börner, President of the Federation of German Wholesale, Foreign Trade and Services (BGA), argues that “Monetary stability cannot be negotiated and we need to send a clear message to the South: For us there is life after the euro.”

Anti-Euro Party Appears in Germany

I hope the 65% of Germans who oppose the Euro support these guys, but I doubt it.

open quoteWell, it was probably only a matter of time: a German anti-euro party has just come onto the scene.

Deutsche Wirtschafts Nachrichten reports that the new party will launch in April under the name “Alternative for Germany”. The party appears to be an offspring of “Wahlalternative 2013” (Election Alternative 2013) – a group consisting mostly of academics but also including Hans-Olaf Henkel, the well-known and outspoken former head of Germany’s employers federation BDI.close quote (Read more)

Guaranteed Employment, say EU Ministers!

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Young people without a job will be guaranteed the offer of employment, training or further education under a new decision agreed yesterday (28 February) by EU national ministers.

The new scheme, to be introduced by each EU country according to its individual need, will apply to young people who are out of work for more than four months. It aims to give them a real chance to further their education, or get a job, apprenticeship or traineeship.
One in five young Europeans is jobless. In countries such as Greece and Spain, half are unemployed.

“Too many young Europeans are asking if they will ever find a job or have the same quality of life as their parents,” European Commission President José Manuel Barroso said, welcoming the ministers’ decision.close quote (Read more)